Ashoka Mukpo

Big Tech’s Net-Zero Goals Are Looking Shaky

Good piece outlining how Big Tech companies' carbon emissions are soaring due to the AI boom, but it overlooks a huge piece of the puzzle

It's not just the energy use of AI hurting the planet, but the fact that many tech companies are selling AI to oil companies to help them drill more

NGOs caught between juntas and militants in turbulent Sahel ABIDJAN: NGOs in the violence-wracked Sahel region are dangerously caught between military juntas who accuse them of being spies, and militants who view them as symbols of Western influence. In the wo...

NGOs in the violence-wracked Sahel region are dangerously caught between military juntas who accuse them of being spies, and jihadists who view them as symbols of Western influence.

starting to become enraged about the integration of AI into every app I use. it doesn't work. it's a time sink that adds steps to my workflow or just gets shit wrong. get this out of my face already

excellent a+

Beyond the Classism of Defeat A Left asleep at the wheel of a long-gone industrial proletarian dream.

"Rather than signifying class and prioritizing economy, anti-woke politics remains within a cultural register. It distracts from the very attack on the conditions of life and work it purports to prioritize, in effect...a message force multiplier for the right."

communispress.com/beyond-the-c...

USAID was simultaneously a tool of realpolitik that gave the USA quite a lot of both soft and material power over various places and also, you know, straightforwardly saved lives - that was how it achieved the former, after all. Just turning it off DOGE did is both very stupid and very very evil.

Drones, disinformation and guns-for-hire are reshaping conflict in Africa: new book tracks the trends Mercenaries have returned to the central stage in Africa’s conflicts.

Drones, disinformation and guns-for-hire are reshaping conflict in Africa: new book tracks the trends.

Whatever you want to ‘get done’ while conceding the enemy’s hatred, will be done according to the enemy’s hatred. You are seeing right now what three decades of conceding Republican arguments on immigration have led to. They did not simply turn a switch. The apparatus had been built for them.

Bear in mind this is the era in which they really started losing influence in their former colonies as well, the decline of big-F France looms here imo

It makes sense theyd be hyper reactive to a changing view of history as it’s shaped the present, their closet has a large pile of bones in it

Wokeness: a Retrospective In recent times my online sphere has had a fair few people make the claim that, in some sense, the culture has moved on from Woke. The d...

My Retrospective on Wokeness in detail! Blogs are for just saying stuff, after all. So here is my attempt to say what was distinctive (if anything) about a recent era of socio-cultural life, what (if anything) changed, and what (if anything) was to the good

sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/08/woke...

The climate finance crisis As Mozambique faces escalating climate disasters, it is shut out of the very funds meant to protect it.

As Mozambique faces escalating climate disasters, it is shut out of the very funds meant to protect it. africasacountry.com/2025/07/the-...

This is what these people call "globalism." It was worth fighting for in the 20th century and it's worth fighting for here in the 21st.

Western civilization reached a point of self-immolation in the 20th century and afterwards, in a brief moment of clarity, set out its own cure. That prescription is still on the table and it's a powerful one, even if we've never really taken it.

American education institutions are crumbling and flailing because they don't stand for anything other than the worst sicknesses of our culture, prestige and status. There *are* alternatives we could root ourselves in but it would require a bit of actual bravery.

A New Era for WIRED—That Starts With You As of today, there are even more ways to enjoy WIRED’s journalism, including premium newsletters and livestream Q&As. Join us.

Wired rules. Just an incredible group of journalists who are completely meeting the moment. And you can subscribe for $2 a month, which is insane www.wired.com/story/a-new-...

ALEX DE WAAL: So, let me say that I've been working on this field of famine, food crisis and humanitarian action for more than 40 years, and there is no case, over those four decades, of such minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed mass starvation of a population as is happening in Gaza today.

Few if any experts know more about the deliberate use of starvation as a war crime than Alex de Waal. If he says it's happening, it's so.

Healthy environment a human right, UN court says in landmark climate ruling Court’s decision expected to be used in future litigation and to support political negotiations by vulnerable states

"Advisory opinions are technically non-binding but are considered authoritative because they summarise existing law...They are expected to be used in future litigation and to bolster political negotiations."

After a long campaign spearheaded by Pacific Islanders

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

YouTube video by Black Sabbath - Topic Hand of Doom (2012 - Remaster)

I listen to Paranoid front to back 2-3 times a year and always will. RIP to the best of the Brummies youtu.be/CNIgt6yKgDM?...

Global oil and gas emissions standard put on pause after Shell, others walk away, FT says Shell and other leading energy groups have abandoned a six-year-long attempt to define a net zero emissions strategy after being told that such a standard would require them to stop developing new oil and gas fields, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing documents seen by the newspaper.

Remember when there were people saying that having the oil majors at the table for the SBTi was a positive step for climate action www.reuters.com/business/ene...

An unbearably sad statement from the Editorial Committee (SDJ) of the AFP news agency, please read:

"Without immediate intervention, the last reporters in Gaza will die.
AFP has been working with 1 writer, 3 photographers and 6 videographers, all freelance, in the Gaza Strip… /1

Report finds ‘dehumanizing’ conditions in Florida immigration detention centers Human Rights Watch documented the stories of 17 current and former detainees at federal facilities in South Florida.

“immigration attorneys told the Herald that conditions at Krome are ‘the worst seen in 20 years’ and have ‘risen to the level of an international human rights disaster.’”

www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...

Congo, M23 rebels to sign declaration of principles to end fighting, sources say Congo and the M23 rebel group have agreed to a declaration of principles to end fighting in eastern Congo, a sign of progress after months of talks mediated by Qatar, though key details still need to be negotiated, four sources said on Friday.

Congo and M23 have agreed to a declaration of principles to end fighting in eastern DRC, a sign of progress after months of talks mediated by Qatar, though key details still need to be negotiated, four sources told Reuters on Friday.

Signing expected Saturday.

www.reuters.com/world/africa...

Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi has been detained from his home, per his wife Njeri.

Black folks have never, ever, had anything like "equality" within the US and Canada, and the minor but life-savings and hard-won gains Black folks have made in recent decades are now being violently attacked on both sides of the border. This is the goal of the attacks on "DEI" and "wokeness."

Felt big when i was a teenager skating around it and getting into trouble but yeah its not much to see there lol

Also one of those places that sprawls. Surrounded by municipalities that arent technically “Providence” but really are.

I grew up there. Its small, 200k people. But its got more character than its size :)

“Drivers in New England are suddenly reckless and unhinged”