Luke Barratt

Nigel Farage to Headline Tufton Street Climate Denial Event Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is set to speak at an event today organised by a pro-Trump think tank and held in the home of the UK’s main climate science denial group, DeSmog can reveal. Farage, whose...

🔴 NEW 🔴

Nigel Farage will this afternoon headline an anti-climate event at 55 Tufton Street convened by a lobby group with close ties to Trump.

📝 @desmog.com scoop with @adambarnett.bsky.social

Israel’s Crimes of the Century How Israel, with the help of the U.S., broke not only Gaza but the foundations of humanitarian law.

“What we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel, and criminal killing of civilians. It’s the result of government policy—knowingly, evilly, maliciously, irresponsibly dictated. Yes, Israel is committing war crimes.”

—Ex-Israeli PM

nymag.com/intelligence...

The Onion has suddenly become the Western world's most necessary news outlet

Great story here, with powerful details on the local environmental injustices and settler colonial dynamics related to data centers.

No one has ever LinkedIn this hard.

I am CRINE.

One thing that tells you a particular social, cultural or political viewpoint is widespread, common sense, normal and uncontroversial is when a corporate representative of a household name global brand feels the need to come out and publicly distance their brand and products from said viewpoint.

The west’s shameful silence on Gaza The US and European allies should do more to restrain Benjamin Netanyahu

Feels significant: the FT has published an editorial calling out "the West's shameful silence on Gaza".

It writes: "Each new offensive makes it harder not to suspect that [Netanyahu aims] to ensure Gaza is uninhabitable and drive Palestinians from their land."

www.ft.com/content/f5fd...

Does Isabel Oakeshott still believe Arron Banks was “used by the Russians”? Oakeshott is a Reform cheerleader but in 2018 she said the Kremlin “struck gold” with the party’s West of England mayoral candidate. The article is still online.

Isobel Oakeshott is a Reform cheerleader - but in 2018 she said the Kremlin “struck gold” with Arron Banks, who Reform’s West of England mayoral candidate. The article is still online.

New from @marcusleroux.bsky.social on Democracy for Sale

democracyforsale.substack.com/p/does-isabe...

Not the most important thing about 'White Potus' but SNL's sketches are always *way* too long. They have one idea and try to string it out for five whole minutes.

The EU AI Continent Action Plan: Hype, Burn, Rinse, and Repeat | TechPolicy.Press The Commission's plan is not just to have more data centres and more data approaches, but also to repeat past announcements, writes Kris Shrishak.

"The European Commission’s AI Continent Action Plan is closer to fiction than reality. Steeped in hype, the EU will burn more fossil fuels, rinse and repeat the past, all in the name of leadership."

My piece on @techpolicypress.bsky.social

www.techpolicy.press/the-eu-ai-co...

Energy demands from AI datacentres to quadruple by 2030, says report The IEA forecast indicates a sharp rise in the requirements of AI, but said threat to the climate was ‘overstated’

No it is not "in the cloud", but very much down to Earth.

And #ClimateEmergency not the only threat - what about water and other resource use?

So we can have such #AI slop as "shrimp Jesus"?
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Big Tech's data centres will take water from world's driest areas Amazon, Microsoft and Google's data centres use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and they are building more.

New from me: I've spent the last 6 months compiling a map of data centres, whose locations are generally secret, operated by Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

Cross-referencing that map with areas of water scarcity shows many are in the world's driest areas.

www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...

Revealed: Big tech’s new datacentres will take water from the world’s driest areas Amazon, Google and Microsoft are building datacentres in water-scarce parts of five continents

Revealed: Big tech’s new datacentres will take water from the world’s driest areas

A really clever data story from @source-material.org and the Guardian.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Big Tech's data centres will take water from world's driest areas Amazon, Microsoft and Google's data centres use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and they are building more.

New from me: I've spent the last 6 months compiling a map of data centres, whose locations are generally secret, operated by Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

Cross-referencing that map with areas of water scarcity shows many are in the world's driest areas.

www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...

Virtual reality: The widely-quoted media experts who are not what they seem Press Gazette investigation into the widely-quoted national media experts who either do not exist, or whose credentials have not been checked.

Fascinating story from @dominicponsford.bsky.social on the mainstream news outlets in the UK that have quoted 'experts' who, it turns out, don't even exist
pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/d...

BBC Radio 4 - File on 4 Investigates, The Carbon Offset Trap Max de Haldevang investigates problems with carbon offset projects.

I was interviewed for the latest File on 4!

It was really interesting working with the team as they looked at various issues with the UK's biggest carbon offsetting registry, from the potential exploitation of forest communities to issues with carbon counting.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

BBC Radio 4 - File on 4 Investigates, The Carbon Offset Trap Max de Haldevang investigates problems with carbon offset projects.

The Carbon Offset Trap: BBC File on 4 has taken an in-depth look at the current state of carbon markets.

Our reporter @lukewbarratt.bsky.social spoke to them about some of their findings.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Senator Schumer Votes to Let the Big Wooden Horse into Troy “In the wake of votes by a handful of key Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to pass a GOP-led continuing resolution funding f...

"Yes, there’s danger in opening our gates to this statue. But there’s also danger in keeping it out… the danger of eroding the sanctity of the gift-giving process."

Firm set up by Farage's aristo-fraudster ally is ‘red flag’ Secretive new political firm set up by ‘posh’ George Cottrell raises ‘real red flags’, anti-corruption expert warns

A convicted fraudster regularly seen in London members clubs is launching a new political strategy firm

Interesting update on Farage ally George Cottrell by @ethanshone.bsky.social

www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-mone...

Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte forced onto plane to The Hague after ICC arrest, his daughter says | CNN Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has been put on a plane to The Hague following his arrest on an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant, his daughter and local outlet The Philippine Sta...

Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is being flown to The Hague, his daughter says, after his arrest on an ICC warrant

Especially considering recent events, it's another reminder of how closely intertwined the UK and US militaries are.

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The US military, it turns out, pays to store up to 10,000 cubic metres of military jet fuel at Killingholme.

I'm no expert, but the US military has an estimated 1,295 fighter jets at its disposal, mostly holding around 10 cubic metres of fuel, making this a pretty massive amount of fuel.

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🧵Something that caught my eye in the coverage of the oil tanker collision in the North Sea was a Department of Defense agency spokesperson telling CNN that the tanker was delivering military jet fuel to Killingholme, England, a tiny village in North Lincolnshire.

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A ray of good news: owners of the Solong say it was not carrying sodium cyanide after all. It had been, and 4 containers on board had previously held it, but these appear to have been offloaded prior to its final voyage.

Sorry to say we failed

Great to see @luciemheath.bsky.social nominated for environment journalist of the year at the Press Awards! Congratulations, well-deserved www.thepressawards.com/finalists/lu...

🧵Twice a day, sirens sound in the shadow of Touk Meas Mountain in Kampot province, Cambodia.

"We're often coughing," said Pheara, who lives nearby.

Here, a cement kiln producing hazardous emissions is supposedly at the heart of the global fight against plastic pollution.

“We’re often coughing,” said Pheara, a 32-year-old mother of a six-year-old.

With Sara Hussein at @afpnews.bsky.social, I looked into plastic offsetting, which some say can solve the pollution crisis, and found that it is largely based on burning plastic.

Sanctioned nuclear icebreakers helped export gas from the Russian Arctic bought by Shell

NEW INVESTIGATION
🚢 Companies including Shell and Total import millions of tonnes of gas a year to Europe from the Russian Arctic on specialised LNG tankers. Last winter, these shipments relied on a fleet of sanctioned icebreakers to cross Siberian waters 🚢

Supporting Heathrow's third runway and now backing Drax, both prove Rachel Reeves wasn't lying when she said at Davos that growth was more important to this government than the UK's climate change goals.