Sara Goudarzi

I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.

And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.

In Munich, Europe tries to strike a balance: “We need a more European NATO.” Former President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso tells the Bulletin that Germany and France must work out their differences over nuclear weapons to strengthen Europe's security.

🚨 JUST IN: Frmr European Commission President José Manuel Barroso tells @thebulletin.org that Germany and France must work out their differences over nuclear weapons to strengthen Europe's security.

I report from Munich.

#MSC2026 @hfayet.bsky.social @tobiasbunde.bsky.social @munsecconf.bsky.social

Seabed zero: Baltic sabotage and the global risks to undersea infrastructure Western economies have become dependent on data and energy flow along the seafloor; Russia and China are weaponizing that dependency.

Western economies have become dependent on data and energy flow along the seafloor; Russia and China are weaponizing that dependency.

Read more from Bruce D. Jones of @brookings.edu's Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology. ⬇️

no more AI "art." i want art made by people because i want to know how people think, feel, live. how a day on this earth is for someone else. a night. and why the heart, though so heavy, still wants to dance. i want art that looks into this mystery. art that connects me to another person who wonders

Seabed zero: Baltic sabotage and the global risks to undersea infrastructure Western economies have become dependent on data and energy flow along the seafloor; Russia and China are weaponizing that dependency.

Western economies rely heavily on data cables and energy pipelines along the Baltic seafloor, a dependency that Russia is weaponizing and that China appears to emulate, explains Bruce D. Jones in a piece for @thebulletin.org

The ick factor won’t stop alt meat, if Bruce Friedrich has anything to say about it In his new book, "MEAT," Bruce Friedrich of the Good Food Institute addresses the consequences of humanity’s love of meat and advocates for meat alternatives—alt meat—to feed a growing population and ...

thebulletin.org/2026/02/the-...

Want a roadmap for how to save the planet? @brucefriedrich.bsky.social has some ideas.

ai dot com 503 errror

lol whatever the AI dot com Super Bowl ad is about, the website doesn’t even work… tells ya everything you need to know!

This is incredibly cool — A source familiar with Bad Bunny’s performance tonight tells me that the couple in the halftime show got married for real. They invited Bad Bunny to their wedding and in turn he invited them to get married during his performance.

‼️

I will eventually shut up about this but Bad Bunny’s use of the power lines is an outstanding example of how to communicate about climate and energy issues. Not about who is the smartest nerd in the room and spewing numbers but about people’s actual lives. Genius.

Omg

Incredible!

Someone is going to write a dissertation about this half time show and I will read it.

The electricity grid making an appearance at the Super Bowl half-time show 🤯

Awesome!

With the awful WaPo layoffs and the state of journalism more broadly, if it's useful for any writers and reporters considering going indy, @molly.wiki, @xoxogossipgita.bsky.social of Aftermath, @jasonkoebler.bsky.social of 404 Media, @edzitron.com and me will do a little workshop next week.

The experts comment: New START expires, bringing both risks and opportunities Experts share their concern about the no-rules, no-inspections period that opens when New START expires on Thursday. They also see an opportunity to adapt arms control to a multipolar world.

🚨JUST IN: Experts share their concern about the no-rules, no-inspections period that opens when New START expires on Thursday. They also see an opportunity to adapt arms control to a multipolar world.

My round-up👇 - 1/n

(More will be added over the next few days.)

#NewSTART #armscontrol #nukesky

Why Patagonia burns every summer: climate change, shifting fire regimes, and policy failures The fire season in Patagonia this summer will likely be one of the most severe in recent decades, and the crisis is not an isolated phenomenon.

New @thebulletin.org: Why Patagonia burns every summer: climate change, shifting fire regimes, and policy failures.

More than 45,000 hectares (111,197 acres) have already burned. In just a month, the fires scorched an area greater than the total area burned last summer.

it can’t all just be substack, it simply cannot

WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Post says one-third of its staff across all departments, not just the newsroom, is being laid off.

Trump doesn't need the Golden Dome in Greenland. He needs a stronger NATO Greenland's geographical location provides no added benefit to a space-based architecture of interceptors and sensors for US missile defense.

🚨 JUST IN: Greenland's geographical location provides no added benefit to a space-based architecture of interceptors and sensors for US missile defense, Igor Moric of @princeton.edu writes in @thebulletin.org.

#Greenland #GoldenDome #Trump #NATO #nuclearrisk #nukesky

How dehumanizing language, video images, and human oversight affect public opinion on drone warfare The pairing of fully autonomous drone strikes and dehumanizing imagery can undermine public support for military action, even when necessary.

Although dehumanization shapes support for drones, the public favors human oversight of strikes. When strikes are conducted by “killer robots,” which use AI to identify, track, and target, the public begins to question the merits of operations, the authors of a new @thebulletin.org piece explain.

How to Become a Professional Writer Do you enjoy writing? Do you like the idea of taking the thing you love doing the most in the world and turning it into work? So that your access t...

"Is there a formula for being a good writer, you might ask? Yes, and it’s simple: Writing is 40 percent talent, 70 percent luck, and 50 percent determination. To become a writer, you do not need to be good at math."

Inside one company’s secret plan to ‘destructively scan every book in the world’ Court filings reveal how AI companies raced to obtain more books to feed chatbots, including by buying, scanning and disposing of millions of titles.

Anthropic execs in 2024: '“Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world,” an internal planning document unsealed in legal filings last week said. “We don’t want it to be known that we are working on this.”'
wapo.st/4rjXAMQ

@jimmykimmel.com had a DOOMSDAY UPDATE for us last night.

Today, the Science and Security Board set @thebulletin.org's Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds, the closest it's ever been to midnight.

🚨 It is now 85 SECONDS TO MIDNIGHT on the #DoomsdayClock, the closest it has ever been to midnight.

Learn why here:

thebulletin.org/doomsday-clo...

The underground network: Prehistoric fungi feed the world’s plants and resist climate change, but face an uncertain future Trillions of miles of tiny fungal tubes embedded in soil transport nutrients to crops and other plants and fight climate change by storing carbon. Scientists are racing to understand how these fungi—i...

New must-read @tullis.bsky.social feature @thebulletin.org: Mycorrhizal fungi networks supply plants with essential nutrients and water and help sequester carbon, but they're facing many threats. Why scientists are racing to understand—and protect—the biodiversity under our feet.

Iran’s internet shutdown tells a larger story: Digital repression is on the rise Like Iran, governments worldwide rely on internet shutdowns to suppress populations, rig elections and collectively punish their citizens.

Iran’s internet shutdown tells a bigger story about the global rise of digital repression. New piece out @thebulletin.org @saragoud.bsky.social

thebulletin.org/2026/01/iran...

Iran’s internet shutdown tells a larger story: Digital repression is on the rise Like Iran, governments worldwide rely on internet shutdowns to suppress populations, rig elections and collectively punish their citizens.

Iran, in its 14th day of a digital blackout, isn't the only country to use this tactic to control its citizens. In 2025, an estimated 212 shutdowns occurred across 28 countries, affecting 798.12 million people, write @stevenfeldstein.bsky.social & Shreya Joshi for @thebulletin.org

What experts can learn by tracking AI harms Experts can identify and address artificial intelligence's weak points using a database tracking the technology’s harms.

In a new data visualization piece for @thebulletin.org, Katie Peek uses a database indexing stories of AI harms to show how experts can spot patterns and identify the tech's weaknesses to avoid repeating failures.