Miscellaneous News

LuzinskiJ said:

Scala is not for the faint of heart.

Click to expand...

neutralobserver said:

Iranians haven't learnt anything from the recent war...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1970560109131559348

Click to expand...

neutralobserver said:

Iranians haven't learnt anything from the recent war...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1970560109131559348

Click to expand...

doggydogdo said:

Thats because they won. Israel hasn't attacked since and even attacked US ally Qatar lol. Israeli ballistic missile defense has used up much of its and America's interceptors and it's now way harder to get more because Chinese rare earth ban for military purposes. Iran still has massive amounts of ballistic missiles it can fire at Israel at any time; it doesn't need nukes to destroy Israel.

Click to expand...

Chevalier said:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1970370041574236417

perhaps this will remind the Iranians which side they’re supposed to be on.

Click to expand...

AndrewJ said:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1970140142091518363

Click to expand...

zbb said:

Poland Shuts Down China–EU rail freight

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Russia’s military drills may be over, but Poland isn’t relaxing — and has decided to keep its border with Belarus closed indefinitely, severing a €25-billion-a-year trade artery between China and the EU.

Warsaw

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

on Friday to better monitor the large-scale Russian-Belarusian “

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

” exercise.

But what was billed as a temporary precaution now looks open-ended, with the government citing “concern for the safety of Polish citizens” and adding that “traffic will be restored once the border is fully safe.”

Crucially, the shutdown hits a trade route that moves 90 percent of rail freight between China and the EU.

On that route, cargo volumes between China and the EU grew 10.6 percent in 2024, while the value of goods jumped nearly 85 percent to €25.07 billion. The corridor now accounts for 3.7 percent of all EU-China trade, up from 2.1 percent a year earlier — a lifeline for e-commerce giants like Temu and Shein.

Click to expand...

Poland Reopens Belarus Border, Restoring Key China-Europe Rail Route​

Surging US power costs defy Donald Trump’s pledge to halve bills​

Soaring US electricity prices are sparking fears of an affordability crisis, defying Donald Trump’s pledge to halve consumers’ power bills within a year of the president returning to office.

Prices hit record highs in 2025, with the average residential cost of electricity up 7 per cent since last June and commercial rates 5 per cent higher, according to the Energy Information Administration.

The price jumps will have a political impact, analysts have said, and comes as Trump says he has cut inflation and urges the Federal Reserve — which meets on Wednesday — to slash interest rates.

“This is going to become one of the defining political issues of our time,” said Charles Hua, executive director of PowerLines, an energy affordability advocacy group.

“Electricity prices are some of the fastest-growing price increases among the basket of goods. That makes for a political storm.”

The rising prices are a product of demand driven by artificial intelligence outpacing supply, as well as costs to fortify ageing transmission infrastructure.

Trump pledged on the campaign trail last year that he would “cut your energy and electricity prices in half, within 12 months of taking the oath of office”, as he blamed Democrats’ decarbonisation programme for higher costs.

He has since moved to scrap new power generation projects off the east coast shore and halted Joe Biden-era support for onshore clean energy supplies across the country. The moves have come amid a surge in demand from fast-growing AI and data centres.

Democrats have seized on rising power prices as a vulnerability for the president. Last month, green groups erected billboards blaming Republicans for voting “to raise your electric bill” by passing the “one, big beautiful” bill, a law that cuts funds for new clean energy projects.

Trump has blamed Democrats’ support for wind and solar, describing them as the “scam of the century” that are behind the “record breaking” price increases in states that support them. His energy secretary, Chris Wright, has also blamed Biden-era policies.

But prices are a big concern for voters, with 50 per cent saying they expect power inflation to get worse six months from now, and 62 per cent disapproving of Trump’s handling of the issue, according to a recent poll from The Economist/YouGov.

Power inflation has become an issue in the governor’s race in New Jersey, where residential and commercial electricity prices have jumped by 25 and 16 per cent, respectively, over the past year.

Democratic candidate US representative Mikie Sherrill has blamed utility companies and PJM, the largest grid operator in the US, which powers 13 midwest and eastern seaboard states. Her Trump-backed Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, blamed renewables.

Eran Wajswol, who owns a dairy in Long Valley, northern New Jersey, said the state “got caught with its shorts down” by prioritising wind and solar.

“I would say accelerate approval for nuclear. If you can, burn gas,” he said. “Forget wind and all those subsidised renewable sources.”

In May 2025 the state sourced 6 per cent of its electricity from renewables. However, utilities are required to increase that share to 50 per cent by 2030, according to mandates put in place by outgoing governor Phil Murphy. While renewables are insulated from volatile fuel costs, they can require substantial upfront infrastructure investments to integrate them to the grid.

The price of the electricity Wajswol uses has climbed 19 per cent over the past two months following a June rate increase — prompting him to consider leaving New Jersey for Pennsylvania.

“The costs can’t be passed down, as we don’t want to hurt our sales,” he said. “We have to take a lower margin and keep swallowing till we can’t swallow no more.”

Taylor Rogers, a White house spokesperson, said “while many states have capitalised on their ability to ‘drill, baby, drill’ again, Democrat-led states like New Jersey continue to have higher energy prices because of their obsession with unreliable and costly green energy sources like wind and solar”.

The AI-led demand boom is also affecting the market. PJM estimated that 30GW out of the 32GW of anticipated new demand in the region from 2024 to 2030 would be driven by data centres.

Ashley Asdal, a former naval officer, said the bills to run her 68-acre apple orchard in Chester had risen by 22 per cent over the past year, leading her to cut electricity use.

“I was like, ‘Oh my god, why is this so expensive?’” she said. “[Data centres] ought to pay their fair share . . . sometimes it feels like AI is free, but there is cost somewhere.”

Politicians across the country have moved to temper bill increases, with governors such as Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, calling on PJM to lower costs and increase power supply.

Debates over data centres’ power use are raging in states such as Georgia and Virginia — home to the world’s largest concentration of data centres — where another gubernatorial race will also be decided in November. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, and her opponent Winsome Earle-Sears, have both pledged to find new supplies to drive down prices.

In the meantime, increasing numbers of bill payers in states such as New Jersey are seeking support.

Brian Lipman, director of the New Jersey Division of the Rate Counsel, the state’s utility consumer advocate, said complaints and inquiries to the service had more than tripled since last year.

He worries election-season polarisation is hampering efforts to cut electricity bills.

“I think everyone involved wants to do the right thing, but that’s hard to figure out when you’re running for election.”

Click to expand...

Those payments, determined by annual energy auctions, have risen by about 1,000% over the last two auctions on the projected rise of data center demand coupled with largely stagnating power supply.

Click to expand...

PJM estimated that 30GW out of the 32GW of anticipated new demand in the region from 2024 to 2030 would be driven by data centres.

Click to expand...