Join Mailing List
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Prince Mohammed bin Salman recently wrapped up a successful visit to the White House, boosting the 80-year-old strategic relationship between Saudi Arabia and the U.S. The desert kingdom’s quest for technological progress was front and center. Yet, making Saudi Arabia a global leader in AI remains challenging.
Read the full article here
Russia’s war machine is showing unmistakable signs of strain. After nearly four years of fiscal overreach caused by injecting trillions of rubles into the Russian economy, the Kremlin can no longer disguise its distress. American envoys met in Geneva on Sunday, November 23rd with Ukrainian officials to discuss a permanent ceasefire, however, this is no time to go easy on Moscow, as U.S. sanctions seem to be working.
Read the full article here
The U.S.-China competition for AI dominance is on, and one key arena where China has so far outrun the competition is the emergence of “cloud cities” or “smart cities” – mega-cities that integrate AI-run capabilities and robotics to run things more efficiently, and help to mitigate negative impacts on the environment, improving the quality of life for citizens. The negative aspect of this trend from the citizen’s eye view may involve concerns about privacy and monitoring, which has required advanced thinking and preparation in countries where individual freedom ranks high on the value scale, such as the U.S. and the EU.
Read the full article here.
The British Anglo American and Canadian Teck Resources mining companies announced an agreement on one of the most significant mining mergers in recent history that will create a new giant with a combined market value exceeding $53 billion. The all-share deal is expected to close within 18 months, pending regulatory approval, and will establish Anglo Teck as one of the top five global copper producers. This marks a tectonic shift in global mineral supplies with major geopolitical implications.
Read the full article here.
Faltering energy security and unstable rare earths supply chains have prompted Europe to think creatively about securing its energy and strategic mineral supply. Brussels has decided to aim for the stars, literally, by putting its sights on the moon. In a European Commission report published on September 9th, the EU noted that to meet its energy needs, there may be a growing emphasis on advanced mining technologies, including space mining, which could start with the Moon.
Read the full article here
While Russia’s economic performance has been lackluster as its war economy struggles to underpin growth, a clear bright spot remains: nuclear energy. Following the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit, where the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline progress dominated headlines, Rosatom signed a memorandum with China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) on personnel collaboration, building on recent wins in Central Asia, Europe, and North Africa. Rosatom has customers lined up worldwide, but as financing problems and global competition build, the jury is out on whether they can expand on their recent success. As the United States seeks to modernize its moribund nuclear power capabilities, Russia’s Rosatom stands as both a competitor and a model.
Read the full article here
President Trump has repeatedly criticized solar and wind, most recently in at the U.N. General Assembly, calling them “a joke” and the “scam of the century.” Congressional Republicans passed the One Big, Beautiful Bill, which put the brakes on federal clean energy subsidies by terminating investment and production tax credits for wind and solar projects not in service by the end of 2027, with a “beginning of construction” deadline of July 4, 2026.
Read the full article here.
The spectacular displays at the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin were carefully crafted to showcase the evolution of Xi Jinping’s Beijing-centric political bloc which aspires to rival Washington. The U.S. administration is embracing an “America First” agenda and using tariffs as a foreign policy battering ram. Meanwhile, President Trump may be on to something in writing “Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire against the United States of America.”
Read the full article here
A report on the Consumer Price Index published in early August of this year found that the cost of electricity in the United States is rising at more than double the rate of general inflation. American households have seen their electricity bills rise 30% since 2021. This is contributing heavily to rising cost-of-living concerns across the country. At the center of these price hikes is the AI revolution, and the sector’s projected expansion means the increased costs are unlikely to level off any time soon.
Read the full article here
Turkey sits at the intersection of Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East—a prime geopolitical piece of real estate in the Eastern hemisphere. As Europe and the U.S. seek to reduce reliance on Russian energy corridors as well as Iranian oil and gas, Ankara is moving quickly to position itself as the key transit hub linking Asia and Europe. Lacking significant reserves of its own, Turkey is leveraging its geographical position, including Russia/the Black Sea, the Caucasus, Iraq, post-war Syria, and access to Europe. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is balancing alliances to expand his country’s regional influence.
Read the full article here
The Texas power grid, long isolated from the rest of the country’s interconnections to avoid federal oversight, has its share of long and near-term problems, such as a projected 8.3% shortfall by 2027 as demand increases, and limited weatherproofing.
Though the Texas legislature and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the independent state grid operator, have taken important steps to more consistently inspect plants and transmission stations as well as plan for increased demand, challenges remain. For instance, severe storms this past May led to widespread outages. Resolving these issues is not easy. The path forward is slow and expensive, with no easy solutions or shortcuts in the offing. This web of problems is why Texas-based Fermi America’s announcement of its HyperGrid project this past June led to an outburst of optimism.
Read the full article here
Qatar has warned that it may stop exporting liquefied natural gas to the European Union in response to the Brussels corporate sustainability due diligence directive, which entered into force on July 25th, 2025. The CSDDD requires large companies to remedy environmental harm and human rights concerns (such as forced labor) in their supply chains or incur fines. The rules apply to both EU and non-EU companies with a yearly turnover greater than €450 million. Notably, the rules will not take full effect until 2027 and will be implemented gradually through 2029 based on company size.
Read the full article here
There is broad scientific consensus: man-made climate change is real, dangerous, and accelerating. Addressing it demands urgency and pragmatism. The viable resources available—natural gas, nuclear power, and renewables—must be deployed strategically. Triage, not idealism, must guide the response.
In his Financial Times article, Stanford Professor Bård Harstad contends that natural gas, although cleaner than coal, risks confining the world to extended hydrocarbon dependence. However, by dismissing gas as just a short-term solution, Harstad misses the fundamental principle of triage: stabilizing the patient before recommending long-term treatment.
Read the full article here
This past Sunday, President Donald J. Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced preliminary terms of a trade deal between the U.S. and the EU from the Trump Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. A key component of the agreement is a pledge from the European Union to purchase $750 billion worth of energy exports from the U.S. over the next three years. The deal also involves commitments by the EU for European companies to invest $600 billion in a number of U.S. industries. In return, the EU received only a maximum 15% tariff on most of its exports rather than the 30% many had feared. However, announcement of the “big ticket” items averted what many had feared would devolve into a trade war as Trump’s declared August 1 deadline for 30% tariffs to kick in loomed.
Read the full article here
The Trump Administration’s energy policies are shifting the investment priorities in American renewable energy, and not to its benefit. But the jury is still out whether the green transition can be stopped or reversed.
In the first quarter of 2025, approximately $8 billion in clean energy investments and 16 large-scale projects were cancelled – the highest drop on record and the first decline since the Biden Administration enacted the barely effective Inflation Reduction Act which strongly favored the renewables. Among the companies that changed their plans were T1 Energy, formerly known as Freyr Battery, Kore Power, and many other solar, battery, and EV manufacturers. Projections still indicate that the U.S. will continue to increase its added renewable generation capacity in 2025, with Texas leading the way, profiting regardless of subsidies.
Read the full article here
U.S. President Donald Trump's Energy Dominance Council plans to host a liquified natural gas summit in Alaska on June 2, where it hopes to announce that Japan and South Korea have committed to the long-pursued Alaska LNG project to ease American gas shipments to Asia.
Since his return to the Oval Office, Trump has positioned hydrocarbons as the backbone of the U.S. energy portfolio and also as a lever for exerting America’s geopolitical influence on the global stage.
Read the full article here
The tariffs announced by the Trump Administration at the beginning of April have cast a shadow across international energy supply chains. The new policies were delayed for ninety days less than a week later, and the much-feared shortages and price hikes haven’t yet materialized. Nevertheless, the mood in the industry remains pessimistic.
In May, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that companies based in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam are dumping solar panel cells at low rates into the U.S. market while receiving subsidies from the Chinese government, setting the stage for the imposition of tariffs on all parties involved.
President Donald Trump signed four executive orders on May 23rd to enhance America’s nuclear energy production capabilities. U.S. demand for electricity is projected to grow by almost 16% by 2029 after having been nearly flat for over two decades. A combination of factors is driving the need for more power, led by a jump in commercial construction, including data centers for AI-driven computing and manufacturing plants. Nuclear energy can offer a zero-emission source of stable baseload electricity even when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, but as the World Nuclear Association points out, almost all U.S. nuclear generating capacity comes from reactors built between 1967 and 1990. Nuclear sector reform in the US has been overdue since President Jimmy Carter and his successors hit the brakes on development and piled on too many regulations.
Read the full article here.
Governments are seeking to leverage AI investment to accelerate societal and economic development and bootstrap to the next level of economic development. While some observers express concerns that the growth of AI could widen the gap between the developed world and emerging markets, it also provides an opportunity for energy-rich developing countries to technologically leapfrog. Few regions are better equipped to exploit this uranium and AI boom than the world’s largest exporter of uranium: Kazakhstan.
Read the full article here
Befitting its status as a country bridging Europe and Asia, the Turkish government’s massive crackdown on the country’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) opposition party and arrest of Ekrem Imamoğlu, mayor of Istanbul and leader of the CHP, has immediate implications for the entire region. Recent events are raising alarm bells in Europe that Turkish chaos could hurt an already energy-hungry Europe, which depends on Türkiye’s energy transit.
Read the full article here
President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to attain peace between Russia and Ukraine have already prompted questions about the future of Russian energy exports, the country’s main cash cow, and whether the door will open to joint projects between Russia and the E.U or the U.S. Whatever progress is made in any negotiations, will be difficult if not impossible to go back to pre-2022 arrangements. Doing so isn’t necessarily in the E.U.’s or America’s strategic or economic interests.
Read the full article here
Just as President Volodymyr Zelensky was preparing to arrive in Washington D.C. on Friday, February 28th to sign an unprecedented US-Ukraine agreement on strategic minerals, Vladimir Putin came up with a proposal of his own, involving joint development with the U.S. of rare earth metals, aluminum, and hydro power in Russia. It’s trolling of 99th level.
At face value, this could be seen as a step towards renormalizing U.S.-Russia trade relations. President Trump is entertaining the notion of economic rapprochement but isn’t ready to commit yet. Economic cooperation comes after the cease-fire or peace accord in Ukraine, not before. On February 27th, only a couple of days after Putin’s proposal, Trump extended wide-ranging sanctions on Russia. Meanwhile, US Russia watchers are telling this author that Putin’s offer is nothing more than a troll to counter the Trump-Zelensky mineral deal.
Read the full article here
President Donald Trump’s guarantee to supply liquefied natural gas to Europe furthers his broader push for U.S. “energy dominance,” marking a stark reversal of the Biden Administration’s pause on the approval of new LNG export infrastructure permits. While Trump’s approach to energy policy correctly identifies LNG as a growth driver and an essential geopolitical lever, expanding LNG exports risks impacting domestic energy prices and should be balanced with other reliable sources of energy like nuclear power to maximize its benefits and ensure long-term energy security.
Read the full article here.
In a far-reaching move set to take effect on March 4th, President Donald J. Trump imposed a 25% tariff on all foreign imports from Canada, a close ally and the US’ largest energy trading partner, as well as on Mexico.
Additionally, a 25% tariff was announced on imported steel and aluminum. Canada is the largest supplier to the U.S. for both. Aluminum and steel are vital for many products, including energy infrastructure components. Canada, understandably, is not pleased. Ottawa signaled that "everything is on the table" in response, potentially including cutting off energy supplies. Given Canada’s central role in U.S. energy security, imposing further tariffs could lead to volatility in American energy markets, price increases, and a broader reshaping of geopolitical alliances.
Read the full article here
On his inauguration day, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order entitled “Designating cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.” This illustrates the new administration’s emphasis on the global fight against organized crime, with a primary focus on Latin America.
In addition to historically known avenues of illicit revenue generation, such as drug and human smuggling, organized crime groups are now penetrating formal economic sectors, including the fuel industry, and engaging in illicit fuel trafficking. While the Executive Order calls for the elimination of groups such as Tren de Aragua (TdA) and La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), this is made far more difficult with no measures to remove their presence from lucrative sectors, such as fuel smuggling. While limited progress has been made in Latin America, an effective approach may lie in successful technological measures employed overseas.
Read the full article here
