While the Tech Bros Party, the Planet Boils: Climate Change Has Never Looked so First Class
Private jets stack up over Lisbon, data farms drain cities dry, and nearly a million flee a monster typhoon in the Philippines
Lisbon’s airport is experiencing gridlock — not from commercial flights but from a convoy of private jets ferrying tech founders to the annual Web Summit, forcing some to land as far away as Spain. “It’s the new Lamborghini,” quipped one industry insider, referring to the rush for personal aircraft among Silicon Valley’s elite.
Across the Atlantic, a quieter race is draining cities dry. North America’s booming data center industry - the physical “cloud” that powers AI and streaming — is guzzling staggering amounts of water and electricity, leaving local communities to foot the environmental bill. In one Georgia municipality, the cost of water has soared and shortages are feared after Meta built a massive data center — a symbol of how the digital economy’s thirst for data is colliding with basic human needs. (Some “hyperscale” data centers - which can span millions of square feet - can churn through as much as 550,000 gallons, or 2.1 million liters, of potable water a day).
Meanwhile, in Brazil, world leaders at the COP 30 climate summit — attended by some 50,000 people and drawing fair criticism for the enormous carbon footprint such gatherings generate - are once again pledging to “act decisively” to halt global warming, as a record-breaking typhoon tears across the Philippines, displacing more than a million people.
It’s a portrait of a warming planet in perfect irony: where technology fuels both innovation and indulgence, and climate action remains perpetually grounded on the tarmac.
Why it matters:
From Gulfstreams over Lisbon to data farms in New Jersey, our digital revolution is deepening the climate divide - between those who can fly above the storm and those who must weather it.
The COP30 climate summit in Brazil, kicking off today (Monday), will be defined largely by the absence of the US, a space that will be partially filled by China, analysts said. Washington isn’t sending any high-level officials to the gathering in the Amazon rainforest, but President Donald Trump will still loom over the event as nations grapple with the White House’s heightened animosity toward clean energy and climate action. While China’s leader also isn’t attending, COP will showcase the inroads Beijing’s clean-tech industry has made in Latin America. Brazil chose Chinese EVs to shuttle attendees, a signal that “the world is moving on, even without US political and technological leadership,” an expert said - Semafor
Entire villages lay submerged and scores of towns remained without electricity on Monday (Nov 10) as Typhoon Fung-wong left the Philippines after killing at least two people and displacing more than a million. Fung-wong, with a footprint that spanned nearly the entire archipelago, slammed into the eastern seaboard as a “super typhoon” on Sunday evening, uprooting trees and swamping towns in its path. It landed days after Typhoon Kalmaegi swept through the islands of the central Philippines, killing at least 224 people. Cleanup efforts were underway on Monday from Cagayan province in the far north to hard-hit Catanduanes island, more than 1,000km to the south. Schools and government offices across the main island of Luzon were closed on Monday. That included the capital Manila, where residents were cleaning up after a night of heavy rain - CNA
The U.S. Senate voted to break the shutdown stalemate Sunday, paving the way for the government to reopen as soon as later this week. The 60-40 vote to take the first step toward ending the shutdown came hours after enough Democrats agreed to support a package that would fund multiple agencies and programs for the full fiscal year, and all others until Jan. 30, 2026. In exchange, Democrats have a commitment from the Trump administration to rehire government workers fired at the start of the funding lapse, and the promise of a Senate floor vote in December on legislation to extend expiring Obamacare tax credits. In the end, eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voted Sunday night, to advance the House-passed stopgap, which is being used as a vehicle for the larger funding deal. The vote will pave the way for consideration later this week of a legislative package that would fund the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, and the operations of Congress for all of current fiscal year — the product of months of bipartisan, bicameral negotiations between top appropriators. All other agencies would be funded through Jan. 30, according to the text of a continuing resolution released Sunday. The agreement still needs to pass the House before the government can be reopened - Politico
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The UK will send anti-drone equipment and personnel to Belgium following a series of sightings near airports and military bases in recent weeks, Chief of the Defence Staff Richard Knighton said during a television interview on Sunday. Over the past week, Belgium’s main international airport in Brussels and Liège, one of Europe’s largest cargo airports, have been forced to close temporarily due to drone incursions. The incidents were the latest in a series of unidentified drone flights near a military base where US nuclear weapons are stored. Knighton said the UK had agreed to “deploy personnel and equipment to Belgium to help them,” following a request from the Belgian authorities. “We don’t know and the Belgians don’t know yet the source of those drones, but we will help them by providing our equipment and capabilities, which have already started to be deployed to help Belgium,” Knighton said during an interview with the BBC. specialists to NATO ally Belgium to counter unauthorised drone activity. “As hybrid threats grow, our strength lies in our alliances and our collective resolve to defend, deter and protect our critical infrastructure and airspace,” he said. Drone incidents have forced airports across Europe to suspend flights in recent months, with Russian hybrid warfare operations said to be behind some of the incidents. Belgium has not specified who it believed was behind its recent drone sightings. Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken said he believed some incidents were part of a “spying operation” that amateurs could not have carried out - Euronews
Kyiv and many Ukrainian regions faced extensive power cuts and outages as crews struggled to repair infrastructure battered by Russian air attacks. Power was reduced in most regions for eight to 16 hours on November 9, state energy provider Ukrenergo said, adding that consumption restrictions were scheduled for November 10 as well. “The reason for the introduction of restrictions is the consequences of massive Russian missile and drone attacks on energy facilities,” the company said. “It is difficult to recall such a [large] number of direct strikes on energy facilities since the beginning of the invasion,” company spokeswoman Svitlana Hrynchuk told Ukrainian media - RFE/RL
Tim Davie has resigned as the BBC’s director-general after five years in the role - with chief executive of BBC News Deborah Turness also resigning. It comes as the corporation is expected to apologise on Monday following concerns about impartiality, including how a speech by US President Donald Trump was edited in an episode of Panorama. The concerns regard clips spliced together from sections of the US president’s speech on 6 January 2021 to make it appear he told supporters he was going to walk to the US Capitol with them to “fight like hell” in the documentary Trump: A Second Chance?, which was broadcast by the BBC the week before last year’s US election. Mr Trump responded to the pair’s resignation on Sunday night, describing Mr Davie and Ms Turness as “very dishonest people who tried to step on the scales of a presidential election” in a post on his Truth Social platform. Mr Davie sent a message to staff on Sunday afternoon, saying it was “entirely” his decision to quit. Admitting the BBC “is not perfect”, he said: “We must always be open, transparent and accountable.” - Sky News
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