Aggregator

European Commission Proposes Energy & Water Efficiency Disclosure Rules For Data-Centers

Authored by Zachary Skidmore via Data Centre Dynamics,

The European Commission (EC) has submitted a proposal to require data centers across Europe to disclose their energy and water efficiency metrics.

The European Union (EU) aims to triple its data center capacity over the next five to seven years.

This has raised concerns about the build-out's potential impact on the power grid and natural resource use.

The proposed rules would create a common rating scheme covering data centers with a capacity exceeding 500kW. The scheme would also cover data centers' support for grid balancing services, contributions to waste heat recovery, and use of renewable energy generation.

In support of the proposal, the EC has also launched a call for evidence and public consultation on minimum performance standards for data centers in Europe. The consultation will close in December.

The proposal is now subject to a two-month scrutiny period by the European Parliament and the Council before entering into force. This gives co-legislators the opportunity to object to the proposal, but not to propose amendments.

The first ratings from the scheme are expected sometime in 2027.

A first review is expected to follow by the end of 2028.

European officials have launched several projects to support the bloc's energy system in meeting the demands from the data center sector. In June, the EU launched two initiatives to that effect. The first seeks to bring together a range of stakeholders, including data center developers, energy companies, and public authorities, to integrate data centers into the EU energy system. The second, dubbed the AI grids project, seeks to develop the first pan-European AI foundation model for electricity grids.

The rules came shortly after reports emerged that several of the largest data center operators were accused of using a secrecy provision in EU law to block public access to crucial information about the environmental impact of their data centers.

Data centers are projected to grow exponentially across the European market, forecast to rise from approximately 9.2GW at present to more than 17GW in 2030, much of which is driven by AI. As a result, emissions emanating from the sector are also expected to skyrocket, especially with the data center size also increasing significantly.

The lack of reporting regarding the impact of individual data centers could seriously curtail the ability of independent bodies to scrutinize their impact, potentially impacting the EU's capacity to meet carbon reduction targets.

Tyler Durden Wed, 09/23/2026 - 06:30

Democrats have grown so unmoored that a majority of them would be happy if a military coup overthrew President Donald Trump and seized control of America . . . to “safeguard the Constitution.”

Blakeman is closer to pulling off an upset of Hochul than GOP challenger Lee Zeldin was during the same time period in 2022.

The 2026 Giants are two games into the season, and no one knows what they are.

Former pardon attorney Ed Martin likened accusations about a cash for clemency racket in President Trump's orbit to the "Russia hoax" and lamented that the administration lost momentum from its early days to dramatically transform the government.

Suck up these early October Prime Day vacuum deals!

Xi knows his economy is on dangerously dicey ground with growth stalled far below any healthy level; the United States could use a break from the trade war, but China is desperate to return to a stable path.

The disgraced Hollywood mogul, 74, was convicted in June 2025 of first-degree criminal sex act for attacking former "Project Runway" staffer Miriam "Mimi" Haley inside his SoHo apartment in 2006.

The city has not given a precise removal date, but the sign is expected to be gone before the end of September.

China Ranked #1 In World At Math; USA 27th...

How do math skills compare around the world?

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, ranks participating countries and economies by the average mathematics scores of 15-year-old students in the most recent PISA 2025 study, published in September 2026.

PISA assesses students in mathematics, reading, and science. Its mathematics assessment goes beyond memorizing formulas or procedures, measuring whether students can apply mathematical knowledge and reasoning to real-world problems.

More than 760,000 students took part in PISA 2025 across 91 countries and economies, representing roughly 33 million 15-year-olds worldwide.

China in this ranking represents the participating jurisdictions of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang. Uzbekistan is excluded because a comparable mathematics score was not reported.

Why East Asia Stands Out in Math Scores

China leads Singapore by 49 points, while Macao and Taiwan rank third and fourth with scores of 549 and 546, respectively.

Rank Country Average PISA score 1 🇨🇳 China 612 2 🇸🇬 Singapore 563 3 🇲🇴 Macao 549 4 🇹🇼 Taiwan 546 5 🇯🇵 Japan 525 6 🇰🇷 Korea 522 6 🇭🇰 Hong Kong 522 8 🇪🇪 Estonia 508 9 🇨🇭 Switzerland 499 10 🇬🇧 UK 488 11 🇨🇦 Canada 485 12 🇵🇱 Poland 484 13 🇳🇱 Netherlands 483 14 🇳🇿 New Zealand 480 14 🇮🇪 Ireland 480 14 🇧🇪 Belgium 480 17 🇦🇺 Australia 478 18 🇦🇹 Austria 477 18 🇨🇿 Czechia 477 20 🇩🇰 Denmark 471 21 🇱🇹 Lithuania 470 22 🇫🇮 Finland 469 22 🇸🇰 Slovakia 469 24 🇮🇹 Italy 468 25 🇩🇪 Germany 464 25 🇸🇪 Sweden 464 27 OECD average 463 27 🇺🇸 United States 463 28 🇹🇷 Türkiye 462 29 🇸🇮 Slovenia 460 29 🇵🇹 Portugal 460 29 🇱🇻 Latvia 460 32 🇭🇺 Hungary 459 33 🇫🇷 France 458 33 🇱🇺 Luxembourg 458 35 🇪🇸 Spain 457 36 🇭🇷 Croatia 455 37 🇦🇪 UAE 453 38 🇳🇴 Norway 452 39 🇮🇸 Iceland 450 40 🇻🇳 Vietnam 443

Japan ranks fifth with 525 points, while Korea and Hong Kong are tied at 522. Estonia breaks up the concentration of East Asian education systems at the top, ranking eighth globally with a score of 508 and placing highest among European countries.

Where the U.S. and Canada Rank

The United States ranks 27th with a score of 463, exactly matching the OECD average.

Canada ranks 11th overall with an average mathematics score of 485, putting it 22 points above the OECD average. It also places ahead of several major European economies, including Germany, France, Spain, and Italy.

The United Kingdom ranks 10th with a score of 488. Australia comes in 17th at 478, while New Zealand ties for 14th at 480.

Math Scores Have Fallen Across the OECD

Across OECD countries, average mathematics scores fell by 22 points between 2015 and 2025, equivalent to just over one year of learning. Declines were also recorded among non-OECD participants.

PISA also found an association between heavy digital leisure use and student outcomes. Students spending more than four hours a day on digital leisure activities outside school tended to have lower mathematics scores and a weaker sense of belonging.

By contrast, moderate digital use was associated with better outcomes on both measures than either no use or very high use.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Countries by Education Spending as % of GDP on Voronoi.

Tyler Durden Wed, 09/23/2026 - 05:45

The race for New York State attorney general is tightening, with Democratic incumbent Letitia James’ lead over Republican Saritha Komatireddy shrinking by 5 points, according to a new poll.

A Massachusetts restaurant owner pursued two teen dine and dashers before he allegedly assaulted them and whipped out his gun, which left a girl fearing for her life.

They asked to feel the "Noize" — and he went wild.

BBC Memory-Holes Comedy Sketches That Satirized Racism

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

The BBC has completely cut multiple sketches from 2006 comedy skit show That Mitchell and Webb Look after dumping the Bafta-winning series back onto its streaming service for its twentieth anniversary.

The official line is that some of the old material no longer "works today." What no longer works, it turns out, is comedy that satirised and mocked the very mindset of racism.

A BBC spokesman said: "This is a 20-year-old sketch show; in consultation with the programme makers, we have included the ones that still work today and not the ones that don't." David Mitchell and Robert Webb have not publicly replied at time of writing.

BBC removes 11 Mitchell and Webb comedy sketches from iPlayer https://t.co/ldobFbxK4h

— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) September 21, 2026

The sketches were not random gags that aged badly. They were built as self-aware send-ups of the people doing the offending. Yet in 2026, not even this is acceptable.

Eleven sketches have been stripped out, including a skit named 'How Not What To Look Like / Behind the Scenes: Burqa', a makeover-show parody in which Mitchell plays a contestant in a burqa.

The scene then cuts to Mitchell and Webb as themselves. Webb asks whether they are "just taking the piss out of people's sincerely held beliefs." Mitchell replies: "I think you can worry too much about this kind of thing. I mean, what's offensive to one person is just good, clean fun to another." He then pulls off the burqa and is in blackface.

The entire foundation of the joke is predicated on the fact that putting blackface on a TV show is NOT acceptable. But any clever or nuanced factors just don't matter anymore, because LOOK BLACKFACE IS BAD.

It's the exact point the joke is making. Yet it still got cut because thinking and considering why something is funny isn't permitted in 2026.

Unlike all of the content on Drag Race, these sketches are actually funny pic.twitter.com/aVJXLzV0UC

— ripx4nutmeg (@ripx4nutmeg) September 21, 2026

Another sketch that was erased from history was called 'Racist War Re-enactment'. Mitchell and Webb play bored English Civil War re-enactors who have had enough of Roundheads and Cavaliers.

They then black up to stage a clash between government forces and rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Webb asks: "Are you absolutely sure that this isn't racist?" Mitchell insists it is "a historically accurate recreation of a landmark global conflict."

After a machete comes out and the accent arrives, they stop and admit it is "very, very racist."

this is it, by the way

very funny pic.twitter.com/IwbjvAa7UF

— Dark Cobbett ???? (@darkcobbett) September 21, 2026

In another cut sketch, Webb encounters an apparently indigenous "tribe" living among the ornamental grasses of a garden centre. It parodies the earnest documentary encounter with "uncontacted" peoples, complete with jokes about the expanding home-and-gift aisle.

In another sketch titled 'The War On Bill Oddie', the United Nations, having decided the war on terror is too difficult, launches a war on the birdwatching BBC presenter instead. This was apparently cut because Bill Oddie has since died.

In another sketch, Webb impersonates a TV chef, who has also since died, and delivers 'homophobic' lines as part of the character.

Another sketch titled Rude Gandhi was binned. You can guess why.

Another three skits titled 'Gilbert & Sullivan, parts 1 to 3' were also erased

Reporting also lists a Jimmy Savile gag among the material taken out. The BBC never removed Savile, the monstrous pedophile, from it's decades of programming, even when it was known he was at the very least fucking creepy, yet a joke about Savile from 2006 must be purged.

The famous "Are we the baddies?" Nazi foxhole sketch, featuring the line "Have you noticed that our caps have actually got little pictures of skulls on them?" was left untouched.

That is the irony the corporation cannot see. A sketch about two Waffen-SS officers slowly realising they might be the villains remains available. Sketches in which two white comedians realise they are being racist, and stop, have to be memoryholed.

The joke was never the blackface. The joke was the idiocy and short sightedness of the people doing it.

Comedian Geoff Norcott called teh BBC's actions "sinister":

At least if a channel outright removes a show you can have a clearly defined debate over why, however much you disagree.
There's something sinister about this ongoing retrospective moral pruning.
Especially when the sketches were literally satirising the thought processes... https://t.co/fjheYm07JL

— Geoff Norcott (@GeoffNorcott) September 21, 2026

"There's something sinister about this ongoing retrospective moral pruning," he wrote. "Especially when the sketches were literally satirising the thought processes behind racism."

That is the crux. The comedy was not racist. It was satirising the mindset of racism. No matter. The clip has to vanish from the archive. Context is not allowed. Intent is not allowed. The image is now a crime.

Journalist Charlie Walsham noted, "I despair. The BBC has inserted harmful trans ideology into a range of programmes, from dramas to lifestyle shows to children's programmes. It continues to promote gender ideology despite criticism that this does not reflect reality or impartiality. And yet now the BBC is getting rid of Mitchell and Webb sketches in an Orwellian scrubbing of relatively recent comedy because they apparently 'no longer work today'. Who they no longer work for isn't clear. Humourless lanyard wearers, presumably."

I despair. The BBC has inserted harmful trans ideology into a range of programmes, from dramas to lifestyle shows to children's programmes. It continues to promote gender ideology despite criticism that this does not reflect reality or impartiality.

And yet now the BBC is...

— Charlie Walsham (@CharlieWalsham_) September 21, 2026

British comedian Dom Joly, who has also been the target of such retrospective cancelation, told The Times: "I totally get it if the BBC is putting out something really racist, which is laughing at and encouraging other people to feel that it's OK to do that. But it's so clear that Mitchell and Webb are not doing that."

"Their intent was not to be racist," Joly urged, calling the move "classic BBC overkill" and "hysterical censorship."

Jimmy Mulville, co-founder of production company Hat Trick, said producers had to be careful "that this is not the thin end of a wedge where we cut things out," and added: "Personally ... I wouldn't censor anything."

Another core point to all of this is that Mitchell and Webb are not some sort of right wing or anti-establishment wreckers. They are the definition of safe, left-liberal BBC talent. They're all over Milquetoast Panel shows and 'highbrow' Radio 4 programming. They still appear across the corporation. They are not Tommy Robinson with a sketch show.

If even they have to have their work sanitised because a clip of blackface exists for two seconds as the punchline of an anti-racist joke, then the standard is not "harm." The standard is discomfort.

Oscar winning actress Olivia Colman also appears throughout the cut material. The same Olivia Coleman who has been dubbed "the most insufferable Left-wing celebrity in Britain."

Ideology that flatters the current staff is "representation." Comedy that makes the same staff wince is "no longer working today." We have covered that institutional capture before.

Little Britain was pulled in 2020 for blackface, then returned with cuts and a warning. Mitchell and Webb now get the same treatment, except the sketches being deleted are the ones that already contained the warning inside the joke. The characters stop. They call themselves racist. They walk away. That is not enough. The whole thing must now be deleted.

Licence-fee payers funded the original broadcasts. They are now being told those broadcasts exist in a lesser, safer form because a modern day committee of wet sponges decided the satire might be misunderstood by someone who will not listen to or understand the punchline.

The show that gave the culture the line "are we the baddies?" has been quietly edited so todays baddies, the new puritans, never have to ask the question of themselves.

The BBC, which once pushed boundaries with comedy programming like The Office and The Day Today has now become a platform for the most humourless, woke, leftist claptrap imaginable.

But it's worse than that.

Parents have accused the BBC of harming children through a drip-feed of pro-trans content in kids' programming, from Hey Duggee pronouns to medical-transition storylines treated as settled fact.

Former news director Fran Unsworth said the "progressive madness" and bullying around trans coverage drove her out.

The same machine has handed activist campaigners a seat at the table on children's output and used flagship soaps to launder pro-migrant storylines.

 

It has recast 1066 with a racially 'diverse' lineup, pushed a furry storyline into a soap, produced a microaggressions film so alien to ordinary life that it went viral as a joke, and been accused of using soaps as a covert vaccine-compliance tool.

     

It will not hire people who refuse the diversity catechism. A senior employee once branded white people a "parasitical, deviant breed." A report on Islamic child slavery in Afghanistan was framed as grimly "necessary." News output has been deceptively edited and shaped in ways the corporation now faces lawsuits over.

         

Tyler Durden Wed, 09/23/2026 - 05:00

Hallie Shoffner, a farmer, is running against Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. in Arkansas.

The State Of Democracy

After eight consecutive years of declining scores, the 2025 EIU Democracy Index showed a stabilization of democracy around the world.

In the latest edition, almost 75 percent of countries either saw their score improve or remain stable compared to 2024, as the global average score across 167 countries and territories improved slightly to 5.2 out of 10.

You will find more infographics at Statista

The index, which assesses electoral processes, governance, civil liberties, political participation and political culture classified 26 countries as full democracies, including all Scandinavian countries, several other European nations as well as Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Mauritius, Taiwan, Japan and Latin American countries Uruguay and Costa Rica.

However, as Statista's Felix Richter reports, notably absent from the top category was the United States, which saw its score fall from 7.85 to 7.65 and was once again classified as a "flawed democracy".

Once considered a shining example of democracy in the world, the country now ranks 35th between Poland and Botswana, as its civil liberties score deteriorated under the Trump administration and its political culture was rated badly due to the intense polarization in the country.

Globally, the three worst-rated countries remained unchanged, with Afghanistan, Myanmar and North Korea at the bottom of the table for non-existing civil liberties, electoral process and pluralism. At the other end of the scale, Norway, New Zealand and Denmark were ranked as the most democratic countries in the world, with Norway rated particularly highly for electoral process and pluralism, political participation and civil liberties.

While the decline of democracy at the global level has been stopped, the share of the world's population living in full democracies is still remarkably low at just 6.6 percent. Meanwhile, 39 percent of the world's population live in countries rated as authoritarian, with China and Pakistan the most populous examples.

Tyler Durden Wed, 09/23/2026 - 04:15

Three assailants shot at least 11 people to death in a mass shooting at a house party in South Africa, police said Wednesday.

"I think that's my food right there. Is it f---ed up for me to walk across and pick it up?"

Flash In The Pan Already Burned Out: German Economy Loses Its Hormuz Boost

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

That Was a Short-Lived Boom.

After just a few weeks, the special economic effect of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has already evaporated, according to Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs. In its monthly report, the ministry states that energy-intensive sectors and companies in German industry benefited from a massive disruption of supply chains in Asia following the closure — a one-time opportunity to temporarily offset the competitive disadvantages at home by shutting out the competition and moving into the business vacuum that had emerged.

Companies in the chemical and metals industries in particular benefited from this special situation, which generated robust growth in the second quarter, the ministry said.

Ultimately, the effect faded faster than expected. After just a few weeks, the German economic miracle was over — and the gray reality has returned. According to the ministry, the German economy continues to lack growth impulses. The stagnation is therefore continuing.

Bad news for the German government, and even worse news for Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who is desperately hoping for economic figures he can use as campaign ammunition rather than going into the next election with completely empty hands when voters hand him another political rebuke in just a few days. Pressure on the unpopular chancellor is also growing within his own party. Merz should actually be delivering something substantial by now — after more than a year of his debt orgy. He should be spreading hope of an impending upswing. Instead, his artificial economy, bloated with ever more debt, keeps collapsing like a soufflé.

The figures from the economy show that this soufflé will not rise again anytime soon. Industrial production is currently 3.3 percent below its level a year ago. Energy-intensive industries in particular, which are falling back into their old apathy after the Iranian special boom, reported a 1.7 percent decline in July. No stimulus can be expected from German consumers — real retail sales fell by 3.4 percent from the previous month in July. Inflation is eating into household purchasing power, and the weak labor market is showing its teeth.

Given the dramatic state of German industry, no one should expect an upswing in the German labor market. A total of 144,000 industrial jobs have been lost in the past twelve months alone. In August, the number of unemployed stood at 3.06 million — although statistical manipulation involving unregistered unemployed people in job-creation programs, short-time work or early retirement conceals the true state of the labor market. The naked truth about the German economy is also hidden in basic income support and other social programs — underemployment is a far greater problem than the statistics allow us to see.

Compared with the previous year, Germany’s job centers count 226,000 fewer people employed in the German economy. The German state’s reforestation program in the public sector will do little more than provide cosmetic relief. The decline is real, and it is reflected in corporate insolvencies, which this year are at their highest level since 2013.

More than 18,500 corporate failures over the past twelve months are now on the books. They are compelling evidence of the structural problems at Germany’s economic location, which could only be eliminated through a political U-turn of 180 degrees. Yet even following a political change, returning to a path of growth would probably be difficult. The collateral damage left behind by political ideologues has simply become too great.

Germany is trapped: cut off from Russian gas, caught in the grip of the emerging diesel-price crisis caused by the Hormuz closure, and dependent on the goodwill of the Americans, who have become its main supplier of fossil fuels — the German economy is stumbling toward a price shock with almost no alternatives.

Once this energy shock works its way through the economic chain and into consumer prices, many German households will be in trouble. They have already been suffering from rising prices for years. Among supporters of degrowth ideology, this fatal combination of circumstances may be cause for celebration. Everyone, however, should be aware that Germany’s deeply divided society needs a boost in prosperity more urgently than ever. And growth is only conceivable in an environment of secure and affordable energy.

Economics is the study of relationships and scarcity. Germany is competing with giants such as China and the United States. Energy prices there are now so significantly below German levels that the bleeding of domestic industry has become inevitable, regardless of how much subsidy money is pumped into the economic body through subsidized industrial electricity prices or direct aid.

Political action in these times appears bizarre. Berlin and Brussels are responding to their own interventionism, the regulatory shackles left behind by low interest rates, climate regulation and energy policy, with further regulation and strangulation of businesses. Are we really surprised by the zombification of large parts of the economy, which now has to compensate for the significant rise in borrowing costs? This policy is dangerous to society. It is destabilizing and could only be prevented by a radical return to the market economy, to a principle of limited government while mobilizing all the forces of society. Until that realization matures, it will be a long and very dangerous road for all supporters of a free society and the market economy.

* * * 

About the author: Thomas Kolbe, a graduate economist, has worked for or over 25 years as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

Tyler Durden Wed, 09/23/2026 - 03:30

Michael Rapaport and Selma Blair pushed back against the actor for targeting the singer over her Israel-Gaza comments