Tim Stephens

@proftimstephens.bsky.social

7.5K followers 8.1K following 1.4K posts

Professor of International Law, University of Sydney Law School.

Councillor, Inner West Council, Sydney, 2021-2024.

www.sydney.edu.au/law/about/our-people/academic-staff/tim-stephens.html

orcid.org/0000-0001-9678-2227

Born at 331 ppm CO2 .. more

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Tim Stephens is Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. Stephens' main areas of research are the international law of the sea and international environmental law. .. more

Environmental science 40%

Political science 18%

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Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · Nov 12

Our edited collection on 'Geopolitical Change and the Antarctic Treaty System' will be out in January 2025.

A big thanks to co-editors Shirley Scott and Jeff McGee and to the contributors for making this project possible.

link.springer.com/book/9789819...

Geopolitical Change and the Antarctic Treaty System

This book explores all aspects of geopolitical considerations between key states of the Antarctica Treaty System (ATS) and lessons that can be gained.

link.springer.com

Reposted by Tim Stephens

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 9h

‘Add blood, forced smile’: how Grok’s nudification tool went viral www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...

‘Add blood, forced smile’: how Grok’s nudification tool went viral

The ‘put her in a bikini’ trend rapidly evolved into hundreds of thousands of requests to strip clothes from photos of women, horrifying those targeted

www.theguardian.com

Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 17h

I can't believe I'm posting this video - but we actually have to have a conversation about the real world implications of America going to war over Greenland.

Let me walk you through it. It doesn't turn out well for us.

Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · 19h

'Chris Bowen wants to use his stint as the world’s chief climate negotiator to lobby Saudi Arabia and others to stop resisting progress at UN summits, heeding calls for a “hard-nosed” approach in dealing with big emitters obstructing the transition.'

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Australia’s Cop31 chief negotiator plans to lobby petrostates on fossil fuel phaseout

Exclusive: Chris Bowen says key to next UN climate summit will be ‘engagement, engagement, engagement’ with countries such as Saudi Arabia

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Tim Stephens, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Mark Shaw @markshawtoronto.bsky.social · 20h

The UK is in talks with Canada and Australia for a coordinated response to X, including a possible ban. #canpoli

Starmer rallies international support to take on Musk

Tech billionaire says threat to ban social media site over sexualised AI images is ‘censorship’

www.telegraph.co.uk

Reposted by Tim Stephens

Bede Kelleher @thevenerablebede.bsky.social · 22h

Finally nuked the Twitter account. An absolute cesspit with too few redeeming people left to make it worthwhile.

Reposted by John Mullahy, Tim Stephens

Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 22h

If Trump saw a globe rather than a Mercator projection he might notice that Greenland is actually smaller than Algeria.

Reposted by Tim Stephens

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 1d

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

-Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · 1d

“Newly released cabinet papers, prepared by the federal public service and experts at the Bureau of Meteorology, were largely ignored by the Howard government.”

www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

Confidential advice undercooked climate change to Howard government

Cabinet briefings in 2005 warned of climate change, but did not anticipate the scale and severity of the impacts now playing out.

www.smh.com.au

Reposted by W. Andy Knight, W Grant, Tim Stephens , and 1 more W. Andy Knight, W Grant, Tim Stephens, David Darmofal

The Bulwark @thebulwark.com · 1d

"The French president said a couple days ago, 'America might not be our ally anymore.' You've heard the German Chancellor say something similar."

Anne Applebaum tells Tim Miller that European governments are starting to hedge against American rhetoric and actions.

Reposted by Tim Stephens, Steven H. Seggie

Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 1d

It’s still wild that “orange man invades countries, burns oil, destroys planet” isn’t a cartoon plot but an actual real-life dude we all have to deal with.

Reposted by Diane Coyle, Colin F. Camerer, Paul Glasziou , and 29 more Diane Coyle, Colin F. Camerer, Paul Glasziou, Peter Thorne, Mel Bartley, Diarmid Campbell‐Lendrum, Bryan D. Jones, Steven French, Ben Barr, Peter Holmes, Juan Cole, Jonathan Hopkin, R. M. Wilson, Tom Griffin, Richard Larouche, Bessma Momani, Suzanne de Cheveigné, Dana R. Fisher, David Underdown, David Murakami Wood, Johannes Breuer, Björn Heile, Brooke Harrington, Tim Stephens, Prokla Redaktion, Alan McNally, Christina Pagel, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Dana Howard, Jeannette Sutton, François Guesnet

Justin @ediparolev.bsky.social · 1d

“Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.”

Uruguay’s Renewable Charge: A Small Nation, A Big Lesson For The World

Uruguay built a power grid that runs 99% on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. Here’s how its bold energy overhaul became a global model.

www.forbes.com

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Ian Hall, Michael D. McDonald , and 1 more Richard S.J. Tol, Ian Hall, Michael D. McDonald, Tim Stephens

Reuters @reuters.com · 1d

Indonesia temporarily blocks access to Grok over sexualised images reut.rs/4jvw0JI

Indonesia temporarily blocks access to Grok over sexualised images

Indonesia temporarily blocked Elon Musk's Grok chatbot on Saturday due to the risk of AI-generated pornographic content, becoming the first country to deny access to the AI tool.

reut.rs

Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · 1d

“Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has slammed Elon Musk’s social media platform X for failing to meet community standards, declaring its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok is enabling abhorrent sexual images without consent of the people depicted.”

www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

‘Abhorrent’: PM slams Elon Musk’s X over sexually explicit images

As the wave of AI generated sexual material grows, international leaders are demanding action by tech companies to stop images generated without consent.

www.smh.com.au

Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · 1d

“Richest 1% took 10 days while wealthiest 0.1% needed just three days to exhaust annual carbon budget.”

Climate change is eminently solvable if the wealthiest (ie most people in the west) curbed their extravagance.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

World’s richest 1% have already used fair share of emissions for 2026, says Oxfam

Richest 1% took 10 days while wealthiest 0.1% needed just three days to exhaust annual carbon budget, study shows

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by David R. Miller, Tim Stephens, David Darmofal

Bill Kristol @billkristolbulwark.bsky.social · 1d

The Kennedy Center with no more operas but with the "premiere" of "Melania: The Movie" kind of says it all.

Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · 1d

Nobel Peace prizes are non-transferable so as to prevent scalping.

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 2d

Trump tells Hannity he will accept Machado’s Nobel Prize when she gives it to him.

So embarrassing.

Reposted by Tim Stephens

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 1d

How Elon Musk’s Grok spread sexual deepfakes and child exploitation images ft.trib.al/aX8bZdy

How Elon Musk’s Grok spread sexual deepfakes and child exploitation images

Billionaire’s xAI start-up lacks adequate safeguards, say experts, but many AI models are trained on troubling material

ft.trib.al

Reposted by Tim Stephens

Eliot Higgins @eliothiggins.bsky.social · 1d

Elon Musk’s X threatened with UK ban over wave of indecent AI images www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Elon Musk’s X threatened with UK ban over wave of indecent AI images

Platform has restricted image creation on the Grok AI tool to paying subscribers, but victims and experts say this does not go far enough

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Tim Bale, Tim Stephens, Jeroen Van Bouwel

Anand Menon @anandmenon.bsky.social · 2d

A headline for the ages www.politico.eu/article/fran...

France delays G7 to avoid clash with White House cage fighting on Trump’s birthday

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said the new schedule is “the result of our consultations with G7 partners.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/france-delay-g7-white-house-donald-trump-birthday/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=alert&utm_campaign=France%20delays%20G7%20to%20avoid%20clash%20with%20White%20House%20cage%20fighting%20on%20Trump’s%20birthday

Reposted by Tim Stephens

Aaron Rodericks @aaron.bsky.team · 2d

Current events are making it challenging to track MPs and reputable organisations that are permanently migrating to Bluesky. If folks see examples that we need to assess for verification - do let me know. Will limit it largely to politicians, govt orgs and large orgs at the moment for this pass.

Reposted by Jo Barraket, Tim Stephens

Liz Hicks @lizhicks.bsky.social · 2d

Not apocalyptic looking at all

Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · 2d

“Elon Musk’s social media platform X is being investigated by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner over a surge in sexually explicit images generated by its AI chatbot, following a threat from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer to ban X over the same issue.”

www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

eSafety Commissioner demands crackdown on Musk’s AI ‘nudify’ images on X

World leaders including the UK’s Keir Starmer are vowing to crack down on Elon Musk’s platform over the surge in sexually explicit images generated by Grok.

www.smh.com.au

Reposted by Tim Stephens

stranger @strangerous.bsky.social · 2d

David Littleproud warns against urgent gun reform, saying if bad people can’t attack others with guns because it’s illegal, they’ll just attack with cars or bombs instead… which is also illegal 🤦‍♂️

Reposted by James Cameron, Tim Stephens, Colin Woodard

The Tennessee Holler @thetnholler.bsky.social · 2d

Trump tells Hannity he will accept Machado’s Nobel Prize when she gives it to him.

So embarrassing.

Reposted by Tim Stephens

David Darmofal @daviddarmofal.bsky.social · 2d

I’m wondering if a Catholic Bishop will soon say publicly that JD Vance is barred from Communion if he attends Mass in their Diocese. Now-Detroit Archbishop Weisenburger suggested potential canonical penalties for Catholics involved in Trump’s immigration policies in Trump’s first term.

Tim Stephens @proftimstephens.bsky.social · 2d

Sadly I think it’s most likely that the Opposition will politicise the Royal Commission. Sussan Ley has already said she wants to see Ministers ‘in the dock’.

www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

Albanese has lost face and given ground. Ley should follow suit

The opposition leader’s approach, so far, has been combative. She should take this win on the Bondi shooting royal commission graciously.

www.smh.com.au

Reposted by Will Jennings, Rosemary A. Joyce, Philip N. Cohen , and 3 more Will Jennings, Rosemary A. Joyce, Philip N. Cohen, Jacob T. Levy, Tim Stephens, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Peter Baker @peterbakernyt.bsky.social · 2d

Why is Trump fixated on Greenland? @sbg1.bsky.social recalls what he told us in 2021: "I said, 'Why don’t we have that?' You take a look at a map...I love maps. And I always said 'Look at the size of this, it’s massive and that should be part of the United States.'" www.newyorker.com/news/letter-...