Royce Kurmelovs
@roycerk2.bsky.social
Journalist. Author of The Death of Holden (2016), Just Money (2020) and others.
Buy Slick: Australia's Toxic Relationship with Big Oil (2024) now: https://www.slickthebook.com.au/
For more me: https://www.roycekurmelovs.com/
Get me on Signal: RoyceK.11
Buy Slick: Australia's Toxic Relationship with Big Oil (2024) now: https://www.slickthebook.com.au/
For more me: https://www.roycekurmelovs.com/
Get me on Signal: RoyceK.11
Pinned
Royce Kurmelovs
@roycerk2.bsky.social
· Jun 6
Slick has been given a reprint --now with a fancy sticker on the cover. If you want to understand Why We Are Like This on climate change, or read about things like that one time the oil and gas industry spied on the son of a prime minister, and you haven't picked up a copy, now's your chance!
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
2/ State capture is a type of systematic corruption whereby narrow interest groups take control of institutions & processes through which public policy is made, directing public policy away from public interest & instead shaping it to serve their own interests.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
State capture and development: a conceptual framework
This article argues that the concept of state capture helps to structure our understanding of patterns of grand corruption seen around the world in varied contexts, and increasingly even in countries once regarded as secure democracies. This article ...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
February 9, 2026 at 8:20 AM
2/ State capture is a type of systematic corruption whereby narrow interest groups take control of institutions & processes through which public policy is made, directing public policy away from public interest & instead shaping it to serve their own interests.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Even in researching the story for @drilledmedia.bsky.social about an ill-fated meeting between Epstein and Bjorn Lomborg, I found emails between Epstein and another man whose job it appears to have been to procure girls for Epstein where they seem to be discussing sex trafficking.
Last week the far right started peddling a narrative that the outrage over Epstein is a moral panic. Today, like clockwork, a more polite version of that narrative appears in the Atlantic.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
February 8, 2026 at 11:01 PM
Even in researching the story for @drilledmedia.bsky.social about an ill-fated meeting between Epstein and Bjorn Lomborg, I found emails between Epstein and another man whose job it appears to have been to procure girls for Epstein where they seem to be discussing sex trafficking.
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
San Francisco’s pro-billionaire march draws dozens - techcrunch.com/2026/02/08/s...
San Francisco’s pro-billionaire march draws dozens | TechCrunch
A march supporting California’s billionaires didn’t exactly draw a huge crowd on Saturday.
techcrunch.com
February 8, 2026 at 8:18 PM
San Francisco’s pro-billionaire march draws dozens - techcrunch.com/2026/02/08/s...
Turns out wind power white ants the business case of French nuclear in the same way it is eating the lunch of coal-fired generation in Australia.
France has ended up in a strange position after using some €250bn of tax-payer money to build a fleet of nuclear power stations. Wind and solar power is merrily entering the French power market at prices nuclear production can't match, resulting in huge surpluses of power.
1/
1/
Électricité : un rapport confidentiel d’EDF anticipe une explosion des coûts et des risques
« Le Point » s’est procuré le rapport interne d’EDF sur les conséquences de la modulation de son parc nucléaire pour faire place aux renouvelables. Un document explosif, alors que le gouvernement s’ap...
www.lepoint.fr
February 8, 2026 at 9:11 PM
Turns out wind power white ants the business case of French nuclear in the same way it is eating the lunch of coal-fired generation in Australia.
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
France has ended up in a strange position after using some €250bn of tax-payer money to build a fleet of nuclear power stations. Wind and solar power is merrily entering the French power market at prices nuclear production can't match, resulting in huge surpluses of power.
1/
1/
Électricité : un rapport confidentiel d’EDF anticipe une explosion des coûts et des risques
« Le Point » s’est procuré le rapport interne d’EDF sur les conséquences de la modulation de son parc nucléaire pour faire place aux renouvelables. Un document explosif, alors que le gouvernement s’ap...
www.lepoint.fr
February 8, 2026 at 10:41 AM
France has ended up in a strange position after using some €250bn of tax-payer money to build a fleet of nuclear power stations. Wind and solar power is merrily entering the French power market at prices nuclear production can't match, resulting in huge surpluses of power.
1/
1/
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Updated my little file full of IEA scenarios and actual historical power generation (global). Here's nuclear power.....
February 8, 2026 at 8:22 PM
Updated my little file full of IEA scenarios and actual historical power generation (global). Here's nuclear power.....
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
A federal judge struck down a Texas law that barred state agencies from doing business with companies alleged to be boycotting fossil fuels www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/c...
Federal Judge Blocks Texas Law Targeting Critics of Fossil Fuels
www.nytimes.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:11 PM
A federal judge struck down a Texas law that barred state agencies from doing business with companies alleged to be boycotting fossil fuels www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/c...
"The social consequences, oddly, seem to have freaked these guys out more than anything else. That was where the “cancellation” panic came from — a fear that people might use their right to freedom of association to avoid people who, for instance, palled around with known pedophiles."
I wrote about the Epstein files (gift link) www.theverge.com/tech/874721/...
How the men in the Epstein files defeated #MeToo
The emails show the “anti-woke” crusaders are afraid of accountability.
www.theverge.com
February 8, 2026 at 11:12 AM
"The social consequences, oddly, seem to have freaked these guys out more than anything else. That was where the “cancellation” panic came from — a fear that people might use their right to freedom of association to avoid people who, for instance, palled around with known pedophiles."
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
I wrote about the Epstein files (gift link) www.theverge.com/tech/874721/...
How the men in the Epstein files defeated #MeToo
The emails show the “anti-woke” crusaders are afraid of accountability.
www.theverge.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:09 PM
I wrote about the Epstein files (gift link) www.theverge.com/tech/874721/...
They're not.
If most alt-weeklies are gone, local news outlets have been hollowed out by budget cuts and consolidation, and there are mass layoffs at CBS, NBC, and now the Washington Post, where are journalists — even the mid and late-career ones — supposed to work?
February 8, 2026 at 4:20 AM
They're not.
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Oil & gas workers deserve stability and respect - not to be used as props in scare tactics.
Planning ahead is how we protect jobs and family budgets.
#ClearHorizonsAct #NMLeg
Planning ahead is how we protect jobs and family budgets.
#ClearHorizonsAct #NMLeg
If oil & gas corporations are saying their own workers live paycheck to paycheck, that’s not an argument against climate action - it’s an argument for better wages and less price volatility.
#ClearHorizonsAct plans ahead so families aren’t whiplashed by boom-and-bust economics. 🎢🎢🎢 #NMLeg
#ClearHorizonsAct plans ahead so families aren’t whiplashed by boom-and-bust economics. 🎢🎢🎢 #NMLeg
And the Clear Horizons Act - Senate Bill 18 - is up!
Affordability isn’t just monthly bills – it’s what families lose when disasters hit.
The Clear Horizons Act helps prevent wildfire, flooding, and health costs families can’t budget their way out of. #ActOnClimate #ClearHorizonsAct #NMLeg
Affordability isn’t just monthly bills – it’s what families lose when disasters hit.
The Clear Horizons Act helps prevent wildfire, flooding, and health costs families can’t budget their way out of. #ActOnClimate #ClearHorizonsAct #NMLeg
February 8, 2026 at 2:47 AM
Oil & gas workers deserve stability and respect - not to be used as props in scare tactics.
Planning ahead is how we protect jobs and family budgets.
#ClearHorizonsAct #NMLeg
Planning ahead is how we protect jobs and family budgets.
#ClearHorizonsAct #NMLeg
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Whoah, the story of a broke Lomborg trying to find funding and suppory from Epstein, fails, and ends up bring funded by Bill Gates.
«Epstein treating him [Lomborg] like the Danish economist continues to encourage governments to treat climate change: as an annoyance and not a real priority.»
«Epstein treating him [Lomborg] like the Danish economist continues to encourage governments to treat climate change: as an annoyance and not a real priority.»
What Happened the day Bjorn Lomborg Met Jeffrey Epstein
The Danish political scientist and climate crisis denier sought a meeting with Epstein in the hope of securing funding.
drilled.media
February 7, 2026 at 8:05 AM
Whoah, the story of a broke Lomborg trying to find funding and suppory from Epstein, fails, and ends up bring funded by Bill Gates.
«Epstein treating him [Lomborg] like the Danish economist continues to encourage governments to treat climate change: as an annoyance and not a real priority.»
«Epstein treating him [Lomborg] like the Danish economist continues to encourage governments to treat climate change: as an annoyance and not a real priority.»
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
This is bleak: Jes Staley, currently CEO of Barclays, reassuring Epstein that popular revolt against financial elites is unlikely because capitalism and pop culture have defanged social movements, leaving people more invested in consumption than justice.
February 6, 2026 at 10:23 PM
This is bleak: Jes Staley, currently CEO of Barclays, reassuring Epstein that popular revolt against financial elites is unlikely because capitalism and pop culture have defanged social movements, leaving people more invested in consumption than justice.
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Get in loser, we are doing Big Green State in Mexico @abenanav.bsky.social
@danielagabor.bsky.social @brettchristophers.bsky.social
things happening when an energy systems scientist becomes her country’s president. Claudia Sheinbaum sweeping energy reforms:
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/mex...
@danielagabor.bsky.social @brettchristophers.bsky.social
things happening when an energy systems scientist becomes her country’s president. Claudia Sheinbaum sweeping energy reforms:
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/mex...
Mexico’s Big Green State | Jose Maria Valenzuela
Claudia Sheinbaum plans to repurpose the country's state-owned enterprises towards decarbonization
www.phenomenalworld.org
February 2, 2026 at 6:30 PM
Get in loser, we are doing Big Green State in Mexico @abenanav.bsky.social
@danielagabor.bsky.social @brettchristophers.bsky.social
things happening when an energy systems scientist becomes her country’s president. Claudia Sheinbaum sweeping energy reforms:
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/mex...
@danielagabor.bsky.social @brettchristophers.bsky.social
things happening when an energy systems scientist becomes her country’s president. Claudia Sheinbaum sweeping energy reforms:
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/mex...
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Unravelling the threads of antisemitism and anti-Israeli sentiment will require both more political courage and more community tolerance than we have seen to date.
Herzog's Australia visit further politicises the Bondi terror attack
Unravelling the threads of antisemitism and anti-Israeli sentiment will require both more political courage and more community tolerance than we have seen to date.
www.abc.net.au
February 6, 2026 at 6:08 PM
Unravelling the threads of antisemitism and anti-Israeli sentiment will require both more political courage and more community tolerance than we have seen to date.
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
The latest hilarious example of the Abundance Agenda being coopted to support crackpottery: an abundance of electricity being used to run an abundance of desalination plants to dump an abundance of water back in Lakes Powell & Mead to support an abundance of powerboating!
via @landdesk.bsky.social.
via @landdesk.bsky.social.
February 6, 2026 at 8:52 PM
The latest hilarious example of the Abundance Agenda being coopted to support crackpottery: an abundance of electricity being used to run an abundance of desalination plants to dump an abundance of water back in Lakes Powell & Mead to support an abundance of powerboating!
via @landdesk.bsky.social.
via @landdesk.bsky.social.
I have a 30 minute oration about how Au defo laws shape everything you see and hear in this country's media landscape. If some organisation or group of organisations cannot use *Epstein plotting to weaponise Au defo law to kill inquiry into his wrongdoing* to push for reform, we have no hope.
In the DOJ's Epstein documents, Lawrence Krauss, facing a complaint of sexual misconduct, noted Australia's plaintiff friendly defamation laws: "We may need to initiate a lawsuit (and against Gizmodo in Australia, where basically anyone can sue and win)"
February 6, 2026 at 6:48 AM
I have a 30 minute oration about how Au defo laws shape everything you see and hear in this country's media landscape. If some organisation or group of organisations cannot use *Epstein plotting to weaponise Au defo law to kill inquiry into his wrongdoing* to push for reform, we have no hope.
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
In the DOJ's Epstein documents, Lawrence Krauss, facing a complaint of sexual misconduct, noted Australia's plaintiff friendly defamation laws: "We may need to initiate a lawsuit (and against Gizmodo in Australia, where basically anyone can sue and win)"
February 6, 2026 at 6:17 AM
In the DOJ's Epstein documents, Lawrence Krauss, facing a complaint of sexual misconduct, noted Australia's plaintiff friendly defamation laws: "We may need to initiate a lawsuit (and against Gizmodo in Australia, where basically anyone can sue and win)"
FYI: Epstein did the GFC.
the wiki article is slightly more ambiguous than necessary, Epstein said at the time that he was the $57 million guy.
PDF bear stearns indictment: static01.nyt.com/images/blogs...
PDF bear stearns indictment: static01.nyt.com/images/blogs...
February 6, 2026 at 5:15 AM
FYI: Epstein did the GFC.
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
Excellent piece by the ABC’s Elisa Kinsella on the long-term problems confronting Victoria’s CFA. Ageing volunteers, ageing trucks, funding that can’t keep up: Victoria faces deep structural problems, in a state that only keeps getting hotter and more fire-prone www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
The quiet crisis in Victoria's firefighting frontline
Volunteer firefighters battling blazes that razed homes and destroyed livestock in Victoria last month say they contended with failing radios and broken down trucks, as questions mount over the viabil...
www.abc.net.au
February 6, 2026 at 4:52 AM
Excellent piece by the ABC’s Elisa Kinsella on the long-term problems confronting Victoria’s CFA. Ageing volunteers, ageing trucks, funding that can’t keep up: Victoria faces deep structural problems, in a state that only keeps getting hotter and more fire-prone www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02...
Very funny how much airtime this story is getting and how much good, free publicity Newcastle Writers Festival is getting off the back of a misunderstanding and a certain sequence of events.
FWIW I understand the Arts NSW has a pre-existing "no surprises rule" where orgs with multi-year funding are asked to show their program ahead of release in case the govt get questions. Newcastle recently moved to multi-year funding.
This may not actually be about Randa but given events, it may be.
This may not actually be about Randa but given events, it may be.
The NSW government makes contact with the board of next month's Newcastle Writers Festival about the inclusion of Palestinian author Randa Abdel-Fattah, the ABC understands.
February 6, 2026 at 12:37 AM
Very funny how much airtime this story is getting and how much good, free publicity Newcastle Writers Festival is getting off the back of a misunderstanding and a certain sequence of events.
The Oz having a normal one.
February 5, 2026 at 10:17 PM
The Oz having a normal one.
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
While reporting this, I had something happen that's never happened. A comms rep for one of the co's disputed my reporting and said what I was telling them was untrue because it was not in Grok, xAI's chatbot.
I was looking directly at the files. And this person was using AI to challenge the truth.
I was looking directly at the files. And this person was using AI to challenge the truth.
Epstein had many known connections to Silicon Valley CEOs, but less known was how he made money from those relationships.
We did a deep dive into how he got dealflow in Silicon Valley, giving him shots to invest in Coinbase, Palantir, SpaceX and other companies.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/b...
We did a deep dive into how he got dealflow in Silicon Valley, giving him shots to invest in Coinbase, Palantir, SpaceX and other companies.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/b...
Jeffrey Epstein’s Money Mingled With Silicon Valley Start-Ups
www.nytimes.com
February 5, 2026 at 5:38 PM
While reporting this, I had something happen that's never happened. A comms rep for one of the co's disputed my reporting and said what I was telling them was untrue because it was not in Grok, xAI's chatbot.
I was looking directly at the files. And this person was using AI to challenge the truth.
I was looking directly at the files. And this person was using AI to challenge the truth.
Reposted by Royce Kurmelovs
"The #climate scientists we surveyed were unambiguous: current economic models can’t capture what matters most – the cascading failures & compounding shocks that define climate risk in a warmer world – & could undermine the foundations of economic growth” - Dr Jesse Abrams, @gsiexeter.bsky.social
Flawed economic models mean climate crisis could crash global economy, experts warn
States and financial bodies using modelling that ignores shocks from extreme weather and climate tipping points
www.theguardian.com
February 5, 2026 at 6:40 AM
"The #climate scientists we surveyed were unambiguous: current economic models can’t capture what matters most – the cascading failures & compounding shocks that define climate risk in a warmer world – & could undermine the foundations of economic growth” - Dr Jesse Abrams, @gsiexeter.bsky.social
FWIW I understand the Arts NSW has a pre-existing "no surprises rule" where orgs with multi-year funding are asked to show their program ahead of release in case the govt get questions. Newcastle recently moved to multi-year funding.
This may not actually be about Randa but given events, it may be.
This may not actually be about Randa but given events, it may be.
The NSW government makes contact with the board of next month's Newcastle Writers Festival about the inclusion of Palestinian author Randa Abdel-Fattah, the ABC understands.
Questions about Randa Abdel-Fattah inclusion in NSW writers festival
The NSW government makes contact with the board of next month's Newcastle Writers Festival about the inclusion of Palestinian author Randa Abdel-Fattah, the ABC understands.
www.abc.net.au
February 5, 2026 at 6:59 AM
FWIW I understand the Arts NSW has a pre-existing "no surprises rule" where orgs with multi-year funding are asked to show their program ahead of release in case the govt get questions. Newcastle recently moved to multi-year funding.
This may not actually be about Randa but given events, it may be.
This may not actually be about Randa but given events, it may be.