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David Fickling

@davidfickling.bsky.social

9.4K followers 620 following 430 posts

Climate columnist at @opinion.bloomberg.com. Migrant from London to Warrane/Sydney. These are my views. If you don't like them, well, I have others.

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · Feb 22

On a personal note:

I am doing my first full Ironman triathlon in April. I’m raising money for WaterAid, to provide the billions who lack access to it with the clean water I will be gulping as I swim 3.8km, bike 180km, and run 42.2km! Please click the link!

www.mycause.com.au/p/366670/hel...

Click here and donate to WaterAid for Help me swim, bike and run for WaterAid!

WaterAid is an international non government organisation. Our mission is transform lives by improving access to safe water, hygiene, and sanitation in the

www.mycause.com.au

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Reposted by David Fickling

Mark Gongloff @markgongloff.bsky.social · 3h

Not great: China's world-leading renewables boom is losing momentum, @davidfickling.bsky.social warns

Gift link: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Trouble Is Brewing in Solar Power’s Heartlands

Amid the Trump-induced crisis for clean energy this year, one beacon of hope has stood out: China.

www.bloomberg.com

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 10h

Only if it’s from the Hamburg region of Germany, otherwise it’s just sparkling bean

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 8d

I know it’s just a dumb Truth Social post and not in the top 100 dumb things he has done but at least you’d expect him to know about tax avoidance and the entertainment industry.

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 8d

Tariffs aren’t applied to services and if they were it would be a complete morass. Filmmakers are, famously, experts at fiddling costs and revenues to make their profits disappear when the taxman comes knocking 1.

1. Brooks, Melvin, “The Producers” (1967)

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 8d

When a foreign film is shown in the US, the foreign rights owners are granting the US distributors a local license to display the film and getting fees in return.

These bear no relation to the nominal costs of physical goods being exported — they’re normally a share of box office receipts.

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 8d

I know it may seem a minor thing, but when foreign films are shown in the US, the trade that is going on is not “reels of films being exported to the US”.

The biggest exporters of such film, tariff code 3706, are Thailand and Czechia, with 43% of the market. The US has 13%.

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 8d

When the tariff king who’s upending the world economy doesn’t know the difference between merchandise goods and services

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 8d

It’s an interesting and grim partition fact that the Pakistan Hyderabad used to be a largely Hindu city and the Indian Hyderabad used to be largely Muslim. Very few Hindus left in Sindh these days, although I think the Telangana one is roughly 50-50.

David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 9d

The tiny clipart of the Charminar is the giveaway, but I like to think that was just slotted in by a graphic designer who didn’t know the difference

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 9d

I feel an “Indian & Pakistani Restaurant” called “Adaab Hyderabad” is telling a very subtle joke to its customers

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 11d

Although of course very few big players in this game are in a better position to buck the CW than Zuck, thanks to the dual-class share structure. But he still goes along with it…

David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 13d

This is a laboratoire, not a UNESCO conference!

youtu.be/hdHFmc9oiKY?...

That Mitchell and Webb Look - The Garnier Laboratoire

YouTube video by fanvideos4u

youtu.be

David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 13d

IMO R&D is people, and the UK is a top-5 global R&D spender.

Changing the domicile of dividend payments won’t affect that much.

You want to focus much more on quality of life for the people doing the R&D work, surely.

David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 13d

God forbid that IP-heavy companies would ever offshore their IP to low-tax jurisdictions like Ireland and the Netherlands!

If that were ever to happen then major economies might face some sort of slow-moving crisis of corporate tax evasion and eroding fiscal sustainability. 🙃

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Reposted by David Fickling

Bloomberg Opinion @opinion.bloomberg.com · 14d

Blackouts are commonplace in Kuwait, with the petrostate still wedded to 1960s oil-boom dreams.

Why the Most Oil-Rich Country Can’t Keep the Lights On

Kuwait is a cautionary tale of where fossil-fuel addiction can lead.

bloom.bg

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 15d

Fry and Laurie said it best

youtu.be/znmjnEMqHeg?...

Marvellous England Commentators | A Bit of Fry and Laurie | BBC Studios

YouTube video by BBC Studios

youtu.be

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 16d

Electric Cardi B

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 16d

Technologically advance a band

The B-2s, beloved for their classic hit “Bronze Lobster”

BlueShiftNZ @blueshiftnz.bsky.social · 16d

Technologically advance a band:

Jefferson Starlink

Rob🎸 @robdickinson.bsky.social · 16d

Technologically advance a band:

Fleetwood iMac

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 20d

Nexstar can call it preemption but not ABC. And even then, doesn’t “preemption” suggest this is temporary, not indefinite?

Just weirdly misleading use of language IMO.

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 20d

Yeah but the show is produced by an affiliate company wholly owned, like ABC, by Disney. I can’t see how “exercising an option not to broadcast the show you yourself produce” is any different to “cancelling the show”.

David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 20d

It’s funny that we had a whole bogus moral panic about “cancel culture”, and now that the might of the state is actually being used to restrict speech we have decided that it’s indelicate to use the word “cancel” to describe the act of cancelling things.

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 20d

Can someone explain to me the difference between the weird oxymoronic jargon “indefinite preemption” and the plain English “cancellation”?

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David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 23d

In individual countries it may still be exponential (eg Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Central Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa) but places like China/Spain/Australia, where it is already very mature, are at the flatter stage of the S curve now.

David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 23d

*Exponential* increase from this point? We are four doublings away from 40 TWh! So exponential growth really just does have to run out pretty soon.

David Fickling @davidfickling.bsky.social · 23d

We have always underestimated solar. But this year we will connect about 700 GW, enough to generate 1.2 TWh in a global grid that has 31 TWh of annual demand. Just maintaining that growth is huge.