Adnoc's Santos Takeover Bid a Regulatory Test
Good morning, it's Paul-Alain Hunt in the Melbourne bureau with the headlines to start your Friday. The ASX is set to open in the red, but first...
Today's must-reads:
• Adnoc, Santos and regulatory risk
• Australian funds cut US Treasuries holdings
• What happens if Aukus falls apart?
Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.'s bullish US$18.7 billion takeover bid for Santos will weigh who controls critical energy infrastructure against the need to address a looming domestic gas shortfall.
Australia's world-first social media ban for under-16s moved closer to implementation after a key trial found that checking a user's age is technologically possible and can be integrated into existing services.
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Fox News
20 minutes ago
- Fox News
DAVID MARCUS: Your social media feed is being hijacked to divide MAGA supporters
As our society buries itself deeper and deeper into the cave of social media, we are seeing a growing divide between what happens in our real world and what we see on platforms like X and TikTok. A bombshell new report from the National Contagion Research Institute shows much of this is being directed by our foreign enemies. It also shows one of their top goals is to infiltrate and divide the MAGA movement. According to NCRI, Russia and Iran have been employing tens of thousands of bots to inject extreme rhetoric into American social media discourse, and perhaps more importantly, to artificially inflate the influence of content creators who push radical and divisive agendas. To quote one NCRI analyst, "If you talk to Republicans right now, more than 80% of them support the war against Iran. But if you go on Twitter [X] you get the sense that there is a civil war raging." This manipulation of social media by our enemies is far more insidious than most Americans realize, so let's walk through how this kind of information operation, the technical name for propaganda, works. Imagine, for example, that there was an obscure comedian, or Instagram model who began to "just ask questions," about why Jews run everything, or why black people commit crimes. Even better, they might post about how they aren't allowed to ask these very questions and insinuate that neither are you. At this point, according to the report, Russian and Iranian bot armies will begin to follow these radical accounts, massively pumping up their numbers. It will like and share the most divisive content, and work behind the scenes to make this person famous. On platforms that monetize interaction, this can mean very large payouts for creators, as spy bots mindlessly watch their videos over and over, and the beauty of it is that the content creator never even has to know they are getting paid off. When we talk about influencers being bought and paid for by foreign foes, it may not mean a duffle bag full of cash in a bus station locker, simply by using thousands of bots to juice the numbers, the social media companies themselves facilitate the payouts. Perhaps the most obvious way we can see this malign foreign influence online is in the incredible amount of casual racism and antisemitism, supposedly being posted by Americans, that we see on X. These hate posts range from straight-up Nazi apologism, to memes about fatherless black homes, or weird eugenics IQ graphs, and if their prevalence in the algorithm accurately reflects the level of racism in America, then this is a deeply racist country. Only it isn't. Because X does not accurately reflect our society, instead countries that despise America are infusing hate into the platform and propping up the handful of real people willing to push racism and division. What the Russian and Iranian bot farms hope we will believe is that America is full of secret racists who will only say their true beliefs through their anonymous personas, but this is absurd, America knows IRL, that that kind of racism is buried in our past. The question becomes, what can we do to fight back against this massive information operation aimed at our minds? Liberals have long taken the exact wrong approach, which is to try to protect the end user from malicious content. This always adds up to censorship, one way or the other. The better approach, at least as far as the government is concerned, is to target the bot farms and countries that back them. This can be done through cyberattacks, sanctions, any number of measures. There is also a role for the social media industry to play here. We are hearing growing calls for X to use a flag to identify the country of origin of its accounts. This would immediately help users see through the foreign operations. The silver lining in all of this, as the report shows, is that making the leap from influence on a social media screen to influence in the real world is not as easy as we might have once imagined. These foreign-backed influencers have few outlets they can go to off of social media. Sure, Piers Morgan may put on anyone with 250k followers no matter how awful they are, but Main Street America isn't seeing it. As a free society, America is by definition vulnerable to informational attacks, and as citizens in that free society all of us bear a responsibility to process the unfettered flow of information we have access to in responsible ways. Make no mistake, your social media feed is under direct foreign attack. So far, the attacks haven't done too much damage, but keeping it that way, first and foremost, starts with all of us.
Miami Herald
40 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Brenmiller Energy Appoints Boaz Toshav to Serve as an Independent Director on the Board
Experienced Global Investment Executive and Strategic Advisor to Support the Company's Next Phase of Growth ROSH HA'AYIN, IL / ACCESS Newswire / June 20, 2025 / Brenmiller Energy Ltd. ("Brenmiller", "Brenmiller Energy", or the "Company") (Nasdaq:BNRG), a leading global provider of Thermal Energy Storage (TES) solutions for industrial and utility customers, today announced the appointment of Mr. Boaz Toshav as an Independent Director to its Board of Directors (the "Board"), effective immediately. Mr. Toshav previously served on the Company's Board from June 2023 until August 2024. Mr. Toshav has over 20 years of experience in investment banking, fixed income and mergers and acquisitions advisory services. He is currently President and Chairman of Rio Ave FC (Primeira Liga), a professional Portuguese football (soccer) club, and he previously served as a senior financial advisor to UK-based Nottingham Forest FC and Greece-based Olympiacos FC. Mr. Toshav also currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Umbrella Advisors Ltd., a boutique investment bank and financial advisory firm he founded in 2014. Mr. Toshav has also been a board member of Intelicanna Ltd. (TASE: INTL) and Getruck Ltd. since 2018 and 2021, respectively. Mr. Toshav received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and Business Administration from Tel Aviv University, as well as a Master of Philosophy from Tel Aviv University. Mr. Toshav qualified as a United Kingdom Financial Services Authority certified investment advisor in 2005. "We are honored to welcome Boaz back to our Board," said Avi Brenmiller, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Brenmiller Energy. "His proven ability to navigate financial markets, advise boards, and drive strategic partnerships will be instrumental as we enter a pivotal moment in our Company's evolution. With multiple commercial projects underway and a growing global footprint, we believe that Boaz's appointment will strengthen our governance and position us to realize significant value creation for our shareholders." Mr. Toshav succeeds Ms. Nava Swersky Sofer, who concluded her term on the Board following six years of dedicated service. Ms. Swersky Sofer's departure was in accordance with the natural expiration of her term and was not the result of any disagreement with the Company. The Board and management extend their sincere appreciation for her strategic insight and leadership during a period of meaningful growth and transformation at Brenmiller Energy. This appointment follows Brenmiller's recent strategic milestones, including project deployments in Europe, Israel, and the United States. Notably, the European Hydrogen Bank has granted SolWinHy Cádiz S.L. (the "SolWinHy Project") in Arcos de la Frontera, Spain, €25 million in funding. SolWinHy is a special purpose company jointly owned by leading renewable energy developers Green Enesys Group ("Green Enesys") and Viridi RE ("Viridi") to build new green hydrogen and green e-methanol projects in Europe. Green Enesys and Viridi are Brenmiller's joint venture partners in Brenmiller Europe S.L. ("Brenmiller Europe"). The Company estimates its supply of the bGen™ TES system for the SolWinHy Project to be approximately €7 million. The Company believes that its involvement with the SolWinHy Project reinforces the strength of its bGen™ technology and the Company's role in enabling renewable fuel production at scale. Brenmiller continues to expand its role as a key enabler of flexible, clean industrial heat in support of global net-zero targets. About Brenmiller Energy Ltd. Brenmiller Energy helps energy-intensive industries and power producers end their reliance on fossil fuel boilers. Brenmiller's patented bGen™ ZERO thermal battery is a modular and scalable energy storage system that turns renewable electricity into zero-emission heat. It charges using low-cost renewable electricity and discharges a continuous supply of heat on demand and according to its customers' needs. The most experienced thermal battery developer on the market, Brenmiller operates the world's only gigafactory for thermal battery production and is trusted by leading multinational energy companies. For more information visit the Company's website at and follow the company on X and LinkedIn. Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other federal securities laws. Statements that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. For example, the Company uses forward-looking statements when it discusses: the Company's belief that Mr. Toshav's appointment will strengthen the Company's governance and position to realize significant value creation for shareholders; that the Company s entering a pivotal moment in its evolution; future commercial projects underway and a growing global footprint; the Company's estimates for its supply of the bGen™ TES system for the SolWinHy Project to be approximately €7 million; that the Company's involvement with the SolWinHy Project reinforces the strength of its bGen™ technology; the Company's role as a key enabler of flexible, clean industrial heat in support of global net-zero targets. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as "plan," "project," "potential," "seek," "may," "will," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "could," "estimate" or "continue" are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that certain important factors may affect the Company's actual results and could cause such results to differ materially from any forward-looking statements that may be made in this press release. Factors that may affect the Company's results include, but are not limited to: the Company's planned level of revenues and capital expenditures; risks associated with the adequacy of existing cash resources; the demand for and market acceptance of our products; impact of competitive products and prices; product development, commercialization or technological difficulties; the success or failure of negotiations; trade, legal, social and economic risks; and political, economic and military instability in the Middle East, specifically in Israel. The forward-looking statements contained or implied in this press release are subject to other risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including those set forth in the Risk Factors section of the Company's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2024 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") on March 4, 2025, which is available on the SEC's website, The Company undertakes no obligation to update these statements for revisions or changes after the date of this release, except as required by law. Contact: investors@ SOURCE: Brenmiller Energy
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
Hot July Weather Seen Pressuring Europe's Power Supplies
Hotter weather in Europe this summer risks driving up demand while causing output from hydropower and nuclear plants to fall, according to research firm Energy Aspects. Higher-than-usual temperatures across western Europe next month could add about 3 gigawatts of extra demand, it said, while generation from hydro and nuclear power is expected to take a hit of a similar dimension.
