This article was originally published on Vince Beiser’s “Power Metal” newsletter.

While we’re focused on America’s shooting war with Iran and its trade war with Canada, tensions are building in the hotly disputed South China Sea. There, China is conjuring into being a potential new military base in the middle of what had been open water.

From the heatwaves in Spain and Portugal to the wildfires in the U.S., several of this summer’s extreme events were accompanied by rampant climate disinformation, even though organizations like the European Digital Media Observatory sounded alarms about the predictable spread of false narratives during disasters.  

Guaviare is a remote department in the Colombian Amazon that historically has been dominated by armed conflict and coca cultivation. In that setting, a USAID initiative had success in turning that tide by offering former combatants and farmers incentives to trade illegal crops and logging for sustainable ecotourism.

In July 2025, the Department of War (DoW) signed a landmark agreement with MP Materials, the only major rare earth producer in the United States. As part of the deal, the Pentagon would invest $400 million, acquire up to a 15% stake, and provide long-term purchase commitments and price guarantees.

This piece was adapted from an earlier Stimson Center Commentary, “A Cascading Disaster on the China–Nepal Border: What to Know About the August 2026 Rasuwa Flood, 72 Hours Later,” and updated to reflect current conditions.

On August 26, 2026, a massive volume of bedrock and glacial ice broke loose 5,200 meters above sea level on the north side of Nepal’s Langtang range, triggering a “rock-ice avalanche” that crashed into the Lhende River on the Nepal-China border fueling the deadliest extreme flow disaster on record in the country.

As challenges to global climate security policy durability and effectiveness mount, it is easy to take the most successful policy to date for granted. Nearly four decades after its launch, the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and subsequent amendments to it remain the gold standard for global environmental protection.

A window into what we’re reading at the Stimson Center’s Environmental Security Program

Mozambique’s Mineral Sands Reveal Heavy Extraction (Mongabay)

Across Mozambique, heavy mineral sands have been the foundation of the beaches and  mangrove forests which traditionally have defended the country against coastal erosion. But as obstacles to the extraction of mineral deposits are cleared at an alarming rate, activist Fatima Mimbire says that “companies are destroying [this landscape] without concern for the environment, without concern for the people.”

When a hurricane approaches Central America, or a conflict damages civilian infrastructure, or flooding threatens hospitals in Bangladesh, humanitarian organizations need an array of timely information.  Where are impacts occurring? Who is most affected?  How best should those providing aid respond?