1. You get two stories for free from the MIT Technology Review. Here’s one, which is a bit of a mind-boggler, We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/

The emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries seem small – until you add up what the industry isn’t tracking and consider where it’s heading next (…) Apple (has) announced plans to spend $500 billion on manufacturing and data centers in the US over the next four years. Google expects to spend $75 billion on AI infrastructure alone in 2025.

Thanks to ELT Buzz for that one.

2. I’m not completely sure whether this page is a pukka or a dodgy copy, but here goes: Jonathan Haidt’s recent ‘commencement address’ at NYU (New York University), Pay Attention https://archive.md/zJVsj#selection-609.0-609.13

Taking control of your own attention has never been easy – which is why it’s one of the many things this university has tried to prepare you to do. In 2005, the writer David Foster Wallace gave one of this century’s best-known commencement addresses, at Kenyon College. He said, “the really significant education-in-thinking that we’re supposed to get in a place like this isn’t really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about.” He was right, and he seemed to anticipate that, two decades later, there would be so many powerful people and big companies trying to take that choice away from you. They compete with each other to capture your attention. Think about that phrase. It acknowledges that your attention is valuable. But it also reveals that some of the biggest corporations in human history aren’t trying to earn your attention or deserve your attention. They’re trying to take it from you.

3. I was pleased to be invited to English UK’s reception in the House of Commons yesterday at which they presented their position paper, How the government can support the UK English language teaching sector https://www.englishuk.com/campaigning/position-paper PDF below.

I thought English UK were very polite and restrained in the reception they gave the government minister who opened the event with a speech listing the multiple ways in the government supports the UK ELT sector. I guess ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire’ was not really an option.

4. Early notice of this British Council – Goethe Institut colloquium at 13:30 UK time on Wednesday, 10^th June on Early Plurilingualism: more info and registration here https://www.goethe.de/ins/fr/en/spr/unt/frb/gia/ok6.html

How can education support children to develop multiple languages? The Goethe-Institut France and the British Council invite you to explore how language-responsive teaching and CLIL approaches can strengthen learning across the curriculum. With all sessions delivered in German, English and French, this practical and inspiring event brings together research, classroom experience and ready-to-use ideas for supporting plurilingualism in action.

5. And, finally, The International Booker Prize winner was announced earlier this week, Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-years/international/2026

Here’s an extract https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/an-extract-from-taiwan-travelogue

Published by the same press, And Other Stories, as last year’s winner, ‘Heart Lamp’ by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi.