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The research traces the expansion of South Africa's national government departments from 1994 to 2014. It identifies three distinct phases: incremental growth under Nelson Mandela driven by democratic transition and public demand; consolidation and centralised steering under Thabo Mbeki; and punctuated expansion under Jacob Zuma, which the author argues was driven largely by patronage and 'runaway state-building'. The paper concludes that the state machinery has become 'functionally splintered', with organisational growth often serving political ends rather than improving policy delivery capacity.

The briefing identifies a structured pattern of wildfire-related disinformation on social media, where 'core' narratives like arson deflection and government mismanagement serve as gateways to more extreme conspiracy theories and climate denial. It highlights how these narratives have spread across different regions, including Chile, Spain, Greece, Canada, and Hawaii, often leveraging the 'attention economy' of Big Tech platforms to undermine the link between climate change and increasing wildfire intensity.

The report details the persistence of climate disinformation across major platforms like X, Meta, TikTok, and YouTube. It identifies key narratives used to discredit renewable energy, the use of extreme weather events (wildfires and hurricanes) to fuel conspiracy theories and incite violence, and the extensive use of Meta's advertising tools by fossil fuel entities for greenwashing and lobbying. The authors argue that platform architectures reward engagement over truth, necessitating systemic policy changes to disrupt the economy of disinformation.

The report identifies a resurgence of climate denial and the rise of 'delayism' during COP27, highlighting how fossil fuel-linked entities used Meta's advertising tools for greenwashing and how Twitter's algorithms surfaced the #ClimateScam hashtag despite lower engagement than pro-climate terms. It details a 'narrative playbook' where climate action is framed as an elitist plot or a 'culture war' issue, often overlapping with anti-vaccine and right-wing conspiracy communities.

The report 'Toxic Accounts' by Clean Creatives examines how BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell shifted their marketing strategies from 2020 to 2024. The analysis finds that these companies moved away from net-zero ambitions and 'greenwashing' toward a strategy of 'fossil fuel dominance,' emphasizing energy security and the indispensability of oil and gas. The document details the use of 'false solutions'—such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), blue/gray hydrogen, and certain biofuels—to justify continued fossil fuel production. It highlights specific campaign evolutions, such as BP's shift from 'greening companies' to 'energy security' and ExxonMobil's 'Breaking Free' anti-EV campaign, arguing that these narratives delay the clean energy transition to prioritize short-term shareholder returns.

The report documents a sophisticated ecosystem of climate disinformation in Canada, where denial and delayism are used to delegitimise scientific consensus and policy. It identifies regional vulnerabilities, particularly in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, and highlights how climate narratives are often blended with anti-feminist, anti-2SLGBTQIA+, and anti-immigrant tropes. The analysis details the roles of domestic media, influencers, and transnational linkages in amplifying claims that climate policy is an authoritarian tool of global elites.

The report identifies a resurgence of outright climate denial and the rise of 'culture war' narratives used to delay climate action. It highlights systemic greenwashing by fossil fuel entities on Meta and the algorithmic amplification of the #ClimateScam hashtag on Twitter. The analysis reveals that climate misinformation is increasingly integrated into broader 'anti-woke' and conspiratorial communities, with a small number of high-influence actors driving a significant portion of the engagement.

The paper examines the implementation of the United Nations' Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in Bosnia and Herzegovina, focusing on the localization of gender equality norms. Through focus group interviews, the authors identify two primary narrative responses: 'narratives of support' and 'narratives of resistance'. Support is articulated at the macro level, framing gender equality as a legacy of the socialist past, a marker of Western modernization, or a space for religious manoeuvrability. Conversely, resistance occurs at the meso and micro levels, driven by deep-rooted patriarchal traditions and ethno-nationalist divisions. The authors argue that effective implementation of UNSCR 1325 requires moving beyond state-centric policies to address these interpersonal and intrapersonal psychological barriers.