God Dog n+1
Celestial Detector: Weighing Lives from Below E-Flux
Climate/Environment
Building toward disaster: Growth collides with rising seas in Charleston Floodlight
California lawmakers pass measures to expand oil production in Central Valley, restrict offshore drilling Los Angeles Times
Liberté, égalité, radioactivité Works in Progress
Trump sends fracking CEO to Europe to sell climate denial—and gas HEATED
Nepal
Nepal PM seeks calm, promises to meet protesters’ push to ‘end corruption’ Al Jazeera
Sri Lanka’s crisis shows how debt is devouring the Global South Al Jazeera
China?
Tariffs and TikTok to dominate another round of US-China trade talks Yahoo! Finance
China Probes U.S. Chip Sector On Eve Of Trade Talks Investor’s Business Daily
China’s trade with Africa outracing the rest of world, supplanting North America Kevin Walmsley
Not So Neatly Divided: Global Public Opinion on China Asia Society
China’s Green Leap Outward: The rapid scale- up of overseas Chinese clean-tech manufacturing investments Net Zero Policy Lab
Is China’s High Speed Railway System Massively Overbuilt, just Overbuilt, or will be Overbuilt? JRUrbaneNetwork
Shanghai Cooperation Organization
Finance Minister Siluanov: The SCO Will Create a Depository to Replace Euroclear and Clearstream Karl Sanchez
The Lucky Country
Old Blighty
Britain’s largest far-right protest capitalises on Starmer’s xenophobic, anti-working-class agenda WSWS
Starmer tells Tommy Robinson he ‘will not surrender’ British flag to violence The Telegraph
Musk warns ‘violence is coming to you’ RT
It’s Your Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To Craig Murray
Africa
Exclusive-Congo-Rwanda draft deal outlines role of US, others in revamp of minerals sector Reuters
Syraqistan
300,000 Palestinians Forced To Flee as Israeli Strikes Pound Gaza City Antiwar
Israel launches ‘most violent’ strikes on Gaza since 7 October The Cradle
Everything is out of control, the city is burning completely, completely.
Gaza💔💔 pic.twitter.com/bUglsMOeWW
— Dr.Hamza Alsharif 🇵🇸 (@Hamzasharif5750) September 14, 2025
Another day in occupied politics, another humiliation ritual. Marco Rubio and Mike Huckabee land in Al-Quds and immediately line up beside Netanyahu and the clerics of the Zionist entity, bowing at the so-called “Western Wall.”
What passes for pilgrimage here isn’t faith but… pic.twitter.com/c00UNXOe6L
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) September 14, 2025
🚨🇺🇸🇮🇱 BREAKING: Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) confirms that President Trump “FEARS FOR HIS LIFE because of ISRAEL”
His White House sources also exposed that ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE was caught placing “electronic devices” on the emergency vehicles of Trump’s Secret Service pic.twitter.com/FZLA7tXSME
— Legitimate Targets (@LegitTargets) September 14, 2025
Zionist Lawfare Operation Facing Collapse? Kit Klarenberg
1st Tunisian ship departs as part of Gaza-bound aid flotilla to break Israeli siege Anadolu Agency
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Sharaa says agreement with Moscow enabled swift fall of Assad The Cradle
European Disunion
Germany: Merz’s CDU set to win in NRW, AfD makes big gains DW
EU counterterrorism chief: Let cops read WhatsApp chats Politico
New Not-So-Cold War
Kyiv puts defence needs for 2026 at $120 billion – even if Russia’s war ends Euractiv
Ukraine strikes one of Russia’s top oil refineries, causing explosions and sparking fire Euronews
Romania says a drone breached its airspace during Russian strikes on Ukraine France 24
Trump Finally Outwits Europe and the Neocons on Ukraine? Simplicius
Hungary and Slovakia must quit Russian gas and nuclear, Trump envoy warns Politico
Speaking this weekend at the Yalta European Security Conference in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine, Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, stated that Russia is losing in its ongoing war against Ukraine, “If he [Putin] was winning, he’d be in Kyiv. If he was… pic.twitter.com/5FkyrQ4VD3
— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) September 15, 2025
Five-year-old Russian child listed on Ukraine’s database of unwanted persons TASS. Also known as the “kill list.”
Cruise Missile Launchers Guarding the Russian Arctic Strike Simulated Adversaries During Exercises Military Watch
Russian and Belarusian Air Defences Jointly Repel Simulated Western Attack Military Watch
Weimar Republic
Utah governor says suspect in Charlie Kirk assassination is not cooperating with authorities CBS News
Gov. Cox provides update on Charlie Kirk shooting investigation, including new details about suspect’s roommate Salt Lake Tribune
Reflections on Violence Unpopular Front
Bullets and Ballots: The Legacy of Charlie Kirk The Scholar’s Stage
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2 arrested after explosive found under news media vehicle in Salt Lake City KSLTV5
Imperial Collapse Watch
Decline and Fall Arthur Goldhammer
Bluff and Counter Bluff en route to the Guillotine Oliver Boyd-Barrett
Accelerationists
The Stories We Tell Hauntologies by Elia Ayoub
South of the Border
F-35s Arrive In Puerto Rico For Counter-Drug Operation The War Zone. Apparently we’re meant to believe the vaunted F-35s gonna do what a half century of the war on drugs couldn’t.
The invention of “Venezuela drugs” The Anti-Empire Project
Venezuela Denounces US Navy for Illegal Boarding of Fishing Boat in Venezuelan Exclusive Economic Zone Orinoco Tribune
Trump 2.0
SEC to notify businesses of technical violations before taking action, FT reports Reuters
Police State Watch
NEW BILL WOULD GIVE MARCO RUBIO “THOUGHT POLICE” POWER TO REVOKE U.S. PASSPORTS The Intercept
Workers taken to hospital after FBI uses furnace to burn seized meth BBC
Our Famously Free Press
Trump shares call for media ‘accountability’ with ‘Charlie Kirk Act’ after shooting The Independent
It’s probably worth flagging the fact that the president of the United States is promoting the establishment of a Ministry of Truth to restrict speech in a suggested law called the “Charlie Kirk Act”.
President Trump’s Truth Social account posted a viral video from TikTok on… pic.twitter.com/CZSdYuCPAg
— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) September 14, 2025
Antitrust
Monopoly Round-Up: Did the Death Blow of Hollywood Just Happen? BIG by Matt Stoller
Healthcare?
Appeals ruling threatens routine care access for Medicaid enrollees at Planned Parenthood Ohio Capital Journal
Immigration
1/ A repatriated Korean worker from the Hyundai-LG battery factory secretly wrote a detention diary about their 7-day experience in ICE custody in Georgia. The worker says ICE officers mocked them with words like as “North Korea” and “Rocket Man” despite holding a business visa. https://t.co/1TfpaYRgVu
— Raphael Rashid (@koryodynasty) September 14, 2025
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
The Eyes of Chihuahua Texas Observer
AI
Understanding AI as a social technology Programmable Mutter
Chinese tech scientists have jumped ahead of US counterparts in global downloads of open-source AI programs. “As hard as it is for us all to swallow, I think we’re behind now,” said Ali Farhadi of Seattle’s Allen Institute for ai, quoted in the Economist. 1/7 pic.twitter.com/4ey6pkACbo
— Nury Vittachi (@NuryVittachi) September 15, 2025
The Friendly Skies
Toxic Fumes Are Leaking Into Airplanes, Sickening Crews and Passengers WSJ
Guillotine Watch
Fox News host apologizes for ‘extremely callous’ remarks on unhoused people The Guardian
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Great antidote, a guide dog to the Underworld. Foreshadowing it certainly is.
Supposedly the hound in the photo was a Siamese Trio Dog, and 2 other heads were successfully removed. They did such a good job on the operation that you’d never know.
Cerberus is such a good boi.
A man wanted a big, veracious dog to protect his business, so he visited a kennel that specialized in attack dogs. The man explained to the kennel owner that he wanted the biggest, meanest, most vicious dog in the kennel, and the owner offered to take the man on a tour of the premises.
After they had been walking for a few minutes, they came upon a large dog. He was snarling loudly, biting and clawing at the cage.
“He looks like he’d be a pretty good attack dog,” said the buyer.
“Well, he’s not bad,” replied the owner, “but I have something better in mind for you.”
They continued walking around the premises, and after a while they found an even larger, meaner dog than the first. He snarled at the two men and tried to bite them through the wire on his cage.
“Ah,” said the buyer, “This must be the dog you were referring to earlier.
“Well, no.” said the owner. “I have something better in mind for you,” and the men continued their tour.
Eventually, they came upon a fairly large dog that was lying quietly on his side, licking his butt. He did not seem to notice as the men approached.
“This is the dog I had in mind for you,” said the owner.
The buyer was flabbergasted. “You’re joking!” he exclaimed. “This dog seems quite tame; he doesn’t act at all like an attack dog at all. Hell, he’s just lying there, licking his butt!”
“I know, I know,” said the owner. “But you see, he just ate a lawyer, and he’s trying to get the taste out of his mouth.”
‘OSINTdefender
@sentdefender
Speaking this weekend at the Yalta European Security Conference in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine, Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, stated that Russia is losing in its ongoing war against Ukraine, “If he [Putin] was winning, he’d be in Kyiv. If he was winning, he’d be west of the Dnipro River. If he was winning, he’d be in Odesa. If he was winning, he’d have changed the government. Russia is in fact losing this war.” With Gen. Kellogg adding’
Well that’s it then. The US and the west can forget all about this war. Russia is losing so they can put the whole thing out of their pretty minds until Russia comes begging for terms. Glad Kellog got that sorted out.
Absolutely pathetic! This Kellogg clown is just another hack like Jake Sullivan and Lloyd Austin.
Why is their go-to move always “the Big Lie?”
Goooooooooood Moooooooooooooourning Fiatnam!
Seeing as the proposed Charlie Kirk Act would snap up ‘content creators’ in its Ministry of Truth dragnet of accomplished liars among others such as the mainstream media, it meant we all better damn well watch our p’s & q’s, not to mention t’s, a’s, b’s, et al.
Open season on suspected wordy malfeasances-and no limit!
Re Bullets and Ballots: The Legacy of Charlie Kirk
Living aside the rather mild treatment of Kirk’s positions and methods, this article basically repudiates the identity politics and cancel culture approach of the Dem Party. It was always a ground favoring social conservatives and we are all now paying for their decision to use social and identity issues to neutralize any potential coalition of social liberals and conservatives over economic issues. The Dems didn’t invent the politics of fear, but they certainly escalated them with cancel culture. The blowback of this decision was always bound to be destructive to us all.
Novara Media, Aaron Bastani with Jason Hickel:
Infinite Growth Will Lead to Collapse
Interesting.
“Hungary and Slovakia must quit Russian gas and nuclear, Trump envoy warns’
‘U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright…said it would be preferable for Europe to get its supplies from “its friends.”
Well he would say that, wouldn’t he. And by “friends” I am sure that he actually means his own friends-
‘Before his appointment, he was the CEO of Liberty Energy, North America’s second largest hydraulic fracturing company, and served on the boards of Oklo Inc., a nuclear technology company, and EMX Royalty Corp., a Canadian mineral rights and mining rights royalty payment company.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Wright
And reading through his Wikipedia entry, found that the guy once did an Obama-
‘In 2019 Wright drank fracking fluid to demonstrate that it was not dangerous.’
Beautiful Xoloitzcuintle! We have a Peruvian Naked Dog, almost the same breed but with slightly finer features. Wonderful companions with a very unique dog mind.
…with a very unique dog mind.
Ah? Hem, all right. What does it mean in practice? Is this an understatement for “ferociously stubborn and headstrong” or something indicative of eccentric behaviour?
vao: Any dog, except for those in-bred brainless panting messes being dragged around by neurotics, is going to be stubborn. Dogs have opinions about things.
I would imagine that a unique dog mind is something I’ve seen in the border collies and other midsized and bigger hounds (not the lumbering giants, though, who mainly just lumber). Obvious intelligence. An ability to solve problems. A certain savvy about who is a decent human being (whose leg one can lean against). A sense of humor, which means an understanding of things not working correctly. And, contrary to what Americans tend to think, a very direct gaze (Italian dogs look me up and down).
And, like the character Arlecchino from the commedia dell’arte, a constant concern about where the next meal is coming from. (Which, living as I do in the Undisclosed Region, is also a main concern of Italians. Hmmm. )
This is fascinating having grown up watching it happen in realtime. We take for granted the courage and ability to manage stress these men had. Maybe we still watch too many movies and TV shows that make it seem almost easy.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/09/60-years-after-gemini-newly-processed-images-reveal-incredible-details/
Re: Chinese tech scientists have jumped ahead of US counterparts in global downloads of open-source AI programs. “As hard as it is for us all to swallow, I think we’re behind now,” said Ali Farhadi of Seattle’s Allen Institute for ai, quoted in the Economist. 1/7
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On China, the US, and AI, I was thinking of how odd it is that none of the giants produced by the previous tech revolution (computers, internet) are European. Every single one of Google, Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, Dell, Netflix, Facebook, etc is from the USA. I guess somebody in 1985 might have predicted a loss for Europe to the USA (i am not sure?), but who would have predicted a loss so comprehensive?
Japan might have been predicted to do better given that they had Nintendo, Sony, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, etc, but didn’t happen. But Europe doesn’t even have equivalents to those companies.
On present-day China and the USA, I fear how the US elites will react if they lose the AI race. But perhaps I should fear how they’d react if they were to win the race.
“Starmer tells Tommy Robinson he ‘will not surrender’ British flag to violence”
Starmer may think that he sounds like Churchill when he says stuff like this but nobody, and I mean nobody, will ever mistake Starmer for Churchill.
re. that LG ICE bust…
another example of both sides being in the wrong (to some, if not symmetric, degree) and Twitter folks loving to impose their worldview onto the facts.
In this case among the 300+ Koreans, there were 10 Chinese, 3 Japanese, and 1 Indonesian. Strong indication that LG and/or Hyundai knowingly used contractors to outsource their visa obligations. https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-09-11/national/socialAffairs/Unshackled-and-in-high-spirits-Korean-workers-depart-detention-facility-for-Atlanta-airport/2397085
Sri Lanka’s crisis and debt devouring the global South. Al_Jazeera.
Definitely worth your while. Sri Lanka is one of those countries, like Brazil, that is quite successful on many fronts — such as education and health care — even as their history seems like a string of bouts of bad luck. I am reminded, too, of Lebanon.
As I was reading, I thought, Now what would Indi Samarajiva have to say about this debt crisis?
The debt crisis and IMF colonialism get a few small mentions in a piece with many ramifications. Comparison of the Sri Lankan civil war to Gaza. Implicit comparisons to Ukraine: Yes, the only way out is to bring wars to an end.
https://indi.ca/how-sri-lankas-war-is-not-like-israels-genocide/
Recommended.