Links 9/4/2025

Earth’s Seasons Are Out of Sync, Scientists Discover From Space Science Alert

A Rare Condition Made a Woman See Dragons Instead of Human Faces ZME Science

A Shocking Number of Kids Don’t Play Outside Gizmodo

Pandemics

State Plans to End School Vax Mandates, First to Do So MedPage Today

Climate/Environment

Earth’s capacity to store carbon could max out surprisingly soon Nature

Snowfall decrease in recent years undermines glacier health and meltwater resources in the Northwestern Pamirs Communications Earth and Environment

Catastrophic rains, floods to trigger food shortages in Pakistan, warns UN Dawn

Drought in East Africa: “If the rains do not come, none of us will survive” Oxfam

Wildfire devastates historic California gold mining town, homes burn in blaze caused by lightning AP

Trump Says America’s Oil Industry Is Cleaner Than Other Countries’. New Data Shows Massive Emissions From Texas Wells. ProPublica

U.S. Threatens Nations with Tariffs Over Support for IMO Net-Zero Shipping Deal Reuters

China?

America’s Wind Crusade Hands an Industry to China Bloomberg

China’s Military Is Now Leading Foreign Policy

Bill to sanction Chinese officials who avoid action on fentanyl passes US House South China Morning Post

***

Global Governance Initiative=UN Charter 2.0 Karl Sanchez

Tianjin: Back to the Future Julian MacFarlane

Vietnam’s bamboo diplomacy bends under US trade pressure East Asia Forum

ADB to fund Pakistan’s core Belt and Road project as China steps aside Nikkei Asia

Africa

BBC Media Action Exposed: Leaked Docs Reveal UK Government Funded Radio Drama ‘Story Story’ To Influence Nigerian Voters West Africa Weekly

Old Blighty

The UK Earns Status as a Censorship State Racket News

How the Zionist Shadow State is taking over the UK Vanessa Beeley

Syraqistan

Construction intensifies at site linked to Israel’s suspected nuclear program, satellite photos show AP

UN nuclear chief demands Iran resume uranium enrichment inspections ‘without delay’ The Cradle

Israeli Lawmakers Demanded Better PR to Conceal Gaza Famine. Google Obliged. Lee Fang

UAE warns White House that Israeli annexations could unravel Abraham Accords Axios. “Two Israeli officials claim Secretary of State Marco Rubio has signaled in private meetings that he doesn’t oppose West Bank annexations and the Trump administration won’t stand in the way.”

Retail giant Lush closes all UK stores in Gaza tax protest The National

76 prominent figures in Turkey reject ‘cosmetic’ Gaza resolution, urge sanctions on Israel Turkish Minute

European Disunion

EU sets military spending record, expects more growth in 2025 Defense News

NATO Warns of European Recruitment Crisis Despite Record Military Spending European Conservative

How France invented the censorship-industrial complex Thomas Fazi

Left pushes censure bid against von der Leyen Euractiv

New Not-So-Cold War

Ukraine’s Best Security Guarantee Is Finlandization Moon of Alabama

Trump pledges not to pull US troops out of Poland Politico

***

Russia and China sign MoU on 50 bcm/year Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline Enerdata

Power of Siberia 2: the EU’s greatest self-own Brian McDonald

L’affaire Epstein

Epstein victims say they will compile their own “client list,” demand accountability Miami Herald

South of the Border

Hegseth Doesn’t Rule Out Regime Change in Venezuela, Suggests More US Strikes on Boats Are Coming Antiwar

Experts Decry US ‘Summary Execution’ of Alleged Drug Runners Off Venezuelan Coast Common Dreams

Trump 2.0

Did Donald Trump Authorize Murder?… and Why is He Disrespecting China’s Role in Defeating Japan? Larry Johnson

Trump’s DOJ seeks election equipment in red state ahead of 2026 election WaPo

Exclusive: Leak Confirms Chicago Military Action Ken Klippenstein

Trump regime may launch military occupation of New Orleans NOLA

Weather Service, patent office unions sue Trump over order ending collective bargaining The Hill

Trump’s oldest sons’ American Bitcoin stake worth $1.5 billion in stock debut Reuters

“Liberation Day”

Trump appeals to the Supreme Court to preserve his sweeping tariffs NBC News

Police State Watch

A 22-Year-Old Palestinian Has Been Locked Up in ‘High-Security’ ICE Detention for 16 Months Zeteo

Democrats en déshabillé

Lina Khan? Chelsea Clinton? Who Might Run for Nadler’s Seat. New York Mag

Mamdani

Adams Campaign Denies Reports He’d Take a Job With Trump, Drop Out of Mayoral Race The City

Imperial Collapse Watch

Why does peace cost a trillion dollars? Responsible Statecraft

Microsoft rewarded for security failures with another US government contract The Register

Accelerationists

OMB director says Government Accountability Office “shouldn’t exist” Axios

Your government is breaking: EPA edition Can We Still Govern?

AI

AI Generated ‘Boring History’ Videos Are Flooding YouTube and Drowning Out Real History 404 Media

Our Famously Free Press

Paramount to buy Bari Weiss’ Free Press for up to $200M, give her senior editorial role at CBS News New York Post

Malcolm Gladwell Conquers Mt. Suck Matt Taibbi

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

Automated Sextortion Spyware Takes Webcam Pics of Victims Watching Porn Wired

Guillotine Watch

All the Things That You Need a Billion Dollars to Buy Are Bad Hamilton Nolan

Mr. Market

Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack on the Risks Markets Are Missing Right Now Kyla Scanlon

US labor market softening as job openings hit 10-month low, hiring remains tepid Reuters

Class Warfare

Boeing Cuts Off 3,200 Striking Workers ‘ Health Insurance – VW Chattanooga Furloughs Workers – GE Aerospace Workers Dig in for a Fight Payday Report

Americans still haven’t recovered from the pandemic Stephen Semler

Why Do Americans Work So Many Hours? Conversable Economist

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

16 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “UN nuclear chief demands Iran resume uranium enrichment inspections ‘without delay'”

    Grossi tells the Iranians that Israel and Trump are getting on his case and say that they need that new targeting data, errr, location sites for that enriched uranium. Asks the Iranians too if he can have a list of the new Iranian nuclear scientists so that he knows how to get in contact with them if need be. And that this has to be done in the ‘perhaps within a few days’. Iran still waiting for Grossi to criticize the attacks on nuclear sites as that kinda is part of his job description but are not holding their breath.

    Reply
        1. The Rev Kev

          Well if Annalena Baerbock can be made President of the United Nations General Assembly after her fiasco of a career, then I am sure that a place can be made for Rafael Grossi as UN General Secretary. It’s not only cream that floats to the top.

          Reply
  2. The Rev Kev

    ‘Will Schryver
    @imetatronink
    ‼️ F-35 Combat Capability Is less than 10% After Four Years of Age ‼️
    The 2024 CBO report shows that combat-capability rates of F-35Bs and F-35Cs older than four years plummets to less than 10%. The US does not have a credible 5th generation fighter.’

    The Pentagon really should have gone with the extended warranty option.

    Back in WW2 after the fall of Poland, nothing much happened for the next 8 months with both sides staring at each other across their borders. It was called the Phoney War-

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoney_War

    The thought occurred to me that if China did this with the US after the commencements of hostilities, that after 8 months hardly any F-35s would be still fit to fly.

    Reply
    1. ilsm

      Small wonder.

      The testers could not keep the airplane flying enough during design phases to get a reasonable estimate of parts reliability.

      As far as I know none of the models have passed independent operational tests.

      F-35 works fine against terrorists.

      Anyone tracking F-22 combat readiness rates?

      Maybe F-47 and F/A XX will work?

      Reply
      1. Ozz

        This article made me remember the comment that the F-35 had never lost a battle for more money in Congress. They don’t ask if it really works!!! Every congressional district has suppliers that make parts or provide services to the manufacturer. There is a story there but it has been told many times.

        Reply
  3. DoYouHaveAnExitPlan

    A bedrock of post-WW2 military order has been the belief in “refusing illegal orders”.

    Examining the headline “Did Donald Trump Authorize Murder?”

    Under John Roberts’ “Get out of Jail Free” card he conjured up for Tr_mp, there are no “illegal orders” when the (republican) president orders it.

    So anyone relying on “refusing illegal orders” is going to run into the buzzsaw of “It’s okay when a republican president does it” supreme court ruling. Though based on my interactions over the last two decades with the military officer class I have doubts anyone would question orders today.

    Reply
  4. FreeMarketApologist

    Re: “Automated Sextortion Spyware Takes Webcam Pics of Victims“:

    The cheap little camera connected to my PC has a sliding plastic part that can cover the camera lens. It’s always set to be covered (or I cover the lens with a bit of folded paper), unless I absolutely need to have my face seen on a video conference. This was a bit of practice that security gurus were recommending about 5 minutes after cameras were attached to PCs, what, 15+ years ago? Nothing new here, except the younger generation hasn’t learned it yet, and the stupider people get, the easier it is to fool them into downloading malware. 2-way web-based porn also has the risk that the person producing the porn might be recording all those watching, for potential future blackmail purposes.

    I assume lots of people are watching porn on their phones, with cameras that are much harder to cover up.

    Reply
  5. The Rev Kev

    “Did Donald Trump Authorize Murder?… and Why is He Disrespecting China’s Role in Defeating Japan?”

    ‘(President Xi,)Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America. PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP’

    Apart from the mild tinge of paranoia going on here I think that there is something else going on. Trump has a bad case of Parade Envy. It’s a common affliction with men his age. He just saw how Xi’s parade was bigger and longer than his own. Putin’s parade was bigger as well and more powerful and even France’s Macron has a bigger parade then Trumps whose own was kind of slack looking if not tired. No doubt he will tell himself that it is because those countries have huge open areas where they can show off their military and he only has Washington to work with. Well, unless he clears out and flattens one of those poorer suburbs in DC that is…

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *