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Links 9/6/2025

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The misuse of Seuss Unherd

Uranium Shortage Jeopardizes Nuclear Renaissance OilPrice

Why do young people use substances? CAN via machine translation (Micael T)

#COVID-19/Pandemics

Mpox still continental health emergency: Africa CDC Anadolu Agency

Climate/Environment

The real crisis isn’t climate change, ecologist Sandra Diaz says Aljazeera

The ocean carbon sink is ailing: 10% drop in CO₂ absorption seen during record 2023 marine heat wave PhysOrg

Carbon capture set to be less useful in tackling climate change, scientists warn Financial Times

These clear windows can secretly produce solar power ScienceDaily (Chuck L). Very cool. But can they be made cheaply enough?

China?

All 76 weapons at China 2025 military parade explained. 47 are brand new Binkov’s Battleground, YouTube

Kim, Xi hail bond as North Korea says it will protect China’s interests Aljazeera

Koreas

How a Top Secret SEAL Team 6 Mission Into North Korea Fell Apart New York Times (Micael T)

India

India disavows ‘Tianjin spirit’, turns to EU Indian Punchline (Chuck L). Today’s must read. Counters the post SCO=BRICS anti-globalist cheerleading, at least as far as India and China are concerned. Conor had a raft of links at the time of the SCO, many from Indian sources and non-US China experts. Nearly all highlighted a long list of thorny issues India and China would need to work through for there to be marked improvement in their relationship.

Punjab floods threaten to devastate India’s rice harvest Independent

Has India ‘weaponised water’ to deliberately flood Pakistan? Aljazeera

Fitch Says Severe Unrest May Weigh on Indonesia’s Credit Profile Bloomberg

Africa

Deadly land dispute in northern Ghana displaces nearly 50,000 people France24

UN report warns of possible war crimes, crimes against humanity in DR Congo Anadolu Agency

South of the Border

European Disunion

France faces sovereign rating test amid political chaos Reuters

Europe Faces $1 Trillion Rearmament Bill as U.S. Weighs Troop Cuts. OilPrice

Norwegians to pick new parliament in tightly fought election clouded by geopolitical angst Reuters

And if you are not willing (to war), I will use force Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)

Public broadcaster refuses to provide information on the expansion of the fact-checking network Multipolar via machine translation (Micael T)

Another NATO state preparing to conscript women RT (Kevin W)

It smells too little of beer, cigarettes and sweat Aftonbladet via machine translation. Micael T: “Class analysis of the recently published Swedish Canon. Here is the canon.

Old Blighty

Britain is in the eye of the financial storm Investors are losing confidence Unherd

The Israeli president’s invitation to the UK shows Starmer is an accomplice to genocide Council Estate Media

Israel v. The Resistance

US sanctions Palestinian rights groups who asked top court for Israel war crimes investigation CNN

Will Cancer Prove to be Another Weapon in Israel’s War in Gaza? Joshua Frank, TomDispatch

Revealed: The ships carrying fuel and arms to Israel Middle East Eye

Israel can’t stop Alon Mizrahi. He is a bit verbose, but there is a transcript and his big point is makes sense.

Israel threatens to unleash biblical plagues on Yemen’s Houthis Aljazeera

New Not-So-Cold War

Chancellor seeks to conceal Germany’s missile supplies to Kiev — Russia intel agency TASS (guurst)

Germany’s Merz demands ‘economic exhaustion’ of Russia RT (Micael T). And I want a pony.

Western troops in Ukraine would be ‘legitimate targets’, Putin says Guardian (Kevin W). Another example of Russia having to endlessly repeat the same point for it to have a chance of the West accepting it.

“‘Staged actions’ in Ukraine.” The Floutist

Putin in Primorye & Vladivostok Karl Sanchez

Sweden accuses Russia of GPS jamming over Baltic Sea BBC

Imperial Collapse Watch

Important. Do click through:

Xi-Modi-Putin economic axis hardens as Trump tariffs backfire Asia Times (Kevin W)

Siberia? The LNG Revolution? Julian Macfarlane

The myth of central bank independence Thomas Fazi. The part that Fazi omits is that at least in the US, Congress has long been happy to allow the Fed to engage in mission creeps so they could avoid blame for bad economic outcomes.

Trump 2.0

More Winning: Trump Bombs Ship Smuggling 30,000 Kilos Of Pumpkin Spice Babylon Bee. When you’ve lost The Bee…

GOP senators signal to Trump that Kennedy is on thin ice The Hill. Wake me when this gets to be more than a wet noodle lashing. But…..

RFK Jr Is Suddenly in Real Trouble Futurism

Tariffs

John Deere, a U.S. Icon, Is Undermined by Tariffs and Struggling Farmers New York Times (Chuck L)

Immigration

Judge blocks Trump administration’s ending of legal protections for 1.1M Venezuelans and Haitians Associated Press (Kevin W)

L’affaire Epstein

DOJ responds to official’s Epstein comments in hidden-camera video The Hill

Mamdani

Trump’s deadline to thin NYC mayoral race field in bid to stop Zohran Mamdani New York Post

Adams Considers Dropping Out of Race After Secret Meeting in Florida New York Times

Eric Adams eyed by Trump for Saudi Arabia ambassadorship Politico

Economy

Supply Chain Risks from Geopolitical Conflict. Procurement Magazine

Antitrust

EU Slaps Google with $3.5 Billion Antitrust Fine: A Breakthrough Ruling DevDiscourse

The tech antitrust renaissance may already be over The Verge

AI

Salesforce just announced it cut 4,000 customer support jobs… and Marc Benioff is saying it’s because of AI. Joe Sirianni (Micael T)

The Bezzle

Writing Workshops Are Fucking Useless The Republic of Letters (Micael T)

Guillotine Watch

Tesla proposes Elon Musk pay package that could make him the world’s first trillionaire CNN (Kevin W)

Musk invokes “rape of Europe” in anti-immigrant rant Musk Watch

Class Warfare

Age of Invention: The Century-Long Depression Anton Howes. Important even though a historical example.

Under Trump, the Federal Trade Commission is abandoning its ban on noncompetes NPR (Kevin W)

Antidote du jour (via):

And a bonus (Chuck L). Clearly a smart and sensitive primate:

A second bonus (Chuck L):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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43 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Sweden accuses Russia of GPS jamming over Baltic Sea ”

    I don’t suppose it would help if Russia offered to send Sweden paper maps, would it?

    Reply ↓
    1. JohnA

      And yet the increasingly pathetic propaganda outfit formerly called the BBC, relies heavily on the already debunked days ago claim that VDL’s plane was subjected to GPS jamming en route to Bulgaria.
      It is however, worth noting, that the BBC verification department, that is intended to weed out s-called disinformation from Russia and similar ‘bad’ actors, is headed by a woman who lied on the CV she submitted about her journalist experience in relation to Russia, when applying for the job. And did not resign when the truth came out.

      Reply ↓
    2. Munchausen

      Sweden accuses Russia of GPS jamming over Baltic Sea BBC
      The STA report comes days after a plane carrying Ursula von der Leyen was hit by interference.

      They failed at geographical coordination. Ursula misread the memo, Balkan instead of Baltic. I expect Annalena Baerbock to report Russian GPS jamming of her plane in Bahmas.

      Reply ↓
  2. Wukchumni

    Goooooooood Moooooooorning Fiatnam!

    The word had come down from on high, and it was now official that the platoon was part and parcel of the Department of War, no more pussyfooting around-always being on the defense.

    We relished the move, going on the offensive finally after being stymied in our efforts after World War 2 on account of nomenclature, obviously.

    Reply ↓
    2. Carolinian

      Now that we have a Dept of War we’re going to start obliteratin’ right and left. Look out Venezuelan speed boats.

      Reply ↓
  3. icancho

    Antidote #1: the source says this shows two hedgehogs eating peanuts.
    I say this is AI silliness. Those are cashews, not peanuts, while hedgehogs are essentially general carnivores, everything from insects, snails, frogs, snakes, bird eggs and carrion, though they do occasionally eat soft vegetable matter— fruit etc. And to my eye, those are quite obviously AI confections, not real.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      I think that you are right. There is something off about the ‘surfaces’ of those hedgehogs too as if they were wooden.

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        How about an AI version of a hedgehog such as John Paulson, perched above a splayed out black book, with crumpets below his feet?

        Reply ↓
    3. Louis Fyne

      100% AI. the more you see AI images, the more obvious the “uncanny valley” / “Stepford Wives” vibe.

      ***but*** we are on the cusp of all AI images being indistinguishable. AI images are obvious only cuz the programs used are the el-cheapo/fast versions of generative AI.

      Reply ↓
      2. Louis Fyne

        it’s akin to people who get plastic surgery/botox. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it, beyond the most subtle, incremental of botox injectons.

        Reply ↓
      3. JMH

        So a picture is no longer worth 1,000 words. Splendid. As Kaja Kallas said people do not read these days so I guess that means the end of communications, of public relations, of advertising, of faith in the veracity of public officials … check that, the veracity of public officials has long been unworthy of faith or belief. Guess we are on the way to burning down everything. I am stiocking up on older books and wildflower seeds.

        Reply ↓
  4. The Rev Kev

    “Norwegians to pick new parliament in tightly fought election clouded by geopolitical angst”

    ‘Labour has also been boosted by Stoere’s decision to bring back former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg as finance minister in February – a move dubbed “Stoltenback” in Norwegian media. Stoltenberg, a friend and ally of Stoere, is arguably Norway’s most popular politician and a three-term prime minister.’

    This might be a rare case of where you can blame the voters for what sort of politicians that they get.

    Reply ↓
  5. MicaT

    Solar windows.
    Sure you can do it.
    The issue has and will continue to be how do you get the electricity out to the grid in a cost effective way as well as make low cost solar windows.

    This idea has been worked on for decades. I’m all for continuing the research, because if they can do it, lots of windows in the world.

    Reply ↓
    2. Louis Fyne

      the big problem is that peak electricity consumption (at least in the west) is from 3p to 6p in the summertime (AC + people coming home while biz are open); and dinnertime and 6a -8am in the winter (cold).

      solar peak production = around solar noon

      this demand asymmetry won’t be solved without extremely cheap storage + fission (or fusion if/when it shows up)

      Reply ↓
  6. MicaT

    I just don’t know where oil price gets their “data”.
    Russia has massive uranium enrichment and production capacity to meet growing world demand.
    China, quickly on its way to the number 1 nuclear power is rapidly developing its own mines and refineries to meet its internal needs and possibly export. Like everything else they don’t want to be dependent on foreign suppliers. They will come on line in a very short period of time.

    As to the US, yeah well another own goal of outsourcing required materials.
    The US could be self sufficient in uranium and those mines will take 10-20 yrs to come on line if ever. So will be relying on foreign suppliers and refiners.

    But a lack of supply, no.

    Reply ↓
  7. Wukchumni

    Swords into Dow Shares dept:

    I’m still thinking about that military parade in July, and how sloppy the marching was, and if an army shows you who they are-believe them.

    Who knows what the trigger will be to get the ball rolling in this Phony Economic War and plunge us into the nether regions somewhere near an abyss-but you get the feeling the MIC will be very much on the rocks, as much of what they produce is last century’s armaments at exorbitant cost versus any newer armaments produced elsewhere.

    It was worthy of being given about a trillion a year-this perpetual notion machine, what do we replace it with?

    Reply ↓
  8. The Rev Kev

    ‘Collingwood 🇬🇧
    @admcollingwood
    Looks like Eldridge Colby, the arch Realist who literally wrote the book on containing China, and whom I believe wrote this, has made his assessment of US capabilities and the geostrategic balance of power, and decided that the US cannot realistically hold the line in the Western Pacific to contain China. Instead, it must focus on controlling the Western Hemisphere in a neo-Monroe Doctrine. (Caveat: I have not read the report.)’

    This might tie in with that map Trump showed a few months ago showing Fortress America where Canada will be taken over as well Greenland to secure the eastern flank. It will be one huge integrated block that will then seek to dominate South America and threaten other countries. That Golden Dome project would be part of this thinking as well.

    Reply ↓
  9. none

    Trump’s deadline to thin NYC mayoral race field in bid to stop Zohran Mamdani New York Post

    MAGA = Make Andrew Governor Again? Or something like that.

    Reply ↓
  10. Wukchumni

    The misuse of Seuss Unherd

    One notable example can be found in the works of William Steig, a near-contemporary of Seuss. One of Steig’s classics, Amos and Boris, tells the tale of a mouse on a sea journey: “One night, in a phosphorescent sea, he [Amos] marveled at the sight of some whales spouting luminous water. Lying on the deck of his boat gazing at the immense, starry sky, the tiny mouse Amos, a little speck of a living thing in the vast living universe, felt thoroughly akin to it all. Overwhelmed by the beauty and mystery of everything, he rolled over and over and right off the deck of his boat and into the sea.”
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I’ve given out around a dozen copies of Steig’s CDB! to impressionable offspring of family and friends.

    The claim is brevity is the soul of wit, and it doesn’t get much more compact than in CDB!.

    Reply ↓
  12. The Rev Kev

    ‘Thomas Keith
    @iwasnevrhere_
    While Gaza’s fighters hold the line under siege, Mahmoud Abbas’s Presidential Office has been funding and arming one of the most notorious Israeli-backed militias in the Strip, the Yasser Abu Shabab gang, also known as the “Popular Forces.” ‘

    Hmm. As part of Trump’s Gaza Riviera plan, there would be no Palestinian State. There would, however, be a ‘Palestinian polity’ for whatever Palestinians remained in Gaza – which would go on to join Trump’s Abraham Accords-

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/01/leaked-gaza-riviera-plan-dismissed-as-insane-attempt-to-cover-ethnic-cleansing

    After all the genocide, mass murders, mass burnings, the killing of children, etc. I thought that they would be hard pressed to find up people to make up this ‘Palestinian Polity.’ What’s the bet that those “leaders” will actually be those Israeli-backed ISIS wannabees.

    Reply ↓
  13. griffen

    Musk pay package, well it’s a long term goal so if investors in TSLA are indeed getting so much richer from all those supposed future wins in robotics and in AI, autonomous driving too then who cares ? Whether he is beloved or despised, I submit that in the end Elon Musk will be among the class of immortal ( robber barons, ok ) capitalists…. Rockefeller and Carnegie were incredibly wealthy of course but they also made others insanely wealthy. Rockefeller had partners like the Flagler family who were instrumental in first developing Florida as a vacation destination.

    I don’t care one way or another to be honest. Does seem like a board that is beholden to this singular talent which also just doesn’t seem like a company with legitimate ideas of a succession plan. Bill Gates left Microsoft what, like some 20 years ago and arguably there were periods of more hype than real substance but they seem to be rolling along with their current CEO. Apple cratered the first time after Steve Jobs left but they have carried on that legacy seemingly well after he died and Tim Cook succeeded him.

    I do think Musk is the exact type of CEO narcissist who would create, if inclined , something like the fictional reality of Brave New World. And in another 30 years he might enough filthy riches to do that.

    Reply ↓
  14. Wukchumni

    I gotta say, watching these glaciers retreat must be similar to the French military in 1940, so sudden!

    Not much threat of Sierra Nevada glaciers busting loose on say Big Pine-perched below the Palisades glacier, because its such a nothingburger of a landberg in the scheme of things, and its the largest one in the range of light.

    Reply ↓
    1. Wukchumni

      p.s.

      They used to do guided walks to both Franz Josef and Fox glaciers in NZ, and we did both of them-behemoths about 8 miles long, and you had to walk around 1 1/2 miles just to get to the lower approach to the glacier and then you put crampons on and up you went away with your young turk Kiwi guide, great fun, and otherworldly as you are surrounded by dense rainforest on either side of the glaciers.

      As you drive up to the parking lot, there will be signs that say ‘Fox Glacier’s maximum point here in 1832’ and so on that are miles from where the glaciers were around the turn of the century when I last visited.

      You can only do helicopter aided hikes on both glaciers now, as they have receded so much that approach on foot isn’t possible.

      I last visited Fox Glacier in 2006, look at the difference from 2008 to 2014!

      https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Changes-in-surface-debris-cover-black-regions-on-the-Fox-Glacier-between-2008-and-2014_fig2_304364565

      Reply ↓
  15. Mass Driver

    Hedgehogs are wondering about the peanuts being blurry, while at the same distance from the virtual camera as their razor-sharp snouts.

    Reply ↓
  16. Neutrino

    Senators, those practitioners of the ancient arts.
    Grandstanding – gotta get those soundbites and quips, preferable with the look of anger and concern.
    Gaslighting – keep the mask on while sputtering, studiously avoiding policy substance.
    Grifting – donors pay when puppets perform, minders keep tabs.

    Combine the Senate hearings with the Fed mission creep and see the kayfabe.

    Those Solons pathetic non-servants are embarrassments. When will greater engagement and honest communication with constituents happen? Oh, yeah. nvm

    Reply ↓
  17. The Rev Kev

    ‘Armchair Warlord
    @ArmchairW
    This is actually a point I’ve been meaning to make for a while.
    Reform of the US Army: The Infantry Brain Drain
    The US Army’s “line” infantry units are in practice fourth-rate formations that have been systematically stripped of talented personnel.⬇️’

    He’s got a point. Back in WW2 when they were forming the first commando companies, one officer objected to his best people being taken. He said that out of every six soldiers, one wants to go forward and attack, one wants to pull back and retreat – and the other four would follow the majority. And those commando companies were taking away the go-getters. So this must be happening in the US military where I note that US Special Operations Command alone has about 70,000 people.

    Reply ↓
    1. moog

      Ukrainians took it up to the next level. They don’t even bother training regular infantry any more. Street-bus-trench in less than a week.

      Reply ↓
  18. lyman alpha blob

    I wonder if the woman in the second bonus is named Juno? That video makes lends a little more credence to the ancient story of Juno’s sacred geese warning the Romans about an impending attack from the Gauls. The Romans had built a temple to Juno Moneta and some claimed “Moneta” meant “warner” because of the story of the geese. This temple was also where coinage was produced, eventually giving us our current word “money”.

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

    Reply ↓
  19. AG

    re: Scott Horton interview about, er, everything…

    Another English-language long format interview from German NACHDENKSEITEN.
    This time with Scott Horton.

    (German transcript included)

    Interview with Scott Horton on the US’s dirty wars – from Iraq and Afghanistan to Syria and Libya to Somalia and Yemen
    146 min.
    https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=138504

    Reply ↓
  20. The Rev Kev

    “And if you are not willing (to war), I will use force”

    The real fun and games start when Merz re-introduces conscription back in Germany. How many young people want to get shanghaied into the Bundeswehr where they might be sent to the Ukraine one day. I have heard that some people in Germany are wondering if Merz has a grudge against the Russians because of that WW2 thingy. Anyway, then you will have real riots and protests. I wonder if Merz will make police except from conscripted service in the Bundeswehr to keep them on side. Can’t wait until you have vans driving up and down the streets of Germany snatching young men off the streets to serve in the Bundeswehr.

    Reply ↓

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