Working Cats: A Brief History of Human-Feline Partnerships Earth Food Life
Brainwave study sheds light on cause of ‘hearing voices’ Medical Xpress
The Trees That Remember the Pyramids Nautilus
Climate/Environment
Banks vs. the Amazon: New Data Reveals $2 Billion of Financing New Oil & Gas in the Amazon Stand.earth
Bolivia Burning: Inside a Latin American Ecocide Climate and Capitalism
Invisible poison: Airborne mercury from gold mining is contaminating African food crops, new study warns European Geosciences Union
Mosquitoes Have Been Found in Iceland for the First Time Ever Gizmodo
Committed acceleration of climate stresses in the coming decades Environmental Research Climate
Pandemics
Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Aging, HIV, and Long COVID: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Opportunities Pathogens
Japan
Japan Pushes Back on U.S. Pressure to Halt Russian Energy Imports OilPrice
China?
Jin Canrong on the “Peace Disease” among China’s Elite (Part 1) Sinification
The China Model’s Fatal Flaw Foreign Affairs
G7, EU mull price floors over China’s rare earths curbs Asia Times
Taiwan to receive 1st Harpoon missile defense systems around New Year Focus Taiwan
‘Jakarta Can’t Be Ordered Around’: Indonesia Wants US to Let It Use Chinese Ships Jakarta Globe
Indonesian students stage protest as Prabowo marks a year in office Reuters
India
US May Cut India Tariff Rate to 15-16% in Trade Deal, Mint Says Bloomberg
The Lucky Country
Albanese’s critical minerals handout to Trump damages national security — and rewards laziness Crikey
Syraqistan
🚨BREAKING: Even after the ceasefire, Israel keeps demolishing Palestinian homes across Gaza’s “red zone” an area that makes up almost half of the Strip.
New footage from Rafah yesterday shows Israeli forces detonating and flattening entire neighborhoods, undermining every claim… pic.twitter.com/0eCj18OYuG
— Gaza Notifications (@gazanotice) October 21, 2025
⚡️🇺🇸🇮🇱JUST IN: Jared Kushner confirmed that the U.S. and its partners will not fund Gaza’s reconstruction in areas under Hamas control. Aid will go only to zones Washington deems “safe” mainly the yellow areas under direct Israeli supervision. pic.twitter.com/x5UDQ4mlQv
— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws1) October 22, 2025
⚡️🇺🇸BREAKING:
U.S President Trump says several Middle Eastern countries have offered to send forces into Gaza at his request, claiming they are ready to intervene “heavily” if the current situation doesn’t improve. He told them & Israel to wait for now, expressing hope that… pic.twitter.com/6GLcVClfiu
— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws1) October 21, 2025
Countries refuse to send troops to Gaza over fears of confrontation with Hamas ANHA
Investigation reveals Israeli commander behind killing of Palestinian child Hind Rajab, paramedics Press TV. Apparently a US Navy Seal who joined the IDF.
Germany signs nearly €4 billion deal for Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defense system Times of Israel
***
A mysterious airstrip has appeared in the Red Sea. Here’s what it could mean The Independent
Old Blighty
🚨 BREAKING: British-Palestinian NHS doctor, Dr. Rahmeh Aladwan (@doctor_rahmeh) was arrested this morning by British police to protect an apartheid, genocidal entity from accountability — just 3 days before her @the_mpts hearing, undermining her right to a fair trial.
(@HCWsAC) pic.twitter.com/xqH5ZA7mrU
— Majid Freeman (@Majstar7) October 21, 2025
European Disunion
Dutch seek solution to stand-off with China over chipmaker Nexperia, while carmakers fret Reuters
Two fires/explosions at two separate oil refineries in two countries within 24 hours. MOL in Százhalombatta (Hungary) and Petrotel-Lukoil in Romania. The Hungarian plant receives Russian oil and the Romanian one belongs to a daughter of Russian Lukoil.
The Ukrainians have just… pic.twitter.com/HAN6trpyDD
— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) October 21, 2025
Hungarian oil refinery blaze: MOL addresses allegations of foreign interference Daily News Hungary
European Commission under pressure over Hungarian spying allegations Politico
Slop Check: No, Hungary Did Not Run Brussels’s Dumbest Spy Ring Hungarian Conservative
New Not-So-Cold War
TRUMP CANCELS PREMATURE EJACULATION — EXPLAINER John Helmer
Donald Trump’s Russia Policy… In Tatters or Just Playing? Larry Johnson
‘Calculated Act of Terror’ – US Lawmakers Seek to Cripple Russia with Terrorism Label Kyiv Post
Ukraine Says It Struck a Chemical Plant Inside Russia With British-Provided Storm Shadow Missiles Antiwar
Ukrainian military strike for first time disrupts operations of Western oil majors Intellinews
The Rise and Fall of Russian Historical Determinism Landmarks: A Journal of International Dialogue
Africa
Aid organisations warn of growing hunger crisis in Nigeria following US funding cuts Africa News
A Coup in Nigeria Would Be Bad…But Could Be (Initially) Popular Sawahil
South of the Border
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon heads to Argentina before key test for Milei Buenos Aires Times
Trump 2.0
Trump-GOP Giveaway to Big Pharma Will Hit Taxpayers With $9 Billion in Higher Drug Costs Common Dreams
US ranchers oppose Trump’s Argentina beef imports, experts doubt it will lower prices AP
Trump could bail out farmers hurt in his trade war, again. Here’s what happened the first time. Investigate Midwest
Trump Said to Demand Justice Dept. Pay Him $230 Million for Past Cases New York Times
DHS Spends $172M on 2 Private Jets for Noem, Officials Amid Shutdown Truthout
“Anna, Lindsey Halligan Here.” Lawfare. My Signal exchange with the interim U.S. attorney about the Letitia James grand jury.
The Uniparty
AIPAC is now apparently having their donors give money to candidates “directly” (through some shady backchannel), rather than through their own organization.
This allows them to avoid the stigma of being “AIPAC-funded.”
“The site appears to be using Democracy Engine LLC as the… https://t.co/fDd5evV9Gc
— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) October 21, 2025
Democrats en déshabillé
Why Democrats aren’t talking about climate change much anymore Grist
Video shows Graham Platner with ‘troubling’ tattoo that appears to be a Nazi symbol Maine Monitor. Commentary:
His opponents are funding literal Nazis doing literal Nazi genocide is how he survives it.
But only if reality isn’t totally meaningless & irrelevant which it probably is! https://t.co/MceVMnoSzD
— moe tkacik (@moetkacik) October 21, 2025
Immigration
TikToker shot by federal agents, deputy US marshal hit by ricochet bullet during South LA operation ABC7
Police State Watch
Phoenix sees sharp rise in police shootings since Trump DOJ ended oversight in May Copper Courier
Accelerationists
Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) is getting into nicotine.
“Basically, America smoked its way to being the dominant hyperpower. It kept people focused, it kept people fit. It’s an appetite suppressant.
“I’m becoming more and more convinced that the health benefits of not smoking… pic.twitter.com/WSHIsgLeVc
— TBPN (@tbpn) October 21, 2025
Treat Big Tech like Big Tobacco The Argument
Dear Tech Evangelists: Have You Tried “Move Slow and Make Things”? Lit Hub
Washington’s Battery Strategy Is Upside Down The Battery Chronicle
Groves of Academe
Judge declines to block Northwestern from disciplining students over antisemitism training Chicago Sun-Times
Antitrust
Amazon Web Services Had a Very Bad Day, Amazon’s Stock Price Did Not Big by Matt Stoller
Amazon Hopes to Cut 600,000 US Workers & Replace Them With Robots Cord Cutters News
This Is How Much Anthropic and Cursor Spend On Amazon Web Services Edward Zitron
AI
AI and the Extended Workday: Productivity, Contracting Efficiency, and Distribution of Rents HKU Jockey Club Enterprise Sustainability Global Research Institute. From the abstract: “…we find that greater AI exposure, whether from the ChatGPT shock or broader AI developments, is associated with longer work hours and less leisure, particularly non-screen-based leisure.”
I told you guys that AI is garbage
Why the fuck would anyone use AI when it’s been programmed by Billionaire imperialist scum to repeat empire propaganda!? pic.twitter.com/GcjkdfxoS6
— Nick Cruse 🥋 (@SocialistMMA) October 21, 2025
Healthcare?
UnitedHealth and AARP Shake Hands on $9 Billion Deal HEALTH CARE un-covered
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
California’s Ban on Coercive Pricing Algorithms Has Massive Implications Economic Populist
Our Famously Free Press
CNN Cuts Off Pelosi Primary Challenger’s Discussion of NSPM-7 Common Dreams
The Friendly Skies
United flight’s ‘space debris’ scare turns out to be weather balloon, probe finds Interesting Engineering
Class Warfare
Common Evolution And Common Good 3 Quarks Daily
Call of Duty Working Class Storytelling
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“United flight’s ‘space debris’ scare turns out to be weather balloon, probe finds”
But was it *looks suspiciously over shoulder* a Chinese weather balloon?
It’s worse than that, it’s ai…
“We immediately rolled out changes to minimize time spent between 30,000 and 40,000 feet. These changes are already live with immediate effect. Additionally, we are further accelerating our plans to use live flight data to autonomously avoid planes, even if the planes are at a non-standard altitude. We are also actively working on new hardware designs to further reduce impact force magnitude and concentration. ”
Move slow and break things, move fast and beak things, but whatever speed you do so, break things. Non standard altitude, thats funny, and wtf does reduce impact force magnitude and concentration even mean? Disembody the balloon so it bounces off more softly I guess…
In the FT —
The fallout from the AI-fuelled dash for gas: A supply crunch in giant turbines for gas-powered plants threatens environmental and geopolitical consequences
https://www.ft.com/content/dfd87d3d-a386-4706-a4ba-9f9274760111
https://archive.ph/s9zcK
‘“…..Renewables are putting other forms of power generation under increasing pressure,” said Lisa Davis, a board member, at the time (2017). Siemens Energy’s then North American president Rich Voorberg was later even more definitive: “Gas turbines were dead in 2022.
‘Now, in 2025, they are very much alive. Orders are forecast to increase to 1,025 units this year, of which 183 will be large units, the most since 2011 and an almost 50 per cent increase on the average over the previous five years, according to Dora Partners, a specialist energy consultancy.
‘The renaissance of gas is being driven by hunger for electricity from the data centres that are powering the boom in artificial intelligence. In 2024, the US Department of Energy forecast that data centres would consume 6.7 to 12 per cent of US electricity by 2028, up from 4.4 per cent in 2023. The computing capacity required to scale up AI requires reliable, round-the-clock power, causing the US to rapidly become the global epicentre of new gas-fired power plant construction….’
There have been significant delays to the construction of CCGT plants in Vietnam and the Philippines due to increased US demand for turbines. Plus, various supply chain issues have also caused delays. It can take up to five years now to get delivery in some parts of the world. That said, the actual demand for gas, while increasing, has not seen a significant uptick above the long term annual growth.
An important point, generally overlooked, is the distinction between OCGT (open cycle) gas plants and CCGT (combined cycle). The latter are around 30% more efficient, but are a lot more expensive and complex to build. An OCGT plant is quite small and compact (they can fit comfortably into a typical industrial estate) and can be built in a matter of months. Most of the plants built for data centres are OCGT, which makes them unsuitable for providing any baseload as they are far too expensive to keep running full time.
It should be pointed out that some of the crazy power projections out there are built on the assumption of the AI/Data centre bubble not bursting. I suspect there will be a lot of turbine cancellations over the next few years (the industry has already anticipated this – they are frequently insisting on non-refundable deposits).
“Donald Trump’s Russia Policy… In Tatters or Just Playing?”
There is a good chance that the Hungarian meeting will not happen. Russia is still demanding that root causes for this war be negotiated so that this war does not break out again in a few years while Trump is still demanding a conflict freeze which would amount to a Ukrainian victory. Since Trump will not be able to get his way with Putin, it seems that he has lost interest in any meeting with him which will please both the neocons and the Europeans.
Discounting Russian military gains, Trump is Biden in Jan 2022.
Trump and Lindsey Graham, the real ruler, want another Minsk which would be a broken truce where Kiev is rearmed.
Lavrov won’t talk what Graham demands
Graham wants Russian resources!
It may be that Graham needs Russian resources. You can bet that back in 2021 that he was making big promises to any number of billionaires how Project Ukraine would destroy Russia allowing those billionaires to loot that country to their heart’s content. Well here it is 2025 and there will be no looting of Russia so those billionaires will be going after Graham for all those broken promises. They are going to be demanding compensation.
Re the cancelled/postponed RU/USA summit (Helmer’s article) — I cannot help but wonder if Trump and Putin quietly agreed on Budapest as a proposed meeting place knowing full well that it would (a) create dissension within the EU and (b) be unworkable due to Hungary’s location and the ICC arrest warrant…..i.e., they both knew it would end up not happening (or at least not now, and not in an EU country). A clever way of kicking the can down the road while kicking sand in Brussels’ face. The two have little to discuss at this point, anyway.
Re historical determinism in RU — Nice to see that Paul Robinson is back online (he shut down his blog in despair after the events of 24/2/22 kicked off). Since Stephen Cohen passed on, Robinson is one of the better RU experts. It’s a fine article, and I agree with his view that western liberalism has no future in RU.
Re UKR attacks on RU infrastructure — I posted a comment here last month saying that as per my RU wife, there are no gasoline shortages in Moscow. Well, well. Yesterday she informed me that at a Moscow gas station, she was unable to fill up two jerrycans with diesel for our dacha generator (we have occasional electricity outages…..not a daily occurrence, but maybe once or twice a month…..and winter is approaching). The word has gone out from on high that you may refuel your vehicle, but no jerrycans are allowed. Of course this is just a minor obstacle (she filled up our car that uses diesel, drove to the dacha, siphoned the diesel into the jerrycans, and returned to fill up the car anew…..), but I find it noteworthy that even Moscow has started to anticipate shortages of diesel.