UFO sightings and nuclear weapons tests linked in ‘significant’ new findings Interesting Engineering
Climate/Environment
RAVAGED The Gleaner
The Advanced Dvorak Technique (ADT) satellite-derived intensity estimate peaked at 185 knots for #Melissa — which, according to the developer at CIMSS, is the highest value to date for any tropical cyclone. pic.twitter.com/Bu0XMbREvV
— Scott Bachmeier (@CIMSS_Satellite) October 28, 2025
Rising heat kills one person a minute worldwide, major report reveals The Guardian
Faster sea level rise threatens China’s coastal megacities Climate & Capitalism
Pandemics
Traverse City Is Now Home To America’s First National Long COVID Treatment Center The Ticker. ‘…with a focus on “providing comprehensive, research-driven care for an estimated 30 million Americans affected by long COVID using technology developed by HealthBio Inc.” HealthBio is led by Dr. Bruce Patterson, formerly the director of clinical virology and co-director of the AIDS Research Center at Stanford University.
Canada is poised to lose its measles elimination status — and the US could, too CNN
Louisiana officials waited months to warn public of whooping cough outbreak NPR
India
India launches cross-border drone strike on Myanmar village, killing child and separatist commander’s son Myanmar Now
Japan
Japan and Philippines boost security ties amid South China Sea dispute Manila Times
How Can Japan Handle Its $550 Billion Trump Problem? Moon of Alabama
China?
Trump is poised to end Washington’s Decade of the China Hawks Semafor
Breaking China’s rare earth dominance could take a decade, Goldman Sachs says Business Insider
Backfire: Export Controls Helped Huawei and Hurt U.S. Firms Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. Background on source.
China Can Fight a Trade War, but Its Real Test Is Growth Reform Council on Foreign Relations
Citing David and Goliath story, Taiwan president says Israel a model for island’s defense Times of Israel. Uh-oh.
Trump-Xi reset could collapse under the weight of its ambition Responsible Statecraft. “Ambition” or agreement-capability issues?
Unless & until the U.S. withdraws its military resources in this part of the world, no “assurances” from a “flip flop” administration has any credibility. Using swear words to buy time won’t wash. https://t.co/x3zDZrzqoa
— Warwick Powell | 鲍韶山 (@baoshaoshan) October 28, 2025
Making Southeast Asia’s AI numbers stack up East Asia Forum
Syraqistan
Israel launches heavy bombardment on Gaza City as US says ceasefire holds Al Jazeera
24 children among 63 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, despite ceasefire Anadolu Agency
‘Israel’ responsible for hindering captive body recovery: Exclusive Al Mayadeen
Former US colonel accuses Biden administration of diluting report on Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing in favour of Israel New Arab. Abu Akleh was a US citizen.
“The ‘No!’ of Ireland’s new president.” Patrick Lawrence, The Floutist
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Israeli weapons firm opens first UAE branch The Cradle
Making another ‘desert bloom’: Israel’s water tech seeps into the Gulf The Cradle
Amnesty says US strike on a Yemen prison that killed dozens of African migrants may be a war crime AP
Barrack Warns Lebanon This Is ‘Last Chance’ to Disarm Hezbollah Antiwar
Deep Dive: Trump names first US special envoy to Iraq in two decades Amwaj
Old Blighty
Maccabi Tel Aviv row breaks Starmer’s cover story for colluding in genocide Jonathan Cook
How the UK Lost Its Shipbuilding Industry Construction Physics
Africa
RSF accused of massacring thousands of civilians in Sudan’s El-Fasher New Arab
Sudan at the Crossroads of Empire Abu Hureirah
Trump administration strips Nigerian Nobel winner Wole Soyinka of US visa Al Jazeera
European Disunion
The Inevitable Collapse of Hegel’s World Philip Pilkington
Collective Punishment in Montenegro Lily Lynch
ICCL submits complaint to European Commission over appointment of Niamh Sweeney to DPC Irish Times. “The Irish Council for Civil Liberties complaint focuses on the process under which former Facebook and WhatsApp public policy head was appointed.”
New Not-So-Cold War
THE THREE STAGES OF TRUMP WAR BEGIN WITH THE FIFTH COLUMN John Helmer
Lukashenko & Lavrov at Minsk International Conference on Eurasian Security Karl Sanchez
Thugs vs Wimps in the House of Dynamite Oliver Boyd-Barrett
Kiev fairy tales Julian Macfarlane
AFU against AFU; Who will take revenge on the Nazis? Marat Khairullin Substack
Bandera’s Double Agents Bandera Lobby Blog
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Red hands and pig heads: Russia’s plan to destabilize France goes on trial Politico
French General Staff Gearing Up To Send 2,000 Troops To Ukraine – Russian Foreign Intel Sputnik
Italian firms to lose €140 million from toilet sanctions on Russia – union chief RT
The Great Game
Uzbekistan and EU Sign Landmark Enhanced Partnership Agreement in Brussels Times of Central Asia
L’affaire Epstein
Elizabeth Warren urges US regulators to investigate Jes Staley ties to Epstein The Guardian
South of the Border
Exclusive: US military officials required to sign NDAs tied to Latin America mission, sources say Reuters
The President’s Murder Spree Claims 14 More Victims Daniel Larison
President Petro Praises Seizure of 8 Tons of Cocaine Without Deaths TeleSur
Wall Street banks say Milei now has a chance to freely float peso Buenos Aires Times
It is now clear what is going on in Argentina: American investors bet on Argie USD bonds which took a bruising in August-September. The US Treasury bailed these investors out by propping up Milei in the elections through their bailout of Argentina. What an absolute mess. 🇦🇷🤡 pic.twitter.com/6N1T6z7Yxw
— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) October 28, 2025
Trump 2.0
Inside the Trump family’s global crypto cash machine Reuters
Trump CFPB Moves to Bar States From Wiping Medical Debt Off Credit Reports Common Dreams
MAGA’s 9/11 Is an Assassination Ken Klippenstein
Judge blocks Trump shutdown layoffs, citing political retribution Minnesota Reformer
“Liberation Day”
Shutdown
Democrats Signal They’ll Hold the Line Even as SNAP Benefits Are Set to Expire NOTUS
MAHA
Texas attorney general sues Tylenol company over autism claims Texas Tribune
Democrats en déshabillé
Chandler data center project draws in former U.S. senator Daily Independent
New Report From Corporate Democrats Falsely Claims Medicare for All Is “Unpopular” Z Network
Healthcare?
What a ‘Private Equity Government’ Means for Public Health MedPage Today
Many voters say health care unaffordable, are open to new insurance system: Poll The Hill
Stillbirths in the U.S. higher than previously reported, often occur with no clinical risk factors Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Imperial Collapse Watch
Why Nations That Bet on Renewables Will Win the Next Energy Era OilPrice
Admiral Obvious Sings A Jingle William Schryver
AI
The End of OpenAI’s Nonprofit Era Obsolete
The Ultimate Infinite Piracy Machine The Economic Populist
The Bezzle
Society will accept a death caused by a robotaxi, Waymo co-CEO says SFGATE
Is Musk’s humanoid robot army worth $1 trillion? Oligarch Watch
Carbon Capture and Storage 😬
Seen over at the other place, posted by Ketan Joshi: “each blue line is what *should* have happened based on each report’s planned state dates. Black line: what happened” pic.twitter.com/iNFVe7qIdD— Ryan Katz-Rosene, PhD (@ryankatzrosene) October 27, 2025
Class Warfare
We Used to Read Things in This Country The Baffler
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“Louisiana officials waited months to warn public of whooping cough outbreak”
Maybe those Louisiana officials figured that if they waited long enough, then whooping cough would be able to spread everywhere in the State. Then before you know it, you would have “herd immunity” in the community. Mission accomplished! And why not? That approach worked so well with Covid, right?
I don’t see how China agrees to anything with taco other than a can kick. They hold all the leverage, including the supreme court’s decision on his tariffs which may not drop until next June.
Here comes the Big Lie!
Also, anyone else notice how the India situation (Modi shunned Taco at the ASEAN summit) just dropped off the face of the earth?
We should lay bets about the Trump – Xi meeting. Mine is that Trump demands that China stops buying Russian oil, opens up their economy to Wall Street, sell the US all the rare earths that they need for the Pentagon and finally force Russia to agree to a ceasefire. And he will do all this on the force of his humongous personality.
Side bet – that an image will appear of Trump thumping Xi on the chest with his fat finger.
You left off what China should do for Israel
On Polymarket, the question “Will China lift rare earths export ban by December 31?” currently shows a 37% chance of happening, this following a long decline in likelihood, with a big bump up in the last week or so. No evidence that those placing those bets have actual applicable information, but it’s fun to watch.
This is not a hagiography….but it seems that the Chinese leadership is not spiteful, unlike western leadership. They do have long memories though, lmao
Agreeing to resume soybeans buys, etc. will not change any structural trend. Why not make a deal?
If you want to be a leader and winner, you gotta be gracious—a lesson lost at Harvard and Stanford MBA and law schools.
> We Used to Read Things in This Country The Baffler
>> While Chinese schools are teaching students about AI’s impact on society—risks and biases in addition to basic learning—American schools are rushing headlong into serving AI slop as the only version of education children receive.
Fifteen years ago Officer Friendly surprised me by educating sixth graders about how corporate media was trying to influence their habits. AI in schools seems like taste-testing the kids for what flavor of cigarette they like best.
WSF’d. From Aurelien’s neurones to Crocs and Socks, our prior expectations form what we think the world is capable of. And plasticity is highest in childhood.
Good. The end of neoclassicism cannot come soon enough, and the best way to end Rome is to prevent it from scarring children in its image.
re: we used to read things in this country
my hometown has a daily paper newspaper that is still up and running. whenever i am at my parents house i read it every morning. a lot of the political analysis type news i dont care about, but it does have good coverage of local events. i am especially grateful for the part that tells you about any upcoming community events like a concert or craft night and such. it feels like everything in college communicates through instagram. if i want to know what events are happening, i need to follow a bunch of individual groups on instagram and see if theyve posted anything. facebook if it’s an event for old people. i maintain the loss of hometown newspapers is a huge loss for organizing.
over the summer i read Pushing To The Front, a self help book from 1894. every self improvement thing i saw was about stopping your screen addiction, so i wanted to see what self-help books were like before computers. one of my favorite sections lionized the idea of a “country boy” who worked on a farm and was not distracted by anything. there was a funny ancedote about abraham lincoln walking 44 miles to acquire some books he really wanted to read, and how walking 44 miles made those books much more precious to him. we live in a world with an overabundance of cheap information, so the issue becomes sorting through it all. a lot of older books i read digress into poems, while modern books will bold and underline important phrases as to direct your attention. i find great beauty in clear and concise organizing of information, but there’s such great danger of oversimplification.
“Maccabi Tel Aviv row breaks Starmer’s cover story for colluding in genocide”
‘Meanwhile, he must distract attention from the real antisemites – those on the far-right, ranging from sections of the Conservative and Reform parties to an army of white nationalist goons led by Tommy Robinson, a notorious Islamophobe with multiple criminal convictions.’
I have no idea what this guy is talking about here. Tommy Robinson is virtually owned by the Israelis lock, stock and barrel and I believe that they fund him big time. In fact, just the other day he got an invite to Israel by an Israeli minister and may be there right now-
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/05/uk-jewish-groups-condemn-israeli-minister-invite-tommy-robinson-israel