Lemurs Are Having a Mysterious ‘Baby Boom’ in Madagascar. Here’s Why That Might Not Be a Good Thing Smithsonian Magazine
Man takes Hamilton city bus on a joy ride — making stops to let passengers on and off, say police CBC
Woman accused of leading authorities on 173-mile SoCal pursuit before escaping into Mexico is arrested Los Angeles Times
Waymo robotaxis are now giving rides on freeways in LA, San Francisco, and Phoenix TechCrunch
Climate/Environment
Analysis: Fossil-fuel CO2 emissions to set new record in 2025, as land sink ‘recovers’ Carbon Brief
‘Little to No Measurable Progress’ on Climate as World on Track for 2.6°C: Report Common Dreams
Assume the worst LRB
A New Unifying Issue: Just About Everyone Hates Data Centers Inside Climate News
Ecosocialism and degrowth in the Anthropocene Climate & Capitalism
Pandemics
Enduring Outcomes of COVID-19 Work Absences on the US Labor Market JAMA Network Open
Brain fog and other long COVID problems in the workplace Law360 Canada
Water
No deal on the Colorado River despite Trump administration deadline Cal Matters
Water on the Brain The Baffler
Africa
African health body says continent ‘facing worst outbreak of cholera’ in 25 years Anadolu Agency
Blood and business: The Israel-UAE nexus fuelling Sudan’s war The New Arab
Japan
Takaichi: the Honeymooner Julian Macfarlane
India
China made quiet border advances as ties warmed, Indian critics warn WaPo
China?
Exclusive: Nexperia customers in talks over workaround to skirt Europe-China chip feud, sources say Reuters
‘I’d do it all again,’ says Dutch minister at heart of car chip standoff with China The Guardian
Taiwanese lawmaker ‘wanted’ by China speaks at Berlin parliamentary hearing Focus Taiwan
China Widens Tech & Education Gap with Outlaw US Empire Karl Sanchez
The Myth of China’s “AI Talent Pipeline” ChinaTalk
Syraqistan
Scoop: Israel seeks 20-year military aid deal with U.S. with “America First” tweaks Axios
More than a dozen Israeli soldiers spoke to ITV for their new documentary Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War, about how their army’s two-year campaign in Gaza involved shooting unarmed Palestinians en masse, using teenagers as human shields, and flattening entire neighborhoods… pic.twitter.com/QiljtBxl3D
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) November 12, 2025
The Cost of Aid: When Humanitarian Data Collection Becomes a Method of Warfare OpinioJuris
U.S. and Saudi Arabia working to finalize defense pact before MBS meets Trump Axios
European Disunion
Old Blighty
Labour government proposes three year real terms pay cut for teachers in England WSWS
Crisis Report: 300,000 face extreme homelessness as budgets falter The Canary
New Not-So-Cold War
UK and Canada may provide their own “reparations loans” to Ukraine – EU commissioner Ukrainska Pravda
Germany Ends Special Refugee Status for Ukrainians Greek City Times
Russia’s refineries are leveraging spare capacity to blunt Ukrainian drone damage Meduza
Bulgarian president vetoes law on seizure of Lukoil assets Intellinews
Censored Lavrov interview with Italian media (FULL TEXT) RT
The Cold War never ended Thomas Fazi
South of the Border
In Chile’s Presidential Race, Communist Party Candidate Faces the Son of a Nazi Truthout
The top US military contractors cashing in on Caribbean operations Responsible Statecraft
Top officials present Trump with military options for Venezuela in the coming days CBS News
Justice Department Office Which Justified Torture Now Argues For Killing Moon of Alabama
Colombia to maintain US intelligence-sharing to fight drug trafficking Al Jazeera
Ecuador May Host Two U.S. Bases Pending Referendum on Foreign Military Presence Telesur
U.S. Congress Intensifies Pressure on Mexico Over Energy Policy Telesur
The Great Game
Kazakhstan, Russia Sign Landmark Comprehensive Alliance Declaration Astana Times
L’affaire Epstein
‘Epstein Hoax’ Got Legs? Mark Wauck
Sometimes The Media Ignoring A Major Story Becomes The Story—And Other Notes Caitlin Johnstone
Trump 2.0
Trump Escalates War on Leftists With Antifa Foreign Terror Label Ken Klippenstein
Trump Administration Expected to Drastically Cut Housing Grants New York Times. “…could quickly place as many as 170,000 formerly homeless people at risk of returning to the streets.”
How Multilevel Marketing Explains Trump’s Corruption The Economic Populist
Eric Trump: “You can send $500 million worth of bitcoin on a Sunday night at 11pm while having a glass of wine with your wife for virtually zero fees.” pic.twitter.com/KU4PvccN98
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 13, 2025
The Uniparty
Where Is the Opposition to an Attack on Venezuela? Daniel Larison
Police State Watch
Google Has Chosen a Side in Trump’s Mass Deportation Effort 404 Media
Feds deployed tear gas on the Far Southeast Side even after cops told them they had no gas masks, sources say Chicago Sun-Times
Mamdani
Mamdani’s First Budget Phenomenal World
Lina Khan’s populist plan for New York: Cheaper hot dogs (and other things) Semafor
Upper East Side Moms Are Melting Down Over Mamdani New York Magazine. “A 35,000-person Facebook group devolved into panic and infighting after the mayoral election.”
If Capital Strikes Against Mamdani, Organized Worker Power Can Strike Back Truthout
Our Famously Free Press
BBC news has a long record of disinformation. But this time it chose the wrong target Jonathan Cook
Groups demand Israeli influencers register as foreign agents Responsible Statecraft
Healthcare?
The ‘Worst Test in Medicine’ is Driving America’s High C-Section Rate New York Times
Did the “Solution” Solve the Problem, Or Did It Just Make Somebody Rich? Charles Hugh Smith
AI
Happy holidays: AI-enabled toys teach kids how to play with fire, sharp objects The Register
How Much AI Will Audiences Accept in Music and Movies? Quantifying Where Consumers Draw the Line on AI Art Stat Significant
Vast collection of historic American music released via UCSB Library partnership with Dust-to-Digital Foundation UC Santa Barbara The Current
Imperial Collapse Watch
The F-35 Stealth Fighter Haunts The U.S. Air Force National Security Journal
DOGE veteran could bring much-needed change to Navy research, observers say Defense One
A MAGA Senator Promised Hope for a Dying Ohio Mill. Then Reality Set In. New York Times
For some, ‘the new American dream is to leave’ Straits Times
MAHA
America’s legacy of eugenics is alive and well in Trump’s White House Prism
From COVID Cheerleaders to Grocery Gestapo Pandemic Accountability Index
Class Warfare
The Eviction Kings The Nation
Can School Parking Lots Become Havens for Homeless Families? Governing
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“UK and Canada may provide their own “reparations loans” to Ukraine – EU commissioner’
If I were the UK or Canada, I would be praying for a quick Russian win before these reparations loans actually kick off. Once those loans are paid, then they are on the UK and Canada’s books and there is zero chance that the Russians will end up paying those loans back for them in the form of reparations. Those loans will have to be paid back including any interest. There seems to be this manic desire in most EU nations to keep this war going on for several years more. Trouble is, they can print up money but they can’t print up Ukrainian soldiers which are coming up short.
Many of today’s links give a general sense of unreality which has me re-reading some fictional books as a sort of counterweight. I picked up Dickens “A Tale of Two Cities” and was dumbfounded as to the echoes of his character descriptions to characters in today”s current events. A good example, replace Monseigneur with Donnie. “Military officers destitute of military knowledge; naval officers with no idea of a ship; civil officers without a notion of affairs; brazen ecclesiastics, of the worst worldly, with sensual eyes, loose tongues, and looser lives; all totally unfit for their several callings, all lying horribly in pretending to belong to them, but all nearly or remotely of the order of Monseigneur, and therefore foisted on all public employments from which anything was to be got; these were to be told off by the score and the score. People not immediately connected with Monseigneur or the State, yet equally unconnected with anything that was real, were added to the heap as to the man whose riches, as mere riches, nothing counted. The leprosy of unreality disfigured every human creature in attendance upon Monseigneur.” Aye, the leprosy of unreality from plastic surgery to spray tans. Sigh.
>>>Upper East Side [UES] Moms Are Melting Down Over Mamdani
IMO, this is more about the precariat state of the poseur professional class (yes, cue all the violins).
For half the salary, one can live a better lifestyle (in 95% of the country) than the stereotypical “posh” UES/UWS lifestyle, just without the Manhattan/center of the universe virtue signal. (NYC real estate has gotten insanely worse since my life there)
For them, yes….a 5 percentage point rise in NYC or NYS taxes would punch a hole in their budget. Having to choose between the nanny or trips to France—the horror!
This just in: Harrell concedes to Wilson in Seattle
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/11/14/katie-wilson-seattle-mayor-bruce-harrell/87258593007/
I’m sure they see things that way, but if that 5% was used to provide better services, make the city more affordable, etc than they would be better off.
About that new AI generated song topping the country music charts, let me know when Breaking Rust” goes on tour.
I was listening to Eddie Trunk’s show (he is a talk radio guy who covers 80’s metal acts, along with some other nostalgic groups we all probably grew up with.) Apparently, the trend for some still-touring acts, many of whom are in their 70’s, is to not only lip-sync but basically have a CD play all the music while they just pantomime along.