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Links 12/9/2025

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From Chuck L:

3I/ATLAS Is Carrying Ingredients for Life, NASA Finds Futurism

WHAT IF OUR ANCESTORS DIDN’T FEEL ANYTHING LIKE WE DO Atlantic. Anthony L: “Another Descartes inspired bit of nonsense.”

Scientists reveal a surprising new timeline for ancient Egypt ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

High levels of a toxic “forever chemical” have been found in cereal products across Europe because of its presence in pesticides Guardian

A Fentanyl Vaccine Is About to Get Its First Major Test Wired (resilc)

Climate/Environment

Climate crisis blamed as 60,000 penguins starve to death off South Africa Independent

Researchers warn of a record marine temperature and extreme warming at 500 meters depth Noticias Ambientales

Rate of Global Heating in the Arab World is Twice the Global Average Juan Cole (resilc)

China?

China’s Trade Surplus Climbs Past $1 Trillion for First Time New York Times

Nvidia Wins Trump’s Approval to Sell H200 AI Chips in China Bloomberg

China’s Economic Crossroads China Economic Indicator

Remaking Globalization for an Era of Trade Wars Jacobin (PlutoniumKun). Important and germane to trade surplus story

Beijing orders China’s banks to lend to debt-burdened state-owned entities China Banking News (PlutoniumKun). From end of November, still germane. This is what zombification looks like.

Exclusive | Post test finds Hong Kong scaffold net sample igniting despite passing safety standards South China Morning Post

South of the Border

Trump threatens Mexico with 5% tariff over water dispute Anadolu Agency

Why U.S. Action in Venezuela May Be Imminent Modern War Monitor

U.S. Imperialism in Latin America from the Monroe Doctrine to Maduro CounterPunch. resilc: “Guatemala had the worst violence-at-any-moment vibe of any place I ever visited.”

Southeast Asia

Thailand-Cambodia fighting spreads along border as death toll rises BBC. BBC has this as the lead story with my VPN set to the US and has elevated its coverage to a live blog.

Africa

Fears of new clashes as police in Tanzania outlaw Independence Day protests Africa News

Air strikes threaten to close a vital crossing between Sudan and Chad Ayin Network

European Disunion

From Politico’s European morning newsletter:

A NEW TRANSATLANTIC CRISIS: Attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration are raining down on Brussels thick and fast. First, there’s been the unveiling of a strategy to take on “civilizational erasure,” supposedly happening in Europe, that was welcomed by the Kremlin … then the furious verbal pummeling in response to the EU’s latest fine against American social media platform X.

Rising tension: U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder said over the weekend that the $140 million penalty against Elon Musk’s X for breaching the Digital Services Act (DSA) was “regulatory overreach targeting American innovation.” It comes as the Commission dispatches a team to Washington for three days of talks to try to ease tensions over regulatory hurdles and steel, smoothing the passage of their planned trade deal.

Open wound: “The issue on the table is European sovereignty,” Italian center-left MEP Brando Benifei told Playbook. “The American discourse is hitting on an open wound because the EU is still fragmented, still weak, and they know they can threaten us on the DSA,” added the lawmaker, who is the chair of the Parliament’s delegation for relations with the U.S.

Divided continent: “We are still a contradictory union and don’t have the necessary political and institutional unity when confronted with a world like this,” Benifei said.

EU response: On Saturday, the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, struck an unusually compromising tone, refusing to condemn the American interventions and agreeing “we should be more self-confident.” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is yet to respond publicly to the attacks

German MPs rubberstamp military service plan amid school pupil protests Irish Examiner

Merz has filed 5,000 complaints against online critics – media RT (Kevin W)

Europe’s Eclipse of Intelligence – Immigration Finn Andreen (Micael T). Not endorsing it but I suspect this point of view will get more traction as most European economics remain in near or actual recessions.

Finland is going downhill and placed under EU deficit procedure – Russophobia is costing it dearly! International Affairs (Micael T)

Old Blighty

Despite establishment fix, some important legal victories for Palestine in the UK Asa Winstanley

Bank of England hunts for ‘cockroaches’ in $11tn shadow banking market Telegraph

Israel v. the Resistance

Gaza Sits Under 68 Million Tons of Rubble. A Look at the Daunting Task Ahead Wall Street Journal. One off the lead stories. Original has video footage. No archived version yet.

Israeli surveillance targets US and allies at joint base planning Gaza aid and security, say sources Guardian (resilc)

More than 80,000 Israeli soldiers treated for psychological disorders since Gaza war TRT World (Kevin W)

‘Voters will decide’: Netanyahu rules out retirement in exchange for pardon The Cradle (Kevin W)

US: Tom Barrack says ‘benevolent monarchies’ work best in Middle East Middle East Eye (Kevin W)

Syraqistan

A year after fall of Assad, a divided Syria struggles to escape cycle of violence Guardian

Syrian city of Homs trapped in cycle of sectarian violence France 24 (resilc)

New Not-So-Cold War

Kiev to send conscripts straight to frontline units RT (Kevin W)

Russia’s hybrid warfare puts Europe to the test Financial Times. “…. it is already a matter of fact that Russia now poses as great a threat to civilian life in Europe as does Islamist terrorism.”

Bannon, Mearsheimer: Trump’s Ukraine Plan Won’t End the War American Conservative (resilc)

The Moral Urgency of Compromise in Ukraine George Beebe, Compact

European leaders rally behind Ukraine in Downing Street talks Guardian (Kevin W)

Poland: From Potential Eurasian Bridge to NATO’s Emerging Hybrid Rampart Near Eastern Outlook (Micael T)

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Teachable Moment: Will the digital control grid inevitably fail, or is it already here? Libre Solutions Network

Google Starts Sharing All Your Text Messages With Your Employer Forbes (Micael T)

Imperial Collapse Watch

BRICS Will Fail to Deliver Anti-imperialism Greg Godels. Important.

Trump 2.0

Congress to withhold Pentagon travel funds until it sees boat strike videos Politico (Kevin W)

Congress Prepares To Pass NDAA That Will Give Trump His $1 Trillion Military Budget Antiwar.com (Kevin W)

American soldiers have long faced unlawful orders. They need courage and our support to resist. Kansas Reflector (Robin K)

Supreme Court appears poised to vastly expand presidential powers NPR (Kevin W)

Tariffs

Trump to Unveil $12 Billion in Long-Awaited Farm Aid Program Bloomberg

Tariffs on Medical Goods: Pass-through, Geography, and Aggregate Costs to the US Healthcare System NBER

Immigration

Three-year-old child forced to serve as her own attorney in Tucson immigration court Copper Courier (resilc)

Abortion

Privacy concerns linger in reproductive health care despite HIPAA lawsuit’s dismissal Kansas Reflector (Robin K)

Mamdani

Open Letter to Zohran Mamdani – Political Moderate Ralph Nader. “Regarding your self-description as a democratic socialist, that doesn’t pass the laugh test.”

Our No Longer Free Press

Censorship by Stealth: The West’s Algorithmic Gatekeepers Near Eastern Outlook (Micael T)

Economy

PMI data highlight global economy’s ongoing reliance on rising financial services activity S&P Global

Brace for a slowdown… we’re expecting global trade to slow significantly in 2026 Think.ing

Mr. Market is Moody

Inflated asset prices show markets don’t always know best South China Morning Post

AI

Important:

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task (Micael T). Underlying paper

“Scale Is All You Need” is dead Gary Marcus

Data Centers Useless Without Energy: The Critical Component Requiring Long-term Planning Karl Sanchez

The Bezzle

It’s Time to Save Silicon Valley From Itself Wired. resilc: “Ttoo funny, greed has no limits until collapse.”

Old Teslas Are Falling Apart Futurism (Kevin W)

Class Warfare

World’s earliest recorded labour strike Ada Palmer (Paul R)

No one’s talking about a dangerous new US housing trend. Why home equity agreements could trigger disaster for millions Yahoo! (Kevin W)

Surging gas prices worsen affordability crisis for Americans Financial Times

Sick in a Hospital Town: As Phoebe Memorial Grew, the Health of Albany, Georgia, Declined ProPublica (Robin K)

Unite and Untie Healthcare Kathleen Wallace (resilc)

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

And a bonus:

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3 comments

  1. Wukchumni

    Are you ready, Stephen? Uh-ha!
    Kristi? Yeah!
    Marco? Okay.

    All right, team, let’s go!

    Oh, it’s been getting so hard
    Livin’ with the things Biden did to me, ah-ha
    My dreams are getting so strange
    I’d like to tell you everything I see, mm

    Oh, I see a man an administration back as a matter of fact
    I blame him for everything under the sun
    And M T-G no longer in my corner, let no one ignore her
    ‘Cause she thinks she’s the passionate one

    Oh yeah, it was like lightning
    Everybody was frightening
    And the criticism was hardly soothing
    And they all started grooving
    Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

    And then the press hacks in the back said: “Everyone attack”
    And it turned into a ballroom on the fritz
    And a reporter from fake news said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
    It’ll turn into a ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz

    Oh, I’m reaching out to Fox News
    Doing nothing’s all I ever do
    Oh, I softly call them over
    When they appear, there’s nothing left to do, ah-ha

    Now the reporter at the back of the presser is ready to crack
    As he raises his hands to the sky
    And Karoline in my corner is everyone’s mourner
    She could kill any argument with a wink of her eye

    Oh yeah, it was electric
    So frantically hectic
    And the original architect ended up leaving
    Thank goodness Shalom is still breathing
    Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

    And the press hack in the back said: “Everyone attack”
    And it turned into a ballroom on the fritz
    And the fake news reporter said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
    It’ll turn into a ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz

    Oh yeah, it was like lightning
    Everybody was frightening
    And the criticism was hardly soothing
    ‘Cause they all started grooving
    Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

    And the press hacks in the back said: “Everyone attack”
    And it turned into a ballroom on the fritz
    And a fake news reporter said: “Boy, I wanna warn ya”
    It’ll turn into a ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz
    Ballroom on the fritz

    It’s, it’s a ballroom on the fritz
    It’s, it’s a ballroom on the fritz
    It’s, it’s a ballroom on the fritz
    Yeah, it’s a ballroom on the fritz

    Ballroom Blitz, by Sweet

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPQPdYttl7U&list=RDmPQPdYttl7U

    Reply ↓
  2. The Rev Kev

    ‘Ada Palmer
    @adapalmer@wandering.shop
    3,150-year-old papyrus reveals the world’s earliest recorded labour strike.’

    That is quite a remarkable document and still speaks of struggles that continue to this day. Seems that scabs were not invented until a later dynasty.

    Reply ↓
  3. PlutoniumKun

    Re: Patricia Marins tweet

    This is something which has been going on under the radar for a few years. Japan and ROK (and I suspect Taiwan too) have been looking closely at the way in which Israel has inserted itself into the US Military Industrial Complex and wants some of the action (both in terms of economic benefit, but probably more important, geopolitical leverage). Japan has been quietly providing crucial technological know-how for a range of the most cutting edge missile and stealth technologies, plus key technologies like high pressure ceramics and thermoplastics.

    The Koreans have been more overt – they’ve been investing heavily in Naval technology in particular, and have been busy investing in US shipyards. It seems inevitable that as soon as the next Navy ship fails (it seems they all do), the US will have no option but to turn to Korean shipyards, either in Korea, or more likely Korean owned and run shipyards in the US. Korea has been particularly active in filling in gaps in European capacity in aviation (T-50 trainers) and tanks (K2 Black Panther). I suspect that a lot of Taiwanese microchip technology is powering the latest generation of drones. Taiwan has also been very active in unmanned underwater technology (with or without US support), and seems to have discreet links with the new wave of Silicone Valley backed weapons manufacturers.

    Its easy to dismiss these countries as vassals – until you look very closely at what they do as opposed to what they say. Every US weakness is seen as an opportunity to strengthen their own long term strategic objectives. The mid sized Asian nations have profited over decades by taking a very long, cold look at their strategic strengths and weaknesses. Small countries can’t afford the luxury of bad decisions or putting idiots in charge.

    Reply ↓

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