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Links 1/2/2026

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Should US homebuilders emulate Sweden? Construction Physics

Some of your cells are not genetically yours — what can they tell us about life and death? Nature

Did fireworks on champagne bottles trigger deadly blaze in Swiss ski resort bar? Firstpost

Could Next-Generation Medicines Help Cure Opioid Addiction? Scientific American

Please stop mailing butt plugs to Bahrain Boing Boing

You’re Not A Doomer: The Radical Logic Against Positive News Nate Bear

Climate/Environment

Betting on the End of the World: 2026 Edition Watching the World Go Bye

High risk from coincidence of extremes in particulate matter and heat in India IOP Science

Pandemics

Americans brace to start New Year without healthcare BBC

China?

Taiwan’s President Lai pledges robust defence after China military drills Business Standard

China military drills near Taiwan ‘unnecessarily’ raise tensions: US Channel News Asia

Chinese Cargo Ship Converted To Launch Advanced Combat Drones Emerges The War Zone

China slashes hundreds of tariffs in strategic trade war twist Asia Times

Does Manufacturing Matter? ChinaTalk

India

Data centre surge reaches India as American tech giants invest billions Straits Times

Indian Army indigenises 91% of ammunition variants, cuts import dependence The Hindu Businessline

Syraqistan

Israel begins 2026 by killing more Palestinians, banning Gaza aid groups New Arab

Israel seizes planning powers over Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque from Palestinians Middle East Eye

Pro-Palestine march draws over half a million people to Istanbul’s Galata Bridge on New Year’s Day Anadolu Agency

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Aden airport closure deepens Saudi-UAE tensions in Yemen Al Mayadeen

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What to Watch in Iran’s Latest Protests Sina Toossi

Is Israel Weaponizing Protests In Iran For Regime Change? The Dissident

Africa

‘Baseless claims’: Somaliland denies agreeing to absorb displaced Palestinians The Cradle

European Disunion

Ship seized in Finland suspected of cable damage was carrying sanctioned Russian steel Euronews

Bulgaria adopts euro amid political uncertainty and protests TRT World

German exporters face prolonged slump in key U.S., China markets Reuters

Money flow running low, Germany on the hook The Duran

New German military plan views foreign sabotage as preparation for war Politico

Germany moves to produce TAURUS NEO to boost deep-strike Uk Defence Journal

New Not-So-Cold War

Yes, the CIA is Lying About the Drone Attack on Putin Larry Johnson

Did CIA’s Secret Aiding of Ukraine’s Refinery Strikes Do More Harm to Ukraine Than Russia? Simplicius

Nicolai Petro: Chaos After Ukraine Collapses Glenn Diesen

The Great Game

Rising Border Insecurity Puts Chinese Interests at Risk in Tajikistan The Times of Central Asia

South of the Border

Venezuela Deploys Combat Tested Iranian Long Range Strike Drones to Respond to U.S. Military Buildup Military Watch

Maduro says Venezuela open to talks with US, remains mum on dock attack Al Jazeera

“To the People of the United States, I Say That Here in Venezuela, You Have a Friendly People” Telesur

Congress Is Asking Who We’re Killing at Sea. This San Diego Lawyer Has an Answer — and No One Has Called After-Action Report

Trump 2.0

As Signs of Aging Emerge, Trump Responds With Defiance WSJ

TACO strikes again: Italian pasta becomes the latest product to have tariffs slashed by Trump The Independent

White House ‘looking at’ denaturalising Somali Americans for alleged fraud Telesur

Minnesota Fraud Distraction & Trump Tariffs Exposed: How Nationalist Capitalism Hurts Workers Egberto Off The Record

Federal Judges Blow the Whistle on DOJ Deception: 35+ Cases of Lies and “Sham” Evidence Allen Analysis

U.S. Treasury Lifts Sanctions on Executives Previously Linked to the Intellexa Company and Predator Spyware TechNadu

Wars Come Home

Immigration

Imperial Collapse Watch

The Bad Dream of Modernity Warwick Powell

THE END OF A GLOBALISATION THAT NEVER BEGAN Comidad

US seeks unpaid local interns at Greenland consulate as annexation threats loom Euractiv

The Accelerating Nature Of Financialization Collapse Ian Welsh

The Post-American Internet Cory Doctorow

Mamdani

New Mayor Mamdani’s affordability push in NYC faces economic headwinds in ’26 Gothamist

Tax the Rich, Say Mamdani, Sanders, and NYC Inauguration Crowd Common Dreams

AI

AI Labor Is Boring. AI Lust Is Big Business Wired

Accelerationists

Economy

Consumer spending powers the US economy. A K-shaped economy will further test this dynamic in 2026. Yahoo! Finance

Casino Nation

Bally’s casino jackpot winner says he hasn’t been paid a dime because of his immigration status CBS News

To Save Las Vegas, Pedestrianize the Strip Arbitrary Lines

Class Warfare

A Socialist Organizer’s Guide to 2026 Left Notes

Things are falling apart: where to look for leadership? Ann Pettifor

Time for one more thing. Working Class Storytelling

Antidote du jour (via):

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See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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6 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Did fireworks on champagne bottles trigger deadly blaze in Swiss ski resort bar?”

    This was a bar that attracted young people apparently and a specialty was serving bottles of champagne with several lit sparklers on them. The story is that a girl got onto the shoulders of her boyfriend and hoisted up a bottle in each hand which came in contact with the ceiling and started the fire. As wood won’t catch fire like that, then I can only assume that there was plastic on that ceiling which carried the flames. It’s a bad business. They think that it will take weeks to identify the bodies and no doubt the police have put together a list of missing people. Was in Crans-Montana for several weeks which was not a bad town but you can be sure that local kids were also caught up in this fire so will really hit this town hard.

    Reply ↓
    1. PlutoniumKun

      Time will tell as to what the cause of the fire was, but any Fire professional will tell you that its very easy to design and build a fire proof building, but almost impossible to keep it fireproof as owners have a bad habit of continually changing the interiors. For the most part (depends of course on the country), interior decorative changes don’t require Fire Code approval. And there are plenty of times when architects specify fire proofed materials to find that a contractor just switches to something cheaper during construction. Its particularly problematic in restaurants/bars as you have very large spaces combined with lots of furnishings. In any fire code I’m aware of, suspended ceilings are supposed to be made from fire proof materials, but it just takes one person to decide they want to cover it with something more decorative to create a potential hazard.

      In the apartment building I live in, we discovered by chance that a contractor had punched a hole through a one-hour fireproof barrier because someone decided to switch the position of a toilet by a couple of metres. It proved a very costly decision as the unit owner was forced to switch everything back and re-seal the void at their own expense.

      Reply ↓
  2. Louis Fyne

    being Reddit, can’t be verified. but a reasonable allegation that sounds like it’s straight from Uber (Eats) HQ, and a logical extension of what happens when you have de facto infinite (reasonably good) predictive algos.

    long length. one nugget: if you are a good tipper on the app, your delivery driver’s base pay offer will be cut, so that the top-line for the driver stays the same but HQ lowers labour costs

    https://old.reddit.com/r/confession/comments/1q1mzej/im_a_developer_for_a_major_food_delivery_app_the/

    Mr. Moran (the Uber follower should read the whole post)

    Reply ↓
    2. Historicality

      Those gig companies just can’t help screwing over people.

      Hey, the business model says do this.
      We have to do this.
      Or else chaos ensues our dividends are smaller.
      Look, a squirrel.
      Oh, were there people involved? Nah, just drivers.

      Reply ↓
  3. The Rev Kev

    “Please stop mailing butt plugs to Bahrain”

    Mailing that sort of stuff there was always going to be a pain in the a**. Somebody should film the troops marching in that country and try to determine which ones are walking kinda awkwardly.

    Reply ↓

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