The robot cars have come for the kids New York Times
Fly-arousing orchid and zombie fungus among 2025 botanical and fungal finds The Guardian
A new drug in the middle of clinical trials just increased REM sleep by 90% without making people sleep longer!
This is the first medication ever to specifically enhance REM only and the implications go far beyond seizure control.
Here’s what just happened. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/2Htew1CbcD
— drMAWZ (@TheDrMAWZ) January 9, 2026
Climate/Environment
World’s richest 1% have already used fair share of emissions for 2026, says Oxfam The Guardian
Pandemics
How many is too many? M (Is) Living With Long Covid
SARS-CoV-2 damages key brain regions involved in empathy, impulse control, and executive function, leading to impaired social cognition and democratic erosion.
Reinfections compound neuroinflammation, fueling tribalism, misinformation, and fear-driven behavior.🧵 pic.twitter.com/VzlreAlryK
— David Lingenfelter, PhD (@dlingenfelter) January 9, 2026
China?
US to urge G7 and partners to cut reliance on China for critical minerals Firstpost
The “Trump Doctrine” Is Shaped By Elbridge Colby’s “Strategy Of Denial” Andrew Korybko
Why Deepseek Appeasing Karens is Key to CCP Stability ChinaTalk
India
Indian shares slide as Trump backs 500% tariff on New Delhi Intellinews
BRICS wargames: Why they matter, why India opted out Al Jazeera
Syraqistan
Israel Plans to Resume Gaza Onslaught in March Antiwar
***
‘Organized network’ carried out Daesh‑like attacks in Iranian cities: Security chief Press TV. “109 security personnel had been killed in the riots across the country.”
The Enduring State: Why Iran’s Protests are Unlikely to Induce Regime Change Kautilya The Contemplator
Iran was able to successfully BLACKOUT Starlink using military jammers.
Starlink has become first tool deployed wherever US backs regime change.
Bangladesh, Venezuela, Syria, now Iran. This time it seems the counter-tech may have come from Russia. pic.twitter.com/7dG6qLapkI
— The Poll Lady (@ThePollLady) January 11, 2026
Will Elon Musk’s X changing the Iranian flag have any impact on the ground? Al Jazeera
The CIA/Mossad Operation to Spark a Color Revolution in Iran has Failed Larry Johnson
US weighing ‘very strong options’ on Iran — Trump TRT World
Iran warns Israel, US that if Washington attacks, military and shipping centers would be ‘legitimate targets’ Anadolu Agency
US military warns Trump against Iran strikes The Telegraph
📢🇮🇷🇺🇸 JUST NOW: Americans Wake Up!
Senator Lindsey Graham ADMITS the U.S. will attack Iran and overthrow their government for ISRAEL.
Can the rest of congress stop another forever war that puts us in more debt and only helps Israel. pic.twitter.com/CTH4SrO2Tp
— Ryan Rozbiani (@RyanRozbiani) January 12, 2026
Netanyahu hopes to ‘taper’ Israel off U.S. military aid in next decade NBC News
Old Blighty
Court of Session Tomorrow on Palestine Action Craig Murray
European Disunion
Kallas pitches new Iran sanctions Politico
Trump Cronies Hired By Greenland Mining Company As Threat Grows Nate Bear
EU official plotted to ‘organise resistance’ against Hungary’s Orban, files show The Grayzone
Germany’s CSU pushes war, police-state measures and social cuts at Seeon retreat WSWS
New Not-So-Cold War
Blocking detachments and new fortifications Events in Ukraine
The New Baltic War, or Scandinavians Only Understand “Kuzka’s Mother” Marat Khairullin Substack
Nederlandse oud-militair Hendrik openhartig over verschrikkingen aan Oekraïens front: ’Elke morgen werd de nazi-groet gebracht’ De Telegraaf. A dutch mercenary details experience with Nazis and drug cartels in Ukraine.
Ukraine war briefing: Nightfall – Britain races to develop ballistic missile for Kyiv The Guardian
Moscow denounces UK’s ‘salacious fantasies’ of kidnapping Putin RT
South of the Border
Trump Declares National Emergency to Protect Stolen Venezuela Funds Antiwar
Venezuela Raid – Aftermath Black Mountain Analysis
Venezuela informa regreso del buque Minerva en operación conjunta con EE.UU. Telesur
Trump ‘inclined’ to keep Exxon out of Venezuela after CEO calls it ‘uninvestable’ Reuters
***
‘Sounds good to me’: Trump suggests Rubio as Cuba’s president, issues warning Firstpost
On the Streets of Havana, Hope That a Lack of Oil to Steal Staves Off a U.S. Attack Ryan Grim
***
Argentina reportedly delaying embassy move over Israeli company’s oil project near Falklands Jerusalem Post
Unmasking the Flames: Israel’s Shadow Over Patagonia and Milei’s Betrayal of Argentina DD Geopolitics
“Derecha latinoamericana”, por Jerge (@monerojerge). #CartónDelAverno pic.twitter.com/lUDPjkLCAQ
— El Chamuco (@El_Chamuco) December 16, 2025
Trump 2.0
Fed Chair Powell says he’s under criminal investigation, won’t bow to Trump intimidation CNBC
Monopoly Round-Up: Why Did Trump Just Attack the Fed and Corporate America? BIG by Matt Stoller
***
How Trump gave the green light for the killing of protestors. Borderland Talk with Jenn Budd
War is Trump’s answer to the affordability crisis Stephen Semler
Nobel Institute rejects Machado’s peace prize offer to Trump Axios
Noem Issues New Order Restricting Lawmakers’ Oversight of ICE Facilities NOTUS
⚡️🇺🇸JUST IN:
BASH: “I remember a time when Republicans were very careful about the government having access to personal data”
Kristi Noem: “We can’t trust our government anymore.”
Bash: “You are the government.”
Noem: “Yes, that’s what I’m saying.”pic.twitter.com/IT2q72FLon
— Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws1) January 11, 2026
Police State Watch
Enforcement Regime Michale Macher, Phenomenal World. Well worth a read.
How a 40-second encounter led an ICE agent to shoot and kill a Twin Cities resident Minnesota Star Tribune. Comprehensive report and not a good one for ICE.
I have a theory… https://t.co/9VA6AArQNz pic.twitter.com/RkbCflq7pQ
— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) January 10, 2026
Want to Stop ICE? Go After Its Corporate Collaborators Labor Politics
Weimar Republic
U-Haul drives through crowd of protesters in Westwood NBC Los Angeles
Accelerationists
.@Palantirtech cofounder Joe Lonsdale just endorsed apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia and said the US should move toward their model of open white supremacy.
He is one of the funders of the AI industry super PAC along with @OpenAI president Greg Brockman & @a16z. pic.twitter.com/vpAYQ5lvEB
— Garrison Lovely (@GarrisonLovely) January 11, 2026
My final message before I’m on an FBI watchlist: Palantir, Epstein, & The New York Times Juan Sebastian Pinto. From a former Palantir employee.
35 Theses on the WASPs Scholar’s Stage
Immigration
Family seeks answers after ICE deported man to Costa Rica in vegetative state The Guardian
2028
AOC: ICE Killing of Renee Good Exposes ‘Fundamental Difference’ Between Herself and JD Vance Common Dreams
Emanuel targets GOP and Dems as he tests 2028 campaign Axios
Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani Is A Tool Of Empire Nate Bear
Imperial Collapse Watch
The US Empire is Going SUPERNOVA Simplicius
The Emotional Stress of Imperial Decline Un-Diplomatic
ASSA 2026: part one, the mainstream – AI, tariffs, inflation and the dollar Michael Roberts
AI
Our Famously Free Press
From New York Times Shanghai bureau chief to U.S. intelligence contractor All-Source Intelligence
Jessica Plichta is a 22-year-old preschool teacher and anti-war activist based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She helps organize with Grand Rapids Opponents of War. On January 3, 2026, she was arrested live on camera during a broadcast interview with local station WZZM-13 after… https://t.co/YJO0IRd0pi pic.twitter.com/a3EeGDdD0F
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) January 11, 2026
Economy
The ‘No Hire’ Economy Apricitas Economics
Casino Nation
Prediction Marketplace Now Allows Users To Speculate on Future Home Values Realtor.com
Apollo just released a 126 page report on the state of the housing and real estate market
Some charts that caught my eye
🧵
1/ Average monthly mortgage payment on a new 30 year mortgage now sits at $2665 pic.twitter.com/8N04vGZpi3
— Boring_Business (@BoringBiz_) January 10, 2026
Class Warfare
In just over a year, individualized surveillance pricing has evolved from a thing that most people can hardly believe is happening to a central feature of Google’s bid to mediate the entire retail economy. https://t.co/OUup9zWgig pic.twitter.com/Sdm5inac9z
— Lee Hepner (@LeeHepner) January 11, 2026
Here’s How You Can Challenge Wage Garnishment for Defaulted Student Loans Truthout
Strata: The Consolations and Invitations of Deep Time The Marginalian
Good morning. Here’s Bob Weir performing “Morning Dew” on stage for the 408th and final time, featuring Sturgill MF’n Simpson no less.🔥 pic.twitter.com/TbVicV4r3d
— friendscallmeJay (@Jaypotta) January 11, 2026
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
‘The Poll Lady
@ThePollLady
Iran was able to successfully BLACKOUT Starlink using military jammers.
Starlink has become first tool deployed wherever US backs regime change.
Bangladesh, Venezuela, Syria, now Iran. This time it seems the counter-tech may have come from Russia.’
I wonder if we set up a GoFundMe for the Russians, that they could work out a way to knock every Starlink satellite out of orbit so that we could get our night skies back again.
Dear Dr Maws,
It’s terrific that there’s a new drug that improves sleep, but isn’t it concerning that, these days, people need to pop pills just to get a good nights rest?
At your service,
mrsyk
I notice that the total sleep time for that study was 9 hours. How many people get to sleep 9 hours solid these days, especially those holding two or more jobs?
“I slept great last night, but I was so late to work today I got fired.”
From the graphic it seems they’re eliminating deep sleep! That can’t be healthy.
Yes, that was my first thought. Deep sleep, aka slow wave sleep, is where most of the metabolic magic and healing happens. REM sleep probably has lots of importance for memory processing and adjustment to the surrounding environment and events of life.
kinda like deciding which child you love more….
RE: World’s richest 1% have already used fair share of emissions for 2026, says Oxfam
This story seems highly relevant. As conditions inevitably worsen, these people will have every incentive to continue to limit the choices of the 99% of us so that they may continue their own consumption; otherwise, what’s the point of being a billionaire?
Re today’s Antidote du jour. The original tweet has this attached to it-
‘B&S
@_B___S
This is what greets you when you get to heaven.✨
What a beautiful thought that every dog you have ever loved and lost, would be waiting to greet you!!’
Man that’s a lot of dogs.
Heaven!
So, if I have this right, our cats will guide us across the river where we will meet up with our dogs. Sign me up.
Met by cats may signify that your necrodestination is is quite a bit south of heaven?
re: AI layoffs are looking more and more like corporate fiction that’s masking a darker reality, Oxford Economics suggests – Fortune
Catherine Austin Fitts and guest suggest it’s PE that’s driving layoffs and job loss. short utube clip
Private-Equity Companies Are Responsible for a Number of Large Bankruptcies, Decimating the Tax Base
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbGDGMg0teM
I would speculate that PE is behind the Powell “investigation” as well. Admittedly, I have strong priors here.
“US to urge G7 and partners to cut reliance on China for critical minerals”
Is this like the time that the US demanded that the G-7 and their partners nations stop using Russian energy – but then still continued to import refined uranium from Russia? Unless those Chinese sources of critical minerals can be replaced by alternate sources, any such attempt would only serve to cripple the economy of those countries that tried to go cold turkey. Having said that, I am sure that that is exactly what the EU will do.
Today’s recommendation. Scroll down the links list to Weir’s “Morning Dew” and click on the performance. Go up and reinitiate the scroll on links with this music as background. I didn’t know this piece of music before but it makes good company!
“Trump ‘inclined’ to keep Exxon out of Venezuela after CEO calls it ‘uninvestable'”
Right now I am willing to bet that that CEO of Exon is having a strong drink and thanking all that is holy at dodging the bullet of having his corporation get sunk into Venezuela but being able to walk away.
F’realz …
#JFC
Disclaimer: I do not have a #TruthSocial account, so I can’t verify this
… but Margaret Kimberly retweeted Brian Berletic claiming Trump has now declared himself acting president of Venezuela (via X).
#WTAF