Rare Roman Panther Figurine with Its Paws on a Severed Head Is a Propaganda Tool Used in Britain ZME Science
Climate/Environment
Climate change: from top to bottom Climate Lab Book
Climate crisis could cause global financial crash as economic models fail to capture risk The Independent
A NORDIC PERSPECTIVE ON AMOC TIPPING TemaNord
‘Rush’ for new coal in China hits record high in 2025 as climate deadline looms Carbon Brief
Japan
Don’t Buy Scare Stories About JGBs, Dollar, Carry Trade, and US Finances Japan Economy Watch
India
Strategic Illusions of Modi Government and its Alliance with American Imperialism Countercurrents
What’s the potential cost of India’s US$100 billion bet on AI data centres? Channel News Asia
Snakes on trains: Are king cobras being transported to new, unsuitable areas, through India’s vast railway system, asks study Down to Earth
China?
US, China opt out of joint declaration on use of AI in military Straits Times
U.S. ATACMS Ballistic Missiles Deploying on Dongyin Island 16km From Chinese Mainland’s Coast Military Watch
Supply chains and China’s Hormuz imperative Asia Times
Syraqistan
No end in sight: Reflections on recent literature on the destruction of Gaza Wolfgang Streeck, European Journal of Social Theory
U.S. secretly deporting Palestinians to West Bank in coordination with Israel +972 Magazine. On a private jet belonging to Israeli-American tycoon close to Trump.
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Mediators propose framework for crucial Iran-US talks this week Al Jazeera
Ahead of US-Iran talks, Netanyahu said to tout ‘buildup of conditions’ for regime’s collapse Times of Israel
US virtual embassy urges citizens to leave Iran ‘now’ Anadolu Agency
Middle East Preparing For War Ahead Of U.S.-Iran Negotiations The War Zone
Bottom of the Barrel William Schryver
Iran says 2 ‘fuel smuggling’ vessels seized in Persian Gulf Anadolu Agency
Africa
Trump Goes From ‘Coup Curious’ to ‘Coup Friendly’ World Politics Review
Horn Of Africa Becoming ‘Battleground’ For Rival Gulf Monarchies AFP
European Disunion
Italian investigated over claims he paid to shoot people during siege of Sarajevo The Guardian
Old Blighty
The Mandelson Scandal is about Wall Street Power and Political Deviance Ann Pettifor
THE 24-SITE US MILITARY NETWORK IN BRITAIN WORTH £11 BILLION Declassified UK
New Not-So-Cold War
Kiev Thermal Plant Said to Be “Gone” in New Post-“Truce” Strikes, + Detailed BDA Analysis Simplicius
Merchants of Sex or “The Picture of Volodymyr Zelenskyy” East’s Substack
Fair is foul, and foul is fair Julian MacFarlane
Russia ups ante by flying own flag on oil tankers Intellinews
Scoop: U.S. and Russia agree to observe New START nuclear pact after expiration Axios
South of the Border
U.S. strikes another alleged drug boat, killing 2 ‘narco-terrorists’ NBC News
Cuba willing to talk with US but ‘without pressure or preconditions’ France24
Cuba Responds to U.S. Oil Blockade With Energy Self-Sufficiency Plan TeleSUR
Over 480 Deaths Reported in El Salvador’s Prisons Under State of Exception Orinoco Tribune
El Salvador Featured at National Prayer Breakfast as Trump Hails Bukele as Ally El Salvador in English
L’affaire Epstein
Since we now apparently live in a reality where the most bizarre possibility is what is real, we have to inform you that Jeffrey Epstein‘s Fortnite account is live and active in Israel multiple times in the last year alone. pic.twitter.com/MVGQ6ErZda
— Dissident Media (@DissidentMedia) February 5, 2026
Epstein Files: Former Steve Bannon Associate Alleged He Was A Conduit For Epstein And Israeli Influence In The White House. The Dissident
The criminal elite exposed in the Epstein files are burying the truth Jonathan Cook
It’s wild that you’re simultaneously peddling that Epstein was a Russian asset but also needed a disgraced British peer to obtain a Russian visa. Your glaring lack of credibility comes from the fact that you, too, are ran by Zionist pedophiles, just like Epstein was.
— Tiberius (@tiberiusfiles) February 5, 2026
The Kremlin must be exhausted running literally everything. https://t.co/12AALVCJRh
— Brian McDonald (@27khv) February 5, 2026
Epstein Emails Expose How America’s Elites Really See the Rest of Us Egberto Off The Record
Who entered Epstein’s jail tier the night of his death? Newly released video logs appear to contradict official accounts. CBS News. “An orange-colored shape.”
From Putin’s Kiss to Jeffrey Epstein The After-Action Report. Another alleged blackmail ring, this one operating in Silicon Valley.
Trump 2.0
Trump prepares to rig—or cancel—the 2026 elections WSWS
Emails reveal possible command structure for immigration Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago ABC7
Wait! The public face of nationwide immigration enforcement, Gregory Bovino, said in a newly discovered email that his boss wasn’t the head of CBP. He reported to Corey Lewandowski instead.
Lewandowski is a political operative with zero law-enforcement background calling the… pic.twitter.com/RYhqKg5sTk
— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) February 5, 2026
Reporter: Can you guarantee that ICE will not be around polling locations in November?
Leavitt: I can’t guarantee that an ICE agent won’t be around a polling location in November. That’s a silly hypothetical question. That’s a disingenuous question. pic.twitter.com/eoVFevneBZ
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 5, 2026
Democrats Suck
Hakeem Jeffries went from “no masks” to “no masks in an arbitrary and capricious fashion.” Schumer has adopted a similar position. At some point, you have to take a stand on something. Not allowing armed men in masks to roam our streets seems like an easy one. Apparently not. pic.twitter.com/sDjSZswqtn
— Alvaro Bedoya (@BedoyaUSA) February 5, 2026
Police State Watch
BREAKING: DOJ Empowers Board of Immigration Appeals to Strip Due Process From Migrants Migrant Insider
🚨Another day, another video of ICE agents illegally detaining a U.S. citizen and demanding “proof of citizenship,” in Minneapolis.
In the video, you can see agents stop a car and immediately demand ID, without a warrant or probable cause.
That is illegal.
After running the… pic.twitter.com/tVLGSEVn6G
— Jesus Freakin Congress (@TheJFreakinC) February 5, 2026
The Paramilitary ICE and CBP Units at the Center of Minnesota’s Killings Wired
Anti-ICE Organizing Is Creating Counter-Institutions Based on Care Truthout
In ICE’s War, the Public Is Winning Ken Klippenstein
Escalation as Policy: ICE, Federal Power, and the Struggle Over Democratic Control TACT
Minnesota Fraud
The real reason behind Minnesota’s Somali fraud scandal Matt Bruenig, The Argument
Our Famously Free Press
Jeff Bezos Just Taught Liberal Elites How Oligarchy Really Works BIG by Matt Stoller
Hegseth to take control of Stars & Stripes for ‘warfighter’ makeover Responsible Statecraft
The Grayzone BLOCKED by Paypal on political grounds
This October, Paypal suspended The Grayzone’s account, blocking our audience from donating to us without explaining anything to them, and preventing us from accessing several thousand dollars already in the account.
In… pic.twitter.com/Dd34z2mj2l
— The Grayzone (@TheGrayzoneNews) February 5, 2026
AI
Bypassing the Grid: How Data Centers Are Building Their Own Power Plants Distilled
The Trends and Prospects of the Trump Administration’s Nuclear Renaissance Strategy by CUI Shoujun ChinAffairs
Four Ways States Are Taking on the Data Center Machine Boondoggle
Is the Great AI meltdown imminent? [NSFW] Gary Marcus
Imperial Collapse Watch
Digital deterrence: AI becomes Washington’s newest weapon of hegemony The Cradle
Accelerationists
Venture Capitalists Are Using Profits From Genocide to Fund AI-Powered Weapons Truthout
Sports Desk
2026 Winter Olympics: Why rumors of penis injections of hyaluronic acid is doping concern for WADA CBS Sports
Book Nook
How Romance, Romantasy, and “Smut” Took Over Publishing and Entertainment: A Statistical Analysis Stat Significant
Crapification
BMW Commits to Subscriptions Even After Heated Seat Debacle The Drive
The Bezzle
The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin: Blockchain’s “Digital Gold” Faces a Crisis of Faith Amid a 67% Plunge Frame the Globe News
Class Warfare
The Housing Crisis as a Land Crisis Progress and Poverty
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
‘The Grayzone
@TheGrayzoneNews
The Grayzone BLOCKED by Paypal on political grounds
This October, Paypal suspended The Grayzone’s account, blocking our audience from donating to us without explaining anything to them, and preventing us from accessing several thousand dollars already in the account.’
It’s not like the GrayZone did not have plenty of notice that this could happen. PayPal suspended the WikiLeaks account and that was fifteen years ago so this could have happened at any time. Had a weird experience with PayPal yesterday. I let my wife use my old PayPal account to order something. I soon got an email from that seller that had the last 4 digits of the bank account attached to that PayPal account (which I never use for any other purpose). How does that work out? PayPal is not suppose to disclose such information to seller and yet they had it. Zero trust with PayPal.
In the ICE video clip, note the different front and rear license plates on the Nissan Titan. Swapping license plates is a very common tactic ICE/CPB agents are using to try and make it difficult for citizens to track their movements.
On AI, this podcast by astrophysicist David Kipping (exoplanets and exomoons) has gotten a lot of attention. He happened to attend a meeting on AI at the institute for advanced study and was startled by what he saw.
https://youtu.be/PctlBxRh0p4?si=vOIbxopXE3FLrgX3
AI does a lot of things simply much better than humans do, the most obvious example is writing code where there was a consensus that AI has achieved “coding supremacy”. A lot of people are delegating tasks to AI such as writing and editing documents. One person had an AI review graduate school applications and apparently it did really well. People recognized that there are issues of privacy, money, etc but at the same time the advantage of using AI is just too great. David Kipping compared not using AI to not using Google maps or not using the Internet.
(It is probably the case that if you are better at code yourself, you’ll be a more effective user of AI coding).
I agree on the advantage. I’m an academic as well. To do my job well and fully and satisfy everybody, id probably need to work 70 hours a week, but then my health and my children would be fully abandoned.
I worry though that in twenty five years there won’t be as many opportunities for young people, they won’t be able to become artists or scientists or doctors, which is already a hard thing to achieve.
Do not present the opinion of someone who is neither a software professional nor an AI maven as definitive. His view in fact appears to be flat out false.
From in January, as in fresh, from AI Coding Assistants Are Getting Worse:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/sheffield-battery-energy-storage-system-research
And a late December study by Code Rabbit: Our new report: AI code creates 1.7x more problems
https://www.coderabbit.ai/blog/state-of-ai-vs-human-code-generation-report
https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-coding-degrades
https://spectrum.ieee.org/ai-coding-degrades
The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin: Blockchain’s “Digital Gold” Faces a Crisis of Faith Amid a 67% Plunge Frame the Globe News
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There is a lot of selling of ‘packaged air’, and where do the proceeds go that wont leave a trail of spoor?