Kazakhstan launches programme to reintroduce tigers to lost habitat BNE Intellinews
47 Tigers Die In Vietnam Zoos Due To H5N1 Bird Flu Virus: Report NDTV World
Climate
The Next Climate Conversation Is About Marine Clouds Persuasion
To slow global warming, could methane be stripped from the air? Science
* * * China could cut CO2 by a third by 2035 with new UN targets, think tank says Channel News Asia
This winding LA highway is notoriously treacherous. Extreme weather is making it worse Guardian
New assessment suggests Anthropocene started in the 1950s Phys.org
Botanists identify 33 global ‘dark spots’ with thousands of unknown plants Guardian
Hurricane Helene
Biden: Congress ‘may have to’ come back to approve Helene relief Politico
The Town Meeting North Carolina Rabbit Hole
US govt hiding top hurricane forecast model sparks outrage after deadly Helene The Register
Syndemics
Rwanda limits funeral sizes due to Marburg virus outbreak BBC
WHO DON: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Avian Flu Diary
Was Missouri’s bird flu case a one-off or something more? Quest for answers faces testing delay STAT
US Whooping Cough Outbreak Underscores Need for Timely Vaccines Bloomberg
The symptoms of ‘stronger’ Covid XEC variant and what to look out for Birmingham Live.
China?
China’s ‘World Bank’ gives backing to wave of renminbi bonds FT
China’s ‘golden week’ consumers unwilling to shell out as hairy crab prices tumble South China Morning Post
IN FOCUS: As expats exit Hong Kong and mainlanders enter, businesses and communities are counting the costs Channel News Asia
Myanmar
On Our Good Leg, We Rise: Fighting To Heal on Myanmar’s Front Lines The Diplomat
India
Google taps India’s love for gold to boost its credit play TechCrunch
Africa
China to bring Tanzania-Zambia railway back to full speed with US$1 billion boost South China Morning Post
Syraqistan
Consequences of Nasrallah New Left Review
Israel and Iran are at war — and if a nuclear site is hit, all bets for peace are off The London Standard. Commentary:
Vali @vali_Nasr is getting the point: whether we like it or not, whether it fits our political preferences or not, Iran's close ally, China, is rapidly and robustly becoming the only superpower.
So Iran can afford to wait, as per Sun Tzu's strategy. https://t.co/IP8wffsjJo pic.twitter.com/gv0zM4Dwqk— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) September 29, 2024
* * * Satellite Images Show Damage to Israel Air Force Base After Iran Attack Haaretz
Missile barrage on Israel: What were the ‘hypersonic’ weapons used by Iran? France24
Yemen’s Houthis claim drone attack on ‘vital target’ in central Israel Anadolu Agency
* * * Israel attacks heart of Beirut as Hezbollah pushes back in southern Lebanon Al Jazeera
Military briefing: Can Israel’s land offensive ‘defeat’ Hizbollah? FT
‘As if we don’t exist’: Under bombs in Lebanon, Americans feel abandoned Al Jazeera
* * * Israeli rabbi, extremists plan conquest and settlement of Lebanon as war continues The New Arab
U.S. Jewish Institutions Are Purging Their Staffs of Anti-Zionists In These Times
Your Crisis of Faith is not My Concern (There’s a Genocide Going on) Steve Salaita
European Disunion
Mystery deaths and mass layoffs: Europe’s green battery dream Northvolt turns sour France24
Western Balkans emerges as nearshoring destination BNE Intelliews
New Not-So-Cold War
The significance of Russia’s capture of the Ukrainian stronghold of Vuhledar France24
Winnipeg Jets unveil reimagined logo embroidered with Ukrainian heritage CBC
Kremlin says no request for Putin to speak with Scholz has been received Ukrainsks Pravda
High-voltage transmission lines damaged in Kharkiv suburbs due to Russian strike Ukrainska Pravda
2024
Kamala Harris, Liz Cheney to stump at birthplace of Republican Party FOX
* * * DoJ accuses Donald Trump of ‘private criminal effort’ to overturn 2020 election result FT
What newly unsealed evidence reveals about Trump’s alleged actions on and before Jan. 6 CBS
Trump not entitled to immunity for efforts to overturn 2020 election, US special counsel says France24
Digital Watch
WP Engine sues WordPress co-creator Mullenweg and Automattic, alleging abuse of power TechCrunch
The Final Frontier
October’s new moon will bring us a spectacular ‘ring of fire’ eclipse Space.com
Why Is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? Scientific American
Supply Chain
Recession fears stoked on day three of America’s port strike Splash247
Huge blow to motorists who face fuel price hikes if Middle East conflict rages on Daily Mail
Guillotine Watch
America’s Strategy of Renewal Antony J. Blinken, Foreign Affairs
Bridging Innovation and Empathy: Bill Gates’s “What’s Next?” 3 Quarks Daily
Class Warfare
Return to office and dying on the job Cory Doctorow, Medium
Ahead Lies Ruin: The Decay of Social Trust Charles Hugh Smith, Of Two Minds
Surrealism as a revolutionary movement Anti-Capitalist Resistance
Fredric Jameson, 1934-2024 Terry Eagleton, Verso
Tapia, Tabbi, Tabique, Tabby Places Journal
Antidote du jour (Charles J. Sharp):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
From Meryl Nass’s substack:
Today’s specials: Marburg and MERS
No one caught Ebola (a cousin of Marburg) on a plane or a train. Never mind–panic anyway! Then worry about MERS, a mor severe cousin of COVID
https://merylnass.substack.com/p/todays-specials-marburg-and-mers
It’s beginning to look a lot like weapons of mass destruction
Everywhere you go
Take a look at the Levant, it’s glistening once again
With ballistic missiles and delivery lanes that glow
It’s beginning to look a lot like thermonuclear near
Lurking in many an armament store
But the pettiest sight to see is the fallout that will be
On many a front door
Being in cahoots and a America that shoots
Is the wish of Bibi and Biden
Media that’ll not talk and will go for a walk
Is the hope of Zionism and lap doge
And the Donkey Show can hardly wait for world war to start again
It’s beginning to look a lot like WW3
Everywhere you go
There’s a war in the Holy Land, one in the Ukraine as well
It’s the usual kind that doesn’t mind the sorrow
It’s beginning to look a lot like it’ll happen by Christmas
Soon the klaxons & bells will start
And the thing that’ll make ’em ring is the dread that you sing
Right within your heart
Sure, it’s 1945 once more
“Military briefing: Can Israel’s land offensive ‘defeat’ Hizbollah?”
No. Oh, you want a longer comment? The IDF does not have the capability to occupy Lebanon up to the Litani river. If the IDF is still fighting Hamas in Gaza – who are bush-leaguers – after a year has gone by but are unable to get rid of them, then how are they supposed to fight the pros of Hezbollah? Gaza is flat. Southern Lebanon is mountainous and whatever Hezbollah has there, they have had a coupla decades to build it out. The IDF put in a platoon or more a day or so ago and ended up with 8 dead and about 40 in the hospital. You think that Israel will be able to sustain those sort of casualties each and every day? Probably the Hezbollah strategy will be to kill and wound as many Israelis as possible to make the IDF eventually buckle. Larry Johnson just came out and called out the Israelis for being cowards as they only know how to kill defenseless women and children. Let’s see how they go in ground combat against highly-trained professional soldiers with the high ground in their favour.
Thank you and well said, Rev.
It was interesting to read that the officers killed, captain and major, were in their early 20s. Bit odd.
Not unrelated, yesterday afternoon, an academic acquaintance advised that he’s under investigation by his employer for anti-semitism after writing some about the war and criticising Starmer. He’s being asked to retire quietly. If that news gets out, he will lose an irregular BBC gig.
Thank you, Colonel. You were noting the ages of those officers and how young they were. Scott Ritter was talking about this in a video a very long time ago and how it came down to how the IDF was structured. In a normal military organization officers are grown so if you met a British major for example, you would note that he has years of experience at each level of rank as he worked his way up to being a major. But the IDF is to a large extent a conscript army so they do not have the depth of officers to command those formations when they are activated. That is why you have 22 year-old captains and 23 year-old majors. Add in the fact that when you have casualties among officers an even younger guy is promoted you get a very inexperienced officer cadre.
Did all those immigrants from the the former Soviet Union not impart any of that classic Slavic equanimity in the face of suffering ? Budget for a few tens of thousands of KIA and they might be able to defeat Hezbollah. Proportionate to population that would be no more than the Ukrainians have lost in their fight against Russia.
“Return to office and dying on the job”
This has a 3 letter acronym in corporate techie circles (Slack and MSFT Teams channels mostly) -> RTO. As in, “don’t even look at working for that miserable company, they are threatening RTO”, etc.
Yes this is ham-fisted way to clean house and lay people off. And yes this is a better way to spy on your employees, ensuring they do nothing useful in the office instead of doing useful nothing at home. But I feel like this is also a ham-fisted way to attempt to go back to pre-pandemic bustling cities full of office workers commuting and spending $$.
https://wolfstreet.com/2024/10/01/epic-office-glut-hits-records-in-san-francisco-atlanta-chicago-los-angeles-seattle-washington-dc-dallas-availability-rate-dips-to-30-houston-rises-to-29/
C’mon, man. Those buggy-whips aren’t going to manufacture themselves. Gotta get that 2019 economy back again.
haha absolutely! Make San Francisco expensive again!
>Consequences of Nasrallah New Left Review
If the US leaders refuse to call the Israelis to heel, who can? Nasrallah understood Israel better than most. His successor will have to learn fast. The nineteenth-century German philosopher Bruno Bauer once wrote that ‘only he who knows its prey better than it knows itself can defeat it.’
But who is the prey? Are the “US leaders” able to call Israel to heel, or is Israel, like Ukraine, being used to control the ME? Does Israel via. it’s grip on US political/media/economic sectors, control the US leaders? Or are they both one and viewing them as separate a Hegelian dialectical intended to misdirect/confuse?
Are the “US leaders” able to call Israel to heel?
According to Gilbert Doctorow’s latest interview with Nima the Russian view is that the US are all in (regardless of what they say for public consumption)
And that they are sacrificing Israel in a proxy war in the same way that they have sacrificed Ukraine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlfcSi-Rr-s
(annoying sound effects from a neighbour’s power drill makes it harder to hear in the 2nd half but still watchable)
Lee Fang looks at ILA Union leadership and it’s not pretty.
https://open.substack.com/pub/leefang/p/longshoremen-strike-highlights-deep?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=jz47a
Meanwhile, in North Carolina…
Experienced pilot rescuing flood victims in NC ordered to stop, threatened with arrest
https://x.com/Breaking911/status/1841554196576759991
and this
This is Johnathan Howard, he’s up there running major rescue operations.
https://x.com/GardensR4Health/status/1841478510889648518
Thanks flora, both of these videos are must watch.
I’ll have you know flora, that those tweets caused me to utter most unchristian-like language in front of my computer. Good thing the wife was elsewhere. The military is still waiting for Title 10 authority still? Really? How many days has it been now since that hurricane hit – about six days now?
The idea that the powers that be don’t want anybody to see just how bad the carnage asada is in NC, is indicative of the wrath wrought.
Just because you have military helicopters on the ground doesn’t mean they necessarily work, as in grounded.
A friend was in the army in West Germany in 1973 when the Yom Kippur war broke out, and he estimated that 3/4’s of the U.S. tanks had been shipped to Israel in a hurry, the cupboard being a bit barren.
Probably the greatest secret that the US has right now is the state of their military inventories and stockpiles of ammo. I’m willing to bet that quite a few weapons depots are now standing empty. That is certainly true of the UK so probably true of the US as well.
‘Suppose they gave a war and nobody had any ammo to bring.’
I certainly would salute the flag of the “People’s Republic of Fulham.”
Up to 1,000 soldiers from Fort Liberty, N.C., will deploy to help get food, water and critical aid to communities still reeling from Hurricane Helene, the Defense Department announced Wednesday…They join roughly 6,500 National Guard troops from a dozen states working on hurricane recovery across the southeast.
…
The Defense Department has also already provided Army and Navy helicopters and crews to move personnel and supplies where roads are not safe, search-and-rescue teams from the Air Force and high-wheeled Army vehicles and crews. The Army Corps of Engineers has sent temporary power teams, route clearance teams, water and wastewater management experts and bridge inspectors.
https://www.stripes.com/branches/army/2024-10-02/military-hurricane-helene-recovery-15382039.html
Good.
Latest update (yesterday) from Congressman Edwards office.
https://edwards.house.gov/media/press-releases/hurricane-helene-update-5-congressman-edwards
Not to worry, Biden/Kamala have promised $750 to residents to help rebuild and get through this natural disaster (although they may not get it too soon, still waiting for that promised $600 Covid check).
What if Biden/Kamala say that they will give that $750 to residents to help rebuild and get through this natural disaster – just as soon as they are re-elected. If you remember, that is what they said about that $600.
We had something similar, if a bit longer delayed happen in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Roughly speaking, turf wars between ‘local’ “officials” and “organizations” and outsiders who came in and donated real services and materials were ignited by the ‘local’ powers trying, and eventually succeeding, to monopolize rescue and supply operations after the disaster. The local powers demonstrated that, if something useful could not be placed under their direct control, then the effected people got nothing.
Next up, the locals in Appalachia should look long and hard at the “recovery” efforts proposed by the “official” actors. A stealth power grab and economic consolidation by the upper income elites happened after Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The same might happen in Appalachia. Watch closely any proposals about “upgrading” building codes, police and fire department “rules,” and tax rates and definitions.
I hesitate to say this, but in such chaotic conditions, legal remedies for such power grabs are non-existent. By the time the people find out about and prepare to fight the power grabs, it is already too late. The law changes will be already in effect, and often weaponized to suppress popular outrage. The only recourse then will be ‘illegal’ methods.
Stay safe. Stack deep.
If I lived in the US, I would be very loath to donate to any special appeals by the American Red Cross for money for those victims-
https://slate.com/business/2017/08/dont-give-money-to-the-red-cross-we-need-a-new-way.html
To slow global warming, could methane be stripped from the air?. In a word, “No”.
Articles like that are making me hate scientists and engineers.
My Brother in Christ, just consume less. You can’t engineer your way out of these problems. It’s like Godel’s Incompleteness Theorem… you’ll have to keep inventing systems outside the current one in order to solve/explain it… ad infinitum.
Billions of chimps who are fiending for that black gold. Can’t kick the habit because they’ll die of withdrawals…
>Why Is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?
Because Stanley Kubrick passed away…just kidding (or maybe not).
Heh.
In my view it’s a combination of the roots of the program (especially in Ares and that misbegotten kludge of a rocket) and decades of incentivizing progress and not results.
It’s why over two decades after I worked on a Mars Sample Return proposal as an ISU intern at Boeing HSF&E the U.S. is still working on MSR. We don’t really have a strategy for our space efforts, other than Mars, for which the Moon is seen as an annoying diversion.
China does have a strategy, that of looking for energy & resources on the Moon to better their tribe. The same reason humanity has always used to go over that next hill. I made myself a bit of a Moon expert after ISU, and they’re not wrong. I even have a modicum of respect for their efforts; they tell us what they’re going to do in the next five years and then they, you know, do it.
Pro quoll cool on the antidote, love the nose and spots on that beastie~
I’m reasonably sure that, in my younger days, I saw several of those beasties after a night of drinking and other ‘recreational’ ingestions.
Al Jazeera have (has?) released a long (1hr21min) investigative feature
https://youtu.be/kPE6vbKix6A
This feature length investigation by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit exposes Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip through the medium of photos and videos posted online by Israeli soldiers themselves during the year long conflict.
The I-Unit has built up a database of thousands of videos, photos and social media posts. Where possible it has identified the posters and those who appear.
The material reveals a range of illegal activities, from wanton destruction and looting to the demolition of entire neighbourhoods and murder.
The film also tells the story of the war through the eyes of Palestinian journalists, human rights workers and ordinary residents of the Gaza Strip. And it exposes the complicity of Western governments – in particular the use of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus as a base for British surveillance flights over Gaza.
“The west cannot hide, they cannot claim ignorance. Nobody can say they didn’t know,” says Palestinian writer, Susan Abulhawa.This is “the first livestream genocide in history … If people are ignorant they are wilfully ignorant,” she says
Powerful article by Steven Salaita, can’t find anything to disagree with. Zionism must be dustbinned like every other fascism.
>America’s Strategy of Renewal Antony J. Blinken, Foreign Affairs
We were similarly clear-eyed when it came to blah blah blah…
Appropriately this article was subsumed under Guillotine Watch. Blinken certainly has an interesting biography, and I’m not talking about the one on Wiki.
Blinken’s wife has an interesting biography, too. Among other things, she is the granddaughter of James J. Rowley, the head of the Secret Service from 1961-1973 (some rather important years). You won’t find that information on her Wiki page.
Re The Town Meeting–key takeaway
“the Ingles was back open”
Wish mine was. Seriously though the key info may be that I-40 is open to the east and the governor has said that residents can also flee via I-26 to the south even if rubberneckers coming up the other side of the highway are unwelcome. So while a crisis exists, those with somewhere else to go–probably the wealthier residents–can go there.
As for the notion that life without power or cellphones is bizarre, those of us who go camping for just such an experience are somewhat unmoved. The real crisis is not having access to those groceries and of course water.
We all may need to become a little bit prepper given a climate worsening that we all have contributed to. It sounds like Black Mountain is handling it.
since all this started, ive been wondering: is this the same Black Mountain in Black Mountain Manifesto?
as for learning to live without the modern world…as i keep saying…it can be done…but it aint in any way easy, and cant be just started up on the fly.
ie: learn how to build a fire in the wet woods when you do not NEED to.
etc.
Yes–once home to a famous artist’s colony.
I don’t think it’s connected to the Dark Mountain Manifesto.
It was, however, the home of Black Mountain College.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mountain_College
Huge blow to motorists who face fuel price hikes if Middle East conflict rages on No shit. From the department of “Least of our worries”.
Long time lurker, but first time poster.
In relation to the article on expats leaving Hong Kong is an interesting one by Kit Klarenberg about the influx of Hong Kongers into Shenzen.
Thought I would post it even though the article is from back in May.
http://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/cia-hong-kong-agitators-reject-revolution
Recommended Substack article by USA east coast based geopolitical analyst,
Marat Khairullin (https://x.com/RealKhairullin)
on the functionaries that Putin strongly relies upon & the post SMO border possibilities.
Russia’s Ukrainian Dilemma
https://maratkhairullin.substack.com/p/you-cant-give-it-away-and-you-cant?publication_id=2099482&post_id=149737760&isFreemail=true&r=35fvyq&triedRedirect=true
This winding LA highway is notoriously treacherous. Extreme weather is making it worse Guardian
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Grapevine is no biggie normally, but add inclement weather and over 4,000 feet altitude at tallest vine, and things get dicey quick. That road don’t look good in snow, and the SoCalist movement isn’t used to frozen goods.
A few miles from the highest point on the Grapevine lies Fort Tejon, an ideal bathroom stop and your chance to see a circa mid 19th century military fort, once the location of the United States Camel Corps for 6 months, in 1860.
https://forttejon.org/camel.html
Ukrainian heritage (more or less in its entirety):
– red & black flag
– blue & yellow flag
– a fork
– F-16
– fleeing to Canada