A few brief notes. First, the mods, writers, and many readers have recently noticed the absence of regular commenter-extraordinare Wukchumi and were concerned. We just recently received word that he is indeed alive and well and just enjoying some downtime. We look forward to his return!
Second, unfortunately Yves had a pressing matter arise that she needed to deal with urgently and so won’t have an Iran war update today. Based on the very positive reactions earlier this week to the piece by Joseph Busby, we trust you will be pleased with his offering today, ‘Russia’s Arctic Route.’
New study reveals how space rocks become meteorites Seti Institute
Cyborg cockroaches with tiny syringes designed to join search and rescue teams in major disasters The Guardian. Surely only to be used in search and rescue missions.
‘There’s a bat in my mouth’: Virginia doctor’s bat nightmare goes viral WRAL
Climate/Environment
One country seems immune to global warming. And nobody knows why Science Focus. “Immune”??
As horrible as the Nepal disaster is, that’s not the story.
The Himalayan glaciers, source of water for the Asian subcontinent, are collapsing.
Soon, some 2B people will be forced to migrate.
Wherever they show up, they’ll be met with machine guns.
The coal mine canary is dead.— Stan Willenbring (@StanWillenbring) August 27, 2026
An integrative method for identifying potentially dangerous glacial lakes in the Himalayas Science of the Total Environment. From 2022, still germane.
Glaciers in the Alps are on track for record-breaking ice loss New Scientist
‘Visual symbol of climate change’: Mount Robson’s Berg Glacier no longer reaches lake CBC
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Southern California currently has the highest humidity in the U.S., even surpassing Florida.
The dew point over the Salton Sea reached a stifling 81°F, while Los Angeles hit 73°F, comparable to the Amazon rainforest and quite possibly its highest value on record. pic.twitter.com/PCDbv2cBPI
— Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) August 28, 2026
Pandemics
How Covid-19 and Long Covid Prevention Guidance Has Changed Since 2023 John Snow Project
China?
What China’s Top Economic Body Is Actually Saying Inside China
Beijing swaps credit quotas for market rules CHINA POLICY leads
India
Loan Recovery Rate: 74% for the Poor, 15% for the Rich — RTI Lays Bare Central Bank of India’s Write-off Divide MoneyLife
Syraqistan
Haaretz: Israel arms drug dealers to commit new ‘Sabra and Shatila’ in Gaza Middle East Eye
Israeli commander defends ordering drone strike that killed aid worker Zomi Frankcom ABC
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Iran, Oman advance on Hormuz as Islamabad MOU regains attention Amwaj
Iran says return to diplomacy ‘isn’t impossible’ — but all Mideast wars must end to reopen Hormuz CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/28/us-iran-war-trump-hormuz-oman-centcom.html
When they have to declare every day that the Strait of Hormuz is open, you know that it’s not open. https://t.co/yKyU0HpZRG
— Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) August 28, 2026
https://t.co/xsY3uVSNAs counts shipments to the global market when they pass through the US blockade line, monitoring the Automatic Identification System signals of ships because of restrictions on timely satellite imagery. On that basis, flows over the past seven days stand at…
— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) August 27, 2026
Iran says US naval blockade is limiting petrol imports Middle East Eye
China’s imports of Iranian oil ‘largely untouched’ by US siege: Report The Cradle
The True Extent of Fallout From US’s Defeat in Iran Is Still Being Processed Simplicius
Exclusive: US intel assessments reshaped to suit Trump Al Mayadeen
US to deploy new carrier to West Asia as Trump claims ‘big victory’ Al Mayadeen
Rezaei: Any ‘evil’ against Iran will bring affliction on US ‘recorded in history’ Press TV
They Survived an Iran War Drone Attack. Six Months Later, They’re Struggling to Get Care The War Horse
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Turkish troops likely to stay in Syria after SDF dissolution: analyst Turkish Minute
European Disunion
Autistici/Inventati case sets a new counterterrorism precedent, Irdi says Decode39. Trump administration declares the Italian technology collective a terror organization.
US military faces ‘beyond critical’ shortage of Patriot missiles in Europe France24
Iceland holds knife-edge referendum on EU – and it could be decided on fish BBC
O Canada
Wiped out: US faces surging toilet paper prices amid trade war with Canada The Guardian
BREAKING: President Trump officially changes the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America.
“If you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean.” 👀 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/OZOmfibisP
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) August 27, 2026
Old Blighty
Stock Up on Food and Water: UK Develops Plans for War, Cyberattacks, and Food Shortages International Business Times
Buying politicians Chris Dillow
New Not-So-Cold War
C.I.A. Chief Delivered Bleak Assessment of Russia’s War in Secretive Moscow Visit New York Times. Comedians.
EU states revive plan to use frozen Russian assets for Ukraine FT
Comedians:
Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland make a fresh push to revive the idea of using the €210 billion in Russia’s immobilised assets to support Ukraine, warning the €90 billion loan “will not be enough”.
“We cannot afford to rest on our laurels.” pic.twitter.com/rtnE1zzOl8
— Jorge Liboreiro (@JorgeLiboreiro) August 27, 2026
Chechen mysteries decades past Events in Ukraine
Car bomb kills senior Russian officer in St Petersburg The Telegraph
Alexander Stubb says that hitting logistics centers like Wildberries increases the price of the war for Russia and bumps up the number of Russians who want to end the war by another 10%.
He insists on the fact that this is a sensible military strategy from Ukraine and the only… pic.twitter.com/jcrvkSc0AO
— Margarita Simonyan (@M_Simonyan) August 25, 2026
South of the Border
Scoop: U.S. close to striking “massive” deal for Venezuelan oil fields Axios
U.S. intervened in criminal probe of oilman helping Trump in Venezuela WaPo
Bombshell: a former electoral counselor in Honduras has published leaked recordings proving his country’s 2025 election was stolen.
The US helped put in power far-right politician Nasry “Tito” Asfura, who is closely linked to drug trafficking. Trump personally interfered in… https://t.co/PS8u8qsUvQ
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) August 26, 2026
L’affaire Epstein
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT JEFFREY EPSTEIN Seymour Hersh
“Liberation Day”
Tariff Refunds Contribute To Record-Setting Corporate Profit Boost Yahoo! Finance
Mr. Market
AI’s rally is disguising a massive slump in tech stocks CNN
Trump 2.0
President Trump’s Love of Tariffs Comes Into Conflict With His Love of Data Centers Gizmodo
Groups sue Trump’s EPA over fast-track approval of toxic datacenter chemicals The Guardian
The official U.S. Department of Education account posted, then deleted, a video positively comparing Trump to Hitler.
Captioned “No one does it like us” with a tiger emoji, the video opens with a scene from Darkest Hour wherein Winston Churchill refers to Hitler as a tiger. pic.twitter.com/SM1p0sABap
— Talia Jane (@taliaotg) August 27, 2026
Education secretary says elimination of department is ‘realistic,’ but timeline for shifting services is unclear Hearst Television
GOP Funhouse
Republicans divided over preelection stimulus push as economy slows The Hill
Democrats Suck
LA Mayor Karen Bass The Latest Democrat To Wimp Out On Paramount Merger TechDirt
‘It won’t go well for them’: Jared Golden sticks with Trump in Canada tariff fight Portland Press Herald. Golden is a Democrat congressman from Maine.
Police State Watch
GOP nominee for Maine governor calls for ICE agents at state polling places AP
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
This creepy Israeli spy tech is likely operating in a city near you Responsible Statecraft
Antitrust
How Corporate Consolidation Ruins Local Economic Development Boondoggle
Healthcare?
Nurses nationwide protest Palantir technology in hospitals Healthcare IT News
The Friendly Skies
2 air traffic controllers left work early the night an Air Canada jet collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia, source says CNN
Tech
Buried in Meta’s $18B settlement is a legal pass on kids’ data TechCrunch
Imperial Collapse Watch
Multipolarity and Ethos, Part 1: The Dark Forest Landmarks: A Journal of International Dialogue
AI
Nvidia says it’s building an ecosystem that can’t fail Yahoo! Finance
Nvidia Pauses Revenue-Sharing Deals With AI Cloud Companies WSJ
‘The Long Tail’ and Generative AI Do Not Research
With the backlash to data centers, Flock and AI glasses, a mass opposition to big tech is underway. Silicon Valley is in denial. Blood in the Machine
The Acemoglu Wars Are All About AI Programmable Mutter
Class Warfare
Is Capitalist Exploitation a Kind of Domination? Left Notes
Do Rural Residents Have the Power to Say No? Barn Raiser
No One Sings About Kalamazoo Anymore Can’t Get Much Higher
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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