These tiny snakes cartwheel to escape danger Science News (Micael T)
Pink dolphin sighted off Oman’s coast; know what causes its unusual colour Indian Express (Micael T)
Thomas Dambo: TROLLMAKER (Artist Studio Tour) YouTube (resilc)
Pretty or spiritually beautiful, what’s the difference? Hilary White (Micael T)
John Van Reenen on Innovation Policy Matthew Esche (Micael T)
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Africa faces ‘complex’ Ebola outbreak after spread to Nigeria, WHO warns Japan Times
What to Know About Shamonda Virus Following the First Reported Human Infection WIRED (resilc)
Climate/Environment
Giant ‘heat storms’ are scorching the Earth. This is the story of the biggest one on record CNBC Africa
The Amazon in flames: Brazil’s rainforest burns amid El Niño and election tensions El Pais
In Pictures: ‘Armageddon’ at Europe’s Swim Spots Linked to Climate Change and Factory Farm Pollution DeSmog
La France, au niveau national, est toujours en sécheresse. Les sols ne sont remplis qu’à 28% (seuil «sécheresse» à 40%, graphique 1)
La sécheresse 2026 fait donc toujours course en tête, seule (graphique 2). Elle est de très loin la sécheresse la plus importante jamais observée en France depuis le début des mesures.
La situation s’améliore (en moyenne) mais cache de fortes disparités régionales (carte 3). Les récents déluges dans le sud font remonter la moyenne nationale. Mais nous restons fréquemment au niveau désertique à 0% d’eau de la Vendée à l’Alsace (alors que nous sommes fin octobre !).
Dans certains coins de l’Hérault, nous vivons l’un des années les plus humides depuis le début de mesure. Au sein de cette année, nous avons vécu la sécheresse la plus importante (graphique 4). La sécheresse estivale a été encadrée par des déluges en hiver et à l’automne : il n’y a pas eu de demi-mesures !
Toutes ces données seront prochainement disponibles gratuitement sur tous les points de France sur https://t.co/c4WA7fbZRJ.
— Dr. Serge Zaka (Dr. Zarge) (@SergeZaka) October 21, 2026
Pakistan’s factory workers swelter in extreme heat as global brands fail on safety pledges AOL
Water
The hidden water crisis beneath the American west Financial Times
China?
Wealthy Chinese move offshore money to U.S. banks as Beijing’s tax net widens CNBC
China steps up ‘grey zone’ tactics to isolate Taiwan and punish its allies Financial Times
Philippines Eyes Closer Taiwan Ties to Protect Vital Undersea Cables Modern Diplomacy
Chinese state media takes aim at Japanese firm KDDI over Mongolia wildfire South China Morning Post
South Asia
Indian Face-off with China continues at multiple locations along Arunachal border The Hindu
India No Longer Sees the US as Benign Bloomberg
Pakistan says water is ‘red line’ as India keeps Indus treaty in abeyance Arab News
Africa
800,000 Somalis threatened by flooding displacement: UN Arab News
Hundreds of Ethiopians cross into Kenya to flee regional fighting Aljazeera
South of the Border
‘Daily struggle’: Cubans dig wells in search of water France24
Cuba’s public transport plunges to all-time low amid US fuel blockade, minister says Reuters
European Disunion
EU mulls sanctions reprieve for Chinese fabric-maker accused of aiding Russia South China Morning Post (guurst)
France bolsters security as businesses brace for renewed protests Euronews
From a reader with an apartment in the 6th, which has been somewhat removed from the protests. One of several images of boarded-up store fronts:
Macron bans ‘illegitimate’ protests in France as he tries to get a grip on unrest Guardian
Europe’s riots spread to Spain as protests spiral out of control Independent
Trucker blockades in southern Italy ramp up pressure on Meloni Politico
French borrowing costs overtake US amid budget turmoil Guardian
New German legislation will require that social media platforms massively boost “diversity-promoting” content eugyppius (Micael T)
Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest retreat catches fire, police say DW (Micael T)
Old Blighty
‘Relentless’ cost of living pressures behind collapse in UK consumer confidence Financial Times
National Farmers Union calls for Budget action amid soaring diesel prices Famers Guide
Bank Rate by the Barrel Sovereign Money (Colonel Smithers)
UK’s climate ambition ‘in tatters’ as Jackdaw gasfield gets go ahead Oceanographic Magazine
Israel v. the Neighborhood
Israeli army continues Hebron siege for 2nd day, arrests 19 Palestinians in West Bank Anadolu Agency
Israeli attacks kill four as famine risk looms in Gaza Aljazeera
Syria sends troops to Sweida front line as Israel moves hardware into area National News
Netanyahu says end to US military aid to Israel ‘only a matter of time’ Anadolu Agency
Iran War
‘Escalation is coming’: Middle East on edge as new Israeli-US attack on Iran looms Middle East Eye
The Hormuz Disinformation War: Inside the Latest Tanker Attacks Sal Mercogliana, YouTube. A must watch.
Iran will not allow ‘rusty’ US military vessels to re-enter Persian Gulf: Top commander PressTV
What Is Another Round of Bombing in Iran Actually Going to Achieve? American Conservative (resilc)
Why the US is facing a second strategic defeat Policy Tensor (Chuck L)
Record Oil, Empty Tanks: The UAE’s Miracle Recovery Larry Johnson. The Dubai airport was super busy on both my trips through earlier this month, but that could have been mainly transits, particularly given that Emirates does not seem to have increased its prices. A reader with UAE connections said tourism was down but not by a huge amount. Contrary to reader concerns, Iran has not been targeting commercial airports. Even in the worst of the war, it would only occasionally send a drone near the Dubai airport, presumably as a warning that it could make the UAE’s more miserable without too much difficulty. Two attacks were near but not on passenger terminals
Iran’s Balochistan border region sees growing unrest DW
* * * 🇾🇪🇸🇦 BREAKING: Massive Explosions Reported Across Western Saudi Arabia!
Powerful explosions have rocked Jeddah, Taif and Yanbu, amid escalating missile and drone attacks by Yemen’s Ansarallah movement.
Yanbu is significant as a major Saudi oil-export hub on the Red Sea, connected to the kingdom’s eastern oil fields by the East-West Pipeline.
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) October 24, 2026
As Chuck L said, “Needs confirmation”:
أنباء عن مقتل وزير الدفاع السعودي الأمير خالد بن سلمان بعد استهداف مبنى وزارة الدفاع السعودية في الرياض بعدد من صواريخ الحوثيين
الإعتداء الأخير علي مبنى وزارة الدفاع السعوديه لم يكن إعتداء عادي إنما خلف وراءه حسب ما هو متداول كارثه كبيره ستكون إن صحت سببا في قلب الأمور رأسا على عقب
هناك أنباء متداولة اعلاميا فى الداخل الأمريكي ان وزير الدفاع السعودي خالد بن سلمان كان موجود داخل مقر وزارة الدفاع لحظة الهجوم و هناك أيضاً انباء غير مؤكده عن وفاته
و هناك تسريبات من داخل الديوان الملكى عن مقتل رئيس هيئة الاركان السعودية الفريق اول ركن
فياض بن حامد الرويلي ومعه مجموعه كبيره من القيادات التي تم استهدافها اليوم داخل مقر وزارة الدفاع السعوديه
و ذكرت ان الاستهداف تم بعدد كبير من المسيرات و اربع صواريخ بالستيه ..
#الرياض_الآن #صوت_الإنذار #جدة_الأن— Mohamed Srag (@mohamed_srag1) October 23, 2026
New Not-So-Cold War
Chas Freeman: European Leaders Are Sabotaging Peace Yet Again Glenn Diesen, YouTube
Department of “huh”?:
BREAKING:
🇷🇺🇪🇺 Ursula von der Leyen says that Russia and Belarus have weaponized immigration into Europe.
She stated that the EU will continue to accept refugees from war zones. https://t.co/o0KLuekFmD
— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) October 23, 2026
Putin Explained Russia’s Rationale For Relying On Nukes To Defend Kaliningrad From NATO Andrew Korybko
Russia rules out ‘palliative’ fixes for Black Sea security as Türkiye pushes plan Turkiye Today
Romania blames Russia for new deadly attack on ship Agence France-Presse
Imperial Collapse Watch
Pentagon, Lockheed agree to 10-year deal for 850 F-35 jets Military Times (resilc)
Trump admin cuts to satellites will set back US weather forecasting by a decade, experts say CNN
Slavoj Žižek is getting better and better as a public intellectual. This should scare us. Here’s why.
Žižek’s old problem is that he critiques aimless consumerism while himself being a stupendous consumerist product. In the past, his radicalism has too often been vacuous.
Pulling himself out of a swamp by his own hair, Žižek’s commentary has become more incisive. But this is not the main reason he is getting better.
As a civilisation that’s stuck, in Gramsci’s words, between an old world that’s dying and a new world that can’t be born, we are inarticulate about our own predicament. We find it scary to talk about the causes of the crisis of trust and alienation from politics we see all around us.
Unfortunately, our public intellectuals are in the same predicament. Many liberal intellectuals have become entrepreneurs for normalisation – they’re inarticulate about how Reagan, Clinton, and Obama inadvertently helped cause Trump. Many left intellectuals have become entrepreneurs for narrow identity politics. Many right intellectuals have become entrepreneurs for authoritarian politics.
Meanwhile, Žižek has joined a small minority of public intellectuals who can still acknowledge basic truths about our predicament.
In a BBC Newsnight interview this month, Žižek argued that –
(1) Trump is a symptom, not the underlying problem.
(2) The left has abandoned its commitment to a universal political vision.
(3) The breakdown of democracy and the global order is not temporary.
(4) Trump and Putin together represent a new political-economic ideology.
(5) We lack the capacity for collective action to address three great challenges: environmental catastrophe, global war, and artificial intelligence.
(6) We are needlessly making a bad situation worse by failing to act boldly and snap out of denial.These thoughts are not extraordinary. They are routine. It is genuinely shocking that Žižek can sound radical by naming realities any educated adult should be able to recognise. Žižek’s growing usefulness is a disturbing feature of our times. Above all, it reminds us that a central difficulty of our historical predicament is that it has caused us to be unable to talk about it.
— Vlad Vexler (@VladVexler) October 23, 2026
Trump 2.0
Trump’s Destruction of America Goes Way Further Than You Ever Realised Pyotr Kurzin, YouTube. You have to tune out the orthodoxy on Russia and China, so mixed but interesting.
They Fled Trump’s America. Now They Regret It Wired (resilc)
ICE’s Roundup Of Workers Has a Tragically Growing Body Count Real Clear Markets
Democrat Death Watch
How the Consulting Class Is Eating the Democratic Party New Republic (resilc)
Economy
Gulf’s worst oil shock will leave lasting scars, says IMF AGBI
The world economy on borrowed time The Cradle
Mr. Market is Having Several Sads
Dow tumbles more than 600 points as oil prices rise and market sell-off hits most sectors CNBC
Oil prices jump to five-month high as attacks threaten global supply Guardian
AI
Spotify Removes More Than 50 Million ‘AI Slop’ Songs Metal Injection (Micael T)
Don’t be fooled—LLMs don’t reason MIT Technology Review (resilc)
AI Hacks Are Coming Thick and Fast and Overwhelming the Internet Wall Street Journal
Premium: The Hater’s Guide To Blackstone Ed Zitron
Michigan residents fight potential $6.4bn datacenter bill: ‘That is insanity’ Guardian (resilc)
Guillotine Watch
There Aren’t Actually A Lot Of Places For Billionaires To Run Ian Welsh (Micael T). Not well informed re low/no tax jurisdictions. Has he not heard of Singapore? Monaco? The BVI? Hungary? Cyprus?
A Blue Wave Won’t Wash Away Our Oligarchy Problem New Republic (resilc)
Class Warfare
In San Francisco, a Family Earning $325,000 Qualifies for Government Aid New York Times (resilc)
When economic assumptions become policy Nick Wade
Against Laying Marx’s Capital Gently on Its Deathbed: Review of the Princeton Translation of Marx’s Capital ScienceOpen (Chuck L)
Antidote du jour. Today is International Snow Leopard Day!
Another cold weather cat. Look at how much fur it has due to its small size, which = worse surface to mass ratio:
Pallas cats’ fur is nearly twice as long on their belly/tail as on their top and sides. Standing on their tails helps keep the cats warm as they hunt on snow or frozen ground
[📹 Roman Paulov] https://t.co/AIJlPuIqE9
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) October 19, 2026
A second bonus:
The female leopard called for her cub – growing increasingly anxious. Her contact calls turned into a deep, urgent rasp. Moments later, the cub came rushing in, and the emotion in her reaction was unmistakable. A powerful glimpse into the bond between a mother and her cub.🐆 https://t.co/EIUixi3FRp
— All About the nature 🍁🏞️ (@about_thenature) October 20, 2026
And a third:
Baby goats and sheep https://t.co/zty5kQ1agg
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) October 20, 2026
A different sort of bonus:
His bike was stolen. His only way to work.
The shop owners and customers didn’t just feel bad they bought him a new one https://t.co/kgVy4fPNq3— Wolf of X (@WolfofX) October 20, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
