Links 8/10/2026

Does Silicon Valley dream of Philip K Dick? FT Crime writers’ new conundrum: How to get away with murder when cameras are everywhere The Mercury News John Crowley has died Programmable Mutter Climate/Environment ‘Explosive’ wildfire forces 22,000 people to flee as British Columbia declares state of emergency The Guardian Massive Wildfires Test the Limits of International Cooperation Inside Climate News Western Europe sees hottest June-July period on record: EU’s climate agency Anadolu Agency A Very American Invention, Pushed to an Extreme Inside Climate News Climate change must not disrupt business as usual Technosphere Earth Japan Fear And Stability: The Case of Japan and North Korea Pascal Lottaz Japan: caught between inflation and slump Michael Roberts China? First Weekly Arctic Container Service To Be Launched By Chinese Line Via Northern Sea Route Marine Insight The Asymmetry of Paranoia between US and China China Translated Southeast Asia Gunman fires inside Thai government office as country reels from school shooting Straits Times India Two days after Modi-Vance call, Indian envoy to US defends FCRA Bill with a ‘reality check’ The Print As Meta Apologises to Modi, Anti-BJP Content Faces Massive Takedown The Wire Made in India: The Supply of Weapons and Ammunition to Israel Amnesty International Syraqistan Netanyahu rejects US Gaza plan, vows no pullout until Hamas disarms New Arab Israeli general says Gaza should remain ‘destroyed for generations’ Middle East Eye *** Trump Thought Opening the Strait of Hormuz Was Imminent. Iran Had Other Plans. WSJ Is Donald Trump Serious About Declaring Victory Over Iran? Larry Johnson Trump to Axios: “We are low keying it” with Iran Axios ‘The wealthy poor’: Soaring food prices hurt Iranian families Al Jazeera How Iran Sees the “Mecca Defense Pact” Iran Analytica Yemeni strikes on Mukha, Marib targeted Saudi troops, assets: Source Al Mayadeen *** Trump’s Reunification Initiative in Libya Will Only Prolong the Gridlock World Politics Review Drone strikes tank at Libya’s Zawiya refinery, no injuries reported Anadolu Agency *** Syria and Russia reach deal; Damascus to take over two Mediterranean bases WION MI6 in Damascus and Russia Agrees to train Al Qaeda Militia on the Coast Vanessa Beeley Africa Old Blighty Burnham told to trade nuclear umbrella for access to single market The Telegraph Spy cameras on Navy drones used by Britain’s elite special forces ‘secretly sent data to China’ Daily Mail Oil transit fees owed to Turkey by Iraqi Kurdistan have vanished in Jersey, says MP Intellinews European Disunion Spain begins border checks on travellers from Italy amid migration showdown RFI A new rival is forcing Italy’s Meloni back to her far-right roots Politico From Adenauer to Spahn: The Unraveling of Germany’s Christian Democratic Tradition European Conservative Jobs massacre at Bosch: Appliance giant to close washing machine plant near Berlin WSWS Gen-Z in the army: Meet the young Europeans signing up to serve Euractiv O Canada How Canada’s elite are selling Mark Carney’s massive military buildup The Breach New Not-So-Cold War This is the visualisation of strikes against Odessa from yesterday. In retrospect, attempting to assassinate the commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces without having any air defense interceptors, a man responsible for the entire lethal arsenal with great destruction… https://t.co/P5S2ZNh2FR pic.twitter.com/ynszFgf2jU — Olga Bazova (@OlgaBazova) August 10, 2026 ❗️Massive Ukrainian Drone Attack Kills 12 in Russia’s Tatarstan – Mayor A further 39 people have been injured in strikes on the city of Nizhnekamsk, Mayor Radmir Belyaev said on social media. Adding that ‘both industrial and civilian sites’ were targeted in the city, which is… — RT_India (@RT_India_news) August 10, 2026 ‘How can we help you kill more Russians?’ German reporter asks Zelensky (VIDEO) RT Turkey Resumes Black Sea Ship Transits Via Straits After Delays Bloomberg Central Asian states rushing to cover fuel shortfalls due to dip in Russian supplies Eurasianet South of the Border Former CIA Venezuela chief registers as lobbyist for controversial offshore crypto firm All-Source Intelligence Spook Country Wikipedia co-founder says encyclopedia ‘compromised’ by CIA The Cradle Trump 2.0 Ex-Trump Lawyer Says ‘We’re Screwed’ if Trump Pressures New AG Blanche to Subvert Elections Common Dreams RNC chair predicts GOP retains House, Senate control after midterms The Hill Greenland warns Trump-linked oil firm over unauthorized drilling equipmentAnadolu Agency Democrats Suck Democratic establishment uses a ‘vulnerability’ attack on the left Semafor Wisconsin’s Dem establishment is scrambling to stop a democratic socialist Tuesday Politico Ocasio-Cortez declines to endorse Hong, says she’s focused on ‘winning back’ Congress The Hill Letter: Why is it so hard for DSA to endorse independent socialists? Cosmonaut Healthcare? The hidden cost of AI tokens Becker’s Health IT AI Someone built a browser that generates every website from scratch, and it impressed me more than it should XDA. What could go wrong? Planned Amazon data center could become the biggest climate polluter in the U.S. TechCrunch Police State Watch ICE and Data Centers Aren’t New, But Face Growing Pushback as They Intertwine Truthout Robot Dogs Suddenly Taking Jobs From Human Security Guards Futurism Big Brother Is Watching You Watch Littleton claims Flock reactivated its cameras without notifying the town Boston Herald Supply Chain Guillotine Watch Why Peace Would Spell Ruin for the Global Elites Forvm Geopolitica Monopoly Round-Up: A Judge Condemns Facebook for Enabling Mass Sexual Exploitation of Kids BIG by Matt Stoller Zuckerberg’s Yacht Allegedly ‘Refused’ Coast Guard Calls To Help Stranded Boat Despite Being ‘Closer’ International Business Times Class Warfare If You Get in a Car Crash, the Risk Is Growing Your Insurance Won’t Pay WSJ The typical gig worker is changing – and struggling more than ever to make ends meet The Conversation What would have happened if Marx had centred the Plantation as opposed to the factory as his unit of analysis Critical Perspectives Antidote du jour (via): See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here. “Jobs massacre at Bosch: Appliance giant to close washing machine plant near Berlin” This is terrible news this. Where is Germany going to get the computer chips for their missiles then? Does anyone know who Kait Willett is? Or Hannah Spier? Are they some part of a red pill ladies auxiliary or what? They’re not obviously crazy but definitely suspicious, based on a few minutes of viewing. I stumbled across them on youtube but I hate watching long videos. Willett has a Substack but Substack drives me nuts even if it’s not subscription walled. RE: As USPS Inspector General lays out historic cuts Once again the officials trot out the old ‘profitability’ canard – “On the convention’s final day, USPS reported a $2.5 billion third-quarter loss and Postmaster General David Steiner warned that without congressional action, the agency’s “plans would certainly have to entail changes that will impact service,” including closing “thousands of unprofitable post offices” and raising prices.” Because as everybody knows, public sector institutions are supposed to turn private sector profits. Meanwhile, I look around my city and see fire station after fire station filled with firemen who are just sitting around on their duffs all day long, suckling at the government teat, while the city hasn’t had a conflagration worth noting since 1866. Either we need to get rid of these fire departments which are being underutilized, or someone really ought to start setting more fires and make these layabouts earn their keep. Don’t give private equity any new business ideas. Sigh… Marx centered the commodity as the unit of analysis, not the factory. He analyzed ascendant industry because it was the ascendant mode of production in Europe, the one most vulnerable to workers establishing facts on the ground by simply not doing what they’re told. Other modes of production didn’t stop existing, by any means. Headings on single paragraphs and more identitarian genuflecting than theoretical substance leads me to believe that’s a clanker. I am hearing whispers about something called the Brooklyn Institute of Social Research. It is more or less a crisis pregnancy center for French theory that runs centrist Dem reddit trolling clinics on the weekends. Their current project seems to be the production of a pedophilia scandal around the Queer (not LGB normies) community cerntering on Foucault, who don’t want to reproduce the bourgeois order and don’t feel they have to. Ask them about Plato, then watch them squirm on the fork as you cut up their entire mask of political self-righteousness and, perhaps, give them an aneurysm. It’s a thankless hobby but fun in its own way. Glad I’m not the only one who had this reaction. You are not alone. Capitalism is about M > C > M’, not fields > assembly lines. Recent useful work on the importance of slave-based surplus value in capitalist development keeps being undermined by theoretical shark-jumping. “Greenland warns Trump-linked oil firm over unauthorized drilling equipment” ‘In a letter to shareholders Thursday, Greenland Energy said talks with Greenlandic regulators had been “constructive” and that it remained encouraged by progress toward securing the approvals required for drilling.’ I’d like to ask that Chairman a simple question. The Greenlandic regulators that you have been in talks with – are any of them in the room with us now? John Crowley. I cannot count the number of times I have read Little, Big, My paperback copy cost $3.95 new. The cover is falling off, the pages are yellow. I read it most recently last summer. I am not sure I can ever reconcile myself to the ending, though it makes a kind of bitter sense. Agreed, a fantastic book that, like the author, I’ve bought and given away many times (yes, at present my library is “Little, Big-less” 😔). Also like the author, I “bounced off it” the first time but then returned and got lost in the weird, many sided house! Just a consistently excellent author. His Aegypt quartet is almost like Pynchon, without some of the wackiness and with more emotionally involving characters, and Ka: Dar Oakley in the Ruin of Ymr is outstanding as well. Really everything he’s written is worth looking at. “Littleton claims Flock reactivated its cameras without notifying the town” That story from a week ago or so of a town covering those Flock cameras with bags after cancelling their contract makes a lot more sense now. If Flock turned those five cameras back on again, you have to wonder for whom they did it. Can’t have been the local police as they were the ones that discovered those cameras still being on. So was it State? Federal? Surely it can’t be that difficult to remove power from the cameras? I doubt that Flock are billed for the power, and since their biz model revolves around them selling the data from everywhere to anyone, a town renewing a contract or not is unimportant. What if they come with their own small solar cell? Tape or paint. Re: Netanyahu rejects US Gaza plan, vows no pullout until Hamas disarms New Arab Has anyone ever asked the Israelis how they propose to measure or validate whether “Hamas” “disarmed”? Seems a bit like demanding to proof of a negative. For example, how can anyone possibly know if anyone has ever disarmed? It’s like asking Canada to disarm, nobody knows how many weapons Canada has, who has what squirrelled away in their garage or basement, what might be in someone’s shed at the cottage. Aren’t there more constructive and achievable ways of attaining peace than making an impossible to verify demand? And doesn’t this just illustrate the Israelis have no intention of achieving peace? Israel has the same problem as that facing plantation owners of the US south, they feared a slave uprising above all else, the only difference is the Palestinians ARE revolting. What ended up being the only feasible solution in the US South? Freeing the slaves. And are the Israelis trying to tell the world there was another possibility? I take position, you might think it extreme, that Israel will consider Hamas disarmed when the population of Gaza is effectively zero. That is the goal of a genocide isn’t it? For Israelis, all Palestinians are Hamas. An interesting side of the Iranian Supreme Leader’s prohibition on nuclear weapons is the moral justification: they kill the innocent. Were Israel to eliminate or disperse the non-Jewish people, would there be an innocent population remaining? Palestinians staying put and alive might be Israel’s insurance policy. Politico, new rival, Meloni, Vannacci. Politico overeggs the pudding, as we say here at Naked Capitalism: “With an election expected as early as next spring, Vannacci’s far-right National Future party has been advancing in the polls, overtaking one of Meloni’s coalition partners, the far-right League party, and gaining on another, Forza Italia,” –Meloni hasn’t threatened to return to her days in the Movimento Sociale Italiano, the neo-fascists. “Meloni è stata presidente della Giovane Italia, dopo aver ricoperto la medesima carica in Azione Giovani e Azione Studentesca.” And as a candidate for Alleanza Nationale, which used the M.S.I. logotype. So there are compensations. –I wouldn’t characterize the Lega / League as far right. Yes, Matteo Salvini is the stupidest man in Italian politics (with many rivals! Calenda! Lollobrigida!). Yes, Salvini, always too clever by half, let Vannacci into the Lega. But the Lega’s base considers itself antifascist, and the typical leghista is someone like Luca Zaia, the ex-“governor” of the Veneto, who is also regularly accused of being a Christian Democrat. –Forza Italia is the fiefdom of the Berlusconi family. It’s politics would make Hillary Clinton happy. On the other hand, it is an open secret in Italy what Giorgia Meloni is up to regarding Spain, Ceuta, and, probably, resentment at Pedro Sanchez and his visibility. Yet her current tactics amount to another own goal. The issue is that any rightwing party ends up producing true believers to its right. The question is if Vannacci can pass legislation or govern, which I doubt. He is very much a media creation and media whore. Politico: Read anything from them with a spoon of salt. Político: 3 spoons of salt, blood pressure to the stratosphere. Extreme centrist to the core. This said, I’d like to argue some more about Meloni and the far right parties and where these are trying to take us. This after reading a long article at Le Monde Diplomatique Spanish versión August-26 about the far right intentions in France (Benoît Breville & Pierre Rimbert “Fascismo en Francia: el gran malentendido”). Their thesis is that far-rigth parties are or wil be pushing for segregationist policies (against migrants and their descendants, of course, no more egalite) leading to apartheid 2.0 like in Israel which is very much admired by far-right parties everywhere. Social segregation is not uncommon and you find it for instance in most if not all of GCC countries which heavily rely on foreign workforces. Meloni allowed migration to continue because the PMC of sectors such as agriculture was demanding migrants. If Vannaci wants to halt migration the managing castes would remove any support for his party. There is where the problems of far right lies. Only if they manage to create, pronto, an apartheid 2.0 they can prosper politically. Meloni has somehow succeeded in at least in the segregation of migrants in agriculture jobs to an extreme that they have now the right to be killed if they try to protest about working conditions. Whether such apartheids will become popular in Europe I cannot say. Re: Crime writers having a hard time: this kind of thinking is free advertising for surveillance tech. We have to remember that such technologies are produced in a for-profit environment, meaning that all corners which could have been cut have, and probably many others have as well; that it doesn’t work as advertised, because it was cheaply made and the ownership structure of the company meant that crucial criticisms could not be brought up before the product went to market; that the necessary tech-support, updates, and fixes will be buggy and problematic, if they’re kept up at all; that it is, essentially, mostly hype meant to sell these products to governments fearful of their people. Court cases can won by the defense on grainy, unidentifiable video. ALPRs can misidentify license plates. Then, we have good old fashioned police laziness and misconduct. In short, this just means that good crime writers will have to develop a structural critique of crime and justice, making their work much more worthwhile reading. Court cases can be won by the prosecution by getting the defendent to agree that they were there, thinking it important, so that the video evidence is not presented to court. I no longer have the references at hand, but when the first wave of public surveillance cameras engulfed advanced countries, later studies showed that 1. a significant number of guards monitoring those cameras were sleeping on the job for sheer boredom; 2. depending on the city, failing cameras remained non-functional for a significant period of time, because even when a budget to acquire the surveillance system is successfully passed, politicians often do not plan for a proper maintenance budget. The solution? AI-driven cameras automatically recognizing situations, faces, and persons. There have been recent cases of people (not just innocent — completely uninvolved in place and time) sent to jail because of a “grainy, unidentifiable video” processed “intelligently” by AI. “‘Explosive’ wildfire forces 22,000 people to flee as British Columbia declares state of emergency” I saw on the news how a team of Mexican firefighters had arrived in Canada to give them a hand. I think that they also mentioned contingents arriving from other countries, including Oz. In the past, whenever I though about British Canada, I would have associated that place with plenty of rainfalls. Not blazing infernos and this one sounds epic. Winter can’t come fast enough. The west-facing coast of BC does indeed typically get a lot of rain/snowfall, as the eastwardly-drifting humid air off the Pacific ocean is forced ever higher by the Coast Ranges, cooling as it rises. That’s why many call it “The Wet Coast”. Having dumped most of its moisture around the Coast Ranges, the air mass then descends as it continues into the lower-elevation BC interior. As it does so, it is compressed and heated, usually arriving with a substantial water debt, thus providing for little further precipitation— indeed often withdrawing moisture from the terrain and vegetation below. That’s why much of the central parts of BC can get tinder dry, especially given the contemporary prolonged periods of higher temperatures. And that’s why most of BC’s fires are located in the zone between the Coast Ranges and the Rockies, say from Lillooet across to Cranbrook/ The Okanagan is very dry – Canada’s wine country. I live to the south in very dry eastern WA. No, not Western Australia. On the RNC chair shrugging off the polls, his job is to win elections so this is sort of a “dog bites man” story. If I took a job and my boss asked me whether I could do the job on my first day, and I said, nah, I’m feeling kind of scared, I’d be hearing from HR shortly. So, of course he’s gonna put on a brave face. What else can he do? He’s got a lousy hand of cards to play. If you look at recent pics of Trump, his whole face is sagging. He looks seriously unwell. He might last another few years, but that seems doubtful to me based on what I see of him walking and talking. What happens if Vance takes over before or during the Mid Terms? Trump’s backers have differing agenda’s and Trump’s assaults on Due Process, the Separation of Powers and the Rule of Law are not backed by all of them (Some are smart enough to realize that if there is no Due Process for thee, there is no Due Process for Me). How much of Trump’s backing will disappear when He does? We are seeing pushback against Trump’s policies on a number of Fronts and we will see more of this as he continues to weaken and continues to lash out indiscriminately. AFAIK Vance’s backing is Thiel, most of the Tech Bro’s and the Zionists. Will that be enough? I don’t think it will, You have to have a personality before you can develop a cult of personality… OK, but which Village Idiot will the Dems run this time? I think a Harris/Buttigieg ticket could set new records for speech without context. A citizen is vulnerable to a no-knock warrant, or with ICE perhaps no warrant, when living in an apartment. Not true if one’s residence has a manned gate. Similarly one has fewer risks involving authority on the road when one has a chauffeur. No TSA etc with private aircraft… the list goes on. I read that Dubya didn’t know how to use a supermarket checkout. I’m confused about Patriot and similar AD interceptors. Do they or don’t they work to protect against ballistic missiles? On the one hand we have Ted Postol and those that repeat his claims that they have extremely poor performance against ballistic missiles. On the other hand we have the reporting from Ukraine that not having any Patriots makes a big difference for them and Russia is taking advantage and ramping its ballistic missile attacks. “Burnham told to trade nuclear umbrella for access to single market” Wait. Was one of the countries listed for the UK to provide a nuclear umbrella to was the Ukraine? Really? Is that wise? Antidote. Remember to breathe- Saint Francis and the Sow BY GALWAY KINNELL The bud stands for all things, even for those things that don’t flower, for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing; though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness, to put a hand on its brow of the flower and retell it in words and in touch it is lovely until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing; as Saint Francis put his hand on the creased forehead of the sow, and told her in words and in touch blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow began remembering all down her thick length, from the earthen snout all the way through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail, from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine down through the great broken heart to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them: the long, perfect loveliness of sow. Yesterday, a guinea pig. Today, a pig. Tomorrow, probably the holothurian sea pig. Re: Yemeni strikes on Mukha, Marib targeted Saudi troops, assets: Source I picture an offices full of Pentagon planners. Each with a hot cup of coffee to fuel their thinking. Discussing the “uncivilized” Yemenis attacking Mokka. Totally unaware that the Yemenis were cultivating coffee hundreds of years before the white man began his colonization of America. (And yes, that’s why it’s called a Mokka pot) From If You Get in a Car Crash, the Risk Is Growing Your Insurance Won’t Pay So this is why I think we should have martial consequences for executives and boards of directors. There’s a paper trail. There’s no question who is accountable for this. And it is malicious, extractive, and repugnant. And i no way morally defensible. It’s premeditated. This is economic crime. Just out right theft through dark patterns. A major Democrat power player in Florida. As I recall his wife is pro-life. But then Democrats never cared about abortion anyway. Oh, and it should go without saying, but because most people need a car to not die in America, auto insurance should be nationalized. I’m always amazed that I’ve never ever heard about this from the ostensible left. Universe healthcare, sure, but I’ve never heard about universal auto insurance. Why not? reading “‘Explosive’ wildfire forces 22,000 people to flee as British Columbia declares state of emergency…” made me wonder how the commentator Ann, who provided a lot of links, is doing since she was concerned about fires in BC compromising her – and while wondering, whatever happened to Wuk? – miss his comments – re: Ceuta – Germany – Israel –> antisemitism The little that German society might have had to offer intellectually in geopolitical analysis is currently unraveling into a giant pile of horseshit. Much of it due to the ignorance of what Israel is and what it is not. Georg Restle the head of the Nairobi office of National German TV channel ARD, in relation to the Ceuta story had quoted a comment made by historian Stephen Zunes. This TWEET by Restle has caused an upheaval of antisemitism allegations. BERLINER ZEITUNG has now printed a guest piece by historian Stephen Zunes where he explains his position. Where Stephen Zunes is coming from he himself eventually makes clear in the end of the below linked text: “I do not consider myself anti-Israel or anti-Zionist. I am the author of the article “Defending Zionism in Time of Occupation” and wrote the concluding chapter of Alan Dershowitz’s book “What Israel Means to Me.” For many years, I served on the board of “Tikkun,” the Jewish monthly magazine founded by the late Rabbi Michael Lerner, and supported its efforts to expose and condemn antisemitism. I do not support the academic boycott of Israel and have given several lectures in Israel. (…) I am currently writing a monograph entitled “Antisemitism in the Pro-Palestinian Movement: What is true, what is not, and why it matters.” In it, I focus on the need to combat such prejudices within the movement.” But quoting this dude in the FRG makes you an antisemite for enough people with access to smartphones (lets abolish smartphones for ADULTS only). Naturally Zunes is exonerating Restle. But still, who knows in how far this will hurt the German reporter´s career. p.s. And keep in mind that German media have the choice of printing and pushing this story or the one about the sadistic commentary uttered by German legacy media reporter Michael Martens during the press conference with Zelensky and Vucic, where he wanted to know what else we could do to help get more Russians – er – Russian soldiers killed. The verdict isn´t out yet which one will get more attention. But it´s pretty damn sure that beyond altern. space nobody will care about the latter. Unless of course Martens instead would have asked how many Israeli soldiers. I guess then he would have won this year´s most-hated-reporter award. machine-transl. Ceuta: “I am not claiming that Israel staged this or knew about it.” Is ARD journalist Georg Restle an anti-Semite? His X-Post on the border crisis in Ceuta is provocative. Here is a guest commentary by the US political scientist he quoted. by Stephen Zunes https://archive.is/92aXW The cosmonaut link seemed very reasonable and correctly focused on the DSA-democrat split, I found myself nodding along until the very last paragraph when he suddenly proclaims they have to support trans rights. What do trans rights have to do with any of what he was talking about? This constant inserting of identarian garbage when your trying to win over working class voters is infuriating! He says in the piece that under Biden they went back to Trump but he doesn’t seem to understand that identarian crap is a lot of why they went back to Trump. Trans rights have never polled well and they turn off more people than they attract but for some reason alot of folks on the left just can’t let it go. File under AI; https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/08/10/project-panama-scanning-and-book-destruction-at-anthropic/ “Acquire the books in question. Give service providers the task of severing their spines. Employ scanners to process the information. Dispatch the paper to be pulped and recycled (awfully good of them). The result: a private research library able to nourish Claude, the company’s premier LLM.”