Scientists Release an Astounding, Detailed Map of a Fly Brain in Groundbreaking Study Colossal

Mass extinctions on Earth can help us find alien life in the cosmos. Here’s how Space.com

Climate

How climate risk will complicate central bankers’ jobs FT

U.S. enacts law to exempt select fabs from environmental reviews Tom’s Hardware

Residents File Class Action Lawsuit Against BioLab for Toxic Plume 404 Media

Southern California study shows extensive exposure to toxic airborne plasticizers The Hill

75,000 – 80,000 birds dead from botulism near Oregon border FOX 12

Hurricane Helene

‘Civilization is pretty much gone’ after Helene tears through Spruce Pine, NC News & Observer

Mayorkas warns FEMA doesn’t have enough funding to last through hurricane season AP

North Carolina Asks Zelensky For $100 Billion In U.S. Funding Babylon Bee

Syndemics

California reports first suspected H5N1 bird flu patient amid fears virus is spreading between people for first time Daily Mail

Water

Before Brita: A Brief History of Water Filtration JSTOR Daily

China?

Foreign investors ‘seek shelter’ in undervalued Chinese assets, but scepticism remains South China Morning Post

A stimulus is good, but China still faces a hard slog Channel News Asia

Vietnam plans US$67 billion high-speed railway with no foreign capital Channel News Asia

Japan’s Rice Farmers Planting More Heat-Resistant Varieties Nippon.com

India

A Durga Puja Like No Other: R.G. Kar Protests Cast Shadow over Festivities in Kolkata The Wire

UK cedes Chagos Islands to Mauritius in deal securing Diego Garcia military base France24

Syraqistan

Iran, Saudi Arabia vow to resolve differences, boost ties Xinhua. “The Saudi minister voiced his country’s determination to develop relations with Iran. ‘We seek to close the page of differences between the two countries forever and work towards the resolution of our issues and expansion of our relations like two friendly and brotherly states,’ he said.” Big if true.

Scores of illegal Israeli settlers storm Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque amid tension Anadolu Agency

Massive blasts in Beirut after renewed Israeli air strikes BBC

Radar shows scale of damage from Israeli strikes on Lebanon FT

Why Could Lebanon Be Rich, but Is so Chaotic? Tomas Pueyo, Uncharted Territories

Netanyahu’s high-stakes gamble against Iran and Biden confronts the limits of his influence over Israel Politico

Clarity After Iran Strike, as Israel Tries to Pivot to Nuclear Arc Simplicius, Simplicius the Thinker

Can Israel destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities by itself? FT. The deck: “Without US support, analysts believe the Israeli air force will struggle to mount a successful operation.”

Houthis’ email alert to Red Sea ships: Prepare for attack, with best regards Reuters. Commentary:

A debate with John Mearsheimer about the US-Israeli relationship via ‘Judging Freedom’ Gilbert Doctorow

Israel’s Oct. 7 Early Warning Failure: Who Is to Blame? War on the Rocks

European Disunion

EU sues Hungary for criminalising groups that receive foreign funding, including NGOs France24

New Not-So-Cold War

Ukraine’s top commander orders defences bolstered in the east after Vuhledar falls Reuters

Diplomacy Watch: Russia capitalizing on battlefield surge Responsible Statecraft

Ukraine negotiates nuclear plant protection with UN atomic watchdog observers Euractiv

Ukraine gives the US a sweet deal with one dead Russian soldier for every $20,000 spent on drones, unit commander says Business Insider

The Russian Military Will Be ‘Battle-Hardened’ After Ukraine War The National Interest

South of the Border

Reinventing Mexican Conservatism The Baffler

Biden Administration

An Exodus of Agents Left the Secret Service Unprepared for 2024 NYT

John Deere accused of being full of manure with its right-to-repair promises The Register

2024

Prosecutors request indefinite delay in trial for Trump assassination attempt suspect Ryan Routh FOX

Realignment and Legitimacy

Citizens’ Assemblies in Michigan and Beyond Crooked Timber

Antitrust

Michael Jordan, Anti-Monopolist Matt Stoller, BIG

Digital Watch

How a stale A$17.50 cookie sparked a social media storm BBC

Supply Chain

Geopolitical concerns ‘very serious’: Bank of England warns of Middle East oil shock risk Anadolu Agency

World Wide Waves: an interview with Laleh Khalili The New Inquiry

Sports Desk

How the Calgorithm has become CFB’s newest obsession EPSN

How India became a Test cricket powerhouse BBC

Class Warfare

Dockworkers’ union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract AP. Commentary:

Biden declares ‘collective bargaining works’ after deal struck The Hill

UAW Reformers Muster Forces to Hold Bosses to Their Word Labor Notes

Can Social Democracy Win Again? Boston Review

The Peanut That Broke The Law nonsite.org

In American Empire, You’re Either Invading or Being Invaded Literary Hub

Richard III, the Tudor Myth, and the Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism MR Online

Victim’s Unsealed Testimony Reveals New Details in Epstein Case NYT

Antidote du jour (Oilstreet):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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This entry was posted in Guest Post, Links on by Lambert Strether.

About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.