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Global stocks rally after jumbo Fed cut FT

At the Money: Can You Have Too Much Money? Barry Rithholtz, The Big Picture

Climate

Satellite images reveal Sahara desert turning green The Watchers

Peru is burning while authorities look away BNE Intellinews

Study finds thousands of food-contact chemicals in humans, raising safety concerns News Medical LIfe-Sciences

Tupperware, company known for its plastic containers, files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy USA Today

Hazards unleashed by East Palestine derailment are ‘the worst I’ve ever seen,’ toxicologist says Union-Progress

Water

Battered by typhoons: Why aren’t Philippine flood control projects working? Al Jazeera

China?

The moon’s dimming light: China sees lacklustre mooncake sales as consumers refuse to bite Channel News Asia

China warns struggling regions to be more strict and accountable in curbing hidden debt South China Morning Post

China’s growing military activity makes a shift to war harder to spot, warns Taiwan FT

Pakistan Promised China a New Militarized Naval Base, Leaked Documents Reveal Drop Site

Chinese state giant fires up oil production from landmark facility at promising South China Sea asset Upstream

Vietnam death row tycoon faces money laundering trial Channel News Asia

Syraqistan

Lebanon is rocked again by exploding devices as Israel declares a new phase of war AP

Hezbollah Faces a Choice – Back Down or Go to War With Israel Haaretz

Israel’s reckless pager attack on Hizbollah Editorial Board, FT. The deck: “Benjamin Netanyahu is raising the risks of an all-out Middle East war.”

Israel’s Diabolical Caper in Lebanon Spy Talk. The deck: “Turning Hezbollah’s pagers and walkie-talkies into booby traps was a significant blow to its leaders but sacrificed an intelligence opportunity and left thousands of others injured.”

Do Lebanon explosions violate the laws of war? Al Jazeera

Blinken says US did not know about exploding pagers in Lebanon, calls for restraint The Hill

From Taipei to Budapest: the mysterious trail of exploding pagers FT. “Gold Apollo’s current bestsellers include the vibrating pucks that coffee shops hand out to customers to signal that their drink is ready.” Oh.

The biggest unanswered questions about the Hezbollah pager attack Vox

How could pagers in Lebanon have been rigged to explode? LA Times

Africa

Sudan Is Burning: Here’s Why Madras Courier

European Disunion

Europe must prepare to meet Russia militarily in 6-8 years, says its new defence chief Reuters. Commentary:

European countries demand US$20 billion for undelivered gas from Russia Ukrainska Pravda

The Double Irish Dutch Sandwich: End of a Tax Evasion Strategy Conversable Economist

Dear Old Blighty

A New Left Wing Party in the UK? Craig Murray

Sturgeon predicts Scottish independence and united Ireland in UK ‘shake-up’ BBC

New Not-So-Cold War

Ukraine Strikes Russia’s 107th Arsenal: Crippling Blow or PR Nothingburger? Simplicius the Thinker

Satellite Images Show Aftermath Of Devastating Drone Strike In Russia Radio Free Europe

Russia gets ready to rebuild its military stockpile BNE Intellinews

Zelenskyy states Ukraine’s victory plan is ready Ukrainska Pravda

‘If they don’t die, our infantry will’: Ukraine’s pivotal battle for Donetsk Guardian

Zelenskyy was urged not to invade Kursk. He did it anyway. Politico

Putin Has Allowed the West to Cross So Many Lines That He Is Now Under Pressure to Respond The Nation

NATO Secretary General does not believe in Putin’s red lines regarding Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russia Ukrainska Pravda

The Shadow Fleet Transporting Sanctioned Gas for Russia Bloomberg

IMF scraps mission to Moscow after objections from Kyiv’s allies FT

U.S. deploys soldiers, rocket systems to Alaska island as Russian military activity ramps up in region CBS

2024

Trump says that ‘only consequential presidents get shot at’ during Michigan event FOX

Harris’ labor split screen: From the Politics Desk NBC

Elon Musk’s loyal staff reveal who they are really backing after the billionaire threw his support behind Trump Daily Mail

Antitrust

Google scores rare legal win as 1.49bn euro fine scrapped BBC

Supply Chain

US Department of Justice files $100m suit against Dali shipowner, manager Seatrade Maritime

Digital Watch

Intel outlines a plan to get back in the game: Pause fab projects in Europe, make the foundry unit an independent subsidiary, and streamline the x86 portfolio Tom’s Hardware

Musk’s X bypasses court-ordered Brazil ban via software update France24

What if the panic over teens and tech is totally wrong? Vox

LinkedIn started harvesting people’s posts for training AI without asking for opt-in The Register

Groves of Academe

The PhD Paradox: A Journey into Academia’s Upside-Down World Daniel Lemire

We or They? Crooked Timber

The Final Frontier

The largest volcano on Mars may sit above a 1,000-mile magma pool. Could Olympus Mons erupt again? Space.com

Imperial Collapse Watch

Jill Stein & Michael Hudson: The UGLY TRUTH About what’s Destroying America (video) Dialogue Works, YouTube

Too Much of a Good Thing The Economist

Mystery of America’s ‘Parkinson’s Belt’ where chemicals ‘are fueling frightening spike in brain-wasting disease’ Daily Mail

How Natural Are We? The New Yorker

Antidote du jour (via):

Bonus antidote:

National Fox Day in the UK was September 17.

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.