Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war — both real fog and stage fog — in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-free repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free pom pom-wavers will be summarily whacked.

And for those who are new here, this is not a mere polite request. We have written site Policies and those who comment have accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 election, we are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders.

–Yves

P.S. Also, before further stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies:

Please do not write us to ask why a comment has not appeared. We do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments section to complain about moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please don’t do it. Those comments will also be removed if we encounter them.

Despite ‘desert tsunami,’ one of the world’s rarest fish are thriving in Death Valley Fort Worth Star-Telegram.. And the cotton are high.

Trouble at the OECD Inside Story

BlackRock threatened to halt trading at height of UK market tumult FT

The Blackstone rebellion: how one country took on the world’s biggest commercial landlord Guardian

Climate

6 largest US banks to join Fed’s first-ever climate scenario exercise Banking Dive

World banks financially support the Amazon’s deforestation: Report Al Mayadeen

New EWG analysis: Of $7.4B spent on two of USDA’s biggest conservation programs in recent years, very little went to ‘climate-smart’ agriculture Environmental Working Group

Hurricane Ian again a Category 1 storm over the Atlantic as Central Florida still reels in its wake Orlando Sentinel

Florida Landlord Reminds Tenants Fleeing Flood That Lease Doesn’t Include Rooftop Access The Onion

Water

Lake Erie’s Failed Algae Strategy Hurts Poor Communities the Most Circle of Blue

Beneath This Sea, A Sculpture Garden Is Saving an Ecosystem Reasons to be Cheerful

#COVID19

Can we clean Covid from the air around us? Chemistry World. Yes.

Intranasal & Co: A Very Big Month for Mucosal Covid Vaccines Hilda Bastian, PLOS, “What about WHO authorization and mucosal vaccines? As of the end of September, none appear to be under evaluation there yet.” What a shock!

America is skeptical of the ‘dark horse’ COVID vaccine others abroad can’t get enough of Fortune. They’ve just gotta keep the brand out of the headline, don’t they? But the URL begins: america-skeptical-novavax….

China?

The U.S. and EU brace for Xi Jinping’s third-term challenge Politico

China’s common prosperity drive for shared wealth to get fresh push as ‘strategic goal’ during party congress South China Morning Post

Countering China, the U.S. Signs a Broad Deal to Aid Pacific Nations NYT

Myanmar

Myanmar junta restricts access to corporate registry database Myanmar Now

Vietnam Becomes Asia’s Economic Leader as China’s Growth Decelerates The Diplomat

Syraqistan

Iran’s Crisis of Legitimacy Foreign Affairs

How a video taken out of context made Hadis Najafi a symbol of repression in Iran The Observers, France 24

Exclusive: Tracking the flow of stolen Syrian oil into Iraq The Cradle

Dear Old Blighty

For Liz Truss, the only way is up (or out) Politico. Commentary:

Record number of nurses quitting the NHS BBC. I’m sure when Sir Keir Rodney Starmer KCB KC becomes Prime Minister he will put the kibosh on the efforts to wreck the NHS and sell it off for parts to American consulting firms.

How Britain’s Labour Party Became a Criminal Conspiracy Against Its Members Mint Press

European Disunion

Eurozone inflation hits record 10% as energy prices continue to soar FT

New Not-So-Cold War

The Blob has form:

Whodunnit? I guess we’ll never know:

Satellites Capture First Images of Nord Stream’s Methane Leaks Bloomberg. Pipeline metallurgy:

China takes a view:

In Washington, Everyone Wins if Ukraine Wins Foreign Policy. Exactly.

How the War in Ukraine Might End The New Yorker. There seems to be no place for propaganda in “war termination theory.”

Russia’s military isn’t ready for an escalation. Ukraine and its partners can exploit that. Atlantic Council

The U.S. and Europe are running out of weapons to send to Ukraine CNBC

Putin Can Afford at Least Two More Years of War The Wilson Center

Leave Crimea Alone The American Conservative

The New York Times on Ukraine: Vietnam Déjà Vu Ray McGovern, Antiwar.com

Why Bolsonaro’s Auto-Coup Will Fail: An Interview With Manuel Gerson BrasilWire

Biden Administration

Biden appoints 1st diplomat dedicated to biodiversity The Week. Ron Klain’s wife.

Justices shield spouses’ work from potential conflict of interest disclosures Politico. Huh.

Six States Sue to Block Biden Student Debt Cancellation Plan WSJ

Space Force anthem ensures aliens will never contact Earth Duffel Blog

Intelligence Community

Statement on the fatal flaws found in a defunct CIA covert communications system CitizenLab and America’s Throwaway Spies Reuters. To be a friend is fatal….

The CIA Just Invested in Woolly Mammoth Resurrection Technology The Intercept

Our Famously Free Press

YouTube Apologizes, Reverses Demonetization Decision Matt Taibbi, TK News. But check out YouTube’s moderation policy on elections, supplied by Taibbi:

Under this policy, any discussion (say, by Hillary Clinton) of Florida 2000, where Jebbie purged the voter rolls in an MR SUBLIMINAL Bud from Legal insists I say “apparent,” here effort to hand the state to his brother who was running for President at the time would be demonetized. Cray cray.

Hill TV Censors Segment On Rashida Tlaib’s Description of Israel as “Apartheid Government,” Bars Reporter The Intercept. Reporter is Katie Halper. More cray cray.

Boeing

FAA says Boeing has not completed work needed for 737 MAX 7 approval Reuters

With 2 MAX models at risk, Congress moves to give Boeing a break Seattle Times

Guillotine Watch

The Forbes 400 2022 Forbes

Class Warfare

‘We Need $5 an Hour’: Amazon Workers ‘Insulted’ by Wage Bump Sourcing Journal

Is Your Supply Chain Susceptible to Forced Labor? Industry Week

A mad, mad world Times Literary Supplement

Antidote du jour (via):

Bonus Antidote:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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This entry was posted in 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.