Texas’ ‘wiener dog capital’ unveils 19-foot steel dachshund sculpture CHRON
Climate/Environment
World must cut emissions by 18% in four years ‘to find our way back’, UN says The Guardian
Poetic, Evocative, Dangerous: The Dark Side of Earth’s Changing Clouds Climate Uncovered
Pandemics
The SARS-CoV-2 spike receptor-binding domain has evolved decreased inherent antigenicity in humans bioRxiv
China?
China mulls sanctions, oil and fertilizer cuts vs Philippines — report Manila Times
🇺🇸🇵🇭🇨🇳US Turning the Philippines into the “Ukraine” of Southeast Asia vs. China
The US is preparing the Philippines to become the “Ukraine” of Southeast Asia – complete with treasonous Philippine politicians like Terry Ridon in government eagerly pushing the Philippines toward the wood chipper of proxy war with China – just as Ukrainian puppets have done vs. Russia destroying Ukraine almost to the last brick, man, woman, and child.
It’s not that these US puppets haven’t “learned.”
They know exactly what they’re doing.
They know China isn’t a threat to the Philippines – that the US literally colonized the Philippines and US troops STILL militarily occupy Philippine territory – not Chinese troops.
They believe they will be immune to the consequences of what they’re doing and that they have a free ticket to the West when the Philippines is turned into a burning wasteland.
— Brian Berletic (@BrianJBerletic) October 22, 2026
India
Iran’s flag carrier IranAir says India and Singapore have refused to issue license for the airline’s cargo flights to transfer 60-70 tons of medicine to Iran.
India has not even allowed IranAir to carry out that cargo with civilian flights.
— Fereshteh Sadeghi فرشته صادقی 🟩 ☫ 🟥 (@fresh_sadegh) October 21, 2026
Syraqistan
Tied up and tortured: Israel using US-made electroshock weapons on Palestinian detainees The Guardian
US congressional candidate Brad Lander detained in West Bank Al Jazeera
The War Tehran Believes Is Coming Drop Site
An Iranian senior security official in Tehran told Fars that Iran has instructed its various operational units that, should another round of large-scale war occur, including a wave of assassinations targeting officials and the killing of civilians, Iran will consider political targets associated with the US and other participants in the war, as well as their infrastructure, legitimate targets.
— Arya Yadegaar (@AryJeayBackup) October 21, 2026
Over 1,000 doctors flee Israel in healthcare crisis, posing ‘strategic threat’: Report The Cradle
Riyadh Says Its Oil System Is Intact. The Numbers Say Otherwise. Larry Johnson
Turkey to seek parliament’s approval to send military personnel to Saudi Arabia: report Turkish Minute
Africa
RFK Jr’s ‘deities of vaccine research’ raided by police in Guinea-Bissau The Guardian
Ukraine is trying to sabotage the most successful decolonial project in Africa, why? The Spectacle
As soon as this snakes tell you something is wrong, put it in mind that they are MANUFACTURING CONSENT, to either steal something or someone.
This is the same strategy use of Venezuela to steal their oil in broad day light.
The same way US will warn you about terrorist, then train and fund them, then use them to kill people and protect mines, while also sending in soldiers to fight for you.
They will do same for drugs.
Trust this snakes at your own peril
— Nnamdi Obi (@nnamdiobiii) October 22, 2026
Old Blighty
The three groups of people likely to be called up first in the UK in the event of war North Wales Live
The bit where you get to conscription is the bit where it declines into fantasy. Not necessarily because 18-24 year olds would resist — although I suspect plenty would — but because we have lost the capacity to conscript, train and equip a large army in short order. There are no cadre units, which would have to be built. Barracks, training facilities, uniforms, weapons and weapons platforms would all have to be found. We presently have between eight and fifteen 155mm howitzers in total (the rest were sent to Ukraine). I know that every soldier does not need a howitzer, but I mention it because it demonstrates the tiny reserves of weapons and ammunition we currently have. I wouldn’t be surprised if the even the current, tiny Army cannot train properly for this reason. We have no industrial capacity to close the gap between the present position and having a large, multi-division conscript army any time soon.
Yet closing that gap should be one of the main focusses of any serious government. The ability to mobilise in extermis is of paramount importance. Focussing on producing large numbers of assault rifles, uniforms, prefab barracks, fibre optic FPV drones, NLAW or other anti-tank weapons, Starstreak, quad bikes and dirt bikes and means to dig and pour concrete would be an excellent start. None of these would be particularly expensive in and of themselves (I guess Starstreak would be the most expensive), and all are within our technological ability to produce in massive numbers.
Such a force would be defensively potent.
@thinkdefence
— Collingwood 🇬🇧 (@admcollingwood) October 21, 2026
UK approves long-delayed Jackdaw gas field on energy security grounds Reuters
***
Schools should recognise antisemitism as distinct form of harm, review says BBC
Hang on a minute – something ain’t right.
Since only 32% of British Jewish schoolchildren go to non-Jewish schools, and 60% (3 in 5) are supposedly facing “antisemitism” at school, that means at least 28% of Jewish schoolchildren are facing “antisemitism” at Jewish schools! /1 https://t.co/oE5QKljMug
— Steve W (@StevenGWalker74) October 21, 2026
British journalists never reported on their government’s direct participation in the Gaza genocide
They were obeying a ‘D-Notice’ censorship order sent out by the UK military
Every media editor received this on 28 October 2023. You were never meant to see it. Here it is👇 https://t.co/eQb6Ub42yZ
— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) October 21, 2026
European Disunion
Macron visits Riyadh to show solidarity amid Houthi attacks, ease tensions at home via fuel deal France24
France’s High School Movement Has Entered a New Phase Tribune. Makes the case that Le Pen and the RN will struggle to capitalize.
Students and Teachers Rally Across Greece Over Living Costs Greek Reporter
Portugal cost-of-living protesters pour back into camps cleared by police Al Jazeera
Evidence of a Russian ‘hybrid war’ in Europe is vanishingly thin Responsible Statecraft
Nothing Will Come Of Nothing. Aurelien
New Not-So-Cold War
Former Echo of Moscow boss Alexey Venediktov says the presence of Maxim Oreshkin, deputy head of Russia’s presidential administration, at today’s talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff suggests negotiations have moved on to concrete questions of economic cooperation between Moscow and Washington, including the removal of sanctions.
Venediktov notes that Oreshkin oversees economic affairs and is a potential future Russian PM.
— Brian McDonald (@BrianMcDonaldIE) October 21, 2026
GORILLA RADIO GOES ON BLACK SEA PATROL – SHAKES FIST AT TURKISH PLAN & THE OTHER NATO PLANS AGAINST RUSSIA John Helmer
Horrifying images of beheaded soldiers
I will not publish them, of course. Ukrainian channels are currently spreading them with glee. Four heads on stakes. Beneath them, along a broken rural road, lie bodies in our uniform, with white armbands. I don’t know if their heads were cut off while they were still alive or already dead. For the person who was driving the stakes into the ground, it apparently didn’t matter – what was important was that people would see it. In any case, they were killed brutally. They were killed unarmed.
Is it shocking? Of course. Is it surprising? No. Remember the first year of the special military operation. Mala Rogan, near Kharkov – Russian prisoners are shot in the knees. Videos of young men being tied up, their throats cut, and then finished off with automatic weapons. Makeevka, November: our soldiers come out of houses one by one, with their hands raised, and lie face down on the ground. Then – bodies, and not a single weapon nearby. A cold-blooded shooting of people without weapons. The executioners were quickly identified: an ordinary 80th brigade, not a nationalist battalion. Some of them still have videos online of their performances in KVN (a Russian comedy show). They weren’t ashamed to film it, they knew that nothing would happen to them for it.
That autumn, I showed these images to Ukrainian prisoners. One clutched his head with his hands: “This is simply… inhuman.” Another managed to choke out one word: “Animals.”
And then the videos suddenly stopped. As if the tap had been turned off.
The “warriors of light” haven’t become better. They simply realized that the videos scare not the Russians, but the Western sponsors. Former advisor to the President’s Office, Lyusia Areстоvich, back in March 2022, asked not to publish videos of prisoners – “Western partners react extremely negatively.” We, she said, are a European army. They banned the camera. But they left the knife.
What a knife without a camera leads to was shown in Russkoye Porechye, near Sudzha. Elderly people with their hands tied in basements. A grenade thrown down to six pensioners. 22 people killed, eight of whom were raped before their deaths. Senior soldier Yevgeny Fabrysenko of the 92nd assault brigade, during interrogation, described how they entered the houses: “We saw them and shot them.” He received a life sentence. The head of the village council later said: “None of those who remained in the village during the occupation survived.” I saw a forensic expert, who was barely holding back tears, for the first time in a quarter of a century in journalism.
And now – stakes. This beast hasn’t gone anywhere. It has simply stopped posing. And sometimes, it is forgotten.
I have asked myself many times: how does a former KVN performer from a Russian-speaking city become a butcher? The answer is unpleasant. They were prepared for this for thirty years. By television, textbooks, torchlight processions, and words like “vatnik,” “orcs,” “Russians,” and “separatists.” First, a person stops being called a person. Then, it becomes easy to cut off their head.
Therefore, there should be no illusions about a “brotherly people who are simply offended.” We are fighting against infernal evil that has been cultivated in a test tube for three decades, and you can’t convince it to sign a peace agreement. It can only be destroyed.
@sashakots
— 🇷🇺 STANISLAV KRAPIVNIK 🇷🇺 (@STANISKRAPIVNIK) October 21, 2026
South of the Border
Mexican Cartels Training in Ukraine — What the Hell!? Shane Fitzgerald
UN Experts Say Meta “Unjustly Restricted” Lula’s Posts in Brazil Election SBS
Complaint filed to disqualify Bolsonaro ticket over Meta ‘algorithmic manipulation’ Panamerican Dispatch
Trump 2.0
The Secret Terms of Trump’s Venezuelan Oil Deal ProPublica
TRUMP PARDONED VENEZUELAN BILLIONAIRE AFTER FAMILY OFFERED ALINA HABBA $50 MILLION DEAL Law Commentary
Criminal probe hits Kristi Noem’s last-minute DHS purchases: report Raw Story
The increasingly brazen alleged corruption within the Trump administration CNN
Midterms 2026
Democrats furious after pollster boosting far-left candidates admits fabricating surveys: ‘Absolute scumbags’ Fox News
Nate Silver Forecast Shifts Toward Republicans After Fake Polls Removed Newsweek
First Draft: Why Is Israel Running TV Ads in Iowa Ahead of the Midterms? Zeteo
Lawmakers say US briefing showed Russia targeting Democrats with misinformation Reuters
U.S. embassy accuses Canadian politicians of interfering in American elections CTV News
Ramaswamy takes responsibility for controversial ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother Ohio Capital Journal
2028
Vance Defends ‘Vile’ Ramaswamy Ad, Offering Preview of ‘Venom’ He’s Likely to Deploy in 2028 Race Common Dreams
GOP Funhouse
Exclusive: Foul Play Ruled out in Lindsay Graham Death Spy Talk
Immigration
DoJ’s suspected non-citizens list includes ‘high percentage’ of those born in US, LA officials say The Guardian
US assessments find crime in parts of Latin America comparable to some American cities, despite travel warnings Anadolu Agency
Realignment and Legitimacy
The era of celebrity politics is over Who Broke It
Supply Chain
Transformer Steel Becomes a Trade Flashpoint in Europe IEEE Spectrum
Tech
Amazon’s “digital pacifier” for toddlers Oligarch Watch
The 75-year-old screenagers NY Mag
Meta ordered to pay $25 billion to New Mexico after jury finds company misled consumers about data privacy NBC News
Philadelphia Woman Arrested for Blocking Uber Eats Delivery Robot Gadget Review
Guillotine Watch
Wealth Inequality in America Drawn to Scale Dream Again USA. Quite the infographic.
AI
Apologies if Links are a little spotty today. The intertubes are a bit of a mess:
Critical web security flaws spark global alarm as Google, OpenAI and Amazon respond CNBC
OpenAI Wants to ‘Patch the Planet’ (With Its Own AI) Gizmodo.
Hackers Exploited the PHP Vulnerabilities Days Before They Were Patched Wired
PHP2Shell is torching the old internet right now – The digital libraries are really on fire right now.
1.
Two critical remote-code-execution flaws (CVE-2026-109618 & CVE-2026-109619), dubbed **PHP2Shell**, hit on 21 Oct 2026.
Both score 9.2/10. Unauthenticated RCE. Affects essentially every PHP install that serves web requests going back to PHP 5 (2004).
Only the current branches got official patches:
• 8.2.35+
• 8.3.36+
• 8.4.27+
• 8.5.12+
Everything older is left exposed.
2.
AI (Wiz + OpenAI models and others) helped surface them.
Exploit details and a working tool leaked early. Mass scanning and exploitation started almost immediately.
Cloudflare, Sansec, and others reported active attacks. Governments and agencies told operators who couldn’t patch instantly: take the site offline.
3.
Why old forums are vanishing
Huge numbers of classic boards and long-running community sites still run aging PHP stacks (phpBB, older WordPress, MediaWiki, custom PHP, leftover vBulletin, etc.). Many never left shared hosting or never upgraded past EOL PHP versions.
4.
Concrete examples from the last 24–48 hours:
• 4chan went read-only “while we await an urgent PHP security update”
• Something Awful shut its forums entirely
• Dark-web boards (BreachForums, DarkForums, PwnForums, etc.) took themselves offline “until PHP is patched globally”
• DeviantArt, Fur Affinity, bookmarking services, wikis, and countless smaller hobbyist forums dropped offline or into maintenance mode
5.
Older unsupported PHP installs will never get official fixes.
Some operators may scramble backports or migrate. Most small/volunteer-run boards simply won’t.
Years (sometimes decades) of threads, archives, and cultural memory sit on those servers. When the hosts stay down or get pwned and wiped, that material effectively disappears.
6.
A single pair of core-language bugs is forcing a sudden, widespread cull of the long-tail PHP web — the part that still hosts a large slice of pre-social-media internet history.
The digital libraries really are on fire right now.
#PHP
— ZEDEGEN (@OxMoneyy) October 22, 2026
> On July 30th, the guys at Calif started auditing PHP.
> By August 11th, a researcher at Calif had discovered a way to exploit a vulnerability that could lead to pre-auth RCE and reported it to the PHP team.
> OpenAI reported the same vulnerability to the PHP team on the same day as the Calif researcher. (Was this a coincidence, or did something fishy happen? How did OpenAI discover it?)
> Then, on August 24th, the guys at Wiz reported the same vulnerability. (But all of a sudden, Wiz is posturing as though they discovered the RCE first & went into full-blown marketing mode with their SOTA AI, lmao.)
It’s a shame what the industry has become. Anyway, inform your governments to patch their websites.
— Ghost St Badmus (@commando_skiipz) October 21, 2026
***
Startup Deploys AI-Engineered Virus on Human Patient Futurism
Class Warfare
WORK REQUIREMENTS AND TIME LIMITS ON HOUSING ASSISTANCE? THOSE WHO’VE TRIED IT URGE CAUTION. Shelterforce
‘Big business’: little-known court system in Louisiana churns out thousands of evictions – and millions in fees for judges The Guardian
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
