Did Magic Mushrooms Make Us Religious? Skeptic (Micael T)
Moles and How to Powder Them Eirik Storesund (Micael T)
Scientists make stunning discovery that could help explain why life exists Science Daily (Kevin W)
Ten pandemic-era dining sheds that show “wildly different tastes” of New Yorkers deZeen (Micael T)
Color challenge: 2026 edition Maria C.J. (Micael T)
Deontologists Must Hope They Do the Wrong Thing Bentham’s Bulldog (Micael T)
Climate/Environment
Some climate tipping points are being studied far more than other PhysOrg
China?
China’s debt interest costs are soaring above U.S. levels and growing faster than any other budget category as Beijing struggles to prop up growth Fortune
FCC product testing ban deepens US-China tech decoupling Asia Times (Kevin W)
China sanctions ministers from Paraguay and Belize over Taiwan ties Japan Times
Why China is importing a record amount of gold — and what it means for prices CNBC
India
India’s Existential Material Trap, Part Two Craig Tindale
Delhi sees more protests as freed ‘cockroach’ group’s leaders vow to fight on BBC
Southeast Asia
Young men live in fear of being snatched off the streets and sold to Myanmar’s army BBC
Africa
Counterfeit seeds threaten African farmers’ crops and climate resilience: Study Mongaboy
Ethiopian troops enter Adigrat in Tigray, near the Eritrean border Aljazeera
Air strikes kill dozens of gold miners on Sudan-Egypt border DW
As tensions soar in the African horn, Egypt prepares to deploy troops to Somalia Hiiraan
South of the Border
1 Million in Copacabana Beach for Lula — Black Congresswoman Attacked at Lula Rally — Lula Proposed Govt App to Compete w/ Uber Mike Elk
The blockade, the boat killings and the plan to take Cuba Struggle La Lucha
European Disunion
In critical October meetings, European leaders face winter energy squeeze amid mounting global pressures e3g
Danube Water Levels at Record Low Again Hungarian Conservative
From farms to high schools, France is a nation on edge LeMonde
A dead pensioner, a snap election and protesters camping in tents: Inside Spain’s housing crisis Independent
12 million French homes now at risk of clay-related cracks ConnexionFrance
Old Blighty
Burnham to push for new post-Brexit deals at EU summit BBC (Kevin W)
Burnham: Iran’s IRGC ‘highly likely’ to be behind RAF Fairford terror plot Politico (Kevin W)
‘Some aren’t going to make it’: how pressure on farmers threatens UK food security Guardian
Israel v. The Resistance
Hunger and malnutrition stalk Gazans, a year on from ceasefire France24
Israeli forces enter southern Syrian valley, block farmers Arab News
Iran War
BREAKING: Iran is moving to force Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon to obtain passage permits, undergo technical inspections and pay sovereignty fees for the undersea internet cables running through its territorial waters in the Strait of Hormuz, per Tasnim.
At least two major cable systems, FALCON and Gulf Bridge International, run directly through Iranian territorial waters in the Strait. Iran says their physical placement on Iran’s seabed creates a legal basis to apply its own regulations, requiring the owning companies to meet environmental and seabed monitoring standards and to pay for Iranian supervisory services.
More than 99% of international data traffic travels through undersea cables.
The move comes as Iran said yesterday that if the war restarts, the region’s undersea cables, data centers and AI facilities “will be destroyed,” putting their total value at more than $2 trillion.
— The Hormuz Letter (@HormuzLetter) October 12, 2026
Iran hits tanker in Sohar and two in Hormuz, US disables bulker SeaTrade
* * *
The finance media hive mind is suddenly focused on the Saudi Arabia’s economic tsuris:
Houthi assault on Saudi airports strikes at MBS’s economic vision Financial Times
Iran-Backed Militants Are Tightening the Screws on Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Wall Street Journal
Saudi Arabia Under Pressure Dealbook
Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia raise fears of wider war DW
On Yemen’s desert battlefield, a war with global consequences is being waged BBC
Alastair Crooke: Insurrection & Regime Change Coming to Saudi Arabia – A New Middle East Emerging Glenn Diesen (resilc)
According to Israeli media, Netanyahu wants to strike the Houthis and defend Saudi Arabia to show Israel’s strategic utility to the kingdom and lure it into a defense pact (Abraham Accords). MBS has thus far resisted, although unverified reports say Israeli advisors are already on the ground in Saudi Arabia to assist the kingdom.
MBS understandably does not want an Israeli role – or at least not a visible Israeli role – as it profoundly undermines KSA’s standing in the Islamic world. But it also reflects that terrible strategic position Riyadh currently finds itself in.
https://t.co/3nZlTXOLtB
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) October 13, 2026
Clashes reported in Yemen as Houthis advance towards Taiz Aljazeera
* * *
Could The U.S. End Up Buying Iranian Diesel From Russia? YouTube (resilc)
Iran war costing average U.S. household $2K, economist estimates Seeking Alpha (resilc)
New Not-So-Cold War
Turkey Just Deployed F-16s to Russia’s Eastern Border as NATO Joint Expands Pressure Military Watch
Ukraine strikes Yandex data centre in third attack on Russian tech giant BBC
Russia attacks multiple power plants after Trump energy ceasefire claim Guardian
Imperial Collapse Watch
Rape and Revenge Massacres Alice Evans (Micael T). Important.
Solving the interceptor shortage The People’s Art of War (Micael T)
There has been a marked decline in the power of the Western mind. The late 19th century imperialists were self-satisfied high racialists. Moderns are Boasian antiracists seemingly committed to universal human rights etc. But how do the two compare in their powers of comprehension?
Take the problem of understanding the power of the Houthis. A British imperialist from 1890 would have no trouble at all classifying them as ‘a martial race’. Even if coded in racialist terms, there was a clear *recognition* of the anthropological variation in the world. They understood that the Gurkhas and the Pathans were not like the Baniyas and the Brahmins. That something distinguished the former from the latter. And that this anthropological variation had *operational significance* to the running of the empire. You could not get the Brahmin to hold the front any more than you get the Gurkha to understand Shakespeare.
Modern Westerners reject out of hand the very idea of systematic anthropological variation. Populations are only distinguished, if they are distinguished at all, by how free (Westernized) and unfree (traditional) they are. You have either thrown off the yoke of tradition and embraced the ideas of the Enlightenment. Or you live under the oppressive weight of misguided traditional ideas like not wanting your daughter to have the right to fuck whoever she wants, whenever she wants.
I do not mean here to suggest that the turn-of-the-century imperialists intuited the discoveries of midcentury social anthropology. Evans-Pritchard only wrote about the Nuer in 1940. I mean instead that the European imperialists *paid attention to the world*, instead of being lost in their own internal world. No doubt they had their own discourse of self-congratulation. But they knew that the world was strange and worthy of attention. That there was something about the world that they did not teach you at Eaton and Harrow, and that you had to learn in the field, so to speak. There was a certain empiricism in their attitude. A curiosity about the world.
To the modern West, there is no outside world worth paying attention to. All that exists is conformity or incongruence with Boasian antiracist universalism, ie the modern Enlightenment. The peoples of the world cannot be distinguished in any interesting way at all. The world is flat in an essential sense.
The Moderns are, strictly speaking, morons by the standards of the late 19th century.
— Policy Tensor (@policytensor) October 11, 2026
Americans’ Confidence in Food Safety Drops to New Low Gallup (Robin K)
Trump 2.0
Call It Evil: Understanding the Trump Era (w/ Susan Neiman) Chris Hedges (Robin K)
President Trump toys with renaming Atlantic and Pacific ‘Trump Ocean’ New York Post (resilc)
Trump’s America Is FOR SALE | Anne Applebaum on Putin, Kushner, and the Business of Power Robinson Erhardt. Robin K: “Trump loses another neocon.”
American ranchers wrestle with soaring costs – and their loyalty to Trump BBC
Omar Raid
Agents search Rep. Omar’s Washington home in criminal probe as she vows she won’t ‘be silenced’ Associated Press
Trump critics allege abuse of power as Ilhan Omar’s home is raided The Hill
Any minimally honest person would acknowledge that this raid is a flagrant abuse of state power and the domestic authorities of DHS against one of Trump’s most outspoken critics, right near an election.
The scurrilous claims about @IlhanMN have never had any basis in fact or evidence. Omar has lived in the US for more than 30 years: longer than Melania Trump, or Sebastian Gorka, or Steve Hilton, or countless GOP luminaries. She’s lived in the US since she was 13. She’s been a US citizen for more than 25 years.
This has as much to do with immigration enforcement as the Trump/Rubio policy of deporting people for the crime of criticizing Israel: which is to say, none at all. It’s all about feeding the MAGA base something to excite them and, especially, persecuting one of the most vocal critics of Trump and Israel.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 12, 2026
Police State Watch
We Infiltrated a Police Union Convention in Las Vegas Hamilton Nolan (Glenn F)
Our No Longer Free Press
Justice Department investigates TV networks as White House press-access fight escalates CNBC
Economy
Developing nations face triple shock from energy crisis, El Niño and borrowing costs, UN warns Guardian
World Bank in crisis aid talks with dozens of nations amid global shocks The New (Pakistan)
IEA Urges More Diesel Releases as Global Market Tightens Bloomberg
AI
Could this be the Frontier Labs’ WeWork moment? Gary Marcua
The real Mega Conspiracy Kim Dotcon (Chuck L). “After all this time, many legal fees and private investigators let me tell you what we found on AI.”
Banks are now trying to offload the AI data center debt they just underwrote Startup Fortune
Marxian Ecology and the Critique of AI Capital Monthly Review (Robin K)
Trump’s Grid Security Order Could Backfire on America’s AI Boom OilPrice
The Bezzle
Of Mathematics, mathiness, mythematics, and mathemagics Steve Keen (Micael T). Bezzles can be intellectual
Class Warfare
The Requisite Variety of Power For Neoliberal Feudalism Hermes of the Threshold (Micael T)
Antidote du jour. Wayne W’s new kitten:
And a bonus:
Failure is not an option
[📹 Kitty Cruise] https://t.co/D5c8YFy2Cj
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) October 10, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
