Birdwatching Is Good For Your Mental Health. Listening Is Too All About Birds
Earliest Human Drug Use Ever Found Shows People in Indonesia Were Getting High on Betel Nut as Far Back as 25,000 Years Ago ZME Science
Farmed Salmon May Not Be as Nutritious as It Once Was, New Research Suggests Sentient
Climate/Environment
America’s air monitors are disappearing. So is your power to expose polluters. Grist
‘Tidal wave’ of Pfas being launched to satisfy AI industry, campaigners warn The Guardian
As the coast begins to crumble, the clock ticks on moving San Onofre’s radioactive waste Los Angeles Times
Where might it snow a lot this winter? Here’s an estimate of the general patterns!
Snowfall is challenging to forecast on a seasonal scale, but, because of El Niño this year, there will probably be a little more predictability than normal. https://t.co/6Poiqan6yg pic.twitter.com/xS0ZxgSoLa
— Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) September 13, 2026
Pandemics
New study reveals how COVID-19 likely spread between countries Washington University
COVID-19 may trigger the same immune pathway as lupus CIDRAP
Why Is No One Talking About Long COVID? MedPage Today
Water
The push to remove lead pipes is on. Thousands of water systems still don’t know where theirs are AP
China?
Why Trump’s Ireland Remark Raised Eyebrows in Beijing and Taipei George Chen
The Soft Power Holiday Reality-based Analysis Group
Airbus Cuts China Top-Selling Jet Forecast on High-Speed Rail Bloomberg
Can Taiwan Build Drones? ChinaTalk
My latest #ThoughtoftheDayonChina: Why I’m Spending a Year at Harvard: exploring the Limits of US-China Tension Wang Xiangwei’s Thought of the Day on China
India
Xi in New Delhi Inside China
Succession Troubles Strain India’s Wealthy Business Dynasties Bloomberg
Syraqistan
Why Saudi Arabia has few options in its conflict with the Houthis CNN
How Iran’s Hard-Liners Prevailed and Sabotaged U.S. Peace Deal New York Times. And the hard-liners in the US and Israel?
Trump downplays report China entities helped Iran before attack that killed US troops Channel News Asia
Oman postpones regional meeting on new Strait of Hormuz maritime route Anadolu Agency
Iran’s Economic Ties To Dubai Hard To Break Despite War AFP
‘Israel’ trained Kurdish fighters for plan to topple Iran’s government Al Mayadeen
Protests over increasing oil prices and failure of Jolani regime have now spread to Maarat Al Numat in Idlib
Protestors have blocked the Damascus-Aleppo highway
It’s not even winter yet https://t.co/BgDIwozynS pic.twitter.com/X6A8rEyFrx
— The’Nimr’Tiger (@Souria4Syrians) September 13, 2026
Africa
An AI-Powered, Coordinated Paid Campaign on Sudan’s War, Disguised as Four Independent News Sites Dysinfluence
In Mali, generative AI joins the information war Timbuktu Institute
Unequal exchange between France and Africa’s CFA zone: monetary dependency and imperialist appropriation New Political Economy
Ukraine is fighting Russia anywhere it can – even in the deserts of Africa CNN
European Disunion
Ukrainians must leave Germany – AfD co-leader RT
Petrol prices across the EU rise 24% for gasoline and 33% for diesel compared with the week the war began, as the Middle East conflict fuels concerns over global oil supplies Anadolu Agency
Who Will Pay New Left Review
Sweden’s centre-left holds razor-thin edge as exit polls show tight race France24
Trump removes tariffs on Irish whiskey as his Ireland visit ends DPA International
Croatia’s Toxic Waste Scandal Ana Vracar, Savage Minds
O Canada
Canada seeks Ukraine loan role to deepen EU ties FT
Canada looking into ‘unique alliance’ with EU, not membership: Carney CBC
Old Blighty
US embassy child abuse images suspect flown from UK before police interview BBC
Leaders of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to sign memorandum on independence on Monday Irish Times
New Not-So-Cold War
Train carrying Boris Johnson and ex-CIA chief may have been targeted in Russian strike, officials say The Guardian
Trump tells Zelenskyy: halt strikes on Russian diesel TRT World
Missile War Monitor: Russia’s drones move west to Ukraine’s filling stations, and Kyiv puts UAH70bn on the tax bill Intellinews
Experts Declare Ukraine Losing Its Technical Edge to Breakthrough Russian Innovation Simplicius
Trump 2.0
Trump proposes another Venezuela-like deal, suggesting US stay in Iran & ‘keep oil’ Firstpost
White House agrees to new ethics language in crypto bill The Hill
Trump Is Spending in Every Senate Battleground but One NOTUS
Democrats Suck
Democrats Are Urging Trump to Re-Escalate on North Korea Capital & Empire
Police State Watch
Secret Banking Database Used For Pre-crime Deeper States
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
God’s Eye View Redux: Young Men Incentivized To Play “War” in the Real World Philosophy Publics
Mamdani
this is Rebecca Weiner, an NYPD Deputy Commissioner, member of CfR, and a Columbia Univ professor who organized the violent repression on Hind’s Hall. She is also the chief of NYPD’s Counterterrorism Bureau, which has an office in “Tel Aviv” and is modeled on Unit 8200 https://t.co/kOVooGGUov
— night jar (@nocturnalbottle) September 13, 2026
AI
Could rogue agent swarms take over the entire internet in the next six months? Gary Marcus
The politics and possibilities of ‘AI could kill us all’ Blood in the Machine
Anthropic CEO’s China-targeted AI curbs driven by commercial interests, slammed as ‘hostile’ and ‘groundless’ Global Times
There you go… This entire “AI is going to kill us” was an orchestrated psyop.
Dario Amodei was on @FaceNationCBS this morning saying “The government and the public needs to have a stake” in AI and that he wants the entire AI industry regulated.
Translation: We need a taxpayer… https://t.co/9pqtTgo4i7 pic.twitter.com/sUPncJF7ZL
— Financelot (@FinanceLancelot) September 13, 2026
The Quick Case Against Using AI Commonplace Philosophy
OpenAI Says It’s Not Responsible for the Leading the Future Super PAC. But Only Its Employees Seem to Believe That. Obsolete
The Bezzle
A New Startup Lets You Freeze Your Eggs For Free. But Is Anything Ever Free? Wired
Class Warfare
What If The System Isn’t Broken? The Soulful Systems
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
