Thief steals 8 items from Louvre museum in daring daytime heist France 24
Cooperative meerkats, guide ants and dining room monitor hen: animals can be taught too El Pais
Climate/Environment
The world’s oceans are losing greenery due to global warming, study finds The Guardian
President Trump’s Planned Fannie and Freddie IPO and the Climate Elephant in the Room Moving Day
‘This is a de facto bailout’: Edison benefits from Newsom’s last-minute utility bill fine print Los Angeles Times
pandemic
The new coronavirus infection is “airborne AIDS.” Provocative oversimplification, emerging science, or something in between? AJPM Focus
As influenza surges in Asia, could getting sick all year round become the new normal? Time
toilet
Water reveals hidden superpowers at nanoscale Manchester University
Water levels in Armenia’s Lake Sevan drop rapidly, threatening Eurasia’s economy and population
China?
China’s new export control system High production capacity
What exactly do TACO, Nexperia and Europe want from China? Chinese translation
China is already winning the trade war America wanted Bloomberg
Chinese tech giant suspends stablecoin plan following Chinese government’s FT intervention
Why do President Xi’s military purges actually happen, and why do they always happen like this?
What is currently happening in China, the ouster of the commander-in-chief and large-scale military purges, is part of a recurring pattern in Chinese power politics, which occurs when the leadership feels internalized. https://t.co/A2sGhQGETZ pic.twitter.com/pwHqdXLhRq
— Endgame Macro (@onechancefreedm) October 18, 2025
Aid to the Chinese government: Is the data accurate? Jason Hickel
Pakistan/Afghanistan
Pakistan, Afghanistan agree to ‘immediate ceasefire’ in Qatar negotiations Channel News Asia
Friend or Foe: Conflict of Interest between Pakistan and the Taliban in Containing Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – Analysis Eurasia Review
syrakistan
Israel bombs Gaza in massive ceasefire violation Middle East Eye
Immediately after the explosion in Rafah, we heard that the White House and the Pentagon knew the incident was caused by an Israeli settler bulldozer running over an unexploded ordnance. This contradicts Netanyahu’s claim that Hamas has emerged from the tunnel.
After that… https://t.co/Xwy63sEL3M
— Ryan Grimm (@ryangrim) October 19, 2025
Israeli military announces ceasefire in Gaza will resume a day after deadly attack Al Jazeera
The danger of famine has not gone away from Gaza: Israel’s aid cuts reflect claims that it will use starvation as a means of genocide Euro-Med
🚨Israel’s Gaza plan: divide Gaza with a dead line like the Berlin Wall. Symbolic and limited PR “reconstruction” only in areas fully controlled by the IDF and operated by criminal organizations and collaborators. The rest of Gaza will remain a wasteland, regularly subject to Israeli bombing and gang attacks… pic.twitter.com/l8jzr8ZYWG
— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) October 17, 2025
***
October 19, 2025. On the first day of the olive harvest in Tulum Seyer, the IDF leads a group of farmers directly into a brutal ambush by armed settlers. These people and the people of this village and all of Palestine need to be in jail by tomorrow… https://t.co/i4PbG9jn4j pic.twitter.com/i67CjLB2gg
— Jasper Nathaniel (@infinite_jaz) October 19, 2025
Backflow of a closed mind cultivated by Zionism
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LNG tanker catches fire after explosion off Yemen Al Jazeera
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US envoy says Syria is ‘back on our side’ after joint attack with extremist-led government forces
***
Iran, China and Russia declare Tasnim as Security Council Resolution 2231 expires
Khamenei’s close aide Amwazi attracts attention for his ‘strategic regrets’ regarding nuclear avoidance
old blighty
UK invites veterans to soft launch of digital ID The Register
Boris Johnson confesses: he’s addicted to ChatGPT
Labor is betting on a bubble economy
discord in europe
New EU member states could join without full voting rights Politico
Germany’s Federal Office for Civil Protection publishes guidelines that rule out war as an ‘unlikely’ possibility Euronews
A new war that’s not so cold war
Trump presses Zelensky to accept Putin’s terms or be ‘abandoned’ by Russia FT
Is President Trump attempting a regime change operation against President Putin? Mark Wouk
TPP is proof of Trump-Putin peace and pudding – anticipating the Budapest summit menu John Helmer
Budapest Daily News Hungary might make peace with the American superweapon that so frightened Putin. lol.
***
Russia’s giant gas factory halts water intake after Ukrainian drone attack Reuters
EU countries to agree on Russian gas embargo in 2028 Euractiv
EU asks for maritime declaration to inspect Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’ Reuters
China joins Russia’s shadow fleet in first-ever dark LNG ship-to-ship transfer
“I didn’t blow up Nord Stream,” suspect says in first interview after handing over notes from Poland
Caucasus
Analysis: Mehdiyev arrest signals protracted tensions between Azerbaijan and Russia Eurasianet
Lafaire Epstein
Prince Andrew is the first member of the royal family to be involved in a criminal investigation in more than 20 years, as the Metropolitan Police is “actively” investigating him for asking his personal protection officer to dig up dirt on the Virginia Giuffre Daily Mail.
south of the border
Exclusive: US repatriates Caribbean airstrike survivors to Colombia and Ecuador, President Trump tells Reuters. Wait, I thought they were dangerous narco-terrorists who needed immediate execution.
Rubio promised to betray US informant to get Trump’s El Salvador prison deal WaPo
US blows up another ship, Trump baselessly calls Colombia’s Petro a ‘drug trafficker’
Rodrigo Paz takes power as Bolivia grapples with severe economic crisis Anadolu Agency
Trump 2.0
‘No Kings’ protests (and arrest) begin for Ken Klippenstein. “NSPM-7 is already being used to detain protesters over speech.”
No Kings related notes Carl Sanchez
Unbridled and unaccountable: How President Trump is building a violent, shadowy federal police force ProPublica
President Trump isn’t sending troops to cities with the highest crime rates, data shows Kansas Reflector
***
Secret Service discovers hunting platform at Axios in Florida with direct line of sight to President Trump’s Air Force One
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Federal agency overseeing the US nuclear stockpile will furlough most of its employees starting Monday CNN
Deshabille Democratic Party
Silent Partnership between the Congressional Black Caucus and AIPAC The Nation
police state surveillance
Exclusive: Report finds systematic brutality in Colorado immigration prisons Immigration Insider
A writer who survived ADX Supermax prison tells the truth about how we “bury” people
imperial collapse watch
Hitlerism, Trumpism, Netanyahuism, Le Penism, Macronism Emmanuel Todd
academy glove
Abbott: ‘Texas is targeting professors’ over ‘left-wing ideology’
antitrust law
Monopoly Roundup: Does the Left Have a Problem with Building Things in America? BIG by Matt Stoller
How I Became a Populist New Republic
health care?
Downcoding is back from the dead: Insurance companies bring back a system that reduces payments to doctors despite a court ban on coverage
“Liberation Day”
A painful year for the auto industry due to successive supply chain disruptions WSJ
Feeling guilty?
Windows 11 October Update Broke Windows Recovery Environment — USB Keyboard and Mouse Can No Longer Use in Windows RE After Latest Bug Hits Tom’s Hardware
Zippers get their first major upgrade in 100 years Wired
Qualcomm acquires Arduino, open source community is skeptical IEEE Spectrum
Technology Workers and ACM Enshift Communications
class war
The gig economy could be the next victim of the AI revolution Business Insider
New York City nurses confront avalanche of austerity with Dollars and Sense
100 Yen Shop Employees Fight for Employment Improvement Even Without Union Capital or Mainland
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