Russian wolves implicated in missing “Santa Claus’s reindeer” case Vzglayd via machine translation (Micael T)
This magic mushroom can kill ScienceNews
Across the U.S., homegrown experiments aim to save kids from their phones STAT
CDC Report Highlights Growing Threat From Drug-Resistant Germs JAMA
New paraquat research again points to Parkinson’s link The New Lede
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Millions of Ebola dollars missing with staff unpaid while virus spreads, charity says BBC
Climate/Environment
El Niño jumps up corporate agenda as potential bill tops $11trn Responsible Investor
Through the first 10 days of the month of November, the planet has averaged 1.94°C above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial baseline.
Will I have to raise the y-axis above 2.0°C before the year is out? The Climate 8-Ball is shivering with antici … https://t.co/BzjR6arViW
— Prof. Eliot Jacobson (@EliotJacobson) November 11, 2026
Oil slicks seen from space: the devastating impact of boat strikes on fragile Gulf ecosystems Guardian
China?
SUN Chenghao: After Jensen Huang, What Happens to US–China Tech Ties? China Affairs+
Xi Jinping says Taiwan’s ‘complete reunification’ with China will happen Aljazeera
Japan
How China’s 2-for-1 diplomatic threat forced Japan’s Takaichi to back down South China Morning Post
Koreas
Trump Is Facing a Very Different North Korea Foreign Affairs
Southeast Asia
Rebels and Myanmar army fight over artisanal oil wells in Magway region Energy News
Africa
The Southern African Bi-Oceanic Railway Could Be A Game-Changer In The Sino-US New Cold War Andrew Korybko
Neither war nor peace in Tigray – is Ethiopia’s latest conflict really over? BBC
South of the Border
China’s Advance in Argentina Under Javier Milei Evan Ellis
Cardinal! The Viral Radio Jingle Soundtracking Paraguay’s Meltdown Paraguay Post
Trump moots toppling Cuba authorities before leaving office Aljazeera
Trump threatens to double tariffs on Mexico over illegal immigration Financial Times
There Will Soon Be Elections in Venezuela Venezuelanalysis (Robin K)
Local Journalist Murdered After BBC Documentary Exposed Police Corruption in Ecuador DropSite
Haiti, Salvadoran forces retake Sylvio Cator Stadium from gangs, Bukele says Haitian Times
European Disunion
Volkswagen scraps ‘Gamechanger’ manufacturing project at Wolfsburg plant Automotive Manufacturing Solutions
Mercedes-Benz to halt ‘all future investments’ in Germany Financial Times
Irish potato yields fall up to 50% following drought Fresh Plaza
Old Blighty
Diesel still costing close to a ‘dismal’ £2 a litre despite oil price falls Guardian
Israel v. The Neighborhood
How We Learned To Love Genocide David Sheen, YouTube (guurst)
An Israeli attack on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza has killed six people, including a general surgeon, and wounded at least 28 others, in what was the deadliest single attack since Israel’s elections last month.
British surgeon Goher Rahbour, who is volunteering at Nasser Hospital, said the strike left all operating theatres out of operation.
Located in Khan Younis, Nasser Hospital is one of the few remaining functioning medical facilities in besieged Gaza, where Israel’s army has devastated the healthcare infrastructure in its ongoing genocide.
— TRT World (@trtworld) November 13, 2026
Iran War
The View From Space the U.S. Government Doesn’t Want You to See NYT Opinion, YouTube (resilc)
Proportional. Restrained. Humane.
Iran is really demonstrating a moral military with precise targets to an immoral military that prides itself on slaughtering children in schools, medics in hospitals, and scientists in universities.
— Kathleen Tyson (@Kathleen_Tyson_) November 13, 2026
Trump says no deal needed with Iran, closes down Vance negotiations Washington Post. From yesterday, still germane.
The statement by Iran’s Assembly of Experts represents a significant step in the ongoing debate over the future of the country’s nuclear doctrine.
– As has been written elsewhere, the Assembly of Experts has no authority to decide Iran’s withdrawal from the NPT or directly change its nuclear doctrine. Its statement therefore does not constitute an operational decision. However, its intervention gives greater political and religious weight to a debate that, until recently, was largely confined to strategic commentators and security circles.
– Would add that the document also contains an important domestic element: it acknowledges economic hardship and the need to protect people’s living conditions as part of Iran’s national resilience.
– The statement should also be read alongside a separate declaration by university professors affiliated with the Basij, who have explicitly called for Iran to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and fundamentally reconsider its nuclear policy.
– Though two distinct initiatives, their convergence is significant. The Assembly of Experts brings institutional and religious weight to the discussion, while the Basij-affiliated academics express a more radical position, questioning whether Iran’s existing nuclear policy can still guarantee the country’s security after the war.
– Worth nothing that neither statement means that Tehran has decided to leave the NPT, let alone develop nuclear weapons. These remain separate decisions, with very different political and legal implications.
– What matters here is that the debate is gradually expanding beyond the usual security and strategic circles. Arguments that were previously advanced mainly by hardline commentators are now finding expression in religious institutions and organized academic networks linked to the IRGC.
– Whether this will eventually influence official policy remains uncertain. But the growing number and institutional diversity of those calling for a reassessment suggest that the war has opened a deeper discussion within the Islamic Republic about the limits of its traditional nuclear posture and the kind of deterrence it will need in the future.
#Iran
— Babak Vahdad (@BabakVahdad) November 13, 2026
Why the Arctic cannot replace the Middle East’s shipping lanes Lowy Institute
Iran warns of domestic gas shortages from war this winter Hellenic Shipping News
New Not-So-Cold War
ZOMG. this is delicious. Alexander Mercouris has been giving a blow-by-blow of the Abu Dhabi pow-wow among the US, Ukraine, and Russia that just ended. Mercouris stressed that the Russians had made it unambiguous that the top item on the agenda was a new security architecture for Europe, which is something they have sought since the end of the Cold War and most recently put concrete proposal before the US shortly before the start of the Special Military Operation. Ukraine, the US and the Europeans have kept pushing for a ceasefire, which the Russians have consistently and of late, forcefully rejected. There will be no cessation of hostilities ex a new security architecture, of which a Ukraine deal would be a part, or Russia wining the war and then agreeing to a settlement.
Mercouris loves negotiations, and his Thursday talk covered the aftermath in detail in his Thursday talk:
Putin Shocks Kushner Witkoff During Icy Meeting; Wants Europe Security Deal & 4 Regions; EU Trapped. The short version is that Kushner and Witkoff finally got it through their very thick heads what the Russian side wanted. This is disastrous from their view. Trump wants a ceasefire pronto so he can pretend he has achieved something, Even if all parties were sincere about seeking a new security architecture, getting to a pact would take years.Witkoff and Kusher ran to Moscow, seeking a meeting with Putin. First, this is astonishingly presumptuous, as if Putin should be at their beck and call (if I were Putin, I would have kept them cooling their heels for a week). Second, in negotiation or diplomacy terms, this move is way way way more offensive than asking to talk to the manager. The negotiators were chosen, carefully briefed and given parameters. What could they have been thinking? That coming directly from Trump, they could somehow make a more forceful impression on Putin than on the Russian team? Or perhaps that they could present the Russian interlocutors as having misunderstood some key matter so as to try to create space between them and Putin?
With that long intro, please do click through to look at the photo series. The first image is of when Witkoff and Kushner enter the room to meet with Putin and his aides. Putin had the real estate duo first meet with his aide, Yury Ushakov, who has regularly been part of these negotiations. Usahkov then escorted in them into the room. You can see how both Witkoff and Kushner looked like they bit into lemons in the opening picture. No doubt that was because they saw Vladimir Medinsky, the tough-as-nails lead negotiator from Abu Dhabi. Putin was sending a message that there would be no cute games-playing about what as said or not said in the UAE, and that he full backed his representatives.
Oh, and the CAMERAS WERE ON FOR THE ENTIRE MEETING.
The End of the Illusion: How US-Russia Talks in Abu Dhabi and Moscow Exposed the EU’s Isolation Think BRICS
EU meeting in Dublin Merz claims participation in Ukraine talks Tagesschau via machine translation (Micael T)
‘We’ve got to run’: Inside ruined Ukraine power plant under constant drone threat BBC
A Ukrainian drone has struck a Russian warship in the Gulf of Finland, forcing it to return to port Telegraph
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Lawmakers Race to Renew Warrantless Spying Before January Reclaim the Net
Imperial Collapse Watch
U.S. grounds flights days after Trump administration expands new AI air traffic system Scientific American (Micael T)
What could possibly go wrong? Nationwide FAA Ground Stop edition Gary Marcus. The nationwide flight ground stop was due to AI. I had thought Microsoft 360…..
Flight delays and cancellations continue after FAA lifts ground stop Associated Press (resilc)
Mullin: No indication of ‘nefarious attack’ on FAA as DHS investigates root cause of telecom outage The Hill
The hypersonic missile race is unnecessary boondoggle for US Responsible Statecraft (resilc)
How the End of Energy Abundance Rewrites Civilization Nate Hagens
The Coming Era of Undersea Anarchy Foreign Policy
Trump 2.0
US Citizens Detained ProPublica (Robin K)
Dad, girl killed in Brooklyn building collapse stayed home in fear of ICE, cousin says Gothamist
GOP senators warn Trump push for Pentagon funding risks shutdown The Hill
Impeach and Remove RFK Jr. MedPage
Midterms Post Mortems
The bad news — and good news — about how the polls did in 2026 G. Elliott Morris
Democrats Suck
Democrats Have a New Center. The Old One Isn’t Taking It Well. Ben Windsor
Van Hollen Challenges a Bankrupt Status Quo Daniel Larison
The Real Reason Chris Van Hollen’s Challenge to Schumer Is a Big Deal New Republic (resilc)
AOC Supports Jeffries for Speaker Tom Neuburger. Not just moral cowardice. Shows AOC is stupid. Power is lying in the street and she is refusing to use it.. She could make herself kingmaker by leading the ouster of Jeffries. She does not have to go for the Majority Leader position, but just be a coup meister.
Our No Longer Free Press
ROSS DOUTHAT & CBS NEWS: CONTEMPTIBLE CRAVEN TRUMP SANE-WASHING EPISODE OF THE DAY Brad DeLong. Tell us how you really feel!
Israel Enlists Conservative Media Firm To Target Americans In New Influence Campaign Daily Caller
Economy
Here’s What It Will Really Take To Fix America’s Economy YouTube. resilc: “If she headed up the DNC I’d feel better.”
Russian diesel exports double after Trump lifts sanctions, but US gets none Financial Times
PPI Inflation Rages in the Revisions? Businesses Hit by 6.5% Inflation, Worst since 2022 Wolf Richter
Mr. Market Needs a Second Drink
Treasury Yield Surge Shatters Hopes Worst of Bond Rout Is Over Bloomberg
AI ‘Supply Shock’ Pushes Bond Market to Limit, Wells Fargo Says Bloomberg
AI
Well, well, well
Rep. Ro Khanna sold $NVDA right before Nvidia’s CEO admitted to having a Chinese spy side piece
He’s a member of the following:
– Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party Committee
– Taiwan Caucus
– High Tech CaucusApparently, federal agents informed some lawmakers last year that Jensen Huang might be the target of a foreign intelligence operation
He avoided a ~26% dip
— Trade With Congress (@tradewithcong) November 11, 2026
Behind Jensen Huang’s spy scandal, a shadow war for Trump’s ear on China Washington Post. Rubio stuck in the knife.
🦔Nvidia spent the last two years acting like the AI industry’s bank. It invested in its own customers, promised to buy their unused capacity, and guaranteed up to $105 billion in rent on a data center built for OpenAI. Those customers then bought Nvidia chips.
This week the guy who built that loop resigned, and the CFO now running Nvidia once pushed back on an even bigger OpenAI backstop. I made a video on how the money circles, where it already cracks, and who gets hurt if it breaks. Nvidia itself has the profits to ride out a slowdown (for now…), but a lot of the companies that run on its checks don’t.
Hedgie🤗
— Hedgie (@HedgieMarkets) November 13, 2026
Trump Admin Infighting ERUPTS As Nvidia Scandal Deepens Young Turks, YouTube
AI Bubble: This is the beginning of the end Ed Zitron, YouTube. Important. Zitron points to evidence of a Nvidia chip glut
Premium: The Hater’s Guide To Megaspeed Ed Zitron
The great Generative AI unraveling Gary Marcus
DeepSeek just avenged Old Huang after Anthropic’s decapitation strike by releasing its entire App stack for everyone to use and adapt freely via DeepSeek API.
Dario and Sam are now dead men walking as closed models can’t compete.
“Now, all the capabilities behind our official products can be freely accessed and combined through the DeepSeek API. We hope developers can use this to skip repetitive foundational work and build more diverse, more polished, and more imaginative products. We welcome you to use the DeepSeek API and create freely.”
— Kathleen Tyson (@Kathleen_Tyson_) November 14, 2026
Beyond the Rogue Agent—Preparing Health Systems for AI Failure JAMA (Robin K)
The AI megatrade’s mounting portfolio concentration risk problem Financial Times
Class Warfare
US Health Insurance Coverage Declines JAMA
Affordability can’t wait Economic Policy Institute
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus:
That face.. 😅 https://t.co/u2qip5f9VG
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) November 1, 2026
A second bonus:
«You got a problem with him, then you got a problem with me» https://t.co/aDlCgFq8LL
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) November 7, 2026
And a third:
A guy wanted to adopt a cat, but he wouldn’t leave his brother’s side, so he had to take both of them. https://t.co/EB7d3Q6czL
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) November 11, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
