New Zealand to nearly triple tax on international tourists Aljazeera
#COVID-19
Covid levels right now: pic.twitter.com/8jYtjUyTAJ
— Pat Just Pat 🍉 (@PatTheSocialist) September 2, 2024
Beyond Paxlovid: The Urgent Need for Better Meds Jessica Wildfire (fk)
If you get challenges about mask wearing, this offers an alternate response to “It’s an asshole detector”:
You can always start masking again, especially on planes, in trains and in classrooms. Back to school is a great time to! https://t.co/0VWM2nshPz pic.twitter.com/wUgEDYikat
— 🍉 Dr. Thrasher still cares about Covid & Gaza🔻 (@thrasherxy) September 2, 2024
Climate/Environment
Carbon projects are projects of death World Rainforest Management (Micael T)
Pilot plant demonstrates iron-based hydrogen storage feasibility TechXplore (Chuck lL)
China?
Taiwan to purchase over 1,000 additional Stinger missiles amid increased Chinese threat Economic Times
China’s bulging commodity stockpiles show depth of economic woes Mining News
Record Rainfall Spoils Crops in China, Rattling Its Leaders New York Times
Myanmar
China Faces Fierce Online Backlash in Myanmar After Threat Against Ethnic Army Irriwaddy
South of the Border
Major power outage hits Venezuela; Maduro government blames ‘sabotage’ Associated Press
Exclusive: US seizes Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro’s airplane in the Dominican Republic CNN
Africa
Africa’s forever war: how Sudan descended into hell — again The Times
Floods in Nigeria kill hundreds and wash away farmland, as millions face famine South China Morning Post
European Disunion
Battered and unloved, Germany’s coalition likely to hang on after regional losses to far right Reuters
State elections in Thüringen and Saxony deliver another humiliating defeat for the sclerotic and incapable German political establishment Eugyppius. Micael T: “Symbolic humiliation yes, but will this be felt around the kitchen table? See France and U.K. for examples how the real powers make sure nothing gets better.”
Nothing new in the East Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)
Volkswagen warns of plant closures in Germany, citing ‘extremely tense’ situation CNBC (Kevin W)
The German problem? It’s an analogue country in a digital world Guardian (Kevin W)
Macron sweats under growing pressure to appoint prime minister Politico
Poland’s Call for Reparations: A Continuing Debate with Germany Poland Daily 24
Gaza
Striking unions join protest as thousands take to streets for hostage deal Times of Israel. But: “…court rules strike is political in nature and must end at 2:30 p.m.”
Israel’s Blood-soaked Cabinet Won’t Stop Unless Sunday’s Powerful Protests Continue Haaretz
Israeli Air Force Official: Without US Aid, We Couldn’t Fight Gaza Beyond Few Months Haaretz (Robin K)
UK suspends 30 arms exports to Israel over Gaza war crimes concerns Middle East Eye. Symbolic but better than nothing
Houthi drones, missiles strike 2 ships in Red Sea, maritime agencies report Arab News
Look how Israeli settlers send their children to take over the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron, the same mosque that the deranged settler Baruch Goldstein went into twenty years ago and opened fire at worshippers as they prayed dawn prayers.
They’re literally sending their kids to… pic.twitter.com/siiZqZIAT3
— Mariam Barghouti مريم البرغوثي (@MariamBarghouti) September 2, 2024
New Not-So-Cold War
Beluga whale alleged to be Russian ‘spy’ found dead in Norway Guardian
The Ukrainian Armed Forces began to retreat from the Nevelsky cauldron! Marat Khairullin
Ukraine – U.S. ‘Experts’ Throw The Towel Moon of Alabama
Ukrainians Flee – Russia Storms Pokrovsk Daniel Davis, YouTube. Good battlefield wrap with a lot of attention to strategic implications.
WHY THE LACK OF TRAINING IS UKRAINE’S ACHILLES HEEL Larry Johnson
Russia to revise nuclear doctrine amid Western actions in Ukraine conflict TurkiyeToday
Footage Shows Russian Army Capturing Leopard 2A6 and M1A1 Abrams Tanks Near Avdiivka Military Watch
No arrest for Putin as he arrives in Mongolia Euronews (Kevin W)
Syraqistan
Pakistan’s Malnutrition Crisis: Costing GDP And Impacting Health Amid Economic Struggles NewsX
New allegations against MbS go unchallenged by the west The Cradle
Turkiye
Turkey Bids to Join BRICS in Push to Build Alliances Beyond West Bloomberg
But: Geopolitical Developments: Middle East, Russia Mark Wauck. Micael T: “It is a bit convenient that Turkey applies when Russia has proposed a halt to new members. Another Erdogan-stunt to squeeze F-35s out of the US?”
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Dutch prime minister bans wireless devices from meetings to ward off espionage Intelews
Imperial Collapse Watch
Trickle Down BRICS Rachel Donald (Micael T). *Sigh*. BRICS cheerleaders continue to show a lack of understanding. The use of a blockchain system is a gimmick. This scheme is bilateral trade, which all of these countries can and are engaging in now. The issue is that the result just about never winds up being balanced trade. The country running a trade surplus winds up holding currency of the deficit country, which winds up being an economic deadweight if the surplus cannot find or does not want to hold much in the way financial investments in the deficit country. Would yo want to hold a huge stash or Turkiye lira or Bangladesh taka? This is why Michael Hudson keeps stressing that it’s critical for these countries need a mechanism for addressing trade and currency imbalances, and advocates for a Keynes bancor type system.
On top of that, discussions like this greatly overstate the importance of trade in the US reserve currency status. The overwhelming majority of foreign exchange transactions, over 95%, are investment, not trade related. Yes, escaping dollar transactions for trade is critical for escaping the abusive US sanctions regime. But that is not tantamount to dethroning the dollar.
EU Commission chief pledges to accelerate EU enlargement Anadolu Agency
Trump
RFK Jr.’s name on ballot poses danger for Trump in key states The Hill
Kamala
Harris doesn’t get convention bounce, but widens gap with women: POLL ABC
Kamala Harris woos Savannah, but can she win Georgia and Harris rally stories: Personal missions, reflections and inspiration and Slideshow: Harris rally at Savannah’s Enmarket Arena The Current. KLG:
The cities of Atlanta, Savannah, Macon, Athens, and Augusta will vote Harris-Walz. Also Brunswick, which is on the coast, and Albany in the rural deep southwest Georgia. Yard signs are popping up. Biden-Harris would never have gotten this level of apparent enthusiasm. Previously I had seen only one Biden-Harris sign in my bluest-of-blue island precinct surrounded by a sea of red. Now there are a dozen Harris signs in the neighborhood. The question is whether this will be enough to counteract votes from the northern arc of Greater Atlanta, most of the outlying southern Atlanta suburbs, all of North Georgia, and the bulk of South Georgia where the largely Black/African American majority and near-majority counties are small in population but large in land area.
Kamala Harris is called out for sneaky tactic to avoid answering questions as she boards plane Daily Mail (Li)
Kamala STUMBLES Again After HUMILIATING Misstep at Rally Devory Darkins, YouTube. Biden looks like he got some fresh Botox or filler…..
Biden
Hunter Biden’s addiction to return to limelight in second criminal trial The Hill
Our No Longer Free Press
U.S. universities spent the summer strategizing to suppress student activism. Here is their plan. Mondoweiss (guurst). Important.
Why Musk’s Lawsuit Against Media Matters . . . Matters Jonathan Turley
This is an utterly shocking account from journalist Sarah Wilkinson of her recent violent arrest by 16 counter-terrorism police, several masked, at 7.30am.
They smashed up, or stole, many of her belongings; emptied an urn of her mother’s remains over the floor; have denied her…
— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) September 2, 2024
AI
AI lending could make finance deals even more unfair for women—here’s how this can be avoided TechXplore
California lawmakers approve legislation to ban deepfakes, protect workers and regulate AI Associated Press
The Bezzle
Governments often struggle with massive new IT projects Iowa Capital Dispatch (Robin K). Private sector too. The rule of thumb I heard from two regarded as top Wall Street CIOs back in the day was 80% of large IT projects fail. But they are killed before officially failing so generally not registered outside the tech community.
Class Warfare
Concern over housing costs hits record high across rich nations Financial Times
Meat and Poultry Is Wildly Expensive Now — and It Could Be Due to Price Fixing Angry Bear
Dollar General warns poorer US consumers are running out of money Financial Times. From over the weekend, still germane
How a leading chain of psychiatric hospitals traps patients New York Times (Dr. Kevin). Paul R flagged:
Acadia Healthcare is holding people against their will to maximize insurance payouts, a Times investigation found…. Acadia has lured patients into its facilities and held them against their will, even when detaining them was not medically necessary
The Economist just published a deeply-researched story about car bloat, and it’s very, very damning:
“For every life that the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks save, there are more than a dozen lives lost in other vehicles.”
Well worth your time: https://t.co/eHalcNkiBX pic.twitter.com/1RBfAooX6V
— David Zipper (@DavidZipper) September 1, 2024
Antidote du jour (Ann M). That goose is a natural. Knows to pose in the hot spot.
And a bonus:
Such a cute smile!pic.twitter.com/ai0Z1kuMzL
— aww (@omgaww) September 2, 2024
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
