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Economy•October 1, 2026

Links 10/1/2026 | naked capitalism

Our daily links: unpacking FlyDubai incident, Europe going down with Ukraine ship, union-busting AI, underestimating Hegseth, and the subpolar gyre.

Links 10/1/2026 | naked capitalism

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Bio-inspired whiskers enable tiny drones to navigate in darkness using touch EurekAlert!

Cheez-It flexes with protein-loaded cheese cracker Food Dive

The night sky is getting 10% brighter every year. We’re forgetting what darkness feels like The Guardian

A giant illegal fireworks balloon reportedly broke apart over São Paulo, Brazil, creating a surreal scene in the sky. 🎈💥

These unmanned balloons, often launched during festive celebrations, can reach 50+ meters in height and are frequently loaded with fireworks. Brazilian… pic.twitter.com/U1WRMYAjaV

— Kaptan Hindustan™ (@KaptanHindustan) September 29, 2026

Climate/Environment

The Engine in the Shadow: Why the Subpolar Gyre is Europe’s Immediate Climate Wildcard Climate Uncovered

Mass Heat Wave Deaths in Europe Show Climate Extremes Are Outpacing Adaptation Efforts Inside Climate News

‘Explosion of melt rates’: 20% of Swiss glaciers lost in five years The Guardian

Tropical fueled heavy rainfall continues to cause flash flooding in Southwest Balanced Weather

Central Tokyo receives rain for 34 straight days, longest on record The Mainichi

Pandemics

Fifth unvaccinated person dies of measles; CDC still not counting all deaths Ars Technica

Japan

A Weberian bureaucrat in King Donald’s court Observing Japan

China?

One Stone, Three Birds: Beijing’s Quiet World War II Victory in Washington George Chen

China opens training center with Laos, marking third overseas military base Breaking Defense

Africa

US Launches Two More Airstrikes in Somalia as Bombing Campaign Continues Amid Media Blackout Antiwar

Syraqistan

Massacre at Minab: The School That Became a Grave Drop Site

‘We are not armed’: Last conversation of Iranian destroyer Dena before US attack Press TV

Rubio orders Iranian delegation to leave New York, Iran rejects expulsion claim Anadolu Agency

The Iraqi withdrawal: sovereignty, strategic infrastructure, and laying the groundwork for the next confrontation with Iran Julia Kassem

***

How did Omani pilot get clearance to fly to Israel? Unanswered questions after the flydubai hijack scare Firstpost

Iran Says Mossad Planned False-Flag Aviation Attacks to Blame Tehran Fars. In order to intensify aviation-related sanctions.

Last week Netanyahu was in the UAE, at the request of the local brothel madam MBZ. Effectively Arab puppets are begging Israel to strip-search and punish them, and take everything that they have (unlike the heretical Iranian Shia, who remain un-Islamically against any humiliation…

— Alon Mizrahi (@alon_mizrahi) September 30, 2026

Old Blighty

Iran challenges UK over airbase plot: Why release the suspects? TRT World

Netanyahu Gave ISRAEL UK “Intelligence” Linking Iran to RAF Incident

EVERY SINGLE TIME it is NETANYAHU

Netanyahu told Fox News: “We gave the Brits the intel that there was going to be an attack, and it’s an Iranian-sponsored attack.”

There were NO EXPLOSIVES in those vans and… pic.twitter.com/NLRrmTtFrf

— Ryan Rozbiani (@RyanRozbiani) October 1, 2026

‘Strong indications’ that Iran played role in RAF Fairford incident, says Burnham The Guardian

Reporting of the RAF Fairford arrests blows the idea of a ‘free press’ out of the water Jonathan Cook

‘Welcome back,’ says Macron, as UK PM opens door to EU return AFP

European Disunion

EU to offer single-market access to candidate countries Politico

Italian inflation up to 4.2% in September, highest level in three years – Istat ANSA

Public workers in France strike over pay as student protests turn violent Al Jazeera

Drastic budget cutbacks essential to fund Europe’s defense, Germany and allies warn CNBC

Closing the EU’s inflation governance gap: the limits of monetary policy and the case for a new policy framework for shockflation Journal of European Public Policy

Remarkable shift in German industry thinking on China. From new BDI paper:

“Even if de-risking entails costs, including in the form of counter-reactions, passivity would in the long term be economically considerably more costly & irresponsible from a security-policy perspective” pic.twitter.com/UCRbEmAJs0

— Finbarr Bermingham (@fbermingham) September 29, 2026

Germany’s far-right AfD party reveals plans for forum with Russia and US to discuss reviving Nord Stream Ukrainska Pravda

Pentagon excludes key allies from NATO meeting Politico

New Not-So-Cold War

👀 Lithuanian PM: “I was addressing the secretary general [Mark Rutte asking,] ‘Is there any proof, real proof intelligence services are providing, something on the table, that Russia is getting ready for something?’ And there is actually none.”

In other words, most of the “OMG!… pic.twitter.com/2UdYUWWKPR

— 1g0r.B0hm (@1g0rB0hm) September 30, 2026

Russia’s New Weapon: Surgical Energy Grid Warfare Marat’s Substack

Russia views European factories producing arms for Kiev as military targets — diplomat TASS

Ukraine’s biggest steel city is switching off. Kryvyi Rih, 600,000 people, lived off mills and ore. Those giants paid for the city. Now they are idle. ArcelorMittal alone employs about 17,000; after four Russian missile strikes in five weeks it may not restart. The main ore… pic.twitter.com/tbI3S5oEBU

— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) September 29, 2026

Ukraine unveils new Mavic alternative, but Chinese dependence persists Kyiv Indepedent

If Russia attacks Sweden, the Swedish Air Force will strike targets deep inside enemy territory rather than limit itself to defense – Colonel Carl Bergqvist, Commandant of the Swedish Air Warfare Centre

“An attack must come at a high cost,” Bergqvist said. According to him,… pic.twitter.com/dzH88EFEVn

— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) September 30, 2026

Ukraine’s finances: everything we don’t know Kyiv independent

CIA’s Ratcliffe Reportedly Warned Kremlin of Soviet-Style Collapse in Moscow Visit Kyiv Post

South of the Border

Cuba Publishes the Most Comprehensive Botanical Work in Its History TeleSur

Trump 2.0

Trump’s Finger Gets Closer to Nuclear Button Ken Klippenstein

Everyone Got Pete Hegseth Wrong Foreign Policy

Why they couldn’t beat Trump—and won’t beat Vance. American Mind

Midterms 2026

Why Meta and Google are focused on obscure local elections Oligarch Watch

Democrats Suck

Democrats Have Created a Consultant-Driven Echo Chamber Jacobin

Jeffrey Soros shares here that he’s known El-Sayed since 2012 when he interviewed him as a finalist for the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, which paid part of his grad school expenses.
(Fun DYK: Know who won one of these the year before? Vivek Ramaswamy) https://t.co/wSoxzPZTHI

— Silicon Valley Fodder (@Playerinthgame) September 30, 2026

Realignment and Legitimacy

Useful Shadows. Aurelien

Our Famously Free Press

The death of Euractiv Matthew Karnitschnig

The Disastrous Bari Weiss Experiment May Be Coming To An End At CBS/CNN TechDirt

U.S. Liberal Media Literacy Guide: “This Isn’t Who We Are” Black Agenda Report

Police State Watch

Trump Administration Plans to Add 5,000 New ICE Employees by End of Year Truthout

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

How to Beat Surveillance Pricing Before It Bleeds You Dry Wired

❗️ The Dutch intelligence service AIVD is warning people not to hold confidential conversations in or near their cars, saying the microphones in many modern vehicles can technically be switched on remotely to eavesdrop.

Some state actors can request car data from carmakers and… pic.twitter.com/HHsIL2qhvy

— International Cyber Digest (@IntCyberDigest) September 30, 2026

MAHA

RFK Jr outlines expansive vision for collecting US health data at Maha event The Guardian

RFK Jr: Sam Altman told me it would be malpractice for a doctor to make a diagnosis or prescription without checking AI pic.twitter.com/rRGNJdEspL

— FactPost (@factpostnews) September 29, 2026

Supply Chain

Global Supply Chain Risks: The Sectors and Regions Most Exposed Lori Ann Larocco

Economy

The US Economy “Is Running Hot,” Lots of Consumer Spending Growth, Lots of Inflation. The Bond Market Sees it Too Wolf Street

Imperial Collapse Watch

The Pentagon taps Elon Musk and Palmer Luckey to help decide what the military should do next TechCrunch

Boeing’s First Preview of the F/A-XX Sixth Generation Carrier Based Fighter Reveals Very Low Observable Design Military Watch

Why the Pentagon just dropped $450M on tungsten mining Defense News

AI

Trump plan to combat AI risks hinges on Big Tech pals policing themselves Ars Technica

NORTHPOINT OFFERS HAZLE TOWNSHIP HOUSEHOLDS $10,000 EACH, MANY RESIDENTS SAY NO Hoodline

FTC reportedly looking into whether OpenAI, Anthropic violated consumer protection laws Yahoo!finance

Irony alert: OpenAI whines that Chinese model stole its special IP that it stole from everybody else The Register

Class Warfare

Amazon Is Deploying AI to Spy on Its Workers and Bust Unions Before They Form Truthout

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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