New Zealand nearly triples taxes on international tourists Al Jazeera
#COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus Disease)
Current Corona Level: pic.twitter.com/8jYtjUyTAJ
— Pat Just Pat 🍉 (@PatTheSocialist) September 2, 2024
Beyond Paxlovid: The Urgent Need for Better Medicines Jessica Wildfire (fk)
If someone asks you about wearing a mask, instead of replying, “It’s a jerks detector,” here are some possible responses:
You can resume wearing a mask at any time, especially on planes, trains, and in classrooms, and now is a great time to do so with school starting. https://t.co/0VWM2nshPz pic.twitter.com/wUgEDYikat
— 🍉 Dr. Thrasher still cares about COVID and Gaza 🔻 (@thrasherxy) September 2, 2024
Climate and Environment
The carbon project is a death project. Global Rainforest Management (Michael T)
Pilot plant demonstrates feasibility of iron-based hydrogen storage TechXplore (Chuck L)
China?
Taiwan to buy over 1,000 more Stinger missiles amid growing China threat Economic Times
China’s swelling commodity stockpiles underscore the severity of its economic problems Mining News
Record rains damage crops in China, rattle leaders The New York Times
China Vanke posted its first loss in two decades, raising concerns about its ability to repay debt. Bloomberg
Myanmar
China faces fierce online backlash in Myanmar after threats against ethnic minority militias Iriwadi
South of the Border
Venezuela hits major power outage, Maduro government denounces ‘sabotage’ Associated Press
Exclusive: US seizes Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s plane in Dominican Republic CNN
Africa
Africa’s forever wars: How Sudan descended into hell again Times
Nigerian floods kill hundreds, wash away farmland, leave millions facing hunger South China Morning Post
European Separation
The state elections in Thuringia and Saxony delivered another humiliating defeat for Germany’s rigid and incompetent political system. Eugypius. Michael T: “There is certainly a symbolic humiliation, but will this be felt at the dinner table? We only need to look at the examples of France and England to see that those in power are preventing things from getting better.”
Nothing New in the East Machine translated by Nachdenkseiten (Micael T)
Volkswagen threatens to close factories in Germany due to ‘extremely tense’ situation CNBC (Kevin W)
Germany’s problem? An analogue country in a digital world The Guardian (Kevin W.)
Macron wrestles with mounting pressure to appoint prime minister POLITICO
Poland’s reparations demands: ongoing discussions with Germany Poland Everyday 24
Gaza
Striking trade unions join protests as thousands take to streets demanding hostage deal The Times of Israel. However, “…the court ruled that the strike was of a political nature and must end by 2:30 p.m.”
Israel’s bloody cabinet will not stop unless strong protests continue on Sunday Haaretz
Israeli Air Force official: Couldn’t have fought Gaza for more than a few months without US help Haaretz (Robin K)
UK suspends 30 arms exports to Israel over Gaza war crimes concerns The Middle East Eye: Symbolic but better than nothing
Maritime authorities report Houthi drones and missiles attack two ships in the Red Sea Arab News
Look at how Israeli settlers sent children to occupy the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron, the same mosque where 20 years ago the psychopathic settler Baruch Goldstein broke in and opened fire on worshippers at dawn prayer.
They are literally sending their kids off to… pic.twitter.com/siiZqZIAT3
— Mariam Barghouti (@MariamBarghouti) September 2, 2024
A new cold war
Beluga whale believed to be a Russian ‘spy’ found dead in Norway Guardian
Ukrainian troops begin withdrawal from Nevelsky Cauldron! Marat Khairullin
Ukraine – US “experts” surrender Alabama Moon
Ukrainians flee as Russia attacks Pokrovsk Daniel Davis, YouTube. A great summary of the battlefield, with plenty of strategic implications.
Why lack of training is Ukraine’s weakness Larry Johnson
Russia to revise nuclear policy following Western actions in Ukraine conflict Türkiye Today
Russian troops capture Leopard 2A6 and M1A1 Abrams tanks near Avdiivka Military Watches
Putin not arrested after arriving in Mongolia Euronews (Kevin W)
Shirakistan
Pakistan’s malnutrition crisis: economic downturn puts strain on GDP and impacts health News X
New allegations against Crown Prince Mohammed go unchallenged by Western countries Cradle
Turkey
Türkiye announces plans to join BRICS, which aims to build an alliance beyond the West Bloomberg
but: Geopolitical Trends: Middle East, Russia Mark Wach. Michael T: “It’s kind of convenient for Turkey to apply at a time when Russia is proposing a moratorium on new members. Is this another ploy by Erdogan to keep the F-35 out of the US?”
Big Brother is Watching You
Dutch Prime Minister bans wireless devices at meetings to prevent espionage IntelNews
Empire Collapse Watch
Trickle-down BRICS Rachel Donald (Michael T). *sigh*. The BRICS cheerleaders are still showing their lack of understanding. The use of a blockchain system is just a gimmick. The plan is bilateral trade, which all these countries do and can do. The problem is that the result will never be balanced trade. The trade surplus countries will end up holding the currency of the deficit countries, which will become an economic burden if the surplus countries cannot find or do not want to hold financial investments in the deficit countries. Who wants to hold huge amounts of Turkish Lira or Bangladeshi Taka? This is why Michael Hudson emphasizes that these countries need a mechanism to deal with trade and currency imbalances and advocates a Keynesian-Bancor type system.
In addition, such arguments overestimate the importance of trade to the US’s reserve currency status. The vast majority of foreign exchange transactions, over 95%, are investment, not trade-related. Certainly, avoiding dollar transactions for trade is essential to evade the unjust US sanctions regime. But that is not tantamount to dethroning the dollar.
European Commission President pledges to accelerate EU enlargement Anadolu Agency
Trump
RFK Jr.’s name on the ballot poses danger to Trump in key states The Hill
Kamala
Harris fails to boost poll numbers at convention, gap with women widens: poll A.B.C.
Kamala Harris lures Savannah, but can she win Georgia? and Harris’s Rallying Story: Personal Mission, Reflection, and Inspiration and Slideshow: Harris rally at EnMarket Arena in Savannah Current situation: KLG:
The cities of Atlanta, Savannah, Macon, Athens, and Augusta will vote for Harris-Waltz. So will Brunswick on the coast, and Albany deep in rural southwest Georgia. There is sign after sign in the yard. Biden-Harris would not have generated the same enthusiasm. Before, I saw just one Biden-Harris sign in my district, the bluest island in a sea of red. Now I have a dozen Harris signs in my neighborhood. The question is, will this be enough to counter the votes from the northern arc of Greater Atlanta, most of the southern suburbs of Atlanta, all of northern Georgia, and much of southern Georgia, which has small but large populations and large black/African American majority or near majority counties.
Kamala Harris accused of sneaky tactics to avoid answering questions while boarding a plane Daily Mail (Li)
Kamala stumbles again after embarrassing rally gaffe Devore Darkins, YouTube. Biden looks like he’s had some new Botox or fillers…
Biden
Hunter Biden’s addictions put back in spotlight as second criminal trial takes place The Hill
The press is no longer free
American universities have been planning strategies to suppress student protests over the summer. Here is their plan: Mondoweiss (Glust). It’s important.
Why Musk’s lawsuit against the media matters Jonathan Turley
This is the utterly shocking account by journalist Sarah Wilkinson of her recent violent arrest at 7.30am by 16 masked anti-terrorism police.
They destroyed or stole many of her belongings, emptied the urn containing her mother’s ashes onto the floor, and denied her marriage.
— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) September 2, 2024
artificial intelligence
AI lending could make financial transactions even more unfair for women, but here’s how to avoid this. Tech Explorer
California lawmakers approve bill aimed at banning deepfakes, protecting workers, regulating AI Associated Press
Basil
Governments often struggle with big new IT projects Iowa Capital Dispatch (Robin K). The private sector is no different. A rule of thumb I heard from two people who were considered the top CIOs on Wall Street at the time was that 80% of big IT projects fail, but they usually go unrecorded outside of the tech community because they are cancelled before they are officially declared a failure.
Class struggle
Concerns over housing costs hit record high across developed countries Financial Times
Meat and poultry are now sky-high prices — and price manipulation may be to blame Angry Bear
Dollar General warns poor American consumers are running out of money Financial Times. From the weekend, still relevant
How major psychiatric hospital chains trap patients The New York Times (Dr. Kevin). Paul R. flagged it as follows:
A Times investigation found that Acadia Healthcare lured patients into its facilities and then restrained them against their will, even when the restraints were not medically necessary, in order to maximize insurance payouts.
The Economist just published an in-depth article on car bloat, and it’s pretty damning.
“For every life saved by the heaviest 1% of SUVs and trucks, more than a dozen lives are lost in other vehicles.”
It’s worth your time: https://t.co/eHalcNkiBX pic.twitter.com/1RBfAooX6V
— David Zipper (@DavidZipper) September 1, 2024
Today’s antidote (Ann M). That goose has natural talent. She knows how to pose in the hot spots.
And bonus:
What a cute smile!pic.twitter.com/ai0Z1kuMzL
— Ah (@omgaww) September 2, 2024
See yesterday’s link and the Antidote du Jour here.
