Links 8/7/2026 | naked capitalism

Winner of Florida python hunting contest nabs 96 snakes: ‘I was on a mission’ The Guardian

BMW Is Showing Commercials On Their Car’s Dash Screens And They Want You To Think It’s A Treat The Autopian

Weathering population decline with Smart Decline EurekAlert!

Kill the Ticks The Atlantic

Climate/Environment

How the EU adaptation framework vastly underplays the risk of a 3°C world New Climate Reality

A New Ocean Anomaly Joins Super El Niño, Reshaping the Winter 2026/2027 Forecast Severe Weather Europe

Extreme heat breaks temperature records in central and eastern Europe The Guardian

European wildfires cause up to $22B in total damage Anadolu Agency

Boiling Point: Toxic underground fires are spreading at California landfills Los Angeles Times

Spokane fires could be latest disaster to unsettle property insurance market Washington State Standard

More disasters are coming. How should cities respond? Progress and Poverty

Pandemics

Senate Committee Votes to Hold Fauci in Contempt AP

Water

Where’s The Water? The Brockovich Report

The Koreas

Seoul seeks exemption from U.K. sanctions on Russian LNG: official Yonhap

Japan

Yen Surrenders Nearly Half Its Gains From US-Japan Intervention Bloomberg

Japan weighs use of Palantir, Anduril AI systems for defense forces Nikkei Asia

China?

Li Daokui: China’s Biggest Economic Problem Is Not K-Shaped Divergence, but an Economy That Is Cold Overall Sinocism

This speech on the state of the Chinese economy by Li Daokui is a pretty accurate representation of how the actual economics profession *in China* views the current situation. In short, it’s not optimistic. In fact there’s very little resemblance between their views and the… pic.twitter.com/j7wl7vtWNq

— Taisu Zhang (@ZhangTaisu) August 6, 2026

***

✨🇨🇳In China, many children start learning to fly drones at an early age.

It has become a popular after-school hobby among children and teenagers. pic.twitter.com/ozAQlGcRvQ

— 🇨🇳XuZhenqing徐祯卿 (@XueJia24682) August 5, 2026

Syraqistan

As the Board of Peace Cosplays Diplomacy, Israel Once Again Ramps Up Killing in Gaza Drop Site

Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace issues first building contract – for a military base The Guardian

Israel wipes genocide evidence in Gaza, carting off rubble and remains in 100 trucks daily Euro-Med

Eight Wounded Overnight as Israel Escalates Lebanon Airstrikes to Highest Rate Since June Antiwar

The Phantom Proxy: How the West Delegated the Dirty War in West Asia to Ukraine Vanessa Beeley

YAF preemptive op. surprises Saudis, thwarts ground offensive: Source Al Mayadeen

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey to sign defence pact to set up ‘Islamic Nato’ alliance First Post

Iran War Renews Concerns About the Lasting Toll of Traumatic Brain Injuries to US Troops AP

VA launches psilocybin trial for Veterans with treatment-resistant depression U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

European Disunion

US euro sale to prop up yen blindsided European Central Bank FT

EU authoritarianism on the rise in Hungary Thomas Fazi

Africa

Khartoum After the Storm Equator

Sovereign rot Africa Is A Country

Some Concerns about U.S. Policy towards West Africa after Trump Sawahil

Old Blighty

UK government rules out public inquiry into Epstein for now Reuters

Labour ministers’ criminal records to be kept SECRET from British public Europe Says

New Not-So-Cold War

The costs of total attrition Events in Ukraine. Desperation mounts:

Sadly, Ukraine may soon be forced to begin the mass slaughter of Russian civilians as last resort to stop the war.

Russia is now committing massacres several times every day, while Ukraine still refrains, despite having even MORE capability to do so. https://t.co/WGq70IYxrg

— Jay in Kyiv (@JayinKyiv) August 6, 2026

NATO is being installed into Ukraine’s military RT

Russia Assembles Unprecedented Arctic Oil Convoy to Bypass Global Shipping Hotspots gCaptain

Ukraine’s ex-ambassador to Washington charged with illicit enrichment in widening corruption purge Intellinews

L’affaire Epstein

New Mexico AG sues Todd Blanche, U.S. DOJ for unredacted Epstein records Santa Fe New Mexican

CBP and Epstein Jenn Budd

Trump 2.0

COULD NEXT YEAR DELIVER A PRESIDENT VANCE? Seymour Hersh

Trump orders limits on birthright citizenship, targets ‘birth tourism’ The Hill

Elon Musk’s DOGE made big errors in claims of government savings, GAO finds WaPo

Trump comes up short with Ogles in Tennessee: 3 takeaways from Thursday’s primaries The Hill

Democrats Suck

1. After Abdul El-Sayed’s win in Michigan, a DC-based advocacy group Third Way will now spend $15 million to attack ‘the left.’ They frame themselves as moderate Democrats. Why aren’t they that spending money attacking the GOP?

The answer requires explaining who they are. pic.twitter.com/Zgy6yLaDwi

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) August 7, 2026

Jeffries-skeptic Democrats face Black Caucus hostility Axios

Progressive William Lawrence, after winning Michigan’s 7th District Democratic primary, pledged to vote for Hakeem Jeffries as House speaker, reversing a position he held earlier during his campaign.

In October, Lawrence was among a group of progressive candidates refusing to… pic.twitter.com/CIqWBBXzQ8

— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) August 6, 2026

“You’re not going up there to make friends with House leadership, you’re going up there to represent your constituents…I’ve been very clear since last fall that I was running in opposition to Hakeem Jeffries as House leader.” –@OliverALarkin https://t.co/NB9GiIL9zi

— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) August 6, 2026

“Real Talk” from Kamala Harris on the Voting Rights Act Says the Quiet Part Out Loud Black Agenda Report

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

Cities Are Ditching Flock, Immediately Replacing It With Axon License Plate Readers 404 Media

Healthcare?

Hospitals feel the pinch as more patients lose insurance Healthcare Dive

Economy

Nutrien, Mosaic Squeezed as Farmers Cut Fertilizer Use After Prices Surge Reuters

Boeing

FAA orders inspection of hundreds of 737 Max jets for cracks CNN

Supply Chain

How the US-Iran war has redrawn Asia’s energy map Nikkei Asia

DR Congo bans copper and cobalt concentrate exports Al Mayadeen

Horse, Anyone? Binoy Kampmark

Shoppers are buying less meat, data shows Food Dive

Imperial Collapse Watch

The New Big Three Landmarks: A Journal of International Dialogue

Messy versus Tidy Dublin Review of Books

Reader Distress from Global ConflictLimits to Progress

The Accelerationists

The Argentine ranch where tech CEOs plan to ride out the apocalypse FT

This A.I. Just Created Viruses Not Found in Nature New York Times

Jane Street in talks to shift its $11bn in debt to investors including Pimco FT

Time Magazine has a separate version of its website with ads only AI can see The Register

Class Warfare

US workers’ share of GDP skids to fresh record low Reuters

The Dog Days of Summer and the Workers Who Can’t Escape Them Confined Space

Anti Communism Is Class Warfare Decline and Fall

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