Last week’s posts on Moon of Alabama:
- Aug 31 – War On Iran: – IRGC Defeats U.S. Strait Clearing Scheme
- Sep 5 – U.S. Military Attacks Private Iranian Assets – Expect Iran To Respond In Kind
Related:
– Dire Strait: Why Economic Threats Might Escalate the War in Iran – Hamidreza Azizi / Time
– A More Confident Iran Emerges After Six Months of War With the U.S. – NY Times
– Hegseth Extends Mideast Deployments Into 2027, Escalating Strain on Troops (archived) – WSJ
- Sep 1 – How Ukraine’s 40-Day Campaign Has Influenced Russia
- Sep 4 – Inside The Fight Of MI6 And CIA Proxies Over Who Is To Lead Ukraine
Related:
– In Ukraine, Fraud and Waste Are Rewarded With More Weapons Contracts (archived) (!) – NY Times
– Ukrainian anti-corruption agency conducts special operation at Prosecutor General’s Office, official detained – pravda.ua
– Ukrainian prosecutor general’s whereabouts unknown since latest anti-corruption operation began – sources – pravda.ua
– The Geopolitical Trap: Structural Incentives Prolonging the War in Ukraine [i] – Black Mountain Analysis
- Sep 3 – Cause And Effect Of High Diesel Prices
Related:
– US diesel prices hit a record high, pushing up transportation costs for a long list of goods – AP
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Other issues:
AI Bezzle:
- OpenAI quietly boosts some of Astra’s evaluation metrics, and continues to change others post-launch – Fortune
- Hyperscalers’ $1.3 Trillion ‘Shadow Debt’ — The Hidden Side of Sustained AI Investment – Biggo
- AI Off-Balance-Sheet Obligations Hit a Subprime-Like Reset Wall in 2027 and 2028 – Naked Capitalism
- Nvidia is the central bank of AI – But will its loans prove sound? (archived) – Economist
- Will anybody use AI as much as coders? (archived) – Economist
- He Did Tech PR. Now He Rails Against AI for a Living. (about Ed Zitron) (archived) – Vanity Fair
SoAm:
- Inside Trump’s Plan to Give the Pentagon a Stake in Venezuela’s Oil Riches (archived) – WSJ
The deal caps months of secretive negotiations to give the U.S. rights to the some of the world’s largest proven oil reserves - Trump’s huge Venezuela deal began with a call and a bet on an oilman (archived) – Washington Post
Alejandro Betancourt was warned that taking on the U.S. government as a business partner would have costs, but America’s backing already is providing benefits. - Plunging Venezuela into the Dark (2019) – OCCRP
Although US ostensibly objected to corruption under Chavez and Maduro, Betancourt was woven into that corruption system and one of its biggest beneficiaries. Most of his associates have been charged criminally in the US, but Betancourt has magically avoided DOJ charges. - Argentina’s Milei battles falling ratings by reviving claim to the Falklands – MSN
Germany:
- Friedrich Merz will lose Sunday’s regional election — whatever the result – Politico
- The plot to stop the AfD Germany’s firewall is crumbling in Saxony-Anhalt – Unherd
- The Leipzig Incident Has All The Hallmarks Of A False Flag – Korybko
China:
- The Western Narrative v. The People of Hong Kong – The Escalator HK
- Joshua Wong, Jailed Hong Kong Activist, Pleads Guilty to Foreign Collusion – NY Times
Russia:
- Russia Has the West Outgunned – Policy Tensor
- Russia secretly helping Iran develop supersonic cruise missiles (archived) – FT
- The strange bedfellows of Evgeny Prigozhin – Events in Ukraine
Prigozhin and: Budanov, Kapustin ‘White Rex’, Khodorkovsky, Navalnites, Azovite (FSB agent?) Korotktikh, Rusich’s Milchakov and dead puppies. Emelyan Pugachev and Timothy McVeigh. Part I.
Other stuff:
- The greatest living mathematician explains math from scratch – Big Think Media
Terence Tao explores the beauty of math, from its humble origins to today’s AI frontiers. Here are the 6 ideas that built all of mathematics. - Buried underpants and a new definition of kissing win 2026 Ig Nobel prizes – Nature
Use as open (not related to the wars in Ukraine and Iran) thread …