This marine biologist wants to use the world’s toughest corals to save dying reefs CNN

Scientists find world’s oldest sperm in Myanmar amber Channel News Asia

Private equity owners pile on leverage to pay themselves divis FT

Almost 60 percent of business closures are now permanent, new Yelp data shows NBC

Does the WTO Matter Anymore? Bloomberg

Wildfires

A Wall of Smoke on the U.S. West Coast NOAA Earth Observatory

#COVID19

Bridging the Gap at Warp Speed — Delivering Options for Preventing and Treating Covid-19 and Up Is Down — Pharmaceutical Industry Caution vs. Federal Acceleration of Covid-19 Vaccine Approval New England Journal of Medicine

Trump disputes CDC director on vaccine timing, says ‘he made a mistake’ The Hill. The irony here is that with seven vaccines in trial, three in Stage Three, four in Stages One and Two, Project Warp Speed appears to be working as well as a Big Pharma project can work; moreover, the parallel development architecture was a good idea. But Democrats can’t say that, and Trump won’t. (Personally, my hope is that a dark horse project in a place like South Korea or Thailand turns out to be the winner, but that’s a separate issue.)

The Economic Case for a People’s Vaccine Boston Review

Biden: ‘We can’t allow politics to interfere with the vaccine in any way’ CNN

CDC Director Redfield suggests masks may be more effective than a coronavirus vaccine Yahoo News

Is the company with a 20-second coronavirus test for real? FT

Steve Bannon Is Behind Bogus Study That China Created COVID The Daily Beast

China?

China urged to flex long-arm jurisdiction to protect its companies from foreign hostility South China Morning Post

China’s ‘hybrid war’: Beijing’s mass surveillance of Australia and the world for secrets and scandal ABC Australia

Nigerian opens China-built railway. Thread:

Happening right now. You know the drill 😊. A ride on #LagosIbadanRail. pic.twitter.com/Ewhh9I6MCu

— tolu ogunlesi (@toluogunlesi) September 16, 2020

Whatever Happened to China’s Giant Piles of Abandoned Bicycles? Caixin

The Koreas

COVID-19 Has Crushed Everybody’s Economy—Except for South Korea’s Foreign Policy

“A real flood of bacteria and germs” — Communications Intelligence and Charges of U.S. Germ Warfare during the Korean War Medium

Indonesians caught without a mask forced to dig graves for Covid-19 victims CNN

Virus Cases at Dorms Add to Singapore Construction Woes Bloomberg

Myanmar races to build field hospital as coronavirus surge stretches health system Reuters

Syraqistan

THE ANGRY ARAB: The Franco-American Designs on Lebanon Consortium News (Olga).

Under lockdown, Israel faces bitter start of Jewish New Year AP

Brexit

Brexit: UK Tories agree deal on international law breach Deutsche Welle. “British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has reached a deal with rebels from his own party that would give them a say on whether the UK should break international law in overriding its EU withdrawal agreement.” Everybody hold hands so we can jump over the cliff together!

Keir Starmer poised to cash in on Boris Johnson’s ‘catastrophe’ as Tories face extinction Daily Express

Joe Biden latest Democrat to warn UK over breaking Brexit deal Politico

UK/EU

Germany Offered U.S. $1.2B To Save Nord Stream 2 OilPrice.com. Seems low.

Assange

Your Man in the Public Gallery: Assange Hearing Day 11 Craig Murray. That the major venues like WaPo and the Times aren’t reporting on the Assange trial doesn’t bode well for the future of investigative journalism.

As British judge made rulings against Julian Assange, her husband was involved with right-wing lobby group briefing against WikiLeaks founder Declassifed UK. One big happy!

Joe Rogan Experience #1536 – Edward Snowden (video) YouTube (lyman alpha blob).

RussiaGate

Move along people, move along. There’s no story here:

#Durham This is the same, highly experienced team trusted with the Special Counsel Russia probe. Now READ this inventory for their government phones @JudicialWatch via FOIA: “entered password too many times + wiped his phone,” “phone wiped itself without intervention” + “restored pic.twitter.com/hlWtVQtQX2

— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) September 12, 2020

The Durham investigation:

#Durham #FISA This recent opinion from FISA court (released 9/11) lays the ground rules for using info from “unlawful” surveillance of @carterwpage for Durham investigation into origins FBI Russia probe. Durham section pages 17-20 is intriguing + has most redactions. “…use or pic.twitter.com/n1V15rzutO

— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) September 16, 2020

Trump Transition

Trump flags concerns about Oracle-TikTok deal FT

DeJoy’s Postal Service policies delayed 7% of nation’s first-class mail, Senate report says Seattle Times

Top HHS spokesperson takes leave of absence after accusing scientists of “sedition” Axios

Barr blasts his own DOJ prosecutors, equates them to preschoolers and ‘headhunters’ NBC. Barr: “Name one successful organization where the lowest-level employees’ decisions are deemed sacrosanct. There aren’t any. Letting the most junior members set the agenda might be a good philosophy for a Montessori preschool, but it’s no way to run a federal agency.”

The Confederate Roots of the Administrative State National Review. From July, still germane; an interesting contribution to the “unitary executive” debate.

2020

Biden believes he would have authority to impose national mask mandate as president CBS

Freedom Rider: Democrats’ Climate Change Lies Black Agenda Report

Boeing, Boeing…

The Design, Development & Certification of the Boeing 737 Max (PDF) House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. From the Executive Summary, the paragraph everybody is quoting:

This report was produced by Democratic staff of the Committee and is the culmination of the Committee’s investigative efforts assessing the costs, consequences, and lessons from the design, development, and certification of Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft. The report reveals several unmistakable facts. The MAX crashes were not the result of a singular failure, technical mistake, or mismanaged event. They were the horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions by Boeing’s engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of Boeing’s management, and grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA—the pernicious result of regulatory capture on the part of the FAA with respect to its responsibilities to perform robust oversight of Boeing and to ensure the safety of the flying public. The facts laid out in this report document a disturbing pattern of technical miscalculations and troubling management misjudgments made by Boeing. It also illuminates numerous oversight lapses and accountability gaps by the FAA that played a significant role in the 737 MAX crashes.

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

Apple gave the FBI access to the iCloud account of a protester accused of setting police cars on fire Business Insider

A “Persistent Eye in the Sky” Coming to a City Near You? Common Dreams

Protests and Riots

Pennsylvania judge will likely reevaluate ‘unconstitutional’ $1 million bail set for Ricardo Munoz protesters USA Today

Military Police Leaders Weighed Deploying ‘Heat Ray’ Against D.C. Protesters NPR

Police State Watch

House Democrats Demand Investigation Into Claims Of Excessive Hysterectomies On ICE Detainees HuffPo

Imperial Collapse Watch

How the west lost Prospect (DJG).

Treating American Empire The Baffler. “The United States, as it is currently constituted, requires huge amounts of violence domestically (on the part of police) and internationally (on the part of the military) in order to function. The role of the therapist under these conditions thus becomes helping law enforcement and military personnel metabolize violence that is accepted, prima facie, as justified.” Wasn’t there a TV series about this? The Tenors? The Coloraturas?

Are the Forever Wars Really Ending? Patrick Buchanan, RealClearPolitics

Study: As Many As 59 Million Displaced By America’s War On Terror The American Conservative

Moral injury and the gap between the soldier and the state’s moral identity (PDF) Australian Army Research Centre.

Sports Desk

Big Ten football is back: What you need to know ESPN (Re Silc). “What was the most important factor in the Big Ten voting to play?” I can’t imagine….

Class Warfare

Stop Doomscrolling and Play a Board Game About Class Warfare The New Yorker

The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%—And That’s Made the U.S. Less Secure Nick Hanauer and David M. Rolf, Time

You’re Right! You Are Working Longer and Attending More Meetings Harvard Business School

How Were 46 Million People Trapped by Student Debt? The History of an Unfulfilled Promise Counterpunch

The Future of Energy Adam Tooze, NYT

Where Will Everyone Go? Pro Publica. Climate migration.

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here