China is urging Europe to open up to Chinese electric vehicles and 5G technology.^SCMP China's electric vehicles are so numerous and so affordable that they may leave Europe in the dust, with parallels to 1970s Japan.^FT China and Germany have agreed to expand mutual market access and strengthen co-operation in fiscal and financial areas,^CGTN which sounds a lot like the opposite of decoupling.^CGTN The West probably can't catch up with China in the critical minerals race,^CGS and would require close co-operation with Africa to achieve regardless.^CGS Australia concludes China decoupling is impossible after carrying out series of classified studies.^SCMP While Confucius Institutes Are Being Kicked Out of the Global North, They Remain Popular in the Global South After meeting with the US Guatemala's Arevalo wants to keep its Taipei ties while also seeking better relations with China, which sounds... impossible?^SCMP The US has sanctioned a China-based drug network over fentanyl.^SCMP The US is working to close loopholes on the rules that restrict shipments of semiconductor equipment to China, and further add restrictions.^SCMP The US has added 42 more Chinese companies to its economic blacklist, accusing them of aiding Russia in the war.^SCMP

The UK defense minister announced the finalization of a £4 billion contract to commence work on a new nuclear-powered AUKUS attack submarine.^DW Japan will start purchasing Tomahawk missiles in 2025, a year earlier than planned.^RT The President of the Philippines has said that he is not looking for trouble with China, but has vowed to defend against incursions.^CGS Saudi Arabia and China are to hold joint naval exercises this month.^CGS China exhibition shows latest advances in drone technology, especially for military use.^SCMP The EU has drawn up a list of sensitive technologies to be carefully scrutinized for the risks they pose in rival hands (China, Russia, etc).^DW

Labour:

Quebec public sector workers are getting ready for a general strike.^CD Workers in Manitoba are striking to fight wage repression.^Jacobin An article on scabs, and why they are illegal in British Columbia and Quebec.^LN

Kaiser pharmacy workers in Oregon and Washington begin 21-day strike;^WSWS US labor upsurge grows as 75,000 healthcare workers plan strike.^PW The Illinois Nurses Association and other unions lobby for a state safe staffing law.^PW 300,000 workers are now on pick lines across America.^PW New Jersey nurses are two months into their strike for safe staffing.^LN

University and College Union sabotages UK national higher education strike.^WSWS

Thousands of doctors went on strike across Germany on Monday, complaining of bureaucracy and rising costs.^DW

Left and Right:

Is capitalism in its terminal crisis now?^Jacobin A 1972 novel from a Greek leftist, Chakkas.^Jacobin An article on Bevins' new book "If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution".^SP Beware ideologies that tell you you're better than everyone else.^CA Destroy the gifted kid inside your own head. The priority must be to put Bush, Blair, and Cheney behind bars before Trump.^MPN Hey, don't forget Hillary Clinton! Reparations for Black Americans with William A. Darity.^MR French socialists are doing what socialists do best and splitting up their efforts from other left-wing parties.^Euractiv

Conservative postliberalism is a complete dead end.^Jacobin For the Australian far right, aboriginal rights have always been synonymous with communism.^Jacobin

LGBTQIA:

Content Warning - this section is not usually good news.

Olivia Hill has become the first out transgender elected official in Tennessee.^Advocate Florida's transgender bathroom ban has been challenged by a group of activists.^Advocate Providing gender-affirming care to youth in Oklahoma is now a felony.^Advocate Wisconsin's governor has vowed to veto anti-trans legislation.^Advocate

Uganda's constitutional court is set to begin hearing three petitions challenging the anti-homosexuality law enacted in May.^AN The Mauritius Supreme Court has decriminalized gay sex.[^Advocate](https://archive.ph/VOGsQ0 Hundreds of Muslims and conservative Christians in Kenya rallied against the Supreme Court to protest their decision to reaffirm the LGBTQIA+ community's right of association.^AN

Pope Francis's stance on LGBTQIA+ people is being challenged by a group of five cardinals.^Advocate Pope Francis has indicated openness to blessing same-sex relationships, though has said these blessings should not become the norm and these unions should not be considered equivalent to marriage.^Advocate

Climate:

Climate change has displaced 43 million children in 6 years.^AN

Europe has just launched the world's first carbon tariff, in which foreign companies must now report all the greenhouse gas emissions associated with goods like cement, iron, steel, aluminium, fertilizers, hydrogen fuel, and electricity, and they will face an additional fee if they don't meet the emissions target; China and Russia are quite angry at this. In the US, there is some bipartisan support for a similar thing, though purely to spite China and not out of any environmental concern.^ICN The IMF has said that developing countries need $2 trillion in annual climate investments, and that the majority must come from the private sector.^EN

September was world's hottest on record by an 'extraordinary' margin.^EN Ozone hole over Antarctica grows to one of the largest on record.^ABC

Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass LNG plant has been in an unusually long testing phase, prompting suspicion that it is using it to sell LNG on the spot market for a much higher price than if the plant was fully operational.^DS

In Nepal, vulture colonies seen to hold stable amid old and new threats.^MB Scores of Amazonian dolphins have died in the severe drought and heat.^DW 2 in 5 amphibians are still in trouble from habitat loss and climate change.^SCMP Desert bats are under severe threat, with disease killing millions of bats in the US and wind turbines killing half a million every year.^ICN

Architect of India’s Green Revolution, agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan passes away.^MB

How damaged are coral reefs? I dive to investigate climate change. Researchers warn against solely measuring the worth of a forest by its carbon content, and instead putting some focus on increasing biodiversity for ecosystem restoration.^ICN Rock organic carbon oxidation CO2 release offsets silicate weathering sink.^Nature

Public inquiry into foreign interference in elections should target Big Oil. Cop28 boss’ appeal to raise climate targets met with total indifference.^CCN Insurance companies are still backing US coal mines despite promising not to.^DS But they promised! Well, there's nothing more we can do; forcing them to stop doing it would be flagrant authoritarianism. Much of the pushback to wind turbines come from white, wealthy residents.^ICN

An article on the history of the Amazon rainforest, and its use as a release valve for governments to exploit instead of doing any actual reform.^Resumen Global warming has increased day-to-day rainfall variability in tropical and mid-latitude regions over the past 40 years.^Nature

Pope Francis has blamed irresponsible Western lifestyles for climate change. I mean, yes, but we saw during the lockdowns that even massive, global changes in lifestyles barely mattered in reducing carbon emissions; it's the corporations that are doing it.^ICN