Hypersonic weapons, UFOS (sorry, UAPs) and is that a black hole next door?

IDEOLOGIES AND IDEOLOGUES

Brexit was supposed to usher in a neoliberal fantasy that would have made Thatcher look tame; the reverse has happened instead. Then there’s Boris Johnson’s self-serving use of stories.

Is climate action civil disobedience a sign of political alienation or engagement? Free speech in the US is a lot more complex than yelling fire in a crowded theatre, a new book shows. How racism shapes US support for wars of aggression. Joe Biden is exorcising the demonic ghost of Milton Friedman (whose views on apartheid-era South Africa have to be read to be believed).

He “set out to save the country from the meritocratic nightmare he’d made bank off of, as ambitious people tend to do once they’re financially set”: the Andrew Yang story.

OBJECTS FLYING QUICKLY

What’s in the forthcoming report to Congress on UAPs (aka UFOs)? Not high-tech super-weapons, for a start. Breaking down some of the Pentagon videos as to why they’re actually UAPs.

Well there goes that tech fantasy: goodbye to the rail gun (but hello to a new era of hypersonic weapons funding). Russian climate scientists are upset the Putin government thinks climate science is biased against Russia. Inflection point — you keep saying that, but I do not think it means what you think it means.

And what to do if you find yourself living next to a black hole.

LA DROITE EN MARCHE

The far right are peddling hysteria in France — will Marine Le Pen be the winner? Judging by results from the French local elections, maybe not.

Meanwhile the myth of electoral fraud is being exploited by far-right parties in Germany. How media critics of state power and imperialism can end up being apologists for the far right.

Caroline Graham on Australia’s foundational history of brutality. The shaping of Paul Robeson’s thought — and how he in turn shaped others. Andy Fleming explores links between ecology and fascism (and greenwashing).

CAPITALISM AND ITS MALCONTENTS

What will they steal next? Commodities and theft. The Japanese government colluded with Toshiba to block efforts to elect new board members in what is becoming one of the world’s biggest corporate scandals — and the prime minister knew. Now there are calls for institutional investors to force out the entire board.

I can’t actually remember a time when the US and Europe weren’t fighting over Airbus and Boeing, but is it finally headed for resolution under Biden? In the US, when cities go broke, public employee pensions pay the price. A new academic paper suggests wage inequality has been driven primarily by automation, rather than any other factor.

FINALLY

When it comes to atomising society, the internet has nothing on television. Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life? Yeah right — Scarlett Harris on the myth of the dream job in media.

The World Health Organisation’s creepy, misogynist proposal to stop all women of reproductive age from drinking. And Amazon Prime Day used to mean something, but these days it’s been commercialised.