December 7th • 3h 10m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
North Sea Nexus
Africa News
Benin Coup
### Overview of Political Issues in Benin
Benin, a West African nation, has historically been regarded as one of the more stable democracies in sub-Saharan Africa, but it has faced significant challenges in recent years, including democratic backsliding, corruption, and emerging security threats. Under President Patrice Talon, who has been in power since 2016, the government has been accused of using the judicial system to target political opponents, restricting press freedoms, and manipulating electoral processes to consolidate power. This has led to a decline in civil liberties and political rights, with opposition figures often facing arrests or exile. Economic inequality and youth unemployment have also fueled social unrest, contributing to periodic protests.
On December 7, 2025—the current date—a group of soldiers appeared on national television announcing a takeover, claiming to have seized power to address unspecified grievances. However, the government quickly declared that the armed forces had foiled this attempted coup, describing it as a "mutiny" by a small group aimed at destabilizing the state. Loyalist troops quelled the effort, and Interior Minister Alassane Seidou confirmed the situation was under control. This incident marks Benin as the latest in a wave of military interventions across West Africa since 2020, highlighting broader regional instability. It underscores internal divisions within the military and potential dissatisfaction with governance.
Beyond domestic politics, Benin faces external pressures, including the southward spread of jihadist groups from the Sahel region, which could exacerbate intercommunal tensions and criminal violence in coastal West Africa. Corruption remains a pervasive issue, with extortion, embezzlement, and mismanagement of public funds undermining development and eroding public trust.
### Are the Issues About Resources, Oil, or Drugs?
Benin's political challenges are not primarily driven by conflicts over natural resources in the same way as in resource-rich neighbors like Nigeria or the Democratic Republic of Congo. Instead, they stem more from governance failures, elite capture of state institutions, and regional security dynamics. However, resource-related corruption and illicit economies do play a role:
- **Resources**: Benin's economy relies heavily on agriculture (e.g., cotton and cashews) and trade, rather than extractive industries. Corruption in managing public resources, including aid and state revenues, is a key political flashpoint, often leading to accusations of elite enrichment at the expense of development. There are no major internal resource wars, but mismanagement amplifies inequality.
- **Oil**: Benin is not a major oil producer, with limited onshore and offshore reserves. Production is modest (around 10,000-15,000 barrels per day in recent years), and the country imports most of its fuel. However, regional oil-related issues affect Benin, including a new oil export pipeline from Niger through Benin to the port of Cotonou, which has sparked diplomatic tensions with Niger over transit fees and border closures. In the broader Gulf of Guinea, oil theft, piracy targeting petroleum vessels, and black-market fuel trade contribute to instability, with international oil corporations influencing local governance through opaque deals. These factors indirectly fuel political corruption but are not the core of Benin's internal politics.
- **Drugs**: Benin serves as a significant transit hub for illicit drugs, particularly cocaine from Latin America en route to Europe and other African markets. This is facilitated by weak border controls and corruption among officials. While not a primary producer, the drug trade generates political risks through organized crime networks that can influence local elites and exacerbate instability. Recent large cocaine seizures highlight the scale of the problem.
### Particular Focus on the Ports
Benin's ports, especially the Port of Cotonou—the country's main commercial gateway—are central to both its economy and its vulnerabilities. As a key transit point for landlocked neighbors like Niger and Burkina Faso, the port handles significant legitimate trade in goods like cotton, vehicles, and food. However, its strategic location in the Gulf of Guinea makes it a hotspot for illicit activities:
- **Drug Trafficking**: Criminal networks have long used Cotonou to import cocaine, with containers often concealing shipments amid legal cargo. This has led to international concerns about Benin's role in West Africa's growing drug corridor.
- **Maritime Security Threats**: The port and surrounding waters face piracy, armed robbery at sea, and oil bunkering (illegal fuel siphoning), part of broader Gulf of Guinea issues where attacks on vessels carrying petroleum products feed black markets. Illegal fishing and human trafficking also occur, straining political relations with regional partners.
- **Political Implications**: Control over the port generates revenue but also corruption opportunities, with allegations of kickbacks in contracts and customs. The recent Niger-Benin pipeline terminates at Cotonou, adding geopolitical tensions—Niger's military junta has accused Benin of sabotage, leading to border disputes that could politicize port operations further.
Overall, while Benin's political issues are rooted in governance and security, the ports amplify risks from transnational crime, potentially intersecting with the recent coup attempt if economic grievances or criminal influences played a role. The situation remains fluid following today's events.
J6
Pipe Bomber
1) Criminal Mastermind who evaded the FBI for 4+ yrs
2) Spaced out his component purchases over 15 months... but used his own credit card
3) Had materials for 6 bombs, dropped 2 - never did it again
4) No indication where he got the BOMB part of the bomb (black powder)
5) Caught on camera waving to Law enforcement
6) Carried his own cell phone for his crime
7) Used his OWN phone during the commission of the crime
8) Drove his OWN car with his OWN license plate showing into DC where there are dozens of License Plate Readers
9) Is an autistic loner who lives in his mom's basement
10) ... And he is a black male who initially placed his bomb outside the Congressional Black Caucus Institute.
11) The USCP Officers found the second device in 11 min 7 seconds from their dispatch
M5M
Big Pharma
Big Tech AI and The Socials
The Omniwriter
Data Center Equipment Turnover
In the morning Adam and John,
I wanted to give a boots on the ground report about what Niley Patel was discussing on episode 1823. When he said that the turnover for data center equipment is 5 years, he was incorrect.
I can confirm that John was correct and that number is actually closer to 2 years.
I work for an ITAD (IT Asset Disposition) company based in Atlanta, and we do business with many large data center companies located throughout the country. We do tear downs of their used IT assets whenever they retired or are EOL. Most, if not all major data centers, replace their equipment once every 2-3 years. This is due to maintenance contracts with large OEM supplies like IBM, Dell, HPE, and others; where they have to upgrade ever so often. This means BIG business for us down streamers who e-cycle the used gear.
However, it doe not stop at just data centers. This is case for all IT equipment that is in corporate offices; laptops, desktops, monitors, keyboards, mice, etc. All Fortune 500 companies have deals with OEM’s and thus must replace these “outdated” assets within a certain time frame.
Love the show, keep up the great work.
How AI Music copyright discovery works
they run very small and targeted models for each of the rights-holders, with agents that focus on notes, text, and tone. They sit in the middle of queries from the AI co's (like open AI) and send an agent to probe a model that identifies the _result_ of the prompt before it's delivered back to the user and sends it over to the mini-license models (aka, if Sony owns the IP or the John Denver estate, etc). Then the agent will run an engine that puts together an algo that assigns a percentage of likelihood/probibliity/similar survey against the content. For example, the user asks for a song in the style of John Denver with lyrics about a cat. Some percent of the lyrics will be taken from other John Denver songs (like if the verse starts "Take me home, silly cat", the "take me home" part would go towards the percentage). They add up the percentages from their review and come up with a figure that then is applied to the licensing fee. So, if the estate says we're going to charge 1 cent for each time an AI model presents a user with one of our songs, looks at what the AI spits out, decides that the result is 75% based on the John Denver IP, and then sends a bill to OpenAI for $0.0075.
They can also take multiple IP owners and do the same thing. So if the result returned to the user is 10% from AC/DC, 25% from Stephen Sondheim, and 60% from a WMG property, they can take that amount, bill OpenAI and then distribute it to the righs holders. takes a small percentage of the exchange, of course. And when you take a small percentage of a billion queries a day, it adds up to a lot of money.
Airbus vs Boeing
Airbus Update - Computer Engineer, this is shifty
I am a computer engineer who specializes in embedded firmware development. While I don't work in aviation, I can tell you that "solar radiation flipping a bit" in flight control systems, is NOT something that should be getting fixed via a software update.
To be clear: this phenomenon is very real, and has been known about for airplanes, satellites, etc for a long time now. The way it is avoided is with something called a lockstep processor - where two or more processors conduct the same calculations and operations at the same time, and are checked against each other before the code executes: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockstep_(computing)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockstep_\(computing\))
This makes me think that someone is being negligent in implementation. The only way that ECC memory or lockstep computation should fail, is if you get TWO bits flipped (one on each processor, in the exact same place) OR if the error correction codes on the ECC are crap, and have collisions, where a flipped bit inappropriately evaluates as another valid number (ultra rare, and software won't save you here).
This doesn't pass the smell test. Very suspicious that a "bad update" would break these fundamental checks against solar radiation.
Replacement Migration
ICE Austin BOTG
I deliver sodas out of the Austin area, and part of that is delivering to HEB. Was in conversation with couple meat/seafood managers and topic of beef came up. Was told as you’ve discussed their beef is brought in from other countries and processed local so it gets a USA sticker slapped on it, hence why quality of HEB beef is crap here lately. Seafood manager said you think that’s bad, said they get most of their seafood from Asia. Same situation as beef, process fish/shrimp in house and now product of USA. Said personally will not eat any seafood they carry because how it’s raised..
Also part of job is delivering to stores, some out in the heavily Hispanic areas outside of Austin. Let alone the rise in prices of aluminum and sugar, add in the ICE raids our business has dropped well over 50% in past few months. Mainly from Hispanic workers not going into stores before/after work. Even beer guys I talk to say same thing. Some of stores coming out these places is out right wild. ICE mainly only rounding up the males, leaving woman to fend for their households themselves. They’re have been car chases, some that end with shots fired. Raids going on in middle of night, supposedly been some firefights involved. I go to Mexican grocery stores that are size of smaller HEBs and they’re ghost towns compared to last year. None of this makes it onto the news.
And also being in the trucking world the freight economy is on a huge downward shift. Part of the ICE movement truckers are now being targeted to check their legal status on top of that. Recently there was over 4,000 CDL schools shut down nationwide, due in part to the slow down and from passing people that don’t speak or read English. Trucking companies are now starting lay offs and some even shutting down to due high cost and lack of freight.
Sorry for long winded report, feel like boots on ground from what I’m seeing out here might be of interest.
George B
