Rare beaked whale delights scientists Tagesschau via machine translation (Micael T). But it’s dead 🙁
Formaldehyde Causes More Cancer Than Any Other Toxic Air Pollutant. Little Is Being Done to Curb the Risk. ProPublica (Robin K)
Dementia Incidence Linked to Inflammatory Foods MedPage. Caffeine is anti-inflammatory, along with calorie restriction
Climate/Environment
Rising wood fuel consumption shows limits of energy transition JKempEnergy
Climate Science Legal Defense Fund gears up for a busy four years Yale Climate Connections (Dr. Kevin)
Polluting shipwrecks are the ticking time-bomb at the bottom of our oceans The Conversation (Kevin W)
Cambodia’s giant lake shrinks as climate change, Mekong dams cut fish supply Nikkei
China?
China pledges more debt, rate cuts as Trump tariff threats loom Reuters
US Curbs Scope of China Science Accord Amid Tech Rivalry Associated Press
Wang Yongli clarifies China’s issuance of USD-denominated Sovereign Bonds in Saudi Arabia Pekinology. We debunked the hype over this in comments early on.
Koreas
South Korea MPs vote to impeach president after mass protests over martial law BBC
Korean economy on alert amid rising debt, weak consumption Pulse
Africa
Mali arrests, Niger site seizure rattle Western miners Reuters
Mining firm defaults on US loans amid Mozambique political unrest EEnews
European Disunion
ECB cuts rates again and keeps door open to further cuts Reuters
Macron appoints centrist ally François Bayrou as France’s fourth prime minister in 2024 Le Monde
The Economic Roots of France’s Political Collapse Daily Economy
Revealed: The ‘Vested Interests’ on the EU’s Agriculture Committee DesmogBlog
What Ireland’s Great Famine can teach us about the EU-Mercosur free trade deal Thomas Fazi
European countries quarrel over gas Vzglyad via machine translation (Micael T)
Swedish minister open to new measures to tackle energy crisis, blames German nuclear phase-out Euractiv
Old Blighty
UK economy shrinks again in another blow to Reeves, new figures show Independent
NFU chief says he ‘cannot rule out’ food shortages if farmers go on strike Sky
Israel v. the Resistance
Enduring the Trauma of Genocide (w/ Gabor Maté) Chris Hedges (Chuck L)
Iran’s currency drops to lowest rate ever against the dollar Intellinews
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia launches huge attack on Ukraine with dozens of cruise missiles and drones Guardian. So now it’s official.
Russia Retaliates For ATACMS Strike – Improves Trolling Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
EU prepares first sanctions against Russia for disinformation – Bloomberg Ukrainska Pravda
Ending the War in Ukraine: Analysis and Recommendations Paul Robinson. Mentioned approvingly by Alexander Mercouris
Syraqistan
Pieces Begin Slowly Falling into Place in ‘New Syria’ Simplicius
Inside Israel’s opportunistic invasion of Syria Mondoweiss (guurst)
Prof. Mohammad Marandi | Syria’s Truth: No Winners, Only LOSERS – Short & Long-Term Chaos EXPOSED Dialogue Works. A contrary view on what the collapse of Syria means for Hezbollah and Iran. We’ll see in due course if his take is proven correct.
The Roads to Damascus Tariq Ali, New Left Review (Robin K)
Erdoğan’s Syria? Cihan Tuğal, New Left Review (Robin K)
Turkey: A slim majority of Turks sees Assad dynasty’s fall as positive Middle East Eye
Turkish-backed fighters accused of executing Kurdish soldiers in hospital Telegraph
Russia appears to pull back its forces in Syria Financial Times. As we predicted
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
THREAD: The official narrative of how Luigi Mangione was apprehended doesn’t add up. Evidence suggests a deeper surveillance operation involving real-time facial recognition technology. Let’s delve into the inconsistencies and explore the implications. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/catXgNjG4v
— Marlo the Hutt (@YesYoureRacist) December 12, 2024
Imperial Collapse Watch
NATO must shift to wartime mindset, secretary general warns Sky
Resource nationalism on the rise amid geopolitical tensions Financial Times
US, China, Russia gearing up for space wars to come Asia Times (Kevin W)
The Stinking Legacy-Prisons and concentration camps of the USA Marat Khairullin (guurst)
1/6
The Jan. 6 Verdict Is In: The Rioters Lose, Even If Trump Pardons Them Politico (Kevin W)
Trump 2.0
Ontario threatens to cut off US’s power over Trump tariff row Telegraph
Trump aides mull abolishing FDIC as part of dramatic banking deregulation spree: report New York Post. This would instantly crash the banking system.
Attacking Iran Would Be Insane Daniel Larison
Biden
Important. Please click through or read the threadreader:
1/ The media isn’t reporting it but the Biden administration appears to be going into full Hitler-in-the-bunker mode and trying to destroy global energy markets to crush the EU economy and lower American living standards through more inflation to hurt Trump. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/qrVsDlC4Rr
— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) December 13, 2024
Biden commutes sentence of Luzerne County kids-for-cash scandal judge Conahan WVIA. James C: “Helping to slaughter thousands of Palestinian children wasn’t enough for Joe. Now he’s giving a pass on torturing US kids.” Moi: This case was so notoriously awful that it inspired a segment on Law and Order: SVU. See here for the trailer.
Victims ‘shocked’ after Biden grants clemency to ‘kids-for-cash’ judge and $54 million embezzler CNN (Kevin W)
have you considered embezzling funds to buy a show horse? https://t.co/240QYfmdp4
— chinahand (@chinahand) December 13, 2024
NYT: Pelosi fractures hip in fall abroad SFExaminer. This was destined to happen unless she was religiously doing balance exercises. At 84, she was wearing high heels (see here) and regularly walking on very hard floors (note other shoes now fashionable for women, lower “kitten” heels with a tiny point of contact, are also risky despite looking otherwise). The odds of death in older people rise dramatically in the six months following a bad fall.
Abortion
Texas AG sues New York doctor for providing abortion pills across state lines The Hill
Woke Watch
AI
1 big thing: Chatbots are learning to lie Axios (Dr. Kevin)
OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment Mercury News (Kevin W)
Legal Tech Unicorn EvenUp Relied Heavily on Humans Despite AI Claims Business Insider
The Bezzle
Texas House Introduces Bill To Establish a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve CNBC
McKinsey to pay $650M settlement over Purdue opioid consulting, reports say Axios (Dr. Kevin)
Guillotine Watch
Macabre signs and art have cropped up across the U.S., targeting health insurance executives and repeating words connected to the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Watch more: 🎥 https://t.co/m1eC8QdNYf pic.twitter.com/W6PRIX92F5
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 13, 2024
Piers Morgan asked Antichrist Peter Thiel what he would say to people who celebrated Luigi Mangione — who was a fan of Peter Thiel and Elon Musk — murdering an insurance CEO.
If someone can find a worse answer to any question, I’d love to see it. This is excruciating. pic.twitter.com/Y7JTFQlUzv
— Jim Stewartson, Antifascist 🇺🇸🇺🇦🏴☠️ (@jimstewartson) December 12, 2024
Florida mom arrested for saying ‘Delay Deny Depose’ on call with BlueCross BlueShield health insurer: ‘You people are next’ New York Post
A Manifesto Against For-Profit Health Insurance Companies Michael Moore
Bret Stephens: A Real Upper Class Asshole – and Journalism Fraud and Liar Too Washington Babylon (Micael T)
Class Warfare
Americans spend more years sick than rest of world: Study Bloomberg (Robin K)
A Holiday Strike at Amazon? Drop Site (Micael T)
Antidote du jour. A very old one from Mark T that I just found in my inbox. “I am a rescue cat who’s a bit special, but now have a home :-)”
And a bonus (Chuck L). I had no idea snowy owls were so large:
“Meet the Snowy Owl: The Arctic’s Enchanting Ruler”
In the linked video, we are invited to discover the captivating Snowy Owl. This magnificent creature is truly an ice and snow spirit, reigning supreme in the Arctic. With its beautiful plumage and piercing eyes, it is a sight… pic.twitter.com/yTjGmfpZG5
— Zhang Heqing (@zhang_heqing) December 3, 2024
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
