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 contain the risk. ProPublica (Robin K)
Dementia incidence linked to inflammatory foods MedPage. Caffeine is an anti-inflammatory along with calorie restriction.
Climate/Environment
Rising wood fuel consumption shows limits to energy transition JKempEnergy
Climate Science Legal Defense Fund prepares for four busy years Yale Climate Connections (Dr. Kevin)
Pollution-causing shipwrecks are time bombs at the bottom of the ocean. Conversation (Kevin W)
china?
China pledges more debt and interest rate cuts in response to Trump tariff threat Reuters
U.S. limits scope of China science agreement amid technology race Associated Press
Wang Yongli made it clear that China had issued dollar-denominated government bonds in Saudi Arabia. Pekinology. We debunked the hype about this in the comments early on.
korea
South Korean lawmakers voted to impeach the president after mass protests against martial law. BBC
Korea’s economic emergency amid rising debt and shrinking consumption pulse
africa
Mali arrests, site seizures in Niger shake Western miners Reuters
Mozambique political unrest causes mining company to default on U.S. loan EEnews
division of europe
The ECB cut interest rates again and left open the possibility of further cuts. Reuters
Macron appoints centrist François Bairou as France’s fourth prime minister in 2024 Le Monde
The economic roots of France’s political collapse Maeil Business Newspaper
Disclosure: EU Agriculture Committee’s ‘vested interests’ DesmogBlog
What Ireland’s Great Famine Can Teach Us About the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement Thomas Farge
European countries fight over gas Vzglyad (Micael T) via machine translation
Old Blighty
The UK economy has shrunk again in another blow to Reeves, new figures show. independent
The NFU chief said food shortages could not be ruled out if farmers went on strike. sky
Israel vs Resistance
Enduring the Trauma of Genocide (with Gabor Maté) Chris Hedges (Chuck L)
Iran’s currency falls to record low against dollar Intellinewz
A New War Not So Cold
Russia launches massive attack on Ukraine with dozens of cruise missiles and drones guardian. It’s now official.
Russia Retaliates for ATACMS Strike – Improves Trolling Alabama Moon (Kevin W)
EU prepares first sanctions against Russia over disinformation – Bloomberg Ukrainian Pravda
Ending the War in Ukraine: Analysis and Recommendations Paul Robinson. Approvingly commented by Alexander Mercouris
syrakistan
The pieces of the ‘new Syria’ are slowly starting to fall into place. Simplicius
Inside Israel’s Opportunistic Invasion of Syria Mondoweiss (Gurst)
Professor Mohammad Marandi | The truth about Syria: There are no winners, only losers – exposing short-term and long-term chaos A conversation piece. Opposing views on what the collapse of Syria means for Hezbollah and Iran. If he’s proven right, we’ll find out soon enough.
road to damascus Tariq Ali, New Left Review (Robin K)
Erdogan’s Syria? Cihan Tuğal, New Left Review (Robin K)
Türkiye: A very small minority of Turks view the fall of the Assad dynasty positively. middle east snow
Turkish-backed fighter accused of executing Kurdish soldier in hospital whole body
Russia likely to withdraw troops from Syria Financial Times. as we predicted
Big Brother is watching you.
Thread: The official explanation for how Luigi Mangione was arrested doesn’t add up. There is evidence that deeper surveillance is being carried out using real-time facial recognition technology. Let’s examine the discrepancy and see what it means. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/catXgNjG4v
— Marlowe the Hutt (@YesYoureRacist) December 12, 2024
Empire Collapse Monitor
NATO must shift to a wartime mindset, the secretary-general has warned. sky
Resource nationalism on the rise amid geopolitical tensions Financial Times
America, China and Russia are preparing for space war Asia Times (Kevin W)
A Fetid Legacy – America’s Prisons and Concentration Camps Marat Khairullin (Gurst)
1/6
January 6 Verdict: Rioters Lose Even If Trump Pardons Them Politico (Kevin W)
trump 2.0
Ontario threatens to block U.S. power over Trump tariff lawsuit whole body
Trump aides consider abolishing FDIC as part of dramatic bank deregulation: report New York Post. This would immediately collapse the banking system.
Attacking Iran is crazy Daniel Larison
Biden
important. Click to read or thread reader:
1/ The media isn’t reporting this, but it appears the Biden administration is going into full Hitler mode and attempting to destroy global energy markets in order to crush the EU economy and lower living standards in the U.S. through more inflation to hurt Trump. . . 🧵 pic.twitter.com/qrVsDlC4Rr
— Philip Pilkington (@philippilk) December 13, 2024
Biden commutes Judge Conahan’s sentence in Luzerne County child scandal WVIA. James C: “Helping kill thousands of Palestinian children wasn’t enough for Joe. Now he is allowing American children to be tortured.” Moi: This incident was so horrific that it inspired a segment on Law & Order: SVU. See the trailer here.
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
— China Hand (@chinahand) December 13, 2024
NYT: Pelosi breaks hip after falling overseas SF Examiner. Unless she religiously exercised her balance, this was destined to happen. She was 84 years old and wore high heels.See here) and regularly walking on very hard floors (note that other shoes that are currently fashionable for women, low “kitten” heels with small contact points, are also dangerous, despite the fact that they look different). The odds of death in older adults increase dramatically in the six months following a serious fall.
legacy
Texas AG sues New York doctor for providing abortion pills across state the hill
waking clock
The Truth About the Woke Right no problem
AI
One important point: Chatbots are learning to lie. Axios (Dr. Kevin)
Open AI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment Mercury News (Kevin W)
Legal tech unicorn EvenUp relies heavily on humans despite AI claims business insider
bezel
Texas House Announces Bill Establishing Strategic Bitcoin Reserves CNBC
McKinsey pays $650 million settlement for Purdue opioid consulting Axios (Dr. Kevin)
guillotine clock
Chilling signs and art have popped up across the U.S. targeting health insurance executives and repeating language related to the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
See more: 🎥 https://t.co/m1eC8QdNYf pic.twitter.com/W6PRIX92F5
— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) December 13, 2024
Piers Morgan congratulates Antichrist Peter Thiel for murdering insurance CEO Peter Thiel and Luigi Mangione, who was a fan of Elon Musk I asked him what he wanted to say.
If someone can find a worse answer to any question I’d love to see it. This is truly excruciating. pic.twitter.com/Y7JTFQlUzv
— Jim Stewartson, anti-fascist 🇺🇸🇺🇦🏴☠️ (@jimstewartson) December 12, 2024
Florida mom arrested for saying ‘Delay Deny Depose’ on phone call with BlueCross BlueShield health insurer: ‘You’re next’ new york post
Statement on For-Profit Health Insurance Companies michael moore
Brett Stevens: A Real Upper Class Bastard – A Journalistic Fraud and a Liar Too Washington Babylon (Mychael T)
class warfare
Americans Spend More Time Sick than Other Countries: Study Bloomberg (Robin K)
Holiday strike at Amazon? Drop site (Mychael T)
Today’s antidote. I just found a very old letter in my inbox from Mark T. “I am a rescue cat who is a bit special but now has a home :-)”
And bonus (Chuck L). I had no idea owls were this big.
“Meet the Snowy Owl: The Fascinating Ruler of the Arctic”
In the linked video, we can see the fascinating snowy owl. These majestic creatures are literally the spirits of ice and snow that rule the North Pole. It catches the attention of those who see it with its beautiful feathers and sharp eyes… pic.twitter.com/yTjGmfpZG5
— Zhang Heqing (@zhang_heqing) December 3, 2024
Check out yesterday’s links and Antidote du Jour here.
