Why sabre-toothed animals evolved again and again New Scientist
California Burning
Los Angeles fires: the damage in maps, video and images Guardian
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory evacuated due to LA wildfire Space News
* * * In Los Angeles, people snap up air filters and wear masks against smoke pollution AP
Wildfire Smog Is Deadly—But LA’s Covid Mask Organizers Have It Covered Mother Jones. “Mask blocs.” Original URL: “california-fires-covid-mask-“.
* * * Transcript – America This Week, Jan 10, 2025: “California Fires and America’s Competency Crisis” Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn, Racket News
It’s the End of California As We Know It Michael Moore
Dem senator warns ‘LA fires are preview of coming atrocities,’ claims Trump bought off by ‘Big Oil’ FOX
* * * These are the conditions fueling the Los Angeles wildfires: What to know The Hill. For example:
It’s not a miracle. It’s called “concrete.” pic.twitter.com/7nXHlSkGBV
— Saul Sadka (@Saul_Sadka) January 11, 2025
What ignited the deadly California wildfires? Investigators consider an array of possibilities AP
Why fire hydrants ran dry as wildfires ravaged Los Angeles Axios
* * * How Watch Duty’s wildfire tracking app became a crucial lifeline for LA The Verge
Climate
Don’t Waste Your Greening Life-Force: Hildegard’s Prophetic Enchanted Ecology The Marginalian. Hildegard of Bingen (1174).
The New Rasputins Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic
Syndemics
EID Journal: Comparison of Contemporary and Historic Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A(H5N1) Virus Replication in Human Lung Organoids Avian Flu Diary
China?
Scott Bessent Can Break China’s Stubborn Central Bank, Too Bloomberg
US ‘risks electronic warfare’ with China after unveiling anti-satellite jammer network South China Morning Post
Dutch firm ASML becomes European ‘hostage’ in China-US technological competition CGTN
The Koreas
Thousands protest in South Korea as Yoon resists second arrest attempt Al Jazeera
South Korea’s spy agency backs Ukraine account on capture of North Korean soldiers Anadolu Agency
Hotdogs banned in North Korea Language Log
With Indonesia, Brics is adding Southeast Asia to its power base South China Morning Post
The New Great Game
Luke Coffey on Georgia: “There is no ‘deep state’; it is merely government propaganda” JAM News. Coffey is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
Syraqistan
Israel approves plan to withdraw troops from Gaza: Report Anadolu Agency
Prompted by Trump’s Threats, a Hostage Deal and an End to the Gaza War Are Inching Closer Haaretz
What if Hamas Doesn’t Release the Hostages by Trump’s Inauguration? Foreign Policy
* * * No Legal Term – Even Genocide – Can Fathom Israel’s Atrocities in Gaza Novara Media. “Legicide.”
* * * Turkey sidelines France in favour of US partnership in northeast Syria France24
Israeli ministers discuss plan to divide Syria along ethnic, religious lines: report The New Arab
European Disunion
‘No to Nazis’: Protesters delay start of German far-right AfD party congress France24
Thousands Protest in Romania to Support Pro-Russian Candidate Bloomberg
New Not-So-Cold War
Total Kievan Debellation Big Serge, Big Serge Thought. Big picture:
2024 brought three important strategic developments:
- Russian victory in southern Donetsk which destroyed the AFU’s position on one of the war’s key strategic axes.
- The expenditure of carefully husbanded Ukrainian resources on a failed offensive towards Kursk, which accelerated the attrition of critical Ukrainian maneuver assets and substantially dampened their prospects in the Donbas.
- The exhaustion of Ukraine’s ability to escalate vis a vis new strike systems from NATO – more broadly, the west has largely run out of options to upgrade Ukrainian capabilities, and the much vaunted delivery of longer range strike systems failed to alter the trajectory of the war on the ground.
Taken together, 2024 revealed a Ukrainian military that is increasingly stretched to the limits, to the point where the Russians were able to largely scratch off an entire sector of front. People continue to wonder where and when the Ukrainian front might begin to break down – I would argue that it *did* break down in the south over the last few months, and 2025 begins with strong Russian momentum that the AFU will be hard pressed to arrest.
Grab a cup of coffee for a must-read (debellation).
The Fool’s War: Useful Idiots at the Wheel of the Paddy Wagon (excerpt) Simplicius the Thinker
Ukraine captures North Korean troops and takes them to Kyiv for questioning The Telegraph. Big if true:
Our soldiers have captured North Korean military personnel in the Kursk region. Two soldiers, though wounded, survived and were transported to Kyiv, where they are now communicating with the Security Service of Ukraine.
This was not an easy task: Russian forces and other North… pic.twitter.com/5J0hqbarP6
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) January 11, 2025
Ukraine war turns into absurdist fiction India Punchline
* * * Russia’s unjammable drones are causing chaos. A tech firm says it has a fix to help Ukraine fight back. Business Insider
Thousands of drones for Ukraine stuck in Lithuanian warehouses, media outlet says Ukrainska Pravda
* * * America’s Polarization and the Challenges of Confronting Russia Russia Matters
A Pathway to Peace in Ukraine RAND
* * * Ethnography of Russian Regions during Wartime The Russia Program, George Washington University
South of the Border
Trump Transition
Scoop: Denmark sent Trump team private messages on Greenland Axios
How Jack Smith destroyed his own case against Trump The Hills
Democrats en deshabillé
Top Oversight Democrat says he’s open to collaborate with the DOGE NextGov
Knives come out for the D.C. consultant class as Democrats search for a new leader Politico
The Supremes
Supreme Court skeptical of ban on TikTok SCOTUSblog
Digital Watch
The Limits of AI Consortium News
Author Anita Say Chan thinks Silicon Valley may have a eugenics problem. Here’s why San Francisco Chronicle
A man trying to recover a hard drive containing $750 million of bitcoin from a landfill just had his latest bid rejected Business Insider
Zeitgeist Watch
How To Use Your Body To Make Yourself Happier Time
No, ‘Raw Water’ Isn’t Healthier Than Tap—It Could Actually Make You Very Sick Self
The Final Frontier
The Habitability of Planets (podcast) In Our Time, BBC
Class Warfare
The cod-Marxism of personalized pricing; Picks and Shovels Cory Doctorow, Pluralistic
Flurries: News, like icy snow, keeps coming but rarely sticks Francine McKenna, The Dig. Interesting round-up.
Antidote du jour (Diego Delso):
Bonus antidote:
A family of cheetah sleep with the forest guard every night.
This is what the camera recorded.pic.twitter.com/VVgFbSCvze
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) January 7, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
