ECONOMY

Links 2/4/2025 | naked capitalism


Black holes seen ‘cooking’ their own food in fascinating discovery Earth

The #1 cause of maternal death in the US: suicide/homicide ZMEScience (Dr. Kevin)

Guillain-Barre syndrome: India faces outbreak of creeping paralysis BBC

Big Pharma Is Pushing Potentially Deadly Alzheimer’s Drugs Jacobin (KLG)

#COVID-19/Pandemics

Climate/Environment

Europe ‘can’t cope’ with extreme weather costs, warns insurance watchdog Financial Times

China?

Trump Tariffs: China Hits Back With U.S. Penalties Wall Street Journal. Live blog. Archived version as of Links launch.

China Hits Back Against Trump’s Tariffs With Targeted Actions Bloomberg

China’s exporters to step up offshoring to beat Donald Trump’s tariffs Financial Times

China warns that US tariffs will hit fentanyl cooperation efforts, damage trust South China Morning Post (guurst)

Koreas

Retail sales post steepest fall in 21 years amid prolonged economic downturn Korea Times

Bangladesh’s economy sinks deeper into crisis amid growing uncertainty BDNews24

Africa

In Sudan, Doctors Forced to Operate in Shipping Containers Buried Underground DropSite (guurst)

Another sign of collapse in South Africa’s richest city Business Tech

Empty Shelves in Zimbabwe as Economic Crisis Deepens All Africa

Hospitals in eastern Congo are crowded with wounded and exhausting their supplies Independent

European Disunion

Three Years After Ukraine Invasion, Europe Still Deals With Energy Crisis Financial Times

EU-Russia split leads to purge of France’s oligarchs Vyzglad via machine translation. Micael T: “I don’t see “guilloutine” mentioned so I don’t understand what kind of purge.”

Old Blighty

UK economic growth forecasts downgraded in blow for Reeves Independent

Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform Party leads in UK poll for first time Aljazeera (Kevin W)

Barclays working to update account balances after tech outage BBC (Kevin W)

Thames Water and Altice France set to push European high yield default rate to highest since 2008 Financial Times

Court Quashes Hopes for New Oil, Gas in UK’s North Sea OilPrice

Israel v. The Resistance

Houthis escalate military operations on Yemen’s fronts amid global focus on Gaza ceasefire Khabar Agency

Hamas officials say ‘ready’ for negotiations on phase two of Gaza truce Agence France-Presse

Trump turn is bad news for West Asia Indian Punchline

Trump’s ceasefire dilemma: Enforce peace or bow to Netanyahu? Elijah Magnier

A Mossad Fantasy Tour SpyTalk (Micael T)

Iran unveils new ballistic missile that can reach Israel Times of Israel

New Not-So-Cold War

Donald Trump wants Ukrainian rare earths deal in return for US military support Financial Times (Kevin W). Um, Ukraine does not have much in the way of rare earths. And look at the rate of drop off from China:

What he likely wants is lithium, which is not a rare earth. So Trump will buy an empty bag! Oh, and two of the four big lithium deposits in Ukraine are under Russia control. Even RE/RFL says getting the lithium was not a war objective for Russia, it already has plenty.

EU opens door to UK and Norway for defence ‘coalition of the willing’ Financial Times

Finland and Sweden in NATO: Disregarding the Benefits of Neutrality Finn Andreen (Micael T)

Syraqistan

Dozens of soldiers, fighters killed in Baloch separatist attack in Pakistan Aljazeera

After Saudi Arabia, al-Sharaa now heads to Turkey, the ally that helped Syria ‘regain freedom’ Agence France-Presse

Imperial Collapse Watch

A new world order? Julian Macfarlane (Micael T)

How Trump’s Bluntness Shatters the Liberal World Order Russia in Global Affairs (Micael T)

Freeze of US foreign aid will result in humanitarian disaster Doctors Without Borders

Trump 2.0

Trump agrees to pause tariffs on Canada and Mexico after they pledge to boost border enforcement Associated Press (Kevin W). To continue the image we invoked yesterday, when discussing that this all might be bluster: “The problem is he’s blustering with a loaded AK-47 while not observing any gun safety protocols.” So he pulled the trigger and what came out of the barrel was a flower. That’s how weak the demands were v. the threats. Admittedly, readers discussed in comments that Trump’s authority to impose the tariffs rested on the invocation of an emergency, and it looks like the only thing that fits the bill is the purported border crisis.

Be sure to click through to read of more tariff threat shortfall:

However:

Trump tariffs could raise medication costs and exacerbate shortages, drug trade groups warn CNBC (Kevin W). Remember our pharma dependency on China.

Hegseth’s goal for fewer civilian professors at military academies faces roadblocks The Hill

Musk Calls USAID a Criminal Organization Vyzglad via machine translation. Micael T: “Says the man who twittered: “We coup whoever we want.” after Morales was couped 2019. Do not expect less coups, only coups prepared and executed in another way for the purpose of enriching Musk and other techoligarchs.”

Elon Musk Installs Illegal Server to Seize All Federal Workers’ Data New Republic (Kevin W)

Trump orders creation of sovereign wealth fund, says it could buy TikTok Aljazeera (Kevin W)

Trump fires chief of the federal consumer watchdog agency NPR

The Damage to Federal Medical Research Is Already Done Wired (Dr. Kevin). From last week, still germane

Immigration

Trump revokes deportation protections for 300,000 Venezuelans in US Guardian

Thousands rally in downtown Los Angeles, shut down 101 Freeway to protest Trump’s immigration policies Los Angeles Times

Our No Longer Free Press

EU’s “Disinformation” Code Becomes Mandatory Under Censorship Law, Platforms Preemptively Enforce Rules Ahead of German Elections Reclaim the Net (Micael T)

Mr. Market is Moody

Hedge funds bet billions on market crash in Trump’s America Telegraph

AI

AI systems with ‘unacceptable risk’ are now banned in the EU TechCrunch (Kevin W)

Gamers help solve quantum physics problem where A.I. failed ZMEScience (Dr. Kevin)

Antidote du jour. mgl:

These birds are Great Crested Grebes (aka Australasian Crested Grebe, and, in New Zealand, the Puteketeke), as seen on Lake Dunstan, central Otago, NZ, JAN 2025.

Readers may recall the silliness that went on the end of 2023 when the annual Bird of the Year contest conducted by Forest and Bird, became the Bird of the Century that year. Puteketeke was one of the contestants, and won in a landslide (should have been the kiwi, IMHO) thanks to the antics of John Oliver.

And a bonus:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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