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
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but…
A few weeks of online school five years ago is not why kids are struggling now.
That’s Covid brain damage. pic.twitter.com/quGMDZjB4Z
— Cat Herding Science Nerd 🔬 (@catladyactivist) February 3, 2025
1st they said kids wouldn’t catch covid. Then they said if kids got infected it’s no big deal. Then they stopped talking about it cuz kids in classrooms helps drive capitalism. The ruling class doesn’t give a single f*ck about you if you’re not a productive cog in the machine. https://t.co/PzJVpiRM3Y
— David Christopher 🏥🥼🔬 (@MLS_Dave) February 3, 2025
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
🚫 Decoupling #America’s Artificial Intelligence Capabilities from #China Act 🤦♂️
If this bill passes you could go to jail for $20 years and fined $250k for downloading the Deepseek model. 🤯
Shutting down the global exchange of advancements in #AI is neither good for the U.S.… https://t.co/uB91NjzkCe
— Alvin Wang Graylin (@AGraylin) February 2, 2025
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
🧵🚨 16 days after the ceasefire, Gaza’s humanitarian crisis is worsening. Aid remains severely disrupted, and the urgent needs of 2.3 million people are unmet. Infrastructure is in ruins, while essential supplies like tents, fuel, and medical equipment are still blocked. ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/fkSLOIx7zV
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) February 3, 2025
Footage recorded by Israeli forces show soldiers rigging demolition bombs in multiple homes across the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
Drone footage shows Israeli forces detonating all explosions at once, destroying a large swathe of the camp, with reports of over… pic.twitter.com/GutRrBsXM6
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) February 3, 2025
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:
Panama is dropping out of the Belt and Road Initiative, the country’s leader announced after meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The small country will no longer take part in the biggest global trade project in world history.
In closed-door talks, Rubio reportedly… pic.twitter.com/BjqRNMxenh
— Nury Vittachi (@NuryVittachi) February 3, 2025
However:
Canadian twitter is lit…they’re on it quick 🤣pic.twitter.com/YGzvjUvuIi
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) February 2, 2025
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:
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) February 3, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.