Were Twins the Norm in Our Primate Past? Sapiens
Physicists Confirm The Existence of a Third Form of Magnetism Science Alert
Climate/Environment
Top climate scientist declares 2C climate goal ‘dead’ AFP. That was fast; 1.5C target just died in November.
How newly elected officials are trying to improve Hurricane Helene recovery efforts WRAL. Spoiler: they’re not improving them.
Organized Abandonment Sarah Jaffe, The Baffler. Must read.
Increasing rat numbers in cities are linked to climate warming, urbanization, and human population Science Advances
Pandemics
Tuberculosis cases on the rise in NC after more than 30 years of decline WRAL
Japan
Integration talks between Honda, Nissan may be called off The Asahi Shimbun
China?
How China is playing to win Trump’s trade war Asia Times
Trump in ‘no rush’ to speak with China’s Xi despite tariff battle Channel News Asia
US tech CEOs admit they want AI monopoly & ‘unipolar world’, blocking China’s competition Geopolitical Economy Report
Old Blighty
CAPITALISM VS DEMOCRACY Stumbling and Mumbling
Cracks in the armor: UK urgently recalls 120,000 military armor plates Anadolu Agency
European Disunion
EU Plays Trump Card To Advance Its Globalist Agenda The European Conservative
Exclusive: EU Commission poised to propose migrant ‘return hubs’ in legislation Euronews
Trump Jr ruffles Italian feathers in protected duck case Euractiv
At least 10 killed in school shooting in Sweden Anadolu Agency
Syraqistan
‘US will take over the Gaza Strip’: Trump Anadolu Agency
Trump Wants US to Take Over & Ethnically Cleanse Gaza Consortium News
Trump Goes All-In On Stealing Gaza For His Zionist Owners Caitlin Johnstone
Trump announces withdrawal from UN human rights body and halt to funding for Palestinian refugees AP
Donald Trump’s Gaza Mirage Larry Johnson
Gazans dreamed of returning to Rafah. The reality is a nightmare +972 Magazine
Alcohol empire rising on Gaza border Globes
The world’s lowest bar: A hidden green oasis at the Dead Sea Ynet
Israel ranked last in 2024 Nation Brands Index, launches rebranding plan Jerusalem Post
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Trump Says To Reinstate ‘Maximum Pressure’ On Iran AFP
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Jailed PKK leader readying to make ‘historic call’ in coming days: pro-Kurdish party Turkish Minute
Abdullah Öcalan’s Isolation May Be Coming to an End Devriş Çimen (a Kurdish journalist and politician), Jacobin
Syria’s al-Sharaa says elections could take up to five years Al Arabiya
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine’s Zelensky says he is ready for direct talks with Putin France24. No mention of Zelensky’s decree banning negotiations with Putin or Moscow’s stance that Zelensky would not have the legal authority to sign a peace deal since he wasn’t re-elected last year when his five-year term expired.
Ukraine welcomes Trump’s interest in its minerals to maintain support Washington Post. As Yves pointed out yesterday, Ukraine doesn’t have that much to offer:
🇷🇺 Russia has taken control of up to 70% of Ukraine’s mineral resources: most of the minerals are in the historically Russian Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk and Luhansk regions, Forbes calculated.
Their value is 15 trillion dollars.
– FRWL pic.twitter.com/o8VNIJKqEq— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) February 4, 2025
The UN Charter Should Become the Legal Foundation of a Multipolar World Sergei V. Lavrov, Russia in Global Affairs. Key section: “In 2025, with Donald Trump’s Republican administration back in power, Washington’s interpretation of international processes since World War II has taken on a new dimension, as vividly described to the Senate by new Secretary of State Marco Rubio on 15 January: not only is the postwar world order outdated, but it has been turned into a weapon against U.S. interests.[4] In other words, not only the Yalta-Potsdam order is undesirable; so, too, is the ‘rules-based order’ that had seemed to embody the selfishness and arrogance of the U.S.-led West after the Cold War. “America first” is alarmingly similar to the Hitlerite slogan “Germany above all”, and a wager on “peace through strength” may be the final blow to diplomacy. Not to mention that such statements and ideological constructs show not even the slightest bit of respect for Washington’s international legal obligations under the UN Charter. However, today is not 1991 or even 2017…”
Russia Versus Outlaw US Empire: Staying With The Plan Versus Repurposing karlof1’s Geopolitical Gymnasium
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EU hails ‘major’ progress on plan to set up special tribunal to judge Vladimir Putin Euronews
Shipowners have made £4.8bn selling tankers to Russian ‘shadow fleet’ The Guardian
Krynky: Very British Military Cataclysm Global Delinquents
The Caucasus
Azerbaijan launches border security operation amid rising tensions with Russia Bne Intellinews
Moscow hasn’t received samples from Russia-bound flight’s crash site – RT source RT
Some Russian media speculators fuel perceptions of Baku-Moscow diplomatic tensions [OPINION] Azernews
South of the Border
Trump says it will be fine to put American criminals in prisons in another nation Reuters
Rubio touts Bukele’s ‘generous’ offer to jail U.S. citizens in El Salvador, but experts say it’s illegal NBC News. Here’s Bukele’s offer:
We have offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system.
We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison (CECOT) in exchange for a fee.
The fee would be relatively low for… pic.twitter.com/HTNwtp35Aq
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) February 4, 2025
The lesson of El Salvador’s failed Bitcoin experiment Coin Telegraph
Trump 2.0
CIA offers buyouts to workforce as Trump administration continues efforts to scale back government NBC News
FBI agents assigned to January 6 cases sue Trump DoJ over retaliation fears The Guardian
FBI agents who investigate UFOs worried they could be pushed out in possible purge Politico
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‘Things Are Going to Get Intense:’ How a Musk Ally Plans to Push AI on the Government 404 Media
US Treasury says Musk and DOGE Have Read-Only Access to Payments System Newsweek
Musk Cronies Dive Into Treasury Dept Payments Code Base Talking Points Memo. “[A DOGE operative] not only has full access to these systems, he has already made extensive changes to the code base for these critical payment system.”
DOGE sets sights on Medicaid: New York Times Becker’s Hospital Review
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The water unexpectedly released from dams on Trump’s order didn’t help farms or L.A. Los Angeles Times
Nation Shrugs as Godzilla Eats Washington Matt Taibbi, Racket News
Tristero
USPS temporarily suspends accepting packages from China and Hong Kong CBS News
‘Control of Our Destiny’: UPS Braves Blowback Over Amazon Break Bloomberg. Commentary:
The US Postal Service continues to adopt policies that give Amazon an advantage against other shippers. In this case, a rate hike that other carriers will pay but not Amazon.
The USPS was intended to disperse power, not to concentrate it.https://t.co/NdWvB7xIGM pic.twitter.com/MHQuVGvROc
— Stacy Mitchell (@stacyfmitchell) February 4, 2025
Antitrust
Stop Worshiping the American Tech Giants Lina M. Khan, New York Times
Immigration
Migrant flight lands in Guantanamo Bay as legal questions swirl around Trump plans CNN
Obama Legacy
The Wages of Leaving Guantanamo Open Have Arrived Forever Wars
Democrats en déshabillé
‘Stop Playing Nice,’ Says AOC as Senate Dems Help Approve Yet Another Trump Nominee Common Dreams
In Defense (Gulp) of Chuck Schumer Jonathan Turley
Imperial Collapse Watch
Commentary: Trump is sowing the seeds of an anti-American alliance Channel News Asia
US Air Force builds $80M F-35A for just $6M by merging parts from two crashed jets Interesting Engineering
Sports Desk
NFL to scrap ‘End Racism’ messaging on field for Super Bowl The Hill
AI
AI-Generated Slop Is Already In Your Public Library 404 Media
Google wants Search to be more like an AI assistant in 2025 TechCrunch
Google torpedoes ‘no AI for weapons’ rules The Register
The Bezzle
SEC is scaling back its crypto enforcement unit: Report Coin Telegraph
Trump’s Crypto Czar Is Studying Feasibility of US Bitcoin Reserve Bloomberg
Class Warfare
A few points for the left Julia Steinberger
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
