Father and daughter dance on their walk
pic.twitter.com/3VGiv1m79q— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) August 20, 2024
An Intoxicating 500-Year-Old Mystery Atlantic (Anthony L)
Teen Builds His Own Nuclear Fusion Reactor At College Interesting Engineering
M&Ms on checkerboard trick your brain ZMEScience (Kevin W)
Some old books have a toxic secret: they’re bad for your health ZMEScience (Dr. Kevin)
Humans age dramatically at two key points in their life, study finds CNN (Kevin W)
Mpox is ‘not the new COVID’ – WHO DW
What We Know About Mpox … airborne transmission OKDoomer (Dr. Kevin)
covid actually broke the concept of public health i fear like this is literally the covid response applied to lice https://t.co/3ib2hP9SiT pic.twitter.com/M6ErVbFjGf
— maui @ mfa ✍🏾 (they/them) (@lesbianoir) August 19, 2024
Climate/Environment
The Era of Runaway Heat Records Is Here Bloomberg
Climate Change Is Making the Middle East Uninhabitable Foreign Policy
Vienna partly under water after record rainfall TravelNews
The Atlantic is cooling at record speed and nobody knows why New Scientist
New Zealand sheep and cattle numbers down as carbon forestry, drought and low prices affect sector New Zealand Herald
China?
Biden Approved Secret Nuclear Strategy Refocusing on Chinese Threat New York Times
China’s $70bn property rescue plan limps off starting line Financial Times
China Unleashes Rapid Drop in New-Home Prices With Relaxed Curbs Bloomberg
China warns of countermeasures as EU updates EV probe Nikkei
Apple’s Thai gaffe shows brands must tread with more care in Asia South China Morning Poat
India
India’s schoolgirls are leading a silent cycling revolution BBC (Dr. Kevin)
Global trade needs a China alternative; India needs better ports Economic Times
European Disunion
German Crackdown On Terrorism Is Pretext To Persecute Political Enemies, Says Opposition Leader Michael Shellenberger (Robin K)
Anti-Constitutional: Manufacturing Political Consent Wolfgang Streeck, London Review of Books. Anthony L: “Germany fighting fascism.”
Old Blighty
25% of Brits Consider Turning Off the Heat in Winter OilPrice
Gaza
Hezbollah hammers Israeli targets after eight wounded in regime’s attacks on Bekaa PressTV
Israel Simulates F-35 and F-15 Long Range Air Assault as Show of Force to Iran Military Watch
Hamas accuses US of ‘buying time for Israel’ in Gaza ceasefire talks Aljazeera (Kevin W)
Israel Wants to Build Wall Between Egypt, Gaza to Hinder Hamas Tunnels-Digging – Reports Sputnik (Robin K)
Iran says retaliation against Israel for Haniyeh’s killing could take ‘long’ time Al-Arabya
New Not-So-Cold War
Moscow repels ‘one of largest’ drone attacks by Ukraine RTE. Props to RTE for having an early and detailed account.
Relentless Russian Assaults Bite Deeper Into Ukraine’s Battered Donbas Defenses Kyiv Post
Surrounded… Andrei Martyanov. On Toretsk and New York.
Back to the Bloodlands: Operation Krepost Big Serge. On the Kursk offensive. Have to disagree with his take on the Kursk nuclear power plant as an objective. The Kiev regime is all about PR and stunts, to a significant degree to keep the support of its coalition partners. Did Big Serge forget Snake Island? The huge waste of good soldiers in trying to secure and hold a position in Krinky on the east side of the Dnieper in Kherson? The obsession with the militarily unimportant Kerch Bridge? Admittedly, he does allow for spectacle as an aim later. But he seems to forget that the Collective West convinced itself that the underpowered and lacking in air-support Great Summer Counteroffensive would actually cut the Crimea land bridge. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the US (which clearly was backing this exercise) has not gotten over its deeply internalized view that the Russian military is weak and incompetent and its soldiers will run away when faced with enough force. But be sure to read, late in the piece, his discussion of ORBAT. And lots of great detail throughout.
In Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, underground fighters are burning warehouses and columns with weapons for Kyiv Aftershock. Story refers to an underlying source which presents visuals. Seems plausible because it’s the sort of thing the KGB ought to be doing, with cutouts/cover for the Russian state being behind it. And Russia might have decided to get more aggressive about this sort of thing after Kursk.
Letter: West must test Putin’s claims about the Russian economy Financial Times. Micael T: “
Imperial Collapse Watch
Accusations of US Regime-Change Operations in Pakistan and Bangladesh Warrant UN Attention Jeffrey Sachs, Common Dreams
Azerbaijan applies for joining BRICS – Foreign Ministry Interfax
De-Dollarization? Not so fast Stabroek News. Robin K: “A continuation of reflections on the place of the dollar in Guyana.”
Trump
Republicans worry Trump blowing their chances for Senate majority The Hill
Nicole Shanahan, VP on the Robert Kennedy ticket, says the RFK campaign is currently debating whether to stay in the race or drop out to endorse President Trump. She does not want Kamala to win.pic.twitter.com/iLsSuLEyQ5
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) August 20, 2024
Secret Service Flaws Enabled Trump Assassination Attempt ProPublica (Robin K)
Kamala
Exclusive-Harris’ Election Effort Raises Around $500 Million in a Month, Sources Say Reuters
Trump says Kamala Harris will not participate in Fox News debate on Sept. 4 Fox. But she had so far agreed only to a Sept. 10 debate on ABC.
Kamala Harris Suffers Triple Polling Blow Before DNC Starts Newsweek
Presidential Debate: Donald Trump vs Kamala Harris | Shawn Farash & Estee Palti, Alec Lace, YouTube. Farash is very good. Too bad his face is all wrong.
Democrat Convention
A protest carnival produces little heat in Chicago Semafor
Democratic National Convention Draws 20 Million On First Night, Surpassing RNC Viewership Deadline
Joe Biden, Trump Casualty American Conservative. A reader who watched the convention pointed out the Biden convention speech was at midnight, and there was a remarkable amount of dead time and third tier presenters to make sure he didn’t speak in prime time.
Democrats Unveil a Bizarre Foreign Policy Platform Daniel Larison
Abortion
Voters in Arizona and Montana can decide on constitutional right to abortion Associated Press
Women Are ‘Scared to Tell Their Doctors They’re Miscarrying,’ Louisiana Woman Says at DNC Jezebel (furzy)
Our No Longer Free Press
The EU Just Declared War on Free Speech in America. It is Time to Fight Back Jonathan Turley
University of California bans encampments and face masks Guardian (Carla R)
Woke Watch
Harley-Davidson hits brakes on DEI The Hill (Kevin W)
Supply Chain
Potential rail stoppage in Canada has US businesses worried The Hill (Kevin W)
Mr. Market v. the Fed
Fed confronts up to a million US jobs vanishing in revision Bloomberg. Lambert reported yesterday in Water Cooler but important not to miss.
Canada, Hungary, US Make Top 3 in Highest Increase in Public Debt Servicing Per Capita Sputnik (Robin K)
How the Pentagon built Silicon Valley Responsible Statescraft (Kevin W). This was documented years ago in Marianna Mazzucato’s book, The Entrepreneurial State.
Class Warfare
Have CEOs Changed? NBER
US judge strikes down Biden administration ban on worker ‘noncompete’ agreements Reuters (Kevin W)
Iowa man fired after passing out at a work-assigned ‘happy hour’ event Iowa Capital Dispatch (Robin K)
Antidote du jour (Julia M via Bob H):
And a bonus:
If you stop to watch one thing today, let this be it. pic.twitter.com/LTb6bhlJMT
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) August 20, 2024
And a second bonus (guurst):
Так, что тут у нас? 👀 pic.twitter.com/nkzShL0IOU
— Etna (@Etnaetoya) August 20, 2024
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
