Plants Feel Pain and Might Even See Nautilus (Dr. Kevin). More reasons to feel guilty.
Q-CTRL Unveils Jam-Proof Positioning System That’s 50x More Accurate Than GPS Interesting Engineering
Depleted Uranium Battery: Turning Nuclear Waste into Power IEEE Spectrum. Chuck L: “Still far to go to prime time. & when the electrolyte wears out you still have depleted uranium, albeit mostly U 238 with a half life of 4B years or so.”
Toothpaste widely contaminated with lead and other metals, US research finds Guardian
The Unbearable Loudness of Chewing Asterisk (Micael T)
#COVID-19
US measles total climbs to 800 cases, 10 outbreaks CIDRAP
it can’t be overstated how insane the new https://t.co/9dgrrNV23f page is. pic.twitter.com/JPxIzIyuay
— Travon Free (@Travon) April 18, 2025
Climate/Environment
NASA satellite shows small ocean swirls may affect climate The Register
In Zacatecas, mining companies extract silver and leave the drought Rebelion via machine translation (Micael T)
China?
When Trump and Xi seek a war-ending trade deal Asia Times (Kevin W)
China Focus: Autonomous drones surpass human pilots in precision, revolutionizing aerial agility Xinhua (guurst)
🇨🇳 China has just revealed the Liaowang-1, a massive next-generation maritime space tracking ship that could change everything we know about global surveillance.
Designed to operate from international waters, this floating fortress is packed with enormous radar domes, high-gain… pic.twitter.com/zwcSajqok8
— 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦 (@OopsGuess) April 17, 2025
State of US-China relations pic.twitter.com/vj0ODmKTm8
— Carl Zha (@CarlZha) April 18, 2025
Hu Bo on South China Sea and U.S. military activities in 2024 Pekingology
European Disunion
New German government wants to play bigger role in disciplining EU-member states International Affairs. Michael T: “Politicians of today offer only things that are unwanted. Some ‘democracy’ that.”
EU explores legal options for ending Russian gas deals Financial Times (Micael T)
JD Vance slammed after making bizarre ‘jerk’ comment during Italy visit Express (resilc)
Netherlands in Panic – “Russia Intends to Attack the Baltics!” Soldiers Take to the Streets International Affairs. (Michael T)
Israel v. The Resistance
US Massacres Civilian Workers and Paramedics in Attack on Yemen Fuel Port Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
Trump Is Changing the Rules in the Middle East, Netanyahu Is Left to Watch From the Stands Haaretz. Big if true.
Zionism, the Human Parasitoid Scott Ritter (Dr. Kevin)
A shameful ICJ ruling, the beginning of a split in the Jewish world, how Iran has already won this and other, domestic reason MAGA wants war Alon Mizrahi
Mohammad Marandi, Larry Wilkerson & Chas Freeman: Talks or Total War? Clock Ticks for Iran and U.S. Dialogue Works. I am heavy on links to videos today since it’s a long weekend and you might have time to listen.
Iran–Armenia joint drills warn off foreign-designed border changes The Cradle (Chuck L)
New Not-So-Cold War
Trump says US will ‘pass’ on Ukraine peace talks if no progress soon BBC
Rubio Warns US Readying to ‘Abandon’ Ukraine Peace Efforts Simplicius
Donald Trump to Europe — You Want to Fight Russia? Go Ahead, It’s All Yours Larry Johnson
US’ threats to abandon talks on Ukraine directed against Kiev rather than Moscow — Axios TASS
EUROFASCISM, LIKE 80 YEARS AGO, IS THE COMMON ENEMY OF MOSCOW AND WASHINGTON Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation via machine translation (Micael T)
Mark Sleboda: Putin Orders DEVASTATING New Offensive, Trump STUNNED by Russia, China & Iran Alliance Danny Haiphong, YouTube.
THE ANGELS OF DELIVERANCE – ARE TRUMP AND WITKOFF ROLLING THE STONE AWAY? John Helmer
Moldovan bishop blocked from flight for Easter ritual again RT (Kevin W)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Judge Rules Blanket Search of Cell Tower Data Unconstitutional 404media
Google Insider Breaks Silence on Tech Giant’s Military Ties
“Two months ago, in order to take advantage of the federal contracts the corporation can gain under Trump, Google abandoned its pledge not to build AI for weapons or surveillance. In rapid succession, Google then… pic.twitter.com/9IWTtS9KEV
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 17, 2025
Palantir Founder: ‘They need to wake up scared and go to bed scared’ Thomas Neuburger
Data of thousands of Israeli soldiers leaked
“The breach, coupled with the weak security of the website, allows anyone to access soldiers’ data simply by entering their ID number, without going through any additional verification. This allowed for the extraction and collection… pic.twitter.com/zkqe7jATZh
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 17, 2025
Imperial Collapse Watch
EU President Ursula von der Leyen: “The West as we knew it no longer exists” International Affairs (Micael T)
This is transaction volume, not dollar value. Dollar value is more important. Still not a good sign, particularly since it handles not just messaging a la SWIFT but also settlement:
The dollar just lost a round in the global currency war. While the West slept, China’s CIPS cleared more cross-border payments than SWIFT. April 16 may be remembered as the day the tide turned. pic.twitter.com/254nikCXFk
— William Huo (@wmhuo168) April 18, 2025
Fateful errors: Why NATO leaders should have listened to George Kennan in 1997 Ian Proud (Chuck L)
Prof. Michael Hudson: End of Globalization & Return of Economic Nationalism? Glenn Diesen, YouTube
Trump 2.0
Survival Or Looting? What Trump’s Revolution Is Really About Moon of Alabama. Includes a nice shout out but with a typo infestation! Need to take more care when drafting, even in these “Too much news, too little time” periods.
New from me: Trump’s job approval rating on the economy is now at an all-time low, even worse than during COVID-19. Opinion on his handling of inflation is at -18 on average! He has now lost the GOP’s single best political asset of the last decade: pic.twitter.com/hVtxQocdEh
— G Elliott Morris (@gelliottmorris) April 18, 2025
How FDA cuts could make the food and drug supply less safe NPR (Kevin W)
The Fight Between Trump and Public Schools Over DEI Escalates New York Times (Dr Kevin)
Trump officials take control of Penn Station revamp from New York’s MTA Guardian (Kevin W)
Tariffs
This might be the biggest sign of the failure of Trump’s tariffs yet.
The Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index is probably the best metric to understand if the U.S. is “bringing manufacturing back home”.
And it’s absolutely cratering: -26.4, one of the lowest readings in… https://t.co/lTZVLxLl0c
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) April 18, 2025
Trade coming to a halt right in front of your eyes. pic.twitter.com/AnDIrTjLCK
— 10xLogisticsExperts (@Logisticsexpert) April 16, 2025
DOGE
Judge temporarily blocks CFPB layoffs, probes potential violation of order The Hill
Judge Extends Ban on Musk’s DOGE Access to Private Social Security Data Reuters
Democrat Death Wish
NY settles sexual harassment lawsuit with former aide to Andrew Cuomo Gothamist
Immigration
Supreme Court blocks, for now, new deportations under 18th century wartime law NPR
US-China tensions impact visa issuance for Chinese students Asia Times (Kevin W)
Van Hollen recounts tearful exchange with mistakenly deported man The Hill
US citizen says he and his wife detained without explanation after returning from Canada CNN. Note it looks like the detention time was within the rule of thumb of 8 hours (US citizens can’t be denied entry but they can be detained) but this was over the top nasty.
Our No Longer Free Press
Trump Admin Orders Social Media Review on Gaza Ken Klippenstein<
UK’s Nudge Unit and UNSW Launch “Prebunking” Framework to Counter Refugee, Migrant, and Pro-Trump Immigration Narratives Reclaim the Net (Micael T)
Courts weigh White House work-arounds to keep AP iced out The Hill
Groves of Academe
Trump administration threatens Harvard with foreign student ban BBC. resilc: “Escalation to an air strike next?”
Trump Officials Blame Mistake for Setting Off Confrontation With Harvard New York Times (Jason Boxman). So let me get this straight….the admit to error but are not using that to climb down? What sort of clown show is this?
Emails Show Mohsen Mahdawi Pleaded with Columbia for Protection for Months Before ICE Detained Him Zeteo
Mr. Market Has a Nervous Breakdown
Strange sell-off in the dollar raises the specter of investors losing trust in the US under Trump Associated Press (Kevin W)
Crapification
The death of customer service: why has it become so, so bad? Guardian (Kevin W). It’s called neoliberalism.
Fresh Tools That Keep Vintage Macs Online and Weirdly Alive The Register. For those who want to take a stand.
AI
Actors Who Sold AI Avatars Stuck In Black Mirror-Esque Dystopia ars technica
NoLiMa: Long-Context Evaluation Beyond Literal Matching Arxiv (Micael T)
Study Finds 50% of Workers Use Unapproved AI Tools Security Week
Antitrust
Arkansas bans pharmacy benefit managers from owning pharmacies in state Associated Press (Kevin W). Wowsers.
The Bezzle
Tesla accused of messing with odometers to get out of repair bills EndGadget (Kevin W)
Guillotine Watch
The fury at ‘America’s Most Powerful’ Blood in the Machine (Randy K)
The Tactics Elon Musk Uses to Manage His ‘Legion’ of Babies—and Their Mothers Wall Street Journal (Micael T)
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus (Chuck L):
Amazing! 🙏🏼
A 2-year-old boy who spent the night alone in remote Arizona wilderness and walked 7 miles through mountain lion territory was led to safety by a rancher’s dog, authorities say.
A huge search operation was launched when the boy disappeared from his home in… pic.twitter.com/9vPu9ukHdp
— DK🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸 (@1Nicdar) April 17, 2025
A second bonus (Chuck L):
It looks like straight out of a cartoon pic.twitter.com/jLE65n99BE
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 17, 2025
And a third (Chuck L):
pic.twitter.com/KSvWbcAtRR
— Wow Animals (@WOW_ANIMALS1) April 17, 2025
A fourth (Chuck L):
Mama elephant thanks a person for giving water to her thirsty baby..🐘🐾🙏😊❤️ pic.twitter.com/iS8J2amgnq
— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) April 16, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
