Links 5/23/2026 | naked capitalism

Police officer catches baby dropped from window of burning home BBC

Modern Hindu Temples Works in Progress (Micael T)

Who Controls Truth in a Post-Truth Era? Dr Andreas Matthias

Hell exaggerated: When “exorcism” is degraded to sensationalism and prurience Addison Hodges Hart

Joy is not an emotion; it is a way of being Megha Lillywhite (Micael T). Only the opening section is outside the paywall, but is it annoying by 1. positing a false dichotomy and 2. Making Shit Up with this claim:

Many claim to reject hedonism but don’t have anything sufficient to replace it with when they’re truly interrogated about virtue and morality

Huh? Who is this “many”? I reject hedonism and derive pleasure from my work. This is not about morality. Pursuit of pleasure or happiness are fools’ games (coming across them and enjoying them while they last is another matter). The devotee often spends a lot of time and energy on the hunt and I have observed they are often anxious or otherwise dissatisfied when not in their sought-after state, like the three nymphomaniacs I observed at close range. The nights they did not bring a man home, they drank to excess. One was diagnosed as a Stage 4 alcoholic and wound up on the street and died in her 50s.

Contentment and engagement are more attainable and sustainable. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Flow, argues that an experience genuinely satisfying is a state of consciousness called flow, which results when deeply engaged in a task, be it physical or cognitive. During flow, people typically experience deep enjoyment and creativity. A key is the activity needs to be demanding enough to require full attention, but not so hard as to be unattainable or frustrating.

Another view from the New Age: “A monk said, ‘Before I was enlightened, I hauled water and cut wood. After I was enlightened, I hauled water and cut wood.’”

Common pesticide linked to hidden brain damage, scientists warn Science Daily (Kevin W)

Hantavirus

American passenger feels ‘betrayed’ by federal order to stay in hantavirus quarantine NPR (Kevin W)

Climate/Environment

The Arctic’s vanishing caribou Financial Times

Warming oceans are wiping out kelp forests at alarming speed Earth

Extreme weather events are accelerating tidal wetland loss, satellite data show PhysOrg

Scientists say four-day moorland blaze was UK’s first megafire BBC

Northern India swelters as temperatures hit record highs Bastille Post

SOUTH AMERICA UPSIDE DOWNCold in the tropics,record warmth in Patagonia.

The warmth was specially extraordinary in CHILERecords of May highest Temperatures smashed in pieces:

24.1C Puerto Varas25.2C Temuco AP23.9C Osorno22.3C Puerto Montt24.5C Nueva Chaitenand many more pic.twitter.com/UvxmFMoQFS

— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) May 21, 2026

【Breaking News】The 24-hour rainfall recorded at the Xiashuang AWS in Yangchun, Guangdong, reached 1057.5 mm, marking the first time in May that China has experienced an extreme rainstorm with more than 1000 mm of rainfall in 24 hours! pic.twitter.com/UjXzNt09py

— Jim (@yangyubin1998) May 20, 2026

Record Heat Forces New England to Tap Oil to Power the Grid Bloomberg

Kansas farmers pulled by weather extremes and growing costs, wheat crop could be worst since 1972 Independent

Can the West survive ‘drastic’ Colorado River cuts? The Week

China?

Beijing bans Nvidia’s top graphics card to back domestic rivals Asia Times (Kevin W)

China builds underwater AI data centers at less than half price Kevin Walmsley

Some YouTubers treated this as a done deal:

So the biggest take-away from the Putin-Xi summit is that *despite* the crazy situation in the Strait of Hormuz, China is still refusing to back Power of Siberia 2. Despite Putin trying very hard before the visit to hint that a breakthrough was in the offing. Wow.

— Sergey Radchenko (@DrRadchenko) May 20, 2026

Japan

Why Japan and China will struggle to end their feud Economist

Africa

Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea: Is the Horn of Africa sliding towards war? New Arab

Ebola tensions rise as treatment centre torched in DR Congo’s Ituri Aljazeera

O Canada

US political operatives built a surveillance app for Alberta separatists, a coordinated attack to destabilise Canada YAC News (Ann)

European Disunion

Appendix to “The U.S. Nuclear Umbrella – Does it exist?” Ola’s Substack (Micael T)

China threatens retaliation over new EU tool to curb Chinese ‘overcapacity’ EUObserver

German borrowing costs surge as Iran energy shock starts to bite Euractive

The EU wants to rip Chinese companies out of their telecom networks. But they can’t. Kevin Walmsley

‘No means no’: Greenlanders protest against Trump outside new US consulate BBC

Trump Envoy Heckled During Greenland Visit: ‘Don’t Come Here’ Newsweek (Kevin W)

Greenland’s premier to skip opening of new US consulate in Nuuk amid tensions with Washington Anadolu Agency (Kevin W)

Old Blighty

UK Posts Highest April Budget Deficit Since the Pandemic Bloomberg

Reeves to promise free summer bus rides for children and food tariff cuts in living costs package Guardian

British farms face ‘unviable’ future as climate extremes intensify Farming UK

UK ‘built for climate that no longer exists’ and needs urgent changes to survive global heating, report warns Guardian

UK did not vet former Prince Andrew before making him trade envoy Politico (Kevin W)

Israel v. The Resistance

White House Insists High Gas Prices Are Small Price To Pay For Accomplishing Nothing In Iran Babylon Bee

Yet more proof that Zionists are worse than Nazis:

A French aid worker: “We found a mass grave in Gaza containing 300 bodies. Small children were killed with their hands tied behind their backs” pic.twitter.com/nfd94GldZC

— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) May 22, 2026

The woman in this video is Caitriona Graham an Irish citizen.

This is how our citizens are being treated by Israel , having been abducted in international waters, trafficked to a third state and now experiencing humiliation, stress positions, aggression and violence. pic.twitter.com/WYir3Ht7E7

— Paul Murphy 🇵🇸 (@paulmurphy_TD) May 20, 2026

Sumud flotilla activists — who come from Europe, the US and elsewhere — have released a statement that Israeli authorities subjected them to abuse, sexual violence and in multiple cases, rape. This hasn’t been confirmed. https://t.co/RyvDxDmvNV https://t.co/BDmQS85xM8 pic.twitter.com/ws9AazrPer

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) May 22, 2026

EXCLUSIVE: Iranian Official Outlines Latest Proposal to End the U.S. War as Trump Weighs New Strikes DropSite

Trump’s Endgame Is Surrender Robert Kagan, Atlantic. Today’s must read. Confirms what we said, Trump will exit, the only question is how soon and with what attempted face-saver. Kagan posits a final hard kick at Iran on the way out, but see the discussion between Crooke and Davis below. Iran will hit back hard if that happens.

All-Out War in Iran, That’s What Netanyahu Needs /Alastair Crooke & Lt Col Daniel Davis Deep Dive. I have gotten to be very taken with Davis as an interviewer.

New Not-So-Cold War

Ukraine says its drones hit another refinery deep inside Russia as long-range strikes escalate Los Angeles Times

Palantir’s laboratory Events in Ukraine

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Pro Surveillance Politicians Are Very Mad You Don’t Like Flock 404 Media

Quantum computers may break today’s encryption much sooner than scientists expected ZME Science (Dr. Kevin)

Imperial Collapse Watch

https://t.co/hZRP8gr611

— Will Schryver (@imetatronink) February 3, 2026

The biggest bullshit move by DHS in its history. So everyone on a O1 or H1B visa would have to stop working legally in the US, go back to their country and wait for years of backlog? This includes top scientists in our universities, founders of billion dollar companies (at least… https://t.co/Q427R67ZYq

— Nick Davidov (@Nick_Davidov) May 22, 2026

Hope Against Hope Harper’s (Mike M). Important.

Trump 2.0

Despite public statements from President Trump and Tulsi Gabbard citing her husband’s diagnosis with a rare form of bone cancer as the reason for her departure, Reuters is reporting that this was not a choice by Gabbard, and that the White House ‌forced her to ⁠resign from her… pic.twitter.com/bW0xZYl6c0

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) May 22, 2026

A couple days before Tulsi Gabbard resigned, Amaryllis Fox also left her position at ODNI

Though Fox denied it, one of her associates told WaPo she did so because she opposed the Iran war https://t.co/f4hP5Mnfqt

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) May 22, 2026

Trump’s building himself a bunker – it’s clear he knows he’s failing iPaper (Ann)

Read the DOJ’s memo to Republican senators on how Trump’s $1.8 billion ‘anti-weaponization’ fund will work PBS (Kevin W)

Donald Trump’s Approval Rating Sinks to Lowest Ever Recorded Newsweek (Ann)

Jim Cramer froze on live TV after seeing Trump’s 3,700 stock trades — here’s what’s in the president’s portfolio Yahoo! (Kevin W)

In the middle of the lunch, Trump called RFK Jr and Dr. Oz and told them he wanted the regulation lifted. Trump’s FDA Commissioner then resigned in protest. Things like this are happening every day. RFK Jr is a total fraud. https://t.co/B0uMIT0eQn pic.twitter.com/jqNu5v9CXB

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 21, 2026

Bezos says Trump is “disciplined” and “has lots of good ideas” Oligarch Watch

Our No Longer Free Press

When critics pointed out black-and-white factual errors from the beginning to the end of the NYT’s “Screams Without Words,” one of the most consequential fabrications in the paper’s history, used to justify a genocide, the paper steadfastly refused to address them. Only when… https://t.co/EsNhvgCKzX

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) May 22, 2026

Naftali Bennett Is Running A Campaign To ‘Fix Israel’s Hasbara’ Kevin Gosztola (Dr. Kevin)

How Palantir is becoming embedded in major newsroom operations Middle East Eye (Kevin W)

not sure if anyone is at Bluesky. when I visit the site all is calm, unchanging; I have not had a single new follower in many months; exchanges are always interesting & intelligent but relatively few. Bluesky exudes the air of an upscale mall, beautifully maintained, hushed.…

— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) May 19, 2026

Economy

IEA warns oil market may hit ‘red zone’ by mid-summer MSN

Hormuz Closure Threatens Recession Rivaling 2008, Rapidan Says Bloomberg

Inflation fears are rippling through industrial metals CNBC

Walmart warns of petrol rationing as Iran war hits customers’ wallets Financial Times. Self rationing!

The oil shock is coming for America Financial Times. By Amos Hochstein….lordie

StanChart Says Record SPR Withdrawals Are Tightening U.S. Oil Buffers OilPrice

Mr. Market Needs a Therapist

Oil resumes rally as Iran reportedly wants to keep enriched uranium within the country CNBC

Global bond yields hit their highest levels since the financial crisis Equiti

Global debt stress could shake financial markets CMC

The next crisis catalyst? A credit crunch triggered by data center debt: Eon CEO CNBC

Antitrust

“Where’s all the f&$*#ing money going?” The Waste and Costs of American Utilities Matt Stoller

AI

A Wharton economist ran a randomized controlled trial on almost a thousand high school students in Turkey.

The result was so brutal for the AI-in-education narrative that it had to be peer-reviewed by PNAS before people would believe it.

Her name is Hamsa Bastani. She teaches… pic.twitter.com/OZ7kXhRK2c

— Rimsha Bhardwaj (@heyrimsha) May 21, 2026

Will AI Break the University? Rory Truex

🦔Microsoft canceled its internal Claude Code licenses this week after token-based billing made the cost untenable, even for a company with effectively infinite cloud resources. Uber’s CTO sent an internal memo warning the company burned through its entire 2026 AI budget in just… pic.twitter.com/zBGccaP3e6

— Hedgie (@HedgieMarkets) May 21, 2026

What’s with all the videos of college graduates booing AI? ABC Australia (Kevin W)

Could generative AI turn out to be the tech industry’s Vietnam? And could public backlash lead AI to a better place? Gary Marcus

AI is killing the cheap smartphone David Oks (Micael T)

AI Discourse is Haunted by Presentism Bias Bentham’s Bulldog (Micael T)

AI and the Degradation of the Human Capacity for Friendship Grace Helton (Micael T). The mere fact of this article is mind-boggling.

The Bezzle

Not even a quick end to Iran war can save AI stock bubble now South China Morning Post. Xie is a very serious commentator, going back to the 2008 criiss.

The CalPERS gamble: Why the push to invest in private equity alarms public employees CalaMatters

Class Warfare

Imperial End Times: The Geopolitics of Class War in a Post-American World Un-Diplomatic (Micael T)

An Assessment Of The Accelerating Timeline for “You Will Own Nothing” Patrick Wood (Micael T)

The diaper crisis is real. Ask millions of American families. Washington Post (Dr. Kevin)

The unlikely organizers: Even NYC luxury renters are starting tenant associations Gothamist

Kenyan public transport operators call off strike after government cuts diesel price Reuters

Antidote du jour (Tracie H):

And a bonus (Chuck L):

London Underground station flooding has reportedly been reduced by around 90% thanks to a group of engineers: beavers.

After conservationists reintroduced a family of beavers into a nearby city park, the animals built dams and restored wetlands that now absorb and slow… pic.twitter.com/9hDCQ8xxD3

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 22, 2026

A second bonus (Chuck L):

One of the most unusual friendships on earth is between a scuba diver and a massive fish.

For over twenty five years, a Japanese diver named Hiroyuki Arakawa has been visiting an underwater shrine. Whenever he dives down, he strikes a metal bell with a hammer to announce his… pic.twitter.com/KN7SRTBf9P

— Dr. Lemma (@DoctorLemma) May 21, 2026

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.