Ancient bread rises again as Turkey recreates 5,000-year-old loaf PhysOrg
OLD BANGER World’s first electric car is 100 years old with a wooden frame & it still runs – but ‘oil law’ forced it off the road Sun (Kevin W)
World’s oldest fingerprint may be a clue that Neanderthals created art Guardian (Kevin W)
They Inhaled Xenon Gas and Scaled Everest in Days. Is It the Future of Mountaineering? New York Times
The ocean seems to be getting darker ScienceDaily (Kevin W). It’s mad at us.
Doctors sound alarm over anti-inflammatory drugs taken by millions that leave you open to deadly viral infections Daily Mail. JAK inhibitors.
Humping Iron The Baffler (Anthony L). On female bodybuilding.
#COVID-19/Pandemics
H5N1 BirdFlu is the most prevalent animal disease EVER.More animals, more deaths than any other disease, EVER.#pandemic pic.twitter.com/hVfDDn9JNO
— Dr Richard Hirschson (@richardhirschs1) May 27, 2025
Amid measles outbreak, Texas is poised to make vaccine exemptions for kids easier WJTV
China?
China’s Soft Spot in Trade War With Trump: Risk of Huge Job Loss New York Times. Erm, China in recent years has relied more on investment rather than exports for growth. However, there’s a lot of employment in export sectors, so the employment vulnerability could be greater than contribution to GDP would suggest.
Developing nations face ‘tidal wave’ of China debt: report Agence France-Presse. Of course, China could restructure these debts. But the Chinese public was unhappy about losses on its FX reserves. If debt forgiveness is done on a scale when it is visible to the Chinese public, would this become a source of controversy?
China’s Metal Exports Surge Stirring Global Markets OilPrice
Climate/Environment
Global temperatures could break heat record in next five years Guardian. resilc: “This will be the shocker to USA USA when crops fail. South Vermont we are getting loads of rain in bunches at a time. Hard to plant any garden.”
Fine dining in the apocalypse: how to be a middle-class prepper The Times
Dangerous heat bursts have been spiking temperatures across the US as people sleep. So what are they? Independent
Dry heat to torrential rain – enter the age of ‘weather whiplash’ BBC
Tornado Alley has become almost everything east of the Rockies — and it’s been a violent year Kansas Reflector (Robin K)
Southern France winemakers turn to aloe vera as drought reshapes traditional vineyards Vinetur
Egypt’s resource crisis: Water, food, and a surging population France24
Draining cities dry: the giant tech companies queueing up to build datacentres in drought-hit Latin America Guardian
Global heating may be fuelling rise in deadly cancers among women Independent
China?
China’s Air Conditioning Use Poised to Skyrocket This Summer Bloomberg
India-Pakistan Row
India’s Ladakh Hydropower Plan Sparks Fears of Indus Water Crisis TNN English
South of the Border
Rio’s Beach Culture Clashes with New Regulations Threatening Livelihoods and Legacy. Rio Times. Micael T: “Gentrification? Monopolization?”
European Disunion
EU to maintain Article 7 procedure over Hungary’s ‘rule of law breaches’ Anadolu Agency
German court sends VW execs to prison over Dieselgate scandal Politico (Kevin W)
I’m 23 years old, I live at home – and I love it. Aftonbladet via machine translation. Micael T: “Propaganda-piece for youngsters to accept that they will never own their own house and now not even be able to move out from the parents.”
Old Blighty
An island of strangers: The end of England Sam Kriss. Important. had tended to see criticism of immigration in the UK (particularly since long-standing EU migrants were run out due to Brexit, generating a big upsurge of non-EU immigrants) as legit beefing about the failure of governments to make even remotely adequate provision via more affordable housing, increased NHS staffing, and more teachers. If you believe the neoliberal notion that we need graof, and populations need to increase or at least not fall, in the low-birth rate UK, the only way to solve the equation is immigration. In the US, during a sustained immigration surge, concern about the dilution of American culture (as if we really have any) led to concerned efforts to promote assimilation. But now doing so would be culturally insensitive….and not doing anything is so much easier.
Israel v. the Resistance
BREAKING: Last Hospital in North Gaza Shuts Down
Al-Awda Hospital, the final functioning medical center in North Gaza, has now been fully evacuated to its branch in central Gaza. This marks the complete shuttering of all three hospitals in the governorate—officially leaving the… pic.twitter.com/tro5LEvznz
— Drop Site (@DropSiteNews) May 28, 2025
US Has Delivered 90,000 Tons of Weapons to Israel in Nearly 600 Days Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
‘Dehumanisation by design’: US-Israeli Gaza aid operation descends into chaos Middle East Eye (resilc)
Surprise: CIA link to sketchy Israeli aid scheme Responsible Statescraft (Kevin W)
Trump’s Had Enough of Israel’s War. Can He Get Netanyahu Out the Way? Haaretz (Robin K)
Randy Fine Should Resign American Conservative (resilc). Not just Netanyahu….also barking mad enablers.
Col. Larry Wilkerson: Russia Launches Massive New Offensive — The Battle to Win It All! Dialogue Works. IMHO, although the entire talk is worthwhile, the important part comes later, on Israel, starting at 35:25. Wilkerson says he has it on good authority that Israel has strike packages v. Iran ready. He further argues that Israel is quite capable of staging a false flag attack, say against Israelis in the US, to justify an attack.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem Visits Israel, Meets With Netanyahu and Ben Gvir Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
A Word of Caution to President Trump Regarding Iran Larry Johnson
New Not-So-Cold War
How Donald Trump Discovers the Art of Political Negotiation Thierry Meyssan (Micael T)
The Memo: Trump paints himself into a corner on Putin and Ukraine The Hill. No mention of what sure looks like an assassination attempt on Putin.
Does Ukraine now have a free hand in the use of Western weapons? Anti-Spiegel via machine translation (Micael T)
Recycling Old News Media Push For More War In Ukraine Moon of Alabama. Important detail on the Merz Taurus missile walkback.
The Ukrainian Government Keeps Sanctioning Its Domestic Critics The Dissent
Analyzing Zelensky’s Fearmongering About Fall’s Next Russian-Belarusian Drills Andrew Korybko (Micael T)
How Peace-Oriented Norway Learned to Stop Worrying and Love War Glenn Diesen
Syraqistan
The Blair-Bush Project in Syria That Brought Al Qaeda to Power Vanessa Beeley
Pressure builds up on Dbeibah as protests rage on across Libya Arab Weekly
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Live facial recognition cameras may become ‘commonplace’ as police use soars Guardian (Kevin W)
Imperial Collapse Watch
The End Of America As The Essential Consumer Nation Ian Welsh (Micael T)
The defense-industrial base and alliances: US Steel and beyond Asia Times
Trump 2.0
Trump slams Biden, praises ‘tough cookie’ Hegseth and talks upcoming army parade in Memorial Day address Politico. What an admission of weakness and insecurity, to attack Biden. Kicking down is never a good look.
Trump’s Plan to Revive US Shipbuilding Would Take Billions and Many Years New York Times (resilc)
Trump pardons reality show couple convicted of bank fraud and tax crimes CNN (Kevin W)
GOP Budget Would Make It Harder to Hold Trump Administration in Contempt Intercept (resilc)
U.S. Battery Production Set To Decline 75% Under Trump’s ‘Big Bill’ OilPrice
Tariffs
Japan is reportedly offering to buy up to $6.94 billion worth of US semiconductors Forex Live. Dollar firmed on trade talk optimism, per Reuters.
Tourists from countries badly hit by Trump tariffs are staying away from US Guardian (Kevin W)
Immigration
Trump administration orders US embassies to stop student visa interviews Guardian
Democrat Death Wish
Will Democrats Learn From the Biden Disaster? Probably Not. Jacobin (Robin K)
Our No Longer Free Press
Goodbye pluralism: cancelled Post Keynesian style Thomas Palley
Woke Watch
Supreme Court declines to hear student’s bid to wear ‘two genders’ shirt to school The Hill. What, no amicus brief from the Solicitor General?
Groves of Academe
‘AI Role in College Brings Education Closer To a Crisis Point’ Bloomberg
Trump closes in on cutting government ties with Harvard The Hill
Antitrust
Monopoly Round-Up: Trump Antitrust Enforcers Kick Small Business In the Teeth Matt Stoller
Musi Says Evidence Shows Apple Conspired With Music Industry On App Store Ban ars technica
AI
Some signs of AI model collapse begin to reveal themselves The Register
Desperate Times, Desperate Measures Ed Zitron
OpenAI software ignores explicit instruction to switch off Telegraph. Li: “I’m sorry, Dave, I can’t do that.”
The Bezzle
SpaceX Starship destroyed in third straight fiery test setback Bloomberg
The sun is killing off SpaceX’s Starlink satellites New Scientist (resilc)
Cracking Bitcoin-Like Encryption Through Quantum Computing Could be 20x Easier Than Thought CoinDesk (Kevin W)
Chaos at Klarna’s customer service in Riga Aftonbladet via machine translation. Micael T: “Klarna – a Swedish payment service parasite on the transaction chain, whose business model is to inflict fees on those who can’t pay on time.”
Antidote du jour (John U):
And a bonus (Bob H):
check out this dog that drinks soup
IG meetthechows pic.twitter.com/t4qYxmKBLn
— derek guy (@dieworkwear) May 26, 2025
A second bonus:
Airline staff is not allowing this cute kangaroo to board the airplane,
the way he is holding the boarding pass and waiting to be scanned 🥺
(ai) pic.twitter.com/EHoSFkEECF
— Wholesome Side of 𝕏 (@itsme_urstruly) May 26, 2025
And a third:
This is an uninterrupted minute of Maruay the rescued tiger with his beloved ball pic.twitter.com/xwAKdGnZJH
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) May 27, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
