Berlin Hotel’s Huge Aquarium Bursts, With 1,500 Fish Inside New York Times (see also Giant aquarium bursts in Germany, killing 1,500 tropical fish and spilling 1 million litres of water ABC Australia, hat tip Kevin W). BC: “Some engineering feats are more complicated than originally assumed.”

Pentagon Has Received ‘Several Hundreds’ of New UFO Reports Associated Press

Airport security 100ml liquid rule to be scrapped BBC (furzy). Weirdly, the Birmingham airport has those better scanners but not LGA.

What Would Plato Say About ChatGPT? New York Times (David L)

The Illustrated Transformer Jay Alammar (David L)

Almost 8,000 US shootings attributed to unseasonable heat – study Guardian (Dr. Kevin)

The rise and fall of peer review: Why the greatest scientific experiment in history failed, and why that’s a great thing Adam Mastroianni (Chuck L). Today’s must read.

#COVID-19

Asia

China facing largest COVID surge of the pandemic: possibly 800 million cases NPR (David L)

Beijing Crematorium’s Death Surge Points to Rising Covid Toll in China Wall Street Journal (Dr. Kevin)

Australia

US

Working Parents Are Overwhelmed as Kids Get Sick Again and Again Bloomberg (ma)

New poll shows why some adults aren’t getting the COVID booster ABC (ma)

Virginia schools can require masking for peers and teachers of 12 students with disabilities, settlement states CNN. ma: “Glad I don’t have to administer this!”

Ann Arbor Public Schools issues health advisory amid rise in student, staff illnesses ClickonDetriot (ma)

Climate/Environment

Amazon’s Plastic Waste Soared in 2021, Report Finds Gizmodo

One of NYC’s Biggest Co-Ops Considers Ban on E-Bikes in Response to Battery Fire Fears The City

China?

China Threatens To Fire Senators Who Voted For TikTok Ban Babylon Bee

The fentanyl wars: China, Mexico and the US Asia Times (Kevin W)

Chinese fighter jets’ South American hopes grounded as Argentina pulls purchase plan South China Morning Post

Old Blighty

>UK weather: More warnings of severe cold, ice and snow before blizzards sweep in Sky

France’s Nuclear Reactor Has Been Delayed Again Barron’s

Polish police chief, Jaroslaw Szymczyk injured after gift explosion New York Post. “Polish authorities have asked Ukrainian officials to “provide relevant explanations” as to why the gift exploded.”

New Not-So-Cold War

Russia pounds Ukrainian infrastructure in ‘biggest attacks’ since invasion Financial Times. This was the day after the biggest attacks on Donetsk city. The Russians have been making big strikes on at least an every-other-week basis. If this one was meant to be in part retaliatory, the Western press is pointedly not taking notice. BTW Rybar disagrees:

Although the missile attack cannot be called the most massive in recent months, the number of missiles fired and the geography of targets are still impressive.

Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv without power after Russian strikes BBC

Ukraine Updates: Kiev warns of long energy shortages DW

European rights court to take precautionary measure against Belgium over asylum seekers’ lack of shelter Anadolu Agency

* * *

How to avoid another world war Henry Kissinger, Spectator. Kevin W: “Henry has gone senile going by his assumptions in this article.”

Diplomacy Watch: Is the Overton window of the Ukraine war’s end game shifting? Responsible Statecraft. Less deluded is still deluded.

America’s New Sanctions Strategy Foreign Affairs

Meloni fully supporting NATO’s war in Ukraine Defend Democracy

* * *

Volodymyr Zelensky and his generals explain why the war hangs in the balance Economist. Despite my allergy for this sort of thing, this is important, despite the rah rah set-up and the usual blather from Zelensky. The interviews with Generals Zaluzhny and Syrsky contain many admissions against interest. Contrast this with the statements from the British MoD: Western Hysteria Ramps Up Larry Johnson

How Putin’s technocrats saved the economy to fight a war they opposed Financial Times. Late to this, partly because it was obvious where it was going. Alexander Mercouris is right, the article is openly angry over the fact that Putin’s seen-as-liberal economics team didn’t turn on him. But it does not establish whether they opposed the recognition of the breakaway republics simply on economic grounds (the clear belief that the West would crush Russia with sanctions) or also because they opposed a war in Ukraine on political/moral grounds. The article presumes they are (or should have been) but relies on disapproving statements from outsiders or the few officials who did leave.

Also notice the image of Putin meeting with his advisers. Boy, did he NOT want to get Covid! Recall he skipped the 2021 G20 over professed Covid concerns. There are more recent shots and staged events with him sitting pretty close to individual officials. More confidence in Sputnik? Super ventilated offices? More risk tolerance?

* * *

What are they now talking about on Russian talk shows? Gilbert Doctorow

Syraqistan

Moscow welcomes Turkey’s call for trilateral Syria diplomacy Middle East Online. Turkey finally mad enough about NATO provocations via Greece to join forces with Assad v. Americans.

Family of Palestinian activist Nizar Banat files case against Palestinian Authority in International Criminal Court CNN (ma)

2022 was a record year for settler violence. Palestinians say next year will be even worse. Mondoweiss

Imperial Collapse Watch

Five F-35 issues have been downgraded, but they remain unsolved Defense News

Biden’s Halftime Report: Is America Really Back on the World Stage? Haaretz

Shocking Video Shows Man Overboard Incident on Hospital Ship USNS Comfort QCaptain (guurst). For a degree-of-difficulty comparison, cruise ships do this maneuver all the time with that size or bigger tenders in ports where the ship is too big to cokc.

Our No Longer Free Press

From the Twitter Files: Twitter, The FBI Subsidiary Matt Taibbi (Chuck L)

Twitter’s suspension of journalists sets ‘dangerous precedent’, UN warns Guardian. Kevin W: “Exclusion of independent journalists is still OK however.”

In assault on democratic rights, rail union sanctions victorious opposition candidate for sharing WSWS article WSWS (fk)

Supply Chain/Inflation

US ‘peak’ inflation talk misses the China point Asia Times (Kevin W)

Biden administration set to start refilling oil reserve Politico (Kevin W)

The Bezzle

Binance’s native BNB token plunges to lowest since July as concerns mount about withdrawals, FTX ties CNBC

Accounting firm that issued proof of reserves report for Binance halts service to all crypto clients Fox

Democrats Plan To Return Over $1 Million From FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried The Verge. A small fraction of what it is known even now that they received.

Can Child Care Be a Big Business? Private Equity Thinks So. New York Times. fk: “Child care tollbooths?”

Goldman Sachs prepares to lay off almost 4,000 employees Financial Times

Class Warfare

Labor Leaders Provide Cover for Privatization of Medicare Counterpunch

Starbucks Workers Strike at 100 Stores Nationwide – UK Strike Wave Spreads – Hyundai & Kia Used Child Labor in 10 Alabama Plants Mike Elk

Antidote du jour (CV):

And a bonus:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

Espresso Break: Funding Medical Schooling, A Human Ancestor, Tardigrades to the Rescue, Trashing the Earth, Plus MAHA and Measles





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