Barbara Walters Dead at 93 TMZ
Christmas with the Tudors History Today (J-LS)
Flesh-Eating Bacteria Struggle To Chew Through Leathery Florida Residents The Onion
Finding the First Americans aeon (Anthony L)
#COVID-19
Asia
China Faces Deluge of Covid Deaths Over Lunar New Year Holidays Bloomberg (furzy)
China accused of censoring criticism of Covid policy RTE
US
US considers airplane wastewater testing as Covid cases surge in China FirstPost (LawnDirt, J-LS). Only now, because
yellow perilChina.
Climate/Environment
In the Pacific, Outcry Over Japan’s Plan To Release Fukushima Wastewater New York Times
Could Floating Solar Panels Help Mitigate Climate Change? EcoWatch
Discarded oyster shells used to build new reefs in coastal Louisiana Yale Climate Connections. Moar oysters!
China?
Amid tough US chip chat, S Koreans turn anti-China Asia Times (Kevin W)
North Korea fires three short-range ballistic missiles DW
India
‘India wants good neighbourly ties but…’: Jaishankar’s message to Pak, China Hindustan Times (J-LS)
‘India to be a major manufacturing hub by 2025, will emerge as $5 tn economy’: Jaishankar Republic World(J-LS)
The Top Five Geostrategic Developments In Africa Last Year Andrew Korybko (Micael T)
3 ways Germany’s migration crisis is different this time around Politico (Kevin W)
Old Blighty
Britons on brink as over a third fear being made homeless in 2023 Express
‘We’re trapped’: Britons in homes with unsafe cladding see no way out as living costs soar CNN (John Z)
Brexit is slowly being discredited, but there’s still a long way to go Chris Grey
New Not-So-Cold War
Again, new air alerts. And apparently not due to possible Kinzhal-carrying Mig takeoff. Fresh strike in Kramatorsk, and a report of an Iskander strike in Chernihiv, and air alerts first over Odessa and Nickolaev, then eastern oblasts, then per below:
🚨🇷🇺🚀✈️🇺🇦Air alerts 13:07 local time pic.twitter.com/yjDdoX8wml
— AZ 🛰🌏🌍🌎 (@AZgeopolitics) December 31, 2022
Ukraine. Military Summary And Analysis 30.12.2022 YouTube. Reviews considerable Russia progress around Bakhmut but discusses presumed great difficulty of cracking a central area with up to 9 story buildings. This is a comparatively small area. Russia has been focusing on taking out Ukraine air defenses and howitzer/HIMARS platforms, so perhaps Mr. Kinzhal or some aircraft-delivered thermobaric bombs will finish the job. Dima instead thinks Russia will advance in the north and eventually be able to cut the supply line to this area. However, these are both territory-focused views, as opposed to “force them to throw more weapons and men into the meat grinder” approach. Also note at the very end the discussion of Zaporizhzhia. Yours truly had mentioned to Lambert that Zaporizhzhia could become the next Russian focus after they had gotten their operations in Donbass largely done. Russia may be starting a move now not just as part of their plan to secure all four Russian oblasts but also to further stretch Ukraine forces.
U.S. Reassures Russia: Patriot Missiles to Ukraine Won’t Have American Troop ‘Shields’: A Green Light to Strike? MilitaryWatch. IMHO confirms that 1 Patriot system is a joke sent for political STFU reason….unless as Russia worried, it was intended to be a trap.
NATO is not in the business of winning wars Gilbert Doctorow
Note Alex Christaforu took note of Hammill’s drone fundraising quite a way back as one of Christaforu’s “clown world” features:
He never struck me as a particularly smart guy. https://t.co/Y9OoJ9DwDW
— Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) December 30, 2022
* * * Lack Of Good Analyses Contributes To The Decline Of The ‘West’ Moon of Alabama (Chuck L)
Hollande backs up Merkel revelation on Donbass peace RT (Kevin W)
Merkel’s, Hollande’s remarks on Minsk Accords signify betrayal — Russian top senator TASS (guurst)
Zelensky gives his government powers to restrict media, block websites, order Big Tech to censor Reclaim the Net
* * * Europe’s energy sacrifices: the winter test of resolve Financial Times
Turkey accuses US of losing ‘balance’ vis-a-vis Greece, Cyprus ekathimerini
Syraqistan
Turkiye agrees to fully withdraw troops from Syria: Syrian media Islamic Republic News Agency
Iran holds joint military drills near Strait of Hormuz waterway Middle East Online
2022 in review: Palestine’s moment of truth Mondoweiss
Israeli settler seizure of Christian land a ‘threat to peaceful coexistence’, says EU Middle East Eye
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Police in China Can Track Protests By Enabling ‘Alarms’ on Hikvision Software Guardian. Have the Chinese not heard of Faraday bags?
Biometric privacy 2022 year-in-review Biometric Update
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Ghosts of George Kennan: Lessons From the Start of the Cold War Foreign Affairs (J-LS)
Military Grounds Some F-35s Following Crash in Texas Military.com
F-35 deliveries halted after Texas mishap; new contract finalized DefenseNews
Russia-China talks President of Russia. Only the introductory remarks; perhaps more soon in readouts.
Trump
Trump tax returns show China bank account as six years of records released Guardian. This is the best they have?
What Trump’s Tax Returns Say About His Finances and the IRS Bloomberg
Trump’s Taxes Show Wide Use of Real-Estate Losses Wall Street Journal
L’affaire George Santos
re Harbor City Capital Management Brian Krebs. BC: “BTW, anyone casually glancing at Harbor City Capital Management’s employee profile pages on LinkedIn (if anyone can actually view them), would immediately go WTF????”
Where George Santos’ many scandals stand Politico
Arrest of suspect in US university killings ‘a relief’ to Idaho campus ABC Australia (Anthony L)
City Hall Still Planning for Shutdown of Rikers Island Jails, But Is Mayor All-In? The City
MIT Adopts Free Speech Resolution: “We Cannot Prohibit Speech as Offensive or Injurious.” Jonathan Turley
Southwest Meltdown
Long a fan favorite, Southwest’s model now faces questions Washington Post
Southwest Airlines passengers get stuck in the Nashville airport on Christmas — then threatened with arrest for ‘trespassing’ Business Insider. Same kind of airport cop that beat up the United passenger when forcibly removing from a plane (BTW in violation of United’s contract of carriage).
The Bezzle
Good Morning Everyone! The Bahamas government is still holding onto $3.5 billion in crypto seized from FTX.
Which begs the question: If a government can seize your crypto from an exchange, is it really your crypto?
— Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA (@GRDecter) December 30, 2022
Another Crypto Investment Firm Shuts Down, Taking Over 55% of Customers’ Funds Kitco
Sam Bankman-Fried to Plead Not Guilty to Fraud at Jan. 3 Hearing Bloomberg
India To Explore Prohibition of Unbacked Crypto in Its G20 Presidency TechCrunch
Twitter closes Seattle office, facing eviction, reports say Seattle Times (furzy)
Who decides cause of death? It may be a business owner – or an 18-year-old Kaiser Health News
Wall Street ends 2022 with biggest annual drop since 2008’s global financial crisis ABC Australia (Kevin W)
Class Warfare
Judge puts hold on California law that could have raised fast-food worker wages Yahoo! News (Kevin W)
Starbucks Illegally Terminated Union Leader, US Officials Say Bloomberg
Antidote du jour (furzy):
And a bonus (guurst):
🔥 The Red-Shanked Douc Langur pic.twitter.com/SAR272SWMg
— Nature Is Lit (@NatureIs_Lit) December 27, 2022
A second bonus:
And in anticipation of the new year:
Doggo Fascinated by Fireworks 🎆🎇 pic.twitter.com/VW5yQRFsAa
— Spindel (@MrSpindel) December 30, 2022
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
