Dog trained to illegally dump rubbish, Italian authorities say BBC (Paul R)

I am always nervous when driving near any tanker truck:

The Cult Deprogrammer Who Needed Deprogramming Minority Report (resilc)

Biology’s New Era: The historic shift from studying life to engineering it Big Think

Plastic surgeon pumps more drama into ‘PenisGate’ at Olympics with injection claim New York Post (Micael T)

The latest skincare fad is rubbing salmon sperm on your face The Verge This seems silly. Sperm does have a ton of growth factors but won’t penetrate the skin. Might brighten the skin a bit but seems unlikely to have much effect unless done in connection with another procedure, like microneedling to get it deeper into the dermis. Micael T noted: “The Idler Book of Crap Jobs ranks pig wanker #10. I wonder what the life of a salmon wanker looks like.”

COVID-19/Pandemics

Covid Coloring Book (Paul R)

Virus kills over 70 tigers at north Thailand park Strait Times (Micael T)

Climate/Environment

Growing number of Americans report experiencing extreme cold, AP-NORC poll finds Associated Press (Kevin W)

E.P.A. Weakens Limits on Mercury From Coal Plants New York Times

China?

IMF rebukes China’s model with its own credibility in tatters Asia Times (Kevin W). I hate to put on my critical thinking hat here, but first, the thrust of this article is ad hominem and therefore logically invalid. Second, the research wing of the IMF is independent of the neoliberal program side, and has regularly published finding that oppose mainstream economic thinking such as that imposing austerity in a weak economy will have a negative fiscal mulitplier (as in make the fetishized debt to GDP ratio worse) and that financialization beyond a very modest level harms growth.

China’s Priorities in Agriculture and Rural Development in 2026 USDA (Robin K)

Chinese Peptides China Talk

Africa

Decolonisation III: Africa is Back. Part One Jeff Rich

European Disunion

Why the EU won’t anchor an anti-Trump trade bloc Euractiv

Adults in the Room Valdai Club (Micael T). More on Munich Security Conference fallout.

Live: Macron calls for ‘calm’ as France braces for tribute to far-right activist France24

Poland’s Conservative Opposition Has Good Reason To Reject A Gigantic EU Loan For Arms Andrew Korkbko

France says surprised by European Commission presence at Board of Peace Reuters (resilc)

Old Blighty

How Starmer Survived — And Probably Will Again Global Affairs. Micael T: “Like a cockroach.”

Here’s how the monarchy survives the fallout from Andrew Telegraph

UK police seek information from ex-protection officers of king’s brother Andrew Reuters (Kevin W)

Israel v. The Resistance

US envoy Mike Huckabee says it would be ‘fine’ if Israel took all Middle East land Guardian (Kevin W)

How the US Government Sabotaged the Genocide Convention Orders against Israel — and How to Get Back on Track Sam Husseini

US evacuates hundreds of troops from Qatar, Bahrain amid Iran tensions: Report Anadolu Agency

* * *

White House Drama Re Pending Decision to Attack Iran Larry Johnson

Airpower, Coercion and Illusion: What Past Campaigns Tell Us About a US Air War on Iran Kautilya the Contemplator

War on Iran Scott Ritter (Micael T). Ritter is way better when he forces himself to put pen to paper than when he sounds off on YouTube

Hoo boy. So much for Saudi claims they won’t let the US use their airspace:

The White House Is Too Sure About Iran and Oil Prices Bloomberg

New Not-So-Cold War

Iskander Missile Plant Hit in Strike Deep Inside Russia’s Udmurtia Kyiv Post

Four years on, Russia is still paying for a fatal miscalculation in Ukraine CNN

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

France Is Dropping Zoom and Team YouTube (resilc)

Substack Breach May Have Leaked Nearly 700,000 User Details Online Tech Republic (resilc)

Imperial Collapse Watch

The Multipolar Delusion Foreign Affairs

Supremes v. Trump Tariffs

Read: Supreme Court ruling on Trump tariffs The Hill

US Supreme Court Strikes Down Trump’s Global Tariffs Bloomberg

Trump tariffs live: US Supreme Court rules Trump’s sweeping tariffs are illegal Financial Times

Supreme Court strikes down tariffs ScotusBlog

Don’t Be Fooled By the Corrupt Court’s Tariff Decision Josh Marshall

Making Sense of the Tariffs Ruling Steve Vladeck. Note that Vladeck, who is on the SCOTUS beat, disagrees with Marshall.

Winners & Losers of SCOTUS Decision Striking Down Tariffs Barry Ritholtz. Useful but I doubt this loss will help the dollar all that much. Liberation Day was a stunning display of Trump’s willingness to throw his weight around. The sales of dollar assets, particularly stocks, were what whacked the greenback. His continued recklessness and unpredictability means foreign investors should still assign a risk premium to the US, which means lower prices.

Trump brings in new 10% tariff as Supreme Court rejects his global import taxes BBC (Kevin W). We had pointed out repeatedly that Trump has other authorities besides the IEEPA that allow him to impose tariffs, but none remotely as sweeping or flexible as that.

After the Supreme Court Ruling, What Is Next for Trump’s Tariffs? Council for Foreign Relations. Published after Trump imposed 10% tariffs, which he can keep in place for only 5 months.

Most Americans approve of the Supreme Court striking down Trump’s tariffs YouGov

Trump 2.0

11 Million Visitors Short: Inside America’s Continuing Tourism Slump New York Times (resilc)

How Trump violated the bourgeoisie Unherd

There’s Only One Way to Eradicate Trumpism for Good New Republic. resilc says, echoing the Rob Urie post that just went live: “Obomba started this doom loop with no Iraq war crimes, nor any for 2007/08 financial scamzzz too.”

Mapping Christian Nationalism Across All 50 States: Insights from PRRI’s 2025 American Values Atlas YouTube (Robin K)

ICE Rampage

Hundreds of students suspended, schools under close watch over anti-ICE walkouts The Hill

The shutdown helps Democrats by changing what “immigration” means to voters G. Elliott Morris

L’affaire Epstein

Our No Longer Free Press

As readers know, I have negative fondness for Israel. However, what Tucker is whinging about is bog standard treatment of foreigners who depart from Ben Gurion. In 1997 (I had been there a day and a half of business meetings with an Israeli bank), I was warned to arrive >2 hours before departure (this was in the days when due to vastly less stoopid procedures, 1 hour for an international flight was fine if you had only carryons, which was my status) because I would be grilled intensively. A young female soldier asked me the same questions more than once, why had I been there, who I had seen, etc. She even demanded to see a copy of my itinerary and called one of the names on it to verify my claims.

If you listen carefully, Tucker below says it was the two producers who had gone into Tel Aviv who were given the full degree at departure. Tucker and the others presumably could have departed freely but they all wanted to leave together.

Police State Watch

Sober people being arrested nationwide for DUI WSMV 4 Nashville, YouTube

Suffer the Children

West Virginia sues Apple over child sex abuse material stored and shared on iCloud Guardian (resilc))

Zuckerberg takes the stand Caleb Ecarna

AI

Semantic ablation: Why AI writing is boring and dangerous The Register. resilc: “If AI just hoovers up everything and poops it back, didn’t we all learn from GIGO???????”

Payrolls to Prompts: Firm-Level Evidence on the Substitution of Labor for AI Ryan Stevens, Cornell

OpenAI’s Hardware Device Just Leaked, and You Will Cringe Futurism

Digital blackface flourishes under Trump and AI: ‘The state is bending reality’ Guardian (Kevin W)

Class Warfare

70% of Argentina’s Union Members on Strike — 96% of Chattanooga VW Workers Approve Contract — Pitt Students Protest Border Patrol Recruiting Mike Elk

Is it possible to develop a tutor-proof test? Daisy Christodoulou

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

And a bonus (guurst):

A second bonus:

Coffee Break: Landscape, Immigration, mRNA Vaccines, and a Safe Football Helmet





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