Links 4/8/2025 | naked capitalism
Oklahoma boy astounds classmates with his ability to do 50 different bird calls CBS (Regan)
No, the Dire Wolf Has Not Been Brought Back From Extinction New Scientist
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Third measles death Your Local Epidemiologist (Dr. Kevin)
Milk tested for bird flu reveals a scientific mystery Iowa Capital Dispatch (Robin K)
Climate/Environment
“Putting a price on nature opens the door to its financialisation, not its protection” REDDMonitor (Micael T)
Trump officials quietly move to reverse bans on toxic ‘forever chemicals’ Guardian (Kevin W)
In New England, Canadian hydropower has slowed to an ominous trickle Grist
How Trump’s Forest Service Cuts Could Affect Wildland Firefighting ProPublica (Robin K)
China?
China Just Turned Off U.S. Supplies Of Minerals Critical For Defense & Cleantech CleanTech (Kevin W)
Interesting comparison between China and the USA. China’s incarceration rate is nearly 80% lower than in the US, and 32% lower than the world average. pic.twitter.com/VyzBp41HOX
— Jason Hickel (@jasonhickel) April 4, 2025
3/29-30th, Shanghai Yangshan Port refueled Korean ship HMM Green in its automated pier w/ 2902t green methanol + 1532 TEU containers. 1st time an internationally operated ship bunkered Chinese produced green methanol.
A step in Shanghai becoming the global green fuel refueling… https://t.co/eo8uy62y9J pic.twitter.com/YwWTUkidvU— tphuang (@tphuang) April 6, 2025
Koreas
South Korea sets snap election date after President Yoon’s removal from office Guardian
Africa
Power outages in Khartoum and northern Sudan after attack on hydroelectric dam National News
Nigeria’s debt hits record N145trn on rising borrowings Business Day
European Disunion
Germany considers school lessons to prepare students for crisis and war situations Anadolu Agency
Estonian Foreign Minister: EU close to depriving Hungary of its voting rights because of its stance towards Russia Anti-Spiegel via machine translation. Micael T: “Hungary will not enforce sanctions and boost their economy as a consequence? That‘ll teach them Hungarians to stick to the EU-loser script.”
Old Blighty
‘They’re everywhere’: workers warn of rat infestation at Somerset nuclear plant Guardian
Israel v. The Resistance
Live: Israel bombs media tent near Nasser hospital, killing two journalists Middle East Eye
Looking Back, Israeli Historian Tom Segev Thinks Zionism Was a Mistake Haaretz
High Court set to hear high-stakes challenge to government’s firing of Shin Bet chief Times of Israel
The Nonsensical Case for the Illegal War in Yemen Daniel Larison
Trump has threatened Iran over an ultimatum that likely cannot be met Alastair Crooke (Chuck L)
US in direct nuclear talks with Iran, Trump says BBC. Kevin W: “Read through to the end.”
Iran’s currency falls to record low against the dollar as tensions run high ABC
Kremlin says Russia is ready to do all it can to help resolve US-Iran nuclear tensions Middle East Monitor
New Not-So-Cold War
Putin expresses support for Ukraine ceasefire, but demands guarantees from Kiev Blitz. Putin makes a more Trump-friendly reiteration of his position.
The European Union readies itself for the possibility of war with Russia Ian Proud (Micael T)
Finnish firefighters are preparing for war – bulletproof vests and helmets for everyone YLE via machine translation (Micael T)
Russia and the US made “three steps forward” after two days of consultations in Washington Indian Punchline (Kevin W)
Big investors look to sell out of private equity after market rout Financial Times
Imperial Collapse Watch
Philistines, Philistines Everywhere Ian Walsh
Five Details That Most Observers Missed From SIPRI’s Latest International Arms Trends Report Andrew Korybko. See report: TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL ARMS TRANSFERS, 2024 SIPRI (Micael T)
Wow wow. Mexico! From the President 1/2
🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽
🛑 BROTHERS AND SISTERS, LET US NOT BE MISTAKEN: THE ENEMY IS THE SAME
TO THE PEOPLE OF OUR INDOAMERICA
From: Claudia Sheinbaum, President of Mexico:Why does imperialism want to see us divided?*
Because it knows that…— Dr. Renee Levant (@ReneeLevant) April 6, 2025
Provocative, but I had a friend whose mother had been completely sheltered from real world hardships when growing up. She had a great deal of difficulty with adult life, had frequent panic attacks, and when her husband divorced her (this in the days when that was rare, “another woman” successfully pursued him), she regularly threatened to kill herself in front of her kids. The eldest, my friend, worked hard to shelter his two younger siblings from her moods. He saw his job as keeping her alive (starting at the age of 6!) so he did not wind up in an orphanage. So my n=1 says this can happen.
“Millennials traded discipline for ‘gentle’ parenting, and now we’re raising anxious, entitled kids who can’t cope. With birth rates plummeting, are millennials raising kids who act as contraceptives for the next?”
Writes @hannahspierMD in a V24 opedhttps://t.co/XpFpZG3M1o
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 8, 2025
Trump 2.0
Trump plans birthday Washington military parade – The Hill RT (Kevin W)
Pentagon Prepares for Trump to Go Berserk Ken Klippenstein
Trump To Eliminate Capital Gains Moon of Alabama
Republicans Fracture on Trump’s Tax Bill Wall Street Journal
Democratic AGs sue National Institutes of Health over disrupted medical research grants Iowa Capital Dispatch (Robin K)
GOP budget would add an ‘unprecedented’ $5.8 trillion to the deficit, analysis finds Kansas Reflector (Robin K)
Tariffs
What Happens if All Trade With China Comes to a Screeching Halt? Michael Shedlock
China vows to fight ’till the end’ after Trump’s latest tariffs threat BBC
China-led anti-US tariff pact bruited as Trump 50% deadline looms Asia Times (Kevin W)
Trump says EU must buy $350B of US energy to get tariff relief Politico (Christi I)
Apple Rushes Shipments From India To Dodge Tariffs India Times
Tariffs are splintering Donald Trump’s coalition Jacobin (Robin K)
Donald Trump’s tariff blitz sparks turmoil for green energy sector Financial Times
Democrat Death Wish
Why Do Democrats Destroy Their Own? Matt Taibbi (Chuck L)
Trigonometry, Not Triggernometry, Who Fired the Head Shot that Killed Kennedy? Larry Johnson
Immigration
Judge says deportation of Maryland man to an El Salvador prison was ‘wholly lawless’ Associated Press
Supreme Court allows Trump to enforce Alien Enemies Act for rapid deportations for now CNN (Kevin W)
Read the Supreme Court’s Ruling on Venezuelan Migrants New York Times
Google Is Helping the Trump Administration Deploy AI Along Border Intercept (Robin K)
White House mocks deported migrants (VIDEO) RT (Kevin W)
US revokes all visas for South Sudanese over country’s failure to repatriate citizens Guardian
Our No Longer Free Press
Turkish government correspondent in Sweden singled out ETC – days before arrest Blankspot via machine translation (Micael T)
Mr. Market Has a Nervous Breakdown
Trump is worse than al Qaeda Angry Bear
The Consequences of Chaos Barry Ritholtz
Chartbook 369 Are we on the edge of a major financial crisis? Trump’s Chart of Death and why bonds not equities are the big story. Adam Tooze. Makes a key point I skipped over yesterday, that equity market crises (unless the stocks are bought with a lot of margin debt) does not cause a financial crisis. See the implosion of the ginormous dot com bubble. As much as Tooze is focusing on Treasuries, IMHO he is looking at the wrong starting point. Far more likely is a crisis in multiple emerging markets….which may well afflict advanced economy markets due to bank exposures.
Crypto plunges as Trump tariff ‘medicine’ brutalizes global stock markets Cointelegraph
Trump leaves emerging market central banks with no clean choices Reuters (Robin K)
AI
BREAKING: Bill that would have blocked OpenAI’s conversion to a for-profit has mysteriously been gutted. Gary Marcus (Paul R)
US’s AI Lead Over China Rapidly Shrinking, Stanford Report Says Axios
Artificially intelligent? Or stupid? Julian Macfarlane (Micael T)
Class Warfare
There Are Signs of a Category 5 Housing Crisis Forming and Coming Straight For Us Racket (Robin K)
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus:
Cat Tries to Catch Mouse But What Happens Next? 😂 pic.twitter.com/8MQU2TMPTh
— contents that ll heal your depression 🌻 (@catshealdeprsn) April 8, 2025
A second bonus:
Yep, smarter than you’d think… pic.twitter.com/NphyjNGVg1
— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) April 8, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
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