Links 5/21/2025 | naked capitalism

The Terrible Truth About Sherita, Brooklyn’s Beloved Billboard Dinosaur THE CITY

CERN Gears Up To Ship Antimatter Across Europe ars technica

A Devastating New Exposé of Johnson & Johnson Indicts an Entire System New Republic (resilc). ZOMG, a must read. Yours truly has regularly raged about Tylenol. Why the hell is a product that toxic at not that much above a “therapeutic” dose sold OTC? But there is way way more than that plus baby powder on J&J’s rap sheet.

Is There a Least Bad Alcohol? New York Times

#COVID-19/Pandemic

FDA Officials Detail Plan to Limit COVID Shots MedPage. As indicated before, you can get your doctor to Rx it if you want it, but that is not the point. It is to restrict insurance coverage, which will deter many possible users. And the US is restricting the use of the almost certainly less problematic Novavax

Climate/Environment

Fires drove record loss of world’s forests last year, ‘frightening’ data shows Guardian

How climate change threatens eye health Yale Climate Connections

China warns of extreme heat threatening wheat crops in key growing regions UkrAgroConsult

Somalia faces rising hunger and flooding as climate shocks intensify Hiiran

Marine life cemetery: The Caspian Sea ecosystem is collapsing under pressure from global warming and pollution The Insider

Wildfires rage across US state of Arizona, with over 8,000 hectares burned Anadolu Agency

China?

A couple weeks ago, @AngelicaOung wrote a viral post about how many Chinese entrepreneurs intentionally compress profits, not because they can’t charge more, but because they think it’s smarter to build market share through efficiency and scale rather than pricing power.

One…

— Rui Ma (@ruima) May 20, 2025

Very concretely this means that China is developing nuclear anywhere between 3 to 7 times cheaper than comparable projects abroad, which is an insane advantage.

For instance, the Hinkley Point C project in the UK is now estimated to cost $43 billion for just 3.2 GW of capacity… https://t.co/ssKv74l4sY

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) May 19, 2025

US brain drain handing the global talent war to China Asia Times (Kevin W)

South of the Border

Mexico uncovers new ‘death camp’ as pressure on president rises Financial Times

European Disunion

Romania’s far-right leader challenges election results, alleges foreign interference Euractiv

Old Blighty

Angela Rayner demands tax raid on savers Telegraph

Israel v. the Resistance

Israel’s aid distribution plan aims to turn northern Gaza into ‘depopulated area’: Israeli media Anadolu Agency

Mercenary firm set to oversee Gaza aid for Israel goes on LinkedIn hiring spree Middle East Eye (Kevin W)

UN says no aid yet distributed in Gaza as international pressure on Israel mounts BBC (Dr. Kevin)

EU decides to review its trade ties with Israel over Gaza DW

Israeli doctor compared killing Palestinians in Gaza to ‘eliminating cockroaches’ Middle East Eye (resilc)

Israel named its ongoing assault on Gaza “Operation Gideon’s Chariots,” a name pulled straight from the Book of Judges, where Gideon leads a divinely sanctioned massacre of 120,000 people. This isn’t just poetic branding. It’s part of a long pattern where the Israeli military… pic.twitter.com/jQ5LMsa9p5

— Jehad Abusalim (@JehadAbusalim) May 18, 2025

🚨Breaking: Israeli bombing targets power generators at the Indonesian Hospital, resulting in the death of several patients. pic.twitter.com/N4iE4VOaPb

— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) May 19, 2025

I no longer go to the Indonesian hospital.What foolishness it is, to speak of hospitals in a place where life is no longer preserved but merely postponed. Once, I believed, oh, how bitterly I believed, that the presence of a doctor among the dying was a sacred thing, a last…

— Dr. Ezzideen (@ezzingaza) May 18, 2025

* * *

Iran’s Khamenei slams ‘outrageous’ US demands in nuclear talks Reuters

Iran says nuclear talks will fail if US pushes for zero enrichment Khaleej Times

Mohammed Marandi: Iran’s Alarming Moves: Ready for the Worst Against America? Dialogue Works. Witkoff, not surprisingly, wears beautiful suits.

New intelligence suggests Israel is preparing possible strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, US officials say CNN. IMHO, this leak is to try to get Iran to come to heel.

The Pitfalls of Pseudo-Engagement Daniel Larison

* * *

Cut Israel Off—for Its Own Sake American Conservative (resilc)

New Not-So-Cold War

Europe races to keep Donald Trump involved in Ukraine-Russia talks Financial Times. BWAHAHA!

Chancellor Merz and European partners make calls to US President Trump Die Bundesregierung via machine translation

Europe May Use Fighter Jets to Down Russian Drones, Missiles in Ukraine Libertarian Institute (Kevin W). They are losing their minds.

* * *

INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING – DECODING PUTIN STATEMENT AFTER THE TRUMP CALL, TRUMP TWEET AFTER PUTIN’S STATEMENT John Helmer. FUGUP is a keeper.

Back To The Un-Table Aurelien. Important.

It Ain’t Just Putin… Key Russians Singing from the Same Sheet of Music Larry Johnson

Ukraine Negotiations Still Hover Around Its Root Cause Moon of Alabama (Kevin W). So now that Putin’s “root causes” point has finally registered on the Collective West, they are trying to define it to mean Russian hegemonic designs.

Germany – Major Criminals Should Keep Quiet Peter Haenseler o

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals To Buy 23andMe and Its Data For $256 Million CNBC

Imperial Collapse Watch

America Desperately Needs To Invest in Infrastructure OilPrice. What is really pathetic is spending on overdue infrastructure maintenance and upgrades more than pays for itself in GDP terms, as in this would lower the US Federal debt to GDP ratio, which some unduly obsess over. But Trump is out to kill any government spending, even the highly productive sort.

‘Transition’ to a new world order is beyond most in the West Alastair Crooke (Chuck L)

Trump 2.0

What’s in Trump’s ‘big’ tax and immigration bill House Republicans are struggling to pass ABC (Kevin W)

GOP battles threaten to torpedo Trump package The Hill

Trump tells House GOP not to “f**k around” with Medicaid Axios

Like a 180-degree shift in the winds, the Department of Interior on Monday reversed its order from April for Norwegian energy giant Equinor to halt work on the $5 billion Empire Wind project. https://t.co/GT9jA364aI pic.twitter.com/PykMREwzG3

— Forbes (@Forbes) May 21, 2025

Hegseth is taking the Army on another dead end ride to Asia Responsible Statecraft

Democratic senator says he has recordings of favors ‘promised’ by Trump’s IRS pick The Hill

Trump’s Pick to Lead I.R.S. Promoted a Nonexistent Tax Credit New York Times. resilc: “Only the best.”

Rebecca Gordon, Donald Trump’s War on Black People TomDispatch

Tariffs

Walmart responds to Trump’s directive to ‘eat the tariffs’ USA Today (Kevin W)

Immigration

Trump officials ‘illegally deported’ Vietnamese and Burmese migrants to South Sudan Guardian

Meet the Right-Wing Ultra-Zionist Immigrant Pushing for Mahmoud Khalil’s Deportation Zeteo

Biden

This headline is exactly right: the scandal about the years-long cover-up of Biden’s cognitive decline is not about Biden’s actions, but the actions of Democrats and their media allies who brazenly lied to the public to try to help him win the 2024 election.

That’s what makes it… https://t.co/vCIgFj7aMW pic.twitter.com/OUQ8Clhrk2

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 20, 2025

Trump official says Jill Biden could be charged with ‘elder abuse’ as more scathing details about Joe’s health decline emerge Daily Mail

Our No Longer Free Press

France Barred Telegram Founder Pavel Durov From Traveling To US Politico

Kill the Editor The Metropolitan Review (Anthony L). Mainstream pubs are whinging about Substack! Who’d have thunk it?

Japan’s 30-Year and 40-Year Bonds Crater, Yields Spike, Huge Mess Coming Home to Roost. Yen Carry Trade at Risk Wolf Street

Darwin Award Futures

Students Are Short-Circuiting Their Chromebooks for a Social Media Challenge New York Times

Antitrust

Apple F$@ks Around with Court Order, Finds Out Matt Stoller

AI is More Persuasive Than People in Online Debates Nature

AI chatbot to be embedded in Google search BBC. Kill me now. I already have to do extra work to avoit those AI summaries, and now they want to impose chatbots? Which I already hate with the passion of a thousand burning suns?

A Major Newspaper Publishes a Summer Reading List—but the Books Don’t Exist Ted Golia

Morning Coffee: UBS analysts complicit in their displacement by a simulacrum. JPMorgan’s ominous hiring message eFinancial Careers (Micael T)

Guillotine Watch

Pay $6,000 This Summer to Be a ‘Status Guest’ at This Montauk Restaurant New York Times (resilc)

Class Warfare

Does Education Have the Same Impact on Church Attendance in Europe and the U.S.? Ryan Burge

Spain clamps down on Airbnb as tourism backlash returns for summer BBC (Kevin W)

Tipping Point: How America’s Gratuity System Got Out of Hand Scrap to Stacks. resilc: “Was nice not to tip in France last winter. Food was cheaper and better too.”

Antidote du jour (via):

A bonus (Robin K):