Engelhardt, A Personal TomDispatch Farewell (of Sorts) TomDispatch. All good things must come to an end, and sadly that includes TomDispatch (although as you will see, many of its authors will continue to hold forth at The Intercept)
Octopuses use mirrors to find food they cannot see Science Daily (Kevin W)
Bring Back Ostracism? Classical Wisdom (Micael T)
Often Caught Reading Literary Review (Anthony L)
How To Lie With Charts and Graphs Un-Diplomatic (Micael T)
On Oversocialization Idle Rambler (Micael T)
Why Are Men So Bad at Making—and Keeping—Friends? Derek Thompson (Micael T)
#COVID-19/Pandemics
A family member is a doctor. It’s common enough they have a term for it: the covid to hospice track. It’s a slide of about 6 months.
— MistSandGrass🇺🇸🇺🇦 (@Mistsandgrass) June 4, 2026
Climate/Environment
The looming El Niño could be bad – but much worse is to come New Scientist
In a warming Arctic, gray whales struggle to find nourishment Alaska Beacon
The planet may become too hot for rice to be cultivated in many areas it currently exists Live Science
Trump uses wartime powers to dole out $700m to ‘clean, beautiful’ coal Guardian
Water wars washing away South Asia’s fragile peace Asia Times (Kevin W)
China?
China’s real estate funk drags down yet another sector: property service providers Reuters
The Nexperia saga continues
China’s Dongguan Intermediate People’s Court has accepted Wingtech’s lawsuit against Nexperia and its Dutch entities under China’s Anti-Foreign Sanctions Law (AFSL)
Wingtech (the Chinese owner) is demanding full control restored plus around $1.1… https://t.co/a9vG1QGhhw pic.twitter.com/gR3ZHzf3EM
— David Lee (@DavidLe76335983) June 5, 2026
China harvest rains dent some wheat quality, may spur imports Reuters
The blood cancer that became solvable Works in Progress. Micael T:
The regulations for clinical trials are there to protect people from the big pharma‘s disregard for anything but profits. I am not sure if China playing fast and lose with trials is the way to go. Murky incentives to convince people to participate in experiment.
Africa
From the Horn of Africa to the Sahel, instability seems to be becoming permanent MetaDefense
Civilians flee as Somali troops and opposition-allied militias trade fire in Mogadishu Guardian
At least 350 killed in 5 days of Sudan tribal clashes EFE
The Longest Betrayal Global Geopolitics. On the recolonisation of Zimbabwe
South of the Border
‘Blood gold’: how gangs took control of Venezuela’s mines Japan Times
US imposes new sanctions on Cuban president and Castro family members Guardian
Bolivia’s blockade crisis risks tipping into civilian clashes, analysts warn Mercopress
Inventing “Machismo” in the US JSTOR (Micael T)
European Disunion
EU Grants Leeway to Countries Struggling with Energy Crunch Bloomberg
Putin and AfD plot to reopen Nord Stream pipeline to Europe Telegraph
Repair backlog apparently jeopardizes operational capability Tagesschau via machine translation (guurst)
Old Blighty
Rural UK ‘particularly at risk’ of diesel shortages if Iran war continues Guardian
Israel v. The Resistance
Iran says it fired warning missiles, drones at US warships in Gulf of Oman Jerusalem Post (Ann)
Trump says Iran retains only 21%-22% of missile stockpile after US strikes Anadolu Agency. The worst is Trump likely believes that.
Iran General rejects Trump’s request to meet Supreme Leader, warns of reprisals Janta Ka Reporter, YouTube. Note section starting at 3:40, senior Iranian reaffirming the necessity of the US returning $24 billion in frozen assets as the price of entry for a MOU. Also later discussion of the Ivanka-Albania scam. Per Vikas Santi: “This Albanian island thing is peak rapaciousness.”
Amb. Chas Freeman: Israel’s Free Fall on All Fronts Dialogue Works, YouTube. A particularly good talk, with many important secondary points, like Freeman deeming recent US actions v. Oman as considerably increasing the odds of Omani cooperation in running the Persian Gulf Authority.
Will Iran respond to the Zionist ethnic cleansing campaign in Lebanon? Vanessa Beeley. Uh oh:
And we’re going to first of all talk about Lebanon because Netanyahu today and Katz have put out a statement basically saying that Washington has given them the green light to expand. their brutality and their airstrikes into Beirut. Now, presumably, initially,we’ve seen also Ben Gavir putting out statements saying that Dahiyeh should be flattened.
Alastair Crooke: IRAN’S TRIGGER WARNING: ‘Withdraw from Lebanon… Any Violations and We Strike Dialogue Works, YouTube
Netanyahu faces plunging support in north Israel as voters demand tougher Lebanon stance Reuters
Israel’s Smotrich announces plan for 2,162 homes in occupied West Bank Aljazeera
Israel seeks to recruit ultranationalists for police unit at Al-Aqsa Mosque Middle East Online (Kevin W)
Israel reportedly deployed elite forces in Azerbaijan, operated Somaliland base, during Iran war Times of Israel (Kevin W)
Trump wants the Palestinians to pay for the U.S. occupation of Gaza Mondoweiss (Kevin W)
New Not-So-Cold War
House Passes Bill To Give Ukraine Billions in Additional Military Aid as War Escalates Antiwar.com (Kevin W)
Ukraine’s SPIEF Attack Aims for Max Provocation, as Drones Witnessed Coming From Baltic Direction Simplicius (Kevin W). BTW some bad reporting by Simplicius. The SPIEF site is very remote from St. Petersburg proper. Alexander Mercours, who had been to St. Petersburg regularly, with at least one time a very long visit, said the not even the smoke from the fire would be visible from the venue, but clearly many of the guests were liked to have encountered it in the environs of their hotels.
“Today Europe Is a Rabid Dog”: Scott Ritter Unleashes Stunning Attack on Europe at SPIEF APT, YouTube. Hoo boy.
Putin’s Message to Ukraine: “Keep on working, Brothers” Larry Johnson
Open Letter to Chancellor Friedrich Merz Jeffrey Sachs (Micael T)
Ukrainian drone explodes in Romanian port RT (Kevin W)
Euroclear has requested a stay on the recovery of €200 billion in favor of the Central Bank. Vzglayd via machine translation (Micael T). Gee, I thought Euroclear had taken the position was that the Moscow Arbitration Court did not have jurisdiction. Save for very narrow issues, filing normally = acceptance of jurisdiction. So I have to assume that the Moscow Arbitration Court could enforce its judgement on at least some of the $200 billion seized from the Russian Central Bank and others.
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Palantir. IT’S WORSE Than You Think Double Down News
Imperial Collapse Watch
The U.S. Can’t Be Trusted Daniel Lorison. Important.
Main Message of Putin’s SPIEF Speech: Tectonic Shift in Global Economic Power is Irreversible Sputnik
Three Dualities of the American Political Psyche Finn Andreen (Micael T)
🚨🇺🇸BREAKING: The CIA officer caught with $40 million in gold bars allegedly invented an entire fake top-secret spy program to steal the money.
As if this story couldn’t get and wilder:
-David Rush allegedly built a sham “special access program,” the blackest box in U.S.… pic.twitter.com/uwbkQQ0xlE
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) June 6, 2026
Mapping Qatar’s $400 Billion Footprint in the United States FDD (resilc)
Trump 2.0
Click through, please:
𝗣𝗮𝘆-𝘁𝗼-𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆. 𝗦𝗮𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀-𝗴𝗼-𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆. 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗱. 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽’𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗱.
For the past several weeks I tracked one chain of dealings, from a 2021 yacht introduction in the Adriatic to a US sanctions repeal signed into… pic.twitter.com/YQELt3UQ0d
— AJ Jaff (@aj_geo_analysis) June 5, 2026
Mikey Weinstein on breaking the story of Hegseth slashing 180 faiths from DoD’s recognized religions YouTube (Chuck L)
Judge blocks series of Trump policies halting immigration processing The Hill
MAGA Voters Lose Flights, Jobs, and Money After Spirit Airlines Collapse Hits Home Egberto
Video: Police Tussle With Diabetes Experts at ADA Meeting MedPage Today (Dr. Kevin). Wowsers.
U.S. to Dismantle System Tracking Atlantic Currents That Are at Risk of Collapse Yale 360
5 Reasons Why Ken Paxton Is the Epitome of MAGA Crookedness Medhi Hasan. Tell us how you really feel 🙂
Immigration
Republicans push $70B for immigration enforcement through US Senate, with no limits on ICE Kansas Reflector (Robin K)
Tariffs
China, EU slam proposed US tariffs, reject forced labour allegations South China Morning Post
Trump’s tariffs are back – and the timing couldn’t be worse for Asia Asia Times (Kevin W)
Economy
OECD warns of ‘dark scenario’ if Gulf energy crisis drags on Financial Times. Gee, ya think?
Iran war: Even a peace deal won’t fix energy crunch DW
Mercuria shipping head says fuel shortages could idle 10% of global fleet S&P Global
Global LNG tightness could trigger unprecedented demand destruction Upstream Online
84% of the drop in global onshore crude inventories over the last two months has come from two countries. Those conducting the largest SPR releases: the US and Japan. Not much movin’ or a shakin’ elsewhere (👀 China). pic.twitter.com/GwbuDWCZ3i
— Matt Smith (@mattvsmith01) June 5, 2026
* * *
Scramble for biofuel as oil prices rise ‘could push world closer to food crisis’ Guardian
The Clock Is Ticking: Fertilizer, Food, and the Fragility of Global Agriculture Council for Foreign Relations
AI
Energy failures are destined to doom Wall Street’s AI euphoria Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph. Important. We’ve said this sort of thing from time to time, but important to have the argument well substantiated.
Donald Trump says US may take equity stakes in AI companies Financial Times
As with fat tails Llms are frequency machines that fail to extrapolate outside the sample set. What they know is the VISIBLE.
Almost as bad as economists, almost worse than psychologists. https://t.co/NopxFTpQKH
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) June 4, 2026
turns out AI models cannot do math.. even grade school math. the kind a 10-year-old solves.
Apple published a devastating study that exposes a massive illusion at the core of artificial intelligence.
they took the standard math benchmark (GSM8K) that every AI company uses to… pic.twitter.com/1PuseqIwYz
— How To AI (@HowToAI_) June 4, 2026
Spotify’s 2026 Master Plan | The Investor Day That Wasn’t About Music 🎶📊 Vinyl Culture (Micael T)
China fueling U.S. data center resistance, AI groups claim Axios (fk)
How Antihumanism Turned on Its Authors: Has AI Rendered Critique Superfluous? Hedgehog Review (Anthony L)
The Bezzle
Musk’s SpaceX empire could be overvalued by $1 trillion Yahoo
Guillotine Watch
Now we know why Peter Thiel packed his bags for Argentina.
Milei just submitted his AI legislative framework to Congress, where he proposes:– zero regulation on AI development,– a brand-new “non-human corporation” category for AI/robot-operated entities with limited liability… pic.twitter.com/JF1rUxWzlJ
— Michał Podlewski (@trajektoriePL) June 4, 2026
A Billionaire Explains Why American Business Now Feels like the Mafia Matt Stoller
Class Warfare
The Butlerian Jihad Has Begun Charles McBryde (Micael T). Today’s must read.
The Myth of Assimilation Aporia (Micael T)
Why is ‘doomspending’ on the rise? Guardian
Gen Z faces ‘crush recession’ due to dating costs and emotional risks Fox Business
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus:
This is Henry, a Nile crocodile believed to be the oldest known crocodile in the world. He is thought to have been born around 1900 pic.twitter.com/EvvjdMzMMB
— Nature Unedited (@NatureUnedited) June 3, 2026
A second bonus:
The orphaned baby goat rejected by its own herd after a wolf killed its mother now sneaks in every night to sleep safely among the shepherd dogs. ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/fKMxoTel9y
— The Figen (@TheFigen_) June 4, 2026
A third:
This compilation brings together courtship displays from male peacock spiders filmed over the years
📹: Michael Lun pic.twitter.com/EMlVmXUigb
— Nature Unedited (@NatureUnedited) June 4, 2026
And since Henry might not suit everyone, yet one more:
Meanwhile, in Japan. pic.twitter.com/HB5TtxOLLe
— S p r i n t e r (@SprinterPress) June 5, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
