Links 7/19/2025 | naked capitalism

Pollinators send out good vibrations — and plants respond sweetly Science News (Dr. Kevin)

Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day? BBC (Robin K). Lordie. I heard decades ago from the professional sports mafia that this issue had been largely settled. A high quality study had participants eat only one meal, the same # of calories adjusted for body weight, either when they got up or at dinner time. The ones that ate only at dinner gained weight relative to the other group. The explanation was that the body, being asked to function with no food, downregulated its metabolism on the assumption that it was in starvation conditions. So my guys recommended eating 100 calories within an hour or so of getting up so as to prevent your body from thinking you might be starving it.

Climate/Environment

Nanoplastic concentrations across the North Atlantic Nature (resilc)

NASA won’t publish key climate change report online, citing ‘no legal obligation’ to do so Space (Dr. Kevin)

Drought Spreads in England After Driest Start to Year Since 1976 Bloomberg

Romania among countries projected to see sharp GDP, labor productivity decline due to heat Romania Insider

US farmers scramble as heavy rains devastate key crops: ‘It’s going to be rough’ TC

INSANE HEAT IN MIDDLE EAST

Mind blowing MINIMUM TEMPERATURE 38.3C Tuz IRAQ

Dozens of stations allover Middle East (Iran,Iraq,Kuwait,Emirates) with Minimums >35C

Max. temperatures expected up to 52CHistoric heat wave,one of the worst ever seen worldwide and it might last weeks pic.twitter.com/ZVtRHmtJVW

— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) July 15, 2025

During the last decades of the Classic Lowland Maya civilization, the ahauob or “divine lords” who ruled the Mayan city-states did nothing constructive to deal with the subsistence crisis that was spiraling out of control around them, as the swidden agriculture system that…

— John Michael Greer (@JMGreerWriter) July 18, 2025

China?

A 93.5% levy on Chinese battery inputs signals that the U.S. is no longer trying to compete within China’s cost structure, but rather to dismantle its dominance altogether. This move will reverberate across EVs, grid storage, defense tech, and the broader clean energy transition.… https://t.co/I3HbXAg5e0

— EndGame Macro (@onechancefreedm) July 17, 2025

Robots are taking the subway on their own to deliver goods in Shenzhen, southern China. World’s first! 🤖

By using the metro during off-peak hours, this approach reduces carbon emissions caused by ground transportation. pic.twitter.com/UfoilCYybB

— Mao Ning 毛宁 (@SpoxCHN_MaoNing) July 18, 2025

Helen Thompson: Rare earths – the next war? Unherd, YouTube (Robin K)

Africa

France withdraws troops from Senegal, ending military presence in West Africa EuroNews

Sudan’s war is an economic disaster: here’s how bad it could get The Conversation

A look at Eritrea’s role as new Tigray war looms in Ethiopia DW

European Disunion

France’s budget bombshell is a wake-up call for Europe as it veers toward bankruptcy Politico

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee stereotypes the Irish Irish Journal (resilc)

Old Blighty

Stagflation fears fuel interest rate conundrum at the Bank of England amid jobs bloodbath This is Money

Climate groups call for UK wealth tax to make super-rich fund sustainable economy Guardian

Israel v. The Resistance

Israel kills 25 starving Palestinians near aid distribution center in southern Gaza Anadolu Agency

Marjorie Taylor Greene: Israel B0MBED the Catholic Church in Gaza with American weapons!pic.twitter.com/x26aJagIjG

— Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸 (@jacksonhinklle) July 18, 2025

Yes. But the real question is: why would Israel commit PR suicide by bombing the only Catholic church in Gaza — one that Pope Francis used to call daily? To answer that, we must understand how Israel operates. Regardless of official statements, nothing Israel does is accidental.… https://t.co/EofkGo4KZ0

— Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) July 18, 2025

What we’re witnessing in Syria isn’t just the collapse of a state—it’s the deliberate dismemberment of a society that once housed multiple ethnicities, sects, and identities under one national roof.

What’s heartbreaking isn’t just the carnage, but the clarity that came too late… pic.twitter.com/AYkPBQShlm

— Kevork Almassian (@KevorkAlmassian) July 18, 2025

Ports Are Shutting Down for Gaza – And Israel is Panicking KernowDamo, YouTube. Dockworkers taking up BDS.

VIDEO REPORT: Israel Imposes No-Build Zone in Southern Lebanon, Terrorizing Locals With Surveillance and Shelling DropSite

Israel Is Preparing To Bomb Iran…Again National Security Journal (resilc)

New Not-So-Cold War

Uncivilization? Julian Macfarlane. High level discussion of force disposition.

🇷🇺🗣Moscow believes that it is entitled to use weapons against the military facilities of countries that will allow Kiev to strike with its weapons deep inside Russia, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a briefing on current foreign policy issues.

“In… pic.twitter.com/rEqeCOOinX

— Peacemaker (@peacemaket71) July 18, 2025

France and Italy refuse to join Trump’s Ukraine weapons fund Telegraph. Not new news but important to keep tabs.

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🇺🇦😡The mayor of Lvov has proposed exchanging the exhumed bodies of Soviet (!) soldiers from the Hill of Glory for the remains of captured (that is, living) Ukrainian soldiers.

Sadovyi announced on his TG channel that the “Hill of Glory” in Lvov no longer exists – today, July… pic.twitter.com/uixnBzggtg

— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) July 16, 2025

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Russia says Trump’s new weapons pledge a signal for Ukraine to abandon peace efforts Reuters

TRUMP’S SECONDARY SANCTIONS ON RUSSIAN OIL ARE SPITTING IN THE WIND John Helmer

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Risk of undersea cable attacks backed by Russia and China likely to rise, report warns Guardian

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“We will destroy it, and quickly”: NATO Ground Forces Commander Donahue announced that the alliance has a plan to “suppress” the Kaliningrad region TopWar. Micael T: “US plan for destroying its vassals.”

General Donahue, who failed upwards to command US Army – Europe after overseeing one of the worst days in the entire War on Terror during the Kabul Airlift, decided to run his mouth today about NATO being able to quickly conquer Kaliningrad.

Let’s do the work his staff didn’t.⬇️… pic.twitter.com/eJcIUkgosU

— Armchair Warlord (@ArmchairW) July 18, 2025

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See also John Helmer on Russia-Azeri relations starting at 42:55: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1CLU29YbUA

🇷🇺‼️Russia brutally punished Azerbaijan: A key refinery blew up – Moscow just showed Baku where it belongs ‼️

In a series of precision strikes, Russian forces hit the Kremenchuk refinery, the Drohobych oil plant and a facility in Odessa, which for years served as a logistics… pic.twitter.com/AkGX5QaNII

— Peacemaker (@peacemaket71) July 18, 2025

Syraqistan

A 77-year-old country is bombing a 5000-year-old city Council Estate (resilc). That’s the sort of thing barbarians do.

By bombing Damascus, Israel imposes red lines on Syria’s new government LeMonde

Israel and Syria agree to ceasefire, US ambassador to Turkey says CNN (rasperberry jam). So Syria has not gotten the memo that Israel does not adhere to ceasefires?

Battle in Suwayda: Where Israel and Turkiye clash over Syria’s trade routes The Cradle

Taliban Clash with Pakistani Border Guards in Eastern Afghanistan Kabul Now

Afghan data leak: SAS and UK spies named in Afghan data breach BBC

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

NYPD Bypassed Facial Recognition Ban to ID Pro-Palestinian Student Protester THE CITY

Imperial Collapse Watch

The Number Go Up Rule: Why America Refuses to Fix Anything Matt Stoller

The YF-23 ‘Stealth Fighter’ Summed Up In 4 Words National Security Journal

The Righteous Community London Review of Books (resilc). On the neverending-by-design war on terror.

Trump 2.0

Check out this big, beautiful billboard depicting Trump as “Swamp King” Boing Boing

Trump is threatening to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. Working people would pay the price. Economic Policy Institute

The State Department Guts Its Office Combating Human Trafficking Mother Jones (resilc)

‘An insult’: Malaysians slam nomination of ‘alpha-male’ Nick Adams as US ambassador Guardian (resilc). Go Malaysia!

In the Trump Administration, Watchdogs Are Watching Their Backs New York Times. resilc: “IGs were feared back in the day….”

Russiagate Redux

Note on New Trump-Russia Disclosures Matt Taibbi (Chuck L)

Tariffs

Trump’s Arbitrary Trade War Declarations Daniel Larison

The (Muted) Impact of Tariffs on Inflation Barry Ritholtz. resilc: “Assuming CPI is now real number is a stretch tho.”

Immigration

ICE Unmasked! Mike Flugennock

Farmworkers’ Lives Matter: Standing Up for Jaime Work-Bites

Democrat Death Wish

Someone got to Sanders (again). He’d been pointedly critical of Israel:

Bernie Sanders told Zohran Mamdani he is creating the appearance that he is “minimizing the fear of Jews” and he “needs to be careful” about how he talks about Israel. His sole function now is to force the entire US left to adopt his laundering of the Israeli death-cult and… pic.twitter.com/haVEuY19pc

— ☀️👀 (@zei_squirrel) July 17, 2025

L’affaire Jeffrey Epstein

Pam Bondi, the Trump loyalist swallowed up by the Epstein affair Financial Times

Trump sues after Wall Street Journal’s Epstein story The Hill. I may be proven wrong, but the Journal (as its parent Dow Jones) does not have broadcast licenses in the US and so can’t be intimidated by FCC threats. They could try threatening another Murdoch holding, Fox News, which had nothing to do with the Journal story…and would further rile up Trump’s base. So the odds of it folding are much lower than we saw with ABC and CBS. And the Journal would get to do discovery on Trump to substantiate the accuracy of its reporting….which could be great fun. But with motions practice (see Kentucky Retirement Systems for an example), the Trump team could easily drag out the timetable until after Trump has (presumably) left office.

Ron Wyden, a Democrat, Won’t Let Go of the Jeffrey Epstein Case, Either New York Times

Mr. Market is Moody

Exclusive: Bank of England scrutinizes lenders for dollar risk amid Trump worries, sources say Reuters

Musk launches AI Grok girlfriend available to 12-year-olds Telegraph (resilc)

The Bezzle

US House passes stablecoin legislation, sending bill to Trump Reuters

Central banks face dilemma over rise of dollar-backed stablecoins Financial Times

Guillotine Watch

The Worst Performer in Billionaires’ Portfolios? Trophy Art. Wall Street Journal

Class Warfare

Why Gen Z goes mad for Dostoyevsky Young people crave an anti-capitalist prophet Unherd Micael T: “Because there are no real anti-capitalists in real life?

Private Equity and Workers: Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud Eileen Appelbaum, CEPR

US – Percent of Balance 90+ Days Delinquent by Loan Type MacroMicro (resilc)

US Firms Passing Some Cost Hikes To Consumers: Fed Survey Barron’s

Antidote du jour (via):

And a bonus: