An Incredibly Detailed Subway Station for Cats Laughing Squid (resilc). Totally cool.
Scientists unlock secret to thick, stable beer foams ars technica
Researchers find rare Jurassic-era fossil in Indian village BBC
We’ve seen ‘designer babies’ before Unherd
The World’s First Human Hybrid? Ancient Fossil Stuns Scientists SciTech Daily (Chuck L)
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Interesting? Sure. But also horrifically disappointing.
Schools, daycare & even hospitals & clinics have clearly failed to take indoor air quality seriously despite going on six years into a mass-disabling airborne pandemic.
Clean the indoor air FFS. Stop disabling kids! https://t.co/Yg1ryWTs3J
— Dr. Phillip Alvelda (@alvelda) August 26, 2025
Climate/Environment
Unbelievable warmth in the ArcticsWeeks with temperatures >20C at 75 latitude in the Arctic coast of Russia.This is absolutely insane and nothing like this had ever happened.Even at 80 latitude there hasn t been any frost for nearly 6 weeks.Mind blowing persistently abnormal pic.twitter.com/XuJUjpRVtU
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) August 24, 2025
Study links low rainfall to increased conflict between African pastoralists and farmers PhysOrg
India’s Bollling Point Bloomberg
🚨BREAKING: Massive dust storm engulfs Southwest Phoenix, Arizona.
A scene straight out of the mummy. pic.twitter.com/RHXNZnrmLd
— The Patriot Oasis™ (@ThePatriotOasis) August 26, 2025
We cannot do it the way our fathers did’: farmers across Europe struggle to adapt to the climate crisis Guardian
Sudan army evacuates flood-hit villages as high Nile levels loom Sudan Tribune
Mountain Mudslide In Pakistan Creates 7-Km Lake, “Catastrophic” Floods Feared NDTV
China?
🚨 Breaking: The Emperor Finally Admits He Has No Clothes! 🚨
The US just got legally naked in the South China Sea — and China just handed them a mirror.
In its first-ever official report, Beijing drops a legal bombshell: “Freedom of Navigation Operations” (FONOPs) have NO… pic.twitter.com/8alnt7SGYR
— StarBoySAR 🇭🇰 🇨🇳 🥭 (@StarboySAR) August 26, 2025
Temu resumes direct shipping from China to US after Trump truce Financial Times
Chinese flock to Russian universities in afterglow of Xi-Putin ties Nikkei
India
Trump’s 50% tariff shock hits India – what it means for growth, jobs, and hardest-hit sectors Economic Times
Trump’s doubling of tariffs on Indian imports takes effect, hiking tensions Straits Times
South of the Border
Venezuela deploys warships, drones to coast as US naval squadron nears Aljazeera
Doomed Venezuela Militarism American Conservative (resilc)
European Disunion
EU tech laws imperilled by friend and foe Euractiv
Poland’s new president vetoes bill extending aid to Ukrainian refugees Le Monde
Old Blighty
Cat food made by Michelin star chef is on sale… and people think it’s delicious What’s the Jam? (resilc). Context helps: Record 9.3 million facing hunger, says charity BBC. Set to get this worse this winter with bad UK weather expected to lead to bad harvests.
More pain for Reeves as government borrowing cost nears 27-year high Guardian (Kevin W)
Is this the beginning of the English revolution? Telegraph (resilc)
Israel v. The Resistance
Ahead of Gaza City Conquest, Israeli Ground Troops Say They’re Treated Like Cannon Fodder Haaretz
Changing stance, key Shas rabbi says Haredim who don’t study full-time can serve in IDF The Times of Israel (resilc). So how many Haredim will follow the sudden new guidance?
Trump to lead meeting on Gaza on Wednesday, envoy says Middle East Eye
* * *Russia confirms circulating draft proposal aimed at preventing activation of ‘snapback’ PressTV
Australia Breaks With Iran – Sign Of A New War Coming? Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
New Not-So-Cold War
Ukraine admits Russia has entered key region of Dnipropetrovsk BBC
Ukraine to allow young men to leave the country Financial Times
Not only the EU and the USA continue to buy oil from India, but also Ukraine Overton via machine translation (Micael T)
French, German and Polish leaders head to Moldova to denounce Russian ‘interference’ ahead of vote France24
Woody Allen rebuts Ukrainian condemnation over Moscow film festival appearance Guardian (resilc)
Trump’s envoy Witkoff announces meeting with Ukrainian team in US this week Ukrainska Pravda
‘Ukraine Should Consider Plan B’ – Ex-US Ambassador on Kyiv’s Fragile Security Kyiv Post
Kiev acknowledges third of coffee supplied to Ukraine smuggled Interfax
Imperial Collapse Watch
US wingman drones lift off—but mass production remains grounded Asia Times (Kevin W)
Blood and Taxes: Why Revolutions Start with Real Estate Arie van Gemren (Micael T)
Trump 2.0
https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/26/perplexity_asahi_nikkei_lawsuits/
EU faces first test of fragile trade truce with Trump Politico. Per above tweet.
Trump Pentagon weighing equity stakes in defense contractors like Lockheed, says Lutnick CNBC. Li:
“Lockheed, which makes most of its revenue from federal contracts, is “’basically an arm of the U.S. government,’ he said.”
He’s not wrong. Maybe “arm” should be “ward.” Pentagon encouraged the mergers and consolidation that resulted in uncompetitive pricing and TBTF suppliers.
Court tosses Trump administration lawsuit against Maryland judges The Hill
Prosecutors Fail 3 Times to Charge Woman With Felony Assault of F.B.I. Agent in D.C. New York Times
Higher Education: What Trump Hath Wrought Washington Monthly
Trump Floats Renaming Department of Defense to Department of War Antiwar.com (resilc)
White House takes credit for Cracker Barrel logo reversal Politico (Kevin W). Pathetic.
Fedwatch
Trump Weighs Quickly Announcing Nominee to Replace Lisa Cook on Fed Board Wall Street Journal
With Lisa Cook suing to challenge Trump’s firing of her, experts in mortgage law tell me her lawyer can now use discovery to dig into the role Trump loyalist William Pulte played in singling out mortgages of her, Schiff and Letitia James for scrutiny:https://t.co/4jWKl8aOP5 pic.twitter.com/W2QyYeUo5M
— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) August 26, 2025
DOGE
DOGE put Social Security numbers and other data on a risky server, whistleblower alleges NBC
Immigration
How a Historic Immigration Drop Is Changing the Job Market Wall Street Journal (resilc)
Democrats en déshabillé
Abundance Cultists Don’t Get How Infrastructure Can Screw Black People New Republic (resilc)
Why the Democrats are losing post-industrial America Financial Times
Texas Redistricting Lawsuit Claims Racial Discrimination Newsweek
DNC Leaders Are Pretending That US Weapons Don’t Enable the Slaughter in Gaza- Antiwar.com (resilc). They really do hold voters in contempt.
Van Duyn owners will pay millions to settle patient neglect, financial fraud claims Syracuse.com. bob: “Steal $37.6M, pay state $12M, get out of jail free. Plus we’ll handle the management going forward..”
AI
With AI chatbots, Big Tech is moving fast and breaking people ars technica (Paul R)
Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Effects of Artificial Intelligence Stanford. Summarized here but I can’t crack the paywall: There Is Now Clearer Evidence AI Is Wrecking Young Americans’ Job Prospects Wall Street Journal
How Retrainable are AI-Exposed Workers? NBER (resilc)
Attorneys General To AI Chatbot Companies: You Will ‘Answer For It’ If You Harm Children 404 Media. Micael T: “Who exactly will ‘answer’ for it? Zuckerberg, Altman, Musk etc? Are there enough of them to engage the prison industry? If not, this is just empty posturing.”
Asahi, Nikkei sue AI search outfit Perplexity for copyright infringement The Register
The Bezzle
US banks lobby to block stablecoin interest over fears of deposit flight Financial Times
You Don’t Actually Own That Movie You Just “Bought.” A New Class Action Lawsuit Targets Amazon Hollywood Reporter
Guillotine Watch
Mark Zuckerberg gifted noise-canceling headphones to his Palo Alto neighbors because of the nonstop construction around his 11 homes Yahoo! (Kevin W)
Antidote du jour (via):
A bonus:
The Golden Eagle Drinking And Bathing Under a Natural Waterfall pic.twitter.com/2gGAJMd7Xc
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) August 25, 2025
A second bonus:
Bro my sisters cat realized he can drive his wheel pic.twitter.com/HtRjM0PWrB
— We don’t deserve cats 😺 (@catsareblessing) August 25, 2025
And a third
When you have to wait for your little brother.. 😅 pic.twitter.com/8XursSFXCV
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) August 25, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
