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Links 6/27/2025

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Scientists find Earth’s mantle beating like a heart, slowly tearing Africa apart Interesting Engineering

Fire-Eyes Of The Underworld Noema

Stunning amber fossil reveals ‘Last of Us’-type fungus likely lived alongside dinosaurs CNN

Climate/Environment

Philly and other places have been setting records this week before sunup The Philadelphia Inquirer

Nearly a Third of Tuvalu Residents Seek Climate Visas to Australia as Sea Engulfs Their Home Common Dreams

On solid ice: the plan to refreeze the Arctic The Narwhal

Malaysia will stop accepting U.S. plastic waste, creating a dilemma for California Los Angeles Times

Pandemics

China?

China Is Still Choking Exports of Rare Earths Despite Pact With U.S. WSJ

Harvard Academic Who Met Top Chinese Diplomat Sees US Trade Breakthrough Soon Bloomberg

Trump says US signed agreement with China, offering no details South China Morning Post

Lutnick Says US-China Trade Truce Signed, 10 Deals Imminent Bloomberg

***

China’s Structural Advantage in Open Source AI Interconnected

Cutting Through Narratives on Chinese Arctic Investments Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Old Blighty

Uncovered: How UK police are hiding their Palantir work Democracy for Sale

Syraqistan

Israeli attacks kill 62 Palestinians in Gaza, including three near aid site Al Jazeera

Netanyahu Halts North Gaza Aid After Smotrich Threatens to Quit Coalition Over Alleged Hamas Access Haaretz

Iran Aftermath, Trump’s Schizophrenia, Iran-Russia-China Tripartite Regroup, more… The Real Politick with Mark Sleboda (Video)

Exclusive: Details emerge of secret diplomatic efforts to restart Iran talks CNN

Khamenei’s Speech to Iran Karl Sanchez

Seyed M. Marandi: Iran vs Declining West in a Multipolar World Glenn Diesen (Video)

The day a nuclear Iran was born Amwaj

***

No intel that Iran moved highly enriched uranium before US strikes: Pentagon chief Anadolu Agency

Early intelligence suggests Iran’s uranium largely intact, European officials say FT

Meanwhile more details emerge about Iranian strikes on Israel:

Israel Suffered Extensive Damage Larry Johnson

***

EU leaders deplore Gaza humanitarian crisis, call on Israel to fully lift blockade Anadolu Agency

***

Pakistan developing nuclear-capable ICBM that could reach US after India’s Operation Sindoor: Report Hindustan Times

Turkey backs NATO’s 5% defence spending goal, plans nationwide air shield, source says Reuters

European Disunion

How to save Europe Thomas Fazi

MEPs seek Commission President von der Leyen’s resignation with censure motion Euronews

Trump’s European revolution European Council on Foreign Relations

Germany’s ‘Speechcrime’ Raids Are a Chilling Sign of Things To Come European Conservative

New Not-So-Cold War

EU leaders agree to extend all sanctions against Russia, but not 18th package Ukrainska Pravda

Go West: Russia’s LNG workaround and tapping into the West’s leverage Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air

Russia Seizes Ukrainian Village Near Lithium Deposits: Implications for Critical Minerals Agreements and Investors Energy News Beat

Ukrainian intelligence drones destroy Russian air defence systems in Crimea – video Ukrainska Pravda

***

Nato members agree to 5% GDP spending hike, but will they pay? Intellinews

Hike in defence spending could mean cuts in other areas, Mark Carney warns Toronto Star

Rearmament, it will be a disaster for public accounts: 700 billion in 10 years Il Fatto Quotidiano (machine translation)

That’s The Plan, Alright? Andrei Martyanov

NATO spending hike won’t affect Russia’s security – Lavrov RT

The Great Game

COMMENT: Competing Trans-Afghan transport routes could split Central Asia Intellinews (Lambert)

Trump 2.0

“Revenge tax” being yanked from “big, beautiful bill,” Bessent says Axios

The Senate’s Reconciliation Bill Runs Into the Parliamentarian and Some Harsh Political Realities NOTUS

Congress Is Pushing for a Medicaid Work Requirement. Here’s What Happened When Georgia Tried It. ProPublica

Trump now wields sweeping veto power over U.S. Steel. Here’s how the ‘golden share’ works CNBC

Democrats en déshabillé

WAR POWERS RESOLUTION FROM HOUSE DEMOCRATIC LEADERS MAY NOT LIMIT TRUMP’S WAR POWERS The Intercept

Mamdani

MAHA

RFK Jr’s new vaccine panel votes against preservative in flu shots in shock move The Guardian

The Supremes

Supreme Court’s conservatives give “defund” Planned Parenthood efforts a win Law Dork

Antitrust

Has Trump’s FTC Abandoned Fair Markets? Washington Monthly

Police State Watch

US citizen arrested during Ice raid in what family describes as ‘kidnapping’ The Guardian

ICE Plans to Send Abrego Garcia to an Unnamed Nation That Isn’t El Salvador NOTUS

ICE arrests 100+ Iranian nationals across US amid sleeper cell concerns Fox News

‘No Secret Police Act’: Democratic Bill Would Ban Trump’s Masked Federal Agents Common Dreams. Would ban the masks, not the kidnappings and the gulags.

TRUMP’S GLOBAL GULAG SEARCH EXPANDS TO 53 NATIONS The Intercept

AI

Rick Perry’s AI plan: A colossal nuclear campus in Trump’s image WaPo

No active ingredients whatsoever Internal Exile

Tales of Agentic Misalignment Zvi Mowshowitz

Our Famously Free Press

Bill Moyers, the former White House press secretary turned acclaimed TV journalist, dead at 91 AP

BRICS

Iran, BRICS, and the Dangers of Strategic Patience Tarik Cyril Amar

The Bezzle

NY Judge Slaps Down SEC, Ripple’s Second Request for an Indicative Ruling on Proposed $50M Settlement Coin Desk

Guillotine Watch

Billionaires’ wealth surged $6.5tn over past decade, Oxfam reports The Guardian

Bezos Wedding Guests Given Monogrammed Plastic Bottles To Urinate In During Ceremony The Onion

Class Warfare

Amazon Workers Defy Dictates of Automation Labor Notes

UPS Drivers Are Battling Deadly Heat—Without A.C. in Their Trucks The New Republic

Pay Equity at Kroger Phenomenal World

Under neoliberal fire, the right to strike is waning, globally, after years of premeditated attacks to limit it Equal Times

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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41 comments

  1. Antifa

    No Kings!

    We’re gathered here to say we’ll have ‘No Kings!’
    No royal rich who purchase their own laws
    It’s time we all stand up against such things
    And foreign wars that go on without pause

    The price of gas, the groceries, the rent
    The stress of having nothing ever saved
    Two working people living in a tent
    A Golden Dome while potholes go unpaved

    Each straw the rich lay on us could be last
    Our toil goes up to rich men wanting more
    Like every Empire of the ancient past
    Our own falls down as we travail the poor

    These immigrants ICE seizes from their job
    Directed by some Presidential text
    The tear gas that the cops and soldiers lob
    It’s very clear we citizens are next

    Free people are not big on mobs or cults
    On Brownshirt bastards bullying the crowd
    The whole world knows that fascism results
    From governments who shout their creed this loud

    Democracy means everyone partakes
    And that requires that people hear the truth
    With Congress full of cosplay, clowns, and fakes
    We’re ill informed inside the voting booth

    Trump promised he would put our country first
    A big change from what we have seen for years
    He’s turned out to be worst among the worst
    It’s time to lay our bodies on the gears

    Reply ↓
  2. The Rev Kev

    ‘DD Geopolitics
    @DD_Geopolitics
    🇩🇪🇮🇱 While the world talks ceasefire, Western arms shipments to Israel are surging.
    This Israeli 747 cargo flight stopped in Cologne for just 2 hours—loading 128 tons of military equipment—then flew straight to Nevatim Air Base.
    Nevatim has become the central hub for offloading and distributing new Western weapons to replenish stockpiles after Iran’s strikes.
    Behind the scenes, Europe and the U.S. are quietly rearming Israel for the next phase of war.’

    Not only Germany but Serbia as well. The other day the Russians busted the Serbians shipping weapons kits to NATO nations where they were assembled and shipped to the Ukraine. President Vucic was forced to stop all ammunition exports and utilize the manufactured ammo to replenish Serbian stocks instead. But now it looks like Vucic has now found a new market for all that ammo-

    https://www.rt.com/news/620369-serbia-stops-ammo-exports/

    Reply ↓
    1. Vandemonian

      More about MIC profiteering in Craig Murray’s latest:

      June 25, 2025: If you thought RAF jets were owned by the RAF, think again. The RAF squadron targeted for a repaint by Palestine Action due to its involvement in supplying Israel’s genocide, does not in fact belong to the RAF at all. It belongs ultimately to Polygon Global Partners LLP, a Hedge Fund

      https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2025/06/dystopia-uk-genocidal-raf-squadron-targeted-by-palestine-action-is-owned-by-a-hedge-fund-and-leased-by-the-raf/

      Reply ↓
      1. cfraenkel

        Amazing. What happens when one of them is shot down? Does their insurance cover the loss? Inquiring minds want to know.

        I’m almost surprised the US Navy hasn’t latched onto this scheme to ‘lease’ the support ships it can’t be bothered to build themselves.

        Reply ↓
        1. The Rev Kev

          Doesn’t the US Navy already use the US Merchant Marine to man a lot of the support ships that they use? And that a lot of problems are arising because they have a recruiting and retention crisis?

          https://gcaptain.com/op-ed-u-s-merchant-mariner-shortage-demands-action-now/

          And don’t expect much help from the US Coast Guard as they have their own problems-

          https://maritime-executive.com/article/gao-cites-uscg-s-deferred-maintenance-obsolete-cutters-and-staff-shortage

          Reply ↓
  4. AG

    NATO has removed the paragraph from last year that had guaranteed Ukraine membership and called it “irreversible”. There was also apparently no particular meeting on the Ukraine War.

    Reply ↓
  5. Balan Aroxdale

    “There were a lot of missile hits in IDF bases, in strategic sites that we still don’t report about…It created a situation where people don’t realize how precise the Iranians were and how much damage they caused”pic.twitter.com/sYVBM8hdOp

    — Suppressed News. (@SuppressedNws) June 26, 2025

    Israel Suffered Extensive Damage Larry Johnson

    Trump’s breakneck pivots from “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” to all roaring at Israel to call off their ongoing air attacks is being explained as due to pressure from Trump’s base or his political capriciousness. How more likely is the explanation of a frank DoD assessment that Israel and soon to be the entire US presence in the ME were in imminent danger of collapse in the face of a better prepared and better equipped Iranian military response?
    Do we need to wait 2 years before the inevitable leaks about “spooked” generals and “underestimating Iran’s forces”? One often unmentioned factor is reports of missile interceptor failures or spoofing during some of the later Iranian missile attacks.

    Reminder to everyone. Western armies don’t have hypersonic missiles. Iran and Russia do. What else doesn’t the Pentagon have that it has found out about?

    Reply ↓
  6. The Rev Kev

    “Exclusive: Details emerge of secret diplomatic efforts to restart Iran talks”

    Hello CNN. The Onion is calling and want their article back. So let me get this straight. The Trump regime may be offering Iran up to $30 billion to build a civilian-energy-producing nuclear program. Only they won’t be using American money but will expect Arab countries to cough up all that dough. Assuming that that money flows, who will be building it? The US? In that case it will never be more than a blueprint. In any case, the Russians are building nuclear plants in Iran already. But let’s let our imagination fly and assume good faith by Trump and the place gets built. Who sells the nuclear fuel to Iran? It would have to be the US which means that the US would be able to throttle Iranian energy production at whim. In any case Trump has reneged and done ‘headfakes’ (his words) on the Iranians since getting into office accumulating with his attack on the their country. And Iran is supposed to trust him why? And ‘potentially removing some sanctions on Iran?’ Like letting Iran exports some carpets or something? Trump stated that he did not care about any deal but it does not matter. Trump has permanently queered the pitch and there will be no deal as Iran will believe nothing that he says. Who knew that actions had consequences?

    Reply ↓
    1. MicaT

      One small issue is that the US gets a lot/most of our processed uranium fuel from Russia. So unlikely we would could supply them.

      I kinda think the Iran working with the west is over

      Reply ↓
  7. Wukchumni

    Under Malaysian waste guidelines announced last month, the country will no longer accept plastic waste and hazardous waste from nations that didn’t ratify the Basel Convention, the international treaty designed to reduce the international movement of hazardous and other waste. The U.S. is one of just a handful of countries, including Fiji and Haiti, that hasn’t signed the pact.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    The Fresh Port-au-Prince of Bel-Air, episode 1

    A ‘shitcom’ where a neat-smart Haitian trash talks his way into American hearts via the shared interest in despoiling the planet, despite their lifestyles often clashing with one another.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      Looks like California had the same sort of “recycling” program that Oz had. Grab all that garbage, pack it into a bunch of shipping containers and then send it off to a developing nation to deal with. It’s a variation of the Summers memo-

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summers_memo

      And until it broke in the news, we in Oz had no idea this was happening. Did California?

      Reply ↓
      1. Wukchumni

        I’ve known about it for awhile, we’ve been trash stalking countries since China outlawed take-aways.

        Since Covid, the trashman cometh on Tuesday and picks up the brown, blue and green bins, and it all goes to the landfill.

        No pretense about it, and I’m guilty of taking advantage of the situation, in particular now when after weed whacking you end up with ‘hay’ and I like to get rid of it and those extra bins help out.

        Reply ↓
        1. Jabura Basadai

          i remember back in the 80’s when a barge of NYC trash couldn’t find a home and became the Flying Dutchman of trash barges –
          https://retroreport.org/video/a-barge-full-of-garbage-helped-to-fuel-a-recycling-movement/
          also had the unfortunate pleasure of visiting a huge landfill in the Philippines almost two decades ago to try and sell our biodigester – an impossible task for what we saw –
          at the same time a Brazilian associate informed us about the largest landfill in the world at the time – the friend knew Vik Muniz – when in Brazil visited that landfill as well and the catadores from the favelas that picked through the garbage –
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardim_Gramacho
          there was a compelling and sad movie about the place –
          https://www.wastelandmovie.com/

          Reply ↓
  10. Jesper

    BBC has a story with a surprisingly honest comment from an employer about why immigration is needed:
    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpd4gp78j06o

    He said if those workers are forced out, it will drive up demand for his own staff – forcing him to pay more, and ultimately raise his rates.

    But economists still claim that immigration does not affect wages…. Maybe those economists should go on to lecture those employers and tell them that immigration actually increase wages so as an employer he/she should argue for closed borders if he/she want to keep wages down? Who would those employers believe, economists with models and assumptions or their own eyes and experience?

    & the article goes on to write about disruption. As far as I can tell it seems then disruption is good if it benefits employers and the upper middle classes (quite a few stories about the great disruptors and more disruption needed) but bad if it benefits workers.

    I suppose it follows the economist-logic that if wages go up by 2% then inflation will automatically go up by 3% (or more) so therefore workers are better off not getting wage-increases.

    Reply ↓
  11. NotThePilot

    China’s Structural Advantage in Open Source AI

    Good article, and while I understand it’s limited in scope to AI, I think this bit at the end gets at something much bigger about what “open” vs. “closed” society even means:

    But it does make one wonder. When an otherwise very closed society, like China, prefers the transparency of open source, while an otherwise quite open society, like the United States, chooses the secrecy of closed source, what does this mean for AI….

    Reply ↓
  12. t

    No active ingredients whatsoever

    Placebos are only interesting when they are not instead of necessary treatment.

    The tale of placebos and AI as a placebo neglects to mention how the man who thought he has a nail in his foot felt when he learned the truth, or the numerous cases of people being damaged by jumping up and running around under the placebo effect of faith healing, and irreparably damaging their bones in the process. And the graveyard of cancer patients who were convinced goat urine or black salve was curing their cancer, until well past the point where a breast cancer with a decent survival rate was treatable.

    How does it play out? Isn’t the solace of an AI chatbot – assuming it doesn’t go weird – as mentally healthy as being spoiled and surrounded by enablers? What happens when someone who thinks they understand intimacy because of an AI finds themselves desperate to connect with a messy and imperfect person who has their own needs?

    Reply ↓
    1. cfraenkel

      Funny. I think I read a different article. In the one I read, the author was painting a picture that AI wouldn’t work *as a placebo*, because it’s intended usage would be missing all the social trappings of real care. (with a side note at the end that reports of AI seeming to generate meaningful experiences likely only happen to people who were expecting to find them in the first place)
      Maybe we take from articles like this the meaning we bring into them?

      Reply ↓
  13. Wukchumni

    Hasbara, shake it loose together
    The spotlight’s hittin’ something
    That’s been known to change the political weather
    We’ll kill the fade accompli tonight
    So stick around
    You’re gonna hear Zionist distortion
    Solid Jericho walls of sound
    Say, Israeli aircraft in Iran, have you seen them yet, woo
    But they’re so spaced out, Be-Be-Bibi and the Jets
    Oh but they’re out there and they’re wonderful
    Oh Bibi he’s really keen
    He’s got Patriot Dome, that will atone
    You know I read it online, ooh ho
    Be-Be-Bibi and the Jets

    Hey kids, plug into the AEGIS
    Maybe the Iranians are blinded
    But Bibi makes the struggle ageless
    We shall survive, let us take ourselves along
    Where we fight our parents out in the streets
    To find who’s right and who’s wrong
    Say, Israeli aircraft in Iran, have you seen them yet, woo
    But they’re so spaced out, Be-Be-Bibi and the Jets
    Oh but they’re out there and they’re wonderful
    Oh Bibi he’s really keen
    He’s got Patriot Dome, that will atone
    You know I read it online, ooh ho
    Be-Be-Bibi and the Jets

    Bibi, Bibi and the Jets
    Bibi, Bibi, Bibi, Bibi and the Jets
    Bibi, Bibi, Bibi, Bibi, Bibi and the Jets

    Benny and the Jets, by Elton John

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBbsyLdFtEU&list=RDEBbsyLdFtEU

    Reply ↓
  14. ilsm

    Why the ceasefire?

    Trump has Israel an ally that started preparing some nukes for the “shoot…. ”

    Text one morning, “unload those bombs….”

    Reply ↓
  15. AG

    re: Germany economic decline

    JUNGE WELT daily

    Real wage development in the EU
    Poorer than five years ago
    Real wages lower across the EU than in 2020. Unions are becoming more likely to strike
    https://archive.is/bEHwN

    “(…)
    Real wages on average in the euro zone in 2024 were around five percent below the 2020 level, the Economic and Social Science Institute (WSI) of the union-affiliated Hans Böckler Foundation announced in its “Wage Report” on Wednesday. In Germany, the gap was 4.7 percent. If the methods of the Federal Statistical Office were applied and special payments were excluded, the figure would be a full ten percent. However, 2023 and 2024 were “extremely strike-prone” years across Europe, which is why real wage increases of around two percent were recorded in 2024 compared to 2023. The verdict is: “There is still room to catch up.”
    (…)”

    Reply ↓
    1. Michaelmas

      The UK picture and why the British working classes fought to leave the EU —

      Analysis of wage and price increases, UK: 2011 to 2023
      https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/analysisofwageandpriceincreasesuk/2011to2023

      Wages Before Brexit (pre-2016)
      From 2010 to 2016, real wage growth was sluggish, largely due to austerity and the aftermath of the 2008 GFC. Median monthly earnings in June 2016 were around £1,655, according to HMRC data.

      Wages Since Brexit (2016–2023)
      By December 2023, median monthly pay had risen to approximately £2,332, a 41% increase since the referendum. But real wage growth adjusted for inflation was more modest and inflation, especially post-COVID and during the energy crisis, eroded much of the nominal gains.

      In May–July 2023, private sector regular pay grew by 8.1% year-on-year, reflecting tight labour markets and inflationary wage pressures.

      Employment Trends
      The number of payrolled employees increased by 2.3 million between June 2016 and December 2023.
      Labour shortages in sectors like hospitality and agriculture—partly due to reduced EU migration—have contributed to upward wage pressure in low-wage sectors.

      Reply ↓
  16. mzza

    What makes that clip with Joy Reid so remarkable is not that she confirms getting fired for humanizing Palestinians — because of course — but that in her list of contrary examples she includes debunked stories about the Ukraine / Russia war, like the ‘kidnapped children’ narrative.

    Obviously no one should get fired for speaking out in support of Palestines, or for the end of the horrific genocide, but I’d *hope* that when one *is* fired for going off-script, that one will start to question the integrity of the many, many scripts already acted from previous seasons.

    (For that matter while I’m heartened by the more general swelling ranks of those calling for the end to the genocidal policies, I’d be more heartened if the newly converted got past the idea that the genocide ‘started’ as retaliation for the October 7 attacks. Pollyanna that I am.)

    Reply ↓
    2. Pookah Harvey

      From Politico article titled:
      Senate Republicans explore tweaks to pension plan after parliamentarian ruling

      Lawmakers are looking to hike federal employees’ retirement contributions to 15.6 percent of their salary — compared with the 9.4 percent required in the initial version of the bill — while carving out an exemption for members of Congress and their staff, according to draft reconciliation text from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that was obtained by POLITICO.

      Federal law enforcement, including Capitol Police officers and border personnel, would also be exempt from the contribution requirements. Employees hired after 2014 are currently only required to contribute 4.4 percent of their salary to their retirement.

      You have to give Repubs points on being persistent.

      Reply ↓
  19. Wukchumni

    You’re my femme fatales, you’re my apparatchicks (ra-da-da)
    You’re the girls of my dreams
    I’d like to thank you (ra-da-da)
    For waitin’ patiently
    Daddy’s home, Daddy’s home to stay
    Hm-mm-mm, mm-mm

    How I’ve waited for this moment (ra-da-da)
    To be by your side
    Your best friend texted and told me (ra-da-da)
    Karoline had teardrops in her eyes
    Daddy’s home, Daddy’s home to stay (ay-ay-ay)

    It was never on a Sunday
    Monday and Tuesday went by
    It wasn’t on a Tuesday afternoon
    All I could do was try
    But I made a promise that you treasured (do-do-ah)
    I made it back (do-do-ah)
    Home to you (la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la, la-la-la)

    How I’d waited for this moment to be by your side
    Your best friend texted and told me (ra-da-da)
    Kristi had teardrops in her eyes
    Daddy’s home, Daddy’s home to stay (ay-ay-ay)

    Daddy’s home to stay
    I am not three thousand miles away

    Daddy’s Home, by Shep and the Limelites

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIGla91-qmk&list=RDAIGla91-qmk

    Reply ↓
  20. Acacia

    Re: Armchair Warlord’s hypothesis that no bunker busters were used against Iran

    It really sounds like neither Israel nor the US sent airplanes very far into Iranian airspace, if at all, and that the putative bunker buster attack was in fact carried out with cruise missiles. The wrinkle that Israel “double tapped” one of the sites also hints at a weaker than anticipated attack.

    This is speculation, but I wonder if this is about an unacknowledged worry that Iranian AD would have downed several planes, including the vaunted B-2, and the USian decision was that the risk would be too great.

    Reply ↓
    1. The Rev Kev

      I think that you are right. The thought of one or two B-2 bombers shot down over Iran would have been seen as an unacceptable price to pay and which would be seen to undermine part of the US’s vaunted nuclear triad. When asked about this attack, Hegseth flipped out and said that any criticism was ‘unpatriotic and disrespectful to the “brave men and women” in the US military.’ Personally I would have said sending men and women into combat on a mission with no chance of success would be pretty disrespectful and unpatriotic but that is just me-

      https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20rd30l7l3o

      Reply ↓
    2. GramSci

      Agreed. On this note I was surprised by Martyanov’s report (op cit) that Iran was now buying Chinese J-10s when it seems that nowadays almost any missile is capable of taking down almost any manned aircraft. I suppose that lacking a space program, Iran might find the J-10s useful for surveilling its borders and its hinterlands, but I would think drones would be more effective for this.

      Reply ↓
      1. AG

        While I cannot offer indpendet views of my own Martyanov has held the position that fighter planes with pilots will remain, albeit accompanied by drone swarms. He in general damps expectations re: AI warfare a la Terminator. That also his take on drones remaining to be second to classic means such as artillery.

        p.s. The J-10 being cheaper than SUs and the fact that according to him Iran-China had been dealing over its development for over a decade now.

        Reply ↓
  21. GramSci

    Three great reads on ‘AI’ today. Thank you, Conor!

    As a recovering linguist, albeit not a sociolinguist like Deborah Tannen, I found it amusing how “Agentic Misalignment” (op cit) reads like a Dear Abby column for those afflicted with AI Derangement Syndrome. “Chatbots resort to blackmail!” The horrors! I feel compelled to remind the reader that “blackmail” is the B in MBA.

    It is horrible, however, how Rick Perry is inviting AI researchers to build their own nuclear powered SimCity (op cit) deep in the heart of taxless.

    But LLMs needn’t be only a wasteful masturbatory plaything for geeks and governors. “China’s Structural Advantage in Open Source AI” (op cit) makes a lot of solid, socialist sense until the very end, where the author starts talking like a PMC chatbot and closes with the canard that “The US is a more open society than China”.

    Reply ↓
  22. Vandemonian

    I feel compelled to remind the reader that “blackmail” is the B in MBA.

    Are you sure? I’d always thought it stood for “means bugger-all”.

    Reply ↓
  23. The Rev Kev

    “China Is Still Choking Exports of Rare Earths Despite Pact With U.S.”

    Quick story. We had a well know politician here in Oz many decades ago called Bob Menzies who served two long stints as Prime Minister. When he was Attorney General he got into a fight with wharfies who wanted to stop a shipment of pig iron going to Japan not only because of the Japanese massacre in Nanjing but because they saw that one day that pig iron would return to Oz – in the form of warships and bombers. He got his way in the end but picked up the nickname “pig iron bob” for his efforts and four years later those wharfies were proven right-

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938_Dalfram_dispute

    The point of this story is that I do not think that the Chinese want to make the same mistake. They know that so long as they stop the shipments of rare earths to the US militarily for building new weapons, that a military attack on China becomes impossible over time. Even better, the US military will be more and more restricted in its attacks on other countries. Sure the west has access to rare earths but they do not have access to the facilities or technologies to refine them. That was all outsourced years ago to China who has greatly refined the technology since. Trump and his Cabinet may fume but this time the Chinese have them in a barrel. They don’t have the cards, see. They have no cards.

    Reply ↓

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