Residents held hostage in their homes by thousands of feral camels Sky (resilc)
It’s raining iguanas: Reptiles drop from trees by the handful during South Florida cold snap Local10 (Micael T). Remember Magnolia?
Ray Bradbury and the Practice of Human Agency The One Percent Rule
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Officials warn of tuberculosis outbreak at California high school KTLA (IM Doc)
Impact of COVID-19 on ischemic stroke patterns and outcomes: a multicenter retrospective study using propensity score matching
🔥HOSPITAL= MASK-UP!
➡️ A multicenter retrospective study from Saudi Arabia analysed 820 acute ischemic stroke patients admitted to three hospitals… pic.twitter.com/tGNVljhTIM
— Harry Spoelstra (@HarrySpoelstra) February 3, 2026
⚠️ Covid causes cancer https://t.co/vqUgQBGafb pic.twitter.com/TPn5SySoBr
— Joe (@LTSmash420) February 2, 2026
Climate/Environment
Climate crisis pushes global food system to breaking point Food Navigator
Small-scale farmers produce more of the rich world’s food than previously thought – new study The Conversation
Climate Change As A Geopolitical Force: From Arctic Militarization To Climate Wars Eurasia Review
Plastic pollution may be supercharging algae blooms Earth
Stratospheric Warming Confirmed: Polar Vortex Collapse to Bring Major Weather Disruption in the Coming Weeks Severe Weather
Threat of global warming looms large on next winter Olympics despite being at a high-altitude Alpine city: Study Down to Earth
UK butterfly numbers flat despite hottest summer on record News Shopper
China?
Beijing is shifting the balance: Xi Jinping has taken control of Taiwan decisions TopWar (Micael T)
China bans hidden car door handles over safety concerns BBC (Kevin W)
India
Lives at stake as man-elephant conflict continues unabated in Coimbatore forest division Times of India
South of the Border
Cuba on the brink as Trump turns up the pressure: ‘There is going to be a real blockade’ Guardian (Kevin W)
Unions Mobilise Against Paraguay’s Pension Overhaul Paraguay Post
Netanyahu Says The IDF Was BETRAYED By America Young Turks, YouTube. Young Turks can be a bit strident for my tastes, but this is a real find. Lots of good documentation.
European Disunion
Why do they hate Europe? Rebelion via machine translation (Micael T)
European stocks set for sharp declines as global market fears are reignited CNBC
Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s Future of Europe Warning Karl Sanchez
The fight against Russians is depriving Latvia of healthcare and education Vzglyad via machine translation. Micael T: “It is obvious that the Ukraine war is not a war against Russia but against EU non-rich people.”
Sweden stood for reason, democracy, rights and security D!kk0 via machine translation (Micael T)
Swedish drinking water and nuclear power dependent on Russian-owned technology: “Security threat” Dagens Arbeter via machine translation. Micael T: “Another case of cerebral anti-Putinitis. How about asking the right question: WTF can’t Swedish municipalities buy from Swedish firms, or even better, build themselves?”
Old Blighty
Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson will go down in history as crawlers and creeps Irish Times (PlutoniumKun)
Israel v. The Resistance
We buried my aunt Mary last Friday Middle East Reflection (Aurelien). A Palestinian Christian retrospective.
* * * Trump TACOs on Iran Through Negotiations Moon of Alabama (Kevin W). Includes a very nice shout-out.
Alastair Crooke : Trump’s Iran Strategy: All Bluster, No Exit Judge Napolitano, YouTube. Key point: if the US attacks Iran, a global Shia jihad against the US and any allies will start. 13% of the Saudi population is Shia…
✈️ US Air Assets in the Middle East
This is probably not very easily digested by most people, but it is still a fairly comprehensive listing of the air assets sent to the Middle East in recent weeks.
As best I can estimate, there have probably been, at most, about four dozen… https://t.co/eUDVobOn91
— Will Schryver (@imetatronink) February 2, 2026
Gossip via e-mail from a spooky contact. Note that I can’t verify. But if I am hearing this rumor, the Israelis and US have to be too:
Btw, Iran has been integrated with Chinese sattelites, Chinese Air defence and the Chinese GPS system. So they can turn off/spoof the GPS over Iran. Tomahawks use GPS as their primary guidance. The Chinese have very good Satellites over the M.E – it was them that captured the hits on the Eisenhower and the offloading of 20+ casualties to Saudi Arabia. Israel needs the Iranians taken out or it’ll destroy the myth of Israeli dominance. If Iranian missiles hit the Israeli power stations and the water system then Israel is not viable.
Meet the former fashion blogger and shady doctor behind the ‘30,000 dead’ Iran psy-op GrayZone (Kevin W)
Syraqistan
Another failed state has disappeared due to US betrayal Vzgylad. Micael T: It is not the first time. Radio War Nerd has made the point that the Kurds are thrown under the bus everytime. They are too corrupt and engaged in internal conflicts to learn.”
New Not-So-Cold War
Trump slashes tariffs on India after Modi agrees to stop buying Russian oil CNN (Lee). Was Modi dumb enough to think this oil is fungible? India’s refineries are not tuned to Venezuela’s super heavy crude. Or is he betting that production never increases much so this is a largely empty promise?
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev: Russia ‘has not found’ any submarines Trump said he would deploy International Affairs
The Tragedy of Ukraine: From Crisis (κρίσις) to ‘Forgetting Evil’ (μεμνήσι κακείν) Nicholai Petro
Siberian Paths and Roads of Russia Global Affairs (Micael T)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
“The TSA’s New $45 Fee to Fly Without ID is Illegal,” Says Regulatory Expert Frommer’s (Paul R). Sadly, the article describes why it it a legally losing proposition to fight. Some lawyers need to refuse and represent themselves, or reciprocally agree to represent each other.
A WhatsApp bug lets malicious media files spread through group chats Malwarebytes
Imperial Collapse Watch
Lawrence Wilkerson: Trump Withdrawing from the Middle East & Europe? YouTube
US Consolidates Control Over Proxies Amid War on Multipolarism Near Eastern Outlook (Micael T)
The Death of Arms Control Daniel Larison
Why is the US weakening the dollar? Vzglyad via machine translation. Micael T: “To hurt US non-rich people.”
Trump 2.0
Trump says Republicans should ‘nationalize’ elections Politico (Kevin W)
Trump’s 75-Country Green Card Freeze Challenged in Lawsuit Bloomberg
Executive Power Stress Test: America’s Drift from Governance to Assertion Near Eastern Outlook (Micael T)
The Justice Department Beclowns Itself (Again) Steve Vladeck
L’affaire Epstein
MONOLOGUE: One big dirty club George Galloway, YouTube. Galloway rises to an impressive and entirely warranted level of high dudgeon. If nothing else, listen to the Bill Gates tidbit staring at 8:20.
Why is the BBC defending Trump over the Epstein allegations? Council Estate Media
ICE Rampage
Trump’s ICE Problem—and Ours Washington Monthly
French tech company Capgemini says selling US subsidiary after ICE backlash FRANCE 24 English, YouTube (resilc). Sadly just means a US actor like a PE firm will buy it.
DHS Says Critical ICE Surveillance Footage From Abuse Case Was Actually Never Recorded, Doesn’t Matter 404 Media (Dr. Kevin)
Senate Republican backs requiring federal immigration officers to wear body cameras The Hill. Former Army Ranger Greg Stoker contends that bodycams are much more total surveillance than a citizen protection devices. Cops turn them on to capture whos is in a crowd, then regularly turn them off when they are about to intervene.
Fed
Kevin Warsh – Wall Street’s man CADTM (Micael T)
Kevin Warsh and Weathervane Economics Paul Krugman
Can Fed chair nominee Kevin Warsh avoid becoming Arthur Burns? Asia Times (Kevin W)
GOP Clown Car
Texas AG Ken Paxton, GOP officials call on Republicans to ‘fight’ for Tarrant County Forth Worth Report
Economy
I just don’t have a good feeling about this’: Top economist Claudia Sahm says the economy quietly shifted and everyone’s now looking at the wrong alarm Fortune (resilc)
US economy: beneath the bombast CADTM (Micael T)
Geopolitical tensions and commodity repricing hit smartphone supply chains Cyprus Mail
AI
The State Of The $2.52 Trillion AI Bubble, January 2026 Forbes
Experts Growing Worried About World in Which AI Takes Your Job and You Have No Way to Provide for Yourself Futurism (Kevin W)
Guillotine Watch
March for Billionaires. Paul R: “Terrifyingly I can’t tell if this is a joke.”
Class Warfare
Is inherited wealth bad? aeon. Micael T: “Idiocracy is implemented from above as we experience in Europe. An inbred political and economic elite having never had to work for a living destroy EU because they can still go by on their wealth.”
Record year for affordable housing construction — Seattle leads the nation Rent Cafe
The business community has received the labor immigration they deserve Dagens Arena (Micael T via machine translation)
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus:
Man discovered that skunks sound like muppets and found it's the cutest thing ever
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) February 2, 2026
A second bonus:
Owl's are cats with wings. 😄 pic.twitter.com/KNCl7pUcyD
— The Figen (@TheFigen_) January 31, 2026
And a third:
compilation of dogs introducing their owners to unexpected animal friends
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) February 2, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
“The Death of Arms Control”
This will go down as one of the worse developments in international affairs in the 21st century. Nuclear weapons are the only ones that dare not be used as they have the potential to end life on Earth as we know it. And yet the last treaty putting any restriction of them – the New Start treaty – will end in the next coupla days even though the Russians offered to extend it another year to give time to replace it. The reason why this is happening, and which has been happening since George Bush, is simple to understand. The US is convinced that getting rid of any restrictions of this class of weapons will give the US the ability to have the nuclear drop on Russia. That’s it. The US wanted to put nuclear missiles in the Ukraine but that is not going to happen now. If they had, Russian reaction time to a possible US nuclear attack would have been reduced from about 15 minutes down to about 6 or 7 minutes. Too bad if it was a glitch in the system. And now Russia has developed the tech to totally nullify any US nuclear threats but will the US deep state listen? Since they all have a season pass to a fall out shelter, probably not.