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Links 4/24/2026

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A Swedish Library Forgot to Close Its Doors and Something Beautiful Happened ZME Science

Construction Costs Rarely Fall Construction Physics

Of Nopales and Prickly Pears, or, Why You Should Be Eating Cactus Pax Culinaria

Climate/Environment

Over 2,500 people evacuated, 200ha burnt as wildfire in north-east Japan spreads Straits Times

How Fires Burning In Georgia Now Are Worsened By 2024’s Hurricane Helene Forbes

Why millions of adorable bees are emerging from this cemetery Grist

Pandemics

The US CDC on the brink The Lancet

Water

Corpus Christi plans to declare a ‘water emergency.’ What does that mean? The Texas Newsroom. “While city pools and splash pads consume almost 2 million gallons of water over the course of a summer, a single Exxon plastics plant consumes 13 million gallons per day.”

China?

DSET Drone Reports: Taiwan-Europe-Ukraine Cooperation Deepens, Calls for Stronger  Co-Production Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology

Southeast Asia

ASEAN inflation: Vietnam and Philippines hit hardest by Iran war Nikkei Asia

Not-so-sweet deal for Singapore’s refineries as they shift to US, alternative crudes Business Times

Singapore inflation accelerates to 1.8% in March amid higher petrol prices Straits Times

India

India’s fertiliser output falls to a five-year low in March Hindustan Times

India to Purchase Fertilizer at Nearly Double Pre-War Price Bloomberg

Syraqistan

Trump’s online threats deepen US split as Iran talks stall Al Mayadeen

Collective slap: Heads of Iran’s three state branches strike back at Trump Press TV

US Secretary of Navy Resigns (Or Is Fired) Just as Third Carrier Group Arrives In Iran Theater Simplicius

Last Rounds? Status of Key Munitions at the Iran War Ceasefire Center for Strategic and International Studies

***

Israel launches fresh strikes in southern Lebanon despite ceasefire extension Anadolu Agency

***

Meet the Top “Content” Producers Linked to Canary Mission Drop Site

Met Opera’s $200 Million Saudi Arabia Deal Falls Through Broadway World

European Disunion

Central and Eastern Europe emerges as new defence industry hub, KPMG says Intellinews

O Canada

Asia’s appetite for Canada’s ‘liquid gold’ grows but supplies at risk from climate change Channel News Asia

Old Blighty

Making troops accountable for war crimes threatens US alliance, ex-SAS colonel warns The Canary

New Not-So-Cold War

France Deploying Nuclear-Armed Rafale Fighters to Poland to Simulate Attacks on Russia and Belarus Military Watch

Government submits proposal to Parliament on amending Nuclear Energy Act and Criminal Code Finland Ministry of Defence. “The Government proposes to remove the legal barriers on importing nuclear devices into Finland and on transporting, supplying or possessing them in Finland in the context of Finland’s homeland defence, the collective defence of NATO or defence cooperation.”

China’s Russia ties mean EU trade deal is off the table, Finland says South China Morning Post

The KGB and Perestroika Events in Ukraine

South of the Border

Latin America oils up as Hormuz crisis reshapes global energy supply Intellinews

The Neocolonial Plunder of Venezuelan Resources Venezuelanalysis

L’affaire Epstein

Ghislaine Maxwell seeks to overturn conviction as US lawmakers split over possible pardon Firstpost

Scientists Stumper

Chinese Scientists Have Been Dying Mysterious Deaths Too Newsweek

Trump 2.0

Trump’s Huge AI Data Center Project Is Falling Apart Behind the Scenes Futurism

Trump’s roving banditry will undermine the US economy FT

Senior DHS Counterterrorism Official Suspended Over Sugar Daddy Scandal DD Geopolitics

Democrats Suck

Despite Denials, AIPAC Is Now Funding Campaign of Ala Stanford In Philadelphia Drop Site

GOP Funhouse

Republicans introduce extreme bill to ban lawsuits against Big Oil forever HEATED

SCOOP: Republicans Want to Add ICE Money Into the Farm Bill Migrant Insider

Police State Watch

THE SHORT AND RIDICULOUS TRIAL OF A PROTESTER ARRESTED IN AN INFLATABLE PENIS COSTUME The Intercept

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

The Wyden Siren The After-Action Report

The Accelerationists

How the American Oligarchy Went Hyperscale Mother Jones. Commentary:

Sports Desk

The Jeffrey Epstein guide to the playoffs True Hoop

Italy dismisses replacing Iran at the World Cup after suggestion by Trump official Sportstar

Economy

Iran War Is the Latest Shock to the Prescription Drug Supply Chain The Economic Populist

Trump Moves to Extend Jones Act Waiver 90 Days as Maritime Industry Says Fuel Relief Never Came gCaptain

‘Possibly the least pressured person ever’: Trump says he has ‘all the time in the World’ for Iran conflict Politico

Immigration

Casino Nation

Army Special Forces Soldier Charged With Insider Trading on Maduro Capture The After-Action Report

Guillotine Watch

“A Punch in the Gut”: After Years of Waiting, Many Opioid Victims Will Be Shut Out of Purdue Settlement ProPublica

Number of billionaires set to soar on AI gains – report RT

Billionaire philanthropist warns US democracy ‘won’t survive’ AI race Semafor

WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT BILLIONAIRES AT JEFF BEZOS’S PRIVATE RETREAT The Atlantic

Class Warfare

After Decades of Quiet Rumbling, an Epidemic Is Erupting Among California Stoneworkers In These Times

Good Vibes as Ideology: Emotional Management in the Dictatorship of Capital William Murphy

An Inspiring Story of Workers’ Power Craig Murray

N.C. Largest School Districts to Close for May Day Strike – NJ Unions w/ 1 Million Members Back May Day – 85 Cities Holding May Day Actions Payday Report

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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38 comments

    1. The Rev Kev

      Oh, it gets better-

      ‘The United States government has requested that countries such as Algeria, Cape Verde, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Tunisia not only process a tourist or business visa, but also require their citizens to deposit a bond of up to $15,000 per person in order to enter the country.’

      https://www.beinsports.com/en-us/soccer/fifa-world-cup-2026/articles/the-bonds-fans-will-have-to-pay-to-attend-the-world-cup-2026-03-25#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20government%20has%20requested%20that,exceed%20the%20budget%20of%20the%20average%20supporter.

      And not only fans but also the members of teams as well.

      1. curlydan

        ohhh, so that’s why I got half decent tickets to the Algeria-Austria World Cup game. Of course, it was part of FIFA’s recurring “last minute” and wait in a 5 hour queue false scarcity ticket sale. But maybe there will only be a few actual Algerians in attendance?

    2. hereweare

      US rights groups urge caution for World Cup visitors – BBC
      Rights groups have urged fans, players, journalists, and other visitors to this summer’s World Cup to “exercise caution” if travelling to the United States.

      More than 120 organisations have collectively issued a ‘travel advisory’ driven by what they say is “the Trump administration’s violent and abusive immigration crackdown”.

      “The Trump administration’s rising authoritarianism and increasing violence pose serious risks to all,” the message states.

  2. The Rev Kev

    “China’s Russia ties mean EU trade deal is off the table, Finland says”

    Finland’s FM: ‘…and unless you cut ties with Russia, we won’t make a deal with you.’ (storms off)

    China: ‘Who was that?’

    EU: ‘Don’t worry about it. We need your trade and Ursula’s got herself some tools. Ask Viktor.’

    1. ambrit

      A good question for Polymarket is: “When will Russia re-absorb Finland?” (My money is on: “Just after it re-absorbs the Baltic Statelets.”)

      1. The Rev Kev

        Russia may not want to. Finland is now clearing the way so that US tactical nuclear missiles can be stationed on their territory. I am not a military person but I imagine the only sure way to kill a nuke missile in another country is to use a nuke yourself on it so as not to miss it. Hopefully the Finns won’t stationed any of those US nukes near places like Helsinki.

        1. Craig H.

          Martin Armstrong has a great quip on the threat of Russian expansionism. His point is that Russia does not want any European citizens’ benefits obligations on its balance sheet. He says that if Russia was to take over a Euro state the citizens would be perfectly fine with it as long as “we still get our pensions.”

        2. scott s.

          Aside from B61-12 bombs that would be delivered by F-35A not sure what other weapon could/would potentially stationed in Finland?

  3. earthling

    Re the Swedish library used by many on a ‘closed’ day.

    My closest public library shuts before noon on Friday and stays that way til Monday. Hours are for the convenience of the staff and the city.

    It occurred to me, what better way to keep a town poor and stupid. Make sure the library is closed whenever people are off of work and the children are out of school.

    There’s a reason people were in the Swedish library; it was a slack day in their lives, they had time to drop by and use what their taxes paid for. The paid staff was quick to shut it down as soon as they saw what was going on.

    1. Carolinian

      The story suggests that libraries are still wanted and needed but that librarians may be an endangered species. After all in an internet age search engines perform the function of the Reference Desk and self checkouts the functions of the Circulation Desk. At my own central town library there seem to have been staff cutbacks and hours cutbacks in recognition of these realities.

      All hail the commons and here in the US libraries have been one of the few corners of socialism in our history. Public schools would be another. Both are under siege but may survive given the coming capitalism meltdown.

    2. hereweare

      “The library staff, upon discovering the oversight, expressed gratitude for the patrons’ conduct, noting that nothing was damaged or stolen.”

      Now imagine a supermarket leaving a door open …

  4. DJG, Reality Czar

    Meet the Top Content Creators at Canary Mission.

    Curiously, how curiously, all of them seem to be USanians. They now all live in Israel, where, undoubtedly, their U.S. accents come in handy for various forms of propaganda.

    Foreign interference in U.S. politics: “In February, a coalition of 70 American religious and civil rights organizations demanded that the Department of Justice open a Foreign Agents Registration Act investigation into Canary Mission, based on Drop Site’s previous reporting indicating the group’s operations are based in Israel.”

    What is interesting is that Drop Site used good ole journalistic techniques like sifting through tax documents. And, indicating of how social media produce mass stupidity, these people left traces all over the virtual place. Drop Site was able to connect people by checking FcBk posts and LinkedIn records.

    I am reminded of the Myrotvorets page:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrotvorets

    Quite a list, considering how many times people likely intruded into the Wikipedia entry to “clean” it up.

    The Epstein files are also sitting there in plain sight, and the reason nothing is happening is that the U.S. government is so thoroughly corrupt. Pardons for Ghislaine Maxwell, indeed.

  5. The Rev Kev

    “Making troops accountable for war crimes threatens US alliance, ex-SAS colonel warns”

    Semantically, this is the same as saying this-

    ‘Making troops unaccountable for war crimes cements US alliance, ex-SAS colonel explains’

  6. OIFVet

    If the commentariat wants to cut through the narratives and get to the bottom about the winner of Bulgaria’s parliamentary elections on the 19th of this month, Almut Rochowanski and I have a piece in Responsible Statecraft about Rumen Radev and what drove his win. He’s not Russia’s “Trojan Horse” or the new Orban, and he’s not Bulgaria’s savior – just a new face for the corrupt BG establishment and useful foil for the warmongers in Brussels who won’t rock the boat given the oligarchic interests that lined up to support his campaign. He is right about one thing, however: the need for the EU to engage in diplomacy and talk with Russia and Putin.

    Election of so-called ‘Putin agent’ is no surprise to ordinary Bulgarians

    1. DJG, Reality Czar

      OIFVet: many thanks for the link. Congrats on the new article. I have been waiting for your comments on the situation.

      Well, well, why does this sound like Italy? : ‘On election day, a small town election official told RS it was “crazy that they’re asking us to believe that Israel is just defending itself, and that the war in Ukraine is all Russia’s fault, while we are paying higher gas prices and heating bills.”

      ‘Bulgarians see that the EU lifted stringent borrowing rules, but only for increasing defense spending, rather than for hospitals and reducing out-of-pocket healthcare costs, which are proportionally the highest in the EU. At the barber shop, people chat about how they are afraid of war, how it would be better to talk to Russia, how a shaky ceasefire won’t be enough to ensure Bulgaria’s prosperity.’

      The news here today in Italy is that Italy can’t meet the “goal” of 5 percent of gross domestic product to be squandered on war. The related news is that the Italian government squawked about those “stringent borrowing rules” (translation: endless austerity) and how trying to find fuel matters more. In short, a hint that the loss of Qatari LNG is a looming disaster here.

      In Italy, these factors are producing a low-grade but evident crisis in the governing coalition, much ferment in the genuine left, and floundering around in the “ni ni” left of people like Elly Schlein. Hmmm. Is Rumen Radev channeling his inner Elly Schlein or his inner Marina Berlusconi? That is, his inner Kamala Harris?

      Demographics?: Is the untoward number of people leaving the country due to the starving of the smaller cities and agricultural regions by the urban elites? I have to admit that in Italy, money does go to smaller towns and agricultural areas, although a few recent government policies that write off large numbers of villages in the South are not going over well (for good reason).

    2. Carolinian

      Thanks for the link and the effort. Per Tip O’Neill “all politics are local”? That used to be the case here in the USA before all our politicians got bought by foreign lobbies. Our giant and frequently corrupt MIC has become a “resource curse” that other actors want to use for their own purposes.

      Stay safe over there in BG.

      1. AG

        …you could of course argue eventually they want to protect their leadership within their own domestic electorate of their particular constituencies. See MIC with locations spread across the whole country with production facilities in every important state and the funds flowing there to secure votes and what not…
        Sure, that won´t explain everything. But its significance is totally overlooked (at least in Europe).

  7. The Rev Kev

    ” Why millions of adorable bees are emerging from this cemetery ”

    You never think about it but from an insect point of view, a cemetery must be an oasis in an urban setting. Unlike public parks, they are usually quiet and are typically free of loud noises like traffic. I think that most cemeteries have lots of trees as well so you wonder what other insects and the like are making their home there.

    1. hereweare

      “These graveyard ecosystems are rigorously protected because they are sacred.”
      Sentinels of biodiversity: In cemeteries around the world, the dead protect the living
      Scientists are finding that cemeteries are valuable biodiversity hotspots, serving as refuges for plants and animals in landscapes encroached on by human activity.
      …

      Among the first scientists to recognize the role of cemeteries in conserving biodiversity was the late Terry Barrett, an ecologist at the University of Georgia. In one of the earlier papers published on the subject, in Conservation Biology in December 2001, Barrett wrote that “cultural traditions against disturbance of burial places have ensured… that cemeteries contain a portion of the landscape that has undergone little disturbance over a long period of anthropogenic landscape transformation.”

      Barrett found that land-use policies and management strategies that protect cemeteries from development or destruction mean that many remain undisturbed in their original locations. Barrett encouraged researchers to “perceive cemeteries as cohesive, integrative units of study” and to view them as safe harbors for high levels of biodiversity, especially those older than a century.

      Nearly two decades later, Viktor Loki, of the University of Debrecen, in Hungary, and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of biodiversity in burial places, publishing their analysis of 97 studies across five continents in a 2019 paper in Global Ecology and Conservation. Even in heavily transformed landscapes, they reported cemeteries serving as refuges for rare and endangered species.

      In previous research, Loki and coauthors found orchids thriving in 208 out of 300 cemeteries surveyed in Turkey. “Graveyards in Turkey are widely known among orchidologists as places where several orchid (Orchidaceae) taxa can be found, including very rare and localized ones,” wrote the scientists in 2015 in Willdenowia. Among them are the critically endangered bee orchid Ophrys isaura. In 68 Turkish graveyards, the researchers found 3509 individual pyramidal orchids (Anacamptis pyramidalis) and a rare species of iris.

      Similarly, in the steppe zone of Eurasia, burial mounds called kurgans often represent habitats for rare species. They’re the last vestiges of natural steppe vegetation in eastern Europe, elsewhere displaced by intensive landscaping and agriculture.

      “The role of these sacred burial places in biodiversity conservation is further emphasized by the fact that most of them were established in ancient times, when the extension of natural habitats was continuous,” writes Loki. Cemeteries are important refuges for lichens, mosses, mushrooms, rare and endangered plants, ethnomedicinal herbs, old trees and nesting birds, bats, and other mammals.

      Stuart Pimm, founder of the international conservation organization Saving Nature and an ecologist at Duke University, says that “small but protected habitats such as burial grounds are vital refuges for many species. They afford stopovers for migrant birds, for example. They are often green, leafy places amid urban environments. These graveyard ecosystems are rigorously protected because they are sacred.”

  8. OIFVet

    Hi DJG, if anyone, Radev is chanelling his inner Barack Obama: he is so vague on details that people project upon him what they want to hear and what they hope for. We all know how that ended in the US.

    The demographic decline began with the fall of the Berlin wall and the shock doctrine, and hasn’t stopped since. Never mind that the liberal establishment (who mostly hail from leading communist families which quickly reinvented themselves as democrats and capitalists) keeps telling the population how much better their lives are now. The resulting massive inequalities, coupled with mass immigration in the 90s and the Aughts, are the drivers of the demographic decline. Disinvestment from rural communities is part of that inequality and pernicious enough, also fuels the corrupt status quo due to the dependencies for basic survival that are created in those municipalities.

  11. Jason Boxman

    This week in AI death march, from Slack at a company I know of

    post a description about what you’ve done with AI this week or :plus_one: someone else’s post if you’ve done the same thing this week. If you want to demo on Monday’s call, let us know!

  14. Bill Carson

    “the short and ridiculous trial of a protester arrested in an inflatable penis costume.”

    The trial was a grow-er and not a show-er.

  15. amfortas

    as it turns out, i’m making carnitas con nopales this afternoon.
    the fellas Tam always called “your mexicans” were out here last weekend, and brought a passel and showed me how to clean them the mexican way.
    so today, i picked a couple of pounds of the new pads and scraped/sliced off the spinas, ran cold water over them, and will soon pass them over the flames…just to be sure i got all the almost invisible tiny spinas.
    one of those guys, Jorje, brought me a few pads of the spineless kind from his other home in Acuna a few years ago…but they didnt take.
    one still must scrape and rinse them, but its not near the pita these here are.
    peeled, theyre pretty tasty raw, with sal y limon.
    but i like them best with carnitas.
    put them in the big french skillet second to last, just before the beef stock, so you can get the slime right so as to thicken the eventual sauce.
    squirt some lemon juice on the whole mess and pile it in a tortilla.
    pairs well with the darker mexican beer.

  16. In Cold Chud

    Bezos: The Hands of Fate

    Instead, he made a face, and in an instant, an aide came and whisked him away.

    The courtiers/henchmen are always the most conspicuous–enigmatic if not interesting–figures in pieces like this. I was reminded of something Douglas Rushkoff wrote some time ago, which I’m sure many readers will recall:

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/23/tech-industry-wealth-futurism-transhumanism-singularity

    Even then, the immense anxiety these people caused their betters was explicitly linked to the need for robots, “if that technology could be developed in time.”

    This is what the hope for AI has crystallized around.

  17. Wukchumni

    NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump business behind Truth Social is replacing a former congressman and big supporter of the U.S. president as the leader of the social media platform after a stock collapse that wiped out billions in investor wealth.

    Devin Nunes, a former California congressmen in Donald Trump’s first term, is being replaced temporarily by digital media executive Kevin McGurn as chief executive officer. The company, Trump Media & Technology, didn’t give a reason for Nunes leaving or provide a timeline for his permanent replacement.

    After soaring shortly before Trump’s re-election in November 2024, stock in the company plunged 67%, wiping out more than $6 billion in investor wealth.

    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-media-replaces-nunes-as-truth-social-ceo-after-stock-plunge-that-wiped-out-billions
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    I miss Kevin y Devin, once upon a time local boys who made good for themselves, ha ha.

    1. Darthbobber

      Other than Trump, who and how many actually use Truth Social?
      Surprised if Bluesky is doing mucho better.

  20. joey_n

    To play devil’s advocate, why is the cutoff date of the Druzhba oil supply to Germany set to 1st May and not immediately? What is the purpose of the 10+ days’ notice?

  21. Tom Stone

    I’ve been hearing about Robot Armies and Robo Cops for quite a while…
    Where are the factories to build them going to come from, the skilled workers for those factories come from and the needed rare earths come from?
    How much maintenance do they need?
    Where are the tools, parts and skilled repair people going to come from?

    When I read the technocracy BS the authors seem to assume a can as well as a can opener with no thought given to the needed infrastructure.
    They seem to have no clue at all how things actually work, things like where food and potable water comes from or where electricity and all the other essentials of modern society come from.
    It’s “Chill Dude, I have Prime”.
    After all, what could go wrong?

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