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Links 7/18/2026

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Dear patient readers.

You are getting super-sized Links, with an Iran War section, in lieu of an Iran War post proper.

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Ancient Princesses Were Weapon-Wielding Badasses, Scientists Discover 404 Media

Manure piling up Cedar Rapids Gaxette (Robin K)

The Book of Jargon NO1 (Micael T). Not a complete list of finance dazzle-speak, but a good start.

Archaeologists found Homer’s Iliad inside a 1,600-year-old Egyptian mummy Science Daily (Kevin W)

“Silly sprinklers” help scientists finally solve Feynman’s famous sprinkler mystery Science Daily (Kevin W)

How Schools Can Counter “The End of Reading” Natalie Wexler (Micael T)

#COVID-19/Pandemics

A Deadly Ebola-Like Virus Is Spreading. Are We Ready? SciTech Daily (Chuck L)

Climate/Environment

France grapples with ‘very worrying’ drought after successive heatwaves France24

Risk of serious water shortages as river levels fall Dutch News

More Greek Regions Face Water Emergency as Drought Worsens Tovima

How global heating supercharged floods in West Africa, displacing thousands Guardian

In US West, drought pits farms against towns, industry in scramble for water Reuters

China?

Trump’s fiery China allegations may threaten superpower truce CNBC

China’s record consumer defaults undermine Beijing’s push to boost spending Reuters

What China’s sub-launched missile test really signaled Asia Times (Kevin W)

The New Third Front: China Quietly Revamps Country for War Simplicius (Kevin W)

China’s desert mock-up rehearses a US warship’s death at sea Asia Times (Kevin W)

China lauds Papua New Guinea over decision to shut Taiwan office Japan Times

Japan

Japan’s ‘Decisive Action’ Threat Does Little to Scare Yen Bears Bloomberg

Southeast Asia

Why Indonesia’s economy is under pressure DW

More than 500 feared dead after boats carrying Rohingya refugees capsize off Myanmar NBC

Africa

Africa’s Greater Horn region is facing a looming polycrisis, fueled by conflict, prices, climate and disease The Conversation

Sudanese minister says war has ‘profoundly reshaped’ nation’s demographics Aljazeera

How armed conflict shapes food insecurity in the Sahel and Lake Chad Region Nature

South of the Border

Brazil vows to retaliate if US imposes 25% tariffs on some of its products Guardian

Venezuelan Gov’t, Opposition to Launch US-Supported Dialogue for Electoral Reforms Venezuelanalysis (Robin K)

Neo-Colonial Coverage of Venezuela Earthquakes Adds Insult to Injury Venezuelanalysis (Robin K)

Blockades, marches and human shields: Bolivia’s farmers resist as land opened up to industry Guardian

O Canada

Trump threatens Canada over wildfire smoke choking U.S. cities Politico (Kevin W)

Carney says Canada won’t share bridge tolls with US until debt repaid CBC

European Disunion

EU readies crisis team for China rare earths stand-off Financial Times

China hits out at British Steel nationalisation BBC

Washington pushes EU to announce import rules rollback Financial Times

Europe’s next energy shock is drying up in plain sight Reuters

Rule-of-law push loses momentum in the EU Euractiv

French wheat prices hit record high amid Sea of Azov disruptions, EU heat wave S&P Global

Old Blighty

UK nationalizes Chinese-owned British Steel to protect nation’s steelmaking capacity Associated Press

Britons urged to take ‘small steps’ to prepare for potential national crises Guardian

Record heat linked to unprecedented fall in UK milk deliveries Farming UK

Israel v. The Resistance

Wheat fields become battleground as occupied West Bank farmers race to save land, crops TRT World

US approves nearly $2bn in weapons sale to Saudi Arabia Aljazeera

Houthis threaten to attack oil facilities in Saudi Arabia amid Yemen tensions Anadolu Agency

Iran War

NO1 Daily Digest

PressTV landing page:

BREAKING: IRGC CLAIMS AMERICANS KILLED AT AL-TANF SYRIA – w/ Col. Larry Wilkerson YouTube. Important. We had a debate in comments yesterday as to why Iran had not yet attacked US navy ships (save when they briefly entered the Strait of Hormuz on the Iran side early in the war). I had said the decision would be based on strategic aims, not merely to inflict damage, and Iran’s priority was to get the US out of the Middle East, and destroying the naval bases would make it so hard to operate as to considerably advance that goal.

Live: Iran warns of ‘full-scale offensive’ if strikes continue Middle East Eye

Iran war live: 10,000 without water after US hit; fire at Kuwait water site Aljazeera

Wilkerson and Nawfal mention that a mass casualty event would force a US escalation, which likely explains why Iran has not yet inflicted one. But Iran may now judge Trump is committed to a path that will lead them to go all in regardless. It appears Iran is now seeking to inflict military deaths, having seen among other things that the US and Trump are casualty averse. This may be a “gloves are really off now” move. Iran is now also explicitly threatening to attack navy vessels, which it had not done before. Having said that, I am not sure Iran will target them until they make themselves targets, as in enter Iran/Strait of Hormuz waters or attack Iran. Even though a blockade is an act of war, I am not sure they will attack the ships just “because blockade”. We’ll see in due course.

We had the same info in our Iran war post yesterday, but Axios makes it official:

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Iran says IRGC navy intercepted 4 ‘violating’ ships in Strait of Hormuz Anadolu Agency

Two oil tankers catch fire after passing through minefields in Strait of Hormuz, Tasnim reports Aljazeera

Report: Shipping Companies Refusing US-Guided Transit Scheme Through Hormuz Strait After Iranian Attacks Antiwar.com (Kevin W)

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Syraqistan

Relations With Taliban Will Remain Frozen, Says Pakistan Afghanistan Today

How Water Is Becoming Pakistan’s Nuclear Threshold The Diplomat

New Not-So-Cold War

Political Crisis in Kiev as Shrinking Zelensky Ousts Popular Defense Minister Simplicius (Chuck L)

Brief Frontline Report – July 17th, 2026 Marat Khairullin

Russia KNOCKED OUT Ukraine From Kostiantynivka History Legends, YouTube

Imperial Collapse Watch

The once and never America Julian Macfarlane (Micael T)

The U.S. Is Trampling Allies in the Global Hunt for Rare Earths Wall Street Journal

Trump 2.0

Firing of top prosecutor in Seattle tests limits of Trump’s power The Hill

Do declassified files support Trump’s election security claims? BBC (Kevin W)

‘Brazen corruption’: critics denounce Trump media plan to sell priority access to Truth Social posts Guardian (Kevin W)

Immigration

DHS Plans “All-Out War” on Immigration Scammers and Fraud ProPublica (Robin K). Fixed it for you: “DHS Plans ‘“All-Out War’ on Immigration”

Democrats Suck

Fetterman warns he would leave Democratic Party if it turns its back on Israel The Hill (Kevin W)

Our No Longer Free Press

More cowardice:

Antitrust

Apple in Early Settlement Talks With DOJ Over Antitrust Case Bloomberg

Economy

Why US investors are preparing for Third World War The Times

How Government Bond Sales Work Steve Keen (Micael T)

Mr. Market Is in a Tizzy

US Stocks End Week Lower on Fears of Another ‘DeepSeek Moment’ Bloomberg

AI

Oracle’s credit rating drops to one level above junk | Ed Zitron YouTube. A big step closer to AI valuation reset.

Americans are angry about data centers. Politicians are feeling the pressure Reuters

Thousands of Google workers demand layoff protections amid AI boom in petition to CEO Guardian

Class Warfare

Man snuck into Anthropic office to warn exec ‘was going to be killed’ as violent threats mount: report New York Post (Micael T)

What Was Sewer Socialism? JSTOR (Micael T)

Meta accused of using AI to target workers on medical leave in bloodbath layoffs: lawsuit New York Post (Micael T)

Antidote du jour. mgl: “Snowy & great egrets in tree at Oceanside, CA.”

And a bonus (Robin K):

A second bonus (Robin K):

And a third:

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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5 comments

  1. Steve H.

    Yves uses a critical technique, a lemma of not appealing to authority, that when you’ve said one insightful thing, you’ve said one insightful thing, but the next thing must stand on its own. Not comfortable, but she applies the same standard to M Hudson, and we’re all cleaner for the scrubbing.

    I recently criticized Eliot Jacobson for hinky tactics on some of his charts. Let me give praise where it’s due. Breaking temperatures into decades helps increase understanding, addition by subtraction, more knowledge with less ink. You can get something like it running the cursor up the years on the full SST chart, but the flood of data can overwhelm. The decade chart scores high on the ‘intra-ocular trauma test’.

    One reason the full chart is harder is the delamination process, where an extreme year is (tautologically) followed by years with lesser values, but the later values don’t drop to long-term averages, they tend to cluster around the previous extreme year. A ratchet effect. This year looks like a delamination.

    Reply ↓
  2. Carla

    Re: “The End of Reading” I wonder if Natalie Wexler & friends have ever heard of this: https://imaginationlibrary.com/

    Dolly Parton was way ahead of these educated education pundits. Little kids whose parents read to them and are constantly reading themselves, are apt to pick up the habit.

    Reply ↓
  3. brian wilder

    I have a question.

    I read the linked x.com tweet from Peter Girnus that starts:

    I am the Chief AI Officer at a company you would recognize, and I want to be precise, almost violently precise, because precision is the last luxury good.

    My question is: was the Girnus tweet AI-generated?

    I see that sing-song rhetoric, sprinkled with spicy metaphor and rhythmic contradictions everywhere. It is very hard for me to read and understand.

    Is it a fashion? Or, is it a by-product of LLMs?

    Any opinion welcome. I would like to hear other people’s take, as it were.

    Reply ↓
  4. The Rev Kev

    “Canada’s PM Carney says Gordie Howe bridge tolls won’t be split with Michigan until $6.4B of debt is repaid”

    Carney is still tap dancing about what the deal was that he made with Trump. Originally, Canada and Michigan were going to be sharing revenues to make it a fair deal. But now? Nobody is certain what the new deal is and I have no idea if Michigan is still going to be part of this new deal. Guess we will have to wait for a leak or something.

    Reply ↓
  5. Ex-PFC Chuck

    If you are a physicist named Brennan Sprinkle, how could you not sign onto a project to study Richard Feynman’s sprinkler problem?

    Reply ↓

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