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Links 7/28/2026

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Mathematicians Reveal Why Humans Keep Becoming Cannibals ScienceAlert (Chuck L)

The Secret Lives of Insects JSTOR (Micael T)

The myth of medieval childhood Works in Progress (Micael T)

Up Close and Personal: How Music Was Heard in the 18th Century Art of Listening (Micael T)

On sampling bias Chris Dillow (Micael T)

The Decline in the Transmission of Scientific Ideas NBER (resilc)

The Science of Using Drugs and Not Dying Playboy (resilc)

Where You Carry Your Body Fat Is Directly Linked to Brain Aging in First-of-Its-Kind Study ScienceAlert (Chuck L)

Climate/Environment

Earth is heating up faster than at any time in its history New Scientist

Super El Niño Forecast Pushes Toward Record Strength as Winter 2026/2027 Signals Emerge Severe Weather Europe

El Niño Worsens Plight of Asia’s Rice Belt After War Price Shock Bloomberg

Trump ally floats Republican pitch for sun-blocking technologies EENews

China?

From the weekend, still germane:

China takes satellite race with SpaceX to sea Asia Times (Kevin W)

China fights back in AI spat with claim US AI companies distil Chinese models The Register

Oman is cozying up to China as US throws Mideast into disarray Responsible Statecraft (resilc)

Japan

Can Japan avoid a Liz Truss-style shock as its PM embarks on a giant spending spree? Guardian

Japan advances Pacific rare earth push after deep-sea discovery BNE

Koreas

Rival Koreas race to build nuclear-powered submarines Financial Times

India

‘This is just the start’: India’s Gen Z protesters force out a minister, but what next? BBC

India’s Cockroach movement threatens to restart protests after mass student arrests Guardian (resilc)

Africa

Sudan civil war: Civilians used as ‘human shields’ DW

Niger coup promises fade as insecurity, hardship persist amid political stagnation Eastleigh Voice

Why Mali’s northern conflict has entered a dangerous new phase Aljazeera

South of the Border

‘We count every litre’: how Cuba’s energy crisis sparked a daily struggle for water Guardian

European Disunion

Freedom of speech dying a slow death in Europe Forvm Geopolitica (Micael T)

France, Germany seek grand bargain on cars and ‘Made in Europe’ Politico

France and Spain brace for more extreme heat as wildfires rage Financial Times. Lead story.

‘A warzone’: Aerial images reveal devastation of massive Bordeaux wildfire as officials claim it could still be burning in November Daily Mail. Lead story.

‘Without us, they are doomed’: volunteers save fish from French rivers drying up in heatwaves Guardian

French firefighters face ‘pyrocumulonimbus’ for first time France24 (Rolf A)

70% of Germans don’t believe army can protect the country – YouGov poll RT (Robin K)

Old Blighty

The UK’s Grid Is Wilting in the Heat Wave Bloomberg

“We might as well not bother growing things and leave the farms empty.” BBC

Burnham to tell schools in England to adapt teaching to local business needs Guardian (Kevin W). God forbid that schools produce students capable of independent thought.

Israel v. The Resistance

A dog saved Houssein Hamze from a bomb. When war returned, he stayed to care for Lebanon’s animals Guardian (resilc)

Israeli crackdown in occupied West Bank intensifies, settlers cause mayhem Aljazeera

Is the Department of War Covering Up the True Extent of US Casualties? Larry Johnson

Syraqistan

Iraq Faces Deepening Financial Crisis as Lawmaker Warns Government May Borrow to Pay Salaries BasNews

Thousands march in Pakistan-administered Kashmir amid election unrest Aljazeera

Kuwait Ratifies Landmark Defense Agreement With Pakistan Sputnik (Kevin W)

New Not-So-Cold War

Establishment Gloats Over Ukraine’s Pivot to Civilian Targets, as Putin’s Rhetoric Heats Up Simplicius

July war deepdive Events in Ukraine

Türkiye is preparing to threaten Russia from the Northwest Vzglayd via machine translation (Micael T). Whoa!

Russia and Ukraine trade attacks, killing 10, including child in Chernihiv Aljazeera

Russia says its ban on gasoline exports will be extended to end of 2026 Anadolu Agency

Some of Putin’s Words to the Duma Karl Sanchez

North Korea sending 30,000 troops to Russia is a ‘win-win’: analysts South China Morning Post. Note that Alexander Mercouris is not convinced that this is happening but is instead scare-mongering by Zelensky. But he concedes this would be a plus for North Korea and not bad for Russia.

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

A Whole Bunch of People’s Claude Chats Are Publicly Accessible Online, and There’s Some Wildly Private Stuff in There Futurism

Imperial Collapse Watch

Asia DESTROYES US Pacific Hegemony. End of Alliances | Prof. Jomo Kwame Sundaram Neutrality Studies, YouTube (Robin K). An excellent talk on international movements, the questionable prospects for BRICS, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the impact of the Iran war.

Ron Paul on The Silver Lining In Trump’s Iran Debacle Antiwar.com (resilc)

Narratives of Moral Conflict: Karim Khan and Delcy Rodriguez Craig Murray (Lucy K)

US walks out on France at UN meeting to protest ally’s criticism of America’s human rights record Associated Press (Kevin W)

U.S. Patriot Missiles Are Already Failing Badly: New Cheaper PAC-3 ACE Variant May Be Near Useless Military Watch

Trump 2.0

GOP senators warn confidence in Hegseth eroding as Iran war drags on The Hill

Trump Administration Demands Hospitals Share Emergency Room Records KFF Health News (Kevin W)

Trump’s data center boosterism is a gift to Democrats MS Now

Saudi Arabia stares down Trump whiplash on nuclear deal The Hill. BWAHAHA

Trump’s selling Wall Street early access to his Truth Social posts is ethically repugnant, but might be legal Mike Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times

What do voters in each congressional district think about Trump? Immigration? The midterms? G. Elliott Morris

Immigration

White House wants veterans to replace truckers who lose licenses in crackdown Associated Press (Robin K)

Tariffs

Trump’s tariff addiction Wolfgang Munchau, Unherd

Our No Longer Free Press

Economy

Japan and China’s roles decline, who is funding America’s deficit now? IDN

Japan Backs Overseas Oil Pipelines to Reduce Hormuz Dependence OilPrice. resilc: “Worthless with drones and missiles now.”

U.S. Jet Fuel Costs Soar as Iran War Hits Airlines Again OilPrice

Everything you think you know about Economics is wrong Steve Keen (Chuck L)

Mr. Market Should Be More Worried

Nasdaq futures slide as chip sell-off continues, but strong earnings bolster rest of market: Live updates CNBC

Big Tech Debt Flood Is Taking Over Risk In Market: Credit Weekly Bloomberg

The US bond market hasn’t been this calm since the dot-com bust and the financial crisis. History warns of a rude awakening MarketWatch

NYSE margin debt jumps to historic levels SeekingAlpha

AI

The AI Bubble Is Bigger Than Ever And The Cracks Are Starting To Show Seeking Alpha

Circular financing ain’t what it used to be Gary Marcus

OpenAI’s ads are failing and it can’t survive without them | Ed Zitron Tech Report, YouTube

AI companies spend record sums on Washington lobbying Financial Times. Quelle surprise!

Prove You’re Human: AI, Chinese Illustrators, and Becoming Tokenizable ChinaTalk

Class Warfare

The Global South is being forced to choose creditors over children Aljazeera

Taxpayers spend about $2 billion annually on Medicaid for Amazon and Walmart employees Popular Information

Are You a Jerk or a Sucker? New York Times. On the American Dream.

America’s Big Cities Are Rapidly Losing Kids Wall Street Journal

‘Ice cold’: A Cleveland family’s heat-wave hustle Signal (Carla R)

Antidote du jour (via):

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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3 comments

  1. The Rev Kev

    “Is the Department of War Covering Up the True Extent of US Casualties?”

    ‘The report from the Wall Street Journal noted that US special ops forces were once again being deployed to the region to carry out a raid on a Hardened Deeply Buried Target (aka HDBT).’

    I’d guess that it was the Pentagon that leaked this operation to the Wall Street Journal as they could see that the whole thing could end up as a bloody fiasco for little to no gains. Since Trump scrubbed the whole idea two days later it looks like it worked. But it should never have even been considered in the first place. It was only a few months ago that the US tried something like this and it didn’t work then nor would it go any better now.

    Reply ↓
  2. ChrisFromGA

    RE: Ron Paul video

    The introductory paragraph sounds like it ought to be a perfect script for a DNC campaign ad:

    President Trump’s decision to launch a war on Iran has been one of the greatest military disasters in US history. Instead of listening to his own intelligence community, Trump followed the lies of Benjamin Netanyahu and took us to war for the benefit of Israel.

    So why is it so hard for Hakeem Jeffries to say the words? He could always hire Morgan Freeman to do the voice over.

    Reply ↓
  3. Steve H.

    > Are You a Jerk or a Sucker? New York Times.

    >> If we’re really lucky, we have people in our lives who see us clearly, not because of our successes, but despite them.

    That’s a piece of wisdom.

    > On the American Dream.

    Yesterday Joe told me, “The American Dream is to leave America.” He just turned thirty.

    Reply ↓

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