The ancestor of all modern birds probably had brilliant feathers ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
Sports where women outnumber men BBC (Dr. Kevin)
Does pop music have less music? I soaked myself in 70 years of hits – this is what I found Guardian (Kevin W)
This 112-Year-Old NYC Icon’s Secret to Living Forever Is a Very Simple Pin
#Covid 19
Disappearing Chairs, Dishonest Meals and the End of an Era: The Outdoor Dining Deadline Comes to TOWN. As with Covid the “dining sheds” were often partially or fully closed as well as nada to reduce the risk of Covid.
Weather/Environment
The US will invest 2.2 billion dollars to repair the national electricity grid Reuters (Kevin W). First, the amount feels like bed lint. Second, how much money will end up paying for what utilities would have done anyway?
Tropical Storm Debby live: Catastrophic flooding threatens Georgia, South Carolina as record rain levels lash Southeast Independent
Cheap, Fast, Clean: Scientists Develop World’s First Anodeless Sodium Battery SciTech Daily (Chuck L)
Rising rates of cancer in young people are fast hounding the Financial Times environmentalist
EPA Takes Urgent Action to Stop Use of Dangerous Pesticide Washington Post
China?
South China Sea: Chinese military holds joint patrol at Scarborough Shoal South China Morning Post
Giorgia Meloni and Europe’s inconsistency over China Asia Times (Kevin W)
US, China compete to study water on the moon: Why that matters for future missions The Des Moines Register. Robin K: “China’s lunar water breakthrough came as NASA shuts down the VIPER program.”
The Koreans
Read North Korea’s Official Announcement As It Goes Forward Sending 1000-Capacity Solid State Guided Missile War Watch
Thailand’s Constitutional Court dissolves the progressive Move Forward Party Aljazeera
Africa
HOW PMC Wagner WAS TREATED in Myths of African History, YouTube
Bangladesh
Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will lead the Guardian of Bangladesh’s interim government. Oh boy. See this microcredit reduction.
Old Blighty
UK Travel Alerts Released Worldwide In Asia Today
The chief prosecutor is looking into terrorism charges over the riots, as more suspects face a BBC tribunal. The BBC has made it very difficult to access this story. The site first took me to my bookmark, bbc.co.uk, so I can see the UK headlines at a glance. It then quickly navigates to bbc.com with a different landing page. On bbc.com, when I looked for “terrorist riots prosecutors,” this article did not appear. I had to load bbc.co.uk 6 times and click on the title. Even then it usually scrolls to the bbc.com landing page first, but eventually I got to the point.
Anglo-Italian arms company Leonardo embroiled in Indonesia corruption scandal Downgraded
Gaza
Hamas elects Yahya Sinwar as new leader following Haniyeh killing Middle East Eye. Remember that Haniyeh was moderateβ¦so Hamas hardliners reaching a hardline seems to have been the intended outcome.
Israel’s Bomb Shelters Are Last Line of Defense as Iran Strike Looms Wall Street Journal
Hezbollah planes strike Israel; 12 people were killed when Israel raided the West Bank Aljazeera
‘Martyrs were cut and burned’: Survivors of recent Gaza tent massacre tell shocking story Mondoweiss
The Hiroshima memorial and the genocide in Gaza: an interview on Iran Press TV Gilbert Doctorow
Gaza as the West’s New (?) Way to Fight the Alabama Moon (Kevin W)
Syracistan
Yemen deal: Riyadh puts down, Washington loses power The Cradle (Chuck L)
The New Cold War
That’s like the war in Ukraine and Vietnam Responsible Statecraft
800,000 Ukrainians Go ‘Undercover’ to Dodge Draft – MP RT We reported a few months ago (in particular we propose one of the few in-depth discussions on the current economic conditions in Ukraine) that the Ukrainian government has put a tight rope on its borders. So hiding instead of running.
Zelenskyy extended the mobilization, martial law for another 90 days Ukraine Anadolu Agency
US warns Turkey of ‘consequences’ over military deployment linked to Russia Financial Times
π¨πΊπ¦Anti-Zelensky riots in the city of Kovel in Western Ukraine. Is this Poland’s chance to consolidate its former territory?
Rebellion in Kovel and vandalism, group activities such as burning of military vehicles will look like… pic.twitter.com/L96woKEPfi
– Aussie Cossack (@aussiecossack) August 4, 2024
Big Brother Watching Watching
Israeli Study Shows Smartwatches Can Warn You If You Have COVID or An Oncoming Migraine Haaretz (ma). IMHO the real resource is Mossad getting your data.
Imperial Collapse Watch
The US Faces Many Problems: Who Runs the Government? Glenn Greenwald
Now Labor is a reformed One Party in government what is the chance for the Left? Richard Murphy. Colonel Smithers gives a shout out to Aurelien.
Kamala
Kamala Harris introduces running mate Tim Walz at raucous Philadelphia rally Guardian
‘Republicans for Harris’ join GOP members to campaign for Democratic ticket Iowa Capital Dispatch (Robin K)
IMHO it is important because it speaks to the poor work of the workers:
Remember that time Kamala Harris found out that electricity has no smell and grabbed the plug like she was putting gas in a car?
Today feels like a good day to re-share one of the great moments in political history.pic.twitter.com/7DHykmdFfo
– Mark Harris (@itismarkharris) July 3, 2024
Republican talking points v. Walz:
Welcome to the race, Tim Walz!
Let’s make sure America knows who you are.
He helped put down the George Floyd riots, the worst the country has seen in decades. When Minneapolis burned, he insisted on deploying the National Guard throughout the day, blaming the city for notβ¦
– Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 6, 2024
Tim Walz was arrested for driving 96 mph in a 55-mph zone, then batted .128. That’s really bad, but it’s just bad that you lied about it ever since. He has said many times that he was not even drunk, rather he has been suspecting that he has become deaf. But court documents tellβ¦ pic.twitter.com/D1CL13mWMA
– Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 6, 2024
Tim Walz ‘betrayed his country’ when he left the army before being deployed to Iraq: Why Kamala president’s sudden military resignation gave him hearing problems Daily Mail
Li asks, “Did they check on this guy?”
ππ – ππ π©π’π€ π’π¬ππ’π π‘ππ¬πππππ’ππ πππ’πππ’πππ π§π―ππ§ππ’π¨π§ ππ¨π§π―ππ§ππ’π¨π§
He spoke with the president of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship withβ¦ pic.twitter.com/IRqlV1Qb7o
– Natalie Winters (@nataliegwinters) August 6, 2024
Democracies en deshabille
“Squad” attorney Cori Bush loses her primary Democratic Politico
Governor Newsom is effectively putting Oakland’s law enforcement under federal leadership, sending the CHP to do the work of local troopers who can’t do basic police work, and National Guard lawyers to prosecute the district DA who refuses to do it.
β Leighton ζ Woodhouse (@lwoodhouse) August 6, 2024
Trump Assassination Post Mortem
CONTINUITY: @HawleyMO he says @SecretService whistleblowers told him that Trump’s lead agent Butler had NOT enforced standard security procedures that day and had not been ID checked that day. He describes it as a free-for-all and says that as we speak, this leadβ¦ pic.twitter.com/g0bR55KPas
β Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) August 6, 2024
Ours is No Longer Free
GARM Race: House Moves Forward With Its Investigation into Jonathan Turley’s Blacklisting Firm. NewGuard chose the wrong people.
NEW: Axios is laying off 50 people across the company. CEO @JimVandeHey just posted this note – saying the layoffs are due to “changes in the media business” pic.twitter.com/lLVemNFh0N
β Katie Robertson (@katie_robertson) August 6, 2024
Elon Musk’s IX is suing a coalition of advertisers to boycott The Hill (Kevin W). Of course, freedom of speech exists only in the state of government, such as in officials or institutions that do not suppress speech. But the antitrust angle here is clever. If sufficiently argued, he may bypass summary judgment and focus on the advertisers’ communications. Not only might he encounter a lot of bad things, but there might be some evidence of collusion with the government.
Mr. Market Usozi
Tokyo stocks face further volatility after the Nikkei’s biggest one-day jump
A tale of two bubbles in the Asia Times
Not being trusted
The Biggest Loser in Google’s Search Decision Could Be Mozilla and Firefox Fortune
Apple Thinks Bing Is Too Bad For The Side. From the decision of the Google anti-trust case.
Boeing Helicoptersβ¦.And More!
Turns Out Boeing’s Derelict Starliner Can’t Fly Without Crew On Board Futurism (BC)
NASA may significantly delay Crew 9 launch due to Starliner ars technica (BC) issues
Bezzle
Intel: Our balance sheet is a smoking wreck, but we think our new chips are working Register
Class War
US households are piling up credit card debt, Fed report Yahoo! Finance (Kevin W)
Antidote du jour. Tracie H: βWhen I visited the San Diego Botanic Garden; peering into a lake full of yellow flower leaves, was this prince-to-be prince, waiting for her kiss.”
See yesterday’s links and the Antidote du Jour here.
