In Pictures: Jesse Jackson’s Life, Activism, and Politics Axios
Jesse Jackson Allowed Democrats to Say About Palestine Zeteo
Toxic metals detected in bananas after Brazilian mining accident Science Daily (Kevin W)
Mysterious symptoms appearing in some GLP-1 users Vox
MedicalXpress (fk) Urgent investigation of key ingredients of amazing weight loss drug
Climate/Environment
The paradox that accelerates climate change Wired
How climate change is driving an outbreak of ‘killer’ cold waves in the oceans CNN
An excruciating tropical disease can now be transmitted to most parts of Europe, Guardian research finds
China’s climate history will be rewritten
Today’s temperature of 43.1℃ in Yuanyang is the highest temperature ever recorded in April in China.
Records are sweeping everything. In South Korea, the temperature exceeded 30℃ in East Asia.
Updated later https://t.co/7EELzHVib9
— Abnormal temperatures around the world (@extremetemps) April 14, 2024
China?
How the US won over China’s backchip manufacturing
Sofas suck: China’s home furnishings sector is having an existential moment South China Morning Post
Africa
Sudan: How conflict factors have influenced the country’s food system – and what it means for the current conflict Conversation
Record heat causes cocoa beans to rot, threatening Ivory Coast agriculture PhysOrg
south of the border
Missing people in Mexico increase by 200% in 10 years Guardian (resilc)
discord in europe
Christine Lagarde to resign from ECB before eight-year term ends, Financial Times. Subheading: “Central bankers want to give Macron and Merz a chance to choose their successors before the French presidential election.” Archived version not yet available.
>Munich Security Conference – Machine translated poisonous love letter from the US Nachdenkseiten (Micael T)
Slovakia and Hungary shouldn’t be fooled by America’s fake friendship Andrew Korybko
old blighty
Nigel Farage’s new team talks about the challenge of running Britain’s Politico (Kevin W)
Months of record rainfall are having a significant impact on the UK’s fresh vegetable supply, according to the national farmers’ union BBC.
israel vs resistance
British and US medics say they were cleared from Gaza after speaking out to the Guardian (resilc)
* * *
From Waltz to Hormuz: Why Gulf expansion systematically backfires Middle East Monitor (resilc). important. It also supports skepticism that if Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices will only rise to $108 per barrel.
Beijing moves to contain Mossad’s growing influence in Iran The Cradle (Chuck L)
A look into US intelligence operations in Iran Larry Johnson
Five more tankers have been launched in the past hour, and I cannot stress enough the scale of this airlift. https://t.co/ggVpaGHBXY
— WarMonitor🇺🇦🇬🇧 (@WarMonitor3) February 18, 2026
Over the past six hours, basically anything that could fly and refuel other aircraft was flown toward the Middle East. https://t.co/i5VW0v5Swj
— Oliver Alexander (@OAlexanderDK) February 18, 2026
We are witnessing the largest combat buildup of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and the Middle East since the Gulf War, paralleled by massive naval deployments.
This is not an indication of “negotiations” with Iran, but rather that something is coming soon.
Six USAF E-3G Sentry AWACS from the United States to Europe.
That’s all… pic.twitter.com/gysTLer2kY
— Hidden news. (@SuppressedNws1) February 18, 2026
Final pieces in place for potential attack on Iran TWZ (Nigel Rooney)
Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei warns that US warships may be sunk; US ‘will not succeed’ WION, YouTube
I tell you. Israel plans to use nuclear weapons to protect democracy
A new war that’s not so cold war
How will the war end? Events in Ukraine
‘Meaningful progress’ says Witkov – but six hours of Geneva talks reportedly made Kyiv Post nervous
Ukrainian military units face ‘ice hell’ in Kupyansk-Uzlovoy region – Russian Ministry of Defense TASS (Ghast)
Ukraine faces demographic catastrophe and pays to freeze soldiers’ sperm BBC
* * *
breaking news:
🇮🇳🇷🇺 India’s heroic heart could not bear it. India abandons Russian oil after US threat
Map showing the movement of Russian crude oil tankers.
The majority of Russian tankers are seen heading towards China, which is a completely different situation than just a few months ago. pic.twitter.com/H47B7B8pYo
— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) February 18, 2026
If the West continues to detain the country’s tankers, the Russian navy will break any blockade: Anadolu Official News Agency
Did the British try to crush the Ukraine peace talks? (Video) RT (Kevin W)
big brother is watching over you
ICE is in your phone Glass Empires
My smart sleep mask broadcasts the user’s brainwaves to the open MQTT broker aimilios. Bug: “Easily read other people’s brainwaves and see their REM sleep! What could go wrong?”
Side Channel Attacks on LLM Bruce Schneier. important. Another reason not to use AI. From one of the three papers cited:
We demonstrated attacks across 28 popular LLMs from leading providers, achieving near-perfect classification (often >98% AUPRC) and high accuracy even at extreme class imbalances (10,000:1 noise-to-target ratio). Many models achieve 100% accuracy in identifying sensitive topics such as “money laundering” and recover between 5 and 20% of conversations of interest.
imperial collapse watch
Aurelian out of control. Today’s must-read.
* * *
The University of Maryland said the sewage spill was one of the largest in U.S. history. NBC
Potomac Sewage Spill: Environmental Disaster and Political Struggle New York Times
* * *
Globalist delusional diplomacy
Trump 2.0
The “Peace Committee” already has corruption problems Commissar Lucie. important. There is good reason to expect the peace committee to be corrupt given its structure as President Trump’s enrichment operation, but Commissar identifies how President Trump is building even more skimming methods.
President Trump’s new voter ID threat is the most serious attack on democracy yet still a new republic (resilc)
USDA will take steps to reduce food costs for consumers and strengthen supply chains through proposed changes to line speed rules. Robin K: “Food processors have been deregulated. Why doesn’t this announcement inspire confidence?”
The Council of Economic Advisers Discredits Itself Adam Levitin. About War vs. CFPB
GAO launches investigation into DHS treatment of whistleblowers The Hill
ICE Rampage
Home invasion or ICE? The rules of survival are the same and you need it now WA Lawrence (ma)
ICE Expands Watchlist Efforts Ken Klippenstein (Chuck L)
FBI won’t cooperate with Alex Preti investigation, state official tells BBC
Why violent crime is declining in U.S. cities
Lafaire Epstein
President Trump’s Justice Department released only 2% of Epstein files despite flagging Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, study claims
new:
🇺🇸Congressman Ted Lieu said the Epstein file shows Donald Trump raping children:
“Donald Trump has appeared thousands of times in the Epstein files. Those files contain very disturbing allegations, allegations of Donald Trump raping and threatening to kill children… pic.twitter.com/Vvsv7KUVPn
— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) February 18, 2026
mamdani
Mayor Mamdani threatens to raise New York City property taxes to fill budget gap
Our press is no longer free
“Mr. FCC!” Stephen Colbert flouts CBS for denying interview with mediating Democratic congressman in defiant first round
The New York Times uses dutiful shorthand under the guise of journalism to protect AOC Glenn Greenwald
Goodbye and good luck, David Brooks and Robert Reich. resilc quotes like this:
For four decades, huge sums of money have engulfed Washington and many state capitals. The voices of average Americans are increasingly being drowned out, the campaign coffers of candidates who have their way are being emptied, attacks on organized labor against immigrants, transgender people, black people, and Latinos are funded, and vast empires of right-wing hacks, pundits, and politicians are funded.
That David Brooks, one of the most thoughtful of conservative commentators, does not recognize or recognize this, despite his laudable concern for individual moral development and character, shows how far even the moderate right is from the reality that most Americans live every day.
economy
Global Uncertainty Index rises to 106,862 in February – worse than coronavirus, 2008 crash and 9/11 attacks Economic Times
Global shift towards sovereign launch gains momentum amid geopolitical tensions SatNews
Mr. Market is edgy
Fund managers take their most bearish stance on the dollar in a decade Financial Times
A.I.
AI is contributing to ballooning global debt, already approaching $346 trillion or 310% of GDP CADTM (Micael T)
‘Students are being treated like guinea pigs’ – Inside a private school powered by AI 404 Media. More information about Alpha School is included in a recent post.
Rumors of AGI arrival have been greatly exaggerated Gary Marcus
The AI employment apocalypse is here Unherd
Pennsylvania farmer turned down $15 million from data center developer: Hear him explain why on PennLive, YouTube (resilc). my hero.
basil
As states move to ban prediction markets, Trump administration backs Kalsi and Polimarquette Associated Press (Kevin W)
Utah Governor slams Trump regulation blessing prediction market The Hill. Email Alert Headline: “Republican War on Prediction Markets”
class war
U.S. university underemployment rate reaches 42.5% due to Financial Express downturn
What we can learn from North Carolina’s “Moral Monday” Matthew Cunningham-Cook in this day and age
The immediate antidote: Mark T: “Finding shelter in the midsummer heat.”
Click here for yesterday’s link and Antidote du Jour.
And a bonus. In fact, they are known to be good at getting into cars in bear-prone areas.
Imagine having to explain this to your insurance company without a video 🐻 pic.twitter.com/Q9cfgMXhla
— Positive aspects of X 🌞 (@positivityofx) February 16, 2026
Second bonus:
The horses knew he was nearby.
Apparently he was the owner of the ranch. His daughter took him there to be with the horses one last time… pic.twitter.com/1kzS1MiX0W
— The Figen (@TheFigen_) February 16, 2026
And third:
There is a leak coming from inside the box. pic.twitter.com/o3uRizJnp1
— A cat with a strong impression🐾 (@catshealdeprsn) February 16, 2026
