‘I was shocked’: Melbourne man’s ‘unbelievable’ find after buying house SBS (Paul R)
How Japan escaped Obesity while America got Fat YouTube (Micael T)
Stem cells from extracted wisdom teeth are like “medical gold,” able to treat multiple diseases Earth.com (Paul R)
UK Scientists Plan to Construct Synthetic Human Genetic Material From Scratch Guardian
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Many #COVID patients needed 9 months to regain baseline well-being, study suggests
Physical well-being returned after 3 months, but up to 20% of patients continued experiencing suboptimal overall health-related quality of life 1 year post-infection.https://t.co/F7wIIQcJ0f pic.twitter.com/ccqDt8Chm6
— CIDRAP (@CIDRAP) June 11, 2025
The “mysterious illness” that feels like swallowing razor blades is actually the new COVID Nimbus variant, say doctors
Covid’s back and it feels like swallowing glass. pic.twitter.com/Z9h9tgJnUn
— Martha-JD, MBA, PCC-😷 (@mryoung151) July 1, 2025
Climate/Environment
Earth is Trapping Much More Heat Than Climate Models Forecast The Conversation
Arctic Sea Ice reaches a Historic Low for late June, with Winter Impacts expected if the Weather Pattern persists Severe Weather
Mediterranean Sea poised to break all-time heat records Fox Weather
Atlantic cold spot shows AMOC has ‘been slowing for a century Oceanographic Magazine
The bold plan to save a vital ocean current with giant parachutes New Scientist
Tajikistan and Central Asia Face Escalating Water Crisis Times of Central Asia
Google’s emissions up 51% as AI electricity demand derails efforts to go green Guardian
China?
Exclusive: Trump Orders Military to “Deter” China Ken Klippenstein
Video teases new Chinese blackout bomb that can knock out enemy power stations South China Morning Post
China didn’t reinvent industrial policy. It perfected the old playbook—one Japan wrote and Germany refined. (Exhibit Q8.3)
Just How Big Is The Chinese Automotive Industry? https://t.co/jQbhx2tiV6
— William Huo (@wmhuo168) June 30, 2025
India-Pakistan
India rejects ‘illegal’ Indus arbitration, suspends treaty over terror links New Indian Express
Suicide attack kills 16 soldiers in northwest Pakistan Daily Sabah
The Koreas
Red flag on nuclear wastewater Korea Times. North accused of dumping.
Thailand
Could Cambodia hit the Thai capital with its made-in-China weapons? South China Morning Post.
Thai court suspends PM Paetongtarn from duty pending case seeking her dismissal Channel News Asia
South of the Border
Argentina must turn over 51% stake in YPF, US judge rules Buenos Aires Times (Kevin W)
Colombia’s former foreign minister sought US support for coup plot: audio and witnesses Colombia News. This news, first reported by El País, comes just two and a half weeks after Nick warned of a possible soft coup being planned in Colombia: Is A Soft Coup Brewing in Colombia, the US’ Long-Time “Israel of Latin America”
Africa
DR Congo-Rwanda peace deal met with scepticism in rebel-held city BBC
Togo groups say recent protests left 7 dead France24
Starving Sudanese people eating weeds to survive amid brutal war Independent
European Disunion
Europe needs a Metternich Unherd
Old Blighty
Britain is racing towards a fresh cost-of-living crisis Spectator
Britain in 2025: sick man of Europe battling untreated illness crisis Guardian (Kevin W). Important and troubling.
Chris Marsden: New head of Britain’s MI6 is granddaughter of Ukrainian Nazi mass murderer Olivier Boyd-Barrett
Israel v. Iran
Iran’s nuclear enrichment ‘will never stop’, nation’s UN ambassador says Guardian
Iran demands security guarantee before resuming nuclear talks with US Anadolu Agency. IMHO, Iran has independently decided to take the same path as Russia in negotiations with the US: play it straight and let it become evident that the other side is the impossible one. They already knew there was no overlap in bargaining positions before the scheduled meeting that wound up being cancelled due to the June 13 attacks.
* * *
Dozens of Israeli drones, worth hundreds of millions, vanished into Iranian airspace. A senior Israeli official told Yedioth Ahronoth they simply “disappeared.”
Now, Israel’s own finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich has frozen military procurement. Ynet reports a total freeze on…
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) June 30, 2025
The U.S. State Department has approved a $510 million emergency transfer of JDAM bomb guidance kits to Israel, reinforcing a parasitic alliance where American taxpayers bankroll Tel Aviv’s military-industrial appetite. The deal includes 3,845 KMU-558B/B kits for 2,000 lb BLU-109…
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) June 30, 2025
Israel Called Its Initial Attack on Iran ‘Red Wedding,’ Referring to a Fictional Massacre that Relied on Deception Antiwar.com (Kevin W). OMG….the House of Frey, which perpetrated the Red Wedding slaughter, was later wiped out by Arya Stark. Do they realize what they are invoking?
Since it was the Israelis themselves that made this comparison, please bear with me in running this sequence, which appeared initially in two different Game of Throne episodes. For those who don’t know the series, it was the Freys who slaughtered the scion of House Stark as well as other Starks in the Red Wedding. Arya Stark was busy at the time, training to be an assassin, and you can see her skills here:
NYT – Guessing About Iran With ‘Experts’ Who Lack Knowledge Of It Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister and leader of the Religious Zionist Party, published a blueprint that openly outlines Israel’s strategy post-Iran strikes:
The strikes on Iran were not just tactical, they were political leverage.
Smotrich calls them “miraculous” and… pic.twitter.com/TyDN8UL4qo
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) June 29, 2025
Palantir’s Shadow War On Iran Kit Klarenberg
Israel v. the Rest of the Resistance
🚨Two journalists identified among those killed by Israeli airstrike on al-Baqa cafe in Gaza:
Ismael Abu Hatab & Omar Zaino
The Israeli strike targeted a goup of journalists who usually meet at that cafe to upload their work pic.twitter.com/X0GIMNxx1D
— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) June 30, 2025
The Israeli soldier who said he felt like a “Nazi” while stationed in Gaza during the First Intifada (https://t.co/hiO7DMph2P) could be expelled from @harvard. Not for violently suppressing an unarmed uprising, but for describing his behavior as Nazi-like, a clear violation of… pic.twitter.com/pZTKb4luYB
— Zachary Foster (@_ZachFoster) June 29, 2025
Divided over Gaza: the Israeli soldiers who fight on and those who refuse The Times
Lebanon pressured to approve Hezbollah disarmament in cabinet, sources in Beirut claim The National
New Not-So-Cold War
Russian Forces Close in on Capital of Ukraine’s Sumy Region: Elite Units Redeployed to Stem Advances Military Watch
The Outcome Of Armenia’s Latest Round Of Unrest Will Be Pivotal For The Region’s Future Andrew Korybko
RUSSIA SAVES FACE — THE BOTOX REVOLUTION John Helmer. IM Doc says Botox produces very good results…until it doesn’t. But patients keep using it, and if they don’t stop, it leads to very bad outcomes.
Syraqistan
Trump signs an executive order ending US sanctions on Syria Arab News
Syria’s wheat war: drought fuels food crisis for 16 million Al-Monitor
Imperial Collapse Watch
America’s New Long War
Wars frequently pick up where the last ones left off. World War II ended where World War 1 ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom (Gulf War II) began where Desert Storm (Gulf War I) concluded.
Today there is every reason to expect the recent 12-day conflict…
— Douglas Macgregor (@DougAMacgregor) June 30, 2025
NEW: Group of 5th-grade girls arrested for plotting to murder a boy in the bathroom and make it look like he took his own life.
The Arizona elementary schoolers plotted to stab a fellow fifth-grade boy after a girl accused him of “cheating” on her.
A report claims the girl “was… pic.twitter.com/8PvnBgoL51
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 28, 2025
Trump 2.0
The Senate megabill is on a collision course with House fiscal hawks Politico
Who wins, who loses if Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ passes? Aljazeera (resilc)
Harvard Violated Students’ Civil Rights, Trump Administration Finds Wall Street Journal
Trump attacks Fed again in open letter calling for lower rates Axios. Kevin W: “Check out image.”
Trump says Musk would ‘head back to South Africa’ without US subsidies for EVs Anadolu Agency
Tariffs
Trump’s tariff war and aid cuts threaten poorest nations’ recovery Financial Times. As we’ve reminded readers, Jomo warned of crisis risk in developing economies for more than a year before the Trump tariffs.
European ports ‘overflowing’ as Trump tariffs cause congestion Financial Times
The Supremes
A New Kind of Judicial Supremacy Steve Vladek
GOP Clown Car
Kristi Noem Secretly Took a Cut of Political Donations ProPublica
Democrat Death Wish
The Elephant in the Room Policy Tensor. albrt:
This is a fascinatingly direct and cogent analysis, except that in Part III the word “Democrats” needs to be replaced with “whatever organization succeeds the Democrats” because the WHOLE point of the current Democratic party is to disintermediate from the working class to enable more siphoning of big donor money to pay for little Madison’s violin lessons.
Three Messages Democrats Should Bring to Rural America Jess Piper (Chuck L)
Our No Longer Free Press
The Art Of The Gaslight Mark Wauck
Mr. Market is Moody
Economic fragmentation raises risk of global financial panic, BIS warns The Times. If you read this recap carefully (and I have been remiss due to competing duties and have not yet read the underlying BIS report) the big systemic risk issue is not government debt levels per se but the astonishingly stoopid hedgie basis trade (tantamount to picking up pennies before a steamroller) going pear shaped as it did when Trump announced his Liberation Day tariffs. Recall that tons of quant-y global macro funds died during the crisis, a testament to Taleb’s big point that tails are fat and even tweaked models can’t adequately allow for that (there are so few data points in the tail that it’s not possible to estimate tail risk with any precision; if you get it right, it was dumb luck). However, as more and more investors get nervous about government debt (whether on an informed or naive basis, or as with Liberation Day, in reaction to new events), it can (likely will) again force rapid unwinds of the basis trade, which can in turn trigger more disruption.
This may seem as if the BIS is driving with a rear view mirror. However, the BIS was way way ahead of other central banks and nearly all economists in warning of the destabilizing potential of housing bubbles in quite a few major economies starting ~2003. In addition, recall there were four acute phases of the global financial crisis, starting in June 2007. The same underlying dynamic got worse and worse as authorities kept applying mere band-aids. And there is also tons of official resistance to hearing BIS warnings.
AI
Make Fun Of Them Ed Zitron. Epic. Delicious. A must read.
Has an AI Backlash Begun? Wired. One can only hope.
Ex-Meta engineers have built an AI tool to plan every detail of your trip TechCrunch. Kevin W: “Hallucinated flights and flight connections anyone?”
CEOs Are Quietly Telling Us the Truth: AI Is Replacing You Gizmodo (Dr. Kevin)
Everyone’s talking about an AI bubble. The Economist blames Bulls and Bears. That’s not the story. The real divide is between China’s industrial planning and the West’s speculative chaos.
AI valuations are verging on the unhinged https://t.co/Fmn6c3XuQU
— William Huo (@wmhuo168) June 29, 2025
The Bezzle
That Dropped Call With Customer Service? It Was on Purpose Atlantic
Driver fury as Hertz’s new Orwellian scanners trigger instant $400 fines for barely visible scuffs Daily Mail (resilc)
Guillotine Watch
Lauren Sánchez Bezos Commits to the Corset New York Times. Billionaires (and Lauren Sanchez Bezos now is one unless Jeff imposed a super stingy prenup on her) falling in line with Trump’s love of the 18th century. Admittedly, some actresses and performers like Cher have been rumored to have ribs removed to make their waists smaller. But Cher in particular had some costumes that looked like corsets.
PG&E is hiring an executive bodyguard. Combat shooting experience required CalMatters. Paul R: “Makes sense. They are an electrical and gas utility. They don’t do water and they don’t want any damn plumbers coming after them.”
Class Warfare
https://news.antiwar.com/2025/06/30/israel-called-its-initial-attack-on-iran-red-wedding-referring-to-a-fictional-massacre-that-relied-on-deception/
Costco Membership. Paul R: “Costco enshittifies. You now need the more expensive membership to get in at 9am. Plebs have to wait 1/2 hour or 1 hour depending”. Moi: I recall that they let old people in early during Covid.
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus (Chuck L). Oopsie!
Humpback Whale breaches and lands on fishing boat 😱 pic.twitter.com/i23kmZAwXW
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) June 29, 2025
A second bonus:
She’s so proud of her little babies..🐕🐾😊❤️ pic.twitter.com/wLhrT04cuw
— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) June 27, 2025
And a third (Chuck L):
Baby capybara eats salad with mom pic.twitter.com/g7LZXUCYF1
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) June 30, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
