Retired Californian finds fulfilment as Lumphini cat caretaker Bangkok Post
Earth Rotation Residuals as an Early-Warning System for AMOC Decline Craig Tindale
Who are the Japanese? Huge DNA discovery rewrites history Science Daily (Kevin W)
Thai watermeal tipped as ‘green gold’ of future food Nation Thailand
Hantavirus
Climate/Environment
Birds dying along California beaches as marine heat wave intensifies Deseret Sun
China and Norway push to increase krill harvests around Antarctica Mongabay
‘Insect apocalypse’ is already fueling malnutrition in some regions, first-of-its-kind study reveals LiveScience
Climate Change Is Creating a New Kind of Weather Disaster Gizmodo
Super El Niño could reshape catastrophe risk pricing, insurers warn ITIJ
Drones now key to fighting malaria as the climate crisis fuels ‘catastrophic’ rise in cases Independent
Some seas may soon be trapped in near-permanent heatwaves, scientists warn Earth.com
Ancient Euphrates River Is Disappearing And People Are Linking It To The Bible NDTV
No trees, no fans: surviving extreme heat in India’s salt pans Japan Times
Arizona, Nevada and California take massive Colorado River water cuts Federal plan Tucson.com
China?
I am at a bit of a loss when reading some of the hot takes on the Trump-Xi summit. There was no sherpa work because Trump does not do that (see the summit with Putin in Alaska). No sherpa work = at best very little concrete will be concluded. Trump blew up the low-odds possibility of China agreeing to buy more soyabeans or Boeings by two sets of sanctions of Chinese companies mere weeks before the get-together. The one thing Trump might have fantasized he could have gotten done was to get Xi on board with some level of support in getting the Strait of Hormuz open. But China no way no how will provide military support. The other path is negotiations, which are impossible due to US maximalist demands, lack of patience, and being both negotiation and agreement incapable.
So this wound up being a wag-the-dog event, a distraction from the war in Iran (and Chas Freeman added the Epstein files). However, another Trump-Xi meeting is set for Washington in September.
As a diplo-connected contact wrote:
One of Trump’s key concessions to China was to be the lifting of restrictions for the supply of Nvidia H100 (second most powerful AI chips) that he’d previously restricted. Jensen Huang went on the trip hoping to sell $billions of these devices once Trump eased the restrictions.
However, China said they weren’t interested as their new Huawei Ascend chips are far more powerful and are fully integrated with Deepseek. Jensen had more bad luck after he went shopping in China and he had to dump all of his purchases into the trash as they weren’t allowed on the plane.
And there was no acknowledgement from the Chinese on the purchase of Boeings (500 expected originally, revised down to 200) or soybeans.
What a shambles
Xi owned Trump in this summit.
After Trump’s pledge to ‘open up’ China, low expectations for trade deal Aljazeera
Trump’s Failed Mission to China Larry Johnson
Salesman Trump leaves China with very little in his bag Asia Times (Kevin W)
Good detail, do click through:
* * * Taiwan releases statement in response to Trump comments The Hill
The US-China trade war is entering a worrying new phase: a legal arms race South China Morning Post
China’s Growing Quantum Dominance Forces U.S. to Adapt F-35 Software Military Watch
China has decisively won the shipping war Kevin Walmsley
India
India raises fuel prices as global energy crisis adds pressure on economy Independent
Church leaders killed in latest ethnic violence in India’s Manipur Aljazeera
Africa
Acute hunger grips nearly 20 million people in war-battered Sudan, says IPC Aljazeera
European Disunion
Fußball 101: Bier Bundesletter (Micael T)
The EU and China are stumbling into a trade war Economist
China ‘very disappointed’ with Europe’s planned investment restrictions, diplomat says Reuters
Nato to press Europe’s arms makers to boost investment and production Financial Times. Lead story.
Friedrich Merz vows to oppose new EU debt despite Germany’s borrowing spree Financial Times
Old Blighty
I’ll never regret what I did – Palestine Action activist cleared over Elbit raid The Standard
There’s a risk of another Liz Truss moment’: City raises spectre of bond market meltdown again Guardian
Andy Burnham will push to become PM before Labour conference, allies say Guardian (Kevin W). Forgive me for badly uninformed priors. Wes Streeting is an even more fierce Zionists than Starmer, so by default, your humble blogger is of the “anybody but Streeting’ school. Reader comment on Burnham welcome.
UK govt warned fuel crisis may lead to ‘crops rotting in fields’ Agriland
China warns UK over nationalisation of British Steel Financial Times
Why does Guernsey dump raw sewage into the sea? BBC
Surfers to launch nationwide protests over failing water system Independent
e
Israel v The Resistance
Featuring this rather than the full video, which the YouTube censors have made age restricted:
Senate fails to curb Trump’s war on Iran even as Republican opposition grows Guardian
Simulations Confirm Iran’s North Korean Attack Submarines Can Sink U.S. Navy Carrier Groups Military Watch
Iran turns to Pakistan land corridor as US naval pressure disrupts Gulf trade Middle East Eye
New Not-So-Cold War
Zelensky Claims Leaked Russian Intel Docs Show Russia Preparing to Take Out “Decision-Making Centers” of Ukraine Simplicius. Hard to take the Zelensky effort to elicit rage seriously. Government buildings in Kiev are legitimate targets. Putin has apparently been resisting great pressure from the General Staff to strike decision-making centers. The more interesting part of this story is Zelensky saying that drone strikes into Europe are also in the works, and Simplicius describing why this is not impossible.
Ritter’s Rant 089: The Karaganov Fallacy Scott Ritter (Micael T)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch:
NHS England confirms: Palantir staff can access patient data The Register (Chuck L)
Imperial Collapse Watch
Stocks and Precious Metals Charts – Change Forged in Misery and Blood Jesse’s Café Américain Jesse’s musings are regularly very good and I have been too busy to check in for a while. A section from this piece:
There will be no good and sustainable monetary system easily reached for the same reasons that this generation of leaders can no longer create and put forward fair and workable laws for their own country. They are overcome by ego and greed. They wish for a system riddled with loopholes and personal advantage for them and their friends. So this is what is produced. And until this changes, progress and change will be spattered with misery and blood, as it has so often been in the past.
If there is any key point I wish you to take and hold in your minds and hearts it is that there is no such thing as a perfect, self-regulating monetary system. There could only be such an ideal model if men and women were angels, perfectly rational and reliably virtuous.
Trump 2.0
Trump administration proposes easing toxic wastewater regulations for coal-fired power plants ET Now
Colorado’s Democratic governor commutes ex-election clerk Tina Peters’ sentence after Trump pressure Associated Press
Our No Longer Free Press
Rich Guy Quote Journalism Peter Shamshiri (Paul R)
Economy
The Iran War Could Crash the Global Economy, Here’s How Fair Observer
The World Is Burning Through Its Oil Safety Net Wall Street Journal
Iran, Ukraine wars deliver worst hit in years to oil refining output Reuters
Mr. Market Needs Therapy
Bond Market on Verge of Crash, Long Bond Yield Near 19-Year High Michael Shedlock
Global bonds tumble as flaring inflation spooks investors Reuters
The Energy Crisis Is Becoming a Currency Crisis Bloomberg. A lazy report via being narrowly accurate but substantively misleading in details. The baht is not in currency crisis terrain, FFS. It may wind up there there but it is not in the position of the rupee. The baht is exactly where it was a year ago. On top of that, it rises during high season, November to March, so a lot of the fall since the start of the war is attributable to that. There are still many complaints from local businesses that it is overvalued.
AI
US AI policy is a clumsy mess. Here’s what to do about it Gary Marcus
Mayo Clinic is Using AI to Listen to Emergency Room Visits 404 Media (The Joker)
Brussels runs on summaries and AI is now writing them Euractiv
Do Job Postings Show Early Labor‑Market Effects of AI? Liberty Street Economics
Your CEO is suffering from AI psychosis Jake Handy (The Joker)
The Bezzle
Class Warfare
Antidote du jour (Tracie H):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Secure Payments Powered by Clover
‘GBX
People couldn’t hold back their tears when they realized the crying sound belonged to Palestinian children killed by Israel.’
@GBX_Press
In a social experiment conducted by a YouTube channel in Spain, the sound of a child crying was played from underground.
You can see the grief that that woman felt when she understood what she was seeing & hearing. But if you told her that such recordings are used by the IDF to lure civilians out of cover so that snipers can murder them, then you may have seen a different emotion – rage.
Due Dissidence on the political smearing of Massie ahead of Tuesday’s Kentucky primary. This is a hoot. So believable…..not. / ;)
Massie SMEARED With INSANE Allegations WEEK BEFORE Primary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDXsPbsxpq4
Nothing sounds fishy about this woman’s claim. Nope. Not at all. / ;)
I beg your pardon, here’s some seeds for a new rose garden
Along with the monkeyshines there’s gotta be a little refrain sometime
When you take, you gotta give, so live and let live and let go, oh, oh, oh, oh
I beg your pardon, but you cemented over a rose garden
I could promise you things like buying Boeing wings
But you don’t find roses growin’ on stalks of clover
So you better think it over
Well, if sweet talking you could make it come true
I would give you the world right now on a silver platter
But what would it matter?
So smile for a while and let’s be jolly; relations shouldn’t be so melancholy
Come along and share the good times while we can
I beg your pardon, but you cemented over a rose garden
Along with the monkeyshines there’s gotta be a little refrain sometime
I beg your pardon, here’s some seeds for a new rose garden
I could sing you a tune and promise you the moon
But if that’s what it takes to hold you I’d just as soon let you go
But there’s one thing I want you to know
You’d better look before you leap; Hormuz waters run deep
And there won’t anyone left there to pull you out
And you know what I’m talking about
So smile for a while and let’s be jolly; relations shouldn’t be so melancholy
Come along and share the good times while we can
I beg your pardon, but you cemented over a rose garden
Along with the monkeyshines, there’s gotta be a little refrain sometime
I beg your pardon, but you cemented over a rose garden
Along with the monkeyshines, there’s gotta be a little refrain sometime
Rose Garden, by Lynn Anderson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXHsWBKKNbI&list=RDKXHsWBKKNbI
Excellent work! My digital cap is off to you.
I’m going to have this song stuck in my head all day.
Nice one Wuk.
Thanks again Tracie H. Those two cats are doing a fine job holding down that quilt.
“China warns UK over nationalisation of British Steel” Financial Times
Fair enough: nationalisation is theft.
Did Red China nationalise any assets owned by Britons, British firms, or the British government? That would be theft too. Hand ’em over!
A little more inside baseball on how utterly stupid and self-defeating the attempted H100 play with china truly was: H200s and B200s came out over the last 6 months and H100s aren’t even for sale through the big western hardware and cloud providers for long term leases or purchase. Holding the H100s from China was presented as leverage because China “didn’t have capable chips” but it was really about dumping the overproduced H100s as the (more expensive) H200s and B200s came online. Jensen is a huge rube for allowing Nvidia to get drawn into this. China’s chips are all RISC-v, that they are fully integrated with their homegrown models also means they are permanently splitting from the ARM and x86 instruction sets (fee paid to western companies). Huge implications long term for China using western software, because the software on top of the chips has to work with the instruction set and very few if any major western software giants (eg Microsoft) support RISC-V.
sorry one point of clarification: RISC-V is specific to the CPU chips (which China already makes) not the Ascend GPUs. But since they make both they’re more tightly integrated than using an Nvidia chip with their homegrown CPUs. Having their own GPUs now means they will proceed on their own sovereign development track based out of these architectures and not the western ones.
Working link for “Andy Burnham will push to become PM before Labour conference, allies say” article at-
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/may/15/andy-burnham-pm-labour-autumn-conference
A coupla months ago in a video about the UK, the guys at The Duran mentioned that Burnham started off his political career as one of Tony Blair’s lieutenants. That’s not good.
File under AI. The Daily Show.
Prego Records Dinner Convos, Delivery Bots Run Amok & Robot Becomes Buddhist Monk | The Daily Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1982pUOMlw