Links 11/29/2025 | naked capitalism

What’s the point of words? Sam Kriss. A fun read. The reaction from a friend who says she has a PhD in Proust:

BAHAHA! The name dropping train wreck and “ontological monovalence.” It took me straight back to making fun of the “autoreferential” intellectual wankery of some overzealous theory heads in graduate school. I’m only in paragraph 1 and already cracking up.

Scientists find toxic metals hidden in popular plastic toys ScienceDaily (Kevin W)

Daily Coffee Habits May Shield Your Liver Naveen Shankar

Calorie Restriction Attenuates Transcriptional Aging Signatures in White Matter Oligodendrocytes and Immune Cells of the Monkey Brain Aging Cell

#COVID-19/Pandemics

Bird flu viruses are resistant to fever, making them a major threat to humans MedicalXpress. Paul R:

Apparently flu is endemic in birds around here. People are told to keep their cats indoors or “under supervision”, since otherwise the cats kill birds and bring them home and infect their humans. Yuck.

Bird flu virus could risk pandemic worse than COVID if it mutates, France’s Institut Pasteur says Reuters (resilc)

Global measles vaccinations are nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, WHO report finds STAT

South Carolina’s Measles Outbreak Shows Chilling Effect of Vaccine Misinformation KFF Health News. The US is again exceptional!

Climate/Environment

Africa’s forests transformed from carbon sink to carbon source, study finds Guardian (resilc)

The deepest parts of the Arctic Ocean are warming now too Barents Observer

Water

The global threat of water scarcity Counterfire

Violent conflict over water hit a record last year Los Angeles Times

North and Baltic seas show widespread contamination by MRI contrasting agents PhysOrg

How the Nile Water Dispute Threatens Counter-Terrorism Efforts National Interest

China?

Hong Kong fire death toll hits 128, status of 200 unclear; ICAC arrests 6 more South China Morning Post. Live updates.

How Xi Played Trump Foreign Affairs

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Taiwan raids former TSMC exec’s home in trade secrets probe Reuters

Taiwan’s President Lai lashes out against Beijing, pledges $40 billion in additional defense budget CNBC

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Nexperia control battle rages as China’s Wingtech files appeal Asia Times (Kevin W)

The Dutch Enterprise Chamber (corporation court) has not restored Wingtech CEO management of Nexperia NL, share ownership, or corporate control.

Nexperia CN is ghosting Nexperia NL until it does. This public plea is desperate.

Production shutdowns are imminent unless companies… https://t.co/LlUOJfbChM pic.twitter.com/jEc5gNzFqs

— Kathleen Tyson (@Kathleen_Tyson_) November 28, 2025

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China’s factory activity set to shrink for eighth month – Reuters poll Reuters

Chinese excavator makers go global with smart machinery YouTube (resilc)

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China’s Security Guards Live Lives on the Margin Sixth Tone (resilc)

Japan

Russia warns Japan against deploying medium-range missiles on relevant islands China Daily

Southeast Asia

These Scam Centers Were Blown Up. Was It All for Show? New York Times (resilc)

South of the Border

It’s Not Only About Venezuela: Trump Intends a Wider Domino Effect Antiwar.com (Kevin W). And I want a pony.

Elliott Abrams returns, promoting a Caracas cakewalk Responsible Statecraft (Kevin W)

Mega-blockades continue into their fourth day as their effects start to hurt Mexico News Daily

Trump says he plans to pardon former Honduran President Hernandez for 2024 drug trafficking sentence Associated Press

European Disunion

Higher government spending alone will not fix Germany, warns IMF Financial Times

‘Time to act now’: The push to develop Europe’s blockbuster rare earths discoveries CNBC. Kill me now. This could just as easily have gone under The Bezzle. As we keep harping, 1. Rare earths are not rare; 2. It takes a fair bit of skill to process them, which the EU does not now possess; 3. Citizens in advanced economies have little tolerance for the very high pollution produced by processing and refinement.

France to intercept small boats after pressure from UK BBC

More than 110 million euros in losses in Latvia: heavy rainfall and frost have destroyed crops BNN

Bulgarian government withdraws 2026 budget draft after mass protests Euronews

Old Blighty

Britain threatened by gas shortages as North Sea output plummets Telegraph

Reeves’s tax-raising budget is crash-landing on an economy that is struggling for growth Guardian

Cash-strapped Britain to sell off embassies – Politico RT (Kevin W)

‘Unelected power’ of ultra-rich is reshaping British politics, report claims Guardian

At some point in the challenge to the ban on Palestine Action beginning on Wednesday, the co-founder of the direct action group will be asked to leave courtroom five at the Royal Courts of Justice, as will her legal team and most others present. Then the case will continue… pic.twitter.com/EKaDJW48lk

— The Left Bible (@theleftbible) November 26, 2025

Judge in Palestine Action case worked for Israeli spy Robert Maxwell Asa Winstaneley

Israel v. The Resistance

Horrible: Gaza’s health system is collapsing even after the so-called ceasefire, with more than 85% of essential medicines missing and almost no medical supplies, infant or neonatal formulas entering the Strip. pic.twitter.com/yfgCs2vU3r

— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) November 28, 2025

Israeli police accused of executing unarmed Palestinians in the street Telegraph (resilc). Mainstream media finally taking note.

Mired in financial crisis, the Houthis resume threats to Saudi Arabia Economist

Stealth Bombers and Bunker Busters William Schryver

Syraqistan

Pakistan’s Quiet Coup Foreign Affairs (Robin K)

Settler activists cross into Syria, are returned by IDF after brief pursuit Times of Israel (Kevin W). Settlers acting like cockroaches.

We now have an Al-Qaeda–linked ruler in Damascus and Israel quietly expanding inside Syria under the slogan of “protecting minorities”. This is not an accident.

Let me break down the strategy behind it.

1/19 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Eta7wh9j71

— Kevork Almassian (@KevorkAlmassian) November 28, 2025

New Not-So-Cold War

Top Zelenskyy aide quits amid corruption probe Financial Times. So much for Mercouris saying the Europeans had told NABU and SAPO to lay off the investigations. Events in Ukraine reported that the all-powerful SBU was backing the two agencies….which means not Zelensky.

Putin Lays Final Word on ‘Settlement’ Sham in Kyrgyzstan Conference Simplicius. Featured yesterday in Links too, but a lot of mainstream and even independent media has not caught up with the implications of Putin’s remarks.

NABU and SAPO raid Yermak’s office in Kyiv’s government quarter New Voice of Ukraine (Micael T). Zelensky and Yermak are joined at the hip. Zelensky sent Yermak to Geneva to negotiate to try to reaffirm that his position is essential. Alexander Mercouris reported last week that European officials told the anti-corruption investigators at NABU and SAPO to back off on the investigation, IIRC so as not to destabilize Zelensky. They have a big vote because Europe is funding the government.

the POW challenge Events in Ukraine

The EU’s Kaja Kallas is Bad at History Larry Johnson

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

An open letter signed by 18 of Europe’s leading cybersecurity and privacy academics warned that the latest Chat Control proposal poses “high risks to society without clear benefits for children”. The first, in their view, is the expansion of “voluntary” scanning, including… https://t.co/Jqw2ZvYIFA

— Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) November 28, 2025

Imperial Collapse Watch

Michael Carley: Rewriting WW2 – Historical Revisionism in Geopolitics Glenn Diesen

New York’s BQE Is Falling Apart. The City Can’t Agree on How to Fix It. New York Times (resilc)

The Biggest Problem With Air Travel: Pajamas? Atlantic (Micael T)

Baikonur’s only crew-capable pad busted after Soyuz flight The Register (Kevin W)

Trump 2.0

Trump has rescinded all executive orders signed by Biden using the auto-pen TASS via machine translation (Micael T)

Immigration

Trump says US will pause migration from ‘third-world countries’ BBC

More than 220 judges have now rejected the Trump admin’s mass detention policy Politico

Woke Watch

Would you go to prison for free speech? Unherd

Our No Longer Free Press

Hearing in Brussels on EU sanctions against German journalists: Massive violation of fundamental rights Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)

A Visit by the German Thought Police Consent Factory (AG)

Economy

The US economy faces its most perilous moment yet… Despite out-pacing a stagnant Europe, American growth is losing momentum Telegraph

IMHO, this tweet misses the real point. This is massively stimulative fiscal action, yet job numbers are shrinking, and the economy ex AI sucks:

BREAKING: The US Treasury posted a $284.4 billion deficit in October, the worst opening month to any fiscal year in history.

This exceeds the previous record of $284.1 billion in October 2020, during the historic pandemic response.

Government spending jumped +18% YoY, to $688.7… pic.twitter.com/phxhjHkFRT

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) November 26, 2025

Year-on-Year Change in US Manufacturing Employment Joseph Politano (resilc)

Mr. Market is Moody

The European Central Bank (ECB) has warned that the global threat of shocks to the economy, financial markets and banks is at an unprecedentedly high level Green Central Banking

Hedge Fund Bond Market Bets Risk Yield Spikes, BIS Chief Warns Bloomberg

🚨Major investors are DUMPING Japanese government bonds:

The Bank of Japan, domestic banks, insurers sold -¥10.7 TRILLION in Japanese Govt Bonds (JGBs) in September, the most EVER.

Demand for Japanese debt is falling; no wonder yields are rising.👇https://t.co/VO2K3zwQfl

— Global Markets Investor (@GlobalMktObserv) November 29, 2025

Yen Carry Trade Collapse Threatens Global Financial Stability Discovery Alert

CME Futures Outage Disrupts Trading Across Global Markets Bloomberg

The US is deregulating banks. Will the rest of the world follow? Financial Times. No archived version yet.

SEC probes Jefferies over First Brands Financial Times. Running this as sort-of obligatory coverage. The SEC probes a lot of things. This does not mean any action will be forthcoming. We saw only token action versus private equity despite numerous front page Wall Street Journal and Gretchen Morgenson stories, and an SEC under comparatively tough-minded Gary Gensler. Having said that, Jeffries, unlike PE, does not have a lot of paid-for friends.

Is AI On A New Trajectory? Colin W.P. Lewis I obviously have strong priors. And the papers referenced may deliver the goods. Nevertheless, I see a lot of assertions and bafflegab but no explanation from Lewis of how they go from the model of scaling, which is already breaking down due to becoming more and more recursive (having to use at least some flawed AI generated data; also training sets never having being screened for caliber of input data) to this supposed next phase.

Google’s AI identified the father as a criminal Aftonbladet via machine translation (Micael T)

A.I. and the Trillion-Dollar Question New York Times

Class Warfare