Decades-long mystery of ginger cats revealed BBC
Climate/Environment
Chicago experiences first dust storm since the Dust Bowl 91 years ago Chicago Sun Times
Simply incredible satellite imagery of a dust storm hitting Chicago this evening. pic.twitter.com/Sr442LNwAn
— CIRA (@CIRA_CSU) May 17, 2025
How Herbicide Drift from Farms Is Harming Trees in Midwest Yale Environment 360
El Paso Is Having Its Dustiest Year Since the Actual Dust Bowl Gizmodo
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The decline of key Atlantic currents is underway, and it’s been flooding parts of the US for 20 years Live Science
28 dead, half a million without power as deadly storms, tornadoes sweep across central, eastern US Accuweather
Pandemics
Long-term clinical outcome and exercise capacity in SARS-CoV-2-positive elite athletes German Journal of Exercise and Sport Research
Long COVID Brain Fog “Very Well Explained” By Altered Levels Of 2 Key Biomarkers IFL Science
Unum Beats Appeal of Hospital Worker’s Covid Disability Suit Bloomberg
China?
Global supply chains threatened by lack of Chinese rare earths FT
Tencent’s Cloud VP just spoke of being chip / compute constrained, especially with the Nvidia H20 ban.
ByteDance, Alibaba, Baidu, and DeepSeek have all complained about being compute constraint in the past few years. Several have been working on switching to Huawei Ascend chips. pic.twitter.com/KBllkE7DaH
— Kyle Chan (@kyleichan) May 18, 2025
Nvidia Plans To Expand Presence in China With Shanghai R&D Center, Report Says Investopedia
The US–China AI race is forcing countries to reconsider who owns their digital infrastructure Chatham House
The Middle East Swings to American AI Kevin Xu, Interconnected
China-US Trade Truce Prompts Nations to Consider Tougher Tactics Bloomberg
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China’s retail sales disappoint as stimulus fails to spur demand; industrial output defies tariffs CNBC
China’s humanoid robots will not replace human workers: Official Channel News Asia
Terrifying attraction lets tourists sleep while suspended over 320-foot cliff New York Post. Something more to this trend than just getting the social media photos?
Syraqistan
Israel announces ‘extensive’ ground invasion of Gaza amid high stakes ceasefire talks The New Arab
Haaretz is reporting that due to a shortage of reservists who will show up for duty, the IDF is calling up soldiers suffering PTSD, two have already commits suicide https://t.co/VgVtiNsT4q
— Mairav Zonszein מרב זונשיין (@MairavZ) May 18, 2025
Israeli military playing God with residents of Gaza in threatening leaflets thrown in Deir Balah.
“The honest conquest.. So We revealed to Moses, ‘Strike the sea with your staff,’ and it parted, and each part was like a great towering mountain. Residents of Gaza, IDF is coming” pic.twitter.com/TvbjdkKM6G
— Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) May 17, 2025
Leaked map shows Israeli proposal to force Gazans into strips of land The Times
As the apocalyptic end-game Israeli offensive in Gaza gets underway, Witkoff says: “I don’t think there is any daylight between President Trump’s position and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s position.” With Netanyahu’s position being the final “conquest” of Gaza. So there you have it pic.twitter.com/KcLQr5amUx
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 18, 2025
Only Military Action Against Israel Can Save The Palestinians Do Not Panic
Destroying Gaza ‘With Love’: Israel’s New YogiNazis Haaretz
Netanyahu Announces Israel Will Allow a ‘Basic’ Amount of Food To Enter Gaza Antiwar
Private US-backed foundation to start Gaza aid deliveries despite UN warnings France 24
An Israel journalist posted that American security guards landed in Israel and they will be in charge of distributing aid in Gaza. “They do not seem like fun people to fight with.”
Great, can these same guards intercept the American 2000 pound bombs before they hit tents and… pic.twitter.com/v3Gh8PRSxT
— Mosab Abu Toha (@MosabAbuToha) May 18, 2025
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Nuclear deal with US possible if intimidation tactics stop: Pezeshkian Al Mayadeen
Witkoff says US ‘red line’ in Iran talks is any ability for Tehran to enrich uranium Times of Israel
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The New Dark Age Chris Hedges
European Disunion
Pro-EU moderate Nicușor Dan wins Romanian presidential election stunner Politico. I’d say the real stunner was when Romania, with support from the EU, nullified the previous election and then removed the winning candidate from the ballot, but that’s just me.
Reactions:
🇷🇴 Well, they did it. The EU managed to push through this massive electoral fraud, led by Macron’s France, Moldova, and, of course, the Romanian state:
It seems we were too naive to think they would allow the people of Romania to have free elections, too much was at stake for… pic.twitter.com/dSayQi7OPw
— Daily Romania (@daily_romania) May 18, 2025
My warmest congratulations to @NicusorDanRO on his victory tonight!
The Romanian people have turned out massively to the polls.
They have chosen the promise of an open, prosperous Romania in a strong Europe.
Together let’s deliver on that promise.
Looking forward to working…
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 18, 2025
The liberal favourite stumbles in Poland’s presidential election The Economist
Ruling party tops Portugal polls marked by far-right surge AFP
🇵🇹 Another populist breakthrough in Europe, this time in Portugal.
Portugal has been dominated by two centre-left parties for half a decade, but today, the nationalist CHEGA party has broken that and finished second in a national election.
CHEGA was only established in 2019,… pic.twitter.com/evwXyQsilc
— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) May 18, 2025
Italy’s Meloni hosts Vance, EU chief for trade talks, hails ‘new’ era Straits Times
Old Blighty
WHY WE NEED A STRONG LEFT Stumbling and Mumbling
Starmer’s post-Brexit deal under threat from EU fishing demands The Times
Starmer’s Big Tech lobbying problem Democracy for Sale
New Not-So-Cold War
EU, UK leaders speak with Trump before his Putin call as Ukraine hit Al Jazeera
Rubio warns of new US sanctions if Russia stalls Ukraine ceasefire talks Ukrainska Pravda
Putin heads into Trump call confident Russia has upper hand against Ukraine Bloomberg
Brief frontline summary – May 18, 2025 Marat Khairullin Substack
TRUMP, THE EUROPEANS AND ZELENSKY DON’T KNOW THE LESSON OF THE ARROGANT KING AND THE BURNING OF THE ORACLES John Helmer
Baltic Provocations Heat Up: Estonia Again Plays with Fire, This Time Gets Burned Simplicius
Estonian PM Vows To Keep Up Checks On Russia’s ‘Shadow Fleet’ Reuters
Ukrainian neo-Nazis to sign deal with Russian separatists RT
Another Look at Root Causes of the War in Ukraine Larry Johnson
Spook Country
CIA to name veteran Middle East case officer as head of covert operations FT
REPORTER: “You said Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide. People don’t believe it.”
PATEL: “They have a right to their opinion but…you know a suicide when you see one, & that’s what that was.”
BONGINO: “He killed himself. I’ve seen the whole file. He killed himself.” pic.twitter.com/pduX7bU9AF
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 18, 2025
FDD Uncovers Likely Chinese Intelligence Operation Targeting Recently Laid-Off U.S. Government Employees Foundation for Defense of Democracies. From a neocon outfit always aiming to drum up support for confrontation with China, but worth noting.
Biden
Former President Joe Biden diagnosed with aggressive form of prostate cancer NBC News. The tributes are already pouring in from Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Hillary, Kamala, etc. Here are some other reactions:
Thinking about the thousands of people who’ve been denied cancer treatment for the last 18 months in Gaza because of Joe Biden’s policies. pic.twitter.com/1rvuKktaZT
— Mohammad Alsaafin (@malsaafin) May 18, 2025
War criminals with prostate cancer are still war criminals. Biden isn’t a “decent” man, he’s the man who aided the total destruction of Gaza, the mass slaughter of children, normalized starvation as a weapon and shred international law.
His legacy is and will always be genocide pic.twitter.com/OrmhiQ17Na
— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) May 18, 2025
“Liberation Day”
Bessent warns tariffs will return to ‘Liberation Day’ rates if negotiations aren’t in good faith The Hill
Scott Bessent says tariff uncertainty is a tactic — otherwise countries ‘would play us in the negotiations’ Fortune
The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump’s America First plan BBC
Trump 2.0
Behind Trump and DOGE’s Reckless Destruction Is a Determination to Crush Workers Truthout
Vucic Says No Halt To Kushner’s Trump Hotel Project In Belgrade Despite Forged Document RFE/RL
Trump Drops Southwest Airlines $2.1 Million Lawsuit Over Flight Delays Aviation A2Z
GOP Funhouse
Republicans advance Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ in unusual late-night vote The Hill
Concerns rise over medical coverage losses from ‘big, beautiful bill’ The Hill
How Biden set the stage for GOP budget cuts Stephen Semler. From February, still germane.
Police State Watch
The Group Behind Project 2025 Has a Plan to Crush the Pro-Palestinian Movement New York Times
TRUMP IS BUILDING A GLOBAL GULAG FOR IMMIGRANTS CAPTURED BY ICE The Intercept
AI
Worst Interview Ever Slate
Healthcare?
What makes a hospital room ‘intelligent’? Becker’s Health IT. Clean air?
More hospitals will get dangerously overcrowded, researchers project Association of Healthcare Journalists
Abortion
Women who suffer stillbirths could face police searches The Telegraph
Suspect identified in ‘intentional act of terrorism’ near Palm Springs fertility clinic LAist
Sports Desk
Paralympic gold medal-winning judoka Shahana Hajiyeva handed life ban for faking blindness, claims report First Post
Class Warfare
A World on Fire Los Angeles Review of Books
Font activations Internal exile
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
