Dear patient readers,
Sorry if today’s Links seems a big heavy on tweets. I was on Twitter a bit more than usual looking for Iran updates and found a lot of good regular news tidbits.
The Man, the Ox, the Lion and the Eagle The Sacred Images Project (Micael T)
A Fundamental Principle of Aeronautical Engineering Has Been Overturned Wired
What anxiety is really trying to tell you Big Think
Carl Jung’s Penultimate Concerns Mark Vernon (Micael T). Important.
Ebola
U.S. Races to Set Up Quarantine Facility in Kenya for Americans Exposed to Ebola Wall Street Journal
In the shadow of Ebola: Scenes from the outbreak’s frontlines Reuters
Doctor evacuated from Congo is ‘helpless’ watching colleagues die of Ebola Washington Post
🚨🌍 BREAKING: The WHO just admitted the Ebola outbreak in Central Africa is moving faster than their response.
When containment lags behind transmission, the math turns ugly fast.
We’ve heard this before. Still, watch this one closely. pic.twitter.com/CfAp3AM04X
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 26, 2026
@JeremyKonyndyk probably knows more about the impact of USAID cuts on Ebola responses than anyone in the world https://t.co/PCZGBmzZmT
— Dr. Angela Rasmussen (@angie_rasmussen) May 26, 2026
Climate/Environment
Don’t Trash Your Old Vapes. NYC’s Volunteer Recyclers Want Them THE CITY
Gentoo penguins cope with climate change heat waves by breeding earlier PhysOrg
Reef fish communities are collapsing under climate stress Earth
Climate change weakens the purification function of lakes EurekAlert
Deadly fungal storms are now sweeping the US – and spreading a disease few doctors recognise Science Focus
Climate change threatens global plant species as habitats shrink Reuters
America’s Water Crisis Can No Longer Be Ignored OilPrice
Exceptional heat continues between Morocco,Spain and Portugal
Min 29.3C Taza
HOTTEST MAY NIGHT EVER RECORDED IN MOROCCOSPAIN MAY HIGH MINIMUMS: Both re-broken from yesterday
23.2C Rota
15.7C Lugo https://t.co/XOyYtDhzyi— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) May 25, 2026
China?
China’s Rare Earth Grip Holds Despite Trump-Xi Talks OilPrice (Kevin W)
China took over another $5 trillion industry, and Europe is moving money and jobs Kevin Walmsley
China Now Controls 70% of Shipbuilding: Can the U.S. Make a Comeback? Sal Mercogliano, YouTube
India
Australia-India-Japan-US Quad to build a port, unveil pact on critical minerals Reuters
India’s bizarre $500bn ‘commitment’ in trade deal with US Financial Times
‘My head spins with the heat’: India’s gig workers battle exhaustion amid soaring temperatures Guardian
India’s ‘king of mangoes’ crop devastated as farmers report losses of 90% Independent
Africa
African nations seek security ties with Turkey through ‘Somalia model’ Middle East Eye
Landslide at Angola illegal gold mine kills 28 Reuters
Uganda launches $1.8 billion water rescue plan as climate shocks and disease threaten millions Africa Business
European Disunion
Eurozone issuers turn to non-euro debt in hunt for new investors Financial Times. More proof that the euro is not a reserve currency candidate. The reason the dollar is still dominant is that international investable assets are overwhelmingly in USD.
Europe wants its own Starlink. But it’s on course for five failures instead Euractiv
‘It was 30°C in the classrooms this afternoon’: France experiences its hottest day in May on record LeMonde. Lead story
Old Blighty
Tony Blair tells Starmer and rivals: abandon net zero and move closer to Trump Guardian (Kevin W). Why won’t he retreat to his crypt?
Blair: Starmer has no plan for Britain Telegraph
Israel v. The Resistance
Hebrew Language Israeli Media Is Boasting About Buying Congress Kevin Gosztola (Dr. Kevin)
ZOMG, click through and read the full tweet:
Perhaps the worst pedophilia, rape and sexual abuse scandal in Israeli history is ricking the West Bank settlement movement.
1) A Kan 11 investigation exposed a horrifying network of organized, pedophilic, and sadistic child abuse within the Gush Etzion settler bloc. Five women…
— Shaiel Ben-Ephraim (@academic_la) May 26, 2026
Still germane:
‼️Shocking: Basque activists from the Freedom Flotilla to Palestine were assaulted and detained by police at Bilbao Airport after arriving from Israel, where they had already been kidnapped, humiliated, and abused by Israeli forces.
Meanwhile, far-right agitator Dani Esteve —… pic.twitter.com/w0GmBvgVOH
— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) May 23, 2026
Israel says new head of Hamas’ military wing killed in Gaza City strikes BBC
New Not-So-Cold War
🕯 Starobelsk, LPR. May 22.
A Ukrainian terrorist attack claimed 21 young lives (most of them girls born in 2006-2007) & left 60+ people injured.
Unlike cowardly @BBC & @CNN, 51 real journalists came to see the site for themselves & speak to witnesses.
This is what they saw. pic.twitter.com/20sPf8vxdg
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) May 26, 2026
Mines on LPG Tanker Point to Dangerous New Front in Baltic War gCaptain
Turkiye’s Reportedly Proposed Military Pipeline To Romania Will Worsen Tensions With Russia Andrew Korybko
Czech ‘ammo coalition’ for Ukraine loses support RT (Kevin W)
Everyone is losing their sh*t over this post, and it’s amazing. https://t.co/GU20iUvHBS
— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) May 26, 2026
Russia’s relations with its neighbors will ebb and flow Vzglayd (Micael T)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
‘BusPatrol’ Put AI Cameras in Tens of Thousands of School Buses. Now They Want to Give Cops Access 404 Media
California Moves To Exempt Linux From Upcoming Age-Verification Law Tom’s Hardward
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Reserve Currency Trap: The Mechanics of US Industrial Erosion Craig Tindale. Important
The U.S.-Israel War on Iran: Geopolitical Rivalry in the Middle East and Its Global Impact ChinaAffairs+1
Trump 2.0
Donald Trump’s Board of Peace fund is empty Financial Times. Lead story. Archived link not working yet (often the case with the FT, they seem to allow archiving after a story is up for a bit), link to site here.
Trump administration proposes NDAs for all federal workers Washington Post. An American expat reacted:
Ah, now we are effectively to have a secret police. The people in a position of power are singularly ineffectual and feckless, or dickish, in a weird polarization. We’re in the age of extremes. I keep hoping that this will pass, like the McCarthy era, but nations get stuck in the machinery of awful regimes for decades, sometimes.
The Trump administration is working on a deal to give weapons-grade plutonium to energy companies CNN (Kevin W)
Exclusive renderings of Penn Station overhaul show Trump’s name with presidential seal Gothamist (Kevin W)
South Carolina Redistricting: Senate Passes on New Map, Defying Trump New York Times (Kevin W). For last 24 hours or so, no new New York Times stories can be found on archiving sites. Maybe the Gray Lady has implemented a block?
Immigration
The Trump administration’s big move to limit legal immigration Economist. The reporting on this is generally terrible. 1. This move is clearly contrary to statute. 2. Trump additionally did not go through the required publication + 60 day comment period.
US planning to halt immigration at ‘sanctuary city’ airports DW
GOP Clown Car
Did Donald Trump Just Hand Texas to Democrats? Newsweek (Ann)
Supremes
Judges Get Removed From The Bench For Doing What John Roberts and His Wife Have Been Doing For 16 Years Christopher Armitage
Thomas, Alito say Supreme Court obligated to hear Florida’s commercial driving fight The Hill
Economy
A Searing Asian Summer Will Add to Risk of Surging Gas Prices Bloomberg
Consumer Credit Stress Is Comparable to the Great Recession Michael Shedlock
AI
If enough other companies report the same, the bubble pops. Gary Marcus
Revenge of The Business Idiot Ed Zitron
Google has seriously leaned into AI enshittification lately The Register
Pope Leo: The Wall and the Machine The One Percent Rule
BREAKING: The federal government is targeting Anti-AI and data center activists. They are formulating a new threat category: anti-tech violent extremism. Full article in replies. pic.twitter.com/Qn1TvETXOh
— Daniel Boguslaw (@DRBoguslaw) May 26, 2026
Trump appoints former Attorney General Bondi to White House AI panel: Report Anadolu Agency
The Bezzle
How to Win a Nobel Prize Using Mickey Mouse Numbers Joseph Francis (Micael T)
I read all 277 pages of SpaceX’s IPO filing so you don’t have to.
Losses up 700%. Revenue decelerating. 107x price-to-sales multiple.
It’s a trainwreck. Full breakdown below 👇 https://t.co/Ta4KNI0DLh
— Ed Elson (@edels0n) May 26, 2026
SpaceX IPO Is Forcing Changes To Index And Underwriting Rules Forbes (Micael T)
Enhanced Games suffers disastrous stock price fall with investors fleeing following inaugural event News.com.au (Micael T)
⚠️The AI DEBT BUBBLE is extremely large:
US investment-grade bond issuance has surged to a record $794 billion year-to-date, up +20% YoY, the strongest start to any year on record.
Total issuance is now on pace for over $2 trillion for the full year, according to Goldman Sachs.… pic.twitter.com/eUPpA91Fl0
— Global Markets Investor (@GlobalMktObserv) May 26, 2026
These States Allow Semi Trucks To Pull Three Trailers Jalopnik (resilc)
Class Warfare
The Divorce Between Wall Street And Main Street Seeking Alpha. resilc: “See paycheck to paycheck by income chart.”
As US stock market hits new highs, 2 of 3 Americans are cutting back on spending, survey shows Associated Press (Kevin W)
Uber, Lyft drivers in Massachusetts form first US ride-share union Reuters (Kevin W)
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus:
Mama pig and her piglet going outside for the first time after being rescued from abusive owner pic.twitter.com/mxezOmWLZv
— Nature Unedited (@NatureUnedited) May 26, 2026
A second bonus:
Elephants sheltering their caregiver from the rain 🐘❤️ pic.twitter.com/XOyFRxgGHC
— Nature Unedited (@NatureUnedited) May 26, 2026
And a third:
Kitty knows where to go to get groomed pic.twitter.com/dsJWqSN9DC
— Nature Unedited (@NatureUnedited) May 26, 2026
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
