A backwards Bible map that changed the world ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
Heritability as Stalking Horse for Mutability Freddie deBoer
Just 28 days without parabens and phthalates turned off breast-cancer-linked activity in healthy breast cells.
Scientists tracked women who had been using everyday personal-care products — the usual shampoos, body washes, moisturisers, makeup — the kinds that often contain… pic.twitter.com/diKZJjPAF7
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) December 2, 2025
Smartphones at age 12 linked to worse health Axios
Singapore Extends Secondary School Smartphone Ban To Cover Entire School Day Straits Times
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Changing the FDA’s Vaccine Approval Process Could Threaten COVID, Flu Protection for Children Scientific American (Kevin W)
A new study comparing immune profiles months after COVID-19 vs influenza shows that SARS-CoV-2 leaves behind distinct and longer-lasting immune abnormalities — very different from what is seen after flu. 1/ pic.twitter.com/ZRavHq1gsP
— Vipin M. Vashishtha (@vipintukur) December 1, 2025
Study shows COVID vaccines decreased heart attacks and strokes.
A sweeping analysis of nearly 46 million adult health records has delivered a clear verdict: COVID-19 vaccination sharply lowers the risk of heart attacks and strokes, directly refuting persistent claims to the… pic.twitter.com/0k9T2e5Msv
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) November 30, 2025
Effectiveness of the Influenza Vaccine During the 2024-2025 Respiratory Viral Season MedRxiv. Not a fan of flu vaccines due to poor efficacy. More confirmation.
Climate/Environment
Amphibians see steep global decline: Study finds 788 species in decline over four decades Down to Earth
Plastic pollution is worsened by warming climate and must be stemmed, researchers warn PhysOrg
El Niño is beginning to occur more regularly, every 2 to 5 years Earth
China?
China services activity hits 3-year low while factory slump persists Financial Times
China Tells Stats Providers to Halt Home Sales Data Publication Bloomberg:
The delayed data disclosure came after China Vanke Co. — long considered one of the sector’s healthier firms — sought to postpone repayment on a local bond for the first time last week. Vanke’s surprise move added to the industry’s woes after years of falling sales and massive defaults by China Evergrande Group, Country Garden Holdings Co., and others
China’s grand plan to dominate global publishing Asia Times (Kevin W)
Anti-Corruption Protests: Thousands attend protests against corruption in Philippines CGTN
Southeast Asia
The current could kill an elephant’: Asia flood survivors describe escaping with their lives Guardian (Kevin W)
Thailand shuts border crossings as Myanmar–Karen clashes intensify Nation Thailand
Africa
Famine In Sudan And How The Powerful Use Starvation As A Weapon Forbes
Urgent Warning: Is Mali Destined to Become the Next Afghanistan? Politics UK
South of the Border
Trump Is the Destroyer of Peace Daniel Larison
Venezuela calls on OPEC to counter US threats Aljazeera
🇺🇸🇻🇪 A call that never happened: “Maduro told Trump he was willing to leave Venezuela if he, his family, and 100+ officials received full amnesty” — Reuters
Another fake published by our beloved mainstream media pic.twitter.com/Hbpuig9ucY
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) December 2, 2025
Trump warns Honduras over election delays, accuses commission of halting vote count Anadolu Agency
European Disunion
Europe’s Economy Records Weakest Growth in Six Decades Hungary Today
Europe’s drilling comeback challenges US energy pledges Reuters
EXCLUSIVE: Police raid EU External Action Service, College of Europe in sweeping fraud probe Euractiv. A shot across the bow?
Old Blighty
Lammy: Courts cannot cling on to jury trials for the sake of tradition Telegraph. Colonel Smithers’ reply to my “!!!!”:
Lammy was interviewed by the BBC breakfast tv news an hour ago. He was ambushed with some of his old tweets in defence of jury trials on the grounds of diversity and urging the need to spend more on the justice system. He weasel worded his way out by saying jury trials still have their place, but not in all cases.
The urgency comes in part from the Palestine trials coming up. One embarrassing one involves retired colonel, decorated hero and son of holocaust survivors Chris Romberg. There’s also a retired Anglican priest. Six of the Palestine protesters are on hunger strike and have been for the past three weeks. It’s not reported.
It’s not a surprise. As a councillor in north London, Lammy admitted to a colleague that his Harvard scholarship was fixed by a Zionist oligarch. His wife is Jewish and was introduced to him by the oligarch.
Scrapping jury trials won’t lead to fewer trials. Instead of 12 fellow citizens deciding G or NG it will be a single Judge. @DavidLammy plans will require more court rooms, Judges, barristers, court staff & prison places.
Govt plans are utterly flawed & will fail.
Decades of…— Anna Soubry 🇬🇧🏴🇺🇦🇪🇺🖤🤍 (@Anna_Soubry) December 2, 2025
UK refrains from hitting high street on Black Friday as fears grow over economy Guardian
Files expose Britain’s secret D-Notice censorship regime The Grayzone (Kevin W)
Israel v. The Resistance
UN says Israel has “de facto state policy” of organised torture WSWS
Live: Israeli forces kill several Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza Middle East Eye. In case you missed that there is and has been no ceasefire.
It’s not just Gaza. From the West Bank to Syria and Lebanon, Israel’s onslaught continues Guardian
German arms purchases finance Israeli genocide Nachdenkseiten via machine translation (Micael T)
Beit Jinn: The ambush that shattered Israel’s illusions in south Syria The Cradle
Drought forces Iran to halt power generation at major dam Iran International
New Not-So-Cold War
ECB refuses to provide backstop for €140bn Ukraine loan Financial Times. Lead story. No archived version yet. Not a surprise, but no longer can Ursuala von der Leyen keep droning on about seizing the Russian assets. Euroclear has said they will sue if anyone tries to make them go ahead unless they get what amounts to joint and several indemnification from EU member states which was never never never gonna happen. The ECB backstop was the only possible alternative.
CDU-Politiker Roderich #Kiesewetter bei #Lanz: Wir müssen den Krieg gegen #Russland „gewinnen wollen“, damit Moskau den Krieg nicht ausweitet, schließlich ist es „seit 100 Jahren“ das Ziel Russlands, „den Krieg nach außen zu tragen“. Mal ganz abgesehen davon, dass man einen Krieg… pic.twitter.com/HyFlovHTuM
— Sahra Wagenknecht (@SWagenknecht) November 30, 2025
Post-war borders dominated “intense” U.S.-Ukraine talks Axios. ZOMG, the delusion, it burns. And not just the obvious problem of Russia. Further proven so by Ukraine successfully staring the US down: Macron: No ‘finalized’ peace plan on Ukraine Politico (Kevin W)
Europe’s humiliation over Ukraine Unherd. Odd that Munchau follows the EU he denigrates in treating Orban as a non-entity.
NATO’s Flirtation With Pre-Emptive Cyber Strikes Against Russia Is Incredibly Dangerous Andrew Korybko
Tensions Between Kazakhstan and Ukraine Rise After Oil Infrastructure Attack Times of Central Asia
Calumny Scott Ritter. Micael T: “A funny retort from Scott to Doctorow.” Moi: Even though Ritter can be hot-headed and hyperbolic, he regularly provides useful detail not presented elsewhere. By contrast, I found Doctorow useful only when providing recaps of discussions on the big name Russian political TV shows on his website, and never a single thing he said on YouTube.
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Flock Uses Overseas Gig Workers to Build its Surveillance AI 404 Media
Imperial Collapse Watch
The Financialization Hoover Effect & The End Of The American Dream Ian Welsh
A Hard Truth About the DC Shooting Corbin Trent and America’s Undoing (resilc). Important.
After the Fall: America Beyond Late-Stage Capitalism Futuredude. Micael T: “Since there is no list of people to off (e.g. Forbes billionaires), this is just virtue signalling. “Over my dead body, will I part with my money,” will the moneyed say. To which you as a world-changer must answer, “I am happy to oblige.”
Trump 2.0
Since Trump’s Return, Bets on His Brand Have Soured Wall Street Journal (Dr. Kevin)
Authority Crisis
White House Defends Hegseth Over Strike on Alleged Drug Boat That Killed Survivors Wall Street Journal. Lead story. See Nat’s coverage of this news report in an update as well as for background.
An excellent development. When you are expliaing, you are losing. Congress has largely rolled over regarding Trump (and previous administrations) greatly exceeding his authority, particularly with war-making, but the armed services and ex-service members are drawing a line. Recall that Larry Wilkerson warned that the bizarre Trump parade was a vehicle for the Administration to have particularly Trump-favoring military personnel self identify, and they could serve as a cadre to support Trump in turning against American citizens, say in a declaration of martial law. If that was a plan or at least an option Trump was developing, he scored a major own goal when he called in all top officers for the bizarre Patton-themed speech by Hegseth, in which Hegseth came off as a blustering, muscle-headed junior officer while also warning of the enemy within. The order to fire on unarmed boats which pose no danger to the US, and then firing on one a second time, while a seemingly small bore further overreach, was nevertheless so well publicized and such a one-sided test case as to provide solid grounds for the military to push back. And IMHO it is not going to go over at all well in the armed forces that Hegseth is trying to throw Admiral Mitch Bradley under the bus. This is not what bona fide leaders do. They take responsibility.
Hegseth Ordered a Lethal Attack but Not the Killing of Survivors, Officials Say New York Times. Erm, how is “Kill everyone” not “Kill everyone”?
Soldiers Have ‘Duty To Refuse’ Hegseth’s Order To Commit War Crimes Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
Fears grow inside military over illegal orders after Hegseth authorized follow-up boat strike The Hill
Tariffs
Costco sues over Trump’s tariffs in a bid to secure a refund Business Insider
<1>L’affaire Epstein
Epstein Revelations Won’t Bring Down Trump American Conservative (resilc)
Our No Longer Free Press
Austria’s Rebel Nuns Refuse To Give Up Instagram To Stay In Their Convent NPR
Economy
Record 3.13M passengers screened at airports on Sunday The Hill. Due to deferred travel during the shutdown.
Recession with Decreasing Employment and Increasing GDP? Menzie Chinn
Are We Sleepwalking Into a Diesel Shortage? Honest Sorcerer (guurst)
America’s Fragile Grid Faces a Perfect Storm Ahead of Winter OilPrice (resilc)
Electricity costs have risen significantly for many Americans Washington Post (guurst)
Why a copper crunch is looming Money Week
Mr. Market is Moody
The $260 Billion Mom-and-Pop Funds Distorting the Credit Market Bloomberg. Important
Global economy: If a triple bubble looms, can we survive a triple burst? World Economic Forum
The AI bubble isn’t new — Karl Marx explained the mechanisms behind it nearly 150 years ago The Conversation
AI
REVEALED: Sam Altman’s OpenAI Is ‘MONEY LOSS MACHINE’ Breaking Points, YouTube. Good layperson-friendly account. Also a sign that these concerns are getting into the mainstream. Important point: announcing OpenAI deals not longer gooses stock prices. Oopsie!
Colleges Are Preparing To Self-Lobotomize Atlantic
New York Now Requires Retailers To Tell You When AI Sets Your Price New York Times (Kevin W)). Set your VPN to New York City when you shop online!
Virginia Democrat flips seat in state legislature by taking on datacenters Guardian (resilc)
ChatGPT-5 offers dangerous advice to mentally ill people, psychologists warn Guardian (Kevin W)
The Bezzle
Lane Kiffin to LSU sets maddening precedent amid all-time hypocrisy in college football The Athletic (resilc)
Guillotine Watch
Mangione in court as lawyers seek to rule out notebook, gun and other key evidence BBC
Class Warfare
Young Workers, Eyeing Their Careers, Learn to Embrace the Office New York Times (resilc)
Antidote du jour. John U: “Still life portrait with deer outside my window”:
And a bonus:
There’s a duck slide every year at the South Carolina state fair, and it’s adorable.
📹missblanton
— Science girl (@sciencegirl) December 1, 2025
A second bonus:
this mongoose stretching out to help pull its companion up a ledge with its mouth.🥰 pic.twitter.com/iNQWzGQ5kG
— Nature & Animals🌴 (@naturelife_ok) December 1, 2025
And a third:
This Puma Thinks It’s a House Cat! 😍 pic.twitter.com/hKy34Ocx2W
— Beauty of music and nature 🌺🌺 (@Axaxia88) December 1, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
