New York City Council Proposes Legislation to Make Bodega Cats Completely Legal Laughing Squid (resilc)
Evolution made us cheats, now free-riders run the world and we need to change, new book warns University of Cambridge. Paul R:
To save democracy and solve the world’s biggest challenges, we need to get better at spotting and exposing people who exploit human cooperation for personal gain, argues Cambridge social scientist Dr Jonathan Goodman.
This looks interesting. Book is called “Invisible Rivals”. Publisher link: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300274356/invisible-rivals/
Helen Lewis on The Genius Myth Yascha Mounk
Threat in Your Medicine Cabinet: The FDA’s Gamble on America’s Drugs ProPublica (Robin K)
Climate/Environment
Climate hits UK farmers, food, bills The Ecologist
Kabul To Become The First City To Run Out Of Water. Youth Incorporated
China?
Chinese cars and factories flooding EU market, and blows up protectionist tariff system Kevin Walmsley
China’s AI system builds Intel-class chips with zero US software Interesting Engineering (Chuck L)
China stockpiling nuclear warheads at fastest rate globally, new research shows Guardian
India-Pakistan
India won’t accept 3rd party mediation with Pakistan, Modi tells Trump Anadolu Agency
Africa
South Africa Built a Medical Research Powerhouse. Trump Cuts Have Demolished It. New York Times
Jane Goodall chimpanzee conservation project in Tanzania hit by USAID cuts Guardian (resilc)
European Disunion
“Iran is a terrorist regime” Tagesschau via machine translation (guurst)
The translate button works if you have an account. Otherwise please try machine translation:
Was für eine unfassbare Doppelmoral und Heuchelei: Der völkerrechtswidrige Angriffskrieg #Israels auf den #Iran, bei dem auch Ministerien und Zivilisten bombardiert werden und der die ganze Region in Brand stecken könnte, ist für Kanzler #Merz „Drecksarbeit für uns alle“. Aber… pic.twitter.com/h8HlGAw0VD
— Sahra Wagenknecht (@SWagenknecht) June 18, 2025
Old Blighty
UK Spy Agency MI6 Appoints First Female Chief in 116-Year History New York Times (resilc). One hates to say it, but putting a woman in charge is regularly a sign that an organization is in decline.
Israel v. Iran
“WE” Are At War With Iran Mark Wauck
Trump Seeks Iran’s ‘Unconditional Surrender’ as War Escalates Bloomberg. This will age worse than “Mission Accomplished.”
Please click through for important detail:
Something happened yesterday, and Trump is now determined to take the country to a war of choice. He can change his mind at the last minute, as he did in 2019, but short of that, there will be war.
It is important to understand that capitulation is most likely not an option for…
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) June 17, 2025
America Is Being Chain-Ganged Into a War American Conservative (resilc)
A fairly fresh take: Something’s Happening Here, What it is Ain’t Exactly Clear… Larry Johnson
Col. Larry Wilkerson: Is War with Iran the Final Blow to the American Empire? Dialogue Work, YouTube. A must listen.
‘TACO Syndrome’ Could Tempt Trump to Ride the Wave of Israel’s Success and Join the War Against Iran Haaretz. Looks like Hareetz has submitted to the censors.
Strikes so far against Israel just a warning, punitive operations to follow: Iran’s top general PressTV
Iran shoots down fifth Israeli F-35 — municipal authorities TASS (guurst)
Why Israel’s attacks are backfiring as Iranians rally around the flag Middle East Eye (resilc). Widely predicted but confirmation still useful.
What you’re seeing in the footage is not a propulsion failure, nor a mechanical misfire. It’s the behavioral signature of a missile defense interceptor entering logic collapse. The thruster bursts, short, angular, and misaligned, reveal an internal guidance system attempting to… https://t.co/EDhGwDOaVF
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) June 18, 2025
Clearest sign yet Trump is preparing to blitz Iran as huge US air armada of DOZENS of military jets lands in UK & Europe The Sun (resilc)
Tel Aviv miscalculates: Why Israel’s shock strategy failed against Iran The Cradle
New missiles launched from Iran spotted over Tel Aviv, occupied West Bank Aljazeera, YouTube. Daylight raid. Iran has plenty in reserve, so a question of whether this is to unnerve and further deplete air defenses.
* * * Iranian Announcement:
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has delegated his powers to the Supreme Council of the Revolutionary Guard. This means that the military is authorized to make decisions without needing to consult him.
— ☦️Jacob🇷🇺Charite☦️ Иаков (@jaccocharite) June 17, 2025
A Nation of Martyrs Julian Macfarlane
* * * China sends mystery transport planes into Iran Telegraph (Paul R)
Tanker Risk Response to Iran-Israel Is The Real Oil Chokepoint OilPrice (resilc)
Mapping Iran’s oil and gas sites and those attacked by Israel Aljazeera (resilc)
Beijing has more at stake in Iran besides just oil Reuters (resilc)
On current trajectories Trump staffers will need hazmat suits to do media damage control:
🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷 WHITE HOUSE EXPLAINS TRUMP’S “EVACUATE TEHRAN” POST AS NEGOTIATING URGENCY
A White House official told CNN that President Trump’s Truth Social post urging “everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran” reflects “the urgency of the need for Iran to come to the table” amid… https://t.co/ZSJQPkThOj pic.twitter.com/HuyNvG2Nmv
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) June 16, 2025
* * * SECOND ORDER EFFECTS OF ISRAEL’S WAR ON IRAN
Turkiye’s President has officially announced that he will arm to the teeth with a huge number of ballistic missiles. An Israeli confrontation with Turkiye, perhaps even in Syria, is seeming now to be just a matter of time.
Iran’s…
— Amir Husain (@amirhusain_tx) June 17, 2025
‘Imperial whore’: Top Pakistani official goes after son of overthrown shah of Iran Middle East Eye
Israel v. the Rest of the Resistance
Friendly reminder that liberals love genocide too as long as it’s done politely. pic.twitter.com/L5ymaQiMEU
— Jenerational Change (@JenPerelman24) June 15, 2025
New Not-So-Cold War
Russo-Ukrainian War: The Flaming Olive Branch Big Serge
Ukraine war latest: Massive Russian attack kills 24, injures 134 in Kyiv Kyiv Independent
Uptick on at least my Twitter feed of wailing about effective Russian strikes, such as:
Ukraine did nothing to deserve this – Europe has learned zero lessons despite two world wars pic.twitter.com/QLciGAUkyt
— Caolan (@CaolanReports) June 18, 2025
Pouring more money and weapons down the drain. But Canada does have a lot of Ukronazis:
I met with President @ZelenskyyUa at the G7 to share the next phase of Canada’s support for Ukraine:
Canada will provide new military support — including drones, armoured vehicles, and equipment Ukraine needs to defend its sovereignty.
We’re also disbursing a $2.3B loan… pic.twitter.com/mcljZ0KkjN
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) June 17, 2025
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
Lawmakers Demand Palantir Provide Information About U.S. Contracts New York Times (resilc)
Washington Post’s email system hacked, journalists’ accounts compromised Bleeping Computer (Paul R)
Imperial Collapse Watch
This woman is a Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physician in America
She says she’s seeing more and more doctors leave practicing medicine because what US Health Insurance companies are doing to healthcare
She explains why, this is important information:
“I believe what we… pic.twitter.com/90tFqzS4dw
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) June 17, 2025
‘Expensive and complicated’: Most rural hospitals no longer deliver babies Kansas Reflector (Robin K)
The four US states where psychopaths are most likely to live… are YOU living near one? Daily Mail (resilc). Looks accurate to me. New York is on the list.
Trump 2.0
Trump Is Daring Us to Impeach Him Again New York Times. resilc: “My prediction last nov was he would be dead or impeached and removed by mid 27……”
Under GOP Budget Bill, You’d Have to Be Rich to Sue the Trump Administration Intercept (resilc)
47 signs from the anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ protests Reuters (resilc)
Far-Right ‘Appeal to Heaven’ Flag Flown Above Government Agency in DC Wired (resilc)
BREAKING: Rand Paul Speaks Out After Being Uninvited From White House Picnic: ‘War On My Family’ YouTube (resilc)
Tariffs
These are the sticking points holding up a U.S.-EU trade deal CNBC. As readers have said, you would never know a war was on if you looked at the landing page of CNBC.
Fed Ponders If Tariff Hit Is Less, or Just Later, Than Expected Bloomberg
US tariffs ‘severely impacting’ Japanese firms, including automakers: Premier Anadolu Agency
Immigration
Brad Lander, NYC comptroller and mayoral candidate, is arrested outside immigration court Associated Press
ICE agents confirmed to attend Miami’s Club World Cup matches as ticket sales and prices plummet US Sun (resilc)
Democrat Death Wish
The Secret to Trump’s Appeal That Democrats Still Miss New York Times. Note the headline is now: It’s Not Just Trump Voters. Both Parties Are in Denial.
Fetterman Sides With Trump Over Fellow Democrats On Iran New Republic (resilc)
Our No Longer Free Press
In Macron’s France, Tweeting in Support of Palestine Can Get You Jail Time CounterPunch (resilc)
AI
Confirmation that NC is doing readers a BIG favor by not allowing AI generated content in comments….on the assumption that you care about your brain:
It’s a hefty 206-page research paper, and the findings are concerning.
“LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels”
This study finds LLM dependence weakens the writer’s own neural and linguistic fingerprints. 🤔🤔
Relying only on EEG,… pic.twitter.com/pRBQ15qst3
— Rohan Paul (@rohanpaul_ai) June 17, 2025
Underlying paper: Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task ArXiv (GM)
Stanford Research Finds That “Therapist” Chatbots Are Encouraging Users’ Schizophrenic Delusions and Suicidal Thoughts Futurism (resilc)
The Bezzle
Trump Mobile’s T1 is made in China Apple Insider (resilc)
Class Warfare
The Big Republican Cost-Shift: Massive Cuts to Medicaid and the ACA Will Increase Costs for Older Adults and Medicare Health Affairs
Antidote du jour (via):
And a bonus (Chuck L):
Buddy, the German Shepherd who led first responders to the house fire where his families lives..🐕🐾🥺❤️
We don’t deserve them..🙏 pic.twitter.com/mIizYBvLGN
— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) June 15, 2025
A second bonus (guurst):
Есть такое 😺 pic.twitter.com/D3AskkVr5p
— 🫧*✧ Татьяна 🫧✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*. (@morzjanca) June 16, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
