Pedestrians now walk faster and linger less, researchers find MIT News
Where We Vacation Reveals What We’ve Lost The Transit Guy
Is Hitchhiking Dead? Hickman’s Hinterlands
How to run the world Aeon
Why one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded caused so little damage Los Angeles Times
Under the Sea: Submarines in the Great War Big Serge
Climate/Environment
World’s largest carbon sink at risk: 52 new oil blocks auctioned in DR Congo, threatening 124 million hectares Down to Earth
90 Billion Liters of Water Punched Through Greenland’s Ice Sheet – And Nobody Noticed Science Alert
Department of Defense Makes Eleventh Hour Decision to Maintain Critical Hurricane Satellites Eye on the Tropics
Row Away from the Rocks Balanced Weather
Pandemics
‘Sleeping’ cancer cells in the lungs can be roused by COVID and flu Nature
Great, we can now add a seventh pathway to list of to how SARS-CoV-2 is oncogenic: https://t.co/HgHOW2nTI2
— Lurking_Lethoceris (@LurkLethoceris) July 30, 2025
New York ends paid sick leave for COVID-19 five years after pandemic PIX11
A Eulogy for Vinay Prasad’s FDA Career Pandemic Accountability Index
The Koreas
Trump says U.S. agrees to impose 15 pct tariffs on S. Korea under ‘full, complete’ trade deal Yonhap
China?
Response to U.S. suggestion that it will significantly raise tariffs if China continues to purchase Russian oil:
China will always ensure its energy supply in ways that serve our national interests. Tariff wars have no winners. Coercion and pressuring will not achieve anything.… pic.twitter.com/MsvVMYNfv2— CHINA MFA Spokesperson 中国外交部发言人 (@MFA_China) July 30, 2025
In the race against China, the US is losing Politico
Top Republican lawmaker to lead congressional delegation to Taiwan FT
China Confirms 4th Plenum for October With Growth Constraints Front of Mind The Asia Cable
Africa
Breakaway Africa Region Seeks US Recognition With Base, Minerals Bloomberg
Old Blighty
Peter Kyle receives £66,000 donation from tech firm, then hands them £5m government contract The Canary (IH)
O Canada
Canada’s Bill C-2 Opens The Floodgates To U.S. Surveillance Tech Dirt
Syraqistan
In Gaza, Hunger Has Overtaken Bombs as Israel’s Cruelest Weapon Drop Site
Not providing consular visitation to a US citizen who is requesting it is an insane move. It the core duty of a consular section. The US diplomatic mission to Israel has made it very clear that there are some American citizens the United States government doesn’t care about. https://t.co/SZDXx1rGfY
— A-100 gecs (@PinstripeBungle) July 30, 2025
***
The Mathematics of Starvation: Why Aid Can’t Fix the Lethal Shortage of Food in Gaza Haaretz
Canada will recognise Palestinian state at UN General Assembly: Carney Al Jazeera
Report suggests arms still flow from Canada to Israel despite denials CBC
What all the suddenly-concerned Western governments could be doing instead of virtue signaling:
Col. Larry Wilkerson:
Put a damn British regiment on the ground. Put it on the ground right there in the Philadelphi Corridor. Put it on the ground in Egypt. Put it somewhere with food and go in there and tell the IDF, “I’ll shoot your goddamn ass if you try to stop me.”
Do… pic.twitter.com/AlWvLIVxYK
— 🅰pocalypsis 🅰pocalypseos 🇷🇺 🇨🇳 🅉 (@apocalypseos) July 30, 2025
***
I don’t think I’ve ever read a genocidal editor’s note before. Added purely to appease Israel and the lobby.
“Pre-existing health conditions” don’t lead to children being reduced to skeletons.
Israel’s holocaust is deliberately starving Palestinians to death. https://t.co/BXE3N7a9Qd
— Asa Winstanley (@AsaWinstanley) July 30, 2025
Media Largely Ignored Gaza Famine When There Was Time to Avert Mass Starvation FAIR
The Information Warfare Consortium Shaping GHF’s PR Offensive Drop Site
Evangelical Gaza aid partner endorsed Hitler, referred to Muslims as rapists and Palestine as a ‘shit hole’ All-Source Intelligence
Israel And Christian Nationalism: An Unreliable Alliance 3 Quarks Daily
***
U.S. Launches Largest Sanction Package Targeting Iranian Trade Since 2018 Maritime Executive
European Disunion
US Stablecoin Regulation Increases Pressure on Europe German Institute for International and Security Affairs
German hard coal-fired power generation jumps 23% in H1 – Ageb Montel News
Bright and Dark Sides of Energy Transition in Europe Pluralia
The Heights of Darkness Unevenly Combined Thoughts
New Not-So-Cold War
HAS THE KREMLIN CROSSED THE S-400 THRESHOLD TO FIRE ON ISRAELI, US AIRCRAFT ATTACKING IRAN? John Helmer
Putin’s Guards Reequip with Handheld Anti-Drone Weapons After Multiple Major Security Breaches Military Watch
Ukraine to move military trainings underground, Syrskyi says Kyiv Independent
“A golden toilet is in one of the bathrooms of the apartment of Zelensky’s business partner Timur Mindich, where, according to media reports, NABU wiretapped the president himself. This was reported by MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, who showed a photo, as he claims, from this apartment.… pic.twitter.com/LYtCFKlTcW
— Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) July 30, 2025
Valeriy Zaluzhny — about the roots of identity, the power of unity, and the most important historical lessons for Ukrainians Vogue Ukraine (machine translation). Commentary:
https://t.co/B3aFTAIilM pic.twitter.com/206XxfLKLp
— Olga Bazova (@OlgaBazova) July 30, 2025
Living With Russia. Aurelien
South of the Border
U.S. Sanctions Brazilian Judge Who Set Precautionary Measures to Bolsonaro Telesur
“Liberation Day”
Ford slips as tariffs take an $800 million bite out of its earnings Sherwood
Trump ends de minimis exemption for global low-cost goods CNBC
Is Trump’s Tariff Tirade a Pyrrhic Victory? Larry Johnson
Trump 2.0
Bessent Admits Trump Tax Scam Offers ‘Backdoor for Privatizing Social Security’ Common Dreams
The Trump administration has just sent $10m worth of birth control to be burned – rather than donate it as aid The Independent
MAHA
A Las Vegas Festival Promised Ways to Cheat Death. Two Attendees Left Fighting for Their Lives. ProPublica
GOP Funhouse
Burchett kicked by horse, breaks rib The Hill
Democrats en déshabillé
Lmao this meltdown was over….New Jersey not getting extra funding for police lolol https://t.co/vWYdqm0WL4
— john teufel (@JohnTeufelNYC) July 29, 2025
Democratic mega-donor Reid Hoffman tells @JTLonsdale that he “sends everyone a copy of Abundance”, the @ezraklein / @DKThomp book, and is going to back Abundance-aligned Democratic candidates.https://t.co/GGSLEOBmwR
— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) July 29, 2025
Mamdani
Lina Khan: A Secret to Zohran Mamdani’s Success New York Times
Kamala
RussiaGate
Patel found thousands of sensitive Trump–Russia probe docs inside ‘burn bags’ in secret room at FBI Fox News
AI
On AGI, mass automation, and what the Luddites really fought against Blood in the Machine
Accelerationists
Behemoth or Leviathan? Unpopular Front
The Acolyte Can We Still Govern?
Palantir’s valuation: Just how insane is it? Sherwood
Why tech billionaires want a ‘corporate dictatorship’ The Verge
Imperial Collapse Watch
Western Foreign Policy is Anti-Democratic Un-Diplomatic
Surveillance Pricing
Pluralistic: Delta’s AI-based price-gouging Cory Doctorow
Our Famously Free Press
TikTok has hired Erica Mindel, a former IOF soldier, to run “hate speech” enforcement. That means silencing Palestinians.
Her job was built by the ADL, pays up to $330K, and she openly flaunted her Zionist identity in an AJC video. pic.twitter.com/1w9WZEUKXj
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) July 29, 2025
Big Brother Is Watching You Watch
Spotify Is Forcing Users to Undergo Face Scanning to Access Explicit Content 404 Media
Google is using AI age checks to lock down user accounts The Verge
Zeitgeist Watch
What humanity chose to launch as artifacts of the Space Age Interesting Engineering
Class Warfare
Chris Smalls’ Union Prez, Teamsters’ Sean O’Brien Silent on Beating by IDF – Goes on Vivek Ramaswany’s Right Wing Show Instead Payday Report
“If God Were Like Chekhov, I Would Be Consoled.” On the Privileges of Misery Lit Hub
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
