Scientists just recreated the Universe’s first molecule and solved a 13-billion-year-old puzzle ScienceDaily (Kevin W)
Helsinki went a full year without a traffic death. How did they do it? ZMEScience (Dr. Kevin)
In the Future All Food Will Be Cooked in a Microwave, and if You Can’t Deal With That Then You Need to Get Out of the Kitchen Colin Cornaby
#COVID-19/Pandemics
Six Celebrities Who Totally Don’t Have Long Covid pic.twitter.com/0uwSBwYvO0
— The Vertlartnic (@TheVertlartnic) August 4, 2025
NEW: Walgreens reports the highest COVID positivity for the US since Aug 29 at 33.5%, up for the 11th week in a row, as of Aug 3. pic.twitter.com/fpQd6wpt0S
— CyFi (@CyFi10) August 4, 2025
Climate/Environment
Rare snow in Australia….
“I’ve never seen anything like this before in my entire life!pic.twitter.com/DeXIbQ7YC3
— Volcaholic 🌋 (@volcaholic1) August 2, 2025
Climate disasters are killing small businesses Grist
One of the Biggest Sources of Microplastics Will Make You Mad as Hell Futurism (resilc)
The Green Hydrogen Hype Is Fading OilPrice. Quelle surprise!
China?
China mapped its industrial rise onto a single risk, seaborne oil under U.S.-policed chokepoints. At peak, 80% of crude arrived by tanker; the Malacca Strait is the throat. In a crisis, a blockade would aim to strangle the economy. 🧵
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) August 3, 2025
China Does Not Want To Be Hit By Missiles Produced With Its Parts Moon of Alabama (Kevin W)
Hidden genius from the masses! A talented Chinese DIY maker has 3D-printed an incredible all-terrain robot that conquers land, water, and air with ease.
Netizens in China are buzzing about its massive military potential. It could be the future of tech. pic.twitter.com/45z4XIi2Vi
— Li Zexin 李泽欣 (@XH_Lee23) August 3, 2025
Japan
Japan Yields Slip, Casting Doubts on 10-Year Bond Auction Demand Bloomberg
India
India Buys US, Canada and Middle East Oil After Halting Russian Imports Kyiv Post versus PM Modi defiant as Trump steps up pressure on India’s Russia oil purchases Economic Times
Thailand-Cambodia
Cambodian and Thai officials meet in Malaysia to iron out ceasefire details Associated Press
Thai government warns Cambodians against spying, citing death penalty The National
Africa
Deadly Attack Highlights Growing Instability in Burkina Faso & the Sahel FirstPost
European Disunion
Fire at Romanian arms plant destroys over 100,000 cartridges, sabotage not ruled out Caliber
Poland braces for clashes with new nationalist president Times of Malta
The break with Russia has broken Finnish society Vzglyad (Micael T)
Greece condemns Turkey’s marine parks as ‘unacceptable, unilateral and illegal’ ekathimerini
Old Blighty
Sky-high bond yields are crushing Reeves’s dreams of a building boom Telegraph
Israel v. The Resistance
“My scrub nurse that I was working with every single day was followed home by a quad copter drone, and it didn’t kill him on the way home… it waiting until he was home, in his tent, and greeted his three children and killed them all” https://t.co/ys5DXyIRHx
— Fiona (@FiMelb99) August 2, 2025
Dire water shortages compound hunger and displacement in Gaza France24
This is the first time I’ve picked up a brush since the war began!
I wanted to paint the life I dream of, a bright future.
But all tha fills my heart and mind is fear. Hunger. The terror I live everyday in Gaza.If my voice& words haven’t reached u—
I hope this painting does 🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/6b7jBwRotI— SARAH 𓂆 (@ZaqoutMe) August 3, 2025
Click through for more evidence:
An Israeli soldier from the Golani brigade has testified under oath at the Knesset that 10/7 was a false flag, and that he was ordered to stand down from 5:20am to 9am the day of the attack. pic.twitter.com/yJ6SYyZE36
— Truth_teller 🇷🇺 (@Truthtellerftm) August 2, 2025
* * * Israeli channel exposes secret protocols showing Netanyahu blocked Gaza ceasefire, hostage swap deal Anadolu Agency
Israel’s Netanyahu has decided on full occupation of Gaza, reports say Al Jazeera (Kevin W)
Israel is losing the US front Unherd
The Dam Breaks Peter Beinart
Hundreds of Israeli ex-officials appeal to Trump to help end Gaza war BBC
How MTG became MAGA’s moral compass on Gaza Responsible Statescraft (Kevin W)
Dutch Intel Flags Israel As ‘State Threat’ Kit Klarenberg
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia ‘no longer considers itself bound’ by nuclear treaty with US RT (Kevin W). Hoo boy.
GOP congresswoman claims aiding Kiev is ‘betrayal to majority of Americans’ Menafn
🧵 British operatives are plotting an ECO-SABOTAGE at sea
One engineered spill to frame Russian oil as a global threat
One crackdown on Moscow’s ‘shadow fleet’, spearheaded by NATO with US backing
Intel drops here — direct from Russia’s SVR (1/6) pic.twitter.com/2KvroxSUJN
— RT (@RT_com) August 4, 2025
July drone war I Events in Ukraine
Russian Special Ops Forces Capture Three British “Soldiers” Larry Johnson. Readers dismissed this story due to some social media accounts including fake videos. Johnson says he has some corroboration from an intel source.
Imperial Collapse Watch
China is preparing to neutralize Starlink, and the toolkit they’re studying reads like a defense contractor fever dream.🧵 pic.twitter.com/wyv3uQmXZq
— Thomas Keith (@iwasnevrhere_) August 3, 2025
Navy’s chronic repair delays leave submarines stuck in dock for years: WSJ Seeking Alpha (Kevin W)
Trump 2.0
Brazil’s Supreme Court Places Bolsonaro Under House Arrest New York Times
Trump and the Dictatorship of the Upper Middle-Class Urbanites eugyppius (Micael T)
US backtracks after conditioning disaster funds on Israel boycott refusal Anadolu Agency
We said the only way to make sense of what Trump was doing was to create 1990s Russia conditions to facilitate plutocratic looting. Developments like this are a by product:
The US might start experiencing what Russia has gone through in the 90s, something that was coined as “the great brain drain”, but for completely different reasons – “failing to promote a research environment free of anti-Semitism and bias” – for instance. https://t.co/g9mbHEVCs5
— Olga Bazova (@OlgaBazova) August 4, 2025
Tariffs
Trump has made the world cross the economic rubicon, an act we will all regret Observer
Latest Trump tariffs unlikely to budge, top negotiator says Reuters
Trump tariffs, tiffs tied to NYC tourism drop are ‘catastrophically’ affecting business Gothamist
Russiagate
DOJ to launch grand jury probe over Russia allegations against Obama officials The Hill. Yours truly had said the Team Trump whinging was unserious unless prosecutions started.
GOP Clown Car
Abbott threatens to remove Texas Democrats over walkout and Pritzker says Texas Democrats who fled state will be protected amid arrest threats The Hill
Scoop: DNC joins Texas gerrymandering fight with Chicago press conference Axios
Partisan Gerrymandering After Rucho Steve Vladeck. More on Texas.
L’affaire Epstein
Senior Mossad agent claims that American politicians are trapped by Israel through Epstein blackmail!
Ari Ben-Menashe also states that Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton almost reached a 2 state solution but….! pic.twitter.com/clAVW3EDGt
— Truth_teller 🇷🇺 (@Truthtellerftm) August 3, 2025
Our No Longer Free Press
The New York Times Does Not Fear Trump… But Bret Stephens Is Another Matter Counterpunch (resilc)
Open Letter to the Columbia Journalism Review, on the Atrocious New York Times Matt Taibbi
Economy
Women Not Dyeing Their Hair, Hot People Working Minimum Wage Jobs, And 13 Other Recession Indicators Yahoo! (Kevin W)
The U.S. Economy Is Stumbling Badly Washington Monthly (resilc)
The Limits of Macro Balances Warwick Powell. “What Brazilian coffee teaches us about system dynamics”
AI
The AI job cuts are accelerating Financial Times
ChatGPT users shocked to find private therapy sessions exposed in Google searches BoingBoing
Slopocalypse Now Gary Marcus
The Bezzle
Tesla withheld data, lied, and misdirected police and plaintiffs to avoid blame in Autopilot crash Electrek (rataj r). No wonder the damages were so large. Judges and juries do not like this sort of thing.
Class Warfare
US manufacturing extends slump; factory employment lowest in 5 years Reuters
‘A Black Hole’: America’s New Graduates Discover a Dismal Job Market NBC
Antidote du jour (via):
‘
A bonus:
Kitty is scared to jump down so dude uses an old trick pic.twitter.com/SLnAx1It1Q
— Dudes Posting Their W’s (@DudespostingWs) August 4, 2025
A second bonus:
The moment you realize you aren’t the favorite child.. 🥺 pic.twitter.com/OihwvaO8qf
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) August 4, 2025
And a third:
This man rescued the poor abandoned baby parrots and then this happened…. pic.twitter.com/qjFPCdfS9P
— Gabriele Corno (@Gabriele_Corno) August 4, 2025
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
