Bears in Japan: Living with Wild Neighbors Nippon
Chimpanzees and Bonobos May Remember Faces for More Than 20 Years Smithsonian
The Learning Labs of Sailing Ships JStor Daily
Climate
The Sahara Desert Used To Be a Green Savannah and New Research Explains Why The Wire
‘Everything is dead’: How record drought is wreaking havoc on the Amazon Al Jazeera
#COVID19
Inhaled COVID vaccines stop infection in its tracks in monkey trials Nature
‘A mass exodus’: Why so many LA restaurants are closing SFGate. Bob Wachter must be crying. I love restaurant dining, but since airborne mitigation hasn’t been taken seriously by the industry….
“It Wasn’t That Bad.” The Infuriating Paradox of Preparedness Jessica Wildfire, OK Doomer
China?
Xi warned Biden during summit that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with China NBC
China’s Spaceplane Has Released Multiple Mystery Objects In Orbit The Drive
China still has a long way to go to make the ‘rural dream’ a reality South China Morning Post
Chinese scholar Jiang Ping, who helped lay legal foundation for market economy, dies at 93 South China Morning Post
Myanmar
‘Walking the revolutionary path’: Myanmar ethnic minority fighters seize town Channel News Asia
‘Unprecedented’ weapons seizures in Myanmar boost anti-junta resistance morale France24
India
To Save Our Democracy, Anger With State Policy Must Be Tied to the Electoral Process The Wire. Optimists.
Living Root Bridges of Meghalaya: A Stellar Example Of Regenerative Architecture Madras Courier
Syraqistan
Industrial Killing of Civilians in Gaza Won’t Defeat the Armed Insurgency Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept
“They call it ‘genocide’ – but don’t invoke the Genocide Convention” The Nordic Times
When they tell you who they are:
Israelis, when speaking in Hebrew, are often far more candid and truthful about the real goals of Israel in Gaza than their American supporters in both parties are: https://t.co/2gFY7SmLQ5
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) December 20, 2023
On the nakba:
Blinken underscores US’ commitment to ‘independent Palestinian state’ in call with European counterparts Anadolu Agency. Lol.
Master and Servant Wolfgang Steeck, New Left Review
Are Houthi Red Sea attacks hurting Israel and disrupting global trade? Al Jazeera
The West’s 3 Options to Combat the Houthi Attacks Foreign Policy
Israeli-owned ships banned from docking in Malaysia Channel News Asia
Israel preparing citizens for ‘concessions’ with Hamas: Israeli media Anadolu Agency
Voter support for US military aid to Israel drops in new poll The Hill
Memory Failure London Review of Books
European Disunion
Orbán laments that Ukraine’s accession to EU will deprive Hungary of all European money Ukrainska Pravda
The Closing of the Bulgarian Frontier Switchyard
New Not-So-Cold War
US aid debate pushed to 2024 as Ukraine continues to battle Russian drones Al Jazeera
SITREP 12/20/23: Putin and Zelensky Crossfire, MidEast Heats Up Simplicius the Thinker(s)
What? Ukraine Is Not Winning the War? Patrick Lawrence, Scheerpost
Greek Group Owners And Shipowners Transport 20% Or More Of Russian Crude Oil Flows Says S&P Global Market Intelligence Report Hellenic Shipping News
South of the Border
Argentina’s Javier Milei unveils sweeping decree to deregulate the economy FT
2024
Texas begins flying migrants to sanctuary cities with first flight to Chicago FOX
Opinion: Brace yourself. The elections of 2024 could shock the world CNN
Antitrust
Rite Aid banned from using facial recognition software after falsely identifying shoplifters TechCrunch
Tech
Twitter back online after global outage hits thousands Reuters. Why today’s Links are a little anodyne.
Study uncovers presence of CSAM in popular AI training dataset The Register
GPT and other AI models can’t analyze an SEC filing, researchers find CNBC
Learning from the OpenAI Staff Mutiny RAND. Stock options are the main driver?
Tesla blamed drivers for failures of parts it long knew were defective Reuters
Consumer Reports says Tesla’s Autopilot recall fix is ‘insufficient’ TechCrunch
The Bezzle
Realtors face billions in damages for overcharging home buyers and sellers Markets Insider
Healthcare
How a well-timed legal assault unraveled Mississippi’s stellar record in vaccinating kids NBC. The deck: “Mississippi was forced to grant religious exemptions from vaccines.”
Boeing
Boeing wins key clearance from China’s aviation regulator on 737 Max deliveries, report says CNBC
Supply Chain
Majority expect prolonged downturn for container shipping: reader poll Seatrade Maritime
Shippers Know the Suez Is Always a Crisis Waiting to Happen Bloomberg
The West is sleepwalking into an economic catastrophe in the Red Sea The Telegraph
Greek Ship Owners Advised To Avoid Red Sea Reuters
Imperial Collapse Watch
“Tne end of history” my sweet Aunt Fanny:
Here Francis Fukuyama plots w Kate Starbird & Renee DiResta (all 3 of them together on the same Stanford panel) to end the First Amendment & make US speech law similar to Germany’s speech crime system
0:58 – 1:21: “But the question is, politically, how are you gonna get there?” https://t.co/YiNUPjRoKS
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) December 20, 2023
Once you’re “made,” you can go on the teebee over and over again, no matter how wrong you are. Take Larry Summers. Please! Musical interlude.
‘Fat Leonard’ in Navy Bribery Cases Returning to U.S. in Venezuela Prisoner Swap Times of San Diego
Class Warfare
“It Looks Like the Railroad Is Asking for You to Say Thank You” ProPublica. The workers Biden stiffed because it wasn’t an election year.
Innovative Demands from the Year of the Strike On Labor
Keith Richards at 80 TPM. I rarely link to Josh Marshall….
Antidote du jour (via):
Bonus antidote:
There are no plants in this picture.
pink: orchid mantis
brown: ghost mantis
dark green: hooded mantis
light green: leaf insect
grey: cat-eyed mantis pic.twitter.com/QcQShqp4lA— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) December 2, 2023
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
