Dealers Proclaim a Return to Form for Frieze New York, With Healthy Sales Across the Spectrum and Increased International Traffic Artnet News

Will The U.S. Economy Pull Off a ‘Soft Landing’? Paul Krugman, NYT

Recession Calls Keep Getting Pushed Back, Giving Soft Landing Believers Hope Bloomberg

Climate

Experts see climate change fingerprint in worsening heat waves and fires WaPo. The deck: “A new study found nearly 40 percent of burned area in the West can be attributed to carbon emissions.” Study.

Climate finance needs new ideas: could this model take off worldwide? World Economic Forum

Water

Satellites reveal widespread decline in global lake water storage Science

Shale-Oil Drillers Are Running Out of Places to Dump Toxic Wastewater Bloomberg

#COVID19

WHO recommends new COVID shots should target only XBB variants Reuters

Zombie COVID: Corpses can still spread the virus for weeks after death, study finds Fortune. A preprint, but there are others.

China?

Amid G7, China hosts summit of its own with Central Asia Times of India

China banks on stability with Afghanistan belt and road agreement: experts South China Morning Post

Add China’s Recovery to the Global Economy’s List of Worries Bloomberg

The China vs US Culture Map China Charts

Global chipmakers to expand in Japan as tech decoupling accelerates FT

Myanmar

Myanmar’s military imported $1bn in arms since coup, UN expert says Independent

India

The Untold Story Of India’s First Filmmakers Madras Courier

Africa

The Global Economy’s Future Depends on Africa Foreign Policy

These ASX graphite players are helping make Africa the world’s largest graphite producer Stockhead

New Not-So-Cold War

Pressure campaign on Biden to send F-16s to Ukraine goes into overdrive Politico. Hilariously, Ukrainska Pravda repackages the Politico story thus: Pentagon reiterates that it does not object to other countries providing F-16s to Ukraine.

Russian hypersonic missile scientists are arrested on treason charges NBC

The Russian nuclear company the West can’t live without Bloomberg

Why Ukraine’s spring offensive still hasn’t begun — with summer just weeks away AP

Ukraine could join ranks of ‘frozen’ conflicts, U.S. officials say Politico

Volodymyr Zelenskyy to attend G7 in person as leaders back new sanctions against Russia FT

Ukraine Can’t Join NATO The American Conservative

St Petersburg Travel Notes – Part III Gilbert Doctorow. Goods in the stores.

Biden Administration

Fed Officials Face ‘Loathsome’ Playbook for Debt-Ceiling Standoff WSJ

Republicans Want to Impeach Mayorkas. How About Giving Him a Medal? The Washingtonian

How reliable are Biden’s climate commitments? Politico

The Supremes

Supreme Court rules Twitter not liable for ISIS content SCOTUSblog. Section 230 still in place.

Spook Country

The United States Needs a Moonshot to Prevent Extremism from Metastasizing The Hill. Sounds like a job for The Censorship-Industrial Complex!

Elon Musk is right: Bellingcat is a Western ‘psy-op’ Aaron Maté

Digital Watch

A secretive annual meeting attended by the world’s elite has A.I. top of the agenda CNBC. Bilderberg. AI and robots are good proxies for depopulation.

G7 leaders call for ‘guardrails’ on development of artificial intelligence FT. There’s that “guardrails” trope again.

Here’s Why AI Girlfriends Are Going to Make Everything So Much Worse Jessica Wildfire, OK Doomer

Popular Android TV boxes sold on Amazon are laced with malware TechCrunch

Feral Hog Watch

Wild ‘super pigs’ are rooting toward Minnesota. The state wants to keep them out. Investigate Midwest

Healthcare

Marburg Virus Disease: Global Threat or Isolated Events? Journal of Infectious Diseases. “Thus, Marburg virus disease is not an immediate global threat to us living in non-endemic areas, but local and international public health officials need to be on high alert to protect vulnerable populations and ultimately populations across the globe. Aside from preventing Marburg virus disease introductions into our countries, we should bring countermeasures in the field to control Marburg virus disease in Africa. Those opportunities exist now, we should not miss them because of real or perceived social or economic barriers.”

Imperial Collapse Watch

Why the U.S. Should Close Its Overseas Military Bases Foreign Policy

Realignment and Legitimacy

Durham Report Reveals the Real Threat to “Democracy” – The FBI Weaponized by Democrat Party Affiliated Elites Black Agenda Report

Christian School in Michigan Sued for Alleged Failure to Prevent Student’s Abuse The Roys Report

‘Too much’: Parents ask court not to release writings of Nashville school shooter ABC

‘Succession’ season 4, episode 8: ‘America Decides’ NPR. It’s a documentary.

Guillotine Watch

The Newest College Admissions Ploy: Paying to Make Your Teen a “Peer-Reviewed” Author Pro Publica

Justice for all? Times Literary Supplement. John Rawls.

Class Warfare

Striking WGA Late-Night Comedy Writers Launch YouTube Show Lampooning The Studio Deadline. Here. On the strike issues:

The Disappearing White-Collar Job WSJ

Could 300,000 Job Openings Be Fake? Here’s Why Goldman Thinks They Might Be Forbes

Here’s How Much Wealth You Need to Join the Richest 1% Globally Bloomberg

The war on Japanese knotweed Guardian

No Mow May: A Gateway To Better Landscape Management For Bees Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation

Antidote du jour (via):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

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This entry was posted in Guest Post, Links on by Lambert Strether.

About Lambert Strether

Readers, I have had a correspondent characterize my views as realistic cynical. Let me briefly explain them. I believe in universal programs that provide concrete material benefits, especially to the working class. Medicare for All is the prime example, but tuition-free college and a Post Office Bank also fall under this heading. So do a Jobs Guarantee and a Debt Jubilee. Clearly, neither liberal Democrats nor conservative Republicans can deliver on such programs, because the two are different flavors of neoliberalism (“Because markets”). I don’t much care about the “ism” that delivers the benefits, although whichever one does have to put common humanity first, as opposed to markets. Could be a second FDR saving capitalism, democratic socialism leashing and collaring it, or communism razing it. I don’t much care, as long as the benefits are delivered. To me, the key issue — and this is why Medicare for All is always first with me — is the tens of thousands of excess “deaths from despair,” as described by the Case-Deaton study, and other recent studies. That enormous body count makes Medicare for All, at the very least, a moral and strategic imperative. And that level of suffering and organic damage makes the concerns of identity politics — even the worthy fight to help the refugees Bush, Obama, and Clinton’s wars created — bright shiny objects by comparison. Hence my frustration with the news flow — currently in my view the swirling intersection of two, separate Shock Doctrine campaigns, one by the Administration, and the other by out-of-power liberals and their allies in the State and in the press — a news flow that constantly forces me to focus on matters that I regard as of secondary importance to the excess deaths. What kind of political economy is it that halts or even reverses the increases in life expectancy that civilized societies have achieved? I am also very hopeful that the continuing destruction of both party establishments will open the space for voices supporting programs similar to those I have listed; let’s call such voices “the left.” Volatility creates opportunity, especially if the Democrat establishment, which puts markets first and opposes all such programs, isn’t allowed to get back into the saddle. Eyes on the prize! I love the tactical level, and secretly love even the horse race, since I’ve been blogging about it daily for fourteen years, but everything I write has this perspective at the back of it.