Less than 1% of Japanese sake is made this traditional way pic.twitter.com/ywtnrTUqxp
— Business Insider (@BusinessInsider) March 9, 2025
A lion pushes its child without knowing it is water Instagram. Robin K: “Oops!”
What Made the Irish Famine So Deadly New Yorker
#COVID-19/Pandemics
New biosensor can detect airborne bird flu in under five minutes Washington University
Climate/Environment
>Microplastics hinder plant photosynthesis, study finds, threatening millions with starvation Guardian
Tipping Point: The Politics of Water Insecurity in the Middle East CSIS
Rotting recorded on fields of Tatarstan — will winter crops die? Real noevremya
>Oil tanker spills fuel in North Sea collision with cargo ship carrying sodium cyanide sparking fears of environmental disaster The Standard (Kevin W). This story has off and on been the lead at BBC
Tax clear-cutting for what it costs our environment Aftonbladet via machine translation (Micael T)
Electric vehicle industry will persist, experts say, despite Trump funding cuts Kansas Reflector (Robin K)
China?
China all in on RISC-V open-source chip design Asia Times (Kevin W)
China’s deflationary pressures deepen in February Reuters
Global art market slumps as Chinese auction sales plummet: data France24
China to impose retaliatory tariffs on certain Canadian imports as trade war intensifies EuroNews
BREAKING Philippine police arrest ex-President Duterte on ICC charges Nikkei
European Disunion
European arms imports surge, US expands lead as top global weapons exporter France24
Can the US switch off Europe’s weapons? Financial Times
European countries should ‘absolutely’ introduce conscription, Latvia’s president says Sky
O Canada
Oh Canada! Carney and the Trump Shock Kim Cambpell AND Lawrence Freedman
Israel v. The Resistance
On Amputation Institute of Palestine Studies (guurst)
New Not-So-Cold War
Russia-Ukraine war live: Ukrainian, US officials meet; drones hit Moscow Aljazeera
Zelenskyy flies to Saudi Arabia to meet crown prince as Russia steps up attacks Guardian (Kevin W)
The EU Goes Full Frothing Hysteria Mark Sleboda
«Nous sommes les idiots utiles de Vladimir Poutine» : Nate, cousin germain de JD Vance et combattant volontaire en Ukraine Le Figaro (Micael T)
Perfidious Albion Scott Ritter
Gordon Hahn On Europe’s Role And A Possible Coup In Kiev Moon of Alabama. We linked to the underlying Hahn piece, but good to focus on its key points.
Russia warns Australia deploying peacekeeping troops to Ukraine would lead to ‘grave consequences’ Guardian (Kevin W)
AN ENDGAME IN UKRAINE? Seymour Hersh (Robin K). Hersh is a CIA scrivener. Sometimes he gets tossed real finds based on insider unhappiness or fractures. Russia is not negotiating with Ukraine until there is a new President and constitutional provisions and decrees barring negotiations are revoked. So there’s no point in talking because the current crew is unlikely to be in power much longer. Plus Russia has zero reason to hurry. See how it is forcing the US to go step by step in those talks.
The West is preparing to flood Russia with money Vyzglad via machine translation (Micael T)
Thousands report outages of Musk’s X platform in US and UK BBC. Musk says cyber attack originated in Ukraine area.
Syraqistan
Thousands of Syrians flood into Lebanon seeking refuge from government massacres The Cradle (guurst)
Syria’s sectarian massacres are blowback for foreign-led dirty war Aaron Mate
‘They left nobody’: More than 1,000 people killed in some of Syria’s deadliest violence Sky. Even Western MSM clearing its throat.
CODEPINK Ignored Sanctions That Suffocated Syria Since 2011 but Now They Want To Visit Syria Under Control of Al Qaeda Orinoco Tribune (Robin K)
Imperial Collapse Watch
Superpower Collaboration in Crisis: Rethinking Russian — U.S. Dynamics in the Context of Iran and Ukraine Russia in Global Affairs (Micael T)
The US commerce secretary has called on India to stop purchasing weapons from Russia, saying that New Delhi and Washington should form the “best relationship.” Anadolu Agency
Twitter is still broken today. I can’t embed but I could see the entire tweet (Chuck L).
Cuba sends doctors, the US sends sanctions Jacobin (Robin K)
Trump 2.0
Trump Is Privatizing America Persuasion (Micael T)
Ontario imposes fee on power exports, warns of potential cutoff new over Trump’s tariff threats Politico (Kevin W). BWAHAHA
National Cancer Institute Employees Can’t Publish Information on These Topics Without Special Approval ProPublica (Robin K). Vaccines top the list.
DOGE
Scientists, Supporters Rally Against NIH Dismissals, Budget Cuts MedPage
OPM watchdog to investigate IT risks tied to DOGE’s agency access NextGov
Trump administration eyes 30 percent payroll reduction at National Park Service The Hill
Nationwide Tesla Protests Against Elon Musk Are Escalating Vanity Fair (resilc)
USAID funded Ukraine group that smeared VP Vance as pro-Russia ‘propagandist’ Grayzone (Kevin W)
CFPB official details DOGE ‘chaos’ in overtaking agency The Hill
Immigration
Judge temporarily blocks effort to deport Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia student protests CNN (Kevin W). Note a green card holder.
Trump Is Coming After Legal Residents. Are Citizens Next? Ken Klippenstein
Mahmoud Khalil Was Detained by ICE Agent Honored by Trump at State of the Union Drop Site.
ICE Arrest of Columbia Student Marks New Era of Campus Politics Wall Street Journal. Prominent placement.
Our No Longer Free Press
Jerusalem Post Targets MintPress After Exposé on Israeli Spies in US Media Orinoco Tribune (Robin K)
Corporate America’s dirty trick Unherd (Chuck L)
Mr. Market Has a Sad
Revenge Of The Expectations Fairies Brian Romanchuk
New Car Tech Is Overloaded and It’s Starting to Drive People Nuts Wall Street Journal (resilc)
AI
Google ‘AI Mode’ Is Coming to Feed You Even More AI Slop Vice
Spotify’s biggest sin? Its algorithms have pushed artists to make joyless, toothless music Guardian (Kevin W)
Class Warfare
Why housing affordability keeps getting worse Axios
Inflation vs. Wages: Where Salaries Haven’t Kept Pace With Rising Costs Upgraded Points
Lively vs. Baldoni: How Right-Wing Influencers Are Weaponizing the Fight to Take Down #MeToo Zeteo. This sort of backlash is what happens when absolutely legitimate cases get swept up with marginal ones. But we still have too many instances of powerful men like Biden and Hegseth not being held to account.
Antidote du jour (via)
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
