Isolated for six months, scientists in Antarctica began to develop their own accent BBC (Dr. Kevin)
Compulsory voting can reduce political polarization in the US, study finds University at Buffalo (Paul R)
This clip is a classic:
Interesting. Listening to this made me think of central bankers and their entrenched group think. https://t.co/qzaFk8d52M
— Kathleen Tyson (@Kathleen_Tyson_) February 18, 2024
#COVID-19
A Spike in Heart Disease Deaths Since Covid Is Puzzling Scientists Bloomberg
Early COVID-19 research is riddled with poor methods and low-quality results − a problem for science the pandemic worsened but didn’t create The Conversation (Paul R)
Almost every AA that contacts ACE2 is mutated or deleted in this Spike; could it even still bind ACE2?
It’s possible the sequence is not real, but there were thousands of reads, and it wasn’t a reconstruction. It was raw reads.
Could the RBD change this much?
Thoughts?
7/7 pic.twitter.com/TWYzyjEbPe— Marc Johnson (@SolidEvidence) February 26, 2024
Swiss variant update, another record is broken.
1/ pic.twitter.com/uPj9Keh9Kd
— Marc Johnson (@SolidEvidence) February 26, 2024
Climate/Environment
Vast swaths of US will be exposed to polluted air by 2054, says report Guardian
Dominique Routhier, Reactionary Ecology New Left Review (Anthony L)
China?
Chinese entropy and American stumbles Asia Times
Taiwan considering new chip export ban against China Asia Times (Kevin W)
Old Blighty
UK public services will buckle under planned spending cuts, economists warn Guardian (Kevin W)
European Disunion
European farmers break through checkpoints in Brussels and head towards EU headquarters. pic.twitter.com/J3tOViYQNK
— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) February 26, 2024
Things are heating up here at the farmers’ protests, with tires being set alight just a few buildings down from where EU Agri ministers are meeting pic.twitter.com/FPfskbZcoI
— Natasha Foote (@NatashaFoote) February 26, 2024
Sweden has voluntarily submitted to the USA Aftonbladet (Micael T)
Gaza
Israeli Ops in Gaza in ‘Total Chaos’ Thanks to Privatization of Logistics, Fmr IDF General Says Sputnik (Kevin W)
Israeli air force strikes deep inside Lebanon, killing 2 people Scripps (furzy)
Israel defying ICJ ruling to prevent genocide by failing to allow adequate humanitarian aid to reach Gaza Amnesty (BC)
Rafah attack would be ‘nail in coffin’ of Gaza aid, says UN chief RTE (BC)
Gaza children searching for food to keep families alive BBC (ma)
President urges countries to ‘think again’ over withdrawal of Gaza funding Roscommon Herald (BC)
3 submarine cables cut in the Red Sea between Jeddah and Djibouti. ThreadReader (Li). Important.
A promising strategy:
Students at the University of Texas ask a Lockheed stooge some tough questions pic.twitter.com/Rh3kpVOd2i
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) February 26, 2024
Extraordinary charges of bias emerge against NYTimes reporter Anat Schwartz Mondoweiss
Aaron Bushnell, RIP
Shortly before his final act in this world, Bushnell posted the following message on Facebook:
“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’
“The… pic.twitter.com/QfXU7j7ah8— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) February 26, 2024
Ignoring Immolators Lulls the Society to Sleep: Aaron Bushnell at the Israeli Embassy: “FREE PALESTINE!” Sam Husseini
Harrowing footage shows airman, 25, shrieking ‘Free Palestine’ after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in DC after stating: ‘I will no longer be complicit in genocide Daily Mail (BC). Note Daily Mail has been hard core pro-Israel. Twitter also has a clip from CNN showing the hosts reading Bushnell’s last words in full, including “Free Palestine,” describing him as sounding calm as he approached the embassy gate.
US Airman Aaron Bushnell did not kill himself to protest some other country’s war
The US Department of Defense has compelled the participation of Air Force members like Bushnell in Israel’s Gaza genocide
Their orders to deploy to Israel read “mandatory” https://t.co/AoVE0Orj5s pic.twitter.com/5OUtpTlJbm
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) February 26, 2024
New Not-So-Cold War
Lots of consternation about this story, which Lambert featured yesterday: The Spy War: How the C.I.A. Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin New York Times, see immediately below:
According to a new account in the NYT:
On the night of the Maidan coup in Ukraine ten years ago, Feb. 24th 2014, Ukraine’s post-coup spy chief Valentyn Nalyvaichenko arrived at his new headquarters and made his first call to “the C.I.A. station chief and the local head of MI6.”… pic.twitter.com/Dun8mPmnIR
— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) February 25, 2024
CIA: Undermining and Nazifying Ukraine Since 1953 Wayne Madsen, Voltairenet (UserFriendly)
Footage Confirms Destruction of First Abrams Tank in Ukraine Three Days After Confirmed Frontline Deployment Military Watch. A bad look since we didn’t send all that many.
Russia’s victory in Ukraine resonates in Central Asia Indian Punchline
Germany eyeing Indian artillery stocks to arm Ukraine – Der Spiegel RT (Kevin W)
Zelensky releases first official Ukrainian casualty count RT (Kevin W). Even the Financial Times called it out:
But Zelenskyy’s figures fall well short of the 70,000 Ukrainians killed that US officials gave to The New York Times in August — and many more have died since while repelling fierce Russian attacks in Ukraine’s east, where Russia is trying to capture land.
Putting Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not ‘ruled out’ in the future, French leader says Associated Press (Kevin W)
So will Biden apologize to Putin and cancel the 500 new sanctions?
Didn’t see this one coming. pic.twitter.com/QDPlnYUKKb
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) February 26, 2024
Syraqistan
Israel launches air strikes near northern Lebanese city Financial Times
Alastair Crooke: Can US Cap Middle East Violence? YouTube. Important.
Egypt announces $35bn deal with UAE to buy premium Mediterranean area Middle East Eye (furzy)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
The Companies Helping Governments Hack Citizens’ Phones: a ‘Thriving’ Industry Fast Company
Imperial Collapse Watch
Marine Corps F-35 Takes Nosedive in Hangar While Being Used by Navy Top Gun School Military.com
Trump
Trump pivots to race against Biden after crushing Haley in South Carolina Financial Times (Kevin W)
Trump appeals $454M New York fraud ruling The Hill
Biden
Karine Jean-Pierre declared herself a “historical figure”:
“This administration will go down in history. Yes, I myself am already a historical figure and I walk in history every day.”
This administration will certainly go down in history for all the wrong reasons. pic.twitter.com/dAJX9lLCx9
— Dagny Taggart (@DagnyTaggart963) February 25, 2024
Our No Longer Free Press
Takeaways from the Supreme Court’s arguments on Texas and Florida’s social media laws and the First Amendment CNN (Kevin W)
Woke Watch
Nex Benedict’s death shines spotlight on Oklahoma schools The Hill
Health Care
U.S. launches probe into possible fraud by organ collection groups Washington Post
Monopoly Round-Up: Pharmacies Nationwide Freeze Up as Major Tech System Goes Down Matt Stoller
New Municipal Broadband Networks Skyrocket in Post-Pandemic America As Alternative To Private Monopoly Model ISLR (Carla)
One of CA’s ‘Largest Almond Growers’ Goes Bankrupt. It Owes Millions to Local Companies GV Wire (h2o)
AI
Musk vs Hitler Gemini AI (Paul R)
The Bezzle
Waymo’s Self-Driving Cars Keep Hitting Things: A Cyclist, a Gate, and a Pickup Truck Washington Post
El Salvador Adopted Bitcoin as an Official Currency; Salvadorans Mostly Shrugged Yale School of Management. From end of January, still germane.
Class Warfare
More like this, please: $1 Billion Donation Will Provide Free Tuition at a Bronx Medical School New York Times
Kellogg’s CEO: Let them eat Corn Flakes for dinner CNN (Kevin W)
Why tech companies are laying off thousands of workers The Hill
Former Harvard president urges scrapping of legacy admissions Financial Times. I went to Harvard relatively early in Bok’s long tenure. There were very few legacy admits then.
Ending The Ivy League’s Tax Dodge The Lever
Hall of Fame boxer Sugar Ray Robinson once backed out of a fight because he had a dream he was going to kill his opponent in the ring.
However, after being convinced by a priest, he agreed to fight. He knocked Jimmy Doyle out cold, who was taken to the hospital and pronounced… pic.twitter.com/TsWFUtfOg1
— non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) February 26, 2024
Antidote du jour. Tim H: “Same pair that you featured last year in Ouroboros mode. They ignored those cat beds until they were appropriate housed.”
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/02/links-2-24-2024.html“>here
