I thought I was done with parenthood. But the tortoises had other plans Guardian

Syndemics

Long COVID Clinical Evaluation, Research and Impact on Society: A Global Expert Consensus (preprint) The Lancet. From the Abstract: “Following acute COVID-19, the risk of developing symptoms that last beyond the initial illness, is estimated to be 15% per individual per infection… This reinforces the need for translational research and large-scale treatment trials. Research on organ or body damage and Long COVID and vaccines were also areas where it was difficult to find a high level of consensus, but those statements that did reach consensus are significant.”

Ports around the world start screening crews for mpox Splash 247

Pandemic Policy: Planning the Future, Assessing the Past (symposium) Stanford University

China?

The inside story of the secret backchannel between the US and China FT

China, Philippines clash in South China Sea despite efforts to rebuild trust Channel News Asia

China property: Shanghai’s luxury homes sell out as developers target the super-rich South China Morning Post. Commentary:

China provides subsidies to boost home appliance trade-ins Xinhua

Big Tech in China doubles AI spending despite US restrictions FT

China in Central America: Just a Mirage The Diplomat

No U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers Deployed In The Pacific Naval News

Myanmar

China to hold 3-day live-fire military drills near Myanmar border South China Morning Post

‘A global monster’: Myanmar-based cyber scams widen the net Frontier Myanmar

Africa

Morocco’s strategy on the Western Sahara has paid off Deutsche Welle. Meanwhile:

Syraqistan

Israel’s Preemptive Strike in Lebanon Leaves It Sinking in the Same Strategic Mud Haaretz

UN, peacekeeping mission call on Israel, Hezbollah to cease fire amid cross-border escalation Anadolu Agency

Israel and Hezbollah exchange heaviest cross-border fire in months before pulling back PBS

10 foreign airlines cancel flights to Israel amid cross-border escalation with Hezbollah Anadolu Agency

Diseases spread in Gaza as sewage contaminates camps and coast BBC

New Not-So-Cold War

Russia launches huge missile and drone attack on Ukraine FT

Is the Kursk incursion a major strategic blunder? BNE Intellinews

Russian Engels military airfield where strategic bombers are based attacked by UAVs – photo, video Ukrainska Pravda

Zelensky’s Invasion of Russia Sends a Message to Moscow—and Washington WSJ

Ukraine keeps crossing Russia’s red lines. Putin keeps blinking. WaPo

Zelenskyy convenes major meeting focusing on traitors Ukrainska Pravda

Zelenskyy: I’m all for diplomacy, but not at the expense of 30% of our territories Ukrainska Pravda

US cracks down on Russia’s LNG dark fleet Splash 247

Russia, China compete with US for Arctic Circle dominion that could shape international trade for decades FOX

NATO’s Arctic Strategy Is an Overreaction The American Conservative

South of the Border

Mexico In Flux New Left Review

Biden Adminstration

Top defence contractors set to rake in record cash after orders soar FT

Biden Administration Blocks Two Private Sector Enrollment Sites From ACA Marketplace KFF Health News

2024

How Democrats Make Republicans: RFK Should Be A Wake Up Call for the Party Jonathan Turley

Celebrating at the DNC in a Time of Genocide The Nation

Vance says Trump would veto federal abortion ban The Hill

Justices allow Arizona to enforce proof-of-citizenship law for 2024 voter registration SCOTUSblog

Spook Country

Telegram says arrested CEO Durov has ‘nothing to hide’ BBC

Is Telegram really an encrypted messaging app? A Few Thoughts on Cryptographic Engineering

Vindman says Musk should be ‘nervous’ after Telegram CEO was arrested: ‘Free speech absolutists weirdos’ FOX. Commentary:

Antitrust

Monopoly Round-Up: Kroger-Albertsons Trial Starts Tomorrow Matt Stoller, BIG

Google Has Been Convicted of Monopolization. Will It Matter? Jacobin. Commentary (August 5):

Boeing

Boeing employees ‘humiliated’ that upstart rival SpaceX will rescue astronauts stuck in space: ‘It’s shameful’ NY Post

Digital Watch

In 2024, it really is better to run a startup in San Francisco, according to data and founders who’ve relocated TechCrunch

Housing

A New York City Office-to-Residential Conversion Wave Builds Commercial Observer

Healthcare

Drug Development Failure: how GLP-1 development was abandoned in 1990 (preprint; PDF) Jeffrey S. Flier, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. “GLP-1–related therapeutics are now established as an immense success, how and why these early efforts to develop the class were prematurely terminated should be of interest to historians, entrepreneurs, drug hunters, and clinicians.”

Gunz

Federal judge tosses Kansas machine gun possession case on Second Amendment grounds Kansas City

Guillotine Watch

Want to Show Your Priceless Paintings on The High Seas? This Niche New Service Specializes in Art on Yachts ArtNet

Babe Ruth’s famous ‘called shot’ jersey sells at auction for over $24 million, setting a record for sports collectibles Boston Globe

Class Warfare

Canada Labor Board Orders End to Railway Work Stoppage US News

Australians get ‘right to disconnect’ after hours BBC

Do Anarchists Dream of Emancipated Sheep? The Anarchist Library

Finding love: Study reveals where love lives in the brain (press release) Aalto University

Cloudbusting Alan Neale, When We Are Real

Why is the world so binary? Funding the Future

Antidote du jour (Daiju Azuma):

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
This entry was posted in 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.