Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war — both real fog and stage fog — in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-free repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free pom pom-wavers will be summarily whacked.
And for those who are new here, this is not a mere polite request. We have written site Policies and those who comment have accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 election, we are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders.
–Yves
P.S. Also, before further stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies:
Please do not write us to ask why a comment has not appeared. We do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments section to complain about moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please don’t do it. Those comments will also be removed if we encounter them.
Why Woodpeckers Don’t Mind Hitting Trees With Their Faces New York Times (furzy)
In Malawi, 250 elephants are being carefully moved to a larger park Associated Press (David L)
The Secrets of America’s Greatest Math Team Wall Street Journal.
MIT’s building a time-traveling dark matter detector The Next Web (David L)
PTT to commercialise ‘rejuvenating DNA’ Bangkok Post
Remembering Richard Taruskin, a writer who made you care about 1,000 years of music NPR (David L)
Art Is for Seeing Evil Point Magazine (Anthony L)
#COVID-19
Science/Medicine
From GM: “Here is first data on BA.2.75 itself”:
Sharing some preliminary results just obtained regarding the new Omicron variants BA.2.75. In short, BA.2.75 is more neutralization evasive than BA.2.12.1, but less compared to BA.4/5. BA.2.75 also exhibits higher ACE2 affinity than BA.4/5. (1/n) pic.twitter.com/4GBSFuinXO
— Yunlong Richard Cao (@yunlong_cao) July 15, 2022
However, BA.2.75 seems to be more immune evasive than BA.4/5 in Delta-infection backgrounds, which may explain BA.2.75’s growth advantage in India. Noteworthy, the sample size of Delta convalescents here is small. (2/n) pic.twitter.com/gEL0oqydbq
— Yunlong Richard Cao (@yunlong_cao) July 15, 2022
GM continues:
Two keys results:
1. receptor affinity has increased quite a bit
2. BA.4/5 shows more overall escape, but BA.2.75 escapes Delta immunity better.
This sort of effect will likely matter more and more in the future as different populations accumulate very different exposure histories.
More than 50 Long-term effects of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis MedRxIv (David L)
Covid-19 Vaccines Temporarily Changed Menstrual Cycles, Study Shows New York Times (Kevin W). How many were “temporary” only because they had a medical intervention? We’ve heard of cases of child-bearing age women losing their periods for more than 2 months and seeking treatment.
Asia
More cities across China order partial Covid lockdowns South China Morning Post (resilc)
Zero-Covid policy killing off China’s growth Asia Times. Kevin W: “Translation – ‘Jump in. The water’s fine!’”
US
Low demand for young kids’ Covid vaccines is alarming doctors Politico
Climate/Environment
Europe heatwave: Thousands escape wildfires in France, Spain and Greece BBC (Kevin W)
England braces for 40C temperatures as experts warn thousands could die Guardian
As alarm over plastic grows, Saudis ramp up production in the US Grist (Glenn F)
Floodworx: Smart Design for Easier Flood Protection Core77 (resilc)
The big default? The dozen countries in the danger zone Reuters (Kevin W))
China?
Markets sink on contagion fears. Chinese bank stocks suffer their worst week since 2018. Some investment-grade property bonds trade at all-time lows. Iron ore futures drop almost 8% in a single day. 3/10https://t.co/A7SrHNjBam
— Sofia Horta e Costa (@SofiaHCBBG) July 15, 2022
China faces difficult decisions with slide in economic growth South China Morning Post
China Studies Ending Australia Coal Ban on Supply Fear Bloomberg. Says China still afraid of US secondary sanctions.
India
Biden’s I2U2 summit diminishes India Indian Punchline (Kevin W)
Allow India to export foodgrains from public stock to needy nations, says FM Sitharaman to WTO Economic Times
Sri Lanka
Old Blighty
The former Chancellor and Mordaunt still in the lead The Times
I see #BringbackBoris is trending. Tory supporters after watching the #C4LeaderDebate realise every one standing as potential leader is in fact, rubbish. Not even the Tories support the Tories. Now that is funny. So please they agree with me. Good morning. 😀 pic.twitter.com/cYIEajyWWP
— FishGirls23 💙 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 NHSPay15 (@FishGirls23) July 16, 2022
While we’re all distracted by the leadership race…
Govt is planning to pack the Lords with 39 more Tories
Why 39?
Because almost two thirds of recent govt defeats were by fewer than 50 votes
A terrifying death knell for democracy.https://t.co/BTAgkecsbx
— Marina Purkiss (@MarinaPurkiss) July 15, 2022
Italy. Remember that on top of everything else, Italy is the sick man of Europe, with particularly wobbly banks.
Taxi driver protests have caused Italy to spiral into political chaos. PM Draghi tendered his resignation on Thursday, but Italian Pres Mattarella REJECTED IT. Take a look at the scene in Rome:pic.twitter.com/Jnx8SeqDNB
— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) July 15, 2022
Huge bullshit!! Italian people are fed up with Draghi and his lobbies-compliant government! We want to get rid of the most corrupted governors in our history, we need JUSTICE, FREEDOM and WORK ! https://t.co/ZMWcUI102r
— Francesca Donato (@ladyonorato) July 15, 2022
Mario Draghi struggles through mire of Italy’s turbulent politics Financial Times
New Not-So-Cold War
EU Slashes Ukraine Assistance Nine-Fold Amid Domestic Economic Troubles Sputnik (Kevin W)
Supporting Ukraine For ‘As Long As It Takes’ Is Not a Strategy 1945
” rel=”nofollow”>Uniper Starts Using Winter Gas With Urgent Bailout Needed Bloomberg
* * * About Borisov’s New Post. Andrei Martyanov. See also a key point from Alexander Mercouris yesterday, that Russia is re-nationalizing military production and has put another top-top technocrat in charge. A point that can’t be made too often: what freaked the West out the most about Communism was that the USSR went from a peasant economy to an industrial power in a generation. No “free enterprise” country has come close. Moreover, some recent studies contend that the central planning model worked well initially, but then the Soviet analogue to middle level managers hopelessly corrupted the system, both via how they influenced targets and hiding inventories . Mercouris opines, and this sounds right, that Russia spent 30 year experimenting with a Western-style private military procurement system and concluded the Soviet approach worked better.
Ukraine. Military Summary And Analysis 15.07.2022 YouTube. In the first few minutes, a discussion of a sighting of very recent recommendation by the US for all US citizens to leave Ukraine + the US embassy moving its operations from Kiev to Lvov. But Lambert went looking and couldn’t find it…..I found this version but it is only in Ukraine via a translator, which makes me question it.
* * * I know Tulsi has baggage but no one else is making clear and urgent statements like this:
NYC’s new PSA says if a nuclear bomb drops we should “1. Get inside 2. Stay inside 3. Stay Tuned” as if going inside is going to save us from a nuclear holocaust. It won’t. But the leaders who got us here? They don’t care about us – they will be safe in their bunkers. pic.twitter.com/63MDa4cLon
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) July 16, 2022
G20: Canada claims Russian delegation are personally responsible for ‘war crimes’ in Ukraine Guardian. Resilc: “Unlike the merikin delegation in Somalia, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, West Bank/Gaza, Libya……….”
Syraqistan
Permit me a linguistic nerd-out to show unbalanced nature of declaration. US & Israel jointly “commit” to 5 things; US further “commits” to 10 more alone. Israel commits to 0 alone. https://t.co/6Tkv27YOBQ via @whitehouse
— Michele Dunne (@MicheleDDunne) July 14, 2022
Biden hands blank check to Saudi Arabia in Middle East visit WSWS
Noam Chomsky: Biden’s Middle East Trip Contains Echoes of Trump’s Policies Truthout
Joe Biden greeted by protests during brief visit to Palestine Guardian (resilc)
Big Brother is Watching You Watch
San Francisco cops want real-time access to private security cameras for surveillance The Register (David L)
Facebook allows users to create multiple accounts – Bloomberg RT (Kevin W)
BMW starts selling heated seat subscriptions for $18 a month The Verge. Li: “Internet of things.”
Imperial Collapse Watch
How the ‘great power competition’ model leads to costly entanglements Responsible Statecraft (resilc)
US warns it will defend Philippines in South China Sea DW. Resilc: “Who would believe this drivel?”
1/6
Secret Service under pressure over erased texts and Jan. 6 actions The Hill
Biden
Manchin appears to doom Biden agenda The Hill
Biden expects Saudi Arabia to take ‘further steps’ to boost oil supply Financial Times (Kevin W). Erm…” Saudi official downplays US president’s remarks saying production will be based on demand.”
Trump
Prominent conservatives issue report rebutting Trump election claims CNN (furzy)
Ivana Trump died of blunt impact injuries to torso – NYC medical examiner BBC
Abortion
State abortion bans prevent women from getting essential medication Reuters (ma)
Our No Longer Free Press
Documents show Bill Gates has given $319 million to media outlets to promote his global agenda Grayzone (Kevin W)
Auditors Cheating on Ethics Exams – Who’s Surprised? Francine McKenna
UK Lawmakers Tell Visa and Mastercard To Justify Fee Rises Reuters
Chaos Is Becoming the Rational Base Case in Market Ruled by Fear Bloomberg
Class Warfare
High deductibles helped UnitedHealth reach $7 billion in profits in Q2 as a 14-year-old begs for deductible assistance on GoFundMe. Wendell Potter
Antidote du jour. Another image of littermates Cookie (with white) and Niblet who have Stephen T as their human:
And a bonus (guurst):
This footage by Scuba Ventures in Kavieng, Papua New Guinea, shows one of the rarest animal sightings in the world: a Chirodectes maculatus, an incredibly rare genus of box jellyfish which had only been sighted once before [source: https://t.co/2ho9MoWNQ8] pic.twitter.com/luEKZk20X1
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 13, 2022
And another bonus from guurst:
Everything is awful so here’s Rico eating sweetcorn.
📹: @CincinnatiZoo pic.twitter.com/ayzdYyEr2r
— Paul Bronks (@SlenderSherbet) June 26, 2022
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
