Links 5/31/2025 | naked capitalism

New Clues to the Origins of Human Medicine: Chimpanzees Caught Healing Each Other’s Wounds in the Wild SciTechDaily (Chuck L)

Dolphins Give Themselves Names That Could Hide Secret Information ScienceAlert (Chuck L). See? Sp Putin really was using them as spies!

250 million bees escape after truck overturns in US DW

A cure for individualism aeon

Toxic Origins, Toxic Decisions: Biases in CEO Selection SSRN. Paul R:

This paper brought to you by the letters W, T, and F. I thought toxic origins meant prior bad behaviour or something metaphorical like that, but no, they literally meant prenatal exposure to toxins leading to dysfunctional CEO behaviour. The abstract:

We examine how selection bias in CEO promotion amplifies risk-taking, using prenatal exposure to pollution as an exogenous shock to individual risk preferences. CEOs born in future Superfund sites are more likely to be promoted internally, suggesting firms reward observed success without recognizing underlying risk tolerance. These “Superfund CEOs” excel in internal roles but pursue riskier external policies once promoted-leading to greater volatility and weaker performance. Our results suggest firms may systematically mistake luck for skill in promotion decisions, filtering for high-variance risk-takers whose traits only become problematic when decision-making shifts to exposed, irreversible domains. In short, Superfund CEOs display performance with essentially lower mean but higher variance.

Moi: See this list of spurious correlations, which also includes AI justifications!

Harmful chemicals often migrate into tinned food – here’s how to avoid eating them The Conversation

#COVID-19

COVID-Related Cardiac Deaths Spiked Significantly Post-Pandemic Naveen Shankar

Thailand, Singapore and China mask up as COVID-19 reemerges Nikkei

Contradicting RFK Jr., CDC keeps recommending covid vaccine for kids Washington Post. But no one is recommending ventilation for kids. IM Doc reported that a school district in his region did that in a serious way, plus had sick kids stay home for the duration, and their level of cases was a IIRC 1/10th the average in the state.

Climate/Environment

World faces new danger of ‘economic denial’ in climate fight, Cop30 head says Guardian (Kevin W)

Scientists fear Britain’s entire food chain is contaminated as study finds microplastics in bugs Independent

Carbon footprint of Israel’s war on Gaza exceeds that of many entire countries Guardian (resilc)

China?

US defence secretary urges military build-up over ‘imminent’ China threat Financial Times

Trump claims China has “totally violated” tariff pause deal Axios

Bessent Says US-China Talks ‘Stalled,’ Pushes for Trump-Xi Call Bloomberg

U.S.-China Trade Truce Risks Falling Apart Over Rare-Earth Exports Wall Street Journal

All the Chinese tech giants are currently in the process of switching from Nvidia to homegrown AI chips, forced to do so by US export controls.

Hard to overstate how ironic it is: the entire point of the export controls was to prevent exactly this, the whole of China – the… pic.twitter.com/t1G5Ygcxgy

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) May 30, 2025

Macron to China: Keep North Korea out of Ukraine war or risk NATO coming to Asia Politico (Kevin W). Kill me now. I hope we get a Global Times finger-wagging on the epic stoopid that this demand represents.

Japan

Soaring rice prices are stirring political trouble in Japan – history shows this often leads to a change of government The Conversation (Kevin W)

European Disunion

Brussels tells EU capitals to cut water use by 10% in face of droughts Financial Times

Global investors launch Europe defence funds to profit from rearmament Reuters

Why does Switzerland have more nuclear bunkers than any other country? Guardian (Kevin W)

Old Blighty

UK car production slumps to lowest April levels since 1952 amid van factory closure and global trade turmoil BM Magazine

Israel v. the Resistance

‘Catastrophic hunger’: UN warns 2.3 million people in Gaza face starvation Aljazeera

When the Dead Speak and the Living Refuse to Listen CounterPunch (resilc)

What’s inside the boxes of aid being distributed in Gaza? Middle East Eye

The ‘chaos’ of aid distribution in Gaza is not a system failure. The system is designed to fail. Mondoweiss

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Hamas says US Gaza ceasefire plan backed by Israel fails to meet its demands BBC

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The US, Britain, France, and Germany are preparing to push the UN nuclear watchdog to declare Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations at the upcoming IAEA meeting — the first such declaration in nearly two decades, Reuters reported citing diplomats. pic.twitter.com/y9vrc8S7zu

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) May 30, 2025

Trump Says New Iran Deal Must Allow US To ‘Blow Up Whatever We Want’ Antiwar.com (Kevin W)

New Not-So-Cold War

CopeState map updates. “Grey zone” in their parlance can mean anything from actually grey zone (i.e., not really under anyone’s control) to 100% secured by Russian forces.

Sumy oblast is turning into a shaping theater. Kiev has already siphoned off two of its better mobile… pic.twitter.com/EDB2akrSw1

— Russians With Attitude (@RWApodcast) May 30, 2025

Uprising in Ukraine. The media won’t show you this because it doesn’t fit the narrative.

The Ukrainian people are now mobilising to attack or hinder conscription officers taking their sons and husbands. pic.twitter.com/y7DZBwzbaW

— Spetsnaℤ 007 (@Alex_Oloyede2) May 29, 2025

U.S.-Supplied Air Defenses Fail In Ukraine Moon of Alabama

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Zelenskyy says he discussed possible Ukraine-Russia-US-Türkiye summit with Turkish president Anadolu Agency. Lordie. Trying to retrade the “shape of the table” agreement. So how can Ukraine be trusted to adhere to anything serious?

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NATO reportedly wants 40,000 more German troops for defense against Russia Kyiv Independent

WWIII came and went Julian Macfarlane

Putin Seeks Broad Security Agreement, + Oreshnik to Berlin? Simpilcius. resilc: “Any western pledge is equal to a bucket of cold spit”

WHAT DID PRESIDENT TRUMP KNOW WHEN PRESIDENT PUTIN’S HELICOPTER CAME UNDER UKRAINIAN DRONE ATTACK IN KURSK John Helmer

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The government is selling the roof Kommersant via machine transaltion. Micael T: “Housing must be an object of speculation, never just a house.” Moi: The neoliberals won in Russia.

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans New York Times. resilc: “Stasiland.”

NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans’ data with Israel Guardian (Chuck L)

Haiti’s Beleaguered Government Launches Drones Against Gangs Wall Street Journal. resilc: “Coming to USA USA for a two way battle vs the state”

Imagine letting your rival read every chip blueprint you design. That’s what the US just confirmed you’ve been doing.

— William Huo (@wmhuo168) May 30, 2025

Imperial Collapse Watch

Larry Wilkerson & Chas Freeman: Why America’s Missing Grand Strategy Could Be a Global Disaster Dialogue Works. A must listen. Note both say the US has no grand strategy, which is even worse than a bad one.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at Eurasian international public political hearings on the formation of a contour of equal and indivisible security and cooperation in Eurasia, Perm, May 29, 2025 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Important. Lavrov has found new notes in depicting how Russia has had it with the duplicitous US.

America Let Its Military-Industrial Might Wither. China’s Is Booming Wall Street Journal (resilc)

How American intelligence sees the new global order Lorenzo Maria Pacini (Chuck L)

Why liberal democracies win total wars Engelsberg Ideas. Readers no doubt readers will have a field day. Without having read this, one wonders how this article tortures facts so as to deny that it was Russia that defeated Germany in World War II.

Trump 2.0

Jamie Dimon warns US bond market will ‘crack’ under pressure from rising debt Financial Times. The Fed can go the Japan route of buying the debt…but many heads will explode.

Surprise! New “MAHA” Report Is Full of Junk Science and Fake Studies New Republic Looks like RFJ, Jr. is up to his old tricks. I could not get past the first chapter of his Fauci book due to its dishonesty. It was heavily footnoted and over half were bogus. In the majority of that half, the text of the book misrepresented what the study said. For the rest, the evidence in the footnote was dubious, such as from a cherry picked, contested study.

ACA coverage losses resulting from tax bill could rile GOP voters STAT

GOP runs into voter buzzsaw of criticism on Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ The Hill

Republican Senator (Iowa) Joni Ernst hosted a tall hall this morning. The county (Butler) voted 72% for Donald Trump.

Medicaid cuts (UNIVERSALLY UNPOPULAR, even in GOP strongholds) came up, the audience yelled “people will die!”

With a big ass shit-eating grin, she replied… pic.twitter.com/Drwz2ySLOZ

— William Walter (@wilwalter93) May 30, 2025

New York Charities Worry They Won’t Be Able to Make Up for Steep Medicaid and SNAP Cuts THE CITY

I don’t understand the basis for concern from Varoufakis re other nations’ CBDCs. The US has no jurisdiction. If the US tries something epically stupid, like yanking the banking licenses of foreign banks licensed in New York (the most common way for foreign banks to operate in the dollar) in countries that allow CBDCs, that would in very short order create a global depression. Trade and international securities transactions would come to a grinding halt. It would probably stop the operation of Visa and Mastercard overseas, for instance. Nevertheless:

TRUMP WANTS THE DARKEST CORNERS OF BIG TECH TO OWN THE DOLLAR

The IMF-World Bank Spring meetings are usually placid affairs that participating central bankers wish to forget soon after they are over. Not this Spring. This April the feeling several central bankers brought back…

— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) May 30, 2025

Tariffs

Trump doubles steel tariffs to 50% in ‘major announcement’ CNN. Lordie. Aluminum too. So Trump has to compensate for the courts roughing him up on his “Liberation Day” tariffs?

Immigration

The Trump Administration Wants to Create an ‘Office of Remigration’ Wired (Dr. Kevin)

Trump’s Deportations Haunt Workers in the Fields of Rural New York New York Times. resilc: “Dairies will be closing….twice a day times 365 milkingzzzzzzzzzzz”

Groves of Academe

US orders extra visa screening for Harvard-bound travelers Anadolu Agency (Kevin W)

Mr. Market is Moody

U.S. Oil Companies Are ‘Battening Down the Hatches’ New York Times (Kevin W)

How Financial Services, a Market Plunge in April, and a Historic Cliff-Dive by Recreation Services Messed with PCE Inflation Today. But a Snap-Back Cometh Wolf Richter

AI Models Show Signs of Falling Apart as They Ingest More AI-Generated Data Futurism. We linked to the underlying story, but important not to miss.

The Bezzle

Digital Corruption Takes Over DC Paul Krugman (resilc)

Guillotine Watch

Exclusive | Former Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure Sells Aspen Teardown for $37.3 Million Wall Street Journal

Musk’s SpaceX town in Texas proposes a new map and zoning CNBC (resilc)

Class Warfare

Burnout is at a 10-year high for U.S. workers The Hill (resilc)

Don’t Call It a Side Hustle. These Americans Are ‘Polyworking.’ New York Times. resilc: “serfs until death.”

The Tragic History of Neoliberalism Robert Reich (resilc). Did he ever apologize for touting NAFTA? I seem to have missed it.

Colorado’s governor vetoes landmark ban on rent-setting algorithms Associated Press (Paul R)

Antidote du jour (via):

A bonus:

I can’t stop laughing.. pic.twitter.com/MAU6BB6uRq

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) May 29, 2025

A second bonus (Chuck L):

Rare footage of a moose shedding both its antlers captured with a drone in a forest in New Brunswick.

: Derek Burgoynepic.twitter.com/rTaUQ95gcC

— Wonder of Science (@wonderofscience) May 29, 2025