Links 12/17/2022 | naked capitalism

Huge Berlin hotel aquarium exploded with 1,500 fish New York Times (see also G.Giant aquarium exploded in Germany, killing 1,500 tropical fish and spilling 1 million liters of water ABC Australia, advice to Kevin V.). BC: “Some of the engineering feats are harder than originally thought.”

Pentagon receives ‘several hundred’ new UFO reports Associated Press

Airport security 100 ml rule to be abolished BBC (irritated). Oddly enough, there are better scanners at Birmingham Airport, but not LGA.

What would Plato say about ChatGPT? New York Times (David L.)

Illustrated transformer Jay Alammar (David L.)

Nearly 8,000 US shootings linked to unseasonable heat: study Guardian (Dr. Kevin)

The Rise and Fall of Peer Review: Why History’s Greatest Science Experiment Failed and Why It’s Great Adam Mastroianni (Chuck L.). Today’s must-read.

#COVID-19

Asia

China faces biggest spike in COVID pandemic: possibly 800 million cases NPR (David L.)

Surge in deaths at Beijing crematorium points to rise in Covid death toll in China Wall Street Journal (Dr. Kevin)

Australia

US

Working parents are overwhelmed by the fact that children get sick again and again Bloomberg (ma)

New survey reveals why some adults aren’t getting their COVID vaccine ABC (ma)

Virginia Schools May Require Masks for Peers and Teachers 12 Students with Disabilities, Community States CNN. ma: “Glad I don’t have to manage it!”

Ann Arbor Public Schools Issue Health Advisory Amid Rising Student and Staff Illnesses ClickonDetriot (ma)

Climate/environment

Amazon Plastic Waste Soared In 2021, Report Says Gizmodo

One of NYC’s largest co-ops is considering banning e-bikes in response to battery fire concerns Town

China?

China threatens to fire senators who voted to ban TikTok Babylon bee

Fentanyl Wars: China, Mexico and the US Asia Times (Kevin W.)

Hopes of Chinese fighter jets in South America dashed as Argentina scraps procurement plan South China Morning Post

Old Blighty

>UK weather: More warnings of extreme cold, ice and snow ahead of blizzards in skies

The launch of the French nuclear reactor is again delayed Barrons

Polish police chief Yaroslav Szymczyk injured in gift explosion New York Post. “Polish authorities have asked Ukrainian officials to ‘give appropriate explanations’ as to why the gift exploded.”

New not-so-cold war

Russia Attacks Ukrainian Infrastructure in ‘Biggest Attacks’ Since Invasion Financial Times. It was the day after the biggest shelling of Donetsk. The Russians launched major strikes at least once every two weeks. If this was intended as revenge, the Western press pointedly ignores it. BY THE WAY Fisherman disagrees.:

Although the missile attack cannot be called the most massive in recent months, the number of missiles fired and the geography of targets are still impressive.

Kharkiv became the second city in Ukraine without electricity after Russian strikes BBC

Ukraine News: Kyiv warns of prolonged power outages DV

The European Court of Human Rights will take precautionary measures against Belgium due to the lack of asylum for asylum seekers Anadolu Agency

* * *

How to avoid another world war Henry Kissinger, Spectator. Kevin W.: “Henry went crazy because of his assumptions in this article.”

Diplomacy Watch: Is the Overton Window Shifting at the End of the Ukrainian War? Responsible public administration. He who is less deluded is still deluded.

America’s New Sanctions Strategy foreign affairs

Meloni fully supports NATO war in Ukraine Defend Democracy

* * *

Volodymyr Zelensky and his generals explain why war hangs in the balance Economist. Despite my allergy to such things, this is important, despite Zelensky’s hooray stance and usual blathering. Interviews with Generals Zaluzhny and Syrsky contain many confessions against interest. Compare this with the statements of the British Ministry of Defense: Western hysteria is gaining momentum Larry Johnson

How Putin’s Technocrats Saved the Economy to Fight the War They Opposed Financial Times. Late, partly because it was obvious where things were going. Alexander Merkuris is right, the article is openly outraged by the fact that Putin’s team, considered liberal economists, did not attack him. But it is not established whether they opposed the recognition of the self-proclaimed republics simply on economic grounds (the clear belief that the West would crush Russia with sanctions) or also because they opposed the war in Ukraine on political/moral grounds. The article suggests that they are (or should have been), but it is based on disapproving statements by outsiders or a few departed officials.

Also note the image of Putin meeting with his advisers. Boy, he did NOT want to get Covid! As a reminder, he missed G20 2021 due to stated concerns about Covid. There are more recent footage and staged scenes in which he sits quite close to individual officials. More trust in Sputnik? Superventilated offices? More risk tolerance?

* * *

What are they talking about on Russian talk shows now? Gilbert Doctorow

in Syracuse

Moscow welcomes Turkey’s call for trilateral diplomacy in Syria Middle East online. Turkey is finally angry enough at NATO’s provocation through Greece to join the Assad-Assad case. Americans.

The family of Palestinian activist Nizar Banat filed a lawsuit against the Palestinian authorities in the International Criminal Court CNN (Sun)

2022 was a record year for settler violence. The Palestinians say next year will be even worse. Mondoways

Imperial crumbling clock

Five issues with the F-35 have been downgraded but remain unresolved Defense News

Biden’s Halftime Report: Is America Really Back on the World Stage? With her

Shocking video shows man overboard incident on USNS Comfort hospital ship QCaptain (away). To compare the degree of difficulty, cruise ships routinely perform this maneuver with tenders of the same size or larger in ports where the ship is too large to refuel.

Our press is no longer free

From the Twitter Files: Twitter, an affiliate of the FBI Matt Taibbi (Chuck L)

Twitter suspension of journalists sets ‘dangerous precedent’, UN warns Guardian Kevin W.: “However, the exclusion of independent journalists is still acceptable.”

In an attack on democratic rights, a railroad union sanctioned a winning opposition candidate for publishing an article on the WSWS WSWS (fc)

Supply chain/inflation

U.S. ‘peak’ inflation talk overlooks China Asia Times (Kevin W.)

The Biden administration began to replenish the oil reserve Politico (Kevin W.)

Bezl

Binance Native BNB Token Drops To Lowest Level Since July As Withdrawal Concerns And FTX Links Rise CNBC

Accounting Firm That Issued Reserve Confirmation Report to Binance Stops Servicing All Crypto Clients Fox

Democrats plan to return over $1 million from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried The Verge. A small fraction of what is known even now that they received.

Can childcare become big business? This is how private capital thinks. New York Times. fk: “Payable child care facilities?”

Goldman Sachs prepares to lay off nearly 4,000 employees Financial Times

class war

Labor leaders cover up Medicare privatization Counter attack

Starbucks workers strike at 100 stores across the country – UK strike wave spreads – Hyundai and Kia use child labor at 10 Alabama plants Mike Elk

Antidote of the Day (CV):

And bonus:

See yesterday’s links and Antidote du Jour here.

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