Man Turned into Dog Says He Wants to Become Another Animal Scripps (Furzy Mouse)
This week in Doom – #19: Chicken in a china shop (transcript) Grant Williams (PI).
Climate
Mongolia’s fight against desertification and land degradation The diplomat
IKEA accused of being responsible for the destruction of the Romanian forest Monga Bay
Solar Project to Destroy Thousands of Joshua Trees in the Mojave Desert Los Angeles Times
Climate activist arrested for attacking Monet painting at Paris’ Orsay museum France 24
Saving art from the revolution, for the revolution JSTOR daily
Water
A Closer Look at America’s Water Crisis The progressive
This Troubled California Lake Has Gone So Green It’s Visible From Space SFGATE
Syndemics
Rising flu numbers and COVID-19 cases put Victorian ambulances under strain Age
South Australian public hospitals operating on internal emergency basis, elective surgeries suspended ABC Australia
Traveler infected with confirmed measles case at Seattle International Airport as cases rise in US FOX
COVID-19 associated with higher risk of erectile dysfunction Medical News Life Sciences
Driver’s brain fog due to covid-19 linked to Cork crash that killed elderly couple Irish Examiner
Burma
Myanmar junta orders all security personnel to front lines as casualties mount in hard-hit regional commands The Irrawaddy
Syria
UPDATE Pinned on Biden’s account:
Israel has now proposed a road map for a lasting ceasefire – and the release of all hostages.
Yesterday, this proposal was transmitted by Qatar to Hamas.
Today I want to expose its terms to the world. pic.twitter.com/0cdypBP9wb
– President Biden (@POTUS) May 31, 2024
Blinken discusses Gaza ceasefire proposal with Turkish, Jordanian and Saudi counterparts Anadolu Agency
Far-right Israeli ministers threaten to dissolve government if Netanyahu accepts Biden’s Gaza proposal Anadolu Agency
Bipartisan leaders formally invite Netanyahu to address Congress The hill. Who is the sovereign?
European disunity
EU members reportedly ready to punish Hungary with weak portfolio in next Commission BNE Intelligence
A new not-so-cold war
On Friday, Ukraine received permission to launch American rockets at targets in Russia. A few hours later, HIMARS opened fire. Forbes. Belgorod, twenty miles from the border (and not, say, a shell factory beyond the Urals. I really don’t know where Biden’s red lines are, although it is clear that every line that Biden traced has, over time, been erased; see Big Serge hereand read to the end).
US should allow Ukraine to use US-supplied weapons against military targets in Russia – ISW Ukrainian Pravda
Biden admin not entirely convinced Ukraine can win, even with new aid Policy
Biden’s secrecy on allowing Ukraine to strike Russia is dangerous Ken Klippenstein
* * * In Ukraine, Russia begins to accumulate advantages RUSSI. From mid-May, still relevant. “Ukraine has spent several months fortifying Kharkiv, but Russia has no plans to storm the city. The Russian target this summer is the Ukrainian army, and against this target it has begun to multiply its advantages…. Russia’s goal is not to achieve a big breakthrough, but rather to convince Ukraine that it can continue its inexorable advance, kilometer after kilometer, along the front.”
SITREP 01/06/24: Ukraine’s last gasp for a difficult start Simplicius the thinker(s). Simplicius prints the revised version of this title:
Change of title pic.twitter.com/8DvpRFWhhg
– Editing by TheGrayLady (@nyt_diff) May 30, 2024
Ukraine withdraws from Eastern Front villages while awaiting US aid New York Times
* * * The EU in the South Caucasus: Can Brussels become a geopolitical actor? JAM News. Vassals are not players.
The war in Ukraine has created an ‘arc of instability’ from the Balkans to the Caucasus BNE Intellinews. Just like Libya, Syria, Iraq….
How globalization rose and fell with Nord Stream Foreign policy
* * * The Russian Armed Forces once again struck the Yavorovsky training ground of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, where foreign instructors were located Superior Warfare. Russian military blogger site. FWIW: “Confirmed: Russian “Kinzhals” disrupted NATO officers’ bunkers in Ukraine‼️” ThreadReader (ctlieee). It’s worth keeping an eye on.
Dear old Blighty
Starmer has now made it clear: he intends to govern in the name of the rich Finance the future
World elections
India Election Results 2024: How will votes be counted? Al Jazeera
Mexicans vote in election overshadowed by violent attacks BBC
South Africa’s ANC loses 30-year parliamentary majority after elections Al Jazeera
US presidential election slides into uncharted territory with Trump’s historic criminal conviction France 24
* * * If voters adopt ranked-choice voting statewide, Colorado could prevent it from taking effect. Colorado Sun
Kansas Constitution Does Not Include Voting Rights: State High Court Majority FOX
Biden administration
President Biden Vetoes Crypto Custody Bill TechCrunch
Antitrust
Is Ticketmaster telling the truth about its finances? Matt Stoller. BIG
2024
Plot twist: WA has a law banning felons from running for office Seattle Times. I wonder how many other states do this.
Digital watch
Google admits its AI previews need improvement, but we’re all helping it beta test TechCrunch. Swell. Where to send the invoice?
AI and finance: an expert’s perspective alts.co. One of the use cases: “Summarize a company’s results as a buy or sell based on the language used by executives.” Totally revolutionary, a giant leap for humanity, just like replacing call center serfs with robots.
AI on trial: legal models stun in 1 in 6 (or more) benchmarking queries (press release) Stanford University
* * * Google API leak expected to change how marketers and publishers do SEO SparkToro
Darker patterns at Meta, what a surprise:
1. I’m really shocked by the design of @MetaThe new notification from us informing them that they want to use the content we publish to train their AI models. It is intentionally designed to be very annoying to minimize the number of users who will object to it. Let me break it down. pic.twitter.com/rhKNFt7CEu
– Tantacrul (@Tantacrul) May 26, 2024
* * * Self-driving cars are underestimated Matt Yglesias, boring slow
Damn almighty! Has it already been half a century of SQL? The register. Standards are important, strong mathematical foundations are important, and declarative implementation is important. Listen and learn, nimrods LLM.
Our famous free press
Twitch attracts pro-Palestinian influencers as rival sites backtrack on politics Taylor Lorenz, WaPo
Stanford, Silicon Valley, and the Rise of the Censorship Industrial Complex RealClearPolitics
Zeitgeist Watch
Nearly 1 in 3 Americans Reported Losing Someone to Drug Overdose: Study The hill. Rule #2.
Boeing
First crewed test flight of Boeing Starliner capsule delayed at last minute Asia News Channel. Loose door? Comment:
They realized there was a small helium leak in the propulsion system and so had to make a quick murder of a whistleblower to meet the next launch window in 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/xMqK4s1gMe
– Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) June 1, 2024
Imperial Collapse Watch
Jeffrey Sachs: The Untold Story of the Cold War, CIA Coups Around the World, and the Origin of COVID (video) Tucker Carlson, YouTube. Resumption from 05/30, now that I have listened to it carefully. Two hours, so have a cup of coffee. Luckily, there are chapter titles in the video so you can scroll down to the highlights; The history of the neoconservatives presented by Sachs is truly excellent. Regarding the origin of Covid, I think it would be best for Sachs to stay in his lane. Consultant disease: Not knowing the limits of one’s own knowledge. Sachs is, however, excellent in geopolitics and worth listening to. Congratulations to Carlson for this excellent and gracious interview.
Off the Leash: Inside a Secret, Global Far-Right Group Chat The New Republic. Erik Prince among others.
Class struggle
The $150,000 housekeeper: salary inflation shifts into second gear Charles Hugh Smith
The dream of one thing: rebuilding the economy of a Venezuelan municipality Monthly
A Russian village Sophie Kropotkin, Anarchist Library
Bookworm of Legal Theory: “The Interwar Constitution” by LaCroix Legal Theory Blog
Antidote of the day (Aris Riyanto):
See yesterday’s links and Antidote du Jour here.
