Does Morality Do Us Any Good? The New Yorker (Anthony L). Sure, it typically makes selections simpler. And also you additionally usually create fewer enemies.
Areas between the Stars London Evaluation of Books (Anthony L). On Kubrick.
The torture of an unphilosophical life Unherd
FDA Rethinks Phenylephrine Chilly Cures Effectiveness Naveen Sankar
Milan, from January 1st absolute ban on smoking outside L’Unione Sarda
#COVID/Pandemics
Covid Pregnancies Could Have Boosted Autism Danger, Research Reveals Bloomberg (ma)
Local weather/Atmosphere
Hochul Indicators Regulation That Penalizes Firms for Greenhouse Gasoline Emissions New York Occasions. Lambert ran an identical story yesterday. Over my pay grade, however I don’t see how this survives a authorized problem. Making an attempt to say that is just like the Superfund regulation, of discrete actions that brought on harm that could possibly be traced to a specific perp, doesn’t make it so.
China?
China pushes forward with big — and controversial — dam in Tibet Washington Submit
Will China let the yuan go in 2025? Asia Occasions (Kevin W)
Trump asks Supreme Court docket to pause TikTok ban, whereas Biden admin says app poses ‘grave’ risk CNN (Kevin W)
Temu’s Takeover Is Now Full Wired (Kevin W)
India
India: It’s Worse Than You Assume American Renaissance (Li). Hoo boy. I’m sure a variety of readers will take problem.
Israel v. The Resistance
We instructed ya… The actual objective is extra land seize.
“We can’t allow them to rebuild [Gaza]… Nothing strikes, and what strikes – dies. That is all. And is attacked and annihilated”
Israel’s Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich pic.twitter.com/cMKpXKuT6C
— Abier (@abierkhatib) December 26, 2024
Kids are freezing to demise in Gaza Mondoweiss (guurst)
Troopers and tanks surrounding the final barely functioning medical facility in northern Gaza, readying to empty it after focusing on it for greater than two months. https://t.co/xqq4wEOfFl
— Nicola Perugini (@PeruginiNic) December 27, 2024
WHO chief says he was at Yemen airport which Israeli strikes focused CNN (Kevin W)
Houthis declare to have focused Ben Gurion airport after Israel hits Sana’a Guardian (Kevin W). FWIW, Ben Gurion repeatedly takes army flights, so it’s a reliable goal.
New Not-So-Chilly Battle
NO NATO, NEVER NATO👇
For us, it would not matter whether or not it is one yr or ten years.
❗️Biden as soon as proposed to easily postpone Ukraine’s NATO membership, if that can also be Trump’s plan, it’ll additionally not be acceptable — Putin pic.twitter.com/1IUdIgrzrJ
— Ignorance, the foundation and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) December 26, 2024
Taras Chmut: We now have chaos within the army command Ukrainska Pravda
EU state threatens Ukraine with energy cuts RT (Kevin W)
Airplane crash in Kazakhstan was resulting from ‘bodily, technical exterior interference’: Azerbaijan Airways early findings Anadolu Company
Leaderless Rebellion in Georgia? Sopo Japardze
Syraqistan
Syria won’t ever be unified Edward Luttwak, Unherd
A Requiem For Ba’athism (Half 1 of two) Niccolo Soldo
Turkish analyst taken off air after calling for killing Syrian Kurdish militants on BBC Turkish Minute
Behind Afghanistan’s Fall, U.S.-Backed Militias Worse Than the Taliban New York Occasions (Kevin W)
Chuck L:”Haven’t seen any affirmation as but nevertheless it’s one thing to look at.” Moi: Massive if true.
Nuclear assault in Tartus (Syria):
Radioactive fingerprint of nuke (Tartus) measured in Cyprus inside ~16 hours after the assault.
[Note that the dose rate peak cannot be ascribed to precipitation as higher precipitation occurred on Dec 5 with no discernible radiation increase] pic.twitter.com/HPWDNn96gW— Hans-Benjamin Braun (@Ben68638515) December 23, 2024
Massive Brother is Watching You Watch
Former NSA cyberspy’s not-so-secret pastime: Hacking Christmas lights The Register
The Paper Passport Is Dying Wired
Imperial Collapse Watch
The West Dismantles Itself: Liberalism in Concept and Observe György Varga, Nachdenkseiten by way of machine translation (Micael T)
Why world’s financial powers may discover 2025 a yr of nice battle South China Morning Submit
1/6
Inside how the Capitol Police has modified since Jan. 6, 2021 Politico (Kevin W)
Trump 2.0
TRUMP REDUX New Left Evaluation
From Panama Canal to Greenland, Trump defines a ‘new geography’ for American safety Simply the Information. Sure, Trump needs his pony, simply the best way Biden needed his pony of regime-changing Russia.
Trump’s Tariff Threats Are Setting Off a World Provide Chain ‘Freakout’ Bloomberg
Trump’s Plans to Scrap Local weather Insurance policies Has Unnerved Inexperienced Vitality Buyers New York Occasions (Kevin W)
Democrats en déshabillé
DNC powerhouse fundraiser broadcasts exit from Democratic Social gathering following assaults: ‘It’s like leaving a cult’ Fox (ma)
Immigration
Shortsighted tech bros search to go away American STEM expertise even additional behind. Jordan Schacthel (Micael T). Lambert says the Twitterverse battle of the MAGA sorts v. the Musk/Vivek followers is spectacular and the MAGA crowd is making superb arguments….together with ones that come very near the commodification of labor.
1. I led the drafting of laws within the Trump ‘45 White Home to create a brand new authorized immigration framework. I noticed firsthand what occurs when ANY visa reform is proposed: executives from the most important multinationals and lobbyists from all types of industries are banging on the… https://t.co/5M4B1pyzn0
— Theo Wold (@RealTheoWold) December 26, 2024
Our No Longer Free Press
CNN Loses Chunks of Viewership as Rankings Dive Into Loss of life Spiral Sputnik
Kari Lake sparks considerations at Voice of America The Hill. As if there isn’t “partisan meddling” now?
Sports activities Desk
Why school soccer is turning into tougher to like Seattle Occasions (Robin Okay)
Mr. Market is Moody
Credit score markets’ calm veneer will crack in 2025 Reuters
Antitrust
Microsoft Bundling Practices Focus of Federal Antitrust Probe ProPublica
AI
Microsoft Is Forcing Its AI Assistant on Individuals – And Making Them Pay Wall Avenue Journal. BWAHAHA. Because of this I purchased my Microsoft moderately than subscribing over the objections of my tech lady.
Nothing Is Sacred: AI Generated Slop Has Come for Christmas Music 404 Media (Micael T)
Chinese language Agency Trains Huge AI Mannequin for Simply $5.5 Million TechCrunch
Easy methods to repair computing’s AI vitality downside: run the whole lot backwards New Scientist (Dr. Kevin)
The Bezzle
Even Apple Wasn’t In a position To Make VR Headsets Mainstream in 2024 ProPublica
Guillotine Watch
The Recreation Concept of Giving Up Personal Justice or Ending The State Monopoly On Violence Ian Welsh (Micael T)
What’s life like within the Brooklyn jail the place Mangione awaits trial? Actually unhealthy, consultants say. Gothamist. MDC is famously horrible.
Class Warfare
The irony of Vivek’s submit is that his unsuitable evaluation of how American tradition is damaged illustrates in itself how American tradition is damaged.
I imply, how out-of-touch should one be to assume individuals will embrace a imaginative and prescient the place childhood should be optimized for company success, with… https://t.co/faegwIztXi
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) December 27, 2024
The World Fertility Commerce: A Story of Extraction, Exploitation and Alternative Bloomberg (ma)
‘Residing proof that you may spend cash on the poor’: Utopia involves Mexico Metropolis Guardian (Allen Okay)
US homelessness up 18% as reasonably priced housing stays out of attain for many individuals Related Press
Flying Was Already the Worst. Then America Stopped Utilizing Headphones. Wall Avenue Journal
If in case you have time for leisure viewing: Sandel and Piketty Components 1-3, YouTube. Robin Okay:
Half 1:
Half 2:
Half 3:
Piketty’s ethereal imaginative and prescient of globalism–a u.s.a. of the world with progressive taxation–and Sandel’s identitarianism make for an oddly fascinating trade. Sandel comes off higher when he simply asks questions. When he tries to expound, he blathers, repetitive and incoherent. Piketty stays on monitor with a transparent protection of leftist political economic system.
Main takeaway: huge cash is all about globalism with free motion of capital and, um, free commerce, whereas counting on those that get left behind to battle each other at borders over free motion of labor, i.e., both by being emigrants or anti-immigration nationalists. Buffet nailed: there may be class warfare and his class is profitable.
Antidote du jour (Tim H):
And a bonus (Chuck L):
A uncommon African black leopard below the celebs – a photograph that took the photographer 6 months to seize Credit score: Will Burrard-Lucas pic.twitter.com/LYDt7viwBo
— Nature is Superb ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) December 25, 2024
See yesterday’s Hyperlinks and Antidote du Jour right here.
