Links 7/20/2025 | naked capitalism

Top synchro execution in action!

Gabriela Agundez and Alejandra Estudillo deliver height, precision, and perfect timing 🙌🇲🇽#Bestdives pic.twitter.com/P1Kxc04dvh

— World Aquatics (@WorldAquatics) May 18, 2025

The breakthrough proof bringing mathematics closer to a grand unified theory Nature

20-Million-Year-Old Rhino Fossil Rewrites Evolutionary History SciTech Daily

An electric scooter that accelerates faster than a Tesla Model 3? No thanks! The Verge

COVID-19/Pandemics

Actually, research supports the COVID school closures The Hill

US withdraws from WHO pandemic response reforms Al Jazeera

Climate/Environment

Researchers develop 30,000 AI-induced climate mitigation scenarios Andolu Agency

EPA eliminates research and development office, begins layoffs ABC News

Is Climate Change an Existential Threat? Gizmodo

China?

kindergarten lessons in China

pic.twitter.com/DKCT6UZLrM

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) June 17, 2025

Exclusive: China quietly issues 2025 rare earth quotas, sources say Reuters

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang praises China’s EVs, says he would love to buy Xiaomi car Global Times

‘Great British Energy solar panels’ were made in China BBC

New Images Of China’s J-35 Naval Stealth Fighter, Could Depict Third Example The War Zone

China begins construction of world’s largest hydropower station in Tibet Andolu Agency

Will China Abandon Its Non-Interventionist Foreign Policy for Iran? Oilprice.com

South of the Border

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy may deny flights from Mexico over broken aviation agreement NY Post

Could Trump’s threats against Brazil backfire? Al Jazeera

IMF and Milei – partners in Argentina’s neoliberal autocracy Bretton Woods Project

Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa Can’t Afford to Eat on a Carbon Diet The Ecomodernist

French military to leave Senegal amid ongoing withdrawal from Africa RFI

European Disunion

EU Regulatory Tensions and the Future of European Bank Mergers: Navigating the New Landscape of Risk and Reward Ainvest

U’s Bold High-Speed Rail Vision Faces Major Hurdles: Can Europe Overcome Challenges To Achieve Its 2030 And 2050 Goals, You Need To Know Travel and Tour World

Old Blighty

UK reduces voting age to 16, aims to boost electoral participation Scripps News

Britain faces a test of identity: Will Britons become a minority in their homeland? – opinion Jerusalem Post

Israel v. Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Iran, Lebanon

Gaza is undergoing one of the worst famines in the world and what do Israeli citizens do?

They are attacking a destroying what little aid caravans go to Gaza.

They want babies to starve and children to die.

They say it all the time. pic.twitter.com/xmaFxA3TCn

— ADAM (@AdameMedia) July 19, 2025

JUST IN: British surgeon Dr. Nick Maynard says Israeli soldiers in Gaza are turning the targeting of Palestinian children into a “HUMAN-HUNTING GAME.”

“These children are being targeted almost as if it’s a game… One day they’re all shot in the head, the next day in the neck,… pic.twitter.com/YMRjdNA58L

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) July 19, 2025

Bad Days and Worse Days London Review of Books

Dr. Hussam Abu Safia fed two spoonfuls of rice a day in Israeli prison
——
In an interview with Arab48 published Thursday, attorney Ghaid Qassem said that director of Kamal Adwan Hospital Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, who is currently imprisoned in Ofer prison, had been subjected to… pic.twitter.com/VST2Ttmg7I

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) July 18, 2025

Why Did Israel Attack Syria? What Comes Next? Zeteo

Israel levelling thousands of Gaza civilian buildings in controlled demolitions BBC

New Not-So-Cold War

The notion that Ukraine might defeat Russia and destabilise it has always been a delusional fantasy. They are outnumbered, outgunned, and facing a nuclear superpower; this is not strategy – it is madness. It’s time for peace and common sense to prevail ‼️ pic.twitter.com/40RXiUDayo

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) July 18, 2025

Condoleezza Rice: Trump’s aggressive stance on Putin is ‘turning point’ in Russia-Ukraine war The Hill

The CIA Initiated an Intelligence and Terrorist War on Russia Based on a Lie Larry Johnson

Genocide or tragedy? Ukraine, Poland at odds over Volyn massacre of 1943 Al Jazeera

Big Brother Is Watching You Watch

For privacy and security, think twice before granting AI access to your personal data TechCrunch

USDA again asks for Kansans’ personal data, as lawsuit seeks privacy protections Kansas Reflector

puts his Grok AI chatbot in Teslas—and raises questions around data and privacy Fortune

Imperial Collapse Watch

‘Home bags’ aim to ease hardship for Brockton’s homeless students. How the program works. The Enterprise

These 10 states have the worst infrastructure in America in 2025 CNBC

Trump 2.0

Donald Trump Is Having One of His Worst Weeks, Ever The New Republic

Ghislaine Maxwell believed Trump would save her, now she’s documenting everything behind bars: jail source NY Post

Republicans’ food aid cuts will hit grocers in many towns that backed Trump Politico

Barack Obama Now Squarely in Russiagate Crosshairs Matt Taibbi

Musk Matters

Trump administration ordered review of SpaceX government contracts following Trump-Musk fallout: Report The Economic Times

How Elon Musk Created a Nightmare for Donald Trump Gizmodo

Elon Musk moves xAI, Grok onto Palantir turf The Street

Democrat Death Watch

How can Democrats win back working-class voters? Change their tune The Guardian

Democrats’ 2024 Autopsy Is Described as Avoiding the Likeliest Cause of Death NY Times

Immigration

Thousands of Californians lost work after LA immigration raids. Citizens did, too Santa Monica Daily Press

New Jersey’s Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst to be used for immigrant detention CBS News

Our No Longer Free Press

Journalists among those arrested during immigration-related protest in Cincinnati NY Post

Did Trump Play a Role in Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ Getting Canceled? Fulcrum

Mr. Market Is Moody

Dollar Weakens as a Fed Official Calls for Rate Cuts Nasdaq

Stocks just hit a ‘line of death’ last reached at the peak of the dot-com bubble, veteran investor Bill Smead warns Business Insider

Another major trucking operation files Chapter 11 bankruptcy The Street

AI

Meta declines to abide by voluntary EU AI safety guidelines The Register

People Are Becoming Obsessed with ChatGPT and Spiraling Into Severe Delusions Futurism

Human programmer beats OpenAI’s custom AI in 10-hour marathon, wins World Coding Championship — Polish programmer might be the last human winner Tom’s Hardware

AI robot performs gallbladder surgery autonomously Fox News

The Bezzle

Christine Hunsicker, CEO of a Bankrupt Fashion Tech Startup, Charged for Alleged $300M Fraud Scheme People

Amazon warns customers about a devious new scam The Street

Guillotine Watch

This LA mansion is selling for $250M, it is the most expensive home for sale in the US pic.twitter.com/EwnswjSezp

— Business Insider (@BusinessInsider) September 8, 2018

💎 The most expensive ring was created by Swiss jewelers Shawish.

The ring is not adorned with a #diamond – the fabulously expensive accessory is carved out of a single diamond.

Its cost is $70,046,000. pic.twitter.com/YGZuz9h3Cy

— Jaouad  (@jaouad2d) March 4, 2024

Antidote du jour (via)

A bonus:

The leap range of a tiger. pic.twitter.com/HYo4AEIcOU

— Fascinating (@fasc1nate) July 20, 2025

A second bonus:

That sign about falling cats is hilarious. pic.twitter.com/LOQYaZgS5e

— We don’t deserve cats 😺 (@catsareblessing) July 18, 2025

And a third:

Beluga whales love to play, scare, joke and generally interact with humans.

This clip is the perfect example.pic.twitter.com/YZwf3LteJv

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) July 19, 2025

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here