This Week's Most Read Must Reads - 10-16 June 2024

A summary of this week's most interesting news, studies, reports and articles

Naked Emperor: Exposing the Narrative

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Climate Change

• Europe’s Green Deal faces extinction. The success of the European elite’s most ambitious project looks even more remote after Sunday’s EU parliamentary elections: the Green Deal is a luxury policy it can no longer afford. On Sunday the green vote receded from its peak in 2019, when green parties took 20.5% of the share. Despite the mobilisation efforts of operations such as Generation Climate Europe, the young are losing interest: green parties recorded 11.9% of the under-30 vote, and the figure is even lower for first-time voters aged 16-24. As researcher Ben Pile pointed out at the time, the greens’ high tide in 2019 was an outlier, and largely concentrated among affluent nations. When economic concerns rise to the fore, enthusiasm for utopian environmentalism recedes.

• New Study: East Antarctica’s Ice Sheet Thickening, Gaining Mass – Especially Since The 1980s. Per a new study, more than 2200 historical aerial photos of a 2000 km stretch of ice in East Antarctica have been recently uncovered. The rare images reveal what the glaciers in this region looked like in 1937. Interestingly, the photos show all these East Antarctic glaciers have remained stable, thickened, gained mass, and/or increased in elevation over the last 85 years, with much of the growth and mass gains occurring since 1985. There has been no warming in this region since the 1950s. This suggests that “global warming” plays a minimal role in ice thickness changes.

• Windless nights make net zero impossible. It is very simple. The cost of storing electricity is so huge it makes getting through a single windless night under a net zero wind, solar, and storage plan economically impossible. This is especially true of cold nights where blackouts can be deadly. Pennsylvania peaks at around 30,000 MW so let’s consider a windless night with a constant need of just 20,000 MW. There should be lots of these, especially in winter. Simple arithmetic says this works out to an incredible $192 billion dollars just for the batteries. Clearly this is economically impossible. In round numbers two hundred billion dollars just to get through the night! Wind and solar plus batteries simply does not work. Even if the cost magically dropped 90% it would still be an impossible $20 billion just to buy the batteries.

Covid

• It Leaked From a US-Backed Lab. For The New York Times, which started this whole fiasco dating from Feb. 27, 2020, with a podcast designed to drum up disease panic, it’s been a drip, drip, drip of truthiness ever since. A fortnight ago, the paper finally decided to report on vaccine injury from shots that vast majorities never needed and that stop neither infection nor transmission. And now, as of June 3, we have as decisive an article as one can imagine that shows that “a laboratory accident is the most parsimonious explanation of how the pandemic began.”

• Fauci’s institute hid mpox gain-of-function plans from Congress and the media. For nearly nine years Anthony Fauci’s institute concealed plans to engineer a pandemic capable mpox virus with a case fatality rate of up to 15 percent, congressional investigators revealed in a new report Tuesday. In June 2015, a scientist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases received formal approval from the National Institutes of Health’s Institutional Review Board for experiments expected to engineer an mpox virus with high transmissibility and moderate mortality. A new interim report describes the obstruction and secrecy around the mpox proposal as a case study in how the institute “oversees and accounts for the monitoring of potentially dangerous gain-of-function research of concern.”

• The truth about Spanish flu: A man-made medical disaster. THERE is no doubt that the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 was used as a primer for Covid-19. Approaching the centenary of the contagion, the US Centers of Disease Control (CDC – cynically dubbed ‘Crime and Death Corporation’) ensured that it was kept at the forefront of public health policy. This warning from history, with the dreadful death toll of twenty, fifty or a hundred million (varying by source) was emphasised in the disease scares of the new millennium. The truth about Spanish flu is very different from the official narrative: it was neither Spanish, nor was influenza the cause of death. In 2008 a press release by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) stated: ‘Bacteriologic and histopathologic results from published autopsy series clearly and consistently implicated secondary bacterial pneumonia caused by common upper respiratory tract bacteria in most influenza fatalities.’

Covid Mandates & Lockdowns

• A beginner’s guide to Covid, Part 11: The Great PCR Fraud. AFTER the pace of deaths driven by the Great Care Home Cull in spring 2020 showed down, the government switched to positive PCR tests to drive the Covid Pandemic. These tests were dishonest and fraudulent. According to the government’s own research, the average range of false positive test results was 2.3 per cent – which means that out of 100,000 tests carried out, 2,300 (2.3 per cent of 100,000) were false (caused by poor testing, storage, dirty instruments etc) and thus should be removed from the data.

• The Confiscation of Reality. Over four years ago, Covid lockdowns staged a dramatic confiscation of present reality. The question is, did we ever get it back? Lockdowns both launched an assault upon present reality by physically removing us from it and piloted, through the impossible idea of Lockdown, the cycle of abstraction that continues to transfer the reality effect from lived experiences to theoretical constructions. If reality is sufficiently hostile and the ideas are sufficiently abstract, you can lock people away from present reality by the circulation of unbelievable ideas.

• Former CDC Director Admits the Truth. Dr. Robert Redfield discussed our pandemic response in a recent interview with Chris Cuomo and made some stunning admissions about how our Covid policies and mandates developed and were justified. And suddenly those of us who claimed that masks didn’t work or that our response was a dramatic overreach don’t seem so “free dumb” anymore. But don’t expect apologies anytime soon.

• How Did a Small Group Do This? Avery interesting study appeared last week by two researchers looking into the pandemic policy response around the world. They are Drs. Eran Bendavid and Chirag Patel of Stanford and Harvard, respectively. Their ambition was straightforward. They wanted to examine the effects of government policy on the virus. After vast data manipulation and looking at every conceivable policy and outcome, the researchers reluctantly come to an incredible conclusion. They conclude that nothing that governments did had any effect. There was only cost, no benefit. Everywhere in the world.

Economy/Energy/Finance

• Moody's Reviewing Six Regional Banks for Possible Downgrades. Moody’s said that because each of them is “a regional bank with a substantial concentration in commercial real estate (CRE) loans,” they face “ongoing asset quality and profitability pressures as higher-for-longer interest rates continue to highlight” what it called the unique pressures of CRE on banks' creditworthiness.

• Norway discovers Europe’s largest deposit of rare earth metals. Mining firm Rare Earths Norway says it has discovered Europe’s largest proven deposit of highly prized rare earth elements, potentially reflecting a watershed moment for both the Nordic country and the broader region. One of the few deposits not owned or controlled by China, the discovery of continental Europe’s largest rare earths deposit is considered a welcome boost in Europe’s bid to break China’s rare earths dominance. Demand for rare earths and critical minerals is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years as the clean energy transition picks up pace.

• ‘The big story of the 21st century’: is this the most shocking documentary of the year? Six years in the making, jaw-dropping new film The Grab shows a secret scramble by governments and private firms to buy up global resources. The Grab has the feeling of a revelation, though the reveal is not a conspiracy; the pattern is less a plan than a series of reactions, from a variety of actors, to the fact that every single human needs food and water, and there is not enough arable land on Earth for the projected increase of 2 billion people by 2050. The instinct, on a primal and national level, is to hoard.

• Why is Keynesian Economics Collapsing? Keynesian economics gave the government the green light to manipulate the economy, or at least make numerous failed attempted to do so. There is that old joke about communism that you can vote your way in but must shoot your way out, seemingly fitting to the utter disaster governments have created in regards to our economic situation. The government is by far the biggest borrower. Raising interest rates can have no impact on demand, as the government will simply borrow more, and the central banks simply have no say.

Health

• Simply looking at greenery can boost mental health – new research. Simply directing your gaze towards natural elements, even in the middle of a city, can enhance wellbeing. The results were striking. Participants who focused more on green elements reported significant improvements in mood and reductions in anxiety compared to those who focused on grey elements. And they showed higher levels of positive emotions and lower levels of anxiety after the walk. They also reported feeling more refreshed and rejuvenated.

• How an opioid giant deployed a playbook for moulding doctors’ minds. The opioid giant Mallinckrodt, selling more in the US than Purdue Pharma, was forced by the courts to publish more than 1.3 million internal documents. Sergio Sismondo and Maud Bernisson sift through nearly 900 contracts to reveal the tricks used to shape scientific and medical opinions. The documents outline a smorgasbord of tactics to achieve greater sales—from shaping the language of medicine through designing continuing medical education (CME) courses and recruiting physicians to serve as influencers, to planting articles in scientific journals. And all of this against the backdrop of an epidemic of addiction, in which the company’s commercial rival Purdue was made to pay out hundreds of millions for fraudulent marketing.

Middle East

• CIA Denounces Bibi as Unhinged, Says He Thinks He Can Get Away with Anything. A CIA assessment circulated among US officials this week concluded that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu likely judges he can get away without defining a post-war plan — even as the Biden administration has launched a full-court press to pressure him to bring an end to the conflict in Gaza. Netanyahu “probably believes he can maintain support from his security chiefs and prevent defections” from the right wing of his coalition by discussing the future of Gaza in “vague terms,” the June 3 report, reviewed by CNN, reads.

Politics

• Florida city uncovers mysterious network of secret tunnels - as eerie clues about their origin spark wild theories. The passageways under Ybor City, a suburb near downtown Tampa, remained hidden for decades before a string of discoveries revealed the subterranean network. Historians have since speculated widely over their use, from moving moonshine, human trafficking and cash smuggling to simply 'as a sewer'. The latest tunnels were found in 2018 near the Old Florida Brewery, close to East 6th Avenue and Noccio Parkway, while construction was being carried out on a new office building. Several of the tunnels are brick-lined and only a few feet tall by a few feet wide - just enough for an adults to crouch or crawl through. The layered brickworks suggests they were constructed by skilled laborers.

• Biden embraces surprised-looking Pope Francis with forehead-to-forehead hug at G7 summit. The 87-year-old pontiff had been wheeled into a room of world leaders to take part in a discussion of issues surrounding artificial intelligence, energy and the Africa-Mediterranean region. He is the first pope ever to attend a G7 gathering.

• Decadence and Desire. If young people are taught to look at history only through the lenses of power and oppression, they will conclude that power and oppression are everything. Conversely, let them be introduced first to the genuinely great historical deeds, philosophical ideas, literary creations, and works of art of which humans have been capable. Then they will discover the ideals that moved our predecessors. This essay is the first in a four-part series on decadence and modern society. This series examines the cultural roots of our economic, demographic, intellectual, institutional, and moral decadence. In this first essay, Carlo Lancellotti explores the root cause of our modern moral decline.

• Time to retire the ‘far right’ slur - Millions of Europeans have not suddenly turned into fascists. We need a new political language. As the EU establishment struggles to make sense of last week’s revolt in the European elections, one thing is clear: our outdated vocabulary is not up to the task of describing today’s political landscape. What they do have in common is that they have successfully tapped into popular concerns with immigration, the burden of Net Zero and a growing sense that political elites are out of touch with the concerns of their nations’ citizens.

• A Revolution is Brewing. For most ordinary people, it is the failure of everything that not that long ago could be taken for granted, which is resulting in growing anger. Our rivers and coastal waters are filling up with raw sewage, even as water companies which have failed to develop the necessary infrastructure charge higher prices to fund the dividends given to their directors. Crime is out of control because our prisons are full, and our court system has collapsed – the only courts still functioning are those where rich business types sue each other at the public’s expense. The once-cherished NHS is cracking at the seems as decades of underinvestment come home to roost in the shape of collapsing buildings and workforce shortages. Getting to see an NHS dentist these days is about as likely as winning the lottery, and in many regions seeing a doctor before the grim reaper arrives is also getting harder.

• EU court fines Hungary €200m over its asylum policy. The court will also issue a penalty of €1m a day until it changes its policy. The European Court of Justice said Budapest was in breach of a 2020 judgement that it had violated EU laws by forcing asylum seekers to travel to Belgrade or Kyiv to apply for a travel permit to enter Hungary. Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, in a post on X, said the fine for "defending the borders of the European Union" was "outrageous and unacceptable" and said "it seems that illegal migrants are more important to the Brussels bureaucrats than their own European citizens".

• US sub makes ‘routine’ visit to Gitmo amid Russian fleet worries. In a statement, U.S. Southern Command said that the USS Helena, a Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine, would stop at the base for “a routine port visit as it transits the U.S. Southern Command geographic area of responsibility.” The visit, Southern Command said, was “previously planned,” but it coincides with Wednesday’s arrival of a Russian nuclear submarine and several frigates to the port of Havana for an official port call. The Russian fleet, which sailed close to the Florida coast as it approached Havana, will also make stops in Venezuela and conduct military exercises in the Caribbean.

Science

• The New Math of How Large-Scale Order Emerges. “Philosophers have long been arguing about emergence, and going round in circles,” said Anil Seth, a neuroscientist at the University of Sussex in England. The problem, according to Seth, is that we haven’t had the right tools — “not only the tools for analysis, but the tools for thinking. Having measures and theories of emergence would not only be something we can throw at data but would also be tools that can help us think about these systems in a richer way.” Researchers have developed theoretical tools for identifying when emergence has occurred. And in February, Fernando Rosas, a complex systems scientist at Sussex, together with Seth and five co-authors, went further, with a framework for understanding how emergence arises.

• The Singapore Stone’s carvings have been undeciphered for centuries – now we’re trying to crack the puzzle. If you pay a visit to the Singapore Stone, displayed at the National Museum of Singapore, you might be disappointed. That’s because the inscription – carrying an unknown writing system transcribing an unknown language – is fading. But if you love puzzles, this won’t put you off. The stone is a fragment of a bigger slab, once welcoming visitors at the mouth of the Singapore River. The British blew it up in 1843, to build a fort. Discovered in 1819, the stone was almost entirely lost. The script is one of the major puzzles in language deciphering of our times. It’s a conundrum in crypto and historical linguistics with apparently no solution. The challenge can be compared to the mysteries of better-known undeciphered writing systems, like Linear A and the Rongorongo script.

• It's Official: The Rotation of Earth's Inner Core Really Is Slowing Down. "When I first saw the seismograms that hinted at this change, I was stumped," says Earth scientist John Vidale from USC. "But when we found two dozen more observations signaling the same pattern, the result was inescapable. "The inner core had slowed down for the first time in many decades. Other scientists have recently argued for similar and different models, but our latest study provides the most convincing resolution."

Technology

• Australia Pushes Ahead in the AI Arms Race. As Australia resists new laws to restrain AI weapons development, Australian companies are using real wars to test their killing power. Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February 2022, the conflict has become a testing ground for new weapons developments, particularly autonomous capabilities. Australia provided 300 of Australian arms company DefendTex’s Drone 40 loitering munitions to Ukraine in 2022, after field testing in Poland.

• OpenAI Appoints Former NSA Director Paul Nakasone to Board of Directors. Retired U.S. Army General and former National Security Agency (NSA) Director Paul M. Nakasone has joined the Board of Directors at artificial intelligence giant OpenAI. Nakasone will also join the Board’s Safety and Security Committee that was announced in late May, which responsible for making recommendations on safety and security decisions for all OpenAI projects and operations. General Nakasone, who retired in early 2024, served as Commander, USCYBERCOM and Director, NSA/CSS since May 2018, taking the helm after the retirement of Admiral Mike Rogers as it ascended to the status of a unified combatant command.

Ukraine

• Ukrainian warplane fires weapon at target inside Russia for first time. The source said a "Russian command node" was hit on Sunday in the area of Belgorod, western Russia. Belgorod is close to the border with northeastern Ukraine. It was not immediately clear what type of munition was used in the attack, including whether or not it had been a Western weapon. "Whilst damage assessment is still occurring, it is confirmed as a direct hit. This is the first UAF air-delivered munition delivered against a target within Russia."

• EU to Surrender Russian Assets to Ukraine. The United States discussed plans to provide Ukraine with a loan paid out with Russian assets that have been frozen since the start of the war. The bulk of frozen Russian assets lie in Europe, and the European Union has announced its plans to “make Russia pay” by allocating those assets to Ukraine to fund its war against Russia directly. Ukraine will receive $1.6 billion in frozen Russian assets this July, according to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen who spoke at the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2024 on June 11. She stated that 90% of stolen Russian funds will go directly to defense, while the other 10% will be put toward the reconstruction effort.

• Biden and Zelensky sign 10-year US-Ukraine security agreement. President Joe Biden and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a 10-year security agreement Thursday that they hailed as a milestone in relations between their countries, but that alone was not enough to stop Zelenskyy from wondering how much longer he could count on America's support. Zelenskyy went on to deliver a stark warning about Russian aggression, saying that “if Ukraine does not withstand, the democracy of many countries, I am sure, won't withstand either.”

Vaccines

• Katie told her father she was going to get the Covid vaccine. He had no idea it would be their last conversation ever. The devastated family of a fit and healthy young actor who died a fortnight after taking a Covid vaccine have called out the callous 'indifference' of society and government to her death. Katie Lees, 34, took the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in July 2021, driven by her desire to 'do her bit' to help bring lockdown to an end. But just 13 days later her family were forced to make the harrowing decision to turn off her life support. Ms Lees, an actor and comedian who lived in Sydney's inner-west, had suffered a severe vaccine-induced blood clot in her brain.

• Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus. The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac inoculation.