Hormuz disruptions hit China’s Christmas capital and holiday spending

Christmas is still eight months away, but artificial tree maker Lou Liping is already worried about a bad holiday season due to the Iran war. Lou's company, Kitty Christmas Factory, has been making artificial trees for the U.S. and European markets for nearly three decades. Her facility is based in the city of Yiwu, known as China's Christmas capital. "Many customers ...

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Palantir’s Manifesto Drops and So Does Peter Thiel’s Objection

Palantir’s manifesto has dropped and co-founder Peter Thiel has a scary new company called Objection. I’ll round up some reactions. Palantir Manifesto Says What? In ancient days the priests of an imperial death cult would have dropped their manifesto on giant graven metal tablets, in 2026 they just tweet that crap with a footnote saying “Excerpts from the #1 New York Times Bestseller The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, by Alexander C.

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Rivian’s factory damaged by tornado amid crucial R2 EV launch

A view shows a second-generation R1S at electric auto maker Rivian's manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois, on June 21, 2024. Joel Angel Juarez | Reuters A tornado damaged part of Rivian Automotive's factory in central Illinois over the weekend, according to a message sent to employees Sunday night by CEO RJ Scaringe that was viewed by CNBC. The tornado touched down on the plant, Scarigne said.

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Maybe It Wasn’t Such a Hot Idea to Turn Libya into a Failed State: 2026 Shortages Edition

Remember this? How quickly times can change. That was a mere six weeks ago, and six weeks hence Europe is expected to be running on jet fuel empty—as well as facing a host of other potential shortages—should the Strait of Hormuz not reopen. Seeing as it looks more likely the Bab el Mandeb will officially close too rather than Hormuz reopen, hard times are in store for Europeans.

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It’s Ok to Love All the Bees (The Honey Bees, Too)

Conor here: Time to get to work on that long-planned garden. By Christina Grozinger, Andony Melathopolous, Clare Rittschof, Harland Patch, and Jay Evans. Grozinger is Professor of Entomology, Penn State; Melathopolous is Associate Professor of Horticulture, Oregon State University; Rittschof is Associate Professor of Entomology, University of Kentucky; Patch is Assistant Research Professor of Entomology, Penn State; and Evans is Research Entomologist, Bee Research Lab, Agricultural Research Service, USDA.

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The Sunday Morning Movie Presents: The Lathe Of Heaven (1980) Run Time 1H 37M

Greetings gentle readers and welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a made for TV adaptation of a sci-fi classic, The Lathe of Heaven: and next week’s film, White Sun of the Desert: Reviews of The Lathe of Heaven: Letterboxd says: Adapted from Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel of the same name, The Lathe of Heaven is a dated PBS TV movie that feels marred by its clear lack of high production value (the effects can be outright amateurish at times), yet is still solidly carried by its intriguing premise.

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Mad King Trump Doubling Down on Military and Economic Defeat

A rapidly declining Trump is living in a “dark fantasy” world as the Iranians close the Strait in anger at his lies. Meanwhile the MSM is beginning to break some bad news about the war. White House insiders are struggling to deal with POTUS Trump’s increasing dementia but are so far unwilling and unable to stop Trump and his enablers from doubling down on military and economic disaster.

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Links 4/19/2026 | naked capitalism

This lady offered the peacock food… and it said thanks in a spectacular way pic.twitter.com/Ns6LfBfdtY — Science girl (@sciencegirl) April 18, 2026 First close pair of supermassive black holes detected? TECHNOLOGY.ORG An Ancient Mummy’s Tooth Could Rewrite Script of Scarlet Fever in the New World Nautilus Hampshire College’s demise is yet another blow to creative, outside‑the‑box options in higher education…

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Iran War: Gaslighting Hits Epic Levels Over “Strait Completely Open” Fast Breakdown, Trump Smack Talk About Collecting Uranium as US Looks to Be Readying Massive Attack

Nat took appropriately yesterday to making fog of narrative a major focus of his update. I posted a tweet from a couple of days ago complaining that the already bad information pollution had increased markedly in the last 48 hours. After a short enforced absence from the newsflow, it is astonishing to see how much blather is being repeated uncritically. As usual, the big driver is Trump schizophrenic claims, that a deal is, as alway, just around the corner, even as he also insists that things are gonna happen that Iran would never never agree to, as in giving up nuclear enrichment.

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Local car dealerships growing, dying amid rise of mega auto retailers

Derek Sylvester with members of his family, team and mascot Molly, who was featured on the dealership's logo. Courtesy Sylvester Chevrolet Derek Sylvester's father built the family's original Chevrolet dealership with his bare hands on Main Street in rural Peckville, Pennsylvania, in 1972. The store and family have been a pillar of the village, outside Scranton, ever since. That was until late last month, when Sylvester and his family closed a deal to sell Sylvester Chevrolet to a New York-based dealer group.

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Links 4/18/2026 | naked capitalism

Landmark ancient-genome study shows surprise acceleration of human evolution Nature Conflict Has Memory: Why Local Wars Follow Distinct Trajectories Irregular Warfare Initiative Climate/Environment Scores of Forest Service plans could be upended after Boundary Waters mining vote Stateline A newly recognized pollutant is widely present in the atmosphere Phys.org March 2026 was the third-worst month for drought in observed history for the United States.

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Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson: The Blockade Stage of Trump’s Absurdities

Yves here. Radhika Desai and Michael Hudson usefully go beyond the immediate cray-cray of the Iran conflict, particularly the blockade as part of the row to assert control of the Strait of Hormuz, to bigger picture issues, such as the jockeying of other players, such as China, Russia, the Saudis, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the ongoing damage to the global economy.

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Bank of America (BAC) earnings Q1 2026

Bank of America, the nation's second-largest lender, beat on the top and bottom lines during the first quarter, bolstered by equities sales and trading. Here's what the firm reported: Earnings per share: $1.11 per share vs. $1.01 LSEG estimate Revenue: $30.43 billion vs. $29.93 billion estimate The bank said Wednesday that net income rose 17% to $8.6 billion, or $1.11 per share, Bank of America's highest EPS in almost two decades.

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The EU’s Digital Gulag Is (Apparently) Ready to Roll

“It is for parents to raise their children, and not the platforms.” Those were the words of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday as she announced the readiness of the EU’s online age verification, ahem, platform. As we’ve been warning since November 2024, these platforms are ultimately a Trojan Horse for digital identity systems, which are in turn intended to serve as the cornerstone for the digital gulags being quickly assembled around the world.

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Walmart redesigns Great Value private label brand

Walmart's largest private brand, Great Value, is getting a fresh look. Starting in May, the brand's approximately 10,000 items that span from LED lightbulbs to gallons of milk and frozen chicken nuggets will hit the shelves in new packaging, the company announced Wednesday. Walmart first launched the brand in 1993 and hasn't changed its look in more than a decade…

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Narrative Wars and Trump’s Ceasefire Claims

Two contrasting emails hit my inbox late Thursday night central time and epitomized the narrative conflict between the mainstream of American narrative control and alternative media over the current ceasefire in Trump’s Iran War. On the one hand there was Gideon Rose’s piece for Foreign Affairs headlined “Why the Cease-Fire With Iran Will Hold” and subtitled, “The De-Escalatory Logic That Will Shape Negotiations” …

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Why foreign automakers dominate the sedan market

The biggest American automakers all but abandoned sedans and coupes in recent years as they rushed to compete in the pickup truck and SUV markets. Many domestic buyers also shifted toward those bigger vehicles. Still, there's a market for cars, as Japanese, Korean and German brands sell hundreds of thousands of smaller passenger vehicles in the U.S. annually. The resilience of the sedan market and concerns that high prices are driving away customers have led some American automakers to reconsider their lineups.

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Coffee Break: Scientists Being Bad and Good, the Moon, and More Ancient Archaeology

Part the First: Dealing with Scientific Misconduct.  Trust in science has declined during my professional work life.  Some, but not all, of this is due to misconduct by scientists, as it should be.  The recent case of Sylvain Lesné is one of the more spectacular examples.  We have discussed this previously.  Dr. Lesné published a paper that became the foundation for subsequent research on the amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease, which holds that since plaques of beta-amyloid precursor protein are found postmortem in the brains of AD patients, so these plaques are the cause of AD. 

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Some grocers are using AI to cut food waste and boost profit margins

As grocery chains face mounting pressure from inflation-weary shoppers and growing competition, some in the industry are starting to rely on artificial intelligence to protect margins without losing customers. Traditional levers to protect profits or drive sales, like raising prices or running blanket promotions, are becoming less effective as shoppers split trips across multiple retailers in search of value. That dynamic has helped drive market share gains for discounters like Dollar General and warehouse clubs like Costco, forcing traditional grocers to rethink how they compete.

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Diplomacy, and Politics Before the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor: A Precursor to Current Use of Economic Sanctions

Yves here. This article Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirović describes the detailed back and forth between the US and Japan over US over Japanese territorial conquests and additional expected campaigns. The use of economic warfare to achieve political and military goals in theory resembles what we are seeing transpire now with Iran. However, one can argue that the US position then, even when it was seeking to push Japan into direct action against the US, is arguably less maximalist than its stance with Iran.

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Netflix was long ‘a builder not a buyer.’ Is that era over?

The Netflix logo is pictured at the company's offices on Vine in Los Angeles, Dec. 5, 2025. Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images For years, Netflix top brass would tell investors they were builders not buyers. Now, that sentiment toward growth may be changing. On Thursday Netflix reported its quarterly earnings. Typically, Netflix's earnings calls are focused on metrics like engagement, content spending, price hikes and membership.

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Links 4/17/2026 | naked capitalism

Alien Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Blasting 70 Swimming Pools of Water into Space Every Day and Astronomers Are Stunned ZME Science Reality Instruction London Review of Books You’ve lived this life before Aeon Climate/Environment Critical Atlantic current significantly more likely to collapse than thought The Guardian 🌡️📈Looking further into the data, nearly 80 cities with long term “threaded” records (mainly 100+ years) are looking at their warmest spring to date through Sunday (with forecast values from SERCC), as measured by average daily maximum temperature.

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Airline CEOs urged by lawmaker to lower fares if fuel prices come down

A JetBlue aircraft lands under the DC skyline featuring the U.S. Capitol building, near United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Airlines aircraft on the tarmac at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, U.S. January 25, 2025. Jim Urquhart | Reuters A U.S. lawmaker is urging the CEOs of the country's largest airlines to lower prices if and when the cost of jet fuel declines after a massive run-up this year prompted carriers to raise surcharges, bag fees and fares.

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Home Care Workers Launch Hunger Strike as 24-Hour Work Shifts Persist

Yves here. As many of you know, I hired home care workers, also known as home health aides even though most did not have any medical or nursing certifications, to take care of my handicapped mother. Even with my being in the house nearly all the time (some of that sleeping; I was working nights) and in the room with her and the aides for large parts of the time, it never would have occurred to me to have one aide on for 13 hours, let alone 24  (I did have 13 hour coverage over 2 shifts), let alone pay for 13 hours and have them on premises and largely working for 24 hours.

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RFK Jr. peptide policy could boost Hims & Hers as its GLP-1 business changes

Piotr Swat | Lightrocket | Getty Images As its high-margin compounded GLP-1 business evolves, Hims & Hers Health may be finding a new opportunity in peptides. Shares of the telehealth company jumped Thursday after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Wednesday that the FDA plans to convene a Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee meeting to review peptides for potential inclusion on the 503A bulk list, a designation that allows drugs to be compounded on an individual prescribed basis rather than mass producing.

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Jesus Christ! Xi Jinping Is Hugging Donald Trump on the Sidelines of Three US-Israeli Genocidal Wars

Yves here. Not only do we have yet more Trump Jesus-themed cray-cray, but he’s also trying the abusive spouse approach to China, threatening them over alleged military assistance to Iran while also acting lovey-dovey. John Helmer below features the Russian press taking issue with claims of Chinese support for Iran. By John Helmer, the longest continuously serving foreign correspondent in Russia, and the only western journalist to direct his own bureau independent of single national or commercial ties.

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Trump nominates Erica Schwartz as CDC director

Rear Admiral Erica G. Schwartz. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services President Donald Trump on Thursday nominated Erica Schwartz to serve as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concluding a monthslong effort to choose a permanent leader of the embattled health agency.  Schwartz, who will have to be confirmed by the Senate, would take over the role as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F.

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Trump Expects Hugs From China, Israel Still Bombing Lebanon

I’ve got to open today’s Iran War update with POTUS Trump’s latest claim that he’s opening the Strait of Hormuz to please China: pic.twitter.com/DVtDGS2VY0 — Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) April 15, 2026 Impossible to discern if Trump’s statement actually means anything as for the “talks”, the NYT had a brief update: Senior Pakistani mediators, including the army chief, Syed Asim Munir, arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for talks aimed at shoring up the cease-fire between Iran and the United States before it expires next week.

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Netflix (NFLX) earnings Q1 2026

Reed Hastings, Netflix's co-founder and then-CEO, in Sydney to meet with executives of other subscription streaming services on Feb. 25, 2022. Wolter Peeters | Fairfax Media | Getty Images Netflix shares fell 9% in extended trading on Thursday after the streaming giant released its first-quarter earnings report and announced a key governance change. The company beat Wall Street expectations for revenue, reporting $12.25 billion for the first quarter, above the $12.18 billion expected by analysts polled by LSEG and 16% higher than the $10.54 billion it reported in the year-ago quarter.

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The War on Iran Is to Isolate It From Its Neighbours and Curb a Rising Sunni Bloc

Netanyahu wants Israel to become the hegemonic force in the Middle East. This is the strategic significance of the “Greater Israel” project, which is then shrouded in religious rhetoric. The rapprochement between Iran and its Arab and Muslim-majority neighbours preceding the war and the rising Sunni military bloc was the most significant obstacle. A key purpose of the war launched against Iran was to break it.

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