Box turtles are back for the summer. Here’s how to help them survive another year Harvest Public Media
How One Rescue Mission Turned into the Global Record of Human Heritage Card Catalog
Climate/Environment
When The Fields Were Ours Earth Island Journal
Is this the moment to change the way we think about economic growth? The Conversation
‘Point of no return’: New Orleans relocation must start now due to sea level, study finds The Guardian
Federal cuts are leaving states and locals to pick up weather and flood monitoring responsibilities – are we OK with that? Balanced Weather
Hantavirus
A working timeline:
- Mid-March: Dutch couple possibly contract virus on bird watching landfill excursion.
- April 1: MV Hondius departs southern Argentina.
- April 6: Dutch man falls ill.
- April 11: He dies.
- April 24: St. Helena. Man’s body is taken off ship and wife flies with it to South Africa. The Dutch woman is already sick before boarding flight to South Africa.
- April 26: The Dutch woman dies in SA at a hospital.
- April 27: A British man who is sick is flown from Ascension Island to South Africa.
- May 2: A German woman dies on the MV Hondius.
Meanwhile, we have people leaving the ship and flying all over the world:
Some Hantavirus Cruise Passengers Are Back in the U.S. MedPage Today
Two British people self isolating at home after leaving cruise ship in St Helena BBC. “The UKHSA also said British people currently on the ship would be flown home on a charter flight, probably from the Canary Islands, as long as they didn’t have symptoms.”
Patient with a hantavirus infection being treated in hospital Switzerland Federal Office of Public Health (press release)
Passenger with hantavirus was briefly on board a KLM aircraft in Johannesburg KLM (press release)
***
Hantavirus on cruise ship confirmed as rare type that can spread human-to-human NPR. “…not entirely known how the Andes Virus transmits between people.”
Hantavirus-associated cluster of illness on a cruise ship: ECDC assessment and recommendations European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
“On arrival, asymptomatic passengers are due to be repatriated to their home countries, despite possibly being infected & in the incubation period.”
Serious question:
Is everyone insane now. https://t.co/VQ972fCdyw— tern (@1goodtern) May 6, 2026
“At this stage, the overall public health risk remains low.”
6 years ago, I didn’t have the faintest clue how incompetent the WHO was and I believed them. I’ve been sick ever since. I don’t know how this will play out but I can observe that they have learned nothing. https://t.co/miRiCZazFa
— PACO (@PacoOnPause) May 6, 2026
Way too soon to say hantavirus will go pandemic, we have time to contain it. But don’t assume a 40% death rate means “it’ll burn out” that logic applies to isolated villages not ppl who get on international flights. The Black Death did, in fact, go pandemic w a 40%+ death rate
— Julia Marie (@julia_doubleday) May 6, 2026
The Koreas
North Korea drops references to unification from constitution Channel News Asia
Japan
Japan’s deep-sea quest for mineral supply security East Asia Forum
Japan’s Arms Export Shift Takes Shape in the Philippines The Diplomat
China?
US Fires Tomahawk Missile Using Typhon Launcher in the Philippines in Provocation Aimed at China Antiwar
Syraqistan
UN demands release of flotilla activists, cites ‘severe mistreatment’ Al Mayadeen
***
US’s Latest “Project Freedom” Boondoggle Sinks in Less Than a Day Simplicius
BREAKING: According to our analysis, ~$920 million worth of crude oil shorts were taken 70 minutes before an Axios report claimed the US and Iran were near a “14-point” deal to end the war.
At 3:40 AM ET today, nearly 10,000 contracts worth of crude oil shorts were taken without… pic.twitter.com/SZafvnZHHG
— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) May 6, 2026
Iran’s parl. speaker calls US media’s bluff about pending arrangement with Tehran Press TV
Iran has hit far more U.S. military assets than reported, satellite images show WaPo
Washington Post Quotes Official About “Fresh Scrutiny” Over Israel’s Nuclear Threat Sam Husseini
Israeli Paper Admits That The Mossad Astroturfed The January Riots In Iran. The Dissident
It’s been over a month, and we still don’t know the name of that “downed F-15 pilot” who fractured his leg, yet managed to scale a mountain, walk 110 miles, and evade a brigade of Iranian troops, until the CIA could use an elaborate device that can hear human heartbeats 40 miles…
— FireFighterDev (@fire_starter457) May 6, 2026
European Disunion
Poland could host US troops Trump pulled from Germany, Nawrocki says Politico
Europe’s Russian Arctic LNG imports from Yamal hit record high in first four months of 2026 Intellinews
This deal is getting worse all the time Euractiv. On US-EU trade deal.
Africa
Mali’s junta and Russia lose ground to jihadists and rebels Le Monde
Russia’s Tactical Pullback From Northeastern Mali Shouldn’t Be Spun As A Retreat Andrew Korybko
Old Blighty
MICHAEL MANSFIELD ‘EXTREMELY CONCERNED’ BY CASE AGAINST PALESTINE ACTION LAWYER Declassified UK
UK elites are scary disciplined & effective when it comes to crushing popular democracy. They successfully smeared Corbyn, a passive saint, as Pol Pot meets Hitler. And now they’re convincing Brits that an anti-fascist Jew is the new Oswald Mosley. https://t.co/FSk1EFRF2m
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) May 6, 2026
New Not-So-Cold War
L’affaire Epstein
South of the Border
U.S. State Department tapped special ops contractor to vet Haitian police using controversial AI lie detector All-Source Intelligence
Trump 2.0
Insane Pre-Crime Strategy Unveiled for Leftist “Extremists” Ken Klippenstein
Justice department can keep 2020 ballots FBI seized from Fulton county, judge rules The Guardian
White House East Wing debris dumped at nearby golf course has toxic metals, report says AP
Imperial Collapse Watch
Resisting Sanctions and Economic Warfare The Anti-Empire Project
The Grand Illusion of Outsourced Sovereignty AGON
Why the World Bank changed its mind on industrial policy Jostein Hauge, Global Currents
Police State Watch
Exclusive: VA conducted internal investigations into employees who attended vigil for Alex Pretti CNN
Our Famously Free Press
FBI probing leaks to journalist who wrote explosive article on Kash Patel, sources say MS NOW
The Accelerationists
Google DeepMind workers in UK vote to unionize amid deal with US military The Guardian
Requiem for the Populist Decade Lily Lynch
Agriculture
California farmers to destroy 420,000 peach trees following Del Monte bankruptcy SF Gate
Mr. Market
The food inflation crisis will soon be all investors are talking about MarketWatch
AI
Don’t Reject Data Centers. Negotiate Harder. Progress and Poverty. No thanks. Even if localities negotiate to avoid steep electricity service increases, that can mean data centers building out their own polluting power supplies—usually with limited oversight. Plus the use of limited water supplies. And water contamination. And cancer risks. And the noise driving people crazy. And the whole idea of a bunch of circlular investing billionaires making our capital allocation decisions that help them further destroy labor, art, privacy, relationships, knowledge, and the planet while enriching themselves.
The AI Hard Drive Shortage Is Making It More Expensive and Harder to Archive the Internet 404 Media
AI Company Sued Over Chatbots Allegedly Claiming to Be Licensed Doctors AP
Kevin O’Leary’s Massive Data Center Project in Utah Gets the Greenlight, Locals Are Furious Gizmodo. “The project would be more than twice the size of Manhattan and could consume more electricity than the entire state currently uses.”
Violent Threats and Data Center Resistance Accelerate The Soufan Center
Nvidia’s New Partnership Wants to Put Mini AI Data Centers on Your House Inc.
Groves of Academe
Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College New York Magazine
Economy
The ‘K-shaped economy’ has shown up at the gasoline pump Yahoo! Finance
Shell tops profit estimates as Iran war boosts oil price, cuts share buybacks CNBC
Guillotine Watch
Shocking stuff from the CEO of Vornado Realty Trust on his latest earnings call: pic.twitter.com/XX2UoEtLUR
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) May 6, 2026
The Work of Art in the Age of Shameless Ostentation Arthur Goldhammer, The Sense of an Ending
The Bezzle
Am I Meant To Be Impressed? Ed Zitron
Antidote du jour (via):
See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here.
