Odds and Ends — 14 August 2025

9 days ago

Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund ups indirect Bitcoin exposure in 2025

Producer Prices Rise by Most in Three Years

US wholesale inflation accelerated in July by the most in three years, suggesting companies are passing along higher import costs related to tariffs.

Justin Sun Sues Bloomberg Over Plans to Publish 'Confidential' Crypto Holdings

Coronavirus and Public Health:

Medical journal rejects Kennedy's call for retraction of vaccine study

Politics:

Trump presses Nobel Peace Prize case: ‘The pressure’s on’

Dream on. I can’t imagine the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarding the Peace Prize to Trump. If anything, just to piss him off, they might be more likely to award it to the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, or maybe even Zelenskyy.

China Is Winning the Cyberwar

American companies are world leaders in technology—be it innovative software, cloud services, artificial intelligence, or cybersecurity products.
Yet beginning as many as three years ago, hackers believed to be backed by the Chinese government did something the United States, the tech powerhouse, could not adequately defend against: they gained and maintained access to major U.S. telecommunications networks, copying conversations and building the ability to track the movements of U.S. intelligence officers and law enforcement agents across the country.
The attack, dubbed ‘Salt Typhoon,’ constituted a large part of a global campaign against telecoms, and it penetrated systems at many U.S. carriers so thoroughly that officials will almost certainly never know the full scope of the capabilities China achieved to spy on Americans’ communications.

———— The Epstein Coverup ————

Trump Privately Dismissed Epstein Victims as ‘Democrats’

The president and his administration are struggling to bury the scandal around their handling of the convicted sex offender's case

https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1955803725941104687

———— The District ————

Trump floats circumventing Congress to maintain control of DC police

https://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/1955662783678153034

———— Gaza ————

Israel In Talks to Resettle Palestinians

Israel is in discussions with South Sudan about the possibility of resettling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to the war-torn East African country, part of a wider effort by Israel to facilitate mass emigration from the territory left in ruins by its 22-month offensive against Hamas.

———— Stark. Raving. Mad. ————

https://twitter.com/AntiToxicPeople/status/1955674691554979903

———— Autocracy R Us ————

https://twitter.com/Weinsteinlaw/status/1955671251931766951

“President Trump doesn’t have a limitation on his authority to make this country safe again. There is no limitation on that.” — Immigration czar Tom Homan