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Snowflake Cold

Best of the Web: Russia starts June cold, from Krasnodar to the Siberian Belt

Cap Allon
Electroverse.substack.com
Wed, 03 Jun 2026 10:52 UTC
Summer hasn't started for everyone: where in Russia will frosts reach -5 and sleet fall?
© Legion-MediaSummer hasn't started for everyone: where in Russia will frosts reach -5 and sleet fall?
Russia, broadly, has opened June cold.

In the south, Primorsko-Akhtarsk, on the Sea of Azov, set a new daily minimum record on June 2. The temperature fell to 10.3C (50.5F), beating the previous June 2 record of 11.1C (52F), set in 1951.

It followed a sharp late-May chill across Krasnodar Krai.

On May 31, record lows were reported in Sochi, Tuapse, Primorsko-Akhtarsk and Krasnaya Polyana. Sochi fell to 8.6C (47.5F), beating a mark from 1904. Tuapse dropped to 9.6C (49.3F), undercutting its 1956 record. Krasnaya Polyana fell to 3C (37.4F).

Russian reports blamed prolonged rain, heavy cloud and, crucially, an intrusion of Arctic air. Snow fell in the mountains. Heavy rain hit the coast. The cold carried into June and is threatening to break further records along Russia's southern edge.
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Fireball 4

Best of the Web: Power of meteor fireball explosion over the US on May 30 reached 300 tons of TNT — NASA


Tass
Sun, 31 May 2026 10:01 UTC
mmmmmm
© Shutterstock/Triff
An official at the authority says that the fireball broke up at a speed above 120,000 km per hour

The fireball causing the loud boom in the State of Massachusetts in the United States broke up at a speed above 120,000 km per hour, a NASA official told TASS.

"Current available information puts the fireball's speed at roughly 75,000 mph [120,700 km/h - TASS], and it appears to have fragmented at an altitude of 40 miles [64.3 km - TASS] above extreme northeast Massachusetts/southeast New Hampshire," the NASA official said. "The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud booms," the official noted.

This fireball "was a natural object and not a re-entry of space debris or a satellite," the official added.

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Star of David

Best of the Web: The true bane of real US conservatives

Tarik Cyril Amar
RT
Fri, 29 May 2026 21:30 UTC
graphic israel american soldier handshake
© Getty
Thomas Massie's fall shows what really destroys principled US conservatism: not the left, but obedience to the Israeli lobby

As an inveterate leftie with an irrepressible intuitive sympathy for genuine, decent conservatives - that term excludes, obviously, gutless mainstream centrists - I am always looking for exemplars of this old and venerable political species. For one thing, they are much more fun to talk to than woked-out liberals, washed-out social-democrats, or hysterical warmongers of the German variety of (camouflage) Green.

Genuine, decent conservatives tend to have much to say - about, for instance, such vital things as religion, culture, and the family - that is well worth listening to, whether you agree or not. And unlike dour, doctrinaire, and frequently neurotic centrists, genuine conservatives often have the calm self-confidence that comes from being authentic, and thus they can afford tolerance and a sense of humor, even humility.

Alas, it seems that, in the West, such decent conservatives are if not on the verge of extinction, then at least seriously endangered. And, ironically, their worst enemies are not my sort of people, the often all-too-toothless left.
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Syringe

Best of the Web: Inside the FDA's 'cover-up' of child deaths linked to Covid vaccines

Maryanne Demasi
Brownstone Institute
Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00 UTC
bulletin board police
© Shutterstock
In September 2025, then-US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr Marty Makary publicly acknowledged that the agency was investigating reports of child deaths following Covid-19 vaccination.

"We do know at the FDA...that there had been children who have died from the COVID vaccine," Makary said during a CNN interview.

By that stage, however, a fierce internal dispute had already emerged inside the FDA over what investigators believed the evidence showed — and whether the public should ever see the full findings.

"It really did feel like there was some sort of cover-up going on about the Covid-19 vaccines," said one individual familiar with the discussions.

MD Reports spoke with several current/former agency officials, advisers, and individuals briefed on the discussions, all of whom requested anonymity because they were not authorised to publicly discuss internal FDA deliberations.

At the centre of the controversy was an internal FDA review led by Dr Tracy Beth Høeg, a physician-scientist who was working as a senior scientist inside the FDA's vaccine division at the time.

FDA officials examined roughly 96 paediatric death reports submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), the government database used to detect potential vaccine-related adverse events.


Comment: MD Reports is a leading provider of electronic medical record (EMR), practice management (PM), and report writing software.

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Cruise Missle

Best of the Web: Russia hammers Kiev with massive barrage likely including Oreshnik hypersonic missiles

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Sun, 24 May 2026 19:03 UTC
oresnik strike Kiev russia ukraine
© Times of IndiaScreen captures of Russia's massive strike on Kiev, May 24, 2026 in retaliation for the bombing of a children's school in Lugansk.
Russia answers Kiev's attack on the Starobelsk school

Less than two days after President Vladimir Putin vowed revenge for a Ukrainian strike that hit a secondary-school dormitory in the Russian-controlled Luhansk oblast, Russia unleashed a massive, multi-weapon barrage on Kiev early Sunday, one that apparently included the rare use of Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missiles.


Comment: Putin vows revenge for Ukrainian attack on Lugansk school dorm

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Tsunami

Best of the Web: Severe flooding across central and eastern China after record rainfall of 5.5 FEET in 3 days - at least 25 killed, 20 missing (UPDATED)

Liu Boqian
China Daily
Sun, 17 May 2026 18:56 UTC
mmmmm
Heavy rains swept across central and eastern China over the weekend, hitting provinces including Jiangxi and Hunan, with more downpours expected.

The National Meteorological Center (NMC) forecasts that over the next three days, heavy rainfall will gradually move eastward and southward.

Since Friday evening, torrential rain in Ganzhou city, Jiangxi, has raised river levels and caused localized flooding. Shangyou county was hardest hit, especially Dongshan township, where rising waters disrupted electricity and water supplies, submerged streets and swept away vehicles.

By 4:30 pm Saturday, the county government had relocated 1,147 residents across a number of townships. No casualties or missing persons were reported, according to local media.


Comment: Update May 19

The Independent reports:
At least 12 people were killed as torrential rains continued across southern and central China on Tuesday, with widespread flooding that also closed schools and businesses, and disrupted transport and power supplies, authorities said.

China's weather agency maintained elevated orange alerts on Tuesday for heavy rain and severe stormy weather, warning that the huge precipitation system has entered its strongest, most destructive stage.

The China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said areas of Jiangxi, Anhui, Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou, Guangxi, Guangdong and Hainan faced a high risk of rain-related disasters, including landslides, flash floods and severe urban flooding and waterlogging. Authorities said they ⁠were launching emergency responses in several affected areas.

Many residents in Jingzhou, a city in central Hubei, were knee-deep in water and able to catch fish swimming in the streets, according to images posted on Chinese video platform Douyin.

Some cars were nearly completely submerged on roads surrounded by residential and commercial buildings.

Torrential rainfall hit the upper reaches of the Baishui River, part of Xuan'en county, with precipitation reaching 292.6mm. The rainstorm caused river water levels to surge rapidly, inundating multiple homes along the Baishui River. Some houses collapsed, while roads and communication services were disrupted.



At least eight people were confirmed dead after a pickup truck carrying 15 farm workers fell into a flooded river in China's southwestern region of Guangxi amid heavy rain, state broadcaster CCTV reported. In ‌separate incidents, three people were killed by flash floods ‌in a low-lying village in Hubei, while another person was killed in southern Hunan province, CCTV said.

Torrential rains also battered Shimen county in Hunan province from 7am Sunday, leaving one person dead and two others missing as of Monday evening, according to Xinhua.
Update May 20

Gulf Today reports:
Death toll reaches 25 in China rain, 20 more missing

The death toll from heavy rains across central and southern China since the weekend has risen to 25, state media reports showed Wednesday, with 20 more people still unaccounted for.

Natural disasters and extreme weather events are common in China, particularly in the summer, when some regions experience intense rainfall while others bake in searing heat.

Several areas across China have been hit by "record-breaking rainfall" in recent days, state-run broadcaster CGTN said, triggering school and work suspensions as well as allocation of relief funds.




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Rainbow

Best of the Web: Very rare ice halo in Sicily, Italy on May 15


SpaceWeather.com
Thu, 21 May 2026 12:04 UTC
mmmm
Experts call it a "suncave Parry arc." Usually, you have to go to the Arctic to find one. Last week, however, Marcella Giulia Pace saw the rarity in Sicily.

"On May 15th, I was in my garden, surrounded by the quietness of the Sicilian countryside, when, lifting my eyes to the sky, I saw an extraordinary halo display," says Pace. "With my camera in hand, I began running along the country road beside my home, searching for an open field that could reveal the entire composition."

The luminous network included a circumzenithal arc, a supralateral arc, a suncave Parry arc, an upper tangent arc, a 22° halo, a parhelic circle and a sundog.

"As I ran, the complex display kept transforming before my eyes," says Pace. "The greatest surprise came when I saw a Parry arc forming above the upper tangent arc--the rarest phenomenon of all!"

Suncave Parry arcs are exceptionally rare because they require sunlight to pass through column-shaped ice crystals suspended in a very specific, improbable, and unstable alignment in the atmosphere. They were first recorded in 1820 by William Edward Parry while icebound off Melville Island in the Canadian Arctic.

"The entire spectacle lasted only twenty minutes," she says. "Then thicker clouds slowly advanced, covering the sun and dissolving one by one all the arcs that had transformed my sky into a mosaic of light and ice."

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Star of David

Best of the Web: Israel Uber Alles: Rep. Massie 'loses' Kentucky primary - Trump's 'MAGA' purge continues

Jesse Bedayn, Dylan Lovanand, Kim Chandler
Arkansas Democrat Gazette
Wed, 20 May 2026 09:27 UTC

Comment: We're being asked to believe that the electorate is upset at Massie for forcing the release of the Epstein Files...


thomas massie kentucky primary
Kentucky U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie lost his Republican House primary Tuesday in another test of President Donald Trump's power over his party after he handpicked challenger and ultimate winner Ed Gallrein to oust the incumbent.

The result showed the president's persisting influence over GOP voters, adding to a growing number of Trump-backed primary challengers to defeat Republican lawmakers who angered him in his second term.


Comment: Yep, that's Gaetz, Taylor-Greene, and Massie gone - the core of the 'MAGA Caucus' in the House.


Also Tuesday, in Alabama, former Senate race rivals U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Doug Jones are headed to a rematch in the Alabama governor's race.

Comment: Trump's feeling good about his 'victory', so he's popped up on X to gloat (and been heavily ratio'd and excoriated in the replies):


He only dislikes vote-rigging when it doesn't go his way.

Massie's concession speech: witty, gracious, human:


But so be it. Live like Massie - build your own business, house, farm, community, etc. Ditch politics. Observe the circus, but don't become 'active' in it. It's a rigged game for psychopaths and their sycophants.

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Snowflake Cold

Best of the Web: Europe's mid-May cold trough digs deep: ENSO swamps the attribution machine

Cap Allon
Electroverse.substack.com
Thu, 14 May 2026 10:02 UTC
Keraunos puts the cold pool at 500 hPa at -32C (-26F) over western and central Europe on May 14.

For May, that ranks as the fourth-coldest such setup in 30 years of record-keeping. The benchmark remains May 2012, with ERA5 reanalysis coming up with -33C (-27F).

mmmmmm
© [Keraunos]
A deep upper-level trough is locked over the continent, with blocking over the North Atlantic allowing polar air to drive far south. That cold air aloft is steepening lapse rates, destabilizing the atmosphere, and turning mild spring air at the surface into showers, hail, thunder, mountain snow and frost risk.

The cold is already showing up.

In Croatia, Puntijarka on Zagreb's Medvednica has recorded May snow for only the sixth time since observations began in 1981.
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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Racing toward "Absolute Zero"

Alex Krainer
alexkrainer.substack.com
Wed, 13 May 2026 14:48 UTC
net zero carbon emissions dystopia
© World Green Building CouncilOwning nothing and being happy
It's very real: the Epstein class is dead serious about 'getting rid of the poor people,' and creating an Orwellian totalitarian society.

Last week, a British farmer reported that he received a letter from the government, informing him that,
"... by 2030, there is to be a 50% reduction in farmed animals. And by 2050, 100% - zero farm animals systems in place. And guess who's signed up to that? Yes, the two biggest arseholes in the world: Starmer and Bill Gates. What more proof do I want, and I've got it in writing. So it looks like their little takeover is coming along nicely for them, but unfortunately we've now got the document. So... let World War 4 commence. We don't need to be at war with Russia, we're going to create our internal one."

Comment: Well, it's not like Gates has been hiding his agenda:

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