https://www.sott.net Signs of the Times: The World for People who Think. Featuring independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events. en-us Original content Copyright 2026 by Signs of the Times/Sott.net. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net. Wed, 17 Jun 2026 01:30:02 +0000 https://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net https://www.sott.net https://www.sott.net/article/506924-Blame-the-Climate-Yeti-again-for-making-your-life-more-expensive-Its-a-smokescreen The handy all-purpose smoke bomb for any occasion is "climate change" Food prices are rising because we've mismanaged the economy and screwed up our energy supplies while we played doctor to the clouds. As sure as night follows day, we stopped digging for coal and oil and now it costs more to transport, process, refrigerate, package and store food. But don't be fooled, the bigger underlying cause that the Blob doesn't want you to notice is money. The inflation starts with the money supply. If we gave everyone a million dollars, the thing we most want would suddenly cost a million dollars more. As long as The Blob can borrow money into existence they can fund their friends and promise free homes and eternal youth to the voting masses. And the borrowers get to spend the money first, before the price rises. So since 2008, all the US dollars ever created going back to World War I, have been multiplied five fold. This is the money-base data today from the US St Louis Federal Reserve.... https://www.sott.net/article/506924-Blame-the-Climate-Yeti-again-for-making-your-life-more-expensive-Its-a-smokescreen Wed, 17 Jun 2026 01:28:17 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506923-Thousands-of-Italians-take-to-the-streets-of-Rome-demanding-remigration Several thousand Italians marched through the capital on Saturday demanding remigration, strict border control, and a decisive break with the mass-immigration model that has transformed Italy without meaningful public consent. The demonstration, according to a report from Remix News, was organized by the citizen initiative "Remigration and Reconquest," which has built support around a legislative proposal focused on illegal migrant returns, deportations, and national recovery. Marchers carried Italian flags and rallied behind a message that is now spreading across Europe: immigration must not only be slowed — it must be reversed. Organizers say their initiative has collected roughly 50,000 signatures in support of the proposal, while other reports cited more than 150,000. Either way, the campaign has cleared the threshold needed to force Italy's political class to confront a question it has long tried to avoid. https://www.sott.net/article/506923-Thousands-of-Italians-take-to-the-streets-of-Rome-demanding-remigration Tue, 16 Jun 2026 23:22:13 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506922-Well-duh-Violent-crime-drops-as-more-Americans-pack-heat Comment: The real gun safety . . . . Alessandra Coote was walking on a trail with her 2-year-old daughter and dog two-and-a-half years ago when a man began yelling at her and threatened to kill her dog. When the petite single mom made it back to her Utah home, she decided she needed a firearm for protection. A few months later, while living in what she described as a "shady part of town," a homeless man threatened her. After that encounter, she began regularly carrying a firearm under Utah's Constitutional Carry law. Coote, who just graduated this spring from the University of Utah, says carrying the gun has given her the confidence to feel safe in public. "It's been life-changing," she told RealClearInvestigations. Although she has never had to draw or fire the weapon, she has faced a threatening individual when she was armed, but stopped the attack by merely letting the man know she was carrying. https://www.sott.net/article/506922-Well-duh-Violent-crime-drops-as-more-Americans-pack-heat Tue, 16 Jun 2026 22:01:59 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506921-Buttigieg-drinks-the-court-packing-Kool-aid Joins Democrat calls to take over the Supreme Court Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg apparently got the message this week that he cannot hope to win the Democratic nomination without promising radical measures, including the packing of the Supreme Court. After denouncing the current Court as "rogue" for not ruling as the left has demanded, Buttigieg endorsed the plan of Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren to pack the Court to reverse adverse constitutional interpretations. For years, the Supreme Court had a liberal majority that overturned dozens of long-standing cases. That was not viewed as the work of a rogue court. Yet, even as President Donald Trump attacks this Court for ruling repeatedly against him, liberals are now demanding court packing. As the party becomes more radicalized, any candidate expressing doubts over radical demands like court packing is unlikely to make it out of the primaries. https://www.sott.net/article/506921-Buttigieg-drinks-the-court-packing-Kool-aid Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:50:15 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506920-So-who-won-the-third-Gulf-War-Hint-it-wasnt-Israel Iran is poised to gradually return to the US-led Western order within certain limits exactly as Iran's moderate faction has long wanted, its hardline faction has successfully preserved the armed forces and their missile stockpile, while Israel achieved none of its goals in its most epic defeat ever. Iran and the US plan to sign a Zarif-inspired memorandum of understanding (MoU) on ending the Third Gulf War this Friday in Switzerland. The exact details aren't yet known, and Fortune reported that there were at least three competing texts, but all of them "include similar elements around reopening the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway, giving Iran sanctions relief and opening the door to longer-term negotiations around its nuclear program." That's already enough to arrive at several very important conclusions. For starters, reopening the strait without Iran's wartime petroyuan toll booth in place would represent a significant concession by the Islamic Republic, whose media surrogates... https://www.sott.net/article/506920-So-who-won-the-third-Gulf-War-Hint-it-wasnt-Israel Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:38:47 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506919-New-study-reveals-how-the-Left-turned-mental-illness-into-a-political-identity Something researchers have observed for decades is finally crystallizing into a measurable cultural phenomenon. Political conservatives consistently report higher levels of happiness, better mental health, and stronger psychological well-being than their liberal counterparts. A new study published in Political Behavior takes that finding several steps further, arguing that mental illness has begun functioning as its own political identity, and that identity clusters most tightly on the left. Columbia University's magazine originally flagged the underlying trend back in 2023, reporting that "American adults who identify as politically liberal have long reported lower levels of happiness and psychological well-being than conservatives," Based on the data of four different studies, researchers from the Universities of Florida and Toronto, found an explanation: conservatives tend to exhibit greater personal agency, religiosity, moral clarity, self-worth, and a more optimistic general... https://www.sott.net/article/506919-New-study-reveals-how-the-Left-turned-mental-illness-into-a-political-identity Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:31:14 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506918-The-Dutch-Covid-inquiry-is-not-looking-for-the-truth Across the world, the response to Covid looked strangely alike: the same lockdowns, the same shuttered schools and businesses, the same insistence that there was only one responsible course and that to question it was to put lives at risk. Country after country moved in near lockstep. To me, that uniformity remains one of the most troubling features of those years. Measures so similar, so sweeping, and adopted so quickly are difficult to explain as dozens of governments independently reach the same conclusion. Whatever the truth behind that coordination, the Covid era cannot be understood one nation at a time. What was done to people's freedoms — and how each country now chooses to examine it, or to look away — concerns us all. What follows is one country's reckoning. From a distance, the Netherlands can look like an open society settling its accounts with the pandemic. https://www.sott.net/article/506918-The-Dutch-Covid-inquiry-is-not-looking-for-the-truth Tue, 16 Jun 2026 20:31:29 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506917-Iranian-strategic-thinking From its earliest years, the Islamic Republic of Iran developed a worldview and strategic thinking. The recent war declared against it by Israel and the United States led it to coordinate its armed forces and diplomacy, while its military achievements allowed it to consider how to pursue its revolutionary goals while protecting its population. The vision of Imam Khomeini 1. Imam Ruhollah Khomeini was not an expert in international relations. However, it was clear to him that the United Kingdom and the United States were Iran's traditional adversaries. Furthermore, he believed that Israel was an Anglo-Saxon outpost in the Middle East [ 1 ] . 2. When confronted with the "war imposed" by the West from Iraq, he was horrified by the use of missiles firing on Iranian cities and spreading poison gas. He believed that his country would never stoop to using weapons of mass destruction like these, or atomic bombs. In 1988, with the war having lasted a decade and victory still elusive, he... https://www.sott.net/article/506917-Iranian-strategic-thinking Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:48:57 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506916-The-US-Iran-Deal-Why-it-happened-and-what-it-proves Iran's greatest strategic success is not defeating the United States or Israel but demonstrating — through a war that ended not in "unconditional surrender" but in a negotiated peace deal — that neither can unilaterally impose a new Middle Eastern order without Iranian consent. The Failure of Coercive Regional Engineering Yet the outcome, announced on June 14 and set to be formally signed in Switzerland on June 19, falls well short of the war's stated aims. The US and Israel had set out to eliminate Iran's nuclear program, deplete its ballistic missile stockpile, and create conditions for regime change in Tehran. The deal achieves none of these goals in any definitive sense. Instead, it ends hostilities, reopens the Strait of Hormuz, lifts US oil sanctions, and initiates a 60-day window of nuclear talks with Iran's new leadership, which is very much intact and its regional posture, however degraded, still standing. https://www.sott.net/article/506916-The-US-Iran-Deal-Why-it-happened-and-what-it-proves Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:48:00 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506915-Trump-has-sold-us-out-Israelis-react-with-anger-and-anxiety-to-new-Iran-deal As Washington and Tehran prepare to sign a historic peace agreement, many Israelis fear the deal preserves Iran's military power and sets the stage for the next war. After more than three and a half months of fighting and intense back-and-forth negotiations, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington and Tehran, under Pakistani mediation, have reached a final agreement to end hostilities between them. The deal is expected to be signed in Geneva on June 19. According to reports, the memorandum of understanding stipulates that upon signing, both sides will declare an immediate, complete, and permanent end to all hostilities across the region, including in Lebanon. The blockade on Iran would be lifted, Washington would commit not to interfere in Iran's domestic affairs, refrain from increasing troop levels in the region, and release half of Iran's frozen assets, an amount totaling approximately $12 billion.In exchange, Iran would reaffirm its commitment to the Nuclear... https://www.sott.net/article/506915-Trump-has-sold-us-out-Israelis-react-with-anger-and-anxiety-to-new-Iran-deal Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:46:37 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506914-Major-U-turn-Swedish-parliament-abolishes-permanent-residence-visas-for-migrants The Swedish Parliament has officially passed a government bill to end permanent residence permits, which will offer a vastly stricter approach to the country's immigration policy. Under the new legislation, the government "eliminates the possibility of granting permanent residence permits to asylum seekers" and other immigrant groups specified in the reform. Set to take effect on July 12, the updated rules dictate that affected individuals will now only be eligible to receive temporary residence permits. However, those who currently hold valid permanent residence will keep their existing status and remain unaffected by the change. While temporary permits have become standard practice in Sweden over recent years, this reform goes significantly further by preventing specific groups from converting those temporary stays into permanent ones. Through this measure, the Swedish Executive aims to tighten its oversight regarding the long-term status of foreigners within its borders. https://www.sott.net/article/506914-Major-U-turn-Swedish-parliament-abolishes-permanent-residence-visas-for-migrants Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:43:16 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506913-Canadas-social-media-ban-for-under-16s-goes-to-parliament Legislation would exempt platforms that can prove they have safeguards for children in place. Canada's government has introduced legislation to parliament that could ban children younger than 16 from having social media accounts unless the companies show they can make their platforms safe. Ottawa is joining a growing global effort to tighten online safety. Canadian government officials said social media platforms can obtain an exemption if they have put in place sufficient safeguards. "We are failing our children. Enough is enough," said Marc Miller, Canada's culture minister. "We need basic protection in place." The legislation covers seven types of harmful content including content that induces children to harm themselves, content that incites violence and foments hatred and non-consensual intimate images. A digital safety commission will be created. Criteria for what exemptions would look like will be announced at a later date. Miller said setting up the regulator could take up... https://www.sott.net/article/506913-Canadas-social-media-ban-for-under-16s-goes-to-parliament Tue, 16 Jun 2026 19:42:04 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506912-RFK-Jr-Warns-Vaccine-Committee-Not-Functioning-Asks-Court-To-Accelerate-Decision The committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines has been paralyzed by a March ruling by a federal judge, leaving it unable to carry out work ahead of the upcoming respiratory virus season, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has warned. "The court's order has left ACIP unable to carry out its core responsibilities," Kennedy said in a June 12 post on X, referring to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). "As a result, the committee cannot issue new recommendations, review newly approved vaccines, or complete important work ahead of the fall flu season." Influenza and other viruses typically circulate each year in the fall and winter. The ruling in question was released on March 16 by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy, who concluded that Kennedy and other officials did not take necessary steps when making changes to federal vaccine guidance and the composition of ACIP. https://www.sott.net/article/506912-RFK-Jr-Warns-Vaccine-Committee-Not-Functioning-Asks-Court-To-Accelerate-Decision Tue, 16 Jun 2026 15:34:00 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506911-Shallow-magnitude-6-3-earthquake-rattles-China-at-least-1-dead-multiple-injured An earthquake struck China on Tuesday, June 16, leaving at least one person dead and several others injured, according to preliminary information from state media and the United States Geological Survey. The 6.3 magnitude quake took place in the country's province of Qinghai in China's northwestern region around 5 p.m. local time, the USGS said. The earthquake measured 10 miles deep and was followed by ⁠several ​aftershocks including one that measured ​at a magnitude of 5.4. Citing emergency responders, state agency Xinhua reported at least one person was killed and nearly a half-dozen others were injured in the disaster. The agency reported rescue teams were searching for people trapped under rubble and were assessing ​risks of additional temblors. https://www.sott.net/article/506911-Shallow-magnitude-6-3-earthquake-rattles-China-at-least-1-dead-multiple-injured Tue, 16 Jun 2026 14:35:18 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506910-Heavy-rain-triggers-dangerous-flash-flooding-across-Texas-prompting-multiple-water-rescues-up-to-4-inches-of-rain-per-hour-reported A firehose of tropical moisture is fueling torrential downpours across Texas, triggering ongoing emergency rescues and road closures amid life-threatening flash flooding. Flood Watches blanket almost all of South Texas, the middle and upper Texas coasts. Rescue operations began overnight and continued Monday morning, with several reports of cars stranded amid the rising waters. Interstate 35 turned into a river as first responders pulled trapped motorists from submerged cars, while further south in Austin, officials have already closed two dozen low-water crossings. https://www.sott.net/article/506910-Heavy-rain-triggers-dangerous-flash-flooding-across-Texas-prompting-multiple-water-rescues-up-to-4-inches-of-rain-per-hour-reported Tue, 16 Jun 2026 13:59:10 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506909-Heavy-rain-floods-southern-Chinas-Guangdong-Guangxi-forcing-school-closures-evacuations-30-inches-of-rain-in-24-hours Heavy rain flooded parts of southern China over the weekend, forcing school closures in Guangdong Province and prompting emergency rescues in neighboring Guangxi, local authorities said. In Lufeng city in Guangdong, torrential rain from Saturday night to Monday morning brought an average of 329 millimeters of rainfall, according to local meteorological authorities. Several villages reported severe flooding. In Xiaqianliao village in Nantang town, floodwaters submerged streets to depths of nearly 1.5 meters in some areas. Firefighters were deployed on Sunday night to search for trapped residents and evacuate them by boat to temporary shelters. https://www.sott.net/article/506909-Heavy-rain-floods-southern-Chinas-Guangdong-Guangxi-forcing-school-closures-evacuations-30-inches-of-rain-in-24-hours Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:42:15 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506908-Massive-sinkhole-forms-near-I-70-and-the-Dome-in-St-Louis-Missouri A massive sinkhole emerged Saturday in St. Louis underneath Interstate 70, just blocks from The Dome at America's Center. https://www.sott.net/article/506908-Massive-sinkhole-forms-near-I-70-and-the-Dome-in-St-Louis-Missouri Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:27:13 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506907-Arctic-cold-vs-the-melt-season The High Arctic is entering melt season at the cold edge of the modern record. DMI data for daily 2 m air temperature north of 80N show 2026 running far below the normal June climb. The red line is pressed against the lower boundary of the 1958-2026 spread. Veteran meteorologist Joe Bastardi called the cold "unprecedented." On June 12, the 80N average fell to -4.2C (24.5F). By June 14, it was still below freezing at -2.3C (27.8F). June is when the high Arctic normally pushes toward 0C (32F). Below that line, surface melt remains constrained. The public is fed amplification warnings, while the core Arctic basin is sitting at/near the coldest June level in data back to 1958. And the polar cold is not confined to the Arctic. Both GFS and ECMWF show a broad cold pool across Antarctica, including the South Pole region. https://www.sott.net/article/506907-Arctic-cold-vs-the-melt-season Tue, 16 Jun 2026 11:29:16 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506906-Shallow-magnitude-6-7-earthquake-strikes-near-Indonesias-Palu A strong earthquake measuring 6.7 magnitude struck Indonesia's Sulawesi island early Tuesday, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The quake occurred at 11:27 a.m. local time (0327GMT), with its epicenter located approximately 46 kilometers (28.5 miles) east-southeast of Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province. The earthquake struck at a shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6.21 miles), which can increase the intensity of ground shaking. There were no immediate reports of casualties or significant damage. Indonesia's disaster management and meteorological agencies did not immediately issue a tsunami warning. https://www.sott.net/article/506906-Shallow-magnitude-6-7-earthquake-strikes-near-Indonesias-Palu Tue, 16 Jun 2026 09:32:25 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506905-Magnitude-6-2-earthquake-strikes-off-southern-Philippines A magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck off the coast of Davao Oriental province in the southern Philippines on Monday, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The earthquake was centered about 67 kilometers southeast of Pondaguitan, a coastal community in Davao Oriental, at a depth of 111.9 kilometers, USGS data showed. There were no immediate reports of casualties or significant damage, local authorities said. The Philippines' disaster monitoring agencies continued to assess the situation, while officials reported no tsunami threat following the quake. The tremor occurred days after a powerful 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the Mindanao region on June 8, killing at least 61 people and injuring more than 1,040 others, according to official figures. The Philippines lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a seismically active zone where earthquakes and volcanic activity occur frequently due to the movement of tectonic plates. The latest quake is not expected to cause... https://www.sott.net/article/506905-Magnitude-6-2-earthquake-strikes-off-southern-Philippines Tue, 16 Jun 2026 09:21:43 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506904-4-Things-you-CANNOT-say-about-the-UKs-Social-Media-Ban The UK's "Social Media Ban" is official - Here's how you should talk about it. It's official, the United Kingdom is getting its own Australia-style "social media ban" for everyone under 16. In fact it's going to be "Australia-plus" according to insiders, with some kind of 'curfew' expected to part of the final roll-out. Yes, Sir Keir Starmer has been sitting on that pot for quite sometime and finally decided to...well, you know. The total list of platforms the proposed ban will target hasn't yet been released, but it is known that YouTube, X (Twitter), Meta (Facebook), Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram will be hit, and that some others - including BlueSky - will not be. Despite claims to be empowered to move "speedily", the ban isn't expected to come into force until next spring, which gives a nice little window for a few things to potentially happen. But I'm not here to analyze the ban or speculate on agendas or next steps. The ban is announced, it will likely happen, and it's on all... https://www.sott.net/article/506904-4-Things-you-CANNOT-say-about-the-UKs-Social-Media-Ban Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:50:21 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506903-Starmer-to-ban-under-16s-from-10-social-media-apps-including-X-but-NOT-leftist-pedo-cesspool-Bluesky Sir Keir Starmer is set to announce sweeping reforms tomorrow banning under-16s from 10 major social media platforms, including X, but not the Left-wing platform Bluesky. In addition, he will introduce daily curfews for 16 and 17 year-olds, going further than Australia's restrictions. The Times has the story: Teenagers will be banned from certain social media platforms and have their daily usage curbed under sweeping reforms to be announced by Sir Keir Starmer on Sunday. The ban will go further than the one imposed by Australia in December by targeting technology deemed harmful to children, including chatbots and certain features on gaming apps. Under-16s in Australia have been banned from using ten platforms: TikTok, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Twitch and Kick. It is understood that the UK will follow suit by raising the minimum age on social media to 16, from the average of 13, for the same ten sites. https://www.sott.net/article/506903-Starmer-to-ban-under-16s-from-10-social-media-apps-including-X-but-NOT-leftist-pedo-cesspool-Bluesky Mon, 15 Jun 2026 23:02:21 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506902-LA-mayoral-candidate-Pratt-says-fire-at-his-Pacific-Palisades-crystals-office-not-an-accident An investigation has been launched A "suspicious" fire broke out at the Pacific Palisades office of Spencer Pratt's crystals company, he revealed to The California Post. The Los Angeles mayoral candidate confirmed that the office, located inside the Highlands Circle complex at 1515 Palisades Dr., belonged to him. The Los Angeles Fire Department's Arson Unit was notified, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation. "I want to be careful to not compromise an arson investigation, but this incident is very suspicious," Pratt told The Post, just hours after his bombshell post-election video dropped. https://www.sott.net/article/506902-LA-mayoral-candidate-Pratt-says-fire-at-his-Pacific-Palisades-crystals-office-not-an-accident Mon, 15 Jun 2026 21:54:04 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506901-Shadowy-UK-government-thought-police-unit-set-up-to-keep-a-lid-on-Britains-simmering-racial-tensions Ex-MI6 agent designed the department While the streets of Belfast were ablaze with anti-immigration protests last week, behind the scenes a group of spies, spinners and soldiers were deploying the 'dark arts' to try to defuse tensions. The name of the secretive Government propaganda unit trying to manipulate events makes it sound like an innocuous back-office operation - the Research, Information and Communications Unit, or RICU. But the dull moniker is part of the deliberate camouflage of an outfit which uses deception and skulduggery to try to manage the 'challenges' of multiculturalism. Its techniques range from planting stories in the media, using undercover operatives to lay flowers at the scene of terrorist attacks and even, in one case, sending a pop group to sing anti-extremist songs in Muslim schools. https://www.sott.net/article/506901-Shadowy-UK-government-thought-police-unit-set-up-to-keep-a-lid-on-Britains-simmering-racial-tensions Mon, 15 Jun 2026 21:38:11 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506900-Under-the-bus-How-Bill-Gates-fell-from-globalist-grace Oh, what a difference a decade makes. Back in 2016, Bill Gates' public image still sported the saintly halo that the massive PR budget of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation afforded him. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama for his philanthropic work in medicine, science and education. https://www.sott.net/article/506900-Under-the-bus-How-Bill-Gates-fell-from-globalist-grace Mon, 15 Jun 2026 20:05:57 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506899-The-Fantasy-of-Disarming-Hezbollah The people demanding Hezbollah's disarmament are often looking at an imagined Lebanon. Hezbollah's supporters are looking at the Middle East as it actually exists. Every few months, the same debate returns to Lebanon. Hezbollah must disarm. The argument is usually presented as self-evident, almost beyond discussion. Lebanon cannot become a normal state while Hezbollah retains its weapons. Lebanon cannot exercise full sovereignty while a non-state actor possesses military capabilities greater than those of the national army. Lebanon cannot achieve stability, prosperity, or peace until Hezbollah surrenders its arsenal and allows the state to monopolize force. At first glance, the argument sounds reasonable. In fact, it sounds so reasonable that many people never stop to ask a much more important question: what exactly would Hezbollah be disarming into? Because before discussing Hezbollah's weapons, one must first discuss Lebanon itself, where the conversation becomes uncomfortable.... https://www.sott.net/article/506899-The-Fantasy-of-Disarming-Hezbollah Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:34:24 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506898-Deal-is-reached-to-end-Iran-war-Trump-orders-stop-to-US-naval-blockade The United States and Iran have reached an agreement to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, offering relief to the global economy more than three months since fighting began. Details of the deal were not immediately available. Key mediator Pakistan said the signing will be Friday in Switzerland. Key issues like Iran's nuclear program are expected to be addressed later. U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed a deal had been reached and said he had authorized an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, imposed in retaliation for Iran's grip on the crucial waterway. Trump wrote on social media: "Congratulations to all! I hereby fully authorize the toll free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and, simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade." The U.S. previously said it would ease its blockade of Iranian ports as the strait reopens, and would agree to relax sanctions to allow Iran to sell more of its... https://www.sott.net/article/506898-Deal-is-reached-to-end-Iran-war-Trump-orders-stop-to-US-naval-blockade Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:47:47 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506897-The-suicide-of-Europe-Historic-EU-Migration-Pact-goes-into-force-today-as-fracture-lines-grow In response to the EU Migration Pact launching today, Merz celebrates, Le Pen calls for a referendum on immigration, and the EU's migration commissioner threatens countries like Hungary with a "stick" if they do not comply. Six years ago, in 2020, French political leader Marine Le Pen described the Migrant Pact, which was then in the planning stages, as the "suicide of Europe." She said it would bring 60 to 70 million new migrants to Europe, as Remix News reported at the time. Europe is about to find out just how prophetic its critics have been. On June 12, the highly contested EU Migration Pact officially came into force, instantly triggering a sharp political divide across the continent. Brussels is already signaling a hardline approach toward resistance; the bloc's own EU Migration Commissioner recently admitted that the Union is preparing a "crackdown" on member states that refuse to comply with the new relocation directives. https://www.sott.net/article/506897-The-suicide-of-Europe-Historic-EU-Migration-Pact-goes-into-force-today-as-fracture-lines-grow Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:44:43 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506896-The-defense-agreement-between-France-and-Norway-A-new-stage-in-European-security As the US withdraws troops from Europe, European countries are once again facing the echoes of the past. In search of protection from growing threats, Norway has become the ninth European power to seek the French "nuclear umbrella." On 27 May 2026, Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store met the French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, France. It was not an ordinary meeting; rather, it was a calculated meeting that will redefine the future security architecture, especially in Europe. Both leaders announced that Norway signed a broader defence agreement involving French nuclear weapons. Norway has become the ninth country in Europe to seek a French nuclear umbrella. Before Norway, eight countries including Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, and Greece, had a https://www.sott.net/article/506896-The-defense-agreement-between-France-and-Norway-A-new-stage-in-European-security Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:44:09 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506895-Split-with-Russia-wont-end-well-for-Europe Residents of EU countries will ultimately suffer from the bloc's decision to cut economic relations with Russia, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) representing Slovakia, Judita Lassakova, has said. She spoke to the news agency TASS during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) last week; the interview was published by the agency on Friday. "This will not end well," she said about the sweeping economic restrictions imposed by Brussels on Moscow since the escalation of the Ukraine in February 2022. "We live on the same planet, and by erecting walls and borders, we only distance ourselves from each other and destroy the last remaining channels of communication. And all this will lead to situations that will ultimately harm ordinary citizens, the people." Despite the refusal to purchase energy from Russia straining the EU's economy, Brussels announced its 21st sanctions package against the country earlier this week. https://www.sott.net/article/506895-Split-with-Russia-wont-end-well-for-Europe Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:42:50 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506894-HHS-launches-tick-control-pilot-targeting-deer-and-mice-to-cut-Lyme-disease-cases Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a new CDC-led pilot program in New Hampshire aimed at reducing tick populations on wildlife hosts before they spread illness to people, and lowering Lyme disease cases by 2035. Kennedy unveiled the initiative late last month in New Hampshire, a state heavily affected by Lyme disease, during the administration's "Take Back Your Health" tour. The program is part of the Make America Healthy Again initiative and is being presented as a results-driven response to rising tick-related health threats. The announcement comes as emergency room visits for tick bites reached their highest April levels since 2017, according to the information provided. HHS officials said the new approach is intended to move prevention beyond personal repellents and residential spraying by addressing tick populations earlier in the transmission cycle. The centerpiece is a multi-million-dollar pilot program led by the Centers for Disease Control... https://www.sott.net/article/506894-HHS-launches-tick-control-pilot-targeting-deer-and-mice-to-cut-Lyme-disease-cases Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:42:02 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506893-Former-NIH-Head-Secretly-Helped-With-Paper-Dismissing-Theory-COVID-19-Came-From-Lab Then-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins, around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, acknowledged that he secretly assisted with a paper stating the virus that causes COVID-19 "is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus," according to a newly released missive. "This is work that Tony, Jeremy, Larry, and I helped with, but are appropriately not mentioned explicitly in the paper," Collins said in the March 6, 2020, email to NIH officials, which was released by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on June 11. Tony refers to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime head of the NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases through late 2022. Jeremy refers to Jeremy Farrar, at the time the director of the Wellcome Trust. Larry refers to Dr. Lawrence Tabak, an NIH official. https://www.sott.net/article/506893-Former-NIH-Head-Secretly-Helped-With-Paper-Dismissing-Theory-COVID-19-Came-From-Lab Mon, 15 Jun 2026 15:52:01 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506892-Meteor-fireball-over-Missouri-and-17-other-states-on-June-15 We received 527 reports about a fireball seen over AL, AR, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MI, MN, MO, MS, OH, OK, SC, TN and TX on Monday, June 15th 2026 around 03:26 UT. For this event, we received 12 videos and 12 photos. https://www.sott.net/article/506892-Meteor-fireball-over-Missouri-and-17-other-states-on-June-15 Mon, 15 Jun 2026 12:02:58 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506891-Area-51-Secrets-US-government-acknowledgment-fuels-conspiracy-theories-and-UFO-speculations The US government's recent acknowledgment of Area 51, a secretive military base, has only fueled the fire of conspiracy theories and speculation that have long surrounded it. Once a testing facility during the Cold War, this base has been the subject of rumors about crashed alien ships and their alleged reverse engineering. The National Security Archive of George Washington University has published a report called 'The Secret History of the U-2', which contains several references to Area 51. The report includes declassified documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. However, the declassified documents do not mention any remotely alien activity in the installation. While it is no surprise that the US government has not disclosed any information regarding the alleged reverse engineering of alien ships, some believe that the government is covering up the truth about extraterrestrial activity. According to nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman, there are several... https://www.sott.net/article/506891-Area-51-Secrets-US-government-acknowledgment-fuels-conspiracy-theories-and-UFO-speculations Mon, 15 Jun 2026 08:46:36 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506890-War-on-the-cheap-Hezbollahs-low-cost-FPV-drones-are-making-Israels-high-tech-military-obsolete Hezbollah has discovered a low cost cheat code that has rendered Israel's modern military equipment obsolete- the First Person View (FPV) Drone. A weapon so cheap and simple that is wiping out hundreds of millions worth of Israel's military and surveillance technology. Left in disbelief, the Israeli military have suffered around 250 casualties in just over two weeks, largely at the hands of Lebanese resistance drone operators. Having adopted guerilla warfare tactics to confront the invading Israeli army in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah is utilising a strategy that no other non-State actor has managed to pull off until this point, but may well be reshaping asymmetric warfare as we know it. The use of FPV drones, a strategy emerging from the Ukraine-Russia war, has had a deadly effect on advancing enemy forces and is said to be responsible for the majority of battlefield casualties in East Europe's current major conflict. https://www.sott.net/article/506890-War-on-the-cheap-Hezbollahs-low-cost-FPV-drones-are-making-Israels-high-tech-military-obsolete Sun, 14 Jun 2026 21:06:34 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506889-NewsReal-Schrodingers-Deal-US-Iran-Peace-Again-Thwarted-by-Israeli-Bombardment-of-Beirut The seemingly endless 'negotiations' between the Trump White House and Tehran made a breakthrough last week, when, for the first time since the US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February, Iranian leaders signalled that a preliminary 'peace deal' is indeed within reach... until Israel nixed it by launching airstrikes into downtown Beirut. In the meantime the World Cup is underway, and the US, as one of the host countries, understands that the importance of 'summer games' to the masses means there's no possibility for serious exchanges of fire with Iran until at least mid-July. Will Israel be brought to heel, however grudgingly? Running Time: 01:58:50 Download: MP3 — 163 MB https://www.sott.net/article/506889-NewsReal-Schrodingers-Deal-US-Iran-Peace-Again-Thwarted-by-Israeli-Bombardment-of-Beirut Sun, 14 Jun 2026 20:55:01 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506888-Please-just-leave-Has-been-Hillary-fears-revolution-preventing-US-from-becoming-a-rainbow-nation The word "Democracy" is thrown around frequently within progressive circles as a call to arms; a rallying cry based on a fraudulent narrative of patriotic duty. Throughout the entirety of Joe Biden's first and last term, the political left painted conservatives as a threat to democracy. Anyone who opposed pandemic mandates, compelled vaccination, open borders, mass immigration, gender ideology in public schools etc., was labeled a danger to society. The inherent fallacy being that leftists (and by extension Democrats) represent the majority of the nation. However, this notion has been consistently debunked by multiple elections, polls and the fact that the vast majority of liberal movements have been exposed as astroturf funded by NGOs. If Democrats actually cared about democracy, they would listen to the actual American majority, instead of waging a propaganda war on the majority in order to manufacture a false consensus. And, the majority of Americans do not support multicultural... https://www.sott.net/article/506888-Please-just-leave-Has-been-Hillary-fears-revolution-preventing-US-from-becoming-a-rainbow-nation Sun, 14 Jun 2026 20:35:24 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506887-GiveSendGo-yanks-convicted-murderer-Karmelo-Anthonys-fundraiser Anthony was sentenced to 35 years in state prison after a jury found him guilty of murder... The family of Karmelo Anthony can no longer raise money from supporters through GiveSendGo following the conclusion of his criminal case. The Anthonys were able to raise more than $600,000 in the wake of the then-17-year-old's prosecution in connection with the fatal stabbing of track star Austin Metcalf during an altercation on April 2, 2025. The controversial fundraiser was hosted by GiveSendGo, which attracted thousands of donors who bizarrely viewed Anthony's prosecution as the product of racial injustice. Evidence shown at trial proved otherwise. In a June 9 statement posted on its website, GiveSendGo said that the fundraiser has been closed because Anthony's trial was over. https://www.sott.net/article/506887-GiveSendGo-yanks-convicted-murderer-Karmelo-Anthonys-fundraiser Sun, 14 Jun 2026 20:19:18 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506886-Trillionaires-and-inequality-An-open-letter-to-Elizabeth-Warren Musk is not the cause. He's the scoreboard. The real story is the game itself. Dear Senator Warren, When I watched your recent video on X about Elon Musk becoming the world's first trillionaire, I found myself in the unusual position of agreeing with you — at least in part. That is not a sentence I write often. You see...you are correct that something has gone profoundly wrong in an economy that can produce a trillionaire. You are correct that the gap between the financial elite and ordinary Americans has become so vast that most people can barely comprehend it. And you are correct that millions of Americans increasingly feel as though the economy is rigged in favor of a small group of people at the top. According to The Wall Street Journal, there are now roughly 430,000 American households worth more than $30 million, including approximately 74,000 households worth over $100 million. The growth of these groups has dramatically outpaced overall population growth over the past... https://www.sott.net/article/506886-Trillionaires-and-inequality-An-open-letter-to-Elizabeth-Warren Sun, 14 Jun 2026 20:06:44 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506885-A-Conservatives-audit-of-the-Lefts-ruling-assumptions The mirror they refuse to look into. There is a particular kind of intellectual dishonesty that does not know it is dishonest. It wraps itself in the language of compassion, hides its power hunger behind slogans of liberation, and mistakes its own cultural preferences for universal moral law. American progressivism, in its current form as embodied by the Democrat Party, has become a nearly perfect specimen of this condition. The clichés, observations, and aphorisms collected here are not talking points manufactured in a think tank. They are the distilled residue of lived political experience — hard-won pattern recognition from citizens, scholars, commentators, and statesmen who have spent years watching the same contradictions repeat themselves under different headlines. Victor Davis Hanson notices that progressive hierarchy licenses progressive hypocrisy. Don Surber reminds us that incentives are more reliable than ideology. Ian Bremmer, borrowing from Thucydides, warns us what... https://www.sott.net/article/506885-A-Conservatives-audit-of-the-Lefts-ruling-assumptions Sun, 14 Jun 2026 19:39:11 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506884-After-Shangri-La-Asia-is-no-longer-asking-Washingtons-permission At the 23rd Shangri-La Dialogue 2026 held in Singapore and attended by 44 countries, the real story was not the reaffirmation of the US-led Indo-Pacific order but its slow, public unraveling. The Speech That Misread the Room The opening plenary belongs, by Shangri-La tradition, to Washington. This year, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth declared: "The era of the United States subsidizing the defence of wealthy nations is over," demanded that allies spend at least 3.5% of GDP on defence, and denounced the "utopian idealism" of the old multilateral order. He boasted about the extrajudicial capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, touted improved US-China relations under President Trump — conspicuously omitting any mention of Taiwan — and closed with the assertion that the region needs "less Shangri-La, more combat power." It was a speech that alienated the very audience it sought to lead. In fact, as events show, the starkest divide at the Dialogue was not between Washington... https://www.sott.net/article/506884-After-Shangri-La-Asia-is-no-longer-asking-Washingtons-permission Sun, 14 Jun 2026 19:26:36 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506883-Gabbard-Fauci-Biden-Admin-threatened-those-who-attempted-to-expose-US-funded-foreign-gain-of-function-biolabs Outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Friday revealed there are more than 120 taxpayer-funded biolabs located in 30 countries, and the Biden administration "threatened" people who attempted to expose their existence. Gabbard alleges an intentional cover-up by powerful figures, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Biden administration, regarding the existence and gain-of-function research conducted at these labs, some in high-risk areas such as Ukraine. "These biolabs include labs in places like Ukraine, which could be at risk of compromise due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war," Gabbard said. "In fact, the intelligence community had previously warned that a U.S.-funded biolab in Ukraine likely housed dangerous pathogens and remained vulnerable to long-standing threats of Russian attack, seizure, or damage." https://www.sott.net/article/506883-Gabbard-Fauci-Biden-Admin-threatened-those-who-attempted-to-expose-US-funded-foreign-gain-of-function-biolabs Sun, 14 Jun 2026 19:19:44 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506882-Backroom-detente-A-curious-lack-of-Iranian-strikes-on-UAE-while-others-get-hit Amid Iran's counter-attacks on Gulf nations and reportedly on American bases hosted in these Arab Gulf allied states, there's been a curious lack of any new launches against the United Arab Emirates. Kuwait and Bahrain have been hit especially hard in this week's new flare-up in cross-Gulf fighting, but again, the UAE has been spared - after previously coming under significant attacks during the opening month of Operation Epic Fury. Even faraway Jordan has been targeted in the new 'retaliatory' attacks. But Bloomberg on Thursday revealed the reason - Iran and the UAE have apparently reached an 'understanding' after some backroom dealing and diplomacy. https://www.sott.net/article/506882-Backroom-detente-A-curious-lack-of-Iranian-strikes-on-UAE-while-others-get-hit Sun, 14 Jun 2026 19:19:35 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506881-Hunter-Biden-invested-in-a-pandemic-firm-collaborating-with-Daszaks-EcoHealth-and-the-Wuhan-lab Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners - an investment firm led by Hunter Biden - was a lead financial backer of Metabiota, a pandemic tracking and response firm that has partnered with Peter Daszak's EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners (RSTP) was an offshoot of Rosemont Capital, an investment fund founded by Biden and John Kerry's stepson in 2009, that counted Biden as a Managing Director. Among the companies listed on archived versions of the firm's portfolio is Metabiota, a San Francisco-based company that purports to detect, track, and analyze emerging infectious diseases, The National Pulse can reveal. Financial reports reveal that RSTP led the company's first round of funding, which amounted to $30 million. Former Managing Director and co-founder of RSTP Neil Callahan - a name that appears many times on Hunter Biden's hard drive - also sits on Metabiota's Board of Advisors. https://www.sott.net/article/506881-Hunter-Biden-invested-in-a-pandemic-firm-collaborating-with-Daszaks-EcoHealth-and-the-Wuhan-lab Sun, 14 Jun 2026 19:17:36 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506880-Israel-emptying-Al-Aqsa-facilities-to-undermine-Waqf-watchdog-warns Palestinian monitoring group says authorities are targeting four key sites across the mosque complex as part of broader effort to sideline Jordanian-backed Islamic Waqf. Israel has emptied four facilities within the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex that served as offices for the Islamic Waqf, in what a monitoring group has described as an escalating campaign against the Jordanian-backed body. The Al-Quds International Institution, a Palestinian organisation that monitors developments in Jerusalem, said on Tuesday that Israeli authorities have used "manufactured security pretexts" to target the facilities. According to the group, Israeli forces raided the sites in recent months, broke their locks and prevented the installation of replacements. The facilities were then left open, while anyone attempting to enter them was expelled because they had been used for "activities that threaten security". The four sites are the Dome of Imam al-Ghazali, located above the Bab al-Rahma prayer hall along... https://www.sott.net/article/506880-Israel-emptying-Al-Aqsa-facilities-to-undermine-Waqf-watchdog-warns Sun, 14 Jun 2026 19:16:54 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506879-Discs-orbs-heavenly-phenomena-more-revealed-in-3rd-batch-of-declassified-UFO-files Americans living in the northeastern United States witnessed "brilliant and beautiful" glowing red and white orbs in their backyard, which they caught on video, the Pentagon's third release of declassified UFO files on June 12 showed. The new documents contained encounters from around the world, such as reports of a "disc-like" object in Zimbabwe, a "potato shaped" craft in Colorado, and "heavenly" phenomena moving at speeds of 12,000 kilometers per hour in Hungary. The third batch adds to the previous two document dumps of UFO and Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) files released by the Pentagon on May 8 and May 22. Those batches also detailed stunning encounters, including Apollo 11 astronauts seeing a "sizable" object near the moon and a UAP being shot down over the Great Lakes. Here are some key highlights from a partial review of the newly released files: https://www.sott.net/article/506879-Discs-orbs-heavenly-phenomena-more-revealed-in-3rd-batch-of-declassified-UFO-files Sun, 14 Jun 2026 19:15:09 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506878-How-Bad-Is-Foreign-Influence-In-Americas-Nonprofit-Universe In February, the House Ways and Means Committee held a hearing titled "Foreign Influence in American Nonprofits: Unmasking Threats from Beijing and Beyond." While Democrats deflected and tried to make the hearing about MAGA and free speech, the underlying topic remains important. So how bad is foreign influence in America's nonprofit universe? It turns out: very bad. The Muslim Brotherhood Earlier this week, the New York Post published a story reporting that CAIR was under investigation by HHS for alleged fraud. The report referred to CAIR receiving $30 million in taxpayer dollars to resettle Afghan refugees, with little proof of how the money was spent. https://www.sott.net/article/506878-How-Bad-Is-Foreign-Influence-In-Americas-Nonprofit-Universe Sun, 14 Jun 2026 15:24:05 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506763-61-killed-1200-injured-after-7-8-magnitude-earthquake-rocks-southern-Philippines-3-aftershocks-of-mag-6-5-6-0-and-6-0-UPDATE A powerful offshore earthquake struck southern Philippines on Monday, killing at least 32 people and injuring over 200. The magnitude 7.8 earthquake also triggered tsunami waves exceeding a metre that impacted nearby coastlines. The city of General Santos bore the brunt of the event, experiencing building collapses and significant damage to critical infrastructure. The bustling port city is home to some 700,000 people and a hub for the tuna export industry. Tsunami damage was reported in at least one coastal village while smaller waves were observed as far afield as Indonesia, Palau, and southern Japan. "It's a major earthquake and we're expecting damage," Teresito Bacolcol, the director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said. https://www.sott.net/article/506763-61-killed-1200-injured-after-7-8-magnitude-earthquake-rocks-southern-Philippines-3-aftershocks-of-mag-6-5-6-0-and-6-0-UPDATE Sun, 14 Jun 2026 12:20:50 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506877-Severe-hailstorm-strikes-Ankara-Turkiye-leaving-layer-of-ice-5-cms-thick A sudden downpour and hailstorm in Ankara around midday paralyzed life in the city. Many houses were flooded, and vehicles were swept away by the floodwaters, particularly in Yenimahalle and Kahramankazan districts. https://www.sott.net/article/506877-Severe-hailstorm-strikes-Ankara-Turkiye-leaving-layer-of-ice-5-cms-thick Sun, 14 Jun 2026 12:11:45 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/506876-Putin-tells-the-truth-Russia-is-fighting-alone-against-entire-West No one will be able to force a strategic defeat on Moscow in Ukraine, the Russian president has said Russia is practically fighting against the entirety of the collective West in the Ukraine conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a meeting with service members in the Kremlin on Friday. The meeting coincided with Russia Day, which commemorates the country's declaration of sovereignty on June 12, 1990 and the beginning of its post-Soviet statehood. "Russia is standing against the so-called Collective West single-handedly," Putin said, noting that the Ukraine conflict has become "exceedingly high-tech." The NATO nations are all, without exception, ramping up efforts to do all they can to orchestrate actions against Russia, he added. https://www.sott.net/article/506876-Putin-tells-the-truth-Russia-is-fighting-alone-against-entire-West Sat, 13 Jun 2026 21:57:48 +0000