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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: The EU's digital gulag is (apparently) ready to roll

Nick Corbishley
Naked Capitalism
Fri, 17 Apr 2026 19:15 UTC
digital prison gulag identification wallet
"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.

What gets rarely mentioned in the public debate, including in Von der Leyen's 11-minute speech below, is the fact that online age verification inevitably traps everyone, not just minors, in its web. "Protecting the children", however, is always a seductive pretext for launching otherwise socially unpalatable policies. And there are few more socially unpalatable policies than the controlled death of online privacy and anonymity.
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Snowflake

Best of the Web: Palisades Tahoe, California snow report: 22 inches in 24 hours and 43-inch 3 day storm total


SnowBrains
Mon, 13 Apr 2026 20:33 UTC
Palisades Tahoe snow report: 22″ in 24 hours.
Palisades Tahoe snow report: 22″ in 24 hours.
The latest Palisades Tahoe, California, snow report tells a story of remarkable late-season resurgence. A sustained storm cycle has transformed conditions on the upper mountain, logging a foot of new snow overnight and driving the three-day storm total to 43 inches. The resort is now among the last Tahoe areas still operating.

Most ski areas across the western U.S. have endured one of their worst seasons in recent memory, with dry and mild conditions since November, leaving many resorts struggling to open meaningful terrain. Palisades has been an exception to that late-season trend this week.

Sunny breaks are emerging across the mountain on Monday, though forecasters have not ruled out additional snow showers that could add another inch to the upper elevations before conditions settle. Long-range models continue to show troughing over the region through the third week of April, with additional storm systems possible and a cooler-than-normal pattern expected to persist.

The weekend storm delivered heavy snow Saturday night, with snow levels crashing down to around 4,000 feet, well below the base, bringing fluffier, high-ratio snow to the upper mountain.

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Attention

Best of the Web: Army survivors of deadly attack in Kuwait dispute Pentagon's account, say unit "was unprepared" to defend itself

Jonah Kaplan, Michael Kaplan
CBS News
Thu, 09 Apr 2026 16:22 UTC
damage from the Iranian drone attack that killed six U.S. service members in Kuwait
Photo obtained by CBS News shows damage from the Iranian drone attack that killed six U.S. service members in Kuwait on March 1, 2026.
Survivors of the deadliest Iranian attack on U.S. forces since the war began have disputed the Pentagon's description of events and said their unit in Kuwait was left dangerously exposed when six service members were killed and more than 20 wounded.

Speaking publicly for the first time, members of the targeted unit offered CBS News a detailed account of the attack and its harrowing aftermath from the perspective of those on the ground.

The members CBS News spoke to disputed the description of events from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who described the drone as a "squirter" — in that it squirted through the defenses of a fortified unit inside Kuwait.

"Painting a picture that 'one squeaked through' is a falsehood," one of the injured soldiers told CBS News. "I want people to know the unit ... was unprepared to provide any defense for itself. It was not a fortified position."
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Cult

Best of the Web: Who's behind the mysterious 'Iran-backed terror cell' haunting Europe?

Wyatt Reed
The Gray zone
Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00 UTC
Israel terror cell
Claims that an Iran-backed group is carrying out attacks in European cities raise questions about why they're not targeting countries directly involved in the US-Israeli war, and why they appear to communicate like Israelis. Strangely, suspects arrested in the attacks have been released on bail.

A specter is haunting Europe - the specter of Ashab al-Yamin. Officially known as "Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI)," or the "Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right," the group mysteriously appeared in early March, and, according to mainstream media, it's taking the continent by storm.

But a closer look at the supposedly Iran-backed terror organization suggests that it does not exist in any concrete form, and may be a confection of Israeli intelligence.

Though the nebulous HAYI claimed credit for torching ambulances belonging to a Jewish community organization in London on March 23, two suspects in the attack have been released on bail, and are not charged with any terror-related crimes. What's more, London Metropolitan Police have so far refused to release the men's names, raising questions about their identities. Were they even Muslim?

Comment: In other words, we can probably expect to see more terror attacks in the West that are attributed to Iran - but that are, in all likelihood, the work of Mossad - in order to scare governments and populations into supporting the criminal war now being waged against the Persian nation. AND more censorship of the objective criticism being levied against the Zionist cabal.

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Moon

Best of the Web: Right as Artemis II astronauts passed behind Moon, multiple meteoroids hit it!


Space Weather
Tue, 07 Apr 2026 07:29 UTC
screen capture
© NASAScreen capture from NASA's Artemis II Live Views
Artemis II were giddy (their words!) on the evening of April 6th when they witnessed explosions on the lunar surface. Meteoroids were hitting the Moon. "We saw at least five," reported mission commander Reid Wiseman.

The meteors appeared in middle of a solar eclipse. About an hour after the crew made their closest approach to the farside of the Moon, the sun disappeared behind the lunar disk, giving the astronauts a chance to view the first solar eclipse ever seen by humans from behind the Moon.

Comment: In line with the increasing trend of meteors, fireballs and impact craters, not to mention the 11,000-plus new asteroids in our solar system, which is only the tip of the iceberg. For crucial information, see:

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Vader

Best of the Web: Why Iran is becoming Trump's 'forever war'

Murad Sadygzade
RT
Mon, 06 Apr 2026 19:07 UTC
us iran flags conflict quagmire war
© Shutterstock
As long as attacks and demands continue unabated, reasonable voices for peace will never be heard

More than a month into the war with Iran, Washington is confronting the strategic nightmare it tried to avoid. What began as a campaign that many in the US and Israel appear to have imagined as short, punishing, and politically manageable has instead become prolonged, expensive, globally destabilizing, and increasingly difficult to define as success.

The battlefield logic is now inseparable from the political logic, and on both fronts the pressure is mounting on Donald Trump's administration. Reuters reports that the conflict, launched on February 28, has disrupted global energy flows, driven oil sharply higher, pushed US gasoline prices above four dollars a gallon, and dragged US President Donald Trump's approval rating down to 36%, the lowest level since his return to office.

How to sell a war

A domestic audience can be persuaded to see a short war as an act of decisive leadership, but a long war becomes a test of competence, a source of inflation, a burden on allied relations, and eventually a question about whether the White House ever had a serious political endgame. Trump, who built much of his political appeal on the promise that he would be stronger than his predecessors and yet less trapped by endless wars, now faces the opposite image. The longer this campaign drags on, the more it looks like a war of choice with no clean exit, one that hurts households at the gas pump, deepens strategic uncertainty, and gives Tehran new ways to impose costs without needing conventional military parity.
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Comet

Best of the Web: Early data from Vera C. Rubin Observatory reveals over 11,000 new asteroids

Stephanie Baum, reviewed by Robert Egan
NSF NOIRLab
Thu, 02 Apr 2026 19:07 UTC
Vera Rubin asteroids
© NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory / NOIRLab / SLAC / AURA/ R. Proctor. Acknowledgements: Star map: NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. Gaia DR2: ESA/Gaia/DPAC. Image Processing: M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLabA model of the inner solar system showing the asteroids discovered by Rubin in light teal. Known asteroids are dark blue.
Using preliminary data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, scientists have discovered over 11,000 new asteroids. The data were confirmed by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center (MPC), making this the largest single batch of asteroid discoveries submitted in the past year. The discoveries were made using data from Rubin's early optimization surveys and offer a powerful preview of the observatory's transformative impact on solar system science.

The submission to MPC comprises approximately one million observations, taken over the span of a month and a half, of over 11,000 new asteroids and more than 80,000 already-known asteroids, including some that had previously been observed but were later "lost" because their orbits were too uncertain to predict their future locations. You can interact with all of Rubin's asteroid discoveries in the Rubin Orbitviewer, which uses real data to provide an intuitive way to explore the structure of our cosmic backyard in three dimensions and in real time.

Comment: Famous last words. You ain't seen nothing yet! See also:
At the time of his death, he was focused on studying comets and asteroids that could pose a hazard to Earth.
And last, but not least: Volcanoes, Earthquakes And The 3,600 Year Comet Cycle
To summarize, the evidence suggests that a comet (or cometary swarm) interacted with Earth ca. 14,400 BP, 10,800 BP, 7,200 BP and 3,600 BP. That is to say, on a 3,600-year cycle, meaning that we are due a repeat performance around now.


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Brick Wall

Best of the Web: "Casualty Cover-Up": The Pentagon Is Hiding U.S. Losses Under Trump in the Middle East

Nick Turse
The Intercept
Wed, 01 Apr 2026 19:13 UTC
hegseth trump
© Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Almost 750 U.S. troops have been wounded or killed in the Middle East since October 2023, an analysis by The Intercept has found. But the Pentagon won't acknowledge it.

U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, appears to be engaged in what a defense official called a "casualty cover-up," offering The Intercept low-ball and outdated figures and failing to provide clarifications on military deaths and injuries.

At least 15 U.S. troops were wounded Friday in an Iranian attack on a Saudi air base that hosts American troops, according to two government officials who spoke with The Intercept. Hundreds of U.S. personnel have been killed or injured in the region since the U.S. launched a war on Iran just over a month ago.

President Donald Trump — who wore a blue suit, red tie, and a ball cap to the dignified transfer of the first Americans killed in the war — said casualties were inevitable. "When you have conflicts like this, you always have death," he said afterward. "I met the parents and they were unbelievable people. They were unbelievable people, but they all had one thing in common. They said to me, one thing, every single one: Finish the job, sir. Please finish the job."
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Top Secret

Best of the Web: GOP Rep Says America Would Become 'Unglued' If Alien Files Get Released

Jazmin Tolliver
Yahoo
Thu, 02 Apr 2026 15:28 UTC
Rep. Tim Burchett and Donald Trump
© Getty Images/YouTubeRep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) discussed alien briefings just months after President Donald Trump said the Pentagon would release files related to “alien and extraterrestrial life.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) alleged that America would become "unglued" if the government released details about the alien briefings he's been involved in.

Speaking with Newsmax's Rob Finnerty on Wednesday, the GOP lawmaker said that the public would be "up at night worrying" if they knew what he knows about extraterrestrials.

"I've been briefed by just about every alphabet agency there is, and I'll just tell you this, if they would release the things that I've seen, you would stay up at — you'd be up at night worrying about or — thinking about this stuff," Burchett said.

The topic came up after Finnerty mentioned that former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz claimed late last month that he was briefed about a secret breeding program between aliens and humans.
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Chess

Best of the Web: The Larak Corridor: Iran's Rial Gate with no US, no Israel, and no way around

Freddie Ponton
21st Century Wire
Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:31 UTC
larak corridor hormuz iran control graphic
© 21st Century Wire
While MOW Secretary Pete Hegseth was telling other nations to "step up" in the Strait of Hormuz, Donald Trump was already backing away, insisting its security was "not for us." In between those contradictions, Washington dumped a fog of conflicting slogans on the public — slogans that never looked like strategy so much as panicked improvisation. That confusion is not a sideshow to the war, but the political static masking a brutal reality. While the White House and its zionist neocon war camp lurch between bluff and retreat, Iran has been moving with cold discipline, quietly building what Iranian reporting calls the Larak Corridor and what maritime trackers have identified as a tightly managed lane through the Qeshm-Larak gap inside Iranian waters.

Around Larak, Tehran is no longer just reacting to an illegal war launched against it. It is turning battlefield pressure into procedure, selective access, and proposed law, using a controlled corridor and a wider Hormuz management plan to show that the old fantasy of automatic Western command over this chokepoint is breaking down in real time. The truth of the war is not found in the bombast coming out of Washington; instead you will find it in the places where power is actually shifting, and right now, one of those places is a narrow strip of water off Larak, where Iran looks calmer, more deliberate, and more in command of events than the people who thought they could bomb it into submission.
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