https://www.sott.net/best-of-web 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, 29 Jul 2026 10:31:29 +0000 https://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net https://www.sott.net https://www.sott.net/article/507641-Shallow-6-8-earthquake-kills-at-least-13-as-rescuers-race-to-find-survivors-in-Japan The death toll from a powerful earthquake in south-west Japan has risen to 13, as rescue workers race to find more survivors from underneath the rubble. The magnitude 6.8 quake struck Kumamoto prefecture late on Tuesday, damaging roads and buildings, shutting rail networks, and forcing thousands to evacuate to shelters. Three of the fatalities are from the Aeon Mall in Kashima, where a portion of the second floor collapsed, the fire department said. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi gave her condolences to those who had died and thanked emergency services for their continued efforts. "It's a race against time," Takaichi said in an update on Wednesday morning. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) measured the earthquake magnitude at 7.1 and the US Geological Survey later placed it at 6.8. Quake magnitude figures are often updated as seismologists obtain and analyse new data. https://www.sott.net/article/507641-Shallow-6-8-earthquake-kills-at-least-13-as-rescuers-race-to-find-survivors-in-Japan Wed, 29 Jul 2026 10:23:53 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507635-Fauci-Files-A-megalomaniacal-egomaniac-milking-Covid-for-everything-its-worth Anthony Fauci's personal diary reveals an obsession for soliciting awards, squelching dissent, & and circumventing independent agencies On May 28, 2021, Anthony Fauci learned that the Department of Health and Human Services would refer EcoHealth Alliance — the New York nonprofit that had routed NIAID money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology — to its inspector general. That night he wrote in his diary: "I am certain that there will be some deficiencies that the IG will find as is always the case with IG audits. Certainly, whatever they find it will be misconstrued by those who want to make a case for our involvement in the outbreak. I am starting to feel that it is important for me to write an editorial or an opinion piece giving our side of the story." (p. 753) Our involvement in the outbreak. Followed closely by a plan to get out in front of it. That instinct — get ahead of it, control the story, decide what the public needs to believe and then saturate every channel with it —... https://www.sott.net/article/507635-Fauci-Files-A-megalomaniacal-egomaniac-milking-Covid-for-everything-its-worth Tue, 28 Jul 2026 20:08:29 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507601-The-Authentication-Layer Why digital ID is the hill to die on A friend and I got into it recently. He's smart, freedom-minded, and totally gets the danger of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). Expiring money, programmable control, carbon budgets - he sees most of the expanding tyranny clearly. And yet he dismisses Digital ID as a distraction. When I try to make the case that digital ID is the gateway to the gulag in the metaverse, he demands I name ONE thing Digital ID gives the government that they can't already do. My answer: it enables CBDC. Of course, governments have already encroached on our privacy and freedoms in ways our forefathers couldn't have imagined. But even with the creeping surveillance state, the government can't fully implement programmable currency without authenticated identity on every transaction. They're components of the same beast. Digital ID is the authentication layer while CBDC is the currency that runs on top of it. Stop Digital ID and you prevent CBDC from being built... https://www.sott.net/article/507601-The-Authentication-Layer Sat, 25 Jul 2026 18:16:52 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507599-Why-I-m-writing-this-anonymously-and-what-that-says-about-free-speech-in-Britain-today I have wanted to write for the Daily Sceptic for a long time. It should be a straightforward ambition to fulfil. I have opinions, I support free speech and scepticism, and here is a publication built for exactly that. Instead, my first contribution arrives unsigned. I think the reason why is, in itself, the article. Ann Widdecombe's murder has reopened a question that surfaces from time to time: should politicians with 'unfashionable' views get extra protection? The investigation continues, so I won't comment on that, but the fact that the question is even being asked in response to a 78 year-old woman being killed in her own home tells you something regardless of how the investigation concludes. We have been here before. Jo Cox in 2016. David Amess in 2021. A pattern is forming, whatever the final facts of this particular case turn out to be. The debate this triggers is usually framed narrowly: what security do MPs need? I want to push it wider: what if politicians are not... https://www.sott.net/article/507599-Why-I-m-writing-this-anonymously-and-what-that-says-about-free-speech-in-Britain-today Sat, 25 Jul 2026 16:32:28 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507578-Ukraine-bafflingly-battles-warehouse-chain-as-Russia-pulls-plug-on-Port-Odessa The crisis in Ukraine has come and gone, with Zelensky appointing Mykhailo Drapatyi as new Commander-in-Chief of the AFU after ousting Oleksandr Syrsky. However, the issue over Minister of Defense Fedorov remains unresolved. After being offered several lesser positions by Zelensky, Fedorov himself declared that he will not accept anything lower than Defense Minister owing to his belief that no other role provides the ability of shaping the future of the armed forces. "Today there are only three positions in the country that, alongside the troops on the battlefield, actually shape the course of the war: the President of Ukraine, the Minister of Defense, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Fedorov said. "That is why I will not accept any position other than Minister of Defense. No other role carries the actual authority to combat procurement corruption, complete the army's transformation, plan and execute asymmetric operations against the enemy, root out a... https://www.sott.net/article/507578-Ukraine-bafflingly-battles-warehouse-chain-as-Russia-pulls-plug-on-Port-Odessa Fri, 24 Jul 2026 16:15:23 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507533-Debasification-Iranian-Air-War-Strategy Over the past few days, the US/Israeli/GCC ("US Axis" from here on) war against Iran has reached a pace not seen since the opening hours of the conflict. Waves of Iranian missiles and drones have been striking targets across the region, with an apparent shift in target selection concentrating unprecedented amounts of Iranian firepower against Kuwait and Jordan. The war between the US Axis and Iran can be arbitrarily divided into several theaters. There's the war for control over the Strait of Hormuz, countervalue strikes against infrastructure, Iran's campaign against Kurdish proxies staging for ground operations on its western flank, and so on. Today we'll be focusing on a narrow slice of the conflict: the air war, with IRGC missile and drone forces (IRGCASF) on one side and the USAF, IAF, and GCC air forces on the other. As we'll see, this theater of the war has profound implications that cut across all other areas of the conflict. https://www.sott.net/article/507533-Debasification-Iranian-Air-War-Strategy Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:40:53 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507516-The-Great-Woke-College-Experiment-Is-Collapsing-Under-the-Weight-of-Reality Today is dot-connecting day again! Something profound is happening in American higher education, and you'd never know how profound. Over a two-month period, a series of seemingly disconnected events — the return of standardized testing, the sudden panic over grade inflation, plunging business trust, and a relentless crackdown by the Trump administration — are, in fact, tightly connected. They represent the Great Unwinding of a core ideological project that systematically dismantled academic standards to achieve woke demographic outcomes. Three days ago, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported, "Janet Napolitano Helped Kill the SAT. She's Reconsidering." If her name sounds familiar, it's probably because Janet Napolitano was Obama's DHS Secretary from 2009 to 2013, during which tenure she implemented DACA and the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA). After leaving DHS, she immediately became president of one of the nation's largest progressive public university systems —... https://www.sott.net/article/507516-The-Great-Woke-College-Experiment-Is-Collapsing-Under-the-Weight-of-Reality Mon, 20 Jul 2026 17:11:26 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507499-The-Great-Normalization Nobody declared martial law — yet America began looking like it anyway Editor's Note: There are stories that announce themselves with explosions, riots, or breaking-news headlines, and then there are stories so subtle that they quietly rewrite an entire society before anyone realizes what has happened. This is one of those stories. During the preparation of this investigation, several retired police officers, private security professionals, emergency responders, and ordinary citizens described nearly identical experiences despite living hundreds or even thousands of miles apart. None believed they were witnessing anything extraordinary at first. It was only when they looked backward — sometimes over a decade — that a disturbing pattern became impossible to ignore. Streets had not become military checkpoints overnight. Neighborhoods had not suddenly filled with surveillance towers. Instead, the changes arrived one camera, one drone, one security contract, and one "temporary"... https://www.sott.net/article/507499-The-Great-Normalization Sun, 19 Jul 2026 19:46:58 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507391-How-Israel-planned-the-Gaza-genocide-decades-ago In October 2023, Israel found an excuse to breathe new life into an old story of slaughter and expulsion. The chief differences this time have been of scale and duration The truth slowly comes to light: Israel's genocide in Gaza was planned decades ago. Listen to the testimonies of four Israeli soldiers who served in Gaza. Soldier 1: "Human lives didn't matter. You could kill, there was no law. No one would say a word to you. But it's not a good feeling. It mainly kills your humanity." Soldier 2: "At first I wasn't willing to execute Arabs who weren't resisting [that is, civilians]. Then we came to the conclusion that we had to kill. We went through the process of ceasing to see them as human beings." Soldier 3: "We caught guys, lined them up and eliminated them. In retrospect, it looks like murder." Soldier 4: "We would roam through refugee camps in Gaza and carry out purges... Every soldier who was there created a 'concentration camp', and they didn't hesitate to kill people who... https://www.sott.net/article/507391-How-Israel-planned-the-Gaza-genocide-decades-ago Mon, 13 Jul 2026 02:14:59 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507381-Severe-flash-flooding-in-Sichuan-China-Cars-and-animals-swept-away-record-breaking-rain-of-8-8-inches-in-just-6-HOURS Severe flash floods have inundated the streets of Sichuan, China. Torrential rainfall has transformed urban roadways into rushing rivers, carrying enough force to sweep away multiple vehicles and threaten local infrastructure. https://www.sott.net/article/507381-Severe-flash-flooding-in-Sichuan-China-Cars-and-animals-swept-away-record-breaking-rain-of-8-8-inches-in-just-6-HOURS Sun, 12 Jul 2026 13:01:00 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507376-The-Men-Who-Own-the-War-Now-Run-It There was a time when the arms dealer waited in the corridor. He financed the campaign, endowed the think tank, took the general to dinner, and hoped the man inside the office would remember him when the contract came up. The wall between the money and the decision was thin, often corrupt, but it was there. Someone held the public trust, and someone else tried to buy it, and you could at least tell the two apart. That wall is gone. The financier no longer waits in the corridor. He holds the office. He signs the checks. He is the buyer and the seller, the regulator and the regulated, the public interest and the private portfolio, fused into a single man in a single suit, and the arrangement is entirely legal, which is the whole problem. One of these men may already be familiar from a previous article. His name is Friedrich Merz. https://www.sott.net/article/507376-The-Men-Who-Own-the-War-Now-Run-It Sat, 11 Jul 2026 21:39:44 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507310-Torrential-rains-wreak-havoc-across-Gujarat-India-as-Surat-floods-leave-26-dead-record-19-inches-of-rainfall-in-24-hours-heaviest-in-85-years-UPDATE At least nine people have died in Surat over the past two days in monsoon-related incidents as intense rain triggered widespread flooding across the city. Five weather systems active simultaneously over Gujarat have intensified the monsoon, pushing South Gujarat and parts of Saurashtra into a severe flood situation. Heavy rainfall has been forecast at isolated places in Surat, Tapi, Narmada, Chhota Udepur, Dahod, Amreli and Bhavnagar. The impact of the active weather systems was visible across the state on Wednesday morning. Between 6 am and 10 am on July 8, rainfall was recorded in 59 talukas, with Kaprada in Valsad district receiving the highest 1.26 inches, followed by Nanapondha with 1.14 inches. Even as rainfall eased in some areas, the threat shifted from the skies to overflowing rivers and reservoirs. Continuous heavy rain in Valsad district triggered a sharp rise in inflows into the Madhuban Dam. Authorities have appealed to people living downstream to remain alert. The... https://www.sott.net/article/507310-Torrential-rains-wreak-havoc-across-Gujarat-India-as-Surat-floods-leave-26-dead-record-19-inches-of-rainfall-in-24-hours-heaviest-in-85-years-UPDATE Fri, 10 Jul 2026 11:36:41 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507278-Chinas-Nanning-on-top-alert-as-Typhoon-Maysak-triggers-catastrophic-flooding-over-2-FEET-of-rain-in-24-hours-39-killed-in-the-region-UPDATE Nanning, the capital of China's south-western Guangxi region, raised its flood-control response to the highest level as rivers and reservoirs swelled with the passage of Typhoon Maysak, Chinese state media said on July 6. Now a slower-moving tropical storm, Maysak no longer has winds of more than 80.5kmh that lashed Vietnam and China's southern island province of Hainan over the weekend. But as the storm heads inland and weakens, it will dump the water it sucked up on its way across the South China Sea, triggering catastrophic flooding, Chinese meteorologists say. The authorities in Nanning, a city of nearly nine million people, raised the flood-control emergency response level to I from III due to "extremely heavy rain", China Central Television reported. https://www.sott.net/article/507278-Chinas-Nanning-on-top-alert-as-Typhoon-Maysak-triggers-catastrophic-flooding-over-2-FEET-of-rain-in-24-hours-39-killed-in-the-region-UPDATE Thu, 09 Jul 2026 12:54:28 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507268-The-UKs-latest-debanking-scandal-should-give-everyone-pause First they came for Muslim activists. Then they came for Nigel Farage. Now, they're coming for independent media outlets. UK-based readers may recall the moment almost exactly three years ago when the word "debanking" entered the mainstream British English lexicon. The prestigious London-based private bank Coutts had just decided to close Nigel Farage's bank account due to his unsavoury political views and alleged Russian connections. That decision turned out to be very costly. Almost immediately, Farage did what Farage does best: he whipped up a massive media frenzy. In next to no time two senior banking scalps had been claimed: those of Dame Alison Rose, the CEO of Coutts' parent bank and "Big Four" lender, Natwest (formerly known as the Royal Bank of Scotland) and Coutts' chief executive Peter Flavel. https://www.sott.net/article/507268-The-UKs-latest-debanking-scandal-should-give-everyone-pause Sun, 05 Jul 2026 21:54:01 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507240-Canada-was-a-liberal-paradise-until-the-Liberals-took-over There was a version of this country that worked. This was a country that used to punch above its weight across all key metrics and in a large part, did so espousing classical liberal values. Multiculturalism here was both uncontroversial and functional. People came from everywhere, integrated, and got on with building lives, businesses and contributing to that overall ethos Canadian culture. Minority rights and gender equality stopped being fights and became defaults. Ontario, the most populous province, ran one of the cleanest grids on the continent for half a century on the back of CANDU, a reactor we designed ourselves. Peaceful, homegrown, zero-carbon, clean energy, and nobody lost any sleep over it. In fact, most people probably weren't even aware of that. By every classical liberal measure that actually mattered, Canada was a success story that inspired the rest of the world. https://www.sott.net/article/507240-Canada-was-a-liberal-paradise-until-the-Liberals-took-over Fri, 03 Jul 2026 21:08:28 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507209-The-Socialists-winning-in-the-Dem-primaries-are-too-young-to-remember-why-socialism-fails Robert Owen bought a town to prove socialism works. The DSA should study what happened. Something is happening inside the Democratic Party, and it is no longer subtle. In Denver this spring, Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old, foreign-born, self-described democratic socialist endorsed by both Denver DSA and the national Democratic Socialists of America, defeated longtime Rep. Diana DeGette in the Democratic primary for CO-1, running on Medicare for All, abolishing ICE, and a slate of ambitious economic planks. In upper Manhattan, 32-year-old Darializa Avila Chevalier, NYC-DSA's candidate for NY-13, toppled Rep. Adriano Espaillat. In Brooklyn's NY-7, Claire Valdez, a 36-year-old UAW organizer and former NYC-DSA membership chair who calls herself a proud democratic socialist, captured the Democratic nomination. In Philadelphia, Chris Rabb, a DSA member endorsed by the national organization, won the primary in a seat so blue that DSA's own publication is already calling him the next... https://www.sott.net/article/507209-The-Socialists-winning-in-the-Dem-primaries-are-too-young-to-remember-why-socialism-fails Thu, 02 Jul 2026 19:06:28 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507069-Venezuela-rocked-by-shallow-7-5-7-2-magnitude-earthquakes-2-295-killed-over-50000-missing-UPDATED Venezuela has declared a state of emergency after two back-to-back earthquakes of magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 struck, killing at least 32 people. A major search and rescue operation is under way after Wednesday's quakes caused widespread damage, especially in the capital, Caracas. Emergency crews are searching through the rubble of collapsed buildings while authorities closed the country's main airport in Caracas, suspended classes and mobilised health workers to respond to the disaster. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) warned that "high casualties and extensive damage are probable", and US President Donald Trump said the quakes - some of the strongest in more than a century - caused "a devastating number of deaths". https://www.sott.net/article/507069-Venezuela-rocked-by-shallow-7-5-7-2-magnitude-earthquakes-2-295-killed-over-50000-missing-UPDATED Thu, 02 Jul 2026 11:27:02 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507166-Chinas-largest-desert-floods-after-record-rainfall-2-5-inches-in-24-hours-on-June-19-also-surpassed-average-yearly-precipitation-in-just-3-hours From the night of 19 June, Hotan in Xinjiang experienced its heaviest 24-hour downpour in recorded history. The resulting flooding in the city, which borders the Taklamakan desert, caused the temporary closure of the expressway, China Weather Network reports. In three lunchtime hours on 20 June, the area had surpassed its average yearly precipitation, according to Xinjiang Meteorological Service. The extreme rainstorm was caused by two banks of moist air converging over southern Xinjiang, explained China Weather Network analyst Xin Xin. The rainfall accumulated in the mountainous areas and, together with snowmelt runoff, caused flash floods, he added. Though Xin Xin did not mention climate change as an exacerbating factor, other commentators have. There has been snowmelt-induced flooding in the same Tarim basin area before, for instance in 2021 and the summer of 2022. But the rainfall was much more intense this time than in 2021, Tang Peng, director of the Hotan Meteorological... https://www.sott.net/article/507166-Chinas-largest-desert-floods-after-record-rainfall-2-5-inches-in-24-hours-on-June-19-also-surpassed-average-yearly-precipitation-in-just-3-hours Tue, 30 Jun 2026 14:53:26 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507110-American-Empire-crumbles-New-report-reveals-true-extent-of-devastation-of-US-Fifth-Fleet-HQ-in-Bahrain Another 'bombshell' has been released by WSJ regarding the extent of the damage dished out by Iran onto US regional bases, corroborated by detailed new satellite photos: The most shocking revelation from the report surrounded findings about the US's NSA (Naval Support Activity) Bahrain base, where the Fifth Fleet Headquarters are housed. Less than 150 miles from Iran's southern coast, NSA Bahrain has been the anchor of American naval power in the Middle East for more than three decades. The base can host every type of ship in the U.S. fleet, and has played a critical role in countering Iranian weapon smuggling, minelaying and tanker attacks. https://www.sott.net/article/507110-American-Empire-crumbles-New-report-reveals-true-extent-of-devastation-of-US-Fifth-Fleet-HQ-in-Bahrain Sat, 27 Jun 2026 15:39:17 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507048-Even-if-the-Strait-of-Hormuz-is-open-it-aint-open It is open. Nope, it is closed. Wait... It is open. What? Closed again? If you are following the media reports on the Strait of Hormuz you are probably dizzy from hearing about the changing status of the Strait of Hormuz. If you think that getting a firm agreement between Iran and the US to open the Strait of Hormuz will result in an instant solution to restoring global oil reserves, think again. Even if Iran agrees to a 60-day moratorium on charging ships entering and leaving the Persian Gulf a "usage fee" (Trump calls it a "toll"), and the moratorium starts this week, the world still faces some serious economic shocks from the disruption of Crude Oil and LNG. Crude Oil and LNG production will take time to ramp back up to the pre-Ramadan War levels. We still do not have a full assessment of the damage to the Oil and LNG infrastructure in the Gulf nations. Even if all those systems are intact and functioning — they are not — there is still the problem of having the tankers that... https://www.sott.net/article/507048-Even-if-the-Strait-of-Hormuz-is-open-it-aint-open Tue, 23 Jun 2026 20:30:20 +0000