[FoxWeather] Major hubs like New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia have shut down as up to two feet of snow buries the I-95 corridor in Blizzard '26. Stay tuned for updates on power outages, mandatory travel bans, flight cancellations, and emergency declarations.
BLIZZARD '26: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW RIGHT NOW (12:30 p.m. ET)
Fatalities in Maryland: Officials confirm that two people were killed in Calvert County on Sunday afternoon when a large tree fell and crushed a pickup truck on Route 2 in Sunderland. A third occupant was extricated by emergency crews.
Historic accumulations: Snow totals have officially crossed the 2-foot mark in multiple locations, including Islip (28.0"), Central Islip (27.0"), and Quogue (26.0").
Official blizzard status: The NWS has confirmed blizzard conditions at 19 reporting sites from New York to Massachusetts, including Central Park and Boston Logan.
Travel and transit halt: Flight cancellations have surpassed 10,800 nationwide, with over 1,600 already axed for Tuesday as airlines struggle to reposition crews and aircraft.
Infrastructure damage: Nearly 675,000 customers are without power across the Northeast. In Delaware, a State of Emergency remains in effect with over 100 roads blocked by debris.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] For the first time since December 2021, all sunspots have disappeared from the Sun. This was reported on February 22 by the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The organization noted that this phenomenon occurs during periods of extremely low activity, usually during years of solar minimum.
"Not a single spot—even the smallest—is currently observed on the Earth-facing side of the Sun. The star is a perfect disk without any peculiarities," the laboratory reported on its Telegram channel.
Earlier, on February 16, scientists detected a powerful plasma outburst on the left edge of the Sun. This area of activity had previously been asymptomatic. Experts have suggested that this may be a sign of the formation of a new sunspot group. Their type has not yet been determined. The source of the explosion is located on the far side of the star.
Scientists observed the greatest solar activity of the 21st century in May 2024. This resulted in a plasma cloud covering the Earth, which, in turn, triggered the first major magnetic storm in 20 years.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] A magnitude 7.1 earthquake at a depth of 620 km was recorded off the coast of Malaysia, in the Borneo region. The press service of the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centrereported this on Sunday, February 22.
The epicenter of the tremors was located approximately 97 km north of the city of Kota Kinabalu, which is located in the northeastern part of the island of Kalimantan.
There were no reports of casualties or damage. No tsunami warning was issued.
[IsraelTimes] Khadar Hussein Abdi suggests granting ‘exclusive’ mineral rights to Washington, is ‘open to offer’ military sites; won’t rule out possibility of Israeli military presence
Somaliland ...Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as a de jure part of Somalia. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Under the Siad Barre regime, Somaliadestroyed ninety percent of Hargeisa Per international law, once you're in, you gotta stay in, no matter how bad it smells.... is willing to give the United States access to its minerals and military bases, a minister told AFP in an interview Saturday, as the breakaway region of Somalia seeks international recognition.
Israel became the only country in the world to recognize Somaliland’s independence in December — something the territory has been seeking since declaring its autonomy from Somalia in 1991.
The government in Mogadishu still considers Somaliland an integral part of Somalia even though the territory has run its own affairs since 1991, with its own passport, currency, army and police forces.
"We are willing to give exclusive [access to our minerals] to the United States," Khadar Hussein Abdi, minister of the presidency, told AFP in an interview on Saturday.
"Also, we are open to offer military bases to the United States," he said.
"We believe that we will agree on something with the United States," the minister added. He also would not rule out the possibility of also allowing Israel to set up a military presence.
Earlier this month, Somaliland president Abdirahman Mohammed Abdullahi said that the country expects to reach a trade agreement soon with Jerusalem, and is willing to offer rights to valuable mineral deposits as part of a deal.
Somaliland officials have said natural resources include lithium, coltan and other sought-after materials critical for batteries and electric vehicles, though independent studies are lacking.
Abdullahi said that while no bilateral economic deal with Israel had yet been reached, the two governments were likely to sign "a partnership agreement."
"Somaliland is a very rich country in resources — minerals, oil, gas, marine, in agriculture, energy and other sectors... We have meat, we have fish, we have minerals and they [Israel] need them. So trade can start from these main sectors," he said. "The sky is the limit."
He said in return Somaliland would seek access to Israeli technology.
Abdullahi also said he has a good working relationship with Washington and believes US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... will "someday" recognize Somaliland.
#3
Certain governments want to discourage the breakup national units, even when they aren’t working, because it would encourage their local ethnic separatists, like Catalonia in Spain or the Kurds in Syria and Iraq, but absolutely not the Germans in Belgium who want nothing more than to not be forced to rejoin their German cousins in Germany.
[IsraelTimes] North Korea ...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche... ’s ruling Workers’ Party has re-elected Kim Pudge Jong-un ...the overweight, pouty-looking hereditary potentate of North Korea. Pudge appears to believe in his own divinity, but has yet to produce any loaves and fishes, so his subjects remain malnourished... as general secretary at a party congress meeting, state media says, a move seen as underlining his absolute grip on power and greater confidence over domestic stability.
In a report published on Monday, KCNA state news agency credits Kim with raising the prestige of the country, placing it globally on a solid footing to pursue its revolutionary crusade and hardening the military "into an elite and powerful army."
Under his leadership, "the war deterrence of the country with the nuclear forces as its pivot has been radically improved," KCNA says in the laudatory report of the fourth day of the congress’ proceedings.
The delegates also elected members of the party Central Committee and adopted revisions to the party rules, KCNA says. It does not provide details of the changes to the party charter, but some bigwigs appear to have been dropped from the committee.
Former Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong, Supreme People’s Assembly Standing Committee Chairman Choe Ryong Hae, and a top party military official, Ri Pyong Chol, were among those who were sidelined in a likely change of the old guard, analysts say.
There has been no sign of Kim’s teenage daughter, known as Ju Ae, attending the conference so far, amid speculation she is being groomed to succeed her father as leader. The ninth iteration of the party congress, normally held every five years for several days, opened on Thursday with 5,000 delegates and is being watched by South Korea for any revelation of new domestic and external policy directions.
There have been no signs of significant policy initiatives so far, the sessions focusing on having overcome an economic crisis and progress made under the Party’s leadership.
[GameSpot] New Game About Monster Politicians Somehow Less Evil Than The Real Thing. Prime Monster's new demo lets you seize political power and unleash promises that were made to be broken.
The Fractured Kingdom is holding an election in Cavalier Game Studios' new card-based roguelike Prime Monster. This nation has a three-party system that lets players choose between Viscount Sucksworth of the Vampiric Victory party, Orcs-4-U representative Chopper Badstone, and The Zombified People's Movement's prime shuffler, Rotilda De Cay. They're all monsters here, and there's no promise too outrageous for them to make in order to gain political power.
The demo for Prime Monster is out now on Steam, and the cards let players unleash every dirty trick in the book. Murder isn't out of the question, but why kill your political opponent when you can smear their good name and ruin their reputation? Some fates are worse than death for these mostly dead creatures.
Cavalier Game Studios is going for political satire with some of the available initiatives, including calls for same-hex marriage and demands to release the nosferatu files. And rather than discouraging players from making false promises to the electorate, Prime Monster rewards them for lying. The more outlandish the promise, the more likely it is to keep you in power. These voters are pretty gullible, and they don't seem to mind voting for the greater evil.
However, even these voters can turn against their prime minister. Players have the option of doubling down on their lies or even resigning in disgrace. Somehow, we suspect the first option will be more frequently used. Everything depends on the cards that you're dealt. But sometimes a bad hand can bring down your budding political legacy.
According to Cavalier Game Studios, Prime Monster will be officially released in the second quarter of this year.
#1
Video games were just Space Invaders long ago but they are now a vehicle for biting social satire. This game looks like it lets you fill the shoes of our ruling class and see how they make decisions, and why.
An entire generation is being radicalized and it's just a matter of time before we get another Bondi Beach. Forget the FBI, they haven't arrested anyone in the Epstein Files.
What would really help is some sane people to join the scene and start speaking straight truth about the compromises necessary in politics. But they're too busy enjoying the granite countertops they had installed by Carlos and his cousins for cash, no W-2s.
#2
The sane among your generation are going to have to be the ones to make the tools that give the information the rest need in a format that is most convincing to them, Jairong. Don’t bother trying to convince the older generations to create it for you — they aren’t going to get it right. Look to the example of Charlie Kirk and talk directly to one another. The things you are talking about are exactly the kind of passion projects that should be done by a couple of people with skills working together after work/school and on the weekends, to be only presented to venture capitalists after it has some measure of success, or maybe not even then.
Just like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, the PayPal guy and the original Wikipedia team. Figure out what your world doesn’t know it needs, and figure out how to create it. On a very small scale for what I mean: back when trailing daughter #2 was in college, her delightfully nerdy friends wanted to have multiplayer game nights, so she went to a nearby computer supply shop and traded free use of their back room and cables and such (honestly, I have no idea exactly what was involved in such a thing) for the potential to sell all the players new computers, peripherals, and snacks. Possibly the shop owner agreed because she was a reasonably pretty, responsible upper middle class girl instead of an irresponsible-looking nerdy boy, but participation spread well beyond the original friend group, so presumably the shop was pleased with the impact on their bottom line.
[Breitbart] Freedom For All: Trump to Give Britons and Europeans Tools to Bypass Online Censorship
The redcoats of internet censorship are coming but an American midnight rider is coming to save Europeans from their own governments, the Trump White House teases, stating: “Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.”
A growing number of websites have chosen to simply block users rather than comply with arduous censorship demands in response to Europe’s Digital Services Act and the UK’s Online Safety Act, with many more hidden behind government-mandated age-verification making linking a real-life identity to internet use a prerequisite for access.
The U.S. government is launching a ‘Freedom.Gov’ website that will give British and European visitors the tools to access censorship-free parts of the internet they have been geofenced out of because of their own governments in the name of public safety.
Wires service Reuters states the new initiative is the work of the U.S. State Department and led by Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, who has been a key figure in bringing President Trump’s message of freedom to Europeans in recent months. The report cites unnamed government insiders who say the Freedom.Gov portal may feature a Virtual Private Network (VPN) tool to allow European users to bypass domestic controls and, remarkably, claims its use won’t be tracked.
A State Department spokesman is quoted as saying: “Digital freedom is a priority for the State Department, however, and that includes the proliferation of privacy and censorship-circumvention technologies like VPNs.”
A placeholder website for the planned anti-censorship service is already active. Reuters state the Freedom.Gov site first became active in January and was blank apart from the text “fly, eagle, fly”. Today, an updated landing page proclaims “Freedom is coming. Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression. Get ready.”
In a crystal-clear message to the censorious British authorities cracking down on internet freedoms, the page also features an animated logo of Paul Revere on his famous 1775 midnight ride, warning the Minutemen of the approaching British troops.
The decision to launch the service will inevitably bring the U.S. into some sort of conflict with European capitals, given the pro-freedom move would force those governments to either defacto accept that their censorship laws will either be openly bypassed by their own citizens with the assistance of Washington, or to block Freedom.Gov, and prove to all their opposition to the dissemination of information.
Reuters in their report notes this, stating “put Washington in the unfamiliar position of appearing to encourage citizens to flout local laws”, without stopping to note this is, of course, not actually unfamiliar at all. The United States through the CIA and other agencies maintained a large network of censorship-busting initiatives through the Cold War using the latest technology of the time.
Among those efforts was Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Liberty, sending unfiltered news and other programming through high-powered broadcasts into the Soviet nations behind the Iron Curtain. This effort was something of a game of cat-and-mouse between the free West and the Communist East, with Soviet authorities attempting to block out the broadcasts with radio interference equipment of their own.
In those Soviet countries, when the Western radio broadcasts did get through, those who tuned into them faced arrest “or worse” at the hands of the authorities. Today, the British government has already started to react to the use of VPNs to circumvent its new internet controls — imposed, it says, for the sake of public “safety” — and is moving to defacto outlaw them.
Pro-Freedom and anti-surveillance campaign group Big Brother Watch responded to the government’s plan to crack down on VPNs, saying:
The Prime Minister’s announcement that the government intends to restrict access to VPNs for under-16s represents a draconian crackdown on the civil liberties of children and adults alike.
The only way such restrictions could be enforced effectively would be for VPN providers to require all users to undergo age-assurance measures. Having to provide ID or a biometric face scan to access a VPN utterly defeats the point of a technology designed to enhance privacy online.
The ability to receive and share information absent state snooping is a vital part of living in a free democracy. There is a reason authoritarian governments in countries such as China, North Korea, Iran, and Belarus ban or restrict VPNs. Anonymity and enhanced privacy allow journalists, whistleblowers, campaigners, and dissidents to communicate securely.
[FOX WAVE] Greenland publicly rebuked President Trump’s bid to station a U.S. hospital ship on its soil, arguing the territory already has a free healthcare system and urging Trump to engage directly rather than post about its future on social media. The move comes as the administration promotes Arctic security ties, with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry serving as special envoy and discussions with NATO about a framework for a broader U.S. influence in the region. Greenland emphasized dialogue and respect for domestic decision‑making, while U.S. officials cited logistical pressures and strategic aims. The moment leaves open whether a diplomatic framework will emerge to govern Arctic cooperation and U.S. presence. The broader context notes the U.S. Navy operates two hospital ships, which are currently unavailable due to repairs.
Greenland’s prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen wrote a Facebook post to reject Trump’s plan, saying the local public healthcare system provides free treatment and criticizing what he called random social media outbursts. He urged direct dialogue and respect for decisions made in Greenland.
Trump had announced via Truth Social that the administration was coordinating with Gov. Landry to send a hospital ship to Greenland to care for people not being treated there, framing it as an Arctic security initiative.
Landry, named special envoy to Greenland in December, has led formal discussions about strengthening Arctic security and expanding U.S. influence, including conversations with NATO in late January about a future deal framework.
The context includes a Danish evacuation of a U.S. submarine crew member near Nuuk, followed by the transfer of that crew member to Greenlandic health authorities, underscoring ongoing regional tensions and practical cooperation needs.
Two U.S. Navy hospital ships, the USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort, are currently out of service for repairs in Alabama, highlighting logistical constraints behind any immediate deployment.
Greenland’s stance contrasts with U.S. aims for enhanced Arctic presence, as officials frame a framework deal with NATO to expand influence, while the Greenlandic government emphasizes dialogue and domestic decision‑making without external pressure.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as a de jure part of Somalia. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Under the Siad Barre regime, Somaliadestroyed ninety percent of Hargeisa Per international law, once you're in, you gotta stay in, no matter how bad it smells....
...hereditary Communist monarchy distinguished by its truculence and periodic acts of violence. Distinguishing features include Songun (Army First) policy, which involves feeding the army before anyone but the Dear Leadership, and Juche, which is Kim Jong Il's personal interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, which he told everybody was brilliant. In 1950 the industrialized North invaded agrarian South Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force opposing the invasion, with the United States providing around 90% of the military personnel. Seventy years later the economic results are in and it doesn't look good for Juche...
