Off-Guardian – April 26, 2026
Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.
1. CBDCS JUST KEEP ON TRUCKIN’
With war and Trump and Epstein et al. dominating the headlines, we’ve stopped getting our regular updates on the global move toward central bank digital currencies.
This is entirely accidental, I’m sure. But don’t worry, they’re still out there doing their thing.
In India, for example, a pilot scheme was launched, testing the digital rupee as a payment platform for state welfare plans.
In South Korea, the new Chief of the Central Bank – Shin Hyun-song – announced in his inauguration speech that the second phase of “Project Hangang”, the central bank’s scheme testing digital currency across payment platforms, is still ongoing.
In New Zealand, “experts” are telling the press that a digital currency is needed to “help NZ’s monetary sovereignty”.
And that’s just from the last three days.
Technocracy is coming, no matter who sinks what in the Strait of Hormuz.
2. Space Race 2.0
Fresh from Artemis II (allegedly) going around the moon and then coming back, we’re about to be launched into a new space race. Or even two!
First, there’s the private race between Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Who’s going to win? It doesn’t matter. In the long run, it will be related to us as a symptom of billionaire hubris. Irresponsible use of private wealth to harvest something that should belong to all of us – the sky.
The real space race will be national and geopolitical – mostly US/China, but maybe Russia and others too. What nation will be the first to mine on the moon? It’s going to be so exciting to find out!
My prediction is that America will “push too hard”, and maybe get a photogenic (and totally real) astronaut killed, while China’s “grown-up” approach means they win long-term rewards and “international respect”.
The current characterisation of these nations in the news narrative makes this an easy-ish guess. The Guardian even calls them “the tortoise and the hare”.
In the long run, the “successful team” will be the one who cooperates with the “international community”, and it will be a sign of all the great things that are possible when …sorry, I mean “when we work together”.
That’s what Nature thinks, anyway.
3. Norway comes to the PArty
Every country of the world is announcing, one at a time, that they are banning social media for the under 16s, or the under 18s, or under 14s or…whatever.
It’s actually becoming pretty much a joke at this point.
Like an episode of a sitcom where, by pure coincidence, all the characters turn up at a Halloween party dressed in the same costume.
And, just like this, that contrivance would be the rather predictable and derivative work of writers who are paid more than they are worth but think they’re very clever.
If you’re interested in Norway’s particular brand of online anonymity-ending legislation, it will be for under-16s, and they are introducing it because…
[We] want a childhood where children get to be children,”
…according to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.
As I said on Twitter, politicians are constantly playing a game where they all have to say the same sentence in slightly different words.
And they all suck at it.
BONUS: Poorly chosen date of the week
Multiple reports this week claimed that Germany was concentrating resources into re-arming, with the aim becoming “the strongest military in Europe” by a particular date…
Hmmm. That sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
It’s hard to believe a media machine so saturated in WWII imagery and references could possibly have chosen that year by accident.
It’s not all bad…
The good news this week is that the UK’s Assisted Dying bill is, well, dead. For now.
The House of Lords stopped the bill with a successful filibuster on Monday. So, no state-backed murder yet, or at least no legal state-backed murder.
Backers of the bill are up in arms, complaining about the will of the people being thwarted by a “handful of zealots” in the Upper House.
So the good news comes with a rider: it is temporary. They will push “reform” of the Lords, citing this as an excuse, and then force the bill through again in the future. They’ve been floating that since January.
It takes only a glance over the always-educational Guardian comments to see where this is going.
Kim Leadbetter, the MP driving the bill, said after the defeat:
“We will go again. The issue is not going away. There’s a very clear direction of travel around the world.”
Somewhat ironically, the Assisted Dying bill is going to be kept alive by artificial means until it can be fully resuscitated.
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There’s a lot of change in the air, a lot of agendas in the works, if you see a headline, article, post or interview you think is a sign of the times, post it in the comments, email us or share it on social media and we will add it to the next edition.
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And what do all of these things together add up to? And why doesn’t “kit” (who escaped to america after making enough money to buy his way in) suggest you actually do something about it? Afraid of losing his green card?
“The House of Lords stopped the bill with a successful filibuster on Monday. So, no state-backed murder yet, or at least no legal state-backed murder.”
What about abortion? That is legal state-backed murder no matter what feminists and other freaks think!
LOL..
The assisted dying bill..
..well one can only conclude that there are plans afoot to euthanize the population..it seems the humpbacks in governance can’t wait to lay you out, death it seems is a sound investment..
..and it certainly seems that the only thing advertised on the idiot box nowadays are cheap funeral services which it must be said are proliferating like flies on a corpse…so it’s likely after they’ve popped you in a pod..it’s into a cardboard box and onto a pile of burning pallets in a fire pit three miles square on dartmoor with ten thousand other poor fuckers murdered by shitehall.. which is according to the TV a two thousand quid ‘pure creamation’..
sounds like a bargain..
NEW DISCOVERIES
Ancient remains from palestine show Neanderthal children grew faster than modern humans
Story by Miriam Sela-Eitam • 19h World
World
Neanderthal children developed at a much faster pace than modern humans, possibly as a way to adjust to the harsh environment of their surroundings, according to a recent study published in Current Biology.
The study analyzed the remains of a Neanderthal infant discovered during excavations in the Amud Cave in the Upper Galilee in the late 1900s, named by researchers as Amud 7, for the first time. They were found in situ in nearly 111 different fragments, tucked into a a niche in one of the cave’s walls under a red deer jaw. according to the study, Amud 7’s remains date to approximately 51,000 and 56,000 years ago and belong to the most complete skeleton of a Neanderthal infant ever found.
However, while researchers noted that the Neanderthal features were present in the skeletal remains, it was much more difficult for them to figure out what age the child had been when they died.
When attempted to analyze Amud 7’s age based on its arm and leg bones, researchers found that Amud 7 appeared to be around 13.7 months of age. But, when analyzing their age using tooth histology, the microscopic study of enamel formation in the teeth, Amud 7 appeared to be much younger, closer to six months old.
‘Rare glimpse into Neanderthal development’
Based on this, researchers found that while newborn Neanderthals and modern human newborns share similar growth in tooth formation, tooth eruption and the lengths of the arm and leg bones, Neanderthal infants had much larger skulls then humans.
Then, when they are toddlers, Neanderthals’ bodies grow at a quicker rate than their teeth, contrasting the slower and more proportionate growth of modern human babies.
It is only afterwards that Neanderthal growth evened out to match modern human children’s growth trajectories.
Neanderthals and Homo sapiens began diverging around 600,000 years ago, “evolving mostly separately in Eurasia and Africa thereafter,” according to the study,
Further, it noted that despite the divergence, there have been proven cases of interbreeding between the two species during the Middle Paleolithic era, showing that even with the division, there was still compatibility.
“This suggests an evolutionary strategy emphasizing accelerated development in the early years of life, likely advantageous in the harsh environments Neanderthals inhabited,” the study concluded.
“The remains of Amud 7 provide a rare glimpse into Neanderthal development. Its distinct morphology and growth trajectory reveal that closely related species adopted different adaptive strategies in response to evolutionary pressures.”
Furter discoveries and hampered by an infestation of jews in the area
I think with the likelihood of fuel shortages in our near future and the blackouts that could go with them now would be a bad time to bring in CBDCs. They would have to ensure regular electricity and I don’t think they can do that.
“Jermany unveils strategy for becoming Jewropes strongest Millyturry by 2039” that’s really a funny one! Poor Pisstorious who was spending fortunes of Jerman citizens to make Rheinmetall great again has had his pocket money for shopping sprees cut back on a few occasions. So it seems that Jewrope must invade Russia, and Jermany will have to knick off all Russian war toys by 2039 – otherwise that statement above turns out as utter BS!
Protests in times square
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani faced backlash from jewish groups after comments he made about the 1915 events involving Armenians.
According to Daily Sabah, demonstrators gathered in Times Square, where several Turkish associations organised a protest.
Participants carried signs and chanted slogans, where the jews starved the people to death