{"id":323189,"date":"2026-02-16T08:22:46","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T08:22:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=323189"},"modified":"2026-02-18T08:35:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:35:44","slug":"this-week-in-the-new-normal-112-what-were-not-talking-about-when-we-talk-about-epstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=323189","title":{"rendered":"This Week in the New Normal #112: \u201cWhat we\u2019re not talking about when we talk about Epstein\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Off-Guardian \u2013 Feb 15, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Our successor to <em>This Week in the Guardian<\/em>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/category\/this-week-in-the-new-normal\/\">This Week in the New Normal<\/a><\/em> is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>1. Facial Recognition Rollout hits London<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The British Transport Police are launching trials of Live Facial Recognition tech in underground stations in London:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Today we&#8217;re launching our trial of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology in London.<\/p>\n<p>Watch Chief Superindendent Chris Casey explain the LFR pilot in more detail \uf5e3\ufe0f \uf4f9<\/p>\n<p>Read more: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Mh21Et1a0x\">https:\/\/t.co\/Mh21Et1a0x<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8mRhxrughD\">pic.twitter.com\/8mRhxrughD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 British Transport Police (@BTP) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BTP\/status\/2021581742902043045?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 11, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Isn\u2019t that smashing and convenient? That means they can track all the criminals, fare jumpers \u2013 and, of course, everyone else \u2013 wherever they might go.<\/p>\n<p>And don\u2019t worry about it, you almost certainly won\u2019t be one of the people who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c0lxdn4w2g3o\">gets misidentified<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>2. Universal Basic Income on the horizon?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>This week, Ireland announced a new scheme that would see the state pay artists a wage. This<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/feb\/10\/ireland-basic-income-for-the-arts-scheme-becomes-permanent\"> \u201cbasic income for the arts\u201d<\/a> plan is only the latest development in the UBI narrative.<\/p>\n<p>This comes hot on the heels of a British government minister claiming <a href=\"https:\/\/www.peoplemanagement.co.uk\/article\/1946845\/universal-basic-income-needed-support-workers-displaced-ai-minister-says\">UBI will be required<\/a> after AI displaces thousands and thousands of jobs.<\/p>\n<p>And the great protector of free speech, Elon Musk himself, has been talking up a future of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/technology\/a-future-without-work-what-elon-musk-bill-gates-and-others-in-ai-are-saying-about-the-future\/ss-AA1TuJ4y\">\u201coptional work\u201d<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/secom.es\/nobel-winning-physicist-says-musk-and-gates-are-right-more-free-time-fewer-jobs\/\">Nobel Laureates are agreeing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Watch this space.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>3. France banning open fires<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>By the end of the year, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/R27ge\">huge areas of France<\/a> will have totally banned the usage of wood-burning stoves, open fireplace or both. The penalty for ignoring the ban is a fine, which varies by area, but doubles and doubles again for repeat offences.<\/p>\n<p>Want to burn your own wood in your fireplace in your own house in Lille? That\u2019ll be 1500 Euros. <em>Merci<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>And why? You don\u2019t need me to answer that \u2013 it\u2019s because of pollution and climate change and all the rest.<\/p>\n<p>Most specifically, there\u2019s the \u201cgrowing concern\u201d of indoor air pollution, which was a talking point at Davos last month, and has<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/dec\/26\/staying-at-home-could-leave-you-exposed-to-indoor-air-pollution-study-reveals\"> been a minor issue<\/a> for over two years.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a very serious issue, and not even slightly a pathetic excuse to hoover up more personal data. That\u2019s why places like Abu Dhabi, famous for it\u2019s humanitarian record on wellbeing and human rights, are <a href=\"https:\/\/gulfnews.com\/uae\/environment\/is-your-indoor-air-safe-abu-dhabi-deploys-330-smart-sensors-to-track-it-1.500442309\">deploying sensors to monitor pollutants<\/a>. To keep people safe.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026ordinary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnet.com\/home\/kitchen-and-household\/6-causes-of-indoor-air-poluton\/\">everyday things<\/a> are polluting your indoor air, and did you know many diseases can linger in the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/14\/health\/how-long-diseases-like-measles-and-the-flu-linger-in-the-air\/\">air for AGES<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>Transparent stuff.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>4. Store loyalty cards could save your life<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Surveillance could spot your cancer early. That\u2019s the line.<\/p>\n<p>Major retailers using your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/health\/article-15518301\/store-loyalty-cards-diagnose-cancer-changes-shopping-habits.html\">loyalty cards to monitor your shopping habits<\/a> and sharing that data with the NHS could spot the early warning signs of cancer, apparently.<\/p>\n<p>A major study of 3000 volunteers is taking place, using data from Boots and Tesco, and working with \u201cexperts\u201d at Imperial College (It\u2019s always Imperial).<\/p>\n<p>From the Mail:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Now experts at Imperial College London are working with Tesco and Boots to see whether data from their Clubcard and Advantage programmes can save lives.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">They believe each form of the disease will have its own pattern of purchases, such as the frequency at which people buy painkillers and indigestion medicine and cut back on \u2013 or start to buy \u2013 certain foods.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Cracking this code could allow the NHS to catch more cancers earlier, when treatment is cheaper and much more effective and the chances of survival are greater.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">A previous study by the same team found that they could successfully use shopping history to detect ovarian cancer eight months before a full diagnosis.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">Their expanded study comes ahead of the publication of the Government\u2019s National Cancer Plan on Wednesday, outlining how ministers hope to slash cases and improve treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Oonagh Turnbull, the head of health and sustainable diets campaigns at Tesco, said in a statement:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">We hope that with the help of our customers across the UK taking part and volunteering to share their Tesco Clubcard data, more lives can be saved by detecting certain cancers early, building on the success of the first Cancer Loyalty Card study.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Do you guys think this new study will find that we <em>should<\/em> monitor people\u2019s shopping habits?<\/p>\n<p>Because I think it just might.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">*<\/p>\n<p>All told a pretty hectic week for the new normal crowd, and we didn\u2019t even mention <a href=\"https:\/\/theweek.com\/science\/russia-pigeons-brain-control-drones\">Russia\u2019s \u201cspy pigeons\u201d<\/a> or the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/world-news\/2026\/02\/12\/why-rejoining-eu-is-the-only-logical-way-forward\/\">UK rejoining the EU<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s 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, <a href=\"https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/submissions\/\">email us<\/a> or share it on social media and we will add it to the next edition.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>Support Off-Guardian:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ko-fi.com\/offguardian\">Ko-fi<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.subscribestar.com\/offguardian\">Subscribestar<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/donate\/?hosted_button_id=CKFB3MH8CGB9U\">Paypal<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/off-guardian.org\/2026\/02\/15\/this-week-in-the-new-normal-112-what-were-not-talking-about-when-we-talk-about-epstein\/\">Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week sees the roll out of Facial Recognition technology on London\u2019s Underground and the proposed banning of wood stoves and open fires in parts of France; which will make the French TOTALLY dependent on the national power grid during winter   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":280317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323189"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323191,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323189\/revisions\/323191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/280317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}