Feb 15, 2026
22

This Week in the New Normal #112: “What we’re not talking about when we talk about Epstein”

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. Facial Recognition Rollout hits London

The British Transport Police are launching trials of Live Facial Recognition tech in underground stations in London:

Isn’t that smashing and convenient? That means they can track all the criminals, fare jumpers – and, of course, everyone else – wherever they might go.

And don’t worry about it, you almost certainly won’t be one of the people who gets misidentified.

2. Universal Basic Income on the horizon?

This week, Ireland announced a new scheme that would see the state pay artists a wage. This “basic income for the arts” plan is only the latest development in the UBI narrative.

This comes hot on the heels of a British government minister claiming UBI will be required after AI displaces thousands and thousands of jobs.

And the great protector of free speech, Elon Musk himself, has been talking up a future of “optional work”, and Nobel Laureates are agreeing.

Watch this space.

3. France banning open fires

By the end of the year, huge areas of France 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.

Want to burn your own wood in your fireplace in your own house in Lille? That’ll be 1500 Euros. Merci.

And why? You don’t need me to answer that – it’s because of pollution and climate change and all the rest.

Most specifically, there’s the “growing concern” of indoor air pollution, which was a talking point at Davos last month, and has been a minor issue for over two years.

It’s a very serious issue, and not even slightly a pathetic excuse to hoover up more personal data. That’s why places like Abu Dhabi, famous for it’s humanitarian record on wellbeing and human rights, are deploying sensors to monitor pollutants. To keep people safe.

…ordinary everyday things are polluting your indoor air, and did you know many diseases can linger in the air for AGES?

Transparent stuff.

4. Store loyalty cards could save your life

Surveillance could spot your cancer early. That’s the line.

Major retailers using your loyalty cards to monitor your shopping habits and sharing that data with the NHS could spot the early warning signs of cancer, apparently.

A major study of 3000 volunteers is taking place, using data from Boots and Tesco, and working with “experts” at Imperial College (It’s always Imperial).

From the Mail:

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.

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 – or start to buy – certain foods.

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.

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.

Their expanded study comes ahead of the publication of the Government’s National Cancer Plan on Wednesday, outlining how ministers hope to slash cases and improve treatment.

Oonagh Turnbull, the head of health and sustainable diets campaigns at Tesco, said in a statement:

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.’

Do you guys think this new study will find that we should monitor people’s shopping habits?

Because I think it just might.

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All told a pretty hectic week for the new normal crowd, and we didn’t even mention Russia’s “spy pigeons” or the UK rejoining the EU.

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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Categories: latest, This Week in the New Normal