SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR [1]. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column, age verification for smartphones.
Age Verification in Apple IOS 27.2 Using Camera
Reader D.S.V. sent this news: iPhone Dystopia: Age Verification Baked Into IOS 27.2 Using Camer [2]a. Here is an excerpt:
“When Apple released iOS 27.2 on Sunday [3], it crossed a threshold no major operating system had crossed before: embedding a government-compelled biometric age gate directly into the OS layer itself — not inside an app, not inside a browser, but in the platform that every app runs on top of. For the first time, accessing adult-rated content on an iPhone or iPad in Australia, Brazil, Singapore, or the United Kingdom now requires passing a facial age estimation scan administered by the operating system before the App Store will proceed.”
JWR’s Comments: I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that a new category of “adult content” will soon be defined: Anything related to firearms. One goal of the statist socialists is to create a generational break in the continuity of family firearms ownership. This what they gradually accomplished in England, between the late 1940s and the early 1990s. In the long term, they want to also eliminate “the gun culture” from American culture. We can combat that with the way that we develop our family gun collections — by purchasing and setting aside guns and magazines for not just our children, but also for our nieces, nephews, and grandchildren.
Shop Freezers in Seven European Nations Hit by Cyber-Attack
Our own Tom Christianson mentioned this BBC report: Shop freezers in seven European countries hit by cyber-attack [4]. Here is a quote:
“Dozens of supermarkets across seven European countries have been hit by a cyber-attack affecting their refrigerators and freezers.
Around 40 Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were affected, while a smaller number of shops were hit in Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Estonia and Finland.
Sabcobel, a Belgian company that manufactures some of the affected refrigerators, said the units’ evaporators were switched to defrost mode, causing them to warm up, in what is believed to be the same method used in last month’s incident that hit hundreds of French supermarkets. [5]
Millions of euros worth of food had to be thrown away in October, local media reported at the time.”
—
Also from Tom: Cyberattack hits French blood banks but no samples compromised, officials sa [6]y.
A Nationwide Backlash Against Data Centers
I found this linked over at the Whatfinger.com [7]news aggregation site: A nationwide backlash against data centers erupts at the polls [8]. [9]
How Swarms of AI Agents Are Plotting
Connor Leahy on the Peter McCormack Show: How Swarms of AI Agents Are Plotting [10]. At the 28:45 mark, take note of Leahy’s warning about Sleeper AI Agents.
AI Agents are Hacking to Survive on Their Own
“Weird alien minds”: A new report warns of AI agents hacking to survive on their own [11]. Here is a key excerpt:
“The report by AI policy researcher Ben Hayum warns the next threat is “sovereign agents”: AI capable of running outside human control that pursues ‘open-ended, evolving survival.’
At minimum, such an agent could keep its own model and computing running and set its own goals. More advanced ones could earn money, copy themselves, coordinate, resist shutdown and self-improve.”
Will Economic Systems Collapse Under AI?
At Futuirism: Investor Says We’re Rapidly Approaching the Point At Which Economic Systems Collapse Under the Weight of AI. [12]
Measles Cases in U.S. Surge to 1980s Levels
More than 5,000 measles cases confirmed in US amid deaths reported in 8 states [13]. A pericope:
“At least 5,182 cases have been confirmed, with cases reported in 45 states and Washington, D.C. Eighteen cases have been among international visitors to the U.S., according to the CDC.
Eight measles-associated deaths have been confirmed so far in 2026: six in Pennsylvania, one in New York and one in Wisconsin.”
Even Hard Core Leftists are Stocking Up on Food
Reader D.S.V. spotted this: No Kings as a ‘Trial Run’: Inside the Midterm Plan to Stockpile Food and Shut Down Daily Life [14].
Democrats Flip the House: Their New Agenda
Democrats Flip the House: Incoming Committee Chairs and Oversight Priorities [15]. JWR’s Comments: I’m fairly sure that the new Democrat majorities in the House and Senate will attempt to push most of the familiar Biden/Woke Agenda. Trump may waffle on his promised vetoes, if he thinks he can make some “deals” with the upcoming Dem-dominated congress. He has already mentioned that he is willing to work a deal with the Democrats on amnesty for illegal immigrants [16]. Beware. Another such “deal” may be on Universal Background Checks — which is a kinder and gentler way of saying a ban on private party sales of post-1898 firearms. The next few months may be your last chance to buy paperless modern guns via private party transactions. Also beware that there are already rumblings about eliminating the Electoral College as well as full statehood for the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. That would create four more Senators and two congressmen, all with “(D.)” after their names, for generations.
And on the same topic, firearms attorney Tom Grieve has some very important advice in this new video: Buy Now [17]. He predicts that under a Democrat majority, a renewed NFA tax on suppressors, SBRs, and SBSes may be $5,000 per transfer, probably with a grandfather clause. (FYI, I have already started hedging, by buying up a variety of shotguns that I plan to personally shorten for my family collection, in accordance with the ATF’s current Guidance Letter [18]. And I will probably also be personally converting a couple of arm-braced pistols into SBRs.
—
You can send your news tips to JWR [1]. (Either via e-mail or via our Contact [19] form.) Thanks.