At least 15 people have been killed, with dozens missing after torrential rains and landslides hit Indonesia's Natuna region on the edge of the South China Sea. Pictures and video from the national disaster mitigation agency (BNPB) showed landslides cascading through forested areas and dumping mud and debris on houses on the remote Serasan island. Bits of metal from torn-off roofs and fallen trees were also visible following the disaster on Monday. The location of the landslide and continued rain were complicating search and rescue efforts, the BNPB said on Twitter. Communications had also been cut off, it said. The Natuna Search and Rescue Agency's head, Abdul Rahman, told the AFP news agency that 15 people had been confirmed dead and 50 were missing.

After back-to-back winter storms overwhelmed many of California's mountain communities with snow, another round of snowfall is headed to the Sierra Nevada region, while the state's hard-hit southern San Bernardino County will get a reprieve as some residents who remain trapped by walls of snow are concerned about their dwindling supplies. The Sierra Nevada mountain range could see 1 to 3 inches of snow through Tuesday, following a weekend that brought as much as 38 inches of snow over a 24-hour period to Soda Springs in Nevada County and 31 inches to Donner Peak in Placer County.

A 31-year-old woman who admitted to having sex with a 13-year-old boy and getting pregnant with his child will serve no jail time, according to reports. "I feel like if she was a man, and he was a little girl, it would definitely be different," the victim's mother said. "They would be seeking more. I feel like because he is not a woman, they are not. They are having compassion for her." The Fountain Police Department in Colorado arrested Andrea Serrano in June 2022 on felony charges of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and sexual assault on a child.

An Idaho family was lucky to escape an attack by an angry moose while they were out on their snowmobiles in the Palisades, east of Idaho Falls. Jeremiah Bigelow posted the incident on his Instagram account, describing how the moose came between him and his brother, who was ahead of him, on the trail they were riding. The moose initially charged Jeremiah, who had his son and other friends behind him. Jeremiah quickly put his snowmobile in reverse but got stuck as his son's snowmobile did not have a reverse gear. Jeremiah's brother realized that Jeremiah was stuck and tried to draw the moose's attention away from the group, thinking he could quickly speed away. But right as he jumps back on the snowmobile, it dies, and he is forced to dive to his safety, narrowly avoiding the charging moose.

The former president congratulated Tucker Carlson for what he called one of the biggest journalistic "scoops" in US history. Most of those who made their way into the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 are "totally innocent," former US President Donald Trump has insisted after Fox News host Tucker Carlson published new footage of the events. Carlson had earlier been granted access by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to more than 40,000 hours of security video records from the Capitol on the day of the riots. On Monday, the Fox News host shared some of those clips on his program, showing Trump's supporters behaving peacefully inside the US Congress in Washington, DC.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday slammed International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi for saying attacks on nuclear facilities are "outlawed." Israel has a history of launching covert attacks against Iranian nuclear facilities, and Netanyahu has been threatening to take more overt action. US officials have also said President Biden will keep a military option on the table to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon even though the Pentagon and CIA recently acknowledged Tehran is not seeking a bomb. Grossi just returned from a visit to Iran, where he secured a pledge for the IAEA to receive more access to Iranian nuclear facilities. When asked about the US and Israeli threats, Grossi said that "any military attack on a nuclear facility is outlawed, is out of the normative structures that we all abide by."

This past month a poll held by ABC and the Washington Post with a 37 year history asked Americans if they were better or worse off in the two years since Biden entered the White House. If you were to ask Biden this question, you would be regaled with a flurry of great news about a fantastic economic recovery, epic jobs numbers, falling inflation and a dropping deficit. When you ask actual average citizens, you get a much different reply. According to the ABC/Post poll, Americans say they are worse off than they have ever been, with the most negative data in the history of the survey. Over 40% of respondents indicated their financial situation was worse under Biden. Only 16% of people said they were better off. Not only that, but 60% of Democrats polled said they did NOT want Joe Biden as their candidate in 2024, and 62% of all people polled said they would be disappointed or even angry if Biden remained in the White House for a second term. This is astounding. How does one...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he will appoint an "Independent special rapporteur," who he says will have a "wide mandate and will make expert recommendations on combating interference and strengthening our democracy" amid allegations that his government ignored recommendations from CSIS noting concerns about candidates' connections to the Chinese Communist Party. "In the last couple of weeks, Canadians have been reading and hearing a lot" about foreign interference by China in elections, Trudeau said.

The mother of two children who were given COVID-19 vaccines without the mother's consent is suing the doctor who administered the vaccines. An attorney representing NaTonya McNeil last week filed a lawsuit in Superior Court for the District of Columbia against Janine A. Rethy, M.D., M.P.H. According to the complaint, on Sept. 2, 2022, McNeil took her two older children, ages 15 and 17, to the KIDS Mobile Medical Clinic/Ronald McDonald Care Mobile clinic, operated by Georgetown Hospital, to complete their required annual physical exam for the 2022-2023 school year.

A septuagenarian woman in Telangana died after she was attacked by a troop of more than 20 monkeys. The victim, has been identified as 70-year old Chataraboina Narsavva of Ramareddy village in Kamareddy district. The incident took place while the victim was cleaning utensils at her home on Friday. Local sources said that the victim was all alone at home as her youngest daughter Suguna had gone to attend a wedding function at the time. Despite Narsavva's cries for help, the fear-stricken neighbours made no attempt to go to her rescue. They shut themselves inside their houses until the monkeys fled. The old woman suffered serious injuries on her chest, back and limbs. It was only after Suguna returned home a little while later that the old woman was taken to hospital. Narsavva, however, succumbed to her injuries on Saturday while undergoing treatment at the hospital.

The Committee on the Judiciary has issued a subpoena to former Disinformation Governance Board head Nina Jankowicz, compelling her to appear before the Committee on April 10, 2023. In a letter to Jankowicz, Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan, said that the Committee is "conducting oversight of the so-called 'Disinformation Governance Board.'" The Committee intends to look into the Board's "creation, its activities, and related matters." Jordan said, "We have repeatedly sought information from you concerning your official actions and duties as a DHS employee and former Executive Director of the Board, including how the Board intended to define disinformation, how it planned to collect information and from what sources, how it anticipated countering disinformation, and how it proposed to protect First Amendment rights." Jordan noted that the Judiciary Committee had requested Jankowicz's "voluntary cooperation" in May 2022, but and again requested documentation in December 2022, January,...

'Tucker Carlson Tonight' was the first to look at over 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from the Capitol Building on Jan 6. Tucker Carlson released never-before-seen footage from the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at Capitol Hill that appear to dispel several narratives pushed by the Democrat-controlled House Select Committee and the legacy media. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy granted "Tucker Carlson Tonight" an exclusive first look to over 40,000 hours of security camera footage from the Capitol Building that were hidden from the public for over two years. On Monday, Carlson offered the first glimpses of footage involving key figures from that day.

New emails uncovered by House Republicans probing the COVID-19 pandemic reveal the deceptive nature of Dr. Anthony Fauci. They show he "prompted" or commissioned and had final approval on a scientific paper written specifically in February 2020 to disprove the theory that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China. Eight weeks later, Fauci stood at a White House press conference alongside President Donald Trump and cited that paper as evidence that the lab leak theory was implausible while pretending it had nothing to do with him and he did not know the authors.

A 6.0-magnitude earthquake jolted the southern Philippines on Tuesday (Mar 7), the US Geological Survey said, but there were no reports of casualties or major damage. The shallow quake struck at about 2pm local time (0600 GMT), a few kilometres from Maragusan municipality in the mountainous gold-mining province of Davao de Oro on Mindanao island. Shallow earthquakes tend to cause more harm than deeper ones, but local authorities said there were no reports of major damage. Cherrylyn Dapiton of the Maragusan disaster office confirmed there had been a landslide near a road, but it had not affected anyone or blocked traffic.

Jurgens is one of only two Georgians arrested Sunday. A lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) was arrested and charged with domestic terrorism over the violence that broke out in Atlanta on Sunday in relation to protests of a planned training facility for police officers in the city, the SPLC has confirmed. "An employee at the SPLC was arrested while acting and identifying as a legal observer on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). The employee is an experienced legal observer, and their arrest is not evidence of any crime, but of heavy-handed law enforcement intervention against protesters," the SPLC said in a statement on Monday. Thomas Webb Jurgens was among the list of 23 suspected domestic terrorists released by the Atlanta Police Department on Monday. Violence broke out in Atlanta on Sunday after protesters of a planned police training facility hurled bricks and Molotov cocktails at officers and set cars on fire.

UK grocery inflation continued to climb during February to reach a new record high of 17.1%, according to closely-watched industry data. Kantar Worldpanel reported that the increase over the past 12 months meant that families faced a potential 811 annual rise in the cost of their regular shopping basket. It had been hoped that a decline in the pace of grocery prices during December would mark a turning point in that element of the cost of living crisis. But Kantar later revealed that temporary Christmas discounting had been largely responsible, as the big four chains fight to maintain market share amid the challenge posed by discounters and other cheaper rivals.

Just under one in eight of all households in England were found to be fuel-poor in 2022. Now in 2023 the true impact of the energy crisis over the past 12 months has been revealed with the release of shocking new statistics. Express.co.uk has analysed the harrowing picture of fuel poverty in England. Britons paid more in household energy bills in 2022 than any other year in history, with the ensuing cost-of-living crisis stretching budgets to and beyond breaking point for many. After four consecutive rises since February 2021, the state energy regulator Ofgem had the price cap set at 4,279 by the end of the year - over triple the average annual bill just three years earlier. On Monday, Ofgem announced that from April 1, the price cap would fall by almost 1,000 to 3,280 -but with a 500 increase to the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) scheduled at the same time, the pain of the last year is likely to endure for many throughout 2023.

A Polish deputy agriculture minister has criticised the EU's recent approval of two types of insects for use in food products, saying there was a campaign to overturn the "dietary values of the West". Comment: The West's dietary guidelines are fairly skewed already - favoring detrimental carbohydrates over optimal animal products - but this propaganda push for insects is another level of sinister. In January, the EU approved house crickets and the larvae of lesser mealworms for human consumption in powder and other dried forms as part of a drive to limit the impact animal farming has on the environment. Insects, which are a popular food choice in many parts of the world, are rich in protein and require much less land and water than meat to produce.

Russia is preparing intergovernmental agreements on visa-free travel with 11 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, The Bahamas, Malaysia and Mexico, State Secretary - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevgeny Ivanov told TASS. "We're preparing draft intergovernmental agreements on visa-free travel for [Russian] citizens with a number of countries, such as Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, The Bahamas, Barbados, Haiti, Zambia, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago. The agreements are at various stages of development," Ivanov said. "However, it is important to understand that the process of negotiating such international treaties is a 'two-way street' and the pace at which they are signed depends equally on us and on our partners," the senior diplomat added.

The Pentagon sees giant Chinese-made cranes operating at US ports, including several shipping hubs used by the military, as a potential "Trojan horse" that China could use to gather intelligence on materiel being moved in and out of the country, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. Fresh from the Chinese "spy balloon" debacle, unnamed "national-security and Pentagon officials" have reportedly turned their attention to yet another alleged espionage tool. While the newspaper did not indicate whether there have been any actual cases of a crane being used for spying, it cited former US counterintelligence official Bill Evanina expressing concerns that it could provide remote access to disrupt the flow of goods. "Cranes can be the new Huawei," Evanina said, referring to Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies, whose products had been banned from the US market over similar spying concerns. "It's the perfect combination of legitimate business that can also masquerade...

Hundreds of thousands of people rallied throughout Israel Saturday in the ninth straight weekend of protests against the government's efforts to radically transform the judiciary, with some 160,000 estimated in Tel Aviv and tens of thousands more in dozens of locales. Organizers claimed that their counts throughout the country indicated some 400,000 protesters in all, though this could not be independently confirmed. As the main Tel Aviv rally ended, limited clashes once again erupted between police and some demonstrators, as the latter broke through barriers to enter the Ayalon Highway action police and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir had vowed to prevent.

A devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and northern Syria on the morning of February 6. A second major earthquake of 7.5 magnitude struck the region 9 hours later, causing further severe damage and destruction of buildings. On February 20, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck Hatay, and on February 27, a 5.6 magnitude earthquake centered in Malatya also caused many damaged buildings to collapse and increased the death toll. More than 150 aftershocks were also recorded. 46,000 people in Turkey and 6,0000 in Syria lost their lives, and at least 1.5 million people are now homeless. More than 160,000 buildings have collapsed or been severely damaged. It's hard to know the true number so far, it could be much higher. The immediate damage is estimated at $34 billion - or about 4% of the country's annual economic output. But the indirect costs of the quake could be much higher, and recovery will be neither easy nor quick. Just for the record, a prediction model based...

Matt Hancock rejected advice from England's Chief Medical Officer to replace the 14-day Covid quarantine with five days of testing because it would "imply we've been getting it wrong". Mr Hancock was told by Prof Sir Chris Whitty in November 2020 that it would be "pretty well as good" for contacts of positive Covid cases to test for five days "in lieu" of a fortnight's isolation. WhatsApp messages between the two have also revealed that the 14-day quarantine period was likely to have been "too long all along". By then, nearly a million people in England who had come into contact with an infected person had been told to self-isolate for a full fortnight, even if they had no symptoms. Although ministers reduced the self-isolation period to 10 days in December 2020, it was not until the following August that some groups were made entirely exempt from the requirement. In November 2020, Sir Chris and other government advisers were "in favour" of trialling the alternative system. But Mr...

The first step in bringing peace to Ukraine should be to stop people from being killed and establish a ceasefire as soon as possible, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Sunday, during an interview with Sweden's SVT. The diplomat dismissed the idea of supplying Ukraine with weapons, currently being done by a number of NATO countries, as a viable method to achieve peace. Asked why Hungary refuses to send weapons to Kiev, Szijjarto pointed to the devastating consequences of the war, and how Western arms have only exacerbated the conflict. "Look at the infrastructure, look at the people, look at the number of people leaving the country, look at their former houses, look at the damage, the energy infrastructure. This country is being demolished, destroyed. I don't think that would be of interest to anyone," he said. Szijjarto stated that Hungary, as opposed to other European countries, sees the first priority in the Ukrainian conflict as being to "stop killing people,"...

Moscow and Havana have been implementing financial mechanisms to shield their economic cooperation from US sanctions, Russian Ambassador to Cuba Andrey Guskov revealed last week. "The introduction of independent settlement mechanisms is being successfully carried out, which will help protect cooperation with Cuba from the negative impact of the US trade, economic and financial blockade, as well as establish ties bypassing the financial organizations of unfriendly states," the Russian diplomat said. In January, the chairman of the Russia-Cuba Business Council, Boris Titov, said that in order to mitigate the effect of Western sanctions, the countries are considering new mechanisms for mutual settlements, including in ruble and cryptocurrencies, as well as clearing schemes.

Australian think tank says China well ahead in AI, hypersonics, drones and e-batteries while US clings to chip making and high-speed computing... China is now leading the world in 37 out of 44 key technologies, including hypersonic missiles, artificial intelligence, drones and electric batteries, according to a recent Australian research report. China ranks first globally in defense- and space-related technologies in terms of high-impact research, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said in the report. ASPI is a defense and strategic policy think tank based in Canberra founded by the Australian government and funded by overseas governments as well as defense and technology companies. China also excels in areas including nanoscale materials and manufacturing, coatings, 5G and 6G technologies, hydrogen and ammonia power, super-capacitors, electric batteries, synthetic biology and photonics sensors, the ASPI report said. It may pose technology monopoly risks to other...

Staffed by British special forces veterans, Pilgrims' Group quietly shaped international coverage of the MH17 disaster as it shepherded journalists to and from the crash site. In November of 2022, a final judgment arrived in the trial of alleged perpetrators of the attack on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17). Russian nationals Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Donbas separatist Leonid Kharchenko, were convicted in absentia for the murder of MH17's 283 passengers and 15 crew members. They were ruled to have arranged the transfer of the Buk surface-to-air missile system that reportedly struck the plane. Oleg Pulatov, the only defendant to seek legal representation during the trial, was conversely acquitted on all charges, which prosecutors will not appeal. The Malaysian airliner had been purportedly shot down by a missile on July 17th 2014, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew aboard. Heavily dependent on information supplied by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) and the...

Kiev's backers, however, ultimately don't believe it will win, the political philosopher said... The West has fostered the creeping "nazification" of Ukraine in order to make its people hostile to Russia, political philosopher and author Aleksandr Dugin has told RT. In an exclusive interview aired on Saturday, he said that Kiev's backers have tried to hide from their own citizens the growing tolerance of nationalists and neo-Nazis in the country. Dugin said: "The West thinks in such a manner: We could not create artificial nationalism in Ukraine and push Ukrainians to fight Russians [any other way]. For a traditional society, liberal values cannot be the goal to defend. So they need something [else]. The most radical [tool] to create and promote this artificial pseudo-consciousness is nationalism ... or Ukrainian Russophobic fascism. And it is being used by the [globalist] liberals. They destroy any kind of nationalism on their [own] territories. But in Ukraine, on the other hand,...

In a television appearance this week, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns assured that America's position in Asia is "stronger" today "than it was five or ten years ago," and that Beijing will simply have to accept that Washington "is staying in this region" and is "the leader in this region in many ways." Chinese media has brushed off the US ambassador's "powerless and ridiculous" claims that the US is still the undisputed leader in Asia and that China will just have to deal with it. The Global Times' wrote an editorial response to Burns' "leadership" comments: "What the US politician said implies two messages. First, he seems to criticize China for not understanding US' presence in the Asia-Pacific. Second, Burns wants Beijing to acknowledge Washington's leadership in the region. Yet, both are far from the truth." The outlet explained that Washington's "strategic miscalculation" has always been to believe that China would like to push the US out of Asia. The reality, GT...

Washington plans to prohibit American investment in the high-tech sectors of rival economies, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing sources and reports on the proposed regulation from the US Treasury and Commerce Department. The restrictions will likely target private and venture capital investments in the production of semiconductors, artificial intelligence and quantum computing, and will mostly be aimed against China, sources close to the discussions about the new regulations told the news outlet. The WSJ notes, however, that the reports do not name specific countries that will be affected by the measures nor the economic sectors seen as posing a risk to US national security. However, the outlet notes that the focus will be on sectors that could increase the military capabilities of US rivals. The Treasury report, for instance, said: "The new foreign investment rules will focus on preventing US capital and expertise from being exploited in ways that threaten our...

China's defense spending will rise by 7.2% to $230 billion this year, according to information contained in Beijing's national budget, released on Sunday. Premier Li Keqiang also called upon the country's armed forces to "boost combat preparedness" as they expand their military capabilities amid tensions with Taiwan. The 7.2% increase is the sharpest surge in China's defense spending since 2019. It follows a 6.8% uptick in 2021 and 6.6% in 2020. In 2019, Asia's leading military power oversaw a 7.5% increase in its defense budget to 1.19 trillion yuan - around $172 billion. The latest hike is the eighth consecutive single-digit annual increase in Beijing's military budget.

The plane appeared to have narrowly missed a few suburban homes in a Long Island neighborhood before it crashed and burst into flames. At least one person is dead and two others are seriously injured after a plane crashed in a Long Island neighborhood in the US state of New York on Sunday. A single-engine Piper PA 28 plane crash landed near several homes in North Lindenhurst at around 3 p.m. local time (20:00 GMT). The plane crashed just short of its destination at the Republic Airport in Farmingdale, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said. Three people were onboard at the time of the crash. One of those persons has died and two others have been seriously injured. No other people were injured during the crash, Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Shaffer said.

Kari Lake filed new paperwork and 779 pages of evidence in the Arizona Supreme Court today, appealing the lower courts' decisions to dismiss her lawsuit contesting the rigged 2022 Election. Lake also filed a 'Motion To Expedite' her case, arguing that "expeditious action to resolve these issues is needed to safeguard Arizona voters' right to free and equal elections." The Maricopa County Superior Court and Arizona Court of appeals disregarded the evidence, "ignored this Court's precedents for reviewing election contests and ratified Maricopa officials' decision to ignore Arizona's ballot chain-of-custody ("COC") and logic and accuracy testing ("L&A testing") requirements set forth in Arizona's Election Procedures Manual ("EPM"), and A.R.S. 16-621(E), 16-449, 16-452(C)," argues Lake's attorneys in their 'Petition for Review.'

Chinese car brands have embarked on a major expansion in Russia amid the exodus of European, American, and Japanese brands, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. In 2022, Chinese automakers Geely, Chery, and Great Wall Motors took a 17% share of Russia's car market, filling the void left by the world's largest automobile manufacturers, such as Volkswagen, Nissan, Renault, and Toyota, which pulled out of the country last year. Economic sanctions and political pressure made it difficult for many automakers to continue operations in Russia last year. In particular, logistical disruptions arose once imports of cars and spare parts to the country were stopped.

Britain's hospitality sector could lose thousands of jobs amid soaring energy costs, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) has warned, as it called on the government to extend a lifeline for the industry. According to a BBPA report on Wednesday, citing data from Oxford Economics, a further 2,000 pubs are at risk of closure, threatening 25,000 jobs. The research suggested that on-trade beer sales will decline by 9% in 2023-2024, which equates to 1 million fewer barrels of beer sold, or 288 million pints. "The BBPA is calling on the government to use the Spring Budget to show it understands just how much pubs and breweries mean to their communities, and the pressures the sector is facing, and deliver a plan for sustainable growth with fair, modernized tax rates and a focus on skills and training needed to ensure pubs and breweries can thrive," the association stated.

Comment: What is UP with all these train crashes of late?? The death toll from Tuesday's train crash in Greece has increased to 57, a coroner has told the BBC. Eleni Zaggelidou, one of ten coroners working on the investigation, said DNA had been taken from 57 intact bodies. Meanwhile, a government minister said austerity during Greece's economic crisis in the 2000s contributed to a lack of investment in the railways. Rail workers held a one-day strike on Thursday following the disaster, blaming government neglect. The walkout follows protests in Athens, Thessaloniki and the city of Larissa, near the site of the disaster. Rescue workers are still going through burned and buckled carriages there, searching for victims.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn has said in a fresh interview with Swiss weekly Weltwoche that his country's leadership is "strong enough to keep the war away from our country" while also stressing that Washington has become prime the decision-maker over the conflict in Ukraine. He further addressed the proxy war nature of the conflict in saying, "There are some who want to force Hungary into the war, and they are not picky about the means with which to achieve that goal." "Ukraine is our neighbor where Hungarians live as well," he continued. "They are being conscripted and are dying by the hundreds on the front." The Hungarian government has long protested this practice and presented its complaints to Kiev.

A platform being rolled out to target scammers has triggered fears of more state control over the web Ukrainian authorities have rolled out an automatic system to "filter out" malicious websites, used for online scamming and phishing schemes. The system was introduced on January 30 and enforced on Thursday, with all Internet providers in the country obliged to use it. The new platform is expected to provide a list of malicious websites for providers to block, every 15 minutes. Its creator, Ukraine's National Center for Operating and Management of Telecommunication Networks, insists it is designed to only target scammers.

After an incredible series of winter storms, California officials reported Friday the state's snowpack is the largest in decades. Snowpack in the California Sierra is 177% of normal for this time of year, officials at the Department of Water Resources said. Statewide, snowpack is averaging 190% compared to normal for the date a significant boost after back-to-back storms. Snowpack in the Sierra Nevada is critical because it acts as a natural reservoir and accounts for 30% of California's freshwater supply in an average year. The recent record-breaking, three-week deluge helped replenish some of the state's reservoirs, but Shasta Lake the largest in the state remains below its historical average.

Teaching is now a political act that involves indoctrinating children instead of educating them. A teacher still battling her school board two years after a Facebook post about the culture war in classrooms landed her in hot water says people need to wake up to the woke revolution happening in education. Teaching is now a political act that involves indoctrinating children instead of educating them, said Chanel Pfahl, in an interview with the National Post. "There's a lot of reason to be afraid. We are in a kind of cultural revolution and people really do need to pay attention."

CNN's then-president Jeff Zucker told his staffers not to investigate the "lab leak theory" behind the origins of COVID-19 because he thought it was a "Trump talking point," according to a report. A "well-placed" CNN insider told Fox News Digital on Monday that Zucker gave the order in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic. "People are slowly waking up from the fog," the insider told Fox News Digital. "It is kind of crazy that we didn't chase it harder." Mainstream news organizations including CNN, The New York Times, MSNBC, and others have been pilloried in recent days following a recent government report which concluded that an accidental leak from a Chinese laboratory is the most likely explanation for the COVID outbreak.

JayCee Cooper, a transgender athlete, sued federation in 2021. JayCee Cooper, a transgender athlete, won a discrimination case against USA Powerlifting this week after the federation banned her from competing in female events. With Cooper's victory comes a mandate the federation "cease and desist from all unfair discriminatory practices" because of sexual orientation and gender identity. The organization must revise its policy related to those issues within two weeks, meaning trans athletes will be able to compete in the women's category after previously being banned.

Pakistani authorities say they have served an arrest warrant for former Prime Minister Imran Khan at his Lahore residence, ordering him to appear in court on March 7 or face being forced to do so through police actions. Police arrived early on March 5 at the home of the 70-year-old critic of the current government but said they were thwarted in efforts to seize Khan on the spot after finding his residence surrounded by supporters. Islamabad police later said that following a room-by-room search of the site, Khan could not be found and that they were told by leaders of Khan's Tehrik-e Insaf party (PTI) "that Imran Khan is not present at the residence."

The Chinese currency has outperformed the greenback by volume of trading on the Moscow Exchange for the first time on record The Chinese yuan has overtaken the US dollar as the most traded currency on the Russian stock market for the first time ever, business daily Kommersant reported on Monday. According to the outlet's estimates, based on data from the Moscow Exchange (MOEX), the yuan was the most traded currency in February, displacing the US dollar from the top spot. Statistics showed that, over the month, the volume of Chinese currency trading exceeded 1.48 trillion rubles ($19.6 billion), which is one-third higher than in January. The volume of transactions with the dollar also increased in February, but only by 8% to 1.42 trillion rubles ($18.8 billion). As a result, the yuan accounted for almost 40% of the total volume of trading in major currencies, the dollar's share was just over 38%, while the euro stood at 21.2%. To compare, the greenback's trading volume a year ago...

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MISSION FROM THE AIN SHAMS UNIVERSITY HAS UNCOVERED A ROMAN ERA SPHINX DURING EXCAVATIONS AT THE DENDERA TEMPLE COMPLEX, LOCATED IN THE QENA GOVERNORATE OF EGYPT. The Temple of Dendera is a large ceremonial complex covering an area of 9.8 acres. The complex is centred on the Hathor Temple, a sanctuary which has been modified on the same site since the Middle Kingdom until the time of the Roman Emperor Trajan. Recent excavations led by Dr Mamdouh El Damaty, a former antiquities minister and a professor of archaeology at Cairo's Ain Shams University, revealed a Roman structure in an area east of the main complex where a temple dedicated to Horus is located. The structure is built using limestone and mortar, consisting of two levels. The lower level contains a large basin for collecting water from the Byzantine period, where the researchers found a Roman era sphinx statue.

A series of avalanches has occurred in Hokkaido, northern Japan, as sunny weather pushed up temperatures. A backcountry skier has died and another skier has gone missing. Police received a call at around 11:30 a.m. on Sunday from a family saying one of its members had gone missing while backcountry skiing at Mount Yotei. Police found a man buried in snow. He was taken to a hospital but died. Police say an avalanche appears to have occurred at a site where the 35-year-old was found.

The wet season deluge continues in Far North Queensland where landslides have closed major roads, with drivers stuck in floodwaters and a flood watch alert in place for hundreds of kilometres of river systems. Cairns has received more than 200 millimetres of rain since 9am yesterday, while Kuranda, to the west of the city, has received more than 300mm. Several major far-north roads have been closed due to landslides and fallen trees. A 60-year-old driver became stuck in floodwaters in the Cairns suburb of Clifton Beach just before 7am, but was able to escape the car before help arrived, according to the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service. Emergency Management Queensland regional director Wayne Coutts said there had been several jobs this morning, mainly leaking roofs.

Isabel Oakeshott is a journalist and critic of pandemic containment policies who was unaccountably hired by disgraced former UK health minister Matt Hancock to write the Pandemic Diaries: The Inside Story of Britain's Battle Against Covid. Hancock hoped that this exercise in autohagiography would rehabilitate his reputation after revelations of an extramarital affair forced him out of office. The joke, it turns out, is on him. Apparently, he gave Oakeshott an archive of over 100,000 WhatsApp messages to assist in her writing. She's now leaked that archive to the Telegraph, who are gleefully and selectively publishing them in an ongoing series they call The Lockdown Files. As with all selective leaks, there's reason to be cautious here: We don't have access to all of Hancock's communications or even the full WhatsApp archive, and the scattered and sensationalising Telegraph reporting - which emphasises Hancock's rude remarks and sniping at the expense of political content - inspires...

A 35-year-old woman was found dead in Manhattan on Sunday after being exposed to "hazardous materials" in her vehicle, police said, with four others reportedly being injured as well. According to AMNY, the deceased was discovered "unresponsive in the back of a vehicle on East 56th Street and Sutton Place at around 11:23 a.m. on March 5." It was reported that two NYPD officers responded after a woman walking her dog happened across the victim. "Both officers were examined on scene and are expected to be okay, " sources told the outlet.

The construction site of Atlanta's future Public Safety Training Facility - dubbed "Cop City" - has been attacked by Antifa-affiliated leftists. At least one construction vehicle was set ablaze. Antifa Mastadon "news" account posted: "Forest defenders have taken over the police surveillance outpost on the power line clearing near Intrenchment Creek. Police retreated after crowd arrived at barbed wire fence and shot fireworks into the area."

Dozens of houses were damaged and hundreds of people were displaced after severe flooding swept through the municipality of Bandeirantes in the north of the state of Paran, Brazil. Flooding struck in the early house of 05 March 2023 following torrential rainfall. The municipal government reported over 150 mm of rain in a short period. The volume and intensity of the rain caused rivers to break their banks, flooding wide areas of Bandeirantes. Around 250 homes were damaged and over 700 people were displaced. Roads are impassable and schools have been closed. Full damage assessments are yet to be completed. "We still haven't been able to assess the damage, since we have several damaged bridges which we need to rebuild, and people are isolated," Jaelson Matta, mayor of Bandeirantes said. Many of those displaced are being housed in local schools and other public buildings. Local authorities are providing food and other relief supplies. The Municipality of Bandeirantes declared a state...

Fascinating new scientific evidence has emerged showing stable temperatures in Greenland for at least 60 years, with just a sudden 1C jump around 1994. The recent findings from a group of environmental meteorologists will cast further doubt on the unproven hypothesis that humans have caused recent changes in the Arctic climate. In a highly detailed paper, the scientists show that the climate changes can be attributed to natural variation caused by two significant air currents. The scientists report a significant jump in Greenland's near-surface air temperatures (T2m) around 1994, with relatively stable temperature in the periods before (1958-93) and after (1994-2020). In a crucial finding, the scientists state: "Large scale atmospheric circulation variability can effectively explain this interdecadal variability of Greenland T2m." These are caused by the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Greenland Blocking Index (GBI). The NAO is caused by latitudinal differences in air...

They were laughing at us. They didn't only lock us down. They didn't only suspend virtually every one of our civil liberties, including a right none of us ever expected to lose: the right to leave our own homes. They didn't only spy on us with drones, and encourage us to snitch on that neighbour going for a sneaky second jog, and fine teenagers life-ruining sums of money for holding house parties. They also chuckled about it. It was funny to them. In one of the most startling WhatsApp chats revealed in the Daily Telegraph's Lockdown Files, a senior civil servant says the following about Brits returning from trips abroad who were forced to quarantine in a stuffy hotel room for 10 days: 'Hilarious.' It was Simon Case, the UK's top mandarin. In February 2021 he had a breezy virtual chat with Matt Hancock, the then health secretary. A policy had just been introduced stipulating that any Briton returning from a 'red list' country - which eventually included 50 states around the world,...

A homeless grandmother in Ireland has been sentenced to 16 weeks behind bars for entering a hotel housing Ukrainian refugees and shouting that they were "rapists and criminals." The woman had sought accommodation, but was told no rooms were available. Margaret Buttimer appeared before a district court in Bandon, County Cork on Thursday, where police told the judge that they were called to a disturbance at a hotel in the town in late January. They found Buttimer shouting in the reception area, recalling that "she wanted to know how many Ukrainian nationals were staying in this hotel, what was the cost to the Irish people, and saying 'these Ukrainians are rapists and criminals'," according to a report by the Irish Times. Police said that she refused to desist and leave the hotel, and they had "no option" but to arrest her.

Matt Hancock wanted to "deploy" a new Covid variant to "frighten the pants off" the public and ensure they complied with lockdown, leaked messages seen by The Telegraph have revealed. The Lockdown Files - more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages sent between ministers, officials and others - show how the Government used scare tactics to force compliance and push through lockdowns. In another message Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, said that "the fear/ guilt factor" was "vital" in "ramping up the messaging" during the third national lockdown in Jan 2021. The previous month, Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, appeared to suggest in one message that a new strain of Covid that had recently emerged would be helpful in preparing the ground for the looming lockdown, by scaring people into compliance. In a WhatsApp conversation on Dec 13, obtained by The Telegraph, Damon Poole - one of Mr Hancock's media advisers - informed his boss that Tory MPs were "furious already about the...

Russia's investigative committee has launched a murder investigation after a top scientist was found dead in his Moscow apartment yesterday. Andrey Botikov, known as one of the 18 scientists who worked on the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in 2020, was identified as the man who had been strangled to death with a belt in northwest Moscow. It was previously reported he had survived the encounter after an intruder broke into his home and started rowing with him over money. But a 29-year-old man has since been arrested and charged with the murder of the scientist. The Investigative Committee of Russia said they found the suspect in 'the shortest possible time' after he tried to flee the scene. They claim he confessed to the crime during an interrogation.

Twenty years after the illegal invasion of Iraq, it is depressing that we are still debating the "merits" of criminal aggression against another Middle Eastern country. Dennis Ross just can't get enough saber-rattling against Iran: Instead, Blinken or President Joe Biden should announce that although the U.S. favors diplomacy for resolving the threat of the Iranian nuclear program, the Iranians continue to demonstrate that they don't; instead, their actions are drawing them closer and closer to a bomb, something that the U.S. has pledged to prevent, and Iran must understand that its actions jeopardize its entire nuclear infrastructure, including parts that could in theory be used for civilian energy purposes. Declaring this would signal that the U.S. is beginning to prepare the American public and the international community for possible military action against Iran's nuclear program. Ross has been banging the war drums against Iran for years, and his latest call for threatening an...

Analysis of patients undergoing sleep studies finds that people get more REM sleep in the winter. Whether we're night owls or morning larks, our body clocks are set by the sun. Theoretically, changing day length and light exposure over the course of the year could affect the duration and quality of our sleep. But figuring out how this applies in practice is difficult. Although studies where people assess their own sleep have suggested an increase in sleep duration during winter, objective measures are needed to determine how exactly the seasons affect sleep. Scientists studying sleep difficulties have now published data in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience that shows that, even in an urban population experiencing disrupted sleep, humans experience longer REM sleep in winter than summer and less deep sleep in autumn.

Rabat - President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (RDC), Felix Tshisekedi, has urged Europe, particularly France to change its "patronizing" attitude towards African countries. "The way of seeing things when they happen in Africa must change in our relations with France in particular but also with the West in General," the president said on Thursday. He made his remarks during a press conference with France President Emmanuel Macron, who was on a Central Africa visit. Comment: Now that China and Russia are offering an alternative to the Western imperialist model, Africa's leaders are able to drive a harder bargain speak more freely, and that's partly why Macron is on his schmoozing tour of Africa. Addressing Macron during the conference, Tshisekedi stressed the importance of mutual respect between EU and African countries.

There have been more public protests against plans to build accommodation for refugees and migrants in northeastern Germany. Far right extremists joined a demonstration of around 500 people on Monday. Police sources say that about 500 people gathered on Monday (February 27) to protest the building of an accommodation center for refugees in the city of Greifswald. Among the protestors were about 20 participants from Germany's far-right scene, according to police. About 30 people were reported to have gathered for a counter-demonstration at the site.

This comes a day after the Chancellor met with US President Joe Biden and discussed Germany's contribution to aiding Ukraine and how to respond to its current military needs. Despite talks of de-industrialization in Germany's economy and the excruciating energy crisis which has swept Europe, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told CNN on Sunday that Germany plans to boost its military build-up 'permanently' to meet Ukraine's demands, including the production of tanks and air defense systems. Comment: Will these be manufactured using Russian energy? German imports of Russian coal increase throughout 2022 despite sanctions "The build-up of defense production in Germany will be permanent," he told CNN host Fareed Zakaria, noting that Berlin requires an uninterrupted supply of basic hardware that is in service with the German armed forces, as well as maintenance capabilities and ammunition supply.

A fire broke out after an explosion at a coke gas works in the city of Vidnoye near Moscow, a spokesman for the Russian emergencies ministry's Moscow region department told TASS on Sunday. "An explosion in a coke gas works' shop in Vidnoye. A pump tower with benzol is on fire. A 20-meter high flame," he said. According to a TASS source in emergencies services, the entire building of 200 square meters is consumed by the fire.

A MASSIVE fire that set off five alarms has been reported at a building in the Bronx. The city-block-wide flames have seemingly engulfed a large portion of the structures near 2096 Grand Concourse in New York City. The FDNY is already at the scene, according to a recent post on Twitter. "FDNY members are currently operating at a 3-alarm fire at 2096 Grand Concourse in the Bronx," they wrote.

ESG's, diversity, equity, and inclusion, stakeholder capitalism, sustainability, CBDC's, transhumanism, Agenda 2030 no doubt you've heard or read about these and any number of other terms that are meant to get the public with the new progressive and "forward thinking" policies and philosophies of the future. Of course you have; they are all part of the behemoth global elite-inspired policies and agendas of the so-called "Great Reset." But what's really behind them? What are they actually meant to accomplish? And how might these ideas, put into actual practice, affect the way that we live or don't live? Joining MindMatters once again is accomplished writer and researcher Michael Rectenwald. Author of Springtime for Snowflakes, Beyond Woke and The Google Archipelago and in a most insightful progression Michael tackles his biggest and most important subject yet with his new book The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty. With a depth and breadth that is unmatched, his new...

Three German tourists from Bavaria are dead, the victims of one of the most dangerous avalanche seasons of recent memory in British Columbia. The trio were part of a nine-person heli-ski group that took off early Wednesday to explore an area near Panorama Mountain Resort near Invermere, B.C. The skiers triggered the slide, according to avalanche experts, and despite having avalanche training and a guide on hand, three were unable to get out of it.

On March 2, 2023, The Deschutes County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue unit was dispatched to a report of an avalanche at Black Crater, Oregon. Black Crater is a steep-sided shield volcano in the Cascade Range, located north of the Three Sisters and east of McKenzie Pass. The reporting party (skier#2) advised Deschutes County 911 he and a friend were skiing in the caldera at Black Crater when an avalanche was triggered. Skier #1 was caught up in the avalanche and no longer visible and possibly injured. Both skiers were equipped with proper backcountry safety items including avalanche beacons, shovels, helmets, and avalanche probes. The reporting party attempted to locate his friend by utilizing his avalanche beacon and ultimately was successful. Life-saving measures were conducted, however, skier #1 succumbed to his injuries.

Neuroticism is "a tendency toward anxiety, depression, self-doubt, and other negative feelings," as succinctly defined by Psychology Today. One thing you notice living abroad in certain (not all) non-Western countries, coming from the West, is the neuroticism differential. Westerners in Bangkok, for instance, get super mad when the bus doesn't come on time. To cope, they verbally berate minimum-wage workers who have no control over the matter whatsoever. In contrast, the locals shrug their shoulders, chalk it up to fate or whatever, and take the punches as they come. One comes away with the awful impression that the bus tardiness is not, in the ultimate analysis, the source of the farang's consternation ("farang" being local jargon for "white foreigner"). Carl Jung, famed psychoanalyst of posterity, agrees.

China's Belt and Road Initiative is a dizzyingly ambitious plan to connect Asia and more than 100 nations with 21st Century economic infrastructure, everything from highways and high-speed rail lines to power generation, energy pipelines, communication systems, cities, ports, and more. "Light at the end of the tunnel" was an iconic phrase used by the warmongers who kept the U.S. in Vietnam long after the War had been lost. The implication was that insiders could see through the fog of war and know that things were getting better. It was a lie. In January 1966, long before the military height of the War, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told President Johnson that the U.S. had a one-out-of-three chance of winning on the battlefield. But Johnson, like Eisenhower and Kennedy before him, and Nixon after him, didn't want to be the first American president to lose a war. So, he ginned up a simplistic lie and "soldiered on." The lie was blown by the Tet Offensive in January 1968. More...

While Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman continues to be hospitalized for clinical depression, he has been named as a co-sponsor of a bipartisan bill launched in the wake of the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. S.576, "A bill to enhance safety requirements for trains transporting hazardous materials, and for other purposes," was introduced to the Senate on Wednesday by Sen. Sherrod Brown. Listed as co-sponsors of the bill are Sens. John Fetterman, JD Vance, Robert Casey Jr., Marco Rubio, and Josh Hawley. Yet on February 15, the freshman congressman checked himself into Walter Reed medical center in Washington, DC to "receive treatment for clinical depression." He has not yet emerged, and his wife and family have left the US for Canada as rumors swirl about his condition. "On Monday, John was evaluated by Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the Attending Physician of the United States Congress. Yesterday, Dr. Monahan recommended inpatient care at Walter Reed. John agreed, and he...

A new report from the UN was just published. It proposes and discusses ways to cool our planet by restricting sunlight and darkening our skies. What is this about? Why block sunlight, of all things? Let me explain. The UN is worried about climate change. As the efforts to reduce CO2 emissions are faltering, the UN is looking for more ways to cool the Earth. The UNEP's report details ideas called "Solar Radiation Modification," the gist of which is to reflect sunlight and prevent it from heating the surface of our planet. Here are the main ideas that the UN will consider: Injecting reflective nanoparticles/sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere (stratospheric aerosol injection) Brightening of low clouds over the ocean by seeding ocean clouds with submicron salt particles Using space mirrors, that is, many giant mirrors launched into outer space to reflect sunlight. The UN explains that should the "global stakeholders" decide to proceed, the skies could be darkened within only a few...

Billions of people around the world face starvation if Net Zero policies ban the production of nitrogen fertiliser derived from fossil fuels. This is the stark warning from two top American scientists who say that eliminating fossil fuel-derived nitrogen fertilisers and pesticides "will result in about half the world's population not having enough food to eat". They add that eliminating Net Zero fertiliser will create "worldwide starvation". In a wide-ranging paper titled 'Challenging 'Net Zero' with Science', Emeritus Professors William Happer and Richard Lindzen of Princeton and MIT respectively, along with geologist Gregory Wrightstone, state that Net Zero - the global movement to eliminate fossil fuels and its emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases - to be "scientifically invalid and a threat to the lives of billions of people". The battle over nitrogen fertiliser is being hard fought by green activists who argue for massive reductions in its use and more...

On Friday's episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, Russell Brand called out MSNBC commentator John Heilemann for "throwing rocks at Fox News" while his network participates in "propagandist nut-crackery" and gave examples after Heilemann refused to acknowledge his liberal bias, leaving the pundit unable to articulate a comeback except repeating "nonresponsive... nonresponsive." "It's disingenuous to claim that the biases they've exhibited on Fox News are any different from the biases exhibited on MSNBC," Brand said. "It's difficult to suggest that these corporations operate as anything other than mouthpieces for their affiliate owners in Black Rock and Vanguard." "We have to take responsibility for our own perspective," Brand said, and later added, "I've been on that MSNBC, mate. It was propagandist nut-crackery." In 2013, Brand appeared on Morning Joe on a day when Joe Scarborough was absent. As Brand wrote on his website, Mika Brzezinski and the co-hosts only talked about the...

Scholz and Macron have a plan to bring peace to Ukraine, but Putin can't stop laughing as it's so stupid. And why would Russia quit now when Europe is on the back foot anyway? Hollywood has a new double act which it can make a sequel to the comedy starring Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels Dumb and Dumber. Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz could easily play these roles now, given their gob-smacking stupidity recently in attempting to reign in President Zelensky, who recently in London managed to break his own record at a live press conference for sniffing or touching his nose in an odd manner. Zelensky is, and always has been, the real stumbling block when it comes to kickstarting peace talks. And nothing much has changed of late, except that Biden is starting to panic in Washington as it is clear the obscene amount of money which was previously shovelled to Ukraine is going to slow down in 2023, due largely to congress now having the Republicans controlling the House and an election race...

Residents in the Southern California are pleading for more help as some remain in an increasingly desperate situation after a massive snowstorm overwhelmed the area. AIR7 HD, from our sister station, ABC7 Los Angeles, flew over the Lake Gregory area of Crestline Friday afternoon and captured a large message written out in the snow that read "HELP US!!" Despite facing treacherous roads, aerial footage showed dozens of residents lined up at a food distribution outside a Crestline grocery store where the roof had collapsed earlier in the week.

It hasn't even been a full week since the last snowstorm, but now another major system lashed the Greater Toronto Area on Friday night, bringing with it a fresh coating of snow that clearing crews continue to battle. But, snow was not the only thing flashing throughout the sky there was also "thundersnow." Global's Ahmar Khan reports from Toronto in the middle of this frigid scene.

At least 13 people have died in multiple states due to severe weather across the country as a powerful storm system that brought golf ball-sized hail and tornadoes to the South continues to march Saturday across the Northeast. The storm spurred wind gusts strong enough to topple tractor-trailer trucks, leaving more than 1 million people without power and threatening to bring more torrential rain, tornadoes and heavy snow. The storm system is the same that dumped feet of snow across parts of California, leaving some trapped in their homes with snow piled as high as second-story windows and prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency in 13 counties. Many of those affected are now bracing for another round of snow and rain on Saturday from a new system. At least five Kentuckians have died in connection with the severe weather that hit the area Friday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said during a news briefing on Saturday.

Americas Hyper-Financialized Economic System Is No Match for China's Government-Directed Investment Model. Regrettably, China's Explosive Growth Is Pushing a Desperate Washington Closer to War. Ukraine is the first flashpoint in a great power struggle between the United States and China. After years of shifting its industries to low-wage locations around the world, the US finds itself steadliy losing market-share to a faster-growing and more resourceful China. By most estimates, China's economy will overtake the United States by 2035 at which point, Beijing will be in a much better position to shape international trade relations in a way that promotes its own interests. With growth, comes power, and that rule will certainly apply to China as well. China has emerged as an industrial powerhouse that sits at the very epicenter of the most populous and fastest growing region in the world. It is for that reason that the United States has initiated a series of provocations on the island...

Rivers are above the danger mark in at least 16 locations in the state of Johor, Malaysia, where thousands of people have evacuated their homes. Around 630 mm of rain fell in under 48 hours in some locations of Johor. Meanwhile, flooding has also affected areas of Sarawak and Sabah States. Over 40 evacuation centres were set up in the districts of Johor Bahru, Kluang, Kota Tinggi, Kulai, Pontian and Segamat late on 28 February. Malaysia's disaster management agency said over 5,000 people from 1,542 households had moved to the centres as of 01 March. Heavy rain began on 28 February. According to figures from the Ministry Of Natural Resources, Environment And Climate Change, the Air Panas weather station in the Segamat district recorded 627 mm of rain from 28 to late 01 March.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping met on Wednesday with Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus and a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Chinese state media, Lukashenko was welcomed with a 21-gun salute in Tiananmen Square, where he reviewed honor guard troops with Xi, who later declared the China-Belarus friendship "unbreakable." The meeting comes a week after Beijing called for a cease-fire and peace talks to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, both neighbors of Belarus. It also follows a pledge by China and Russia to strengthen their cooperation. "In the face of an international situation full of instability and uncertainty, China is ready to work together with Belarus to promote the healthy and stable development of relations between the two countries at a high level," Xi was cited as telling Lukashenko. Xi said the two sides should continue to enhance political mutual trust and "always be each other's true friends and good partners." China and...

This bright bolide was spotted from Spain on March 2, at 4:56 local time (equivalent to 3:56 universal time). It overflew Morocco and was almost as bright as the full Moon. The event was generated by a rock (a meteoroid) from a comet that hit the atmosphere at about 238,000 km/h. The fireball began at an altitude of about 120 km over Tizi Ntassa, moved northwest, and ended at a height of around 84 km over the locality of Zawyat Ribat. This bright meteor was recorded in the framework of the SMART project, operated by the Southwestern Europe Meteor Network (SWEMN) from the meteor-observing stations located at Huelva, La Hita (Toledo), Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, La Sagra (Granada), Sevilla, and El Aljarafe (Sevilla). The event has been analyzed by the principal investigator of the SMART project: Dr. Jose M. Madiedo, from the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA-CSIC).

Donald Trump gave the keynote speech at CPAC on Saturday afternoon, the former president and 2024 presidential candidate promised to take back the country from the corruption of the Biden administration and the biased corporate media and represent the people's interests. Trump received a standing ovation upon taking the stage. He spoke of his anti-war record, attacked the enemies of America in the Biden administration, the pro-crime district attorneys, the attacks on free speech and a free press, and his "bold, detailed agenda for how we're going to complete this mission" in his text term.

The boss of MI5 has said he is "profoundly sorry" that the security service did not prevent the Manchester Arena terror attack. An inquiry found the bombing might have been prevented if MI5 had acted on key intelligence received in the months before the attack. In the wake of the findings, director general Ken McCallum also expressed deep regret that such intelligence was not obtained.

In the Middle Ages, the Roman alphabet and runes lived side by side. A new doctoral thesis challenges the notion that runes represent more of an oral and less of a learned form of written language. "Here rests Bishop Peter' might have been inscribed on a gravestone from the 1200s. Some inscriptions might have been made using runes, others with Roman letters," says Johan Bollaert, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies. He has investigated written language used in public inscriptions in Norway from the 1100s to the 1500s. Last autumn, he defended his doctoral thesis "Visuality and Literacy in the Medieval Epigraphy of Norway."

College Park, Maryland, Mayor Patrick Wojahn resigned Wednesday, a day before he was arrested and charged with 56 counts of child pornography. His charges included 40 counts of possession of child exploitative material and 16 counts of distribution of child exploitative material, according to police. Prince George's County Police Chief Aziz Malik described the case during a press conference on Thursday as "disturbing." "In so many ways that people count on public officials, people who are supposed to be honest and trustworthy and have a high degree of integrity, it is troublesome," Malik said.

A Norfolk Southern cargo train derailed near Springfield, Ohio in the US on Saturday. The incident comes a month after another train operated by the same company came off the tracks in East Palestine, Ohio, causing a major toxic spill. This time there were no hazardous materials on the train, Norfolk Southern noted in a statement. "Our teams are en route to the site to begin cleanup operations," the company said. There were no deaths or injuries as a result of the incident, it added. Residents within 300 meters (1,000 feet) of the crash site have been told to shelter in place "out of an abundance of caution," the local emergency management agency said. Between 20 and 30 cars out of 212 on the train derailed at around 5 pm by State Route 41, the Springfield News-Sun reported, citing on-site emergency officials. Electricity was reportedly out in parts of Springfield as power lines were damaged in the crash.

A new #TwitterFiles thread will be dropping in a few hours, at noon EST. It follows up the Hamilton 68 story of a month ago with examples of state-funded digital blacklisting campaigns run amok. It's self-explanatory, but some advance context might help: In 2015-2016, during the brief, forgotten period when Islamic terrorism was fading as a national obsession and Trumpian "domestic extremism" had not yet become one, Barack Obama made a series of decisions that may yet prove devastating to his legacy. The short Engagement Center" ("GEC") to "counter the messaging and diminish the influence of international terrorist organizations." This act got almost no press and even within government, almost no one noticed. In the bigger picture, however, a lame duck president kick-started the process of shifting the national security establishment's focus from counterterrorism to "disinformation." Whether by malfunction or...

Very rarely do we come across a cache of documents giving an unvarnished glimpse of the personalities, as well as the policies, which shape our lives. Britain's 30-year rule shows us memos and scribbled comments, but with no hint of the conversations behind them. Richard Crossman's posthumous diaries were so explosive that ministers tried to suppress publication, but even that was just one man's view. Matt Hancock won't be thanked for it, but he has done the nation a great service by keeping perhaps the richest documentary source disclosed in recent years. Conversations in and around 10 Downing Street would never normally be recorded. But Hancock's WhatsApp messages offer a real-time record of decision-making - complete with gossip, reactions, documents, conversations and emojis. They have several stories, to be sure, but the real value lies in something greater: a psychological profile of a group of men who had untrammelled power over the lives of millions. How would any group...

For more than a month, numerous rallies, demonstrations and processions of citizens opposing the existing policy of their country. On March 3, another march took place in Bratislava in support of Russia and for peace - against NATO and military assistance to Ukraine. Thousands of local residents gathered in front of the palace of Slovak President Zuzana aputov, a well-known pro-American activist, defender of "justice" (in the interpretation of Washington), liberal and non-traditional values, "environmentalist" and fighter against corruption. People marched through Bratislava to the US embassy, chanting pro-Russian and anti-American slogans. In front of the American diplomatic mission, the Slovaks, who were frankly tired of the rampant Russophobia, began to sing Russian songs.

A gas tanker caught fire Saturday in Frederick, Maryland, after a fiery crash, causing three nearby homes to be engulfed in flames. The tanker truck exploded around 12:40 p.m. ET on U.S. Route 15 near a residential area. The truck driver was killed during the explosion. Emergency services immediately responded to the scene of the disaster. Both sides of the highway were closed. Frederick County Fire Chief Tom Coe said the tanker truck was carrying "a flammable liquid" before becoming completely engulfed in flames.

Researchers have discovered evidence of horse riding by studying the remains of human skeletons found in burial mounds called kurgans, which were between 4,500 and 5,000 years old. The earthen burial mounds belonged to the Yamnaya culture. The Yamnayans had migrated from the Pontic-Caspian steppes to find greener pastures in todays countries of Romania and Bulgaria up to Hungary and Serbia. Yamnayans were mobile cattle and sheep herders, now believed to be on horseback. "Horseback-riding seems to have evolved not long after the presumed domestication of horses in the western Eurasian steppes during the fourth millennium BCE. It was already rather common in members of the Yamnaya culture between 3000 and 2500 BCE," says Volker Heyd, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Helsinki and a member of the international team that made the discovery.

A computer glitch at Paris' main Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports hobbled border controls on Saturday, causing long queues for passengers. "A national breakdown of border police currently affects checkpoints at the departure and arrival of Paris-CDG and Paris-Orly. An extension of the waiting time is to be expected," Paris Airports tweeted. It was not immediately clear if other airports or sectors were affected.

Take a look at Earth from far off in space, you'd notice it looks uniformly bright. Considering the Southern Hemisphere's disproportionate expanse of dark ocean waters should reflect back less sunlight, this isn't what we might expect down here on the surface. It's a mystery that's been of interest to scientists since the early 1970s, when we were first able to get satellites into orbit to measure reflected solar radiation, which is technically known as albedo. Now, that mystery may have been solved. The explanation is that while the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere absorb more sunlight, they also produce a higher number of storms - and the resulting storm clouds act as reflectors that balance out the solar radiation being sent back into space.

Scotland has banned the inhaled anaesthetic desflurane due to its devastating impact on the climate. It is the first country in the world to do so. The gas, which is used to put patients to sleep safely during surgery, has a global warming potential 2,500 times greater than carbon dioxide, according to the UK's National Health Service (NHS). Various hospitals in other parts of the UK have already begun phasing out the anaesthetic. NHS England plans to stop using desflurane completely by early 2024, except in exceptional circumstances.

The West has been left 'disappointed' by Russia's resilience to the punitive measures, most of which have backfired, Anton Siluanov says Responsible economic policy has allowed Russia to keep its economy afloat and in many ways improve its performance throughout the past year despite the unprecedented sanctions pressure, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov claimed in an interview with RT on Friday. According to Siluanov, the measures taken by the Russian government to offset the impact of the Ukraine-related Western sanctions have "disappointed" those who predicted a double-digit GDP drop, high inflation, and a sharp decline in the incomes of Russian citizens. Siluanov noted that the country's economy dipped by only 2.1% in 2022, which is even less than the decline of 2.7% in the pandemic-marred 2020.

Dear friends and supporters, I have difficult news to impart. On Feb. 17, without much warning, I was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer on the basis of a CT scan and an MRI. (As is usual with pancreatic cancer-which has no early symptoms - it was found while looking for something else, relatively minor). I'm sorry to report to you that my doctors have given me three to six months to live. Of course, they emphasize that everyone's case is individual; it might be more, or less. I have chosen not to do chemotherapy (which offers no promise) and I have assurance of great hospice care when needed. Please know: right now, I am not in any physical pain, and in fact, after my hip replacement surgery in late 2021, I feel better physically than I have in years! Moreover, my cardiologist has given me license to abandon my salt-free diet of the last six years. This has improved my quality of life dramatically: the pleasure of eating my former favorite foods! And my energy level is...

The recent one-on-one meeting between India's National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Kumar Doval and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow underscored the growing stature of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's key resource for troubleshooting both back home and in key foreign capitals. Putin took some foreign policy experts by surprise by making time to meet with Doval, India's fifth NSA and a retired Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief. Their hour-long meeting took place on the sidelines of an Afghanistan conference, organized under the aegis of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Doval is only the second Indian NSA to have had an individual meeting with the Russian president. The first such meeting was the inaugural NSA Brajesh Mishra, back in 2001. Of all Indian high-ranking officials, only Prime Ministers have ever had direct meetings with Putin. Even the country's External Affairs Ministers have been excluded, including the incumbent Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is currently developing two international legal instruments intended to increase its authority in managing health emergencies, including pandemics: Amendments to the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR) A pandemic treaty, termed 'CA+' by WHO The draft IHR amendments (analysed in detail here) would lay out new powers for WHO during health emergencies and broaden the context within which they can be used. The draft CA+ ('treaty'; analysed here) is intended to support the bureaucracy, financing and governance to underpin the expanded IHR. These proposed instruments, as currently drafted, would fundamentally change the relationship between the WHO, its Member States and their populations, promoting what can fairly be described as a fascist and neo-colonialist approach to healthcare and governance. The documents need to be viewed together, and in the wider context of the global/globalist pandemic preparedness agenda.

The crown of America sits in a gutter begging someone to pick it up before the nation collapses Auron MacIntyre, The Blaze In an interview with Fox News's Bret Baier last Tuesday, FBI Director Chris Wray said, "The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan." Like so much else in America's tortured, distractible life these days, the meaning larded into that utterance went clear over the collective heads of just about everybody. What was the key part of that statement? "For quite some time now...." Gee, really? Like, how long? One year? More than that? Maybe since March 2020? And you didn't say anything, Mr. FBI Director? You didn't do a thing to dispel the Covid-19 miasma of confusion that swaddled Washington DC like a smallpox blanket of yore? The question of where the novel coronavirus came from has been a ferocious national controversy since late 2019, you understand. Several government agencies,...

President Joe Biden's Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is funneling hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to border crossers and illegal aliens directly released into American communities after arriving at the United States-Mexico border. This week, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced that the agency would be spending some $350 million on the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, specifically to fund support services for border crossers and illegal aliens arriving in various U.S. towns and cities. Mayorkas said: "With today's funding of $350 million for the Emergency Food and Shelter Program, DHS is delivering on our commitment to provide needed support to communities across the country that receive noncitizens who are in immigration enforcement proceedings." Already, DHS has spent $75 million "to fund costs incurred by localities and non-governmental organizations" through the program.

UN experts have called on western nations to immediately lift sanctions against Syria, highlighting the devastating impact these punitive measures have on the civilian population. The US House of Representatives on 27 February approved Resolution 132, which urges the White House to "remain committed" to implementing unilateral economic sanctions on quake-struck Syria. In a 414-2 vote, lawmakers resolved that Washington must "remain committed to the protection of the Syrian people including by implementing the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019." Republican representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie were the only ones to vote against the resolution. While neither has publicly commented on their vote, western media has painted their objection as a refusal to "mourn the victims" of last month's earthquake. Comment: Congress 'mourns' and 'protects' the people with sanctions. Meanwhile, the media crucifies independent thinkers.

Rasmussen has a new poll out showing that a whopping 61 percent of all voters, including a stunning 57 percent of Democrats, believe that federal agents played a role in inciting the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021. In answer to the question "How likely is it that undercover government agents helped provoke the Capitol riot," 61 percent of likely voters said it was either very likely (39 percent) or somewhat likely (22 percent) that they had done so. 59 percent of men and 63 percent of women believed that federal agents had "helped provoke the Capitol riot." This major majority of voters who believe the Capitol riot was not simply naturally occurring breaks down among political party affiliation as well, with 57 percent of Democrats saying it is either very likely (34 percent) or somewhat likely (23 percent) while for Republicans the numbers are 51 percent saying very likely, and 19 percent saying somewhat likely. Many across the media of the new right have stated their belief,...

On Thursday morning, a group of armed operatives crossed the border from Ukraine into Russia's Bryansk Region. The so-called Russian Volunteer Corps (RDK; or Russkiy dobrovol'cheskiy korpus), consisting of Russians fighting for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, claimed responsibility for the incursion. President Vladimir Putin branded the incident "yet another terrorist attack, another crime... they entered the border territory and opened fire at civilians." A video has been released by the RDK, claiming responsibility for the crime, featuring Denis Nikitin, a Neo-Nazi with wide international connections. Known as 'WhiteRex' in far-right circles, he called on Russian citizens to switch sides and join the Ukrainian army. Nikitin claimed his group only targets Russian soldiers and never attacks civilians. Who is this man? What is his connection to Ukraine and its armed forces? And how did a football hooligan become a prominent figure in the European and American neo-Nazi underworld?

Nina Jankowicz, the former Biden administration official who was slated to head the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Disinformation Governance Board to fight "misinformation" before resigning a month after taking the position, is pleading for financial support to sue Fox News for their alleged "their malicious reckless lies" about her. In a Thursday video uploaded to YouTube with an accompanying GoFundMe page, the former "Ministry of Truth" head announced the lawsuit. "My name is Nina Jankowicz. I'm asking for your financial support of a lawsuit I want to bring against Fox News for their malicious reckless lies against me," she began. "A year ago today I realized a lifelong dream and entered public service as a US government official. I spent the better part of a decade working on both sides of the aisle to counter disinformation. I've published two books. And I've always been an advocate for free expression."

The head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group said Friday his forces had 'practically encircled' Bakhmut, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine that has seen the fiercest fighting of Moscow's invasion. Warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin said there was 'just one road remaining' out of the city for its Ukrainian defenders to leave by, as Russia's forces moved in. Footage circulated online showing a railway bridge being destroyed in an explosion, which some said was Ukrainian forces covering their retreat. Others said Russia destroyed the bridge. MailOnline could not immediately verify the video. Ukraine has said it will defend 'fortress Bakhmut' for as long as possible, but this week officials conceded the situation was becoming increasingly difficult. Russia is determined to seize Bakhmut - a now-destroyed city once known for its sparkling wine - as part of its wider aim of capturing the entire Donetsk region. Ukrainian city of Bakhmut 'practically encircled', says Wagner Chief

Russians in the UK have been subjected to violent assaults, threats and vandalism in the last year, as new figures suggest a surge in hate crime linked to the war in Ukraine. A Sky News investigation has found details of dozens of race hate crimes against Russian nationals in Britain since 24 February 2022, the date Vladimir Putin began his invasion. One large police force in England saw anti-Russian offences more than double in the last year compared to 2021, while a charity revealed that children of primary school age have been victims. An expert has warned that the number of recorded offences is likely to be the "tip of the iceberg" as many go unreported, and the spike is expected to continue for the duration of the war.

Animal consciousness should not be thought of as a light switch, which can be on or off, Bochum philosophers say. They advocate a different approach. There are reasons to assume that not only humans but also some non-human species of animal have conscious perception. Which species have consciousness and how the subjective experience of various species could differ is being investigated by Professor Albert Newen and PhD student Leonard Dung from the Institute for Philosophy II at Ruhr University Bochum. To do this, they characterise consciousness with ten different dimensions and work out which behaviours indicate the presence of each of these consciousness dimensions. They describe their approach in the academic journal Cognition, published online on 21 February 2023. Consciousness is not like a light switch There is a debate within research as to which animals have consciousness. There are also various views as to how consciousness can be expressed. "According to one view,...

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky sparked indignation and outrage this week with his grim warning that America's sons and daughters will end up fighting and dying if Russia is not defeated in Ukraine. His presumptuous comments were made at a press conference on February 24 but only gained notoriety this week, provoking howls of derision and disgust. The reckless insanity of the war in Ukraine - and the catastrophe it is leading to - has become unbearable. U.S. politicians - mainly on the Republican side - as well as ordinary citizens have become rightly alarmed by the blank-check policy of the Biden administration to prop up the Kiev regime with up to $100 billion in military and financial support over the past year. There is growing public anger both in the United States and across the European Union with the bottomless pit of money that governments have unaccountably reached into and thrown at Ukraine. Western states have increasingly escalated the war with supplies of...

At Russia's Valdai Club meeting - the east's answer to Davos - intellectuals and influencers gathered to frame West Asia's current and future developments. The 12th "Middle East Conference" at the Valdai Club in Moscow offered a more than welcome cornucopia of views on interconnected troubles and tribulations affecting the region. But first, an important word on terminology - as only one of Valdai's guests took the trouble to stress. This is not the "Middle East" - a reductionist, Orientalist notion devised by old colonials: at The Cradle we emphasize the region must be correctly described as West Asia. Some of the region's trials and tribulations have been mapped by the official Valdai report, The Middle East and The Future of Polycentric World. But the intellectual and political clout of those in attendance can provide valuable anecdotal insights too. Here are a few of the major strands participants highlighted on regional developments, current and future: Russian Deputy Foreign...