Indonesia's Mount Merapi, one of the world's most active volcanoes, erupted on Saturday (Mar 11), spewing out smoke and ash that blanketed villages near the crater. There were no immediate reports of casualties, the country's disaster mitigation agency said. Images broadcast on local outlet Kompas TV showed ash-covered houses and roads at a village near the volcano, located on Java Island, near Indonesia's cultural capital Yogyakarta. The Merapi Volcano Observatory estimated the ash cloud reached 3,000m (9,600 feet) above the summit.

Tens of thousands of dead fish are washing up on southwest Florida beaches due to red tide, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. A video posted to Facebook by Dawn Workman Lansing showed numerous dead fish washed up in Venice on Thursday. They ranged in size from very small to what appeared to be a goliath grouper, which can weigh up to 800 pounds. Red tide is a type of harmful algal bloom that occurs when colonies of algae grow out of control and produce toxins that can kill marine life, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Red tide can also cause human illnesses or make the air near the water difficult to breathe.

On Friday, 85-year-old actress and far-left activist Jane Fonda went on The View to say that "murder" was something that could be done aside from peaceful protest to change the opinions of pro-life lawmakers in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade. Fonda said, "We have experienced many decades now of having agency over our body, of being able to determine when and how many children to have. We know what that feels like, we know what that's done for our lives. We're not going back, I don't care what the laws are. We're not going back."

Masks "have come to be about far more than blocking aerosolized secretions," one doctor and Yale University lecturer wrote. Sure enough, you could open the prestige journals of our culture from any time over the past three years and find a reason to wear a mask that, at best, was a few steps removed from the primary goal of containing viruses. "Masks have also become so much more than mere barrier between germs and lungs," one New York Times reporter stated in spring 2021. "They can keep that too-chatty neighbor at bay or help the introvert hide in plain sight."

Up to 40cm of snow expected in Peak District and Pennines, with warning of 'exceptionally cold night' on Friday. Snow and rain are expected to bring further travel disruption across large areas of Britain on Friday. Three amber warnings for blizzard conditions with up to 40cm (15.7in) of snow were issued by the Met Office on Thursday and remain in place until Friday morning.

You might think U.S. health authorities would be embarrassed. After all, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies oversaw policies that produced more COVID-19 deaths per capita than nearly any other developed country. More humiliating, they earned that distinction while dictating draconian shutdowns and school closures that profoundly damaged our economy and our children's educations. And even though Americans had early access to the world's best vaccines. You would be wrong. Instead of adopting a humbler or more cautious approach to managing the waning virus, the CDC and the Biden administration are more truculent - and incomprehensible - than ever.

On the morning of July 25, 2020, Matthew Thomas took what he believed was Percocet, a prescription drug for pain relief. He died moments later, a victim of fentanyl poisoning. On Jan. 26, 2019, Austen Babcock took what he believed was cocaine. Unbeknownst to him, it was laced with fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid. He died shortly after, another victim of fentanyl poisoning. April Babcock, Austen's mother, and Wendy Thomas, Matthew's mother, have both become activists to raise awareness about illicit fentanyl. Babcock is the founder of Lost Voices of Fentanyl, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness on illicit fentanyl, and Thomas is the founder of Matthew's Voice.

For most people in America, the news that a 'bank in Silicon Valley' has failed will be forgotten quicker than a story about soaring shoplifting in their local supermarket. It shouldn't. Reality is that the contagion of the shuttering of the 18th largest bank in the US are widespread. SVB is in fact the second largest (by assets) bank failure in US history after WaMu.

After Fox News host Tucker Carlson aired Capitol surveillance footage this week exposing yet more falsehood from the House Select Committee on Jan. 6 and leaving Democrats and their media allies irate, the committee chair on Wednesday said the panel never actually analyzed the crucial footage. On Monday's edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Fox News aired the footage of the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, undermining the select committee's narrative of a "deadly insurrection." Given access to the video by Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Carlson's team reviewed over 40,000 hours of footage, which offered proof the committee manipulated audio and video to dramatize the riot for its made-for-TV hearings in an election year. But in a Wednesday night statement to CNN, select committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., claimed the panel never analyzed the blockbuster footage Fox News aired this week.

Russia and the United Nations will hold talks in Geneva on Monday (Mar 13) on renewing the Ukraine grain export deal, with the UN saying the fate of millions rested on its extension. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year saw Ukraine's Black Sea ports blocked by warships until a deal signed in July allowed for the safe passage of exports of critical grain supplies. Comment: That was to ensure that Ukraine didn't use the opportunity for war related activities, in the same way it abused the Minsk peace process to instead shore up its military to attack Russia; and that was done with the full blessing of the West. More than 23.7 million tonnes have been exported under the UN and Turkey-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative, according to the United Nations. Comment: Some of the grain that was intended for Africa was instead taken by Western nations instead.

In a major expansion and overhaul of its navy, Australia is planning to buy up to five US Virginia class nuclear powered submarines beginning in the next decade, Reuters and others are reporting. US as well as European officials have disclosed the future deal as part of a "landmark defense agreement between Washington, Canberra and London, four U.S. officials said on Wednesday, in a deal that would present a new challenge to China." Comment: Well, it's not so much a 'challenge' to China as it is a provocation, and further confirmation that the West is pathological in its plans to 'contain' the country. The impending agreement is seen as central to the relatively new AUKUS partnership, and the major sub deal is expected to be announced when President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak meet in San Diego Monday.

Quantum tunneling is a rare event that should be impossible under classical physics, but it is only now we are learning just how rare real-world examples are. The rate at which the rare but crucial quantum phenomenon known as tunneling occurs has been measured experimentally for the first time, and found to match theoretical calculations. The theoretical estimates in this area had been regarded as highly uncertain, so confirmation in one specific case allows for greater confidence in estimating the frequency of other tunneling events. Quantum tunneling is one of the many phenomena where subatomic particles behave in ways classical physics would say is impossible. In this case, an object trapped in a way that classically requires a certain energy to escape leaves the trap, despite having less than that amount of energy. It's a consequence, and proof of, the dual wave/particle nature of objects like electrons - a pure particle could not escape, but a wave occasionally can. Phenomena...

Reported sexual assaults at U.S. military academies shot up during the 2021-22 school year, and one in five female students told an anonymous survey that they had experienced unwanted sexual contact, The Associated Press has learned. A Pentagon report on reported assaults at the Army, Navy and Air Force academies shows an overall 18% jump in assaults reported by students compared with the previous year. The increase was driven largely by the Navy, which had nearly double the number of reported assaults in 2022, compared with 2021. It's unclear whether the phasing out of COVID-19-related restrictions contributed to the increase, including at the U.S. Naval Academy, which is directly adjacent to bars in downtown Annapolis, Maryland. An anonymous student survey accompanying the report shows increases in all types of unwanted sexual contact from touching to rape at all the schools. And it cites alcohol as a key factor. The military services and the academies have struggled for...

A Brazilian man convicted of skimming ATMs has named embattled US Congressman George Santos as the mastermind behind the fraud ring. Santos, then going by the name Anthony Devolder, was "the person in charge of the crime of credit card fraud when I was arrested," Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha claimed in a letter to the FBI, published by Politico on Friday. "Santos taught me how to skim card information and how to clone cards. He gave me all the materials and taught me how to put skimming devices and cameras on ATM machines," Trelha wrote in the sworn statement sent on Wednesday. He was given a crash course in ATM-skimming upon renting a room from Santos in 2016 and was flown out to Seattle to work, splitting the profits 50-50 with Santos, he claimed. Trelha was soon caught and received a visit from Santos, who allegedly told him not to implicate him in the scheme and "threatened" his friends back in Florida. Trelha was deported back to Brazil in 2018 after serving a seven-month sentence.

The new currency should be able to become an "external money" storage of capital and reserves down the road, not just a settlement unit. Ah, the joys of the Big Circle Line (BKL, in Cyrillic): circumnavigating the whole of Moscow for 71 km and 31 stations: from Tekstilshchiki - in the old textile quarter - to Sokolniki - a suprematist/constructivist gallery (Malevich lives!); from Rizhskaya - with its gorgeous steel arches - to Maryina Roscha - with its 130 meter-long escalator. The BKL is like a living, breathin', runnin' metaphor of the capital of the multipolar world: a crash course in art, architecture, history, urban design, tech transportation, and of course "people to people's exchanges", to quote our Chinese New Silk Road friends. President Xi Jinping, by the way, will be ridin' the BKL with President Putin when he comes to Moscow on March 21. So it's no wonder that when a savvy investor at the top of global financial markets, with decades of experience, agreed to share...

Chinese President Xi Jinping was unanimously re-elected to a norm-breaking third term at a plenary session of the country's parliament Friday, with a new government leadership set to face challenges such as dealing with a deepening rivalry with the United States. Last October, the 69-year-old started a historic third five-year term as general secretary of the ruling Communist Party. The party has supreme political power in China and senior government positions are held by party leaders. In 2018, China removed the two-term limit for the president from its Constitution, essentially enabling Xi to retain power for life. Comment: Russia did something similar, and Putin had an 81% confidence rating as of September 2022. Meanwhile the UK has staggered through three different leaders in just the last year, and a poll of France's citizens recently revealed that 56% support rolling strikes.

New York court workers must be rehired and given back pay with interest if they were fired because they refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, the state's Public Employment Relations Board has ruled. Under terms of the decision issued last month, the Unified Court System must immediately "cease and desist" from enforcing policies that require all non-judicial employees to be vaccinated or undergo regular testing. In addition, anyone "who lost accrued leave, compensation or employment" will have to be made "whole," with interest paid "at the maximum legal rate," according to the Feb. 24 decision obtained by The Post. The decision affects at least about 25 court officers who were fired, said Dennis Quirk, president of the New York State Court Officers Association, one of 10 unions that challenged the mandate.

The US opposed Georgia's "foreign agents" bill because Washington does not want the country to have political sovereignty, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, said on Friday. He argued that the legislation, which was withdrawn after protests and clashes with police in Tbilisi, was aimed at limiting Washington's ability to meddle in Georgia's affairs. "Washington has used the tools of soft power to lead people to the streets. The Georgian authorities were forced to submit - not to the will of the people, but to the United States," Volodin claimed in a post in his Telegram channel. The politician said the bill was "unacceptable for the US" because it would have "restricted Washington's influence on the country's internal political affairs." "With its withdrawal by the parliament, Georgia has lost the chance for sovereignty," Volodin said.

I'm gonna throw a lot of stuff at ya here, so HOLD ONTO YOUR BUTTS.

Evidence for Lukianoff's reverse CBT hypothesis In May 2014, Greg Lukianoff invited me to lunch to talk about something he was seeing on college campuses that disturbed him. Greg is the president of FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), and he has worked tirelessly since 2001 to defend the free speech rights of college students. That almost always meant pushing back against administrators who didn't want students to cause trouble, and who justified their suppression of speech with appeals to the emotional "safety" of students appeals that the students themselves didn't buy. But in late 2013, Greg began to encounter new cases in which students were pushing to ban speakers, punish people for ordinary speech, or implement policies that would chill free speech. These students arrived on campus in the fall of 2013 already accepting the idea that books, words, and ideas could hurt them. Why did so many students in 2013 believe this, when there was little sign of...

Yesterday, we witnessed the ex-director of the CDC, under oath, directly blame Dr. Fauci and the US Government for the deaths of millions of people. However, if you went to the headlines of Google News - there was nary a news story. I guess Google felt it wasn't important enough to warrant above-the-fold status. Seems like they had to make room for important news items, like these: A keyword search of Redfield on Google news did come up with the following stories:

I find the Daily Telegraph's 'Lockdown Files' revelations about Matt Hancock's WhatsApp messages simultaneously reassuring and disturbing. Reassuring, because over the many months I analysed Covid related data for Lockdown Sceptics (as this site was then called) I often had periods of self-doubt. Official announcements by politicians and senior civil servants were so discordant with publicly available information, I assumed I must be missing something, or misinterpreting the figures. Worse, I worried about inadvertently misleading our readership. Recent revelations suggest that my analyses were roughly correct - I'm not claiming any credit because the answers were hiding in plain sight. Anyone with a modicum of common sense and a basic training in biological sciences could have seen it - and many did. On the other hand, the message trails are disturbing for what they tell us about the nature of decision making in government. It is easy to be misled by taking Hancock's adolescent...

Karl Richter asserts that Ukraine is facing an imminent end due to Russia's dominance in the ongoing conflict, weak Western military and economic support, and Ukraine's own nationalism, citing predictions by several Western military experts and predicting Western governments will soon have to justify the utter failure of their Ukraine policy. The faces of Ukraine supporters are now visibly getting longer. In fact, things are getting interesting now. In the next few months, the central lie of Western politics will burst: Ukraine is coming to an end. No more billions of dollars sinking into the Kiev quagmire, and certainly no handful of Western battle tanks, should they ever come, will make much difference to events. Russia is in the driver's seat and has all the means of escalation at its disposal, while the West is on its last legs economically, militarily and not least morally. At least four Western military experts who know something of their trade have contradicted mainstream...

Renewal came after four Americans were kidnapped, two of whom were killed, in Matamoros, Mexico... The U.S. State Department reminded travelers to avoid going to parts of Mexico as four Americans were kidnapped in Matamoros last week - two of whom were killed while the other two returned to the U.S. on Tuesday. The reminder came just days before college students head off to tropical destinations like parts of Mexico for Spring Break. The State Department issued a Level 4 travel advisory for six Mexican states in October 2022, and last Friday the U.S. Embassy and Consulates in Mexico issued the reminder after reports of a shooting in Tamaulipas.

Tens of thousands of protesters have returned to the streets of the Georgian capital for a third straight day of demonstrations despite the ruling Georgian Dream party's pledge to withdraw its controversial "foreign agents" legislation from parliament. Protesters on March 9 again gathered outside the parliament building in the capital, Tbilisi, where they waved Georgian, Ukrainian, and EU flags and shouted anti-government slogans and called for early parliamentary elections. The protests began on March 7 as parliament took up the "foreign agents" legislation backed by Georgian Dream and passed it on first reading. Critics have warned that the bill, which would force civil society organizations that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad to be classified as "foreign agents," mirrors Russian legislation and could push the country toward authoritarianism. The March 7 demonstrations were marked by violent clashes between protesters and security forces, leading to the...

The Defense Secretary's tour of the region shows Washington's unwillingness to evolve Ahead of anticipated regional escalations in the coming months, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin landed in the Kingdom of Jordan on Sunday, kickstarting yet another high-profile Middle East visit this year. Despite Washington's efforts to impose its agenda, its current approach may prove to be too out of touch to make a tangible difference. The Pentagon Chief arrived in the Jordanian capital on a tour aimed at assuring regional allies of US policy commitments, despite the Biden administration's focus on combating Russia and China. Austin's visit was originally tailored to be geared towards visiting Tel Aviv, Cairo and Amman, but has also included a surprise visit to Baghdad. The visit is the second high-profile US Middle East tour this year, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken also leading a delegation to the Holy Land in late January. Unfortunately for Blinken, his delegation's visit, which...

Gesture may not be civil or polite but 'it is not a crime' and is protected under Canada's constitution, judgment says Giving your neighbour the middle finger may not be polite but is protected as part of a person's right to freedom of expression under the Canadian constitution, a judge has ruled. In a 26-page decision, Dennis Galiatsatos dismissed a case against a man accused of harassing his neighbour in a Montreal suburb. "To be abundantly clear, it is not a crime to give someone the finger," he said in a ruling dated 24 February. "Flipping the proverbial bird is a God-given, charter-enshrined right that belongs to every red-blooded Canadian," he added, referring to Canada's charter of rights and freedoms.

They thought it was a joke. A century ago, biologists could not believe that a one-celled creature had an eye. But since the warnowiid dinoflagellate was difficult to find and grow in the lab, detailed research was rare, until now. A team from the University of British Columbia gathered specimens off the coast of BC and Japan for a closer look. They found that the structure, called an ocelloid, has structures that mimic the complex eye of higher animals. Phys.Org says: In fact, the 'ocelloid' within the planktonic predator looks so much like a complex eye that it was originally mistaken for the eye of an animal that the plankton had eaten. "It's an amazingly complex structure for a single-celled organism to have evolved," said lead author Greg Gavelis, a zoology PhD student at UBC. "It contains a collection of sub-cellular organelles that look very much like the lens, cornea, iris and retina of multicellular eyes found in humans and other larger animals." [Emphasis added.]...

The New York Times and other Western news media ran with clumsy and blatantly diversionary claims this week, which in the end only serve to draw even more attention to the guilt of the United States in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Not only is the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden even more indictable over the criminal act; the absurd cover-up attempt this week exposes the Western media as nothing but a ministry of propaganda masquerading as journalism. Four weeks ago, the eminent independent American journalist, Seymour Hersh, published a blockbuster investigative report that revealed how President Biden and senior White House staff ordered the explosive detonation of the natural gas pipelines connecting Russia to the European Union via the Baltic Sea and Germany. The legendary Hersh has an impeccable record of groundbreaking stories, from the My Lai massacre committed by U.S. troops in Vietnam in 1968 to the Abu Ghraib prison torture in Iraq under American...

MAGNETIC fields could provide the key to understanding submerged civilisations in a pioneering study by the University of Bradford. Archaeologists have been researching an area under the North Sea, known as Doggerland, which was home to one of the largest prehistoric settlements in Europe. But with expansion of wind farms in the North Sea, the race is on to work with developers to piece together information about Doggerland in advance of development. PhD student Ben Urmston will look for anomalies in magnetic fields by analysing magnetometry data, which could indicate the presence of archaeological features without excavation. He said: "Small changes in the magnetic field can indicate changes in the landscape, such as peat-forming areas and sediments, or where erosion has occurred, for example in river channels. "As the area we are studying used to be above sea level, there's a small chance this analysis could even reveal evidence for hunter-gatherer activity. That would be the...

Lancaster University staff and student researchers have discovered evidence of a Romano-Celtic temple under public land near Lancaster Castle - only the second of its type found in northern Britain. What started as a team-building exercise to train a group of PhD hydrogeophysics researchers to use specialist equipment, ended up providing evidence of an extensive religious enclosure lying just outside the Roman military fort at Lancaster. Professor Andy Binley, an expert in hydrogeophysics at Lancaster Environment Centre, offered to use his research expertise and equipment to continue the work of the Beyond The Castle archaeological project, when heritage lottery funding ran out in 2017. "I had a few PhD students doing geophysical research and thought this was an interesting group hobby project, training them on techniques and getting them to work as a team," said Professor Binley, who uses geophysical methods to solve hydrological problems, such as assessing underground water in...

I think something is seriously wrong with my brain. Yesterday, I hallucinated that Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger testified before a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives about the Censorship Industrial Complex, i.e., the US arm of the global official propaganda and disinformation apparatus that has been waging an all-out war on dissent for the better part of the last six years. I know this couldn't have actually happened, and was just an extended hallucination (probably the result of the copious amount of drugs I consumed in my misspent youth, or the effects of a Commie bio-weapon with a fatality rate of less than one percent, because I've been writing about The War on Dissent (2018), and The Criminalization of Dissent (2021), and the global Corporate COINTELPRO op (2017), and The War on Reality (2021), and The Manufacturing of Reality (2021), and Manufacturing Truth (2018), and Manufacturing Normality (2016), and The Road to Totalitarianism (2022), and The...

A 15-year-old girl had her arm torn off in a shark attack at Piedade Beach in Brazil. Horror footage shows the moment her bystanders pull Kaylane Timteo Freitas onto the beach and set her down on the ground with a bloodied rag covering what remains of her arm. The teenager had her arm amputated at a nearby hospital and is reported to be in a stable condition. The attack came only a day after a 14-year-old boy was savaged by a shark on the same beach, requiring the amputation of his leg. Both attacks took place within 1640ft (500m) of each other at Piedade Beach, Jaboato dos Guararapes, Pernambuco State, Brazil.

A tornado swept through a village in Creuse, central France, on Thursday (March 9), causing damage to infrastructure and buildings. The violent weather left a number of houses in Pontarion with roofs and windows, while telephone lines were also damaged. Despite the damage from the tornado, no one was injured in the village, confirmed its mayor on Friday (March 10). The tornado was caused by the strong winds that led to weather warnings across France, with some regions seeing winds of up to 100km/h.

The storms and floods that have hit Mozambique since February have taken the lives of 117 people, according to Prime Minister Adriano Maleiane. Giving information on the floods on Wednesday to the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, Maleiane said that, up to 5 March, 272,000 people had been affected. Cyclone Freddy was responsible for much of the damage. When it hit parts of the southern provinces of Inhambane and Gaza in late February, it dropped between 300 and 900 millimetres of rain in 24 hours. Instead of dissipating, this cyclone has returned to the Mozambique Channel and is now heading northwards towards Zambezia province, where it is expected to make landfall on Friday.

This bright bolide was spotted over Spain on March 8, at 23:15 local time (equivalent to 22:15 universal time). The fireball was observed by a wide number of casual eyewitnesses, who reported it on social networks. The event was generated by a rock (a meteoroid) from a comet that hit the atmosphere at about 80,000 km/h. It overflew the province of Jan (south of Spain). It began at an altitude of about 79 km over Villacarrillo (province of Jan), moved northwest, and ended at a height of around 44 km over Aldeaquemada (province of Jan). 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 La Hita (Toledo), Calar Alto, Sierra Nevada, and La Sagra (Granada). 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).

Update (1300ET): Well, that escalated quickly... As one might expect, the Judiciary hearing on the "weaponization" of federal agencies, featuring Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger as witnesses was full of fireworks, facts, and ad hominem friction. Out of the gate, Ranking Member Democratic Del. Stacey E. Plaskett labeled the two "so-called journalists" as dangerous and a "threat" to former Twitter employees. She claimed that Republicans brought "two of Elon Musk's 'public scribes'" in "to release cherry-picked out-of-context emails and screenshots designed to promote his chosen narrative - Elon Musk's chosen narrative - that is now being parroted by the Republicans" for political gain.

Crowd not pleased. Joe Biden had another embarrassing verbal slip up during a speech in Philadelphia when he referred to Donald Trump as "maybe the future president" to a disapproving audience. Biden was in Philadelphia to talk about his $6.8 trillion budget, but it appeared as though Trump was still on his mind.

The feds' political persecution of the Proud Boys took a wild turn after unintentionally leaked chat logs from FBI Special Agent Nicole Miller revealed she said she was ordered by her boss to "destroy" "338 items of evidence." The leaked chats also suggest Miller failed to reveal relevant communications to the defense, potentially spied on privileged attorney-client communications and was asked by another agent to "edit out that I was present" during a meeting with a Confidential Human Source Informant.

We received 50 reports about a fireball seen over NY, Ontario and PA on Thursday, March 9th 2023 around 01:47 UT. For this event, we received 2 videos.

Proof-of-concept mouse experiment will have a long road before use in humans is possible. Researchers have made eggs from the cells of male mice and showed that, once fertilized and implanted into female mice, the eggs can develop into seemingly healthy, fertile offspring. The approach, announced on 8 March at the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing in London, has not yet been published and is a long way from being used in humans. But it is an early proof-of-concept for a technique that raises the possibility of a way to treat some causes of infertility or even allow for single-parent embryos. "This is a significant advance with significant potential applications," says Keith Latham, a developmental biologist at Michigan State University in East Lansing.

Matt Gaetz sponsored a resolution in the House, supported by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, to force congressional oversight of the continued U.S. military presence in Syria. Ahead of a Wednesday vote on his resolution to force congressional oversight on the continuation of U.S. military operations in Syria, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. was feeling bullish. "Hope springs eternal," he told The Intercept when asked whether the measure would pass. The resolution was ultimately voted down on Wednesday night with 47 Republicans joining 56 Democrats in support of the bill. Despite the resolution's defeat, it was just the beginning in a string of efforts to end U.S. military operations abroad, according to its sponsor. "Syria is my leadoff hitter. We're going to take a trip around the globe. We may go to Yemen. We may have stops in Niger. We may have stops in Sudan. Maybe ultimately, we'll end in Ukraine," Gaetz said.

Police say a child was attacked by a pack of pit bulls in Tennessee Monday night. The Memphis Police Department reports officers were called to a neighborhood regarding a person being bitten by a dog around 5 p.m. Police said they found that five pit bulls attacked a 3-year-old named Lorenzo, who suffered critical injuries. WMC reports the child was taken to the hospital in critical condition where the staff was able to stabilize the toddler's vital signs.

There is no way to avoid this moment. The formal letter of apology. From me. To Conservatives and to those who "put America first" everywhere. It's tempting to sweep this confrontation with my own gullibility under the rug to "move on" without ever acknowledging that I was duped, and that as a result I made mistakes in judgement, and that these mistakes, multiplied by the tens of thousands and millions on the part of people just like me, hurt millions of other people like you all, in existential ways. But that erasure of personal and public history would be wrong. I owe you a full-throated apology.

A First Nation in northern Alberta is mourning the death of a five-year-old boy who was killed by his family's dogs on Sunday. The child died after being attacked by his family's dogs on Whitefish Lake First Nation on Sunday, Const. Kelsey Davidge said Thursday. "He did die from a dog attack/mauling," she said. "They were family-owned pets. There is no public safety concerns or other concerns to the public." Davidge said the family killed the dogs themselves following the attack. She was unable to say how many dogs were involved in the attack.

Last month, Revolver profiled the Biden Administration's persecution of former Twitter anon Doug Mackey, who was a famous pro-Trump voice back in 2016 under the moniker of Ricky Vaughn. For those whose memory is foggy, a quick review: In the late stages of the 2016 race, Mackey posted several memes, designed to resemble Hillary Clinton campaign images, claiming that supporters could vote by simply texting a phone number.

Last month, Revolver profiled the Biden Administration's persecution of former Twitter anon Doug Mackey, who was a famous pro-Trump voice back in 2016 under the moniker of Ricky Vaughn. For those whose memory is foggy, a quick review: In the late stages of the 2016 race, Mackey posted several memes, designed to resemble Hillary Clinton campaign images, claiming that supporters could vote by simply texting a phone number.

but let's clear some of that fog with court documents and see what's there What did Jacob Chansley do? What did the government say he did? Chansley was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison, to be followed by 36 months of supervised release a total of six and a half of years of punishment. Tucker Carlson maintains, with video to support his description, that Chansley did nothing much to earn that sentence: He walked through the Capitol with police who didn't try to stop him. But what's the other side of the argument? Comment: See: Tucker Carlson releases exclusive Jan. 6 footage, says politicians, media lied about Sicknick, 'QAnon Shaman'

Families of the victims have called for a renewed search after the findings of a US-based marine robotics company emerged. Malaysian authorities are being asked to launch a new search for flight MH370, nine years after it disappeared from radars over the South China Sea. The request comes after US marine robotics company Ocean Infinity claimed to have found new evidence of the plane's possible location. The Boeing 777 was en route from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Beijing with 239 passengers on board on March 8, 2014, when it vanished from the grid less than an hour into its journey. For three years, Malaysia, China, and Australia searched for the plane in the Indian Ocean, where it was believed to have crashed, only to come up empty-handed. The search was officially called off in January 2017, with no conclusion made about what could have happened to the mystery flight.

Editor's note: at around 10 a.m. EST this morning, Michael Shellenberger and I will be testifying at the "Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on the Twitter Files" for the House Judiciary Committee, in the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Just before, around 9:00 a.m., we'll also be releasing a TwitterFiles "Statement to Congress" thread, which will be submitted to the record. It contains some surprises. My opening: Chairman Jordan, ranking member Plaskett, members of the Select Committee, My name is Matt Taibbi. I've been a reporter for over 30 years, and an advocate for the First Amendment. Much of that time was spent at Rolling Stone magazine. Over my career, I've had the good fortune to be recognized for the work I love. I've won the National Magazine Award, the I.F. Stone Award for independent journalism, and written ten books, including four New York Times bestsellers. I'm now the editor of the online magazine Racket, on...

James Bamford is forty years late in discovering that Israel not only spies against the US, but does so constantly and comprehensively, effectively escaping prosecution at the highest levels of government in Washington, and almost always lower down. Now almost 77 years of age, Bamford is not old enough to understand the reason for this is that the Israelis have managed a state capture in Washington that is longer lasting and more successful than the Ukrainians have pulled off for the Canadian government in Ottawa; or the Gupta brothers who took over the South African government in Pretoria. The last of these state captures was stopped in 2016 after just seven years. Still, Bamford has convinced the French publisher Hachette to print a news update of the Israeli takeover of the US government.

It is generally observed that imperial powers like the United States frequently interfere in foreign governments in support of economic or hard political reasons. To be sure, Washington has refined the process so it can plausibly deny that it is interfering at all, that the change is spontaneous and comes from the people and institutions in the country that is being targeted for change. One recalls how handing out cookies in Maidan Square in Kiev served as an incentive wrapped around a publicity stunt to bring about regime change in Ukraine in 2014 when Senator John McCain and the State Department's Victoria Nuland were featured performers in a $5 billion investment by the US government to topple the friendly-to-Russia regime of President Viktor Yanukovych. Of course, change for the sake of a short-term objective might not always be the best way to go and one might suggest that the success in bringing in a new government acceptable to Nuland has not really turned out that well for...

The entire modern history of Georgia, dating back to the late 1980s, is a chronicle of temperamental lurches towards change. These consist of chaotic attempts at implementation, followed by work to stabilize the situation and build a sturdy state structure, before a new cycle begins. Each time there are objective socio-political preconditions for these perturbations, which are overlaid by both domestic and external factors. At home: Excessive personalization of politics and an obsession with certain leaders at each stage - Zviad Gamsakhurdia (1991-1992), Eduard Shevardnadze (1995-2003), Mikhail Saakashvili (2004-2013), and Bidzina Ivanishvili (de-facto leader for the past decade). Outside influence: A real, or perhaps fictitious, struggle for influence between Russia and the West. This time it's notionally about the government's attempt to introduce a 'foreign agents' law, which the opposition claims is very close to similar rules imposed in Russia. But the root of the issues goes...

The Czech government has approved sending its military police officers to Ukraine, whose tasks will include investigating war crimes. According to the Czech news agency CTK, it is planned to send up to 15 experts of the military police to the territory of Ukraine, who will then be included in the number of specialists of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. It is reported that the number may end up being much higher. The mandate approved by the Czech Parliament will be valid until the end of 2024. Police experts will also be able to conduct their activities in the Netherlands. Funding for this mission is expected to be 29,6 million crowns (approximately $1,3 million).

US Representative Mara Elvira Salazar warned last week that Argentina was planning to install a factory of Chinese warplanes in the South American country. The former Spanish-language news anchorwoman of Cuban heritage stressed that President Alberto Fernndez and Vice President Cristina Fernndez de Kirchner (CFK) had embarked on a deal with the Devil that they would regret sooner than later. "I am going to forewarn them that if they decide to build a fighter jet factory of Chinese fighter jets, it's a very bad idea for them," Salazar said in English. But then she switched to Spanish to continue: "I'm going to say it in Spanish so that it is very clear to my Argentine friends: Your presidenta (female for president) and your president (male version) are making a deal with the Devil that may have consequences of Biblical proportions. The United States will not remain with its arms folded because you cannot have an ally who builds and exports Chinese military aircraft and sells them...

Several people have been killed or seriously injured in a shooting at a Jehovah's Witness church in the northern German city of Hamburg, with the motive for the attack unclear, police said on Thursday. There were no indications that a perpetrator was on the run, a police spokesperson said, declining to say how many people were dead. The Bild newspaper reported that seven people were dead and eight others injured in the shooting. "Several people were seriously injured, some even fatally. We are on site with a large contingent of forces," said Hamburg police on Twitter.

Russia has fired various missiles, including the hypersonic nuclear-capable Kinzhal, pounding the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and other cities. The Ukrainian air force said Russian forces had fired 81 high-powered missiles of different types in a "massive" pre-dawn attack on Thursday. "The attack is really large-scale and for the first time using such different types of missiles. We see that this time as many as six Kinzhal were used. This is an attack like I don't remember seeing before," said Colonel Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force Command of Ukraine. Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said all targets had been hit during Russia's "retaliation" missile strike on Ukraine in response to a recent incursion in Russian Bryansk region.

Can you create cutting edge "deep fake" videos, spy on people using household appliances, and make massive data dragnets? If so, the Pentagon wants to hear from you so it can amp up its manipulation efforts. US Special Operations Command (US SOCOM) has issued proposal requests for a whole host of dodgy services, according to new documents obtained by The Intercept. Specifically, the Pentagon is looking for "next generation capability to'takeover'Internet of Things (IoT) devices in order to collect data and information from local populaces to enable a breakdown of what messaging might be popular and accepted through sifting of data once received." For what purpose? "This would enable MISO [Military Information Support Operations] to craft and promote messages that may be more readily received by the local populace in relevant peer/near peer environments," according to the document.

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:

A dirty little secret about January 6 one of many is that Democrats and establishment Republicans, not Trump supporters, wanted to shut down the official proceedings of that day. Just as the first wave of protesters breached the building shortly after 2 p.m., congressional Republicans were poised to present evidence of rampant voting fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Ten incumbent and four newly-elected Republican senators planned to work with their House colleagues to demand the formation of an audit commission to investigate election "irregularities" in the 2020 election. Absent an audit, the group of senators, including Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) pledged to reject the Electoral College results from the disputed states. The Hail Mary effort was doomed to fail; yet the American people would have heard hours of debate related to provable election fraud over the course of the day. And no one opposed the effort more than ex-Senate Majority Leader Mitch...

Americans and Europeans are becoming less enthusiastic about Ukrainian aid... The fact that Ukraine is still fighting is mostly thanks to America. No other country has provided more help to combat Russia's advance: it is responsible for more than half of all recorded military and financial aid. Joe Biden, America's president, has promised to stand with Ukraine for "as long as it takes". Whether Mr Biden can continue to send so much depends in part on how well such funding is viewed at home. Polling data from The Economist and YouGov, a pollster, suggest that a partisan gap is widening, and even Democrats are showing slightly less support for certain types of aid than they did last year (see chart).

Far and away the most common question I get from those who took one of the COVID-19 vaccines is: "how do I get this out of my body." The mRNA and adenoviral DNA products were rolled out with no idea on how or when the body would ever breakdown the genetic code. The synthetic mRNA carried on lipid nanoparticles appears to be resistant to breakdown by human ribonucleases by design so the product would be long-lasting and produce the protein product of interest for a considerable time period. This would be an advantage for a normal human protein being replaced in a rare genetic deficiency state (e.g. alpha galactosidase in Fabry's disease). However, it is a big problem when the protein is the pathogenic SARS-CoV-2 Spike. The adenoviral DNA (Janssen) should be broken down by deoxyribonuclease, however this has not be exhaustively studied. This leaves dissolution of Spike protein as a therapeutic goal for the vaccine injured. With the respiratory infection, Spike is processed and...

The West now faces the task of de-fusing the landmine of their own electorate's conviction of a Ukraine 'win', and of Russian humiliation. Larry Johnson, an ex-CIA analyst, writes "I no longer hold clearances and have not had access to the classified intelligence assessments. However, I have heard that the finished intelligence being supplied to U.S. policymakers continues to declare that Russia is on the ropes - and their economy is crumbling. Also, analysts insist that the Ukrainians are beating the Russians". Johnson responds that - lacking valid human sources - "western agencies are almost wholly dependent today on 'liaison reporting'" (i.e., from 'friendly' foreign intelligence services), without doing 'due diligence' by cross-checking discrepancies with other reporting. In practice, this largely means western reporting simply replicates Kiev's PR line. But there does occur a huge problem when marrying Kiev's output (as Johnson says) to UK reports - for 'corroboration'. The...

Yesterday evening, news that "pro-Ukraine saboteurs" may have been responsible for the Nord Stream sabotage was simultaneously reported by the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Times of London, and the German newspaper Die Zeit. There is "no evidence" that Zelensky or his top generals were involved, the newspapers claimed. Nonetheless, "traces lead in the direction of Ukraine". The two American newspapers simply referred to "intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials", details of which were not disclosed. In fact, the New York Times offered this hilariously obtuse observation: "The review of newly collected intelligence suggests [the saboteurs] were opponents of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia." Opponents of Vladimir Putin - you don't say! The two European newspapers were slightly more forthcoming. According to the Times, Scandinavian diplomats were told only a week after the attack took place that it had been carried out by "a private venture originating in Ukraine". The...

Democrat leaders have issued a dire warning to Americans, saying that anyone who watches unedited clips of the footage from January 6 runs the risk of arriving at a conclusion that hasn't been approved by Democrat leaders. "This is a very dangerous situation," said Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer. "We work hard every day to make sure Americans all have all the correct opinions. With thousands of hours of footage being given to the American public with no filter, we're in grave danger of some people not agreeing with us, or worse not giving us politicians more and more unchecked power. This is an existential threat to democracy." Mitch McConnell, another Democrat Senator, agreed. "I'm terrified right now," he said. "What if everyone starts thinking we're lying frauds? I'm not saying we are, but it would be terrible if people came to such a scary and unapproved conclusion." Experts also weighed in, warning that if unapproved opinions are allowed to spread, it may lead to...

Severe flooding struck in northern parts of Rio Grande do Sul State in Brazil after heavy rain that began around 05 March 2023. The hardest hit municipalities were Maquin, Trs Forquilhas, Trs Cachoeiras, Itati, Terra de Areia, Dom Pedro de Alcntara and Morrinhos do Sul. One person died after a vehicle was swept away by the flooding of the Trs Forquilhas river in Terra de Areia. Homes, roads and bridges were damaged or destroyed. Classes have been suspended. The Civil Defence has been operating in the region since 06 March in support of residents and to carry out full damage assessments. Civil Defence has distributed relief supplies such as clothing, food and hygiene items.

A farming couple in Scotland's Shetland Islands encountered an unusual weather phenomenon on March 7 when a snow devil formed as they were out feeding their sheep during the wintry weather. Credit: Michael Peterson via Storyful

As mountain communities in Southern California gradually emerge from piles of snow, officials are starting the difficult task of assessing the damage and the number of people who have died. At least four people were found dead in their homes in the Big Bear area of San Bernardino County, the first one on March 2, said Shannon Dicus, the county sheriff and coroner, on Wednesday. But the total number of dead could climb. Sheriff Dicus said that at least 11 people had died in the region since Feb. 23, including those who were receiving care at Bear Valley Community Hospital. How many of those deaths are directly related to the snowstorms, however, is unclear because his office has not provided more information on the circumstances involved and is still reviewing the cases. Sheriff Dicus's office so far has only attributed to the storm the death of a 39-year-old woman who was killed in a hit-and-run traffic collision on Feb. 26.

The BBC is receiving backlash for airing a Bill Cosby documentary in which a self-proclaimed "fat sex therapist" argued for allowing men to pay to be able to drug and have sex with women. "If we actually grappled with the fact that sex negativity is what causes this type of behavior, then we could create a world where in an idyllically sex-positive world, someone is able to pay conscious women to come and be drugged so that I can get my kink out, my fetish on having sex with unconscious people," Sonalee Rashatwar said in a segment. "There's a consensual way to do that." The comments were made during the four-part documentary titled We Need to Talk About Bill Cosby which originally aired in the US on Showtime last year.

During Wednesday's White House press conference, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called Fox News' Tucker Carlson "not credible," citing his recent unveiling of previously unseen footage from the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots. Responding to a reporter's request that she comment on Carlson's latest broadcasts, as well as comment on the ongoing lawsuit Dominion Voting Systems has brought against Fox News "which has turned up evidence that there may have been falsehoods in the in the reporting that they did around the election," Jean-Pierre said, "Tucker Carlson is not credible."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been hospitalized in Washington, DC after a fall Wednesday night. His spokesman David Popp told Fox News that McConnell, 81, was attending a private dinner at a hotel and tripped. According to a statement from McConnell's team, "This evening, Leader McConnell tripped at a local hotel during a private dinner. He has been admitted to the hospital where he is receiving treatment."

The most damning real world evidence yet! Update/Correction March 3rd 2023 (I need to correct the Stillbirth data. A new law in Singapore broadened the definition of Stillbirth in 2022. As a result, it VOIDS the comparison between 2021 and 2022). The decline in Live Births is still valid - a decline of over 3000 (or 7.62% of live births post vaccination).

Legalizing same-sex unions for soldiers would also please Kiev's "Western allies". Ukraine's former deputy culture minister has proposed legalizing same-sex civil partnerships, arguing it would both reward the service of LGBTQ soldiers and please Kiev's foreign backers. Inna Sovsun of the Golos party announced on Tuesday that she has submitted the bill to the Verkhovna Rada for consideration. "Legalization of single-sex relationships is very important to me now, because if I come home [dead], my partner can't even bury me," was one of the arguments from the Ukrainian LGBT Soldiers and Allies' Facebook community that Sovsun quoted in announcing her bill. The bill is a product of nine months of work, involving two NGOs. It would establish legal grounds for people in same-sex relationships to regulate property ownership, inheritance, pensions, and death benefits, Sovsun argued.

Dana Hyde, 55, was flying from Maryland to New England and suffered blunt-force injuries from violent turbulence. A former official in the Bill Clinton and Barack Obama White Houses died last Friday after the private business jet that the prominent Washington attorney was on experienced stability issues and encountered severe turbulence mid-flight. The National Transportation Safety Board has since started investigating "a reported trim issue that occurred prior to the in-flight upset" that affected the plane's altitude control and may have caused the instability.

The House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday passed its version of a Senate-approved bill that would force the Biden administration to declassify information about the coronavirus' origins including its ties to a Chinese lab. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines would be required to declassify "any and all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology" and COVID-19, as well as "make available to the public as much information as possible" regarding the virus' origin, according to the bill. The committee approved the legislation with a bipartisan voice vote Tuesday in which no one dissented. It will now go to the House floor for a vote, then to President Biden's desk for his signature.

These revealing photographs show shop shelves in a provincial Russian city groaning under piles of fresh food. As British supermarkets ration eggs and an array of fruit and vegetables amid shortages provoked in large part by the Ukraine war, no such hardships afflict Vladimir Putin's citizens. The pictures were taken at a food hall, two superstores and a corner shop in Perm, a city with a population the size of Birmingham in the Ural mountains, a 24-hour drive from Moscow. The images suggest the West's much-vaunted sanctions on Russia, imposed to punish President Putin for his invasion, are not having a deep bite. What's more, the scenes are a reversal of 40 years ago, when many of us watched pitiful TV footage of Russians under the Communist regime queuing for staples such as bread and eggs. Now it's Britain's turn to suffer. Supermarkets here are rationing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and lettuces as UK farmers struggle with higher energy costs which stop them using hothouses in...

German authorities searched a boat in January which they suspect transported explosives ahead of the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines in September last year, the country's Prosecutor's Office said on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed that a search had taken place earlier this year, adding that authorities were still evaluating the items seized. The identities of the people allegedly associated with the rental of the vessel, as well as their potential motives, remained unclear, the official added, as quoted by German media. On Tuesday, German state broadcaster ARD, SWR radio and Die Zeit newspaper claimed that investigators looking into the incident had found that the yacht reportedly used in the attack belonged to a Polish company "apparently owned by two Ukrainians." According to Die Zeit, a "secret operation" to destroy the pipelines was undertaken by a team of six people - five men and one woman. Their nationalities are unknown,...

The newly discovered asteroid 2023 DW could collide with Earth in February 2046, although the odds of an impact are low. A newly discovered asteroid may make a perilously close approach to Earth about 20 years from now, with a roughly 1-in-600 chance that the space rock will collide directly with our planet, officials with NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office tweeted. While that's a higher-than-average risk level for near-Earth asteroids, it's still a "very small chance" of impact, NASA wrote and that risk level is expected to decline as clearer observations of the asteroid become available. First detected on Feb. 27, the asteroid dubbed 2023 DW is estimated to measure about 165 feet (50 meters) in diameter, or roughly the length of an Olympic-size swimming pool. The asteroid is expected to make a very close approach to Earth on Feb. 14, 2046; as of March 8, the European Space Agency's Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre predicts a 1-in-625 chance of a direct impact,...

Tunisia has been a hotbed of turmoil for almost two years since President Kais Saied suspended parliament and grabbed a range of executive powers for himself in what opponents described as a coup. Since that time, opposition politicians, campaigners and journalists have found themselves behind bars and dissent has been repressed. In the past two weeks, around 20 prominent politicial figures have been arrested. At the same time, economic problems exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, and Saied's controversial proposals to remedy it, have further stoked anger. Over the weekend, thousands of Tunisians defied a ban on protesting to take to the streets in opposition to Saied's power grab.

Soil animal communities in the tropics are driven by plant roots and the resources derived from them. This is the main finding of a new study of a research team led by the University of Gttingen, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Leipzig University. Millions of small creatures toiling in a single hectare of soil including earthworms, springtails, mites, insects, and other arthropods are crucial for decomposition and soil health. For a long time, it has been believed that leaf litter is the primary resource for these animals. However, this recent study published in the journal Ecology Letters shows that litter doesn't play any crucial role at all for the tropical soil fauna. The researchers isolated plots within natural ecosystems and separated the plots from accessing plant roots with a plastic barrier (a technique known as 'root trenching'). Their study included rainforest, as well as both rubber and oil palm plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia. As...

This is the moment a home was engulfed in flames mere seconds after 'popping' noises were heard from the kitchen. Five people were rushed to hospital after the 'horrifying' house fire in Illingworth, West Yorkshire, at around 1am on February 24. All of the casualties had smoke inhalation, with one occupant suffering burns to their mouth and windpipe. None of the injuries were life threatening. The property's kitchen was severely damaged from the smoke and heat, which also affected other parts of house as doors were left open as people escaped from the blaze. West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service said they released the shocking footage to educate the public on the danger of lithium batteries.

Up to $9billion worth of gold that the Perth Mint sold to China could be recalled after it was discovered some bars were diluted with other metals. The WA government-owned mint, which is the largest refiner of newly mined gold in the world, started 'doping' its gold in 2018 - a process which involves mixing in silver or copper while still keeping the purity above 99.99 per cent. While the product met widely accepted standards on the global gold market, up to 100 tonnes of bullion shipped to China potentially falls short of the more stringent standards of the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE). Some of the gold the SGE tested from Perth Mint exceeded the allowable silver content.

Tens of thousands of Georgians continue to protest on Wednesday evening against a controversial foreign agent law that some claimed will stifle freedoms in the country. The number of protesters in Georgia is swelling, with thousands pouring into streets of the capital Tbilisi and many massing in front of parliament in opposition to the controversial draft law.. Police used water cannon and used tear gas to disperse the thousands gathered outside the parliament building. The law, drafted by the ruling Georgian Dream Party, if approved, will make all media outlets and non-governmental organisations that receive 20% of their funding from abroad register as "foreign agents". This would subject them to monitoring and possible sanctions.

COVID-19 was not dangerous enough to justify cutting short vaccine trials as the vaccine had to be "very safe", Chris Whitty advised the Government in the early weeks of the outbreak, it has emerged. Writing on WhatsApp on February 29th 2020, the Chief Medical Officer told Government figures: "For a disease with a low (for the sake of argument 1%) mortality a vaccine has to be very safe so the safety studies can't be shortcut. So important for the long run." The estimate of 1% turned out to be an overestimate, as the infection fatality rate in Europe and the Americas was found to be 0.3-0.4%. Chief Scientist Patrick Vallance agreed with this advice and wrote that existing drugs should be relied on instead: "Agree, existing drugs best things to try for this outbreak. Accelerate vaccine testing where we have good candidates for future, and prepare for manufacturing capacity for longer term."

Truly sovereign states are no longer afraid of 'Western diktat,' Dmitry Medvedev says... Russia is ready to help the world do away with the vestiges of a Western-dominated colonial past, former president Dmitry Medvedev has claimed. The official argued that as a nation "which has never had any colonies," Russia is well-placed to take part in this process. In an article published on Monday, Medvedev claimed that "geopolitical turbulence has cut open an abscess of the old problems of our world." The ex-president and now deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, argued that: the "malignant tumor of a colonial past" is a problem that calls for "international surgery." "We, together with other countries, can now drive the final nail in the coffin of the Western world's neo-colonial aspirations," Medvedev proclaimed in the piece, posted on the United Russia party website. He noted that the Soviet Union played a major role in dismantling the colonial system of the 20th century.

Washington has ignored concerns over its "bio-military bases" both at home and abroad, Beijing said... The World Health Organization (WHO) should launch a new investigation into the origins of Covid-19 in the United States, China has said, rejecting charges by Washington that the deadly pathogen escaped from a high-security virology lab in Wuhan. Asked about recent comments by WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus - who called on China and other nations to be "transparent in sharing data" regarding the genesis of the health crisis - Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning insisted: "Beijing has shared more data and research findings than any other country and contributed the most on origins-tracing. Tracing the origins of the virus is a matter of science. This study should be and can only be conducted jointly by scientists around the world." Mao told reporters on Monday: "The US government has only hampered those efforts by politicizing, weaponizing and instrumentalizing the issue....

Anonymous agents cited unspecified intelligence to deny US responsibility for the pipeline attack... Unspecified new intelligence "suggests that a pro-Ukrianian group" was behind the September 2022 attack on Nord Stream pipelines, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, quoting anonymous US officials. The Times' unnamed sources said they "believed the saboteurs were most likely Ukrainian or Russian nationals, or some combination of the two" and that "no American or British nationals were involved." They further said they had no evidence Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky or his "top lieutenants" were involved, or that the "any Ukrainian government officials" directed the attack. The anonymous officials and said it was possible the attack "might have been conducted off the books by a proxy force with connections to the Ukrainian government or its security services."

The use of the century old Espionage Act in the Julian Assange case continues to set the chilling precedent of a bleak future in American journalism, a precedent that endangers even those outside US borders. Carey Shenkman, attorney, author, and litigator specializing in civil and human rights, joins Robert Scheer for this week's Scheer Intelligence, where Shenkman offers a sobering analysis on one of the most chilling attacks on press freedom exhibited in the Julian Assange case. Using his recently published book, A Century of Repression: The Espionage Act and Freedom of the Press, Shenkmen details the history of the Espionage Act and how civil liberties have continued to be eroded as a result of the existence of this law and the lack of revision. Shenkman talks about the bipartisan disdain towards the Espionage Act in legal circles yet its continued use by bipartisan presidents brings the conversation to its flaws and disreputability: "Over the decades, you have folks that are...

Pyongyang said any American efforts to interfere with its weapons tests would be considered a "clear declaration of war". North Korea has vowed to respond with "overwhelming" force should the US military attempt to intercept missiles fired during test launches. The warning came hours after Washington and Seoul carried out their latest round of air drills in the region, which involved at least one nuclear-capable bomber. In a statement on Tuesday, Kim Yo-jong - the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a senior figure in the ruling Workers' Party - responded to a recent press report citing a high ranking US military official, who said the Pentagon would immediately intercept any long-range missile fired into the Pacific by the DPRK. In comments carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), she said: "If a military response such as an interception follows our strategic weapons test, which is conducted without any harm to the safety of neighboring countries in...

The Pentagon's secret operations branch is seeking capabilities to deploy "next generation" deep fakes in information warfare and hack the Internet of Things (IoT) to track their impact, a procurement document has revealed. The Intercept reported on the initiative on Monday. The document in question outlines a technology wish list for US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), which is responsible for Washington's clandestine military actions around the world. It was first published in 2020 and last updated in October 2022, adding tools that can falsify images of public figures to its desired inventory, according to the outlet. The command's Military Information Support Operations (MISO) is seeking a "next generation of 'deep fake' or other similar technology to generate messages and influence operations via non-traditional channels in relevant peer/near peer environments," it states. Deep-fake technology uses publicly available imagery to create a

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is demanding Elon Musk turn over internal Twitter documents, including a list of the journalists who were behind the viral "Twitter Files." The Wall Street Journal first reported Tuesday about more than a dozen letters the FTC sent to Twitter and its legal counsel as part of a probe looking into Musk's 2022 takeover of the tech giant. The information ordered by the FTC included a demand to "identify all journalists" who were granted access to the company's archives, turn over anything involving the massive layoffs and the Twitter Blue subscription service, provide all internal communications related to Musk, and explain why Twitter fired its deputy general counsel and former FBI lawyer Jim Baker. Details of the letters emerged from an interim staff report from the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government which accused the government agency led by FTC chairwoman Lina Khan of overreaching to harass Twitter.

Does rotting Western Civilisation has any hope of resuscitation and survival? The infamous Carl Rove (we shall not bother with an explanatory note, whoever remembers this cowboy and is still interested may look him up) twenty and some years ago articulated the gist of the empire's swaggering ideology: We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality judiciously, as you will we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do. Students of "empire" must wonder indeed how this foolish man, if he is still around, would now comment his erstwhile utterance. The empire in whose name Rove arrogantly spoke a quarter of a century ago lies in shambles; its reality-producing powers seem notably diminished. If the pretentious nincompoop Rove had any notion of history, he would probably acknowledge...

"We are seeing emissions from the shockwaves in the largest structures in the universe." Scientists have discovered the first evidence of shockwaves rippling through the "cosmic web," a massive network of interweaving filaments that represents the largest structure in the universe. The discovery represents tantalizing evidence of magnetic fields weaving through the gas, dust, and dark matter tendrils which link galaxies together. Scientists first began to think that on the largest scales, the universe is ordered in a web-like pattern with filaments that cross vast voids in space and pull galaxies into clusters in the 1960s. Two decades later using computer modeling, researchers were able to determine what this vast universal network might look like for the first time. Astronomers have since mapped the cosmic web with actual observations in the process answering questions about its structure. One element has remained frustratingly shrouded in mystery, however: The magnetic fields...

"There is a sentiment among many Israelis, saying, OK these are the circumstances, they're animals anyway, let's behave the same way," Amos Harel says of Israeli view of settler attacks on Palestinians. Many in Israeli society approve of the settler "pogrom" against the Palestinian village of Huwara because they regard Palestinians as "animals" and accept the occupation as normal, a leading Israeli reporter explained to American Jews last week. Speaking to the Israel lobby group Israel Policy Forum, Amos Harel of Haaretz said the settlers' rampage in Huwara on February 26 that killed one Palestinian and destroyed stores and cars was reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan terrorizing blacks in the south, or Russian pogroms against Jews. Susie Gelman, the chair of the IPF, then asked whether Israelis were horrified by Huwara, and could the pogrom be a wakeup call to those who have compartmentalized the horrors of the West Bank? Harel said most are not horrified, Huwara could be "the dark...

How long is the present? The answer, Cornell researchers suggest in a new study, depends on your heart. They found that our momentary perception of time is not continuous but may stretch or shrink with each heartbeat. The research builds evidence that the heart is one of the brain's important timekeepers and plays a fundamental role in our sense of time passing - an idea contemplated since ancient times, said Adam K. Anderson, professor in the Department of Psychology and in the College of Human Ecology (CHE). "Time is a dimension of the universe and a core basis for our experience of self," Anderson said. "Our research shows that the moment-to-moment experience of time is synchronized with, and changes with, the length of a heartbeat." Saeedeh Sadeghi, M.S. '19, a doctoral student in the field of psychology, is the lead author of "Wrinkles in Subsecond Time Perception are Synchronized to the Heart," published March 2 in the journal Psychophysiology. Anderson is a co-author with...

Scandinavian scientists said Wednesday that they have identified the oldest-known inscription referencing the Norse god Odin on part of a gold disc unearthed in western Denmark in 2020. Lisbeth Imer, a runologist with the National Museum in Copenhagen, said the inscription represented the first solid evidence of Odin being worshipped as early as the 5th century at least 150 years earlier than the previous oldest known reference, which was on a brooch found in southern Germany and dated to the second half of the 6th century. The disc discovered in Denmark was part of a trove containing about a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of gold, including large medallions the size of saucers and Roman coins made into jewelry. It was unearthed in the village of Vindelev, central Jutland, and dubbed the Vindelev Hoard. "It's one of the best executed runic inscriptions that I have ever seen," Imer said. Runes are symbols that early tribes in northern Europe used to communicate in writing.