With any credible evidence of alleged Russian mass kidnappings of children from former Ukraine sorely lacking, in order to justify this propaganda narrative, as well as give at least some ostensible "credence" to the recent ICC indictment against Russian President Vladimir Putin, the mainstream propaganda machine is mobilizing all of its forces. Supposed "horror stories" of the "ordeal" these kids and their parents "have to go through" are aiming to cause an emotional reaction and present Russia and its leadership as "monstrous" as they could possibly be. One such "horror story" was published by The Guardian on March 19, just two days after the Hague-based "court" issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights.

According to The Guardian, Yevhen Mezhevyi, a 40-year-old Ukrainian citizen now living in Riga (Latvia), claims his children were "abducted and forcibly transferred" to Russia last year. Mezhevyi's children were apparently taken while he was serving prison time in the DNR (Donetsk People's Republic) due to his three-year service in the Kiev regime forces (2016-2019), including in the notorious Yavoriv military base in the west of the country, infamous for the training of various openly Neo-Nazi units. According to his own admission, Yevhen Mezhevyi knew that the Russian military would be apprehending all former and current members of such Nazi-inspired cohorts, so he tried to hide his past and even threw away his uniforms in an attempt to leave no trace of his time in the Kiev regime forces.

However, despite his attempts to hide, Mezhevyi was caught and sent to a prison near the town of Olenovka, approximately 20 km southwest of Donetsk, where he remained for 45 days. He claims that after Russian forces entered the city, Mezhevyi, his son Matvii (13) and daughters Sviatoslava (9) and Oleksandra (7) were "taken" by Russian soldiers and evacuated to Vinogradnoye, a village to the south-east of Mariupol. There, humanitarian volunteers offered assistance to Mezhevyi and his family, so they "stayed there for a while" (Yevhen didn't specify for how long). "...but then, one day, after we were taken to a checkpoint and searched, a Russian official saw something in my documents," he lamented, obviously referring to the fact that the official found evidence of Mezhevyi's time in the Neo-Nazi junta forces.

We Westmen have become accustomed to thinking our condition synonymous with wealth. Sure, we might have trouble paying the bills, we might not have as much stuff as our neighbours, we might go on Instagram and see lifestyles of unthinkable luxury, but we're not living in the filthy slum hives of the third world. Our streets are not full of refuse and excrement. Famine does not stalk through our thoughts.

We're the fortunate sons of history.

We're rich.

Or so we tell ourselves.

Consider the supermarkets. At a glance, their shelves groan with abundance. Aisle after aisle packed with a dizzying variety of ultrapalatable foods, ringed with a perimeter of cheeses, breads, meats, vegetables, and fruits obtained out of season from distant lands with friendly climates.

Yet, peer behind the curtain, and it's a mirage. The processed foods stocking the aisles are almost entirely built from derivatives of corn and soybean oil, laced with generous quantities of artificial flavouring, preservatives, emulsifiers, and other chemical agents rubberstamped into the food supply by captured regulators. For all that they are calorically dense, these packaged items are not in any meaningful sense 'food'. They are addictive drugs shot through with poisons.

Then there are the unprocessed foods. These are suffused in pesticides and herbicides, painted and waxed so as to preserve their appearance and what flavour they retain from the mineral-stripped soil in which they were chemically fertilized. The meat is hormonal and antibiotic, injected with dyes to simulate freshness, stitched together from scraps using glue to give the appearance of steak.

This isn't to say that actual food is impossible to find. Most supermarkets offer organic produce, locally sourced free-range chicken, grass-fed beef, and so on. Such food is, however, extremely expensive. Limit your diet to such items and you rapidly realize how 'rich' you truly are.

Kazakh authorities have impounded the property of the main operator of Baikonur spaceport due to an ongoing debt dispute. Given the tense geopolitical situation in Eurasia, there has been heightened attention to any potential rifts between Russia and Kazakhstan.

On March 7, Kazakh media reported that the Bailiff Service of the Republic of Kazakhstan had impounded the property of TsENKI (Center for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure), a subsidiary of Russian state-owned Roscosmos, and issued a travel ban on the company's head in Kazakhstan.

TsENKI reportedly owes a debt of 13.5 billion tenge (2 billion rubles or about $29 million) to the Joint Kazakh-Russian Enterprise Baiterek JSC. The Arbitration Court at the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC) had ruled in Baiterek's favor last year and decided on enforcement actions back in November 2022. TsENKI was informed in late January but apparently did not pay its debt, thus the impounding and block on transferring assets and property out of Kazakhstan.

A huge explosion at a chemical manufacturing plant in Texas was caught on video Wednesday afternoon, sparking a blaze that sent black smoke into the sky before being extinguished.

The incident happened in Pasadena, outside of Houston, at a plant operated by the chemical multinational INEOS, KHOU reported.

A video appearing to show the explosion and its aftermath from multiple angles was shared on social media.

Florida gov says he will not be involved in 'manufactured circus' surrounding potential Trump charges...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Monday as a "Soros-funded prosecutor" who is "pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office" as he reportedly considers indicting former President Donald Trump on charges related to alleged hush-money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016.

When asked about the potential indictment of the former president, DeSantis said:

"I've seen rumors swirl, I have not seen any facts yet, and so I don't know what's going to happen. But I do know this. The Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor, and so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety."

The potential charges against Trump stem from the $130,000 hush-money payment that then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen made to Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.

Federal prosecutors in the U.S. attorneys office for the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Stormy Daniels payment in 2019, even as Cohen implicated him as part of his plea deal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

Manhattan judge allows central accusations that banks benefited from ties to sex trafficker to proceed

A US judge has ruled that a pair of lawsuits accusing two major banks of knowingly benefiting from ties to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein can proceed, though in a narrower form than had been initially filed.

The four-page ruling by Manhattan district judge Jed Rakoff granted motions by JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank to dismiss some counts against them, but permitted the central claims brought by Epstein accusers and the US Virgin Islands to proceed.

The lawsuit against JPMorgan, filed by a woman on behalf of other Epstein victims claims the bank "knowingly benefited from participating in a sex trafficking venture" led by Epstein, a client from 1998 through 2013, and had "negligently failed to exercise reasonable care to prevent physical harm".

The judge also permitted similar claims against Deutsche Bank which had accepted Epstein as a client in 2013 even after 40 underage girls made sexual assault claims against him.

The union representing Portland's transit workers is calling out the far-left Multnomah County District Attorney for not prosecuting offenders after assaults on drivers.

ATU 757, the union for TriMet's drivers, said there are hundreds of assaults or attempted assaults against their employees every year, including 170 in 2022.

The union's Vice President Fred Casey told KATU, "I am not aware of any of those going to prosecution on an assault charge. As far as I know, the DA's office has either dropped the charges or settled on a plea deal with a misdemeanor of 'interfering with public transportation.'"

He noted that he does not see the same lax prosecution happening in nearby counties. "There's a stark difference when something happens on a bus out in Washington County or Clackamas County. And the response is quite different than here in Multnomah County."

An epic disaster like the COVID response, one might suppose, should inspire some humility and rethinking on how public health could have gone so wrong. They had their run at it but created a global disaster for the ages.

This is more than obvious to any competent observer. The next step might be to see if there are any places where matters went rather well, and Sweden comes first to mind. The educational losses were non-existent because they didn't close schools. In general life went on as normal and with very good results.

One might suppose the Swedish way would be vindicated. Sadly, our leaders care nothing for evidence, apparently. Their concern is for power and money at any cost. As a result, we are witnessing a concerted effort not only to double down on errors the next time but make them even worse.

American aid worker Jeff Woodke has been released more than six years after being kidnapped by militants in Niger, U.S. officials said on Monday.

Woodke's release was announced days after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Niger for an official visit, becoming the first top U.S. diplomat to visit the country.

"I'm gratified & relieved to see the release of U.S. hostage Jeff Woodke after over 6 years in captivity," U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Twitter. "The U.S. thanks Niger for its help in bringing him home to all who miss & love him."

An unnamed victim of deceased child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, will be allowed to file suit against JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank.

United States District Judge Jed Rakoff tossed most of the charges against the two financial institutions in proposed class action lawsuits on Monday, according to a report from Bloomberg, and threw out three of the four claims against JPMorgan Chase in a separate suit from the U.S. Virgin Islands. Attorneys will be permitted, however, to contend that the firms benefited from the Epstein sex trafficking scheme by providing him with financial services.

"Epstein's sex trafficking operation was impossible without the assistance of JPMorgan Chase, and later Deutsche Bank, and we assure the public that we will leave no stone unturned in our quest for justice for the many victims who deserved better from one of America's largest financial institutions," lawyers for the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Epstein victim, identified only as Jane Doe, said in a statement.