Extreme weather continues to batter California. Heavy rains, flooding, hurricane-force winds, and tornadoes left hundreds of thousands without power and prompted evacuations from the hardest-hit areas. To top it off, the state reported the second snowiest late winter on record and the third snowiest month on record. The anomalously heavy snow buried Southern California mountain communities under 12.5 feet of snow and caused the indefinite closure of Yosemite National Park, which received 15 feet of snow and broke a decades-old snowfall record in the process.

Utah also recorded its snowiest late winter, breaking a record set in 1983. Snowbasin Resort in Weber County officially had its snowiest month on record.

And the same system that affected parts of the West Coast also hit southern states with snow, flooding, golf-ball-sized hail, and tornadoes, leaving more than 1 million without power and killing at least 13. And the northeastern U.S. also got its share of extreme weather, as a nor'easter brought 3 feet of snow, rain, gusty winds, and coastal flooding.

Tropical Cyclone Freddy made a rare second landfall in southern Africa, killing at least 216 people. Malawi and Mozambique were the hardest hit, with 190 deaths, 19,000 displaced, and thousands without power.

In Brazil, heavy rains and the overflowing Acre River flooded large areas of the city of Rio Branco, Acre. The Acre River in Rio Branco rose from about 26 feet to 51 in 24 hours. Hundreds of homes were damaged and at least 2,000 people were evacuated.

Other major floods worldwide this month:

• Johor, Malaysia - 4 dead and 40,000 displaced after heavy flooding
• Java, Sumatra, and Sulawesi, Indonesia - 4 dead, 7 missing after floods and landslides
• Somalia - At least 14 dead in flash floods
• Kenya - 7 dead and 25 families left homeless after flash floods
• Şanlıurfa and Adıyaman, Turkey - Flash floods leave 14 dead
• Bolivia - Thousands affected by severe flooding
• Cauca, Colombia - 1,500 families affected by floods and landslides
• Northern Australia - Hundreds evacuated after rivers overflow

An estimated 461 people were injured and 13 people died after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck southern Ecuador. Many buildings in Cuenca, one of the country's largest cities, reported structural damage.

Another magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck much of Pakistan and Afghanistan. At least 13 people were reported dead and twelve injured.

Finally, after the strongest solar storm in over five years, massive auroras were seen over Tasmania, Australia, and New Zealand, and Northern Lights were reported as far south as North Carolina and Phoenix, Arizona, almost to the Mexican border.

All this and more in our SOTT Earth Changes Summary for March 2023:

Turns out Trump wasn't wrong when he said, two weeks ago, "they're coming after me..." But the regime can't seriously believe that he will go to prison over a payment he made to a (literal) whore 7 years ago, can they?!

Also on this NewsReal, Joe & Niall look back on a week that included:

A mass shooting at a school in Nashville by a crazed 'transgender' woman; the filing of bi-partisan legislation (the 'Restrict Act') that would block Americans from accessing information from 'unapproved sources' (upon pain of 20 years' imprisonment); notable developments in the ongoing 'de-dollarization' of international trade; the US piling pressure on Pakistan to 'terminate' its democratically-elected leader Imran Khan; the US VP's 'charm offensive' tour of African states; what looks like another US State Department color revolution (in Israel of all places!); and a daunting report on the falling average age of life expectancy in the US.

It's ugly stuff, but that's what happens at the End of Empire...


Running Time: 01:46:43

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The World Health Organization is the One Ring to Rule them All, and its written goal, inscribed in fiery letters along both sides of its band, is the Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Treaty. Fashioned by the Dark Lord of the Twenty-first Century, the United States of America, in its own iteration of Mount Doom, it only appears to yield US sovereignty to an external organisation.

In reality and practice, as this article will show, the Treaty will give Washington increased power over the G20 nations — the holders of the other 'rings' — and through them the rest of the Western World: not only its people but also its animals, its eco-systems, its resources. This, and not the health of the globe, is its dark purpose.

THE CIVIL WAR

The World Health Organization, which since January 2020 has received $782 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is a corporate-funded and lobbied agency of the United Nations without legal jurisdiction over the populations of its 194 member states — to which it acts, at least in principle, in an advisory role.

But that's going to change soon.

On 3 March 2022, as lockdown regulations were revoked across Europe and NATO declared its proxy war on Russia, the European Council adopted a decision to authorise the opening of negotiations for an international Treaty on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response. Under the terms of this Treaty, the member-states of the World Health Organization will be legally bound to implement restrictions on human rights and freedoms — such as further lockdowns, mandatory face masking, compulsory gene therapy, a system of digital identity and programmes of surveillance and censorship — all on the judgement of the WHO.

US Congress members made a complete ar$e of themselves last week when grilling TikTok's CEO about his 'Chinese Communist Party ties' and his social media platform's 'malign influence on American children', paving the way - they hope - for the dehumanization the Chinese people in Americans' eyes, a prelude to some form of crazy 'war' against the world's most populous country.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the historic summit between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping inspired much fear and loathing from Washington's permanent bureaucracy - albeit disguised in weasel words and 'exceptionalist' dogma about 'the unbeatable power of US leadership'. The signs, however, are clear: the US is no longer the country most others look to - for anything...


Running Time: 01:32:22

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The Biden Administration continues to conceal its responsibility for the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines...
It's been six weeks since I published a report, based on anonymous sourcing, naming President Joe Biden as the official who ordered the mysterious destruction last September of Nord Stream 2, a new $11-billion pipeline that was scheduled to double the volume of natural gas delivered from Russia to Germany. The story gained traction in Germany and Western Europe, but was subject to a near media blackout in the US. Two weeks ago, after a visit by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Washington, US and German intelligence agencies attempted to add to the blackout by feeding the New York Times and the German weekly Die Zeit false cover stories to counter the report that Biden and US operatives were responsible for the pipelines' destruction.

Press aides for the White House and Central Intelligence Agency have consistently denied that America was responsible for exploding the pipelines, and those pro forma denials were more than enough for the White House press corps. There is no evidence that any reporter assigned there has yet to ask the White House press secretary whether Biden had done what any serious leader would do: formally "task" the American intelligence community to conduct a deep investigation, with all of its assets, and find out just who had done the deed in the Baltic Sea. According to a source within the intelligence community, the president has not done so, nor will he. Why not? Because he knows the answer.

In Moscow this week, the Chinese and Russian leaders revealed their joint commitment to redesign the global order, an undertaking that has 'not been seen in 100 years.'

What has just taken place in Moscow is nothing less than a new Yalta, which, incidentally, is in Crimea. But unlike the momentous meeting of US President Franklin Roosevelt, Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in USSR-run Crimea in 1945, this is the first time in arguably five centuries that no political leader from the west is setting the global agenda.

It's Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin that are now running the multilateral, multipolar show. Western exceptionalists may deploy their crybaby routines as much as they want: nothing will change the spectacular optics, and the underlying substance of this developing world order, especially for the Global South.

What Xi and Putin are setting out to do was explained in detail before their summit, in two Op-Eds penned by the presidents themselves. Like a highly-synchronized Russian ballet, Putin's vision was laid out in the People's Daily in China, focusing on a "future-bound partnership," while Xi's was published in the Russian Gazette and the RIA Novosti website, focusing on a new chapter in cooperation and common development.

Right from the start of the summit, the speeches by both Xi and Putin drove the NATO crowd into a hysterical frenzy of anger and envy: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova perfectly captured the mood when she remarked that the west was "foaming at the mouth."

The front page of the Russian Gazette on Monday was iconic: Putin touring Nazi-free Mariupol, chatting with residents, side by side with Xi's Op-Ed. That was, in a nutshell, Moscow's terse response to Washington's MQ-9 Reaper stunt and the International Criminal Court (ICC) kangaroo court shenanigans. "Foam at the mouth" as much as you like; NATO is in the process of being thoroughly humiliated in Ukraine.

During their first "informal" meeting, Xi and Putin talked for no less than four and a half hours. At the end, Putin personally escorted Xi to his limo. This conversation was the real deal: mapping out the lineaments of multipolarity - which starts with a solution for Ukraine.

Predictably, there were very few leaks from the sherpas, but there was quite a significant one on their "in-depth exchange" on Ukraine. Putin politely stressed he respects China's position - expressed in Beijing's 12-point conflict resolution plan, which has been completely rejected by Washington. But the Russian position remains ironclad: demilitarization, Ukrainian neutrality, and enshrining the new facts on the ground.

In parallel, the Russian Foreign Ministry completely ruled out a role for the US, UK, France, and Germany in future Ukraine negotiations: they are not considered neutral mediators.

Is Trump about to be arrested? He certainly thinks so, and has put out a call for people to protest in his defense. Curiously, last week Pakistan's 'Trump', Imran Khan, narrowly avoided arrest when his supporters took to the streets in their thousands to prevent police executing a warrant. And then there's the ICC's 'international arrest warrant' for Putin, wanted for 'war crimes against children'...

As the Battle for Bakhmut - and thus all Ukraine, it seems - reaches boiling point, the Russian military last week directly and openly clashed with the US. And... nothing! At least, no WW3.

All that came out of it was Washington 'shaming' Moscow for "environmentally-unsound flying."


Running Time: 01:28:03

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In just a short time, programs like ChatGPT and other chat bots have burst on the societal scene to the delight, fascination and enthrallment of millions. Individuals can now interact with a language program that is seemingly conversant on numerous subjects and provides "answers" via virtual brains. But this new powerful technology begs many more questions: What are these programs really, and how do they fit in with the development of AI? Where does anthropomorphic projection fit in as people become increasingly involved with them? Are these bots a first major step towards a transhuman reality? And can these technologies actually be forming the basis or entryway to a new type of technoreligion?

This week on Mindmatters we get to discuss these issues with Joe Allen, author of the Substack blog Singularity Weekly. After extensive research into this and related subject matter, Joe's nuanced analysis tells us that yes, we need to be paying serious attention to where all this has brought us, and where things are very likely going. Given how powerful and even seductive the use of these technologies are, he also suggests what may be the healthiest attitude or approach to interacting with them going forward. As if the world hasn't devolved into enough insanity there is, in fact, a new pathologizing influence to contend with. And we, 'legacy humans', ignore its profound influences at our own peril.


Running Time: 01:34:18

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The 'Covid Origins Story' reemerged recently with FBI Director Christopher Wray stating that the pandemic "most likely" stemmed from a "lab incident" in Wuhan, China. This energized Republicans' Covid probes, resulting in unanimous Congressional support for "publishing all government files on Covid's origins."

If such happens, you can bet that all resulting "revelations" will be "dynamically shaped" to smear China. Together with "Balloon-gate," this is grist to the mill of "containing China," something President Xi of China this week, for the first time, explicitly stated is the US' "grand geopolitical strategy" for thwarting China's rise.

Meanwhile, the Chinese government has brokered a tentative peace agreement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, something the US had nothing to do with, and which signals diminishing American influence in the Middle East, the "energy spigot" of the whole world...


Running Time: 01:11:49

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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 on the geometry between celestial bodies related to seismic activity (SSGEOS) highlighted a potential major earthquake in central Turkey days before the event above:



This model is still developing, but it seems promising for predicting major earthquake events with reasonable accuracy.

A series of earthquakes also struck Tajikistan, with the largest measured at magnitude 6.8, according to the USGS. The quake was felt strongly across the border in some areas of Kashgar Prefecture and Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang, but no casualties or damage were reported.

A massive late-winter storm moved across the US, dumping record snow, freezing temperatures, and heavy flooding, canceling hundreds of flights, and coating major roads with ice. However, the same system brought record warmth to the South.

Other related significant events in the U.S. this month:

• Tooele, Utah - 2 feet of snow overnight.
• Michigan - Snow and ice storm leaves 461,000 without power.
• Cheyenne, Wyoming - 4 feet of snow and record cold of -19C.
• Southern California - 6 feet of snow.

And around the world:

• Iranian Kuhrang, Iran - Record 8.2 feet of snow in 48 hours.
• Morocco - Record 7.2 feet of snow left 87 villages isolated.
• Austria - 1.2 feet of snow in 24 hours.
• Balkans - Heavy snowfall cuts power to thousands.
• Mayorce, Spain - 20 inches of snow and a sudden drop in temperature.

All this and more in our SOTT Earth Changes Summary for February 2023: