Four Nor'easters hit the East coast of the US and Canada this March, bringing arctic conditions and meters of snow, leaving millions without power, disrupting traffic and destroying crops. Interestingly enough, the fourth Nor'easter arrived just hours after the Spring equinox. Storms in Texas and Alabama dumped enormous hailstones that caused widespread destruction over many counties. Meanwhile, California suffered one of its worst floods in decades, and record snowfall hit elsewhere in the US West.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the UK continued to suffer the ravages of the 'Beast from the East' that joined forces with Storm Emma, plummeting temperatures and breaking March snowfall records. The rest of Europe also had its share of unseasonable extreme cold, with rare snowfalls in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Romania. Meanwhile, frozen canals in Amsterdam stunned locals.

Saudi Arabia was battered once and again in March by (formerly rare) snowfall, hail, and flooding. Kenya suffered one of their its heaviest rainy seasons, with record flooding, landslides and a 3 km crack in the earth that disrupted traffic and baffled locals. Meanwhile Algeria was blanketed with a rare snowfall that damaged crops and disrupted transport.

Australia continued to suffer from heavy rains, hail and flooding during March, not least from tropical cyclone Marcus, which smashed into Darwin and left widespread destruction.

The animal kingdom is apparently also telling us that something is not quite right with the environment: March also saw another series of enraged animals, stranded whales and dolphins, and mass animal deaths. Recent news that our planet's ocean currents are undergoing dramatic change just adds to the rather frigid global outlook.

Check it out below!

Russian Armed Forces Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov has warned that Russia would respond to any US military strike flowing from a false flag chemical weapons attack blamed on the Syrian government and Russia. So what's the big deal? The general made the warning nearly a month ago...

Speaking at a press briefing on March 13, Gerasimov warned that the Russian defense ministry had obtained "reliable information" about plans by terrorists in Eastern Ghouta to launch a false chemical attack on civilians in the region and blame it on the Syrian government. According to the officer, 'White Helmets' activists and the accompanying film crews had already arrived at the scene with the necessary satellite equipment to spread the news of this 'attack' to the world media.

Listen to the general's remarks in full:

Given that we're on the precipice of World War III, I figured it was important to address a topic that gets little attention in the mainstream media (certainly not an accident). Deadly smoothies.

A couple of paleo peeps around the interwebs have been drawing attention to a study about the case of 65-year-old woman who managed to achieve full kidney failure doing a 10-day "green smoothie cleanse". From the study, "She had normal kidney function before using the cleanse and developed acute kidney injury that progressed to end-stage renal disease."

Wow. I bet the hippies have their yoga pants in a twist over this one!

The whole thing does seem a bit counter-intuitive, though. Green smoothies are supposed to be healthy, after all.

Only the Russians have allowed us to hear the actual voice of Yulia Skripal, in that recorded conversation with her cousin. So the one thing we know for certain is that, at the very first opportunity she had, she called back to her cousin in Russia to let her know what is going on. If you can recall, until the Russians released that phone call, the British authorities were still telling lies that Sergei was in a coma and Yulia herself in a serious condition.

We do not know how Yulia got to make the call. Having myself been admitted unconscious to hospital on several occasions, each time when I came to I found my mobile phone in my bedside cabinet. Yulia's mobile phone plainly had been removed from her and not returned. Nor had she been given an official one - she specifically told her cousin that she could not call her back on that phone as she had it temporarily. The British government could have given her one to keep on which she could be called back, had they wished to help her.

On the night of April 8th, 2018, a Sunday, Syria's Tiyas Military Airbase in the Homs governorate (also known as the T-4 Airbase), was struck by missiles in a vicious and unprovoked attack. Initial reports claimed that Syrian air defences intercepted five of eight projectiles, and that there were several casualties and wounded.

The attack comes just over one year after the April 7th, 2017, US missile strikes against the Shayrat Airbase, when 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched as a US 'response' to a flurry of reports of a chemical weapons attack against civilians in Idlib province, which also allegedly killed around 70 people. That 'response' took place without an investigation and on the basis of little evidence demonstrating the Syrian government's involvement. The missile strikes rewarded newly-elected US president Donald Trump with positive media coverage, but shook his supporter base as it undermined his election promise to not 'topple foreign regimes'.

And now, once again, the supposed 'red line' for this latest attack has been the use of chemical weapons within Syria's borders, but rather unusually there have been no immediate statements from a major military power claiming responsibility for it. The US military denied perpetrating the attack, claiming that, "At this time, the Department of Defense is not conducting air strikes in Syria."

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) is a condition which falls under the umbrella of "gut dysbiosis". As the name implies, it is characterised by an overgrowth of microflora in the small intestine. The typical symptoms include bloating, abdominal pain, excessive foul flatulence, burping, IBS, constipation, diarrhoea, halitosis, acne, etc. The bacteria which colonise this portion of the digestive tract are able to metabolise fermentable fibres to yield significant quantities of gas as a byproduct of metabolism.¹ The two predominant gases are hydrogen and methane. The diagnosis of SIBO is based on a test which involves the consumption of a sugar-based solution and then a measurement of the contents of the breath.

Elevated levels of either hydrogen or methane gas indicates that there is an overgrowth of bacteria, and is used as evidence to support the adoption of a protocol designed to kill off the bacteria. Protocols typically involve prokinetic agents, digestive enzymes, biofilm disruptors, antimicrobial botanical herbs, antibiotics like rifaximin, and perhaps probiotics as well. Aside from being prescribed a wide array of supplements, people are often told to adopt a low FODMAPs diet or a more restrictive GAPS-type protocol to "starve the bacteria", minimise symptoms and support gut barrier integrity.

Recently, the US Treasury Department added dozens of Russian entrepreneurs, senior officials and companies on a sanction list in response to Russia's alleged worldwide "malign activity." Sputnik spoke with Joe Quinn, internet essayist, researcher, author to find out more about the current political situation on the international scene.

Sputnik: In your view, what consequences can these sanctions have on US-Russia relations?

Joe Quinn: Russia-US relations are already at a historic low point, sanctions therefore obviously will only worsen the relationship. That said, there is a positive result from such actions by the US in that it encourages Russia to seek other, more reasonable international partners with whom to do business. This can only be good for diversifying the Russian economy and creating a stronger opposition bloc of nations that can effectively challenge the US vision of a unipolar world.

Having gone this far with their absurd theater of staging a chemical weapons attack and blaming it on the Kremlin, the British government has apparently decided that... it may as well keep going.

Thanks to Victoria Skripal having the wherewithal to record her phone conversation with her cousin once she got through to her, we now know that the Skripals are doing 'fine' enough that they expect to be discharged from hospital soon. We also learned from the cousin that she overheard someone coaching Yulia on what she could and could not say on the phone. When Victoria told her she'd apply for a visa in order to come to the UK and visit her and her uncle, Yulia foresaw - correctly, as it turns out - that it was unlikely her application would be successful.

In addition, the British continue to refuse Russian embassy staff in London permission to visit her - as they are required to do under international law.

The British now have a serious problem on their hands: what to do with the Skripals? If they let them return to Russia, they'll almost certainly divulge details embarrassing to the British government.

"...When Darkness and Disorder Began to Reign in a Kingdom...

...There Appeared the Loyal Ministers."

- The Tao Teh Ching.

Eighteen more Palestinians were unapologetically murdered this past "Good Friday" by the Israeli military. They were unarmed. They were on their own land. They were desperate. They screamed their desperation as they marched. Then, they shouted their daily reality of personal horrors too close to Israel's attention. So, they were killed.

When it emerged that the dodgy Trump dossier - supposedly 'proof' that Russia 'meddled' in the 2016 US election - was put together by a 'former' British spy named Christopher Steele, no one thought too much of it because, well, 'the Special Relationship' and all that. But in the course of the 'Russiagate' investigations, it has emerged that Steele's source in turn - described in the British press as a 'Maltese professor with close connections to the Kremlin' - is in fact someone whose actual ties place him close to the British establishment.‌

‌In the meantime, the Skripal spy saga has again led to Russia being portrayed as a 'rogue state', but this attempt to frame Russia for conducting a chemical weapons attack on British soil is backfiring spectacularly on the UK government. Concurrently, media exposure of how a nominally American company - Cambridge Analytica - used Facebook users' data to 'rig' both the Brexit referendum and the US election for Trump has also inadvertently lifted the lid on the British establishment's meddling in both those events and many others around the world.‌

What on Earth is going on here? Why are so many threads in the biggest scandals of the day - all ostensibly leading to the Kremlin in Moscow - in fact all leading back to London, England? With the latest "chemical weapon" attack in East Ghouta happening today, after Russia warned that it was imminent TWO DAYS AGO, what kind of stupid do America and the UK have to be to blame Russia and Syria?

On this week's show, we're going to take a closer look at the small island off northwestern Europe and the big - and often dark - role it has played on the world stage.‌

You can listen and call in live with questions or comments from 4-5:30pm UTC / 12-1:30pm EDT / 6-7:30pm CET this Sunday April 8th.

Running Time: 01:43:23

Download: MP3