“Nonfarm payrolls rose by 311,000 for the month, the Labor Department reported Friday. That was above the 225,000 Dow Jones estimate and a sign that the employment market is still hot.” CNBC reported.

“Hanoi” Jane Fonda on Friday said pro-life activists and politicians should be murdered for their beliefs on abortion during an appearance on ABC’s “The View.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday (Feb 25) he would visit China in April, and urged Beijing to pressure Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

China has sought to position itself as a neutral party on the conflict, even as it has maintained close ties with Russia and helped scuttle a joint statement condemning the war at a G20 gathering in India.

It published a 12-point position paper on Friday that called for urgent peace talks and a "political settlement" to end the conflict.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday also expressed hopes to meet Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, calling it "important for world security".

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 occupation to the operation of ratlines to funnel weapons and mercenaries from Libya to Syria to fight Washington’s proxy war for regime change in Damascus.

In his seminal report on the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, Hersh relied on insider Washington sources. He published claims that the United States carried out the covert operation using a team of U.S. Navy divers under the cover of NATO war maneuvers known as BALTOPS 22 last summer. Explosives were planted on the seabed during the exercises held in June 2022 and then later detonated on September 26 with the help of Norwegian military aircraft.

 Thursday morning the government of Georgia announced it was “unconditionally” and “without any reservations” withdrawing the proposed legislation on foreign funding registration that has the country, Europe, and America up in outrage.

“We see that the adopted draft law has caused differences of opinion in the society,” the ruling coalition spearheaded by the Georgian Dream party, said in a statement. “As the emotional background subsides, we will better explain to the public what the bill was for and why it was important to ensure transparency of foreign influence in our country”.

However the protests in the capital, which turned violent on Wednesday, were announced to continue Thursday despite news mid-morning that the bill was to be withdrawn.

A historic Anglican Church in the heart of London will for the first time put on a drag queen performance featuring former RuPaul’s Drag Race UK contestants  to “celebrate artistry and ingenuity in every walk of life”.

The 17th-century St James’s Church, Piccadilly in London, which claims to have demonstrated a “pioneering welcome of LGBTQAI+ communities and other marginalised people and groups”, will for the first time in its 340-year history put on a “drag night” dubbed PREACH! within the church.

The Church of England parish church said that it would be hosting at least two performances of PREACH! — with one on Saturday, March 4th, and the second on June 3rd.

The show on Saturday was set to feature drag performers River Medway and Veronica Green, both of whom have appeared as contestants on the RuPaul’s Drag Race UK television programme.

“St James’s will welcome drag icons from around the world to perform beneath its ornate gold ceiling, showcasing some of the biggest names in the art of drag, as well as fresh talent,” the church said.

Israel could be hit by a massive earthquake at any moment that would see thousands of buildings crumble unless it invests billions of dollars in reinforcing old structures around the country, geology experts have said.

According to Dr. Ittai Kurzon, a seismologist at the Geological Survey of Israel, the government must invest $10 billion to reinforce buildings and infrastructure built before 1980.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told Georgian President President Salome Zourabichvili that her country should not take part in helping Russia to dodge Western sanctions, the White House press service said in a statement.

According to the readout of the meeting, the sides "discussed the need to ensure Russia continues to feel the full economic costs of the sanctions, export controls, and other economic restrictions imposed by the United States" and its allies over the special military operation in Ukraine.

"Sullivan underscored the need for Georgia to avoid becoming an avenue for evasion or backfill," the document says.

Sullivan and Zourabichvili also "discussed recent developments in Georgia, underscoring their countries’ shared interest in Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration."

Various countries have welcomed the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, while the regime in Tel Aviv seems to view the development as a “fatal blow” to its regional coalition building against the Islamic Republic.

After several days of intensive negotiations hosted by China, Iran and Saudi Arabia finally clinched a deal on Friday to restore diplomatic relations and re-open embassies, seven years after ties were severed over several issues.

The important development soon became a hot topic in regional as well as international media and reactions from other countries began to pour in.

“The return to normal relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia provides great capacities to both countries, the region, and the Muslim world,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who is set to soon meet with his Saudi counterpart to make the necessary arrangements, wrote in a post on his Twitter account.

Webmaster addition: "All that work to turn Iran and Saudi Arabia against each other wasted. Wasted!" -- Nodding Yahoo 

In a grand act of good sportsmanship, a college softball team joined in unison to help an injured opponent round the bases after she hit a grand slam but twisted an ankle running from first to second.

During last Saturday’s game, Grand View University star Kaitlyn Moses hit a grand slam against Southeastern University just after passing first base, she fell to the ground, seemingly unable to continue her victorious run.

But her teammates were stunned by what happened next.

According to NAIA rules, team members cannot help an injured player run the bases. And if a player can’t round the bases, the runs will not count.

So, once Moses’ opponents realized that she could not finish her run after her grand slam, they gathered as a team to carry Moses around the bases to earn her run.

Southeastern players helped Moses touch second, third, and home in a grand display of good sportsmanship.

HOW FAUCI AND PHARMA KILLED PATIENTS AND PERVERTED MEDICINE

Webmaster addition: Video at the source link

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took his fight against liberalism deep into the Democratic territory of California on Sunday, part of a national road show as he lays the ground for an expected White House bid.

DeSantis has been meeting with wealthy donors in recent days and burnishing his national credentials in a series of speeches boasting about his achievements in Florida while lambasting the “woke ideology” of leaders in Democratic strongholds including California and New York.

DeSantis, who is expected to announce a presidential run in the next few months, has made a war on liberalism a central theme of his governorship and a way to appeal to the Republican base.

While he has not yet announced a White House bid, one candidate who has – former Republican President Donald Trump – clearly views DeSantis as a major potential threat as the Republican nominating contest kicks into gear. Trump has already launched personal and political attacks on DeSantis as the race for the Republican Party’s 2024 White House nomination begins to heat up.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will make his first trip to the early nominating state of Iowa on Friday as he tests the waters for a presidential bid, only days before fellow Republican and former President Donald Trump is slated to campaign there.

Florida Governor and likely 2024 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis poses for a selfie after speaking as part of his Florida Blueprint tour in Pinellas Park, Florida, U.S. March 8, 2023. REUTERS/Scott Audette  

Iowa could be particularly crucial for DeSantis, who is expected to jump into the 2024 White House race later in the spring. The state will hold the first Republican nominating contest early next year, and a win there would show DeSantis is a viable candidate against Trump.

The former president is highly popular in the state and holds a large organizational advantage due to his two previous presidential campaigns.

DeSantis will appear at events in Des Moines, the state capital, and the river town of Davenport that will be moderated by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds. The trip is part of a series of events he has staged across the country in recent weeks as he builds his national profile and courts deep-pocketed donors.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) was informed on Friday that its monks and clergy had until March 29 to vacate the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, after a government commission decided they were violating the terms of their lease from the state. The church has refused, saying there are no legal grounds for the eviction.

Founded in 1051, the Pechersk Lavra (‘monastery of the caves’) is considered the most prominent Orthodox Christian site in Ukraine. Legally it is the property of the state, as a national historic preserve, and administered by the UOC under a 2013 agreement with the government.

According to a memo from the Ministry of Culture, published by multiple Ukrainian outlets, a commission established by President Vladimir Zelensky’s decree in December had determined that the UOC is in violation of the deal, and therefore must turn the monastery over by the end of March. 

The Ukrainian military dropped a bomb equipped with the US-made JDAM guidance kit in the area of Kurdyumovka near Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut by Ukraine) in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) to test the possibility of employing it from Soviet-made aircraft, Yan Gagin, military-political expert and adviser to the acting DPR head, told TASS on Friday.

"These are air-launched bombs. Originally, they were made for NATO aircraft. Ukraine has no such aircraft. We believe that this could have been a combat test with a non-standard carrier. This can apply, in particular, to MiG-29 multirole fighters," he said.

The MiG-29 is one of the few aircraft that the Ukrainian military could have used for dropping the JDAM-equipped bomb. Ukraine employs these multirole fighters for launching HARM anti-radiation missiles, he said.

Ukraine’s Klimenko Time media outlet reported earlier on Friday that the Ukrainian military had employed the JDAM bomb in Donbass for the first time. In its confirmation of this report, the media outlet posted a video clip of the explosion that is spreading on Ukrainian Telegram channels. Neither the Kiev regime nor its military has yet officially confirmed the information on the use of the JDAM bomb.

Russia’s move to expose the United States’ military and biological activities made many countries wonder about the real reasons for the presence of US research facilities on their territories, Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov said on Friday.

"The Russian Federation's disclosure of US military and biological activities outside its national territory makes a growing number of countries wonder about the real reasons for the presence of US research facilities on their territory," he pointed out at a briefing.

Kirillov noted that in December 2022, the Philippines’ Makabayan opposition bloc had called on the country’s Congress to investigate the Pentagon’s activities at the Regional Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Tarlac City. "The parliamentarians’ appeal points out that the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has overt and covert military objectives in the Philippines, which may not coincide with Manila’s interests. In their appeal, the MPs demand that the US military begin to examine the work of the Department of Justice, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Health, as well as the national defense agency," the Russian general said.

Webmaster addition: I am worried. This push to jab everyone with these demonstrably dangerous mRNA shots, violating patient rights and the Nuremberg code, only makes sense if the US is planning to fight WW3 with biological weapons. Viewed from the military mindset, killing and crippling a million Americans is worth it, if the rest of the population is immune from whatever horror it is they've cooked up in those labs. The fact is that the US cannot possibly win a conventional war against a combined Russia and China. Everyone loses in a nuclear war. A biological war leaves all that precious infrastructure intact and ready to use by the invaders!

 Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov announced the names of Ukrainians involved in US military biological programs at a briefing on Friday.

He pointed out that the Russian Defence Ministry had earlier announced the names of some participants in US military biological programs, including officials from the US Department of Defense, US biotech companies and Pentagon contractors. "Today, we would like to add representatives of Ukrainian state institutions and private companies involved in US military and biological programs to this list," Kirillov said.

According to him, one of them was Sergey Morgun, Head of the Sanitary and Epidemiological Department of the Ukrainian armed forces and one of the organizers of interaction between the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). He was one of the leaders of the U-P-8 project supervising hantavirus research.

Kirillov went on to mention Vladimir Kurpita, Head of the Public Health Center, who had managed interaction between Ukrainian specialists and DTRA, organized the collection of biological samples from Ukrainian citizens and their transfer abroad. The Russian general also noted that Irina Demchishina, Head of Reference Laboratories at the Ukrainian Health Ministry’s Public Health Center, had acted as an intermediary in interaction with Pentagon contractors Black & Veatch and Metabiota and supervised the implementation of DTRA projects of UP and TAP series.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the latest reports in the Western media about the alleged involvement of a "Ukrainian oligarch" in the explosions on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines "incoherent babble."

"When they threw in the last wave of stories in the American and to some extent in the German press regarding a new version [about the causes of the emergency on gas pipelines] - about "the Ukrainian oligarch, who had better confess himself," [and that they] "did not want to talk about Ukraine’s involvement, because it could spoil German-Ukrainian relations" and all that jazz: this is incoherent babble," he said.

In an interview with "The Great Game" program on Channel One, the Russian top diplomat noted that even if one accepts the rationale about the "Ukrainian fingerprint" mentioned in the media, it will raise some questions in Germany.

"The burghers will wonder: why do I need this Ukraine at all, if they blow us up, whoever he (the saboteur - TASS) may be - an agent of Kiev, paid for by someone from abroad, or just a lone ranger, why do I need to send Leopards there, why do I need to admit this country into NATO?" Lavrov said.

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 partially focused on calming tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories, has so far proven to have been a flop, with violence continuing to escalate in the West Bank.

Viewing Africa with double standards is part of why Africans are breaking their ties with Europe, Martin Jay writes.

The paternalism isn’t uniquely France’s. It’s a malaise of western elites and viewing Africa with double standards is part of why Africans are breaking their ties with Europe.

The row in front of the cameras was thrilling as it was unprecedented. The president of Congo made the point in front of the journalists that France’s foreign minister’s comments about the president’s election being some kind of compromise of democracy was unacceptable as France itself is guilty of election irregularities. But they are not reported with the same zealous paternalism and are not even presented the same way as they are in reality, but distorted by media. Macron responded that the foreign minister’s comments were distorted and that the French media doesn’t represent France, a point which Felix Tshisekedi did not accept at all, which raised a round of applause from the journalists present in Kinshasa.

It was Macron’s last day of his Africa tour and one which he will remember as being a PR disaster. The point of the tour was to shore up support from old allies on the continent but, in this context, it could hardly be a success when you look at the YouTube footage of the DRC press conference.

The West was looking for some sort of pretext to "get its claws into" Russia after Moscow had come to be seen as too independent a player in the international arena, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

"[The West] was waiting for a pretext to get its claws into Russia. They were waiting for a chance to do this because they had begun to see Russia as too independent a player, which, if perhaps not building up as much economic power as China or India, was nevertheless among the leading world economies and holds rather weighty moral and political stances in the international arena, advocating from a position of justice on those issues that are of critical importance for the developing countries," he said in an interview with the "Bolshaya Igra" ("The Great Game") public affairs program on Russia’s Channel One television.

According to the top Russian diplomat, the West is loath to listen to Russia’s criticism of its attempts to "live at the expense of others" in the post-colonial era.

Webmaster addition:

The Daily Mail reports that Fairfax County Public Schools is one of the largest school districts in the country. Yet, this school system is going out of its way to ban students of certain racial makeup from being able to get involved with college prep programs. These programs could help them receive the services they require to prepare for college.

The Daily Mail reports that the School District is under fire after sending out a letter about the college prep program only to families of Black and Hispanic families. The state’s attorney general has already investigated the school system because they withheld merit awards from Thomas Jefferson High School students.

The school is known as TJ by the locals and is one of the top-performing public schools in the United States. Woke teachers within the school say that they withheld some of the merit awards from students to bring about what they call “equality” in education.

Since its establishment, the World Health Organization (WHO) has assumed the role of an advisory entity in the international health domain. Since 2005, the WHO established International Health Regulations (IHR) as the main compliance tool to ensure that public health emergencies would be handled swiftly. The COVID pandemic perfectly illustrates how powerful the WHO already is.

However, a new set of amendments (pdf) proposed by state members of the WHO was published at the end of 2022, seeking to enhance the WHO’s power under the guise of the IHR. This, in addition to a newly proposed Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) (pdf) and the addition of a pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (WHO CA+) clause (pdf) in the INB, raises several red flags on the paradigm shift the WHO is undertaking, from playing the role of an international health advisory body to becoming a global regime acting in the name of health.

Why? Like for the mRNA technology gene injection, why develop this, these chimera deadly coronaviruses?

Was this developed in a lab? Yes. US lab, likely. This one paper, and their 2015 ‘NATURE’ paper, shows clearly that COVID virus was developed in collaboration between U.S. and Chinese researchers (main funding by US) and this collaboration played a key role in creating SARS-CoV-2.

In the NATURE paper below Menachery et al. describe exactly how they created the chimeric deadly COVID like virus.

The president of Silicon Valley Bank appeared before Congress in 2015 to argue that his bank should not be subject to scrutiny - insisting that 'enhanced prudential standards' should be lifted 'given the low risk profile of our activities'.

Greg Becker, president of SVB, on Friday watched as his bank collapsed and was placed under government control - becoming the second-largest bank to fold, after Washington Mutual in 2008.

Yet hours later it emerged Becker had convinced Congress to lessen the scrutiny of businesses like his. But anyone with deposits over a quarter of a million dollars with Silicon Valley Bank now faces losing all their money above the $250,000 protected by a federal law. 

Uvalde’s district attorney has joined the Texas Department of Public Safety in fighting the release of public records related to last year’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, arguing that all of the families who lost children want them withheld. But attorneys for a vast majority of the families are refuting that claim, saying that the information should be made public.

“These Uvalde families fundamentally deserve the opportunity to gain the most complete factual picture possible of what happened to their children,” wrote Brent Ryan Walker, one of the attorneys who represents the parents of 16 deceased children and one who survived, in a court affidavit filed Tuesday evening.

Numerous news organizations, including The Texas Tribune and ProPublica, are suing DPS for records that could provide a more complete picture of law enforcement’s response to the shooting, which left 19 students and two teachers dead in the border community.