USA - Voting mostly along party lines, the US Senate on Wednesday confirmed former Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine to be the nation’s assistant secretary of health. She is the first openly transgender federal official to win Senate confirmation. The final vote was 52-48. Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine joined all Democrats in supporting Levine. Levine had been serving as Pennsylvania’s top health official since 2017, and emerged as the public face of the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. She is expected to oversee Health and Human Services offices and programs across the US.

USA - At least five people have been killed in Alabama, as tornadoes continue to batter the southern US state. The deaths were in the small town of Oatchee in Calhoun County, the local emergency agency said, as the storm damaged houses and uprooted trees. The tornadoes later hit Chilton County and were nearing Shelby Country. "I urge all folks in the path of these tornadoes and storm systems to remain on high alert," Governor Kay Ivey said. "The day is not over yet." "DO NOT WAIT TO SEE THE TORNADO! If you are in its path, TAKE SHELTER NOW!" the National Weather Service tweeted. Social media users posted dramatic footage of the fast-moving tornadoes wreaking havoc in Alabama. In 2019, more than 20 people - including three children - died after two tornadoes caused extensive damage to buildings and roads in eastern Alabama.

USA - The Department of Education in California – where else? – has approved a 900-page Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum designed to “decolonize” America. The program aims to right the supposed wrongs of the imperial Christianity that swept the Americas clean of their indigenous religions. The curriculum’s core promise is that it will help root out Christianity, and the capitalism and racism that apparently came with it. To empower children as forces for ending such white colonialist hangovers, pupils are being instructed to pray in chants each day to Aztec gods that formerly sacrificed (and sometimes ate parts of) children and their parents. The curriculum instructs the pupils to invoke these gods to empower themselves as “social warriors”.

RUSSIA - Russia has threatened to block Twitter within 30 days unless the site acts to remove what the government refers to as 'banned content'. Vadim Subbotin, deputy head of watchdog Roskomnadzor, said on Tuesday that the ban would come into effect unless Twitter removed the content, which he said includes child porn and information on child suicide and drugs. 'Twitter is not reacting to our requests as they should. If the situation carries on then it will be blocked in a month without a court order,' Subbotin said. It comes a week after Subbotin announced that Twitter's internet speed would be slowed down unless it removed the offending content. Russia has also railed against social media sites for censoring state-controlled media such as RT, which have been branded propaganda sites by foreign governments. Back in January, Putin personally accused social media giants in January of 'controlling society' and 'restricting the right to freely express viewpoints.' The move against Twitter is part of ongoing efforts by the government to tighten control over social platforms.

WALES, UK - A person suspected of breaching the coronavirus regulations is not required by law to give the police their name and address, an appeal has ruled. Keith Neale, a 60-year-old homeless man, had his conviction for obstructing a police officer by failing to give his details quashed, by the High Court sitting in Cardiff. In an important judgment on the legal duties of citizens under the coronavirus regulations Mrs Justice Steyn and Lord Justice Dingemans ruled that Neale was under no common law obligation or statutory duty to give the police his name and address. Almost a third of prosecutions made under the coronavirus regulations have been wrongly brought, leading to hundreds of cases being dropped. Patrick Ormerod, the solicitor at Bindmans who acted for Neale, said: 'As the High Court stated, the courts should be wary of expanding police powers by implication – where parliament has chosen to compel speech it has done so expressly. The absence of an express obligation to give a name and address in the Coronavirus Regulations powerfully demonstrates that it does not exist.'

USA - A leaked email from a federal government agency reveals that the White House is playing word games to downplay Joe Biden’s occupation of the White House. Language is being used to elevate Kamala Harris in all official White House business. The mandatory directive, the leak from Outspoken reveals, came from a high-ranking White House communications team member.

USA - The “Texageddon” blackouts and near-collapse of all infrastructure (food, fuel, cell towers, power grid, water systems, emergency services, roads, etc) taught us all some very difficult lessons in survival. We learned that the infrastructure is far more vulnerable than most people thought, and we saw with our own eyes that most people still refuse to prepare with extra food and water, even after a year of covid lockdowns that should have been a universal wake up call. ...No one is coming to help you. In many situations, no one can get to you even if they wanted to… Bitcoin and crypto were all completely valueless and useless during the collapse, since they all rely on electricity. Gold, silver and cash worked fine, on the other hand.

USA - Leftists across Twitter, many of them journalists, scrambled to delete tweets after they falsely claimed the Boulder mass shooter, an Islamist from Syria who reportedly had ISIS sympathies, was “white.” Earlier today, the gunman was revealed as Ahmad Al-Issa, a migrant from Syria who routinely complained about Donald Trump, “racism” and “Islamophobia” on his Facebook page, which was swiftly deleted. Other reports also suggest that Al-Issa had ISIS sympathies and had planned to return to Syria. However, innumerable journalists and other leftist commentators were embarrassed after prematurely claiming that the gunman was white in an effort to amplify their contrived moral panic about “white supremacy.” BLM activist Meena Harris also deleted a tweet that screeched, “White men are the greatest terrorist threat to our country.”

USA - As soon as a shooting was reported at a Boulder, Colorado, grocery store, members of the media and activists rushed to insist the shooter must be white and, specifically, a “white supremacist,” before his identity was even released. When news outlets reported that the suspect had been apprehended, numerous verified Twitter accounts suggested the shooter must be white, as any other race, some claimed, would have been shot at the scene. The suspected shooter was shot at the scene, but in the leg, and was taken into custody. DeadSpin editor Julie DiCaro and USA Today editor Hemal Jhaveri insisted in a conversation that the shooter was a “white man,” with Jhaveri referring to him as “an angry white man.” Amy Siskind, a feminist activist, said the shooter was “almost certainly a white man” because he was apprehended. Once she learned the race of the suspect, however, she pivoted to suggesting people mourn the victims and not focus on the identity of the killer. Here are all the idiotic leftists who immediately jumped to politicize the tragic Boulder shooting to push their narrative, only for it all to fall apart when it turns out the shooter is Muslim…

USA - Wall Street is not thrilled. Banks, credit card companies and digital payments processors are nervously watching the push to create an electronic alternative to the paper bills Americans carry in their wallets, or what some call a digital dollar and others call a Fedcoin. A digital currency could fundamentally change the way Americans use money, leading some financial firms to lobby the Fed and Congress to slow its creation -- or at least ensure they’re not cut out.

USA - Former White House physician for Presidents George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and current Texas Representative Ronnie Jackson posted an honest assessment on Joe Biden’s physical and mental condition today on Twitter. Representative Ronnie Jackson: “I served as White House physician under THREE Presidents. I’ve seen what it takes physically AND mentally to do the job. I can tell you right now that the way Biden is hiding from the public is a MAJOR red flag. Something’s not right!” Joe is suffering from dementia and Joe is missing in action. After his triple-fall on Friday trying to climb the stairs to Air Force One, Joe Biden took the weekend off.

AUSTRALIA - Australia’s insurance industry has declared a “catastrophe” for areas in New South Wales after days of intense downpours led to severe floods across the country, prompting evacuation orders as humans and animals alike seek refuge. With New South Wales seeing around 3.2 feet of rainfall (one meter) over the last four days, according to the BBC, some 18,000 people have been evacuated from flooded areas around the state. Authorities say 15,000 more are expected to join them amid the deluge, the region’s largest in decades, while NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian warned the rains would likely pick up throughout the day. Images depicting the extent of the flooding have circulated on social media, one showing a car as it was carried off by flood waters rushing over a road. Much like the thousands of NSW residents fleeing the area for refuge, wildlife in the area was also seen attempting to make it to safety, including legions of spiders and snakes.

USA - Databit by databit, we are building our own electronic concentration camps. With every new smart piece of smart technology we acquire, every new app we download, every new photo or post we share online, we are making it that much easier for the government and its corporate partners to identify, track and eventually round us up. Saint or sinner, it doesn’t matter because we’re all being swept up into a massive digital data dragnet that does not distinguish between those who are innocent of wrongdoing, suspects, or criminals. This is what it means to live in a suspect society.

EUROPE - Next week, the inevitable will happen: the EU will adopt the vaccination passport. Basically, the world will enter the second phase of the Covid dictatorship: the great purge. On Wednesday, March 17, Ursula von der Leyen presented the details of what will probably be called the “Digital Green Certificate”. It is to be approved at the EU summit on March 25-26 in Brussels. European leaders are wary of the word “passport”. It would mean acknowledging the failure of the EU, whose main feat was once free movement of the people within the EU zone without a passport. This is why they tried to find a name that was as neutral as possible; the Digital Green Certificate is presented to us as aiming to “facilitate freedom of movement”. That’s patently false and basically newspeak coming from an unelected bureaucrat. The DGC regulates freedom of movement, full stop. As in, no jab, no freedom of movement.

USA - In the social media era, public displays of wealth have become a way to show the world that you are “somebody”. Of course our value as human beings has absolutely nothing to do with how much money we have, but it is undeniable that those that have tremendous wealth are often idolized in our culture. Just think of how much we fawn over Bill Gates, Elon Musk and countless social media “influencers” that have become household names. Sadly, this has created an environment in which people increasingly feel a need to flaunt their wealth, and that is extremely unfortunate.