USA - In a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration's legal battle against President Obama's health care law, Justice Department lawyers now say the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down. Having previously argued, under AG Jeff Sessions, that only the law's pre-existing condition protections should be struck down, DoJ lawyers told a federal appeals court Monday it thinks the whole of ObamaCare is unconstitutional, siding with a Texas district court ruling that found Obamacare unconstitutional. The challengers then argue that all of ObamaCare should be invalidated because the mandate is unconstitutional.

USA - For the past two years, a large swath of the media engaged in a mass act of self-deception and partisan groupthink. Perhaps it was Watergate envy, or bitterness over Donald Trump’s victory, or antagonism towards Republicans in general — or, most likely, a little bit of all the above. But now that Special Counsel Robert Mueller has delivered his report on Russian collusion, it’s clear that political journalists did the bidding of those who wanted to delegitimize and overturn Trump’s election.

USA - Warning lights are flashing red. Alarms are sounding. Markets are being rocked by a growing chorus of voices warning that a recession is around the corner. The clearest sign that the end times are near, for this economic cycle at least, appeared on Friday. Markets exhibited behaviour last spotted in 2007 shortly before the financial crisis: the yield curve inverted. This is a topsy-turvy moment in financial circles, when the normal rules are scrapped. The New York Fed, a part of the US’s central bank, uses this as an indicator that a recession may be on the way: “Simple rules of thumb are available, such as the fact that yield curve inversions are followed by recessions.”

USA - Global warming zealots, including Green New Deal advocates, are throwing an enraged fit against president Trump’s Climate Science Committee that seeks to establish the factual truth about climate change.

USA - Wall Street Journal assistant editor James Freeman and Senator Rand Paul are on the same page: the Mueller report confirms it is now time for the Obama administration to account for its flagrant abuse of the surveillance powers of the federal government… The report confirms it is former President Barack Obama who “owes the country an explanation” for his administration’s “historic abuse of government surveillance powers.”

USA - Neo-Nazi groups have been allowed to remain on Facebook because the social media giant found they did not violate its “community standards”, it has been revealed. Pages operated by factions of international white supremacist organisations including Combat 18 and the Misanthropic Division were reported, but Facebook refused to remove the content and told researchers to unfollow pages if they found them “offensive”. Facebook refused to take down a page used by Combat 18’s Greek wing, despite its cover photo showing a man performing a Nazi salute, in front of a wall sprayed with a swastika.

USA - The push to turn America's cities into Chinese-style surveillance networks has found a new partner in Detroit, Michigan. The only difference between what is happening in San Diego and what is happening in Detroit is, they are not using the same smart street lights to spy on everyone. Detroit uses Intellistreets a company known to have strong ties to Homeland Security. What started out as a voluntary police-cam share program in Saginaw, Michigan has morphed into a massive 1000 surveillance camera network which includes 500 businesses in Detroit.

UK - A widespread loss of pollinating insects in recent decades has been revealed by the first national survey in Britain, which scientists say “highlights a fundamental deterioration” in nature. The analysis of 353 wild bee and hoverfly species found the insects have been lost from a quarter of the places they were found in 1980. A third of the species now occupy smaller ranges, with just one in 10 expanding their extent, and the average number of species found in a square kilometre fell by 11. Researchers have become increasingly concerned about dramatic drops in populations of insects, which underpin much of nature. Some warned in February that these falls threaten a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems”, while studies from Germany and Puerto Rico have shown plunging numbers in the last 25 to 35 years.

USA - US Attorney General Bill Barr spent the weekend poring over the Special Counsel's report before sending a summary to Congress with his verdict on its main conclusions. As a supplement to the notification provided on Friday, March 22, 2019, I am writing today to advise you of the principal conclusions reached by Special Counsel Robert S Mueller III and to inform you about the status of my initial review of the report he has prepared.

USA - President Donald Trump‘s first reaction to Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s findings, which were revealed in a summary on Sunday by the attorney general, came via tweet. Moments later, he spoke to cable news outlets from tarmac in Palm Beach, Florida. “It began illegally,” Trump said of the investigation. “And hopefully somebody is going to look at the other side, this was an illegal takedown that failed. And hopefully somebody is going to be looking at the other side. So it’s a complete exoneration, no collusion, no obstruction, thank you very much.”

USA - President Donald Trump says his enemies who did "evil" and "treasonous things" will be under scrutiny after he was absolved of colluding with Russia. Speaking in the Oval Office, he said no other president should have to be investigated over "a false narrative". He spoke a day after the attorney general released a summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's completed report. It clears Mr Trump of conspiring with Russia to steal the US 2016 election. "There's a lot of people out there that have done some very, very evil things, very bad things," Mr Trump said, "I would say treasonous things, against our country. Those people will certainly be looked at, I've been looking at them for a long time.”

USA - President Donald Trump has officially recognised Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967, in a move hailed as "historic" by Israel's prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces an election next month, was by Mr Trump's side as he signed the proclamation. Syria said Mr Trump's decision was "a blatant attack on its sovereignty". Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, in a move that is not recognised internationally. A spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday he was "clear that the status of Golan has not changed". In response, Syria has vowed to recover the area "through all available means".

USA - The United States Air Force is building “game-changing” artificial intelligence technology to be implemented into fighter jets, it has been announced. It is hoped the "computer brain", dubbed “Skyborg”, will be able to operate a prototype “loyal wingman” drone, such as the Kratos XQ-58A, by 2021. The larger goal is to integrate this system into various unmanned planes in the future and eventually turn it into a digital co-pilot to help human aviators in manned platforms. On March 17, Will Roper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, publicly disclosed the programme for the first time.  The Air Force also wants the finished product, as well as whatever aircraft the AI flies, to strike the right balance between not being disposable but also not obscenely expensive. 

RUSSIA - At a high-level meeting in Rome this week, it seems that Russia reiterated a grave warning to the US – Moscow will not tolerate American military intervention to topple the Venezuelan government with whom it is allied. Meanwhile, back in Washington DC, President Donald Trump was again bragging that the military option was still on the table, in his press conference with Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro. Trump is bluffing or not yet up to speed with being apprised of Russia’s red line. How the days of American imperialist swagger are numbered. There was a time when it could rampage all over Latin America. Not any more, evidently. Thanks in part to Russia’s global standing and military power.

USA - The flooding that just struck the middle part of the country was the worst blow to US farmers in decades, but now the National Weather Service is telling us that it was just “a preview of what we expect throughout the rest of the spring”.  Can that possibly be true?  After the immense devastation that we have already witnessed, how much worse can the flooding possibly get?