USA - White Democrats are invoking God far less than their predecessors, referring to religious faith as a source of division rather than unity, according to an analysis by Professor Peter Beinart of the City University of New York. A striking quality of the presidential campaign announcements by leading white, progressive candidates from the Democrat Party is the absence of any positive mention of faith, wrote Beinart, a liberal political commentator, in the Atlantic Friday. Unlike Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and even Hillary Clinton — who all invoked God in their presidential announcement speeches — the new batch of Democrat presidential wannabes avoided any mention of the divinity except to warn Americans how religion can be used to divide people.

USA - Does free will truly exist? According to a new study, maybe not. It appears that we may have less control over our personal choices than we think. Unconscious brain activity seems to determine our choices well before we are even aware of them. Researchers at the Future Minds Lab at UNSW School of Psychology in Australia were able to predict basic choices participants made BEFORE they consciously declared their decisions. Their findings were published last week in the journal Scientific Reports.

USA - A new study released Monday finds the most popular education topic today is social and emotional learning (SEL), which amounts to the “psychological training of children starting at a young age.” The Boston-based, privately funded Pioneer Institute published the study, “Social-Emotional Learning: K-12 Education as New-Age Nanny State,” which asserts SEL is the latest panacea in a long line of so-called progressive “education reforms” that only serves to distract from the fact that American public school children are failing academically.

USA - Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat who voted against a bill that would protect babies who survive abortion from infanticide, is sponsoring a bill to save kittens. “The USDA’s decision to slaughter kittens after they are used in research is an archaic practice and horrific treatment, and we need to end it,” Merkley told NBC News last week about his KITTEN Act. “The KITTEN Act will protect these innocent animals from being needlessly euthanized in government testing, and make sure that they can be adopted by loving families instead,” the senator said.

USA - Fox News Channel legal analyst Gregg Jarrett, author of The Russia Hoax: The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump, told Breitbart News that political and partisan corruption at the Department of Justice and FBI prove that “Americans should be afraid of their government,” offering his comments in a Wednesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak.

USA - A lot of Americans are mocking Venezuela right now, but the truth is that what has happened to them could also happen to us very easily. DARPA is so concerned about the possibility of a cyberattack taking down our power grid that they held an extended exercise recreating such a scenario late last year.  And even though scientists tell us that it is inevitable that a “solar tsunami” will absolutely devastate our power grid at some point, our leaders on the federal level refuse to spend the money that it would take to protect our basic electrical infrastructure.  In addition, Russia, China, North Korea and others have developed extremely advanced EMP weapons, and we have absolutely no protection against them.  One way or another, an extended blackout will eventually happen in the United States, and so we should try to learn some lessons from what is going on in Venezuela right now.

ETHIOPIA - The crash of the 737 MAX 8 jet in Ethiopia has rocked the world and apparently spelled hard times for Boeing. The incident itself – as well as its aftermath – has also raised some questions that need to be answered. The incident shows the limitations of artificial intelligence in vehicles. Older versions of 737 would have never had such problems because there was nothing wrong mechanically with the airplane, it was an electronic problem, a software problem and the problem of awareness. Boeing pledges to roll out a software upgrade for 737 MAX in the ‘coming weeks’ after an FAA push. FAA says ‘months’ are needed to fix Boeing 737 MAX software, and are not sure how long the grounding lasts.

ISRAEL - With predictable petulance, the Palestinian leadership has been deliberately raising tensions on the Temple Mount, seeking to exploit the sensitive pre-election season in Israel to further strengthen its hold on the holy site. In recent weeks, both in word and deed, the Palestinian Authority and the Jordanian-Palestinian Wakf Islamic religious trust have engaged in a reckless campaign of incitement and slander against the Jewish state that culminated in a fire-bomb attack on an Israel Police station on the Temple Mount on Tuesday. This latest escalation, coupled with the Wakf’s repeated flouting of Israeli law, warrants a quick and firm response by the government to bolster Israel’s sovereignty at the Jewish people’s most sacred site.

UK - Dramas need characters, politics requires politicians and a storm must have an eye. Which is why at the dead centre of Brexit – the biggest and most multifaceted crisis to face this country in more than 60 years – there is just one person. She stands at a Commons dispatch box in an elegant outfit day after day, knowing that the evening will cover her in yet another dung-heap of humiliation that will be daubed all over the next morning’s front pages.

ISRAEL - On Thursday, rockets were fired at Tel Aviv for the first time since 2014, and Israel responded by hammering Hamas with airstrikes.  This latest exchange has brought Israel closer to another war with Hamas than ever.  Israel is also on the brink of war with Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.  And on top of everything else, the most pivotal election in Israel in many years is on April 9th. 

ISRAEL - Israeli jets and helicopters hit around 100 Hamas-linked targets in Gaza on Thursday overnight, the Israeli Army has said. The air raids were conducted in response to rockets launched from Gaza at Tel Aviv. A Hamas HQ in Gaza’s downtown Rimal district, a rocket-manufacturing site and militant training ground, were among the targets hit, according to the military. The airstrikes were made in retaliation to rockets launched from Gaza into Israeli territory, towards Tel Aviv. Both rockets were intercepted and destroyed by the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system. “Hamas terror group bears the responsibility for everything going on in and out of Gaza,” the IDF said.

UK - Motion to extend article 50 passes. It’s 412 in favour, 202 against, a majority of 210. The motion passed means Theresa May will now ask the EU for an extension to article 50 until 30 June 2018. If they agree – as most assume they will – the UK will not be leaving the European Union on 29 March.

NEW ZEALAND - Forty nine people have been killed and more than 20 others have been seriously injured at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch after at least one gunman opened fire on worshipers. The man, who identified himself as 28-year-old Australian-born Brenton Tarrant, filmed the attack on social media. Dressed in a military-style, camouflage outfit, and carrying an automatic rifle he started randomly shooting people in the Al Noor mosque shortly after 1.40pm local time (12.40am GMT). A man who claimed responsibility for the shootings left a 74-page anti-immigrant manifesto in which he explained who he was and his reasoning for his actions. He said he considered it a terrorist attack.

USA - US President Donald Trump warns the European Union of consequences that will be “severe economically” if Brussels fails to hold trade talks. “The European Union treats us very, very unfairly,” Trump tells reporters at the White House. “They’re willing to talk to us. If they don’t talk to us we’ll do something that will be severe economically. We’ll tariff a lot of their products coming in.”

UK - The number of criminals caught with knives is at its highest in a decade and one in five culprits are children. The shocking figures released today reveal that last year more than 21,000 offences of possessing or making threats with blades or offensive weapons resulted in a conviction or caution in England and Wales. But almost two-thirds of cases did not result in an immediate prison term, despite assurances from politicians of a crack-down on knife crime. It comes after Chancellor Philip Hammond pledged an immediate £100 million boost to police forces in his Spring statement to battle knife crime, after a disturbing spree of violence in Bloodbath Britain. A number of incidents in recent weeks, such as the death of girl scout Jodie Chesney and private school pupil Yousef Makki, both 17 - have sharply put into the focus the escalating epidemic facing the country. Twenty people – including Jaden Moodie, who was just 14 – have been murdered in London in the first three months of 2019.