“U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, remaining in the same range of recent years despite a broadly tepid labor market. The number of Americans filing for jobless aid for the week ending March 14 fell by 8,000 from the previous week to 205,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 215,000 new filings analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet were expecting. Filings for unemployment benefits are viewed as a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.” (03/19/26)
“Since Congress hasn’t declared war, the executive branch has no authority to wage war. Congress shouldn’t fund something that only Congress has the power to approve when it hasn’t exercised that power. … The beauty of the situation is that all Congress has to do to take control of the situation is the same thing it’s been doing: Sit on its hands, with one of those hands gripping the budgetary wallet tight. They don’t even have to say ‘no.’ They just have to NOT say ‘yes.’ … If Congress doesn’t even possess the testicular fortitude to refrain from shelling out billions every time Hegseth sticks his hand out, what is Congress even good for? The question kind of answers itself.” (03/19/26)
“British authorities are seeking the cooperation of the Justice Department as they pursue investigations arising from the Epstein files, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said in an interview Wednesday. Commissioner Mark Rowley declined to opine on why the files have resulted in the arrests of two high-profile figures in the U.K. — Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, and former ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson — while U.S. authorities have made no arrests or charges in the wake of the files’ release. But Rowley touted British authorities’ willingness to pursue ’eminent’ figures. … He said communication between British and American law enforcement is a precursor to more formal requests British authorities intend to file, including mutual legal assistance treaty — or MLAT — requests.” (03/19/26)
“During the first Trump administration, the FBI quietly spent $5 million on Pegasus, an Israeli-developed software product known generically as zero click. Zero click permits the user to download the contents of another mobile or desktop device without tricking the user of that device into clicking on a viral link. When FBI Director Christopher Wray was confronted with evidence of this purchase in 2021, he stated under oath at a congressional hearing that his agents did not and would not use it; but they bought it because they wanted to understand how it worked. … Not trusting his own FBI director, President Joe Biden signed an executive order in 2023 prohibiting the use of this software by any employee of the federal government except for true national security emergencies. Last week, we learned that President Donald Trump quietly rescinded Biden’s executive order.” (03/19/26)
“Federal prosecutors in Florida have subpoenaed former FBI Director James Comey as part of a wide-ranging probe into a prior investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network, confirmed Comey was subpoenaed in the probe, which is also reviewing the previous investigations into President Trump, including the work of Obama-era intelligence officials. … The probe in Florida has sought information from several former officials, with both NBC and CBS reporting that at least 130 subpoenas have been issued since the investigation began last year. That group includes a number of those previously targeted by Trump, including former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.” (03/19/26)
“Working taxpayers are encouraged to think of themselves as ‘lending’ money to the government to finance future benefits, but instead of the government investing those payments to generate the needed resources, those ‘loans’ are simply consumed by today’s retirees. This creates the monetary disequilibrium we experience today. Think now about bondholders. Savers believe that the instruments of public debt they own constitute wealth, even though that wealth has already been consumed and not invested. Distortions in interest and exchange rates follow from this disjunction. Either the wealth exists, or it does not, and at some point in the future, every society that creates false rights will have its day of reckoning. Unless something is done, it will be no different for the United States.” (03/19/26)
“Severe tropical cyclone Narelle was losing strength on Friday after bringing destructive winds, heavy rain and power outages to Australia’s northeast coast that prompted authorities to warn people to stay indoors. Narelle was packing wind speeds reaching about 195 kph (120 mph), authorities said, when it hit land in remote parts of the far north region of Queensland state as a category four system, a rung short of the strongest.” (03/20/26)
“At a recent Senate hearing on the fiscal outlook, legislators and budget experts said the quiet part out loud: the United States is running historically large deficits in non-crisis times, and we need to stop pretending that we can grow our way out of it. Washington’s problem isn’t ignorance. It’s that the only politically safe position is to acknowledge the debt crisis — and then do nothing to fix it.” (03/19/26)
“A pro-Kremlin figure who unexpectedly denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine in a social media post this week that went viral has been placed in a psychiatric facility, Russian media reported on Thursday. Ilya Remeslo made a career denouncing Putin’s critics until he became one himself, posting a manifesto late on Tuesday to his 90,000 followers on Telegram entitled: ‘Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.’ He said Putin had prosecuted a ‘failing war’ in Ukraine that had killed millions and torpedoed Russia’s economy to the detriment of its citizens’ well-being. ‘Vladimir Putin is not a legitimate president. Vladimir Putin must resign and be brought to trial as a war criminal and a thief,’ Remeslo wrote in his post. … On Thursday, St Petersburg’s Fontanka newspaper reported Remeslo had been hospitalised in the city’s Psychiatric Hospital No 3.” (03/19/26)
