USA - The sober and logical reasons for President Donald Trump’s executive order on refugees and visitors are rising above the noise after an evening of hysterical over-reactions and emotional meltdowns on the nation’s TV networks. Advocates of sane, secure immigration policy have long noted that it’s almost impossible to have a reasonable discussion of the refugee and immigration issues, because it’s been sentimentalized and politicized beyond the realm of rational thought.

USA - President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order mandating that for each new government regulation being enacted, two need to be revoked. The order is in line with the new president’s plan to slash regulations by as much as 75 percent, as Trump believes the expanding body of government rules is stifling the US economy. “We’re cutting regulations massively for small business – and for large business,” Trump said, signing the document. “This will be the biggest such act that our country has ever seen.”

USA - President Donald Trump defended his executive order on immigration and refugee policy Sunday afternoon in two tweets, posted at around the same time the White House released a statement from the president.

USA - Saturday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend,” Milwaukee County, WI Sheriff David Clarke ripped the critics of those that oppose President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting refugees from certain countries from coming to the United States and in particular Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who he pointed out has his own wall at his home in Hawaii.

USA - "Corruption" is defined by Transparency International (TI) as "the abuse of entrusted power for private gain." Each year since 1995, TI has published a Corruption Perceptions Index that scores the world's nations out of 100 for their public sector honesty and the just-released 2016 report paints the same bleak picture we've been seeing now for two decades ... except it's getting worse.  According to the data, despite the illusion of elected government in half the world's countries, democracy is losing.

VATICAN - Pope Francis says he is concerned about what he calls a "hemorrhage" of priests and nuns from the Catholic church. The pope on Saturday told participants at a Vatican gathering on religious life that the loss of clergy is weakening the church. First among the factors he cited as causing nuns and priests to quit their vocations is a society that discourages lifelong commitments. Francis lamented that many conduct their lives based on "a la carte" choices. For decades, the Catholic church in many developed countries has seen the number of priests and nuns on the decline.

USA - If you have salmon on the menu for this evening, take a moment and check where it came from. If it hails from Puget Sound in Seattle, you may wish to reconsider your dinner plans. Here’s the bad news: researchers have found that wild-caught salmon caught in Puget Sound may contain a wide array of contaminants. These include cocaine, OxyContin, Paxil, Valium, Flonase, fungicides, antibiotics, nicotine, caffeine and more. Yes, that’s wild-caught salmon — the kind considered the safest and healthiest to eat. In the waters of Puget Sound, researchers found 81 drugs and other contaminants in the flesh of the chinook salmon. Additionally, researchers found traces of feces. The contaminant levels found in Puget Sound were some of the highest in the United States.

EUROPE - Having discontinued its production of EUR500 banknotes, it appears Europe is charging towards the utopian dream of a cashless society. Just days after Davos' elites discussed why the world needs to "get rid of currency," the European Commission has introduced a proposal enforcing "restrictions on payments in cash."

USA - President Trump will look to prioritize military spending over balancing the federal budget, he told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview aired Thursday. “So a balanced budget is fine,” Trump said. “But sometimes you have to fuel the well in order to really get the economy going. And we have to take care of our military. Our military is more important to me than a balanced budget. Because we'll get there with a balanced budget.” “I want a balanced budget eventually,” he added. “But I want to have a strong military. To me that's much more important than anything.”

USA - President Trump’s executive order on immigration quickly reverberated through the United States and across the globe on Saturday, slamming the border shut for an Iranian scientist headed to a lab in Boston, an Iraqi who had worked for a decade as an interpreter for the United States Army, and a Syrian refugee family headed to a new life in Ohio, among countless others. Around the nation, security officers at major international gateways had new rules to follow, though the application of the order appeared uneven. Humanitarian organizations scrambled to cancel long-planned programs, delivering the bad news to families who were about to travel. Refugees who were on flights when the order was signed were detained at airports.

INDIA - India’s new Army Chief of Staff, General Bipin Rawat, has made a series of belligerent remarks since assuming his new command on January 1. Most ominously, in an exclusive interview with the Times of India published Wednesday, Rawat boasted about the Indian military’s preparations to fight a simultaneous or “two-front war” against its main, nuclear-armed, strategic rivals: China and Pakistan. Rawat has also issued repeated warnings to Islamabad that, if “provoked,” India can and will strike inside Pakistan to suppress anti-Indian Kashmiri insurgents. Following this week's Agni-IV [missile] test, the Chinese state-run Global Times ran a column accusing India of “missile fever” and suggesting that if the UN fails to act China could help Pakistan expand its missile program.

USA - A class to be offered this spring at Ohio State University is an identity politics-based course that in large part is focused on teaching students how to detect microaggressions and white privilege. The course is dedicated to social justice themes, and pledges to teach students how to “identify microaggressions,” define and address “systems of power and privilege,” advance notions of diversity and inclusion, and prioritize “global citizenship,” its description states. “Crossing Identity Boundaries” aims to expand students’ “self-awareness” and help them develop “dialogue skills.”

USA - He was a skilled communicator and a celebrity. She was strong-willed and shared his disdain for big government. They were the power political couple of the 1980s: Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Now a similar pairing is emerging three decades later in President Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May, who met at the White House on Friday.

USA - In his first frantic week at the White House, Donald Trump is doing almost exactly what he promised to do during his campaign, stunning those who thought he'd adapt his style as president. Trump has signed an executive order to begin building a wall on the Mexican border and doubled down on his promises to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and repeal ObamaCare.

USA - Vice President Pence assured anti-abortion protestors Friday that their cause has friends in the new administration, vowing that officials "will not rest" until the "pro-life" culture is restored in the US. Speaking at the annual March for Life in Washington, Pence proclaimed that "life is winning again in America" and outlined how the Trump administration would advance anti-abortion policies. "Be assured, along with you, we will not grow weary. We will not rest until we restore a culture of life in America, for ourselves and for our posterity," he said at the event. Pence, the first sitting vice president to attend the March for Life, vowed that the administration would work with Congress to defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.