While speaking to reporters at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday, President Trump called the latest ruling on the Affordable Care Act by United States Judge Reed O'Connor in Texas, reversing the health care act, a "big, big victory," and said a new health care policy will be discussed with the Democrats if the Supreme Court upholds the ruling.
"We'll be sitting down with the Democrats and we will get great health care for our people, that's a repeal and replace, handled a bit differently"
A Justice Department investigation into the text messages between Lisa Page and Peter Strzok revealed thousands of missing texts, Politico reports.
Why it matters: The DOJ's investigation shows that the messages between the two were not withheld with malicious intent, but rather a failure on the part of the FBI's technology that was supposed to sweep the messages. Strzok and Page were scapegoats for some members of the GOP after they were critical of Trump while he was on the campaign trail while being part of the team investigating Hillary Clinton. President Trump tweeted on Saturday: "Wow, 19,000 Texts between Lisa Page and her lover, Peter S of the FBI, in charge of the Russia Hoax, were just reported as being wiped clean and gone. .... Witch Hunt!"
Former Department of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke highlighted expensive defense costs against allegations against him and his family as the reason for his resignation in a statement via Twitter.
"I cannot justify spending thousands of dollars defending myself and my family against false allegations. It is better for the President and Interior to focus on accomplishments rather than fictional allegations."
As of last year, more people have been forced by violence and conflict to flee their homes than live in the U.K. or France.
Why it matters: That's upwards of 60 million people — a global nation of refugees. If all of these asylum-seekers, internally displaced people and refugees were a country, they'd be the 21st most populous nation in the world, according to UNHCR estimates. More than half of refugees are under the age of 18.
In 1991, Som Subedi fled Bhutan, a small Himalayan country that famously measures its economic output in units of "gross national happiness." His family was driven out by a series of royal edicts that resulted in the forcible expulsion of one-sixth of the country’s population. He was sent to a refugee camp in Nepal, beginning his almost 20-year odyssey.
"It was crazy," Subedi told Axios from Portland, Oregon, where he now lives, "not having enough to eat, just being under that leaky thatched roof. ... I still feel some of the heat coming into the hut and cold in the winter."
European nations and the U.S. may have developed the rules for refugees in the 1951 Refugee Convention, but developing nations host 85% of the world's refugees, according to UNHCR.
Why it matters: "The biggest misconception is that America is bearing a disproportionate share of the burden," David Miliband, president and CEO of International Rescue Committee and former secretary of state for foreign affairs in the U.K., told Axios.
Europe and the U.S. have seen a recent rise in anti-immigrant sentiment that has fueled policies seeking to keep out refugees and migrants.
Why it matters: As the number of displaced people worldwide continues to grow, the burden of caring for refugees is increasingly falling on developing nations. And resettlement to wealthier nations "is a solution that is genuinely and urgently needed by more people than there are places for them made available by governments," Chris Boian, spokesperson for UNHCR, told Axios.
News that a 7-year-old girl died "of dehydration and shock"in Border Patrol custody last week has focused attention on the dangers migrants and asylum-seekers face while attempting to reach safety.
EG, a successful asylum-seeker from El Salvador, spoke to Axios via interpreter Antonia Basu and asked that her name be withheld for her safety. EG left El Salvador in early September 2015 along with her 8-year-old daughter and 15-year-old nephew. The nephew, under EGs care since her sister died, resisted recruitment efforts by a local gang. In retaliation, the gang demanded money, damaged their car and threatened to kill the family, EG told Axios.
The length of time people are living as refugees is now longer than ever. Day-to-day life for families in displacement — poverty, fear, insecurity and discrimination — can put the psychological and emotional development of the youngest refugees at risk.
The big picture: "There are structural problems in the system — policies around refugee residency, resettlement and employment — that directly affect the way parents can care for children and in turn their mental health," Amanda Sim of the Center for Evidence Based Interventions at the University of Oxford tells Axios.
As of December, Colombia has given two-year stay permits to nearly 435,000 Venezuelans who were in the country illegally. One of the largest such efforts in recent years, Colombia's temporary protection program will also grant Venezuelan migrants the right to work and access to education and health care.
The big picture: Unlike many countries affected by the global migration crisis, Latin American countries have absorbed new arrivals mostly without hostility. Their measured response amounts to an experiment, based on the practical calculation that well-managed migration can lead to positive outcomes for both the displaced and the host country's economy.
President Trump had a meeting scheduled Monday with a possible candidate for White House chief of staff. Guess that guy ain't getting it.
You can tell so much about West Wing dynamics by the way Trump announced Mick Mulvaney — already wearing two hats as White House budget director and acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — as his acting chief of staff.
A provision in the massive farm bill approved by the Senate Wednesday, which is expected to be signed into law by President Trump, would legalize the cultivation of industrial hemp — removing the plant near-identical to marijuana from the list of controlled substances and give growers access to crop insurance.
Why it matters: Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who played a key role to decriminalize the potentially lucrative cash crop, said it would give farmers who are hurting from the loss of tobacco a significant boost. The measure is expected to allow the usage of hemp to produce products for use in construction, health care and manufacturing. For decades, growing hemp without a federal permit was illegal due to its ties to marijuana — even though it has an insignificant amount of psychoactive compound that gets marijuana users high.
Through Sept. 30 of this year, special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election has cost taxpayers just over $25 million including $8.5 million over the last six months, ABC News reports.
Why it matters: President Trump has often complained about the cost of the Mueller investigation, saying its costs have exceeded $40 million. According to this report, that is not the case.
A White House official said the Trump administration is not responsible for the "horrific tragic" death of a 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died last week from dehydration and shock while in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Washington Post reports.
What to watch: An internal investigation at the Department of Homeland Security aims to see if border patrol agents followed correct protocol while the girl, Jakelin Caal Maquin, was in their custody. Officials said Friday this group of migrants that were held at a remote Border Patrol base were checked for health problems, given water and had access to bathroom facilities.
