Calling a federal appeals circuit a "terrible, costly and dangerous disgrace," US president Donald Trump speculated about breaking it up, just hours after sparring with Chief Justice John Roberts about judicial independence.

Tweeting from Florida on Wednesday afternoon, the president repeated a claim he made before, that almost 80 percent of 9th Circuit rulings have been overturned at the Supreme Court, and argued the appeals body had become a "dumping ground for certain lawyers looking for easy wins and delays."

On Monday, a federal district judge in San Francisco blocked the Trump administration's rules about refusing asylum to applicants who do not enter the US legally, after the American Civil Liberties Union and several migrant activist groups sued on behalf of the "caravan" of Central Americans currently at the US-Mexican border.

The Department of Justice called the ruling "absurd" and vowed to appeal it before the 9th Circuit. This would set up a repeat of the "travel ban" case, initially blocked by a federal judge in Hawaii and upheld by the 9th Circuit before the Supreme Court ruled in Trump's favor some 16 months later.

In February 2016, as Christopher Steele's Russia-related contacts with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI were ramping up, the former British spy emailed some intelligence reports from his Orbis security company to a potential private-sector client.

The documents were labeled "Orbis Russian Leadership Reporting," and the cover email made a most provocative claim: Russian leader Vladimir Putin might be losing his grip on power.

"I also don't believe any Russian client or associate will admit to a Western business contact that PUTIN has been weakened or is on the way out, as the intel suggests, out of fear of being branded an oppositionist," Steele cautioned the recipient. "We shall see but I hope you find them informative/useful anyway."

The murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October prompted much debate about the writer's past affiliations and ideological inclinations.

Responding to President Donald Trump's Tuesday statement on the killing, Katy Tur of MSNBC falsely claimed Khashoggi was never a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but he indisputably was a member and a lifelong proponent of its Islamist ideals. Acknowledging this truth does not in any way condone his death at the hands of Saudi agents.

In a piece back in August, I drew attention to the fact that Yulia Skripal's understanding of what had happened to her - at least at that time and as far as her statement to Reuters was concerned - did not actually fit very well with the narrative of poisoning via the door handle. Here's what she said:

"I still find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that both of us were attacked. We are so lucky to have both survived this attempted assassination [my emphasis]."

I went on to point out that according to the official narrative, which posits that Mr Skripal was attacked because he was a traitor, Yulia Skripal was not actually the target of the attack or attempted assassination. Only Mr Skripal was, and even Theresa May, in her statements to the House of Commons, in which she attempted to set out the intent and motive behind the poisoning, had nothing to say about any intent to kill Yulia. Nor, to my knowledge, has The Metropolitan Police ever suggested that she was a target for assassination. According to the official explanation, she was simply an unfortunate victim who happened to get poisoned because her father was targeted.

The policy of the US establishment towards Lebanon is evidently changing and unstable, with a President who lacks general knowledge about the Middle East and above all of Hezbollah's role in the region. It seems President Donald Trump is willing to reduce military support to the Lebanese Army and to impose further sanctions on Lebanon, unaware that he is thereby strengthening the Axis of Resistance and throwing the country of the Cedars into the arms of Russia and Iran. While the US is imposing further sanctions on Hezbollah, in the last few months its European partners have held secret meetings with that Organisation's leaders during the visits of their official delegations to Beirut.

The US is gradually losing its hegemony in the Middle East. In Iraq, the "Islamic State" (ISIS) grew under the watchful and complaisant eyes of the US establishment in the first months of its occupation of Mosul in June 2014. Washington considered ISIS a strategic asset, oblivious to how this unscrupulous policy would backfire against its interests in the Middle East. The policy alienated Europe but above all the people of the Middle East, especially those minorities who suffered grievously under ISIS tyranny. This ruthless US policy triggered the creation of Hashd al-Shaa'bi (the Popular Mobilisation Forces). This force has now become an essential member of the "Axis of the Resistance" which rejects US hegemony and espouses an ideology of independence with objectives similar to those of Iran and Hezbollah. These national forces are generally unfriendly towards Israel and the presence of US forces in Mesopotamia.

Furthermore, the new Iraqi leaders (Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi, Speaker Mohamad al-Halbusi and President Barham Salih) have been chosen in perfect harmony with the will of Iran. If it becomes necessary to choose between Tehran and Washington, Iraq will not stand for sanctions against the Iranian people, regardless of the consequences. And if the US forces Iraq's hand on Iran sanctions, it will lose Mesopotamia to the advantage of Iran and Russia. Indeed, Moscow is sitting today, along with high ranking Iraqi, Syrian and Iranian military advisors, in one single operational room in Baghdad, waiting to pick up the slack if the US moves away from or slows down military support to Iraq, but also to ensure that ISIS doesn't return to occupy any city in Mesopotamia.

Russia has been pitching a rival missile platform that costs half of those made by US companies, reports CNBC, which has resulted in several countries dealing with the Kremlin "despite the potential for blowback."

The Russian S-400 mobile long-range surface-to-air missile system costs around $500 million, vs. the $1 billion price tag for a US-made Raytheon Patriot Pac-2 battery, while a THAAD battery made by Lockheed Martin costs just about $3 billion, according to people with first-hand knowledge of a US intelligence assessment.

Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at NYU and Princeton, and John Batchelor continue their (usually) weekly discussions of the new US-Russian Cold War. (Previous installments, now in their fifth year, are at TheNation.com.)

On the fifth anniversary of the onset of the Ukrainian crisis, in November 2013, and of Washington "punishing" Russia by attempting to "isolate" it in world affairs - a policy first declared by President Barack Obama in 2014 and continued ever since, primarily through economic sanctions - Cohen discusses the following points:

1. During the preceding Cold War with the Soviet Union, no attempt was made to "isolate" Russia abroad; instead, the goal was to "contain" it within its "bloc" of Eastern European nations and compete with it in what was called the "Third World."

2. The notion of "isolating" a country of Russia's size, Eurasian location, resources, and long history as a great power is vainglorious folly. It reflects the paucity and poverty of foreign thinking in Washington in recent decades, not the least in the US Congress and mainstream media.

US investment bank Goldman Sachs has been accused by an Abu Dhabi sovereign-wealth fund of playing a key role in an international corruption scandal and enabling bribes to former top executives at the fund.

International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) and its subsidiary Aabar filed a lawsuit against Goldman in a state court in New York. IPIC is a one-time investment partner of scandal-struck 1Malaysia Development fund, or 1MDB.

"Goldman Sachs conspired with others to bribe IPIC's and Aabar's former executives," the court filing said.

IPIC is seeking unspecified punitive damages from Goldman and individuals, including Tim Leissner, a former partner at the bank who has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges over the affair.

The US Department of Justice is reportedly exploring the possibility of introducing antitrust legislation that will allow the White House to reduce the power of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The measure has been triggered by the oil cartel's successful attempts to bring global prices for crude under control. OPEC members and their non-OPEC allies, led by Russia, managed to affect global oil prices by establishing production quotas. The step reportedly raised costs for US consumers, an unnamed department official told Bloomberg.

"That's traditionally the type of conduct the Justice Department would frown upon," the media quotes the source as saying. The anti-OPEC bills, reportedly backed by both Republicans and Democrats, were introduced in the House and Senate, but neither chamber has voted on the legislation yet.

Police and intelligence service did not do enough to monitor and restrict movements of bombers who carried out 2017 attacks, committee finds.

A number of serious mistakes by police and government officials allowed a teenager to build a bomb and partially detonate it on London's underground train network, according to an investigation by a UK parliamentary oversight body into a series of terrorist attacks in the country.

Pointing to a "litany of errors" and "fundamental failings", the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said there would need to be a further inquiry into the September 2017 tube train bombing in which 23 people suffered burns and 28 were crushed in the stampede that followed.

The ISC condemned as unacceptable the UK Home Office's failure to provide sufficient information for its inquiry.