My conclusion? Red alert alarms are going off about the exploding problem of homelessness, lawlessness, gang activity, open drug use and what seems to be a bizarre lack of self-reliance now demonstrated in the cities I visited.

Saturday night activities ...in Austin, Texas devolved into open drug use, prostitution, public urination and defecation …law enforcement turned a blind eye to open illegal acts in the streets thereby turning Austin into a sh*thole. Yes, Austin, Texas is now starting to look a lot like California’s collapsing cities. That’s no coincidence: It’s Californians who are rapidly moving to Austin to escape the urban hellholes they’ve created on the West Coast. They bring with them, of course, the same stupidity and liberalism that has destroyed much of California…

There is no question in my mind that America’s cities are one trigger event away from utter collapse into unbounded chaos and lawlessness. I’ve never seen our society so close to breaking down, and I’ve never seen everyday citizens so clueless and stupid.

Perhaps I’m just used to interacting with rural people who tend to be intelligent, capable, self-reliant, civilized and decent human beings. But even then, I’ve visited cities all my life, and I’ve never seen it this bad before in terms of the obvious downward spiral of city dwellers across US cities. Many of these people have absolutely zero chance of surviving any significant disruption that takes down the food deliveries, power grid, police protection or water supply.

More than ever, it appears that America’s city dwellers — at least the ones I’ve encountered recently — are truly right on the edge of a mass die-off stemming from even the slightest disaster. Making things even more treacherous, California has practically declared itself to be a lawless state, openly defying federal immigration law while welcoming an unlimited number of illegal aliens who are granted the right to vote for California’s Senators and members of Congress.

Be ready, friends, because tensions are flaring, left-wing insanity is off the charts, and most city dwellers have reached “peak cluelessness” in terms of preparedness and self-reliance. All this combines to form a “perfect storm” of bad conditions which can only lead to chaos and collapse.

The report came just ahead of the summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and was published under the headline, “What if an Army of Islam was formed against Israel?” It was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. But it wasn’t a rhetorical question. It was actually a suggestion to combine the military forces of all Islamic countries to overwhelm the Israeli army in manpower, budget and equipment – even boasting with statistics.

“If the OIC member states unite and form a joint military force, it will be the largest army in the world,” the newspaper report said. “These countries’ total population is 1,674,526,931. The number of soldiers in active service in these countries is at least 5,206,100. Their [overall] military defense budget, of $174.7 billion, is also worthy of emphasis.”

The report also noted Pakistan, with its nuclear arsenal, “has important status among the 57 Muslim countries.” In a statement, Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein described President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as a blow to Muslims, and added: “The Malaysian armed forces are ready to fulfill their duty regarding Jerusalem.”

West Mercia Police sent the memo the year after Chalice was closed, to officers investigating on-going child sexual exploitation in the force area, The Mirror reports. Officers also considered some of the young victims as prostitutes.

Commenting on the revelations, UKIP London Assembly Member David Kurten, blasted: “Telford Police memo on children consenting to abuse is despicable. The UK age of consent is 16. Gangs and their child abusing ‘customers’ that groom, rape and pimp out girls under 16 are rapists. If the police do not know this they are not fit for purpose.”

An 18-month probe by journalists, published last weekend, found that 1,000 girls could have been targeted over 40 years by as many as 70 groomers. They were allegedly drugged, raped, and trafficked, and five deaths have been linked to the abuse. Some of the victims were just 11 years old, and one is known to have given birth at just 14.

The bill has angered Chinese officials, who see Taiwan as an inalienable provincial territory of China because of the One China Policy that was established in the US-PRC joint communique of 1982. As the deadline for Trump to sign the bill approaches, Beijing has issued a stark response.

"The so-called bill you mention, though not legally binding, severely violates the 'one China principle' as well as joint US-China communiques,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang mentioned in a press statement.

“[The] one-China principle is the political foundation of the China-US relationship. We urge the US side to adhere to the one-China policy and honor the commitments it made in the three joint communiqués, stop pursuing any official ties with Taiwan or improving its current relations with Taiwan in any substantive way,” he reiterated on March 17. “It must handle Taiwan-related issues properly and cautiously so as to avoid causing any major disruption or damage to the China-US relations.”

Chinese state media speculates that the bill could embolden Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to seek full independence for the island, possibly triggering China’s Anti-Secession Law. Passed in 2005, the legislation allows Beijing to “use force to prevent the island from seceding,” an editorial in the official China Daily warned. However contentious it is, the bill is non-binding and its practical application remains to be seen.

Were he to become Prime Minister – and that conditional is a heavy one – he would be the first Catholic holder of that office in our nation’s history. It’s not unreasonable to ask, then, whether he is now, or could shortly become, the most powerful Catholic in Britain, and to enquire how he arrived at this startlingly unexpected position.

It seems hardly possible to credit but it is impossible to ignore. Had one predicted it in 2010 it would have been thought the forecast of a deranged mind, and even on the eve of the Brexit referendum no serious political commentator would have given the idea credence. Yet the fact remains: Jacob Rees-Mogg is favourite to be the next Conservative leader – and, therefore, Prime Minister.

The primary obstacle to Rees-Mogg becoming Conservative leader is his ability to be selected as a candidate by the Parliamentary party. But with Theresa May bombing in the polls and Brexit teetering on the edge of success and failure, it would be a foolish man indeed who wrote off the possibility of seeing Rees-Mogg attain the greatest of all political prizes: the office of Prime Minister.

“Dedicated to the betterment of countries and people? Adolf Hitler? This description would bring tears of joy to the Nazis and their racist neo-Nazi heirs,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization, said in a statement.

Published by the Pegasus imprint of India’s B Jain Publishing Group, the book, called “Leaders” — but listed on the publisher’s website as “Great Leaders” — spotlights 11 leaders “who will inspire you,” according to a product description on the publisher’s website.

On the book’s cover, a stony-faced Hitler is featured alongside Barack Obama, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. Also included on the cover is Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has recently come under sharp criticism for refusing to acknowledge atrocities committed by the country’s military against the Rohingya ethnic group.

Earlier this week, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is based in Los Angeles, called for the publisher to remove “Great Leaders” from circulation and its online store, where it is sold for about $2.

“Placing Hitler alongside truly great political and humanitarian leaders is an abomination that is made worse as it targets young people with little or no knowledge of world history and ethics,” Rabbi Cooper said in the statement.

Of the ones we do know, 1,204 mammal, 1,469 bird, 1,215 reptile, 2,100 amphibian, and 2,386 fish species are considered threatened. Also threatened are 1,414 insect, 2,187 mollusc, 732 crustacean, 237 coral, 12,505 plant, 33 mushroom, and six brown algae species.

The global populations of 3,706 monitored vertebrate species - fish, birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles - declined by nearly 60 per cent from 1970 to 2012. More than 25,000 species of 91,523 assessed for the 2017 'Red List' update were classified as 'threatened'. Of these, 5,583 were 'critically' endangered, 8,455 'endangered', and 11,783 'vulnerable'. 

The Brussels official warned rural areas and agriculture would be hardest hit by the inevitable cutbacks of between 5 and 10 percent after 2020 when Britain finally stops contributing the EU budget. 

But Mr Beger reacted with anger and said the time had come for the German taxpayer to stop funding cash-strapped member states. He said: "Germany is by far the largest net contributor to the EU. It is transferring 13 billion euros more to Brussels than it gets back. Now this existing mismatch will be even less favourable - the German taxpayer will finally become the cash cow of Europe. This madness must finally stop."

He continued: “Germany must take the promotion of the economy, agriculture and structurally weak regions into its own hands.  The payments to Brussels must be stopped because the EU has mutated into a redistribution machine and transfer union, in which Germany is increasingly losing out."

The attack was a dangerous escalation in international hacking, as faceless enemies demonstrated both the drive and the ability to inflict serious physical damage. And United States government officials, their allies and cybersecurity researchers worry that the culprits could replicate it in other countries, since thousands of industrial plants all over the world rely on the same American-engineered computer systems that were compromised.

Investigators have been tight-lipped about the August attack. They still won’t identify the company or the country where it is based and have not identified the culprits. But the attackers were sophisticated and had plenty of time and resources, an indication that they were most likely supported by a government, according to more than a dozen people, including cybersecurity experts who have looked into the attack and asked not to be identified because of the confidentiality of the continuing investigation.

The only thing that prevented an explosion was a mistake in the attackers’ computer code, the investigators said.

Recently, however, the ground has been shifting. Ethiopia has attempted to take advantage of the recent involvement of various Arab Gulf States in the Horn of Africa’s coastal zone to reduce its dependency on Djibouti’s port. The port currently accounts for 95% of Ethiopia’s imports and exports. It has done so by actively trying to interest partners in the refurbishment and development of other ports in the region: Port Sudan in Sudan, Berbera in the Somaliland region of Somalia, and Mombasa in Kenya.

But it is Berbera, in particular, that will prove the most radical in terms of challenging regional power dynamics as well as international law. This is because a port deal involving Somaliland will challenge Djibouti’s virtual monopoly over maritime trade. In addition, it may entrench the de-facto Balkanization of Somalia and increase the prospects of Ethiopia becoming the regional hegemon.

As Ethiopia begins to move increasing amounts of goods and services on Somaliland’s new highway to the refurbished port of Berbera, Hargeisa [capital city of Somaliland] may begin to question key aspects of the port deal. But one aspect will not be in question: Ethiopia’s rising power and influence over the entire region.