At one time the United States had the greatest system of public education on the entire planet, but these days we only seem to make headlines when news comes out about how poorly we are doing.  This has been a hot button issue for me for a long time, but even I was surprised when I learned that the state of California is actually being sued because so few of their public school children can read… So exactly how bad is this “literacy crisis”?

Well, according to this lawsuit less than 50 percent of all third, fourth and fifth grade students in the state of California meet minimum standards for literacy… Doing nothing is simply not an option, because our children and our grandchildren are literally the future of this nation.  We can do so much better than this, but first we must admit that what we are doing right now is definitely not working.

Appearing in the White House's Diplomatic Reception Room against an elaborate backdrop of Christmas decorations, he also said the United States embassy in Israel would, over time, be moved there from Tel Aviv. Israel is the only country where the United States has an embassy in a city that the host nation does not consider its capital.

But his speech was greeted by demonstrations and a threat from Hamas, who called Thursday and Friday 'days of rage' that he had 'opened the gates of hell'. In Gaza thousands flooded the streets and burned US flags. Palestinian secular and Islamist factions called a general strike on Thursday after tens of thousands took to the streets on Wednesday night. 

Israeli security forces braced for possible violence for days to come and the US embassy in Jordan was effectively locked down. World leaders including the Pope spoke out against the measure, saying that it jeopardized the peace process. But Trump was unrepentant that he was doing the 'right thing'. 

'I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,' Trump said. 'While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today I am delivering. When I came into office I promised to look at the world's challenges with open eyes and very fresh thinking,' he said, leaning heavily on a mid-1990s federal law that demanded the embassy's relocation.

'We have declined to acknowledge any Israeli capital – at all,' Trump added. 'But today we finally acknowledge the obvious, that Jerusalem is Israel's capital. This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It is something that has to be done.' 

Israel responded with satisfaction to the president’s announcement, in which Trump also said he was setting in motion the process of moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv. In a show of appreciation, the Jerusalem municipality projected the American and Israeli flags onto the walls of the Old City, home to important Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites.

Yet even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the president’s declaration as “courageous and just,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas slammed the “destruction of all the efforts to achieve peace.”

Ahead of the announcement, US allies in the Middle East and Europe had urged Trump to refrain from taking steps they fear could ignite unrest across the region. Jerusalem’s status is one of the most sensitive and inflammatory issues fueling the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Israel claims the city in entirety as its capital; Palestinians want the eastern sector to be the seat of government for a future state.

The Argentine pontiff's call came a day after he spoke by phone with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, the Vatican said without elaborating. "Jerusalem is a unique city, sacred for Jews, Christians and Muslims," he said, adding that it was home to sites deemed holy by followers of the three major monotheistic faiths.

Jerusalem, the pope said, holds a "special vocation for peace". "I pray to God that this identity is preserved and reinforced, for the sake of the Holy Land, the Middle East and the whole world, and that wisdom and prudence prevail," he said.

The pontiff added that maintaining the status quo was important "in order to avoid adding new elements of tension to an already volatile world that is wracked by so many cruel conflicts".

In its newly released “Final Declaration: Our Planet, Our Health, Our Responsibility” from a November workshop on climate change, air pollution and health, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences warns that “there is less than a decade” to put in place a series of sweeping measures to counteract the effects of human-induced climate change. “The time to act is now,” it reads.

Surprisingly for a statement coming from an academy of “science,” the document is riddled with unscientific assertions in a bizarre mix of political ideology and apocalyptic hyperbole.

“With unchecked climate change and air pollution, the very fabric of life on Earth, including that of humans, is at grave risk,” the text begins. “We propose scalable solutions to avoid such catastrophic changes. There is less than a decade to put these solutions in place to preserve our quality of life for generations to come.”

In what can only be termed an attempt to generate mass hysteria, the statement envisions a dark scenario not unlike those depicted by past doomsday fads such as the supposed population explosion and catastrophic oil shortages of the 1970s.

Up to 8,000 people are unable to be deployed to the frontline because of mental or physical conditions, lack of fitness or non-medical conditions. That is on top of 10,000 who are deemed medically fit, but are still short of being able to join all operations.

But it looks like Britain’s defense struggle has not gone unnoticed across the Channel, as the old enemy, though more-latterly ally, France has now said it would be happy to offer the UK greater access to its warships. It comes amid plans to scrap Britain’s amphibious landing fleet to help plug a £20 billion (US$26.7 billion) funding black hole.

In one case, the police wanted to find out who had posted content related to terrorism, said a former Alibaba employee. “They came to me and asked me for the user ID and information,” he recalled. He turned it over.

The Chinese government is building one of the world’s most sophisticated, high-tech systems to keep watch over its citizens, including surveillance cameras, facial-recognition technology and vast computer systems that comb through terabytes of data. Central to its efforts are the country’s biggest technology companies, which are openly acting as the government’s eyes and ears in cyberspace.

Companies including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Tencent Holdings Ltd and Baidu Inc, are required to help China’s government hunt down criminal suspects and silence political dissent. Their technology is also being used to create cities wired for surveillance.

This assistance is far more extensive than the help Western companies extend to their governments, and the requests are almost impossible to challenge, a Wall Street Journal examination of Chinese practices shows.

Whatever the mechanism, the 5-6 year advanced warning of increased seismic hazards afforded by the first derivative of the LoD is fortuitous, and has utility in disaster planning.

The year 2017 marks six years following a deceleration episode that commenced in 2011, suggesting that the world has now entered a period of enhanced global seismic productivity with a duration of at least five years.

Silicon Valley, facing a crisis of the soul, has found a retreat center. It has been a hard year for the tech industry. Prominent figures like Sean Parker and Justin Rosenstein, horrified by what technology has become, have begun to publicly denounce companies like Facebook that made them rich.

And so Silicon Valley has come to the Esalen Institute, a storied hippie hotel here on the Pacific coast south of Carmel, California. After storm damage in the spring and a skeleton crew in the summer, the institute was fully reopened in October with a new director and a new mission: It will be a home for technologists to reckon with what they have built.

“There’s a dawning consciousness emerging in Silicon Valley as people recognize that their conventional success isn’t necessarily making the world a better place,” said Mr Tauber, 34, a former Google product manager and start-up executive coach. “The CEOs, inside they’re hurting. They can’t sleep at night.”

On Wednesday, fire officials said their focus was going to be prevent the fire from moving into the Ojai Valley. The blaze has consumed 65,500 acres on its journey to the ocean. The 101 remains open, but authorities warned drivers to be cautious traveling through the area.

Thousands of homes were still threatened by flames, 27,000 people were forced to flee, a firefighter was injured and Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, as some 1,100 personnel continued to battle the blaze.

At least 150 structures — including one large apartment complex and the Vista Del Mar Hospital, a psychiatric facility — were consumed by flames. But Cal Fire suspects the true number is hundreds more; firefighters just haven’t been able to get into areas to know for sure. Authorities Tuesday evening continued to widen evacuation zones and announced dozens of school closures in Ventura and Conejo Valley for Wednesday.

Senior US officials have said Trump is likely on Wednesday to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital while delaying relocating the embassy from Tel Aviv for another six months, though he is expected to order his aides to begin planning such a move immediately. The officials said, however, that no final decisions have been made. Following the call, Abbas urged the Pope and the leaders of Russia, France and Jordan to intervene against Trump's declared intention to move the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Abbas's spokesman said. 

During the call with Trump, Abbas warned that the action will have "dangerous consequences," said Abbas' spokesman, adding that "the Palestinian stance is determined and steadfast - there will not be a Palestinian state without East Jerusalem as its capital according to decisions by the international community." Abbas was holding an emergency meeting in his bureau following the phone conversation with Trump.

Abdullah also warned Trump of the decision's repercussions on Middle East security and stability. Abdullah pledged he would thwart any American initiative to renew the peace process and would encourage resistance among Muslims and Christians alike.

Meanwhile, Israeli ministers were instructed on Tuesday not to speak publicly about the embassy crisis, at the request of the White House.

In the West Bank, the Fatah movement has begun preparations for marches and rallies following Trump's announcement. Heads of Palestinian factions in the West Bank are slated to hold a meeting later Tuesday evening to coordinate protest moves.

“Germany cannot afford to wait for decisions from Washington, or to merely react to them. We must lay out our own position and make clear to our allies where the limits of our solidarity are reached,” Gabriel said in the speech, excerpts of which had been published by Sueddeutsche Zeitung ahead of time.

Germans see US President Donald Trump as a bigger challenge for German foreign policy than authoritarian leaders in North Korea, Russia or Turkey, a survey published by the Koerber Foundation showed.

Yemen was the poorest country in the Middle East even before the outbreak of war in 2014 between Houthi rebels and government forces. The conflict has heaped devastation upon poverty. Since fighting began Yemen has suffered the biggest cholera outbreak in modern history and is on the brink of the harshest famine the world has seen for decades.

The conflict has shattered the water, education and health systems. The UN says that it is the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis. Three-quarters of the population of 28 million need help.

The war in Yemen, and looming humanitarian catastrophe, has gone largely unnoticed beyond its borders. The fighting is rooted in old conflicts and now involves many groups, sucking in Yemen’s neighbours. But no single force has emerged that is strong enough or competent enough to hold the entire country together, making the prospects for peace dim.