With that line, it became clear that the United States is no longer the reliable partner her country and the rest of Europe have long depended on. Since World War II, the United States led the way in building a new international order rooted in NATO and the European Union as well as a belief in democracy and free markets.

Britain, France and Germany were central to that effort, which for 70 years kept the peace and delivered prosperity to millions of people while standing firm against the Soviet threat, helping end the Bosnian War and combating extremism in Afghanistan.

This trans-Atlantic partnership is still vital. But how, and how well, it will function as American leadership recedes is unclear. So far, no one is talking about dissolving NATO; Europe still depends for its security on America’s nuclear and conventional arsenals. But Ms Merkel’s remarks underscored profound divisions between Europe and the United States that have one clear beneficiary, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who has longed for the alliance, Moscow’s Cold War adversary, to unravel.

The book, which contains forewords by NSPCC Chief Executive Peter Wanless and the director of the Jo Cox Foundation, describes terror incidents in which people launch indiscriminate attacks on members of the public as “a type of war”. Terrorists kill people because they think they are being “treated unfairly and [are] not shown respect” according to the book, which goes on to give examples of “terrorists” it says were on the right side of history, including Nelson Mandela.

“The Suffragettes used violence and were called terrorists … Today many people think of them as brave women and admire their struggle for the right to vote,” it stated. Published by Brilliant Publications, the book contains a foreword by Jo Cox Foundation director Iona Lawrence which impresses the importance of fostering “tolerance”.

"Donald Trump makes clear with his tweet that he views Germany as a political opponent," Thomas Oppermann, head of the Social Democrats' (SPD) parliamentary group, told reporters on Tuesday. Meanwhile Social Democrat party leader, Martin Schulz reportedly called Trump a "destroyer of Western values." The tweet echoed language Trump reportedly used last Thursday in a meeting with European Union officials in Brussels in which he said, "The Germans are bad, very bad."

Trump made the comments to EU Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council president Donald Tusk, according to German news magazine Der Spiegel. On Sunday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel charged that Europe could no longer rely on its traditional allies in a swipe at the US following difficult G7 and NATO summits.

Merkel did not mention by name the US President, who criticized major NATO allies and refused to endorse a global climate change accord, but she told a packed beer tent in Munich that the days when Europe could completely count on others were "over to a certain extent". "I have experienced this in the last few days," she said. "And that is why I can only say that we Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands."

The way that we have retreated from internationalism to ugly nationalism in Britain.

The way that we have retreated from international trade to protectionism.

The sense that somehow or other democracy is failing.

The habit of lying in our public discourse.

What was it Goebbels said? Tell it often, tell it big ... stick it on the side of a bus perhaps and drive it around the country. I’m not saying Hitler is around the corner, of course I’m not, although you might conclude the conditions for something like that to emerge are there.”

He said the world would be a better place if more politicians had a better grasp of history. He admitted to sounding “apocalyptic” but said if society parted company from liberal values of “respect, tolerance, internationalism and so on then the next step history shows is something worse”.

The city’s experts, David Koren and Ben Avrahami, also revealed that Turkey has begun pouring millions of dollars into non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in eastern Jerusalem, in order to strengthen Ankara’s status among the Arab residents, at the expense of Jordan and Israel.

“The growing involvement of the Erdogan regime, which is now the main patron of the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide, shows that the Turkish actions in Jerusalem are part of a wider process of creating regional Turkish hegemony at the expense of other players,” wrote the Jerusalem mayor’s advisers on the eastern part of the city, noting that “the biggest loser from the increased Turkish presence is Jordan, which for many years had enjoyed the status of Custodian of the Holy Places and the protector of the residents of eastern Jerusalem.

One hundred years after the last Turkish soldier was chased out of Jerusalem by the invading British Empire, “Turkey’s public support for the Palestinian cause and the Al-Aqsa conflict, and their channeling of millions of dollars into eastern Jerusalem, bear many fruits in the form of sympathy and support,” the experts concluded, adding that the Turks’ “involvement is made possible by their cooperation with Muslim Brotherhood elements in the city, who are often being used as their allies and collaborators.”

It is a law every president for the past 22 years has baulked at. It would pre-empt the Oslo accords and negate Washington’s assumed role as “honest broker”. Carrying out Congress’s wish would deny the Palestinians East Jerusalem, the only credible capital of a future Palestinian state.

But equally significantly, the law would recognise Israel’s efforts to claim sovereignty over the Old City’s holy places, especially the incendiary site of Al-Aqsa mosque. That could provoke a conflagration both locally, among Palestinians, and more generally in the Middle East. Trump’s key advisers are reported to be bitterly divided. Some, such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, warn that, if the president fails to approve the deferral, his claims to be crafting the “ultimate deal” to bring peace to the region will be doomed from the outset.

Jerusalem is the most intractable of the final-status issues set out in the Oslo process. Those expecting miracles of Trump are going to be disappointed. His commitment to pressuring Netanyahu is weak, while the Israeli prime minister’s commitment to making concessions is non-existent. Whether Trump signs the waiver or not on 1 June, all indications are that the US president – faced with domestic pressures and an intransigent Israeli government – is going nowhere with his “ultimate deal”. The only real question to be decided on 1 June is whether Trump prefers to take the fast or protracted route to failure.

The approximately $110 billion weapons deal is the largest in American history and includes advanced air defense systems, ships, helicopters, intelligence-gathering aircraft, tanks, artillery and cybersecurity systems, according to the US State Department.

“When the minister of defense is saying the opposite thing from the prime minister, you know that something is wrong. The Israeli military establishment is worried. This is a big deal,” he added. “The prime minister must stop being afraid of President Trump’s short fuse and tell him publicly: ‘For you it is a question of money and jobs — for us it’s a matter of life and death,'” he said. “...when your biggest ally is talking you want to listen.

But when push comes to shove, Israel and Israel alone will determine what’s good and what’s bad for us. And we cannot be forced to do anything which hurts our security.”

What is less considered are attacks that leave far more civilians dead, happen nearly daily instead of rarely, and produce a constant feeling of terror and dread. These are the civilians on the receiving end of US and allied bombs in places like Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, and elsewhere. Last week alone, US and “coalition” attacks on Syria left more than 200 civilians dead and many hundreds more injured.

In fact, even though US intervention in Syria was supposed to protect the population from government attacks, US-led air strikes have killed more civilians over the past month than air strikes of the Assad government. That is like a doctor killing his patient to save him.

The launch of the Scud missile at 7.30am local time is the country’s ninth missile test this year and follows a series of test-launches in recent weeks. Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov said: "We are at the same time calling on the partners with whom we are working to show restraint, including towards military activity in this region.”

Japan has already condemned the missile launch which flew about 280 miles (450 km) before landing in the Japanese exclusive economic zone, within the Sea of Japan. Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, said: “This ballistic missile launch by North Korea is highly problematic from the perspective of the safety of shipping and air traffic and is a clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

"Japan absolutely cannot tolerate North Korea's repeated provocative actions. We have strongly protested to North Korea and condemn its actions in the strongest terms."

In reality, it’s the clear cutting of coastline forests that halts the water respiration and evaporation cycle that helps bring rainfall to inland areas. The more forests near the coasts that are cut down for cattle ranching, soybean production and monoculture food cropping, the worse the droughts become inland.

In effect, this is REAL “climate change” because the human activity of cutting down trees really does reduce freshwater rainfall inland. However, it has nothing to do with carbon dioxide or burning fossil fuels. It’s all about the fact that croplands don’t re-release moisture back into the atmosphere the way forests do.

An angry Trump yelled at Abbas during their talks last Tuesday for his alleged direct involvement in incitement against Israel, Channel 2 reported, citing an unnamed American source. “You tricked me in DC! You talked there about your commitment to peace, but the Israelis showed me your involvement in incitement [against Israel],” Trump is said to have shouted at a shocked Abbas.

The TV report said the outburst was followed by several minutes of shocked silence from the Palestinians, and that the meeting was very tense before the two sides managed to get back on track. Abbas, for his part, told Trump in their joint White House press conference that “that we are raising our youth, our children, our grandchildren on a culture of peace.”

In the wake of that claim, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Abbas for the remark, saying it was “unfortunately not true.” The PA, Netanyahu charged, “names their schools after mass murderers of Israelis and pay terrorists.” Israel has accused the Palestinians, including Abbas’s Fatah party, of fanning hatred on social media and calling for violence against Israelis.