Global financial integration has been in decline since 2009. But recent political developments, from Brexit to Trump and strains in the euro area, now raise the risk that this process could speed up. So far, financial protectionism has largely been a side effect of regulations intended to shore up national financial stability. But in Europe, it could soon become an explicit policy aim.

No one will gain from an unravelling of the global financial system. In trying to secure advantageous deals for their own financial industries, Western governments could find themselves unwittingly destroying many of the international business practices that underlie modern trade.

Protectionism that starts with the financial sector will not necessarily stop there. Instead, it risks signalling the start of a global trade war.

“I ask if in this piecemeal third world war that we are living through, are we not going toward a great world war for water?”, the pope said, departing from his prepared text. Specialists in the field have already predicted that some of the major armed conflicts in the future could be over the possession of or access to water, but this is the first time that Francis has spoken in these terms. 

Addressing 90 experts from many countries, Francis emphasized “the urgent need” to address this issue because “all people have a right to safe drinking water,” but this right is not guaranteed today. He cited United Nations statistics that assert “each day a thousand children die from water-related illnesses and millions of persons consume polluted water.” These “troubling” statistics cannot leave people “indifferent,” he said.

Now, it appears that the likelihood of a regime collapse in North Korea is being taken seriously by none other than the country's formerly largest trading partner, China, which as SCMP reports, "will take the necessary measures to safeguard national security in the event of the collapse of the neighbouring North Korean regime", a defence official said on Thursday.

The recent assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half-brother Kim Jong-nam has sparked renewed concerns over the stability of Pyongyang and the possibility of a collapse of the reclusive regime, SCMP adds.

While it remains unclear if there are political pressures mounting on Kim Jong-Un from within (or externally), some have suggested that his reaction to a potential military coup could be terminal, and irrational, resulting in ballistic missile launches at close neighbors, with potentially dire consequences.

Trump even commented on the persistent leaks again today in an early morning, mini tweet storm saying that “classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on US.” But the latest leak, while not terribly damaging to the Trump administration, certainly wins the award for “Most Ironic.”

Earlier this week on February 20th, the State Department’s acting legal adviser, Richard Visek, prepared a four-page memo for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, entitled “SBU: Protecting Privileged Information”, which warned of the dangers of leaking by State Department employees. Ironically, that memo was promptly leaked to Josh Rogin of the Washington Post who subsequently penned an article bragging about his latest intelligence breach.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly half of all Americans routinely take prescription drugs, and 75 percent of all doctor visits involve drugs. To counter the dependency on drugs, Loma Linda University School of Medicine incorporated a special emphasis on lifestyle medicine in which physicians learn how to prescribe food instead of narcotics.

In fact, there is rising interest from doctors at the annual Food as Medicine Symposium on February 11-12. “We go to our doctors. We live an unhealthy lifestyle, and we just say: ‘Give me a pill for that,’ and ‘I want to be healthy’,” Nadeau said. “You might get your numbers down a bit, but you’re not going to feel the best that you could feel.” Food can help remedy the most common issues with aging, according to Nadeau. “You can really do so much for your brain by including fresh or frozen berries in your diet everyday,” he said.

Nadeau suggests consuming the following items to improve your health naturally:

— Avocados: have very healthy oil, which helps to lower cholesterol

— Carrots: contain a lot of beta kerotene, which is good for the eyes

— Blueberries: help prevent dementia

— Plant-based proteins: beans, seeds and nuts can lower the risk of heart disease

“Cultures that eat the highest number of beans in their diet have the longest life expectancy,” Nadeau explained.

With the UK making plans to leave the European Union (EU) officials are keen to build up international relations through the Commonwealth in an number of areas, including trade. Director of the Royal Commonwealth Society Michael Lake told The Telegraph: “The UK rather left this treasure in the attic, and forgot about it because people were so glued to Brussels.”

Mr Lake said the plans had been hastened by the “opportunity of a new president, and the slightly dangerous but great fun opportunity that the ‘Bad Boys of Brexit’ offered”. The director added that opening a branch in the US would help cement ties with America, opening up new connections in Anglo-American relations.

Sources indicate that Mr Trump believes that the model of the Commonwealth fits well with his foreign policy outlook. Mr Trump, whose mother is Scottish and a royalist, has also expressed his enthusiasm for building his connections with the Royal family. He is hoping to visit Her Majesty at Balmoral Castle during his first official state visit to the UK in June. Royal Commonwealth Society spokeswoman Rachel Ilett confirmed the news to Express.co.uk.

Referring to the Swedes who spoke out against the widespread perception that the migrant crisis has been well handled by their nation, among them Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson, President Trump said that his comments were quickly vindicated by civil unrest and criminality in Sweden itself. He said:

“By the way, take a look at what’s happening in Europe. I took a lot of heat on Sweden, and then a day later, I said ‘has anyone reported what’s going on?’. And it turned out that not so many of them did. Take a look… I love Sweden, great country, great people. They understand, the people over there understand I’m right”.

Looking at these problems in Sweden, Germany, France, and elsewhere, the President promised he wouldn’t allow the same fate to befall the United States. He said: “Take a look at what is happening to our world, folks. We have to be smart, we can’t let it happen to us. Let me state this as clearly as I can, we are going to keep radical Islamic terrorists the hell out of our country.”

“We will not be deterred from this course, and in a matter of days, we will be taking brand new action to protect our people and keep America safe. I will never, ever apologise for protecting the safety and security of the American people”.

But this time, Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka, who was scheduled to speak to the students, had suggested that they meet the president. The plan was to take them into the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, but Trump decided to invite them into the Oval Office, to take pictures with them for their families.

“Halfway through the discussion, [Trump] said, ‘Hey — we’re not supposed to do this but follow me, and he brought them all into the Oval Office, took a group photograph around the Resolute desk, and then — throwing the schedules into a bit of a tizzy, said OK that’s not good enough,'” Gorka told Breitbart News in an interview.

“He said, ‘everybody stand in the corner.’ They all stood in the corner, and one-by-one we took photographs they can take home to their family with each future Green Beret next to the president at the Oval Office desk,” Gorka said.

“That’s how much he loves our soldiers — our warriors,” he said. Gorka had earlier brought up the meeting during remarks on a panel at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. Under Obama, he said, they “wouldn’t have even gotten into the West Wing.”

Reporters for CNN, Politico, the New York Times and other outlets were barred from entry to an off-camera but usually on-the-record briefing, called a gaggle, in Spicer's office. The daily briefing is normally open to all credentialed reporters when the President is not traveling, whether the event happens on-camera in the White House Briefing Room or off-camera elsewhere.

The White House Correspondents' Association, a group that represents credentialed reporters, promptly denounced the move. "The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today's gaggle is being handled by the White House," said board president Jeff Mason of Reuters. "We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not. The board will be discussing this further with White House staff."

In recent weeks, Trump has made more pointed attacks on news organizations he says have been unfair to him. "A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people. And they are. They are the enemy of the people," he said Friday, in an address to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. "Because they have no sources, they just make 'em up when there are none. I saw one story recently where they said, 'Nine people have confirmed.' There's no nine people."

“By now it should be abundantly clear to the Trump administration that there are Obama administration holdovers in the 1.3 million non-defense, civilian federal workforce who have no other intention than to politically damage the White House,” Manning said.

Breitbart News has reported extensively on many ways federal bureaucrats who oppose President Trump’s policies are sabotaging his agenda. “That sabotage comes in several forms, from secretly circulating emails among fellow ideologically committed members of the federal bureaucracy plotting strategy, to working behind the scenes with Democratic legislators to create out-of-the-ordinary bureaucratic actions, to leaking confidential documents to the press,” as Breitbart News reported earlier this month.

“The Obama bureaucrats’ brazen determination to overturn the will of the people is shocking and drives home the need for systemic civil service reform, including reining in the power of public employee unions which poison the non-partisan well that civil servants used to operate in,” Manning tells Breitbart News about the Twitter accounts of federal bureaucrats seeking to undermine President Trump’s agenda.

This development should have been foreseen and neutered long back. According to a 2010 Washington Post investigative report, “the top-secret world the (US) government created in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work.”

Trump is standing in the way of an emerging trillion-dollar global industry; one where the stakeholders were originally planted by the United States to destabilize foreign governments. If money is not forthcoming from the US government, selfless philanthropists like George Soros are ready to take over extant fifth column networks – and foment revolution within the United States!

No White House initiative, appointment or policy can therefore be executed under a protracted imbroglio of senseless Twitter wars, mass-mediated stupefaction and gridlocking protests. The proliferation of fake news, disinformation campaigns and red herrings – ironically encouraged by the likes of the Washington Post – is symptomatic of a  waning superpower that is increasingly rudderless, clueless and imploding from within. The Russians can take the blame – as usual!

The US has not only outsourced its intelligence to the private sector, it has sold its national soul in the process. Nothing embodies this better than the billions contributed by an assortment of foreign donors to the Clinton Foundation in return for taxpayer-funded foreign policy favours and arms sales worth $165 billion. Along with arms, comes the need for private sector mercenaries and technicians as well as treasonous native politicians and academics who can be greased into the multi-trillion dollar machinery.