Speaking in Paris yesterday, she said: “It’s time for us to put an end to this bureaucratic monster that is the European Union. European countries are bound together in many ways, and this mandatory coalition is destroying individual member states.” The far-right chief also vowed not to allow her country to be “diminished, isolated, and wholly dependent on the EU”. She warned: “The European Union is not the solution, it’s the problem.”  EU nationalists are paving the way for a “new” Europe, she said.

She added: “I am thrilled to see that Europeans are speaking out against the Union, and calling for a Europe of nations. We will build a better Europe, whether Mrs Merkel and Mr Schulz like it or not.” The presidential hopeful – who is more or less guaranteed a place in the final round of the spring election – said if elected president she would renegotiate, if not scrap, EU treaties as an initial step towards creating a Europe of nations.

The self-proclaimed Trump fan said she admired the US president’s “realism and desire for change”, and she hoped he would “reverse” Barack Obama’s interventionist policies. The anti-EU candidate also said Russia had an “essential balancing role in keeping world peace” and had been “badly treated by the EU”. 

“There is nothing the US can do about it, and they must accept that America is ‘not their’ country and that illegal aliens, particularly Latinos, ‘are not going to leave’,” he said. “I am an immigrant, just like many of you,” Ramos said in Spanish, as translated by the Media Research Center. “I am a proud Latino immigrant here in the United States. My name is Jorge Ramos, and I work at Univision and at the Fusion network.”

“And you know exactly what is going on here in the United States. There are many people who do not want us to be here, and who want to create a wall in order to separate us,” he said. “But you know what? This is also our country. Let me repeat this: Our country, not theirs. It is our country. And we are not going to leave. We are nearly 60 million Latinos in the United States,” he continued. “And thanks to us, the United States eats, grows and, as we’ve seen today, sings and dances.”

From Cologne to Dusseldorf the major theme of the float parades this year was US President Trump, whom they depicted performing sex acts with the Statue of Liberty, and being decapitated by a guillotine.

In Dusseldorf, President Trump was shown performing a sex act on the Statue of Liberty, a criticism by the satirist that he was “screwing liberty” because of his travel ban against countries known to either sponsor terrorism or harbour large radical Islamic extremist elements.

Trump was joined by Front National French leader Marine le Pen, and Dutch firebrand leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) Geert Wilders in a float that compared the trio to a blonde Adolf Hitler. The float read “blonde is the new brown”.

Trump was not the only focus of the West German satirists. British Prime Minister Theresa May was shown on one Dusseldorf float putting a pistol in her own mouth which said “Brexit” on the side.

Health officials have drawn up a list of 12 types of bacteria which pose the "greatest threat to human health" because soon no drugs will be able to fight them off. Experts have previously warned that resistance to the drugs that are used to fight infections could cause a bigger threat to mankind than cancer.

If antibiotics lose their effectiveness, key medical procedures - including organ transplantation, Caesarean sections, joint replacements and chemotherapy - could become too dangerous to perform. Around 700,000 people around the world die annually due to drug-resistant infections and, if no action is taken, it has been estimated that such infections will kill 10 million people a year by 2050.

Adam Steinbaugh of the Washington Examiner has been investigating these schools, and he’s found that the administrators are encouraging students to snitch on each other (and their professors). Not to expose criminal behavior or cheating, but to target inappropriate speech. He found that 230 colleges have what are called “Bias Response Teams,” which are made up of either campus cops or administrators, and whose sole job is to investigate mostly anonymous claims of offensive speech.

And as you might expect, these schools define “bias” in extremely vague and subjective terms. What may shock most people however, is that it isn’t reserved for stifling conservative opinions, as would be typical of a college campus. It can include anything that offends anyone.

The top diplomat stressed the religious state in the city of Rome is "concerned" about populism engulfing Europe and said the time has come for leaders to reform the union. Populist anti-immigrant parties have made gains in a number of European countries, including Italy, France and the Netherlands, threatening the future of the EU. 

Geert Wilders launched his Dutch election campaign with plans to crackdown on migrants and polls predict Front National leader Marine Le Pen will win the first round of France's presidential election. Both politicians have threatened to take their countries out of the EU if they win power. 

Cardinal Parolin told Vatican Radio the European project must be "relaunched" ahead of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome. He said: “It is obvious there are many tensions, many difficulties, but they are also able to become, as they say, a ‘kairos’ — an opportune moment — to reset the political relationship on a new basis.”

EU member states have pledged to use the March 25 anniversary as an opportunity to "rebuild" the crumbling bloc which has struggled to cope with the arrival of more than 1.3 million migrants since the start of 2015. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to unite Europe and will join EU leaders in the Italian capital next month to celebrate the Treaty of Rome. 

The Cardinal's comments come as he launched a blistering attack on out-of touch politicians. Recognising the gap between the political elite and voters, Cardinal Parolin criticised politics for "sometimes being too distant". He called on leaders to “grasp the needs of the people, of real people, and must be able to give answers that are real answers, so that people come back to live and to hope”.

The Cardinal, who has been touted as a future Pope, was speaking after a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and other officials. 

In the letter, four representatives of EU governments – Claude Bartolone of the French National Assembly, Laura Boldrini of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Norbert Lammert of the German Bundestag, and Mars Di Bartolomeo of the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies – say that closer cooperation is essential for dealing with problems that no one EU state can tackle on its own, such as immigration, terrorism, and climate change.

“Now is the moment to move towards closer political integration — the Federal Union of States with broad powers. We know that the prospect stirs up strong resistance, but the inaction of some cannot be the paralysis of all. Those who believe in European ideals, should be able to give them a new life instead of helplessly observing its slow sunset,” the letter read.

The letter’s authors also warn that the European integration project is currently more at risk than ever before, with high unemployment and immigration problems driving populist and nationalist movements. The EU must also come to grips with the fact that, last June, the United Kingdom decided to leave the union after holding a national referendum, aka Brexit, becoming the first member nation to opt out of the bloc.

However, greater European integration is being increasingly challenged by a number of Eurosceptic parties around the continent, including the Alternative for Germany, the National Front in France, and the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands. Upcoming elections could bring these parties closer to power.

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.