The West was constituted in its modern form in January 1917. World War I was raging in Europe at the time and in Washington, DC, President Woodrow Wilson told his country that it was time for Americans to take responsibility for "peace and justice." In April he said: "The world must be made safe for democracy." He declared war on Germany and sent soldiers to Europe to secure victory for the Western democracies - and the United States assumed the leadership of the Western world. It was an early phase of political globalization. One hundred years later: Trump.

Trump, who wants nothing to do with globalization; Trump, who preaches American nationalism, isolation, partial withdrawal from world trade and zero responsibility for a global problem like climate change. And all of this after a perverse election campaign marked by resentment, racism and incitement.

We now face emptiness - the fear of the void. What will happen to the West, to Europe, to Germany without the United States as its leading power? Now we must come to terms with a lack of Western leadership.

America was long the benchmark for the West. But if Trump governs as he promised he would during the campaign, the land of the free will abdicate its role as leader of the free world. Then, it will be Europe's turn. The continent must resist populism, with a smart mixture of taking fears seriously and confronting the rage, but without curbing freedoms.

And it is high time Europe places a stronger emphasis on the European Union. This has been said and written thousands of times already, but perhaps the Trump shock will help to ensure that it finally happens.

Trump, who starts his term in office on January 20, made the remarks during an interview with The Wall Street Journal a day after his initial meeting with outgoing President Barack Obama at the White House as part of the process of transferring power to the new administration. 

In the interview with the conservative newspaper, Trump referred to a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians in business world terms, calling it "the ultimate deal." “As a deal maker, I’d like to do… the deal that can’t be made. And do it for humanity’s sake,” he added. 

Trump has made similar statements about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process during the election campaign, but this is the first time that he has addressed the subject since he won the presidency.

The interview only briefly touched on foreign policy, but Trump echoed similar concerns about backing Syrian rebels in the past, saying that the defeat of Assad could lead to something even worse in the country, and today warning that backing the rebellion risks starting a fight with Syria and Russia.

This has been an ongoing problem for the US, with the Pentagon seeking to fight ISIS and the CIA and State Department seeking to shift the focus away from ISIS and toward regime change. The CIA is heavily involved in arming and funding the rebels.

The CIA plan to aid rebels, along with Pentagon efforts to create whole new rebel forces, have largely been disastrous failures at any rate, with much of the smuggled arms ending up in the hands of al-Qaeda and ISIS forces. Despite this, the programs have largely continued, and Trump’s interest in not doing so is seen as a major shift in US policy.

There could not be a more ringing endorsement of Donald Trump and the decision of the American people to put their trust in his leadership of our nation than the post-election declaration by the Muslim Brotherhood that it is a disaster.

Unlike Obama and Clinton, President-elect Trump sees them as a terrorist organization and they may well be given that designation once he takes office.  The House Judiciary Committee made that recommendation prior to the election, back in March. Everything changed for the Muslim Brotherhood with Trump’s impressive defeat of their sponsor and benefactor, Hillary Clinton.

Her closest confident, Huma Abedin, is related to the Muslim Brotherhood leadership and closely affiliated with their operation, and they were salivating at the process of her return to the White House under their enabler Hillary Clinton.

Egyptian President el-Sisi has congratulated Mr Trump already and previously stated that he preferred Trump over Clinton. El-Sisi deposed the Muslim Brotherhood government, led by Mohamed Morsi  in 2013 that Hillary Clinton helped put into place. Morsi is currently in jail in Egypt.

Some have noted that 2017 will be the 100 year anniversary of the communist revolution in Russia, and many on the radical left are now openly using the word “revolution” to describe what they would like to see here in the United States.

Many had been hoping that the nationwide protests against Donald Trump would be quieting down by now, but that does not appear to be happening. Instead, they just seem to keep getting more intense.

Normally Inauguration Day is a day of joy and gladness for the nation, but this time around we may see unprecedented scenes of chaos, rioting and violence. At this point, there appears to be no possible way that the entire nation is going to unite behind President Trump, and many are wondering if we are now entering four years of the worst civil unrest that the United States has ever experienced.

No story brought this home to me more powerfully than a grandfather who spoke of national news stories about what he described as the whining and crying on elite college campuses by those who demanded “safe places” and “safe zones” where they will be sheltered from anything that remotely offends them. He spoke of ingrates wanting special “only me” safe places where they do not have to do anything, hear anything, see anything, or be around anyone or anything they don’t like.

In that farmer’s mind, while the safe-space crowd whined about its “offendedness” and demanded entitlements, children of agricultural families were up early in the morning working on their chores and projects, followed by a full day at school, coming home to more work – all while being part of a family, a community, and a nation.

He described watching youngsters at county fairs and livestock shows hauling feed, cleaning stalls, washing and grooming livestock, shoveling manure, unloading and loading their family trucks and trailers, and trying to sleep in uncomfortable chairs – all while ungrateful elite college students failed to appreciate their pampered lives.

In this gentleman’s world view, it was not black versus white, rich versus poor, feminism versus patriarchy, illegal versus citizen; rather, it was those who produce nothing believing themselves entitled, without appreciation, to the goods produced by others versus those who actually produce.

Although this grandfather did not use the exact words, he pretty much described a political elite and liberal establishment as thinking of American agriculture families as nothing more than serfs in a self-protecting, self-serving feudal system.

She is under pressure from the same forces that elevated Mr Trump in America, fueled Britain’s vote to exit the European Union and are now propelling the populist Marine Le Pen in France. At home, the hard-right Alternative for Germany party has scored a string of victories in state elections.

Ms Merkel needs to fend off a resurgent Russia that is promoting its brand of illiberal democracy by backing right-wing parties throughout the Continent and fanning the flames of populism. But with Mr Trump openly admiring Russia’s president, Vladimir V Putin, even maintaining economic sanctions imposed on Moscow over conflicts in Crimea and Ukraine will be a challenge.

“Never before has so much ridden on the Germans,” said Simon Tilford, the deputy director of the Center for European Reform in London. “We’re very fortunate that Germany is led now by Merkel, because there is a chance she will step up and do what Europe needs her to do.”

An increasingly divided Europe is looking to Germany, its richest power, to cope with its many problems, some of them longstanding: low growth, a continuing stream of refugees, and increasingly angry and nationalistic electorates.

Italy and Spain are politically fragile, Austria might elect a hard-right president next month, and Ms Merkel faces difficult negotiations with Britain over its so-called Brexit. And with Mr Trump advocating “America First” and questioning the value of the NATO alliance, there is pressure on Germany to take a greater role in European security — always a delicate matter.

For the last eight years, Ms Merkel could count on the steadfast backing of President Obama and France’s Élysée Palace. But with the ascent of Mr Trump and the deep unpopularity of President Franςois Hollande, she has lost that vital backing.

AfD vice-chair Alexander Gauland also called the reaction of the German establishment “shameful” and chastised specifically Defence Minister Ursula Von der Leyen and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier for their “embarrassing” reaction, reports Kurier. “I call on all German politicians, no matter what party affiliation, to moderation and prudence in this matter,” Gauland said.

Defence Minister Leyen had said the victory of Donald Trump was a “great shock” and was concerned about the direction it would take the US Gauland responded to her comments saying: “I expect the German Minister of Defence will not fall into shock, but will work on a reasonable transatlantic security partnership with the new US administration.”

The AfD vice-chair stated: “Germany must learn to act more independently,” referencing Trump’s earlier speeches in which he said that European countries must pay more into alliances like NATO to ease the financial burden on the US. Earlier this year, Mr Gauland called German Chancellor Angela Merkel a “dictator” and said that due to the migrant influx Germans were feeling like strangers in their own country. “We are open-minded, we are tolerant, we are not against foreigners. But it is our country! And it is our people! And it is not the land of strangers,” he noted.

The AfD vice-chair has also been at the forefront of his party’s opposition to the Islamisation of Germany and advocates the shutting down of radical mosques. Earlier this year he said: “Islam is not a religion like Catholic or Protestant Christianity,” affirming: “It is always intellectually linked with taking over the state.”

This statement has appeared against the background of the successful operations of the Syrian army in Aleppo, the approach of "Admiral Kuznetsov" to Syrian shores, which is now carrying out training flights and other war games near Greece and Cyprus, and, of course, the US defeat of supporting terrorists mode.

However, yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his statement in the Kremlin, that Moscow would contribute an Inter-Syrian dialogue as the solution to the crisis depended on diplomatic talks. Vladimir Putin said: "Russia, together with the interested countries, contribute to launching an Inter-Syrian dialogue. We are convinced that the solution of the Syrian conflict should be political".

It struck at the shallow depth of 3.1 miles, 28 miles from the town of Amberley which has a population of 2,000 people. Tremors were felt as far afield as the cities of Dunedin to the south and Wellington on North Island, reports the New Zealand Herald.

There have been reports of serious damage to houses in the town of Cheviot on the South Island's east coast. In 2011, 185 died when a quake struck Christchurch. The city's central business district is still recovering from the disaster with piles of bricks, ruined and abandoned buildings dotting the streets.

Romanian general elections will be run on December 11. The Netherlands votes in March, French Presidential elections will be held in late April/beginning of May. Germany in September, Czech Republic in October. Plus local elections in Germany and several presidential elections. And the populist candidates are already sensing victory.

Immediately after Trump was declared 45th president of the USA, Marine Le Pen in France said: “Nothing is immutable. What has happened this night is not the end of the world, it’s the end of a world.” Even more pertinently Le Pen’s chief strategist Florian Philippot tweeted: “Their world is collapsing, ours is being built.” And yet another former prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin added: “The boundaries of reason disappeared with Brexit, the main lesson for France is that Le Pen can win.”

Mr Trump has promised to renegotiate America’s trade deals and has threatened to pull the US out of the World Trade Organisation. He has also threatened tariffs on imports from Mexico and China, which experts fear could raise domestic inflation and affect European exporters.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already projected the growth of the eurozone GDP to decrease to 1.5 percent next year and that estimate was with the US economy picking up. A former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson said: “Trump’s trade-led recession would trip Europe back into full-blown recession, which would likely precipitate a serious banking crisis.

“If this risk were not contained and the probability of a European banking debacle is already disconcertingly high, there would be a further negative spiral.” French president, Francois Hollande, said: “Certain positions taken by Donald Trump during the American campaign must be confronted.

“What is at stake is peace, the fight against terrorism, the situation in the Middle East. It is economic relations and the preservation of the planet.” European foreign ministers are set to meet on Sunday to asses what impact Mr Trump’s election victory will have on transatlantic relations.