The planned visit follows Trump’s call for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” in light of what he said was “great hatred towards Americans by large segments of the Muslim population.” A security source said Trump would probably not be allowed to visit the Temple Mount, the Post’s sister publication Ma’ariv reported.

The source said that when the current wave of terrorism began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu banned all politicians from visiting the site. The source added that Trump’s visit is meant to be a provocation, so security forces are likely to bar him from ascending the mount.

Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected Trump’s remarks regarding Muslims, but officials suggested his December 28 meeting with Trump would go ahead as planned. “The State of Israel respects all religions and protects stringently the rights of all its citizens,” a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office said. “At the same time, Israel is struggling with extremist Islam that is attacking Muslims, Christians and Jews as one and is threatening the entire world.”

He admitted that the EU is not the only possible model for Europe but the alternative is a “Europe of nationalism, a Europe of borders and walls” – a formula which led Europe to disaster in the past. Schulz pointed out that what is called the EU’s weakness is actually the weakness of the EU states which first voted to transfer sovereignty to the EU, but then complain of unacceptable interference in their affairs and block the EU moving forward.

“No country alone can handle challenges such as migration, climate change, terrorism, trade and international crime. We can only do it together, as the EU,” Schulz said. “The retreat of many governments into nation-based thinking is fatal,” he added.

From this perspective Schulz supports the German Chancellor’s position on refugee policy – countries such as Germany, Sweden, Austria or Italy must not meet this challenge alone. But he also agreed that many German towns and municipalities cannot accept migrants and refugees further.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu provided Russian President Vladimir Putin with the recovered flight recorder on Tuesday during their meeting in Moscow. Shoigu said that Russia has been actively conducting operations on Syrian territory, where the Russian Su-24 pilot was “gunned down” by Turkmen militants after he had ejected from the plane.

“As a result of this work, these territories were liberated by the special operations forces and the Syrian army’s special force tasked with the crew search. Surveying the area, the Syrian military found the plane’s crash site,” he said.

The militants, who “actively” fled the area, had no chance to dismantle anything which was among the debris from the plane, the minister added. The Russian leader emphasized that the parametric flight recorder should be opened and decoded only in the presence of international experts who are genuinely interested in finding out the truth about the incident.

A future where the gene editing technique CRISPR/Cas9 is used by DIY biologists, genetic engineering startups, and even artists creating fanciful organisms straight out of sci-fi is not just possible — it's likely, argue two of the country's top bioethicists.

"Why should we not expect dwarf elephants, giant guinea pigs, or genetically tamed tigers?" Hank Greely of Stanford School of Medicine and Alta Charo of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine write in the essay “CRISPR Critters and CRISPR Cracks.” "Or — dare we wonder — the billionaire who decides to give his 12-year-old daughter a real unicorn for her birthday?"

Greely and Charo argue that such overlooked or even "frivolous" uses of the gene editing technique CRISPR/Cas9 could fall through regulatory cracks and may ultimately have a greater impact on our environment than human editing ever would.

He said in a policy speech on Friday that his Liberal government would introduce legislation as early as 2016 to legalize marijuana, making Canada the first in the G7 bloc of industrialized nations to do so, although precise details remain sketchy.

Two in three Canadians support decriminalizing possession and use of the mind-altering weed, according to a recent Ipsos poll. Support is widespread and at its highest level in three decades, it said, even though cannabis use has fallen off. Details of the Liberal plan haven't yet been released. However, it is expected to go much further by not only legalizing marijuana but also creating a regulated market for it, as Uruguay and a few US states have done.

An estimated one million out of Canada's 35 million people regularly smoke marijuana, according to the latest survey taken in 2014.

Corab, which includes pillars of the establishment like Baroness Butler-Sloss, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, former head of the Muslim Council of Britain, and Lord Williams, better known as the former Archbishop of Canterbury, says that Britain has seen “a general decline” in its Christian affiliation, and the time has come for public life to take on “a more pluralist character”.

Only two in five British people now “identify” as Christian, and the commission wants a new settlement for religion in the UK. Major state occasions should be changed to be “more inclusive”. “Socially divisive” faith schools must be phased out. The number of bishops in the House of Lords should be cut to make way for other religions, the law requiring schools to hold a collective act of worship should be scrapped.

Apart from God help us, two thoughts occur to me. Firstly, if Corab gets its way, British children will never become familiar with the Judaeo-Christian religion which underpins 2,000 years of Western civilisation; if you banish it from schools, they will certainly not get it at home. And the stories and attendant values which those of us over the age of 40 take for granted will be lost. Sadly, you have to conclude that this is exactly what those hand-wringing members of the liberal establishment want.

Second? We probably have 10 years tops before we stop greeting each other with the unpluralist “Happy Christmas”. A Nativity play, should such a regressive, sexist construct be allowed to exist in 2025, will probably begin with a four-year-old Angel Gabriel reading out a disclaimer: “The baby Jesus was meek and mild, but unfortunately he does raise major questions around gender and ethnicity. If you are affected by any of the issues in this Nativity play, please call the free helpline, Offended Anonymous, or speak to Mrs Michaels, the Head of Non-Religious Transgender Studies.”

In this new, secularist Britain, you will still be allowed to buy a Norwegian spruce to decorate, but it will be called a “holiday tree”. There’s not much that makes me want to run amok, but the spectacle of eminent judges and religious leaders signing the death warrant of Christianity in these isles is just intolerable.

It is literally beyond belief. Hands off our faith schools! Hands off our Christmas! At this most unsettling of times, we want public life to have a character that is deeply familiar and comforting; we need our traditions more than ever.

The superbugs were found in 15% of raw meat samples in China, as well as a fifth of the animals tested. Colistin had also failed in 16 patients infected with drug-resistant infections. Now a patient in Denmark has been diagnosed with an untreatable form of salmonella, scientists from George Washington University (GWU) and the Statens Serum Institute (SSI) and National Food Institute (NFI) in Denmark announced Friday. In addition, they also found untreatable bacteria in 5 samples of chicken imported from China through Germany.

The Antibiotic Resistance Action Center in the Milken Institute School of Public Health at GWU, said in a statement to National Geographic: “The news that the dangerous colistin resistance gene has been found in Denmark is alarming. This newly identified gene, called MCR-1, is on a mobile piece of DNA that can make copies of itself and then jump to from bacterium to bacterium, spreading resistance.

History shows that these mobile resistance genes can spread around the world quickly, silently riding in people, animals, and food. The news that MCR-1 has been discovered in Denmark suggests that this scenario is playing out in real time.

UNITED KINGDOM

The video references last year’s Scottish independence referendum and burgeoning national movements in Wales and Northern Ireland as causes for concern over the future of the UK.

The author states that the Scots - who voted by 55% to 45% to stay in the union - “won’t give up their quest for independence so easily”.

They also say there are “simmering movements” in Wales and Northern Ireland - which both have their own parliaments - which could eventually lead to full autonomy.

They state: “If any of these regions were to gain autonomy from the UK it’s possible that the union may fall apart.”

UNITED STATES

In one of the fascinating suggestions, the author claims that the world’s most powerful nation could break apart within the next 20 years.

They reference the deeply felt north-south divide between the different states of America which has been entrenched since the civil war which led to the unification of the country.

The narrator says that Alaska and Texas are the two states most likely to leave the union, but adds that others could follow.

They warn: “Many of the divisions that caused the civil war in the US still exist to this day. If these deep-rooted political and cultural differences within the US aren’t rectified, it’s possible some states could break free within the next 20 years.”

Mr Schulz said: "No one can say whether the EU will still exist in this form in 10-years' time. If we want that then we need to fight very hard for it." He did not specify what exactly was threatening the EU but focused heavily on the migrant crisis, which has stretched Europe's unity and many of its member countries' tolerance this year.

The European Parliament head said the EU was not without alternatives and "could of course be reversed". He warned other options included a removal of the free-movement Schengen zone to a Europe in which nationalism, borders and walls were prevalent. Mr Schulz said: "That would be disastrous because that kind of Europe has repeatedly led our continent into catastrophe."

Divisions are rife within the EU over the thousands of migrants and refugees coming into Europe from war-torn countries such as Syria. One of the most notable is between German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has led efforts to take in more Syrians, and leaders of the formerly Communist east who oppose EU schemes to make them take in more asylum seekers.

Denmark will therefore retain its "opt-out," obtained following its "No"-majority in a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty, in 1992. There is also little chance that Denmark will join a common EU foreign and military policy, in the near future, as favored by Berlin and Brussels. Because the single currency is perceived as the reason for Finland's economic crisis, that country's parliament will soon debate whether to hold a referendum on leaving the Euro zone.

Great Britain will hold a referendum on exiting the EU by 2017, at the latest, with already a majority in favor, according to recent polls. In the Netherlands, demands are being raised to reduce the Schengen Zone to a "mini-Schengen." Following the convulsions in Southern Europe, the EU project - the foundation of German global policy - is also beginning to crumble in the North.

Following the convulsions in the south, particularly in Greece, the EU project is now beginning to crumble, also in the north. This is also placing the foundations of Berlin's currently favored variation of global policy in jeopardy. Currently, the unity within the EU that Berlin is calling for seems more uncertain than ever.

Nothing is decided yet. The second, decisive round of this regional election will take place next Sunday – and voters’ behaviour can change between the two rounds. However, Front National does really look close to a breakthrough. The party has never governed a French region. Securing control of even just one of them would already be an unprecedented achievement.

Significantly, the gains made by Front National cut across all types of regions – from the wealthy French Riviera to rural Burgundy. The industrial Northern region (now merged with Picardy), where Marine Le Pen herself is standing as candidate and won over 40 per cent of the vote in the first round, has been a stronghold of the Left since direct election of regional assemblies in France began in the 1980s.

There are several reasons behind the surge of Front National – and dissatisfaction with Europe is one of them. According to the European Commission’s latest Eurobarometer survey, only 32 per cent of French trust the EU – compared to 51 per cent who do not. Given that Front National is far from an isolated case – anti-euro, anti-EU and anti-establishment parties are on the rise pretty much everywhere in Europe – one of the key lessons from this French regional election is that sweeping reform of the EU cannot wait any longer.

I wonder whether a similar point of capitulation has now been reached for commodity prices, which this week hit renewed post-crisis lows, and for the prevailing view on interest rates, which posits that despite the virtual certainty of a quarter-point rate rise from the US Federal Reserve next week, the cost of money will remain ultra-low for a very long time to come.

Even those hold-outs once loudly warning that profligate central bank money printing would lead inevitably to higher inflation, and therefore to a calamitous rise in interest rates, seem to have given up and now accept the prevailing narrative of “secular stagnation” as the established way of things.

Investors should take care. Group think can be a dangerous thing. And low interest rates stretching out into the long-term future are very much the prevailing narrative right now. Conventional wisdom has a nasty habit of being proved wrong just when you least expect it.

For months, I have been warning that the crash in the price of oil would be extremely deflationary and would have severe consequences for the global economy. Nations such as Japan, Canada, Brazil and Russia have already plunged into recession, and more than half of all major global stock market indexes are down at least 10 percent year to date. The first major global financial crisis since 2009 has begun, and things are only going to get worse as we head into 2016.

The global head of oil research at Societe Generale, Mike Wittner, says that his “head is spinning” after the stunning drop in the price of oil on Monday. Just like during the last financial crisis, we have broken the psychologically important 40 dollar barrier, and there are concerns that we could go much lower from here…

One analyst told CNBC that he believes that we could soon see the price of US oil go all the way down to 32 dollars a barrel…Analysts at Goldman Sachs are even more pessimistic than that. According to Business Insider, they are saying that we could eventually see the price of oil go below 20 dollars a barrel…

That may sound really good to you, especially if you fill up your gas tank frequently. But the truth is that plunging oil prices are exceedingly bad for the US economy as a whole. In recent years, the energy industry has been the primary engine for the creation of good jobs in this country, and now those firms are having to lay off people at a frightening pace.

Indeed – the party is coming to an end, and a new financial crisis is playing out in textbook fashion right in front of our eyes. Hopefully you are already prepared for what is coming next, because it is going to be extremely painful for the US economy.

“I fear he may have made things worse in the minds of many Americans.” Rubio said “nothing that happened in the speech … is going to assuage people’s fears,” Breitbart reported. He slammed Obama for using ISIS and the war on terrorism as a means of pressing his own gun-control agenda, and said the White House has done nothing to adjust policy or strategy in recent months in response to the expansion of the terror group. He also criticized the president for suggesting America was guilty of bias against Muslims.

“We are at war with a radical jihadist group more capable than any terrorist group this nation has ever confronted,” Rubio said. “Where is there widespread evidence that we have a problem in America with discrimination against Muslims? … This is nothing but an effort to use this issue of terrorism as another way to try to push their agenda that they’ve been dying to push for the longest amount of time, and that’s gun control.”