Rabbi Sternbuch, vice president of the Rabbinical Court and head of the Eidah Charedit organization in Jerusalem, recently said that people should “put on their Shabbat clothes in preparation for the Messiah.” Touching upon a teaching taught by the Jewish sages, Rabbi Sternbuch reflected on the persecution the Jews will face from the Arab nations as part of the messianic process.

“It is also written that before the Messiah comes, Israel will suffer greatly from the sons of Ishmael (Arabs) and they will succeed in antagonizing us. We are at a crossroads and we need to pray to God to redeem us. We have to wake up and repent or, if not, God forbid, the Ishmaelites will overcome us.”

“This is precisely the time to repent and pray,” he said. “Messiah is just around the corner and is waiting to arrive.” Rabbi Amar quoted a teaching from the last Chabad leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in which he warned that the time before the messiah will intensify conflict around the world. “There will come a time when we won’t be able to sleep because of all the troubles that will befall us,” Rabbi Amar related.

How is it possible that a rabbi, even one of the chief rabbis of Jerusalem, can make a ruling in Jewish law that obligates God? Breaking Israel News posed this question to senior Chabad Rabbi Uri Kaploun who said, “All that comes to mind is the axiom in Chazal (the Jewish sages) that Lo BaShamayim Hi (it is not in Heaven): once the Torah was given, the earthly court makes the rulings, and the Heavenly Court is, as it were, bound by them.”

The satirical picture showing Saudi and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) executioners standing side-by-side, with English captions reading “Any differences?” was published on his official website on Saturday. Khamenei also released a statement on Sunday promising “divine” retribution against Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia – Iran’s regional archrival.

Nimr was among 47 people beheaded or shot by firing squad across Saudi Arabia on Saturday - the largest number of individuals executed in a single day since 1980. All but four of the condemned were convicted as Al-Qaeda members, while Nimr and three other Shias were accused of inciting riots among Saudi Arabia’s Shia minority between 2010 and 2012, when Nimr was arrested.

The execution of Nimr, a public figure popular with youths, alongside terrorists responsible for a series of bombings carried out between 2003 and 2006, provoked additional outrage in the Shia world. Iran summoned the Saudi ambassador, and just hours later, a mob set fire to the Saudi embassy in Tehran, chanting “Death to Al Saud!” – the ruling family of Saudi Arabia.

Britain’s benchmark index suffered its worst new year start in 16 years. The last time the FTSE 100 made such a bad start to the year was on January 4, 2000, when it sank 3.81 percent - its worst new year start in the FTSE 100's 31-year history. After suffering its worst year since 2011, the FTSE 100 closed down 158.89 points, or 2.39 percent, to 6,093.43. More than £38 billion had been wiped off Britain's leading companies when markets closed on Monday - compared with a total of £80 billion in the past 12 months.

The opening bell on Wall Street did not bring any relief, as the mayhem in China also rattled US markets. By 5.30pm, the S&P 500 had slipped 1.3 percent lower, while the Dow Jones industrial average and the Nasdaq Composite index lost 2.2 percent and 2.7 percent respectively. The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq closed 1.6 percent, 1.5 percent and 2.1 percent lower respectively. The share price plunge followed weak data from China, which caused Asian shares to slump and triggered an early closure of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets.

Mike van Dulken, of Accendo Markets, said: “Equity markets have made a rather negative start to 2016, with China making an early appearance to remind us of global growth woes and FX wars, keeping the commodities space under pressure, while geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are adding to existing volatility in the price of oil."

One was the very peculiar nature of that state visit in October, when the president of China was taken in a golden coach to stay at Buckingham Palace, down a Mall lined with hundreds of placard-waving pro China stooges, while the only people manhandled away by Chinese security guards were a few protesters against China’s treatment of Tibet and abuses of human rights.

Led by David Cameron, our politicians could not have fawned more humiliatingly on the leader of a country whose economy, before its recent wobbles, was predicted by the IMF to overtake that of the US as the largest in the world in 2016. While Britain once led the world in steel making and the civil use of nuclear power, the visit coincided with the crumbling of the remains of our steel industry before a flood of cheap Chinese steel, as our politicians pleaded for China’s help in building, to an obsolete design, the most costly nuclear power station in the world.

Three weeks later came the rather less prominent visit of Narendra Modi, prime minister of India, whose even faster-growing economy is predicted by financial analysts to become bigger than Britain’s within three years, and to overtake China’s as the world’s largest in the second half of the century. What we were seeing in 2015, more than ever before, were the signs of one of history’s great geopolitical shifts, as the centuries-old hegemony of the West gives way to the new powerhouses of the outside world.

Everywhere we see Western illusions colliding with reality, as when the reckless bid to suck Ukraine into the EU and Nato inevitably provoked a response from President Putin and a Russian sense of national interest that has left us looking pathetically impotent. Likewise, in his support for Syria’s President Assad, Putin has run rings round the West, just as the murderous regime in Iran ran rings round us in that recent “nuclear deal”, so meaningless that Iran’s “moderate” President Rouhani never even bothered to sign it, almost immediately authorising two illegal tests of nuclear-capable missiles, knowing that no action from the West would follow.

We then saw that even more meaningless “non-binding” deal in Paris, supposed to save the world from global warming. The very fact that it was the West that had dreamed up this scare in the first place was yet another symptom of how easily we fall for illusions; and again it was the outside world, led by China and India, that refused to buy such nonsense.

The reason why we do not see just how far our spoiled, emasculated, de-spiritualised societies in the West have lost the plot is that they are the bubble we live in. But these days there is a great big world out there, much less sentimental and much tougher than what we have become used to. Over the coming years, our world is going to change more than we can imagine.

On August 28, a three-story building was set on fire in a small town near the western German city of Hamelin. A family from Zimbabwe had just moved there. Firefighters soon found the cause of the blaze under the eleven-year-old son Alvin's bed: a Molotov cocktail. It had been tossed into the ground floor of the building. Hundreds of cases of such homicidal violence have occurred in Germany this year. To give a comparison: in 2011, 18 attacks on refugee accommodation were recorded and now, four years later, the number has gone up to more than 600.

The ethical idea of helping is now no longer the main force shaping public opinion on refugee policy. On December 8, refugee number 1,000,000 was registered. But Merkel's open-door policy actually met with resistance long before that: in her party, in her own cabinet, in German municipalities and on the street. German society has shown its deep division.

2015 clearly proves one thing: although right-wing extremists do not represent "the people" as they claim, they do constitute a part. And that part is growing.

No-one “doubts any longer” that Germany’s citizens should get used to the risk of an attack, Andy Neumann of the German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation has warned, saying that only a mixture of luck and skill has so far kept the country safe from a large Islamic extremist atrocity.

German interior minister Thomas de Maizière has now called for closer co-operation with foreign intelligence agencies following the terror threat, saying his government would work "closely with security organisations of other countries”. "The situation will continue to remain serious in the New Year," Mr de Maizière told Bild newspaper.

But that may change in 2016, when five of Germany's 16 states hold elections in the build-up to the next federal vote a year later. Not only is Chancellor Merkel looking more vulnerable than ever before because of her welcoming stance toward the hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war in the Middle East, but the rise of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has injected a new element of surprise into the political landscape.

Add to that an unprecedented splintering of the electorate, which means that six parties have a legitimate shot of entering most state parliaments, and Germany's normally cozy, consensual politics begins to look a bit less predictable, and potentially more divisive, than it has in a long time.

The wild card is the threat of an attack by Islamist extremists on German soil, a risk highlighted on New Year's Eve when authorities received a tip that Iraqi and Syrian nationals were planning suicide bombings at train stations in Munich.

It could be fatal for Merkel; officials in Berlin acknowledge in private, if such an attack were carried out successfully by people who entered Europe with the flood of migrants, as was the case with two of the men involved in the November 13 attacks in Paris.

Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference in Riyadh that the envoy of Shi'ite Iran had been asked to quit Saudi Arabia within 48 hours. The kingdom, he said, would not allow the Islamic republic to undermine its security. Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran early on Sunday and Shi'ite Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, predicted "divine vengeance" for the execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, an outspoken opponent of the ruling Al Saudi family.

Jubeir said the attack in Tehran was in line with what he said were earlier Iranian assaults on foreign embassies there and with Iranian policies of destabilizing the region by creating "terrorist cells" in Saudi Arabia. "The kingdom, in light of these realities, announces the cutting of diplomatic relations with Iran and requests the departure of delegates of diplomatic missions of the embassy and consulate and offices related to it within 48 hours. The ambassador has been summoned to notify them," he said.

Speaking on Iranian state television, Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in Tehran's first response that by cutting diplomatic ties, Riyadh could not cover up "its major mistake of executing Sheikh Nimr". The United States, Saudi Arabia's biggest backer in the West, responded by encouraging diplomatic engagement and calling for leaders in the region to take "affirmative steps" to reduce tensions.

Tensions between revolutionary, mainly Shi'ite Iran and Saudi Arabia's conservative Sunni monarchy have run high for years as they backed opposing forces in wars and political conflicts across the Middle East, usually along sectarian lines. However, Saturday's execution of a cleric whose death Iran had warned would "cost Saudi Arabia dearly", and the storming of the kingdom's Tehran embassy, raised the pitch of the rivalry.

The document, "About the Strategy of National Security of Russian Federation", was signed by President Vladimir Putin on New Year's Eve. It replaces a 2009 version, endorsed by then- President Dmitry Medvedev, the current prime minister, which mentioned neither the United States not NATO.

It says Russia has managed to heighten its role in solving global problems and international conflicts. That heightened role has caused a reaction by the West, it says. "The strengthening of Russia happens against the background of new threats to the national security, which has complex and interrelated nature," the document says.

Conducting an independent policy, "both international and domestic" has caused "counteraction from the USA and its allies, which are striving to retain their dominance in global affairs." That in turn is likely to lead to "political, economical, military and informational pressure" on Russia, the document says.

Inevitably, infections we used to easily treat will evolve and become resistant to them. These “superbugs” now threaten to derail decades of medical progress – and no one will be safe in a post-antibiotic world. Perhaps, the not-so-distant future is already upon us. Last month, a scientist discovered a gene resistant to colistin, an antibiotic of last resort. The mcr-1 gene has been found in coli bacteria among pigs, broiler meat and humans in China.

The researchers from South China also found this resistance gene in E. coli and Klebsiella pneumonia isolates from 16 hospitalized patients’ blood, urine or other sites. The isolates were all very resistant ESBL bacteria to begin with, so now were resistant to all antibiotics. Modern day antibiotics are failing us and we must open our eyes to the fact we are in the beginnings of a post-antibiotic world. The signs are there, the superbugs are raging on and we are losing the fight.

The Republican governor’s statement comes amid announcements the Obama administration will act later this month to impose stricter rules on the selling and purchase of firearms.

The president will meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch Monday to discuss what actions can be taken to circumvent the Second Amendment without congressional authorization, the Washington Post reports. The new rules will reportedly seek to require private sellers to conduct background checks, as well as prevent people on the no-fly list from being able to purchase firearms.

Meanwhile, Governor Abbott has made a strong show of support for Texans’ Second Amendment rights. On Friday a new law came into effect allowing licensed citizens of the Lone Star State to openly carry holstered pistols.

The phrase “come and take it” was emblazoned on a flag flown by Texian forces during the Texas Revolution, chiefly at the battle of Gonzales, where Texian rebels revolted against the Mexican army and challenged them to retrieve a cannon loaned to them for protection.

Mr al-Maliki, who was prime minister of Iraq between 2006 and 2014, said in a statement that his countrymen "strongly condemn these detestable sectarian practices and affirm that the crime of executing Sheikh al-Nimr will topple the Saudi regime as the crime of executing the martyr al-Sadr did to Saddam," referencing the death of another prominent cleric in Iraq in 1980.

Hundreds of armoured vehicles were sent to Qatif in Saudi Arabia to contain protests in response to the execution, while demonstrators in Bahrain have been tear-gassed. Several protests have taken place in majority Shia Qatif and in Bahrain, following the execution of Sheikh al-Nimr and 46 others for ‘terrorism offences’.

Water levels will continue to rise in Memphis, Tennessee, and Greenville, Mississippi, as well as Baton Rouge, Louisiana, through the second week of January. Levees will be forced to hold back the rising water, but in some cases may fail, as has been seen in the past week. Residents in these areas will want to be prepared for historic flooding.

Flooding on the middle portion of the Mississippi River and some of its tributaries reached levels not seen during the winter months since records began during the middle 1800s. Communities near St Louis were devastated as the river entered major flood stage early on Wednesday morning. As of Saturday morning, the river was still considered at major flood stage. While the river has crested, several more days of flooding are still expected which will slow down cleaning and recovery efforts.

Flooding is also occurring along the Illinois, Bourbeuse, lower Missouri, lower Arkansas, Meramec, and part of the lower Ohio rivers. It may take a week or longer for water levels to fall below flood stage, following a crest. Periods of below-freezing temperatures will cause some flooded areas to turn icy and will add to the challenges of cleanup.