The truth is that, while the past couple of days have been defined by incompetence in our skies, things aren't much better on the ground. Britain feels like an absolute shambles, a basket case. Almost nothing works any more, and it hasn't done so for a while now. All around us, the social and physical infrastructure that once held this country together is crumbling. You name it: our roads are rubbish, our rivers are polluted, our streets are overrun by lunatics wielding machetes — it's impossible to get anywhere or do anything without it turning into a three-act drama.

Once an example of can-do competence, community spirit and common sense, we seem to have turned into a nation where no one cares, no one can be bothered and everyone always has a excuse for why none of it's their responsibility. A place where the ordinary law-abiding, taxpaying citizen or loyal, fee-paying customer is increasingly powerless in the face of other people's selfishness, incompetence or, in many cases, plain greed. It's all me, me, me and sod the rest of you.

Mis-gender someone and all hell breaks loose. Forget to obtain signed consent in triplicate before paying someone a compliment, and that's you cancelled. Dare to suggest that a woman is an adult biological female and see how quickly the room clears. Meanwhile, the things that really matter continue to deteriorate. We tinker around the edges, wasting time on platitudes and political correctness while our heath service crumbles, our transport system falters, our school standards fall, our universities fail to deliver, and all the things Britain was once admired for fade away.

Another reason is the foolish notion that people are basically good. This has been a left-wing belief since the French Enlightenment leader Jean-Jacques Rousseau came up with the idea. As he wrote in his book, “On Philosophy, Morality, and Religion,” “Man is a naturally good being, loving justice and order; there is no natural perversity in the human heart… All the vices imputed to the human heart are not natural to it.”

This nonsense had been foreign to the Western mind. Its view of humanity was rooted in the Bible, and neither Bible-based religion — Judaism or Christianity — affirmed the goodness of the human heart. As Genesis states, “The will of man’s heart is evil from his youth,” and the rest of the Bible repeatedly warns us against following our hearts.

However, as the West began to abandon the Bible, including belief in the God of the Bible, Westerners began to believe in man. As Marx put it, “Man is God.” People had no choice. For if there is no God to believe in, one must believe in man — or one has literally nothing to believe in. Therefore, belief in man’s inherent goodness became both psychologically and philosophically necessary.

If you want to make a more moral world, you must begin with the study of evil. But, for the reasons enumerated here, the Left is not — and cannot be — interested in fighting real evil. So, the Left fights made-up evils: American systemic racism, transphobia, capitalism, carbon emissions, sexism and former President Donald Trump, to name a few. This is why young people know almost nothing about evil. The Left doesn’t want them to know about it. Because knowledge of evil inevitably leads directly to rejection of the Left.

“Not at all. Iran has no problem with BRICS. It’s the West that has imposed unilateral sanctions against BRICS,” he added, referring to Western sanctions on Russia and Iran. “BRICS doesn’t recognise unilateral sanctions. Iran will add value, so will Saudi Arabia and the UAE.” Li Kexin, the Chinese director-general of international economic affairs, also dismissed these concerns, insisting that BRICS was not an anti-Western alliance and that the expansion did not change that. “We are not seeking confrontation,” he insisted.

He was asked, though, if accepting Iran as a new member would not heighten tensions with the US, which has a hostile relationship with Tehran. Li recalled that China had recently mediated a reconciliation between Iran and its regional rival Saudi Arabia. “Happily, they both joined BRICS together,” he added, saying that BRICS could now become a platform for continuing to improve relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Drug dealers frequently mix Xylazine with fentanyl to prolong the high, creating a potentially deadly cocktail, but “tranq” is often mixed with other drugs like meth and cocaine as well, meaning users often take Xylazine unknowingly.

Dr Steve Salvatore, Victory’s co-founder and president warned that because “tranq” is so cheap and prolongs the high, we are “going to be seeing a lot more of xylazine.” “That’s why it’s become popular: Now, your high goes from one or two hours to more like four to five hours,” Dr Steve Salvatore told the Post.

Because Xylazine was only ever intended for animal use, the drug is not a controlled substance federally or in New York. Several cities and states have moved to crack down on the drug, however.

Of the 1,609 scientists who have signed the declaration, two signatories are Nobel Prize laureates. The most recent to sign is Nobel Prize winner Dr John F Clauser, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics. In an announcement from CLINTEL, Clauser is quoted as saying "Misguided climate science has metastasized into massive shock-journalistic pseudoscience. In turn, the pseudoscience has become a scapegoat for a wide variety of other unrelated ills. It has been promoted and extended by similarly misguided business marketing agents, politicians, journalists, government agencies, and environmentalists."

As President Biden and countless world leaders push heavily for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 the scientists assert that this is not only “unrealistic,” but harmful to world economies. “There is no climate emergency. Therefore, there is no cause for panic and alarm. We strongly oppose the harmful and unrealistic net-zero CO2 policy proposed for 2050,” the paper reads, proposing “adaptation instead of mitigation.”

Argentina, under departing leftist President Alberto Fernández, is currently enduring a dire economic situation that has nearly depleted its US dollar foreign reserves. The country signed an agreement with the Chinese Communist Party in April to stop using dollars to pay for Chinese imports and embrace the yuan instead. Argentina has also begun to pay its over $40 billion debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in yuan in favor of the dollar as of June.

In March, Brazil signed a similar agreement with China to discard the US dollar and embrace the yuan in bilateral trade.

Friedrich Merz, the 67-year-old leader of the Christian Democrats opposition party, claims that this slump is a direct result of the government's overly bureaucratised green energy policies, which are being led by The Greens in coalition with the Social Democrats, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. 'Unfortunately, 2023 will be a year of recession,' Merz told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. 'If the insane amount of bureaucracy isn't stopped soon, if energy prices don't fall quickly, then 2024 won't be a good year either.'

The populist leader pledged to 'lower the tax and levy burden on energy', 'immediately reconnect decommissioned nuclear power plants to the grid', and 'adopt a moratorium on bureaucracy.' He elaborated, saying: 'Not a single new law should trigger additional bureaucracy. That means, for example: We would stop the heating law. In this form, it is not only technologically flawed, but also sets in motion a huge new bureaucracy.'

Merz is currently leading in the polls after his party adopted several anti-immigrant policies. Meanwhile, the government's ratings have slumped in recent months. Nearly three quarters of Germans, 73%, are unhappy with the current coalition government, according to an opinion poll published over the weekend.

In the miserable 1930s, when millions lived in such deprivation that it would make modern young people gasp to see, theft of any kind was extremely rare. At the same time, the police have almost entirely disappeared, so the fear of getting caught has shrivelled. The Prosecution Service and courts have played their part, by making it clear they are not interested in punishment. And large numbers of people have now noticed this.

Hence the man scooping up piles of fresh meat from an urban supermarket and heading straight for the exit – witnessed the other day by a woman well-known to me. She was shocked and cried out: 'That's stealing!' He turned and grinned at her, before making an unhurried exit. He feared nothing.

But this is nothing. The Co-op last week complained that many of its stores have been abandoned by the police. It says that the situation has become so bad, it may have to shut stores in some areas. Matt Hood, managing director of Co-op Food, explained how bad it has become: 'I have seen some horrific incidents of brazen and violent theft in our stores, where my colleagues felt scared and threatened.' 'Too often, forces fail to respond to desperate calls by our store teams, and criminals are operating in communities without any fear of consequences.' Shop workers who try to intervene are threatened with screwdrivers or knives. Gangs smash through doors.

This is a warning. Actual anarchy is not very far off. Where people won't restrain themselves from blatant dishonesty and are not ashamed of it, and where the police are a fond memory, who and what will be safe?

Many influences outside of the human body are killing these beneficial microbes, which aren’t genetically part of us but live in symbiosis with humans. The new study, published June 26 in Nature Neuroscience, has linked autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to a distinct microbial signature that’s dysbiotic, or unnaturally out of balance. As in an ecosystem, too much of certain problematic species can destroy the overall ecology or lead to problematic consequences, such as too many of certain metabolites and not enough of others.

Meanwhile, autism rates are increasing at a speed that defies improved screening and diagnostic practices, as well as genetic patterns. The Centers for Disease Control released statistics in April that show the latest autism rate was 1 in 36 children in 2020, up from 1 in 44 in 2018, and 1 in 150 in 2000.