At Elizabeth’s coronation in 1952, the Archbishop of Canterbury asked her, “Will you to the utmost of your power maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel? Will you to the utmost of your ability maintain in the United Kingdom the Protestant Reformed Religion established by law?” The young queen did not hesitate when she affirmed her commitment to those responsibilities.

In response to her affirmation of the duty of Britain’s monarch to preserve and defend the Christian faith, she was presented with a Bible as these words of encouragement were offered:

"Our gracious Queen: to keep your Majesty ever mindful of the law and the Gospel of God as the rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes, we present you with this Book, the most valuable thing that this world affords. Here is Wisdom; this is the royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God."

England has undeniably devolved into a post-Christian society. Soon, Elizabeth’s son Charles will be coronated as King. His rejection of the Christian faith as the sole path to God is well-documented. As England has gone, so America is going.

Smotrich was speaking at a memorial event commemorating Jacques Kupfer, a prominent Zionist and activist with the right-wing Likud Party, who died back in 2021. The minister delivered his speech while standing at a lectern draped with a flag depicting a variation of the so-called ‘Greater Israel’ map that appears to include the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and Jordan, footage of the event, which was widely shared online, shows.

“Is there a Palestinian history or culture? There is none. There is no such thing as a Palestinian people,” the politician stated, scoring applause from the audience.

It was not supposed to be this way. It was the United States that had encouraged Iran and Saudi Arabia to start discussions, in 2021, in an effort to reduce tensions between the Gulf rivals, advance nuclear talks, and bring an end to the conflict in Yemen. Tehran and Riyadh held five rounds of direct talks, and informal conversations continued thereafter. Then, during his visit to Saudi Arabia in July 2022, US President Joe Biden urged the Gulf Cooperation Council — an intergovernmental union of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — to join with Israel to contain Iran.

But the Saudi government turned to China instead, viewing President Xi Jinping as a better mediator with Tehran. Involving China, the Saudis believed, was the surest guarantee that a deal with Iran would last, since Tehran would be unlikely to risk jeopardizing its relations with Beijing by violating such a deal. Xi discussed the issue with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to Riyadh in December 2022 and then met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Beijing in February 2023.

Intense discussions between Iran and Saudi Arabia followed, during which the two sides agreed to bury the hatchet and normalize relations. For both countries, Xi’s personal intervention was critical. Both have long-standing political and economic ties with Beijing, and the Chinese president was, therefore, able to act as a trusted broker between them.

Now, according to the new agreement, both sides will reopen embassies, and the Saudi government will end its support for the Iran International television channel that Tehran holds responsible for domestic dissent.

Both sides will uphold the April 2022 cease-fire in Yemen and begin work on a formal peace agreement to end the civil war in that country. Iran will cease supplying Houthi rebels with arms and persuade them to halt their missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. In addition, the deal calls for enhanced economic and diplomatic ties between Iran and the GCC countries, and for Iran and its Arab partners to begin discussions on building a new regional security framework. Moreover, China will continue to oversee all of these steps.

Prior to 1642, Russia and China had no diplomatic or military interaction. From 1652 to 1689, China’s armies drove the Russian settlers out, but after 1689, China and Russia made peace and established trade agreements.

In the intervening 334 years, China and Russia never established a de facto alliance. At times they were at odds and, during the last 50 years, US policy made it a priority to keep a wedge between Moscow and Beijing. That is over. China and Russia are now allies, with China being the largest industrial power in the world and Russia the largest supplier of critical commodities. Their political union marks the end of Pax Americana and the US domination of the international order.

This is a game changer. The world we have known will no longer have the United States as the first among equals. In the same way that World War II marked the end of the British imperial empire, today’s events in Moscow are a death knell for the United States being able to act as the global policeman who imposes order on unruly countries.

The Biden Administration is flailing in its response to this new alliance. The loss of American influence in the world is not going to happen overnight, but the process has started. Remember this day. It will change the lives of your children and grandchildren.

On Monday, Kishida delivered a speech in India laying out Japan’s vision for the “Free and Open Indo-Pacific,” a concept spearheaded by late former Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo meant to contain China’s violent colonialist conquests in the South China Sea.

Kishida did not mention China once in his speech – though he mentioned Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on multiple occasions – but stated that Japan’s goal in cooperating with nations such as India was to contain unspecified aggressive powers attempting to erode the sovereignty of the smallest nations in the region.

China illegally claims nearly the entirety of the South China Sea, including territory belonging to the nations of Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Despite losing a territorial dispute case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague against the Philippines in 2016, China has continued to build illegal artificial islands and military facilities in waters belonging to the Philippines and Vietnam, with minimal pushback.

“Given what the militarist Japan did to its neighbors before and during World War II, Japan’s regaining of military capability far beyond the needs of its self-defense undoubtedly poses a threat to regional peace and stability,” China Daily warned. “There is nothing wrong with Japan harboring the ambition to be a bigger player on the world stage. But that does not mean it needs to expand its military capability for that purpose.”

In his extensive address regarding the Indo-Pacific on Monday, Kishida emphasized “respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, the peaceful resolution of disputes and the non-use of force,” an apparent reference to Beijing’s South China Sea activities.

“Japan will strengthen coordination with the United States, Australia, the ROK, Canada, Europe and elsewhere. Of course, India is indispensable,” Kishida promised. “We will expand the networks among countries that share the vision, including ASEAN and the Pacific Island countries, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and direct efforts in the spirit of co-creation.”

“These Chinese companies are involved in a wide range of reconstruction efforts across Iraq, covering different areas including infrastructure development, the upgrading of transportation systems, home and community reconstruction, and the building of new schools,” the Global Times wrote.

In addition to the port project, the Global Times extolled Chinese contracts to build power plants, schools, transportation systems, and commercial and residential construction. One Chinese manager said he saw more Chinese-made cars in Iraq than any other foreign country. Another Global Times op-ed on Monday harangued the US for invading Iraq after 9/11 and called for former American policymakers to be “held accountable” as the old US “hegemony” crumbles.

Netanyahu’s coalition government issued a statement on Monday that contained several changes to the original version of the legislation put forward on January 4. Among other things, the latest iteration envisages fewer government representatives in the Judicial Selection Committee – the body that appoints judges to Israeli courts – than was originally proposed. The Israeli PM urged parliamentary opponents of the reform to abandon their plans to boycott ratification votes, and asked them to end their calls for further protests.

“We are extending a hand to anyone who genuinely cares about national unity and the desire to reach an agreed accord,” the coalition government statement read. On Sunday, the White House said that President Biden had spoken by phone with Netanyahu, emphasizing that “democratic values… must remain a hallmark of the US-Israel relationship.” The US leader also stressed the importance of “genuine checks and balances” in a democratic society. “The president offered support for efforts underway to forge a compromise on proposed judicial reforms consistent with those core principles,” the White House statement added.

The researchers set up nine different new TikTok accounts, and listed their age as 13 — the youngest age users can join the platform — then they mimicked who they referred to as “incels” or “involuntary celibates,” which is an online community of “young men who formed a bond around their lack of sexual success with women,” according to VICE News.

“Ten minutes and a few clicks on TikTok is all that is needed to fall into the rabbit hole of some of the darkest and most harmful content online,” Maen Hammad, Ekō campaigner and co-author of the research, told VICE News. “The algorithm forces you into a spiral of depression, hopelessness, and self harm, and it’s terribly difficult to get out of that spiral once the algorithm thinks it knows what you want to see,” Hammad added. “It’s extremely alarming to see how easy it is for children to fall into this spiral.”

It is hoped that reconciliation will lead to a huge blow to the hegemony of the US dollar. In Beijing on March 17, following negotiations in Iraq and Oman during the previous two years, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia announced an agreement which includes the restoration of diplomatic relations, a confirmation of respect for the sovereignty of states and non-interference in their internal affairs, and agreements on security, economy, trade, investment, science and culture.

In short, with the mediation of China, the two regional powers, often framed as having a Sunni-Shi’a rivalry, made it official that they are embarking on a new path of improving relations instead of further spoiling them for the sake of serving Western interests that are contrary to the interests of the Islamic World. Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are three leading oil and gas producers and are accelerating their search for payment mechanisms to bypass the US dollar. China, for their part, is already discussing such arrangements with Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The decline of the US dollar as a world currency will weaken the American economy and military power. This in turn will cripple the US’ ability to wage perpetual wars abroad and impose its global hegemony.

After the two leaders hailed a 'new era', Xi's plane left Moscow's Vnukovo airport on Wednesday. He was seen off by a guard of honour who played the Russian and Chinese national anthems, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency said.

In February 2022, the pair announced they had forged a 'no limits' friendship and Putin invited Xi to visit the Russian capital. They have since publicly talked of strengthening their 'special relationship', with Moscow and Beijing both rejecting what they say are US attempts to create a 'unipolar world' controlled by Washington.

Putin: “African states are constantly increasing their weight and their role in world affairs, increasingly asserting themselves in politics and economics. We believe that Africa will be one of the leaders of the emerging multipolar world order. There are all the objective prerequisites for this. African countries want to pursue an independent and sovereign foreign and domestic policy and resolve their sometimes difficult problems independently.

Russia and African countries defend the traditional moral norms and social foundations of our peoples and oppose the neo-colonial ideology imposed from outside. By the way, many states in Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America adhere to similar positions. And all together we make up the world majority. I have already said more than once that our country is determined to continue building a strategic partnership with African friends in the full sense of the word.”

Putin is offering free grain to Africa and is writing off their debt.

“The Federal Reserve announced that the FedNow Service will start operating in July and provided details on preparations for launch,” the announcement read.

“We couldn’t be more excited about the forthcoming FedNow launch, which will enable every participating financial institution, the smallest to the largest and from all corners of the country, to offer a modern instant payment solution,” said Ken Montgomery, first vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and FedNow program executive. “With the launch drawing near, we urge financial institutions and their industry partners to move full steam ahead with preparations to join the FedNow Service.”

It points out that in the US, a collective of banks and payment processors known as The Clearing House runs real-time payments, adding that one of the emerging solutions to this challenge has been central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) to facilitate real-time payments. In the US, Fed chair Jerome Powell has dismissed the need for a digital dollar, and FedNow is his response to the call for a CBDC.

“The jury is still out on whether FedNow will be a forerunner for the digital dollar or impede the CBDC’s progress in the world’s largest economy,” Kaaru remarked. “For now, what’s clear is that it will change the payments landscape in the US.”