In setting these goals, Washington did, to some extent, factor in external constraints, such as the potential objections of important regional powers around the world. But for the most part, foreign policy debates focused on what a given measure might cost or on whether spreading Western institutions was desirable as a matter of principle. The interests of other countries, particularly adversaries, were secondary concerns.

This approach to foreign policy was misguided even at the peak of American power. As the endless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and Russian interventionism in eastern Europe have shown, adversaries with a fraction of the United States’ resources could find ways to resist US efforts and impose high costs in the process. Today, Washington’s primacy mindset — its disregard for the core interests of potential adversaries — is even more counterproductive.

With China on the rise, Russia defiant, and the United States’ liberal international coalition weakened from within, Washington faces a much more constrained environment. A foreign policy that neglects that fact will stymie cooperation and set the United States on a collision course with its rivals. The question is no longer what the United States wants to achieve. It is rather what the United States can achieve that an increasingly fractured coalition can support and that its rivals can live with.

Although he has taken on a number of challenges as Indiana governor and a former House GOP leader, Pence drew fire after his appointment from Democrats over his own decisions when confronting high AIDS transmission in his home state. He has no medical background of any kind. He studied history at Hanover College and went on to learn a law degree.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday cited Pence's response as governor when Indiana was experiencing a record-high rate of HIV infections due to sharing needles among drug addicts. She pointed out he slashed the public health budget and closed a clinic that did HIV testing at the time.

'We look forward to working together in a bipartisan and in a very candid way about our concerns about past performance or statements that were made,' she said. 'Let's put that in perspective as we move to have adequate funding, the respect for science and evidence-based decision making and, again, reimbursement for state and local government and understanding the impact this has on our communities,' she said.

'Mike Pence literally does not believe in science. It is utterly irresponsible to put him in charge of US coronavirus response,' Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter after his appointment.

Random and unrelated issues? Not at all. It is my belief they are all connected by a phenomenon that has in recent years become increasingly influential in British life: ‘Groupthink.’ Coined in the 1970s by Irving Janis, a professor of psychology, it refers to a group of individuals fixated on a particular view of the world, whether or not there is any evidence to support it. So convinced are they that their opinion is correct that they cannot believe any sensible person would disagree.

Most insidiously, this leads them to treat all those who differ from their beliefs with contemptuous hostility. Groupthink now comprehensively governs our lives in Britain. Like so much that affects our daily lives in Britain, it all began in America. In January 1987, an estimated 500 students and staff gathered at California’s Stanford University to listen to an address by the civil rights campaigner, the Reverend Jesse Jackson. What happened next had unimaginably far-reaching consequences.

As Jackson finished speaking, his audience surged angrily across the campus to a meeting of the university’s governing body, chanting words which became infamous: ‘Hey, hey, ho, ho, Western culture’s got to go.’ The target of their fury was a compulsory Western culture course designed to introduce students to history, ideas and literary classics. But to the protesters, everything about it was deeply offensive.

For example, they were incensed that set texts were all written by ‘dead white males’ such as Plato and Shakespeare. The concerns and views of women, black writers and other racial and cultural groups, they argued, had been shut out. As a result of the protests, and in the name of the new buzzwords of ‘diversity’ and ‘multiculturalism’, the university course was swiftly redesigned and new ones such as ‘gender studies’ and ‘feminist studies’ were introduced. Political correctness as we now know it had been born.

We haven’t seen this much panic on Wall Street in a very long time, and on Thursday we actually witnessed the largest single day point decline in all of US history… Rising anxiety over the global coronavirus outbreak pushed the stock market into a new zone of fear Thursday. This virus is spreading great fear all over the planet, and it is going to be exceedingly difficult for the world economy to function normally when people are afraid to even leave their own homes.

At this point, the travel industry is being hit particularly hard… “We don’t even need to wait for economic data to see how badly the economy is being hit. You can tell that the sales of airlines and hotels are already falling by a half or something like that,” said Tomoaki Shishido, senior economist at Nomura Securities.

Up until recently, Wall Street had been acting as if this was a temporary problem that would soon fade. And what happens if this crisis is like the Spanish Flu pandemic which lasted for three years? By the way, tens of millions of people died during the Spanish Flu pandemic. Let us pray that the death toll will not be anything like that this time around.

Unfortunately, with each passing hour this virus makes even more headlines. The Vice-President of Iran has become a confirmed case, and the Iranian Ambassador to the Vatican has actually died after catching the virus. Speaking of the Vatican, the Pope just cancelled a service “after he was struck down with illness”… In my entire lifetime, I have never seen anything like this.

And if the number of cases continues to rise at an exponential rate it is going to be absolutely devastating for the world economy and for global financial markets. For a long time many have been watching for the “trigger event” that would burst the biggest financial bubble in the history of the planet. That “trigger event” appears to have arrived, and nothing is ever going to be the same from this point forward.

The study has found that, out of the 100 judges who have served on the bench of the European Court of Human Rights in the period 2009-2019, nearly a quarter (22) have strong links to George Soros’ Open Society Foundation or to NGOs like Amnesty International and others which are funded by it. Human Rights Watch, for instance, has received $100 million from the Open Society Foundation since 2010. Some of the NGOs receive so much of their budget from Soros that they are in effect wholly owned subsidiaries of his foundation.

The turbulent leadership race is a product of an even bigger problem for Merkel and her party – how to thwart the rise of a eurosceptic and right-wing party, the AfD (Alternative for Germany).

This is a conundrum that plagued the Conservative Party for years between 2010-2016 – and it ended with David Cameron's resignation and the UK voting to leave the EU. After failing to secure a majority in 2010, Cameron's Conservative Party knew it had to be tougher on the EU if it wanted to hold on to eurosceptic voters and fend off UKIP.

In an attempt to show resolve in Europe, Cameron vetoed an EU economic agreement in 2011, infuriating the bloc and leading one Spanish newspaper making an ominous prediction. While Merkel has announced she will step down in Germany, her legacy faces a similar threat as the AfD's vote share continues to rise.

In the country's 2013 Federal Elections, the AfD, having just been founded, won 810,000 votes winning no seats. But in the next vote four years later, the party boosted their share to over five million votes, a rise bigger than Ukip’s between 2010-2015. In last year's state elections, Merkel's party also suffered a huge blow in the Thuringia region – where her CDU party usually dominate.

The Sanhedrin emphasized that the plan to bring the altar to the Temple Mount was entirely consistent with President Trump’s recently released Deal of the Century which recognized Israel’s full sovereignty over the site.

“Just like King Cyrus, this declaration by Donald Trump opens the door for the Jews to build the Temple. It is now up to us to take the next step forward. This is a watershed point in history. Once we bring the altar to the Temple Mount, even for the sacrifice of one lamb, there is no turning back. The prophesied next step is inevitable.”

“This may have sounded drastic not so long ago but today, when faced with the coronavirus, climate change, and rogue nations, people of faith are certainly praying for the Temple service to begin immediately,” Rabbi Meir Halevi Haka added.

The national deficit (the difference between what the government spends and the revenue it takes in) is projected to surpass $1 trillion every year for the next 10 years. The United States spends more on foreign aid than any other nation ($50 billion in 2017 alone). More than 150 countries around the world receive US taxpayer-funded assistance, with most of the funds going to the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Meanwhile, almost 60% of Americans are so financially strapped that they don’t have even $500 in savings and nothing whatsoever put away for retirement, and yet they are being forced to pay for government programs that do little to enhance or advance their lives. Folks, if you haven’t figured it out yet, we’re not living the American dream. We’re living a financial nightmare. The US government — and that includes the current administration — is spending money it doesn’t have on programs it can’t afford, and “we the taxpayers” are the ones who will pay for it.

“Each of these suppliers faces their own challenges in resuming operations,” said CFO Jon Moeller during a speech at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference, as reported by CIPS.org. Chinese demand for both copper and petroleum fuels has plummeted over the last 30 days, indicating a sharp plunge in factory production. CIPS.org quotes a TrendForce report that reveals the coronavirus is hitting the semiconductor industry especially hard, resulting in “high impact” on the smartphone industry due to supply chain chaos.

As CIPS.org explains, “Analysts Mintec said the virus was “swamping” markets with uncertainty.” According to the article, supply chain chaos is also hitting food and spice markets: Other products affected include pork – the price has rocketed 167% year-on-year and 11% month-on-month to the first week of February – and chicken, where ships carrying it from the US to mainland China are being diverted to ports in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Supplies of garlic are also under threat (China commands 80% of the export market), along with dried ginger – prices delivered to the US have grown by 26% quarter-on-quarter. The bigger story in all this, however, is that if P&G can’t maintain its own supply lines, then many other large manufacturers and retailers won’t be able to maintain their supply lines, either.

And the coronavirus pandemic in China has only just begun. To date, only a tiny percentage of the total population in China has been infected, which means this will continue to play out for many months or even years to come.