USA - The average US college freshman reads at a seventh grade level, according to an educational assessment report. “We are spending billions of dollars trying to send students to college and maintain them there when, on average, they read at about the grade 6 or 7 level, according to Renaissance Learning’s latest report on what American students in grades 9-12 read, whether assigned or chosen,” education expert Dr Sandra Stotsky told Breitbart Texas.

UK - Theresa May’s time as Prime Minister is “all over”, rivals have warned, with a number of her Cabinet preparing a coup after finally losing patience with her botched Brexit negotiations. Chair of the No10 Policy Board and MP George Freeman this evening posted a scathing tweet, accusing embattled Mrs May of “betraying” the country after it emerged she caved in to demands for a second referendum vote, the result of which sparked fury from Brexiteers. Mr Freeman said: “I’m afraid it’s all over for the PM. She’s done her best. But across the country you can see the anger. Everyone feels betrayed. Government’s gridlocked. Trust in democracy collapsing. This cant go on. We need a new PM who can reach out and build some sort of coalition for a Plan B.”

UK - Prime Minister Theresa May is under fire from all sides after writing to the European Union to request a three-month delay to Brexit, and blaming Parliament for the impasse. “Why are we on bended knee to the EU begging for things we don’t need? Next week should be a simple choice between her deal and no deal,” demanded Iain Duncan Smith, a former party leader and influential eurosceptic. “If it isn’t then it will be a national humiliation, we will have placed ourselves in the position of a supplicant,” he warned.

EUROPE - A NO DEAL Brexit would “very significantly” harm the European Union, Barclays’ chairman said in a chilling warning to Brussels just hours before Theresa May issues her request to extend Article 50 for three months to the EU27. He said: "In the end there is going to be a deal, however it transpires." The EU and euro zone appear as if they are becoming a "closed system" in financial services, Mr McFarlane continued, while London has developed as a global financial centre by being open, which makes it easier for the city to "evolve". The warning from the banking chief comes as a shock report was issued saying Germany faces losing €10 billion a year under a no deal Brexit.

UK - Markets in the UK and US have tumbled with analysts attributing the drop to growing fears of a global slowdown. The FTSE 100 saw its worst day of trading this year, closing 2% lower. In the US, the three main indexes ended between 1.9% and 2.5% lower. The falls came after figures showed eurozone manufacturing growing at its weakest pace in five years in March. Combined with the Federal Reserve's cautious tone on interest rates earlier this week, investors took fright. The Dow Jones Index fell 1.8%, the S&P 500 dropped 1.9% and the Nasdaq lost 2.5%, marking the worst performance for all three indexes in over three months. "The problem right now is that investors are willing to be paid less to wait longer - an indication that they don't have much confidence in the long term outlook for the US economy," says BBC New York business correspondent Michelle Fleury.

USA - Vast areas of the United States are at risk of flooding this spring, even as Nebraska and other Midwestern states are already reeling from record-breaking late-winter floods, federal scientists said on Thursday. Nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states will have an elevated risk of some flooding from now until May, and 25 states could experience “major or moderate flooding,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some 13 million people could be exposed to major flooding, making this a “potentially unprecedented” flood season, said Edward Clark, director of NOAA’s National Water Center.

USA - “Floods and hurricanes happen. The hazard itself is not the disaster — it’s our habits, our building codes.” According to Craig Fugate, a former administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, “Floods and hurricanes happen. The hazard itself is not the disaster—it’s our habits, our building codes. It’s how we build and live in those areas — that’s the disaster.” This is not a call for blame, but a call to arms to learn from the past to keep ourselves out of harm’s way.”

USA - In what is one of the most corrupt and vile things to have ever happened to the American political system, residents of New Jersey will now be taxed when something 100% out of their control happens. New Jersey’s governor Phil Murphy signed 19 bills into law on Monday, one of which, was the so-called “rain tax.” Unfortunately, there were supporters of this tyrannical and wholly dictatorial law. Dubbed S-1073, supporters call it “flood defense,” and say it will serve as a long-needed tool to manage flooding and dirty runoff from rainwater. So there are actually human beings on earth who want others and themselves stolen from because it rains. There is nothing more disturbing that the current political path the United States is currently one. It’s downright horrifying, actually.

USA - The vast majority of Americans have come to expect biased coverage from the so-called “mainstream media,” and what’s more, they have come to expect that coverage will be designed to advance the Democrats’ Left-wing agenda. The most recent example involves how American journalists initially covered the terrorist attack in New Zealand. In the days that followed, the same Left-wing media outlets hammered on the narrative that 28-year-old alleged attacker Brenton Tarrant is a “white nationalist” and “right-wing extremist” who hates Muslims — as though only white, right-wing extremists are behaving as terrorists these days and the only people they are murdering are people of Islamic faith.

UK - Theresa May has been told by the most senior Tory backbencher that MPs want her to stand down because of her handling of Brexit, The Telegraph can reveal. Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee of Tory MPs, visited the Prime Minister in Downing Street on Monday afternoon and made clear that a growing number of Tories believe she has to go. The visit by Sir Graham to Downing Street on Monday came after he was "bombarded with text messages" by colleagues and urged to confront the Prime Minister with demands that she should quit. Sir Graham imparted their calls in a "neutral" manner in his role as chairman of the 1922 committee during the meeting in Downing Street.

EUROPE - Furious infighting erupted last night between EU leaders divided over Brexit when Angela Merkel was forced to step in against hardliners Emmanuel Macron and Donald Tusk as they looked to punish Britain. The frustrated German Chancellor intervened telling Mr Macron, who was pushing for a no deal exit, and Mr Tusk “even if you don’t need the UK, the EU needs them,” according to diplomats. Irritated at the lack of preparedness by EU bosses, Mrs Merkel told Mr Tusk not to interrupt her, according to politics news site Politico.co.uk. The fracas unveiled the cracks threatening to tear apart the unity of the bloc over the UK’s exit from the bloc.  United States Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland said he hoped the UK and the EU would not do anything to "preclude a free trade agreement" with the US during Brexit negotiations. Speaking to the BBC Today programme, he said: "This is a very, very challenging process for both sides."

EUROPE - Eurocrats who support plans for intensive European Union integration could prove to be a secret weapon for Brexiteers seeking to quit the bloc on time, Nigel Farage suggested. Nigel Farage claimed European politicians have started voicing their discontent towards the United Kingdom for "messing up" the Brexit negotiations. The British Government on Wednesday officially requested an extension of the withdrawal talks until June 30 but Mr Farage suggested "fanatical" pro-EU figures within the bloc would much prefer to see Britain "gone" soon. Speaking to ITV Peston, the British MEP said: "Those who are fanatically pro the EU, those who want the European Army completed by 2025, those who want it to be a United States of Europe – I’m thinking of the Martin Schulzes, the Guy Verhofstadts – some of the key players in Europe are beginning to say ‘the British are messing this up.’

UK - Cabinet ministers believe there is now a real risk of a no-deal Brexit, with sources close to them describing the mood in government as depressing and No 10 as “run by lunatics”. Senior members of the cabinet from both sides of the Brexit argument are understood to think the chances of the UK leaving without a deal have substantially increased after the prime minister set herself against a longer extension to article 50. One aide to a cabinet minister said No 10 was in “full-on bunker mode” and the prime minister’s speech from Downing Street showed “they have all taken leave of their senses”. Another soft Brexit cabinet source described the mood as “depressing” and said of no deal: “The risk is now very real.”

EUROPE - Emmanuel Macron has warned that Britain is heading for a no-deal Brexit unless the House of Commons ratifies the withdrawal agreement negotiated with Brussels. The stark choice for MPs was laid out by the French president shortly before the 27 EU heads of state and government listen to an appeal by Theresa May for a three-month Brexit delay. “In case of a no vote or a no, directly it will guide everyone to a no deal, for sure,” Macron said. “This is it. We are ready.” The British prime minister is asking the EU for a Brexit delay until 30 June to allow time to pass the necessary withdrawal legislation should she get her deal through the Commons next week.

UK - The government has lost the ability to run the country. It is no longer in charge of its own destiny, let alone that of the nation. What makes this so humiliating is that power has been ceded not to parliament, but to the European Union. The immediate future of our country will be decided in Brussels and the capitals of the EU, not in Westminster. It will be the EU that decides whether or not to offer the UK an extension to the Article 50 process, and how long it will be. Once the extension has been agreed, then parliament — which has already voted against leaving without a deal — will rubber-stamp it. Not since Denis Healey was forced to ask the International Monetary Fund for an emergency loan in 1976 has this country been so humiliated. Then the nation required an economic bailout. This time it needs a political one.