Despite efforts by state legislators at creating a socialist utopia, California still has the highest poverty rate in the nation at 19%, despite a 1.4% decrease from last year according to the Census Bureau. And while California has a “vigorous economy and a number of safety net programs to aid needy residents,” according to the Sacramento Bee, one out of every five residents is suffering economic hardship – which is fueled in large part by sky-high housing costs, according to Caroline Danielson, policy director at the Public Policy Institute of California.

It’s not just housing prices driving the exodus, of course. Punitive taxes – more than twice as much as some other states, are eating away at disposable income. Nearby Arizona’s income tax rate is 4.54% vs California’s 9.3%, while the new tax bill may accelerate the exodus.

The potential collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government would be a key factor in deciding when the US proposal should be unveiled, the officials said. Officials said Friedman, along with some advisers, were warning against releasing the plan during an Israeli election campaign, in order to prevent the vote from becoming a referendum on the US plan.

The report came as Netanyahu’s government appeared on brink of collapse, likely moving up the next Knesset elections before their scheduled date in November 2019.

"We have an entire year until the election. We are in the midst of a campaign and you don't pull out in the middle of a campaign or play politics. National security is beyond politics," Netanyahu said in his speech on Sunday. "I will not say this evening when we will act and how. I have a clear plan. I know what to do and when to do it. And we will do it."

Bennett referred to Netanyahu's address in saying that Jewish Home, which has eight of parliament's 120 legislators, would remain in his coalition. "If the prime minister is serious, and I want to believe his words last night, then I say here to the prime minister: We are withdrawing all our political demands and we will stand by you in this mighty task, so that Israel starts winning again."

Following reports over the weekend that Deutsche, JPM and Bank of America had been approached by federal investigators about their correspondent banking business's involvement in clearing transactions for Danske Bank's Estonian branch, the whistleblower who helped blow the lid off Danske's $234 billion money laundering scandal said during testimony to the Danish Parliament that $150 billion of the money had been cleared by a large European lender, stopping short of naming Deutsche, likely to respect confidentiality rules governing the whistleblower's work at Danske.

Incidentally, as Bloomberg adds citing a "person familiar", the unnamed bank is Deutsche Bank.

He also warned that the next time Israeli soldiers entered the Strip, they would only return through a prisoner exchange for “thousands of prisoners.” Speaking at a ceremony honoring the seven gunmen killed during a firefight on Sunday with Israeli undercover special forces, Sinwar pulled out a handgun with a silencer which he said belonged to one of the special forces troops.

One Israel soldier, identified only as Lieutenant Colonel Mem, was killed and another injured in the fight. Sinwar mocked Israel for assuming its decision to allow fuel and Qatari funds into Gaza before the latest flareup — as part of Egyptian-mediated efforts to achieve a long-term truce — would prevent his group from launching a large-scale attack against the Jewish state.

Earlier this month, the alarms were activated for the first time, said Hussein al-Hasanat of the Petra Development & Tourism Region Authority. Sirens blared minutes before a torrent fed by heavy rains approached the UNESCO World Heritage site carved into the rose-hued rock face.  Hundreds of tourists were able to seek higher ground and were later evacuated, he said.

Amateur video posted online at the time showed visitors running through a steep, narrow canyon leading to the Treasury, Petra’s main draw, as guides urged them to hurry. Later, visitors were seen standing on a higher patch near the Treasury as knee-high water poured through the canyon.  Elsewhere in Jordan, such alarms are still missing. Thirty-four people were killed in flash floods in late September and early November.  

The last fatal flash flood struck Petra in 1963 when 22 French tourists and a local guide were killed by rapidly rising waters. In response, Jordan’s Department of Antiquities built a dam to keep water from entering the canyon leading to the Treasury.  In 2014, the alarm system was installed as added protection, with sirens set to go off when flood water rises above a certain level.

With half a year until European Parliament elections in which far-right forces look to make gains, Macron made a passionate plea for stronger backing from Merkel on a range of reforms to strengthen Europe. "Europe, and within it the Franco-German couple, have the obligation not to let the world slip into chaos and to guide it on the road to peace," Macron told the German parliament.

"That's why Europe must be stronger... and win more sovereignty," he said at a ceremony to honour the victims of past wars and dictatorships. Macron said it was Europe that had led the drive for green energy and against climate change and was now most strongly pushing multilateral approaches to trade, security, migration and environmental policy.

The first French president to address the Bundestag in 18 years, Macron called for greater European unity in order for the bloc to meet future challenges in an uncertain world.

This new complex has justified its enhanced power and control over the country’s resources primarily by citing threats to US security posed by Islamic terrorists. But like the old military-industrial complex, it is really rooted in the evolving relationship between the national security institutions themselves and the private arms contractors allied with them.

Eisenhower was prophetic in his warning about the threat of the original complex (which he had planned to call the military-industrial-congressional complex) to American democracy. But that original complex, organized merely to maximize the production of arms to enhance the power and resources of both the Pentagon and their contractor allies, has become a much more serious menace to the security of the American people than even Eisenhower could have anticipated.

Now it is a system of war that powerful arms contractors and their bureaucratic allies may have the ability to maintain indefinitely.

The whistleblower says few of the transgender children are suffering from gender dysphoria – the medical term for someone who feels they were born in the wrong body – but are just easily influenced, latching on to the mistaken belief they are the wrong sex as a way of coping with the problems caused by autism. Older pupils at her school who changed gender ‘groomed’ younger, mainly autistic students to do the same; One autistic teenager is soon to have a double mastectomy; Pupils who say they were born the wrong sex mimic transgender YouTube stars Carol believes are partly to blame for convincing vulnerable children they have gender dysphoria.

The teacher says she felt compelled to speak out to protect pupils, many of whom she believes could already be taking the powerful drugs and may go on to have life-changing surgery. She believes schools and some politicians have swallowed ‘hook, line and sinker’ a politically-correct ‘fallacy’ peddled by a powerful transgender lobby.

Teachers are being advised not to tell parents if their child wants to change sex. The website of charity Mermaids contains advice that pupils should not be ‘outed’ as transgender, because their parents may not be supportive. ‘Confidential information must not be shared, even with parents and carers, without the child or young person’s permission unless there are safeguarding reasons for doing so,’ the group says, further stressing: ‘Being trans or gender questioning is not a safeguarding concern in itself.’