The father-of-one, who has been street preaching for seven years following his conversion to Christianity, was handing out leaflets in his home town of Irvine, Ayrshire, last June when a group of young men passed him, The Telegraph has reported. He told the men: “Don’t forget Jesus loves you and He died for your sins.” One asked Mr Larmour, “What does your God say about homosexuals?” He responded by referring to the Book of Genesis, stating that God had created Adam and Eve to produce children.

The two men argued and Mr Larmour claims that he was chased by the young man. However, it was he who was arrested and frogmarched to the police van before being held in police custody overnight, charged with threatening or abusive behaviour aggravated by prejudice relating to sexual orientation.

“I think the police should have handled it differently and listened to what I had to say. They should have calmed the boy down and left it at that,” Mr. Larmour told the Scottish Herald on Sunday. He added: “In court the boy’s friend told the truth – that I hadn’t assaulted him or called him homophobic names. I had simply answered his question and told him about Adam and Eve and Heaven and Hell. Preaching from the Bible is not a crime.”

At a time when many of the old certainties have been overturned, few questions seem inappropriate. So in that spirit, I have one for those gathering in Munich to consider: is it time for Germany to go nuclear? Simply entertaining the thought might seem grossly irresponsible. The world, surely, has quite enough nuclear powers already. Also, history makes Germany an unlikely candidate to join the club — even if a fair number of the pioneers of the original atomic bomb were German émigrés, thus making the country sort-of present at the creation of mass destruction.

German defence policy has long been characterised by restraint — sometimes to the frustration of its allies — and is obliged by international treaty not to take up nuclear arms. This makes it all the more remarkable that the nuclear option is being countenanced in Berlin, as part of a wider discussion about how Germany might need to reposition itself in a fast-changing geopolitical environment — one in which talk of a break up of the “supranational” EU or the “obsolescence” of NATO is almost routine.

The spark for the nuclear part of this discussion was provided by the election of Donald Trump. A few days ahead of the US presidential vote, an article in Spiegel Online asked whether, with the election of an American administration that may no longer care so much for Europe or NATO, Germany might need to pursue its own, or a European, nuclear deterrent.

This was later echoed by Roderich Kiesewetter, a foreign policy spokesman in parliament for the ruling Christian Democrats and a former colonel. He told Reuters that if the US no longer wanted to provide a nuclear shield, then “Europe still needs nuclear protection for deterrent purposes”. A subsequent opinion piece by one of the publishers of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany’s conservative paper of record, made a similar case and suggested that it was time the country reconsidered things long deemed “unthinkable”.

For years, the Federal Reserve has been encouraging reckless borrowing and spending by pushing interest rates to ultra-low levels.  Unfortunately, this created an absolutely enormous debt bubble, and now that debt bubble is beginning to burst.  Despite all of the economic optimism that is out there right now, the truth is that US consumers are tapped out.

If the US economy truly was doing great, major retailers would not be closing hundreds of stores.  Sears, Macy’s and a whole host of other big retailers are closing stores because those stores are losing money.  It truly is a "retail apocalypse", and this trend is not going to turn around until US consumers start to become healthier financially.

A lot of attention is given to our 20 trillion dollar national debt, and rightly so, but a similar amount of attention should be paid to the fact that US households are collectively more than 12 trillion dollars in debt. About two-thirds of the nation is essentially living paycheck to paycheck.  Most families really struggle to pay the bills from month to month, and all it would take is a major event such as a job loss or a significant illness to plunge them into financial oblivion.

In America today we are told that the secret to success is a college education, but most young Americans have to go deep into debt to afford such an education. As a result, most college graduates start out life in the “real world” with a mountain of debt.  And since many of them never find the “good jobs” that they were promised, repayment of that debt becomes a very big issue. 

The poor downtrodden lead plaintiff in this case happens to be named “State of Washington” and the lawyers just happen to mostly be working for George Soros. This was George Soros’ case against Donald Trump, nothing more and nothing less. The lawyers involved in this case are working with (or employed by) organizations headed up by the ACLU. The American Civil Liberties Union was formed in 1920 and today has more than a million members, around 200 full time lawyers and more than 2000 volunteer lawyers and their estimated annual budget is around $150 million (this does not include affiliate organizations).

Of their $150 million budget, some comes from the taxpayer, some from settlements but a major part comes from donors. Top of this list is one George Soros. An open grant of $50 million was awarded to the ACLU in 2014 and the money keeps pouring in directly from Soros’ Open Society Foundation and other sources that are also sponsored by Soros.

The OSF has budgeted almost $100 million for US activities in 2017, predominantly to be spent on “Democratic Practice, Equality and Anti-discrimination, and Justice Reform”. The fact that a private citizen will be spending $100 million to enact changes in the democratic process and rule of law in a nation that is the benchmark of modern democracy is quite unnerving. This is nothing more than an attempt by George Soros to undermine and hinder any policy enacted by the Trump administration. Rule number one in media disinformation is to “put a heart tugging image to the cause”.

A warning letter, written by top Republicans and obtained by the Financial Times, accuses the Federal Reserve of burdening American businesses and workers with bad financial deals made with global central banks “without transparency, accountability, or the authority to do so”. The Federal Reserve’s involvement in secret international banking forums dealing with financial regulation must cease and desist immediately, according to the letter.

“This is unacceptable,” the letter states. “Accordingly, the Federal Reserve must cease all attempts to negotiate binding standards burdening American businesses until President Trump has had an opportunity to nominate and appoint officials that prioritize America’s best interests."

Francis gave Becciu, the Number 2 in the Vatican secretariat of state, "all necessary powers" to help lay the groundwork for a new constitution for the order, lead the spiritual renewal of its professed knights and prepare for the election of a new grand master, expected in three months. The Vatican's intervention with the sovereign group had provided fuel for Francis' conservative critics, who until Saturday had largely confined their concern with his mercy-over-morals papacy to blogs, interviews and conferences.

On Saturday, dozens of posters appeared around Rome featuring a stern-looking Francis and referencing the "decapitation" of the Knights and other actions Francis has taken against conservative, tradition-minded groups.

The Knights are a unique organization: An aristocratic lay religious order that traces its history to the Crusades, the order runs a vast humanitarian organization around the world involving over 100,000 staff and volunteers. The order also enjoys sovereign status and has diplomatic relations with over 100 countries, the Holy See included.

He claimed countries around the world will be “looking” to Brussels for leadership in the aftermath of Mr Trump’s shock victory, which has been followed by a slew of controversial policy announcements. Mr Muscat spoke as European leaders prepare to gather in his home country’s capital city, Valetta, for what will be the final meeting of the EU Council before Britain triggers Article 50.

Brexit and Mr Trump’s controversial ‘Muslim ban’ are likely to be hot topics of discussion at the informal get together, whilst bringing immigration under control is top of the agenda. Speaking today Mr Muscat, who holds extra clout whilst his tiny island home holds the rotating EU presidency, said Europe’s anger at the new US President must not translate into “anti-Americanism”.

In an interview with euractiv, he said: “The EU has to decide whether it is coming of age or not. That is the real big challenge ahead. Do we want to be the first of the followers or the leader? I do see this… as an opportunity for Europe to gain the leadership role that it has always craved. There is an obvious vacuum where countries around the world are looking for leadership and this is an occasion that comes once in a couple of generations that Europe has now.”

Overall, more than half the Navy’s aircraft are grounded, most because there isn’t enough money to fix them. Additionally, there isn’t enough money to fix the fleet’s ships, and the backlog of ships needing work continues to grow. Overhauls — “availabilities” in Navy parlance — are being canceled or deferred, and when ships do come in they need longer to refit.

Every carrier overall for at least three years has run long, and some submarines are out of service for prolonged periods, as much as four years or more. One submarine, the Boise, has lost its diving certification and can’t operate pending shipyard work. Leaders claim that if more money doesn’t become available, five more submarines will be in the same state by the end of this year.

Gary Cohn, White House Economic Council director, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published last night that the administration would also move against a regulation designed to force retirement advisers to work in the best interest of their clients. That “fiduciary rule” is set to take effect in April.

Promulgated by the Department of Labor, it’s meant to eliminate conflicts-of-interest among professionals dealing with people enrolled in qualified retirement plans and IRAs. In an interview with the Journal, Cohn, a former president of Goldman Sachs, said the order was a “table setter for a bunch of stuff that is coming.”

The move, set for announcement at a White House meeting with business leaders, would be in line with Trump’s campaign pledge to “dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act and replace it with new policies to encourage economic growth and job creation.” The law is one of the most sweeping overhauls of the financial regulatory system in history.