One amendment demands the UK does not collect taxes on behalf of the EU unless EU member states do the same. This amendment would make Mrs May’s facilitated customs arrangement plan impossible. Mr Rees-Mogg said: “Unfortunately Chequers was a breakdown in trust. Brexit meant Brexit, but now it appears Brexit means remaining subject to European laws.”

“We believe this will help the Government stick to the promises it made. It may resolve the dilemma the Prime Minister faces. Does she rely on Labour votes to achieve Brexit or does she change her mind and go back to Lancaster House. Will she stick to her earlier words?”

Before the Chequers meeting, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “Any EU agreement that restricts the country's ability to make trade agreements with other states, restricts our ability to control our migration policy, makes us pay to trade or interferes with our fishing waters could not be accepted. The Cabinet should agree that if there is to be a deal it has to be agreed in detail prior to our departure.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who last month won an unfree and unfair election, has recently held talks with Putin to discuss the future of Syria. Russia’s attempt to “flip” Turkey — the term used by US NATO Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchison — is extraordinary considering the two countries came close to war in 2015 when a Turkish jet shot down a Russian one that had flown into Turkish territory.

Ideally, this week’s NATO summit would be an opportunity for the US president to cajole European allies into presenting a unified opposition to Erdogan’s conduct. There is no mechanism for kicking a member out of the alliance, but Turkey should at least begin to feel some pain and pressure for its drift toward Russia. The emphasis of this NATO summit should be as much on Turkey’s misbehavior as on members’ defense spending.

In his new job, Dr Mackereth was to compile independent reports about the health of persons who were claiming disability benefits. His instructor told him that regardless of a patient or client’s biological sex, he must only refer to them by their self-identified gender. “I said that I had a problem with this,” Mackereth said. “I believe that gender is defined by biology and genetics and that as a Christian the Bible teaches us that God made humans male or female.”

“I could have kept my mouth shut but it was the right time to raise it,” he said. The senior doctor, who spent most of his career in Accident and Emergency wards, says that his right to religious liberty as well as freedom of speech has been violated.

“Firstly, we are not allowed to say what we believe. Secondly, as my case shows, we are not allowed to think what we believe. Finally, we are not allowed to defend what we believe,” he said.

Mackereth has argued that forcing people to use determined pronouns is a violation of free speech.

PinkNews reported live from the Pride in London march earlier today (July 7) as a group of radical feminist campaigners forced their way into the front of the march. After brief negotiations Pride in London organisers took the decision not to remove the protesters, who subsequently led the Pride parade across much of its route bearing the sign “Transactivism erases lesbians” while distributing anti-transgender leaflets… The Mayor was initially meant to lead the march, but for much of the route was stuck behind the protesters.

The decision to allow the protesters to take the head of the Pride parade has led to strong criticism of Pride in London, with some LGBT campaigners calling on organisers to resign. LGBT+ Lib Dems Chair Jennie Rigg said “I am appalled that transphobic protesters were allowed to lead the march and the crowd asked to cheer them on. This is a betrayal of the thousands marching. The Pride organisers should resign and offer a full apology.”

The call for withdrawal is especially strong among left-leaning voters, with 67 supporting the move. Some 55 percent of Alternative for Germany (AfD) right-wing backers also called for the removal of US forces. The Greens stand 48 percent in support of ending the US presence in Germany.

The US troops served as a guarantor of West Germany’s security during the Cold War. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the US refused to abandon its bases in a unified Germany and kept thousands of troops at the heart of Europe. With the ongoing changes in the transatlantic alliance driven by Donald Trump’s determination to cut spending on military support of US allies, the administration has reportedly hinted that it might be ready to reduce troops in Germany.

“For over a year, the Trump administration has patiently urged China to stop its unfair practices, open its market, and engage in true market competition,” said the US trade representative, Robert Lighthizer. Referring to the Chinese retaliation on Friday, he added: “Rather than address our legitimate concerns, China has begun to retaliate against US products … There is no justification for such action.”

China has repeatedly said it is more prepared for a trade war than the US. An English-language editorial in the state-run China Daily said: “If Trump launches an all-out trade war, the US economy and society may not be able to withstand the impact of countermeasures from China and other economies.”

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, a lobby group representing the largest US retailers, said: “The president has broken his promise to bring maximum pain on China, minimum pain on consumers.” Hun Quach, the head of international trade policy for the group, said: “American families are the ones being punished. Consumers, businesses and the American jobs dependent on trade are left in the crosshairs of an escalating global trade war.”

Her message was seen as a challenge to EU chiefs to respond positively to her new Brexit plan or she will walk out of the talks without a departure deal, cancelling the UK’s expected £40 billion exit payment. Brexit-backing Tories welcomed Mrs May's warning to Brussels. Former minister David Jones said: “It's very good news that preparations are being speeded up for a no deal scenario.” He added: “This should have been done many months ago, but it will give a lot of reassurance to British businesses.

“Given the challenges that the Chequers proposal faces – particularly in respect of freedom of movement of labour – a 'no deal' outcome is very possible and it is important that we should be prepared.” Mrs May's reshuffled Cabinet put on a show of unity today following the resignations of Boris Johnson and David Davis earlier this week.

The two leading Eurosceptics quit, accusing the Prime Minister of making too many concessions to Brussels in her plan approved by a special Cabinet meeting at Chequers last week. Mrs May was hit by two more resignations from her team when MPs Maria Caulfield and Ben Bradley both quit their roles as vice-chairmen of the Conservative Party.

Ms Caulfield, who was appointed to her post in January to reach out to women voters, wrote to Mrs May: "I cannot support the direction of travel in the Brexit negotiations which, in my view, do not fully embrace the opportunities that Brexit can provide. The policy may assuage vested interests, but the voters will find out and their representatives will be found out. This policy will be bad for our country and bad for the party. The direct consequences of that will be Prime Minister Corbyn."

Mr Trump, who has been in a tug of war with the EU since March, when he announced he would have implemented protectionist tariffs on metal imports, also argued the EU is demanding more than it is giving to the US. And today in Brussels he started the morning with a forceful attack on German support for Russia's Baltic Sea gas pipeline blasting it "very inappropriate".

"Germany is a rich country, they talk about increasing it a tiny bit by 2030. Well they could increase it immediately, tomorrow, and have no problem." Mr Trump launched an attack against Ms Merkel, branding it a "captive of Russia". The US president asked why Berlin pays billion to Russia for gas supplies but regularly fails to meet the two percent NATO spending target. 

In comments to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg as the two met in front of reporters before a NATO summit, he said: “Germany pays billions and billions of dollars to Russia every year for gas. But Germany wants us [the US] to protect it from Russia. I think that is inappropriate. Germany is a captive of Russia. It gets 70 percent of its energy from Russia.” 

"The behaviour of the US is hurting China, hurting the world and hurting itself," a spokesperson for China's commerce ministry said in a statement. The spokesperson also said the government would have to take the "necessary counter-measures". The White House says the tariffs are a response to unfair trade practices by China.

The US wants China to stop practices that allegedly encourage transfer of intellectual property - design and product ideas - to Chinese companies, such as requirements that foreign firms share ownership with local partners to access the Chinese market. US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said there was "no justification" for China's retaliation.

"As in the past, the United States is willing to engage in efforts that could lead to a resolution of our concerns about China's unfair trade practices and to China opening its market to US goods and services," he said. "In the meantime, we will remain vigilant in defending the ability of our workers and businesses to compete on a fair and reciprocal basis."

This sick, twisted co-dependent relationship has enabled Americans to live a debt-fueled standard of living that is far beyond what we deserve, and now our rapidly escalating trade war with China is going to bring the party to a crashing halt.  On Tuesday, the Trump administration released a list of $200,000,000,000 worth of Chinese exports that will be hit with 10 percent tariffs.  Those tariffs are in addition to the 25 percent tariffs that had previously been announced on 50 billion dollars worth of Chinese exports.  These new tariffs are scheduled to go into effect on August 30th, and the Chinese have already pledged to retaliate.

In essence, our trade war with China has now “gone nuclear”, and this is going to have extremely serious implications for the US economy. Without a doubt, something needed to be done about China’s unfair trade practices.  The Chinese manipulate currency rates, they impose very high tariffs on US goods, and they have been stealing our intellectual property for decades.

But it is very unlikely that anyone is going to “win” this trade war, and in the short-term all it is going to mean is a whole lot of economic and financial pain. In addition, China could decide to “go nuclear” by cutting off US investment in China, by restricting our access to rare earth elements, or by dumping our debt. The only reason why we have even been able to get to 21 trillion dollars in debt is because nations such as China have been buying our debt at ultra-low interest rates that are way below the real rate of inflation.

If China quit buying our debt and started dumping their current holdings, interest rates would start skyrocketing and we would be in a world of hurt almost immediately. Unfortunately, most ordinary Americans simply do not grasp the importance of what is happening, because we have never seen anything like this in modern American history.  The two largest economies on the entire planet are now in a state of economic conflict, and there is no way that this is going to end well.