What we’re really seeing here is South Korean President Moon Jae-in making a bold move to assert South Korea’s independence from the United States. Taking the seeming baby step that he has taken of inviting North Korea to compete in the Winter Olympics being held next month in South Korea might seem like a small thing, but it was actually a bold step for Moon.

What most Americans don’t know is that South Korea is technically a kind of colony of the US, given that its military is still under the control of the United States. This is thanks to a UN Security Resolution passed in 1950 authorizing a UN military action against the North and designating the US as the lead authority of the UN operation — a controlling role that the US still clings to.

He then went on to attack the EU, saying he had “a lot of problems” in trade discussion with the bloc and accused it of being “unfair”. Mr Trump said: “I would have said that the European Union is not cracked up to what it’s supposed to be.”

“You know, I have a lot of problems with the European Union. I’m representing the United States, it’s a very unfair situation. We cannot get our product in. It’s very, very tough. And yet they send their product to us – no taxes, very little taxes. It’s very unfair. I’ve had a lot of problems with European Union, and it may morph into something very big from that standpoint, from a trade standpoint.”

“The European Union has treated the United States very unfairly when it comes to trade. They’re not the only one, by the way. I could name many countries and places that do. But the European Union has been very, very unfair to the United States. And I think it will turn out to be very much to their detriment.”

Trump said that leaders should use their resources to keep their people safe, rebuild their communities, and empower them economically. “When people are forgotten, the world becomes fractured. Only by hearing and responding to the voices of the forgotten can we create a bright future that is truly shared by all,” he said.

Trump’s speech was serious, featuring cheerleading rhetoric encouraging global investment in the United States and relentlessly promoting his tax cut bill as reinventing American economic competitiveness. “America is roaring back, and now is the time to invest in the future of America,” he said. The president also argued that his America First message does not ignore the role of the United States in the world.

“America First does not mean America alone,” he said. “When the United States grows, so does the world.” He also promised to continue seeking free but fair trade in the United States, warning that the days of other countries’ taking advantage of America were over. “We cannot have free and open trade if some countries exploit the system at the expense of others,” he said. “We support free trade, but it needs to be fair, and it needs to be reciprocal.”

Orban said there was agreement among the Visegrad Group, which also includes Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, that it was in their interests for Europe to be strong while preserving the independence of individual countries instead of creating a "United States of Europe." "We are pro-European politicians, and our goal is for Europe to be stronger," he said, adding: "The question is, will the European Union have enough of the good-quality leadership needed for us to achieve these aims."

Orban said the migration crisis had made it more difficult to renew Europe. He called UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' proposals about a global agreement on migration "dangerous." "It's not worth it for the European Union to try to reach a common position at the UN because we won't be partners in this," Orban said, adding that Central European nations "want to stick to our tolerant, Christian way of life."

For his part, [Slovakia Prime minister] Fico said he belonged to a group of prime ministers who "do not wish to see Muslim communities being created in our own countries, which have Christian roots."

However, these attitudes have been articulated more openly for some time now. The internet plays a major role here. In the social networks we find a verbal lack of inhibition which is dangerous, especially on the far-right of the political spectrum. Therefore, it is good that the Network Enforcement Act now provides an instrument to better prevent "hate speech".

Unfortunately, however, an anti-Israeli attitude is also spreading in society. It is then no longer a matter of factual criticism of Israel, but Israel's right to exist is called into question, or Jews in general are held liable for the policies of the Israeli government. That's anti-Semitism.

No longer. Last week the Pentagon issued a new national defence strategy that put China and Russia above jihadism as the main threat to America. This week the chief of Britain’s general staff warned of a Russian attack. Even now America and North Korea are perilously close to a conflict that risks dragging in China or escalating into nuclear catastrophe.

As our special report this week on the future of war argues, powerful, long-term shifts in geopolitics and the proliferation of new technologies are eroding the extraordinary military dominance that America and its allies have enjoyed. Conflict on a scale and intensity not seen since the second world war is once again plausible. The world is not prepared.

The pressing danger is of war on the Korean peninsula, perhaps this year. Donald Trump has vowed to prevent Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader, from being able to strike America with nuclear-armed ballistic missiles, a capability that recent tests suggest he may have within months, if not already. Among many contingency plans, the Pentagon is considering a disabling pre-emptive strike against the North’s nuclear sites. Despite low confidence in the success of such a strike, it must be prepared to carry out the president’s order should he give it.

Even a limited attack could trigger all-out war. Analysts reckon that North Korean artillery can bombard Seoul, the South Korean capital, with 10,000 rounds a minute. Drones, midget submarines and tunnelling commandos could deploy biological, chemical and even nuclear weapons. Tens of thousands of people would perish; many more if nukes were used. Without America’s commitment to the international order and the hard power to defend it against determined and able challengers, the dangers will grow. If they do, the future of war could be closer than you think.

The clock which serves as a metaphor for how close humanity is to destroying the planet was moved forward by 30 seconds, to as near as it has ever been to the hour of the apocalypse. The last time the clock was at two minutes to midnight was in 1953 when the United States and Soviet Union were testing hydrogen bombs.

"In this year's discussions, nuclear issues took centre stage once again," said Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. She mentioned new testing by North Korea, an enhanced commitment to nuclear weapons in China, Pakistan and India, and "unpredictability" embodied by the US president in tweets and statements. She said: “The actions and policies of the nuclear-armed states are winding the Doomsday Clock towards midnight.

"We have been lucky to avoid conflict through intentional or accidental means, but recent posturing and the false alarms in Hawaii and Japan show our luck is about to run out if we don’t move quickly. A security based on luck is reckless and foolish; it’s exactly what the nuclear states have now."

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 and its time has changed 20 times since then, ranging from two minutes to midnight in 1953 to 17 minutes before midnight in 1991. Last year it moved from three minutes before midnight to two-and-a-half minutes. Beatrice Fihn, Executive Director of International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), said we are currently heading to catastrophe.

"And I think that really is the message," Trump told pool reporters who trailed him at each scheduled meeting at the gathering of bigwigs in the snowy Alpine town. Trump also renewed his public pitch for investors to pour money into the US. "It's been going really well. A lot of people are coming back to the United States. We are seeing tremendous investment," he said."And today's been a very exciting day, very great day and great for our country."   

Trump landed on Thursday in Switzerland, where his outsized personality and determination to push an "America First" agenda was upending the annual Davos conference. "Our economy is now booming and with all I am doing, will only get better… Our country is finally WINNING again!" he wrote. Trump's Commerce secretary, Wilbur Ross, has warned new US trade actions could be coming.

But Alibaba CEO Jack Ma warned here: "Don't use trade as a weapon." He added: "It's so easy to launch a trade war, but it's so difficult to stop the disaster of this war." There is broad concern in European capitals that 2018 could be the year Trump's bark on trade turns into bite, as he considers punitive measures on steel and threatens to end the 90s-era North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Why did water levels in these wells some 3,800 miles away from the earthquake's epicenter change? Vibrations that move through the earth called seismic waves are the culprit. Seismic waves are depicted by the upward and downward lines on seismographs used to detect earthquakes around the world.

"Water levels in wells respond to the seismic-wave induced expansion and contraction of the aquifer tapped by the well, in turn causing step or oscillatory fluid-pressure changes," the USGS says. The changes in groundwater levels are often seen hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away from an earthquake's epicenter.

After an 8.5 magnitude earthquake near Alaska in 1964 water level changes were reported at 716 wells in the United States, according to the USGS. Occasionally, changes can be extreme. A 5.2 magnitude northwest Pennsylvania temblor in 1998 rendered dry about 120 wells for local homes for about three months.