The United Arab Emirates this week suffered horrendous floods which swamped the airport and many of the surrounding roads, forcing dozens of flights to be cancelled as travellers crammed into the concourse to shelter from the torrential downpour. Videos shared on social media showed how cars were filled with water, forcing hundreds of motorists to abandon their vehicles and swim to safety.

The damage to the region was brought on by abrupt torrential rain, with more than 142mm falling on Dubai in just 24 hours - as much as the city would usually expect to see in a year. The freak weather shift sparked concerns about cloud seeding, a process used since the 1940s by which planes equipped with specialised flares release salt into clouds to encourage rainfall.

Since last year, Tesla has also been slashing prices, as much as $20,000 on some models. The price cuts caused used electric vehicle values to drop and clipped Tesla's profit margins. According to a Financial Times report on the slump, legacy car industry leaders have maintained for years that the average consumer isn't ready for electronic cars.

'We all agreed that the EV revolution was not going to take place, and instead what we would have is an EV evolution,' Lutz said in an interview with Fox Business. Lutz told Fox Business: 'The problem with the whole EV movement is that there was a colossal amount of hype behind it, largely from what I like to call the liberal mainstream media, making it sound like everybody's next vehicle was going to be an EV. And of course, the government was pushing it, because of their climate change policies. And it just plain wasn't going to happen.'

Who made the decision to leave the border open and invite the whole world in - including murderers, terrorists, Jew-hating Muslim radicals, Hamas, Hezbollah, MS-13, and Chinese military-age males? Who would want this?

Who made the decision to leave the border open - thereby allowing all the fentanyl and other deadly drugs in the world to flow into the USA and kill over 100,000 Americans a year? Who would benefit from that?

Who made the decision to add half trillion dollars a year to the national debt to pay for 20 million new illegal aliens? Why do we need them? Who benefits?

Who made the decision to treat illegal aliens better than US citizens, and better than even our hero military vets?

Who is making the decision to allow the violent criminals out with “no bail?” Look around- almost every crime in America is committed by criminals arrested or convicted 5 times, 10 times, 20 times, 50 times. Why are they walking the streets? Why are they still breathing? Why aren’t they in prison for life, or given the death penalty?

Who is making the decision to “feminize” the US military and base it on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), CRT, climate change, and transgender ideology?

Who made the decision to release billions of dollars to Iran right before they funded one of the worst terror attacks in history upon Israel? Who gave them the green light to attack Israel twice without America lifting a finger to stop them?

Who made the decision over the weekend for the United States to not support Israel’s counterattack against Iran?

Who made the deadly decision to keep the printing presses running 24/7 to create the worst debt and worst inflation perhaps in our lifetimes, and thereby destroy the middle class?

Who made the decision to hurt the oil and energy industries and reverse America’s energy independence under President Trump? Who would want us dependent on our enemies in the Middle East, Russia and Venezuela?

Who made the decision to not refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at the exact moment World War 3 appears to be imminent?

The world is on fire because someone gave the order to abdicate our role as world leader. Who made that decision?

I could go on for hours.

Someone is making all these devastatingly wrong decisions that are intentionally destroying America.

Last month, when Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, expressed his concern about the rise in benefit claims related to mental health, warning that the 'normal anxieties of life' are now being labelled as psychiatric disorders, his comments were met by a chorus of disapproval led by opposition MPs, pressure-group campaigners and experts.

Something does seem to have gone badly wrong in modern Britain, and the damage is being felt right across the country. Experts say the best antidote to mental health problems is actually to enter the workplace, as a job helps people find purpose and spend less time mulling over their troubles.

The current neurosis about mental health is that it has robbed too many young people of their resilience. With all the emphasis on 'trigger warnings', 'victimhood' and 'safe spaces', they inevitably feel daunted by challenges rather than determined to overcome them, particularly in the wake of the disruptions and isolation they had to endure during the pandemic.

The story of the Middle East used to be 'Israel versus everyone else'. As a result of Iran's behaviour, however, that is no longer true. And this means the long-term prospects for peace are, though you may be surprised to hear it, bright.

To understand how all this has come about, you need to go back to the very roots of Islam – and the schism within it. In 610AD, Mohammed unveiled a new faith. By the time he died in 632AD, he and Islam were all-powerful in Arabia, and within a century it had subjugated an empire stretching from Central Asia to Spain.

But Islam was split over who should succeed the Prophet. One faction argued the leadership should be passed through his bloodline. They became known as Shias, from shi'atu Ali, Arabic for 'partisans of Ali', who was Mohammed's cousin and son-in-law. The others, the Sunnis (followers of the 'sunna', or 'way' in Arabic) said leadership should be determined on merit. Ali was elected as 'caliph' (spiritual leader) in 656AD but within five years was assassinated, enshrining an enduring split. Fast forward to 2024, and about 85 per cent of the world's 1.6 billion Muslims are Sunni, while 15 per cent are Shia.

Two countries now compete for the leadership of Islam: Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran. Since the mullahs seized power in Tehran 45 years ago, the sects' mutual hatred has only grown. This has increased anxiety among Sunni rulers over the growing power of Shia Iran. In Gulf states such as the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and especially Saudi Arabia, the Shia threat – in other words the threat from Iran – is seen as existential.

Egypt, too, which has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1979, is also an enemy of the mullahs. In Israel's 2006 Lebanon war with Hezbollah, Sunni countries were, behind the scenes, willing Israel to triumph, just as it is said now that Jordan, Egypt and especially Saudi Arabia want Israel to destroy Hamas in Gaza.

There is a logic, then, to the gradually deepening alliances between Sunni states and Israel. The Arab nations understand that while Israel has no ambitions to dominate its neighbours, Iran seeks to control all of the Middle East. It needs to be stressed that the vast majority of Sunnis and Shias would rather just get on with their lives than embroil themselves in these disputes. But it's also true that if you don't understand this split, you can't understand the Middle East at all.

The airbase is the main logistics hub of the Russian army in Crimea and a landing place for attack helicopters. It is home to the 39th helicopter regiment of the 4th Air Force and serves as the headquarters of the Air Defence Command of the Southern Military District. Three air squadrons are also stationed at the airbase.

The Kerch bridge, which connects the peninsula with the Russian mainland has in particular been targeted by Ukrainian drone and missile attacks. The Russians appear to be prepared to go to extreme lengths to ensure they hold on to the peninsula, which is the main base for its Black Sea Fleet. The Kremlin has threatened to go nuclear if Ukraine's army attempts to recapture the Crimea.

First was the extraordinary level of resistance and national unity shown by Ukrainians in resisting the invasion.

Second was the level of international support for Kyiv. He argued it remained broad despite falling short of the country's expectations.

Thirdly was the untold damage to Russia's military-industrial base as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mr Feng argued that Russia had still not recovered from the post-Soviet deindustrialisation, a major reason for its struggles in the military campaign.

Finally the Chinese academic pointed to the Kremlin's information vacuum, saying Putin and his national security team lacked access to accurate intelligence.

In conclusion he predicted Russia will be forced to withdraw from all occupied Ukrainian territories, including Crimea. Furthermore after the war, Ukraine will have the chance join both the EU and NATO, while Russia will lose its former Soviet republics because they see Putin's aggression there as a threat to their sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“First, we should prioritize the upholding of peace and stability and refrain from seeking selfish gains,” Xi said, as quoted by the Xinhua news agency.

The next step, according to Xi, would be to stop “adding fuel to the fire,” which would enable conditions for the restoration of peace.

The Chinese leader also called for a reduction of the impact of the conflict on the global economy, and for parties to “refrain from undermining the stability of global industrial and supply chains.”

Scholz, whose three-day trip to China is the second since he took office in 2021, told Xi that he is willing to discuss “how we can contribute more to a just peace in Ukraine.” The ongoing crisis has affected Germany’s “core interests” and has disrupted energy supplies and global trade, the chancellor added. According to Scholz, the hostilities have also had a negative impact on European security and risk damaging the “entire international order.”

He said: "The Iranians sent a large number of very inexpensive and old Iranian drones... the Israelis, and the Americans and the British and the French all went out and used their most expensive and modern technology to down those drones. Iran knew those drones were going to be downed anyway, but they were decoys to make Israel and its allies in genocide use up all of their new technology and to expose their capabilities."

"Iran didn't use any of its new drones. Iran used a large number of old models of missiles that are inexpensive. Again these were decoys. Iran then deployed more advanced missiles, and these broke right through the shield and struck targets in the south and north of Israel."