Thousands of Leave supporters gathered outside Parliament to protest against the delay to Brexit, bringing traffic to a standstill. Mrs May now has until 12 April to seek a longer extension to the negotiation process to avoid a no-deal Brexit on that date. Responding to the vote, European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted: "In view of the rejection of the Withdrawal Agreement by the House of Commons, I have decided to call a European Council on 10 April."

In a statement, the European Commission said the UK would have to "indicate a way forward" by 12 April "for consideration by the European Council". "A 'no-deal' scenario on 12 April is now a likely scenario. The EU has been preparing for this since December 2017 and is now fully prepared for a 'no-deal' scenario at midnight on 12 April. The EU will remain united," the statement said.

What happens next?

Monday, 1 April: MPs hold another set of votes on various Brexit options to see if they can agree on a way forward

Wednesday, 3 April: Potentially another round of so-called "indicative votes"

Wednesday, 10 April: Emergency summit of EU leaders to consider any UK request for further extension

Friday, 12 April: Brexit day, if UK does not seek/EU does not grant further delay

23-26 May: European Parliamentary elections

The European crisis, manifested and accelerated by the result of the British referendum, has precipitated the need for a complete overhaul of the European project that has been outstanding for two years now.

However, two years later, in a Europe lacking leadership, the mobilisation of countless actors (political movements, governments, economic interests, foreign powers, etc), in search of both solutions and the means to implement them, is becoming more and more visible in the form of a rat race in which different actions cancel each other out, revealing to the Europeans the gigantic political quagmire of the continent and throwing them out into the streets, angry and panicked.

Unfortunately, the different national translations of this unique European crisis are imprisoning both citizens and politicians inside their borders more than ever before. If there is, in fact, only one major European crisis, each nation sees it operating in a very different way to their neighbours, making it increasingly difficult for their leaders to react. Yet, a common crisis needs to identify a common response.

But the chances of this joint response coming from the inside is diminishing as Europeans sink into the troubled waters of their narrow national gaze.

Now both sides will settle down, with the left as forthcoming in its defeat as the right is forbearing in its victory. I just wanted to show you my fantasy life. The Trump forces will strike with a great pent-up anger, and the left will never let go.

Both sides will be intensely human. And inhuman. Because the past few years the character of our political divisions has changed, and this must be noted again. People are proud of their bitterness now. Old America used to accept our splits as part of the price of being us — numerous, varied, ornery. Current America, with its moderating institutions (churches) going down and its dividing institutions (the internet) rising, sees our polarization not as something to be healed but a reason for being, something to get up for. There’s a finality to it, a war-to-the-death quality.

Farming communities all over the central part of the nation now look like war zones as a result of all this flooding, but the media elites on the east and west coasts don’t want to write about it.  And with more flooding on the way for the next two months, this crisis is only going to get worse.

This is the time of year when farmers are gearing up to plant wheat, corn and soybeans, and now a substantial portion of our farmland will not be able to be used at all this year.  According to Reuters, at least a million acres of farmland were covered by floodwaters for at least seven days this month, and that “will likely reduce corn, wheat and soy production this year”…

US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Wednesday during a visit to El Paso that the border had hit its "breaking point" and urged Congress to come up with legislative solutions to the problem. Border Patrol officials were on pace in March for more than 100,000 apprehensions and encounters with migrants – the highest monthly tally in over a decade, he said.

Around 90 percent of those – or 90,000 – crossed the border between legal ports of entry. The vast majority of those crossing between ports of entry turn themselves into Border Patrol agents, seeking asylum. “The surge numbers are just overwhelming the entire system," McAleenan said.

Much of the mess of the past few months comes down to the fact that the government triggered Article 50 without knowing what it was trying to negotiate. The other problem that May has had is not knowing what would get through parliament: the deal was negotiated with little thought for what would pass the Commons.

In many ways, the problem is the composition of this parliament. Not only is it hung, but the balance of power is held by the DUP — which comes from the part of the UK most affected by Brexit. This is why it would not be a surprise if a new prime minister went for an election sooner rather than later. Of course, should the government collapse — with no conclusion to the current Brexit conundrum — the national mood will be very different. Politics will be even more volatile, and a general election almost certain. In such circumstances, virtually anything could happen.

May is no longer a viable leader because trust, the essential lubricant of politics, has gone. Both wings of the party feel that she has misled them at key points in this process. Ministers no longer trust her word. May has even lost the confidence of her whips’ office, a remarkable state for any prime minister. ‘When she goes that black cloud will lift,’ says one minister.

May is the fourth Tory prime minister in a row to have been undone by the European question. In truth, whoever was PM after the referendum result was likely to find their premiership consumed by the issue. Untangling 40 years of European integration was always going to be a complex and fraught task, especially given the effect that the issue has on the Tory party. But May’s misjudgments have made a difficult situation worse than it needed to be. She leaves behind an even greater set of challenges than the ones she inherited. The Tories can only hope that her successor is better equipped for the task.

This is already the worst agricultural disaster in modern American history, and the National Weather Service is telling us that there will be more catastrophic flooding throughout the middle portion of the nation for the next two months. In the short-term, food prices will not rise too dramatically because the stores are selling the food that has already been produced.  But as the months roll along, you will start to notice food prices steadily increase. 

Millions of bushels of wheat, corn and soybeans have been destroyed by the flooding so far, and thousands of farmers will not be able to plant crops at all this year.  And the livestock losses that we have already experienced will be felt for many years to come. America’s farmers have been utterly devastated. America’s cattle producers have been utterly devastated. Food production is going to be way, way below expectations, and food prices are going to escalate dramatically in the coming months.

This is the kind of scenario that I have been warning about, and this crisis is going to continue to get worse as all the snow from one of the snowiest winters on record melts. In Minnesota, there are still more than 20 inches of snow on the ground in some places, and all of that water has to go somewhere. This is the biggest national crisis that has hit the United States in many years, but the mainstream media and millions of Americans that do not live in the affected areas still do not seem to get it. Of course once food prices start getting painfully high at our supermarkets everyone will start complaining, but there will not be any easy solutions.

“There are many global risks currently overshadowing the economy,” said Matthias Heider, a lawmaker from Merkel’s CDU party and a member of the economics committee in the lower house of parliament. “If global risks accumulate further, it might be too much for growth to be sustained.”

Merkel herself has carefully avoided setting off any alarm bells, even as Brexit, China’s slowdown and US trade tensions weigh on Germany. In an address to the Bundestag last week, she told lawmakers that she foresees “times of growth” ahead, while the outlook for the European Union has become “somewhat clouded.”

Over the past decade, we have been adding to that debt at a rate of about 1.1 trillion dollars a year, and we will add more than a trillion dollars to that total once again this year. But when you add in our unfunded liabilities, our long-term financial outlook as a nation looks downright apocalyptic.

According to Boston University economics professor Laurence Kotlikoff, the US is currently facing 200 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities, and when you add that number to our 22 trillion dollar debt, you get a grand total of 222 trillion dollars. Of course we are never going to pay back all of this debt. The truth is that we are just going to keep accumulating more debt until the system completely and utterly collapses.