The daily schedule of a member of the US Congress has been easy to predict recently. In the morning, the legislators in Washington stand in front of the TV cameras and talk about, one after another, how the country is standing on the edge of the precipice. Then, in the evening they can go back and report that the country did make one small step forward.

Tuesday was no exception. Chaos and internal power struggles ruled, this time within the Republican party. The conservative leaders around John Boehner, the powerful Republican speaker of the House, had wanted to promote their own plan for raising the debt ceiling, but he was forced to postpone a vote on the measure late in the day. If Congress does not raise the debt ceiling by August 2 from its current level of $14.3 trillion, the United States will default on its debt.

Boehner's plan would involve raising the debt ceiling initially by $1 trillion, which is enough to pay off federal debts until the end of the year. That would be offset by spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next decade. In addition, a commission would then determine how further spending cuts and adjustments to the tax code could be made. Boehner wanted a vote on his proposal to take place as early as Wednesday in the House of Representatives, but on Tuesday night he had to announce that he was pushing that back at least one day because he did not have a clear majority behind it.

But a compromise is not in sight. Instead, experts in Washington have begun to debate whether or not a deal really needs to be reached by August 2, or if the US has more money left over than originally thought. The consensus is that the government will not run out of money until August 10, writes the New York Times. By then, they must borrow more money in order to send out millions of social security checks. If not, they will become insolvent. August 10 instead of August 2. One doesn't want to think about it: yet another week of collectively marching toward the abyss.

News that Moody's had downgraded Cyprus two notches from A2 to Baa1 due to "fractious politics" and exposure to Greece compounded fears Europe's crisis is far from resolved. The darkening picture in Cyprus raises concerns that a fourth eurozone country might soon need some sort of rescue, exhausting bail-out tolerance in Germany, Holland, Finland and Slovakia, where a wing of the coalition has denounced the EU accord.

"The markets have started to see all the flaws in the summit deal," said David Owen, of Jefferies Fixed Income. "They know there has been no increase in the size of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and that it will not be any position to intervene in the Spanish and Italian markets for quite some time because the changes have to be ratified by all parliaments."

"Unless the European Central Bank (ECB) steps in to buy bonds, this is going to be tested by markets over the summer. EU leaders have sent absolutely the wrong signal by thinking they have done the job and can now go on holiday," he added.

Beijing's defence ministry said the US must discontinue such flights, calling them a "major obstacle" as the two Pacific powers try to put a series of military disputes behind them, China's Global Times reported. The flights "severely harmed" mutual trust, the paper quoted the ministry as saying. "We demand that the US respects China's sovereignty and security interests, and take concrete measures to boost a healthy and stable development of military relations," it added.

The ministry declined immediate comment when contacted by AFP. Washington has said in the past that its reconnaissance flights are conducted in international airspace and will continue. Sino-US military relations have been plagued in recent years by periodic tensions stemming from US plans for arms sales to Taiwan and naval standoffs in the disputed South China Sea. Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory and refuses to abandon the possibility of taking the self-ruled island by force. The two sides split at the end of a civil war.

The United States recognises Beijing and not Taipei, but provides military support to Taiwan. In the June encounter, one of the Chinese Sukhoi SU-27 fighters crossed over the Taiwan Strait's middle line, widely considered to be the boundary between Taiwan's airspace and that of the Chinese mainland, Taiwanese media have reported. One of the Chinese jets did not leave until two Taiwanese planes were sent to intercept it, the island's United Daily News reported.

With global financial markets increasingly on edge, the US Treasury warned it could not guarantee the government of the world's biggest economy could keep paying all of its bills if Congress fails to raise its borrowing limit by August 2.

Even if a deal is reached to lift the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, a budget plan that flinches from hefty cuts in the deficit may result in a downgrade of the top-notch US credit rating, which could sow financial chaos worldwide.

Leaders in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Democratic-controlled Senate scrambled to find common ground but complications with their competing plans could send attempts at a compromise right down to the wire. President Barack Obama, a Democrat who will seek a second term in November 2012 elections, was largely consigned to the sidelines for now.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell have been talking about how to break the impasse, several lawmakers said. Reid said he could easily modify his bill to incorporate elements of Boehner's bill in a way that could win support from both parties in the Senate.

That would set up another high-stakes House vote with an entirely different dynamic, as Boehner would need to attract Democratic votes to offset anticipated defections from the right flank of his own party. "There will be sufficient cooperation so a bill will pass that allows the debt limit to be lifted, with deficit reduction," Democratic Senator Max Baucus said.

The Knights Templar were created in 1120 by roughly a dozen knights following the First Crusade, which left the area now known as Israel quite hazardous for Christians who fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem. "The roads in that area, particularly in the roads of Jerusalem, were dangerous with Muslim raiders and general violence, and very often Christian pilgrims would be killed or robbed by Muslims," said Dr Paul Crawford, associate professor of ancient and medieval history at the California University of Pennsylvania.

To combat that threat, Crawford, who has studied the Knights Templar for two decades, said the group was formed to use its military training and vast resources to protect the helpless pilgrims. "This was an innovation of Christian society up until that point - using military skills to protect the helpless," Crawford told FoxNews.com during a phone interview Wednesday. "It was a chivalrous concept; the powerful should protect the weak instead of exploiting them."

By the mid-12th century, Crawford said the Knights Templar became a major element of defense for the kingdom of Jerusalem against Islamic attack. But in 1307, Crawford said hundreds of Knights Templar in France were arrested by orders of Philip IV, king of France from 1285 to 1314. They were charged with dozens of crimes, from heresy to blasphemy to sodomy, Crawford said. "Philip the Fair," however, had no authority to do so, as the Knights Templar answered only to the Pope. But by 1312, Pope Clement V had dissolved the Christian military order and its grandmaster was burned at the stake by Philip IV two years later.

Eight centuries later, Anders Behring Breivik, the man who confessed to last week's bombing and shooting attacks that left 76 dead in Norway, alluded to two other "cells" of his network, which he referred to in a 1,500-page manifesto as a new "Knights Templar." In the document, he describes being invited to join the group, which he said is dedicated to "anti-jihad" and claims members held meetings in London and the Baltics. Afterward, he said, the members vowed not to contact one another and to instead plan their "resistance" as individuals.

France is the second biggest economy in the Eurozone and a downgrade to its credit score would wreak havoc in financial markets and plunge the single currency deeper into crisis. As stock markets around the world tumbled, Italy was also told to ramp up austerity measures while Cyprus became the latest country in the Eurozone to have its credit score cut.

With the debt crisis in the United States also raging, nervous investors dumped risky assets such as shares and piled into gold, a traditional safe haven in times of financial and economic woe. The panic saw the FTSE 100 index in London drop more than 70 points - losing 19 billion pounds of its value - as global stock markets tumbled.

The price of gold leapt to a new high of $1,628 an ounce, underlining the folly of then-Chancellor Gordon Brown's decision to sell-off 400 tons of British gold for less than $300 an ounce in 1999. The increasing crisis in the Eurozone is bad news for the beleaguered British economy as Europe is the UK's biggest trading partner.

The bright yellow messages daubed on bus stops and street lamps have already been seen across certain boroughs in London and order that in the 'zone' there should be 'no gambling', 'no music or concerts', 'no porn or prostitution', 'no drugs or smoking' and 'no alcohol'. Hate preacher Anjem Choudary has claimed responsibility for the scheme, saying he plans to flood specific Muslim and non-Muslim communities around the UK and 'put the seeds down for an Islamic Emirate in the long term'. In the past week, dozens of streets in the London boroughs of Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets and Newham have been targeted, raising fears that local residents may be intimidated or threatened for flouting 'Islamic rules'.

Choudary, who runs the banned militant group Islam4UK, warned: 'We now have hundreds if not thousands of people up and down the country willing to go out and patrol the streets for us and a print run of between 10,000 and 50,000 stickers ready for distribution. There are 25 areas around the country which the Government has earmarked as areas where violent extremism is a problem.'

'We are going to go to all these same areas and implement our own Sharia-controlled zones. This is the best way for dealing with drunkenness and loutishness, prostitution and the sort of thug life attitude you get in British cities.' The former lawyer added: 'This will mean this is an area where the Muslim community will not tolerate drugs, alcohol, pornography, gambling, usury, free mixing between the sexes - the fruits if you like of Western civilisation.'

'We want to run the area as a Sharia-controlled zone and really to put the seeds down for an Islamic Emirate in the long term.'

Lewis Hamilton isn't happy. The Formula 1 driver's moment of glory at the German Grand Prix was cut short by the paltry length of our national anthem. "When I stand up there and Felipe Massa has won, it's 10 minutes long," he complained, "and when I'm standing there it lasts half a minute. I would urge the UK to make our anthem longer." To which I say: be careful what you wish for. Do we really want an anthem as long as the Brazilian one?

After the Second World War there were years of agonised debate in Germany about an anthem for the new Federal Republic. Many socialists thought reinstating 'Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles' was impossible, as it was contaminated by its association with the Nazis. They wanted a competition to create a new anthem. But many people had a stubborn attachment to the old hymn, partly because (as the great conductor Furtwangler pointed out) the melody, written by Joseph Haydn in 1797, was such a sublime one. Not until 1952 did the warring parties reach a compromise: keep the old anthem, but sing only the third verse on state occasions, with its innocuous praise of 'Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit' (Concord and Justice and Freedom). Yes, you tamper with a national anthem at your peril.

My favourite new anthem is Senegal's, which harks back to the days of Senegal's heroic past, hymned by the bards with their thumb-harps or koras. "Sound, all of you, your koras, Beat the drums, The Red Lion has roared, the Tamer of the bush with one leap has rushed forward scattering the gloom!" Compared to that marvellous imagery, isn't our God save our gracious Queen just a tad dull? And isn't that a good reason for keeping our anthem short, so as not to bore everyone? I would say not, because with just one small adjustment our anthem could be made to seem very lively indeed.

To do that, we need to remind ourselves when and why it was born. The year was 1745, and the Jacobite rebellion against the Hanoverian dynasty had suddenly become serious. The mood was defiant, but a stirring musical expression of that defiance hadn't yet appeared - until the fateful night at the Drury Lane theatre, when "God Save our King" was sung on stage by the company. The audience was electrified. As the Daily Advertiser reported: "The universal applause it met with, being encored with repeated Huzzas, sufficiently denoted in how just an Abhorrence they hold the arbitrary schemes of our invidious Enemies, and detest the despotick Attempts of Papal power."

Well, we don't fear Papal power any more. But isn't there a threat of despotic powers of a different kind being wielded just now, under the guise of "saving the euro"? It's surely time to stiffen British sinews, and the perfect musical encouragement lies ready to hand, in the anthem's second verse. They're not much sung these days, so you may have forgotten how the words go.

Here they are: "Lord, our God, arise /Scatter her enemies /And make them fall. /Confound their politics /Frustrate their knavish tricks /On Thee our hopes we fix, /God save us all."

Perfect for the times, I'd say.

US Republican leaders had promised a vote today in the House of Representatives on a plan to increase the $14.3 trillion debt limit and avoid America's first-ever default, but it was put off until at least Thursday. Tensions are rising across America as the White House, and Republicans and Democrats in Congress, struggle to find common ground on a deficit-reduction plan they all agree is a condition of raising the debt ceiling.

The US Treasury has said that without an agreement by August 2 it will not be able to pay all its bills, which include interest payments on its debt. Although the dollar fell against most currencies, losing more than one cent against the pound to $1.6389, the calm across equity and bond markets suggests that investors still believe a deal will be done by next Tuesday's deadline. "The view is that Congress will get its act together," said Priya Misra, head of interest-rate strategy at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The relative lack of nerves may also be because some on Wall Street believe that the US Treasury will have sufficient revenue to be able to keep paying its bills beyond August 2. After analysing Treasury receipts so far for July, analysts at Barclays Capital, for example, estimate the actual deadline is August 10.

However, US money market funds are reported to be stockpiling cash in case no deal is reached. With less than a week until the August 2 deadline, Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, added her voice to calls for an urgent agreement. "The clock is ticking," she said. "An adverse shock in the US could have serious spillovers on the rest of the world."

Barring a global catastrophe, the world is unlikely to unite again as it did on that day - and not just because of the conduct and course of the wars of 9/11 in Afghanistan and Iraq. A deeper - and more radical - shift is at work in the politics of the global economy. A fragmentation of power, capital and ideas is creating a new map of the world - with lasting implications for investors and policymakers alike.

The evidence is everywhere. Europe beginning to roll back key aspects of the free market even as it manages yet another bail-out of Greece; the failure of the Copenhagen climate change negotiations; a Doha trade round dead in all but name; the emergence of new global governance structures, such as G-20; the flows of macro-finance investments between emerging markets combining state and business interests; China's "going out" strategy upending traditional vectors of global capital and influence; an Arab Awakening as much defined by its diversity as its aspiration for accountability and legitimate government; the resurgence of nationalist, populist movements across rich and poor parts of the world; a proliferation of hybrid economic and political systems defying old categories of left and right, liberal and authoritarian.

Conventional thinking holds that all this is a threat to an otherwise well-ordered global order - or that it reflects a zero-sum shift from West to East, US to China, DEMOCRACIES TO DICTATORSHIPS.

A multi-speed global economy - with diverging long-term growth profiles - will increasingly be mirrored by a multi-dimensional global politics. This is a Great Game worthy of the name and the winners will be those states and corporations increasingly seeking their own success irrespective of traditional boundaries of geography, ideology, interest and alliances.

Welcome to the Archipelago World.

There may be a point at which global investors get indigestion from US money printing. Prospects for a third round of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program (QE3) grew this month after Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank was prepared to ease further if economic growth and inflation falter again. Nearly one in two fund managers surveyed by Bank of America Merrill Lynch this month said QE3 was likely.

The temptation for risk-loving investors is to rub their hands with glee. Traditionally risky or high-yielding assets such as global equities, energy and commodities and emerging markets surged in the months after the Fed gave the green light for Round Two of QE - which involved $600 billion in new money in the form of Treasury debt purchases and which ended last month.

But the impact on the US economy and the labor market has been less obvious, given that growth has slowed significantly into 2011 - at least partly because higher energy costs have undermined consumer spending everywhere. Asset prices, as a result, have retreated sharply again since April's peaks.

This has given rise to a debate about whether QE3 works. If it doesn't give a sustained boost to financial markets and is ambiguous for the real economy, is there any point? "We have a negative opinion of QE2, and believe QE3 could very well turn out to be ineffective at best, and counter-productive at worst," said Stephen Jen, managing partner of London-based hedge fund SLJ Partners. "If we are right, QE will be self-defeating in that the more the Fed eases, the more commodity prices rise, which erodes the capacity of consumers to spend on non-energy products and services."

As they head north, the protesters plan to hold meetings, collecting complaints and proposals as they go. Since the movement began in Madrid two months ago, similar groups have sprung up across Europe.

They say they are marching because they are fed up with the way the economic crisis is playing out in Europe, with spending cuts, job losses, and privatisations, while those they blame for the recession remain unaffected. The aim is to link up with fellow indignants from across Europe for a mass rally in October. The Madrid protest began on 15 May and spread to other Spanish cities as word got around via Facebook and Twitter. Spain's unemployment rate is the highest in the EU, at 21.3%. For the under-25s, it has risen to 44.6%.

The head of Norway's intelligence police, Janne Kristiansen, told a Norwegian newspaper Monday that Breivik had "deliberately desisted from violent exhortations on the net. He has more or less been a moderate, and has neither been part of any extremist network." The blogs and websites Breivik enthused about were pro-American and pro-Israel, extremely hostile to Islam and despairing that the European political elite would ever see the error of its liberal multicultural outlook.

One such site is Gates of Vienna, whose banner reads: "At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war." Breivik regularly applauded a writer who goes by the name of Fjordman on the site, one of whose contributions, from 2007, reads: "When the Swedish welfare state collapses, the immigrants who lose their payments will have to go somewhere. Denmark will probably be fairly successful at keeping them out. A lot of them will migrate to Norway, some will move to Germany and the Netherlands, and some will probably end up in Eastern Europe."

Breivik also praised Fjordman's book, "Defeating Eurabia," describing it as "the perfect Christmas gift for family and friends." The book contends that Europe is being overrun by Muslims - and that its governing class is complicit in this surrender. "According to some, one out of three babies born in France is a Muslim," Fjordman writes. "Hundreds of Muslim ghettos already de facto follow sharia, not French law. Some believe France will quietly become a Muslim country, while others predict a civil war in the near future."

The group says it filed the lawsuit this week in state court in New York and posted a copy of the lawsuit on its website. The lawsuit names many defendants, including the state of New Jersey, the city of New York , New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The World Trade Center cross, two intersecting steel beams that held up when the twin towers collapsed on September 11, 2001, is seen as iconic to some.

The cross was moved Saturday from near a church to its new home at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. There was also ceremonial blessing of the cross in a service led by Father Brian Jordan, a Franciscan monk who ministered to workers clearing the area after the 9/11 attacks. Joe Daniels, 9/11 Memorial president, said Saturday that the cross is "an important part of our commitment to bring back the authentic physical reminders that tell the history of 9/11 in a way nothing else could. Its return is a symbol of the progress on the Memorial & Museum that we feel rather than see, reminding us that commemoration is at the heart of our mission."

But the atheist group says the cross sends a symbol of something different. "The WTC cross has become a Christian icon," said Dave Silverman, president of the atheist group. "It has been blessed by SO-CALLED HOLY MEN and presented as a reminder THAT THEIR GOD, WHO COULDN'T BE BOTHERED TO STOP THE MUSLIM TERRORISTS OR PREVENT 3,000 PEOPLE FROM BEING KILLED IN HIS NAME, cared only enough to bestow upon us some rubble that resembles a cross. It's a truly ridiculous assertion."

If Mr Jordan is right, that would mean Speaker John A Boehner would have to rely on Democrats to pass the $1.2 trillion spending cuts plan - support the Democrats' top vote-counter said he'll be hard-pressed to gain. Minority Whip Steny H Hoyer said "very few" Democrats will vote for the Boehner plan, though he acknowledged there could be some.

Mr Boehner's bill would reduce future discretionary spending by $1.2 trillion, grant an immediate debt increase of $1 trillion, and set up a committee to work on trillions of dollars in future deficit reduction either through more spending cuts or tax increases, which would then earn another future debt increase. It would also require both the House and Senate to hold votes on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

But conservative Republicans in the House, many allied to the tea party movement, said they don't just want votes on the amendment, they want an assurance it will be sent to the states. Mr Jordan and other conservatives said they would prefer the Senate vote on the debt increase the House passed last week, that includes deeper spending cuts and requires both chambers approve a balanced budget amendment and submit it to states for ratification before any debt increase happens. Both the Heritage Foundation and Club for Growth, two key conservative activist groups, are also urging a "No" vote and said it will be one of the key votes they use in their annual lawmaker scorecards.

Mr Boehner said Tuesday that his plan is the only option that can bridge party differences and win enough support to pass Congress."We have a bill that is a reasonable approach negotiated with the Senate leadership that really is commonsense," Mr Boehner said. "There's more cuts in spending than you have an increase in the debt limit. It has real caps and a real process for cutting spending before the end of this year. And it provides for - I think - the best effort to get a balanced budget amendment enacted into the Constitution." On Monday President Obama called for voters to call Congress and demand a compromise bill, and on Tuesday offices said they have been inundated.