The financial uncertainty amplified by Brexit has incentivized governments throughout Europe to seize further control over their banking systems. France and Spain have already criminalized cash transactions above a certain limit, but now the commission has unilaterally established new regulations that will affect the entire union. The fear of physical money flowing out of the trade bloc has manifested a draconian response from the State.

The European Action Plan doesn’t mention a specific dollar amount for restrictions, but as expected, their reasoning for the move is to thwart money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Border checks between countries have already been bolstered to help implement these new standards on hard assets. Although these end goals are plausible, there are other clear motivations for governments to target paper money that aren’t as noble.

Negative interest rates and high inflation are a deadly combination that could further destabilize the already fragile union in the future. With less physical currency circulating, these trends ensure that the impact of any additional central bank policies will be maximized. If economic conditions deteriorate, the threat of citizens pulling cash out of their accounts and starting a bank run is eliminated in a cashless system. So long as the people’s wealth is under centralized control, funds can be shifted at will to conceal any underlying problems. But the longer this shell game is allowed to persist, the more painful it will be when reality overrides the manipulation.

Since former Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kenneth Rogoff, published a paper last year advocating for the US $100 bill to be removed, governments around the world have pushed forward their agendas towards a cashless society. This announcement comes just months after the 500 euro note was discontinued, and it follows India’s lead in subverting the financial independence of their citizens. The incremental steps currently being taken may look trivial in isolation, but the ultimate end is to lay the foundation for an entire network for economic repression.

The German people have placed themselves in strong opposition to the action and previously pushed back hard against domestic legislation that would have limited cash. Nearly 80% of all transactions in Germany are made with paper currency, putting Europe’s economic engine in direct conflict with the vision coming out of Brussels. Since the public’s attention has been drawn to emotional manipulations and political stunts, the threat the war on cash represents has gone unrecognized. The value of advocating for decentralized and physical alternatives to the banking system may not be easily grasped by the activists of today, but few other things have the potential to erode freedom on such a massive scale.

Thursday night’s ruling to uphold the stay on Mr Trump’s executive order by the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals — widely known as the “Ninth Circus” for the lost legal hippies who populate the bench — was not surprising. Those appellate judges — such as federal District Judge James Robart who first imposed the stay — apparently believe that the president of the United States does not have the authority to determine who is allowed to come into the country, even during this time of war.

And — even more spectacularly — these crazy judges do not believe the president has this authority even though he just won a nearly two-year national political campaign explicitly promising the American people that he would do exactly as he has done. This is incontrovertible proof that these judges, and far too many other judges, simply do not believe that the American people have the right to govern themselves.

You may think that, boisterous as these demonstrators are, and although they can draw a few thousand youngsters to their events, they are but a tiny fraction of the population and could never pose a serious threat to any government. But how wrong you would be.

Major political changes always are achieved by minorities. All revolutions are the work of less than three percent of the population, and the American Revolution was no exception. It’s not how many people there are, but how well organized they are and where they are. If the three percenters are influential in a nation’s power centers (political parties, government agencies, courts, military, schools, activist groups, labor unions, etc), then the odds are in their favor. The masses will follow the winners.

When you look at the rag-tag bunch carrying placards and shouting obscenities, you may be comforted thinking that they have no influence in the real power centers, but be mindful that street theater is only half the picture. Classic communist strategy involves, not one, but two types of revolution. The first is by force and violence (they call it a war of national liberation), but the other is political and peaceful (what they call a proletarian revolution).

The two are designed to work together, one from the bottom (masses in the streets) and the other from the top (agents inside government waiting for an excuse to introduce legislation that will move the nation closer to the Leninist ideal). The strategy is not to conquer in one fell swoop, but to do so by a series of steps, each one seen by the public as a necessary compromise to end the violence.

The Bureau of Meteorology is warning about “severe heatwave conditions” caused by a pool of heated air formed over central Australia that has blocked cooler changes from pushing through. Adelaide will today swelter through a hot, humid day forecast to reach 42 degrees, while Melbourne is tipped to hit 37 degrees.

The sizzling temperatures come after thunderstorms swept through Sydney and parts of NSW on Tuesday, causing flash flooding, property damage, several flood rescues and evacuations. The storms also caused structural damage to dozens of homes across Sydney, while a sinkhole opened up on Wednesday in the harbourside suburb of Point Piper, where Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull lives.

Meanwhile total fire bans and extreme or severe fire danger warnings are expected in parts of NSW on the weekend, the Rural Fire Service said. “If the forecast eventuates we’re likely to see catastrophic fire danger develop in some areas including the Hunter,” RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said in a statement.

The highly unusual statement comes amid growing calls for the European Union to invest in its own nuclear deterrent in the wake of President Donald Trump’s comments that Nato is “obsolete”. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of Poland’s ruling party, told a German newspaper this week he would “welcome an EU nuclear superpower”.

A senior MP from Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrat party (CDU) has called for Germany to press for a European nuclear deterrent. Spiegel magazine has questioned whether it is time for Germany to acquire its own nuclear weapons. And the Financial Times has called for Germany to “think the unthinkable” on the issue.

“If the US is no longer prepared to do its part of the nuclear deterrence, Germany and France will have to fill this vacuum,” Gustav Gressel of the European Council on Foreign Relations said.

55 per cent answered in the affirmative, 25% said they don’t know and just 20% said they disagreed with the statement. Opposition to Muslim immigration is strongest in Poland, where 71% oppose it compared to just 9% who support it. In France, which has experienced a number of horrific terror attacks over the last two years, 61% oppose Muslim immigration while just 16% support it.

In Germany, which has seen instances of mass molestation of women carried out by Muslim migrants, most notably in Cologne, 53% support a halt on Muslim immigration, while 19% oppose that view. Despite the best efforts of politicians on the left to obfuscate the link between Muslim immigration and exploding crime and rape statistics, the people who are actually living amidst this new form of “cultural enrichment” have made it very clear that they don’t like it.

This poll proves that opposition to Muslim immigration in Europe is now the mainstream view. With new elections in France, the Netherlands and Germany set to take place later this year, it remains to be seen how that resentment will translate into actual political change.

He says he went to a remote area of the coastal peninsula to buy milk on a dairy farm, but was shocked to see a perfect specimen and vital element of purification of the Third Temple right in front of his eyes – a red heifer calmly chewing its cud under the Baja sun. The red heifer, one of the most mystifying Torah commandments, is a necessary element for purifying Jews to enable them to do the service in the Temple.

Numbers 19:9 states: “And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of B’nei Yisrael for a water of sprinkling; it is a purification from sin.”

Over the course of the approximately 1,000 years the First and Second Temple stood, only nine red heifers were used in preparing the waters used to purify Jews. According to Jewish tradition, the 10th one will be used by the Messiah.

A very few candidates for the red heifer have been found. Most have been disqualified due to blemishes or pregnancies. In an effort to reinstate the mitzvah (Torah commandment) of purifying with the red heifer’s ashes, the Temple Institute in Jerusalem last year imported embryos of red Angus, a distinctly red breed of cow, and implanted them in Israeli cows at a farm in the Negev.

That comment, which angered Arab countries, comes after UN board UNESCO voted last October to deny all Jewish connections to Jerusalem's Temple Mount and Western Wall. The revered Western Wall is all that remains of the Temple, which was destroyed by the Roman army in 70 AD after a Jewish rebellion.

"For him to make that comment recognizing the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount was huge," observes Laurie Cardoza-Moore, who is president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations and special UN envoy for the World Council of Independent Churches.

"In fact," she adds, "it set off a firestorm of protest especially from the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas." Cardoza-Moore predicts the new environment at the UN, including new UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, will improve Israel's standing at the international body.