Saint Benedict, Francis said, was “capable of awakening new energies in society” and, sustained by faith, “Benedict looked ahead, and from a tiny cave in Subiaco he gave birth to an exciting and irresistible movement that changed the face of Europe.” “It was not by chance that Paul VI proclaimed him the Patron of Europe,” he said, because Benedict was a “messenger of peace, promoter of union, master of civilization.”

In his address to the international conference “(Re)Thinking Europe – a Christian Contribution to the Future of the European Project,” Pope Francis reminded his hearers of Europe’s Christian roots, which the modern Europe is tempted to forget, suffering as it does from a “memory deficit.”

“To speak of a Christian contribution to the future of the continent means, before all else, to consider our task, as Christians today, in these lands which have been so richly shaped by the faith down the centuries,” he said. “What is our responsibility at a time when the face of Europe is increasingly distinguished by a plurality of cultures and religions, while for many people Christianity is regarded as a thing of the past, both alien and irrelevant?”

During his opening remarks, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, also spoke about the importance of Europe’s unity. “The outcome of the British referendum last year, and the tendency to fragmentation sweeping the continent, have led the (Pope) to consider the urgent need to promote a more wide-ranging and focused reflection on Europe as a whole and on its future direction, even beyond the confines of the European Union,” Parolin said.

Germany held a parliamentary election on September 24. No party gained an absolute majority of votes and that's why there was a need to create a coalition with other parties in order to form the government. Since social democrats led by Martin Schulz claimed they were not available for coalition talks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) together with its junior partner from Bavaria, Christian Social Union (CSU), had no other choice than to seek alliance with the Green party and the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

An agreeable government formula still hasn't been found since parties, engaged in coalition talks, are torn by serious disagreements especially concerning climate policy and the migration crisis in Germany. Martin Schulz reiterates the firm position of his party to refrain from negotiations. Instead, the SPD head suggests Germany could once again conduct parliamentary elections.

The 1991 Persian Gulf War, which saw Iraqi Scuds and Al Hussein ballistic missiles raining down on Israeli cities, led Tel Aviv to conclude that the country needed a true nuclear triad of air, land and sea based nukes to give the country’s nuclear deterrent maximum flexibility — and survivability. The most survivable arm of the nuclear triad is typically the sea-based one, consisting of nuclear-armed submarines.

Submarines can disappear for weeks or even months, taking up a highly classified patrol route while waiting for orders to launch their missiles. This so-called “second-strike capability” is built on the principle of nuclear deterrence and ensures potential enemies will think twice lest Israel takes revenge.

China is the world's top oil importer, and so Beijing sees it as only logical that its own currency should price the global economy's most important commodity. But beyond that, moving away from the dollar is a strategic priority for countries like China and Russia. Both aim to ultimately reduce their dependency on the greenback, limiting their exposure to US currency risk and the politics of American sanctions regimes.

The architects of the "petro-yuan" face an uphill struggle in dislodging the "petrodollar" and, with it, more than four decades of US dollar-priced oil. Attracting interest from entrenched and active markets in Europe, the US and the Middle East — used to price more than two-thirds of the world's oil worth trillions of dollars – poses another major challenge.

Pope Francis spoke at the end of a two-day conference at the Vatican called "Re-Thinking Europe" revealing he has major concerns for the future of the bloc. He spoke out in front of European Parliament President Antonio Tajani, the vice president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, and religious leaders as Spain imposed direct rule on Catalonia, for declaring independence.

While the pope did not specifically mention the situation in Catalonia, where the region's leaders want to break away from Spain, or Britain's decision to leave the EU, he spoke often of solidarity, teamwork and mutual sacrifice.

He said: "A European Union that, in facing its crises, fails to recover a sense of being a single community that sustains and assists its members - and not just a collection of small interest groups - would miss out not only on one of the greatest challenges of its history, but also on one of the greatest opportunities for its own future.” 

"Particular and nationalist agendas risk thwarting the courageous dreams of the founders of Europe." Francis appeared to warn against the dangers to Europe posed by populist anti-immigrant parties, which are becoming more popular. The first Latin American pope said politics had often gone astray. He said: "Sadly, all too often we see how politics is becoming instead a forum for clashes between opposing forces."

After two World Wars ripped through the continent, Europe deserves peace, the Pope said, expressing disappointment that “particular and national agendas risk thwarting the courageous dreams of the founders of Europe.” To preserve European values, the Argentinian-born leader of the Catholic Church urged his followers to rediscover their traditional identity, starting with the family, which, he said, “remains the most fundamental place for this process of discovery.”

The Pope noted that Christians must pass on the values of past generations to their offspring as Europe is suffering a period of “dramatic sterility” which began in the 1960s. Pope Francis said that Christians can shape Europe's future by promoting political dialogue “where it is threatened and where conflict seems to prevail.” Politics, he noted, “is becoming a forum for clashes between opposing forces. The voice of dialogue is replaced by shouted claims and demands.”

“Leaders together share responsibility for promoting a Europe that is an inclusive community, free of one fundamental misunderstanding: namely that inclusion does not mean downplaying differences,” Francis added. In such a political environment, he called on Christians “to restore dignity to politics and to view politics as a lofty service to the common good, not a platform for power.”

After 11 hours of talks on Thursday, negotiators said they had failed to find much common ground on the difficult topics of climate change and immigration, but would take the weekend to consider the arguments of the other parties.

“We hope to take further steps in the course of next week,” Nicola Beer, general secretary of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), told journalists. Immigration was the most divisive topic, with many conservatives keen to take a harder line after blaming their election setback on Merkel’s decision to open Germany to more than a million mainly Middle Eastern migrants in 2015 and 2016.

An agreement reached between Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian CSU sister party to cap annual refugee numbers had to be the basis of any coalition accord, Andreas Scheuer, CSU general secretary, said after Thursday’s talks. “That is really going to be the crunch point,” he said, adding that the issue was the reason for the gains of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the election.

The Chinese plan to roll out a yuan-denominated oil contract before the end of this year is a very brave move, since countries who “tried to exit the oil-dollar matrix have met terrible ends,” Keiser pointed out. “Saddam Hussein wanted to trade oil in Euros and he was killed, Muammar Gaddafi wanted to trade his energy in something other than the US dollar – he was killed,” Keiser said.

China, however, has the resolve and the resources to pull-off the de-dollarization, and besides, it’s backed by several major countries which are “resistant to America’s financial cartel,” namely Russia and Iran, Keiser said. Countries worldwide are tired of funding America’s “military adventurism by being a party to the ‘Empire of Debt,’ as it’s known around the world – the US dollar,” and therefore, will likely join the de-dollarization movement, Keiser said.

The US financial sector and its military-industrial complex are unlikely to give up the dollar hegemony without a fight, though, as the dollar is both the basis and the main product of America. And the US will use its other favorite tool for it – war, Keiser believes. “Maybe they will start a war between Japan and China, and maybe they will start a war with North Korea. America will do anything to keep the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency,” Keiser said.

“They will invade the countries, like Afghanistan, they will stop at nothing. Because this is the basis of the US empire. It’s not land-based, it’s not based on material goods, it’s based on rent-seeking. It’s based on landing dollars, getting out income and when countries can’t pay they dismantle the assets and take them over. We saw it in Latin America, South America, this is how America built its empire.”

The rocket, also known as RS-28 Sarmat, was fired from the Plestek Cosmodrome and travelled 3,600 miles before hitting a target on the Kura test range. Three submarines capable of carrying nuclear warheads also carried out successful ballistic missile tests, while three bombers hit ground targets with cruise missiles.

Russian military forces 'have carried out an exercise to manage its strategic nuclear forces,' the ministry said in a statement. 'All objectives of the training have been successfully completed,' the statement said. The Sarmat next generation intercontinental ballistic missile can 'beat any defences' and wipe out entire countries, according to Russia's military. It would be capable of delivering warheads of 40 megatons - 2,000 times as powerful as the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The vote in Barcelona was a secret ballot backed 70-10 and boycotted by opposition MPs. Secessionists hold a slim majority in the parliament. Minutes after the vote, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy appealed for calm and vowed to restore legal order to the rogue region, which he will now seek to govern directly from Madrid.

"Spain is a serious country, a great nation, and we are not going to watch while a few individuals try to liquidate our constitution," he said. As Madrid's senate approved his motion to take special powers, including direct rule over Catalonia, he also announced that a cabinet meeting would be held at 5pm BST.

Meanwhile, thousands of pro-independence activists cheered in Barcelona as the Catalan parliament result was announced.