Germany's air force is preparing to adapt some of its Tornado warplanes to carry more up-to-date US atom bombs in light of plans by Washington to modernize its nuclear arsenal in Germany, media reported on Saturday. The German newsmagazine "Spiegel" reported that US President Barack Obama had approved the last phase of development for the atom-bomb model B61-12, which is to go into full-scale production from 2020.

Washington then intended to station some of the modernized weapons at the Büchel air base in Germany's western Eifel region, according to the report. Experts estimate that 10 to 20 nuclear warheads from the Cold War period are currently stored in Büchel, with German Tornado warplanes standing by to carry them if it is deemed necessary. The area is under strict protection, with some US soldiers also stationed there.

Populations across the bloc demanded that the power hungry Brussels boss scales back his meddling in individual countries’ affairs as they handed a stunning rebuke to the out of touch euro elite. Even in Germany, the ideological cradle of the whole EU project, voters are now sick to the back teeth of creeping federalisation and are increasingly demanding that their futures be decided in Berlin, and not in Brussels.

The shock results come at a time when the EU is facing an unprecedented popularity crisis, rebellious electorates across the continent increasingly turning their backs on snooty europhiles in favour of anti-establishment parties. Brussels is facing a fight for its very survival with far-right chief Marine Le Pen on the march in France and the anti-EU Five Star Movement, which wants an end to the euro currency, flying high in the polls in Italy.

Panicked eurocrats have been scrambling to head off the populist uprising on their doorstep, and tonight voters unequivocally issued their demands if any faith is to be restored in the flailing European project. In eight of twelve member states surveyed by respected pollsters YouGov people expressed a strong desire to see more powers repatriated from unelected Brussels bureaucrats to national Governments that represent their interests.

Unsurprisingly the urge to restore sovereignty was strongest in Britain, which has just voted to quit the EU, but eurocrats will be alarmed by the fact that eurosceptic sentiment is almost as widespread in a host of other countries. More than four in ten voters in Holland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and France want to see an active rolling back of the EU’s controversial policy of ‘ever closer union’, demonstrating a stunning lack of faith in the unelected euro elite.

And even in Germany, the Brussels project’s staunchest and most vociferous backer, 38 per cent want Angela Merkel to ask for more powers back from eurocrats - the same figure as in neighbouring Poland.  YouGov observed: “The era of an increasingly powerful European Union may be over, with the desire for EU powers to be returned to member states the most popular point of view in eight EU nations. In no country was the belief that the current balance of powers is about right the most popular answer.” 

But despite the populist revolution unfurling before its eyes Brussels is sticking steadfast to its superstate dream, recently unveiling plans to complete a banking union across the eurozone and controversial proposals to set up an EU army to rival NATO.

He said: “Brexit is going to be a sideshow to the problems of Europe that are becoming more and more evident. The euro as it stands at the moment is just a very inappropriate mechanism — I give the euro between one and five years of life.”

The UK’s recent Brexit vote, along with Donald Trump's election as US President, has signalled a sea-change in global politics and populist movements around the world have gathered pace. Italy’s referendum vote at the weekend, as well as France’s presidential election next year, could also see upsets at the ballot box, giving currency traders cause for concern and initiating a run on the euro.

Last week, the euro dropped to $1.0518, it’s lowest point since March 2015 and Mr Mellon expects the currency to fall further, reaching parity to the dollar “sometime over the next year”. Italy’s dire economic situation - with high unemployment and a crumbling financial sector - has caused Mr Mellon to sell Italian government bonds.

This would mean the elimination of Nasa’s world-renowned research into temperature, ice, clouds and other climate phenomena. Nasa’s network of satellites provide a wealth of information on climate change, with the Earth science division’s budget set to grow to $2 billion next year. By comparison, space exploration has been scaled back somewhat, with a proposed budget of $2.8 billion in 2017.

Bob Walker, a senior Trump campaign adviser, said there was no need for Nasa to do what he has previously described as “politically correct environmental monitoring”. “We see Nasa in an exploration role, in deep space research,” Walker told the Guardian. “Earth-centric science is better placed at other agencies where it is their prime mission".

Carter is completely convinced that a “two-state solution” will bring lasting peace to the Middle East, but now that Donald Trump has been elected Carter knows that his dream of seeing a Palestinian state while he is still alive is rapidly slipping away. In a desperate attempt to salvage the situation, Carter is urging Barack Obama to take bold action while he still has the power to do so.

But even though the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have both been running stories about a potential UN Security Council resolution that would divide the land of Israel, and even though experienced politicians such as Jimmy Carter and John Bolton are making lots of noise about it, most people don’t seem to understand how immensely important this really is in the greater scheme of things.

But if Barack Obama does decide to make a move to divide the land of Israel at the United Nations at some point during the next several weeks, the consequences for this nation will be more severe than most people would dare to imagine.

The Governor of the Bank of England wants a smooth changeover when Britain leaves the EU, to give companies time to adapt to the new setup, and avoid any wrenching change in the economy or in the financial markets. That means Britain would not necessarily switch overnight from one regime to another when leaving the EU, which is expected to take place in early 2019.

“Banks located in the UK supply over half of debt and equity issuance by continental firms, and account for over three-quarters of foreign exchange and derivatives activity in the EU,” Mr Carney said. “If these UK-based firms have to adjust their activities in a short time frame, there could be a greater risk of disruption to services provided to the European real economy, some of which could spill back to the UK economy through trade and financial linkages.”

That potential disruption comes from Britain’s status as the EU’s major global financial hub. “The UK is effectively the investment banker for Europe,” Mr Carney said, noting that funds are raised by British-based banks from British-based investors, to fund economic activity. “These activities are crucial for firms in the European real economy, and it is absolutely in the interests of the EU that there is an orderly transition and there is continual access to those services.”

Of course this puts a member of NATO in direct military conflict with Russia, since Russia is working very hard to prop up the Assad regime.  If all-out war breaks out between Turkey and Russia, could that be the spark that causes World War 3 to erupt in the Middle East?  And once Turkey and Russia start fighting, would the United States and the rest of NATO be dragged into the conflict?

Most people in the western world pay very little attention to Erdogan, but the truth is that he is a madman that is often referred to as “Turkey’s version of Adolf Hitler”.  He is extremely ambitious, extremely nationalistic, and he is a warmonger.  That is a very dangerous combination, and I believe that it is only a matter of time before he starts a major war in the Middle East.

Somebody needs to get this guy under control, but unfortunately the Obama administration has been very hesitant to confront Erdogan about his outrageous behavior. When Erdogan openly stated that the Turkish military is in Syria to overthrow the Assad regime on Tuesday, that was like lighting a match in a room that has already been doused with propane.

He needs to immediately retract those comments, because his unique brand of lunacy has now brought us dangerously close to the start of World War 3.

One of the most remarkable ironies of The Washington Post's recent evidence-free fabrication of purported "Russian propaganda" websites (including this site) is how closely it mimics the worst excesses of the USSR's Stalinist era. Those unfamiliar with the Stalinist era's excesses will benefit from reading Solzhenitsyn's three-volume masterpiece The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956, The Gulag Archipelago 2 and Gulag Archipelago 3.

One episode is especially relevant to the totalitarian tactics of The Washington Post's evidence-free accusation. Solzhenitsyn tells the story of one poor fellow who made the mistake of recounting a dream he'd had the previous night to his co-workers. In his dream, Stalin had come to some harm. In Solzhenitsyn's account, the fellow was remorseful about the dream.

Alas, mere remorse couldn't possibly save him. He was promptly arrested for "anti-Soviet thoughts" and given a tenner in the Gulag -a tenner being a ten-year sentence in a Siberian labor camp. The Washington Post's accusation is based on a "behavioral analysis" - in other words, publicly sharing "anti-Soviet thoughts" - in our era, the equivalent is sharing anti-Establishment thoughts.

Your crime, as it were, need not be substantiated with evidence; the mere fact you publicly revealed your anti-Establishment thought convicted you. This is the Corporate Media's Gulag of the Mind. We'll tell you what's "true" and what is correct to think and believe. Any deviation from the party line is a threat and must be discredited, marginalized or suppressed.

The report says that many employers will have "little problem" with Christians discussing their faith at work "in the same way you might talk about sport, hobbies and family life". Mrs May's intervention came after David Isaac, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, warned that over-anxious employers are failing to celebrate Christmas for fear of offending other staff.

The report warns that society is forgetting "that its many freedoms derive from centuries of applying the Bible to public life". It says: "Although these liberties have been hard-won, however, they can also be easily lost. If not attended to, they will wither away. Like a muscle, without exercise they will atrophy. The Bible tells us that we grow as we give, and the truth about our gospel freedoms is that ‘if we don’t use them we’ll lose them’.”

France’s right-wing presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who is rooting for a referendum regarding France’s membership in the EU, stands a good chance of winning the elections and thus likely initiating the so-called Frexit, Chomsky said in an interview with RT on Wednesday.

“I don’t think Germany would initiate it [the collapse of the EU] because they are beneficiaries of the union,” Chomsky said. “If the union falls apart, I think it would be a tragic development,” he added. Chomsky said that failed “neo-liberal policies of the past generation” influenced such a significant rise in popularity of the right-wing parties.

“These programs were designed in such a way so that they would lead to stagnation and even decline for a large part, actually, majority of the population. They also severely undermined democracy, which is even more true in Europe than in the US,” he said. “The result of these processes is that people are angry, disillusioned, their hopes for the future have collapsed,” Chomsky said.

“We knew there was going to be limited progress under Barack Obama’s administration,” said Representative Bill Huizenga (Republican for Michigan), who authored a broad Fed reform bill in the last Congress. “Now, with a partner at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue that’s interested in moving the needle, frankly we’d be dumb not to try to pursue this.”

For years, GOP-led efforts to impose new rules and restrictions on the Fed ran aground amid substantial Democratic opposition, both in the Senate and the White House. But the election puts the Fed on shaky ground, with any number of GOP-authored bills waiting in the wings for renewed consideration.

Republican lawmakers are expected to dust off a host of bills that would curb the central bank, ranging from tougher oversight to fundamental changes over how the Fed deploys its powerful tools to steer the economy. The exact impact of a Trump White House on how the Fed operates remains to be seen, but the next four years could mark a dramatic change for the central bank.