Speaking to national broadcaster ZDF at the weekend, Merkel warned that Britain would have to accept the good with the bad in its future relationship with the union and reiterated that there would be no "cherry picking" with the UK able to pick and choose which aspects of EU life it wanted to keep.

"The decision (of Britons to leave the EU) has been taken … and the next step is (and Britain will do this only when they have a new prime minister) to invoke Article 50," she told public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday, Reuters reported.

"I expect that to happen. I deal with reality and I firmly expect that application will be made," Merkel added when asked if she thought there was a chance that Brexit would not happen. As leader of Europe's most powerful nation Germany, Merkel is expected to be influential over the tone of talks with Britain when its negotiations over a Brexit take place.

He was referring very specifically to Deutsche Bank which has $75 trillion in derivatives exposure and is being universally described as the biggest single source for a new systemic blowout. Renzi was putting pressure on Merkel and especially German Finance Minister Schäuble to back down and allow Italy to abandon the bail-in requirements that have been enforced in Europe since January 1st, to do a bail-out of Monte dei Paschi and other Italian banks.

What actually has happened since then, is that Deutsche Bank has publicly come out calling for a massive European bank bail-out, obviously starting with themselves, and that basically they are calling precisely for a cancellation, temporarily at least, of the bail-in rule. This is a statement that was made by Deutsche Bank's chief economist David Folkerts-Landau in Welt am Sonntag on Sunday. He says, the banks need a EU150 billion bail-out to recapitalize, and it has to be done without bailing in the bondholders and depositors.

It marks a shift for Germany which, burdened by guilt about Nazi terror and the Holocaust, for decades stepped softly on the world stage and long refrained from sending troops abroad. The paper, the first of its kind issued in a decade, envisions a future defence union of European states - reviving a 1950s-era idea that was rejected by France at the time - as Europe is nervously eyeing Russia and digesting the shock of the Brexit vote. "Germany is increasingly seen as a key player in Europe," says a draft of the document seen by AFP.

"Germany, a globally highly connected country... has a responsibility to actively help shape the world order," it says, vowing that the country is ready to "assume responsibility" and "help meet current and future security and humanitarian challenges". The paper presents a paradigm shift for a country often lampooned as a "Bigger Switzerland" - prosperous and seeking to stay neutral - in the words of French economist Alain Minc.

While Germany's dark past has nurtured a strong pacifist tradition, its leaders have also often been stung by allies' criticism that they are not pulling their weight in tackling crisis hotspots, lack the stomach for full-fledged military engagement and prefer chequebook diplomacy. It was not until 1994 that Germany's highest court allowed the country to participate in multinational peacekeeping missions.

Over the past two years, President Joachim Gauck and Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen have repeatedly argued that Germany must engage more forcefully abroad. Berlin has since joined the international alliance against the Islamic State group, though in a non-combat role, sending Tornado reconnaissance jets, aerial refuelling planes and other support. Germany, a major arms exporter, has also broken with another taboo - sending weapons into an active conflict - by arming Kurdish Peshmerga fighters battling IS in Iraq.

Before the Brexit vote, the IMF forecast a 1.7 per cent expansion for the eurozone. However, post Brexit the organisation revised that down to 1.6 per cent this year and 1.4 per cent next year. The IMF warned of economic chaos in the event of a Leave victory and has urged a “smooth transition” for post-EU Britain.

The international organisation said: “The euro area is at a critical juncture. Muddling through is increasingly untenable. Unless collective problems are solved, the euro area is likely to suffer repeated bouts of economic and political instability leading to crises of confidence and economic setbacks.” In the damning statement, it said the migrant crisis could even spell the end of free movement and warned that other countries in the bloc could want their own referendums following the Brexit vote.

A Nobel Prize winning economist even said that Europe may have to “abandon the euro”. The economist, Professor Christopher Pissarides, has said that the uncertainty would reduce investment and hit job creation.

Tony Blair has caused evil, suffering and mass murder that still goes on to this day after taking the UK to war in Iraq in 2003 based on deception. For his soul not to be eternally damned to the fires of hell, the former PM must truly repent and come clean before the masses and tell us what really went on between himself and George W Bush that unleashed the demons of hell on earth.

Despite the scathing assessment of the Chilcot Report – an investigation into the Iraq War which was published this week – former Prime Minister Tony Blair is unlikely to face human justice for leading Britain into a conflict that left as many as one million Iraqis dead. The International Criminal Court has admitted it has no power to prosecute him. Even so, for Blair, a devout Catholic, could it be a case of “out of the frying pan and into the unquenchable lake of burning sulphur”?

Now America is the focus of concern by foreign governments in the Middle East and Caribbean as protesters marched in US cities throughout the weekend after police killed black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. The protests have led to numerous arrests, scuffles and injuries in confrontations between police and demonstrators. America was also tense after a lone black gunman on Thursday shot dead five police officers during a protest in Dallas.

The US embassy of Bahrain, a tiny Middle Eastern island nation, on Saturday urged citizens via twitter to "be cautious of protests or crowded areas occurring around the US." Bahamas, a Caribbean nation where most people identify as being of African heritage, on Friday warned its people to be careful when visiting US cities rocked by "shootings of young black males by police officers." "In particular young males are asked to exercise extreme caution in affected cities in their interactions with the police. Do not be confrontational and cooperate," Bahamas foreign ministry said in a travel advisory.

The United Arab Emirates urged its students and other citizens in the United States to also be careful, using similar language the US State Department employs when warning Americans about countries that have fallen victim to attacks by extremists. "Please be aware of immediate surroundings and avoid crowded places when possible," the UAE embassy said in a statement that urged people to stay away from any US demonstrations. "Exercise particular caution during large festivals or events, be alert and stay safe."

The 510-ft long boat and its surrounding attractions, unveiled in Kentucky on Thursday, has sparked a wave of protests, but he insisted that, far from being an outrage, the theme park was a gift to humanity. “This is not anti-science,” he said, speaking to The Telegraph on the eve of the theme park’s opening. “I would say we embrace all science. We are just teaching people to think differently.”

Indeed, he admits that his thinking is radically different to that of many of his Harvard peers. He and his Creationist colleagues believe that the Bible is a book of historic record. They argue that Genesis tells a factual story explaining that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, that man and dinosaur co-existed, and that Noah built an ark to save animals from a flood. Evolution, he believes, is a myth: Darwin’s work has been misinterpreted.

He added that the policy “flowed on from our position in Genesis,” and insisted that “Christian morality is not invented.” All people are welcome to visit the site, he added. “We are simply challenging people’s thinking,” he said. “We want to say: ‘Hey, perhaps you’ve never thought of this.’ Ultimately, the question is: Why do you believe what you believe?”

The tremors from the two quakes were felt across a wide area and prompted many people to flee into the streets, according to BNO news. Residents reported power outages in some parts of the province. No reports as to the number of casualties were immediately available. Ecuador sits on the Nazca seismic plate region and has experienced a few powerful earthquakes this year already.

On April 16, a 7.8 magnitude quake rattled the country causing the deaths of at least 661 people. Over 27,000 others were injured across a number of provinces that were devastated by wide-spread destruction. A state of emergency was declared as over 13,000 military personnel and police officers participated in recovery operations.

Mr Cameron will tender his resignation to the Queen after PMQs [Prime Minister's Questions] on Wednesday. Mr Cameron, who has been UK prime minister since 2010, decided to quit after the UK's Brexit vote. It follows another day of dramatic developments in the political world, when Andrea Leadsom unexpectedly quit the two-way Conservative leadership contest, saying she did not have the support to build "a strong and stable government".

Her decision left Mrs May - the front runner - as the only candidate to take over leading the party and to therefore become prime minister. In a speech flanked by dozens of Conservative MPs, Mrs May, the home secretary since 2010, praised Mr Cameron for his stewardship of the Tory party and the country. And she paid tribute to Mrs Leadsom for her "dignity" in withdrawing her leadership bid, as well as to the three other candidates who ran in the contest.

"I am honoured and humbled to have been chosen by the Conservative Party to become its leader," Mrs May told the gathered media. She said her leadership bid had been based on the need for "strong, proven leadership", the ability to unite both party and country and a "positive vision" for Britain's future. "A vision of a country that works not for the privileged few but that works for every one of us because we're going to give people more control over their lives and that's how, together, we will build a better Britain."

Earlier, in a brief statement outside Number 10, Mr Cameron said he was "delighted" that Mrs May was to succeed him in Downing Street. He said a "prolonged period of transition" was not necessary, and added: "So tomorrow I will chair my last cabinet meeting. On Wednesday I will attend the House of Commons for Prime Minister's Questions. After that I expect to go the Palace and offer my resignation."

There could be no better examples of this truth than those exposed by the Chilcot report on Iraq and the aftermath of the vote to leave the EU. In each case, what we see is the glaring failure of the key players in the drama to have given proper forethought as to what should be done next if the first step in a sequence turns out the way it did.

Our failure to have worked out in advance any practical plan for how to leave the EU has left us in the shambles we are in today, where no politician has any real idea of how we can execute the people’s wishes. Theresa May insists that “Brexit means Brexit” and Andrea Leadsom may have campaigned to Leave. But neither has yet given us any practical clue as to how they would seek to achieve this goal.

We are looking at two of the greatest failures of statesmanship in modern politics, each reflecting a retreat from any grown-up ability to anticipate political reality into little more than emasculated wishful-thinking. One symptom of this has been the wish to portray our next prime minister as “the new Mrs Thatcher”. But not for nothing was she known as “the only man in the Cabinet”. In this age of blinkered groupthink, I fear we no longer have such a man of either sex today.

"Europe is extremely sick and must start dealing with its problems extremely quickly, or else there may be an accident," Deutsche Bank’s David Folkerts-Landau said, according to the newspaper. "I’m no doomsday prophet, I am a realist."

With Italian banks weighed down by 360 billion euros of soured loans, the government has been sounding out regulators on ways to shore up lenders amid a renewed selloff after Britain voted to leave the European Union. Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, a former member of the European Central Bank’s executive board who now chairs Societe Generale SA, said Wednesday that Italy’s banking crisis could spread to the rest of Europe and rules limiting state aid to lenders should be reconsidered to prevent greater upheaval.

"I do not expect a second financial crisis like in 2008," Folkerts-Landau said, according to Welt. "The banks are much more stable today and have more equity. What we face this time is a slow, long downward spiral."

Gladio became noted for recruiting and financing right-wing extremist groups that could be directed to commit acts of violence and terrorism against their own governments and citizens, thereby creating public anger against anyone who opposed the existing regimes.

In 1996, the CIA expanded its policy of using right-wing extremist groups for this purpose and also began using Islamic extremist organizations. This was called Gladio-B and became the force that has destabilized and overturned countries in the Middle East since then. A good introduction to this history is Gladio B: The Origins of NATO’s Secret Islamic Terrorist Proxies. Even Wikipedia has a fairly unfiltered version of this dark record.

The news of an organized attack against police in Dallas this week is shocking in itself but, when you realize that almost everything about it fits the Gladio template, it is jaw dropping. All one has to do is change the description of groups being recruited from Islamic to Black, and everything else is in place.

Is the same strategy for national destabilization and the creation of hatred and violence now being used against the American people?

Meanwhile, US government-led Nato forces have for some time sought military encirclement of Russia, with US and Nato forces now moving up to its very borders on the false pretext of imaginary ‘Russian aggression’, while new military bases and movement of high tech military equipment, new military bases, and engagements in the South China sea threaten to trigger war with China.

It should be emphasized that – unlike the other victims of US military aggression – Russia and China are powerful nuclear armed states, with the current aggressive moves against them bringing a real danger of nuclear war. The danger of a planet-destroying nuclear war is now at a higher pitch than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis.