Like many financially distressed governments around the globe — think Greece, for example — Puerto Rico has been faced with demands from creditors and their consultants that the island undertake drastic spending cuts to create surpluses large enough to meet debt obligations. The Padilla government has resisted these proposals. Garcia Padilla insists the US territory needs relief from debt payments.

A default would ratchet up pressure on the US Congress to find a legislative solution for Puerto Rico, which enters a key stretch in its fiscal saga, owing another $1.9 billion of debt on July 1, including about $777 million in general obligation debt backed by its constitution.

Today, however, the long-term commitment of the United States is increasingly questioned, and Europe’s security environment has seen fundamental changes in the recent past. In light of the US turn toward the Asia-Pacific and the acceleration of instability in Europe’s Eastern and Southern neighborhoods, Germany has taken the lead in reviving enhanced European security cooperation and integration. Cooperative efforts are necessary in times of economic turmoil and the West’s relative decline on the global stage.

The creation of a European army is a long way off, but it is a strategic necessity to implement important steps to pave the way toward it now. Greater European security capabilities would enable the EU to carry out tasks that the United States is unlikely to take on in the future. In contrast to the early 2000s, Washington is now actively encouraging this process. In addition, greater military capabilities would make the EU more attractive as a US partner.

Germany’s role in enhanced European cooperation is to foster leadership as part of a responsible multilateral framework that allows smaller EU member states to boost their security efforts. Germany has the responsibility to generate basic capabilities that both the EU and NATO can deploy. The process toward a European army that would focus primarily on the EU’s Eastern and Southern neighborhoods is not just another altruistic call for more Europe. It is a strategic necessity.

In a report in its latest edition, the weekly publication said that Merkel’s camp was “furious” at a leak of confidential consultations between Jerusalem and Berlin in the German capital in February, which subsequently appeared in the free Israel Hayom daily, owned by staunch Netanyahu supporter Sheldon Adelson.

Furthermore, the magazine said, the leaked details of Merkel’s remarks were “twisted” to give the impression that she supported Netanyahu’s position that a two-state solution with the Palestinians was currently unfeasible, whereas the chancellor had actually said that Israeli settlement construction “makes it unlikely that a viable Palestinian state can be established in accordance with plans aimed at a two-state solution.”

The Süddeutsche Zeitung reported Thursday on German government plans to deploy troops to Lithuania. An entire NATO battalion could be stationed in the country under German command, according to the report. Similar initiatives by the NATO military alliance are planned in other Eastern European NATO member-states.

A government spokesman told the newspaper that several allies were currently considering “stronger engagement as part of the reassurance of Eastern alliance partners and collective defence.” This review was taking account of “the relevant changes in the European security situation, particularly the security needs of Poland and the Baltic states.”

Demonstrators burned tires on a motorway and threw fireworks and flares at officers, according to a police spokesman. A police helicopter was sent to the scene, while water cannon and pepper spray were used on the crowds. The conference at the Stuttgart Exhibition Centre, which was attended by nearly 2,000 AfD members, was delayed by an hour.

Footage on social media showed the protesters shouting slogans such as: "Keep refugees, drive Nazis away!" and "We'll get you all." AfD, which wants to ban the burqa and outlaw minarets in Germany, is expected to announce that it is explicitly anti-Islamic during the meeting. The party was due to set out its manifesto ahead of country's general election next year. Proposals under consideration include withdrawing from the euro and the reintroduction of army conscription.

The anti-immigrant party won three key states in regional elections last month, claiming almost a quarter of the vote in the relatively poor eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt. AfD is now represented in eight state legislatures.

In early January, North Korea successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test, putting a satellite into orbit a month later, in violation UN Security Council resolutions. In March, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that imposes additional sanctions on North Korea, aiming to affect multiple sectors of the country’s economy.

That same month North Korea conducted multiple short and medium-range rocket launches. "We will not allow for war and chaos to break out on the Korean Peninsula. This situation is not in the interests of any country," Xi Jinping stressed on Thursday.

The test of the developmental DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle was monitored after launch Friday atop a ballistic missile fired from the Wuzhai missile launch center in central China, said officials familiar with reports of the test. US intelligence officials have assessed that China plans to use the glider to deliver nuclear weapons through increasingly sophisticated missile defenses.

The DF-ZF also could be used as part of a conventional strategic strike weapon capable of hitting targets around the world within an hour. Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon strategic forces specialist, said the new Chinese hypersonic glider is a serious threat. “The Chinese probably see this as one of their ‘assassin’s mace’ weapons which are designed to defeat the US.”

Now it seems like our media companies have, as they say, kicked it up a notch. The emergence of virtual-reality devices may seem like a really neat way to give kids a more immersive experience. Indeed, earlier this year McDonald’s launched a promotion in Sweden of Happy Meal boxes that could be turned into virtual-reality viewers.

Unfortunately, we have no idea what the effect of putting these headsets on kids will be. And the manufacturers seem to acknowledge that. Samsung’s manual for its Gear VR reads: “Not for use by children under 13. Watching videos or playing games with the Gear VR may affect the visual development of children. When children, age 13 or older, use the Gear VR, adults should limit their usage time and ensure they take frequent breaks. Adults should monitor children closely after using the Gear VR if children feel discomfort.” Ha!

What are the chances such a device would be in the home of any kid and they wouldn’t actually get the chance to use it? Pretty slim. But parents should beware. Kids who are still getting used to what is a part of the real world may not be ready for a virtual one yet.

There followed a predictable flurry of condemnation, including chastisement from the president of Germany’s own Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann, who saw it as a challenge to the independence of the European Central Bank. Thereby reprimanded, Mr Schäuble has since rowed back somewhat on his remarks.

He didn't need to. The German finance minister was, as ever, bang on the money; negative interest rates are indeed part of an increasingly potent cocktail of complaint against Europe which is fueling support for the anti-immigrant, anti-euro Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Mr Schäuble should not be pilloried for saying so.

Other German politicians have gone further still. Hans-Peter Friedrich, a former interior minister, said that the ECB’s easy-money policies had led to “a massive loss” of the central bank’s credibility, and he called for the installation of a German president to restore monetary discipline to the central bank’s ever more unconventional ways.

Germans look at the ECB’s ever more desperate attempts to generate growth, and all they see is a massive transfer of wealth from creditor to debtor nations. Such transfers may be just about tolerable within nations, where shared interest in adversity is more readily accepted, but when it happens between nations, it is certain to cause a backlash. To Germans, it looks as if they are being made to pay through the burden sharing actions of the ECB for the past profligacies of the Club Med nations.

The further integrated union would not only take a central hold over economic and fiscal matters, as well as internal markets, but would also include social and cultural affairs and foreign, security and defence policy of member states. The paper says “concrete” proposals” to enhance European Union (EU) integration will be drawn up at a meeting in Luxembourg in May, just a month before the UK holds its In/Out referendum on June 23.

The news will come as a blow to pro-EU Prime Minister David Cameron who has sought to reassure voters Britain will not be part of a European superstate. The joint declaration says: “We are convinced that new impetus must be given to European integration. We believe that more, not less, Europe is needed to respond to the challenges we face.”

It says deeper integration “should not be limited to the field of economic and fiscal matters, or to the internal market and to agricultural policy”. It adds: “It should include all matters pertaining to the European ideal - social and cultural affairs as well as foreign, security and defence policy. The current moment offers an opportunity to move forward with European political integration, which could lead to a federal union of States.”

The Gundremmingen plant, located about 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Munich, is run by the German utility RWE. The viruses, which include "W32.Ramnit" and "Conficker", were discovered at Gundremmingen's B unit in a computer system retrofitted in 2008 with data visualisation software associated with equipment for moving nuclear fuel rods, RWE said.

Malware was also found on 18 removable data drives, mainly USB sticks, in office computers maintained separately from the plant's operating systems. RWE said it had increased cyber-security measures as a result. W32.Ramnit is designed to steal files from infected computers and targets Microsoft Windows software, according to the security firm Symantec.

Conficker has infected millions of Windows computers worldwide since it first came to light in 2008. It is able to spread through networks and by copying itself onto removable data drives, Symantec said.

Breitbart London reported that the exercise was attended by 600 members of various European police and military forces, in a bid to prepare the united troops of the European Gendarmerie Force. The military police group is made up of seven European nations, including Spain, Romania, Poland and Germany, and aims to quell post conflict scenarios within EU member states.

The group’s website reported that: “The aim of the [2016, April 15th] Comprehensive Live Exercise will be capacity building of police and gendarmes who will participate in international stabilisation missions and projects with a police component.” It went on to describe the exercises carried out, including “carousel training, with attention being given to all policing skills, including community policing and social patrols, crowd and riot control, SWAT teams and forensic investigation”.

European affairs spokesman for the German Government Andrej Huko asked to attend, but was blocked from coming close to the site. He claimed that the military force was preparing to shut down “political meetings” and “protests”. He went on to argue that the “militarisation of the police” is “extremely worrying and contrary in Germany to the principle of separation of police and military”.

It comes as fears rise that the European Union could form its own army, with one ex-commander of British troops in Afghanistan claiming it could undermine NATO and UK defences.