The German government has revealed that Dutch and German land armies and navies are set to move towards “closer integration”, with two Dutch units already coming under German command. Last month the Dutch 43rd Mechanised Brigade was subsumed into the German 1st Armoured Division, following the takeover of the Dutch 11th Airmobile Brigade by German command last year. And according to insiders, the Czech Republic has now entered talks to bring its army under German control, with the Poles also mooted to be part of the plan.

The accelerated timetable follows a speech given by Germany’s Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen last year, in which she stated the overall aim of merging Europe’s defence forces into one unified army. “The European Army is our long-term goal, but first we have to strengthen the European Defence Union,” she said, adding: “To achieve this, some nations with concrete military cooperation must come to the fore – and the Germans and the Dutch are doing this.”

In September last year the Telegraph reported that German chancellor Angela Merkel expected British PM David Cameron to “drop his opposition to an EU army in exchange for supporting Britain’s [EU] renegotiation”. Mr Cameron is believed to have dropped his opposition, in exchange for a widely mocked “renegotiation” deal with the European Union.

“We said yes, absolutely [to that idea] raised by the former [French] foreign minister Laurent Fabius. Not only had we said yes, we lobbied for it. We wanted the negotiations to start and we felt that the lack of negotiations undermines the peace process and the situation on the ground,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki told RT.

The exclusive interview came ahead of Monday’s Moscow meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas. Discussions on bringing long-standing foes Israel and Palestine to the table again, as well as the other countries concerned, was said to top the agenda.

French President Francois Hollande said after a meeting with Abbas last week that the new summit would help pave the way to lasting peace in the region if it is supported by world powers and Palestine’s neighbors. “The meeting that we’ve had with Hollande was very positive,” Foreign Minister al-Maliki told RT. “Of course, he relies heavily on … collective support [from the Arab states] and beyond. We’ve also had previous discussions with Russian authorities on the French idea [in hope to] get full support from President Putin.”

Following the meeting with Abbas at the Kremlin, President Putin said Moscow will offer “unconditional support” to Palestinian efforts to promote a peaceful solution to the decades’ long conflict, according to TASS. However, the much anticipated conference may stall, as Israel seems unwilling to discuss any option involving a two-state solution, which implies the existence of the State of Israel and State of Palestine within pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.

A common trait that weaves its way through every topic of "Scientism" is corporate profits. Any time something is being pushed with aggressive demands of "SCIENCE!" that also happens to enrich wealthy corporations, it's probably based on fraud, not real science. Perpetrators of fraudulent scientism include Paul Offit, Dr David Gorski, Monsanto pal Bill Nye, discredited biotech shill and former Forbes.com writer Jon Entine and too many others to even name.

In a podcast, I explain the truth about the Cult of Scientism, sometimes called the "Church of Scientific Mysticism." This cult currently dominates the "official" dogma concerning vaccines, GMOs, fluoride, cancer, diabetes, pharmaceuticals, biosludge and more.

The boiling river has cooled down, at least for now. However, earthquake activity in and around the Yellowstone supervolcano is reportedly increasing. The boiling of the Shoshone River for four days in March wasn’t the only recent geothermal event in the river to pique the attention of geologists.

Recent activity in and around the area of the river near Yellowstone has reportedly released enough hydrogen sulfide into the water to create a dead zone spanning one and a half miles. The stretch of river is now completely devoid of fish due to what Burkhardt referred to as a “chemical barrier,” which is blocking fish from entering.

Some believe this to be a very bad sign.

This will also have implications on the extent of the volcano’s impact when it erupts. Researchers with the USGS say that the last time the volcano erupted was some 640,000 years ago. They also say that this supervolcano has the potential to spew more than 240 cubic miles of magma across Montana, Idaho and Wyoming with global effects. Scientists do believe that it will erupt again one day, but do not know when.

Since Yellowstone is located in a seismic active zone, little tremors occur often. However, seismologists believe that one day there will be a strong earthquake, like the 7.3 that hit the area in 1959. When measuring the reservoir, scientists discovered that it is tilted from northwest to southeast.

It is measured as 55 miles by 20 miles on each side and is about 6 miles deep, which scientists say is roughly the same size as it was when it last erupted thousands of years ago. Scientists believe that when the volcano erupts, the reservoir will be emptied. It will then take a long time to refill.

The president's intervention in the UK's forthcoming EU referendum on 23 June has been hotly debated and sparked claims of "hypocrisy" from those who want to leave the EU.

However, in his newspaper piece President Obama recognised that ultimately the matter was for British voters to decide for themselves. But he also said: "The outcome of your decision is a matter of deep interest to the United States. The tens of thousands of Americans who rest in Europe's cemeteries are a silent testament to just how intertwined our prosperity and security truly are."

But writing in the Sun, Vote Leave's Boris Johnson said President Obama's view was "a breathtaking example of the principle do-as-I-say-but-not-as-I-do". BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said a Brexit-supporting cabinet minister had stressed that Obama's view "was not the settled view in the USA. The Republicans don't agree and there is disquiet at his blatant meddling in UK politics".

The Fed just issued a terrifying warning to the biggest bank in the country. The Fed has admitted that we just can’t take another hit without incurring an epic disaster. And by “admitted” I mean they’ve issued a chilling warning to JP Morgan Chase, the biggest bank in America.

Here’s the long and the short of it: Every year, large banks must create a contingency plan that explains what they’ll do if they begin to go under. The biggest bank in the country has such a lackluster, half-baked plan that the Fed called them out on it for 19 pages and warns that their nonchalance could be responsible for the financial instability of the entire country.

Some denizens of America’s great cities probably wouldn’t mind a visit from the Pied Piper right about now. Several major US cities — including Boston, Chicago, New York and Washington, DC — have seen significant surges in rat complaints from their residents in recent months, according to city data reviewed by USA TODAY.

Grousing about rats has long been city-dweller sport, but the long-tailed, sharp-toothed nuisances have now become so populous and so aggressive that some cities are getting creative in their efforts to stay ahead of the rodents even as some frustrated city residents are increasingly taking matters into their own hands.

In Chicago, which historically notches more rat complaints than any other city, residents' reports of rodent activity rose by about 70% in the first quarter of 2016 compared to the same period last year.

The state-sanctioned seizure is just the latest in a number of worrying developments to come out of increasingly hardline Turkey, which is in advanced talks with the EU over visa-free travel for its 80 million citizens. Included in the seizures are Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches, one of which is over 1,700 years old.

The order to seize the churches was made on March 25 by Erdogan's council of ministers, according to the website World Watch Monitor. They claim it was made on the grounds that authorities intend to rebuild and restore the historical centre of the city, which has been partially destroyed by 10 months of urban conflict between government forces and militants from the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

But the seizures have outraged worshippers at the churches, who fear a government coup against their religion, and are now threatening to take legal action against the decision. Ahmet Guvener, pastor of Diyarbakir Protestant Church, said: "The government didn't take over these pieces of property in order to protect them. They did so to acquire them." And the Diyarbakir Bar Association - which represents Christians worshipping at one of the churches, has now officially filed an appeal against the government's action.

Hard-right Jerusalem city council member Arieh King said he hoped that the Temple Mount would soon be free of what he termed “the abomination” currently at the site, while Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, head of the Temple Institute and a former Knesset candidate for the banned Kach party said the event was preparation for when the Temple Mount would be “flattened and cleaned” and the Temple rebuilt.

The model ceremony included the various ancient Temple rites prescribed by the Torah and Jewish law, including the slaughtering of a lamb by Cohanim, priests, in the white robes used in Temple times, the sprinkling of the blood and the burning of fats and other parts of the lamb on a model altar, and the blowing of trumpets by the Cohanim. It was conducted just next to the Beit Orot yeshiva on the Mount of Olives in full view of the Temple Mount.

The Passover Sacrifice is one of the religious commandments of the Torah obliging Jews to sacrifice a lamb on the Temple Mount on the day before the Passover pilgrimage holiday and eat on the first night of the festival. The organizers, the Joint Staff of Temple Organizations, emphasized that the event on Monday was a simulation and not supposed to represent the actual sacrifice.

Speaking before the ceremony began, King, who heads the United Jerusalem faction in the Jerusalem Municipal Council decried the current situation in which said that Jews were still prevented by the government from going to the Temple Mount and performing the Passover sacrifice. “We’re here opposite the Temple Mount,” he continued. “We can see the abomination upon it and we need to wish that even in our days we won’t see it anymore and we’ll see there the altar, the Cohanim and Levi’im and we’ll see ourselves there.”

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, another leader of the religious hard-right sector, was also in attendance, and underlined what he said was the importance of realizing that prayers for the rebuilding of the Temple which appear frequently in Jewish are practical. “When we talk of the Temple we’re talking about something practical and not something imaginary,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “In order to feel how practical this is we are doing this Passover sacrifice ceremony. All Jews, every day for 2,000 years, pray three times a day that this will be practical.”