Arguing that the liberal system of globalization has failed, the minister stressed that the world is standing at a crossroads, where a new system of international relations is taking shape. At such an important historical junction, Lavrov says it is wrong to accuse Russia of “revisionism” just because Moscow refuses to bow or close its eyes to NATO’s policies.

“A reliable solution to the problems of the modern world can only be achieved through serious and honest cooperation between the leading states and their associations in order to address common challenges,” Lavrov wrote. The most pressing issue in the modern world is the threat of terrorism, which can only be defeated by a united front, he added.

The foreign minister stressed that Russia is not seeking any “confrontation” with the US or the EU. On the contrary, Moscow is and has always been open to “the widest possible cooperation with its Western partners.” Russia continues to support the notion that the best way to ensure the interests of Europeans would be “to form a common economic and humanitarian space from the Atlantic to the Pacific, so that the newly formed Eurasian Economic Union could be an integrating link between Europe and Asia Pacific.”

He then added: “How many invasions has Europe experienced in the course of its history! But it’s always been able to overcome them and move forward, finding itself complemented and improved by the cultural exchange they brought about.”

The Pontiff also reflected on the history of migration into Europe and the positive impact it has had on European culture as we now know it. The Pope also declared that Europe is “the only continent that can bring some unity to the world”. He then added, that in order to fulfill its “universal role”, Europe must “rediscover its cultural roots”.

The modern nation-state model is still strong in most parts of the Muslim world. And, I believe, it’s still the preferred option for most Muslims today. But the long century that has passed since the First World War has been increasingly marked by frustration. It’s littered with the broken promises of Muslim rulers to bring about a transition to more representative forms of government. And it has been marked by a sense that Western powers continue to control and manipulate events in the region, in a way that doesn’t always represent the best interests of Muslim societies.

An extreme high point of frustration was reached in the events of the so-called Arab Spring. The wave of popular demonstrations against the autocratic regimes of the Arab world were seen as the first winds of change that would bring about democracy to the region. But, with the possible exception of Tunisia, all of these countries underwent either destabilisation (Libya, Syria), the return of military rule (Egypt) or the further clamping down on civil rights (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other Gulf monarchies).

I would hesitate to describe IS’s declaration of a caliphate as a serious challenge to the modern nation-state model. But the small, albeit substantial, stream of followers it manages to recruit daily shows it would be wrong to take for granted that the terms of the international order can simply be dictated from above forever. When brute force increasingly has the final say over how people live their lives, it becomes harder for them to differentiate between the lesser of two evils.

The amount of gold the Canadian government holds has therefore been falling steadily since the mid-1960s, when over 1,000 tonnes were kept tucked away. Half of those reserves were sold by 1985, and then almost all the rest were sold through the 1990s up to 2002.

This latest sell-off is indeed part of a much longer-term pattern of moving away from gold as a government-held asset. According to economist Ian Lee of the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University, Ottawa has no real reason to keep its gold reserves other than adhering to tradition.

According to Lee, there may soon come a time when Canada’s gold reserves are entirely a thing of the past. There are better assets to focus on, he argued, calling the government’s decision to dump gold “wise and astute.”

Lee was right, because fast forward one month when earlier today Canada's Department of Finance released its latest official international reserves and as of this moment it's official - Canada has fully "broken away with tradition" and has exactly zero gold left.

A Republican hopeful seeking the support of a room full of pro-Israel Republicans, he doubted Israel’s willingness to make peace and declined to call Jerusalem the undivided capital of the Jewish state, a position that is held by most other candidates in his party.

But what most of the headlines coming out of the gathering highlighted was the manner in which Trump invoked what many consider to be offensive Jewish stereotypes, which included him saying, “You’re not gonna support me because I don’t want your money. You want to control your politicians, that’s fine.” When the crowd erupted with boos over his answer to the Jerusalem question, Trump tried to reassure them. “Do me a favor, just relax,” he said. “You’ll like me very much, believe me.”

But following Trump’s strong Super Tuesday showing — in which he won eight of the 11 states that held GOP primary contests — people aren’t relaxing, and the question of what a Trump presidency would mean for Israel is becoming an increasingly pressing one for those who care about the country’s future.

Reported as a "disaster waiting to happen" experts suggest the immediate deactivation of the facility located just 25 miles north of New York City to halt the further contamination of 23 million people's water. The plant which is owned and operated by Entergy has experienced and reported leaks in the past but one iron worker who worked at the facility is unsurprised citing: "I was kind of shocked at how decrepit the facility seemed" upon receiving work there.

More troubling though is that the official numbers reported of the most recent samples may not be nearly as accurate as samples from other locations which reported results as much as "65,000 percent times" the readings taken before the Cuomo investigation.

In the past year the problems plaguing the facility have not been not limited to radioactive leakage but also power outtages, fires and safety alarm malfunctions that further threaten the workers at the facility and local residents.

1. Displaying Bumper Stickers on Your Vehicle

According to a training manual used in the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT) program for law enforcement some bumper stickers could be indications of terrorist activity. Some suspicious sticker subjects include pro-life, pro-freedom, anti-genetic engineering, anti-United Nations, and patriotism (because patriotism = terrorism… interesting).

2. Shop at Costco or Sam’s Club

Purchasing food in bulk (at least enough to last more than 7 days) could be interpreted as suspicious activity. Stocking up on mega amounts of peanut butter and toilet paper and ravioli could mean you’re a terrorist.

3. Pay With Cash

Suspicious, isn’t it? That you would pay cold hard cash for anything? Maybe because it’s harder for the powers that be to keep tabs on cash purchases than electronic ones.

4. Vote Third Party

Step outside the two-party political illusion and you might be considered a terrorist threat. A law enforcement report (2009) from the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) listed libertarians (and Ron Paul supporters) as potential terrorist threats. In 2011, Vice President Biden equated Tea Party supporters with terrorists... perhaps just thinking about voting for someone outside the two party system would be enough to get you in trouble with the “thought police”.

5. Fly the American Flag

According to that same MIAC report, people who fly the US flag could be equated with extremist hate groups and domestic terrorists.

6. Homeschool

The documentary film, '9/11: The Road To Tyranny', featured footage of a lecturer at a FEMA symposium for first responders stating that homeschoolers were terrorists and should be treated with the utmost suspicion and brutality in times of national emergency.

7. Plant a Garden

According to an 18-year law enforcement veteran, the Department of Homeland Security is training local police to recognize potential domestic terrorists. On the list: self-sufficiency.

8. Take Pictures or Videos

Who doesn’t take pictures of symbolic monuments while on vacation? Showing too much interest in or snapping “inappropriate” photos of important landmarks could earn you some attention from the FBI.

9. Believe in Conspiracy Theories

After reading this list, it’s easy to believe in some insane government conspiracy to land every American citizen on a government watch list. Beware: Believing in conspiracy theories… well, that’s reason enough to land your name on a government watch list.

[This speech]… will do exactly nothing other than drive even more people to Trump. Romney’s focus on “tax returns” is particularly insane. First, there is not only no obligation to do so excerpts, which is all that anyone ever releases, prove exactly nothing. What does prove something? That the required disclosures that not only are more comprehensive, they’re made under penalty of law. So-called released “tax returns” are not.

Those could in fact be lies and there is nothing you can do about it because there is nothing illegal about lying as a political statement, only when you lie to the government. If you lie in a required campaign disclosure to the FEC you can go to prison.

If you lie in a campaign there is no penalty. You could literally make up a “tax return”, and I suspect others have and probably have in this election cycle because there is no legal penalty that applies to campaign lies.

Here’s what I know: Romney ripped off every person in Massachusetts to benefit medical and pharmaceutical monopolies that ought to be prosecuted under 15 USC and backed the same theft from everyone via Obamacare, turning it from a scam you could at least try to evade into a legal duty to pay enforced by government.

Further Trump’s domestic and trade policies would, contrary to Mitt Romney and how he has made his money, bring jobs back home. Romney, let us remember, made his money by thieving your jobs and sending them to China while loading up the companies he “acquired” with debt that subsequently sank them, destroying said jobs.

Despite the nice talking points, when it comes to acts, Romney and the rest of the Establishment have done exactly zero to do anything other than further the scams that are robbing you blind, taking their cut from same, destroying American industry, pensions and jobs.

“Let me put it plainly, if we Republicans choose Donald Trump as our nominee, the prospects for a safe and prosperous future are greatly diminished,” Romney said in an extraordinary broadside, delivered in Salt Lake City, Utah, designed to halt Trump's march to the nomination.

Romney, the chairman of Lexington, Massachusetts-based Solamere Capital, described Trump as vulgar, sexually debased, and out of step with America. “Dishonesty is Donald Trump's hallmark,” he said.

Hours later, at a campaign rally in Maine, Trump blasted Romney with his own flurry of insults, calling him a "failed candidate" who "let us down" after running a "horrible campaign," and also recalled meeting with the former Massachusetts governor during the 2012 campaign when Romney sought and received his endorsement. “I could’ve said, 'Mitt, drop to your knees,' he would have dropped to his knees," Trump said, adding that, "If somebody hits me, I'm going to hit them back harder."

The spectacle of the party's former standard-bearer and the man who hopes to fill that role trading insults was unlike anything in recent memory in American politics, and sent Republicans scrambling to choose sides in the skirmish.

Such calls for violence are a direct violation of Twitter’s terms of service, however at press time all of these accounts are still active. This is troubling given Twitter’s recent history of what appears to be a war on conservative media, including their unexplained de-verification of Breitbart tech editor Milo Yiannopoulos’s account.

The media has once again made it its business to play up racial tensions, reducing Trump’s stances against illegal immigration and Muslim terrorism to “racism.”

Speaking of the European Commission's Five Presidents Report - which lays out plans to shore up the foundations of the euro - Mr Issing said it was a step towards creating a fiscal union "without democratic legitimacy". "Those who have read [the Five Presidents] report know that. Without political union all transfers will lack democratic legitimacy. And nobody can be as stupid as to think political union is around the corner," he told a parliamentary committee at the House of Lords.

Professor Issing - who has been a fierce critic of attempts to pool budgetary powers in the euro - said EU elites were afraid to "confront" voters, delaying their plans for integration until after 2017, the year France and Germany hold national elections. "The thrust of all these ideas is going through a back door towards fiscal union," he said.

"Voters in the end will understand what is going on. They will know they are being exploited." His comments come after prominent voices such as former Bank of England governor Lord King predicted the euro would collapse under the weight of popular disillusion in its weakest economies.

Moving to negative rates reflects a measure of desperation on the part of central banks. Their traditional tools have been largely exhausted, as most countries’ interest rates have been pushed to almost nothing. Bloomberg previously noted of the initiation of negative rates in the EU: Negative interest rates are a sign of desperation, a signal that traditional policy options have proved ineffective and new limits need to be explored.

They punish banks that hoard cash instead of extending loans to businesses or to weaker lenders. And negative rates will eventually come to America. Central bankers are implementing negative interest rates to force savers to buy assets … so as to artificially stimulate the economy.

Specifically:

A negative interest rate means the central bank and perhaps private banks will charge negative interest: instead of receiving money on deposits, depositors must pay regularly to keep their money with the bank. This is intended to incentivize banks to lend money more freely and businesses and individuals to invest, lend, and spend money rather than pay a fee to keep it safe.

Francis, known for his concern for the poor and his harsh anti-capitalist rhetoric, made his comments on ill-gotten gains during a weekly address to crowds gathered in St Peter`s Square in the Vatican. "Some donors come to the Church offering profits from the blood of people who have been exploited, mistreated, enslaved with badly paid work," said Francis, adding the Church would not accept such contributions as the “People of God don’t need their dirty money.”

Francis is known as a vocal critic of the flaws of capitalism. Last year, the Pope delivered a passionate speech on poverty during his visit to Chile, in which he denounced the existing socioeconomic system as “intolerable,” and urged his followers to create an economy that would be at the “service of people” rather than at the “service of money.”

The Pope argued that once people began to focus only on gaining profits, it becomes an “idol” and the “greed for money” undermines society. He also repeatedly warned of the perils of “new imperialism” imposed by big corporations and agencies that enforce austerity programs. Francis advocated the necessity of fairer redistribution of wealth. These kinds of remarks have earned him the reputation of being a leftist. However, the pontiff insists he only preaches the social doctrine of the Church.