One starts to glimpse the extraordinary possibility that the US oil industry could be the last one standing in a long and bitter price war for global market share, or may at least emerge as an energy superpower with greater political staying-power than Opec.

It is 10 months since the global crude market buckled, turning into a full-blown rout in November when Saudi Arabia abandoned its role as the oil world's "Federal Reserve" and opted instead to drive out competitors. If the purpose was to choke the US "tight oil" industry before it becomes an existential threat - and to choke solar power in the process - it risks going badly awry, though perhaps they had no choice. "There was a strong expectation that the US system would crash. It hasn't," said Atul Arya, from IHS.

"The freight train of North American tight oil has just kept on coming. This is a classic price discovery exercise," said Rex Tillerson, head of Exxon Mobil, the big brother of the Western oil industry. Mr Tillerson said shale producers are more agile than critics expected, which means that the price war will go on. "This is going to last for a while," he said, warning that any rallies are likely to prove false dawns.

Over the next few months, a big chunk of Greek government bonds held by the IMF and the European Central Bank will mature. Unless negotiations produce a load of new cash for Greece, there will be a default, and right now there is very little optimism that we will see an agreement any time soon. In fact, as I wrote about the other day, behind the scenes banks all over Europe are quietly preparing for a Grexit.

European news sources are reporting that the Greek banking system is on the verge of collapse, and over the past couple of weeks Greek bond yields have shot through the roof. Most of the things that we would expect to see in the lead up to a Greek exit from the eurozone are happening, and now we will wait and see if the Greeks actually have the guts to pull the trigger when push comes to shove.

At this point, many top European officials are quietly admitting that it is more likely than not that Greece will leave the euro by the end of this year.

An estimated 1,500 people were forced to flee the nearby town of Ensenada after the eruption, while several smaller townships were also cleared. The volcano is located near the tourist town of Puerto Varas and the city of Puerto Montt, a little more than 620 miles south of Chile's capital, Santiago. The National Mining and Geology Service issued a high alert, setting up an exclusion zone of 12.5 miles around the volcano, barring access to the area. Trevor Moffat, who lives in Ensenada, some six miles from the volcano, said the eruption happened without warning. Volcano Calbuco's last major eruption happened in 1961, with a weak eruption following in 1972.

Chile, on the Pacific 'Rim of Fire', has the second largest chain of volcanoes in the world after Indonesia, including around 500 that are potentially active. In March, volcano Villarrica, also in southern Chile, erupted in spectacular fashion, sending a plume of ash and lava high into the sky, but quickly subsided. Volcanoes occur at the edges of tectonic plates which make up the earth's crust, either where these plates are moving toward or away from one another. Eruptions occur when magma from the Earth's core forces its way to the surface, exploding through weak points in the crust.

Many Americans have expressed strong concern over the training on social media, and locally some Bastrop County residents have stated their apprehension for the military training to local county officials. Officials have responded by saying that JADE HELM 15, a form of Realistic Military Training (RMT), will coordinate with local law enforcement agencies and local property owners affected by this training exercise.

“The nature of warfare is always changing and US Army Special Operations Command’s mission is to make certain the Army’s various Special Operations Forces are trained, equipped and organized to successfully conduct worldwide special operations in support of our nation’s interest,” Army Lieutenant Colonel Mark Lastoria, a command spokesman, told the Washington Post in an email, according to a March 31 news article. “Training exercise Jade Helm is going to assist our Special Operations Soldiers and leadership in refining the skills needed against an ever changing foreign threat.”

A recent biotech discovery — one that has been called the biggest biotech discovery of the century — showed how scientists might be able to modify a human genome when that genome was still just in an embryo.

This could change not only the genetic material of a person, but could also change the DNA they pass on, removing "bad" genetic codes (and potentially adding "good" ones) and taking an active hand in evolution. Concerned scientists published an argument that no one should edit the human genome in this way until we better understood the consequences after a report uncovered rumors that Chinese scientists were already working on using this technology.

But this new paper, published April 18 in the journal Protein and Cell by a Chinese group led by gene-function researcher Junjiu Huang of Sun Yat-sen University, shows that work has already been done, and Nature News spoke to a Chinese source that said at least four different groups are "pursuing gene editing in human embryos."

Specifically, the team tried to modify a gene in a non-viable embryo that would have been responsible for a deadly blood disorder. But they noted in the study that they encountered serious challenges, suggesting there are still significant hurdles before clinical use becomes a reality.

Moments ago the NY Department for Financial Services announced that Deutsche Bank would pay $2.5 billion "in connection with the manipulation of the benchmark interest rates, including the London Interbank Offered Rate ("LIBOR"), the Euro Interbank Offered Rate ("EURIBOR") and Euroyen Tokyo Interbank Offered Rate ("TIBOR") (collectively, "IBOR")."

According to FT calculations, "this is the largest fine to date in the sprawling worldwide Libor investigation" and beneficiaries of DB's criminal generosity include New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) which will get $600 million, $775 million go to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), and 227 million GBP (approximately $340 million) to the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Best of all $800 million will end up in the bank accounts of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the same CFTC which can now afford to upgrade from ticker tape and actually have some sense of the pervasive manipulation taking place in the S&P on a daily basis.

Most importantly for DB's 98,138 employees is that while DB will "terminate and ban individual employees who engaged in misconduct" nobody will go to jail. AGAIN. In other words it just cost DB's about $25,474 per employee to keep its Libor-manipulating employees (and thus, senior level management because the stench always goes to the very top) out of prison.

With the passage of House Bill 195 into law, the State of Louisiana has banned the use of cash in all transactions involving secondhand goods. State representative Ricky Hardy, a co-author of the bill, claims that the bill targets criminals who traffic in stolen goods. According to Hardy, “It’s a mechanism to be used so the police department has something to go on and have a lead.” The bill prohibits cash transactions by “secondhand dealers,” defined to include garage sales, flea markets, resellers of specialty items, and even non-profit resellers like Goodwill.

So the aim of the bill is not to aid law enforcement in apprehending criminals, none of whom would be ever stupid enough to turn over such information. The real intent is to feed government’s insatiable hunger for tax revenues by completely stripping law-abiding citizens of financial privacy in secondhand transactions, every detail of which is fed directly into police files.

This troubling development in Louisiana parallels the intensification of the war on cash by the Federal government. Last month it was reported that the US Justice Department ordered bank employees to snitch to the cops on customers who withdrew $5,000 or more. In a speech, assistant attorney general Leslie Caldwell exhorted banks to “alert law enforcement authorities about the problem” so that police can “seize the funds” or at least “initiate an investigation”.

The government is hungry for your money. They want your tax dollars even when you pay $0.50 for a used paperback book at a garage sale. Ridiculous? Absolutely. But nobody ever accused a politician of being rational or logical or content with the current level of taxation. They always want more money, and they’ll do whatever it takes to get another nickel out of your pocket.

The poster is at the center of heated legal debate over public safety and free speech. On Tuesday, US District Judge John Koeltl ruled that New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) cannot stop the controversial ad from running on scores of subway cars and buses. The MTA has argued that the ad could incite violence against Jews, but Koeltl rejected that idea.

MTA officials “underestimate the tolerant quality of New Yorkers and overestimate the potential impact of these fleeting advertisements,” he ruled. “Moreover, there is no evidence that seeing one of these advertisements on the back of a bus would be sufficient to trigger a violent reaction. Therefore, these ads — offensive as they may be — are still entitled to First Amendment protection.”

But even if the ads don’t incite violence in New York City, they could overseas. Earlier this month, Egypt’s top religious authority called AFDI’s posters “racist” and issued a fatwa, or official edict, against them. “This hazardous campaign will leave the gate of confrontation and clashes wide open instead of exerting efforts towards peaceful coexistence and harmony,” according to the edict.

The government has resorted to increasingly desperate measures to fill their coffers in the absence of fresh bail-out cash from its international creditors. On Monday, an emergency presidential decree forced up to 1,500 local government bodies to transfer their excess cash reserves to the Bank of Greece.

The measure, which was pushed for by Brussels, has met fierce resistance in the country. Giorgis Kaminis, the mayor of Athens, said he would fight the confiscation law, attacking it as "unconstitutional".

“We’re determined to use all political and legal means we can to repudiate the content of the decree,” the Union of Municipalities and Communities said in statement on Tuesday night.

The raid could generate an estimated €1.2 billion to €2 billion for the treasury by seizing reserves in commercial banks and shifting them to the central bank in Athens. But Greece's labour minister said his government would seek alternative solutions should mayors and local governors resist the measures.

Several hours later the decree which was posted in the government gazette has finally percolated among the population, and the response to what even ordinary Greeks realize is now the endgame, is less than exuberant. Bloomberg reports, that “as Greece struggles to find cash to stay afloat, local authorities say they oppose a government decision to use their reserves for short-term financing.”

“The government’s decision to seize our reserves not only raises legal and constitutional issues, but also a moral one,” said George Papanikolaou, mayor of Glyfada, the third-largest municipality in the metropolitan region of Attica after Athens and Piraeus. “We have a responsibility to serve our citizens,” Papanikolaou said by phone on Monday.

Glyfada has about 16 million euros in cash reserves, he said. George is unhappy because as recently as tomorrow, he will find there is precisely zero euros in his public bank account, as all the money has now been forcibly sequestered by the government in order to repay future Troika, pardon, IMF obligations.

Sadly for Greece, this is the only option left as the money has now fully run out: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras ordered local governments and central government entities to move their cash balances to the central bank for investment in short-term state debt.

But there is no such thing as routine remodelling when it comes to the most contested piece of real estate in Jerusalem, where the presence of a mere screwdriver can threaten to ignite religious tensions. The carpet has sparked a verbal holy war over the hilltop compound, which is revered by Jews and Muslims whose competing claims often spill over into violence.

Israeli archaeological authorities say the repairs were carried out behind their backs, and an Israeli government minister urged an immediate halt to the work, claiming it might cause irreparable damage. Frustrated Israeli researchers say previously undocumented ancient floor designs were discovered when the old carpets were peeled off, but they didn’t get a chance to document the designs before workmen covered them up with the new carpet.

And some researchers claim the Bible’s deepest secrets may lie beneath some of the newly exposed floor designs. “Something is there. I don’t know what. But something is hidden there,” said Israeli archaeologist Zachi Dvira, who studies the site.

Ancient Jewish traditions say the gold-cased Ark of the Covenant, which contained the Ten Commandments, may have been hidden away in a chamber when the First Jewish Temple was destroyed some 2,500 years ago. It’s an Indiana Jones-type mystery that touches upon a holy grail for biblical enthusiasts.

Despite being the holiest site in Judaism, Jews and other non-Muslims are prevented from praying there due to an arrangement between the police and the Waqf Islamic authorities which administer the site, also home to the Al Aqsa Mosque complex. In order not to "offend" Muslim worshippers, Jewish visits are severely restricted and religious-looking Jews are closely monitored for any hint they might be praying - and are often promptly arrested if suspected of doing so. In one recent case an IDF soldier was arrested after bowing his head as he left the holy site.

Jewish Temple Mount campaigners have branded the draconian laws a capitulation to terrorism, noting Israeli authorities have all but abandoned the Temple Mount to Islamist groups. After a Jewish woman protests at the restrictions, citing the court ruling, the officer brushes her off: "The court can say whatever it wants, the police have a policy here. Everybody (listen up): no courts, no nothing. The entire police have a policy, and we act according to that policy, OK?"

Temple Institute International Director Rabbi Chaim Richman, who was with the group at the time, branded the incident "a terrible indictment of the government." "It is absolutely insane that on Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) we're not allowed to say a prayer for those that fell. Is there any other place in the world where the police could get away with so flagrantly violating a court order, and saying 'we don't care what the court says, we have our own rules'?"

New York Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe said that the apes, held at Stony Brook University for research purposes, are covered by a writ of habeas corpus — a basic legal principle that lets people challenge the validity of their detention. However, hours later, Jaffe amended her court order to remove the habeas corpus language, essentially reversing the earlier decision.

The non-decision comes two years after the Nonhuman Rights Project, an animal rights group, brought legal cases in a bid to free four chimpanzees. The group said the animals — Hercules and Leo at Stony Brook University, and two others on private property — were being unlawfully imprisoned, and should be relocated to a sanctuary. Three lower court judges dismissed the cases as they were raised in 2013, but the Nonhuman Rights Project appealed, eventually convincing Jaffe that the animals were sufficiently intelligent to grant them what amounts to basic human rights — but only temporarily.

Jaffe has ordered a Stony Brook representative to appear in court on May 6th to reply to the Nonhuman Rights Project's petition that the animals are being held unlawfully. It could be that the judge organized the hearing to listen to both sides of the case before making a decision, and will ultimately decide that Stony Brook can keep the apes. Richard Cupp, a law professor at California's Pepperdine University told Science it would be "quite surprising" if the judge made "a momentous substantive finding" that chimps were legally people without both parties being able to have their say.

By late November 2011, international credit markets were exhibiting the same danger signs of stress that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, and it appeared that the long-feared next stage of a global financial implosion was at hand. It took the simultaneous actions of the world’s central banks, followed by a “final” bailout of Greece by the “troika” of the IMF, the European Central Bank and the Eurozone countries to the tune of 240 billion Euros.

Now, in the latest chapter of that on-again, off-again crisis, we face something close to the opposite reaction. There is a level of complacency in global financial markets and among world leaders that may be as irrational and extreme as the panic was three years ago.

But the recent bout of brinksmanship between Germany and Greece raises a simple, pungent question: Is it really worth the risk, just to stand firm on the principle of austerity? Is Greece worth gambling the future of the eurozone, and by extension the stability of the global financial system — not to mention the fragile health of a still-barely-recovered US economy as we head into the 2016 presidential campaign?

You would think that the answer should be clear.

No, it is not worth the risk of an implosion.

No, Greece, with its 11 million people and around $400 billion of debt, is not important enough in the grand scheme to imperil the economic stability of the eurozone and indeed the whole European Union with its $16 trillion of official GDP, and its nearly 500 million citizens.

And no, the principle of Greece abiding by its obligations and reducing its debt-to-GDP ratio – seen as so imperative by the austeristas – should not be sufficient to imperil the financial stability of the entire world, a tenuous but real stability that would be, at the very least, rocked by eurozone turmoil.