Saudi Arabia, Turkey and other Sunni nations had hoped to turn Syria into a Sunni nation, and for years they have been funding and arming ISIS and other Sunni insurgent groups in an attempt to overthrow the Assad regime. Initially the Assad regime was losing quite a bit of ground, but the tide turned once the Syrians invited the Russians and the Iranians to help them.

Of course the Iranians have their own long-term goals. Once Assad leaves power, the Iranians hope to turn Syria into a truly Shiite nation that is run and dominated by Hezbollah. At this moment, the Sunnis and losing and the Shiites are winning. Relentless Russian airstrikes have enabled Syrian, Iranian and Hezbollah ground forces to advance, and now they have surrounded Aleppo. Before the war Aleppo was the largest city in Syria, and if it falls, the war will be very close to over.

Thousands of refugees are currently flooding out of Aleppo as the Russians bombard the surrounding area continually. There is little hope that the Sunni forces that once were so optimistic about overthrowing Assad can hold out much longer without help. As the situation becomes increasingly desperate, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are now considering what was once unthinkable – a full-blown ground invasion of Syria.

Of course this could very well set off World War III in the Middle East, but Saudi Arabia and Turkey have already invested so much in this conflict, and they don’t appear to be willing to throw up their hands and walk away now. Our world is becoming increasingly unstable, and Syria has become a crucible for rising global tensions that could explode at any moment.

Proposals to ban cash payments of more than €5,000 (£3,860) to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism were revealed by the German finance ministry last week. They face opposition from a broad alliance of political parties as well as the country’s bestselling newspaper. The Bild published an open letter on Monday entitled “hands off our cash”, which, in keeping with the analogue theme, it encourages readers to sign, cut out and post to the finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble.

Political groups ranging from the Green party to the liberal Free Democrats to rightwing Alternative für Deutschland have condemned the proposed measures, which also include a ban on €500 notes, as an attack on data protection and privacy.

This definition of theory as something subject to disproof or challenge is deeply and honourably rooted in scientific tradition - in the practice of testing explanations by discovery or experiment. "Theory and experiment", the 18th Century chemist Joseph Priestley wrote, "go hand in hand". And Darwin in his Origin of Species wrote that new discoveries could "annihilate my theory".

Scientists are proud of the principle that their beliefs can be tested and challenged, not accepted as a matter of faith - that in the words of Darwin's champion TH Huxley, a beautiful hypothesis can be slain by an "ugly fact". But when opponents interpret this to mean evolution - or at least Darwin's doctrine of natural selection - is just one competing opinion, his supporters deny this.

Some theories, scientific bodies say, are "the foundations of human understanding of nature" and "based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment". But Richard Dawkins points out that scientists themselves use the word with different meanings. "Trying to clear up this terminological point about the meaning of 'theory' is a losing battle," he says. He says we should call evolution a "fact" because, he says, "the evidence for evolution is so strong that to withhold assent would be perverse".

1."Risen" arrives in theaters February 18th. A Roman centurion (Joseph Fiennes) on the order of Pontius Pilate is told to investigate the disappearance of Jesus' body. His search leads him across Jerusalem, meeting Christ's disciples along the way. Shown incontrovertible proof that Jesus is the Messiah, the centurion has a personal crisis as to how his life has been led up to that point. "We can only hope Risen delivers the adventure its narrative deserves," Duncan says.

2. "The Young Messiah" opens wide on March 11th. This feature offers a rare glimpse into Christ's childhood, which is somewhat under-represented in Biblical scripture. "The Young Messiah" hopes to answer the question - When did Jesus know he was God? The film is a fictional story of Jesus as a seven-year-old. "Taking creative license with scripture is always a touchy subject for Christian viewers, but 'The Young Messiah' could prove to be the exception," Duncan says.

3. "Miracles from Heaven," in theaters March 18th, is a true story of a family torn apart by their 12-year-old daughter's rare illness. Putting their faith in God, the family is blessed with a miracle. "A feel-good movie for the whole family, 'Miracles of Heaven' intends to remind viewers that all things are possible in Christ," Duncan says.

4. The sequel to the breakout Christian film, "God's Not Dead," "God's Not Dead 2" arrives April 1st. A public school teacher, played by Melissa Joan Hart, gets into trouble for quoting the Bible in class. The situation spirals out of control as those around her turn the incident into a battleground for religious freedom.

5. Finally, "Silence," which has no specific release date for the coming year. Director Martin Scorsese adapts the novel by Shusaku Endo, about a group of 17th century Jesuit priests intending to evangelize Japan. Acting heavyweights Liam Neeson and Adam Driver star, and further details about the film remain a highly kept secret.

Much like Zika virus, dengue fever is a viral illness spread by mosquitoes. While it is not endemic to Hawaii, the state does have the mosquito species capable of transmitting the disease. As of Monday, the Hawaii Department of Health had confirmed 251 cases of dengue on the Big Island, including 227 infected Hawaii Island residents and 24 visitors. Symptoms include fever, rash, joint or muscle pain, headache, or pain behind the eyes.

Though often debilitating, the symptoms can be effectively managed if recognized and treated. The virus, nicknamed "breakbone fever," can develop into a more severe form called dengue hemorrhagic fever that can be fatal if left untreated.

According to Thebigriddle.com: Nagalase is a protein that’s also created by all cancer cells. This protein is also found in very high concentrations in autistic children. And they’re PUTTING it in our vaccines!!This prevents the body from utilizing the Vitamin D necessary to fight cancer and prevent autism. Nagalese disables the immune system. It’s also known to cause Type 2 Diabetes.

So basically… they weren’t killing these doctors because they had found the cure to cancer or were successfully treating autism… they’re killing them because these doctors had been researching and had the evidence that the vaccines they’re injecting our precious children with are CAUSING our current cancer and autism crisis!! And that it’s obviously being done knowingly and on purpose! The doctors they killed in Florida had been collaborating and were getting ready to go public with the information.

Depopulation 101… add poison to vaccines… make it law that all children must be injected to attend school. Slow kill methods. They think they’re being fair with their “survival of the fittest” type mentality. Only the best genes survive? These people have no souls.

The Chancellor has been aware for some time that there has been a bubble in the buy-to-let housing market, where people buy properties in order to rent them out. The problem with this market growing too fast, or too big, is that if interest rates on the mortgages go up, it can trigger a mass sell-off. This floods the market with houses, resulting in a sudden crash in prices.

This generally triggers a domino effect, as lenders stop lending (slowing the market further), and then the negative equity trap happens where homeowners who may have remortgaged their properties based on the higher market value, or took on a higher mortgage planning to sell on at the higher market value, suddenly find themselves in serious financial distress.

A new report from the National Landlord’s Association states that this moment may have arrived. As Business Insider reports:

“It looks like (Bank of England Governor Mark) Carney’s worst fear about buy-to-let could come to pass even without an interest rates rise. The Times reports on Wednesday that 500,000 buy-to-let properties could be sold off in the next year alone, followed by 100,000 a year until 2021”.

Now, forecasts are forecasts. They are not inevitable, or absolute. What’s concerning is the absence of corrective action in the face of these dire warnings. Whether it is the astronomical spike in house prices, the sudden crisis-in-confidence in the buy-to-let market, the crisis in China, the crash in prices of Brent Crude oil, or the litany of other red flags – the major indicators of an impending crash are present today.

European markets slumped to their lowest level in more than two years amid an unremittingly bleak outlook for the global economy and concerns over the resilience of the world's biggest lenders. The Euro Stoxx 600 index of leading bank shares fell as much as 6 percent in Monday's trading, closing down 5.6 percent, plumbing depths not seen since August 2012. The continent's lenders have now lost 17.3 percent of their value of the last 30 days.

Volatility forced shares in Barclays to be briefly suspended in late afternoon trading. Barclays, along with BNP Paribas and ING Santander all closed down more than 5 percent. Deutsche Bank was the world's biggest bank faller, with its shares down as much as 11.8 percent. Germany's largest lender, which posted a record loss in 2015, closed down 9.5 percent on the day, and has seen 40 percent of its market capitalisation wiped off since the start of the year. Its shares are now down to their lowest ever level at €13.82 per share.

“Putting on a trade at the moment would feel like standing in front of an oncoming freight train,” said Juan Esteban Valencia at Societe Generale. “There are too many issues to worry about, whether it’s oil, China’s slowdown, emerging markets or bank exposures to emerging markets and commodities.”

Europe’s escalating migration crisis- which saw over a million people pour into the continent last year - has led to the re-introduction of temporary border controls in the EU for the first time time in two decades, threatening to reverse one of Brussels’ landmark integration projects.

A full blown dismantling of the borderless zone - where people and trade can move without restriction between 26 countries - would cause “unforeseeable damage” to the continent’s beleaguered economies, Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s foreign minister has said.

“If the Schengen zone is going to be demolished or destroyed, then it will cause such serious economic damage that I don’t know how Europe is going to handle it", Mr Szijjarto told The Telegraph. His warning comes amid fears that abolishing Europe's open borders would wipe €110 billion off the EU's economies over 10 years.

Germany's Jens Weidmann and France's newly appointed François Villeroy de Galhau urged member states to move towards a "comprehensive sharing of sovereignty" which would include a common 19-member treasury and an "independent fiscal council" with a eurozone parliament.

"While monetary policy has delivered a lot of support for the euro-area economy, it cannot bring about long-lasting economic growth," they wrote in Germany's Süddeutschen Zeitung newspaper. "More integration appears to be the most straightforward solution to restore confidence in the euro area." Their comments are a rare sign of unity from the EU's most powerful founding member states, which have often diverged on their visions for the future of the eurozone.

"Sometimes profound tectonic shifts in global politics arise from the least noticed events. Such is the situation with Iran and the recent visit to Tehran of China's President Xi Jinping. What emerged from the talks confirms that the vital third leg of what will become a genuine Eurasian Golden Triangle, of nations committed to peaceful economic development, is now in place," American-German researcher, historian and strategic risk consultant F William Engdahl writes in his article for New Eastern Outlook.

On January 23, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani signed 17 agreements on economic and technological cooperation. Furthermore, the leaders announced they will cooperate on the China-led One Belt One Road initiative. The researcher calls the formal inclusion of Iran into China's New Economic Silk Road project "a giant positive step." According to Engdahl, it will allow Tehran to "break years of economic isolation" and will open doors to the region's economic development.

"We're seeing the emergence of a true Eurasian Golden Triangle with China, Russia and Iran as the three key points," Engdahl underscores. "With the stated plan to route the Silk Road rail infrastructure to assist the mining of new gold for currency backing of the Eurasian member states, including now Iran with its significant own unexploited gold, the hyper-inflated, debt-bloated dollar system is gaining a formidable positive alternative, one committed to peace and development," the researcher concludes.

Riot police clashed with demonstrators in Amsterdam as supporters of the anti-Islam group PEGIDA tried to hold their first protest meeting in the Dutch capital. Only about 200 PEGIDA supporters were present, outnumbered by police and left-wing demonstrators who shouted, "Refugees are welcome, fascists are not!"

Aside from its nationalist and anti-Islam stance, the group has also sided strongly with Russia. Several Russian flags were flown at Saturday's rally in Dresden, along with banners including "Peace with Russia" and "Stop war against Syria." Smaller PEGIDA-style protests were also taking place in France, Britain, Poland, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark, Finland and Estonia.

Lord Powell overlooks the Iron Lady’s regular handbagging of Brussels and her stirring “no, no, no” declaration in the Commons when faced with the prospect of a European superstate wielding extensive undemocratic powers over Britain back in 1990.

It is true that Lady Thatcher supported the concept of a Common Market free trade area in which Britain could bang the table and get the best possible deals. But 25 years ago she could not have foreseen the way the Brussels regime has been transformed into a federal union with its own failing currency, President, diplomatic service, embassies, aid programme and disastrous immigration policy.

In this drive towards a United States of Europe, Britain’s independence has been destroyed, something Lady T would not have countenanced. Be warned: in the coming months you will be bombarded with scare stories, half-truths and downright lies by the Remain camp as it seeks to influence the vote, so don’t be taken in.

The systematic slaughter of Christians at the hands of ISIS and emigration from their historic homelands in the Middle East unite the two churches in defense of Catholic and Orthodox populations that are in real danger of extinction.

Paving the way for the possibility of an historic rapprochement after a thousand-year divorce between Orthodoxy and Catholicism is the dire situation of Christians in Syria and Iraq and widespread Cristophobia throughout the Muslim-majority nations in the Middle East and Africa.

Systematic persecution, including wholesale slaughter, of both Catholic and Orthodox communities in Syria and Iraq, has pushed historic Middle Eastern Christians to the brink of extinction, accounting for less than 4 percent of the region's population.

A spokesman for the Russian Orthodox patriarchate recently spun Russian intervention in Syria in terms of a holy war. "The struggle against terrorism is a holy struggle and today, our country is the most active force in the world that is taking part in the struggle against terrorism. Not because she has any selfish interest in this, but because terrorism is an amoral force."

Experts in the field of genetics observed something very curious. The Zika virus emerged exactly from those areas where the GM mosquitoes were released in 2015 to contain the dengue! The mosquitoes were released by a company called Oxitech in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Could one virus have been replaced with another?

As Brazil started scrutinizing the 4180 cases of microcephaly more surprises emerged. Alerted by a circular to report cases of microcephaly pediatricians in the country had clearly exceeded their brief by reporting every child that appeared to have small skulls. Having small skulls is not unusual in Brazil. As of February 4th only 404 of those cases were confirmed to be microcephaly.

Worse, the Zika virus was found in only 17 of them! In other words, only 4.2% of microcephaly cases in Brazil have been shown to have any connection to Zika. That means 96% of microcephaly cases have no link to Zika. There was evidently no epidemic, and the role of the Zika virus is severely questioned. And yet the WHO went ahead with the global public health emergency declaration. Again, why?