With the country in line to receive more than a million asylum-seekers this year alone, public anxiety is mounting — and so is criticism of Ms Merkel, from within her own party. Some of her close political allies acknowledge that it is now distinctly possible that the chancellor will have to leave office, before the next general election in 2017. Even if she sees out a full term, the notion of a fourth Merkel administration, widely discussed a few months ago, now seems improbable.

The trouble is that Ms Merkel’s government has clearly lost control of the situation. German officials publicly endorse the chancellor’s declaration that “We can do this”. But there is panic just beneath the surface: costs are mounting, social services are creaking, Ms Merkel’s poll ratings are falling and far-right violence is on the rise. Der Spiegel, a news magazine, wrote this week that: “Germany these days is a place where people feel entirely uninhibited about expressing their hatred and xenophobia.”

It is all such a contrast with the calm and control that Ms Merkel used to radiate, captured by her nickname Mutti (or “mum”). Throughout 2014, as Ms Merkel led Europe’s response to the eurozone crisis and Russia’s annexation of Crimea, German voters seemed more inclined than ever to place their faith in the judgment of the chancellor. The refugee crisis, however, revealed another side to Ms Merkel. Some voters seem to have concluded that Mutti has gone mad — flinging open Germany’s borders to the wretched of the earth.

If the number of refugees heading into Germany continues at its present level for some time, and Ms Merkel remains committed to open borders, the pressure for her to step down will grow. There are, at present, no obvious rivals. But a continuing crisis will doubtless throw some up.

Regardless of the chancellor’s personal fate and reputation, the refugee crisis marks a turning point. The decade after Ms Merkel first came to power in 2005 now looks like a blessed period for Germany, in which the country was able to enjoy peace, prosperity and international respect, while keeping the troubles of the world at a safe distance. That golden era is now over.

"In this regard, the Chinese side expresses extreme dissatisfaction and strongly protests," the statement posted on China's Foreign Ministry website says, according to Interfax. A US defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AP on Monday that a US Navy ship had sailed near the artificial islands. The Navy was planning to send one of its destroyers on a patrol route that goes within 12 sea miles of the islands, previous reports stated.

The US vessel could have been accompanied by one or two US Navy surveillance planes, which have repeatedly conducted reconnaissance flights in the area, an unnamed US official told Reuters. According to the US Navy, additional patrols could follow in the coming weeks. The USS Lassen destroyer was scheduled to pass by the Subi and Mischief reefs, which belong to the Spratly archipelago, over which China claims sovereignty. Both reefs were initially submerged before China took up an ambitious dredging project aimed at turning them into islands.

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you are a “potential terrorist” according to official US government documents. At one time, the term “terrorist” was used very narrowly. The government applied that label to people like Osama bin Laden and other Islamic jihadists. But now the Obama administration is removing all references to Islam from terror training materials, and instead the term “terrorist” is being applied to large groups of American citizens.

And if you are a “terrorist”, that means that you have no rights and the government can treat you just like it treats the terrorists that are being held at Guantanamo Bay. So if you belong to a group of people that is now being referred to as “potential terrorists”, please don’t take it as a joke. The first step to persecuting any group of people is to demonize them. And right now large groups of peaceful, law-abiding citizens are being ruthlessly demonized.

Many have wondered why the DOJ has not previously made the prosecution of these individuals a priority while the Department has entered into multi-billion dollar settlements with the nation's largest banks in the last two years. The DOJ has settled with JPMorgan Chase (a then-record $13 billion in November 2013), Citi ($7 billion in July 2014), and Bank of America (a record $16.65 billion in August 2014) for selling toxic-mortgage backed securities to investors in the run-up to the crisis.

The memo was sent to all US attorneys general and the rules outlined are effective immediately.

"One of the most effective ways to combat corporate misconduct is by seeking accountability from the individuals who perpetuated the wrongdoing," deputy attorney general Sally Q Yates wrote in the memo. "Such accountability is important for several reasons: it deters future illegal activity, it incentivizes changes in corporate behavior, it ensures that the proper parties are held responsible for their actions, and it promotes the public's confidence in our justice system."

As Pope Francis told bishops, "journeying together" (from the Greek root of the word Synod) is easier to say than to do. At times over the past three weeks the bishops and some members of the laity gathered in Rome have seemed to be travelling on rather different paths and the process - deemed "invigorating" and "a breath of fresh air" by some - has left others with real concerns about the unity of the Roman Catholic Church.

There is further uncertainty ahead, as the Pope must now work out what he wants as he draws together his own thoughts after hearing his bishops' advice. This has been a pivotal moment of his pontificate - yet few are sure where all of this leads. And Pope Francis will have to handle the fruits of this Synod with care if it is not to divide his flock.

While churches here may be largely empty and belief in God, according to opinion polls, in steady decline, belief in, or at least fascination with, ghosts and spirits is surging. Even Norway’s royal family, which is required by law to belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church, has flirted with ghosts, with a princess coaching people on how to reach out to spirits.

“God is out but spirits and ghosts are filling the vacuum,” said Roar Fotland, a Methodist preacher and assistant professor at the Norwegian School of Theology in Oslo. Instead of slowly eliminating religion, as Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx and other theorists predicted, modernity has only channeled religious feelings in unexpected ways, Mr Fotland said. “Belief in God, or at least a Christian God, is decreasing but belief in spirits is increasing,” he added, describing this as part of a general resurgence of “premodern religion.”

Tom Hedalen, a road engineer and committed atheist who is chairman of Norway’s Humanist Association, insisted that religion is still on its last legs and that the grip of ghosts on rational, modern minds merely reflected the success of charlatans at playing on people’s fears.

The Humanist Association, which ran a national campaign under the slogan, “Don’t Let Yourself Be Cheated,” does “not believe in God, trolls or Santa Claus,” Mr Hedalen said. “In the end, all religion will die out,” he added.

The report by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) said that there was enough medical evidence at this point to link over-consumption of cured products – mostly from pork, but some from beef as well – with high levels of colon cancer. With each 50 gram (1.8 ounce) portion of the stuff consumed daily, the chance of contracting colorectal cancer for the average person rose 18%.

According to the study, there was a clear correlation between consumption of processed meat and colorectal cancer. According to WHO statistics, the three top countries in the developed world for colorectal cancer per 100,000 inhabitants were South Korea, Slovakia, and Hungary – all significant consumers of pork, according to the IARC numbers.

Israel, as expected, has one of the world's lowest levels of pork consumption. For poultry, however - considered far healthier than red meat by most nutritionists - Israelis had the highest annual consumption in the developed world, eating over 60 kg per capita annually, significantly more than in the US, which came in second with about 47 kg per capita consumption annually.

It was the latest in a series of admonitions to bishops by the pontiff, who has stressed since his election in 2013 that the 1.2 billion-member Church should be open to change, side with the poor and rid itself of the pomp and stuffiness that has alienated so many Catholics. In his final address, the pope appeared to criticize ultra-conservatives, saying Church leaders should confront difficult issues "fearlessly, without burying our heads in the sand."

He said the synod had "laid bare the closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church's teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families".

He also decried "conspiracy theories" and the "blinkered viewpoints" of some at the gathering, and said the Church could not transmit its message to new generations "at times encrusted in a language which is archaic or simply incomprehensible". The outcome of the gathering, over which the pope presided, marked a victory for conservatives on homosexual issues and for progressives on the thorny issue of remarriage.

The final synod document restated Church teachings that gays should not suffer discrimination in society, but also repeated the stand that there was "no foundation whatsoever" for same-sex marriage, which "could not even remotely" be compared to heterosexual unions.

So when they had their chance to speak to the 270 bishops who have gathered at the Vatican to discuss family issues, they did not fail to raise concern about what place these Catholics can hope for in the church today. When divorced people have worked hard to forgive their former spouses, “the impossibility to receive the forgiveness of the church is all the more painful and difficult to understand,” they told the meeting of bishops, or synod.

As it stands, divorced Catholics who remarry without receiving a church annulment are denied the sacrament of communion, cannot be catechists, cannot teach religion and cannot be godparents. Homosexuality is regarded by the church as “intrinsically disordered,” a view that has left gay Catholics often sidelined, and gay couples feeling unacknowledged.

The church’s message is “one man and one woman will want to be together forever, they say yes and they mean yes, and the church says be faithful to your dream, it’s possible,” Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, said last week, noting that he told young people that they were right to pursue this dream of marital bliss. But the cardinal, who has voiced support for change, said that people also needed to know that when marriages fall apart, they won’t be abandoned.

The church has to let people know that the dream is right, “but when you fail,” he said, “we stay together, you belong to us.”

It's painful for me to admit, but we can no longer rest carefree in our evangelical identity — because it is changing. No doubt you have seen the headlines declaring that evangelicalism is doomed because evangelical kids are leaving the faith. It is no secret that there is an expanding gulf between traditional Christian teachings and contemporary moral values. But the sad truth is that the ideological gulf between America's evangelical grown-ups and their kids, aka the "millennials," seems to be widening too.

Somehow the blame for this chasm is being heaped on traditional churches. They are accused of having too many rules as well as being homophobic and bigoted. Yes, we've heard those false claims from popular culture in its desperate attempt to keep Christianity imprisoned within the sanctuary walls. But now popular culture is being aided by Christ-professing bedfellows whose message to "coexist," "tolerate" and "keep out of it" is more marketable to the rising generation of evangelicals.

The last several decades witnessed tremendous evangelical influence in the United States. Leaders such as Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Tim and Beverly LaHaye, Paige and Dorothy Patterson, James Dobson, and James and Betty Robison made a bold impact on America's families, churches and government. Now that those few leaders are aging or retiring, or have died, there are very few traditional evangelical leaders left holding the torch and even fewer candidates to whom they can pass it.

In an unusual condemnation, the diplomat denounced the leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn, accusing him of breaching respect by scuppering the trade deal with Riyadh. The furious prince also railed against an "alarming change in the way Saudi Arabia is discussed in Britain", warning that the wealthy kingdom would not be "lectured to" and urged respect for its strict system of Sharia law.

He said: "One recent example of this mutual respect being breached was when Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Opposition, claimed that he had convinced Prime Minister David Cameron to cancel a prison consultancy contract with Saudi Arabia worth £5.9 million. This coincided with speculation linking the contract's cancellation to a number of domestic events in the Kingdom."

He warned: "If the extensive trade links between the two countries are going to be subordinate to certain political ideologies, then this vital commercial exchange is going to be at risk. We want this relationship to continue but we will not be lectured to by anyone. Hasty decisions prompted by short-term gains often do more harm than good in the longer term."