For generations the German brand has thrived on a reputation for engineering excellence created and delivered with a clinical efficiency. No matter what other national characteristics were suggested by history, this one has been swallowed whole, and it has generated billions of dollars in sales. In truth it was often a masterful project in deception, reinforced by persistently brilliant marketing – or political black propaganda.

Spectacular new evidence (to be added to a long list of forerunners) has been produced by the Volkswagen debacle in which the company faked the emissions tests of its diesel-powered vehicles, a crime that will cost it at least $32 billion in fines, lawsuits and recalls to fix the problem, as well as being a disaster for its reputation and sales worldwide.

At the core of the Volkswagen scandal is a simple question: What on earth drove a small cadre of the company’s top managers (yet to be named) to cheat?

The pilgrimage occurs from the 8th to 12th of Dhu al-Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar, and that is when the enormous tent camp is used. The rest of the year it is empty. Saudi oil reserves are the second largest in the world, and Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading oil exporter and second largest producer. In other words, wealthy beyond belief. The six wealthy Gulf countries – Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain – have offered to receive exactly zero Syrian refugees.

Did you ever wonder why these countries won’t help their fleeing Arabic Muslim companions?

One word: Hijra.

Hijra is the Arabic word for “migration”, used to besiege new territories, as the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers did when they besieged Medina in the year 622, and the same way 56 nations have become Islamic until now.

Some research suggests that the exact opposite is the truth and Women’s Health recently looked into some of the research and cautions people to be well aware of how going meatless can impact your mental health. The article cites an Australian study from last year which found that vegetarians reported that they were less optimistic about their future more often than people who kept meat in their diets.

That same study found that vegetarians were 18 percent more likely to report having depression and 28 percent more likely to experience panic attacks and anxiety. The question that people considering a vegetarian diet have to consider is whether or not the gains outweigh the risks. Will the number drop on the scale be worth it in the long run if you feel more sluggish or anxious than usual?

While there might be some clear reasons to avoid meat, it has benefits as well that impact your mind and your mood. B Vitamins, zinc, iron and tryptophan are all found in abundance in meat and are often time in low quantities, or missing altogether, in vegetarian diets.

The irony of the situation is that the central banks of China, Russia, Brazil and other countries "diametrically opposed" to US foreign policy course are forced to stockpile dollars in the form of "safe" US Treasury debt in order to protect their economies, American-German researcher, historian and strategic risk consultant F William Engdahl stresses. The truth of the matter is that the role of the US dollar as the world's major reserve currency is the countries' economic Achilles Heel, the strategic risk consultant elaborates.

At the same time, by buying US Treasury debt in dollars, they are de facto financing Washington's "endless" overseas military operations. Fortunately, "that's quietly changing. In 2014 Russia and China signed two mammoth 30-year contracts for Russian gas to China. The contracts specified that the exchange would be done in Renminbi [yuan] and Russian rubles, not in dollars. That was the beginning of an accelerating process of de-dollarization that is underway today," Engdahl writes in his article for New Eastern Outlook.

The researcher points out that on November 27 Russia's Central Bank reported that it has included the Chinese Renminbi (yuan) into its official reserves for the first time. Furthermore, in August 2015 Russian currency traders bought almost 18 billion yuan and only 3 billion US dollars. It is obvious that Russia is gradually increasing the use of the yuan in Russian financial markets, substituting it for the US dollar.

"But the actions of Russia and China to replace the dollar as mediating currency in their mutual trade, a trade whose volume has grown significantly since US and EU sanctions in March 2014, are not the end of it," the researcher remarks. According to Engdahl, there are clear signs showing that gold "is about to make dramatic return to the world monetary stage."

Only a tiny number of such crimes are investigated, and even fewer cases end up in the courts, according to Die Zeit. The main finding by Die Zeit’s investigative team suggests there were 222 violent attacks recorded for this year alone and each of them involved human injuries or the risk of injuries. Of these 222, 93 arson attacks on refugee hostels happened with people inside, meaning that culprits cared little whether people could be seriously injured or killed.

But there have been only four known instances when courts convicted perpetrators and only eight cases in which charges were filed. And this despite the fact that 104 people altogether have been injured in the violence – “only by chance with no fatality,” Die Zeit writes. The number of arson attacks on refugee hostels, either inhabited or uninhabited, had skyrocketed by October 2015, the investigation reveals, with the majority of the offenses occurring in the state of Saxony which lies in Germany’s East.

Such statistics have apparently not boosted police efforts to prevent or effectively investigate the attacks, according to Die Zeit's study, as most of the crimes are committed at night and in remote areas where refugee shelters are located. Molotov cocktails could be thrown out of passing cars, and the resulting fires often destroy most clues. “In many places in Germany, there is a lack of police personnel to pursue criminals,” Die Zeit investigators write.

Europe is experiencing an overwhelming migrant crisis dubbed the worst since the Second World War. According to recent estimates, in 2015 Germany alone received around 800,000 asylum applications, with comparable numbers expected next year. A considerable part of the German population blames Angela Merkel’s government for its “open door policy,” with others fearing the influx will trigger a rise of right-wing movements and further radicalization of society.

A second E-3A of the Saudi Arabian air force took off from the Riyadh airbase. Both planes were executing a common task — determining the precise location of Russian aircraft. It is they that picked the “victim.” The American E-3A was supposed to determine the activity of the Su-24M2′s onboard targeting radar, to determine if it was in search mode or if it had already locked on to a target and was processing launch-data. It is known that the AWACS can direct the activity of aircraft in battle, conveying information to their avionics and flight computers.

The expert went on explaining the technical details of how the US and Saudi AF planes guided the Turkish F-16s to a sure missile launch in ‘target illumination’ mode, meaning that the radar was turned off as soon as the missile locket into its target. This elevates the US-NATO war crime on Russia to an even higher level.

To strengthen the task force, the Bundeswehr may send an additional unit of its elite Kommando Spezialkräfte (KSK) to Syria “in case of emergency,” Bild reports, citing its source in Bundestag’s defense committee. This was “made very clear” by German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen and Bundeswehr chief of staff General Volker Wieker during preliminary hearings at Bundestag’s defense committee on Wednesday, Bild claims, adding that it's unclear how many special troops could be sent to Syria.

The newspaper reports that possible missions for the KSK unit on the ground could be, among others, rescue operations to “liberate downed Tornado pilots.”

Of course this advice comes with a nifty set of instructions for how to spot a terrorist in your own home:

The first three “signs”:

• Out of character changes in dress, behaviour and changes in their friendship group;

• Losing interest in previous activities and friendships;

• Secretive behaviour and switching screens when you come near—

Imagine that– a teenager who doesn’t want mom and dad to see what he’s doing on his iPhone? Or a 14-year old who starts dressing differently and hanging out with a different group of friends? Funny, this sounds like… pretty much every teenager on the planet.

But even more unsettling are these:

• Showing a mistrust of mainstream media reports and belief in conspiracy theories;

• Appearing angry about government policies, especially foreign policy.

So apparently now questioning the propaganda and government policies are considered evidence of subversive, extremist behavior. If you don’t fall in line, you’re a radical. And the government now wants to train parents to rat out their own children. This is chilling. Disgusting. And unfortunately not too surprising from the country that was the backdrop for George Orwell’s 1984. Orwell’s dystopic view of the future is rapidly becoming reality in many countries across the West.

On Wednesday, a married couple named Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik fired at least 65 shots at a holiday office party in San Bernardino, California. 14 people were killed and 21 were wounded. Later on, hundreds of shots were exchanged as police officers pursued the vehicle that Farook and Malik were attempting to escape in. Fortunately, Farook and Malik are no longer a threat to any of us, but there are thousands more radicals just like them that are already living in this country and that are ready to act at any time.

On Thursday, many in the mainstream media were attempting to figure out what could have possibly motivated a married couple with a new baby to go on such a shooting spree, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. According to CBS News, Farook and Malik have been watching ISIS propaganda online. In addition, NBC News is reporting that the pair had been in contact with jihadists both inside and outside the country…

And despite what just happened in San Bernardino, Obama told CNN this week that ISIS does not pose a significant threat to us…

But Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had something else on his mind. During a brief meeting, he invited the Prince of Wales to pay an official visit to Israel. Mr Netanyahu’s offer - like dozens of others extended by Israeli leaders to the Royal family - is unlikely to be taken up.

In the 67 years since Israel was founded in territory once controlled by Britain, no member of the Royal family has ever visited in an official capacity. While Prince Charles and others have occasionally set foot in Israel, Buckingham Palace and the British Government have been at pains to stress they were personal visits and not official ones.

The rejected invitations are a source of deep frustration for Israel, especially as the Royal family has made high-profile visits to authoritarian regional neighbours like Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

“The right to bear arms was included in the Bill of Rights, not to deter crime, but to deter oppressive government. Just governments honor and protect the right to bear arms. Oppressive governments fear and prohibit the right to bear arms. Guns are dangerous. The only thing more dangerous is not having them.

Stalin took guns away from his citizens in 1929 then murdered 20 million of them once defenceless.

Mao Zedong took guns away from his citizens in 1935 then murdered 20 million of them once defenceless.

Hitler took guns away from his citizens in 1938 then murdered 13 million of them once defenceless.

Pol Pot took guns away from his citizens in 1956 then murdered 2 million of them once defenceless.”

"Some scientists say Fukushima is worse than the 1986 Chernobyl accident, with which it shares a maximum level-7 rating on the sliding scale of nuclear disasters. One of the most prominent of them is Dr Helen Caldicott, an Australian physician and long time anti-nuclear activist who warns of "horrors to come" in Fukushima. Chris Busby, a professor at the University of Ulster known for his alarmist views, generated controversy during a Japan visit last month when he said the disaster would result in more than 1 million deaths. "Fukushima is still boiling its radionuclides all over Japan," he said. "Chernobyl went up in one go. So Fukushima is worse."

The official line is that the accident at the plant is winding down and radiation levels outside of the exclusion zone and designated "hot spots" are safe. But many experts warn that the crisis is just beginning. Professor Tim Mousseau, a biological scientist who has spent more than a decade researching the genetic impact of radiation around Chernobyl, says he worries that many people in Fukushima are "burying their heads in the sand."

His Chernobyl research concluded that biodiversity and the numbers of insects and spiders had shrunk inside the irradiated zone, and the bird population showed evidence of genetic defects, including smaller brain sizes. "The truth is that we don't have sufficient data to provide accurate information on the long-term impact," he says. "What we can say, though, is that there are very likely to be very significant long-term health impact from prolonged exposure."

That was in 2012. By 2013, Fukushima was pouring 300 TONS of contaminated water into the ocean EVERY day. I wonder what current testing shows for Bluefin tuna and other species of popular fish? The American people have the right to know, even if the news is bad.