The smallest was of magnitude 4.4, and the two largest both measured magnitude 6.9. We have also seen dozens of volcanoes erupt recently, including the incredibly dangerous Mt Popocatepetl in Mexico. Fortunately we have not seen a major disaster that kills thousands of people yet, but many believe that all of this shaking is leading up to one. In addition, the weather all over the world continues to get freakier and freakier.

Just today, Yemen was hit by a second major tropical cyclone in less than a week. Any one of these strange disasters in isolation may not seem like that big of a deal, but when you start putting all of the pieces together it starts to become clear that something really significant is taking place.

Meanwhile, as I have written about previously, scientists tell us that the entire universe is “slowly dying“. Apparently the universe is only producing about half as much energy as it once did, and over time the level of energy being produced continues to fade. Most of us just take for granted that our planet, our sun and our universe will remain stable and behave normally. But what if we have entered a time when things start to change dramatically?

The New York Police Department said officers from its Counterterrorism Response Command and other special units were deployed in areas frequented by tourists, and at the French Consulate in Manhattan.

"Teams have been dispatched to crowded areas around the city out of an abundance of caution to provide police presence and public reassurance as we follow the developing situation overseas," the NYPD said in a statement.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said police were on heightened alert at all of the agency's bridges, tunnels and rail facilities, as well as at the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. It said it was increasing patrols and checking of buses and trains and passengers' bags.

US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement that "we know of no specific or credible threats of an attack on the US homeland of the type that occurred in Paris tonight."

The National Basketball Association, which had 11 games on the schedule Friday night, said it was increasing security at each of the venues. The most popular sport, American football, would not have any games until Sunday as previously scheduled. "Security at our games is always at a heightened state of alert," National Football League spokesman Brian McCarthy said.

People were shot dead at restaurants and bars at five other sites in Paris. Eight attackers are reported killed. These are the deadliest attacks in Europe since the 2004 Madrid bombings.

French President Francois Hollande, visibly shaken, called Friday night's events "a horror" and vowed to wage a "merciless" fight against terrorism. Paris saw three days of attacks in early January, when Islamist gunmen murdered 18 people after attacking satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a Jewish supermarket and a policewoman on patrol.

The attack on the 1,500-seat Bataclan hall was by far the deadliest of Friday night's attacks. Gunmen opened fire on concert-goers watching US rock group Eagles of Death Metal. The event had been sold out. "At first we thought it was part of the show but we quickly understood," Pierre Janaszak, a radio presenter, told Agence France Presse. "They didn't stop firing. There was blood everywhere, corpses everywhere. We heard screaming. Everyone was trying to flee."

He said the gunmen took 20 hostages, and he heard one of them tell their captives: "It's the fault of Hollande, it's the fault of your president, he should not have intervened in Syria". Within an hour, security forces had stormed the concert hall and all four attackers there were dead. Three had blown themselves up and a fourth was shot dead by police.

Meanwhile, not far from the Place de la Republique and the Place de la Bastille, three busy restaurants and a bar were targeted by gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs. Around 40 people were killed as customers were singled out at venues including a pizza restaurant and a Cambodian restaurant, Le Petit Cambodge.

The other target was the Stade de France, on the northern fringe of Paris, where President Hollande and 80,000 other spectators were watching a friendly international between France and Germany, with a TV audience of millions more. The president was whisked to safety after the first of at least two explosions just outside the venue to convene an emergency cabinet meeting. Three attackers were reportedly killed there.

The Vatican called it "an attack on peace for all humanity" and said "a decisive, supportive response" was needed "on the part of all of us as we counter the spread of homicidal hatred in all its forms".

What happened in Paris on Friday night is exactly what Europe's security services have long feared, and tried to foil. Simultaneous, rolling attacks, with automatic weapons and suicide bombers in the heart of a major European city, targeting multiple, crowded public locations. The tactics have been used before, in Mumbai and elsewhere. But how they've come to Europe is one of many questions that will have to be answered.

Russel is primarily referring to the South China Sea. Yet Chinese have mostly been numbed by the frequent US shifts between cooperation and threat. We think that US officials have to keep adjusting the tone on the South China Sea issue for multiple reasons, particularly to play diplomatic tricks in Asia. Chinese have been regarding the US in the South China Sea as a paper tiger. We are convinced that the US warship patrol is for symbolic posture, not for taking real action toward China's island building. Washington actually has lost points after its latest move in the South China Sea.

We have come to the point when the US cannot stop China's island reclamation while China cannot stop US patrols. But China will have a larger military presence as a result of US provocation. Then which side actually gains more? If military tension breaks out in the Asia-Pacific between China and the US, which will deploy its sophisticated military equipment, the tension will probably extend to US military bases in remote places, even to its home soil, since China will also deploy its advanced weapon systems.

With fewer cards to play with China, the US intends to turn the South China Sea into a new card to upset China, which however will fail. China can ignore or simply protest the petty US actions and get its growing military prowess ready for other major moves. China has always stressed Sino-US cooperation to avoid conflicts between the two, but besides, it has other preparations. Therefore we build islands in the South China Sea as international law allows, regardless of US opposition.

The goal of the government is “to ensure that as few refugees as possible set off for Germany,” and to “make large parts of the world a better place,” the Spiegel authors write. The article quotes Federal Defence Minister Von der Leyen: “We need to restore state power and stability in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.”

The article leaves no doubt that this will be achieved by a massive expansion of German militarism abroad. “German military missions are being planned, expanded or extended from Mali to Iraq to Afghanistan — to a degree that nobody could have imagined just a few short months ago,” the authors write. The government was currently reviewing “the possibility of making Tornado reconnaissance planes available on the periphery of the Syrian conflict.”

In other words, following in the footsteps of the United States, France, Britain and Russia, Germany is preparing to intervene directly in the Syrian conflict with its air force. At that time Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) had declared that Germany has to “lead more often and more decisively in the future” to pursue its global interests. Specifically, he listed “Syria, Ukraine, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Afghanistan, tensions in East Asia” as part of an “incomplete list of hot spots in the coming year” for German foreign policy.

This doctrine is now to be put into practice. On 18 September, at a conference of the Alfred Herrhausen Society and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Berlin, Ursula von der Leyen declared: “Leading from the centre is no longer a vision; it is now an actual description. It is no longer a question of whether, but of how.”

Large sectors of the airport were effectively placed under lockdown during the operation. The gates of terminal cafes and restaurants were closed, leaving patrons locked inside by iron bars as police SWAT teams decked out in body armor and toting assault rifles swept through the terminal.

Photos and videos posted to social media documented the egregious violation of passengers’ constitutional right to be free of unwarranted searches and seizures. “There were very large machine guns, body armor, all of that,” one passenger told a local CNN affiliate. “Very, very frightening.”

Some 70 flights were delayed and nine were diverted as a result of the lockdown, which shut down two concourses for almost three hours. Officials claimed the cause of the lockdown was a breach in procedure by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which allowed a passenger who had been flagged as having a suspicious carry-on bag to board the plane. A TSA spokesman added that “in the process of transitioning other passengers to an adjacent screening lane, standard procedures were not adhered to and the passenger was allowed to depart the checkpoint and proceed into the terminal.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation later admitted that the passenger was a dentist, and that the “suspicious” bag he had been carrying contained nothing more than fillings and other dental supplies. The incident took place amid the conspicuously growing incursion of militarized police, and even the military, into daily life in American cities.

While many of these incidents are presented by officials and the media as merely accidents or overreactions, they are in fact part of a systematic campaign to condition the US population to accept paramilitary tactics and violations of constitutional rights. Under conditions of growing poverty and social inequality, the ruling class can offer no response to opposition to its policies outside of turning to police-state methods traditionally associated with military dictatorships.

At a time when the country’s internal politics are under more scrutiny than at any time for decades, close advisers to the new King Salman and his powerful son have taken the unprecedented step of outlining a detailed programme of its future government to The Telegraph.

It obliquely acknowledges that radical changes in the royal family since the king acceded to the throne in January, including the sidelining of a generation of older princes and the former heir to the throne, have met with opposition. There have been claims outside the country that disgruntled princes are attempting to mount a coup to replace the king with one of his brothers.

But the statement of principles shown to the Telegraph says that the way the country has been run since its founding a century ago must give way to “youth”. “These resolute and decisive changes may have annoyed some people but it does not amount to a crisis,” it says. “The media is talking about a crisis within the royal family but they forget to talk to the Saudi people who are thirsty for change and economic reform.

“People want a ‘remake’ of the Kingdom on new foundations that will make it a major economic power, and this will not happen without a shake-up.” It also makes a rare acknowledgement that the Saudi authorities are themselves in part to blame for the country’s poor international image, particularly over the issue of women’s rights.

The Pope’s visit to Florence comes amid an internal scandal at the Vatican caused by leaks of confidential documents exposing the backlash by the Italian-dominated Vatican’s bureaucracy against Francis’ pushes for reform. The papers shed light on the mismanagement of assets and the resistance to change from the Holy See’s old guard.

His attempted reforms at the Vatican include an effort to bring more financial transparency to the Institute for the Works of Religion, better known as the Vatican Bank. There have been long-standing allegations of money laundering and improper handling of financial assets. In 2013 a senior Italian cleric was arrested under the suspicion of trying to move €20 million ($21.4 million) illegally.

Nuzzi made his name when Paolo Gabriele, the butler of the previous Pontiff, Pope Benedict, leaked inside information direct from the Holy Father’s desk three years ago. Material for his new book was taken from detailed info apparently sourced from COSEA, a panel Pope Francis called to tackle corruption and mismanagement – a task that appears to have been hamstrung not only by poor practices, but resistance from vengeful beneficiaries of Vatican largesse.

Two leading members of COSEA were arrested by Vatican police at the weekend on charges of leaking confidential information. COSEA uncovered a sprawling property empire worth €2.7 billion, though its book values had been listed at seven times lower. It discovered that a multitude of properties had been rented out by the Vatican to officials of various statures at below-market rates, losing the church over €13 billion a year – money that could have gone to charity. Another €30 million was wasted, as valuable buildings went unused.

The opaque system produced a battle between Catholic officials seeking to grab the best apartments for the lowest possible cost – with top Curia, or Vatican government, officials living in palatial homes of over 400 square meters. Nuzzi details a particular story involving Bishop Guiseppe Sciacca, who apparently used the hospital stay of an elderly priest next door as an opportunity to order workmen to break down a wall into his room to expand his already magnificent lodgings. Sciacca, formerly a highly-placed Curia official, is currently one of the most senior figures in the Catholic Church’s judicial system.

A Vatican department, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, owns hundreds of exclusive properties in central Rome, was also singled out in the document. It claimed that Vatican officials were allowing buildings to be leased out at peppercorn rents as favours to powerful colleagues. The document also alleged that they would allow dodgy property deals that would see addresses being used as brothels and illicit saunas, it was reported by The Independent.

The claims come two years after the Church was embarrassed by revelations that several priests shared an apartment block with Europe's largest homosexual sauna. It was reported that the Holy See owned 19 apartments in the block in Rome after buying a £21million share of the building in 2008. Several of the flats house priests, notably Cardinal Ivan Dias, the so-called 'prince of the church' whose 12-room apartment at 2 Via Carducci is located just yards from the Europa Multiclub.

The facility, billed as 'Italy's best-known gay sauna', boasts a Turkish bath, Finnish sauna, whirlpools and massages. The purchase was apparently the brainchild of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Pope Benedict's much-disliked right-hand man who held the Vatican's purse strings during the last pontificate. The latest Vatileaks claims emerged as Pope Francis insisted the Church shun all temptations of power, prestige and money as he pressed his reform agenda amid a new scandal at the Vatican.

After Larry Jackson, Junior, of Austin, Texas, was killed by a policeman in 2013, a local prosecutor indicted the policeman on manslaughter charges. Jackson’s family claimed that he had been executed by the policeman but a federal judge granted immunity from prosecution because the policeman “was acting in his capacity as a federal officer.” The ruling in the Austin case could extend federal immunity from prosecution for shootings to “hundreds, if not thousands, of state and local police officers who participate in federal task forces,” the Washington Post noted.

Federal officers have been involved in 33 killings so far this year. The Justice Department almost never prosecutes federal agents for shootings in the line of duty, and the feds have invoked the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution to block state and local prosecutions of federal agents in recent decades.

The plan has been in the pipeline for 18 months and approved by the Conservative government, which flipped-flopped just a week ahead of the general election making it a campaign issue. New Environment Minister Catherine McKenna put it back on track, adding some provisions for emergency response plans and an upgrade to the city's water quality monitoring.

“I wish there were a magic bullet here, I wish there were other options,” McKenna said in a conference call from Paris, where she is preparing for the upcoming UN conference on climate change. “This release is far from ideal, but it is needed for the city of Montreal to perform critical maintenance on their infrastructure before winter. If we do not allow this to go ahead and there was an unplanned discharge, the long-term impact to flora and fauna could be significantly more,” the Globe and Mail cited her as saying.

The St Lawrence River flows from Lake Ontario northeast into the Gulf of Lawrence and borders the US for over 180km in New York state. The river lies entirely in Canada downstream of Montreal, but Senator Schumer insisted it must be treated as a single ecosystem. The US EPA said it had no legal authority in the case.

A human rights watchdog group funded by the German interior ministry produced a study called 'Nationalist Settlers in Rural Areas'. Researchers concluded they believe wholeheartedly in the whole Nazi racist superman claptrap and are worming their way into local positions of power as councillors, volunteer firemen, teachers and festival organisers.

Anne Schmidt, author of the study for the Amadeu Antonio Foundation said: "This is a very scary movement to observe. These extremely nationalist right wing people are settling specifically in little-populated areas, far away from cities to live and raise their children in a backward ideology."

This new charge has many in the EU worried, as there are likely thousands of people who have microwaved their IDs to protect their privacy. Edward Snowden Square creator Markwart Faussner explained in an interview with WorldViews in June that German people are traditionally skeptical of government surveillance because they have experienced so much of it in their history.

“Much of this can be explained historically, Germans have experienced observation throughout the 20th century. After the Nazi era, the Stasi intelligence service in the former East Germany monitored most of the country’s citizens. When the Berlin Wall fell, East Germans suddenly found out from official government files that their friends or even family members had spied on them for years or decades. Hence, there is still a deeply rooted suspicion of state authorities in Germany,” Faussner said.

According to the Washington Post, a 2014 survey found that nearly 40 percent of Germans said they considered increasing digitalization and the role of intelligence services to be a threat.