It is clear that many conspiracy theories about the training exercise were bizarre, to say the least. The United States government is not “taking over”, they already “took” over. There’s no need to “invade” Texas, the government already controls it. But while there were plenty of rumors and conspiracy theories about Jade Helm these have apparently been generated in large part by the unusual secrecy surrounding the exercise.

A military spokesman even told the Washington Post that they will not be allowed to observe Jade Helm exercises, or report on them, in any way. Still, there is a plethora of social media users who see the words “Jade Helm” in the title of an article and then start talking about how any critical concerns about the exercises are tantamount to “tin foil hats”. But the Internet is replete with fallacious argumentation, and the government seems to count on the action-reaction of these types, interplaying and debating with those who jump to the most outrageous conclusions, to cooperatively create an informational smokescreen for whatever it is that the military is trying to hide.

We go on with that chaos around the Channel Tunnel and across much of Europe over the ever-growing flood of desperate immigrants trying to find safety from Africa and the Middle East. We might continue with the impasse between the EU and Russia over Ukraine; or with the insistence by Germany and Poland that, to keep their economies functioning, they must – regardless of their commitment to the EU that they will reduce “carbon emissions” by 40 per cent within 15 years – continue to burn vast quantities of “CO2-polluting” coal.

The answer to what these have in common is that they all reflect the moment when, more obviously than ever before, the dream of a cosily “united Europe” is running into the brick wall of that very thing the “European project” was above all designed to rise above: a narrow sense of national interest. To the man who more than any set the “project” on its way, Jean Monnet, this was always its supreme purpose. He wanted to create a “supranational” government capable of eliminating that destructive evil which he described as “national egoism”.

For decades his dream seemed to be inching successfully towards its goal. But what we are seeing today is that the sense of national interest is so ingrained in human nature that it cannot be eliminated. The desperate Greeks, having seen their country crucified on the folly of the euro, fight crazily to survive as a nation without any idea of how this can be done. Many Germans, looking to their own interest, are fed up with having to pour their money into the bottomless pit of Greek debt – while the EU struggles to deal with a crisis it brought on itself, to which there is no sensible solution.

We are caught between that belief that we must all pool the interests of our countries in some artificial “common interest”, and the reality that, when it comes to the crunch, there is no way to stop that damned “national interest” reappearing. Such is the lesson which every day’s news should now be bringing home to us. But how we might escape from it, not a single politician can yet begin to give us a plausible answer.

In a weekend billed as Europe’s last chance to save the monetary union, ministers will now reconvene on Sunday morning ahead of an EU leaders' summit later in the evening, to thrash out an agreement or decide to eject Greece from the eurozone. Should no deal be forthcoming, the German government has made preparations to negotiate a temporary five-year euro exit, providing Greece with humanitarian aid while it makes the transition.

An incendiary plan drafted by Berlin's finance ministry, with the backing of Angela Merkel, laid out two stark options for Greece: either the government submits to drastic measures such as placing €50 billion of its assets in a trust fund to pay off its debts, and have Brussels take over its public administration, or agree to a "time-out" solution where it would be expelled from the eurozone.

There is now open revolt among the eurozone's 19 member states, with a group of smaller creditor nations threatening to reject a European rescue from the bloc's firefighting fund, the ESM. Finland's parliament stands on the brink of withdrawing its negotiating mandate from the government, in a move which would force creditors to adopt an emergency voting procedure to pass a new rescue deal.

What Greece has not done is change its own behaviour. At the outset Greeks moved money to Switzerland, to Luxembourg, to shelter their cash from tax. Then, when it became clear that actual reform was required, Greece approached all the financially weak countries in the EU in an attempt to form a coalition against Germany. This too, failed. So Greece started talking about the Second World War, playing games of guilt, not reform. Germany was hugely upset, but still the tactic failed. Then Greece raised the threat of it becoming a client state of Putin’s Russia, or China. Anything but embrace the reality, and necessity, of reform.

In negotiations they didn’t submit their position papers – at least not on time. Even their clothes were a statement that they played by different rules; we in suits, they in leather jackets. They were, in other words, very, very good strategists. They got their money from the ECB, they got the French and all the others who are indebted and don’t want to make reforms either – they got them on side. It was a brilliant move to say they would have a referendum. Who in the EU could argue with that and maintain some shred of commitment to democracy? I would go so far as to say they have made only one mistake until now.

This mistake was to campaign for “No” in the referendum. It was a move that united everyone in the EU in anger. So Varoufakis was sacrificed, and made to ride into the sunset on his motorcycle. What is the answer? It is this. People say that if Greece leaves the euro, it will be a great defeat for the single currency. But the fact is that the real defeat will come if Greece wins and does not leave the euro, and for the same reason: trust. The trust that the euro is a currency based on rules will disappear.

What Europe needs is the common sense of Germany, Austria and the Netherlands to bring order to a EU which is out of order and led by a failure.

They are considering proposals by eurozone finance ministers which would impose tough conditions on Athens. Greece risks being ejected from the eurozone if a deal to rescue it from financial collapse is not reached. Finnish Finance Minister Alex Stubb said one condition in the ministers' proposal requires Greece to implement new laws by Wednesday.

Greece will also be required to introduce tough conditions on labour reform, VAT and taxes, and tough measures on privatisation and privatisation funds, Mr Stubb told reporters. The head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said a "couple of big issues" remain which would be left to the heads of government to rule on, though he did not give details.

But the damage done by months of fractious talks and Tsipras's decision to hold a snap referendum on the bailout terms on July 5 means securing a deal will be tough. Lawmakers including in Germany, Greece's biggest creditor, are skeptical over whether Athens will carry out reforms that the Greek people overwhelmingly rejected in the referendum. Highlighting the reluctance to grant another rescue, Germany's finance ministry floated proposals demanding stronger Greek measures or a five-year "time-out" from the euro zone.

"What is at play here is an attempt to humiliate Greece and Greeks, or to overthrow the Tsipras government," Dimitrios Papadimoulis, Vice-President of the European Parliament and member of Greece's ruling Syriza party, told Mega TV. Their economy pummeled by years of recession, their banks shut and dozens of businesses closing daily, some Greeks have vented their anger on figures such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

It means that Britain would no longer be forced to abide by the Working Time Directive, which for eurosceptics has become a totemic symbol of Brussels’ interference in the British economy. The move will delight Conservative backbenchers, who had warned that Mr Cameron’s renegotiation strategy has been insufficiently ambitious in clawing back powers from Brussels.

Many Conservative MPs worry that the changes Mr Cameron has so far suggested, which focus on new welfare rules preventing EU migrants accessing benefits for four years, do not go far enough. They have demanded he sets out a detailed package of reforms before the autumn Tory conference.

Rather, Britain could emerge from the EU to enjoy a free-trade only relationship and become more prosperous, they argue. Thomas Aeschi, of the Swiss People’s Party and a former banker at Credit Suisse, said that the UK’s exit could see the bloc move in a more protectionist direction, harming its remaining members.

“There are certainly some countries that are on the line, waiting to see how the EU develops. If the UK were to leave, it could trigger a chain reaction,” he said, noting that Denmark and Sweden “would at least start reconsidering their relationship with the EU”. A British departure could have a domino effect across the rest of the bloc, encouraging other nations to seek their own independence, and boost economic growth.

Ms Yellen, however, remained cautious, saying she still saw slack in the jobs market, which has been a key factor in how the Fed approaches its first rate hike since 2006. "We will be watching carefully to see if there is continued improvement in labour market conditions, and we will need to be reasonably confident that inflation will move back to 2 percent in the next few years," she said.

She also stressed that the move toward a tighter monetary policy would be gradual and that Fed policy would need to remain supportive of economic growth "for quite some time".

In Bolivia last Thursday, he urged the downtrodden to change the world economic order, denouncing a "new colonialism" by agencies that impose austerity programs and calling for the poor to have the "sacred rights" of labor, lodging and land.

"Putting bread on the table, putting a roof over the heads of one's children, giving them health and an education, these are essential for human dignity," he said.

He urged politicians and business leaders "not to yield to an economic model which is idolatrous, which needs to sacrifice human lives on the altar of money and profit." He said those charged with promoting economic development must ensure it had "a human face" and he blasted "the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose."

It will become increasingly common to see obese parents in some developing countries raising underweight and stunted children because high-calorie food is cheaper and more readily available than the nutritious food needed for healthy growth, said Alan Dangour of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

“We are certainly looking at a period of increased instability in the supply of food, and also the diversity and types of food that are available are going to change,” said Dr Dangour, who is to lead a major study into global food insecurity and its impact on health. “A result of this is called the ‘double burden’ of malnutrition,” he added. “Under-nutrition causes starvation and stunting in children, whereas obesity and over-weight in adults is another form of malnutrition, caused by eating the wrong type of food.”

Such “exorcisms … have helped bring awareness that there is such a thing as sin influenced by Satan,” said Monsignor John Esseff, a priest for 62 years in the Diocese of Scranton, Philadelphia, and an exorcist for more than 35 years. “The devil has much to do with [influencing people in] breaking the law of God,” he said. But an exorcism over the United States is unlikely, according to Monsignor Esseff.

According to Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, demonic activity has been increasing in the United States because people are choosing to be dissuaded away from God and opening portals such as New Age and witchcraft that are gateways to the demonic. “When faith becomes thin and Satan and agents of Satan move in, there are going to be effects,” he said. “It was Pope Benedict XVI who said that as faith diminishes, superstition increases.”

The trailer for the show, which has been widely criticized by YouTube respondents, features white people expressing angst about how they are desperate not to appear “racist” or “offend people.” According to Kimberly Ricci, the documentary forces the participants “to internalize what they’ve done in America” – in other words, this a huge exercise in white guilt tripping for public consumption. An MTV write up of the show also explains how Vargas talks to young Native Americans who feel that European settlers did not ‘save the country’. “They are the ones who invaded. They are the ones who took,” says Vargas.

In the interests of balance, when will Vargas be fronting a show called Black People that collectively blames all black people for black crime statistics, including the fact that black people in America commit over half of homicides despite making up only 13 per cent of the population?

How about the fact that despite being outnumbered by whites five to one, blacks commit eight times more crimes against whites than vice-versa?

How about the fact that interracial rapes are almost exclusively black on white?

How about the Barbary slave trade, under which over 1 million white Christian Europeans were enslaved in North Africa until the middle of the 18th century?

Are black people going to be shown crying on camera having been shamed into taking responsibility for all of this? No, because that would be racist. But according to MTV and Vargas, subjecting someone to trial by media purely because of their skin color is perfectly acceptable – so long as they are white.

This documentary represents the culmination of years of race-baiting and racial division which is being driven by the mass media and the Obama White House, tensions which have rapidly accelerated since the Ferguson and Baltimore riots. Many in the liberal media are celebrating the show, with Kristen Yoonsoo remarking how pleased she is about the fact that, “lots of white people tears lie ahead.” “It’s always a good time poking fun at white people,” she concludes.

The notion that Sunday's referendum would persuade Germany to spend more taxpayers' money on bailing out Greece was angrily dismissed by numerous renegade Christian Democrat (CDU) MPs in media interviews. "We must now end this experiment with the reform-reluctant Greeks," said Christian von Stetten, head of the CDU's small business association group in parliament. Earlier, he described Greek government representatives as "rip-off merchants" and "conmen".

Andreas Scheuer, general secretary of the Bavarian wing of Ms Merkel's conservatives, was more emphatic. "Greece has said No and as far as we are concerned that means no to negotiations and to a further aid package," he told Germany's 'Bild' newspaper. Other leading conservatives said they agreed with the finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who has said that the "honest and consequent approach" would be for Greece to leave the eurozone.

Ms Merkel has been at odds with her finance minister by insisting over past months that Greece should remain inside. 'Der Spiegel' magazine warned yesterday that Ms Merkel would have to "reckon with rebels" if and when the issue of further Greek aid is put before parliament, as it must be under German law.

The comments by the head of state underline growing concern about hostility towards immigrants in Germany, which last year saw the emergence of the grassroots anti-Islam group PEGIDA. Since the beginning of the year, there have been 150 attacks on refugee shelters - nearly as many as in the whole of 2014.

Gauck called on citizens to stand up and defend Germany's democratic and liberal values by welcoming refugees from countries afflicted by war and human rights abuses.