“The fact that today there are again more than 100,000 Jews living in Germany is nothing short of a miracle,” Ms Merkel said, referring to Nazi Germany’s attempted extermination of European Jewry. “It’s a precious gift which fills me with profound gratitude. Jewish life belongs in our country. It’s part of our identity and culture.”

No successful political parties in modern Europe embrace overt anti-Semitism in the way that was visible before the first world war, let alone the Nazi era. However, old popular prejudices survive, and new ethnic and religious grievances are smouldering in Europe’s cities. It is clear why Ms Merkel felt the need to speak out.

According to the Express report: “Depending on the force of the explosion, minute particles thrust beyond the earth’s atmosphere can trigger DECADES of chaotic weather patterns. Tiny pieces of debris act as billions of shields reflecting the sun’s light away from earth meaning winter temperatures could plunge LOWER THAN EVER before while summer will be devoid of sunshine.

The first effect could be a bitterly cold winter to arrive in weeks with thermometers plunging into minus figures and not rising long before next summer. The Icelandic Met Office has this week warned of “strong indications of ongoing magma movement” around the volcano prompting them to raise the aviation warning to orange, the second highest and sparking fears the crater could blow at any moment.”

The newspaper’s sensationalizing aside, Iceland’s volcanic activity might — in rational minds — serve to draw attention to the natural variables (volcanoes, ocean currents, solar activity, clouds, water vapor, etc) that dwarf the human impact on climate. CO2 is but one of many variables that affect the climate, and its effect is very slight, in comparison to many other factors. Moreover, man’s contribution of CO2, SO2, and other greenhouse gases is relatively minor, when compared to the contributions from natural sources.

Monsanto has taken over nearly 2,000 acres of the Hawaiian island to test monster corn crops engineered with the Bt toxin, a patented gene created to withstand unbelievably harsh amounts of pesticides. As a result, the island’s inhabitants have been subjected to blatant and systematic poisoning from the toxic dust of severe pesticides.

As Monsanto forges on, the people of Molokai are growing sicker. Widespread reports of disease have swept through the area, including higher instances of asthma, diabetes and cancer. While Monsanto employees work the fields with protective respirators, nearby inhabitants have no choice but to breathe in toxic dust.

We leave it to the following 139 words by Elliott's Paul Singer to conclude - which in two short paragraphs explains everything one needs to know about America's record class inequality, including precisely who is the man responsible:

“Inequality in the US today is near its historical highs, largely because the Federal Reserve’s policies have succeeded in achieving their aim: namely, higher asset prices (especially the prices of stocks, bonds and high-end real estate), which are generally owned by taxpayers in the upper-income brackets. The Fed is doing all the work, because the President’s policies are growth-suppressive. In the absence of the Fed’s moneyprinting and ZIRP, the economy would either be softer or actually in a new recession.

The greatest irony is that the President is railing against inequality as one of the most important problems of the day, despite the fact that his policies are squeezing the middle class and causing the Fed – with the President’s encouragement – to engage in the radical monetary policy, which is exacerbating inequality. This simple truth cannot be repeated often enough.”

History informs us that the Muslims did not start a war against Byzantine Rome – the possessor of Jerusalem – until after Mohammed's death. And Muslims did not enter into Jerusalem until the city surrendered in 637 AD, almost five years after Mohammed's death. On this fact, no one can debate. Islam did not reach Jerusalem until five years after Mohammed's death. Therefore, there was no mosque in Jerusalem during Mohammed's lifetime that he could have visited. Hence, whatever farthest mosque Mohammed supposedly visited could not possibly have been in Jerusalem.

The supposed al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is a historical fraud. Even by Muslim claims, the site of Mohammed's Night Journey could not have been in Jerusalem. Worse yet, Muslim scholars have to know this. They cannot possibly be ignorant of this history. There is no way they can reconcile the five-year gap. The Israeli scholar Dr Mordecai Kedar has even shown that according to Muslim documents, the Farthest Mosque was in the Saudi village of al-Gi'irranah (al-Juranah), a suburb of Mecca. But even Dr Kedar's information is not necessary. Mohammed could not have visited a mosque that did not exist in his lifetime. Once the Muslim claim to al-Aqsa falls, then other Muslim claims fall.

No one but the Jews has a genuine religious claim to the 35 acres of the Temple Mount, and anyone who has studied the history knows this. Even Christians – who do have legitimate claims to other sites in the area – do not contest the Mount. This is not arcane knowledge. It can be gleaned in a few minutes of relatively light reading.

Yet our media deceptively hides this from the public. If our media would only expose the fraud, an iota of reason might enter some Muslim minds, and they might back off an indefensible position – albeit highly unlikely. The Muslims will probably fight over this, if they remain convinced of the al-Aqsa lie. It is about time someone confronted the Muslims, and disabused them of lies perpetrated by their own clerics. At the very least, the media should stop referring to it as al-Aqsa and refer to it as the Southern (in reference to the location on the Mount) Mosque. Our media will be culpable if they do not point out this out.

Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Institute explained why they chose the novel approach of fund raising through crowd funding: "We are constantly looking for ways to include as many people as possible in our mission to rebuild the Holy Temple. This is not about one group or organization, it's about bringing about a spiritual reunification of mankind, today with the help of the internet our message is resonating across the globe."

Even the state’s mighty almond business, which has become a powerhouse in recent years, is coming in smaller than expected. That’s particularly troubling to the thousands of farmers who sacrificed other crops in order to keep their almond orchards watered. Rising commodity prices have helped cushion at least some of the pain, but more hurt could be on the way. With rivers running low and groundwater overtaxed, the situation could get far worse if heavy rains don’t come this winter.

Craig Ledbetter of Vino Farms, a Lodi grape producer, had enough water this year but said he’s afraid he’ll receive “curtailment notices” from the state signaling significant cutbacks in next season’s water supply.

“I’m very nervous about water,” said Ledbetter, who also raises wine grapes in Sonoma County. “If we don’t have a rainy winter, I can pretty much guarantee we’re all going to be receiving curtailment notices. If that happens, we’re going to be concerned about keeping the vine alive rather than harvesting it.”

"The US-led Western alliance that portrays itself as a champion of democracy, rule of law and human rights within individual countries… (is) rejecting the democratic principle of sovereign equality of states enshrined in the UN Charter and trying to decide for everyone what is good or evil," he said.

"Washington has openly declared its right to unilateral use of force anywhere to uphold its own interests," Lavrov added. "Military interference has become a norm - even despite the dismal outcome of all power operations that the US has carried out over the recent years."

Lavrov cited the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo war, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya that led to the toppling and death of longtime Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi as examples of US failures.

The Commission’s members – 23 Catholic delegates and two delegates representing each of the 14 autocephalous Orthodox Churches – met in the Jordanian capital from 15 to 23 September to discuss a working document entitled “Synodality and Primacy”. The aim was to produce a jointly signed document that would mark a step forward in the work of the Commission set up in 2006 with the task of solving the famous primacy issue: that is finding a way to define the role of the Bishop of Rome and how his primacy is exercised that is also acceptable to the Orthodox Churches. However, the Patriarchate of Moscow promptly issued a statement which said there were “a number of underlying objections”.

Attempts to draft another document on the spot failed. In the end, “after a series of long discussions which unveiled serious disagreements over the question of primacy in the Church,” the Coordinating Committee of the Joint International Commission for the Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church was given orders to reformulate the text at the next meeting, which is scheduled to take place in 2015.

And unlike stocks and bonds, these derivatives do not represent "investments" in anything. They can be incredibly complex, but essentially they are just paper wagers about what will happen in the future. The truth is that derivatives trading is not too different from betting on baseball or football games. Trading in derivatives is basically just a form of legalized gambling, and the "too big to fail" banks have transformed Wall Street into the largest casino in the history of the planet. When this derivatives bubble bursts (and as surely as I am writing this it will), the pain that it will cause the global economy will be greater than words can describe.

If derivatives trading is so risky, then why do our big banks do it? The answer to that question comes down to just one thing. Greed. The "too big to fail" banks run up enormous profits from their derivatives trading. According to the New York Times, US banks "have nearly $280 trillion of derivatives on their books" even though the financial crisis of 2008 demonstrated how dangerous they could be…

The big banks have sophisticated computer models which are supposed to keep the system stable and help them manage these risks. But all computer models are based on assumptions. And all of those assumptions were originally made by flesh and blood people. When a "black swan event" comes along such as a war, a major pandemic, an apocalyptic natural disaster or a collapse of a very large financial institution, these models can often break down very rapidly.

For those looking forward to the day when these mammoth banks will collapse, you need to keep in mind that when they do go down the entire system is going to utterly fall apart. At this point our economic system is so completely dependent on these banks that there is no way that it can function without them. We were told that something would be done about the "too big to fail" problem after the last crisis, but it never happened. In fact the "too big to fail" banks have collectively gotten 37 percent larger since the last recession. If those banks were to disappear tomorrow, we would not have much of an economy left.