It is estimated to cost about four billion Euros, with another four billion having been already invested. With MEADS, Germany would achieve more "autonomy in security policy," according to a CSU party military policy specialist. The German Navy will also receive four MKS 180 multi-role warships worth around four billion Euros, better suited for waging distant wars more effectively and over more extended periods.

Other armament projects, such as a German-French battle tank, serve the consolidation of the EU's arms industries or - as with the "Euro-drone" - are aimed at achieving more independence from the US arms industry. The A400M Airbus airlifter crash in early May is seen by observers in the context of these efforts to achieve autonomy.

With its decision in favor of MEADS, Berlin is pursuing its efforts to strengthen the German-European arms industry in relationship to its US counterpart. A US company, Lockheed Martin, is involved in the project. Experts considered years ago that MEADS, the only large-scale transatlantic project, "offers German companies a rare opportunity … to benefit from the technology transfer with the USA in that domain."

In comparison to purchasing modernized US "Patriot" batteries, MEADS offers Berlin the chance to produce and further develop modern sensor technology in Germany. Last year, Defense Minister von der Leyen declared this to be the "key technology."

Addressing a Franco-British Council conference at Lancaster House in central London, Grieve told the audience of judges, diplomats and academics that: “Our [Conservative party] intent, if pursued, threatens to make the [European Convention on human rights] inoperable.” The Conservative MP says the government’s plan to leave Strasbourg court threatens to make the European convention on human rights inoperable

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “This government was elected with a mandate to reform and modernise the UK human rights framework. The UK has a proud tradition of respect for human rights which long predates the Human Rights Act 1998. But the Human Rights Act opened the system to abuse, damaging the credibility of human rights.

“That’s why we will bring forward proposals for a British bill of rights. Our bill will protect fundamental human rights, but also prevent their abuse and restore some common sense to the system. We will widely consult on our proposals before introducing legislation.”

If hypocrisy needed a poster child, the despotic and brutal regime of Saudi Arabia, which is currently bombing Yemenite civilians into oblivion and is advertising job openings for additional executioners (growth industry in Saudi Arabia), more than set the standard. Worse, a majority of the so called “civilized” nations of the world supported the resolution, showing that subservience to the power of oil trumps any semblance of integrity in the international community.

The Saudis can be dismissed. It is unnecessary to delineate their acts of brutality. These have long appeared before the world. The Saudis’ hypocrisy is a mainstay of their propaganda. If not for their oil, their anti-Israel vitriol would be disregarded, as one day the changing nature of the energy market will cause it to be. With the exception of naive, leftist college students who are taught that the UN is a citadel of virtue, no one will take a Saudi-sponsored resolution seriously.

The harm is not in the resolution. It is in its acceptance by the global community, and the message that the action sends to the Israelis. Further isolating the Israelis with resolutions forged in the cauldron of the absurd, and mixed with hypocrisy, will not pave the way for peace. The consequences will ultimately be indistinguishable from those of the second Palestinian intifada, which had disastrous results for the Israeli peace movement.

With that being said, each and every announcement by the military of their different training activities is being scrutinized like never before with the latest news raising eyebrows due to its connection to possible internment camps for American citizens. At least sixty soldiers from the 102nd Military Police Battalion’s Headquarters Detachment recently conducted their annual training at Fort Drum in a simulated detention center.

A press release detailed what the soldiers spent their time doing during the training which included practicing pat downs, biometric checks, and running detainees through hygiene stations. The troops also practiced conducting psychological evaluations. “What we are conducting here are full-scale operations in order to bring everyone into the fold for what is necessary to run a detention facility properly,” said Captain Nicholas Monuteaux in the release. “It is very necessary to ensure all our military policemen and small engineer contingent develop, build or refine their duties and responsibilities.”

While the training in New York may very well be for use overseas (members of the same battalion have served at Guantanamo Bay) the fact remains that any announcement about training in detention centers instantly sparks fears due to the documented fact that plans for internment camps in America exist and could become a reality after some sort of massive unrest within the country.

Although no one knows definitively if or when American citizens will be forced into detention centers during a time of extreme crisis, the fact remains that the plans are in place. Officials within the Pentagon itself are worried and individual soldiers throughout the country are sounding the alarm over what could be the end of America as we know it.

To be honest, NASA should perhaps hold off on making such bold statements concerning what will happen in the future considering the fact that the Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013 took them totally by surprise. In any event, what we do know is that our region of space is absolutely packed with meteors and asteroids. At this point, approximately 10,000 major near earth objects have been discovered by scientists, and about 10 percent of them are one kilometer or larger in size. If any of those big ones were to hit us, we would be looking at another Tunguska event or worse.

And it is a fallacy to think that NASA knows about everything that is happening in our region of space and sees anything that is coming toward us well in advance. NASA is not all-powerful. In fact, a large asteroid buzzed our planet just a few months ago and NASA did not even know that it was approaching. So don’t put all of your trust in what NASA has to say.

And of course if a large object was heading toward the earth, NASA probably would not tell us anyway. This is how the US government works. There is far more emphasis on “keeping everyone calm” than there is on being honest with the American people. What we do know for certain is that giant meteors have hit our planet in the past, and it is just a matter of time before it happens again in our future.

Earlier in the day Putin met Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Milan and arrived an hour late to the meeting at the Vatican - his second with Pope Francis since he became Pope in 2013. Lombardi said Francis stressed the need 'to commit oneself in a sincere and great effort to bring' peace to Ukraine, through dialogue and implementation of the Minsk accords. The Pope also urged access for humanitarian aid.

The US, using diplomatic channels, had encouraged the Vatican to use the private papal audience as an occasion to join the West in condemning Moscow's actions in Ukraine. US ambassador to the Holy See, Kenneth Hackett, said the US wanted to see the Vatican increase its concern about what is happening in Ukraine. It was a rare visit to Europe for the isolated Russian leader amid the ongoing political stand-off.

His private audience with the Pope comes just days after the G7 meeting in Germany, which excluded former-member Russia, and two weeks ahead of EU talks on extending sanctions against Russia. Putin spent 50 minutes chatting to the Pope, who presented him with an 'Angel of peace' medallion. 'It is the angel who wins all wars and speaks of solidarity between all peoples,' the pontiff told the Russian leader. A Vatican statement said the Pope had urged the Russian president, and other parties to the Ukraine conflict, to make a 'sincere effort' for peace.

Italy has long had an important economic relationship with Russia and political ties were sufficiently close prior to the eruption of the Ukraine crisis for Russia's Baltic neighbours to object to an Italian, Federica Mogherini, being named the EU's foreign policy chief last year amid claims she would be too soft on Moscow. Italy is Russia's third-biggest trading partner after China and Germany with deals between the two countries worth just over 30 billion euros ($33.9 billion) last year.

Just hours before the meeting between visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pope Francis, the US ambassador to the Holy See Kenneth Hackett encouraged the pontiff to take a tougher stance against Vladimir Putin. In particular, Hackett said the Vatican “could say more about concerns on territorial integrity”.

“Maybe this is an opportunity for the [pope] to privately raise those concerns,” Hackett said. Pope Francis had “certainly” been made aware of the violence in Ukraine and was not unaware of the crisis, he added. However, at the hour-long private audience with the Russian President, the Pope took a neutral stance. He urged for more humanitarian assistance, which Russia already provides, and for a peaceful solution to the crisis via the Minsk II roadmap.

The apparent move by Washington to interfere with talks and exert influence on the foreign policy of another state has been condemned by the Russian presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. “This is surely a blatant attempt in suppressing sovereignty of other nations,” Peskov told Russian media. “This is what the Russian President never agreed with, and now categorically opposes.” Lecturing, or even “pretending to have the right to lecture the Pope of Rome” is surely a “new move” in international diplomacy, and a “big responsibility,” Dmitry Peskov noted.

Speaking before Congress, the former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) said the deal being worked out between Iran and Western powers “leaves a lot to be desired,” and that there was no doubt Tehran would eventually develop nuclear weapons. And, he added, there was no doubt that those weapons would be directed against Israel.

Flynn was joining critics from Israel, France, and elsewhere, who have been warning that the deal being built on a set of understandings announced earlier this year by US Secretary of State John Kerry would not enforce supervision of the agreement – in essence, relying on nothing more than Iran's promise that it will not develop nuclear weapons.

With the deadline for the agreement set for the end of June, diplomatic activity surrounding the deal has increased considerably in recent weeks – but just Thursday, France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius reiterated that the deal, as it stands, did not have enough teeth. Israel, too, is very concerned about the brewing deal. Speaking to the Politico web site last week, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, Israel's point man on the Iran deal, said that “The Iranians are using delay tactics. It seems they want to come close to the deadline without an agreement. There will be no time to close all the loopholes and clarify all the details.”

Iran also means what it says about destroying Israel, Flynn added – and it is not only Israel Iran is after. To defend itself, Saudi Arabia is likely to develop a nuclear program of its own “touching off a dangerous domino effect in the region” which could lead to tragic consequences.

“I’ve been there three times and I can tell you it is far more than a trade agreement,” he said. “It is a creating of an economic union. The congressional resource said it is a wide-ranging political and economic partnership that is created where the Sultan of Brunei gets one vote. The president of the United States gets one vote. Twelve countries – they have the ability to add other treaties and pass them. They have the ability to deal with climate issues, wage issues and environmental issues. There’s just no doubt about that.”

The junior Alabama senator went on to explain that he felt it was being kept secret because if the public were aware of this union, which he likened to the European Union, it would be stopped dead in its tracks. “I think it’s because if the trade commission – if the international commission, the Pacific union that is being created here – were made public, it wouldn’t go anywhere.”

"It's panic in parliament," Yannick Jadot, a Green MEP from France, told AFP. Ministers have disagreed over a controversial dispute mechanism that some fear would allow big companies to bypass national courts to resolve disputes with investors. Socialist groups in the European Parliament reportedly blocked the dispute mechanism on Tuesday, which resulted in the vote being postponed.

TTIP negotiations were initiated by Europe to speed economic recovery. Commentators have said the US is growing tired of constant delays to an agreement. "It’s now very much up to EU to decide if they want this agreement. The patience of the US is running out," Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of European Centre for International Political Economy, told The Independent.

But the media will never tell you about Mexicans gang-raping a lesbian in Richmond, California, an Indian immigrant in San Francisco importing 12-year-old girls he bought from their parents for sex, or three children being beheaded by Mexicans in Baltimore. Don't Americans have a right to know about the cultures flooding into our country?

When it comes to immigration, you'll only hear "Diversity is a strength," "Immigration is fantastic for the economy," "Polls show Americans overwhelmingly support a 'path to legalization'" - pay no attention to the outpouring of hostility every time an amnesty bill comes up - and "Oh, look! An immigrant valedictorian!"

The media don't need to run this scam forever. Democrats only need to keep it going until they have California-style majorities in every state, and then they'll say, "S***w you, America. We did this deliberately, and now there's nothing you can do about it."

That's exactly what the Labour government of Tony Blair did - as we found out in 2009. In public, Blair's government claimed that the mass immigration of the Third World to Britain was absolutely crucial to the economy! Once they were out of office, Blair adviser Andrew Neather admitted that their real objective had been "to rub the Right's nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date," as the London Telegraph reported in 2009.

That's one way of winning elections. It's cheating, but it works!

The scale is starting to match the 'taper tantrum' of mid-2013 when the US Federal Reserve issued its first gentle warning that quantitative easing would not last forever, and that the long-feared inflexion point was nearing in the international monetary cycle. Paper losses over the last three months have reached $1.2 trillion. Yields have jumped by 175 basis points in Indonesia, 160 in South Africa, 150 in Turkey, 130 in Mexico, and 80 in Australia.

The epicentre is in the eurozone as the "QE" bet goes horribly wrong. Bund yields hit 1.05 percent this morning before falling back in wild trading, up 100 basis points since March. French, Italian, and Spanish yields have moved in lockstep. A parallel drama is unfolding in America where the Pimco Total Return Fund has just revealed that it slashed its holdings of US debt to 8.5 percent of total assets in May, from 23.4 percent a month earlier. This sort of move in the staid fixed income markets is exceedingly rare.

Economic historians will one day ask how it was possible for €2 trillion of eurozone bonds - a third of the government bond market - to have been trading at negative yields in the early spring of 2015 even as the reflation hammer was already coming down with crushing force. "It was the greater fool theory. They always thought there would be some other sucker to buy at an even higher price. Now we are returning to sanity," said Mr Stein.

The bond ructions this week are an early warning that it will not be easy to wean the world off six years of zero rates across the G10, and off dollar largesse on a scale never seen before. Central banks have no safe margin for error.

Like other Greek owners of small and medium-sized companies in Greece, Mr Fotiades feared a radical government would resort to capital controls if relations with the country’s creditors deteriorated sharply. To protect his savings he bought a brand new Mercedes-Benz car, then took the advice of a financial consultant and invested the remainder in money market funds based in Luxembourg.

“I didn’t want to sit by and see my hard-earned money disappear in a bail-in,” he said, recalling a banking collapse in Cyprus in 2013, in which the government raised almost €8 billion by taxing bank deposits of more than €100,000 after imposing the eurozone’s first capital controls.

“The smart money left early on... The shipowners pulled out funds and manufacturing companies set up accounts outside Greece with foreign banks so they could be sure they’d continue trading,” said an Athens-based banking analyst.

An additional impetus for the necessary search for an alternative is provided by the fact that German gas imports from the Netherlands are on the verge of being shut down. Beginning 2020, The Hague intends to drastically reduce gas production from the country's largest gas field, because draining the deposit would heighten dangers of earthquakes.

Wintershall is particularly expanding its activities in Norway and has already begun shale gas production in Argentina, where the world's second largest shale gas deposits are estimated to be found. Wintershall's orientation shift also reduces its interest in business with Russia, while reinforcing its transatlantic interest.