In proposing that Greece could be better off outside the euro, the irascible 72-year-old crossed a political Rubicon: he confirmed that the single currency was "reversible" after all. But having broken the euro's biggest taboo, commentators have now suggested that it should be Mr Schaeuble's Germany, rather than Greece, that should now take the plunge and ditch the euro.

Princeton economist and former IMF bail-out chief Ashoka Mody is among the most recent proponents of a German exit from the euro.

Mr Mody notes that a return to the deutsche mark would provide a two-fold boost to the rest of the beleaguered eurozone: it would immediately cause the euro to plummet in value, stimulating exports in the southern periphery, and also cause far less disruption to the rest of the bloc than a potential Grexit. "A deutsche mark would buy more goods and services in Europe (and in the rest of the world) than does a euro today, the Germans would become richer in one stroke", writes Mr Mody.

And for all its relative economic strength, the euro was always at its heart a political construct designed to neuter a reunified Germany 25 years ago. Paradoxically, Mr Mody now says that a release from the shackles of the single currency could finally pave the way for Germany to act as the "benevolent hegemon" a functioning fixed-exhange rate system has always needed. "To stay close, Europe's nations may need to loosen the ties that bind them so tightly," he writes.

Instead, these laws are written in such a way that anyone that says something that “offends” or “insults” someone else is guilty of “hate speech”. Even if you never intended to offend anyone and you had no idea that your words were insulting, in some countries you can be detained without bail and sentenced to years in prison for such speech.

Today, there are highly restrictive hate speech laws in Canada, in Mexico and in virtually every single European nation. The United States is still an exception, but the truth is that our liberties and freedoms are being eroded every single day, and it is only a matter of time until “hate speech laws” are used to take away our freedom of speech too.

Once such laws are in place in the United States, it won’t be difficult for the government to find you if you are committing “hate speech”. As I have written about repeatedly, the US government already monitors virtually everything that is said and done on the Internet.

And then, on Sunday, more than 5 inches of rain fell in the open desert east of the Coachella Valley. Rushing water flooded into the wash beneath the bridge and ate away at the dirt around the foundations. Eventually, one end of the eastbound lanes cracked free of the highway and tumbled to the desert floor, cutting the primary route between Arizona and Southern California.

Built in 1967, the Tex Wash Bridge sits on Interstate 10, linking Los Angeles to Phoenix. Located just east of Palm Springs, California, the bridge is owned and maintained by the California Department of Transportation, or CalTrans. Officials there said they were investigating how a highly rated bridge managed to fail so spectacularly.

An average of more than 20,000 cars per day pass through the area, according to federal highway statistics. Traffic was rerouted to give motorists options around the crucial arterial link.

The European Commission has now proposed a €7 billion (£5 billion) "bridging" loan to help Greece pay debt interest. Some of the money could be used to repay the IMF. Greece has already missed two deadlines to pay the Fund €1.6 billion (£1.1 billion) in debt interest on loans it has already received, earning it the dubious honour of being the first major Western economy to default on an IMF loan.

The European Commission's latest proposal for bridging finance may face opposition from the UK and other non-eurozone members of the EU. The proposal envisages providing short-term financing to Greece from the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM). This fund is backed by all 28 members of the EU, rather than just the 16 members of the eurozone, which would mean UK taxpayers contributing further to financial support for Greece.

The split between the IMF and the EU comes just hours before the Greek parliament is due to vote on a raft of economic reforms demanded by the Eurogroup over the weekend as a condition of a third Greek bailout.

Katseli, a former PASOK Minister, appealed to citizens to return their deposits to the banks “now that the banks are open” after a three-week holiday and capital controls. “Let’s all help our economy,” Katseli urged Greeks and added “If you take your money out of your chests and houses – which are not safe in any case – and deposit at banks, this will enhance liquidity.” “There will be no need to 'haircut' deposits in the future if we all act responsibly,” she added -cheerfully I suppose.

Katseli’s appeal triggered laughter among Greeks and one stressed with hint to capital controls “Oh yes! I will bring my money back to the bank and get it back 60 by 60 euro.” Another one noted “Ah sure! Banks will never see my money again, I prefer to buy tonnes of peanuts with it.” A third commented “Certainly. And the banks will go bust after a while…”

A fourth recounted a very unfortunate incident in 2010 and busted into tears and laughter. Back then Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos had appealed to the Greeks to buy Greek bonds. The man invested 10,000 euros to help Greece. Two years later, his investment underwent a 53%-haircut due to the PSI. Now the nominal value of his investment is … "I don’t even open the envelopes coming from the bank anymore, too frustrating,” he told me.

Dr Mary Gatter, President of Planned Parenthood’s Medical Director’s Council, is asked, “What would you expect for intact tissue?” Gatter starts to haggle immediately, “Why don’t you start by telling me what you’re used to paying?” When pushed for a number, Gatter says, “Well, you know in negotiations the person who throws out the figure first is at a loss, right? So…”

When pushed again for how much her Planned Parenthood affiliate is willing to sell baby body parts for, she responds, “Okay, $75.” When the buyer tells her that number seems low Gatter responds, “I was going to say $50.” Then the buyer offers her $100 to which Gatter quickly responds, “Okay.”

After the first video was released last week in which Dr Deborah Nucatola also appears to negotiate the price of fetal body parts, Planned Parenthood insisted that the price Nucatola mentioned was only related to the costs incurred by Planned Parenthood with no profit involved. In the Nucatola video, however, she is seen and heard explaining that the Planned Parenthood affiliates in the body parts business wanted to do more than “break even.”

CMP’s Project Lead David Daleiden said, “Planned Parenthood’s top leadership had admitted they harvest aborted baby parts and receive payments for this. Planned Parenthood’s only denial is that they make money off of baby parts, but that is a desperate lie that becomes more and more untenable as CMP reveals their business operations and statements that prove otherwise.”

Yet Francis refers to the devil continually. He does not believe him to be a myth, but a real person, the most insidious enemy of the church. Several of my theologian colleagues have said that he has gone a bit overboard with the devil and hell! We may be tempted to ask, why in the devil is Pope Francis so involved with the prince of demons?

This intelligent Jesuit Pope is diving into deep theological waters, places where very few modern Catholic clerics wish to tread. Francis' seeming preoccupation with the devil is not a theological or eschatological question as much as a call to arms, an invitation to immediate action, offering very concrete steps to do combat with the devil and the reign of evil in the world today.

In his homilies, Francis warns people strongly to avoid discouragement, to seize hope, to move on with courage and not to fall prey to negativity or cynicism.

In a famous speech in 1946, Winston Churchill proposed “a kind of United States of Europe” as a way of eradicating Europe’s warring past, but it was fairly obvious that he did not envisage Britain as part of it. “We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked but not combined. We are interested and associated but not absorbed,” was how Churchill put it, a way of thinking that has defined Britain’s ambivalent attitude to Europe ever since.

Instead, this would be primarily a Franco-German construct, with Britain pursuing an alternative destiny as part of a Commonwealth of Nations. At the time, Britain still had rationing and austerity, but as the victorious nation, it nonetheless looked in rather better shape than much of the rest of an economically ruined continent.

In or out, Britain has little option but to remain part of the single market. Anything else would be a giant economic leap in the dark. The real issue is only that of terms, and ensuring that whatever other madnesses the eurozone inflicts on itself to hold the whole thing together do not directly disadvantage us. As things stand, the eurozone is on a long road to oblivion. It will be a very different, and less blindly integrationist, Europe we will be dealing with 10 years hence, or so we must hope.

Justice Barbara Jaffe has granted a "writ of habeas corpus" and is ordering officials at Stony Brook University to show cause for why they are holding the chimps, Hercules and Leo, in captivity. When word got around that a couple of chimpanzees had been granted human rights by a court of law, Justice Jaffe clarified her statements, striking down the "writ of habeas corpus" which theoretically gave the chimps the same rights as humans. Striking down her initial wording, she said it was simply a way to formally direct the university officials to the courtroom to present their case.

The Nonhuman Rights Project, which signed off on the judge's order, saw a first-time glimpse of what they work so hard for - court recognized animal rights. They believe that some animals, like chimps, are "legal persons" with the right of "bodily liberty." The question being raised is this: Are chimps the property of human owners or do the animals have the right to own their own body and liberty? Does an animal have the same rights as humans? If they are being harmed, abused, or detained, can they be represented in court and ultimately be freed?

The Nonhuman Rights Project seeks to free Hercules and Leo from their cages at Stony Brook in hopes they will be released to an animal sanctuary in Florida. However, if the chimps are indeed property of Stony Brook and no harm can be proven, then can the court order the animals be taken away from their owners? "Nonhuman animals do not have legal rights any more than they have legal responsibilities," said Bob Kohn, a lawyer from Manhattan, who opposes efforts to give human rights to chimps and other animals. "For a court to hold otherwise would have tremendous adverse legal and moral implications for mankind."

The elitists running the system know better than any of us what is really going on in the real economy as they have access to the unmanipulated, raw data – something to which they go to great lengths to prevent we plebeians from seeing.

The greatest amount of effort to cover up the truth about what is happening beneath the surface headlines is the effort being exerted to push the price of gold lower. The truth is that the US is nothing a but gigantic bloated, debt-addicted Ponzi scheme that is quickly losing its global economic and military hegemony while the US elitists steal everything in sight from the middle class.

If gold were allowed to trade freely, it would be priced at a significantly higher level than where it is now. The problem is that a rising price of gold would signal to a large portion of the population that something is drastically wrong with the US financial, economic and political system.

Armstrong has predicted for years that governments worldwide would melt down in a crisis of insolvency and lack of trust starting this October. Specifically, Armstrong predicts that a major cycle will turn on October 1, 2015, shifting investors’ trust from the public sector and governments to the private sector.

Edelson is another long-time student of cycle theory. Edelson – a big fan of Armstrong – has also studied decades of data from the Foundation for the Study of Cycles. Edelson is predicting the biggest financial crisis in world history – including a collapse of government solvency – starting on October 7, 2015 – the same week as Armstrong’s prediction – when the European Union breaks up. Edelson also thinks that huge sums of investment will flow from the Eurozone to America, driving up US stocks (unlike Armstrong, Edelson thinks US bonds will also benefit). He thinks that Japan will be the next domino to fall … and that Japan’s default will also drive investments into the US as a safe haven.

In other words, both Armstrong and Edelson think that – as the best looking horse in the glue factory – the US stock market will skyrocket as others fall apart. But to be clear, both believe that the domino collapse will eventually hit the US, and America will end up defaulting on its debts – and falling into financial crisis – as well. Are Armstrong and Edelson right or wrong? We don’t have long to wait to test their very public predictions.

Correction: Several people have pointed out that Armstrong is not predicting that the crisis will be felt on October 1, 2015. Rather, he’s forecasting that October 1st is a major turning point, but that the governmental financial crisis may not be felt until some months later.

Of course Hollande is not the only one calling for more centralization. Last month, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem proposed a plan that would create a shared European treasury.

I believe that we are right on the verge of a very significant European financial crisis. In particular, keep on eye on the big banks. Just like in the United States, the “too big to fail” banks in Europe are massively overleveraged and are tremendously exposed to derivatives. In fact, the bank with the most exposure to derivatives on the entire planet is Deutsche Bank. It has been reported that Deutsche Bank has a whopping 75 trillion dollars worth of exposure to derivatives, their co-CEOs were recently forced to resign, and there are all sorts of rumblings about troubles going on behind the scenes at the bank.

What do you think would happen if the biggest and most important bank in Germany suddenly became the next Lehman Brothers? That is something to think about. Meanwhile, the euro continues to fall. For a long time, I have been repeating my prediction that the euro would fall to parity with the US dollar. One year ago, the EUR/USD was sitting at 1.35. Today, it has come all the way down to 1.08.

There will be more ups and downs, but we are almost there. A time of great chaos is coming to Europe, and the eurozone will be deeply shaken.

Thousands of hand-held, ground-to-air missile launchers were seized by militiamen as they captured regime bases during the Libyan revolution in 2011. The missiles have since turned up in warzones and failed states across Africa and the Middle East and have been described as an unprecedented menace to air traffic.

As well as being used in military conflicts, there are fears the weapons, known as Manpads, could be used by terrorists to target civilian airliners as they take off or land. A team of British experts including troops from the RAF Regiment has been training foreign governments on how to increase security at airports to stop such an attack, it has now been disclosed.

All around, their Whitehall colleagues were finding ways of imposing cuts, but in Dfid’s imposing new headquarters off Trafalgar Square, the big worry was how to shovel money out of the door. This is the central message of the latest report on Dfid from the National Audit Office. The most powerful objection to the Government’s promise to devote 0.7 per cent of national income to overseas aid was that spending money would then become an end in itself.

Back in 2013, Britain became the first G7 country to hit the 0.7 per cent target by the simple device of giving Dfid the biggest percentage increase in its budget ever enjoyed by any Whitehall department in peacetime history. Overnight, Dfid’s allocation jumped by 33 per cent to £10.4 billion – and spending this money became the ministry's central goal.

The rational way to run anything – whether a Whitehall department or a fish and chip shop – is to decide what you want to achieve and then spend as little as you can get away with. Once you subordinate everything to hitting a spending target, you turn the rules of rational management on their head. But in a Government supposedly wracked by austerity, officials at the Department for International Development had to spend £3.7 billion in just eight weeks.

Dfid found itself on a spending splurge in November and December 2013. At first, its officials thought they would have to shovel £2.7 billion out of the door in those two months. But the figures went awry and it turned out they would somehow have to spend £3.7 billion. In the end, the cash wasn’t wasted. But it’s never a good idea to make spending money a target in itself. And if Dfid’s role is increasingly going to be writing cheques for international organisations, then does it really need a staff of 2,700?

Along with genuinely worthy projects, officials at the EDF have somehow contrived to spend thousands of pounds on trapeze lessons, a study on the development of the Pacific Coconut, flying a gamut of officials from across Oceania to a renewable energy conference in Aruba (no, really), supporting the work of the EU’s press operation in Jamaica, and a study into the “youth perceptions, attitudes and views towards EU development policy” in Zimbabwe.

Just weeks after revelations that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office spent taxpayers’ money on Facebook lessons for teenagers in Laos and trying to find a companion for a rare fish, it’s hard to shake the suspicion that too much of our foreign aid is simply being wasted. Even when the projects themselves are potentially useful, they don’t always get delivered: Ian Birrell recently uncovered the sorry tale of the Caribbean island of Montserrat, which has seen almost £400 million in British foreign aid and yet still does not have the permanent hospital, among other utilities, that the money was supposed to be used for.