Suffice to say, if a significant percentage of people ever actually moved their money into physical cash, it could very quickly become a systemic problem. Indeed, this is precisely what caused the 2008 meltdown, when nearly 24% of the assets in Money Market funds were liquidated in the course of four weeks. The ensuing liquidity crush nearly imploded the system. Because of this, Central Banks and the regulators have declared a War on Cash in an effort to stop people trying to get their money out of the system.

One policy they are considering is to put a carry tax on physical cash meaning that your dollar bills would gradually depreciate once they were taken out of the bank. Another idea is to do away with actual physical cash completely. Perhaps the most concerning is the fact that should a “systemically important” financial entity go bust, any deposits above $250,000 located therein could be converted to equity… at which point if the company’s shares [fall], your wealth evaporates.

So if the bank then fails (meaning its shares fall)… so does your deposit.

Let’s run through this.

Let’s say ABC bank fails in the US. ABC bank is too big for the FDIC to make fold. So…

1) The FDIC takes over the bank.

2) The bank’s managers are forced out.

3) The bank’s debts and liabilities are converted into equity or the bank’s stock. And yes, your deposits are considered a “liability” for the bank.

4) Whatever happens to the bank’s stock, affects your wealth. If the bank’s stock falls at this point because everyone has figured out the bank is in major trouble… your wealth falls too.

This is precisely what has happened in Spain during the 2012 banking crisis over there. And it is perfectly legal in the US courtesy of a clause in the Dodd-Frank bill. This is just the start of a much larger strategy of declaring War on Cash.

Of the provinces affected by the dry spell, almost half or 19 are on the southern island of Mindanao while 10 are in the central part of the country, said the PAGASA report. The rest or 14 provinces are on the main island of Luzon. The Philippines has 81 provinces.

In the central province of Cebu, the latest on the list of calamity areas, the office of the provincial agriculturist said at least 170 hectares of corn, rice, banana and vegetables in two cities and two towns were badly affected by the drought, The Freeman newspaper said. Australia's ABC News reported last week that eight Philippine provinces severely affected by the drought had been placed under the state of calamity.

Writing for Le Monde in a tone of furious defiance after the latest set of talks reached an impasse, Mr Tsipras said the eurozone's dominant players were by degrees bringing about the "complete abolition of democracy in Europe" and were ushering in a technocratic monstrosity with powers to subjugate states that refuse to accept the "doctrines of extreme neoliberalism".

"For those countries that refuse to bow to the new authority, the solution will be simple: Harsh punishment. Judging from the present circumstances, it appears that this new European power is being constructed, with Greece being the first victim," he said.

The Greek leader, head of the radical-Left Syriza government, issued a stark warning that his country will not submit to these demands and will instead take action "to entirely transform the economic and political balances throughout the West." "If some, however, think or want to believe that this decision concerns only Greece, they are making a grave mistake."

“I remain committed to the idea that the only way we can achieve a lasting peace is through the concept of two states for two peoples – a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish nation state of Israel,” Netanyahu said after talks with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

But while calling for the resumption of negotiations that failed in spring last year, just months before a deadly military operation in Gaza, Netanyahu was quick to point out that the “Palestinian Authority has moved away from these negotiations.”

It now appears that the international lobby is paying off, as at least on the diplomatic front, Netanyahu showed willingness to negotiate, but demanded that Palestinians return to talks “without preconditions.” “Tell the Palestinians to stop their campaign to delegitimise Israel,” Netanyahu told Steinmeier. “Tell them to get back to the negotiating table. Tell them that we should negotiate without preconditions.”

Right now, France is working on a proposed resolution which would give formal UN Security Council recognition to the Palestinians, would declare that a divided Jerusalem is the capital of both Israel and a Palestinian state, and would set the 1967 borders as the baseline for future negotiations which would establish the final borders between the two nations. It is being reported that France will submit this resolution for a vote after the 70th session of the UN General Assembly begins on the 15th of September.

At this moment, 136 nations have already recognized a Palestinian state, but the United States has always blocked recognition by the UN Security Council. This time may be different though, because there are quite a few indications that Barack Obama actually plans to back the French resolution in September. If that happens, and the UN Security Council approves this resolution, it is going to have enormous implications for all of us.

If the United States does not veto the French resolution later this year, it will almost certainly pass. So right now, the only thing standing in the way of a Palestinian state is Barack Obama. And considering the fact that he is probably the most anti-Israel president in our history, that is a very sobering thought. Global leaders probably hope that this plan will bring peace. But it won’t. In fact, it will just greatly inflame tensions in the region. In the end, I believe that this “peace plan” will only lead to more war.

"I don't think Iran has any intention of giving up its efforts to get deliverable nuclear weapons," said the former ambassador. "Even if a deal is signed sometime in the summer I think the ayatollahs will violate it even before the ink is dry." Lending credence to those suspicions, top Iranian officials have said they will start using advanced IR-8 centrifuges that are 20 times as effective as standard ones as soon as a deal is reached, even as the US asserts a deal will limit the usage of advanced centrifuges.

According to Bolton, the West doesn't have enough knowledge about Iran's covert nuclear program, nor does it possess any sufficient mechanism to monitor possible violations of a future deal, meaning such a deal will only "legitimize Iran's path to nuclear weapons."

So why is US President Barack Obama so earnestly pressing for a deal with Iran?

However, the number is estimated to be only ten per cent of the true number of teens struck down with severe side effects after taking the vaccine. The jab has been routinely administered to 12-year-old and 13-year-old girls in Britain since 2008. The injection blocks the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus which leads to most cervical cancer cases.

Otherwise healthy school-aged girls have reportedly suffered chest and abdominal pains, exhaustion, breathing difficulties, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, which triggers an abnormally high heart rate, and fibromyalgia, which causes chronic pain throughout the body. In more than a quarter of the cases, the effects have apparently been so severe that they were considered 'life-threatening' and required immediate medical treatment.

In the 1980s, western countries - in collaboration with Saudi Arabia - had supported jihadists associated with Osama bin Laden, to defeat Soviet military forces in Afghanistan. Since at least ten years, they have been supporting Arab jihadists in an effort to weaken Iran's main allies. These activities, accompanying the official "war on terror," are "a very high-risk venture,” warn US intelligence officials. Saudi Arabia, one of Germany's main allies in the Arab world, is playing a central role in supporting jihadists.

The policeman – whom Temple activists identified as a Druze – told the Jewish man that he may not drink water. "Naturally, it is a hot day today, I went to get a drink,” the man, Elishama Sandman, told Ynet. “When I came close to the faucets, the policeman stopped me and told me that I do not have permission to drink.” Sandman asked him if this was a new instruction and the policeman answered in the affirmative.

“Saying to people who are already cooking in the sun for two or three hours that they can't drink water is saying one of two things,” Richman told Arutz Sheva Monday. “Either that they should die in the heat, or that they can't go up to the Temple Mount.”

Now, nearly a quarter of a century after the US Navy had to give up its Subic Bay base and the Clark Air Base across the Zambales mountains to the east, Americans are once again ready to defend the Philippines, and the region. The Philippines Senate, which had voted in 1991 against renewing the lease on US bases, has dropped its objection to the American return to waters threatened by China’s new insistence on its right to rule almost all the South China Sea – including the Spratly Islands claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

The increasingly acrimonious relations between Beijing and Washington over the vast area of ocean indicate a rising role for the US – in defence of not only the Philippines’ stake in the waters but also of Vietnam, where 40 years ago the US was ousted in a war for which Subic Bay provided strategic support.

On Monday, fresh from proclaiming the right of US ships and planes to move unmolested in waters and airspace claimed by China, the US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter was in Hanoi, listening to a Vietnamese band play “The Star Spangled Banner” and declaring: “We’re both committed to deepening our defence relationship.”

Although open warfare does not seem imminent, the prospect of the US returning in force to Subic Bay, once America’s largest overseas naval base, has increased tensions. The Shiloh, one of the most advanced US cruisers, armed with guided missiles and cannon, is expected to ply the South China Sea after taking on fuel and supplies. Other vessels, including at least one destroyer, are likely to join it in a mini-flotilla, posing an immediate challenge as China builds airstrips and other facilities on 2,000 acres of land reclaimed in the past 18 months.

The problem for the US and the rest of the industrialised world is that the Middle East controls 60 percent of proven oil reserves and with it the keys to the global economy. Should ISIL capture a major oil field in Iraq, or overwhelm the government, the consequences for energy markets and the financial system would be potentially catastrophic.

According to Daniel Yergin, the energy expert and vice-chairman of IHS, the business information provider, the biggest threat to oil prices is the political chaos that threatens to engulf the Middle East, combined with the West’s reluctance to intervene.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Yergin argued that the price of a barrel of oil could skyrocket to levels above $100 per barrel if ISIL is allowed to press deeper into Iraq, the second-largest producer in the cartel after Saudi Arabia. “ISIL presents a whole new reality for the region, which just isn’t reflected in the oil market at the moment,” said Mr Yergin. “It’s an increasingly grave situation for most of OPEC and the Middle East. At some point the security issues will start to come back into the price of oil.”