The official's forecast comes amid increasing disagreement within the 28-nation bloc. Raskovic Ivic projected current differences of opinion in the European Union will lead to further division lines. "One alliance is going to be around Germany, the Baltic countries, maybe central European countries plus Croatia and Slovenia. The other alliance is going to be around France and it might take Mediterranean countries.

And the third is going to be Great Britain that will go with the United States," the Serbian official told Sputnik.

German power is now mostly seen in economic terms. Given its 20th century past, the dream of simply being a bigger Switzerland still holds a strong appeal to the German public: a country without any serious external security concerns, focused on prosperity and wellbeing.

And yet recently Angela Merkel has put her country on a new course. She is redefining German power. This is not happening via grand speeches, but through concrete steps and sometimes discreet messages. And it is happening as a result of circumstances, not because of a comprehensively pre-prepared plan. Last year, in quick succession, war broke out in Ukraine, populist and extremist parties made strong gains in European elections, and the Greek conundrum returned to the eurozone. Because of all these crises, Merkel has been reappraising what her country should be doing as Europe’s powerhouse.

But the bottom line is that Germany is no longer the country that has frequently been portrayed: a nation so obsessed with export markets and globalisation that it might be a more suitable fit for the Brics club of emerging global economies, somehow turning its back on Europe. One sign of the shift is that the German government has recently indicated it is thinking of increasing its defence budget by 2017.

Checkpoint Charlie, the old border crossing between East and West Berlin, was once a symbol for Europe’s division, and hence Germany’s constraints. Visit now, and you see only a tourist site. Sitting in a nearby restaurant, Joschka Fischer, the former foreign minister, tells me that in spite of her many flaws, the chancellor is indeed carving out a new sense of German responsibility for Europe’s internal and external affairs.

Whether that will be palatable to an inward-looking German public is another question that Merkel will continue to grapple with. “This is a new role for Germany,” Fischer says, “and the country is not yet accustomed to it.”

A European army, according to the EC president, could "react credibly" to dangers facing the 28-member bloc or its neighbors. Juncker added that forming the European armed forces would signal to Russia the hitherto political and economic union is "serious about upholding the values of the European Union." Welt am Sonntag reports the EC head's proposal has found support in the German legislature, with chairman of its foreign affairs committee noting that time has come for the vision to materialize.

"The Europeans spend enormous sums of money for the military combined, much more than Russia. But our military capabilities remain an insufficient security policy as long as we maintain small national armies, which make and buy many parts of the same thing on a smaller scale," Norbert Rottgen was quoted as saying.

It was quiet in eastern Ukraine last Wednesday. Indeed, it was another quiet day in an extended stretch of relative calm. The battles between the Ukrainian army and the pro-Russian separatists had largely stopped and heavy weaponry was being withdrawn. The Minsk cease-fire wasn't holding perfectly, but it was holding.

On that same day, General Philip Breedlove, the top NATO commander in Europe, stepped before the press in Washington. Putin, the 59-year-old said, had once again "upped the ante" in eastern Ukraine - with "well over a thousand combat vehicles, Russian combat forces, some of their most sophisticated air defense, battalions of artillery" having been sent to the Donbass. "What is clear," Breedlove said, "is that right now, it is not getting better. It is getting worse every day."

German leaders in Berlin were stunned. They didn't understand what Breedlove was talking about. And it wasn't the first time. Once again, the German government, supported by intelligence gathered by the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence agency, did not share the view of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR).

The Israel Hayom daily on Thursday reported that the supreme leader was rushed to the hospital and has undergone surgery, citing “Arab media reports.” He is said to be in a serious condition. The reports could not be immediately confirmed.

French paper Le Figaro cited Western intelligence over the weekend that the 76-year-old was suffering from stage four prostate cancer that had spread to other parts of his body, with doctors assessing he has, at most, two years to live. Khamenei has been rumored to be ill for years. In September of last year, he underwent prostate surgery, with his official Twitter account maintaining that it was successful.

Parallel to Germany's efforts, Great Britain and France have also been intensifying their military policy relationships with Japan. The same goes for NATO, which, just last year signed an "Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme" with the Japanese government. Already two years ago, German government advisors had recommended that Germany "participate in the USA's political and military re-orientation toward Asia."

This would mean the reinforcement of western positions in the direct territorial vicinity of the Peoples' Republic of China, with the intention of rolling back its political power. Berlin and the EU also see Japan, the USA's key ally in Asia, as an important partner in their rivalry with Beijing.

Previous studies have shown how London taxi drivers who have done 'the knowledge' show an increase in the size of their hippocampus as a consequence of rote-learning the city's streetscape. Dr Spiers, a member of the Memory Disorders Research Society, says his results may explain why London taxi drivers' brains grow: 'They indicate that it is the daily demand on processing paths in their posterior hippocampus that leads to the impressive expansion in their grey matter.'

Dr Spiers told Good Health how this part of the brain, so vital to memory, may also shrink with disuse - such as relying on satnavs. 'My research with taxi drivers found indications which suggest there is some shrinkage of their hippocampus after they retire,' he explained. You might describe this new threat to our mental health as 'e-mentia' - memory-related problems, and even depression, linked to our overuse of new technology.

But for now it seems only wise not to rely on technology to do all our thinking for us, says Professor Battacharya. 'If you get a machine to do all your mathematical and map-reading processes, then clearly your brain is not doing the work.' Dr Veronique Bohbot recommends using GPS only to help us find new destinations, then disabling the gadget on return journeys or when going somewhere that is not new. Another answer may be simply to switch off more. It might make us have to stretch our grey matter. But in the long term, our brains may thank us for it.

The declaration means that Isis can now add swaths of northern Nigeria to a self-declared caliphate that already stretches across Syria and Iraq. Earlier this year analysts noted the growing sophistication of videos released by the Nigerian group, suggesting the two jihadist networks were growing closer together.

In an audio message posted on the group's Twitter account on Saturday, it said: "We swear our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims [Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi], and all hear and obey him in times of difficulty and prosperity, in hardship and in ease, and to endure being discriminated against…"

The declaration of allegiance is the latest by a series of violent jihadist groups, including a number in Libya. But Boko Haram's 20,000 square miles of territory, from where it is able to launch attacks with ease, makes it one of the most important factions now flying the black Isil flag.

The message, apparently delivered by Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau, goes on to call for the world's Muslims to unite. "We call on all Muslims everywhere to pledge allegiance to the Caliph and support him…" said the message in Arabic.

This was on the minds of federal workers attending the National Treasury Employees Union legislative conference on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Meeting a day after President Obama released his fiscal 2016 budget proposal, they complained about its slight 1.3 percent federal pay-raise proposal. But they also worry about other budget issues that could hit federal workplaces.

IRS Commissioner John Koskinen warned his employees in an e-mail last month that budget cuts could lead to the “shutdown of IRS operations for two days later this fiscal year, which will involve furloughing employees on those days.” “There is no way around the severity of these budget cuts without taking some difficult steps,” he said. Federal employees would feel the difficulty the most.

It seems crazy that Congress would allow the shutdown of the agency that brings in almost all the money needed for government operations. But if you think government has too many operations, then perhaps hurting the IRS makes sense. Certainly, crazy has passed for normal in this town before. The 2016 budget proposal would add 3,000 positions, but the “proposal doesn’t affect our budget situation for the current year, which runs through September,” Koskinen said in a message to employees Tuesday.

The assault against Nimrud came just a week after the release of a video showing Islamic State forces smashing museum statues and carvings in Mosul, the city they seized along with much of northern Iraq last June. "Daesh terrorist gangs continue to defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity," Iraq's tourism and antiquities ministry said, referring to Islamic State by its Arabic acronym.

"In a new crime in their series of reckless offences they assaulted the ancient city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy machinery, appropriating the archaeological attractions dating back 13 centuries BC," it said. Nimrud, about 20 miles (30 km) south of Mosul, was built around 1250 BC. Four centuries later it became capital of the neo-Assyrian empire - at the time the most powerful state on earth, extending to modern-day Egypt, Turkey and Iran.

The resolution states that "the American flag has been flown in instances of colonialism and imperialism." It also says "flags not only serve as symbols of patriotism or weapons for nationalism, but also construct cultural mythologies and narratives that in turn charge nationalistic sentiments."

Tucker Carlson said on "Fox and Friends Weekend" that the US education system - from grade school through college - teaches history as "a litany of American sins." "If you teach kids throughout their entire career in school that America is terrible, why should you be surprised when they hate the flag?" he said.

The ruling is a decisive victory in favor of Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick, a recent victim of Islamic terror. In 2011, Glick was banned for two years by Israeli police from ascending the mount after a Channel 10 broadcast showed him uttering a prayer at the holy site. This week’s ruling, issued by court judge Malka Aviv, stated that the police ban was implemented “without appropriate consideration, was arbitrary, and only out of concern for the consequences of the broadcast.” She wrote in her brief that “police must make sure that Jews are allowed to pray on the Temple Mount.”

Aviv also awarded Glick compensation of NIS 500,000 for losses to his livelihood, as he leads tours on the Mount, as well as NIS 150,000 for damages. His legal costs must be paid by the police. According to the new ruling, the police are legally bound “to ensure that Jews are able to pray on the Temple Mount, and not to act sweepingly to prevent Jews from praying on the Temple Mount.”

Attorney Aviad Visoly, who represented Glick, said that the verdict “has made prayer on the Temple Mount ‘kosher’. In essence, the court took the Supreme Court’s rulings about the Jews’ right to pray on the Temple Mount, and implemented them.”

Real interest rates have rocketed. The trade-weighted rise in the yuan over the past two years has been spectacular. Fiscal policy is about to tighten drastically as the authorities clamp down on big-spending local governments. Put together, China is pursuing the most contractionary mix of economic policies in the G20, relative to the status quo ante. Collateral damage is already visible in the sliding global prices of iron ore, copper, nickel, lead and zinc over recent months, as well as thermal coal, oil, corn and even sugar.

Zhiwei Zhang, from Deutsche Bank, says China faces a "fiscal cliff" this year as Beijing attempts to rein in spending. "This year, China will likely face the worst fiscal challenge since 1981. This is not well recognised in the market," he said. The International Monetary Fund says China's budget deficit topped 10 percent of GDP in 2014 if measured properly, including borrowing by the regions through "financing vehicles" as well as land sales - a patently unsustainable form of funding that makes up 35 percent of local government revenue. This is the highest deficit of any major country in the world, and far above safe levels.

China is not the only country in Asia facing a hangover. Nomura's Rob Subbaraman says housing booms in India, Hong Kong and Taiwan all match or exceed the US bubble in 2008, with Malaysia not far behind. "Asia is setting itself up for a major credit crunch," he said.

The strenuous efforts to whip up Cold War-like hysteria in the face of an otherwise preoccupied and essentially passive Russia seems out of all proportion to the actual military threat Russia poses. (Yes, volunteers and ammo do filter into Ukraine across the Russian border, but that's about it.) Further south, the efforts to topple the government of Syria by aiding and arming Islamist radicals seem to be backfiring nicely. But that's the pattern, isn't it? What US military involvement in recent memory hasn't resulted in a fiasco? Maybe failure is not just an option, but more of a requirement?

Let's review. Afghanistan, after the longest military campaign in US history, is being handed back to the Taliban. Iraq no longer exists as a sovereign nation, but has fractured into three pieces, one of them controlled by radical Islamists. Egypt has been democratically reformed into a military dictatorship. Libya is a defunct state in the middle of a civil war. The Ukraine will soon be in a similar state; it has been reduced to pauper status in record time —less than a year. A recent government overthrow has caused Yemen to stop being US-friendly. Closer to home, things are going so well in the US-dominated Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador that they have produced a flood of refugees, all trying to get into the US in the hopes of finding any sort of sanctuary.

But I would venture to guess that at some point failure will translate into meta-failure: America will fail even at failing. I hope that there is something we can do to help this meta-failure of failure happen sooner rather than later.