Set against Europe’s abject failure to solve its economic problems – now fast transmogrifying into a degree of political instability not seen since the Second World War – Britain’s obsession with the relative merits of being in or out seems not just parochial, but almost wholly irrelevant. It is not Britain’s quarrels with Brussels that are the real danger to business, but Europe’s growing economic and political malaise.

Indeed, the way things are going, there soon won’t be a Europe to be part of. Europe pretends to be a single nation, but is incapable of acting like one. The European Union is failing. Whether we are in or out scarcely seems to matter any more. In imagining it does, many of our leading businesses and politicians are woefully behind the curve. Something will eventually emerge from the wreckage. But whatever it is, it won’t be the status quo.

But it is not clear whether she will return to a country where Christians and other religious minorities no longer feel safe or welcome. The Syriac Orthodox church in west London where we speak is filled with families with similar stories to tell. Across much of the globe, at the start of the 21st Century, religion is once again a matter of life and death - quite literally in Iraq and Syria, while elsewhere, admitting or defending your faith can land you in jail. So persecution or victimisation of people for their faith - or indeed lack of it - is not simply an issue for the religious. It should be of concern for everyone, of all religions or none.

The city government of Berkeley Missouri, in other words, is into prepping and survival. Although the letter didn't go as far as telling people how many days' worth of food, water and other supplies to store, it has clearly sent a strong message that citizens' lives may be in danger and that critical infrastructure may be offline. Riots are expected to take place following the announcement of the grand jury decision regarding the police officer shooting of Michael Brown, an African-American. According to widely-reported rumors, riots are expected to take place regardless of whether the decision indicts the police officer or clears him.

Why all the anger? In the wake of the disastrous economic failures of the Obama administration, African-Americans are reaching a breaking point in terms of frustration with government. They have been largely abandoned by the democrats who are now focused on amnesty for illegal immigrants, and the economic nightmare of joblessness and poverty has only worsened under the Obama regime. The government shooting of a young African-American man - justified or not - may be the pivotal event that causes many angry, frustrated members of the Ferguson community to erupt into violent outrage.

If this unfolds, I fully expect the National Guard to invoke, at minimum, a kind of "soft martial law" where curfews are in effect but martial law is never officially declared. Without question, these riots will be contained by armed government forces. But no one knows just how much damage or harm may be caused to the community or its citizens before the situation is quieted down.

“In today’s world, urban regions are key areas,” the conference program declared. “Maintaining and creating stability in urban areas is a challenging task for today’s security forces … Scenarios ranging from the routine assistance or show of force approach to full scale street fighting can change rapidly, sometimes even at a moment’s notice… New threats of insurgency, terrorism and guerrilla warfare can only be matched by state-of-the-art intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance assets.”

The program noted that the goal of the conference was to “present solutions to the above mentioned challenges. It will offer a platform for the exchange of experience from current missions and will present an overview of the new military concept of the German army concerning urban operations.” It continues: “Representatives of industry have the chance to present their ideas, concepts and solutions to high ranking NATO and other military representatives.”

The conference was chaired by the head of development for the German army, Major General Erhard Drews. It was jointly organised by the German Association for Defence Technology (DWT), a charitable organisation set up in 1957 at the initiative of the defence ministry and which serves as a lobby for the arms industry.

The fact that commanders spoke at the Berlin conference with combat experience in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Israel is a warning sign. The military operations against the Taliban, Islamic State and the Palestinians are being studied and serve as templates for how social resistance is to be dealt with at home.

On 10 April 2014, the USS Donald Cook entered the waters of the Black Sea and on 12 April a Russian Su-24 tactical bomber flew over the vessel triggering an incident that, according to several media reports, completely demoralized its crew, so much so that the Pentagon issued a protest. The USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) is a 4th generation guided missile destroyer whose key weapons are Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of up to 2,500 kilometers, and capable of carrying nuclear explosives. This ship carries 56 Tomahawk missiles in standard mode, and 96 missiles in attack mode.

The US destroyer is equipped with the most recent Aegis Combat System. It is an integrated naval weapons systems which can link together the missile defense systems of all vessels embedded within the same network, so as to ensure the detection, tracking and destruction of hundreds of targets at the same time. In addition, the USS Donald Cook is equipped with 4 large radars, whose power is comparable to that of several stations. For protection, it carries more than fifty anti-aircraft missiles of various types.

Meanwhile, the Russian Su-24 that buzzed the USS Donald Cook carried neither bombs nor missiles but only a basket mounted under the fuselage, which, according to the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, contained a Russian electronic warfare device called Khibiny.

As the Russian jet approached the US vessel, the electronic device disabled all radars, control circuits, systems, information transmission, etc on board the US destroyer. In other words, the all-powerful Aegis system, now hooked up - or about to be - with the defense systems installed on NATO’s most modern ships was shut down, as turning off the TV set with the remote control. The Russian Su-24 then simulated a missile attack against the USS Donald Cook, which was left literally deaf and blind.

The financial system has failed and remains a threat to us all. Only cheap money and the artificial inflation of asset values can make it appear temporarily healthy. Yet, the Fed (and the Obama Administration) continue to perpetuate the illusion that making the cost of (printed) money zero by any means has had a positive effect on the population at large, when in fact, all that has occurred is a pass-the-debt-ponzi-scheme co-engineered by the Fed and big US bank beneficiaries.

That debt, caught in the crossfires of this central-private bank arrangement, is still doing nothing for American citizens or the broader national or global economy.

After the meeting, Kerry said that a mechanism had been developed to end the violence in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. He was short on details, except to say that it would ensure that the status quo would be maintained at the holy site.

“The status quo is clear and the status quo will be maintained. The prime minister has made it clear that he will uphold that,” Kerry said. “I was pleased that Netanyahu and Abbas made clear their desire to see this situation deescalated and move in the right direction,” Kerry said.

Following the meeting, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said, “His majesty has explained to Kerry that we cannot allow the position of Jerusalem to be undermined, with his majesty emphasizing the importance of the city to Christians and Muslims.”

Such an accord could present new difficulties for Washington's strategy against the IS group. While warplanes from a US-led coalition strike militants from the air, the Obama administration has counted on arming "moderate" rebel factions to push them back on the ground. Those rebels, already considered relatively weak and disorganized, would face far stronger opposition if the two heavy-hitting militant groups now are working together.

IS - the group that has seized nearly a third of Syria and Iraq with a campaign of brutality and beheadings this year - and al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, known as the Nusra Front, have fought each other bitterly for more than a year to dominate the rebellion against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The Associated Press reported late last month on signs that the two groups appear to have curtailed their feud with informal local truces. Their new agreement, according to the sources in rebel groups opposed to both IS and Nusra Front, would involve a promise to stop fighting and team up in attacks in some areas of northern Syria.

“This danger does exist and we can't ignore it,” Kissinger said. He warned that ignoring this danger any further may result in a “tragedy,” he told Germany’s Der Spiegel. If the West wants to be “honest,” it should recognize, that it made a “mistake,” he said of the course of action the US and the EU adopted in the Ukrainian conflict.

Europe and the US did not understand the “significance of events” that started with the Ukraine-EU economic negotiations that initially brought about the demonstrations in Kiev last year. Those tensions should have served as a starting point to include Russia in the discussion, he believes.

"Given the challenges, Bank of Russia is creating its own system for transmitting financial messaging… It’s time to hurry up, so in the next few months we will have certain work done. The entire project for transmitting financial messages will be completed in May 2015," said Ramilya Kanafina, deputy head of the national payment system department at the Central Bank of Russia (CBR).

Calls not to use the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) system in Russian banks began to grow as relations between Russia and the West deteriorated over sanctions. So far, SWIFT says despite pressure from some Western countries to join the anti-Russian sanctions, it has no intention of doing so.