“We will not get a clean close to this crisis today,” Michael O’Sullivan, chief investment officer for the UK and Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Credit Suisse Private Banking in London, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “I think this will drag on. The Greeks have digested a record amount of austerity, so they’ll want some relief from that.” The discord is renewing turmoil in Greek markets after they were buoyed by optimism on Tuesday that there might be room to move toward an agreement.

Greek government bonds fell, after rising yesterday for the first time in five days. Three-year notes yielded 21%, up 150 basis points. The benchmark Athens Stock Exchange Index tumbled as much as 4.2%. Any accord would require an easing of Germany’s stance in the standoff between Greece and its creditors over conditions attached to its 240 billion-euro ($272 billion) lifeline. An impasse risks leaving Greece without funding as of the end of this month, when its current bailout expires, and may put Europe’s most-indebted state’s euro membership in danger.

Maybe Mr Cuomo flunked elementary civics. The opening sentence of the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence clearly affirms:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

It may be more convenient to Cuomo’s political philosophy that a select few are empowered to grant rights to the masses, but it certainly is not part of this country’s foundation.

What’s worse is Cuomo is advocating “collective” rights. He speaks as if every American right can simply be overturned at a whim simply because "times change." “Sure, freedom of speech was great in 1789, but we've evolved beyond that as a collective society.” This is a very dangerous slope on which to tread. Maybe CNN will help their anchors learn American history on the network’s new game show. Chris Cuomo desperately needs the tutoring.

But others argued that making our presence known might be dangerous. Researchers at the Seti institute have been listening for signals from outer space for more than 30 years using radio telescope facilities in the US. So far there has been no sign of ET. "A lot of people are against active Seti because it is dangerous. It is like shouting in the jungle. You don't know what is out there; you better not do it. If you incite the aliens to obliterate the planet, you wouldn't want that on your tombstone, right?"

I couldn't argue with that. But initially, I could scarcely believe I was having this conversation at a serious research institute rather than at a science fiction convention. The sci-fi feel of our talk was underlined by the toy figures of bug-eyed aliens that cheerfully decorate the office. But Dr Shostak is a credible and popular figure and has been invited to present his arguments.

Leading astronomers, anthropologists and social scientists will gather at his institute after the AAAS meeting for a symposium to flesh out plans for a proposal for active Seti to put to the public and politicians.

His argument isn't entirely reassuring. But neither is the one made by David Brin, a science fiction writer invited to speak at the AAAS meeting, who opposes the plan. "The arrogance of shouting into the cosmos without any proper risk assessment defies belief. It is a course that would put our grandchildren at risk," he said.

The latest Metroscopia survey gave Podemos 28 percent. The ruling conservatives have dropped to 21 percent. As matters stand, Podemos is on track to win the Spanish elections in November on a platform calling for the cancellation of "unjust debt", a reversal of labour reforms, public control over energy, the banks, and the commanding heights of the economy, and withdrawal from Nato.

Europe's policy elites can rail angrily at the folly of these plans if they wish, but they must answer why ex-Trotskyists threatening to dismantle market capitalism are taking a major EMU state by storm. It is what happens when 5.46 million people lack jobs, when 2 million households still have no earned income, and when youth unemployment is still running at 51.4 percent, and home prices are down 42 percent, six years into a depression. It is pointless protesting that Spain's economy is turning the corner, a contested claim in any case. There comes a point when a society breaks and stops believing anything its leaders say.

The revolt in Italy has different contours but is just as dangerous for Brussels. Italians may not wish to leave the euro but political consent for the project has all but broken down. All three opposition parties are now anti-euro in one way or another. Beppe Grillo's Five Star movement - with 108 seats in parliament - is openly calling for a return to the lira. Mr Grillo proclaims that Syriza is carrying the torch for all the long-suffering peoples of southern Europe, as it is in a sense. "What’s happening to Greece today, will be happening to Italy tomorrow. Sooner or later, default is coming," he said.

Mr Varoufakis [the new Greek finance minister] is trying to limit the damage, praising Mrs Merkel as the "most astute politician" in Europe, and Mr Schauble as the "only European politician with intellectual substance" - a wounding formulation for the others. He has called on Germany to cast off self-doubt and assume its role as Europe's benevolent hegemon, almost as if he were evoking the glory days of the Holy Roman Empire when pious German emperors stood as guarantors for Christendom.

"This is the only pitch that will work."

In a further sign of its fragility, a Ukrainian military spokesman said around 50 tanks, 40 missile systems and 40 armoured vehicles had crossed overnight into eastern Ukraine from Russia. It was not immediately possible to verify the statement. Moscow dismisses such allegations as groundless. The agreement envisages a ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists starting on Sunday, followed by the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front line and constitutional reform to give eastern Ukraine more autonomy.

"The main thing which has been achieved is that from Saturday into Sunday there should be declared without any conditions at all, a general ceasefire," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko told journalists. Putin blamed Kiev for the length of the talks, the culmination of a dramatic diplomatic initiative by France and Germany following an upsurge in fighting in which the separatists tore through an earlier ceasefire line.

Merkel on the other hand, said Poroshenko "did everything to achieve the possibility of an end to the bloodshed", while she said Putin put pressure on the separatists to agree to the ceasefire "towards the end" of the talks. Tensions between Putin and the other leaders were evident at the meeting in Minsk, capital of Russian ally Belarus, and they did not appear together to announce the result.

Historically in fact the EU’s origins lie in war preparations. The first step towards supranational economic integration in Europe, the European Coal and Steel Community of 1951, was to facilitate German rearmament at the start of the Cold War between the USA and its allies on one side and the USSR and its allies on the other, and to reconcile France to that fact.

The USA wanted a rearmed West Germany inside NATO on its foundation in 1949. This greatly alarmed France, which had been occupied by Germany just five years before. Jean Monnet was America’s man in the affair. To assuage French fears of German rearmament Monnet drafted the Schuman Declaration proposing to put the coal and steel industries of France, Germany and Benelux under a supranational High Authority as “the first step in the federation of Europe”. The EU celebrates the anniversary of this Declaration each year as “Europe Day”.

In his memoirs French President Charles de Gaulle characterised the ambitions of the first President of the European Commission, Walter Hallstein, for Germany and the then European Community as follows: “I think that if in his own way Hallstein is a sincere ‘European’, this is only because he is first of all an ambitious German. For the Europe that he would like to see would contain a framework within which his country could find once again and without cost the respectability and equality of rights that Hitler’s frenzy and defeat caused it to lose; then acquire the overwhelming weight that will follow from its economic capacity; and, finally, achieve a situation in which its quarrels concerning its boundaries and its unification will be assumed by a powerful coalition”.

Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who pushed through the euro in face of a reluctant German public opinion, was less bifocal: “The future will belong to the Germans when we have built the House of Europe. In the next two years we will make the process of European integration irreversible. This is a really big battle, but it is worth the fight”.

Other cities in Brazil's heavily populated southeast such as Rio de Janeiro face less dire shortages but could also see rationing. Uncertainty over the drought and its consequences on jobs, public health and overall quality of life have further darkened Brazilians' mood at a time when the economy is struggling and President Dilma Rousseff's popularity is at an all-time low.

After January rains disappointed, and incentives to cut consumption fell short, São Paulo officials warned their next step could be to shut off customers' water supply for as many as five days a week - a measure that would likely last until the next rainy season starts in October, if not longer.

Ronaldo Guellen, who runs a small construction store, recently ordered 70 200-liter tanks that can be used to store water. They sold out in three days, he said, and he hasn't been able to order any more because supplies are running short. "People are really getting scared," Guellen said.

The EU’s evident inability to contain the geo-political ambitions of Vladimir Putin may be the most visible of America’s latest concerns, but the more immediate danger centres on the stand-off with Greece, which grows uglier by the day. Greece’s latest overtures to the Russians make the situation seem more alarming still.

Tuesday's apparent olive branch from Greece’s celebrity finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, is in truth no compromise at all, despite the evident relief it brought to financial markets; it was merely the same demands dressed up in more acceptable language. Speculation of a six month programme extension was also fast slapped down by the German finance ministry.

To my mind, this is not a game Greece can win, if only because it is also not a confrontation which politically Berlin can afford to lose.

“We have other ways of finding money. It could be the United States at best, it could be Russia, it could be China or other countries,” he told Greek television. Mr Kammenos said Greece would prefer to leave the euro if membership means submitting to what he calls a “Europe under German domination.” The implicit threat to team up with Russia comes up at an extremely delicate moment as French and German leaders attempt to negotiate a peace deal with President Vladimir Putin, and Washington mulls military aid for Ukraine.

Nikos Chountis, Greece's deputy foreign minister, said on Tuesday that Russia and China had already offered financial support to the country. "There have been proposals, offers I would say, from Russia, recently after the election, for economic support as well as from China, regarding help, investment possibilities," he said. "We have not asked for it. It's on the table. We're discussing it," he added, stressing that the first priority was to "exhaust all options" in reaching a deal with the eurozone.

Cyprus has already caused a political storm by offering to expand Russian access to its ports and airfields – including “military facilities” - though it has stopped short of offering full military bases.

A proposal sent by the White House to Capitol Hill on Wednesday would formally give the president the power to continue the airstrikes he has been conducting since last fall against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, as well as “associated persons or forces.” The measure would set limits that were never imposed during the wars of the last decade in Afghanistan and Iraq by expiring in three years and withholding permission for “enduring offensive ground combat operations.”

But in a letter to Congress accompanying the proposal, Mr Obama, who has said there would be no boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria, envisioned limited ground combat operations “such as rescue operations” or the use of “Special Operations forces to take military action against ISIL leadership.” He also said the legislation would allow the use of ground forces for intelligence gathering, target spotting and planning assistance to ground troops of allies like Iraq’s military.

“If left unchecked, ISIL will pose a threat beyond the Middle East, including to the United States homeland,” Mr Obama wrote. While he repeated his contention that “existing statutes provide me with the authority I need,” he said he wanted to work with Congress to obtain bipartisan support. “I can think of no better way for the Congress to join me in supporting our nation’s security than by enacting this legislation, which would show the world we are united in our resolve to counter the threat posed by ISIL.”

The BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction) is taking over college campuses in Europe and America. Ronnie Fraser, a college lecturer and founding director of the Academic Friends of Israel, warns that the next generation of leaders is being brainwashed that Israel is the worst nation on earth. "Britain's students are being fed a diet of 'Israel is a racist state. Israel is a Zionist state. Israel equals the Nazis," he said. Fraser sued his own union, the University and College Union, for institutional anti-Semitism, saying it attempted an academic boycott of Israel that crossed the line into anti-Semitism.

In Germany, Nazi persecution of the Jews began with a boycott in April 1933. While some who are boycotting Israel may truly believe they’re only trying to help Palestinians, but to Jews, the goal of the Israel boycott is a destination similar to Nazi Germany’s. "People want to see the total destruction of Israel. When people say, from the river to the sea, that's what it means," Mandy Blumenthal with the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism explained.

There are undoubtedly those in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement who believe they are only trying to help Palestinians. But Jews see that the movement has a destination very similar to that of Nazi Germany. The boycott movement wants the full right return of the Palestinians; "from the river to the sea," which means Israel would be erased. The Nazis would call it "Judenfrei" or "free of the Jews."

The report in question - actually two reports issued together - is from the hefty US National Academy of Sciences.

According to the NAS:

Present-day global greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by at least 90 percent ... Although emissions reductions are technologically feasible, they have been difficult to implement for political, economic, and social reasons that may persist well into the future ... It is thus prudent to also examine other options for countering the impacts of climate change.

But one of the authors of the report, Professor Raymond T Pierrehumbert, begs to differ. In a post on the popular blogging service Slate.com, he lays out his personal views. He feels that some of the other options - in particular those covered in the second report, dealing with the reflection of more sunlight back into space - are just too dangerous even to do research into.

He writes:

The idea of “fixing” the climate by hacking the Earth’s reflection of sunlight is wildly, utterly, howlingly barking mad. Professor Pierrehumbert feels that a future world in which the atmosphere is full of carbon but disastrous heating is only averted by a continually maintained effort to reflect sunlight away is not only dangerous but "an evil choice". He also seems to have very little faith in the United States in particular in such a scenario.

Lauding the rule-based system to emerge in the post-World War II era, Obama admitted it wasn’t perfect, but argued “the UN, the IMF, and a whole host of treaties and rules and norms that were established really helped to stabilize the world in ways that it wouldn't otherwise be.” He argued, however, that the efficacy of this idealistic, Wilsonian, rule-based system was severely tested by the fact that “there are bad people out there who are trying to do us harm.”

In the president’s view, the reality of those threats has compelled the US to have “the strongest military in the world.” Obama further says that “we occasionally have to twist the arms of countries that wouldn't do what we need them to do if it weren't for the various economic or diplomatic or, in some cases, military leverage that we had — if we didn't have that dose of realism, we wouldn't get anything done, either.”

Jean-Claude Juncker deliberately chose to deliver his warning in German. "Commissioners are proposed by the member states, but they do not represent the interests of their member state," the newly appointed president of the European Commission said as he introduced his team last September. In the event a commissioner confused "national and European policies," he threatened, he would move that appointee to another portfolio.

Germany's Commissioner Günther Oettinger paid little heed to the warning. On January 8, he met in Hamburg with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble to warn them that Juncker was planning to loosen the rules of the Stability Pact for the common currency zone. The three quickly agreed at the meeting that the development would not be in Germany's interest, and they agreed to thwart Juncker's plans.

It had been clear for some time that Europe's most powerful leader would eventually clash with the head of the European Commission, the EU's executive, but it happened earlier than some might have expected. Juncker's commission hasn't even been in office for 100 days yet and conflicts between Berlin and Brussels are already surfacing. Policy differences are at the forefront, with Juncker feeling that Merkel has bound Europe to austerity policies for too long. But the conflict also touches on a more fundamental question: Who holds the power in Europe?