The historic and religious site for Jews and Muslims alike has been the epicentre of a spike in violent hostilities and tension. On 8 October, 3 police officers were injured in outbreaks of violence marking the opening of Temple Mount to visitors. Over the course of this weekend, the site was daubed with graffiti equating Israel with the Nazis.

This follows Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal’s incendiary remarks this week calling on Muslims to defend the al-Aqsa mosque.

Meshaal, speaking from exile in Doha, Qatar, said “We call on all our people inside the country to hurry up to al-Aqsa (Mosque on Temple Mount) to defend it.”

In response to the spout of violence, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said that “I am committed and Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo exactly as it has been for many decades,” he said on Monday. “What we’re seeing are Palestinian extremists who are instigating violence through incitement. The incitement is spread by false and baseless rumors that we are threatening the Muslim holy places. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Jordanian Ambassador to "Palestine" Khalid al-Shawabka told the Palestinian Arab Ma'an News Agency that a bill proposed by MK Miri Regev (Likud) dividing prayer time at the Mount, as is done in Hevron's Cave of Machpelah, is "unacceptable," calling the Al-Aqsa Mosque (often used as a euphemism for the entire Temple Mount) and Jerusalem "red lines."

Currently the Jordanian Waqf (Islamic trust) has de facto control of the site and pays the salaries of local staff. Al-Shawabka further revealed the Hashemite kingdom invests 7 million dinars ($9 million) into Jerusalem developmental projects every year through the Palestinian Authority (PA) ministry of endowment. The figure is an important revelation, as the PA has no legal jurisdiction over the undivided capital of Israel - it is possible the "projects" refer to the 40,000 illegal Arab housing units in Jerusalem, which grow at a rate of roughly 800 per year.

The ambassador added that King Abdullah II himself donates $3.5 million from his own pocket to fund projects at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Under Jordan's auspices, the site has been the scene of anti-Semitic graffiti, the destruction of Jewish artifacts, and constant violent Arab rioting.

In a statement, Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett, one of Rabbi Stern’s main backers, said that “something new has begun in Jerusalem”. “I congratulate the newly elected chief rabbis, Rabbi Stern and Rabbi Amar, who will glorify the Torah. This is an important victory for religious Zionism in Jerusalem; we will continue to lead a line of Judaism with a connection to Israel."

Deputy Minister of Religious Services Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan said after the results of the election were announced, "We promised and we kept our promise. Jerusalem has elected a Zionist rabbi who believes in the people of Israel and the State of Israel.” “When I was elected I promised that it was time for religious Zionist rabbis to be appointed to key positions and that day has come. We believe this will have a significant impact on the image of religion in the country,” he added.

"Today we can announce to Jerusalem that we have two new rabbis who match the character of the city," said Rabbi Ben-Dahan. Deputy Education Minister Avi Wortzman also welcomed the results and said that after the tumultuous election campaign, the new chief rabbis of Jerusalem must unite and work together.

"It was an interim report… written by one to three people out of 265," Donohue said. "The bishops were not consulted. How did they learn of this interim report? From the media. They leaked it out to the media. The left in the Catholic Church is just like the left in our society. They gambled. They thought they were going to create this momentum — everybody has to get on board the progressive train. But the train came to a shrieking halt because the conservatives pushed back."

On Saturday, Catholic bishops — after a two-week meeting called a synod — passed a revised document that spells out the Roman Catholic Church's position on homosexuality, marriage, divorce, and sex. The document was missing passages from a draft released earlier in the week that had a surprisingly liberal acceptance of gays, unwed Catholics who live together, and remarried divorcees who want to receive Holy Communion.

Instead, the stability of the euro and the futures of the participating countries will continue to be vulnerable to the short-term exigencies of German domestic politics. This is a recipe for stagnation, deflation and political populism in France and Italy. It may culminate in a breakdown in relations between Germany and these countries and could even lead to eurozone break-up.

Big business and finance have always been a good deal keener on political and economic union than the populations they answer to, if for no other reason than it is supposed to be good for business. Right now, however, it is quite hard to argue that being “good for business” is something the European Union can boast about. Paralysed by political division, racked by high levels of unemployment and economically floored by dysfunctional monetary union, not since the Second World War has Europe seemed in such a perilous condition.

The only thing that holds the whole endeavour together seems to be fear of the consequences if it blows apart. This is hardly a stable foundation for a lasting union, or indeed a thriving economy. Europe has got itself into a terrible hole; it shows few signs of getting itself out.

That’s like saying our dependency on corporations isn’t even a choice. The choice to live without most utilities has been ongoing for Robin, the self-sufficient woman has lived for more than a year and a half using solar energy, a propane camping stove and rain water.

In the end, she was found not guilty of not having a proper sewer or electrical system; but was guilty of not being hooked up to an approved water supply. Speronis is still being hassled by the municipality of Cape Coral for not having a connection to city water, nor proper sewage. That, regardless of the fact the city capped her sewers themselves.

“If the drought continues, residents will face more dramatic water shortages in the short term,” Vicente Andreu, president of Brazil’s National Water Agency and a member of Rousseff’s Workers’ Party, told reporters in Sao Paulo. “If it doesn’t rain, we run the risk that the region will have a collapse like we’ve never seen before,” he later told state lawmakers.

The worst drought in eight decades is threatening drinking supplies in South America’s biggest metropolis, with 60 percent of respondents in a Datafolha poll published yesterday saying their water supplies were restricted at least once in the past 30 days. Three-quarters of those people said the cut lasted at least six hours.

Already last weekend Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) claimed in an interview with Bild am Sonntag that in the event of NATO calling upon assistance the German army would be unable to provide the required aircraft and helicopters. “At the moment our flying capacities are less than the targets set a year ago which, in the event of an emergency situation, we would seek to make available to NATO within 180 days,” she said. “This is due to the spare parts bottleneck for aircraft and the incapacity of naval helicopters.”

The beginning of this week then witnessed a flood of reports regarding the limited capabilities of the German armed forces. On Tuesday the official website of the Bundeswehr reported that a “new deficiency had been discovered” in the Euro Fighter. The German army currently possesses 109 planes. The manufacturer had informed the Bundeswehr that “manufacturing defects on a large number of bore holes” were discovered on the rear fuselage of the aircraft. As an “emergency measure” the life of the plane was halved from 3,000 to 1,500 flight hours.

The message behind this media firestorm is unmistakable. In order to achieve its desired change in foreign policy the ruling elite needs an army that is materially and psychologically able to make war on a large scale. Above all, what is required is a much higher defense budget, more soldiers, a tight chain of command and the “right attitude” towards war.

The Milan bourse tumbled almost 4 percent, led by sharp falls in Italian banks counting on fresh ECB liquidity. The Eurostoxx 600 index was off 2.4 percent and the FTSE 100 fell 1.7 percent to its lowest level this year, with effects spreading through global markets. Mario Draghi, the ECB’s president, seemed unable to secure backing for far-reaching measures from Germany’s two ECB members or from the German finance ministry, forcing him to play down earlier hints for a €1 trillion boost to the ECB’s balance sheet.

Yet Mr Draghi’s “QE-lite” is already enough to enflame opinion in Germany, where the anti-euro AfD party has swept into three state legislatures. There was criticism across the political spectrum, with even the Social Democrats and the Greens denouncing the first tentative steps towards QE as a dangerous new departure. “I have never seen such outrage in Germany at the actions of a European institution. The ECB is becoming a sink for nuclear waste,” said Gunnar Beck, an expert on German law at the London University.

The video is a montage of several clips - all taken by Muslim worshippers on a single day (1st October) - showing small groups of Jews on the Mount being verbally and, in at least one case, physically assaulted by mobs of Islamists in an attempt to drive them from the holy site. In the last clip, the tactic finally works; a group of Jewish visitors are literally swept off the Mount for their own safety by police as an angry Muslim mob surges forward.

As a leading figure in the campaign for equal Jewish prayer rights on the Temple Mount, this kind of harassment is something Rabbi Richman faces more often than most. But he says he isn't fazed; in fact, he sees the growing belligerence by Islamists as a positive sign that the Jewish people are reclaiming their holiest site after centuries of occupation.

"As someone who experiences this regularly, I do not find confrontation with these Muslim agitators to be frightening or even the least bit disturbing. On the contrary, I believe this phenomena is a sign that the Muslims themselves know that their days of domination on the Temple Mount are numbered.”

"They scream when we ascend the Mount because they know that the master of the house is coming home!"