Every weekday, some 38,000 Pfizer sales reps, roughly the size of three army divisions, make their pitches around the globe. They’re armed with briefcases full of free drug samples, reams of manipulated clinical data, and lavish expense accounts for wining and dining doctors and their staffs. The medical profession, its organizations, the media, and the public at large have swallowed the Statin drug propaganda, hook, line and sinker.

In 2004, Pfizer’s blockbuster drug Lipitor became the first prescription drug to make more than $10 billion in annual sales. Over twenty-six million Americans have taken Lipitor, the most popular Statin drug. Pfizer is now running full-page Lipitor ads in numerous papers, including The New York Times and USA Today. The ads feature Dr Robert Jarvik, inventor of the artificial heart. The ad reads: In patients with multiple risk factors for heart disease, LIPITOR REDUCES RISK OF HEART ATTACK BY 36%.* The noteworthy part of this ad is the asterisk and this explanation of the 36 percent statistic: “That means, in a large clinical study, 3% of patients taking a sugar pill or placebo had a heart attack compared to 2% of patients taking Lipitor.”

Twenty-six billion dollars a year for a one to two percent decreased risk for heart attack and stroke — that’s what all the fuss is about? It almost seems like snake oil. Yet, some doctors are recommending we put Statins in the drinking water. Others are now suggesting that infants with a family history of heart disease should take Statins as a preventative measure. I applaud Pfizer for coming clean on their new Lipitor ads. I just hope the public and the brainwashed medical community pays attention to the asterisk and the fine print. A one to two percent benefit earns Pfizer ten billion dollars a year. Mind-boggling, isn’t it?

Years of crisis in Europe's banking industry have taught Martin Blessing a thing or two about dealing with adversity. The Commerzbank head had recently joked with confidantes about how often he and his bank had been left for dead. And yet, both are still around.

Still, Blessing is certainly aware that the ultimate test still lies before him this year - in the form of balance sheet evaluations performed by the European Central Bank. In an unprecedented effort, the ECB will unleash thousands of auditors and regulators to examine the books of 128 banks in the euro zone. The project is set to be completed before early November when the ECB will assume oversight of the common currency zone's largest financial institutions.

First, a detailed look at the quality of the banks' balance sheets will be undertaken. Then their resilience to potentially adverse market conditions will be tested. At the conclusion of the exercise, the ECB may require some financial institutions to make improvements and could even recommend that some banks be liquidated. "In my entire career, I have never seen anything like" the tests, says one long-serving bank head.

In these drought-hit parts of eastern Australia they pray for rain. The New England region north of Sydney is traditionally some of the nation's best farming country, producing some of its finest beef cattle and wool. But much of the land is barren and has been without significant rainfall for over a year. Crops have failed and livestock has been sold off, while many dams are bone dry.

In the paddocks beyond the city of Tamworth, 400km (250 miles) north of Sydney, the drought is the worst that anyone can remember. "There is a sense of desperation here," says farmer Richard Chamen. He has sold a quarter of his 400-strong Angus beef herd near the village of Currabubula to pay the bills as the financial stresses of the protracted dry spell intensify. "Prices are so depressed. We're getting the same money now as what we got 10-15 years ago for cattle." Australia is well used to nature's extremes, but not only is this drought so severe, it arrived so soon after the previous big dry.

Germany had only recently announced the end of its era of restraint. German President Joachim Gauck, Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen of the Christian Democrats and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the Social Democrats have all argued that it's time for Germany to play a greater role in the world.

Steinmeier couldn't have expected that he would need to follow-through on his push for an "aggressive foreign policy" so quickly. But the dramatic escalation in Crimea needs quick answers and it has become a focus of Chancellor Angela Merkel's government in Berlin. "Europe is, without a doubt, in its most serious crisis since the fall of the Berlin Wall," Steinmeier said on Monday. "Twenty-five years after the end of the conflict between the blocs, there's a new, real danger that Europe will split once again."

Partly as a result of Steinmeier's key role in Kiev in February - in which he, together with his French and Polish counterparts, helped forge a last-minute agreement to ward off a bloodbath in Kiev - but also because of Germany's traditional role as a go-between with Russia, many are now looking to Merkel as a potentially vital intermediary with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It is a tremendous challenge. And it isn't just the Europeans who will be watching Berlin closely. The US too is hoping Germany will live up to its new desire to wield influence. According to Fiona Hill of the Brookings Institution, Washington's currently troubled relationship with Russia means that it cannot do much - and that Germany must therefore play a more important role.

"The low-IQ US president and his country's Secretary of State John Kerry speak of the effectiveness of 'the US options on the table' on Iran, while this phrase is mocked at and has become a joke among the Iranian nation, especially the children," said Jazzayeri according to the Iranian semi-official Fars News Agency. The general added on previous Iranian threats, warning that US forces in the region can be struck by Iran. "If they err, the region will be turned into a hell for them," threatened Jazzayeri.

Jazzayeri claimed that the US public doubts Obama's military threats as well; indeed, last Sunday Senator John McCain (Republican for Arizona) slammed Obama for being the most "naive president in history." Republican lawmakers on Sunday warned that Obama is "all talk" on Russia's aggressive actions towards Ukraine. Senator Lindsey Graham (Republican for South Carolina) remarked "we have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression."

Iran has been ratcheting up its domestic military production. Last month the regime marked 35 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution by holding a special display of the nation's domestic military industry advances in the last decade, bragging that it has the "biggest army in the region." The fruits of the Islamic regime's military industry included domestically produced submarines, fighter jets, missiles, drones, and an advanced radar system. Just last Thursday and Friday, Iran's Basij militia ran drills preparing for an invasion of Jerusalem.

Meanwhile a report from the Pentagon in February revealed that the US "would have no clue" if Iran obtained a nuclear weapon.

It is glaringly obvious that in five short years President Barack Hussein Obama has made US foreign policy a figure of ridicule. This president’s red lines have come and gone and left America’s loyal allies, particularly Israel, deeply dismayed and apprehensive. Enemies have been immensely emboldened as the erstwhile policeman of the world has become in the eyes of many a paper tiger.

Whether this was perpetrated deliberately by Obama and his minions or is a display of utter ineptitude remains to be seen. What is happening now with the Ukraine is a de facto annexation by Putin’s Russia, first of the Crimea, with all its vital naval facilities at Sevastapol and, perhaps much of the eastern part of Ukraine.

The strategic control and annexation of Sevastopol, this preeminent warm water port, allows the Russian fleet the wherewithal to control not only the Black Sea but also entry into the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal. Indeed, Obama’s mishandling of the Egyptian “Arab Winter” has allowed Russia to oust American influence in that strategic area of the Middle East and return the situation to the much earlier period of the Soviet Union’s alliance with Gamal Nasser and, for a time, Anwar Sadat.

I fear that President Obama may well take the opportunity of applying brutal force against Israel (America’s truest ally) as a counterweight to his abysmal ineffectiveness against the bad actors in the international arena. The next few days and weeks may well be a time of Jewish glory or of generational heartbreak.

Netanyahu said of the people of Israel: “What they want is peace. What we all want fervently is peace. Not a piece of paper - although that, too - but a real peace;” and even a piece of paper is useless – as the Ukraine has discovered.

With the Obama Administration having harmed so many allies of America during his term of office, Prime Minister Netanyahu just needs to say “no”. Obama’s guarantees and promises are useless. America has never been weaker in the eyes of the world, and Netanyahu must continue to simply stand up and say “Obama: Hands off Israel.”

Israel's decisions must be governed by what is best for the Jewish state, and Israel wants peace, the Arabs seek to destroy Israel piece by piece. Let Obama solve the problems in Ukraine, Egypt, Iran, and all other corners of the Earth – till then Israel can do just fine on its own.