But across the continent, landslide results for the EU's sworn enemies will see German advocates of European integration forced to face up to their fiercest opposition yet - right at the heart of political Europe. The German press has been wringing its hands.

"A dangerous divide is opening up in Europe,” wrote the Tagesspiegel. "Pro-European Germany is getting more and more powerful - and is distancing itself further and further from the rest of the Union." While humiliating results for French President François Holland and British Prime Minister David Cameron have left old European powers out in the cold, "Germany's influence on EU politics grows bigger and bigger - which in turn reinforces the resistance in Europe to a union which is already seen as too German,” the paper said.

Only one thing is clear as the EU's fate hangs in the balance, the paper wrote, "that the European Union does not have a future as a German Union."

But the country's military coyness has not prevented it from selling weapons into the world's war zones – not just as business but as foreign policy. Chancellor Angela Merkel all but declared her "send guns not soldiers" strategy in a speech at a political foundation event in 2011. And under Merkel, the arms business has boomed, reaching a peak in 2010, when her government approved arms exports worth a record turnover of €2.1 billion - a tenfold increase on 2000. Lately though, German weapons firms have increasingly been selling to countries outside Germany's circles of immediate allies, who may not necessarily share Germany's security interests or its commitments to protecting human rights.

As the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute showed in a report on Monday, non-Nato states are boosting their defence spending while countries like the US and Germany are slashing theirs. But the economic value of the arms trade is limited – weapons account for less than 0.1 percent of German exports. They represent around 80,000 jobs. So why has the issue gained such a huge importance for German politicians?

Henrik Heidenkamp, German defence industry expert at the Royal United Services Institute, told The Local the economic value was not the point, but about nurturing Germany's defence industry so that it will be able to supply arms to the German army and its allies. "Only a commercially viable defence industry can deliver needed equipment to the armed forces in order to sustain the national defence effort," he said. In other words, Germany needs to sell guns so it can make guns for its own soldiers.

This also indicates that Russia is now moving closer to China’s side with regard to the territorial disputes between China and Japan. Furthermore, China and Russia last week vetoed a draft UN resolution to send Syria to the International Criminal Court for war crimes. China and Russia had vetoed three previous UNSC resolutions condemning Syria. In the joint statement issued by China and Russia, the main message is that China-Russia relations have reached a new stage of comprehensive strategic partnership and this will help increase both countries’ international status and influence, thus contributing to a more just international order.

Of particular importance is the agreement that China and Russia will deepen cooperation under the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building in Asia (CICA), a new security framework in Asia-Pacific that conveniently excludes the US and Japan. The question that everybody now is asking is this: Why this new development in China-Russia relations? Obviously, the main trigger is the recent Ukraine crisis that has seriously damaged Russia-West relations, thereby pushing Russia closer to China. However, there is also a larger strategic reason. That is, there are mutual strategic needs as both China and Russia want to create a multipolar world that is not dominated by the US, particularly as China faces threats from the US-led alliance in Asia.

As previously pointed out by Zachary Keck, China’s chance of winning maritime disputes with Japan partly depends on maintaining a good relationship with Russia. From Russia’s perspective, the NATO expansion is a serious threat to Russia’s national security and as such Russia has to fight back. Russia’s current and future capabilities are limited, however, and it desperately needs a reliable strategic partner, which happens to be China.

Monsanto and Scotts managed to get their GE grass on the market without approval from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) due to loopholes in federal law. Ordinarily, GE crops come under federal regulation as long as they contain genetic material from “plant pests” — the beings that the gene manipulation are designed to resist.

But Scotts decided to use DNA from other plants in creating the new kind of Kentucky bluegrass, along with other techniques that avoided triggering the USDA to step in and require testing, as well as its approval, before the grass could be sold to consumers. EcoWatch’s Charlotte Warren and Ronnie Cummins warn that because of bluegrass’ light pollen, the grass can easily spread to neighboring properties. Once it does, the GE version will genetically merge with existing grasses — including organic ones that farmers rely on to produce organic meat, for example.

Dolphin, Tekuma, and Leviathan, all German-made Dolphin class submarines of the 7th navy Flotilla, have been reported as frequenting the Gulf in the past, however, according to the Sunday Times report, this new deployment is meant to ensure a permanent naval presence near the Iranian coastline. A flotilla officer told the Times that the deployed submarines were meant to act as a deterrent, gather intelligence and potentially to land Mossad agents.

"We're a solid base for collecting sensitive information, as we can stay for a long time in one place," the officer said. The flotilla's commander, identified only as "Colonel O," was quoted by the Times as saying that the submarine force was "an underwater assault force. We’re operating deep and far, very far, from our borders." The submarines could be used if Iran continues its program to produce a nuclear bomb. "The 1,500km range of the submarines’ cruise missiles can reach any target in Iran," a navy officer told the Times.

Despite giving qualified support to Mr Juncker last Friday, diplomatic sources have revealed that Chancellor Merkel opposed him at the summit supper on the grounds that she did not want MEPs deciding who would be the president of the commission, the EU's most important strategic post. According to Der Spiegel, the German Chancellor described the EU parliament's backing for Mr Juncker as "outrageous", a "putsch" and a "declaration of war".

"Europe must not allow itself to be blackmailed," Juncker told Germany's ‘Bild am Sonntag newspaper’ expressing confidence that he would take the job this summer. Mr Juncker served as Luxembourg prime minister for 19 years, making him Europe's longest-serving leader until he was defeated in a general election last year after a spying scandal brought down his government. He was also chairman of meetings of eurozone finance ministers throughout the height of the European debt crisis during which period he admitted that he had told "lies" and that sensitive economic policy decisions had to be taken in "secret, dark debates".

Readers are quick to attest Germany with a leadership role, and not just in Europe. Many comments couple high expectations for Germany with frustration over the US role as the sole superpower. "It's time that the USA retire as the world's policeman. Germany, despite its dark history can become more active militarily in the defense of Europe, as Germany is well known for its fighting spirit," writes Jason Nelsen.

Adolfo Bon has "big expectations" for Berlin. He says Germany has a "critical, independent and influential voice in a world, where for the past decades only the US has set the pace." In January 2014, Germany’s president, defense minister and foreign minister pledged a more prominent role for the country. They declared Germany could no longer watch from the sidelines and that it needed to step up "earlier, more decisively and more substantially" to the world stage.

In an interview with The Telegraph, the Cabinet minister suggested the BBC was failing to provide viewers and listeners with a genuine public service because of its coverage of politics. Audiences relied on the BBC to keep them informed about political debate but were being let down, the Work and Pensions Secretary said. Mr Duncan Smith accepted that the Conservatives face a significant challenge to ensure voters understand their policy on reforming Britain’s relations with the European Union over the next 12 months.

Speaking to The Telegraph while campaigning in a Nottinghamshire town, Mr Duncan Smith attacked the BBC for failing to cover Tory policies properly. He warned that “most people” did not even know about the Conservatives’ pledge to hold an in/out referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU if the party wins power next year. “The BBC has spent their whole time downgrading this whole pledge,” he said.

Mr Cameron has promised that if the Tories win power next year, he will renegotiate Britain’s membership of the European Union and put the resulting new deal to the electorate in the form of an in/out referendum, which could lead to Britain leaving the EU. However, the Prime Minister is under growing pressure from his own MPs and business supporters to spell out explicitly what he aims to achieve in the talks with other European leaders in Brussels.

He also had access to American intelligence reports on the Iranian issue from recent decades. In addition, Porter interviewed generations of American officials and analyzed the testimony of senior officials before Congress. The result is a highly detailed and well-documented book for all interested in understanding how we arrived at the Iranian nuclear crisis, and the “attack scenarios,” and invented facts and intelligence reports whose purpose was to support the preconceptions. At the same time, the book is invaluable for those wishing to understand what is being discussed in the intensive nuclear talks that have been taking place between Iran and the superpowers (or, more accurately, Iran and the US) since the signing of last November’s interim agreement, which surprised many Israelis.

The story begins with US support for the Iraqis during the 1980s Iraq-Iran war. The critical point comes with the collapse of the Soviet empire. According to Porter, that event and the end of the Cold War pulled out the rug from under the CIA’s raison d’être. The solution the Americans found to continue providing the organization with a tremendous budget was the invention of a new threat – the merging of weapons of mass destruction (an ambiguous term in itself) and terror. Iran, which rose to the top of the list, provided the threat that “saved” the CIA.

The empowering of the CIA’s organizational interests was reinforced by the gallant neoconservatives, led by ideologues Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and John Bolton, who had in the meantime reached senior positions in the government. They launched a campaign to delegitimize the Islamic Republic with the aim of toppling the regime (using the sanitized term “regime change”).