UK - Only a strong single European state would be able to fend off the threat from Russia and solve the euro crisis, a prominent supporter of a federal Europe tells Channel 4 News.

GERMANY - Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has been portrayed as Hitler’s daughter. And her country has been painted as “an imperial power that will not be loved or admired by the rest, but hated and resisted”, in a warning by George Soros, the financier, “because it will be perceived as an oppressive power”. His is not a lone voice of complaint. Indeed from Rome to Dublin, from Athens to Madrid, there has been a mounting chorus of disapproval directed at Germany over the terms it imposed - as the biggest lender - when helping out stricken European economies, especially Greece, Spain and Cyprus.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - One of the greatest infringements on civil rights in the Western democratic world has yet to gain the much deserved attention of human rights groups. It is time to let Jews pray on the Temple Mount. One need not agree or identify with Feiglin or Glick in order to accept that they have a basic right to freedom of religion. In fact, the infringement on human rights here is so clear that one must wonder why human rights organizations are not lining up to condemn the Wakf for stopping Jewish prayers on the Temple Mount.

RUSSIA - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Ukraine is on the brink of civil war, making it difficult to hold free and fair elections later this month. "When Ukrainians kill Ukrainians I believe this is as close to a civil war as you can get," Lavrov said in an interview with Bloomberg television. Lavrov added that "in east and south of Ukraine there is a war, a real war, with heavy weaponry used. And if this is conducive to free and fair elections then I don't recognise what free and fair is." Ukraine is due to hold crunch presidential elections on May 25.

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - An imam at the Al Aqsa Mosque atop Jerusalem’s Temple Mount has publicly urged the armies of the Arab world to invade Israel thus fulfilling the great Muslim longing of destroying the hated “Zionist entity.” In a televised sermon from Milan, Italy that was broadcast by Al Jazeera, Imam Raed Al-Daan said that Muslims everywhere are beginning to realize that “the Jewish state will vanish, and that the morning sun will rise on Palestine.” Al-Daan went on to state that he and the other clerics who serve on the Temple Mount as part of the Palestinian Authority-appointed Islamic Trust (Waqf) “await the legions of the conquerors. We await the armies from Tunisia, from Jordan, from Egypt, from Iraq, from the Maghreb (Morocco and Algeria), and from the Hijaz (Saudi Arabia).” To clarify that he was not speaking of a Palestinian state confined to the so-called “West Bank,” Al-Daan repeatedly referred to Muslims shouting victory cries from Israeli cities such as Jaffa, Haifa, Beit Shean, Lod and Ramle.

LOS ANGELES, USA - Thousands of people fled raging wildfires in southern California which destroyed homes and triggered evacuations at a nuclear power plant, a military base and a Legoland amusement park. The blazes, which also closed a major north-south highway, come amid record temperatures in the western US state, where the annual wildfire season typically starts much later in the year. California and other western US states are routinely hit with wildfires during the summer and fall, but blazes have occurred earlier in the year in recent times. Southern California including Los Angeles has been bracing for record temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) this week…

ISRAEL - Western states aspire to be liberal and open, while Israel is withdrawing into itself. Why a president? Actually, why not a king? King of Israel. As Israel gallops toward its past, basing its existence and character on what was here (or not) thousands of years ago, we cannot rule out reinstating the monarchy: the United Monarchy and the kings. Why not a king? There’s no lack of candidates, it’s a relatively simple procedure.

USA - The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted in favor of advancing a proposal that could dramatically reshape the way consumers experience the Internet, opening the possibility of Internet service providers charging websites for higher-quality delivery of their content to American consumers. The plan, approved in a three-to-two vote along party lines, could unleash a new economy on the Web where an Internet service provider such as Verizon would charge a website such as Netflix for faster video streaming. The proposal is not a final rule, but the vote on Thursday is a significant step forward on a controversial idea that has invited fierce opposition from consumer advocates, Silicon Valley heavyweights, and Democratic lawmakers. The FCC will now open the proposal to a total 120 days of public comment.

USA - Oberlin College is considering a set of rules in the athletics department which would include mandatory transgender sensitivity training for all of its staff and coaches. The “Guidelines for Inclusion and Respectful Treatment of Intercollegiate Transgender Student Athletes” was developed for the college by the school’s Transgender Participation Advisory Committee, Campus Reform reported. “It is basically intended to sort of be a 101,” Emily Clarke, a junior and member of the committee, told Campus Reform. “We also talk about choice, privilege and agency in presentation of gender and pronouns and ends with trans-allyship dos and don’ts. It’s basically like, don’t question people about their transitioning processes, respect pronouns and names, don’t use ‘ladies’ or ‘gentlemen’ when addressing a group of people.” The new guidelines would replace pronouns “he/him/his/she/her/hers” with “they/them/theirs.”

JAPAN - Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called for a new interpretation of the constitution, which could pave the way for the military to fight overseas. His call came hours after a panel of advisers - picked by Mr Abe - released a report recommending changes to defence laws. Japan's constitution bans acts of war and "the threat or use of force" to settle international disputes. China has criticised the move, accusing Japan of taking "negative actions". Under Article 9 of its post-war pacifist constitution, Japan is blocked from the use of force to resolve conflicts except in the case of self-defence.

USA - With the recent revelations by NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden, it’s no secret that we live on a planet characterized by mass surveillance and virtually zero privacy. We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with the idea that we face threats, that a high level of national security is needed in order to keep us safe. Think about it, the United States pumps a large majority of their money into the Department of Defense. A state of fear, war and terror is needed to keep those funds flowing in that direction. Many people are starting to wake up and realize a lot of the so called threats we face and have been facing are largely manufactured and fabricated in order to justify a specific agenda, agendas that deal with the black budget world.

USA - Wildfires roared out of control in Southern California, forcing authorities in San Diego county on Wednesday to order thousands of people to abandon their homes, including students at a state university, though no major injuries were reported. Television images showed several homes in flames, with thick black smoke filling the sky and drifting over the Pacific Ocean, as California entered the height of wildfire season in the midst of one of the state's worst droughts on record. Officials told a news conference that nine fires had burned more than 9,000 acres in the county by late Wednesday. Fire officials fear the drought could provide the tinder for a particularly dangerous year for wildfires in the state.

RUSSIA - Russia and its allies consider Eurovision to be morally toxic after Conchita Wurst's win, and are seeking to establish their own 'Eurasian' version of the popular song contest that upholds traditional moral values. Russian lawmakers have proposed creating their own version of Eurovision after Europe's premier song competition was won by a bearded Austrian drag queen who promotes gay rights.

GRENADA, CARIBBEAN - A team of scientists is exploring the darkest corners of a huge underwater volcano in the Caribbean in the hope of better understanding the mysteries of earthquakes and tsunamis, ultimately saving lives. ‘Kick'em Jenny’ is a dangerous and active volcano sitting roughly 6,000 feet below the surface of the Caribbean Sea, and located off the coast of the island of Grenada, south of St Lucia. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the Kick'em Jenny volcano has erupted 10 times since 1939 with the most recent eruption in 1990. “This is the most hazardous part of our planet, where [tectonic] plates are head-on,” Ballard said, noting that the devastating 2011 Japanese earthquake and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami were both underwater earthquakes.

USA - Earlier this year, a select group of Wall Street Insiders were surveyed, and the results were ominous. These financial experts and fund managers predicted a 98% chance a stock market crash will happen in the next six months. Gary Shilling, one of Wall Street’s top economists, says the S&P Index could drop as low as 800, a 42% decline. Jeffrey Gundlach, one of the world’s biggest bond fund managers and CEO of DoubleLine Capital, says the real damage is yet to come and an “ominous third phase” will “far exceed the damage of 2008.”