All but one Republican voted against the measure, denying it the 60 votes it needed to advance past a procedural hurdle. Blockage of the Senate's first appropriations bill, along with a decision on Wednesday by Republicans in the House of Representatives to halt consideration of their own transportation funding measure, sends Congress back to the drawing board to find a way to agree on spending and taxes.

It marked the failure of a much-touted return to normal budgeting practices in Congress as a way to try to overcome deep fiscal divisions between the two parties. When Congress returns from a five-week recess in September, lawmakers will have just nine legislative days to craft a stop-gap funding measure to keep government agencies from shutting down as the new fiscal year gets under way on October 1.

"Every problem in this city revolves around jobs," said Lindsay Chalmers, vice president of non-profit Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit. "That's at the heart of the issue for Detroit."

The decline of manufacturing jobs, above all in the automotive industry, has played a major role in the slide of the Motor City's population to 700,000 from a peak of 1.8 million in the 1950s. Despite recent gains, Michigan has 350,000 fewer manufacturing jobs than in 2000. Seismic shifts in the local labor market have left many unskilled workers behind.

At Detroit's high unemployment levels, employers in the Detroit area can "afford to be picky," Jacobs said. "Workers here often need training for new skills, but why should an employer bother doing that when there are thousands of workers to choose from?" he said.

"If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?" That was the disarming rhetorical question which Pope Francis put to journalists accompanying him back from Brazil; it prompted reports of a major shift in the church's attitude to same-sex relations. While carefully citing the church's catechism, he also said gays should be "integrated" into society rather than marginalised.

The church does not, of course, make major doctrinal refinements in off-the-cuff remarks to the press. Other procedures exist for that. And the reason the question even arose has to do with some very awkward news reports over the past month. One of Italy's best-known church-watchers has asserted that Pope Francis was trapped, in effect, by the gay lobby into naming a prelate with a very murky personal life to a job that would supposedly involve cleaning up the troubled Vatican bank.

Pressed about this matter, the pontiff said he hadn't come across any specifically "gay lobby" although there were plenty of other lobbies of "greedy people" in sight. A "quick investigation" had found the allegations about the newly appointed cleric to be unfounded, he insisted.

To a cynical mind, the pope's headline-catching refusal to judge gay people might sound like an artful way of neutralising the most embarrassing saga that has come to light during his young papacy. But Pope Francis has drawn a generally positive response from the secular world, even though he made it clear that the church still considered homosexuality a sin.

Public displays of affection by gays, including holding hands or displaying symbols like a rainbow flag, are now banned. Violators face steep fines and jail time; foreigners face similar penalties plus deportation. So what will happen to openly gay athletes and fans, as well as any vocal supporters or protestors, when Russia hosts the Winter Olympics next year in Sochi?

This week, comments by a lawmaker from St Petersburg set off a firestorm online when he said that fans and athletes would not be immune from prosecution during the games. Vitaly Milonov, who sponsored legislation in St Petersburg last year that became the basis for a national law signed by President Vladimir Putin in June, was quoted telling the Interfax news agency that the law will remain in place during the Olympics and will be applied to foreigners.

Over the past few years, special meetings of ministers of the German speaking countries have been systematically intensified. They are based on the extraordinarily close economic ties, which secure Germany a predominating position. By way of its ties to the media market, Germany achieves a significant ideological influence within the German speaking countries. These meetings of the alpine countries have now been extended to include the participation of Luxemburg.

This growing cooperation has been justified with the assertion that these countries constitute a "unitary cultural realm." However, the integration is not determined by culture, but is the result of German domination, supplanting the previously strong French influence in Luxemburg and Switzerland.

Parting from a solid economic and ideological base, Berlin is also increasingly drawing the German-speaking countries into its foreign policy plans. Last Friday's "quadripartite meeting," focused not only on themes deemed attractive for public relations - such as a common plea for a global ban on the death penalty - but also on the Egyptian crisis and the war in Syria. Foreign policy cooperation is reinforcing - under German leadership - the already strong economic bonds between the German-speaking countries "in the heart of Europe"

With the inclusion of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, this cooperation extends beyond the limits of the EU - and reinforces, as Berlin's national project, Germany's standing in Europe, regardless of the development of the European Union. At the same time, it draws previously neutral German-speaking countries into Berlin's expansionist policies. Switzerland already has its soldiers stationed on several foreign fronts alongside Bundeswehr soldiers - in the countries of the former Yugoslavia and in Afghanistan.

Now a Kenyan lawyer wants to overturn Pilate’s decision, though he wants to keep the faith that flowed from it. “The selective and malicious prosecution (of Jesus) violated his human rights,” said Dola Indidis, a Roman Catholic who is petitioning the International Court of Justice, based at The Hague, to nullify Jesus’ conviction and death sentence. Indidis, a former spokesman for the Kenyan judiciary, accuses Pilate, who was the Roman governor of Judea, of “judicial misconduct, abuse of office, bias and prejudice.”

That may well be the case, at least in the view of believers and many Bible scholars. But getting a court to rule on a 2,000-year-old case from an outlying province in a long-defunct empire will not be easy. Indidis first brought his case before the Kenyan High Court in Nairobi in 2007, but the court refused to hear it, saying it lacked jurisdiction.

Now he is turning to the International Court of Justice, often referred to as the World Court, which is best known for ruling on territorial disputes between members of the United Nations.

On the surface, Israelis saw little reason to jump back into negotiations. The status quo in the occupied Palestinian territories was holding and the question of the so-called peace process had largely fallen off the domestic political agenda. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have realized he could not take the rap for cold shouldering US efforts to revive the talks, and recognized that turbulent regional dynamics made it worthwhile to engage with the Palestinians once more.

"Resuming the diplomatic process at this time is important for the state of Israel both in order to try to end the conflict and given the complex reality in our region, especially the security challenges from Syria and Iran," Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday before it sanctioned the resumption of talks.

The Israeli leader has said for years that Iran is planning to build a nuclear bomb and warned that this represents an existential threat to the Jewish state. Despite Tehran's denials, Netanyahu believes time is running out to deal with the issue. Israeli leaders have repeatedly said Washington must take the lead in halting Iran - either through military means, economic sanctions or diplomacy.

In this context, analysts said Israel could not risk rousing Washington's ire by spurning Kerry's extraordinary efforts. "Netanyahu has Iran on his horizon and has made a very calculated move in order to guarantee some American support on more concrete, assertive steps in the Iranian matter," said Uzi Rabi, head of the Moshe Dayan Centre for Middle East Studies.

Feiglin, who heads the Jewish Leadership faction of the Likud party, visited the Temple Mount on Thursday despite knowing he would find it locked to Jews, as a display of protest. In an "unprecedented" move, police on Wednesday informed Jewish groups that the Temple Mount will be closed to all non-Muslims until at least the end of Ramadan, on 11th August. The announcement has provoked renewed anger over anti-Jewish discrimination on the Temple Mount, and sparked calls by activists for a mass-protest on 7th August, at the start of the Hebrew month of Elul.

Temple Mount activists had complained that for the past three days the Temple Mount - the holiest place in Judaism - remained inexplicably closed to non-Muslim visitors. The only "explanation" offered was a bland sign which simply read "Today the Temple Mount will be closed to visitors." Those restrictions did not, however, apply to Muslim visitors, who continue to receive unrestricted access.

On Wednesday, Police Commander Avi Bitton finally informed representatives of the Organisation of Temple Movements - an umbrella of various Temple Mount groups - that the sign would remain up for at least another two weeks, until after the Muslim festival of "Eid", which marks the end of Ramadan. Feiglin told Arutz Sheva on Thursday that the closure of the holy site to Jews for the Ramadan holiday is a real cause for concern. The unprecedented move is linked to diplomatic talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, he confirmed.

Since returning to the presidency, Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed the importance of a strong military, including Russia seeking a greater presence in the Mediterranean. Russia has been strengthening its presence, establishing a floating Mediterranean naval flotilla — consisting of some 16 warships — for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union. In June Putin stated, “This is a strategically important region, and we have tasks to carry out there to provide for the national security of the Russian Federation.” It is speculated this deployment is partially meant to deter any NATO move towards Syria.

With the future of Russia’s Tartus naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coastline looking uncertain (Moscow recently evacuated all personnel), Russia is looking for other opportunities to maintain and strengthen its foothold in the Middle East. Therefore, increased speculation over a possible military presence on Cyprus is not surprising.

In a joint letter and ideas paper, dated Friday (26 July), the foreign ministers of both countries say that amid "asymmetrical threats" the EU needs to "assume increased responsibility for international peace and security." They add that they are committed to making a planned EU defence summit in December a "success" with "tangible results." Among the results they are hoping for is agreement on improved "operational effectiveness" of EU battle groups, clusters of 1,500 soldiers meant to be deployed rapidly.

Launched in 2007, they have never been used. And ambitions have been scaled back amid dwindling defence budgets. Meanwhile, although France and the UK, the EU's most significant military powers, made the most noise about a military intervention in Libya in 2011, they were unable to take action without the US' help.

More broadly, Washington has said it will intensify its role in the Asia-Pacific region, leaving the EU to do more in its own neighbourhood.

The government spent 708 million euros ($938 million) on research and development of energy technologies last year, up from 399 million euros in 2006, the Economy Ministry said today in an e-mailed statement, citing a new study. Projects included reducing noise from offshore wind power, making buildings more energy-efficient and producing electro-chemical storage units.

“Research and development of modern energy technologies are an important condition for the success of the energy switch,” Economy Minister Philipp Roesler said in the statement. Renewable and efficiency projects accounted for about 500 million euros of the funding last year, the ministry said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is attempting to lead the biggest transition to renewables of any developed country in history, seeking to more than triple the share of renewable power by 2050 to 80 percent of consumption. The clean-energy plants will help replace nuclear reactors, all of which are due to close by 2022.

The pope's warning not to engage in gay propaganda puts him on par with homophobes like Russian President Vladimir Putin, he contends.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: On the flight from Brazil to Europe, Pope Francis was unexpectedly candid. "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" he said, causing many commentators to rejoice. Was this really such a big sensation?

BERGER: It is incredibly naïve to liken it to a dam bursting. What are gays or lesbians to think when someone tells them: I don't want you to be discriminated against, but you are not allowed to live out your "tendency" anyway? According to doctrine, the homosexual act is still a sin.

While the program is still in its early stages, the document shows the White House is already working on such projects with almost a dozen federal departments and agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture. "Behavioral sciences can be used to help design public policies that work better, cost less, and help people to achieve their goals," reads the government document describing the program, which goes on to call for applicants to apply for positions on the team.

The document praises subtle policies to change behavior that have already been implemented in England, which already has a "Behavioral Insights Team." One British policy concerns how to get late tax filers to pay up. "Sending letters to late taxpayers that indicated a social norm - ie that '9 out of 10 people in Britain paid their taxes on time' - resulted in a 15 percent increase in response rates over a three-month period, rolling out to 30 million of extra annual revenue," the document reads.

But some economists urge caution. "I am very skeptical of a team promoting nudge policies," Michael Thomas, an economist at Utah State University, told FoxNews.com. "Ultimately, nudging ... assumes a small group of people in government know better about choices than the individuals making them." And sometimes, he added, government actually promotes the wrong thing.

Her warning came after the leaders of major parties in the coalition reiterated their opposition. On Tuesday, she and her Palestinian counterpart gave themselves nine months to reach a "final status" agreement. After hosting the first direct negotiations in three years in Washington, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced that there would be substantial talks in the next two weeks, either in Israel or the Palestinian territories.

Mr Kerry said all issues were "on the table" for discussion. "We cannot pass along to another generation the responsibility of ending a conflict that is in our power to resolve in our time," he added. Speaking to army radio, Ms Livni said she had been "encouraged" by her meetings with the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat. "It was an event in which there was a kind of excitement and also hope."

"It was important that there was a first meeting, after several months in which the Americans ran between us and them and we didn't sit with one another," she added. Mr Erekat told reporters on Tuesday: "I'm delighted that all final status issues are on the table and will be resolved without any exceptions."

In her radio interview, Ms Livni also warned all parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government - in which she is justice minister - not to criticise the negotiations publicly. "I know that there are partners in the coalition that are not interested in a two-state solution, but they have a collective responsibility and as long as they are part of the coalition they must support negotiations," she said.

"I am expecting you in Jerusalem, not just me but the whole country of Israel," Peres told the pope in the presence of reporters after 30 minutes of private talks in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace. Francis was close to the Jewish community in his native Argentina.