The US government has decided privately to act as if the military takeover of Egypt was a coup, temporarily suspending most forms of military aid, despite deciding not to announce publicly a coup determination one way or the other, according to a leading US senator.

In the latest example of its poorly understood Egypt policy, the Obama administration has decided to temporarily suspend the disbursement of most direct military aid, the delivery of weapons to the Egyptian military, and some forms of economic aid to the Egyptian government while it conducts a broad review of the relationship. The administration won’t publicly acknowledge all aspects of the aid suspension and maintains its rhetorical line that no official coup determination has been made, but behind the scenes, extensive measures to treat the military takeover of Egypt last month as a coup are being implemented on a temporary basis.

The office of Senator Patrick Leahy (Democrat for Vermont), the head of the Appropriations State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, told The Daily Beast on Monday that military aid to Egypt has been temporarily cut off. “[His] understanding is that aid to the Egyptian military has been halted, as required by law,” said David Carle, a spokesman for Leahy.

Europe's main stock markets opened down 1 percent following a fourth straight day of falls on both Wall Street and in Asia to leave MSCI's global index .MIWD00000PUS, which tracks shares in 45 countries, at its lowest level since July 12. Wednesday's minutes from the most recent Fed meeting could offer fresh hints on when the US central bank will start winding down its $85 billion-a-month support program, a tricky process markets have been nervous about for months.

The uncertainty has broadly driven up bond market borrowing costs in recent weeks. The upward pressure on US government bonds eased overnight, leaving the benchmark 10-year Treasury just off a 2-year high at 2.83 percent.

Ramin Nakisa, a global macro strategist for UBS in London, said market turbulence was bound to pick up as the Fed starts to switch the direction of its policy. "We expect volatility... people will start to wonder whether there is anything in the fixed-income world that really is safe," he said adding that there was also likely to be another short selloff in share markets.

The army and emergency workers have set up 166 temporary shelters across three regions, providing drinking water, hot food and medical supplies, RIA Novosti news agency reports. But Russian Vesti TV reports that many people do not want to be evacuated. The Amur and Khabarovsk regions, near the Chinese border, are worst affected.

Experts suggest the flooding will not get any worse over the next few days, but the weather forecast promises more rain later this month, says BBC Russian's Yuri Maloveryan in Blagoveshchensk. But the flood waters are not expected to fully recede until September, our correspondent adds. The deluge has also caused widespread flooding in neighbouring provinces of China, prompting mass evacuations.

"Eighty percent, if not 90%, of the people have no knowledge of economics whatsoever," said Mr Lucke, a professor of economics and head of upstart political party Alternative for Germany. "The situation is very dangerous for Germany and the European Union."

Such unvarnished talk has become a hallmark for the party, known as the AfD, which was founded early this year and is making waves as it stands for its first national election in September. The party is adding a wrinkle to Chancellor Angela Merkel's election plans by agitating for something virtually no mainstream politician has dared suggest: breaking up the euro zone by forcing financially troubled Southern European countries out.

"It would be best if the entire 'Club Med' left the euro," Mr Lucke told supporters during a recent rally.

That, and the downturn in emerging markets that many only recently embraced in the hunt for yield caused by those near-zero rates. It’s easy to identify the date that things changed: May 22, the day that the Federal Reserve first alerted markets that it might soon start “tapering” the $85 billion in monthly asset purchases it has been making since December to juice the economy. And soon looks to be getting even sooner.

A steady improvement in US employment figures — unemployment fell from 7.6 percent in June to 7.4 percent in July — has brought into focus the 6.5 percent unemployment target the Fed set as a prerequisite for raising short-term interest rates. On Thursday, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released yet another piece of good news on the employment front: New applications for unemployment benefits sank to their lowest levels in six years in July.

That’s great news for Americans who happen to be landing new jobs, but not as pleasant for bond investors worried about rising rates.

Spain is willing to restart a dialogue with Britain and it will accept the creation of ad hoc forums that include Gibraltar and the neighbouring Spanish province Andalusia for issues relating to residents on both sides of the border, Garcia-Margallo said.

"But as Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy observed earlier this month to his British counterpart David Cameron, it is first necessary for the UK to show that it intends to undo the damage that has already been caused, in particular by removing the concrete blocks." The Gibraltar government says the concrete reef in the Bay of Gibraltar will regenerate marine life and argues that the Spanish raked for shellfish there illegally in its waters.

But Garcia-Margallo said Spain had "no doubt" about its sovereignty over the waters, arguing that they were never included in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht under which Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in perpetuity.

Mr Hague said the situation in Egypt was "very bleak" and there was only a limited amount Western powers like Britain could do to help resolve it. "We have to do our best to support democratic institutions" without taking sides, he added. He is to meet fellow EU foreign ministers later to discuss Egypt.

Hundreds of people have died in five days of violence between supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi and the Egyptian military. Egyptian security officials have said that more than 20 police officers have been killed in an attack in the north of the country. At least 36 Muslim Brotherhood prisoners have died while trying to escape during their transfer to a prison outside Cairo.

European Union ambassadors are preparing for a meeting to discuss the crisis in Egypt. On Sunday, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council president Herman Van Rompuy issued a rare joint statement warning that the EU would "urgently" review its relations with Egypt in the coming days.

"We will not achieve anything through threats," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, told reporters through an interpreter during a visit to Paris. The prince spoke after meeting French President Francois Hollande, who on Thursday called for a swift end to a state of emergency imposed by Egypt's military authorities.

EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels this week to review what steps to take following a bloody crackdown since Wednesday on supporters of Mursi, deposed by the military on July 3. More than 800 people have died in the violence.

"If the situation calms down, very good. If on the contrary violence continues, then we can and we probably must take decisions," France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told France 2 television on Sunday. He said cutting aid would be difficult, as EU money allowed "Egyptians to eat and receive medical treatment". However, "loans are easier to cut," he added.

Riyadh was a close ally of Egypt's former leader Hosni Mubarak, toppled by a popular uprising in 2011 that brought Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood to power, and has long feared the spread of the Islamist group's ideology to the Gulf monarchies. On Friday, Saudi King Abdullah called on Arabs to stand together against "attempts to destabilize" Egypt, in a message of support for Egypt's military and clear attack on the Brotherhood.

The classrooms were then burned to the ground and the women taken away, attracting a crowd of abusive onlookers. Police told Sister Manal that the nuns had been targeted by hardline Islamists, convinced that they had given Muslim children an inappropriate education. ‘We are nuns. We rely on God and the angels to protect us,’ she said. ‘At the end, they paraded us like prisoners of war and hurled abuse at us as they led us from one alley to another without telling us where they were taking us.’

Siblings Wardah and Bedour, two Christian women employed by the school, also found themselves having to fight their way through the mob while being groped, hit and insulted by the extremists. So far two Christians have been killed since the military-backed government moved against protesters calling for former president Mohamed Morsi’s reinstatement. And dozens of churches, homes and businesses owned by Christians have been attacked and razed to the ground.

‘I am terrified and unable to focus,’ said Boulos Fahmy, the pastor of a Catholic church a short distance away from Manal’s school. ‘I am expecting an attack on my church any time now.’ And Bishop Ibram, head of the local Coptic Orthodox church, said he had instructed Christians and clerics not to resist the mobs of Islamists to try and avoid any loss of life.

Not a word in that statement is true. Washington has taken sides in Egypt and the Arab world. It is on the side of terrorism, extremism, and global Jihadism. Washington took sides when it overthrew Gaddafi in Libya, financed and armed Al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria, and looked the other away as Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood consolidated power in Egypt.

Washington was hoping that the Egyptian military and Egyptian society would quietly go along with their own destruction and be submissive towards an oppressive Muslim Brotherhood dictatorship. But, the reverse happened. The Egyptian people were mobilized by the millions, and Egypt's wise generals acted to preserve the Egyptian state against threats from the Muslim Brotherhood and their bloodthirsty allies in Washington.

Chaos is America's beautiful bride, it is who Washington goes to sleep with and wakes up in the morning with. Chaos is what America wants in the Middle East, not stability, not democracy, not prosperity, not independence, not secularism, not political Islam, not anything. It is creating chaos in all the countries surrounding Israel.

Egyptians don't want chaos. They don't want Al-Qaeda. They don't want terrorism. They don't want the Muslim Brotherhood. And they sure don't want the Evil Empire and Obama lecturing them.

After last week’s bloody crackdown by the Egyptian army, fears of a disruption of oil supplies to the West have boosted the oil price. Brent crude prices were propelled to a four-month high of $111.23 on Thursday. If the turmoil gets worse – or unrest spreads to other countries – the risk premium currently factored into the price of crude is likely to increase further.

Egypt plays a vital role in international energy markets through the operation of the Suez Canal and the Suez-Mediterranean (Sumed) pipeline. These are vital pieces of infrastructure in the global oil market. Last year, about 7% of all seaborne traded oil and 13% of liquefied natural gas (LNG) travelled through the Suez Canal, according to data collected by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The Suez Canal, a 101-mile link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, and the 200-mile Sumed pipeline are strategic routes for Persian Gulf oil and gas shipments to Europe and North America. Closure of these two routes would add an estimated 2,700 miles of transit from Saudi Arabia to the United States around the Cape of Good Hope, increasing costs and shipping time.

It’s the food banks that are popping up all over the place, even in affluent areas amongst the tree-lined squares where the posh au-pairs languish over frothy lattes and even the hired help do their groceries at the local delicatessen tucked away in some secluded cul-de-sac.

The UK has a problem. No, correction the UK has many problems at the present time economically and socially-speaking, but one of the major problems is the complete failure of the social safety net of the inventors of the welfare state and the national health system that inspired hundreds of countries around the world. There is little else that is growing in the UK at the moment, but one thing growing beyond all expectations is: food aid.

Research carried out by the British charity, the Trussell Trust in conjunction with the Citizens’ Advice Bureau points to the fact that 50% of those that are today using food banks are having to do so because benefit payments and financial aid that is provided by the government has either been withdrawn or is being substantially delayed.

It’s not just the delay in benefit payments and withdrawals that are causing problems but also the fact that there are rising numbers of people who are unemployed and also underemployed in the UK. That means that incomes are falling and the food prices are also increasing at the same time.

There are understood to be some official German concerns that the way Britain marks the centenary could cool relations between the two countries, against a backdrop of possible negotiations over the future of the EU and the UK’s membership of it.

Norman Walter, from the country’s London embassy, said that a “less declamatory tone”, which did not dwell on issues such as who was responsible for the conflict, “would be easier”. He also suggested that commemorations should include a focus on the achievements of the European Union in helping to bring peace to the continent.

The tone of Britain’s commemorations has been the subject of debate, with historians accusing the Government of concentrating too much on the carnage of the conflict and depicting it as accidental and futile out of a desire to avoid upsetting the Germans by appearing triumphalist.

The critics argue that the war was a just, necessary fight for survival against a Germany bent on European domination and, as such, its centenary should see greater attention paid to Britain’s achievements.

Abby Wetherell, who apparently saved her life by playing dead, is among at least seven people injured in five states over just four days when hunters, nature-lovers and runners were attacked by bears. The surge in bear attacks this summer has raised concerns about the dangers of increasing encounters with wild animals, as humans move into bears’ natural habitats to live and vacation.

Abby suffered deep puncture wounds, gashes and bruises when a black bear chased her down as she was running along a dirt track in woods near her grandfather’s cabin. Playing dead is in fact not the usual tactic recommended by experts to escape a black bear, but it seems to have worked for Abby. Black bear attacks on humans are extremely rare and there were not believed to be cubs in the area.

Late summer is the time when bears start to forage and devour large quantities of food to bulk up before the hibernation season so there are usually more attacks as autumn approaches and the animals are at their hungriest. Mother bears are of course also fiercely protective of their young.

However, wildlife experts say that the annual preparations for hibernation and the defence instinct of sows do not account alone for this year’s surge in attacks. Officials at Yosemite national park have noted a 64 per cent increase in encounters between bears and humans over the same time period last year.