After financial, currency and debt crises, wrenching budget and spending cuts, rich nations' bailouts of the poor, and surrenders of sovereign powers over policymaking to international technocrats, Euroscepticism is soaring to a degree that is likely to feed populist anti-EU politics and frustrate European leaders' efforts to arrest the collapse in support for their project.

Figures from Eurobarometer, the EU's polling organisation, analysed by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), a thinktank, show a vertiginous decline in trust in the EU in countries such as Spain, Germany and Italy that are historically very pro-European.

The six countries surveyed – Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Spain, and Poland – are the EU's biggest, jointly making up more than two out of three EU citizens or around 350 million of the EU's 500 million population. The findings, published exclusively in the Guardian in Britain and in collaboration with other leading newspapers in the other five countries, represent a nightmare for Europe's leaders, whether in the wealthy north or in the bailout-battered south, suggesting a much bigger crisis of political and democratic legitimacy.

"The damage is so deep that it does not matter whether you come from a creditor, debtor country, euro would-be member or the UK: everybody is worse off," said José Ignacio Torreblanca, head of the ECFR's Madrid office. "Citizens now think that their national democracy is being subverted by the way the euro crisis is conducted."

Venting the fury of a nation, Joan Woolard accused the millionaire bosses of Barclays of being ‘greedy bastards’.

The 75-year-old had travelled all the way from Spalding in rural Lincolnshire to the bank’s annual meeting in London to condemn the City’s bonus culture.

Mrs Woolard lambasted Barclays directors for dishing out seven-figure pay packages and demanded to know why no bankers had been jailed. Banks have brought us down – brought the entire global economy down. Yet none of you have gone to jail. ‘I don’t understand how you can sleep at night.’ The emotional speech was greeted by applause from her fellow shareholders in the audience at the Royal Festival Hall. Many were pensioners whose incomes have been decimated since the 2008 financial crash.

Sir David Walker, who took over last year as chairman to help restore the bank’s sullied reputation, responded to Mrs Woolard. He said: ‘It’s important to – with humility and modesty – recognise the extent to which those comments were recognised and approved of by others in the audience. I readily agree that Barclays overpaid in the past – it’s not going there again.’

Despite claims it is showing wage restraint, Barclays has infuriated investors by paying 428 staff more than £1 million. Last month it came under fire for trying to bury details of a £40 million jackpot shared between nine directors by announcing it on Budget day.

Floodwaters had begun an inch-by-inch retreat in inundated Peoria, Illinois, after the Illinois River crested Tuesday at 29.35 feet, eclipsing a 70-year record. In central Indiana, more heavy rain through Wednesday morning prompted a request for voluntary evacuation along the Tippecanoe River near Lafayette.

The Grand River at Grand Rapids, Michigan, which reached record levels, was expected to fall below flood stage Thursday and some of the hundreds of people evacuated were starting to return home. Along the Mississippi, the biggest concern was that the flood is expected to linger into May, potentially straining longstanding earthen levees and hastily-built sandbag walls. Rain-soaked Chicago had its wettest April on record, the National Weather Service said, according to NBCChicago.com.

In tiny Dutchtown, Missouri, flooding from the Mississippi has become such a fact of life that residents expressed hope that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would buy them out of their homes. Residents in Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minnesota, have been filling sandbags ahead of the expected fourth major Red River flood in the past five years after unseasonably cold weather delayed the annual thaw. But the river was still expected to peak at possibly its second-highest level on record, and flood preparations in the north-central United States follow major flooding on rivers in Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan caused by heavy rain, the AP said.

In addition to discussing the numerous conspiracies and doubts surrounding the flu shot, we’ll take a look at possible side effects, people who shouldn’t get vaccinated, and possible alternatives. It’s Somewhat Ineffective. Critics argue that there’s little evidence pointing to the effectiveness of the flu shot. The efficiency of the flu vaccine varies from season to season; a new vaccine is created each year by a small group of scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS) who determine the 3 most likely strains to use for development.

Each year, the viruses used to make the vaccination alter based on flu trends and scientific research. Depending on how well-matched the vaccination is with the seasonal trend and the demographics of those who are vaccinated, the effectiveness of the vaccine usually hovers between 60 and 90 percent for healthy adults, meaning that a possible 40% of people who receive the vaccination aren’t adequately protected. It’s these poor results that cause individuals like Dr Michael Osterholm, who has studied medical records and flu-related studies dating back to 1936, to express skepticism over the efficacy of the flu vaccine:

“If we don’t change our current vaccines, we will have some protection, but we will in two ways miss two very important goals: one, protecting old people at the highest risk of death and two, when the next pandemic emerges, we will miss the opportunity to protect against pandemic.” Along with a team of medical professionals, Dr Osterholm also wrote a report in which the current vaccine production was described as “slow, inexact, and outdated.”

But the frustration in her voice was clear enough after a week in which several European allies broke ranks, and in a public challenge to Germany, effectively declared the era of deficit reduction in Europe to be over. "I call it balancing the budget," the German chancellor told her audience at a book presentation. "Everyone else is using this term austerity. That makes it sound like something truly evil."

Five months before Germany holds an election, Ms Merkel finds herself under fire from European partners and the centre-left opposition at home for continuing to insist that euro members "do their homework" - Berlin-speak for reining in spending and enacting deep structural reforms. There are signs the criticism is beginning to grate. German officials turn testy when the word "austerity" is mentioned these days.

In recent months, they have deliberately adjusted their language, adopting the term "growth-friendly consolidation" to describe their policy approach. But Merkel's appearance in Berlin, and the reaction of her closest allies to suggestions by the European Commission that euro member states loosen their fiscal reins, shows Germany will not soften its position.

"Declaring an end to consolidation is absolute nonsense," Michael Fuchs, deputy leader for Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) in parliament, told Reuters. "In truth no one is really saving anyway, they're just issuing less debt than before."

All that may change with MK Miri Regev’s appointment to head the Knesset’s Internal Affairs Committee. Regev (Likud) is planning a trip to the Temple Mount in order to weigh the option of permitting Jewish prayer at the site. In announcing her plans, Regev quoted from the Biblical prophecies of Isaiah, “Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer; their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon Mine altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Regev’s announcement has caused anger in the Arab media, where several outlets have mistakenly reported that she is planning a visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, located on the Temple Mount, and is planning to allow non-Muslim prayer inside the mosque. One paper cited MK Taleb Abu-Arar of the Ra’am Ta’al party as saying that Regev “is planning a tour for committee members in the Al Aqsa mosque.” Muslim groups in Israel have frequently accused Israel of planning to divide the Temple Mount or to rebuild the Temple. The Al-Aqsa Institute previously accused MK Moshe Feiglin of “defiling” the Al Aqsa mosque during a visit to the Temple Mount.

Regev has issued a clarification that she is not planning to visit the mosque or to seek to permit Jewish prayer within the mosque. She noted the difference between the Jewish approach of “a house of prayer for all peoples” and the Muslim approach, as described by MK Abu-Arar, prohibiting non-Muslims from praying in the mosque – a difference she termed “interesting.”

Designed to be administered by scientists, engineers and technicians, Technocracy insisted that politicians were not capable of making good decisions about technology they knew nothing about. If Technocracy is indeed asserting itself on today’s economic affairs, then it should become the hottest and most debated topic of the day – but it is not! That’s why this writer continues to present evidence that shows it is not only asserting itself, but it is rapidly coming to dominate the entire globalized economic system.

Hagel indicated he had been caught off guard by claims from an Israeli general this week that Syria had fired chemical agents against rebels in recent months, the AFP news agency reported. "When I was in Israel they did not give me that assessment. I guess it wasn't complete," Hagel told reporters in Cairo on a tour of the Middle East that included a three-day visit to Israel.

The United States has warned any use or transfer of chemical weapons would cross a "red line" and possibly trigger military action. Britain and France also suspect Syria has used chemical weapons but Hagel said American intelligence agencies were still evaluating information and were not yet convinced. "Suspicions are one thing, evidence is another," he said. The Pentagon chief added that "this is serious business and you want to be as sure as you can be on these kind of things".

As I have written about previously, the unemployment rate in Greece has now risen to 27 percent, which is much higher than the peak unemployment rate that the US economy experienced during the Great Depression of the 1930's. And as you will read about below, child hunger is absolutely exploding in Greece right now. Some families are literally trying to survive on pasta and ketchup.

But don't think for a moment that it can't happen here. Sadly, the truth is that child hunger is already rising very rapidly in our poverty-stricken cities. Never before have we had so many Americans unable to take care of themselves. Food stamp enrollment and child homelessness have soared to brand new all-time records, and there are actually thousands of Americans that are so poor that they live in tunnels underneath our cities.

But for millions of other Americans, the suffering is not quite so dramatic. Instead, they just watch their hopes and their dreams slowly slip away as they struggle to find a way to make it from month to month. There are millions of parents that lead lives that are filled with constant stress and anxiety as they try to figure out how to provide the basics for their children. How do you tell a child that you can't give them any dinner even though you have been trying as hard as you can?

What many families go through on a regular basis is absolutely heartbreaking. Unfortunately, more poor families slip through the cracks with each passing day, and these are supposedly times in which we are experiencing an "economic recovery". So what are things going to look like when the next major economic downturn strikes?