Three-generation families surviving on a single income are increasingly common across southern Europe as mass unemployment tears at the fabric of closely knit societies. The continent's social shock-absorbers are creaking under the strain of a prolonged economic crisis that began in 2008 and engulfed the euro zone in a sovereign debt crisis from 2010.

The welfare state that Europeans built after World War Two, and which many view as a defining achievement of their civilization, is one reason why the Great Recession has not triggered a revolution or severe social unrest so far. "Daily life has become pure misery," said Lemonis, a former painter in the construction industry who owns his own house.

"We are up to here with bills and once all that is paid there's nothing left to live a decent life," he said, adding that the family can only afford meat once or twice a month. With more than 26 million unemployed in the 27-nation European Union, including nearly 6 million young people, the system is struggling, and in some places failing, to cope. Many of the jobless have exhausted their benefit entitlements.

EU leaders are meeting at a regular European Council to discuss how growth can be balanced with the fiscal austerity measures taken to tackle the eurozone debt crisis. Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, admitted that while the EU had made progress, in tackling the sovereign debt crisis that had threatened the euro, the situation in some countries had reached breaking point.

"Indebtedness of the public and private sectors has been reduced in a number of member states. Exports are increasing in several countries which had large trade deficits before. And this is certainly good news," he said. "But, as I said earlier, the reality is that at the same time, this may co-exist with still worrying figures in terms of growth and, namely, on unemployment."

That is the view articulated by Charles Moore, a journalist, political commentator, and former editor of The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, and The Spectator, who spoke at The Heritage Foundation this week. “The United States does need to be aware that the United States of Europe is gradually coming into being,” said Moore. “And it’s based on principles from the top down which would have never been accepted by the American Republic.”

If the EU continues to increase its role in member nations’ affairs, it will soon resemble a national government. But unlike the federal government created in the American founding, which developed with democratic consent and bottom-up involvement from the citizens of the independent states, this new European “super-state” is being thrust top-down upon Europeans and undermining their national sovereignty.

But maybe the European Union (EU) is no longer a civilised democracy? I heard rumours about this when I visited Limassol last week, but dismissed them as completely outlandish. And yet, here we are. The consequences are unpredictable, but we are clearly looking at a significant paradigm shift.

This is a breach of fundamental property rights, dictated to a small country by foreign powers and it must make every bank depositor in Europe shiver. Although the representatives at the bailout press conference tried to present this as a one-off, they were not willing to rule out similar measures elsewhere - not that it would have mattered much as the trust is gone anyway. It is now difficult to expect any kind of limitation to what measures the Troika and EU might take when the crisis really starts to bite.

If you can do this once, you can do it again.

But the big surprise is that depositors in banks will be subject to an instant one-off tax to raise nearly 6 billion euros. The background is that because Cyprus has an enormous banking system - and houses a lot of offshore Russian money - there was not much political appetite to bail it out, even though the amount of cash was minimal.

In fact it seems, Germany was comfortable letting Cyprus go completely. Faisal Islam - who is the crack economics reporter at UK network C4 - tweets that Germany basically gave a quid-pro-quo. Take the deal, or leave the Eurozone.

After all-night Friday talks, euro finance ministers agreed a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout for the stricken Mediterranean island and said since so much of its debt was rooted in its banks, that sector would have to bear a large part of the burden. Politicians, bankers and analysts said the levy could undermine banks in other euro zone countries, even though the ministers insisted it was a one-off and Cyprus represents just 0.2 percent of euro zone economic output.

"The unprecedented move is an extreme measure, and in our view it will spread some panic across the EMU periphery, and we cannot rule out some capital outflows," said Annalisa Piazza at Newedge Strategy.

"In the short run we expect some effects on periphery's (bond yield) spreads and some weakening of the euro cannot be ruled out," Piazza said.

The decision sent Cypriots scurrying to the cash points, most of which were emptied within hours. Most have been unable to access their bank accounts since Saturday morning, a move unlikely to engender calm.

Euro zone policymakers made a point of saying they would monitor any signs of money moving out of Cyprus but did not say how they might react in the event.

Hafeez opens the speech with a reflection on parenting and a child’s years as a “terrible teen.” Then, he makes an interesting comparison to the euro area, complete with a religious allegory.

“Who else has entered the terrible teens? The Euro-Area! It was born in 1999, and so is currently fourteen years old. It has all the hallmarks of teenage angst. It is ridden with internal conflicts, it is groping around for structure, and it is suspicious of authority. So who can be a positive role model for the Euro-Area? Well it cannot be the “fathers”: Germany or France.

It has to be an external figure that all Europeans respect, and whose motives and character are beyond dispute. That rules out anyone living as even the most competent person will make missteps or have something from the past dredged up to undermine them. That leaves us with historical figures whose lives have been laid bare by history. I can only think of one figure that is respected by most Europeans and has never sinned, Jesus!”

The deal reached with euro partners and the IMF marks a radical departure from previous international aid packages. President Nicos Anastasiades defended it as a "painful" step, taken to avoid a disorderly bankruptcy. It had, he said in a statement, been a choice between the "catastrophic scenario of disorderly bankruptcy or the scenario of a painful but controlled management of the crisis".

The Cypriot leader, who was elected last month on a promise to tackle the country's debt crisis, will address the nation on Sunday. While Cyprus may be one of the eurozone's tiniest economies - its third-smallest - there could be serious repercussions for other financially over-stretched economies, such as those of Spain and Italy, Robert Peston writes. The point of the levy is to warn lenders to banks that they should take care where they place their funds, and avoid banks that overstretch themselves - as Cypriot banks did, he adds.

The country has been in financial difficulties since the collapse of the Greek economy, where Cypriot banks had huge investments. It appears that the heavy presence of Russian money in Cypriot banks was a factor in imposing the levy. According to Reuters news agency, almost half of the depositors in Cyprus are believed to be non-resident Russians.

People in Cyprus with less than 100,000 euros in their accounts will have to pay a one-time tax of 6.75%, Eurozone officials said. Those with greater sums will lose 9.9%. Depositors will be compensated with the equivalent amount in shares in their banks. Reports suggest that depositors will be able to access all of their money except the amount set by the levy.

The levy itself will not take effect until Tuesday, following a public holiday, but action is being taken to control electronic money transfers over the weekend. Co-operative banks, the only ones open in Cyprus on Saturday, closed after people started queuing to withdraw their money.

The Mail on Sunday today presents irrefutable evidence that official predictions of global climate warming have been catastrophically flawed. Steadily climbing orange and red bands on the graph show the computer predictions of world temperatures used by the official United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The estimates – given with 75 per cent and 95 per cent certainty – suggest only a five per cent chance of the real temperature falling outside both bands. But when the latest official global temperature figures from the Met Office are placed over the predictions, they show how wrong the estimates have been, to the point of falling out of the ‘95 per cent’ band completely.

The graph shows in incontrovertible detail how the speed of global warming has been massively overestimated. Yet those forecasts have had a ruinous impact on the bills we pay, from heating to car fuel to huge sums paid by councils to reduce carbon emissions.

The eco-debate was, in effect, hijacked by false data. The forecasts have also forced jobs abroad as manufacturers relocate to places with no emissions targets. A version of the graph appears in a leaked draft of the IPCC’s landmark Fifth Assessment Report due out later this year. It comes as leading climate scientists begin to admit that their worst fears about global warming will not be realised.

But a study in Australia offers a solution. At the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), tests were carried out on manuka, kanuka and clover honeys to find which was best at treating bacteria commonly found in chronic skin wounds. Researchers looked at key ingredients known to inhibit bacterial growth. The honey has an anti-bacterial level four times greater than standard antiseptic. It is used to clean wounds, heal stomach ulcers and treat eczema, acne and insect stings

“I’m not optimistic” about reviving peace talks, in large part because of the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties in the region that aren’t inclined to support a “just outcome” with Israel, Kissinger said in an interview airing this weekend on Bloomberg TV’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff.”

Kissinger said he doesn’t have a rosy view of the so-called Arab Spring that has been widely portrayed as popular uprisings with democratic aspirations. Most revolutions, he said, consist of “many groups hostile to the existing government, but not necessarily for the same reason.” He cited the Syrian civil war as one conflict that has been widely misunderstood. “It’s not a fight of democracy against a dictator,” he said. “It’s a fight of various ethnic groups for preeminence.”

His skepticism about the Arab revolutions underpins his pessimism about Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects.