As Germany welcomes thousands of refugees, with industries seeking ways to integrate newcomers into country's workforce, Berlin's move to temporarily bypass EU-wide regulations has met strong criticism from France's Marine Le Pen who accused Germany of recruiting "slaves."

The German drive to open its doors to refugees, as well as debated plans to resettle asylum seekers across the EU has been met with strong criticism from a number of politicians, including the leader of right-wing French party National Front, Marine Le Pen who accused Germany of imposing its immigration policy on the EU.

"Germany probably thinks its population is moribund, and it is probably seeking to lower wages and continue to recruit slaves through mass immigration," Marine Le Pen said in Marseille, refusing to admit that pure benevolence was Germany's only motive.

Le Pen criticised European politicians for "exploiting the suffering of these poor people who cross the Mediterranean Sea."

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pinned the blame for the worst refugee crisis to hit Europe since WWII on the United States, speaking exclusively to RT.

The Venezuelan leader accused the US of flinging the Middle East into a whirlpool of wars thus provoking the current refugee crisis faced by European countries.

"It is Europe that has to deal with the disaster caused by the US, because it is Europe that is now taking in thousands of migrants and they don't know how to cope with this situation," he told RT during his visit to China for V-Day celebrations commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

Russia's Borei-class nuclear-powered ballistic submarine Alexander Nevsky is set to join the Russian Navy's Pacific Fleet in early September. Sources in the Russian Joint Staff told TASS news agency that Russia's deadliest submarine will become part of the 25th division of submarines in Vilyuchinsk. Alexander Nevsky is the first nuclear submarine of the Borei-class, and was commissioned in December 2013.

New sub to conduct nuclear deterrence patrols in the Pacific

Sources told TASS that the submarine started subglacial passage in mid-August from the Northern Fleet to the Pacific Fleet for permanent combat duty. It was supposed to reach the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia's Far East by the first week of September. According to The Diplomat, the new submarine facilities for Borei-class are under construction in Kamchatka, and should be completed by the end of September.

Upon its arrival at the new homeport, the Alexander Nevsky will undergo routine maintenance work. Equipped with 16 Bulava intercontinental ballistic missiles, its primary job will be to conduct strategic nuclear deterrence patrols in the Pacific Ocean. However, the submarine will not conduct the launch of Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile this year, as was previously expected.
Russia's Alexander Nevsky is armed with 160 nuclear warheads

The Bulava can carry 6-10 nuclear warheads per missile. That means 16 Bulava missiles on Alexander Nevsky can collectively carry between 96 and 160 nuclear warheads. The missile has a range of over 5,000 miles. Russia's first Borei-class submarine Yuriy Dolgorukiy was inducted into the Northern Fleet in January 2013. Moscow plans to build eight Borei-class nuclear submarines by 2020.

After six months and nearly one billion tweets on Twitter, it took a media frenzy over a small measles outbreak in California at the beginning of 2015 to draw the attention of some in the national media to finally start reporting on the significance of the CDC Whistleblower story from the summer of 2014.

Patrick Howley of The Daily Caller has reported that the Obama administration has granted whistleblower immunity to Dr. William Thompson, a senior epidemiologist at the CDC who co-authored and published research on the MMR vaccine for the CDC back in 2004. His decision to become a whistleblower and reveal data that was concealed by the CDC linking the MMR vaccine to autism among African American boys was revealed during the summer of 2014.

The Greek Foreign Ministry has confirmed receipt of a request from Washington, asking that Russia be denied use of Greek airspace for aid flights to Syria, Reuters reported.

The announcement came from the Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman, who added the US request was being considered.

On Sunday, a diplomatic source in Athens told RIA Novosti that Greece had refused to close its airspace to Russian planes carrying humanitarian aid to Syria.

There is no better way to describe the international monetary system today than through the statement made in 1971 by U.S. Treasury Secretary, John Connally. He said to his counterparts during a Rome G-10 meeting in November 1971, shortly after the Nixon administration ended the dollar's convertibility into gold and shifted the international monetary system into a global floating exchange rate regime that, "The dollar is our currency, but your problem." This remains the U.S. policy towards the international community even today. On several occasions both the past and present chairpersons of the Fed, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellen, have indicated it still is the U.S. policy as it concerns the dollar.

Is China saying to the world, but more particularly to the U.S., "The yuan is our currency but your problem"? China's move to weaken the Yuan against the US dollar is in fact a huge response to America's resistance to reforming the international monetary framework. It's telling American policy makers that the longer they delay acting on reforming the international monetary system, the harder and longer they are going to make it for the U.S. to climb out of their trade deficit and depreciate their currency to where they need it to be.

China has been preparing for this moment for several years by accumulating gold through its central bank but also by using banks/corporations and individuals. It has in recent years signed several international agreements to bypass the US dollar in international trade and use preferably the Yuan. It has created an alternative World Bank (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) and a gold fund to invest in gold mining for more than 60 countries. The project is being overseen by the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) and it is likely that the newly mined gold will be either traded on the SGE or be sold directly to the PBoC and other central banks. It has also bought a large amount of gold and kept the exact amount as secret as possible.

The international monetary system is in crisis and ready to collapse. It has been since at least 1971 but it seems we are very close to the end (within five years). The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is working discreetly to have the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) replace the US dollar as the international standard. Since the delinking of the dollar from gold in 1971, the US dollar has been the de facto international standard. The IMF itself makes no bones about its ambition to establish the SDR as the global reserve currency.

According to reports, five Chinese warships have moved into the Bering Sea near Alaska after participating in a naval exercise with Russia. Yet the consensus of analysts is that the ships are not viewed as a threat by the United States government, even as President Barack Obama is currently travelling in northern Alaska near the Arctic Circle.

Defense Department acknowledges Chinese vessels

White House spokesman Josh Earnest confirmed that the Defense Department had identified a number of Chinese vessels in that region, but that military analysis had revealed that there was no form of threat, or indeed threatening activities, emanating from the naval presence.

Nonetheless, the US military continues to monitor the region, increasingly wary of ships emanating from China in the area. It has been reported that the US authorities have been tracking the movement of vessels in the region for days, as they continue to traverse international waters. Although comments emanating from Washington have been diplomatic, the defense department has also taken what is fundamentally a neutral position.

Earnest stated that the intention of the ships at this time is still unclear, and clearly there is at least some form of suspicion among the US administration. However, despite this suspicion, as long as vessels behave in accordance with international law, it seems certain that that United States will retain its diplomatic distance.

Navy Cdr. Bill Urban, a Pentagon spokesman, indicated that vessels from China have not been spotted in the Bering Sea before, but was also keen to emphasize that the United States viewed the conduct of China as acceptable at the time of writing. Urban stated that the United States respected "the freedom of all nations to operate military vessels in international waters in accordance with international law".

The command and part of aviation formations of the 6th Air Force and Air Defense Army of the Western Military District, stationed in Russia's Central Military District, have been alerted within a surprise combat readiness inspection of the district's command and control bodies and forces, the Russian Defense Ministry's press service told TASS on Monday.

"Aviation units of the Western Military District have been put on full combat alert. The flight personnel and technical engineer personnel involved in the surprise inspection activities will soon conduct redeployment to operational airfields," the ministry said.

Russia has no interest in joining the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) according to Igor Sechin, the CEO of Russian oil major Rosneft. "OPEC has lost its influence as a key market regulator, no interest for Russia to join," he said.

Unlike OPEC countries, the Russian oil industry is less state-regulated, said Sechin, adding that due to climatic peculiarities, Russia cannot quickly adjust oil production.

Francois Hollande has said France will welcome 24,000 refugees as part of an EU-wide plan that "can and will" bring the crisis under control.

Speaking at the start of a live TV press conference, the French president said his country has a duty to take in those fleeing war and persecution, and is ready to do so.

His comments came as David Cameron prepared to outline Britain's plan to tackle the refugee crisis. The Prime Minister was expected to say that the UK would take "thousands" more asylum-seekers as part of a "fundamental rethink" of its role as a place of refuge.

Mr Hollande also said that France would begin military operations over Syria as part of its response to the crisis.

He said reconnaissance missions would begin on Tuesday, with a possible goal of launching future air strikes against Isis militants in that country.

"We have proof that attacks have been planned from Syria against several countries, notably France," he told the news conference.

"My responsibility is to ensure that we are informed as much as possible on the threats to our country ... so I have asked the defence minister that from tomorrow reconnaissance flights begin over Syria that will enable us to consider air strikes against Isis."