"They crucified Tsipras in there," remarked a senior EU official who had attended yesterday's European Council emergency summit meeting. "Crucified."

Tsipras has certainly had it tough these last few days and weeks, but who is really being "crucified" by this series of intensive meetings that led to yesterday's "agreement" in the "Greek crisis"? Tsipras is the Greek PM and leader of the Syriza party elected in January this year - very much thanks to a middle- and lower-class populist vote. Their mandate, therefore, was to work in the best interests of the Greek people. Unusually for European governments that get elected on a populist ticket, the Syriza government tried to do exactly that.

Forget the funny money, this is war against the people. And not just the people of Greece, although they're currently in the firing line. On this week's episode of Behind the Headlines, we'll be looking at the context that is woefully absent from the utterly inane mainstream media narrative surrounding 'the Greek debt crisis'.

The euphoria of last week's resounding 'NO!' to austerity in the referendum has quickly given way to bitter acrimony in Greece, following the resignation of maverick Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and the apparent capitulation of Prime Minister Tsipras to the EU's demands for the imposition of austerity measures.

How did this situation come about? And whose debt is it really? Will Greece be forced out of the Eurozone currency? What might happen if it does? Do Eurocrats and European leaders even understand what they are doing? And what is Washington's interest in this apparently intra-European affair?

All this and more this Sunday, 12th July 2015, from 2-4pm EST / 8-10pm CET.

Running Time: 01:28:00

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This week's guest on The Truth Perspective is Joachim Hagopian. Joachim, a licensed therapist, is best known for his hard-hitting blog, 'American Empire Exposed' (http://empireexposed.blogspot.com/) where he outlines the drives, policies and actions of the U.S. military/industrial imperial juggernaut. His articles can also be found on Global Research.

Joachim's unique perspective comes from his experiences as a West Point Military Academy graduate and a stint in the U.S. army where he learned, first hand, which characteristics were nurtured in an individual; which were punished, and which were rewarded.

Based on this period in his life, Joachim wrote a personal account of his realizations in an online book called 'Don't Let the Bastards Getcha Down' (http://www.redredsea.net/westpointhagopian/prologue.htm) where he gives a firsthand account of how the military mindset actually regards individuals, and what some of the powerful and most well-known U.S. military leaders do (many of whom are West Point graduates) to attain their positions of power.

Join us as we discuss the many disturbing dimensions of the American Empire, where it is today, and where it is leading us.

The Truth Perspective is brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT.net, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events. Live every Saturday from 2-4pm EST / 11am-1pm PST / 8-10pm CET.

Running Time: 02:02:00

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To understand the 'Greek debt crisis', the 'financial crisis' of 2008, the first thing to understand is the unreal or immaterial nature of money and what is called the 'global economy'.

In 2014, a Bank of England report titled: "Money Creation in the Modern Economy" finally admitted what has been known by many for a long time: that 97% of the money supply is now created by banks when they make loans. Most of that money is, and remains throughout its life cycle, digital rather than 'physical' paper money.

With the dollar-led global economy on the verge of systemic collapse, increasing chaos in the political and social spheres is mirrored by climate chaos. In June 2015, thousands of wildfires broke out across western North America, with the entire continent on course for its fieriest season in recorded history. June is the peak of tornado season in the US, but the intensity of the storms that brought them was stunning. The worst death toll from a tornado occurred in central China, where a waterspout capsized a cruise ship on the Yangtze River.

The record May rainfall in Texas and Louisiana... just kept falling out of the sky last month, with the Red River reaching its highest level in 70 years. Parts of southern China also saw their worst flooding in over 70 years. Localized flash-flooding struck the world over, not least in Accra, capital of Ghana, where hundreds were killed when a gas station exploded. Tbilisi, Georgia, was similarly impacted when a 'wall of water' washed through, killing 20 people and half the city zoo's animals. Other capitals inundated in deluges last month include Ankara, Bangkok, and Madrid, while Oman saw 5 years' worth of rain... in a single day.

Intense monsoon rains last month also killed thousands of wild animals at a sanctuary in India, while thousands of pigs drowned in southern China's floods. Animal die-offs included millions of crabs on the Californian coast, and hundreds of thousands of antelope in Kazakhstan. The heatwave that killed thousands in India in May moved into Pakistan last month, where it killed some 1,200 people. In normally hot, dry climates, there were yet more bizarre scenes of inches - and sometimes FEET - of hail trapping cars on roads. While Alaska baked in record hot temperatures, Norway had five times more snow cover than normal for June.

In addition to auroras and noctilucent clouds being seen much further south than usual, strange objects or lights in the sky were caught on camera, including three objects leaving Earth's atmosphere. Strong seismic activity came in the form of another powerful eruption of Indonesia's Mount Sinabung, while Malaysia was hit with its strongest earthquake since 1976. There is also incredible footage of enormous sinkholes opening up across the US in June, swallowing moving cars, roads, driveways, backyards, and golf greens. And don't miss the eruption of multiple methane-infused mud geysers on another golf course in Canada!

Our special guest this week on Behind the Headlines is amateur historian Christopher 'Chris' Fogarty. Fogarty was born in Chicago and raised on a farm in Ireland. He worked with his father on contract-plowing, meadow-mowing, and on a threshing mill. He has a degree in civil engineering and has worked around the world on major engineering projects. He served with the U.S. army in France.

He has spent years investigating the truth about the Irish 'famine' and runs a website where he exposes the truth that the deaths of up to 5 million Irish people in the 1840s was a result of systematic policy by the British to starve the "rebellious Irish". He has been a regular columnist for the past nineteen years in Irish American News, runs the web site www.irishholocaust.org and is the author of Ireland 1845-1850: the Perfect Holocaust, and Who Kept it 'Perfect''

Chris has been a keen observer of the trials of Irish republicans in London, Dublin and the Cullyhanna reenactment/investigation. He was 'honored' by being framed by MI5 and the FBI for triple murder of the Langert family. Weeks prior to his trial he was warned by an FBI agent that British and US intelligence were planning to "silence him" because of his human rights advocacy on behalf of Irish Catholics in the north of Ireland.

Chris is the Chicago agent of the National Graves Association (Ireland) and is in the process of systematically installing grave markers over some of Ireland's hundreds of Holocaust mass graves.

Running Time: 01:53:00

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Broadcasting from deep in the heart of the American Empire, join your hosts Harrison Koehli and Elan Martin, and fellow Sott.net editors, as they discuss everything from current events and the latest machinations and manipulations of the global elite to history, science, and religion, and how it all fits together.

This week, join our hosts as they discuss that glorious American holiday Independence Day, and why you're not as free and independent as you think you are.

The Truth Perspective is brought to you by the SOTT Radio Network and SOTT.net, your one-stop source for independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events.

Live every Saturday from 2-4pm EST / 11am-1pm PST / 8-10pm CET.

Running Time: 02:01:00

Download: MP3

You may have heard that President Putin placed a call to President Obama on Thursday, June 25th. As many in the media have noted, this call came after several months since they last spoke directly, and many more months of 'estrangement' and strained relations between the two.

According to the Kremlin's website, Putin and Obama discussed the crises in Ukraine, the on-going war in Syria, the Iran nuclear deal and the growing menace of terrorism in the form of 'IS'. Out of this discussion, says the website, an agreement was made between the two presidents that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry would hold a meeting to discuss this last issue. It was also agreed that US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin would be in contact to discuss implementation of the Minsk agreements.

But as anyone who has been following the developments of all of these flash points might rightly predict, the meetings and the discussions to come will probably amount to absolutely nothing; the U.S. is relentless in its crazed drive for world dominance at any cost. And we know from Putin's and the Russian government's many protective countermeasures - militarily, economically and diplomatically - that they are acutely aware of this.

So why make the call?

Leaving this question aside for a moment, and the ability of Putin to engage in realpolitik when he needs to, a sampling of the Western take on the conversation will prove useful.

With recent news of Greek bank closures and something called "capital controls", ignorant hysteria is spreading, virus-like, through the mainstream media over the "inevitable contagion" that threatens to do away with the EU and, (ultimately no doubt) leave us vulnerable to the unsavory predilections of the jihadi hoard on the doorstep. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, so to speak.

This article is related to two previous ones. As you will see, the destruction of beauty (modern art), the destruction of families and identities (gender theory), and the destruction of religions show several similarities.

You might already know a bit about my grandma and her witty remarks. I mentioned her in the two articles linked above. Something I didn't share with you yet, is her religious faith.

When I was a kid, raised by atheist parents, I found it difficult to understand why my grandma was going to church, why she was interested in the Pope's doings and sayings, why she was praying, why she had paintings of the Virgin Mary hanging on walls and a crucifix above her bed.

To be frank I found all this religious display a bit ridiculous. How could it have been different, when the only thing I had ever heard about the Church was its evil deeds: the Crusades, the Inquisition and, more recently, the pedophile priests.

Grandma's religious faith didn't decline with time. She's now 100 years old and still a religious person. Each time I come back from some medical check-ups, I tell her that the results are good and she's on the verge of tears because she's so relieved. She then tells me in a soft emotional voice: "I've been praying so much for you".

I was struck by our difference in beliefs. Things had changed so fast. Two generations ago most minds were permeated with religion while my generation at best ignored it, at worse despised it.

This introduction might give you an idea of the topic of this article. We will be dealing with religions, particularly Christianity. More specifically, how religions influence us and actually how any social/cultural environment, whether religious or not, influences us. We will see that a religious environment is far less detrimental for individuals and societies than the atheist and nihilistic creed that dominates today's world.

Our social/cultural environment is made of a set of beliefs, rules and norms that basically define what is good and what is evil. For a long time religions played a major role in the definition of those items. So our first step will be to have a quick glance at how the fundamental beliefs (i.e. the cosmogony, the way we see the world) evolved over time.