The artist responsible for the nude painting of Donald Trump, portraying him with small genitals, has fled the U.S. after receiving threats of violence from supporters of the Republican presidential front-runner. News Hub reports: Ilma Gore’s work, ‘Make America Great Again’, is up for sale with a price tag of £1 million (NZ$2.5 million). It’s currently being displayed at the Maddox Gallery in London, after galleries in the US refused to show it due to security concerns. “The reaction, especially in the UK, has been incredibly supportive.

After a fierce run of chaotic headlines leading up to the Doha meeting, where speculation of deal or no-deal was enough to make blood shoot out of your eyes, the results of the meeting are finally in.

• Crude's Losses Drag Ruble, Loonie Lower; Stocks Pare Their Drop (BBG)
• Grand Oil Bargain Is Victim of Saudi Arabia's Iran Fixation (BBG)
• Both Parties’ Presidential Front-Runners Increasingly Unpopular (WSJ)
• It's up to you, New York: state takes center stage in election campaign (Reuters)
• Rousseff Hangs by a Thread After Losing Impeachment Vote (BBG)
• China March home prices rise at fastest rate in two years, top cities boom (Reuters)
• Shaken Ecuador hunts for survivors amid 7.8 quake debris (Reuters)

How The American Neoconservatives Destroyed Mankind’s Hopes For Peace

Paul Craig Roberts

When Ronald Reagan turned his back on the neoconservatives, fired them, and had some of them prosecuted, his administration was free of their evil influence, and President Reagan negotiated the end of the Cold War with Soviet President Gorbachev. The military/security complex, the CIA, and the neocons were very much against ending the Cold War as their budgets, power, and ideology were threatened by the prospect of peace between the two nuclear superpowers.

Moments ago Morgan Stanley became the fourth major US bank to report earnings which unlike its previously reporting peers, JPM, Wells and Citi, were far more simple to digest due to the lack of bank loan balance sheet arbitrage and reliance on Net Interest Margin. After all, after Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley is the closest to relying almost entirely on marginal trading revenue as well as its all important wealth management unit.