Environment

Al Gore, via a new report from his Energy Transitions Commission (ETC), would like for you to know that he has a plan to save all of mankind from inevitable extinction which will come by around the year 2030 unless we join his global warming crusade immediately.

For those of you ignorant, science-hating, climate-doubters among our reader base who refuse to take Al Gore's word at face value, here is a little background on the ETC.  Apparently they have single-handedly taken upon themselves the epic goal of fighting a cataclysmic 2 degree temp rise over the next 20 years.

While Hawaiian officials are pushing to re-open fallout shelters, the people of another island (considerably closer, and well within range) are actively preparing for a worst case scenario from North Korea. As Reuters reports, sales of nuclear shelters and radiation-blocking air purifiers have surged in Japan in recent weeks as North Korea has pressed ahead with missile tests in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

Japan is well within range of already-tested North Korean missiles...

And that has prompted aoring demand among the Japanese people...

Despite coming second in the results, trailing Macron by just over 2% in the final vote, there were several places in France where Marine Le Pen didn't manage to get a single vote: 56 places in fact.

Heading into today's vote, FX options markets had seen massive demand for downside protection against a result that threatened the euro's existence. That didn't happen and so those hedges are being unwound en masse with the biggest drop in EURUSD implied vols in history...

Close up, 1mo EURUSD vols erased all the damage from the last few weeks' fears...

And Risk-Reversals (which measure the skew or relative demand for downside protection over upside), have spiked back to near 'normal' levels...

Satellite images of the Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site from April 19 indicate that North Korea may have resumed preparations for a possible imminent nuclear test.