Europe

Submitted by Shelley Kasli via OrientalReview.org,

Russia’s decision to greatly reduce its military presence in Syria, coming as it did with little warning, has left the world struggling for explanations. Russia is to maintain a military presence at its naval base in Tartous and at the Khmeymim airbase. In fact Russia is “withdrawing without withdrawing”.

The partial withdrawal is seen by many as a message to the Assad government to not take Russia’s military aid for granted, and to be more flexible in the upcoming peace negotiations.

November's mass murders in Paris; today's suicide bombings in Brussles... that's just the beginning for Europe according to Dutch Party For Freedom (PVV) leader and prominent counter-Islamist campaigner Geert Wilders who spoke earlier today with Breitbart London in the aftermath of this morning’s major terror attack and has lamented it is just the beginning of growing Islamist violence.

When president Obama spoke in Cuba earlier today, he dedicated about one minute to address today's tragic events in Europe. He then spent the next several hours attending a baseball exhibition game in Cuba between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cuban National Team. 

Perhaps responding to some righteous public indignation, this is how Obama explained his decision to disregard what is happening in Europe, and to enjoy himself while chaos and tragedy reigned across the Atlantic:

Belgian PM Charles Michel said earlier that "this is the deadliest attack on Brussels ever," and as we noted in this morning's pre-open wrap:

This morning's Brussels bomb attacks have led to risk-off sentiment across European asset classes, with Bunds higher and equities firmly in the red, although if the Paris terrorist attacks of November are any indication, today's tragic events may be just the catalyst the S&P500 needs to surge back to all time highs

In April of last year we said the ECB would soon end up buying corporate bonds.

We’re not sure if one year later counts as “soon” or not, but ultimately, we were proven correct when, earlier this month, Mario Draghi announced a new easing “package” that includes IG non-fin EU corporates as part of a plan to increase monthly asset purchases by €20 billion.