France

A man was shot dead by security forces after seizing a soldier's gun at Paris Orly airport on Saturday while in a separate incident a police officer was shot and injured north of the French capital, the French Interior Ministry said. 

The incident is being investigated as a terrorist attack

???? #BREAKING - Orly airport incident and northern Paris shooting being investigated as terrorist attacks https://t.co/LZOaUn14uh pic.twitter.com/iS7aME9tpb

— FRANCE 24 Breaking (@BreakingF24) March 18, 2017

World stock indexes soared to record highs on Thursday while the dollar traded close to a one-month low after the Federal Reserve hiked U.S. interest rates but signaled no pick-up in the pace of tightening. European and Asian were broadly higher this morning, with S&P tagging along, driven by two main events: the latest "dovish" Fed rate hike, and the Dutch election results, in which Geert Wilders performed worse than some expected, reducing concerns of Eurozone political risk, and broadly seen as a sign of support for Europe's establishment.

It is fitting that just a few hours until the Fed's second rate hike in two quarters, and one day after Goldman downgraded global stocks to Neutral for the next 3 months, not to mention with the results of the anticipated Dutch election due shortly, that global stocks as well as S&P futures are higher, while crude oil has finally managed to stage a rebound as the Dollar DXY index is fractionally in the red.

Authored by Matt Purple via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Polls missed the last two nationalist tremors; they may miss a third

Think of François Fillon as a more polished and experienced Ted Cruz. He might have been president of France until everything came crashing down.

Authored by Peter Korzun via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Hit by a wave of crises, the European Union is urgently searching a new model of functioning in order to survive in one form or another. The need to balance between unity and diversity is a dilemma faced currently by the bloc. Currencies, politics and interests differ to make a new pattern of European integration a reality.