France

Submitted by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,

• An estimated 40,000 cars are burned in France every year - a destruction often attributed to rival Muslim gangs. Every day, more than 80 cars are burned.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has said that France will keep its state of emergency status until ISIS have been completely defeated, hinting at a more permanent police state in France.  The emergency measures were initially introduced after the Paris attacks on the 13th November 2015. Police in France currently have extended powers to conduct raids and impose house arrests without a court order. BBC News reports: Mr Valls also warned that Europe’s migration crisis was now putting the European Union itself at grave risk.

• Global Stocks Face Fresh Losses (WSJ)
• European stocks lick wounds after mauling, oil steady (Reuters)
• Hang Seng Index Sinks Below Net Assets for First Time Since 1998 (BBG)
• U.S. Hedge Funds Boast Lower Losses as Markets Tumble Further (NYT)
• Deutsche Bank Drops as Investment Bank Revenue Concerns Mount (BBG)
• Islamic State Uses Syria’s Biggest Dam as Refuge and Potential Weapon (WSJ)
• Goldman-run funds most popular with Republican candidates, disclosures show (Reuters)

Once again, China was faced with the unpleasant task of deciding which asset class to intervene in: its plunging stock market, or its currency. It chose the latter, and as a result after a turbulent start the Shanghai Composite sank by 5.3% to close just above 3000 and down 15% in just the past 11 days, suggesting that the PBOC is increasingly seeing the CNY1.8 trillion (at least) spent to stabilize stocks as a sunk cost.

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

After the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989 and the death of the Soviet Union was confirmed two years later when Boris Yeltsin courageously stood down the red army tanks in front of Moscow’s White House, a dark era in human history came to an end.