Paris

Update: as expected Macron has expected Bayrou's alliance offer, AFP reports. It is still unclear if Bayrou has official withdrawn from the presidential campaign.

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European assets spiked from near session lows, with the Euro and French OATs jumping, dragging Bunds lower and pushing US indices to intraday highs after French politician Francois Bayrou announced he was endorsing Emmanuel Macron in the upcoming presidential election, without saying if he decides not to run.

Marine Le Pen has warned that Paris is on the brink of a total civil war, as media outlets across Europe refuse to report on the situation.  Paris has been under martial law for around 2 years with riots, rape and murder filling the suburban streets. With French police routinely fleeing from armed rioters, Marine Le Pen has urged President Hollande to address the growing concern that Paris is about to fall into complete civil war as rioters close in on the city center.

Protesters against police violence have set a car on fire during a rally in the Paris suburb of Bobigny, which followed a police officer’s assault on a 22-year-old man last week, leading to a spike in anti-police demonstrations across Paris.

In January of 2016, the Bundesbank announced that three years after commencing the transfer of some of its offshore-held gold from vaults located at the Banque de France in Paris and the NY Fed in New York, it had repatriated a total of 366.3 tonnes, bringing the German central bank's gold reserves held in Frankfurt to 1,402 tonnes, or 41.5% of Germany's total gold of 3,381 tonnes, for the first time greater than the 1.347 thousand tonnes located at the New York Fed, which as of January 27, 2016 held 39.9% of Germany's official gold.

Protests and riots erupted in a Paris suburb following the sexual assault of a 22-year-old black man who allegedly suffered at the hands of four “racist” police officers during a routine ID check. Riot police made 24 arrests following a third night of violence on a housing estate in Aulnay-sous-Bois, north of Paris, following the sexual assault on the black youth worker. One officer has been charged with ‘rape’ after he allegedly stuck a telescopic baton into the young man ripping a four-inch tear along his rectum.