Politics

One of the more under-reported stories - at least among the Western press - are the growing tension between China and India. As reported over the weekend, in the latest escalation, Indian and Chinese soldiers, in addition to the ongoing tense military standoff over a contested road in Doklam, were involved in an altercation in the western Himalayas on Tuesday, further raising tensions between the two countries which are already locked in a two-month standoff in another part of the disputed border.

Last Friday Bannon boldly declared: "I’m leaving the White House and going to war for Trump against his opponents... on Capitol Hill, in the media, and in corporate America." 

But, according to a new note from Vanity Fair, that "war" could end up ensnaring the President himself should he decide to succumb to what Bannon views as intense internal White House pressure, from the likes of Jared Kushner, Ivanka and Gary Cohn, among others, to move to the Left on key policy issues.

Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com,

The pro-government constitutional assembly loyal to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro seized the powers of the opposition-led congress today, in a move that necessarily has Big Oil nervous that Trump will make good on his economic sanctions threat.

Two weeks after Ray Dalio warned in his latest letter to Bridgewater clients that the right trade in the current environment is to buy gold in case "things go badly", the head of the world's biggest hedge fund is out with his gravest warning yet, saying that he is "concerned about growing internal and external conflict leading to impaired government efficiency." In his LinkedIn post, he writes that he "continues to closely watch how conflict is being handled a guide, and I’m not encouraged.”

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

There is always common ground for those who dare to seek it.

Remember the "Russians hacked our election!" hysteria - or have you already forgotten? That entire narrative collapsed under a deluge of factual evidence that the Democratic National Committee (DNC) data release was an insider job, and a compelling lack of evidence of any other Russian hacking.