presidential election

S&P futures point to a slightly lower open, while Asian and European stocks are likewise modestly in the red. Trading volumes are muted for most markets on Monday with investors spooked by rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East and the Korean peninsula. It is also a holiday-shortened week in much of the West. As Bloomberg puts it, there is a "sense of unease" across markets, with global stocks mixed as investors weighed looming security risks and French bonds retreating ahead of the election following the surprising surge of far-leftist Melenchon in the polls.

In the span of just one week, President Trump and his team have pivoted from declaring that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad could stay in power, to launching airstrikes against his regime—and possibly committing the United States to a new military conflict whose scope and scale are unknown.   

Eleven weeks into his administration, Trump's Syrian airstrikes appear to have achieve what until last night appeared impossible: unite much of Congress in support of a Trump decision.

As Bloomberg report, U.S. lawmakers mostly expressed support for Trump’s strike against a Syrian airfield in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack, though some cautioned that Congress needs to be consulted on a comprehensive strategy if the strike is a harbinger of things to come.

Authored by Danielle DiMartino Booth,

Never underestimate the resourcefulness of a great plumber.

Had it not been for the genius of Thomas Crapper, champion inventor of the water-waste-preventing cistern syphon, Victorians would have been left to make their trek to that malodorous darker place otherwise known as the Out House, or perhaps the crockery pot stashed under the bed for a while longer.

Via Disobedient Media

The cyber firm Crowdstrike has been one of the main proponents of allegations that Russia interfered in the 2016 American presidential elections using their cyber capabilities. The analysis performed by Crowdstrike was relied on almost exclusively by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to establish their claims of "Russian hacking."