Presidential race

As recently as one week ago, French conservative politician Francois Fillon, who until recently was the favorite to win the upcoming presidential election until centrist Emmanuel Macron stormed ahead of him in popularity, said he would end his presidential campaign if an official probe was launched against him over a long-running graft scandal. Then, one week ago, he backtracked on the promise to quit the race if he is placed under formal investigation over his wife’s employment.

It is getting difficult to keep track of all the parallel (alleged) financial scandals involving French presidential candidates.

Several weeks after presidential candidate Francois Fillon's campaign nearly ended over a sprawling graft scandal involving allegations he used public funds to pay the wages of his wife and children, on Wednesday, French police detained two of Marine Le Pen's closest aides: her bodyguard and chief of staff,  for questioning over alleged misuse of European Union funds to pay parliamentary assistants, Le Pen's lawyer said.

Following reports that US immigration officials had launched countrywide raids and arrested hundreds of illegal aliens across the nation as a result of Donald Trump's recent immigration executive order, this morning the President weighed in on Twitter, stating that "the crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers & others are being removed!"

There was cheering among the libertarian community when, in the last months of his administration, Barack Obama decided to halt some arms sales to Saudi Arabia, following "allegations" of war crimes perpetrated by the kingdom in Yemen. However, it appears that Saudi Arabia - despite its clear predisposition toward Hillary Clinton in the presidential race - has made even deeper inroads into the White House than many suspected because according to the Washington Times, the Trump Administration is poised to "quickly approve" not only the deal rejected by Obama.

In the latest political twist in the French presidential race, AFP has reported that recent French presidential frontrunner Francois Fillon, who has been embroiled in a major graft scandal, will hold a press conference at 4 p.m. at his campaign headquarters in Paris, at which many traders are expecting he will announce that he is stepping down, although according to subsequent Reuters reports Fillon may launch a "fightback" against the fake job scandal that has sent his standing in the polls crashing