United States

Following a mysterious "third party"'s willingness to show The FBI how to unlock San Bernardino killer Farook's iPhone, court records indicate that the US government wishes to cancel tomorrow's showdown with Apple, filing a motion to vacate the hearing.

Hours after Tim Cook explcitly told the world (marketed) his firm would never sell out their privacy...

The US government filed a motion on Monday to vacate Tuesday’s hearing against Apple.

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Eric Schmidt, the former chief executive officer of Google, will head a new Pentagon advisory board aimed at bringing Silicon Valley innovation and best practices to the U.S. military, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday.

 

Trump spoke with The Washington Post editors about his foreign policy views, which they described as “unabashedly non-interventionist” in one place but also described this way:

Speaking ahead of a major address on foreign policy later Monday in front of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Trump said he advocates an aggressive U.S. posture in the world with a light footprint [bold mine-DL].

In a worryingly coincidentally timed move, Moody's has put Desutche Bank on review for downgrade, citing "execution challenges" in its new strategic plan. The worrying aspect comes from the fact the timing is entirely fitting with the ratings downgrade that started the last and most painful down-leg in Lehman's collapse...

Full Moody's statement:

Moody's reviews for downgrade Deutsche Bank's ratings (senior debt at Baa1)

 

To sum up: China car sales crash by most on record (boom goes the overseas growth meme), US existing home sales plunge most in 6 years (boom goes the domestic housing strength supporting consumption meme), Williams and Lockhart go full hawk-tard (positing April as "live" and suggesting everything is hawkishly awesome), and one of our most succeesful 'innovative' tech firms unveils the worst product launch ever... and investors buy stocks with both hands and feet...