United States

Two days before the deadly blast in Ankara, the US embassy in Turkey issued a security warning to US citizens about the threat of a terrorist attack in the Turkish capital. The notice was published on March 11 on the website of the US Embassy in Turkey. At least 37 people were killed and 125 injured in a car bomb explosion on Sunday RT reports: The American embassy had warned on its website about a “potential plot to attack Turkish government buildings and housing in the Bahcelievler neighborhood,” in Çankaya District, where the Turkish National Library is located among other landmarks.

One week ago, the market was disappointed when Goldman's head commodity strategist, Jeffrey Currie poined out the obvious, namely that the higher the price of oil rises, the greater the probability it will tumble shortly, as a result of recently shut off production going back online. To wit:

The biggest macro development over the weekend was China's latest "gloomy" economic update, in which industrial production, retail sales and lending figures all missed estimates, however now that we are back to central bank bailout mode, bad news is once again good news, and the Shanghai Comp soared +1.7% among the best performers in Asia on calls for further central bank stimulus while the new CSRC chief also vowed to intervene in stock markets if necessary. In other words, the worse the data in China, the better.

The New York Times reports on the Saudi-led war on Yemen and U.S. support for the campaign as the war nears the one-year mark. The article doesn’t contain that much new information for readers that have been following the conflict closely, but it is still worth reading. This section stood out to me:

Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf neighbors were poised to begin a campaign in support of Yemen’s impotent government — an offensive Mr. Jubeir said could be relatively swift.

Submitted by Andrew Korybko via OrientalReview.org,

The Law Of Hybrid Warfare