United States

Back in June of 2014, ISIS - which at the time hadn’t yet rampaged its way into the world’s collective consciousness - took over Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and home to more than 2 million people.

When the city fell, it became immediately apparent that the group was quite serious about its stated goal of creating a medieval caliphate and bringing Sharia Law to the entire region.

The victory wasn’t purely symbolic. ISIS fighters captured 2,300 Humvees parked in the city and looted more than $400 million from Mosul’s central bank.

Today's business media summarized...

Today's actual market summarized...

Via FactCheck.org,

President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address came up short of the facts on several topics:

Footage has been released showing the moment that Iranian forces detained 10 US sailors. The sailors were taken into custody as their boats crossed into Iran’s territorial waters on Tuesday. The images followed the release of the sailors earlier on Wednesday. RT reports: Dressed in camouflage uniforms, the sailors can be seen kneeling on the deck of the patrol boat, with hands on their heads. They are then shown seated in a room, being given tea, bottled water and food by their Iranian hosts.

Over three years ago, in August 2012, we described how while US regulators and authorities were cracking down on such "illegal" banks as Standard Chartered and HSBC, they were allowing the non-corporate shielded entities, the actual individuals who benefited from the bank crimes, slip through the cracks simply by allowing them to park billions of ill-gotten gains in US real estate: