United States

US equity futures have hit a new records, helped by surging Asian and European stocks which have all started November on a euphoric note. Surging commodity prices, optimism about tax reform and hope for a new dovish Fed chair all combined to drive global stock markets to record highs on Wednesday, with the MSCI’s world stock index climbing 0.3% to a fresh all time high. Mining stocks lead gains as nickel and other industrial metals soar.

Historic Christ Church Falls To Political Correctness

Paul Craig Roberts

Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia, was constructed during the years 1765 and 1773. It was designed by James Wren, a relative of Sir Christopher Wren, the most famous English architect. The colonial era, pre-Revolutionary War church, is a national historic landmark.

A series of mysterious sonic attacks on US diplomatic personnel (and more than a few spies) working at Washington’s Havana embassy have provided ample justification for the White House to reverse the US-Cuba detente negotiated by the Obama administration. And in a gesture that - though it has no implications for policy - is considered symbolically important, the State Department said Thursday the US will defend America’s decades-old economic embargo on Cuba by voting against a UN resolution condemning it, the Associated Press reported.

Yesterday's sharp Chinese selloff is now a distant memory after the BTFDers emerged, and this morning U.S. equity futures are once again levitating as the FOMC begins its two-day policy meeting, following an uneventful BOJ announcement on Tuesday morning which left all QE parameters unchanged. Asian stocks traded mixed steady while European shares climb.

Authored by Chris Hedges via TruthDig.com,

None of the reforms, increased training, diversity programs, community outreach and gimmicks such as body cameras have blunted America’s deadly police assault, especially against poor people of color. Police forces in the United States - which, according to The Washington Post, have fatally shot 782 people this year - are unaccountable, militarized monstrosities that spread fear and terror in poor communities.