United States

Queen Elizabeth is set to look at plans to make the United States an “associate member” of the Commonwealth, according to the Royal Commonwealth Society.  Her Majesty is said to be pleased with plans initiated by US President Donald Trump who says he “loves Britain and the Royal Family”. Express.co.uk reports: With the UK making plans to leave the European Union (EU) officials are keen to build up international relations through the Commonwealth in an number of areas, including trade.

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

President Donald Trump’s naïve (or willfully blind) notion that Wall Street will work better at raising capital if it is unleashed from strident Federal regulation is unhinged from the facts on the ground. Those facts, as illustrated above, are that the Boards of two of the largest banks in the U.S. are utterly spineless when it comes to holding their CEOs and employees accountable in the face of a tsunami of crimes.

 

While the series of major storms hitting California have begun to subside, residents of San Jose are being warned to keep away from affected homes until water levels decrease to a safe level. Flash floods along the west coast of the US have seen thousands of people forced to leave their homes and a state of emergency declared by California governor Jerry Brown. The majority of mandatory evacuation orders have now been downgraded for areas including Sutter County around the Oroville Dam Spillway, which sparked panic one week ago when it threatened to collapse during the floods.

Authored by Glenn Greenwald, originally posted at The Intercept,

Shortly before the market close on Thursday, retailers stumbled on one single Reuters headline: Trump says he supports "some form" of border tax.

As Reuters elaborated, President Donald Trump on Thursday spoke favorably about an export-boosting border adjustment tax proposal being pushed by Republicans in the U.S. Congress, but did not specifically  endorse it. Trump had previously sent mixed signals on the proposal at the heart of a Republican plan to overhaul the U.S. tax code for the first time in more than 30 years.