United States

While various other carmakers, such as GM, Ford, Fiat and Toyota, have had their share of headaches in recent weeks worried if and when Trump will tweet about them next, the epicenter of all car scandals over the past two years remains Volkswagen, and sadly for the German carmaker things continue to get worse: according to the NYT, the FBI haed arrested a Volkswagen executive on charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States. 

Around the time Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen, who last month infamously spoke to Trump putting the long-standing "One China" policy in jeopardy, made a controversial stopover in Houston, China's state-run tabloid Global Times warned U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that China would "take revenge" if he reneged on the one-China policy. 

European, Asian stocks fall and U.S. equity-index futures traded mixed on Monday with fresh memories of the Dow Jones rising to under 1 point of 20,000 on Friday. The dollar has rebounded on fresh geopolitical concerns, while the pound extends its decline from Friday and has slide to 10 week lows on a Sunday interview from Theresa May which suggested a "Hard Brexit" may be in the cards. Oil dropped below $54 a barrel on Iran supply concerns, while gold rose 0.6% to $1,180. 

The Turkish government has accused the US of orchestrating the recent Istanbul nightclub terrorist attack which left 39 people dead.  President Erdogan has warned that his administration may revise their decision to allow a US air base in Incirlik as a result of nefarious US activities against the Turkish regime. Pravdareport.com reports: In an interview with Sputnik, authoritative security expert Jevad Galiyashevich noted that the US administration of Barack Obama was violating the laws of its own country, while President Obama was arming terrorists instead of fighting with them.

Turkey has accused the US government of hacking the Turkish electrical grid, causing frequent blackouts across the country. Turkish Energy Minister Berat Albayrak confirmed that his ministry had experienced a cyber attack originating from American IP addresses that caused blackouts across Istanbul and other nearby cities. Farsnews.com reports: Albayrak, which is the son-in-law of President Erdogan, has tweeted last week on his official account on “Twitter”, that has made serious warnings about the status quo, but his tweets faced ridicule by users.