USA - The nine-year bull run in financial markets could be at an end as higher interest rates, a trade war, falling profits, eurozone imbalances and a potential US recession finally tip markets from boom to bust, economists have warned. US markets are now at their peak and have no further to run, analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch believe. As a result they recommend investors slash exposure to risky assets and instead buy gold, US treasuries and the dollar. This bear market will only come to an end when the Federal Reserve stops hiking interest rates and eases policy once more, which they believe will happen when sufficient, weak economic data appear.

ISRAEL - Prince William has made history as the first member of the British royal family to visit Israel. The prince’s arrival in Tel Aviv early on Monday evening marked the first-ever official visit by a member of the royal family since 1948, when the British Mandate ended and the State of Israel was established. The prince, the second in line to the British throne, is due to stay in the country till his return to the UK on Thursday.

USA - Facebook investors with nearly $3 billion in shares between them are mounting a bid to topple Mark Zuckerberg as chairman following growing anger about his 'dictatorship' over the company. The six investors believe Zuckerberg's twin roles as CEO and chairman, plus his almost complete control of voting rights, means he can swat away opponents… The rebels are demanding the billionaire relinquish his role as chairman to allow an independent executive to be hired in his place. They also want a change in how voting rights are distributed among shareholders to lessen his power. The chief executive officer of a company is accountable to the board of directors, which is headed by the chairman.

AUSTRIA - By 24, Sebastian Kurz was a member of the Austrian Cabinet. By 27, he was his country's foreign minister.  And by 31, the debonair university dropout with the slicked-back mane and the Hollywood grin became the world's youngest leader. Now, just six months into his term as chancellor, Kurz is seizing a febrile moment in European politics to make himself into one of the continent's true power players.

USA - Bank stocks just hit a record - a record of losses. The S&P 500 Financial Index fell for the 12th straight day Tuesday, the longest losing streak on record. Coming into the year, many cited the tax overhaul and a rising rate environment as reasons for banks to rally. Instead, they’ve endured pressure from a flattening yield curve. The losses also come ahead of the final phase of the Federal Reserve’s annual stress tests and waning consumer confidence.

USA - Physical gold is moving from West to East. New York has become a highly leveraged, largely 'paper trading' market, whereas 'the New Silk Road' is the center of physical gold accumulation. This may resolve via a major short squeeze on paper claims unable to be fulfilled by physical gold at anywhere near today's prices.

USA - Details of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have been finalised and will be announced on Thursday, a Kremlin foreign policy aide confirmed today as tensions soar over Washington's sanctions. Yuri Ushakov, speaking after US National Security Adviser John Bolton met Mr Putin in the Kremlin, announced the meeting will need several weeks of preparation and will be held in a “mutually convenient third country”.

FRANCE - French President Emmanuel Macron is upsetting his European neighbours in a wasted effort to uphold an obsolete Schengen system, right-wing rival Nicolas Dupont-Aignan has declared. He said: “What’s interesting about the current situation is that, beyond the controversies, recent events spell the end of Schengen. That’s it, it’s over.” The Schengen agreement enables passport-free travel in much of the EU, but is heavily criticised by eurosceptics, who say that free movement rules and the bloc’s porous borders have exacerbated the EU’s illegal immigration problem. He said: “National borders will be re-established in Europe, and so much the better.” Mrs Merkel’s “open-door” migration policy saw more than 1.6 million refugees flood into Germany since the start of 2015, and is widely blamed for the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

CHINA - US forces can’t protect Taiwan from ultimate unification with China, the communist regime’s diplomatic team emphasized Tuesday. “It won't work even if they try to bank on foreign forces to build themselves up,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told reporters. “We hope certain people in Taiwan could correctly understand the development trend of China and its national unity as well as the evolvement of international circumstance,” he said, “and stop moving further down the wrong path.” China regards Taiwan — the last outpost of the nationalist government that was overthrown by the communists after the Second World War — as a breakaway province. That status between the two sides has been in a delicate balance for decades, with the United States declining to give formal recognition to Taiwan and yet providing the island government with military aid.

GERMANY - As political snubs go, this one is a doozy*. German newspaper Die Welt is reporting that the Bavarian conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party is not planning any campaign appearances with Angela Merkel, the head of Germany's main conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Instead the Bavarians are planning to invite a foreign guest, Austria's conservative chancellor, Sebastian Kurz. "There won't be a female chancellor coming to my final speech, but there will be a male chancellor," Bavarian state premier Markus Söder is quoted as saying. [*something outstanding or unique of its kind].

USA - Do you think that being asked to leave a restaurant, or having your meal interrupted, or being called by the public is bad? My fascism-enabling friends, this is only the beginning… Read a recent history book. The US had thousands of domestic bombings per year in the early 1970s. This is what happens when citizens decide en masse that their political system is corrupt, racist, and unresponsive. The people out of power have only just begun to flex their dissatisfaction. The day will come, sooner than you all think, when Trump administration officials will look back fondly on the time when all they had to worry about was getting hollered at at a Mexican restaurant.

USA - Wolf Blitzer, speaking on behalf of CNN, replied: “A lot of his supporters believe that we are the enemy of the American people, and that is really an awful situation. We are not the enemy of the American people. We love the American people.” The media loves the American people? The media may love some Americans, but certainly not Trump voters. How else to explain the increasing frequency with which Republicans, and Trump voters specifically, are described on air as racist, Nazis, and undeserving of common courtesy (such as eating a dinner without being harassed)? The frequent media invocations of "racism" and "Nazi" to describe conservatives and Republicans is leading some to worry that the media is needlessly stoking division in America, perhaps risking increased episodes of harassment and violence.

NIGERIA - Muslim Fulani herdsmen massacred some 120 Christians in central Nigeria over the weekend, the majority of whom were returning from the funeral of the father of a local Christian clergyman. In an attack that lasted several hours, heavily armed gunmen identified as Fulani herdsmen open-fired on citizens in a number of villages in Plateau State, killing about 120 and injuring over 200 more as they returned from the funeral of a local Christian minister.

USA - "Think about trying to live today on the income you had 15 years ago." That's how agriculture expert Chris Hurt describes the plight facing US farmers today. The unequal economy that's emerged over the past decade, combined with patchy access to health care in rural areas, have had a severe impact on the people growing America's food. Recent data shows just how much. Farmers are dying by suicide at a higher rate than any other occupational group, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The suicide rate in the field of farming, fishing and forestry is 84.5 per 100,000 people - more than five times that of the population as a whole. That's even as the nation overall has seen an increase in suicide rates over the last 30 years.

FRANCE - French butchers say they’ve had enough. Not only must they confront media coverage of the “vegan way of life,” now they say they are under assault. After a series of small but unprecedented incidents, the butchers federation says its members need protection from militants who have broken windows, thrown fake blood and sprayed graffiti on their shops. In a letter to the French Interior Ministry, the butchers wrote that “physical, verbal, and moral violence” against them was “neither more nor less than a form of terrorism.” The letter may be a touch hyperbolic — and French vegan organizations are quick to defend their movement as nonviolent — but it has struck a chord with many French who dislike being told what they should eat.