USA - It appears that a liquidity crisis is upon us, and that is really bad news for the financial markets. What is the Fed not telling us? The numbers clearly indicate that big trouble is brewing in the banking system. I wish that I could specifically tell you which banks are in the most trouble, but at this stage we simply aren’t being told anything. They probably figure that the best approach is to try to keep everyone as calm as possible. But they won’t be able to keep a lid on what is going on indefinitely, and when word finally gets out people could start to panic.

UK - A stock market crash is on the way – growing numbers of experts are agreed on that. What they don't know is when it will hit, as there is plenty going on in the world that has the potential to trigger havoc on the markets. Concerns about the Trump administration and US government shutdown are causing jitters, and closer to home there are worries about this month's Budget. Tensions persist in the Middle East, stock markets – and AI company shares in particular – are hitting record highs, and a potential French government failure is in the offing. Meanwhile, investors are still grappling with sticky inflation, interest rate uncertainty and gloomy economic forecasts. Timing the market is nigh on impossible...

USA - The 2026 world economy has a cautious outlook, according to the October report put out by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The organization says that global growth is slowing amid fragmentation and rising protectionism. Significant downside risks are present, ranging from a potential tech stock repricing to eroding institutional independence which could weaken policy decisions. The US is the largest economy in the world. The American economy is expected to reach $31.8 trillion in GDP by 2026. This is roughly the size of China (2nd), Germany (3rd), and India (4th) combined. However its growth projections have been revised downward since this time last year after trade wars rattled global markets and contributed to rising prices for the world’s largest consumer economy.

USA - Tech billionaire Elon Musk just dropped a political bombshell during his latest three-hour interview with Joe Rogan, revealing what he calls the Democrats’ dirty secret behind the ongoing government shutdown. During the interview on The Joe Rogan Experience, Musk revealed how blue states like California and New York are propped up by billions in fraudulent federal handouts disguised as “Medicaid” for illegals, and how cutting off this cash spigot would trigger a mass exodus of these imported voters, crippling the left’s electoral machine. Musk hammered home the point that sanctuary states are addicted to this federal gravy train. Democrats are refusing to open the government unless Republicans agree to give health benefits to illegal aliens.

ISRAEL - Partners in the Israeli Leviathan offshore natural gas project have submitted a multi-billion-dollar plan with the government to significantly expand the field and boost production, one of the partners in the group said on Sunday. NewMed Energy said its plan that it filed with the Energy Minister's Petroleum Commissioner calls for the drilling of three additional production wells, more undersea systems and expansion of processing facilities on the platform that will increase total gas production capacity to 21 billion cubic metres (bcm) a year and cost an estimated $2.4 billion. Leviathan, a deep-sea field with huge deposits, came online at the end of 2019 and produces 12 bcm of gas per year for sale to Israel, Egypt and Jordan. That will rise to some 14 bcm in 2026 with the completion of laying of a third pipeline.

VENEZUELA - Amid a buildup of American forces in the Caribbean, Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro is reaching out to Russia, China and Iran to enhance its worn military capabilities and solicit assistance, requesting defensive radars, aircraft repairs and potentially missiles, according to internal US government documents obtained by The Washington Post. The requests to Moscow were made in the form of a letter meant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and was intended to be delivered during a visit to the Russian capital by a senior aide this month. Maduro, according to the documents, also composed a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping seeking “expanded military cooperation” between their two countries to counter “the escalation between the US and Venezuela.” The USS Gerald Ford, the Navy’s heaviest and most modern aircraft carrier, has been dispatched to the region.

PHILIPPINES - The US has deployed troops and anti-ship missiles into the northern Philippines as part of almost continuous, joint war drills throughout the country. One goal is to block the Bashi Channel and deny Chinese warships access to the Pacific Ocean if Beijing launches an attack on Taiwan. As a former Philippine military chief told Reuters: You can’t invade Taiwan if you don’t control the northern Philippines. Marilyn Hubalde still remembers the first time she heard the thunderous chop of military helicopters swooping over this northernmost outpost of the Philippines, less than 90 miles from Taiwan. It was April 2023, when Filipino and American troops descended on the cluster of 10 emerald green islands of Batanes province for amphibious warfare drills. Geography dictates that it is now on the frontline of the great power competition between the United States and China for dominance in the Asia-Pacific region.

NIGERIA - Donald Trump has threatened to send the US military into Nigeria with “guns-a-blazing” if the African country does not stem what he described as the killing of Christians by Islamists. Mr Trump said on Saturday that he had asked the Pentagon to map out a possible plan of attack, one day after warning that Christianity was “facing an existential threat in Nigeria”. “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Mr Trump said on Truth Social. “I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians.” He added that the Nigerian government “BETTER MOVE FAST!”

USA - This Right-wing populist opposition to the Jewish state is far different from the traditional, pro-Israel stance of Reagan Republicans and evangelicals like Mike Huckabee, who is now US ambassador to Israel. Still, support is waning even among evangelicals, especially younger ones. This shifting view on the Right was on display on Wednesday night at Ole Miss, where vice-president JD Vance spoke to a crowd, organised by Turning Point USA. After a short speech, Vance answered questions from students. Two posed questions hostile to Israel. Instead of pushing back, the vice-president largely seemed to endorse the students’ antagonism. That’s new for such a prominent voice in Republican politics.

USA - In the hours after the fatal shooting of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Dr Nicholas Kardaras held his weekly college class on the impact of digital media on mental health. “I walked into my classroom that afternoon and one of my students said, ‘Oh, Kirk was just shot, we think he might be dead’,” said Kardaras, a professor at Stony Brook University in New York and one of the country’s foremost addiction experts. “Then another one — who is getting their mental health degree — said, ‘Well, yeah, but he had it coming’.” He said that it was an example of the rise of extreme “binary thinking” among members of Gen Z — the type demonstrated by the suspects behind the assassinations of Kirk in September and United CEO Brian Thompson last year. Kardaras said many of his students were “lionising” Robinson and Mangione, laying out the argument that “sometimes violence is necessary for the greater good”. “This healthcare CEO represents this evil, greedy, corporate archetype, and whoever takes him out is a hero,” he said. “The same thing with Charlie Kirk, who they see as a hate speech villain and Nazi fascist who deserved everything he got.”

USA - US banks have borrowed $50 billion in emergency funds in the last 15 days. It’s happening quietly. You have to watch the numbers more than the headlines. The liquidity that once made the system feel invincible is slipping away. The US banking system’s reserves, a key factor in the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep unwinding its balance sheet, tumbled for the third straight week dropping to the lowest level in more than five years, just as the central bank said this week it will stop the runoff after stress signals in money markets intensified. Bank reserves fell by about $102 billion to $2.8 trillion in the week through October 29, according to Fed data released on Thursday. That’s the lowest level since September 2020 and the biggest decline in just over a month. $102 billion gone in a week. $2.8 trillion left. That’s not abundance. That’s the edge of scarcity.

GUYANA - A £52 million road through the Amazon jungle is being built using British aid that is intended to help the climate, The Telegraph can reveal. The road in Guyana goes nowhere other than a tiny village and has long been criticised by environmentalists. It is just one among hundreds of schemes funded by taxpayers through the International Climate Finance initiative (ICF). If completed, the highway to which the UK is contributing will end not in Brazil, but in a ghost town – the village of Mabura, a cluster of buildings with a population of 150, a motel, an empty bar and an ever-growing population of stray dogs and rusting cars. Why would Britain pay for a road to nowhere? “I think that’s where the money ran out,” one local said. Few will have heard of the ICF outside Westminster circles. It will be used to spend £11.6 billion in foreign aid by the end of this financial year. Projects funded by ICF money include a push to stop ocean plastic pollution in landlocked African countries, support for the Nigerian oil industry, and the distribution of free condoms in the Congo to try to stop deforestation by slowing population growth.

USA - US grocers and food companies ranging from Walmart to Smithfield Foods are bracing for a dip in November sales if federal food aid benefits lapse for the first time due to the ongoing government shutdown. The shutdown has imperiled next month’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, which serves nearly 42 million people. Neither Congress nor the US Department of Agriculture has acted to fund the benefits beyond Saturday. The gap could mean an $8 billion revenue drop for grocers, declining sales for their suppliers and reduced hours for workers as it drives SNAP recipients to reduce spending, trade groups, companies and a union said this week.

USA - Some companies say they are restructuring. Others are swapping out humans for AI. While some analysts believe the job cuts are a sign of more bad things to come for the economy, others have taken cues from some of the top brands that say they are shifting toward automation and AI, rendering thousands of jobs useless, especially in the warehouse, sorting, and human resources sectors.

UK - Last night, King Charles sensationally stripped Andrew of his Prince title and is throwing him out of the Royal Lodge after paying 'a peppercorn rent' for decades - effectively banishing the disgraced ex-duke from royal life for good. Charles has been left 'consistently embarrassed' by his brother's actions, it was claimed by the King's former biographer and close confidant Jonathan Dimbleby. The broadcasting veteran was left in 'no doubt' that the monarch has been 'consistently embarrassed, frustrated by and angry about' his brother's behaviour, he told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme. Today, the ex-Duke of York wakes up as commoner Andrew Mountbatten Windsor - and ministers have suggested that, as an 'ordinary member of the public', he could be less protected from, for example, demands to testify in the US. When contacted by the Daily Mail, the Metropolitan Police did not rule out a possible prosecution.