USA - A year like no other. Like 1968, 1945, 1918 and so many other landmark years, we won’t have to work hard to remember, in the decades to come, what year COVID-19 struck. It was in 2020 — a year to remember, whether you like it or not. A branded logo to rubber-stamp this slow-motion train wreck: COVID-19 pandemic meets civic unrest meets economic disruption. Our locked-down society of shuttered schools and struggling restaurants, all playing out against a political clown show that veers from farcical to frightening, sometimes within the same hour.

USA - Donald Trump has hit back with tariffs against France and Germany amid the battle over aircraft subsidies. Due to the EU imposing “unfair” tariffs on US products, the Trump administration has announced it will strike back with similar measures on French and German imports. The US government stated Brussels had imposed tariffs on “substantially” more American products following the result of WTO litigation. Although the WTO authorised the tariffs, the US has stated Brussels had unfairly raised levies. In a document released by the US Trade Representative, the tariffs affected $4 billion (£2.9 billion) in US trade products. In a further warning to Brussels, Washington has demanded the bloc must take additional measures to compensate the unfair tariff restrictions. Brussels increased tariffs on US aviation parts in September as the longstanding trade dispute continues.

EUROPE - The European Union has been warned that its own failings will lead to the bloc's demise as trust among citizens wanes. The EU is facing a battle to preserve its very existence as some fear Brexit could spark a surge in euroscepticism. German philosopher and historian Ulrike Guerot, who has previously worked with former EU Commission President, Jacques Delors, believes the bloc is in crisis. Professor Guerot, who published a 'Manifesto for a European Republic', has warned that Brussels' current failings are not being addressed. She argued that one day the EU's lack of action will mean "we will wake up one day and Europe will be gone".

EUROPE - The European Union's demise "cannot be ruled out", German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned as the EU faces growing threats. Germany, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, has become the EU's major player with its dominant economy and significant influence within the bloc. However, even senior politicians in Berlin could be beginning to acknowledge that the bloc's future is by no means guaranteed. This was highlighted by German philosopher Ulrike Guerot, an advocate for a 'European Republic' who has been critical of Brussels in recent years. She said: "Europe isn't in a good state, a lot of people are saying that. Nationalist, authoritarian, xenophobic and even racist tones are unmistakable. Some actors seem to have a strange desire to see Europe self-destruct. And that is not merely polemical talk on their part – there is a very real risk that relations between European countries will be poisoned." Mr Steinmeier appeared to be hitting out eurosceptics within the EU.

UK - MPs have overwhelmingly approved the UK's post-Brexit trade deal with the EU in a parliamentary vote. A bill bringing the deal into UK law was backed by the Commons by 521 to 73 votes after Parliament was recalled. The majority of Labour MPs are thought to have voted for the agreement after leader Sir Keir Starmer said a "thin deal was better than no deal". The UK will sever its ties with the EU at 23.00 GMT on Thursday, four and a half years after the Brexit referendum. The agreement hammered out with Brussels over nine months sets out a new business and security relationship between the UK and its biggest trading partner. Mr Johnson will sign the international treaty ratifying the deal shortly in Downing Street after it was flown across the Channel in an RAF plane. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel signed the document earlier in Brussels.

CHINA - In 2012, Xi Jinping took office as the head of the Communist Party at the same time Bernhard Zand become Der Spiegel's correspondent in Beijing. Before leaving the country, he traveled all across the nation to measure how the Chinese people are faring today. Deep in Siberia, at the same latitude as Hamburg, China begins. It only comes to an end some 4,000 kilometres away, on the beaches of the tropical island Hainan. Both are places of great beauty. A country about the size of the United States, but with four times as many people – twice as many as in Europe, more than in Africa.

China has risen to become a world power for the second time in recent decades, an unprecedented comeback. One reason is China’s sheer size, its vastness, its density and the deep roots of its culture. The other, which is even more important, is the diligence, creativity and patience of its people.

There’s an unwritten contract between the Chinese and their leadership that still binds them today: You stay quiet and we will set the course for growth, success and China's path to the top. It's a tough, unambiguous contract. Way up in the north, by the Black Dragon River, where our journey began, there was a red banner: "Violate the laws of this boundary," it read, "and you will be caught and crushed like a worm."

CHINA - China’s state-run Global Times gloated on Sunday that unless the United States starts a new “Cold War” with China, the Wuhan coronavirus has guaranteed America’s decline, and China will become the dominant world power within the next decade. The Global Times quoted a report from the Center for Economics and Business Research in the United Kingdom that concluded China suffered from the pandemic, but the US suffered far more and will need much more time to fully restore its economy, so China should take over as the largest economy in the world by 2028. The Chinese editorialists insinuated several times that even this forecast was deliberately distorted to make China’s economy seem weaker than it really is. The Western world is supposedly panicked by this possibility and determined to sabotage China’s ascendancy by any means necessary…

GERMANY - EU member states gave political backing to Brussels’ planned investment pact with China on Monday, clearing the way for a deal between the world’s biggest economic blocs. At a meeting of ambassadors, the German EU presidency noted that no member had “raised a stop sign and the way for a political endorsement was thus cleared”, a diplomat said. The diplomats noted “recent positive developments” in negotiations, with China reportedly addressing concerns over the alleged use of forced labour on its farms. “We’re in a position where, if we don’t set the rules, we, in fact, are going to find ourselves with China setting the rules,” Joe Biden said at a Democratic debate in September. “And that’s why you need to organize the world to take on China, to stop the corrupt practices that are underway.” That’s hard to do when one of the largest US allies takes the position that Merkel has now articulated.

USA - Well, it looks like we are going to get $600 stimulus payments from the federal government after all. Oh goody! For the millions of Americans that are on the brink of being evicted from their homes, that will be enough for about half a mortgage payment or about half a month of rent. Many are referring to this as America’s “let them eat cake moment”, and that probably is not too far off target.

USA - US debt nears $28 trillion [was $19.9 trillion when President Trump took office].

USA - “This pandemic has been very severe … it has affected every corner of this planet. But this is not necessarily the big one.” The World Health Organisation has warned that a worse pandemic than COVID could be around the corner and that what we’ve seen so far in 2020 is “not necessarily the big one”. With global lockdowns, international stripping of freedoms, and the decimation of small businesses and the economy on the whole, it is difficult to imagine how it could get any worse. Yet the WHO is predicting that could very well be the case. The head of the WHO emergencies program, Dr Mike Ryan, said during a media briefing that “this pandemic has been very severe … it has affected every corner of this planet. But this is not necessarily the big one.” If a greater pandemic is coming, as the WHO promises, then it is clear to see that such erosions of freedom will be ramped up even further, if the same pattern is followed.

USA - Hypnosis, now going virtual, is gaining more acceptance from doctors, researchers and entrepreneurs. But potential patients remain skeptical. Kelley Cutler was deeply skeptical when she took part in a month long pilot test of Reveri Health, a new digital hypnosis program, at Stanford University last year. The San Francisco social worker needed help quitting smoking, and only joined the program at her doctor’s urging.

CROATIA - Croatia suffered its strongest earthquake in 140 years - for the second time in 2020 - with the tremor killing at least five people, devastating the city at its epicenter and rattling Europeans as far away as Rome and Vienna. The temblor, measured at 6.3 by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre on Tuesday, was larger than both a 5.2 quake on Monday and a 5.3 tremor that caused $6 billion in damage when it hit the capital of Zagreb in March. The earthquake brought down buildings near its epicenter in the town of Petrinja, where it killed a girl who was about 13 years of age, according to police. Four more people, including a father and son, were killed nearby in Glina, the town’s deputy mayor said, according to the Hina news agency. Most buildings in Petrinja were damaged so badly they’re now unusable, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at the scene.

USA - American law enforcement officers have killed well over 1,000 people in 2020. Between January 1 and December 15 of this year, the Mapping Police Violence project has recorded 1,066 people nationwide killed at the hands of the police, an average of around three killings per day. Despite the fact that 2020 has brought with it a pandemic forcing Americans to stay off the streets (and, presumably, out of trouble) as much as possible, there have only been 17 days recorded this year where the police did not kill someone. The project also compiled statistics on the racial backgrounds of the victims. Black people are three times more likely than white people to be slain by police, and more likely to be unarmed when it does happen. US police violence is off the charts in comparison to other developed countries, with homicides occurring at a per capita rate almost 70 times that of the United Kingdom, or nearly 170 times more than Japan.

GERMANY - German Health Minister Jens Spahn has taken over from Chancellor Angela Merkel as the nation’s most popular politician, a poll showed Sunday, highlighting his potential as a future leader of Europe’s biggest economy. Spahn, 40, has long been considered a rising star in Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, and is widely perceived to have made a key contribution to Germany’s relatively successful handling of the coronavirus pandemic.