EUROPE - The Western powers, including Germany and the EU, are in danger of losing their pre-eminence in the Mediterranean, Admiral Luigi Binelli Mantelli, former Chief of the Defense Staff of Italy declared. According to Binelli Mantelii, Russia has become "the pre-eminent naval power in the Mediterranean," and Turkey, in particular, is rapidly gaining influence. Together, Moscow and Ankara are in the process of superseding the "traditional" Western peacekeeping powers. The statement is being published at a time when Turkey has snubbed the navy of a leading EU power, for the second time. During the night from Sunday to Monday, a German boarding team seeking to inspect a Turkish cargo vessel en route to Libya, suspecting a possible breach of the UN arms embargo, had to abandon its inspection due to Ankara's intervention. Already in June, Turkey had averted a similar French naval operation. Unaccustomed to defiance, the EU finds itself powerless to halt the rise of its Turkish rival.

RUSSIA - A Russian warship caught the US Navy guided-missile destroyer USS John S McCain operating illegally in Russia's territorial waters in the Sea of Japan, but chased it off, Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday. Moscow said that the Admiral Vinogradov, a Russian destroyer, had verbally warned the US ship and threatened to ram it in order to force it to leave the area. The US ship had immediately returned to neutral waters after being warned off, the defence ministry said in a statement. Such incidents are rare, but underscore poor diplomatic and military relations between Russia and the United States whose ties are languishing at a post-Cold war low.

TAIWAN - Fears of war explode as Taiwan plans new armed submarines to combat China. Taiwan has launched a new military submarine programme with the assistance of US defence contractors as tensions with China continue to simmer. On Tuesday this week, Taiwan’s president Tsai Ing-Wen said she was “proud” to launch its ‘Made in Taiwan’ submarine programme. She added the nation is “more determined than ever to continue developing our self defence industries and safeguard our sovereignty and democracy”. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian warned Beijing would “make legitimate and necessary responses” following Rear Admiral Studeman’s alleged visit. China has repeatedly urged the US to stop engaging in “official exchanges” with Taiwan this year, warning such interactions would damage US-China relations.

USA - Friends and foes alike no longer know where the United States stands. As Washington overpromises and underdelivers, regional powers are seeking solutions on their own – both through violence and diplomacy. Local conflicts serve as mirrors for global trends. The ways they ignite, unfold, persist, and are resolved reflect shifts in great powers’ relations, the intensity of their competition, and the breadth of regional actors’ ambitions. They highlight issues with which the international system is obsessed and those toward which it is indifferent. Today these wars tell the story of a global system caught in the early swell of sweeping change, of regional leaders both emboldened and frightened by the opportunities such a transition presents.

USA - If we keep treating the US dollar like it is toilet paper, it is just a matter of time before our entire financial system goes down the tubes. At this moment, the dollar is still the primary reserve currency of the world, and the fact that we control it is an absolutely massive advantage for us. Because the rest of the globe uses dollars to trade with one another, that creates a tremendous amount of artificial demand for our currency, and it keeps the value of our currency elevated at a level that is much higher than it otherwise would be. But now that we are starting to act like the Weimar Republic in their heyday, it is only going to be a matter of time before everyone else on the planet starts abandoning the US dollar in droves. We are literally killing our “golden goose”, and most Americans do not even understand what is happening.

EUROPE - The euro was the most used currency for global payments last month, the first time it has outpaced the dollar since February 2013. Data from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, which handles cross-border payment messages for more than 11,000 financial institutions in 200 countries, showed the European Union’s single currency and the greenback were followed by the British pound and the Japanese yen. The Canadian dollar overtook China’s yuan for the fifth spot, Swift said. Trade upheaval, a pandemic-induced recession and political disharmony renewed pressure to reduce the share of international payments in dollars. The US currency has weakened more than 11% from its March peak, based on a Bloomberg index that measures it against a basket of major peers, and many observers are predicting its valuation to drop further.

USA - In another stark warning, senior fellow at Yale University and former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, Stephen Roach, says coronavirus may cause dramatic decline of the US dollar in the near future. “In a Covid era, everything unfolds at warp speed,” Roach said, in an interview with MarketWatch. The prominent economist has, in recent weeks, been warning about the looming fall of the dollar and the end of its hegemony as a global reserve currency. While he previously predicted a 35-percent drop in the greenback against its major rivals, he now stresses that his forecast may happen “sooner rather than later.”

RUSSIA - Moscow has continued to sell off US Treasury securities, cutting its stockpile by US$8.73 billion in March, according to the latest data from the US Department of the Treasury. Russia’s holdings of US state debt amounted to $3.8 billion in March, compared with $12.5 billion a month earlier. Three years ago, the amount stood at $105 billion. Moscow has liquidated over 96 percent of its holdings in that period. The country’s long-term US Treasury securities decreased by $928 million, while short-term securities plunged by $7.8 billion to just $473 million.

CHINA - With Beijing pushing for greater use of the yuan internationally, the Chinese currency could rise to the status of the world’s third-largest reserve currency in 10 years, according to a forecast by Morgan Stanley. The share of the yuan in global foreign exchange reserve assets could more than double from its current level of two percent and surpass the share of the Japanese yen and the British pound, the bank’s analysts said in a report released on Friday, cited by CNBC. According to their estimates, the Chinese currency, officially known as the renminbi or RMB, could reach five to 10 percent of reserve assets by 2030.

EUROPE - The euro area is on a path for another economic contraction, as key indicators for the eurozone economy plunged to a six-month low in November, amid renewed government efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19. According to the latest survey by the research firm IHS Markit, both the flash eurozone composite output and services activity purchasing managers’ indices (PMIs) hit their lowest levels since May. The former sank to 45.1 in November from 50.0 seen in October, while the latter plunged to 41.3 from 46.9. Any reading on the index below 50 signals a contraction, while a reading above this level marks growth. Europe’s largest economy, Germany, has helped the region avoid an even bigger downturn. Unlike many of its peers, its flash composite PMI did not fall into contraction territory, but dropped from 55.0 to 52.0, to register the weakest expansion since the recovery began in July.

GERMANY - The four-decade era of globalization may be coming to an end, and we could be entering “The Age of Disorder,” which will reshape both economies and politics, Deutsche Bank analysts have said in a new research note. One of the key characteristics of the new era will be the reversal of unfettered globalization, a team of analysts led by strategist Jim Reid predicted. While we saw “the best combined asset price growth of any era in history, with equity and bond returns very strong across the board” since 1980, “the Age of Disorder” is likely to break this trend. Deteriorating US-China relations is another theme (out of eight) that will define the next distinct era of modern times, “which is hastened, but not caused by, the pandemic.” The analysts note that the Chinese economy will be closing the gap with the US and could finally outperform it by the end of the decade.

USA - Donald Trump has accepted a formal US transition should begin for President-elect Joe Biden to take office. The president said the federal agency overseeing the handover must "do what needs to be done", even as he vowed to keep contesting his election defeat. The General Services Administration (GSA) said it was acknowledging Mr Biden as the "apparent winner". It came as Mr Biden's victory in the state of Michigan was officially certified, a major blow to Mr Trump. The GSA announcement means the president-elect now has access to top security briefings, office space and government officials as he prepares to take office on 20 January. His transition website has now changed to a US government domain. He will begin announcing the people he wants in the top jobs in his cabinet on Tuesday.

USA - Mr Trump claimed the agreement was not created to protect the environment but to “kill” the American economy. “I refuse to surrender millions of American jobs and send trillions of American dollars to the world's worst polluters and environmental offenders.” According to the Associated Press, the US President said: “To protect American workers, I withdrew the United States from the unfair and one-sided Paris climate Accord, a very unfair act for the United States.” The Paris Agreement, was signed in 2015 by parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It outlines key actions to be taken against climate change and in order to reduce carbon emissions. Mr Trump’s decision to pull out from the accord, which was not fulfilled until this month, has sparked fears of tensions with European and Asian allies.

USA - If a theme runs through the books and articles I’ve written over the past 40 years, it’s a fascination with what scientists have learned about the human body. A long career spent explaining biomedical research has led me to a deep respect for the scientific process. Despite its occasional missteps and self-corrections, I believe it ultimately moves us toward a clearer understanding of the world and how to thrive in it. Scientists were figuring this thing out on the fly. The most earnest pronouncements from the world’s smartest experts suddenly sounded like little more than well-meant educated guesses. As this devastating year draws to its raggedy close, it’s worth taking a moment to wonder what the long-term effect will be of watching scientists bob and weave on their way to a better understanding of the coronavirus and how to thwart the disease it causes, COVID-19 — all out in public and all at breakneck speed. Even for a science geek like me, it has been unsettling to watch them debate, disagree, pivot, and reassess. I’ve been wishing instead that some lab-coated hero would just swoop in and make it go away.

USA - Lockdowns, travel restrictions, and economic turmoil are altering the energy sector - and could be changing the way we think about the future of energy as the climate changes. COVID-19 will likely bring about a record single-year reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Is this the beginning of the end for carbon?