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?

USA - When COVID-19 is reined in and humanity enters the new normal, expect transformations in learning, work, communication, and technology. The future has never been easy to forecast, and the coronavirus makes life even more unpredictable.

USA - COVID-19 and protests for social justice have shined a spotlight on society’s inequities and most vulnerable people. A graveside ceremony was held for Adolphus Moss at Fourth Creek Baptist Church Cemetery in York, Alabama, in April. Without fanfare or a public commemoration of his life, Moss, 67, a deacon in his church and respected civic leader in his rural community, was ushered into the ground. His entire service lasted 10 minutes.

USA - A “Freedom Pass” is a citizen’s only chance to live a more normal life, but the price of admission is that one must submit to testing and perhaps frequently so. This will immediately result in a caste system of “untouchables” and the “haves” based on invisible particles in your body. ⁃ TN Editor

USA - Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell on November 21 said that the president’s lawyers will file a lawsuit of “biblical” proportions, alleging that some election officials were embroiled in a pay-to-play scheme with a prominent manufacturer of voting software. “We’ve got tons of evidence; it’s so much, it’s hard to pull it all together,” Powell told Newsmax. She didn’t provide or elaborate on the evidence. “Hopefully this week we will get it ready to file, and it will be biblical,” Powell said. “It’s a massive project to pull this fraud claim together with the evidence that I want to put in.”

MIDDLE EAST - American B-52s, the massive strategic bombers, arrived in the Middle East on Saturday. They are part of the Fifth Bomb Wing at Minot AFB in North Dakota. These veteran, giant aircraft were last deployed in the region in May 2019 and the US Central Command says they are here to “deter aggression and reassure US partners and allies.” The B-52s flying in, appear largely a symbolic gesture, since the US doesn’t need them for operations at the moment. It has ample warplanes already based in the region, such as at the UAE’s Dhafra air base and an aircraft carrier group in the vicinity and massive resources across its Central Command area. The B-52s are supposed to send a message, the kind of messages that the US likes to send to allies.

USA - As religious leaders and their congregations go green, they've neglected one Judeo-Christian teaching that could cut energy consumption and pollution by 14.2857 percent. That's one-seventh, just as the Sabbath halts work one day out of the weekly seven. The day of rest – long considered a gift from God – is meant to create a joyful, liberating respite from worldly concerns such as work and consumption, activities that both use the earth's resources. So renewed observance of the Sabbath could also be a gift to the air, land, and water that we consume the other six days of the week. "Six days you shall labor and do all your work," Yahweh told the Israelites at Sinai, "but the seventh is a sabbath of the Lord your God; you shall not do any work."