CHINA - A war not with nuclear-tipped missiles but with destructive laser beams, travelling at the speed of light and reaching their targets 50,000 times faster than today’s missiles. A new cold war seems certain to start within the next few decades, waged not on Earth, but in space.

GERMANY - The Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism was “revolutionary” as the Catholic church committed itself to work together with other Christian churches for Christian reconciliation. The commitment was “irreversible,” said Cardinal Reinhard Marx, president of the German bishops’ conference November 21 on occasion of the 50th anniversary of Unitatis Redintegratio.

EUROPE - The European Central Bank will spell out the scale of economic malaise facing the euro zone after it meets on Thursday under growing pressure to take dramatic action to prevent the bloc going into reverse. With recovery stalled across much of the 18-country euro area, ECB President Mario Draghi will present updated forecasts from the bank's staff for growth in output as well as inflation. Both measures are likely to be downgraded further. Quantitative easing, following in the footsteps of the US Federal Reserve, will be harder in the euro zone because of the divisions between debt-shy countries such as Germany and southern states including Greece. Germany, the bloc's biggest economy by far and its most influential, fears it would encourage reckless borrowing.

USA - A coalition of 17 US states sued the Obama administration on Wednesday saying it acted illegally by issuing an executive order to ease the threat of deportation for millions of immigrants who are in the country without the proper documents. The case being led by Texas and filed at the Federal Court in the Southern District of Texas said the executive order announced by Obama last month violated constitutional limits on presidential powers. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican and the Texas governor-elect, said the lawsuit is not asking for monetary damages but is seeking to have the order declared illegal. The White House has said the executive order falls within presidential powers, and has argued that the ultimate answer is for Congress to pass meaningful immigration reform.

USA - Protesters chanting, “No justice, no tree!” tried to storm Rockefeller Center Wednesday to disrupt the annual lighting ceremony following a grand jury’s decision to not indict an NYPD cop in the death of Eric Garner. “F–k the tree!” the mob bellowed as cops held them at bay along Sixth Avenue near Radio City Music Hall. Hundreds of frustrated anarchists then trekked to the West Side Highway, where they vaulted barricades and clashed with cops in riot gear. Rush-hour traffic ground to a halt for roughly an hour from West 79th to 45th streets before cops forced the rabble off the roadway, making a bunch of arrests. “It’s the biggest thing going on in the city tonight, so it seemed like a good place to make a statement,” said Nick Connolly, 30, of Brooklyn, one of hundreds of demonstrators who marched up both Fifth and Sixth avenues to converge on the tree.

USA - A recent article by Daisy Luther from The Organic Prepper really nails this point by including photos of Black Friday mobs trampling each other in America, then asking the question, "What would these people act like over something that was actually a matter of life and death?"

EUROPE - Momentum is building for the European Central Bank to launch a program of sovereign-bond buying to boost the struggling euro zone economy with most signs pointing to March for a decision. With Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, refusing to unleash fiscal stimulus and other governments taking time to reform their economies, responsibility is falling on the ECB to bolster growth and fend off deflation. It is arguably becoming more urgent. Euro zone inflation slowed to 0.3 percent last month, far below the target of just under 2 percent and in what the ECB sees as a "danger zone". Growth, meanwhile, has stalled, with some of the euro zone in recession and the bloc as a whole just above water. ECB staff will update their forecasts again for the March 5 meeting. What they say could be the deciding factor. If it isn't, some in the market argue that by then the economy may have sunk too far.

ISRAEL - During the Gaza war this summer, it became clear that one of the most important aspects of the media-saturated conflict between Jews and Arabs is also the least covered: the press itself. The Western press has become less an observer of this conflict than an actor in it, a role with consequences for the millions of people trying to comprehend current events, including policymakers who depend on journalistic accounts to understand a region where they consistently seek, and fail, to productively intervene.

USA - The FBI warned US businesses that hackers have used malicious software to launch destructive attacks in the United States, following a devastating cyber-attack last week at Sony Pictures Entertainment. The five-page, confidential "flash" warning issued to businesses late on Monday provided some technical details about the malicious software that was used in the attack, though it did not name the victim. An FBI spokesman declined to comment when asked if the software had been used against the California-based unit of Sony Corp. Officials are still analyzing the Sony attack, which caused serious damage to that company's databases, according to NBC News. The report said that the malware overrides data on hard drives of computers which can make them inoperable and shut down networks.

VATICAN - In conversation with journalists who were accompanying him on the return flight from Istanbul to Rome last night, Pope Francis answered questions mostly on the themes of relations between Islam and Christianity, and ecumenism.

USA - Rising frustration with Washington and conservative electoral victories across much of the US are feeding a movement in favor of something America hasn’t done in 227 years: Hold a convention to rewrite the Constitution. Although it’s still not likely to be successful, the effort is more serious than before: Already, more than two dozen states have called for a convention. There are two ways to change or amend the founding document. The usual method is for an adjustment to win approval from two-thirds of the Congress and then be ratified by three-quarters of the states. There have been 27 amendments adopted this way. The second procedure is separate from Congress. It requires two-thirds of the states, or 34, to call for a convention. The framers thought this was necessary because Congress wouldn’t be likely to advance any amendments that curtailed its powers.

USA - Since 2006, MRAPs, helicopters, machine guns, and night-vision-goggles have been increasingly evident across America as the good ol' yankee copper morphs into a full-metal-jacket-looking killer (even as the FBI admits the threats to police have not escalated as much as the media would like). So it is just 'lucky' that Ferguson has reignited a narrative that enables President Obama "to discuss federal programs and funding that provide equipment to the state and local enforcement agencies," in a series of meetings today at The White House. We suspect funding will increase (for your own protection) and a new SWATification Tzar will be unveiled.

USA - Last week, total US debt was a meager $17,963,753,617,957.26. Two days later, as updated today, on Black Friday, total outstanding US public debt just hit a new historic level which probably would be better associated with a red color: as of the last work day of November, total US public debt just surpassed $18 trillion for the first time, or $18,005,549,328,561.45 to be precise, of which debt held by the public rose to $12,922,681,725,432.94, an increase of $32 billion in one day. It also means that total US debt to nominal GDP as of September 30, which was $17.555 trillion, is now 103%. Total US debt has increased by 70% under Obama, from $10.625 trillion on January 21, 2009 to $18.005 trillion most recently.

USA - It's not just the Saudis who could get much poorer from the oil price free fall. Everyone could suffer if the collapse triggers a wave of defaults through the high-yield debt market, and in turn, hits stocks. The first to fall: the banks that were last hit by the housing crisis.

USA - There has only been one other time in history when the price of oil has crashed by more than 40 dollars in less than 6 months. The last time this happened was during the second half of 2008, and the beginning of that oil price crash preceded the great financial collapse that happened later that year by several months. Well, now it is happening again, but this time the stakes are even higher. When the price of oil falls dramatically, that is a sign that economic activity is slowing down. It can also have a tremendously destabilizing effect on financial markets.