EUROPE - Departing European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has issued a dire warning to his successors that the Continent is on a “downward slope”. “From the 25 percent of global value added that we account for today, our share, if all goes well, will drop to 15 percent in 10 to 15 years from now. By 2030, it is likely that no European country will still be a G7 member. Demographically, we are also on a downward slope. So we have to stick together, not by wiping out our national identities but by nurturing them, emphasising our common values time and again, as well as our individualities — the things that make Europe what it is.” Europe’s list of challenges includes potential trade conflicts with China and the United States, as well as Brexit. Currently the global trade slowdown is battering the EU the hardest, according to new OECD data. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Developments blamed Brexit uncertainties, Germany’s industrial downturn and disruption from US-China trade tensions.

TURKEY - Vladimir Putin has looked to disrupt NATO's inner-relations in recent months by placing his S-400 missiles in Turkey via a controversial arms deal, but President Tayyip Erdogan may have scuppered Russia's plans as he finally concedes to US President Donald Trump. President Erdogan's Foreign Ministry promised this week to install Russia's S-400 missile systems as a "stand alone system" meaning they will not be integrated into NATO's defence operations. This comes as a surprising concession by Turkey having been defiant in their acquisition of the weapons despite numerous warnings from the White House and even the threat of sanctions.

USA - Climate change alarmists are pushing for a change in vocabulary to scare people into taking global warming more seriously, starting with terms like “global meltdown” and “climate collapse.” Writing for AdAge this week, Aaron Hall argues that in order to get people to “take action” against climate change, “rebranding” is crucial, since people have gotten too used to the idea that climate is changing and need to be shocked into the notion that the world as we know it is ending.

UK - Queen Elizabeth II is supposedly giving serious thought to stepping down and handing over the reign to Prince Charles when she turns 95 in two years time. According to royal succession rules, Queen Elizabeth II can’t retire without abdication, but she can stop all of her royal duties and responsibilities should her health become a concern.

EUROPE - The EU parliament has approved incoming Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's new team by a large majority. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted in favour of the new commissioners by 461 to 157 against. There were 89 abstentions. The new team will take office on 1 December, a month later than planned. Mrs von der Leyen, the first woman to take on the presidency, said earlier that her team would "give Europe a new start" with a focus on climate change. Wednesday's vote in the European Parliament in Strasbourg required a simple majority for the team to be approved. Mrs von der Leyen, Germany's former defence minister and long-time close ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, vowed to build a team to lead the EU's executive body made up of equal numbers of men and women.

UK - The Archbishop of Canterbury has backed an electoral intervention by Britain’s chief rabbi by saying the country should be alert to the profound unease felt by many Jews at the prospect of a left-wing Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn. Justin Welby tweeted Tuesday after Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis wrote in the Times of London that Britain’s Labour Party and its leader have been deeply tarnished by anti-Semitism, as Breitbart London reported. Welby said political parties must make it “an absolute priority” to avoid any actions that increase the perception of fear. He said Mirvis’s statement “ought to alert us to the deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews.”

USA - The global economy is already in the worst distress that we have seen since 2008, and it appears that the global slowdown is actually picking up pace as we head into 2020. And this is happening even though central banks around the world have been cutting interest rates and pumping massive amounts of money into their respective financial systems. The central bankers appear to be losing control, and it certainly wouldn’t take much of a push for this new crisis to evolve into a complete and utter nightmare.

IRAN - The DIA’s new report, titled Iran Military Power: Ensuring Regime Survival and Securing Regional Dominance, highlights Tehran’s development of land-attack cruise missiles (LACMs). The report notes that Tehran “has invested heavily in its domestic infrastructure, equipment, and expertise” to develop increasingly capable cruise missiles. Tehran’s investment of its limited resources in LACMs is not surprising, given the challenges LACMs create for opposing air defense forces. The DIA notes that LACMs “present a unique threat profile from ballistic missiles because they can fly at low altitude and attack a target from multiple directions.”

USA - Democratic 2020 candidate Michael Bloomberg says he will recruit “an awful lot more” immigrants “to take all the different kinds of jobs” in the US economy. The immigrants can “improve our culture, our cuisine, our religion, our dialogue, and certainly improve our economy,” Bloomberg told reporters without naming the American cultures, cuisines, religions, and dialogues that would be improved. Bloomberg’s comments reflect the views of wealthy investors who gain stock market wealth when the government imports more workers, welfare-aided consumers, and extra renters into communities created by Americans and their children. Bloomberg, who owns roughly $55 billion in assets, has long supported mass migration.

RUSSIA - Moscow has showcased its top notch Avangard hypersonic missile system to a team of US military inspectors, saying the unprecedented move is an attempt to revitalize the key New START arms control treaty. The US team became familiar with Avangard over the past two days, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday. It was not immediately clear how close the US inspectors were able to get to the cutting-edge system and whether it was shown to them in action. The Avangard is a hypersonic glider, launched by silo-based ballistic missiles, said to be able to penetrate any – both existing and prospective – defenses. It achieves extremely high speeds during its final approach while retaining the ability to maneuver. Earlier this year, Washington withdrew from yet another key agreement, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. The US blamed Russia for the INF demise, accusing it of violating the deal yet failed to provide any proof of its claims.

CHINA - A $20 trillion problem: More than half of China's banks fail central bank stress test. In our latest look at the turmoil among China's small and medium banks, which included not only the recent bailouts and nationalizations of Baoshang Bank, Bank of Jinzhou, China's Heng Feng Bank, but also the two very troubling bank runs at China's Henan Yichuan Rural Commercial Bank at the start of the month, and then more recently at Yingkou Coastal Bank.

GERMANY - Germany's far right AfD party is choosing new leaders on Saturday in a vote shaped by an increasingly powerful radical wing which wants a rethink of the country's culture of atonement for Nazi crimes. The anti-migrant party's radicals have the upper hand following a series of electoral gains in eastern regions in September and October that have caused widespread domestic and international concern. The AfD started out as a eurosceptic party but became increasingly anti-migrant and opposed to Angela Merkel after the German chancellor welcomed around one million asylum-seekers in 2015 and 2016. Mainstream parties have refused to work with the AfD and therefore prevented it from holding executive power on a national or regional level.

USA - The Democrats are desperately trying to remove President Donald Trump from office or at least win back the presidency in 2020. Yet, all their efforts are seemingly having the opposite effect, former congressman Ron Paul told RT. Under the present circumstances, the impeachment would be a “total negative for the Democrats” as it would be “squelched in the Senate,” even if the Democrat-majority House approves it, Paul said on Tuesday. More importantly, the whole process is apparently losing steam because people are “sick and tired” of the latest of many attempts to impeach Trump. Support for Adam Schiff (Democrat for California), who chairs the House Intelligence Committee and is leading the inquiry against Trump, is falling, Paul said. Schiff has seen even some fellow Democrats abandoning his cause, because they simply got “tired of all this mess.”

USA - Yet another independent study has confirmed what we warned about from the beginning: Americans are paying for the trade war, not the Chinese. We can argue semantics all day, but the fact has always been that the American consumer is paying for Donald Trump’s tariffs. United States businesses have also shouldered the burden of the tariffs, but are much more likely to be able to absorb some of the costs than the average American consumer who was already living paycheck to paycheck. The New York Federal Reserve said Monday that it has been proven that the costs of a trade war are for American businesses and consumers to bear. The central bank found in a new study that Chinese businesses have not significantly lowered prices on exports to the US in response to the trade dispute that began in early 2018. Whether it is in the form of higher prices, lost jobs, or fewer profits, American businesses and consumers have paid for the tariffs on imported Chinese goods.

USA - On a rainy September morning, a pair of cattle ranchers browsed the refrigerated meat cases at a Walmart Inc store in Mandan, North Dakota, snapping cellphone photos of an unwelcome invader among the shrink-wrapped ground beef: Beyond Meat Inc 3.59% patties, made from pea protein and coconut oil. After a separate check at a nearby local supermarket, the ranchers headed to the North Dakota Department of Health. They showed officials the photos and warned of food-safety risks from mixing plant burgers with the traditional beef kind. Their message: Meatless burgers don’t belong on beef’s turf. Plant-based food makers promote their burgers as healthier for consumers, with a fraction of the environmental impact that comes from raising, transporting and slaughtering cattle. Part of Impossible’s stated mission is to end all livestock production, which the Redwood City, California-based company calls “a prehistoric and destructive technology.”