GERMANY - German think tank demands a more offensive foreign policy, willing to take greater risks: "Blurring the boundaries between war and peace." The next government should initiate a shift to a more offensive foreign policy, willing to take greater risks, and seek the necessary "public approval." This demand has been raised by a group of experts in their newly-published strategy paper. The group had been coordinated over a ten-month period by the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). For the foreseeable future, international politics will be dominated by the "great power competition between the USA and China," the paper notes. "Vulnerability" has become the "normal state of affairs," the "boundaries between war and peace are becoming blurred." Over the past few years, Germany has been losing influence in this development and must, therefore, seek to "prevent further strategic déclassement." The DGAP paper lists conflicts within the EU and the escalating crises beyond the EU's external borders as examples for this loss of influence. Berlin must be prepared "to take decisions even amid great uncertainty."

VATICAN - Pope Francis underscored the inviolable right to life from conception to natural death in an address to the Pontifical Academy for Life Monday. People have gotten used to abortion, the pope said in his address in the Vatican, because they fail to look at the reality and see “it is really a murder.” Abortion consists in “the disposal of children that we do not want to accept,” he said, meaning they are “returned to sender by direct killing.” “It is really a murder and to understand it well perhaps it helps us to ask a double question: is it right to eliminate, to take out a human life to solve a problem?” he asked. “Is it okay to hire a hitman to solve a problem?” “This is abortion,” he said.

UNITED NATIONS - Humanity is on the brink of "nuclear annihilation" with the threat reaching its highest boiling point in forty years, a top UN chief has warned. The nuclear arms race has the globe teetering "unacceptably close" to mass atomic destruction, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. He urged nations that have "stockpiled nearly 14,000 nuclear weapons" to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty to avoid an international crisis.

ISRAEL - The Iranian nuclear program has reached a “watershed” moment and Israel’s tolerance on the matter is running out, PM Naftali Bennett has said, calling on the international community to recognize the gravity of the situation. Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Monday, Bennett said that Iran had made “a major leap forward” in recent years and that its “weapon program is at a critical point.” The Israeli leader contended that Iran’s nuclear program had now hit a “watershed moment” and words would not be enough to stop its centrifuges. But Bennett said that while the rest of the world either considered Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons inevitable, or they’re just tired of hearing about it, Israel didn’t have that privilege and its tolerance was running out. “Iran is much weaker, much more vulnerable than it seems,” he noted, adding that Israel would not tire on the matter and would not allow Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons.

VATICAN - Pope Francis urged Europe to remember its Christian roots Wednesday, a recommendation inspired by his recent visit to Hungary and Slovakia. This journey “was a pilgrimage to the roots,” the pope told the crowds gathered in the Vatican for his weekly General Audience. “In meeting my brother bishops, both in Budapest and in Bratislava, I was able to experience directly the grateful remembrance of these roots of faith and of Christian life.”

VATICAN - Pope Francis had harsh words for those who criticize him, saying such attacks are “the work of the devil,” La Civiltà Cattolica revealed Tuesday. There is “a large Catholic television channel that has no hesitation in continually speaking ill of the pope,” Francis said during a meeting with Jesuits in Bratislava during his recent visit there. “I personally deserve attacks and insults because I am a sinner, but the Church does not deserve them. They are the work of the devil. I have also said this to some of them,” he added. In its report on the meeting, America magazine, the Jesuit flagship journal in the US, said the pope was referring to EWTN (Eternal Word Television Network) when speaking of “a large television channel” that criticizes him. The EWTN Global Catholic Network was founded in 1981 by cloister Franciscan nun Mother Angelica and is the largest religious network in the world, broadcasting in multiple languages and reaching an audience in more than 145 countries.

GERMANY - Germany’s center-left Social Democrats on Sunday narrowly won their first national election since 2005, ending 16 years of conservative-led rule under Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to preliminary election results. The Social Democrats’ candidate, Olaf Scholz, said the election outcome was “a very clear mandate to ensure now that we put together a good, pragmatic government for Germany.” Merkel will remain in office while coalition negotiations take place. The SPD is likely to seek an alliance with the Greens and the FDP, although the two parties could also team up with the conservatives. The election of the country’s new chancellor will only take place once a governing coalition has been formed — a process that could take months.

UK - Millions of families are facing a 'perfect storm' of empty supermarket shelves and an imminent hike in the cost of living of around £1,500 a year, it emerged today. A shortage of toys ahead of Christmas and soaring costs of used cars - to the extent that some are now more expensive than new models - is also contributing to what is set to be a difficult end to the year for many households. Brexit, increased gas prices and the Covid pandemic have all contributed to the crisis, which will leave families substantially out of pocket over the coming months.

UK - A combination of events has caused wholesale gas and power prices to spike, meaning household energy bills are set to soar: A fire earlier this week shut down a key cable that brings power into Britain from France. The IFA interconnector in Kent can transmit enough electricity for two million homes – but it will not be at full capacity until next March. A long winter meant European countries built lower gas stocks than usual over the summer. Russia has also been providing less gas to Europe, which many believe is a way to pressure leaders into switching to a controversial pipeline, Nord Stream 2. The UK has very little gas storage capacity, which leaves it at the mercy of imports. The price of tankers bringing in the liquefied form of natural gas has surged as Asian economies have recovered, and shipping delays have compounded this further. A lack of wind recently means that less renewable power has been generated. Coal power plants are now having to be fired up so Britain can keep the lights on.

USA - New York City officials have requested that heads of states, and the many diplomats traveling with them, show proof that they are fully vaccinated before entering the UN hall for the annual opening of the General Assembly, one of the top diplomatic events of the year. The request got the backing of the General Assembly’s president, Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid. In a statement released on Wednesday, New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio and International Affairs Commissioner Penny Abeywardena thanked UN diplomats for working with them on the issue, calling them “true New Yorkers” for helping the city recover. But not all those diplomats professed the same camaraderie. In a letter to colleagues released on Wednesday, Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya called the requirements “a clearly discriminatory measure” and said that they were a violation of the UN charter.

UK - Consider these facts: the source of much of the world’s food – seeds – is mostly in the control of just four corporations; half of all the world’s cheeses are produced with bacteria or enzymes manufactured by a single company; one in four beers drunk around the world is the product of one brewer; from the US to China, most global pork production is based around the genetics of a single breed of pig; and, perhaps most famously, although there are more than 1,500 different varieties of banana, global trade is dominated by just one, the Cavendish.

JAPAN - China has claimed Japan is "preparing for war" as it stages its first major military exercises for nearly 30 years. The defence drills stoked already rising tensions between the neighbours as a dispute over a chain of strategic islands threatens to escalate into open conflict. Beijing's ships and planes have made dozens of incursions this year close to the uninhabited Senkaku islands - known as Diaoyu in China.

EUROPE - Brussels' bid to crack down on big tech firms based in Ireland is motivated by "sour grapes" on the part of Germany and France - while the bloc has also been accused of having an "anti-US agenda". Ex-Irish diplomat Ray Bassett said: “Ireland is heavily reliant on the American companies which contribute greatly to the State's economy and provide a large proportion of our tax receipts, hence there is a natural desire not to work against their interests. “ In Brussels however there is a clear agenda against the American tech giants. “The European Commission has regularly expressed its discomfort at the domination of high tech by American companies and hence the EU authorities are very vigilant in prosecuting any perceived transgressions. The EU would love to greatly limit the US role and also would like to remove the individual countries' role in policing the GDPR.” Mr Bassett further suggested the enforcement of EU law on giant tech firms was always going to be a major problem.

USA - Imports to Los Angeles in August fell 5.9% year on year amid heavy congestion. The number of container ships at anchor or drifting in San Pedro Bay off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has now blown through all previous records and is rising by the day. There were an all-time-high 65 container ships in the queue in San Pedro Bay on Thursday, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California. Of those, a record 23 were forced to drift because anchorages were full. Theoretically, the numbers — already surreally high — could go a lot higher than this. While designated anchorages are limited, the space for ships to safely drift offshore is not. The Southern California gateway is acting like the narrow tube on a funnel: Ocean volumes pour in from Asia and can only flow out at a certain velocity due to terminal limitations as well as limitations of warehouses, trucking and rail beyond the terminal. When the flow into the top of the funnel is too great, as it is now, it creates an overflow in the form of ships at anchor or adrift.

IRAN - Iran on Saturday hailed its acceptance into a China and Russia-led bloc, an eastward turn it sees as opening access to major world markets and a counter to crippling Western sanctions. Conservative and reformist newspapers showed rare unity in welcoming the outcome of a conference in Dushanbe on Friday at which members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation endorsed Iran's future membership in the bloc. The eight-member group, created two decades ago and which also includes India, promotes itself as an antidote to Western dominance. Chinese President Xi Jinping said Iran's membership had been unanimously accepted. Apart from Russia and China, the other founding members are the former Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan were admitted in 2017. Together they represent around 40 percent of the world's population and more than 20 percent of global gross domestic product - an immense potential market for Tehran.