Europe

Italy has now joined the “bail-in” crowd.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena is to be rescued by the Italian state using a new €20bn bailout package, as a last-gasp private sector rescue plan for the world’s oldest bank looked set to fail, forcing losses on bondholders.

The government rescue, which had long been resisted in Rome, is designed to draw a line under the slow-burn crisis in Italian banking that has alarmed investors and become the main source of concern for European financial regulators.

            Source: Financial Times

European, Asian stocks and S&P futures all declined amid collapsing volumes, after the Wednesday drop in the S&P500, and after oil prices held losses amid an unexpected increase in supplies, as traders close out trades ahead of the holidays. Top overnight news include the imminent nationalization of Monte Paschi, the ongoing manhunt for the German Christmas market terrorist, Uber halting its self-driving car test in San Francisco, and the anti-China, anti-regulation moves in the Trump administration. 

Authored by Geert Wilders, originally posted at The Gatestone Institute,

• The German authorities are dangerously underestimating the threat of Islam... They have betrayed their own citizens.

• Let no-one tell you that only the perpetrators of these crimes are to blame. The politicians, who welcomed Islam into their country, are guilty as well. And it is not just Frau Merkel in Germany, it is the entire political elite in Western Europe.

A leaked communication between the Trump transition team's Undersecretary of Defense for policy Brian McKeon, and the Pentagon, has revealed the four biggest defense priorities for the president-elect. Among the top four items listed in the memo from are: 1) developing a strategy to defeat/destroy ISIS; 2) build a strong defense by eliminating budget caps/the sequester, 3) develop a comprehensive cyber strategy, and 4) eliminate wasteful spending by finding greater efficiencies.

Update 2: German authorities issued a Europe-wide police alert naming 23-year-old Anis Amri as a suspect in the case, describing him as “dangerous and armed.”

Meanwhile, according to the suspect's father and security sources, Tunisia's Radio Mosaique reported that Anis Amri left Tunisia seven years ago as an illegal immigrant and spent time in prison in Italy.