Reuters reports: "The United States has agreed with Singapore on a first deployment of the U.S. P8 Poseidon spy plane in Singapore this month, in a fresh response to China over its pursuit of territorial claims in the South China Sea. China, which is at odds with Washington over the South China Sea, said on Tuesday the move was aimed at militarizing the region. In a joint statement after a meeting in Washington on Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen welcomed the inaugural deployment of the aircraft in Singapore from Dec. 7 to 14."
The Wall Street Journal reports: "China's exports fell in November for the fifth consecutive month, as weak global demand continued to weigh on the world's largest manufacturing nation. Imports were better than expected—though they remained weak—leading to another sizable monthly trade surplus...On Tuesday, China's General Administration of Customs reported that exports fell 6.8% in November in dollar terms from a year earlier, compared with a decline of 6.9% in October. This compared with a median forecast of 5.3% in a survey of 14 economists conducted by The Wall Street Journal. Imports last month fell 8.7% year-over-year, compared with an 18.8% decrease in October. This was better than the 11.8% decline that was forecast by the economists."
National Public Radio reports: "So far, the international climate meeting in Paris has primarily been about words, as diplomats wrestle with the precise language of a treaty. But some surprising climate science was unveiled this week, too — a new measurement of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere that suggests the world's production of the globe-warming gas has taken a small dip...Climate scientist Corinne Le Quere from the University of East Anglia, in the United Kingdom, says there's one main reason for the good news: 'It's mostly down to China's use of coal,' she says...And China's CO2 emissions have, consequently, dropped a startling 4 percent this year."