What is the biggest threat facing Britain’s banks? The euro crisis? Another economic downturn in the U.K.? Neither, according to Andrew Haldane, director of financial stability for the Bank of England. All five of Britain’s largest banks told him that hacking and other cyber attacks are their biggest concerns.Chinese cyber attacks on American corporations, research universities and […]

Ethiopia today dismissed Egypt’s talk of “war” as psychological intimidation and vowed that construction on what will become Africa’s largest dam will continue regardless of threats. Dina Mufti, a foreign ministry spokesman, said that Ethiopia was “not intimidated by Egypt’s psychological warfare and won’t halt the dam’s construction, even for seconds.” This comes only a couple days […]

President George W. Bush’s reputation among Americans is on the rebound. For the first time in eight years, more Americans regard W positively than negatively, says Gallup. The WSJ reports: 49% of Americans now view Mr. Bush favorably, outpacing the 46% who view him unfavorably. . . . At the end of his second term, […]

The US media and the pundit class, everywhere from the NYT to The Atlantic, are elegantly and beautifully wringing their sensitive hands over the NSA snooping scandal. Woe, alas and alackaday seems to be the reigning sentiment. Freedom is dead. Big Brother rules the roost.Outside the Beltway, however, a new Pew poll finds that a majority […]

Russia already has the world’s largest reserves of conventional natural gas and is the world’s largest gas exporter. So more could hardly be a bad thing for Moscow, right? According to the EIA, Russia has the ninth-largest technically recoverable shale gas reserves in the world. But Russia has serious fracking problems, of which the biggest by […]

A few days ago rebels were defeated and thrown out of a strategically vital town near the Lebanese border. Brigades of Hezbollah fighters reinforced troops from the Assad regime in that fight. They are now massed outside Aleppo; an invasion appears close at hand. Not too long ago pundits were predicting the imminent demise of […]

Iran’s presidential election is only three days away, and the nuclear program remains foremost in the minds of outside observers and in the statements of the seven remaining candidates. But as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepares to step down, it’s worth taking a closer look at Iran’s deteriorating economy. The FT‘s reporter spoke with Masoumeh, a 47-year old woman […]

After a week and a half of violent clashes between protesters and police throughout Turkey, things don’t seem to be cooling off. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced today that the government will not halt its controversial plans to develop a park. This morning riot police and demonstrators clashed again around the contested Taksim Square […]

An aggressive campaign seeks to lure the American workforce back to manufacturing, the WSJ reports: Manufacturers, government officials and nonprofits across the country are looking for ways to get the country’s brightest kids fired up about industry. They’re setting up engineering contests, backing classroom projects where kids design everything from audio speakers to artificial limbs, […]

Ding-dong, the wicked witch of farming subsidies might soon be dead. Last year a comprehensive farm bill reform stalled in the House of Representatives, forcing Congress to extend the 2008 bill for another year. But yesterday the Senate passed a new farm bill, and it looks like the House version has a fighting chance of […]