In The News

Money-Laundering by Video Games: Financial Times

Tim Bradshaw January 13, 2020
Valve, the developer of the popular video game “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive,” announced that players wouldn’t be allowed to trade the in-game currency that could be used for buying virtual knives, guns and skins. That was an abrupt action against the rising trend of money laundering by video games, in which criminals could cash in stolen credit cards or use the proceeds of crime for in-game...

Iran Nuclear Deal Should Be Kept: TehranTimes

January 13, 2020
Iran’s government censors its media, but cannot totally mask public desire for restraint in relations with the West. US President Donald Trump withdrew from an international agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, on limiting Iran’s nuclear weapons program in exchange for an end to sanctions. Amid tensions with the United States starting in 2020, Iran withdrew from the...

Trade War Backfires: Independent

Phil Thornton January 12, 2020
Global trade is tightly interconnected, so tariffs imposed by China and the United States “hit firms in their own countries almost as much as the ones they were aiming at,” reports Phil Thornton for the Independent. Researchers in Switzerland and China studied stock market responses to tariffs announced since 2018 and “found that while the trade war tariffs of the US and China directly hurt...

Australia Must Prepare for Climate Change: CFR

Alice C. Hill January 11, 2020
Australia endures horrific fires and one of the worst fire seasons in history, with more than 25 people killed, thousands of homes destroyed, a billion animals killed by some estimates, and more than 12 million acres burned. Climate change, high temperatures and drought exacerbate and lengthen the fire seasons. Average temperatures have increased by more than 2 degrees since the 1950s. Alice Hill...

Genetic Sequence of New Virus in China: STAT

Helen Branswell January 10, 2020
Global health officials monitor reports of a new lung disease infecting about 60 people near Wuhan, China, a city of 11 million people. Researchers suspect that an animal species transmitted the virus, and researchers in China “generated a full genetic sequence… a key step in efforts to learn more about the cause of an outbreak of unusual pneumonia,” reports Helen Branswell for STAT News. “The...

World Bank Warns of Global Debt Crisis: Guardian

Larry Elliott January 9, 2020
Global economic growth continues, fueled by low interest rates and increasing debt. The high interest rates make debt more manageable, but may not stave off financial crisis. “Total emerging and developing economy debt reached almost 170% of gross domestic product in 2018 – or $55tn (£42tn) – an increase of 54 percentage points of GDP since 2010,” reports Larry Elliott for the Guardian. “The...

Hitting Refresh on Privacy Policies: Brookings

Cameron Kerry and Caitlin Chin January 9, 2020
Technology and online applications have developed swiftly and many people still do not realize how much private information they release with every choice and click online. US legislators and policymakers express dissatisfaction with prrivate policies that regard issuance of notices, often lengthy and cryptic, as consent. A Brookings report highlights the problems with privacy policies: over-...