World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

One of the first attempts at cyberwarfare was a computer virus named Stuxnet that was used to disrupt the centrifuges used to enrich uranium in Iran.   The US and Israel are widely reputed to have launched the virus, and the initial reports were that the virus did in fact cause the centrifuges to malfunction.  A new report, however, suggests that the long-term effects of the attack were negligible.  Shortly after the attack, Iran increased its production of enriched uranium and proceeded more cautiously by obtaining newer centrifuges.

The eurozone countries have entered into the longest economic slowdown in the history of the group.  Even Germany was not able to lift the group into positive economic growth since its quarterly economic growth was only 0.1%.  The slowdown is even worse than the one suffered after the economic crisis of 2008-09.  The news is not only bad for the heavily indebted countries in the group, but it is also bad news for the rest of the world.  Europe is, for example, the largest purchaser of Chinese exports.

The OECD released a report indicating that the gap between rich and poor in the rich countries has grown more in the last three years than in the previous 12 years.  The income inequality seems to be accelerating because of the austerity policies being pursued by many of the rich countries.