Hard Numbers: The Billion-Dollar Hacker

80: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo estimates that the US had already sanctioned more than 80 percent of Iran's economy even before new sanctions came into force this week against the country's Supreme Leader and other politicians. The screws are certainly tightening, but the US is also running out of things to sanction.

2137: The computer science field is so dominated by men that, at current rates of progress it would take until the year 2137 for the number of papers written by women to equal those written by their male colleagues, according to a new study cited by Steve Levine at Axios Future.

71: A poll from the crucial US swing state of Florida finds that 71percent of the state's voters (and 85 percent of local Democrats) not only believe in climate change, but want to see the government take concrete measures to address global warming. That makes sense: over the past year, roughly a third of Floridians have had to invest in protecting their homes better against weather-related events.

1 billion: It's no secret that North Korea engages in hacking and cyberattacks in order to get money, but a UN report estimates that between 2015 and 2018, a single North Korean hacker netted more than $1 billion for the Hermit Kingdom. For context, the FT notes that Pyongyang was clocking about $500 million a year in arms sales in the mid-2000s.

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Populist opposition parties of the right and the left are set to make big gains in local elections in two key eastern German states this Sunday.

At a joint press conference in front of the Constitutional Court in Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea, on August 29, 2024, youth climate litigants and citizen groups involved in climate lawsuits chant slogans emphasizing that the court ruling marks not the end, but the beginning of climate action. The Constitutional Court rules that the failure to set carbon emission reduction targets for the period from 2031 to 2049 is unconstitutional and orders the government to enact alternative legislation by February 2026.
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U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan meets Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China August 29, 2024.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping struck a conciliatory tone when he met with US national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Thursday, after three days of talks aimed at managing tensions in the US-China relationship.

Ari Winkleman

It used to be that the conservative right supported free trade and globalization, while the progressive left wanted protectionism for local industries. But in this campaign cycle — it’s as if a sequel titled “The Tariffs Strike Back” has been released — we must wonder, writes Publisher Evan Solomon: Is this the beginning of the end of globalization and the rise of a new age of tariffs?