The Morning Brief - Lignet

Expert: US Government Must Do More to Thwart Chinese Cyber Attacks
Steven Bucci of the Heritage Foundation warned LIGNET in an exclusive interview about the threat from Chinese cyber warfare against the United States and called for more efforts by the U.S. government and industry to combat them. Bucci opposes the sale of Sprint to Japanese company SoftBank because of SoftBank’s ties to the Chinese technology firm Huawei.
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Argentina: Kirchner Plays Her Last Cards, But They Won’t Save Her
Argentina’s economy is on the rocks, with the government in Buenos Aires scrambling to find solutions before it faces new elections in October. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner appears to have decided to rehash old economic policies: a tax amnesty and a $10 billion currency swap with China. But if these fail to reverse the dramatic decline, her leftist coalition could lose its grip on power.
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Russian Economic Slowdown Likely Short-Lived
With its GDP posting the lowest quarterly growth in almost four years, Russia’s economy appears to be headed towards a grinding halt, prompting downward revisions of year-end growth forecast and even speculations of recession. Less-than-robust investment and stagnating global commodity prices have been primarily labeled as the causes of weakening economic performance.
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US-Russia Talks Could Set Back Syrian Opposition
Last week’s agreement between the United States and Russia to hold an international peace conference on Syria in Geneva next month could undermine the Syrian opposition’s recent political gains. The move could also set back the support that had been growing in Washington and Brussels for arming the rebels, and has increased fears of a possible sell-out by the West.
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Cameron’s Tenure In Question While EU Debate Rages
British Prime Minister David Cameron is struggling to maintain control over the public debate as the anti-European Union movement within his own government suddenly gains traction, leaving the future of Britain's EU membership and of Cameron’s own tenure up in the air. Cabinet ministers Michael Gove and Philip Hammond on May 12 stated that they support withdrawal from the EU in its current form, while polls suggest that a majority of the British public would vote to exit the political and monetary union.
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Expert: Women Can Turn Men Into Homegrown Terrorists
The role of women in the radicalization process has usually been overlooked by most counter-terrorism researchers, but an exclusive LIGNET interview with terrorism expert Andy Polk sheds important new light on how women can make a difference in whether a male becomes a radical. The mother of the Boston bombing suspects, for example, had a radical worldview that she passed on to her sons that started their progression into militant extremism.
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Why Poland Has Caught the Eye of Asian Investors

Outside of Asia, Poland is virtually alone in having resisted a fall in national output for 21 years. It has also had one of the brightest economic recoveries since 2009. With a well-managed economy, government debt under tight control and clear aspirations to adopt the euro when the conditions are right, foreign investors – including the People’s Bank of China – have flocked to buy the local currency debt of the Polish government, now yielding 3 percent.

Dr. Warburton is Director of London-based Economic Perspectives Ltd. His clients include senior wealth managers around the world.

Iran: Presidential Election Will Bolster Power of Khamenei
The weeks before Iran’s June presidential election have been a political theater with hundreds of would-be candidates seeking to gain attention. The election will be far from free and fair and will instead be a competition between a handful of internal regime factions.
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New North Korea Missile Launches a Cry for Attention
North Korea test-fired missiles into the Sea of Japan for a third day in a row today, likely to keep up the pressure on Seoul and Washington to resume multilateral talks. The missile launches violate UN resolutions, but they don't necessarily mean that North Korean leaders want to raise tensions again.
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China Pursues New Role in Arab-Israeli Conflict
China’s growing interest in the Middle East peace process reflects Beijing’s desire to expand its profile in the region. By offering to broker a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during their visits to China last week, China’s new President Xi Jinping has cleverly used their trips as an opportunity for his country to gain more influence in the Middle East.
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Bolivia: Storm Clouds Gathering Over President Morales
Despite a major legal win last week that will allow him to run for a third term in December 2014, Bolivian President Evo Morales is facing growing dissatisfaction, even among those who have traditionally supported him. Over the next year, he’s likely to step up his anti-American rhetoric and increase funding for labor groups, but it may not be enough. Bolivia, it seems, is on the brink of another revolution.
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