North Korea threatens to sink Japan and turn US to ‘ashes and darkness’ | World news | The Guardian

The Guardian reports that Tokyo condemns ‘absolutely unacceptable’ provocation, as Pyongyang reacts to imposition of new UN sanctions following missile tests.

Source: North Korea threatens to sink Japan and turn US to ‘ashes and darkness’ | World news | The Guardian

These are seriously scary headlines but the UN Security Council must have anticipated a hostile response from North Korea. It now times for the international community to speak and act in unison to avoid a military escalation.

Thoughts?

Opinion – China’s Internet economy younger, more vibrant than US – Global Times

Here’s a fascinating article, in the Global Times, China’s leading and often politically outspoken newspaper. It reports that China and the US have become the twin engines of global Internet development, and the Chinese engine is apparently younger and more vibrant than its US counterpart, according to the findings of a white paper on China’s Internet economy released on Wednesday.

Source: China’s Internet economy younger, more vibrant than US – Global Times

For years, the US has had the technology and market-driven edge but the article speculates about China’s strategic advantage.

In recent years, the US has had to outsource technology, import foreign labour but has maintained the edge with constant market-driven innovation. But the pressures on young people in today’s US society has triggered record obesity and deaths from opioid addiction.

Strategically, technology remains vitally important, with the expected elimination of many unskilled and semi-skilled jobs in the decades ahead.

Having spent time in both the US and China, I would be wary of simply dismissing the Global Times article.

Also it’s interesting to reflect that last week, President Putin was extolling Russia’s technology sector and encouraging it to develop its own application software and not be strategically dependent on Western companies.

Perhaps, it all depends upon whether the nationalists or the globalists are holding greater sway in Trump’s America?

Thoughts?