Author Archives: Nick Corbishley

“Everybody should have a digital ID; everybody should have a bank account; everybody should have a smartphone. Then, anything can be done. Everything else is built on that.”

The US tech firm could not have found a better partner with whom to get back into the facial recognition market than the current UK government.

At the time of its construction, the Panama Canal was (and still is) a marvel of modern engineering. But it is also a single point of failure in a global mesh of tightly coupled supply chains.

“When Russia insults the high representative of the European Union, it is insulting all Europeans.”

How did Brazil, a country that until recently was heavily dependent on cash, reach a point where its politicians are now considering eliminating it altogether? One of the answers is a three-letter word that is now ubiquitous across the country: Pix. 

The country is once again in deep crisis mode, with decades high inflation, a crumbling currency and no foreign currency reserves. It is shackled to the IMF but now faces the possibility of being able to tap alternative sources of finance.

This may be an important battle for Big Ag lobbies and biotech companies but it is an existential one for Mexico, for whom corn is the cornerstone not only of its cuisine and diet but also its culture.  

There is a lot riding on the outcome of the upcoming general elections, not just economically but geopolitically, and not just for Argentina but across Latin America and perhaps even the globe.

Ecuador was already in a major crisis; now it is in an even bigger one.

UK banks are now making it harder for customers to deposit cash in their own accounts, while three of Australia’s Big Four banks are eliminating cash services from many of their branches.  

The policing minister is encouraging police forces across the country to make use of live facial recognition technologies for routine law enforcement. Retailers are also embracing the technology to monitor their customers. 

At the beginning of July, the AMLO government’s biggest bet on energy self-sufficiency — the Dos Bocas refinery in Tabasco — began processing crude oil. But since then, things have not gone according to plan.

The share price of Coutts’ parent bank, semi-state owned Natwest, has slumped 8% over the past 10 days, wiping £1 billion off its market cap and generating juicy returns for short-selling hedge funds.

Few political figures have done more to keep Ukrainians fighting — and dying in huge numbers — in a bloody, futile proxy war of attrition than Von der Leyen.