Politics

Trust in government serves as a vital driving force for a country's economic development, increases the effectiveness of governmental decisions, as well as leading to greater compliance with regulations and the tax system. As Statista's Niall McCarthy notes, the level of confidence in a country's government is generally determined by whether people think their government is reliable, if it can protect its citizens from risk and whether or not it is capable of effectively delivering public services.

Authored by Federico Pieraccini via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

The meeting between Trump and Putin at the G20 in Hamburg injects new hope into the complicated relationship between the United States and Russia. Only time can confirm whether there is any basis for this hope.

Authored by Paul Roderick Gregory via Forbes.com,

Just over a month ago, we expressed amazement at just how sophisticated, efficient and pervasive the 'Russian hacking' community had become after CNN reported - citing unnamed government officials of course - that they had managed to hack into a Qatari News Agency and post a 'fake' news story all in an attempt to drive a wedge between the U.S., Qatar and some of it's Gulf Arab neighbors, one which culminated - at least according to the CNN narrative - with the Qatari crisis in which an alliance of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia isolated and blockaded the nat gas rich nation.

Almost exactly ten years ago, on September 12, 2007 Japan's current prime minister Shinzo Abe resigned less than a year into a tenure dogged by scandals, the suicide of a minister, a raft of resignations and corruption allegations, and a humiliating election drubbing for his Liberal Democratic Party. Never one to shrink away from resposibility, Abe blamed it on crippling diarrhea: