Having delivered a heavy blow to the semiconductor plans of China’s biggest technology manufacturer, the US government now seems keen to knock down the nation’s biggest contract chipmaker. The action looks opportunistic. Export restrictions placed on Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) mean US companies will have to apply for a license to sell some products to the Shanghai-based chipmaker. The ...

Keir Starmer, the Labour Party’s new leader, has made a smooth start wooing British voters. In his former career the leader of the UK’s official opposition was indeed a successful defense lawyer in human rights cases, knighted subsequently for serving as Director of Public Prosecutions. Now he’s restoring Labour’s fortunes after a disastrous election and leads Boris Johnson in the ...

Here is a paradox. It is pretty easy to predict the voting patterns of new Supreme Court justices. But it can be exceedingly difficult to predict the votes of justices in specific cases, which means that it can be difficult as well to predict how those cases are going to be decided. When President Bill Clinton appointed Stephen Breyer to ...