Plastic is practical, hygienic, and sturdy, and it can be used in every area of our lives. As a result, it is no wonder that about 320 million tons of plastics were produced worldwide in 2015 – and the figure is rising. But the fact that plastic is so stable, even practically inert – there are almost no substances that react chemically with plastic – is both an advantage and a problem. Unlike paper and other forms of organic waste, plastic waste biodegrades extremely slowly.

The Cold War is often described as a conflict between East and West. Previously, little attention had been paid to the role of the Middle East as another theater in this geopolitical conflict. Timothy Nunan, who studied at Princeton University and earned his doctorate at Oxford, wants to change that.

Bruno Kahl, the head of the Bundesnachrichtendienst, Germany’s federal intelligence agency, is worried: Could the Russian government affect the outcome of the Bundestag elections? He has warned about hacking in interviews, drawing a parallel to the U.S. presidential election. American intelligence agencies are certain, at any rate, that IT experts acting on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin stirred up negative sentiment against Hillary Clinton in social networks and hacked Democratic Party e-mails during the 2016 election campaign.