A beach in Greece has turned into an arachnophobe’s worst nightmare as hoards of spiders weaved thousands of cobwebs along the shoreline.

Way, way back in 1964 — when transatlantic telephone calls had to be booked hours in advance, and no office was without the clatter of typewriters and supplies of carbon paper — the science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke contemplated a future world of instant global communication.

China has resumed work on a set of banking cyber security regulations it suspended earlier this year, reviving a potential source of friction with the US weeks before Xi Jinping makes his first trip to Washington as China’s president, sources said.