As the world still reels from the coronavirus pandemic and economic downturn, border tensions are rising. A deadly clash between India and China on Monday comes against a backdrop of several years of deteriorating relations between the two nuclear states. As Ian Hall writes, this puts India’s leader, Narendra Modi, in a particularly difficult position. If he is seen to back down, voters at home may punish him. But a further military response risks wider conflict. Meanwhile, it is not clear yet what China is seeking out of the incident.
And the Korean peninsula is once again the focus of the world’s attention after North Korea demolished the Inter-Korean Liaison Office in Kaesong, which was intended to function as a virtual embassy between the two countries. L. Gordon Flake writes that with the 2018 inter-Korean summit now a distant memory, the North appears to be returning to old methods of forging greater domestic solidarity in the face of economic privation. Whatever the case, the escalation does not bode well.
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Michael Kappeler DPA/AAP
Ian Hall, Griffith University
Relations between the two nuclear states were already tense before China and India skirmished in the Galwan River Valley. There is no simple path ahead for India's leader.
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AAP/EPA/Yonhap
L Gordon Flake, University of Western Australia
With signs North Korea has suffered in the coronavirus pandemic and is now facing a further threat to its shaky economy, the ratcheted up of tension with the South is ominous.
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Health + Medicine
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David C Gaze, University of Westminster
Scientists have discovered that a widely used, cheap steroid can fight off COVID-19 in the most severe cases. Here's how it works.
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Alex van den Heever, University of the Witwatersrand; Imraan Valodia, University of the Witwatersrand; Lucy Allais, University of the Witwatersrand; Martin Veller, University of the Witwatersrand; Shabir Madhi, University of the Witwatersrand; Willem Daniel Francois Venter, University of the Witwatersrand
South Africa's testing and tracing has not been at a level needed to suppress the spread of COVID-19. It must now focus on containing opportunities for super-spreading and transmissions.
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Politics + Society
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Joseph E Uscinski, University of Miami; Adam M Enders, University of Louisville
The technology isn't the problem – conspiracy theories were around long before the internet.
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André Guichaoua, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
The sudden death of Burundi’s former president, Pierre Nkurunziza, marks the end of a long reign, characterised by violent political crises.
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