US-China slugfest over Hong Kong

There’s a big battle brewing between the two superpowers that could have lasting consequences for the world order:

• The trigger is China’s plan to pass a new national security law that threatens the autonomy of Hong Kong. The law—whose details are unclear—is likely to crack down on free speech and dissent, bringing the city in line with the mainland. 
• Now, the United States has a special trading relationship with Hong Kong—i.e. it benefits from lower tariffs and other preferential benefits. This is key to the city’s status as a global financial hub.
• But this benefit is conditional on HK maintaining partial autonomy—which the State Department has to certify to Congress each year. 
• And that brings us to the State Secretary Mike Pompeo’s bombshell move. He sent a notice to Congress declaring: “No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground.”
• It isn’t clear as yet if Hong Kong will lose its special trading status. But the US-China relationship—already frayed over the pandemic—is likely to get even uglier. 
• And it isn’t good news for the city—which has the most to lose, both in terms of freedom and  prosperity. CNN offers more analysis of the impact.
• In related news: Trump has offered to mediate between India and China to resolve recent border tensions.
  

NASA cancels its big launch

The US space agency was planning to send its astronauts back into space for the first time since 2011—and in collaboration with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. But bad weather forced it to nix the plan a mere 17 minutes before liftoff. The new date for departure: Saturday, May 30. (CNBC News)

The Covid effect: the global edition

No singing in Germany: The country has reopened bars and restaurants, but has firmly clamped down on public singing, i.e. church choirs. The reason: We “inhale and exhale very deeply” when we sing, and “if there are virus particles floating in the air then they can get into the lungs relatively quickly.” Point to note: one of the most infamous superspreader events in the US was a choir practice in Washington state.

IT offices get Covid-ready: Indian companies are getting ready to get at least a small percentage of their employees back to the office. In the works: everything from apps that restrict employee movement to facial recognition systems. Quartz has more details.

A period-sized problem: The lockdown has been exceptionally hard for women in rural areas who have no access to sanitary pads. Many have been forced to make do with “old cloth or bits of hay, mud or ash wrapped in rags to manage the bleeding.”

Twitter fact-checks Trump

For the first time ever, the platform slapped ‘fact checking’ labels on two of the US Prez’s tweets—labelling them potentially misleading. What he claimed in those tweets: mail-in electoral ballots can lead to widespread voter fraud. (CNN)

An update on the latest Covid gyaan

Is 6 feet enough? That’s the distance recommended to ensure social distancing. But a new Stanford study suggests that the virus can travel as far as 20 feet under certain conditions. In hot and dry weather, the droplets we exhale form “aerosol particles that are able to carry the virus and float in air for hours.” 

Beware your immune system? The multiple organ failure in some patients that mystifies doctors may be due to a cytokine storm—i.e. your body’s overreaction to the presence of an invader. Science Magazine offers an in-depth look at exactly how the immune system reacts to the virus—triggering “a ferocious rampage through the body, from brain to toes.”

Mystery of very ill children: For over a month, there have been reports of a mysterious illness affecting children—and it is clearly linked to the virus. Buzzfeed News did some digging to figure out what we know and don’t know about this frightening phenomenon.

Elon Musk & Tom Cruise ki jodi

Two of the oddest men in the world are coming together to make a movie that will be shot at least partly in outer space—in collaboration with NASA, no less. And the project now has a director: Doug Liman of ‘The Bourne Identity’ and ‘American Made’ fame. We predict: a movie that is either seriously awesome or very, very bad. (Variety)

Covid a**hole of the day

Kent RO had a very bright idea: why not sell our atta maker by shaming the household help! The result: the Instagram ad below that triggered rightful rage. It has since been pulled down.