Insightful newsletter of Drishtikone - Issue #50: Return of the Corona and the Chinese Situation

The opening up of the lockdown restrictions is creating major issues around the US now. There was a 69% increase in just 2 days in California!

Meanwhile a large family party in Northern California infected 12 people in a single day!

As a result, the COVID cases have surged back to levels seen at the peak of the outbreak, as five states hit record single-day COVID numbers (Source)

Its not just US alone. Fresh outbreaks have occurred in Brazil and Germany as well. In fact, one day saw over 183,000 new cases globally!

India too saw a big spike yesterday. It saw 465 deaths and 15,968 new coronavirus infections in a single day (Source)!

These global spikes have hit the market today as well.

Abhijit Iyer-Mitra’s reports are the most incisive during this time. Here you can see two large ambulances apart from black limos at the site. Obvious question - so how many people did the Chinese lose? @Iyervval’s tweet.

Now, this tweet shows very interesting gif which shows how the river flow changed before and after the June 15th battle. Here is the gif for you to see.

We are seeing one guy - posing as an ex-Army guy - Ajai Shukla - has been spewing venom against anyone who is either talking for India or against China. Want to know his history? We had done a detailed piece on the characters who were there in Mani Shankar Aiyar’s home along with Pakistani consulate folks. We had a special section for Ajai Shukla. Please do read it and you will know exactly why he is batting for the Chinese.

And, for those who are betting against PM Modi and rooting for an anti-India approach to bring Modi down can get a reality check from a new poll.

A IANS CVoter snap poll says that 61 per cent do not trust Rahul Gandhi on national security. As for Modi, the survey found that India overwhelmingly trusts Prime Minister Narendra Modi to handle China.

But they want commensurate retribution against China. The mood against China is quite negative at the moment! In fact, over 68% people would boycott Chinese products.

Bilateral Air bubbles?: India has proposed establishing air travel “bubbles” with several countries including the United States, Germany, and France on the lines of “air bridges” or “Covid-safe travel zones” that have been conceptualised by countries that have managed to fully or partially contain the outbreak. The Ministry of Civil Aviation is negotiating the setting up of travel bubbles to restart scheduled international passenger flights (Source)

Major Dairy push: India’s dairy farming gets Rs 15,000 cr to fuel milk output, export, employment, under Modi’s pashudhan scheme (Source)

Saharan Dust Cloud: We had discussed a few days back. Now, this cloud has reached the Caribbeans and is headed for the US. A massive plume of Saharan dust has shrouded swathes of the Caribbean, turning blue skies into a milky-brown haze and sparking health warnings across the region as air quality fell to unhealthy levels (Source)

Mysterious dead star: On August 14th, 2019, the International LIGO-Virgo Collaboration – an array of antennae in the US and Italy – detected odd gravitational waves. The readings indicated that an object with a mass 2.6 times that of the sun was gobbled up by a black hole 780 million years ago. That’s strange, because very few objects with that mass should be able to exist. (Source)

How will the Coronavirus crisis impact global businesses? Here is a very informative video. Watch it!