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1. U.S. closing Chinese consulate in Houston Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper II; IOBR

The U.S.’s decision to close China’s consulate in Houston is an unprecedented escalation in the steadily deteriorating ties between the world’s two largest economies. Why has US closed the consulate?

The Trump administration has accused the consulate and other Chinese diplomatic missions in the country of economic espionage, visa fraud and attempted theft of scientific research — allegations that China has denied. Other decisions taken by US against China

It has announced visa restrictions on students, imposed sanctions on Chinese officials over a Hong Kong security law and is reportedly considering a sweeping travel ban on the millions of members of China’s ruling Communist Party. The consulate decision is by far the most drastic measure. This is the first time a Chinese mission is being closed in the U.S. since both countries normalised diplomatic relations in 1979. Reaction by China

Since the tariff war that President Trump launched in 2018, China has retaliated against every hostile move by the U.S. China made matters worse by providing refuge in its San Francisco consulate to one of the Chinese researchers against whom the U.S. has issued an arrest warrant because she allegedly lied to the authorities about her ties to the Army. Nature of US-China tensions

The U.S.-China tensions are no longer about trade and technology. What started as a trade war has snowballed into a larger geopolitical contest between the two superpowers, something the world hasn’t seen since the hostile competition between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. President Trump, who is under attack at home for his handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic, may be finding comfort in ramping up tensions with China in an election year. But what makes the crisis dangerous in the long term is that there is a growing consensus in Washington that a hostile China, resorting to large-scale espionage, poses a serious threat to the U.S.-dominated international order. The Washington establishment, which had fought Trump’s overtures towards Russia and several other policy measures, is in line with the President in his confrontational policy towards China, which has already done serious damage to bilateral relations that cannot be reversed easily. Incidentally, the U.S.-China crisis is unfolding at a time when Beijing is also

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acting more assertively in Asia, picking fights with countries in its neighbourhood, from India to Vietnam and Malaysia. The message from China is that it is ready for a long game of escalation, as long as the U.S. keeps playing it. This is a cyclical trap — measures and countermeasures keep taking ties to new lows with no possibility of an exit. If this deterioration is not arrested immediately, the U.S. and China risk a total breakdown in diplomatic relations. That is bad news for the whole world. Source: The Hindu

2. Women officers can now get permanent commission in Indian Army Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper II; Polity & Governance

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has issued the formal Government Sanction Letter for grant of Permanent Commission (PC) to women officers in the Army. The order specifies the grant of PC to Short Service Commissioned (SSC) women officers in all the 10 streams of the Army in which they presently serve — the Army Air Defence (AAD), Signals, Engineers, Army Aviation, Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME), Army Service Corps (ASC), Army Ordnance Corps (AOC), and Intelligence Corps in addition to the existing streams of Judge and Advocate General (JAG) and the Army Educational Corps (AEC), the Army said. Following SC order

The order follows a Supreme Court verdict in February that directed the government that women Army officers be granted PC and command postings in all services other than combat. Following this, Army Chief Gen. Manoj Naravane had said it was an enabling one and gives a lot of clarity on how to move forward. He had stated that the same procedure for male SSC officers will be followed for women to give PC. About 322 women officers had approached the apex court on the issue of PC and the issue of command postings came up in the discussion on subsequent avenues after the grant of PC. In its appeal, the government cited “physical” and “physiological limitations” in granting command positions to women offers, to which the Supreme Court said there was need for administrative will and “change of mindset.” Source: The Hindu

3. Deepening India-South Korea ties Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper II; IOBR








India and South Korea have signed numerous bilateral agreements with the aim of taking their ties to the next level. However, the economic partnership is struck at $22 billion annually, and their defence partnership appears to have receded from great all-round promise to the mere sale and purchase of weapon systems. At the heart of this bilateral stasis is the fact that, despite the best efforts of many well-intended leaders, Indians and South Koreans are failing to touch a mutually meaningful chord of empathy and move closer to each other as people. This is at least in part due to cultural prejudices on both sides, which stands in the way of a relationship based on openness, curiosity and warmth. It is not that efforts to correct distortions in such perception have been wanting. Yet, clearly, whatever bilateral progress has been made, say in the realm of trade and investment, has not lent sufficient momentum that people start building bridges in other areas. So, for example, there may be a widespread perception among South Koreans of India as a third world country, rife with poverty and hunger. While it is true that India is far from eradicating these deprivations, their extent may be exaggerated in the minds of some. On the flip side, it is often the case that Indians are unable to distinguish between the cultural and social characteristics of South Koreans and people of other East Asian nations. Indians in South Korea

Within South Korea, the integration of Indians in the local population is far from complete. There have been some instances of what appears to be racial prejudice or discrimination, including toward Indians in work settings in South Korea. As in any relationship, mutual respect regarding cultural values is the key to building a robust partnership between two countries. The means to achieving that respect is often filling the information gap that creates a chasm between two strong cultures. How much do Indians based in South Korea know about how Korean culture contributed to the growth of a broader Asian view of the world? It is more likely that to the average Indian mind, the defining traits of Japan’s and China’s cultures are better identified than those of Korean culture. All this is to say nothing of the hostility that some visiting South Koreans have faced in India. Indian Culture Centre in Seoul This trajectory of India’s engagement with a strategically important Asian nation suggests that an urgent course correction is required. The establishment of the Indian Culture Centre (ICC) in Seoul 10 years ago was a step in the right direction. Its mission was to promote people-to-people contacts. Yet, given the current focus on diplomatic initiatives — an important but not the only component of a potentially rich bilateral space — it can sometimes be complicated for the average South Korean to access to its offices and services. The ICC’s attempts to broad-base an appreciation of Indian culture by, for example, teaching south Indian dances to elementary school students in South Korea, or organising experiential sessions centred on Indian cuisine, are commendable. Yet, it may








reach an exponentially wider audience if the focus of such efforts was the common man of South Korea, beyond the urban, English-speaking elite of Seoul. The same may be applicable to South Korean culture centres in India. As the balance of power in the region continues to shift fast, India and South Korea may need each like never before, to protect their ways of life. However, both countries will be able to help each other only if they can fill the cultural gaps. A regional hegemon is already pushing hard into the ambit of the Indian Ocean. The sooner these bonds are renewed the better it would be for all Asian democracies. Source: The Hindu

4. China launches first Mars mission Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper III; Science & Technology

China successfully launched its first Mars probe on Thursday, aiming to complete orbiting, landing and roving in a single mission, taking an ambitious step towards planetary exploration of the solar system. A Long March-5 rocket, China’s largest and most powerful launch vehicle, carrying the spacecraft with a mass of about five tonnes, soared into the sky from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of southern China’s island province of Hainan, the official Xinhua news agency reported. About 36 minutes after the launch, the spacecraft, including an orbiter and a rover, was sent into the Earth-Mars transfer orbit, embarking on an almost seven-month journey to the red planet, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA). The Chinese Mars probe named Tianwen 1 or Quest for Heavenly Truth 1, will fulfil three scientific objectives: orbiting the red planet for comprehensive observation, landing on Martian soil and sending a rover to roam the landing site. It will conduct scientific investigations into the planet’s soil, geological structure, environment, atmosphere and water, media reports said. It should arrive in orbit around the red planet in February. The Long March 5 rocket will transport the robotic probe to the Earth-Mars transfer trajectory before the spacecraft begins its self-propelled flight toward Mars’ gravity field. According to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, a State-owned space conglomerate, the probe will travel for about seven months before it reaches Mars, which








at the farthest point of its orbit is about 400 million kilometres from Earth and 55 million kilometres at the nearest point. It said the probe consists of three parts — the orbiter, the lander and the rover — and they will separate in Mars orbit. The orbiter will remain in the orbit for scientific operations and to relay signals while the lander-rover combination makes an autonomous descent and landing. The rover has six wheels and four solar panels and carries six scientific instruments. It weighs over 200 kilogrammes and will work for about three months on the planet, the designers said. China aims to catch up with India, the US, Russia and the European Union to reach the red planet. “The triple-task expedition of Tianwen-1 marks another milestone in China’s aerospace science and technology development, as well as a fresh daring adventure in the country’s long march of outer space exploration following its lunar program and the endeavour to build a space station,” the state-run media commented. In a paper last week, the scientific team behind Tianwen-1 said the probe is “going to orbit, land and release a rover all on the very first try, and coordinate observations with an orbiter. No planetary missions have ever been implemented in this way.” By contrast, NASA sent multiple orbiters to Mars before ever attempting a landing. Pulling off the landing is a far more difficult task, CNN reported. “If successful, it would signify a major technical breakthrough,” the Chinese team wrote in the journal Nature. China in recent years has emerged as a major space power with manned space missions and landing a rover in the dark side of the moon. It is currently building a space station of its own. China’s previous attempt to send an exploratory probe to Mars called Yinghuo-1, in a Russian spacecraft in 2011 failed as shortly after the launch it was declared lost and later burnt during re-entry. The US, Russia, India and the EU have succeeded in sending missions to Mars regarded as the most complex space mission. India became the first Asian country to have successfully launched its Mars orbiter mission Mangalyaan which entered the orbit of the red planet in 2014. India also became the first country to have entered the Martian orbit in its first attempt.








China’s Mars probe is the second such mission launched this month. A United Arab Emirates spacecraft to go to Mars was launched from Japan on July 20, in what is the Arab world’s first interplanetary mission. The launch of the spacecraft named Amal, or the ‘Hope Probe’, marks the start of the seven-month journey to the red planet. The US space agency (NASA) aims to despatch its next-generation rover, Perseverance, on July 30. On April 24, China named its first Mars exploration mission as Tianwen-1 as it celebrated ‘Space Day’ to mark the 50th anniversary of the launch of the country’s first satellite Dong Fang Hong-1 in 1970. The CNSA said all of China’s planetary exploration missions in the future will be named on Tianwen series, signifying the Chinese nation’s perseverance in pursuing truth and science and exploring nature and the universe, the state-run Xinhua news agency had reported. Source: The Hindu

5. How ‘corona’ of the virus changes into a hairpin shape — and why Relevant for GS Prelims & Mains Paper III; Science & Technology








The spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 — the ‘corona’ in the coronavirus that causes Covid-19 disease — has just revealed new secrets. Researchers have found that the spike protein changes its form after it attaches itself to a human cell, folding in on itself and assuming a rigid hairpin shape. The researchers have published their findings in the journal Science, and believe the knowledge can help in vaccine development. What is the spike protein?

It is a protein that protrudes from the surface of a coronavirus, like the spikes of a crown or corona — hence the name ‘coronavirus’. In the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, it is the spike protein that initiates the process of infection in a human cell. It attaches itself to a human enzyme, called the ACE2 receptor, before going on to enter the cell and make multiple copies of itself. What has the new research found?

Using the technique of cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM), Dr Bing Chen and colleagues at Boston Children’s Hospital have freeze-framed the spike protein in both its shapes — before and after fusion with the cell.








Cryo-EM images of SARS-CoV-2 before and after fusion with the human cell. Postfusion shape is like a rigid hairpin. (Source: Provided by Dr Bing, Chen, Boston Children’s Hospital) The images show a dramatic change to the hairpin shape after the spike protein binds with the ACE2 receptor. In fact, the researchers found that the “after” shape can also show itself before fusion — without the virus binding to a cell at all. The spike can go into its alternative form prematurely. What does that signify?

Dr Chen suggests that assuming the alternative shape may help keep SARS-CoV-2 from breaking down. Studies have shown that the virus remains viable on various surfaces for various periods of time. Chen suggests that the rigid shape may explain this. More significantly, the researchers speculate that the postfusion form may also protect SARS-CoV-2 from our immune system. In what way can it protect the virus from the immune system?

The postfusion shape could induce antibodies that do not neutralise the virus. In effect, the spikes in this form may act as decoys that distract the immune system. “Antibodies specifically targeting the postfusion state would not be able to block membrane fusion (viral entry) since it would be too late in the process. This is well established in the field of other viruses, such as HIV,” Chen told The Indian Express, by email. In principle, if both conformations shared neutralising epitopes (the part of the virus targeted by antibodies), then the postfusion form too could induce neutralising antibodies, Chen said. “But because the two structures are often very different, in particular, in case of SARS-CoV-2 and HIV, I think it is not very likely that the postfusion form would be useful as an immunogen,” he explained. Do the two forms share any similarities? Yes, both the “before” and “after” forms have sugar molecules, called glycans, at evenly spaced locations on their surface. Glycans are another feature that helps the virus avoid immune detection. How is the knowledge about the alternative shape useful?

The researchers believe the findings have implications for vaccine development. Many vaccines that are currently in development use the spike protein to stimulate the immune system. But these may have varying mixes of the prefusion and postfusion forms, Chen said. And that may limit their protective efficacy.








Chen stressed the need for stabilising the spike protein in its prefusion structure in order to block the conformational changes that lead to the postfusion state. If the protein is not stable, antibodies may be induced but they will be less effective in terms of blocking the virus, he said. “Using our prefusion structure as a guide, we should be able to do better (introducing stabilizing mutations) to mimic the prefusion state, which could be more effective in eliciting neutralizing antibody responses,” Chen told The Indian Express. “We are in the process of doing this in case the first round of vaccines are not as effective as we all hope.” Source: The Indian Express





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