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In mid-April, as New Zealand entered its fourth week of alert level 4, the Prime Minister warned us not to make comparisons with other countries over our Covid-19 pandemic response.   This extraordinary advice came after Simon Bridges had urged the government to adopt a less-stringent lockdown similar to those in some Australian states. He told media that Australia “has …

China and Hong Kong will this week reach a major turning point, with the expected signing of the new National Security Law in Beijing. The law is designed to quell the continuing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, but marks a departure from the “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement Hong Kong has worked under since 1997, which includes a high degree of …

Jessica Vredenburg, Auckland University of Technology and Megan Phillips, Auckland University of Technology So you finally hit the shops and cafes after weeks of lockdown. After disinfecting your hands, following the arrows around the shop or to your table, taking care to avoid others where possible and, in some cases, providing your contact tracing details – how enjoyable was the …

Kylie Quinn, RMIT University and Kirsty Wilson, RMIT University A new trial has begun in Victoria this week to evaluate a potential vaccine against COVID-19. The vaccine is called NVX-CoV2373 and is from a US biotech company, Novavax. The trial will be carried out across Melbourne and Brisbane, and is the first human trial of a vaccine specifically for COVID-19 …

Simon Lamb, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Timothy Stern, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Back in the 1970s, scientists came up with a revolutionary idea about how Earth’s deep interior works. They proposed it is slowly churning like a lava lamp, with buoyant blobs rising as plumes of hot mantle rock from near …

Andre Spicer, City, University of London A very large number of people in the UK have been complying with coronavirus lockdown rules and staying at home, according to recent study. That, in part, explains the outrage that has followed the revelation that Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s chief adviser, was not among them. Cummings has admitted travelling across the country in …

Dominic O’Sullivan, Charles Sturt University It looked just like any posed political picture. The politician, in this case the National Party’s newly elected leader, Todd Muller, standing by a bookcase. So far so normal. It wasn’t even a new photo. Except that clearly visible in the lower left-hand corner was a powerful piece of political symbolism – a red Make …

Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra Scott Morrison says it is vital to get the Australian economy “out of ICU” and “off the medication” of government support “before it becomes too accustomed to it”. In speech on his government’s plans to reset economic growth over the next three to five years, Morrison says, “We must enable our businesses to earn our …

Rory Horner, University of Manchester The biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world, known as “big pharma”, are American and European. The top five are Pfizer (US), Roche, Novartis (both Swiss), Merck (US) and GlaxoSmithKline (UK). Yet these companies – and the pharmaceutical industry as a whole – rely on global supply chains. And China and India play key roles in …

Ilan Noy, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Since the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, disaster recovery plans are almost always framed with aspirational plans to “build back better”. It’s a fine sentiment – we all want to build better societies and economies. But, as the Cheshire Cat tells Alice when she is lost, where we ought to …