In This Edition

Key Takeaways

Russian President Putin offers security support to Belarus President against the protests sweeping his country. The US and China delayed a review of their Phase 1 trade deal and no new date has been set. Globally, the rate of new coronavirus cases continued to ease. 

Condition Updates

A rundown of important global developments in markets, in business, and region-by-region, as well as statistical risk assessments by country and by US state.

Academic Assessment amid the Coronavirus Pandemic

Debates around the Chinese exam Gaokao provided an early look at many of the questions that now face the rest of the world with regards to academic assessment: how to ensure that testing is fair and equitable for students forced to move to online education, how academic testing may reinforce inequality, and how the existing issues with academic testing systems have been reinforced by the pandemic.

Emerging and Existing Hotspots: Lebanon on the Brink

Nearly two weeks after the August 4 explosion in the port of Beirut that left at least 172 dead, over 6,000 injured and 300,000 homeless, Lebanon’s year-long political, economic and social crises are only worsening. Despite the Prime Minister’s resignation, street demonstrations in Beirut and cities throughout Lebanon continue, as many Lebanese are now expecting a foundational change in the rules that that governed the political system until now.

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