Counterpoint

In many ways it seems as if the response to the coronavirus, especially in the United States, has been chaotic and irrational but is this really the case? Game theory can explain everything. In recent times Russia has begun to shift its thinking to Asia. However, infrastructure, especially in the Russian far east, is holding it back. Have you ever heard the saying 'go woke or go broke' or even 'get woke, go broke'? Which one is right? Is woke capitalism profitable? There's a new way to test for coronavirus. Sniffer dogs. How does that work?

In recent times there has been much talk about the imminent collapse of the liberal rules based order with Russia and China citied as the main culprits for this destabilisation. Is it true? Should nations be telling other nations what to do and how to act or should they be minding their own business? Statues are being torn down across the United States right now, including statues of Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. Why? How do you see into a black hole or into the depths of the oceans? Is it all skill or all imagination?

We've all heard about China's Belt and Road Initiative, which has been making news since it was launched at the end of 2013, but when and how did China start its push westward and how did they do it? They built roads. Cybersecurity is about preparing the nation from a cyber attack from a hostile government or organisation. How are doing with that, not so well. The world's poorest countries are often troubled by huge amounts of foreign debt but for some of these countries the COVID-19 pandemic has made their debt situation even worse. Can anything be done? Yes, SDR's. Fish pirates may be a great title for a movie but in the real world just how much of a problem are they? We follow the pursuit and capture of one boat, the Andrey Dogov

What is the difference between a riot and a protest and does that depend on who you ask? What would happen if the liberal order, set up in the aftermath of the second World War as a set of international institutions agreed upon by nation states, collapsed? The Australian Space Agency was established in July 2018. Two years later, how do we compare to the rest of the world? Plus the fascinating libertarian history of science fiction.

Are we seeing a new kind of iconoclasm? That is, are statues being torn down, most notably in the UK and US, to erase the history of almost anyone without any kind of consent? Targeted cyberattacks are growing in frequency, most recently with medical research centres and hospitals being attacked by 'hostile state actors'. The country that is doing the most about this is Estonia. How? How did the Kim dynasty come to power and stay there in North Korea? By telling a powerful fiction and keep telling it and telling it and growing it. It's often thought that the Catholic Church and science are diametrically opposed, with Galileo being offered as the perfect example of this incompatibility. Is this really the case or might the Catholic Church have given birth to science?