Friday News Roundup - International

In the disputed territory of Kashmir, Pakistan’s army said three of its soldiers and five Indian soldiers are dead after an exchange of fire at the border.

Indian government officials denied the claim, saying that there were no Indian fatalities.

The Pakistani army also said three civilians were killed in the same skirmish, according to al-Jazeera.

More from al-Jazeera:

The developments come during a period of increasing tensions between India and Pakistan after New Delhi’s Hindu nationalist government last week revoked special status for Indian-administered Kashmir.

The decision by India blocks the right of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir to frame its own laws and allows non-residents to buy property there.

Telephone lines, internet and television networks have been blocked and there are restrictions on movement and assembly.

In the lead-up to its controversial move on August 5, India also deployed thousands of additional troops and arrested political leaders in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Who's working to resolve the crisis? Will it be possible to solve the conflict peacefully?

And after protests in Hong Kong shut down its airport, stranding travelers, the world is watching to see how the Chinese government will respond.

Chinese media displayed images of troops massing near the border with the city.

Here’s what the protesters are demonstrating for, per NPR’s Anthony Kuhn.

The protesters want the permanent withdrawal of a bill that would allow people to be extradited from Hong Kong to stand trial in mainland China. They also are demanding accountability for police abuses, the resignation of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and a democratically elected replacement.

And on Wednesday, President Donald Trump suggested a meeting with Chinese premier Xi Jinping to discuss the situation. He has also called the crisis “tricky.” The United States and China are also at odds in an ongoing trade war, which could affect how American officials handle these protests.

More from The Wall Street Journal

In recent weeks, the administration has quietly urged U.S. officials to maintain a measured response on Hong Kong over fears that public criticism of Beijing could derail U.S.-China trade talks, two senior administration officials have said. Mr. Trump himself has called for a restrained response to the protests to avoid rousing tensions with Beijing, the officials said.

We also unpacked the protests earlier this week, and NPR’s Frank Langfitt told us, “The Communist Party has done a very good job of framing these protests in a way that paints these young people as troublemakers, as spoiled, so there’s not a lot of sympathy for them on the mainland.”

We’re also following the impact of an explosion at a nuclear test site in Russia. Earlier this week, Ankit Panda of the Federation of American Scientists told us that while comparing the blast in Sarov to Chernobyl was “politically apt,” on a radiological scale, the consequences are nowhere near the same. The Chernobyl disaster of 1986 was much more significant.

What more is known about this explosion? How are nations around the world responding?

Two experimental treatments for Ebola “appear to dramatically boost survival rates,” the World Health Organization and National Institutes of Health announced this week.

According to Wired, “‘From now on, we will no longer say that Ebola is incurable,” said Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director general of the Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale in the DRC, which has overseen the trial's operations on the ground.”

These measures target people who have already been infected with the disease, which makes health policy experts hopeful about the potential for these treatments.

Who will have access to them? How quickly will they be distributed?

We recap the global news that made headlines this week.

GUESTS

Anne Gearan, White House correspondent with a focus on foreign policy and national security, The Washington Post; @agearan

Hayes Brown, Deputy World News editor, Buzzfeed News; @HayesBrown

Ravi Agrawal, Managing editor, Foreign Policy; former New Delhi bureau chief, CNN; author of “India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World’s Largest Democracy”; @ravireports

For more, visit https://the1a.org.

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