Despite escalating tensions between the U.S. and China, they are not in a new “Cold War,” a former Singapore senior diplomat Bilahari Kausikan said Wednesday.

From trade and technology conflicts to the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and a new law in Hong Kong, the world’s two largest economies are currently embroiled in disagreements on several fronts.

“I don’t think they are on an inevitable collision course. People forget one big factor — and that’s the nuclear factor. There is a state of nuclear deterrence, and that makes war by design highly improbable,” said Kausikan dismissing outright conflict between the two world powers.

“Doesn’t mean it cannot happen by accident, but it is improbable,” said Kausikan, who was formerly Singapore’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and previously served as permanent secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Singapore.

“On the other hand, I don’t think it is the new ‘cold war,'” he said, pointing out the former Soviet Union and the U.S. were “only very tangentially connected” economically.

In comparison, China and the U.S. right now are so

Michael Seres, an entrepreneur, patient advocate, husband and father of three, died on Saturday in Orange County, California, of a sepsis infection. He was 51. 

Seres was widely considered to be one of the first and most prominent “e-patients,” a term which has become popular to denote patients who are informed and engaged in their health, often sharing their experiences online. He is also one of a small number of patient inventors who helped design and build a medical device — a digitally enhanced ostomy bag — that got FDA clearance in 2014. His invention eased the suffering of millions of people with bowel injuries, chronic gut illnesses and cancer. 

Investor Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, who made a personal investment in his company, 11Health, praised Seres in a call with CNBC.

“You just don’t meet too many people like Michael in life,” he said. “I have never met anyone with that combination of buoyancy and bravery.”

Seres, who grew up in London, experienced health issues throughout his life. Before his twelfth birthday, he was diagnosed with severe Crohn’s disease, an incurable bowel condition. He spent much of his life in and

People across the U.S. gathered in mass protests against police brutality after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, raising concerns of further virus spread through the demonstrations. More than 1.7 million people in the U.S. have tested positive for the virus and over 104,000 have died due to Covid-19. Black Americans have made up a disproportionate share of the deaths as underlying conditions, income inequality and disparity in access to health care have exacerbated the outbreak in the community.

Some state and city officials have urged protesters to seek Covid-19 testing and to limit movements in the weeks following the demonstrations in an effort to prevent infections. 

This is CNBC’s live blog covering all the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks. 

• Global cases: More than 6.19 million
• Global deaths: At least 372,479
• U.S. cases: More than 1.79 million
• U.S. deaths: At least 104,383

The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University.