Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Tuesday July 21st. I'm Nila Boodoo. Here's

how we're making you smarter today. The states at the center of the 2020 voting crisis

plus how the virus has shut down the traditional fall TV lineup

but first the global clash over a COVID vaccine

is today's one big thing.

The UK and China made big news yesterday

with promising results in vaccine development

for the coronavirus. The US, Russia, and at least five other

countries are also working on almost 200 possible vaccines. But instead of nations across

the world coming together to find a common solution to a global

pandemic, it's become a geopolitical mess.

The UK, the US, and Canada even accused Russia of stealing vaccine research.

Dave Lawler is the world editor for Axios.

Russia does have one vaccine in development from its state-run labs, but there's a few stages behind where the US, China, and other countries are right now.

And so part of the accusation is that they're trying to steal information from those projects

happening elsewhere and incorporate it into their own vaccine development program.

And Axios has a scoop that Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House, is actually presenting sanctions that could be applied to people in Russia and China

who try to steal U.S vaccine research.

I guess there's no one to mediate between countries in all of this. Is there anyone that has an authority to do this that countries would respect?

The WHO and the European Union are actually working together to try to come up with a plan for what they call fair and equitable

distribution between countries.

The US notably is not part of that project.

...