The Economist Latin America November 7, 2020

America recorded 100,000 new cases in a day. The number of daily deaths in Italy hit its highest level since early May. Hospitals in Germany were urged to postpone non-urgent operations to make beds available. The French health minister said that in Paris one person was becoming infected every 30 seconds, and hospitals were admitting someone with the disease every 15 minutes. Saudi Arabia allowed foreign pilgrims back into Mecca. They must self-isolate for three days and submit to frequent testing. Machu Picchu reopened to tourists after eight months of shutdown. The majestic Inca site is restricting visitor numbers; Peru has a high death rate from the disease. An ancient ritual marked the reopening, along with prayers to the gods. With luck they are listening. For our latest coverage of the virus and its consequences…

Politics America’s presidential election was closer than the polls had suggested. In the electoral college Joe Biden won Michigan and Wisconsin, two states that helped hand victory to Donald Trump in 2016; Mr Trump took the key state of Florida, and by a bigger margin than in 2016. Mr Biden had the edge in the vote-count, which the Trump campaign challenged in court. When the final results are tallied the Democrat will have won the nationwide popular vote by perhaps five percentage points. Early results suggested that the Republicans would retain the Senate. The Democrats gained two seats, but a Republican took one back in Alabama, defeating a Democrat who had won a special election in 2017 after his rival was embroiled in a sex scandal. Republicans picked up several seats in…

Politics America’s presidential election was closer than the polls had suggested. In the electoral college Joe Biden won Michigan and Wisconsin, two states that helped hand victory to Donald Trump in 2016; Mr Trump took the key state of Florida, and by a bigger margin than in 2016. Mr Biden had the edge in the vote-count, which the Trump campaign challenged in court. When the final results are tallied the Democrat will have won the nationwide popular vote by perhaps five percentage points. Early results suggested that the Republicans would retain the Senate. The Democrats gained two seats, but a Republican took one back in Alabama, defeating a Democrat who had won a special election in 2017 after his rival was embroiled in a sex scandal. Republicans picked up several…

MONTHS OF FRANTIC electioneering, $13.9bn of campaign spending, a raging pandemic and mass protests over race: in spite of all the sweat and tears, America was still determining as we went to press if its next president really would be Joe Biden or whether Donald Trump might somehow wrangle a second term. Congress is likely to be split between a Democratic House and a Republican Senate—though even that result may remain in doubt until a run-off in January. In the coming days politicians should take their cue from voters, who turned out in greater force than in any year since 1900 and who made their choice without violence. Vote-counting must run its course and disputes between the two campaigns be settled within the spirit of the law. The biggest threat to…

America recorded 100,000 new cases in a day. The number of daily deaths in Italy hit its highest level since early May. Hospitals in Germany were urged to postpone non-urgent operations to make beds available. The French health minister said that in Paris one person was becoming infected every 30 seconds, and hospitals were admitting someone with the disease every 15 minutes. Saudi Arabia allowed foreign pilgrims back into Mecca. They must self-isolate for three days and submit to frequent testing. Machu Picchu reopened to tourists after eight months of shutdown. The majestic Inca site is restricting visitor numbers; Peru has a high death rate from the disease. An ancient ritual marked the reopening, along with prayers to the gods. With luck they are listening. For our latest coverage of…

IT STARTED AS a border skirmish in 1998, between Ethiopian policemen and Eritrean soldiers in Badme, a small village on a barren mountain. One observer at the time likened it to “two bald men fighting over a comb”. It grew into a two-decade-long war in which two of the world’s poorest countries bled themselves to exhaustion. Waves of young men charged across the no-man’sland between their trenches, in battles reminiscent of the first world war in Europe. Perhaps 100,000 soldiers died, and half a million civilians were forced from their homes. Among those who fought in Badme was a young Ethiopian radio operator who briefly left his foxhole to position his antenna. When he came back to it, he found his unit had been wiped out in an artillery strike. “War…