The Economist Continental Europe Edition May 23, 2020

The Chinese city of Shulan was put under a strict lockdown after an outbreak of covid-19. Infections in Russia surged to a cumulative total of 310,000. Protests erupted in a poor suburb of Santiago, Chile’s capital, over food shortages caused by the lockdown. Donald Trump said he was taking hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, to ward off covid-19. Doctors warned that this is unsafe. America’s House of Representatives is to allow remote voting for the first time. Captain Tom Moore, a war veteran who walked laps of his garden ahead of his 100th birthday to raise money for Britain’s health service, was awarded a knighthood. Captain Tom’s quest went viral, raising £32m ($39m), and cheering up a nation. For our latest coverage of the virus and its consequences please visit economist.com/ coronavirus or download the Economist app.…

Politics At the World Health Organisation’s annual summit (held remotely), China accepted an Australian-led motion calling for an inquiry into the origins of covid-19. This marked a climbdown by the Chinese government in the face of widespread demands for such a probe. Earlier, Donald Trump once again threatened to pull America out of the WHO unless it took unspecified steps to show “independence from China”. Despite its success in tackling the coronavirus, Taiwan was not invited to this year’s meeting. China imposed tariffs on Australian barley on the day the WHO considered the Australian motion. China maintains that such tariffs have nothing to do with Australian criticism of its rulers. A police watchdog in Hong Kong issued a report on the force’s handling of protests last year. It found no…

Politics At the World Health Organisation’s annual summit (held remotely), China accepted an Australian-led motion calling for an inquiry into the origins of covid-19. This marked a climbdown by the Chinese government in the face of widespread demands for such a probe. Earlier, Donald Trump once again threatened to pull America out of the WHO unless it took unspecified steps to show “independence from China”. Despite its success in tackling the coronavirus, Taiwan was not invited to this year’s meeting. China imposed tariffs on Australian barley on the day the WHO considered the Australian motion. China maintains that such tariffs have nothing to do with Australian criticism of its rulers. A police watchdog in Hong Kong issued a report on the force’s handling of protests last year. It found no serious problem with…

The Chinese city of Shulan was put under a strict lockdown after an outbreak of covid-19. Infections in Russia surged to a cumulative total of 310,000. Protests erupted in a poor suburb of Santiago, Chile’s capital, over food shortages caused by the lockdown. Donald Trump said he was taking hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, to ward off covid-19. Doctors warned that this is unsafe. America’s House of Representatives is to allow remote voting for the first time. Captain Tom Moore, a war veteran who walked laps of his garden ahead of his 100th birthday to raise money for Britain’s health service, was awarded a knighthood. Captain Tom’s quest went viral, raising £32m ($39m), and cheering up a nation. For our latest coverage of the virus and its consequences please visit economist.com/…

FOLLOWING THE pandemic is like watching the climate crisis with your finger jammed on the fast-forward button. Neither the virus nor greenhouse gases care much for borders, making both scourges global. Both put the poor and vulnerable at greater risk than wealthy elites and demand government action on a scale hardly ever seen in peacetime. And with China’s leadership focused only on its own advantage and America’s as scornful of the World Health Organisation as it is of the Paris climate agreement, neither calamity is getting the co-ordinated international response it deserves. The two crises do not just resemble each other. They interact. Shutting down swathes of the economy has led to huge cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions. In the first week of April, daily emissions worldwide were 17% below what they…

FOLLOWING THE pandemic is like watching the climate crisis with your finger jammed on the fast-forward button. Neither the virus nor greenhouse gases care much for borders, making both scourges global. Both put the poor and vulnerable at greater risk than wealthy elites and demand government action on a scale hardly ever seen in peacetime. And with China’s leadership focused only on its own advantage and America’s as scornful of the World Health Organisation as it is of the Paris climate agreement, neither calamity is getting the co-ordinated international response it deserves. The two crises do not just resemble each other. They interact. Shutting down swathes of the economy has led to huge cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions. In the first week of April, daily emissions worldwide were 17% below what…