The Economist Continental Europe Edition June 27, 2020

Politics Some states in the south and west of the United States recorded their biggest daily rise in cases of covid-19, bringing America’s total to over 2.3m. The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, urged people to stay indoors. He also declared that the state remained “wide open for business”. California recorded new highs in hospital admissions. Connecticut, New Jersey and New York are to quarantine visitors from states that are covid hotspots. Donald Trump sacked Geoffrey Berman as the federal prosecutor for Manhattan. Mr Berman’s office had successfully prosecuted Mr Trump’s former lawyer (Mr Berman was recused from the case) and is investigating his current one, Rudy Giuliani. Less than a month after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, an attempt to reform police procedures in Minnesota came to…

The World Health Organisation reported a record increase in the number of new infections, bringing the total to more than 9.1m. It expects the 10m mark to be reached within days. Brazil recorded another big surge in cases, bringing its accumulated total to 1.1m. Officials reimposed a lock-down in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu in southern India, after a surge in deaths. The number of infections in Delhi, meanwhile, overtook that in Mumbai. Saudi Arabia’s state media said strict limits would be placed on the number of pilgrims allowed to make this year’s haj. Citizens from other countries already in Saudi Arabia may attend, but international visitors are barred. Novak Djokovic apologised after he and three other tennis players contracted covid-19 at a tournament he was hosting. For our latest coverage of the virus…

Politics Some states in the south and west of the United States recorded their biggest daily rise in cases of covid-19, bringing America’s total to over 2.3m. The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, urged people to stay indoors. He also declared that the state remained “wide open for business”. California recorded new highs in hospital admissions. Connecticut, New Jersey and New York are to quarantine visitors from states that are covid hotspots. Donald Trump sacked Geoffrey Berman as the federal prosecutor for Manhattan. Mr Berman’s office had successfully prosecuted Mr Trump’s former lawyer (Mr Berman was recused from the case) and is investigating his current one, Rudy Giuliani. Less than a month after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, an attempt to reform police procedures in Minnesota came to naught when Democrats…

The World Health Organisation reported a record increase in the number of new infections, bringing the total to more than 9.1m. It expects the 10m mark to be reached within days. Brazil recorded another big surge in cases, bringing its accumulated total to 1.1m. Officials reimposed a lock-down in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu in southern India, after a surge in deaths. The number of infections in Delhi, meanwhile, overtook that in Mumbai. Saudi Arabia’s state media said strict limits would be placed on the number of pilgrims allowed to make this year’s haj. Citizens from other countries already in Saudi Arabia may attend, but international visitors are barred. Novak Djokovic apologised after he and three other tennis players contracted covid-19 at a tournament he was hosting. For our…

IN 1993 THIS newspaper told the world to watch the skies. At the time, humanity’s knowledge of asteroids that might hit the Earth was woefully inadequate. Like nuclear wars and large volcanic eruptions, the impacts of large asteroids can knock seven bells out of the climate; if one thereby devastated a few years’ worth of harvests around the globe it would kill an appreciable fraction of the population. Such an eventuality was admittedly highly unlikely. But given the consequences, it made actuarial sense to see if any impact was on the cards, and at the time no one was troubling themselves to look. Asteroid strikes were an extreme example of the world’s wilful ignorance, perhaps—but not an atypical one. Low-probability, high-impact events are a fact of life. Individual humans look for…

IN 1993 THIS newspaper told the world to watch the skies. At the time, humanity’s knowledge of asteroids that might hit the Earth was woefully inadequate. Like nuclear wars and large volcanic eruptions, the impacts of large asteroids can knock seven bells out of the climate; if one thereby devastated a few years’ worth of harvests around the globe it would kill an appreciable fraction of the population. Such an eventuality was admittedly highly unlikely. But given the consequences, it made actuarial sense to see if any impact was on the cards, and at the time no one was troubling themselves to look. Asteroid strikes were an extreme example of the world’s wilful ignorance, perhaps—but not an atypical one. Low-probability, high-impact events are a fact of life. Individual humans look…