The Economist Continental Europe Edition August 1, 2020

Vietnam recorded its first infections since April. It has still reported no deaths. North Korea admitted that the virus was in the country. It locked down the border city of Kaesong, and accused a defector who swam back across the border from South Korea of bringing the disease. Australia had its worst day for deaths and new cases since the start of the pandemic. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president, said he had recovered from covid-19, after a fourth test came up negative. Robert O’Brien, Donald Trump’s national security adviser, tested positive for the virus, the most senior member of the administration to do so. Mr Trump in effect cancelled the bit of the Republican convention that was to be held in Jacksonville because of Florida’s surging infections. For our latest coverage of the virus and its consequences…

Politics There were fears in Europe of a resurgence of covid-19. Catalonia returned to a form of lockdown. Britain announced that people arriving from Spain, including British tourists coming back from the beach, should quarantine for 14 days. The Spanish government was irked. Croatia, Germany, Luxembourg and Romania all saw localised spikes of corona-virus. Still, Europeans are much better prepared now than they were when the pandemic began. China recorded dozens of new infections in a day, the biggest tally since March. Most were reported in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. Travel restrictions in the western region were already strict, as the central government seeks to crush dissent among mostly Muslim Uighurs. China ordered the closure of the American consulate in Chengdu in retaliation for America shutting down the Chinese…

Vietnam recorded its first infections since April. It has still reported no deaths. North Korea admitted that the virus was in the country. It locked down the border city of Kaesong, and accused a defector who swam back across the border from South Korea of bringing the disease. Australia had its worst day for deaths and new cases since the start of the pandemic. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president, said he had recovered from covid-19, after a fourth test came up negative. Robert O’Brien, Donald Trump’s national security adviser, tested positive for the virus, the most senior member of the administration to do so. Mr Trump in effect cancelled the bit of the Republican convention that was to be held in Jacksonville because of Florida’s surging infections. For our latest coverage…

Politics There were fears in Europe of a resurgence of covid-19. Catalonia returned to a form of lockdown. Britain announced that people arriving from Spain, including British tourists coming back from the beach, should quarantine for 14 days. The Spanish government was irked. Croatia, Germany, Luxembourg and Romania all saw localised spikes of corona-virus. Still, Europeans are much better prepared now than they were when the pandemic began. China recorded dozens of new infections in a day, the biggest tally since March. Most were reported in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. Travel restrictions in the western region were already strict, as the central government seeks to crush dissent among mostly Muslim Uighurs. China ordered the closure of the American consulate in Chengdu in retaliation for America shutting down the Chinese consulate in Houston.…

EVERY COUNTRY in the world has closed or partly closed its borders since the pandemic began. In total, they have issued more than 65,000 restrictions on mobility. For some places, especially islands, border controls have bought valuable time to prepare for covid-19. But the costs of global immobility are immense (see International section). Billions of cancelled journeys means millions of jobs obliterated, lives blighted and dreams deferred. When bankers and tourists stopped flying to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for example, the migrants who made beds and stirred soup were laid off. Foreigners without jobs are required to leave the Gulf, but lots of them cannot, because so many flights have been grounded. Globally, tens of millions of migrants have been stranded, burning through the savings they had hoped would…

EVERY COUNTRY in the world has closed or partly closed its borders since the pandemic began. In total, they have issued more than 65,000 restrictions on mobility. For some places, especially islands, border controls have bought valuable time to prepare for covid-19. But the costs of global immobility are immense (see International section). Billions of cancelled journeys means millions of jobs obliterated, lives blighted and dreams deferred. When bankers and tourists stopped flying to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), for example, the migrants who made beds and stirred soup were laid off. Foreigners without jobs are required to leave the Gulf, but lots of them cannot, because so many flights have been grounded. Globally, tens of millions of migrants have been stranded, burning through the savings they had hoped would…