The Economist Continental Europe Edition September 5, 2020

Politics Abe Shinzo announced that he was stepping down as prime minister of Japan because of ill health. Mr Abe has held the job longer than anyone else. He will be remembered for “Abenomics”, a programme of monetary easing, spending and structural reforms. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party will choose a successor on September 14th. The leading candidate is Suga Yoshihide, Mr Abe’s cabinet secretary. Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn restored Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi to her position as royal “consort”. Last year the king made her Thailand’s first officially designated consort in almost a century, but she was stripped of her privileges a few months later for trying to elevate herself as an equal to the queen, the king’s fourth wife. Tensions flared anew in a disputed border area between India and…

The World Health Organisation recommended the use of cheap, everyday steroids for the treatment of severely ill covid-19 patients, after a meta-analysis of data found they reduced deaths by over a third. The United States passed 6m cases in total; the number of new cases continues to fall. France and Spain recorded their most infections in a day since March. Argentina registered its biggest jump since the start of the pandemic. India reported 2m infections in August, the highest monthly tally for any country since the outbreak of the coronavirus. It has recorded 3.9m cases in all. As in many other countries, pupils in England started returning to school for the first time since March. New York City postponed the reopening of its schools as it resolved a dispute with teachers over testing…

The World Health Organisation recommended the use of cheap, everyday steroids for the treatment of severely ill covid-19 patients, after a meta-analysis of data found they reduced deaths by over a third. The United States passed 6m cases in total; the number of new cases continues to fall. France and Spain recorded their most infections in a day since March. Argentina registered its biggest jump since the start of the pandemic. India reported 2m infections in August, the highest monthly tally for any country since the outbreak of the coronavirus. It has recorded 3.9m cases in all. As in many other countries, pupils in England started returning to school for the first time since March. New York City postponed the reopening of its schools as it resolved a dispute with…

Politics Abe Shinzo announced that he was stepping down as prime minister of Japan because of ill health. Mr Abe has held the job longer than anyone else. He will be remembered for “Abenomics”, a programme of monetary easing, spending and structural reforms. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party will choose a successor on September 14th. The leading candidate is Suga Yoshihide, Mr Abe’s cabinet secretary. Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn restored Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi to her position as royal “consort”. Last year the king made her Thailand’s first officially designated consort in almost a century, but she was stripped of her privileges a few months later for trying to elevate herself as an equal to the queen, the king’s fourth wife. Tensions flared anew in a disputed border area between India and China. India accused…

LABOR DAY marks the beginning of the home straight in a presidential election. This one threatens to be ugly. The president’s supporters are clashing with Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland, Oregon. Donald Trump flew to Kenosha, Wisconsin, for a photo-op in front of burned-out buildings, a week after police shot and paralysed an unarmed African-American man and one of the president’s supporters shot and killed two demonstrators, possibly in self-defence. Having adopted a strategy built around profiting from fears about unrest, the president has an interest in stoking it. Many Americans worry that November could herald not a smooth exercise of democracy but violent discord and a constitutional crisis. Is this all hyperbole? America has had violent, contested elections in the past. In 1968 one of the candidates, Bobby…

LABOR DAY marks the beginning of the home straight in a presidential election. This one threatens to be ugly. The president’s supporters are clashing with Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland, Oregon. Donald Trump flew to Kenosha, Wisconsin, for a photo-op in front of burned-out buildings, a week after police shot and paralysed an unarmed African-American man and one of the president’s supporters shot and killed two demonstrators, possibly in self-defence. Having adopted a strategy built around profiting from fears about unrest, the president has an interest in stoking it. Many Americans worry that November could herald not a smooth exercise of democracy but violent discord and a constitutional crisis. Is this all hyperbole? America has had violent, contested elections in the past. In 1968 one of the candidates, Bobby Kennedy,…