The Economist Continental Europe Edition September 12, 2020

A promising trial of a vaccine that AstraZeneca is developing with Oxford University was temporarily put on hold after one of the volunteers fell ill. Social gatherings of more than six people were banned in England after a surge in the disease, notably among gregarious young people. The number of new daily infections in the United States fell below 30,000 for the first time since June. In South Africa new cases dropped under 1,000 a day. In July they averaged 11,000. Emmanuel Macron urged people to be “collectively much more responsible” as the number of deaths in France crept up to levels last seen in June. Wearing a face mask in shops and public buildings became mandatory again in the Czech Republic. The stipulation had been lifted in July. For our latest coverage of the virus…

Politics Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, proposed a unilateral change to parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement related to the Northern Ireland protocol, which averts a hard border with the European Union. There is no precedent for Britain breaching international law in this way. It may be British brinkmanship, as talks over a trade deal continue. But Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, said it might result in no deal at all. A fire destroyed the largest camp for migrants in Greece, Moria on the island of Lesbos, leaving 13,000 people without shelter. Some 400 unaccompanied minors are being taken to the mainland. It is not clear what will happen to the rest. Plain-clothes thugs abducted one of the leaders of Belarus’s protests, Maria Kolesnikova. They…

Politics Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, proposed a unilateral change to parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement related to the Northern Ireland protocol, which averts a hard border with the European Union. There is no precedent for Britain breaching international law in this way. It may be British brinkmanship, as talks over a trade deal continue. But Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, said it might result in no deal at all. A fire destroyed the largest camp for migrants in Greece, Moria on the island of Lesbos, leaving 13,000 people without shelter. Some 400 unaccompanied minors are being taken to the mainland. It is not clear what will happen to the rest. Plain-clothes thugs abducted one of the leaders of Belarus’s protests, Maria Kolesnikova. They drove her to…

MOST PEOPLE associate the office with routine and conformity, but it is fast becoming a source of economic uncertainty and heated dispute. Around the world workers, bosses, landlords and governments are trying to work out if the office is obsolete—and are coming to radically different conclusions (see Briefing). Some 84% of French office workers are back at their desks, but less than 40% of British ones are. Jack Dorsey, the head of Twitter, says the company’s staff can work from home “forever” but Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix, says home-working is “a pure negative”. As firms dither, the $30trn global commercial-property market is stalked by fears of a deeper slump. And while some workers dream of a Panglossian future without commutes and Pret A Manger, others wonder about the…

A promising trial of a vaccine that AstraZeneca is developing with Oxford University was temporarily put on hold after one of the volunteers fell ill. Social gatherings of more than six people were banned in England after a surge in the disease, notably among gregarious young people. The number of new daily infections in the United States fell below 30,000 for the first time since June. In South Africa new cases dropped under 1,000 a day. In July they averaged 11,000. Emmanuel Macron urged people to be “collectively much more responsible” as the number of deaths in France crept up to levels last seen in June. Wearing a face mask in shops and public buildings became mandatory again in the Czech Republic. The stipulation had been lifted in July. For…

IT IS STAGGERING to see a British minister brazenly admit to Parliament that the government intends to breach international law. Yet that is what Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, did this week—even if he sought to qualify the move as “very specific and limited”. The plan in the proposed internal-market bill is to override parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, a treaty ratified only in January, that relate to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Because it will remain subject to the European Union’s customs code and single-market rules, special treatment is needed for the province to avert a hard border with Ireland. Reflecting the fact that there is no precedent for Britain unilaterally breaching an international treaty in this way, the government’s most senior legal adviser promptly…