The Economist Continental Europe Edition September 19, 2020

Israel imposed a new lock-down. It will overlap with Jewish holidays, such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. An ultra-Orthodox government minister resigned in protest. India’s accumulated cases passed 5m, less than two weeks after they reached 4m. France jumped past 10,000 cases a day. Jean Castex, the prime minister, warned that there had been a “clear deterioration” of the situation. Boris Johnson’s government promised to speed up the processing of covid-19 tests in England after it emerged there was a backlog of 185,000. AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford resumed their clinical trial of a vaccine following a short postponement when a volunteer fell ill. Eli Lilly, another pharmaceutical company, said that an experimental drug it has produced has an antiviral effect. For our latest coverage of the virus and its consequences please visit…

Politics Suga Yoshihide became Japan’s 99th prime minister. He won the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party with 377 votes of a possible 535, following Abe Shinzo’s resignation due to ill health in August. Mr Suga, who served as Mr Abe’s chief cabinet secretary, has promised continuity. But his background and stated priorities suggest a narrower focus on the economy. Thailand became the first South-East Asian country to loosen tourism restrictions introduced during the pandemic. Visitors who agree to a 14-day quarantine and a minimum stay will be allowed to enter. Malaysia’s prime minister, by contrast, said he would tighten controls at borders. Singapore will give all adult residents vouchers worth S$100 ($73) to spend on local hotels and sights. European Union leaders held an online meeting with China’s president,…

Politics Suga Yoshihide became Japan’s 99th prime minister. He won the leadership of the Liberal Democratic Party with 377 votes of a possible 535, following Abe Shinzo’s resignation due to ill health in August. Mr Suga, who served as Mr Abe’s chief cabinet secretary, has promised continuity. But his background and stated priorities suggest a narrower focus on the economy. Thailand became the first South-East Asian country to loosen tourism restrictions introduced during the pandemic. Visitors who agree to a 14-day quarantine and a minimum stay will be allowed to enter. Malaysia’s prime minister, by contrast, said he would tighten controls at borders. Singapore will give all adult residents vouchers worth S$100 ($73) to spend on local hotels and sights. European Union leaders held an online meeting with China’s president, Xi Jinping. They…

Israel imposed a new lock-down. It will overlap with Jewish holidays, such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. An ultra-Orthodox government minister resigned in protest. India’s accumulated cases passed 5m, less than two weeks after they reached 4m. France jumped past 10,000 cases a day. Jean Castex, the prime minister, warned that there had been a “clear deterioration” of the situation. Boris Johnson’s government promised to speed up the processing of covid-19 tests in England after it emerged there was a backlog of 185,000. AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford resumed their clinical trial of a vaccine following a short postponement when a volunteer fell ill. Eli Lilly, another pharmaceutical company, said that an experimental drug it has produced has an antiviral effect. For our latest coverage of the virus…

OIL FUELLED the 20th century—its cars, its wars, its economy and its geopolitics. Now the world is in the midst of an energy shock that is speeding up the shift to a new order. As covid-19 struck the global economy earlier this year, demand for oil dropped by more than a fifth and prices collapsed. Since then there has been a jittery recovery, but a return to the old world is unlikely. Fossil-fuel producers are being forced to confront their vulnerabilities. ExxonMobil has been ejected from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, having been a member since 1928. Petrostates such as Saudi Arabia need an oil price of $70-80 a barrel to balance their budgets. Today it is scraping along at just $40. There have been oil slumps before, but this one…

AT POINTS IN the past decade the European Central Bank (ECB) was the only institution standing between the euro zone and financial oblivion. Europe’s problem was budgetary inhibition and insufficient risk-sharing. Monetary policymakers were the only game in town. No longer. Earlier this year the European Union agreed to issue joint debt to fund a fiscal response to the pandemic, sending confidence in the currency union surging. Now the most pressing problem in euro-zone economic policy stems from Frankfurt. It is that hardly anyone believes the ECB is serious about hitting its inflation target of “below, but close to, 2%”. Covid-19 continues to leave most of the world with a 90% economy in which activity is depressed (see Finance section). Disinflation is the natural consequence. In August euro-zone prices fell for…