The Economist Continental Europe Edition October 10, 2020

The governor of New York state, Andrew Cuomo, refused a request from the mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, to close non-essential businesses in parts of Brooklyn and Queens that have become virus hotspots, but imposed his own new restrictions. Bars and cafés in Paris were ordered to close again, this time for two weeks. The Irish government rejected a plea from senior scientific advisers to place the country in a strict lockdown, saying that the risk to jobs of closing the economy was too great. Some restrictions were reimposed; people were again told to work remotely. October 16th was set as the date for a travel bubble between Australia and New Zealand to begin. It will be limited to New Zealanders at first; New Zealand recently declared itself free of…

Politics Donald Trump’s doctors were keeping a close eye on their patient, after the 74-year-old president checked out of hospital just three days after being admitted for treatment for covid-19. Around 20 other people in Mr Trump’s circle have also tested positive, including his wife, Melania, Stephen Miller, an adviser, and Chris Christie, a former governor who helped Mr Trump prepare for his first debate. The president described catching the virus as a “blessing from God”. The Commission on Presidential Debates said that the next debate between Mr Trump and Joe Biden should be held virtually. Covid-19 featured large in the vice-presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, a more orderly affair compared with the fireworks of the Biden-Trump encounter a week earlier. The Department of Homeland Security said that white supremacists…

IN FEBRUARY THE coronavirus pandemic struck the world economy with the biggest shock since the second world war. Lockdowns and a slump in consumer spending led to a labour-market implosion in which the equivalent of nearly 500m full-time jobs disappeared almost overnight. World trade shuddered as factories shut down and countries closed their borders. An even deeper economic catastrophe was avoided thanks only to unprecedented interventions in financial markets by central banks, government aid to workers and failing firms, and the expansion of budget deficits to near-wartime levels. The crash was synchronised. As a recovery takes place, however, huge gaps between the performance of countries are opening up—which could yet recast the world’s economic order. By the end of next year, according to forecasts by the OECD, America’s economy will be…

MORE THAN 200 people, mostly soldiers, have been killed in the past ten days. Shells are falling on towns in and around Nagorno-Karabakh. Turkish-made drones are loitering in the sky before blasting targets on the ground—and filming the destruction, to be posted on YouTube (see Europe section). This is not just a small war in a far-off place. It already involves bigger powers, and it could get much bloodier and nastier. Nagorno-Karabakh is a disputed enclave populated largely by (Christian) Armenians. It broke away from (Muslim) Azerbaijan as the Soviet Union collapsed. Armenia supported it, and seized a huge chunk of Azerbaijani territory to connect with it, during a war that killed tens of thousands of people and displaced perhaps 1m more. A ceasefire was reached in 1994, but there have…

Politics Donald Trump’s doctors were keeping a close eye on their patient, after the 74-year-old president checked out of hospital just three days after being admitted for treatment for covid-19. Around 20 other people in Mr Trump’s circle have also tested positive, including his wife, Melania, Stephen Miller, an adviser, and Chris Christie, a former governor who helped Mr Trump prepare for his first debate. The president described catching the virus as a “blessing from God”. The Commission on Presidential Debates said that the next debate between Mr Trump and Joe Biden should be held virtually. Covid-19 featured large in the vice-presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence, a more orderly affair compared with the fireworks of the Biden-Trump encounter a week earlier. The Department of Homeland Security said…

A PRESIDENT IN hospital, virus in the White House, a fight over the Supreme Court, leaked presidential tax returns: it is enough to make you reel. Amid the tumult of the campaign, it is easy to miss a less frenzied turn of events that has no less profound implications for America’s democracy. It concerns suppressing the vote. “Elections belong to the people,” said the Republican Party’s greatest president. What, then, would Abraham Lincoln make of his partymen’s efforts—in Florida, North and South Carolina, Texas, Wisconsin and other contested states—to limit the number of people the coming election belongs to? Allegations of minority-voter suppression are hardly new. They are also often overheated and hard to prove. Yet Greg Abbott’s action in Texas stands out (see United States section). On October 1st the…