The Economist Continental Europe Edition June 19, 2021

The number of infections continued to fall in India. Tourist attractions, including the Taj Mahal, re-opened to visitors. There are worries that easing restrictions will cause a new wave of cases. Officials in Moscow told people to work from home, as new daily cases in the city leapt to their highest level since December. California and New York lifted almost all their remaining restrictions. The number of new infections in both states are at their lowest levels since the start of the crisis. Tanzania said it would release data on covid-19 infections for the first time in more than a year. This would make the IMF and World Bank more likely to disburse funds. Tanzania’s late president, John Magufuli, had halted the publication of such statistics. He also denied there was covid in…

Politics Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin met in Geneva for a summit. It lasted less than four hours, but both men described it as constructive. The two sides agreed to return their ambassadors, who were recalled earlier this year, and said they would work on new nuclear-arms-control measures. Mr Biden criticised Russia’s human-rights record, but said the topic should be dealt with separately from other matters, such as security and climate change. Mr Putin denied that Russia engages in cyber-attacks. China rejected criticism made by G7 countries at their summit in Britain. The G7 had called for peace in the Taiwan Strait and asked China to respect human rights, especially in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. A Chinese official said America was sick and the G7 should give it medicine. Meanwhile, 28 Chinese…

Politics Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin met in Geneva for a summit. It lasted less than four hours, but both men described it as constructive. The two sides agreed to return their ambassadors, who were recalled earlier this year, and said they would work on new nuclear-arms-control measures. Mr Biden criticised Russia’s human-rights record, but said the topic should be dealt with separately from other matters, such as security and climate change. Mr Putin denied that Russia engages in cyber-attacks. China rejected criticism made by G7 countries at their summit in Britain. The G7 had called for peace in the Taiwan Strait and asked China to respect human rights, especially in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. A Chinese official said America was sick and the G7 should give it medicine. Meanwhile,…

TWENTY YEARS ago, it might have been the plot of a trashy airport thriller. These days, it is routine. On May 7th cybercriminals shut down the pipeline supplying almost half the oil to America’s east coast for five days. To get it flowing again, they demanded a $4.3m ransom from Colonial Pipeline Company, the owner. Days later, a similar “ransomware” assault crippled most hospitals in Ireland. Such attacks are evidence of an epoch of intensifying cyberinsecurity that will impinge on everyone, from tech firms to schools and armies (see Briefing). One threat is catastrophe: think of an air-traffic-control system or a nuclear-power plant failing. But another is harder to spot, as cybercrime impedes the digitisation of many industries, hampering a revolution that promises to raise living standards around the world. The first…

THE AIM, President Joe Biden said, before setting off on a European tour that ended in a summit with his Russian counterpart on June 16th, was to “make it clear to Putin and China that Europe and the United States are tight”. He achieved that, more or less. After meetings of the G7 and NATO and an EU-American pow-wow, it is clear that the rich countries of Europe and North America (and Japan) share common concerns about the two great autocracies that confront them. Whereas Donald Trump showed a strange fondness for dictators, Mr Biden is doing a fair job of uniting democracies to call the autocrats out. Mr Putin and Mr Biden arrived in Geneva without much room for manoeuvre. Mr Biden wants to look tough on Russia, but finds…

The number of infections continued to fall in India. Tourist attractions, including the Taj Mahal, re-opened to visitors. There are worries that easing restrictions will cause a new wave of cases. Officials in Moscow told people to work from home, as new daily cases in the city leapt to their highest level since December. California and New York lifted almost all their remaining restrictions. The number of new infections in both states are at their lowest levels since the start of the crisis. Tanzania said it would release data on covid-19 infections for the first time in more than a year. This would make the IMF and World Bank more likely to disburse funds. Tanzania’s late president, John Magufuli, had halted the publication of such statistics. He also denied there…