States’ evidence: Brazil’s messy covid-19 response
President Jair Bolsonaro still dismisses the disease as “just the sniffles”, so state and local authorities—and the country’s vast slums—have taken matters into their own hands. The physical and menta...
7 Apr 202023min
An app for that: covid surveillance
To keep track of the spread of covid-19, some governments are turning to digital surveillance, using mobile-phone apps and data networks. We ask whether this will work—and examine the threat to privac...
6 Apr 202024min
Trough to peak: how high will American unemployment go?
The coronavirus pandemic has sent America’s mighty jobs machine into screeching reverse. How bad might the labour market get? Covid-19 is just one reason why Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Muhammad bin ...
3 Apr 202022min
No port of call: coronavirus may sink the cruise industry
Cruise ships had been enjoying a golden era—until covid-19 came along. The pandemic has been a catastrophe for the industry. Stranded passengers have taken ill and even died, ships have been banned fr...
2 Apr 202021min
Wishful thinking: America’s offer to Venezuela
The Trump administration makes Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro an offer he seems sure to refuse: an end to sanctions in return for power-sharing and elections. The coronavirus pandemic has crushed oil pric...
1 Apr 202022min
In need of Comfort: New York's covid-19 crisis
New York is at the centre of America’s—and the world’s—coronavirus crisis. The metropolis has also been caught in a damaging three-way political division, involving three of its native sons. In the Mi...
31 Mar 202023min
Containment or complacency? Covid-19 in Japan
Japan has reported a relatively low number of coronavirus cases. But concern is growing. The Olympics have at last been postponed and infections are on the rise. Uganda’s president faces a challenge f...
30 Mar 202022min
Life sentences? Prisons and covid-19
Outbreaks among inmates are all but inevitable. Efforts at prison reform that were already under way will get a boost, because now they will save lives. We examine the international variation in what ...
27 Mar 202022min
