Opinion

The Covid-19 pandemic has been traumatic for New York City. How traumatic, by historical standards? Well, city health authorities started keeping more or less consistent track of deaths in 1804. Every year, the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene publishes a remarkable chart on the cover of its vital statistics report of mortality rates since then, labeled “The Conquest ...

Two years ago, India rolled out a laudable plan to unlock the capital trapped in some of its smaller airports. But the actual outcome from privatisation was less than reassuring: All six airfields put on the block went to one bidder. If that wasn’t enough, multiple media reports now say that Ahmedabad, Gujarat-based billionaire Gautam Adani, an early and enthusiastic ...

The suspected poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny underscores the dangers Russians face for speaking out against President Vladimir Putin. It’s also a warning to those currently protesting for democratic change in neighbouring Belarus. So long as Putin remains at the helm, Russia will continue to pose a serious threat to democratic values, in its periphery and beyond. A ...

More than three weeks after the Cares Act expired, Congress is still deadlocked on its replacement — and the main stumbling block is in the Senate. Republicans are fractured and disorganised, while their Democratic counterparts are afraid of doing anything that might be seen as undermining the House. The Senate’s inability to pass major legislation has long enraged Democrats. During ...

Was is it all for nothing? With Spain, France and Germany recording the highest number of virus cases since they emerged from lockdown, the danger that Europe blows its best chance of taming the coronavirus grows by the day. The hope was that we could relax travel and social restrictions this summer because people are much less likely to catch ...

The pandemic has made for an extremely difficult environment when it comes to selling clothes. With no parties on the calendar, no meetings to attend and no vacations in the offing, shoppers have had little reason to go on a spree for new outfits, and the enticement of hunting the racks for something new has simply evaporated. As a result, ...

September is being cast as a fresh start for the Covid-battered UK. Children will return to school, their parents can resume disrupted work lives and Britain’s economy can begin to right itself. Is there anything a shiny new pencil case can’t fix? “Even as adults, that feeling of going back to school after the summer often stays with us,” wrote ...

Are you ready? That’s what Joe Biden asked at the end of his speech accepting the Democratic nomination for president, a speech the convention spent the whole week waiting for. He promised competence and empathy, which everyone had earlier praised him for and which he gave as the reason Americans should trust him to deliver. These convention speeches are normally… ...

The resurgence of the coronavirus in Europe has reignited fears that governments will have to lock down their economies again in the autumn. Some political leaders, including President Emmanuel Macron of France, have rushed to dismiss this possibility, saying the collateral damage from a new bout of confinement would just be too high. Europe’s second wave of Covid-19 is certainly ...

President Donald Trump’s decision to roll back some US regulations aimed at curbing methane emissions by oil and gas producers came in for criticism from both environmentalists and some industry leaders, who branded the move as a disappointing step backward. The reality is more nuanced. The updated regulation will get rid of methane-specific emission limits on oil and gas processing ...