As Second Covid-19 Wave Rolls Through Europe, Deaths and Hospitalizations Rise

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Europe’s second coronavirus wave is spreading, and rising hospitalizations and deaths are prompting governments to impose more restrictions, from travel bans in Madrid to the closure of bars in Paris. Confirmed cases in France, Spain, and the U.K. are now higher on an average day than at the peak of this spring’s emergency, although the … Read more

U.S. Adds 50,000 New Coronavirus Cases

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The U.S. saw 50,000 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, as President Trump’s doctors said he could be released from the hospital as soon as Monday. The total death toll in the U.S. reached 209,394, as an additional 690 were reported on Saturday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Total infections in the U.S. … Read more

Pope Francis Says Covid-19 Pandemic Shows Limits to Market Economics

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ROME—Pope Francis offered his prescription for a host of ills plaguing societies around the world, including poverty, terrorism and racism, in a major document written in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic. “Fratelli tutti” (“Brothers, all”), released by the Vatican on Sunday, is only the third time Pope Francis has written an encyclical, one of … Read more

Long Buoyed by High-Flying Emirates, Dubai Now Shares Its Woes

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DUBAI—Emirates Airline powered Dubai’s rise from desert backwater to teeming Mideast metropolis, making the city one of the world’s biggest intercontinental hubs and generating a yearslong economic boom. But now, the coronavirus pandemic and the economic devastation it has wrought have forced the first major downsizing for an airline that has weathered Middle East conflicts … Read more

Covid-19 Vaccine Deployment Would Give Global Economy a Lift Next Year

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Gaining a vaccine to help contain the novel coronavirus would provide a big boost to the global economy in 2021, but the initial geographic distribution of that benefit will likely depend on which vaccine candidate works first. Public health officials around the world increasingly believe at least one of the vaccines now in the later … Read more

Covid-19 Left U.K.’s Boris Johnson and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro Unscathed Politically

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President Trump’s contraction of Covid-19 puts him in the company of two other conservative leaders who also made light of the risks of the coronavirus only to fall ill themselves, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. For both of those leaders, getting ill not only didn’t hurt their political fortunes, but … Read more

Covid-19 Sparks New East-West Divide in Germany—30 Years After Reunification

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SCHWERIN, Germany—A sharp difference in the number of coronavirus cases between western Germany and the former communist East has emerged as a new divide, three decades after reunification. The five states that once made up the bulk of East Germany are among the regions of the country least affected by the pandemic. (Berlin, located in … Read more

Turkey’s Covid-19 Figures Questioned After Asymptomatic Cases Omitted

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ISTANBUL—The severity of Turkey’s coronavirus outbreak was called into question after the government acknowledged it wasn’t counting asymptomatic cases, triggering criticism from local medical professionals and prompting the U.K. on Friday to toughen quarantine requirements for travelers coming from the country. The growing controversy comes as Turkey, which has recorded more than 8,000 deaths from … Read more

New Covid-19 Cases Started to Decline in Hard-Hit Latin America

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SÃO PAULO—The Covid-19 pandemic has ravaged Latin America, killing more than 300,000 people, erasing years of social and economic gains and plunging millions back into poverty. But from Mexico to Brazil, a recent slowdown in new cases and fatalities is raising cautious hopes that the hard-hit region might be turning a corner. While the U.S. … Read more

New Migrant Caravan From Honduras Heads Toward U.S. Border

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MEXICO CITY—A group of about 3,000 Honduran migrants, including many women and children, overwhelmed soldiers and police and crossed into Guatemala on Thursday, heading toward the U.S. southern border to flee poverty and rising joblessness brought by the coronavirus pandemic. With the U.S. presidential election a little more than a month away, the new caravan … Read more