Security for a Post-Pandemic World
In the pandemic, for the first time in living memory, humanity is confronting a common threat that it must defeat collectively. Most arguments currently revolve around the cost of that victory in terms of loss of life and economic damage. The disruption will indeed be huge, comparable only to that w…
The end of economic growth
What economies face now may not be solely a coronavirus-triggered meltdown. As devastating as the coming recession—or depression—is likely to be, the health crisis is exacerbating problems in a system that was already under strain. A view of Times Square hours ahead of the implementation of ‘New Yor…
Coronavirus: World risks ‘biblical’ famines due to pandemic – UN
The world is at risk of widespread famines “of biblical proportions” caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the UN has warned. David Beasley, head of the World Food Programme (WFP), said urgent action was needed to avoid a catastrophe. A report estimates that the number suffering from hunger could go f…
U.N. chief says there’s a bigger threat than coronavirus
NEW YORK — United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres will use a speech marking the 50th Earth Day on Wednesday to confront President Donald Trump and directly link coronavirus with climate change. The stark language of Guterres’ prepared remarks, obtained by POLITICO, marks a new willingness…
The Pandemic and the Myth of Government Competence
Though it is taking place amid some of the most terrible circumstances imaginable, the coronavirus outbreak is also a real-world experiment. We are testing many of the assumptions shared by those who invest a lot of trust in public knowledge and government competence. The experiment isn’t going so w…
Without a central plan, Europe risks a weakened coronavirus recovery
Ignoring painful lessons from the disastrous response to the 2008-2009 financial crisis has become a habit for northern European countries. Betting against their own futures during the recent European Union finance ministers’ gathering, they rejected the idea of a Eurobond or any other new centraliz…
COVID-19: ‘Phased process’ for lifting restrictions is key, WHO chief urges G20
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) told a virtual meeting of the G20 leading global economies on Sunday that although it was encouraging for some countries to be planning to ease lockdowns against COVID-19, “it is critical that these measures are a phased process”. Tedros Adhanom Ghebre…
Will There Be a New Cold War with China? A Reply to Niall Ferguson
The end of the Cold War was a heady time in the West. Francis Fukuyama’s essay “The End of History?”—which argued that the world was witnessing the “unabashed victory of economic and political liberalism”—was published in the National Interest a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. US Pres…
MEPs warn Várhelyi of serious situation in Serbia in regard to human rights
STRASBOURG – A group of 21 MEPs sent a letter to European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi in which they point out to “extremely serious” situation in Serbia in regard to constitutional and human rights, N1 reports. MEPs wrote that the open-ended state of emergency impo…
Will COVID-19 Put Us Right with Nature?
The COVID-19 virus, as frightening as it now seems, may ultimately fail to jolt humanity out of its profligate habits. But instead of regarding the pandemic as merely another problem requiring a technical fix, the world should see it as an opportunity to rethink humanity’s relationship with the plan…