New Delhi: The novel coronavirus pandemic continues to devastate several countries across the world — the latest count is over 1.2 crore cases and more than 5.5 lakh deaths.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to cut funding for schools if they don’t reopen. UK’s chancellor cannot play the finance Santa Claus forever, according to Financial Times. Meanwhile, there is a massive culture gap emerging between London and New York City during the pandemic.
ThePrint brings you the most important global stories on the coronavirus pandemic and why they matter.
Trump threatens to cut funding of schools if they don’t reopen
US President Donald Trump has pressurised top health officials to “water down recommendations for how the nation’s schools could reopen safely this fall” and then threatened to “cut federal funding for districts” that would not resume in-person classes, reports The New York Times.
“Once again rejecting the advice of the specialists who work for him, Mr. Trump dismissed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s ‘very tough & expensive guidelines,’ which he said asked schools ‘to do very impractical things.’ Within hours, the White House announced that the agency would issue new recommendations in the days to come,” says the report.
“Even as the coronavirus is spreading faster than ever in the United States, Mr. Trump expressed no concern about the health implications of reopening in person and no support for compromise plans that many districts are considering,” it adds.
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Temporary advantage of Bolsonaro testing positive for Covid
After Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro tested positive for coronavirus, several members of the government, legislature, and courts are happy for the temporary relief, given that he will be less active for a couple of weeks, reports G-Zero Media.
Even though Bolsonaro continues to be in-charge, Vice President Hamilton Mourão will be taking up some of his duties. “Mourão is a general and, as such, there would be some discomfort in Congress with a military man assuming the presidency. But it would be quite manageable. In fact, the relationship between the executive branch with Congress, the courts and the media would probably improve,” state the report.
“Mourão has proven to be quite a moderate voice in the administration, and would look to work with Congress and the courts,” it adds.
UK Chancellor can’t play Santa Claus forever
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has developed the reputation of a Santa Claus during his government’s financial response to the pandemic. And his status was further cemented Wednesday after he announced generous dole outs for companies and households hit by the pandemic.
But this free-flowing spending cannot continue forever and he would need to stabilise the country’s public finances at some point, argues an analytical piece by the Financial Times.
“The chancellor’s decisions in his summer statement, alongside plunging tax revenues, are likely to push the budget deficit up to £361.5 billion, according to Financial Times calculations. This figure is more than six times the deficit forecast in March by the Office for Budget Responsibility,” notes the report.
Among the £188 billion of measures announced by the government, the largest share — £54 billion — has gone for government’s job retention scheme. While this has helped Sunak gain a lot of popularity, it has also put the country’s public finances under the scanner.
Also read: Netanyahu is downgrading Israeli democracy under cover of coronavirus
Populism complicates Indonesia’s handling of the pandemic
While most Southeast Asian countries have managed to practically contain the pandemic, Indonesia is still struggling to do so, and it might have something to do with populism, reports the Nikkei Asian Review.
By early June, Indonesia was already lagging behind its regional counterparts in controlling the virus, but then under public pressure it decided to reopen the economy, making the situation worse.
Given that President Joko Widodo does not boast of a massive power base, it is forcing him to indulge in a lot of public signalling. This has allowed him to retain his popularity, but the level of trust in his government’s response to the pandemic has been rapidly declining.
Indonesia has recorded over 68,000 cases of coronavirus and 3,359 deaths.
Serbia protests meet violent backlash in Europe’s first major virus unrest
In order to deal with the second wave of coronavirus infections, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced another lockdown. This led to thousands of Serbs protesting against Vucic’s mishandling of the virus, subsequently leading to a crackdown on the protests by the government, reports The New York Times.
“The protests were the first major pandemic-related unrest in Europe since the start of the crisis, and were met by a violent police response that some analysts said they had not witnessed in Serbia since the rule of Slobodan Milosevic, who governed Serbia during the 1990s,” states the report.
At latest count, Serbia has over 17,000 cases of Covid-19 and 341 deaths.
Also read: The US-China rivalry is broadening from trade to everything
An upcoming US-China decoupling
From South China Sea to the trade-front, as US-China tensions rise, an opinion piece written by Zhou Li, former deputy head of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department, is creating a lot of controversy in Chinese circles, reports the Nikkei Asian Review.
“The article predicts industrial supply chains being torn up, a China-U.S. decoupling and a world split into dollar and yuan economic blocs,” notes the report.
The author goes on to ask Beijing to be prepared for deterioration of US-China ties, cope with external demand shock, leave the dollar hegemony and try to develop Yuan as a second international currency, and learn to live with the novel coronavirus.
New York v/s London
In a column, Financial Times’ Gillian Tent writes about the massive culture shock she just experienced as she travelled from the New York City to London.
“What I did not expect was to be hit with a subtle but striking form of culture shock on arrival in London. In New York, face masks are now an embedded — and embodied — part of life,” she writes. “Street signs declare “OUTSIDE WITH NO MASK? FUGGEDABOUTIT!” Buildings carry more polite notices warning that anyone without a mask is banned.”
“Not so in London. In London, we appeared to be almost the only people wearing masks on the streets or in shops; even on public transport (where they are supposedly mandatory) some seem to eschew them,” she adds.
A survey conducted in end of April shows that just 25 per cent of Britons wear masks as opposed to 66 per cent Americans.
Also read: Michael Holding gives ‘powerful message’ on racism in cricket, Harsha Bhogle praises Sky Sports
Melbourne’s second lockdown is not the same, everyone seems to be on edge
A feature piece by The Guardian looks at how the second lockdown in Australia’s Melbourne is not like the first one, and everyone in the city seems to now be on the “edge”.
“Melbourne residents will be locked down from midnight on Wednesday. It is both easier and much harder this time around. Easier because remote working routines have already been established and because, this time, we know what to expect. And harder, because we know what to expect,” notes the report.
“Gone is the optimism that powered the first Australia-wide lockdown in March, where people spoke of flattening the curve and experimented with baking sourdough and bought jigsaw puzzles for their children after the prime minister declared them ‘absolutely essential’,” it adds.
While the country had effectively contained the virus and reopened, a new outbreak has forced the authorities to lockdown Melbourne for six weeks. Australia currently has over 8,800 cases and has recorded 106 deaths.
What else we are reading:
Warning of serious brain disorders in people with mild coronavirus symptoms: The Guardian
As Trump pressures schools to reopen, here’s how other countries have handled the return to the classroom: Washington Post
No masks, no coughs: Robots can be just what the doctor ordered in time of social distancing: Washington Post
Rise in margin lending stokes fears of China bubble: Financial Times