Many of the governments once lauded for their textbook COVID-19 responses, replete with strict lockdowns, sophisticated contact-tracing apps and clearly articulated policies, got tripped up by something in the end. In Singapore, it was an outbreak in foreign worker dorms. In South Korea, it was the premature reopening of nightclubs. Then there were other countries that did nothing glaringly wrong and still suffered. It only goes to show that there’s no winning the coronavirus recovery.

Viewpoints Aug. 26, 2020

Of the coronavirus’s many side effects, perhaps the least appreciated are psychological. Those who’ve had a bad case and survived, like people who’ve been in war or accidents, may suffer post-traumatic stress for years. And even people in the as-yet-healthy majority are hurting. Young adults, in particular, are getting more depressed and anxious as SARS-CoV-2 uproots whatever budding life plans they’d been nursing. It’s long been clear that COVID-19, like any major

Viewpoints Aug. 25, 2020

One of the most severe floods in decades is ravaging the industrial heartland, just as China struggles to shake off the impact of COVID-19. The Yangtze River’s inundation has so far caused direct economic losses of 178.9 billion yuan ($25.7 billion), including collapsed buildings, flooded factory floors and homes and livelihoods lost for millions of people. Average rainfall for June and July surpassed previous years; fixing the damage has barely begun. The latest disaster feeds into a pic

Viewpoints Aug. 24, 2020

When he took office early last year, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had what looked like a plan: Crush corruption, rescue Brazil from social liberalism and revive the economy from the worst recession in a century. Nineteen months on, that bold agenda is mostly history. It’s tempting to blame the flop on the coronavirus pandemic -- a “meteor strike,” in the words of Economy Minister Paulo Guedes -- and its devastating toll on lives and livelihoods. But that gets the story

Viewpoints Aug. 24, 2020

Examples abound of how reprehensible leadership has worsened Latin America’s plight during the coronavirus pandemic. After consistently flouting public health safeguards, right-wing populist Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his left-wing coeval, Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, turned their countries into COVID-19 killing fields, with a fifth of reported global fatalities between them. Nicaraguan strongman Daniel Ortega went AWOL, failing to show up in public for more tha

Viewpoints Aug. 20, 2020

The building of China’s high-speed rail network counts as one of the greatest transportation success stories so far this century. That doesn’t mean the country can repeat the trick. When plans for a nationwide network of trains traveling at up to 350 kilometers per hour were first hatched in 2004, it was thought such projects could only be viable in rich countries. Beijing’s economic planners proved those naysayers wrong. Now, two-thirds of the world’s high-speed rail is

Viewpoints Aug. 20, 2020

Keeping schoolchildren home again this fall will come at a hefty price for families and economies around the world. In Hong Kong, authorities may be underestimating the cost. The government’s decision to start the new academic year online after a resurgence in COVID-19 cases has generated little public discussion. That’s a surprise, given that the poorest will suffer disproportionately from another prolonged shutdown. Caution is appropriate when it comes to a virus, especially in

Viewpoints Aug. 19, 2020

There was no clearer way of signaling how Russia sees its coronavirus vaccine: Moscow named it Sputnik, after the satellite whose launch in 1957 marked the start of the space race and forced the West to confront an unexpected, and terrifying, technology gap. Announcing the world’s first regulatory approval this week, President Vladimir Putin sought to repeat the propaganda masterstroke. Yet the rushed endorsement, after just two months of small-scale human testing, is less an affirmation

Viewpoints Aug. 18, 2020

The system of separation of powers is in real trouble. That’s the main conclusion to draw from President Donald Trump’s recent executive orders, attempting to circumvent Congress with actions that (he said) would provide some economic relief made necessary by the pandemic. A central assumption behind the US Constitution no longer holds. The reason is that when members of Congress are asked to assess aggressive and possibly unlawful actions of a sitting president, they now ask one q

Viewpoints Aug. 13, 2020

A key supplier to Apple and a dozen other tech giants plans to split its supply chain between the Chinese market and the US, declaring that China’s time as factory to the world is finished because of the trade war. Hon Hai Precision Industry Chairman Young Liu said it’s gradually adding more capacity outside of China, the main base of production for gadgets from iPhones to Dell desktops and Nintendo Switches. The proportion outside the country is now at 30 percent, up from 25 pe

Industry Aug. 12, 2020

As I was preparing to assume duties as supreme allied commander at NATO a decade ago, the two people I sought out for counsel were both generals: Colin Powell and Brent Scowcroft. The advice from Powell, the former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was essentially personal, and it boiled down to: “Don’t start to think you are Charlemagne over there, Stavridis.” Meaning, don’t let your ego get out in front of you, and listen to your mentors and

Viewpoints Aug. 12, 2020

Professional attire has been evolving for decades into ever more casual modes. For men, suits gave way to blazers and slacks, then blazers and dark jeans, and then just jeans and a button-up. For women, pantyhose got dumped, skirt suits became a relic, and leggings somehow got reclassified in wardrobe taxonomies as pants. Now, thanks to this weird, extraordinary summer America is having, it’s finally happened: Office clothes are officially dead. Desk jockeys have been toiling from home

Viewpoints Aug. 10, 2020

In some cases, it is already possible to make moral judgments about the various government responses to COVID-19. Such as: The US squandered months of preparation time in early 2020, and President Donald Trump’s administration used and promoted abysmal risk communication strategies. China should have been more transparent about the virus early on. The Brazilian leadership has behaved especially irresponsibly. Nonetheless, the genre of “coronavirus moralizing” is suspect. All t

Viewpoints Aug. 10, 2020

One of the defining features of the Trump years has been the collapse of bipartisan consensus on foreign policy. There is at least one notable exception, however: support for a democratic transition in Venezuela. When Juan Guaido, the leader of Venezuela’s national assembly and the man recognized by the US and more than 60 other nations as the country’s interim president, attended the State of the Union address in Washington this year, he received a standing ovation from Democrats a

Viewpoints Aug. 6, 2020

Recent decades have been glorious for developing countries, where rapid growth has lifted millions of their citizens out of crushing poverty. But the coronavirus pandemic is threatening to halt their gains. And in the long term, the decline of the US may pose an even bigger obstacle for developing nations. Starting in about 1990, poor countries started catching up to rich ones. South Korea, Taiwan and some countries in Europe reached a fully developed state. China has powered ahead with one of

Viewpoints Aug. 6, 2020