Global Leaders Try, And Fail, to Corral Outbreak: Weekend Reads

(Bloomberg) —

A world leader in intensive care. A mass grave in New York. And infections racing toward 1.8 million across the globe, with deaths crossing the 100,000 mark.

The coronavirus pandemic has spurred a multi-billion dollar global fight for masks, ventilators, gloves and medicines, while the outbreak is cutting a swathe through the hotspots of the U.S. and Europe, leaving governments rushing to pass relief packages to prop up flailing economies.

In the stricken Chinese city of Wuhan — the origin of the crisis — authorities lifted the months-long lockdown, yet businesses and citizens there are facing an uncertain future.

Dig deeper into these topics — and check out some others you may have missed — with the latest edition of Weekend Reads, and click here for more of our most compelling political images.

Boris Johnson Kept on Working, But Then the Virus Took OverThe U.K prime minister was on his own. He had been self-isolating for a week since testing positive for coronavirus. His domestic staff left trays of food outside his apartment door. But there are growing concerns that a trail of errors exposed Johnson to critical risk when the country needed him most. Kitty Donaldson, Tim Ross and Robert Hutton report. 

The Unexpected Holdout to a Global Oil Production DealThe world’s largest oil producers were closing in on a deal to rescue crude markets from a coronavirus-induced collapse after U.S. President Donald Trump stepped in to broker a truce. Then, as Javier Blas, Grant Smith and Amy Stillman explain, Mexico threw a spanner in the whole process.The Politics of 2020 Are Looking Less Ominous for TechThere has been anxiety for months in Silicon Valley that the eventual Democratic presidential candidate would be someone who wanted to break up large technology companies. As Eric Newcomer explains, Bernie Sanders’s decision this week to end his campaign makes that scenario much less likely.The EU’s Latest Existential Crisis Might Be Its Biggest One YetWhen the European Union’s 27 leaders last managed to gather in person on Feb. 21, they didn’t even talk about coronavirus. Since then, Ian Wishart reports, the pandemic has torn into any last notion of unity and confronted the bloc with its next existential crisis.

Orban’s Pandemic Power Grab Reveals the EU’s Wider FrailtiesViktor Orban was Hungary’s firebrand champion of democracy when the Iron Curtain fell in 1989. As an authoritarian prime minister three decades later, he just called into question whether his country is a democracy at all. Zoltan Simon, Ian Wishart and Arne Delfs explain.

One Community, 6,000 Miles Apart, Overwhelmed by the CoronavirusUltra-Orthodox Jewish communities have become virus flashpoints in both New York and in Israel, after many residents, at the behest of revered rabbis, flouted social distancing orders that clashed with their religious lifestyles. As Yaacov Benmeleh writes, some rabbis have now changed course.

In World’s Worst Economy, Unrest Was Exploding Even Before VirusLatin America’s economy was already going backward when the coronavirus hit, Eric Martin and Patrick Gillespie write. Now it’s at risk of losing a whole decade — and pushing fragile democracies closer to their breaking points.

Trump’s ‘Friend’ Jack Ma Helps Repair China’s Image After VirusJack Ma’s influence has only grown since he stepped down as chairman of Alibaba Group Holding. China’s richest person is now playing a prominent role in philanthropic efforts that are helping President Xi Jinping improve the country’s image overseas after Covid-19 spread around the world, as Blake Schmidt and Venus Feng report.

Wuhan Emerges From Lockdown With a Mission: Our Goal Is SurvivalAs the first epicenter of the now global pandemic, Wuhan provides a window into the uncertain, post-virus future. While factories are allowed to re-start, most people still too scared to go out for anything but essentials, as Sharon Chen, Claire Che and Sarah Chen explain.

Foreign Workers in Limbo as Crisis Tests Gulf Immigration RulesThe shock of collapsing oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic is forcing the Arab Gulf monarchies to rethink their policies toward the majority of the region’s private-sector workers: expatriates, as Simone Foxman and Abeer Abu Omar report.