Tracking the Coronavirus Pandemic

On this week's podcast: How the coronavirus could transform urban life.

Several Pakistani lawmakers have died from COVID-19.

New surveys show a surprising decline in the Russian president’s popularity. The pandemic will accelerate a trend of mistrust in the Kremlin.

How Trump’s response to both endangers U.S. national security.

It’s the country’s biggest crisis in decades—and all signs suggest Americans will absorb all the wrong lessons from it.

Doctors are being attacked and critics silenced as Moscow tries to control the narrative.

Governments and companies are returning to business at many different speeds. All worry that something might go wrong.

As the coronavirus death toll mounts, interrupted mourning rituals leave families unmoored.

“Nearly all the Taliban leadership in Doha has the bug,” a senior Afghan official said.

Taiwan beat the virus with efficient government and advanced technology—the same ingredients that power the economy.

Germany’s reopening is working because Angela Merkel treats citizens like adults; China’s is succeeding because people see results. In India, there’s no trust—and little evidence of progress.

The White House’s official narrative about the pandemic is contradicted by the facts—and creates new obstacles to stopping the virus.

Democrats and NGOs slammed the White House decision, saying the U.S. president was ceding influence to China and further undercutting the coronavirus response.

Wall Street and Main Street are on two different planets. We asked six leading experts why.

A step-by-step reconstruction of events reveals a long series of mistakes and missteps.

The Trump administration says manufacturing jobs are coming home. The facts tell another story.

A commonsense solution to the housing crisis has gained backers amid the pandemic—but can the political will remain?

With frustration rising over haphazard responses to the coronavirus, community networks are filling the void across the continent.

The coronavirus has exacted a terrible toll—but some good things may come of it yet.

From insurgent groups to charities, a range of nongovernmental organizations are stepping in to respond to the coronavirus crisis.

In Southeast Asia, the coronavirus pandemic has provided a handy excuse for a clampdown on free speech.

The invisibility and silence of Congress is another reason for America’s shocking abdication of global leadership.

Countries begin to reschedule elections after many were postponed due to the coronavirus.

Europe’s pandemic bailouts are trying to save the continent’s economy. Less clear is if they can save the planet.

State leaders are showing up the president in their pandemic response, giving López Obrador’s critics their loudest opportunity yet to oppose his policies.

Emergency monetary policies produce an unintended consequence: rising food prices around the world.

U.S. fails to gain support for an immediate investigation into coronavirus origins and for bringing Taiwan on as observer. 

The nostalgia for George W. Bush inspired by his rousing coronavirus video message is misplaced.

When the coronavirus arrived, aboriginal communities sprang into action long before the government. But in light of a neglected health system, can their tenuous successes be maintained?

Anti-Chinese sentiment and a public health backlash have vaulted Hong Kong-born Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam into the firing line for Canada’s extremists.

As the coronavirus rages on, diplomacy has moved completely online—with mixed reviews.

The psychological harm of lockdown hits people with existing conditions hardest.

Public health is a convenient pretext for extending authoritarian controls.

As the lockdown begins to ease up, coronavirus patients in ICUs across the country are just waking up—and beginning a long road to recovery.

Ten leading global thinkers on an expansion of government powers.

The country should address the worsening coronavirus crisis with policies that will also repair long-standing inequality.

Despite indifferent lockdowns and poor testing, Japan seems to be skipping the worst of the pandemic.

Beijing’s advocates whitewash an increasingly oppressive regime.

An advocate for China describes why the pandemic has increased his trust in Xi, the party, and Beijing.

With the coronavirus now an excuse for inaction, the threat to the embattled minority is growing ever sharper.

In the U.S. health care system, failure is institutionalized. Getting rid of Trump in November would not solve the problem.

The country has taken a unified, middle-of-the-road approach to the coronavirus, rooted in respect for science. It’s working.

A new spurt of cases after the lifting of social distancing restrictions exposes an undercurrent of hate.

In India and around the world, community health workers are being rerouted to deal with the pandemic—with dangerous results.

With Putin’s help, Assad has constrained the capacity of the United Nations to deliver health supplies in opposition-controlled territory, which faces rising risk of the coronavirus. 

New information may offer insight into the honesty of China’s coronavirus numbers.

The U.K. epidemiologist Neil Ferguson cheated regulations to see his lover. But he’s not the only scientist to fall victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Despite Pompeo’s push for more active diplomacy, his senior deputies want to go slow.

Insufficient water for washing is likely to worsen the coronavirus in the poorest nations. There’s a better way forward.

The Communist Party’s tools of control made for effective virus-fighting weapons.

Given how much remains unknown about the virus, talk of success may be premature.

Leaders in the United States and Europe insist they’re at war with the coronavirus. Here’s what they would do if they meant it.

The world is pouring trillions of dollars into coronavirus vaccines and economic stimulus efforts. But without strict measures, graft will prevent funds from reaching the right recipients.

The coronavirus will ravage a resilient Somalia—with ripples far beyond its borders.

America needs a medical microgrid focused on treating patients where they are. Without locally focused care, doctors will continue to fail those who need them most.

If you think tracking apps will keep people safe as economies reopen, look to South Korea, Singapore, and Australia to see why you’re mistaken.

After a new spurt of coronavirus cases in Seoul and with a second wave deemed “inevitable,” South Korea is bracing itself for a new normal.

As the pandemic threatens livelihoods, the country’s poor are relying almost exclusively on the charity of fellow citizens.

A snapshot of life on Earth under COVID-19 in early May.

The iron-fisted president has downplayed the coronavirus to shield the economy and project control.

Drug cartels are facing broken supply chains, shrinking revenues, and shifting markets. Rising violence is just one effect.

In South Africa, people are brewing beer at home. Muslims in India are celebrating Ramadan alone. And city streets everywhere are vacant.

Here in Spain, even easing measures leaves them stricter than in most of the United States.

The Trump administration’s response to the pandemic in Latin America perfectly illustrates why U.S. relations with the region are on life support.

Without an intelligent quarantine in place, public trust and the media have been crucial to the country’s success.

The Islamist group is using the coronavirus crisis for propaganda—with potentially dire consequences for those living under its control.

The outbreak in crowded dorms has brought out the city-state’s prejudices.

Forcing governments and businesses to institutionalize doubt—by putting hackers and red teams on the payroll—would stop groupthink and could prevent catastrophes.

The global multilateral system has failed to rise to the coronavirus challenge. It is time to let local leaders step in.

Convincing the world that freedom is worth it will be a hard struggle if Beijing sells its message right.

The Islamic Republic could face a devastating second wave of coronavirus infections, but keeping the economy closed down without a safety net would have likely led to unrest and collapse.

COVID-19 has strained medical systems worldwide, but some countries already lacked capacity long before the pandemic struck.

In southern Italy, an already shaky economy is left struggling by the coronavirus—leaving a vacuum for organized crime.

Five Eyes members and intelligence analysts push back against attempts to pin the virus on Chinese biosafety mistakes.

The collapse of medical supply chains has been a catastrophe for women in developing countries. Lockdowns have made matters worse.

Rather than relying on mass infection to build resistance to the coronavirus, the country needs a long-term, data-driven, decentralized approach.

The pandemic is transforming urban life. We asked 12 leading global experts in urban planning, policy, history, and health for their predictions.

Contractors who work at the only permanent U.S. base in Africa have tested positive for the coronavirus as officials and experts fear the pandemic’s spread could allow terrorist groups to wrest away more territory.

But Russia blocks the reopening of a critical border crossing for humanitarian aid.

In its delayed response to the pandemic, Aung San Suu Kyi’s government prioritizes the country’s ethnic majority.

Abortions were already difficult to obtain and then came the coronavirus.

European countries have suffered from the pandemic, but their southern and eastern neighbors are faring even worse—setting the stage for financial ruin, political instability, and a surge of refugees.

A campaign linked to Russia aims to manipulate this year’s elections in the United States and Europe. Trump needs to let the intelligence professionals do their work.

The coronavirus has created more people vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers—and revealed the world’s unpreparedness to protect them.

The coronavirus hit Lebanon in the middle of an economic crisis. Unless the country can overcome rampant corruption and provide adequate social services, it won’t stop the pandemic.

Critics say fighting the coronavirus has become secondary as U.S. seeks to hamstring the World Health Organization, turning it into a 2020 election issue along with Chinese trade.

The continent is ripe for a public health disaster, and Western powers must step in to prevent another global catastrophe.

U.S. Navy says it will extend the investigation into the coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, suggesting questions persist about the actions of the ship’s fired skipper.

Americans are still living with the botched response to terrorism in 2001. The post-pandemic world needs better.

Drought coupled with the coronavirus pandemic spells danger for food security.

Living marginal lives even before the pandemic, many in this war-ruined land have no choice but to defy the lockdown and turn to begging.

Electrifying rural health care facilities would burnish Beijing’s reputation in poor countries throughout Africa and Asia and cost next to nothing.

People love to hate Germany—but the country is doing far more than most nations to help its European neighbors fight the coronavirus.

Democracies are far more effective at combating national crises, but that hasn’t stopped despots across the world from trying to tighten their grip.

Like many countries angered by Beijing’s mishandling of the coronavirus outbreak, India has turned skeptical of economic dependence on China.

Even in the face of an existential crisis, the country’s political leaders default to battles over culture and identity.

Pride may get in the way, but mutual success against the coronavirus offers a strong foundation for cooperation.

The authorities are struggling to enforce social distancing rules during Ramadan.

The United States suffers record unemployment while Europe fares better in battling the coronavirus shutdown.

With Ramadan services sharply curtailed due to the pandemic, many Muslims are wondering if the required fasting might also pose a health risk.

Hundreds of Nepalis and others have been deported under cover of the pandemic.

The pandemic is causing crisis for energy-producing governments around the world—and could change the global economy forever.