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In the balance

March 22, 2021

Even as some nations progress with their Covid-19 vaccination programs, governments continue to reckon with the grim power of the pandemic as it saps the patience of exhausted populations to endure prolonged restrictions.

Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed extending Germany's lockdown for another four weeks amid a spike in virus cases, adding to woes in Europe as the continent's east experiences the most severe outbreaks in months and the European Union's fight with the U.K. over vaccine exports grows increasingly bitter.

The U.K. is celebrating inoculating half its adult population and Joe Biden is well ahead of his target of 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days as U.S. president. Still, Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces growing demands within his own party to loosen Covid restrictions faster and Biden's under pressure to help other nations amid accusations of vaccine hoarding.

Brazil's healthcare system is collapsing under the pressure of record infections and deaths, sending public disapproval of President Jair Bolsonaro, already on his fourth health minister of the crisis, to a new high. India and Pakistan are also experiencing surges in cases.

Even Japan, which has avoided the worst of the pandemic, has bowed to the inevitable and barred foreign visitors from the delayed Tokyo Olympics.

Three months into a year that carried the promise of escape from the trauma of 2020, it's too early to say the Covid-19 crisis is nearing its end.

Summer's arrival in the northern hemisphere will pose a major test for governments facing impatient and increasingly angry populations. — Anthony Halpin

A protest against lockdown measures in Kassel, Germany on March 20.

Photographer: Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images Europe

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Global Headlines

Wealth tax | Biden's economic team is increasingly confident that evidence of widening inequality in the U.S. will spur public support for the president's plans to raise taxes on the rich, even though Republican opposition is stiffening, Nancy Cook reports. Boosting income and capital-gains tax rates, levies on companies and an expansion of the estate tax would fund things like infrastructure and assistance for child and home health care.

Shock decision | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ouster of the central bank chief sent the lira plunging, erasing a major part of its gains under Naci Agbal's four-month tenure. As Netty Ismail and Michael G. Wilson explain, the decision to fire Agbal, who had sought to restore the bank's credibility, raises concerns Turkey will again prematurely ease interest rates.

China sanctions | EU foreign ministers are set to approve measures directed at China over its alleged mistreatment of Uyghurs in the western region of Xinjiang, sources say. John Ainger writes the action will likely be mostly symbolic, and follows last week's warning by China's ambassador to the EU not to interfere in its security affairs.

  • More than 20 Western diplomats staged a public show of unity outside Canadian Michael Kovrig's spying trial in Beijing, highlighting their concern about the risk of arbitrary detention in China.

  • China described the first face-to-face meeting last week with senior U.S. officials as "useful" and called for more discussions.

Diplomats outside the Beijing Second Intermediate People's Court today.

Photographer: Nicolas Asfour/AFP/Getty Images

Gulf maneuvers | Saudi Arabia began naval exercises in the Persian Gulf to better foil attacks on its oil installations, after recent strikes by Yemen's Houthi rebels. Saudi-led coalition warplanes carried out raids on the insurgents' military bases in retaliation for a drone attack on a Saudi Aramco oil refinery in Riyadh on Friday.

  • Aramco's payments to the Saudi state fell 30% last year, even as it stuck with a $75 billion dividend, after the pandemic sent crude prices tumbling.

Quiet diplomacy | India and Pakistan are showing real signs of a thaw as a result of secret talks brokered by the United Arab Emirates, Sudhi Ranjan Sen reports. Ties between the quarrelsome neighbors were frozen two years ago after a suicide attack on India-controlled Kashmir that prompted New Delhi to order air strikes on Pakistan. While there have been peace overtures since that came to little, this process appears the most concerted in years.

What to Watch This Week

  • Israelis go to the polls tomorrow as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu touts a successful vaccination program to obscure memories of mismanaged lockdowns and edge out a crowded field of challengers.
  • Biden is scheduled on Thursday to hold his first press conference since becoming president.
  • EU leaders hold a summit on Thursday and Friday to discuss the pandemic, industrial policy, tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean and Russia.
  • U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels to Brussels this week to attend a NATO ministerial meeting and see European Commission leaders.

Thanks to everyone who answered our quiz on Friday, and congratulations to Theresa Hinchman who was the first to name Paraguay as the Latin American country whose president survived an impeachment vote last week?

And finally ... China's thriving wildlife trade has been identified as a possible transmission source for Covid-19 by scientists convened by the World Health Organization to hunt for the origins of the pandemic. Jason Gale and Corinne Gretler explain that the experts' report, due for release this week after delays due to political wrangling, is likely to be far from conclusive. But the most plausible theory centers on the market in Wuhan and the commerce in live animals for food, furs and traditional medicine.

Workers place barriers outside the closed Huanan Seafood wholesale market during a visit by members of the WHO team in Wuhan on Jan. 31.

Photographer: Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images 

 
 

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