Briefing

China links a single infection detected through routine tests with an outbreak in KashgarThe Chinese authorities have ordered sweeping testing and travel restrictions on the city of Kashgar in the far west of the country after a single…

Hospitals fill up. Again.In a ominous sign of the strength of the recent surge in coronavirus, hospitals in the US and Europe are rapidly reaching capacity.In Idaho, a 99 percent full hospital warned that Covid-19 patients may need to be…

Europe's hospitals are filling upPoland has turned its largest stadium into an emergency hospital. The number of Covid-19 patients in Belgium and the UK has doubled in two weeks. And doctors and nurses in the Czech Republic are falling…

(Would you like to receive this briefing by email? Here is the registration.)Good Morning.We cover the killing of Protesters in Nigeria of security forces, Support from Pope Francis for same-sex civil unions and Azerbaijan's enthusiasm for…

Britain initiates plans for human challenge trialsScientists at Imperial College London plan to deliberately infect volunteers with the coronavirus early next year. This marks the beginning of the world's first attempts to study how…

France's action against "the enemy within"The brutal murder of Samuel Paty, a teacher in a suburb north of Paris who showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the classroom, reopened old wounds in France - and sparked a swift official…

Death and despair in Nagorno-KarabakhThree weeks of dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian enclave that belongs to Azerbaijan under international law, has embroiled itself in a brutal war of attrition.Azerbaijan has deployed…

"Absolutely necessary" virus restrictions in EuropeLondon, along with other major cities in Europe, including Paris and Berlin, will tighten restrictions to repel an increasing new wave of coronavirus infections.According to the regional…

The coronavirus is spreading in Central EuropeBy closing early, much of Central Europe was able to avoid the widespread coronavirus infections that caused so much devastation in the first wave of the pandemic. But now, from the Polish port…

Europe is trying to avoid major lockdownsWith coronavirus cases rising across the continent, European countries have sought targeted closings and travel restrictions to avoid the large-scale lockdowns that crippled economies this spring.…