The World Lurches Toward an Unknown New Normal: Weekend Reads

(Bloomberg) --

Chinese authorities face the challenge of getting 260 million kids back to school and reviving an economy hit by the coronavirus and collapsed world demand. 

Europe, with its economies shattered by lockdowns designed to fight the pandemic, is trying to ease the restrictive measures without sparking a second wave of infections.

In the U.S., President Donald Trump is weighing how to get the economy rolling again to save his chances of winning re-election in November.

And North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended a three-week absence from public events.

Dig deeper into these and other topics with the latest edition of Weekend Reads. 

Coronavirus Tests State of the Unions on Both Sides of Atlantic
The coronavirus crisis is thrusting governments on both sides of the Atlantic into a fiscal emergency along with the medical one, as the European Union and the U.S. grapple with how to assist their hardest-hit members without being dragged down by them. Craig Stirling, Steven T. Dennis and Catherine Bosley explain.

Road From Lockdown to Liberty Paved With Economic Trade-Offs
Governments are inching toward easing restrictions as the world economy enters a new stage of the coronavirus crisis. As Enda Curran and Claire Che report, it’s a phase that entails stark trade-offs between encouraging economic growth and risking a second wave of infections and death.

Trump Seeks to Pin Virus Blame on China Yet Reprisal Uncertain
The president is escalating efforts to pin blame on China for unleashing a pandemic and exploring ways to hold Beijing accountable. But Daniel Flatley and Josh Wingrove write that Trump’s options are limited because of the potential economic consequences.

How to Get 260 Million Kids Back to School After the Virus
After more than a dozen weeks learning online, China’s 260 million students are slowly going back to school. From four-times-daily temperature checks to social distancing rules that make mixing impossible, the kids’ new educational realities fall far short of normal. 

• Todd Shields reports on how the shutdown left Los Angeles public schools with a problem: 100,000 students, or nearly one in six, lacked the computer equipment and internet connections needed for online instruction.

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Emerges From Almost Three-Week Absence
Kim presided over a May Day ceremony to mark the completion of a fertilizer factory northeast of the capital, Pyongyang, the official news agency reported. Yet as Jihye Lee, Kanga Kong and Maria Jose Valero explain, his appearance will ease, but not end, concern about the stability of the North Korean regime and control of its nuclear arsenal.

Merkel’s Frankness and Clarity Beats Trump’s Virus Bluster
One’s a showman and the other a scientist — Trump and Angela Merkel were always going to bring different approaches to the virus crisis. Joshua Gallu and Arne Delfs explain that with his re-election in November in the balance, the U.S. president is keen to sound optimistic, while the German chancellor, who isn’t seeking a fifth term, delivers sober messages on the pandemic’s impact. 

With Virus Deaths Soaring, Brazilians Emerge From Quarantine
Brazilians are resuming a measure of normal life just as deaths from Covid-19 are soaring to hundreds per day, turning their country into a global hotspot. While Brazil is hardly alone in seeking to balance its worst health and economic crisis in decades, Julia Leite and Igor Sodre write, it seems to be facing greater chaos.

Modi’s Soaring Popularity Lets Him Forget Pre-Virus India Woes
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s response to the surging coronavirus epidemic may help him walk away unscathed from a host of political and economic problems that hounded his government just months ago, Bibhudatta Pradhan and Sudhi Ranjan Sen report.

Saudi Prince’s Year of Prestige Is Unraveling in Front of Him
After a failed boycott of neighboring Qatar, a disastrous military campaign in Yemen and international condemnation over the gruesome murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, this was always going to be a tough time for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Donna Abu-Nasr reports on the hard choices he faces about which projects at home and which forays overseas he can realistically afford.  

Stripped Prisoners on Floor Latest Tool of Salvadoran President
Photographs of hundreds of tattooed Salvadoran prisoners in their underwear crowded onto the cement floor in a forced embrace looked like they’d been sneaked out. But as Michael McDonald reports, they came from President Nayib Bukele’s office as he announced a state of emergency in the prisons in the latest show of his take-total-charge style.

Tell us how we’re doing or what we’re missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net.

And finally … A four-week ban on alcohol sales is forcing thirsty South Africans to get creative, from experimenting with home brews to sneaking over the border in search of a drink. As Janice Kew reports, that’s worrying bottlers, including wine and spirits manufacturer Distell Group Holdings, the nation’s biggest wine exporter. The prohibition, one of the strictest in the world, has also led to more crime, with Police Minister Bheki Cele condemning the burglary and looting of more than a dozen liquor stores.

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