Articles

President Bolsonaro’s irresponsible approach to the coronavirus crisis has led to conflicts, also within the government. Meanwhile, civil society organisations are distributing food in poorer districts.

Benjamin Netanyahu could not even win the third election held within one year. Now, he is using the coronavirus crisis to profile himself as an indispensable statesman and secure his power – to the detriment of Israeli democracy.

With only three day notice, South Africa went into full lockdown on the night from 26 to 27 March. What happened in the three days leading up the lockdown is highly impressive. Instead of everyone following the instinct of making provision for themselves, neighbourhood solidarity networks sprang up spontaneously.

With a series of digital measures introduced in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Morocco is creating a trade-off between ways to provide rapid support and the parallel development of digital control.

All three countries of the South Caucasus have weak social systems. Many people work in precarious jobs in the service sector, tourism and agriculture. 

In post-Brexit Britain, the coronavirus crisis comes amid a crisis of confidence in its political leadership. The British public is now watching the National Health Service (NHS) trying to rise to the challenge after a decade of austerity.

Not only has the new coronavirus catapulted us out of our everyday lives, but the way the EU is handling the Covid-19 pandemic has made its inability to take action in times of crisis painfully apparent. Just as people are stranded at airports and railway stations, any hope that Europe is capable of pulling together has also been stranded in the last few weeks.

The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 disease has brought about an extraordinary situation. Although the past decades have brought numerous challenges like terrorism or the climate change, the global spread of a disease for which there is neither a cure nor vaccination available is something that political leaders have no experience in tackling.

Big technology companies are getting a break from the “techlash,” but this does not mean that the monopolists are permanently off the hook. The crisis has highlighted privacy and security concerns and well as subpar labor standards in the industry. Social media face additional scrutiny for how they deal with COVID-19 related disinformation.

Italy was the first country in Europe to be affected by the Covid-19 virus. It was also the first democratic state that took measures to contain the epidemic – as it was still being called at the time, before it mutated into a pandemic. I