The global coronavirus pandemic reached new peaks this week as cases surged across the United States, India, and South Africa while the situation remained perilous in Brazil. California and Texas, the two most populous states in America, saw record cases and hospitalisations, while by the end of the week a daily tally of 15,300 infections meant that Florida had set a new record for the United States. The outbreak was not confined to major urban centres however, as from Georgia and Louisiana to Idaho and Montana the virus was cutting a swathe through the Southern and Western parts of America, which set a staggering new record of 70,000 cases in one day. While cases in the United States raced past 3 million, with more than 130,000 registered deaths, Brazil was doing its level best to play catch up. Transmission accelerated and the virus was more lethal than ever as the country booked 1.8 million cases and 70,000 fatalities, with the acerbic and dismissive president Jair Bolsanoro getting in on the action thanks to a positive test. India, now the third worst-hit nation, set record upon record as total cases rapidly approached 900,000. And with cases soaring past 250,000 in South Africa, four countries were driving a steep rise in global infections, with a new record on Sunday of 230,000 cases across the world.
Coronavirus was firing across other parts of Latin America, with Chile and Peru among the worst hit per capita, cases climbing in Argentina, and the Colombian capital of Bogotá reinstating a strict quarantine. Mexico continued its precipitous climb up the league tables for infections and fatalities, one of several countries in the region accused of reopening too soon. On the other hand outside of South Africa, cases slowed in the hubs of Nigeria and Egypt. There were signs of stability in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, although record deaths prompted limits on weddings and other gatherings in Iran. The countries continued to share little in common, but Israel too imposed a spate of restrictions, culminating in localised lockdowns as cases continued to surge at the end of the week. Adjoining Palestine banned public gatherings and movement between governorates as infections spiked.
Across Asia Pacific, South Korea seemed to have a handle on the latest church cluster, but creeping cases in Tokyo and Hong Kong threatened business shutdowns and the closure of schools. Indonesia suffered its worst week to date, and while community cases fluctuated in Singapore, the country went to the polls for a general election, returning the People’s Action Party for an unprecedented fifteenth consecutive term but affording the opposition Workers’ Party a record number of seats. As the Australian state of Victoria prepared to close its border with New South Wales, climbing cases forced the return of stage three lockdown restrictions over metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire, affecting around 5 million people. While the tallies remained high, there were signs of a slowdown in Pakistan and Bangladesh, with the major caveat of reduced testing.
Cases continued to slow across Russia, which tripled its death count for April and May, but Eastern Europe faced increasing tumult with anti-government protests as authorities backpedalled in Serbia and Bulgaria. Bosnia solemnly marked 25 years since the Srebrenica massacre. And the presidential runoff vote in Poland came to a close with both sides claiming victory. After months on a downward trend, cases began to climb again in parts of Western Europe, as Spain reported the largest daily rise since May and enforced mask mandates over Catalonia and the Balearic Islands. Taking all precautions, Italy moved to extend the state of emergency which has been in place since January, while France feared the worst but ruled out another nationwide lockdown. There was let-up in Norway and Sweden, while leisure facilities and beauty services prepared to return in England. Yet face mask advice arrived from peculiar quarters, with Boris Johnson adopting a stricter tone even as cases tailed off, while Donald Trump wore a mask for the first time in public. In another challenging week for the American president, the White House was sued over a student visa directive and pressed to reopen schools, as Trump commuted the sentence of longtime ally Roger Stone and began to formally withdraw from the World Health Organization. In a personal blow, the Supreme Court ruled that the president cannot block the release of his financial records.
As Florida became the epicentre of the virus in America, the state embodied some of the conflicts between health and commerce, confinement versus entertainment, as Disney World reopened replete with face masks and temperature checks. The Louvre reopened with socially distanced spacing in front of the Mona Lisa, and Iguazú Falls, the largest waterfalls in the world, reopened for local residents, but spiralling cases and the resulting uncertainty left the Taj Mahal off limits and forced the postponement of the Ryder Cup. The Rodin Museum in Paris sold off limited-edition bronzes to weather the financial impact of the pandemic, but in the United States the clothier Brooks Brothers, an equally venerable institution, filed for bankruptcy amid faltering sales. South Africa reinstated a deeply unpopular ban on booze, but alcohol was back on the menu for non-Muslims in Sudan, which unveiled widespread reforms following decades of hard-line rule including a ban on female genital mutilation.
Coronavirus was exacerbating economic crises in Lebanon and Puerto Rico, while the first confirmed case was reported in war-torn northwest Syria. Outbreaks occurred at a military training centre in West Java and at United States marine bases in Okinawa. As a landmark Supreme Court decision affirmed the rights of Native Americans in Oklahoma, potentially reshaping criminal justice for Native Americans in the state, the Supreme Court in Brazil pressed the government to tackle coronavirus among indigenous people. Sinovac began phase three vaccine trials in Brazil, and Operation Warp Speed bet big on Novavax. But while prevention remained more viable than the cure, amid pressure from experts, the World Health Organization belatedly accepted evidence of airborne transmission. Against repeated warnings of rising temperatures across the globe, the United Nations issued a report on zoonotic diseases, hoping to prevent future pandemics, while also focusing on the impact of coronavirus on the AIDS epidemic.
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The Italian composer Ennio Morricone, a staccato name synonymous with the cinema, who harnessed the creative possibilities of collaboration with Sergio Leone into a career of celebrated film scores spanning six decades, died on Monday at 91 years old. A trumpeter who studied at the National Academy of Saint Cecilia and showed a precocious talent for composition, Morricone began his professional life arranging popular songs for the Italian broadcasting service RAI, soon progressing to studio arrangement with RCA Victor. His first film scores were for the Italian light comedies of the early sixties, punctuated in 1963 by Gunfight at Red Sands, a Spaghetti Western starring Richard Harrison which marked Morricone’s first foray in the genre, and I basilischi, a neorealist drama which served as the directorial debut of Lina Wertmüller. The following year, impressed by his score for Gunfight at Red Sands which incorporated aspects of American folk music, Morricone was hired by Jolly Film and Sergio Leone to compose the score for A Fistful of Dollars.
Shot on a small budget, starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role after the part was turned down by more established actors, ostensibly inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s samurai film Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars scored a surprise hit at the Italian box office for the previously unheralded Leone, who set about making a sequel. Incorporating unconventional sounds and diverse instrumentation, from coyote howls and the wordless vocals of Edda Dell’Orso to the trumpet, electric guitar, jew’s harp, and ocarina, beginning the writing process prior to production so that Leone could shoot to the music on set, Morricone subsequently scored For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. When the Dollars Trilogy starring Eastwood as the ubiquitous Man with No Name finally reached the United States in 1967, Eastwood, Leone, and Morricone found international recognition. The main theme conjuring raised eyebrows and spotted vistas and the elegiac ‘The Ecstasy of Gold’ from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly remain among cinema’s defining compositions.
In the meantime Morricone composed songs for popular artists like Paul Anka, Françoise Hardy, and Mina, and struck up lasting partnerships with other acclaimed Italian directors, sweeping and comprehensive in scope: from the literary adaptations of Pier Paolo Pasolini to the political dramas of Giuliano Montaldo, from the epic histories of Bernardo Bertolucci to the period pieces of Mauro Bolognini, from the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Corbucci and Sergio Sollima to the giallo films of Dario Argento. From 1964 he was part of Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, an early experimental collective which drew on aspects of jazz and serialism. In 1968, Morricone provided the score for Once Upon a Time in the West, the first film in a new salvo from Leone, which remains one of the best-selling original instrumental scores of all time. While he lived as a lifelong resident of Rome, often working out of his Forum Music Village studio, in the seventies Morricone began composing for Hollywood, scoring Two Mules for Sister Sara by Don Siegel and in 1977 receiving his first Oscar nomination for Days of Heaven by Terrence Malick.
In 1984 smoky romanticism and reconstructed period music provided the soundtrack for Once Upon a Time in America, which would prove to be Sergio Leone’s last film. Morricone wrote award-winning scores for The Mission by Roland Joffé, The Untouchables by Brian De Palma, and Cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore, with whom he would eventually collaborate on eleven features. Beyond old acquaintances, Morricone branched out with work for Pedro Almodóvar, Barry Levinson, Mike Nichols, and Warren Beatty, toured increasingly as a performer and conductor, and remained prolific in the realms of television and classical composition. In 2007, Morricone became only the second composer to receive the Academy Honorary Award, but he would have to wait until 2016 for his first competitive Oscar, finally winning Best Original Score for his work on Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. His death on Monday brought tributes from former collaborators, the Italian prime minister, and inspired devotees across the worlds of music and film.
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In the midst of much soul-searching over the future of fashion, brands and showcases are exploring the possibilities of digital exposition, beyond backdrops and social media shorts seeking ways to evoke luxury clothing and still foster a sense of community online. The coronavirus has exacerbated long-term issues of sustainability, excess travel, and industry churn as department stores lose their lustre, clothes lose their seasonality, and designers increasingly complain of feeling burned out. In response major brands like Gucci and Saint Laurent have moved to tear up the conventional calendar, suggesting a reduction in shows and a blurring of the usual boundaries which separate womenswear, menswear, and haute couture. But to some extent the travelling circuses and cyclical nature of fashion shows are self-fulfilling: if clothes aren’t shown in person, is there still a gathering, and shorn of the materiality and exclusivity which still characterises fashion weeks, will anybody tune in to watch?
Chanel’s first digital offering and a digitised edition of London Fashion Week compèred by the British Fashion Council went down like damp squibs. Next up Paris, which brought together haute couture and menswear collections for an extended week of online shows. Whereas London offered an experimental blend of podcasts, poetry readings, and musical performances scattered between video shorts and virtual showrooms, Paris at least provided some of the conventional trappings, with celebrity figures and a focus on big-name brands. After Naomi Campbell opened the event with a call for equality and diversity, the ten-minute film ‘The Dior Myth’ saw Maria Grazia Chiuri and Matteo Garrone unfold a woodland fantasy, full of sensuous nymphs, water and greenery, and seamstresses constructing miniature dresses in a throwback to the Théâtre de la Mode. For Chanel, Virginie Viard created an extravagant collection of embroidered party dresses, while John Galliano teased the Maison Margiela Artisanal Co-Ed Collection with more installments to come. Iris van Herpen enlisted the actress Carice van Houten, Azzaro set the stage for the Belgian singer Sylvie Kreusch, and there were interviews, exposés, and sketches galore.
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Since the iconic spire and roof of the Paris cathedral Notre-Dame was destroyed by fire one year ago last April, France has been engaged in a spirited public debate over the precise nature of the reconstruction project. In the aftermath of the fire, French president Emmanual Macron suggested that Notre-Dame could emerge ‘more beautiful than before’, expressing a willingness for ‘a contemporary architectural gesture’. The phrase set cathedral bells clanging in the minds of conservationists, architects, and cultural conservatives, who urged caution and extolled the virtues of the old design. In the meantime prime minister Édouard Philippe announced an international architectural competition, soliciting new ideas for the Notre-Dame spire, while appointing the former army general and defence staff chief Jean-Louis Georgelin to oversee the rebuild. In November, Georgelin poured fuel on the already fiery discourse when he told Philippe Villeneuve, chief Notre-Dame architect since 2013, to ‘shut his mouth’. Defying the government and their architectural competition, Villeneuve had expressed a preference for restoration over innovation.
This week the restoration of Notre-Dame moved several steps closer, as a consensus emerged that the spire should be rebuilt in accordance with its familiar form. Architects from all over the world have submitted proposals for the roof and spire of the venerable cathedral, ranging from rooftop pools, parks, and greenhouses to virtual light beams and a glass and crystal structure conceived by Norman Foster. Instead as a national heritage and architecture commission met on Thursday, the new French culture minister Roseline Bachelot spoke of a ‘large consensus’ among experts and members of the public for a straightforward restoration. Speaking in front of the commission, Villeneuve recommended that the rafters and roof be restored to their ‘last known condition’, that of the Viollet-le-Duc renovation which endured after being completed in 1864. The commission is expected to report in the coming weeks to the Ministry of Culture, which will make a final decision. Macron hopes that Notre-Dame will be restored in time for the Summer Olympics in 2024, a timeline which looks increasingly optimistic with melted scaffolding still to be removed and the project pushed back by coronavirus.
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As competitors and organisers adopt a staggered start in the race to resume international athletics, the Inspiration Games this week allowed elite athletes to face off for the first time this year, albeit over unusually long distances. A replacement for the annual Weltklasse Zürich meet, which usually serves as the climax of the Diamond League season, the Inspiration Games placed 30 athletes into three teams across eight events and seven venues. Representing North America, Europe, and the World, incorporating unusual events like the 150 metres sprint and the 3 x 100 metres relay, the athletes competed simultaneously via split screen from Zürich and Karlstad to Florida and California.
In some of the standout events in the field and on the track, Pedro Pablo Pichardo outleapt world and Olympic champion Christian Taylor in the men’s triple jump, while Allyson Felix held off Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Mujinga Kambundji in the women’s 150 metres. At 34 years old Felix faces a fight to make the team for the Tokyo Olympics next year, but at the Inspiration Games on Thursday she doubled up to lead America to victory in the women’s 3 x 100 metres. In the men’s 200 metres Noah Lyles momentarily pondered a new world record, as he completed his race in a time of 18.90 seconds, shattering the mark of 19.19 set by Usain Bolt back in 2009. Alas in this era of do-it-yourself distancing, the starting blocks had been incorrectly placed, with Lyles coming to learn that he had in fact only covered a distance of 185 metres.
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Built between 532 and 537 by Justinian I as the prize of Eastern Christendom, serving as the largest cathedral in the world and the centre of Eastern Orthodoxy for nearly one thousand years, before in 1453 Mehmed the Conqueror converted it to a mosque upon the fall of Constantinople, from 1935 Hagia Sophia lived life as a museum under the auspices of Kemal Atatürk and the secular Republic of Turkey. White plaster ceased to cover Christian mosaics, and the marble flooring of the Omphalos – ostensibly the site where Byzantine emperors were crowned – emerged from underneath carpets, so that the old structure with the addition of Islamic calligraphy and Ottoman minarets took on a dual complexion. Balance between the Christian and Islamic aspects of Hagia Sophia remained the ideal of restorers and curators, frequently under siege from political populism and religious dogmatism. Major renovation work was completed in 2006, with grants secured by the World Monuments Fund matched by the Turkish government, but Christians and Muslims continued to bicker over their respective rights to the site. Then in 2016, Hagia Sophia received a state-appointed imam, with a muezzin routinely reciting adhan from all four minarets, the Islamic call to prayer.
Now Hagia Sophia will once more serve as a working mosque, after a top Turkish court annulled the 1934 cabinet decree which established the building as a museum. Confirming the decision by presidential decree, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the first prayers will take place on 24 July, while Hagia Sophia will remain open free of charge to all aspiring visitors. Celebrated in the streets of Istanbul, the move swiftly drew international condemnation, with the United States conveying its disappointment while the European Union called the decision ‘regrettable’. As a World Heritage site, UNESCO lamented the lack of dialogue or prior notice from Turkey, adding that any measure which limits access to the site might breach its rules around conservation. Already described as divisive by patriarchs of the Eastern and Russian Orthodox churches, sterner still was the response from politicians in Greece, with the culture minister Lina Mendoni decrying ‘an open provocation to the civilised world’ which drags Turkey back six centuries. Not surprisingly Turkey was undeterred, with Erdogan emphasising the ‘sovereign rights’ of the nation.
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Jack Charlton, who won the World Cup as a defender for England in 1966 and later became the charismatic talisman of the Republic of Ireland, died on Friday at 85 years old. Born in Ashington to a family with rich footballing pedigree – four of his uncles were professional footballers while his mother’s cousin was the legendary Newcastle United forward Jackie Milburn – Charlton initially followed his father down the mines before scoring a successful trial with Leeds United. A one-club man whose fledgeling career was interrupted by two years of national service with the Household Cavalry, Charlton made his debut for Leeds at the end of the 1952-53 season, two weeks shy of his eighteenth birthday. A regular in the side from the beginning of the 1955-56 season, Leeds laboured between the top two divisions of English football until Don Revie was appointed manager in 1961. Securing promotion to the top flight, Leeds challenged for the league title in 1965 and again in 1966, establishing a rough-hewn style that teetered on the brink of success while causing consternation among opponents and authorities.
Charlton was almost thirty when he was first called to represent his country, settling into the defence at centre-back where his aerial prowess and physicality meshed with the ball-playing skills of Bobby Moore. An ever-present at the 1966 World Cup, Charlton was solid at the back although a handball in the semi-final versus Portugal and a foul in the final against Germany allowed England’s opponents to level the score. Alf Ramsey’s wingless wonders still triumphed, two goals from Jack’s brother Bobby Charlton then a memorable extra-time salvo from Geoff Hurst affording England success on home soil. At club level, the following season Charlton was named league Footballer of the Year. With he and Norman Hunter remaining the bedrock of the side for more than a decade, ‘Dirty Leeds’ won the League Cup, FA Cup, and two Fairs Cups, finally claiming the league title in 1969, though three consecutive runners-up spots entrenched their reputation as tough-tackling nearly men. Having completed his coaching badges during the course of his playing career, when Charlton retired in 1973 he was ready to move into management.
Refusing a conventional contract, demanding total control over club affairs, salvaging three days a week for his beloved pastimes of fishing and shooting, Charlton led a dominant Middlesbrough side to promotion, securing their status in the top flight. He reestablished Sheffield Wednesday, who languished at the foot of the third division when he arrived at the club, before a brief and tumultuous spell with Newcastle United. But it was with the Republic of Ireland that Charlton left a lasting impression. Ireland had never qualified for a major tournament when Charlton took charge in 1986, but cultivating a direct style of play, raiding the Irish diaspora for a new generation of talent, he rallied the side to the European Championships in 1988 and successive World Cups in 1990 and 1994. Memorable victories over England and Italy and a run to the quarter-finals in 1990 made Charlton a hero in Ireland, where he was awarded honorary citizenship shortly after announcing his retirement in 1996. Renowned for his storytelling and salmon fishing as much as for his exploits on the pitch, his death after being diagnosed with lymphoma and dementia was met with warm tributes.
