MILAN (Reuters Breakingviews) - The race to save the summer holiday is on. Quarantines and travel curbs to contain the pandemic will constrain holidaymakers and hurt the $1.6 trillion tourism industry. With some creative thinking, however, the season could be partly saved. The gradual lifting of lockdowns across Europe and Asia offer some hope of an end to what Hyatt Hotels on Tuesday called a “historic” drop in travel demand. Low-cost airline Ryanair wants to resume 40% of flights in July....

MILAN - Widespread lockdowns will be good for electronic money. The coronavirus pandemic has made people reluctant to touch banknotes and reduced the opportunities to spend them, hastening the transition to digital cash. The $1.9 trillion payments industry should be a winner when the crisis eases. Widespread retail closures and the refusal by some vendors to accept cash have dramatically reduced the amount of physical money changing hands. The sum withdrawn from British ATMs almost halved...

MILAN (Reuters Breakingviews) - The European Union is in danger of turning a health crisis into a prolonged economic disaster. EU leaders on Thursday failed to agree on a joint fiscal response to the Covid-19 pandemic ravaging the continent. Despite bolder European Central Bank support, inaction by European governments will make it harder for Italy and other indebted euro zone nations to ramp up spending to support their stricken economies. The novel coronavirus crisis has reopened old euro...

MILAN - In Italy, the morning espresso no longer tastes the same. A ban on serving customers at bar counters is among a myriad of inconvenient restrictions to the quotidian Italian lifestyle imposed by a countrywide quarantine, enacted on Monday to fight Europe’s worst coronavirus outbreak. But for Fulvio Rossi, owner of the historical Hodeidah coffee roastery in my Milan neighbourhood, this could mean going out of business. His daily flow of around 600 customers, already halved after Italy...

MILAN - Italy has become a test tube for a western country’s ability to contain viruses. The government in Rome has locked down towns, shut schools and banned gatherings in the wealthy north – including the financial capital of Milan - to stem a surge of coronavirus infections. That risks hurting growth in Europe’s industrial core. It’s also an experiment in how far democratic economies can push draconian measures. With more than 200 confirmed cases as of Monday, and four deaths, Italy has...