A year of Covid-19, a US election, Black Lives Matter, Samuel Paty and Nagorno-Karabakh

An invisible foe indifferent to man-made borders, the world's greatest pandemic in a century triggered fear, anxiety, and sometimes the worst but also the best in humanity. In Italy and elsewhere, we clapped for care workers who appropriately bore the name of front-line workers, heading into battle desperately short of protective equipment and all too often sacrificing their own lives.