PERU
New restrictions unveiled
President Martin Vizcarra on Thursday announced a new measure restricting public movement by gender, as the nation tries to curb the spread of COVID-19. Men would only be allowed to leave their homes on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, while women could step outdoors on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. No one would be allowed out on Sundays. “We have 10 days left, let’s make this extra effort to control this disease,” Vizcarra said. He said the restrictions would apply until April 12, the original end date to a lockdown he imposed on March 16. Panama announced a similar measure on Monday that went into effect two days later and was to last for 15 days. Vizcarra said the new measure aims to reduce by half the number of people circulating in public at any one time. “The [existing] control measures have given good results, but not what was hoped for,” he said. The restrictions do not apply to people employed in essential services, such as grocery stores, banks, pharmacies and hospitals. Security forces tasked with patrolling the streets have been told to be respectful toward the gender identities of homosexual and transgender people, Vizcarra added.
UNITED STATES
NRA sues Andrew Cuomo
The National Rifle Association (NRA) on Thursday sued New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for closing gun shops during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the restriction is unconstitutional and leaves citizens defenseless while prisoners are being released early as a result of the crisis. The March 20 executive order that included firearms retailers as non-essential businesses that must close is a “pointless and arbitrary attack on the constitutional rights of New York citizens and residents,” the complaint said. New York ordered most businesses to close to prevent the spread of the virus, but deemed grocery stores, liquor stores, pharmacies and restaurants that do take-out as essential and allowed them to remain open. The New York lawsuit follows similar action the association took in northern California, where it sued several cities, including San Jose, for ordering gun stores to close.
MEXICO
Corona owner shuts down
The brewer of Corona beer on Thursday said that it was suspending production because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Grupo Modelo — whose brands also include Pacifico and Modelo — said the measure was in line with the government’s order to suspend all non-essential activities until April 30 to slow the spread of the coronavirus. “We are in the process of lowering production at our plants to the bare minimum,” the company said in a statement. The government has said that only key sectors such as agribusiness would be able to continue to function. Grupo Modelo said that it was ready to operate with 75 percent of its employees working remotely to guarantee the supply of beer, if the government agreed. The nation’s other major beer producer, Heineken, could also stop activities, the Reforma reported, although the company did not confirm the report. Nuevo Leon state, where Heineken’s operations are based, on Wednesday said that it would stop the production and distribution of beer, which led to panic-buying. Since the start of the crisis, Corona beer has been the punchline of jokes and memes, and an online rumor said that sales in the US dropped by about 40 percent after the outbreak. However, Constellation Brands, which owns the Corona label, denied the rumor and said sales had stayed strong in the US even as the coronavirus spread.
NEW ZEALAND
Stuck tourists now leaving
About 100,000 tourists stuck since a lockdown began last week yesterday were starting to fly to their home countries. Many tourists had been banned from catching domestic flights during the strict month-long lockdown to prevent more COVID-19 infections, which prevented tourists from reaching the main hub of Auckland Airport to catch international flights home. Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters on Thursday announced that tourists could take internal flights, so long as they were leaving the country. He said charter flights organized by foreign countries would also be allowed alongside regular commercial flights. Officials said 37,000 tourists had signed up with their various embassies seeking to return home, although Peters said in an interview with radio station RNZ that the true number seeking to leave was about 100,000.
SOUTH AFRICA
Police remove migrants
Police wearing riot gear forced their way into the Central Methodist Church in central Cape Town on Thursday to remove hundreds of foreign migrants who had been sheltering there for months. The operation was to end a standoff between city authorities and the group of foreign nationals, who had previously demanded that the government relocate them to other countries, including the US and Canada, because they had been victims of xenophobic threats last year. Local media reported that police officers broke down the front and rear doors of the church in the historic Greenmarket Square to remove the migrants. They were led onto buses and driven away, reportedly to a temporary camp outside the city, where they are to remain for at least two weeks during the country’s lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese