Germany yesterday unveiled a plan for reopening, as Europe’s largest economy tries to get the wheels turning after weeks of shutdown, while US President Donald Trump on Tuesday made his first major foray out of the White House since the COVID-19 lockdown began, pushing for the US economy to reopen.
“We can’t keep our country closed for the next five years,” Trump said on a trip to a mask factory in Arizona on Tuesday, as he conceded that some people would be “badly affected.”
In a sign that his administration no longer considers the pandemic its top priority, the White House is set to disband the emergency task force handling the country’s outbreak.
“I think we’re starting to look at the Memorial Day [May 25] window, early June window” for shutting it down, US Vice President Mike Pence said.
However, highlighting the challenges involved, New York’s subway system closed for the first time in its history on Tuesday night for disinfection, as authorities try to balance functionality with health and safety.
The US remains the worst-hit country with more than 71,000 deaths. It recorded 2,333 more fatalities in the 24 hours to Tuesday evening, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker, twice as many as the day before.
The relentless march of the virus continued as Latin America logged its 15,000th death and Britain passed Italy as the country with the world’s second-highest number of deaths.
However, elsewhere in Europe, hard-hit Spain and France reported a leveling off of figures, offering hope of an end to a pandemic that has overwhelmed healthcare systems and shattered economies.
Germany is eyeing an almost complete return to normality this month, with plans to send all pupils back to school and restart top-flight soccer, a draft agreement seen by reporters said.
The Bundesliga would become the first of Europe’s top five leagues to restart, a prospect German Minister of Health Jens Spahn said could make the competition an “export hit.”
With about 165,000 cases and 7,000 deaths, Germany has so far been able to prevent the scenes of dire overcrowding in its hospitals that have been seen elsewhere in Europe.
The restrictions imposed globally to curb the spread of the virus have gutted national economies, with the EU yesterday forecasting that the eurozone economy would contract by a staggering 7.7 percent this year, and saying the wreckage from the COVID-19 outbreak could endanger the single currency.
Calling it a “recession of historic proportions,” the EU executive said that the 19-member single currency zone would rebound by 6.3 percent in 2021, but in a recovery that would be felt unevenly across the continent.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
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