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.
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
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