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The world this week Politics
Brazil’s president, Jair
Bolsonaro, who has dismissed
covid-19 as “sniffles”, spoke
outside the army’s headquar-
ters at a rally against lock-
downs. Some of the protesters
called for a shutdown of Con-
gress and the Supreme Court
and urged the army to take
control of the pandemic re-
sponse. Mr Bolsonaro has said:
“Really, I am the constitution.”
He also sacked a health min-
ister who supported lock-
downs and replaced him with
one who favours a return to
business-as-usual “as quickly
as possible”.
Sporadic protests broke out in
several American state capitals
against lockdown measures.
Some states took steps to
reopen businesses. Georgia’s
governor went as far as allow-
ing cinemas and restaurants to
resume service from April
27th, subject to social-dis-
tancing rules. President Do-
nald Trump said he disagreed
with this “totally egregious”
decision.
Spain followed France and
Britain in extending its lock-
down, the toughest in Europe,
until at least May 9th. How-
ever, it slightly relaxed the
rules, so that people can leave
home for brief exercise.
A man dressed as a royal
Canadian mounted policeman
murdered at least 22 people in
a shooting spree in Nova Sco-
tia. The killer was a denture-
maker said to be obsessed with
the federal police. A member of
that force eventually killed
him. It was the worst mass
shooting in Canada’s history.
Argentina’s government asked
creditors to accept big losses in Israel at last has a new govern-
the value of the bonds they
hold. It proposed that those
who hold $65bn-worth of
paper, nearly 40% of foreign-
currency debt, accept sharply
lower interest payments and
wait three years to receive
them. The plan was rejected.
China tightened controls on
movement in the north-east-
ern city of Harbin, the capital
of Heilongjiang province, to
keep covid-19 in check. Hei-
longjiang borders Russia,
where the disease appears far
more rampant than in China.
China announced the estab-
lishment of two districts with-
in a municipality that it says
has jurisdiction over the South
China Sea. The districts are
called Xisha and Nansha, the
Chinese words for the Paracel
and the Spratly islands. Viet-
nam, which also claims the
Paracels, expressed outrage.
Police in Hong Kong arrested
15 well-known pro-democracy
activists. China blew a hole in
Hong Kong’s Basic Law, a mini-
constitution that protects
Hong Kongers’ freedoms. Its
Liaison Office in Hong Kong
said it was not bound by a
provision that bars the main-
land’s government depart-
ments from interfering in
Hong Kong’s affairs.
Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s
dictator, missed an annual
ceremony to commemorate
the birthday of his grandfather,
who was North Korea’s first
president, prompting specu-
lation that he is ill.
Data on burials suggested that
there have been many more
deaths from covid-19 in Jakar-
ta, Indonesia’s capital, than
have been officially recorded.
The Indonesian government
reversed itself and banned
migrant workers from return-
ing to their home villages to
celebrate the end of Ramadan
in May. It fears the massive
annual migration would accel-
erate the spread of the disease
across the archipelago.
After three elections in a year,
ment. Binyamin Netanyahu,
the prime minister, made a
deal with Benny Gantz, the
former opposition leader,
which will see Mr Netanyahu
stay in office for 18 months.
Then Mr Gantz will take over.
Both men were under pressure
to avoid another election and
co-operate to tackle covid-19.
Donald Trump told the
American navy to “shoot down
[sic] and destroy any and all
Iranian gunboats if they harass
our ships at sea.” America
recently reported that 11vessels
from Iran’s Revolutionary
Guards Corps came close to
American ships in what it
described as “dangerous”
manoeuvres.
Reports emerged of a massacre
by jihadist rebels in northern
Mozambique. Dozens of
villagers were shot or
beheaded after refusing to join
the group. The insurgents have
reportedly also killed 20-30
members of the security
forces.
The un warned that millions of
people in Africa face an in-
creased risk of famine because
of the economic dislocation
caused by covid-19. Many were
already in need of food or cash
aid because of drought in
places such as Zimbabwe and
locusts in Kenya.
Donald Trump suspended for
at least 60 days the provision of from covid-19. Many corpses
green cards to people who are
immigrating legally to the
United States. He said he was
doing this to protect American
workers from foreign competi-
tion during the crisis, but he
backed away from stopping
visas for guest workers after
businesses complained that
they would suffer.
nasa set May 27th as the date
for the first launch of “Ameri-
can astronauts on American
rockets from American soil”
since the end of the space-
shuttle programme. The vessel
has been built by Space X, one
of Elon Musk’s companies.
Since 2011Americans travelling
to the International Space
Station have had to hitch a ride
on Russian rockets.
The Economist April 25th 2020 5
Coronavirus briefs
To 6am GMT April 23rd 2020
New confirmed cases by area, ’000
300
Europe
200
US
100
Other
0
11 18 25 1 8 15 22
Mar Apr
Confirmed deaths, log scale
100,000
US Italy
France
Britain Spain 10,000
Iran
1,000
S Korea
100
0 10 20 30 40 52
Days since 50th death
Source: Johns Hopkins University CSSE
Officials in Wuhan, the Chi-
nese city where covid-19 was
first detected, raised the death
toll there by 50%, to 3,869. The
true extent of the outbreak in
China remains unclear.
Having thought it had con-
tained the spread of the dis-
ease, Singapore reported a
spike in infections, mostly
among migrant workers.
The port city of Guayaquil,
Ecuador’s commercial hub,
was overwhelmed with deaths
have been left in the streets.
Chile said it would issue
immunity cards to people who
have recovered.
Nearly 1,100 sailors aboard the
Charles de Gaulle, a French
aircraft-carrier, tested positive.
The German state of Bavaria
cancelled the Oktoberfest beer
festival. The mayor of Munich
supported the decision, but
said it was still a bitter blow.
For our latest coverage of the
virus and its consequences
please visit economist.com/
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