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South Africa’s first day of its 21-day lockdown dawned on a grim note, with the government reporting two coronavirus deaths and the country’s caseload topping 1,000. But officials say the strict measures are necessary. VOA’s Anita Powell files from Johannesburg. 
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A Qatar Airways charter flight arranged by the German government has picked up hundreds of tourists stranded in Nepal as the country went on lockdown at the beginning of this week.The tourists, who were mostly German nationals or had some connection to the country, flew out of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on Friday, a Nepalese immigration official said.The airport in Nepal’s capital reopened for the flight, which was designated to pick up the tourists and did not bring any passengers to the country.The government ordered a countrywide lockdown that included halting all flights and road travel as a prophylactic measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Businesses and government offices were also closed.Up to 10,000 tourists were stranded in Nepal as result of shutdown.Nepal has confirmed only three cases of the coronavirus, including one person who has recovered. 
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Standing over the still body of an intubated 5-year-old boy wearing nothing but a plastic diaper, an Iranian health care worker in a hazmat suit and mask begged the public for just one thing: Stop drinking industrial alcohol over fears about the new coronavirus.
The boy, now blind after his parents gave him toxic methanol in the mistaken belief it protects against the virus, is just one of hundreds of victims of an epidemic inside the pandemic now gripping Iran.  
Iranian media report nearly 300 people have been killed and more than 1,000 sickened so far by ingesting methanol across the Islamic Republic, where drinking alcohol is banned and where those who do rely on bootleggers. An Iranian doctor helping the country’s Health Ministry told The Associated Press on Friday the problem was even greater, giving a death toll of around 480 with 2,850 people sickened.
The poisonings come as fake remedies spread across social media in Iran, where people remain deeply suspicious of the government after it downplayed the crisis for days before it overwhelmed the country.  
“Other countries have only one problem, which is the new coronavirus pandemic. But we are fighting on two fronts here,” said Dr. Hossein Hassanian, an adviser to Iran’s Health Ministry who gave the higher figures to the AP. “We have to both cure the people with alcohol poisoning and also fight the coronavirus.”
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.
The pandemic has swept across the world, overwhelming hospitals, crippling economies and forcing governments to restrict the movements of billions of people. Particularly hard hit has been Iran, home to 80 million people.  
As of now, there is no known cure for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Scientists and doctors continue to study the virus and search for effective medicines and a vaccine.
But in messages forwarded and forwarded again, Iranian social media accounts in Farsi falsely suggested a British school teacher and others cured themselves of the coronavirus with whiskey and honey, based on a tabloid story from early February. Mixed with messages about the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers, some wrongly believed drinking high-proof alcohol would kill the virus in their bodies.  
The Islamic Republic has reported over 29,000 confirmed cases and more than 2,200 deaths from the virus, the highest toll of any country in the Middle East. International experts also fear Iran may be under-reporting its cases, as officials for days played down the virus ahead of a parliamentary election.  
That fear of the virus, coupled with poor education and internet rumors, saw dozens sickened by drinking bootleg alcohol containing methanol in Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province and its southern city of Shiraz. Videos aired by Iranian media showed patients with IVs stuck in their arms, laying on beds otherwise needed for the fight against the coronavirus, including the intubated 5-year-old boy. Iranian media also reported cases in the cities of Karaj and Yazd.
In Iran, the government mandates that manufacturers of toxic methanol add an artificial color to their products so the public can tell it apart from ethanol, the kind of alcohol that can be used in cleaning wounds. Ethanol is also the kind of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, though its production is illegal in Iran.  
Some bootleggers in Iran use methanol, adding a splash of bleach to mask the added color before selling it as drinkable. Sometimes it is mixed with consumable alcohol to stretch supply, other times it comes as methanol, falsely advertised as drinkable, Hovda said. Methanol also can contaminate traditionally fermented alcohol.
Methanol cannot be smelled or tasted in drinks. It causes delayed organ and brain damage. Symptoms include chest pain, nausea, hyperventilation, blindness and even coma.
Hassanian said his figures included reports from coroner’s offices around Iran also counting those who died outside of hospitals from the poisonings.
“Unfortunately in some provinces, including Khuzestan and Fars, deaths from drinking methanol has exceeded the number of deaths from the new coronavirus,” he said.  
Dr. Knut Erik Hovda, a clinical toxicologist in Oslo, said to expect more methanol poisoning victims.
“The virus is spreading and people are just dying off, and I think they are even less aware of the fact that there are other dangers around,” Hovda said. “When they keep drinking this, there’s going to be more people poisoned.”
Even before the outbreak, methanol poisoning had taken a toll in Iran. One academic study found methanol poisoning sickened 768 people in Iran between September and October 2018 alone, killing 76.  
Other Muslim nations that ban their citizens from drinking also see such methanol poisoning, although Iran appears to be the only one in the pandemic so far to turn toward it as a fake cure. In Buddhist Cambodia, police said they seized 4,200 liters (1,100 gallons) of methanol from a man who unwittingly planned to make toxic hand sanitizer because of the virus outbreak.  
Muslim drinkers in Iran can be punished with cash fines and 80 lashes. However, minority Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians can drink alcoholic beverages in private.
While police occasionally announce alcohol busts, the trade in nontoxic alcohol also continues. Locally made Iranian arak from fermented raisins, known as Aragh sagi, sells for $10 for a 1.5-liter bottle. Imported vodka sells for $40 a bottle.  
“Every year during Nowruz, or the Persian New Year holidays that begin March 21, my customers double,” said Rafik, an Iranian-Armenian who makes vodka in the basement of his Tehran home. He spoke on the condition that only his first name be used for fear of arrest. “This year, because of corona, it jumped up by four- or five-fold.”
Farhad, a self-described heavy drinker who lives in central Tehran, said alcohol remains easy to find for those looking for it.  
“Even you can find it offered when you are walking down the street, ” he said.
Since 1979, Iran’s 40 alcohol factories have seen their production changed to pharmaceutical needs and sanitizers. Others had been left idle, like the abandoned Shams alcohol factory east of Tehran.  But now, in a time when even some mosques in Iran hand out high-proof alcohol as a sanitizer, officials plan to start work again at Shams to produce 22,000 liters of 99% alcohol a day. 
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More than half a million people in Britain have volunteered to help the National Health Service cope with the coronavirus epidemic. Across the world, people are stepping forward to help the most vulnerable – offering hope that societies can overcome the huge disruption caused by the virus. VOA’s Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico is extending a two-week curfew to April 12 and warning residents that new restrictions are on the way to help curb coronavirus cases.Gov. Wanda Vázquez said beginning Tuesday, nonessential workers will have to be home by 7 p.m., two hours earlier than the current curfew.She also said vehicles with license plates ending in even numbers can only be on the road Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  Vehicles with tags ending in odd numbers are only permitted to move about on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.Vázquez said the new restrictions come in response to hundreds of people being cited for violating a curfew imposed nearly two weeks ago.The leader of Puerto Rico’s coronavirus task force, Dr. Segundo Rodríguez, estimates that there are more than 600 people infected on the island, with more than 60 already testing positive.Authorities also reported two tourists on the island had died of the virus.Meanwhile, there has been a shake-up in the territory’s health department over the handling of the coronavirus.The governor Thursday announced appointment of Lorenzo González as Puerto Rico’s third health secretary in less than two weeks.  González was health secretary during the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic.  The move came hours after former health secretary Concepción Quiñones resigned for unclear reasons; her appointment followed the resignation of Rafael Rodríguez over complaints about the department’s handling of COVID-19.
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Before the coronavirus outbreak, a Beijing technology company was already working to integrate autonomous vehicles into daily life in China. They produced pint-sized sidewalk sweepers and delivery robots, but there is now a demand to repurpose the technology to take the place of workers who are staying home in the hopes of containing the virus. Matt Dibble reports.
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As hospitals and nursing homes desperately search for hand sanitizer amid the coronavirus outbreak, federal regulators are preventing ethanol producers from providing millions of gallons of alcohol that could be transformed into the germ-killing mixture.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s roadblock has been frustrating the health care and ethanol industries, which have been calling for a relaxed regulation to deal with the public health care emergency.”Hand sanitizer is a big part of our lives,” said Eric Barber, CEO of Mary Lanning Healthcare, a hospital in Hastings, Nebraska. “We can’t get any. We order it and it’s just not available.”The problem for the ethanol industry is that most plants make food-grade ethanol, one step below the highest pharmaceutical grade. But since the plants aren’t certified to comply with stringent production standards designed to protect quality of medicines, food ingredients and dietary supplements, the FDA doesn’t want the alcohol used for a product to be applied to the skin.Brandy Hamilton puts labels on bottles of hand sanitizer at the Prairie Distillery, which has switched from making liquor to making hand sanitizer due to the coronavirus pandemic, in Guthrie, Okla., March 21, 2020.In addition, the alcohol is not denatured or mixed with a bitter additive to make it undrinkable. The FDA insists this step is “critical” because of cases of poisoning, sometimes fatal, among young children who have accidentally ingested hand sanitizers.An FDA spokesman said Thursday that regulators have already seen a rise in poisonings linked to hand sanitizers in recent weeks, “heightening this public concern.”The FDA is also skeptical of industry claims that undenatured sanitizers could be distributed in a way that would keep them away from children.”It is unclear what, if any, measure could be instituted to ensure that the product does not make its way into consumer hands, where children could have access,” the FDA’s Jeremy Kahn said in an emailed statement.Facing a nationwide shortage, Barber said the FDA should temporarily relax regulations to allow alternative production.”You’re talking about alcohol. Does it matter if it’s fuel grade or whatever the stuff is they’re trying to price gouge now? I think it’s common sense,” he said.The American Hospital Association encouraged flexibility to help protect patients and caregivers, without directly weighing in on the sanitizer dispute.Hand sanitizer is dispensed at a mobile shower service for the homeless provided by The Shower of Hope MacArthur Park on March 23, 2020, in Los Angeles.”We may need to consider a range of possible solutions that were not on the table before the pandemic,” said Nancy Foster, a vice president with the group, in an emailed statement to the AP.The Consumer Brands Association, formerly the Grocery Manufacturers Association, has had conversations with the FDA to push the agency to reconsider its guidelines. The group, which represents branded food, consumer products and beverage companies, said that hand sanitizer supplies are running so low that its members have had to ration it out to workers in stores, distribution centers and manufacturing plants.”We need a temporary solution,” said Mike Gruber, vice president of regulatory and technical affairs at the trade association. “This goes toward ensuring basic food safety practices.”Distillers that produce vodka, whiskey and other alcoholic drinks have been given some regulatory waivers by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau allowing them to produce hand sanitizer. Many have done that, but they produce much smaller volumes of alcohol than an ethanol plant could produce. They also receive a benefit in the Senate-passed stimulus bill.Erik Tekell, head distiller and part owner of the Prairie Distillery, mixes a vat of hand sanitizer, as the distillery has switched from making liquor to making hand sanitizer due to the coronavirus pandemic, in Guthrie, Okla., March 21, 2020.The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, which represents dozens of large and small distillers, applauded Congress for easing taxes on distillers who make hand sanitizer.Under the stimulus package passed late Wednesday, distillers don’t have to pay federal excise taxes on alcohol used for hand sanitizer through Jan. 1, 2021.”Hundreds of U.S. distillers are stepping up to produce hand sanitizer and they should not be hit with a huge tax bill for producing this much-needed item, especially at a time when so many of them are struggling,” said Chris Swonger, the group’s president and CEO.But the council said it’s urging the FDA to update its guidance and let distillers use undenatured alcohol for hand sanitizer. The stimulus bill requires distillers to follow the FDA’s guidance if they want to receive the tax breaks.The FDA has waived dozens of regulations in recent weeks to boost production of key medical supplies, including coronavirus tests, ventilators, gloves and hand sanitizers.A customer buys two 8 oz. bottles of hand sanitizer at the Prairie Distillery, which has switched from making liquor to making hand sanitizer due to the coronavirus pandemic, in Guthrie, Okla., March 21, 2020.Under the latest FDA guidelines, regulators maintain standards for alcohol, requiring new producers to use alcohol that meets federal or international standards for use in either drugs or food products.The regulatory hurdles are especially frustrating for Midwest ethanol producers who are facing plunging fuel demand and a petroleum fight between Saudi Arabia and Russia that caused prices to plummet. The factors are forcing more plants to curtail production and close.For ethanol producers, relaxed rules, including a requirement of the hard-to-acquire denaturant, would allow them to step in and help in a national emergency.”If we could get the FDA to say, ‘Yes, you can use the beverage grade, and for the duration of this emergency, at least for some point in time here for the next two weeks, you can waive the denaturant,’ we would literally have millions of gallons of hand sanitizer available within a matter of days,” said Monte Shaw, CEO of Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol trade group. “Every one of our plants has gotten contacted by people who want this stuff and we can’t send it to them.”Andrew Vrbas owner of Pacha Soap, a boutique soap shop in Hastings, Nebraska, had just finished renovating a 100,000-square-foot former bread factory as a project to boost the community. Now, he’s preparing to set up hand sanitizer production there to supply to hospitals. He’s received calls from hospitals in Nebraska, Florida and New York City seeking hand sanitizer.”We are literally three miles from a plant that has as much ethanol as you could imagine,” he said. “We’re sitting on millions of gallons of alcohol. If we could rally the federal government to say look if you just let us work with local ethanol producers we have the expertise, we have the ability to provide hand sanitizer to hospitals not only in Nebraska but all across the country that are just reaching out through my network saying if you could send us hand sanitizer, we’re out.”
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The United States is turning up its “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, slapping fresh sanctions on 20 companies and individuals for bolstering Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and elsewhere.The U.S. Treasury Department unveiled the latest round of sanctions Thursday, accusing the companies and individuals of acting as part of a front for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force.Officials said the network has helped transfer “lethal aid” to two Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, Kataib Hezbollah and Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, while also smuggling weapons to Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.The companies and individuals also are alleged to have engaged in money laundering, illicit oil sales to Syria and a widespread intimidation campaign designed to bully Iraqi politicians into supporting policies favorable to Iran.“Iran employs a web of front companies to fund terrorist groups across the region, siphoning resources away from the Iranian people and prioritizing terrorist proxies over the basic needs of its people,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.The sanctions come as Iran is struggling to contain the coronavirus pandemic, reporting at least 29,000 cases and more than 2,200 deaths.But even while bracing for a second wave of the outbreak, Iranian officials have repeatedly blamed U.S. sanctions for making it worse.Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif again decried U.S. actions against Tehran on Thursday, telling nations it was a “moral imperative to stop observing the bully’s sanctions.”Mnuchin on Thursday promised the new sanctions would not interfere with efforts to help the Iranian people.“The United States maintains broad exceptions and authorizations for humanitarian aid, including agriculture commodities, food, medicine and medical devices, to help the people of Iran combat the coronavirus,” he said.The Iran-linked companies targeted in the latest Treasury Department designations include the Reconstruction Organization of the Holy Shrines in Iraq — which claims to be a religious organization based in both Iran and Iraq — and the Iraq-based al-Khamael Maritime Services.The U.S. also sanctioned Sayyed Yaser Musavir, an IRGC-Quds Force official who has been coordinating efforts with Iranian-backed militias in Iraq since 2014, and Shaykh Adnan al-Hamidawi, a Kataib Hezbollah special operations commander allegedly involved in attacks against U.S. and coalition forces as well as in a scheme to intimidate Iraqi politicians.A statement from the U.S. State Department on Thursday further said that some of the sanctioned companies and individuals were involved in efforts to keep Iraq dependent on Iranian energy supplies.
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As the coronavirus continues to disrupt people’s lives in ways both big and small, many are seeking greater spiritual nourishment. Religious institutions across the country are heeding that call by connecting with their congregations in a number of creative ways. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more.
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The leading U.S. infectious disease expert is warning the coronavirus outbreak the world is experiencing maybe a cyclical occurrence and could return even stronger if the proper precautions are not taken. Speaking late Wednesday during the daily White House coronavirus briefing, U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said cases of the virus are starting to appear in South Africa and other southern hemisphere countries where winter is coming.   He said if a substantial outbreak occurs in those areas, it would be a strong indication that the virus could become cyclical and countries in the northern hemisphere should be prepared for a second round of the virus next year.  Fauci said that puts greater emphasis on the need to continue working on a vaccine that can readily available if that second round of coronavirus comes, as well as a menu of drugs that can be effective and safe in treating patients who get it. 
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Some of India’s legions of poor and people suddenly thrown out of work by a nationwide stay-at-home order began receiving aid distribution Thursday, as both the public and private sector work to blunt the impact of efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic. India’s Finance Ministry announced a 1.7 trillion ($22 billion) economic stimulus package that will include delivering monthly grains and lentil rations to an astonishing 800 million people, some 60% of people in the world’s second-most populous country. In the meantime, the police in one state were giving rations of rice to shanty-dwellers, while another state’s government deposited cash into the bank accounts of newly unemployed workers. Aid groups, meanwhile, worked to greatly expand the number of meals they can hand out. The unprecedented order keeping India’s 1.3 billion people at home for all but essential trips to places like supermarkets or pharmacies is meant to keep virus cases from surging above the 553 already recorded and overwhelming an already strained health care system. Yet the measures that went into effect Wednesday — the largest of their kind in the world — risk heaping further hardship on the quarter of the population who live below the poverty line and the 1.8 million who are homeless. Daily wage laborers leave for their respective villages as the city comes under lockdown in Prayagraj, India, March 26, 2020.Rickshaw drivers, itinerant produce peddlers, maids, day laborers and other informal workers form the backbone of the Indian economy, comprising around 85% of all employment, according to official data. Many of them buy food with the money they make each day, and have no savings to fall back on. Untold numbers of them are now out of work and many families have been left struggling to eat. “Our first concern is food, not the virus,” said Suresh Kumar, 60, a bicycle rickshaw rider in New Delhi.  He said he has a family of six who rely on his daily earnings of just 300 rupees ($4), “I don’t know how I will manage,” he said. In the northeastern state of Assam, police started handing out rice in some of the poorest districts, an informal effort they said they hope to ramp up in coming days.  In India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, the government already sent 1,000 rupees ($13) to 2 million informal workers who are registered in a government database and have bank accounts. It was handing out free food rations to those are are not registered, though some in the state capital, Lucknow, said they weren’t aware of such handouts. Daily wage workers and homeless people wait for food outside a government-run night shelter during a 21-day nationwide lockdown, in New Delhi, March 25, 2020.In New Delhi, authorities teamed up with local charities and aid groups to map out locations where the city’s poor tend to congregate, distributing 500 hot meals cooked in government schools, political party headquarters and shelter kitchens.  Details of the programs, from how well-funded they were to how many people they hoped to help, remained scant, however. “These are extraordinary times and proving food to the poor is a mammoth task,” said Vinay K Stephen, who runs a nonprofit group working with the government to feed the capital’s homeless. “But we will do it.” Economists had urged the government to create a stimulus package to blunt the effects of the lockdown on the poor, many of whom migrated to big cities for work and now now find themselves unable to earn a living or go home to their villages after Indian Railways suspended all passenger service or the first time in its 150 years of operating. The $22 billion package announced Thursday, which includes distributing five kilos (11 pounds) of grains and one kilo (2.2 pounds) of lentil beans every month from government stocks to 800 million people, is in addition to an earlier pledged of $2 billion to bolster the health care system. Indians stand in marked positions to maintain physical distance outside a grocery store during lockdown in Bangalore, India, March 26, 2020.It hasn’t been only the poor caught out by the lockdown. Even those with money to spend in shops have met with long lines and confusing regulations. In the city of Bangalore, people crowded roadside vendors outside a closed wholesale vegetable market. Others stood in line outside grocery stores behind chalked markings to maintain social distance. People ignored India’s new social isolation norms to keep at least one meter (3.2 feet) apart and crammed in to buy food at one store in Lucknow during the state government’s limited allowed window for shopping. “I know it is risky and [one can] get infected,” said Kamlesh Saxena, a government employee shopping at the store. “But I have no choice.”  
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In an unprecedented videoconference of G-7 foreign ministers, global leaders are pledging to work together to battle the coronavirus outbreak.  The United States says it is ready to work with China to end the global pandemic and restore the world economy.  But as VOA’s State Department correspondent Nike Ching reports, some analysts are skeptical about the ability of both countries to cooperate to fight the global pandemic.
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South Africa begins a 21-day lockdown at midnight Thursday aimed at stopping the country’s rising number of coronavirus cases, with which as of Wednesday tallied 709 confirmed cases, the highest on the continent.Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said he believes it may be at least two weeks before the lockdown affects the rise in cases.South Africans in health care, law enforcement, food sales and distribution, and utilities are exempt from the lockdown.Officials are urging others to only go out for essential needs.In an apparent effort to discourage mass hoarding of food, Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza announced the country has an adequate food supply for the duration of the lockdown.The vast majority of countries across Africa have confirmed cases of the virus. So far the continent has at least 1,788.So far, at least 58 people have died in Africa, although South Africa has not recorded any confirmed deaths from the virus.
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State and local law enforcement officers in Montana do not have the authority to arrest people on federal civil immigration detainers, the Montana Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.”This is a major victory for immigrants in Montana,” Alex Rate, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana, said in a statement. “Immigrants throughout Montana must be treated the same as every other individual who is charged with a crime. They will enjoy the presumption of innocence, have the right to post bail and be free pending trial, and be free to step out from underneath the boot of over-aggressive federal immigration officials.”The 7-0 ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Montana and others against Lincoln County in October 2018 after Agustin Ramon — a dual citizen of Mexico and France — was arrested on charges of stealing prescription medication from a neighbor’s house in Eureka in August 2018.Ramon’s bail was set at $25,000. But he did not post bond because the sheriff said he would comply with a Department of Homeland Security request to detain Ramon on their behalf for up to another 48 hours after any potential release date.The ACLU argued in January, and the Montana Supreme Court agreed, that telling Ramon he would not be released if he posted bond constituted another arrest and that Montana law does not give local law enforcement officers the authority to arrest people based on civil immigration detainers.”The Legislature has specifically authorized DHS officers to conduct arrest for state crimes … yet it has not done the inverse for state officers,” justices wrote.The Montana decision matches those in several other states, including Minnesota, Massachusetts and New York, said Dan Galindo, an attorney for the ACLU.The justices noted that while the Department of Homeland Security’s detainer policy is not a mandatory policy, President Donald Trump issued an executive order providing that “any jurisdictions that willfully refuse to comply” with such requests “are not eligible to receive Federal grants.””Depending on each jurisdiction’s dependence on federal funding, such policies promulgated by DHS and the President could result in unconstitutional ‘economic dragooning,’ ” the court noted in a footnote. Such coercion has been found unconstitutional in two California counties, the ruling states.”We are thrilled that the Supreme Court picked up on the coercive effect of ‘voluntary’ detainer requests,” Rate said.Justices Jim Rice, Dirk Sandefur and James Shea added that the ruling does not mean “that sheriffs are barred from any and all cooperation with federal authorities, such as communication between the agencies about detainees and their detention status, or cooperation in other arrest contexts.”An attorney for the Montana Association of Counties, who argued the case on behalf of Lincoln County, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment.Ramon pleaded guilty to burglary in January 2019 and was given a six-year deferred sentence. He spent 203 days in jail before he was deported to France.
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Brazil’s governors on Wednesday rebelled against President Jair Bolsonaro’s call for life to return to pre-coronavirus normalcy, saying his proposal to reopen schools and businesses runs counter to recommendations from health experts and endangers Latin America’s largest population.State governors, many of whom have adopted strict measures to limit gatherings in their regions, defied the president’s instructions in a nationwide address Tuesday evening that they lift the restrictions and limit isolation only to the elderly and those with longstanding health problems.The governors weren’t the only defiant ones. Virus plans challenged by Bolsonaro were upheld by the Supreme Court. The heads of both congressional houses criticized his televised speech. Companies donated supplies to state anti-virus efforts. And even some of his staunch supporters joined his detractors.In a videoconference Wednesday between Bolsonaro and governors from Brazil’s southeast region, Sao Paulo Gov. João Doria threatened to sue the federal government if it attempted to interfere with his efforts to combat the virus, according to video of their private meeting reviewed by The Associated Press.“We are here, the four governors of the southeast region, in respect for Brazil and Brazilians and in respect for dialogue and understanding,” said Doria, who supported Bolsonaro’s 2018 presidential bid. “But you are the president and you have to set the example. You have to be the representative to command, guide and lead this country, not divide it.”Bolsonaro responded by accusing Doria of riding his coattails to the governorship, then turning his back.“If you don’t get in the way, Brazil will take off and emerge from the crisis. Stop campaigning,” the far-right president said.Bolsonaro argues that a shutdown of activity would deeply wound the country’s already beleaguered economy and spark social unrest worse than the impact of addressing the virus with only limited isolation measures. He told reporters in the capital, Brasilia, that he has listened to his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, and found their perspectives to be rather similar.“What needs to be done? Put the people to work. Preserve the elderly, preserve those who have health problems. But nothing more than that,” Bolsonaro said. “If we cower, opt for the easy discourse, everyone stays home, it will be chaos. No one will produce anything, there will be unemployment, refrigerators will go empty, no one will be able to pay bills.”He has found some support among his base — #BolsonaroIsRight was trending atop Brazilian Twitter — but such backing has been largely drowned out in public by a week of nightly protests from many of those respecting self-isolation, who lean from their windows to bang pots and pans.His administration has also faced criticism from economists including Armínio Fraga, a former central bank governor, and Claudio Ferraz, a professor at Rio de Janeiro’s Pontifical Catholic University.“Brazil is seeing something unique, an insurrection of governors,” Ferraz wrote on Twitter. “This will become a new topic in political science: checks and balances by governors in a Federal System.”Candido Bracher, president of Brazil’s largest private bank, Itaú Unibanco, criticized Bolsonaro’s crisis management in an interview with the newspaper O Globo published Wednesday. His bank and companies like oil giant Petrobras, iron miner Vale and the brewery Ambev have made large donations to state governments for helping fight the outbreak.Rio de Janeiro Gov. Wilson Witzel, another former ally of Bolsonaro, told the president in the videoconference that he won’t heed the president’s call to loosen social distancing protocols.Last week, the governor announced he would shut down airports and interstate roads, which Bolsonaro annulled by decree contending that only the federal government can adopt such measures. By the time the president took to the airwaves Tuesday evening, a Supreme Court justice had ruled in favor of Witzel and the governors.Two days earlier Brazil’s top court issued another ruling allowing Sao Paulo state to stop repaying federal government debt amounting to $400 million so that it can beef up its health sector. The decision may set a precedent for other states.As of Wednesday, Brazil had about 2,400 confirmed coronavirus cases and 57 deaths related to the outbreak. Experts say the figures could soar in April, potentially causing a collapse of the country’s health care system. There is particular concern about the virus’ potential damage in the ultra-dense, low-income neighborhoods known as favelas.For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic engine, is home to the majority of the coronavirus cases. It has been under partial lockdown since Tuesday, and schools, universities and non-essential businesses have mostly been closed for more than 10 days. Rio state has adopted similar measures, including closing its beaches.Other governors who hadn’t voiced criticism have begun doing so.Gov. Ronaldo Caiado of Goiás state, a doctor who had been a close Bolsonaro ally, told reporters Wednesday he is redefining their relationship.“I cannot allow the president to wash his hands and hold others responsible for coming economic collapse and loss of jobs,” Caiado said. “That is not the behavior of a leader.”Caiado joined a meeting late Wednesday of Brazil’s 26 state governors to coordinate their efforts. The federal government wasn’t invited.Carlos Moisés, governor of Santa Catarina state, which gave almost 80 percent of its votes to Bolsonaro in the 2018 presidential runoff election, issued a statement saying he was “blown away” by the president’s speech. Moisés said he will insist that residents stay home during the pandemic, ignoring the president’s advice.
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Pressure was mounting on the Trump administration Wednesday to release people from immigration detention facilities where at least one detainee has tested positive for COVID-19, and advocates fear tight quarters and overall conditions could cause rapid spread of the virus. The U.S. holds around 37,000 people in immigration detention. Detainees and advocates say many are vulnerable because of age and pre-existing medical conditions, and because they are often held in open rooms, beds 3-feet apart, and without adequate supplies of masks or other protections. “It’s impossible to stay calm,” said Marco Battistotti, an Italian who is among 170 people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Bristol County jail in Massachusetts. “People are panicking. People are in fear.”  The 54-year-old Battistotti was among about 100 detainees at the county jail near Cape Cod who signed a letter released by a local immigration lawyer detailing conditions inside. They asked to be released to await decisions on their immigration cases.  “I don’t want to die in an ICE jail,” he said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “Why can’t I fight my case on the outside?” The agency, which reported the positive test of a 31-year-old man from Mexico held in Bergen County, New Jersey, on Tuesday, has announced steps to protect detained migrants and staff from the virus, but hasn’t said whether it plans to review cases for possible release because of the outbreak. It did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the complaints about conditions from the detainees and their advocates.  The administration has tried to balance its overall hard line on immigration, a signature policy of President Donald Trump, and its response to the outbreak, with ICE announcing previously that it would “temporarily adjust” operations to focus on apprehending people who pose a risk to public safety or are subject to mandatory detention because of a criminal record. LawsuitsImmigrant advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union, are filing lawsuits in California, Maryland, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, seeking court orders for the immediate release of people in immigration detention, especially those at risk because of their age or medical conditions.  Advocates have also asked a court in Los Angeles to order the Office of Refugee Resettlement to release to eligible sponsors around 1,200 migrant children who were apprehended without parents or legal guardians and have been held in government-contracted shelters for more than 30 days. They said two staff members at two such facilities in New York have tested positive for COVID-19. It’s unclear how many immigration detainees overall are at higher risk, but one California suit alone had 13 plaintiffs, all over 55.  A panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Monday, citing the “rapidly escalating public health crisis,” ordered the immediate release of a 37-year-old woman who is fighting deportation to Mexico. The woman’s lawyer, Max Carter-Oberstone, said the government told him it would not oppose the decision but she still had not been released as of early Wednesday. The court took the action on its own initiative in a rare move on behalf of a woman who says she has been threatened with death by members of a Mexican drug cartel.  “It wasn’t something we asked for or were expecting,” Carter-Oberstone said. “The court is clearly reacting to the greater public health crisis that we’re in right now and re-evaluating how it’s going to dispose of its immigration cases in light of that crisis that we’re all experiencing.”  The situation in immigration detention, which include facilities run by local jurisdictions and private contractors, is similar to that facing jails and prisons, with staff also at risk from a virus that already has sickened at least 55,000 people and killed about 800 in the U.S.  One difference is that more than half of ICE detainees have no criminal charges or conviction and are held only for immigration reasons. Under previous administrations, many would likely have been released on bond as they pursued their cases. Screening detaineesICE has reported one positive test of an employee at a detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and 18 confirmed cases among staff not involved in detaining migrants. A contractor reported a positive case of a staff member at a facility in Harris County, Texas. The agency says it is screening new detainees and isolating detainees who show symptoms of the coronavirus disease. Detainees say those measures won’t do much, with people staying in dorm-like bays with no social distancing possible or in smaller rooms that they sometimes have to clean themselves, with insufficient cleaning supplies. Francisca Morales Diaz, a 45-year-old from Mexico who was released Friday from an ICE detention center in Louisiana, said she and others were issued soap and toilet paper for their own use once a week and they would run out. When they complained, she says they were told there were shortages on the outside as well.  “There isn’t enough medicine. It’s not well-maintained,” Morales told AP. Her fear is that “at any moment, they’re going to come and take me back there.” ‘Not sanitary conditions’Ira Alkalay, a lawyer representing some of the detainees at the jail near Cape Cod, said the detainees are responsible for cleaning their unit, which includes a dining area and bathrooms, but aren’t even given bleach. Some who signed the letter suffer from respiratory ailments such as tuberculosis, emphysema and asthma that put them at higher risk to the virus.  “These are not sanitary conditions at all,” Alkalay said. “If the virus is introduced, many people could get sick all at once. Hospitals in the area can become quickly overwhelmed.”  The office of Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, who has made headlines for offering to send the jail’s ICE detainees to help build Trump’s promised border wall, has stressed there are currently no confirmed or suspected cases of the virus at the facility. “We suspect these detainees are working with outside political activist groups to use the coronavirus crisis to advance their political agenda,” the sheriff’s spokesman, Jonathan Darling, said this week.  Eunice Cho, an ACLU lawyer, said the confined spaces and limited medical treatment in many immigration jails made them especially vulnerable — and if the virus spreads through one facility, the number of sick people who would require advanced care could overwhelm area hospitals. Many ICE jails are in rural areas with smaller hospitals. “This is closely related to the public health of our entire community,” Cho said.  
 
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Israel’s parliament speaker abruptly resigned Wednesday, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and deepening the country’s political turmoil as the embattled Israeli leader tries to cling to power amid a fast-spreading outbreak of the coronavirus and a looming corruption trial.FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, March. 8, 2020.The resignation of Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein clears the way for the opposition to move forward with efforts in parliament to topple Netanyahu. But by resigning, Edelstein, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, also defied a Supreme Court order to hold a vote for his successor, throwing down a new obstacle that could delay the opposition from proceeding with its agenda for several days.The move drew an angry reaction from the opposition Blue and White Party, which now has the backing of a slim parliamentary majority.”The Israeli parliament belongs to Israel’s citizens, and their elected representatives will follow the laws of the state of Israel and the rulings of its courts. No one is above the law,” Blue and White leader Benny Gantz tweeted.Edelstein suspended parliamentary activities last week, citing procedural issues and restrictions on large gatherings because of the spread of the coronavirus. But opponents accused him of blocking the vote on his replacement to shield Netanyahu from legislation that would limit his lengthy rule. Netanyahu was recently indicted on various corruption charges and faces a criminal trial.Earlier this week, the Supreme Court ordered Edelstein to hold a new vote by Wednesday, with the chief justice accusing him of “undermining the foundations of the democratic process.” While some members of Netanyahu’s Likud party urged him to defy the order, he responded that he would “not agree to an ultimatum” and resigned instead.Edelstein, the parliament speaker for seven years, called the Supreme Court decision an “arrogant intervention” in the legislative branch. Nonetheless, he said he was stepping down so as not to allow Israel to “descend into anarchy” and devolve into civil war. But in his last act he also said parliament would only reconvene next week, in apparent subversion of the Supreme Court order to hold the vote by Wednesday.
 
Blue and White members said the move put Edelstein in contempt of court and indicated they would file another petition against him to force his hand.Standoff worsensThe showdown marked the height of an ever-deepening standoff between Netanyahu’s opponents and supporters in the wake of the country’s third inconclusive election in less than a year. It also comes against the backdrop of a series of emergency executive measures that the caretaker government has enacted to try to quell the spread of the new virus.For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up in two weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or even death. The virus is highly contagious and can be spread by those showing no symptoms.As Israel tightened a lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, issued a televised address urging the public to respect the restrictions on movement. In a swipe at Edelstein, he urged politicians to “heed the orders of the courts.”FILE – Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin speaks during the World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem, Jan. 23, 2020.Rivlin said he was sure the court’s order would be honored “and that Israeli democracy will come out stronger from this difficult test period.” He called on the leaders of the large parties — Likud and Blue and White — to “find a way to find shared and responsible leadership.”Netanyahu’s Likud emerged as the largest party in the election earlier this month but, along with smaller religious and nationalist allies, won only the support of 58 lawmakers — leaving his right-wing bloc three seats short of the required majority in parliament.Gantz is backed by a slim majority in the newly elected Knesset and has been pushing for the country’s legislature to continue functioning at such a critical time, even without a permanent government in place.Israel’s president has given Gantz one month to try to form a new government, and Edelstein’s stalling tactics could cost him valuable time.Because of deep ideological divisions within the opposition, it appears unlikely that Gantz will succeed in forming an alternative government. But they are unified in their opposition to Netanyahu and appear determined to cooperate to pass legislation that could prevent Netanyahu from remaining in the prime minister’s post.Cohen next?Once parliament votes, it is expected to approve Meir Cohen of Blue and White as Edelstein’s replacement. That would allow the party  to proceed with its planned legislation, which includes term limits for prime minister and a ban on indicted politicians, such as Netanyahu, from serving as prime minister.
 
Blue and White this week already convened several decision-making committees, including one devoted to the coronavirus crisis, that would handle the anti-Netanyahu legislation.Edelstein’s resignation marked the first time in Israeli history that a Knesset speaker had stepped down.In a televised address late Wednesday, Netanyahu repeated his calls for Gantz to join him in an emergency unity government devoted to handling the coronavirus crisis together.”We are one nation, we are one state, and the order of the hour is unity,” he said.FILE – Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz is pictured in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 7, 2020.Gantz has pledged to support the government in its effort to combat the virus. But he and his allies have been skeptical about Netanyahu’s unity offers, concerned that he will not follow through on his promises to cede power in 18 months.
The country has been nearly entirely shut down, with hundreds of thousands put out of work and all but essential movement from the home barred.New restrictions approved Wednesday limit all those besides personnel deemed essential from venturing more that 100 meters from their homes, and all places of worship shuttered.In a recent surge, nearly 2,400 Israelis have been infected — up from just 100 two weeks ago — with 39 in serious condition. Five Israelis, all over age 65, with pre-existing medical conditions, have died.Blue and White accuses Netanyahu and his caretaker government of carrying out undemocratic measures amid the crisis, and using it as cover to cling to power.Netanyahu has already managed to postpone his own pending criminal trial on serious corruption charges and authorize unprecedented electronic surveillance of Israeli citizens.
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