Voters in Bolivia will have to wait until October before choosing the country’s next president because of the coronavirus pandemic.Bolivia’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal moved the election date from September 6 to October 18. The vote had initially been set for May 3.The president of the tribunal, Salvador Romero, said the new date of the election generates better conditions for health protection, convenience for voting from abroad, the arrival of international observation missions, as well as favoring the logistics throughout the territory by all departmental electoral tribunals.Romero rejected the claim by the controlling party in the legislature that lawmakers had to approve the change in date.Movement Toward Socialism is the party of former President Evo Morales, who was ousted last year and replaced by interim president Jeanine Áñez.Bolivia has confirmed more than 64,000 cases of the coronavirus and more than 2,300 deaths.   
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An overhaul of Haiti’s penal code that punishes marriage officiants who refuse to perform same-sex weddings is provoking outcry among religious leaders in the socially conservative Caribbean nation.  The tension is emerging in a nation that has never spelled out LGBT rights and same-sex unions have never been recognized and homosexuality has never been expressly codified as illegal.At the heart of the current discussion is the rewrite of the 185-year-old penal code, decreed by Haitian President Jovenel Moise last month. It voids the work of lawmakers who were drafting legal reforms before parliament recessed and the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the country.  Published in an official government newsletter on June 24, the reforms would go into effect in 2022 unless a new parliament rejects the document.
 
Critics object to the sweeping changes issued by decree as well as the new penal code’s treatment of sexual minorities that, on paper, would make Haitian tribunals among the most LGBT-friendly in the Caribbean, a region where sexual minorities have faced centuries of repression. Outcry from the pulpitDr. Francoise St. Vil Villier, president of the National Spiritual Council of Haitian Churches. (Photo: Renan Toussaint / VOA)”The people don’t need immorality, the people don’t need homosexuality,” Dr. Francoise St. Vil Villier, president of the National Spiritual Council of Haitian Churches, said during a press conference. “Anyway, [LGBT people] have always been here, we don’t bother them, we look them in the eye. But legalizing it in Haiti? We say no.” 
“A penal code cannot be immoral, because its purpose is to sanction those who commit crimes against society,” countered Marie Ghislaine Monpremier, Haiti’s minister for women’s affairs. 
The new penal code tacitly allows homosexuality, as it contains no provisions punishing same-sex relations. And, it sets forth fines and possible prison sentences for officiants who refuse to perform same-sex weddings.  Port-au-Prince Pastor Gary St. Hubert, a Protestant, decried the provision.
 
“People will do what they want, but you can’t legalize it,” St. Hubert told VOA Creole. “You can’t force me — if a man comes to my church and asks me to marry him to another man — to do it or face arrest. Then there’s no democracy!”
 
Several pastors have given the government until July 25 to rescind the new penal code, promising street protests if no action is taken.
 Yaisah Val, 46, a transgender woman, watches a movie with her husband, Richecarde Val, 28, in their home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.Human rights observers note that, as a civil matter, same-sex unions are not currently recognized in Haiti. In fact, there have seen unsuccessful legislative initiatives to fine and imprison married gay and lesbian couples over the past few years.
 
LGBT advocates say denunciations of the new penal code are misguided.
 
“There’s a difference between penal code and civil code. It’s the civil code which deals with marriage, not the penal code,” said Djennifer Mercer in a statement posted in French on the Facebook page of Kouraj, Haiti’s most prominent LGBT rights group.  Government weighs inHaiti’s Presidential Press Secretary Eddy Jackson Alexis (Photo: Yves Manuel / VOA)Presidential Press Secretary Eddy Jackson Alexis addressed the controversy in a recent press conference and promised broader consultations with the public.”There are lies being told about this document. They say it is what it is not,” he said, adding that articles have been cited that are not even part of the penal code. “To re-establish the truth, the government will address the people. The prime minister is meeting with sectors of civic society so that they may once again express their opinions.”
 Voices in Port-au-Prince  Most people VOA Creole asked about the new penal code on the streets of Port-au-Prince oppose it, reflecting views that LGBT advocates say predominate in Haiti and have long contributed to a climate of hostility towards sexual minorities.
 This Haitian mother of three boys says she is against the president’s new penal code articles regarding homosexuality. (Photo: Matiado Vilme /VOA)”Was the president drunk or on drugs when he came up with this idea?” a street vendor said.  
 
“If he signed this decree God will strike him down, because [according to the Bible] that is how Sodom’s life was destroyed,” a female merchant said. “We should all revolt against this document, we don’t want it.”
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Peru President Martín Vizcarra says 3,688 people were mistakenly not included in the previously reported death toll of those killed by the novel coronavirus.The revised death toll is at least 17,455.The new tally adds victims who died from March to the end of June. But it is unclear if more people who died of the virus this month may have gone uncounted.Vizcarra blames the miscount partly on the chaos created by the sudden impact of the pandemic. Vizcarra said Wednesday, a commission will be formed so the government can review the figures it receives from thousands of bureaus around the country that report to the National Death System, which keeps the official nationwide count.Peru’s more than 360,00 coronavirus cases is secondly only to Brazil in Latin America. 
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A Chilean man has been extradited to France to face charges in connection with the disappearance and alleged killing of a Japanese university student.Nicolas Zepeda is charged in France with premeditated murder in the alleged 2016 slaying of his girlfriend, Narumi Kurosaki, whose body was never found.He had returned to Chile by the time Kurosaki was reported missing from her university in Besancon, France, days later.Zepeda was under house arrest in Viña del Mar, but the Chilean Supreme Court lifted the order earlier on Wednesday clearing the way for Interpol officers to escort him to France.Chile’s high court first intervened in May, approving Zepeda’s extradition weeks after a lower court blocked his return to France when Zepeda’s lawyer argued that he could not be extradited because Kurosaki’s body has never been found.Zepeda, who met with Kurosak in December before her disappearance, has reportedly not cooperated with authorities investigating the case. 
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Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro remains in self-isolation at his official residence in Brasilia after testing positive for the coronavirus for a third time in two weeks.Bolsanaro’s medical team revealed the results of Tuesday’s test in a statement Wednesday, which also said the president is in good condition. Due to his latest coronavirus test, Bolsonaro’s advisers told the French News Agency (AFP) his planned trips to the Brazilian states of Bahia and Piauí in the coming days are currently on hold.Bolsanaoro said he and four ministers in his administration are treating their infections with the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, despite scientists saying there was no medical evidence to support its effectiveness.Bolsanaro has been criticized for his management of the health crisis.He fired two health ministers amid the pandemic and has openly opposed measures to curb the virus, including wearing face masks and practicing social distancing.Brazil has the most COVID-19 cases in Latin America, with more than 2.1 million infections and more than 80,100 deaths.  
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A Canadian court Wednesday invalidated the country’s Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States, ruling elements of the law violate Canadian constitutional guarantees of life, liberty and security.But Federal Court Justice Ann Marie McDonald delayed the implementation of her decision for six months to give the Canadian Parliament time to respond.”I conclude that the provisions enacting the (safe third country agreement) infringe the guarantees in section 7 of the Charter,” McDonald wrote in her decision, referring to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom, part of Canada’s Constitution. “I have also concluded that the infringement is not justified under section 1 of the Charter.”Under the agreement, immigrants who want to seek asylum in Canada and present themselves at ground ports of entry from the United States are returned to the U.S. and told to seek asylum there.But if they request asylum on Canadian soil at a location other than an official crossing, the process is allowed to go forward. In most cases, the refugees are released and allowed to live in Canada, taking advantage of generous social welfare benefits while their asylum applications are reviewed, a process that can take years.Last fall Amnesty International, the Canadian Council for Refugees and the Canadian Council of Churches sued, arguing that the Canadian government has no guarantee that those returned to the United States will be safe because of the treatment of immigrants by the administration of President Donald Trump.The original legal challenge cited the widespread detention of asylum seekers who are turned back from Canada and the separation of parents and children as other examples of why the U.S. is not a “safe” country for newly arrived immigrants.Mary-Liz Power, a spokesperson for Canada’s Public Safety Minister Bill Blair, said they were aware of the decision.”Although the Federal Court has made its ruling, that decision does not come in effect until January 22nd 2021,” Power said in a written statement. “The Safe Third Country Agreement remains in effect.”On Wednesday, the three groups that filed the lawsuit said they welcomed the decision and urged the government of Canada not to appeal. The groups also urged Canada to stop returning refugee claimants to the United States immediately.‘That cannot be allowed to continue’”The Safe Third Country Agreement has been the source of grave human rights violations for many years, unequivocally confirmed in this ruling,” said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, one of the groups that brought the lawsuit. “That cannot be allowed to continue one more day.”In a statement, Canadian opposition lawmaker Jenny Kwan of the New Democratic Party called the decision an important victory for the rights of asylum seekers.”This decision will undoubtedly save lives,” she said. “We hope the Liberals will accept this important decision and not appeal it since too many people have already lost their rights.”An email sent to the U.S. State Department in Washington seeking comment was not immediately returned.A former U.S. Department of Homeland Security attache in Ottawa who helped work on the details of the implementation of the agreement said the ruling mostly criticizes the Canadian government for sending asylum seekers to the United States in a way that violates the Canadian charter.”It certainly is a broad criticism of the U.S. policy of detention of asylum-seekers,” Theresa Brown, now director of immigration and cross border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, said in a Wednesday email.Since Trump took office in 2017, tens of thousands of people have crossed into Canada at locations between ports of entry where they were arrested, but then able to file a refugee claim.Many of those migrants who came to the U.S. from across the globe — Syria, Congo, Haiti and elsewhere — would travel to upstate New York and then go to Roxham Road in the town of Champlain, a backroad that dead-ends at the border. There they walked across, were arrested and usually released, hoping Canadian policies would give them the security they believe the political climate in the United States does not.Under special rules set up by the United States and Canada to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic most who cross illegally in either direction are now immediately returned to the other country.The organizations that filed suit argued that if the agreement is abandoned, it would allow Canada to meet its legal obligations for the treatment of asylum seekers and allow people to present themselves at ports of entry, ending irregular crossings. 
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Tropical Storm Gonzalo formed Wednesday over the Atlantic Ocean, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.Gonzalo has sustained winds of up to 75 kilometers per hour, and is around 2,010 kilometers east of the southern Windward Islands.Hurricanes are named according a strict list from the World Meteorological Organization. The names restart each year and go in alphabetical order. This is the earliest time a “G” hurricane has appeared, which signifies an unprecedented hurricane season.The official hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30.  
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Tropical storm Gonzalo formed Wednesday over the Atlantic Ocean, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.Gonzalo has sustained winds of up to 75 kilometers per hour, and is around 2,010 km east of the southern Windward Islands.Hurricanes are named according a strict list from the World Meteorological Organization. The names restart each year and go in alphabetical order. This is the earliest time a “G” hurricane has appeared, which signifies an unprecedented hurricane season.The official hurricane season runs from June 1 though November 30.  
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Cuba increased the number of food stores that accept U.S. dollars and eliminated a 10 percent tax on the U.S. currency, in the government’s latest efforts to secure hard cash to bolster the island nation’s weak economy. People lined up at designated stores that only accept hard currency to purchase items in short supply such as meat, rice and cleaning supplies. The new exchange system set off criticism on social media that the government is creating a special class of consumer who is fortunate enough to have U.S. dollars and other hard currencies. Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel recently rejected that accusation, saying the government will allow all citizens to buy 47 items using local currency or they will receive them through monthly aid to families. The government denied that people without hard currency will be left behind in the economy. 
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Restaurants in Peru are accepting diners for the first time since closing four months ago at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in March.  Under new guidelines, businesses on Monday resumed operations at 40% capacity. Tables were required to be at least two meters apart. Ruben Espinoza, chef and manager of the Punto Marisko restaurant, said he is excited about the reopening even if it’s only at 40% of restaurant capacity because it’s a start.  The reopening of restaurants in the upscale Miraflores tourist district in the capital, Lima, attracted few diners as businesses begin to recover from the economic crisis created by COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.  The president of Peru’s National Tourism Chamber, Carlos Canales, said some 70,000 businesses permanently closed during the lockdown, eliminating thousands of jobs during the pandemic.  Peru has confirmed more than 350,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 13,000 deaths.
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Restaurants in Peru are accepting diners for the first time since closing four months ago at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in March.  Under new guidelines, businesses on Monday resumed operations at 40% capacity. Tables were required to be at least two meters apart. Ruben Espinoza, chef and manager of the Punto Marisko restaurant, said he is excited about the reopening even if it’s only at 40% of restaurant capacity because it’s a start.  The reopening of restaurants in the upscale Miraflores tourist district in the capital, Lima, attracted few diners as businesses begin to recover from the economic crisis created by COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.  The president of Peru’s National Tourism Chamber, Carlos Canales, said some 70,000 businesses permanently closed during the lockdown, eliminating thousands of jobs during the pandemic.  Peru has confirmed more than 350,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 13,000 deaths.
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Cuba increased the number of food stores that accept U.S. dollars and eliminated a 10 percent tax on the U.S. currency, in the government’s latest efforts to secure hard cash to bolster the island nation’s weak economy. People lined up at designated stores that only accept hard currency to purchase items in short supply such as meat, rice and cleaning supplies. The new exchange system set off criticism on social media that the government is creating a special class of consumer who is fortunate enough to have U.S. dollars and other hard currencies. Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel recently rejected that accusation, saying the government will allow all citizens to buy 47 items using local currency or they will receive them through monthly aid to families. The government denied that people without hard currency will be left behind in the economy. 
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Officials in both Washington and Ottawa agreed last week to keep the 8,893-kilometer-long border closed to all but commercial and essential traffic for at least another month, in an effort to help contain the spread of the coronavirus.This means only commercial goods and people such as nurses and doctors who live in one country and work in the other can cross. Travel for tourism or activities like retail shopping are banned. 
 
Started on March 20, the closure is supported by two separate opinion polls taken this month that found more than 80% of Canadians want the border to remain closed to non-essential traffic. 
 
David Webb is owner of the Ocean Rose Bed and Breakfast in White Rock, British Columbia. The Vancouver suburb sits right on the international boundary. Webb can see the Peace Arch border crossing and the American border town of Blaine, Washington, from his home.  
 
Forty percent of his business is from the United States, but he agrees the border should remain closed for health reasons.   
 
“I agree with that,” Webb said. “And one of the things that we have to think about is the people who have a compromised immune system. Both my wife and I have compromised immune systems, as do many other people. And it only takes one person with the virus to cause illness with many. And I think that’s what people are looking at here.” 
 
One of the polls, done by Nanos Research for The Globe and Mail newspaper, found that only 3% of respondents think the border should open immediately.  
 
Nik Nanos, chief data scientist at Nanos Research, finds the results remarkable, considering how reliant Canada is on access to the United States.  
 
“It kind of suggests that people who want to open the border immediately are less than a fringe of the population, basically less than one out of every 20,” Nanos said. “And we don’t usually see this type of consensus in the polling data where, you know, upwards of eight out of every 10 agree to such, what I would consider a drastic action, which is to close the border to nonessential visitors. So, it’s very unusual, but it speaks to the time and the threat that Canadians feel.” 
Differences in coronavirus infection rates are stark along the westernmost portion of the border. 
 
Washington state reported its highest level ever of infections at 1,267 cases and six deaths on July 16. On the same day, the Canadian province of British Columbia had 21 new cases and zero fatalities. Nearly 6% of those tested in Washington state were positive, compared to only half-a-percent in British Columbia. 
 
Besides being the longest undefended international boundary in the world, the Canada-U.S. border also sees a considerable amount of business. The U.S. Trade Representative estimates that $718.5 billion in all types of trade crossed the border in 2018. That works out to just around $2 billion a day.  
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The World Health Organization expressed concern Monday about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Indigenous populations in the Americas. Speaking at his regular briefing from agency headquarters in Geneva, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that while COVID-19 is a risk for all of the world’s Indigenous people, the agency is deeply concerned about the impact of the virus on Indigenous people in the Americas, the current epicenter of the pandemic. Tedros reports that as of the July 6, more than 70,000 cases have been reported among Indigenous people in the Americas and more than 2,000 deaths. He was specifically concerned about COVID-19 cases among Peru’s Amazonian Nahua people. WHO’s regional Office for the Americas recently published recommendations for preventing and responding to COVID-19 among Indigenous people. The agency is also working with the coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin to step up the fight against the coronavirus. Tedros also stressed the need for contact tracing to keep the coronavirus from spreading in all communities.   “Contact tracing is essential for every country, in every situation,” Tedros said. “It can prevent individual cases from becoming clusters, and clusters turning into community transmission.” As of Monday, WHO reports 14,263,202 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with 602,244 deaths. The Americas remains the region with the largest total number of cases with 7,517,712. The United States continues to lead the world with 3,618,497 cases. Brazil is second, with 2,074,860 cases.    
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Officials in the Bahamas say that starting Wednesday, it will ban travelers from the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic. Officials say the large increase in COVID-19 cases throughout the United States and other countries is the reason for the ban; however, some international travel will be permitted, although it will be confined to Canada, Britain, and the European Union. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus. The ban marks a sudden shift from the Bahamas’ decision three weeks ago to reopen to virtually all international tourism. Those still permitted to travel to the Bahamas under the new requirements must test negative for COVID-19 from an accredited lab 10 or fewer days before traveling, or otherwise quarantine themselves for 14 days. “Regrettably, the situation here at home has already deteriorated since we began the reopening of our domestic economy,” Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said Sunday. “It has deteriorated at an exponential rate since we reopened our international borders.” The prime minister also said, “Our current situation demands decisive action if we are to avoid being overrun and defeated by this virus.” He said these strong actions were being taken to “save lives.” Bahamas’ airline, Bahamasair, is halting all flights to and from the United States. The new travel bans are an attempt to halt the increase of the virus in the Bahamas. According to the Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard, the Bahamas has 153 confirmed cases with 11 deaths.   “We cannot risk the death of Bahamians and residents. We must be resolved in our collective willingness to save lives,” said Minnis.   
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Argentine President Alberto Fernández announced Friday that COVID-19 lockdown restrictions will be gradually lift starting Saturday.Fernández spoke at an official event, accompanied by Axel Kicillof, governor of Buenos Aires province and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, mayor of Buenos Aires.”Between July 18 and August 2 we will be trying to return to normal life in this new world, in this different world that requires different care and we will do it gradually,” he said.Fernández warned, however, that the country had not yet won the battle against the coronavirus pandemic that has so far infected more than 110,000 people in Argentina and killed about 2,100.Buenos Aires Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta said that the situation in the Argentine capital was encouraging, adding that in the last 25 days the average number of infections remained stable between 900 and 1,000 per day.”We are going to enable activities progressively,” he said. “In terms of work, we are going to reopen shops gradually starting with neighborhood business. We will also open some personal services such as hairdressing salons and some professional activities such as lawyers.”Argentina’s COVID-19 lockdown began on March 20 and has been one of the longest in the region.Lifting the restrictions consists of a six-stage plan, the first of which will cover the next two weeks.Meanwhile, schools remain closed and public transportation will continue to be available to essential workers in the food, safety, and health sectors.
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A Haitian judge sentenced Mexican nationals Juan Jose Avila, 38, and Andres Vargas Flores, 43, to five years in prison Wednesday after convicting them of drug trafficking. The men were also fined 2 million Haitian gourdes each.Avila and Vargas Flores were arrested in November 2019 in Haiti’s southern seaport city of Les Cayes, hours after crash-landing in the rural town of Saint Jean du Sud, about 24 kilometers, or a 45-minute drive, away. The men told local residents who surrounded the plane that they had experienced engine trouble while flying over the region. Inside the plane, local police found weapons, gallons of gasoline and thousands of U.S. dollars.”Both men, pilots by profession, are hereby found guilty of drug trafficking,” pronounced Judge Robert Jourdain, who presided over the case. He said the Haitian government would confiscate their plane.The men were handcuffed, clean shaven, wearing polo shirts and black face masks as they stood in court to hear the verdict.The backstoryIn an interview with VOA Creole shortly after the arrest, the chief prosecutor for Les Cayes, Ronald Richmond, said the men told him they had flown to Haiti from Belize and were headed to Venezuela, where they were instructed to pick up 900 kilos of cocaine that they would then transport to Guatemala.Richmond told VOA the men were working for a Mexican drug trafficker named “Lubo.” They had loaded the plane with gallons of gasoline to avoid having to land to refuel.The prosecutor said the men told him they had been paid $10,000 in cash for expenses. Upon returning to Mexico, they were to receive an additional $150,000 U.S. dollars each.How they got caughtRichmond said the men had used their expense money to pay off some residents who helped them flee the crash scene and brought them to a house in Les Cayes where the pilots could wait for driver who would help them leave the country.Instead, law enforcement was tipped off about their whereabouts and arrived at the house and arrested them just as they were getting ready to leave. The prosecutor declined to identify the informant, saying only the person was a member of their “intelligence network.”Reaction to verdictAfter the verdict was read, Richmond told VOA he is not thrilled with the outcome.”I’m not satisfied,” he said, “because these men came from Mexico. They were picking up 900 kilos of cocaine in Venezuela that they were transporting to Guatemala.“So, five years’ prison time is minor; they should have been sentenced to at least 15 years in prison,” he said.Asked if he intends to appeal the sentence, the prosecutor said he did not.It is unclear where the men will serve their sentences. Human rights activists have expressed concern about the current situation in Haiti’s overcrowded prisons at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is spreading nationwide.The latest figures released by Haiti’s ministry of public health indicate a total of 6,948 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 145 deaths.Matiado Vilme contributed to this story.
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A U.S. federal district court has ruled that California’s coordination with Canada’s Quebec province in a cap and trade carbon emissions market is constitutional, a blow to the Trump administration made public in a filing late on Friday. In October, the Trump administration sued California for entering a climate agreement with Quebec, saying the state had veered out of its lane in linking with a market in another country and had no right to conduct foreign policy. The decision by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California this week said the Trump administration had “failed to identify a clear and express foreign policy that directly conflicts with California’s cap-and-trade program.” President Donald Trump, a Republican, has pursued a policy of maximizing fossil fuel output while slashing environmental regulations. He intends to pull the United States out of the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change. California, the most populous U.S. state and one of the 10 largest economies in the world, has long positioned itself as a leader on taking action against climate change. It agreed with Quebec in 2013 to link markets that aim to cut emissions of gases blamed for warming the planet. The Trump administration has suffered several major losses in the courts on environmental issues and energy pipelines. This week a federal judge in California blocked the administration’s plan to roll back a rule that would slash methane emissions from oil and gas operations on federal lands. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the ruling on California’s carbon emissions market. Environmentalists cheered the decision. “The federal government should be doing everything in its power to fight climate change, not fighting the states that are leading the way,” said David Pettit, a lawyer at the Natural Resources Defense Council   
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More than 300,000 Hong Kongers are believed to hold Canadian passports, and while Canada has yet to join Britain, Australia and Taiwan in making it easier for Hong Kong residents to immigrate or seek asylum because of a harsh new security law for the partly autonomous Chinese territory, Ottawa is waiting to see how many will show up.The Canadian government has so far not proposed any changes to its immigration policies for Hong Kong residents, but it has joined other countries in their criticisms of the new security law. Ostensibly meant to combat terrorism, separatism and sedition, the new law could be used to criminalize almost all dissent in Hong Kong, its critics say.The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also suspended an extradition treaty between Canada and Hong Kong, The skyline of the business district is silhouetted at sunset in Hong Kong, July 13, 2020.Although it has been just weeks since the new security law took effect on June 30, Richard Kurland, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer and policy analyst, said some of those who acquired the right to live in Canada in the 1990s or earlier are beginning to look into selling property in Hong Kong to finance the immigration of their children to Canada.“People are making plans to dispose of some property assets that were acquired 30, 40 years years ago, which today are worth a lot more, as capital to bring the child or children to Canada,” he said. “The feeling now is with the introduction of Beijing’s new security law, that the future is brighter in Canada in terms of lifestyle, and long-term goals for the Hong Kongers who do not want to live in an all-China Hong Kong.”But Kurland said he does not expect to see a massive influx from Hong Kong unless the current situation there deteriorates. However, in the short term, he sees more students coming to Canada to study, unless the coronavirus pandemic makes that impossible.Wenran Jiang is an adviser for the Asian Program at the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy in Toronto. Speaking from his Alberta Province home in Edmonton, he said that if the purpose of the new security law is simply to reduce foreign influence in Hong Kong, the flow of immigration across the Pacific may not change much.Jiang said that immigration from Hong Kong, and more recently from mainland China, has given Canada an economic boost, particularly in the Vancouver and Toronto real estate markets.“The immigration from Hong Kong and (in more) recent years from the Chinese mainland have contributed significantly … to both the growth of Vancouver and Toronto real estate markets, among other cities, and the economic contributions are significant,” Jiang said. “But at the same time, we also know after 1997, many of the immigrants from Hong Kong, although they are having the Canadian passports, they do not really invest here or even live here. They go back to Hong Kong.”But now, he said, many of those may come back to Canada to stay if the new security law results in a significant shake-up in Hong Kong, which reverted to Chinese control in 1997 after 156 years of British rule.One of the early immigrants from Hong Kong was Vancouver talk show host Ken Tung, who came to Canada with his wife in 1980. Since then, Tung said he has seen Hong Kong residents follow him across the Pacific for a host of reasons, most importantly the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and the handover to China in 1997.A frequent critic of the Chinese government and its new security law for Hong Kong, Tung says Canada should speed up the process of granting asylum to those claiming to be hurt by the law.The “government of Canada should open the heart, open the arms to have the background check,” Tung said. “And (it) should accept them as a resident of Canada rather than waiting one and a half years to go through the board, go through our process. I think if this (is for) young people, (there’s) a good chance that they will become a contributing Canadian, too.”  
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More than 300,000 Hong Kongers are believed to hold Canadian passports, and while Canada has yet to join Britain, Australia and Taiwan in making it easier for Hong Kong residents to immigrate or seek asylum because of a harsh new security law for the partly autonomous Chinese territory, Ottawa is waiting to see how many will show up.The Canadian government has so far not proposed any changes to its immigration policies for Hong Kong residents, but it has joined other countries in their criticisms of the new security law. Ostensibly meant to combat terrorism, separatism and sedition, the new law could be used to criminalize almost all dissent in Hong Kong, its critics say.The government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also suspended an extradition treaty between Canada and Hong Kong, The skyline of the business district is silhouetted at sunset in Hong Kong, July 13, 2020.Although it has been just weeks since the new security law took effect on June 30, Richard Kurland, a Vancouver-based immigration lawyer and policy analyst, said some of those who acquired the right to live in Canada in the 1990s or earlier are beginning to look into selling property in Hong Kong to finance the immigration of their children to Canada.“People are making plans to dispose of some property assets that were acquired 30, 40 years years ago, which today are worth a lot more, as capital to bring the child or children to Canada,” he said. “The feeling now is with the introduction of Beijing’s new security law, that the future is brighter in Canada in terms of lifestyle, and long-term goals for the Hong Kongers who do not want to live in an all-China Hong Kong.”But Kurland said he does not expect to see a massive influx from Hong Kong unless the current situation there deteriorates. However, in the short term, he sees more students coming to Canada to study, unless the coronavirus pandemic makes that impossible.Wenran Jiang is an adviser for the Asian Program at the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy in Toronto. Speaking from his Alberta Province home in Edmonton, he said that if the purpose of the new security law is simply to reduce foreign influence in Hong Kong, the flow of immigration across the Pacific may not change much.Jiang said that immigration from Hong Kong, and more recently from mainland China, has given Canada an economic boost, particularly in the Vancouver and Toronto real estate markets.“The immigration from Hong Kong and (in more) recent years from the Chinese mainland have contributed significantly … to both the growth of Vancouver and Toronto real estate markets, among other cities, and the economic contributions are significant,” Jiang said. “But at the same time, we also know after 1997, many of the immigrants from Hong Kong, although they are having the Canadian passports, they do not really invest here or even live here. They go back to Hong Kong.”But now, he said, many of those may come back to Canada to stay if the new security law results in a significant shake-up in Hong Kong, which reverted to Chinese control in 1997 after 156 years of British rule.One of the early immigrants from Hong Kong was Vancouver talk show host Ken Tung, who came to Canada with his wife in 1980. Since then, Tung said he has seen Hong Kong residents follow him across the Pacific for a host of reasons, most importantly the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and the handover to China in 1997.A frequent critic of the Chinese government and its new security law for Hong Kong, Tung says Canada should speed up the process of granting asylum to those claiming to be hurt by the law.The “government of Canada should open the heart, open the arms to have the background check,” Tung said. “And (it) should accept them as a resident of Canada rather than waiting one and a half years to go through the board, go through our process. I think if this (is for) young people, (there’s) a good chance that they will become a contributing Canadian, too.”  
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A thousand deaths a day.Since late May, three months after Brazil’s first reported case of the coronavirus, it has recorded more than 1,000 daily deaths on average in a gruesome plateau that has yet to tilt downward.On Thursday evening, the federal health ministry reported that the country had passed 2 million confirmed cases of virus infections and 76,000 deaths.Even as cases wane somewhat in the biggest and hardest-hit Brazilian cities, the virus is peaking in new locations across the largest country in Latin America.Experts blame denial of the virus’ deadly potential by President Jair Bolsonaro and lack of national coordination combined with scattershot responses by city and state governments, with some reopening earlier than health experts recommended.An interim health minister untrained in the field is presiding over pandemic response. Bolsonaro himself is sick with COVID-19 after repeatedly flouting social distance recommendations and undermining local leaders’ restrictions on activity.Brazil’s roughly 7,000 COVID-19 deaths in each of the last seven weeks is equal to several airplanes packed with Brazilians crashing every day, former health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta told The Associated Press.”People have become callous,” Mandetta said. “When you say, ‘Yesterday there were 1,300 deaths,’ people say, ‘OK, then it didn’t go up. It was 1,300 people the day before, too.'”Brazil’s 2 million-plus cases is second only to the United States, and experts believe the number to be an undercount due to widespread lack of testing. A model created by professors from several Brazilian academic institutions, based on the number of confirmed deaths, estimates Brazil has had 10 million infections.Barbers wear face shields, masks, and gloves for protection amid the COVID-19 pandemic while attending clients on the first day the shop was allowed to reopen, as restrictions ease in Brasilia, Brazil, July 15, 2020.”The virus would have been difficult to stop anyway. But this milestone of 2 million cases, which is very underestimated, shows this could have been different,” said Dr. Adriano Massuda, a health care administration specialist and professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a Sao Paulo university. “There’s no national strategy for testing, no measures from the top, … too little effort to improve basic care so we find serious cases before they become too serious, no tracking.”The virus has begun reaching cities and states previously spared, offsetting declines elsewhere. The number of deaths has been ebbing in states including Rio de Janeiro and Amazonas, where people were buried in mass graves in the capital, Manaus. In the last two weeks, 10 of Brazil’s 26 states and its Federal District saw increases, with two southern states’ average daily death tolls doubling.Bolsonaro has consistently downplayed COVID-19’s severity, saying strict social distancing measures that sacrifice jobs and income will ultimately be more harmful than the virus itself, and calling on supporters to encourage their local leaders to lift restrictions on activity. Many mayors and governors have struggled to hold the line.In Ribeirao Preto, a city in Sao Paulo state, protesting shopkeepers on Wednesday demanded they be allowed to reopen. They surrounded the mayor’s car as he left City Hall, punching his windows and cursing at him.Campinas, a city of 1.2 million people closer to the state’s capital, adopted quarantine measures early, but succumbed to political pressure and reopened commerce on June 8, said Pedro de Siqueira, a Campinas city councilman. The city center swarmed with shoppers like an overturned anthill, he said in an interview.Two weeks later, the number of COVID-19 deaths had roughly tripled to 253, as did the number of confirmed cases, to 6,324. Intensive-care beds refilled with patients, prompting the mayor to reinstate restrictions on commerce on June 22, but allowing offices and churches to continue operating.”Campinas reopened prematurely and erroneously, supported by the state government,” Siqueira, who is also a public health physician, said at the time. “This reopening was so catastrophic that Campinas had to step back but did so only partially.”Cemetery workers in protective clothing bury three victims of the new coronavirus at the Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 15, 2020.Since then, Campinas’ number of cases and deaths has doubled once more. On Wednesday, the city extended restrictions until July 30.Daniel Soranz, a researcher at state-run biology institute Fiocruz’s national health school, said Brazil’s center-west that includes the agricultural heartland will be the last region slammed by the virus. And, looking at deaths from severe respiratory insufficiency, it appears Brazil as a whole has begun turning the corner, he said.”By the end of August, we should be at a much better place than today,” Soranz said.In Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state with 46 million residents, the number of deaths has stabilized at a level slightly below its peak. At one of the capital’s cemeteries on Wednesday, Michelle Caverni buried her 88-year-old aunt, who died of COVID-19 and also suffered from pulmonary emphysema. The same day a friend of Caverni’s buried her 57-year-old mother. She also died of COVID-19.”Until it knocks at your door, people are indifferent,” said Caverni, 40, a restaurant cook. “Yesterday there were 1,300 deaths from COVID-19. Is that supposed to be few? People are saying that’s just the media. I hear that every day at work.”Most people show only moderate symptoms from COVID-19 and recover. Some, including the elderly or those with longstanding health problems, are more susceptible to severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.Modeling by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation projects that Brazil’s death toll will reach almost 200,000 by November, nearly closing the gap with that of the U.S. The forecast has a wide margin of error.”We will see how this patient known as Brazil will behave until the end of this epidemic,” said Mandetta, who Bolsonaro fired as health minister in April for backing state governors’ quarantine measures.  
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Ivanka Trump on Wednesday defended tweeting a photo of herself holding up a can of Goya beans to buck up a Hispanic-owned business that she says has been unfairly treated, arguing that she has “every right” to publicly express her support. Government watchdogs countered that President Donald Trump’s daughter and senior adviser doesn’t have the right to violate ethics rules that bar government officials from using their public office to endorse specific products or groups. A twitter post shows a photo of Senior Advisor Ivanka Trump holding a can of black beans by Goya Foods, with the company’s slogan in English and Spanish written above, on July 15, 2020 in this screen grab obtained from social media.These groups contend Ivanka Trump’s action also highlights broader concerns about how the president and those around him often blur the line between politics and governing. The White House would be responsible for disciplining Ivanka Trump for any ethics violation but chose not to in a similar case involving White House counselor Kellyanne Conway in 2017. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters accompanying the president to Atlanta on Wednesday that he doubted Ivanka Trump would face any repercussions. Goya became the target of a consumer boycott  after CEO Robert Unanue praised the president at a Hispanic event at the White House last Thursday.  Trump tweeted the next day about his “love” for Goya, and his daughter followed up late Tuesday by tweeting the photo of herself holding a can of Goya black beans with a caption that read, “If it’s Goya, it has to be good,” in English and Spanish. Almost immediately, government watchdogs and social media commentators accused Ivanka Trump of violating ethics rules — an issue that was not addressed in a White House response statement that blamed the news media and the culture of boycotting certain views. “Only the media and the cancel culture movement would criticize Ivanka for showing her personal support for a company that has been unfairly mocked, boycotted and ridiculed for supporting this administration — one that has consistently fought for and delivered for the Hispanic community,” White House spokesperson Carolina Hurley said in an emailed statement.  “Ivanka is proud of this strong, Hispanic-owned business with deep roots in the U.S. and has every right to express her personal support,” Hurley said.  Ivanka Trump sent the tweet from a personal Twitter account that does double duty chronicling her work on various White House initiatives.  Trump himself appeared to back up his daughter Wednesday by posting a photo on his Instagram account showing him in the Oval Office in front of various Goya products arrayed on his desk. As president, Trump is exempt from many of the rules that federal workers must follow. Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, said on Twitter that the tweets and photos amounted to “an official campaign by the Trump administration to support Goya, making it all the more clear that Ivanka’s tweet was a violation of the misuse of position regulations.” Shaub left government in 2017 after clashing with the Trump administration over ethics rules. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said the rules are clear. “The ethics rules for executive branch employees say that you can’t use your official position to promote a private business,” said Noah Bookbinder, executive director of CREW. “It’s pretty clear that the context in which this came out is that Goya had been supportive of the Trump administration and the Trump administration was being supportive of Goya.” Craig Holman, the Capitol Hill lobbyist for Public Citizen, said the episode was reminiscent of a 2017 incident when, during a nationally broadcast cable TV interview, Conway urged Trump supporters to buy Ivanka Trump’s clothing and accessories after Nordstrom dropped the fashion line. The White House later said Conway had been “counseled” about her comments.  Holman argued that Ivanka Trump’s action was less of a mistake given the Conway incident. “They decided to violate federal law thinking that it will benefit them politically,” he said. Trump is looking to improve his standing with Latino voters before November’s election. He won the votes of about 3 in 10 Latino voters in 2016. Meadows defended Ivanka Trump. “I don’t know from my standpoint I see this as a huge promotion of Goya Foods as much as it is expressing appreciation for someone who is willing to show great political courage,” the White House chief of staff said.  The president often blurs the lines between politics and governing. President Donald speaks during an event on American infrastructure at UPS Hapeville Airport Hub, in Atlanta, July 15, 2020.Trump used a speech Wednesday at a UPS facility in Atlanta on environmental permitting to rail against allowing mail-in voting for the November election and against Democratic rival Joe Biden. He also used a Tuesday news conference in the White House Rose Garden,  where presidents traditionally have refrained from politics, to lash out at Biden. Last year, Trump floated the idea of hosting a 2020 summit of world leaders at his private, for-profit golf club near Miami, but backed down after a bipartisan outcry over the conflict of interest.  Separately Wednesday, CREW filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative and prosecutorial agency, against Meadows. The group alleges that Meadows violated the Hatch Act during recent television interviews in which he advocated for Trump and against Biden. The Hatch Act prohibits government officials from using their positions to influence political campaigns. The Office of Special Counsel said it could not comment beyond acknowledging receipt of the complaint. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. 
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Peru resumed all flights within the country after restricting operations for four months to slow the spread of the coronavirus.Ronny Vasquez, an air passenger at Jorge Chávez airport in Lima, was disappointed with Wednesday’s restart.He said although many people wore masks, authorities failed to make sure people were social distancing.Passenger Berenice Corbero said she got out of line because people were not staying a healthy distance apart to avoid possible infection.Transport operations also resumed on the Amazon River on Wednesday.Additionally, the government restarted bus travel in all but seven regions where coronavirus cases are still rising.Peru has confirmed more than 330,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 12,200 deaths.The country has the second-highest total of coronavirus cases in Latin America after Brazil. 
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Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro remained in self-isolation Thursday, a day after announcing he tested positive for coronavirus for a second time.Speaking to reporters outside his official residence, the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia, Bolsanaro said he will take another test in the coming days with the hopes of resuming some activity.Bolsonaro insisted that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine has helped him to deal with the virus, despite scientists saying there was no medical evidence to support its effectiveness.Since the start of the outbreak four months ago, Bolsanaro has downplayed the seriousness of the epidemic, criticizing Brazilian governors for imposing restrictions to slow the spread of the virus.Bolsonaro’s opposition is further highlighted because Brazil is the second-worst hit country in the world, only behind the United States.Brazil is nearing 2 million cases of the coronavirus and more than 75,000 deaths.
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