Mexico

The Argentinean government on Friday formalized the suspension of flights from Brazil, Chile and Mexico, due to the increasing cases of Covid-19 in those countries, and the circulation of new strains. The new measure starts on Saturday.

The government's objective is to reduce the number of trips during Easter Week, a time when many citizens tend to travel around the country or abroad, which in this case is the main concern.

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador quietly rocked the agribusiness world with his New Year’s Eve decree to phase out the use of the herbicide glyphosate and the cultivation of genetically modified corn. His administration sent an even stronger aftershock two weeks later, clarifying that the government would also phase out GM corn imports in three years. The ban would include not just corn for human consumption but yellow corn destined primarily for livestock. Under NAFTA, the United States has seen a 400% increase in corn exports to Mexico, the vast majority of genetically modified yellow dent corn.

The bold policy moves fulfil a campaign promise by Mexico’s populist president, whose agricultural policies have begun to favour Mexican producers, particularly small-scale farmers, and protect consumers alarmed by the rise of obesity and chronic diseases associated with high-fat, high-sugar processed foods.

A corona mutation is circulating in California and other U.S. states that could be more contagious and dangerous. The data situation is still unclear, but some things seem worrying.

Now another mutation has emerged in California, it has already spread to other U.S. states and has also been detected in countries such as Australia, Denmark and Mexico. It was first discovered in December, reports the journal Science. Investigations suggest that this variant of Sars-CoV-2 could not only be more contagious but probably also takes more violent courses. According to this, intensive medical care and deaths occur more frequently - however, the data situation here is still very thin.

The researchers call the variants B.1.427 and B.1.429 - it occurs with slightly different mutations. Under a different naming scheme, it is also known as 20C/L452R.

B.1.427 / B.1.429 carries several mutations, but three seem to be particularly relevant. They affect the spike protein that the virus uses to dock with human cells. Mutation L452R, in particular, appears to increase infectivity. It apparently stabilizes the interaction between the spike protein and the receptor used by the virus. None of the three spike mutations are found in the virus variants from Great Britain, South Africa and Brazil.

Cruz said in an earlier statement Thursday that he accompanied his family to Cancun a day earlier after his daughters asked to go on a trip with friends, given that school was cancelled for the week.

"Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon," Cruz wrote.

"My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas," he continued. "We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm."

Cruz told reporters Thursday night that he returned to the U.S. because he realized he needed to be in Texas. He said he had originally been scheduled to stay in Mexico through the weekend.

At least 37 people have died in the US state of Texas due to a severe winter onset, and hundreds of thousands of people are cut off from electricity after heavy storms. The information has now surfaced that Republican Senator Ted Cruz travelled to Cancún, Mexico, for a holiday. Cruz himself did not initially comment on the trip and did not respond to numerous media enquiries.

Mexico will file a complaint at the UN Security Council on Thursday over "inequality" and "inequity" of Covid-19 vaccine distribution.

"The countries that produce [vaccines] have higher rates of vaccination and Latin America and the Caribbean have much less," so Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard. "We're going to raise it in the Security Council because it's not fair," he concluded.

An unprecedented winter storm has left roughly 4.3 million Texans without electricity due to a surge in demand, with people not having electricity for over 24 hours. Other states, including Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma and Oregon, were also affected by the severe weather conditions.

Texas Governor Gregg Abbott has urged "all Texans to remain vigilant against the extremely harsh weather" and air travellers were warned that they should expect delays or cancellations.

Sydney's Lowy Institute assessed the Covid-19 response of 98 countries on six different criteria – including cases, deaths and testing – and ranked New Zealand's response to the virus the best. The other countries that made the top 10 are Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, Cyprus, Rwanda, Iceland, Australia, Latvia and Sri Lanka. The United States, Mexico, Colombia and Iran and Brazil were in the bottom five, with Brazil being ranked at the bottom.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Sunday he has tested positive for COVID-19 and that the symptoms are mild. Mr López Obrador, writing on Twitter, said he would continue to carry out his official duties, including holding a call with President Vladimir Putin that is set for Monday. According to local media, hours before disclosing that he had contracted the virus, Mr López Obrador, who flies commercial on all official trips, sat coach in a flight from San Luís Potosí to Mexico City reports.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador offered political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Monday.

"I'm going to ask the foreign minister to carry out the relevant procedures to request that the UK government releases Mr. Assange and that Mexico offers him political asylum," Obrador told reporters and added that "Assange is a journalist and deserves a chance."

Mexico became the first country in Latin America to start vaccinating for Covid-19. The first person to receive one of the initial shipment of 3000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was intensive-care nurse María Irene Ramirez.

Shortly after Mexico started vaccinating, Chile and Costa Rico followed suit.

14 countries worldwide have committed themselves to the sustainable management of their national waters. The "Ocean Panel" is a body for sustainable marine management. A goal is it to place until 2030 a third of the seas under protection.

Involved are countries like Australia, Canada, Ghana, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Norway and Portugal. Together they have a marine area that is about the size of Africa.

The World Health Organization has reported that measles cases and deaths have soared globally since 2016, with the global death tally of 2019 reaching 207,500 - 50 percent higher than just three years earlier.

Ethiopia set up a vaccination campaign in June which reached 14.5 million children. Alarmingly, the numbers of "zero-dose" children - those who had received no vaccines whatsoever - are beginning to rise again, with middle-income countries, including Brazil, Mexico and the Philippines, accounting for 9.5 million, or 69 percent.

There are now 47.5 million cases of Coronavirus globally. 1.2 million people have died of the virus. America is the country with the highest case count, followed by India, Brazil and Mexico.

This data comes from the Johns Hopkins University.

Mexico's Covid-19 death toll has surpassed 90,000, with health officials saying that the actual number of people who have died from the virus is likely higher due to a lack of testing. As of Thursday, the country has reported a total of 906,863 cases and 90,309 deaths.

The results of the Gallup survey show that Mexican security forces continue to be immersed in an image crisis due to corruption and violence.

Of all Latin American countries only in Venezuela the population feels less safe and distrusts the police more. Arturo Alvarado Mendoza, author and doctor of sociology at the Colegio de México, says that the current police force is at the service of the government and that it must "begin to attend to citizens' problems and improve its relationship with the population" in order to change its perception.

The Mexican Senate approved the ruling that the person who exercises the parental authority, guardianship or custody will be obliged to ensure that the minors receive the referred vaccines unless there is a certified medical justification to the contrary.

In case of failure to comply without medical justification, the procurator's offices for the protection of minors may intervene to make use of the powers conferred by law in this area to carry out actions aimed at making the vaccination effective.

As of Monday, 1,000,555 people worldwide have died from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University's data.

The first coronavirus-related death recorded was on January 9, the world reached half a million deaths 24 weeks later, and 13 weeks after it reached 1 million.

Johns Hopkins' tally shows the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico account for more than 50% of the deaths worldwide.

At least six Mexican woman may have had unwanted hysterectomies at the Irwin County Detention Center. Mexico’s government is demanding U.S. authorities to investigate allegations.

According to a Twitter announcement by acting United States Homeland Security Department Secretary Chad Wolf the borders to Canada and Mexico will stay closed for until the 21 of September.

He wrote that "we continue to work with our Canadian and Mexican partners to slow the spread of #COVID19. Accordingly, we have agreed to extend the limitation of non-essential travel at our shared land ports of entry through September 21". The ban does not include air travel as well as trade.