This week's show features stories from Radio Deutsche-Welle, Radio Havana Cuba, and NHK Japan.

http://www.outfarpress.com/swr200320.mp3

From GERMANY- German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the nation on TV Wednesday, a rare event. She urged citizens to take their obligations to society seriously and restrain the rampant spread of the virus. As I produce this show Italy has now reported more deaths from the virus than China- this is a report from Thursday morning. The EU has closed external borders to non-EU citizens for 30 days, France and Spain have enacted isolation policies, but Chinese Hubei province had a day with no new cases. Did Trump try to buy up a German company developing a corona virus vaccine exclusively for the US? Why does the US lead the world in citizens who believe Covid 19 is a hoax? The European populists do not deny the seriousness of the pandemic.

From CUBA- Cuba is producing with China medicines it says fight and and treat Covid 19, and is developing a vaccine. Major cities in Chile are importing the previously mentioned medicines at low cost through the Peoples Pharmacies chain, in over a hundred cities in the country. Last Sunday President Maduro of Venezuela declared a quarantine to stem the spread of the virus. The Bolivian constitutional court will hold a hearing to consider an appeal to allow exiled president Evo Morales to be a candidate in the next election.

From JAPAN- Schools in Japan have been closed to slow down the spread of the corona virus since March 2nd, and they are considering reopening at the end of this month.The Japanese government has provided funding for some covid 19 testing since March 6th. Tokyo Electric Power Company says it will start analyzing debris from the devastated Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2024, and complete scrapping the plant between 2041 and 2051. The Japanese environment ministry says that some of the waste produced by decontamination work at Fukushima has been washed into rivers and the ocean by a typhoon last October.