East Asia

In 2016, Uematsu, 30, killed and dismembered 19 disabled and injured 25 more because they "only create unhappiness" and there is "no need" for them to live. This idea is shared by many in Japan. “I hate you so much. I want to rip you apart,” said the mother of one of the victims. For Archbishop Kikuchi, “We can understand the reasons behind this change in the value given to human life in Japanese society.”

The real heroes are the people who stayed home as well as the doctors, nurses and volunteers. Those responsible for delays in responding to the crisis must resign and be put on trial.

Yesterday Francis went to pray to the Virgin Salus populi Romani, Health of Romans, kept in Saint Mary Major and the large miraculous Crucifix which in 1522 was carried in procession through the districts of the city to end the "Great Plague" in Rome and which is located in the church of San Marcello al Corso.

Industrial production down by 13.5% in January and February. Retail sales by 20.5%. Fixed investments fall: -24.5%. It is the first trade deficit since March 2018 (-6 billion euros). The drop in foreign demand limits recovery. Asian stock markets show little faith in the stimuli promised in the West. Yesterday only 16 cases of infection.

At the Angelus, broadcast via streaming from the Vatican library, Pope Francis comforts the sick and lonely. The value of spiritual communion with Jesus Christ, "when it is not possible to receive the sacrament". Appreciation for priests, close to the people, not "like Don abbondio". Mass celebrated by Msgr. Delpini at the Policlinico Milan. "The promise of the living water that Jesus made to the Samaritan woman became reality on his Easter: blood and water "came out of his pierced side." "We too, born to new life through Baptism, are called to witness to the life and hope that are in us".

At mass in Santa Marta, also broadcast today in streaming due to the coronavirus emergency, Pope Francis prays "for the sick, for the people who suffer", but in particular for "the workers in pharmacies, supermarkets, public transport, public security". Holy Week rites will also be streamed, without pilgrims. The homily at Mass centers on the "encounter of Jesus with a woman, with a sinner", which "ends with that confession of the messianic reality of Jesus, and with the conversion of those people [of Samaria]".

Doctors of the Law "believe themselves self-sufficient": I went to university, I did a doctorate, no, two doctorates. I know well, very well indeed, what the law says; in fact, I know it all, everything all of the explanations, all the cases, all the case studies". And they believe themselves self-sufficient and they despise people, they despise sinners: It is contempt for sinners”.

A thousand people took to the streets in Yingcheng against the neighborhood committees. A man who sold at lower prices and with better quality arrested. Yesterday 11 new cases of infection were registered; 4 in Wuhan; the rest by people returning to China from Italy, the United States and Saudi Arabia. WHO: Europe is the new epicenter of the epidemic. The situation in Iran and South Korea.

The Uyghur dissident intellectual has been fighting for years with the Beijing authorities. The battle with "tweets" with the Chinese embassy in Ankara. Family members interned to force him to silence. A brother and grandson imprisoned in a concentration camp in Xinjiang. Another brother reduced to paralysis for the torture he suffered in captivity.

There is no irrefutable evidence, but signs, rumors, testimonies and coincidences. For the US, the virus is a "Chinese coronavirus", or "Wuhan", the work of laboratories in China. Beijing’s counter charge: It was brought to Wuhan by US military last October! From October to November, the authorities knew of the dangerousness of the virus, but they censored the news.

Today, the seventh anniversary of his election, Francis spoke of clericalism, unfaithfulness to the covenant of those who appropriate it, "ideologizing" it, of the free gift of self made by God.

The fear of contagion spreads after WHO officially declared the outbreak a pandemic. Spring is the most crowded season. The fee for the climb is US$11,000. In 2019 at least 885 climbers reached the top.