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WEATHER
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SINGAPORE
HONG KONG
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29°C
27°C
MIN
25°C
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TOKYO
LONDON
DUBAI
22°C
27°C
35°C
SAN FRANCISCO 13° C
15°C
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NEW YORK
MOSCOW
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S= sunny, CL= clear,
H=hazy, R= rainy...
THUMBNAILS
People cross a street near
Shimbashi station in Tokyo
on Tuesday.� AFP
Royal Mail stamps: To cele-
brate legendary rock band
Queen's golden anniver-
sary, Britain's Royal Mail is
issuing 13 special postage
stamps to honour the
group. Formed in 1970,
the band, made up of
Brian May, Roger Taylor,
John Deacon and the late
Freddie Mercury, com-
pletes 50 years in the mu-
sic industry this year. PTI
Mexico feud killing : A
longstanding feud over a
wind-power project has
boiled over into grisly vio-
lence, after at least 15
people were bludgeoned
to death with stones and
cement blocks, and some
bodies were partly burned.
The dissidents said several
people were wounded but
did not provide an exact
figure on those wounded
by gunshots. AP
Kyrgyzstan ex-prez in jail :
A court in Kyrgyzstan con-
victed the country's ex-
president on corruption
charges and sentenced
him to 11 years and two
months in prison. Alma-
zbek Atambayev, who was
in office from 2011 to
2017. His arrest sparked
two days of riots that left
one policeman dead and
100 people injured. AP
Battle of Okinawa: Resi-
dents on Okinawa prayed
for peace and remember-
ed their loved ones Tues-
day on the 75th anniver-
sary of the end of one of
WWII's deadliest conflicts,
the Battle of Okinawa, on
the southern Japanese
island that still has a hea-
vy US troop presence. PTI
Putin uses
WWII parade
to boost support
before vote
MOSCOW, 23 JUNE
A massive Russian military
parade postponed by the
coronavirus pandemic will
roll through Red Square this
week to celebrate the 75th
anniversary of the end of
World War II in Europe, even
though Russia is still regis-
tering a steady rise in infec-
tions. President Vladimir
Putin's insistence on hold-
ing the parade reflects not
only his desire to put Rus-
sia's power on display but also
to bolster patriotic senti-
ments a week before a con-
stitutional referendum that
could allow him to remain
in office until 2036.
The Victory Day parade
normally is held on 9 May.
This year's date of Wednes-
day,24 June, coincides with
the day in 1945 when the first
parade was held on Red
Square after the defeat of Nazi
Germany by the Soviet Union
and its allies.
The Soviet Union lost a
staggering 27 million people
in what it called the Great
Patriotic War and the enor-
mous suffering and sacrifice
of that era has left a deep scar
in Russia's psyche. Victory
Day is a rare event in the
nation's divisive post-Sovi-
et history that is revered by
all political sides, and the
Kremlin has used that sen-
timent to encourage patri-
otic pride and underline
Russia's role as a global
power.
KOLKATA, WEDNESDAY 24 JUNE 2020
Virus numbers surge globally
H
H Brazil, with more than 1.1 mn cases and 51,000 deaths, has been affected more than anywhere
CL
S
CL
H
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WELLINGTON, 23 JUNE
T
he number of global
S
S coronavirus cases con-
tinued to surge Tues-
day in many large
countries that have been lift-
ing lockdowns, including the
US, even as new infections sta-
bilized or dropped in parts of
Western Europe.
India has been recording
about 15,000 new infections
each day, and some states
on Tuesday were considering
fresh lockdown measures to
try to halt the spread of the
virus in the nation of more than
1.3 billion. The government
earlier lifted a nationwide
lockdown in a bid to restart
the ailing economy, which
has shed millions of jobs.
Hospitals in Pakistan are
turning away patients, but
with the economy there tee-
tering, the government
remains determined to reopen
the country.
New cases have also been
rising steeply in Mexico,
Colombia and Indonesia.
Brazil, with more than 1.1
million cases and 51,000
deaths, has been affected
more than anywhere but the
US, which has reported more
than 2.3 million cases and
120,000 deaths, according to
a tally kept by Johns Hopkins
University.
In the US, surges in cases
across the South and West are
raising fears that progress
against the virus is slipping
away, as states reopen and
many Americans resist wear-
ing masks and keeping their
distance from others.
On Tuesday, Dr Anthony
Fauci will return to Capitol Hill
at a fraught moment in the
nation's response. The gov-
ernment's top infectious dis-
ease expert will testify before
a House committee.
His testimony comes after
President Donald Trump said
at a weekend rally in Oklahoma
that he had asked adminis-
tration officials to slow down
testing, because too many
positive cases are turning up.
Many rally goers did not
wear masks, and for some that
was an act of defiance against
what they see as government
intrusion. White House offi-
SOLEMN SERVICE
Russian Cossacks and servicemen attend a service at the Cathedral of the Armed Forces in a mili-
tary theme park outside Moscow on Tuesday. � AFP
Once reluctant, GOP’s only Black senator Scott now leads on race
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, 23 JUNE
When he first ran for office in
1994, they scrawled the N-word
on his lawn signs. By the time
he came to Congress, he had
to unplug the phone lines
because callers brought the
staff to tears.
Even after he became a U.S.
senator, the Capitol quickly
became just another place
where he would be stopped
by the police.
Initially reluctant to focus
on race, Sen. Tim Scott of
South Carolina is now a lead-
ing Republican voice, teach-
ing his party what it's like to
be a Black man in America
when the police lights are
flashing in the rearview mir-
ror. He has been pulled over
by law enforcement more
PTI than 18 times, Scott said in an
UK eases more lockdown restrictions
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
LONDON, 23 JUNE
UK Prime Minister Boris
Johnson on Tuesday
announced July 4 as the date
for a significant lifting of
lockdown restrictions in the
country, with cinemas, muse-
ums, bars, pubs and restau-
rants being allowed to open
their doors to the public
once again.
The venues, which have
been closed for at least three
months since the UK went
into its official coronavirus-
induced lockdown on March
23, will be required to have
safety measures set out under
government guidance in
place to be able to operate.
Our long national hiber-
nation is beginning to come
to an end. The bustle is
beginning to come back. A
new, but cautious optimism
is palpable, Johnson said,
amid cheers in the House of
Commons.
The government will pub-
lish COVID-secure guide-
lines for each sector that is
reopening as businesses get
back on their feet and peo-
ple get back to work,” he said.
“But the virus has not gone
away there will be flare-ups,
for which local measures
cials later tried to walk back
Trump's comment on testing,
suggesting it wasn't meant to
be taken literally.
Dr Michael Ryan, the World
Health Organisation's emer-
gencies chief, said the record
number of new cases could-
n't be explained by increased
testing alone, noting many
countries have seen large
increases in hospital admis-
sions and deaths.
The epidemic is now peak-
ing or moving towards a peak
in a number of large countries,
he said. WHO Director-Gen-
eral Tedros Adhanom Ghe-
breyesus said it took more than
three months for the world to
see 1 million confirmed infec-
tions, but just eight days to see
the most recent 1 million
cases.The greatest threat we
interview with The Associat-
ed Press. I'm thinking to
myself how blessed and lucky
I am to have 18 different
encounters and to have walked
away from each encounter.
As the only Black Repub-
lican in the Senate, Scott's role
is heavy with a certain weight.
He is leading a task force of
GOP senators drafting the
Justice Act, law enforcement
changes set for a test vote this
week. But it's also a historic
opportunity to speak to Repub-
licans about race as a con-
servative, a Christian and a
Southerner from the state
where the Civil War began.
He rejects the concept of
systemic racism, which puts
him at odds with many Black
Democrats who demand a
broader police overhaul than
his proposed bill.
Instead, he places his faith
Immigration has contributed immensely to America's economic success,
making it a global leader in tech, & also Google the company it is today
The Tate Britain museum, currently closed to visitors due to
pandemic, is pictured in central London on Tuesday.PM Boris
Johnson is expected to announce plans for the reopening of
pubs, restaurants and museums on Tuesday, with the date of
4 July already pencilled in for them to restart. n AFP
will be required. We will not
hesitate to apply the brakes
and reimpose restrictions
even at a national level, he
said in his statement.
The Cabinet met earlier
on Tuesday to officially rub-
ber-stamp the decision to
allow public venues, includ-
ing theatres and businesses
such as hairdressers, to
reopen and effectively mark
an end to the lockdown on
what some British MPs have
dubbed as July 4 Super Sat-
urday .
The UK PM also con-
firmed that the current
face now is not the virus itself;
it's the lack of global solidar-
ity and global leadership,” he
said during a video conference
for the Dubai-based World
Government Summit.
Even some countries that
have had initial success in
stamping out the virus are find-
ing pockets of resurgence.
In Australia, Victoria state
on Tuesday reported 17 new
cases, resulting in the closing
of two primary schools in
Melbourne. State Premier
Daniel Andrews said there
would be significant com-
munity transmission among
the new cases.China report-
ed 22 new cases, including 13
in Beijing, a day after a city gov-
ernment spokesperson said
containment measures had
slowed the momentum of a
where he says he has seen the
change, in people's hearts. He
shares his experience as a
Black American in the 21st cen-
tury, including this year when
he was pulled over for failing
to signal early enough for a lane
change or, as he called it,
stopped for driving while
Black.
I just can't imagine the
pressure he must be under,
CMYK
EXPRESSING DISAPPOINTMENT BY TRUMP'S IMMIGRATION PROCLAMATION
mandatory 2-metre social
distancing rule will be halved
to 1 metre (3ft 3in) from July
4, with some mitigating mea-
sures. The government had
come under pressure from
the hospitality sector, and
some MPs from within the
ruling Conservative Party,
to relax the 2m rule, with
many saying it would be
impossible to trade under the
current measures.
People will be advised to
keep one metre -plus in
places where two-metres
are not possible, Johnson
said.
new outbreak in the capital
that has infected more than
200 people. And South Korea
reported 46 new cases, includ-
ing 30 linked to internation-
al arrivals.
The country has been
struggling to stem a resurgence
of the virus in the Seoul met-
ropolitan area, where hundreds
of infections have been linked
to entertainment and leisure
activities, church gatherings
and low-income workers such
as door-to-door salespeople
and warehouse workers who
couldn't afford to stay home.
South Korea also said it was
testing 176 workers at the
southern port of Busan fol-
lowing a virus outbreak among
crew members of a Russian
cargo ship that has so far
sickened 16.
Bolton: State Dept defended
India on Iranian oil import
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
WASHINGTON, 23 JUNE
Former US national securi-
ty advisor John Bolton has
slammed the State Depart-
ment for defending India's
position on import of oil
from Iran, while claiming at
the same time that President
Donald Trump had “not been
sympathetic” to New Delhi's
case.
In his tell-all book “The
Room Where It Happened:
A White House Memoir” that
hit the stands on Tuesday,
there is a sporadic mention
of India in the context of Pres-
ident Trump asking countries
to bring down the import of
Iranian oil to zero and the cri-
sis with Pakistan following the
Pulwama terror attack.
The US last year had asked
India and other countries to
completely end their imports
of Iranian oil by November
4 or be subject to US sanc-
tions, a decision that comes
about a year after America
though, as the only African
American Republican, Rep.
Karen Bass, the chairwoman
of the Congressional Black
Caucus, said in an interview.
That he has to sit there with
those senators and go through
his experiences and hope
that they have some mea-
sure of empathy, said Bass, who
is leading Democrats' polic-
ing bill and working with
Scott, whom she has known
for years.
It's exhausting,” she said.
“Racism is exhausting. As
massive demonstrations over
the May 25 killing of George
Floyd in Minnesota spilled into
a worldwide reckoning over
police tactics and racial injus-
tice, Scott quietly approached
Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell at the GOP sena-
tors' weekly private luncheon.
Scott whispered in
GOOGLE CEO SUNDER PICHAI
Fauci to testify
at a fraught
time for US
Covid response
WASHINGTON, 23 JUNE
With coronavirus cases ris-
ing in about half the states
and political polarization
competing for attention
with public health recom-
mendations, Dr. Anthony
Fauci returns to Capitol Hill
on Tuesday at a fraught
moment in the nation's pan-
demic response.
The government's top
infectious disease expert
will testify before a House
committee, along with the
heads of the Centers for
Disease Control and Pre-
vention, the Food and Drug
Administration, and a top
official at the Department of
Health and Human Services.
Since Fauci's last appear-
ance at a high-profile hear-
ing more than a month ago,
the US is emerging from
weeks of stay-at-home orders
and business shutdowns.
But it's being done in an
uneven way, with some
states far less cautious than
others. A trio of states with
Republican governors who
are bullish on reopening
Arizona, Florida and Texas
are among those seeing wor-
risome increases in cases.
Last week, Vice Presi-
dent Mike Pence published
an opinion article in TheWall
Street Journal saying the
administration's efforts have
strengthened the nation's
ability to counter the virus
and should be a cause for cel-
ebration. Then President
said at his weekend rally in
Tulsa that he had asked
administration officials to
slow down testing, because
too many cases are turning
up.
Many rally goers did not
wear masks, and for some
that was an act of defiance
against what they see as
government intrusion. White
House officials later tried to
walk back Trump's com-
ment on testing, suggesting
it wasn't meant to be taken
literally. AP
quit the Iran nuclear deal and
imposed toughest ever sanc-
tions on the resource-rich Per-
sian Gulf nation.
Iran is India's third-largest
oil supplier after Iraq and
Saudi Arabia. Iran supplied
18.4 million tonnes of crude
oil between April 2017 and
January 2018 (first 10 months
of fiscal 2017-18).
“In a phone call with (Sec-
retary of State) Mike Pompeo,
Trump had not been sym-
pathetic to India's Prime
Minister Narendra Modi,
saying, 'He'll be okay.' I recall
a similar conversation reflect-
ing Trump's indifference to
notifying allies about waiv-
er decisions,” 71-year-old
Bolton wrote in his book,
which the Trump adminis-
tration tried to stall.
The Department of Jus-
tice had sought a temporary
restraining order blocking the
release of the book, express-
ing concerns that classified
information could be
exposed. However, a feder-
McConnell's ear that he want-
ed a seat at the table drafting
legislation.
I'm the guy that actually has
the experience, he told
McConnell. The leader agreed.
Broaching law enforce-
ment changes is a new priority
for the GOP, which proudly calls
itself the party of Lincoln but
has wrestled with race in the
modern era, becoming more
aligned with the law and order
approach now embraced by
President Donald Trump than
a civil rights platform.
He's been working for this
moment his whole life, said
House GOP Leader Kevin
McCarthy of California. Scott's
family the grandfather who
picked cotton as a child and
grandmother who cleaned
homes, and his own parents
who separated when he was
young, his father in the mil-
US, Russia hold
new N-arms talks,
but without China
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BERLIN, 23 JUNE
American and Russian nego-
tiators have concluded a
round of nuclear arms con-
trol talks in Vienna, aimed at
producing a new agreement
to replace the New START
treaty that expires in Febru-
ary the last remaining
pact constraining the arsenals
of the world's two major
nuclear powers.
US negotiator Marshall
Billingslea told reporters Tues-
day that a day of high-level
marathon discussions ended
late Monday night and had
been productive enough to
conclude with the establish-
ment of several technical
working groups to delve deep-
er into the issues with the idea
of paving the way for a sec-
ond round of talks by late July
or early August.
We both agreed at the ter-
mination of our talks that
the strategic environment
has changed significantly
since the New START treaty
was signed, he told reporters.
We can all remember back
10 years ago, the world is, in
fact, a radically different place.
New START, signed in 2010,
imposes limits on the num-
ber of US and Russian long-
range nuclear warheads and
launchers.
It became the last nuclear
arms pact between the two
nations after the US last year
scrapped the Intermediate-
range Nuclear Forces treaty
with Russia, a Cold War-era
agreement that both sides
had repeatedly accused the
other of violating.
The INF treaty was also crit-
icised because it did not cover
China or missile technology
that did not exist a generation
ago.
New START can be extend-
ed by five years by mutual con-
sent. Sergei Ryabkov, the Russ-
ian deputy foreign minister
who led his country's dele-
gation in Vienna, told reporters
in Moscow that he had reit-
erated the position that it
should be. We presented our
view and will keep doing so,
Ryabkov told the Interfax
al judge ruled on Saturday
that Bolton can move forward
in publishing the book.
“Considering one foreign
leader's trip to Washington,
which also raised the ending
of a waiver, Trump had a ready
suggestion: 'Do it before he
gets here, and then I'll say I
didn't know anything about
it,' and 'Do it early in the week.
I don't want to be anywhere
near it',” Bolton wrote.
Bolton also said that he
did not like State Department
officials defending India's
position on the Iranian oil
import.
“One of the worst cases
involved India, which, like the
others, was buying Iranian
oil at prices well below the
global market because Iran
was so desperate to make
sales. India complained it
would be disadvantaged not
only because of having to find
new suppliers, but also
because the new sources
would insist on prevailing
market prices!” he wrote.
itary, his mother working
double shifts as a nursing
assistant to provide for him
and his brother taught
him to stay steady amid hard-
ship. He acknowledges in his
memoir that he almost flunked
his freshman year of high
school, before going on to
become senior class president
and attend college.
He is among a generation
of Capitol Hill Republicans
along with McCarthy and
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.,
both of whom he counts as
friends who came of age
during the Reagan years, car-
rying a conservative's belief
in the wellspring of opportu-
nity awaiting hard work.
Elected to the House on the
2010 Tea Party wave, Scott was
tapped for a vacant Senate seat
in 2012 and went on to win it
outright in 2014.
New START, signed in
2010, imposes limits
on the number of US
and Russian long-
range nuclear war-
heads and launchers.
agency. We are running out of
time.
He added, however, that the
establishment of working
groups was a significant step
forward and said the talks
were conducted in a positive
atmosphere and reflected a
shared desire to move forward.
US President Donald
Trump has called New START
just another bad deal made
by the Obama administration,
and it was not clear whether
he would agree to an exten-
sion.
Billingslea told reporters
at a press conference held by
the American delegation that
any new agreement must
include all nuclear weapons
and not just strategic nuclear
weapons, and also subject
China to restrictions.
All options, he said are
“definitely on the table. Our
ultimate decision, which is in
the hands of the president,
whether he decides to extend
the New START treaty or allow
it to run its course, is going to
be very much driven by the
extent to which we have made
progress, not just with our
Russian colleagues but with
our Chinese counterparts,
he said.
In Brussels, NATO Secre-
tary General Jens Stoltenberg
said he would prefer China to
be part of any future agree-
ment, but that in the absence
of that extending New START
is the right thing to do.
We should not end up in
a situation where we have no
agreement, he said. Billingslea
said China had refused an
American invitation to be
part of the Vienna talks, but
that he hoped the international
community would pressure
Beijing to take part in the
future.
The United States is not
engaged in an arms race,
Billingslea said.
DC:Protesters
try to pull
down Andrew
Jackson statue
WASHINGTON,23 JUNE
Protesters tried to pull down
a statue of President Andrew
Jackson near the White House
Monday night before being
dispersed by police.
WUSA-TV in Washington
reported that police used
pepper spray to move pro-
testers out of Lafayette Square,
where the Jackson statue is
located. Videos posted on
social media showed that
the protesters had climbed on
the statue and tied ropes
around it, then tried to pull
it off its pedestal.
The statue shows Jack-
son in a military uniform, rid-
ing a horse that is rearing on
its hind legs. The 19th cen-
tury president's ruthless treat-
ment of Native Americans has
made his statue a target of
demonstrators protesting the
US' legacy of racial injus-
tice. The Jackson statue
remained on its pedestal
Monday night.
President Donald Trump
tweeted late Monday that
Numerous people had been
arrested for the disgraceful
vandalism. He added: 10
years in prison under the
Veteran's Memorial Preser-
vation Act. Beware!
Greenland vandalism
case:Police in Greenland
have detained a man in his
early 30s in connection with
the vandalism of a statue of
a Danish colonizer that was
doused with red paint and the
word decolonize.
Police told Greenland
broadcaster KNR Monday
that investigations of the
defacement of the statue of
Hans Egede, a Lutheran mis-
sionary who arrived on the vast
island in 1721, were ongoing.
The suspect was not identi-
fied.The statue in Nuuk's old
district was vandalized early
Sunday as Greenland was
marking its National Day. It
has been vandalized before.
Statues associated with racism
have been targeted in light of
the killing of George Floyd.AP