Virus taking stronger hold in US, other
IMPHAL, SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 2020
Pakistan’s Prime Minister says
US ‘martyred’ bin Laden
ISLAMABAD, Jun 26
Pakistan’s prime minister said
Thursday the United States
“martyred” the al-Qaida leader
and mastermind of the 9/11
attacks, Osama bin Laden, a
term that reflected a subtle jab at
Washington as it’s mainly used
for honorable figures slain in
battle.
Imran Khan delivered the
jab in a rambling budget
speech in parliament, attack-
ing his predecessors’ foreign
policies and saying that Paki-
stan’s partnership with the
United States in the war on
terror was a mistake.
Khan also said Washing-
ton used abusive language
against Pakistan, blaming
Islamabad for its failures in
neighboring Afghanistan.
Most of all, the U.S. refused
to tell Islamabad of its opera-
tion against bin Laden in 2011
before carrying out the Navy
SEALs nighttime raid. The
special operations force
swooped into Pakistan’s mili-
tary garrison town of
Abbottabad in the middle of
the night on May 2, 2011,
killing bin Laden and several
of his operatives.
“We sided with the U.S. in
the War on Terror but they
came here and killed him,
martyred him and ... used
abusive language against us
(and) did not inform us (of
the raid), despite the fact that
we lost 70,000 people in the
war on terror,” Khan told
Parliament.
Washington has repeatedly
accused Pakistan of harboring
the Afghan Taliban and giv-
ing safe haven to the feared
Haqqani network, a Taliban
affiliate that has been blamed
World Bank provides cash aid
for poor Jordanians
JORDAN, Jun 26
The World Bank says it will provide $374 million in cash support to 270,000 poor families in Jordan,
including many who lost income due to the coronavirus pandemic and lockdown.
The bank announced the aid on Friday, saying it was co-financed by the U.K.’s international
development agency.
Jordan took strict measures to contain its outbreak, including a 24-hour curfew that was
in effect for several days in March. It has reported more than 1,000 cases but only nine
fatalities.
The lockdown came at an enormous cost. The country’s vital tourism industry has been
at a standstill since March, and many businesses that were forced to close three months ago
have only been allowed to reopen in the last few weeks.
Jordan is a close Western ally that has long been seen as an island of stability in a turbulent
region. It hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees from the conflict in neighboring Syria. AP
Infotainment
Nicolas Cage to play a janitor Dixie Chicks drop Dixie from name
fighting evil animatronics
NME
Nicolas Cage has found his
next role as a janitor in horror-
thriller Wally’s Wonderland.
The upcoming thriller will
see Cage play the unnamed
character, the Janitor, picking
up a job in an amusement
park and trying to survive a
night trapped in the centre
with possessed animatronic
monsters.
Co-starring alongside Cage
will be Emily Tosta, Beth
Grant, Ric Reitz and Chris
Warner. The film is written
by G.O. Parsons, and di-
rected by Kevin Lewis.
On casting Nicolas Cage,
Lewis said: “For me there was
always one actor and one
actor only who could make
this movie work, and that
actor is Nic Cage.
“I’m thrilled to be working
with him and can’t wait to see
him go up against Wally and
his gang of psychopathic
misfits.” On the film’s influ-
ences, the filmmaker added,
“I see this movie as Pale Rider
vs Killer Klowns from Outer
Space.”
Coming up next, Cage will
also be playing himself in The
Unbearable Weight of Mas-
sive Talent, as a loosely
fictionalised alter ego work-
ing towards a role in a
Tarantino film, before reluc-
tantly accepting a job for a
Mexican billionaire for a
$1million fee.
In a recent interview with
NME, Cage elaborated on the
meta-role. “This role is going
In this photo released by the Press Information Department,
Pakistani Prime Minister addresses the Parliament in Islamabad,
Pakistan, Thursday, June 25, 2020. Khan accused the United
States on Thursday of having "martyred" al-Qaida leader and the
mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden.
for some major attacks in
Afghanistan over the years
and declared a terrorist group
by the United States. U.S.
Adm. Mike Mullen, former
chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, had claimed the
Haqqani network was run by
Pakistan’s premier intelli-
gence agency, known by its
acronym ISI.
Pakistan denied the accu-
sations, saying Washington
was blaming Pakistan for the
failure of the U.S.-led coali-
tion’s 150,000 soldiers to
defeat the Taliban, who are
now at their strongest since
being toppled in 2001 and rule
or hold sway in about 50% of
Afghanistan.
“The way we supported
America in the war on terror,
and the insults we had to face
in return. ... They blamed us
for every failure in Afghani-
stan. They openly held us
responsible because they did
not succeed in Afghanistan,”
Khan said.
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and
to be a complicated one, but
it’s based on my early days
of grafting [for work],” he
said.
“It would be a collision
between perhaps Dave Spritz
in The Weatherman as the
contemporary Nic Cage, and
then I’d have to go into pro-
tracted dialogue scenes with a
young Nic Cage, and that
would be the Nic Cage you
saw in the Wogan, back when
I was promoting Wild at
Heart with the karate kicks
and the front handsprings.”
The Unbearable Weight of
Massive Talent is currently
billed for a March 19, 2021
premiere, while Wally’s Won-
derland does not yet have a
set release date.
the United Arab Emirates
were the only countries to
recognize the Taliban govern-
ment, which had harbored bin
Laden as he planned terrorists
attacks against the U.S. After
the 9/11 attacks, Pakistan
turned and became an ally of
the United States against the
Taliban, who were ousted by
a U.S.-led coalition in No-
vember 2011.
However, opposition law-
maker Khwaja Mohammed
Asif slammed Khan for call-
ing bin Laden a martyr,
saying the al-Qaida chief had
brought terrorism to Pakistan.
“He (bin Laden) ruined my
country but he (Khan) is call-
ing him a martyr,” said Asif.
Since taking over, Khan
claimed his government has
reset the Pakistan-U.S. rela-
tionship, elevating it to one of
mutual respect, for which he
also credited the personal rap-
port he has built with
President Donald Trump.
“No one insults us now,”
said Khan. AP
asiaone
Country music trio Dixie
Chicks on Thursday changed its
name to simply The Chicks, the
latest move in US pop culture to
drop associations with the
nation’s racist past.
“We want to meet the mo-
ment,” the band said on its
website, without further expla-
nation. The word “Dixie” is
associated with the U.S. south-
ern states where chattel slavery
was legal and which seceded
from the union and fought as
the Confederate States of
countries with big populations
SEOUL, Jun 26 national average, and a record prevent infections among the Indonesia’s economy back on
415 patients were on ventila- most vulnerable, like nursing track but safe from the virus,
While China moved closer to tors. home residents. A rising pro- and started the country’s reo-
containing a fresh outbreak in The numbers “continue to portion of cases in the U.S. pening earlier this month. The
Beijing, the coronavirus took a go in the wrong direction,” is among younger people, government says the pan-
stronger hold elsewhere, said Ducey, who confirmed who are more likely than demic is expected to raise the
including the United States, that the state has postponed their elders to survive a bout nation’s poverty rate to
where surging infections further efforts to reopen. with COVID-19. “This is 10.2%.
across southern states have He pushed back against re- still serious,” said Dr. Robert A comeback of the virus is
highlighted the risks of porters’ questions about his Redfield, director of the also erasing hard-won gains
reopening economies without position on the use of masks Centers for Disease Control in South Korea, which re-
effective treatment or vaccines. and his attendance at Presi- and Prevention, but “we’re in ported 39 newly confirmed
Another record daily in- mobilized resources for mass dent Donald Trump’s indoor a different situation today cases on Friday, mostly from
crease in India on Friday testing and locked down parts campaign event this week at a than we were in March or the densely populated capital
pushed the country’s caseload of Beijing this month due to Phoenix church. Many of the April.” area that had escaped the
toward half a million, and an outbreak that has infected 3,000 people who attended India, which has the worst of the country’s out-
other countries with big 260 people. The 11 new cases did not wear face coverings. world’s second-largest popu- break in February and March.
populations like Indonesia, reported in the capital Friday Mississippi announced a lation, has seen regular There’s criticism that authori-
Pakistan and Mexico grap- continued a downward trend record 1,092 new cases of record daily increases. The ties, concerned about a fragile
pled with large caseloads and that suggests transmissions coronavirus, the second time 24-hour spike of 17,296 new economy, were too quick to
strained health care systems. have been largely brought this week its daily count infections reported Friday ease social distancing guide-
South Africa, which ac- under control. reached new highs. raised the national caseload lines and reopen schools
counts for about half of the The United States, which After making one of the past 490,000, including starting in May.
infections on the African con- counts the most infections in most aggressive pushes in the 15,301 fatalities. Indian Rail- Japan’s capital, Tokyo,
tinent with 118,375, reported the world, is seeing daily nation to reopen, Republican ways delayed the resumption confirmed 54 new cases, con-
a record 6,579 new cases, as jumps in COVID-19 cases Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas of regular train services by tinuing a steady rise that’s
transmissions increase after it nearing the peak reached in has put off lifting any more more than a month, until raising concern about a need
loosened what had been one late April. restrictions and reimposed a Aug. 12. for stronger preventive meas-
of the world’s strictest Arizona’s 3,056 additional ban on elective surgeries in In India and in ures. Gov. Yuriko Koike has
lockdowns earlier this month. infections reported Thursday some places to preserve hos- neighboring Pakistan, gov- downplayed fears about a ma-
Mexico reported some of was the fourth day in a week pital space. ernment leaders have resisted jor surge that would
its highest 24-hour counts so with a increase over 3,000. The United States reported new restrictions, citing eco- overwhelm the city’s hospi-
far with 6,104 new cases and Transmissions have spiked 34,500 COVID-19 cases nomic concerns. The world’s tals.
736 additional deaths, as its following Republican Gov. Wednesday, slightly fewer fourth-most populous coun- Australia on Friday re-
treasury secretary began iso- Doug Ducey’s decision to lift than the day before but still try, Indonesia, passed 50,000 ported 37 new cases of the
lating at home after a positive stay-home restrictions in May. near the high of 36,400 confirmed cases on Thurs- coronavirus, including 30 in
test. Twenty-three percent of reached April 24, according day, with at least 2,620 Victoria state, where health
In China, where the pan- tests conducted in the state to a count kept by Johns deaths, the highest number of authorities are scrambling to
demic originated in over the past seven days have Hopkins University. cases and fatalities in South- contain an outbreak. Authori-
December, authorities have been positive, nearly triple the Deaths tolls have dropped east Asia. That’s up from just ties said they tested 20,000
even as the number of infec- two positive cases in early people in Melbourne suburbs
Indonesian fishermen rescue
tions have increased, possibly March. as they went door-to-door in
reflecting better medical treat- President Joko Widodo their attempts to stamp out the
nearly 100 Rohingyas
ments and better efforts to said his administration wants virus. AP
SEUNUDDON, Jun 26
Indonesian fishermen rescued nearly 100 Rohingya refugees,
including 79 women and children, in Aceh province after officials
said they were planning to push them back out to sea.
Countries around Southeast Asia have grown increasingly
reluctant to accept refugee boats as they battle the novel
coronavirus, but the Acehnese fishermen told Reuters that
rescuing the Rohingya was a moral duty.
“It is nothing more than a sense of humanity and part of
our tradition in the north Aceh fishermen community,” said
local fisherman Hamdani Yacob near the town of Seunuddon
in northern Aceh. “We hope that the refugees will be looked
after in our village.”
Authorities in Aceh confirmed the refugees had been taken
ashore on Thursday and provided temporary housing. The
fishermen had rescued them earlier in the week and they were
anchored just off the coast, but officials had said they planned
to push them back out to sea with a new boat, gasoline and
food. Local authorities capitulated following protests from the
local fishermen.
Images from a beach in the Seunuddon showed people
from the local community towing the Rohingya boat to shore
and helping to carry emaciated children onto land. Reuters
America during the Civil War.
This month, country band
Lady Antebellum changed its
Ready to Make Nice.
Musicians, television shows
and movies have all been
name to Lady A, also because forced to re-examine the mes-
of the associations of the An- sages they are sending out in
tebellum period with slavery. the wake of a national reckon-
The Dixie Chicks formed ing over systemic racism in the
in Texas in 1989, and became United States triggered by mass
one of the biggest names in protests against police brutality
country music. The female against Black people.
band was shunned by coun- The classic Civil War
try radio stations in 2003 after movie Gone with the Wind
singer Natalie Maines said returned to the HBO Max
she did not endorse the US streaming platform on
invasion of Iraq. The band re- Wednesday, accompanied by
sponded in 2006 with the an introduction acknowledg-
Grammy-winning single Not ing the brutality of slavery.