Rain washes out Super Eights match between New Zealand and Pakistan
Pallekele (Sri Lanka) (PTI): New Zealand and Pakistan shared a point after incessant rain forced the abandonment of the opening T20 World Cup Group 2 Super Eights match here on Saturday.
Amid a slight drizzle, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first.
But the steady droplets soon transformed into relentless pouring, forcing the officials to call off the match without a ball being bowled.
Before the skies opened up, Pakistan made one change to their eleven, bringing in Fakhar Zaman in place of Khawaja Nafay.
New Zealand made three changes with skipper Mitchell Santner back after missing the last match against Canada due to a stomach issue and Lockie Ferguson and Ish Sodhi also found a place in the XI.
But all those calculations and combinations will have to wait for another day, as Pakistan will now face England here on February 24.
New Zealand will make a light travel to Colombo to face home side Sri Lanka on February 25.
The washout has also placed both the Kiwis and Pakistan in a relatively tighter place ahead of their remaining two Super Eights matches.
A similar result in any of the following matches, a possibility considering Sri Lanka’s weather pattern, or a defeat can put their semifinal ambitions in serious jeopardy.
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President Trump wants to impose 15% tariff, up from 10% he announced after Supreme Court decision
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump said Saturday that he was raising the global tariff he wants to impose to 15 per cent, up from 10 per cent he had announced a day earlier.
Trump said in a social media post on that he was making the decision “Based on a thorough, detailed, and complete review of the ridiculous, poorly written, and extraordinarily anti-American decision on Tariffs issued yesterday,” by the US Supreme Court.
After the court ruled he didn't have the emergency power to impose many sweeping tariffs, Trump signed an executive order on Friday night that enabled him to bypass Congress and impose a 10 per cent tax on imports from around the world. The catch is that those tariffs would be limited to just 150 days, unless they are extended legislatively.
Trump's post significantly ratcheting up a global tax on imports to the US yet again was the latest sign that despite the court's check, the Republican president was intent on continuing to wield in an unpredictable manner his favourite tool to for the economy and to apply global pressure. Trump's shifting announcements over the last year that he was raising and sometimes lowering tariffs with little notice jolted markets and rattled nations.
Saturday's announcement seemed to a be a sign that Trump intends to use the temporary global tariffs to continue to flex.
“During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media network.
Under the order Trump signed Friday night, the 10 per cent tariff was scheduled to take effect starting February 24. The White House did not immediately respond to a message inquiring when the president would sign an updated order.
In addition to the temporary tariffs that Trump wants to set at 15 per cent, the president said Friday that he was also pursuing tariffs through other sections of federal law which require an investigation by the Commerce Department.
Trump made an unusually personal attack on the Supreme Court judges who ruled against him in a 6-3 vote, including two of those he appointed during his first term, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett. Trump, at a news conference on Friday, said of the two justices: “I think it's an embarrassment to their families."
He was still seething Friday night, posting on social media complaining about Gorsuch, Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts, who ruled with the majority and wrote the majority opinion. On Saturday morning, Trump issued another post declaring that his “new hero” was Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who wrote a 63-page dissent. He also praised Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, who were in the minority, and said of the three dissenting justices: "There is no doubt in anyone's mind that they want to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
