The Universal Resort theme park in Beijing has temporarily closed due to Covid-19 prevention measures.

Cases have been rising in the city despite having some of the world’s toughest anti-coronavirus restrictions.

For yesterday, the Chinese capital – which is home to more than 21 million people – reported 19 symptomatic infections and one asymptomatic case.

China’s zero-Covid policy has seen cities and attractions locked down over relatively small numbers of infections.

The park, which is part-owned by the US media giant Comcast, did not say when it would reopen, but pledged to refund or reschedule tickets.

“We will continue to assess the impact on operations and strive to resume operations as soon as possible,” it said on Weibo, a Twitter-like social media platform.

“At the same time, we will continue to carry out a series of work related to epidemic prevention and control, such as deep cleaning, disinfection and nucleic acid testing,” it added.

Some users on Weibo took issue with the short notice given to customers by the company.

“The pandemic shutdown is understandable. But why didn’t you give earlier notice?” one user asked.

Another said: “Who is responsible for the loss if I specially took leave to visit?”

This is the second time the theme park, which was opened in September 2021, has been forced to close its gates this year. It was shut for six weeks from the start of May due to Covid measures.

(BBC News)

Leslie Jordan, the Emmy-winning actor, whose videos turned him into a social media star during the pandemic, has passed away at the age of 67, AP News reported.

Jordan’s wry Southern drawl and versatility made him a comedy and drama standout on TV series including “Will & Grace” and “American Horror Story.”

“The world is definitely a much darker place today without the love and light of Leslie Jordan. Not only was he a mega talent and joy to work with, but he provided an emotional sanctuary to the nation at one of its most difficult times,” a representative for Jordan said in a statement Monday.

The native of Chattanooga, Tennessee, who won an outstanding guest actor Emmy in 2005 for his part as Beverly Leslie in “Will & Grace,” had a recurring role on the Mayim Bialik comedy “Call Me Kat” and starred on the sitcom “The Cool Kids.”

Jordan’s other eclectic credits include “Hearts Afire,” “Boston Legal,” “Fantasy Island” and “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” He played various roles on the “American Horror Story” series.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Sri Lankan author – Shehan Karunatilaka, has won the Booker Prize.
The Sri Lankan writer’s novel is about a photographer who wakes up dead, with a week to ask his friends to find his photos and expose the brutality of the Sri Lankan civil war.

Camilla, the Queen Consort, presented the prize, and the author said it had been “an honour and a privilege” to be on the shortlist. Pop singer Dua Lipa was the star guest.

The prestigious £50,000 prize, for a single work of fiction published in the UK in English, also gives the other five writers on the shortlist £2,500 each.

The writer said he decided in 2009 to write “a ghost story where the dead could offer their perspective” after the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, “when there was a raging debate over how many civilians died and whose fault it was”.

Karunatilaka said as he accepted his prize: “My hope is that in the not too distant future… Sri Lanka has understood that these ideas of corruption and race-baiting and cronyism have not worked and will never work. “I hope it’s in print in 10 years… if it is, I hope it’s written in a Sri Lanka that learns from its stories, and that Seven Moons will be in the fantasy section of the bookshop, next to the dragons, the unicorns and will not be mistaken for realism or political satire.”

The opening of the book sets the slightly absurd tone. It starts in the afterlife, which turns out to be bureaucratic and banal. It then flips back and forth between the underworld and the real world during the Sri Lankan civil war in 1990 as Maali Almeida tries to work out who killed him – and why.

Shehan Karunatilaka says the book has been in his head for 10 years and goodness his brain must have been busy. But he struggled to find an international publisher.

The Seven Moons of Maali is Karunatilaka’s second novel, having previously won awards including the Commonwealth Book Prize for his debut book Chinaman, which was called the “second best cricket book of all time” by cricketers’ almanac Wisden.

Born in 1975, the writer has also worked as an advertising copywriter, and his songs, scripts and stories have been published in Rolling Stone, GQ and National Geographic.

He is the second Sri Lankan-born author to win the prize, following Michael Ondaatje for The English Patient (1992).

(Excerpts : BBC)