The anti-American mood in Pakistan appears to be shifting after Pakistanis have watched the US efforts on behalf of earthquake relief in the country. Turns out the region hit hardest by the quake is known as the epicenter of Pakistan’s extremist population—the northern section of the country that borders Afghanistan and is filled with training camps prepping militants. But the enormous and highly visible airlift effort by US forces to deliver relief supplies, according to the Christian Science Monitor, has provided anecdotal evidence that America may have pulled an image coup. “They are really helping us a lot,” said Bashir Ayub, an Islamabad medical evacuee tells CSM. “A lot of people here don’t understand that they really aren’t that bad.”
The Air Force has finished modifying and testing the new VC-25B Bridge aircraft that will serve as a temporary Air Force One, the service announced May 1. All that’s left now is to finish painting the jet before it starts flying this summer.