GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978SUNDAY Vol. XXXXI No. 11621

July 26, 2020Dhul-Hijjah 5, 1441 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

QSE is region’s 2nd-largest equity market with $160bn capitalisation in end-2019: QFC

Address registrationdeadline ends today

Second wave of Covidhits Germany

MoPH reports 105,750 total Covid-19 recoveries

US consulate in Chinareadies for closure

Bolsonaro says he tested negative for Covid-19

The deadline for the National Address registration ends today, six months after its launch. The Ministry of Interior has issued several reminders during this period, urging people to register their National Address via the electronic services of the MoI, such as its website and the Metrash2 app, or through direct registration at its service centres. Some of the MoI service centres worked during this weekend to make it easy for individuals and companies to complete their National Address registration.

Warnings have sounded that a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic is already hitting Germany as daily infection rates rise, with the government’s infectious diseases institute also saying it was very concerned. “The second coronavirus wave is already here. It is already taking place every day. We have new clusters of infection every day which could become very high numbers,” Michael Kretschmer, premier of the eastern state of Saxony, said.

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) reported yesterday 398 new confirmed cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) and 330 recoveries in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of people who recovered from the disease in Qatar to 105,750. All new cases have been kept in isolation and are receiving necessary healthcare, a statement issued by the MoPH said. Page 2

Workers removed the US insignia from the consulate in the Chinese city of Chengdu yesterday, a day after Beijing ordered its closure as relations deteriorated in a Cold War-style standoff . The Chengdu mission was told to shut in retaliation for the forced closure of Beijing’s consulate in Houston, Texas, with both sides alleging the other had endangered national security. The deadline for the Americans to exit Chengdu remains unclear. Three moving company trucks entered the US consulate building yesterday afternoon. Page 10

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announced yesterday he has tested negative for the new coronavirus more than two weeks after being diagnosed on July 7, attributing his recovery to an unproven malaria drug. “RT-PCR for Sars-Cov 2: negative. Good morning everyone,” the 65-year-old tweeted, along with a photo of himself smiling and holding a packet of hydroxychloroquine, whose eff ectiveness against Covid-19 has not been demonstrated in clinical trials. He did not say when he took the latest test. Page 9

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With Eid al-Adha just a few days away, there is hectic activity at shops selling sweets, gift outlets and florists. Pictured are some Eid gifts at a shop in Al Wakra. PICTURE: Shaji Kayamkulam Page 7

Eid gifts – saying it with flowers and chocolates

HIA new tech letselectronic itemsstay in baggageduring screeningHamad International Airport

(HIA) has installed the latest security screening technol-

ogy, which is an advanced algorithm that enables security personnel to eas-ily detect explosive materials held in complex items and structures.

The technology also allows trans-fer passengers the freedom to keep electronic devices such as laptops, tablets, digital cameras, etc in their hand luggage while going through se-curity checkpoints, “improving lev-els of customer service and the need for further divestment that also has a hygiene benefi t”, HIA said in a state-ment.

The new C2 technology will be ini-tially implemented across all trans-fer screening checkpoints upon the gradual reopening of transfer gates. It will significantly enhance airport se-curity while speeding up the inspec-tion process and boosting through-put. The application of this system will allow HIA to reach a higher and internationally recognised explosives detection system standard, the state-ment notes.

The ECAC C2 Detection standard can identify threat materials in con-gested bags, including electronic de-vices that had to be segregated from bags earlier. Once the bag is placed on the X-ray for screening, it can be col-lected without any further stops for re-screening or physical inspections. The system is also a signifi cant coun-ter Covid-19 measure, which reduces possible cross-contamination among passenger carry-on bags.

The implementation of the technol-ogy will elevate the airport’s hygiene standards by limiting human contact at the security checkpoints, making the process safer and faster for both staff and passengers.

Saeed Yousef al-Sulaiti, vice-pres-ident - Security at Hamad Interna-tional Airport, said: “The security process at HIA is continuously im-proving through the introduction of cutting-edge technologies. Our goal is to make the journey safer, given the current Covid-19 pandemic. Dur-ing these challenging times, our pri-ority remains to protect passengers while preserving security. Through

the implementation of C2 technology, we can accomplish a more effi cient protocol that addresses all passen-ger concerns. Our passenger-centric strategy helps us continue our invest-ments towards that front while de-veloping solutions that are in the best interest of our people.”

Applying this latest technology will boost HIA’s passenger process-ing capacity while reducing queuing times at security points. This allows HIA to provide a smooth and hassle-free journey to all passengers and maintain its recognition as an airport that consistently meets the highest standards of safety and world-class security.

HIA is looking into the prospect of implementing body scanners, to pro-vide better security outcomes while slowly easing all body search proce-dures. This potential technology will prove to be helpful in the Covid-19 cli-mate as it helps reduce contact during body searches. To Page 6

Qatar’s international airport has enhanced the security screening process while elevating Covid-19 measures by minimising contact at security checkpoints.

Qatar’s international airport is also exploring the introduction of a combination of anti-bacterial trays at checkpoints and automated UV emitting modules that will automatically disinfect the trays passengers touch to further safeguard the health and safety of all HIA passengers

Qatar to host Sport Managementworld congress in 2022

Qatar will become the fi rst country in the Middle East and North Africa to host the

Congress of World Association of Sport Management (WASM) after successfully winning the right to host the event in March 2022, the offi cial Qatar News Agency has reported.

The successful bid to host the 2022 WASM Congress in Qatar was a joint eff ort between Qatar University and Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), a member of Qatar Founda-tion.

Hosting the event would be another milestone for Qatar in preparation for hosting of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, QU said in a statement yesterday.

The successful joint eff ort was supported by a memorandum of un-derstanding between QU and QF, which focuses on strengthening cross-institutional collaborations in student learning activities, teaching and in the fi eld of research.

The WASM 2022 Congress in Qa-tar will be an opportunity to promote education, research and publications in the multi-disciplinary area of sport management in Qatar and in the re-gion, including sport governance, sport policy and strategy, sport mar-keting, sport and event management, to name but a few.

Moreover, it will contribute to bridging between academia, sport

government bodies and sport indus-try, and to make an impact in terms of knowledge sharing as part of the 2022 FIFA World Cup legacy project in the region and beyond, the state-ment notes.

The joint bidding team members are Dr Kamilla Swart-Arries, associate professor in Sport Management at the College of Science and Engineering, from HBKU, and Dr Ahmed al-Emadi, professor in Sport Management and dean of the College of Education; Dr Othman Mohamed al-Thawadi, as-sistant professor in marketing at the College of Business and Economics; and Dr Mahfoud Amara, associate professor in Sport Policy and Manage-ment and director of the Sport Science Programme, College of Arts and Sci-ences, from Qatar University.

Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC), the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) represented by Josoor Institute, and Qatar Olym-pic Committee (QOC) represented by Qatar Olympic Academy, supported the bid.

The last World Association for Sport Management Conference was held at the Universidad Santo Tomas in Santiago de Chile in 2019 and attracted 150 delegates from over 40 countries. Hosting the con-gress in Qatar in 2022 “will for sure attract more international delegates of academics and professionals in sport management to participate in the congress, and to have a close look at Qatar’s preparation for the mega event”, the QU statement adds. To Page 2

Dr Ahmad M Hasnah Dr Hassan Rashid al-Derham

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment’s General Cleanliness Department and Natural Reserves Department, in co-operation with Seashore Group, has launched an awareness campaign targeting the public about the importance of keeping the beaches clean, and disposing of trash in designated containers. The innovative campaign involves the use of garbage containers in the form of fish. Page 16 Members of an all-black militia group called NFAC prepare for a march during a rally, in

Louisville, Kentucky, USA, yesterday.

All-black militia march in US

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has issued safety guidelines for citi-

zens and residents to follow dur-ing the upcoming Eid al-Adha.

These include advices for people visiting slaughterhouses as well as for those who suf-fer from chronic diseases or are above 60 years of age.

“For your safety and that of others during this Eid, when visiting a slaughterhouse to choose your sacrifi ce or pick up the sacrifi ce meat, ensure ad-hering to the health guidelines,” the ministry said in a post on social media yesterday. These guidelines are:

Avoid going to the slaughter-house during rush hours; Avoid taking children under 12 years; Stick to the appointment time given to you by the slaughter-house; Ensure that the Ehteraz app is activated and the ‘Green’ code is shown; Wear a mask; Avoid getting off the car unless

necessary; Follow the slaughter-house instructions and guide-lines; Maintain a social distance of 1.5m between you and others; Avoid shaking hands and touch-ing surfaces and equipment; Pay by card instead of cash when possible; Discard masks appro-priately.

In another post on social me-dia, the MoPH issued guide-

lines for those who suff er from chronic diseases or are above 60 years of age, while choosing a sacrifi ce or receiving the off er-ing meat.

Such people should avoid go-ing to the slaughterhouse as well as avoid hiring non-licensed butchers, the advisory states, adding that they should use home-delivery services.

MoPH issues guidelinesfor slaughterhouse visits

A livestock market in Al Mazrouah ahead of Eid al-Adha. PICTURE: Shaji Kayamkulam

Keep beachesclean drive

QATAR

Gulf Times Sunday, July 26, 20202

HE the Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari has held a meeting with Iraqi Health Minister Hassan Mohamed al-Tamimi through video conference technology.The meeting dealt with ways and mechanisms for enhancing co-operation between the two countries in the health sector. This comes within the framework of implementing the directives of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani of sending field hospitals with various medical equipment to the Republic of Iraq in support of the eff orts to confront coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.The Iraqi minister expressed his thanks and appreciation to the Amir for his support to the Iraqi eff orts in facing the pandemic, praising the distinguished relations between the two countries in various fields. - QNA

Health minister holds meeting with Iraqi counterpart

Qatar reaffi rms commitment to global partnership in addressing climate changeQNA New York

Qatar renewed yesterday its commitment to part-nership and co-opera-

tion with the international com-munity in dealing with climate change, stressing that the coun-try’s eff orts were both on the na-tional and international fronts.

This came in a statement by HE the Permanent Representa-tive of Qatar to the United Na-tions ambassador Sheikha Alya bint Ahmed bin Saif al-Thani to the UN Security Council, which held a high-level teleconference meeting on climate and security.

HE Sheikha Alya said Qatar will not hesitate to play its role as an active partner in the international community, in light of the urgent need to address the negative im-pacts of climate change and the co-operation on an international level that such eff orts require.

She highlighted Qatar’s lead-ing role in the Climate Change Summit held in September 2019, through the leadership of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani along with Jamaica and France, in an alliance focused on climate fi nance and carbon pricing.

HE Sheikha Alya noted that the contribution of $100mn an-nounced by the Amir to support small developing island states and the least developed states to deal with the climate change, re-fl ects Qatar’s strong belief in the

important role everyone can play in addressing the phenomenon.

She said that the Qatar Fund for Development is currently fi nalis-ing the disbursement mechanism, with three levels of determining the mechanism represented in fi -nancing, supporting policies, and building capabilities. She added that the fund will work on multi-ple sectors with a focus particu-larly on education as a main pillar in responding to climate change, economic development, and health. HE Sheikha Alya added that, in the framework of co-operation, the strategy will help small developing island states and the least developed states achieve the Paris climate agreement goal, and long-term goals related to sustainable development in order to enhance peace and security.

She highlighted that, in response to the threat of desertifi cation, the Amir launched the Global Dryland Alliance, as one of the mechanisms aiming to achieve food security for dryland countries.

She said that the initiative will help enhance internation-al peace and security, noting that the alliance’s agreement was signed in 2017 and is cur-rently being implemented after a number of countries ratifi ed it.

She said that environmental development is one of the main pillars of Qatar National Vi-sion 2030, noting that Qatar has many plans and programmes aimed at addressing climate change and environmental sus-tainability. She added that the country is pursuing eff orts and projects in the fi eld of clean en-ergy and achieving energy effi -ciency, through the use of solar energy and will increase use of solar energy to more than 20% of its energy mix by 2030.

She noted that Qatar Invest-ment Authority, which invests in climate-related fi nancing projects, is a founding and active member of the One Planet Sov-ereign Wealth Fund that ema-nated from the One Planet Sum-mit held in 2017 in Paris. The fund aims to increase effi ciency in allocating global capital in or-der to contribute to the smooth transition towards a more sus-tainable economy characterised by low carbon emissions.

The ambassador stated that the commitment of Qatar and its involvement in the eff orts made at the global level to combat cli-mate change is not new, it was several years old, noting in this context to the hosting of the 18 session of the Conference of the

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Cli-mate change in Doha in 2012.

She stressed that Qatar will spare no eff ort to continue work-ing to fulfi ll the obligations that are dictated to ratify the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

HE Sheikha Alya praised the Security Council meeting, saying that its taking place in unprece-dented circumstances represent-ed by the exceptional challenges resulting from the Covid-19 pan-demic and its major implications for livelihoods, the exacerbation of risks associated with climate change, and its eff ects on food se-curity and large-scale human dis-placement, as a result of drought and frequent natural disasters and scarce resources.

She stressed that no country was immune from the negative impact of climate change, which has become a common concern of the entire international com-munity, noting that these impacts are more severe for groups living in fragile situations, whether due to geographical factors, poverty, or otherwise, among them small island developing states and least developed countries.

In conclusion, HE Sheikha Alya said that Qatar will con-tinue its commitment to work based on the principle of part-nership, co-operation, and strengthening multilateral action with the international group in the context of ad-dressing the risks posed by cli-mate change.

Health ministry reports 105,750 total Covid recoveries in Qatar

‘Important to avoid fear, anxiety while resuming normal life’

QNADoha

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) reported yesterday 398 new con-

fi rmed cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) and 330 recoveries in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of people who re-covered from the disease in Qa-tar to 105,750.

All new cases have been kept in isolation and are receiving necessary healthcare, a state-ment issued by the MoPH said.

Measures to tackle Covid-19 in Qatar have succeeded in fl at-tening the curve and limiting the spread of the virus and the number of new daily cases and hospital admissions is continu-ing to decline each week.

Qatar’s proactive and exten-sive testing of suspected cases has enabled the health minis-try to identify a high number of positive cases in the community.

Qatar has one of the low-est Covid-19 death rates in the world. This is a result of:

Very high quality of care provided thorough the public healthcare sector for Covid-19 patients.

Qatar’s young population.Proactive testing to identify

cases early.

Expanding hospital capac-ity, especially intensive care, to ensure all patients receive the medical care they need.

Protecting the elderly and those with chronic diseases.

“Even though restrictions are being lifted, and cases are declin-

ing, this does not mean that the Covid-19 pandemic is over in Qa-tar - every day between 50 and 100 people are admitted to hospital with moderate to severe Covid-19 symptoms,” the ministry said.

“Unless we follow all precau-tionary measures, we may expe-

rience a second wave of the vi-rus and see numbers increasing. There are already signs of this happening in other countries around the world.”

The health ministry has urged people to avoid close contact with others, crowded places and confi ned closed spaces where other people gather. “Now more than ever, we must be careful and protect the most vulnerable.”

While the restrictions of Cov-id-19 are gradually being lifted in Qatar, it is important for every-one to play their role in control-ling the virus by following pre-cautionary measures:

Adherence to physical dis-tancing.

Wearing a face mask.Washing hands regularly.Most importantly, it is vital

that we continue to protect the elderly and those with chronic medical conditions.

Anyone suff ering from Cov-id-19 symptoms should either contact 16000 helpline or go directly to one of the designated health centres to undergo the necessary checks at Muaither, Rawdat Al Khail, Umm Salal, or Al Gharrafa.

“This is important as the ear-lier the disease is detected the easier it will be to receive the right treatment and recover from it,” the ministry said.

As the wait for an eff ective cure as well as a vaccine continues, it’s becom-

ing clearer that people will have to live with the new reality of Covid-19 for a while - a number of physicians have reiterated. This means gradually resuming normal activities as far as pos-sible while continuing to strictly abide by the precautionary and preventive measures specifi ed by the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH).

The physicians told local Ara-bic daily Arrayah recently that people should consider Cov-id-19 as a seasonal viral disease, such as infl uenza and others, while keeping in mind it has no specifi c eff ective treatment yet. They stressed that it is inevita-ble that people have to get used to the new situation and coexist with the disease while following all the necessary precautions to protect themselves and others.

Dr Ismail Mubarak, consult-ant pulmonologist at Al Emadi Hospital, said it is important to avoid fear and anxiety while re-suming normal life as well as to view the precautionary meas-

ures as normal everyday prac-tices. He noted that the eff ective implementations of these meas-ures have contributed greatly to containing the spread of the disease.

Further, he said people have to monitor their health status and contact the health authori-ties concerned for help as soon as they observe any of the known symptoms of Covid-19 to avoid any possible complications.

Prof Ibrahim Janahi, chair of Medical Education, designated institutional offi cer and the di-vision chief of Pulmonology at Sidra Medicine, said life has to go on but in a way that guarantees the protection, health and safety of all. This means abiding by the MoPH’s recommendations in this regard, such as wearing face masks, keeping adequate distance from others, frequently washing hands and avoiding physical con-

tact like shaking hands, hugging and kissing, and adapting to the new way of life in general.

So, people should gradually go back to their normal life but it would still be diff erent from what they were used to ear-lier. They should be very careful about abiding by the precaution-ary measures until the pandemic is over, or some eff ective vaccine and treatment are discovered and become available for all.

Dr Abdul Salam al-Qahtani, ear, nose and throat (ENT) con-sultant and head of the ENT Department at Hamad Medi-cal Corporation, stressed that it has become necessary to coexist with the new reality of Covid-19 and resume life as usual while abiding by all regulations and recommendations of the MoPH and not abandoning them until the pandemic is completely over.

He said it is important to go back to one’s normal life gradu-ally amid the continued eff orts to spread public awareness on related issues. He also pointed out it is easy to avoid contracting Covid-19 when people abide by the prescribed measures.

Workshop highlights role of diabetescare professionals during Covid-19QNADoha

Diabetes care professionals from across Hamad Med-ical Corporation (HMC)

held a workshop highlighting the important role played by diabe-tes educators in supporting the delivery of safe care during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The workshop emphasised the role of diabetes self-manage-ment education as a key compo-nent of patients diabetes care.

Director of Diabetes Educa-tion Dr Manal Othman said that in response to the coronavirus pandemic, routine care of dia-betes has been complemented by a national outreach program - ‘Covid-19 and Diabetes’.

The programme, launched in April 2020 by the National Diabetes Strategy team, in col-laboration with QMI, HMC, and the Primary Health Corporation

(PHCC), aims to ensure those living with diabetes are receiving optimal care during this period.

The programme aims to help diabetic patients reach and maintain their diabetic thera-peutic targets, which also in-cludes control of blood pressure and cholesterol.”

The programme delivers es-sential diabetes care to high-risk patients and proactively pri-oritises the care of those with poorly controlled diabetes and diabetic patients over the age of 50 years. The programme includes virtual consultations with physicians with follow-up care from diabetes educators to ensure the therapeutic targets are obtained. During the fol-low-up calls, diabetes educators highlight the importance of self-monitoring and guide patients on how to perform better self-care. Specifi c guidance related to living with diabetes during the pandemic is provided, as well as

general diabetes self-care which includes topics such as the im-portance of daily foot exami-nations, maintaining a healthy diet, and physical fi tness.

As part of ensuring patients have access to treatment, the diabetes education team is also providing phone-based emer-gency care through the diabetes hotline. The hotline, which has received over 5,500 calls since being launched in mid-March, can be accessed by calling 16099 (select option 4), seven days a week between 7am and 10pm. As part of this service, medical advice related to diabetes and Covid-19 is provided to patients and their relatives or caregivers. The diabetes care team is also supporting diabetic patients in the country through visits to quarantine facilities, by sending educational videos in six lan-guages through smartphones, and by circulating SMS educa-tional text messages.

Official

Learning to live with Covid-19 for a while is new reality

People should gradually go back to their normal life but it would still be diff erent from what they were used to earlier

Katara celebrates Eid al-Adha with ‘exceptional events’

Katara - the Cultural Vil-lage Foundation has said it is gearing up to cel-

ebrate Eid al-Adha with special and new activities.

The Katara festivities pro-gramme will include a variety of activities and run throughout the four days of Eid.

The programme includes the drive-thru distribution of gifts at certain points inside Katara, from 5pm until 9pm on the Eid days. This is in line with the pre-cautionary measures taken by the State to prevent the spread of Covid-19, Katara has said in a statement.

Katara will also launch a mural

to express gratitude to the medi-cal staff who have worked on the frontlines during the Covid-19 pandemic. The mural has been created by 12 artists and will be located at the main entrance of Katara from the southern side, measuring 30m x 5m.

As the fi reworks display is among the most popular events during Eid, Katara has decided to hold a virtual fi reworks show on its website.

The Cultural Village Founda-tion has also come up with in-novative competitions, which include one for the most beauti-ful children’s dress during Eid. A picture or video of the par-

ticipating child has to be sent to Katar for this.

Katara has allocated prizes for fi ve winners of each competition - photo or video. The entries must be in high resolution and of good quality. The winning pho-tos or videos will be the property of Katara, which will hold the right to use them for any pur-pose, the statement notes.

Katara has been keen to con-tinue with its cultural role since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic by holding all activi-ties and events remotely in line with the precautionary meas-ures taken by Qatar to limit the spread of the virus.

Drive-thru Eid gifts distributionVirtual fireworks show on Katara website

Qatar to host Sport Management world congress in 2022From Page 1

WASM president Dr Karen Danylchuk said: “This is the fi rst time that the WASM Congress, held every two to three years since its inception in 2012, will be held in the Middle East. Our previous three conferences in Madrid, Spain (2014), Kaunas, Lithuania (2017), and Santiago, Chile (2019) attracted lead-ing sport management acad-emicians, students and industry leaders from over 40 countries, and we are confi dent that the conference in Doha will prove to be another outstanding success.

“We look forward to working with the local organisers over the next two years in serving our mission to facilitate sport man-agement research and teaching and learning excellence world-wide.”

QU president Dr Hassan Rash-id al-Derham said: “The WASM Congress represents an impor-tant opportunity to bring to-gether scholars and specialists of sport management and the busi-ness of sport to Doha, the capital of sport, a few months before the 2022 FIFA World Cup. For Qatar University, it is an occasion to contribute to the dissemination of knowledge with the partici-pation of local and international experts and to showcase Qatar University’s contribution in re-search and development around the planning and management of the mega sport event.”

HBKU president Dr Ahmad M Hasnah emphasised the impor-tance of the WASM 2022 Congress in Qatar. “As a member of Qatar Foundation, HBKU is steadfastly committed to supporting Qatar as the country makes its mark in the global sporting arena. The sport-ing industry is pivotal in fostering health and overall well-being in society, and our recently intro-duced multidisciplinary academic programmes are designed to pro-mote scholarship and educa-tion, build in-demand skills and leverage national aspirations for

promoting health and well-being through sports in key sectors.”

The strategic partners of the 2022 WASM Congress are: Qatar Olympic Academy/QOC, Josoor Institute/SC and QNTC.

WASM is an alliance of re-gional associations of sport management. Its mission is to facilitate sport management research, teaching and learn-ing excellence and professional practice, as well as to provide a forum for the international perspective on sport manage-ment.

Dr Othman Mohamed al-Thawadi Dr Ahmed al-Emadi

Dr Mahfoud AmaraDr Kamilla Swart-Arries

HE Sheikha Alya bint Ahmed bin Saif al-Thani

QATARGulf Times Sunday, July 26, 20204

QRCS opens coronavirus isolation facility at Bangladesh refugee camps

Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has completed the

construction and furnish-ing of an isolation facility inside the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) largest field hospital, operated by QRCS and Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS) at Refugee Camp No 7 in Cox’s Bazar, southern Bangladesh.

The purpose of the new facility is to isolate suspect-ed cases and treat Covid-19 patients in the district that hosts Myanmar refugee camps. Co-operated by IFRC and BDRCS, it has a capacity of 54 beds as well as isolation, healthcare and services rooms.

Construction works of the facility were completed in a short period in order to support the national corona-virus control eff orts and pro-tect the local community and refugees against its impact in this most vulnerable area, QRCS said in a statement.

Cox’s Bazar is the world’s largest settlement of refu-gee camps, facing protract-ed health and living diffi -culties, with the Covid-19 outbreak aggravating their suff ering.

Through its represen-tation mission in Bangla-desh, QRCS is working on other activities to reduce the spread of the virus in refugee camps. Until the end of June, these op-erations benefited 53,511 people, with a total budg-et of $157,000.

Refugee families received health education about pre-ventive and healthy prac-

tices. In collaboration with BDRCS, 5,000 food baskets

were distributed to the fam-ilies aff ected by the lock-

down in many Upazila.All the resources and

capabilities of QRCS’s healthcare centres at refu-gee camps (health centre at Camp No 19, health centre at Camp E8 and fi eld hospi-tal at Camp No 7) were sum-moned, ready for action in case of any emergency. The medical and other person-nel at health centres were trained in how to deal with the patients and protect against infection.

QRCS works closely with BDRCS to secure the medi-cal and protective supplies for the staff of camp-bound health centres, such as masks, gloves, ventilators, sanitisers, oxygen tanks, etc.

A series of precautions were taken to protect the staff , volunteers and ben-efi ciaries. Clinic attendance was minimised to avoid crowds. Staff of the health centres at Camps 19 and E8 was divided into two groups, to cut staff attendance by half in line with government orders.

Strict instructions were given to all the personnel under QRCS’s interventions to follow the guidelines is-sued by the competent au-thorities to deal with the virus. The medical workers and volunteers were given masks, sanitisers, gloves and other protective sup-plies.

Representatives of the QRCS mission take part in all the co-ordination and emer-gency meetings convened by the Movement, both at the national and Myanmar refu-gee levels, to ensure an ef-fective Covid-19 response in line with the government’s preparedness and response plans and developments of the situation.

Construction works of the facility were completed in a short period in order to support the national coronavirus control eff orts and protect the local community and refugees against its impact.

Thundery rain is expected in the western parts of the country along with sudden strong winds by this afternoon, the Qatar Met department has said.There is no warning for off shore areas today.The detailed forecast says it will be hazy in some places at first, followed by hot daytime conditions and some clouds. There is a chance of rain in the western areas by the afternoon,

which may become thundery at times.The wind speed will be 6-16 knots today and may go up to 26 knots during thundery rain.Hazy conditions are expected at times in off shore areas along with some clouds.The maximum temperature is expected to be 45C in Abu Samra today, followed by 41C in Doha, 40C in Wakra, Al Khor, Mesaieed and Dukhan, and 38C in Ruwais.

Qatar committee begins

disbursing cash aid

to needy Gaza families

QNAGaza

HE the Chairman of the Qatar Commit-tee for the Recon-

struction of Gaza, ambas-sador Mohamed al-Emadi, said that the committee, in co-operation and co-ordi-nation with Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) began yesterday the process of disbursing cash assistance to 100,000 families in need in the Gaza Strip.

Ambassador al-Emadi said that the disbursement process is being implement-

ed through the post offi ces in the governorates of the Gaza Strip, with each family receiving US$100.

The distribution is being carried out in co-operation with competent govern-ment bodies and adhering to all the precautionary measures aimed at pre-venting the spread of Cov-id-19.

Al-Emadi said that the distribution process will continue through Wednes-day, and it is being carried out under full supervision of the Qatari committee and its teams deployed in the distribution centres.

Financial assistance being distributed to needy Gaza families.

Rain expected in western parts of Qatar today: Met department

Up to six self-checkout counters are now available at each of the three locations.

Available to those with small baskets of up to 10 items, customers can now personally scan their products and complete their cashless transaction with a credit or debit card.

QATAR5Gulf Times

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Art and design practitioners and spe-cialists seeking to advance their ca-reers can now do so through the

Creative Industries online workshops, a col-laboration between Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar’s (VCUarts Qatar’s) Community & Continuing Education Programme and its Alumni Rela-tions Offi ce, and the British Council in Qatar.

The workshops will off er practitioners ex-pert insight into current global trends and in-dustry diversifi cation, while providing tips to sharpen individual personal statements and applications.

The programme consists of two courses that are spread over three days each, with a two-hour masterclass scheduled for each day.

The fi rst course, titled ‘Cultural Career Paths’, will take place on August 9, 11 and 12. It will off er participants guidance on how to write their personal statements to apply for grants (during normal times and during cri-ses), and help them develop an understand-ing of the dynamics in the global art market.

The second course, ‘Turning your Design Practice into a Career’, will be held on August 16, 18 and 19, and will provide expert insight into the ways that artists can defi ne who they are, and learn how to address their art across various platforms and formats.

Fifteen of the 20 seats in the workshops are reserved for VCUarts Qatar alumni, while the remaining fi ve seats are open to other crea-tives such as regional artists, creative prac-titioners, curators and art managers who are keen to enhance their art and design skills.

The programme will be led by Rose Leje-une, a London-based curator and researcher, in collaboration with VCUarts Qatar and the British Council. Lejeune, who has worked as a curator at Art on the Underground, a public

art platform on London’s underground pub-lic transport system, and at the Serpentine Gallery in London.

In addition to Lejeune, each two-hour masterclass (on both the courses) will be led by renowned experts from the global art, design and culture scene. The line-up of instructors for the fi rst course will include Oliver Basciano, a London-based journalist who will help participants hone their per-sonal statements in light of their individual specialisations.

Dani Burrows, a freelance arts manager in Madrid who has worked with various organi-sations such as the Delfi na Foundation, Active Cultures and May Calil Consultancy, will of-fer tips on applying for international residen-cies in art and design; while Mary Cork, an art market specialist in London, will explain the nuances of the global art market, and how awareness of such trends are key to network-ing and establishing one’s own art business.

The master-classes in the second course will be off ered by more specialists: Anoushka Khandwala, a London-based freelance graph-ic designer, and faculty at Central St Martins

and Camberwell College of Arts, will discuss the need to diversify the design industry; Ma-nar Moursi, an architect, designer and founder of the Cairo-based interdisciplinary studio Studio Meem, will highlight the use of design in developing storytelling narratives, especial-ly in museum settings; and Annette Welkamp, the founding director of Culture Counsel, an organisation that provides services, and sup-port and advice for museums, businesses, governments, art galleries, private clients, art-ists and academia internationally, including in the Middle East, Asia-Pacifi c and Europe, will teach the third module.

Aisha AlKooheji, programme manager for Community & Continuing Education at VCUarts Qatar, noted how such collabo-rations further VCUarts Qatar’s eff orts to promote artists in the region through pro-grammes that off er relevant, up-to-date in-formation, and mentoring by experts, in art and design.

“Given the circumstances in which artists and designers have had to adapt to the pan-demic-induced scenario, we have carefully curated these masterclasses to give partici-pants a realistic view of developing tendencies in art and design. Further, instructors will pro-vide specifi c guidance on how to adapt indi-vidual applications and proposals, in the face of such shifting trends,” AlKooheji said.

“There will be opportunities throughout the course to practise specifi c skills around both creating your own, and making the most of existing trends and openings, as well as to hear the experiences and engage in conversa-tion with the speakers who are specialists in their own fi elds,” Lejeune added.

The programme is free of charge for VCUarts Qatar alumni, while other applicants can apply for a fee of QR1,500 each. For further details, one can visit https://qatar.vcu.edu/.

VCUarts Qatar and British Council off er Creative Industries online workshops

Carrefour Qatar launches self-checkout countersCarrefour Qatar has

launched self-checkout counters at its hypermar-

kets in City Center Doha, Vil-laggio and Landmark to speed up the shopping experience for customers.

Available to those with small baskets of up to 10 items, cus-tomers can now personally scan their products and complete their cashless transaction with a credit or debit card.

Up to six self-checkout counters are now available at each of the three locations, consider-ably reducing queue lengths and customer waiting times, “The launch of the new service under-lines Carrefour’s commitment to off ering a convenient shopping

experience by bringing extra ef-fi ciency to the retail journey. The service also demonstrates Car-refour’s dedication to providing customers with more freedom of choice when shopping, by off er-ing alternative payment options and check-out processes,” Car-refour Qatar said in a statement.

Laurent Hausknecht, coun-try manager of Carrefour Qatar, said: “The new self-checkout counters are part of our ongoing commitment to creating a seam-less shopping experience for our customers. As a brand that con-stantly seeks to deliver unbeat-able value, we take great pride in respecting and meeting the aspirations of each one of our customers.

“We hope to provide person-alised but equally satisfying experiences for all our custom-ers, and are confident our new self-checkout counters will in-crease the speed and improve the quality of both the retail ex-perience and customer journey we offer.”

The self-checkout counter is the latest addition to Carrefour’s services and is part of a series of innovations due to be gradually rolled out throughout the year. It follows the introduction of off erings such as the Valet Trol-ley home delivery service, which enables customers to purchase groceries from the store and have them delivered straight to their doorsteps on the same day.

Rose Lejeune

Police College to welcome new batch in September

The Police College is set to welcome the seventh batch of students in the

last week of September, local Arabic newspaper Arrayah has reported citing a senior offi-cial.

Lt Col Dr Jabr Hammoud al-Nuaimi, director of the Admin-istrative and Financial Aff airs Department at the Police Col-lege, told the daily recently that all preparations are in place to receive the new batch that will

include students from various friendly countries.

“The training and teach-ing teams are fully prepared and ready to start the new aca-demic year. And there will be no changes in the curricula this year,” the offi cial said, add-ing that the college is currently holding training and teaching programmes.

He said the graduation of the third batch will be held in Janu-ary 2021 and preparations start-

ed immediately after the gradu-ation of the second batch that was held in January this year. He added that a special committee is working to ensure the suc-cessful hosting of the gradua-tion ceremony.

The ceremony in January this year marked the graduation of 110 offi cers, including 89 Qa-taris representing various mili-tary entities, 10 from Jordan, seven from Palestine and four from Yemen.Lt Col Dr Jabr Hammoud al-Nuaimi

The General Authority of Customs (GAC) recently foiled an attempt to smuggle illicit drugs into Qatar. According to a video tweeted by the GAC, four packs of crystal meth weighing some 734gm were seized. Airport Customs off icials found the contraband wrapped in cloth and hidden inside women’s bags.

Al Wakra Municipality has carried out campaigns to remove encroachments from state properties.

Drug-smuggling bid foiled

Encroachments removed

The Public Works Author-ity (Ashghal) has started upgrade works at the

Muaither Sports Club and Plas-tic roundabouts on Al Sailiya Road, which will eventually convert both roundabouts into signalised intersections.

The scope of works also in-volves the development of local roads (6km) and the construc-tion of service roads as part of the Road Improvement Works for Junctions and Roundabouts in Various Areas of Greater Doha (Phase 9).

The main purpose of these upgrades is to enhance road ca-pacity in the area and ease traffi c congestion, Ashghal has said in a statement.

Mooza al-Sowaidi, head of the Doha City Section in the Roads Projects Department at Ashghal, said: “The devel-opment of the roundabouts known as Muaither Sports Club Roundabout and Plastic Roundabout on Al Sailiya Road, and converting them into sig-nal-controlled intersections,

will regulate local traffic and improve traffic flow in the area. These works are part of Ash-ghal’s efforts to improve the existing service utilities and upgrade the road network in Doha city in order to respond to the national economic de-

velopment and social growth requirements in Qatar.”

Al-Sowaidi emphasised the importance of the project as both roundabouts are located on Al Sailiya Road, which is directly connected to Al Waab Street and West Industrial Street. These

two roundabouts also serve many sports facilities and health institutions such as Muaith-er Sports Club and Muaither Health Centre. Besides, they facilitate access to many com-mercial centres and educational institutions.

Further to upgrading the two roundabouts and converting them to signalised intersec-tions, the project will include other road developments at both new intersections with a total length of 6km, and the construction of new service roads. The scope of works will also include providing pedes-trian footpaths of around 12km in length, cycle paths at ap-proximately the same length (12km), landscaping works and upgrading street lighting sys-tems.

Further, the project will im-prove infrastructure utilities, such as the treated sewage effl u-ent network and surface water drainage network, and will pro-vide protection for the existing electricity and telecommunica-tions cables.

The project will be imple-mented by JH Construction Company under the supervision of Gulf Engineering and Indus-trial Consultancy, and is sched-uled to be completed in the fi rst quarter of 2022.

QATARGulf Times Sunday, July 26, 20206

Upgrade works on Sailiya Road roundabouts begin

Traffi c diversion until Feb 2022

The Public Works Author-ity (Ashghal) has announced that the number of lanes

available on Al Sailiya Road will be reduced to two lanes in each di-rection instead of three, from 50m before the Muaither Sports Club Roundabout to 50m after the Plas-tic Roundabout.

This will be done to facilitate the implementation of roadworks for the upgrade of Muaither Sports Club and Plastic roundabouts on Al Sailiya Road as part of the Road Im-

provement Works for Junctions and Roundabouts in Various Areas of Greater Doha (Phase 9).

This diversion will be imple-mented, in co-ordination with the General Directorate of Traffic, until February 2022, Ashghal has said.

The authority will install road signs advising motorists of the clo-sure. It has requested all road users to abide by the speed limit and fol-low the road signs to ensure their safety.

HBKU college concludes its‘Stay at Home’ webinar seriesThe College of Humani-

ties and Social Sciences (CHSS) at Hamad Bin

Khalifa University (HBKU) has concluded its ‘Stay at Home’ we-binar series.

Taking place between July 5 and 19, the webinars provided online audiences with an oppor-tunity to learn more about the work of the CHSS and its Trans-lation and Interpreting Institute.

The series began with ‘In-tercultural Communication in the Virtual Classroom’, which looked at tools educators can use to support their students during stressful times without losing sight of diverse cultural needs. This was followed by ‘The Good and the Bad of English Arabic MT’, which considered the pros and cons of English-Arabic ma-chine translation engines. No-table diff erences between ma-chine, computer assisted and human translation were also highlighted.

The third webinar, ‘Interpret-ing: Mode, Pleasures and Pains’, provided a general overview of the practice of interpreting, as well as tips on note-taking, translation booth manners and more.

The dos and don’ts of a good CV was the overarching theme of Resume and CV Writing: Tips and Tricks. Developed with HBKU students in mind, the we-binar also off ered practical ad-vice on layout, design, structure and content.

The series concluded with ‘How Did Egyptian Filmmakers Represent Epidemics?’ with a

discussion on the diffi cult sub-ject of portraying the outbreak of epidemics in fi lm.

Speaking after the conclusion of the fi nal webinar, Dr Amal al-Malki, founding dean of CHSS, said: “Covid-19 has generated its fair share of hashtags, most notably calls to ‘stay at home.’ In keeping with the rest of HBKU, we’ve strived to counter this message by emphasising that ‘learning never stops.’ To this end, our webinar series was a chance to present a snapshot of our research activities and inter-ests to a diverse online audience. Engagement levels were consist-ently high across all webinars, as were the numbers tuning in to each session.”

The College of Humanities and Social Sciences regularly holds events to highlight its re-search activities and projects. For more information, one can visit chss.hbku.edu.qa.

Dr Amal al-Malki

Partial closure on Al Asmakh Street

The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has announced a partial closure on Al Asmakh Street in one direction, from

Al Koot Fort Intersection to Al Asmakh In-tersection, from July 28 for fi ve months.

The closure has been announced to en-able expansion and upgrade works on Al Asmakh Street within the Doha Central Development and Beautifi cation Project – Package Three, Ashghal has said in a state-ment.

It will be implemented in co-ordination with the General Directorate of Traffi c.

During the closure period, road users wishing to travel in this direction on Al As-makh Street can continue straight and use the alternative routes, as shown on the map, to reach their destinations.

Ashghal will install road signs advising mo-torists of the closure. It has requested all road users to abide by the speed limit and follow the road signs to ensure their safety.

HIA allows electronic items inhand baggage during screening

From Page 1

Qatar’s international airport is also exploring the introduction of a com-bination of anti-bacterial trays at checkpoints and automated UV emit-ting modules that will automatically disinfect the trays passengers touch to further safeguard the health and safety of all HIA passengers.

HIA has recorded previous mile-stones in its industry-leading transfer security screening in 2019, witness-ing shorter queuing times at security points which can accommodate up to 6,000 passengers during peak hours. The airport also introduced additional transfer halls that allow 95% of trans-fer passengers to queue for under fi ve minutes.

The airport recently announced the successful completion of the sec-ond phase of its Smart Airport Pro-gramme, offering a fast, secure and contactless airport experience by im-plementing biometric identification technology. The technology allows passengers to combine their flight, passport and facial biometric infor-mation in a ‘single travel token’ at the self-check-in kiosk.

This digital identity record ultimate-ly makes the passenger’s face their pass at key airport touchpoints, such as self-service bag-drop, pre-immigration, e-Gate and the self-boarding gate. “HIA’s visionary approach and early invest-ment in the biometric identifi cation

technology proved to be an extremely effi cient tool in HIA’s battle against Covid-19, allowing passengers to move through key touchpoints with minimal physical contact,” the statement adds.

In its eff ort to safeguard its staff and passengers against Covid-19, the world’s third-best airport has in-troduced a series of “unprecedented measures”, including its investment in robotics and advanced thermal screening helmets. HIA also acquired disinfectant robots, which are fully autonomous mobile devices emitting concentrated UV-C light, known to be eff ective in eliminating the majority of

infectious microorganisms. The robots are being deployed in

vulnerable high passenger fl ow ar-eas across the terminal to reduce the spread of pathogens. The airport has also implemented ultraviolet disinfec-tion tunnels that will be used to disin-fect all checked-in passenger luggage (departing, arriving and transferring).

Leading the industry at the forefront of technological transformation, HIA stressed that it will continue to adopt new and smart screening technologies to strengthen its security measures, while providing a safe and seamless passenger journey.

QATAR/REGION/ARAB WORLD7Gulf Times

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Bombed and looted: Yemen battles to save its heritageAFP Taiz, Yemen

The two facades of the National Museum in the Yemeni city of Taiz bear

testament to the ravages of a war that has consumed the Arabian Peninsula country.

One side has been beautifully restored to its former grandeur, recalling a traditional palace from earlier eras.

The other is pocked with damage, crumbling away to re-veal collapsed fl oors and shat-tered walls.

The refurbished side is re-splendent with curved orna-mental mouldings juxtaposed with intricate ochre brickwork, reminiscent of the style of old Sanaa, one of Yemen’s four Unesco World Heritage sites.

Established as an Ottoman palace, then a residence for one of Yemen’s last kings, it became a museum in 1967.

It has since been “bombed” and “pillaged” according to its director, Ramzi al-Damini.

Taiz, in Yemen’s southwest, is under government control but surrounded by Houthi rebel forces.

The renovated wings of the museum were restored in 2019 with assistance from the World Monuments Fund.

Yemen’s bloody fi ve-year

confl ict pits pro-government forces, including a coalition, against the Houthi rebels who have conquered much of the country’s north, including the capital Sanaa.

Thousands have died, millions have been displaced, and disease and famine stalk the cities and villages, in what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Yemen’s rich cultural heritage has not been spared. Inside the museum in Taiz, a city ringed by mountains, ancient cooking utensils and priceless manu-scripts lie exposed on wooden tables draped with old cloth.

“The museum is packed with rare antiquities, including man-

uscripts and stone sculptures, swords and shields,” Damini said.

“We’ve recovered some of it, but signifi cant pieces are still missing,” said the director as he stood in a courtyard piled with bricks and steel girders.

He said he was in contact with the authorities and Unesco to update them about the restora-tion works, but also to “recover articles smuggled out of the country”.

“It’s a diffi cult process,” said Mohanad al-Sayani, head of Yemen’s General Organisation of Antiquities and Museums (GOAM), which works with Unesco.

“We have two governments, a

country in a state of war — and the traffi cking of antiquities ex-isted long before the confl ict.”

Though there are no fi gures for the number of antiquities stolen, the authorities and Unesco have undertaken inventories at sev-eral of Yemen’s museums.

Restoration work is also un-derway at historical sites in Sanaa, Zabid, Shibam and Aden, Sayani said.

The war has “massively af-fected” archaeological sites, said Yemeni archaeologist Mounir Talal.

He recounted the bomb-ings of old Sanaa, of a museum in Dhamar that used to house thousands of artefacts, and of Taiz’s Al-Qahira citadel, which

blends into the mountainside.“Palaces which date back to

the Ayyubid dynasty (12th and 13th centuries) and the Rasulid dynasty (13th to 15th centuries) were, unfortunately, destroyed inside the citadel,” he said.

“We fi nd stolen Yemeni antiq-uities for sale online or at public auctions,” Talal added, giving the example of a grand stone-hewn throne from the Saba king-dom, best known for the Queen of Sheba.

“How did it get out? We don’t know, but it was up for auction in Europe where it might have already been sold,” said the ar-chaeologist.

Some Yemeni treasures have resurfaced in private collec-

tions in Gulf countries, said Jeremie Schiettecatte, an ex-pert in the archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula at France’s National Centre for Scientific Research.

He said he believed the de-struction of Yemeni heritage elicited less international outcry than the desecration of artefacts in Syria and Iraq because of the involvement of Saudi Arabia, a major market for Western arms, in Yemen’s confl ict.

“There’s a very strong link between the Yemenis and their heritage — including pre-Islam-ic heritage,” he said.

“(There is) great pride in the period when southern Arabia (modern-day Yemen) was the

most advanced society on the Arabian Peninsula.”

At the end of June, a renowned French archaeologist and his husband were charged as part of a sprawling investigation into the traffi cking of antiquities from the Middle East, including Yemen.

A world away from the Paris probe, Taiz’s museum plans to reopen its doors in 2023, by which time it is hoped the con-fl ict will have abated.

“Archaeological sites are be-ing neglected and they are a ma-jor part of our appeal to tourists,” said Taiz resident Hisham Ali Ahmed.

“I’m hoping for a return to a normal life and a state that takes care of antiquities.”

A picture shows the extensive damages at the National Museum in Yemen’s third city of Taiz.

A picture shows a facade, that has been restored, at the National Museum in Yemen.

A vendor arranges traditional daggers known as Janbiya and other items for sale in Taiz.

Massive power outage hits war-torn LibyaDPA Tripoli

Large parts of war-torn Libya including the capi-tal Tripoli yesterday ex-

perienced a power outage as the oil-wealthy country is grappling with an acute electricity crunch.

The blackouts in Libya’s west-ern and southern areas were due to people’s refusal to comply with a power supply-sharing system applied by the state General Electricity Company of Libya (Gecol) to cope with the shortage, an offi cial said.

“Some people restored elec-tricity by force to their areas, a matter that increases loads on

the power grid,” the Gecol of-fi cial said on condition of ano-nymity.

Libya has seen frequent power cuts since 2011 when an armed revolt toppled long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi , followed by chaos and infi ghting in the North African country.

The country’s infrastructure has since suff ered from a lack of maintenance.

The blackouts get worse in the hot summer when electricity demand surges.

Libya is being divided be-tween two rival administrations: one based in Tripoli and the oth-er in the eastern city of Tobruk.

Each is supported by foreign powers.

Demonstrators hold placards as they take part in a rally in front of the World Bank off ices in the downtown district of the Lebanese capital Beirut, yesterday, to protest against the Bisri dam project, partly financed by the World Bank. The government says the dam is vital to tackling chronic water shortages. But activists say it will ravage most of the region’s farmland and historic sites, and they also fear the consequences of building it on a seismic fault line.

Protest against dam projectJordan’s judiciary yesterday ordered a two-year closure of the teachers’ union as part of an investigation into alleged graft, state media reported.The move came three days after the Teachers’ Association organised a demonstration attended by hundreds of protesters demanding the gov-ernment honour a 2019 agreement for a rise in wages. The government and the union, which represents 100,000 teachers, had reached the deal after a month-long strike over salaries. The teachers had been demand-ing a 50% salary hike and had obtained raises ranging from 35-75%. But in April, the cash-strapped government said it would freeze public sector raises this year, citing economic woes caused by the coronavirus pan-demic. The teachers’ union responded by calling for a demonstration on Wednesday, during which union leader Nasir al-Nawasra urged authori-ties to respect their promises. Yesterday, Amman prosecutor-general Hassan Abdallat ordered a two-year closure of the headquarters of the Teachers Association, its branches and off ices nation-wide, off icial Petra news agency said. He also summoned members of the union’s council for questioning on “criminal and corruption charges”, Petra said.

Kuwait will end the strict lockdown imposed in Farwaniya governorate from 5am (0200 GMT) today, the centre for government communica-tion announced on Twitter yesterday. Farwaniya was the last area to be eff ectively isolated in a country which has reported 63,309 coronavirus cases and 429 deaths.

Two-year closure ordered for teachers’ union

Lockdown in Farwaniya to end today

CRACKDOWN

HEALTH

With Eid al-Adha just a few days away, there is hectic activity at shops selling sweets, gift outlets and florists. Pictured are some Eid gifts at a shop in Al Wakra. PICTURES: Shaji Kayamkulam

Shops woo customers with attractive Eid gift options

REGION/ARAB WORLD/AFRICA

Gulf TimesSunday, July 26, 20208

Somalia’s parliament ousts PM in no-confi dence voteReutersMogadishu

Somalia’s parliament ousted Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire in a no-confi dence

vote yesterday, as a simmering power struggle between him and the president came to the fore.

Khaire, and President Mo-hamed Abdullahi Mohamed, have been tussling over whether to delay a national election due in February next year, with the prime minister insisting it go ahead and the president favour-ing postponement.

The president’s allies have also accused Khaire of failing to stabilise the security situation.

Lawmakers voted 170-8 to re-

move Khaire from offi ce.“The government failed in its

promise on the preparation of a clear plan for the one man, one vote election,” said Mohamed Mursal Sheikh Abdirahman, the speaker of parliament, referring to the fi rst direct election since civil war erupted in 1991.

The Horn-of-Africa coun-try has been holding elections through representatives like elders in the past decade, due to insecurity caused by Al Shebaab militants in most areas.

Mohamed Abukar Islow, the internal security minister and a key ally of Khaire, accused the speaker and the president of plotting to remove the prime minister to extend their terms.

“It is a dark day,” Islow said,

terming the move unconstitu-tional due to the requirement that an election be held every four years.

Khaire, a former oil company executive, was not immediately available for a comment.

President Mohamed said in a statement carried on the state radio website that he had ac-cepted the decision of lawmak-ers to remove Khaire, citing the need to preserve the unity of the various arms of govern-ment.

Rashid Abdi, an independ-ent Horn of Africa analyst, said Khaire’s removal was inevitable because of differences with the president and the prime minis-ter’s ambition to be president one day.

Workers walk through a tea plantation on the way to pick tea-leaves in the morning in Kericho, Kenya, yesterday.

In touch with nature

France has opened a probe into alleged crimes against humanity by a top former Rwandan military off icial, Aloys Ntiwiragabo, during the country’s 1994 genocide which claimed 800,000 lives.Anti-terrorism prosecutors said yesterday that a preliminary investigation was opened after Ntiwiragabo was found hiding in the suburbs of the city of Orleans, about 100 kilometres south-west of Paris. French investigative news site Mediapart tracked down the former Rwandan spy chief, who was identified by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) as one of the architects of the genocide. Neither the ICTR, Interpol, France nor Rwanda were actively seeking him now and had dropped arrest warrants years ago. The revelation of his wherea-bouts comes barely two months after another suspected genocide architect, Felicien Kabuga, was ar-rested on the fringes of Paris.Kabuga, who evaded police in several countries for 25 years, is accused of financing the geno-cide. Kabuga had asked for a trial in France, citing frail health and claiming the United Nations court in Africa would be biased against him, and possibly hand him over to Rwandan authorities.France has long been known as a hiding place for wanted genocide suspects and French investigators currently have dozens of cases underway. A plane carrying Presi-dent Juvenal Habyarimana, from Rwanda’s Hutu majority, was shot down in Kigali on April 6, 1994, unleashing the killing spree that would leave mainly Tutsis but also moderate Hutus dead.

France opens probe into Rwandan genocide suspect

INVESTIGATION

Zimbabwe says jailed journalist, politician plotted to topple governmentAFPHarare

Zimbabwe’s government yesterday defended the arrests of an investigative

journalist and an opposition leader this week, claiming the pair had been plotting to “over-throw the government” with the backing of the United States and other “foreign power”

Hopewell Chin’ono and Jacob Ngarivhume were arrested on Monday and charged with incit-ing public violence for their role in organising anti-government protests slated for July 31.

Ngarivhume — head of a small party named Transform Zimba-bwe — had called for nationwide protests against alleged state corruption and the country’s ailing economy.

Chin’ono, an outspoken gov-

ernment critic, invited the pub-lic to join the demonstrations via Facebook and Twitter.

The journalist had also helped expose a multimillion-dollar corruption scandal involving the procurement of coronavirus supplies known as “Covidgate”. In a statement yesterday, the government said it wished to “set the record straight” on the arrests.

“(Chin’ono) was not arrested

for exposing corruption,” said Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa.

“He was arrested for using his social media accounts to incite Zimbabweans to violently over-throw the government.”

Mutsvangwa said the detain-ees landed behind bars for “their ploy to violently destabilise the country” and “unconstitution-ally seize power”. She accused “foreign powers” of taking part

in “this plot”, noting that the US embassy had tweeted in defence of Chin’ono “within minutes” of his arrest. “Other Western Embassies who usually take the USA’s lead joined in this ir-regular interference by tweeting and releasing statements which were calculated to obstruct the course of justice in a hosting country,” the statement said.

The US embassy was not im-mediately available for comment

on the accusations. Chin’ono and Ngarivhume have been de-nied bail and remanded in cus-tody by the Harare Magistrates Court. Both their lawyers said they would appeal the ruling.

Meanwhile, the July 31 pro-tests were de-facto banned this week when President Emmer-son Mnangagwa imposed a cur-few and reinstated confi nement measures to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Gunmen kill at least 20 farmers in Sudan’s DarfurAFPKhartoum

Gunmen killed at least 20 civilians including chil-dren in Sudan’s war-torn

Darfur as they returned to their fi elds for the fi rst time in years, a witness and a tribal chief said yesterday.

Twenty people were also wounded in the attack in Abou-dos, some 90 kilometres south of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur province, tribal chief Ib-rahim Ahmad said by telephone.

Darfur has been devastated since 2003 by a confl ict that has killed 300,000 people and dis-placed 2.5mn others, according to the United Nations.

Those killed in Friday’s attack were mostly displaced farmers who had returned to their fi elds under a government-sponsored deal struck two months between “the original landowners and those who took their fi elds”, Ah-mad said.

“But armed men came on Fri-day and opened fi re, killing 20

people, including two women and children,” he said, adding that the toll could rise because some of the wounded were in se-rious condition.

A survivor, speaking anony-mously for fear of reprisals, said the farmers had returned to their fi elds to take advantage of the rainy season and plant crops.

“Because of the violence we hadn’t been back for 16 years, and we thought it was over,” he said.

“The gunmen arrived on pick-up trucks, some of which had machine guns on them. They surrounded us from all four sides and opened fi re.”

The survivor said 14 lost their lives immediately, while a fur-ther six died in hospital.

The confl ict in Darfur broke out after ethnic African minority rebels, complaining of margin-alisation took up arms against the government of now ousted president Omar al-Bashir.

The state hit back with vio-lence led by the Janjaweed, a feared militia that was recruited mainly from pastoralist tribes.

Bashir is wanted by the In-ternational Criminal Court over charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in the confl ict.

The violence has abated in recent years although armed groups have continued to carry out attacks.

“The Bedouins want to throw us off the land our grandparents farmed,” the survivor said.

Adam Mohamed, an expert on Darfur, said land ownership was a main driver of the confl ict be-tween farmers of African tribal origins and the others.

“During the years of fi ght-ing, farmers fl ed their lands and Bedouin herders took their place,” he said.

Bashir was deposed by the army in April 2019 following months of mass protests against his rule, mainly over economic woes, and a transitional govern-ment was sworn in late last year.

The 76-year-old is currently on trial over the military coup that brought him to power more than three decades ago.

Under his rule, several con-fl icts broke out as rebels com-

plained of racial discrimination, marginalisation and exclusion.

In Darfur, the Janjaweed was accused of applying a scorched earth policy against ethnic groups suspected of supporting the rebels, raping, killing, loot-ing and burning villages.

The ICC said in June that it had taken custody of fugitive militiaman Ali Kushayb, a senior Janjaweed commander wanted on 50 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity com-mitted in Darfur between 2003-2004.

That came months after a co-alition of nine rebel groups — in-cluding factions from Darfur — signed a preliminary agreement in January with the government after weeks of talks.

But violence has persisted in the desperately poor region. In late June and early July, hundreds of protesters camped for days outside a government building in the Central Darfur town of Ner-titi to demand that the govern beef up security, after multiple killings and looting incidents on farmland and properties.

Iran says passengers can sue US for endangering fl ightAFP Tehran

Iran’s judiciary yesterday told passengers aboard an Iranian commercial airliner

that the US said was intercept-ed by its warplanes that they can sue Washington for endan-gering their lives.

Two US fi ghter jets fl ew dan-gerously close to the Mahan Air plane over war-torn Syria on Thursday, according to Iranian authorities, forcing the pilot to take emergency action and causing injuries to some pas-sengers.US Central Command

(Centcom) insisted in a statement that it was a “profes-sional intercept...conducted in accordance with international standards.”

The incident was the latest between Tehran and Washing-ton since US President Donald Trump in 2018 walked out of

a multilateral nuclear accord with Iran and imposed punish-ing sanctions.

“Air routes are considered corridors for civilian aircraft, therefore the very act of

Centocom’s fi ghters entering this corridor means endanger-ing international air transit,” Iran’s deputy judiciary head Ali Bagheri-Kani was quoted as saying by the body’s Mizan Online website.

“This was a clear violation of international laws and a clear threat to the right of life of citizens so it can be fol-lowed up on in international bodies,” he added.

Bagheri-Kani said all the passengers who were on board the flight from Tehran to Bei-rut could file for legal action against “the US army com-mand and others involved” in Iranian courts “for moral and physical damage”. Legal action could also be pursued through

the International Civil Avia-tion Organisation and the International Court of Jus-tice, he said.Iran announced on Friday that it had lodged a complaint with the ICAO and plans to submit a protest let-ter to the UN Security Council and secretary general.

The incident comes nearly a month after Iran called on Interpol to help arrest Presi-dent Donald Trump and 35 other US officials for the Jan-uary killing of its top general Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike in Iraq.

The Islamic republic retali-ated days after the killing by firing a barrage of missiles at US troops stationed in Iraq, but Trump opted against re-sponding militarily to that move.

While the attack on the western Iraqi base of Ain Al-Asad left no US soldiers dead, dozens suffered brain trauma.

Palestinians look at goats for sale at a livestock market in Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip, yesterday, as they prepare for the sacrificial Eid al-Adha feast.

Getting prepared for Eid al-Adha

Rouhani urges virus caution during festivities

Reuters Tehran

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged people yes-terday to observe health

protocols and practise social distancing during upcoming festivities, as a health offi cial said there had been a surge in coronavirus infections in a major holy city.

Muslims around the world mark the Eid al-Adha feast, due to start at the end of the month. This year, Saudi Arabia is to limit the number of do-mestic pilgrims attending Haj to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

“Let glorious festivities be held in mosques and religious centres by observing health

protocols and social distanc-ing,” Rouhani said in a televised speech. “Let masks this year be part of the glorious mourning of Muharram,” Rouhani said, referring to Ashura, the 10th day of the lunar month of Mu-harram.

One of the Eid al-Adha ritu-als is the sacrifi cial slaughter of sheep and giving to the poor.

Iranian health offi cials have urged the faithful to package the meat before distribution.

Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, speaking on state television, urged people not to visit the northeastern holy city of Mashad, which he said has seen an increase of 300% in coronavirus cases over a one month period.

Millions typically visit Mashad’s Imam Reza shrine.

Oman reports 1,067 new Covid-19 casesQNAMuscat

The Oman Ministry of Health reported yesterday 1,067 new cases of coro-

navirus (Covid-19), in addition to 12 new Covid-19 related death cases.

The new cases included 959 Omanis and 108 foreigners, bringing the total number of posi-tive Covid-19 cases to 74,858 in the Sultanate, in addition to 371 deaths, the Ministry of Health said.

The ministry also pointed out that 1,054 new cases have recov-ered, bringing the total number to 54,061 cases. As many as 3,076 new Covid-19 tests have been carried out, the ministry said, taking the total to 293,802.

KUWAIT SEES 684 NEW INFECTIONS

Meanwhile, the Kuwait Minis-try of Health announced yester-day the registration of 684 new cases of Covid-19, and four deaths during the last 24 hours, bring-ing the total number of confi rmed cases in the country to 63,309, in addition to 429 deaths.

The ministry offi cial spokes-man, Dr Abdullah al-Sanad, said that among the newly registered cases, there were cases caused by exposure to those infected, while a number of other cases were un-der examination to determine the source of the infection, adding that the updated total fi gure in-cluded 422 cases of Kuwaiti citi-zens and 262 non-Kuwaitis. He noted that the number of patients receiving treatment at intensive care units had reached 123.

AMERICAS9Gulf Times

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Brazil cobra sparkstraffi cking probeAFPRio de Janeiro

A cobra that bit a veteri-nary student in Brazil, putting him in a coma,

has turned into a celebrity by sparking an investigation into an alleged exotic animal traf-fi cking ring.

The monocled cobra, which is native to Asia, bit 22-year-old Pedro Krambeck Lehmkuhl on July 7 in Brasilia, sending doctors on a frantic search for the right antivenom – so rare in Brazil that the lone doses had to be rushed from Sao Paulo.

Questions about how the snake ended up at the stu-dent’s apartment soon turned into a police investigation that found 16 other snakes at a property belonging to a friend of Lehmkuhl’s, as well as three sharks, seven more snakes, a Moray eel and a Tupinambis

lizard at another property.So far the probe has led to

the fi ring of two offi cials at the Brazilian environmental regu-lator, IBAMA, over suspicions they facilitated fraudulent im-port permits for a wildlife traf-fi cking ring.

The student’s mother and stepfather, a police colonel, were also questioned and fi ned 8,500 reals (about $1,600) each on a charge of obstructing justice.

Lehmkuhl, who spent six days in the hospital, was re-leased and fi ned 61,000 reals.

He is still under investigation.The cobra has meanwhile

become an Internet sensation, after being found near a shop-ping centre where it was alleg-edly abandoned by a friend of Lehmkuhl’s trying to get rid of evidence.

A Twitter account opened in the snake’s name, @najaorigi-nal, has nearly 50,000 follow-ers.

Bolsonaro says he testednegative for Covid-19AgenciesBrasilia

Brazilian President Jair Bol-sonaro announced yester-day he has tested negative

for the new coronavirus more than two weeks after being diagnosed on July 7, attributing his recovery to an unproven malaria drug.

“RT-PCR for Sars-Cov 2: neg-ative. Good morning everyone,” the 65-year-old tweeted, along with a photo of himself smiling and holding a packet of hydroxy-chloroquine, whose eff ectiveness against Covid-19 has not been demonstrated in clinical trials.

He did not say when he took the latest test.

The president, who has rou-tinely downplayed the virus he calls a “little fl u” but which is cur-rently ravaging his country, spent nearly 20 days self-isolating at his offi cial residence in the capital

Brasilia, the Alvorada Palace.During that time he under-

went at least three more virus tests, all positive.

Three polls released this week showed the leader dubbed a “Trop-ical Trump” would win re-election in 2022, despite his controversial handling of the virus crisis.

The pandemic has exploded in Brazil, the country with the most infections and deaths from Covid-19 anywhere in the world except the United States.

The Latin American pow-erhouse has registered nearly 2.3mn cases of the new coro-navirus and more than 84,000 deaths, and the numbers have continued to rise rapidly.

But Bolsonaro is a fi erce critic of stay-at-home measures, argu-ing the economic pain they result in is worse than the virus itself.

The president has appeared to continue fl outing virus precau-tions even after his diagnosis.

On Thursday he was seen go-ing for a spin on his motorcycle and chatting maskless with a team of groundskeepers outside the presidential palace.

The same day he admitted in a live Facebook video that he was feeling “a bit wretched at being imprisoned here.”

Bolsonaro also continued greeting supporters from quar-antine, separated by a narrow refl ecting pond but maskless.

And he was spotted in the palace gardens feeding – and occasionally getting bitten by – rheas, a South American bird related to the emu.

Meanwhile, Sao Paulo, the biggest city in South America, postponed its 2021 Carnival cel-ebrations on the same day that Formula One scrapped its next planned race there, underlying the enduring eff ects policymak-ers expect the coronavirus pan-demic to have on Brazil.

Protesters wave placards and shout slogans as they take part in a rally against police brutality in Portland, Oregon.

Police again fi re tear gason Portland protestersAgenciesPortland

Police and federal agents fi red tear gas and force-fully dispersed protesters

in the US city of Portland early yesterday, witnesses said, dur-ing the latest demonstrations against racism and police bru-tality.

The city, the biggest in the state of Oregon, has seen nightly protests for nearly two months, initially sparked by the death in Minneapolis of unarmed Afri-can American George Floyd.

It is also now the scene of a highly controversial crackdown by federal agents ordered by US Pres-ident Donald Trump – one that is not supported by local offi cials.

The inspector general of

the US Justice Department on Thursday opened an offi cial investigation into the federal crackdown.

Friday’s demonstration was mainly peaceful, with crowds playing music and dancing, blowing soap bubbles and set-ting off fi reworks.

But it ended – like many be-fore it – in a showdown between protesters and police, which es-calated in a haze of tear gas and fl ash-bang devices.

One group of protesters formed a line with umbrellas and makeshift shields to try to pro-tect themselves, as at least two fi res burned outside the fences around a federal courthouse.

Tear gas was fi rst fi red around 11pm.

By 2.30am police and federal agents were clearing the scene

outside the courthouse with tear gas, pushing protesters back.

Earlier, protesters com-plained of the federal agents’ presence in the city and voiced their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, which helped drive demonstrations across the country for weeks af-ter Floyd’s killing.

“I don’t like what’s happen-ing down here, what Trump is doing,” Mike Shikany, a 55-year-old aerospace engi-neer, said, adding he did not “want to get anywhere near the little green men,” meaning the federal troops.

Portland retiree Jean Mullen, 74, said that without pressure nothing would change.

“It’s time to become the country we always brag about being. And we can’t brag any-

more, about anything. We aren’t fi rst in anything and it’s a terrible, terrible thing to see at the end of my life,” she said.

Trump, who is campaigning for re-election in November on “law and order,” also an-nounced on Wednesday that federal agents in Chicago and other cities will be stepped up after a resurgence of crime and shootings.

Trump meanwhile called Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler “pathetic” after the Oregon politician was gassed by the federal troops while stand-ing among protesters outside a courthouse.

“He made a fool out of him-self. He wanted to be among the people, so he went into the crowd and they knocked the hell out of him,” Trump said during

a prime-time performance with Sean Hannity on Fox News.

“That was the end of him. So that was pretty pathetic.”

In a related development, prosecutors unveiled charges against 18 protesters ranging from assaulting police to arson and trespassing.

The Trump administration sent a tactical team to Seattle on Thursday in anticipation of pro-tests this weekend despite the objections of the Seattle mayor and Washington state governor, who warned of a Portland-like escalation of tensions.

US Attorney for the Western District of Washington Brian Moran said in a statement that federal agents are stationed in Seattle to protect federal prop-erties and the work done in those buildings.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro arrives at the Alvorada Palace on a motorcycle in Brasilia yesterday.

Alabama servicekicks off days of tribute to US rights icon LewisAFPWashington

A memorial service in Ala-bama yesterday for John Lewis kicked off days

of tributes to the revered civil rights leader and congressman, including the high honour of ly-ing in state tomorrow in the Ro-tunda of the US Capitol.

Lewis, the senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus and a man known as the “con-science of the Congress,” died of cancer on July 17, aged 80.

At a service yesterday in an are-na at Troy University in Alabama, the state of his birth, his surviving siblings and others paid tribute.

Sister Ethel Mae Tyner re-called the days long ago when family members worked together in the cotton fi elds near Troy and storm clouds would pass over.

Young John Lewis was fearful of storms but would not budge.

“He would start singing – and preaching. He always was a fi ghter,” she said.

In keeping with coronavirus precautions, the number of visi-tors to the arena was limited to 800, social distancing was en-forced and masks required – a far cry from pre-coronavirus practices, when a memorial for an icon like Lewis would have drawn many thousands from across the country.

While attending segregated schools in Alabama, Lewis was inspired by the peaceful pro-tests of rights leaders like Mar-tin Luther King Jr and he even-

tually rose to join their ranks.Since 1987 he had represented

a Georgia district in Congress.After the ceremony yesterday

in Troy, commemorations were to move to Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Alabama for a private remembrance followed by a public viewing – again with coronavirus precautions – start-ing at 8pm.

Today at 10am, a processional will escort Lewis’s casket from Brown Chapel to the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

It was there that Lewis, dur-ing an historic 1965 civil rights march that came to be known as “Bloody Sunday,” had his skull fractured by police, one of many times he suff ered such beatings.

Today afternoon, events move to the city of Montgomery, where the public has been encouraged to line sidewalks as the processional travels to the State Capitol.

Lewis will lie in state there beginning at 3pm, according to local media. Visitors will be re-quired to wear masks.

Tomorrow, Lewis will lie in state in the Rotunda of the US Capitol for viewing, initially, by a small, invitation-only group.

The casket will then be moved to the top of the steps at the Capitol’s East Front for public viewing tomorrow evening and all day Tuesday, according to the Washington Post. Masks and so-cial distancing will be required.

Out of concern for the pan-demic, the Lewis family has asked that people not travel from across the country to pay respects, and instead post virtual tributes.

Virus-hit Texas braces as hurricane Hanna takes aimAgenciesHouston

Texas, already struggling with a surge in corona-virus cases, was bracing

yesterday after storm Hanna strengthened into the fi rst At-lantic hurricane of 2020, with meteorologists warning of heavy rain, storm surge and potentially life-threatening fl ash fl ooding.

The storm, with wind speeds of around 130kmh strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane over-

night and was expected to make landfall by evening, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.

It could bring storm surges of up to 5ft and drop up to 18 inches of rain on parts of south Texas, the NHC said, warning of dan-gerous fl ash fl ooding.

“Additional strengthening is forecast before Hanna makes landfall later today,” the Miami-based forecaster said, adding that the hurricane will rapidly weaken after it moves inland.

Hanna was about 135km southeast of Corpus Christi,

Texas, at 10am local time (1500 GMT), and was moving west at about 11kmmh, an NHC advi-sory said.

Expected to make a slight turn later in the day, it “should make landfall along the Texas coast within the hurricane warning area this afternoon or early this evening,” the advisory contin-ued.

Storm warnings were already in eff ect along Texas’s Gulf Coast early yesterday.

Video footage on Twitter of Port Aransas in Nueces County,

Texas showed gray skies and lashing waves that had already engulfed a beach ahead of the storm’s landfall.

In Corpus Christi, a city of 325,000, offi cials closed librar-ies and museums as residents braced for the storm, local media reported.

Hanna will roar ashore as Tex-as is already facing a huge surge in coronavirus infections, with offi cials instituting a state-wide mask mandate to try to curb the spread of the disease.

Cases along the state’s coast

have soared into the tens of thousands, and more than 400 people in Corpus Christi’s city of 325,000 were hospitalised with the novel coronavirus on Friday, according to city data.

On Friday, residents in several Texas communities in Kleberg County, south of Corpus Chris-ti, were urged to evacuate their homes ahead of Hanna’s arrival.

Corpus Christi Mayor Joe McComb warned residents who live in flood-prone areas to heed coronavirus precautions when deciding to evacuate, the

Texas Tribune reported.“Take several masks with you

because you might be there a couple days if you’re in a fl ood area,” McComb said, according to the Tribune.

“We don’t want to expose anyone during this storm. Even when you’re in the house, I recommend wearing a mask if you’re in crowded conditions.”

Two other storm systems were churning yesterday: Pacifi c Hur-ricane Douglas, bearing down on the Hawaiian islands, and Tropi-cal Storm Gonzalo in the Atlan-

tic, near the Windward Islands.Douglas – at one point a pow-

erful Category 4 hurricane – has weakened to a Category 2 storm with wind speeds of 168kmh.

The NHC said yesterday the storm would continue to weaken as it approaches Hawaii, “po-tentially passing dangerously close to, or over, the islands late tonight through Sunday night,” bringing high winds and heavy surf.

Hurricane warnings were in eff ect yesterday in Hawaii and Maui counties as well as Oahu.

People listen to speakers during The Boy from Troy service celebrating the life of former US Rep John Lewis in Troy, Alabama, yesterday.

ASIA/AUSTRALASIAGulf Times Sunday, July 26, 202010

US consulate in China readies for closure as ties deteriorateWorkers removed the

US insignia from the consulate in the Chi-

nese city of Chengdu yesterday, a day after Beijing ordered its closure as relations deteriorated in a Cold War-style standoff .

The Chengdu mission was told to shut in retaliation for the forced closure of Beijing’s con-sulate in Houston, Texas, with both sides alleging the other had endangered national security.

The deadline for the Ameri-cans to exit Chengdu remains unclear, but AFP reporters saw a worker on a small crane removed a circular US insignia from the front of the consulate, leaving just an American fl ag fl ying.

Three moving company trucks entered the US consulate building yesterday afternoon.

Cleaners were seen carting big black bags of rubbish from the consulate in the early hours of the morning. One of them had split and appeared to contain shredded paper.

At least ten bags were re-moved from the building.

Other staff were seen moving trolleys around inside, one car-rying a large empty metal bin, while some wheeled suitcases.

Beijing says closing the Chengdu consulate was a “le-gitimate and necessary response to the unreasonable measures by

the United States”, and has al-leged that staff at the diplomatic mission endangered China’s security and interests.

Washington offi cials, mean-while, said there had been unac-ceptable eff orts by the Chinese consulate in Houston to steal US corporate secrets and pro-prietary medical and scientifi c research.

The last Chinese diplomats left the Houston consulate on Friday as a 72-hour deadline to close the mission passed. Of-fi cials there were seen loading large sacks of documents and other items onto trucks, and throwing some in bins.

Tensions have soared between the two powers on a range of fronts including trade, China’s handling of the coronavirus and a new security law for Hong Kong, with the US this week warning of a “new tyranny” from China.

China on Friday blasted the Houston move and blamed Washington for the sharp dete-rioration in relations.

Closing the Chengdu consu-late was a “legitimate and nec-essary response to the unrea-sonable measures by the United States”, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“The current situation in China-US relations is not what China desires to see, and the US is responsible for all this,” it said.

Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters that

AFPChengdu

Police keep watch by a barrier in front of the US consulate as a bus enters the compounds in Chengdu, southwestern China’s Sichuan province, yesterday.

some US staff in the Chengdu consulate “were engaged in ac-tivities outside of their capac-ity, interfered in China’s in-ternal aff airs, and endangered

China’s security and interests”.The Chengdu consulate, es-

tablished in 1985, has been at the centre of past controversy. It was included on a top-secret map

leaked by intelligence analyst Edward Snowden showing US surveillance worldwide.

The Chengdu mission was also where senior Chinese offi cial

Wang Lijun fl ed in 2012 from his powerful boss Bo Xilai, who was then head of the nearby metrop-olis Chongqing, and has since been jailed for life for corruption.

S Korea sees surge in new virus cases

South Korea reported a surge in new coronavirus infec-tions yesterday, recording

its highest fi gure in nearly four months with dozens of imported cases.

The country added 113 new cases, including 86 among peo-ple who arrived from overseas, bringing the total to 14,092, ac-cording to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It was the second highest fi g-ure since March 31, when the country reported 125 new cases. It was also the fi rst time it has seen more than 100 cases since April 1.

All overseas arrivals are re-quired to undergo a two-week quarantine.

South Korea endured one of the worst early outbreaks out-side China but brought it broadly under control with an exten-sive “trace, test and treat” pro-gramme while never imposing a compulsory lockdown that was put in place in much of Europe and around the world.

The country has been seen as a model on how to combat the pandemic with the public largely following safety health measures such as wearing face masks.

The rise in cases comes with the country planning to let limit-ed numbers of baseball fans back into stadiums on Sunday as au-thorities seek to restore normality after the coronavirus crisis.

AFPSeoul

Australia rejects Beijing’s S China Sea claims

Australia has rejected Beijing’s territorial and maritime claims in the

South China Sea in a formal declaration to the United Na-tions, aligning itself more closely with Washington in the escalating row.

In a statement fi led on Thursday, Australia said there was “no legal basis” to several disputed Chinese claims in the sea including those related to the construction of artifi cial is-lands on small shoals and reefs.

“Australia rejects China’s claim to ‘historic rights’ or ‘maritime rights and interests’ as established in the ‘long course of historical practice’ in the South China Sea,” the declaration read.

“There is no legal basis for China to draw straight base-lines connecting the out-ermost points of maritime features or ‘island groups’ in the South China Sea, includ-ing around the ‘Four Sha’ or ‘continental’ or ‘outlying’ archipelagos.”

The declaration comes af-ter US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared Beijing’s pursuit of territory and re-sources in the South China Sea as illegal, explicitly backing the territorial claims of South-east Asian countries against China’s.

Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea based on

a so-called nine-dash line, a vague delineation from maps dating back to the 1940s.

The latest escalation comes ahead of annual talks between Australia and the United States, with ministers trav-elling to Washington for the fi rst time since Australian borders were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The meetings come at a “critical time” and it is essen-tial they are held face-to-face, Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said in a statement yesterday.

US relations with China have markedly deteriorated in recent months, especially over trade disputes, the coro-navirus pandemic and Bei-jing’s crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.

On Friday, Beijing ordered the US consulate in Chengdu to shut in retaliation for the closure of its Houston mis-sion over accusations of be-ing a hub for intellectual property theft.

Payne and Reynolds also penned an article in The Aus-tralian newspaper yesterday, labelling national security legislation imposed on Hong Kong last month as “sweeping and vague”.

“We face a public health crisis, economic upheaval and resurgent authoritarian re-gimes using coercion in a bid to gain power and infl uence at the expense of our freedoms and sovereignty,” they wrote.

AFPSydney

Thousands crammed into Manila stadium amid coronavirus risks

Thousands of Filipinos were crammed into a baseball stadium in Ma-

nila yesterday, breaking so-cial distancing rules despite coronavirus risks, after people wanting to return to their home provinces fl ooded a government transportation programme.

Offi cials had reserved the sta-dium as a place to test people before transporting them back to their home provinces under a pro-gramme to help people who had lost their jobs in the capital return to their families elsewhere.

Offi cials had planned for 7,500 people to arrive at the stadium from Friday, but were caught out when another 2,000 people who were not yet scheduled to travel headed there anyway.

“Because of the overfl ow-ing number of people, we can no longer control (the situation) and the relevance of social dis-

tancing had been diminished,” Assistant Secretary Joseph En-cabo, who is overseeing the government’s transportation assistance programme, said.

Police were deployed to urge social distancing, but people, including the elderly, children and pregnant women, were seen in close contact with each other. Some were not wearing masks.

Many of those at the stadium had got stuck in the capital when it imposed one of the strictest and longest lockdowns in mid-March in response to the coro-navirus pandemic.

That was eased at the start of June, allowing businesses to reopen in a limited capacity, but schools re-main shut and mass gatherings are banned. People must wear masks in public and observe 1m social dis-tancing, while children and the eld-erly are urged to stay at home.

Coronavirus cases have more than quadrupled since restric-tions were eased to 78,412, with more than half of those in the capital and surrounding areas.

ReutersManila

A man carrying a bag of belongings walks inside the baseball stadium where thousands of stranded Filipinos due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) restrictions are crammed while waiting to be transported back to their provinces, in Rizal Memorial Sports Complex, Manila, yesterday.

Singapore PM unveils cabinetSingapore Prime Minister

Lee Hsien Loong named a largely unchanged

cabinet yesterday following an election win this month, and fl agged a possible delay, due to the novel coronavirus pan-demic, of his plan to step down.

Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat, Lee’s expect-ed successor, was kept in post helming the fi nance ministry, as were senior ministers Thar-man Shanmugaratnam and Teo Chee Hean.

“We are in a crisis of a gen-eration... therefore I have kept on many of my older colleagues who are all par-ticipating in this fi ght against Covid-19,” Lee, whose Peo-ple’s Action Party (PAP) has ruled Singapore since its independence in 1965.

Lee, 68, said he may have to delay his plans to handover to a successor by the time he is 70 because of the pandemic.

“A lot will depend on how events unfold and all I can say is I will see this through,” said the scion of Singapore’s mod-

ern day founder, Lee Kuan Yew.In some minor changes, na-

tional development minister Lawrence Wong – the co-head of a Covid-19 taskforce – was moved to education, while ed-ucation minister Ong Ye Kung was moved to transport.

Newly elected Alvin Tan, head of public policy for social network LinkedIn and a former senior Facebook executive, was given a post as minister of state in the trade ministry.

In the July 10 general elec-tion, the PAP retained a large parliamentary majority but its vote share slipped to near a record low as opposition parties made historic inroads.

Heng, selected by his peers as a future leader of the party in 2018, scraped through in his constituency in the fi rst real test of his public popularity.

Singapore reported 513 new coronavirus cases yester-day, its highest in nearly two months, almost all from mi-grant worker dormitories at the centre of the outbreak in the city-state. (Reuters)

Maldives detains migrant workers seeking unpaid wages: HRWHuman Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday urged the Maldives to drop charges against 80 migrant workers arrested for demanding their unpaid wages in a country otherwise known for its upmarket tourism.HRW said authorities detained the foreign workers during separate protests against inhumane living conditions and work without pay.“The authorities should drop charges and release all those held for engaging in peaceful protest, and address allegations of human

traff icking and other abuses...,” HRW said in a statement.Workers in the construction sector had not been paid even before the country went into coronavirus lockdown in March, according to off icials. Sporadic clashes erupted since May.Bangladeshi worker Mohamed Mohsin told AFP by phone that clashes with police broke out two weeks ago as they had not been paid for six months.“Our families are dying at home starving and being hunted by loan

sharks,” Mohsin said, referring to many borrowing money to travel to the Maldives in search of what they believed would be well-paid jobs.Police confirmed they arrested 41 migrant workers at Hulhumale, just outside the capital on July 13. There had been several other arrests elsewhere bringing the total number detained to just over 80.HRW said Male was invoking national security and banning protests to deflect from its failure to curb abuses against migrant workers. (AFP)

Malaysia arrests Bangladeshi worker over migrant remarks

Malaysia arrested a Bang-ladeshi national who criticised the govern-

ment over its treatment of mi-grant workers in a news report by broadcaster Al Jazeera, the government said yesterday.

The July 3 report on Ma-laysia’s treatment of undocu-mented foreign workers dur-ing the Covid-19 pandemic sparked a backlash in the South East Asia nation, with

several offi cials describing the report as being inaccurate, misleading and unfair.

Rights groups have accused the government of suppressing media freedom after Al Jazeera journalists were called in for questioning by the police.

An arrest warrant was is-sued for Md Rayhan Kabir, the Bangladeshi worker quoted in the news report as saying the government discrimi-nated against undocumented foreign workers by arresting and jailing them during the pandemic.

Rayhan was arrested on Fri-day and will be expelled from the country, Immigration Director General Khairul Dzaimee Daud said in a statement on Saturday.

“This Bangladeshi national will be deported and blacklisted from entering Malaysia forever,” Khairul said.

He did not say why Rayhan was arrested or whether he was suspected of committing a crime. Reuters could not im-mediately reach the immigra-tion department for further comment.

Al Jazeera did not immediately

respond to a request for com-ment on Rayhan’s arrest.

Malaysia arrested hundreds of undocumented foreigners, in-cluding children and Rohingya refugees, when the country was under lockdown to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.

Activists have condemned the arrests as inhumane. Malaysian offi cials have said they were nec-essary to prevent the spread of the virus.

Public opposition to migrant workers has been growing, with some accusing them of spread-ing the coronavirus and being a

burden on government resources.There are also growing con-

cerns that the four-month old administration of Prime Minis-ter Muhyiddin Yassin is stifl ing dissent amid a series of clamp-downs, an accusation it has denied.

Malaysiakini, a local news portal, is facing a contempt case over readers’ comments.

Al Jazeera has said its staff and those interviewed in the docu-mentary had faced abuse, death threats and the disclosure of their personal details on social media.

ReutersKuala Lumpur

BRITAIN/EUROPE11

Gulf Times Sunday, July 26, 2020

Mass anti-Kremlin rallies grip Russia’s Far EastHuge anti-government

demonstrations erupted in Russia’s Far East yes-

terday over the arrest of a popu-lar governor who was replaced this week by a Kremlin appoint-ee who never lived in the fraught region.

Residents of Khabarovsk near the border with China took to the streets en masse for the third Saturday in a row after gover-nor Sergei Furgal was arrested by federal law enforcement and fl own to Moscow on murder charges this month.

The running demonstrations have been some of the larg-est anti-government protests in Russia in years, which the Kremlin said this week were be-ing fuelled by opposition activ-ists outside Khabarovsk.

Tens of thousands of residents marched through Khabarovsk waving the region’s fl ag, carry-ing banners and chanting slo-gans against President Vladimir Putin as passing cars honked their horns in support.

“We want our governor to be released because we believe he was very likely detained illegal-ly,” said 24-year-old protester Alina Slepova.

Furgal was removed by fed-eral offi cials “for their own pur-poses, not for the good of our region,” she said.

Demonstrators converged in

front of the regional adminis-trative building on Lenin square shouting “Freedom” and “Putin resign”.

Police wearing masks allowed the demonstrations to go ahead despite a ban on public gather-ings as part of measures to con-tain the coronavirus pandemic.

Yet the protests that initally erupted in response to the shock arrest of Furgal over murders that happened 15 years ago are increasingly becoming an out-let to vent frustration with the Kremlin.

“The centre is sucking re-sources from the Far East,” said demonstrator Alexander Gogo-lev, 45, who voiced anger that the region receives “nothing in return”.

Estimates of the turnout var-ied greatly, with Khabarovsk offi cials saying that 6,500 people attended. Local media meanwhile said the number was closer to between 15,000 and 20,000.

Journalists reporting from the town seven time zones east of Moscow said yesterday’s rally was the largest since the demon-strations began this month.

Police in Moscow detained at least 10 people who gathered at Pushkin Square in support of the demonstrators in Khabarovsk, monitors said, and local media reported smaller protests in oth-er eastern Russian cities includ-ing Vladivostok and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

On Monday, Putin offi cially

AFPKhabarovsk

People carry a portrait of Sergei Furgal, the governor of the Khabarovsk region, during a rally in his support in the Russian far eastern city of Khabarovsk yesterday.

fi red Furgal, 50, and appointed a lawmaker from the same nation-alist LDPR party, Mikhail Degt-yarev, as his acting replacement.

The move was met with by an-ger from Khabarovsk residents who said the 39-year-old out-sider lacked experience and had no connection to the region.

In a video posted to Instagram this week, Degtyarev dismissed calls for him to step down and said the mass demonstrations did not refl ect broader public opinion.

Ahead of the demonstrations on Friday he suggested that for-eign citizens had fl own from Moscow to Khabarovsk to help organise the protests.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed claims of foreign interference but said the protests were a “nutrient ... for troublemak-ers” and “pseudo-opposition” activists.

Opposition leader and one-time presidential hopeful Alexei

Navalny has thrown his weight behind the protesters and this week said the demonstrations could only win concessions “with the support of the entire country”.

Furgal’s detention ahead of a trial in September sparked an an outcry from his nationalist LDPR party whose fi rebrand leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky this week vowed to secure a presidential pardon if he was found guilty of the charges.

Britain to quarantine travellers from Spain

Britain’s government is set to announce all travellers from Spain

arriving after midnight (2300 GMT) yesterday will need to spend two weeks in quaran-tine in case they are infected with coronavirus, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.

“Second wave of Covid-19 there has prompted decision to kick Spain off the safe country list,” the newspaper’s political editor, Tim Shipman, said on Twitter.

Britain’s health ministry had no immediate comment on the report.

If true, the reported announce-ment would deal a heavy blow to Spain, which is trying to recoup its tourism season after the sector took a battering from coronavirus lockdowns and travel restrictions earlier in the year.

There was no immediate comment from Spanish gov-ernment offi cials.

Cases of coronavirus have been on the rise again in recent weeks in Spain, prompting concern in several European countries.

On Friday, Norway said it will re-impose a 10-day quar-antine requirement for people arriving from Spain from Sat-

urday, while France advised people not to travel to the Spanish region of Catalonia.

The safe country list re-ferred to by Shipman is a list of countries that the UK govern-ment has said are safe for trav-ellers to visit - meaning people do not have to go into quaran-tine on return home.

Such quarantines are likely to put people off taking a holi-day in “non-safe” countries.

The rules apply to travellers arriving in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own quarantine rules.

Britons make a big contribu-tion to Spain’s tourism sector.

Last year 83.7mn tourists travelled to Spain, of which 18.08mn were British, mak-ing them the largest group by nationality, according to Spanish National Statistics Offi ce.

On Friday, Spanish Foreign Min-ister Arancha Gonzalez Laya insisted her country was safe to visit.

“Spain is a safe country,” she told CNN television.

She added that like many countries around the world that have managed to control the disease, Spain “has out-breaks but the governments – both national and regional – are working to isolate cases as soon as they appear”.

ReutersLondon

Rapper faces probe over charges of anti-Semitism

British rap artist Wiley is facing a police investiga-tion after a string of anti-

Semitic comments appeared on his social media accounts, prompting his management to drop him.

The rapper’s Twitter account, which has half a million follow-ers, published a series of tweets on Friday asserting that Jews sys-tematically exploited Black artists in the music industry, continuing a pattern of exploitation dating back to the slave trade.

“Jewish people don’t care what black went through they just use us to make money to feed their kids... for generations as well,” one tweet said.

“Hold some corn Jewish com-munity you deserve it...,” anoth-er tweet read.

British charity Campaign Against Antisemitism referred that tweet to police saying it was an act of incitement to racial ha-tred as, it said, “hold corn” was slang for “take bullets”.

Several video clips also ap-peared on the rapper’s Instagram account on Friday and yesterday.

“Crawl out from under all your little rocks and come and defend your Jewish privilege now,” he said in one video.

Police confi rmed they had re-ceived complaints about Wiley.

“We are aware of reports of al-leged anti-Semitic comments posted on social media and will look into the matter,” a spokeswoman for London’s Metropolitan Police said.

Twitter has deleted some anti-Semitic statements on Wi-ley’s account, but others remain, drawing criticism from other us-ers of the social media platform.

“Even for Twitter this is shocking,” said Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle.

Wiley, 41, whose real name is Richard Cowie, released a number one single in Britain in 2012 and had several other top 10 hits. He re-ceived a UK government honour for his contribution to music in 2018.

John Woolf, of A-List Man-agement, said he would no longer represent the artist.

“Following Wiley’s anti semitic tweets today we at @A_ListM-GMT have cut all ties with him. There is no place in society for an-tisemitism,” Woolf said on Twitter.

ReutersLondon

Harry and Meghan book lifts lid on split with family

Prince Harry and wife Meghan blamed “viper” courtiers for widening

their rift with the royal family, according to extracts from a new book published in The Times yesterday.

The couple say they did not contribute to the new biogra-phy Finding Freedom, written by journalists Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, but friends of the couple provided much of its content.

The book, serialised in The Times, will claim that Harry felt “unprotected” by his family, and lay bare his split from brother

William and his wife Kate.Kate even refused to make eye

contact with her sister-in-law at their fi nal engagement in March, according to the new release.

Harry apparently referred to senior courtiers as “vipers” who felt that the global popularity of the couple was overshadow-ing the family and “needed to be reined in”, according to extracts.

The book, to be released on August 11, also suggested that Harry, 35, was the driving force behind the couple’s move away from the family, with Meghan telling her husband that she “gave up my entire life for this family”.

The couple now live in Los An-geles and were in the headlines this week for taking legal action

against one or more paparazzi whom they accuse of taking pic-tures of their son Archie without permission.

Pressure from tabloids has dogged Harry throughout his life, and he blames them for the death of his mother Princess Diana.

Meghan, 38, told a friend that tabloid criticism was like “death

by a thousand cuts”, according to the new book.

The authors are sympathetic to the couple, and say the book will “correct the record” on the acrimonious split.

However, it does acknowledge that Harry and Meghan’s deci-sion to keep the family in the dark about their plans “created a lot of ill will”.

AFPLondon

3 dead after aircraft crashes into house in Germany

Three people died yesterday when an ultralight aircraft crashed into a residential

building in north-western Ger-many, a spokesman for the police said.

The plane crashed into the roof of the building that contains fi ve fl ats in the town of Wesel, in the Lower Rhine region.

The top fl oor fl at of the house caught fi re and, according to the fi re brigade, was completely destroyed.

A woman lived in the fl at with her 2-year-old child, according

to the deputy head of the Wesel fi re brigade, Robert Meyboom.

The child was rescued only slightly injured.

The police suspect that the mother is among the dead.

The other two victims are be-lieved to be the two occupants of the aircraft, Meyboom said.

The chairman of the Friends of Air Sports Wesel-Rheinhausen association, Achim Strobel, as-sumed that the plane had just taken off from Wesel Airfi eld.

There were two men on board, he said.

The aircraft is the TL 96 model, which is considered a so-called air sports device.

Rescue workers found a para-

DPAEssen

Rescue forces are seen at the scene where an ultra-light aircraft has crashed into a residential building in Wesel, Germany yesterday.

chute near the crash site, which police assume is the aircraft’s emergency parachute.

Why the plane crashed was still unknown.

According to the police, there were indications that it had broken up before the crash as several air-craft parts were found in the area.

The crash prompted a large

deployment of rescue workers.Several helicopters and a res-

cue dog team were also involved.Emergency counsellors were

also on site.

Four die in plane crash in Swiss AlpsTwo Swiss and two Austrian nationals were killed yesterday when their small plane crashed in the Swiss Alps, police said.The plane came down in the picturesque area near the Gletscherspitze peak, at an altitude of over 3,000m (10,000ft), in the southern Swiss canton of Wallis, regional police said in a statement.Wallis police said a witness had first called to report seeing the plane falling from the sky at 12:25pm (1025 GMT), and had called back a few minutes later to say smoke was rising from the crash site.Firefighters and rescue workers flown in by helicopter discovered that all four people onboard, two Swiss citizens aged 50 and 66 and two Austrians aged 46 and 50, had perished.Police said they were cooperating with the Swiss Transportation Safety Investigation Board to probe the crash. (AFP)

Jailed rights defender dies in Kyrgyzstan, says lawyer

A rights defender whose detention in Kyrgyzstan became a point of con-

tention between the Central Asian country and the United States has died in jail, his law-yer said yesterday.

Ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan – a loyal ally of Russia – tore up a long-running co-operation agreement with the Unit-ed States after Washington awarded a rights prize to Az-imjon Askarov in 2015.

The 69-year-old was serv-ing a life sentence for inciting disorder and complicity in the murder of a policeman, allega-tions which he denied.

He was “unable to walk” due to an illness, his lawyer Valeryan Vahi-tov told AFP by telephone, follow-ing a visit to his client this week.

“No one paid him any at-tention. The system killed him,” Vahitov said, confi rming Askarov had died.

“I brought him melons and watermelons. I told him to eat, to hold himself together, that we all loved him,” Vahitov said of his last visit to Askarov.

“He cried. (Askarov) knew that he was dying and no one lifted a fi nger.”

In 2016, the UN Human Rights Committee ruled that Askarov’s detention was arbi-trary and that he had been tor-tured in detention.

Yet multiple courts in Kyr-gyzstan upheld Askarov’s convic-tion, which dated back to a spate of bloody ethnic violence in 2010.

He was from the ethnic Uzbek minority and had a long history of opposing police abuse and torture in his home region of Jalal-Abdad, which was one of the fl ashpoints of the violence.

AFPBishkek

Turkey calls Greek reaction to Hagia Sophia prayers ‘hostile’

Turkey yesterday lam-basted Greek statements against the move to con-

vert Hagia Sophia back into a mosque after the fi rst Muslim prayers were held in the Istanbul landmark.

Relations between Nato allies Ankara and Athens have been uneasy in recent months but tensions increased over Hagia Sophia and energy riches in the eastern Mediterranean.

Turkish President Recep

Tayyip Erdogan joined thou-sands for the fi rst Islamic prayer on Friday since Hagia Sophia was reconverted from a museum into a mosque this month.

The reaction to Hagia Sophia opening for Muslim worship “once again revealed Greece’s hostility towards Islam and Tur-key,” Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said.

Aksoy “strongly condemned” the burning of the Turkish fl ag in Thessaloniki, and accused the Greek government and parlia-ment of “provoking the public with hostile statements”.

“The spoiled children of Eu-

rope, who cannot accept re-newed prostration in Hagia Sophia, are once again delusion-al,” Aksoy added in a statement.

The Unesco World Heritage site was originally the Byzantine Empire’s main cathedral before its conversion into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

The founder of modern Tur-key ordered Hagia Sophia to be turned into a museum in 1934 but Turkey’s highest administrative court on July 10 said the building was registered in property deeds as a mosque, allowing Ankara to change its status once more.

AFPAnkara

12 Gulf TimesSunday, July 26, 2020

INDIA

Jaya Jaitly convicted in corruption caseIANSNew Delhi

Two decades after a sting operation was carried out to expose alleged

corruption in defence deals, a court in New Delhi convicted former Samata Party president Jaya Jaitly and two others for corruption.

The genesis of the case lies in a sting operation “Operation West End”, conducted by news website Tehelka in 2000-2001 to show corruption in defence procurement, and made public in mid-March 2001.

On the basis of the sting op-eration, a case was registered against Jaitly, Major General S P Murgai, Gopal K Pacherwal and Surender Kumar Surekha.

The Central Bureau of In-vestigation fi led the charge-sheet against Jaitly and others in 2006.

According to the agency, Jaitly entered into a crimi-nal conspiracy with the other

three and obtained Rs2 lakh as gratifi cation from Mathew Samuel, a representative of a fi ctitious fi rm Westend Inter-national, London.

Jaitly did it with a motive to exercise infl uence offi cials to get orders from the Defence Ministry for the supply of hand-held thermal cameras for the fi ctitious fi rm.

Judge Virendra Bhatt, in an order dated July 20, stated: “All three accused are hereby con-victed of the off ence under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.” The court will hear the arguments on the sentence on July 29.

Madhya Pradesh CM inhospital with Covid-19IANS Bhopal

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is in hospital

after he tested positive for the coronavirus.

Chouhan is admitted in the Chirayu Hospital in Bhoplal, a dedicated facility for the treat-ment of Covid-19. According to Bharatiya Janata Party spokes-man Lokendra Parashar, Chou-han himself said he wanted to be treated at Chirayu Hospital.

Parashar said the chief minis-ter chose the hospital as ordinary citizens are treated there.

“I have been admitted to the Chirayu Hospital on the advice of a doctor after testing Covid-19 positive. All types of tests have been conducted here. I am per-fectly healthy,” Chouhan tweeted.

Earlier, the chief minister shared information of his condi-tion on Twitter.

“My dear people, I was having symptoms of #Covid19, after the test my report has come positive. I appeal to all my colleagues that whoever has come in contact with me, get corona test done. People close to me must move to quarantine.”

In another tweet, Chouhan said, “I am following all the guide-lines of #Covid19. I will quaran-tine myself according to the doc-tor’s advice. I appeal to the people of my state to be careful, just a lit-tle carelessness invites coronavi-rus. I made every eff ort to avoid it, but people used to come and meet me for various reasons.”

In other developments, a cen-tenarian woman from Karnataka’s Ballari district has survived coro-navirus infection, only to dismiss it as common cold, an offi cial said.

“Hallamma from Huvina Hadagali town recovered from Covid-19, though she dismissed it as common cold. She con-tracted the infection from her son,” Ballari District Health Of-

fi cer Janardhan told IANS.Four more family members

were later found infected, in-cluding Hallamma.

“Right now, all infected mem-bers in Hallamma’s family have recovered and are doing fi ne,” the offi cial said.

The elderly woman said doc-tors treated her well and that she ate regular food and also an ap-ple daily during her treatment.

Meanwhile, octogenarian Gujarat politician Shankersinh Vaghela, who recently got treat-ed for Covid-19, posted photo-graphs on his Twitter account which show why he could easily beat the infection within days.

On his Twitter post he is seen lifting heavy weights and jog-ging, which has inspired the young and old alike.

Vaghela, 81, fondly known as ‘Bapu’ by his followers, recently posted the pictures showing him lifting weights and jogging, which went viral within mo-ments.

An unemployed musician sings and dances with his drum to create awareness about the spread of the Covid-19 on the Howrah Bridge during a complete lockdown announced by the state government, in Kolkata yesterday.

Aggressive testing helpingDelhi tackle Covid: expertIANSNew Delhi

After Delhi seemed to be overwhelmed by the coronavirus catastrophe,

a respite may be in sight with the number of infections begin-ning to decline consistently, and it appears that the curve may plateau soon.

According to an expert, one of the crucial factors which helped Delhi tide over the health crisis is aggressive testing.

But Dr Neeraj Nischal, Asso-ciate Professor in the Depart-ment of Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sci-ences (AIIMS) emphasised that

people should not lower their guard against the viral infec-tion.

“It is clear that the policy of test, trace, isolate and treat cases is bound to decrease the number of cases. This is exactly what is happening in Delhi, as cases have begun to decline,” he told IANS.

“I would like to add the other crucial reason for decline in cases is due to the participation of the people. Most people dili-gently followed social distanc-ing norms, which eventually helped,” he added.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in a recent statement, said: “We have increased test-ing in Delhi. Initially, on test-

ing 100 people, around 31 were found to be corona positive, and today, only 13 out of 100 people are found to be corona posi-tive. These things show that the situation is under control, and is not as terrible as it was one month back.”

Asked about the possibil-ity of herd immunity against the backdrop of the recently conducted sero-surveillance in Delhi, Nischal said though cases have begun to decline, people should avoid making visits to malls or forming large crowds.

“People should not lower their guard. To develop herd immunity, a large section of the population has to be infected,

which has not happened in Del-hi yet,” he said.

In Delhi, out of the 11 dis-tricts, eight have sero-preva-lence of more than 20%.

In the central, northeast, north and Shahdara districts, the sero-prevalence is 27%.

Delhi’s southwest area has 12.95% sero-prevalence, the least in the city, followed by south and west Delhi at 18.61% and 19.13%, respectively.

In the period between June 27 to July 5, it was found that 24% people developed antibodies from virus, which means that 24% people have got infected and then recovered.

“We don’t know for sure for how long these antibod-

ies will last. It is a matter of debate how protective these antibodies are. Therefore, it is essential that people continue to take precautions,” Nischal said.

He said if people do not fol-low social distancing, then the city could face another surge in cases.

“The future of vaccines is bright. But to see that future, we have to survive the present. Social vaccine is the need of the hour. Maintaining social distance, wearing face mask, maintaining cough etiquette and hand hygiene will help in saving people not only from Covid-19, but also from other infections.”

A motorcade transports Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to a coronavirus care centre in Chirayu Hospital in Bhopal yesterday.

Bihar sees hugesurge in cases as people fl outbasic protocolsIANSPatna

The coronavirus infections in Bihar are increasing rapidly, offi cials warned yesterday.

In the state capital Patna, the number of infected people has crossed the 5,000-mark.

Despite the government im-plementing preventive measures to contain the pandemic, many people seem careless about it.

The Bihar government has declared a lockdown across the state till July 31.

However, people are allowed to move freely for some hours in the morning and evening.

But instead of considering this a serious situation and staying at home, people are violating the social distancing norms openly, the offi cials said.

The people are not observing even basic protocols to prevent the disease. They are moving in the streets without wearing a face mask.

However, awareness cam-paigns are also being run to mo-tivate people to wear a mask and police are also imposing fi nes on those not wearing a mask.

Additional Director General of Police Jitendra Kumar said that action is being taken against those who do not wear masks.

“A penalty of Rs47,26,000 has been recovered from 94,520 people for not wearing a mask from July 5-24,” he said.

On the other hand, there is

concern over the increasing number of infections.

On Friday, a patient jumped off the third fl oor of the All In-dia Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna.

In another incident, health workers had to face the ire of villagers when they reached the Ratwara river in Mohania block where the last rites of a police inspector were being performed.

The inspector died of Cov-id-19.

According to the Health Min-istry data, there were 18,853 Covid-19 patients in Bihar as of July 14; the number increased to 33,511 by July 24.

In these 10 days, the number of infected people in Patna has more than doubled.

In Patna, the number of in-fected people on July 14 was 2,259; on July 24 it was 5,347.

Meanwhile, the Rashtriya Ja-nata Dal and the Congress are continuously targeting the gov-ernment over the increasing cases.

Former deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav alleged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been invisible for four months during the pandemic.

This government has left stu-dents, labourers, patients, the poor and common man to die, he said.

Senior Congress leader and former state Youth Congress president Lalan Kumar said the government has not been able to contain the coronavirus.

Rajasthan CM to approach president ‘if required’IANSJaipur

A day after a face-off with Governor Kalraj Mishra over convening of a spe-

cial assembly session, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot yesterday said he would foil the Bharatiya Janata Party’s plan of toppling the state government and even “go to the president, if required”.

Addressing Congress legis-lators at a luxury hotel, Gehlot said: “if required we would stay at the hotel for 21 more days.”

The MLAs hailed the chief minister by raising their hands.

The legislators are staying at the hotel to block any attempt of poaching.

The chief minister called a cabinet meeting at 4pm report-edly to discuss a new proposal for the assembly session.

While some Congress offi cials

said the chief minister would meet the governor during the day, Raj Bhavan offi cials told IANS: “No such appointment has been sought”.

However, the BJP said some of its party leaders would meet the governor to discuss the rising number of coronavirus cases in the state.

The governor is facing fl ak from the Gehlot government for not acceding to its request to convene the assembly session.

The governor on Friday said that no one was above constitu-tional decorum.

On convening the assem-bly session, the Raj Bhavan said a letter had been sent to the Rajasthan Parliamentary Affairs Department, raising some points, like the date from which the session was to be convened as it was not men-tioned in the cabinet note and no approval had been given by the cabinet.

“Neither justifi cation nor any agenda has been proposed to call the session on short notice. In the normal process, a 21-day no-tice is required to call a session,” it said.

Instructing the state govern-ment to ensure independence and free movement of MLAs, it said as the case of disqualifica-tion of some MLAs was under the consideration of the high court and the Supreme Court, the state government should

take that into account.It also asked the state govern-

ment to share details of how the session would be called amid the spread of coronavirus in the state.

The Congress MLAs on Fri-day staged a protest at the Raj Bhavan, urging the governor to give his approval for convening a special assembly session.

After meeting the governor on Friday evening, Gehlot accused him of working under pressure

of “top leaders” and hence, not giving permission to call a spe-cial assembly session.

Later, the chief minister called a cabinet meeting at 9.30pm, which continued till late in the night.

Yesterday, Congress members staged protests at the district headquarters against the BJP, which according to them was making attempts to topple the state government and “kill de-mocracy”.

Doctors and medical staff stand in a corridor as they get prepared to receive coronavirus patients at a newly-inaugurated Covid-19 hospital in New Delhi yesterday.

Jaya Jaitly

PAKISTAN13Gulf Times

Sunday, July 26, 2020

Govt to fi le appeal with EU for PIA fl ights to Europe: ministerPakistan’s Federal Minis-

ter for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan yesterday

informed the Senate that the government will fi le an appeal, by August 30, for resumption of fl ights to Europe in the backdrop of suspension of Pakistan In-ternational Airlines (PIA) fl ight operations by European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) citing safety concerns.

Responding to a calling atten-tion notice jointly moved by Raza Rabbani from Pakistan People’s

Party (PPP), Javed Abbasi from Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) and Mir Kabeer Shahi from National Party (NP) during Senate session, the minister said the Aviation Division was taking steps to address the concerns of EASA.

“The suspension of fl ight operations is not a new phe-nomenon,” he said, adding that it started in the year 2007 when EASA suspended the fl ight operations of PIA’s B 747 and Airbus A 320 due to safety concerns.

“This continued in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017 and EA-SA’s last observations high-

lighting safety concerns came in 2019,” the minister said, adding that EASA raised six observations in 2019 out of which fi ve observations were addressed while the last obser-vation regarding fl ight safety was being addressed.

The minister denied that his speech (which was critical of PIA and its pilots) was the reason behind the suspension of EASA operations, but admitted that the EASA’s last of the six observations referred to the said speech.

“EASA’s last observation made a reference to my speech. But the reason behind the sus-pension of PIA fl ight opera-

tions in Europe by EASA was not my speech or plane crash in Karachi. Had it been the reason, the PIA operations would not have been suspended by EASA in previous years-from 2007 and so on.”

The EASA deadline to address its six observations was June 30, 2020 but the PIA plane crash in Karachi in May this year proved to be a great setback for Paki-stan’s eff orts to address EASA’s last observation regarding safety, the minister said.

On the issue of fake degrees/licence holders in PIA, the min-ister said the Supreme Court took suo moto notice into al-

leged fake degree holders in PIA in 2018.

After through verifi cation, 658 employees in PIA were sacked on charges of fake degrees, he said, adding the sacked employed fi led their petitions against their ter-mination but all petitions were dismissed by the apex court.

He said after proper inquiry, licences of 262 pilots were found suspected or dubious and 28 li-cences were cancelled. Five of-fi cials of the licensing authority (Civil Aviation Authority) who were found involved in issuing dubious licences to pilots were suspended, he said.

Khan reiterated that the mat-

ter of “dubious licences would be brought to the logical end, and action would continue till the last culprit is traced and taken to task.”

The minister denied that the government had any plans to privatise PIA, saying the nation-al airliner would be restructured.

He also denied that the gov-ernment had any plan to lay off pilots from PIA and induct pi-lots from Shaheen Airlines or those retired from Pakistan Air Force (PAF).

About the appointment of PIA chief executive offi cer, the minis-ter said that matter was pendingbefore the Supreme Court.

InternewsIslamabad

Progress in Covid-19 recoveries

There is a signifi cant im-provement in the number of recoveries from Cov-

id-19 in Pakistan with the tally reaching 219,783.

According to latest statistics, 1,209 new cases and fi fty four deaths were reported during the last twenty four hours.

The number of confi rmed Coronavirus cases in the country has risen to over 270,000.

These include 115,883 in Sindh, 91,423 in Punjab, 32,898 in Khy-ber Pakhtunkhwa, 14,766 in Is-lamabad, 11,523 in Balochistan, 1,989 in Balochistan and 1,918 in Gilgit Baltistan.

Govt to set up 50,000 grocery stores

The National Assembly or lower house of Pakistan was informed that 50, 000

new Utility Stores will be set up across country to provide essen-tial food items to the people at aff ordable prices.

Responding to a question in the National Assembly dur-ing “Question Hour”, Minister for Communication and Postal Services Murad Saeed said youth can also apply for loan to set up Utility Stores under Kamyab Ja-wan Programme.

He said the government is tak-ing all necessary measures to control unnecessary increase in the prices of edible and common use items so that the common many may not face undue infl a-tionary pressure.

He said infl ation has de-clined from 14.6% in January this year to 8.6% in June this year due to proactive policy and administrative measures of the government.

First virtual hospital starts functioning in Karachi

Pakistan’s fi rst virtual hospital has started functioning in Kara-

chi to treat all those patients who are unwilling to visit any healthcare facility fearing that they could contract the infectious disease.

“We have launched Pa-kistan’s fi rst and the only virtual health facility in Karachi which is off ering nurse-assisted teleconsul-tation, home lab collection, radiological procedures at patients’ bedside at their res-idence and medicine delivery to them at their doorsteps”, said Dr Anam Daayem, Chief Operating Offi cer (CCO) of the Ehad Virtual Health said while talking to newsmen in Karachi.

Several health experts termed the establishment of a virtual hospital a blessing for patients, especially those who are to travel frequently

to see their consultants, wait for hours and face the hassle in availing medical services at clinics and hospitals, say-ing this facility would save thousands of patients from

inconvenience.So far, around two dozen

Covid-19 people have availed nurse-assisted teleconsulta-tion service of Ehad Virtual Health, Pakistan’s fi rst vir-tual health platform where a team of leading consultants of the country treat bed-bound patients at their homes with the help of trained nurses and paramedics, provide them lab services at their residence and all the medicines, supplies including oxygen and equip-ment required for therapies are delivered at their door-steps.

“With the help of port-able X-ray and ECG machines, these tests are performed at the patient’s residence, all their blood and other secre-tions’ samples are drawn at their homes and results are delivered online.”

InternewsKarachi

People line up for free food at a distribution point in Rawalpindi yesterday. Pakistan has so far confirmed a total of more than 271,887 virus cases and 5787 deaths - though with testing still limited, real rates are thought to be much higher.

Lining up for free food

36,000 Pakistanis lost jobs in Gulf amid Covid-19: PM aide

More than 36,000 Pa-kistanis had lost their jobs working in the

Gulf region this year, owing to economic slowdown brought by the coronavirus pandemic, said Sayed Zulfi kar Abbas Bukhari,

special assistant to Prime Min-ister on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development.

Despite, job losses mount-ing into thousands the SAPM was of the view that the fi gures are minuscule compared to the overall impact of Covid-19 in economies of the region.

“The number of Pakistanis who lost their jobs are not big

considering the millions of peo-ple living in the UAE,” he said, quoted Khaleej Times.

Bukhari said the UAE authori-ties have assured that Pakistan will be among the favourable nations in the post-pandemic economy. “The government wants more skilled labour to be sent abroad,” he said, adding that about 30% of skilled Pakistanis

have got jobs in recent times.Pakistani expats play a vital

role in the country’s economy, providing much-needed dol-lars in the shape of workers’ remittances.

As per the latest data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) remittances rose by an im-pressive 50.7% during June 2020 to reach ‘record high’ $2.466bn

as compared to $1.636bn received in June 2019.

Country-wise, during June 2020, workers’ remit-tances received from Saudi Arabia ($619.4mn), the USA ($452.0mn), the UAE ($431.7mn) and the UK ($401mn) record-ing an increase of 42%, 7.1%, 33.5% and 40.8% respectively, as compared to May 2020.

InternewsIslamabad

IT minister raises voice against YouTube ban

Pakistan tech industry is perturbed these days over the recent actions of Pa-

kistan Telecommunication Au-thority (PTA) involving banning streaming app Bigo, and warning another app TikTok.

The situation was further tense after the Supreme Court hinted on suggesting ban-ning video streaming platform YouTube, over concerns re-garding the presence of vulgar content on social media.

With many criticising the development, Syed Amin ul

Haque, minister for IT and tel-ecommunication, has too voiced against such a move saying that “banning anything means obstructing its growth.”

The minister while talking to Arab News admitted that the livelihoods of thousands of in-dividuals in the country are now associated with YouTube, and is a good source of learning and education.” I think YouTube is a good channel and its ac-tivities could be taken forward positively.”

“Ban is not the solution to the problems, instead it could be im-proved through fi ltration,” said Haque.

Earlier, Tania Aidrus, head of

Prime Minister’s Digital Pakistan gave a similar statement saying that such a move will hamper the country from achieving its Digital Pakistan vision.

“Banning a platform like YouTube is not a solution. The three years when YouTube was banned in Pakistan it held back our content creator ecosystem which has just started to fl our-ish now, creating employment opportunities for thousands,” tweeted Aidrus.

The minister also informed that the government had set a target of $5bn for IT exports in the next three years. “We are confi dent that the target will be achieved,” said Haque.

InternewsIslamabad

Teaching licence to be made mandatory in PunjabThe Punjab province government has decided to introduce teaching licences and a bill to the eff ect will be tabled in the Punjab Assembly soon, said Education Minister Murad Raas. “Like doctors and engineers, teachers will also be registered and a law to the eff ect will be shortly laid before the Assembly,” the minister said while summing up debate on education in the house.He said the initiative would provide better employment opportunities to teachers in other countries.He informed the lawmakers that the proposed law would also tackle harassment of students and teaching staff at private schools.He also claimed that after online registration of 60,000 private schools post-Eid al-Adha, the role of money and recommendation would be abolished. He lamented that technology was never used in governing educational institutions by previous governments.Rass said when he took charge of the portfolio, he thought as if he had been assigned the task of transfer minister as there was a huge load of transfer applications pending for years. He said the PML-N ruled the province for 10 consecutive years but didn’t develop any system to regularise transfers in the education sector.He said the PTI government developed an app without any cost and thus 22,000 transfer cases were settled to the satisfaction of parents of women teachers with only 23 complaints. (Internews)

Govt to review decision to reopen schools

The Pakistan government will review its decision to reopen schools in the fi rst

week of September, said Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood.

Talking to a private news channel, the minister said pri-

vate educational institutions could only call their teachers and administration staff on duty before September 15 but the gov-ernment schools would be never allowed to call their students before a fi nal decision, as there could be no compromise on the health of students.

“Schools and colleges across the country will reo-pen only after the coronavirus

pandemic is over,” he added.He said strict SOPs, includ-

ing spaced-out seating arrange-ments, division of classes into further sections and change in timings could be some of the measures that schools will have to adopt whenever they were reopened.

“We are considering every possible option. We will try to adjust things like whether to hold

the annual exams this year, or defer tests to next year”, he said.

“The fi nal decision would be taken by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), which monitors and acts upon the developments to stem the spread of coronavirus in the country,” he mentioned.

He further said specifi c tasks would be created for teachers in schools and responsibilities

for ensuring health and hygiene would be defi ned before schools reopen.

“We want to end the uncer-tainty as soon as possible with the consultation of all stake-holders on the basic important issue like education,” he said.

Shafqat also requested the private schools to follow the SOPs devised by the govern-ment. He said schools must look

at how they could reopen with better implementation of SOPs and more comprehensive sup-port for children at the school including health, water, sanita-tion, and hygiene facilities.

He made it clear that all SOPs would be designed by the federal ministry, but the provincial gov-ernments would be allowed to alter them as per the situation in their respective provinces.

InternewsIslamabad

10 workers from China test positive for coronavirusInternewsBahawalpur

Ten Chinese work-ers were admitted to a hospital in Bahawalpur

after they tested positive for coronavirus.It was learnt that the Chinese nationals were working on a power project near Khairpur Tamewali on Hasilpur Road where they contracted the virus. Dr Hamid, focal person of the coronavirus treatment at BVH-2 on Jhangiwali Road,

said that their condition was stable.He said prior to the arrival of the Chinese patients, the hospital staff was at ease as the hospital for the first time since the outbreak of Covid-19 had no confirmed case of coronavirus after the recovery of all the patients admitted here for the previous three months.He said he was sure that with the due supervision and treatment by the doctors and paramedical staff , the Chinese patients would recover in due course of time.

Govt making efforts to eliminate locusts: ministerPakistani Minister for National Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam says the federal and provincial governments are making coordinated eff orts to eliminate locusts from the country.Briefing the media at National Locust Control Center in Islamabad, he said the presence of the crop munching pest has shrunk to five or six districts in Balochistan, two in Sindh and in some areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.He, therefore, stressed the need for remaining alert and prepared to cope with the challenge.As regards equipment, he said the country has now nine aircraft to carry out sprays and these have been deployed at diff erent places.

By Chad Terhune, Deborah J Nelson and Robin Respaut Reuters

Devon Brumfi eld could hear her father gasping for breath on the phone.

Darrell Cager Sr, 64, had diabetes.

So his youngest daughter urged him to seek care.

The next day, he collapsed and died in his New Orleans home.

The daughter soon learned the cause: acute respiratory distress from Covid-19.

His death certifi cate noted diabetes as an underlying condition.

Brumfi eld, who lives in Texas and also has type 2 diabetes, is “terrifi ed” she could be next.

“I’m thinking, Lord, this could happen to me,” she said of her father’s death in late March.

She has good reason to fear.As US outbreaks surge, a new

government study shows that nearly 40% of people who have died with Covid-19 had diabetes.

Among deaths of those under 65, half had the chronic condition.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysed more than 10,000 deaths in 15 states and New York City from February to May.

Jonathan Wortham, a CDC epidemiologist who led the study, called the fi ndings “extremely striking,” with serious implications for those with diabetes and their loved ones.

A separate Reuters survey of states found a similarly high rate of diabetes among people dying from Covid-19 in 12 states and the District of Columbia.

Ten states, including California, Arizona and Michigan, said they weren’t yet reporting diabetes and other underlying conditions, and the rest did not respond - rendering an incomplete picture for policymakers and clinicians struggling to protect those most at-risk.

America’s mortality rates from diabetes have been climbing since 2009 and exceed most other industrialised nations.

Blacks and Latinos suff er from diabetes at higher rates than whites and have disproportionately suff ered from Covid-19.

“Diabetes was already a slow-moving pandemic. Now Covid-19 has crashed through like a fast-moving wave,” said Elbert Huang, a professor of medicine and director of the University of Chicago’s Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy.

Keeping diabetes under control - among the best defences against Covid-19 - has become diffi cult as the pandemic disrupts medical care, exercise and healthy eating routines.

The high price of insulin has also forced some people to keep working - risking virus exposure - to aff ord the essential medicine.

And as the country grapples with an economic crisis, millions of Americans have lost their jobs and their employer-sponsored health insurance.

Much of this could have been anticipated and addressed with a more comprehensive, national response, said A Enrique Caballero, a Harvard Medical School endocrinologist and diabetes researcher.

Top health offi cials should have done

more to emphasise the threat to people with diabetes and assuage their fears of hospital visits, he said, while also focusing more on helping patients manage their condition at home.

Policymakers had ample warning that Covid-19 posed a high risk for diabetes patients.

In 2003, during the coronavirus outbreak known as Sars, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, more than 20% of people who died had diabetes.

In 2009, during the H1N1 fl u pandemic, patients with diabetes faced triple the risk of hospitalisation.

Most recently in 2012, when the coronavirus Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or Mers, emerged, one study found 60% of patients who entered intensive care or died had diabetes.

The Covid-19 pandemic, however, has unearthed previously unknown complications because it has lasted longer and infected many more people than earlier coronavirus epidemics, said Charles S

Dela Cruz, a Yale University physician-scientist and Director of the Center of Pulmonary Infection Research and Treatment.

Doctors warn that the coronavirus pandemic may indirectly lead to a spike in diabetes-related complications - more emergency-room visits, amputations, vision loss, kidney disease and dialysis.

“My fear is we will see a tsunami of problems once this is over,” said Andrew Boulton, president of the International Diabetes Federation and a medical professor at the University of Manchester in England.

Researchers have scrambled for months to unravel the connections between diabetes and the coronavirus, uncovering an array of vulnerabilities.

The virus targets the heart, lung and kidneys, organs already weakened in many diabetes patients.

Covid-19 also kills more people who are elderly, obese or have high blood pressure, many of whom also have diabetes, studies show.

On the microscopic level, high glucose and lipid counts in diabetes patients can trigger a “cytokine storm,” when the immune system overreacts, attacking the body.

Damaged endothelial cells, which provide a protective lining in blood vessels, can lead to infl ammation as white

blood cells rush to attack the virus and may cause lethal clots to form, emerging research suggests.

“It’s all one big puzzle,” said Yale’s Dela Cruz. “It’s all interrelated.”

Many of their vulnerabilities can be traced to high blood sugar, which can weaken the immune system or damage vital organs.

Covid-19 appears not only to thrive in a high-sugar environment but to exacerbate it.

Recent evidence suggests the virus may trigger new cases of diabetes.

David Thrasher, a pulmonologist in Montgomery, Alabama, said up to half of Covid-19 patients in his local hospital ICU have diabetes. “They are often my most challenging patients,” he said, and the immune system response may be a big reason why.

The pandemic has ripped through several southern states with some of the nation’s highest diabetes rates.

A Reuters examination of state data found that nearly 40% of Covid-19 deaths were people with diabetes in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia.

Much of this area lies within what the CDC calls the “diabetes belt.”

Alabama has the highest percentage of adults with diabetes at 13.2%, or more than 550,000 people, CDC data show.

Diabetes patients accounted for 38% of the state’s Covid-related deaths through June, offi cials said.

Karen Landers, Alabama’s assistant state health offi cer, said she is particularly heartbroken at the deaths of diabetes patients in their 30s and 40s.

Medical professionals in these states say they struggle to keep patients’ diabetes under control when regular in-person appointments are cancelled or limited because of the pandemic.

Sarah Hunter Frazer, a nurse practitioner at the Medical Outreach Ministries clinic for low-income residents in Montgomery, Alabama, said diabetes is common among her Covid-19 patients.

With clinic visits on hold, she stays in touch by phone or video chat.

If a problem persists, she insists on an outdoors, face-to-face meeting. “We meet them under a shade tree behind the clinic,” Frazer said.

In similar fashion, doctors at the University of North Carolina stepped up

their use of telemedicine to reach at-risk rural patients.

Despite those eff orts, John Buse, a physician and director of the university’s diabetes center, said he’s certain some foot ulcers and dangerously high blood sugars are being missed because people avoid health facilities for fear of the virus.

Many diabetes patients with severe or deadly cases of Covid-19 were in good health before contracting the virus.

Clark Osojnicki, 56, of Stillwater, Minnesota, had heard early warnings about the risks of the coronavirus for people with diabetes, said his wife, Kris Osojnicki.

But the couple didn’t think the admonitions applied to him because his glucose levels were in a healthy range.

“He was incredibly active,” she said.On a Sunday in mid-March, Osojnicki

jogged alongside his border collie, Sonic, on an agility course for dogs inside a suburban Minneapolis gym.

Three days later, Osojnicki developed a fever, then body aches, a cough and shortness of breath.

He was soon in the hospital, on a ventilator.

Clark, a fi nancial systems analyst, died April 6 from a blood clot in the lungs.

Osojnicki is among 255 recorded deaths in Minnesota of people with Covid-19 and diabetes mentioned on their death certifi cate as of mid-July, according to state data.

The records describe people who died as young as 34.

For years, the skyrocketing cost of insulin has fueled much of the national outrage over drug prices.

Early in the pandemic, the American Diabetes Association asked states to eliminate out-of-pocket costs for insulin and other glucose-lowering medications through state-regulated insurance plans.

But no state has fully followed that advice, the ADA said.

Vermont suspended deductibles for preventive medications, like insulin, starting in July.

Other states ordered insurers to make prescription refi lls more available but didn’t address cost.

Robert Washington, 68, knew his diabetes put him at risk from Covid-19.

When his employer, Gila River’s Lone Butte Casino in Chandler, Arizona, reopened in May, he decided to keep working as a security guard so he could aff ord insulin.

Washington’s supervisors had assured him he could patrol alone in a golf cart, said his daughter, Lina.

But once back at work, he was stationed at the entrance, where long lines of gamblers waited, most without masks, Robert told his daughter.

“He was terrifi ed at what he saw,” Lina said.

He tested positive for the virus in late May and was admitted to the hospital days later.

He died from complications of Covid-19 on June 11, his daughter said.

A week after Washington’s death, the casino again closed as Covid-19 cases exploded in the state.

The casino did not respond to a request for comment.

“It’s hard to accept he is gone. I have to stop myself from wanting to call him,” said Lina, a sports anchor and reporter at a Sacramento, California, TV station. “A lot of these deaths were in some way preventable.”

Gulf Times Sunday, July 26, 2020

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CHAIRMANAbdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFFaisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka

Deputy Managing EditorK T Chacko

Calibrated approachneeded to help speedup economic recovery

Economies around the globe have been brought to their knees by Covid-19 and many countries have closed their borders on fears of further spread of coronavirus.

But experts warn that further country-wide border closures could seriously jeopardise global economic recovery, which is essential for maintaining jobs and social and welfare schemes around the world. Undoubtedly, border closures will continue to hamper the travel industry, which is a key driver of global economic growth.

It was in this context that the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) recently urged governments to take a more carefully calibrated approach on border closures and introduce localised measures, and only when necessary.

This, it stressed would avoid blanket restrictions, prevent stalling the fragile economic recovery and not cripple the already bruised and battered travel and tourism sector. Travel and tourism is critical to powering that economic recovery, generating one in four of all new jobs last year.

WTTC’s ‘2020 Economic Impact Report’ has shown that during 2019 the sector supported one in 10 jobs of all jobs (330mn in total) and made a massive 10.3% contribution to global GDP.

A research by World Travel & Tourism Council showed that every 2.7% increase in travellers would generate or recover 1mn jobs in the sector.

Governments working together with the right co-ordinated measures could stimulate an increase in travel by as much as 27%, recreating a massive 10mn jobs in travel and tourism. Restoring business travel, wherever possible, is key to help kick-start the economic recovery.

WTTC says that for two of the world’s top business centres - New York and London, business travellers account for one dollar in every three spent in New York and one pound sterling out of every four spent in London.

According to Gloria Guevara, WTTC President & CEO “enforcing country-wide restrictions is a blunt

instrument, which benefi ts no one; neither travellers, the local population, the economy or the travel and tourism sector, which has been left reeling from the impact of worldwide travel restrictions.

“Such measures could undo the signifi cant eff orts to revive travel and tourism, which has recently shown encouraging signs of emerging from the worst of the pandemic, and which in turn has brought hope to millions of people around the world who depend upon the sector for their livelihoods.”

In a recent IATA global survey, fewer passengers said they will travel again in the fi rst months after the pandemic subsides. In early April, some 61% said that they would. By early June that fell to 45%. And about two thirds are seeing less travel in their future — be it for vacation, visiting friends and relatives or business.

Understanding the concerns of travellers is important because their willingness to travel will drive the sector and help speed up global economic recovery. Passenger confi dence cannot be re-built overnight.

Experts say it is perfectly possible to fi ght Covid-19 and support the economic recovery through the travel and tourism sector at the same time. Probably that can be achieved through a calibrated approach on border closures and introduction of localised measures on lockdown, globally.

“Enforcing country-wide restrictions is a blunt instrument, which benefi ts no one”

Why Covid-19 is killing US diabetes patients at alarming rates

Healthcare workers work to treat critically ill patients filling bed after bed in the Parkland Hospital Covid-19 Tactical Care Unit in Dallas.

By Tolullah OniCambridge

The Covid-19 pandemic has heightened awareness of the signifi cant fl aws in our urban infrastructure, and

highlighted our lack of attention to how human health, natural systems, and the built environment interact to determine planetary health. It is now clear that our economic system increases food insecurity, our streets prioritise motorised traffi c over physi-cal exercise, and our houses increase the risk of disease transmission. We can, and must, do better, by launching a bold new investment programme for planetary health.

The near-universal focus on health prompted by the pandemic presents an opportunity to mobilise all sectors of society toward embracing proactive approaches to inclusive wellbeing. Building resilient and sustainable systems for health, particularly in the context of cities and urban development, will be key in this regard.

At best, the failure fully to address the adverse implications of today’s built environments represents a missed opportunity to enable healthy communities. At worst, it actively contributes to disease risk and transmission. In the United Kingdom, for example, the higher Covid-19 mortality in poor people has illustrated the short-sightedness of housing policies that fail to place health and ecological considerations at their centre.

One positive feature of the current crisis has been the rapid adoption of innovative measures (including versions of universal income) to mitigate the pandemic’s immediate economic impact. This shows that we can address systemic failures quickly when the will exists.

Likewise, we must radically reimagine our built environments

so that they both strengthen the immediate pandemic response and serve as vehicles for improving long-term health. And while cities will be the primary testing ground for reforms to promote health and wellbeing, it will also be necessary to overhaul existing health governance systems.

Although several global philanthropic initiatives have sought to improve urban health and resilience, undoubtedly with positive results, today’s flawed systems need more fundamental disruption. Simply put, the world needs a new Marshall Plan for planetary health – akin to a New Deal for a post-pandemic recovery.

Such a scheme would serve as a global guide, aligning incentives and shifting default behaviors toward the shared goal of sustainable healthy urban development. It will require the agreement and participation of national and local governments, private developers, investors, and multilateral organisations, which will take time. Moreover, the initiative would take multiple institutional forms and pathways, some of which may not exist yet.

Governments and private-sector actors will need to address three issues in particular.

For starters, policymakers should not regard resilience only as an end result. Many of the shocks and stressors that drive acute and protracted health emergencies stem from intentional choices by local and global actors. Beyond adaptation to cope with these shocks and stressors, building resilience must therefore involve confronting the decisions that weaken systems by fostering ecological disruption and disease.

In addition, policymakers must tackle the “problem blindness” that results from the temporal and spatial distance between exposure to health risks and subsequent outcomes, especially for diseases with a long arc.

For example, there is a disconnect between current urban development and future hospitalisations due to asthma and heart disease, which may be exacerbated by air pollution, exposure to damp environments, and lack of access to safe areas for physical activity. One consequence of problem blindness is attenuated accountability for long-term health.

Finally, policymakers will need to address the “wrong pocket problem,” whereby the sector benefi ting from an intervention may not be the one that bears the cost of implementing it. This poses a challenge to promoting health through urban development,

particularly in the context of siloed public-sector budgets, and will necessitate a redesign of health fi nancing.

Alternatives to the current GDP-based approach to economic development already exist. Bhutan has developed a Gross National Happiness index to guide its policymakers, while the Wellbeing Economy Alliance advocates for a wellbeing-based economic system and is being embraced by the governments of New Zealand, Iceland, Scotland, and Wales. But addressing the three issues noted above will require fi nance and investment in systems for health.

Here, multilateral development fi nance institutions (MDFIs), such as the African and Asian Development Banks, could help. As non-commercial organisations that provide capital for economic development projects across a wide range of member states, such institutions are uniquely positioned to drive a Marshall Plan-type scheme.

First, MDFIs have the convening power to bring together heads of member states and private-sector leaders to co-develop and ratify such a plan, while taking regional nuances into account. Second, MDFIs could condition urban infrastructure development loans under the scheme

on explicit consideration of a project’s health impacts and health-promotion strategies.

Under the plan, lending and borrowing institutions would decide how to mobilise and allocate fi nancial capital on the basis of where the costliest health problems are, and who is best placed to prevent disease. They would also explore creative strategies to encourage intersectoral policies and fi nance collaborative projects that advance human and planetary health. Such an approach could further catalyse public policy, for example by making the primary performance indicator of urban infrastructure development strategies, policies, and initiatives their contribution to health.

The devastating impact of Covid-19 has highlighted the urgent need for ambitious, all-encompassing reforms rather than incremental, piecemeal measures. A global Marshall Plan for planetary health would constitute a radical new approach, and would be an important step towards health-proofi ng the future of fast-growing cities. In addition to fi nance and investment from public and private sectors, it will require a social movement (led by the young) to drive the unremitting demand for a healthy post-Covid recovery, supported by research across the sciences, arts, and humanities. Preventing toxic decisions in urban planning and infrastructure development is essential to reduce vulnerability to disease, lessen the need for healthcare, and bring about better cities and better health for all. – Project Syndicate

Tolullah Oni, a public health physician and urban epidemiologist, is a clinical senior research associate at the University of Cambridge, an honorary associate professor at the University of Cape Town, a 2015 Next Einstein Forum Fellow, and a 2019 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

COMMENT

Gulf Times Sunday, July 26, 2020 15

A Marshall Plan for planetary health

How to make President Trump’s Covid-19 briefi ngs actually good

Origin story: America’s crocodiles came out of Africa

By Faye FlamBloomberg Opinion

One of the greatest outrages in the US response to the coronavirus pandemic has been the way the govern-

ment has failed to off er the people useful, trustworthy information. That’s still true, even as President Donald Trump has restarted his daily Covid-19 briefi ngs.

While some outlets have praised his more somber tone, the problem with the previous briefi ngs was not a lack of pessimism and gloom.

The problem was that the president off ered almost no usable information about the risks Americans faced, what was being done with our tax dollars to fi ght back, or an honest evaluation of the various eff orts on the part of the pharmaceutical industry.

He has another chance now. But first, he should stop hogging the microphone. The new briefings have featured the president standing alone. What people need is not just more of Anthony Fauci, a bright spot from the earlier briefings, but a combination of other doctors and scientists selected for their work

on specific topics – whether that’s vaccines, drug development, hospital capacity, epidemiology, virology or economics.

Trump should also provide data that’s meant to be useful rather than manipulative. People need a better real-time snapshot of what the virus is doing now.

At an online press conference on Tuesday, epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health said that no states are doing a good job of telling people anything about the new positive cases – where they live, what kinds of jobs they have, or how they were likely exposed. There’s rarely information about how long it takes to get test results back in diff erent parts of the country, or whether there was any attempt to track down contacts of those who tested positive.

At the same event, former CDC director Tom Frieden noted that Covid-19 is not like Aids, where people, once infected, remain infectious for life. There’s a window of time when people are most infectious – from a couple of days before they get symptoms to fi ve or six days afterwards. If test results take too long, people have already transmitted

the virus to most of the people they were ever going to transmit it to.

Too much data now focuses on cumulative cases. The Northeastern states hit hard early in the pandemic often still top the charts or appear dark red on maps even if infection rates there have now plunged.

Rates of change are also not informative on their own. If a state has two cases and one day it doubles to four, that’s a fast rate of increase; but it’s very diff erent from a place that has 5,000 cases and doubles to 10,000 in the same period of time.

What we really need is some information on the likely number of active cases in our regions – what percentage of the population of a city, or county, is likely to be infected or infectious right now? That’s the kind of information that should go into decisions such as reopening schools or restaurants, and the kind of “Covid weather report” people need to make their own wise decisions.

Of course, there’s more to national leadership than data. These new White House press briefi ngs could bring people together by sharing specifi c goals – such as making sure no hospital gets overwhelmed, or setting

some number of deaths we will try to stay below. The notion of getting the virus “under control” is too vague and too slippery.

Specifi c, science-based guidelines for good citizenship would help all of Americans make better choices. They may especially help motivate many younger, healthier people who face a relatively low risk of dying. Some have decided that any personal risk is outweighed by the benefi t of human contact or a paycheck or both, but their behaviour is helping to keep the pandemic going.

If the president wants to be uplifting and inspiring – or even just get better ratings – what better way than to showcase the country’s scientifi c talent, share useful information people are hungering for, and off er the kind of concrete guidance that has been so sorely lacking? – Tribune News Service

Faye Flam is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She has written for the Economist, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Psychology Today, Science and other publications. She has a degree in geophysics from the California Institute of Technology.

AFPParis

The several species of croco-diles plying rivers and brack-ish byways in the Americas — from Florida to Peru — all

came from Africa, according to a study published Thursday.

They may have descended, re-searchers speculate, from a single pregnant specimen that bobbed along Atlantic Ocean currents to the New World at least fi ve million years ago, probably longer.

Based on the high-tech analysis of a skull fragment unearthed from the Libyan desert in 1939, the findings are bolstered by genetic evidence pointing in the same direction, they reported in the journal Scientific Reports.

“This is a really exciting discovery,” lead authors Massimo Delfi no from the University of Turin and Dawid Iurino, a palaeontologist at Sapienza

University in Rome, told AFP by e-mail.

“It supports the results of molecular biologists that proposed the origin of American crocodiles had to be found in Africa.”

The out-of-Africa narrative is based on the re-examination of the skull and upper jaw of a seven-million-year-old fossil that had been tucked away for decades in a university museum drawer.

It belonged to an extinct species called Crocodylus checchiai.

Using CT-scans and 3D-modelling, the scientists identifi ed a tell-tale pro-trusion in the middle of the animal’s snout not found in any other Afri-can crocodile, living or extinct, but present in all four species currently found in the Americas.

In the world of paleontology, this is pretty close to a smoking gun.

“Our results are solid,” the re-searchers said when asked if the evidence was conclusive.

“The main problem for palaeobiol-

ogists is the rarity and fragmentary nature of fossil remains.”

Four other fossils dug up in Libya at the same time – including a complete skull and jaw – were either destroyed during World War II or lost.

C checchiai rewrites the story of how crocodiles spread across the planet in at least two ways.

It lays to rest the already fading hy-pothesis that the giant, fl esh-ripping reptiles – which fi rst emerged from Asia – arrived in the Americas before moving on to Africa, and not the other way around.

The long-neglected fossil also sup-plants another contender from Africa – Crocodylus niloticus, aka the Nile crocodile – as the closest forebear of the American species.

“According to our results, C chec-chiai nests between the Nile croco-dile and the American species,” the authors told AFP.

“It represents the missing link between the African and American lineages.”

“We can therefore assume one or more specimens – perhaps a pregnant female – dispersed from Africa to America about 7mn years ago, at the very least 5mn.”

That such a voyage is possible has been demonstrated by a present-day cousin, Australia’s saltwater crocodile, which satellite tracking has shown can travel 500km in about a month while passively transported by ocean currents.

More closely related to birds than dinosaurs, egg-laying crocodiles have been around for about 55 mil-lion years.

There are 16 species spread across the tropics of Africa, Asia, Australia and, of course, the Americas.

They vary in size from less than 6 feet for the dwarf crocodile, to more than seven metres and 1,000 kilos for the saltwater species.

The carnivores are able to replace each of their 80 teeth up to 50 times during their lifespan, which can top 60 years.

Live issues

A Covid-19 patient watches nurses speaking inside a field hospital built on a soccer stadium in Machakos, in Kenya, on July 23. The near-universal focus on health prompted by the pandemic presents an opportunity to mobilise all sectors of society towards embracing proactive approaches to inclusive wellbeing.

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QATAR

Gulf TimesSunday, July 26, 202016

Welcomed back with a water cannon salute, Qatar Airways resumed flights to Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen yesterday, operating a three times a week service. “On top of our current service to Istanbul Airport, we now off er 17 weekly flights to this beautiful city,” Qatar Airways tweeted.

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment’s General Cleanliness Department and Natural Reserves Department, in co-operation with Seashore Group, has launched an awareness campaign targeting the public about the importance of keeping the beaches clean, and disposing of trash in designated containers. The innovative campaign involves the use of signage in the shape of fish, containing awareness messages, as well as garbage containers that resemble huge fish. The use of fish-shaped elements highlights the importance of marine life and the damage caused by plastic on the marine environment.

Qatar Airways resumes flights to Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 stadiums use optimum dust-control strategiesBy Joseph VargheseStaff Reporter

As a part of its sustainabil-ity strategy, the Supreme Committee for Delivery

& Legacy (SC) has committed to implement an exclusive green certifi cation – titled GSAS Con-struction Management (GSAS-CM) – specifi cally to improve projects’ environmental per-formance during construction.

A fundamental part of GSAS-CM certifi cation is dust control, which has been exercised by all eight venues and permanent of-fi ces of the SC. In fact, most of these venues have managed to be awarded with the highest rec-ognition for dust control under GSAS-CM.

Dust control is one of the main activities audited by the sus-tainability experts at the Gulf Organisation for Research & Development (Gord). Based on a project’s performance in 25 cri-teria within eight categories that cover aspects from environmen-tal conservation and pollution mitigation to workers’ welfare and safety on site, GSAS-CM auditors witness on-site con-struction practices to decide the sustainability fulfi lment at the stadiums.

“As Qatar continues its urban built development, we are seeing

a range of environmental issues arising from the construction phase that need to be tackled. To address these problems, Gord has developed GSAS Construc-tion Management (GSAS-CM) certifi cation, which looks into the onsite construction proc-ess and practices carried out by contractors and builders. These have been implemented in the construction of stadiums and at many other construction sites all over Qatar,” said Dr Yousef Al-

horr, founding chairman, Gord. With dust management being

an integral part of the stadiums’ environmental performance, all eight venues for Qatar 2022 are targeting the highest sustain-ability certifi cations under the GSAS framework.

Bodour al-Meer, Sustain-ability & Environment senior manager at the SC, said: “Sta-diums are the heart of any foot-ball tournament. These are the places where cherished memo-

ries for players, spectators and organisers are created. We have built our stadiums for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar with long-term sustainability and environmental management as core concepts. To ensure tangi-ble and credible sustainability outcomes, we have implemented the GSAS certifi cation system.

“Everyone involved in sta-dium construction understands the value of sustainability and protecting the environment. By

working together, we have cre-ated a genuine learning legacy of environmental protection and sustainable development in the design and construction sector.”

All the projects have taken care to mitigate dust from stockpiles through the use of green plastic nets to cover stockpiles of soil and excavated materials. Simi-larly, trucks and other vehicles carrying construction materials are covered with nets to prevent the dispersion of dust and par-

ticulate matter during transpor-tation. For long-term stockpiles, some stadium sites have utilised more durable and thicker layers of tarpaulin, which is both low maintenance and more eff ective at protecting the materials from extremely hot summers.

Similarly, road sweepers are commonly used on paved haul-ing roads on site and adjacent public roads to take care of the dust from vehicles on site.

These machines help remove soil and mud from the road sur-faces, thereby preventing dis-persion of dust from the move-ment of heavy vehicles. Qatar 2022 stadiums have gone one step further by installing vehi-cle washouts at the construction sites’ gates. Similarly, decreasing the commute of vehicles car-rying soil and other materials is another dust control technique adopted by decreasing the dis-tance between stockpiles and backfi lling areas.

Some construction activi-ties generate more dust than others, and barriers are used around those areas. Install-ing barriers around cutters and crushers can significantly re-duce the amount of dust in the air. As the crushers are utilised at some stadium sites in Qatar, the material to be crushed is watered in order to reduce dust dispersion. Similarly, these

crushers are covered with nets, while water sprays are used to suppress the dust.

Dust blown away during loading and unloading of soil and aggregates can be miti-gated by spraying water over these building materials. At some stadiums, cannons are used to spray water. As op-posed to commonly used hoses, these cannons create enough pressure so that not only are the materials made wet but any dissipated dust in the air is also drawn down. Due to the closed nature of indoor spaces, dust can also have adverse effects on human health. Therefore, de-dusting systems have been introduced to filter pollutants from indoor air along with am-ple ventilation to mitigate any toll on the health and safety of workers inside a facility.

Monitoring project sites for concentrations of particulate matters of diff erent sizes is an-other method that assists the formulation of eff ective strate-gies to control dust. In addition to standard monitoring practices performed through diff erent pe-riods of the construction, some stadium sites in Qatar went the extra mile with the use of state-of-the-art equipment that helps constant monitoring, thereby creating detailed ‘24/7/365’ data for improved strategies.

Bodour al-Meer Dr Yousef Alhorr

Innovative awareness campaign aims to keep beaches clean