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Record global corona surgeSingle-day cases break records in every global region
Agencies
Al m o st 4 0 c o u n t r i e s have reported record single-day increases in
coronavirus infections over the past week, around double the number that did so the previous week, according to a tally show-ing a pick-up in the pandemic in every region of the world.
The rate of cases has been in-creasing not only in countries like the United States, Brazil and India, which have dominat-ed global headlines with large outbreaks, but in Australia, Ja-pan, Hong Kong, Bolivia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Bulgaria, Belgium, Uzbekistan and Israel, among others.
Many countries, especially those where officials eased ear-lier social distancing lockdowns, are experiencing a second peak more than a month after record-ing their first.
“We will not be going back to the ‘old normal’. The pandemic
has already changed the way we live our lives,” World Health Or-ganisation (WHO) Director-Gen-eral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreye-sus said this week. “We’re asking everyone to treat the decisions about where they go, what they do and who they meet with as life-and-death decisions – be-cause they are.”
The data, compiled from of-
ficial reports, shows a steady rise in the number of countries reporting record daily increases in the virus that causes COVID-19 over the past month. At least seven countries recorded such increases three weeks ago, ris-ing to at least 13 countries two weeks ago to at least 20 coun-tries last week and to 37 coun-tries this week.
The true numbers of both cas-es and deaths are almost certain-ly underreported, particularly in countries with poorer health care systems, health experts and officials say. For this report, the data was restricted to countries that provide regular daily num-bers.
A surge in cases usually precedes a rise in deaths by a couple of weeks.
The United States remains at the top of the case list, this week passing more than 4 mil-lion cases and recording more than 1,000 deaths for four con-secutive days. Brazil and India - which epidemiologists say is still likely months from hitting its peak - have also exceeded 1 million cases.
In the Middle East, Oman imposed new restrictions that begin on Saturday in addition to a two-week lockdown that will overlap the Islamic feast of Eid al-Adha after reporting a record number of cases.
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Marquez quits, Quartararo grabs Andalucia poleFabio Quartararo clinched a second consecutive pole position for Petronas Yamaha at the Anda-lusian Grand Prix in Jerez | P 08
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Hurricane Hanna threatens coronavirus-stricken Texas
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We’re asking everyone to treat the decisions about where they go, what they do and who they meet with as life-and-death decisions –
because they areWORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO)
DIRECTOR-GENERAL TEDROS ADHANOM
TOTAL CASES
ACTIVE CASES
DEATHS
DISCHARGED
NEW CASES
CRITICAL
38,747
3,405
137
35,205
289
51
BAHRAIN
Avoid Eid gatherings..and commit to wearing face masksin public
Data shows a steady rise in countries reporting record daily increases
4The US remains at the
top of the list with 4 million cases
‘Brazil’s most famous cobra’ sparks trafficking probe, draws fans
AFP | Brasilia
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-ficking ring.
The monocled cobra, which is native to Asia, bit 22-year-old Pedro Krambeck Lehmkuhl on July 7 in Brasilia, sending doc-tors 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 student’s apartment soon turned into a police investigation that found 16 other snakes at a property belonging to a friend of Lehm-kuhl’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 firing of two officials at the Bra-zilian environmental regulator,
IBAMA, over suspicions they facilitated fraudulent import permits for a wildlife traffick-ing ring.
The student’s mother and stepfather, a police colonel, were also questioned and fined 8,500 reals (about $1,600) each on a charge of obstructing jus-tice.
Lehmkuhl, who spent six days in the hospital, was re-leased and fined 61,000 reals. He is still under investigation.
The cobra -- “Naja,” in Por-
tuguese -- has meanwhile be-come an internet sensation, af-ter being found near a shopping center where it was allegedly abandoned by a friend of Le-hmkuhl’s trying to get rid of evidence.
A Twitter account opened in the snake’s name, @najao-riginal, has nearly 50,000 fol-lowers.
The snake is now living at the Brasilia Zoo, which showed off “Brazil’s most famous cobra” in an Instagram live video Friday.
HM King, Turkey prez hold phone call Manama
His Majesty King Ham-ad bin Isa Al-Khalifa
and President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow of Turk-menistan yesterday held a telephonic conversation over further boosting ties in all fields.
The extensive conversa-tion hailed the advanced level of bilateral relation and agreed to step up coop-eration, especially in politi-cal, economic and humani-tarian fields.
“In less than a week, I have taken revenge
on my oppressor, dismantled an animal trafficking ring, freed more than 16 friends,
helped a shark and struck fear in the
traffickers’ hearts”
Turkey, Qatar recruit mercenariesAgencies
Turkey and Qatar re-cruited more than
2,000 Somali mercenaries to fight in Libya alongside the Government of National Accord (GNA), Al Arabiya quoting Somali Guardian news website reported.
Some of the Somali youths recruited by Doha and An-kara told Somali Guardian that “many of their coun-try-mates were already de-ployed on the frontlines in Libya and were waiting to be sent to areas of active combat.”
The first batch of pilgrims from the Qassim province arrives at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah for Hajj pilgrimage which will have limited attendance this year due to coronavirus pandemic. They will be followed by arrivals from Madinah, Riyadh, Abha, Tabuk and Jizan. Only about 1,000 pilgrims are allowed to take part in Hajj this year, compared to 2.5 million participants last year. Those allowed to participate this year will have to remain in quarantine in their hotels before and after the pilgrimage. Around 70 per cent of the attendees are foreign nationals residing in the kingdom and 30 pc are locals.
Pilgrims arrive in Mecca
02SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020
The Indian Community Relief Fund (ICRF) volunteers yesterday distributed bottled water and fruits to around 130 workers at the AlGhana Contracting’s Belhamar project in Manama as part of its Thirst-Quenchers programme. Yesterday’s event was the third episode of this weekly edition which will continue until end August. Volunteers also distributed around 150 packs of antibacterial soaps, reusable face masks and flyers, explaining the measures to be followed to stay safe during COVID-19, at Hamad Town area. Free prepaid sim cards, sponsored by STC, were also distributed to workers. ICRF Chairman Aruldas Thomas, General Secretary John Philip, Thirst Quenchers Convenor Sudheer Thirunilath, volunteers Sivakumar, Clifford Correa, Nasser Manjeri, Muralikrishnan, Sunil Kumar, and Pavithran Neeleswaram took part.
ICRF ‘Thirst Quenchers’
Flouting shrimping ban: Coast guards arrest three people TDT | Manama
Coast guard patrol arrested three people for flouting Bahrain shrimp-
ing ban which is in force until the end this month. Coast Guards made the ar-rests from the Hamad and Sanad areas, said Coast Guard Commander. Shrimps were seized from Sitra and Ras, based
on a tip-off received. As per a ministerial decision issued
on February 1 this year, fishing and sale of shrimps caught from the territorial waters of Bahrain are prohibited until this month-end. Legal measures are taken to refer the cases to the Public Prosecution. Picture courtesy of AlAyam
52pc construction waste recycled in 2019: MinisterTDT | Manama
Bahrain recycled nearly 355,000 tons of construction waste in
2019, more than half of such waste produced last year, said Works Min-ister.
Nearly 52 per cent of the construc-tion and demolition waste produced last year were recycled and reused for road works, said Essam Khalaf, the minster of Works, Municipal Affairs and Urban Planning.
Playing a substantial role in this effort was the recycling plant com-missioned in January last year, the minister said during a field visit.
Nass Asphalt bagged the 10-year deal to separate construction and demolition waste and convert it into materials that can be used in infra-structure projects, an earlier report has said.
On Bahrain’s waste management strategy, the minister said the King-dom attaches great importance to it, especially with the landfill in Askar managing 1.8 million tonnes of waste last year.
Of this, the majority, 677 thou-sand tons, or 38 pc, was demolition and construction waste. Household waste forms 32pc or 566 thousand tons, while commercial and indus-trial waste accounts for 24pc or 424 thousand tons. Agriculture waste accounts 7 pc or 126 thousand tons of the total waste created.
Explaining, Minister Khalaf said, “Approximately 100 thousand tons of construction and demolition wastes
were used for making internal paths of the landfill, as well as for pillars of the landfill boundaries.”
The minister also pointed out that by employing modern technologies, the authority has also extended the life of the landfill by an additional six years, from two years.
The whole operation is now bet-ter organised, which also enhanced the analysis of the data collected, the minister said, thanks to the new weighting scales linked to accurate electronic systems.
“Modern tech has also contributed to streamlining the process of depos-iting and compressing the waste and covering it under layers of sand to avoid leakage of water and biogas.”
Safety, the minister said, is be-ing ensured by constant monitoring of meteorological data, air quality, emission of harmful gases and by assessing the movement and stability of the landfill topography.
Minister during a field visit, yesterday. (Courtesy of AlAyam)
Inmates’ rights violation claims ‘misleading’: NIHRTDT | Manama
Inmates of Jaw Prison were not subjected to any viola-
tions, ill-treatment or are they deprived of their religious rights, confirmed a delegation of The National Institution for Human Rights.
The delegation said this fol-lowing a visit to the Inmates correction and Rehabilitation centre to verify social media claims that inmates are denied of their right to practise religion and are kept under unhygienic conditions.
The officials rejected allega-tions as “misleading” and aimed at tormenting the inmates’ fam-ily members.
The delegation following an inspection of the facility and holding interviews with several inmates concluded the allega-tion as having no foundation
or basis. The inmates, rights officials
said, are given facilities as per the UN rules, while doctors from the Salmaniya Medical Complex verified their health conditions and effectiveness of coronavirus precautionary measures.
All of the 925 inmates were given adequate care either through a medical clinic or through video consultations, the rights officials confirmed.
The officials also said it would continue field visits to reform and rehabilitation cen-tres to ensure that everyone’s rights are guaranteed in health, cultural and religious areas, es-pecially in the coming period.
Pictures courtesy of AlAyam
Woman, three others in the dock over immoral acts TDT | Manama
Police nabbed three men and a woman for forcing
two girls to perform immor-al activities by holding them in captivity.
Officers at the Directorate of Anti-human Trafficking and the Protection of Public Morals took the suspects into custody, said Director General of the General De-partment of Investigation and Criminal Evidence.
A tip-off received led to identifying the suspects and rescuing the victims.
Search operations were conducted based on a war-rant issued by the Public Prosecution.
Legal measures are taken to refer the case to Public Prosecution.
35,205 recoveriesTDT | Manama
A 63-year-old expatri-ate man is the King-dom latest victim to
the COVID-19 battle. Bahrain’s ministry of
health announced the death on its Twitter handle yes-terday. With this, the total number of deaths in the Kingdom reached 137.
There are currently 74 COVID-19 active cases in the Kingdom receiving treat-ment at various facilities, out of which 51 patients are admitted to Intensive care.
There are also some 3,405 active cases in the Kingdom, of which 3,354 patients are in a stable condition.
Health Ministry an-nounced conducting 8,581 COVID-19 tests yesterday, bringing the total tests con-
ducted since the recording of the first case in the King-dom to780,081.
The Kingdom also detect-ed 289 new cases yesterday which includes 151 expatri-ate workers, 138 contacts of
active cases. No travel trav-el-related cases reported.
New 379 recoveries also reported yesterday, increas-ing the number of people cured of their infection till date to 35,205.
03SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020
A ‘win-win’ situation The new 10-year US-Bahrain multi-entry visa will enhance Free Trade Agreement: AmCham prez
TDT | Manama
The reciprocal agreement between the US and Bah-rain to allow ten-year
multi-entry for tourists creates a “win-win” situation for both countries, said AmCham Bah-rain President.
“Tourism and trade are vitally important to both economies, and the new 10-year visa will certainly enhance both coun-tries as preferred travel destina-tions,” said Qays Zu’bi of Amer-ican Chamber of Commerce in Bahrain.
“Applying for a visa can be time-consuming – the 10-year visa will save time, money and stress – which is beneficial for both business and tourism,” Qays Zu’bi said. The agree-ment, came into force earlier this month, doubles the previous five-year visitor visa duration for Bahraini and US Citizens.
The move, Qays Zu’bi said,
“will further support the use of the US-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as citizens travel to establish business op-portunities.”
Since the FTA was initiated, bi-lateral trade between the US and Bahrain has more than tripled from $782 million in 2005 to $2.5 Billion in 2019, Zu’bi added.
The US citizens holding a
10-year multi-entry visa are al-lowed to stay a maximum of 180-days per visit.
US nationals visiting Bahrain can obtain a visa at the airport. However, Bahrain is not among the 39 countries whose citizens are allowed to travel to the Unit-ed States for tourism or business for stays of 90 days or less with-out obtaining a visa.
Tourism and trade are vitally
important to both economies, and the
new 10-year visa will certainly enhance both countries as preferred travel
destinations QAYS ZU’BI
AMCHAM BAHRAIN PRESIDENT
KNOW WHAT
The visa is for Bahraini and US citizens only and applies to B1/B2 visas for business and tourism trips. Other visa types are not covered.
Already issued 5-year visa cannot be extended. Holders will have to reapply and pay the usual fees.
Bahraini citizens with valid B1/B2 business & tourism visas will get a 10-year visa via the Interview Waiver Programme (dropbox) as soon as normal visa operations resume at the US embassy.
The new visa does not change the length of stay permitted for a trip to the United States or Bahrain - it only changes the validity of the visa, allowing travellers to make as many trips as they like over 10 years.
The new deal is expecting completion within a month or two, though exact dates are not fixed.
Visa cost remains the same and is equivalent to that of a 5-year version of the visa.
Ready for Eid rush: BCCI’s Al-AminTDT | Manama
Markets in the Kingdom are fully prepared to handle
the Eid al-Adha rush, said a top BCCI official.
Purchasing power, however, is expected to be “moderate” dur-ing this year’s Eid, according to Khalid Ali Al-Amin, head of the Food Wealth Committee of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Local markets, he said, were preparing for the Eid rush for nearly a week and “there won’t be shortages of any kind”.
He assured: “All measures are taken to ensure sufficient sup-ply and stable prices for basic food commodities”.
The meat market is sufficient-ly prepared for the increased demand before and during Eid.
Acknowledging the increased demand for Bahraini veal, he as-sured, “Everything is fine, there is no fear of any crisis.”
There is “sufficient quantities of red meat in the market.”
Supplies from countries in-cluding Somalia, Pakistan, Aus-tralia, Sudan, and Kenya, in ad-dition to local Bahrain products, are ready in the market.
Al-Amin said preparations are made to meet the increased demand for red meat this week.
On the supply of vegetables and fruits, he said market supply has increased by 80 per cent ahead of the holidays.
“At least 75 truckloads of veg-etables and fruits will reach the markets here per day to meet the increased demand,” Al-Amin said.
Vegetables and fruits are cur-rently imported from Jordan,
Lebanon, Egypt, India and Aus-tralia alongside the Gulf and other countries.
“Offers are available for all kind of commodities at all of the stores and supermarkets in the Kingdom,” said Ali Al-Amin.
Picture courtesy of Albilad
Khalid Ali Al-Amin, head of the Food Wealth Committee of the Bahrain Chamb
US Embassy webinar on COVID-19
TDT | Manama
The US Embassy is hold-ing an information we-
binar on COVID 19 on Mon-day at 7:15 pm.
Speakers are Dr Rodney Hoff, Clinical Professor, Global Health, Clinical Pro-fessor, Env. and Occ. Health Sciences at the University of Washington and from Bahrain Dr Manaf Al-Qa-htani, Infectious Diseases Consultant & Microbiol-ogist at the BDF Hospital and Member of the Nation-al Taskforce for Combating Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Dr Manaf Al-Qahtani
Dr Rodney Hoff
Join the webinar at: Facebook.com/AmericanEmbassy-
Manama
Picture courtesy of AlMabarrah AlKhalifia Foundation
AAF, British University to offer scholarships
TDT | Manama
AlMabarrah AlKhalifia Foundation (AAF) announced signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the British
University of Bahrain to provide scholarships for students in Bahrain.
As per the deal, the scholarship will cover eligible students’ fees including that for books and will pay a monthly incentive based on educational achievements and provide the opportu-nity to participate in workshops, skill development courses and training opportunities of both government and private sectors.
Eligible students will also receive a Rayaat card that offers benefits such as community service opportunities and volunteer work, participation in monthly educational and recreational activities.
‘Rayaat Scholarship’ programme was launched in 2011 to provide students with scholarship opportunities at accredited universities in the Kingdom.
“We are also looking for closer partnerships with other universities from inside and outside the Kingdom, to provide a greater range of scholarships and benefits for eligible stu-dents,” said Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of AlMabar-rah AlKhalifia Foundation, Her Highness Shaikha Zain bint Khalid Al Khalif
The British University of Bahrain opened in 2018, in partner-ship with University of Salford – Manchester, as an extension of its campus in Bahrain.
AAF is currently offering 270 university scholarships for 40 majors through programmes Rayaat, Ithra and HH Shaikh Moza AlKhalifa Fund.
According to MKF website, their programmes have benefited 2,210 students.
Big data boost for agriculture sectorTDT | Manama
The newly commissioned meteorological stations in
Budaiya and Hawrat Aaali have started gathering data critical to the enhancement of the agri-cultural sector in the Kingdom.
The stations are recording data for the past 24 hours and is performing satisfactorily, said Dr Nabil Muhammad Abu Al-Fateh, Agriculture and Marine Resources Undersecretary at the Ministry of Works, Mu-nicipalities Affairs and Urban Planning.
Budaiya and Hawrat Aaali were chosen for the stations considering the investments in the agricultural sector there.
The stations allow accurate detection of wind direction, wind speed, temperature, rel-ative humidity, precipitation, solar radiation as well as evap-oration and transpiration from
plants among several other functions.
Explaining, Dr Al Fateh said the data could be used to ana-
lyse precisely how much wa-ter is lost from soil and plants, which would help determine the water needed for the irriga-
tion of crops. “This would help rationalise
the water consumption based on the actual needs and design programmes to prevent fun-gal and bacterial diseases and optimise the productivity of crops.”
Critical data from the station, he said, could be used to develop a modern agricultural strategy that suits the climatic condi-tions of a given region where the agricultural investment is sought.
“This could be done by joining hands with international organ-isations.”
“We are moving forward un-der the guidance of the Minister of Works, Municipal Affairs and Urban Planning Essam Khalaf to implement initiatives and programmes that will advance the agricultural sector of the Kingdom,” Dr Al-Fateh said.
Picture courtesy of AlAyam
04SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020
Coffee Day owed $472 million by deceased founder’s firm - probe report
Reuters | Bengaluru
An entity linked to the de-ceased founder of India’s
Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd owed the coffee chain 35.35 billion rupees ($472.5 million), an investigation report re-leased by the company showed on Friday.
Coffee Day founder V.G. Siddhartha was found dead in a river in southern India last July in an apparent suicide amid speculation that he was under intense financial strain.
The Bengaluru-headquar-tered company had then ap-pointed an investigator to scrutinise its accounts and the circumstances leading to the statements made in a letter purportedly written by Sid-dhartha.
Mysore Amalgamated Cof-fee Estates Ltd, an entity linked separately to Siddhar-tha and involved in a business relationship with Coffee Day, owed Coffee Day $472 million as of July 31, 2019 - the day Siddhartha’s deceased body was found by authorities - the synopsis of the investigation report released by Coffee Day to stock exchanges showed on Friday.
About $360 million of that amount still needed to be ad-dressed, the report said.
A significant portion of the amount may have been spent to buy back shares from pri-
vate equity investors, repay loans and funding investments outside the scope of the inves-tigation, the report said. As a result, the amounts may not be precise, it added. Coffee Day, which also exports cof-fee, sells coffee-vending ma-chines and houses a logistics business called Sical, currently had a debt of 32 billion rupees ($427.7 million), it said.
Men stand outside a Cafe Coffee Day outlet in New Delhi, India
DON’T MISS IT
Coffee Day is India’s largest coffee chain
with more than 1,000 cafes, and
competes with the likes of Starbucks Corp, Barista and
Coca-Cola Co-owned Costa Cof-
fee.
The company, whose revenue has taken a hit in the wake of the COV-ID-19 pandemic, is in the process
of selling off more assets to raise cash
and cut debt
Trump signs orders to lower prescription drug prices
Reuters | Washington
US President Donald Trump on Friday signed four ex-
ecutive orders aimed at low-ering the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs.
Trump has previously pro-posed most of the changes made by the executive orders he signed on Friday, but this is the first time they have made it into signed executive orders.
One order would allow for the legal importation of cheap-er prescription drugs from countries like Canada, while another would require dis-counts from drug companies now captured by middlemen
to be passed on to patients, Trump said.
Another measure seeks to lower insulin costs while a fourth, which may not be im-plemented if talks with drug companies are successful, would require Medicare to purchase drugs at the same price that other countries pay, Trump said.
Executives of top drug com-panies have requested a meet-ing to discuss how they can lower drug prices, the presi-dent said. “We will see what those discussions indicate but the agency is prepared to move forward,” said Medicare chief Seema Verma.
US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One
AUB, Forbes Family Trust forge new partnershipTDT | Manama
Ahli United Private Banking unit has unveiled a key tie-
up with Forbes Family Trust, the New York-based multi-fam-ily office providing thoughtful investment management and family office services to help clients preserve and grow wealth.
As per the deal, FFT will em-ploy their expertise to aid AUB Private Banking in the selection of Private Equity and other Al-ternative Investments for AUB clients.
Commenting on the new part-nership, Mark Hirst, Deputy Group CEO, Private Banking & Wealth Management said, “We have been carefully scouting for and selecting best-in-class investment houses to collabo-
rate with to serve our clients. Our ultimate target is to fur-nish our clientele with a wide
host of dynamically managed, globally positioned investment portfolios.”
FFT which has developed robust Islamic capabilities are managing a number of large mandates across the Middle East. FFT said it plans to work closely with AUB Private Bank-ing to evaluate investment op-portunities in the alternative asset classes to diversify invest-ments and provide long-term growth, stability, and benefits for AUB’s clients.
“We look forward to com-mencing this partnership with AUB, GCC’s premier private bank. We have the capabilities to provide them with top-tier private equity, venture capital, and real estate managers, to-gether with various other in-vestment opportunities,” stated Keith Bloomfield, CEO of Forbes Family Trust.
FFT will employ their expertise to aid AUB Private Banking in the selection of Private Equity and other Alternative Investments for AUB clients.
HSBC denies Chinese media reports that it ‘framed’ HuaweiReuters | Beijing
HSBC yesterday denied Chinese media reports that it had “framed”
Huawei Technologies and played a role in the arrest of the chief financial officer (CFO) of the world’s biggest telecoms equipment maker.
In a statement posted on the bank’s Chinese WeChat mes-saging service account, the London-headquartered lender said it did not participate in the decision of the US Department of Justice to investigate Huawei.
The HSBC statement comes a day after China’s official People’s Daily newspaper published a report accusing HSBC of being an accomplice of the United States and lying about Huawei, resulting in the arrest of its CFO Meng Wanzhou.
Meng was arrested in Decem-ber 2018 at Vancouver Interna-
tional Airport on a warrant from the United States.
She is accused by US authori-ties of bank fraud for misleading HSBC about Huawei’s relation-ship with a company operating in Iran, putting HSBC at risk of fines and penalties for breaking
US sanctions on Tehran.“The context of the develop-
ment of the Huawei incident clearly shows that the US in-vestigation of Huawei was not triggered by HSBC,” the bank said in its WeChat post, without directly referring to the People’s
Daily report.“HSBC has no malice against
Huawei, nor has it ‘framed’ Huawei,” it said.
“In response to information requests from the US Depart-ment of Justice, HSBC only pro-vided factual information. HSBC has not ‘fabricated’ evidence or ‘concealed’ facts, nor will it dis-tort facts or harm any customers for our own benefit.”
The People’s Daily report on Friday alleged HSBC was well aware of Huawei’s business in Iran, and had been “setting traps” for the company since 2012.
Other Chinese media, includ-ing the China Global Television Network, have made similar al-legations against HSBC.
Meng is fighting extradition to the United States and has said she is innocent. She has been in house arrest in Vancouver since her detainment.
The HSBC headquarters is lit up at the Central Financial District in Hong Kong
Cipla gets India approval to sell COVID-19 drug favipiravir
Reuters | Bengaluru
Cipla Ltd has received In-dian regulatory approval
to sell anti-viral drug favip-iravir to treat COVID-19, the drugmaker said on Friday, as coronavirus infections in the world’s third worst-hit nation show no sign of abating.
The Drug Controller Gener-al of India granted Cipla accel-erated approval to make and sell favipiravir in an effort to meet the “urgent and unmet” need for COVID-19 treatment options in the country, the company said.
Indian drugmakers includ-ing Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd are racing to supply gener-
ic versions of favipiravir, origi-nally developed by Japan’s Fu-jifilm Holdings Corp as Avigan for treating influenza.
Cipla said it would launch favipiravir as “Ciplenza” in the first week of August, priced at 68 Indian rupees (91 cents) per 200 mg tablet.
Separately on Friday, much smaller Indian drugmaker Jenburkt Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it would launch its own version of favipiravir, priced at 39 rupees per tablet.
Glenmark, meanwhile, sells a tablet of favipiravir for 75 rupees, with a patient typically requiring 122 tablets over 14 days for a treatment course, the company said.
Employees and security staff work at the reception area of Cipla at its headquarters in Mumbai, India
House panel reschedules Big Tech CEO hearingReuters | Washinton
A congressional hearing on digital marketplace com-
petition featuring the chief ex-ecutives of four of the largest American tech companies has been rescheduled for Wednes-day, a House subcommittee said yesterday.
The CEOs of Facebook, Am-azon.com, Alphabet’s Google and Apple were to have tes-tified on Monday before the House Antitrust Subcommit-tee. But the hearing was post-poned for the lying in state at the Capitol Building of the late Representative John Lewis, an icon of the civil rights move-ment.
A subcommittee announce-ment issued yesterday said the session now would be held on Wednesday and that witnesses and members could appear in person or virtually.
All four tech company CEOs - Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet and Mark Zuck-erberg of Facebook - are to ap-pear virtually, the announce-ment said.
The subcommittee of the Democratic-led House Judici-ary Committee is investigating whether the companies active-ly seek to harm and eliminate smaller rivals.
“Given the central role these corporations play in the lives of the American people, it is critical that their CEOs are forthcoming,” Judiciary Com-mittee Chairman Jerrold Na-dler and David Cecilline, the subcommittee chairman, said in a joint statement.
Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg
04SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020
Coffee Day owed $472 million by deceased founder’s firm - probe report
Reuters | Bengaluru
An entity linked to the de-ceased founder of India’s
Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd owed the coffee chain 35.35 billion rupees ($472.5 million), an investigation report re-leased by the company showed on Friday.
Coffee Day founder V.G. Siddhartha was found dead in a river in southern India last July in an apparent suicide amid speculation that he was under intense financial strain.
The Bengaluru-headquar-tered company had then ap-pointed an investigator to scrutinise its accounts and the circumstances leading to the statements made in a letter purportedly written by Sid-dhartha.
Mysore Amalgamated Cof-fee Estates Ltd, an entity linked separately to Siddhar-tha and involved in a business relationship with Coffee Day, owed Coffee Day $472 million as of July 31, 2019 - the day Siddhartha’s deceased body was found by authorities - the synopsis of the investigation report released by Coffee Day to stock exchanges showed on Friday.
About $360 million of that amount still needed to be ad-dressed, the report said.
A significant portion of the amount may have been spent to buy back shares from pri-
vate equity investors, repay loans and funding investments outside the scope of the inves-tigation, the report said. As a result, the amounts may not be precise, it added. Coffee Day, which also exports cof-fee, sells coffee-vending ma-chines and houses a logistics business called Sical, currently had a debt of 32 billion rupees ($427.7 million), it said.
Men stand outside a Cafe Coffee Day outlet in New Delhi, India
DON’T MISS IT
Coffee Day is India’s largest coffee chain
with more than 1,000 cafes, and
competes with the likes of Starbucks Corp, Barista and
Coca-Cola Co-owned Costa Cof-
fee.
The company, whose revenue has taken a hit in the wake of the COV-ID-19 pandemic, is in the process
of selling off more assets to raise cash
and cut debt
Trump signs orders to lower prescription drug prices
Reuters | Washington
US President Donald Trump on Friday signed four ex-
ecutive orders aimed at low-ering the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs.
Trump has previously pro-posed most of the changes made by the executive orders he signed on Friday, but this is the first time they have made it into signed executive orders.
One order would allow for the legal importation of cheap-er prescription drugs from countries like Canada, while another would require dis-counts from drug companies now captured by middlemen
to be passed on to patients, Trump said.
Another measure seeks to lower insulin costs while a fourth, which may not be im-plemented if talks with drug companies are successful, would require Medicare to purchase drugs at the same price that other countries pay, Trump said.
Executives of top drug com-panies have requested a meet-ing to discuss how they can lower drug prices, the presi-dent said. “We will see what those discussions indicate but the agency is prepared to move forward,” said Medicare chief Seema Verma.
US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One
AUB, Forbes Family Trust forge new partnershipTDT | Manama
Ahli United Private Banking unit has unveiled a key tie-
up with Forbes Family Trust, the New York-based multi-fam-ily office providing thoughtful investment management and family office services to help clients preserve and grow wealth.
As per the deal, FFT will em-ploy their expertise to aid AUB Private Banking in the selection of Private Equity and other Al-ternative Investments for AUB clients.
Commenting on the new part-nership, Mark Hirst, Deputy Group CEO, Private Banking & Wealth Management said, “We have been carefully scouting for and selecting best-in-class investment houses to collabo-
rate with to serve our clients. Our ultimate target is to fur-nish our clientele with a wide
host of dynamically managed, globally positioned investment portfolios.”
FFT which has developed robust Islamic capabilities are managing a number of large mandates across the Middle East. FFT said it plans to work closely with AUB Private Bank-ing to evaluate investment op-portunities in the alternative asset classes to diversify invest-ments and provide long-term growth, stability, and benefits for AUB’s clients.
“We look forward to com-mencing this partnership with AUB, GCC’s premier private bank. We have the capabilities to provide them with top-tier private equity, venture capital, and real estate managers, to-gether with various other in-vestment opportunities,” stated Keith Bloomfield, CEO of Forbes Family Trust.
FFT will employ their expertise to aid AUB Private Banking in the selection of Private Equity and other Alternative Investments for AUB clients.
HSBC denies Chinese media reports that it ‘framed’ HuaweiReuters | Beijing
HSBC yesterday denied Chinese media reports that it had “framed”
Huawei Technologies and played a role in the arrest of the chief financial officer (CFO) of the world’s biggest telecoms equipment maker.
In a statement posted on the bank’s Chinese WeChat mes-saging service account, the London-headquartered lender said it did not participate in the decision of the US Department of Justice to investigate Huawei.
The HSBC statement comes a day after China’s official People’s Daily newspaper published a report accusing HSBC of being an accomplice of the United States and lying about Huawei, resulting in the arrest of its CFO Meng Wanzhou.
Meng was arrested in Decem-ber 2018 at Vancouver Interna-
tional Airport on a warrant from the United States.
She is accused by US authori-ties of bank fraud for misleading HSBC about Huawei’s relation-ship with a company operating in Iran, putting HSBC at risk of fines and penalties for breaking
US sanctions on Tehran.“The context of the develop-
ment of the Huawei incident clearly shows that the US in-vestigation of Huawei was not triggered by HSBC,” the bank said in its WeChat post, without directly referring to the People’s
Daily report.“HSBC has no malice against
Huawei, nor has it ‘framed’ Huawei,” it said.
“In response to information requests from the US Depart-ment of Justice, HSBC only pro-vided factual information. HSBC has not ‘fabricated’ evidence or ‘concealed’ facts, nor will it dis-tort facts or harm any customers for our own benefit.”
The People’s Daily report on Friday alleged HSBC was well aware of Huawei’s business in Iran, and had been “setting traps” for the company since 2012.
Other Chinese media, includ-ing the China Global Television Network, have made similar al-legations against HSBC.
Meng is fighting extradition to the United States and has said she is innocent. She has been in house arrest in Vancouver since her detainment.
The HSBC headquarters is lit up at the Central Financial District in Hong Kong
Cipla gets India approval to sell COVID-19 drug favipiravir
Reuters | Bengaluru
Cipla Ltd has received In-dian regulatory approval
to sell anti-viral drug favip-iravir to treat COVID-19, the drugmaker said on Friday, as coronavirus infections in the world’s third worst-hit nation show no sign of abating.
The Drug Controller Gener-al of India granted Cipla accel-erated approval to make and sell favipiravir in an effort to meet the “urgent and unmet” need for COVID-19 treatment options in the country, the company said.
Indian drugmakers includ-ing Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd are racing to supply gener-
ic versions of favipiravir, origi-nally developed by Japan’s Fu-jifilm Holdings Corp as Avigan for treating influenza.
Cipla said it would launch favipiravir as “Ciplenza” in the first week of August, priced at 68 Indian rupees (91 cents) per 200 mg tablet.
Separately on Friday, much smaller Indian drugmaker Jenburkt Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it would launch its own version of favipiravir, priced at 39 rupees per tablet.
Glenmark, meanwhile, sells a tablet of favipiravir for 75 rupees, with a patient typically requiring 122 tablets over 14 days for a treatment course, the company said.
Employees and security staff work at the reception area of Cipla at its headquarters in Mumbai, India
House panel reschedules Big Tech CEO hearingReuters | Washinton
A congressional hearing on digital marketplace com-
petition featuring the chief ex-ecutives of four of the largest American tech companies has been rescheduled for Wednes-day, a House subcommittee said yesterday.
The CEOs of Facebook, Am-azon.com, Alphabet’s Google and Apple were to have tes-tified on Monday before the House Antitrust Subcommit-tee. But the hearing was post-poned for the lying in state at the Capitol Building of the late Representative John Lewis, an icon of the civil rights move-ment.
A subcommittee announce-ment issued yesterday said the session now would be held on Wednesday and that witnesses and members could appear in person or virtually.
All four tech company CEOs - Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet and Mark Zuck-erberg of Facebook - are to ap-pear virtually, the announce-ment said.
The subcommittee of the Democratic-led House Judici-ary Committee is investigating whether the companies active-ly seek to harm and eliminate smaller rivals.
“Given the central role these corporations play in the lives of the American people, it is critical that their CEOs are forthcoming,” Judiciary Com-mittee Chairman Jerrold Na-dler and David Cecilline, the subcommittee chairman, said in a joint statement.
Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Highest temperatures for 40 years in Norwegian Arctic archipelagoAFP | Oslo
Norway’s Arctic archi-pelago Svalbard yes-
terday recorded its highest temperature for over 40 years, almost equal to the all-time record, the coun-try’s meteorological insti-tute reported.
According to scientific study, global warming in the Arctic is happening twice as fast as the rest of the planet.
For the second day in a row, the archipelago regis-tered 21.2 degrees Celsius (70.2 Fahrenheit) of heat in the afternoon, just under the 21.3 degrees recorded in 1979, meteorologist Kristen Gislefoss told AFP.
The island group, dom-inated by Spitzbergen the only inhabited isle in the northern Norway archipel-ago, sits 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the North Pole.
The relative heatwave, expected to last until Mon-day, is a huge spike of nor-mal temperatures in July, the hottest month in the Arctic,
The Svalbard islands would normally expect to be seeing temperatures of 5-8 degrees Celsius at this time of year.
Obesity increases risks of death from COVID-19 - Public Health England Reuters | London
People who are obese or overweight are at increased
risk of death or severe illness from COVID-19, a report by Public Health England (PHE) said yesterday as the govern-ment prepares to introduce measures to confront the problem.
Prime Minister Boris John-son has pledged to tackle obesity and has himself lost weight since he was admit-ted to intensive care with COVID-19.
PHE said data showed that for people with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30-35, risk of death from COVID-19 increased by 40%, and it increased by 90%
for those with a BMI over 40 compared to those of a healthy weight.
People with a BMI of over 30 are classed as obese under the system. PHE said that almost 63% of adults in England are overweight or obese.
“The current evidence is clear that being overweight or obese puts you at greater risk
of serious illness or death from COVID-19, as well as from many other life-threatening diseases,” said Alison Tedstone, chief nu-tritionist at PHE.
On Friday, Johnson said peo-ple should lose weight, with reports that government re-strictions on advertising un-healthy foods could come next week.
First guest on Michelle Obama’s new podcast? Barack, of course
Reuters | London
Michelle Obama is launch-ing her new podcast, and
who better to be her first guest than her husband, the former US president.
She revealed that Barack would star in the premiere of her podcast on July 29.
“The Michelle Obama Pod-cast,” to be exclusively broad-cast on Spotify, will be a series of interviews pairing Ameri-ca’s first black first lady with one guest per episode.
“I can’t wait for you all to hear the conversations I’ve been having for the #Michelle-ObamaPodcast,” she tweeted.
“My mom, my girlfriends, my colleagues, and many others all stop by, along with someone you’re pretty familiar with: @BarackObama is my first guest on 7/29.”
Others listed in the tweet as future guests include former Obama aide and friend Valerie Jarrett, and talk show host Co-nan O’Brien.
The podcast is produced by
Higher Ground Productions, the company formed by the Obamas in 2018, which has also made content deals with Netflix.
Among the topics to be discussed by the Obamas are the coronavirus crisis and the protest movement sparked by the death in police custody of George Floyd, according to Hollywood industry news out-let Variety, which heard part of the first episode.
The former US president has been invited on podcasts be-fore -- most recently in 2017 on “Pod Save America,” which is hosted by some of his former staffers and speechwriters.
His popular wife scored a publishing world victory with her memoir “Becoming,” which was released in Novem-ber 2018.
Since then, more than 11.5 million copies have been sold, and tens of thousands of people attended book events across the United States and abroad.
US consulate in China readies for closure as diplomatic row ragesAFP | Chengdu
Workers removed the US insignia from the consulate in the
Chinese city of Chengdu yes-terday, a day after Beijing or-dered 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 re-moved a circular US insignia from the front of the consulate, leaving just an American flag flying.
Three moving company trucks entered the US consulate build-ing 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 se-curity and interests.
Washington officials, mean-
while, said there had been unac-ceptable efforts by the Chinese consulate in Houston to steal US corporate secrets and pro-prietary medical and scientific research.
The last Chinese diplomats left the Houston consulate on Friday as a 72-hour deadline to close the mission passed. Offi-
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 Chi-na-US relations is not what Chi-na desires to see, and the US is responsible for all this,” it said.
05SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020
A worker removes the Great Seal of the United States from the front of the US consulate in the Chinese city of Chengdu
Former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle close the Obama Foundation Summit (file photo)
The Chengdu consu-late, established in
1985, has been at the centre of past contro-versy. It was included on a top-secret map
leaked by intelligence analyst Edward
Snowden showing US surveillance world-
wide
KNOW WHAT
Harry, Meghan distance themselves from upcoming book on time in royal family Reuters | London
Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, have
distanced themselves from an upcoming book on their time in the royal family, saying they were not interviewed for the biography and did not make any contributions to it.
The book, entitled ‘Finding Freedom’, is due to be published in August and is expected to shed light on the couple’s frus-trations with the palace and press, local media reported yesterday.
“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not interviewed and did not contribute to ‘Find-ing Freedom’,” a spokesperson for the couple said in a state-ment.
“This book is based on the au-
thors’ own experiences as mem-bers of the royal press corps and their own independent report-
ing”, the statement added.The book, authored by royal
reporters Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie, is expected to de-tail how the couple felt the royal institution had failed to support them, according to The Tele-graph newspaper.
The Times newspaper cit-ed extracts from the book sug-gesting infighting among family members, with Harry believing
Meghan was not liked by some of his relatives and others feel-ing that the popularity of the couple had to be “reined in”.
The newspaper said Meghan described tabloid criticism as “death by a thousand cuts”.
According to The Telegraph, the book presents Harry and Meghan as disruptive forces with the ability to modernise the monarchy, only for them to be discouraged by the “grey suits” and hostile media cover-age of their private life.
T h e c o u p l e a n d t h e i r 14-month-old son, Archie, now live in Los Angeles after they stepped down from their roy-al roles in March to forge new careers. In January, they an-nounced plans to lead a more independent life and to finance it themselves.
Harry and Meghan, a former actress, married in May 2018 in a wedding which was her-alded at the time as infusing a blast of Hollywood glamour and modernity into the mon-archy, and made them one of the world’s biggest celebrity couples.
Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, leave after attending the Endeavour Fund Awards in London (file photo)
The book, authored by royal re-porters Carolyn Durand and Omid Scobie, is expected to detail how the couple felt the royal institu-tion had failed to support themKNOW WHAT
Bolsonaro says new COVID-19 test came back negativeAFP | Brasília
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announced yesterday he has test-
ed 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: nega-tive. Good morning everyone,” the 65-year-old tweeted, along with a photo of himself smiling and hold-ing a packet of hydroxychloroquine, whose effectiveness against COVID-19 has not been demonstrated in clinical trials.
He did not say when he took the latest test.
The president, who has routinely downplayed the virus he calls a “little flu” but which is currently ravaging his country, spent nearly 20 days self-isolating at his official residence in the capital Brasilia, the Alvorada Palace.
During that time he underwent 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 powerhouse has registered nearly 2.3 million cas-es of the new coronavirus and more than 84,000 deaths, and the numbers have continued to rise rapidly.
But Bolsonaro is a fierce critic of stay-at-home measures, arguing the economic pain they result in is worse than the virus itself.
The president has appeared to con-tinue flouting virus precautions even after his diagnosis. On Thursday he was seen going for a spin on his mo-torcycle and chatting maskless with a team of groundskeepers outside the presidential palace.
Hurricane Hanna threatens coronavirus-stricken Texas The storm, with wind speeds of around 130 km per hour, strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane AFP | Houston
Storm Hanna, the first hur-ricane of the 2020 Atlantic
season, was forecast to make landfall on the Texas coast late yesterday, threatening one of the nation’s COVID-19 hot spots with storm surge and flooding.
Hanna was about 75 miles (120 km) east-northeast of Port Mansfield, Texas, packing max-imum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour, the US National Hurricane Center said yester-day morning.
“Additional strengthening is forecast before Hanna makes landfall later today,” the Mi-ami-based forecaster said, adding that the hurricane will rapidly weaken after it moves inland.
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.
The storm was projected to hit the coast between Cor-pus Christi and Brownsville, a region that has struggled to contain outbreaks of COVID-19 in recent weeks. 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 hospitalized with the novel coronavirus on Friday, accord-ing to city data.
On Friday, residents in several Texas communities in Kleberg County, south of Corpus Christi,
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 flood 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 wear-ing a mask if you’re in crowded conditions.”
Hanna will be the second named storm this season to make landfall along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, after Tropical Storm Cristobal, which hit Louisiana in early June. Hanna could bring a life-threatening storm surge and flash flooding, with up to 15 inches of rain in pockets of southern Texas and northeast-ern Mexico.
The storm is not expected to affect offshore oil and gas production. Energy companies have not evacuated workers or shut down production from their Gulf of Mexico platforms because of Hanna.
06SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020
16,078,953
645,241
9,826,467
Deaths
Recovered:
New cases
New deaths +147,468
+3,356 Country Total
casesnew cases
Total deaths
New Deaths
Total recovered
Active cases
Serious, Critical
Tot cases/1m pop
Saudi Arabia
264,973 +2,201 2,703 +31 217,782 44,488 2,120 7,604
UAE 58,562 +313 343 51,628 6,591 5,917
Kuwait 63,309 +684 429 +4 53,607 9,273 123 14,811
Oman 74,858 +1,067 371 +12 54,061 20,426 167 14,638
Egypt 91,072 4,518 31,970 54,584 41 889
Qatar 109,036 +398 164 105,750 3,122 98 38,833
Middle East
Country Total cases New deaths Total Deaths
USA 4,283,147 +502 148,992
Brazil 2,355,920 +177 85,562
India 1,385,494 +690 32,096
Russia 806,720 +154 13,192
South Africa 421,996 +250 6,343
Mexico 378,285 +737 42,645
Peru 375,961 17,843
Chile 343,592 +106 9,020
Spain 319,501 28,432
UK 298,681 +61 45,738
Iran 288,839 +195 15,484
Pakistan 271,887 +68 5,787
Saudi Arabia 264,973 +37 2,703
Italy 245,864 +5 35,102
G l o b a l C o u n t r i e s w o r s t a f f e c t e d
Figures as of closing
Covid-19 Cases:
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro takes a ride his motorcycle after he announced he tested negative for COVID-19
US charges 18 Portland protestersReuters | Washington
US prosecutors unveiled charges against 18
Portland, Oregon protest-ers ranging from assaulting police to arson and trespass-ing, a day after the Trump administration expanded the deployment of tactical police to Seattle.
The arrests came this week during clashes with specially equipped federal police agents sent to Port-land, where 56 straight days of antiracism demonstra-tions have captured national attention.
The federal forces have drawn criticism from Dem-ocrats and civil liberties groups who allege exces-sive force and federal over-reach by President Donald Trump.
The deployment of fed-eral officers has also drawn the scrutiny of the Justice Department inspector gen-eral, who announced an in-vestigation of their use of force, and prompted a fed-eral judge to issue a tempo-rary order limiting their use of force and blocking them from arresting journalists and legal observers of street protests.
Vessels rest on the bank after running aground during Hurricane Harvey near Corpus Christi last year (file photo)
Hanna will be the second named storm this season to make landfall along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, after Tropical
Storm Cristobal, which hit Loui-siana in early June
KNOW WHAT
News in brief u Somalia’s parliament
removed Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire from his post in a vote of no confidence
for failing to pave the way towards fully democratic elections, the speaker said. A whopping 170 of parliament’s 178 MPs backed the no confidence motion, and Khaire’s ouster was immediately endorsed by President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, who had appointed him as prime minister in February 2017.
u At least 20 people died and 22 others were injured after gunmen from an unidentified militia attacked a village in the Sudanese state of South Darfur, witnesses and a local community leader said. Attackers on horseback and camels opened fire on villagers in the Um Doss area, which is located around 90 kilometres (56 miles) from the state capital Nyala, said a local leader who gave his name as Nimr.
u French police will start hitting users of illicit drugs, especially cannabis, with on-the-spot fines starting in September, Prime Minister Jean Castex said. Spot fines of 200 euros ($233) have been tested in several French cities in recent weeks and will now be applied nationwide, he said. A French law dating
back to 1970 allows for illicit drug use to be punished with up to a year in prison and fined with up to 3,750 euros, but few users actually do jail time.
u A small aircraft crashed into a residential building in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia, killing
three people and injuring a child, police said. The roof of the apartment building in the town of Wesel caught fire after the microlight plane crashed into it, a police spokesman said.
u Israeli army helicopters struck military targets in southern Syrian on Friday in retaliation for earlier “munitions” fire towards Israel from inside Syria, escalating tensions
between the bitter rivals. The strikes came hours after America’s top general Mark Milley made an unannounced visit to the Jewish state for talks on regional security including Iran, a key ally of the Syrian government.
u Twitter and Facebook suspended the accounts of 16 allies of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro after a Supreme Court judge ordered them blocked as part of a probe into an alleged disinformation campaign, Tension has been soaring between the far-right leader and the court, which is investigating allegations that members of his inner circle ran a social media campaign to discredit the court, as well as slander and threaten its judges.
u Two brothers in California are facing criminal charges after getting into a brawl with security guards at a store for not wearing masks and leaving one of the guards with a broken arm. Phillip and Paul Hamilton, 31 and 29 respectively, were confronted by the guards at a Target store in Van Nuys -- located about 18 miles (30 kilometres) northwest of downtown Los Angeles -- after they were spotted without face coverings, as required to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Somali PM axed
Small plane crashes
into house in Germany,
killing 3
Israel strikes Syrian army targets after border
unrest
Twitter, Facebook block
accounts of Bolsonaro allies
Gunmen kill at least 22 villagers in South Darfur,
locals say
France introduces 200-euro spot fine for drug use
Billie Eilish to release new song ‘My Future’ next week
ANI | Los Angeles
Fans of singer-songwriter Billie Eilish have a new rea-son to cheer as the musician on Saturday announced
her new song ‘My Future’, which will debut next week.The ‘Bad Guy’ singer shared on Instagram the news of
her upcoming song and mentioned that the song will be out on July 30. The Grammy-winning musician, however, did not
give a detailed take on what to expect from the new song. She just revealed the title, and the release date along with a picture of
her sported wearing mask.The upcoming track marks the 18-year-old star’s first new single since her record-breaking Bond theme for
the much-anticipated spy-thriller ‘No Time To Die’. The star who made history in this year’s Gram-
my is the youngest artist ever to write and record a Bond theme.
Earlier in March, the singer considering safety
precautions of her fans postponed her ‘Where
Do We Go?’ world tour until further notice.
07 SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020
celebs
Across1- Canadian gas brand; 5- Cupola; 9- Packed away; 12- Hawaiian outdoor feast; 13- “South Pacific” hero; 15- Thunder sound; 16- Radiate; 17- Kind of kitchen; 18- Malaria symptom; 19- Censure; 21- See-through material; 23- That’s ___ haven’t heard; 24- Fond du ___, Wis.; 25- Totally lacking; 28- Suit and dress retailer; 33- Off-the-wall; 34- New Mexico art colony; 35- Long ago; 36- Capp and Capone; 37- Crest; 38- Bentley of “American Beauty”; 39- Network of nerves; 41- Architect Saarinen; 42- Perform or portray; 44- Break; 46- Intones; 47- Female fowl; 48- Stuck, after “in”; 49- Con-stituent of blood serum; 53- Infers; 57- Blackthorn fruit; 58- Ornamental coronet; 60- Fishing gear; 61- A pitcher may take one; 62- Conclude by; 63- Totals; 64- Oklahoma First Nation; 65- ...___ forgive our debtors; 66- Puts down;
Down 1- Util. bill; 2- Kind of wrestling; 3- Spahn teammate; 4- Alfresco; 5- Judged; 6- Muscat native; 7- Cambridge sch.; 8- Charles Lamb’s pen name; 9- Pond organism; 10- Lacking slack; 11- Piece of fencing?; 14- Shut in; 15- Easily remembered; 20- Geraint’s beloved; 22- Chow down; 25- Diminutive being of folklore; 26- Conger catcher; 27- Prospect; 28- Training group; 29- Trademark; 30- Herbert Hoover, for one; 31- Upright; 32- Reposes; 34- Stratum; 37- Get ready for a comeback tour; 40- Resounds; 42- Israel’s Barak; 43- Pure; 45- X; 46- Whip up; 48- End in ___; 49- Scandinavian capital city; 50- Scheme; 51- Just okay; 52- Simone of jazz; 54- Musical epilogue; 55- Small whirlpool; 56- Flat sound; 59- Super Bowl highlights?;54- Mower brand; 55- Monogram ltr.; 56- Matter for Holmes; 59- From ___ Z;
S U D O K U C R O S S W O R D
Yesterday’s solutionYesterday’s solution
How to playPlace a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.
Long before I had an engagement ring on my
ring finger, I had the word ‘me’ [tattooed] to remind myself that no
matter what, I vow to love myself. You can’t fully love
another without loving yourself first
DEMI LOVATO
Charlize Theron opens up about ‘unfair’ treatment as a woman in action movies
Fox | Los Angeles
Charlize Theron is getting candid about the perils of being a woman perform-
er in Hollywood.The actress spoke on the
“Evolution of a Bada--s” panel during Comic-Con@Home on Friday and opened up about her experience working in action films -- a genre dominated by men.
Theron, 44, drew from her experience performing on the 2003 remake of the heist film,
“The Italian Job,” and what she recalled “unfair” treatment dur-ing the movie’s prep phase.
“I realized there was still so much misconception around women in the genre,” the “Old Guard” star recalled at the vir-tual roundtable.
“The only good thing that came out of that experience was that there was a real pressure to pull off those stunts with the actors – and that was the first time I experienced anything like that,” Theron explained. “But there was a very unfair
process that went with that. I was the only woman with a bunch of guys, and I remem-ber vividly getting the schedule in our preproduction and they had scheduled me for six weeks more car training than any of the guys.”
The Oscar winner said she took umbrage with the idea that she couldn’t learn as much as her male counterparts in the same amount of training time.
“It was just so insulting, but it was also the thing that put a
real fire under my a-- and I was like, ‘All right, you guys want to play this game? Let’s go,’” she continued. “I made it a point to out-drive all of those guys. I vividly remember Mark Wahl-berg, halfway through one of our training sessions, pulling over and throwing up because he was so nauseous from doing 360s.”
The mother of two said her role in the 2015 George Miller movie “Mad Max: Fury Road” allowed her to finally hit her stride in the film business as a
viable action heroine.“It wasn’t until ‘Mad Max:
Fury Road’ came my way -- that experience and what happened with that film really changed the trajectory for me,” she said of the post-apocalyptic desert runner, which garnered a nom-ination for best picture.
“I don’t think I will ever re-cover from the making of that film,” Theron quipped of her now-iconic role of Furiosa.
“There is a responsibility to hand that baton over, that it’s not just about you,” she added.
Lovato says she feels ‘free’ of her ‘demons’ 2 years after overdoseFox | Los Angeles
Demi Lovato is reflecting on her past and feeling grateful.
The 27-year-old singer took to so-cial media on Friday where she got candid with her fans on how she was feeling, calling the day her “miracle day.” The date -- July 24 -- marks
Lovato’s 2-year anniversary of her near-fatal overdose.
“I’m so blessed to have one,” Lovato wrote. “It represents how the [doctors] at Cedar’s-Sinai [sic] saved my life. How my life has be-come something beyond my wildest dreams.”
“Only 2 years after that terrible day, I’m engaged to the love of my life,” she continued of her new fiancé, Max Ehrich. The actor and Lovato revealed their en-gagement news on Thursday.
“... I can genuinely say I feel free of my demons. Each and every one,” she added.
Lovato noted that over the past couple of years, she’s really worked on herself.
“And it’s not just because I fell in love (although that didn’t hurt), but because over the past 2 years, I’ve done more
work on myself than I have in my entire life,” she shared. “Things that used to keep me down for weeks or even months, pass like tropical
storms because my rela-tionship with God has
provided me infinite security.”
She added: “Long before I had an en-
gagement ring on my ring finger, I had the word
‘me’ [tattooed] to remind my-self that no matter what, I vow to love
myself. You can’t fully love another without loving yourself first.”Lovato conclud-
ed her post by thank-
ing God, her loved ones and fans.
“Thank you God for this peace and understand-ing but most of all giv-ing me the strength to f ight through my darkest times. Thank you to my family, friends and fans for always sup-porting me and respecting my privacy regarding this journey. I love you all,” she wrote.
Lovato also shared the note on Instagram, where she included a clip of her in the car listening to Paramore’s “The Only Excep-tion.” Ehrich, 29, took the video on his way to propose to Lovato.
Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively joke about fourth pregnancyANI | Washington
It seems actor Ryan Reynolds isn’t looking to have a fourth child with his wife Blake
Lively any time soon.According to Fox News, the 43-year-old
actor shared a brief clip from his 2010 film ‘Buried’ on Instagram with the logo for Aviation Gin -- his own brand -- edited into the scene in several places, including a flask that Reynolds takes a drink from.
Reynolds wrote in the caption, “Before Deadpool, I was an actor, One of my favour-ite projects was a film called ‘Buried’ and it’s now on @Hulu. 10 years later, it really holds up!”
He joked: “Although I don’t recall the aggressive product placement.”
The 32-year-old actor Lively left a funny
comment on her hubby’s post.“I think this just got me pregnant,” she
said, as captured by Comments by Celebs.In typical fashion, Reynolds offered a
witty response.The ‘Deadpool’ star wrote in response, “I
will be out of the office starting July 22nd through the middle of forever and ever. If you need immediate assistance during my absence, please contact someone. Anyone. Otherwise, I will respond to your message as soon as possible upon my unlikely return. Thank you.”
Reynolds and Lively already share three daughters: five-year-old James, three-year-old Inez, and a third was born last year, and they are yet to announce the baby’s name.
Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively
Charlize Theron
Demi Lovato Billie Eilish
Halep’s Palermo appearance in doubt after Italy’s quarantine orderAFP | Palermo
The upcoming Palermo La-dies Open could lose its
biggest draw in world number two Simona Halep after Italy decided to impose a manda-tory quarantine of 14 days for people coming from Romania and Bulgaria amid the corona-virus pandemic .
Italian Health Minister Rob-erto Speranza said on Friday people who have been in Ro-mania and Bulgaria in the past 14 days will be quarantined upon arrival in Italy, a move aimed at preventing the im-portation of COVID-19 cases.
Palermo will mark the first professional tennis event across the WTA and men’s ATP Tours since early March with action scheduled to get under-way on the clay courts of the Sicilian capital from Aug. 3.
Tournament director Ol-iviero Palma said organisers have written an urgent letter to Speranza, asking for exemp-tion for tennis players taking part in the event.
“The provision would penal-ise a player like (Romanian) Simona Halep, world’s number two and Wimbledon’s reign-ing champion, who wouldn’t take part in Palermo’s tourna-ment anymore,” Palma said in a statement.
Italy was the first Europe-an country to be hit hard by the novel coronavirus but the number of daily new infections being reported is a fraction of those seen in late March. The country has recorded over 35,000 deaths from the virus.
Palermo will have strict health precautions and all players will undergo COVID-19 tests before they come, on ar-rival and every four days sub-sequently.
‘Everyone is worried’: Mbappe on crutches as Champions League looms AFP | Paris
Paris Saint-Germain coach Thomas Tuchel said “every-
one is worried” after Kylian Mbappe hobbled off in the first half of Friday’s French Cup fi-nal with an ankle injury after a dreadful tackle by Saint-Etienne captain Loic Perrin.
Mbappe received lengthy treatment but was eventually substituted after his right ankle was caught by a clumsy Perrin challenge that resulted in a red card for the centre-back in likely his final game for Saint-Etienne.
“Everyone is worried. Every-one who saw the foul is worried. Of course I’m worried,” said Tuchel after his team’s 1-0 win.
“We have to be patient be-cause we don’t have any news. I think he will undergo tests tonight.”
A tearful Mbappe was re-placed by Pablo Sarabia but the greater concern for PSG will be the severity of his injury ahead
of next month’s Champions League quarter-final against Atalanta in Lisbon.
He reemerged from the Stade de France tunnel later in the second half on crutches.
“It’s the third game against Saint-Etienne and it’s a third red card, each time in the first 30 minutes,” added Tuchel.
“It’s not all good news for us.”PSG face Lyon in the French
League Cup final next Friday before resuming their European campaign in a unique straight knockout tournament at the Es-tadio da Luz on August 12.
“I hope Kylian is going to re-cover as quickly as possible be-cause he’s a vital player for us,”
said PSG captain Thiago Silva.Atalanta coach Gian Piero
Gasperini said he was “sorry” to hear of Mbappe’s injury and hoped it was “nothing serious” ahead of next month’s European clash.
Saint-Etienne boss Claude Puel admitted the forward was simply too quick for the 34-year-old Perrin.
“I hope it’s a minor injury for Kylian. The intention was to play the ball but it’s true that he was too fast,” said Puel.
08SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020
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Marquez quits, Quartararo grabs Andalucia pole
• Fabio Quartararo clinched a second consecutive pole position for Petronas Yamaha at the Andalusian Grand Prix in Jerez
• Repsol Honda confirmed defending champion Marc Marquez would not be risked as he recovers from a broken arm
AFP | Madrid
World champion Marc Marquez will not start the Andalucia
MotoGP in Jerez after dropping out of qualifying yesterday four days after an operation on a bro-ken arm.
“Marc has tried to listen to his body, to see how he responded,” Honda boss Alberto Puig said.
“When he saw that he could not, we have all decided not to race tomorrow.”
The six-time Spanish Mo-toGP champion broke his right arm in a crash at the delayed season-opening Spanish Grand Prix on the same track last Sun-day and underwent surgery on Tuesday. He was declared fit to race on Thursday.
The Honda rider sat out prac-tice on Friday and struggled in
yesterday’s third session before dropping out of opening quali-fying without recording a time.
Frenchman Fabio Quartararo, who won his maiden MotoGP race last week, grabbed pole with a lap of 1min 37.007sec to edge Yamaha’s Maverick Vina-les by 0.095sec.
It was the second consecutive pole position, and eighth in his MotoGP career, for the young Frenchman who rides for the Yamaha satellite team.
Francesco Bagnaia, an Italian with Pramac Racing, was third fastest, 0.169sec behind Quar-tararo, to complete the front row of the grid.
Veteran Italian Valentino Rossi was fourth quickest for Yamaha.
In the opening practice ses-sion of the morning, Spaniard Vinales had broken the track record set by Quartararo the previous week with a time of 1:36.584, but times slowed in the intense heat.
Marquez meanwhile record-ed only the 20th best time, 1.3sec behind Vinales. He was 16th fastest in the second session, 0.99sec behind Takaaki Nakag-ami, who set the fastest time, but as the session progressed, Marquez began to struggle to hold the line on corners, fre-quently slowing and swinging wide.
“This morning the objective was to make first contact with the bike and we saw that Marc could still be fast,” said Puig.
Because he had failed to re-cord one of the top 10 times, Marquez did not have a bye for the first qualifying session. He started but returned to the pits without posting a time, climbed off his bike and walked out of the garage.
‘A champion cannot stay home’
“Either due to the heat or fa-tigue from the morning, he ex-perienced more problems and found it more difficult,” Puig said.
“He wanted to try, and we wanted to give him the oppor-tunity to do it,” he added.
“A champion cannot stay at home if he thinks he has the option or a slight chance.”
“There are many races ahead and the goal is to arrive in Brno in the best way.”
If Quartararo wins on Sun-day, Marquez could start the Czech Grand Prix on August 9, 50 points behind.
A bad qualifying session for the Marquez family ended with younger brother Alex heading for a medical examination after crashing his bike on turn five. Honda quickly tweeted that “Alex is back in the box and has avoided any serious injuries. Rider OK.”
Petronas Yamaha SRT’s French rider Fabio Quartararo takes part in the MotoGP first qualifying session
Undefeated top prospects take centre stage at BRAVE CF 36
TDT | Manama
BRAVE Combat Federation continues its commit-
ment to finding the best hid-den talent in mixed martial arts around the world. With 35 shows in 19 countries on the books, the fastest-grow-ing MMA organization on the globe gears up for its second show in as many weeks and the fight card is full of top prospects.
BRAVE CF 36 takes place this Monday, July 27th, in Bucha-rest, Romania, and four unde-feated fighters will take centre stage, as well as two athletes making their MMA debuts on short notice.
Ion Surdu, Mochamed Machaev, Bilal Tipsaev, and Matiss Zaharovs have yet to taste defeat in their pro-fessional careers and, even though, their experience var-ies, their statuses don’t. All four of them are deemed as some of the best-hidden gems in the European MMA scene.
Surdu is 10-0 as a pro and has high plans for his career with BRAVE CF. He takes on
dangerous Kevin Ruart in a Welterweight bout and comes for his first bout with the pro-motion ranked as the number one fighter in his weight class in Romania.
Austria’s Machaev im-pressed the world in his first BRAVE CF outing, a unanimous decision victory over Matjaz Vicar, at BRAVE CF 34, earn-ing him a new fight with the organization. Mochamed will take on Ciprian Maris, who’s 16-7, and hopes to add a sec-ond win at Featherweight and move on to eventually fight for the title at 145 pounds.
Bilal Tipsaev and Matiss Zaharovs might only have four pro bouts between them, but they come in with a lot of expectations. “Borz’ Tipsaev is only 1-0, but he has caught the eye of fans and media in the local scene in Sweden and will hope to emulate his cousin Khamzat Chimaev, who had a successful run with BRAVE CF. Matiss (3-0), on the other hand, moves back up to Ban-tamweight after a crushing BRAVE CF debut, beating Hus-sain Ayyad at Flyweight.
Mochamed Machaev in action during a bout
Mochamed Machaev in action during a bout
Simona Halep
A bad qualifying session for the Marquez family ended with younger brother Alex heading
for a medical examination after crashing his bike on turn five
KNOW WHAT
It’s the third game against Saint-Etienne
and it’s a third red card, each time in the first 30 minutes. It’s not all good news for
usTHOMAS TUCHEL