Saturday 11 July 2020

20 Dhul-Qa'da - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8315

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SPORT | 16BUSINESS | 11

IMF warns

cutting spending

too soon could

derail recovery

Dowrich puts

West Indies

on top in

first Test

Education Above All Foundation hosts high-level event at UN HLPFQNA — DOHA

The Education Above All Foun-dation hosted a virtual side-event entitled ‘Education and the Trying Times of COVID-19’ during the High-Level Political Forum 2020 (HLPF 2020).

The HLPF annual meeting is the core United Nations platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the global level. The event was co-organised with the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the UN, the Qatar Fund For Development, the Islamic Soli-darity Fund for Development, and the Asian Development Bank.

Ministries, partners, and experts from around the world gathered virtually to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the edu-cation for the most margin-alised and reflected on how they can further collaborate, exchange critical information, to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, and help address the financial deficiency to build back better education systems.

The high-level, virtual side-event, included participation from the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the UN, State of Qatar’s Permanent Rep-resentative to the UN H E

Ambassador Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani; H E Dr. Mamadou Tangara, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation & Gambians Abroad; Khalifa Jassim Al Kuwari, Director General, Qatar Fund For Development; Ste-fania Giannini, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO; Stewart Simonson, Assistant Director-General, WHO’s office at the United Nations in New York; Dr. Jaime Saavedra Chanduvi, Education Director, The World Bank; and Brajesh Panth, Chief of Edu-cation Sector Group, Asian Development Bank.

The education of over 1.7 billion learners has been neg-atively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, com-pounding the already chal-lenging work of the interna-tional education community in ensuring all children have access to a quality primary edu-cation. Whilst the world has reeled at the number of children who have had their education interrupted as a result of school closures and the need to increase the physical distance between people to protect the health of populations, efforts on ensuring immediate and longer-term, res i l ient

and sustainable solutions have continued. The participants welcomed the organization of the high-level virtual side-event ‘Education and the Trying Times of COVID-19’.

They shared their expe-rience and appreciation of the efforts EAA is leading on and thanked EAA and the Qatar Fund For Development for their commitment. They underlined the importance of rebuilding an education system that allows for great innovation, sustaina-bility, equity, and inclusion to leave no one behind.

The participants stressed the need to build back better, as 70 million children and youth are at risk of not returning to school. They explained that the COVID-19 has exposed global health fragility, and exacer-bated existing inequalities leaving many vulnerable. The numbers we see are troubling. Globally, we have surpassed 11 million cases. They highlighted that digital learning goes beyond access to technology, stressing the importance of acting aggressively to expand connectivity and make sure teachers have the ability to use digital resources, available at the classroom level & integrated with the curriculum. �P2

HMC advises to take safety measures as mercury surgesFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

As summer temperature continues to rise, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has stressed the importance of community members taking the necessary measures and precautions.

In a social media campaign, HMC has warned members of the public about the dangers of leaving children alone in vehicles. “Do not leave children unattended at parking slots,” it said.

“A child’s body temperature tends to rise five-fold of that of an adult, particularly in hot summer days. If exposed to excessive heat, a child might be subjected to an increased risk of dehydration, fever, convul-sions, heat stroke, or even death,” HMC has cautioned.

HMC has also emphasized on important measures to follow at beaches and swimming pools, in order to avoid risks of drowning.

HMC has advised to check weather condition before going to the beaches to avoid strong winds and high waves, that may cause danger, follow safety instructions while swimming in the beaches or swimming pools, always watch children while swimming and make sure that they swim only in desig-nated areas for swimming, wear a swimming jacket while swimming or other safety equipment.

Also children must be

taught how to swim in the swimming training centers and learn how to perform CPR (arti-ficial respiration) technique to save others.

Previously, Dr, Khalid Abdulnoor, Senior Consultant Emergency Medicine and Director of the Hamad Inter-national Training Centre at Hamad Medical Corporation, said that drowning is the third most important cause of unin-tentional injuries worldwide, as it stands behind 7% of those deaths.

Thousands of deaths are estimated to occur in drowning worldwide, and children and individuals with access to water are the most vulnerable groups. Child deaths increase annually due to drowning, as it is considered one of the main causes of death and severe dis-ability among children in Qatar.

Dr. Abdulnoor noted that 90% of the total cases of drowning are among children aged 10 years and under, while the percentage reaches 70% of the total cases of drowning for children under 4 years.

He had stressed the impor-tance of adopting precau-tionary measures to prevent accidents of drowning, including those related to swimming pools at home, where safety standards must be adhered to in terms of building tight fences around the pools, which in turn hinder children’s access to them in the case of parents not attending.

GAC releases 318,743 customs declarations in JuneSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

The total number of customs declarations released in June 2020 stands at 318,743, according to statistics of the General Authority of Customs on June 2020.

The statistics released by the Authority on its website showed that it has also com-pleted 2,97,090 customs dec-larations in air cargo customs, and 21,644 customs declara-tions in maritime customs.

For the number of customs declarations transferred to government agencies, the number stands at 23,141 according to statistics released by the General Authority of Customs. The data also indi-cated that the percentage of customs declarations released in an hour was 99 percent. The top importing country was United States of America, while the top exporting country was India.

Speaking about Hamad Port’s role in the movement of

imports and exports and focusing on the tasks and roles of inspection department at Hamad Port, Fawaz Ibrahim Alsaada, head of inspection department in Hamad Port said that Hamad Port is one of the biggest ports in the Middle East and it is the main commercial port in Qatar as well as an external commercial port.

He also said that “70% of Qatar’s imports pass through Hamad Port after the closure of the only land port due to impo-sition of blockade on the State of Qatar.”

Regarding modern tech-nology being used at Hamad Port, Alsaada pointed out: “There is no doubt that Hamad Port is marked by a large number of advanced and modern devices, where there are 4 main and large inspection devices dedicated for all con-tainers when entering the central area (customs campus), and 2 high density devices (for suspicious cases) which have paths to be discovered in 2 or 3 minutes.

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the registration of 520 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 while 961 people recovered from the virus bringing the total number of cases recovered in Qatar to 98,232.

In addition, the Ministry announced four new deaths, for people aged 30, 57, 70 and 91 - all were receiving the necessary medical care. All new cases have been introduced to isolation and are receiving necessary healthcare according to their health status.

The Ministry said that the measures to tackle COVID-19 in

Qatar have succeeded in flat-tening the curve and limiting the spread of the virus and the number of new daily cases and hospital admissions is con-tinuing to decline each week.

“Qatar’s proactive and extensive testing of suspected cases has enabled us to identify a high number of positive cases in the community.”

The Ministry further said that Qatar has one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world. “This is a result of: Qatar’s young population, proactive testing to identify cases early, expanding hospital capacity, especially intensive care, to ensure all patients receive the medical care they need,

protecting the elderly and those with chronic diseases,” it added.

“Even though restrictions are being lifted, and numbers are declining, this does not mean that the COVID-19 pandemic is finished in Qatar – every day between 50 and 100 people are admitted to hospital with mod-erate to severe COVID-19 symptoms,” the Ministry said, adding, “Unless we follow all precautionary measures, we may experience a second wave of the virus and see numbers increasing – there are already signs of this happening in other countries around the world.”

The Ministry has further said that while the restrictions of COVID-19 are gradually being

lifted in Qatar, it is important for everyone to play their role in controlling the virus by fol-lowing precautionary measures: adherence to physical dis-tancing, wearing a face mask, washing hands regularly.

Most importantly, the Min-istry said, it is vital that we con-tinue to protect the elderly and those with chronic medical conditions.

Anyone suffering from COVID-19 symptoms should either contact 16000 helpline or go directly to one of the des-ignated health centers to undergo the necessary checks: Muaither, Rawdat Al Khail, Umm Slal, or Al Gharafa Health Centers.

MoPH: 961 COVID-19 recoveries, 520 new casesC VID-19 QATAR UPDATES ON 10 JULY 2020

NEW CASES ANNOUNCED

520

NEW RECOVERIES

961

NEW DEATHS

4

TOTAL RECOVERIES

98,232

TOTAL

DEATHS

TOTAL

RECOVERED

GLOBALLYC VID-19

TTOOTATALL

DDEEATATHSHS

TTOOTATALL

RERECCOVOVEREREEDD

12,538,709 560,036 7,300,909TOTAL

POSITIVE

Do not leave children

unattended at parking slots

Check weather condition

before going to the beaches

to avoid strong winds and

high waves, that may cause

danger

A child’s body temperature

tends to rise five-fold of that of

an adult, particularly in hot

summer days. If exposed to

excessive heat, a child might be

subjected to an increased risk

of dehydration, fever, convul-

sions, heat stroke, or even

death

The event was co-organised with the

Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the

UN, the Qatar Fund For Development, the

Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development, and

the Asian Development Bank.

1.07 billionThe education of over 1.7 billion learners

has been negatively impacted by the

COVID-19 pandemic

“There is a direct con-nection with the radiology office,” he said, adding that the

current inspection platforms contain 96 containers parking divided into 3 platforms.

TOTAL

DEATHS

146

OFFICIAL NEWS

02 SATURDAY 11 JULY 2020HOME

FAJR SUNRISE 03.23 am 04.51 am

W A L R U WA I S : 33o↗ 39o W A L K H O R : 31o↗ 47o W D U K H A N : 30o↗ 38o W WA K R A H : 30o↗ 42o W M E S A I E E D 30o↗ 42o W A B U S A M R A 30o↗ 42o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 07:54 – 20:36 LOW TIDE 04:24– 14:00

Hot daytime with slight dust and some clouds at times,

relatively humid at places by night.

Minimum Maximum33oC 43oC

ZUHR

MAGHRIB

11.39 am06.30 pm

ASR

ISHA

03.03 pm08.00 pm

HMC stresses glucose monitoring at homeFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has stressed the impor-tance of good blood sugar control, glucose monitoring at home for all individuals to maintain a strong immune level.

Manal Othman, Director of Diabetes Education at HMC has said that if diabetics effectively manage their blood glucose levels to stay within a healthy range, their risk of getting severely sick from COVID-19 is about the same as the general population.

“It is important to monitor blood sugar levels at home and help manage the disease,

particular in these days amid COVID-19,” she said in a video posted on HMC Facebook account as part of an ongoing awareness campaign.

Manal has highlighted that blood sugar monitoring at home provides useful information for diabetes management. According to her, it can help monitor the effect of diabetes medications on blood sugar levels, identify blood sugar levels that are high or low, track your progress in reaching your overall treatment goals, learn how diet and exercise affect blood sugar levels and under-stand how other factors, such as illness or stress, affect blood sugar levels.

Manal has said that more fre-quent monitoring of glucose levels will ensure fluctuations can be detected early and quickly addressed.

“If you take insulin to manage type 2 diabetes, your doctor may recommend blood sugar testing several times a day, depending on the type and

amount of insulin you use,” she said.

“Your doctor will let you know how often to check your blood sugar levels. The frequency of testing usually depends on the type of diabetes you have and your treatment plan,” she added.

Manal has also said that dia-betics should also prioritise

self-care, following the nutrition guidelines prescribed by their dietitian, getting regular exercise, ideally ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes in the afternoon, and ten minutes in the evening, and getting sufficient sleep. In response to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, HMC has extended the hours of operation for its diabetes hotline (16099; select option 4). This phone-based emergency service is now available seven days a week from 7am to 10pm to provide indi-viduals with all types of diabetes who are receiving care at HMC, as well as their relatives or car-egivers, with medical advice related to diabetes and COVID.

Amir congratulates Governor-General of the Bahamas

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin

Hamad Al Thani and Deputy Amir

H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al

Thani sent yesterday cables of con-

gratulations to Governor-General of

the Commonwealth of the Bahamas

H E Cornelius Alvin Smith on the

occasion of his country’s inde-

pendence day. Prime Minister and

Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Kha-

lid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani

also sent a cable of congratulations to

Prime Minister of the Commonwealth

of the Bahamas H E Hubert Alexan-

der Minnis on the occasion of his

country’s independence day. -QNA

ESC-QU monitors hawksbill turtle conservation in QatarTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Environmental Science Centre (ESC) at Qatar University (QU) is focused on monitoring and protecting the hawksbill turtles that come to Qatar to nest each year.

The staff at the ESC have been able to keep the monitoring effort similar to previous years during the height of COVID-19 lockdown precautions taken by the government.

ESC has noticed a change in nesting behaviour this year among nesting turtles, possibly due to the COVID-19 restrictions on beaches. The total number of turtles coming to Qatar to nest is roughly the same as previous years. But the big difference ESC noticed is the beaches they are using to nest appears to have changed slightly.

Previously, Ras Laffan, Ras Rakkan and Umm Tais have had the majority of nests, however, this year beaches like Al Maroona, Al Ghariyah and Fuwairit have seen huge increases in nesting activity. Al Maroona and Al Ghariyah in par-ticular have seen big gains in nesting activity. These increases could be due to the fact that these sites normally receive many

visitors from April to June which could have deterred nesting activity. However, this year as public access has been restricted, turtles may have preferred nesting on these sites.

For the first time since the project’s inception, a protected turtle nest hatchery has been erected in Ras Laffan Industrial City. In recent years, nests on the site have been subject to consid-erable pressure from fox pre-dation. As such, project partners that work on the site (Qatar Petroleum and the ESC) have taken the step to relocate and protect nests in a protected hatchery on site.

So far, this has been extremely successful by elimi-nating fox predation as an issue on the site. This measure taken by project partners can also show to other projects around the world that development and effective conservation can exist together.

A crucial part of marine turtle protection in Qatar is under-standing where they go when they’re not on the beach nesting. To achieve this, the ESC deploys satellite trackers on post nesting turtles each year. Many important areas have been identified off-shore from the tracking data.

There appears to be three main home ranges for hawksbills that nest in Qatar.

Many of them either migrate back towards the waters off Dubai, south off Mesaieed or west near the Hawar Islands of Bahrain. This year, for the first time in the project history, ESC staff deployed a satellite tracker on a nesting turtle from Ras Rakkan Island.

This is the first time this has been accomplished and will provide valuable information on the post nesting movements of Hawksbills. So far, this turtle has been seen travelling North West, which is not commonly seen from nesting turtles in Qatar. This may identify to researchers new foraging grounds or areas important to turtles in Qatar and the wider Arabian Gulf.

Dr. Hamad Al Kuwari, Director of the Centre for

Environmental Sciences at Qatar University and head of the project said: “The Environmental Sci-ences Center at Qatar University is a focal point for many environ-mental studies concerned with wild and marine wildlife in Qatar.

The centre has benefited from its accumulated experi-ences, research and scientific reports in an attempt to assess and know the numbers of hawksbill turtles annually and their places of spread around the Qatari peninsula and the waters of the Arabian Gulf through tracking them with satellite tracking devices.”

“The centre also periodi-cally continues to conduct studies and research in various fields related to this topic whether through own efforts and internal financing by Qatar University or through cooper-ation with Qatar Petroleum as

a supporter of turtle projects, scientific institutions and local researchers, and also through the use of international expertise, researchers are sec-onded through turtle projects, and this has also led to the cen-tre’s researchers benefiting from this international cooper-ation In raising their levels and scientific expertise,” he added.

Dr. Jassim Al Khayyat, the project’s Executive Director, stressed the need to preserve the environment and reduce negative practices, stating: “Despite the global interest in turtles, some wrong practices such as throwing waste, waste-water, oil pollution and other materials and pollutants, over-fishing and consumption such as eating eggs, turtle and its flesh, led to many species of sea turtles in the world to the point of extinction.”

A crucial part of marine turtle protection in Qatar is understanding where they go when they are not on the beach nesting.

Bestselling author Layla F Saad to speak on race, identity, at QF talkTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The author of a book that has opened up new perspectives on white supremacy and topped the New York Times bestseller list will share her views on racism and privilege — and how everyone can play their part in undoing them — in the latest edition of Qatar Foundation’s Education City Speaker Series next week.

Layla F. Saad — whose book Me and White Supremacy has gained an avid worldwide read-ership — will reflect on her own experiences of racism and soci-ety’s shared responsibility to identify, oppose, and defeat dis-crimination as the guest speaker at the online event on Wednesday.

Titled Race and Identity in the 21st Century, the talk comes

as the issue of racial prejudice dominates global conversations, sparking widespread protests and calls for action. Saad — who, as well as being an author, is a teacher and influential voice on race, identity, leadership, per-sonal transformation, and social change — will speak about what white supremacy really means, where its roots lie and how it is reinforced, the importance of being a good ancestor, and why people should recognise that the power to change notions of supremacy lies with them.

Moderated by Dr. Amal Mohammed Al Malki, Founding Dean of the College of Human-ities and Social Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), the Education City Speaker Series event will take place from 4-5.30pm on July 15, with

viewers from Qatar, the region, and around the world being invited to put their questions to Saad during a Q&A session fol-lowing the discussion.

Described as an anti-racism education workbook, Me and White Supremacy was initially

offered for free in an Instagram challenge and in a self-published digital workbook in 2018.

In the space of six months, it was downloaded by 100,000 people, and has since become a USA Today, Amazon, Wall Street Journal, Indie, and Pacific Northwest bestseller, in addition to the New York Times. Having grown up in the West, Saad now lives in Qatar, and identifies herself as “an East African, Arab, British, Black, Muslim woman”.

Launched in 2018, the Edu-cation City Speaker Series is one of QF’s most popular platforms for dialogue, enabling its audience to hear from and interact with experts and thought-leaders on the topics that shape and influence our world.

Next week’s talk will be the third online edition of the

Education City Speaker Series — which has continued amid the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting QF’s belief that dialogue never stops — following two recent events in collaboration with the World Innovation Summit for Health that opened up global perspectives on COVID-19, and focused on the pandemic’s impact on the mental health of societies around the world.

To register for the event through Microsoft Teams — where Arabic, French, Spanish, and Italian subtitles will be available — please visit www.qf.org.qa/ecss, where more information about the Education City Speaker Series can also be found. You can also watch this edition of the Education City Speaker Series on Qatar Foun-dation’s Facebook and YouTube channels.

Layla F Saad

Nestlé donates 140,000 food and beverage servings to QRCSTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

In an ongoing drive to tackle evolving societal needs, Nestlé has donated 140,000 food and beverage servings to Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS), for inclusion in parcels reaching 1,600 families in need and workers in quarantined indus-trial areas.

The donation, implemented in line with Nestlé’s global col-laboration with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in its pandemic emergency efforts,

includes dairy, soup, culinary products, coffee, rice, sugar, oil, and lentils.

“Our priorities focus on three main objectives: 1. Ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our employees, our collaborators, business partners, and the com-munities we are a part of; 2. Ensuring continued production and delivery of food and bev-erage products to help meet the nutritional needs of individuals and families; and 3. stepping up relief efforts to local commu-nities,” said Zaher Abou Khamis, Nestlé’s General Business

Manager in Qatar. The local efforts are part of Nestlé mobili-sations in the Middle East and North Africa supporting more than 30 entities in 17 countries, where the company has so far donated 10 million food and bev-erage servings as part of an ongoing donations campaign.

Besides, the company’s various divisions are contrib-uting in their different expertise. Nestlé Professional, for example, continues to offer pragmatic support to its business partners in the hospi-tality industry.

Manal Othman, Director of Diabetes Education at HMC, has said that if diabetics effectively manage their blood glucose levels to stay within a healthy range, their risk of getting severely sick from COVID-19 is about the same as the general population.

MES wins big

at World

Environment Day

competitionsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

In the recently concluded World Environment Day international competitions, which were jointly organised by CSIR- NEERI and NOS, VIBHA, the MES Indian School, representing through Science India Forum Qatar (SIFQ) won the most of it among all Indian schools partic-ipating in Qatar.

In the write-up / story/ poem writing contest, Reema Sumesh secured the second position while Ishrat Fatima and B Magdalene Sylvia received consolation prizes. Antony K K secured the second position in the photography contest and Galeena Binoth Lonen received a consolation prize in the same contest.

In the short video contest, Bismi Joseph won the conso-lation position. Uzma Danish Dalvi, Miah Saheb AayeshaTa-bassum and Keishna Ashok won consolation prizes in their respective poster/ drawing / sketching category.

Overwhelming partici-pation from students, teachers, parents and the general public was witnessed in the World Environment Day 2020 contest. A total of 10,393 participants contested online in five different categories: Students (Junior: G 5-8), Students (Senior: G 9-12), Students (UG-PG), Teachers, General Public. From Qatar 1,326 participants from various schools, colleges and institutions took part in the competitions.

In poster / drawing / sketching, a total of 4,496 par-ticipants with 624 entries from Qatar contested. In the short video category of the contest, a total of 677 participants with 82 entries from Qatar participated. 2,441 participants along with 306 entries from Qatar took part in photography contest. A total of 2,779 entries, of which 314 from Qatar, had been reg-istered in the write-up / story / poem writing competition. Manmmadhan Mambally, Chief Coordinator for the students’ activities coordinated the event for the school. Principal, Hameeda Kadar felicitated the winners for their enthusiastic participation and remarkable achievements.

Education Above All Foundation

hosts high-level event at UN HLPFFROM PAGE 1

Even before COVID-19, tens of millions of children at the primary level were permanently out of school, and there was already a funding gap. COVID-19 is costing governments billions and educational needs are now competing harder with other critical sectors.

During the closing Education Above All stated that “We have been working to develop dif-ferent financing solutions to meet the education needs of the world’s hardest to reach children. Our work has focused on

innovative, sustainable financial partnerships to support edu-cation access for out of school children. Providing access to education for children around the world is not an easy task at the best of times; the COVID-19 pandemic increases pressure on already stretched systems, and threatens to leave more children exposed to the direct and adverse impacts of life without access to quality education”.

“The discussion and part-nership with QFFD devel-opment banks and INGO’s send a strong message to the world,

as we look to build stronger, more sustainable education systems in the wake of COVID-19, that we cannot, and will not aim to go back to ‘normal’. We must take the lessons of COVID-19, work together in partnership, use our expertise, resources, and inno-vation to reach more out of school children, and overcome the devastating effects of this pandemic. We will continue to work to provide access to edu-cation for the hardest to reach and to achieve SDG4, primary education.”

03SATURDAY 11 JULY 2020 HOME

DFI Short Film of the Week features acclaimed Qatari filmRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

The breathtakingly beautiful wind-sculpted limestone forma-tions of Zekreet serve as the perfect backdrop for the acclaimed Qatari film Kashta which can now be viewed via the YouTube channel of Doha Film Institute (DFI).

The quiet Qatari desert land-scape with its unusual rock for-mations and rugged dirt roads makes an ideal setting of the story of a man and his young sons on a hunting trip gone horribly wrong. In the film written and directed by AJ Al Thani, frus-tration leads to a harmless struggle between the two brothers, but their carelessness brings about sudden disaster.

Al Thani shared in a behind the scenes interview that she had always wanted to make the kind of film she watched while growing up such as Star Wars or any film set in the desert, thus she was inspired to do her debut film Kashta.

For the film, which was a

recipient of DFI’s Qatari Film Fund, Al Thani worked with the production company The Film House.

“ When I got my grant for Kashta I knew that it was a huge milestone. It was the first time I worked with a professional crew. I really went out of my comfort zone, and I worked with a pro-duction company,” she said.

“As I’ve grown and the bigger knowledge I have of films, I started to create my own voice. What I wanted more than any-thing is to have a strong message behind each film,” she stressed.

The film won the Best

Narrative Short Film at the Made in Qatar section when it marked its world premiere at the Ajyal Film Festival in 2016 and had taken part in many film festivals internationally.

“Kashta was a big stepping stone that showed my family that I was serious about filmmaking,” said Al Thani.

The film was uploaded on Thursday on DFI’s YouTube channel as part of its Short Film of the initiative.

Launched in April, the ini-tiative brings the very best of DFI-supported films for film enthusiasts to enjoy in the

comfort of their own homes. The initiative aims at encour-

aging people to stay home amid COVID-19 pandemic while lending support to Qatari films and Arab cinema.

The series kicked off with the

short narrative “Al Johara” helmed by Qatari filmmaker Nora Al Subai. Other films which had been featured were Amer: An Arabian Legend by Jassim Al Rumaihi, Red by Kholood Al Ali, Elevate by Hamida Issa, In the

Middle by Mariam Al Dhubhani, The Unlucky Hamster by Abdulaziz Mohammed Khashabi, Gubgub by Nouf Al Sulaiti, Land of Pearls by Mohammed Al-Ibrahim, and Smicha by Amal Al Muftah.

A still from the Qatari film Kashta by AJ Al Thani.

Qatar Reads highlights importance of creating positive reading habits in childrenTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Reads in collaboration with Qatar National Library (QNL) hosted an interactive webinar highlighting the benefits of reading to children from a young age, and the importance of creating positive habits, as part of its unique Mommy to Be program.

The event addressed how reading can help promote the development of language and literacy skills, and encourage a love of learning in children. With new mothers at the centre of the discussion, it also addressed topics such as how to build bridges between parents and children, and ways to promote a culture of reading from an early age.

“A parent is a child’s first teacher,” said Faten Azzam, Senior Information Services Librarian, Qatar National Library, who led the discussion. “And, importantly, children acquire language skills through listening to the conversation of those around them.”

According to Azzam, one of the most wonderful ways to talk to children is to discuss a certain book.

“Use a language that they can understand, talk to your child, ask them questions, and allow them to answer. Even if

they do not directly interact with you, the process itself can develop a child’s linguistic skills.

“Infants are born with mil-lions of nerve cells, and reading to them can help stimulate these cells. They can develop the ability to absorb language and skills, and can connect an image with a name, or an object with its use and sound.”

Reading can also introduce children to writing and prepare them for school. “Reading and writing are two compatible skills. Through reading, children can be introduced to written texts, and they can look at the text and memorise the shape of printed words,” said Azzam.

The best types of books to use in the early learning stages

are picture books, according to Azzam, as they allow children to understand the story through images. And they often include short text, which children can see, and parents can read aloud.

Providing advice on how to read to children, Azzam said: “It is very important to go through the book on your own before you read it to your child to decide if it’s suitable for their age. And remember to pick a book that matches your child’s interest.”

Reading to children in an interactive process, according to Azzam. “You can allow your child to flip the pages of the book to increase their partici-pation in the reading process. Explain new terminology, ask questions, and help with the answers. It is not necessary to read the whole story at once, but it is necessary to make reading a habit.

“Reading time should become your child’s favourite time. You need to work on making it a fun experience that your child enjoys and loves. Make your children treat their books like their favorite toys to play with,” she concluded.

The Mommy to Be program is a joint programme between Qatar Foundation’s Qatar Reads initiative and Qatar National Library.

Qatar Reads in collaboration with Qatar National Library launched the Mommy to Be program.

QU’s GPC awarded QNRF Cluster grantTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Gas Processing Center (GPC) at the College of Engi-neering, Qatar University (QU), in collaboration with Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, College of Business and Economics at QU and Qatar Green Building Council have received the prestigious QNRF National Priorities Research Program — Cluster (NPRP-C) grant.

The cluster programme is dedicated to address pressing and strategic challenges for Qatar and produce tangible societal and economic impact.

It also supports multi-insti-tutional and inter/multi-disci-plinary research to solve sig-nificant and complex problems in a holistic way that are resistant to conventional approaches. The proposed cluster project, which focuses on the development of a highly efficient and sustainable carbon management system for Qatar, has been granted $5m from QNRF, in addition to $1.4m as industrial co-funding for a period of five years.

The cluster proposal offers a holistic approach to carbon management, including the development of effective CO2

capture technologies using innovative materials and the implementation of novel tech-nologies to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into high-value chemicals. The cluster also examines process economics, life cycle assessment and envi-ronmental impacts.

The GPC team, led by Prof Muftah El Naas, includes researchers from the College of Engineering and the College of Art and Science in addition to researchers from Qatar Shell and the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO).

The cluster also involves notable national and interna-tional entities including the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Kahramaa, AGRICO, and Innovate Calgary.

Prof Muftah El-Naas

HEC Paris in

Qatar announces

early bird

discount on its

SBUM program

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

HEC Paris, ranked #2 worldwide for Executive Education in 2020 and #1 for the International Executive MBA (EMBA) in 2019 by the Financial Times , has announced an early bird discount on its highly sought-after Specialised Master’s Degree in Strategic Business Unit Management (SBUM) programme in Qatar.

This programme is designed for professionals and entrepreneurs who want to enhance their leadership and management skills or are looking at managing their own business unit or company in the future. It also trains participants to master the key transitions in their professional lives and prepares them for more chal-lenging times.

“Our specialised Master’s just got even more attractive for prospective participants thanks to our early bird dis-count offer,” said Abdallah Abdel-Daem, Director of Business Development, Sales and Admissions.

“We are looking forward to welcoming the next intake of our SBUM programme, which will be in November 2020. It’s one of our most well-received programmes.”

QF alumni’s startup aims to ensure cashless future, leaves nobody behindTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

cWallet, a company founded by a group of HEC Paris in Qatar graduates, allows low-income workers to access digital financial services without needing a debit or credit card

A cashless society that uses online transactions instead of paper money is something most countries have been working towards for decades, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the shift towards this aspiration.

However, as more and more daily-life services are offered online, sometimes almost exclusively, they are becoming inaccessible for many underprivileged communities who do not earn enough to open a bank account, let alone possess a debit or credit card.

A new digital startup called cWallet plans to combat this issue by making digital transactions possible for millions of low-income, unbanked workers around the world through an easy-to-use mobile application. Established in 2019 by a group of seven Qatar Foundation (QF) alumni, all graduates of HEC Paris in Qatar, cWallet is already available for use in Qatar, pri-marily targeting low-income customers in the country, and plans to expand to other countries in future.

“A cashless society is the future, as well as an ambition of Qatar for the World Cup and the 2030 vision, but if you’re pro-moting a cashless lifestyle, you need to promote financial inclusion and financial literacy too,” said Michael Javier, CEO and Founder of cWallet.

In addition to the usual debit or credit card payment, cWallet allows users to deposit money into their digital wallet by either purchasing scratch cards from stores or asking friends to transfer “peer-to-peer” money. The app also allows employers to deposit salary directly into the wallet.

Money in the cWallet can then be used for contactless payments across a range of retail services in Qatar, such as at cof-feeshops, grocery stores, food delivery apps, or utility bills. The company already has a dozen retail partners in Qatar and is adding more regularly.

cWallet began as a final-year thesis for Javier when he was pursuing a Mas-ter’s in Strategic Business Unit Man-agement from HEC Paris in Qatar, a QF partner university.

It later expanded into a startup after he collaborated with six of his classmates, all of whom are Qatari, to establish it as a company.

“First it was just purely based on the thesis, but then I said ‘let’s dig deeper, research, talk to people, and talk to embassies’,” said Javier. “And then I found out that there is actually a problem and it should be tackled more often and bluntly.”

Javier learned that one affluent cus-tomer can give more returns to banks than thousands of workers combined, a fact that discourages some banks from tar-geting low-income customers but pushed Javier to believe in his project more.

After struggling to juggle between his full-time job, family commitments, and working on cWallet on the side, Javier decided to quit his job and dedicate his time to making cWallet a reality.

cWallet was incubated at the Digital Incubation Center (DIC), part of Qatar’s Ministry of Transport and Communica-tions, and was a recipient of a devel-opment fund from Qatar Science & Tech-nology Park (QSTP), a member of QF.

“I wasn’t born to be an entrepreneur and it took me 40 years to just decide to become an entrepreneur,” said Javier, adding that early days of being an entre-preneur were not easy.

“There were lots of challenges and sleepless nights, and days when you didn’t know what to do, but I kept pushing and

moving forward. And with establishments like the DIC and QSTP, and all the other players that are trying to help us to grow, it was very helpful.”

A key strength of cWallet is the amount of effort that went into ensuring it is fea-sible for its target audience and meets their needs and expectations. To achieve this, Javier did not only talk to workers in Qatar, but also travelled to India, the Philippines, and other countries to understand how remittances are received and used back home.

The app is available in nine languages commonly spoken among workers in Qatar, is free to use, and allows users access e-commerce services that they might not be able to use otherwise.

cWallet is currently partnering with employers of food delivery staff, domestic workers, salons, and freelancers so that their employees don’t have to deal with cash, something that not only requires

extra handling but has also become a health and safety risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re moving away from ‘dirty’ money that transmits unknown diseases, and at the same time securing the money of expats who don’t have bank accounts because they might be putting it under a pillow in shared accommodation,” said Javier.

It is the first mobile app in Qatar to facilitate financial services via blockchain technology, allowing freelancers and owners of home-made businesses and micro-enterprises to send and receive money online without paying for expensive payment gateways.

In future, cWallet will also allow expats to send remittances or pay for utilities like school fees or electricity bills back in their home country directly through the app. The company is already in talks with affiliate partners in other countries.

The cWallet team members.

In the film written and directed by A J Al Thani, frustration leads to a harmless struggle between the two brothers, but their carelessness brings about sudden disaster. Al Thani shared in a behind the scenes interview that she had always wanted to make the kind of film she watched while growing up such as Star Wars or any film set in the desert, thus she was inspired to do her debut film Kashta.

04 SATURDAY 11 JULY 2020MIDDLE EAST

France asks Israel to drop West Bank annexation plansAFP — PARIS

French President Emmanuel Macron asked Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from annexing Palestinian territory in the West Bank and elsewhere during a telephone call between the two leaders, the French president’s office said yesterday.

Macron “emphasised that such a move would contravene international law and jeopardise the possibility of a two-state solution as the basis of a fair and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians”, his office said in a statement after the call on Thursday.

It was the latest move by European leaders pressing Netanyahu to drop plans to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the strategic Jordan Valley.

The controversial move was endorsed in a Middle East plan unveiled by US President Donald Trump in January.

But Netanyahu’s office said yesterday that in the talks with Macron he “clarified that Israel

is acting according to interna-tional law”.

“Israel is prepared to hold peace negotiations on the basis of President Trump’s plan,” it said, reiterating a claim that “it is the Palestinian refusal to conduct negotiations based on this plan and on the plans of the past that is preventing progress”.

Israel’s government had set July 1 as the date when it could begin taking over the Pales-tinian areas, where the popu-lation of Israeli settlers has grown since the 1967 Six-Day War.

Under Trump’s plan, the territory seizures would even-tually allow the creation of a Palestinian state on the

remaining West Bank territory and in the Gaza Strip.

But the plan falls far short of Palestinian aspirations, with a state on reduced territory and without east Jerusalem as its capital.

The foreign ministries of France and Germany, along with those of Egypt and Jordan — the only Arab states to have peace deals with Israel —warned this week that any annexation could have “conse-quences” for relations.

But Macron told Netanyahu that France remained com-mitted to Israel’s security and “expressed his attachment to the friendship and confidence that links France and Israel”, his office said.

The mother of 29-year-old Palestinian Ibrahim Abou Yacoub, who was martyred by Israeli forces, mourns during his funeral in the village of Kifl Hares, south of the West Bank city of Nablus, yesterday.

Hundreds gather for funeral of Palestinian shot by Israeli troopsREUTERS — SALFIT, WEST BANK

Hundreds of people gathered in the occupied West Bank yesterday for the funeral of a Palestinian man shot by Israeli soldiers a day earlier.

Israel’s army said troops opened fire after the Palestinian

and another man started throwing fire bombs at a guard post near the town of Nablus.

Palestinian officials dis-missed the report and said the man had been walking with friends when he was shot dead.

People at the funeral in the

village of Salfit carried Pales-tinian flags and chanted “Allahu Akbar”, or God is greatest.

Tensions have been high in the West Bank in recent weeks as Israel weighs a plan to annex part of the territory that Palestinians seek for a future state.

Blackouts darken misery of Lebanon’s economic collapseREUTERS — BEIRUT

Samira Hanna spends a lot of time in the dark. Her old Beirut apartment gets less than two hours of electricity a day, and with Lebanon’s economy in ruins, the grandmother can barely afford candles, let alone a private generator.

“I sit outside on the stairs for some light,” she said. “We don’t watch television. I wait for the electricity to come so I can wash clothes... And there’s nothing in the fridge, believe me.”

Exacerbated by Lebanon’s financial meltdown, fuel shortages have worsened existing power cuts, piling further hardship on Lebanese struggling with job losses, soaring prices and hunger.

Parts of the capital Beirut now get just a few hours of elec-tricity a day in the summer heat. Some residents said the blackouts were worse than during the 1975-1990 civil war.

The energy minister has cited stockpiling as one of several reasons behind the shortages, with people buying subsidised fuel as a hedge

against inflation. “Instead of buying gold,

people are buying diesel,” Raymond Ghajar said recently.

Smuggling across the border to Syria is also a factor.

Supply has also been inter-rupted by the fallout of a

investigation into shipments that were not up to specification.

Ghajar said ships carrying fuel started arriving this week and promised a gradual return to normal - although across Lebanon, normal has meant

daily power cuts of some kind. Private generator suppliers,

who have long filled the supply gap left by patchy state pro-vision, have also been rationing fuel, and many homes can no longer pay exorbitant fees.

Even hospitals have not

been spared: the main Beirut public hospital treating coro-navirus cases had to close some operating rooms and turn off air conditioning in its hallways, local media reported.

And without energy for switchboards, mobile phone coverage was cut in parts of the country. Lebanon’s power sector, at the heart of the crisis, bleeds up to $2bn from public funds every year while failing to supply enough electricity. The heavily indebted state has long promised to fix it but has not delivered on its pledge.

Hanna, in her 70s, said she never had it this bad. Daily outages have made her men-tally disabled daughter frantic.

The blackouts have stoked resentment towards political leaders who publicly wrangle over how to repair the sector while power cuts get worse.

“It’s about time they have pity on us. But what do they care?” she said. “They have money and they can live, we can’t... They can see people are suffering, but they can’t feel.”

Badiaa, 75, goes without electricity most of the day.

This July 3 picture shows a dark street during a power cut in Beirut, Lebanon.

Lebanese PM sues American University over exit packageREUTERS — BEIRUT

Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab is suing the American University of Beirut (AUB), where he worked for 35 years as an academic, a spokesman for Diab said, in a dispute over his exit package from the financially struggling institution. AUB, which has been hit hard by Lebanon’s economic meltdown, declined to comment on the case.

Lebanon is grappling with a crisis caused by decades of state corruption and bad gov-ernance. A hard currency liquidity crunch has led to an 80% weakening of the local currency since October.

Diab presented his-long planned resignation in January - the month he became prime minister. “... He asked for an exit package in line with common practices and prece-dents at AUB. This request was denied...,” the spokesman said.

Diab had “never made any special request for any pay-ments to be made either in foreign currency or into foreign bank accounts. All AUB pro-fessors have their pensions paid in US dollars, from a AUB foreign account”, the spokesman said. “What the PM expressed was only what was already stated in the AUB retirement plan regulations and policies.”

The private AUB, founded in the 1860s, is alma mater of some of the Arab world’s leading figures in politics, medicine, law, science and art. Its president said in May Lebanon’s catastrophic collapse represented one of the biggest challenges in the history of a university which has weathered many crises, including Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.

Iran reports 142 COVID-19 deaths; discourages travel to tourist areasAFP — TEHRAN

Tehran yesterday urged Iranians to avoid travelling to two key tourist areas as it announced a drop in daily coro-navirus deaths after a record toll a day earlier.

With the start of the summer holidays, the health ministry “strongly advised eve-ryone to avoid travelling to the provinces of Khorasan Razavi and Mazandaran”, two top tourist regions in the north of the country, health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari

said. She told state television that 142 people had died of the COVID-19 illness yesterday, down from 221 on Thursday — a single-day record for the Islamic republic.

A further 2,262 new infec-tions were also recorded yes-terday, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 252,720, including 12,447 deaths.

The situation was worrying in 19 of Iran’s 31 provinces where infections were on the rise, including Tehran, Lari said.

“Most of the (new) cases of

hospitalisation and infection are related to funerals and wedding celebrations,” she added, citing official reports provided to the ministry.

For several weeks, the novel coronavirus has gained ground in Iran, which is battling the deadliest outbreak in the Middle East.

The country’s daily death toll from the virus has topped 100 since around mid-June, prompting authorities to make wearing masks mandatory in enclosed public places, among other measures.

People celebrating outside the Hagia Sophia museum yesterday after a top Turkish court cleared the way for it to be turned back into a mosque.

Erdogan: Hagia Sophia to be reopened for Muslim worshipAFP — ISTANBUL

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced yesterday that the Hagia Sophia, one of the architectural wonders of the world, would be reopened for Muslim worship, sparking fury among Christian leaders and in neighbouring Greece.

His declaration came after a top Turkish court revoked the sixth-century Byzantine monu-ment’s status as a museum, clearing the way for it to be turned back into a mosque.

The Unesco World Heritage site in Istanbul, a magnet for tourists worldwide, was con-verted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Constan-tinople in 1453.

The Council of State, Turkey’s highest administrative court,

unanimously cancelled a 1934 cabinet decision and said Hagia Sophia was registered as a mosque in its property deeds, in its detailed reasoning.

Hagia Sophia has been a museum since 1935 and open to believers of all faiths.

Transforming it from a mosque was a key reform under the new republic born out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.

The landmark ruling will inflame tensions not just with the West and its historic foe Greece but also Russia, with which Erdogan has forged an increas-ingly close partnership in recent years.

Ahead of the court decision, Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul shared a picture of Hagia Sophia

on his official Twitter account, with a message: “Have a good Friday.”

Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, Erdogan’s son-in-law, tweeted that Hagia Sophia would be reopened to Muslim worship “sooner or later”, referring to a quote from Turkish poet Necip Fazil Kisakurek.

The Council of State had on July 2 debated a case brought by a Turkish group— the Association for the Protection of Historic Monuments and the Envi-ronment, which demanded Hagia Sophia be reopened for Muslim prayers.

Since 2005, there have been several attempts to change the building’s status. In 2018, the Constitutional Court rejected one application.

Iran signs agreement to bolster Syria’s air defence systemsAP — TEHRAN

Iran’s military chief has signed an agreement with Syria’s pres-ident to reinforce Syria’s air defence systems as part of a military cooperation agreement, Iranian state TV reported yesterday.

Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, met with Syria President Bashar Assad during his second visit to Syria since 2019. Assad said the agreement signed by both sides is the result of “years of cooperation for confronting terrorism” in Syria. Bagheri said it “will improve the determination of the two nations to confront US pressures.” He didn’t elaborate.

US ally Israel has occasionally attacked Iranian forces in Syria that Iran says are there to support Syria’s fight against rebel groups as part of the country’s 9-year civil war.

Israel views Iranian entrenchment on its northern frontier as a red line, and it has repeatedly struck Iran-linked facilities and weapons convoys destined for Iran-backed militant group Hez-bollah in Lebanon.

French President Emmanuel Macron “emphasised that such a move would contravene international law and jeopardise the possibility of a two-state solution as the basis of a fair and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians”, his office said in a statement.

Morocco city imposes total lockdown

05SATURDAY 11 JULY 2020 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Algeria medics sound alarm over virus responseAFP — ALGIERS

Algerian doctors and nurses say they have paid a heavy price in the country’s coronavirus response and have warned of worse to come, urging respect and enforcement of hygiene rules.

“We’re working non-stop. We’re totally exhausted. Some (medics) are dead, may they rest in peace, and several members of my team have been infected,” said Dr Mohamed Yousfi, head of infectiology at the Boufarik hospital near Algiers.

Boufarik was the first town in the North African country to register cases of the COVID-19 illness in February, after Alge-rians returned from France and attended a wedding and

infected an entire family.“The epidemic started here,

and it’s getting out of hand. The hospital is full,” Yousfi said.

Some staff are so tired they have fainted or had car acci-dents, he said. Doctors and nurses have been particularly at risk since the outbreak in February. Local media report that 31 medical workers have died — including four since the start of the week.

Professor Abdelkrim Soukehal, a member of the National Scientific Committee, said some 1,700 doctors, nurses and other medical workers have been infected.

Some doctors have taken to social media to voice anger and desperation, among them a

doctor from second city Oran. The doctor, signing with the

initials M.A., tweeted about his pride for “my team, who were giving it their all” but also anger “at all those ignorant people who pay the price for their foolishness.”

Others bemoaned the lack of ventilators and personal pro-tective equipment, demanding more help from the state.

After peaking for a first time in April, coronavirus infections were markedly down during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. But after it finished in late May, authorities began easing strict lockdown measures — and the caseload surged again in hos-pitals across the country. Yousfi said his hospital was full and that

dozens of people, sometimes entire families, arrive each day with COVID-19 symptoms. Around half are declared positive.

“We’re heading for disaster. Cases keep increasing,” Yousfi said. The Pasteur Institute of Algeria, which carries out the tests, said it is overwhelmed, more than quadrupling its workload to more than 2,000 tests per day.

But Yousfi said many Alge-rians were not accepting the reality of the situation, with some continuing to deny the virus exists. “As long as there are citizens in denial, selfish and unaware of the fact they’re infecting people around them — and of what the doctors are enduring because of them— the

situation can only get worse.” The worst-affected country

in North Africa, Algeria has offi-cially reported nearly 18,000 cases of COVID-19, including about 1,000 deaths.

A month after easing its initial lockdown, the gov-ernment in late June urged local officials to act tougher against those breaking hygiene rules.

Algerians are required to wear masks in public and gath-erings are banned. Yousfi called for “targeted lockdowns” of areas with new outbreaks of the virus — and more support for medical staff. “The day the front line doctors can’t do their work because of exhaustion, there will be no one left to care for the sick.”

A man walks past a Moroccan municipal worker as he disinfects a street in the southern port city of Safi, yesterday, during a total lockdown ordered by the authorities following the discovery of several new cases of COVID-19 coronavirus at a fish canning factory there.

Sudan’s main airport allows flights from 3 countriesANATOLIA — KHARTOUM

Sudan’s air authority announced that it has reopened Khartoum Interna-tional Airport to flights from three countries including Turkey.

Ibrahim Adlan, the general director of Sudan’s Civil Avi-ation Authority, said air traffic has partially resumed as of today for flights from Turkey, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after being sus-pended as part of measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Adlan said all passengers arriving at Khartoum Airport will be tested for the corona-virus as of July 14 if they do not possess a certificate for being COVID-19 free.

Sudan suspended all flights on March 16 due to the coronavirus.

A total of 641 people in Sudan have died from the coronavirus while the number of cases stands at 10,158, with recoveries totaling 5,074.

Lebanon arrests 3 Sudanese trying to cross into Israel

ANATOLIA — BEIRUT

The Lebanese army said yesterday that it arrested three Sudanese nationals after a failed border-crossing attempt to Israel.

According to a statement by the Lebanese army, the three Sudanese were returned to Lebanon after being cap-tured by Israeli forces.

“The enemy forces arrested the three persons before being released and returned back to Lebanese territories,” the statement said. The Lebanese army added that the three Sudanese were currently being held to be interrogated in the presence of a judicial authority.

Earlier yesterday, Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army spokesperson, said in a statement that Israeli army lookouts observed three sus-pects trying to cross the fenced border with Lebanon.

Adraee added the suspects had been questioned in the field. In May, the Lebanese army also said it stopped five Sudanese in two different inci-dents while trying to cross into Israel. Sudanese nationals have tried to leave Lebanon on mul-tiple occasions in recent days to Israel in search of work oppor-tunities, as dire economic con-ditions plague the country amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Ten million face acute food shortages in Yemen: UNAFP — GENEVA

Nearly 10 million people are facing acute food shortages in Yemen and urgent action is needed to avert a famine, the UN’s World Food Programme said yesterday.

The WFP said it needed $737m to the end of the year to keep its aid programme running in the war-torn country, which is gripped by what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humani-tarian crisis.

“The humanitarian situ-ation is deteriorating at an alarming rate, pushing people to the edge,” WFP spokes-woman Elisabeth Byrs told a virtual briefing in Geneva.

“We must act now. If we wait for famine to be declared, it will already be too late as people will already be dying.”

She said the famine warning signs were already present.

“Yemen is facing a crisis on multiple fronts. Imports have declined, food prices are soaring, the riyal is in freefall, and foreign currency reserves are nearing total depletion,” said Byrs.

The spokeswoman said more than 20 million people

were food insecure in Yemen, of which 13 million receive h u m a n i t a r i a n f o o d assistance.

Meanwhile two million children, plus a million pregnant or breastfeeding women, require treatment for acute malnutrition.

Byrs said WFP distribu-tions were down to once every other month in the north of the country and the UN agency hoped it would not have to do the same elsewhere.

Yemen’s war between Iran-backed Houthi rebels and pro-government troops escalated in March 2015, when a Saudi-led military coalition intervened against the rebels who control large parts of Yemen including the capital Sana'a.

Tens of thousands have been killed, an estimated four million displaced and 80 percent of the country’s 29 million people are dependent on aid for survival.

The coronavirus pan-demic is also raging unchecked in the country.

The UN raised only around half the required $2.41bn in aid for Yemen at a June donor conference co-hosted by Saudi Arabia.

Mali protesters reject president’s concessionsREUTERS — BAMAKO

Protesters staged another large demonstration in Mali’s capital Bamako yesterday after a coalition opposed to President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita rejected concessions aimed at resolving a months-long political stand-off.

Thousands of protesters filled the city’s Independence Square, chanting and waving banners that said: “Enough is Enough” and “IBK, clear off”, referring to the president. It was the third mass protest in recent weeks.

The impasse since a dis-puted legislative election in March is a growing concern for Mali’s neighbours and outside powers, who worry it could further destabilise the country and jeopardise a joint military campaign against Islamist insurgents in the West African Sahel region.

On Wednesday Keita, or IBK as he is known, said he was open to form a gov-ernment of national unity and renew members of Mali’s highest court, and if he could, dissolve the national assembly if it would not create a fresh crisis.

But his opponents said the proposals were not enough.

Protesters also gathered yesterday in Paris, which has a large Malian community.

Influential Muslim cleric Imam Mahmoud Dicko, one of the leaders of the oppo-sition protest in Mali, told France24 television that they had dropped the demand for the president to resign but want further gestures from

him. “This is because we think it (the resignation) will cause more problems than it will resolve,” Dicko said. “Mali’s problem is not about a government of national unity. It is a problem of governance.”

However, some protesters at the Bamako rally were still calling for the president to step down.

“I see he can’t lead this country,” said 48-year-old storekeeper Alassane Cisse, who joined the protest despite once voting for Keita.

The protest follows two in June, when thousands gathered to demand that Keita resign for failing to offer solutions to the country’s security and eco-nomic crisis.

Keita was re-elected in 2018 for a second five-year term, but his leadership has faced mounting opposition amid a surge in militant violence and economic crisis.

Kenya to refund school fees over COVID-19 delayANATOLIA — NAIROBI

Schools in Kenya have been asked to refund fees to parents for 2020 as their reopening is delayed over COVID-19 fears, local media reported.

“Parents who had made the

payments will get advance for next year when classes resume,” The Star quoted Edu-cation Cabinet Secretary George Magoha as saying.

The decision, according to the report, applies to second and third term fees, as “the first

term school fees were already spent”.

On Tuesday, Magoha announced the postponement of re-opening schools until January 2021, as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kenyan authorities so far have confirmed 8,975 COVID-19 infections with 173 recorded deaths.

The number of coronavirus cases in Africa has exceeded 510,000 while the death toll on the continent is nearing 12,000.

Ethiopia: Suspects confessed to killing singer

AFP — ADDIS ABABA

Ethiopia’s attorney general said yesterday that two men had confessed to killing a popular singer from the Oromo ethnic group as part of a plot to topple Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.

Hachala Hundessa became a symbol of the Oromo struggle during years of anti-government protests that swept Abiy to power in 2018. His shooting death last week sparked days of protests and ethnic violence that killed 239 people, according to police figures.

“The assassination was intended to be a cover to take power from the incumbent by force,” attorney general Abebech Abbebe said in a statement aired on state tele-vision, without providing details.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari signing the revised 2020 budget in Abuja, Nigeria, yesterday.

Nigerian president suspends chief of anti-corruption agency accused of graftAP — LAGOS

The head of Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency has been suspended from office following corruption allegations against him.

President Muhammadu Buhari approved the sus-pension of Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission “in order to allow for unhin-dered inquiry by the Presi-dential Investigation Panel,” according to a statement Friday by the spokesman for the Justice Ministry.

Magu is being investigated following allegations made by the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.

They include the “alleged sale of seized assets to cronies, associates and friends.” Magu denies the allegations.

Nigeria’s government set up the EFCC in 2003 in response to widespread official cor-ruption in Africa’s most pop-ulous country. Magu has been chairman since 2015.

Niger ian Pres ident Muhammadu Buhari yesterday signed into law a budget with record spending despite the risk of a slump in oil revenue.

The 2020 budget of 10.81 trillion naira ($28.38 billion) was approved by parliament in June after Buhari called for a raise to the original request of 10.59 trillion naira.

In a ceremony in the capital Abuja, Buhari said the increase of 216 billion naira was a “response to recent develop-ments, in particular the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Nigeria, Africa’s biggest crude producer, relies on oil sales for 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings.

Buhari noted that global crude prices had tumbled from a high of $72.20 per barrel in January to below $20 per barrel in April. They have since hovered around $40.

The revised budget is based on assumptions of $28 per barrel as against $57 previously. Nigeria has also reduced its crude output in line with Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) efforts to strengthen the oil market.

“Global trade has generally been disrupted as almost all economies were locked down for protracted periods in the wake of the COVID-19 Pan-demic,” Buhari said.

But he added that the gov-ernment was well-positioned to safeguard the economy, thanks to the revised budget and a N2.3-trillion stimulus programme.

Thousands of protesters filled the city’s Independence Square, chanting and waving banners that said: “Enough is Enough” and “IBK, clear off”, referring to the president. It was the third mass protest in recent weeks.

06 SATURDAY 11 JULY 2020ASIA

Singaporeans vote in polls expected to return ruling partyAP — SINGAPORE

Wearing masks and plastic gloves, Singaporeans voted yesterday in a general election that is expected to return Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s long-governing party to power.

Senior citizens were the first to cast ballots at 1,100 polling stations across the city-state, with strict safety measures in place for Southeast Asia’s first national election since the coro-navirus pandemic began.

People being treated for COVID-19 or under quarantine at home were not allowed to vote.

The health crisis and con-cerns over an economic recession will likely cause voters to opt for stability under Lee’s People’s Action Party. It faces 10 small opposition parties that are contesting the 93 parliamentary seats mostly on a one-on-one basis against the PAP.

The opposition has said it does not want to govern, but urged the 2.65 million voters to reduce the PAP’s overwhelming majority in parliament to deny

it a “blank check.” Voting is compulsory in Singapore.

The PAP has dominated pol-itics since 1959, when Lee’s father, Lee Kuan Yew, became Singa-pore’s first prime minister and built the resource-poor city-state into one of the world’s richest nations during 31 years in office.

In 2015, the party won 69.9 percent of the total vote and 93 percent of parliamentary seats. But it has also been criticized for tight government control, media censorship and use of

oppressive laws and civil law-suits against dissidents.

Lee and his wife, Temasek Holdings CEO Ho Ching, lined up outside a school around noon to cast their ballots. He said the safety protocols were practical, although they led to longer-than-expected lines.

“The officers are trying their best and from what I know, the teething problems have been sorted out and it’s running smoothly now,” Lee, 68, told reporters after voting. “I am going to chill out until tonight.” The Election Department later dropped the requirement of donning disposable gloves to cut waiting time for voters. It also extended voting by two hours until 10pm (1400 GMT) to clear the queues.

The opposition Singapore Democratic Party said the voting extension was unprece-dented and “highly irregular.” It said some of its polling agents would have to leave, causing some polling stations to be unattended when the boxes are sealed and this could cast doubt on the results.

Retiree Dennis Phua said the election shouldn’t have been rushed since the PAP’s five-year mandate would last until April next year. He said he hopes for louder opposition voices in parliament so the PAP wont be “so arrogant.”

“There are so many things we are not satisfied with. It’s a good government, but the way they do things can be better,” Phua said as he waited outside a school to vote.

But not all agree.“I hope that it will remain

as the status quo. For so many years, it has been the same and

so far so good,” said home-maker Florence See. She praised the government for putting in place strict measures to protect voters.

Lee has faced opposition from his estranged younger brother, Lee Hsien Yang, who said the PAP had turned into an elitist party. The younger Lee joined an oppo-sition party last month but is not running in the election. The prime minister has said the polls are about ensuring a strong gov-ernment to secure the country’s future, not his family feud.

Singapore’s election follows

polls in Serbia and Mongolia last month and in South Korea in April, when governing parties in all three countries scored resounding victories.

The polls come just weeks after the country emerged from a two-month lockdown aimed at controlling one of Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreaks. The tiny nation of 5.8 million people has reported more than 45,000 cases, most of them foreign workers living in crowded dormitories that were overlooked in the early phase of its crisis management.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (centre) casting his vote at Alexandra Primary School during the general election in Singapore, yesterday.

Nepal cable TV operators stop airing Indian news channelsAP — KATHMANDU

Nepal’s cable and satellite tele-vision providers have stopped airing Indian news channels, with one operator saying yesterday that the move was in response to public complaints over coverage of Nepal’s prime minister.

Sudeep Acharya, managing director of satellite television pro-vider Dish Home, said they stopped airing the Indian news channels Thursday night after they were flooded with com-plaints about news reports about Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli.

Acharya said there was no government order to stop airing

the channels, adding that the decision was made after discus-sions between cable and satellite television providers. It was not decided for how long they planned to stop airing the channels.

Some of the Indian media reports have suggested Oli is a puppet of the Chinese gov-ernment. One recent report on Indian channel Zee news sug-gested Oli had close ties with the Chinese ambassador to Nepal, who has been meeting several leaders of Oli’s Nepal Communist Party.

Nepal’s government has condemned the reports.

“The government condemns any media content that

assassinates the character of any person, spreads hatred and disregards the respect and honor of the individual con-cerned,” Nepal’s Information Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwad said Thursday.

Oli has been a target of both Indian leadership and media since his government brought out a new map of the country that includes territories claimed by both India and Nepal. The new map has strained relations between two South Asian nations with exchanges of strong statements.

Kathmandu’s relations with New Delhi worsened after Oli said last week in an internal

party meeting that India was attempting to oust him from office with help from some of the members of his own party.

India had been a dominant force in Nepal until recently, when China’s involvement began to grow. Besides China’s investment in the building of airports, highways and hydro-power projects in Nepal, Chinese diplomats have worked to increase ties with Nepali political leaders.

This story has been cor-rected to show that the gov-ernment condemned content that assassinates the “char-acter” of any person, not the “charter.”

Philippine MPs refuse to renew ABS-CBN broadcast licenceREUTERS — MANILA

Philippine lawmakers rejected the renewal of a 25-year licence for country’s top broad-caster yesterday, outraging activists who saw the move to keep ABS-CBN Corp off the air as part of a political vendetta on behalf of President Rodrigo Duterte.

A legislative committee overwhelmingly agreed with a working group’s assessment that ABS-CBN, which employs 11,000 people and has an audience of tens of millions of Filipinos, was “undeserving of the grant of legislative franchise”.

Aides to Duterte, 75, sought to distance the president from the decision, as activists have accused him of using courts, Congress and regulatory bodies to systemati-cally stamp out opposition to his popular autocracy.

Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director, called it “a black day for media freedom” and “an astounding display of obse-quious behaviour” by law-makers kowtowing to Duterte.

“This move solidifies the tyranny of President Rodrigo Duterte,” he said.

It comes a week after the passing of a controversial anti-terror law that Duterte fast-tracked through the legislature, granting his security chiefs powers to arrest and detain without charge or judicial approval anyone they consider a “terrorist”.

Critics fear it will be used as a weapon to target dissent,

including journalists, bloggers, lawyers and civil society groups seeking his international indictment for thousands of killings in his war on drugs.

ABS-CBN has been on ten-terhooks since Duterte took office in 2016 and started threatening to block its renewal bid, in furious public outbursts stemming from the network’s failure to air some of his paid election campaign commer-cials. It has since apologised.

Under Duterte, the market value of ABS-CBN has slumped 69 percent to $257m. His spokesman, Harry Roque, said the president had always had “a neutral stance” on the fran-chise issue.

It was not immediately clear what the next steps would be for ABS-CBN, which con-tinues to operate online, on cable and on social media, which are not impacted.

“This is a painful and sad day,” said Regina Reyes, head of its news and current affairs.

“You feel your entire life’s work was disregarded,” she said, fighting back tears.

ABS-CBN’s 21 radio and 38 television stations are a staple of news and entertainment across the Philippines and to the Filipino Diaspora, generating big adver-tising revenues from brands keen to tap mass audiences drawn to its talent shows, dramas and glamorous celebrities.

A caravan of cars carrying ABS-CBN employees and stars holding placards defending the network and media freedom circled the house.

Wading through the watersMotorists make their way through a flooded street following heavy rains in Allahabad, Gujarat, India, yesterday.

India sees more local coronavirus lockdowns as cases near 800,000REUTERS — MUMBAI

India reported a record 26,506 new coronavirus cases yesterday as authorities re-imposed lockdowns in its most populous state and in an industrial hub, home to auto-makers and drug factories.

The new cases pushed India’s tally to nearly 800,000 cases, the world’s third-biggest outbreak, behind only the United States and Brazil in con-firmed infections.

There have been more than 21,000 deaths in India since the first case was detected there in January, federal health ministry data showed yesterday.

The capital, New Delhi, along with Maharashtra state,

home to the financial capital of Mumbai, and the southern state of Tamil Nadu account for about 60 percent of its cases.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, anxious to jump-start an economy crippled by the epidemic and put millions of people back to work, in early June eased an initial lockdown of the 1.3 billion population imposed in March.

But rising new flare-ups of the virus has been forcing some major industrial towns and states to impose localised restrictions.

A nine-day curfew was imposed in Aurangabad, an industrial town in Maharashtra, to contain a spike in infections that has affected operations of automakers such as Bajaj Auto.

“Employees could not go to work today due to the curfew,” said Thengade Bajirao, president of the Bajaj Auto Workers’ Union.

With an annual production capacity of more than 3.3 million motorbikes and other vehicles, the Waluj plant in Aurangabad accounts for more than 50 percent of Bajaj’s man-ufacturing volume in India.

ŠKODA AUTO Volkswagen India Pvt Ltd, small auto-part makers, pharmaceutical com-panies such as Ajanta Pharma have production units in Aurangabad.

Uttar Pradesh, will lock down for two days from late on Friday as cases there surged past 32,000, the state gov-ernment said in a statement.

Furore after Indian police shoot gangster deadAFP — LUCKNOW

Indian police shot dead one of the country’s most wanted gangsters yesterday just a day after his dramatic arrest, sparking accusations of a staged extrajudicial killing.

Officials said Vikas Dubey, detained for the killing of eight police officers, was shot as he tried to escape a police vehicle while being driven to his home city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Within hours of TV stations carrying images of his blood-stained body lying in a hospital, rights lawyers and activists alleged that police had killed Dubey to prevent him revealing his connec-tions with powerful people.

“This is the most blatant

case of extra-judicial killing. Dubey was a gangster terrorist who may have deserved to die. But (Uttar Pradesh) police have killed him to shut his mouth,” Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan wrote on Twitter.

“Will we allow police to kill anyone without a court trial?” Utsav Bains, another Supreme Court lawyer, added.

Senior opposition Congress party leader Priyanka Gandhi said the people “protecting” Dubey were still free and called for a judicial probe into the killing.

Dubey, aged about 50, was accused of more than 60 murders, attempted murders and other crimes. He was said to have shot dead an Uttar Pradesh state minister inside a police station in 2001.

Australia restricts

returning citizen

numbers as

virus surges

REUTERS — SYDNEY/MELBOURNE

Australia will halve the number of citizens allowed to return home from overseas each week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday, as authorities struggle to contain a COVID-19 outbreak in the country’s second most populous city.

The state of Victoria reported 288 new cases on Friday, a record daily increase for any part of the country and sparking fears of a wave of community transmission in a country where most cases have involved returned travellers.

“The news from Victoria remains very concerning,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

Since March, Australia has allowed only citizens and per-manent residents to enter the country with some 357,000 having returned to date.

Australia will now impose a cap of 4,175 people allowed to return each week and those returning will also have to pay for a mandatory 14-day quar-antine in a hotel, which until now had been paid for by state governments.

“The decision that we took... was to ensure that we could put our focus on the resources needed to do the testing and tracing and not have to have resources diverted to other tasks,” Mor-rison said.

Neighbouring New Zealand also introduced measures this week to limit the number of citizens returning home, seeking to reduce the burden on its overflowing quarantine facilities.

The health crisis and concerns over an economic recession will likely cause voters to opt for stability under Lee’s People’s Action Party. It faces 10 small opposition parties that are contesting the 93 parliamentary seats.

07SATURDAY 11 JULY 2020 ASIA

Hong Kong to suspend all schools due to spike in coronavirus casesREUTERS — HONG KONG

Hong Kong’s Education Bureau yesterday announced the suspension of all schools from Monday after a sharp rise in locally transmitted coronavirus cases fuelled fears of renewed community spread.

Schools in the Asian financial hub have been mostly shut since January, with many having switched to online learning and lessons by conference call. Many international schools are already on summer break.

Hong Kong reported 38 new coronavirus cases yesterday, edging down from Thursday’s 42 but broadly in line with a sharp increase that the city registered over the past three days.

Authorities said 32 of the new

cases were locally transmitted after the city reported mostly imported cases for months.

The total number of cases since late January now stands at 1,404. Seven people have died.

Some of the recent cases involved students and parents, said Education Secretary Kevin Yeung.

“Many parents are worried about the sudden growth of local

transmission cases in the past few days,” said Mimi Tsang, mother of 12-year-old student Melony.

However the early sus-pension comes as the switch to online learning at home has frus-trated teachers, parents and stu-dents and exacerbated the learning gap between the haves and havenots.

More than two thirds of parents, regardless of income,

believe their children have diffi-culty learning at home, according to a February survey by the Edu-cation University of Hong Kong.

A survey by The Society for Community Organisation (SoCO) of nearly 600 low-income

students shows more than 70 percent don’t have computers and 28 percent have no broadband. The early closure of schools would this time not have much impact on teaching, stu-dents and parents said, as it

comes just ahead of the summer holidays.

“We just had one more week of classes to go, so I don’t think there is too much difference,” said 14-year-old student Ryan Chan.

People wear face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease, in Hong Kong, yesterday.

WHO advance team on way to China to set up probe into virus originREUTERS — GENEVA

An advance team from the World Health Organisation (WHO) has left for China to organise an investigation into the origins of the novel corona-virus which sparked the global pandemic, a spokeswoman said yesterday.

The virus is believed to have emerged in a wholesale market in the central Chinese city of

Wuhan late last year, since then closed, after jumping the species barrier from the animal kingdom to infect humans.

The two WHO experts, spe-cialists in animal health and epidemiology, will work with Chinese scientists to determine the scope and itinerary of the investigation, WHO spokes-woman Margaret Harris told a UN briefing in Geneva.

“They have gone, they are

in the air now, they are the advance party that is to work out the scope,” she said.

This would involve negoti-ations on issues including the composition of the fuller team and what skills were needed, she added.

“One of the big issues that everybody is interested in, and of course that’s why we’re sending an animal health expert, is to look at whether or

not it jumped from species to a human and what species it jumped from,” Harris said.

“We know it’s very, very similar to the virus in the bat, but did it go through an inte-mediate species? This is a question we all need answered,” she said.

The WHO will have no role in an independent panel, announced on Thursday, to review the global handling of

pandemic, Harris said, adding: “From now on it is completely hands off”.

US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo have said it may have originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, although they have presented no evidence for this and China strongly denies it. Scientists and US intelligence agencies have said it emerged in nature.

US bans

Pakistan’s

PIA over

pilot licence

scandalAFP — KARACHI

The United States has banned Pakistan International Airlines from operating chartered flights to the country after the carrier said nearly 150 of its pilots would be grounded over fake or dubious licences.

It follows a similar move by European Union aviation reg-ulators to bar the state-run carrier for six months.

The US Department of Transportation announced the ban after it was made aware that “nearly one-third of Paki-stani pilots are not properly cer-tificated in accordance with international standards,” it said in a statement dated July 1 and released yesterday.

Pakistan’s aviation minister revealed in June that a gov-ernment review had found around 260 of the country’s 860 active pilots hold fake licences or cheated on exams.

PIA at the time said it would immediately ground about a third of its 434 pilots, just weeks after one of its planes crashed in Karachi killing 98 people — an accident blamed on pilot error. The airline confirmed in a statement that its approval had been revoked due to “recent events identified by the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority that are of serious concern to aviation safety”.

So far 17 pilots have been fired in the first phase of its investigation, a PIA spokesmansai.

The airline had suspended its commercial operations to the US in 2017 after booking financial losses on the route.

But in April the US Department of Transport granted it special permission to operate chartered flights for one year, largely to bring back stranded Pakistanis during the coronavirus lockdown.

Until the 1970s, Pakistan’s largest airline was considered a top regional carrier but its rep-utation plummeted amid chronic mismanagement, fre-quent cancellations and financial struggles.

Pakistan: 2 provinces bearing brunt of COVID-19 pandemicANATOLIA — ISLAMABAD

Pakistan’s two most populous provinces account for more than 75 percent of the country’s COVID-19 cases and over 72 percent of its virus-related fatal-ities, according to official data released yesterday.

The South Asian country’s overall case count increased to 243,599, with 2,751 infections recorded over the past 24 hours, while the death toll rose by 75 to reach 5,058, the Health Min-istry reported.

With 100,900 confirmed infections, the southern Sindh province leads in the number of cases, followed by north-eastern Punjab, the most pop-ulous province, with 85,261 cases.

Together they make up over 76 percent of Pakistan’s nationwide case tally, as well as 72 percent of the country’s

death toll - Punjab with 1,972 recorded fatalities and Sindh with 1,677. They are followed by the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with 29,406 cases and 1,063 deaths, and southwestern Balochistan — the largest province in terms of area — with 11,099 cases and 125 deaths.

The capital territory of Islamabad is next with 13,829 cases and 146 fatalities, trailed by Pakistani-administered Kashmir with 1,485 cases and 41 deaths, and the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region with 1,619 cases and 34 fatalities.

In terms of recoveries, Sindh — 57,627, and Punjab — 52,641 account for over 73 percent of the 149,092 patients who have recovered in Pakistan so far. According to the Health Ministry’s data, the overall recovery ratio in Pakistan is now over 61 percent, while

2,375 patients remain in critical condition.

More than 1.51 million tests have been conducted so far in the country of over 220 million.

Health experts believe the improving numbers are due to locality-based lockdowns — termed “smart lockdowns” by

the government — enforced in high-risk areas in 20 major cities since last month.

“We are seeing a visible decrease in new COVID-19 cases in Pakistan, but for any final conclusions, this declining trend needs to continue for at least another 15 days,” Dr

Mukhtiar Zaman, a renowned pulmonologist, told Anadolu Agency. However, local media reports suggest the decline in virus cases could be because of reduced testing, with daily test numbers having fallen to around 24,000 from over 32,000 in June.

A paramedic, wearing protective gloves, takes a nose-swab sample to be tested for the coronavirus disease, in Karachi, Pakistan.

North Korean leader’s sister says Kim-Trump summit unlikelyAP — SEOUL

The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said yesterday she doesn’t expect her brother to meet President Donald Trump this year, saying there’s no reason for the North to gift Trump high-profile meetings when it’s not being substantially rewarded in return.

“But also, you never know,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement released through Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency, where she called for major conces-sions from Washington to keep

alive the nuclear diplomacy.“That’s because a surprise

thing may still happen, depending upon the judgement and decision between the two top leaders,” Kim Yo Jong said. She added that if there is a need for summit talks, it is a US need, while for North Korea, it is “unpractical and does not serve us at all.”

Kim Yo Jong is seen as her brother’s closest confidant and has been recently confirmed as his top official for inter-Korean affairs. She is also the first vice department director of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Com-mittee. She spoke as the US’s top official on the Koreas is in Asia.

Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun is in Japan after meeting South Korean officials in Seoul, where he accused a senior North Korean nuclear negotiator of being “locked in an old way of thinking.” His remarks indicated Washington won’t likely make concessions to resume the talks despite the North’s pressure.

Trump and Kim Jong Un have met three times since embarking on high-stakes nuclear diplomacy in 2018. But negotia-tions have faltered since their second summit in February 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korean demands for major

sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capability. Some analysts believe North Korea, which is sensitive about potential changes in US leadership, will avoid serious talks with the Americans for now before an eventual return to negotiations after the US presi-dential election in November.

Kim Yo Jong said that the diplomacy could be salvaged only by a reciprocal exchange of “irreversible simultaneous major steps.”

“We would like to make it clear that it does not necessarily mean the denuclearisation is not possible. But what we mean is

that it is not possible at this point of time,” she said.

North Korea for decades has been pushing a concept of denu-clearisation that bears no resem-blance to the American defi-nition, with Pyongyang vowing to pursue nuclear development until the United States removes its troops and the nuclear umbrella defending South Korea and Japan. Experts say Kim Jong Un sees the diplomacy as an arms reduction negotiation between nuclear states rather than talks that would culminate in a full surrender of the weapons he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival.

Japan braces for more heavy rain as death toll rises to 66AP — TOKYO

Parts of Japan still searching for missing people and evacuating those stranded by deadly floods and mudslides were bracing for more pounding rains through the weekend.

The death toll has risen to 66 as of yesterday morning, with 16 others still missing, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. Most of them are in prefec-tures on Kyushu, Japan’s third-largest main island. The damage

has spread beyond Kyushu into central Japan’s scenic mountain villages known for hot springs and hiking.

Search and rescue work con-tinued in Kuma village, where nine people are missing and the effort has been delayed by deep floodwater and the risk of more mudslides. People isolated by the flooding are still being airlifted to safety. Nearly 2,000 people were still stranded in 70 places, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.

Kazakhstan rejects Chinese claim over pneumonia outbreakANATOLIA — MOSCOW

Kazakhstan’s health officials yesterday dismissed a Chinese claim that the Central Asian country is facing an outbreak of pneumonia more deadly than the new coronavirus.

The Kazakh denial follows a notice issued on Thursday by the Chinese embassy’s that warned its citizens about an outbreak of pneumonia in the ex-Soviet nation with a death rate higher than that from coronavirus-induced pneumonia.

“This information doesn’t

conform to reality,” Kazakhstan’s Health Ministry said in a statement. It noted that the coun-try’s statistics on pneumonia include patients who tested neg-ative for the coronavirus but had symptoms compatible with COVID-19. According to official data, the number of pneumonia cases has increased by 55 percent in the first half of the year com-pared with the same period in 2019 - from 63,436 to 98,546.

However, Health Minister Alexei Tsoi said at a briefing on Thursday, mortality from pneu-monia this year fell from last

year’s levels — from 1,780 deaths in the first half of 2019 to 1,172 in the first half of this year.

The energy-rich Central Asian nation quickly introduced regional lockdown and travel restrictions to stem the corona-virus pandemic, but it has faced a rise in infections after it lifted the restrictions in May.

In late June, Kazakh Pres-ident Kassym-Jomart Tokayev fired the nation’s health minister, blaming him for flaws that helped trigger a second wave of con-tagion. Kazakh authorities have imposed a two-week nationwide

lockdown starting tomorrow to contain the outbreak. The country so far has registered over 53,000 cases, including 264 deaths.

Asked to comment on Kaza-khstan’s denial of the Chinese embassy’s claim, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian refrained from comment, saying that Beijing hopes to receive more information.

“China looks forward to con-tinuing cooperation with Kaza-khstan to jointly fight the epi-demic and safeguard public health in both countries,” he said.

Hong Kong reported 38 new coronavirus cases yesterday, edging down from Thursday’s 42 but broadly in line with a sharp increase that the city registered over the past three days. Authorities said 32 of the new cases were locally transmitted after the city reported mostly imported cases for months.

08 SATURDAY 11 JULY 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

EDITORIAL

THE ports of Qatar are growing with impressive pace, despite numerous challenges recently created by unprecedented public health challenge of coronavirus pandemic. Hamad Port – Qatar’s gateway to the world – in recent years has become a hub of regional mar-itime trade while other ports of the country are also growing at a fast speed.

The performance of ports of Qatar reflects coun-try’s maritime vision and in a short span of time they have achieved a distinct place in the international trade. Qatar’s main gateway to world trade ‘Hamad Port’ is not just vital to Qatar’s infrastructure but also drives the region’s development and growth.

According to fresh statistics, during the first six months of 2020, Hamad Port, Ruwais Port and Doha Port have registered 102 percent increase in general cargo handling compared to the same period in last year. During the first six months, 1,509 ships docked at Hamad Port, Doha Port and Ruwais Port, making it a busy period for Qatar’s maritime sector. The ports handled 727,716 tonnes of general cargo in the first six months of this year, compared to 360,644 tonnes in the same period in 2019.

Meanwhile to tackle global coronavirus challenge, Qatar Ports Management Company (Mwani Qatar), in coordination with the Ministry of Public Health and rel-evant authorities, has implemented a series of measures to limit the spread of coronavirus in the ports. These measures include sanitisation of containers, installing thermal cameras, submission of COVID-19 disclosures and educating workforce at the port about ways to limit the spread of the virus.

Not only the Hamad Port has grown tremendously in terms of traffic and trade, Ruwais Port also wit-nessed over 28 percent increase in export in 2019 compared to the previous year (2018). The port has cemented its position as an ideal gateway to stimulate regional trade.

Ruwais Port has become one of the most important ports to meet the increasing demands by the domestic market for foodstuff, meat and fresh and chilled produce. Supportive steps taken by the authorities concerned have played a key role in increasing the flow of trade from the port. In 2019, Mwani Qatar introduced new free storage period at Al Ruwais Port as a move to support the private sector, offering new incentives to customers as well as enhancing the role of the port.

Impressive pace

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Quote of the day

The COVID-19 crisis presents Europe with a

challenge of historic proportions. We are slowly

exiting the acute health crisis... the emphasis is now

shifting to mitigating the socio-economic damage.

Charles Michel, European Council President

THE WASHINGTON POST

Apparently undeterred by the uproar it triggered by sepa-rating migrant children from their families two years ago, the Trump administration is considering whether to push for more of the same. Again, teens, tweens, toddlers and babies may be removed from their parents, as a means of deterring further illegal immi-gration. Again, the president’s unbridled animus toward mainly brown-skinned migrants may result in an episode of cruelty that would shock the civilized world.

The administration’s latest threat to break up families arises from a federal court order last month by U.S. Dis-trict Judge Dolly Gee, in Los Angeles. Judge Gee, alarmed

at the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus at family detention centers run by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gave the agency until next Friday to release scores of children held at the facilities. The judge’s juris-diction in the long-running case does not cover detained adults, which afforded an opening to the administration to present migrant parents with a perverse choice: give up their children to sponsors or remain with their children inside facilities where the pandemic is tightening its grip. In a separate lawsuit brought by parents, the administration says that if forced to release children, it may not free their parents with them.

Splitting up families would

once have seemed unthinkable in most such cases, with the rare exception of migrant parents who might be criminals or abusive. In the Trump administration, it is all too thinkable - despite the trauma it imposes on children. Under cover of the pandemic, the White House has choked off legal and illegal immi-gration, and suspended the decades-long system of asylum under which perse-cuted individuals could apply for refuge in the United States. Since the spring, more than 2,000 unaccompanied minors who crossed the border hoping for asylum have been summarily expelled.

The virus has already gained a foothold in two family detention centers in Texas run by ICE, where

detainees and employees have tested positive. The con-tagion at the Texas centers, where CDC- recommended precautions are enforced spottily, prompted Judge Gee to conclude that the facilities “are ‘on fire’ and there is no more time for half-measures.”

Despite her ruling, the government now seeks to prolong those half-measures. Administration lawyers argue that officials should be required only to address health and safety violations at the facilities, not release detainees. That’s a fair argument in theory; in practice, ICE has had months to comply with guidelines to protect staff and detainees from COVID-19 but has failed to.

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Migrant family separation, again?

Established in 1996

A woman wearing a face mask walks by a board bearing sanitary measures, in Brussels, amid the crisis linked with the COVID-19 pandemic. Wearing a face mask will become mandatory in Belgian shops, cinemas, and other indoor spaces.

The coronavirus crisis clearly caught most governments unprepared, yet disease specialists have been warning for decades that such a devas-tating outbreak was bound to happen. From bubonic plague and smallpox to Spanish flu and HIV, history is rife with pandemics that have shaped the human story. While medical advances help combat such scourges, other aspects of modern life - including deforestation, urbanization and intensive agriculture - contribute to the emergence of new contagions at an alarming rate.

Are we likely to see more pandemics?

The danger of a new disease spreading globally has been elevated in the modern age by the leap in air travel and international trade. The number of passenger trips by air more than doubled from the turn of the century to an estimated 4.2 billion in 2018 - before the pandemic wal-loped travel and tourism. Especially worrisome are pathogens that transmit effec-tively via the respiratory tract, such as coronaviruses like the one causing the current crisis and new strains of flu, the most common cause of pandemics.

Where do new diseases come from?

Novel pathogens that sicken humans have been dis-covered at an average rate of more than three per year over the past four decades. About 75% come from animals and are known as zoonoses. Bats are thought to be the source of the coronaviruses that cause COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). They’ve also been linked to the Ebola virus, as well as the Hendra and Nipah viruses responsible for deaths in Australia and Southeast Asia. The threat from bats is partly a reflection of their sheer numbers; they are among the most populous mammals. Bats roost together by the thousands, creating an environment rich for swapping viruses, and they can transmit them to other animals or humans through their blood, saliva, urine and feces.

What drives the emer-gence of zoonoses?

Researchers have iden-tified a number of factors increasing the potential for so-called spillover events, when a pathogen jumps species:

Q Encroachment into natural ecosystems. As the world’s population has expanded, humans have taken over wilderness areas at a rapid pace. Researchers concluded in 2017 that in the prior two decades people had claimed another 10% of the Earth’s wild land, reducing to 23% the area free of distur-bance. New settlements and

operations such as logging and mining put people in closer proximity to wild animals.

Q Consumption of wildlife. There’s been a growing trade in wild animals, especially for food. In some live animal markets, domestic and wild animals are caged in close proximity and slaughtered under unhy-gienic conditions. Live markets in China were con-nected to the emergence of SARS. It was initially but is no longer thought that the novel coronavirus jumped into people at such a market.

Q Urbanization. About 55% of the world’s people live in urban areas, compared with 34% in 1960. Expanding metropolitan areas provide new homes for a variety of wildlife, including rats, monkeys, birds and foxes - animals that can live off the plentiful food humans discard.

Q Intensive livestock farming. Pathogens from wild creatures sometimes make their way to humans via farm animals. As with people, packing many cows, pigs or chickens closely together increases the danger that a disease can spread. Antibi-otics used to hasten the growth of animals can also promote pathogens that are resistant to treatment.

Q Climate change. Rising temperatures have con-tributed to the expansion of the range of disease-spreading mosquitoes, ticks and biting midges. These species can persist for longer periods, increasing the spread

of illnesses such as Lyme disease, hepatitis E, dengue and West Nile virus.

What’s being done about live-animal markets?

There have been calls, including from US lawmakers, for China to close its so-called wet markets. But such places, offering fresh meat and produce more cheaply than supermarkets, play a huge role in feeding people, sup-plying about 60% of fresh food in the city of Guangzhou, for example. In February, China did permanently ban the trade in non-aquatic wild animals, although it made an exception for their use in tra-ditional medicine. African countries have also been called upon to halt the trade in slaughtered wild animals, though it’s unlikely to happen because “bushmeat” provides a much-needed source of protein.

What else could be done to prevent pandemics?

A: Experts point to a need to better monitor emerging diseases and maintain public-health systems that can quickly respond to them. In the most ambitious effort to catalog new pathogens, the US-funded Predict project from 2009 to 2019 identified more than 1,000 viruses with spillover potential. Researchers aim next to assess the biggest disease risks lurking in the animal world in order to focus efforts toward developing tests and prototype vaccines. Those could provide early warning systems for outbreaks and rapid responses to stop them from spreading.

Why the way we live now will mean more pandemics

JASON GALE BLOOMBERG

09SATURDAY 11 JULY 2020 EUROPE

France, Germany lead effort to fire up Serbia-Kosovo talksAP — BRUSSELS

The leaders of Germany and France led a fresh effort yesterday to breathe life into long-stalled talks to normalize ties between Serbia and Kosovo more than 20 years after Belgrade sent troops into its then-province to crush a sepa-ratist uprising, but Serbia’s president said the Europeans have unrealistic expectations.

F r e n c h P r e s i d e n t Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held virtual preparatory talks with Kosovo’s prime minister and Serbia’s president aiming to pave the way for the first face-to-face meeting of the Balkan countries’ leaders since November 2018 under a European Union-backed dia-logue process.

Speaking after the meeting, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said “we had really tough negotiations,” and that he told Macron and Merkel that if Kos-ovo’s independence “is what they want to talk about, then these talks are completely meaningless.”

“We will not have an easy time in the future. I think we will be exposed to great, great, let me not say pressure, but

expectations from our European partners, Vucic said. “At the same time we are faced with a completely unrealistic approach from Kosovo Albanians who want it all, leaving Serbia without anything,” he said.

Despite the longstanding differences between the neigh-bouring countries, a French presidential adviser said “the dialogue is picking up” and that Vucic and Kosovo Prime Min-ister Avdullah Hoti showed their goodwill simply by coming to Paris for separate meetings earlier this week.

The adviser, who is not authorised to be publicly named

under presidential policy, acknowledged that the talks are complex but said that no one underestimates the challenges, and all sides understand that finding a solution is important for regional security.

“We recognize Kosovo... Serbia doesn’t. That’s the diffi-culty to resolve,” said the adviser, who added: “We should not allow a vacuum to develop in this region.” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who was also involved in the meeting, is due to host more video talks with Hoti and Vucic on Sunday. EU officials hope the two will come to Brussels in person next Thursday.

Serbia has refused to rec-ognize Kosovo as a separate country, and tensions have con-tinued to simmer between them. The United States and the European Union have been working to help normalise ties between the two countries.

The EU-facilitated negoti-ations, which the Europeans say is the only forum that addresses their future aspira-tions, started in March 2011 and have produced some 30 agree-ments, but most of them have not been observed. Some EU member states themselves have not recognised Kosovo’s

independence.The EU and the US officially

have the same goal — resolving one of the last major standoffs in the volatile Balkans region after the 1998-1999 war and a Nato intervention to stop a bloody Serb crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists.

Still, Sunday’s meeting comes after a US effort to get the sides talking, which was not coordinated with the Europeans and raised eyebrows in Brussels. That effort appeared to founder when Hoti cancelled his trip to Washington after Kosovo’s president, Hashim

Thaci, was indicted for alleged war crimes.

European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said it is important to focus on moving things forward and not to get bogged down in the thorny issues involved in the talks.

French President Emmanuel Macron (right), speaks during a video conference with Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, yesterday.

Netherlands takes

Russia to Europe

rights court over

MH17 downing

AFP — THE HAGUE

The Netherlands said yesterday it would take Russia to the European Court of Human Rights for its role in bringing down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014.

The relatives of at least 65 Dutch victims in 2018 filed a complaint at the Strasbourg-based court, demanding that Russia take responsibility for incident, which killed eve-ryone on board.

Both the Netherlands and Australia have said they hold Russia responsible for shooting down the plane, which was en route to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam.

“Achieving justice for the 298 victims of the downing of flight MH17 is and will remain the government’s highest pri-ority,” Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said in a statement.

“By taking this step today, bringing a case before the ECHR and thus supporting the applications by the next of kin as much as we can, we are moving closer to this goal.” The Netherlands would share all “available and relevant information about the downing of flight MH17” with the court, Blok said.

The latest move adds to legal pressure on Moscow after the Dutch criminal trial of four suspects opened just outside Schiphol airport from where the ill-fated flight took off.

Virus toll in Russia

crosses 11,000 as

cases top 710,000

ANATOLIA — MOSCOW

Coronavirus-related fatalities in Russia have passed 11,000 and the number of cases is now above 710,000, authorities said yesterday. The death toll rose by 174 over the past 24 hours to reach 11,017, while 6,635 more infections raised the overall case count to 713,936, the country’s emergency task force said in a daily report.

Russia has registered 6,000-plus cases every day for more than two weeks now. A total of 7,752 patients recovered across the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 489,068, the report said.

Meanwhile, clinical trials of several COVID-19 vaccines have entered their final stages, with a first group of volunteers expected to finish one of the trials on July 15. Russia con-tinues widespread testing to identify new cases and detect how many people have developed antibodies after being exposed to the virus.

UK won’t join EU vaccine programme in latest Brexit testBLOOMBERG — LONODN

The United Kingdom will not join the European Union’s coro-navirus vaccine programme, according to a person familiar with the matter, in the latest test of its independent approach after Brexit.

Boris Johnson’s government considered opting in to the program, through which the bloc is spending more than ¤2bn ($2.3bn) on research into a vaccine. The Daily Telegraph reported ministers were con-cerned about “costly delays” in the program due to distribution

talks, citing government offi-cials it didn’t identify.

The coronavirus pandemic has put the U.K.’s attitude to col-laborating with its nearest neighbors under the spotlight. The decision not to participate in the EU’s programs to acquire ventilators and personal pro-tective equipment — even as the UK faced shortages early in the outbreak — triggered a row over whether ministers were putting Brexit ideology over saving lives.

“We will be seeking official clarification on the reasons why the government has come to

this decision and seeking reas-surance that this will not lead to any supply issues or delays for the UK population” said David Wrigley, deputy chair of the British Medical Association. “It is vital we all work collabo-ratively to beat this deadly virus.”

Britain can handle its affairs better outside the 27-member bloc is a key argument for the Brexit supporters who dominate Johnson’s government, and it’s likely the decision not to take part in the vaccine program will be seen as an extension of that approach.

Opponents say the dangers of the strategy have been exposed by Britain’s response to the virus: the UK entered lockdown later than many other countries in Europe and now has the highest death toll in the region. Though ministers have repeatedly said the EU pro-grams for PPE and ventilators yielded little benefit to participants.

In the case of vaccines, medical experts including Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have said an Oxford University project

is leading international efforts. The UK has a deal with Astra-Zeneca Plc to receive 30 million doses by September if the Oxford vaccine is successful.

Oxford, AstraZeneca Begin Advanced Trials of Covid Vaccine Britain is also planning to open its own vaccine pro-duction facility in the summer of 2021, capable of manufac-turing 70 million doses within four to six months of starting.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cleaning up cinema hallA staff member wearing a protective face mask cleans the cinema seats with a steam after a film show following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease at the “Showcase Cinema de Lux” in Coventry, Britain, yesterday.

UK police watchdog to assess racial bias among officersAFP — LONDON

The organisation which deals with police complaints in England and Wales yesterday announced a review into whether forces discriminate against ethnic minorities.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said the probe, to begin in the coming months, will initially look into the use of stop and search powers and the use of force.

It comes amid growing scrutiny of police attitudes to black and ethnic minority (BAME) communities in Britain following the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the death in US police custody of an unarmed black man, George Floyd.

The head of London’s Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, this week apologised to British sprinter Bianca Williams for the “dis-tress” caused when she and her partner were stopped by police. Nothing was found in the search.

“Evidence of disproportionality in the use of police powers has long been a concern which impacts on confidence in policing, particularly in the BAME communities,” said IOPC director general Michael Lockwood.

“But even with the numbers and the statistics, particularly from stop and search data, we still need to better understand the causes and what can and should be done to address this.” Race discrimi-nation will become a “thematic area of focus, to establish the trends and patterns which might help drive real change”, he said.

Black people were more than eight times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people in 2016-17, according to a 2018 study by drugs charity Release and the London School of Economics.

Polish voters cast ballots in tight second round electionsANATOLIA — WARSAW

Polls in Poland are too close to call as two candidates, Duda and Trzaskowski, are said to have almost a fifty-fifty chance to win ahead of the second round of the presidential election on July 12.

In the first round on June 28, incumbent President Andrzej Duda took around 43.5 percent of the votes while his opponent Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski was on 30.5 percent.

Recent public opinion polls show Duda, aligned with the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, was on 50.9 percent, while Trza-skowski, from the main opposition center-right Civic Platform party, on 49.1 percent.

The ruling conservative PIS Party and current President Duda’s decisions on law and media have sparked controversy within the EU. Duda recently proposed changing the constitution to ban same-sex couples from adopting children.

Duda and his supporter’s good relations with the US are con-sidered another factor that will affect the results.

Meanwhile, Russia is seen as a threat to the country’s national security by both the ruling and opposition parties. In an interview, Hungarian journalist and foreign policy analyst Gabor Stier said it is too hard to predict the results but added that Duda’s chance to win is a little more than that of Trzaskowski.

People who live in villages and small cities are satisfied with Duda and the ruling PiS party’s social and economic policies, he said, while Trzaskowski has more support from people in major cities.

Russia sceptical about nuclear pact extension prospectsAP — MOSCOW

Russia’s top diplomat said yesterday he’s not very opti-mistic about prospects for an extension of the last remaining US-Russia arms control agreement because of Wash-ington’s focus on making China sign up to the pact.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that Russia only wants to keep the New START treaty as much as the US does and will protect its security regardless of the pact’s fate.

“We only need the extension as much as the Amer-icans do,” Lavrov said during a conference call with foreign policy experts. “If they categor-ically refuse, we will not try to persuade them.” The New START treaty was signed in 2010 by US President Barack Obama and then Russian Pres-ident Dmitry Medvedev. The

pact limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers and envisages sweeping on-site inspections to verify compliance.

After both Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty last year, the New START is the only remaining nuclear arms control deal between the two countries. It’s set to expire in February 2021 unless the parties agree to extend it for another five years.

Russia has offered its extension without any condi-tions, while the Trump admin-istration has pushed for a new arms control agreement that would also include China. Moscow has described that idea as unfeasible, pointing at Bei-jing’s refusal to negotiate any deal that would reduce its much

smaller nuclear arsenal.Lavrov dismissed the US

suggestions that Russia help convince Beijing to join nuclear arms cuts, saying that Moscow respects the Chinese position and considers it “undiplomatic” to push it on the issue. He reaf-firmed that Russia would welcome other nuclear powers, including Britain, France and China to join nuclear arms cuts, but emphasized that it should be their own decision.

The minister noted that American and Russian negoti-ators last month held a round of nuclear arms control talks in Vienna and are poised to con-tinue the discussions, but added that the US insistence on having China join the talks leaves little hope for their success.

“I’m not particularly opti-mistic about the New START in view of the course taken by US negotiators,” he said.

Serbia has refused to recognise Kosovo as a separate country, and tensions have continued to simmer between them. The United States and the European Union have been working to help normalise ties between the two countries.

10 SATURDAY 11 JULY 2020AMERICAS

Trump heads to Florida despite surge in number of coronavirus casesAFP — WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump headed to coronavirus-stricken Florida yesterday to attend a campaign fundraiser, ignoring health advice about the dangers of large gatherings as he ramps up public appearances ahead of the election.

The virus has claimed more than 4,000 lives in the Sunshine State, where Republican gov-ernor Ron DeSantis down-played the outbreak early on but has since been forced to pause reopening.

The US is by far the hardest-hit country in the world, with more than 3.1 million confirmed infections and 133,000 dead.

Florida was among at least six states that set single-day case records on Thursday, alongside Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, and Oregon.

Florida and Texas also reg-istered their highest daily death counts — 98 and 120 respectively.

“The tsunami is here,” said Richard Cortez, the chief exec-utive of Hidalgo County in south Texas, after 1,274 cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours

in the jurisdiction of fewer than 900,000 people.

By way of comparison, Mel-bourne in Australia, a city of five million, reimposed a lockdown after 191 tested positive in a day.

“As a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don’t think you can say we’re doing great,” Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease official told political analysis website FiveThirtyEight on Thursday.

He went on to partly blame the atmosphere of political divi-siveness in the country — for example the way in which masks were initially shunned by right wing political leaders, many of whom have since shifted on the issue.

“I think you’d have to make

the assumption that if there wasn’t such divisiveness, that we would have a more coordi-nated approach,” said Fauci.

Trump, for his part, hit out at the respected scientist, telling Fox News on Thursday: “Dr Fauci is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes.”

“A lot of them said ‘don’t wear a mask, don’t wear a mask,’” the president added. “Now they are saying ‘wear a mask.’ A lot of mistakes were made, a lot of mistakes.”

Trump’s Florida visit comes as a new poll by ABC News and Ipsos found that 67 percent dis-approved of his handling of the COVID-19 crisis, and an equal share disapproved of how he has handled race relations.

Despite these numbers, Trump appears to be doubling down on his strategy of inten-sifying public meetings in order to stoke his base.

Former vice president Joe Biden, who is running against Trump in November, blasted the president’s visit.

“With over 232,000 cases in the state and over 4,000 deaths in Florida, it is clear that Trump’s response — ignore, blame others, and distract — has

come at the expense of Florida families,” he said.

After Florida, where Trump will also meet with anti-nar-cotic officials and Venezuelan opposition leaders, he will hold a rally in New Hampshire in the northeast on Saturday.

The state was narrowly won by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

Trump’s last rally, in Tulsa, Oklahoma last month, was a flop and Republican officials will be looking to avoid a repeat of a ticket prank by K-pop fans that may have impacted attendance.

Such large gatherings are anathema to epidemiologists,

who have increasingly warned of the dangers posed by the virus in the air within crowded and confined spaces.

Unlike countries in Europe and Asia, the US never emerged from its first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and has since mid-June been experi-encing a fresh surge.

This is because although the virus receded from former hotspots like New York, it came back hard in regions where offi-cials eased their lockdowns too early or where citizens widely ignored health advice.

The administration has downplayed the spike, with Trump repeatedly and falsely

attributing it entirely to higher levels of testing.

“We do testing like nobody’s ever done testing. And when we test, the more you test, the more cases you find,” Trump told Fox News.

Experts however say this explanation is inadequate, because the number of people hospitalized and the percentage of people testing positive is also rising in many states.

Still, the death rate remains well below levels of earlier peaks in late April and May, partly because the US epidemic has grown younger and there are better treat-ments available.

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press at the White House in Washington, DC, yesterday, before departing for Florida.

Bolivia’s interim

President Anez

contracts

COVID-19

AFP — LA PAZ

Bolivia’s interim president Jeanine Anez announced yesterday that she has tested positive for coronavirus. “I’ve tested positive for COVID-19, I’m fine, I will work from isolation,” she tweeted.

The 53-year-old said in a video on Twitter that she would remain in quarantine for 14 days before taking another test.

Anez becomes the second South American president in a matter of days to contract the coronavirus, after Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro announced his pos-itive result on Tuesday.

Another high-ranking Latin American government official to contract the virus is Venezuela’s Constitutional Assembly Pres-ident Diosdado Cabello, widely considered the second-most powerful person in the country after President Nicolas Maduro.

Four members of Anez’s cabinet had tested positive in recent days, while Senate Pres-ident Eva Copa went into self-isolation on Wednesday as a precaution. “Given many of them tested positive over the last week, I took the test and I was also positive,” said Anez.

The interim leader’s illness comes with Bolivia gearing up for a general election in less than two months, despite being in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

Anez initially opposed the September election, saying it should be postponed “one or two months” due to the pan-demic, but eventually relented.

The conservative politician assumed the interim presi-dency in November after socialist former leader Evo Morales resigned and fled the country following three weeks of unrest over his controversial re-election.

Pompeo slams UN report on US drone strike on Iran GeneralAP — GENEVA

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has criticized an inde-pendent UN human rights expert’s report insisting a American drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in January was a “watershed” event in the use of drones and amounted to a violation of international law.

The report presented by Agnes Callamard to the UN-backed Human Rights Council on Thursday chronicled events around the death of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and the legal implications of his killing as part of a broader look on the use of drone strikes.

Callamard, the special rap-porteur on extrajudicial, s u m m a r y o r

arbitrary executions who has been commissioned by the council, called the January strike in Iraq “the first known incident in which a state invokes self-defense as justifi-cation for an attack against a government official outside a declared armed conflict.”

Pompeo said in a statement late Thursday that the US rejected her report and “opinions.” “Ms. Callamard’s conclusions are spurious,” he said. “The strike that killed Gen. Soleimani was in response to an escalating series of armed attacks in preceding months by the Islamic Republic of Iran and militias it supports on US forces and interests in the Middle East region.”

Pompeo said the strike on Baghdad International Airport

was carried out “to deter Iran from launching or supporting further attacks against the United States or US interests, and to degrade the capabilities of the Qods Force.”

He said Callamard “gives more cause to distrust UN human rights mechanisms.” The Trump administration pulled the United States out of the rights council two years ago, accusing it of an anti-Israel bias and alleging that it is too accepting of autocratic regimes that regu-larly abuse human rights.

Callamard is perhaps best known for leading an investi-gation into the killing of Wash-ington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi national, and issuing a scathing report on the actions of Saudi officials.

In her new report,

Callamard acknowledged in her report that international humanitarian and human rights law can provide “diverging answers” on the legal validity of some drone strikes, and the one against Soleimani raised “genuine uncertainty as to how to interpret its lawfulness.

She said the United States had not “engaged with” her as she drafted the drone report. But based on the evidence the US provided, “the targeting of Gen. Soleimani, and the deaths of those accompanying him, constitute an arbitrary killing for which, under (international human rights law), the US is responsible,” she said.

Callamard wrote that the strike targeting Soleimani was “qualitatively different” from other drone strikes that targeted

non-state actors.“This is the primary reason

the Soleimani strike is con-sidered a watershed change in the conduct of extra-territorially targeted strikes and killings,” she stated in the report.

“It is hard to imagine that a similar strike against a Western military leader would not be considered as an act of war, potentially leading to intense action, political, military and otherwise, against the state launching the strike,” she added.

Among other recommenda-tions, the report calls on the United Nations to examine the legal framework on the use of drones and for the UN Security Council — which Callamard called “missing in action” on the subject of drone strikes — to take up the issues.

Mexican-American man charged with hate crime in fatal crashAP — FOND DU LAC

A Mexican American man from Wisconsin is charged with homicide as a hate crime because prosecutors say he intentionally crashed his pickup truck into a motorcy-clist and killed the man because he was white.

Daniel Navarro, 27, of Fond du Lac, told investigators he had been harassed by co-workers and neighbors, and poisoned, drugged and verbally attacked by white people because of his race, authorities said.

The Associated Press left a message yesterday seeking comment from Navarro’s lawyer.

Phillip Thiessen, 55, was killed July 3 in the town of Taycheedah. He was a retired special agent with the Wis-consin Department of Justice and a former police officer.

Navarro apparently didn’t know Thiessen, but targeted him because he was white, said Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt.

“Navarro said that if Pres-ident Donald Trump and white people are going to create the world we are living in, he has no choice and that people are going to have to die,” Waldschmidt said.

Navarro is charged with first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree recklessly endangering safety, both as hate crimes. According to the criminal complaint, a sheriff’s sergeant spoke with Navarro at the crash scene and Nararro stated that he intentionally crashed head-on

into the motorcycle. The ser-geant asked Navarro if he heard him correctly about the crash being intentional and Navarro responded “yes, it was inten-tional, sir,” the complaint said. A deputy at the scene described Navarro as having a “thousand-yard stare.”

During an interview later at the sheriff’s office, Navarro said he wanted to go to prison for the rest of his life so he could be free from his neighbors, who he could hear making racist comments through the walls of his house, according to the complaint. It also stated that he said he wanted to be free from people who drive by his house, rev their engines and squeal their tires to make him angry.

Fond du Lac County Circuit Court Judge Robert Wirtz set bail at $1m during an initial court appearance Thursday.

Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney said Nav-arro’s crime it not reflective of the entire community.

“One of the witnesses, rec-ognizing that the victim was deceased, stayed with him until first responders could arrive, and that I think speaks more to the character of our community than the charges in the criminal complaint,” he said.

The complaint also said a detective reviewed law enforcement records and learned of a 2019 disorderly conduct domestic violence alle-gation involving Navarro in the City of Fond du Lac.

Obrador shown missing students' picture posters

Mother of Christian Alfonso Rodriguez Telumbre, one of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College, whose remains were found at the mountain town of Cocula, near Iguala in the southwestern state of Guerrero, holds a poster with her son’s picture as she arrives at the National Palace to attend a meeting with Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico City Mexico, yesterday.

US civil rights groups protest police commissionREUTERS — WASHINGTON

Prominent US civil rights groups are refusing to appear before a Justice Department law enforcement commission set up to recommend ways to increase respect for police and reduce crime, calling it out of touch with public anger over policing.

The Presidential Com-mission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice was established in January, before the latest wave of mass protests over police use

of force against Black Amer-icans set off by the May killing of George Floyd.

Its mission statement did not mention racial disparities in criminal justice or address excessive use of force by police, and unlike a similar Obama administration commission, its members represent only federal, state and local law enforcement, with no civil rights advocates, defense attorneys or even big-city police departments taking part.

Civil rights leaders told

Reuters they only received invi-tations to testify after the NAACP Legal Defense Fund sued the commission in April, contending it was violating federal open-meeting laws and lacked diverse viewpoints. That case is pending, and the Justice Department has asked a federal judge to have it dismissed.

“It is so completely out of touch with what is happening,” said Kanya Bennett, an attorney with the American Civil Lib-erties Union.

After the protests over

Floyd’s death began, the com-mission held some hearings about the excessive use of force and community policing, but they were announced with little advanced warning and were closed to the public. President Donald Trump has struck a strict “law-and-order” tone in his response to the protests.

A Justice Department spokeswoman said the com-mission would be addressing the issues outlined in a police reform executive order signed by Trump in June.

Florida was among at least six states that set single-day case records on Thursday, alongside Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, and Oregon.