Kim WookjinIran expert at KOTRA Tehran office

A R T I C L EM.A.Saki

Deputy editor-in-chief

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Is the government really taking steps toward transparency?

In a brave move on June 25 Tele-communications Minister Moham-mad Javad Azari Jahromi revealed

the names of 40 companies which had received foreign currency to import cellphones but sold them based on the price of foreign currency in the black market, which is nearly twice the official rate.

The minister also said of the 220 million euros that these companies had received only 75 million euros had gone for purchase of mobiles.

Also, a few weeks later, after it was confirmed that violations had taken place in import of cars, President Rou-hani asked Industry and Commerce Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari to report the issue to the “people and the judiciary”.

In the letter to the president, Shariat-madari confirmed that some managers in his ministry had been involved in “il-legal” registration of 6481 cars by certain companies and individuals.

And finally, on Monday, July 24, Shariatmadari, in a TV program, re-vealed the names of 100 companies and individuals who illegally ordered importation of cars.

According to reports, violation had taken place in the years 1395 (March 2016-March 2017) and 1396 (March 2017-March 2018), before Shariatmadari took over as minister.

There are many legal loopholes that provide the ground for corruption and it is not coincidental that Iran is among the list of countries rife with corruption.

In remarks in December 2017, Rouhani said, “There is no solution other than trans-parency in uprooting corruption”. He also said, “We all should be in the glass room so that people observe all our actions.”

Writing an article in the Hamshahri newspaper on July 17, Hossein Mir-Mo-hammad Sadeqi, a senior law expert, said, “We do not have transparency at all in the process of decision making in ministries, municipalities, customs, tax offices… and the decisions are actually taken behind the closed doors.” 2

By Payman Yazdani

By Marjan Golpira TEHRAN — Representative of the United Na-tions Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to the Islamic Republic of Iran says that Tehran pays the highest price in the battle against drug traffickers.

“Other nations recognize that Iran is not the source country, but a transit country, and Iran pays the biggest price in the fight against drugs,” Alex Fedulov says in an exclusive interview with the Tehran Times.

Below is the full text of the interview. Could you please tell us about the UNODC?

A. The organization is responsible for assis-tance to member states of the United Nations

to implement or to rectify adherence to UN conventions.

There are five conventions that we support worldwide. There are three unit conventions re-lated to drug control, the conventions 621, 1971 and 1988 that describe second therapy substances, what we call “drugs”. We aim to fight illicit drug trafficking with the 1988 convention.

When this convention was adopted, the international community agreed to dedicate efforts to stem drug abuse and counter drug trafficking. It was signed on June 26, 1988. Just after the signing of this convention in New York, the day was dedicated to this convention against drug abuse because of

negative human aspect of it.In line with the implementation of all

three conventions, the UN works with a political declaration and plan of action. This is the document adopted by all member states of the UN. This document will be reviewed again next year. This is the end of this declaration, because it was adopted in 2009. It means that next year, at the ministerial level, the UN Special General Assembly Session will adopt a new world drug problem document which will describe what to do with drugs in the next ten years, how to communicate, how to cooperate, how to stop drug trafficking. 9

TEHRAN — Commenting on the necessity of a right balanced engagement between Russia and the EU, Almut Moller, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) in Berlin, says Donald Trump is “looking for new alliances”.

After World War II, during the Cold War, economic and military weakness of the Europeans and common goals like containing the former Soviet Union led to increasing economic, political, cultural and security transatlantic cooperation and partnership.

Besides transatlantic cooperation, Europeans’ tendency to avoid another possible conflict in Europe resulted in further inter-European coop-eration despite many differences. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War, inter-European cooperation accelerated and entered a new phase. Finally increased social, economic and political cooperation resulted in

formation of the European Union (EU) which for the first time let Europeans to adopt a unified integrated foreign policy.

Despite the EU weaknesses in the field of security and its dependence on the US for its security the Union in two decades managed to be the best model of regionalism and turn into an economic superpower.

EU emergence as an economic super power has been the source of concerns for the US.

Differences between the US and EU over trade tariffs, NATO and other issues resulted in the US President Donald Trump’s remarks that called the EU as an enemy of the US. Following his unfriendly remarks some EU officials reacted to his behavior.

To shed more light on the issue we reached out to Moller.

Following is the full text of the interview with her:

Commenting on the recent tensions be-tween Washington and EU, Dr. Moller said, “In Berlin, policymakers do indeed see a change in transatlantic relations. President Trump, unlike previous US administrations, is chal-lenging the European Union as an economic and political umbrella for the countries of Europe, and is undermining unity in words, and with action. While the unusual rhetoric and style of the US President is creating a lot of attention, there is the view in Berlin that what really matters are the structural divergences between the US and European countries that one needs to focus on. There is the widespread assumption that even with another president (either Republican or Democrat) the US would have asked Europeans for a greater share of the burden to upkeep the international order, in particular in terms of investing more into European security.” 7

Iran pays the biggest price in the fight against drugs: UNODC

Trump is looking for new alliances: Almut Moller

Learning about Iran: A supreme pleasure

It has been already five years since I first step onto very unfamiliar land, Iran. Back in August, 2013, I began

my governmental service in the Islamic Republic of Iran. I did not know anything about Iran then. It was literally ‘the un-known world’ to me. For a Korean who quickly absorbed western rationalism and efficiency represented by America, it was a bit of a shock to be in Iran at first. The country looks chaotic on the surface to a foreigner, but it really is a country that marches to its own beat, away from the huge waves of globali-zation elsewhere.

After several months, I made up my mind to do as Iranians do when in Iran. Since then I have tried to give up missions impossible and focus on the possible tasks, what can be done. I was no longer going to complain and waste my valuable time. I decided to be the marginal person filling the gaps between locals and foreigners. I started learning Farsi twice a week, too. I patronized the BRT, the metro, and the Mostaghim taxi, the same as Iranians. I often bargained with merchants over the prices at the Tajrish bazaar asking for a discount like the locals. I was able to understand Iran inch by inch through small experiences.

As time went on, I was driven by a strong desire to share my moments in the Islamic Republic with Koreans. I shared my thoughts, such as what happens in Iran and how Iranians recognize the world, with a newspaper column and contributed regularly. With no experi-ence, I gradually became a brave writer. I was so fortunate that I could witness the historic events of the nuclear deal, known also as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of action (JCPOA), and the lifting of sanctions regime. Once the market opened, a lot of companies and countries rushed into Iran. Looking at the scene, I felt all the more keenly how intense international business was.

There have been sequential ups and downs in the Islamic Republic. The United States broke the deal in May this year, and it seems that new sanctions on Iran will be imposed again after the so-called wind-down periods. Observing what is going on in and around Iran nowadays, I have a heavy heart before the trip back to my homeland. 7

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India’s crude oil imports from Iran jumped 52% in June

Zarif to Trump: BE CAUTIOUS!

Vahid Amiri voted IPL Player of the Year 15

“Majan” named best at Zanzibar film festival 16

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Iran able to ‘adopt any strategy’ in Strait of Hormuz: military chief

TEHRAN — Chief of Staff of the Iranian

Armed Forces Mohammad Baqeri issued a statement on Tuesday saying Iran is capable of adopting “any strategy” in the strategic Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf region.

Iran has threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz if it cannot export its crude oil as the Trump administration, which with-drew from the 2015 nuclear deal in May, is

reintroducing economic sanctions including oil embargo against Iran.

Strait of Hormuz is a highly important strategic location for international trade. A record 18.5 million barrels per day of sea-borne oil passes through it.

General Baqeri said Iran has always “guaranteed security of shipping in the Persian Gulf and can adopt any strategy in this region”. 2

Iran moves up in UN E-Government Development Index

TEHRAN — Iran moves 20 notches up

to rank 86 among 193 countries in the United Nations E-Government Develop-ment Index (EGDI 2018) in comparison with EGDI 2017, UN website announced on Saturday.

Issued by the UN Department of Eco-nomic and Social Affairs, EGDI evaluates the scope and quality of online services,

status of telecommunication infrastructure and existing human capacity.

As it is mentioned on UN website, the EDGI value can be between 0 (low-est) and 1 (highest), as it is a weighted average of normalized scores on the three most important dimensions of e-government.

According to the UN data, Iran’s EGDI value was 0.6083 this year. 1 0

Judiciary says trade official arrested over car import violation

TEHRAN — The Iranian Judiciary an-

nounced on Tuesday that director of the Trade Promotion Organization and his deputy have been arrested over violating the rules governing import of cars.

“Certain people take criminal actions while enemy has started economic war against the country,” Gholam Hossein

Mohseni Ejei said in a press conference. He added, “Economic violations cannot

be tolerated in this situation. So, all the bodies are duty bound to counter such violations.”

Deputy Police Chief Eskandar Momeni also said on Sunday that 300 individuals have been arrested for their role in disrupting the gold coin and foreign currency markets.

16 Pages Price 10,000 Rials 39th year No.13166 Wednesday JULY 25, 2018 Mordad 3, 1397 Dhi Al Qaeda 11, 1439

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Davud Azad band stages

Persian mystical music

in TehranVocalist and se-tar virtuoso Davud Azad (R) and his group perform a selection of their mystical songs at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on July 23, 2018.

Behzad Hajir is also seen performing the sama, a dervish whirling dance, at the concert performance.

The group’s greatest hits released over the past decade were performed during the concert.

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U.S. has launched economic war on Iran

JULY 25, 2018

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MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS

TEHRAN — Irani-an Foreign Ministry

spokesman Bahram Qassemi has said that any economic package by the Eu-ropean Union, Russia and China should “guarantee Iran’s interests” if the 2015 nuclear agreement is going to continue to exist.

“The European Union along with China and Russia have shown that they have political determination to contin-ue implementation of the nuclear deal. However, what is important is that we should receive a package which contains economic proposals that guarantee Iran’s interests,” he told ILNA in an interview published on Tuesday.

Qassemi noted that the remaining parties have not decided yet on a deadline to present the package but they have not much time.

“The European side is well aware of realities and Iran’s views. We hope that they will offer their package in Tehran or outside Tehran as soon as possible,” he said.

Elsewhere, Qassemi noted that Iran’s demands that should be included in the package are within the framework of the JCPOA, adding that Iran is not making excessive demands.

Iran has demanded that the package

should address various sectors, including oil, gas, and insurance and banking services.

In an interview with the national TV, Qassemi has also said the U.S. admin-istration is seeking to undermine Iran’s relations with the outside world.

The United States has targeted “Iran’s rational relationship with other coun-tries”, he said.

Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the multilateral nuclear agree-ment in May and plans to reintroduce sanctions against Iran.

According to the U.S. Treasury, the first batch of sanctions will go into force on August 6 and the second stage on November 4.

To save the multilateral agreement, the Joint Commission of the JCPOA met at the foreign ministerial level in Vienna on July 6. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, who chaired the meeting, announced that Iran and the remaining parties had agreed to continue negotiations, including on economic measures, over how to keep the deal alive.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday that remaining parties have so far failed to take “practical actions” to save the agreement.

‘EU package should guarantee Iran’s interests’

TEHRAN — The first vice president

said on Tuesday that the United States has launched an economic war on the Islamic Republic.

Es’haq Jahangiri, who commands the country’s Resistance Economy Headquarters, said the government can be reformed and suggested that anyone who cannot help solve the people’s problems should delegate his responsibility.

“All of us should feel motivated to work, so that the management of the country will proceed well,” Jahangiri told an annual gathering of Iranian diplomats.

To counter sanctions, some par-liamentarians, economic experts and political figures have asked President Rouhani to make changes to his eco-nomic team. The calls for cabinet re-shuffle have intensified since the value of foreign currencies and gold coin started to rise at the cost of national currency.

Jahangri noted that all the policies of the government can be reformed and requested highly-talented people to offer their views to the government for a better governance.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the first vice president said any efforts to under-mine the government will disappoint people and this is what the opponents of Iran are wishing.

“Today, weakening the government means weakening the system which will lead to the people’s disappointment. This is the main plan of the enemies and what they seek is taking hostile actions against Iran.”

He noted that the government will not be able to handle the issues lonely and it is necessary that all bodies to help the government.

U.S. President Donald Trump an-nounced Washington’s exit from the 2015 nuclear deal on May 8 and said sanctions will be restored against Iran.

According to the U.S. Treasury, the first stage of sanctions will be snapped back in August and the primary ones in November.

Trump has asked countries to cut their oil imports from Iran by November.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in May that the U.S. will apply economic and military pressure against Iran and will impose “the strong-est sanctions in history” on the Islamic Republic.

VP Jahangiri: U.S. has launched economic war on Iran

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Zarif to Trump: BE CAUTIOUS!

1 He went on to say that U.S. President Donald Trump, “as the most hateful figure in the world”, is under the illu-sion that economic pressure on Tehran can cause division among the Iranians.

“During the past four decades, the brave and revolutionary Iranian nation has shown that they make extra efforts in the ups and downs and turn the shortcomings into opportunities and they also foil plots of enemies, especially the criminal U.S., the fake Zionist regime and their allies through unity and integrity,” the senior commander stated.

Elsewhere, he said that Iran has never started a war and has always helped maintain regional peace and stability.

Addressing a gathering of Iranian diplomats on Sunday, President Hassan Rouhani warned Trump about his hostile stance against Iran, saying, “Mr. Trump, do not play with the lion’s tail, this would only lead to regret.”

Rouhani also said Iran has control over other strategic places other than the Strait of Hormuz.

“One who understands politics even a little bit wouldn’t say ‘we will stop Iran’s oil exports’,” he said.

1 The law expert said since these decisions are taken by what he calls “golden” elements and nobody is aware of the details, or sources of money and where they are spent it creates the ground for “spread of cor-ruption” in the country.

Before the recent price shocks, which some experts link mostly to high liquidity rather than the return of sanctions, Rouhani had asked the economy minister to publish the sum of money that each state body re-ceives monthly.

Now the people are waiting to see whether the president and his ministers are taking such steps because of the public dissatisfaction over price rises, which have resulted from the sudden devaluation of the national currency against foreign currencies, or that the government is REALLY bent on fighting corruption.

In his first four-year term, President Rouhani was heavily and truly involved in the delicate and laborious nuclear

negotiations and partly resolve the problems left from the Ahmadinejad administration. However, in his second term there is no excuse not to launch a campaign against corruption. It is extremely expected that his administration would not limit fight against corruption to just these few cases which were revealed recently.

Now that the Trump administration has unilaterally and illegally pulled out of the 2015 nuclear agreement and is putting pressure on other countries to cut eco-nomic ties with Iran, one of the best tools to win the public support to counter sanctions is to fight corruption and show transparency. In that environment the people would be more convinced to resist forcefully against the bully by Trump and tolerate the consequences of the illegal sanctions.

If the president shows serious will in setting the stage for transparency, the next administrations will be forced to follow this path and even strengthen it. In that situation,

transparency can turn into a public demand and a cam-paign slogan by presidential and parliamentary candidates.

Though fight against corruption entails necessary tools and legislations, Rouhani, in the remaining years of his administration, can be the flag-bearer of a movement against corruption.

The government can start from small steps. For example, it will be a good start if the president and his ministers, provincial governors and other top managers release the list of their monthly salary. If this happens then people may demand parliamentarians release the list of their salary. People will also demand MPs to approve legislations to close loopholes leading to corruption.

It is proven that transparency and fair competition is the bedrock for progress and its concrete examples are Japan, Germany, South Korea and Scandinavian states.

We hope that the campaign that the Rouhani government has started against corruption would continue unabatedly.

Iran able to ‘adopt any strategy’ in Strait of Hormuz: military chief

Is the government really taking steps toward transparency?

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Zoroastrian clergyman dismisses Pompeo’s claims

TEHRAN — An Iranian Zoroastrian clergyman has rejected claims by U.S.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that religious minorities are being suppressed in Iran, saying Zoroastrians living in Iran are able to perform their rituals freely.

“As a Zoroastrian mobad (cleric), I cry out loud that during the 40 years of the Islamic government in Iran, Zoroastrians have been able to perform their rituals freely,” Mobad Behzad Neek-Deen, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

“About 100 meters away from the fire temple of the Zo-roastrians in Isfahan, there is a mosque ... such scenes are extremely rare in other countries,” he added.

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No country has signed up for new Iran sanctions: U.S. senator

TEHRAN — U.S. Senator Chris Murphy on Monday criticized U.S. President Donald

Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, saying no country has supported Washington’s effort to impose new sanctions on Iran.

“Last week, they briefed the Foreign Relations Committee on Iran nuclear sanctions since pulling out of the deal. Simple question was asked: how many countries have signed up for new sanctions on Iran? Answer: ZERO,” Murphy tweeted.

“The only viable reason to pull out of the Iran deal was to rebuild tougher sanctions so that Iran would eventually agree to a better agreement. But NOT A SINGLE COUNTRY has agreed to new sanctions. So why did we pull out of the deal?” he added.

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Three universities jointly producing CubeSat

TEHRAN — Iranian Space Agency (ISA) Director Morteza Barari said on Tuesday

that three Iranian universities are jointly working on man-ufacturing a new CubeSat.

In a meeting held in Tehran to discuss the cooperation between Iranian universities and the space industry, Barari stressed the important roles that universities can play in the development of the space industry, Mehr reported.

Pointing to the current projects of ISA with a number of top universities in the country, Barari said the space agency is seeking to strengthen cooperation with the universities.

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Larijani shreds ‘charlatan’ Trump for empty words

TEHRAN — Parliament Speaker Ali Lar-ijani on Tuesday dismissed U.S. President

Donald Trump’s recent Twitter threats against Iran as the “empty words” of a well-known “charlatan” which do not deserve a response.

“We don’t need to respond to every piece of baloney,” Larijani said in response to a call by MPs to react to Trump’s recent tweet.

Calling the U.S. president’s comments “undiplomatic”, the philosopher-turned politician said, “Today, the United States is known for being in a diplomatic disarray… In the Quran, God commands us to ignore the ignorant; they will destroy themselves.”

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Turkey refuses to join U.S. sanctions on Iran

TEHRAN — Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country will

have no part in possible U.S. sanctions on Iran, Sputnik reported on Tuesday, citing Dunya newspaper.

“We had a U.S. delegation here and we […] explained to them that we believe that [such moves] are a mistake. We are not obliged to abide by any sanctions imposed by anyone,” the paper quoted the Turkish minister as saying.

Back in May, President Trump pulled the United States out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal agreed between Iran and six world powers and reintroduced sanctions against Iran.

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Jimmy Kimmel exposes Trump’s hypocrisy on Iran

TEHRAN — Jimmy Kimmel, an Amer-ican television host, said on Monday that

it was “interesting” President Donald Trump had reacted so strongly after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said hostile U.S. policies to Iran may lead to “the mother of all wars”.

“People are wondering why the president would threaten them (Iran) with nuclear war, when he let (Russian President) Vladimir Putin practically run his fingers through his hair?” Kimmel asked, the Huffington Post reported.

“Could it be that Trump is trying to use Iran to distract us from whatever he’s up to with Russia?” he added.

TEHRAN — Iranian Foreign Minister Mo-

hammad Javad Zarif late on Monday warned U.S. President Donald Trump to “BE CAUTIOUS” after a day earlier Trump threatened that Iran “will suffer consequenc-es the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered.”

Zarif said Tehran was “unimpressed” by Trump’s threatening language.

“COLOR US UNIMPRESSED: The world heard even harsher bluster a few months ago. And Iranians have heard them —albeit more civilized ones—for 40 yrs. We’ve been around for millennia & seen fall of empires, including our own, which lasted more than the life of some countries. BE CAUTIOUS!,” Zarif tweeted.

The threat of war against Iran by Trump came hours after President Hassan Rou-hani warned the U.S. to stop pressing other countries to ban the purchase of the Ira-nian crude oil. Rouhani told Trump: “Do not play with the lion’s tail”. Rouhani also said peace with Iran will be “the mother of all peace” but war with the country will be “the mother of all wars”.

In his all-caps Twitter, Trump responded, “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER

CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE,” Trump wrote. “WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!”

Under its current the administration, the U.S. has taken an increasingly hostile approach toward Iran.

On May 8, Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran despite objections by Europe as well as Russia and China — the other parties to the deal.

The withdrawal entailed not only the re-imposition of sanctions on Iran but also the so-called secondary sanctions on third countries. Some of those sanctions will take effect after a 90-day wind-down period ending on August 6, and the rest after a 180-day wind-down period ending on November 4.

Iranian officials have said the U.S. meas-ures equal an “economic war” on Iran.

On Saturday, Zarif said the Islamic Repub-lic has managed to thwart the Iranophobia plot hatched by Israel and the U.S. through relying on the guidelines of Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Zarif say: “We’ve been around for millennia & seen fall of empires, including our own, which lasted more than the life of

some countries.”

Jahangiri urges any official who cannot help resolve problems to quit

Israeli military forces have targeted a Syr-ian Air Force fighter jet over the Golan Heights as it was flying in Syria’s airspace and conducting a series of airstrikes against the positions of foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants in the occupied territories.

“The Israeli enemy confirms its support for the armed terrorist groups and targets one of our warplanes, which was striking their groups in the area of Saida on the edge of the Yarmouk Valley in Syrian airspace,” Syria’s official news agency SANA quoted an unnamed Syrian military source as saying on Tuesday.

The Israeli military, however, claimed in a statement that it had launched two surface-to-air Patriot missiles at the Syrian Sukhoi fighter jet after it had “infiltrated into Israeli airspace.”

The statement added that the missiles had shot down the Syrian warplane.

“Since morning hours, there has been an increase in the internal fighting in Syria, including an increase in the activity of the Syrian Air Force,” the Israeli army further asserted.

Syrian state media said the fighter jet was targeted in Syrian airspace while conducting raids against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group and other terrorist elements in southern Syria.

Israel has been on high alert in recent days as Syrian government forces advance against foreign-backed terrorists near the Golan Heights.

Tel Aviv has frequently attacked military targets inside Syria in an attempt to prop up terrorist groups that have been suffering defeats at the hands of Syrian government forces. On July 16, Syrian army took control of a strategic hill overlooking the Israeli-oc-cupied Golan Heights.

Syria’s state television said the army had liberated al-Harah hill in the second day of a major offensive to seize the remaining mili-tant-held parts of southwestern provinces.

SANA, citing a military source, said the army had captured a string of villages, in-cluding al-Tiha and Zimrin.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Hu-man Rights (SOHR) also confirmed that Da-mascus government units had made a “quick advance” against militants in the western part of Dara’a.

“Syrian … forces captured the town of

al-Harah, as well as Samlin, al-Tiha and Zimrin,” media outlets quoted observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman as saying.

He said the government troops had ousted militants from al-Tiha in a military advance, while armed groups in al-Harah had agreed to a surrender deal.

Heavy fighting Meantime, Syrian state media said gov-

ernment forces reached the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights after capturing territory - the first time they took up positions there since the 2011 uprising.

“Since the morning hours, there has been an increase in the internal fighting in Syria, including an increase in the activity of the Syrian Air Force,” the Israeli army said in a statement. Israel has frequently attacked military targets inside Syria in an attempt to prop up the terrorist groups that have been suffering defeats at the hands of Syrian gov-ernment forces.

Syria usually intercepts the projectiles fired by the Israeli military. It has vowed to strengthen its air power and defenses in the face of Tel Aviv’s aerial acts of aggression.

Russia’s Lavrov meets with Is-rael’s Netanyahu for talks on Syria

Elsewhere, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has held a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu in the occupied territories to discuss the situation in Syria, including Iran’s counter-terrorism mission there.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday that during Monday’s

talks, “the parties tackled various aspects of the Middle Eastern agenda, attaching pri-mary significance to the situation in Syria and its vicinity.”

Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that the meeting, which was also attended by senior Russian and Israeli military officials, dealt with “Iran and the situation in Syria.”

Over the past years, Tehran and Mos-cow have been assisting the Syrian army in its battles against various terrorist groups – many of which have the backing of Israel and its allies.

Russia has repeatedly underlined the need for the involvement of influential external players, including the regional power house Iran, in efforts to resolve the deadly conflict gripping Syria.

Tehran also says it would maintain its advisory role in Syria and continue its support for resistance groups as long as Damascus wants it to do so.

Lavrov’s trip to the Israeli-occupied territories follows a visit two weeks ago by Netanyahu to Moscow, where he asked for the removal of Iranian advisors from Syria. That visit took place amid Israel’s concerns over Syria’s recent advances against the ter-rorists in the south near the Israeli-occupied side of the Golan Heights.

Following the meeting on Monday, Reuters cited a senior Israeli official as saying on condition of anonymity that Israel had rejected a Russian proposal, which would see Iranian military advisors in Syria stationed 100 kilometers away from the

occupied territories. The official said Tel Aviv is sticking to its

call for an end to Iran’s counter-terrorism mission in Syria, the removal of all long-range missiles from Syria and the closure of any factories producing precision-guided missiles there.

Furthermore, the official said, Tel Aviv asked Moscow to guarantee that all air-de-fense systems that protect the aforementioned arms be taken out of the country.

In turn, Russia has been carrying out an aerial bombardment campaign as a cover for ground operations by the Syrian army against the terror groups seeking to oust Damascus. Moscow, too, has military advisors in Syria.

The Russian military runs a number of bases in Syria and deployed units of its state-of-the-art S-400 anti-aircraft missile defensive systems to the country.

Syria blasts evacuation of White Helmets as ‘criminal’

Elsewhere the Syrian government on Mon-day condemned a multilateral operation to evacuate hundreds of rescue workers from the war-torn country as a “criminal process” intended to de-stabilize Syria.

Syrian authorities have long described the Civil Defense search-and-rescue group, which are popularly known as the White Helmets, as a terrorist organization.

The group rose to prominence as it filmed its operations to rescue civilians in the coun-try’s foreign instigated war. The government has alleged the group stages videos. Damas-cus’s ally Russia has accused the group of staging chemical weapons attacks on civilians and blaming them on the government.

On Saturday, more than 400 rescuers and their family members were evacuated from Syria’s Quneitra province through Israel to Jordan, after the rebels surrendered the last areas they held in the southwestern province to the government.

Syria’s foreign ministry called it a “smug-gling operation” that was evidence of a Western conspiracy to overthrow the government. The White Helmets have financial backing from the United States, Britain, and other nations.

The unprecedented operation was spear-headed by the U.S., Canada, and Britain, The Associated Press reported on Friday.

The rescuers and their families are ex-pected to be resettled in Europe and Canada.

(Source: staff & agencies)

JULY 25, 2018 INTERNATIONALI N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Israeli military targets Syrian fighter jet over occupied Golan Heights

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has reiterated he will serve out his term until 2021, despite more than three months of pro-tests that have seen nearly 300 deaths.

Ortega told Fox News in an interview broadcast on Monday that moving up the elections - a demand of the protesters - would “make things worse”.

“We were elected by the voters,” said the 72-year-old leader, who has ruled Nicaragua for a total of 22 years since his Sandin-ista revolution toppled a United States-backed dictator in 1979.

“To move up the elections would create instability, insecurity and make things worse,” he said.

Ortega and his government have been accused of using heavy-handed tactics to curb the anti-government demonstra-tions. Rights groups said authorities have arbitrarily arrested hundreds of people in its crackdown on the protests.

Ortega also said he is ready to continue a dialogue mediated by the Roman Catholic Church, despite his previous attacks on it.

“We invite the Catholic Church to continue with the dialogue so the dialogue can grow and develop in an open manner,” he said.

Last week, Ortega accused Catholic bishops of working with “coup plotters”, saying that disqualified them as mediators.

In Monday’s recorded interview, Ortega rejected allegations that he controlled the pro-government paramilitaries seen acting in concert with the police.

He instead accused Nicaraguan political groups of heading rival anti-government groups, which he said had sought financing from drug traffickers and the United States.

He accused those groups of killing “tens” of police officers in the unrest. “None of the peaceful demonstrations” have been attacked by police, he said.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has said that during the so-called clean-up operations in and around the city of Masaya there had been a high degree of support and collaboration between police forces and hooded masked armed “parapolice” groups in deploying violence against the population.

Ortega also denied reports by protesters and police that his forces shot dead two young men holed up in a Managua church that came under sustained fire earlier this month.

“No Nicaraguan has died in any church. Not a single Nicara-guan has died in any church. That’s false,” Ortega said.

According to the university students who were holed up in a besieged church, however, 21-year-old Gerald Vazquez died inside the church after he was reportedly shot in the head. A second person reportedly died behind the university barricades.

Nearly 300 deadMeantime, the Nicaraguan Centre for Human Rights said on

Monday that 292 people have been killed in three months of pro-tests and repression by police and paramilitaries using firearms, raising a previous toll. The unrest began on April 18 as a protest against a pension reform plan that has since been dropped.

But that anger mushroomed into a broad campaign against Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, who are accused by critics of running a corrupt left-wing dictatorship.

Thousands staged dueling marches for and against the gov-ernment on Monday. Those opposed to Ortega carried crosses with backpacks hanging from them - symbols of students killed in the unrest. A pro-government student union voiced support for Ortega and referred to protesters as “terrorists”.

The political crisis has hurt the economy of Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in the Americas.

Standard & Poor’s on Monday downgraded its debt rating for Nicaragua from B+ to B, with a negative outlook.

(Source: agencies)

Nicaragua unrest: Ortega denies responsibility for deaths

Doctors Without Borders (MSF/Médecins Sans Frontières) said on Tuesday it has suspended most of its work in South Sudan’s northern Maban county, after protesters looted its offices and those of several humanitarian agencies.

“A group of unidentified armed men broke into (the) MSF office and compound, looting the organization and staff’s properties, burning down a tent full of equipment and destroying most of the vehicles and communication devices,” the medical charity said in a statement.

“The attack has forced MSF to suspend the majority of its medical support to the host communities and the refugee population.”

The charity runs a hospital in the Doro refugee camp and offers consultations at the state hospital of the regional capital Bunj.

MSF head of mission Samuel Theodore said the team would continue to treat those with the most critical medical conditions.

“However, as the safety of healthcare personnel and facilities cannot be guaranteed, we have no other choice but to suspend the rest of our activities, which will leave 88,000 people with limited access to much needed medical services.”

The United Nations refugee agency UNCHR said on Monday that its premises were among about 10 that had been stormed and looted by protesters. Two UNCHR staff members were injured.

The violence occurred after locals protested a lack of job op-portunities, accusing humanitarian organizations of hiring from outside the county, UNHCR said.

Aid workers have frequently been targeted during South Su-dan’s four-year-long civil war, with 100 killed since the outbreak of fighting in December 2013, according to the UN.

Thousands of aid workers work in the country which is suf-fering one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with four million displaced and seven million -- more than half the population -- requiring food aid in 2018, according to the UN.

(Source: AFP)

MSF suspends job in South Sudan after raids

German foreign minister: Europe will not bow to Trump threats

We don’t trust Russia or Putin, Haley says as trump backtracks on Helsinki summit

Afghan capital Kabul hit by multiple explosions

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has warned that Eu-rope will not give in to threats by the administration of the United States President Donald Trump, amid a global trade war between the European Union states and Washington.

“Europe will not be threatened by President Trump. If we cede once, we will often have to deal with such behavior in the future,” Heiko Maas said in a post on Twitter on Tuesday.

“No one has an interest in having punitive tariffs, because everyone loses in the end,” said the foreign minister of Eu-rope’s biggest economy. Separately, Maas told the German public television, “We in Europe must stick together…I hope that we succeed in resolving this via consensus but we will not be threatened and climb down so easily.”

Elsewhere in the remarks, the top German diplomat hoped that a planned visit to Washington by the chief of the European Commission could prevent an all-out trade war. “It is good that Jean-Claude Juncker will be in Wash-ington tomorrow to talk and to seek a solution but we are not heading to negotiations with a pistol at our chest. I don’t think threats bring us closer to a solution.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker is due to meet with Trump to discuss the imposition of the U.S. tariffs on EU steel and aluminum and his threats to expand those measures to European cars.

European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told a news conference on Monday that Juncker would not

arrive in the United States for talks with the U.S. President Donald Trump with a specific trade offer. “I do not wish to enter into a discussion about mandates, offers because there are no offers. This is a discussion, it is a dialogue and it is an opportunity to talk and to stay engaged in dialogue.”

Juncker will travel to Washington on Wednesday for talks focused on tensions in trade between the EU and the US.

Trump has complained about higher duties applied by the European Union on car imports and has described the

28-nation bloc as a trade “foe.”Senior European officials in Brussels say that while EU

import duties for cars are heavier than those applied by the United States, the U.S. rates for other products, including trucks, are higher. They say cutting duties for cars can only be part of a broader trade deal.

In January, the European Union warned the U.S. that it will react “swiftly and appropriately” if Washington wages a trade war on the 28-member bloc.

Maas, who is to visit Japan and South Korea, which are also threatened by the U.S. tariffs, said no one had an interest in new and higher tariffs. “In the end, all sides would lose, also the Americans,” he said.

Amid an intensifying trade war between China and the United States, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the U.S. intimidation and threats “will never work” on Beijing, calling on Washington to maintain a rational attitude in dealing with related issues.

Trump earlier this year ordered his administration to introduce new tariffs on imports from other countries.

The heavy tariffs, which were met with an international outcry, triggered a trade war with several countries across various parts of the world.

Trump, however, has welcomed a trade war with other countries, claiming such a war would be “easy to win.”

(Source: Press TV)

The United States ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has defended President Donald Trump’s recent one-on-one summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisting that Russia is “never going to be our friend.”

The Trump-Putin summit, which took place in Finland last week, capped off a calamitous trip to Europe by the U.S. leader during which he appeared to delight in unnerving

allies by criticizing the leaders of Germany and Britain, while questioning the purpose of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization).

When he met with Putin, however, Trump was much less confrontational, piling blame on his own country for poor ties with Russia and suggesting he believed Putin’s denial of election meddling over his own intelligence agencies’ con-

clusion on the matter. “President Putin says it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be,” Trump said.

In an apparent volte-face, Trump later claimed he had misspoken: “I said the word ‘would’ instead of ‘wouldn’t’ and the sentence should have been: ‘I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.’”

(Source: newsweek)

Multiple explosions have rocked the Afghan capital, Kabul, with three confirmed to have been caused by rockets that hit a residential area, officials have said.

At least three people were wounded in the attacks, with police deployed to the area to find the launch site, an official told the AFP news agency

“Rockets were fired on Kabul city from an unknown direction and ... hit residential areas near the mountains in PD5 (police district),” police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said.

The Afghan news website, Tolo News, re-

ported five explosions in total, adding that the blasts took place near a police academy in the district of Afshar, in western Kabul.

Quoting police, Tolo added that the target appeared to be the police academy and that “dozens of families” had fled the area.

Tuesday’s rocket attacks came two days after a suicide bomber blew himself up near Kabul international airport, killing at least 23 people and wounding a further 107 people.

Sunday’s attack was claimed by the local chapter of the Islamic State in Iraq and the

Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group, which said it had targeted Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, who returned to Kabul after more than a year in exile.

Scores of government officials, political leaders and supporters had gone to the airport to welcome Dostum, a powerful ethnic Uzbek leader and former strongman.

Dostum was unharmed in the attack, his armored vehicle having already whisked him away when the bomber struck.

The Afghan capital has seen an increase in bombings and other attacks against se-

curity forces and civilians since the Taliban announced the beginning of their spring of-fensive on April 25.

Fighting traditionally picks up in Af-ghanistan as warmer weather melts snow in mountain passes, allowing fighters to move around more easily.

According to the United Nations, a total of 1,692 people have been killed in the first half of 2018, with another 3,430 people wounded - the highest figure since it began keeping records in 2009.

(Source: agencies)

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

JULY 25, 20184 E C O N O M Y

TEHRAN — Iran exported $1.072 billion

of iron ore in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2018), which indicates 31.1 percent rise from its previous year’s figure, IRNA reported on Tuesday citing the data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

China was the main buyer of Iran’s iron ore in the past year, importing $1.043 billion of the product from Iran, which is 97 percent of the total exports.

Iraq, India, Russia and Afghanistan stood

at the next places after China in the past year.As reported, Iran’s exports of iron ore in

2017 stood at $1.4 billion, accounting for 1.5 percent of the global market.

The country’s exports from the mining sector stood at $9 billion in the past Iranian calendar year, according to Deputy Industry Minister Mehdi Karbasian.

Karbasian, who is also the head of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), has announced that Iran exported 740,000 tons of sponge iron and 18 million tons of

iron ore concentrate in the past year.IMIDRO and its affiliated companies

inaugurated $2 billion of projects in the said time, the official added.

As Karbasian announced, by the end of the present Iranian year (March 20, 2019), about $6 billion of new projects will be inaugurated in Iranian mining sector.

Iran is one of the top 10 mineral-rich countries where 68 types of minerals have been identified so far, including the world’s largest deposits of copper, zinc and iron, which have been tempting international investors after the lifting of economic sanctions against the country in January 2016.

TEHRAN — The Statistical Center of Iran announced

that the inflation rate in the twelve-month pe-riod ended on July 22, which marks the end of the Iranian calendar month of Tir, stood at 8.7 percent, up 0.5 percent from its previous month,

IRIB reported on Tuesday.As reported, inflation rate stood at 8.8 percent

and 8.2 percent in the urban and rural areas of the country, respectively, during the mentioned time span.

In the urban areas, the average goods and

services Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at 121.4 in Tir, indicating 4.6% increase compared to the previous month and 14% rise compared to the same month of the past year.

And in the rural areas, the CPI stood at 120.9 in Tir, with 3.2 percent rise compared to the past

month and 12.7 percent increase compared to the same month of the previous year.

All sectors of the Iranian economy registered positive growth in 2017, during which 650,000 jobs were created and the country attained a single-digit inflation rate after a quarter of century.

India’s crude oil imports from Iran jumped 52 percent to 2.57 million tons (MT) in June as compared to 1.69 MT in the same month last year, fresh data sourced from the Directo-rate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS), an arm of the commerce ministry, showed.

The jump in oil imports comes amid pres-sure on major oil importing countries including India to cut oil imports from Iran and freeze all oil imports from that nation by November this year. For the first quarter ended June, India’s oil imports from Iran rose 45 percent

to 8.14 MT, DGCIS data showed.U.S. had in May walked out of the Joint

Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran and re-imposed economic sanctions on the country. The sanctions prohibit other countries to get into new contracts with Iran immediately and provide a six-month period ending 4 November to wind-down existing commitments with the country, especially with Iranian oil companies.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in her official visit to India last month also emphasized the need for India to cut oil imports from Iran. In value terms India’s

imports from Iran jumped nearly two-and-a-half times or 140 percent to $1,368 million in June this year as compared to June 2017. For the quarter ended June, value of these imports stood at $4,077 million as compared to $2,026 million in the year-ago period.

Responding to a question in parliament on whether India is continuing its economic relations with Iran in the sphere of oil imports and Chabahar port, India’s Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs V K Singh said bi-lateral relations with Iran stand on their own and are not influenced by India’s relations with

any third country.“High level exchanges, including the state

visit of PM to Iran in May 2016 and that of Iranian President to India in February 2018 have taken place. In keeping with the under-standings reached during these visits, both sides are engaged in developing a long-term partnership in energy; deepening of trade and investment cooperation; and an early and full operations of Shahid Beheshti Port at Chabahar,” Singh said in a written reply last week.

(Source: The Economic Times)

Turkey’s central bank on Tuesday held its main interest rate steady despite rapid inflation, in a decision that is likely to deepen investor angst over its independence a month after President Erdogan’s re-election.

Tuesday’s decision was seen as a critical test of whether policymakers would continue tak-ing action to slow price growth, with inflation running above 15 per cent, more than three times the central bank’s target.

The country’s currency tumbled immedi-ately after the central bank left its policy rate at 17.75 per cent, against market expectations for a roughly 100 basis point increase, following a trio of rises since late April. It was recently down 3.5 per cent, with one dollar buying TL4.91. For the year to date, the lira is down by more than a fifth.

Timothy Ash, emerging market sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, said the decision was “very hard to understand or to justify” given the vigorous price growth.

“The question is whether the market now looks to test the [central bank] and forces another emergency rate hike down the line,” he said.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan sparked deep angst among international investors after he earlier this month named his son-in-law, Berat Albay-

rak, to a powerful new finance and economy role. His decision sent the lira, already one of the year’s worst-performing emerging market currencies, plunging to a fresh all-time low of

TL4.9711 to the dollar. It also caused wobbles in Turkey’s fixed income market.

“It’s a bad look,” said Paul McNamara, emerg-ing markets director at GAM, of Tuesday’s rate

decision.“Once you make the president’s son-in-law

as finance minister, credibility is on the line so you do have to be even more careful than usual,” he said, adding that in his view, a rate hike would have been less damaging to Turkey than the hit to the lira which has followed the freeze.

Today’s decision “sends a strong signal that they [the Turks] still don’t get it”, Mr McNa-mara said.

For its part, the central bank pointed to recent data that “indicate a more significant rebalancing trend in the economic activity.”

“External demand maintains its strength, while signs of deceleration in domestic demand become more visible,” it said.

The question now facing investors is whether Mr Erdogan, who vehemently objects to high interest rates and who has blamed international forces for the lira’s tumble, will allow central bank chief Murat Cetinkaya the flexibility to tighten monetary policy going forward.

Charles Robertson, global chief economist at Renaissance Capital, called the central bank decision “remarkable”, adding that it is “look-ing hard to see how they can avoid either an International Monetary Fund deal or capital controls.” (Source: Financial Times)

COMMODITIES

CURRENCIES

STOCK MARKET

USD 43,800 rialsEUR 51,189 rials

GBP 57,358 rials

AED 11,927 rials

TEDPIX 108395.9IFX 1218.69

WTI $68.28/b

Brent $73.08/b

OPEC Basket $71.57/b

Gold $1,227.05 /oz

Silver $15.55/oz

Platinium $864.65/oz

Sources: tse.ir, Ifb.ir

Source: mehrnews.com

Sources: oilprice.com, Moneymetals.com

TEHRAN — According to the latest report of the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI), unem-

ployment rate in spring which corresponds to the first quarter of current Iranian calendar year (March 21-June 21) stood at 12.1 percent, increasing 0.5 percent in comparison with the spring of last year.

The center put the number of the unemployed at 3.322 mil-lion persons in spring of this year, IRIB reported on Tuesday.

TEHRAN — Average daily gasoline con-sumption in Iran reached 91.7 million liters

during the Iranian calendar month of Tir (June 22-July 22), 8.1 million liters more than the preceding month.

The figure for average daily consumption in the mentioned period increased by 8.5 percent compared to the previous month, IRIB reported.

As reported, the figure for daily consumption jumped to a record high of 102.2 million liters in the last day of the men-tioned month (June 22).

The year to date average daily consumption stood at 86.8 million liters, 9.6 percent more than the last year’s 79.2 million liters for the same period.

Iranians consumed a total of 2.84 billion liters of gasoline in the Iranian calendar month of Tir (which is the first month of summer in Iran).

TEHRAN — According to the latest an-nouncement of Iran’s Bank of Industry and

Mine, industrial units in the country have received €72 mil-lion of facilities in foreign currency since the beginning of the present Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2018), IRNA reported on Tuesday.

The facilities have been granted to the industrial units for implementation of 982 projects; for example, €16 million was paid to steel sector, €11 million to road construction and €5 million was paid to excavation, the report said.

E C O N O M Yd e s k

E C O N O M Yd e s k

E C O N O M Yd e s k

E C O N O M Yd e s k

N E W S I N B R I E F

Unemployment rate rises 0.5% in spring yr/yr

Daily gasoline consumption touches 92m liters in a month

Industrial units receive €72m in loans during 4 months

Annual iron ore exports rise 31%

E N E R G Yd e s k

India’s crude oil imports from Iran jumped 52% in June

Inflation rate at 8.7%: statistical center

Euro zone banks see rising loan demand,

easing credit standards: ECB

Euro zone banks expect demand for corporate and household loans to increase further in the third quarter with credit standards also easing, the European Central Bank said in a quarterly survey of the bloc’s top banks.

Buying 2.5 trillion euros ($2.9 trillion) worth of public and private bonds over the past three years, the ECB has pushed borrowing costs to record low levels, hoping to stimulate borrowing and spending, all with the ultimate aim of boosting inflation.

Although the scheme worked more slowly than expected, household and corporate lending are both near post-crisis highs, so the ECB agreed last month to wind down the bond purchases, satisfied that infla-tion is finally moving back towards its target of just under 2 percent.

In the second quarter, banks saw increased demand for corporate, housing and consumer loans and said credit standards — internal guidelines or loan approval criteria — also eased for all three categories, the ECB said.

Its comments were based on a survey of 149 lenders.“Banks’ overall terms and conditions on new loans

continued to ease across all loan categories in the sec-ond quarter of 2018, driven mainly by a narrowing of margins on average loans,” the ECB said.

It added that competitive pressures and risk percep-tions contributed to an easing of credit standards in the second quarter, while banks’ risk tolerance, their cost of funding and balance sheet constraints had a broadly neutral impact.

(Source: Reuters)

ONE STEP INTERNATIONAL TENDERGOVERNMENT TRADING CORPORATION OF IRAN

The Government Trading Corporation of Iran (hereinafter referred to as GTC), affiliated to the Ministry

of Agriculture Jahad of the Islamic Republic of Iran, intends to purchase 30,000 M/Ts 10 pct

M/L,crude sunflower seed oil (in 3 separate cargoes of 10,000 MTs +10% with different shipment periods)

on the basis of CFR pumped out one of the north Iranian ports (Amirabad, Nowshahr, Freydunkenar,

or Anzali) ,through single stage international tender.

All of qualified companies and suppliers that are interested to bid above tender are invited to receive

tender documents from 25/07/2018 until 04/08/2018 from the secretary of Trades&Tenders committee

located on the 4th floor of GTC building No. 2 , Fatmei Ave (opposite of Water and Wastewater Co.),

Tehran, Iran along with an official letter of introduction.

The bid participants are required to submit their stamped and sealed envelopes containing their offers

latest at 13:00 (Tehran time) on 04/09/2018 to the secretariat of tenders committee located on the 7th

floor. Meanwhile the meeting for the opening of the envelopes will be held on 04/09/2018 at 14:00

(Tehran time) with the presence of bidder’s representatives in tenders committee (2nd floor of GTC

building No 2, Fatmei Ave (opposite of Water and Wastewater Co.), Tehran, Iran).

Bid bond: the bid bond worth EUR 121,146 (IRR. 5,957,825,633) in cash or unconditional bank guarantee

with three months validity and extendible for another three months.

Note: participates who wish to bid for more than one cargo are obliged to deposit the above mentioned

bid bond for each extra shipment.

Second Announcement

Turkish lira tumbles after central bank holds rates

City of London leader sees 3,500-12,000 finance jobs lost from BrexitBrexit will cause about 3,500 to 12,000 financial-services jobs to move from Britain to the European Union in the short term, the City of London financial district’s leader said on Tuesday, and many more jobs might disappear in the longer term.

More than 2 million people work in financial services across Britain.“We are not expecting a big Brexodus in the first instance. But

depending on how things pan out ... in the longer term, we may see many more go,” Catherine McGuinness told parliament’s Exiting the European Union Committee.

Banks, insurers and asset managers in Britain are opening hubs in the EU before Britain’s departure from the EU in March to ensure continuity in services to customers there.

The City was disappointed that Britain’s government ditched its preferred option of future EU trade based on mutual recogni-tion, whereby Britain and the EU accept each other’s rules under two-way regulatory cooperation.

“We had expected continued support for mutual recognition,” McGuinness said.

Instead, Britain has asked for financial-services access based on a more accommodative version of the EU’s equivalence system, used by Japan and the United States, whereby Brussels alone decides who gets access.

So far, the EU has said it won’t adapt its equivalence system in the way Britain wants. (Source: Reuters)

5I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

E N E R G YJULY 25, 2018

Oil prices steadied on Tuesday as rising tension between the United States and Iran highlighted risks to supply while escalating trade disputes raised the prospect of slower economic growth and perhaps weaker en-ergy demand.

Brent crude oil was up 15 cents at $73.21 a barrel by 1015 GMT. U.S. light crude was 45 cents higher at $68.34 a barrel.

Both oil benchmarks have fallen this month as crude supplies from Russia, Saudi Arabia and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have in-creased and unscheduled production losses have eased.

Market sentiment has been driven by ge-opolitical worries: fears that supply could be disrupted by confrontation in the Middle East or that Washington’s trade dispute with its major trading partners could dampen global growth.

Iran, OPEC’s third-largest producer pump-ing 3.75 million barrels a day, has come under increasing U.S. pressure, with the adminis-tration of President Donald Trump pushing countries to cut all imports of Iranian oil from November.

But Saudi Arabia and other large producers are ramping up output to offset losses that are likely to come as the November deadline approaches.

“The oil market does not seem to be overly concerned about the recent tussle between the

United States and Iran as prices remain close to three-month lows,” said Carsten Menke, commodities research analyst at Swiss private bank Julius Baer.

G20 finance leaders voiced concern over the weekend about the risk to global growth

from trade tensions between the United States and China, among others.

“It is surely only a matter of time before something tangible yields from the ongoing trade war stories and it probably won’t be a pretty outcome,” said Matt Stanley, a fuel oil broker at Freight Investors Services in Dubai.

“I imagine crude will stay in a fairly narrow range over the next few days,” Stanley said.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude inventories at the U.S. crude futures delivery hub at Cushing, Oklahoma rose in the four days to Friday, according to data supplier Genscape, trad-ers said.

On a weekly basis, stockpiles at the hub were expected to fall for the 10th consecutive week, traders said.

A Reuters survey on Monday estimated on average that total U.S. crude stocks fell by 3.2 million barrels last week, after rising in the previous week.

U.S. industry body the American Petro-leum Institute will release its inventories data for last week at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) on Tuesday.

(Source: Reuters)

Looks like “big oil” is all set to receive a big crude bonanza courtesy of a partial recovery in crude prices, according to fresh research.

In a note to its clients on Monday (July 23), ratings agen-cy Moody’s says the likes of ExxonMobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, Total and BP are all in line for improved profits.

The five major integrated oil companies responded to the oil price collapse by cutting costs, slashing capital spending and divesting assets, and by doing so, positioned their businesses “to prosper in a world of range-bound commodity prices.”

Since the slump, the five majors have brought down their capital costs by reducing oilfield services costs and increas-ing efficiencies, and by undertaking fewer large projects.

“The companies’ principal business risk is oil and gas price volatility, and they proved their fundamental strength through the depths of the oil price crash,” says Pete Speer, Senior Vice President at Moody’s. “And in today’s improved environment, we expect them to continue to pursue effi-ciencies and maintain competitive cost structures in order to reap the benefits of higher prices.”

Moody’s also expects a five percent annual increase in total capital spending for these companies in 2019. Mean-while, improving oil prices have allowed the five oil majors to fully fund capital expenditures and dividends from op-erating cash flow.

Alongside global diversification, the majors’ large, tangi-ble-asset scale gives them significant cost advantages over smaller energy companies, and provides abundant assets that can be sold to raise cash during times of industry dis-tress, the agency added.

They also prioritize risk management and long-term planning as a core competency, while maintaining strong flexibility to absorb periodic shocks, the agency’s report further notes.

Speer adds: “Over the decades, integrated oil companies have withstood government expropriations of their producing assets and being locked out of many prolific, low-cost oil and gas basins, while technological and regulatory changes have sometimes required significant capital investments and operational changes.

“Such experiences have made these companies institu-tionally resilient to adverse events and regulatory change.”

Moody’s thinking chimes with analysts’ expectations on Wall Street and the City of London. A Thomson Reuters’ poll of market observers expects ExxonMobil to post a 62 percent increase in quarterly profit to $5.45 billion on Fri-day (July 27).

Chevron is expected to post quarterly profit of $4 billion on Friday; more than double over the same quarter a year ago. Shell is expected by analysts to post a 68 percent jump in quarterly profit to $6.08 billion on Thursday (July 26), while many expect BP to post a more-than fourfold jump in quarterly profit to $2.66 billion on July 31.

A combination of oil production cuts by OPEC and 10 non-OPEC oil producers, and supply shocks from Libya, Nigeria and Venezuela have seen the crude price rise by as much as 10 percent since January, with Brent capping $80 per barrel at point over the course of the year; the bench-mark’s highest level in nearly three years.

(Source: Forbes)

Oil steady as U.S.-Iran row balances trade worries

North Korean fuel prices drop, suggesting UN sanctions being undermined Gasoline prices in North Korea have nearly halved since late March, market data analyzed by Reuters shows, adding weight to suspicions that fuel is finding its way into the isolated economy from China and elsewhere despite U.N. sanctions.

The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution in December to ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum exports to North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs.

But as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has moved to im-prove relations with the United States, China and South Korea, concerns have grown that the policy of “maximum pressure” through sanctions and isolation, is losing steam.

Gasoline was sold by private dealers in the capital Pyongyang at about $1.24 per kg as of Tuesday, down 33 percent from $1.86 per kg on June 5 and 44 percent from this year’s peak of $2.22 per kg on March 27, according to Reuters analysis of data compiled by the Daily NK website. Diesel prices are at $0.85 per kg, down about 17 percent from March.

The website is run by North Korean defectors who collect prices via phone calls with traders in the North.

“My assessment is that there was a greater inflow (of fuel supplies) from abroad, especially China since Kim’s trips there,” said Kang Mi-jin, who works at Daily NK and speaks regularly to sources inside North Korea.

Kim first visited China to meet President Xi Jinping in March, and they held two more summits, in May and June.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused North Korea of “illegally smuggling petroleum products into the country at a level that far exceeds quotas” established by the United Nations.

(Source: Reuters)‘Big oil’ set to reap benefits of relatively higher crude prices Californians are asked to turn off the lights as heat descendsPlease: No unnecessary lights, set air conditioners to 78 degrees Fahrenheit (26 Celsius) or higher and avoid using major appli-ances. That’s what California residents are being asked to do Tuesday and Wednesday evenings as sweltering temperatures hit the Golden State.

Day-ahead power prices in Southern California reached a 10-month high of $467.19 a megawatt-hour for the hour ending at 8 p.m. Monday, more than double the day before, as the California Independent System Operator projected demand would climb.

“Dangerous heat” will descend across Southern California through July 26, with temperatures seen reaching 92 degrees along the coast, 100 inland and 110 in desert areas, according to the National Weather Service.

(Source: Bloomberg)

JULY 25, 20186I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

INTERNATIONAL

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’s deepening intervention in Yemen is the triumph of hope over experience. Riyadh’s latest cam-paign in Yemen began in 2015 to topple the then-triumphant Houthis, whom Saudi lead-ers considered too close to Iran. Rather than dissuading their good buddies in Riyadh from this dangerous course, the UAE too has plunged into the morass, also hoping to set back Iran. Unlike in Egypt, where the two helped bring about a coup that put President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in power, the result has been a disaster. This is true not only for Yemen, whose war and humanitarian crisis only seem to worsen by the day, but also for the UAE and Saudi Ara-bia themselves, with Iran in particular gaining influence at their expense.

A pattern of interventionSaudi Arabia has intervened periodically

in Yemen since the start of the modern Saudi state. For many centuries, the Zaydi Imamate of Yemen controlled part of what is now the Asir Province in Saudi Arabia, and the two countries fought a border war in 1934. The Zaydis are Shiite, and their leaders’ descendants would form the core of the Houthi opposition today. Border clashes continued as late as the mid-1990s, and an agreement defining the border would only be finalized in 2000.

Aside from territorial disputes, Saudi Arabia feared the wrong faction would come to power in Sanaa. In 1962, when Yemen plunged into civil war between Imamate and Arab national-ist factions from Yemen’s military, the Saudis (in addition to Iran and Jordan) intervened on behalf of the Imamate, while Egypt intervened to support the Arab nationalists, drawing on Soviet support. In a lesson the foreigners would fail to heed in the future, the intervention fueled the war but left the outside powers exhausted. In 1970, a negotiated agreement put the Arab nationalists in charge, but the Imamate fac-tion received several prominent positions and a share of the patronage.

In 1990, South and North Yemen united under the leadership of the North’s longtime strongman, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who proved adept at dodging his many enemies and consolidating his power — “dancing on the heads of snakes,” as he called it. Yet Yemen remained weak. The South never fully integrated, the country was desperately poor, and resentment and anger at Saleh simmered.

During these years, Saudi Arabia meddled from time to time, trying to buy local leaders, stop terrorists linked to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, weaken Marxist forces in the South, undermine the government in Sanaa when it went against Riyadh’s wishes, and otherwise spread its influence. Yemen’s politics and leaders seemed to get under the skin of the al Saud fam-ily. To change the country from the bottom-up, Riyadh encouraged the spread of Salafism in Yemen, funding mosques and preachers and otherwise trying to advance its austere and anti-Shiite interpretation of Islam. However, while Saudi Arabia at times won over a particular leader or killed or stopped a terrorist, most Yemenis remained fiercely nationalistic and suspicious of Riyadh. They were happy to take Saudi money, but they often stopped short of fulfilling Riyadh’s ambitions.

Instability intensified in the 2000s. Houthis based primarily in the Saada region posed a par-ticular problem. The Houthis resented their poor treatment by Sanaa and loss of state patronage. For many years, they fought to receive some of the state’s spoils rather than to break away or to replace Saleh. They became more radical, however, when they realized that the years of negotiations and the 2011 revolution during the Arab Spring would not restructure power in Yemen as they hoped. In addition, the bitter anti-Shiite message of the Salafi proselytizing

angered the Houthis. Enter the Houthis

The latest round of intervention began in 2015. The Arab Spring spilled over into Yemen in 2011, forcing Saleh to abdicate reluctantly in favor of his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. Continued violence from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, separatist sentiment, Saleh’s attempts to undermine Hadi and restore his and his family’s position, a collapsed economy, and other maladies kept the Hadi government weak despite international goodwill.

Houthis took advantage of the chaos, con-quering Sanaa and eventually much of Yemen in 2014 and 2015, and Hadi fled first to Aden in the South and then to Saudi Arabia. Saleh, always opportunistic, allied the military forces still loyal to him with the Houthis, despite having fought them fiercely when he was in power. At the time, the Houthis had limited but real links to Iran that alarmed Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, which saw Tehran as ascendant not only in Yemen but also in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. The Houthi core area also extends to Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia, which the paranoid Riyadh often interprets as Iranian presence on its frontier.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE intervened to put Hadi back in power, and Saudi officials declared the intervention would be over within weeks. Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and Sudan all joined the fray, largely out of a sense of obligation to the UAE and Saudi Arabia rather than genuine concerns about Yemen. Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia opened their airspace and facilities to the coalition. Qatar was also a token coalition member until strains between Doha and the UAE and Saudi Arabia led to its expulsion.

In addition to the Saudi and Emirati military role, the UAE also paid for Colombian merce-naries, while Saudi Arabia recruited thousands of Sudanese soldiers. The United Nations also claims that Eritrea deployed troops, and the UAE uses Asmara’s airport for some of its opera-tions. The United States quietly supported the intervention with intelligence, aerial refueling, and munitions.

At first, the Saudi and Emirati campaign seemed to make progress, helping forces loyal to Hadi take Aden and then much of southern Yemen. Riyadh supported an array of tribal and military forces that worked with Islah, Yemen’s most important Sunni Islamist party and an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. The UAE loathes the Brotherhood (and has undermined its power in Libya, Egypt, and elsewhere) and sup-

ports southern secessionists and Salafists, who distrust Islah and see the Houthis as apostates.

Progress slowed and then largely came to a halt, however, as Saudi and Emirati-backed forces tried to move on areas closer to the Houthi heartland. Saudi hopes of a quick victory, like most of their hopes for Yemen, proved an illusion. More than three years later, Riyadh has flown more than 100,000 sorties and spends billions a month on the war. Airstrikes managed to destroy much of Yemen’s already-tottering infrastructure and kill thousands of civilians, but the Houthis held on. Meanwhile, the factions often turned on each other. Saleh turned his coat and agreed to work with the Saudis in 2017, but the Houthis killed him before this flip could pay off. At least some of the forces once under his command now work with the UAE, but the anti-Houthi forces are divided. In Aden, forces backed by the UAE fought fighters loyal to Hadi, whom Saudi Arabia backed, over bases and facilities. UAE leaders reportedly consider Hadi a serial incompetent, while the Saudis are more willing to work with Islah, which Islah tried to distance itself from the Muslim Brotherhood to please the UAE and Riyadh. For obvious reasons, Riyadh also focuses more on border security than does the UAE.

The intervention today: The UAE takes the lead

Although Saudi Arabia is the historic med-dler in Yemen and many usually describe the intervening coalition as “Saudi-led,” today the UAE plays an important and often leading role. More than 1,000 Emirati forces are deployed throughout Yemen, mostly in the South, and it trained thousands of locals, including many southern separatists who are trying to seize the day and end the dominance of the north. Saudi Arabia takes the lead on the air campaign and provides considerable funding, but it does not match the UAE’s presence on the ground. In Yemen, the UAE forces draw on the counterin-surgency experience they gained fighting with NATO forces in Afghanistan. Not surprisingly, the UAE has taken casualties — more than 100.

Today, UAE-led forces are trying to make a dramatic push and end the stalemate by captur-ing the port of Hudaydah, the Houthi’s most important port through which food and other supplies go into Houthi-dominated areas. (The Saudis claim that Iranian weapons also flow through the port.) The UAE assembled as many as 25,000 fighters backed by air cover and with armored vehicles against a few thousand Houthis, most of whom are recent recruits. The

UAE-backed forces include fighters who once fought the UAE’s allies because they were loyal to Saleh — now they follow his nephew, who believes the wind is blowing from Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. In addition, the UAE forces are bet-ter trained than in 2015. The urban battlefield, however, heavily favors the defenders, and Iran and Hizballah probably taught the Houthis how to exploit this terrain. Hudaydah, moreover, is not the only port available to the Houthis, and smuggling is a proud Yemeni tradition. As such, the Houthis will likely have access to arms in any event

What’s next?An outright coalition military win is unlikely,

though the UAE-backed forces have a tremen-dous advantage in weaponry, numbers, and money, making the capture of Hudaydah seem likely. However, the Houthis will continue to hold territory in their heartland, where much of Yemen’s population lives. Additionally, even if they lose Sanaa and other major cities, they have proved that they can and will wage a relent-less guerrilla campaign. To back their claim, they still have tens of thousands of men under arms. Even putting the Houthis aside, it is not clear what political solution would satisfy the disparate coalition the UAE and Saudi Arabia have put together.

Even ignoring the disaster in Yemen, the Saudi and Emirati intervention failed on its own terms. They are caught in the Yemeni quagmire. Hadi is not in power, their allies fight one another, Al Qaida is stronger, and Yemen is less stable than before. Additionally, and most importantly from the Saudi and Emi-ratis’ perspective, Iran is stronger. Although the Houthis are hardly Iranian puppets, they work with Iran by necessity, and its influence has grown as a result. Now, Tehran has an ally that can threaten Saudi Arabia and shipping in the Red Sea.

The civil war exacerbated Yemen’s desperate poverty, pushing the country even closer (or, more accurately, farther over) the brink. Around 10,000 people have died in the war, roughly half of them civilians. Yet, that pales before the high but unknown death toll from the other horsemen that ride along with war: disease and famine.

More than 50,000 children died of star-vation and disease in 2017, and hundreds of thousands of Yemeni children suffer from acute malnutrition. Three million Yemenis are now displaced. According to the United Nations, 75 percent of Yemen’s 22 million people need assistance, and more than 11 million fall into the category of “acute need,” with imminent starvation staring them in the face. Further, the country suffered the world’s largest cholera outbreak last year. In parts of the country, the UAE provides some humanitarian aid, and Saudi Arabia also provides limited support — but not nearly enough to offset the disaster facing the entire country. Repeated UN attempts at ne-gotiation have foundered, and today Yemen is home to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) capitalized on the chaos. Somewhat belatedly, Saudi and Emirati airstrikes began to strike AQAP bases, and the intervening powers tried to create a coalition of Yemeni military and tribal forces. They succeeded in dislodging the group from Aden and several other important areas, including the port of Mukalla. However, AQAP persisted, working with tribes and capitalizing on locals’ anger at foreigners and central authority. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and their allies lack the forces to occupy large parts of Yemen to ensure AQAP does not enjoy safe havens or return to cleared areas.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE both look in-competent and cruel, a deadly combination. An end to their interventions would leave both of them, and Yemen, better off.

(Source: brookings.edu)

Even putting the Houthis aside, it is not clear what political solution would satisfy the disparate coalition the UAE

and Saudi Arabia have put together.

It was a fitting metaphor for many west European politicians’ disinterest in the Balkans that Britain’s foreign secretary, due to chair a regional leaders’ summit in London on July 9th, 2018, failed to turn up. There was irony, too. Having insisted the UK should host the event promoting Balkan membership of the EU, Boris Johnson resigned from his post over his own prime minister’s insufficiently hardline approach to leaving the 28-nation bloc. The summit delivered warm words and worthy initiatives. But it did little to advance prospects for Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Albania — collectively known as the Western Balkans — of achieving EU membership. It followed an EU summit last month that dealt a blow by postponing opening membership talks with Macedonia and Albania. That was despite Macedonia’s breakthrough, under EU pressure, in resolving a 25-year-old dispute with Greece over the country’s name.

After two decades of waiting, Western Balkans na-tions are losing faith that the EU’s doors will ever open to them. In a region of ethnic and religious divisions, still recovering from its 1990s wars, that creates real dangers. It removes the most powerful incentive for democratic and economic reforms, and regional reconciliation. It opens, too, a vacuum that other powers — China and Russia — are seeking to fill. Many EU states’ lukewarm attitude to enlargement is understandable. Even France’s

pro-European president Emmanuel Macron says the bloc must first resolve its internal problems.

The past decade’s economic hardships, and fears over mass migration, have caused “enlargement fatigue” among voters. And the EU is dysfunctional enough at 28, or even 27, members.

How will it cope with 30-plus? West European capitals are frustrated, too, with Balkan states’ slow progress in tackling corruption and organized crime.

Democratic backsliding by Hungary and Poland, and

erosion of rule of law in Romania, make them wary of ad-mitting more members from the former eastern bloc. But such concerns can become self-fulfilling. The more distant the prospect of EU entry, the less the motivation for difficult reforms. Western Balkan states were among 16 central and eastern European countries invited to a summit with China in Bulgaria on July 7th, 2018, where Beijing lavished pledges of investment. Montenegro accuses Moscow of attempting a coup there in 2016 to thwart the ex-Yugoslav republic’s ambition to join NATO. Greece last week expelled two Rus-sian diplomats for allegedly trying to undermine Athens’ name agreement with Macedonia. The EU could do more to bolster its own influence in the region.

First, it should deliver a more tangible sense of progress. Even Serbia and Montenegro, already in membership talks, are unlikely to join the EU before 2025 at the earliest. The bloc could start talks with others, in parallel with resolving its internal issues, and use the talks themselves to exert reform pressure. It should increase the size of its carrot, and its stick. Financial and technical support should be stepped up to those making good progress. The EU should be more ready to criticize, and penalize, steps away from democracy by Balkan leaders, convincing populations in the region that it is really on their side. If not, a historic opportunity to stabilize the Balkans could be lost — with potentially tragic consequences.

(Source: FT)

EU’s waning influence opens a dangerous vacuum in the Balkans

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have a disastrous Yemen strategyIf Trump wants to blow up

the world order, who will stop him?

As horrified as we may be at Trump’s uncouth antics, it is important to understand the tectonic shifts underpinning them.

Donald Trump’s early departure, and his subsequent refusal to endorse the G7 communique, has thrown the mainstream press into an apoplexy reflecting a deeper incomprehension of our un-folding global reality.

In a bid to mix toughness with humor, Emmanuel Macron had quipped that the G7 might become the … G6. That’s absurd, not least because without the United States, capitalism as we know it (let alone the pitiful G7 gatherings) would disappear from the planet’s face.

There is, of course, little doubt that with Trump in the White House there is an awful lot we should be angst-ridden about. However, the establishment’s reaction to the president’s shenanigans, in the United States and in Europe, is perhaps an even greater worry for progressives, replete as it is with dangerous wishful thinking and copious miscalculation.

Some put their faith in the Mueller investigation, assuming that Mike Pence would be kinder to them as president. Others are hold-ing their breath until 2020, refusing to consider the possibility of a second term. What they all fail to grasp is the very real tectonic shifts underpinning Trump’s uncouth antics.

The Trump administration is building up a substantial economic momentum domestically. First, he passed income and corporate tax cuts that the establishment Republicans could not have imagined even in their wildest dreams a few years ago. But this was not all. Behind the scenes, Trump astonished Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat’s leader in the House of Representatives, by approving every single social program that she asked of him. As a result, the federal gov-ernment is running the largest budget deficit in America’s history when the rate of unemployment is less than 4%.

Whatever one thinks of this president, he is giving money away not only to the richest, who of course get the most, but also to many poor people. With demonstrably strong employment, especially among African American workers, inflation under control and the stock market still buoyant, Donald Trump has his home front covered as he travels to foreign lands to confront friends and foes.

The U.S. anti-Trump establishment prays that markets will pun-ish his profligacy. This is precisely what would have happened if America were any other country. With a fiscal deficit expected to reach $804bn 2018 and $981bn in 2019, and with the government expected to borrow $2.34tn in the next 18 months, the exchange rate would be crashing and interest rates would be going through the roof. Except that the US. .is not any other country.

As its central bank, the Fed, winds down its quantitative easing program by selling off its stock of accumulated assets to the private sector, investors need dollars to buy them. This causes the number of dollars available to investors to shrink by up to $50bn a month. Add to this the dollars German and Chinese capitalists need to buy US government bonds (in a bid to park their profits somewhere safe) and you begin to see why Trump believes he will not be punished by a run either on the dollar or on government bonds.

Armed with the exorbitant privilege that owning the dollar presses affords him, Trump then takes a look at the trade flows with the rest of the G7 and comes to an inescapable conclusion: he can-not possibly lose a trade war against countries that have such high surpluses with the U.S. (eg Germany, Italy, China), or which (like Canada) will catch pneumonia the moment the American economy catches the common cold.

None of this is new. Richard Nixon also confronted Europe’s establishment in 1971 while Ronald Reagan brutally squeezed the Japanese in 1985. Even the language was not less uncivilized – recall the summary of the Nixon administration’s attitude in the inimitable words of John Connally: “My philosophy is that all foreigners are out to screw us, and it’s our job to screw them first.” Today’s U.S. aggression toward its allies is distinguished from those episodes in two ways.

First, since the 2008 collapse of Wall Street, and despite the subsequent re-floating of the financial sector, Wall Street and the U.S. domestic economy can no longer do what they were doing before 2008: that is, absorb the net exports of European and Asian factories through a trade surplus financed by an equivalent influx of U.S.-bound foreign profits. This failure is the underlying cause of the current global economic and political instability.

Second, unlike in the 1970s, Europe’s decade of mishandling the euro crisis has seen to it that the Franco-German establishment is now disunited and on the run – with xenophobic, anti-European nationalists taking over governments.

Trump takes one look at all this and concludes that, if the U.S. can no longer stabilize global capitalism, he might as well blow up existing multilateral conventions and build from scratch a new global order resembling a wheel, with America its hub and all other powers its spokes – an arrangement of bilateral deals that ensures the U.S. will always be the largest partner in each, and thus be able to exact a pound of flesh through divide and rule tactics.

Can the EU create a “Europe First” anti-Trump alliance, perhaps involving China? The answer has been given already, following Trump’s annulment of the Iran nuclear deal. Within minutes of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s statement that European companies would stay in Iran, every single German corporation announced it was pulling out, prioritizing the fat tax cuts Trump was offering them within the United States.

In conclusion, we have good reason to be appalled by Trump: he is winning against a European establishment that wallows in perfect ignorance of the forces undermining it and paving the ground for appalling developments. The onus falls on progressives in continental Europe, in the UK, and in the United States, to put on the agenda an Internationalist New Deal – and to win elections campaigning on it.

In my rare optimistic moments, I imagine an alliance of Bernie Sanders, Jeremy Corbyn and our Democracy in Europe Movement, DiEM25, giving the Nationalist International led by Trump a run for its money. A few years ago, a Trump triumph in the US, Europe and beyond sounded even more farfetched than this. It is worth a try.

(Source: The Guardian)

By Yanis Varoufakis

By Daniel L. Byman

7I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

By Lucrezia Reichlin

By Hanif Ghafari

JULY 25, 2018 ANALYSIS & INTERVIEW

1 I was always happy to express what I was learning about Iran to non Iranians, and especially to Koreans. It was a great pleasure to me.

The Chinese novelist, Yu Hua, says in his book, “To Live”: A man gets to live simply, and learn, not for anything else. Five years in Iran was getting to know the unknown world. A powerful enthusiasm to get to know Iranian society has been the primary motivation in my life so far. Although I am going back to Korea soon, I will keep in touch with Iran. Lastly, I must express my deep gratitude for Iranian hospitality.

Sepas Gozaram. Salamat Bashid!

Learning about Iran: A supreme pleasure

Italy’s challenge to the EU over immigration has forced “core” member states such as Germany to begin considering negotiated solutions to the problem.

TEHRAN — In recent days, Western analysts have analyzed and evaluated various aspects of the tensions and challenges among NATO members. The majority of NATO members are European countries. Countries that are furious about the behavior of the White House due to issues such as the imposition of tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, and the withdrawal of Trump from a nuclear deal with Iran. However, some Western media believe the US-EU security relationship remains strong. Relations that have a meaningful, more meaningful meaning in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The concerns of the European leaders about the recent meeting between Putin and Tramp and the possibility of security bouts be-tween the two US and Russian presidents is another issue that has been addressed in this regard. POLITICO, in a paper by Thomas Voltask, examines the relationship between the US, Russia and the European members of NATO.

As Politico reported, So far, the defense-centered core of the Western alliance has proven strikingly sturdy, even as U.S.-European collaboration has collapsed on other is-sues, such as climate change, trade and Iran. The Trump administration pleasantly surprised many across the Atlantic by nearly doubling the Obama-era program to fund U.S. military presence in Europe. Almost 1,000 Americans in uniform are now deployed in Poland. By most accounts, the alliance’s ability to discourage Moscow from testing NATO’s resolve has never been better.

But not all is well. For the past decade, U.S. officials have been warning the Europeans to start spending more on their own defense. The U.S. now spends $3 for each $1 that the remaining 28 European members plus Canada spend together. This prompted the former American secretary of defense, Robert Gates, to warn back in 2011 that when Congress wakes up to that reality, NATO will face a “dim if not dismal future.”

This crisis, however, was on its way to a resolution of sorts in recent years. Europe is now the region with the fastest growing real-term defense spending, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. The countries of Central and Northern Europe in particular were spooked by Russia’s aggression into raising budgets

as much as 40 percent year-on-year. Not all allies will be spending 2 percent of their GDP on defense, as agreed in 2014, but then again all governments have a habit of making promises they do not intend to keep. This one has actually proven more consequential than other such “commitments” made in the past — most notably on development aid and climate change.

Of course, none of this is guaranteed to make a difference to the White House. Trump brings two new uncertainties into NATO politics. He doesn’t appear to share Europe’s sense of urgency on keeping Russia in check through a significant allied military presence. And even if he did, it’s unlikely that he would consider it to be America’s problem.

The president has said on a number of occasions that he considers all alliances a burden on the United States — it’s a position he’s held unaltered for decades. That raises the possibility that the debate on defense spending is a red

herring. In the end, it may not matter whether the allies carry their weight in NATO or not. That would put Europe in somewhat of a lose-lose situation.

The Polish government, probably suspecting as much, has floated an interesting proposal: In addition to spending 2 percent on defense, which it already does, it has offered to pay as much as $2 billion to cover the cost of stationing U.S. forces there. In effect, they have turned the tables on the U.S. president, taking the thorny issue of money out of the equation and testing Trump’s commitment to European stability itself.

The reality is that the crises facing the United States and NATO members will not end soon. At least until the arrival of Trump at the White House, these concerns will remain. On the other hand, the foreseeable future of the president of the United States will face Western actors with serious dilemmas.

NATO is worried about Trump!

After less than two months in office, Italy’s populist government has hit the ground running, by cracking down on immigration and launching an attack on the country’s independent civil service. With European Parliament elections approaching next year, what happens in Italy is unlikely to stay in Italy.

It has been less than two months since the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) and the right-wing League party formed a new Italian government, so it is too early to tell how the coalition will translate its campaign rhetoric into concrete policies. In fact, the coalition’s internal contradictions might limit the scope of its legislative action, or even bring about its downfall – possibly even before the European Parliament elections in May 2019.

That said, it is not too early to see what the Italian government’s anti-European posture will mean for Europe. For European Union leaders watching from Brussels, the political dynamic that the M5S/League coalition has set in motion could prove far more consequential than any specific policy initiatives.

The M5S/League coalition is the first instance of an overtly anti-EU government coming to power in one of the bloc’s found-ing member states. Although its radicalism is partly a response to the Italian economy’s dismal performance over the past two decades, a similar brand of anti-establishment politics has taken root in European countries that have fared better. Far from being an outlier, Italy could be a harbinger of what awaits many other countries, especially after the EU elections.

Italy’s new government has wasted no time taking a hard line on immigration. Matteo Salvini, the League leader and current interior minister, has castigated the EU for leaving Italy on its own to deal with incoming asylum seekers. Salvini’s rhetoric is often racist and inflammatory, but he has a point when he argues that the refugee crisis demands a collective solution. The EU’s highly visible failure on this issue has played directly into its critics’ hands.

So far, Italy’s challenge to the EU over immigration has forced “core” member states such as Germany to begin considering ne-gotiated solutions to the problem. But a truly viable cooperative approach still seems a long way off.

That means governments that sympathize with Salvini’s position will most likely continue to pursue unilateral policies, possibly jeopardizing the Schengen system of passport-free travel with-in most of the EU. Destroying this foundational EU institution might not be Salvini’s stated goal, but he is clearly taking things in that direction.

Meanwhile, on the economic-policy front, the new Italian gov-ernment has introduced its “decreto dignita” (“law for dignity”), which will reverse some of the labor-market reforms enacted by former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s center-left government. Specifically, the legislation will make it more difficult for firms to

fire permanent-contract workers, or to employ workers on temporary contracts over the long term.

A technical analysis conducted by the state National Insurance Agen-cy predicts that the new law will lead to an overall decrease in employment, and that this will nega-tively affect the national budget. In response to these findings, the gov-ernment has threatened to fire the NIA’s president.

The M5S/League government’s attack on the independence of the civil service offers a taste of what is to come. A broader conflict within the coalition is already playing out over how to reconcile left- and right-wing economic-policy agendas within the constraints of EU fiscal rules – which the current finance minister, Giovanni Tria, says he wants to uphold. This conflict could come to a head if the coalition moves forward with its proposals for a guaranteed-income scheme, pension reforms, and tax cuts. Although the government’s immediate objectives center on domestic matters, its policies could have profound implications for the EU generally. As we have already seen in the case of refugee policy, the government will most likely adopt a confrontational position toward the EU whenever it can. After all, challenging the EU plays well with both the M5S and League electoral bases, and other governments – not least those of Hun-gary and Poland – have already demonstrated the effectiveness of scapegoating Brussels for domestic failures.

But what is the end game? On the one hand, the Italian govern-ment’s aggressive attitude could be interpreted as a negotiating tactic vis-à-vis the EU; on the other, it could be a political strategy for the upcoming EU elections. Like resurgent nationalist parties in other member states, the M5S/League may be trying to push the EU toward a looser federation in which key policy prerogatives are transferred back to national governments.

But for eurozone countries, this outcome would lead to more instability. In the absence of aligned budgetary policies and com-mon rules, a common currency is simply not sustainable. Though M5S and League leaders are not calling for a withdrawal from the eurozone, much less the EU, their ostensibly domestic agenda is bound to damage the bloc’s foundations.

The EU must brace itself. We are about to see the damage that can be done when a major member state pursues a program of EU antagonism. Italy is showing that without progress toward “ever closer union,” a quiet disintegration could be in the offing.

(Source: Project - Syndicate)

Italy’s turn against Europe

President Trump, unlike previous US administrations, is challenging the

European Union as an economic and political umbrella for the countries of

Europe, and is undermining unity in words, and with action.

1 On the Europeans’ reaction to cur-rent developments, she said, “Chancellor Merkel has put forward her determination to strengthen the European Union in order to be able to protect European interests better. While the EU might look quite di-vided at this stage - in particular with the United Kingdom on its way out - what has happened over the last two years is that EU members realized the benefits of EU membership even more. If a country of the size and power of the UK is struggling with the prospect of being outside of the EU, how much more difficult would it be for smaller EU countries? This question has brought EU countries closer togeth-er. The trade dispute with the US for now has had a similar effect. Overall, there is a more volatile European and international environment, but also a determination in Berlin, Paris and other EU capitals to adapt to this environment and to protect Europe-ans from the negative effects, while looking for new opportunities - see, for example, the recent trade agreement with Japan.”

Moller said Donald Trump is seeking to build new alliances.

“In the US, it seems that the consensus within the country that has carried much throughout the 20th century, that is to be involved in shaping the European and inter-national order, is turning somewhat more inward looking. Having said that, the current US president is also looking for new alliances.

However, his recent meetings with North Korean and Russian leaders are judged by their results, which for now have not ma-terialized.”

Emphasizing the necessity of a balanced relation with Russia, she said, “From a Eu-ropean perspective, the problem is perhaps not that Russia is overly powerful, but on the contrary that it might be vulnerable, in par-ticular in economic terms. Having said that, Moscow has quite a bit of spoiling capacity. European geography means that Europeans have an interest in engaging with a Russia that is able to meet its citizens’ needs. Having said that, EU capitals agreed in their deter-mination to condemn Russia’s violation of international law, that is the annexation of Crimea. So it is important to find the right balance between engagement and red lines.”

She concluded, “On the Middle East, Euro-peans with the refugee crisis have experienced the direct impact of their neighboring region being in turmoil. Again, its geography makes Europe exposed, and makes Europeans more responsible than has been acknowledged in the past for what is happening in their neigh-borhood. A changing US engagement will mean once again that Europeans will have to step up - while being aware of the limits of their collective power, there is still room for European foreign policy to work better, and to look for new allies.”

TEHRAN — (FNA) — U.S. President Donald Trump has kicked off trade wars with several countries, placing tariffs on everything from steel to chicken incubators.

Trading partners including China, Canada, the European Union and Mexico are not sitting on their hands. They have hit the U.S. with retaliatory tariffs in a tit-for-tat reaction.

This might look like a limited war in the understanding that Trump is all for free trade. But this view denies the fact that a tectonic shift is taking place in the world. It is a geopolitical war for ascendancy to global leadership; a contest between the U.S. and China, in which the U.S. is losing:

From pulling out of international treaties (Paris climate accord, Iran nuclear deal) to denigrating allies to starting trade wars, the impulsive actions of President Trump are upending the international order that has been in place since the end of World War II – and mostly favored the U.S. and allies.

But even before President Trump’s belligerent foreign policy positions, America had been gradually losing its dominant role in world affairs. A power shift among the nations of the world began after the U.S. and company invaded Afghanistan and Iraq - and failed. It has been accelerating when they decided to invade Syria and Yemen – and failed yet again.

As a consequence, not only do China and Russia contest America’s global role, a growing number of countries like Iran are also asserting an independent and increasingly influential role in regional economic and security develop-ments. These are also the countries that stopped the U.S. and company from turning Iraq, Syria and Yemen into an American proxy caliphate.

Indeed, the power shifts are increasingly visible. In the Middle East, the U.S. hoped for decades to isolate Iran as

a pariah and weaken the country until it fell. Today, that goal is unimaginable, though national security adviser John Bolton continues to imagine it under the influence.

Iran is and will remain an increasingly assertive and influential power in the region, defending and promoting its lawful interests and competing with the Saudi regime which favors sectarianism and American-Israeli dominance-lead-ership. The Russians are in the Middle East region for good, building on their long-standing relationships with Syria and Iran. Turkey, a regional power, also acts increasingly

independent of the preferences of the U.S., its NATO ally, playing its own hand in the regional power game. Qatar and Oman have also troubled the Saudis that have been tasked with performing a part of the United States’ regional designs in the Persian Gulf.

On balance, the U.S. helped unleash these trends with the strategically fatal invasion of Iraq in 2003. The U.S. occupation and failure to create a proxy state in Iraq was followed by subsequent U.S. efforts to stir regional religious and political conflicts – including aiding and abetting ISIL and Al-Qaeda - to influence current trends in the region which all proved ineffective, as the continually ineffective policies in Syria show.

So this is not just China the U.S. is no longer able to contain. The U.S. cannot contain the rise of Russia and Iran either. The countries assert their own legitimate interests and roles in the region, like any other great power. They are consciously and actively re-balancing the power of the United States with great success, and they are doing it for regional peace and stability, not for dominance and certainly not for permanent war and occupation that benefits no one.

America is losing because Trump’s “America First” foreign policy is based on the view that the U.S. needs to defend its interests by acting alone, eschewing or withdrawing from multilateral arrangements for trade, economics, diplomacy or security. In response, allies distance themselves from the United States, while others are emboldened to act in an equally nationalistic and assertive way.

Like it or not, Trump’s America must learn the new rules and play differently in this new balance-of-power world, where others have legitimate interests and policies the U.S. does not and cannot undermine or control.

Trump is looking for new alliances: Almut Moller

The U.S. and the new balance of power in the world

JULY 25, 20188I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

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I N T E R V I E WJULY 25, 2018

1 One of the main achievements of the international drug control system at the global level is that drug misuse in the world, more or less, is kept in the focus. It is not at the epidemic level. It means that about five percent of the world population between ages 15 to 64 have experienced drug misuse or abuse. The majority of population has no drug and substance misuse or and have not experienced psychotropic substances. This is to promote UN conventions and gov-ernmental assistance on how to deal with drugs. The logic of the work of UN is related to the application of legal provisions at the national legislative level. For example, UN conventions, both the articles and the logic of drug control of its national legislation is everywhere. It means the legal field is equal in every country. This is the solid foundation on how to manage drug trafficking and drug control. Drug control includes the monitor-ing of illicit drugs allowed for medical use in medical facilities, and how to seal with illicit drug trafficking. This involves security and law enforcement, to catch someone who has been involved in drug abuse, and then treatment for them. This is an additional cost for governments and societies. Drug trafficking has become a global threat. Ex-perts and researchers say that if we invest in preventive programs, much money is saved. Treatment is far more costly, but we have to do prevention also.

There are three levels of prevention. The first level addresses schools, the second for other young populations and the third on other people in societies. These programs reflected in the UN conventions.

Iran is part of all three UN conventions. All three conventions have been signed by Iran and Iran is one of the active participants for the review and implementation of the program. It is why the government of Iran created a drug control headquarters. This is the national focal point and responsible institution. This department is related to drug prevention and drug treatment even with associated HIV consequences. They have four security sectors to fight against the supply of drugs and they manage and coordinate work with anti-narcotic police, border customs, other security, because everything in is in line with UN conventions. It is almost the same system everywhere in the world. It means there are partners cooperating and communicating with one another to tackle organized crime groups which are not dependent on passports or citizenship. They communicate with each other very easily through telephones and other means at the regional and global levels.

In some countries the drugs abuse and prevention methods are very well developed and in some countries they are not. We need to know how to manage that, and that is why UNODC was created under the secretary

general to help every country adopt and im-plement the conventions in their legislations under the umbrella of the United Nations.

That is why I am here. We support the Iranian government and bring expertise, knowledge and technique to the fight here, and in neighboring countries. UNODC has offices in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere in central Asia.

We work through the country partnership program signed by the government of Iran and UNODC. We also have four sub-programs dealing with reduction of drug demand, se-curity and law enforcement development, criminal justice, anti-corruption and and even sustainable development.

Sometimes governments say that we don’t

understand what happens in some regions in some countries, and how to manage. We try to solve these issues, too. Every year the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes publishes and launches the world drug report. The executive director of UNODC, Mr. Yury Fedotov has introduced the annual world drug report for 2018 with descriptions of what has happened with drug demand and supply and drug market prices. This year we also have a special publication on women and drugs. Women are a very vulnerable group. This document is based on data provided by every government, members of the UN conventions, members of the UNODC. This made possible analysis and publication of this drug report. Every government can re-fer to it, and access is free on the Internet. It is offered in Russian, Chinese, English, French, Arabic and Spanish.

Now about our region: One of the countries in the region is Af-

ghanistan. It’s the prime source country for

opium. Opium is used for processing mor-phine and heroin. Cannabis, another source drug, is used in the production marijuana, hashish and hashish oil in that order. Both crops are grown in Afghanistan. From can-nabis the end product is hashish and from opium the end product is heroin. These drugs can be smoked, eaten or injected.

Drugs are not harmful in nature and were used initially for medical purposes to reduce pain. If drugs are used properly, they won’t be harmful.

For example, as a pain killer, morphine is the first substance chosen as a pain killer for oncological treatment. All regulations through the UN conventions should be in place not to stop it but to guarantee that

people can get morphine when they need it like morphine, but not allow anyone to misuse it. That is the responsibility of every government. Governments should provide access to painkillers. Our role is to promote awareness and support civil societies and help them with such issues.

How has Iran played a role as a member of UNODC in drug seizures?

A. Almost 80 percent of opium seizures are by Iranian authorities and that is not because of the UN system. It is the work of the Iranian government because Iran is on the path of trafficking from Afghanistan to Europe. Europe is the biggest market for illicit drugs. For example, in 2017, Iran had a seizure of over 600 tons of opium, the biggest seizure in the world. The government has invested resources to stop drug trafficking that comes from Afghanistan to European countries. Iran is absolutely aligned with UN conventions with its own legislation and is a very active participant in drug control at the international level. But at the same time, Iran has a high number of drug addicted people, because of drugs coming to the country.

What is the role of your office in general and in particular in Iran?

A. Everything that is done through the UNODC on corruption, drugs and organized crime is based on work done by the Iranian government. We never evaluate who is having a more effective or less effective participa-tory role. We are not entitled to make such assessments. What we do is to support the ratification and implementation, when a government wants to do something.

In our office, we understand the situa-tion and communicate with authorities in Iran. We understand that expertise in drug prevention resides with our colleagues. We assist the minister of health to manage this issue and offer support. The government of Iran has been quite successful with the establishment of drop-in centers to help drug addicts. There are 200 such centers across Iran. There are a number of NGOs in Iran that also help with vulnerable groups and their programs are supported by the gov-ernment, but they need knowledge, exper-tise, and consultants. It is our role to assist Iranian experts, to cover their expenses, to send people to other countries to study and get training.

Additionally, we support the law en-forcement sector. For example, this year, we conducted training sessions for anti-nar-cotic police in cooperation with the Italian government and provided funds for that. We bought sniffing dogs from the Nether-lands for customs and border guards. For customs, you need to search and dogs are very effective. We invited foreign instructors and experts from the Netherlands and had long sessions on how to handle and treat dogs. These dogs have to be replaced every six years or so as they get old, plus they live in harsh conditions and are under pressure. Overall their life span is about 8 to 10 years and they should be very well trained.

We also provided X-ray machines as they

are used by law enforcement. We did pro-curement recently and some of the x-ray machines were replaced in some border areas in Iran.

Drug detection equipment was also given to Iranian anti-narcotic police. Detection of hidden drugs in vehicles, boats, airplanes, and people is thereby enhanced. There is intelligence exchange between law enforce-ment in various countries. At the UNODC, we help with that. We bring officers to another country and allow them to discuss what can be done.

Seized drugs are supposed to be analyzed at forensic labs: What kind of substance, what is the volume, what is the purity of the drug, is the drug mixed with sugar, salt or something else. Forensic lab exists in Iran and other countries, but they have to im-prove their skills.

How to do it? We need to support the professional development of forensic police staff. In Iran, for example, we must exercise

collaboration at the international level. Iran is a member of this program to check the level of proficiency of the forensic staff of the police. The UNODC will test drugs. We do not substitute for Iranian law enforcement, but we support their work in line with UN conventions. Iranian authorities count on our abilities.

Partnership is based on decisions made at the annual gathering at the UN headquar-ter office in Vienna. This is the collective instrument for addressing drug control methods. We provide consultation for the local-self-government or institution and steering poor people into work that is not drug related. For example, three or more farmers can unite and grow beans and

crops or organic crops instead of opium, and the government could support them by purchasing their products. This is an alternative development to overcome un-employment. This is the road to help people stay away from criminal activities, to give them alternatives.

Also some prisoners are given useful work while in prison or they may have knowledge or skills that can be put to use. So after impris-onment they have skills to have a profession. We like to support the Iranian government with this alternative development model, even though the model has not been tried out seriously in Iran so far.

Have you met with Iranian officials about the illegal drug and ways to prevent entry to Iran?

A. I met with Mr. Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian Foreign Minister. He told me that drug control and drug demand reduc-tion must be the key work of UNODC. I also met with the heads of anti-narcotic police, heads of cyber police ... We also coordinate plans to avoid duplicating an activity with other UN agencies in the country. The role of government is to coordinate our assis-tance in order to prevent duplication. For example, instead of buying two cars, we could buy five cars through different UN agencies. Activities should be coordinated at least at the governmental level to avoid duplication. I will tell you that more than 730 tons of drugs were seized by Iranian authorities last year.

And of course, we understand that in some cases we do not need to teach Iranian au-thorities what to do. They know it already.

The UNODC also assists member states with the prevention of HIV/AIDS and treat-ment facilities. How has your agency coop-erated with Iran in that area?

A. First of all, there is the governmental level and the provincial level of this work. What we did was, just as an example, we gathered trained staff from all over Iran, from Shiraz, Yazd, Tabriz, and Mashhad, all in the same room. We invited instructors who shared how to manage treatment and prevention. We even issued certificates for the participants. We tried to improve their skills. These people went back to their provinces, and they will be trainers for others. They will train their staff and their colleagues.

Also one of the mandates is drop-in centers is for people with HIV and AIDS, where peo-ple can get tested for HIV free of charge.

There is also an awareness and preventive programs at the UNODC for people to say NO to drugs when encountering peer pres-sure. Gender is also another issue here. It is harder for women to seek help with drug addiction than for men.

Q. What measures have been taken to compensate for Iranian sacrifices in the bat-tle against drug trafficking as some 4,000

Iranians have been killed in the war against drug smugglers?

A. Well, first of all, I have to say that po-lice officers unfortunately can get injured and killed in many countries in the line of duty. I cannot say, the life of police officer in country A is any less valuable than the one in country B. The UNODC recognizes that Iran faces serious costs in the fight against drug trafficking. This is one cost of protection and security, unfortunately. But the role of Iran is well recognized by the international com-munity. Governments recognize that Iran is not the source country, but a transit country, and Iran pays the biggest price in the fight against drugs, and that’s why the UNODC supports the Iranian government.

Iran pays the biggest price in the fight against drugs: UNODC

Alex Fedulov confirms that the role of Iran in the fight against drug trafficking is well recognized by the international community.

In 2019, UN Special General Assembly Session will adopt a new world drug problem document which will describe what to do with drugs and

how to stop drug trafficking in the next ten years.

Drug trafficking has become a global

threat.

Almost 80 percent of opium seizures are by Iranian authorities and that is not because of the

UN system.

The government of Iran has been quite successful with the establishment of

200 drop-in centers to help drug addicts across Iran.

UNODC helps with intelligence exchange between law enforcement in various

countries.

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

T E C H N O L O G Y JULY 25, 2018

TECHNOLOGYd e s k

TECHNOLOGYd e s k

Iranian universities to make cubeSats

What is burn rate?

Intl. congress to study role of ICT on women’s competency development

A checklist for your startup

TEHRAN — An inter-national congress will

be held on July 29 on the role of infor-mation and communication technology (ICT) in competency development of women, Mehr reported.

The event will be held on the side-lines of the 24th Iran International Exhibition of Electronics, Computer & E-commerce (ELECOMP 2018), which will be held from July 28 to 31 in Tehran.

The role of governments in empow-ering women through ICT and different aspects of women empowerment are some panels, which will be held during the event.

Providing gender equality and boosting cooperation in the field of women empowerment through ICT is amongst the aims of the congress.

The event is organized by the vice presidency for women and family affairs and the Information and Communi-cations Technology Ministry.

ELECOMP is the biggest event in the Iranian electronics and comput-er market. Since its first edition in 1995, the event has been providing a unique opportunity for businesses to increase their share of this huge and ever-growing market, according to ELECOMP website.

Why do so many new businesses fail? Maybe it’s because too many would-be entrepreneurs concentrate on the wrong issues before the actual startup happens.

The pre-startup checklist requires one to undergo a process of self-evaluation that will help answer the question, ‘Am I prepared to start a business?’ If more people considered the following four issues, there would likely be a higher success rate in future startups.

Open a business bank accountIt’s all too easy to use your personal

bank account to pay for business expenses, but it becomes a gnarl to untangle later.

Opening a business bank account for your

new endeavor doesn’t just serve to legitimize your business idea and make you a “real” business. It’s also a vital consideration for your taxes, according to tax and business attorney Barbara Weltman. Besides making it harder to keep track of what to report as income and expenses, by not separating busi-ness and personal finances, you could be costing yourself--and your business--money by not taking advantage of items that can be designated as write-offs.

A business bank account allows you to easily keep track of expenses, manage employee pay, convey finances to investors, receive and deposit payment, and plan your budget more accurately.

TEHRAN — Three Iranian universities

have been working on manufacturing cubeSats for three months, the head of the Iranian Space Agency (ISA) announced in a meeting on Monday.

Morteza Barari did not mention the name of universities but said that the ISA has signed three separate agree-ments with the universities.

CubeSats are miniature satellites that have been used exclusively in low Earth orbit for 15 years, and are now being used for interplanetary missions as well. There are commonly used in low Earth orbit for applications such as remote sensing or communications.

The universities has a great role in development of space industry and space ecosystem in Iran, he said.

He pointed to the important role of Iran in joint projects by Asia-Pacif-ic Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), APSCO projects like Small Student Satellite (SSS) in recent years.

During the event, he emphasized the need to pay more attention to the important role of space industry in management and controlling of nat-ural disasters.

“Drought and dust as well as wa-ter management are some of natural disasters, which can be controlled by remote sensing satellites,” he said.

Burn rate is normally used to describe the rate at which a new company is spending its venture capital to finance overhead be-fore generating positive cash flow from operations; it is a measure of negative cash flow. Burn rate is usually quoted in terms of cash spent per month. For example, a burn rate of $1 million would mean a company is spending $1 million per month.

The burn rate is used by startup com-panies and investors to track the amount of monthly cash that a company spends. A company’s burn rate is also used as a measuring stick for its runway, the amount of time the company has before it runs out of money. So, if a company has $1 million in

the bank, and it spends $100,000 a month, its burn rate would be $100,000 and its runway would be 10 months, derived as: ($1,000,000) / ($100,000) = 10.

There are two types of burn rates: net burn and gross burn. A company’s gross burn is the total amount of operating costs it incurs in expenses each month. A company’s net burn is the total amount of money a company loses each month.

So, if a technology startup spends $5,000 monthly on office space, $10,000 on monthly server costs and $15,000 on salaries and wages for its engineers, its gross burn rate would be $30,000.

(Source: investopedia.com)

TECHNOLOGYd e s k

TECHNOLOGYd e s k

1 Regarding the sub-items, the country got 0.6319 score in the online service index (OSI), 0.4566 in the telecommunication infrastructure index (TII), and 0.7364 in the human capital index (HCI) this year.

Iran was amongst 17 countries that transitioned from Middle- to High-EGDI level group.

On his Twitter account, Iran’s ICT minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi pointed to moving up of Iran’s ranking on EGDI 2018.

“It is planned to move up 30 points during sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (March 2021) and this moving is notable,” he wrote.

While European countries contribute 70 per cent in the group of 62 countries with Very-High EPI levels. Asia follows with the largest proportion of 36 percent in the same Very High-EPI level group while comprising 24

percent of the 193 Member States.Denmark, Australia and South Korea are on top

list, scoring a very high ranking in e-government development amongst 193 countries that were evaluated.

The EGDI, which assesses e-government development at the national level, is a composite index based on the weighted average of three normalized indices. One-third is derived from a Telecommunications Infrastructure Index (TII) based on data provided by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), one-third from a

Human Capital Index (HCI) based on data provided by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and one-third from the Online Service Index (OSI) based on data collected from an independent survey questionnaire, conducted by UNDESA, which assesses the national online presence of all 193 United Nations Member States.

Internet safety checklist for teensAs your child becomes a teenager, it’s likely the internet will be a part of their daily life. They’ll adapt quickly to new technology and use it to communicate, socialise and create. Most teenagers have access to the internet using a smartphone or tablet, and use a wide range of social networking sites as a vital part of their relationships with others.

Stay involved

Keep talking and stay interested in what they’re doing. Don’t be afraid to bring up challenging issues like sexting, pornogra-phy and cyberbullying. It could be embarrassing, but you’ll both benefit from the subjects being out in the open.

Keep their information privateYour child can set privacy settings on most social networking

sites so that only close friends can search for them, tag them in a photograph or share what they’ve posted.

Stay safe on the moveUse safe settings on all mobile devices but be aware that if

your child is accessing the internet using public WiFi, filters to block inappropriate content may not be active. Some outlets, like McDonald’s, are part of family friendly WiFi schemes so look out for Mumsnet Family Friendly WiFi and RDI Friendly WiFi symbols when you’re out and about.

Be responsibleTalk to your teenager about being responsible when they’re

online. Children often feel they can say things online that they wouldn’t say face-to-face. Teach them to always have respect for themselves and others online.

Adjust controlsDiscuss with them adjusting your parental controls to match

your teenager’s level of maturity. Have a chat about it first – don’t turn them off completely without careful consideration and discussion.

Show you trust themIf you can afford to, give them a small allowance that they can

use for spending online so they can download apps, music and films for themselves, from places you agree together.

Don’t give inRemind them how important it is not to give in to peer pressure

to send inappropriate comments or images. Point them to the Send this instead and Zipit apps which will help them deal with these types of requests.

(Source: internetmatters.org)

Iran develops new pharmaceutical technology

TEHRAN — Iran has developed 13 methods of pharmaceutical technology in less than one

year, secretary of Biotech Development Center (BioDC) at Science and Technology Vice-Presidency announced.

Mostafa Qanei said that over 40 graduated pharmacists are now active in the acceleration centers in the field of pharmaceutical industry and have great achievement in this field.

“Through research and study, Iran faces great achievements in all scientific fields,” he said.

He also pointed out to Iran’s achievements in production of biotechnology medicines saying that government should support startups active in this field.

On Sunday, the vice president for science and technology Sourena Sattari announced that Iranian startups meet 98 per-cent of the domestic market’s need to biotechnology medicine.

Iran to rank healthy agricultural products

TEHRAN — The Biotechnology Development Council of science and technology vice pres-

idency plans to rank healthy agricultural products through 12 stages, Tasnim reported.

The project is entitled Healthy Product Network, which is known by the Persian acronym “SHAMS” and has already 150 members.

The products are evaluated by different licenses that they can obtained through different stages of testing.

Different signs like ISO and Institute of Standards & Indus-trial Research of Iran can introduce products to the costumers.

According to World Economic Forum, the agricultural sector presents key opportunities for improving nutrition and health. But this connection is often not given due attention, despite parallel initiatives across the three sectors.

The potential impacts of agricultural activities on health and nutrition extend across a number of channels. One area of impact is household ability to produce, purchase and consume more, better and cheaper food.

Iran moves up in UN E-Government Development Index

10

SOCIALLY SAFE

According to the UN data, Iran’s EGDI value was 0.6083 this year. Iran was amongst 17 countries that transitioned

from Middle- to High-EGDI level group.

When carbon dioxide is absorbed by seawater carbonic acid is formed, making the water more acidic. Since the Industrial Revolution, oceanic CO2 has risen by 43% and is predicted to be two and a half times current levels by the end of this century.

Fish use their sense of smell (olfaction) to find food, safe habitats, avoid predators, rec-ognize each other and find suitable spawning grounds. A reduction in their ability to smell therefore can compromise these essential functions for their survival.

The new study provides evidence that economically important species will be affected by elevated CO2, leaving fish vul-nerable because it affects their ability to detect odors.

University of Exeter researcher Dr. Co-sima Porteus, who led the study, said: “Our study is the first to examine the impact of rising carbon dioxide in the ocean on the olfactory system of fish. First we compared the behavior of juvenile sea bass at CO2 lev-els typical of today’s ocean conditions, and those predicted for the end of the century. Sea bass in acidic waters swam less and were less likely to respond when they encountered the smell of a predator.

Detecting different smellsExperts at the University of Exeter, in

collaboration with scientists from the Center of Marine Sciences (CCMar, Faro, Portugal) and the Center for Environment, Fisheries

and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), also test-ed the ability of the sea bass’ nose to detect

different smells. They did this by recording the activity in the nervous system while their

nose was exposed to water with different levels of CO2 and acidity.

Dr. Porteus added: The “sense of smell of sea bass was reduced by up to half in sea water that was acidified with a level of CO2 predicted for the end of the century. Their ability to detect and respond to some odors associated with food and threatening situ-ations was more strongly affected than for other odors. We think this is explained by acidified water affecting how odorant mole-cules bind to olfactory receptors in the fish’s nose, reducing how well they can distinguish these important stimuli.

The elevated CO2 and acidityScientists also studied how the elevated

CO2 and acidity in the water affected the genes being expressed in the nose and brain of sea bass and found evidence for altered ex-pression of many of those involved in sensing smells and processing of this information.

Although only sea bass were used in the study, the processes involved in the sense of smell are common to many aquatic species and therefore the findings should apply very broadly.

Dr. Porteus said: “I wanted to examine if fish had any ability to compensate for this reduced sense of smell, but found that instead of increasing the expression of genes for smell receptors in their nose they did the opposite, exacerbating the problem.”

(Source: Science Daily)

S C I E N C EJULY 25, 2018 11I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Researchers at Tufts University School of Engineering have developed magnetic elastomeric composites that move in dif-ferent ways when exposed to light, raising the possibility that these materials could enable a wide range of products that per-form simple to complex movements, from tiny engines and valves to solar arrays that bend toward the sunlight.

In biology, there are many examples where light induces movement or change — think of flowers and leaves turning toward sunlight. The light actuated materials created in this study are based on the principle of the Curie temperature — the temperature above which certain materials will change their magnetic properties.

By heating and cooling a magnetic ma-terial, one can turn its magnetism off and on. Biopolymers and elastomers doped with ferromagnetic CrO2 will heat up when ex-posed to laser or sunlight, temporarily losing their magnetic properties until they cool down again. The basic movements of the material, shaped into films, sponges, and hydrogels, are induced by nearby perma-nent or electromagnets and can exhibit as bending, twisting, and expansion.

These simple movements“We could combine these simple move-

ments into more complex motion, like crawl-ing, walking, or swimming,” said Fiorenzo Omenetto, Ph.D., corresponding author of the study and the Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering at Tufts. “And these movements can be trig-gered and controlled wirelessly, using light.”

“One of the advantages of these materials is that we can selectively activate portions of a structure and control them using lo-calized or focused light,” said Meng Li, the first author of the paper, “And unlike other light actuated materials based on liquid crystals, these materials can be fashioned to move either toward, or away from the direction of the light.

To demonstrate this versatility, the researchers constructed a simple “Curie engine”. A light actuated film was shaped into a ring and mounted on a needle post.

Placed near a permanent magnet, when a laser was focused onto a fixed spot on the ring, it locally demagnetizes that portion of the ring, creating an unbalanced net force that causes the ring to turn. As it turns, the demagnetized spot regains its mag-netization and a new spot is illuminated and demagnetized, causing the engine to continuously rotate.

Materials used to create the light actuat-ed materials include polydimethylsoloxane (PDMS), which is a widely used transparent elastomer often shaped into flexible films, and silk fibroin, which is a versatile bio-compatible material with excellent optical properties that can be shaped into a wide range of forms — from films to gels, threads, blocks and sponges.

“With additional material patterning, light patterning and magnetic field control, we could theoretically achieve even more complicated and fine-tuned movements, such as folding and unfolding, microfluidic valve switching, micro and nano-sized en-gines and more,” said Omenetto.

(Source: phys.org)

Scientists develop new materials that move in response to light

Dreaming is one of the strangest things that happens to us, and for as long as we have been recording history, we have been puzzling over why our minds are so active while we sleep.

Finally, new research claims to have evidence as to what dreaming is all about - and it will probably surprise no one.

According to a team from The Swansea University Sleep Lab in the UK, dreaming really does help us process the memories and emotions we experience during our waking lives.

The hypothesis that dreaming was connected to waking life was floated by Sigmund Freud in the early 20th century - he called this phenomenon day residues. Many other studies since have expanded on the notion, indicating that a very real link exists.

But dreams are hard to study, because they take place entirely in the mind of someone unable to communicate in the moment.

Scientists don’t have the tools to ob-serve them directly - at least, not yet - instead having to rely on the dreamer’s memories of their dreams; and, as we all know, that’s not always easy to do.

Emotional intensityThe team’s research, however, seems

to have hit upon a winning formula, finding that the emotional intensity of a waking experience can be linked to the intensity of dreaming brain activity, and the content of the dream thereof.

They recruited 20 student volunteers for the study, all of whom were able to recall their dreams frequently.

First, they had to make detailed journals of their daily lives for 10 days, logging their major daily activities that took up large blocks of time; personally significant and emotional events; and any concerns that may have been on their minds.

For each of these, the participants had to record how it made them feel, and rate the intensity of that emotion using a numbered scale.

On the evening of the 10th day, they spent the first of several nights in the sleep lab being monitored with non-invasive electroencephalography caps. These were able to observe and record the activity of the brain waves associated with slow-wave sleep (large irregular activity, or LIA) and rapid-eye movement sleep (theta activity).

After 10 minutes of each of these sleep cycles, the researchers would wake the students and ask them what they were dreaming (which sounds like a nightmare, if you ask us). These dreams were then compared with the journals to see if there was any sort of correlation.

In addition, dreams that had a high-er emotional impact were more likely to be incorporated into the sleeper’s dreams than boring, humdrum every-day stuff. And these correlations were only observed for recent experiences, too - there was no correlation between older waking life experiences and dream activity.

(Source: sciencealert.com)

Researchers are finally figuring out why we dream

Acidic oceans cause fish to lose their sense of smell, claims new study

Team finds oldest evidence of terrestrial life on a young EarthThe earliest signs of life on a young Earth, around 3.5 billion years ago, have generally come from the ocean in the form of fossilized microbes within ancient rock. Now, scientists working in the Bar-berton Greenstone Belt in South Africa — where some of the oldest rocks on Earth are preserved — find evidence of terrestrial microbial life that they estimate is about 3.22 billion years old.

“This work represents the oldest and least unambiguous work that we have so far that life existed on land already 3.2 billion years ago,” Kurt Konhauser, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at the University of Alberta in Canada who was also not involved in the work, writes in an email to The Scientist.

Researchers have found more fossil evidence of the earliest mi-crobial life in shallow, marine deposits, which supports the dominant theory that before 3 billion years ago, most of the Earth consisted of oceans interspersed with volcanic islands. Evidence for life on land has so far been harder to come by. Part of the reason is that ancient marine rocks appear to be better preserved than terrestrial sediments.

Another issue, according to Martin Homann, a postdoc at the European Institute for Marine Studies (IUEM) in Brest, France, is that very old terrestrial sediments are also difficult to distinguish from marine sediments because so-called index fossils — which help to determine the environment and to date rocks — do not exist from this early period of Earth’s history.

According to the study authors, the previously oldest visible fos-silized remains of microbes on land were about 2.7 billion years old, found in a different location from the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa and also in Australia.

(Source: the-scientist.com)

Monkeys lend clues to how human speech developed, study suggestsResearchers at Rockefeller University studied the macaque monkey brain to find evolutionary links to human communication. The study, published in Neuron on July 12, uncovered parts of the brain of the macaque monkey that could show a common evolu-tionary origin for human and monkey communication abilities.

Winrich Freiwald, whose lab did the research, has studied macaque monkey brains in the past. He found that they have neural networks that are similar to the human networks that help with facial recognition. Previously, scientists have found specific regions of the monkey brain that could be responsible for facial expressions, but they weren’t able to see if those areas were active, and didn’t know if they were being used for communication.

While researchers watched MRI of the monkey’s brains, the monkeys watched videos of other monkeys who were making facial expressions to communicate. To imitate a situation where the monkeys would have been observing social interactions between other animals, in some of the videos, the on-camera monkeys looked off to the side. To show a situation where direct com-munication would be occurring, the monkeys looked directly into the camera.

The monkeys that were being studied only responded when the videotaped monkeys were looking directly into the camera. If the monkey on camera made a friendly gesture, like lip-smacking, the studied monkeys would respond the same way.

The Rockefeller University team thought the facial recognition areas of the brain would be activated and would send the infor-mation to the emotional area of the brain, then to the area of the brain that controls facial expressions. The MRIs showed those areas of the brain were activated, but that wasn’t all they showed.

(Source: Newsweek)

Scientists also studied how the elevated CO2 and acidity in the water affected the

genes being expressed in the nose and brain of sea bass and found evidence

for altered expression of many of those involved in sensing smells and

processing of this information.

Mars Odyssey has been circling the Red Planet since 2001. It broke a record in 2010 for being the longest-serving piece of machinery to work at Mars, and it continues to operate at the Red Planet in good health in mid-2018.

Mars Odyssey has been making discoveries of its own — such as finding extensive water ice under the surface of Mars — but it also plays an important part in the ever-growing network of Martian rovers. It has served as a communications relay for the now-dead Spirit rover and current Opportunity and Curiosity rovers. Odyssey is also expected to assist with the 2020 European-Russian ExoMars rover mission.

Like any aging piece of machinery, Mars Odyssey has its cranky moments. It has entered “safe mode” temporarily several times during its mission, but NASA recovered it every time. In 2018, NASA said it would do its best to extend the missions of older orbiters (such as Mars Odyssey) for as long as possible, because the agency’s funds are focused on putting

together a sample-return mission at the Red Planet.

Mars Odyssey is a part of NASA’s Mars exploration program, which today includes a network of orbiters and rovers around the Red Planet. Members of this group include the Curiosity rover, the Opportunity rover, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission). Europe also has an ExoMars spacecraft called the Trace

Gas Orbiter, and India has a spacecraft called Mars Orbiter Mission.

THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System), which looks at the visible and infrared parts of the spectrum to determine the distribution of minerals on the surface of Mars.

Mars changed over timeGRS (Gamma Ray Spectrometer), which

measures the abundance and distribution of elements. Knowing what elements are at or

near the surface gives detailed information about how Mars has changed over time.

Because Mars Odyssey was launching in 2001, NASA chose to name its orbiter after the book “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which also spawned a movie in 1968 just ahead of the Apollo moon landings that began a year later.

A false-color mosaic focuses on one junction in Noctis Labyrinthus where canyons meet to form a depression 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) deep. Dust (blue tints) lies on the upper surfaces, while rockier material (warmer colors) lies below. The pictures used to create this mosaic image were taken from April 2003 to September 2005 by the Thermal Emission Imaging System instrument on NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter.

A false-color mosaic focuses on one junction in Noctis Labyrinthus where canyons meet to form a depression 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) deep. Dust (blue tints) lies on the upper surfaces, while rockier material (warmer colors) lies below.

(Source: space.com)

Honeybee pheromones safely repel elephants, scientists findAn organic formulation containing honeybee pheromones has been found to safely repel elephants, offering promise for a new strategy to prevent the world’s largest land animals from de-stroying crops or causing other damage in areas where humans conflict with elephants, according to a study.

The scientists placed a blend of pheromones that bees release when they perceive danger in a specialized slow-release matrix at locations around water holes frequented by African bush elephants, Loxodonta africana. The researchers observed that most of the elephants that came near the formulation showed typical signs of increased alertness, signs of uncertainty, and finally calmly moved away, while those approaching control treatments were eager to investigate the foreign object in their environment. The pheromones were dispensed in white socks weighed with rocks hanging from broken tree branches no more than a meter off the ground.

At the park’s Jejane waterhole, 25 of 29 elephants that ap-proached the pheromone-laden socks moved away after getting close enough to smell the formulation. In the same timeframe, control experiments found that all elephants ignored similar looking suspended socks that did not contain the pheromone mix, or they would approach the controls and pick them up, and even try to taste them in some cases.

“Our results complement previous studies that have demon-strated that active bee hives can deter elephants from crops for example but may be difficult to implement on a large scale. We hope to expand this work to develop additional tools for sustainable passive management of elephant movements, to augment the current approaches used, “said Mark G. Wright, the lead author of the study and a professor of entomology at the Department of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Mnoa.

(Source: eurekalert.org)

Mars Odyssey: Record-breaking mission to Mars

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

S O C I E T Y JULY 25, 2018

The wildfire has many harmful effects on animals, including destruction of bird

nests and damages to domestic animals and livestock, such as burning.

TEHRAN — Iran’s Wel-fare Organization has al-

lotted some 6.5 trillion rials (nearly $150 million) to job creation in the current Iranian calendar year (March 2018 to March 2019), the organization director has said.

Female breadwinners, people with disa-bilities, and ex-addicts are the groups who receive coverage from Iran’s Welfare Organi-zation, Anoushirvan Mohseni-Bandpey said, Tasnim news agency reported on Monday.

“In order to create jobs for we will grant

low-interest loans to enterprises,” Mo-hseni-Bandpey explained, highlighting that last year more than 57,000 jobs were generated for those who are under welfare organization coverage and the number will surge dramatically this year.

Iran’s Welfare Organization allots $150m to job creation

TEHRAN — The elderly living in the city of Tehran are twice as many as those

living in the whole country, Tehran district 22 mayor Ali Nozarpour has said.

While in general the elderly constitute 9.27 percent of the population in Tehran they made up 18.7 percent of the city population, YJC quoted Nozarpour as saying on Monday.

He made the remarks over the closing ceremony of a competition designed for increasing vitality among the elderly dubbed “first round of elderly vitality competition”.

“Getting old and decline in physical function should not decrease the elderly participation in cultural activities,” he noted.

Getting involved in sports and recreational activities will rise the elderly spirit, he suggested.

According to Greenbrier Assisted Living website un-fortunately for many older adults, the opportunities for an active social life often decline along with their health and energy. As illness or mobility issues limit what they can do, the risk of isolation increases. Connecting with others who love us and share similar interests is important at any age, but for seniors, whose lifestyles may lessen their so-cial opportunities, these connections are crucial to healthy physical and emotional well-being.

Dangers of IsolationAccording to Diane Reier, Lifestyle Specialist, social

isolation can be dangerous for seniors’ health. “Isolation is more than just feeling lonely,” Reier says. “A

lack of connection with others can lead to poor emotional health, high blood pressure and a decline in physical health. Studies show that older adults who suffer from depression and isolation have a higher mortality rate than those more satisfied with their lives and relationships, making social engagement just as important as other steps to maintain physical and emotional health.”

Benefits of elderly social engagement Socializing can help older adults feel loved and needed

as their lives are affirmed by the activities they do and by those with whom they interact. Being around other people, especially if you’re doing something fun or rewarding, helps the elderly to keep a healthy mental state with a positive outlook on life.

Enjoying the company of others who have similar per-sonalities or interests helps the seniors feel like we belong somewhere. For those who may have lost a spouse or a close friend, the need to belong may be more intense. Engaging with others can cultivate new friendships, and doing some-thing meaningful together creates lasting bonds.

Moreover self-esteem can plummet for those who have trouble doing as much as they use to or are alone too often. The more people socialize or participate in activities with others, the more they benefit by feeling like they contribute

to their community. Any kind of positive interaction with friends, family or neighbors can help the older adults feel confident in themselves and their abilities.

The body release health-promoting chemicals that boost the immune system to ward off illness when we have good conversations or do things we love with others. Besides socializing promotes an active lifestyle and better nutri-tional intake. Seniors who are isolated are more likely to skip meals, whereas those who are socially active often share meals with friends and family.

According to the University of Rochester Medical Center, socializing is key to keeping the brain sharp as we age. Having an active social life encourages us to continue learning, observing and responding to the world around us. Conversation and activity are great for exercising the mind and can potentially lower the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Additionally older adults are less likely to develop hab-its of declining self-care if they’re around others they care about. Socializing creates reasons to stay well and helps foster a positive state of mind.

And lastly socializing would help seniors too feel that their lives have a purpose. Having somewhere to go, some-thing meaningful to do or people to see helps them get out of bed, excited to face the day. When they cultivate strong relationships with others, they gain a sense of fulfillment, and spending quality time with those they love reminds them that life is worthwhile.

Volunteering for local organizations, going to a senior living community for programs, visiting friends or family, or finding a group that focuses on similar interests can held seniors to socialize. No matter how they choose to socialize, research shows that the benefits nurturing relationships are well worth the effort.

‘The elderly in Tehran doubles national average’

Complaining at a RestaurantA: Excuse me, waiter? Waiter!B: Yes, sir? What can I do for you?A: I’ve been sitting here for the past twenty minutes and no one has offered me a glass of water, brought any bread to the table and our appetizers haven’t been served yet! You know, in this kind of establishment, I’d expect much better service.B: I am sorry, sir. I’ll check on your order right away.C: Relax honey, the place is busy tonight, but I’ve heard the food is amazing. Anyway...B: Here you are, sir. The steak for the lady, and a mushroom soup for you.A: Waiter, I ordered a cream of mushroom soup with asparagus. This soup is obviously too runny, and it’s over-seasoned. It’s completely inedible!B: Okay, I do apologize for that. Can I bring you another soup, or would you like to order something else?A: Take this steak back as well, it’s rubbery and completely overcooked. And look at the portion size! How can you charge twenty-five dollars for a sliver of steak?B: Right away... sir.C: Honey come on! The steak was fine, why are you making such a big deal? Are you trying to get our meal comped again?A: What do you mean? We are paying for this. If I’m shelling out my hard earned bucks, I expect value for money!B: Here you are, sir. I hope it is alright now. The chef has prepared it specially for you.A: Yes, fine.

Key vocabularyrunny: more liquid than expectedover seasoned: too saltyinedible: cannot be eatenrubbery: difficult to chewovercooked: be cooked overtimeportion size: the amount of food that is served to a personsliver: a small, thin piecemake a big deal: get very upset about something smallcomp: be given to customers for freeshell out: to spend moneyhard earned: money you work hard for

Supplementary vocabularya bad aftertaste: a bad second tasterank: a strong, unpleasant smellrancid: a rotten taste or smellunappealing: not appealing; not attractive or tasty

L E A R N E N G L I S H

S O C I E T Yd e s k

S O C I E T Yd e s k

S O C I E T Yd e s k

S O C I E T Yd e s k

TEHRAN — Wildfire which is still haunting

Hour al-Azim wetland, is not only causing great discomfort to the people in southwestern Iran, but posing serious threats to the region’s biodiversity, Mehr reported on Monday.

The raging fire sweeping through Iraqi part of Hour al-Azim which started on July 2, has caused air pollution and breathing difficulties for people of Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran.

Fire also broke in canebrakes in Iranian parts of the wetland located in Khuzestan, but it is soon extinguished by Iranian firefighters.

The smoke choking out of the wildfire has crossed the border into the city of Howeyz-eh and drifted over 115 kilometers to reach Mahshahr affecting Rafie, Susangerd, Bostan, Hamidieh and Ahvaz on its way.

Consequently, the officials decided to close down all banks and offices in three cities of Hamidieh, Howeyzeh and Dasht-e Azadegan, due to the increased concentration of smoke, the report added.

The extent of the burnt lands from 10,000 hectares at the beginning soon increased to 18,000 hectares, Fars reported on Tuesday.

Aerial firefightingChief of Khuzestan province department

of environment Ahmadreza Lahijanzadeh noted that it was anticipated that the fire would have been extinguished within two days, but many problems in the Iraqi part of the wetland such as extreme dryness, lack of constant supervision and an ac-countable body made all attempts to put out the fire futile.

Also, southward winds ignite the fire as the southern parts of the wetland are dried

and more prone to catch fire, he added.He also mentioned that due to the pre-

carious situation of Iraq and the swampy areas around the wetland, aerial firefight-ing was needed to combat the fire, so, Iran suggested dispatching aircrafts to contain Hour al-Azim wildfire.

“While two helicopters have been dispatched to put out the fire in Hour al-Azim on July 21, the lands are still burning due to the critical severity of the incident,” he lamented.

He also stated that another helicopter will also be added to the two helicopters currently in the operation.

Respiratory diseases on the riseShokrollah Salmanzadeh, head of Khuz-

estan province healthcare center, for his part, said that respiratory disease have been in-tensified in the southwestern border region of the country, as the fire produces a complex toxic involving flame, heat, oxygen depletion, smoke and toxic gases.

In case of smoke inhalation, people with a sensitive lung and susceptible to pulmonary disease including asthma, may develop an acute respiratory infection, he added.

He also explained that those who suffer acute respiratory infection, need immediate treatment, and if not treated, their lives will be compromised.

Animal species victims of Hour al-Azim wildfire

Deputy director for natural environment at Khuzestan province department of envi-ronment Adel Mola said that smoke is ini-tially harmful to human being, but the fire is also dangerous to animal species as well, however no details is revealed on animal casualties so far.

He went on to say that wildfire has many harmful effects on animals, including destruc-tion of bird nests and damages to domestic animals and livestock, such as burning. Three heads of buffaloes have been burnt in Hour al-Azim wildfire, which are under-going treatment.

The Euphrates softshell turtle specie in Hour al-Azim wetland, which is on the verge of extinction, is also severely endangered, he regretted.

“There are nearly 120 snake species in the wetland, which are also at risk, will surely suffer loss,” Mola concluded.

ENVIRONMENTd e s k

IRCS saves more than 6,300 from death in accidents

TEHRAN — The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) has rescued some 6,324 individuals

from June 3 to July 21 within the framework of a 100-day national rescue and relief scheme, deputy director for IRCS has said.

Launched on June 14, the national rescue and relief scheme went into force in late spring and will last until September 22. It aims at performing relief and rescue operations to help victims and the injured in natural disasters and accidents nationwide. According to the scheme, 4,606 relief forces are on duty daily during summer.

The relief and rescue operations has been made to rescue people in both natural disasters and accidents happen due to human errors, Shahin Fat’hi said, IRNA reported on Tuesday.

Some 57 percent of the survivors were saved from traf-fic-related accidents, 23 percent from drowning incidents, 6 percent earthquake and 14 percent from floods, car fire and car rollovers, he added.

Also some 51,541 people have received various types of emergency services, such as accommodation and food supplies, he added.

There are 24 helicopters, 1,026 ambulances and nearly 3,000 other rescue vehicles and facilities has been in full swing to provide rescue and medical services to the people during their summer trips, he concluded.

Last summer, 53 individuals lost their lives on average on a daily basis in road accidents across Iran, amounting to 4,939 deaths, the traffic police chief Taqi Mehri said on June 10.

Last [Iranian calendar] year (March 2017-March 2018) on average some 1,350 were killed every month while the number grew to 1,646 during the summer, indicating that 53 people died in road crashes every day, Mehri added.

Mentioning the sharp increase in the number of road trips during summer holidays in Iran, Mehri regretted the fact that in the [Iranian calendar] month of Shahrivar (August 23-September 22, 2017) alone some 1,746 died in the accidents.

30% of schools in Iran dilapidated

TEHRAN — Currently per capita education space per student is 5.2 percent while the

standard space must be 8.4 percent which indicated that some 30 percent of schools are dilapidated, Iran’s director of schools renovation, development and equipment organization has said.

Out of the 30 percent ramshackle old schools some 12 percent should be completely rebuilt and 18 percent must be retrofitted, IRNA news agency quoted Mehrollah Rakhshanimehr as saying on Monday.

Province of Khorasan Razavi, Gilan and Sistan and Baluch-estan are the provinces with the highest number of tumbledown schools, Rakhshanimehr added.

In fifths five-year development plan some $4 billion was al-located from forex reserve fund to rebuild and retrofit the old schools, he said, adding that this year benefactors [who make generous contributions for building schools] have committed to make 12 trillion rials (nearly $280 million).

“Our budget line [for renovating schools] also amounts to 10 trillion rials (nearly $230 million),” Rakhshanimehr added.

In the sixth five-year development plan some 3 million dollar is planned to be allotted to school renovation, but the budget is not officially allocated yet, he concluded.

12Hour al-Azim wildfire still causing great discomfort

“entero-, enter-” Meaning: intestine For example: There were no complications among

the 4 patients who underwent enterotomy.

Hunker down Meaning: to make yourself comfortable in a place

or situation for a long time, usually in order to achieve something

For example: The press has hunkered down for the night outside the palace, waiting for news of the royal birth.

Can’t hold a candle for the life of me

Explanation: when someone is less competent or do not perform as well as others.

For example: John is very intelligent but he can’t hold a candle to his brother Paul when it comes to sports.

PREFIX/SUFFIX PHRASAL VERB IDIOM

ENGLISH IN USE

Crimean-Congo fever death toll increases to 10The Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) has put 10 individuals to death in Iran since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21), Fars reported on Wednesday. In spite of receiving best medical care, in general 10 percent of the patients affected by the virus face death, while this number increases to 50 percent for the people who do not get any treatments, Mohammad Nabavi, deputy director for communicable diseases department of the Ministry of Health said.

تب کریمه کنگو در کشور جان 10 نفر را گرفتــر وزارت ــای واگی ــت بیماری ه ــز مدیری ــاون مرک ــود نبوی، مع ــارس، محم ــزارش ف ــه گ ببهداشــت اظهــار داشــت: متأســفانه هــر ســاله تعــدادی در کشــور بــه دلیــل تــب کریمــه

ــوده اســت. ــورد ب ــون 10 م ــا کن ــه امســال ت ــد ک ــو از دســت می دهن کنگوی افــزود: افــرادی کــه مبتــا بــه تــب کریمــه کنگــو می شــوند ممکــن اســت 10 درصــد آنهــا بــا درمــان خــوب نیــز فــوت کننــد و افــراد بــدون درمــان نیــز در 50 درصــد احتمــال

مــرگ آنهــا وجــود دارد.

LEARN NEWS TRANSLATION

A senior is playing a game where she is carrying a basket of plastic balls on her head over the “first round of elderly vitality competition”.

Two helicopters have been dispatched from Iran to Iraqi part of Hour al-Azim put out the fire on July 21.

WORLD IN FOCUS 13I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

JULY 25, 2018

By staff & agenciesA young Palestinian man has died more than two months after being shot by Israeli military forces during clashes between a group of Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces in the southern part of the occupied West Bank.

The spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health, Ashraf al-Qidra, said in a statement that 26-year-old Majd Suhail Mohammed Aqil passed away on Tuesday afternoon at Rumah Sakit Indonesia Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip city of Jabalia, located 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) north of Gaza City.

He had been shot and wounded during “The Great March of Return” protests east of Jabalia on May 14.

Nearly 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces ever since anti-occupation protest rallies began in the Gaza Strip on March 30.

A total of 14,811 Palestinians have also sustained injuries, of whom 366 are report-edly in critical condition.

The Gaza clashes reached their peak on May 14, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe), which coincided this year with the United States embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

On June 13, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution, sponsored by Turkey and Algeria, condemn-ing Israel for Palestinian civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip.

The resolution, which had been put for-ward on behalf of Arab and Muslim countries, garnered a strong majority of 120 votes in the 193-member assembly, with 8 votes against and 45 abstentions.

The resolution called on the UN Sec-retary General Antonio Guterres to make proposals within 60 days “on ways and means for ensuring the safety, protection, and well-being of the Palestinian civilian population under Israeli occupation,” in-cluding “recommendations regarding an international protection mechanism.”

It also called for “immediate steps to-wards ending the closure and the restrictions imposed by Israel on movement and access into and out of the Gaza Strip.”

UN rights chief sharply criticizes Israel over Gaza killings

Meantime, the UN human rights chief sharply criticized Israel on Monday, call-ing recent killings by its soldiers during Palestinian demonstrations along the Gaza border fence “shocking” and saying living conditions inflicted by Israel’s 11-year blockade of the territory are “grossly inadequate.”

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a video address to the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People that the situation in Gaza has esca-lated dramatically in recent months with “the potential to generate threats to peace across a far broader region.”

Zeid, who heads the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said it is essential for all parties to cooperate with the independent, international commission of inquiry into the recent deadly events in Gaza that his office is helping to establish. It was

authorized by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council on May 18 “to advance ac-countability” for the killings and violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, he said.

Zeid said there are “serious concerns” that Israeli accountability mechanisms don’t comply with international stand-ards of “independence, impartiality, and effectiveness.”

“Very few investigations ever occur,” he said. “In the rare cases where an investiga-tion has led to an indictment, the sentence has been extremely lenient in light of the gravity of the crime committed.”

Zeid said it is vital to address the root causes of the Gaza demonstrations, which have resulted in the deaths of over 100 Palestinians, including 17 children, and the wounding of more than 4,100 others with live ammunition since March 30.

In addition to “grossly inadequate living conditions” caused by Israel’s blockade for the residents of Gaza, most of whom are refugees, restrictive measures have also been imposed by Egypt that have “exacerbated

these conditions,” Zeid said.He added that the situation in Gaza may be

“severely aggravated” in the coming months by the financial crisis facing the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, as a result of dramatic cuts to its budget by the U.S. Trump administration.

Zeid criticized last week’s approval by Israel’s parliament of a bill defin-ing that country as the nation-state of the Jewish people. He said that it “an-chors inherent discrimination against non-Jewish communities,” most notably the Arab citizens of Israel and residents of occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem). He warned that it “could also further inflame tensions.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the bill’s passage a “historic moment in the history of Zionism and the history of the state of Israel,” saying: “Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people, which honors the individual rights of all its citizens.”

Zeid also criticized Israel’s approval, planning and construction of settlements across with West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem), which the Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.

He called Israel’s detention of hundreds of Palestinian children, some without charge, under a system of “administrative detention,” a “fundamental human rights violation.”

“It should be absolutely clear that in-ternational law requires detention only be used for children as a last resort,” he said.

And whether for children or adults, Zeid said, detention without trial “contravenes Israel’s obligations under international law.”

“An estimated 440 Palestinians are being held in ‘administrative detention,’ according to the latest figures,” he said. “Israel should immediately charge, or release, all of them.”

More than 7,000 Palestinians are re-portedly held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates have apparently been incarcer-ated under the practice of administrative detention.

Protesters gather to block Assange eviction from Ecuador embassy

Police in London are trying to prevent a protest in front of the Ecuadorian embassy where authorities are believed to be preparing to evict Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks who has been holed up in the embassy for six years.

Police were speaking to protesters outside the embassy on Tuesday as more people were joining an action to prevent a potential handover of Assange to the British authorities.

Earlier reports suggested that Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno and British authorities had come to an agree-ment to have Assange evicted from the embassy premises as early as this week.

Assange, a 47-year-old Australian computer program-mer, sought asylum in the embassy in 2012, fearful that he might be detained and then extradited to Sweden, where he had been wanted for sexual harassment charges. He has repeatedly insisted that he is paying a price for revelations he had made about wrong practices by the United States military. He is mainly concerned that he would end up in the United States and be prosecuted for publishing classified documents that were leaked by American whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

According to the local reports, Ecuadorian embassy would hand over Assange to British authorities, and there is no report about any immediate extradition to the U.S.

A white van was seen leaving the embassy on Sunday while carrying belongings and furniture, another sign that Assange was preparing to leave the embassy. People gath-ering in front of the embassy on Tuesday said the whistle-blower was innocent and was being used as a bargaining chip by Ecuador.

(Source: Press TV)

Afghan capital Kabul hit by multiple explosions

Multiple explosions have rocked the Afghan capital, Kabul, with three confirmed to have been caused by rockets that hit a residential area, officials have said.

At least three people were wounded in the attacks, with police deployed to the area to find the launch site, an official told the AFP news agency

“Rockets were fired on Kabul city from an unknown direction and ... hit residential areas near the mountains in PD5 (police district),” police spokesman Hashmat Stan-ikzai said.

The Afghan news website, Tolo News, reported five ex-plosions in total, adding that the blasts took place near a police academy in the district of Afshar, in western Kabul.

Quoting police, Tolo added that the target appeared to be the police academy and that “dozens of families” had fled the area.

Tuesday’s rocket attacks came two days after a suicide bomber blew himself up near Kabul international airport, killing at least 23 people and wounding a further 107 people.

Sunday’s attack was claimed by the local chapter of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Daesh) terrorist group, which said it had targeted Afghan Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum, who returned to Kabul after more than a year in exile.

Scores of government officials, political leaders and supporters had gone to the airport to welcome Dostum, a powerful ethnic Uzbek leader and former strongman.

Dostum was unharmed in the attack, his armored vehicle having already whisked him away when the bomber struck.

The Afghan capital has seen an increase in bombings and other attacks against security forces and civilians since the Taliban announced the beginning of their spring offensive on April 25.

Fighting traditionally picks up in Afghanistan as warmer weather melts snow in mountain passes, allowing fighters to move around more easily.

According to the United Nations, a total of 1,692 peo-ple have been killed in the first half of 2018, with another 3,430 people wounded - the highest figure since it began keeping records in 2009.

(Source: agencies)

Gazan youth dies of Israeli gunfire wounds sustained in anti-Israel protests

At least 50 people have died and scores more injured as wildfires tore through woodland and villages around the Greek capital, Athens, officials said.

The death toll rose sharply on Tuesday after 26 bodies were found near the harbor town of Rafina, according to Red Cross workers and the region’s vice mayor, Girgos Kokkolis.

The official death toll from the fires stood at 50 by mid-Tuesday. The mayor of Rafina, however, said he be-lieves the death toll “had already exceeded 60”.

“The number of dead is rising,” he added.Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras declared three days

of national mourning.According to officials, more than 150 people have been

injured in the fires, which damaged structures, disrupted major transport links and sent people fleeing their homes.

Greece’s fire brigade said the intensity and spread of the wildfire in the coastal village of Mati, about 29km east of Athens, had slowed on Tuesday as winds died down, but it was still not fully under control. Mati is located in the Rafina region.

The fire department urged residents to report missing relatives and friends.

Firefighters in Mati told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that they were able to get to places that were unreachable on Monday night due to the strength of the flames.

The streets of the village were lined with burned-out cars and the nearby fields were completely charred, with small fires still simmering.

Fire brigade spokeswoman Stavroula Maliri said that “residents and visitors in the area did not escape in time even though they were a few meters from the sea or in their homes”.

One of the youngest victims was thought to be a six-month-old baby who died of smoke inhalation, officials said.

Rescue workers were using forklifts to stack charred cars so emergency vehicles could get through the streets.

In the neighborhoods closer to the beach, residents and visitors were examining the wreckage of their homes.

Another blaze broke out on Monday in a forest near the coastal settlement of Kineta, about 55km west of Athens.

The causes of the fires are still unknown.Planes were continuing to drop water on the affected

areas at mid-day on Tuesday. A state of emergency was declared in the Athens met-

ropolitan area and Tsipras cut short a visit to Bosnia to return to Greece.

“We are dealing with something completely asymmet-ric,” Tsipras said.

Cyprus and Spain offered assistance after Greece said it needed air and land assets from European Union partners.

Authorities said they would be making use of an unmanned drone from the United States on Tuesday to monitor and track any suspicious activity.

Tsipras and Greek officials have expressed misgivings at the fact that several major fires broke out at the same time.

The fires in Mati were by far Greece’s worst since flames devastated the southern Peloponnese peninsula in August 2007, killing dozens.

Wildfires are not uncommon in Greece, and a relatively dry winter helped create the current tinder-box conditions.

(Source: agencies)

Hundreds of people are missing and several believed dead after the collapse of a hydropower dam under construction in southeast Laos, according to state media.

The accident happened at a dam in Sanamxay district of southeastern Attapeu province late on Monday, releasing five billion cubic meters of water, Laos News Agency said on Tuesday.

“Several human lives claimed, and several hundreds of people missing,” the report said.

Several houses in the southern part of the district were also swept away, the report said, and officials in the province put out a call for relief aid for flood victims.

According to ABC Laos news, officials brought boats to help evacuate people from the area.

A video posted by the news network on its Facebook page showed villagers stopping to watch the fast-flowing

water from the side of a river bank.The $1.2bn project planned to export 90 per-

cent of its electricity to energy-hungry Thailand and the remaining amount was to be offered up on the local grid.

Environmental rights groups have for years raised concerns about Laos’ hydropower ambitions, including worries over the impact of dams on the Mekong River, its flora and fauna and the rural communities and local economies that depend on it.

The 410-megawatt capacity dam was supposed to start commercial operations by 2019, according to the venture’s website.

Among the companies involved in the project accord-ing to the Laos News Agency are Thailand’s Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding, South Korea’s Korea Western Power and the state-run Lao Holding State Enterprise.

(Source: agencies)

A casting agency in Britain offered actors $25 to take part in an “anti-Qatar event” outside a meeting between the ruler of the Persian Gulf tiny state and British Prime Minister Theresa May.

According to several emails screen-shot-ted and uploaded to Reddit, Twitter and Facebook; extras were offered $25 (£20) to take part in the supposed protest from 11:00 until 12:30 GMT on Tuesday, as Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani was due to meet May in central London.

“This is NOT a film or TV production,” casting agency Extra People said in an email to their actors.

“The company are looking for a large group of people to fill space outside Downing Street during the visit of the president of Qatar (sic). This is an ANTI-Qatar event

- You will not have to do or say anything, they just want to fill space. You will be finished at 12:30.”

As soon as we as a company became aware that it was a political demonstra-tion, we immediately withdrew wanting no further part in this

However at 20:22 GMT on Monday, shortly after media reports first began to circulate about the job offer, Extra Peo-ple sent another mass email saying “on reflection” it would not be involved “in such a project”.

It said a junior booker subsequently made the arrangement without consulting management and it had now “withdrawn” its involvement.

“As soon as we as a company became aware that it was a political demonstra-

tion, we immediately withdrew wanting no further part in this,” Tom Walker, the company director of Extra People, told Al Jazeera.

“We have never or will never sup-ply artistes for any event that could be deemed racist or xenophobic and regret that we have even been caught up in this.”

Tuesday’s planned protest came just hours after a similar rally was held against the Qatari emir in London. However, Twitter user Sayed Alkadiri claimed that some of those participating in Monday’s demon-stration were also being paid.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify Alkadiri’s claims.

The Qatari emir’s visit to Britain comes more than a year after the United Arab

Emirates (UAE), along with the House of Saud regime, Bahrain and Egypt, imposed a land, air and sea blockade against Qa-tar and severed ties with it, in one of the Persian Gulf’s worst diplomatic dispute among Arab states in decades.

The quartet have expressed their dis-pleasure over Qatar’s foreign policy, and urged the country to “change its direction”.

According to several media reports, the four countries want Qatar to normalize relations with Israel, and develop a re-gional alliance against the region’s power house Iran.

Qatar’s emir has denounced all attempts to infringe on the sovereignty of the Per-sian Gulf nation and rejected all of their demands.

(Source: Al Jazeera)

Greece wildfires: Dozens killed near Athens, officials say

Hundreds reported missing in Laos after dam collapse

British acting agency offered people $25 to attend anti-Qatar protest

I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

W O R L D S P O R T S JULY 25, 201814

KPMG predicts that Juventus stand to directly earn 340 million euros from the transfer over Ronaldo’s four-year contract period.

Consultancy firm, KPMG has release a report titled, ‘From Madrid to Turin: Ron-aldo Economics’, which provides analysis of the economic impact of Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Juventus.

The report concludes that the Italian club stands to directly earn 85 million a year from the transfer, or 340 million over the four-year contract period, but predicts that Juventus will not see a major positive impact from the Ronaldo acquisition in the 2018-19 financial year.

KPMG estimates that match-day revenues will reach between 55 and 70 million euros next season (depending on how the team performs, particularly in the Cham-pions League), while total revenues from broadcasting distri-butions at national and international levels will range from around 1 9 0 million euros to 255 million euros.

But the reports concludes that the real growth opportunity will c o m e from sponsoring and merchandising, on which KPMG strongly urges Juventus to capitalize,

in order to partially fill the relevant gap with European top clubs in terms of commercial revenues over the next two to three seasons. The report predicts Juventus’ commercial revenues to reach between 195 and 220 mil-lion within two to three years.

The impact on Juve’s brand

“In addition to the di-rect economic impact, Cristiano Ronaldo will unquestion-ably exert a huge ef-

f e c t upon Ju-

ventus FC’s brand and social media exposure in

those countries where Juven-tus FC have not yet established a strong brand presence, but where Cristiano Ronaldo has major visibility,” states the report.

“Particularly, Ronaldo’s so-cial media exposure within Asia, South and Central America, and

the US would help Ju-ventus to create a more global brand which, in turn, would eventually

result in higher rev-enues.”

The report also recognizes the spillover effects the transfer will have for Serie Ain general and Ronaldo himself.

Warning However, Andrea Sartori, KPMG’s Global

Head of Sports and the report’s author warned that: “The positive aspects highlighted in the report are only one side of the coin. The other side, which is to be taken into account

to provide a full-blown analysis, regards the risks that Juventus FC will incur

by pursuing such a burdensome investment.

“Indeed, the club will bear the inevitable costs

in relation to the signing of

Cristiano which will not depend on fu-ture circumstances, as revenues do. In fact, the revenue figures are estimations and forecasts which will highly depend on the management capabilities of Juventus FC and on the on-field performance of the team.”

(Source: AS)

US swimmer Lochte given 14-month doping ban after social media post

Twelve-time Olympic medallist Ryan Lochte says he is “devas-tated” by his 14-month ban for a doping violation.

The 33-year-old American has been sanctioned by the US Anti-Doping Agency (Usada) for an intravenous infusion.

While Lochte was not using a banned substance, athletes cannot usually receive IVs unless related to a hospitalisation or via an exemption.

Lochte posted a photo of himself on social media receiving the IV which prompted an investigation.

He told a news conference: “A rule is a rule and I accept there is a technical violation.

“I wasn’t taking anything that was banned or prohibited. I am hopeful other athletes learn from my mistake.”

In 2016, Lochte - the second most decorated US swimmer behind Michael Phelps - was banned from the sport for 10 months after falsely claiming he was robbed at gunpoint during the Rio Olympic Games.

The six-time Olympic champion said he and three team-mates were held up at a petrol station during a night out.

But police questioned the account after CCTV footage showed the group had vandalised the petrol station.

His latest ban runs until July 2019 having been backdated to 24 May, the date he received the prohibited intravenous infusion.

(Source: BBC)

Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov is exploring a sale of his 30 percent stake in English football club Arsenal, the Financial Times reported on.ft.com/2Lx1Yb6 on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the billionaire’s thinking. The Russian billionaire has grown frustrated that the club’s majority owner, Stan Kroenke, is un-willing to engage in takeover talks and has given up all hope of acquiring the club outright, the report cited the sources as saying.

Usmanov had previously made a $1.3 billion offer to buy out Kroenke, but Kroenke’s KSE (Kroenke Sports & Entertainment) UK Inc said its shares in the Premier League club were not for sale.

Russia’s so-called oligarchs who have relocated to London could be under threat as there have been calls to deny them ac-cess to their London lifestyles following the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Britain.

Usmanov and Roman Abramovich, who owns the Chelsea football club, are the most prominent among the Russian elite living in London. Arsenal finished a disappointing sixth last season and missed out on a Champions League qualifying spot, with manager Arsene Wenger leaving after almost 22 years at the club. It appointed former Paris St Germain coach Unai Emery as their new manager.

A representative for Usmanov declined to comment. Arsenal was not immediately available to comment.

(Source: Reuers)

Organisers of the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 plan to use the latest technology to help deal with any heat issues.

Temperatures reached a record 41.1C in Japan on Monday, with the country experiencing a heatwave this summer.

Tokyo’s average July temperature is over 30C and safety meas-ures being looked at include “mist-spraying” and “heat-blocking” technology.

“In recent days Tokyo and Japan has been like living in a sauna every day,” said Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike.

“For the athletes, I am sure they are training and very healthy in their bodies but for the spectators, who are cheering along the roadside, we cannot necessarily say they are training themselves to be very healthy.

“So, how to deal with this heat? This is one pillar needed for the success of the 2020 Games.”

More than 100km of road, including the routes for the mar-athon and walking events, could be sprayed with a product that reflects heat and ultraviolet rays to reduce temperatures.

Moving the marathon start time to 07:00 local time is also under consideration.

“We have developed mist-spraying technologies, which are nano-particle-sized,” said Koike.

“In terms of the road, there is the heat-blocking or insulating technology.

“If this heat-blocking pavement is covering the asphalt then, on average, there will be a temperature suppression of eight degrees Celsius.”

(Source: BBC)

Barcelona have won the race to sign Bordeaux winger Malcom and will complete the signing on a €41m deal, say reports.

Goal.com report that Barca have gazumped Roma to the deal for the Brazilian and the player will sign a five-year contract at the Camp Nou.

According to Catalan radio station Rac1, the Blaugrana are in ‘advanced talks’ to sign the Brazilian and a deal could be com-pleted as early as Tuesday.

It was expected that Malcom would arrive at Roma on Monday night after the clubs agreed a fee and medicals were arranged, with hundreds of Giallorossi fans turning up at the Rome airport.

The 21-year-old netted 12 goals and provided seven assists, leading to links with clubs from Italy, England, France and Spain.

Now the future of Malcom is up in the air with it unclear if he will play for Roma or the Catalan giants, whom Bordeaux are keen to do business with.

(Source: Football Espana)

Russian billionaire Usmanov explores sale of 30 percent Arsenal stake

Tokyo 2020 promises technology to combat heat

Barcelona beat Roma to Malcom - reports

Ehrenfeld is a part of Cologne, Germany, renowned for its multi-cultural community. Senol, working be-hind the till at one newsagents by the train station, represents just that.

About half a century ago, his family uprooted from Tur-key and came to Germany as guest workers after a labour shortage. Some 60 miles up the road in Gelsenkirchen, the grandparents of Mesut Ozil did the same.

Senol, a former bodyguard, says he loves interacting with people and happily banters with his customers. “You sure you want the poisonous ones?” he says wryly to one who wants a pack of cigarettes.

Out the front stand the daily newspapers, not just from Germany but from Turkey too. On the front of almost all of them on Monday was a headline about Ozil. In the view of Senol and the locals he chats to, it’s not Ozil’s fault.

Why is it such a big deal?A three-part statement from the Arsenal midfielder on

Sunday ended with him saying: “I will no longer be playing for Germany at international level whilst I have this feeling of racism and disrespect.”

A World Cup winner in 2014, capped 92 times by his country, he is the most influential German player at present.

That comes from being of German-Turkish descent, along with having played in Spain and England. Combine his followers on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and you get a figure of 72 million.

For the Germany team itself, he had been an important regular. Before being dropped against Sweden for the sec-ond game of the World Cup in Russia, he had started every game at a major competition since the 2010 World Cup, his

debut on the competitive global stage.The controversy around him dates back to May, a day

before Germany’s World Cup squad was announced. Ozil, along with Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan, was photographed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

That was dimly viewed in Germany, with Erdogan ap-proaching another election and seen by many in the country as a dictator. Only in February, for instance, was German journalist Deniz Yucel released having been detained for a year, accused of spreading propaganda.

“Both [Ozil and Gundogan] have made a mistake but we also have to keep this in perspective,” said German FA

president Reinhard Grindel before the World Cup.When Ozil did not appear at the national team’s media

day, he added: “If he doesn’t want to answer in any inter-views, then perhaps he’ll do so on the pitch.”

Team manager Oliver Bierhoff maintained before the tournament that the issue had been dealt with, but whis-tles from the crowd at Germany’s final warm-up game in Leverkusen suggested otherwise.

Then came the team’s worst World Cup in 80 years, with Ozil - among others - scapegoated by politicians from the country’s far right, keen to make political capital from a football failure.

The reaction in GermanyAfter Germany’s exit, Gundogan’s bit-part role in Russia

kept him largely out of the firing line but Grindel and former Germany striker Bierhoff targeted Ozil.

“To date with the Germany team, we have never forced something [with players], always trying to convince them instead. With Mesut, that didn’t happen and in that sense, you have to consider whether we could have done without him in a sporting sense,” said Bierhoff in an interview with newspaper Die Welt.

Grindel, meanwhile, said Ozil should explain himself.By making the argument a binary one, and picking out

Ozil in the process, their criticism saw them come down on the same side of the argument as those who have torn into Ozil from the country’s far right.

That does not include Bayern president Uli Hoeness, but he still laid into Ozil on Monday, calling him a “poor excuse for footballer” who “hadn’t made a tackle since before the 2014 World Cup”.

(Source: BBC)

Criticism and sympathy- how Ozil saga divided German football

England manager Gareth Southgate is among the nominees for the Best FIFA Coach of the Year award.

The Three Lions boss guided the side to fourth place at the 2018 World Cup, and is in elite company.

Pep Guardiola is also nominated after taking Manchester City to a record-break-ing Premier League title and the EFL Cup, alongside Champions League winner Zinedine Zidane, who oversaw Real Madrid’s victory over Liverpool prior to resigning from his post.

Croatia’s Zlatko Dalic, whose side beat England in the semi-finals of the World Cup, is also nominated, along with Didier Des-champs, who lifted the trophy withLes Bleus after their 4-2 win over the Croats in the final. Stanislav Cherchesov guided Russia to the quarter-finals, beating Spain on penalties along the way, while Roberto Martinez took Belgium to third place, beating England twice along the way.

The rest of the field is made up of club managers; Massimiliano Allegri took Juven-tus to yet another Serie A title, while Jurgen Klopp guided Liverpool to the Champions League final, though they were beaten by Real.

Diego Simeone took Atletico Madrid to

Europa League glory, the Spanish side beating Marseille 3-0 in France.

uventus boss Max Allegri is the only Serie A candidate for The Best FIFA Men’s Coach award.

Elsewhere, ex-Bianconeri Zinedine Zidane is in with a shout of retaining the accolade, having won another Champions League with Real Madrid, and his former Old Lady teammate Didier Deschamps is among those considered for leading France to the World Cup.

FIFA will host the annual Best Football Awards gala on September 24, in London, where the winner will be announced.

The likes of former Brazil international Ronaldo and ex-England boss Fabio Capello sat on the panel who decided the nominees.

The full nominees are as follows: Mas-similiano Allegri (Juventus), Stanislav Cherchesov (Russia), Zlatko Dalic (Croatia), Didier Deschamps (France), Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Roberto Martinez (Belgium), Diego Sime-one (Atletico Madrid), Gareth Southgate (England), Ernesto Valverde (Barcelona), Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid).

(Source: Bleacher Report)

Jose Mourinho believes the World Cup environment helped bring out the best in Paul Pogba and the Manchester United manager wants the France midfielder to show the same focus and intensity at the Premier League club.

The 25-year-old, who moved to United from Juventus for a then world record fee in 2016, lit up the Premier League with mo-ments of sublime skill but his inconsistency has been equally frustrating for the fans.

He was routinely criticised for his perfor-mances for United last season, but stepped up a gear in Russia, marshalling the France midfield alongside N’Golo Kante and scoring in the final as the side were crowned world champions for a second time.

“I don’t think it’s about us getting the best out of him, it’s about him giving the best he has to give,” Mourinho told ESPN. “I think the World Cup is the perfect habitat for a player like him to give (their) best.

“Why? Because it’s closed for a month, where he can only think about football. Where he’s with his team on the training camp, completely isolated from the external world, where they focus just on football, where the dimensions of the game can

only motivate.“During a season, you can have a big

match then a smaller match, then one even smaller, then you can lose your focus, you can lose your concentration, then comes a big match again.”

Mourinho said it was easier for a player to keep improving his game as his side progressed at the World Cup.

“In the World Cup, the direction of the emotion, of the responsibility, of the big decisions is always growing... You are in the group phase, you go to the last 16, to the quarter-finals, to the semi-finals, to the finals,” he added.

“This feeds the motivation. This feeds the concentration of a player. So I think it was the perfect environment for him.

“I think players in the World Cup, they really feel that extra commitment with a country... so they play for the team, and only for the team, and the team is the most important thing, and they do everything to try to succeed.

“It’s the perfect environment for a talented player like him to focus, to fully focus on the job.”

(Source: Reuters)

Guardiola, Zidane & Southgate among Best FIFA Coach of the Year nominees

Mourinho wants to see Pogba’s World Cup focus at Man United

KPMG estimates Ronaldo’s huge financial impact forJuventus

S P O R T S 15I N T E R N A T I O N A L D A I L Y

Iran earns 3 medals in IDBF Club Crew World ChampionshipsPress TV — The Iranian women’s rowing club Sokkan has received three medals at the 11th edition of the International Dragon Boat Federation (IDBF) Club Crew World Champi-onships in Hungary.

The Iranian team managed to get one silver and two bronze medals at the six-day-long prestigious international tournament, which was held in the southeastern Hungarian city of Szeged.

The 11th edition of IDBF Club Crew World Championships started on July 17, and finished on July 22, 2018.

Dragon boat is a human-powered watercraft, which has its roots in an ancient folk ritual of contending villagers, which has been held for over 2000 years throughout southern China.

The history of dragon boats in competition reaches as far back as the same era as the original games of Olympia in ancient Greece.

Persepolis midfielder Rafiei moves on loan to Foolad

TASNIM — Persepolis of Iran’s midfielder Soroush Rafiei has joined Foolad on a six-month loan deal.

He has recently joined Persepolis but has to wait until January to play in the team due to Persepolis’s transfer ban.

Rafiei, 28, was a member of Foolad football team from 2011 to 2017 and helped the Ahvaz-based football team win Iran Professional League (IPL) title in 2014.

The attacking midfielder has also played in Tractor Sazi and Al-Khor of Qatar.

The IPL new season will start on Thursday and Foolad will host Pars Jonoubi in its first match.

Majid Hosseini’s U-turn after Esteghlal’s threat

PLDC — Majid Hosseini has returned to Tehran after Es-teghlal threatened him they will file a complaint if he joins Trobzonspor.

Esteghlal international defender was set to join the Turk-ish club but has reportedly returned to Tehran since he has contract with Esteghlal.

Hosseini caught the eye of Trobzonspor after good per-formance in the 2018 World Cup.

According to Iranian media, Hosseini has returned to Tehran to solve the problem and will join the Turkish team after that.

Persepolis free-agent midfielder Vahid Amiri joined Trob-zonspor on Saturday and Morteza Pouraliganji will reportedly sign a contract with the team.

Persepolis awarded Iran’s Super Cup title

IRNA — Disciplinary committee of Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FFIRI) announced Persepolis as winner of the 2018 Super Cup.

The Iranian Football League Organization had already awarded the title to Persepolis after Esteghlal withdrew from the game but the Blues had protested the decision.

The match was originally scheduled for July 20 but Esteghlal requested Iran Football League Organization to postpone the match.

The organization refused to reschedule the match since two teams will have to play in quarter-final of AFC Champions League and Iran Professional League (IPL).

Esteghlal filed an appeal to the disciplinary committee against the decision but the committee announced Persepolis as winner after reviewing the case.

WNBA suspends Mercury G Taurasi one game

Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi was suspended for one game after being called for her seventh technical foul of the season, the WNBA announced Monday.

The punishment, a ban without pay, was announced by Bethany Donaphin, head of WNBA league operations.

Per WNBA rules, a player or coach gets an automatic suspension after receiving a seventh technical foul in the regular season. Each additional pair of technicals received after accumulating seven would result in an additional one-game ban.

Taurasi was called for her seventh technical foul of the season while arguing a call during Saturday’s 80-75 loss against the Minnesota Lynx. She will serve the suspension when the Mercury take on the Chicago Sky in Phoenix on Wednesday.

This marks the third time the 14-year WNBA veteran has been given an automatic suspension for being tagged with seven technical fouls in a season, having also received one-game suspensions in 2013 and 2016.

In 25 games this season, the 36-year-old Taurasi leads the Mercury by averaging 20.3 points and 4.8 assists per game.

(Source: Reuters)

With the 2018 AFC Champions League quarter-finals just over a month away, we look at seven players whose form in the competition can drive them to excel in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup in January.

Eight of Asia’s biggest club sides are battling for the 2018 AFC Champions League title, and amongst their ranks are some top players hoping to impress their national team managers as we approach the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019.

Some have already shown glimpses of their talents at the FIFA World Cup in Russia, while others are dreaming of one last grand showing before hanging their boots. So let’s look at some of the biggest AFC Asian Cup hopefuls featuring in August’s AFC Champions League quarter-finals.

Alireza Beiranvand (Persepolis and IR Iran)

The 25-year-old was one of the stars of Team Melli’s 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign, saving a penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo and impressing throughout. At Persepolis, Beiranvand has kept five clean sheets, more than any other goalkeeper in the 2018 AFC Champions League.

The quarter-finals throw a big challenge for the goalkeeper as his Persepolis side face Qatar’s Al Duhail, who have been an unstoppable attacking force this season, bagging 21 goals in the continental competition, the highest amongst West Asian teams and only second to Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors’ 26.

The 194cm tall custodian’s performances for club and country mean he is set for a starting role in January as Carlos Queiroz’s IR Iran look to lift their first AFC Asian Cup title since 1976. Beiranvand and co start their continental campaign on January 7 against Yemen before facing Vietnam and Iraq in Group D.

Gen Shoji (Kashima Antlers and Japan)Another man who made an impression in Russia over

the summer is center-back Gen Shoji who was a key cog in the Japan side that reached the World Cup round of 16 before bowing out to eventual bronze medalists Belgium.

Shoji made 41 clearances in his six AFC Champions League appearances for Kashima Antlers, among the highest in the competition to help his side navigate the group stage with just six goals conceded, no other team in East Asia conceded less.

Kashima Antlers face the challenge of Tianjin Quanjian as they attempt to reach the AFC Champions League semi-final for the first time in their history. Shoji will be hoping

a historic achievement for his club will help his chances of securing a starting spot for the Samurai Blue whose pursuit of a fifth continental title sees them pitted against Uzbekistan, Oman and Turkmenistan in Group F.

Hassan Al Haydos (Al Sadd and Qatar)The 2011 AFC Champions League winner has grown into

one of the most influential players for club and country. The 27-year-old has been at Al Sadd since the age of eight and has won two league titles and a FIFA Club World Cup bronze medal alongside the 2011 continental trophy.

Al Haydos contributed six key passes and one assist in this year’s AFC Champions League as Al Sadd finished second in Group C then overcame Saudi Arabia’s Al Ahli in the round of 16 with a 4-3 aggregate win.

Alongside club teammates Akram Afif and Ali Asad, Al Haydos is expected to form the spine of Qatar’s attacking midfield in neighboring UAE in January, where they will be hoping to progress past the quarter-finals for the first time in their history. The start will be against Lebanon on January 9, followed by DPR Korea then Saudi Arabia in Group E.

Zhao Xuri (Tianjin Quanjian and China PR)The veteran midfielder boasts an impressive minutes-

per-goal ratio of 157 despite playing in a deep role. The two-time AFC Champions League winner with Guangzhou Evergrande joined Tianjin in 2016 and has since become an indispensable member of their starting XI.

Zhao’s experience continues to be crucial for a Tianjin side playing in the AFC Champions League for the first time in their history. And with over 70 caps to his name, he will be equally important for China PR in January’s AFC Asian Cup.

Having made his international debut in 2003, Zhao went on to appear in two editions of the AFC Asian Cup; 2007 and 2011, before missing on the 2015 edition in Australia. At 32, UAE 2019 may well be his last chance to represent China PR in the continental competition, and if his club form is anything to go by, we could see his best in January.

Lee Yong (Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and Korea Republic)

Right-back Lee was arguably Korea Republic’s best player in Russia 2018, putting in impressive performances both in defense and attack. And while the Taeguk Warriors have failed to advance past the group stage, they left a good impression after defeating world champions Germany in a game where Lee showed his true qualities.

An AFC Champions League winner with Ulsan Hyundai in 2012, Lee joined Jeonbuk in February 2017, just three months after they were crowned Asian Champions for the second time in their history. This term, the 32-year-old has contributed an assist and 12 key passes as Jeonbuk attempt to become the first side to win the competition three times.

A late bloomer, Lee only made his international debut in 2013 at the age of 27, and was not part of the Korea Republic squad that reached the AFC Asian Cup final in Australia in 2015, so UAE 2019 could be his only chance to leave a mark in the continental tournament with his nation.

Rouzbeh Chesmi (Esteghlal and IR Iran)

After just one match and a clean sheet, Cheshmi’s World Cup campaign was ended prematurely with a muscle injury to the disappointment of the 24-year-old defender who had recorded the team’s best pass completion rate (94% ) in his only outing in Russia 2018 against Morocco.

Two months later, Cheshmi’s attention turns to the AFC Champions League as he looks to help his Esteghlal side to the semi-finals for the second time after 2013. The Iranian giants had emerged from the group stage unbeaten and recorded three clean sheets in the process with Cheshmi starting all but one of their six group games.

Cheshmi’s replacement in the World Cup, Majid Hosseini, has impressed, but the Esteghlal defender’s versatility means a starting spot in UAE 2019 is a strong possibility and a strong showing in the two quarter-finals can further cement his status as one of Team Melli’s key defensive assets at the AFC Asian Cup.

Almoez Ali (Al Duhail and Qatar)When it was announced that Al Duhail captain and

talisman Youssef Msekni will be sidelined for a few months with an Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury back in April, many feared the worst for the Qatari side, but then Almoez Ali stepped up.

Starting seven of Al Duhail’s eight-match winning streak in this year’s AFC Champions League, Ali took on a more attacking role in Msekni’s absence and delivered a goal and four assists as the Qatari champions swept aside their Group B opponents.

One of the stars of the Qatar side that were crowned U-19 Asian Champions in Myanmar in 2014, Ali made the step up to the senior team alongside many members of that team, and with his current club form, he will be an important asset for coach Felix Sanchez come January 2019.

(Source: the-afc)

7 ACL players who can impress in UAE 2019

TEHRAN — Iran edged past Uruguay 2-1 (15-16, 15-14, 6-5) in the Beach

Handball World Championships on Monday. The Iranian team had lost to Argentina 2-1 (10-13,

12-8, 6-4) in Pool A.Team Melli will face reigning champions Croatia on

Wednesday. Croatia and Spain will begin their bids to defend

their respective men’s and women’s titles when the Beach Handball World Championships begin in Kazan

in Russia tomorrow.The six days of competition is being held at the Kazan

Beach Sports Complex, in Kazan, Russia from July 24 to 29. In the men’s draw, Croatia have been drawn against

Iran, Uruguay and Argentina in Group A.Group B is made up of Spain, Hungary, Vietnam and

New Zealand, while Group C comprises Oman, Australia, Denmark and 2016 bronze medalists Qatar.

Last year’s runners-up Brazil headline Group D, which also includes hosts Russia, the United States and Sweden.

Iran beat Uruguay in Beach Handball World Championships

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Vahid Amiri voted IPL Player of the Year

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TEHRAN — Vahid Amiri was honored last night with the Best

Player of the Year award after his sensational year with Persepolis in Iran Professional League (IPL).

The 30-year-old midfielder also represented Iran in three matches of Group B against Morocco, Spain and Portugal in the 2018 World Cup.

Amiri, who joined Turkey’s Trabzonspor on Saturday, helped Persepolis win IPL back-to-back titles.

Persepolis were named the best team of the year after the Reds won the title with three weeks remaining.

Branko Ivankovic was named as the best coach of the year after leading Persepolis to back-to-back title.

Ali Alipour, Persepolis striker, took the best goalscorer of the year award with 19 goals.

Persepolis captain Jalal Hosseini won the best defender of the year prize.

Persepolis goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand won the best goalkeeper of the year award.

Omid Ebrahimi was chosen as the best midfielder of the year after an astonishing year with Esteghlal.

Esteghlal midfielder Server Djeparov won the best assist provider of the year.

Paykan defender Mehdi Shiri won the fair play award of the year.

Bijan Heydari was named the best referee of the year.

Brighton and Hove Albion and Leicester City are reportedly keen on signing the AZ Alkmaar man.

According to a report from the Daily Mail, Brighton are in talks with AZ Alkmaar to sign Leicester-linked Iranian forward Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

Chris Hughton guided his side to an impressive 15th placed finish in the Premier League table last season, but the Seagulls

undoubtedly need to bolster their attacking department.

The 34 Premier League goals they scored in the league last season was the fourth lowest tally in the division, and they must find a way of being more potent in front of goal this time around, if they are to make further progress.

And Jahanbakhsh could be just the man for the job.

Iranian media claimed earlier this month that Leicester were on the verge of signing the 24-year-old, but a move to the King Power Stadium has so far failed to materialise.

It now appears that the Foxes will face competition from Brighton for the Iran international forward’s signature.

The south coast outfit are thought to be in talks with AZ Alkmaar over the possibility of signing Jahanbakhsh in a deal believed

to be worth £20 million.The lively front-man was on fire in

Holland last season, chalking up an impressive 22 goals and 14 assists in 39 appearances in all competitions.

He can play anywhere along the front-line, and would undoubtedly provide Brighton with more of a cutting edge in the final third.

(Source: HITC)

Report: Brighton in talks to sign £20m-rated Leicester target Jahanbakhsh

TEHRAN – A gallery owner in Tehran said on

Tuesday that her colleague had received a proposal to sell artworks on an installment plan in order to cope with the loss of earnings during the current economic recession in the country.

Speaking to the Persian service of ISNA, Fatemeh Nuri, the owner of Naqsh-e Jahan Gallery, said, “Paying for artworks at a gallery on installments has been unprecedented in my 40-year career.”

“However, that is OK, if artists would be in agreement with this plan,” she noted.

She did not mention who had proposed the plan.

“Artists will definitely increase the prices of their artworks due to a sharp rise in the prices of colors and art materials in the country; therefore a rise in prices is always followed by fewer customers,” she added.

Nuri said that there has been a rapid decline in the number of visitors, and added, “If people have plenty of food to eat they will pay attention to art, but unfortunately, the economic condition is worsening day by day.”

There are almost 300 art galleries in Tehran, a large number of which have not organized an exhibition over the past two years.

No. 18, Bimeh Alley, Nejatollahi St., Tehran, IranP.o. Box: 14155-4843

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TEHRAN – Iranian pianist Fereidun Nasehpur will perform pieces from world-

renowned composers such as Franz Schubert and Frédéric François Chopin during a recital at Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on August 4.

A repertoire composed of Chopin’s “Trois Nouvelles Études” and “24 Preludes” and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Prelude in D Minor” and several other pieces will be included at the performance.

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Indian university offers course on Persian language

Gloria Estefan awarded Spain’s gold medal for the arts

“Majan” named best at Zanzibar film festival

Trevor Noah faces backlash in Australia over offensive indigenous joke

TEHRAN — “Majan” by Iranian director

Rahman Seifi-Azad won the award for best film from DHOW countries at the Zanzibar International Film Festival in Tanzania, the organizers announced last week.

Starring Mahtab Karamati and Farhad Aslani, the film is about a couple dealing with a great challenge in their lives over keeping their disabled child at home or leaving him at a sanatorium.

The award for best film in the inter-

national competition was presented to “Silas” co-directed by Anjali Nayar and Hawa Essuman. The film is a co-production from Canada, South Africa and Kenya.

“Supa Modo”, a co-production between Germany and Kenya directed by Likarion Wainaina received the Golden DHOW for best film.

In addition, “The Forbidden” by Kizito Samuel Saviour from Uganda was picked as best East African film at the festival, which was held in Zanzibar from July 7 to 15.

MELBOURNE (Reuters) — Comedian Trevor Noah is facing calls for a boycott of his “Tour Down Under” over an offensive joke he told in 2013 calling all indigenous Australian women ugly, even after he ac-knowledged on Monday that he had done wrong.

Noah, host of the popular Daily Show in the United States, responded after an indigenous Australian highlighted a clip of a stand-up show in 2013 where the comedian made the offensive comments, with the hashtag #boycotttrevornoahinoz.

In the footage, Noah said that “all women of every race can be beautiful,” then said: “And I know some of you are sitting there now going, ‘Oh Trevor, yeah, but I’ve never seen a beautiful Aborigine.’”

He then went on to say, “It’s not always about looks,” and pretended to play a didg-eridoo, a traditional long wooden wind instrument, in a suggestive way.

The clip has since been removed from social media, after indigenous ex-football-er Joe Williams said the comments were “utterly unacceptable” especially for “a man of color”.

“I am so disgusted and appalled by the comments by @Trevornoah and his attempted humor that denigrates Abo-riginal women I hope Australians boycott his shows in #Brisbane #Sydney #Mel-bourne #Perth,” author Anita Heiss said on social media.

Noah responded that Williams was right.“After visiting Australia’s Bunjilaka

museum and learning about aboriginal history first hand I vowed never to make a joke like that again. And I haven’t,” he said on social media.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the battle of two very different sequels at the box office this weekend, Denzel Washington’s action pic “The Equalizer 2” has narrowly won out over the ABBA jukebox musical “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.”

Studios on Sunday estimate that the R-rated Denzel Wash-ington joint grossed $35.8 million from North American theaters over the weekend. It’s Washington’s first ever sequel and the biggest opening of director Antoine Fuqua’s career. The first “Equalizer”, from 2014, opened similarly and went on to earn over $190 million worldwide.

Second place went to Universal Pictures’ “Mamma Mia 2”, which took in $34.4 million, a sum that was driven by an audience that was 83 percent female and 64 percent over the age of 25. The film brought back much of the original cast, like Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried and Pierce Brosnan, and added Cher, Andy Garcia and Lily James to the mix. Critics overall gave the sequel better marks than the first,

which still went on to gross over $600 million worldwide 10 years ago.

“We consider this a terrific opening,” said Jim Orr, Uni-

versal’s president of domestic distribution. “And knowing the audience for these types of films, we are going to have a very healthy run at the domestic and worldwide box office. This is a very fun, very uplifting movie that people need right now.”

It’s also a rare showdown of two star-driven films that suc-ceeded in targeting two very different audiences.

“It’s amazing how well-matched these contenders are,” said comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “Both studios really did a great job of marketing each of these movies to their target audience. It’s classic counter-programming.”

Sequels powered the top six spots at the domestic box office this weekend and eight out of the top 10 overall. “Hotel Tran-sylvania 3: Summer Vacation” came in third with $23.2 million in its second weekend, “Ant-Man and the Wasp” took fourth place with $16.1 million in its third weekend, “Incredibles 2” landed in fifth with $11.5 million, and “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” came in sixth with $11 million.

TEHRAN — The Savit-ribai Phule Pune Univer-

sity is offering a course leading to a certificate in the Persian language at the basic level.

The course opened on July 14 at the His-tory Department of the Indian university and will be running for three months, the Times of India has reported.

The course offers students Persian grammar as well as writing and reading, the person in-charge of the course, Nikhil Paranjape, said.

According to Paranjape, there has been

a constant demand from the students to learn Persian and those students who want to study and do research on medieval history will benefit from this course.

“There are a lot of institutes teaching Persian language in the city but they are mainly modern spoken Persian. This course offers students historical Persian language that will enable students to read graphics on coins, inscriptions and others,” Paran-jape said.

The course is being organized in collabo-ration with Iran’s Culture House in Mumbai.

MADRID (Reuters) — Gloria Este-fan, the Cuban-American pop star who achieved worldwide fame in the 1980s, was honored by the Spanish govern-ment on Monday for her contribution to the arts.

Accompanied by her music-producer husband Emilio, the singer was pre-sented with the Gold Medal of Merit for the Arts by Culture Minister Jose Guirao in Madrid’s Teatro Real opera house.

The ceremony was organized espe-cially for Estefan, who could not attend an event earlier this year where King Felipe presented medals to several other recipients.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, the multi-Grammy Award winner, who has had hits in Spanish and English, spoke out on some of the issues facing Latino people in the United States, including the policy of separating the children of migrants from their parents.

“We are frightened about the treat-ment those children received,” Estefan told a news conference.

“It’s a very difficult moment and I think the whole of the United States is a bit anxious. It’s a difficult time worldwide.”

Estefan said she had finished record-ing an album to be released in January.

“We have re-invented some of my tracks so you can consider it a ‘Greatest hits’ so to speak, but no, because it also has four new tracks.”

Mahtab Karamati acts in a scene from “Majan” by director Rahman Seifi-Azad.

Television host Trevor Noah attends an interview with Reuters in New York July 7, 2016. (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)

A view of the Savitribai Phule Pune University

Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan waits to be awarded with Spain’s Gold Medal of Merit for the Arts from Spain’s Culture Minister Jose Guirao Cabrera in Madrid, Spain, July 23, 2018. (Reuters/Susana Vera)

Pieces by world composer to highlight piano recital in Tehran

Tehran art galleries offered installment plan to lessen loss of earnings in recession

Visitors are seen talking together during an exhibition at Tehran’s Shalman Gallery on July 22, 2018. (Honaronline/Maryam Ramezanlu)

From Dumbo to Mr. Toad, Disneyland collection goes up for auctionLOS ANGELES (Reuters) — For years, Dumbo the Flying Elephant hung from his living room ceiling, a Mr. Toad Wild Ride car was parked in his library and Bashful’s cart from Snow White’s Scary Adventures sat on his front lawn in suburban California.

Now collector Richard Kraft is selling off his 750-item col-lection of theme park vehicles, props and artifacts spanning six decades of Disneyland history.

Kraft, a Hollywood agent, began his collection 25 years ago, spurred by nostalgia for his visits with his late brother to Disn-eyland in southern California.

Van Eaton Galleries in Los Angeles said the result was an extraordinary array of Disneyland memorabilia.

“Through Richard’s passion for the park and his love for his brother and family, he has amassed a collection that is unequaled,” co-founder Mike Van Eaton said.

Such is its scale that hundreds of the items are being dis-played for a month at a free public exhibition called “That’s From Disneyland” at a 20,000 sq ft (18,500 sq meters) aban-doned store in suburban Los Angeles ahead of the auction on Aug. 25 and 26.

Visitors will be able to dance along with six singing anima-tronic dolls from It’s a Small World, or board one of the pirate ships from Peter Pan’s Flight.

“Real artisans made this and I love putting it in an exhibit setting so it could be admired differently. You never actually see this stuff up close and personal the way you would see it in this exhibit,” Kraft said.

“We had Dumbo hanging in the living room of our house - 800 pounds (360 kg) of elephant hanging over people’s heads,” Kraft said. “We used to decorate Dumbo for Christmas.”

The Dumbo the Flying Elephant vehicle is expected to be among the top sellers with an estimate of $100,000-$150,000, while a Peter Pan’s pirate ship vehicle is seen fetching $75,000-$100,000.

Other artifacts include a Disneyland ticket booth, an ani-matronic singing bird from the Enchanted Tiki Room, as well as original drawings, concept sketches and posters from the 63-year-old theme park.

Rhode Island festival to screen films from Iran

TEHRAN – Several films from Iran will be screened at the Rhode Island International Film

Festival (RIIFF) running in the American state from August 7 to 12.

Animations “Run Rustam Run” by Hossein Molayemi, “Maned and Macho” by Shiva Sadeq-Asadi, as well as the documentary “Amour Du Reel” by Iman Behruzi, are among the Iranian films competing in the event, the organizers have announced.

In “Run Rustam Run”, national hero Rustam comes to con-temporary Tehran, in order to make up for what he has done to his own son.

“Maned and Macho” is about a girl’s repressed emotions and instincts, which are embodied in some animals that come out of her dreams.

The documentary “Amour Du Reel” shows a filmmaker who returns to his family home in Shiraz, after several years living abroad to make a film for the woman he loves.

The festival is organized every year by the Flickers Arts Col-laborative, a non-profit arts organization.

“Maned & Macho” by Shiva Sadeq-Asadi

“Equalizer 2” squeaks past “Mamma Mia 2” and takes top spot

This image released by Columbia Pictures shows Denzel Washington in a scene from “Equalizer 2.” (Glen Wilson/Sony, Columbia Pictures via AP)