THE FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY IN FREE KUWAITEstablished in 1977 / www.arabtimesonline.com

TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020 / RAMADAN 26, 1441 AH emergency number 112 NO. 17386 13 PAGES 150 FILS

car racingPage 12

soccerPage 13

MUNICIPALITY SHUTS 175 SHOPS ... GUARD RUNS NUZHA CO-OP STORE

Six deaths ... 841 cases on lockdown-8Economy seen co-existing with COVID

KUWAIT CITY, May 18, (Agencies): The Ministry of Health of Kuwait announced Monday that the lethal novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has claimed the lives of six people in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll up to 118.

In his daily coronavirus update, the Health Ministry Spokesperson Dr. Abdullah Al-Sanad stated that 841 people have tested positive for the highly contagious virus today, increasing the overall number of infections in the country to 15,691.

He pointed out that 161 patients were in intensive care.Al-Sanad noted that the ministry has conducted 3,838 coronavirus tests in the past 24 hours, raising the total num-

ber of tests conducted up to 248,314.Earlier, the Health Ministry announced the recovery of 246 COVID-19 patients, bringing the total to 4,339 recov-

eries.

Legislators review contracts

MPs battle expat jobsBy Saeed Mahmoud Saleh

Arab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, May 18: MP Al-Humaidi Al-Subai’e has submitted a bill signed by four MPs on national-izing jobs at Kuwait Petroleum Cor-poration (KPC) and its subsidiaries within six months after ratifying the bill.

The bill mandates KPC and its sub-sidiaries to advertise vacancies for citizens. In case no Kuwaiti applies for the vacant posts, priority will be given to the children of Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaitis and then the expatriates under a con-tract valid for one year. The contract should not be renewed unless the post is advertised for Kuwaitis to apply. In case, a citizen applies for the job, he will be appointed.

The bill also prohibits the renewal of contracts with consulting compa-nies, while the contracts of expatriate consultants will not be renewed un-less the post is advertised for Kuwait-is and no citizen applies.

Kuwaiti employees under contract will be appointed based on the Ku-waitization policy within six months of enforcing the law.

Moreover, MP Abdullah Al-Romi commented on rumors about an ex-patriate consultant at the National Assembly -- Shafiq Emam, asserting these rumors are baseless and that Emam is innocent.

He explained that in 2003, he chaired the parliamentary Legal and Legislative Affairs Commit-tee which was tasked to investigate why the copy of a bill referred to the government did not include the text approved by the Assembly. The com-mittee later discovered the error was unintentional as it was due to a fault in the printing machine, he said.

He added that Emam worked with him for years and he is very compe-tent, disclosing the latter continued to work at the Assembly for three years after the abovementioned incident until he decided to resign and work at the Public Institution for Social Se-curity (PIFSS) where his efforts were highly appreciated.

He also thanked Al-Ghanim for re-appointing Emam, stressing the As-sembly needs his great contributions.

Meanwhile, the National As-sembly Office on Sunday discussed the contracts signed by the govern-ment from March 12 to May 16 with Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim and several MPs in attendance.

During the meeting, the State Audit Bureau (SAB) conducted a presentation on the government con-tracts signed within the above-men-tioned period.

In a press conference after the meeting, Al-Ghanim disclosed that SAB tackled 558 contract-related is-sues and the value of these contracts

Calls for probe

WHO’s bad?GENEVA, May 18, (AP): The European Union and other countries on Monday called for an inde-pendent evaluation of the World Health Organiza-tion’s response to the coronavirus pandemic “to review experience gained and lessons learned.”

The resolution has the support of more than half of WHO’s member countries and will be dis-cussed this week at the decision-making body of the U.N. health agency, being held virtually this year.

The proposal is intended to initiate “a stepwise process of impartial, independent and comprehen-sive evaluation” of WHO’s efforts to coordinate the international response to COVID-19, includ-ing the functioning of international health law and its actions within the greater U.N. health system.

The move comes amid Australia’s call for an independent inquiry into the origins of the pan-demic and WHO’s response to it - and after U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated accusations that WHO helped China cover up the extent of the initial COVID-19 outbreak. Trump has also called for an immediate halt to all U.S. funding to the U.N. health agency.

The EU resolution proposes that the indepen-dent evaluation should be initiated “at the earli-est appropriate moment” and should, among other issues, examine “the actions of WHO and their timelines pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

WHO announced the coronavirus outbreak to be a global health emergency on Jan. 30, its high-est level of alert. In the following weeks, WHO warned countries there was a narrowing “window of opportunity” to prevent the virus from spread-ing globally.

WHO officials, however, repeatedly described the transmission of the virus as “limited” and said it wasn’t as transmissible as flu; experts have since said COVID-19 spreads even faster. It de-clared the outbreak to be a pandemic on March 11, after the virus had killed thousands globally and sparked large epidemics in South Korea, Italy, Iran and elsewhere.

SupportMeanwhile, Australia’s foreign minister on

Monday welcomed international support for an independent coronavirus pandemic investigation, which has been condemned by China and blamed for a bilateral trade rift.

The European Union has drafted a resolution, cosponsored by dozens of countries including Australia, that has been gaining support and is expected to be approved in a vote at the World Health Assembly in Geneva this week. The reso-lution before the assembly, the decision-making body of the World Health Organization, calls for an evaluation of the origins of the pandemic and responses to it.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said her government wants to ensure that the resolu-tion stipulates the inquiry should be “impartial, independent and comprehensive.”

“We’re very encouraged by the growing levels of support for this comprehensive World Health Assembly motion,” Payne told reporters. “We look forward to seeing hopefully a positive out-come later this week.”

Australia is seen as a leader in rallying global support for an inquiry, attracting Chinese criti-cism that it is parroting the United States and in-viting a Chinese boycott of exports and services. Australian government critics have argued that Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s conservative administration should have gathered allies before antagonizing Australia’s most important trading partner.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said he hopes Australia will respect China’s position, keep in mind Australia’s own interests and “create a sound atmosphere for the two sides’ pragmatic cooperation by improving ties and deepening mutual trust.”

China is looking into trade issues between the sides “in accordance with related laws and World Trade Organization rules,” Zhao said.

He said the international consensus is that “anti-epidemic cooperation remains a top prior-ity, and it is not time to immediately activate the review and investigation into origins of the virus.”

Payne did not see the level of international sup-port for the inquiry as a victory for Australia.

“It’s a win for the international community and Australia as a strong and active part of that inter-national community would certainly see it that way,” Payne said.

The motion comes as Australian Trade Minister Simon Birmingham struggles to resolve a dispute with China over imports of Australian beef.

Birmingham said Monday that he had failed for six days to arrange to speak with his Chinese counterpart about China’s ban on meat from Aus-tralia’s four largest abattoirs over labeling issues.

Municipality closes shopsKuwait’s Municipality has

closed 175 shops in the Capital Governorate in April for violat-ing coronavirus precautionary measures.

Municipality inspection teams issued 352 violations and had stumbled across 140,075 com-mercial establishments, in-cluding cafes, hair salons, res-taurants, convenience stores, supermarkets and livestock and fish markets.

The efforts are being carried out in compliance with the Cabi-net and the Ministry of Health decisions, read a statement.

The municipality’s general cleaning and road works depart-ment sanitised and sterilized 52,560 containers.

It has also placed notices on 2,004 neglected vehicles and impounded another 95, in addi-tion to the issuance of 80 viola-tions on public cleanliness and waste transportation regula-tions.

Street vendors were handed 37 violations and 91 warnings, while shops were handed 92 vio-lations.

Meanwhile, 13 notices for violations were issued to various real estate properties.

Guard runs Nuzha co-opThe National Guard have

taken task of running Al-Nuzha cooperative store to ensure work continuity after its closure due to infections with the novel corona-virus (COVID-19).

The National Guard said in a statement the personnel took charge of operating Al-Nuzha store after succeeding in man-aging branches of Al-Khaldiyah and Al-Mahboula cooperative societies.

Brigadier Riad Mohammad Tawari, the Guard Assistant for Financial Affairs and Resource Management, said the squad would manage and operate the store to secure basic needs and commodities for the district resi-dents.

Customers can shop by using the telephone, the barcode sys-tem and the wesbsite. They will be able to get the purchased items at the parking lot. The bought goods can also be delivered at houses of the elderly and the in-capable.

A team of the Guard chemical and radiation monitoring center has already sanitized Al-Nuzha shopping store.

Al-Nuzha district, situated in Al-Assima Governorate in the heart of the capital, is populated by some 10,000 people.

Economy seen co-existingA report published by Al-

Qabas daily about the return of normal life but with strict health controls has received positive feedback from the economic circles, all of which confirmed the logical solutions presented in the report and its responsible role in ensuring cohesion of sectors and preventing their collapse, as well as fully adhering to the re-quirements, health measures and social divergence, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The report highlighted the high costs of closures if the crisis lasts for longer, stressing that that the measures taken to cushion the economy, such as compensating the soft loans and issuing restrictive decisions, will not have any impact if the crisis continues for longer due to which it is inevitable that the community must coexist with the virus, as is the case in vari-ous countries in order for the circle of life to continue.

Head of Kuwait Economic So-ciety (KES) Muhannad Al-Sanea said, “Not opening the economy and vital sectors can bring more harm than the coronavirus crisis itself.”

He called for “a gradual and organized return to normal life, opening of the economy, and need to coexist with the crisis in a healthy manner, like in many countries of the world”.

Al-Sanea said, “After the to-tal lockdown ends, we hope the economy will be gradually re-opened. If we do not open the

Continued on Page 5Continued on Page 5

In this May 4, 2020 file photo, a man wears a mask as he waits in line outside the Warrensburg License Office in Warrensburg, Mo. (AP)

Me or We? – Page 2

This April 6, 2020 photo provided by Northwestern University shows dis-coloration on a teenage patient’s toes three days after the onset of the con-dition informally called ‘COVID toes’. The red, sore and sometimes itchy swellings on toes look like chilblains, something doctors normally see on the feet and hands of people who’ve spent a long time outdoors in the cold. (AP)

‘Don’t race to the emergency room’

COVID toes, rashes signal virusWASHINGTON, May 18, (AP): Skin doctors suddenly are looking at a lot of toes - whether by emailed picture or vid-eo visit - as concern grows that for some people, a sign of COVID-19 may pop up in an unusual spot.

Boston dermatologist Esther Free-man expected to see skin complaints as the pandemic unfolded - various kinds of rashes occur when people get very ill from other viruses.

“But I was not anticipating those would be toes,” said Freeman of Massachusetts General Hospital, who has viewed via telemedicine more toes in the last several weeks than in her entire career.

They’re being called “COVID toes,” red, sore and sometimes itchy swellings on toes that look like chilblains, some-thing doctors normally see on the feet and hands of people who’ve spent a long time

outdoors in the cold.Don’t race to the emergency room if

toes are the only worry, said the Ameri-can Academy of Dermatology.

Earlier this month, it issued advice that a telemedicine check is the first step for people wondering if they have “COVID toes” and who have no other reason for urgent care. Doctors then should decide if the patient should stay in home isolation or get tested.

The most common coronavirus symp-toms are fever, a dry cough and shortness of breath -- and some people are conta-gious despite never experiencing symp-toms. But as this bewildering virus con-tinues to spread, less common symptoms are being reported including loss of smell, vomiting and diarrhea, and increasingly, a variety of skin problems.

Continued on Page 5

Opinion

The only solution is to uproot Hezbollah

By Ahmed Al-JarallahEditor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

UNDOUBTEDLY, the world knows that Hassan Nasrallah is the de facto ruler of Lebanon, and that Michel Aoun is merely a front in the presidency of the Republic. The second presidency under the era of Hassan Diab era served as a malleable tool to realize the policies of Hezbollah, which suffers from a major crisis and renders it to openly seek changing the face and substance of the state, and threaten the rest of the Lebanese components if they fail to submit to it.

Hezbollah is not only suffocating locally due to the worsening living crisis, but also regionally and globally as it refuses to close the so-called “illegal crossings” that serve as arteries for smuggling diesel and flour that are subsidized in Lebanon.

This happens after its sources of funding in Iran have dried up, and the doors of illegal support were closed through prevention of entry of donations.

The latest of such reports came from Germany where the authorities discovered that Hezbollah’s elements have been working on manufac-turing weapons and explosives with the aim of carrying out a new wave of terrorist attacks similar to the previous ones executed by this terror-ist group in several European cities.

On this basis, Hassan Nasrallah came out last week, confused and speaking the truth about the need to support the national economy, but with wicked intentions to restore relations with the Syrian regime in order to control the borders. However, he already knows that this will not be possible as long as his party controls the loopholes on both sides of the Syrian-Lebanese borders and prevents the Lebanese authorities from manning the borders.

In reality, Hezbollah’s eyes are not only focused on controlling the borders that constitutes a temporary source of finance, but its actual objective is to legitimize its absolute rule in Lebanon. It is well aware of the fact that it will lose a lot of grounds, in the event of negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as per the prepared plan, because this international organization will take control of seaports, airports, customs and border crossings as soon as the deal is through.

This is why Hezbollah seeks to control Lebanon’s economic do-mains and impose its hand on the banks by cutting their numbers by half in order to facilitate better grip over them, and stand against the governor and senior employees of the Central Bank.

Email: ahmed@aljarallah.com

Follow me on:

ahmedaljarallah@gmail.com

Continued on Page 5

Newswatch

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said that the num-ber of coronavirus cases is “strongly trending downward throughout the United States, with few exceptions.”

He hailed the development in a tweet as a “Very good news, indeed.”Earlier in the day, Trump told reporters that “tremendous progress is

being made on many fronts, including coming up with a cure for this horrible plague that has beset our country.”

He also tweeted “doing really well, medically, on solving the Coro-navirus situation (Plague!). It will happen!”

This comes as the state of Texas saw its highest single day increase in positive coronavirus cases since the outbreak of the pandemic.

At least 1,801 cases have been reported, bringing the total number of cases to 48,396 in the state, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).

Texas is one of the states that has allowed some nonessential busi-ness to reopen. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Ministry of Health declared two new deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) bringing fatalities’ tally since outbreak of the contagion in the nation to 123.

The ministry said in a statement 144 new infection cases were re-corded, thus the whole number of contamination cases climbed to 3,404 across the country including Iraq’s Kurdistan.

So far, there have been 2,218 recoveries. (KUNA)❑ ❑ ❑

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia declared recording 10 new deaths due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in addition to 2,735 new infection cases from the pandemic.

Offi cial spokesperson of the ministry of health, Dr. Mohammad Al-abdulali, said in his regular daily briefi ng about status of the contagion in the kingdom that total number of fatalities from the virus climbed to 312 and infections to 54,752.

Number of recoveries increased to 25,722 after registering 2,056 new recuperation cases, he said, adding that 202 patients remained in inten-sive care wards. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

MANAMA: Up to 183 cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) were reg-istered in Bahrain in past hours, said health authorities Sunday.

There were also 12 people recovering from the virus, which put the tally at 2,774, affi rmed the Bahraini Health Ministry.

Those still receiving treatment amount to 4,144 of which six are in intensive care. (KUNA)

2ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020

editor’s choice

Art inspired by pandemic

Everyone a story … How will we remember?

In this March 18, 2020, photo provided by Zofi a Oles shows one of Oles’ images titled ‘Plastic Touch’ taken in Willowbrook, Ill. Oles is a senior at Hinsdale South high school and submitted her art work to the Illinois State Museum, which is documenting what daily life is like for Illinois families during the coronavirus pandemic. (Inset, left): In this March 18, 2020, photo provided by Zofi a Oles shows one of Oles’ images titled ‘Glass

Bubble’ taken in Willowbrook, Ill. (Inset, right): In this April 28, 2020 photo, Zofi a Oles holds her laptop in Willowbrook, Ill. (AP)

By Sara Burnett and Regina Garcia Cano

Artist Obi Uwakwe was driving through Chicago’s empty streets, cam-era on his lap to document life during COVID-19, when he saw some-

thing that made him stop: a casket being carried out of a church while a few mourners stood by, their faces covered.

The 43-year-old raised his camera and took a photograph. Later, it would become one of the images Uwakwe used to create paintings inspired by the pandemic.

“To see maybe six people there, everyone wearing a mask,” he said, “it brought everything together.”

Around the world, people like Uwakwe are creating photographs, paint-ings, emails, journals and social media posts that will shape how the world remembers the coronavirus pandemic for years and centuries to come. Muse-ums and historical societies already are collecting materials, often with help from people accustomed to capturing and sharing even the most mundane moments around them.

The result, historians say, will be a collective memory more personal than perhaps any other moment in history.

“Everyone is touched by this. Everyone has a story,” said Erika Holst, curator of history at the Illinois State Museum, one of hundreds across the US gathering pieces of a generational treasure trove. Collecting the items in real time allows historians to nudge people for the stories behind them — a luxury rarely available, Holst said.

Effect“Usually as historians, we get a lot of numbers — the number of peo-

ple who died, the number who got sick, the economic effect,” she said. “It doesn’t always capture what it felt like.”

The enormity of the event is forcing historians to balance capturing ephemeral moments and those that will transcend time.

At the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, a task force is looking into how to gather and preserve objects, images and documents that could become part of permanent collections. But the pandemic itself is challenging the group’s ability to collect because the museum is closed, so curators are asking potential donors to hold onto items.

“We are trying to take the long view on this, so (we are) focusing now most on objects that are ephemeral, things that might disappear, that might get thrown away or just used up,” said Benjamin Filene, the museum’s as-sociate director of curatorial affairs.

Unlike during other national crises, people have a camera in their pocket at all times, documenting whatever they deem relevant and sharing it on social media, from the cloth mask they sew and the sourdough bread they baked to the cheer for front-line workers and the Zoom meeting of school students.

FinishedBut not every quilt made or puzzle finished can tell the story of what hap-

pened in the US in the spring of 2020. “There is sort of this overwhelming mass of information, but that informa-

tion is not necessarily being captured in a way that’s going to be preserved,” Filene said. “And there’s also the possibility that it is so fragmentary that how much will it translate to somebody else five years from now or 25 or 50 years from now? We don’t just need a thing; we want the story that goes with the thing.”

The National Museum of African American History and Culture has been working with doctors, nurses and other health workers who have offered to donate personal protective equipment. Senior curator for history William Pretzer said cultural organizations nowadays do “rapid-response collecting” and no longer wait until materials are considered memorabilia.

Me or we?

Individualism or the common good?WASHINGTON, May 18, (AP): We, the people. But individual rights. The common good. But don’t tread on me. Form a more perfect un-ion and promote the general welfare. But secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.

From the moment the American republic was born right up until to-day, this has been its hallmark: Me and we – different fl avors of free-dom that compete but overlap – liv-ing together, but often at odds.

The history of the United States and the colonies that formed it has been a 413-year balancing act across an assortment of topics, priorities, passions and ambitions. Now, in the coronavirus era, that tug of war — is it about individuals, or the communi-ties to which they belong? — is show-ing itself in fresh, high-stakes ways.

On Friday, protesters massed at the

foot of the Pennsylvania Capitol steps — most of them maskless — for the second time in a month to decry Gov. Tom Wolf and demand he “reopen” the state faster. It is one of many states where a vocal minority has criticized virus-related shutdowns for trampling individual rights.

“He who is brave is free,” read a sign carried by one Pennsylvania protester. “Selfi sh and proud,” said another, referring to the governor’s statement that politicians advo-cating immediate reopening were “selfi sh.” “My body my choice,” said a sign at a rally in Texas, coopt-ing an abortion-rights slogan to op-pose mandatory mask rules.

“The pandemic is presenting this classic individual liberty-common good equation. And the ethos of dif-ferent parts of the country about this is very, very different. And it’s pull-

ing the country in all these different directions,” says Colin Woodard, author of “American Character: A History of the Epic Struggle Be-tween Individual Liberty and the Common Good.”

Though polls show a majority of Americans still support some level of shutdown, the cries to reopen have grown in the past few weeks as job losses continue to mount. In Pennsylvania and across the country, the demonstrators’ chorus has gener-ally been: Don’t tell me how to live my life when I need to get out of my house and preserve my livelihood.

“They’re being told to stay home, wait it out. And that’s a really weird democratic message to get. And the only way to do it is to say, ‘I trust the government,’” says Elspeth Wilson, an assistant professor of government at Franklin & Marshall

College in Pennsylvania.While the catalyst is an unprec-

edented pandemic, the collision of individual rights and the common good is as old as the republic itself: Where does one American’s right to move around in public without a mask end, and another American’s right to not be infected with a poten-tially fatal virus begin?

“This is economic paralysis by analysis for some people. And they’re afraid,” says Steven Benko, an ethi-cist at Meredith College in North Carolina. “They feel devalued.”

Americans have long romanti-cized those who reject the system and take matters into their own hands — the outlaw, the cowboy, the rebel. Many American leaders have wrestled to reconcile that with “common good” principles that are generally needed to govern.

“You collected stuff because you had historical perspective on that event. You collected the Civil War 20 years after the Civil War. You collected World War II experience in the 1950s,” Pretzer said. “You didn’t do it im-mediately. Beginning in some ways with 9/11, however, it became clear that rapid-response collecting, collecting on the spot meant that you got the origi-nal evidence.”

Pretzer said the museum wants to “go behind the statistics” showing the virus has disproportionately affected people of color. and explain the reasons for the disparity and what can be done about it in the future.

“In other words, it’s not a race or color or ethnicity that determines this disproportionate impact. It’s the underlying conditions,” Pretzer said. “What’s the economic role? What kinds of jobs are available in that com-munity? What kind of access to health care do people have? What type of access to healthy foods have they had? What access to transportation? What is education like in those communities?”

Technology is helping historians collect material and tell stories as well. The Historic New Orleans Collection, a museum and publishing house, is us-ing technology known as a “spider” to crawl the web and collect information about how the pandemic is affecting the hard-hit city. Among its finds: the city’s cellphone alert system’s webpage.

The Maryland Historical Society is sharing posts on its blog and on social media using its own hashtags, #LettersFromtheHomeFrontMD and #Col-lectingInQuarantineMD. An April 16 entry includes a letter from a woman identified as Lauren from Darlington, Maryland, explaining her fears of con-tracting COVID-19 while at work. She said she works for the US Postal

Service, while her husband is an electrical foreman.“I have two young children at home and I can not afford to stay home and

only receive two-thirds of my pay,” she wrote. “We are both exposed to the world … My mother can not get this disease, it may kill her.”

Heather Voelz of Taylorville, Illinois, submitted a photo to the Illinois State Museum of her kids on Easter. But she said most of what she’s record-ing are things that “wouldn’t mean much to anyone but us.” Voelz and two of her children, ages 3 and 5, are keeping a kids’ journal she found online, and Voelz plans to put the pages in their baby books.

“I know they don’t fully grasp what is happening,” she said. “But they will someday.”

Zofia Oles, 18, of suburban Chicago started taking photos for her school photography class but kept at it to remember her senior year. Some photos show Oles dancing alone in her room, she and her brother going to the store and neighbors gathering — at a distance — in a parking lot.

“I want to have a memory of how it looked so when I am able to be with my friends again, I can appreciate how it was,” she said.

Uwakwe said recent weeks remind him of the days after 9/11, when streets were quiet and there was a collective sense of grieving, helping and appre-ciation for people on the front lines.

Uwakwe didn’t walk around with a camera back then. In the years since, he’s thought about those missed images. It’s what ultimately moved him to get in his car and capture what’s happening.

“The more I sat, I thought: ‘I don’t want to regret not doing it again.’” (AP)

LOCALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020

3

Prayer TimingsFajr ...............................................................................03:23Sunrise .........................................................................04:54Zohr ..............................................................................11:44Asr ................................................................................15:20Maghreb .......................................................................18:35Isha ...............................................................................20:03

Weather Expected weather for the next 24 hours:By Day: Hot and relatively humid over coastal

areas with light variable wind to light to moder-ate south easterly wind with speed of 06-28 km/h and some scattered clouds will appear.

By Night: Fair and partly cloudy with light to moderate south easterly wind to light south west-erly wind with speeds of 06-28 km/h.

Station Max Min Exp RecKuwait City 37 28Kuwait Airport 42 22Abdaly 42 24Bubyan - -Jahra 42 25Failaka Island 36 23Salmiyah 32 25Ahmadi - -Nuwaisib 38 23Wafra 44 20Salmy 42 26

4 days forecast - WeatherTuesday, May 19

Expected weather: .....Hot and partly cloudy and relatively humid over coastal areas.Max Temp.................................................... 41CMin Temp.....................................................25CWind Direction ...................................... VRB-SEWind Speed ......................................08-32 km/h

Wednesday, May 20Expected weather: ..............................................Hot and relatively humid over coastal areas and some scattered clouds will appear. Max Temp.................................................... 42CMin Temp.....................................................26CWind Direction ....................................VRB-VRBWind Speed ......................................08-30 km/h

Thursday, May 21Expected weather:..... ......Hot and and relatively humid over coastal areas.Max Temp.................................................... 42CMin Temp.....................................................26CWind Direction ...................................... VRB-SEWind Speed ......................................08-32 km/h

Friday, May 22Expected weather: Hot and and relatively humid over coastal areas.Max Temp.................................................... 42CMin Temp.....................................................27CWind Direction ...................................... VRB-SEWind Speed ......................................08-35 km/h

Marine ForecastStation Max Min Sea Today’s Exp Rec Surf Waves Ht DirectionSouth Dolphin - - - 3ft NWSouth Dolphin - - - 3ft NWUmm Mudayrah - - - 3ft NWBeacon M28 - - - 3ft NW

Beacon N6 - - - 3ft NWQaruh Island 30 26 - 3ft NWUmm Al-Maradim 31 27 - 3ft NWSea Island Buoy - - - - -Salmiyah 32 25 - 3ft NW

4 days forecast - MarineTuesday, May 19

Expected weather:..... ..Hot and relatively humid over coastal areas. Sea state .............................. Slight to moderateWave height............................................... 1-4 ftMax Temp.................................................... 41CMin Temp.....................................................25CWind Direction ...................................... VRB-SEWind Speed ......................................08-32 km/h

Wednesday, May 20Expected weather: Hot and relatively humid over coastal areas.Sea state .............................. Slight to moderateWave height............................................... 1-4 ftMax Temp.................................................... 42CMin Temp.....................................................26CWind Direction ...................................... VRB-SEWind Speed ......................................08-30 km/h

Thursday, May 21 Expected weather: Hot and relatively humid over coastal areas.Sea state .............................. Slight to moderateWave height............................................... 1-4 ftMax Temp.................................................... 42CMin Temp.....................................................26CWind Direction ...................................... VRB-SEWind Speed ......................................08-32 km/h

Friday, May 22Expected weather: Hot and relatively humid over coastal areas.Sea state .............................. Slight to moderateWave height............................................... 1-5 ftMax Temp.................................................... 42CMin Temp.....................................................27CWind Direction ...................................... VRB-SEWind Speed ......................................08-35 km/h

Tide times at Shuwaikh Port1st high tide: ..............................................09:372nd high tide: .............................................21:271st low tide:................................................15:462nd low tide: ..............................................03:53Sunrise: .....................................................04:54Sunset: ......................................................18:35

Recorded yesterday at KuwaitAirport

Max temp ..................................................... 41CMin temp ...................................................... 25CMax Rh ....................................................... 38%Min Rh ........................................................ 11%Max Wind.........................................SE 36 km/hTotal Rainfall in 24 hrs .24 mm

Recorded yesterday at SouthDolphin

Min/Max/ Air Temp .................................. 00/-°C Min/Max Rel Hum ........................................ -/-%Wind Direction/Wind Speed..................N/- km/hPrev Wave Dir/Max Wave Ht .......................N/-ftMin/Max Sea Surface Temp ...................... -/- °CSea Current ....................................... Downdraft

— Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Meteorological Department

deathsNasser Saqer Mohammad Al Saqer, 85 years old, buried on Sunday. Condolenc-es: Tel. 99333803/51447446. Bader Abdul Ghafar Mohammad Atsh, 55 years old, buried on Sunday. Condolences: Tel. 99778755/55990229. Hameeda Minjel Radi, wife of Matar Khazal Al Thewaihi, 64 years old, buried on Sunday. Condo-lences: Tel. 66455989/97637282.

May 18, 2020

Iftar ........................................................ Tuesday ...........................................18:36Imsak ..................................................... Wednesday ......................................03:09

Ramadan Timings

UNHCR, Tanmeia charity, Kuwaiti Al-Essa join to support Ramadan campaign helping refugees

COVID-19 did not curtail Kuwait’s humanitarian effortsKUWAIT CITY, May 18: The Unit-ed Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offi ce in Ku-wait announced today its collabo-ration with Kuwaiti social media infl uencer, Bader Al-Essa, to raise awareness on the current situation of refugees, highlight their success-ful entrepreneurship stories, and am-plify its Ramadan campaign, “Every gift counts” (Khayrak Yefraq), to

youth in Kuwait.The campaign was launched in the

beginning of Ramadan by UNHCR in partnership with Tanmeia Charity and was heavily boosted by Bader Al-Essa on his social media platforms to acquaint Kuwaiti youth with the ef-fects of COVID-19 on refugees and UNHCR’s humanitarian response.

“The generous support of Ku-wait never fails to surprise us. In

less than a month, UNHCR have collected donations that would sup-port 5% of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh,” said Nader El-Nakib, Head of UNHCR’s Private Sector Partnerships Department in Kuwait. “By no means, Kuwaiti youth have proven their humanitarian DNA by supporting our campaign. I would like to thank Mr Bader Al-Essa for offering his social media platforms

to highlight the entrepreneurial suc-cess stories of Refugees. This coop-eration will go beyond the Ramadan campaign,” added El-Nakib.

In another statement, Bader Al-Essa has stressed on the importance of youth engagement in humanitarian causes and utilizing his social media platform as a tool to showcase the cur-rent status of refugees to his followers.

“With the numbers of refugees

increasing on daily basis and the unmet dire needs of the most vulner-able populations, the general public are becoming numb to the cause given that it has been an ongoing crisis for the past years,” explained Mr. Al-Essa. “I believe that the Arab population need to fi nd a glimpse of hope and be well acquainted of the refugee situation so we can revive the cause and collectively support

those who are currently affected by the situation,” added Mr. Al-Essa.

The campaign supports the edu-cation, food, water, and healthcare programs provided by UNHCR to refugees in Rohingya and Syria. The collaboration between UNHCR and Bader Al-Essa included a series of Instagram LIVE interviews show-casing the needs of refugees, particu-larly in Lebanon.

‘Herd immunity last solution ... iftotal lockdown does not succeed’

Ex-ministers’ take on life during & after COVID-19 crisis

KUWAIT CITY, May 18: Some former ministers of Kuwait have highlighted certain mechanisms nec-essary to coexist with the precautionary measures implemented during and beyond the COVID-19 crisis such as establish-ing electronic versions of work in all government agencies and addressing the demographics, re-ports Al-Qabas daily.

They affirmed the need to ad-here to all precautionary mea-sures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as well as find mod-ern methods to develop the sci-entific, security and economic fields, stressing that “herd im-munity is the last solution if the total lockdown does not suc-ceed”.

Former minister and lawmaker Dr. Ahmed Al-Mulaifi said, “I be-lieve the world has changed with the COVID-19 crisis and will change further because it has un-raveled many strengths and weak-nesses both in the global system and in the system of each coun-try. The crisis exposed our mis-takes and negatives that we have been covering up with money. It showed us how harmful it is and how it is able to destroy the coun-try.”

He called for the need to make a lot of changes in the way of build-ing the country.

MistakesDr. Al-Mulaifi went on to say,

“After all the mistakes we saw, es-pecially in the field of demograph-ics and self-sufficiency required for survival, we can no longer continue with this approach. The demographics and self-sufficiency slogan is a broad umbrella under which many reforms at the level of human resources, education and legal system fall under administra-tion of the state. However, we are currently very busy with handling the crisis, so we must devote an-other team that can prepare for ways to cope with the situation after the crisis.”

He explained that the world will change its dealings with technol-ogy to be more intrusive in human life and more controlling and ef-fective so that life does not stop. For example, the outlook towards wars and power will change in the future, as epidemics and viruses will replace conventional weap-ons.

Dr. Al-Mulaifi called for the preparation of science and knowl-edge for self-defense purposes.

Meanwhile, former minister Dr. Muhammad Al-Haifi, based on his diagnosis and vision of the crisis and its repercussions, said, “The coronavirus crisis has two paths - first is that only God Almighty can end the pandemic. We have in his-tory many examples of epidemics that eventually ended, thanks to the Lord of the World, and life re-turned to normal without any cost. The second path revolves around the necessity to produce an effec-tive and safe vaccine against the virus, which would require a long time of not less than six months. In this case, life in itself will not return to normal, so we must adapt and coexist with the new life, which is dominated by physical spacing, wearing masks, washing hands, and not leaving the house except for urgent requirements.”

He stated that the longer the epidemic is confronted, the higher the cost for people and countries becomes, stressing that many

Users offered access to high-definition TV shows, plays, movies

Kuwaiti superstar Al-Ballam partners with Eurisko Mobility for secure and accessible entertainmentBEIRUT, Lebanon, May 18: Renowned Kuwaiti actor and comedian Hasan al Ballam has partnered with Eurisko Mobility to develop a Video on Demand platform, Al Ballam Group, of-fering users access to high-def-inition TV shows, plays, and movies anywhere and anytime. “Al Ballam Group, during the last few years, has shed its skin every year to appear before its audience in a completely new and different way,” said Hasan al Ballam, add-ing, “that is why the Al Ballam management sought to launch its very own platform.”

With the COVID-19 lock-down still far from its conclusion, countless people are continu-ously resorting to online stream-ing platforms for entertainment. Therefore, Eurisko’s mission was to build a highly scalable and adaptable streaming platform to accommodate Al Ballam Group’s millions of monthly viewers with-

out strain, namely during the after-noon and evening, when stream-ing reaches its peak.

Eurisko Mobility built the Al Ballam Group platform around scalability and security. A highly secure payment mechanism was established to protect the Group from attempts of in-app purchase cracking, rendering it immune to jail-broken and rooted devices, but also to protect users’ informa-tion from potential digital attacks. Eurisko similarly adopted the highest security measures to pro-tect Al Ballam’s content, as piracy remains a looming risk over intel-lectual property that is made avail-able digitally. With online stream-ing services gradually, but swiftly, replacing television broadcasting, it was crucial for the Group to acquire an application that “pro-tects the rights of authors, direc-tors, producers, and artists of any tampering with the play or series that may be pirated if uploaded to

digital channels,” said Hasan Al Ballam.

Al Ballam also noted that the Group’s prime interest lies in the quality and value it offers its au-dience. To provide users with a seamless full HD Video on Demand service, “Eurisko em-ployed the latest trends in native mobile development, combined with microservice-based backend development and DevOps infra-structure,” says ZiadTawk, CTO at Eurisko Mobility. This resulted in a widely adaptable and versa-tile platform, catering to a huge and increasing number of users in impeccable quality and efficiency, whether on iOS or Android smart-phones, tablets, HDMI, Apple TV and Chromecast.

https://euriskomobility.com/ Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.

com/media/1168313/Hasan_Al_Ballam_Eurisko_Mobility.jpg

Contact: info@euriskomobility.com, +961-9-854069.

Charities provide assistance to all needy people regardless of nationality, religion or race: Al-HajriKUWAIT CITY, May 18: Assis-tant Undersecretary for the Social Development Sector in the Minis-try of Social Affairs, Hana Al-Hajri affirmed that charities provide as-sistance to all needy people regard-less of nationality, religion or race, reports Al-Anba daily.

Speaking to the daily, Al-Hajri pointed out the ambiguity of a video clip that went viral on social media implying discrimination in the dis-

tribution of aid under these excep-tional circumstances. She asserted it is clear from the tone of the clip that this did not happen in Kuwait, indicating the Kuwaitis have been known for their good deeds since ancient times and their “white hands” always extend to all parts of the world without considering na-tionality or race.

She stressed no one has the right to prevent the provision of assis-

tance to any needy person, confirm-ing that charities and other related associations register all needy fam-ilies and individuals including non-Muslims.

Meals or food baskets distributed by charitable societies are for every-one, especially in light of the current situation in the country. These activ-ities are made possible through the tremendous efforts exerted by these societies, she added.

things will change in the future. He called for the state’s attention towards enhancing internal and external security.

Furthermore, former minister Fahad Al-Shula highlighted the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on social and economic security since the World Health Organization recognized the spread of the epi-demic, as it has become “a source of concern for all countries of the world which has forced them to take strict measures to limit its spread”.

SlowdownHe explained that the coronavi-

rus crisis has caused an economic slowdown, which led to loss of many jobs. Recently, specialists stated that obtaining vaccine or finding treatment may take time and the world must coexist with the epidemic for this time.

Al-Shula said, “Coexisting with coronavirus has become im-perative by taking precautionary measures such as social distanc-ing, and enhancing community

awareness about the importance of wearing gloves and masks, as well as providing gloves and masks to all members of the society. Deci-sions and circulars must be issued to regulate dealing and coexisting with the epidemic in all govern-mental, private and educational institutions.”

He affirmed the need to acti-vate electronic services, or the so-called e-government, for all government transactions and pre-paring airports and airlines to is-sue instructions and procedures in coordination with the World Avia-tion Organization and the World Health Organization as a neces-sary requirement to deal with the epidemic.

In addition, former minister of education Dr. Bader Al-Essa said, “The last choice now that the Ku-waiti government is gesticulating is herd immunity.”

He indicated that, “Herd im-munity is a scientific method followed in most European coun-tries. Some did so at the begin-ning of the crisis, and others

postponed it as their last option. Ensuring herd immunity could take a long time, extending to several months.”

Dr. Al-Essa explained that Ku-wait tried implementing all the measures requested by the World Health Organization from the par-tial curfew to total lockdown. All these measures require everyone’s cooperation to reduce the number of casualties. Most people cooper-ated in adhering to the preventive measures. However, it is apparent that the greater percentage of in-fected cases are among the Asian residents; because of the nature of their communities and culture, es-pecially in densely populated area, such as Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, Mah-boula, and others.

He said, “Infections among the members of the front-lines had slowed down the pace of the battle against COVID-19, even though we have a moderate proportion of victims who have been hospital-ized and a limited rate of people who died compared to our neigh-boring countries.”

Nader El-Nakib

Dr. Muhammad Al-Haifi

Bader Al-Essa

KUNA photoCouncil of Ministers meeting with the Kuwait Audit Bureau officials.

LOCALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020

4

A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION

DIWANIYA‘Increase private sector role’

‘Corona hell & privatization paradise’“ALL Kuwaitis highly appreciate and respect the com-mercial class for its historical political and economic role, and for preserving the social and political sys-tem. The Kuwaiti political environment -- consisting of the ruling family, merchants and the middle class is the outcome and pillar of such a social and political system,” columnist, Professor at Kuwait University’s Political Science Department and the Assistant Under-secretary at the Ministry of Information Dr. Haila Al-Mekaimi wrote for Annahar daily.

“Political scientists confirm that the middle class plays an essential role and contributes to the political stability, for this all emerging societies are working to expand that class and reduce the class of the poor. That is the basis of the strategy pursued by China and India and this made these emerging powers play a major role in shaping international politics.

“This is also the case in Kuwait, where the ruling system has realized that fact from an early period, and it sought to strengthen the middle class, which essentially strengthens the system itself, through many mechanisms including democratic work, civil society, education, and coopera-tive work, and the latter is consid-ered the most important one be-cause it is related to the basics of human survival in terms of food. Cooperative work constitutes one of the sources of legitimacy of the system, at the same time it forms a safety valve for the vast majority of the Kuwaitis.

“Consequently, any intrusion into cooperative work is in fact a blatant interference in the relationship be-tween the political system and its people, and the sei-zure of civil gains laid down by those in power, and any acquisition of it will undoubtedly affect the popu-lar balance of the political system and even if it came under the slogan of improving cooperative work, then what about whoever offended the food security.

“Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, some of the merchants with cinematic movements made us feel that we are living in the era of The Godfather movie, however the protagonist Marlon Brando who played the role of Don Corleone is replaced by ‘Don Onion’, and the onions became a rare commodity and got the title of ‘yellow gold’ and continued to disappear for twenty days until we recently saw some of the video clips showing the onions were thrown in garbage con-tainers after they became unfit for human consumption.

“Then we moved on to the problems of vegetables and fruits market, spoiled meat and fish auctions, sell-ing a bag of bread at imaginary prices, and fighting for Kuwaiti agricultural products. The Ministry of Com-merce was following it up thankfully, and the calamity is that all of this is happening and we live daily the problems of marginal employment, which are brought either by individuals or companies that have large con-tracts with the government.

“Daily the media writes about food delivery ‘boys’ working for restaurants and who insisted on working although infected with the virus, which contributed to prolonging the duration of the curfew and the futility of the partial curfew and now we are in a total lockdown.

“The tragedy is that after all those ‘onion films’ which made us shed tears, there are still those who rudely de-mand the privatization of the cooperative sector and co-operative societies, which is the main point through which the government gained its popularity in this crisis, along with the flour, catering and health care sectors -- sectors related to the basic needs of the human being.

“That claim lacks the understanding of the new en-vironment post-corona crisis, which is to restore con-fidence in the state and the public sector that took over the management of this crisis, a role that will grow stronger with the escalation of global health challenges.

“This does not mean that I am against privatization, rather, I see the necessity of an increased role of the private sector in supporting the national economy, es-pecially during the coming stage, but ‘hands off’ from the sectors that directly affect the basic needs of the Kuwaiti citizen but goes beyond in humiliating him.

“Our brothers, who are affected in the Godfather movie, I would like to remind you that the population of Kuwait is one million, I mean, the subject is not worthy of all of these Hollywood films, not everything is ne-gotiable, and there are new economic sectors imposed by Corona preferring to invest away from tampering with the safety networks of the Kuwaiti citizen, most importantly the cooperative sector, even if marred by ‘corona’ or some abuses, is capable of reform and de-velopment, as the onion crisis and the food crises that followed then forced the citizen to choose ‘the corona hell’ not the paradise of privatization.”

Also:“Will the corona fix what is spoiled by time? Will

this fatal crisis lead to a change in thinking and ap-proach for the coming years,” columnist, Professor at Kuwait University’s Political Science Department, an advisor to Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the secretary general of the Arab Fund for Human Rights (AFHR) Dr Ghanim Al-Najjar wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

In crises the voices for future reform increase, and promises increase that there is no return to the previ-ous situation, but what usually happens is the opposite.

“Have we learned one or more lessons from one of the most serious crises we have had, which is the 1990 invasion? Corona showed the gravity of the de-mographic imbalances on the surface, as it is clear that successive government plans aimed at achieving a population balance of 50 percent, but this was only achieved by invasion.

“Once the country was liberated, thousands of vi-sas were granted, to a number of influential people, to drown the country with marginal employment, and leave them on the streets of Kuwait (to find job for themselves and feed themselves) as companies winning government contracts brought into the coun-try thousands of workers in excess of their needs and threw them into the street.

“This gave rise to a number of smaller companies and for the purpose of attracting only bulk workers and this resulted in a rapid loss of population balance, and, by an effective act, the demographics became worse than they were before the invasion.”

“The crux with the thing is that the senior officials addressed their Bedoun, and they are on the Kuwaiti borders as members of the Kuwaiti army ready for liberation, that you are Kuwaitis, and there is no such thing as without, as soon as the country was liberated, those promises evaporated, and they became illegal residents, so we are creative in solving problems by changing their names.

“To make matters worse, the term ‘fake companies’ appeared on the scene a few years ago. These compa-nies were given license that enabled them to bring large numbers of people, especially the menial labor, and threw them in the street although each of the migrant workers paid a lot of money to get a job in Kuwait.

What measures have been taken against them?“The security authorities threatened the workers who

were brought in by these companies with immediate deportation, even though they were not guilty, without any consideration for being victims, and the documents showed they are staying legally in the country.

“As for the fictitious companies, the maximum that can be done is closure, and there is no accountability for their owners, or the officials who contributed to this phenomenon.”

❑ ❑ ❑

“Without a doubt, abstract numbers differ from use-ful information. Therefore, the presentation of numbers only without converting them into information may be ineffective for decision makers or partners, so this must always be taken into account during crises,” Dr. Hind Al-Shomar wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“The emerging corona crisis could be a vivid example, as each number has meanings and messages that need to be clearly presented so that irrational decisions are not taken due to numbers alone. Disseminating the numbers alone in terms of the infected, deaths and recovery for the new corona cases without explaining the meaning of each number positively or negatively makes it difficult for the partners to assess the situation or be convinced of the use-fulness of the decisions taken.

“I think a lot of specialists and non-specialists do not feel it when websites publish numbers about nov-el corona, so the legitimate question for everyone is: What do we benefit from displaying these numbers and knowing them, and what do these numbers mean?

“Also, the partners have the right to say something about the sources of these numbers, the stages and steps for converting them into useful information, compari-sons, statistical and informational methods that have become available to everyone.

“As to how the officials deal with numbers and in-formation, this is another matter. There are officials who are satisfied with the numbers only to issue deci-sions that may not be appropriate or not at the appropri-ate time, while there are officials looking for informa-tion and not the numbers which support their efforts to make important decisions; such that the decisions are logical and able to facilitate mobilization of partners to implement them.

“In this context and with the digital revolution that the world is witnessing in the applications of artificial intel-ligence, our dealing with numbers — whether from deci-sion-making sites at all levels or the sites of followers and spectators — must be in a way with which we improve the utilization of numbers by converting them into valuable information and feasibility to address the minds in a way that supports decision-making.

“Some decisions, if not supported by information, lose justifications for issuing and implementing them and become useless or are described as randomness. Undoubtedly, there are many examples around us in many areas.”

❑ ❑ ❑

“I will briefly list a number of ‘human and legal tragedies’ carried out by Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor by reviewing its performance in labor issues as presented by the State Audit Bureau,” columnist Mud-haffar Abdullah wrote for Aljarida daily.

“However, before that, let me present a very strange issue that the State Audit Bureau mentioned in its 2012/2013 financial report. It stated, ‘The government contracts supply unpaid standby manpower at a rate of ten percent, which leads to marginalized manpower with the expectation of non-payment of salaries …’ and that is the text of the report that I leave for you to comment on.

“Is this a joke? Is the ministry supplying people and then throwing them out on the street like beggars? How did Minister of Social Affairs and Labor allow this? Why did the Parliament miss this in its interpellations? After this calamity, I present to you a number of viola-tions that would make you embarrassed.

“The following violations were highlighted in the re-ports of the State Audit Bureau for the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 fiscal years:

1. Ignoring the defect in the automated system for the purpose of issuing false work licenses.

2. Granting powers to employees to tamper with the data of some companies and manipulate the actual estimate of labor force needed through the automated system for which the ministry spent KD 6.5 million.

3. Taking it easy with dummy companies.4. Adopting personal assessment of employees in

determining the employment numbers of some com-panies.

5. Falsification of employment salary certificates by company representatives.

6. Expanding the issuance of a business invitation card and turning it into a work permit… among many others.

The question is: Do you understand the aforemen-tioned violations? Do you need an explanation of what I have presented from the reports of the State Audit Bureau? Why do workers go out like locusts during the two-hour exercising period?”

❑ ❑ ❑

“A press conference is required after every Cabinet session, as it has been happening since the beginning of the corona pandemic,” columnist Iqbal Al-Ahmad wrote for Al-Qabas daily.

“This communication should not stop even if life gradually returns to normal. It should be a habit to open the door for questions to all media outlets in order to inquire about everything discussed in the Council of Ministers’ meetings and any decision taken by the council.

“All forms of media represent public opinion and the Cabinet’s openness to the entire Kuwaiti society.

We, in Kuwait, now need two press conferences fol-lowing the sessions of the executive and legislative au-thorities (government and Parliament).

“The Kuwaiti citizen has the right to know what is going on in these two authorities, to be aware of every-thing discussed therein, to address issues and express his opinion and observations. Perhaps, there will be a scope for remediation of some things that may be ab-sent from any party.

“Well-trained journalists and media people, who know how to ask and understand the meaning of questions, should attend these press conferences ... journalists who know how to ask and how to convey their thoughts, questions and comments to these two authorities.

“Unfortunately, as we monitored press conferences which have been broadcasted on television since the corona crisis started, we were surprised by the superfi-ciality of some questions or the way they were raised and explanation of ideas.

“Some personalities present in the press conferences are important and powerful source persons from whom we can obtain valuable information on issues under discussion, yet we did not come out with important in-formation in the end.”

— Compiled by Ahmad Al-Shazli

Dr. Al-Mekaimi

Sponsors whose employeesabscond to face legal action

‘Visa traders detention extended’

KUWAIT CITY, May 18: Public Au-thority for Man-power has submit-ted to the Ministry of Interior a list of names of employers (sponsors) whose domestic workers frequently abscond with the aim of taking legal action deemed appropri-ate by the minis-try against them, reports Aljarida daily.

In a statement to the daily, Director of the Department for Recruit-ing Domestic Workers in the authority, Nasser Al-Mousawi indicated continuous coordina-tion with the Ministry of Interior to prevent domestic workers from infiltrating the labor market in private sec-tor, which according to Law No. 68/2015, are restricted to work in do-mestic sector only and not shops or commer-cial complexes.

“In the event that any domestic worker is caught working for a different employer, the author-ity will refer him/her to the General Director-ate of Residency Affairs and legal measures taken against the employer,” Al-Mousawi said, adding concerned authorities will continue monitoring the internet in search of those trading in domestic visas, and anyone caught in the act will be referred to the Cybercrime Department in the Interior Ministry.

❑ ❑ ❑

Detention continued: The Sentences Renewal Judge has ordered the continued detention of 22 Egyptians and 6 Kuwaitis, reports Al-Rai daily.

The daily added, the men face the charges of trading in visa and bring-ing into the country bulk labor and receiving huge sums of money in ex-change.

The daily added, the suspects were arrested af-ter their names were dis-closed by the residence law violators who took advantage of leaving the country without paying fines after the Ministry of Interior offered the am-nesty in April.

In the same context, the Public Prosecution is in the process of investigat-ing other suspects (Ku-waitis and expatriates) who the Ministry of Interi-or is accusing of bringing into the country thousands of workers and leaving them on the streets to fend for themselves after taking huge sums of money from each worker.

Photos by Samer ShaqairTop and above: The COVID-19 drive-thru testing center at the airport ready to receive visitors.

KUNA photoVolunteers from the Institute of Applied Nursing Authority getting ready to report for

work.

KD 100m installments postponed

May salaries for govt sector readyKUWAIT CITY, May 18: Local banks have started depositing salaries and fi nancial privileges for the month of May into the accounts of government sector employees, reports Al-Anba daily quoting sources.

Sources confi rmed the banks are working hard to deposit salaries immediately after receiving the salary statements from gov-ernment institutions, such that salaries of all employees in the sector will be deposited within this week -- before the Eid Al-Fitr holiday.

Sources added the banks also deposited the social allowance for graduates.

Meanwhile , the Minister of Public Works and Housing Dr Rana Al-Faris clarifi ed that the decision to postpone the collection of Kuwait Credit Bank (KCB) installments covers only those who obtained loans from the bank, reports Al-Anba daily.

She affi rmed the decision guarantees that the postponed monthly installments will not increase and this applies to all types of loans obtained from KCB.

It has been reported that about 150,000 citizens shall benefi t from the decision and total amount of postponed installments is estimated at KD 100 million.

Decisions to cushion economy fromCOVID-19 effects yet to be realizedKUWAIT CITY, May 18: Weeks after the statement of the Higher Steering Committee for Economic Stimulus chaired by the Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait Dr Muhammad Al-Hashil saying its decisions to cushion the economy from the effects of the outbreak of coronavirus on the local economy, the practical and executive mea-sures for those decisions have yet to be achieved on the ground, reports Al-Jaridah daily.

Owners of small and medium enterprises and those working in private sector are mostly affected by the crisis, as their businesses are at a free fall due to slow im-plementation of government’s procedures in terms of soft fi-nancing, which contradicts the nature of crises wherein decisions must be fast and flexible to amend in the event of deviations in their implementation, adding such de-cisions will lose value and be-come futile if delayed, and they’ll lead to greater costs in the future, the daily added.

It’s been more than one month and the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises has yet to start fi nancing the companies under its umbrella and those affected by the pandemic, given that the Higher Steering Committee for Economic Stimulus had set the conditions for soft fi nancing at 80 percent from the fund, and 20 percent from local banks, the daily said.

According to the daily, reper-cussions of the delay in imple-mentation fall on the shoulders of entrepreneurs, which is more

burdensome when considering the financial obligations to be met to avoid the closure of businesses or even footing multiple expenses such as salaries and rents, which may cause many of them to falter or fall into bankruptcy; thus miss-ing the objective of the fund that encourages Kuwaiti youth to initi-ate value added projects to boost the national economy.

Nonetheless, if government’s mechanism continues on such a slow decision-making pace by treating the crisis as an ordinary problem, then we fear that failure of small and medium enterprises would greatly affect the bigger enti-ties, especially sectors that depend on small enterprises in their deal-ings, it noted.

It said proposals having posi-tive impact on the Kuwaiti youth who are employed in private sec-tor even remain at the mercy of bureaucracy and slow decision-making mechanism despite the clarity of data and completion of studies for that purpose. Foremost of which is the decision to raise financial support for the national manpower employed in private sector by 100 percent, as the de-lay in issuing such decisions will take a toll on the young people in terms of salary reduction and lay-off.

Ultimately, the situation will in-crease the burden on the state, be-sides holding the state responsible for appointing a greater number of them in public sector due to limit-ed job security in private sector, it added.

LOCALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020

5

Photos by Mohammad MorsiTop and above: People can be seen walking on the roads during the curfew break from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm in Farwaniya area.

Arab expatriate arrested for insultingGCC country, rulers; ‘zero tolerance’

Asian trio caught selling items to people in quarantine

KUWAIT CITY, May 18: The Electronic Crimes Department of the Min-istry of Interior has tak-en into custody an Arab man for posting tweet in the social media to offend a sisterly GCC country and its rulers, reports Al-Rai daily.

The daily added, after the tweet was posted police inves-tigations revealed the man is an Arab citizen and working for one of the cleaning companies.

After the arrest, the Ministry of Interior issued a statement saying no one will be allowed to offend any sisterly or friendly country or the rulers and must adhere to the rules and regulations of the country.

She added that by conducting a search and investigation process, it was found that the account holder is an Arab resident in Kuwait and works in a cleaning company.

During interrogation the sus-pect is said to have admitted to the charge.

❑ ❑ ❑

Asian trio nabbed: Security per-sonnel have arrested 3 Asians for selling various goods to people who are housed at the Ministry of Public Works quarantine, reports Al-Rai daily.

The Directorate General of Pub-lic Relations and Security Media Department of the Interior Ministry said the arrest came after a video of the three men selling merchandise to the people (infected with the coro-navirus) inside the quarantine went viral.

The daily said the trio when con-fronted with the footage has admit-ted to the charge. They also said they sold the goods at prices higher than their prices.

They have been referred to the concerned authorities.

❑ ❑ ❑

Two mocking curfew: The E-Crimes Department of the Ministry of Interior have taken into custody two Syrian juveniles (females) for posting a video clip which shows them violating and mocking the decision to impose total ban which went into effect from May 10 and lasts until May 30, reports Al-Rai daily.

In the video clip the teenagers are also boasting that they know senior offi cials including a Public Prosecu-tor and senior offi cials in the Interior Ministry.

They have been referred to the Ju-venile Prosecution.

❑ ❑ ❑

Couple robbing people: Police have arrested an unidentifi ed young woman and her male friend for rob-

bing people, reports Al-Rai daily.The daily added, the arrest came

after a Lebanese complained to the police that while he was walking along a road in Wafra the couple, who were walking their ferocious dogs robbed him under threat.

When police set out to look for the suspects, they saw the duo riding on bikes each with a dog tied to a leash.

When the suspects saw the police approaching, they got down from their bikes and took refuge into an abandoned chalet.

They were pursued and arrested by the police. Police found with them the items stolen from the Lebanese.

❑ ❑ ❑

Detention increased: The Sen-tences Renewal Judge has decided to

continue the detention for two weeks of an offi cer working for the Minis-try of Interior as Captain based on a complaint fi led by three expatriates accusing him of forgery and intimi-dation, reports Al-Rai daily.

The Public Prosecution had charged the offi cer of using his au-thority and power to break up a gath-ering of a number of the Egyptian community in 2018 with the help of other policemen.

One of the Egyptians allegedly took the picture of the Captain in a civilian dress and several of them accused him of intimidation and pro-viding incorrect information.

The accused has denied the charg-es against him.

❑ ❑ ❑

Kuwaitis fi ghting in public: Po-lice have detained for interrogation four Kuwaitis – one an employee of the Ministry of Interior, a Kuwaiti working for a private company and two others jobless – for fi ghting in public, reports Al-Rai daily.

The daily added, the arrest came after the Operations Room of the Ministry of Interior received a in-formation from a passerby who said four men were fi ghting on a road in Al-Dhaher.

The ministry employee said the three people assaulted while on duty and damaged his cellphone. He also told police one of the suspects was armed with a knife.

Police are looking for yet another person who is said to have escaped from the scene.

The National Guard have taken the task of running Al-Nuzha Cooperative Society to ensure work continuity after its closure due to infections with the COVID-19. The National Guard took charge of operating Al-Nuzha store after succeeding in managing branches of Al-Khaldiya and Al-Mahboula cooperative societies. Above:

National Guard contingent at the store.

Don’t spill onto roads in two-hour curfew break, public urgedPeople are requested not to spill onto the public roads during the two-hour break from total curfew, reports Al-Anba daily quoting se-curity sources.

The daily added, police patrols are spread all over to ensure law and order and people who come out to practice their hobby of jog-ging or brisk walking must avoid public roads because roads are meant for the movement

of cars, since many people use these roads to go to and come from work especially those working in vital sectors.

People are called to respect the decisions issued by the Council of Ministers including social distancing and wearing masks. The security sources said the public gardens will remain closed until further notice.

On the other hand, a security source said

the video clip that has been posted in the so-cial media of people inside the Farwaniya Gar-den is old and was taken during the partial ban.

The source added the wall of the Farwaniya Garden is being temporarily repaired and the Public Authority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) engineer working on the project has been informed of the need to fence the park completely.

KUWAIT CITY, May 18: Per-sonnel from the Criminal In-vestigation Department (CID) working in the Cyber Crime Department have arrested an unidentifi ed Kuwaiti working for a company which is special-ized in programming systems for attempting to penetrate more than 20,000 times the Ministry of Commerce and In-dustry department which is re-sponsible for issuing shopping appointments for cooperative societies and catering branches, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The accused who was seized from an apartment in Al-Shaab Al-Bahari area is said to have admitted to the charge and said he was trying to obtain as much information as possible about people who visit the coopera-tive societies and use that infor-mation for ‘other purposes’.

The daily added the suspect was arrested following coor-dination between the Ministry of Commerce and E-crimes Department of the Ministry of Interior.

The daily added, the Public

Prosecution issued permission to tap some suspicious phones, as well local lines, until the of-fi cers reached the identity of the hacker, his residence and work-place, and on that basis a search and arrest warrant was issued from the Public Prosecution of-fi ce and the hacker was arrested while he was leaving the house during the permissible two-hour break from curfew.

He has been referred to the Public Prosecution.

Hacker caught for penetrating MoCI 20,000 times

The onlyContinued from Page 1

All this will lead to change in the characteristics and features of Lebanon, which to us Arabs means the end of a country that we have known through-out the past century as the crossroads between religions and civilizations, and a diverse country that constitutes a true model of coexistence.

Furthermore, the Lebanese will lose their distinctive feature of being pioneers in public relations and agents of most of the world’s industries, even at the height of the civil war, as their goods were ex-ported overseas.

For 38 years, the gang master of drug smugglers worked on making Lebanon his own farm, disregarding all social, economic and political legacies. The lo-cal forces have been fi ghting this for 17 years and were able to put an end to it, with the help of regional support. Today, Nasrallah fantasizes about achieving his objective despite being under the weight of starvation caused by his gang that ren-dered Lebanon isolated from its natural surroundings and international relations.

What this dweller of caves and his riffraffs fail to understand is that threats and rhetoric through the media will not stop the international community from conducting surgical operations to root out this tumor.

Therefore, the United Nations’ empha-sis on the need to implement international resolutions, while Israel continues to car-ry out disciplinary operations to weaken it along with the Revolutionary Guard forces and Iraqi militias in Syria, was not random, but rather represent a warning message of a greater upcoming event.

There is no doubt that Nasrallah’s latest speech clearly revealed the fateful crisis of Hezbollah. Instead of fi ghting back at the one who is slapping him, he turns his frustrations towards the Lebanese people.

May Almighty Allah rescue Lebanon and its people from this tribulation which seemingly can only end with the rooting out of this drug smuggling and terrorist group known as Hezbollah.

Corporation.The source stated that that expatriate

labor has been appointed in the oil sector due to the lack of national employment, as international and accredited employ-ment agencies have been recruited to employ that labor after receiving the CVs from candidates and comparison between them in preparation for choos-ing the best and their wages have been determined according to the unifi ed sal-ary scale in the oil sector.

The sources said the rate of Kuwaitis in the Ministry of Oil is 100 percent, and the rate of Kuwaitis in the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and many of its subsidiaries exceeded the target of 90 percent as demanded by the Civil Ser-vice Commission, indicating that the oil sector worked during the last period on a replacement plan and the jobs oc-cupied by expatriates was to ensure the workfl ow is not disrupted, especially in the rare technical jobs that require spe-cialized expertise, while ensuring at the same time that these experiences train Kuwaitis in preparation for their replace-ment in the future.

Six deaths …

COVID toes,

MPs battle

Continued from Page 1

Continued from Page 1

Continued from Page 1

economy, this situation will certainly harm us more than the coronavirus cri-sis. There is no choice but to start open-ing the economy gradually and coexist-ing with the crisis in a healthy manner.”

He further said, “The coronavirus crisis has become a health crisis and a reality that we must coexist with; but this does not mean we have to close the economy. There must be a mechanism and a plan for the gradual reopening and return to normal life, taking into ac-count the sectors that are most affected, as damage is uneven across sectors. The collapse or bankruptcy of these sectors will undoubtedly affect many others in-cluding banks, and this is what we do not wish for.”

In addition, an opinion poll conduct-ed by “Bensirri Public Relations” on the extent the Kuwaiti companies have been affected by the COVID-19 pan-demic revealed that 56 percent of local companies will not be able to continue covering the fi xed costs for another two months due to business disruptions and partial lockdowns in all parts of the country since March 22. This matter is defi nitely bound to worsen with the implementation of total lockdown from May 11.

The poll, in which 498 business own-ers and chief executive offi cers of Ku-waiti companies participated, indicated that covering the fi xed costs is the big-gest challenge facing their companies. About 56 percent of the companies re-quested fl exibility in paying the rent, and 21 percent imposed unpaid leave for their employees. This measure is in contravention of the labor law but these companies were compelled to take such measures due to their current situation as well as in the absence of stimulating economic decisions.

‘Diffi cult to lay off expat workers’Some oil companies have informed

the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) that it is diffi cult to reduce the number of non-Kuwaitis who work for companies which have contracts with the oil sector at the present time because these companies are in the process of implementing huge contracts and are almost close to completion and that any change in the work structure will have severe consequences for the operation and completion of projects, reports Al-Anba daily quoting top offi cials.

The sources stated the Kuwait Petrole-um Corporation had addressed the affi li-ated oil companies in the middle of last week to prepare a study on the numbers of expatriate employees who can be done away with, but some companies have sent offi cial letters to the KPC stating the diffi culty in applying this clause be-cause of the many projects implemented by the company, especially the Al-Zour refi nery, clean fuel, LNG import facili-ties, heavy oil and others.

According to the latest statistics ap-proved by the KPC, the number of expa-triate workers according to the occupa-tional classifi cation of jobs is more than 3,000 – 1,260 medical specialization jobs, 1,056 engineering specialization jobs, 152 legal, fi nancial and administra-tive specializations, and 500 profession-al and service specialization jobs.

Most of the jobs are concentrated in Kuwait Oil Company (2000 jobs), Kuwait National Petroleum Company about 800, Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) 88, the Petrochemicals Industries about 52 jobs, Kuwait Oil Tankers Company 41 jobs, Kuwait Gulf Oil Company 18, and the International Petroleum Company 4 and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (KUFPEC) about 42 jobs.

It is noteworthy to mention the total workforce in the oil sector is 21,300, in-cluding 18,200 Kuwaitis.

According to the sources, the number of expatriates in the Kuwait Petroleum Industries Company is about 500 who have worked since the company was established almost 3 years ago, and it is diffi cult to reduce these numbers based on the decision of the Kuwait Petroleum

In one report, dermatologists evalu-ated 88 COVID-19 patients in an Italian hospital and found 1 in 5 had some sort of skin symptom, mostly red rashes over the trunk. In another, Spanish doctors reported a series of 375 confi rmed virus patients with a range of skin complaints, from hives to chickenpox-like lesions to the toe swellings.

Pictures of reddened toes and rashes all over social media and doctor chat groups have “already enabled the rapid recogni-tion of skin signs by dermatologists. It is now time for rigorous science” to under-stand the link, Dr. Kanade Shinkai of the University of California, San Francisco wrote in a recent JAMA Dermatology editorial.

Boston’s Freeman directs an interna-tional COVID-19 registry for doctors to report cases of possibly virus-linked skin symptoms. Of 500 reports since late March, about half are chilblain-like spots on the feet, she said.

Chilblains, what doctors call “pernio,” are an infl ammatory reaction. When pernio-like reactions appear in corona-virus-infected patients is one of many mysteries. For some people, it’s the fi rst or even only symptom they notice. Oth-ers see the toe problem at the same time or even a few weeks after experiencing more common and serious COVID-19 symptoms.

It’s showing up in young people too, according to Dr. Amy Paller of North-western University, who is part of a pedi-atric dermatology registry also collecting images of patients’ toes.

Among the theories: Is it just infl am-mation triggered by an infection instead of the cold? Is the virus irritating the lin-ing of blood vessels in the skin, or per-haps causing microscopic blood clots?

“The public health message is not to panic,” Freeman said, noting that most toe patients she’s seen haven’t become severely ill.

Are they contagious? “We can’t tell just by looking at your toes,” she said. Other medical conditions, such as lupus, can cause similar spots - another reason doctors should discuss each patient’s overall health and next steps for testing or other needed care.

totaled KD 752 million. He said 383 or 69 percent of these issues were resolved, while 175 or 31 percent valued at K253 million were dismissed.

He added the issues discussed within the same period in 2019 totaled 443 and all of them were resolved, pointing out the lower number of resolved issues this year implies low expenditures that could be attributed to measures taken to curb the spread of coronavirus such as lock-down.

He said 41 percent of the resolved is-sues are related to coronavirus and 59 percent on other emergent concerns. He revealed the highest number of issues concerns the Ministry of Health at 55 percent, 31 percent for the Cabinet, 10 percent for the Ministry of Finance and four percent for the Ministry of Defense.

He continued saying that 59 percent of the issues are related to previous contracts, as well as the maintenance of roads, electricity and water facilities, Ku-wait International Airport Terminal Two, military equipment, wireless telecom-munications company and other ongoing projects.

According to SAB, some details of contract violations spread on mass and social media platforms are true while oth-ers are fi ctitious. The bureau did not ap-prove contracts found to be riddled with irregularities, such as high prices, the speaker added.

He clarifi ed the Cabinet can approve any of the contracts rejected by SAB as per the law on its establishment, but such a step has not been taken so far.

On the other hand, MP Ali Al-Daqbasi expressed fear that the Ministry of Health (MoH) might repeat the hospitality issue involving the Ministry of Interior (MoI), indicating that as per the presentation of SAB, the MoH fl oated a tender for the supply of sterilizers at wholesale price of KD 2.850 while the retail price is only 800 fi ls. He warned that anyone who takes advantage of the coronavirus crisis to make illegal gains will be questioned.

In addition, MP Sa’adoun Hammad said the presentation of SAB included the recorded observations on the contracts signed by the government, especially the MoH. The bureau informed the MPs that 13 contracts were rejected and 11 of these contracts are that of MoH, he revealed.

He asked about the contract for supply-ing equipment valued at KD 5.6 million with a company whose capital is only KD 1,000. The bureau confi rmed this, indicating the Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT) approved the contract earlier. The bureau later rejected the con-tract and it also cited confl ict of interest because a dentist who works at MoH owns the company, he added.

6ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020

UAE

Dubai

Abu Dhabi

Bahrain

editor’s choice

Emirates opts out of VAT increase

Incentives key in new path for growthBy Michael Armstrong

FCA and ICAEW Regional Director for the Middle East, Africa and South Asia

(MEASA)

Following last week’s announcement that the UAE plans to prioritise growth of

its digital and green economies in its post Covid-19 recovery plan, ICAEW says the country will need to introduce some radical incentive programmes if it is to succeed in staving off a VAT increase in the short term.

In response to Saudi Arabia’s plans to in-crease its valued-added tax (VAT) rate from 5 percent to 15 percent from July 1 this year, the UAE Ministry of Finance confi rmed it would not be doing the same. Instead, it rein-forced its commitment to achieve the UAE’s development goals and plans.

“We applaud the UAE’s progressive eco-nomic vision and forward thinking to further diversify its economy. However, its high de-

pendence on tourism, real estate and global trade means it has a signifi cant challenge ahead to stimulate and support internal de-mand, while remaining attractive to foreign investors.

“Despite being the most diversifi ed of the GCC economies, the UAE public purse remains dependent on oil revenues, and the crash in oil prices has once again accelerated the need for further diversifi cation of the country’s non-oil sector.

“How quickly the country realises its post-oil future will be the true test. We can expect to see more policies introduced and structur-al reforms to enhance the UAE business en-vironment. Credit access will be crucial too, especially for SMEs which represent 98 per-cent of registered businesses in the country, and contribute 52 percent to non-oil GDP.

“This is further compounded by the fact that most of those SMEs are owned by for-eign expatriates. To avoid the mass exodus

of foreign talent that the country saw during the 2009 fi nancial crisis, fi nancial relief will need to be extended to those in need of as-sistance.

“But the government needs to be able to recoup those costs somehow, and so it stands to reason that fi scal adjustments in the form of increased taxes is a logical solution.

“Not doing so now is perhaps a psycho-logical win for the UAE. It remains a more attractive business environment than its larg-er regional neighbour Saudi Arabia. Also, as higher taxes are introduced in more devel-oped markets to cover the cost of Covid-19 relief efforts, the UAE’s low tax environment can remain a draw for foreign investors.

“However, we expect more incentives will have to be introduced to attract the long term commitment of those investors. While this is already happening in the form of Golden Residency Visas for high priority talent, more work will need to be done to provide

greater stability for foreign investors and re-tain talented people.

“Such measures will make it easier to in-crease or introduce more taxation in the fu-ture, something we see as unavoidable and necessary. The Ministry of Finance previ-ously said it wouldn’t introduce tax hikes

until 2023. What the UAE does between now and then to boost the economy and support residents will be somewhat of a competitive-ness litmus test.

“What the UAE also has in its favour right now is the one year postponement of Expo 2020. Although the economic windfall of Expo will also be delayed, it does present a greater opportunity for success since it will allow participating countries more time to recover and should see the travel and tourism sectors better adjusted to the next normal. This will result in a more signifi cant overall contribution to the economy.

“The UAE is a young and dynamic coun-try that has proven itself resilient to global shockwaves in the past. With continued prudent leadership, there is every potential for increased development of its digital and green economies to leapfrog more mature markets. This reset moment is all about plot-ting a new course for economic growth.”

DUBAI, May 18: Local tourism and domestic travel are expected to lead the UAE and wider GCC’s recovery from COVID-19 as we begin to see the eas-ing of lockdown rtestrictions, according to the latest research released ahead of Arabian Travel Market (ATM) Virtual, a newly-launched three-day event that will take place from 1-3 June 2020.

The researchfromColliers Internation-al, in partnership with ATM, revealed the percentage of bookings to Abu Dhabi within a 48km radius increased from just 20% in January 2020 to 43% in March. While, in Dubai, the percentage rose from 19% to 36%.

Adding to this, research by Sojern, suggests staycations are expected to be-come the most popular choice of travel in the short to medium-term, with data revealing hotel bookings to Abu Dhabi within a 48km radius accounted for 77% of all bookings in April and domestic

travel from Dubai accounting for 91% of searches and bookings within the same radius.

With this in mind, ‘The Ho-tel Landscape in a P o s t - C O V I D - 1 9 World’session tak-ing place on Mon-day 1st June from 1.30 pm – 2.30 pm GST (10.30 am –

11.30 am BST), will focus on the hos-pitality industry, exploring the profound impact of COVID-19 on the Middle East’s hotel sector as well as outlining what the landscape is likely to look like when travel resumes and what will be considered new ‘norms’ in terms of guest behaviours and expectations.

Confi rmed session panellists will in-clude Tim Cordon, Senior Area Vice President for Middle East & Africa, Radisson Hotel Group and Christopher Lund, Head of Hotels, Colliers Interna-tional, Middle East & North Africa, and will be moderated by Gemma Green-wood.

Danielle Curtis, Exhibition Director ME, Arabian Travel Market, said: “The global COVID-19 health crisis severely impacted worldwide travel, tourism, events, and leisure activities, with many people being forced to cancel or postpone their travel plans in the fi rst half of 2020. However, what we are now beginning to see is a sense of pent up demand due to an eagerness among the larger populace to make up for lost time and cancelled plans.

“Travellers still want to go on holiday, but safety has become a top priority. As a result, the staycation trend is expected to grow in the coming months, with resi-dents keen to take a break away from their home for a few days in a location that is familiar to them, whilst fl ights are grounded, and international travel re-strictions still in place.”

Families and solo travellers are ex-pected to be among the fi rst market seg-ments to start travelling and making new reservations, according to the research from Colliers. In addition, Millennials and Gen Z are being touted as the most eager to travel, as they seek a change of scenery following long lockdown peri-ods across the globe.

In preparation for the travel and tour-ism recovery - on a local, regional and in-ternational level - it is crucial hospitality companies can provide future guests with peace of mind by implementing and vir-tually showcasing the stringent hygiene and deep cleaning procedures performed rigorously across their properties.

MANAMA, May 18: The Bahraini Human Resources (HR) Consultant Abeer Al-Matooq, announced launch-ing a unique program “21 Days for Balance” — “Adjust your Internal Compass” — for the fi rst time in Bahrain keeping pace with the necessity to feel secure, psycho-logical stability during the global challenges affecting people such as isolation, social distancing, health anxi-ety, economic problems and job vacancies.

“21 Days for Balance” is a virtual program launched by Al-Matooq. It has widely spread breaking the records in the Kingdom of Bahrain. In ad-dition to reaching huge number of followers, fans in the Gulf and the countries of the Arab region and non-native speakers from around the world.

Al Matooq, the fi rst Bahraini woman in Executive Education Leaders Program at Leeds Uni-versity, UK said, ”This course was designed specifi cally to set the ground for people installing posi-tive habits that bring more organi-zation, peace of mind, determination, will power to con-quer the challenges motivating them to think positively, searching deep inside to fi nd happiness and secure. The program helps people to cope with the circumstances up grading them to the next level achievements against all odds.”

Al-Matooq added: ”Following the sound of wisdom, the world widens the doors of life to whom they know where exactly to go. This is what I am aiming at in this program. If you want to succeed in your life, you have to strongly build your inner strength that shall keep you in a state of clarity and stability with no confusion.”

Al-Matooq pointed that this program ”21 Days for Balance” represents an invitation and life call from Bah-rain to people all over the world.

She said, ”It is our duty to raise and widen people ho-rizons and awareness of the sacred missions ,values and goals and that they are obliged to plant and develop the Earth unifying the humanity’s effortin a frame of respon-sibility, awareness to succeed and achieve the goals for our own good.”

❑ ❑ ❑

BNET, Bahrain’s National Broadband Network, an-nounced today a digital transformation partnership with global technology company SAP to take to the next level the broadband experiences for millions of customers.

Thanks to Bahrain’s nationwide digital transforma-tion, led by Bahrain Vision 2030, the country leads the Arab World in the most value for money for fi xed-broad-band plans, at USD 0.6 per GB of data, according to the International Telecommunications Union’s most recent Measuring the Information Society report. Bahrain also ranks 6th in the Arab World for the fi xed-broadband bas-ket measuring overall broadband services.

Now, BNET aims to take Bahrain’s broadband to the next level with real-time innovations delivered by SAP running on the AWS cloud data center in Bahrain. Platinum partner SEIDOR MENA will implement the project.

BNET will leverage the S/4HANA real-time business suite to gain full visibility and real-time network insights across its signal towers, network hubs, and fi xed-line broadband and phone networks. As a result, BNET will be able to deliver higher-availability services and devel-op business and entertainment services.

“As part of our commitment to supporting Bahrain Vi-sion 2030, our real-time solutions will support BNET in digitizing internal platforms and processes to transform customer experiences,” said Reham Almusa, Managing Director, SAP Bahrain. “By listening, understanding, and acting on customer experiences with broadband services, BNET is ideally-positioned to deliver the next-genera-tion services that support business innovation, consumer happiness, and diversifi ed economic growth.”

Supporting the workforce of the future, BNET will use the SuccessFactors Human Capital Management suite to fi nd, train, and retain hundreds of employees. BNET is also eagerly recruiting the top Bahraini women engineers and business experts, aligned with nationwide goals of empowering women in the workforce.

The SAP solution was expertly implemented by Sei-dor MENA, the region’s systems integrator and digital transformation champion, who will also provide ongoing support to ensure the availability and performance of the platform.

Sheikh Mahmoud Tohamy

ADMAF wraps Ramadan SeriesABU DHABI, UAE, May 18: Following its remarkable success and extraordinary turnout refl ected in over 1.9 millionviews on social media, Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF) concluded its Ramadan special events, part of its “Culture is Humanity in Solidarity” online digital campaign. Featuring a rich lineup of art performances and cultural events, ADMAF celebrated the holy month of Ramadan by streaming performances thatpro-mote solidarity and fellowship in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

H.E. Huda Ibrahim Alkhamis, Founder of the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation, said: “I thank everyone who contributed and worked for the success of our Cultural Rama-dan Series on our social media channels mak-ing invocations, creating artand chanting. All my gratitude goes to the creative artists, Hiba AlKawas, El Seed,Diaa Allam, Sami Yusuf, and Sheikh Mahmoud Tohamy, who collabo-rated with us in delivering a message of com-passion under these diffi cult and unprecedent-ed circumstances, which our beloved country is living through along with the entire world.”

Her Excellency continued: “The Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation continues to bring art and culture to the people of Abu Dhabi, and to the world, with the message thatwe face these challenges together as one people, in honour of our shared experience as human beings, to help preserve the things that defi ne who we are as a civilization. Because culture is humanity in solidarity. Stay Safe.”

The series featured a rich lineup of global art-ists and performers. Egyptian Islamic Sufi chant-er Sheikh Mahmoud Tohamy, a pioneer in reli-gious chanting and founder of the world’s fi rst school for chanting arts and invocations,award-winning composer and singer-songwriterSami Yusuf with the world premiere performance of “The 99 Names,” and Lebanese opera diva Hiba Al Kawaspremiering“Allahu Ya Allah.” A unique collaboration between visual art greats El Seedand Diaa Allam was also part of the series. The two artists, known for their incorporation of traditional Arabic calligraphy into large-scale contemporary public artworks, took submissions from their followers of words describing their current state of mind and how

they feel during this diffi cult and unprecedented time. Working side by side, they incorporated the submitted words into a live art-making ses-sion.

The performances took placeonADMAF’s Facebook and Instagram pages during Rama-dan with remarkable success,seeing record audienceparticipation across a variety of countries and cultures.

Fulfi lling its mission to nurture the arts and culture, especially during diffi cult times, and to help support the UAE’s comprehensive national response to the pandemic, ADMAF is making these performances available for viewing at any time across all ADMAF’s so-cial media channels and website, where visi-tors can watch Mahmoud Tohamy’s full two-hour performance. This is in addition to the resources related to its culture, art, music and education programs that have always been available on its website.

For all the information on ADMAF’s Ramadan series, please visit ADMAF.org/Ramadan and follow ADMAF on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Staycations key to Gulf recovery

Al-Matooq launches program for balance

Michael Armstrong

Curtis

Al-Matooq

HEALTHARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020

7

Wider testing cornerstone of easing stay-at-home

LA offers tests to all ... Still has unused kitsLOS ANGELES, May 18, (AP): With ample coronavirus tests and not enough sick people seeking them, the mayor of Los Angeles recently did something on a scale no other major US city had done — allow anyone with or without symptoms to be tested as often as they want.

A website to book a test was quickly swamped by resi-dents in the nation’s second-largest city and the surrounding county who couldn’t get tested under more stringent guide-lines and were concerned they were infected or could be asymptomatic carriers unwittingly exposing others.

But despite overbooking to compensate for a third of the people who didn’t show up, the city still has thousands of tests that aren’t being used each week, according to fi gures provided to The Associated Press by the mayor’s offi ce.

“Wasted tests at a time when we still have insuffi cient testing is really unfortunate,” said Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, a San Diego-based medical research partnership. “I applaud what they’re

doing. The more people tested the better.” Mayor Eric Garcetti’s vow to not let a test go to waste was the

result of a partnership with a start-up company that developed an easy-to-administer test that doesn’t rely on scarce supplies. But it was a signifi cant departure from stricter state criteria and guidelines set by the health department the city shares with the county to limit tests to those who need them most.

Ease It comes at a time when expanded testing is a cornerstone

of the state’s plan to ease its stay-at-home order and as Los Angeles County has become the epicenter of the virus out-break and lags progress the rest of the state has shown.

While the virus was initially worse in Northern California, LA County, home to a quarter of the state’s nearly 40 million residents, now accounts for more than half the state’s deaths and a case count growing more rapidly than other major state counties. A large nursing home population, accounting for about half the county’s deaths, and densely housed poor peo-

ple are two main reasons.When Garcetti opened up testing April 30, the county at large

had relaxed some guidelines on who could get a test, with prior-ities going to the sickest and most vulnerable. It allowed testing some people without symptoms, including health care workers and emergency personnel most at risk of exposure.

From a public health perspective, wider testing could help determine the disease prevalence, though that would require random sampling, not people seeking to be tested, said Ka-rin Michels, an epidemiology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. And testing asymptomatic people comes at the expense of those who can’t get a test.

“In a perfect world, you want to test the whole state, you want to test the whole country,” Michels said. “We don’t have enough test kits for everybody right now.” As the mayor re-moved limits on who could get tested, appointments fi lled up.

“I was stunned,” said Sarah Wolf, who reserved a slot on-line after receiving a text alert. “There are people on the East

Coast I know who can’t get tested.”

Offer Los Angeles was not the fi rst big city to offer free tests for

everyone. Houston had done so nearly two weeks earlier but on a much smaller scale of 500 to 1,000 tests a day.

LA has paid $137 per test to Curative-Korva, a start-up run by Fred Turner, a 25-year-old British wunderkind. The fi rm was making sepsis tests when a worker there thought he was infected with coronavirus, couldn’t get a test and de-vised one to collect a specimen by swabbing the inside of the mouth after coughing, spokesman Kyle Arteaga said.

The test got emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Los Angeles has 75,000 tests available each week to use mainly at eight drive-thru sites open six days a week, though it also tests at homeless shelters, nursing homes and recreation centers. It has conducted a weekly average of close to 57,000 tests in the two weeks since the mayor expanded testing.

Stay connected

Chats chip awayat virus isolationDALLAS, May 18, (AP): For 81-year-old Dell Kaplan, the offer to get calls from a stranger just to chat while staying home during the coronavirus pandemic was immediately appealing.

“It gets pretty lonely here by your-self,” said Kaplan, a suburban Dallas resident who has been missing meals out with friends, family get-togethers and going to classes at a nearby college.

The program being offered by the city of Plano is among those that have popped up across the US during the pandemic to help older adults with a simple offer to engage in small talk.

“It’s really just to give them a social outlet that they might not have other-wise,” said Holly Ryckman, a library support supervisor who is among about 15 staffers from several city departments in Plano who together have been making about 50 calls a week starting in April.

Brent Bloechle, a library manager who helped organize the program, said the city plans to keep it up through at least mid-summer, and maybe permanently.

The people re-ceiving the calls have various amounts of social interaction in their lives, Ryckman said. Many, she said, talk about relatives who are in touch, so her call might be just be “one piece of the puzzle” helping them stay engaged.

That’s the case for Kaplan, who regularly talks with her daughter, granddaughters and friends, keeps up with people on Fa-cebook and has been

participating online in her adult-learning classes.

But Kaplan said her biweekly chats with Ryckman give her something to look forward to “besides the usual.”

Laurie Onofrio-Collier has been mak-ing calls to older people across the US from her California home as part of the AARP’s Friendly Voices program. Onofrio-Collier said her goal is for each person she calls “to feel uplifted, to feel good.”

Like the Plano program, the volun-teers for the Friendly Voices program guide people to resources if they need help from local groups for things like getting groceries - AARP’s Community Connections site lists groups across the US offering help - but the main point is conversation.

Onofrio-Collier said some people she has called live with a spouse, while oth-ers live alone.

She said conversations touch on eve-rything from hobbies to vacations to happy memories.

Onofrio-Collier bonded with one call-er over a shared experience: “We ended up talking about how ... when we were kids we loved to read so much that we would read under the covers with a fl ash-light.”

“I get off the phone with a smile,” Onofrio-Collier said.

She is among about 1,000 volunteers making the calls, according to Andy Miller, senior vice president of AARP Innovations Labs.

Miller said some people want help with technology so they can stay con-nected with their grandchildren. One vol-unteer helped a woman fi gure out how to play online checkers with her grandchild.

“We’re seeing a lot of that - where people are just trying to stay connected to family in ways that they probably didn’t do before,” Miller said.

Older adults are among those who are particularly vulnerable to severe ill-ness and death from the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. That’s why health of-fi cials are encouraging people over 65 to stay home even as some states loosen re-strictions put in place because of the pan-demic. For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms, and the vast majority recover within a few weeks.

“Some seniors may be the last ones out because of the vulnerability,” Miller said.

Kaplan, who retired 11 years ago af-ter more than two decades managing Plano’s senior center, said she and Ryck-man didn’t know each other, but found common ground in talking about the city and dealing with isolating at home.

Ryckman said the calls have been “a gift” for her.

Kaplan said that when she feels it’s safe for her to venture to places other than the grocery store, she plans to visit the library and meet Ryckman in person.

Ryckman

Kaplan

In this May 8, 2020 photo, Ryoki Ono, head priest, performs a livestream prayer during a 10-day trial of ‘online shrine’ visit program at Onoterusaki Shrine in downtown Tokyo, allowing its visitors to join rituals from their homes. (AP)

Shrine offers solaceShinto shrines, a go-to place for many Japanese to pray for good health and safety, have largely shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic. But one Tokyo shrine went online for those seeking solace.

Onoterusaki Shrine in downtown Tokyo was livestreaming prayers on Twitter during a May 1-10 holiday, allowing those stuck at home to join rituals. The shrine also accepted worship-pers’ messages, which were printed on a virtual wooden tablet .

“I thought about how people can pray and have a peace of mind at a time everyone is feeling uneasy about all the news and going through major changes in their life but still cannot go out to pray,” head priest Ryoki Ono said. “The idea is to provide a chance for people to pray from home.”

For Machi Zama, a freelance writer, that’s just what she needed. Zama prayed for her friend

who recently had surgery, and everyone else experiencing diffi cult times, as well as for an early end to the global pandemic.

Watching the priests perform the purifi cation rites, she felt as if she was at the shrine, Zama said. When one of the priests faced the screen and waved a religious paper streamer, she would bow. It was like her prayers were answered, she said.

“Wherever you are, I think it’s your feelings and thoughts, the wish to pray, that’s what’s important,” Zama said. “Whether online or offl ine, I don’t think it matters.”

For Ono, praying in the sacred shrine is still better. He said he hoped people will visit the shrine for a real experience when it reopens. The shrine ended the online prayers last Sunday to prepare for its upcoming annual festival. (AP)

Fear, misinformation have devastating effects

Medics face hostility over coronavirus stigmaCAIRO, May 18, (AP): Dr. Dina Abdel-Salam watched in terror last month as scores of strangers gathered under the balcony of her aunt’s empty apartment in the Egyptian city of Ismailia, where she’d temporarily sheltered after leaving her elderly parents at home to protect them from exposure to the coronavirus.

The crowd called out her name, hurling threats until she dialed the police for help.

“You have moved here to make us sick,” someone shouted. Abdel-Salam’s ordeal is just one of many in a wave of assaults

on doctors, illustrating how public fear and rage can turn against the very people risking their lives to save patients in the pandemic.

While many cities across the world erupt at sundown with col-lective cheers to thank front-line workers treating COVID-19 patients, in Egypt, India, the Philippines, Mexico and elsewhere, some doctors and nurses have come under attack, intimidated and treated like pariahs because of their work.

The pandemic, especially in places with limited healthcare infra-structure, has already subjected doctors to hardships. But medical workers, seen as possible sources of contagion, face another stagger-ing challenge in these countries: the stigma associated with the illness.

“Now more than ever, we need to recognize the importance of investing in our health workforce and take concrete actions that guarantee their well-being and safety,” Ahmed al-Mandhari, the World Health Organization’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said in a virtual news conference earlier this week.

But in many places, that’s a diffi cult task as mistrust, fear and misinformation can have devastating effects. Decades of poor edu-cation and scant government services in some places have created deep misgivings about the medical profession.

In central India, a group of fi ve health workers, dressed in full protective suits, entered a neighborhood to quarantine contacts of a confi rmed COVID-19 patient when a mob descended, slinging stones and screaming insults.

“Some people felt that the doctors and nurses will come and take their blood,” said Laxmi Narayan Sharma, the health union president in Madhya Pradesh, in central India.

In the southern Indian city of Chennai, another stone-throwing mob broke up a funeral for Simon Hercules, a neurologist who died from COVID-19, pelting the ambulance carrying his remains and forcing his family and friends to run for their lives.

In Afghanistan, conspiracy theories undermine the credibility of medical professionals. Nearly 19 years after the US-led coa-lition defeated the Taliban, many blame Western nations for the country’s deterioration. One commonly shared conspiracy theory is that the virus was allegedly manufactured by the US and China to reduce the world population, said SayedMassiNoori, a doctor at one of two Kabul hospitals testing for coronavirus.

Last week, several physicians at the emergency unit of the Af-ghan Japan Hospital, where Noori works, were mobbed by 15 fam-ily members of a patient who died of the virus. The doctors had their noses bloodied.

“The relatives believe it is the doctors who killed their family members,” Noori said.

The coronavirus hotline in Ouagadougou, the capital of war-torn Burkina Faso, fi elds calls about persistent coughs and headaches. But it has also gotten death threats.

“They call and say that after they’re fi nished killing the soldiers in the north, they’re going to come and kill everyone here,” said

NY widens testing eligibility

Italy coexists well with COVID-19ROME, May 18, (Agencies): Italy, one of the European na-tions hardest hit by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), remained upbeat on Sunday due to downward tilting of the curve signaling infections rates with the germ.

The Civil Protection Depart-ment said in its daily report that overall infection cases dropped by 1,836 cases to reach 6,851 in past 24 hours. Number of patients at intensive care wards dropped by 13 to 762. Likewide, clinical cases by 89 to 10,311.

The number of cases at house quarantine declined by by 1,734 to 57,278, against increase among recovery cases, rising by 2,366 to total 125,176.

The department recorded 145 deaths in past 24 hours -- lowest since eve of enforc-ing containment measures on March 9 -- raising the whole fi gure of the recuperated to 31,908.

Italy’s tally of infections now stands at 225,435.

Italian authorities, after im-posing a two month stringent lockdown, launched a gradual phase for easing the constraints, themed “coexisting with the vi-rus,” effective May 4.

Meanwhile New York City residents who fl outed social distancing restrictions for a night on the town got the mayor’s wrath Sunday. The city’s embattled health com-missioner is staying on the job. Gov. Andrew Cuomo played the part of a model patient, get-ting swabbed for coronavirus on live TV as he announced all people experiencing fl u-like symptoms are now eligible for testing.

Now, two more state re-gions - Western New York and the Capital District - have met criteria to move into the fi rst phase of reopening but still need to hire several hundred more people for contact tracing programs.

In the fi rst phase, construc-tion, agriculture, forestry, fi sh-ing, hunting, manufacturing and wholesale trade businesses are allowed to reopen and retail stores can provide curbside or in-store pickup or drop-off.

Here are the latest corona-virus-related developments in New York:

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio admonished people seen crowding outside bars Saturday night - many with drinks in hand but no masks on their faces - for putting lives in danger. Offi cials may shut down establishments that break distancing rules, de Bla-sio said.

City bars and restaurants have been restricted to takeout and delivery since mid-March, when coronavirus cases started to soar, but some in Manhattan were allowing people to dine and drink inside on Saturday.

“We’re not going to tolerate people starting to congregate. It’s as simple as that,” de Bla-

sio said. “If we have to shut places down, we will.”

After a rash of violent social distancing arrests involving people of color, the city this week eased distancing en-forcement by no longer having police break up small groups of people or confront citizens failing to wear a mask.

As the weather heats up, though, more and more New Yorkers are fl ocking to public spaces and familiar haunts for a sense of normalcy after spend-ing most of the last two months cooped up inside - and not al-ways policing themselves.

Parks, boardwalks and beaches attracted big crowds on Saturday, though city beaches aren’t offi cially open and won’t be for Memorial Day weekend.

Other beaches in the region will be open for the holiday, but de Blasio said opening the city’s strands “is not the right thing to do in the epicenter of this crisis.”

Red Cross volunteer Emmanual Drabo.Health workers across the Philippines have been attacked and

targeted more than 100 times since mid-March, resulting in 39 ar-rests, police Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar told The Associated Press. In one attack, fi ve men stopped a nurse heading to work in the Sultan Kudarat province in late March, throwing liquid bleach into his face and burning his eyes.

Tough-talking President Rodrigo Duterte, long censured for his violent approach to curbing crime, responded: “I told the police, maybe it’s illegal but I’ll answer for it. Pour it back on the attackers of doctors and nurses.”

In Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city, doctors and nurs-es say just venturing out in scrubs invites danger. One city hospital instructed its workers to shed their uniforms when they clock out, and the government has assigned National Guard troops to public hospitals.

Similar fears have sparked arrests in Sudan. In Omdurman,

across the Nile River from the capital, Khartoum, a riot erupted at a hospital when rumor spread it would take COVID-19 patients. Police arrested several people who tried to attack the building, said hospital director Babaker Youssef.

In Egypt, even hospital administrators have faced public anger. Ahmed Abbas, the vice president of a government hospital in

Egypt’s Nile Delta city of Zagazig, was wearing scrubs when he was jostled and cursed while waiting in line at an ATM. The head of Egypt’s Doctors’ Union, Ihab el-Taher, says such incidents are “limited” but still disheartening.

On top of a global shortage of respirators, virus testing, and protec-tive equipment, increased public hostility has deprived some medical professionals of basic needs — such as housing and transportation.

In India’s capital, New Delhi, doctors and fi rst responders re-ported being evicted by their landlords. A nurse in Ethiopia said taxis refuse to pick up workers coming out of the nation’s main hospital dedicated to coronavirus patients.

MIDEASTARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020

8

Makhlouf miffed

Video tiff points to growing Assad family riftBEIRUT, May 18, (AP): Syria’s telecommu-nications authority on Sunday said a deadline for a cellular company owned by the cousin of President Bashar Assad to pay back its debts to the state has ended, adding that legal measures will be taken against the company to recover the money.

The announcement came hours after Assad’s cousin, Rami Makhlouf, released a new video in which the businessman said he was asked to step down from the leadership of Syriatel, the biggest telecommunication company in the country. Syriatel has 11 million subscribers, with 50% of revenues going to the state.

The new video by Makhlouf, the third in less than a month, was another hint of a rumored major rift in the tight-knit Assad family, which has ruled Syria for nearly 50 years.

Makhlouf was once described as central to Syr-ia’s economy and a partner to the president. His videos, posted on a new Facebook page, seem to be a running public diary of a widening rift - and the fall from grace of a once-powerful tycoon.

In the latest video, Makhlouf, who is under

Four of 7 DAESH escapees recaptured

Airstrikes in east Syria kill Iran-backed fi ghtersBEIRUT, May 18, (AP): Unknown warplanes at-tacked Iran-backed fi ghters in eastern Syria near the Iraqi border, killing several of the Iraqi mili-tiamen, Syrian opposition activists said Sunday.

The strikes late Saturday targeted a base near the border town of Boukamal, killing seven fi ghters, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor.

Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based activist from Syria’s eastern Deir el-Zour province,

confi rmed a strike hit Iran-backed Iraqi fi ghters in the area but had no exact word on casual-ties. The strikes came days after reinforcements were brought into the area from Iraq, the Obser-vatory and Abu Laila said.

Abu Laila, who runs Deir Ezzor 24, an activ-ist collective that reports on news in the border area, said Israel was most likely behind the at-tack, but gave no evidence.

Israel rarely comments on such reports, although

it has acknowledged carrying out airstrikes inside Syria on numerous occasions over the course of Syria’s nine-year confl ict, saying it was going after Iranian military targets in the country.

There have recently been several reports of suspected Israeli strikes inside Syria, including one on May 4 that left 14 Iranian-backed fi ght-ers dead, according to the Observatory.

Meanwhile seven members of the Islamic State group escaped from a small prison in north-

east Syria on Sunday, with four recaptured and a search continuing for the remaining three, said Syrian state media and an offi cial with the main Kurdish-led U.S.-backed force in the region.

The militants fl ed from a jail on the edge of the town of Al-Hol, home to a sprawling camp where tens of thousands of IS wives, widows and children live, said state news agency SANA and a spokes-man for the Syrian Democratic Forces, Mervan Qamishlo. The prison is separate from the camp.

American and European sanctions, vowed not to give up the company and apologized to his arrested employees, whom he was unable to get released after they were detained in recent

weeks. Makhlouf did not say who had called on him to step down.

The Syrian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said in a statement carried by state

news agency SANA that Syriatel had refused to pay fees to the state, therefore “Syriatel will be responsible for all the legal repercussions” for refusing to give back the dues.

In his fi rst video in late April, Makhlouf pleaded with Assad to help prevent the com-pany’s collapse through excessive and “unjust” taxation.

News in Brief

CAIRO: The novel coronavirus (Covid-19) has killed 18 more people in Egypt, bringing the country’s death toll to 630, said the Ministry of Health on Sunday.

The deadly virus has also infected 510 more people, raising the total num-ber of infections in this North African country to 12,229, the ministry’s spokesman Khaled Mujahed in a press statement.

Out of the total fi gure, 3,172 patients have been cured of the respiratory disease and discharged from hospital, the spokesman added. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

BEIRUT: Lebanese Ministry of Health declared on Sunday recording nine new coronavirus infection cases in past 24 hours increasing the toll to 911.

The ministry said in its daily report about the contagious disease that no deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, thus the tally of fatalities remained at 26.

A four-day full lockdown is sched-uled to expire on Monday. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

AMMAN: Jordanian authorities re-ported on Sunday six new cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the tally to 613 cases.

In a press release, Jordanian Health Minister Saad Jaber indicated that four cases of the infection have recovered, while 131 individuals are receiving treatment.

Despite the expansion of economic and productive activities, Jordan con-tinues to implement a comprehensive curfew on holidays and a partly one during the weekdays. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

AMMAN: Syria declared on Sunday recording seven new coronavirus infection cases raising the tally to 58.

Offi cial Syrian news agency, SANA, quoted a statement released by the ministry of health as saying all the newly registered contamination cases were of persons who have recently come back to the country.

Syria witnessed fi rst such infection on March 22, prompting authorities later to impose partial lockdown and shut borders with neighboring Leba-non. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

KUWAIT CITY: Turkey on Sunday confi rmed 44 more deaths from the novel coronavirus in the country over the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 4,140.

Total number of registered coronavi-rus cases increased to 149,435 as 1,368 more people tested positive for the virus, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said, as quoted by the offi cial Anadolu News Agency.

So far, 109,962 patients have recov-ered with 1,825 newly recorded cases, Koca said.

Koca added that 914 patients remained in intensive care units, with 468 among them surviving on life sup-port apparatuses.

He also revealed that 35,369 tests were conducted in the past hours, with the overall number of tests exceeding 1.6 million. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

RABAT: Morocco reported, Sunday, 129 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases with the total increasing to 6,870.

In a statement, the health ministry director of the department of epidemi-ology, Mohamad Al-Yobi, said that the total number of death cases in the country settled at 192.

The recoveries are at 3,660 with 173 individuals overcoming the virus. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

TUNIS: The Tunisian Ministry of Health on Sunday reported zero cases of infection with the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) which cropped up in the country two days ago after fi ve days of lull.

The overall number of infections remained unchanged at 1,037 in the past 24 hours and deaths at 45 while the recoveries surged to 816, the minis-try said in a statement.

It highlighted the need of the public abiding by the social distancing and preventive measures.

Last Monday the Tunisian authori-ties relaxed the lockdowns and allowed some businesses to reopen after the infections dropped to nil. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

ALGIERS: Up to 198 persons tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), in past hours, raising whole number of contamination cases with the communicable disease to 7,019, Algerian Ministry of Health said on Sunday.

Six people who had gotten sick with the widespread virus died bringing toll of fatalities to 548.

Meanwhile, the ministry recorded 98 new recovery cases, thus number of patients who were discharged from hospitals amounted to 3,507. Figure of those who remained under treatment stood at 11,754. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

RAMALLAH: Palestinian Minister of Health May Al-Kaila on Sunday declared fi ve fresh infection cases with the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in Palestine, raising the tally to 560.

The latest cases were of persons who had mingled with a Palestinian who frequently goes to Israel for work.

They were recorded in the town of Beit Awla in Al-Khalil (Hebron) province. Among those infected was a fi ve-year-old boy, the minister said in a statement.

This brings the total number of confi rmed infections with the globally spreading respiratory disease to 560 since the outbreak of the virus in Pales-tine, she added.

She put number of patients who re-covered at 452, some 81 percent of the total count of the infections. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

JERUSALEM: An Israeli district court on Monday convicted a Jewish extrem-ist of murder in a 2015 arson attack that killed a Palestinian toddler and his parents, a case that had sent shock waves through Israel and helped fuel months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The court ruled that the Jewish settler Amiram Ben-Uliel hurled fi rebombs late one night into a West Bank home in July 2015 as a family slept, killing 18-month-old Ali Dawab-sheh. His mother, Riham, and father, Saad, later died of their wounds. Ali’s 4-year-old brother Ahmad survived.

“This trial won’t bring my fam-ily back,” Hussein Dawabsheh, the toddler’s grandfather, said outside the courtroom in central Israel. “But I don’t want another family to go through the trauma that I have.”

At the time of the arson killing, Israel was dealing with a wave of vigilante-style attacks by suspected Jewish extremists. But the deadly fi rebombing in the West Bank village of Duma touched a particularly sensi-tive nerve.

The attack was condemned across the Israeli political spectrum, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged “zero tolerance” in the fi ght to bring the assailants to justice. Investigators placed several suspects under “administrative detention,” a measure typically reserved for alleged Palestinian militants that allows authorities to hold suspects for months without charge.

“This was an attack with racist mo-tives,” said prosecutor Yael Atzmon. “The court ruled it as a terrorist attack and this sends an important message that terror is terror and the identity of the perpetrators is irrelevant.”

Critics, however, noted that lesser non-deadly attacks, such as fi rebomb-ings that damaged mosques and churches, had gone unpunished for years. And as the investigation into the Duma attack dragged on, Palestin-ians complained of a double-standard, where suspected Palestinian militants are quickly rounded up and prosecuted under a military legal system that gives them few rights while Jewish Israelis are protected by the country’s criminal laws. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

JERUSALEM: Israeli soldiers on Sunday shot and wounded a man who crossed from Lebanon into Israeli-held territory, the military said.

The Israeli military said the man was taken to an Israeli hospital. His identity and condition were not im-mediately known, and the army said it was investigating.

A report in Lebanon said the man was a shepherd who had not crossed the frontier.

The Israeli army said the incident occurred after the man crossed from Lebanon into Shebaa Farms. The area is a disputed enclave along the frontier between Israel, Syria and Lebanon.

Israel says the enclave is part of the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in 1967 and later annexed. The U.S. is the only country to have recog-nized Israel’s annexation of the Golan. Lebanon and Syria say Shebaa Farms belong to Lebanon, while the United Nations says the area is part of Syria and that Damascus and Israel should negotiate its fi nal status.

The Lebanese-Israeli frontier has seen tensions rise in recent weeks between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah.

In a statement, the Lebanese army identifi ed the man who was shot as Mohammed Noureddine Abdul-Azim, a shepherd of Syrian origin. It said he was herding goats and sheep near an Israeli post when he was shot and de-tained. It said the army was following the case with UN peacekeepers. (AP)

People take a walk, as the lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak continues in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, May 17, 2020. The Lebanese govern-ment reinstated a four-day nationwide lockdown that started last Wednesday, following a spike in reported coronavirus cases. (AP)

Iranian tankers carry malign oil to co-sanctioned Venezuela

Pirates attack UK-fl agged chemical tanker off Yemen

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, May 18, (AP): Five Iranian tankers likely carrying at least $45.5 million worth of gasoline and similar products are now sailing to Venezuela, part of a wider deal between the two US-sanctioned nations amid heightened tensions between

Tehran and Washington. The tankers’ voyage came after Venezuela’s socialist leader Nicolás

Maduro already turned to Iran for help in fl ying in chemicals needed at an aging refi nery amid a gasoline shortage, a symptom of the wider economic and political chaos gripping Latin America’s one-time larg-est oil producer.

For Iran, the tankers represent a way to bring money into its cash-starved Shiite theocracy and put its own pres-sure on the U.S., which under President Donald Trump has pursued maximalist campaigns against both nations.

But the strategy invites the chance of a renewed con-frontation between the Islamic Republic and America both in the Arabian Gulf, which saw a series of escalating inci-dents often involving the oil industry last year, and wider afi eld.

“This is like a new one for everyone,” said Capt. Ranjith Raja, an analyst who tracks oil shipments by sea at the data fi rm Refi nitiv, of the gasoline shipments. “We haven’t seen anything like this before.”

All the vessels involved belong to Iranian state-owned or state-linked companies, fl ying under the Iranian fl ag. Since a pressure campaign on Iranian vessels began, no-tably with the temporary seizure of an Iranian tanker last year by Gibraltar, the country’s ships have been unable to fl y fl ags of convenience of other nations, a common prac-tice in international shipping.

The ships all appear to have been loaded from refi nery near Bandar Abbas, Iran, which makes gasoline, Raja said. The ships then traveled around the Arabian Peninsula and through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea, ac-cording to data collected from the ship’s Automatic Iden-tifi cation System, or AIS, which acts as a tracking beacon.

One of the vessels, the Clavel, listed its AIS destina-tion as Caracas beginning May 12, according to log data from ship-tracking website MarineTraffi c.com. The vessel later changed its destination as “TO ORDER” two days later, though the ship remains on a route that will see it leave the Mediterranean Sea and be in position to sail on to Venezuela.

Another tanker, the Forest, changed its AIS destination to “S. AMERICA TO ORDER” on May 14.

Three others, the Faxon, the Fortune and the Petunia, all appear on routes that could take them to Venezuela. Given the crushing U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran, also-sanctioned Venezuela appears to be the country that would have nothing to lose from accepting the shipments. Raja said Refi nitiv had no data on any Iranian gasoline ship-ment ever going to South America before.

TankerTrackers.com, a website focused on the oil trade at sea, fi rst reported the ships likely were heading to Ven-ezuela.

The capacity of the fi ve ships is some 175,000 metric tons. On the open market, the gasoline and product carried within them would be worth at least $45.5 million, though Iran likely reached a discounted, non-cash deal with Cara-cas given the circumstances the two nations face, Raja said.

Meanwhile Pirates attacked a UK-fl agged chemical tanker off the coast of Yemen in the Gulf of Aden, Stolt Tankers said.

The vessel’s armed guards exchanged fi re with two skiffs manned by six armed Pirates, who approached the vessel Stolt Apal at high speed, the company said in a statement.

The vessel’s guards disabled one skiff and ended the pursuit. There were no injuries on board, and only the ves-sel’s bridge area sustained minor damage from bullets.

The Stolt Apal was around 75 nautical miles (86 miles/140 kilometres) off Yemen’s coast when the attack took place, and it has since resumed its voyage.

This was the ninth reported attack in the Gulf of Aden this year, according to maritime security fi rm Dryad Glob-al.

Swearing-in for Israelspawns mini-ministries

Tripoli forcestake key base

JERUSALEM, May 18, (AP): After three deadlocked and di-visive elections, a year and a half of political paralysis and another three-day delay because of political infi ghting in his Likud party, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fi nally swore in his new government on Sunday. The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, passed a vote of confi dence in Netanyahu’s new administration to end over 500 days of upheaval.

Over the weekend, both Netanyahu and his rival-turned-partner Benny Gantz announced their appointments for the new government — the most bloated in Israeli history with an expected 36 Cabinet ministers and 16 deputies.

Netanyahu and Gantz, a former military chief, announced last month they would be putting their differences aside to join forces to steer the country through the coronavirus crisis and its severe economic fallout.

Their controversial power-sharing deal calls for Netanyahu to serve as prime minister for the government’s fi rst 18 months before being replaced by Gantz for the next 18 months. Their blocs will also have a similar number of ministers and mutual veto power over most major decisions.

Critics have already accused the government of being out of touch by creating so many Cabinet posts at a time when unemployment has soared to 25% as a result of the coronavi-rus pandemic. But because Netanyahu’s bloc includes several smaller parties, he still only has a limited number of Cabinet ministries to hand out to the Likud rank and fi le.

A mini-insurgency by angry senior Likud members forced Netanyahu to seek a delay in the swearing-in ceremony last Thursday. To mollify his backbenchers, Netanyahu created a series of new ministries with questionable responsibilities, such as “community development,” “settlement affairs” and “higher education and water resources” and a minister to be the liaison between the parliament and the Cabinet. Each min-istry means paying for drivers, staff and offi ce space.

Yair Lapid, the new opposition leader, said the machina-tions have led to a loss of “trust of the Israeli public.”

“The coronavirus is an excuse for a corrupt party at the ex-pense of the taxpayer. After all the empty talk of an ‘emer-gency government,’ the government being formed today is the largest and most wasteful in the history of the country,” he said. “It’s not just the waste, it’s the contempt. The complete contempt for the crisis facing the Israeli public.”

The deal has already led to the dissolution of Gantz’s alliance with Lapid after he reneged on his central campaign promise not to serve under Netanyahu, who has been indicted on corruption charges and faces a criminal trial starting next week. Their much-scrutinized coalition deal could only come about after the coun-try’s Supreme Court ruled it had no legal grounds to block it.

Gantz and Netanyahu fought to stalemates in three bitter election campaigns over the past year.

After the most recent vote in March, Gantz appeared to secure enough support in parliament to pass legislation that would have barred the indicted Netanyahu from continuing as prime minister. But in a stunning about face, Gantz agreed to enter a partnership with his arch rival.

Despite the criticism, Gantz argued that teaming with Net-anyahu offered the country its only way out of the prolonged stalemate and prevented what would have been a fourth costly election in just over a year.

CAIRO, May 18, (AP): Forces allied with Libya’s UN-support-ed government said Monday they have wrested control of a key military base on the outskirts of the country’s capital from their rivals trying to capture Tripoli.

The development is a heavy setback for the eastern-based forces under commander Khalifa Hifter, who has been waging a campaign for over a year to take Tripoli from an array of militias in the west, loosely linked to the administration in the capital.

Col Mohamed Gnounou, a spokesman for the Tripoli-allied forces, said they retook the al-Waitya airbase in the city’s south-western desert reaches. He did not provide details. A spokesman for Hifter’s forces was not immedi-ately available for comment.

The Tripoli-allied forces have been trying for weeks to take the base, stepping up attacks by Turkish-supplied drones.

Hifter’s forces have sustained heavy losses in recent weeks. In April, Tripoli-allied forces seized control of the city of Sabrata and the town of Sorman, west of Tripoli.

The escalation in the fi ghting comes despite increased inter-national pressure on both sides to return to negotiating a po-litical settlement and to halt the violence over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus. Libya has reported at least 65 cases of the virus, including three deaths.

Hifter’s push on Tripoli has mostly stalemated but the turmoil in the oil-rich country has stead-ily worsened as foreign backers increasingly intervene — despite pledges to the contrary at a high-profi le peace summit in Berlin earlier this year.

Turkey has sent armored drones, air defenses and more re-cently Syrian militants with links to extremist groups to prop up the embattled Tripoli government. Russia, meanwhile, has deployed hundreds of mercenaries to boost Hifter’s assault. The United Arab Emirates and Egypt also back Hifter.

Market Movements 18-05-2020

Business Change Closing ptsAustralia - All Ordinaries +64.72 5,557.55China - Shanghai SE +6.96 2,875.42Hong Kong - Hang Seng +137.30 23,934.77Japan - Nikkei +96.26 20,133.73S. Korea - KRX 100 +21.30 4,132.26

Change Closing ptsINDIA - Sensex -1,068.75 30,028.98Pakistan - KSE 100 -203.36 33,804.97Philippines - PSEi -62.60 5,479.35

WASHINGTON, May 18, (AP): Fed-eral Reserve Chair Jerome Powell ex-pressed optimism Sunday that the U.S. economy can begin to recover from a devastating recession in the second half of the year, assuming the corona-virus doesn’t erupt in a second wave. But he suggested that a full recovery won’t likely be possible before the ar-rival of a vaccine.

In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Powell noted that the econ-omy was fundamentally healthy before the virus struck suddenly and forced widespread business shutdowns and tens of millions of layoffs. Once the outbreak has been contained, he said, the economy should be able to rebound “substantially.”

Powell offered an overall positive message while warning that it would take much longer for the economy to regain its health than it took for it to collapse with stunning speed.

“In the long run, and even in the medium run,” the chairman said, “you wouldn’t want to bet against the Amer-ican economy. This economy will re-cover. And that means people will go back to work. Unemployment will get back down. We’ll get through this.”

Powell pointed out that the down-turn wasn’t a result of deep-seated fi -nancial instabilities, like the housing meltdown and the excessive risk-tak-ing among banks that ignited the Great Recession. Rather, it resulted from an external event - a pandemic - that required a shutdown of the economy. That may mean, he said, that “we can get back to a healthy economy fairly quickly.”

In the meantime, though, American workers are enduring their worst cri-sis in decades. More than 36 million people have applied for unemploy-ment benefi ts in the two months since the coronavirus fi rst forced businesses to close down and shrink their work-forces. The unemployment rate, at 14.7%, is the highest since the Great Depression, and is widely expected to go much higher.

In the interview with CBS, Powell played down comparisons to the De-pression. While acknowledging that unemployment could peak near the Depression high of 25%, he noted that U.S. banks are far healthier now and that the Fed and other central banks are much more able and willing to in-tervene to bolster economies than they were in the 1930s.

Still, Powell cautioned that it would take time for the economy to return to

anything close to normal. A recovery “could stretch through the end of next year,” he said. And a vaccine would likely be necessary for Americans to feel safe enough to return to their nor-mal economic behavior of shopping, traveling, eating out and congregating in large groups - activities that fuel much of the economy’s growth. Most health experts have said that a vaccine won’t be ready for use for 12 to 18 months at least.

“Certain parts of the economy will fi nd it very diffi cult to have really a lot of activity,” Powell said. “The parts that involve people being in the same place, very close together. Those parts of the economy will be challenged un-til people feel really safe again.”

The Fed chairman said he and other central bank offi cials, in conversations with businesses, labor leaders, univer-sities and hospitals, have picked up on “a growing sense that the recovery may take some time to gain momentum.”

“That would mean,” he added, ”that we will start our recovery and get on that road, and that’ll be a good thing, but that it’ll take some time to pick up steam.”

Powell reiterated his view that both Congress and the Fed must be pre-pared to provide additional fi nancial support to prevent permanent dam-age to the economy from widespread bankruptcies among small businesses or long-term unemployment, which typically erodes workers’ skills and social networks. Congress has already approved roughly $3 trillion in rescue

aid for individuals and businesses. But states and localities are in need of fed-eral money to avoid having to cut jobs and services, and legislation to provide that money remains at an impasse in Congress.

If necessary, Powell said, the Fed could expand any of the nine emergen-cy lending programs it has launched since the viral outbreak began to harm the economy - or create new ones. In March, the central bank slashed its benchmark interest rate to near zero as stock markets plunged and bond mar-kets froze. The Fed has also intervened by buying $2.1 trillion in Treasurys and other bonds in an effort to keep interest rates low and smooth the fl ow of credit.

The Fed could also provide more explicit guidance on how long it will keep rates pegged at nearly zero and the extent of its bond-purchase pro-grams, Powell said. Doing so would give banks and other companies more confi dence that borrowing rates will stay lower for longer.

But the chairman reiterated that the Fed isn’t considering cutting rates into negative territory, which President Donald Trump has repeatedly urged. The issue of negative rates fl ared up in recent weeks when futures markets essentially bet that the Fed would take that step early next year, as some other central banks have done.

“There’re plenty of people who think negative interest rates are a good policy,” Powell said. “But we don’t re-ally think so at the Federal Reserve.”

Fed isn’t considering cutting rates into negative territory, chairman reiterates

US recovery may begin by summer, will likely be slow: Powell

Japan plungesinto recession

Worse times likely ahead: economists

TOKYO, May 18, (AP): Japan plunged into reces-sion in the fi rst quarter as the coronavirus pandemic battered manufacturing, exports and spending, and economists expect worse damage lies ahead.

The world’s third-largest econ-omy contracted at a 3.4% annual, seasonally adjusted rate in Jan-uary-March, the Cabinet Offi ce reported Monday. It shrank 0.9% from the previous quarter.

Analysts say things are expected to get worse as Japan endures its biggest challenge since World War II.

The latest data put Japan squarely into a technical recession, defi ned as two straight quarters of contraction. The economy contracted at a 1.9% an-nual pace in October-December.

Japan is extremely vulnerable to re-percussions from the pandemic given its dependence on trade with both Chi-na and the U.S., the country where the pandemic began and the country where it has been hit hardest.

But trouble was brewing even be-fore the virus began disrupting trade and travel, and more recently, domes-tic business activity and consumer spending.

After years of strenuous efforts to keep growth on track despite a shrink-ing and fast-aging population, growth was fl at in July-September and a mere 0.5% in April-June, according to the latest numbers.

Among other things, that longer-term weakness refl ects disruptions from a trade war between the U.S. and China, Japan’s two biggest single trad-ing partners, slowing global growth and a slowdown in China.

Then came the outbreaks. Manufacturers that are pillars of Ja-

pan’s economy, such as Toyota Motor Corp., have reported dismal fi nancial results. Some companies have been unable to provide forecasts for this fi s-cal year. Profi tability is nose-diving as people economize and stay home. Pro-duction at some plants has halted.

The government has come up with a rescue package of nearly 108 tril-lion yen ($1 trillion), and plans more, including aid to small businesses and cash handouts.

The Bank of Japan, already years into an unprecedented effort to fl ood the economy with cash through asset purchases and a negative interest rate policy, has doubled down on its prom-ises to support growth.

More than 16,000 people in Japan have been infected with the virus and more than 700 have died, but those numbers are relatively low given it has the world’s oldest population and its cities are densely populated.

Japan eased its state of emergen-cy last week for most of the coun-try, though hot spots like Tokyo are maintaining restrictions. Many places are starting to reopen, but a return to normal operations and a recovery in consumption are not expected anytime soon.

Robert Carnell, regional head of research Asia-Pacifi c at ING, said the damage to the private sector will con-tinue, even as public demand picks up, helped by government aid.

Vision Fund investments plunge

SoftBank racks up lossesTOKYO, May 18, (AP): Japanese technology company SoftBank Group Corp. racked up a loss of 961.6 bil-lion yen ($9 billion) for the fi scal year through March, on red ink related to its Vision Fund investments including troubled offi ce space-sharing venture WeWork.

SoftBank, founded in 1981, said Monday the drop in share prices around the world from the fallout of the coro-navirus pandemic had slammed the value of its sprawling investments.

Tokyo-based SoftBank had reported a profi t of 1.4 trillion yen the previous fi scal year. Its sales for the fi scal year inched up 1% to 6.2 trillion yen ($58 billion). It did not immediately break down quarterly results or give a forecast for the fi scal year through March 2021.

On top of WeWork’s poor perfor-mance, the company suffered damage to the value of Uber and other holdings in its portfolio. The pandemic is add-ing to uncertainties.

The merger of Sprint with T-Mobile in the U.S. was completed on April 1, in one bit of good news.

The pandemic was not expected to affect SoftBank’s telecommunications business, such as mobile phone ser-vices in Japan. As people stay home to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, they tend to use more online deliveries and other internet-based activities.

But the company’s technology li-censing and royalty revenues may drop due to Arm, which provides micropro-cessors and other technology and is also part of SoftBank’s operations, be-cause of pandemic-related disruptions.

SoftBank’s chief executive, Masay-oshi Son, told reporters the company was facing “unprecedented challeng-es” because of the pandemic.

But he said some businesses such as Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Arm hold great potential, and the stock value of SoftBank’s holdings has fallen but is not crashing.

“I realize I am giving excuses, and the extreme economic hardships from this ‘corona-shock’ are very real,” Son said.

SoftBank bailed out WeWork last year, and severed ties with its co-founder Adam Neumann, whose re-ported lavish living has tarnished the brand. Its IPO was ditched, and Soft-Bank has shelved its tender offer.

The future of the offi ce-sharing business model itself is in question as reopening economies try to abide by social-distancing measures against the virus that causes COVID-19.

Earlier in the day, SoftBank an-nounced Chinese billionaire Jack Ma was stepping down from the board.

Son said the move was related to Ma’s decision to semi-retire, including from his post at Alibaba. They contin-ue to communicate regularly as “like-minded soulmates,” said Son.

“It’s sad to see him go, but we will be best friends forever,” he said.

SoftBank is a major investor in Alibaba. Ma, who joined the SoftBank board in 2007, and Son have a long-standing close relationship.

Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba, has been focusing on philanthropy lately, such as donating masks and test kits to help in the efforts against the pan-demic.

SoftBank announced three new board members, including SoftBank Chief Financial Offi cer Yoshimitsu Goto and Waseda University professor Yuko Kawamoto.

Another new member is Lip-Bu Tan, founder of Walden International, a venture capital fi rm focused on com-puter chips, cloud and artifi cial intel-ligence. He is also chief executive of Cadence Design, a U.S. electronic design automation software and engi-neering services company.

Son said that adding outside board members will enhance corporate gov-ernance at SoftBank, responding to criticism he wielded too much control.

Also Monday, SoftBank said it was buying back its own shares, of up to 500 billion yen ($4.7 billion) in value, to shore up its bottom line.

“I am not totally pessimistic, given all the challenges we have faced in the past,” said Son. “We will keep at it.”

China warns US of ‘all necessary measures’ over Huawei rules

China’s commerce ministry says it will take “all neces-sary measures” in response to new U.S. restrictions on Chinese tech giant Huawei’s ability to use American tech-nology, calling the measures an abuse of state power and a violation of market princi-ples.

An unidentifi ed spokesper-son quoted Sunday in a state-ment on the ministry’s web-

site said the regulations also threatened the security of the “global industrial and supply chain.”

“The U.S. uses state power, under the so-called excuse of national security, and abuses export control measures to continuously oppress and contain specifi c enterprises of other countries,” the state-ment said.

China will “take all neces-

sary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese en-terprises,” it said.

Under the new rules, for-eign semiconductor makers who use American technology must obtain a U.S. license to ship Huawei-designed semi-conductors to the Chinese company.

Chip design and manufac-turing equipment used in the

world’s semiconductor plants is mostly U.S.-made, so the new rule affects foreign pro-ducers that sell to Huawei and affi liates including HiSili-con, which makes chips for supercomputers with scien-tifi c and military uses. The U.S. Commerce Department said foreign foundries would be granted a 120-day grace period for chips already in production. (AP)

A man wearing a face mask to protect against the coronavirus walks past a Huawei retail store in Beijing on Monday, May 18, 2020. (AP)

India ups foreign investment in defense to 74%NEW DELHI, May 18, (AP): India announced that global companies can now invest up to 74% in the country’s defense manufacturing units, up from 49%, without requiring any govern-ment approval.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sithara-man expressed hope that the new policy will attract foreign companies with high-end technologies to set up their manufacturing bases in India in collaboration with Indian companies.

Sitharaman’s announcement came as part of reforms Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is implementing to revive India’s economy, which has been

shattered by the coronavirus pandemic.She also told reporters that India will

stop importing weapons that can be made in the country. “We will notify a list of weapons and platforms for ban on their imports and fi x deadlines to do it,” she said, adding that this will improve self-reliance on defense manufacturing.

India introduced up to 49% foreign direct investment in defense production in 2016 to attract modern technology in the country. That attracted over 18.34 billion rupees ($244 million) until De-cember last year, according to a gov-ernment statement.

India issues defense industrial li-

censes for making tanks, military air-craft, spacecraft and their parts, un-manned aerial vehicles, missiles for military purposes and warships.

India, a major buyer of military equipment, depended largely on the former Soviet Union during the Cold War. But it has been diversifying its purchases by opting for U.S. equip-ment as well.

During President Donald Trump’s visit to India in February, the two countries signed a deal for India to buy from the U.S. more than $3 billion in advanced military equipment, includ-ing helicopters.

In this photo, a person walks by a SoftBank shop in Tokyo. Japanese tech-nology company SoftBank Group Corp. racked up a loss of 961.6 billion yen ($9 billion) for the fi scal year through March, on red ink related to its Vision Fund investments, including troubled offi ce space-sharing venture

WeWork. (AP)

Industrial production plunges 11.2% in April

US layoffs surged to record high of 11.4mWASHINGTON, May 18, (AP): U.S. layoffs soared in March to a re-cord 11.4 million after state and lo-cal governments closed restaurants, bars, movie theaters and other nones-sential businesses in response to the intensifying viral outbreak.

The Labor Department also said that job openings plunged, and hiring fell, though those changes weren’t nearly as dramatic as layoffs, which rose more than six-fold. The num-ber of available jobs dropped nearly 12%, to 6.2 million. The number of hires declined 13%, to 5.2 million.

New data is revealing how the se-verity of this downturn has skewed the nature of U.S. recessions.

Businesses typically cut back on hiring fi rst as the economy begins to slow. Layoffs then intensify once employers start to accept that a reces-sion is at hand.

In the pandemic, the layoffs have been immediate and massive.

“Workers lost jobs at a horrifying rate,” said Nick Bunker, director of research at Indeed, the job listings

website. “Employers led with layoffs and hiring slowed, but not as dramat-ically as one might have expected.”

The fact that job openings and hir-ing did not fall more in March sug-gests companies held out hope that the recession would be brief, and that they would be able to soon return to previous job search and hiring plans. Data from job sites like Indeed, which are more current, indicate that job openings fell further in April, a sign that businesses are bracing for a lengthier slowdown.

Layoffs jumped the most in restau-rants and bars, where they surged al-most 20-fold to 4.4 million. Retailers also reported an enormous increase, to 1.1 million in March from 224,000 in February.

The fi gures lag more recent data such as the April jobs report, re-leased last week, which showed the unemployment rate leapt to 14.7% that month, the highest since the Great Depression. More than 20 mil-lion jobs were lost. But Friday’s re-port, known as the Job Openings and

Labor Turnover survey, or JOLTS, helps illustrate how businesses re-sponded to the initial viral outbreak.

The JOLTS also reports overall hiring fi gures, while the monthly jobs data refl ects net changes.

Weekly jobless claims data show that layoffs have declined for six straight weeks after soaring in late March, but remain at historically high levels. Nearly 3 million people sought unemployment aid last week.

Tens of thousands of jobs lost are taking place at factories. On Friday, the U.S. also reported that American industry suffered the most severe plunge on record last month with fac-tories, mines and utilities battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, American industry suffered the most severe plunge on record last month with factories, mines and utilities battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Federal Reserve said that its industrial production index tumbled a record 11.2% in April. Manufactur-ing output also posted a record drop - 13.7% - as production of cars, trucks and auto parts plummeted more than 70%. Production of aerospace and other transportation products, metals and furniture fell around 20%. Out-put dropped 6.1% at mines and 0.9% at utilities.

The implosion of the U.S. indus-trial sector was not unexpected, “but one can’t help but grimace,” Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capi-tal Markets, wrote in a research report.

Industry was running at 64.9% of capacity last month, shattering the previous record low set in the Great Recession year 2009. Factory capacity utilization also hit a record low 61.1%.

Manufacturing may get a boost over the coming week as auto plants begin to reopen.

“Auto output at the large factories is slated to resume on Monday,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont Securities, “so we should see a pickup in manufacturing activity in May. ‘’

In this fi le photo, people wait in line for help with unemployment benefi ts at the One-Stop Career Center in Las Vegas. Federal fi gures show that about 24,000 out-of-work Nevada residents fi led fi rst-time unemployment claims. That pushes the percentage of people seeking jobless benefi ts to 31% since casinos and businesses shut down in mid-March due to the

coronavirus pandemic. (AP)

In this fi le photo, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell pauses during a news conference to discuss an announcement from the Federal Open

Market Committee, in Washington. (AP)

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020

10

cash strapped Thai Airways to seek bankruptcy rehabilitation

Thailand’s flag carrier Thai Airways Inter-national will file a plan for restructuring its business with the Central Bankruptcy Court, a government spokeswoman said Monday.

Narumon Pinyosinwat said the plan submitted by the State Enterprise Policy Office to salvage the airline will be submit-ted Tuesday to for Cabinet approval. She said she had no details of the plan.

Thai Airways had been suffering finan-cially even before the coronavirus crisis brought travel and tourism in the country

to a near standstill. The airline initially sought a 54 billion

baht ($1.7 billion) bailout loan from the government. There is speculation that its reorganization under bankruptcy could take the government’s ownership share below 50%, effecting a form of privatiza-tion. All rescue options were likely to lead in cuts in staff, fleet and flights.

Thai Airways logged losses of 12 billion baht ($374.3 million) in 2019, 11.6 billion baht ($361.9 million) in 2018 and 2.11 bil-lion baht ($65.8 million) in 2017.

Thai media reports say it is carrying a debt burden of almost 300 billion baht ($9.4 billion).

The airline stopped all its flights at the beginning of April as Thailand imposed strict precautions to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Almost all its staff were put on leave at greatly reduced salaries. The government last week extended to the end of June a ban on arrivals on international passen-ger flights, ruling out their immediate re-sumption. (AP)

In this file photo, a Thai Airways jet parks at Suvarn-abhumi Airport in Bangkok,

Thailand. (AP)

Credit misallocation causing lasting risks to economies, and needs course-correction

Banks’ expertise critical to speed up recovery post COVID-19DUBAI, May 18: The Global Fi-nancial Crisis of 2009 was called the “Credit Crisis” – but what we are facing now will be the “Real Credit Crisis” of our time, accord-ing to a new report by management consultancy Oliver Wyman.

Titled, The Real Credit Crisis: How Governments and Financial Services Can Work Together to Speed Economic Recovery, the new report looks at how the global economy is going to emerge from this crisis in desperate need of growth.

Public authorities will need to work with the fi nancial services system to speed the economic recovery. Banks’ expertise in re-structuring will become increas-ingly important, as well as their critical function in traded debt and other fi nancial markets.

Many households and compa-nies, already highly leveraged, are taking on more debt; a situation in which many fi rms across industry sectors are unlikely to be able to sustain this debt.

Governments and the financial system need to work together to absorb some of the financial losses, keep businesses alive, and help speed the economic re-covery.

Mathieu Vasseux, Head of Financial Services at Oliver Wyman (MEA), said: “The 2009 Financial Crisis had a very lim-ited effect on the GCC given its banking system had limited ex-posure to subprime lending and hence was largely insulated from the Credit Crisis.

The current crisis will be the opposite - the GCC will be more affected than the rest of the world.

The GCC is impacted by CO-VID-19 like other countries, but on top of COVID the economic impact on GCC is compounded by the 60% drop in oil price. This will cause credit and solvency of cor-porates to be impacted more heav-ily.”

To support the growth needed to emerge from the crisis, authorities must acknowledge the crucial role banks can play and take the below actions: ■ Course-correct on credit pro-vision to small and midsized businesses: Much of the lending stimulus today is not getting to the right businesses. Fixing this requires an assessment of credit availability and the operational capacity of the banking system and finding fast solutions. When necessary, authorities must sim-plify existing measures or ex-tend their scope to address blind spots.■ Prepare to manage a poten-tially large corporate solvency crisis that will arise after the ini-tial liquidity support: Authorities will need to assess the prepared-ness of their bankruptcy systems and the potential impact of credit losses on their banking systems, and make strategic decisions on how and where to stimulate eq-uity capital support to troubled businesses that can drive future growth. New restructuring ve-hicles are likely to be required.■ Prepare to intervene in parts of the fi nancial system as second-or-der fi nancial stability issues arise. Good decisions have been made on the use of capital buffers and forbearance. But the risks are ris-ing that some fi nancial institutions will remain structurally weak or even fail. Authorities will need to be ready for intervention. Resolu-tion planning efforts carried out in the last 10 years may come to a real test for the fi rst time in several countries.■ Planning loss absorption for fu-ture outbreaks. Systemic risks are rising relative to diversifi able risks, and this means greater government steering of loss absorption is here to stay and needs planning. Spe-cifi cally, to stimulate confi dence in the right growth credit and capital now, we believe a better-designed sharing of loss absorption between government, business, investors, banks, and insurers is required. The urgent priority today is to put in place a systemic solution to pan-demic re-insurance.

Oliver Wyman believes the global economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak depends on its duration, how far it spreads and the extent quarantine disrupts the labour market.

Quarantine measures could further damage ‘confi dence’ in air travel: de Juniac

Don’t make a slow recovery more difficult, warns IATAGENEVA, May 18: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) re-leased new analysis showing that the damage to air travel from COVID-19 extends into the medium-term, with long-haul / international travel being the most severely impacted. Quarantine measures on arrival would further damage confi -dence in air travel. A risk-based layered approach of globally harmonized bios-ecurity measures is critical for the restart.

Air travel scenariosIATA and Tourism Economics

modeled two air travel scenarios.Baseline Scenario

■ This is contingent on domestic markets opening in Q3, with a much slower phased opening of international markets. This would limit the air travel recovery, despite most forecasts point-ing toward a strong economic rebound late this year and during 2021.■ In 2021 we expect global passenger demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometers, RPKs) to be 24% below 2019 levels and 32% lower than IATA’s Octo-ber 2019 Air Passenger forecast for 2021.■ We don’t expect 2019 levels to be exceeded until 2023.■ As international markets open and economies recover, there will be fur-ther growth in air travel from the 2020 low point. But even by 2025 we would expect global RPKs to be 10% lower than the previous forecast.

Pessimistic Scenario■ This is based on a slower opening of economies and relaxation of travel restrictions, with lockdowns extending into Q3, possibly due to a second wave of the virus. This would further delay the recovery of air travel.■ In this case, global RPKs in 2021 could be 34% lower than 2019 levels and 41% below our previous forecast for 2021.

“Major stimulus from governments combined with liquidity injections by central banks will boost the economic recovery once the pandemic is under control. But rebuilding passenger confi -dence will take longer. And even then, in-dividual and corporate travelers are likely to carefully manage travel spend and stay closer to home,” said Alexandre de Ju-niac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

Long-Haul Travel Impact will be Longer Lasting

When the recovery begins, it is ex-pected to be led by domestic travel.■ An IATA survey of recent air travelers conducted in April 2020 found that 58% are somewhat or very likely to restrict their initial travel to domestic journeys.■ Domestic Revenue Passenger Ki-lometers (RPKs) will only recover to 2019 levels by 2022. International RPKs are only expected to return to 2019 levels in 2024.

“The impacts of the crisis on long-haul travel will be much more severe and of a longer duration than what is expected in domestic markets. This makes globally agreed and imple-mented biosecurity standards for the travel process all the more critical. We have a small window to avoid the con-sequences of uncoordinated unilateral measures that marked the post-9.11 pe-riod. We must act fast,” said de Juniac.

Avoid Quarantine MeasuresIATA strongly urges governments

to fi nd alternatives to maintaining or introducing arrival quarantine mea-sures as part of post-pandemic travel restrictions. IATA’s April survey of recent air travelers showed that■ 86% of travelers were somewhat or very concerned about being quaran-tined while traveling, and■ 69% of recent travelers would not consider travelling if it involved a 14-day quarantine period.

“Even in the best of circumstances this crisis will cost many jobs and rob the economy of years of aviation-stim-ulated growth. To protect aviation’s ability to be a catalyst for the economic recovery, we must not make that prog-nosis worse by making travel imprac-ticable with quarantine measures. We need a solution for safe travel that ad-dresses two challenges. It must give passengers confi dence to travel safely and without undue hassle. And it must give governments confi dence that they are protected from importing the virus. Our proposal is for a layering of tem-porary non-quarantine measures until we have a vaccine, immunity passports or nearly instant COVID-19 testing available at scale,” said de Juniac.

IATA’s proposal for a temporary risk-based layered approach to provide governments with the confi dence to open their border without quarantining arrivals includes:■ Preventing travel by those who are symptomatic with temperature screen-ing and other measures■ Addressing the risks of asymptom-atic travelers with governments man-aging a robust system of health decla-rations and vigorous contact tracing.

The mutual recognition of agreed measures is critical for the resumption of international travel. This is a key deliverable of the COVID-19 Aviation Recovery Task Force (CART) of the International Civil Aviation Organiza-tion (ICAO).

Asian markets rise after US Fed chief optimistic about recovery

Market sentiment will likely remain fragile – report

BEIJING, May 18, (AP): Asian stock markets rose Monday after the chief U.S. central banker expressed optimism the the Ameri-can economy might start to recover this year from the coronavirus pandemic.

Benchmarks in Shanghai, To-kyo, Hong Kong and Australia all advanced.

That came despite Japan’s an-nouncement that its economy con-tracted in the first quarter and the Trump administration’s decision to step up a technology conflict with Beijing by tightening restric-tions on Chinese tech giant Hua-wei.

Investors appear to be looking past the outbreak to a recovery de-spite rising infection numbers in the United States, Brazil and some other countries. Forecasters warn the the latest market buoyancy might be premature and a return to normal could be some way off.

Market sentiment “will likely remain fragile” as investors weigh government stimulus plans against rising U.S.-Chinese tension and poor economic data, said Riki Ogawa of Mizuho Bank in a re-port.

The Shanghai Composite In-dex rose 0.7% to 2,888.78 and Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.6% to 20,158.20. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong advanced 0.4% to 23,886.13.

The Kospi in Seoul was 0.5% higher at 1,936.13 and Australia’s S&P-ASX 200 gained 1.1% to 5,464.20. India’s Sensex opened down 3.1% at 30,132.92. Markets in New Zealand and Singapore also advanced.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell expressed optimism Sunday that the U.S. economy can begin to rebound in the second half, assum-ing the coronavirus doesn’t erupt in a second wave, but said a full recovery won’t likely be possible before the arrival of a vaccine.

That appeared to encourage in-vestors who are looking for signs of when global economies might return to normal.

In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Powell said the U.S. economy was fundamentally healthy before the virus forced widespread business shutdowns and tens of mil-lions of layoffs. Once the outbreak has been contained, he said, the

NBK rallies 8 fils, Humansoft Holding slips

Kuwait index extends gains, volume risesBy John MathewsArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, May 18: Kuwait stocks moved higher on Monday extending last session’s upswing. The All Shares Index climbed 38.37 points in slightly volatile session to 4825.37 pts paced by some of the blue chips.

The Premier Market rallied 49.26 points to 5196.30 pts while Main Market climbed 16.58 points to 4095.92 pts. The BK 50 Main index was up 24.54 points to 3985.04 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile rose for the second straight session. Over 106 million shares changed hands – a 19 pct increase from the day before.

All sectors closed in green turf. Basic Materials outshone the rest with 1.27 percent gain while Tele-communication stood next with 0.87 pct rise. Banking sector continued to top in both volume and value with over 71 million shares worth KD 18.4 million.

Among the standouts, National Bank of Kuwait rallied 9 fi ls to 735 fi ls on back of 3.9 million shares while Kuwait Finance House extend-ed Sunday’s gains with 7 fi ls jump to 587 fi ls and the counter pushed

8.7 million shares during the session. Kuwait Foundry Co climbed 10 fi ls to 230 fi ls.

Zain rose 4 fi ls to 522 fi ls on back of 1.9 million shares and Ooredoo followed suit to end at 627 fi ls. STC sprinted 13 fi ls to 835 fi ls recouping last session’s losses while Agility climbed 8 fi ls to 633 fi ls after push-ing 1.8 million shares. Humansoft Holding however dropped 31 fi ls to KD 2.610.

The market opened fi rm and pushed higher in early trade. The main index sagged slightly before heading north again and scaled the day’s highest level of 4841 points almost half way into the session. It gave up some of the gains in the sec-ond half and closed with moderate gains.

Top gainer of the day, Sultan Centre rallied 8.9 pct to 59.8 fi ls and National Investment Co scaled 8.3 percent to stand next. Al Deera Holding skidded 7.1 pct, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank topped the volume with 42.5 million shares.

Refl ecting the day’s gains, the winners outnumbered the losers. 54 stocks advanced whereas 26 closed lower. Of the 87 counters active on Monday, 17 closed fl at. 5965 deals

worth KD 106 million were trans-acted during the session.

National Industries Group rose 4 fi ls to 162 fi ls on back of over 4 million shares and Mezzan Holding followed suit to wind up to 569 fi ls. Boubyan Petrochemical Co sprinted 9 fi ls to 492 fi ls and Al Qurain Pet-rochemical Co dialed up 2 fi ls. Edu-cational Holding Group gave up 6 fi ls to settle at 270 fi ls.

Jazeera Airways was unchanged at 528 fils off early highs and ALAFCO clipped 2 fils. Com-bined Group Contracting Co and NAPESCO took in 2 fils each whereas Heavy Engineering In-dustries and Shipping Co fell 2 fils. ACICO Industries slipped 5 fils to 109 fils and Kuwait Cement Co added 4 fils. Gulf Cable closed 3 fils in green.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank fell 3 fi ls to 206 fi ls and Kuwait International Bank dialed up 2 fi ls on back of over 4 million shares. Burgan Bank eased 1 fi ls after trad-ing 4.4 million shares and Boubyan Bank closed 3 fi ls in green

The market has been upbeat so far during the week gaining 125 points in last two sessions. It is down 150 points from start of the month and has retreat-ed 1475 points year-to-date.

economy should be able to rebound “substantially.”

The U.S. downturn was the result of an external event instead of prob-lems such as the fi nancial instabili-ties that led to the 2008 crisis, which may mean “we can get back to a healthy economy fairly quickly,” Powell said.

Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are due to appear Thursday before a Senate panel to report on recovery efforts.

“Expect policymakers to strike a more cautious tone, emphasizing that we are not out of the woods yet and that more will be more stimulus in the offi ng,” Stephen Innes of Axi-Corp said in a report.

Meanwhile, Japan’s govern-ment reported Monday the world’s third-largest economy contracted by 0.9% in the three months end-ing in March compared with the previous quarter.

That “sharp fall” suggests there is “much worse to come” in the current

quarter, Tom Learmouth of Capital Economics said in a report.

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks turned in their biggest weekly loss in nearly two months.

The S&P 500 index rose 11.20 points to 2,863.70. It ended down 2.3% for the week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Aver-age gained 0.3% to 23,685.42. The Nasdaq composite added 0.8% to 9,014.56.

Meanwhile, the White House add-ed to trade uncertainty by tightening restrictions on Huawei Technologies Ltd. American offi cials say Huawei, one of the biggest makers of smart-phones and network equipment, is a security risk, which the company denies.

Washington said non-U.S. com-panies that make processor chips for Huawei must obtain permission to use American technology, a move that threatens to disrupt sales. Hua-wei warned earlier that additional U.S. sanctions on the company

might trigger Chinese government retaliation against American enter-prises.

European governments are re-opening factories, shops and other businesses but forecasters warn an economic recovery could be slow.

Chinese data reported last week showed manufacturing and auto sales are recovering but consumer spending, the biggest driver of growth for the second-largest global economy, is still declining amid widespread job losses.

In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude gained $1.19 to $30.72 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Ex-change. The contract rose $1.87 to $29.43 on Friday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, ad-vanced $1.07 to $33.57 per barrel in London. It rose $1.37 the previ-ous session to $32.50.

The dollar gained to 107.13 yen from Friday’s 107.08 yen. The euro declined to $1.0823 from $1.0828.

A currency trader walks by the screens showing foreign exchange rates at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, May 18, 2020. Asian stock markets rose Monday after the chief U.S. central banker expressed optimism the American economy might start to recover this year

from the coronavirus pandemic. (AP)

Business PlusPlus

The terms are not realistic for us. I think

this is going to leave us in a worse position than

before

‘

’

If deflation becomes embedded in the econo-my, it can be difficult to

uproot

‘

’

Industry one of the hardest-hit by virus outbreak

Unforgivable? Restaurants fear loans won’t bring reliefSean Kennedy, an executive vice president at the National Restaurant Association, an industry group.

Restaurant owners may be getting some help from Congress. A bill introduced by House Democrats Tuesday would give small busi-nesses including restaurants more options and breathing room in using their loan proceeds.

The House bill would allow business owners to use their loan money for whatever bills they need to cover. The bill would also give businesses 24 weeks or until Dec. 31, whichever is earlier, to spend the money.

Currently, the eight-week window for spending the money poses a dilemma. If, for example, restau-rants recalled all their workers after receiving a loan in mid-April, they’d use up the money before government offi cials allow them to be fully operational. At the end of the eight weeks, many wouldn’t be able to afford all their staffers and they’d have to lay them off again.

“It would be wiser to use those funds in a few months as restric-tions lessen and we have more income from the dining room,” says Michelle Courtright, owner of Fig & Farro, a restaurant in Minneapolis. She has struggled to meet the time and payroll requirements because key staffers decided not to return to work out of health concerns.

“I spent several weeks of valuable PPP time just hiring and trying to get a new staff together,” Courtright says. Her restaurant is doing only takeout and delivery service while she waits to be able to reopen for sit-down dining; in the meantime, her revenue is down 90 percent.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin acknowledged Monday that many restaurants wanted to hold on to their money and use it when it’s most benefi cial for them.

“We’ll look at a technical fi x,” he said, speaking in an interview on CNBC.

The Democratic bill would also give business owners more time to repay their loan amounts that aren’t forgiven, a minimum of fi ve years.

Kennedy called the House pro-posal “a strong step toward making the PPP more suitable for the unique business conditions of the nation’s restaurants.”

The industry group is seeking a separate $240 billion recovery fund for the restaurant and food service industries.

Dave Orenstein already knows his restaurant chain won’t get full forgiveness for its loan, and he can’t even estimate at this point how much Fish City Grill will end up owing. The Dallas-based chain began reopening May 1, and while the majority of his company’s 450 employees are back, he doesn’t have enough business to rehire all of them.

“If the loan is not forgiven, it would be virtually impossible to pay the funds back in two years,” says Orenstein, president of the 20-res-taurant company. (AP)

People exit a reopened restaurant Friday, May 15, 2020 in downtown Kansas City, Mo. Restaurants were allowed to serve dine-in customers today for the first time since mid-March when the city issued stay-at-home orders to stream the spread of COVID-19. (AP)

‘Aggressive Fed actions can help prevent deflation from taking hold’

Why prospect of defl ation could pose a threat to USWASHINGTON, May 18, (AP): The economic paralysis caused by the coronavirus led in April to the steep-est month-to-month fall in U.S. con-sumer prices since the 2008 fi nancial crisis - a 0.8% drop that was driven by a plunge in gasoline prices.

And excluding the normally vola-tile categories of food and energy, so-called core prices tumbled 0.4%, the government said last week in its monthly report on consumer infl a-tion. That was the sharpest such drop on records dating to 1957.

The business shutdowns, reduced travel and shrunken consumer spend-ing that the virus has caused have likely sent the U.S. economy into a severe recession. The resulting drop in economic activity is exerting a powerful downward force on prices throughout the economy.

The report raises the prospect of defl ation, a prolonged drop in prices and wages that typically makes peo-ple and companies reluctant to spend and can prolong a recession. Not since the Great Depression of the 1930s has defl ation posed a serious economic threat in the United States.

“If defl ation becomes embedded in the economy, it can be diffi cult to uproot,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial Ser-

vices. “Aggressive Fed actions can help prevent defl ation from taking hold, supporting a stronger economy over the longer run.”

Over the past 12 months, overall prices have now risen a scant 0.3%, the smallest year-over-year increase since 2015. Core infl ation has in-creased 1.4%, the lowest pace since 2011.

With consumer prices falling, concerns have arisen that the United States might succumb to a debilitat-ing bout of defl ation for the fi rst time in decades.

The fact that falling prices tend to cause worry among economists and policymakers probably strikes many people as puzzling. Here are some questions and answers:

What exactly is defl ation?Defl ation is a broad and prolonged

decline in prices and wages and often in the value of homes or other assets. During defl ationary periods, broad barometers like the Consumer Price Index that the government issued Tuesday will show consistent price changes below zero. And for two months now, that is what the CPI has shown: The index fell 0.4% in March and 0.8% in April. And the trend is likely to persist as the virus depresses economic growth and con-

sumer spending and thereby exerts downward pressure on prices.

Aren’t falling prices good? Peo-ple can buy more things with less money, right?

It’s true that households can make their paychecks go further when prices are fl at or falling. And with tens of millions of people suddenly out of work, this means that at least their unemployment benefi ts will stretch further. The 20% drop in gasoline prices in April, for example, will provide a welcome benefi t to motorists. All that said, economists fear that sustained price declines would hinder, not help, economic growth.

How?The main reason is that falling

prices typically make consumers and businesses delay spending. Why buy now, after all, if you can purchase the products you want - from fur-niture and appliances to cars, boats and computer equipment - at even lower prices three or six months from now? Collectively, such delays slow consumer spending, which drives about 70% of U.S. economic activity. Consider the economy’s 4.8% annual contraction during the January-March quarter. That quarter-

ly decline, the worst since the 2008 fi nancial crisis, was led by a broad pullback in consumer spending.

Defl ation also tends to hold down wages and to make the infl ation-ad-justed cost of a loan more expensive for borrowers. And in keeping borrowing and spending persistently weak, defl ation can prolong a reces-sion.

Has the US Ever endured a period of defl ation?

Yes, but not for nearly nine decades, since the Great Depression. During the Depression, falling prices meant that farmers couldn’t receive suffi cient payments for their crops. This caused millions of families to lose their farms to banks after they failed to make their mortgage pay-ments. More recently, some other economies, notably Japan’s, have been bedeviled by defl ation. Begin-ning in the 1990s, Japan struggled, often in vain, to keep infl ation from falling. As a consequence, Japan suf-fered through more than two decades of anemic economic growth.

What can Us policymakers do to avoid that fate?

The Federal Reserve has respond-ed aggressively and on multiple fronts to try to counter the economic

damage infl icted by the coronavi-rus shutdowns. The Fed has cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low near zero, where it had stood for seven years after the fi nancial crisis. The central bank is also spending trillions of dollars - more than it ever has, by far - to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds to try to keep short and longer-term rates as low as pos-sible to support borrowing and sus-tain the economy. The Fed has also unveiled numerous programs that are intended to facilitate a smooth and continual fl ow of credit, which is es-sential to the fi nancial system.

Will all those efforts be enough?No one knows for sure. The Fed’s

broad efforts, which in a normal econ-omy would likely accelerate infl ation, may or may not be enough to keep prices from falling. Yet if consum-ers and businesses avoid spending at anything near normal levels for many more months in light of continued shutdowns, persistent unemployment and fears about the virus, a bout of defl ation would become more likely. Most analysts have said they believe that sustained economic growth won’t resume until sometime next year, perhaps after a vaccine or an effective drug therapy is available and can be widely distributed.

By Joyce M. Rosenberg

Restaurants owners across the U.S. are worried that a loan

from the government’s coronavirus relief program could wind up being a burden instead of a blessing.

The Paycheck Protection Program has disbursed more than 4.3 million loans worth more than half a tril-lion dollars to small businesses in about six weeks. A PPP loan can be forgiven if owners spend the money within eight weeks of receiving it and put at least 75% of it toward employees’ pay and the rest toward rent, mortgage interest and utilities.

For those who own and run res-taurants, however, those terms can seem out of sync with the realities of their business. Many restaurants either remain closed or are doing just a fraction of their former busi-ness as cities and states only begin to lift stay-at-home orders. Instead of essentially paying workers not to work, owners might want to hold onto the loan money or use it for

more pressing needs; but doing so carries a risk.

Sarah Trubnick’s restaurant in San Francisco has been closed since mid-March. She recently got a relief loan - but she’s hardly celebrating.

Trubnick hopes to reopen The Barrel Room within the next eight weeks, but it will cost thousands of dollars to buy food and equipment needed to be operational again. She needs to use some of the loan money to pay those expenses. But that portion of the loan might not be forgiven, leaving her with a big debt to pay off in two years.

“The terms are not realistic for us,” says Trubnick. “I think this is going to leave us in a worse position than before.”

The restaurant industry has been one of the hardest-hit by the virus outbreak. Thousands have been shut down completely, which means no revenue coming in but bills like rent, utilities and insurance still to be paid. Many others have been restricted by state and local govern-

ments to serving customers with takeout and delivery, but that is only a small fraction of their usual busi-ness. And reopening doesn’t mean a return of the lunch and dinner crowds - social distancing require-ments means restaurants can’t serve the usual number of diners.

All these obstacles have stymied an industry that operates on the thin-nest of margins. The shutdowns and curtailed revenue led to the layoffs of 6 million workers during March and April.

Many restaurants fear for their survival, according to a study released in April by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The study found that restaurateurs believed they had a 72% chance of survival if the crisis caused by the virus outbreak lasted a month, but if it lasted four months, they believed they had only a 30% chance of survival. And at six months, a 15% chance.

A PPP loan could be expected to improve to odds - under the right

conditions. A report by the Small Business

Administration’s inspector general’s offi ce released Friday, while not mentioning the restaurant indus-try, found fault with the rules and predicted they would force tens of thousands of businesses to have to repay part of their loans.

According to the report released Friday, the law that created the loan program didn’t specify the amount of loan money that must be used for employees’ pay; the SBA added the restriction. The SBA responded in the report that “75% is an appropri-ate percentage” given the law’s focus on keeping workers paid and employed.

The report also noted that while the law allowed for loan terms to be as long as 10 years, the SBA imposed the requirement that loans be repaid within two years, making payments substantially larger.

“The Paycheck Protection Pro-gram is a great program, but it’s not working for restaurants,” says

Fiat Chrysler makes $6.8bn Italy-backed loan request

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has confirmed a request for an Italian state-backed loan to help the automotive sector relaunch from the coronavirus shutdown, a move that set off debate in Italy over whether such money should be made available to companies with legal headquarters overseas.

FCA said in a statement late Saturday that it was seeking 6.3 billion euros ($6.8 billion) in financing through Intesa SanPaolo, or one-quarter of its industrial revenue in Italy.

The money would be “dedicated exclusively to financing FCA’s activities in Italy and intend-

ed to provide further support to some 10,000 small and medium enterprises in the automo-tive supply chain,” the statement said. It noted that the automotive sector generates 6.2% of Italy’s gross domestic product and represents 7% of all manufacturing jobs.

Some politicians in the governing coalition questioned the loan to the carmaker, which moved its legal headquarters to the Nether-lands and fiscal headquarters to Britain in 2014 after completing the merger between Italy’s Fiat and U.S. carmaker Chrysler.

But Premier Giuseppe Conte told reporters

Saturday night that the better question is why big companies find it more attractive to move their legal or fiscal headquarters abroad.

Conte said that the issue would be ad-dressed in an upcoming decree aimed at simplifying bureaucracy.

“We don’t need pose the problem who goes and why to Britain, the Netherlands or other countries. We simply need to make our country more attractive. We need to ask our-selves why they go abroad,’’ he said, under-scoring that FCA is a major Italian employer. (AP)

In this file photo, a plastic sheet is laid between two workers need-ing to face each other to perform their task, as a safety measure for coronavirus contamination, at the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles plant in Atessa, central Italy. (AP)

SPORTSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020

12

‘Economics of Playing Without Fans in Attendance’

MLB projects $640K per game loss with no fansNEW YORK, May 18, (AP): Major League Baseball has told players their prorated salaries would contribute to an average loss of $640,000 for each game over an 82-game season in emp-ty ballparks, according to a presenta-tion from the commissioner’s office to the union that was obtained by The Associated Press.

Painting a picture of a $10 billion industry shuttered by the contagion, the 12-page document titled “Econom-ics of Playing Without Fans in Atten-dance” and dated May 12 was an initial step in negotiations aimed at starting the delayed season around the Fourth of July.

Teams say the proposed method of salvaging a season delayed by the c o r o n a v i r u s pandemic would still cause a $4 billion loss and would give ma-jor league play-ers 89% of rev-enue.

They con-tend they lose more money with each ad-ditional game played. The players’ union, however, believes clubs would lose less money with more games. In addition, many teams and/or their owners have stakes in their regional sports network that would benefit from additional games.

Owners voted Monday to propose salaries be based on a 50-50 split of revenue, a framework players say is tantamount to the kind of salary cap they will never accept. Teams gave the players’ association their virus-testing plan Friday and have waited to make their economic proposal.

The New York Yankees alone would have $312 million in local losses when calculating their earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. New York’s figure includes about $100 million toward the bonds that financed new Yankee Stadium, money that already has been paid for 2020.

The Los Angeles Dodgers were at $232 million in local losses, followed by the New York Mets at $214 mil-lion, Chicago Cubs at $199 million and Boston Red Sox at $188 million.

Detroit would have the lowest nega-tive EBIDTA - an accounting measure used to assess profitability - at $84 million, with Baltimore at $90 million, and Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay at $91 million each. Figures exclude distri-butions from the central office, which projects to collect $1.34 billion in me-dia revenue.

The figures were calculated by MLB and its clubs, and the frequently skepti-cal union already has requested a slew of documents from MLB.

MLB said 2019 revenue was 39% local gate and other in-park sources, followed by 25% central revenue, 22% local media, 11% sponsorship and 4% other.

Teams fears a second wave of the coronavirus would devastate finances if renewed government restrictions cause cancellation of the postsea-son, which brings in $787 million in media money. The document details who pays what: $370 million by Fox, $310 million by Turner, $27 million by ESPN, $30 million by the MLB Network and $50 million from interna-tional and other.

Teams project to increase their debt from $5.2 billion last year to $7.3 bil-lion in 2020, leaving most clubs out of compliance with the labor contract’s debt service rule.

MLB’s central office increased debt by $550 million to support clubs and is seeking $650 million more credit. MLB said many teams do not have

the capacity to add more debt to fund losses in 2021.

MLB and the union agreed to a March 26 deal in which players would get a prorated share of their salaries during a shortened season. As part of the agreement, $170 million in salaries are being advanced through May 24. If the season is scrapped, players are guaranteed service time equal to what they accrued in 2019, a key to gaining eligibility for salary arbitration and free agency.

Now that plans have been formu-lated to possibly start the season in early July in disinfected stadiums with no gate revenue, at least at the start, MLB says the current economics are not feasible. Players have said they already made a deal and see no need for change.

But that deal is contingent on play-ing in front of fans at regular-season ballparks. The agreement committed both sides to “discuss in good faith the

economic feasibility of playing games in the absence of spectators or at ap-propriate neutral sites.”

Players traditionally have ques-tioned team accounting on what counts as a baseball revenue or ex-pense. Cincinnati pitcher Trevor Bauer speculated this week over whether an owner could increase prices of a park-ing garage near the ballpark the owner also controls and generate money that would not be included in the club ac-counts.

Since the start of revenue sharing 25 years ago, MLB repeatedly has said team accounting is monitored and fol-lows strict rules.

Still, for all the questions, the pre-sentation does detail the pandemic’s financial destruction.

Revenue from regional sports net-works drops in proportion to the lost games, from $2.3 billion to $1.2 bil-lion and an average of $980,000 per game for both teams, according to the projection. Teams fear some additional losses because the regional networks will have to give up games to Fox and ESPN to fulfill national contracts. MLB said rights holders have already reserved rights to stop payments or de-mand refunds if agreed to inventory is not delivered.

Player salaries under the March 26 deal average $1.67 million per game for both clubs. MLB projects overall local revenue at $1.23 million a game for both teams and cost at $1.87 mil-lion.

MLB headed into the season pro-jecting $9.967 billion in revenue, including $7.548 billion at the local level, according to the presentation.

Expenses totaled $10.234 billion: $4.366 billion for major league player compensation, $198 million for pen-sions and benefits, $537 million to sign amateurs, $4.73 billion in local expenses and $403 million for the cen-tral office.

That left MLB with a projected EBIDTA of $143 million after sta-dium depreciation and noncash add backs. Free cash flow was predicted at negative $95 million after interest ex-penses, mandatory principal payments and non-baseball income and losses, but excluding capital improvements. MLB says EBIDTA has been within $250 million of break-even annually since 2010.

Under the newly developed plan, MLB projects revenue at $2.87 billion, including $1.522 billion at the local level.

Expenses drop to $6.819 billion: $2.36 billion for major league player compensation, including salaries, pro-rated shares of signing bonuses, ter-mination pay and buyouts of declined options.

NFL cornerbacks Baker and Dunbar released from jail after posting bond

Millman back in practice after backyard tennis in pandemic

Harvick ‘wins’ at Darlington as NASCAR returns to racing

Bowman settles for 2nd place, Busch in 3rd

DARLINGTON, South Carolina, May 18, (AP): This was a 400-mile drive unlike any other in modern day NASCAR.

The grandstands were complete-ly empty. There wasn’t a single tailgate inside the track. Everyone wore face coverings - some with the team logos, others opting for plain disposable medical masks. It was nothing close to the corporate sponsorship, pomp and patriotic traveling circus that symbolizes NASCAR.

But when the engines fi red at Dar-lington Raceway following a 10-week layoff during the coronavirus pandem-ic, it turned into a regular old race.

Kevin Harvick beat Alex Bowman to win NASCAR’s fi rst race back, a spectacle closely watched to see if the largest motorsports series in the United States could successfully return to the track.

“I just want to thank everybody from NASCAR and all the teams for letting us do what we do,” Harvick said. “I

didn’t think it was going to be that dif-ferent, then we won and it’s dead silent out here. We miss the fans.”

It was a crucial gamble for NAS-CAR, which had to get back to the track to stave off fi nancial ruin. With races on hold, no money was com-ing into the sport whatsoever and the NASCAR business model can not sus-tain the lack of revenue.

NASCAR developed a health plan approved by offi cials in both South Carolina and North Carolina and scheduled seven races over the next 11 days at two tracks. As other states began to open, the series tacked more races to fi ll the calendar with 20 events across seven Southern states between now and June 21. There will be no spectators at least through that date.

This fi rst event was called the “The Real Heroes 400” and dedicated to health care workers fi ghting the coro-navirus pandemic. The names of health care workers across the country were substituted for the drivers’ name above the door on each of the 40 cars.

Harvick’s car honored Dr. Joshua Hughes, an emergency medicine phy-sician in the Charlotte area.

“Josh is one of my really good friends, I spend a lot of time talking to him through this pandemic and really have heard how those doctors are af-fected with everything they have going on with their personal life and whether they’re sick, not sick, how they should treat people,” Harvick said. “I’m just really honored and really thankful for all of our front line workers, not only our doctors, but grocery stores, truck drivers, fi re fi ghters, police depart-ments - you name it.

“All of you front line workers are the reason that we’re here today and our country is actually still running.”

The health care workers then vir-tually gave the command to start the engines.

“Our drivers, race teams and offi -cials have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to get back to the race track and we want to assure you that we have taken the return to racing very seriously,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps wrote in a letter to fans released Sunday morning.

The industry had to be extremely careful because to even get to the Coca-Cola 600 next week at Charlotte Motor Speedway, NASCAR had to get it right at Darlington.

Steve O’Donnell, executive vice pres-ident of NASCAR, was pleased with the collective effort from the industry.

“We didn’t have to tell anyone or remind anyone to wear a mask,” O’Donnell said. “It felt a little odd with the garage area because it was scaled down in terms of personnel, but all in all I think it went really well.”

Teams were required to submit ros-ters in advance with only 16 members allotted per car. Names were on a list at a checkpoint at the end of a gravel road just off Harry Byrd Highway and everyone who passed through had their temperature checked and logged before they could enter.

NASCAR did not have to turn anyone away, and all 40 drivers were cleared to race. NASCAR has declined to do COVID-19 testing to ensure those tests go to those in need, but competitors are supposed to log who they come into contact with, not return to the race shop after being at the track and continue to follow CDC guidelines on social distancing.

Among those to make it inside were Ryan Newman, back for the fi rst time since he suffered a head injury exactly three months ago in a wreck on the fi nal lap of the Daytona 500. New-man missed only three races because of NASCAR’s shutdown and fi nished 15th in his return.

Also in the fi eld was Matt Kenseth, who at 48 was the oldest driver at Dar-lington and he raced for the fi rst time since the 2018 season fi nale. Kenseth was brought out of retirement by Chip Ganassi when Kyle Larson was fi red for using a racial slur during an iRacing event that kept NASCAR occupied when rac-ing was on hold. Kenseth fi nished 10th.

The odd and empty setting was the backdrop for some typical NASCAR mishaps. Seven-time champion Jim-mie Johnson crashed while leading on the fi nal lap of the fi rst stage, a better result than poor Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who barely made it out of the second turn before he crashed.

Stenhouse never fi nished a single lap and fi nished last.

And even without fans allowed on the property, a small grass fi re still broke out behind a section of the track. Gray smoke billowed during a caution, which isn’t that odd a sight at a NAS-CAR race.

Bowman, who signed a one-year contract extension with Hendrick Mot-orsports on Saturday, was second. Kurt Busch, winner of the closest fi nish in Dar-lington history, was third for Ganassi.

BRISBANE, Australia, May 18, (AP): Just four matches after losing his five-setter against Roger Federer at the Australian Open, John Millman was having to scramble to find a practice court.

It’s not like he was suddenly an unknown to Aussie tennis fans. More a case of making himself at home as the coronavirus pandemic forced ath-letes everywhere to think outside of the box.

The professional tennis tours have been suspended. His regular practice venue at the Queensland Tennis Cen-tre, which hosts the season-opening Brisbane International, was shuttered during the lockdown because of strict social distancing restrictions.

So, Millman went the social route, playing on backyard courts that be-longed to people he sometimes was meeting for the first time.

“Ït was awesome - really good fun,” he said. “I had a couple of lovely fami-lies that welcomed me in and allowed me to keep my eye in. It was really nice. Stuck to the (social distancing)

protocols, of course, so we were tick-ing all those boxes.”

Chris Mahony, Queensland’s Na-tional Academy manager, organized for 12 professional players including Millman to have fitness equipment

shipped to their homes and for them to maintain contact with trainers via digi-tal and other means. He also organized a half-dozen courts owned by people

from within the academy network where players could practice.

Then Mill-man widened the network to his fan base.

“I think John-ny said some-thing in one of

his newspaper articles and be-

fore he knew it, he had people contact-

ing him and offering courts,” Mahony said.

With Australian authorities manag-ing to contain the spread of the virus, the local lockdown is being eased gradually and some sports venues are reopening for practice.

So Millman and Co. were back at work on Monday in the shadows of Pat Rafter Arena.

The 30-year-old Millman has seen the highs of lows of being a tennis pro, from reaching the U.S. Open quarterfi-nals in 2018 after a win over then No. 2-ranked Federer that continued with his run into the Top 40 in the rank-ings, to playing in the lower tiers “for a couple of hundred bucks a round” after returning from surgeries.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, May 18, (AP): NFL cornerbacks DeAndre Baker and Quinton Dunbar were re-leased from Broward County Jail on Sunday, a day after surrendering on felony charges stemming from a cook-out at a Miramar home.

Baker posted a $200,000 bond after a Zoom hearing with Broward Circuit Judge Michael Davis. The New York Giants defender is charged with four counts of armed robbery with a firearm

and four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm in the Wednesday inci-dent.

Dunbar is charged with four felony counts of armed robbery. The Seattle Se-ahawks player posted a $100,000 bond.

Baker and Dunbar were attending the cookout Wednesday night when a fight broke out, and Baker pulled out a handgun, the warrant said. Baker, Dunbar and two other men began rob-bing people of thousands of dollars, watches and other valuables, witnesses told investigators. The players’ law-yers say they have witnesses who will clear them.

Baker was one of three first-round draft picks the Giants had last season. He was the 30th pick overall out of Georgia. He played in all 16 games, starting 15. He had 61 tackles and no interceptions.

Dunbar signed with Washington as an undrafted free agent out of Florida in 2015 and was traded to the Se-ahawks in March. He started 11 games for the Redskins last season, making 37 tackles and four interceptions.

In this May 27, 2013, file photo, Kansas City Royals bench coach Chino Cadahia (15) and St. Louis Cardinals first base coach Chris Maloney (37) exchange line-ups with home plate umpire Rob Drake (30) before a base-

ball game at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. (AP)

Jimmie Johnson (48) and Alex Bowman (88) come down a straightaway during the NASCAR Cup Series auto race on May 17, in Darlington, South Caro-lina. (AP)

FOOTBALL TENNIS

Millman

CAR RACING

BASEBALL

Kevin Harvick celebrates after winning the NASCAR Cup Series auto race on May 17, in Darlington, South Carolina. (AP)

Kevin Harvick (4) makes a pit stop during the NASCAR Cup Series auto race on May 17, in Darlington, South Carolina. (AP)

Trevor Bauer

THE FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY IN FREE KUWAIT Published by: Arab Times Publishing House

Editor-in-ChiefAHMED AL JARALLAH

Editorial Office:Airport Road, ShuwaikhP.O. Box 2270, 13023 Safat, Kuwait

Telephone: 24813566 & 24849144Fax: 24818267E-mail: arabtimes@arabtimesonline.com

Advertising: Tel: 55633481Fax: 24911307E-mail: advt@arabtimesonline.com

Annual Subscriptions:Individuals KD 45/- Companies and Offi cialDepartments KD 75 Airmail charges extra for overseas

Tel: 24849144Fax: 24839487

Latest sports scores at — http://sports.arabtimesonline.com

ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, MAY 19, 2020 13

PR

IME

TIM

E tuesday— (all times are kuwait local)

Sports09:00 tennis ................................... bein sports 9hd10:30 soccer ................................... bein sports 2hd12:00 basketball ............................. bein sports 8hd14:00 rugby ................................... bein sports 15hd14:30 baseball ............................... bein sports 16hd16:30 soccer ................................... bein sports 5hd17:25 baseball ................................ bein sports 13hd22:15 tennis .................................... bein sports 9hd

‘Big crowds, no masks’

McIlroy delivers winner as live golf returns to TVMIAMI, May 18, (AP): Rory McIl-roy delivered the money shot Sunday as live golf returned to television for a Skins game that revealed plenty of rust and raised more than $5 million for COVID-19 relief funds.

McIlroy and Dustin Johnson, who had not won a skin since the sixth hole, had a chance to win the fi nal six skins worth $1.1 million on the fi nal hole at Seminole in the TaylorMade Driv-ing Relief exhibition. Both missed and they returned to the par-3 17th for a closest-to-the-pin contest.

From a forward tee at 120 yards, Matthew Wolff was 18 feet below the hole. His partner, Rickie Fowler, missed the green. Johnson found a bunker. Down to the last shot, McIlroy barely stayed on the shelf left of the pin, measured at 13 feet.

“Air fi ve,” McIlroy said, alluding to the social distancing in place at Juno Beach, Florida.

The fi nal carryover gave McIlroy and Johnson $1.85 million for the American Nurses Foundation. Fowler, who made

seven birdies, and Wolff made $1.15 million for the CDC Foundation.

“I’m proud to be part of an event to entertain people at home on a Sunday afternoon and to raise money for peo-ple who need it,” McIlroy said as he played the 18th hole.

Wolff, the 21-year-old Californian with big game and plenty of swagger, earned $450,000 toward relief funds by having the longest drives on two par 5s - 356 yards on No. 2 and 368 yards on No. 14.

Fowler’s seven birdies were worth $270,000 in a separate fund from Farmers Insurance, while McIlroy made four birdies in regulation worth $175,000 and Wolff had three birdies for $135,000. Johnson, who showed the most rust, had two birdies for $75,000.

PGA Tour Charities allowed for online donations during the telecast, raising more than $1 million. The do-nations will continue until Tuesday. When the exhibition ended, more than $5.5 million had been pledged, start-ing with the $3 million guarantee from UnitedHeath Group.

Players carried their own bags. Television had a skeleton crew on

the grounds - the play-by-play and analysts were 200 miles away in St. Augustine, Florida, while host Mike Tirico was at his home offi ce in Michi-gan. The match went over four hours, primarily because players were at times held in place to give the six TV cameras time to get in position on the next hole.

Mark Russell, the PGA Tour’s vice president of of rules and competition, was the only one to handle the fl agstick. Bunkers didn’t need to be raked because they were the only match on the course, which closed for the summer last week.

“It was an awesome day,” McIlroy said. “It was nice to get back on the golf course and get back to some sort of normalcy.”

The players wore microphones, though the banter was limited and ended early.

Most of it came from McIlroy, who had to make a short par putt on the sec-ond hole for a push. He rolled it in and said to Wolff, “I think you forget I’ve won two FedEx Cups that total $25 mil-lion. That doesn’t faze me, youngster.”

Fowler played the best golf and staked his side to the lead with four birdies in a six-hole stretch around the turn, including a 20-footer on No. 11 that was worth two skins at $200,000. He raised his fi nger and McIlroy said, “Did you hear all those cheers?” There were no fans, and fewer than 50 people were at Seminole. All were tested for the new coronavirus.

That was the start of golf’s return.The last live competition on TV was

March 12, the fi rst round of The Play-ers Championship. It was canceled the next day, along with other tournaments that either were scrapped or postponed.

Next up is another exhibition match on May 24 down the road at Medalist, where Tiger Woods plays when home. Woods and Peyton Manning will face Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady in a match billed as “Champions for Char-ity” that will raise $10 million for COVID-19 relief efforts.

The real show is to return on June 11 with the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial in Fort Worth, Texas. The tour has said it will not allow fans for at least a month, and perhaps longer depending on it goes. Players will have access to charter fl ights and a designated hotel.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s idea of golf getting back to normal is having thousands of fans who aren’t wearing masks in attend-ance and “practically standing on top of each other.”

Trump joined the NBC broadcast Sunday of “TaylorMade Driving Re-lief,” a Skins game involving Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson against Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff. It was the fi rst live golf on television since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down golf and other sports on March 12.

The PGA Tour plans to return on June 11 at the Charles Schwab Chal-lenge in Fort Worth, Texas. The tour has said it will not have fans for at least a month.

“After that, hopefully, it will be back,” Trump said in his interview with NBC host Mike Tirico. “We re-ally want to see it back to normal so when we have all these thousands, tens of thousands of people going to your majors and going to golf tournaments, we want them to be having that same experience.

In this file photo dated, March 12, 2020, Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, reacts to a missed putt on the third hole, during the first round of The Play-ers Championship golf tournament in

Ponte Vedra Beach, USA. (AP)

Christopher Trimmel of Berlin in action against Serge Gnabry, right, of Munich during the German Bundesliga soccer match between Union Berlin and Bayern Munich in Berlin, Germany, on May 17. (AP)

Bayern win on Bundesligareturn in ‘empty’ stadium

Cologne, Mainz draw

BERLIN, May 18 (AP): Defending champion Bay-ern Munich returned to action Sunday with a 2-0 win at Union Berlin as the restart of German soccer continued in empty stadi-ums.

Players’ shouts echoed off the rows of concrete terracing around Union’s stadium as Bayern moved closer to an eighth straight league title.

Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was cautiously optimis-tic after the league avoided major inci-dents on its reopening weekend.

“It’s important that we are satisfied with it but that we don’t ease up now,” Rummenigge told broadcaster Sky, adding that soccer should stay “disci-plined” to keep German politicians on

side. “It allows colleagues in other countries to hope that they will also be allowed to start playing again some time.”

As at all games in the Bundesliga this weekend, players wore masks when not on the field and substitutes sat apart from one another in the stands. Police were stationed outside stadiums to deter any gatherings.

Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said it was “a question of motivation, of attitude” to succeed without fans in the stadium and that the game seemed to take longer than usual. “The min-utes are always very long at a game without fans,” Neuer said.

Bayern midfielder Thomas Müller wondered if his team had “a small advantage” because Union couldn’t play in front of its normally fervent home crowd. Across eight Bundesliga games Saturday and Sunday, only one ended with a win for the home team, Borussia Dortmund, which beat Schalke 4-0 on Saturday.

Robert Lewandowski gave Bayern the lead with a penalty in the 40th minute following a mistimed chal-lenge by Union’s Neven Subotic. It was Lewandowski’s 40th goal of the season in all club competitions. Union held off Bayern for most of the second half but Benjamin Pavard scored a second in the 80th.

Bayern restored its four-point lead over second-place Dortmund with

eight games left. Dortmund hosts Bayern on May 26 in a game which could shape the title race.

Union played without head coach Urs Fischer, who had traveled to be with his family following the death of his father-in-law. The club said Fischer would only take charge of training again after he tests negative for the coronavirus twice.

Earlier, more than 1,000 Cologne fans lent shirts and scarves to a “lucky charm” support display in the stands for their team’s 2-2 draw with Mainz. Elsewhere in the city, posters were displayed attacking the restart, which some Cologne fan groups have strongly criticized.

Not everyone followed advice on “socially distanced” celebrations.

Cologne and Mainz’s players marked their goals with restrained elbow bumps, but second-division Osnabrück’s players and substitutes hugged in jubilation after scoring a stoppage-time goal to earn a draw against leader Bielefeld.

It was the first home Bundesliga game in 12 years for Cologne without its traditional live goat mascot. Game regulations bar mascots so Hennes IX was kept at his pen in the zoo, though he was briefly shown on a video screen before kickoff.

Fan groups are split over the restart,

much like German society in general. Many clubs have allowed fans to put banners in the empty stands for games. Some groups have taken the opportu-nity to call for changes in how German soccer is run.

St. Pauli, a second-division team with a largely left-wing fan base, played Sunday with a large banner along one side of the field reading, “Soccer lives through its fans. Reforms now.” On Saturday a banner at Augsburg read, “Soccer will survive, your business is sick!”

Polls conducted by German broad-casters ahead of the restart consistently indicated that more Germans opposed resuming games than supported the plan.

Hertha Berlin faced a backlash over its players’ hands-on celebrations in its 3-0 win over Hoffenheim on Saturday. The influential state governor of Bavaria, Markus Söder, suggested the players should have avoided bodily contact as other teams did.

Hertha coach Bruno Labbadia defended his players , saying it was hard to suppress emotions and players couldn’t be treated “like a church choir.” The league discourages players celebrating together but won’t punish them if they do.

Two more top-tier teams play Monday as Werder Bremen hosts Champions League-chasing Bayer Leverkusen.

One game was missing from Sunday’s schedule. Dynamo Dresden’s visit to Hannover in the second divi-sion was postponed after two Dynamo players tested positive for the corona-virus last week. The entire squad and staff must spend 14 days in isolation.

Pierre Kunde Malong, right, of FSV Mainz 05 is challenged by Jonas Hector of 1. FC Koeln during the German Bundesliga soccer match between 1. FC

Cologne and FSV Mainz 05 in Cologne, Germany, on May 17. (AP)

Virus tests on EPL players ahead of return-to-training talksMANCHESTER, England, May 18, (AP): After watching the Bundesliga resume, English Premier League clubs will try on Monday to agree on proto-cols to allow a return to training during the coronavirus pandemic.

Teams have already started checking players and coaches for the coronavi-rus, with a total of 1,600 weekly tests anticipated across the 20 clubs in Eng-land’s top division.

With Britain suffering a worse coronavirus outbreak than Germany, the sports shutdown is yet to end and players would have to remain socially distant for now in training. But the Premier League has government back-ing to pursue restarting games in June if there is no new spike in COVID-19 cases across the country.

Sunday should have been the last day of the season but, instead of Liverpool completing a title triumph, coronavirus testing was taking place at clubs.

Up to 40 players and coaches at each club were due to be tested for the coro-navirus across Sunday and Monday. A further wave of testing will take place across the 20 clubs later in the week in a bid to detect infections.

In recent weeks, players have only been carrying out some individual fi t-ness work on fi elds at some training grounds. But the socially distant team training could start on Tuesday if the

protocols are agreed on by executives from the clubs during their latest “Pro-ject Restart” conference call on Mon-day.

Contact training would be prohibited until approval is granted by the gov-ernment, which has said games could resume in June - without fans in stadi-ums.

Some players and managers have expressed concern about returning to training since Britain has Europe’s highest virus death toll as well as the most confi rmed cases.

“You’d need a full four to fi ve weeks (training), especially if you’re going

to go back into c o m p e t i t i o n , when you’re literally paid to win,” Manches-ter City forward Raheem Sterling said in a You-Tube interview with United States captain Megan Rapinoe. “You do need to do that prepara-

tion. You can’t just go straight in.”The aspiration of resuming the

league in the week beginning June 8

now appears hard to achieve. Liverpool led the league by 25 points with nine games remaining when the season was paused in March.

England’s deputy chief medical of-fi cer, Jonathan Van-Tam, said last week they will assess how the phased return of training goes before they “even think about moving on to the return of com-petitive football matches. We have to be slow. We have to be measured.”

Britain reported on Sunday that 170 more people have died from the coro-navirus, raising its overall death toll to 34,636. It is the lowest daily death toll since the day after the country’s lockdown was announced on March 23, although weekend fi gures are usu-ally lower because reporting lags when compared with weekdays.

Another 3,142 people in Britain tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the number of total confi rmed cases to 243,303.

Robert Lewandowski of Munich cel-ebrates his side’s opening goal dur-ing the German Bundesliga soccer match between Union Berlin and Bayern Munich in Berlin, Germany,

on May 17. (AP)

GOLF

SOCCER

SOCCER

Sterling