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KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: His Excellency, the Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK), Dr Mohammad Y. Al-Hashel, announced the publication of CBK’s 48th Annual Report for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019/20, including the audited financial state-ments (the Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account) of the CBK for the FY ended March 31, 2020. The report also comprises the key devel-opments in the main mone-tary aggregates and banking indicators, the Kuwaiti Di-nar (KD) exchange rate, do-mestic interest rates, money supply, deposits, bank credit, domestic liquidity, public debt instruments, aggregate balance sheet of local banks, and domestic inflation rate. Furthermore, the report en-compasses CBK’s regulatory and supervisory efforts for said year, as well as major banking operations and key tasks performed by CBK to enhance staff performance and upgrade its IT infra-structure.

The Governor began by clarifying that, in light of developments in the domestic economic, monetary, and banking conditions on the one hand, and interest rates trends of major cur-rencies on the other, CBK brought the discount rate down three times, first by a quarter of a percentage point on Oct 30, 2019 bringing it from 3 percent to 2.75 percent. In response to the reper-cussions of the spread of COVID-19 and the negative impact on the eco-nomic conditions in Kuwait and the apparent need for an accommodative credit policy, the CBK brought down the discount rate by another quarter percentage point on March 4, and again by a full percentage point on March 16, bringing the discount rate to 1.5 percent, the lowest level his-torically. This decision conforms to CBK’s efforts to strengthen sustain-able local economic growth, while maintaining the attractiveness and competitiveness of the national cur-rency as a store of domestic savings, driving the local banking and financial units to finance different sectors of the national economy.

In parallel, CBK, during FY 2019/20, continued its efforts aimed to maintain a relative stability of the Kuwaiti Dinar exchange rate against other major world currencies within its system of pegging the KD to a special weighted basket of currencies of countries that share signifi-cant financial and trade relations with the State of Kuwait. The average exchange rate of the US dollar against the KD for FY 2019/20 reached 304.034 fils (per US dollar) against 302.743 fils during the previous fiscal year, i.e. an increase of 0.43 percent or 1.29 fils in the US dollar’s exchange rate. The difference between the highest exchange rate of the US dollar (309.9 fils) and its lowest ex-change rate (302.9 fils) for FY 2019/20 was 2.3 percent.

With respect to monetary and bank-ing developments, Money Supply in its Broad Definition (M2) decreased by 2.4 percent by the end of FY 2019/20. The balances of the utilized cash por-tion of credit facilities extended by lo-cal banks to various economic sectors during the fiscal year increased by 4.4 percent to KD 39,079.6 million against KD 37,420.8 million at the end of the previous year. Furthermore, the total balance of residents’ deposits with local banks increased by 0.7 percent to reach KD 43,457.4 million by the end of FY 2019/20 against KD 43,169.7 million at the end of the previous fiscal year. A hike in the aggregate balance sheet for local banks (at the domestic level) was registered by the end of FY 2019/20 reaching KD 72,774.0 million against the previous year’s KD 67,431.4 million, which is a 7.9 percent increase.

Moving on to supervisory develop-ments, the Governor noted that the CBK had maintained diligent efforts to super-vise and regulate the units of the local financial and banking sector, within its broader objective of bolstering these

units’ financial position and safeguard-ing financial stability in line with in-ternational standards. In this respect, CBK issued a circular to all local banks on 14/5/2019 updating its Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) previ-ously issued on 23/7/2013. The updated instructions reinforce and elaborate on some requirements relative to (AML/CFT) assuring the compliance of regu-lated banking and financial institutions. CBK issued a circular dated 28/8/2019 to all local banks, financing companies, and exchange companies concerning the executive by-laws for implementa-tion of UN Security Council resolutions issued virtue of Chapter VII of the UN Charter related to countering terrorism and financing of the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Further, CBK Board of Directors had at its 10/9/2019 session approved the in-corporation of amendments to Kuwaiti banks governance controls and regula-tions instructions, mainly adding inde-pendent members among banks’ boards and board committees. The amendments also stressed the importance of risk man-agement governance and the role and responsibilities of the board, and added an item on the compliance framework within banks’ macro risk management.

Part of the precautions and measures aiming to counter the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, CBK had on 12/3/2020 instructed local banks, through the Kuwait Banking Associa-tion, to provide uninterrupted essential financial services to the public, and to provide all necessary means to guarantee that transactions are carried out with the customary speed, efficiency, and secu-rity. Additionally, banks were instructed to maintain ATMs and replenish them with sufficient cash supply to accommo-date the public’s needs. There were also instructions to guarantee continued and uninterrupted online banking services and Points of Sale, and to cease charges and commissions on PoS, ATM, and on-line banking transactions for six months. Clients whose businesses were adversely affected by the current crisis were sup-ported. Additionally, staff working from banks’ premises and branches during lock-down were compensated financial-ly in appreciation for their work. This was in addition to instructions to delay due payments for six months without penalizing those negatively impacted by the pandemic, and to continue to provide banking services to companies that im-port essential goods that are related to food security and basic society needs.

In the area of capacity building, CBK had 1,003 staff by end of the fiscal year, including 920 Kuwaitis who account for 91.7 percent of overall staff, com-pared to 963 including 867 Kuwaitis at 90 percent the previous year. The bank continued its efforts to enhance staff’s academic and vocational qualifications through offering higher-education schol-arships at prestigious international uni-versities and training programs locally and abroad. This both enhances CBK staff performance and helps retain distin-guished staff and, ultimately, reinforces CBK’s overall performance.

On another front, CBK sought to up-grade its information technology infra-structure in line with the latest interna-tional developments in this field, which involved technical systems in several CBK departments and offices. The Bank had thereby accomplished several de-velopment projects, most significant of which are the governmental banking services system, the Kuwait National Payment System (KNPS), the data and reports analysis system, and updating SWIFT. CBK also developed several au-tomated programs and systems.

The CBK meanwhile maintained its communications efforts with the Kuwaiti economic and financial community and society in general, which were enhanced to keep pace with the accelerating devel-opment in media, publication, and in-formation technology. The Bank had, in FY 2019/20, drafted and implemented a communications plan which highlights CBK’s efforts and contributions within the main areas of its mandate in monetary policy and banking supervision and over-sight, which are aimed at safeguarding the state’s monetary stability, supporting an environment that nurtures sustainable economic growth and further buttresses financial stability. Along these lines, the bank issued a series of periodicals in FY 2019/20 which included the latest eco-nomic, monetary, banking data and statis-tics and also, simultaneously, improved the content on its website, regularly up-dating it objectively and transparently.

In conclusion, CBK Governor Dr Mo-hammad Y. Al-Hashel pointed out the Annual Report for FY 2019/20 is now available through the official CBK web-site (www.cbk.gov.kw).

CBK publishes annual report

Accommodative creditcushions ‘COVID-19’ hit

Farwaniya, Hawalli lead surge in 805 new casesKUWAIT CITY, Sept 7, (KUNA): Kuwait recorded 805 new coronavirus cases and two deaths in the past 24 hours, said the Ministry of Health on Monday.

The new figures raised the total number of cases to 90,387 and deaths to 546, said the ministry’s official spokesman Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad in a statement to KUNA.

He noted that 221 cases were in Hawalli governorate, 201 in Ahmadi, 515 in Farwani-

ya, 135 in Asimah and 93 in Jahra.There are currently 90 patients in the ICU

units, as the total number of patients still re-ceiving medical care is 8804, he added.

The number of swabs was in the past 24 hours is 4,324, raising the number of swabs to 648,051.

The ministry has announced earlier Mon-day curing 516 patients, raising the number of recoveries to 81,037.

By Saeed Mahmoud SalehArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: MP Abdullah Al-Kandari has for-warded queries to Minister of Finance Barrak Al-Shitan about the companies which manage the investments of Kuwait In-vestment Authority (KIA) and the amount of commission paid to these companies in fiscal 2018/2019.

He wants to know the number of Kuwaiti employees in these companies, facts about the report published by CNBC magazine on the contract between KIA and DOW Company in violation of the Cabinet decision to suspend contracting with the aforementioned company, names of the committee mem-bers who approved the contract and reasons for approval.

He also asked about the reasons behind the decision to in-vest $1 billion in the Kuwaiti Chinese Company and its cancel-lation, and if there is suspicion of conflict of interest between the Kuwaiti Chinese Company and KIA in relation to the CEO of the company.

He asked for names of the Kuwaiti directors and deputy di-rectors of the financial offices in London and Beijing and the real estate offices in the USA since 2015 till date, names of Kuwaiti employees who have been exempted from the speci-fied period of service, reasons behind the exemption, names of expatriate employees and their job titles, and if any of the expatriate employees holds a diplomatic passport to represent the head of the investment office.

On the other hand, MP Muhammad Haif has accused the Interior Ministry of instigating disputes to divert the attention of citizens from the main issues.

He disclosed the leaked recordings sent to the National Assembly are supposed to be four hours long, but the State Ministry of National Assembly Affairs said the duration of the recordings available now is only two hours.

He said the Interior Ministry manipulated the recordings in order to protect those accused of involvement in corruption is-sues like the Malaysian sovereign fund and spying on citizens.

He urged his colleagues to ponder on the citizens’ opinions and vote in favor of the no-confidence motion against the in-terior minister.

Opinion

Your Highness PM, what good hasthe traditional health measure done?

Legislator queriesKIA commissions

‘Abide by health terms’KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7, (KUNA): The Cabinet held its week-ly session at Seif Palace on Monday under chairmanship of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

Following the session, His Highness the Deputy Prime, Min-ister of Interior and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh stated that the ministers expressed sincere congratu-lations to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on the sixth anniversary of his designation by the United Nations as Leader of Humanitarian Action along with naming Kuwait Center of Humanitarian Action.

Addressing the session, Minister of Health Sheikh Bassel Al-Humoud Al-Sabah talked about the local status of the novel coronavirus in terms of counts of the casualties, the recuper-ated and the deaths.

He noted a noticeable increase in the number of the casual-ties with the virus, in recent days, due to mingling and failure to adhere to health precautions.

The Cabinet however praised abidance by the health terms on part of responsible citizens and residents and affirmed its dismay with manifestations of non-compliance such as failure to put on the protective mask and social distancing.

It called on citizens and residents not to be complacent and apply the necessary health terms literally.

The ministers examined the health services provided in the fight against COVID-19 with respect of treatment and logistics and decided to task the civil aviation directorate to coordinate with the ministries of health and foreign affairs to arrange transfer of medical teams from Pakistan to Kuwait.

They discussed and approved the Arab protocol for combat-ing maritime piracy and armed robberies and referred the rel-evant bill to His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince. They also blessed a bill regarding the agreement for establish-ing a joint committee for cooperation with South Sudan

PM Diwan’s photoHH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Ha-

mad Al-Sabah during Monday’s Cabinet meeting.

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

KUWAIT is neither the only country in the world to be overwhelmed by the CO-VID-19 pandemic nor is it the best one in dealing with it.

However, throughout the past nine months, it appears as though this coun-try is living in a huge confinement due to the exaggerated precautionary health measures, which failed to either reduce or flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections.

In fact, the rate of infections has risen higher than what it was prior to the total lockdown.

It is true that health is more important than wealth, but unjustified delusion and apprehension has led to a great economic disaster, the negative effects of which have started appearing in their ugliest forms.

Today, we are facing the fury of two pandemics. The first is the COVID-19 pandemic which can be addressed through realistic measures, and the sec-ond one is the shrinking economy, which is heading to a recession, the effects of which will continue to prevail for several years to come if there are no proper econ-omy stimulus plans in place.

Nonetheless, the vicious circle has be-come inevitable, because of either disre-gard for the fate of people, or a certain de-meanor of the Ministry of Health which rectifies a mistake with another mistake.

Due to the continuation of these unre-alistic measures, Kuwait incurred huge losses that were not endured by countries that suffered more during the pandemic. The countries of the European Union, the United States of America, Latin America, and even our neighboring countries took realistic health measures, but also worked in parallel to stimulate the economy through a series of billion instant stimu-lus plans.

Even some middle-income countries such as Bahrain, and also bankrupt ones such as Lebanon, worked on reviving their economy through immediate aid, while others worked to transform the threat into a great opportunity, as is the case with countries that secured soft loans and interest rates, with which they paid salaries; for instance, Canada and the United States of America.

Your Highness the Prime Minister, what did your government do?

It launched a completely unrealistic stimulus plan, and left the banks to im-pose their conditions on borrowers, such as signing mortgages in the event that they requested for any amount of money, unless they had sufficient or parallel sol-vency for the loan.

While borrowers were striving to fulfill the requirements for obtaining loans, the traditional health measures continued to place the country under lock. This led the borrower to wonder how he would pay back the loan that he took when his busi-ness was still locked down.

What is worst of all is that the govern-ment, instead of focusing on dealing with the crisis immediately, deflected by en-gaging in side shows, either with the MPs or by agitating issues that could have been postponed such as its campaign against human traffickers (visa traders) who did whatever they wanted in front of the con-cerned agencies throughout the past years

and were not deterred by these agencies.When the fire of that campaign start-

ed to dim, the government ignited other scandals related to the money launder-ing networks, celebrities, the Malaysian fund, and “Interior Ministry’s leaks” among others. This means the executive authority escapes from a crisis by igniting another crisis. All of this caused chaos of a kind that Kuwait has never witnessed in the last three decades.

Your Highness the Prime Minister, we had previously raised the issue of the sovereign credit rating, the way this mat-ter can be addressed, the increase in Ku-wait’s investments in international stocks, and the major projects that represented a real opportunity for seven months, as well as the local spending to raise the national product.

On more than one occasion, you said efforts are focused on improving the busi-ness environment, attracting capital, and that the white shark is for the black day. Have you sought to achieve this?

When the pandemic began, the govern-ment established a series of health quar-antine centers and spent tens of millions of dinars on them. It reached such an ex-tent that some of us imagined that these field hospitals, rented hotels and shelters for the quarantined would include all of Kuwait’s population, but they remained empty of its thrones. Instead of the gov-ernment investing in them, it issued an imaginary decision.

The government mandated every citi-zen or expatriate returning to the country to spend 14 days in a third country and obtain a COVID-19-free certificate, so that Kuwait became scarce in newspapers and regional media. It is this decision that revived the economies of those countries. At the same time, most of the countries were satisfied with just such a certificate, and when the environment opened up, they even worked on activation of tour-ism based on a deliberate plan.

Among the government’s strange deci-sions is that any citizen returning to the country with a PCR certificate that proves he is free from the COVID-19 virus has to stay under quarantine for 14 days, and after this period ends, he must obtain a new certificate if he wants to travel to any country, and repeat the same procedures all over again. Where is the rationality in all of this?

Unfortunately, all this did not happen. The government did not pay any atten-tion to all the talk by observers, experts, the press, and even ordinary people. It seemed as though the government was working in line with the famous prov-erb – “Your uncle is dumb”, until Kuwait turned into a big prison because of the pointless reservation.

Your Highness the Prime Minister, there is no logical explanation for what is happening. It instead leads to the closure of the country, intensification of its eco-nomic crisis, and suffocation of people in the end. It is confusion in itself, and the absence of a vision and feasible deci-sions. Is this what the government wants?

Email: ahmed@aljarallah.com

Follow me on:

ahmedaljarallah@gmail.com

Newswatch

KUWAIT CITY: His Highness Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Sunday sent a cable of condolences to Tunisian President Qais Saeed.

In the cable, His Highness Deputy Amir strongly denounced the terrorist attack that targeted a security patrol in the city Sousse, east of Tunis, which resulted in the death of a security man and the injury of another.

His Highness affi rmed Kuwait’s posi-tion rejecting these heinous terrorist acts that target the lives of innocent people and destabilize security and stability in the brother country. (KUNA)

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KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s Ministry of Education (MoE) issued on Sunday a decree regulating the mechanism of work to private schools’ during the 2020-2021 academic year that in-cludes online platforms, in light of the repercussions of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

Under the decision, the platforms will be activated at private and bilingual schools that have British, American, French, Indian, Pakistani systems and others, the ministry’s assistant under-secretary for private education Abdul Mohsen Al-Huwaila said in a press state-ment. (KUNA)

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KUWAIT CITY: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabahs efforts within the humanitarian domain had earned him respect from his global peers, a fact which led to the UN honoring of the Kuwaiti top fi gure as a global humanitarian leader, said an of-fi cial Monday.

Head of the Kuwaiti womens society union Sheikha Fadya Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah affi rmed, in a press tatement, that His Highness the Amir’s honoring back in 2014 came to commemorate his long-time effort within the humanitarian domain since he was foreign minister of the country. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

‘To forget a wrong is the best revenge’

LOCALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

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KUNA photoView of the field hospital in the Hadhramaut province in Yemen launched by KRCS.

Kuwait-funded field hospital opens in YemenA COVID-19 field hospital was inaugurated in Tarim town, Hadhramaut governorate, Yemen, on Sunday with funding from Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS).

Speaking to reporters at the inauguration ceremony, Esam Al-Katheiri, secretary of the governorate, praised Kuwait for its humanitarian role and contribu-tions to development in Yemen, particularly in the healthcare sector.

“The generous assistance from our brothers in

Kuwait, whether those from government or non-gov-ernment aid agencies such as KRCS, help alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people, including the resi-dents of Hadhramaut,” he said.

The COVID-19 field hospital in Tarim will add momentum to the efforts to curb the spread of the pandemic in and around this area and empower the health authorities in the governorate to deal with com-municable diseases, particularly COVID-19, Al-Katheiri added.

The project, developed by the Estijabah Foundation for Humanitarian Aid and Relief, will serve as an isola-tion hospital for coronavirus cases with 60 bed capac-ity, said Tareq Lakman, executive director of the foundation.

The hospital has a casualty department, laboratory, pharmacy and an ICU equipped with three ventilators, he noted.

Launching a hospital in Hadhramaut, Yemen, by KRCS will boost the medical field in the country, said

KRCS’ Board Chairman Dr Hilal Al-Sayer.Hadhramaut is in true need for improving medical

services, he said in a statement to KUNA on Monday, adding that the hospital is part of KRCS’ efforts to aid Yemenis, especially in the age of the coronavirus pan-demic.

The hospital includes 60 beds, an emergency cen-ter, an ICU unit, a laboratory and a pharmacy, Al-Sayer noted. (KUNA)

IDAK helping the poor.

Affected families provided with ration, food

IDAK active in fighting COVID-19

Competency tests eyed for 20 professions for all expatriates

Bid to improve quality, skills of workers coming to Kuwait

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: Deputy Director General of Planning and Administrative Developm-ent Sector at the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM), Iman Al-Ansari, said final touches are being given to the applica-tion of what she called competency tests for 20 professions for all expatri-ates seeking to work in Kuwait, reports Al-Rai daily.

Al-Ansari revealed the tests will be conducted outside Kuwait for these professions in countries from where Kuwait imports its manpow-er needs especially those hired to work in various types of establish-ments such as restaurants, shop-ping malls, stores, cooperative societies, hotels and food stores.

She said this is on the sidelines of an inspection campaign of restau-rants at the Sheikh Jaber Cultural Center, to ensure the employers and expatriate workers abide by the health laws and requirements set by the concerned authorities.

DelayedShe added the coronavirus crisis

delayed the plan to test those arriving for work, but after the gradual return “we have put the final touches to apply the tests to all those coming to work for these professions.”

Al-Ansari stated the aim is to improve the quality and the skills of workers coming to Kuwait. She added the sector also trains the Kuwaitis, as “we are keen to upgrade the labor competency of the Kuwaitis to make them productive. We cannot achieve this goal unless the work-force is productive,” she added.

“Currently, she went to say, “The testing procedures are carried out inside Kuwait, and the trend is if we succeed in the first phase we are

KUNA photoHH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled receives CBK Governor Dr Mohammad Al-Hashel.

CBK governor presents 48th report of ’19-20 to PMHis Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah received, at Seif

Palace Monday, Central Bank of Kuwait Governor Dr Mohammad Al-Hashel who presented a copy

of 48th report of fiscal year 2019-20. (KUNA)

looking forward to conducting a test in the countries from where we bring workers.”

On the issue of inspection cam-paigns which are being carried out recently, Al-Ansari indicated the sector is cooperating with the Ministry of Health by inspecting complexes, markets and retail stores, so that the general require-

ments of the Ministry of Health must be fulfilled with regard to con-tinuous sterilization and taking tem-perature of employees and visitors to ensure they are not infected with the coronavirus.

She explained since June 30 PAM teams have visited 35,000 sites – associations, restaurants, salons, clubs, and various types of

retail stores, stressing that efforts are continuing in cooperation with the various authorities to ensure that all facilities adhere to the require-ments of the Ministry of Health such as social distancing, commit-ment to wear face masks, particu-larly restaurant workers who must wear the gloves because of their contact with the food.

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: The Indian Dentists’ Alliance in Kuwait (IDAK) – a fellowship of Indian dentist’s residing in Kuwait – has exerted tre-mendous efforts to provide relief to those affected with the virus and is assisting the Ministry of Health to contain the pandemic, says a press release issued by IDAK.

At the KGL camp in Mahboula IDAK supplied cooked food and dry rations to the families that were most affected. The aid also included food packets, each with 5 kilos of rice, 2 liters oil, 1 kilo sugar, 5 kilos flour, 2 kilos pulses, 2 kilos onions and 2 kilos potatoes to more than 2,600 families most of whom were on the verge of hunger.

IDAK President Dr Rajesh Alexander said relief efforts began as early as mid-April, even before the lockdown was imposed. Supplies were distributed mainly among taxi drivers, maids, barbers and other mar-ginal workers, whose livelihood was greatly affected by the corona pan-demic as most of them were left with no source of income.

He went on to say IDAK was involved in packing the essential kits at School Oral Health Program (SOHP) headquarters Salmiya as the pandemic spread rapidly, many of the quarantine centers were getting over-whelmed and IDAK was permitted to provide supplies to some of the cen-ters which primarily catered to the Indian patients.

IDAK also distributed cooked food packets, drinking water bottles and

personal hygiene kits in the camps where most of the infected people were isolated. IDAK General-Secretary, Dr Jacob Lonappan said, “With the support of our volunteers, IDAK was able to distribute about 6,650 food packets, about 6,000 bot-tles of drinking water and about 550 personal hygiene kits to the select quarantine centers”.

In the early days of the outbreak, up to 80 percent of the COVID-19 cases in Kuwait were among Indians. Contact tracing is an essential public health measure that is vital in reduc-ing the spread of the disease. MoH reached out to IDAK to assist them in conducting contact tracing of COVID-19 positive Indian patients.

IDAK then partnered with the Indian Doctors Forum (IDF) and car-ried out contact tracing from April 10 to June 30.

Dr Jitendra Ariga and Dr Roy Francis, from the School Oral Health Program and Dr Jagan Baskaradoss, from Kuwait University led the team of around 60 volunteers for contact tracing.

Dr Jitendra said, “Contact tracing was successfully completed for 1,360 COVID-19 positive Indians and we were able to identify around 6,350 contacts. Through this effort, IDAK was able to identify several hotspots of disease communication and notify the MoH on a daily basis.”

IDAK continues its relief and humanitarian aid to the Indian com-munity in Kuwait who are affected by this pandemic. Iman Al-Ansari

Cabinet approves public auctions to sell landsfor labor cities construction to private sectorKUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: Following a series of discussions among the concerned state authorities, the Council of Ministers has decided to offer the sites for the construction of labor cities to the private sector through public auctions, provided the process of selling the lands takes about five months, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The Cabinet has instructed Kuwait Municipality to take all necessary measures to provide suf-ficient number of suitable sites for housing workers or to establish labor cities that serve both “urban, artisanal, and industrial” areas in the interest of the Ministry of Finance (managing state property) to sell them in public auction to the private sector, provided they are built within a specific period of time in accordance with the provi-sions and procedures in force in

this regard.The Cabinet also assigned the

Ministry of Public Works to coor-dinate with Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Finance, Kuwait Municipality, Public Authority for Manpower, Public Authority for Civil Information, Kuwait Authority for Public-Private Partnership Projects, the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development, and the bodies it deems appropri-ate, to follow up all the require-ments and technical specifications related to labor housing and the construction of labor cities in light of the current reality and future variables of the numbers of work-ers and the estimation of the need for their housing.

The Cabinet also required the provision of periodic reports on developments in this regard.

The Cabinet reviewed the Ministry of Finance’s letter No. 08941/2020 dated 16/7/2020 con-taining the statement that it is per-missible to sell through public auc-tion in implementation of Article 6 of Decree No. 105/1980, which stipulates that, “The sale of the state’s private real estate property shall be through public auction after making the announcement in the local newspaper”.

This will be after the transfer of these lands from public state prop-erty to private state property based on a decision by the Cabinet, pro-vided that the allocation of these lands is conditional upon the Municipal Council for the purpose of housing workers with specific building rates for each land, and that there are no apparent obstacles hindering the sale.

LOCALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

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A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION

DIWANIYA‘Some countries misuse funds provided by Arab states’

‘Kuwait must suspend foreign aid to stabilize economy’“DURING its weekly session that was held last Monday, the distinguished Cabinet re-assured the people of the State’s fi nancial condition, describing it as satisfactory. Un-doubtedly, this decision greatly satisfi ed the citizens who were suffering due to the previous statements issued by the govern-ment and the National Assembly,” column-ist Abdulmohsen Mohammad Al-Husseini wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“There was a continuous struggle and muscle fl exing done by some of our brave deputies over the issue of the State budget and terrorizing citizens that the State was unable to pay the salaries during the com-ing period.

“Here we can only thank the prime min-ister, who was keen to reassure citizens and denied everything related to the budget defi cit and the inability of the State to pay salaries. HH the Prime Minister revealed all the circumstances about the general budget and comforted the citizens as long as matters were about the economic crisis.

“The condition is reassuring, so the State and the National Assembly must maintain these stable conditions for the national economy, and it is preferable if the Na-tional Assembly suspends fi nancial aid and loans so that this stable economic situation continues and does not enter into economic crises and avoids future economic crises.

“Kuwait over the past years has con-tributed to support many countries to help them revive their economies and contribute to development projects, and it would be nice if the State sets certain conditions to help the State in development projects and stop supporting countries that have nothing but resounding slogans that we are accus-tomed to in the past, given the fact that the State of Kuwait had supported the states which used to depend only on the slogans in the name of supporting the war effort or the Palestinian cause.

“It is unfortunate that Yasser Arafat gave up a position in support of the cause of the occupation of Kuwait, even though his organization started its activities from Kuwait. We all saw Abu Ammar visiting Saddam Hussein during the days of the occupation and we saw him tapping the shoulder of Saddam Hussein in a show of support for the occupation of Kuwait.

“Not just that, Yasser Arafat had depos-ited all PLO funds collected from the states in support of the Palestine cause in the name of his wife and daughter leaving not a penny for the sake of the Palestine cause.

“These issues should be reviewed by the Kuwaitis and the Arabs, because it is unrea-sonable to continue supporting an organiza-tion whose leader – Yasser Arafat – during the Arab League meeting which was held

on Aug 10, 1990, was voted against Kuwait in favor of the Iraqi occu-pation.

“The previous politi-cal situations based on courtesies and wrong attitudes cannot contin-ue. Let us adopt more appropriate policies. I hope some people do not believe that Ku-wait is a fi nancial fund

for everyone. In other words, we have to support only those whose attitudes are sup-porting the Kuwaiti policy.

“The important thing today, and after the decisions issued by the Council of Minis-ters, we thank God for the stability of the State budget and payment of the salaries of State employees non-stop, and thanks to the Prime Minister and members of the Council of Ministers.”

Also: “In the late 1990s, former president Bill

Clinton and Tony Blair, prime minister of Britain, published the so-called ‘Third Road Concept’ replacing left-wing social democracy and right-wing free market, in which some parties won elections in the United States of America, France, Italy, Portugal, The Netherlands, and Germany, based on this concept,” columnist Yacoub Abdulaziz Al-Sanea’a wrote for Al-Qabas daily.

“It is needless to say that just the mention of the term ‘The Third Road’ still raises many questions. In other words, do the rel-evant ideas represent just an informational slogan to serve the electoral campaigns or do they represent just a trick to recognize yourself from the other horrible, old tra-ditional Leftists without being reluctant to

defi ne who ‘we’ are? “However, to know more about the

above, then you have to go through an ar-ticle that was published in 1998 by the Al-Bayan newspaper over the crisis for search-ing for identity in 1998.

“With the continuing health crisis of co-rona pandemic, economic and social prob-lems and dilemmas are exacerbating, but the partial ban has become a health concern in the spread of depression and obesity, and the closure of some activities has been dis-rupted that may not return.

“Finally, some aspects of economic ac-tivities and examples are many, and this will become apparent with the return of normal life in full operation, but listening to the statements of the Minister of Health, Dr Sheikh Basil Al-Sabah and his warnings against laxity in health requirements, as he mentioned, makes it logical that he is right to slow the transition to the stages of life to the return to normalcy gradually.

“The opinions of the people who were tired by the lockdown and the lack of move-ment and mobility also remain, and despite the grace periods for complexes, there is no great benefi t in the absence of operat-ing seating in restaurants, so there has been an increase in private gatherings in homes, chalets and farms.

“With regard to the opinions of the peo-ple from who were tired as a result of the lockdown which had deprived them from the freedom of moving and shifting which happened for some specifi c periods, were allocated for opening the malls during cer-tain hours, such action was seemingly use-less, because were not allowed to sit in the restaurants and as such we found how the private gatherings were held inside homes, the chalets and the farms and this behavior increased signifi cantly.

“With the exposure of the fi le of corrup-tion which coincided with the spread of the Covid-19 virus, the relationship became direct, either by wishful thinking from a hungry crowd to see a corrupt person who was condemned and then punished with imprisonment, while people took to Twitter calling for reform as well as for fi ghting the corruption by all against all.

“In the meantime as parliamentary elec-tions approach and rejection of immunizing

the electoral records by the court, we found some people defending the early political bias at all levels hoping and the attempts exerted in this connection, will conduce to the creation of a parallel powers who will exploiting the corona and the corruption cases.

“Finally ‘The Third Way’ or the novel ‘Enemy Brothers” by the creative Greek writer ‘Nikos Kazantzakis’ is considered the first creative work of fiction to her-ald the existence of a new political and social path called ‘The Third Way’, not brutal capitalism or restricted Marxism, but a mixture of their virtues, and there are those who see it as a psychological or illusory path. Like the protagonist of the novel, Minarov, who was killed by a stray bullet, he did not know which of the two opposing sides was destined to come. Thank you!”

❑ ❑ ❑

“The independent creative mind intel-lectually looks at accusation and criticism with insight for every situation and under-stands the language. Defi ciency or error occurs inevitably, because it is the basis of every talk or presentation of opinion or study,” Hamza Al-Salem wrote for Al-Shahed daily.

“The decrease in human work is a uni-versal reality, and perfection is impossible without God.This is supported by the Al-mighty’s saying: And if it was from other than God, they would have found a great difference in it. Making the principle of criticism the root of the way of thinking is the essence of suspicion and accusation in Sophism. There is a difference, because logical criticism is constructively positive, and suspicion in sophistry is insanity and foolhardiness.

“A fi ne thread is between sophistry and useful intellectual logical criticism, and the difference between them is great. I do not fi nd in Sophism a useful thing, except for the general idea of it; which is not to take matters for granted. Sophism, however, stood here, and ended up in non-existence. It was not easy for them to question their exaggeration in questioning even the con-crete axioms, so every stupid person who is heavy in mind and soul adopted it.

“Sophism uses logic to prove suspicion, then stands at skepticism, leaving only the ruggedness of heavy blood and reason. As for logical intellectual criticism, it uses suspicion and reason to stimulate logic in fi nding the truth or developing a solution, opinion, or decision.

“In order not to fall into the traps of so-phistication, a thought or understanding should not be posed without a non-abstract, representative pictorial example or an in-disputable proof. A rational proposition is only useful if it proves the logic of itself and proves its owner’s understanding of it by depicting it with examples and scenarios whose logic cannot be violated by incon-sistent results. It is also possible to support the logic of thought or opinion by evidence of information collected with agreement or disagreement, so that the analyst cannot come up with proof to challenge it.

“So, any claim, opinion, or logic pre-sented without an illustrative example or realistic proof is nothing but the logic of philosophy of the sophists, an argument from the Byzantine dialectic or a cover for the ignorance of the pious and pedantic. For this reason, the one who creates the aban-donment of dependency and removes the intellectual surrender of words of experts and specialists, and prevented from joining the fl ock of society and falling into the cap-tivity of the prevailing culture is to make the proposition of accusation as the basis of thinking.

“Standing at the mere accusation is nothing but sophistic foolishness and Byzantine stupidity, so skepticism must be followed by research if it does not have the necessary sciences to start the thinking process. Only a confident soul, capable of doing this, adheres to the con-dition of knowledge and honor, then ad-mits mistake and gives credit to whom it’s due. The human genius explodes, but in reality, it’s nothing but a general in-nate characterised by all human beings who did not develop well, in addition to those society oppress through killing or indulgence, hindering them since infancy through repression and violence or dis-torting their brain with myths and lies.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb

Al-Husseini

‘Hike in meat prices in local market due to sheep delivery delay from Australia’

People reluctant to buy meat, say butchers

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: The repercussions of the COV-ID-19 crisis continue to have a negative impact on some vi-tal sectors. For instance, the delay in sheep shipment from Australia has sparked an increase in the meat prices in the local market, rendering consumers to avoid buying meat

from sheep market and instead resorting to buy in small quantities from butchers in Shuwaikh and other areas, re-ports Al-Qabas daily.

In the past two days, the sales movement in the sheep market in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh witnessed a low turnout of consumers, given that the mar-

ket used to witness large crowds at the end of each week prior to the COV-ID-19 crisis. However, the repercussions of the pandemic continue, de-laying the recovery of the market.

Some of the vendors highlighted the lack of oc-casions now compared to the past, which has led to the reluctance among con-sumers to buy meat.

ComplainAlso, some complain

about the high prices of the sheep available in the market, but this is expect-ed due to the lack of re-quired quantities entering the market, and the ban on Iranian sheep before the COVID-19 crisis, as well as the absence of wide-spread demand for Geor-gian, Somali and Pakistani sheep in comparison to Jordanian, Saudi Arabian, and local breed.

In the same context, a number of consumers stressed the need for effec-tive control of sheep prices in the market including in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, Dhuhr, Jahra and Al-Rai areas.

They said the main rea-son behind the high prices is the lack of large quanti-ties of Australian sheep reaching the local market, as well as the absence of the desired types of local sheep, and the inadequacy of what is available at times to the desires of the public.

They highlighted that meat is a major item on the dining tables, although re-cently there has been a ten-dency to opt for imported fi sh and local chicken, in addition to chilled meat that arrives from Australia and Pakistan.

They added that buying by kilogram in most cases is an ideal solution to ensure that pockets are not drained during the current period.

‘Traffi c congestion in the Free Zone heralds disaster’KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: It seems that the issue of traffi c conges-tion in the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) has resurfaced, despite the newly planned roads and bridges in the surrounding area, which became almost empty after a large number of investors left, reports Al-Anba daily.

A large number of merchants and importers expressed dissatisfaction about the traffi c congestion at the entrance to the free zone, especial-ly the part dedicated to loading and unloading goods, as this bottleneck is witness to long lines of trucks, as well as small and medium cars that line the side of the roads waiting to

enter or exit the unloading areas, thereby causing congestion on a daily basis.

Traders and importers have warned of a catastrophe, especially as the congested area is fi lled with trucks and containers loaded with many different materials that ar-rive in Kuwait via Shuwaikh Port, which are currently accumulating inside and outside the port in dif-fi cult weather conditions.

In this regard, merchants have appealed to concerned authorities in the state headed by Kuwait Ports Authority, the General Adminis-tration of Customs, Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Public

Works to exert concerted efforts in fi nding a quick and urgent solution to the crisis before anything unto-ward happens.

A number of traders and import-ers emphasized the negative effects traffi c congestion may have on the movement of trucks loaded with containers and commercial materi-als of various kinds, indicating they may threaten economic growth and negatively affect the morale of in-vestors. They called on concerned authorities to develop comprehen-sive and radical solutions to elimi-nate traffi c bottlenecks and ensure smooth movement of trucks.

KFSD photoThe scene of the accident.

MEW refers 35 workers for retirementKUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: Minister of Oil, Electricity and Water Khaled Al-Fadhel has referred 35 employees, who have been in service for 35 years in the Ministry of Electricity, for retirement, reports Al- Rai daily quoting sources.

On the other hand, sources disclosed the Ministry of Electricity and Water is cur-rently coordinating with Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) regarding the appointment of one consultant for the second phase of ‘Shagaya’ project (Dab-dabah) that was canceled, provided it is re-offered through the authority as well as the

third stage (Al-Abraq) in order to reduce the cost instead of appointing one consult-ant for each stage.

Sources confi rmed the Supreme Com-mittee will discuss the second phase of the project in its next meeting to start prepar-ing for the bidding procedures to pave way for the implementation of the two phases together; indicating that the second phase is expected to produce 1,500 megawatts, while the third phase is expected to pro-duce 2,000 megawatts; hence, the total of the two phases is about 3,500 to 4,000 megawatts.

Asian dead, four hurt in head-on collisionA violent head-on collision on the Kabd Road opposite the Fire School caused the death of one Asian and injury to four, reports Al-

Anba daily.A security source the victim

died on the spot. The injured were rushed to a hospital.

Investigations are underway to determine the cause of the ac-cident. The remains of the victim have been referred to Forensics.

LOCAL/GULFARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

4

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Sept 7: The Mohammed bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity announced the four winners for Cohort 2 of the Global Maker Challenge at its first ever Virtual Award Ceremony orga-nized out of the United Arab Emirates. The four winners, along with eight runners-up, will receive monetary prizes, mentorship, and ac-cess to global organisations, worth up to US$1 million.

Simbi Foundation, ColdHubs, POKET, and Plastics for Change, were selected as the four Global Maker Challenge winners following careful evaluation led by the Mas-sachusetts Institute of Technology’s SOLVE initiative (MIT SOLVE) and an esteemed jury of 47 globally renowned subject matter and in-novation experts.

The Initiative also identified the four most disruptive solutions, that will be connected to global organisations to receive guidance and mentorship through a programme in partner-ship with the University of Cambridge.

ID2020, Stixfresh, Agricycle Global, and AlgiKnit were identified to be the most dis-ruptive solutions with the potential to gener-ate significant social and economic change in the face of some of the world’s most pressing challenges. These start-ups will benefit from the Global Prosperity Award mentorship pro-gramme and will receive guidance and sup-port from global organisations to help them overcome their non-financial challenges, and put them on a path to scalability and greater social impact.

Cohort 2 was launched at the United Na-tions Industrial Development Organisation’s (UNIDO) 8th Ministerial Conference of the Least Developed Countries that was held in Abu Dhabi in November 2019, and received more than 3,400 entries from 148 countries.In partnership with 10 UN agencies, critical global issues that need urgent action, were identified, forming four challenges related to the themes of Innovation for Peace and Jus-tice, Sustainable and Healthy Food for All, Innovation for Inclusive Trade, and Climate Change.

More than 6,800 social impact enthusiasts from around the world came together to wit-ness the Global Maker Challenge finalists pitch their solutions, listen to expert-led dis-cussions and keynotes, and watch the award ceremony, as part of the #Make4Prosperity-Week.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Badr Al-Olama, Head of the Organising Committee for the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisa-tion Summit (GMIS) said: “We continue to be inspired by our patron, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s humanitarian jour-ney and drive for innovation to positively im-pact not only the UAE, but also the region and the world. Just like us, our humanitarian start-ups too believe that access to innovation paves the way to building prosperity. Today, we cel-ebrate the social entrepreneurs that leverage innovation for work that transcends borders.

“The whole world has been shaken by the coronavirus pandemic, but the strength of this year’s cohort has given us hope for the future. Our maker community put forward localised solutions for global problems, and through collaborative management between stake-holders, we can ensure that these inspiring in-novations reach those who need it most. At the Mohammed bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity, we believe that by demonstrating cohesiveness and having a shared destiny, we can strive towards a brighter future for all.”

The Innovation for Peace and Justice chal-lenge addressed issues refugees and displaced people face to access affordable, quality ser-vices that are essential to their safety and well being; and included the following solutions:

■ Winner: Simbi Foundation is developer of solar-powered, centralised learning hubs that provide access to digital education. This service is designed to help rural and vulnerable communities’ access affordable and quality education to help nurture the careers of young people providing them a solid start to life.

■ Runner-up: and ‘Disruptive Innovation Solution’ for the Global Prosperity Award: ID2020 is a user-managed, digital ID platform that allows displaced people greater ownership

of their own healthcare records, educational attainment information, and professional cre-dentials. ID2020 need support to enhance the footprint and the back-end infrastructure of their platform, amending the business-model to make it fit for future purpose.

■ Runner-up: Aiyinruns virtual reality (VR) learning spaces for facilities without the physical and monetary capacity to build real ones.

The ‘Sustainable and Healthy Food for All’ challenge tackled the issues that fast-growing urban populations face in accessing healthy and sustainable food; and included:

■ Winner: ColdHubs provides solar-powered walk-in cold storage for perishable foods produced by rural farmers in develop-ing countries. One fridge can support an en-tire neighborhood, helping provide access to healthy and sustainable food in the face of rapid urbanisation.

■ Runner-up: and ‘Disruptive Innovation Solution’ for the Global Prosperity Award: Stixfresh have developed stickers that create a protective layer around fresh food produce to slow down spoilage, providing economic benefit for small farmers without climate-controlled warehouses. Stixfresh keeps food fresh for longer, preserving nutrients vital for addressing hunger and malnutrition.

■ Runner-up: Nilusis a social enterprise platform that creates an affordable and healthy food digital marketplace for low-income people.

The Innovation for Inclusive Trade chal-lenge addressed issues that rural communi-ties face in accessing new supply chains and markets to create better livelihoods. The final candidates were:

■ Winner: POKET is a crowd-sourced registry of offline merchants capable of map-ping last mile rural supply chains. The PO-KET app is capable of helping a whole net-work of suppliers across a region, allowing rural communities to increase their access to new supply chains and markets and nurture greater prosperity.

■ Runner-up: and ‘Disruptive Innovation Solution’ for the Global Prosperity Award: Agricycle Global is a zero-electricity post harvest food dryer technology that connects rural farmers to international markets in need of mentoring and support to access new com-munities.

■ Runner-up: Fantine is a blockchain-enabled marketplace that allows coffee farm-ers to transact directly with roasters and buyers

The Climate Change challenge brought in solutions that facilitate a low-carbon circular economy through smart use of existing re-sources; winners include:

■ Winner: Plastics for Change is an ethi-cal sourcing platform that provides sustainable livelihoods and expedites transition towards a circular economy. This digital platform helps communities move towards a low-carbon, cir-cular economy by eliminating waste and utilis-ing existing resources to generate income.

Runner-up and ‘Disruptive Innovation Solution’ for the Global Prosperity Award: AlgiKnit is a sustainable fibre for the fashion industry that is biodegradable, comfortable and low-cost, seeking support in scaling their offering, accessing new markets and supply chains.

■ Runner-up: Aquacyclis the first com-mercially viable Microbial Fuel Cell capable of generating electricity from wastewater.

The Global Prosperity Award was formed to encourage global organisations to par-ticipate in making a lasting social impact on communities around the world. The solutions deemed to be the most disruptive will be in-vited to present to the corporate nominees, and outline the key non-financial challenges they might face when trying to scale their solu-tions. The participating corporate nominees will then prepare and present a support plan to help the short listed innovators in overcoming their challenges. A panel of experts led by the University of Cambridge will judge the sup-port plans on their potential for social impact, and the corporate nominee deemed to have submitted the support plan with the biggest potential to make an impact will be presented with the Global Prosperity Award.

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: Kuwait Caricature Association, with the cooperation of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL), recently launched its joint virtual exhibi-tion titled “Caricature in the Time of Coronavirus”, which will continue until Sept 16, reports Al-Anba daily.

In this regard, the NCCAL Secretary-General Kamal Al-Abduljaleel affirmed that holding this exhibition comes in im-plementation of the General Secretariat’s policy to continue communicating with the public by virtual means, which began since the wake of the COVID-19 pan-demic in the world.

He revealed that NCCAL adopted many artistic and cultural activities in this way in line with many cultural circles and think-tanks in the Arab region and the world.

Al-Abduljaleel said, “We believe that the role of the National Council for Cul-ture, Arts and Letters is essential in light of this global pandemic. Continuing to present its cultural message is a civilized and human duty towards its audience in Kuwait and abroad.”

Meanwhile, Chairperson of the Ku-wait Caricature Association Muhammad Thallab explained that the exhibition is being held under the generous patronage of the NCCAL.

A total of 70 paintings, which depict the COVID-19 crisis and the life that the world lived through home quarantine, ad-herence to the instructions of the health authorities and imple-mentation of the partial curfew policies, will be displayed.

He said, “A total of 25 artists who are members of the as-sociation will participate in the exhibition.

The exhibition will include paintings dedicated to the front-line workers in appreciation and gratitude for their efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. There will also be virtual workshops and panel discussions”.

MoE notifi es dates of interviews for those who applied for work

Number of applicants in Administrative Sector reaches 320

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: The Ministry of Ed-ucation has started to notify those who ap-plied for work in the academic fi eld about the dates of their in-terview, reports Al-Rai daily quoting a source from the educational sector.

The source disclosed that acting Undersecretary of the ministry Faisal Al-Maqsid has formed candidate inter-view committees, which are in charge of those who ap-plied for teaching positions in the three educational stages and kindergartens for aca-demic year 2020-2021.

The source said these com-mittees are under the leadership of the assistant undersecretary for Public Education Affairs and the supervision of super-visors in the Coordination De-partment, which manages the interviews and notifies the can-didates about the date of their interview.

The source went on to say that these committees are head-ed by the general supervisor in the ministry, with some techni-cal supervisors as members.

SchedulingThe source pointed out that

scheduling interviews for can-didates is a positive step in terms of preparing for the next academic year, as well as cut-ting the way for skeptics who keep on doubting the minis-try’s intentions and direction in contracting with the children of Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaitis and Bedouns.

The source emphasized that the ministry has been seeking for years to meet its academic manpower needs through local recruitment; but its need for staff with rare specializations like Mathematics, Physics and Physical Education (female) compels it to form external contracting committees.

The source said the number of applicants for different posts in the Administrative Sector has reached 320 so far and 280 of them were referred to the Coordination Department for their interview schedule. After the interview, the applicants will complete other procedures like medical examination and fingerprinting to pave way for their appointment to various educational districts.

The educational files of 40 teachers are being evaluated and they will be referred to the concerned department after completing the procedures, the source added.

The source considers the number of local applicants “very good”, especially after the Civil Service Commission (CSC) issued a decision to stop contracting with expatriate teachers whose qualifications do not match those stated in their work permits. The short-age of teachers continues, but this can be remedied through the redistribution of teachers – external and internal transfers, the source explained.

25 artists attend

‘Caricature in the Time of Coronavirus’ ends Sept 16

Simbi Foundation – Innovation for Peace and Justice

DUBAI, UAE, Sept 7: In a person-al initiative, Emirati businessman Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor has pro-vided emergency medical aid to sev-eral Lebanese hospitals.

As a stepping stone, and in imple-mentation of his plan to help Lebanon and the Lebanese, following the mas-sive explosion in the port of Beirut that caused widespread destruction to a large number of neighborhoods, buildings and hospitals; medical aid was distributed to the most damaged Lebanese hospitals and they were provided with life-saving equipment and basic health care amenities.

Medical equipment and tools, whose value exceeds two million dollars, were distributed to the affect-ed hospitals in various regions under the supervision of Judge Sheikh Khaldoon Oraimet, Head of the Is-

lamic Center for Studies and Media in Lebanon.

The hospitals included: Haroun, Al-Makassed, Al-Mashreq, Rizk, Rafic Hariri Hospital, Hotel Dieu, Jesus Heart Hospital, Saint Charles, Wardieh and Al-Maounat Hospital Jbeil.

Sheikh Oraimet praised this quali-tative initiative, saying, “Al Habtoor represents generosity, humanity and kindness. Mr Khalaf Ahmad Al Hab-toor hopes that no person in need should be returned disappointed and no patient to be rejected from hospi-tal doors.”

He added: “Lebanon and its people have always had a privileged place in the heart of Al Habtoor, and this charitable campaign is only the first phase of a multi-pronged aid plan aimed at providing a helping hand to

those affected in Lebanon amid the acute economic crisis afflicting the country.”

In a second step, Al Habtoor has allocated more than $1million to re-store a number of houses damaged by the explosion in Achrafieh and its surrounding area, in collaboration with Ground 0.The number of homes included in this initiative is close to 160 damaged homes at this stage.

It is noteworthy that Khalaf Al Habtoor has made generous contri-butions to Lebanon in various forms over the past decade. The latest be-ing in December of 2019, where he supported more than 11,000 families in 100 Lebanese villages with food packages and warm blankets. He also built the Khalaf Al Habtoor Hospital Hrar, North Lebanon, among other initiatives.

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: Ministry of Health has denied the rumors that CO-VID-19 laboratory test results were sent to people who did not take such tests, reports Aljarida daily.

In a statement, the ministry high-lighted the importance of verifying news from official sources to ensure the validity of the information before it is circulated.

It categorically denied the circulated reports about the results of laboratory swab tests for COVID-19 being sent to people who did not undertake such tests in the first place.

The ministry clarified that the proce-dures followed in this regard are rigid. They involve taking personal data such as name, phone number and civil ID number. Even though more than one person may share a phone number, the result of the swab test reaches via a text message to the phone number that was

provided, accompanied by the civil ID number of the person who underwent the test.

The Ministry of Health called upon everyone to be careful before publish-ing and transmitting unverified infor-mation, and to refer with the official sources before circulating the informa-tion to ensure its accuracy.

❑ ❑ ❑2 deans for Law Faculty: Kuwaiti Society for the Quality of Education has criticized what it describes as tam-pering and inaction in the country’s education file, and the step taken by Kuwait University’s Faculty of Law to reduce the curriculum and cancel the important parts of the academic con-tent of the course, as “tampering with the quality of education and safety of the scientific content of courses amid failure to preserve knowledge value and academic weight of the curricula,

reports Al-Qabas daily.Statement and documents indicate

the society observed a “blatant viola-tion” of relevant university decisions by the acting Dean of Faculty of Law in a letter addressed to the heads of scientific departments to reduce the curriculum, in contradiction to the de-cision of the acting President of Kuwait University and Dean of the Faculty by origin in the Distance Education By-law, stipulating “commitment to the university calendar, teaching load, and the scientific content of the course.”

It explained the idea of seeking all available legal methods – and not to consider courses whose curricula have been reduced, and the consequences of not counting the current academic year 2019/2020 for the Faculty of Law and in the student major sheet, in case the decision of reducing the curricula is not retracted.

A group photo with the medical equipment and tools.

Khalaf Al Habtoor’s personal initiativein support of Lebanese health sector

Ministry denies rumors coronavirus test resultswere sent to people who didn’t take such tests

Mohammed bin Rashid Initiative for Global Prosperity announces winners

Medical equipment, tools worth $2m donated

Two deans for Faculty of Law – one decides, other contradicts

$1 million Global Maker Challenge

Thallab

Al-Abduljaleel

LOCALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

5

2 women among 4 arrested in raidon ‘biggest’ liquor-making factory

Father of Kuwaiti juvenile apologizes to Egyptian victim

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: Based on the in-structions issued by the Undersecretary of the Public Security Sector, Major-General Faraj Al-Zoubi, security-men from the Hawalli Governorate Security Directorate raided a liquor manufacturing factory and arrested four expatriates – two men and two women believed to be Indians and Nepali, reports Al-Anba daily.

The couples are not related to each other but are believed to be involved in extramari-tal relationship. Police have seized during the raid bottles of booze ready for sale.

A security source said the bootleggers were living in a two-storey villa to prevent others get-ting the smell of booze. Police have also seized drums of raw material with instructions and date when the material will be ready for distillation.

Believed to be one of the biggest liquor manufacturing factories raided in Kuwait, po-lice have reportedly seized 170 drums of raw material sufficient to produce tens of thousands of bottles.

According to a security source, the arrest came after the Hawalli police received information that in Jabriya, Block 12 a villa was used for illegal activity and ve-hicles were seen parked in front of the villa periodically carrying water bottles cartons.

❑ ❑ ❑

Father apologizes: A security source said the incident which occurred about a week ago of two Kuwaiti juveniles beating an Egyptian worker in a store sell-ing toys in Fahaheel ended in the father of one of the juveniles sub-mitting an apology to the worker, reports Al-Anba daily.

A security source said as soon as the clip about the assault was posted in the social media, the victim was summoned and was asked to file a case, but he re-fused.

However, the source indicated instructions were given to the e-crimes branch to bring in the person who photographed the incident and refer him to the ju-diciary for misuse of the phone.

In the meantime, the Egyp-tian Ministry of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs confirmed that the video of the assault was tampered with and does not include all the details of the incident.

The ministry added the two youngsters who attacked the Egyptian were arrested and inter-rogated at a police station.

❑ ❑ ❑

Release rejected: The Sen-tences Renewal Judge turned down a request to release a senior official in the Ministry of Interior who is accused in the case of the Bangladeshi. He will be pro-duced in court again in Sept 20, reports Al-Anba daily.

It is reported the senior official appeared before the judge for the fourth time after the Public Prosecution issued a decision to extend his detention to another 21 days and sent him back to the Central Prison.

He is charged with receiv-ing bribe from the Bangladeshi resident, who is also known as ‘Pablo’ and is a Member of Parliament in Bangladesh and allegedly owns a cleaning com-pany in partnership with a Ku-waiti. The case is expected to be looked into by the Criminal Court this week.

The Public Prosecution has charged the main accused with human trafficking, paying bribe to get the nod for the transactions of his company.

❑ ❑ ❑

Cable thieves held: The Ah-madi police have arrested six Arab men for stealing copper cables from power transformers, reports Al-Anba daily.

According to a security source, the arrest came after a 39-year old Kuwaiti called the Opera-tions Room of the Interior Min-istry when he saw the suspects near the Khairan residential area, apparently stealing cables.

Three police patrols from the Nuwaiseeb Police Station rushed to the site and caught the men who were digging in the area.

The police then searched their vehicle and seized six switch boards belonging to the Minis-try of Electricity and 6 meters of cables.

A case of stealing government property has been filed against them. Police are investigating if they are involved in stealing cables from other areas, before referring them to the concerned authority.

KFSD photoFiremen tackling the blaze.

MoI photoThe liquor manufacturing equipment seized in the factory.

Tissue papers store guttedThe Public Relations and Media De-partment of the Kuwait Fire Services Directorate (KFSD) stated the fi re-fi ghting teams managed to control the fi re that broke out in a tissue paper store in a basement in Al-Rai, reports Al-Anba daily.

It is reported the fi re gutted the

500-square meter store. The fi re-fi ghting teams from the Shuwaikh Industrial Area, Al-Shuhada and Isnad (support) centers, controlled the fi re without causing any human injuries.

Investigations are underway to fi nd out the causes of the fi re.

The Sudan on my mindMohammad Ahmad Al-Mahjoub, former prime minister of the Su-dan said, “If a Muslim rules over me, he will not make me enter Heaven, and if an atheist rules me as, he will not get me out of it.”

❑ ❑ ❑

By Ahmad alsarraf

I loved the Sudanese for years, through my work and dealing with

them, inside and outside when I was worked for the bank. I also came to like them more through a novel authored by Ra-nia Mamoun ‘ T h i r t e e n Months of Sun-rise’ by Rania Mamoun and the masterpiece of Al-Tayeb Salih, ‘Sea-son of Migration to the North’, and the struggles of the thinker Mahmoud Muhammad Taha, and others.

The Sudanese were also praised by their employers and everyone who worked with them for their good manners and honesty.

❑ ❑ ❑

Like most Arab and Muslim coun-tries, the Sudan, after the British left Khartoum, was plagued by succes-sive military coups and corrupt dicta-torships with Omar Al-Bashir being the last and most unjust and brutal of them. He is the reason why Sudan lost 620,000 of its ‘fertile’ lands. It is because of him the Sudan had to pay huge sums of money to the United States in compensation for the vic-tims who lost their lives at the hands of the Brotherhood government.

The Muslim Brotherhood entered Sudan wearing the cloak of Dicta-tor Ja’afar al-Nimeiri. The Brother-hood presence was established with al-Turabi followed by al-Bashir, and there were years of intellectual drought, political injustice, and mass murder that the Sudan had never known, so whenever a Brotherhood

faction enters a country, that nation becomes corrupt and humiliates that nation’s dear people.

As a reaction to their misdeeds, the Sudanese government announced yes-terday the separation of religion from the state, ending 30 years of the rule of the ‘Brotherhood Sharia’, and this came during the signing ceremony by Sudanese President Abdalla Ham-dok and Abdelaziz Al-Hilu, one of the leaders of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Northern Sudan, the declaration in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. This happens after the Sudan was seen as a safe haven for extremist movements. The late Bin Laden was considering making the Sudan his ‘abode’ before shifting the al-Qaeda activities to the (Tora Bora Mountains) of Afghanistan.

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The Sudan has recently been hit by an unprecedented wave of fl oods called the ‘Flood of the Century’, sweeping large areas and causing thousands of citizens to be affected, hundreds of deaths and tens of thou-sands displaced as a result of the demolition of their homes and the death of their livestock. However, for the fi rst time, none of the politi-cal Islam societies moved to provide aid for the affl icted Sudanese, as they used to do in the past.

This signifi es the emptiness and falsehood of all their slogans about the brothers in religion, for they are self-centred in politics and the party activi-ties and not the relief work to help the poor. The footage of victims and dead children will mean nothing to them because their motive is something else and their goals are purely ideological.

The Sudan and its people were overjoyed on the day the Muslim Brotherhood ‘left’ Khartoum. I do not know when those who support them, fi nancially and morally, are aware of the truth of their goals and objectives, and that they have nothing to do with either helping the Muslims or providing relief to Africans.

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e-mail: a.alsarraf@alqabas.com.kw

Minister lauds progress in Taima project

Panel recommends approval of ACK requestKUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: In its recent meeting, the Hawally Governorate Committee of the Municipal Council recommend-ed approving the request of the Australian College of Kuwait, specified in a letter sent by the General Secretariat of the Council of Private Universities, to add a third floor to one of the buildings within its campus in Mubarak Al-Abdullah Al-Jaber area, Block 5, reports Aljarida daily.

Rapporteur of the committee Abdulaziz Al-Me’jil explained that the committee also approved the request of the Tourism En-terprises Company to develop the site of Shaab Park in Salmiya area by fixing 20 percent of the building within the total plot area of 129,687 square meters, use 12 percent of the total area for private

commercial purposes.Also, the request by the Minis-

try of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs to be allocated a temporary site for the prayer hall and ablution facility at Yazid bin Al-Harith mosque in Salmiya area was ap-proved.

In addition, the committee ap-proved the request of the Min-istry of Social Affairs to cancel the allocation of a bank branch site in Hateen area, Block 4, and re-allocate it for family supplies within an area of 300 square me-ters.

Meanwhile , Minister of Pub-lic Works and State Minister for Housing Affairs Dr. Rana Al-Fares recently made a field inspection visit to “East Taima Housing Project” site to inspect it and follow up the challenges fac-

ing the completion of the project, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The project is being executed in line with law No. 2/2015 related to “those who sold their dream houses”.

During her visit, Dr Al-Fares affirmed that the work progress and the implementation steps of the project are in place, revealing that the completion rate has ex-ceeded 84 percent so far.

She met with the officials of the Public Authority for Housing Welfare who are directly involved in the supervision of the project, as well as the project engineer.

The minister instructed on the need to tackle all the challenges facing the completion of the East Taima Housing Project, so that it can be handed over to eligible citi-zens upon completion.

Other Voices

alsarraf

Chairs for disabled: President of the Kuwaiti Society for Support of Inventors and Innovation Dr Fatima Al-Thalab met Engineer Ahmad Al-Jaffar and discussed with him various issues related to his work, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The daily added, Eng Al-Jaffar is very much active in making or rather produc-ing chairs for the disabled to suit them and assist them in their move-ment.

Dr Al-Thalab visited the factory of Eng Jaffar with members of the society and got fi rst hand information of what Eng Jaffar does to alleviate the pain of the less fortunate people “who live among us’:

She added, she was impressed by one of the chairs he has built which greatly helps the disabled person to go to the bathroom.

She added, the society helps other related organizations which are involved in making life easy for the disabled.

Eng Jaffar in welcoming the delega-tion said he was honored with the visit and showed one of the chairs that he has built for all purposes and all ages.

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Some PCRs doubted: The competent authorities in the Ministry of Health have monitored a number of coronavi-rus infections among the arrivals from abroad since the resumption of com-mercial fl ights, despite the requirement for all arriving passengers to present a PCR certifi cate proving that they are not infected, reports Al-Rai daily quoting informed sources.

Sources revealed to the daily that “infections were detected among those arriving from several countries through random examination -- 10 percent of passengers on each arrival fl ight.” Sources pointed out this raised suspi-cions over some PCR certifi cates issued by laboratories abroad.

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Probe continues

Celebrities freed

Poor preparations: The training of teachers and administrators in the Ministry of Education on the fi rst day of the new academic year – 2021/2020 – was marred by poor preparations due to the failure to provide computers and Internet, as well as the failure to conduct maintenance works in the air condition-ing system, reports Al-Jarida daily quot-ing sources from the educational sector.

Contrary to the good preventive health measures, a number of schools witnessed some defi ciencies in terms of the required equipment. Teachers suffered due to the breakdown of air conditioning units and unsanitary facili-ties, considering the number of cleaners in one school has been limited to two, sources revealed.

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: The Public Prosecution has released 5 celeb-rities on bail ranging from 2000 dinars to 20,000 dinars, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The suspects are charged with money laundering and posting il-legal ads in the social media.

An informed source said the bail money had to be paid at the State Security Building. Those released on bail are identifi ed as Y.B. 20,000 dinars, M.R.M. 20,000, D.T. 10,000, H.B. 3,000 and F.H 2,000 dinars.

The source indicated two other celebrities N.H. and her husband and J.N. are being interrogated by the Prosecution.

A legal source told the daily the bail amount is based on the se-verity of the charges fi led against each of them. The bigger the money laundered amount the big-ger is the bail amount.

An informed source revealed the Public Prosecution has begun investigations with eight other so-cial media celebrities and Fash-ionistas who are suspected of money laundering activity.

News in Brief

Dr Al-Thalab

MIDEAST/INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

6

DUBAI: UAE announced Monday that 470 COVID-19 infec-tions were registered over the past 24 hours, with a total of 74,454 cases, along with two deaths.

UAE Ministry of Health and Protection revealed in a press statement, carried by Emirates News Agency (WAM), that 438 cases were cured, bringing the total to 66,533 recoveries, as the death toll hit 390. Over 57,000 additional tests were conducted countrywide with the use of the latest medical examination techniques, the ministry mentioned. (KUNA)

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MUSCAT: Omani health authorities declared on Monday 256 new positive cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) while no deaths were registered in the past 24 hours.

According to Oman’s News Agency, this brings the coun-try’s total infection cases to 87,072 while the total death toll remained at 734, whereas 82,805 people out of 87,072 recov-ered from the virus. (KUNA)

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DOHA: Qatari health ministry on Monday declared that two coronavirus-infected persons died and revealed 205 others contracted the highly contagious virus during the past 24 hours.

The ministry said in a statement that the caseload of con-taminations climbed to 120,348, adding that 243 patients were cured of the virus, with the whole count of the recuper-ated standing at 117,241. (KUNA)

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RAMALLAH: Palestinian Minister of Health Dr. Mai Al-Kailah declared on Monday recording three new deaths as a result of infection with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Palestinian territories over past 24 hours.

Dr. Al-Kailah, in a statement, said caseload of infections with the pathogen rose to 34,801. One of the patients who passed away was recorded in Gaza Strip and the two others in provinces of Nablus and al-Khalil (Hebron).

Among the cases recorded today, there were 182 in Gaza Strip, 162 in the Governorate of Al-Khalil, 137 in the city of Jerusalem and 54 others in its suburban districts.

She also revealed that 581 of the patients who suffered from the virus were pronounced as cured, during the same period. (KUNA)

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TUNIS: Tunisian Ministry of Health reported Monday that infections rose up to 5,041 after recording 265 cases during the last 24 hours. The ministry stated that deaths reached 93 cases, while recovered cases amounted to 1,752.

It said 71 patients were under medical observation in hos-pitals. (KUNA)

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CAIRO: The Egyptian Ministry of Health reported that 151 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) and 19 others succumbed to the illness over the past 24 hours.

The figures took the overall infections to 99,863 and the death toll to 5,530, the ministry’s spokesman Dr. Khaled Mujahed said in a press release late Sunday. The recoveries went up by 900 to 78,108, he added. (KUNA)

News in Brief

Russian delegation in Syria toexpand trade, economic ties

Bid to provide relief from US sanctions

DAMASCUS, Syria, Sept 7, (AP): A senior Rus-sian delegation in Damascus is discussing the ex-pansion of economic and trade cooperation with Syria and the two sides expect to sign an economic pact before the end of the year to circumvent US sanctions, Russia’s deputy prime minister said

Monday. Yuri Borisov said the Russian side is expecting to sign the

pact in December, adding that it would “outline a new frame-work for trade and economic ties between the two countries for the coming years.”

The aim, he said, was to provide relief from the US sanctions, which he said were “strangling” the Syrian people. Borisov spoke at a joint

In this photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, (left), and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, (right), attend talks in Damascus, Syria on Sept 7. Lavrov has met with Assad shortly after landing in the Syrian capital on his fi rst visit since 2012. Russia has been a close ally of Assad in Syria’s long and bloody nine-year-long civil war, lending his government in Damascus vital military,

economic and political support. (AP)

press conference with Syr-ian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in Damascus after the delegation met with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Syria faces an unprecedented economic crisis after nearly a decade of civil war and West-ern sanctions. The economic and fi nancial situation has been worsened by the fi nancial cri-sis in neighboring Lebanon, where many Syrians have their money, and the coronavirus pandemic.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is visit-ing Damascus for the fi rst time since 2012, also attended the news conference.

Russia has been a close ally of Assad in Syria’s devastating nine-year civil war, lending his government in Damascus vital military, economic and po-litical support. Russian troops have been fi ghting alongside Syrian government forces since 2015, and President Vladimir Putin has visited the war-torn country twice, including in January this year.

“Our visit to Syria focuses on the prospect of cooperation to develop relations between the two countries in light of new developments in the region,” said Lavrov. He criticized US and Western sanctions on Syr-ia, saying they are “trying to strangle the Syrian people.”

Borisov said Russia wanted to develop relations with Syria in several fi elds, including the energy sector.

The Syrian pro-government Al-Watan newspaper earlier quoted Syria’s ambassador to Russia, Riad Haddad, as saying that the Russian delegation’s visit “is of special importance, given the political and econom-ic fi les that will be discussed.” Those include progress by a committee discussing possible amendments to the Syrian con-stitution and Western sanctions on Syria, as well as efforts to fi ght terrorism.

Talks between government, opposition and civil society delegations resumed in Geneva late last month on a possible new constitution for the coun-try. The UN’s envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, has called the talks a prospective “door-opener” to a fi nal resolution of Syria’s long-running confl ict.

IS claims responsibility

Tunisia arrests 7 suspects after deadly attackTUNIS, Tunisia, Sept 7, (AP): Tu-nisian authorities say that they have arrested seven people suspected of in-volvement in a deadly weekend attack that left one security offi cer dead and another wounded.

The attack occurred on Sunday in the Tunisian resort town of Sousse when the perpetrators rammed their ve-hicle into security offi cers and attacked them with knives. National guard spokesman Housameddine Jbabli said Monday on Radio Shems that seven suspects are being held by anti-terror-ism authorities.

The Islamic State group’s Amaq agency carried a brief claim of respon-sibility on Monday for the attack. It was unclear whether or not the claim was opportunistic. However, on Sun-day, the spokesman for Tunisia’s ju-dicial section of the counter-terrorism fi ght said the attackers were dressed in IS colors bearing slogans glorifying the terror organization.

On Sunday, Tunisian forces fatally shot three alleged attackers. Among the

seven detained is the wife of one of the dead attackers and the two brothers of another. Jbabli said that a preliminary investigation showed that the attack-ers had developed online links with foreign networks to fi nd out how to make explosives. Sousse was the site of Tunisia’s deadliest extremist attack in 2015, when a massacre killed 38 peo-ple, most of them British tourists. That dealt a heavy blow to Tunisia’s tourism sector, a pillar of the North African na-tion’s economy.

Meanwhile, an Interior Ministry statement said Sunday that the assail-ants took refuge in a school after the attack and died in a shootout with se-curity forces.

The North African nation’s Prime Minister, Hicham Mechichi, appeared to suggest that the assailants’ planning may have been faulty.

Speaking in Sousse, at the site of the attack, he announced the arrest of a fourth suspect who had been aboard the vehicle that rammed the National Guard offi cers. “These terrorist groups

wanted to signal their presence,” he said. “But they got the wrong address this time. The clearest proof of that is that the authors of this attack were eliminated in a few minutes.”

He added that “these microbes must fear the Tunisians because lions are protecting the country.”

Hatem Zargouni, director of security for Sousse, said the assailants stabbed the offi cers and then fl ed with their weapons. The injured offi cer was hos-pitalized.

The previous attack in Sousse on June 26, 2015, dealt a heavy blow to Tunisia’s tourism sector, a pillar of its economy.

The Islamic State group claimed re-sponsibility for that attack.

Aymen Rezgui, a Tunisian student who trained with Libyan militants, walked onto the beach of the Imperial Hotel and used an assault rifl e to shoot at tourists in lounge chairs. He then continued onto the hotel pool before throwing a grenade into the hotel. He was later killed by police.

A coastal road is damaged by waves caused by Typhoon Haishen in Ulsan, South Korea, Sept 7. A powerful typhoon damaged buildings, fl ooded roads and knocked out power to thousands of homes in South Korea on Monday after battering islands

in southern Japan and injuring dozens of people. (AP)

1 killed, 38 injured in Japan

SEOUL, South Korea, Sept 7, (AP): A pow-erful typhoon damaged buildings, fl ooded roads and knocked out power to thousands of homes in South Korea on Monday after battering islands in southern Japan, killing one person and injuring dozens of others, before weakening as it passed North Korea.

The Korea Meteorological Administra-tion downgraded Typhoon Haishen to a tropical storm Monday night as it made landfall near the North Korean coastal city of Hamhung. During its period as a typhoon, Haishen packed maximum winds of about 130 kilometers (80 miles) per hour as it bar-reled through South Korea’s southern and eastern regions in the morning.

Japanese disaster management offi cials in Kagoshima said a woman in her 70s died of a head injury after falling into a roadside ditch while evacuating from a coastal town as Haishen lashed southwestern Japan over the weekend with strong winds and rain. Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said at least 38 other people were injured, fi ve of them seriously. Schools and department stores were closed in Hi-roshima and other cities in the country’s southwest.

Damage caused by the typhoon was less than feared because it took a path farther from the coast and weakened more quickly than expected, offi cials said.

In South Korea, at least two people were missing - one after getting swept away by water in a drainage channel at a limestone mine in the eastern town of Samcheok and the other while trying to cross a small river on a tractor in the southeastern town of Ul-jin.

At least fi ve people were hurt, including one in Busan who sustained light injuries after a car fl ipped over in strong winds, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.

At least 110 homes were destroyed or fl ooded, while cars struggled to navigate fl ooded roads in Ulsan and other coastal cities such as Busan, Sokcho and Gangne-ung. Emergency workers scrambled to clean up toppled trees and damaged traffi c signs, buildings, port facilities and other struc-tures.

The storm also destroyed or sank around 80 fi shing boats, and caused generating tur-bines at two nuclear reactors in the south-eastern city of Gyeongju to automatically stop. No leakage of radioactive materials was detected.

Hundreds of fl ights in and out of the southern island province of Jeju and across

the mainland were canceled. Some bridges and railroad sections were shut down, thou-sands of fi shing boats and other vessels were moved to safety, and more than 3,000 resi-dents in the southern mainland regions were evacuated due to the possibility of land-slides and other concerns.

Workers by Monday evening completed restoring power to 75,237 households that lost electricity in the southern mainland ar-eas and Jeju.

Haishen, which means “sea god” in Chi-nese, plowed through Okinawa and other southern Japanese islands over the weekend. Traffi c was still paralyzed in places, bullet train service was suspended and most do-mestic fl ights in and out of airports in south-western Japan were canceled Monday.

Regional offi cials in Miyazaki said res-cue workers were looking for four people missing after a mudslide hit the mountain-ous village of Shiiba earlier Monday. A fi fth person who was rescued at the site was seri-ously injured.

Electricity was restored to thousands of homes in Japan, but more than 340,000 oth-ers were still without power. Nearly 4 mil-lion people in Japan were still advised to evacuate as of Monday afternoon.

The storm by late Monday was expected to reach North Korea’s northeastern region, which was battered by Typhoon Maysak last week, infl icting further pain on an econ-omy ravaged by U.S.-led sanctions, border closures from the coronavirus pandemic and chronic food shortages.

North Korean TV aired video of wide-spread fl ooding in the eastern coastal city of Wonsan and nearby Tongchon, but the country’s state media didn’t immediately report any casualties caused by Haishen.

The North’s state media earlier said lead-er Kim Jong Un visited typhoon-stricken areas, fi red a top regional offi cial for poor readiness, and promised to send 12,000 workers from Pyongyang to help with re-covery efforts. The North said Maysak de-stroyed more than 1,000 houses and inun-dated public buildings and farmland.

Maysak damaged roads and buildings and left at least one person dead in South Ko-rea. In addition, a livestock cargo ship sank off Japan’s coast as Maysak passed. Two of its 43 crew members were rescued and one body was recovered before the search was halted because of Haishen. An aerial search resumed later Monday after Haishen passed the area. The ship was transporting 5,800 cows from New Zealand to China.

Typhoon lashes SKorea after‘battering’ Japanese islands

INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

7

America Brexit

Senate could fl ip to Dems‘Trust is evaporating’

Battle for ‘control’ ofCongress solidifying

EU cautions UK govtahead of more talksBRUSSELS, Sept 7, (AP): The Euro-pean Union warned the British gov-ernment on Monday not to renege on commitments made ahead of its de-parture from the bloc earlier this year.

Amid growing signs that trust be-tween the two sides is evaporating ahead of another round of post-Brexit talks in London on Tuesday, the bloc said any attempt by the British gov-ernment to unilaterally ride rough-shod over the divorce agreement could jeopardize the hard-won peace process on the island of Ire-land, as well as the prospects for a trade deal.

Ursuala von der Leyen, president of the EU’s executive commission, said she expected Boris Johnson’s government to implement the withdrawal agreement that paved the way for the U.K.’s smooth depar-ture from the bloc on Jan. 31.

She said in a tweet that the agree-ment was an “obligation under inter-national law” and a “prerequisite for any future partnership.”

She added that the section in the agreement that ensures an open bor-der between Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., and EU member Ireland, is “essential to protect peace and stability on the island” as well as for the “integrity” of the EU’s tariff-free and frictionless single market.

Her comments followed a report in the Financial Times newspaper that the British government is plan-ning domestic legislation that would effectively override the international treaty obligations enshrined within the withdrawal agreement, particu-larly over issues related to the Irish border.

The report prompted widespread selling of the British pound as trad-ers price in a growing likelihood that the trade talks could be heading for collapse.

The EU’s chief negotiator in the talks, Michel Barnier, also said Mon-day that he will be seeking clarifi -cation from David Frost, his coun-terpart in the U.K., on Tuesday “to better understand the government’s intentions.”

WASHINGTON, Sept 7, (AP): The battle for control of Congress is solidifying into a race about President Donald Trump, as Republicans hitch their fortunes to their party’s leader and Democrats position them-selves as a bulwark against him - and as partners in a potential Joe Biden White House.

So far, voters are signaling they want to fi nish the job they started in 2018 by installing Democrats for House majority control. Now, they’re on track to potentially do the same in the Senate.

“The president continues to overshadow and impact the races for the Senate and the House,” said Nathan Gonzales, the editor of Inside Elec-tions, which tracks the campaigns.

Usually, a president at the top of the ticket boosts his party’s chances, but Trump’s slump is shifting the congressional map, strategists said. House Democrats are expected to easily retain the majority, without too

many losses. The Senate, now in Republican hands, could almost as easily fl ip to Democrats.

Together, the congressional races provide a snapshot of an American electorate ahead of a voting season unlike any other. The coronavirus crisis, a shattered economy and a new civil rights era are forcing a reassessment of the way the fed-eral government approaches longstanding prob-lems. In a volatile political climate, health care, jobs and even what the parties are calling the soul of the nation are all on the ballot.

As Democrats gain momentum, Republicans are digging in, echoing Trump’s harsh criticism of the nationwide protests over police violence,

particularly against Black people. He sounds dire warnings about the demonstrations happening in some cities. It’s an opening for the GOP, an attempt to win back wary suburban voters, particularly white women, who voted for Trump in 2016 but have since drifted away.

“It’s a winning message,” said Bob Salera, a spokesman for the Na-tional Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP’s campaign arm.

The NRCC used Trump’s visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to unleash a fl urry of attacks against vulnerable Democrats, primarily those freshmen who built the House majority in 2018 from districts the president won in 2016. One television ad claimed a Democrat was choosing “criminals over cops.”

The Democratic campaigns are taking an opposite approach. As their calling card to voters, they are offering health care policy - preserving and expanding the coverage under the Affordable Care Act and strategies to end the COVID-19 crisis.

Ten ads released by House Democrats last week targeted Republicans who voted to repeal and replace “Obamacare” or pushed a quick eco-nomic reopening despite COVID-19 health risks. Democratic Senate can-didates are taking similar cues as they appeal to voters concerned about health care access or costs.

“We’re gonna win back the Senate,” Biden told donors last week on a fundraising call.

The former vice president is eyeing a handful of Senate seats he be-lieves Democrats could wrest from Republicans, with plans to campaign in North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and other states where Republican senators are vulnerable.

Trump

A protestor wears a face mask in front of the Central Criminal Court Old Bailey in London, Monday, Sept. 7, 2020. Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the U.S. government were squaring off in a London court on Monday at a high-stakes extradition case delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. American prosecutors have indicted the 49-year-old Australian on 18 espionage and computer misuse charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret U.S. military documents a decade ago. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison. (AP)

EU warns Serbia: The European Union warned Serbia and Kosovo on Monday that they could undermine their EU membership hopes by moving their Israeli embassies to Jerusalem, as US President Donald Trump’s surprise announcement about the change left offi cials in Belgrade and Pristina scrambling to limit the politi-cal fallout.

In an unexpected move last week, Trump said that Serbia and Kosovo had agreed to normalize economic ties as part of US-brokered talks that include Bel-grade moving its embassy to Jerusalem, and mutual recognition between Israel and Kosovo.

It surprised the Europeans, who are leading complex talks between Serbia and its former territory of Kosovo on improv-ing their long-strained relations, while Serbian offi cials appeared to be watering down their commitment to Trump, and Kosovo sought to allay concerns among Muslim countries. (AP)

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Activists go missing: A leading op-position activist in Belarus and two other members of an opposition council went missing Monday, raising fears they were detained as authorities seek to squelch nearly a month of protests against the re-election of the country’s authoritarian leader.

Maria Kolesnikova, a member of the Coordination Council created by the op-position to facilitate talks with President Alexander Lukashenko on a transition of power, was reportedly put on a minibus in the capital, Minsk, and driven away by unidentifi ed people. Last week, Kole-

snikova announced the creation of a new opposition party.

Her disappearance follows a massive rally Sunday in Minsk that drew an esti-mated 100,000 protesters demanding the resignation of Lukashenko, who extended his 26-year rule in an Aug. 9 election that the opposition and some poll workers say was rigged. (AP)

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‘Gossiping worse than COVID’: Pope Francis said Sunday that gossiping is a “plague worse than COVID” that is seek-ing to divide the Catholic Church.

Francis strayed from his prepared text to double down on his frequent complaint about gossiping within church communi-ties and even within the Vatican bureau-cracy. Francis didn’t give specifi cs during his weekly blessing, but went on at some length to say the devil is the “biggest gos-siper” who is seeking to divide the church with his lies. “Please brothers and sisters, let’s try to not gossip,” he said. “Gossip is a plague worse than COVID. Worse. Let’s make a big effort: No gossiping!”

Francis’ comments came as he elaborated on a Gospel passage about the need to correct others privately when they do something wrong. The Catholic hierarchy has long relied on this “fraternal

correction” among priests and bishops to correct them when they err without airing problems in public. (AP)

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‘Berlusconi in delicate’ phase: Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi is responding “optimally” to COVID-19 treatment but is the most vulnerable type of patient and is in “the most delicate phase” of his infection, his personal doc-tor said Sunday.

Dr Alberto Zangrillo repeated that he nevertheless remained “cautiously optimistic” about Berlusconi’s recovery. Berlusconi turns 84 in a few weeks and has had a history of heart problems that required a pacemaker several years ago.

The three-time premier checked into the San Raffaele hospital in Milan early Friday after testing positive for the virus earlier in the week. At the time, he had the early stages of a lung infection. Earlier in the week he said he tested positive but showed no symptoms. Then he said he had a fever and felt achy but still vowed to campaign for his Forza Italia party in upcoming regional elections. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

800 mourn death of 5 kids: More than 800 people came together for a memorial for the fi ve children who were allegedly killed by their mother at their home in the western city of Solingen, the German news agency dpa reported Sunday.

Neighbors, friends and others mourn-ing the deaths of the fi ve young children lit candles Saturday night in front of the building where they had lived. They brought fl owers, toys and balloons with the names of the dead children them: Melina, Leonie, Sophie, Timo and Luca, dpa reported. (AP)

EuropeUrsuala

Berlusconi Francis

Market Movements 07-09-2020

Business Change Closing ptsAUSTRALIA - All Ordinaries +21.16 6,129.92EUROPE - Euro Stoxx 50 +53.48 3,314.07FRANCE - CAC 40 +88.65 5,053.72GERMANY - DAX +257.62 13,100.28INDIA - Sensex +60.05 38,417.23PAKISTAN - KSE 100 +272.75 42,295.75PHILIPPINES - PSEi +150.76 5,935.85

Change Closing ptsCHINA - Shanghai SE -62.78 3,292.59JAPAN - Nikkei -115.48 23,089.95

prosecutors drop probe of journalists over Wirecard

German prosecutors said Thursday they have closed an investigation into two journalists with the Financial Times that was launched following reports last year about allegations of irregularities at now-bankrupt payment company Wirecard.

Wirecard’s shares plunged following the reports in January and February 2019. Germany’s financial market regu-lator issued a two-month ban on short-selling Wirecard shares and later filed a criminal complaint against several peo-ple, including the two journalists.

Munich prosecutors said they have closed their investigation into suspected violations of securities laws. They said investigations have shown that the re-porting was “fundamentally accurate” and have shown no evidence of con-crete contacts with short-sellers or that the journalists passed on insider infor-mation. Investigations against possible short-sellers are continuing, they added.

Financial market regulator BaFin said it informed prosecutors that it has no objection to closing the investigation

into the journalists, Dan McCrum and Stefania Palma. The Financial Times last year called allegations of inappro-priate behavior leveled against its staff in relation to Wirecard “baseless and false.”

One-time tech star Wirecard filed for protection from creditors through insol-vency proceedings in June after admit-ting that 1.9 billion euros ($2.3 billion) that was supposedly held in trust ac-counts in the Philippines probably did not exist. (AP)

A person walk in front of a building with the logo of the

insolvent company Wirecard in Aschheim near Munich,

Germany. (AP)

‘Your contingency fund should be three to six months of expenses’

If doing less means saving more, try these 5 money movesBy Alana Benson

NerdWallet

The coronavirus has upended count-less jobs, schools and bank ac-

counts. But while undoubtedly more people are struggling than not, those who are still working may have seen their expenses actually drop due to canceled travel, limited dining options and more time at home.

If you’ve managed to end up with ex-tra money during the pandemic, here’s how to take advantage of those savings.

1. Start or fi ll out an emergency fund2020 has served as a stark reminder

that unexpected things can happen, and when they do, it’s a good idea to be prepared.

“We say if you have a steady job, your contingency fund should be three to six months of expenses,” says Tara Unverza-gt, certifi ed fi nancial planner and founder of South Bay Financial Partners in Tor-rance, California. “I would bulk it up even more because of uncertainty. I’ve never known anyone to be upset because they had too much cash, but have known lots of people who were upset they didn’t have enough.”

That level of savings is a stretch goal for many people; an extended period of reduced expenses may provide you with the opportunity to fi nally reach it. Establishing an emergency fund is one of the best things you can do for your future self, and if you put it in a high-yield online savings account, it will benefi t from a higher interest rate than a regular savings account.

You don’t want to invest your emer-gency fund because your primary goal for that money is accessibility, not growth. The stock market goes up and down, and there’s a real risk that it could go down just when you need the money. At best, that could mean having to sell your investments at a loss to pull cash out. At worst, it could mean your money won’t be there when you need it most.

2. Invest for retirementIf you haven’t ventured into the world

of investing yet, it may feel like a scary time to start given all the volatility in the market lately. The good news is that volatility doesn’t cause much harm when you’re investing for a long-term goal like retirement: The peaks and valleys due to the coronavirus will likely appear much smaller over time.

If you haven’t started investing, there are two easy jumping-off points: your employer’s 401(k) if it offers one and an IRA. Both are accounts that can help you invest for retirement with some tax benefi ts. Roth IRAs, for in-stance, allow your money to grow and be taken out in retirement tax-free.

Even if you’re already contributing to a 401(k) or an IRA, you may want to con-sider upping that contribution. Every ex-tra bit you can put toward retirement goes a long way. Let’s say your reduced ex-penses mean you can save an extra $500 a month over the next year. If you have 30 years until retirement and you earn a 6% return, that $6,000 you invest could add over $34,000 to your retirement bal-ance - a signifi cant boost.

And because you can always change how much you’re contributing, you can decrease the amount you’re put-ting toward retirement if and when your spending habits return to normal.

3. Save for nonretirement goalsRetirement is a common goal, but

it likely isn’t the only one you have. If you’re on track for retirement, consider putting extra funds toward other things: college for your kids, a new car or a dream vacation (which you’ll have plenty of time to save for, since most people aren’t trav-eling right now). Investing can help you achieve those goals faster than just sav-ing, but keep in mind that you generally don’t want to invest money you’ll need within fi ve years. (Like an emergency fund, savings for near-term goals should go into safer options, like a high-yield sav-ings account). On the other hand, if you’re starting a college fund for a newborn, that money will have approximately 18 years

Containers are placed at a port in Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong province on Sept 1. China’s export growth accelerated in August while imports edged lower as the world’s second-largest economy extended its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. (AP)

to take advantage of the market’s returns.If you’ve found yourself in a posi-

tion of privilege during this global pandemic and have been able to save some extra money, you may also want to consider increasing your charitable contributions. Keep in mind, you may be able to deduct your charitable dona-tions when tax time rolls around.

4. Explore real estate investmentsIf you’re interested in investing in real

estate, you don’t have to start renovating an old barn or putting up shiplap. One of the easiest ways to invest in real estate is to invest in real estate investment trusts. REITs are companies that own (and sometimes operate) real estate that gener-ates income, such as apartment buildings. Publicly traded REITs are bought and sold on exchanges, just like stocks, and have similar liquidity, meaning you can sell them with relative ease.

5. get some helpWhen you suddenly fi nd yourself with

extra money, it can be diffi cult to fi gure out the best way to put it to use. Financial advice is widely available these days, and it’s often inexpensive. Online fi nancial advisors and robo-advisors have brought the cost of investment management and fi nancial planning down signifi cantly, and both are good options for when you’re feeling lost.

These advisors can also help you stay hands-off with your portfolio during tur-bulent times in the market by ensuring that your investments are aligned with your risk tolerance. Robo-advisors offer investment management and typically charge between 0.25% and 0.50% of your assets per year. If you need assis-tance developing a more comprehensive fi nancial plan in addition to investment management, it may be a good idea to enlist the help of a fi nancial advisor. (AP)

China export growth quickensin August, imports edge lower

World’s 2nd-largest economy extends its recovery

BEIJING, Sept 7, (AP): China’s export growth acceler-ated in August while imports edged lower as the world’s second-largest economy extended its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Exports rose 9.5% over a year earlier to $235.2 billion, up from July’s 7.2% growth, customs data showed Monday. Imports declined 2.1% to $176.3 billion, compared with the previous month’s 1.4% contraction.

China’s exporters have benefi ted from its relatively early reopening from a

shutdown to fi ght the virus while competitors in many other countries still face anti-disease controls that disrupt business.

Exports to the United States rose 20% to $44.8 billion despite tariff hikes im-posed by the Trump administration in a fi ght with Beijing over its technology am-bitions and trade surplus. Imports of American goods gained 2% to $10.5 billion.

The changes were due mostly to lower prices and comparison with last Au-gust’s relative weak exports, according to Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Eco-nomics. Evans-Pritchard estimated the volume of goods exported rose 9.7% from a year earlier while import volumes rose 9.5%.

Other exporters have benefi ted from increased Chinese demand for their goods after growth in the world’s second-largest economy rebounded to 3.2% over a year earlier in the three months ending in June. Activity the previous quarter fell 6.8%, the deepest slump since at least the mid-1960s.

Exports to the 27-nation European Union, China’s biggest foreign market, fell 20.1% from a year earlier to $35.7 billion. Imports of European goods tumbled 29.7% to $22.5 billion.

China’s global trade surplus swelled by 72% over a year earlier to $58.9 bil-lion. That was down from July’s $62.3 billion gap.

Chinese importers have benefi ted from a slump in global prices for oil and many other goods due to weak demand caused by virus-related shut-downs.

Fast-growing exports included inte-grated circuits, smartphones, auto-data processors and household appliances.

That suggests “China still has some trade partners that are willing to import Chinese technology” despite tension with Washington, Iris Pang of ING said in a report.

Still, Pang warned Chinese exporters of higher-tech goods might face trouble as Washington tightens curbs on access to U.S. components in a feud with Bei-jing over technology and security.

Washington has cut off supplies of American components for companies including China’s most prominent tech brand, Huawei Technologies Ltd. The Trump administration is lobby-ing European and other allies to avoid Chinese technology as they upgrade to next-generation telecom networks.

“This could affect exports of tech-nological products and services in the coming months,” said Pang.

Greece suffers huge ‘output’loss but sticks to ’20 forecastATHENS, Greece, Sept 7, (AP): Tour-ism-dependent Greece suffered a huge drop in economic output in the second quarter of the year, plummeting 15.2% on an annual basis, but the govern-ment insvvisted that the fi gures did not worsen the country’s annual outlook.

The Greek Statistical Authorities reported the drop in gross domestic product on Thursday, adding that the loss from the previous quarter was 14%, based on available seasonally adjusted data.

The Greek economy is expected to shrink 9% this year due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the lock-down measures that have severely affect-ed international travel, according to the current European Commission forecast.

Greece says it expects the contrac-tion to be slightly milder. Government

spokesman Stelios Petsas on Thursday said the latest fi gures refl ected the effects of the lockdown and had not changed Greece’s annual expectations, which are of a 7.9% decline in GDP this year.

The pandemic, however, is likely to hamper Greece’s efforts to overcome many long-term problems, including high levels of public debt, a large vol-ume of distressed private sector loans and high unemployment. Those prob-lems were caused by a major fi nan-cial crisis that forced Greece to seek international bailouts and spend most of the previous decade in recession. The European Union’s economy as a whole is set to contract 8.3% with Ita-ly, Spain and Croatia expected to suf-fer the worst fi nancial consequences with a 2020 downturn of around 11%, according to the commission.

3rd consecutive month of gains

German industrial production upBERLIN, Sept 7, (AP): German industrial production increased for the third consecutive month in July, but the gain was relatively modest following bigger gains in the immediate aftermath of this spring’s shutdowns, offi cial data showed Monday.

Production rose 1.2% com-pared with the previous month, the Economy Ministry said. That followed gains of 7.4% in May and 9.3% in June as activ-ity in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, recovered from big drops in March and April.

The ministry said that produc-tion has returned to nearly 90% of its level in last year’s fourth quar-ter, before the coronavirus pan-demic hit.

The gain in July was well short of economists’ predictions of 4% or more. The reading was “cer-tainly disappointing,” said Thomas Strobel, an economist at UniCredit bank in Munich.

Temporary effects such as summer vacations probably contributed, but “one major rea-son for the current slowdown certainly stems from Germany being highly dependent on for-eign trade and global demand for its goods and services,” he added. Virus-related difficulties

in countries outside the euro-zone including the US, Britain and several emerging economies likely depressed German ex-ports.

The data followed fi gures last week showing that factory orders were up 2.8% in July, slowing from gains of 10.4% in May and 28.8% in June.

The government said last week that the economy is performing better than expected following the easing of Germany’s coro-navirus lockdown restrictions, which were less drastic than in some other European countries. It is now predicting that the economy will contract by 5.8% this year, a somewhat more op-

A Mercedes-Benz employee is working on a fuel cap cover for an S-Class at the ‘Factory 56’ plant in Sindelfingen, Germany. (AP)

drug maker Vifor Pharma taps Gregory Oakes

Vifor Pharma announced the appoint-ment of Gregory Oakes as EVP, Presi-dent North America and member of the Vifor Pharma Executive Committee as of Sept 1, 2020.

Gregory Oakes has a proven track record of building and leading organi-zations across multiple therapeutic areas and geographies and has ex-tensive launch and US Market Access experience.

He joins from Amgen where he served as Corporate Vice President, Global In-

tegration Lead for Otezla. In this role, he led the integration and commercialization of the $2B brand and successfully posi-tioned it for sustained growth.

Prior to Amgen, Greg was Corpo-rate Vice President and US General Manager at Celgene and previously held several executive positions at Novartis in the US. He began his ca-reer at Schering-Plough (Merck) where he worked in executive roles both in the US and Europe.

He received a Master of Business

Administration (MBA) from Clemson University and a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Marketing and Business Admin-istration from Edinboro University, both in the US.

Gregory Oakes succeeds Patrick Treanor who joined Relypsa in 2015 to establish the sales organisation for the US launch of Veltassa ®. For the past two years as President US, Patrick was instrumental in leading the commerciali-sation strategy of Veltassa ® and aid-ing Vifor in the integration of Relypsa

towards our goal of becoming the leader in nephrology and cardio-renal therapies. Patrick has decided for personal reasons to pursue opportunities outside of Vifor Pharma.

Stefan Schulze, CEO of Vifor Pharma Group comments; “We are delighted that Gregory will join Vifor Pharma as Presi-dent North America. He has a proven track record of overseeing highly suc-cessful acquisitions, growing product portfolios across multiple therapeutic areas and brings a wealth of commer-

cialisation experience. We look forward to working with him to successfully drive and execute our ambitious growth plans in the US.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Patrick for his dedicated leader-ship and outstanding contributions to our success over the past 5 years.

Patrick played a pivotal role in the success and integration of Relypsa and we wish him the very best for his future endeavours, both professionally and per-sonally.” (Agencies)

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

9

Stocks rally in Europe, Asia ends mixedWall Street closed for Labor Day

BEIJING, Sept 7, (AP): European stocks rallied on Monday after a mixed close in Asia, while Wall Street remained closed for Labor Day after turning in its big-gest weekly decline in more than two months.

Investors have been encouraged by hopes for a coronavirus vaccine and central bank infusions of cash into struggling economies. But forecasters warn the rise in prices might be outrunning uncertain economic activity as case num-bers rise in the United States and some other countries. Some are re-imposing anti-disease controls that disrupt business.

“The question now is whether there will be a sustained unwinding in this frothy market, or if convic-tion about fresh central bank liquid-ity and fear of missing out kicks in once again,” analysts at Mizuho Bank said in a report.

One possible sign the decline might be temporary: demand for government bonds and other assets considered safe havens in an extended down market “has not come fl ooding back in,” the analysts said.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 in Lon-don rose 2.4% to close at 5,937.40 and Frankfurt’s DAX added 2% to 13,100.28 after industrial production fi gures showed a third consecutive monthly increase. The CAC 40 in Paris rose 1.8% to 5,053.72.

U.S. trading in stocks was due to remain shut for the holiday. On Fri-day, the S&P 500 slid 0.8%. The Dow lost 0.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropped 1.3%.

Wall Street’s slide on Friday fol-lowed a Labor Department report that showed U.S. hiring slowed to 1.4 million last month. That was fewest

jobs added since the economy started bouncing back from the initial shock of the pandemic. The United States has recovered about half the 22 million jobs lost to the pandemic.

In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude oil for October delivery fell 70

cents to $39.07 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost $1.60 to $39.77 on Friday. Brent crude for November delivery, the international standard, declined 67 cents to $41.99 per barrel in London. It shed $1.41 the

previous session to $42.66.The dollar edged up to 106.31 yen

from 106.21 yen on Friday. The euro fell to $1.1818 from $1.1852.

Asian stock markets were mixed Monday after Wall Street turned in its biggest weekly decline in more than

two months.Benchmarks in Shanghai, Tokyo

and Sydney retreated. Seoul gained and Hong Kong was little-changed.

On Wall Street, the benchmark S&P 500 index lost 0.8% on Friday, break-ing a streak of gains.

People walk by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo, Monday, Sept. 7, 2020. Asian stock markets were mixed Monday after Wall Street turned in its biggest weekly decline in more than two months. (AP)

‘Demand for raw materials to rise’BRUSSELS, Sept 7, (KUNA): Eu-rope is highly dependent on a lim-ited number of non-EU countries for its raw materials and demand for raw materials is only going to rise, according to European Commission Vice-President responsible for Inter-institutional Relations and Foresight.

He told an online press confer-ence in Brussels Thursday that Eu-rope will need almost 60 times more lithium and 15 times more cobalt by 2050 for electric cars and energy storage alone.

Demand for rare earths used in permanent magnets, critical for products like wind generators, could increase 10-fold in the same period.

Europe gets between 75 and 100 percent of most metals from outside the EU, while China provides 98 percent of our supply of rare earth, he noted.

Turkey provides 98 percent of the EU’s supply of borate, and South Africa provides 71 percent of the EU’s needs for platinum.

On his part, Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for Internal Market, told the joint press conference that “we cannot afford to rely entirely on third countries, for some rare earths even on just one country.

“By diversifying the supply from third countries and developing the EU’s own capacity for extraction, processing, recycling, refining and separation of rare earths, we can be-come more resilient and sustainable, “ he said.

The European Commission will in the coming weeks establish a Eu-ropean Raw Materials Alliance by bringing together all relevant stake-holders to increase EU resilience in the rare earth and magnet value chains, he announced.

Portland jumps 63 fils, Agility dips

By John MathewsArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 7: Ku-wait stocks paused on Mon-day following last session’s drop. The All Shares Index was unchanged at 5,294.71 points after a volatile session even as most of the blue chips remained muted.

The Premier Market slipped 7.8 pts to 5,807.89 points while Main Market climbed 16.09 points. The BK 50 Main sprint-ed 29.82 points to 4,306.19 pts. The volume turnover mean-while was little changed from the previous session. Over 290 million shares changed hands – down from Sunday’s 292 mil-lion.

The sectors closed mixed. Fi-nancial Services outshone the rest with 0.50 pct rise while Tech-nology tumbled 9.52 percent, the worst performer of the day. Volume wise, Financial Services topped the volume with over 91 million shares while Banking sec-tor dominated in value with KD 18.85 million.

In the individual shares, sector bellwether National Bank of Ku-wait took in 1 fil on back of 3.8 million shares while Gulf Bank eased 1 fil to 212 fils after push-ing 8.5 million. Kuwait Portland Cement soared 63 fils to 800 fils and Mabanee Co eased 1 fil to 633 fils.

Zain inched 1 fi l higher to 572 fi ls on back of over 3 million shares and Ooredoo followed suit to end at 581 fi ls. stc was un-changed at 859 fi ls while logistics major Agility, which shed 16 fi ls during August, eased 1 fi l to 622 fi ls. Humansoft Holding rose 5 fi ls to KD 2.619 and KIPCO dialed up 2 fi ls.

The market opened fi rm and swung higher in early trade. The main index scaled the day’s high-est level of 5,312 pts and retreat-ed sharply as sentiment turned negative. It headed north again in choppy trade but gave up the gains in the second half to close unchanged.

Top gainer of the day Aayan rallied 9.46 pct to 72.9 fi ls while Kuwait Portland climbed 8.5 pct to stand next. Hilal Cement Co skidded 17.6 percent, the steep-est decliner of the day and AAN topped the volume with 42.5 mil-lion shares.

Despite the day’s fl at closing,

the winners outnumbered the los-ers. 59 stocks advanced whereas 47 closed lower. Of the 123 coun-ters active on Monday, 17 closed fl at. 9,670 deals worth KD 34.8 million were transacted during the session.

National Industries Group rose 2 fils to 161 fils on back of over 3 million shares while Mezzan Holding dropped 20 fils to 630 fils. Integrated Holding Co sprinted 18 fils to 370 fils on back of 4.8 million shares and Aznoula gave up 4 fils. Inovest trimmed 0.5 fil while Oula Fuel and Soor paused at 109 fils and 110 fils respectively.

Jazeera Airways fell 2 fi ls to 569 fi ls and ALAFCO stood pat at 158 fi ls. Mashaer Holding di-aled down 1.9 fi ls and IFA Hotels and Resorts inched 0.3 fi l down to 23.7 fi ls. Gulf Petroleum Invest-ment ticked 0.2 fi l up with brisk trading whereas IFA Hotels and Resorts tripped 0.3 fi l. NICBM clipped 1 fi l.

Kuwait Cement Co was un-changed at 174 fils and Metal and Recycling Co too did not budge from its earlier close of 41 fils. Hilal Cement Co shed 20.1 fils and Fujairah Cement added 2 fils to close at 34.5 fils. Gulf Cement Co took in 0.2 fil and Shuaiba Industrial gained 5 fils. KCPC climbed 7 fils while Combined Group Contracting Co added 2 fils.

Kuwait Foundry Co took in 1 fi l and Gulf Cable jumped 21 fi ls to 733 fi ls. Kuwait National Cinema Co dialed up 1 fi l and Kuwait Ho-tels fell 2.2 fi ls to 87.5 fi ls. Auto-mated Systems Co dropped 7 fi ls to 66.5 fi ls and Equipment Hold-ing edged 0.3 fi l up to 16.7 fi ls. Kuwait Gulf Links Transport Co gave up 1.2 fi ls and KGL Logistics trimmed 0.4 fi l.

In the banking sector, Kuwait Finance House was unchanged at 623 fils after pushing 3.5 million shares and Boubyan Bank too did not budge from its earlier close of 583 fils. Kuwait International Bank took in 2 fils on back of 11.3 million shares and Burgan Bank clipped 1 fil. Ahli United Bank gave up 3 fils and Warba Bank slipped 4 fils to 213 fils.

The market has been weak so far during the week shedding 31 points in last two sessions. It had rallied 320 points during the whole of the month and is down 1,041 points year-to-date.

Kuwait index ends flat,volume ‘little changed’

Focus on tourism, retailing and other services

China’s Xi vows more market opening at trade fair

Virgin Australia airline to be sold to US-based Bain Capital

BEIJING, Sept 7, (AP): President Xi Jinping pledged to open China’s ser-vice industries wider to foreign com-petitors as its fi rst in-person trade fair since the coronavirus outbreak opened under intensive anti-disease controls.

Xi gave no details in his speech Friday night, but Chinese leaders are emphasizing development of tour-ism, retailing and other services. They are part of a campaign to nur-ture economic growth driven by con-sumer spending instead of exports and investment.

China will “relax market access for service industries” and “active-ly expand imports of high-quality services,” Xi said at the China In-ternational Fair for Trade in Ser-vices.

Xi appeared on a video screen be-fore Chinese businesspeople and a handful of foreign VIPs who wore masks and sat in widely spaced chairs at a convention center adja-cent to the site of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Most exhibitors from abroad are participating via the inter-net because Beijing has yet to relax curbs that bar most foreign visitors from the country.

The annual export-oriented Can-ton Trade Fair in southern China, the world’s biggest sales event, was held online in June.

China’s manufacturers are fl ex-ible, effi cient global competitors,

but its fl edgling tourism, fi nance, healthcare and other service indus-tries lag their Western counterparts. Regulatory barriers limit the ability of foreign banks and other provid-ers to compete in China two decades after Beijing joined the free-trading World Trade Organization.

US offi cials who are waging a tariff war with Beijing over its trade record point to services, in which the United States runs a surplus with China, as a promising area.

Organizers say 18,000 compa-

nies and 100,000 people from 148 countries and regions signed up to take part in the trade fair, which runs through Wednesday.

China, where the pandemic began in December, was the fi rst economy to shut down and the fi rst to begin the struggle to revive business af-ter the ruling party declared victory over the disease in March. Factories, offi ce towers and shopping malls have reopened but visitors to public buildings in Beijing still are checked for fever by masked guards.

China became the fi rst economy to return to growth with a 3.2% expan-sion over a year earlier in the three months ending in June, rebounding from the previous quarter’s 6.8% contraction.

The trade fair has three-dimen-sional technology for foreign ven-dors to show goods and secure online communications to talk to custom-ers, the director of the Beijing Mu-nicipal Bureau of Commerce, Yan Ligang, told reporters on Thursday.

Guests and staff must wear masks and will be checked throughout the day for fever, according to Yan. He said organizers will “restrict the fl ow” of people and the building will be tested for the virus and disinfect-ed every day.

Some 200 medical, disease con-trol and fi rst aid staff will be on duty, Yan said.

Chinese companies plan to show-case possible coronavirus vaccines that are under development, accord-ing to the Beijing Health Commis-sion. It said some will display tools that can detect the virus in 30 min-utes.

Other planned exhibitions include cultural, fi nancial and public health services, next-generation telecoms and service robots.

The coronavirus “cannot stop the development of service trade, nor can it stop our confi dence and action to work together,” Xi said.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Sept 7, (AP): Virgin Australia’s creditors have agreed to sell the airline to Boston-based Bain Capi-tal in a deal that will see the carrier cut 3,000 jobs and end many of its international fl ights.

Co-founded by British busi-nessman Richard Branson, the airline in April became the world’s largest to seek bankrupt-cy protection after the coronavi-rus pandemic grounded much of the aviation industry. It plans to reemerge with cheap fares as a value-based carrier.

Another airline founded by Branson, Virgin Atlantic, last month filed for protection in U.S. bankruptcy court as part of a process in the United King-dom to carry out a restructuring plan.

Virgin Australia said the deal with Bain, worth 3.5 billion Aus-tralian dollars ($2.5 billion), would

see unsecured creditors get paid between 9 and 13 cents on the dollar for their claims. Virgin’s creditors are owed a total of about AU$7 billion.

Due to the pandemic, the creditor meeting was held on-line. The administrators in June signed a binding agreement with Bain Capital, the company co-founded by former Republican presidential candidate Sen. Mitt Romney.

Paul Scurrah, the chief executive of Virgin Australia Group, said the sale moves the airline closer to leaving bankruptcy protection and allows it to focus on the future, in which it will continue competing with its larger rival, Qantas Air-ways.

“It’s vital for Australia to have two major airlines for consumer choice, value airfares, and to help support the recovery of Australia’s robust tourism sector after this cri-

sis is over,” Scurrah said in a state-ment.

Virgin’s administrator Deloitte said creditors had voted over-whelmingly in favor of the deal in what have been challenging cir-cumstances.

“This outcome provides cer-tainty for employees and cus-tomers, a return to creditors, and opportunities for suppliers and financiers to continue to trade,” Joint Voluntary Administrator Vaughan Strawbridge said in a statement.

Under a plan announced previ-ously by Scurrah, the airline will cut back it’s workforce to 6,000 and end long-haul routes from Australia to Los Angeles and To-kyo as it resets the business for lower global demand.

The airline plans to shed its Boe-ing 777 and Airbus A330 planes and use Boeing 737s, along with some smaller aircraft for regional

and charter fl ights. The airline’s budget subsidiary Tigerair Austra-lia will be discontinued.

Virgin Australia’s major share-holders are Singapore Airlines and Etihad Airways, along with Chinese investment conglomerates Nanshan Group and HNA Group. Branson holds a 10% stake.

The airline sought bankruptcy protection after the Australian government refused its request for a AU$1.4 billion loan.

Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told reporters at the time his government wasn’t go-ing to bail out “fi ve large foreign shareholders with deep pockets who together own 90% of this air-line.”

Qantas argued that it had three times more revenue than Virgin and was therefore entitled to a AU$4.2 billion loan if the smaller airline was not to gain an unfair advantage.

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jin-ping addresses the Global Trade in Services Summit of the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) via video in Beijing, China on Sept 4, 2020. Chinese President Xi Jinping said China will further open to the outside world at the opening ceremony of a massive trade fair in Beijing, the first this large scale trade event integrating online and offline

exchanges since the coronavirus outbreak. (AP)

Business PlusPlus

Credit insurance lubri-cates small businesses

— it is the lifeblood

Knowing how much your current vehicle is

worth is arguably as important as the price

you’re considering pay-ing for your next vehicle

‘

‘

’

’

Many retailers struggling and credit insurers are unwilling to take on the risk

Suppliers reluctant to ship goods without credit insurance

coverage across all industries by 15%, including retail. He noted the retail industry is in the “eye of the storm,” though he wouldn’t name companies he’s declined coverage. He says his company will stay cautious for at least six to nine months.

Litan estimates the US-based trade credit insurers already have cut back their coverage by almost 14% across all types of industries this year, based on his report. That figure could increase this fall due to the increasing uncertainty stemming from the recent spiking of COVID-19 infection rates.

Industry executives say that the squeeze on trade credit is far more acute than what happened during the Great Recession.

“It was an economic downturn but it wasn’t a downturn that had the same levels of uncertainty and trig-gered this trade (credit) crisis,” said Steve Lamar, CEO and president of the trade group American Apparel & Footwear Association

Lamar said that he had heard rum-blings in May from members that credit insurers were pulling back, prompting the trade group, along with several other industry trade organiza-tions, to send a series of letters to the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to advocate for a backstop for the credit insurance companies. That’s similar to what several European countries like the United Kingdom and Germany have done.

In the meantime, suppliers are left to fend for themselves.

Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun, a toy maker in Boca Raton, Florida, says that he has $1.5 million in unpaid bills from retailers that his credit insurer won’t cover. Many bills are 90 to 100 days late. That’s about 1% of his annual sales.

The company, known for Uncle Milton toys and Care Bears, has been doing well during the pandemic, allowing Foreman to bring back 14 of the 22 workers who were furloughed. He also plans to restore the salaries of his employees whose pay was cut as much as 25%.

But now, the pullback in credit insurance is thwarting his growth. Before the pandemic, he’d been diversifying his store clients, but now he will likely focus on the big play-ers.

Christa Pitts, founder and co-CEO of The Lumistella Company, which produces toys, books and other prod-ucts under the Elf on the Shelf and Elf Pets brands, says her retail orders were covered 100% before the pan-demic. Now, only 50% are covered, forcing her to rethink who she will sell to.

“How much can I spread around to enough retailers across the board, mixing in what I know is somewhat of a sure thing, and recognizing not everyone is going to make it?” she said. “We are putting our economy in terms of retail in a losing situation.” (AP)

Elf on the Shelf figures are displayed at the company’s studio in Atlanta. Thousands of suppliers routinely rely on credit insurance to cover potential losses if any of the retailers they work with can’t pay for the goods they’ve ordered. But now insurers are scaling back on coverage because they are unwilling to take a chance on retailers that are struggling to survive during the pan-

demic. (AP)

Now is a great time to sell or trade in your car

By Ronald Montoya Edmunds

Historically, Labor Day weekend is an opportune moment to get

a great deal on a new vehicle. But this time around, the great deal could very well come about by sell-ing or trading in your car.

Factory shutdowns or slowdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic have limited the number of new 2021 vehicles arriving at dealer-ships, blunting dealerships’ need to offer big inventory-clearing sales. At the same time, there’s an increasing trend of consumers look-ing to save money by purchasing a used vehicle.

As such, dealerships are hungry for used cars that they can turn around and sell. The resulting spike in trade-in values could give your next car deal an unexpected boost.

Specifically, the average value for a traded-in vehicle rose by $2,000 from June to July, according to Edmunds’ sales data, marking a 16% month-over-month increase. In this seller’s market, your trade-in should be a critical part of your buying strategy.

“Knowing how much your cur-rent vehicle is worth is arguably as important as the price you’re con-sidering paying for your next vehi-

NEW YORK, Sept 7, (AP): Gold Medal International is sitting on mil-lions of dollars worth of socks at its North Carolina warehouse that it can’t ship to stores.

The reason? The 66-year-old fami-ly-owned sock maker can’t get enough credit insurance to cover potential losses if the stores can’t pay for the goods they’ve ordered.

Without that insurance, Gold Medal – and thousands of other sup-pliers facing a similar dilemma – would be on the hook for unpaid bills. But not shipping the goods to retailers means losing sales and big write-downs on inventory. The problem will only get worse if retailers can’t stock their shelves and shoppers can’t find what they want heading into the critical holiday season.

“I got the goods, I made them. I don’t have a liquidity problem,” said Paul Rotstein, who’s been president of New York-based Gold Medal for 30 years. ”But if I can’t ship $12 mil-

lion worth of orders, guess what? I have a big liquidity problem.”

Before COVID-19, suppliers rou-tinely relied on so-called trade credit insurance to get the reassurance they needed to design products, receive orders, and ship to retailers.

Now, with the pandemic creating so much economic uncertainty, many retailers are struggling and credit insurers are unwilling to take on the risk. In fact, many insurers will only provide protection on orders to big box stores and others that have been able to withstand the pandemic, leav-ing in the lurch a huge swath of non-essential small and medium retailers that are still trying to claw their way out of months of lockdowns that deci-mated their businesses.

Trade credit insurance provides a financial backstop for at least $600 billion in annual US sales, according to Robert Litan, an economist and attorney, who published a report in early July on the issue for Econ One,

an economic consulting firm. That doesn’t include the estimated $50 bil-lion loss in orders that suppliers will be too reluctant to ship, Litan esti-mates.

Without the safety net, these sup-pliers – 60% of which have revenues of $20 million or less, according to Litan - are starting to make hard choices about whether to maintain their current production level or cut back on orders to minimize the risk, experts say.

Rotstein says his credit insurer hasn’t pulled back coverage on his accounts with big retailers like Amazon or Dollar General but it’s cut back or eliminated coverage for mom-and-pop stores and many non-essen-tial chains he declined to name.

“Credit insurance lubricates small businesses - it is the lifeblood,” Litan said, noting that credit insurance is a prerequisite for companies to main-tain credit lines with banks in order to continue operations and avoid further

disruption in their supply networks.Linda Wolff, owner of CPW, a

women’s clothing store that has been in business for 30 years on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, said her fashion suppliers want her and other store clients to prepay or pay with a certified check, instead of pay-ing them upon receiving her orders. With business down more than 60% since she reopened her store in June, she is worried that she won’t be able to keep up with payments and also stock her store with enough merchan-dise.

“You have to hope that you are making some money to be able to pay for them,” said Wolff, who is worried about the survival of her business. She said that she’s only received a few fall items and is waiting to see what shipments will come over the next few weeks.

James Daly, CEO of credit insurer Euler Hermes North American, said his company has had to scale back

scandal-tarnished Nissan shows off production innovation

Nissan says it has developed a new way to produce high-tech auto parts that highlights the Japanese automaker’s engi-neering finesse, even as it faces a criminal trial in an ongoing scandal involving former chair-man Carlos Ghosn.

Nissan Motor Co said it has achieved a “breakthrough” in molding carbon fiber reinforced plastic, or CFRP, components, now used in racing cars and jets

because of their light weight and strength.

All of the world’s top automak-ers are working to boost CFRP use. The hurdles have been cost, which is often about 10 times that of steel, and the long time it takes to mold the parts.

Executive Vice-President Hideyuki Sakamoto said the CFRP parts will be used in mass-produced sport-utility vehi-cles in four or five years, thanks

to a new casting procedure for the poured resin.

The cost savings come from shortening the production time from about three or four hours to just two minutes, Sakamoto said. A vehicle rolls off a Nissan assem-bly line every two minutes.

Vehicle weight is crucial in mak-ing models ecological when emis-sions standards are growing tight-er around the world, he said.

Nissan’s efforts are important

because much of the cost of a car comes from its production, not raw materials, said Junya Inoue, associate professor at the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo.

But automakers have strug-gled with the cost and shaping of CFRP parts, as well as with cre-ating a recycling system for them, which is more challenging than with metals, Inoue said Friday. (AP)

A man walks past the cor-porate logos at the global

headquarters of Nissan

Motor Co, Ltd in Yokohama

near Tokyo. (AP)

In this file photo, a salesperson uses a tablet to find a car for prospective buyers as they look over a 2019 Encore sports-utility vehicle at the Buick

display at the auto show in Denver. (AP)

cle,” said Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ senior manager of insights.

With an eye to maximizing your trade-in value, here are a few tips to help you sell or trade in your car.

This is the first and most impor-tant step to take when determining the value of your vehicle. An online appraisal tool will start by asking for your vehicle identification num-ber, license plate or year/make/model information. Make sure to enter your vehicle’s trim level, mileage, options and condition accurately since this data will impact the bottom line.

Once your appraisal is complete, pay attention to what’s labeled the trade-in value if you’re trading in at a dealership, or what’s called the private-party value if you plan on selling it yourself. Private-party value tends to be higher, but you’ll have to weigh that potential against the value of your time and the has-sle of dealing with strangers. Keep in mind that the appraisals are only estimates and will need to be veri-fied by the dealership when the time comes to sell the vehicle.

Some appraisal tools may give you the option to get an offer for

your vehicle based on the appraised value. At Edmunds, for example, this offer can be redeemed within seven days at participating dealer-ships. You can use this offer as a reference point to see if other deal-erships will match or exceed it, or simply accept the offer for maxi-mum convenience.

It’s worth noting that some web-sites might ask for your contact information in order to generate the offer. As such, you can expect to receive emails and phone calls from dealerships following up about your vehicle. This can be a hassle, but your goal is to get multiple offers and see who will offer the most competitive price.

If your car lease expires soon, there might be some equity in it, especially if you’ve rolled up fewer miles than expected due to the pan-demic. Finance companies are good at predicting what a vehicle will be worth at the end of a lease in nor-mal circumstances, but no one could foresee today’s rising used vehicle values.

So it’s worth appraising your leased car to see if you get an offer greater than the residual value on your lease contract, minus any remaining payments. The process can seem complicated because the vehicle technically belongs to the

finance company. But essentially the dealership is buying the vehicle on your behalf, keeping the vehicle to sell later, and then handing you a check for the difference it had appraised for. The dealership will still be able to make money on your car later, so it’s a win-win situation. But not all lease companies allow this type of transaction, so make sure you check before proceeding.

A vehicle purchase involves many moving parts, and overlook-ing the value of your trade-in is a mistake that’s easy to make. In the heat of the moment you might be so focused on the selling price of the vehicle you want to buy that you fail to give the trade-in offer a prop-er assessment.

Handling the trade-in aspect sep-arately can help ensure that you are getting the best overall deal. Edmunds also recommends ignor-ing the outdated advice of mention-ing your trade-in at the last minute. Instead, make sure you get a firm trade-in offer before you even set foot in the dealership.

Edmunds says: Don’t overlook your car’s trade-in value even if you have an older or high-mileage model. The demand for used cars is so strong now that dealerships are look-ing to stock their inventory with vehicles of all price ranges. (AP)

HEALTHARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

11

Hot spots see declines

India now 2nd behind US in COVID-19 casesNEW DELHI, Sept 7, (AP): India’s increasing coronavirus caseload made the Asian giant the world’s second-worst-hit country behind the United States on Monday, as its ef-forts to head off economic disaster from the pandemic gain urgency.

The 90,802 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed In-dia’s total past Brazil with more than 4.2 million cases. In-dia is now behind only the United States, where more than 6.2 million people have been infected, according to Johns Hopkins University.

India’s Health Ministry on Monday also reported 1,016 new deaths for a total of 71,642, the third-highest national toll.

The world’s second-most populous country with 1.4 bil-lion people, India has been recording the world’s largest

daily increases in coronavirus cases for almost a month. Despite over 2 million new cases in the past month and the virus spreading through the country’s smaller towns and villages, the Indian government has continued relaxing restrictions to try and resus-citate the economy.

On Monday, the Delhi Metro, which serves India’s sprawling capi-tal, New Delhi, and adjoining areas, resumed operations after remaining shuttered for more than fi ve months.

The commuters were scarce and stations deserted. Only asymptomatic people were allowed to board the trains, with masks, social distancing and temperature checks mandatory.

Security personnel used metal detectors attached to rods to ensure social distancing during frisking at the stations, and commuters were allowed to enter only after sanitizing their hands.

New Delhi’s streets have already returned to their normal bustle, and people are again fl ocking to markets. The city’s bars will reopen on Wednesday.

The reopenings come after India’s economy shrank faster than any other major nation’s, nearly 24% in the last quarter.

India’s economic pain dates to the demonetization of the nation’s currency in 2016 and a hasty rollout of a goods and services tax the next year. But the strict virus lockdown that started on March 24 further exacerbated the economic woes.

StarvationWhen Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered every-

one in the country to stay indoors, the whole economy shut down within four hours. Millions lost their jobs instantly and tens of thousands of migrant workers, out of money and fearing starvation, poured out of cities and headed back to villages. The unprecedented migration not only hol-lowed out India’s economy but also spread the virus to the far reaches of the country.

Now, as cases surge, most of the country, except in high-risk areas, has already opened up, with authorities saying they have little choice.

“While lives are important, livelihoods are equally im-portant,” Rajesh Bhushan, the top offi cial of India’s federal health ministry, said at a news briefi ng last week.

Almost 60% of India’s virus cases are now coming from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Ma-harashtra and Uttar Pradesh, the nation’s most populous state. But infections are also returning to areas that had managed to slow the spread of the virus, offsetting mar-ginal gains.

Initially hit hard by the virus, New Delhi had seemed to turn the tide through its aggressive screening for patients. But after reopening steadily, the state has reported a recent surge in cases and fatalities. The reopening of the metro is expected to further worsen the situation, experts fear.

The recent surge in cases also highlights the risks of India’s strategy on relying too heavily on rapid tests that screen for antigens or viral proteins. These tests are cheap, yield results in minutes and have allowed India to test over a million people a day.

But they are also less precise and likely to miss infected people, said Dr Gagandeep Kang, an infectious diseases ex-pert of Christian Medical College at Vellore in southern India.

India also says its recovery rate is 77.3% and that the fatality rate has declined to around 1.72%.

But the economic crisis means that people in India, es-pecially the poor who were inordinately impacted by the harsh lockdown, have to go out and work. They are also less likely to have access to good healthcare.

The virus has already deepened misery in the country’s vast hinterlands and poorer states, where surges have crip-pled the underfunded healthcare system and stretched re-sources.

S.P. Kalantri, a public health specialist, said India’s poor face a “desperate choice” between “an immediate death versus a death that could come any time.”

“The disease is already there in the villages,” he said.Meanwhile, South Korea has added 119 more cases of

the coronavirus, its lowest daily jump in more than three weeks amid a downward trend in new cases.

Caseload The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

said Monday the additional fi gures took the country’s total to 21,296 with 336 deaths.

It’s the fi fth straight day the country’s daily jump has stayed under 200. The 119 additional cases are the lowest in kind since mid-August.

South Korea’s caseload had risen since early last month, with many associated with churches, restaurants and schools and an anti-government street rally in the greater Seoul area. In late August, South Korea’s daily jump once marked over 400.

But the caseload has gradually slowed down, largely thanks to toughened social distancing rules that restricts at dining at restaurants and bans gatherings at churches, night spots, after-school academies and fi tness centers.

Australia’s hot spot Victoria state on Monday recorded its lowest count of new COVID-19 cases in more than 10 weeks. The state reported 41 new cases and nine deaths in the latest 24-hour period. Restrictions were slightly eased in Melbourne on Sunday but the state capital and Aus-tralia’s second-largest city will remain in lockdown until at least Oct. 26. The 14-day average in Victoria is now 96 a day. Victorian Premier Danial Andrews said the average will have to be below 50 before restrictions can be relaxed. “This is not about eradicating it. We will fi nish up with cases and outbreaks in 2021, but they’ll be of such low numbers that we can probably put the lid on those and not have to put restrictions back on,” Andrews said.

Japan reported 142 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, raising the nation’s total number to 72,180, the health ministry and local authorities said.

The country’s cumulative death toll stood at 1,369. To-kyo added 77 new cases, staying below 100 for the fi rst time since August 24, which brought the total cases in the Japanese capital to 21,849.

The tallies exclude those who were linked to the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship in February. A govern-ment advisory panel said last week that the number of new Covid-19 infections in the country is slowing after hitting its peak late July.

Coronavirus

A laboratory assistant holds sewage samples collected from Utah State University dormitory’s, Sept 2, in Logan, Utah. About 300 students are quarantined to their rooms this week, but not because anyone got sick or tested positive. Instead, the warning bells came from the sewage. (AP)

In this photo made on Aug 29, 2020, people wearing required protective masks arrive through the entrance tun-nel at Kennywood Park in West Miffl in, Pa. Visitors have been slow to return to US theme parks that saw their sea-sons interrupted by the coronavirus cri-sis, causing some parks to reduce their operating days, slash ticket prices and

close early for the year. (AP)

Health

No W.Nile virus case in Neb: There have been no cases of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus so far this year in Nebraska, the Lincoln Journal Star reported Sunday.

Jeff Hamik, an insect-transmitted illness expert at Nebraska’s health department, told the newspaper that it’s unusual to have no cases by this time in the year.

Hamik said a cool spring might have delayed mosquito breeding, resulting in the longest period without a pool of West Nile-positive mosquitoes in Nebraska history.

Hamik said West Nile cases in people will start cropping up in the next few weeks in Nebraska, but he expects fewer cases than normal in the state this year.

Most people with West Nile virus don’t have symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can cause fl u-like symptoms and sometimes leads to severe illness, including brain infl ammation. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

Virus cases spike in town: US active coronavirus cases in the Kansas State Uni-versity area spiked more than 400% since classes resumed in mid-August.

Active Riley County, Kansas cases increased from 125 on Aug 17 – the fi rst day of classes – to 679 as of Friday, The Manhattan Mercury reported Sunday.

Cumulative cases in Riley County went up almost 135%, from 500 to 1,174 in the same time period.

The newspaper reported that the local health department declared virus outbreaks at three fraternities, six sororities and the college football team. There are 20 active cases at one fraternity.

The Riley County Health Department cancelled permits for all September events at sorority and fraternity houses.

At the University of Kansas in Law-rence, students plan to strike on Labor Day to pressure the university to close campus, the Kansas City Star reported. The newspa-per reports there were 546 confi rmed cases at the university as of Thursday.

Jayhawker Liberation Front posted on Twitter asking students not to attend their in-person or online classes Monday.(AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

12 virus cases in China: Chinese au-thorities reported on Monday 12 coronavi-

rus cases all coming from abroad, while no deaths or local cases were recorded during the past 24 hours.

Infections tally went up to 85,134 cases, while deaths remained at 4,634, Xinhua news agency, quoting the National Health Commission (NHC). China’s President is Xi Jinping.

Meanwhile, 18 patients were discharged from hospitals, raising the number of recoveries to 80,320, while 180 others are still receiving medical care. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

51 virus deaths in Russia: Russian authorities announced Monday the death of 51 people from the coronavirus pandemic,

while registering 5,185 new cases in the past 24 hours.

The coronavirus operation center said in a statement that this brings the total fatalities to 17,871 and total infections to 1,030,690. Russia’s president is Vladimir Putin.

The number of people who recovered during the past 24 hours reached 2,328, bringing the total recoveries from the coro-navirus to 843,277, the statement added. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

814 virus cases in Germany: Germany declared on Monday that hospitals in 16 several states registered 814 coronavirus

infections pushing the total up to 250,799 cases, according to Robert Koch institute.

No deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours, which keeps tally of fatalities at 9,325. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

542 virus cases in Belgium: Total infections of coronavirus cases in Belgium increased to 88,367 after 542 new infec-tions were reported by Belgian health authorities Monday.

One more death from COVID-19 was reported in the last 24 hours raising the total death toll to 9,907. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

30 virus cases in Sudan: Sudan reported, on Monday, 30 new cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19), putting the total at 13,437.

The number of deaths went up to 833 with one new case, indicated the Sudanese health authorities. Recoveries reached 6,730 with 5 new cases.

The Sudanese government is gradually lifting lockdown measures imposed on the capital Khartoum since April 18 as part of the policy to halt the spread of the virus. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

3 virus deaths in France: France’s Health Directorate on Saturday re-ported three fatalities related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and 7,071 new infections, bringing total infections to 324,777.

A statement by the Health officials said, 1,704 people were hospitalized in the past week, 288 in the intensive care unit.

The daily positivity rate kept surging by 4.5 percent in the last week, prompting the authorities to make mandatory putting on facemasks in public areas across Paris and set a fi ne of EUR 135 for violators. (KUNA)

A health worker puts a COVID-19 positive stamp on the hand of a university employee after a test in Jammu, India, Sept 7. India’s coronavirus cases are now the second-highest in the world and only behind the United States, as the caseload crosses Brazil on a day when urban metro trains partially resume ser-

vice in the capital New Delhi and other states. (AP)

A non-invasive early detection system

Colleges fi ghting virus turn to sewageSALT LAKE CITY, Sept 7, (AP): Days after he crossed the country to start college, Ryan Schmutz received a text message from Utah State Uni-versity: COVID-19 had been detect-ed at his dorm.

Within 10 minutes, he dropped the crepes he was making and was whisked away by bus to a testing site.

“We didn’t even know they were testing,” said Schmutz, who is 18 and from Omaha, Nebraska. “It all really happened fast.”

Schmutz was one of about 300 stu-dents quarantined to their rooms last week, but not because of sickness reports or positive tests. Instead, the warning bells came from the sewage.

Colleges across the nation - from New Mexico to Tennessee, Michi-gan to New York - are turning tests of waste into a public health tool. The work comes as institutions hunt for ways to keep campuses open despite vulnerabilities like students’ close living arrangements and drive to so-cialize. The virus has already left its mark with outbreaks that have forced changes to remote learning at col-leges around the country.

The tests work by detecting ge-netic material from the virus, which can be recovered from the stools of about half of people with COVID-19, studies indicate. The concept has also been used to look for outbreaks of the polio virus.

Sewage testing is especially valu-able because it can evaluate people even if they aren’t feeling sick and can detect a few cases out of thou-sands of people, experts say. Anoth-er wastewater-fl agged quarantine of around 300 students at the Univer-sity of Arizona, for example, turned up two cases. Both were students who were asymptomatic, but they

could potentially still have spread the virus.

“That’s just tremendously valua-ble information when we think about the setting of a college dorm, and how quickly this disease can spread through that population,” said Peter Grevatt, CEO of The Water Research Foundation, which promotes studies of water and wastewater to ensure water quality and service.

Wastewater tests also fl agged the possible presence of the virus at University of Colorado residence halls.

Utah has used the method more widely, including to track an out-break at a meatpacking plant. The British, Italian and Dutch govern-ments have also announced similar monitoring programs, and the Mas-sachusetts-based company Biobot tests wastewater from cities around the country.

Imprecise The method remains imprecise,

though. It can spot infection trends, but it can’t yet pinpoint how many people have the virus or the stage of infection. That means it’s not yet quite as useful on a larger scale in cities, which don’t always have a university’s scientifi c resources or ability to require people to get tested.

The technology is being closely studied, though, and it is evolving rapidly, Grevatt said, adding that it’s best used along with other methods like contact tracing.

It’s not a panacea for colleges ei-ther. Utah State, for example, can only closely monitor sewage from the relatively small portion of stu-dents who live on campus - not the thousands of other people who come and go every day. The university has

an enrollment of about 28,000.And this week, Utah State’s posi-

tive wastewater test could be nar-rowed only as far as four residence halls that share the same sewer sys-tem. The test came back positive late Aug. 29, and the quarantine started the next day. Students were required to stay in their rooms, eat-ing meals delivered by a “COVID care” team and barred from walking more than a few steps outside the residence hall.

The buildings are laid out in apartment-style suites, and students were released from quarantine in small groups if every roommate in a suite tested negative. The tests had turned up four coronavirus cases as of Thursday.

Schmutz, who tested negative along with his roommates, didn’t miss much in-person class time dur-ing his four-day quarantine.

But he’s a little disconcerted that he and his family weren’t told about the sewage testing. “It felt like we were kind of out of the loop on eve-rything. It’s defi nitely hard to pro-cess,” he said.

Utah State has heard from parents and students similarly frustrated, though many others are grateful, spokeswoman Emilie Wheeler said. “They see it as a noninvasive early detection system,” she said.

The program is relatively inexpen-sive, too. The school takes samples daily to monitor several living areas, and the tests are run by a team of stu-dents.

“Wastewater has a story to tell about the public health status of com-munities,” Grevatt said. “There’s so many folks working on this right now. It’s just remarkable to see how quickly it has moved forward.”

Coronavirus

Xi Putin

Modi

Featu

res

Featu

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This image released by Warner Bros. Entertainment shows Elizabeth Debicki, (left), and John David Washington in a scene from ‘Tenet.’ (AP)

Film highlights less-than-empowered side of Eleanor

Miss Marx gets Venice spotlight with historical dramaVENICE, Sept 7, (AP): There’s been a lot of talk about gender parity, feminism and equality at the Venice Film Festival this year, with nearly half the in-competition fi lms directed by women. One of them, “Miss Marx,” certainly backs that trend.

The historical drama profi les Karl Marx’s youngest daughter, Eleanor, an innovative British-born social activist and women’s rights campaigner who wrote the fi rst English translation of Flaubert’s “Madame Bovary.”

But Italian director Susanna Nicchiarelli also sought to highlight the less-than-empowered side of Miss Marx, who for years tolerated her louse of a partner as he cheated on her, squandered her money and otherwise humiliated her.

“The focus was on the dichotomy between the public activism and her public beliefs and the inconsistency with her private relationship,” said Romola Garai, who plays Eleanor in the fi lm. “We are left to won-der why and how human beings can be so eloquent on the one hand, and that can so not enter your psyche on the other hand.”

Nicchiarelli said she was drawn to this internal confl ict, which she said was both touching and deeply human.

“That says so much about the way we are,” she said.To hammer home the current-day relevance of that dichotomy, the

fi lm’s score includes punk rock music and Nicchiarelli spliced in ar-chival footage of 20th-century labor protests to “whip the audience into this insistence” that the issues Marx fought for still haven’t been

resolved, Garai said.“The wheel of history has turned through the 20th century, but the

same conversation about the dynamic around capitalism and who ben-efi ts from it is the same,” said Garai, who said she fi rst learned about Eleanor Marx’s contribution to labor and feminist causes working on the 2015 British historical drama “Sufragette.”

The fi lm “Miss Marx” is one of eight directed by women that is competing for the top Golden Lion award in the main competition at Venice, which wraps up Sept. 12. The Venice festival has long been criticized for the lack of female directors in its in-competition fi lms, with only four fi lms made by women in the 62 fi lms that competed for the Golden Lion between 2017 and 2019, and only four women win-ning the Golden Lion in the festival’s history.

ContributionThis year, 44% of the in-competition fi lms were directed by women.“I dream of the day when it will no longer be interesting to talk about

how many women there are in a festival, and we will no longer count how many they are,” Nicchiarelli said. “Having said as much, Eleanor Marx really is important. She gave an enormous contribution to his-tory, also, for her feminist ideas.”

Meanwhile, Australian actress Cate Blanchett said recently that she is baffl ed that other countries didn’t learn from Italy’s pain to be better

prepared to fi ght the coronavirus outbreak when it spread.Blanchett, who is heading the jury at the virus-restricted Venice

Film Festival, arrived on the Lido wearing a surgical mask and skipped the typical water taxi photo op that stars have long used.

Both were evidence of the safety and social distancing norms that have added a certain degree of sobriety to the usually glamorous fes-tival, the fi rst international in-person fi lm showcase after COVID-19 shut down the fi lm industry in March.

At an opening-day press conference, Blanchett was asked whether she feared coming to Italy, the fi rst country in the West to be slammed by COVID-19. Hospitals, cemeteries and morgues were overfl owing in nearby Lombardy, which became the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe.

Blanchett said she had many fears, but also said “we have to be cou-rageous.”

“Every time one starts a project, whether it’s in a pandemic or not, it always feels like the fi rst day of school,” she said.

But Blanchett, a UN goodwill ambassador who has previously criti-cized the US decision to pull out of the World Health Organization, also said she couldn’t understand why the UN agency wasn’t being allowed to have a greater leadership role in the ongoing crisis.

“I think we’re a very strange species that we don’t learn by the pain-ful examples, for example, of the terrible stress that Italy was under,” to have been better prepared when the virus spread elsewhere, she said.

NEW YORK: In a litmus test for American moviegoing in the pandemic, Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” brought in an estimated $20.2 million through the holiday weekend in US and Canadian theaters.

The result could be greeted as ei-ther the rejuvenation of US cinemas — more Americans went to the movies this weekend than they have in nearly six months — or a refl ec-tion of drastically lowered standards for Hollywood’s top blockbusters given the circumstances.

About 70% of US movie theat-ers are currently open; those in the country’s top markets, Los Ange-les and New York, remain closed. Theaters that are operating are limiting audiences to a maximum of 50% capacity to distance mov-iegoers from one another. “Tenet” played in 2,810 North American locations, about three-fourths of what most major releases typically launch in.

Warner Bros. declined to split up US and Canadian box offi ce re-ceipts. Theaters in Canada, where COVID-19 cases are much lower than in the US, began showing “Tenet” a week earlier. The fi lm debuted stateside with nightly pre-view screenings Monday through Wednesday before the offi cial opening on Thursday. Warner Bros. included all of the above in its estimated gross Sunday, along with expected returns for Mon-day’s Labor Day.

“Tenet” opened stronger in Chi-na. It debuted there with $30 mil-lion in ticket sales from Friday to Monday. Internationally, “Tenet” has exceeded expectations. In two weeks of release, its overseas total is $126 million, with a global tally thus far of $146.2 million.

Warner Bros has emphasized that the usual opening-weekend calculus is out the window. Few onlookers felt it was possible to gauge how “Tenet” would open. The fi lm, which cost $200 million to make and at least $100 million to market, will need to get close to $500 million to break even.

In the fi lm’s favor: It currently has the big screen almost entirely to itself. Some multiplexes played “Tenet” as many as 100 times over the weekend. With little else on the horizon, Warner Bros. is counting on a long run for “Tenet.”

Not in the fi lm’s favor: Audi-ences didn’t love Nolan’s latest time-bender. Moviegoers gave the thriller, starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki, a “B” CinemaScore, the lowest grade for a Nolan release since 2006’s “The Prestige.” Reviews (75% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) have been good but far from overwhelming.

Warner Bros. declined to make executives available to discuss the opening but said in a statement that “Tenet” had to be judged differently. “We are in unprecedented territory, so any comparisons to the pre-COVID world would be inequitable and baseless,” said the studio.

Analyzing the fi lm’s perfor-mance was virtually impossible, said senior media analyst Paul

Dergarabedian for data fi rm Comscore. He acknowledged North America remains a more challenged marketplace than Eu-rope or Asia, but called it a solid start in what will be lengthy run for “Tenet.”

“It’s going to take a longer time to assess this,” said Dergarabedi-an. “The win is just to have mov-ies open. To me, that says a lot.”

Hollywood is watching closely. With the majority of the studios’ top productions delayed until next year, the industry is experimenting with how to release its most ex-pensive movies in the COVID-era. The Walt Disney Co. this weekend also debuted its $200 million live-action “Mulan” remake, but did so as a $30 purchase for Disney+ subscribers. (AP)

Film

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‘It’s a spy story, familiar genre’

‘Tenet’ bigger than an event fi lmBy Lindsey Bahr

Christopher Nolan movies are always events. Larger-than-life, action-packed, ideas-driven

and (mostly) original, they’re created to be big screen spectacles that awe mass audiences and drive hefty returns. For Nolan to say that his latest, “ Tenet,” a palindromic global spy thriller starring John David Washington, is his most ambitious is no small thing. Add the fact that it’s the fi rst major Hollywood fi lm in the COVID-era to open in U.S. cinemas in almost six months and you can understand why even “event fi lm” feels too small for “Tenet.”

In the best of times releasing a fi lm is exciting and tense. But now?

“This is a very heightened experience for all of us,” Nolan said.

It is a fi lm that has been brewing in Nolan’s mind, in some ways, for decades. It started with an image of a bullet being sucked back into the gun. He toyed with the symbolic concept in “Memento,” but al-ways wanted to make it more concrete. Over the next 20 years, Nolan and his producer and wife Emma Thomas would see their fi lms amass nearly $4.8 bil-lion at the box offi ce. And with each new one, they challenged themselves to go further.

With a starry ensemble including Robert Pat-tinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh and, naturally, Michael Caine, “Tenet” takes audiences to Tallinn, Estonia, Italy’s Amalfi Coast, England, Oslo, Denmark, Mumbai and Southern California’s Mojave Desert as Washington’s character, The Pro-tagonist, tries to save the world. Seven international locations is a massive undertaking for any fi lm, but in each one there was a big action set piece to ac-complish.

“I think back to where we were even 10 years ago and one or two of the set pieces in ‘Tenet’ could have probably been the climax of one of those earlier movies,” Thomas laughed.

To give a sense of its scale, consider the 747

jumbo jet crash sequence. Everyone assumed at the beginning that the grandiose concept would be accomplished with computer graphics and minia-tures.

“But as we looked into it, the team became con-vinced that the most effi cient way to do it, even from a fi nancial point of view, the sensible way to do it was to buy a 747 and crash it,” Nolan said. “It sounds bizarre to say sensible, but it actually wound up get-ting us what we wanted on screen at a reasonable cost.”

PerformersThere is very little CG in the fi lm at all, which

Nolan is particularly proud of. His cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema would often hoist the massive IMAX camera on his shoulder and shoot the actors and stunt performers, including Washington and Pat-tinson bungee-jumping up the side of a building in Mumbai.

Part of the reason Nolan can push the action is that he relies on teams he’s used before. For the water sequences, Nolan called on a marine unit he used in “Dunkirk.” For the car chases, he brought back the man who fl ipped the Joker truck in “The Dark Knight.”

“You want to feel a little overwhelmed,” Nolan said. “And you want a team around you who can pull off what you’re asking.”

Thomas also noted that Nolan pushes the narra-tive more than he has before. “Tenet” challenges audiences to think about concepts like inversion and entropy. He said it does for the spy genre what “In-ception” did for the heist genre.

If that’s a little heady to process, it’s OK. One of his characters advises The Protagonist not to try to understand it, but to feel it. It’s what Nolan recom-mends too.

“The fi lm is intended as an entertainment. It’s a thrill ride, fi rst and foremost,” Nolan said. “You re-ally want them to just sit back, enjoy the ride. It’s a

spy story. It’s a familiar genre. So there are plenty of ways in for the audience to just have a great time at the movies. If there’s stuff beyond that that people want to kind of puzzle, whether that resonates or, you know, lingers on in the mind once you’ve seen the fi lm, hopefully that’s a bonus.”

Thomas is still discovering new nuances even af-ter seeing it, “more times than I choose to count.” While editing and fi nishing the fi lm, they watched it from beginning to end every Friday to check that any changes made worked.

“The more you come to understand the way things are working in the fi lm, the more you see,” she said.

The only way to do so for the foreseeable future is on the big screen.

Washington said submitting again to the big screen was a “great escape.”

“You do forget about everything for those two and a half hours,” Washington said. “You forget about what’s happening.”

Nolan is “very pleased” with Warner Bros’ in-novative release plan that is allowing for a slow, patient and safe roll out. He also said it’s “com-pletely understandable and completely fine” if some audiences aren’t yet ready to rush back to the theater. The $200 million picture will likely be playing for a long time as the entertainment indus-try finds its footing again.

Not only does the slow roll out remind him of see-ing movies as a kid, when he could see “Star Wars” in Ohio at his grandmother’s in the summer, and then again when it opened in England at Christmastime, but it also might be more gratifying than headlines about record opening weekends.

“From an emotional point of view, it’s become tougher and tougher for fi lmmakers who spent years and years working on something and, even in suc-cess, it’s done in the culture within three weeks,” he said. “I think in some ways for the people who’ve made the fi lm, it might actually feel more complete when all is said and done.” (AP)

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People & Places

NEWS/FEATURESARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

13

MusicChord change

Buscabulla ‘creates’music for pandemicMEXICO CITY, Sept 7, (AP): Buscabulla, a Puerto Rican duo playing electro-Caribbean music, is pro-moting a “hymn of belonging” to lift spirits during the pandemic.

The video of the group’s latest single, “Mío”, in-cludes images of the Carnaval de Ponce and the Day of the Holy Innocents, also called the Fiesta de las Máscaras de Hatillo, known for pranks, fl oats and loud music.

“It speaks to the Puerto Rican who is here to feel proud, to embrace a sense of belonging, to defend what is theirs,” said lead singer Raquel Berrios via video-call from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, a small town visited by surfers two hours west of San Juan.

“The sense of belonging transcends money. Some-times it’s really hard to conceive of that now, when ...

spirituality and traditions seem to go to a secondary plane,” she said.

Berrios is also the group’s designer, composer and DJ, while Luis Alfredo Del Valle, the other half of Buscabulla, is DJ and instrumentalist. They met in 2011 while living in Brooklyn, New York, and now have a 6-year-old daughter, Charly.

The word “buscabulla” is Puerto Rican for “troublemak-

er”, someone looking to start fi ghts at parties.Three years ago, Berrios and Del Valle returned to

Puerto Rico – hence the title of their fi rst LP, “Re-gresa”, released in May. “Mio” is one of the tracks.

When they came back, they found an island dev-astated after Hurricane Maria, economic crises and political turbulence.

“Lots of locals are leaving, and many foreigners are coming to the country buying land, buying coasts, trying to develop without any regard to the environ-ment,” said Berrios.

Despite those concerns and some melancholy lyr-ics, the tone of “Regresa”, with its synthesizers and reverbs with retro touches, is calming and warm, like a sunset on the beach. That’s thanks to the sweet voice of Berrios.

Message“No sabemos” is one of the most electronic songs

on the album, and conveys a message to persevere de-spite the uncertainties of 2020.

“I realized that sometimes things happen in life that we didn’t plan, that end up being a hidden blessing,” said Berrios. She called the song “an exercise of faith”.

Buscabulla had planned a tour after launching “Re-gresa”, but everything changed with the coronavirus.

“It was a shock at the beginning, but to be honest, I also felt relieved. Having a 6-year-old girl, we would have been away from her all summer,” said Berrios.

She thinks the pandemic deepened the album’s message. “In the end, the album is about accepting yourself with your mistakes and imperfections,” she said.

One of the songs, “Nydia”, is dedicated to singer and TV host Nydia Caro, who Berrios said helped her “during an existential crisis and a creative block” with good advice.

As for working with her husband, Berrios said it hasn’t been easy, but they have managed to fi nd bal-ance.

“At the beginning we used to fi ght a lot. There were many clashes producing, or maybe we were working a lot and that was affecting our personal life. But with time, we have identifi ed those patterns, and being con-scious of them makes it easier and helps to separate work time from family and couple time,” she said.

During the pandemic, they have also been work-ing on a documentary about their album, and creating videos like the one of their virtual concert for NPR’s recently premiered series “Tiny Desk”. They also help their daughter with online classes.

Vacations“Here at home, we have lots of materials for crafts

and many books to learn to write,” said Berrios, show-ing a table with scissors and cardboards. “We’ll need vacations after this year.”

Buscabulla are an experimental Puerto Rican duo whose savvy, smooth fusion melds indie dance-pop and hooky electro with slick funk and breezy post-chill grooves with a plethora of Boricua beats – from ba-chata, reggaeton, and merengue to bomba, plena, and salsa. They have played to delighted audiences in the clubs of Brooklyn, on the white beaches of Aguadilla, and on the Coachella stage. From their Kitsune-issued self-titled debut EP in 2014 to their 2017 club smash “Tártaro” (from their self-released second EP) to their eye-popping video single for 2019’s “Vámono”, the pair actively seek to erase boundaries between low and high culture with imagination, activism, style, and humor.

Also:HALBERSTADT, Germany: Hundreds of fans attend-ed a special kind of musical happening Saturday at a church in Germany: a chord change in an organ piece that is supposed to last for an entirety of 639 years.

The performance of the “ORGAN/ASLSP”, or As Slow As Possible, composition began in September 2001 at the St. Burchardi Church in the eastern town of Halberstadt and is supposed to end in 2640 – if all goes well.

The music piece by the American composer John Cage is played on a special organ inside the medieval church. The last sound has been the same one for the last six years and 11 months, and therefore the chord change Saturday was a big event among fans of the John Cage Organ Project.

A chord change means that the sound of the organ pipes changes either because new sounds are added or existing sounds end. On Saturday, two new organ pipes were added.

Organizers say the performance is “one of the slow-est realizations of an organ musical piece.”

A compressor in the basement creates energy to blow air into the organ to create a continuous sound. When a chord change happens, it’s done manually. On Saturday, two people changed the chord.

When the piece offi cially started on Sept 5, 2001, it began without any sound. It was only on Feb 5, 2003, the day of the fi rst chord change, that the fi rst organ pipe chords could actually be heard inside the church.

Cage was born in Los Angeles in 1912 and died in New York in 1992. He’s known not only as a compos-er, but also as a music theorist, artist and philosopher.

Chord changes usually draw more than 1,000 visi-tors to Halberstadt, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of guests allowed into the church was limited this year.

Berrios

Actress Romola Garai poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the fi lm ‘Miss Marx’ during the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy on Sept 5. (AP)

Actor Mads Mikkelsen (right), and Hanne Jacobsen pose for photogra-phers upon arrival at the premiere of the fi lm ‘Miss Marx’ during the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival in

Venice, Italy on Sept 5. (AP)

PRAGUE: Jiri Menzel, a Czech director whose 1966 movie “Closely Watched Trains” won the Academy Award for the best foreign language fi lm has died. He was 82.

Menzel’s wife, Olga, announced his death late Sunday, saying he died the previous day. No details were given. Three years ago, Men-zel underwent a brain operation and was kept in an artifi cially induced coma for several weeks after it.

“Dearest Jirka, I thank you for each and every day I could spend with you. Each was extraordinary,” his wife said on Facebook.

Menzel made some 20 movies and was one of the leading fi lmmakers of the new wave of Czechoslovak cinema that appeared in the 1960s. His movies represented a radical departure from socialist realism, a typical communist-era genre focusing on realistically depicting the struggles of the working class.

Unlike colleagues such as Milos Forman, Jan Nemec and Ivan Passer, Menzel didn’t emigrate after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.

“Closely Watched Trains” was his fi rst feature movie. Based on a novel by Czech author Bohumil Hrabal, it tells the story of a dispatcher’s apprentice coming of age at a small train station during the Nazi occupation in World War II.

His next collaboration with Hrabal, “Larks on a String” in 1969 was another tragicomic description of life under a totalitarian regime, this time under communism.

The movie was immediately banned by the communist authorities. After the 1989 anti-Communist revolution led by Vaclav Havel, it won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin International fi lm festival.

Menzel’s other adaptation of Hrabal’s work include “Cutting It Short” (1980), “The Snowdrop Festival” (1984) and “I served the King of England” (2006).

His 1985 comedy “My Sweet Little Vil-lage” was nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign fi lm.

A graduate of Prague’s Academy of Per-forming Arts in 1962, he was also known for directing plays and also as an actor.

Among other awards, Menzel received the French Order of Arts and Literature. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

DANBURY, Conn: A Connecticut city won’t waste an opportunity to get a sizeable donation from comedian John Oliver about a weeks-long joke pertaining to the name of a sewage plant in the area.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said on WTNH-TV that he would accept Oliver’s challenge to name the city’s sewage plant after him following Oliver’s offer to donate $55,000 to local charities.

But Boughton said there was one stipula-tion to the facility’s renaming. “We do have one very specifi c condition. You must come here to Danbury and be physically present when we cut the ribbon,” he said in a Face-

Variety

book video posted Sunday.The announcement was the latest volley

in a war of words between the host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and Boughton after Oliver fi rst bashed Danbury on an Aug 16 during a segment on racial disparities in jury selection that was actually focused on other areas of Connecticut.

“If you’re going to forget a town in Con-necticut, why not forget Danbury?” Oliver said. He fi nished his rant with a taunt: “If you’re from there, you have a standing in-

vite to come get a thrashing from John Oliver – children included.”

Boughton followed up with an Aug 22 Facebook post that showed the mayor in front of the city’s sewage plant. “We are going to rename it the John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant,” the Republican mayor said. “Why? Because it’s full of crap just like you, John.”

Oliver raised the stakes on his Aug. 30 show by offering to donate $55,000 to Danbury-area charities if offi cials followed through on naming the plant after him. (AP)Menzel Oliver

‘We’re breaking ground’

‘Lady’ creator relishes Emmy nod fi rstsLOS ANGELES, Sept 7, (AP): Robin Thede’s face lights up when she hears that the deliciously clever humor of her “A Black Lady Sketch Show” provokes a laugh-out-loud response.

“That means the most. That’s the whole point,” said Thede, who created, produces and acts in the HBO show, with its critical raves underlined by groundbreaking Emmy nominations.

A tickled viewer demonstrates that “we connected at a human level ... and that is the biggest gift I can give to peo-ple, especially for Black women, be-cause we just don’t have it,” Thede said.

She cites the “duh” moments prompt-ed by the show’s rarity.

“People are saying why didn’t we exist? We had ‘Chappelle’s Show’, we had ‘In Living Color’, we have these great sketch shows in Black media tra-ditions,” Thede said, “but never where women were at the forefront. And why not?”

“A Black Lady Sketch Show” il-lustrates what’s been missing. It offers a dizzying array of characters artfully played by Thede and fellow cast mem-bers Ashley Nicole Black, Gabrielle Dennis and Quinta Brunson. The sto-ries can be satirically biting and at times surreal, such as the (spoiler alert!) soul food restaurant that’s its own kind of purgatory.

It’s from the Black female perspec-tive but with a comic sensibility inviting to all. Season-one sketches included a gang meeting with standard HR proto-col; a wedding dinner hijacked by a se-verely woke family member, and a sup-port group for women who are “bad”, as in rhymes-with-witches.

VersatileA commanding Angela Bassett

earned an Emmy nomination for her guest appearance. “A Black Lady Sketch Show” also received an un-precedented best variety sketch series bid for a Black female-led project and, for Dime Davis, the fi rst sketch vari-ety directing nomination for an African American woman.

The series is competing with “Satur-day Night Live” and “Drunk History” at the Sept 20 ceremony airing on ABC and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. (The limited contenders refl ects a new TV academy rule that adjusts a fi eld’s size based on the number of submissions.)

Thede is both a versatile performer who “can do it all, from subtle observa-tional comedy to big character swings” and a sophisticated artist, said Amy Gravitt, executive vice president for HBO Programming.

“She wanted to do something new with the format, not just by featuring a cast of all Black women – which shouldn’t be revolutionary – but also by playing with genre and paying as much attention to the aesthetic of the show as the comedy,” Gravitt said in an email interview.

HBO ‘Watchmen’ director amongwomen making an Emmy splashLOS ANGELES, Sept 7, (AP): An awkward youth is coaxed into a carnival’s house of mirrors for what looks to be an innocent encounter, but the “Watchmen” scene quickly turns emotionally grueling and, ulti-mately, destructive.

How that was achieved highlights the collaborative effort needed to make TV a cinematic experience that rivals the big-screen – a com-parison that director Steph Green is in a position to make.

An Emmy nominee for the “Lit-tle Fear of Lightning” episode from HBO’s acclaimed limited series, Green’s movie credits include the 2009 Oscar-nominated short fi lm “New Boy” and 2013’s “Run & Jump”, with Will Forte.

But the scale of the graphic nov-el-based “Watchmen”, she said, exceeded the fi lm and TV projects she’s worked on, including episodes of “The Americans”, “The Deuce” and “The L Word: Generation Q”. While TV typically sticks to a time- and cost-conscious schedule, HBO allowed the leeway needed to de-vise the intricate fun house mirrors for the drama’s fi fth episode.

“A lot of what we see on TV can be so hurried, and the choice might have been made, ‘Let’s just use VFX (visual special effects) and fake refl ections’,” Green said.

Instead, cinematographer Xavier Grobet, also Emmy-nominated for the episode, was able to pursue his vision of a real mirror maze.

Grobet, Green and production de-signer Kristian Milsted fi rst created a miniature model that allowed them to decide “where the camera would live,” as Green put it.

(Milsted received a production design Emmy nomination for an-other “Watchmen” chapter, “An Al-most Religious Awe”.)

The solution the team hit on was to build a modestly sized maze of one-way looking glass that would give actors Philip Labes and Ju-lia Vasy “a completely immersive experience and only see mirrors around them and not see us,” Green said.

Moving the camera from behind one set of mirrors to another al-lowed for different refl ective shots – and a remarkably innovative take on the movie trope of a fun house that harbors mind-bending peril.

“It was really ingenuity,” Green said.

So is “Watchmen” as a whole, earning a leading 26 nominations for the ABC’s Sept 20 prime-time Emmy ceremony, including best limited series, acting nods for Re-gina King and Jeremy Irons and two other directing nominations besides Green’s, for Nicole Kassell and Stephen Williams.

Four of the limited series cat-egory’s six directing nods went to women, including Maria Schrader for “Unorthodox” and, posthumous-ly, to Lynn Shelton for “Little Fires Everywhere”.

Framing the sketches is an unspeci-fi ed apocalypse that’s forced a group of women to huddle together, a twist Thede dreamed up pre-pandemic and which she promises will be fl eshed out in the second season. The new episodes were written and ready to shoot when COVID-19 forced an industry-wide production halt that’s only slowly eas-ing.

In late August, Thede was awaiting the green light for taping of the show that boasts Issa Rae (an Emmy nominee for her series “Insecure”) as an execu-tive producer.

For Thede, who grew up in Daven-port, Iowa, the series refl ects a child-hood embrace of comedy and the escape it provided. She shares that passion with her father, an educator who named her after his favorite comedian, Robin Wil-liams. (Phyllis Thede, her mother, has served as an Iowa state representative since 2009 and is running again).

Growing up, Thede said, she was a “nerd”, a stutterer and one of the few Black youngsters at school, especially

in the primary grades. She found refuge among TV characters.

“I really mean it when I say TV was a friend of mine,” she said, recalling how she would copycat those she saw on the small screen from newscasters to sit-com characters, including Jackée Har-ry’s Sandra on “227” (an impersonation Thede revived on her show).

She kept up the mimicry as a teenag-er, started shooting sketches and earned the kind of reaction that made her think, “OK, maybe I’m kind of good at this,” she recalled. She graduated from North-western University, honed her improv skills at The Second City in Chicago and built TV credits that include “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore” and “The Rundown with Robin Thede”.

The TV industry is gradually open-ing doors to women and people of color, who have long pushed for a fair shot at work and the chance to make shows with diverse voices and points of view. That’s also led to a more inclu-sive Emmys, with a record number of African Americans nominated in 2020.

Television

SPORTSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

14

Brady, Rogers join Osaka in US Open quarters

Djokovic out of US Open after hitting line judge with ballNEW YORK, Sept 7, (AP): Top-seeded Novak Djokovic was de-faulted from his fourth-round match at the US Open after he accidentally hit a line judge with a tennis ball Sunday.

It was a stunning end to Djoko-vic’s bid for an 18th Grand Slam title and his 26-0 start to this season.

Djokovic had just lost a game to his opponent, Pablo Carreno Busta, to fall behind 6-5 in the fi rst set.

As he walked to the sideline for the changeover, Djokovic smacked a ball behind him. The ball hit a fe-male line judge, who dropped to her knees at the back of the court.

After a discussion of several min-utes with offi cials on court, Djoko-vic walked over to shake hands with Carreno Busta, and the default was announced.

Jennifer Brady clasped her hands, threw back her head, closed her eyes and soaked in the biggest moment of her tennis career.

The 25-year-old led a contingent of players – two of them Americans – into their fi rst US Open quarter-

fi nals on Sunday, beating former champion Angelique Kerber 6-1, 6-4 with a dominant serve and forehand.

Shelby Rogers later joined her with a 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (6) victory over two-time Wimbledon cham-pion Petra Kvitova. It’s Rogers’ sec-ond Grand Slam quarter-fi nal overall and fi rst at Flushing Meadows.

She now plays two-time major champion Naomi Osaka, who won the US Open two years ago and ad-vanced to the quarter-fi nals by beat-ing No. 14 seed Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday night. Rogers has beaten Osaka all three times they’ve played.

A bracket lacking six of the top eight women in the rankings because of injuries and coronavirus concerns has given up-and-comers a chance to seize the moment. Nobody has done it better than Brady, who has yet to drop a set and has lost only 19 games in her four matches.

For Kerber, it was an abrupt end to a resurgent week. The three-time major champion, including at the 2016 US Open championships, couldn’t make headway against the American, whose biggest challenge came leading 3-2 in the second set.

Brady took a medical timeout and returned to the court with her upper left leg wrapped.

Brady will play Yulia Putintseva, who threw her racket to the ground after dropping the second set in her match – an outburst that became a turning point.

The 35th-ranked player recovered for a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 victory over No. 8 seed Petra Martic and her fi rst berth in a US Open quarter-fi nal.

Serena Williams plays her fourth-round match Monday against Maria Sakkari, who beat the 23-time Grand Slam champion less than two weeks ago at the Western & Southern Open.

Alize Cornet of France reached the fourth round of the US Open for the first time, giving her anoth-er chance for that elusive first berth in a Grand Slam quarter-final. It’s her 57th chance to finally get that far.

The 56th-ranked player has played in the last 54 Grand Slam tourna-ments, the longest active streak and tied for fourth-longest in the Open era. Japan’s Ai Sugiyama played in 62 consecutive majors.

She’ll face Tsvetana Pironkova in her fourth-round match Monday.

Bubba Wallace (43) and Erik Jones (20) vie for position during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race on Sept 6 in Darlington, South Carolina. (AP)

Novak Djokovic of Serbia, returns a shot to Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain, during the fourth round of the US Open tennis championships on Sept

6 in New York. (AP)

Harvick wins Southern 500 afterleaders Elliott and Truex ‘bump’

Dillon finishes 2nd, Logano 3rd

DARLINGTON, SC, Sept 7, (AP): Another race, an-other win for Kevin Har-vick. Again at Darlington Raceway and this time to open the playoffs and his march toward the NAS-CAR championship.

Only difference? Harvick didn’t dominate the Southern 500 in his series-best eighth victory of the season. The regular-season cham-pion and top seed in the playoffs inherited the lead Sunday night when Martin Truex Jr and Chase Elliott bumped then brushed the wall as they raced for the victory.

Elliott dropped off the pace and Harvick passed him for second. Truex – who led a race-high 196 laps

had to pit for repairs on his damaged car and Harvick was suddenly out front.

“The leaders got tangled up there and the next thing you know we were racing for the win,” Harvick said. “This is one of the most pres-tigious races in our sport and obvi-ously everybody in our sport knows the history that Darlington has for our sport, so anytime you can win here is pretty special.”

Harvick has won twice this season at Darlington, including the May 17 return to competition for NASCAR after a 10-week pause at the start of the pandemic. When he won that race – held without spectators – he pointed into the television camera and told the fans how much they were missed.

South Carolina allowed Darling-ton to admit up to 8,000 for this race – the third Cup race this season for the track – and Harvick immediately noted their presence.

“The fi rst thing I want to say is ‘Welcome back fans! This is a hell of a lot more fun with you guys up there,’” he told the crowd. He also gave the checkered fl ag to a young fan wearing one of his shirts.

The victory fell into Harvick’s lap with 14 laps remaining when Truex attempted to pass Elliott. As Truex went to complete the move, he clipped Elliott’s front side and both touched the wall.

“Just not enough room there for both of us,” Truex said of the botched pass for the lead. “I thought I had enough of a run to clear him. I think it was close, obviously. I thought I had enough momentum and distance on him that he was go-ing to let me in there.”

Harvick had to hold off a hard-charging Austin Dillon, a driver few predict will advance very far into the playoffs, to seal the victory in his Ford for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Dillon, in a Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, was second. Joey Logano in a Ford for Team Penske was third.

Erik Jones, the defending South-ern 500 winner who is being re-placed at Joe Gibbs Racing at the end of the season, fi nished fourth in a Toyota. Jones was the only non-playoff driver to fi nish in the top 10.

Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Alex Bowman

were fi fth and sixth, followed by reigning series champion Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, and SHR teammates Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer.

Elliott wound up 20th while Truex was a lap down in 22nd.

Almiorola is now squarely on the

Catlin denies Kaymer for 1st European winSOTOGRANDE, Spain, Sept 7, (AP): John Catlin became the fi rst American since Tiger Woods to win at Valderrama on Sunday, surviving conditions so diffi cult that he didn’t make a birdie in his 4-over 75 and held on for a one-

shot vic-tory in the Andalucia Masters.

C a t l i n won for the fi rst time on the Euro-pean Tour and denied M a r t i n K a y m e r a n o t h e r

chance to end a six-year drought.Kaymer, who now has gone

156 events since his last victory in the 2014 US Open at Pinehurst No. 2, twice had birdie putts in-side 10 feet to take the lead. He missed them both on the 16th and 17th holes, and they proved costly.

Catlin made a superb up-and-down from behind the 17th green,

leaving them tied heading to the 18th hole.

Catlin was in the fairway and played a fade around the cork trees to the back of the green, set-ting up a lengthy two-putt for his par. Kaymer from the right rough went into the right bunker and hit his 25-yard sand shot just through the green. His chip to force a play-off stopped next to the hole and he had to settle for a 74.

Kaymer also fi nished one shot behind last week at The Belfry, another former Ryder Cup course.

Catlin, who grew up in Sacra-mento, California, and played at New Mexico, is a four-time win-ner on the Asian Tour and had lim-ited status on the European Tour until winning Sunday.

Woods won the World Golf Championship at Valderrama in 1999, beating Miguel Angel Jime-nez in a playoff.

Catlin fi nished at 2-over 286, the fi rst time a regular European Tour event was won with a score over par since the Spanish Open at Valderrama in 2016.

The course lived up to its repu-tation for drama.

Justin Harding of South Africa birdied the 17th and suddenly was tied for the lead at 2 over, only to double bogey the 18th. He wound up tied for third with a 71.

Rhodes holds on in OT forfi rst Trucks win since 2018DARLINGTON, SC, Sept 7, (AP): Ben Rhodes moved to the front when he stayed out instead of pit-ting during overtime and held on for his fi rst Truck Series win in two years on Sunday.

Sheldon Creed, who came in after winning two of the past three races, was cruising in front with

three laps left. But a wreck involv-ing Matt Crafton, David Ragan and Josh Reaume brought out a caution and OT.

Creed, a Darlington fi rst-timer, went in for tires while Rhodes re-mained on the track. And then Creed was called for speeding on pit road, ending any chance he might’ve had to regain the lead.

Derek Kraus briefl y surpassed Rhodes on the restart. But Rhodes rebounded for his fi rst victory since 2018 at Kentucky.

“That was a lot of fun,” Rhodes said.

Kraus fi nished second and Austin Hill was third, followed by Grant En-fi nger and Christian Eckes.

Creed came out of the pits in 20th and wound up 18th.

He and GMS Racing teammate Brett Moffi tt dominated most of the race. The pair combined to win the fi rst two stages and led 146 of 152 laps.

Moffi tt ended up 10th, his sec-ond time out of the top six in the past eight races.

“That one hurts,” said Creed, add-ing that he remains con-fi dent in his team heading into the Truck Series play-offs, which

start in two weeks. The regular season fi nishes at Richmond next weekend.

The 23-year-old Rhodes was gid-dy over his third career win.

Rhodes wasn’t sure what to ex-pect in Darlington’s fi rst truck race since 2011. The track picked up the event originally set for Canada that was called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rhodes, like many in the fi eld, hadn’t raced over Darlington’s tricky, egg-shaped layout before.

Kuwait wins World Curling Federation membershipKUWAIT CITY, Sept 7, (KUNA): Ku-wait Winter Games Club announced on Sunday that it has obtained the World Curling Federation (WCF) member-ship, which is one of the fi ve games it supervises.

Speaking to KUNA, chairman of the club Fuhaid Al-Ajmi said “this is a new achievement made following the participation in a meeting of the WCF General Assembly congress on Sun-day”.

Kuwait will take part in the WCF

next meeting due in Russia in Sep-tember 2021, and this will be a big additional to Kuwait youth, he added, lauding the committee, led by Mishal Al-Ajmi, that was tasked with develop-ing the club.

Kuwait’s membership of WCF is a new step to promote the Winter Games locally, he said, noting that the club will seek to join the International Skat-ing Union after having membership in four international federations of the Games including ice hockey, speed on

ice and curling.He pointed to endeavors aiming to

attract a distinguished technical staff to supervise the players of the local teams in different age groups to be prepared for international champion-ships.

During today’s meeting, India and the Dominican Republic had the WCF membership as well.

Curling is a team sport played by two teams of four players on a rectan-gular sheet of ice.

Rhodes

Catlin

TRUCK RACING

CAR RACING

TENNIS

GOLF

Kevin Harvick (4) celebrates a win at the NASCAR Cup Series auto race on Sept 6 in Darlington, South Carolina. (AP)

bubble ranked 12th among the 16 drivers after the fi rst playoff race. Four drivers will be eliminated at the end of the fi rst three-race round. Bowyer is 13th in playoff standings with Cole Custer, Matt DiBenedetto and Ryan Blaney also on the outside with two races left in the opening round.

Blaney’s title chances took a hit just hours before the first playoff race began. His Team Penske Ford was found with improper ballast during inspection and NASCAR docked the team 10 points and sent him to the back of the field from his seventh-place starting spot. Blaney’s crew chief, Todd Gordon, was also suspended for the race. Team Penske said the weight is usually there before the engine is installed and was mistakenly not removed Things didn’t get much better for Blaney during the race as he fell two laps down after a flat tire at the start of stage two. He ended 24th.

The second playoff race is at Rich-mond Raceway on Saturday night.

SPORTSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

15

Ex-England batsman, 5-time Ashes winner Ian Bell to retire

Buttler’s huge 6 gives England T20 series win vs Australia

Angels rally in 8th to complete 4-game sweep of Astros

Goldschmidt homers, Cards topCubs to tighten NL Central race

England’s Jos Buttler plays a shot during the second Twenty20 cricket match between England and Australia at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton,

England on Sept 6. (AP)

St Louis Cardinals’ Paul Goldschmidt (left), hits a three-run home run against the Chicago Cubs during the third inning of a baseball game in Chicago on Sept 6. (AP)

BRADENTON, Florida, Sept 7, (AP): Arike Ogunbowale scored a career-high 39 points, including a ty-ing 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left in regulation, and the Dallas Wings beat the Washington Mystics with a 101-94 overtime win on Sunday.

The victory gave Dallas a 1-1/2-game lead over Washington for the fi nal playoff spot and the tiebreaker

between the teams. Dallas also beat Washington 101-92 in overtime on Aug 21.

Ogunbowale hit a 3-pointer and fol-lowed with a jumper with 3:23 left in overtime and Dallas (7-12) led for the remainder. It was the Wings’ fi rst lead since Ogunbowale made a pair of free throws with 6:17 before halftime.

Her 3-pointer with a 0.7 seconds left in regulation tied it at 86 apiece to force the extra session.

Sparks 86, Sky 80Candace Parker scored 24 points

with 15 rebounds and Chelsea Gray added 20 with seven assists to help Los Angeles beat Chicago.

The Sparks (14-5) are a half-game behind Las Vegas for the second spot

in the standings. The two teams meet on Satur-day.

C h i c a g o jumped out with a 30-point open-ing stanza and led by eight after one. Los Angeles tight-ened its defense from there and largely seized control. The Sky

(11-9) managed just 10 points in the fourth quarter.

Brittney Sykes scored 11 for the Sparks before getting hurt in the third quarter. She didn’t return. Sydney Wiese injured her ankle in the fi rst quarter and also didn’t return. The Sparks did welcome back Nneka Og-wumike after having missed the three

games prior due to back issues. She scored nine points and grabbed four rebounds in 29 minutes.

Cheyenne Parker led Chicago with 24 points and 10 rebounds, Allie Quig-ley scored 22.

Storm 103, Lynx 88Natasha Howard scored 19 points

and Breanna Stewart added 18 to help the Storm beat the Lynx.

With one week left in the season, the Storm (16-3) have the best re-cord in the league – a 1-1/2 games in front of Las Vegas. The two teams will meet to close out the regular season next Sunday.

JSeattle took control with a 15-4 run to start the second quarter and never relinquished it.

Damiris Dantas hit a 3-pointer to bring Minnesota (13-6) within 26-24 to start the second. Shortly thereaf-ter, Epiphanny Prince, who recovered the ball from going into the backcourt, with the shot clock about to expire, buried a 40-footer to ignite the run. The Storm later scored a season-high 31 points in the third.

Brad Hand, the Indians’ fourth re-liever, worked the ninth for his 11th save in 11 tries. It was his 100th career save.

Brett Anderson (2-3) took the loss.Rockies 7, Dodgers 6

In Los Angeles, Matt Kemp hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the eighth in-ning against his former team, and the Colorado Rockies sent the Dodgers to their fi rst series loss of the season.

Kemp connected off Caleb Ferguson (2-1) for the sixth homer in a back-and-forth game between the NL West rivals. The Rockies won the last two in the se-ries to boost their playoff hopes while curbing their 4-24 skid against the pow-erhouse Dodgers, who lost back-to-back games for only the third time this season.

Josh Fuentes hit an early two-run homer and Garrett Hampson added an RBI double for the Rockies, who were winless in their past nine series against Los Angeles since 2018. Colorado also won two straight at Dodger Stadium af-ter losing 17 of its previous 18 here.

Orioles 5, Yankees 1In Baltimore, Dean Kremer allowed

one hit over six innings and struck out seven in his major league debut, D.J. Stewart homered off Masahiro Tanaka and Baltimore beat skidding New York.

The Orioles won their third in a row over the Yankees after losing 19 straight to them. New York has lost 13 of 18 overall.

The 24-year-old Kremer (1-0) came to the Orioles organization in July 2018 as part of the trade that sent Manny Machado to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He allowed one run, walked three and retired 14 of the fi nal 15 batters he faced.

Tanaka (1-2) gave up four runs, two earned, and six hits in 5-1/3 innings.

The game was played on the 25-year anniversary of the night Cal Ripken played his 2,131st consecutive game, which broke Lou Gehrig’s major league record.

Rays 5, Marlins 4, 10 InningsIn St Petersburg, Florida, Brandon

Lowe hit a sacrifi ce fl y to complete a two-run 10th inning for AL East-leading Tampa Bay.

Ji-Man Choi hit a tying double off Brandon Kintzler (1-3) to begin the 10th and pinch-runner Brett Phillips ad-vanced to third on Michael Perez’s fl y to deep center.

After Kevin Kiermaier walked, Lowe send a long fl y into center fi eld.

Randy Arozarena homered twice and Hunter Renfroe also went deep for the Rays.

Matt Joyce slapped an RBI single with two outs in the top of the 10th off John Curtiss (3-0) to put Miami ahead.

Blue Jays 10, Red Sox 8In Boston, Cavan Biggio’s two-run

double capped a six-run fi fth inning, Rowdy Tellez and Caleb Joseph homer-ed and Toronto held off Boston.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr had four singles for the Blue Jays, who had lost the previ-ous two games after winning the open-ing pair of a fi ve-game series at Fenway Park. They have won eight of 12 overall.

Thomas Hatch (3-1) worked 1-2/3 in-nings of scoreless relief and Rafael Do-lis got the fi nal three outs for his second save. Matt Hall (0-2) got the loss.

Tigers 10, Twins 8In Minneapolis, Grayson Greiner hit a

tie-breaking homer in the eighth inning off left fi elder Eddie Rosario’s glove to lift Detroit.

The Tigers erased a four-run defi -cit by raking Minnesota’s relievers for eight runs in the late innings. The Tigers snapped a streak of fi ve straight losses to the Twins.

Tigers reliever Kyle Funkhouser (1-1) earned his fi rst career win and while Bryan Garcia pitched a scoreless ninth

CHICAGO, Sept 7, (AP): Paul Goldschmidt hit a three-run homer off a strug-gling Jon Lester, and the St Louis Cardinals gained ground in the NL Central race by beating the Chicago Cubs 7-3 on Sunday night.

St Louis pulled within 1-1/2 games of Chicago with its third consecutive win over the division leaders. The longtime rivals have one game left in their pandemic-shortened season series on Monday.

Dakota Hudson (2-2) worked fi ve innings of three-run ball, shrugging off a shaky start.

Chicago dropped to 10-15 since its 13-3 start. Anthony Rizzo and Jason Kipnis homered for the Cubs, but Lester (2-2) lasted just 3-1/3 innings in another lackluster performance.

Angels 9, Astros 5In Anaheim, California, Anthony

Rendon homered, Jared Walsh and Jus-tin Upton delivered key hits during a four-run eighth inning and Los Angeles swept the four-game series.

The Angels have a won a season-high fi ve straight. They trailed by at least three runs in each game against Houston before rallying.

Mike Mayers (1-0), the fi fth of six Angels pitchers, retired the side in order

in the eighth. Framber Valdez (3-3) took the loss.

It was 106 degrees at fi rst pitch, a day after it was 109 for the start at Angel Sta-dium.

Padres 5, Athletics 3In Oakland, California, Fernando

Tatís Jr matched Angels slugger Mike Trout for the majors’ home run lead with his 15th, a two-run drive in the seventh inning that sent San Diego over Oakland.

Garrett Richards (2-2) struck out nine and didn’t walk a batter over seven sharp innings to end a four-start winless stretch.

Trevor Rosenthal gave up Robbie Grossman’s leadoff double in the ninth before fi nishing for his fi rst save with San Diego after joining the Padres in a trade from Kansas City, where he earned seven saves.

Matt Olson hit a pair of RBI singles for the A’s, who have lost four of fi ve.

Indians 4, Brewers 1In Cleveland, Shane Bieber struck out

10 in fi ve innings to remain unbeaten in 2020, leading Cleveland over Milwau-kee.

Bieber (7-0) only allowed one run and fi ve singles, but the right-hander ran up his pitch count – 58 combined in the fourth and fi fth innings – and needed Cleveland’s bullpen to fi nish things off.

Bieber came in leading the majors strikeouts and added to his total by reaching double-digits for the sixth time this season.

SOUTHAMPTON, England, Sept 7, (AP): Opener Jos Buttler advanced down the wicket and smashed a huge six to give England an insurmountable 2-0 lead in the Twenty20 series with a six-wicket win over Australia on Sunday.

Buttler hit an undefeated 77 off 54 balls in the second T20 with eight fours and two sixes, including the winning runs off Adam Zampa.

England fi nished on 158-4 in 18.5 overs at an empty Rose Bowl.

Top-ranked Australia chose to bat fi rst and lost opener David Warner for a duck before recovering from 3-2 in the second over to reach 157-7. Captain Aaron Finch hit 40 runs off 33 balls,

with four bounda-ries and two sixes, but the visitors’ to-tal always looked within the reach of second-ranked England.

Dawid Malan scored 42 runs off 32 balls for Eng-land which still needed 18 runs off the last two overs.

Ashton Agar took 2-27.England beat Australia by two runs in

a thrilling fi rst T20 on Friday that went down to the fi nal ball. Chasing 163 to win, Australia collapsed from 124-1 af-ter 14 overs.

The third and fi nal T20 is at South-ampton on Tuesday. Australia is playing international cricket for the fi rst time in six months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Buttler’s innings more than made up for England earlier wasting a leg before wicket review after Adil Rashid’s de-livery very clearly hit Finch’s bat – and plum in the middle – with Australia at 40-3. Buttler smiled and looked sheepish

after England’s review quickly failed.Jofra Archer bowled England’s last

over which proved expensive with 18 runs conceded.

Earlier, Archer only needed three balls to make the breakthrough for England in dismissing Warner. The Australia open-er got the faintest of touches on a quick delivery and after Buttler took the catch, he was given out. Warner immediately reviewed but the replay showed sound on ultra edge when the delivery went past his glove to send him on his way.

Australia changed its batting lineup from the fi rst T20 with Alex Carey out at three instead of Steve Smith. The change in order failed to work, with Mark Wood able to fi nd Carey’s edge in the second over of the match. Buttler again claimed a regulation catch to send the wicket-keeper-batsman back for two.

Smith joined Finch out in the middle and the experienced duo had a big job on their hands.

Smith looked to get Australia back on track with a pull for six off Tom Curran but his attempt at a quick single back-fi red in the fi nal ball of the fi fth over. After dropping a shot into the leg side Smith set off, but England captain Eoin Morgan picked up superbly from short mid-wicket and hit with one stump to aim at.

That dismissed Smith for 10 and Aus-tralia was 39-3 at the end of the power-play overs.

Morgan required treatment during the ninth over after he dislocated a fi nger trying to take a catch.

The England captain had to leave the fi eld, but returned once Rashid had com-pleted his over.

Meanwhile, former England batsman Ian Bell, who was part of fi ve Ashes-winning teams, will retire at the end of the season.

Bell won 118 Test caps, and played in 161 one-day internationals as well as

Ogunbowale

Bell

BASKETBALL

BASEBALL

CRICKET

Parker, Gray help Sparks beat Sky 86-80

Ogunbowale, Wings top Mystics in OT

for his fi rst big league save.Greiner connected off Sergio Romo

(1-2).White Sox 8, Royals 2

In Kansas City, Mo, Edwin Encar-nación hit a three-run homer, Dallas Keuchel threw fi ve scoreless innings and Chicago completed a four-game sweep.

Keuchel (6-2) left the game with lower back stiffness after throwing a few war-mup pitches before the sixth inning and is considered day to day. He threw 49 pitches, allowed two hits and struck out two.

The AL Central-leading White Sox went ahead 5-0 in the seventh on Encar-nación’s three-run homer. Jose Abreu extended his hitting streak to 20 games.

Matt Harvey (0-3) went 2-1/3 innings, allowing four hits and one run.

Mariners 4, Rangers 3In Seattle, Kyle Seager hit a two-run

homer and rookie Kyle Lewis added a solo shot for Seattle.

The surging Mariners won their fi fth straight and 10th of 13 after an 8-19 start.

Seager lined his sixth home run of the season in the fi rst inning off Texas starter Jordan Lyles (1-4).

Seattle rookie Justin Dunn (3-1) con-tinued his impressive recent run, throw-

ing six innings and allowing two runs on four hits.

Ronald Guzman homered with one out in the ninth off Yoshihisa Hirano. But Hirano struck out Dietrich and Anderson Tejada to fi nish his fi rst save.

Giants 4, Diamondbacks 2In San Francisco, Donovan Solano hit

a two-run, go-ahead homer in the sixth inning and the Giants beat the Diamond-backs.

Brandon Belt and Chadwick Tromp also went deep for the Giants, who im-proved to 7-2 against the Diamondbacks this season.

Solano hit the fi rst pitch he saw from Alex Young (1-3) in the sixth for a two-run shot to left that erased a 2-1 San Fran-cisco defi cit. Belt came off the bench to deliver a pinch-hit solo shot in the sev-enth to extend San Francisco’s lead to 4-2 and continue his torrid streak at the plate. He’s hitting .491 (27 for 55) over his past 18 games.

San Francisco’s bullpen turned in ter-rifi c work in support of Johnny Cueto, as Caleb Barager (5-1), Jarlin Garcia, Tony Watson bridged the gap to Tyler Rogers, who notched the save.

Braves 10, Nationals 3In Atlanta, Freddie Freeman hit his

second career grand slam – and second of the series – leading the Braves to a win over Patrick Corbin and the Nationals.

Josh Tomlin (2-2) allowed one run in six innings as Atlanta split the four-game series. Marcell Ozuna drove in four runs with three hits, including a homer and a three-run triple. Tyler Flowers had a two-run double.

With Atlanta leading 3-1 in the sixth, Kyle Finnegan replaced Corbin and load-ed the bases by walking Dansby Swan-son. Freeman followed with his seventh homer of the season, a drive into the seats in left-center.

Corbin (2-4) has lost four straight deci-sions. The left-hander allowed fi ve runs, matching his season high, and nine hits in 5-1/3 innings.

Nationals general manager Mike Riz-zo was ejected from a luxury suite after umpires said he was berating them. Crew chief Joe West said Rizzo had done the same thing earlier in the series.

Mets 14, Phillies 1In New York, Jacob deGrom struck

out 12 over seven innings, Aaron Nola was let down by lackluster defense and the Mets poured it on with a season-best 17 hits in a victory over the Phillies.

Pete Alonso homered twice, Jeff Mc-Neil hit his fi rst shot of the season, and Brandon Nimmo and Wilson Ramos also went deep for the Mets, who have won four of fi ve. Dominic Smith had a career-high four hits, matched a franchise record with three doubles and drove in three.

DeGrom (3-1) allowed three hits and two walks while lowering his ERA to 1.69. Brad Brach and Chasen Shreve closed out New York’s four-hitter.

Nola (4-3) was charged with three earned runs and six total over 5-1/3 in-nings. He struck out 10, walked one and allowed eight hits.

Pirates 3, Reds 2In Pittsburgh, Erik Gonzalez’s sacri-

fi ce fl y capped a two-run ninth inning as the Pirates rallied to beat the Reds.

Josh Bell and Ke’Bryan Hayes began the winning rally with singles off Raisel Iglesias (2-3). Bell then scored the tying run on Cole Tucker’s single.

One out later, Gonzalez lined out to right fi eld and Tucker easily beat Nick Castellanos’ off-target throw.

Richard Rodriguez (1-2) pitched a scoreless ninth for the win. He was one of fi ve relievers that held the Reds score-less over the fi nal six innings.

Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Jaime Barria throws against the Hou-ston Astros during the fi rst inning of a baseball game on Sept 6 in Anaheim,

California. (AP)

MLB Results/Standings

WASHINGTON, Sept 7, (AP): Results and standings from the MLB games on Sunday.

Baltimore 5 NY Yankees 1Cleveland 4 Milwaukee 1TB Rays 5 Miami (10 ins) 4Chic W. Sox 8 KC Royals 2Detroit 10 Minnesota 8Toronto 10 Boston 8Seattle 4 Texas 3SD Padres 5 Oakland 3

LA Angels 9 Astros 5NY Mets 14 Phillies 1Atlanta 10 Nationals 3Pittsburgh 3 Cincinnati 2SF Giants 4 Arizona 2St Louis 7 Chic Cubs 3Colorado 7 LA Dodgers 6

American LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GBTampa Bay 28 13 .683 –Toronto 22 18 .550 5-1/2New York 21 19 .525 6-1/2Baltimore 19 21 .475 8-1/2Boston 14 28 .333 14-1/2

Central Division W L Pct GBChicago 26 15 .634 –Cleveland 25 15 .625 -1/2Minnesota 25 17 .595 1-1/2Detroit 18 20 .474 6-1/2Kansas City 14 27 .341 12

West Division W L Pct GBOakland 23 14 .622 –Houston 21 19 .525 3-1/2Seattle 18 22 .450 6-1/2Los Angeles 17 25 .405 8-1/2Texas 13 26 .333 11

National LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GBAtlanta 24 16 .600 –Philadelphia 19 17 .528 3Miami 17 18 .486 4-1/2New York 19 22 .463 5-1/2Washington 14 25 .359 9-1/2

Central Division W L Pct GBChicago 23 18 .561 –St Louis 17 15 .531 1-1/2Milwaukee 18 21 .462 4Cincinnati 18 23 .439 5Pittsburgh 13 26 .333 9

West Division W L Pct GBLos Angeles 30 13 .698 –San Diego 25 17 .595 4-1/2Colorado 21 20 .512 8San Francisco 20 21 .488 9Arizona 15 26 .366 14

THE FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY IN FREE KUWAIT Published by: Arab Times Publishing House

Editor-in-ChiefAHMED AL JARALLAH

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ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 16

SportsKlingberg scores on Dallas fi rst shot

Stars pip Golden Knights in Western Conference fi nal Game 1EDMONTON, Alberta, Sept 7, (AP): John Klingberg scored on the Stars’ fi rst shot, Anton Khudobin stopped all 25 the Golden Knights put on net and Dallas beat Vegas 1-0 on Sunday night in a hard-hitting, defensive Game 1 of the Western Conference fi nal.

Khudobin had his fi rst NHL playoff shutout in the Stars’ fi rst 1-0 playoff win in regulation since 2000.

In true lockdown Stars fashion, the game had almost double the amount of total hits (96) than shots on goal (50). Two days after each team won a Game 7 in the second round to move on, Dal-las had more jump from the drop of the puck and carried that to a series lead.

Klingberg’s goal 2:36 in was all the offense coach Rick Bowness’ team needed. It looked like surprise Vegas starter Marc-Andre Fleury didn’t get reset after Dallas captain Jamie Benn’s shot attempt was blocked, and Kling-berg fi red the loose puck past him into the net.

It was the Stars’ 55th goal this post-season, and the 52nd scored with either Klingberg or fellow defenseman Miro Heiskanen on the ice.

Playing with a lead allowed Dallas players to throw their bodies around, a style of game Vegas has no problem matching. Stars defenseman Esa Lin-dell appeared to injure his left hand on one hit in the fi rst period but didn’t miss a shift.

Also in the fi rst, Golden Knights forward Chandler Stephenson landed a leg-on-leg hit on Roope Hintz and was on the other side of an earful from Stars veteran Corey Perry during the next TV timeout. The nastiness is al-ready well established early in the West fi nal and should grow as the se-ries continues.

There will probably be more goals in the coming games though, even if Fleury and Khudobin did their best to keep the puck out. Fleury made 24 saves after allowing the Klingberg goal, and Khudobin was aided by his team-mates forcing shots to the outside and helped himself with some excel-lent rebound control.

Meanwhile Matt Dumba fi gured out early in his NHL career that being a minority player in a predominantly white sport carried with it some extra responsibility, so he began doing com-munity outreach in Minnesota.

Dumba’s desire to take that to an-other level came this year after the killing of Black man George Floyd by Minneapolis police, when friend and fellow player Chris Stewart told a story about his two young, twin sons, one of whom has darker skin than the other.

“Christian asked his dad, ‘Does this mean that Connor would get shot instead of me if we did something wrong?’” Dumba recalled. “It’s so heavy hearing that from a 6-year-old who’s just been watching the news and

Lakers even series

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla, Sept 7, (AP): The Mil-waukee Bucks lost the fi rst three games of the East-ern Conference semifi nals, then lost the NBA’s MVP while trying to fend off elimination.

No problem. The Bucks aren’t done yet.

Even with Giannis Antetokounm-po missing most of the game with a sprained right ankle, the Bucks ex-tended their season to a Game 5 on Tuesday. Khris Middleton scored 21 of his 36 points in the third quarter, then made a huge 3-pointer with 6.3 seconds left in overtime and the Bucks topped the Miami Heat 118-115 in Game 4 of their series Sun-day.

Miami still leads the series 3-1 but will surely spend the next two days lamenting how this one got away. The Heat gave up 12 straight points in the fi nal period Sunday, wasting what was an eight-point lead in a closeout game.

Bam Adebayo had 26 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists for Mi-ami. Duncan Robinson scored 20 points, Jae Crowder had 18 and Goran Dragic and Jimmy Butler each fi nished with 17 for the Heat.

Antetokounmpo scored 19 points for the Bucks in only 11 minutes, while Brook Lopez and George Hill each had 14 for Milwaukee.

Miami managed only two points in the fi rst 4:30 of overtime, got within one on a 3-pointer from Tyler Herro, but Middleton delivered the biggest shot of the night to make it 116-112.

Herro made another 3-pointer with 3.0 seconds left, but Middleton sealed it with a pair of free throws.

Antetokounmpo had 19 of Mil-waukee’s fi rst 30 points, shooting 8-for-10 from the fl oor. But in an instant, everything changed for the Bucks.

Antetokounmpo aggravated his sprained right ankle with 10:18 left in the second quarter, rolling it in-ward – just as he did in Game 3 on Friday – as he tried to drive past Mi-ami’s Andre Iguodala. He tumbled to the court, grabbing the ankle and screaming in pain.

He took the free throws; without doing that, he would not have been permitted to return. But at halftime, the Bucks delivered the word that he would not be back.

Middleton did all he could to keep the Bucks afl oat, scoring 21 points in the third quarter – the highest-scoring quarter of his career – on 6 for 9 shooting from the fi eld and 7 for 7 from the foul line. His previous quarter-best was 20, on Nov. 1, 2017 against Charlotte.

And in the end, the Bucks had enough to keep hope alive.

LeBron James had 28 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists, Anthony Davis added 34 points and 10 re-bounds and the Los Angeles Lak-ers evened the Western Conference semifi nals by beating the Houston Rockets 117-109.

Markieff Morris scored 16 points for the Lakers. They opened a 21-point lead in the fi rst half, gave up 41 points in the third quarter to fall behind, and then regrouped behind some high-fl ying plays by James to pull away again.

James took only 15 shots in Game 1 and was scoreless in the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ 112-97 loss, but he was dominant on both ends in the fi nal period of this one. He had eight points in the quarter and a powerful blocked shot on Rus-sell Westbrook that fl ew far out of bounds.

James Harden scored 27 points and Eric Gordon made six 3-point-ers and added 24 for the Rockets, who made 22 3-pointers. P.J. Tucker had 18 points and Robert Covington 17, but Westbrook fi nished only 4 for 15 while scoring 10 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.

Bucks fend off elimination

Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis (3) and Houston Rockets’ P.J. Tucker (17) battle for a rebound during the second half of an NBA conference semifi nal playoff basketball game on Sept 6, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP)

Minnesota Utd end bad run

Crew beat FC Cincinnatifor 5th straight ‘shutout’COLUMBUS, Ohio, Sept 7, (AP): Gyasi Zardes scored two goals and the Eastern Conference-leading Co-lumbus Crew beat FC Cincinnati 3-0 on Sunday night for their fi fth straight shutout.

Columbus (7-1-2) haven’t surren-dered a goal since July 28 and have given up only two all season.

Pedro Santos scored his fi rst goal of the season in the 52nd minute. Ten minutes later, Zardes replaced Fanendo Adi and scored in the 64th and 71st to seal it.

Timbers 2, Sounders 1Substitute Felipe Mora scored

after slipping behind the Seattle de-fense in the 83rd minute and Port-land beat the Sounders.

Moments after Seattle nearly took the lead, Mora came open behind the Sounders back line, collected a well-timed pass from Eryk Williamson and beat goalkeeper Stefan Frei to give the Timbers the lead.

Minnesota Utd 4, Real Salt Lake 0

Robin Lod scored two goals and Minnesota United snapped a four-game losing streak with the victory over Real Salt Lake.

Lod scored in the 62nd and 90th minutes. He has fi ve goals in nine games for the Loons (4-3-2). Chase Gasper and Jacori Hayes also scored.

Galaxy 3, LAFC 0Sebastian Lletget scored twice,

Cristian Pavon had a goal and an assist, and the Galaxy beat Los An-

geles FC. The Galaxy (4-3-2) have won

four straight games and outscored opponents 11-4 during the stretch. LAFC (3-3-3) have lost three of their last four including 2-0 against the Galaxy on Aug 22.

NYCFC 0, D.C. United 0 Chris Seitz made four saves and

D.C. United played to a scoreless draw without taking a shot against New York City FC.

D.C. (2-4-4) became the second

MLS team to fail to get a shot during a regular-season match. The New England Revolution did not take a shot in a 7-0 loss to Atlanta United on Sept 13, 2017.

Union 3, Red Bulls 0Brenden Aaronson, Kacper Pr-

zybylko and Matthew Real scored to help Philadelphia beat New York.

Bradley Carnell made his debut as New York’s interim coach fol-lowing Chris Armas’ fi ring Friday. Carnell served as an assistant for the club since March 2017.

Revolution 2, Fire 1Teal Bunbury scored twice in

New England’s victory over Chi-cago.

The Revolution (3-2-5) rebound-ed from a 2-0 loss to New York City FC on Wednesday night. The Revs have given up just 10 goals over the last 11 games.

Nashville SC 0, Inter Miami 0 Joe Willis made fi ve saves and

Nashville SC played to a scoreless draw with fellow expansion team Inter Miami.

just been around it and is growing up in this world, and that’s where I just took the stand for that generation, this generation coming up and not having to go through what some of us have.”

Dumba helped found the Hockey Diversity Alliance, was called on to give an anti-racism speech when the playoffs began and became the fi rst NHL player to kneel during the US anthem. On Sunday night, he was re-vealed as the winner the King Clancy

Memorial Trophy, awarded for leading on and off the ice and making humani-tarian contributions to his community.

The 26-year-old Minnesota Wild defenseman, who is Filipino-Canadi-an, hopes this is only the start of his and the league’s efforts to combat rac-ism. Dumba took a knee before one of the fi rst games of the playoffs, which he did not play, in after speaking out against racism on behalf of the Hockey Diversity Alliance.

No win for Germany

Fati stars as Spain rout UkraineLONDON, Sept 7, (AP): Its youngest-ever scorer and two goals from a captain twice his age. Spain couldn’t ask for more from their rebuild.

The 17-year-old Barcelona forward Ansu Fati scored in a 4-0 Nations League win over Ukraine and won a penalty for 34-year-old Sergio Ramos too as an infl ux of young talent blended well with experienced stalwarts.

“The truth is that it is a point of pride to work with (coach) Luis (Enrique) and these players, who have received me with open arms,” Fati said after the match. “I will keep working, stay humble, and let things come my way.” Spain go top of their Nations League group by a point from Ukraine. Ger-many, who drew 1-1 with Switzerland on Sunday, are third in Group 4 of League A.

Spain had been fortunate to avoid defeat Thursday when José Gayà salvaged a 1-1 draw with Germany, but the win over Ukraine was never in doubt. After less than two minutes Fati was fouled in the penalty area and Ramos scored the resulting spot-kick.

Ramos headed in a second goal to send the defender eighth on Spain’s all-time scorers list with 23, and Fati made Spain’s control complete with his long-range shot in the 32nd minute.

Fati became Spain’s youngest scorer at the age of 17 years, 311 days. Barely a year since he became Barcelona’s youngest league scorer, he appears set to be the future for both club and country.

“(Spain coach Luis Enrique) will have a diffi cult time picking lineups because these players are very young, now have experience, and all of them can play,” Ramos said. “The important thing is to gradually build a solid team for what lies ahead.” Manchester City defender Eric García and Real Madrid defender Sergio Reguilón also debuted for Spain. Ferran Torres made it 4-0 in the 84th.

The Nations League just isn’t Germany’s competition.The draw with Switzerland in League A left Germany still

chasing their fi rst win after their sixth game in Europe’s new-est competition.

Ilkay Gundogan gave Germany the lead with a low drive in the 14th minute. Switzerland took advantage of Ger-many’s three-man back line to play in Silvan Widmer from the right fl ank and he blasted the ball past goalkeeper Bernd Leno to level the score in the 58th.

Germany allowed Spain a late equalizer in Thursday’s 1-1 draw and several players were critical of the team for letting another lead slip.

Switzerland stay winless in 2020 after a strong last two years including a run to the 2018-19 Nations League semifi -nals and a fi rst-place fi nish in European Championship quali-fying. Liverpool full back Neco Williams scored the winning goal in his second game for Wales.

Williams struck deep into second-half injury time in a 1-0 win over Bulgaria in League B.

Gareth Bale played a full 90 minutes for the fi rst time in any game since January after falling out of favor with Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane.

Russia have won 10 of their last 11 games after holding off a late fi ghtback to beat Hungary 3-2 in League B.

The Nations League format keeps teams of similar com-petitive strength together. That helped the Faroe Islands earn back-to-back wins in competitive games for the fi rst time since 1997 by beating Andorra 1-0 to follow up a 3-2 win over Malta on Thursday.

Vegas Golden Knights’ Nick Cousins (21) is checked by Dallas Stars’ Radek Faksa (12) during the second period of Game 1 of an NHL Western Conference fi nal hockey game on Sept 6 in Edmonton, Alberta. (AP)

Ukraine goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov (right), takes the ball as Spain’s Gerard Moreno attempts to kick the ball dur-ing the UEFA Nations League soccer match between Spain and Ukraine at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano

stadium in Madrid, Spain on Sept 6. (AP)

SOCCER

Portland Timbers goalkeeper Steve Clark (second from right), leaps to catch a shot during the second half of an MLS soc-cer match against the Seattle Sounders on Sept 6, in Seattle.

The Timbers won 2-1. (AP)

SOCCER

BASKETBALL

ICE HOCKEY