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

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 / MUHARRAM 22, 1442 AH emergency number 112 NO. 17480 16 PAGES 150 FILS

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Assembly approves ’20-’21 budget

US cuts troops in Iraq to 3,000WASHINGTON, Sept 9, (AP): The United States is reducing its troop presence in Iraq this month from 5,200 to 3,000, the top Amer-ican commander for the Middle East said Wednesday, as President Donald Trump tries to make good on his campaign promise to get America out of “endless wars.”

During a visit to Iraq, Marine Gen Frank McKenzie, the commander of US Central Com-mand, said the reduction in Iraq reflects the Trump administration’s confidence in the abil-ity of US-trained Iraqi security forces to handle the militant threat from the Islamic State group, which entered Iraq from Syria in 2014.

The move also comes as Trump faces criti-cism for allegedly denigrating American war dead as “losers” and “suckers.” He has denied the allegation, first reported by The Atlantic magazine last week, which surfaced at a time of heightened tension in his relationship with the military. Trump added to the perception of a growing split with Pentagon leaders when he said on Monday that they want to fight wars to boost the profits of defense compa-nies.

A senior administration official told report-ers aboard Air Force One late Tuesday that an announcement on the withdrawal of addi-tional troops from Afghanistan also could be

expected in the coming days. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly before the formal announcement.

Trump has been trying to make the case that he has fulfilled the promises he made four years ago as he campaigns for a second term.

US forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001. They invaded Iraq in 2003 and left in 2011 but returned in 2014 after the Islamic State group overran large parts of Iraq. In June, McKenzie announced that the number of US troops in Afghanistan had dropped to 8,600, the level that the US agreed to in a Feb-ruary peace with the Taleban that also calls on the US to withdraw entirely by next spring.

“In recognition of the great progress the Iraqi forces have made and in consultation and coordination with the government of Iraq and our coalition partners, the United States has decided to reduce our troop presence in Iraq from about 5,200 to 3,000 troops during the month of September,” McKenzie said dur-ing his Iraq visit, according to an excerpt of his remarks provided by his office.

McKenzie said the remaining US troops would continue advising and assisting Iraqi security forces as they attempt to root out remnants of the Islamic State group, some-times called ISIS.

Reserve covers deficit

By Saeed Mahmoud SalehArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: The presentation of Fi-nance Minister Barrak Al-Sheetan about the fi-nancial status of the country was the first item in the agenda of the National Assembly session on Tuesday.

However, State Minister of National Assembly and Services Affairs Mubarak Al-Harees requested for a closed door session during the presentation due to the confidential nature of the fig-ures included therein.

Consequently, Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim asked the MPs to vote on the request and this led to its approval.

After the closed door session, the Assembly discussed the fifth report of the Budgets and Final Accounts Committee on the bud-get of the State for fiscal 2020/2021 and its final account for fiscal 2018/2019.

Out of the 51 MPs and ministers present at the session, 32 voted in favor of the State budget while 19 voted against.

In addition, 27 MPs and ministers voted in favor of the final ac-count of the State while 19 voted against.

The Assembly approved the committee’s report and recommen-dations regarding the State budget and final account, and then re-ferred them to the government.

The committee’s report said that the actual budget deficit amount-ed to about KD 1 billion (US$ 3 billion) and is covered by the general reserve money.

Chairman of the committee MP Adnan Abdulsamad said the State budget for fiscal 2009/2010 was KD 11.250 billion, while that of fiscal 2020/2021 reached KD 21.5 billion. He pointed out this increase is within the normal range, but he finds it strange that the increase does not match the development of services. Instead, some services deteriorated despite the budget increase, he added.

He cited as an example the KD 160 million budget for the health insurance of retirees. He said this huge budget was supposed to result in the reduction of the Health Ministry’s expenditures, but the opposite happened as the expenses of the ministry increased.

He called on the government to adopt the program-performance strategy which has been proven to be successful in many countries.

He also affirmed support for the Kuwaitization policy, but it should be implemented according to a well-planned and integrated strategy that takes into consideration the conditions of expatriate workers; especially those who have been living with their families in Kuwait for several years as they need more time to make the necessary arrangements. He stressed the importance of preparing the required national workers before terminating the expatriates.

He urged the government to revise the structure of some insti-tutions that cost a lot without giving anything in return such as the National Council for Human Rights whose director receives a monthly salary of KD 5,000 and the lower ranking employees re-ceive an average of KD 3,000.

HarmfulMeanwhile, MP Abdullah Al-Romi emphasized the need for the

government to set a good example for the citizens in terms of ra-tionalization. He warned it is very harmful for the reputation of the government to announce that it will face problems in paying salaries within two months, while the Amiri Diwan unveils its plan to purchase two new airplanes.

He also underscored the need to restructure the distribution of national labor subsidy, such that those receiving high salaries are no longer entitled to the subsidy; in addition to reducing the number of messengers in ministries and public hospitals.

MP Khalil Abul suggested granting monthly allowance to citi-zens who are underemployed and let them stay at home rather than paying them salaries without doing real work.

MP Sa’adoun Hammad wondered about the difference between the oil extracting cost of $6 per barrel estimated by the Oil Ministry and the $12 per barrel estimate of the Finance Ministry.

MP Safa’a Al Hashem recommended a mechanism for the dis-tribution of subsidies in a way that only citizens with limited in-come are given subsidy. She argued it is unacceptable that a citi-zen whose annual income is KD 10 million is receiving subsidized foodstuff and construction materials.

She presented the idea of dividing the society into categories or classes in terms of salaries or income to serve as foundation of the tax system. She also asked the government to impose 100 fils road tax.

MP Osama Al-Shaheen stressed the importance of monitoring the budgets of some institutions. He regards these institutions as blind spots as they are outside the monitoring of the State Audit Bureau (SAB) or Financial Controllers Bureau (FCB). He cited the Amiri Diwan as an example, indicating the diwan’s budget is equal to that of one ministry. He clarified that he is referring to expendi-tures other than those allocated for His Highness the Amir.

He praised the decision of the Budgets and Final Accounts to name the five worst institutions in terms of administrative and fi-nancial performance, wondering why the Ministry of Electricity and Water occupied two places in two indexes.

MP Ahmed Al-Fadl asserted Minister of Finance Barrak Al-Sheetan has no answers to the MPs’ questions. He also quoted Al-Sheetan as saying that the debt of Kuwait will reach KD 40 billion in the next five years.

He added the senior officials at Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) are seizing the oil of Kuwait by manipulating the cost of oil extraction. He pointed out that every one dollar increase in produc-tion cost means $1 billion deduction from the annual revenues.

He appealed to HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled to bear his responsibility and lay down the general strategy of the government, asserting this stage requires a one man-show rather than distributing power to ministers.

Al-Ghanim adjourned the session until Thursday. Items in the agenda of Thursday’s session include voting on the no-confidence motions against Education and Higher Education Minister Dr Saud Al-Harbi and Interior Minister Anas Al-Saleh.

Also:KUWAIT CITY: Ambassador of the European Union (EU) to the State of Kuwait Cristian Tudor has hailed His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Ku-wait’s active humanitarian efforts worldwide.

“Under His Highness the Amir’s wise policy and guidance over the years, Kuwait has increased its support for multilateral humani-tarian action exponentially. In the last decade, Kuwait’s leadership and funding have saved tens of thousands of lives worldwide,” the EU envoy said in a press statement Wednesday on the occasion of the 6th anniversary of the UN recognition of the humanitarian leadership of His Highness the Amir.

“On this occasion, I would like to express sincere congratula-tions to HH the Amir, the Government and the people of Kuwait. Kuwait is a true center of humanitarian action,” he added.

He noted that the European Union is an active supporter and a reliable partner in Kuwait’s humanitarian efforts.

“Most notably, Kuwait and the EU have been supporting in-ternational humanitarian efforts to help communities affected by the Syria crisis: Kuwait hosted the fi rst pledging conferences for Syria and co-chaired ensuing pledging events with the EU, its Member States, the UN and other leading humanitarian actors,” he argued.

COVID cases rise by 838 ... 4 deathsKUWAIT CITY, Sept 9, (KUNA): Kuwait recorded 838 confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, raising the tally to 92,082, with four people having succumbed to the disease as the death toll reached 552, a health ministry official said on Wednesday.

The figures include people, who have come into contact with infected individuals, and oth-ers whose source of infection is currently being investigated, ministry spokesman Abdullah Al-Sanad told KUNA.

In terms of health zones, 202 cases were reported in Hawalli, 181 in Al-Ahmadi, 172 in Far-waniyah, 169 in the Capital and 114 in Jahra, added the of-ficial.

There are 89 people currently receiving intensive care for the virus out of a total 9,308 patients being hospitalised.

Photo by Claudia Farkas Al RashoudAaliyah Behbehani with one of the trash stands that she positions in front of chalets on the beach. A lone figure pulling a wagon of trash along the beach, Aaliyah has made people think about their role in keep-ing the environment clean since she started her one-woman campaign.

— Details Page 11 & 12 —

Photo by Iehab QurtalEditor-in-Chief of Al-Seyassah and Arab Times, Ah-mad Al-Jarallah received in his office the coordinator general of the ‘Group 80’ Adel Al-Zawawi during his

visit to the Press House.

Newswatch

KUWAIT CITY: His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received a phone call Tuesday evening from Saudi Crown Prince, Deputy Premier, and Minister of Defense Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, inquiring about the health of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

In his call, the Saudi Crown Prince also wished His Highness the Amir everlasting health and wellbeing.

For his part, His Highness the Deputy Amir thanked Prince Mohammad bin Salman for his call and sincere sentiments which embody the deeply-rooted and strong ties between the two Gulf nations. (KUNA)

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TEHRAN: Iran said Tuesday it is building a sophisticated new building near its underground Natanz nuclear site, state TV reported.

The report quoted Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the country’s nuclear department, as saying the new struc-ture is being built in the wake of a July explosion that damaged a build-ing that housed centrifuge machines.

“Regarding the evil action and sabotage that was carried out, it has been decided to establish a more modern, vaster and inclusive (build-ing) to be constructed in the heart of the mountains around Natanz,” Salehi was quoted as saying.

Last month, Iran said it found those who were involved in the al-leged sabotage but said details will be released later.

Natanz hosts the country’s main uranium enrichment facility. In its long underground halls, centrifuges rapidly spin uranium hexafl uoride gas to enrich uranium. (AP)

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KUWAIT CITY: Foreign Minister and Acting Minister of Defense Sheikh Dr Ahmed Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah led Kuwait’s

delegation at an Arab League ministerial meeting held remotely on Wednesday.

Under the directions of His High-ness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Kuwait has provided assistance worth $100 million for global efforts to tackle coronavirus, some of which will go to Arab states, he said.

Speaking to fellow ministers, he described the ongoing global pandemic a “tangible threat to the security and stability” of the world.

“Cooperation and coordination between our countries and the coun-tries of the world is necessary,” he maintained.

On the Middle East crisis, he stressed Kuwait’s “principled and steadfast position” in support of Palestinian legitimate rights and statehood, along 1967 borders and with a capital of East Jerusalem and its continued support for the United Nations agency, UNRWA, in its assistance of Palestinian refugees. (KUNA)

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KUWAIT CITY: Assistant Undersec-retary for Traffi c Affairs at the Inte-rior Ministry Major-General Jamal Al Sayegh has issued a circular to all General Traffi c Departments in all Governorates to activate the Law No. 67 for the year 1976, and executive regulations No. 81 for the year 1976 related to the renewal fees of the reg-istration book of the vehicles which states that fees for renewal of private vehicle is KD 5, heavy transport ve-hicles (bus) KD 15, private transport (mini bus) KD 10, private and public transport (pick up) KD 10, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

According to the circular, a copy of which has been obtained by the daily, the renewal of registration book for general transport of (cargo and animals) KD 20, renewal of tow trucks vehicles KD 10.

The circular noted that the fees for duplicate (in case of loss) or dam-aged driving license is KD 10.

Other Voices

Diwan in the hands of someone whowants to curtail the breath we take

By Ali Ahmed Al-BaghliFormer Minister of Oil

THE National Assembly passed the Law No. 47/2015, which was signed by His Highness the Amir (may Almighty Al-lah grant him quick recovery and healthy life), promulgating the National Diwan for Human Rights, or rather the National Office for Human Rights. However, the government delayed in appointing its board members until September 2018 via Decree No. 269/2018.

In my opinion, the establishment of this Diwan was not by the choice of our rational government; it was instead com-pelled to do so.

This is evident from the preamble of the decree to promulgate the Diwan, which was based on 11 international agreements to which Kuwait acceded. They entail the establishment of this enti-ty to be in charge of monitoring Kuwait’s implementation of the commitment and duties stipulated in these binding inter-national agreements, which Kuwait had accepted without reservations.

One of the most important items in those agreements is the UN General As-sembly’s Resolution No. 48/134 of 1993, which is known as “The Paris Principles”. It is related to the status and functioning of national institutions for the protection and promotion of human rights.

Article 2 of the law on establishment of the National Diwan for Human Rights stipulates that the Diwan must be inde-pendent and “supervised” by the Cabi-net. It did not say it is “affiliated” with the Cabinet, as the same Article stipulates that “The Diwan shall be headed by a per-son of status who enjoys independence in exercising duties, activities and author-ity”.

The law is clear in terms of its indepen-dence from the government. It was stated in the explanatory document that, “While the Diwan is considered as an official national body for human rights, it is not an administrative or governmental body in accordance with the prevailing legal concept. The best legal description of the Diwan is to consider it as a permanent na-tional body concerned with human rights and freedoms, as well as supporting, complementing and coordinating systems and efforts to enhance the protection of human rights at the national and interna-tional levels.”

Even though the Diwan was estab-lished in 2015 and its board members

were appointed in 2018, it has no head-quarters yet! No employees, or even iden-tity cards for its members.

The reason is that our rational govern-ment has entrusted the affairs of the Di-wan to someone who is described in Ku-wait as, “There is no one in this country except this child.”

Brother Anas Al-Saleh, who used to hold the position of the State Minister for Cabinet Affairs, has a large number of independent bodies and institutions un-der his portfolio that do not have anything

common between them such that they can be de-scribed as “Milk, fish and tamarind”. And our rational government re-cently gave him the portfolio of the Ministry of Health and its dilapidated chaos.

The honorable minister is witness-ing a ministry that

is on the verge of drowning. If not the drowning of the entire government, it is the drowning of the people in the ocean of corruption, financial scandals and by-election crimes, while the minister stood by as a spectator. Nevertheless, we do not intend to discuss the matters and topics in this regard today.

Our topic for today is about minister Al-Saleh’s appointment of members of the Diwan, a move that is two years over-due. He relied on dealing with this inde-pendent body, both internationally and locally, based on the consultation pro-vided to him by one of the advisors of the bodies and institutions affiliated to him.

In this Diwan, everything has to pass through this advisor. When the latter felt the minister wanted to put this indepen-dent Diwan under his arm, the advisor gave him the go-ahead.

The honorable minister does not want the officials in charge of the Diwan to complain about anything except after tak-ing his generous approval.

This is the reality on the ground in terms of this vital office. This is the situ-ation of our rational government that is entrusted with the lives and liberties of the people, including the very air they breathe.

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Email: ali-albaghli@hotmail.com

Al-Baghli

LOCALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

2

Photo by Mohammad Morsi

The Friday Market preparing to re-open its doors for the public.

Collage photo of the participants.

Move to address, contain Covid-19 pandemic

Dr Wattian participates inWHO e-training programKUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: The Director of the Central Department of Primary Health Care at the Ministry of Health, Dr Rehab Al-Wattian, participated in the World Health Organization (WHO) launch of the electron-ic training program for primary health care practices to address and contain the emerging Covid-19 pandemic, reports Al-Rai daily.

The World Health Organization an-nounced the offi cial launch of the program, in cooperation with the World Organization of Family Physicians, the United Nations agencies, the United Nations Population Fund, formerly known as the United Na-tions Fund for Population Activities (UNF-PA) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

The program includes an online training course on primary health care practices in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and aims to help ensure that primary health care is fully integrated into the strategies, pro-grams and policies of each country in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She explained this training course aims to support primary health care workers to maintain the continuity of providing basic services and to help fi ght the pandemic, as professionals who play an essential role in confronting the pandemic.

This training program aims in particular to support capabilities and sharpen skills to help maintain basic health services, pre-vent COVID-19, diagnose Covid-19 cases, and ensure referral, measures and treatment protocols for appropriate COVID-19 cases (mild and medium).

The training course consists of fi ve mod-ules and lasts for a total period of fi fteen training hours. At the end of the training, trainees will receive certifi cates from the World Health Organization equivalent to 15 training hours/medical education accredited by the American Continuing Medical Edu-cation Association.

This course has been designed in a way that allows it to be updated periodically in line with the latest guidelines and updated information

PAM puts fi nal touches for 20profession tests to hire expats

We aim to improve quality of workers coming to Kuwait: official

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: Deputy Director General for Planning and Admin-istrative Development at the Public Authority for Manpower, Iman Al-An-sari, announced that the fi nal touches were put on the application of compe-tency tests for 20 profes-sions for all expatriates coming into the country, and with tendency to con-duct tests at the external centers within those coun-tries where workers are mostly recruited from, re-ports Al-Rai daily.

Al-Ansari revealed this on the sidelines of an inspection cam-paign conducted at restaurants within the Sheikh Jaber Cultural Center, saying the campaign is to ensure the extent to which employers and expatriate work-ers abide by health rules and requirements set by concerned authorities.

She disclosed that 20 professions have been identifi ed so far for the tests, and they are concerned with people with special needs, in addition to professions that were previously re-served for engineers. She added that coronavirus crisis delayed the process of applying the tests, “but after the gradual return of life, we’ve put the fi nal touches to conduct the tests”.

TestsAl-Ansari stated that tests will

be gradually included in all sectors, “as we aim to improve the quality of workers coming to Kuwait in their skills and certifi cates, and we also train Kuwaitis, as we are keen on upgrading the Kuwaiti labor market for citizens or expatriates to become productive, and we will not reach this goal without productive hands”.

Regarding the possibility of con-ducting the tests externally, Al-An-sari said: “Testing procedures are currently carried out inside Kuwait, and if we succeed in the fi rst stage, we’ll look forward to conducting the tests in countries we are mostly at-tracted to.”

Regarding the tour, Al-Ansari indicated cooperation with the Min-istry of Health in the inspection of complexes, markets and retail stores, noting the general requirements of the Ministry of Health must be ful-fi lled with regard to continuous steri-lization and temperature measure-ments for visitors to those places.

Following up on the health re-quirements of the Council of Min-isters, it is done by monitoring and following up on the various estab-lishments, which include restaurants – commercial complex stores – coop-erative societies – hotels – foodstuff stores. She indicated the visit to res-taurants at the Sheikh Jaber Cultural Center aims to ensure that all health requirements are applied in order to preserve the health and safety of the customers of the restaurants.

She stated that “since June 30, nearly 35,000 sites have been in-spected among them cooperative so-cieties, restaurants, salons, clubs, and various wholesale and retail stores, while approximately 10,500 rounds were carried out by the PAM team, stressing that efforts are continu-

ing around the clock in cooperation with various parties to ensure that all establishments adhere to the require-ments of the Ministry of Health.

On the most important require-ments, she indicated keenness of the team towards applying the condition of spatial spacing, instructional fl oor stickers, and wearing masks, espe-cially workers in the restaurants, in addition to gloves for certain jobs that entails touching food, while ensure the provision of permanent sterilizers and high quality thermometer.

Head of the fi eld team for moni-toring the implementation of health requirements assigned by the Council of Ministers to the Public Authority for Manpower, Engineer Ali Safar said, “with the launch of the fourth phase, the end of the ban period and activation of the fi fth phase with ac-tivities such as men’s barbershops, restaurants, cafes, sewing shops, health and sports clubs, it’s expected that the risk of infection may increase at this stage.”

The team has doubled its efforts by following up the application of health

requirements, especially after updating some of the conditions as mentioned in the Ministry of Health’s decision, in-dicating the percentage of compliance with the requirements exceeds 80 per-cent, thanks to God. This indicates the level of awareness among employers and workers, although we are still fac-ing some violations.

Safar pointed to the most promi-nent violations as non-compliance with the wearing of masks by cus-tomers. She conveyed a message to all citizens and expatriates on the importance of adherence to caution, and cooperating to avoid an increase in infection rate.

Notifi cationHead of the Occupational Safety

Department at Mubarak Al-Kabeer Engineer Muhammad Al-Ajmi said the team has been conducting peri-odic tour of various commercial es-tablishments to spread awareness and ensure application of the health re-quirements. He stressed the need for private company owners and visitors to cooperate in overcoming the crisis

with minimal damage.Al-Ajmi said, “in the event of non-

compliance with health requirements, an offi cial notifi cation will be issued, and if it is repeated intentionally, oth-er procedures will be implemented to issue a violation in cooperation with other authorities. The shop could be closed”, noting “this is among rare procedures that make most business owners cultivate the habit of coop-erating and adhering to all require-ments.”

Head of labor inspection depart-ment in the Capital Governorate Ab-dulaziz Al-Ghannam affi rmed that the aim of the tours is to create aware-ness and guidance rather than issuing citations.

“In the event of violation, warning is issued the fi rst time and notifi cation given to avoid repetition of violation, before closure of the shop”.

He pointed out that the most prominent violations are the absence of sterilizers and prevention tools, besides crowding in some stores, in-dicating most of the facilities are co-operating to avoid violations.

KUNA photosHH the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince receives Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim (left), and HH the Prime Min-

ister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled.

Deputy Amir receives Parliament Speaker, PM

Deputy FM meets new Omani ambassador

His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah re-ceived at Bayan Palace Wednesday National As-

sembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim.He also received His Highness the Prime Minister

Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah. (KUNA)

Kuwait’s Deputy Foreign Minis-ter Khaled Al-Jarallah held talks Wednesday with Oman’s new Ambassador in Kuwait Dr Saleh bin Amer Al-Kharousi.

The two diplomats discussed bilateral relations, as well as re-gional and international issues, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The meeting was attended by Assistant Foreign Minis-ter for Deputy Foreign Minis-ter’s Offi ce Ayham Al-Omar. (KUNA)

KUNA photo

Deputy Foreign Minister Al-Jarallah receives the ambassador of Oman.

Bid to withstand power usage

MEW to fl oat three KD 19.479 mlnworth tenders to develop networkKUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: The Ministry of Electricity and Water will soon fl oat three tenders worth 19.479 million dinars to de-velop and modernize the power network to make it able to withstand the power con-sumption during peak hours in summer due to the high temperatures experienced by Kuwait and provide electricity for new development projects, reports Al-Rai daily reliable sources.

The same sources said MEW has obtained the approval of the Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT) to award the tenders to the best bidders who are fi nancially and techni-cally able to carry out the projects.

The tender documents, before they are fl oated, will be examined by the supervisory authorities, including the Audit Bureau.

The winning companies are expected to implement the projects as per the agreed contractual terms and clauses.

The sources pointed out that one of the most important tenders that have been ap-proved is the supply and installation of 400

voltage overhead power lines for the Bubi-yan Z main substation at a cost of 16.158 million dinars.

The sources indicated that this tender is very important to provide electricity to Bubiyan and the Mubarak Al-Kabeer port project site and is believed to be of the im-portant projects implemented by the Min-istry of Public Works currently, to develop and modernize maritime transport and cre-ate alternative sources of national income.

It stated that the other two tenders are concerned with supplying medium pressure aluminum cables at a cost of 2.205 million dinars and the other for repairing low pres-sure ground cables, extending and welding low pressure cables for new consumers in the Jahra governorate, at a cost of 1.116 mil-lion dinars, with the aim of providing and delivering electricity to consumers of new buildings in all regions of that governorate in addition to repairing faults that may occur to cables and the Ministry’s facilities spread in all regions.

LOCALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

3

A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION

DIWANIYA‘We pray for strong, brotherly relations to continue forever’

‘We’ll never forget brave stance of King Fahd in Kuwait liberation’“A FEW days ago, I read the text of the two telephone conversations that took place be-tween King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, may God have mercy on him, and with former US Pres-ident George Bush Sr, the fi rst of which took place on the evening of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, and the second two days later on August 4, 1990,” column-ist Mohammad Hilal Al-Khaldi wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“Any Kuwaiti who reads the text of those two telephone conversations will take the opportunity to thank God and have mercy, forgiveness and good reward for King Fahd bin Abdulaziz for his courageous stance and keenness to liberate Kuwait and restore its le-gitimacy at any price.

“King Fahd – may God have mercy on him – was keen to assure President Bush that the safety of the people of Kuwait, the return of its legitimate government and the liberation of all its lands is a top priority, and he insisted on President Bush to take what is necessary to remove the occupying Iraqi forces by force as soon as possible, and assured him of the Kingdom’s readiness to put all its efforts and capabilities to achieve this goal.

“President Bush asked King Fahd about the kingdom’s situation and told him that he was concerned about the kingdom’s security, and King Fahd was responding clearly to him that what is important now is the liberation of Kuwait, the protection of its people, and the return of its legitimate government.

“May God have mercy on King Fahd and reward him for his good action towards the State of Kuwait. We will never forget that brave stance that resulted in the liberation of our country, and we will never forget the gen-erous stand of our Saudi brothers who opened their homes and their hearts for us and stood with us in honor. We will never forget every-one who stood with us and supported us dur-ing such a diffi cult ordeal.

“I also read a large number of Kuwaiti dip-lomatic documents, and I mention the docu-ments related to Abdul Karim Qasim’s threats

to annex Kuwait in 1961, in addition to his at-tempts to impede its applications to join both the United Nations and the Arab League and also the courageous positions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had the most prominent role in overcoming this unjust crisis of this neigh-bor.

“For his part, the then monarch of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz, we pray to Almighty Allah to be-stow his mercy upon him, and in his response

to a letter sent to him by HH the late Amir Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem, we pray to Almighty Al-lah to bestow his mercy upon, said ‘the cable that was sent to us on Feb 28, 1961 in which you have referred to the statement that was issued by Briga-dier Abdulkareem Qas-sem, given the fact that his (Qassem’s) attitude, is strange indeed’.

“Meanwhile, King Saud added, ‘but for us, we support you through thick and thin and as such we shall be faithful towards what we had agreed upon. We are ready, to encounter every danger that may face the sisterly State of Kuwait’.

“He further added, ‘And in view to the bonds that link us with Kuwait in particular, I have issued the following statement’ and eve-rybody must be informed that Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represent a single country, as such, anything that may harm Ku-wait, will harm the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and anything that may harm the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will harm Kuwait’.

“Meanwhile, the late King Saud Ben Ab-dulaziz went on to say ‘I would like hereby to inform you of the above, hope that we shall cooperate to heal the rift which shall benefi t the foes of the Arabs only, let alone that this shall harm the Arabs themselves’.

“He added, ‘I hope to receive your right

opinion to prevent the harm that is directed against this sisterly country’.

“In conclusion, we pray to Almighty Allah to bestow his mercy upon the great leaders for their honorable attitudes. In the meantime, we pray to Almighty Allah to boost permanently the love, the fraternity and the good relations between the two sisterly countries and the two brotherly peoples of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the State of Kuwait.

“May God have mercy on these great lead-ers, and reward them with the best reward for their honorable stances, and we ask God to perpetuate love, brotherhood and good rela-tions between the two countries and the two brotherly peoples, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.”

Also:“In a video clipping, Sheikh Ibn Baz was

asked about the opinion on the position of Islamic countries towards the aggression against Muslims in Lebanon and Palestine and the killing and displacement of women, children and the elderly? Is this position consistent with Islamic Sharia,” columnist, former MP and former Minister of Justice Ahmed Baqer wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“However, for his part, Sheikh Ibn Baz, we pray to Almighty Allah to bestow his mercy upon him, ‘There is no doubt that it is the duty of the Islamic countries to support the truth and to help Muslims everywhere in Lebanon, in Palestine, in the Philippines, in Afghani-stan and elsewhere’.

“But the question here is, he went on to say, will they be in a position to do so as long as they are still in such a state of division? I think they can only through a consensus, true atti-tudes and cooperation, hinting that divisions and turning back on the Islamic Sharia (by most of them), represents is the big ordeal, because this behavior of them is the reason for this situation, hence we suggest, the Muslims deal truly with the Almighty Allah and sin-cerely remain committed to the Sharia, then he will become triumphant and support them against their enemiesand their solemnity will

be boosted before their enemy’. “Meanwhile, Sheikh Ibn Baz, said ‘if the

Muslims get their ranks truly unifi ed, then even the Americans and the Russians will give them their rights and they will not prac-tice any aggression on them’.

“‘But, he went on to say, ‘such a state of di-vision and ordeal currently facing them is the reason behind disdain shown against them by their foes, and this has resulted in them deal-ing unfairly with the Muslims.

“Such being the case, Sheikh Ibn Baz add-ed the Muslims are guilty for creating division and has helped tear apart their ranks. It is time they fear the Almighty Allah and strive sin-cerely to surmount divisions and boost mutual cooperation’.

“However, he added, ‘if had they abided by the above, they would have been rewarded by Almighty Allah, but the ordeal of the Mus-lims rest in the absence of their commitment to their dogmas, as many of them do not abide by the right dogma that keeps in line with the Sharia of Almighty Allah’.

“Anyway, the above, was the advice of Ibn Baz to all Islamic states all over the world and said it is the duty of Muslims to make the righteous victorious and assist the Muslims in Palestine as well as everywhere.

“But they will not be in a position to do so as long as they are suffering of a state of division and not abiding by the Almighty Allah Sharia, as such they are guilty, hence, they should unify their ranks, deal truly with each other, cooperate and abide by the Islamic Sharia in a bid for surmounting such a state of division which currently facing them.

“For me, I have gone carefully through the advice of Ibn Baz in question, and I found that this advice describes the current situation of the Muslims including the state of division and medial wars among them, as such we found how many of them had stated falling down and involved in unilateral peace treaties with the Jews, let alone the anti Islamic Sharia Western laws, have started invading them in their own homelands and these laws are at the

moment on the verge of changing their own social lifestyles as well as their deep-rooted conventions that were stabilized centuries ago.”

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“Who is defending the oil sector, which is facing more than 22 parliamentary investiga-tion sessions with more than 100 oil offi cials – from the CEO to the heads of the boards of directors of KPC and its subsidiaries – to bring us out of the investigation commit-tee with more than 90 recommendations for the oil sector?” columnist Kamel Al-Harami wrote for Al-Rai daily.

“How can workers in the sector follow their daily work and take the required safe deci-sions under the nightmare and shadow of par-liamentary committees and these committees’ recommendations that have entered or started to feed into their work?

“Why do they risk taking any decision in the fi rst place, even taking approvals from the youngest employee to the Supreme Council of Petroleum after obtaining ap-provals from the company’s board of direc-tors and the corporation’s board of directors with minutes and approvals attached therein – most of which are unanimous, written code and offi cial records – to obtain approvals from the Cabinet?

“In the end, the oil sector is left alone to face the Investigation Committee, Account-ing Bureau and Workers Union in the pres-ence of 50 people or more in some sessions without support.

“Yes, mistakes have occurred and could be tantamount to negligence. Violations have occurred, which are also possible among em-ployees of companies affi liated with an insti-tution that employs more than 30,000 people.

“Likewise, there are delays in projects, along with changing requirements and new data from the Ministry of Electricity by focus-ing on gas, instead of using oil from Al-Zour refi nery.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb

Al-Khaldi

Psychological support for virus-infected personsKUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: The Ministry of Health has formed teams tasked to provide psycho-logical support for those affected by the corona pandemic in order to address the psychological ef-fects of being infected with the virus, reports Al-Anba daily quoting sources from the health sector.

Sources disclosed the teams targeted several groups, includ-ing children and adolescents, to treat the psychological reper-cussions of the virus; as well as address the issues of dis-tance education, ability to en-joy studying through the screen and interaction of teachers with students.

Sources said the ministry has also prepared a plan to deal with

those in quarantine and others through a special telephone line to help them set the date for avail-ing psychological service and as-sess the need for their physical presence or direct inspection and guidance, in addition to provid-ing the service to doctors dealing with the pandemic.

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Subsidy hits KD12 m: The Min-istry of Commerce and Industry revealed that the amount spent for subsidizing food and con-struction materials in August reached KD12.1 million ($39 million), reports Al-Jarida dai-ly.

In a press statement Tuesday, the ministry said the amount spent on subsidizing foodstuffs

including basic commodities, milk and baby nutrients totaled KD8.9 million dinars (about $29 million); indicating the bulk of expenditures on subsidized items last month went to food products.

The ministry added the amount spent on subsidized milk and baby nutrients reached KD483,000 ($1.5 million); while that of construction ma-terials amounted to KD3.2 mil-lion ($10.4 million).

According to the ministry’s latest statistics, the number of ration card beneficiaries reg-istered in the Supply Depart-ment reached 2.1 million; while the number of ration cards is-sued by the ministry reached 241,000.

Ban on import of masks with valveKUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: The Medici-nal and Botanical Medicines Regis-tration and Control Department at the Ministry of Health issued a decision banning the import of masks with a valve, reports Al-Rai daily.

Based on the Infection Prevention and Sterilization Department’s state-ment, the abovementioned type of mask does not comply with the stand-ards for medical masks.

The Infection Prevention and Steri-lization Department announced that it does not recommend the use of masks

with a valve or one-way fi lter valve as a way to curb the spread of corona, be-cause this type of mask allows exhaled air to exit in order to give a feeling of comfort to the user without this air be-ing exposed to the fi lter.

The department pointed out this type of mask could provide protection from SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes covid-19, but it cannot prevent trans-mission of the virus from the wearer to others – meaning this mask may not be effective in terms of controlling the source of the virus.

PAM urges private sector companies todeposit Kuwaiti workers salary in banks

KD 75 mln provided as additional support to fi rmsKUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) has linked the disbursement of additional fi nancial support for the national personnel in private sector with their companies amid the commitment of those companies to trans-fer the employees’ dues into their accounts within 7 days; thus until the middle of this month, reports Al-Qabas daily.

A total of 4,530 companies benefi t from this support, and the sum

spent on additional support for Chapter Three over the past three months is approximately KD 75 million, according to what was revealed by Di-rector of the Public Relations and Media Department, the spokesperson of the authority, Aseel Al-Mazyad.

He further indicated the authority Monday called on companies benefi ting from the disbursement of additional support for the national manpower to abide by the decisions of government and deposit employees’ dues into their bank ac-counts before the 15th of this month, indicating it will stop disbursing support

KUNA photoDeputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah during the meeting with the Spanish ambassador to Kuwait Miguel

Moro Aguilar.

for the month of September, and consider what was dis-bursed to the companies for June, July and August debts in the event of non-compli-ance with the decisions and the deposit of salaries in the registered accounts no later than mid-September.

She pointed to serious co-ordination between the man-power authority, banks and fi nancial institutions to en-sure the requirements adhere to the additional fi nancial support for national person-nel, provided that the fourth batch of support is completed for the month of September as soon as the previous pay-ments for national personnel are confi rmed by the middle of the current month, while companies that fail to abide will be suspended.

Al-Mazyad explained that “last week, the authority de-posited the additional support for three months with the aim of preserving the gains of the national personnel in private sector to enhance their job security in return for com-mitment of those companies to pay their salaries in full and not to lay them off until June 2021.”

Meanwhile , Deputy Di-rector for National Labor Sector Affairs at the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) Sultan Al-Shaalani has unveiled a plan to sepa-rate the fi les of workers in businesses operating in co-operative societies from the main fi le of the cooperatives, reports Al-Jarida daily.

Speaking to the daily, Al-Shaalani disclosed a meeting was held recently at the head-quarters of the sector in the presence of representatives of the concerned institutions to discuss the separation mechanism.

He affi rmed all those present at the meeting wel-comed the idea and had no objection to completing the separation process.

He added another meeting was held Wednesday at the Ministry of Social Affairs, during which they tackled the mechanism for the sepa-ration of fi les and the need to lay down a vision for the necessary operational proce-dures.

LOCALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

4

Return of lockdown to destroyremaining economy: experts

Caution more effective, insists Dr Al-Jeraiwi

Acceptance restricted to Kuwaitis for years

Agenda for Tuesday’s regular session

Kuwaiti-Greek consortium winscase in Albania

End of contracts

ployee with an average disability.An individual catering for a person

with moderate or severe disability has the right to an end-of-service reward granted by government agencies, re-gardless of the number of years of ser-vice.

MoE in need of philosophy teachers

Panel for affairs of disabled personsrefers report to National Assembly

Minister Dr Al-Faris stopsemployees’ appointment

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: Public Educa-tion Sector has notifi ed the Undersecre-tary of the Ministry of Education, Faisal Al-Maqsid, of the need for male teachers in the fi eld of philosophy, for which ac-ceptance has been restricted to Kuwaitis for years, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The daily quoting informed sources revealed that Public Education Sector made the request through an offi cial let-ter to announce its need for male teach-ers who specialize in philosophy among the children of Kuwaiti women who are only graduates of Kuwait University, confi rming there are no applications for appointment from citizens at the present time.

He indicated Al-Maqsid is in the pro-cess of addressing the Assistant Under-secretary for Administrative Affairs Sector, Rajaa Bouaraki, to prepare the needed letter and to make an announce-ment as soon as possible - in preparation for conducting interviews and fi lling the shortage in some schools.

In a related context, Al-Maqsid asked the Director General of Public Author-ity for Applied Education and Training, Dr Ali Al-Mudhaf, to take the necessary measures toward reopening of physical education specialization for boys, upon its suspension since 2016, due to the

ministry’s need for urban expansion and the periodic increase in the number of schools in various educational stages at new residential areas.

On the other hand, Assistant Under-secretary for Public Education, Usama Al-Sultan, announced the activation of accounts for teachers working in the el-ementary and intermediate schools, and the basic team to enter the kindergarten stage, in addition to coordinators of prac-tical academic fi elds such as home eco-nomics, artistic education, music educa-tion and physical education for boys and girls, in addition to practical in commer-cial studies and libraries. This is in light of the training plan to prepare for the start of 2020-2021 academic year to qualify supervisory and educational institutions of all stages to use and employ the Mi-crosoft Teams application, and its sup-porting applications.

Al-Sultan affi rmed that the basic train-ing team for kindergartens will start on September 6, and it’s scheduled to con-tinue for a week in four schools from each educational region on application, in addition to training coordinators of prac-tical fi elds of study from each technical instruction, as well as male and female computer training teachers in two-stage elementary and intermediate schools.

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: The Committee for the Affairs of Persons with Disabili-ties has referred its report to the National Assembly as included on the agenda of the regular session scheduled to be held on Tuesday, Sept 15, regarding amend-ments to proposals on some provisions of Law No. 8/2010 regarding the rights of persons with disabilities, reports Al-Anba daily.

The amendments aim to oblige the government to provide counseling, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services to reduce the causes of disabil-ity before, during pregnancy and after childbirth.

The new addition obliges sending the necessary number of people for each type of disability to rehabilitate them abroad, especially in rare fields, to create specialized national cadres, in addition to obliging government to work to provide necessary support for the care of gifted persons with dis-abilities, provided that provisions of the law apply to Kuwaitis with dis-abilities, as well as the children of a Kuwaiti woman from a non-Kuwaiti father, within the limits of health care, education, and employment rights, and for a Kuwaiti mother catering for a child with disability from a non-Ku-waiti father.

The law compels government to make all necessary administrative and organi-zational arrangements to integrate per-sons with disabilities in various educa-tional stages, in a way that qualifi es them to integrate into society.

Also, it works to provide necessary support to take care of gifted persons with disabilities.

The law compels all offi cial authori-ties in the state to take necessary meas-ures to ensure the establishment of spe-cialized clubs and centers for sports, cultural and entertainment activities for people with disabilities in all governo-rates, provided that a sound person with disability chooses a person who cares for him, whether the husband, wife or rela-tives - up to the third degree.

The law grants an employee with dis-ability or employee who takes care of a person with disability a reduced working hours (two hours per day) with pay, and the same applies to male or female em-

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: Albania has been ordered to pay the construction consor-tium of the Tirana-Elbasan highway over $44 million in unpaid bills and taxes plus almost $1 million in court costs, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting https://exit.al

The decision was taken last week by the International Court of Arbitration of the In-ternational Chamber of Com-merce in Paris and was made public by the Dosja portal.

The Tirana-Elbasan high-way began construction in late 2012, fi nanced with a $220m loan from the Islamic Development Bank.

The builder was a Greek-Kuwaiti consortium consist-ing of Copri Construction En-terprises WLL of Kuwait and Actor SPA of Greece.

A dispute between the construction consortium and the Albanian Road Authority arose in 2015, when the build-er submitted two requests for payment of additional con-struction costs and extension of the construction deadline, respectively for Segment III (Tirana until the entrance of the tunnel) and Segment I (from the exit of tunnel to El-basan) of the highway.

The additional costs re-quired by the builder were ap-proximately $31.2 million for Segment I and approximately $14 million for Segment III.

Under the contract, these requirements were evaluated by the project’s independent engineer working for the the Lebanese company Spec-trum Engineering Consult-ants SARL, the respective amounts were $25.2 million and about $11.7 million.

The Albanian government did not agree with the evalu-ation of the independent en-gineer claiming a lower cost, but the builder also did not agree with the evaluation by insisting on the cost presented by him, Consequently the dis-puting parties resorted to the International Court after the failure of other arbitration solutions.

The consortium called on the Albanian government to pay the value of the construc-tion works in addition to the value-added tax (VAT), and the court approved it, and the ruling ordered Albania to pay about $44.3 million in ex-penses, in addition to value-added tax and $761,000 as expenses for the arbitration process.

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: Minister of Pub-lic Works and Minister of State for Hous-ing Affairs Dr Rana Al-Faris has stopped the appointment of employees – wheth-er the technical staff of the contrac-tor or the consultant – whose services or contracts have ended based on the strength of the projects implemented by the ministry, reports Al-Qabas daily.

Al-Faris said in a letter addressed to Undersecretary Eng Ismail Al-Failakawi: “Legal measures will be taken against anyone who violates this directive. It is necessary to ensure that the contractual requirements of the technical staff of the contractor and consultant are met in the ongoing projects of the ministry’s sec-tors in accordance with the contractual terms.”

She stressed the need to secure suf-fi cient labor to complete the required work, taking into account that the num-ber of the contractor’s workers men-tioned in the contract is the minimum number needed to implement the pro-ject.

She also emphasized the importance of ensuring that the number of supervi-sory personnel in advisory agreements is commensurate with the volume of work in the project sites. She said any job must not be allowed to start before the project kicks off, indicating the pro-ject engineers must request for disclo-sure of the distribution of manpower as per the activities stated in the contract schedule and this should be reviewed every three months.

She pointed out it is prohibited to request for the appointment of any in-dividual – whether the contractor or con-sultant in the projects – through the min-istry’s system. She added this is done through the administrative system once the contract engineer fulfi lls the condi-tions and requirements for fi lling up the position.

Photos by Rizq Taufi qTop and above: Municipal Council offi cials during the meeting on Tuesday, where

several important issues were discussed.

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: Several economists have rejected the demands made by some people for the return of the lock-down, stressing that it would mean the destruc-tion of what remains of the economy and elimina-tion of what remains of the commercial activities for small and medium-sized enterprises, reports Al-Anba daily.

In separate statements, the ex-perts affi rmed that the return of the lockdown would mean the launch of the “bullet of mercy” on the remaining economic ac-tivities that have suffered over the past six months from fi nancial losses, which may be diffi cult to compensate in the short term.

They highlighted that the cur-rent rate of victims infected with COVID-19 is still normal, and that the announced increase in the numbers did not come until after the increase in the number of swab tests conducted by the Ministry of Health, which means the numbers may rise as the number of daily swab tests increases.

The experts stressed the impor-tance of enhanced awareness and implementation of the Ministry of Health’s guidelines for wearing masks and maintaining social dis-tancing, instead of returning to the implementation of the lockdown measures, which will do more harm than good.

IncreaseIn this regard, economist Tariq

Al-Ateeqi affi rmed that he is against the idea of another lockdown, stress-ing that a noticeable increase in the number of infections is due to the increased number of swab tests car-ried out by the Ministry of Health, due to which the numbers that are announced on a daily basis may in-crease or decrease according to the number of swab tests conducted daily.

He explained that the talks about the return of the lockdown does not commensurate with the encouraging

results of the announcement con-cerning the availability of vaccines from different countries, especially since a number of countries in the world announced the launch of pro-duction of vaccines against COV-ID-19 alongside Russia, Britain, China and Japan. Also, the initial results of the Chinese and Japanese vaccines confi rmed their positivity at the global and local levels alike.

On the other hand, the world will not be able to bear another closure of the economy, especially after the great losses suffered by global economies as a result of the lock-down witnessed by the countries of the world, and the resulting fi nan-cial losses in many sectors. It starts with the retail business, tourism and travel sector and others of which the companies were forced to reduce the number of employees by terminat-ing a large segment of workers af-ter the closing of branches of many large companies.

It also led to bankruptcy of a good number of small and medium com-panies.

The return of the lockdown means launching the “bullet of mercy” on the remaining small and medium enterprises, especially since Kuwait was one of those countries in the world where activities stayed sus-pended the most after a long ban that extended for 161 days.

Al-Ateeqi said, “The best solu-tion for this matter lies in coexisting with this pandemic by following the instructions and health measures im-posed by the responsible authorities in the state. This includes wearing masks in public places, maintaining personal hygiene, following health safety procedures, and applying di-vergence procedures, until the plan for the return to normal life is com-

pleted”.Meanwhile, economist Dr Khaled

Al-Jeraiwi said the lockdown did not achieve any tangible results, as the daily rate of infections still revolve in the same ark both during and after the period of the lockdown, at between 500 and 700 cases.

He highlighted that the global re-ports published about the numbers of people infected with COVID-19 indi-cate that only about 20 percent of the infections are real, while the rest are only minor symptoms of the disease and do not pose any danger to people.

Dr Al-Jeraiwi indicated that many parties have exploited the COV-ID-19 pandemic for monopolizing products and achieving high profi ts in certain activities.

He said, “Those who monitor the commodity prices in Kuwait notice a signifi cant increase in the prices of goods, products and services. It be-gan since the emergence of the virus and continues to this day. Indeed, the prices of manpower services have also increased in an exagger-ated manner as a result of the conse-quences of this pandemic, which has affected all walks of life”.

Dr Al-Jeraiwi highlighted that Kuwait is currently on the threshold of the fi fth stage of the restoration plan announced by the Council of Ministers, due to which it is illogi-cal to return back to a previous stage of the plan before the completion of all stages and then evaluation of the fi nal situation, especially since the high level of awareness among citi-zens and residents in all facilities, institutions and complexes that have been reopened has been noticed.

He warned against rushing to make the decision to bring back the lockdown, as such a decision would threaten the economy and the inter-

ests of a large segment of activities that have suffered greatly over the course of six months as a result of the suspension of their activities and their fi nancial losses, which may be diffi cult to compensate in the short term.

Dr Al-Jeraiwi insisted that cau-tion is more effective than a lock-down at the current stage.

In addition, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Integrated Products & Services Company (IP-SCO) Eng Alaa Hassan affi rmed that the world experienced a com-plex situation of a special kind that particularly affected the economy and health sectors.

She explained that all countries of the world took their decision based on the fact that the health of citizens is more important than the movement of the economy, and thus resorted to a comprehensive lockdown. However, this led to the disastrous impact on the global eco-nomic movement and its economic and psychological consequences that are still prevalent until now.

ClosureThe world has not yet found a

solution to the COVID-19 crisis ex-cept for the closure, which resulted in almost total stoppage of the world economy as a whole. The global economy experienced a historical contraction due to the closure, and a new record of unemployment rate was recorded as more than 22 mil-lion people lost their jobs.

The social impacts of the COV-ID-19 crisis were seen at the house-hold level, while the global and lo-cal economy also became unable to tolerate the closure.

Eng. Hassan said, “The economic, psychological and social conditions can no longer bear the imposition of another lockdown, especially after the economy has lost a lot as a re-sult of the comprehensive lockdown. There is no reason for another lock-down, as many countries paid huge amounts for protecting the health of their citizens. Everyone is still paying the price of the previous comprehen-sive lockdown and its effects”.

She added, “I believe tightening the preventive measures, along with our cooperation and solidarity, is the right solution, not a lockdown or stopping the wheel of the economy because such a situation can never be tolerated”.

Tariq Al-Ateeqi Dr Khaled Al-Jeraiwi

LOCALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

5

Three Kuwaiti citizens jailed for beating, injuring Iranian protecting wife’s honor

Prosecution releases professor Wasmi on bail

MoI photoThe counterfeit ladies bags seized by the customs.

Customs seizes counterfeit goodsThe customs inspectors at the northern ports sector have seized various types of counter-feit goods which arrived packed in parcels, reports Al-Rai daily.

The daily said, the counterfeit goods in-cluded sets of clothes, fabrics, women’s bags, shoes and shirts.

The daily said the importers are charged

with violating intellectual property rights.The goods have been sent to the commit-

tee that is in charge of destroying counterfeit products.

By Jaber Al-HumoudAl-Seyassah Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: The Public Prosecution has released Dr Obaid Al-Wasmi, a professor of law at Kuwait Univer-sity, on bail of KD 1,000 following the completion of its investigations with him in a case fi led by the Amiri Diwan, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The Amiri Diwan had lodged a complaint, claiming that Al-Wasmi posted on his Twitter ac-count accusations without pro-viding evidence.

Representing Dr Al-Wasmi was Lawyer Adel Al-Abdulhadi who revealed that the interrogation with his client lasted for nearly four hours, during which he denied the accusation of insulting and slander-ing the Amiri Diwan, represented by its minister and employees.

Lawyer Al-Abdulhadi said Dr. Al-Wasmi highlighted during the investigation that he, as an academ-ic professor specialized in law, di-rected a criticism aimed at advising the Amiri Diwan against the back-ground of its undertaking projects that are primarily the concern of other ministries.

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Trio get 3-years jail: The Crimi-nal Court sentenced three Kuwaiti citizens to three-year imprisonment with hard labor after convicting them of assaulting an Iranian expa-triate by beating him and causing in-juries, which were described in the medical forensic report.

According to the case file, the victim had attempted to stop the three suspects from teasing his wife on the street, prompting one of the suspects to assault him and flee the scene. However, the sus-pect returned shortly with the other two and further assaulted him. The incident was captured by a CCTV camera.

Representing the victim was Lawyer Zayd Al-Khabbaz who said the trio assaulted his client with the intention of humiliating him and disregarding his dignity in front of his wife, causing emotional and physical pain, which is punishable in the eyes of the law.

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Inmate acquitted: The Court of Appeals upheld the verdict issued by the Court of First Instance which acquitted a Central Prison inmate who was accused of possession of narcotics with the intention to con-sume, and of smuggling narcotics inside the prison.

According to the case file, one of the prison wardens noticed the in-mate, who was already serving a life sentence in prison, waving as he was exiting the prison clinic and heading to his cell. This prompted the war-den to approach the inmate, and he noticed with him several sachets of what appeared to be narcotics.

Representing the inmate was Lawyer Enaam Haidar who said the testimony given by the warden fell short of any evidence, let alone the fact that there were no witnesses to confirm or rather collaborate his testimony.

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Jail in forgery overruled: The Court of Cassation upturned the verdict issued by a lower court, which sentenced a Kuwaiti citizen to five-year imprisonment with hard labor, and instead acquitted him of the charges of forgery of master’s degree certificate after it was es-tablished at the court that the man acted with clear conscience, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The Public Prosecution charged the defendant, who works as a Ju-nior Islamic Studies Researcher at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, with fraudulent collection of KD 7,166 as allowance for the fake master’s degree.

It stressed that the crime involved the use of forged official documents in the form of the evaluation of the certificate, which was purportedly done in connivance with some em-ployees who issued the “To Whom It May Concern” certificate to vali-date the degree.

However, the defense counsel Lawyer Abdul-Wahab Bin Salamah argued that his client is innocent of the allegation.

He said the defendant did not influ-ence the evaluation of his degree and did not discuss it with any of the em-ployees, adding that his client denied the allegation from the beginning of the interrogation until the end.

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Fine imposed: Lawyer Muham-mad Al-Ansari revealed that the Adminstrative Circuit of the Court of Appeals imposed a total fine of KD 10,000 on the Head of the Fatwa and Legislation Department Salah Al-Mis’ad at the rate of KD 500 for each of the 20 cases filed against him after he refused to produce reports on the recent appointment proce-dures in the department.

According to the case file, a Kuwaiti woman filed the lawsuit against the department after it re-fused to provide her with a reason as to why her application for the junior lawyer position was rejected. She highlighted that those less qualified than her were appointed in the same position, and that her grievances were ignored even though she met the conditions set in this regard.

The court appointed a team of ex-perts to look into the matter. How-ever, the department failed to pro-duce necessary documents in order

to determine whether the Kuwaiti woman’s application was rejected on rational legal grounds or not.

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Real estate fraud: The Criminal Court has adjourned to October 5 a case filed against the company belonging to a former MP and a merchant who were accused of col-lecting KD 188 million from 1,500 individuals. The case has been ad-journed because one of the defen-dants has been infected with CO-VID-19.

According to the case file, the sus-pects collected the aforementioned sum from 1,500 individuals by de-ceiving them about bogus real estate investments in Makkah and Madina in Saudi Arabia, as well as some chalets in Subbiah and Nuwaiseeb areas in Kuwait.

The plaintiff counsel affirmed that the country lost almost KD 14 mil-lion in form of tax payable to gov-ernment coffers.

KFSD photoMany cars damaged in the accident.

MoI photoBarrels of alcohol ready for sale.

8 bootleggers held in Mahboula liquor factory bustThe Ahmadi securitymen led by the Director-General of the Se-curity Directorate Major-General Saleh Matar and his deputy Brig-adier-General Walid Al-Shehab launched an extended campaign in Mahboula and raided three apartments in the area which had been turned into factories for manufacturing booze, reports Al-

Anba daily.During the raid the security

authorities seized a large quan-tity of liquor bottles ready for sale and the booze manufacturing equipment and arrested eight Nepalese.

According to a security source, the apartments were raided after the security authorities got con-

crete information about the illegal activity of the suspects.

The source indicated the eight bootleggers have been referred for interrogations following which they will be sent to the deporta-tion center.

The daily added the seizures were destroyed in coordination with the Kuwait Municipality.

3 hurt in 8-car collisionThe Public Relations and Information Department of the Directorate-General of the Fire Services Department (DGF-SD) reported that a collision occurred between a truck and 8 vehicles on the King Faisal Road, opposite Al-Siddiq area, in the direction of Kuwait City, re-

ports Al-Anba daily.The department said the accident

was dealt with by the Farwaniya Fire Center in coordination with the security authorities in which three people were injured.

Between atheism and religiosityBy Ahmad alsarraf

The experiences of dozens of coun-tries, especially those which are

religious, socialists and Communist, have proven that ideological extrem-ism cannot continue forever through which a good citizen can be created – a citizen who can be relied upon to run a country.

I m p o s i n g choice between absolute atheism or absolute religi-osity or social os-tracism has prov-en futile and often brings destructive results. We have seen how coun-tries that rejected flexibility have col-lapsed.

Consequently, it is necessary to leave the issues of religious beliefs to individuals. We have seen the negative repercussions of imposing totalitarian-ism by regimes in the erstwhile Soviet Union and Chinese camps, and others, and how their conditions changed for the better with their openness to the world and granting the citizens the freedom to live his/her life.

After four decades of totalitarian religious regime in Iran we notice how the situation has become clear.

The results of an opinion survey conducted by the GAMAAN In-stitute (The Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in IRAN) showed that about half of the Iranians have converted from their religion. Only 32% consider themselves ‘Shi-ite Muslims’. GAMAAN conducted this survey under the title ‘Iranians’ View of Religion’ – through ques-tions that could not be freely posed in the current Iranian environment due to the existing restrictions.

The aforementioned survey was conducted last June with the partici-pation of more than 50,000 people, 90% of whom live in Iran.

The survey results reflect the view of educated people over the age of 19, equivalent to 85% of the coun-try’s adults. GAMAAN considered the level of confidence in the results of this survey is high and can be gen-eralized to all Iranians, as the results show that 78% of Iranians believe in God, and only 26% believe in the appearance of the Mahdi, and this is one of the main beliefs of the Shiites.

The results also indicated 32% of the Iranians consider themselves ‘Shi-ite’ while 9% believe in atheism, about 22% not affiliated to any religious trend, six percent have changed their religion to another and about 60% have declared that they do not pray at all, which is largely true, according to the testimony of many observers.

The results of the survey showed 68% believe that the religious rulings should not be a criterion for legisla-tion even if religious people make up a majority in Parliament, and that the religious institutions should pay their costs themselves while 42% do not believe in religious propaganda.

A large portion also opposes the teaching of religious teachings and duties in schools to their children. The results of the survey showed that more than 73% oppose the “compul-sory” veil, knowing that 58% do not believe in the hijab at all.

Despite the continued ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol in Iran for forty years, all surveys indi-cate about 40% of Iranians consume alcoholic beverages, and another large portion has the same tendencies but are unable to obtain it.

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The GAMAAN is run by Ammar Maleki, Assistant Professor of Com-parative Politics, Tilburg Univer-sity, The Netherlands, and Pooyan Tamimi Arab who is assistant pro-fessor of Religious Studies at Utre-cht University, The Netherlands.

❑ ❑ ❑

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

Order ‘draconian’, ‘aimed to kill our businesses’

Delivery services union stages protest

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: The Union of Delivery Services held a sit-in along the corridors of the General Traffi c Depart-ment to protest against deci-sions that the union consider as “draconian” and “aimed to kill their businesses”, reports Al-Qabas daily.

In a letter addressed to the administration offi cials, the un-ion said limiting the number of delivery vehicles to a maximum of 15 cars and 15 motorcycles would seriously harm their businesses and the delivery sec-

tor in general which practice the activity of delivering orders by relying mainly on vehicles and motorcycles as a vital aspect of the services offered.

It highlighted that most of the businesses in the delivery sec-tor are operating as small enter-prises.

The union said the the third item in the circular, which awaits approval, stipulates that the delivery vehicles used should not exceed three years from the date of manufacture at the time of the licensing, and

that the vehicle’s age should not exceed fi ve years, indicating that this is contrary to a set of ministerial decisions issued in this regard.

The union demanded the number of cars and motorcy-cles be specifi ed as not less than 100 cars and motorcycles, provided that it increases in parallel to the number of com-pany branches and in line with the number of employees, in addition to setting the “shelf life” to ten years.

Other Voices

alsarraf

Probe team formed: Minister of Public Works and State Minister of Housing Dr Rana Al-Faris has formed a committee tasked to investigate the air conditioning and refrigeration contracts in Sabah Al-Ahmad schools, in response to the complaints of some residents in the area, reports Al-Jarida daily quoting sources from the housing sector.

Sources disclosed those residing near the schools expressed dissatisfaction over the noise generated by the air conditioning and refrigeration machines in the schools, which are equipped with chiller cooling systems.

Sources said the minister visited these schools last week to verify the com-plaints, which led to the formation of an investigation committee to look into the specifi cations of the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment and the reason for equipping schools with these systems compared to an alternative that is more suitable and with the same effi ciency.

Sources added Al-Faris contacted Minister of Education and Higher Educa-tion Dr Saud Al-Harbi who confi rmed that he did not receive any complaint; but stressed the need to address the issue in coordination with the concerned contrac-tor in the housing sector, not the Ministry of Education.

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Vote-buying operations: The Ministry of Interior raided a house in Al-Omariya, after it got a tip-off from unidentifi ed sources that the house was turned into a center for vote-buying operations for new candidates who are expected to contest the upcoming Nation-al Assembly elections from the Fourth Constituency, reports Al-Jarida daily.

The sources said the house was raided upon a warrant issued by the Prosecu-tion. According to security sources six women have been taken into custody and the raiding party seized 10 envelopes

KNG unveils plan

‘Ready for rains’

containing 300 dinars each.The securitymen also seized lists of

names of male and female voters from the district and a document said to be an ‘oath’ taken by some to vote for a particular candidate.

The source added the Ministry of Interior has detained all the women; the money and civil ID have been seized. The suspect candidate is also expected to be arrested.

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: Commander of the National Guards Colonel Bati Al-Jassem speaking of plans for the rainy season said the National Guard forces are ready to activate the ‘Rain Plan’ to protect Kuwaitis and expatriates and their properties which have been subject to dam-age in winter because of fl ooding in various areas, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

Colonel Bati said during a meet-ing of Management Support Op-erations Center and during his tour to the Guard forces on duty said the National Guard use modern equipments and mechanisms and is ready to face any emergency in the event of heavy rains lashing the country as support the Ministry of Health when the need arises as it was the case with the corona pan-demic.

Meanwhile , the Public Author-ity for Anti- Corruption (Nazaha) announced the breakdown of 29 charges in the 20 cases that it had earlier referred to the Public Pros-ecution, reports Al-Rai daily.

The authority said the charges are as follows: nine charges of wasting public money, fi ve charges of forgery, one bribery charge, one embezzlement charge, four charges of embezzling public money, and six charges of facilitating the appropria-tion of public money, one illicit gain charge and two charges of profi teer-ing.

News in Brief

Dr Al-Faris

MIDEASTARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

6

Israeli soldier’s plea deal infatal shooting faces scrutiny

Deal offers soldier 3 months of community service

Palestinians have rejected the deal

Israel, UAE to ink deal at White House next weekWASHINGTON, Sept 9, (AP): Is-rael and the United Arab Emirates will sign their historic deal normal-izing relations at a White House ceremony on Sept. 15, officials said Tuesday.

Senior delegations from the two countries will be led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of Abu Dhabi’s power-ful crown prince. U.S. officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on con-dition of anonymity, said the cer-emony would either be on the South Lawn, the Rose Garden or inside depending on weather.

Late Tuesday, Netanyahu tweeted he “was proud to leave for Wash-ington next week at the invitation of President Trump and to partici-pate in the historic ceremony at the White House” to sign the deal with the UAE.

The UAE’s state-run WAM news agency acknowledged Sheikh

Abdullah would lead the Emirati delegation to the signing. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s day-to-day ruler named in the joint announcement of the U.S.-brokered deal, apparently will not attend.

Sheikh Mohammed has not trav-eled to the U.S. since being named tangentially in special counsel Rob-ert Mueller’s report on President Donald Trump and Russian inter-ference in America’s 2016 election. His inclusion stemmed from his mysterious role in a 2017 meeting between a Trump associate and a Russian middleman for Vladimir Putin in the Seychelles.

The UAE-Israel ceremony will come just a month after the agree-ment to establish full diplomatic relations was announced on Aug. 13. The historic deal delivered a key foreign policy victory to Trump as he seeks reelection, and reflected a changing Middle East in which shared concerns about archenemy Iran have largely overtaken tradi-

tional Arab support for the Palestin-ians.

That announcement was followed by the first direct commercial flight between the countries and the estab-lishment of telephone links.

The UAE also announced the end of its boycott of Israel, which al-lows trade and commerce between the oil-rich Emirates and Israel, home to a thriving diamond trade, pharmaceutical companies and tech start-ups.

The Palestinians have rejected the deal as trading away one of the few cards they have in moribund peace talks with Israel to establish its own independent state - the Arab boycott of Israel. The UAE present-ed the agreement as taking Israel’s planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank off the table. But Netanyahu insisted the pause was “temporary.”

Abu Dhabi also hopes the deal will allow it to purchase advanced American weaponry, like the F-35 stealth fighter jet.

JERUSALEM, Sept 9, (AP): Ahmad Manasra was traveling home from a wedding when he spot-ted a family in distress on the side of a West Bank road. Moments later, the 22-year-old Palestinian was fatally shot while an-other Palestinian driver was seriously wounded – both by an Israeli soldier in a nearby watchtower.

The shootings are now the focus of a plea bargain offering the soldier three months of community service – a deal that has come under fi erce criticism from the victims and their families.

It also revived accusations by Pal-estinians and human rights workers that Israel’s military justice system is hopelessly biased and creates an atmosphere of impunity for soldiers suspected of violent crimes against Palestinians.

While the soldier has claimed he mistook the victims for attackers, and any indictment of a soldier is extremely rare, the proposed deal is now being reviewed by the Israeli Supreme Court.

“When it comes to clashes with the army or the police, it is very very rare that you will find a fair trial,” said Shlomo Lecker, an Israeli law-yer who filed the appeal to the high court on behalf of the Palestinian families. Even by what Lecker con-siders the military’s lenient stan-dards, “it will be hard to justify the sentence that the army is interested in,” he said.

The shootings took place on March 20, 2019 near the West Bank town of Bethlehem. At the time, Manasra and three others were in a car, heading home from a wed-ding. They spotted a parked car and a woman screaming for help on the side of the road.

The woman’s husband, Alaa Ghayadah, had pulled off the road after a traffic dispute with another driver. When Ghayadah got out of his car, a soldier in a nearby guard tower shot him in the stomach, ac-cording to witness testimony gath-ered by the Israeli rights group

B’Tselem.Manasra’s co-travelers took

Ghayadah in their car to a hospi-tal, while Manasra offered to drive Ghayadah’s wife and two young daughters behind them. When their car wouldn’t start, he got out of the vehicle and was shot himself, ac-cording to B’Tselem. He was pro-nounced dead at a hospital.

In a statement, the army, quoting from the indictment, said the sol-dier had opened fire after assuming Ghayadah was throwing stones at Israeli motorists. It said the soldier “wrongly assumed” Manasra was the same stone thrower and fired again. It also said forces had re-ceived a report about “the possibility of a terror attack in the area” shortly before the incident.

It said that in the Aug 17 plea bargain, the soldier was indicted for “causing death by negligence.” It said victims were represented in legal proceedings and the various parties “jointly petitioned” for a

sentence of “three months imprison-ment served through military work,” probation and a demotion to the rank of private.

“Complex evidentiary and legal considerations, significant opera-tional circumstances of the incident and the soldier’s willingness to take responsibility were all considered,” the army said. “In addition, the rights of the victims of the offense were preserved throughout the pro-ceedings.”

The victims strongly disputed the military account and said they never accepted the plea bargain. The mili-tary did not explain what appears to be a sharp discrepancy between its claims and the families’ view of the plea deal.

Wafa Manasra, Ahmad’s mother, called the deal “unjust.”

“The soldier killed my son in cold blood,” she said. “My son wasn’t going to carry out any attack. He was going to help others when he was killed.”

Ghadayeh, a former tile layer, said he can no longer work because of the severe damage to his stomach. He said he tried to work as a taxi driver but that also was too grueling on his body. “If the soldier was sen-tenced to life in prison, that won’t be enough for me,” he said.

Critics say potentially criminal shootings of Palestinians rarely re-sult in convictions or even indict-ments.

B’Tselem, Israel’s leading hu-man rights group, grew so frustrated with the military justice system that in 2016 it halted its decades-long practice of assisting military inves-tigations.

According to the group, the plea bargain results from the first indict-ment in the death of a Palestinian in the West Bank since a landmark 2016 case in which a soldier was caught on video shooting and kill-ing a badly wounded Palestinian at-tacker in the head who was lying on the ground.

In this Aug 22, 2020 fi le photo, tribesmen loyal to Houthi rebels raise their weapons as they chant slogans during a gathering against the agreement to establish dip-lomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates in Sanaa, Yemen. UN-backed experts have found evidence that rebels in Yemen recruited nearly three dozen teenage girls as spies, medics, guards and members of an all-female force.

(AP)

GENEVA, Sept 9, (AP): UN-backed experts have found evidence that rebels in Yemen recruited nearly three dozen teenage girls – some said to be survivors of sexual violence – as spies, medics, guards and members of an all-female force, according to a report re-leased Wednesday.

The fi ndings came in the third and latest report by the “group of eminent experts” commissioned by the Human Rights Council to investigate alleged rights violations by all sides in the war since September 2014. The devastating confl ict in the Arab world’s poor-est country has spawned what the United Na-tions calls the world’s greatest humanitarian crisis.

“The parties to the confl ict continue to show no regard for international law or the lives, dignity, and rights of the people of Yemen, while third states have helped per-petuate the confl ict by continuing to supply the parties with weapons,” said the report.

The report, based on more than 400 ac-counts and focusing mainly on a period from July 2019 to June this year, highlighted how a generation of Yemen’s children have been “immeasurably damaged through child re-cruitment, abuse, and deprivation of their most basic human rights, including educa-tion.” Overall, the group documented 259 cases of children who had been recruited and used in hostilities by several sides. It said the Iran-backed rebels, known as Houthis, recruited boys as young as 7 years old from schools, poor urban areas and detention cent-ers through monetary incentives, abduction, recruitment by peers and indoctrination.

“The group also received credible reports regarding Houthis recruitment of 34 girls

(ages 13-17), between June 2015 and June 2020, for use as spies, recruiters of other children, guards, medics, and members of the Zainabiyat,” the report said, referring to the female force created by the rebels – an unusual phenomenon in an ultra-conservative society such as Yemen.

“Twelve of these girls allegedly survived sexual violence and/or a forced and early marriage directly linked to their recruitment,” the report said.

For a second year in a row, the three UN-backed experts were denied access to Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition, which is allied with the internationally recognized Yemeni government. The rejection came despite re-peated requests, said the report, which is to be considered by the 47-member-state rights council that starts its autumn session next Monday.

Overall, the experts insisted, there are “no clean hands” in the confl ict, which has involved rights abuses and violations, includ-ing arbitrary killings and detention, rape and sexual violence, torture and other “cruel, in-human or degrading treatment” – all possibly involving war crimes.

The experts also faulted the Saudi-led coalition airstrikes, saying the coalition has failed to do enough to avoid civilian casual-ties at times.

“Yemen remains a tortured land, with its people ravaged in ways that should shock the conscience of humanity,” said Kamel Jen-doubi, who chairs the expert panel. “The in-ternational community has a responsibility to put an end to this pandemic of impunity, and should not turn a blind eye to the gross viola-tions that have been committed in Yemen.”

Report based on more than 400 accounts

New UN report says rebels inYemen recruited teenage girls

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s confi rmed coro-navirus cases climbed by 775 as related deaths rose by 28 over the past day, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

The death toll now stands at 4,165 as confi rmed cases hit 323,012, according to ministry data, which showed the number of recoveries having risen by 720 to 298,966. (KUNA)

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DOHA: Qatar’s health ministry said its coronavirus case tally on Wednesday reached 120,846 after 267 people were confi rmed as testing positive in the last day.

The number of recoveries in the Gulf state stands at 117,746 after 249 more people were cured, according to a ministry statement. (KUNA)

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MANAMA: Bahrain said confi rmed coro-navirus cases rose by 661, according to the health ministry on Tuesday.

Some 294 new recoveries were also reported for a total of 51,240, as compared to 4,634 currently active cases, a statement read. (KUNA)

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DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday coronavirus cases increased by 883 to 75,981.

Two fatalities were registered as the death toll rose to 393, state news agency, WAM, quoted health authorities as saying.

Meanwhile, some 416 people were cured from the virus, raising the total recoveries to 67,359. (KUNA)

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CAIRO: The Egyptian Ministry of Health said Tuesday that 187 people tested posi-tive for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), while 19 others died due to the disease over the past 24 hours.

The latest fi gures took the overall infections up to 100,228 and the death toll to 5,560, the ministry’s spokesman Dr. Khaled Mujahed said in a press statement.

The number of treated virus patients edged up by 878 to 79,886, he added. (KUNA)

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BAGHDAD: Iraq’s coronavirus deaths increased by 68 as the total confi rmed cases rose by 4,894, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

This brings the caseload across all provinces, including Kurdistan, to 269,578 and the death toll to 7,657.

On the other hand, a total 206,324 people have been cured of the virus based on health ministry fi gures. (KUNA)

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AMMAN: Jordan relaunched commercial fl ights to destinations in 40 countries as au-thorities reported a further 103 confi rmed coronavirus cases and two virus-induced deaths on Tuesday.

The caseload now stands at 2,581, ac-cording to the government. A full curfew continues to be implemented in two provinces, including the capital Amman, with other areas facing late night curfews. (KUNA)

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MUSCAT: Omani health authorities con-fi rmed on Tuesday 262 new positive cases of coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the total number of cases to 87,590.

According to Oman’s News Agency, 82,973 people out of the 87,590 recovered from the virus.

Death toll from the virus reached 742. (KUNA)

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ANKARA: Turkey on Tuesday reported 1,761 new cases of the novel coronavirus and more than 1,000 recoveries.

Turkey’s news agency (Anadolu) quoted Health Minister Fahrettin Koca as saying the country’s overall infection count reached 283,270, according to the Health Ministry data.

The data showed that 1,093 more patients had recovered over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 253,245.

The virus-linked death toll in the coun-try, meanwhile, rose to 6,782 as 52 more people succumbed to the disease.

A total of 110,565 more COVID-19 tests were conducted over the past day, pushing the total up to over 7.99 million. (KUNA)

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ADEN: The Yemeni health authorities, on Tuesday, reported three fatalities from coronavirus in Hadthramout and Shabuwa provinces east of the country, bringing the death toll to 576 cases.

In a statement, the higher national committee to fi ght COVID-19 said that the infections surged to 1,994 cases after confi rming fi ve new cases.

Up to 1,203 people recovered from the virus after reporting two recovery cases in the last 24 hours. (KUNA)

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TUNIS: The Tunisian Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday 293 new coronavirus (Covid-19) cases, to push total infections to 5,417.

The pandemic death toll reached 96, while 1,862 cases recovered, the Ministry added. Since opening the borders back in June 27, up to 4,216 new cases were regis-tered, including 587 expatriates, as well as 46 deaths, it said.

A total of 86 cases are receiving medi-cal care in hospitals, among them 26 in Intensive Care Units. (KUNA)

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RAMALLAH: Palestinian health authori-ties said on Wednesday confi rmed daily coronavirus cases increased by 696 with 767 people having recovered from the disease.

This brings the caseload across the Palestinian territories to 36,214 as the virus-induced death toll increased by two to 217, the health ministry said in a state-ment. (KUNA)

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DAMASCUS: The number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Syria increased to 3,229 with 58 new infections reported, said a media source Tuesday.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said that the authorities an-nounced 14 cases of recovery, which puts the number at 744. (KUNA)

News in Brief

INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

7

President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on Sept 8, in Winston-Salem, NC. (AP)

England bans gatherings of more than sixLONDON, Sept 9, (AP): Britain’s gov-ernment is banning gatherings of more than six people in England, as offi cials try to keep a lid on daily new coronavi-rus infections after a sharp spike across the U.K. that has been largely blamed on party-going young adults disregard-ing social distancing rules.

Downing Street said urgent action was needed after the number of daily laboratory-confi rmed positive cases hit nearly 3,000 on Sunday. The fi gure

dipped Tuesday to 2,460.Offi cials said that starting Monday,

the legal limit on all social gatherings in England will be reduced from the current 30 people to six. The new law applies both indoors and outdoors, in-cluding private homes, restaurants and parks. Failure to comply could result in a 100-pound ($130) fi ne.

Weddings, school, funerals and or-ganized team sports are exempt, and larger gatherings will also be allowed

if the household or “support bubble” is larger than six.

Government ministers and scientists took to the airways to urge Britons not to let down their guard.

“We’ve been able to relax a bit over the summer ... but these latest fi gures really show us that much as people might like to say ‘Oh well, it’s gone away’ - this hasn’t gone away,” said Dr. Jonathan Van-Tam, the govern-ment’s deputy chief medical offi cer.

Europe

Virus hits coalition talks: A key ne-gotiator trying to cobble together a Belgian coalition government has tested positive for COVID-19, co-negotiator Conner Rous-seau said Wednesday, dampening hopes that one of the country’s longest political impasses could be broken soon

Dutch-speaking Liberal Egbert Lachaert has the coronavirus, forcing key politicians from six other center-left and center-right parties to resort to video conferencing as they try to hammer out a government pro-gram. Later Wednesday, Rousseau said the other six party leaders tested negative.

Rousseau said in a Tweet that everyone “is sticking to the quarantine rules while we work at a distance to fi nd solutions for our country.” He added there will be no formal physical meetings ahead of Sept 18.

Belgium currently has a minority government led by Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes, which has wide backing from opposition parties as its core program is limited to battling the pandemic. (AP)

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Press watchdog slammed: Germany’s top security offi cial criticized the country’s independent press watchdog Wednesday for ruling that a left-wing newspaper’s column disparaging the police was covered by freedom of speech.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said in a statement that the verdict was “intolerable” because it played down what he considered libelous comments about the police.

The German Press Council ruled Tues-day that the column in the Tageszeitung daily, headlined “All cops are unfi t for work,” had addressed structural problems within the police force, such as far-right extremism, violence and racism, in a satiri-cal way.

The columnist had suggested that police offi cers would be better off working on garbage dumps. (AP)

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Pope uses mask, sanitizer: Pope Francis wore a face mask and used hand sanitizer Wednesday as he appealed for the faithful to look out for the health of others as well as themselves during the coronavi-rus pandemic.

Francis took off the mask as his car pulled into the San Damaso courtyard inside the Apostolic Palace, where last week he resumed his weekly public audi-ences after a nearly six-month COVID-19 shutdown.

While chairs were spaced out in the courtyard, the limited crowd massed along

the barriers as Francis passed by and some lowered their masks to call out to him. The 83-year-old pope, who lost part of one lung to illness when he was young, loves plunging into crowds but tried to keep his distance and urged the crowd to stick to their seats to avoid contagion.

An aide squirted some hand sanitizer in Francis’ hands after he greeted the well-wishers and before he approached his cleric translators on the podium. It was the fi rst time the pope has been seen in public wearing a mask and using hand sanitizer.

During his remarks, Francis lamented that “partisan interests” were emerging in which some nations and groups are seek-ing to keep vaccines for themselves, or to further their own political or economic interests.

“The coronavirus is showing us that each person’s true good is a common good and, vice versa, the common good is a true good for the person,” he said. “Health, in addition to being an individual good, is also a public good. A healthy society is one that takes care of everyone’s health.”

Francis is expected to elaborate on the need for the world to seek out the common good after the pandemic in an upcoming encyclical that he will sign next month dur-ing a private visit to Assisi, birthplace of his namesake, St Francis. (AP)

Pope Francis

America

Bid to woo Roman Catholic voters

GOP trying to portrayHarris as anti-CatholicWASHINGTON, Sept 9, (AP): Soon after Joe Biden tapped Ka-mala Harris as his running mate, some conservatives began trying to portray her as anti-Catholic – a line of attack that President Don-ald Trump’s campaign continues to amplify as Democrats court R o m a n C a t h o l i c voters.

T h e c h a r g e stems in part from ques-tions Har-ris posed in 2018 to a federal ju-dicial nomi-nee about his membership in the Knights of Columbus, a lay Catholic fra-ternal organization. Harris asked the nominee if he agreed with the anti-abortion views of the group’s leader, views that broadly align with the church’s stance.

ReligiousIt infl amed Republicans at the

time, with one senator authoring a resolution to affi rm the con-stitutional ban on religious tests for federal offi cials and state that membership in the Catholic group is not “disqualifying.” Now that Harris is Biden’s running mate, conservatives are replaying the moment to try to chip at the pro-abortion-rights Democratic tick-et’s appeals to religious voters.

As Biden’s campaign launched its Catholic voter outreach effort last week, the Trump campaign blasted Harris’ questioning as “anti-Catholic bigotry” and said the Democrats’ stance on abortion “clashes strongly with Catholic pro-life beliefs.” It used similar lan-guage to refer to Harris alongside an online ad it rolled out last month.

The criticism of Harris, who attends a progressive Black Bap-tist church – and by extension, criticism of Biden – is a sign that Republicans see his leftward shift on abortion as a vulnerability with some devout swing voters who might otherwise be lukewarm on Trump, particularly Catholics and evangelicals. It also plays upon the fact that Harris’ approach to religious outreach is less fully formed than that of Biden, whose lifelong Catholic faith is a touch-stone of his political identity.

“We hope that Biden and Ka-mala Harris talk a lot about these issues,” said Richard Mouw, president emeritus at Fuller Theo-logical Seminary, who signed a July letter from Christian leaders urging Democrats to take a friend-lier stance toward abortion critics. “Because even though some of us disagree about Biden’s poli-cies related to these positions, we think he understands us.”

Mouw praised Harris’ selec-tion, adding that he hopes to see signals from her that she’s ready

to “keep talking” and “keep lis-tening” to evangelicals and con-servative Catholics disillusioned with Trump.

The attacks on Harris also play on a broader question being raised by some Christian voters, not all of them conservatives, about how strongly Biden would push to end longstanding limits on federal funding of abortion. Biden came out against those limits last year during the early months of his campaign, after years of support-ing them.

Chris Crawford, a Catholic anti-abortion advocate who vot-ed for Hillary Clinton in 2016, tweeted recently that while GOP attacks on Biden’s faith are un-likely to gain traction, “the attack that he won’t govern in line with (his faith’s) values has a chance of sticking.”

Crawford urged Biden to “fi nd common ground on abortion that separates him from his party’s ex-treme stance.”

Stephen Schneck, a self-de-scribed “pro-life Catholic” and member of the Catholics for Biden group that kicked off last week, said he is “hopeful” for action from the Democrats on “common-ground initiatives on areas related to prenatal health and women’s health and care for young children.”

Harris’ questioning of the judi-cial nominee was largely in line with standard practice for vetting nominations, Schneck said.

StudiesNatalia Imperatori-Lee, a reli-

gious studies professor at Man-hattan College, said the Biden campaign can also make a case to Catholic voters that goes beyond the debate over abortion’s legal-ity. In 2017 the number of US abortions fell to its lowest level since the 1973 Roe v. Wade deci-sion, a trend attributable in part to broader availability of contracep-tion under the Affordable Care Act passed during the Obama ad-ministration.

“A lot of Catholics share the goal of wanting to see lower fu-ture abortions, and fewer of them think the road to that is repeal of Roe,” Imperatori-Lee said.

She added that political debate about “center-right Catholics” can often omit that they are largely white, while Latino and Black Catholics lean distinctly leftward. Indeed, Harris’ presence on the ticket could pay off with Black Catholics, less-conservative Catholic women and other Catho-lic voters more aligned with her policy proposals.

One sign of Harris’ potential to appeal to those Catholic voting blocs came last month when Cath-olic News Service quoted a Black staffer at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops describing her-self as “so elated” by Biden’s choice of running mate.

Harris

Walmart testing drones for deliveries Airbus gets 1 order

Walmart launched a pilot program Wednesday using drones to deliver groceries and household essentials in a North Carolina city. The retail giant is using drones from Flytrex in Fay-etteville, where it says it hopes to gain insight into customers’ and its work-ers’ experience with the technology.

Tom Ward, senior vice president of customer products at Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart, acknowl-edged that it will be a while before drones are widely used for package

deliveries.“That still feels like a bit of science

fi ction, but we’re at a point where we’re learning more and more about the technology that is available and how we can use it to make our cus-tomers’ lives easier,” Ward wrote in a corporate blog.

Last week, Amazon won regula-tory approval to deliver packages by drone, but the company said it was still testing the self-piloting aircraft (AP)

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to nega-tively impact the global economy and wreak havoc on travel and the aviation industry, Eu-ropean aircraft-maker Airbus announced that it had received only one order for a plane during August.

The latest data follows a similar pattern in July when Airbus orders were in single digits, when the company reported only four orders.

In 2020, Airbus said that it had net orders of 303 planes as of end-August, taking into account cancellations, largely because of the coronavirus crisis. (KUNA)

Market Movements 09-09-2020

Business Change Closing ptsEUROPE - Euro Stoxx 50 +57.46 3,324.83GERMANY - DAX +268.88 13,237.21FRANCE - CAC 40 +69.46 5,042.98PAKISTAN - KSE 100 +37.06 42,022.25

Change Closing ptsAUSTRALIA - All Ordinaries -131.34 6,058.90CHINA - Shanghai SE -61.79 3,254.63INDIA - Sensex -171.43 38,193.92JAPAN - Nikkei -241.59 23,032.54PHILIPPINES - PSEi -101.19 5,932.84S. KOREA - KRX 100 -54.54 5,058.33

This file photo shows the entrance to a

Walmart in Pittsburgh. (AP)

New flaw compounding company’s struggle to recover

Boeing finds new problem with 787 that will delay deliveriesSEATTLE, Sept 9, (AP): Boeing has recorded its fi rst orders of the year for the grounded 737 Max, but a new fl aw has surfaced in another of its planes, compounding the company’s struggle to recover during a pandemic that has un-dercut demand for new jetliners. Boeing said Tuesday it is inspecting part of the tail of the two-aisle 787 after fi nding that pieces were clamped together too tightly, which could lead to premature fatigue of a part called the horizontal stabilizer.

The company said it believes the problem affects 893 of the nearly 1,000 787s that have been built. Boe-ing expects the inspections of recently fi nished planes to affect the timing of 787 deliveries in the near term, spokes-man Peter Pedraza said in a statement.

The Federal Aviation Administra-tion said it is investigating the matter.

“It is too early to speculate about the nature or extent of any proposed Airworthiness Directives that might arise from the agency’s investigation,” said the spokesman, Lynn Lunsford, referring to potential safety orders that could be imposed on Boeing.

Boeing disclosed last month that it found two other manufacturing fl aws in the 787, which Boeing calls the Dream-liner and is built largely of carbon com-posite materials. The company grounded eight planes because of those issues.

The company said Tuesday that during production of the tail horizontal stabiliz-ers at a Boeing plant in Salt Lake City, some parts were clamped together with too much force, resulting in improper gaps between sections. Boeing doesn’t believe it is an immediate safety issue but could lead to premature aging of the parts, and it is delaying some 787 deliveries while de-termining whether repairs are needed on planes that have already been delivered.

The Chicago-based company, which builds planes in Washington state and South Carolina, said it delivered 13 air-liners last month, including four 787s.

It is a popular plane among airlines for international routes. Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr expected Boeing to deliver 13 787s. He said airlines are pushing back deliveries because inter-national travel is so depressed.

Boeing’s slow pace of deliveries since early 2019, when the Max was grounded, has robbed the company of much-needed cash.

Amid the bad news around the 787, Boeing reported Tuesday that it received orders for fi ve Max jets in August, two by Polish charter airline Enter Air and three by a buyer that Boeing did not identify. It also report-ed selling three 777 cargo freighters.

However, cancellations continue to outpace new orders, and Boeing has re-moved other sales from its backlog be-cause the fi nancial health of the airline customer makes the orders uncertain.

So far this year, Boeing has lost 932 more orders than it has gained. The pandemic has undermined air travel, leading to fewer fl ights and leaving airlines with no need for new planes.

Boeing is still working with US and foreign regulators to clear the Max for return to fl ying after two deadly crashes. Nearly 400 Max jets were in use when the fl eet was grounded worldwide in March 2019 after crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia killed 346 people. The Max was Boeing’s best-selling plane.

Boeing dispatched a Max to Van-couver on Tuesday for fl ight tests this week with European regulators. The company has already conducted several test fl ights with FAA experts to demonstrate changes that Boeing made to computers and software after an automated system pushed down the noses of planes before they crashed.

In this file photo, a Boeing 787 airplane being built for Norwegian Air Shuttle is shown at Boeing Co’s assembly facility, in Everett, Wash. Boeing is dealing with a new production problem involv-ing its 787 jet, in which inspections have found flaws in the way that sections of the rear of the plane were joined together. Boeing said on Sept 8, 2020, it’s not an immediate safety risk but could

cause the planes to age prematurely. (AP)

US consumer borrowing followsJune gain with 3.6% rise in July

Economist expects modest rebound in credit card category

WASHINGTON, Sept 9, (AP): U.S. consumer bor-rowing rose by a solid 3.6% in July, the second monthly gain after the coronavrius pandemic had sent bor-rowing down sharply in the previous three months.

The Federal Reserve reported Tuesday that the 3.6% increase in July, which represented a $12.2 billion advance, followed a 3.3% rise in June and sharp declines in March, April and May.

The strength in July came from a $12.5 billion rise in the category that includes auto loans and student loans. The category that covers credit cards fell by $293 million, the fifth straight month that the credit card category has declined.

Nancy Vanden Houten, senior econo-mist at Oxford Economics, said she ex-pects a modest rebound in the credit card category in coming months. But she said, “a slow recovery in consumer spending and tight lending standards will limit the upside” for credit card gains.

Consumer borrowing is closely watched for signals it can send about consumers’ willingness to take on more debt to support their spending. Consumer spending accounts for 70% of U.S. economic activity.

The overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, plunged at a record-breaking annual rate of 31.7% in the April-June quarter as the coronavirus shut down wide swaths of the U.S. economy, closing businesses and pushing millions out of work. Consumer spending fell at a record rate of 34.1% in the second quarter.

The economy has shown signs of a rebound in recent months and many economists believe the GDP will rise at an annual rate of 25% or better in the current July-September quarter.

However, there are concerns that this gain, which will not be enough to make up for the output that was lost in the first and second quarters, could falter in the final months of this year if there is another resurgence in coro-navirus cases which force further shut-

What slowdown?

Amazon seeks to hire 33,000 peopleNEW YORK, Sept 9, (AP): Amazon is on a hiring spree.

In the latest sign of how it’s pros-pering while others are faltering during the pandemic, Amazon said Wednes-day it is seeking to bring aboard 33,000 people for corporate and tech roles in the next few months.

It’s the largest number of job open-ings it’s had at one time, and the Se-attle-based online behemoth said the hiring is not related to the jobs it typi-cally offers ahead of the busy holiday shopping season.

Amazon can afford to grow its workforce: It is one of the few compa-nies that has thrived during the corona-virus outbreak. People have turned to it to order groceries, supplies and other items online, helping the company bring in record revenue and profits be-tween April and June. That came even though it had to spend $4 billion on cleaning supplies and to pay workers overtime and bonuses.

Demand has been so high, Amazon has struggled to deliver items as fast as it normally does and had to hire 175,000 more people to help pack and ship orders in its warehouses. Walmart and Target have also seen sales soar during the pandemic.

But other retailers have had a rougher time. J.C. Penney, J.Crew and Brooks Brothers have all gone bankrupt. And Lord & Taylor, which has been in business for nearly 200 years, recently said it will be closing its stores for good. Companies across other industries have announced buy-outs or layoffs, including Coca-Cola and American Airlines.

Amazon said the jobs will be centered around Amazon’s offices across the coun-try, including Denver, New York, Phoe-nix and its hometown of Seattle. The new hires will work from home at first, but the company said it does want employees to return to the office eventually.

Ardine Williams, Amazon’s vice president of workforce development, said plans to build a second headquar-ters near Washington, D.C., are going as planned, despite the pandemic, with 1,000 workers already hired.

To fill the 33,000 jobs, Amazon said will hold an online career fair Sept 16 to collect resumes and give people a chance talk to a recruiter. The average salary of corporate or tech job at Ama-zon is $150,000, Williams said. Those not interested in a job at Amazon can also get resume help, the company said.

At a similar career fair last year, about 17,000 people showed up in person and Amazon said it received more than 200,000 applications for 30,000 jobs.

German ‘exports’ gradually recoverBERLIN, Sept 9, (KUNA): Federal Statistical Office an-nounce Tuesday that German exports sector witnessed a grad-ual recovery in July, compared with the previous month, after months of depression due to the new Coronavirus.

In its monthly report, the of-fice announced from its head-quarter in Wiesbaden south central Germany, that the sector, Europe largest pillar, increased 4.7 percent.

In the same period, another economic sectors managed to export merchandises worth EURO 102.3 billion (USD 120.3 billion), the office noted.

It added that the satisfaction witnessed in global markets and the lifting of the partial econom-ic shutdowns in Europe helped the German economy to recover.

The German exports sector has witnessed a clear decline since the start of the Coronavi-rus crisis last February followed by the economic shutdown in Germany and other European countries.

Luxury goods giant cites threat of proposed US tariffs

LVMH cancels $14.5bn deal for TiffanyNEW YORK, Sept 9, (AP): Luxury goods giant LVMH is ending its takeover deal of jewelry retailer Tif-fany & Co., saying the French gov-ernment had requested a delay to as-sess the threat of proposed US tariffs and amid wider industry troubles caused by the pandemic.

The Paris-based conglomerate said that both the French government and Tiffany had requested that the clos-ing of the deal be postponed by a few months. The French government, it said, wanted to assess the impact of the possible US tariffs on French goods.

As a result, LVMH said, the $14.5 billion deal that was scheduled to close Nov. 24 will be canceled.

Tiffany replied that it’s suing to en-force the merger agreement, which was signed in November 2019. The New York company said LVMH’s argu-ment has no basis in French law. Tif-fany also said that LVMH hasn’t even attempted to seek the required antitrust approval from three jurisdictions.

Shares in Tiffany slid 9% in pre-market trading in New York. Those in LVMH, which owns 75 brands includ-ing Christian Dior, Fendi, Givenchy and Tag Heuer, were stable.

The deal’s value came under strain during the coronavirus pandemic, which caused retail sales to plunge around the world. Tiffany’s share price has been trading around $125 a share for weeks - below the $135 per share price that LVMH had agreed to pay last fall, before the pandemic.

Back then, industry experts had said the deal made sense. Tiffany, known for its delicate jewelry, dis-tinctive blue boxes and an Audrey Hepburn movie, had been trying to transform its brand to appeal to younger and more digital shoppers, and could have used an owner with deep pockets to help expand.

LVMH, led by billionaire Ber-nard Arnault, had thought the deal would strengthen its position in high-end jewelry and in the US mar-ket. LVMH was also making a bet on China’s economy, where Tiffany had been expanding its presence.

The pandemic threw all those as-sumptions and plans in doubt, and the threat of new tariffs between the US and Europe was cited as a further complicating issue.

Last year, France sought to im-

pose a tax on global tech giants in-cluding Google, Amazon and Face-book. The French tech tax is aimed at “establishing tax justice.” France wants digital companies to pay their fair share of taxes in countries where they make money instead of using tax havens, and is pushing for an in-ternational agreement on the issue.

In response to the tech tax, the US threatened to slap 100% tariffs on $2.4 billion of French products.

The two sides are at a tense truce as France has said it would delay collection of the digital tax until December, parking the issue until after the next US presidential elec-tion where Trump hopes to secure another four-year term.

The French government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In this file photo, the logo of Tiffany & Co. is pictured on the Champs Ely-sees avenue in Paris. Luxury goods giant LVMH is ending its takeover deal of the luxury jewelry retailer, citing in part the threat of proposed U.S. tariffs

on French goods. (AP)

downs.The Fed’s monthly report on con-

sumer spending does not include mort-gages or other types of loans secured by real estate such as home equity loans. The July increase pushed the credit total to $4.14 trillion, still below its February peak of $4.21 trillion.

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

9

former VW boss Winterkorn to stand trial

A German court has ruled former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn must stand trial on fraud charges in connection with the company’s diesel emission scan-dal in which it sold cars with software that let them cheat on emissions tests.

The three-judge panel in Braunschweig in Volkswagen’s home region of Lower Saxony ruled that car buyers suffered a financial loss when they bought a car without being aware it was equipped with illegal software. The court found a “predominant likelihood” of conviction in the fraud charge.

It said four other defendants would face trial on charges of fraud in connection with aggravated tax evasion and illegal adver-tising. Dates for a public trial are to be set later.

Winterkorn, who denied wrongdoing, resigned from Volkswagen days after the US Environmental Protection Agency announced a notice of violation on Sept 18, 2015. The company had for years been using software that recognized when vehi-cles were on test stands and turned emis-sion controls on, then turned the emission

controls off during normal driving. As a result, the cars emitted far more than the legal US limit of nitrogen oxide, a pollutant that harms people’s health.

Winterkorn also faces criminal charges in the US but cannot be extradited. Volkswagen paid more than 30 billion euros ($33 billion) in fines and settlements over the scandal.

The three-judge panel did not accept all accusations levelled by prosecutors when they first charged Winterkorn in April 2019. (AP)

In this file photo Martin Winterkorn, former CEO of the German car manufacturer ‘Volkswagen’, arrives for a questioning at an investigation commit-tee of the German fed-eral parliament in Berlin, Germany. (AP)

Wall Street perks up as tech sell-off haltsTrade issues remain a worry for markets

NEW YORK, Sept 9, (AP): Wall Street is steadying itself Wednesday following its first three-day losing streak in nearly three months, as the bloodletting comes to at least a tempo-rary halt for big technology stocks.

Apple, Amazon, Zoom Video Communications and other tech companies that have tumbled since late last week on worries their stocks soared too high all regained some ground. They helped push the S&P 500 up by 1.2% in early trading.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 257 points, or 0.9%, at 27,758 as of 9:50 am Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite, which is home to many tech stocks, was up 1.4%. It’s coming off a 10% drop over the prior three days.

Tesla, which has seen some of the wildest moves in recent months, rose 9.4%. A day earlier, it plunged 21.1% for its worst day since its shares began trading a decade ago. In August, it surged 74.1%.

Selling over the last week in the market has focused on such tech superstars, which had earlier zoomed through the pandemic amid expecta-tions that they would benefit from the new stay-at-home economy. Blockbuster profit reports from many of them for the spring emboldened investors, who bid their stock prices up to levels that critics called too expen-sive, even after accounting for their powerful growth.

A flurry of buying of stock options for Big Tech stocks may have helped

A man walks past a bank’s electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sept 9, 2020. Asian shares declined on Wednesday after a sell-off of big technology stocks on Wall Street

pulled US benchmarks lower. Crude oil prices and Treasury yields also weakened. (AP)

further goose the gains, analysts say. The huge leaps for Big Tech helped

carry the S&P 500 and Nasdaq back to record heights, even though the econo-my is still struggling under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic. But the fever broke on Thursday, with the S&P 500 losing 7% over three days.

Still to be determined is whether the recent sell-off is just a blowing-off of some steam for tech stocks that had gotten overheated – or whether it’s the beginning of a more widespread

downturn. Other stocks didn’t get as expensive

as Big Tech during the recent run-up. Banks and other financial stocks in the S&P 500 are still down nearly 20% for 2020 so far, for example. But several challenges continue to loom over the entire market, not even including the uncertainty about how the pandemic will progress.

Trade issues remain a worry for markets, with the souring US-China relationship in the brightest spotlight.

But that’s not the only potential hot spot.

Tiffany lost 9.8% after European lux-ury giant LVMH ended its $14.5 billion takeover deal for the jewelry retailer. LVMH said it made the move in part because the French government request-ed a delay due to the threat of proposed U.S. tariffs on French products.

Investors are also still waiting for Congress to deliver more aid to the economy after unemployment benefits and other stimulus that it earlier approved

ran out. Investors say it’s critical that the economy get such stimulus, but partisan disagreements have Congress at what seems to be an impasse.

The Senate is preparing to vote this week on a trimmed-down relief pack-age proposed by Republicans, but it has only a slim chance of passage as Democrats are insisting on more sweeping aid.

The stock market’s rally started in late March following massive amounts of aid from the Federal Reserve and Congress and then accelerated as the economy showed some signs of improvement. Corporate profit reports for the spring that weren’t as disas-trous as expected also helped to lift the market.

Late Tuesday, Slack Technologies also reported what analysts called a good quarter of performance, with rev-enue topping expectations. But the company also reported billings that were weaker than expected, and its stock tumbled 14.7%.

Treasury yields were holding rela-tively steady, with the 10-year yield holding at 0.68%.

Crude oil clawed back some of its slide from the prior day. Benchmark US crude gained 1.5% to $37.30 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added 0.7% to $40.06 per barrel.

European stocks and US futures advanced Wednesday after a day of losses in Asia following a sell-off of big technology stocks on Wall Street.

Germany’s DAX jumped 1.2% to 13,127.44 and the FTSE 100 in London added 1% to 5,987.92. The CAC 40 in France also rose 1%, to 5,024.31.

Troubles with Astra-Zeneca’s coro-navirus vaccine trial and simmering China-US tensions were among the factors spooking investors.

UPS to hire 100K‘holiday workers’NEW YORK, Sept 9, (AP): United Parcel Service said Wednesday it plans to hire more than 100,000 extra workers to help handle an increase in packages during the holiday season.

UPS said Wednesday that it expects a record peak season. Online shopping has been growing for years, and the pandemic has given it an extra boost as some shoppers avoid going to stores.

Volume of packages for delivery usually rises starting in October and runs through January.

The Atlanta-based company said it will have full-time and part-time seasonal jobs, mostly package han-dlers, drivers and driver helpers. UPS touts the seasonal jobs as ones that can lead to year-round employ-ment, saying that over the last three years, about 35% of people for seasonal package-handling jobs wound up in permanent positions.

FedEx said last week it plans to hire up to 70,000 seasonal workers, a big jump from 55,000 last year.

Both delivery giants have seen a boom in residential deliveries since lockdowns kept consumers out of stores, and fear of contracting the virus has limited their shopping trips. More lucrative deliveries to businesses have declined, howev-er. The residential deliveries are most costly too, because they tend to be more spread out.

NBK rallies 6 fils, KIPCO eases

Kuwait’s equities little changed, volume slips

By John MathewsArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 9: Kuwait stocks eased slightly on Wednesday following last ses-sion’s uptick. The All Shares Index gave back early gains to close 1.74 pts lower at 5295.75 points even as the broader senti-ment remained downbeat.

The Premier Market fell 2.9 pts to 5812.94 points while Main Market inched 0.44 points to 4274.80 pts. The BK 50 Main index clipped 1.49 points. The volume turnover meanwhile receded following last session’s upswing. Over 290 million shares changed hands – down 16 pct from the day before.

The sectors closed mostly in red. Insurance outshone the rest with 0.84 pct gain whereas Consumer Goods shed 2.75 per-cent, the worst performer of the day. Volume wise, Financial Services topped with 125.4 mil-lion shares while Banking sector dominated in value with KD 17.17 million.

In the individual shares, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait rallied 6 fils to 857 fils on back of over 5 million shares while Boubyan Bank dialed up 2 fils with a volume of 1.4 million. Mabanee Co was unchanged at 635 fils and Kuwait Insurance Co shed 14 fils.

LowerZain eased 1 fil to 572 fils after

trading 2.7 million shares while Ooredoo climbed 7 fils to 592 fils. STC took in1 fil while Agility added 2 fils before ending at 623 fils. Humansoft Holding slipped 11 fils to KD 2.623 and KIPCO ticked 1 fil lower to 151 fils.

The market opened weak and slipped in early trade. The main index moved sideways and headed north amid buying in select coun-ters to peak at 5314 points past the mid-session. It retreated and drifted listlessly for over an hour before eroding further in the final minutes to close in the red zone.

Top gainer of the day, Investors Holding Co soared 36.36 pct to 22.5 fils and AREEC climbed over 5 pct to stand next. Arzan skidded 9.86 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and counter also topped the volume with 32.7 million shares.

The market spread was skewed towards the losers. 47 stocks advanced whereas 65 closed

lower. Of the 128 counters active on Wednesday, 16 closed flat. 10,400 deals worth KD 33.36 mil-lion were transacted during the session.

National Industries Group rallied 7 fils to 169 fils on back of over 14 million shares while Mezzan Holding dropped 19 fils. Boubyan Petrochemical Co dialed down 2 fils and Al Qurain Petrochemical eased 1 fil to 274 fils. Integrated Holding took in 2 fils and Aznouola fell 2 fils to 323 fils after trading 2.2 million shares.

TickedJazeera Airways fell 3 fils to

576 fils while ALAFCO ticked 1 fil lower to 157 fils. Educational Holding Co and NAPESCO stood pat at 300 fils and KD 1.000 while Kuwait National Cinema Co climbed 4 fils to 660 fils. Warbacap and Safat Energy eased 0. 2 fil each while Equipment Holding inched 0.2 fil higher to 17.5 fils.

Kuwait Cement Co was flat at 174 fils and Kuwait Portland Cement darted 14 fils to 788 fils. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co and NICBM clipped 2 fils each while Metal and Recycling Co gave up 2.2 fils. Automated Systems Co trimmed 0.9 fil and Kuwait Hotels paused at 86 fils.

Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co tripped 0.6 fil and KGL Logistics edged 0.4 fil down after pushing 6.8 million shares. KCPC slipped 9 fils to 315 fils and KPPC took in 0.9 fil.

Kuwait Foundry Co rose 2 fils to 244 fils and Gulf Cable skid-ded 17 fils. Burgan Well Drilling Co paced 4 fils and Combined Group Contracting Co dialed down 2 fils. OSOS erased 0.9 fils and IFA Hotels and Resorts ticked 0.8 fil into red. Soor Fuel eased 1 fil to 110 fils and QIC gave up 4.5 fils.

In the banking sector, Kuwait Finance House was flat at 624 fils with a volume of 5.8 million shares and Burgan Bank too did not budge from its earlier close of 198 fils. Gulf Bank took in 1 fil on back of over 3 million shares and Kuwait International Bank clipped 1 fil. Warba Bank and Ahli United Bank were down 5 fils.

The market has been largely weak so far during the week shed-ding 31 points in the last four sessions. It had added 2 points from the start of the month and is down 1045 points year-to-date.

Unemployment rate at a record high of 30.1 pct

Virus lockdown plunges SA deeper into recessionJOHANNESBURG, Sept 9, (AP): South Africa’s economy has sunk deeper into recession, with its gross domestic product for the second quar-ter of 2020 plummeting by 51%, large-ly as a result of COVID-19 and the country’s strict lockdown, according to statistics released Tuesday.

South Africa imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in April and May in response to the coro-navirus outbreak, which has now claimed more than 15,000 lives and infected 639,362 people in the coun-try.

The halt to most economic activity during the shutdown caused heavy declines in South Africa’s manufactur-ing, transport and retail sectors, according to the country’s statistics body StatsSA. South Africa has one of the largest and most developed econo-mies in sub-Saharan Africa.

The country’s ban on trade in liquor and cigarettes also had an adverse impact on the economy during the period from April to June, with con-sumer spending on these items falling by 92%, according to StatsSA. South Africa’s manufacturing output shrank by 74.9% as factories stopped produc-tion, it said.

“Air travel came to a complete halt, contributing to the fall in economic activity in the transport and communi-

A homeless man stands at a street corner in Johannesburg on July 22, 2020. Official statistics show that South Africa’s economy has sunk deeper into recession, with its gross domestic product for the second quarter of

cation sector,” said the report. “The retail ban on alcohol sales and closure of tourist accommodation facilities were notable drags on trade activity.”

Some economists have warned that even though the COVID-19 outbreak was to blame for most of the decline, it simply exacerbated the economic cri-sis that South Africa was already expe-

riencing.South Africa’s unemployment rate

is now at a record high of 30.1 %.Since June the country has eased

lockdown restrictions and gradually reopened the economy that is expected to decline by 7.2% this year, according to government projections.

Miyelani Mkhabela, CEO and chief

economist at Antswisa Transaction Advisory Services, said he expects the country’s economic decline to be high-er than the predicted 7.2% predicted earlier this year.

He predicted a contraction of more than 12% by the end of 2020.

He called on the government to make immediate interventions to kick-start economic recovery by solving the country’s electricity crisis, which has now seen the return of scheduled power blackouts.

The country’s state-owned power utility, Eskom, has been beset with management problems and corruption allegations for years, and now strug-gles to supply enough power, plunging households and industry into rotating power cuts.

“If you look at the numbers, mining and manufacturing have suffered immensely and those are important sectors for us, which only work well when there is sufficient, affordable electricity,” said Mkhabela. “Energy is the lifeblood of every economy, so it needs to be high among the govern-ment’s priorities.”

He added that widespread allega-tions of corruption and on-going reve-lations in an official investigation into graft are not helping the international perception of South Africa.

Takeda divests select non-core assets in Europe to CheplapharmOSAKA, Japan, Sept 9, (Businesswire): Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited announced that it has entered into an agreement to divest a portfolio of select non-core prescription pharmaceu-tical products sold predominantly in Europe and Canada to Cheplapharm. Cheplapharm is a specialty pharmaceuti-cal company headquartered in Germany with a 25-year history of successfully acquiring, integrating and growing phar-maceutical products. Takeda will receive an upfront payment of approximately $562 million USD, subject to customary legal and regulatory closing conditions.

The portfolio to be divested to Cheplapharm is comprised of non-core prescription pharmaceutical products in a variety of therapeutic categories sold predominantly in Europe and Canada. This includes Cardiovascular/Metabolic and Anti-Inflammatory products along with Calcium. The portfolio generated FY 2019 net sales of approximately $260 million USD. While the products included in the sale address key patient needs in these countries, they are outside of Takeda’s five key business areas. With a more focused portfolio, the divestiture fur-ther enables Takeda’s Europe & Canada Business Unit (EUCAN) to focus on and drive strategic core growth areas. In April 2020, Takeda announced to divest EUCAN’s non-core over-the-counter (OTC) products to Orifarm Group.

Giles Platford, President, EUCAN,

Takeda, said, “These divestments rep-resent another important milestone in our portfolio simplification and opti-mization strategy as we position Takeda for continued success across our five key business areas: Gastroenterology (GI), Rare Diseases, Plasma-Derived Therapies, Oncology and Neuroscience. We are pleased to have found a partner in Cheplapharm who shares our commitment to patient care and has the experience and resources to continue investing in these important products well into the future for the benefit of patients.”

Costa Saroukos, Chief Financial Officer, Takeda, said, “Today’s announcement allows Takeda to con-tinue to be patient-focused as we streamline and optimize our portfolio according to our global long-term strategy. While the trusted products included in the sale address key patient needs in these countries, they are out-side of our core business areas of focus. We are confident that Cheplapharm is the right partner to ensure patients continue to have access to these products.”

The sale of these non-core prescrip-tion products supports Takeda’s con-tinued divestiture program. Last month, Takeda announced an agree-ment to divest Takeda Consumer Healthcare Company Limited to Blackstone for approximately $2.3 bil-lion USD. In June, Takeda agreed to divest a portfolio of non-core assets

sold exclusively in the Asia Pacific region to Celltrion for up to $278 mil-lion USD; in April, Takeda announced the sale of non-core OTC products in Europe to Orifarm Group for up to approximately $670 million USD, including the sale of two manufactur-ing sites in Denmark and Poland; and in March, Takeda announced the sale

of non-core products in Latin America to Hypera Pharma for $825 million USD, as well as completed the previ-ously announced sales of non-core assets spanning the Russia-CIS region to STADA and in countries spanning the Near East, Middle East and Africa region to Acino.

Canada auto workers pickFord as likely strike targetDETROIT, Sept 9, (AP): The union that represents Canadian auto work-ers has picked Ford as a potential strike target in contract talks this year. The Unifor union’s contracts with all three Detroit automakers expires at 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 21.

Unifor President Jerry Dias says at a news conference Tuesday that the union wants product commitments for Ford’s assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, near Toronto. Production of the Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus SUVs ends at the plant in 2023. Dias says Ford hasn’t made any future product commitments.

He says the union is looking for job security and commitments including electric vehicles. The

basics of a three-year deal with Ford would then apply to the other two companies, Fiat Chrysler and General Motors.

Dias says Canada has no commit-ments to build electric vehicles and has dropped from the fourth-largest vehicle maker in 1999 to No. 12 cur-rently.

In addition to product commit-ments, the union also will focus on wages and benefits, he said.

Ford said in a statement it looks forward to reaching a deal that keeps it competitive and maintains Canadian jobs. “We’ll be asking our employees to work with us to help shape this new reality,” the statement said.

Business PlusPlus

It’s true that valua-tions have surged, but this is typical

early in a recovery

The only real option is to have a

central solution that can monitor all con-

nected devices

‘

‘

’

’

Strategist sees market undergoing a ‘healthy’ correction

Wall Street’s 3-day skid a reality check for runaway market

stocks attractive during the pandem-ic haven’t changed, market watchers have been increasingly raising concerns that the market’s gains were too concentrated in technology companies, driving their valuation to levels that started to sound frothy even factoring in the most optimis-tic outlooks for company earnings growth next year.

For example, the ratio of the stock price compared to the esti-mate for earnings over the next 12 months for Apple rose to around 35 last week – an all-time high and well above where the ratio was before the pandemic hit the US economy.

“These stocks just got bought up to the point where even the most optimistic of forward (earnings) estimates won’t be enough to justify these valuations,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.

The timing of the sell-off co-incided with fresh concerns that interest rates could move higher after the Fed signaled that it may allow infl ation to heat up. That, plus growing unease over the election outcome, may have given investors a green light to pocket some of their recent gains.

“Those are all reasons for some-thing of a pause here,” said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird. “It’s a case that we’d had so much of a run, everyone was on one side of the ship. It didn’t take much of a hiccup to upset things.”

At this point, Delwiche is as-suming that the market will have a “healthy” correction.

Historically, markets tend to correct themselves when they get too euphoric and stock prices push far higher relative to companies’ prospects for earnings growth. The Morgan Stanley analysts suggest this retreat in tech stocks could actu-ally herald the start of more broad-based gains for the market.

“We think there is more downside over next month, but (it) eventu-ally leads to further broadening out of the bull market,” the analysts wrote. “It’s true that valuations have surged, but this is typical early in a recovery.”

The biggest question is whether this blowing off steam for tech stocks will remain just that – a return to sanity for an hugely overbought area of the market – or whether it will drag the rest of the market down with it.

“This is a good reminder that if it feels too good to be true, it probably is,” Stovall said. (AP)

Stuart McKenzie, of London, takes a swing on the Charging Bull statue in New York’s fi nancial district on Sept 8. More sharp declines for big tech stocks are dragging Wall Street toward a third straight loss on Tuesday. (AP)

Bring in the experts

It’s time to secure your home networkBy Frank Bajak

Not all that long ago, managing your home network’s security

didn’t involve much more than installing an antivirus program on your PC. If only it were still so simple.

It’s no longer just about protect-ing the computer on which you may be working from home and the laptops the kids may be using as online school starts. Odds are good you’ve got a few other internet-connected devices around the house – phones, tablets, game consoles, maybe a “smart” TV or thermostat or refrigerator or light bulb or kid’s toy or security camera or video-streaming gadget or voice-activated digital valet.

The average US home now has 11 such devices, according to Deloitte, many of which are vulnerable to hacking. If you don’t want cyber cat burglars traipsing across them, potentially spreading malware or ransomware as they go, you’ll want to secure your entire home network.

What are the risks? Home networks are a major target

for cyber-criminals, who use in-nocuous smart gadgets as stepping stones to loot data from PCs and phones. Or they may co-opt these simpler devices into much larger “botnets” that can be used to wreak havoc across the internet.

On average, one in three internet connections from home networks are made through devices other than computers or phones, so there’s lots of opportunity for mischief if you don’t lock your virtual windows to the networked world.

You can do it yourself, but that can be a lot of work, and the poten-tial consequences of any mistakes could be signifi cant. For most people, it makes better sense to pay for a network-protection service, whether offered by your inter-net provider or another business. Though it will cost you.

How does this work?

Think of your home network as a bunch of cans tied to each other with strings. Those are all your in-house devices and the data they share with each other.

Now picture each of those cans tied to thousands of other strings outside your home. They are data connections your devices routinely make to other devices on the global internet. It’s beyond our capacity to constantly monitor all those connec-tions. We need help.

A good network-security service sets up fi rewalls to block unwanted data traffi c, but it doesn’t stop there. Since fi rewalls are imperfect, it

will also monitor network traffi c using artifi cial intelligence to detect unusual patterns. It keeps an eye on both your devices and malicious internet domains, alerting you to potential threats and blocking suspi-cious websites.

Typically, you’ll be able to con-fi gure your security and respond to alerts from a laptop or phone. Pro-viders let you block unauthorized users and websites from connecting to your home gadgets. Parents can also often use these services to set rules on the websites kids can visit and limits on screen time.

How much does his cost? Is it worth it?

Internet providers now frequently offer security suites if you rent your modem or router from them. From Comcast, it costs $14 a month. Verizon charges fi ber-optic FiOS subscribers $25/month but provides it for free with its premium gigabit plan.

If you recently bought your own router, security may come as a free trial and then a subscription. Or you can buy a separate service or stan-dalone security appliance. Figure on paying about $100 a year.

“Most consumers don’t have the necessary know-how as to how to secure their home network,” says Michael Philpott, a connected-home analyst with the Omedia tech research fi rm. “The only real option

is to have a central solution that can monitor all connected devices.”

Philpott says he’s personally happy to pay a little extra for the peace of mind.

Start by checking out the service provided by your broadband pro-vider or the maker of your router. Is the software easy to set up and to use? Check which security fi rm sup-plies the underlying security tools; Bitdefender, F-Secure, McAfee and Trend Micro are among industry leaders.

It’s also possible to buy network-security kits directly from security companies, though you’ll typically pay more for an extra monitoring device you’ll add to your network. These often include anti-malware software for computers and phones.

Look for software that also lets you create two separate “virtual” home networks. Reserve one for work computers and networked data storage and use the other for smart TVs and speakers.

I’m not afraid of tinkering. What can I do myself?

You’re going to need to roll up your sleeves and get educated if you want to harden your home net-work’s security on your own. Even then, if you do any kind of sensitive work at home it probably pays to shell out for extra protection.

See the links below for basic details to get you started. (AP)

By Alex Veiga

Wall Street’s summer-long party fueled by investors’ appetite

for some of the world’s best-known technology companies has come to an abrupt, if not entirely unex-pected, halt.

The sharp sell-off that began last Thursday has wiped out nearly 7.1% from the S&P 500 as of Tuesday, its fi rst three-day skid in nearly three months.

The Nasdaq composite, home to Apple, Amazon, Zoom, Tesla and many other tech stocks that led the market’s remarkable fi ve-month comeback from its lows in March, has lost more than 10% after setting an all-time high just four days ago –

a decline known in the market as a correction.

Call the last three trading sessions a reality check after what many ana-lysts say was an overdone push by traders into technology companies, especially in August.

“The bottom line is that this correction was long overdue and likely has more downside over the next few weeks (and) months as these positions are cleared out,” Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a research note Tuesday, noting technology stocks had a “parabolic move” last month. Tech stocks jumped 11.8% in August, the sector’s best month since a 13.7% surge in April.

Investors’ craving for technol-ogy companies was fueled by low interest rates, customers stuck at home while the pandemic raged, and efforts by the US government to support out-of-work Americans. An improving outlook for corporate profi ts has also kept traders in a buying mood.

Wall Street also got a big boost from the Federal Reserve, which has taken unprecedented actions to keep markets running smoothly and also encourage borrowing by keeping interest rates extremely low. Meanwhile, a surge in trading in options contracts, which give investors the right to buy or sell hundreds of thousands of shares of

stock at a time, also turbocharged the gains.

Between March 23 and Sept 2, the Nasdaq jumped 75% while outpacing the S&P 500�s 60% gain and the Dow industrials’ 56.5% rally during the stock market’s rebound from its pandemic lows. During the run Apple became the fi rst $2 trillion US company and Zoom itself became worth more than General Motors and Ford Mo-tor Co combined.

Even with the recent pullback, tech stocks are still leading the other 10 sectors in the S&P 500 with a gain of just under 23% so far this year.

While the reasons that made tech

Uber incentivizes drivers to switch to electric vehicles

Uber is offering incentives to drivers to transition to cleaner vehicles while acknowledging that emissions from its rides have risen in recent years.

The San Francisco-based ride-hailing giant said Tues-day that a ride in one of its vehicles remains 41% more carbon-intensive than taking a trip in a personal car with others. Uber studied 4 bil-lion rides that it provided from

2017-2019 and found that while ridership grew 36.6%, the average carbon intensity for rides declined 6%, mean-ing rides were becoming more effi cient. But the com-pany admitted that its carbon footprint increased as rider-ship grew.

“We can do a lot better,” said Shin-pei Tsay, director of policy, cities and transpor-tation at Uber. “Driving down

carbon intensity and lower-ing emissions is well within reach.”

Many people have shied away from traveling in shared vehicles due to the pandemic. Gross bookings for Uber’s mo-bility business plunged 73% in the second quarter, and Lyft’s number of active riders fell 60% compared to the same time last year.

But both companies are

banking on an eventual re-turn. Uber said all rides will be in electric vehicles by 2030 in the US, Canada and Europe. It plans to be a fully zero-emissions platform by 2040, which on the corporate side may involve buying carbon offsets. Lyft, which operates in the US and Canada, said in June that its rides would be in 100% electric vehicles by 2030. (AP)

In this fi le photo, an Uber driver’s vehicle is seen af-ter the company launched

service in Vancouver, British Columbia. (AP)

In this fi le photo, a router and internet switch are displayed in East Derry, New Hampshire. Not all that long ago, managing your home network’s security didn’t involve much more than installing an antivirus

program on your PC. (AP)

editor’s choice

ARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

SPECIAL REPORT11

Whatever the weather, in scorching heat or suffocating humidity, Aaliyah Behbehani

walks the entire length of the wide sandy beach near her family‘s chalet, a tall, elegant figure with a wide-brimmed sun hat covering her long flowing black hair. What’s unusual about this young Ku-waiti woman is that she’s pulling a wagon behind her and filling it up with trash that she picks up off the beach. Having observed her from afar over the

course of several weekends, I approached her to congratulate her on setting such a great example and to ask her what motivated her to take such ac-tion.

“When Kuwaitis see another Kuwaiti cleaning up the beach, it frankly makes them feel more embarrassed than if they see someone of another nationality doing it. It makes them think,” she an-swered with a smile.

Aaliyah revealed that the response to her efforts from fellow Kuwaitis has ranged from admiration to perplexity. “Just yesterday a guy told me, ‘I don’t understand why you’re cleaning. I’m con-fused. But may God give you health.’ Another guy wanted to know why I bother when in a day or two the beach is just going to be full of trash again. What he said kind of made sense and I had to think about it for a while. Then I realised that the dif-

ference between him and me is that I have hope, I believe in change, and I know that one person can make a difference.”

From her beach cleaning experience, Aaliyah has seen first hand that the biggest threat to the environment comes from discarded plastic. “The most common item that I collect on the beach is the plastic bottle, and that includes the bottle caps and the plastic rings that go around the neck of

the bottle. Many people don’t know that this plas-tic waste is affecting our food chain. The plastic pieces break down and are eaten by fish, and then people eat the fish, so in the end we’re also eating plastic.

“Eventually there may be more plastic in our oceans than fish. Let’s hope this doesn’t happen. Single-use plastic is a huge problem not just in Kuwait but all over the world.”

Aaliyah is a graduate of the American Univer-sity of Kuwait, and during the week she teaches interior and graphic design at Box Hill College and the American International University. An as-signment she had when she was a student at AUK sparked her interest in upcycling discarded plastic and other garbage.

“I enjoy doing crafts, and in an art class I had a project to make something using upcycled materi-

als. That’s when I thought, why don’t I go out and see what I can find on the beach. From that time I started making jewelry from things like plastic and metal bottle caps and other trash,” she said.

“When I displayed my work, people were sur-prised that you can make something really beauti-ful with trash. You just have to find the right ma-terials and put them all together in the right way. And when things are upcycled, they have a his-tory, they have their own story, which new items don’t have.”

The popularity of Aaliyah’s unique, upcycled jewelry led her to open her Instagram account @upcyclekwt.

Aaliyah admitted that when she first began cleaning the beach she didn’t know much about Kuwait’s environmental problems. It was through Instagram accounts like @trashherokuwait, @trashtagkuwait, and @iam.oceanminded that she grew more aware of the issues. She soon became a volunteer with all three organisations.

Trash Hero Kuwait is a chapter of a worldwide NGO. The group describes itself as “an energetic, volunteer-led movement that drives change within communities around the world, motivating and supporting them to change and prevent plastic waste. The Trash Hero movement links communi-ties all over the world, with each chapter bringing together residents, businesses, government agen-cies, schools, tourists and other stakeholders to take positive action on waste.”

Aaliyah now manages the Instagram account of Trash Hero Kuwait, utilising what she learned about graphics in university. In the Trash Hero Instagram bio it says, “Every week we clean, we educate, we change.”

Aaliyah participates in the beach clean-ups or-ganised by all three groups. Trashtag Kuwait is also a non-profit organization, “Fighting the nega-tive environmental impacts of marine litter and waste pollution in Kuwait,” as their Instagram bio states. Since the beginning of the pandemic their members have also been collecting, organising, and distributing food boxes, medicines, baby sup-plies and other items to needy families in Kuwait. The number of volunteers joining the movement is growing steadily.

Trashtag Kuwait’s latest initiative is #Project-MyMai, a collaborative effort with @engieser-vices_kuwait to install water filters throughout low income homes in Kuwait. Trashtag Kuwait points out that “More than 100 million water bottles are used worldwide every day. In the U.S. alone, on a yearly range it takes 1.5 million barrels of oil to meet the demand of PET water bottles.

“The burning of fossil fuels to make these wa-ter bottles contributes to climate change as well as the obscene amount of plastic waste we find in our oceans, on our beaches, and in our landfills. Plastic takes hundreds of years to decompose, it is simple, not a threat we can ignore.

“It’s Trashtag Kuwait’s goal to provide low income migrant working communities in Kuwait with access to safe drinking water and to also help deter the reliance of these communities on plastic water bottles, so we can all help save the environ-ment.”

You can follow the link in their Instagram bio to donate a water filter to a family in need.

I Am Ocean Minded is a local group that is a chapter of an international organisation born in 1996 in San Clemente, California. They define Ocean Minded as “the state of loving, protecting, and respecting the ocean.” The Kuwait chapter concentrates on creating awareness of the need to

Story and photos by Claudia Farkas Al RashoudSpecial to the Arab Times

Continued on Page 12

Main picture and inset: A lone fi g-ure pulling a wagon of trash along the beach, Aaliyah Behbehani has made people think about their role in keeping the environment clean. Her stretch of beach has become notice-ably cleaner since she started her one-woman campaign. At right, some of the jewellery that Aaliyah creates from trash she fi nds on the beach. Each piece has a story she says.

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Aaliyah upcycles attitudes one piece at a time

the right material… the right way

SPECIAL REPORT

editor’s choice

ARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020 12

protect the marine environment. They also sometimes hold beach clean-ups and promote their love of the ocean lifestyle by selling their own brand of hats, t-shirts, and other beach-style products.

These three groups are examples of local environmental initiatives estab-lished by young people to promote positive change. As Aaliyah says, “The young people didn’t create all these environmental problems but we have to deal with them, it’s our burden, and we have to work hard for future genera-tions.”

Aaliyah laments that environmental studies are not included in the lo-cal school curriculum. “Why don’t we teach environmental protection like so many other countries? Every year I go to Switzerland and it’s so clean, you don’t see any trash lying around. That’s because people have learned in school, at a young age, to protect the environment. In time this will also hope-fully happen in Kuwait.”

For her part, Aaliyah taught two sessions on recycling and going green as part of a LAPA Loyac summer course. “The kids were really clever and moti-vated. They asked lots of questions,” she said. “Nowadays, with social media, the kids know what’s going on. It’s their job to open the eyes of their parents.”

In Aaliyah’s opinion, creating awareness and implementing and enforc-

ing strict rules and regulations are key to improving Kuwait’s environment. “People are aware of global warming, but they don’t realise how quickly it’s happening and how it’s affecting everything. Our fish are dying because the sea is too warm. And no one cares about conserving electricity. There should be limits on consumption. If people use too much electricity, they should have their electricity cut off. Fines are not enough, we need to shock people,” she remarks.

“We need an efficient train system because there is too much traffic. Lots of trucks and busses have thick black smoke coming out of the exhaust. The police should be giving them violations. And finally there has to be an end to the system of wasta, which is getting away with things because of who you know, because it’s really ruining everything.”

Despite all these negative factors, Aaliyah remains basically optimistic. “The other day I was cleaning the beach and these kids came running after me and asked if they could help. They asked me if I recycle the trash, and they were only about six or seven years old, so I was impressed that they would even know about recycling. Kuwait is changing,” she concluded.

“We also have an important environmental event happening this year. For the first time, Kuwait will take part in World Cleanup Day, which is on the 19th of September. We are working with Sheikha Intisar Al Sabah, under the umbrella of her Al Nuwair Initiative, to make it really big. Yousef Al Shatti,

the leader of Trash Hero Kuwait, is in charge of the event.” Before we ended our chat, Aaliyah asked if she could put a trash stand

on the beach in front of our family’s chalet. She explained that she buys the stands from the I Am Ocean Minded group at cost price and asks permission from chalet owners to position them on the beach. I had noticed a couple such stands, comprised of a metal post that’s anchored in the sand, with a sign on top and a metal band to which a big trash bag can be attached. The chalet own-er is responsible for emptying the bag when full or replacing it when needed.

I told Aaliyah I welcomed the idea of the trash stand, since there are no trash bins on the beach, so she dashed off to her chalet to get one. She returned quickly and it only took a few minutes to secure the stand just above the high tide line. She then continued her journey down the beach, picking up trash and putting it in her wagon.

A few weeks after first meeting Aaliyah I went back to the same beach and saw that the surroundings looked noticeably cleaner. I was sitting under a beach umbrella near Aaliyah’s trash stand when I saw an older Kuwaiti lady walking on the beach, her hands filled with trash. She smiled at me as she ap-proached and looking at the trash stand, she asked “May I?” before depositing the trash in the bag.

Aaliyah is right, I thought. We should all believe in change, and the ability of just one person to make a difference.

Aaliyah Behbehani keeping the beach clean.

Continued from Page 11

EPA chief pledges more cleanups, less focus on climate

Increased warming closing in on agreed upon limit: UNNEW YORK, Sept 9, (AP) The world is getting closer to passing a temperature limit set by global leaders fi ve years ago and may exceed it in the next decade or so, according to a new United Nations report.

In the next fi ve years, the world has nearly a 1-in-4 chance of experiencing a year that’s hot enough to put the global temperature at 2.7 degrees (1.5 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial times, according to a new science update released Wednesday by the UN, World Meteorological Organization and other global sci-ence groups.

That 1.5 degrees Celsius is the more stringent of two limits set in 2015 by world leaders in the Paris climate change agreement. A 2018 UN science report said a world hotter than that still survives, but chances of dangerous problems increase tremendously.

The report comes on the heels of a weekend of weather gone wild around the US: Scorching heat, record California wildfi res and two more Atlantic storms that set records for earliest 16th and 17th named storms.

Earlier this year, Death Valley hit 130 degrees (54.4 degrees Celsius) and Sibe-ria hit 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius).

The warming that has already occurred has “increased the odds of extreme events that are unprecedented in our historical experience,” Stanford University climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh said.

For example, historical global warming has increased the odds of record-setting hot extremes at more than 80% of the globe, and has “doubled or even tripled the odds over the region of California and the western U.S. that has experienced record-setting heat in recent weeks,” Diffenbaugh added.

The world already has warmed nearly 2 degrees (1.1 degrees Celsius) since the late 1800s, and the last fi ve years are hotter than the previous fi ve years, the report said. The speed-up could be temporary, or it might not be. There’s both man-made warming and natural warming from a strong El Nino weather pattern in the past fi ve years, said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.

Change“The probability of 1.5 degrees (Celsius) is growing year by year,” Taalas told

The Associated Press. “It’s very likely to happen in the next decade if we don’t change our behavior.”

That’s potentially faster than what a 2018 U.N. report found: that the world was likely to hit 1.5 degrees sometime between 2030 and 2052.

Breakthrough Institute climate scientist Zeke Hausfather, who wasn’t part of the new report, said the document was a good update of what scientists already know. It is “abundantly clear that rapid climate change is continuing and the world is far from on track” toward meeting the Paris climate goals, he said.

Some countries, including the US and many in Europe, are reducing emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, but Taalas said the world is on a path that will be 5.4 degrees (3 degrees Celsius) warmer compared with the late 19th century. That would be above the Paris accord’s less stringent 2-degree Celsius target.

The latest report was the UN’s annual update on “climate disruption” caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas. It highlighted more than just increasing tempera-tures and rising sea levels.

“Record heat, ice loss, wildfi res, fl oods and droughts continue to worsen, af-fecting communities, nations and economies around the world,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote in a foreword.

The report spotlights unprecedented wildfi res in the Amazon, the Arctic and Australia. California is fi ghting record wildfi res as the report was issued.

“Drought and heat waves substantially increased the risk of wildfi res,” the re-port said. “The three largest economic losses on record from wildfi res have all occurred in the last four years.”

Carbon dioxide emissions will be down 4% to 7% this year because of reduced travel and industrial activities during the coronavirus pandemic, but the heat-trap-ping gas stays in the air for a century so the levels in the atmosphere continue to go up, Taalas said. And, he said, so will the warming.

So far, this year is the second hottest on record and has a 37% chance of sur-passing the global record set in 2016, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

❑ ❑ ❑

Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler recently defended the Trump administration’s record on protecting the nation’s air and water and said a second term would bring a greater focus on pollution cleanups in disadvan-taged communities and less emphasis on climate change.

In a speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of the EPA’s founding, Wheeler said the agency was moving back toward an approach that had long pro-moted economic growth as well as a healthy environment and drawn bipartisan support.

“Unfortunately, in the past decade or so, some members of former adminis-trations and progressives in Congress have elevated single issue advocacy — in many cases focused just on climate change — to virtue-signal to foreign capitals, over the interests of communities within their own country,” he said.

Environmental groups and former EPA chiefs from both parties have accused Wheeler and his predecessor, Scott Pruitt, of undermining the agency’s mission by weakening or eliminating dozens of regulations intended to protect air and water quality, reduce climate change and protect endangered species.

“EPA was founded to protect people-you, me and our families-but the Trump

administration has turned it into an agency to protect polluters.” said Gina McCa-rthy, who led the agency during the Obama administration and now is president of the NRDC Action Fund, the political arm of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Under President Donald Trump, EPA has raised the bar for requiring environ-mental reviews of highway and pipeline construction; reduced limits and report-ing requirements for methane emissions; rolled back vehicle fuel economy and emissions standards; slashed the number of protected streams and wetlands; and repealed federal limits on carbon emissions from power plants.

Courts have blocked some of the changes, but others have taken effect.In his remarks, Wheeler said that if Trump is re-elected EPA would support

“community-driven environmentalism” that emphasizes on-the-ground results such as faster cleanup of Superfund toxic waste dumps and abandoned industrial sites that could be used for new businesses.

He pledged to require cost-benefi t analyses for proposed rules and to make pub-lic the scientifi c justifi cation for regulations, saying it would “bring much needed sunlight into our regulatory process” and saying opponents “want decisions to be made behind closed doors.”

PolicyCritics say a science “transparency” policy EPA is considering would hamper

development of health and safety regulations by preventing consideration of stud-ies with confi dential information about patients and businesses.

Wheeler spoke at the Richard Nixon library in Yorba Linda, California. The Republican president established the EPA in 1970 amid public revulsion over smog-choked skies and waterways so laced with toxins they were unfi t for swim-ming or fi shing. Some of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, were enacted during his administration.

Wheeler, an EPA and Senate staffer in the 1990s and a former coal industry lob-byist, said the agency had accomplished much. Lead gasoline, paint, asbestos and dioxins and hundreds of hazardous chemicals and compounds have been banned, he said.

“America’s environment today is cleaner than it’s ever been in our lifetimes,” he said, adding that during the Trump administration, air pollution has fallen while Superfund cleanups have accelerated and EPA programs have pumped $40 billion into clean-water infrastructure upgrades.

But the agency has become too bureaucratic and confrontational, he said — delaying permits needlessly, issuing confl icting orders to businesses and commu-nities, and backing policies that worsen some environmental problems to solve others.

East Coast governors have blocked natural gas pipelines in the name of fi ghting climate change but the result has been more gas imports from Russia, Wheeler said. He blamed California’s support of greater reliance on renewable energy and less on gas for rolling power blackouts that had resulted in sewage spills.

“Instead of confusing words with actions, and choosing empty symbolism over doing a good job, we can focus our attention and resources on helping communi-ties help themselves,” Wheeler said.

McCarthy and fi ve other former EPA chiefs whose terms date as far back as the Reagan administration issued a statement this month saying Trump had abandoned the agency’s “core mission of protecting human health and the environment.”

“Actions during the Trump administration have further decreased public con-fi dence in the agency’s credibility, undercut its historic dedication to high ethical standards, and affected employee morale,” they said in a joint statement.

This satellite image provided by NASA on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020 shows smoke from wildfi res in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia. A hotter world is getting closer to passing a temperature limit set by global leaders fi ve years ago and may exceed it in the next decade or so, according to a

new United Nations report released on Wednesday, Sept. 9. (AP)

HEALTHARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

13

Doctors investigate

Why ‘obesity’ may betied to serious COVID?NEW YORK, Sept 9, (AP): In the early days of the pan-demic, doctors noticed something about the people severe-ly ill from COVID-19: Many were obese.

The link became more apparent as coronavirus swept across the globe and data mounted, and researchers are still trying to fi gure out why.

Excess weight increases the chances of developing a number of health problems, including heart disease and di-abetes. And those are among the conditions that can make COVID-19 patients more likely to get very sick.

But there’s some evidence that obesity itself can increase the likelihood of serious complications from a coronavirus infection. One study of more than 5,200 infected people, including 35% who were obese, found that the chances of hospitalization rose for people with higher BMIs, even

when taking into account other con-ditions that could put them at risk.

Scientists are still studying the fac-tors that might be at play – the way obesity affects the immune system may be one – but say it’s another ex-ample of the pandemic illuminating existing public health challenges.

Obesity may be one reason some countries or communities have been hit hard by the virus, researchers say. In the United States, the obesity rate among adults has climbed for dec-ades and is now at 42%. The rate is

even higher among Black and Hispanic Americans.A person who is 5 feet, 7 inches tall is considered obese

starting at around 190 pounds, or a body mass index of 30. The increased risk for serious COVID-19 illness appears more pronounced with extreme obesity, or a BMI of 40 or higher.

Researchers say multiple factors likely make it harder for people who are obese to fi ght a coronavirus infection, which can damage the lungs. Carrying around a lot of extra weight strains the body, and that excess fat could limit the lungs’ ability to expand and breathe.

Infl ammation Another issue is chronic infl ammation, which often

comes with obesity. Infl ammation is a natural way our bod-ies fi ght harmful intruders like viruses. But long-lasting in-fl ammation isn’t healthy and could undermine your body’s defenses when a real threat arises.

“It’s like pouring gasoline on a smoldering fi re,” said Dr Dariush Mozaffarian, an obesity researcher and dean of Tufts University’s school of nutrition science and policy near Boston.

And even if people who are obese aren’t diagnosed with diabetes or heart disease, Mozaffarian notes their health may not be optimal.

How fat is distributed in the body may play a role too. One study found an increased risk for death from COV-ID-19 for people with severe obesity, but only among men. The fi ndings could refl ect that men tend to carry fat around the stomach, said Sara Tartof, a co-author of the study who researches infectious diseases at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California. That type of fat is more associated with the production of a hormone that could be contributing to more severe illness, she said.

Scientists are also exploring whether there’s something specifi c about the coronavirus itself that makes the obese more susceptible to getting very sick.

Complications For example, the virus infects cells by attaching to recep-

tors on the surface of certain cells. That receptor is abun-dant on fat cells and scientists are studying whether that makes them “a good nest for the virus,” said Dr Francois Pattou at the University of Lille in France, who has co-authored research on the link between obesity and severe COVID-19 illness.

Complications in care can arise once hospitalized, too. To help with breathing, for example, doctors have been putting patients hospitalized with COVID-19 on their stomachs. But that can be diffi cult for the obese, making it more likely they’re put on ventilators.

“They need a machine to help just do the work,” said Dr David Kass of Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University, who has co-authored a study on obesity and severe COVID-19 illness.

Yet another concern: A COVID-19 vaccine may not be as effective for the obese, as seems to be the case with the fl u and other vaccines.

Why that might be isn’t known, but one possibility is that obesity impairs an aspect of the immune system that needs to be activated for vaccines to work, said Dr Nancie MacIver, who researches how weight affects the immune system at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. And she said whatever factors are at play would likely be ap-plicable to a COVID-19 vaccine, but added that it is still important to get it.

Also:IRVINE, Calif: Today, the Patient Safety Movement Foun-dation released a detailed white paper and its leadership issued the following statement urging the creation of a Na-tional Patient Safety Board:

“COVID-19 has exposed the safety gaps in our health-care system that already cause 200,000 deaths a year. We need a National Patient Safety Board.”

The US death toll from COVID-19 is also approaching 200,000, with The New York Times recently reporting that the milestone may already have been crossed when con-sidering that ‘offi cial death counts may be substantially underestimating the overall effects of the virus.’ But even pre-pandemic, more than 200,000 Americans die each year from another epidemic: preventable errors in hospitals. This fact makes preventable medical harm the unspoken third-leading cause of death in the US. If you’re shocked, you’re not alone: 79 percent of Americans don’t know that the safety of patients is compromised every day in health-care.

Health worker safety is patient safety, and we’re at a breaking point in this cause as the death tolls intersect.

The reality is systemic problems in healthcare, such as a failure to embrace a transparent and just culture or the failure to implement known solutions to challenges like healthcare-associated infections and medication safety, have been continuously setting up our health workers for failure and error year after year. Negative OSHA rates, DART rates and the medical profession generally topping the career-burnout lists meant the crisis was always starting on a shaky foundation.

Now with COVID-19 pushing health workers to the break-ing point, the issue couldn’t be more timely. 2020 has been one of the most challenging and eye-opening years for the issues of safety in our healthcare systems, from effectively equipping and supporting frontline health workers in their important work to equitably serving and treating patients.

More than 1,000 caregivers have lost their lives doing what they love doing best – taking care of patients. Accord-ing to NBC News and a survey conducted by nursing app Holliblu, 62 percent of more than 1,000 respondents said they are planning to quit either their jobs or the profession altogether because of the pandemic. This is unacceptable. We need a National Patient Safety Board.

Coronavirus

This 2020 electron microscope image made available by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shows a Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 particle isolated from a patient, in a laboratory in Fort Detrick, Md. Coronaviruses, including the newest one, are named for the spikes that cover their outer surface like a crown, or corona in Latin. Using those club-shaped spikes, the virus latches on to the outer wall of a human cell, invades it and replicates, creating viruses to hijack

more cells. (AP)

Students exit a school bus on the fi rst day of school at Carlton High School on Sept 8 in Carlton, Minn. Students and staff were required to wear masks and maintain social distancing in

classrooms and the halls. (AP)

Health

520 virus cases in Japan: Japan reported 520 new cases of the coronavirus over the last 24 hours as of 4:00 pm (0700 GMT) on Wednesday, raising the nation’s total number to 73,053, the health ministry and local authorities said.

The country’s cumulative death toll rose by 24 to 1,404. Tokyo added 149 new cases, topping 100 for the second consecutive day, which brought the total cases in the city of about 14 million people to 22,168.

The tallies exclude those who were linked to the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship in February. A government ad-visory panel said last week that the number of new COVID-19 infections in the country is slowing after hitting its peak late July. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

156 virus cases in SKorea: South Korea identifi ed 156 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the country’s total caseload to 21,588, according to Yonhap News Agency.

The country reported three more deaths, raising the death toll to 344, the Korea Cent-ers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Of the 144 local infections, 48 cases were confi rmed in Seoul and 51 from Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital.

The government extended the enhanced social distancing scheme by another week from Monday in the greater Seoul area, which accounted for most of the recently added virus cases. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

89,706 cases in India: India added another 89,706 coronavirus cases to the second-highest tally in the world, and the government said schools would reopen later this month for senior students after more than fi ve months closed.

India’s famed white marble Taj Mahal in the northern city of Agra will also reopen Sept. 21 with access restricted to 5,000 tour-ists daily to prevent overcrowding.

According to the Health Ministry, India’s total caseload on Wednesday reached 4.37 million.

The ministry also reported 1,115 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking total fatalities up to 73,890. India has the second-most cases in the world and the third-most deaths behind the United States and Bra-zil. India’s Prime Minister is Narendra Modi.

More than 1 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus in India in less than two weeks. Testing has been ramped up to more than 1 million daily, with cumu-lative testing exceeding 50 million.

In the Indian capital, authorities said COVID-19 testing centers can take walk-ins without a doctor’s prescription. This follows a rise in the daily tally of coronavirus cases to 2,411 from less than 1,000 last month.

The Health Ministry on Tuesday an-nounced partial reopening of schools from Sept21 for students of 9-12th grades for taking teachers’ guidance. Online learning will still be permitted.

Schools were shut after India imposed a strict nationwide lockdown on March 25. The government started easing it in May to revive economic activity. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

142 virus deaths in Russia: The Rus-sian authorities announced on Wednesday registering 142 Coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths, and 5,218 new infections during the last 24 hours.

The pandemic death toll raised to 18,135, and 1,041,007 infections, the coronavirus operations center said in a statement.

The total recoveries reached 6,409 to allow the total recovered patients to reach 856,458. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

9 virus deaths in Germany: German authorities announced on Wednesday registering nine Coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths, while 1,176 people were infected.

The daily cases raised the death toll to 9,338, and total infections 253,474 cases, The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) added in press remarks. Germany’s Chancellor is Angela Merkel.

Germany is registering for weeks more than 1,000 infection per day, it added. (KUNA)

A worker prepares a collection tube during COVID-19 tests for fi rst respond-ers on Aug 6, 2020, at Hialeah Fire Station #1, in Hialeah, Fla. The tests were provided free of charge by Prime Care Medical Centers and Solis Health Plans. Florida on Thursday reported 7,650 new coronavirus cases. The state now has a total of 510,389 cases, second only to California, and at least 7,781 deaths.

(AP)

Firm probes recipient’s ‘unexplained illness’

AZ vaccine study paused after illnessNEW YORK, Sept 9, (Agencies): Late-stage studies of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate are on temporary hold while the company in-vestigates whether a recipient’s “poten-tially unexplained” illness is a side effect of the shot.

In a statement issued Tuesday even-ing, the company said its “standard re-view process triggered a pause to vac-cination to allow review of safety data.”

AstraZeneca (AZ) didn’t reveal any information about the possible side ef-fect except to call it “a potentially un-explained illness.” The health news site STAT fi rst reported the pause in testing, saying the possible side effect occurred in the United Kingdom. An AstraZen-eca spokesperson confi rmed the pause in vaccinations covers studies in the US and other countries. Late last month, As-traZeneca began recruiting 30,000 peo-ple in the US for its largest study of the vaccine. It also is testing the vaccine, de-veloped by Oxford University, in thou-sands of people in Britain, and in smaller studies in Brazil and South Africa.

Two other vaccines are in huge, fi nal-stage tests in the United States, one made by Moderna Inc. and the other by Pfi zer and Germany’s BioNTech. Those two vaccines work differently than Astra-Zeneca’s, and the studies already have recruited about two-thirds of the needed volunteers. Temporary holds of large medical studies aren’t unusual, and in-vestigating any serious or unexpected reaction is a mandatory part of safety testing. AstraZeneca pointed out that it’s possible the problem could be a coinci-dence; illnesses of all sorts could arise in studies of thousands of people.

“We are working to expedite the re-view of the single event to minimize any potential impact on the trial timeline,” the company statement said. It’s likely the unexplained illness was serious enough to require hospitalization and not a mild side effect such as fever or muscle pain, said Deborah Fuller, a University of Washington researcher who is work-ing on a different COVID-19 vaccine that has not yet started human testing.

“This is not something to be alarmed about,” Fuller said. Instead, it’s reas-suring that the company is pausing the study to fi gure out what’s happening and

carefully monitoring the health of study participants. Dr. Ashish Jha of Brown University said via Twitter that the sig-nifi cance of the interruption was unclear but that he was “still optimistic” that an effective vaccine will be found in the coming months.

“But optimism isn’t evidence,” he wrote. “Let’s let science drive this pro-cess.” Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York, tweeted that the illness may be unrelated to the vaccine, “but the important part is that this is why we do trials before roll-ing out a vaccine to the general public.”

During the third and fi nal stage of testing, researchers look for any signs of possible side effects that may have gone undetected in earlier patient research. Because of their large size, the studies are considered the most important study phase for picking up less common side effects and establishing safety.

AssessThe trials also assess effectiveness by

tracking who gets sick and who doesn’t between patients getting the vaccine and those receiving a dummy shot.

The development came the same day that AstraZeneca and eight other drug-makers issued an unusual pledge, vow-ing to uphold the highest ethical and scientifi c standards in developing their vaccines.

The announcement follows worries that President Donald Trump will pres-sure the US Food and Drug Adminis-tration to approve a vaccine before it’s proven to be safe and effective.

The US has invested billions of dol-lars in efforts to quickly develop mul-tiple vaccines against COVID-19. But public fears that a vaccine is unsafe or ineffective could be disastrous, derailing the effort to vaccinate millions of Ameri-cans. Representatives for the FDA did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday evening.

Also:WASHINGTON: Nine pharmaceuti-cal companies signed a joint pledge on Tuesday to prioritise the safety of vacci-nated individuals in the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

These included the CEOs of fi rms

AstraZeneca, BioNTech, GlaxoSmith-Kline plc, Johnson and Johnson, Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, Moderna, Inc., No-vavax, Inc., Pfi zer Inc. and Sanofi . The pledge outlines a united commitment to uphold the integrity of the scientifi c process as they work towards potential global regulatory fi lings and approvals of the fi rst coronavirus vaccines.

Included in the four-point pledge is the adherence to high scientifi c and ethi-cal standards during clinical trials and the commitment to applying for approv-als after the Phase 3 clinical study pro-cess as per FDA regulations.

“We believe this pledge will help ensure public confi dence in the rigor-ous scientifi c and regulatory process by which COVID-19 vaccines are evalu-ated and may ultimately be approved,” read a joint statement by the companies.

US President Donald Trump said Monday that under his leadership, a coronavirus vaccine will be produced in “record time.”

Speaking to reporters during a brief-ing at the White House, Trump added that the vaccine “could’ve taken two or three years, and instead it’s going to be done in a very short of period of time.”

“Could even have it during the month of October,” he remarked. He reiter-ated “we’re going to have a vaccine very soon, maybe even before a very special date.”

This comes as the US ranks fi rst glob-ally in the coronavirus cases and deaths with almost 6.3 million confi rmed cases nationwide and about close to 190,000 deaths.

❑ ❑ ❑

BRUSSELS: Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s Directo-rate-General for Health and Food Safety, Sandra Gallina, said the fi rst vaccina-tions against coronavirus should start already towards the end of this year and a signifi cant number of vaccines should become available in the fi rst part of 2021.

Speaking at the European Parlia-ment’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, in Brus-sels, she said it would be up to EU mem-ber states to decide who will receive the vaccination fi rst.

Coronavirus

Modi Merkel

Mozaffarian

SPORTSARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

14

Zverev overcomes 12 double-faults atUS Open; Osaka, Busta into semifi nals

Brady overcomes jitters to reach SF

NEW YORK, Sept 9, (AP): The disqualifi cation of No-vak Djokovic from the US Open, and the absences of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, presented quite an opportunity to Alexan-der Zverev and the other men left in the tournament – all in their 20s, all seeking a fi rst Grand Slam title.

Who would falter? Who would rise to the occasion? Done in by double-faults and bothered by an officiating decision, Zverev stum-bled at the start of Tuesday’s quar-ter-final against Borna Coric. Then, suddenly, Zverev soared.

Down a set and a break early, then so close to trailing by two sets to one, Zverev grabbed 14 of 15 points in a pivotal stretch on the way to earning his first semifinal berth at Flushing Meadows with a 1-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1), 6-3 victory over Coric.

It was a scratchy contest – both men generated more unforced errors than winners through two sets, and Zverev finished with 12 double-faults – and the winner acknowledged afterward that the way he played at the outset was “not the level for the quarter-final match in a Grand Slam.”

The 27th-seeded Coric’s take: “I felt like I was in charge of the match. I saw he was struggling, not playing his best tennis.”

But Zverev got more aggressive as things went on, including essentially hitting two first serves instead of a softer, slower second following a fault, and that helped lift him to his second consecutive major semifinal, after get-ting that far at this year’s Australian Open.

Next for the 23-year-old from Germany will be a match against No. 20 Pablo Carreño Busta of Spain, who edged No. 12 Denis Shapovalov of Canada 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 0-6, 6-3 in a marathon that ended after 1 am Wednesday.

It was Carreño Busta who was the beneficiary when Djokovic was defaulted from their fourth-round match for hitting a ball that acciden-

tally hit a line judge in the throat after a game.

The men’s quarter-finals Wednesday: Dominic Thiem vs Alex de Minaur, and Daniil Medvedev vs Andrey Rublev.

In women’s action Tuesday, two-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka set up a semifinal against 28th-seeded Jennifer Brady, a 25-year-old from Pennsylvania who’s never been this far at a major tournament.

Osaka, the former No. 1-ranked played who won the U.S. Open two years ago, played far cleaner tennis than her opponent in a 6-3, 6-4 win over 93rd-ranked Shelby Rogers at night.

Rogers finished with 27 unforced errors, Osaka with eight.

Earlier, Brady defeated No. 23 seed Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2.

It’s been quite a surge for Brady, whose big serve and forehand have carried her to an 11-1 record since ten-nis returned from its pandemic hiatus.

Her ranking was low enough at the start of 2020 that she needed to go through qualifying to get into a tourna-ment’s main draw.

Wednesday’s women’s quarter-finals are Serena Williams vs Tsvetana Pironkova, and Victoria Azarenka vs Elise Mertens.

Zverev has been considered an up-and-coming talent to watch for a few years now but had never quite put it together at Grand Slam tournament until this year. And Tuesday, he was dealing with a lot.

There were his own double-fault demons – nothing new, but disconcert-ing all the same – that appeared just 10 minutes into the match, when a trio of those free points contributed to Coric breaking to lead 3-1.

There was his argument with chair umpire Eva Asderaki-Moore early in the second set about her decision to replay a point after an incorrect call robbed Zverev of a point.

There was his gripe with ESPN courtside commentator Brad Gilbert, whose reports on live TV in an empty Arthur Ashe Stadium bothered Zverev enough that he told the former player and coach: “You’re talking too loud, man. ... I can hear every single word you’re saying.”

There were all of Coric’s trips off the court to change out of his sweat-soaked clothes.

Naomi Osaka of Japan, serves to Shelby Rogers, of the United States, during the quarter-fi nal round of the US Open tennis cham-pionships on Sept 8 in New York.

(AP)

Karsten Warholm of Norway com-petes in the 400 meter hurdles at the Golden Spike athletic meeting in Ostrava, Czech Republic on Sept

8. (AP)

Alexander Zverev, of Germany, returns a shot to Borna Coric, of Croatia, during the quarter-fi nals of the US Open tennis championships on Sept 8 in New York. (AP)

Tourists beat England by fi ve wicket

Marsh shines, Australia retain top T20 rankingSOUTHAMPTON, England, Aug 9, (AP): Australia held onto Twenty20 cricket’s top ranking with a fi ve-wicket win Tuesday in the last game of a series that England had already clinched.

Mitch Marsh fi nished unbeaten on 39 and hit the winning runs as Austral-ia chased down its target of 146 with three balls to spare at the Rose Bowl.

England provisionally took No. 1 spot in the T20 format when it led the three-game series 2-0 but needed a sweep to retain top ranking.

The series marked Australia’s re-turn to international cricket for the fi rst time since March following the shutdown for the coronavirus pan-demic.

For England, it continued a posi-tive run since it reopened interna-tional cricket in July with a Test series against West Indies and followed up with series against Pakistan and Ire-land.

England will now host Australia in a three-game ODI series, the fi rst between the countries since England won the World Cup on home soil last year.

On Tuesday, England opener Jonny Bairstow overcame a slow start to score a 44-ball 55 containing three fours and three sixes and lead the team to 145-6. That was the lowest score of the series so far, with paceman Mitch-ell Starc very economical by conced-ing just 20 runs off his four overs.

Joe Denly’s late-innings 29 off 19 balls gave England’s total some re-spectability, but Australia went at 10 runs an over off its fi rst seven and was seemingly easing to the win.

However, the Australians slumped from 70-1 to 100-5 in six overs in its latest middle-order collapse, with Adil Rashid’s legspin accounting for the wickets of captain Aaron Finch (39), Glenn Maxwell (6) and Steve Smith (3).

Marsh and Ashton Agar (16) put on

a stand of 46 to see Australia home.“We know where we messed up

in the fi rst game but tonight we were really good again for the majority of the game,” Finch said, refl ecting on Australia’s batting collapses after promising starts in the fi rst and third games. “It was nice Mitch and Ashton got us over the line this time. There are always areas for improvement, es-pecially in those middle overs against the spinners.”

England was missing star batsman Jos Buttler and regular captain Eoin Morgan, while Australia rested pace-man Pat Cummins and opener David Warner.

They should all return for the three-match ODI series starting Friday.

Meanwhile, Jason Roy was added to England’s squad on Wednesday for

the upcoming one-day international series against Australia after recover-ing from a side strain.

The explosive opener missed the recent T20 series against Pakistan and Australia with the injury he sustained in training.

Dawid Malan was promoted to the reserve list on the day he rose to No. 1 on the Twenty20 player international rankings after scoring 66, 44 and 21 against Australia in the series England won 2-1. That took his career average to 48.71 and his overall strike-rate to 146.66.

The ODI series against Australia starts Friday in Manchester. They are the first ODI matches between the countries since England won the Criccket World Cup on home soil last year.

Australia’s Mitchell Marsh bats during the third Twenty20 cricket match be-tween England and Australia at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton, England

on Sept 8. (AP)

‘Unbeaten’ Trinbagoadvance to CPL fi nalTAROUBA, Trinidad, Sept 9, (AP): The Trinbago Knight Riders have tak-en their perfect record into the fi nal of the Caribbean Premier League.

Lendl Simmons hit consecutive boundaries to end the fi rst over and fi nished unbeaten on 54 as the Knight Riders raced to a nine-wicket win over Jamaica Tallawahs with fi ve overs to spare in the fi rst of Tuesday’s semifi nals.

Simmons and Tion Webster (44) shared an unbeaten 97-run stand as Trinbago reached 111-1 in reply to 107-7. The Knight Riders’ bowling attack was left-arm spinners – Akeal Hosein (3-14) and Khary Pierre (2-29).

Trinbago, who won all 10 games in the round-robin portion of the Twen-ty20 tournament, will play St Lucia Zouks in Thursday’s fi nal at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.

The Zouks beat the Guyana Ama-zon Warriors by 10 wickets in the the later semifi nal. St Lucia bowled out Guyana for 55 in 13.4 overs then scored the winning runs in the fi fth over of an easy chase.

Rahkeem Cornwall scored 32 and four bowlers took two wickets each for the Zouks.

Warholm wins 400m hurdles at Golden Spike meetOSTRAVA, Czech Republic, Sept 9, (AP): Two-time world champion Karsten Warholm of Norway easily won the men’s 400 meter hurdles at the Golden Spike meet on Tuesday, al-though he couldn’t challenge the world record this time.

Warholm clocked 47.62 seconds but said he’d been hoping to run faster after fi nishing the distance in 46.87 in Stockholm last month. That was the second best time in history, only 0.09 seconds behind the world record set by

American Kevin Young at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

“I was a bit surprise with the time, I thought it was better,” Warholm said. “I pushed all the way through but

that’s sport.”About 3,000 spectators were al-

lowed to attend the 59th edition of the

meet due to the government’s restric-tions to contain the coronavirus pan-demic. The event is part of the newly established World Athletics Continen-tal Tour Gold circuit.

World and Olympic champion Christian Taylor of the United States leaped a world-leading 17.46 meters to win the men’s triple jump, while fel-low American Ryan Crouser extended his dominance in the men’s shot put this season by winning with a throw of 22.43 meters.

ATHLETICS

CRICKET

TENNIS

SPORTSARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

15

Minnesota Lynx guard Bridget Carleton steps into Washington Mystics guard Jacki Gemelos (3) during the second half of a WNBA basketball

game on Sept 8, in Bradenton, Florida. (AP)

Sweden’s Pontus Jansson (right), chased by Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo during their UEFA Nations League group stage soccer match at Friends

Arena in Stockholm, Sweden on Sept 8. (AP)

Top-ranked Belgium beat Iceland 5-1

Ronaldo reaches centuryof int’l goals for PortugalSTOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sept 9, (AP): Add 100 international goals to the extraordinary list of mile-stones achieved by soccer super-star Cristiano Ronaldo.

The 35-year-old Ronaldo become just the second male play-er to reach a century of goals for a national team when he curled a free kick into the top corner from 25 meters for the first of his two strikes in Portugal’s 2-0 away win a g a i n s t Sweden in the N a t i o n s League on Tuesday.

S c o r i n g one of the best goals of his interna-tional career was a fitting way to enter the “100 Club”, where he joins former Iran striker Ali Daei, and he wheeled away in delight in an empty Friends Arena in Stockholm before performing his trademark celebration – the mid-air pirouette.

Ronaldo, who was playing in his 165th game for Portugal, then added a second goal – another curler into the top corner – and needs nine more to surpass the international record of 109 scored by Daei from 1993-2006. The five-time world player of the year already holds the record for goals in the Champions League with 131 – 16 more than nearest rival Lionel Messi – and has now scored an international goal for the 17th straight calendar year.

Portugal have won their two opening group games after beating Croatia 4-1 on Saturday, when Ronaldo was absent because of a toe infection.

Belgium and France also have maximum points. The top-ranked Belgians beat Iceland 5-1 and France defeated Croatia 4-2 – the same scoreline as the 2018 World

Cup final. England drew 0-0 at Denmark in Copenhagen.

Oliver Giroud moved to within one goal of Michel Platini’s national record for France by con-verting a penalty to complete the victory over Croatia at the Stade de France.

The striker was handed the opportunity to move onto 40 inter-national goals by Antoine Griezmann, who gave away pen-alty duties having missed his last three for France. Giroud made no mistake in the 77th minute.

A well-taken individual goal by center back Dejan Lovren put

Croatia ahead, but Anthony Martial set up Griezmann for the equalizer before sliding in for a shot that hit the post, struck goal-keeper Dominik Livaković on the back of the head, and rebounded into the net.

Martial, starting for France for the first time since March 2018, was only in the lineup because Kylian Mbappé was missing after testing positive for the coronavirus on Monday.

Josip Brekalo made it 2-2, only for defender Dayot Upamecano to regain the lead for France before Giroud’s penalty.

Eduardo Camavinga came on for his France debut during the second half, becoming the young-est player to represent France since the second world war at 17 years, 10 months.

Kevin De Bruyne celebrated becoming English football’s play-er of the year by setting up two of Belgium’s goals in their comeback win over Iceland.

The Manchester City midfielder didn’t get on the scoresheet, though, with striker Michy Batshuayi netting in either half and Axel Witsel, Dries Mertens and Jeremy Doku also scoring.

Giroud

SOCCER

Sparks hand Liberty 5th straight loss

Mystics keep playoff hopes aliveBRADENTON, Florida, Sept 9, (AP): Myisha Hines-Allen had 26 points, nine rebounds and four assists, Tianna Hawkins made four straight free throws in the final eight seconds and the defending WNBA champions Washington Mystics beat the Minnesota Lynx 89-86 on Tuesday night to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Washington (6-13), who have won two of their last three following a five-game losing streak, are one-game behind the Dallas Wings for the final playoff spot with three games to play.

Ariel Atkins gave Washington a 85-78 lead with 2:06 remaining, but Minnesota scored the next six points before Hawkins sealed it at the free-throw line.

Emma Meesseman and Atkins each scored 18 points for Washington. Leilani Mitchell had 10 assists and Hawkins finished with 14 points in 17 minutes.

Hines-Allen scored 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the first quarter to help Washington take a 24-20 lead. She narrowly missed her sixth double-double in the last nine games.

Napheesa Collier had 21 points and 11 rebounds and rookie Crystal Dangerfield added 20 points and seven assists for Minnesota (13-7). Odyssey Sims scored 17 points and Damiris Dantas had 14.

Sparks 96, Liberty 70Nneka Ogwumike had 20 points,

eight rebounds and five assists, Riquna Williams also scored 20 points and the Los Angeles Sparks beat the New York Liberty 96-70.

The Sparks (15-5) remained in the hunt for a top-two seed in the postsea-son.

Candace Parker had eight points, four rebounds and four assists in the

first quarter as Los Angeles built a 25-12 lead. The Sparks used a 26-15 third quarter to take a 22-point lead into the fourth.

Parker finished with 14 points, five rebounds and seven assists, and Chelsea Gray had nine assists for Los Angeles (15-5). The Sparks were missing two starters as Brittney Sykes did not play after taking a knee to the stomach in the third quarter on Sunday. Sydney Wiese also hurt her ankle in the game.

Jocelyn Willoughby scored 21 points, making all five of her 3-point-ers, for New York (2-17), which has lost five straight. Kia Nurse had 13 points and seven rebounds and Paris Kea scored 11.

Willoughby scored 13 of New York’s 31 first-half points, but the Liberty still trailed by 11 points at the break.

Aces 92, Fever 86A’ja Wilson had 22 points, 16

rebounds and three blocks, Jackie

Young added 17 points and seven assists and the Las Vegas Aces beat the Indiana Fever 92-86 on Tuesday night.

Second-place Las Vegas (15-4) are a game behind Seattle for the top seed in the playoffs. The two teams play on Sunday in the season finale. The Aces are also a half-game in front of Los Angeles for the second spot. The Aces play the Sparks on Saturday.

Angel McCoughtry scored 15 points and Dearica Hamby had 13 for Las Vegas, which led by 20 points before holding off the charging Fever (5-15).

Kelsey Mitchell led Indiana with 24 points and Julie Allemand added 19, hitting six 3-pointers. Candice Dupree added 16 points and Teaira McCowan had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Fever, who were eliminated from playoff contention.

Allemand tied the Indiana record for 3-pointers by a rookie, and she was one away from tying the league rookie record.

BASKETBALL

Lux hits 2 HRs, lifts Dodgers over Diamondbacks in 10th

Ruf homers late, Giants rally past red-hot Mariners 6-5

PHOENIX, Sept 8, (AP): Rookie Gavin Lux hit two homers, including a three-run shot in the 10th inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied from four runs down to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-9 on Tuesday night.

In the decisive 10th inning, A.J. Pollock started on second base and advanced to third on Cody Bellinger’s fly ball to left. Max Muncy was intentionally walked and Pollock scored on an error by Eduardo Escobar, who mishandled Chris Taylor’s grounder.

Lux followed with a towering homer that landed deep in the right-field seats and made it 10-6. It was the 22-year-old prospect’s first multihom-er game in the big leagues.

Giants 6, Mariners 5In San Francisco, pinch-hitter Darin

Ruf homered with one out in the sev-enth inning and the San Francisco Giants beat Seattle 6-5, ending the Mariners’ six-game winning streak.

Alex Dickerson and Mauricio Dubón also went deep for the Giants, who erased a 5-1 deficit to win for the seventh time in nine games.

First-year San Francisco manager Gabe Kapler had to use five pitchers to keep his club on a roll and got another big night from the offense.

Padres 14, Rockies 5In San Diego, Wil Myers homered

twice, including San Diego’s seventh grand slam of the season, Austin Nola hit a three-run shot and Mike Clevinger was impressive in his home debut for the Padres, who routed the Colorado Rockies 14-5.

The Padres, cruising toward their first postseason appearance since 2006, won their third straight and for the seventh time in nine games.

Myers hit his slam in the five-run first inning and then homered leading off the seventh to match his single-game high of five RBIs. His 11th homer gave him his eighth career multi-homer game.

Athletics 4, Astros 2, 7 Innings, Game 1

Astros 5, Athletics 4, 7 Innings, Game 2

In Oakland, California, Yuli Gurriel hit a tie-breaking sacrifice fly in the seventh inning set up by an Oakland error, and the Houston Astros beat the Athletics 5-4 to split a doubleheader and end a six-game losing streak.

In the opener, as ash from nearby wildfires fell inside the Coliseum, Khris Davis homered off previously unbeaten Zack Greinke to help the A’s win 4-2.

The split kept the AL West-leading Athletics 4-1/2 games ahead of sec-ond-place Houston.

George Springer reached on rookie shortstop Vimael Machin’s error to start the seventh and eventually scored on Gurriel’s fly.

Oakland loaded the bases against

Enoli Paredes (2-2) in the sixth but couldn’t capitalize. Ryan Pressly earned his eighth save.

Cubs 3, Reds 0In Chicago, Alec Mills pitched six

sharp innings, David Bote drove in two runs and the Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds 3-0.

Taking the mound on a wet, windy and cool night at Wrigley Field, Mills (4-3) permitted four hits, struck out six and walked three in his first win since Aug 24. The right-hander went 1-3 with a 7.66 ERA in his previous five starts for the NL Central leaders.

Pirates 5, White Sox 4In Pittsburgh, pinch-runner Jason

Martin scored the winning run on catcher Yasmani Grandal’s error in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Pittsburgh Pirates rallied for a 5-4 vic-tory over the Chicago White Sox.

With the score tied at 4-4, the Pirates loaded the bases with none out as Gregory Polanco and Josh Bell sin-gled and Ke’Bryan Hayes walked.

Marlins 8, Braves 0In Atlanta, Sixto Sánchez combined

with four relievers on a four-hitter, Jorge Alfaro hit one of three homers for Miami and the Marlins beat the Atlanta Braves 8-0.

Garrett Cooper had two hits, includ-ing a two-run homer, and drove in three runs. Alfaro drove in two runs with two hits, including his first homer. Matt Joyce also homered.

Orioles 11, Mets 2In New York, rookie Ryan

Mountcastle hit a two-run homer, Rio Ruiz added a three-run shot as the Baltimore Orioles hit four homers and cruised to an 11-2 victory over the New York Mets.

The Orioles won their fourth straight and improved to 20-21, moving within a half-game of the slumping Yankees for the second wild-card spot.

D.J. Stewart also homered for the third straight game after hitting three homers in Baltimore’s weekend series over the Yankees. Cedric Mullins had an RBI triple as the Orioles won for the sixth time in eight games.

Phillies 6, Red Sox 5, 7 Innings, Game 1

Red Sox 5, Phillies 2, 7 Innings, Game 2

In Philadelphia, Bobby Dalbec homered for his fourth straight game, his two-run shot in the sixth inning enough to help the Boston Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-2 and split a doubleheader.

Alec Bohm hit a two-out, two-run single in the seventh inning to rally the Phillies to 6-5 win in the opener.

Dalbec homered in both games of the doubleheader, and the rookie first baseman has homered in five of his first nine career games. He’s the first Red Sox rookie to homer in four straight games.

Tigers 8, Brewers 3In Detroit, Spencer Turnbull

allowed three hits in six scoreless innings, and the Detroit Tigers broke the game open with five runs in the fifth on their way to an 8-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.

It wasn’t all good news for the Tigers, however. Second baseman Jonathan Schoop, who leads Detroit with eight home runs, left with a right wrist contusion after being hit by a pitch in the fourth.

Blue Jays 2, Yankees 1In Buffalo, New York, Gary

Sánchez and the slumping New York

Yankees lost their fifth in a row and fell for the 15th time in 20 games, again failing to get clutch hits in a 2-1 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Hours after general manager Brian Cashman tried to change his team’s fortunes with a pregame address, the Yankees continued to struggled.

Twins 7, Cardinals 3, 7 Innings, Game 1

Cardinals 6, Twins 4, 7 Innings, Game 2

In St Louis, Matt Wieters hit 14 foul balls during a 19-pitch at-bat that fin-ished with a flyout during a wild rally that sent the St Louis Cardinals over the Minnesota Twins 6-4 for a double-header split.

Josh Donaldson, Nelson Cruz and Miguel Sanó all homered, leading the Twins to a 7-3 victory over the Cardinals in the first game. Cruz also homered in the second game to tie him for the MLB lead with 15.

The Twins led 2-0 in the third inning of the nightcap before combin-ing two singles, three walks and two hitters to score five runs.

Wieters, hit by a pitch from Randy Dobnak (6-3) earlier in the inning,

came up with two outs and the bases loaded against reliever Caleb Thielbar.

Wieters quickly fell behind 0-2 before eventually working the count full. He then fouled off nine straight pitches before flying out to center.

Royals 8, Indians 6In Cleveland, Maikel Franco drove

in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning and had an RBI single in the ninth as Kansas City beat the Cleveland Indians 8-6 to snap a seven-game losing streak.

Whit Merrifield hit a three-run homer and Cam Gallagher had an RBI double for Kansas City, which had been outscored 51-18 and only held the lead after one inning in losing its first seven games in September.

Adalberto Mondesí led off the eighth with a single off Adam Cimber (0-1) and scored on Franco’s fly to center, putting the Royals up 6-5. Later in the inning, Nicky Lopez was hit by a pitch from Oliver Perez with the bases loaded to score Hunter Dozier.

Nationals 5, Rays 3 In Washington, Juan Soto drove in a

run in his return to the lineup and the Washington Nationals used strong relief pitching to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-3 to sweep the two-game series.

After missing five games with left elbow soreness, Juan Soto was back in the lineup as the designated hitter for just the second time this season. The 21-year-old drove in a run in his first at-bat with a groundout to third in the first.

Soto finished 1 for 2 with two walks and a run.

Rangers 7, Angels 1In Arlington, Texas, Lance Lynn

pitched seven strong innings, Elvis Andrus homered and the Texas Rangers snapped a six-game losing streak with a 7-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels, who had won five in a row.

Lynn (5-2), the first major league pitcher to make 10 starts this season, struck out six, walked two and limited the Angels to one run on four hits, though he hit three batters with pitches – including Justin Upton twice.

San Francisco Giants’ Darin Ruf hits a solo home run against the Seattle Mariners during the sev-enth inning of a baseball game on

Sept 8, in San Francisco. (AP)

San Diego Padres starting pitcher Mike Clevinger works against a Colorado Rockies batter during the fourth inning of a baseball game on Sept 8, in San Diego. (AP)

WASHINGTON, Sept 9, (AP): Results and standings from the MLB games on Tuesday.Twins 7 St Louis (7 ins) (Game 1) 3Phillies 6 Boston (7 ins) (Game 1) 5A’s 4 Astros (7 ins) (Game 1) 2KC Royals 8 Cleveland 6St Louis 6 Twins (7 ins) (Game 2) 4Nationals 5 TB Rays 3Toronto 2 NY Yankees 1Baltimore 11 NY Mets 2Detroit 8 Milwaukee 3

Boston 5 Phillies (7 ins) (Game 2) 2Pittsburgh 5 Chic W. Sox 4Texas 7 LA Angels 1Astros 5 A’s (7 ins) (Game 2) 4SF Giants 6 Seattle 5Miami 8 Atlanta 0Chic Cubs 3 Reds 0SD Padres 14 Colorado 5LA Dodgers 10 Arizona (10 ins) 9

American LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GBTampa Bay 28 15 .651 –Toronto 24 18 .571 3-1/2New York 21 21 .500 6-1/2Baltimore 20 21 .488 7Boston 15 29 .341 13-1/2

Central Division W L Pct GBChicago 26 16 .619 –Cleveland 26 16 .619 –Minnesota 27 18 .600 1/2Detroit 19 21 .475 6Kansas City 15 28 .349 11-1/2

West Division W L Pct GBOakland 25 15 .625 –Houston 22 21 .512 4-1/2Seattle 19 23 .452 7Los Angeles 17 26 .395 9-1/2Texas 14 27 .341 11-1/2

National LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GBAtlanta 24 18 .571 –Philadelphia 21 18 .538 1-1/2Miami 19 18 .514 2-1/2New York 19 24 .442 5-1/2Washington 16 25 .390 7-1/2

Central Division W L Pct GBChicago 25 18 .581 –St Louis 18 17 .514 3Milwaukee 18 22 .450 5-1/2Cincinnati 18 24 .429 6-1/2Pittsburgh 14 26 .350 9-1/2

West Division W L Pct GBLos Angeles 31 12 .721 –San Diego 27 17 .614 4-1/2San Francisco 22 21 .512 9Colorado 20 22 .476 10-1/2Arizona 15 28 .349 16

MLB Results/Standings

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SportsPortugal’s Ronaldo celebrates after scoring against Sweden during their UEFA Nations League group stage soccer match at Friends Arena in Stockholm, Sweden on Sept 8. (AP) – See Page 14

Stastny scores to end lengthy goal drought by Vegas forwards

Golden Knights rout Stars to tie seriesEDMONTON, Alberta, Sept 9, (AP): After running into a hot goalie late last round and being shut out in the opener of the Western Conference fi nal, pressure mounted in the minds of the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 2.

When Paul Stastny scored to end a lengthy goal drought by Vegas forwards, the entire mood changed. William Karls-son and Tomas Nosek made it three goals in less than 10 minutes, Robin Lehner stopped all 24 shots he faced and the Golden Knights rediscovered their winning ways and beat the Dallas Stars 3-0 Tuesday night, evening the series.

“We were snake-bitten for a while there and think everybody was gripping their stick a little tight,” forward Chan-dler Stephenson said. “We’re at our best when we have that swagger and we’re making plays and tough to defend. It was nice to get that mojo back tonight and even the series.”

Stastny’s second-period goal was the fi rst by a Vegas forward with an opposing goalie in net in 27:24, dating to Game 4 against Vancouver last round. His and Karlsson’s were the kind of goals the Golden Knights became accustomed to scoring - ones that are diffi cult or im-possible for someone like Anton Khudobin to stop.

After getting fl ustered by hot Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko and failing to crack Khudobin in a hard-hit-ting Game 1 that was played at the Stars’ pace, Vegas fi nally looked like the team that earned the top seed in the West and

steamrolled through the fi rst round and halfway through the Vancouver series.

“That fi rst goal relieved a little bit of pressure,” coach Pe-ter DeBoer said. “We got our game back, and I think once we got that fi rst goal, I think we looked like we normally do, which was making plays and fi nding space and sticking pucks in the net.”

The return of enforcer Ryan Reaves was just one element of that. With Reaves suspended a game for an illegal check to the head, DeBoer didn’t start his physical fourth line as he

had in 34 consecutive games since the All-Star break in Janu-ary. William Carrier, Nosek and Reaves started and came out hitting. Reaves hit Dallas captain Jamie Benn twice in the fi rst 30 seconds, and the Golden Knights dictated the physi-cality the way the Stars did two nights earlier.

DeBoer believes Reaves and Carrier set the tone because “they start on time” and are ready to play. The Stars found that out quick.

“We expected them to come out hard and respond,” center Tyler Seguin said. “They’re a great hockey team.”

After no goals in the fi rst period, Stastny scored on a re-direction in front from Max Pacioretty. With agitating Stars winger Corey Perry in the penalty box minutes later, Karls-son scored on the power play with Mark Stone sliding in front to screen Khudobin.

Dallas Stars’ Tyler Seguin (91) and Vegas Golden Knights’ Brayden McNabb (3) compete for the puck during the fi rst period of Game 2 of the NHL hockey Western Conference fi nal on Sept 8 in Edmonton, Alberta. (AP)

Heat eliminate Bucks, reach East fi nalsLakers rally past Rockets

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla, Sept 9, (AP): The fi fth-seeded Miami Heat fi nished off an upset of the NBA’s best regular-season team Tuesday, topping the Milwaukee Bucks 103-94 in Game 5 of their East semifi nal series – while Gi-annis Antetokounmpo, the league’s reigning MVP, couldn’t play because of a sprained right ankle.

Jimmy Butler and Goran Drag-ic each scored 17 points for the Heat, who won the series 4-1 and will face either Boston or Toronto when the NBA’s Final Four gets underway next week. It’s Miami’s fi rst time in the East fi nals since 2014, and the fi rst time Butler has gotten to the NBA’s Final Four.

Jae Crowder scored 16, Tyler Herro scored 14, Bam Adebayo had 13 and Kelly Olynyk had 12 for the Heat.

Khris Middleton had 23 points for Mil-waukee, which got 15 points and 14 re-bounds from Brook Lopez. Donte DiVin-cenzo scored 17, Wesley Matthews and Marvin Williams each had 11 and Eric Bledsoe had nine assists for the Bucks. Antetokounmpo did what he could – cheering from the bench throughout, re-bounding for teammates during pregame warmups and again at halftime, offering words during timeouts. But the NBA’s No. 1 overall seed in these playoffs – a league-best 56-17 in the regular season – just didn’t have enough.

Lakers 112, Rockets 102LeBron James scored 36 points,

Rajon Rondo sparked a fourth-quarter rally and Los Angeles beat Houston to take a 2-1 lead in their Western Con-ference playoff series.

James earned his NBA-record 162nd playoff victory, surpassing for-mer Lakers guard Derek Fisher’s 161.

Rondo had 21 points and nine as-sists as the Lakers broke open a close game in the fi nal period. He scored eight straight points during a 10-0 run early in the fourth quarter that put the Lakers ahead for good. Rondo assisted on the other basket during that stretch.

Anthony Davis had 26 points and Kyle Kuzma added 14. James Harden scored 33 points and Russell West-brook had 30 for the Rockets.

Rockets forward Robert Covington was taken to the locker room after col-liding with Davis in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Billy Donovan won’t return as coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder after fi ve seasons, the team announced Tuesday night.

Donovan, who was at the end of his contract, took the Thunder to the play-offs every year and was a fi nalist for Coach of the Year this season after his squad outperformed expectations and pushed the Houston Rockets to seven

games in the fi rst round of the playoffs.Donovan went 243-157 with Okla-

homa City. Before that, he led the University of Florida to two national championships and four Final Four ap-pearances in 19 seasons.

The team and Donovan described his departure as a mutual decision. Thunder general manager Sam Presti said he couldn’t give Donovan the as-surances he wanted about the future.

Miami Heat’s Kendrick Nunn (25) goes up for a shot in front of Milwaukee Bucks’ Khris Middleton (right), in the fi rst half of an NBA conference semifi nal playoff basketball game on Sept 8 in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP)

Roglic in yellow

Ewan wins Tour’s Stage 11, Sagan relegatedPOITIERS, France, Sept 9, (AP): Australian sprinter Caleb Ewan se-cured his second stage victory at this year’s Tour de France in a chaotic dash to the fi nish Wednesday that saw Peter Sagan penalized for barging a rival.

Sagan, squeezed up against barriers on the right-hand side of the fi nishing straight, made room for himself by leaning his left shoulder into Belgian rider Wout Van Aert. The irregular move cost Sagan his second place behind Ewan. The Slovakian was dropped back to 85th place.

Irish rider Sam Bennett was bumped up to second and Van Aert to third.

Afterward, Van Aert and Sagan had a sharp exchange of words.

“There wasn’t a gap and if you use your elbows to open it up, I think it’s completely against the rules,” said Van Aert, a two-time stage winner this year.

“It’s already dangerous enough and I was really surprised and shocked at the moment that I felt something,” he said. “Really scared.”

In the race for the overall win, Pri-moz Roglic stayed safe on the rolling ride to Poitiers to keep the race lead-er’s yellow jersey. The 167-kilometer (104-mile) stage started on France’s Atlantic coast.

Ewan skirted Bennett in the last meters (yards) and threw his front wheel across the line.

“It was very, very hectic,” said Ewan. “Quite crazy.” The 25-year-old Ewan, racing for the Lotto Sou-dal team, also won Stage 3 and three stages at his inaugural Tour last year.

Sagan’s relegation also cost him dearly in his hunt for the Tour’s green jersey, awarded to riders who collect the most points in sprints along the route and at fi nishes. Losing second place cost Sagan 30 points and award-

ed them instead to Bennett. Bennett and Sagan have been

locked in a tight duel for that prize, repeatedly taking the jersey off each other. Sagan has a record seven green jersey titles from previous Tours but is now seeing Bennett get away from him, 68 points clear with few other opportunities for sprinters to shine before the fi nal dash on the Champs-Elysees in Paris on Sept 20.

The last week and a half of the Tour will see riders who are chasing the overall title fi ghting to dislodge Roglic. He has a lead of 21 seconds over second-placed Egan Bernal, last year’s champion, and is 28 seconds ahead of third-placed French rider Guillaume Martin.

On Thursday, the remaining 161

riders will tackle the longest stage of this year’s route, a hilly 218-kilometer (135-mile) trek from Chauvigny to Sarran. That will be followed Friday by an even tougher stage with a sharp mountain-top fi nish that could prompt battles between the top contenders.

Given the challenges ahead, the pack largely took it easy Wednesday before the fi nal approach to Poitiers.

Matthieu Ladagnous, a 35-year-old French rider, punched on his pedals just moments after the stage start, im-mediately racing into the front.

But no one joined him in the breaka-way, leaving him to ride alone for more than three hours and over 120 kilom-eters (75 miles) before he was then swallowed up by the pack with 43 kil-ometers (27 miles) to go to the fi nish.

Australia’s Caleb Ewan (right), goes wheel-to-wheel with Ireland’s Sam Bennett as he races to the fi n-ish line to win Stage 11 of the Tour de France cycling race over 167.5 km from Chatelaillon-Plage to Poi-

tiers on Sept 9. (AP)

CYCLING

Kazma into last four of HH Amir’s football CupKUWAIT CITY, Sept 9, (KUNA): Kazma Sports Club (SC) beat Qad-sia 5-4 in a penalty shootout to qualify for the semifi nals of HH Amir’s football Cup after the regu-lation time and extra time ended 2-2 at Kuwait SC football stadium.

Kazma opened the scoring through Shabib Al-Khaldi in the 33rd minute, but Qadsia equalized

through a penalty by Bader Al-Mutawa in the 41st minute, of the fi rst half.

In the second half, Kazma re-gained the lead through Bandar Bursli in the 85th minute, but Qad-sia drew level again with a second penalty kick scored by Al-Mutawa.

In another match Kuwait SC beat Salmiya SC 4-2.

1. Caleb Ewan, Australia, Lotto Soudal, 04:00:01.

2. Peter Sagan, Slovakia, Bora-Hansgro-he same time.

3. Sam Bennett, Ireland, Deceuninck-Quickstep, same time.

4. Wout van Aert, Belgium, Team Jumbo-Visma, same time.

5. Bryan Coquard, France, B&B Hotels-Vital Concept, same time.

6. Clement Venturini, France, AG2R la Mondiale, same time.

7. Clement Venturini (Fra) AG2R la Mon-diale, same time.

8. Luka Mezgec, Slovenia, Mitchelton-Scott, same time.

9. Hugo Hofstetter, France, Israel Start-Up Nation, same time.

10.Oliver Naesen, Belgium, AG2R la Mondiale, same time.

11.Matteo Trentin, Italy, CCC Team, same time.

12.Alexander Kristoff, Norway, UAE Team Emirates, same time.

13.Anthony Turgis, France Total Direct Energie, same time.

14.Edvald Boasson Hagen, Norway NTT Pro Cycling, same time.

15.Niccolo Bonifazio, Italy, NTT Pro Cy-cling, same time.

16.Clement Russo, France, Team Arkea-Samsic, same time.

17.Elia Viviani, Italy, Cofi dis, same time.18.Cees Bol, Netherlands, Team Sun-

web, same time.19.Daryl Impey, South Africa, Mitchelton-

Scott, same time.20.Kevin Ledanois, France, Team Arkea-

Samsic, same time.Overall Standings (11 stages):

1. Primoz Roglic, Slovenia, Team Jum-bo-Visma, 46:15:24.

2. Egan Bernal, Colombia, INEOS Gren-adiers, :21.

3. Guillaume Martin, France, Cofi dis, :28.4. Romain Bardet, France, AG2R la Mon-

diale, :30.5. Nairo Quintana, Colombia, Team

Arkea-Samsic, :32.6. Rigoberto Uran, Colombia, EF Pro

Cycling, :32.7. Tadej Pogacar, Slovenia, UAE Team

Emirates, :448. Adam Yates, Britain, Mitchelton-Scott,

01:02.9. Miguel Angel Lopez, Colombia, Astana

Pro Team, 01:15.10. Mikel Landa, Spain, Bahrain

McLaren, 01:42. (AP)

Tour de France Results/Standings

ICE HOCKEY

Stastny

Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James (left), tries to block a shot by Hou-ston Rockets’ James Harden (13) during the fi rst half of an NBA con-ference semifi nal playoff basketball game on Sept 8, in Lake Buena

Vista, Fla. (AP)

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