Amir meets Commander of the US Central Command

Friday 17 July 2020

26 Dhul-Qa'da - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8321

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SPORT | 16BUSINESS | 13

European

Central Bank urges

leaders to act on

economy

Qatar coach Sanchez

eyes game

at Al Bayt

Stadium

The Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met yesterday at Al Bahr Palace with H E the Commander of the United States Central Command in the Middle East, General Kenneth McKenzie, and his accompanying delegation on the occasion of their visit to the country. During the meeting, they reviewed the strategic cooperation between the two friendly countries and ways of enhancing them, especially in the military and defence fields. They also discussed joint efforts to enhance the security and stability of the region. In this regard, H E the General expressed his thanks to H H the Amir for hosting the American forces at Al Udeid Air Base and for the pivotal role of the State of Qatar as a major partner in the field of combating terrorism.

PM attends graduation of fifth mandatory qualifying course

QNA — DOHA

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani attended the grad-uation ceremony of the fifth mandatory qualifying course for civil university graduates, which was held at the Police Training Institute yesterday, in the presence of several senior officers of the Ministry of Interior, the Amiri Guard and the Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya).

During the ceremony, H E the Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior honoured the distinguished trainees

and handed over certificates to the graduates.

The course included 103 trainees from various specialisations in several departments of the Ministry of Interior, Lekhwiya, and the Amiri Guard, who received over six months of military, sports, police, and aca-demic training.

After the ceremony, His Excellency toured the simulation center for crisis management, which contains the command room, the event management room, and the field performance room, in addition, the new uniform of the police force was adopted.

QA remains committed to sustainable operation as it rebuilds networkTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Airways is one of the few global airlines to have never stopped flying throughout this crisis. The airline’s mix of modern fuel-efficient aircraft helped it to develop a sustainable and adapted solution, allowing it to continue flying routes with less overall demand as it has a variety of aircraft it can select from to offer the right capacity in each market.

Due to COVID-19’s impact on travel demand, the airline has taken the decision to ground its fleet of Airbus A380s as it is not commercially or environmentally justifiable to operate such a large aircraft in the current market.

Environmentally conscious passengers can travel with the reassurance that Qatar Airways continuously monitors the market to assess both passenger and cargo demand to ensure it operates the most efficient air-craft on each route.

Finding the right balance between passenger and cargo demand has enabled the airline to continue operating its full fleet of Airbus A350 and Boeing

787 aircraft, helping take people home safely and providing reliable airfreight capacity to support global trade and the transport of essential medical and aid supplies.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, H E Akbar Al Baker said: “Qatar Airways Group has a strong record of industry

leadership on sustainable oper-ations. We take our responsi-bilities to care for the envi-ronment seriously and sustain-ability is at the forefront of our business planning across the group, this is why we have an average fleet age of less than five years, one of the youngest in the world.” �P2

Mesaieed Hospital to resume a range of routine services soonFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

Mesaieed Hospital has been a central part of Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) COVID-19 hospital network and with the last recovered patients leaving the hospital on Wednesday, the hospital is now planning to reopen a range of routine services that will improve access to healthcare for the local community.

Mesaieed Hospital discharged the last group of recovered COVID-19 patients, in the presence of the Min-ister of Public Health H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari.

A group of six final COVID-19 patients were discharged from the hospital to return home, said Mahmoud Al Raisi, Acting CEO of Mesaieed Hospital.

Mesaieed Hospital was assigned in April and has provided high-quality

care to COVID-19 patients with mod-erate to severe symptoms.

“Mesaieed Hospital was one of the four hospitals Qatar dedicated to treat COVID-19 and has treated 6,173 patients since April. I am immensely proud of the team here at Mesaieed Hospital for the role they have played in caring for thousands of patients with COVID-19. Their dedication and commitment were so outstanding,” Al Raisi told The Peninsula.

“With the number of new con-firmed COVID-19 cases in Qatar con-tinuing to decline there is now less demand for hospital beds,” he said.

He expressed hope that no new cases would be reported and the facility will be utilized for other healthcare needs soon.

Al Raisi also noted that HMC’s System Wide Incident Command Committee (SWICC) for COVID-19, chaired by Dr Saad Al Kaabi, has

worked hard and ensured healthcare system can provide quick access and care to all patients with COVID-19 can quickly access the care they need.

“Over the past few weeks, the Qatar has witnessed a downward trend in the number of detected cases with the daily tally of recoveries out-pacing new infections, which high-lights the efficiency of the country’s healthcare sector,” said Al Raisi.

“We are now past the peak of the CVID-19 in Qatar and the number of new confirmed cases continues to fall, but the public should be more cau-tioned by practicing social distancing and taking all means of public safety,” he added.

Hazm Mebaireek General Hos-pital, Ras Laffan Hospital, the Cuban Hospital and Mesaieed Hospital long with the Communicable Disease Center treat COVID-19 patients in the country.

H E the Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior

honoured the distinguished trainees and handed over

certificates to the graduates.

The course included 103 trainees from various

specialisations in several departments of the Ministry

of Interior, Lekhwiya, and the Amiri Guard, who

received over six months of military, sports, police,

and academic training.

The Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani attending the graduation ceremony of the fifth mandatory qualifying course for civil university graduates, at the Police Training Institute, yesterday

Qatar renews firm stance in supporting Palestine issueQNA — DOHA

The State of Qatar has reaffirmed its firm and unwavering stance in support of the Palestinian issue, stressing the importance of uniting the Palestinian ranks to face challenges, end the Israeli occupation, recognise the independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, and restore the Palestinian people to all their legit-imate rights.

This came in the speech delivered by Permanent Represent-ative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Office in Geneva, H E Ambassador Ali Khalfan Al Mansouri, during the interactive dialogue with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the sit-uation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.

H E the Ambassador said that the State of Qatar strongly con-demns the violations committed by Israel, the occupying power, against the brotherly Palestinian people, which are mentioned in the report, such as the increase in settlement activities, the demolition of Palestinian homes, arbitrary detention and admin-istrative detention, the continuation of the policy of collective punishment on the Gaza Strip, restricting the movement of Pal-estinians, and obstructing efforts to combat the spread of coro-navirus (COVID-19). �P2

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, H E Akbar Al Baker said yesterday that Qatar Airways’ priority is to protect citizens and residents of Qatar.

“Our first priority is pro-tecting the population and the citizens of my country,” said H E Akbar Al Baker in a video posted on Qatar Airways twitter account, yesterday. “We don’t want to be so des-perate that we take risks, which could be a health hazard and could have a

second peak in my country”.“My country has been

progressing very well. There is a huge reduction in the past couple of weeks – of nearly 84,000 in the infection rate,” H E Akbar Al Baker said. “So what I would prefer to do- is not to jump the gun and start bringing people. We need to make sure that whatever we do opening our country – that we do in a very wise and a very calculated manner so that all the people who live in my country, Qatar, are properly protected, before we open up,” he said.

Protecting population is Qatar Airways’ first priority: Al Baker

EXCLUSIVEVast untapped potential exists to expand Azerbaijan-Qatar cooperationRashad IsmayilovAmbassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the State of Qatar �P4

Govt, private schools to begin classes from Sept 1THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced yesterday that the academic year 2020-2021 for government and private schools, will begin on September 1, 2020.

“Schools staff will return to work by August 19 while students will start classes on first of September, 2020,” said the Ministry in a statement on its website.

“Attendance is man-datory for staff and students. The Ministry confirms that it is working closely with schools administrations to put in place the necessary plans and procedures to ensure the safety of staff and students,” it said.

The Ministry added that all schools are required to fully comply with the precautionary measures to maintain safe environments for all parties involved in the educational process.

OFFICIAL NEWS

02 FRIDAY 17 JULY 2020HOME

Amir sends condolences to Somalia PresidentDOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin

Hamad Al Thani and Deputy Amir

H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad

Al Thani sent yesterday cables of

condolences to President of the

Federal Republic of Somalia H E

Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo on

the death of former prime minis-

ter Hassan Abshir Farah. — QNA

FM holds phone call with Mike PompeoDOHA: Deputy Prime Minister and

Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul-

rahman Al Thani held yesterday

a telephone call with Secretary

of State of the United States of

America, H E Mike Pompeo. Dur-

ing the phone call, they reviewed

bilateral cooperation and relations,

the latest developments in the

region and issues of common

concern. — QNA

EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator meets Head of Qatar’s mission

European Union Counter-terrorism Coordinator, H E Gilles de Kerchove (left), met with Head of Mission of the State of Qatar to the European Union, H E Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Al Khulaifi. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral cooperation and relations, in addition to topics of common concern.

Qatar participates in meeting of GCC committee on post, telecomsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

A high-level Qatari delegation participated yesterday in the 28th Meeting of the Cooper-ation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) Committee for Under-Secre-taries of Post and Telecommu-nications, which was held via video conferencing.

The delegation was led by Mohammed Ali Al Mannai, President of the Communica-tions Regulatory Authority (CRA), with the participation of high-level representatives from the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) and Qatar Postal Services Company (Q-Post).

The meeting discussed several topics related to devel-oping information and commu-nications technology (ICT) sector and postal sector in the member states of the GCC and discussed avenues of enhancing cooperation between them in these vital sectors and with the

European Union.The meeting also discussed

the recommendations of the 32nd Meeting of GCC Com-mittee for Post Heads and Under-Secretaries, in addition to recommendations of several specialised committees and working groups, such as the Committee for Telecommuni-c a t i o n s L e g i s l a t i o n

and Regulation, Technical Committee of the Technical Office, International Roaming Working Group, and the Working Group of OTT Legis-lation and Regulation.

Besides, the meeting dis-cussed the future directions of the committee’s work based on the lessons learned from COVID-19 pandemic.

Mohammed Ali Al Mannai, President of CRA, led Qatar’s delegation at the GCC meeting.

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani during the graduation ceremony of the fifth mandatory qualifying course for civil university graduates, which was held at the Police Training Institute, yesterday.

MoPH: 494 new

COVID-19 casesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the registration of 494 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. Another 531 people have recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 102,168. MoPH also announced one new death from COVID-19. The deceased was 92-year-old.

QA committed to sustainable operationsFROM PAGE 1

“Thanks to our strategic and diversified investment in our fleet, the viability of our oper-ations has not been dependent on any specific aircraft type. This has enabled us to be one of the few global airlines to never stop operating during this crisis, carrying over two million passengers and in the process becoming the largest interna-tional airline in the world. Our fleet mix has enabled us to con-tinue operating routes throughout this crisis ensuring we do not leave passengers stranded,” he said.

“As we rebuild our network, passengers can rely on us to operate an honest schedule of flights to take them where they want to go, using the right size aircraft to offer sensible capacity on each route. As a result, we will not resume flying

our fleet of A380 until demand returns to appropriate levels. Having closely studied the envi-ronmental impact numbers, flying such a large aircraft with a low load factor does not meet our environmental responsibil-ities or make commercial sense. Our young fleet of Airbus A350 and Boeing 787 aircraft are a much better fit for current global demand.”

Qatar Airways is the largest operator of A350 series aircraft, and was the launch customer for both the A350-900 and A350-1000. With a total of 49 A350 variants in the current fleet at an average age of 2.5 years, and a seating capacity optimized for the current market, the A350 is perfectly positioned to lead the airline’s rebuilding of its network. The 30 Boeing 787 aircraft in the Qatar Airways fleet also provide

appropriate capacity to offer the right capacity on routes in Europe while markets recover. As the world prepares itself to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis, Qatar Airways’ A350 fleet is the aircraft of choice for the most strategically important long-haul routes to the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.

Qatar Airways was the first airline in the Middle East to secure accreditation to the highest level in the IATA Envi-ronmental Assessment Pro-gramme. While Qatar Airways has remained focused on its fundamental mission of taking people home and transporting essential aid to impacted regions, the airline has not for-gotten its environmental responsibilities. The airline’s internal benchmark compared the A380 to the A350 on routes

from Doha to London, Guangzhou, Frankfurt, Paris, Melbourne, Sydney, Toronto and New York.

On a typical one-way flight, the airline found the A350 air-craft saved a minimum of 16 tonnes of carbon dioxide per block hour compared to the A380. The analysis found that the A380 emitted over 80 percent more CO2 per block hour than the A350 on each of these routes. In the cases of Mel-bourne, New York and Toronto the A380 emitted 95 percent more CO2 per block hour with the A350 saving around 20 tonnes of CO2 per block hour. Until passenger demand recovers to appropriate levels, Qatar Airways will continue to keep its A380 aircraft grounded, ensuring it only operates com-mercially and environmentally responsible aircraft.

Qatar renews firm stance on Palestine issue

FROM PAGE 1

H E Al Mansouri stressed that the unilateral Israeli annexation schemes for the occupied Palestinian lands in the West Bank, the Jordan Valley, and other regions, are new aggression against the Palestinian people and a fla-grant violation of international laws and resolutions that con-tribute to the aggravation of human rights violations against the Palestinians, undermine the two-state solution, and increase the state of conflict and instability in the region.

He valued the stances of all those who rejected these plans and sided with the logic of truth, justice, and respect for international legitimacy. He stressed that postponing the annexation does not mean canceling it, as it is a primary goal of the Israeli expansionist occupation. He underlined the importance of the interna-tional community continuing to press and categorically reject this scheme, and take all appropriate measures to stop it, and ensure accountability for any violations against the Palestinian people.

PM attends graduation of fifth mandatory qualifying course

MoPH officials, Chinese experts review ways to prevent COVID-19QNA —DOHA

A number of officials from the Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) held a meeting via video conference with health experts from the People’s Republic of China on the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The meeting addressed the best ways to prevent and treat the virus. It also reviewed experiments and presentations made by experts on prevention and control of the spread of COVID-19 and techniques to detect the virus.

During the meeting, Assistant Minister of Public Health for Health Affairs, Dr. Saleh Ali Al Marri spoke about the most important develop-ments related to the COVID-19 in the State of Qatar and the

measures taken by the State to limit its spread, stressing the importance of cooperation and exchange of experiences between the Qatari and Chinese sides in this field, while praising Chinese experience in con-trolling the disease.

For his part, H E Chinese Ambassador to the State of Qatar Zhou Jian stressed the important cooperation between the two countries in all fields, especially in the health field, noting the assistance provided by the State of Qatar to China during the COVID-19 crisis.

For their part, the Chinese experts praised the efforts made by the State of Qatar to early detect and control the spread of the virus, which led to a low number of deaths in the country.

FAJR SUNRISE 03.26 am 04.54 am

W A L R U WA I S : 29o↗ 40o W A L K H O R : 28o↗ 41o W D U K H A N : 31o↗ 43o W WA K R A H : 28o↗ 42o W M E S A I E E D 28o↗ 42o W A B U S A M R A 30o↗ 43o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 15:36 – 00:00 LOW TIDE 07:52– 00:00

Very hot daytime with some clouds and slight dust to

blowing dust at some places at times.

Minimum Maximum31oC 42oC

ZUHRMAGHRIB

11.40 am06.28 pm

ASR ISHA

03.05 pm07.58 pm

03FRIDAY 17 JULY 2020 HOME

QA Holidays unveils staycation offersTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Airways Holidays announced yesterday incredible staycation offers in collaboration with Discover Qatar for memorable and safe getaways in and around Doha. With these new packages, those who call Qatar home can treat themselves to a stay at a host of luxurious hotels including Sharq Village & Spa; Hilton Doha, West Bay; InterConti-nental Doha, Ritz-Carlton, Doha; Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel; Al Najada Doha Hotel; and Al Messila Luxury Collection Resort & Spa.

The staycation packages are carefully designed to provide customers in Qatar with a much-needed change of scenery in a safe and respon-sible manner. Beach lovers can enjoy a stay at one of Doha’s luxurious beach-front hotels, with pristine white sands and sparkling turquoise waters, minutes away from their room. Those who prefer to stay in the city can stay in luxurious palaces surrounded by lush botanical gardens.

For every booking made with Qatar Airways Holidays, customers will be treated to a complimentary Discover Qatar gift voucher that can be used to redeem a delightful three-course meal at one of the fol-lowing restaurants in Souq Waqif: Argan, Al Terrace, or La Patisserie.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, H E Akbar Al Baker,

said: “With travel opportunities being limited in these unique times given entry restrictions for many countries around the world, there is no better way to have a change in the scenery than staying in one of Qatar’s most luxurious hotels and resorts. The launch of Qatar Airways Holidays staycation deals will allow people to expe-rience our nation’s world-renowned hospitality while also staying safe. We under-stand that, with the recent events, people still want to treat themselves to a vacation, so we are launching these very special offers to remind people in Qatar that there are many beautiful destinations in the country that we call home.”

Deals are available for couples and include fine dining in romantic settings, room upgrades, discounts on spa and health treatments, sea view rooms, and much more. To take advantage of Qatar Airways Holidays staycation packages, customers must book by July 28 and stay between July 12 until July 28, 2020. More information is available at qatarairwayshol-idays.com/offers/staycation.

QF’s Doha Debates to examine merits of socialism during and after pandemicTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

As the world grapples with the new challenges of the corona-virus pandemic, “emergency socialism” has emerged, to varying degrees, virtually everywhere — prompting Qatar Foundation’s Doha Debates to focus its next global program on the merits of socialism during and after the pandemic.

The livestreamed debate on Monday, July 20, will feature author and commentator Fatima Bhutto, former UK Foreign Secretary and House of Commons Leader Lord William Hague, and Brazilian congress-woman and activist Tabata Amaral. The debate will include individual arguments, a solu-tions-focused bridge-building dialogue, and participation from Qatar and around the world.

“The global shock of COVID-19 has prompted an urgent reassessment of how governments help and support their citizens,” sayid Doha Debates Managing Director

Amjad Atallah. “Socialist-like measures such as temporary universal basic income (UBI) have been introduced in recent months in several cities and nations around the world, with some weighing whether to con-tinue government-provided incentives as the pandemic subsides.

“Capitalist systems around the world have employed radical redistribution of aid,

raising the question of whether these changes should become permanent. Now is the ideal time for this solutions-focused debate.” The program’s debaters will discuss whether welfare policies such as UBI should become permanent as the world prepares for the post-coronavirus era. The debate comes as coronavirus is leaving a massive economic downturn in its wake, with its

consequences more dire than any seen in generations.

What used to be a given for older generations — job security, home ownership and life without debt — was already beyond the reach of most younger people. At the same time, the semblances of social safety nets, like affordable and accessible healthcare or unem-ployment benefits, are quickly crumbling. Young people seem

to have no choice but to mortgage their future in order to participate in a capitalist system with bleak prospects.

Polls across the world show a large majority of millennials and Gen Z would vote for a socialist politician, as they con-sider socialism to be the most compassionate system. Even in the US, where capitalism has become entwined with identity, 45 percent regard capitalism as positive — a 12-point decline over the past two years. The Doha Debates program’s host and moderator is Ghida Fakhry, a renowned journalist with vast experience as a TV news anchor, correspondent and interviewer. Also joining the program will be digital

correspondent Nelufar Hedayat and conflict resolution expert Dr Govinda Clayton.

“Since health guidelines and travel restrictions prevent in-person convening on our Doha Debates stage, this livestreamed program will virtually connect our speakers, a young voting audience, and millions of viewers around the world,” said Atallah.

People can watch the July 20 debate live via Twitter, Facebook or YouTube at 5pm Doha / 10am ET, with a special pre-show program hosted by Hedayat.

People can also join the debate and discussion at @DohaDebates with the hashtag #DearWorld.

The livestreamed debate will feature (from left) author and commentator Fatima Bhutto, former UK Foreign Secretary Lord William Hague, and Brazilian congresswoman and activist Tabata Amaral.

President Alvi receives credentials of Qatar’s Ambassador to Pakistan

QNA — DOHA

President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, H E Dr. Arif Alvi received at the presi-dential palace the credentials of H E Sheikh Saoud bin Abdul-rahman Al Thani as Ambas-sador Extraordinary and Plen-ipotentiary of the State of Qatar to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

H E the Ambassador con-veyed the greetings of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to H E the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and H H the Amir’s wishes to H E the President of health and well-being, and to

the government and people of Pakistan continuous progress and prosperity.

For his part, H E the Pres-ident of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan entrusted H E the Ambassador to convey his greetings to H H the Amir, and his wishes to H H the Amir of

health and happiness, and to the State of Qatar constant progress and prosperity.

The President wished the Ambassador success in his duties, assuring him of pro-viding all support to promote the bilateral relations to a closer cooperation in various fields.

President of Islamic Republic of Pakistan H E Dr. Arif Alvi received the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Pakistan, H E Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, at the Presidential Palace in Islamabad, yesterday.

Olive International School honours students Students, parents and teachers of Olive International School during a ‘Coffee with Principal’ session held virtually on Wednesday. The event was organised to acknowledge and reward outstanding students for their academic excellence and performance rooted in focus, dedication, hard work and a desire to excel. Olive International School has always provided its students with a healthy and fairly competitive environment to help them grow in every sphere of activity.

QU invites proposals for conference on English language teachingTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Qatar University (QU) F o u n d a t i o n P r o g r a m , Deanship of General Studies, has invited presenters to submit proposals for its fifth A n n u a l I n t e r n a t i o n a l

Conference on English Language Teaching to be held virtually, in Doha on November 7-8.

Proposals for papers, panel discussions, workshops, teaching ideas or tips are expected to address the

conference’s theme of “English Language Teaching and 21st Century Skills — Commu-nicate, Collaborate, Create”.

Deadline for the proposal submission is September 1.

Proposals should fall into one of the following

categories: virtual learning, emotional intelligence, social and emotional learning, critical thinking, creativity in TEFL setting, digital literacy, learner autonomy, practical ideas in the online classroom, project-based learning,

managing virtual classroom, online testing and assessment, online tools to enhance learning, professional devel-opment or leadership.

English language teachers at all levels of instruction, in universities and schools will

come together to share research findings and current trends in the language teaching. New teaching approaches that have proved successful in other teaching contexts will be shared among the delegates.

Katara announces

winners of Quran

recitation contest

for children

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Cultural Village Foun-dation - Katara has announced the winners of the Juz’u Amma for Children Competition that it launched during Ramadan.

The Quran competition was open to participants aged six to 13 years and included memorisation and recitation.

Muhammed Saad Ibrahim came first, winning QR10,000 followed by Mahmoud Shah-jahan in second place who received QR7,000 and Abdulaziz Muhammad Irshad Allah in third place who won QR5,000.

A total of 1,681 children took part in the contest, 765 of whom qualified. The partici-pants were contacted by phone and the Zoom from the 11th to 20th of Ramadan to assess their participation.

The competition came within the series of competi-tions and various activities presented remotely by Katara within its social media plat-forms. This is in line with the country’s precautionary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Katara launched a set of competitions dedicated to children within the framework of its continuous endeavor to pay attention to this important segment of the society by setting up educational and rec-reational programmes, in addition to its keenness in spreading culture, heritage, and Arab and Islamic values.

Al Gharrafa Interchange to be partially closed for three monthsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) announced yesterday a three-month closure for the traffic on Al Shamal Road “22 February Street” towards Al Luqta Street and Khalifa Street & the U-Turn at Al Gharrafa “Immigration” Interchange, while keeping the bridge open for traffic, starting today, aimed to complete Umm Lekhba Interchange works on Sabah Al Ahmed Corridor in coordi-nation with the General Direc-torate of Traffic.

During the closure, road users on Al Shamal Road “22 February Street” heading for Al Luqta Street and Khalifa Street or those who wish to make a U-turn towards Al Shamal Road

must continue on the bridge to Al Rayyan Interchange Round-about and then make a U-turn to reach their destination, as shown on the attached map.

The Public Works Authority

will install road signs alerting motorists to the closure.

It has requested all road users to abide by the existing speed limit and follow the road signs to ensure their safety.

For every booking, customers will get a gift voucher for a three-course meal at some of the best restaurants in Souq Waqif.

The program’s debaters will discuss whether welfare policies such as the temporary universal basic income should become permanent as the world prepares for the post-coronavirus era.

The Ambassador of Qatar conveyed the greetings of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to H E the President of Pakistan, and Amir’s wishes to the President of health and well-being, and to the government and people of Pakistan continuous progress and prosperity.

04 FRIDAY 17 JULY 2020HOME

Vast untapped potential exists to expand Azerbaijan-Qatar cooperationIRFAN BUKHARITHE PENINSULA

Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the State of Qatar H E Rashad Ismayilov has said that there exists untapped potential for

effective Azerbaijan-Qatar collabo-ration in various fields attractive to business circles of both sides.

In an exclusive interview with The Peninsula, Rashad Ismayilov spoke in length on strength and future prospects of Qatar-Azerbaijan ties. H E the Ambassador also revealed the list of bilateral pacts currently under consid-eration between the two brotherly states.

The Ambassador noted that estab-lishment of reliable and sustainable investment cooperation between Azerbaijan and Qatar stands as one of the main priorities of bilateral links.

“Bilateral relations between the State of Qatar and the Republic of Azerbaijan have always been strong and both the brotherly countries make continuous efforts to expand the scope of trusted ties in all spheres,” he added.

The Ambassador said that the foun-dation for deeper cooperation in the future had already been established. “With a view to encourage mutual investments a joint Investment Working Group was established. Mean-while, two countries successfully coop-erate within international and regional organizations.”

The Ambassador stated that

Azerbaijan highly appreciates the position of Qatar with regard to the ter-ritorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan.

“As for future prospects of our part-nership, we consider that there is still untapped potential for effective col-laboration in various fields attractive to business circles of both sides.”

Talking on bilateral trade, H E the Ambassador said: “Over the past 2 years, the turnover and dynamics of trade relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the State of Qatar have been as follows: For 2019 — $2.1m; For 2020 (first quarter) — $1.18m.”

In recent years, the Ambassador said, trade turnover between the two countries had been formed mainly on the basis of Azerbaijani exports and agricultural products dominated the

structure. “At the same time, Azerbaijan intends to export construction products to Qatar and relevant negotiations are underway. As for exports from Qatar to Azerbaijan, it is mainly petro-chemical products. Besides, it is planned to export various types of fer-tilizers from Qatar to our country.”

Regarding future plans on bilateral trade, Rashad Ismayilov said that its main goals was to achieve the diver-sification of goods and products cur-rently involved in import and export operations between the two countries.

On mutual investment, he stated that the establishment of reliable and sustainable investment cooperation between Azerbaijan and Qatar was also one of the main priorities of bilateral links. “There are mutual investment opportunities in areas such as agri-culture, tourism, transport, renewable energy sources, information and com-munication technologies. In recent years, Azerbaijan has initiated com-prehensive economic, regulatory and administrative reforms aimed at cre-ating more favourable investment climate in the country.”

He said that Azerbaijan had signif-icantly simplified and streamlined legal requirements and procedures regu-lating entrepreneurial activities. “These reforms not only create favorable legal environment aiming to attract pro-

spective foreign investors, but it also guarantees their legal rights and interests.”

To a question about the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on bilateral diplomacy, the Ambassador said the spread of the pandemic around the world had also affected, among other factors, the interstate relations at the global level.

“As for relations between Azerbaijan and Qatar, particularly cooperation in the economic field and more specifically in the tourism sector has been mostly affected. We had many projects envisaged for this year, but unfortunately, the initially planned high-level reciprocal visits, meetings and events have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the case all over the world.”

About the role played by

Azerbaijan-Qatar Joint Economic, Trade and Technical Commission in boosting bilateral trade/economic ties, the Ambassador said that over the past period, the Azerbaijan-Qatar Joint Eco-nomic, Trade and Technical Com-mission held two meetings, one in Baku and one in Doha, where both sides widely discussed various aspects of cooperation with important decisions taken and significant steps made.

“Consequently, the works done by the Commission in a short period of time have created a wide range of opportunities for our governments to foster partnerships in areas, such as trade, investment, industry, education, health, agriculture, culture, and tourism.”

On Qatar’s preparation for hosting 2022 FIFA Football World Cup, Rashad Ismayilov commented: “Undoubtedly, the work already done and being done currently in Qatar in preparation for the 2022 FIFA World Cup is com-mendable. Despite all the obstacles emerged by the pandemic, the con-struction of the third stadium to host the championship — Education City Stadium has recently been completed. Besides, the schedule of the World Cup matches was announced on July 15. All these, of course, are great achieve-ments. We have no doubt that Qatar will arrange the World Cup at the highest level.”

The Ambassador also lauded Qatar’s reforms to protect migrant workers’ rights saying, “The protection of the rights of migrant workers has always been a priority of the Qatari government, and significant reforms have been implemented in this direction, especially in recent years. These include abolishing kafala system and the steps taken to establish a non-discriminatory minimum wage, the first in the Middle East.”

To a question about the potential role tourism could play in promoting bilateral ties, the Ambassador said that Azerbaijan had already become an attractive destination amongst tourists and Qatar had also achieved remarkable progress in becoming a tourism destination. “As a result of the work done in recent years to develop relations between the two countries in the field of tourism, the number of tourists from Qatar to Azerbaijan increased by 40 times.”

He said that in order to further expand relations in the tourism sector,

representatives of the relevant agencies of both countries had recently paid reciprocal visits and discussed the issues of mutual interests.

Talking about the ongoing border clashes with Armenia, he said “Armenia is trying to create a new source of tension in the region, particularly in the border area of the two countries. The Armenian side tries to derail the negotiations process by all means, to not liberate Azerbaijani territories.”

The Ambassador further said: “Once they feel the pressure, they try to create a new military provocation, so to evade their responsibility. We also see a declining social-economic

situation in Armenia. The situation is becoming worse, particularly in presence of spreading of COVID-19. The Armenian government is trying to deflect public attention and anger. They are also seeking yet another purpose, maybe to involve the political-military organisation of which they are member, to this conflict.”

To better understand the situation, the Ambassador has said, it probably should be mentioned that this time is not a clash on the line of contact between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces along the occupied territory of Nagorno Karabakh and seven adjacent regions of Azerbaijan rather it is a clash on the state border between the two

countries. “Azerbaijani side with its positive

intention and the respect to the inter-nationally recognised borders deployed the state border service of Azerbaijan since 2018 to somehow demilitarise, in general, the concept of the border between the two countries on a step-by-step basis. And for the most parts of the border of Azerbaijan in the Western dimension, Tovuz and Gasakh regions are now taken by the state border service of Azerbaijan.”

“But on the Armenian side, on the contrary, will see further militarisation of the border of two countries and deployment of heavy armaments and artillery. They attacked Azerbaijan’s positions with the use of artillery as a sudden attack. Since July 12 evening, there was an intensive shooting and there are casualties from our side as well.”

He added that attacking civilian objects and civilians is the modus operandi and the rule of engagement of Armenian armed forces. “In the border area and also in the line of contact they regularly attack Azerba-ijani civilians. When they are seeing their weaknesses in the battleground and fail in diplomacy they resort to attacking civilians. Along the border, Aghdam and Gushchu villages of Azerbaijan since July 12, 2020 have been heavily bombarded by the artillery of Armenia.”

Responding to another question on efforts afoot to diffuse the ongoing tension between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Ambassador said: “The OSCE Minsk Group is the only man-dated institution to deal with the res-olution of Armenia-Azerbaijan con-flict. The UN Security Council resolu-tions and Helsinki Final Act constitute their mandate. There is a statement by OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs that also calls for negotiations and restraint.”

“Many regional organisations such as Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and Turkish Council and many brotherly and friendly countries like Turkey, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Moldova made a clear position and strongly condemned the attack by the armed forces of the Republic of Armenia on the Tovuz region in the Republic of Azerbaijan and their vio-lations of the ceasefire on the border region between Armenia and Azerbaijan.”

Qatar, Azerbaijan working on abolition of short-stay visas

Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the State of Qatar H E Rashad Ismayilov has said works are underway to expand the existing legal framework between the Azerbaijan and Qatar.

He said that meetings and consultations have been held and views exchanged with close participation of experts from the relevant agencies of the parties on the following draft bilateral documents under consider-ation between the two countries:T Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and

the Government of the State of Qatar on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Legislation, Prevention, Investigation and Reduction of Customs Violations.

T Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the State of Qatar on cooperation in the field of vet-erinary medicine.

T Agreement between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the State of Qatar on the abolition of short-stay visas.

T Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of small and medium business.

T Memorandum of Understanding on the twinning of Baku and Doha cities.

T Memorandum of Understanding on Pensions and Social Cooperation.

EXCLUSIVE

RASHAD ISMAYILOVAMBASSADOR OF THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN TO THE STATE OF

QATAR

The establishment of reliable and sus-

tainable investment cooperation between

Azerbaijan and Qatar stands as one of the

main priorities of bilateral links.

Azerbaijan highly appreciates the

position of Qatar with regard to the terri-

torial integrity and sovereignty of

Azerbaijan.

The protection of the rights of migrant

workers has always been a priority of the

Qatari government, and significant

reforms have been implemented in this

direction, especially in recent years.

In order to further expand relations in the

tourism sector, representatives of the rel-

evant agencies of both countries have

recently paid reciprocal visits and dis-

cussed the issues of mutual interests.

UN envoy calls for probe into civilian deaths from air strikesOccupation forces

arrest 7 Palestinians,

detain journalist

AGENCIES — OCCUPIED JERUSALEM

The Israeli occupation forces continued yesterday their arrest campaign of Palestinians in the towns and cities of the West Bank, as they arrested 7 Palestinians and stormed Jenin city.

The Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate condemned the detention of a Palestinian corre-spondent from Anadolu Agency for three hours by the Israeli army.

Kays Ebu Semra, a Palestinian writer for the Turkish news agency, was on her way to a story in Ramallah, the West Bank when she was detained at an Israeli checkpoint. The union said the army questioned, handcuffed and blindfolded the reporter. Ebu Semra was freed after enduring hours of detention and questioning.

REUTERS — SANA'A

The United Nations envoy on Yemen called yesterday for a transparent investigation into air strikes that killed at least 11 civilians in Al Jawf province, saying resurgent violence is compli-cating UN-led efforts to end the five-year war.

Security is deteriorating anew as Yemen faces the coronavirus pandemic and what the United Nations describes as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, with millions on the verge of famine.

The strikes were the third such incident since June. The Saudi-led coa-lition battling Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group has said it is investigating reports of civilian deaths in Wednes-day’s attack and in Hajjah region earlier this week.

“We deplore yesterday’s air strikes in #AlJawf... A thorough & transparent investigation is required,” envoy Martin Griffiths tweeted, describing attacks on

civilians as reprehensible.The UN humanitarian coordination

office in Yemen said at least 11 civilians were killed. The Houthi health ministry raised the death toll to 24 after initially saying nine people, including two children, were killed when coalition air strikes hit homes.

The Houthis have recently stepped up cross-border missile and drone attacks on Saudi cities as well as mil-itary operations on the ground. The coa-lition has retaliated with air strikes.

At Al Thawra hospital in the Houthi-held capital Sana'a, where some of the injured were taken, a child writhed in bed with a chest drain and bandaged shoulder and legs.

A 15-day-old baby died from his wounds, hospital employee Ahmed Sanad, said.

“For what sin is this child and a baby only days old bombed?” another employee, Ahmed Al Aawag, said.

The coalition, which receives weapons and intelligence from Western allies including the United States and Britain, was last month removed from a UN blacklist several years after it was first accused of killing and injuring children in Yemen.

The conflict has killed more than 100,000 people since the alliance inter-vened in Yemen in March 2015 shortly after the Houthis ousted the Saudi-backed government from power in Sanaa.

Griffiths has been holding virtual talks between the warring parties to

agree a permanent ceasefire and con-fidence-building steps to restart peace negotiations last held in December 2018.

Earlier this week the Houthis launched missiles and drones at Saudi border cities in what they called a response to air strikes that killed 10 civilians in the Hajjah region. The coa-lition later said it would investigate the matter.

In June, an air strike killed at least 12 people, including four children, in Saada province, according to the Houthis and a UN official.

The coalition said it had struck a vehicle carrying armed Houthi combatants.

The conflict, largely seen in the region as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran, has killed more than 100,000 people and caused what the United Nations describes as the world's largest humanitarian crisis.

The Houthis say they are fighting a corrupt system.

Many regional organisations

such as Organisation of Islamic

Cooperation and Turkish

Council and many brotherly and

friendly countries like Turkey,

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,

Moldova made clear position

and strongly condemned the

attack by the armed forces of

the Republic of Armenia on the

Tovuz region in the Republic of

Azerbaijan and their violations

of the ceasefire on the border

region between Armenia and

Azerbaijan.”

“We deplore yesterday’s air strikes in #AlJawf... A thorough & transparent investigation is required,” envoy Martin Griffiths tweeted, describing attacks on civilians as reprehensible.

05FRIDAY 17 JULY 2020 ISLAM

Dhul Hijjah: The ten best daysThe month of Dhul Hijjah is one

of the holiest periods of the Islamic year, SubhanAllah. A

month of increased spirituality, we witness two very special events (Haj and Eid ul Adha) – all in devotion to Allah (SWT).

Many people don’t know that the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah are better than all the other days of the year, the 10 best days with no exception. They are even better than the days of Ramadan!

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “There are no days on which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allah than these ten days” (Bukhari), meaning the first ten days of Dhul-Hijjah.

After the holy month of Ramadan, maybe you feel that you could have done more throughout the sacred month? Perhaps you’ve since let go of that Ramadan feeling?

Well, these beloved ten days offer another chance to gain immense rewards, have our sins forgiven and reach great levels of piety, Insha’Allah.

Virtues of Dhul HijjahThe first ten days of Dhul Hijjah are

often referred to as the best ten days of the year, and a second chance after Ramadan. For those of us not per-forming the Haj pilgrimage this year, this is still a great time of blessing and immense reward.

Our hearts and prayers are with those undertaking the holy pilgrimage of Haj during these days. While many of us are unable to make the blessed journey this year, there are still many ways for us to reap the blessings of this month.

In Surat Al Fajr, Allah says:“By the dawn; And [by] the ten

nights.” (Quran 89:1-2)According to many scholars of the

Quran, the days mentioned as signif-icant enough for Allah to swear by them are the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah.

Whoever is not able to go to Haj should use this blessed time to com-plete even more righteous deeds than usual. These can include anything such as giving charity, honouring one’s parents, upholding the ties of kinship, and enjoining what is good and for-bidding what is evil.

It is also important to enhance our obligatory acts of worship by being mindful of our prayers and ensuring we pay our zakat on time.

Even for those not performing the pilgrimage, Haj, the first ten days of this month are considered very sacred and a time for increased reflection, seeking Allah’s forgiveness, doing good and various other forms of worship.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has said about the first ten days of Dhu Hijjah: There are no days in which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allah than these ten days.”

The people asked, “Not even Jihad for the sake of Allah?” He said, “Not even Jihad for the sake of Allah, except in the case of a man who went out to fight giving himself and his wealth up

for the cause, and came back with nothing (Sahih Al Bukhari).

So sacred are the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah that Allah swears an oath by them when He says in the Quran: “By the dawn; by the ten nights” (Al Fajr 89:1-2). Swearing an oath by something indicates its importance and great benefit.

What kinds of worshipWhile any good deed done for the

sake of Allah according to the way He approves will be rewarded immensely during the first ten days, InshaAllah, some of the more specific actions men-tioned in the traditions of the Prophet (PBUH) are fasting and verbal Dhikr (remembrance) of Allah.

FastingIt is Sunnah for the Muslim to fast

on the first nine days of Dhul Hijjah, because fasting is one of the best of deeds. In a hadith qudsi, Allah says: “All the deeds of the son of Adam are for him, except fasting, which is for Me and I shall reward for it.” (Bukhari, 1805)

It is reported that “The Prophet used to fast on the first nine days of Dhul Hijjah and the day of Ashura, and three days each month, the first Monday of the month and two

Thursdays.” (Abu Dawood, 2/462)In terms of fasting, it is particularly

encouraged to fast on the ninth day of Dhul Hijjah, known in Arabic as Yawm Arafah. The Prophet used to fast on this day (An Nisai and Abu Dawud). Fasting on this day will expiate a Muslim’s sins for two years.

Abu Qatadah reported that the Prophet (PBUH) said: Fasting the Day of Arafah will be credited with Allah by forgiving one’s sins of the previous year and the following year. (Muslim)

One of the wives of the Prophet (PBUH) said: Allah’s Messenger used to fast the first nine days of Dhul-Hijjah, the day of Ashura, and three days of each month.(Sahil Sunan Abu Dawud # 2129)

The day of Arafah is the day when the pilgrims stand in worship on the Mountain of Arafah. It is the best day of the Whole Year.

Fasting the day of Arafah expiates the minor sins of two years: A past one and a coming one. And fasting the day of Ashura expiates the sins of the past year. (Muslim)

There is no day on which Allah frees people from the Fire as He does no the day of Arafah. He comes close (to those standing on Arafah) and then revels before His angels, saying: “What

are these people seeking? (Muslim) DhikrThe verbal remembrance of Allah

is another meritorious act during these first ten days of Dhul-Hijjah. “And mention the name of Allah on the appointed days” (12:28).

The Prophet (PBUH) encouraged Muslims to recite a lot of Tasbeeh (Sub-hanAllah), Tahmeed (Alhamdulillah) and Takbeer (Allahu-Akbar) during this time.

The Takbeer may include the words “Allahu-Akbar, Allahu-Akbar, la ilaha ill-Allah; wa Allahu akbar wa Lillahil-hamd (Allah is Most Great, Allah is Most Great, there is no god but Allah; Allah is Most Great and to Allah be praise),” as well as other phrases.

Men are encouraged to recite these phrases out loud and women quietly.

Ibn ‘Umar and Abu Hurairah (radi-Allahu anhu) used to go out in the mar-ketplace during the first ten days of Dhul Hijjah, reciting Takbeer, and the people would recite Takbeer individ-ually when they heard them.

Good DeedsGenerally, all good deeds are

rewarded highly at this blessed time. These actions include praying, reading

Quran, making Du’a (supplication), giving in charity and being good to our families, and other voluntary (nafl) righteous deeds of worship. These are amongst the deeds that are multiplied in these days.

Seek Allah’s ForgivenessIn addition, seeking Allah’s for-

giveness (istighfar) and Tawbah (repentance) at this time is also encouraged.

This means more than just a verbal statement of sorrow for past misdeeds. It also requires a firm resolution to avoid making the same mistakes in the future by giving up bad habits, and behavior while sincerely turning to Allah.

SacrificeThe slaughtering of a sacrificial

animal (Adhiyah) is also legislated for the Day of Sacrifice (10th) and the Days of Tashriq (11th, 12th and 13th)

The tenth of Dhul-Hijjah is Eid ul Adha or the day of Annahr (slaugh-tering). It marks the conclusion of the major rites of Haj, and commemorates Allah’s bounty on Prophet Ibrahim (PBUH), when He gave him a ram to sacrifice as ransom for his son.

It is repoted that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) slaughtered (sac-rificed) two horned rams, black and white in colour, and said Takbeer (Allahu Akbar), and placed his foot on their sides (while slaughtering them). (Sahih Bukhari & Muslim)

‘The day of Al Fitr (Eid ul Fitr), the day of annahr, and the days of Tashreeq are Eid days for us Muslims.’(Ahmad)

Even for those not performing the pilgrimage, Haj, the first ten days of this month are considered very sacred and a time for increased reflection, seeking Allah’s forgiveness, doing good and various other forms of worship. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) has said about the first ten days of Dhu Hijjah: There are no days in which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allah than these ten days.”

For those who could not make it to HajMAJD ARBIL

The Pilgrimage to Makkah, is one of the essential elements of the Islamic faith. It is obligatory on all believers provided they have the financial capa-bility and physical ability to endure the challenges of the pilgrimage.

According to Islamic tradition the Kaaba, a simple square cube structure in Makkah, was the first house of worship established to remind humanity of the One Supreme God. The structure was reconstructed by Prophet Abraham and his son Prophet Ismail (peace be upon them).

And when We made the House (at Makkah) a destination for humankind and a sanctuary, (saying): Take as your place of worship the place where Abraham stood (to pray). And We imposed a duty upon Abraham and Ishmael, (saying): Purify My house for those who go around and those who meditate therein and those who bow down and prostrate themselves (in worship). Quran 2:125

The gathering of millions of faithful in Makkah during the days of annual pilgrimage, Haj is a fulfillment of Prophet Abraham’s (peace be upon him) prayer.

And, lo, Abraham prayed: “O my Sustainer! Make this a land secure, and grant its people fruitful sustenance - such of them as believe in God and the Last Day.”.. Quran 2:126

The Pilgrimage to Makkah is a sign of supreme significance. It was Prophet Abraham’s (PBUH) unconditional com-mitment to God that led him to leave his wife Hagar and his infant son Ismail

in this desolated desert. Prophet Abraham was rewarded for his unwa-vering submission to God, by a promise from Him to make this uninviting land into a place of promise and plenty.

Muslims who visit Makkah for Haj become part of God’s promise to Prophet Abraham (PBUH).

Like any other article of faith, the pilgrimage can become meaningless if it is regarded as an end in itself rather than a means for the attainment of a meaningful life.

The cobbler’s HajIt is related that a noted Muslim

scholar Abdullah bin Mubarak, had a dream while he was sleeping near the Kaaba.

Abdullah bin Mubarak saw two angels’ descend from the sky, and start talking to each other.

One of the angels asked the other: “Do you know how many people have come for Haj this year?”

The other angel replied: “Six hundred thousand have come for Haj.”

Abdullah bin Mubarak had also gone for Haj that year.

The first angel asked: “How many people’s Haj has been accepted?”

The second replied: “I wonder if anyone’s Haj has been accepted at all.”

Abdullah bin Mubarak was grieved to hear that. He thought, “So many people have come from all over the world, crossing so many obstacles like rivers, jungles, mountains, suffered so many hardships, and meeting so many expenses. Would their effort be wasted? Allah does not let anyone’s effort go to waste”.

He had thought only so far when he heard the other angel speak: “There is a cobbler in Damascus. His name is Ali bin Al Mufiq. He could not come for Haj, but Allah has accepted his intention of Haj. Not only will he get the reward for Haj, but because of him, all the Hajis will be rewarded.

When Abdullah bin Mubarak woke up, he decided he would go to Damascus and meet that cobbler whose Haj intentions carried such a lot of weight.

On reaching Damascus, Abdullah bin Mubarak inquired if anyone knew a cobbler named Ali bin Al Mufiq. The town people directed him to a house. When a man appeared from the house Abdullah bin Mubarak greeted him and asked his name. The man replied “Ali bin Al Mufiq”.

Abdullah bin Mubarak asked: “What do you do for a living?”

Ali replied: “I am a cobbler”. Then Ali asked the stranger’s name that had come looking for him.

Abdullah bin Mubarak was a very well-known scholar of Islam, when Abdullah bin Mubarak introduced him self, the cobbler was anxious to find out why such a well known scholar was seeking him out.

When Abdullah bin Mubarak asked Ali to tell him if he had made any plans to go for Haj. Ali replied “For thirty years I have lived in the hope of per-forming the Haj. This year I had saved enough to go for Haj, but Allah did not will it, so I couldn’t make my intention translate into action.

Abdullah bin Mubarak was eager to find out how could this man’s Haj

be accepted and blessed for all the people who went for Haj that year when he didn’t go for Haj in the first place. While talking to the cobbler he could feel a certain purity in his heart. Islam regards greatness not in wealth or in power, but in civility, in good manners and the goodness of heart.

Abdullah bin Mubarak further asked: “why could you not go on Haj?”. In order not to disclose the reason, Ali again replied “it was Allah’s will”.

When Abdullah bin Mubarak per-sisted, Ali revealed: “Once I went to see my neighbour’s house. His family was just sitting down for dinner. Although I was not hungry I thought my neighbour would invite me to sit down for dinner out of courtesy but I could see that my neighbour was grieved about something and wanted to avoid inviting me for dinner.

After some hesitation the neighbour told me: “I am sorry I cannot invite you for food. We were without food for three days and I could not bear to see the pain of hunger of my children. I went out looking for food today and found a dead donkey. In my desperation I cut out some meat from the dead animal, and brought it home so that my wife could cook this meat. It is halal (lawful or per-mitted) for us because of our extreme condition of hunger, but I cannot offer it to you.”

Ali continued: “On hearing this, my heart bled with tears. I got up and went home, collected the three thousand dinars I had saved for Haj, and gave

my neighbour the money. I too had to go hungry but that was to save money for Haj, but I thought helping my neighbour during his difficult times was more important. Although I still desire to go for Haj if Allah wills.”

Abdullah bin Mubarak was greatly inspired by the cobbler’s story and told the cobbler of his dream.

God is merciful and shows mercy to those who do likewise to his creatures. This act of compassion on the part of the cobbler was so pleasing to God that it not only earned him the reward of Haj but was extended to all the people who came for Haj.

Haj is a journey that can ignite the soul to be reminded of the time it was created and takes it beyond the dimen-sions of this life to the time it will meet the creator.

The sincere performance of Haj can transcend a person’s day to day life into a spiritual awakening of the highest magnitude. A successful Haj experience connects us to our creator and the greater compassion of humanity.

www.islamcity.org

Like any other article of faith, the pilgrimage can become meaningless if it is regarded as an end in itself rather than a means for the attainment of a meaningful life.

Syria pistachio farmers return to orchards after years of warAFP — MAAN, SYRIA

Pruning scissors in hand, Syrian pistachio farmer Fadi Al Mahmoud inspected his orchard, hoping for his first harvest after years of war, as nearby army de-miners swept the ground for buried explo-sives.

“I will be fine as long as my orchard is fine,” said the 40-year-old, who returned to his village of Maan in the north of battle-scarred Hama province only months ago, after years of displacement.

The region, long a centre of Syria’s famed pistachio pro-duction, was controlled for years by jihadists and rebels, but it fell to President Bashar Al Assad’s government forces early this year.

After the violence subsided, many farmers like Mahmoud returned, hoping this season would mark the revival of what was once a leading industry, its produce beloved across the

Middle East. “The pistachio tree is the lung that allows the vil-lages of the Hama countryside to breathe,” Mahmoud said during a break from pruning the trees with shears and a small saw.

Parting the green leaves, he examined the pistachios, looking for the purple hue on their greenish cream-coloured outer casing that indicates they are ready to be picked.

Syria was once a top exporter of the green nut that is widely used in sweets and sprinkled on ice cream across the Middle East. The country produced up to 80,000 tonnes a year before the start of the conflict in 2011, mostly for export to Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and Europe.

In 2013, according to the United Nations Food and Agri-culture Organization, Syria was still the world’s fourth largest pistachio producer after Iran, the United States and Turkey.

But years of bitter fighting

blocked access to Syria’s best pistachio regions in Hama, Aleppo and Idlib provinces, leading production to plunge by more than half during the war, according to the agriculture ministry.

Of more than 70,000 hec-tares (170,000 acres) of farm land alloted for pistachio growing in the northwest, a quarter has been damaged by war, said Hassan Ibrahim, director of the ministry’s pis-tachio department.

Mahmoud said that on his farm, “some tree branches had withered, and there were trenches and landmines scat-tered all around”.

“I hope I can start to make up for the losses during the war,” he said.

He explained that pistachio orchards “require a lot of care”.

“They must be ploughed four times a year and sprayed with pesticides twice annually or more.”

Although the battles have

died down, danger still lurks in the soil in the form of anti-per-sonnel mines and other unex-ploded ordnance left behind by rebels and jihadists.

The authorities “have sent teams to sweep the area,” Ibrahim said.

Outside the village, where the skeleton of a charred

vehicle sits in an arid field, Syrian army de-miners swept the rust-brown earth with metal detectors for remnants of war.

A loud blast echoed across the land as they detonated a landmine. Another local pis-tachio farmer, Ibrahim Ibrahim, recalled harvests before the war. “We used to pluck tonnes

from our trees every year and distribute them in local markets or export them,” said the 55-year-old. The nuts “make up our main source of income”.

“This is the first year that farmers re-enter their lands without fear,” he said. “I hope... this year we will see production rise to pre-war levels.”

A pistachio farmer tends to a tree at a pistachio orchard in the village of Maan, north of Hama in west-central Syria. Pistachio farmers in central Syria are hoping that reduced violence will help revive cultivation of what was once one of the country’s top exports.

Iran faces shortage of medics, beds as virus cases spike REUTERS & AFP TEHRAN/RAMALLAH

Hospitals in Iran face acute shortages of medical personnel and beds as the country tackles a powerful second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a senior official of Tehran’s anti-coro-navirus task force said yesterday.

Iran, the Middle East country hardest hit by the pan-demic, began relaxing its lockdown in mid-April.

But a second wave of infec-tions emerged in early June and has proven much more serious than the first one, said Reza Jal-ili-Khoshnood, who is himself infected, the semi-official Isna reported.

Iran recorded 13,608 related deaths as of yesterday, including 198 in the previous 24 hours, according to Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari speaking on state TV.

Jalili-Khoshnood was quoted as saying that at one hos-pital - Tehran’s Shohada, where he is hospitalized - 172 medical staff have been infected them-selves or are caring for infected family members. He said he there were also shortages of beds including of intensive care beds.

His comments contrast with President Hassan Rou-hani’s regular assurances that Iran has sufficient supplies of medical personnel and facilities.

Sadat Lari told state tele-vision that the total number of diagnosed cases in the country had reached 267,061, up by 2,500 in the last 24 hours.

While struggling to curb the spread of COVID-19, Iranian authorities are con-cerned that tougher measures against it could wreck an

economy already reeling under US sanctions.

Meanwhile, for Palestinians already hit financially by the coronavirus pandemic, a new round of restrictions has added to their woes as infections in the occupied West Bank spike again.

When the Palestinian Authority decreed the new 14-day lockdown on Sunday, some businessmen took to the streets of Hebron, the city with the territory’s highest infection rate, in defiance of a curfew.

The next day in Ramallah, where the PA is based, about 50 merchants rallied to voice their anger and demand the reopening of their shops, some of which had been shuttered for days before the curfew went into effect. They had previously suffered a lockdown for several weeks, imposed at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak.

“Those who ask people to stay at home have to take care of their needs,” said Mohammed Nasr, owner of a grocery store in central

Citizens wearing masks are seen at a subway after wearing face mask become mandatory in public transports like metro and busses within the novel coronavirus pandemic precautions in Tehran, Iran, yesterday.

Ramallah. “We’re not only asking for

the opening of stores, we’re asking for a return to normal life and the ability to move about.”

Without that, he said, “we have no customers”.

The PA began easing a first round of lockdown measures in May, but since then it has recorded a surge of new infec-tions. Officials have attributed this to people failing to observe social distancing and to travel, mainly of workers, between the West Bank and Israel where infections have also surged.

The Palestinian health min-istry, in its daily update Wednesday, reported a total of 6,992 confirmed infections and 43 deaths across the West Bank.

That compares to about 2,680 infections and seven deaths as of July 7.

The PA therefore decided on Sunday to extend a closure of the West Bank in force since July 5, to allow only pharmacies, bakeries and supermarkets to remain open. It also imposed a nightly and weekend curfew for two weeks. Facing a public

backlash, regional governors have issued rulings contradicting those from Ramallah, allowing some stores to remain open.

Seeing the need to cut some slack, the PA on Monday evening authorised small busi-nesses to stay open, subject to social distancing and wearing of face masks.

“The coronavirus comes at a critical time for the Palestinian Authority, because of its decision to stop cooperation with Israel,” said political analyst Abdelmajid Sweilem.

The PA decided at the end of May to suspend all cooper-ation with the Jewish state over the latter’s plan to annex parts of the West Bank, under Israeli occupation since 1967.

The move hit the PA’s rev-enues: Israel is supposed to collect and transfer to the Pal-estinians roughly 687m shekels ($200m) a month in VAT and customs duties levied on products imported by Pales-tinians through Israeli-con-trolled entry points.

“We are facing a real health threat,” said government

spokesman Ibrahim Melhem, insisting that “despite the political and economic chal-lenges, we are doing everything possible to deal with the pandemic.”

The PA’s monthly shortfall is currently estimated at 350 million shekels. “In one month, the authority manages to obtain only 300 million shekels, which doesn’t cover its expenses”, said economic analyst Nasr Abdel Karim. Just the salaries of civil servants cost up to 750 million shekels.

In the past three months the PA has paid its 177,000 employees civil servants only partially or not at all.

In early June, the World Bank warned that the West Bank poverty rate (14 percent) could double due to the pan-demic and that its budget should be cut by about $1.5bn this year.

Yet some analysts doubt that it will reverse its decision to shun contact with Israel. “I think the Palestinian Authority would rather fall apart than resume cooperation,” Sweilem said.

Death toll in Turkish migrant boat sinking rises to 40

REUTERS — ISTANBUL

The death toll from a migrant boat sinking in Lake Van in eastern Turkey rose to 40, the local governor’s office said yesterday, after nearly three weeks of search operations.

The boat, which sank on June 27, is believed to have been carrying 55-60 migrants, according to Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu. Five people have been formally arrested in relation to the incident.

Lake Van is near the border with Iran, from where migrants regularly cross into Turkey heading west toward Europe from Iran, Afghanistan and other countries. Seven people died and 64 were rescued when a boat carrying migrants from Pakistan, Bang-ladesh and Afghanistan sank on Lake Van in December.

Over a million people reached Greece from Turkey in 2015-16, although the numbers later dropped sharply under a 2016 agreement between the EU and Turkey for Ankara to take migrants back in return for funds. Earlier this year, tens of thousands of migrants tried to cross into Greece via land and sea borders after Ankara said it would no longer stop them. Turkey, home to 3.6 million Syrians, the world’s largest refugee popu-lation, had said it would open the frontier because it was alarmed by the prospect of another wave of refugees fleeing war in northwest Syria.

Plane crash in Turkey kills 7 securitymenAP — ANKARA

A small plane belonging to Turkey’s police force has crashed into a mountain in eastern Turkey, killing seven security personnel on board, Turkey’s interior minister said yesterday.

The plane was returning from a surveillance and recon-naissance mission late on Wednesday, when it crashed into Mount Artos at an altitude of 2,200 meters (some 7,200 feet), Suleyman Soylu told reporters. The mountain, a dormant volcano, is situated in Van province, near the border with Iran.

The minister, who traveled to the region to oversee the recovery operation, said the plane disappeared from the radar on its way back to Van’s Ferit Melen Airport. The plane’s wreckage was found at around 3am, he said.

All on board, including the two pilots, were members of the national police. The cause of the of crash was under investigation, Soylu said.

The plane was on a sur-veillance mission over Van and the neighbouring, mostly Kurdish-populated province of Hakkari.

Iran recorded 13,608 related deaths as of yesterday, including 198 in the previous 24 hours, according to Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari, Iran, the Middle East country hardest hit by the pandemic, began relaxing its lockdown in mid-April.

06 FRIDAY 17 JULY 2020MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

African nation blasts ‘inequality crisis’ in COVID-19 testingAP — JOHANNESBURG

Central African Republic’s health minister is blasting the “big inequality crisis” in coro-navirus testing as he sees rich countries like Britain conduct scores of thousands of tests daily while his own struggles to obtain supplies for a couple hundred at most.

Pierre Somse told a World Health Organization briefing yesterday that “we are in a scarcity, a misery of tests” — a blunt assessment of the scram-bling by African nations and rising fears as the pandemic’s first wave hits the continent of 1.3 billion people.

The minister said his country of more than 4 million people is still waiting for testing supplies ordered via the WHO. “I believe this is due to global competition, this is well known,” he said. He recalled

listening to radio reports of thousands, even millions of tests carried out in richer countries in short stretches of time.

The United States has con-ducted more than 700,000 tests a day in the past few days. And weeks ago the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected late last year, tested nearly 10 million people over 19 days.

Central African Republic has more than 4,300 confirmed virus cases — a small fraction of the more than 645,000 across Africa — but the true number is unknown.

“It’s hiding a major health problem because we cannot have the real situation,” the health minister said. Without donations of testing materials from the Chinese, “we could not have done nothing, nothing at all.”

He called for more than just talk about global solidarity in

the pandemic, especially for “small and fragile” states, saying his own is being “completely overlooked” in the global race for testing and medical supplies.

Confirmed virus cases

across Africa have jumped by 23 percent in the past week, and South Africa makes up more than half of them. South Africa yesterday night surpassed Mexico and Chile with 324,221 cases and now has the world’s

sixth highest reported caseload, according to the health ministry and data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Even South Africa, the con-tinent’s most developed country, has pointed out shortages of testing materials as the backlog of tests at one point reached nearly 100,000 and the average wait for some results reached 12 days.

There’s no doubt about the lack of testing materials, espe-cially for low-income countries that rely on international support for procurement, said the WHO Africa chief, Mat-shidiso Moeti.

That especially hurts in Africa’s most fragile countries. In a sampling of just seven nations more than 1,800 virus cases have been confirmed among refugees, migrants and displaced people or in areas of humanitarian crises, the WHO said.

A woman waits for a health worker to conduct a COVID-19 test at the Nkembo health centre, in Libreville, recently.

07FRIDAY 17 JULY 2020 AFRICA

Fayez Al Sarraj (right), Prime Minister of Libya’s UN-recognised Government of National Accord, with Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese (left), in Tripoli, yesterday.

Libya, Italy discuss oil ports, demining efforts

ANATOLIA — TRIPOLI

The closure of Libyan oil ports and measures to remove mines planted by Khalifa Haftar’s forces dominated discussions between Libya’s Prime Minister and Italy’s Foreign Minister yesterday.

Prime Minister Fayez Al Sarraj and Italian Foreign Min-ister Luigi Di Maio met in Tripoli to discuss recent developments in Libya and the bilateral

cooperation, according to a Libyan government statement.

Security cooperation and efforts against illegal immi-gration, human trafficking, and smuggling were part of the topics discussed.

The two also spoke about “preparatory steps for the return of Italian companies to resume their activity in Libya, and Italy’s continued contri-bution to the demining process from areas that were under the

control of the aggressor militias,” the statement said.

The officials discussed the necessity of resuming oil pro-duction, which remains Libya’s main source of revenue.

Libya, with the largest oil reserves in Africa, can produce 1.2 million barrels of crude oil per day. However, production has fallen below 100,000 barrels a day due to interrup-tions by pro-Haftar militias over the past six months.

UN says 2 aid workers, 4 others shot dead in South SudanAP — JOHANNESBURG

Two aid workers in South Sudan were shot dead along with four people they were helping after members of an unknown armed group attacked them early this week, the UN humanitarian coordi-nator in the country said yesterday.

South Sudan is one of the

most dangerous places in the world for humanitarian workers even after the coun-try’s five-year civil war ended in 2018.

At least 122 have been killed since 2013 including seven this year. Most, like the two killed on Monday, have been South Sudanese.

“These terrible acts cannot continue,” UN coordinator

Mohamed Ag Ayoya said in a statement calling on South Sudan’s government to do more to protect aid workers who take “significant risks” to help millions of people facing hunger and now the corona-virus pandemic.

The gunmen opened fire as the staffers with an interna-tional aid group were providing health and nutrition services

to residents, mostly women and children, who tried to flee the scene, the UN statement said. The aid group wasn’t identified.

The attack occurred in Pajut town centre in restive Jonglei state, which has seen vicious rounds of communal violence that have killed hun-dreds of people this year and displaced thousands.

The violence in Jonglei has forced aid groups such as Medecins Sans Frontieres and the International Committee of the Red Cross to limit their work there in recent weeks.

“Although the fear of further attacks is palpable in the town, the NGO will con-tinue to provide health care and nutrition services,” the UN said.

Sudan govt, rebels enter final phase of peace talksAFP — JUBA

The Sudanese government and a coalition of rebel groups yesterday entered into a final phase of peace talks, which will centre on the creation of a unified Sudanese army.

Mediators described the discussions as the “most important” component of the Sudan peace process, which aims to restore stability to the war-torn regions of Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile.

“This is the last chapter and the biggest chapter, the security arrangements in the peace negotiations. If we nego-tiate the security arrangements very well and in good faith we will have reached a sincere comprehens ive peace agreement,” said mediator Tutkew Gatluak in Juba, South Sudan.

The peace talks, which began in South Sudan in October, aim to end conflicts in three regions where rebels have fought bloody campaigns against marginalisation by Khartoum under ousted pres-ident Omar Al Bashir.

Hopes of a deal were raised after Sudan’s transitional gov-ernment, led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, made ending conflict in these areas a

priority. Some of the issues already agreed upon include wealth and power-sharing, and autonomy for the Blue Nile and Kordofan regions.

Alhadi Idris Yahya, chairman of the Sudan Revo-lutionary Front (SRF) — a coa-lition of nine rebel groups negotiating with the Sudanese government — said the parties had agreed the SRF would have three seats in the sovereign council, currently running the country.

It would also get 25 percent of seats in parliament and the execut ive branch of government.

The parties have also agreed on a timeline of 39

months for a transitional period after the signing of a c ompr eh en s i ve pea c e agreement.

“(...) At the end of the day the main aim of the security arrangements is to have what we call one unified Sudan army. As we speak now we have several armies... and it is not an ideal situation in one country to have more than an army,” said Yayha.

A second coalition of rebel groups, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) from South Kordofan is negotiating separately.

They want a secular state or alternatively, self-determi-nation for their region.

Alhadi Idris Yahya, Chairman of the Sudan Revolutionary Front — a coalition of nine rebel groups negotiating with the Sudanese government — said the parties had agreed the SRF would have three seats in the sovereign council, currently running the country.

SRF would also get 25 percent of seats in parliament and the executive branch of government.

Gabon appoints first woman PM amid govt shake-upREUTERS — LIBREVILLE

Gabon President Ali Bongo yesterday promoted his defence minister, Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda, to prime minister, the first time a woman has held the role in the country.

Ossouka Raponda, 56, is the sixth prime minister appointed since Bongo succeeded his father in 2009. Her first job is to form a new government after her predecessor, Julien Nkoghe Bekale, stepped down earlier in the day.

She will take on two major challenges: declining oil pro-duction and prices, which have weighed on growth in recent years, and the COVID-19 pan-demic. The Central African

country has registered nearly 6,000 cases to date.

Ossouka Raponda will also have to navigate a delicate political scene that was shaken up when Bongo, 61, had a stroke in 2018, followed by a long medical leave abroad, during which there was a brief coup attempt. Bongo’s recovery has been slow and rare television appearances show him still struggling to walk.

Ossouka Raponda was named budget minister eight years ago before being elected mayor of the capital Libreville in 2014, becoming the first woman to hold that position since 1956. She has served as defence minister since February 2019.

A file photo of Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda casting her vote at a polling station in Libreville, Gabone, on October 06, 2018, during the first round of the country’s legislative and municipal elections.

Togo issues international arrest warrant for ex-PMAFP — LOME

Togo has issued an interna-tional arrest warrant for Agbeyome Kodjo, the runner-up in February’s presidential elections, his lawyer said yesterday, adding that he had gone into hiding in the poor West African nation fearing for his life.

“It is one more act of per-secution of Mr Kodjo, which does nothing to shake our determination to shine the truth on this affair,” the lawyer, Darius Kokou Atsoo, said on commercial radio.

S t a t e p r o s e c u t o r Essolissam Poyodi, speaking to AFP, confirmed that Kodjo’s failure to comply with a judicial summons last Friday had triggered the arrest warrant.

Kodjo, in a message to AFP, reiterated the fear that his life was in danger and said he was in hiding in Togo.

The 65-year-old has been barred from leaving the country since alleging wide-spread irregularities in the February 22 vote and declaring himself legitimate head of

state. He was jailed for four days in April after a police raid for failing to comply with a series of summonses, for which he invoked health reasons, his lawyers said at the time.

According to official results, the incumbent Faure Gnassingbe won a fourth term with nearly 70 percent of the vote while Kodjo, head of the Patriotic Movement for Democracy and Development (MPDD), won just under 20 percent.

Kodjo, who served as premier under Gnassingbe’s father, also called on the armed forces to rise up against the government, according to the prosecutor, who said this threatened public order and state security.

The MPDD late last month demanded the release of 16 of its activists who were jailed on April 21 for “rebellion” and other charges.

Gnassingbe has led the country of eight million people since taking over in 2005 after the death of his father Gnass-ingbe Eyadema, who ruled with an iron fist for 38 years.

South Africa’s virus epicentre shifts away from Cape TownAP — CAPE TOWN

Health officials in South Africa decided yesterday to reduce the capacity of a COVID-19 field hospital in Cape Town, a sign that the situation may be improving in the city that was Africa’s first coronavirus epicentre.

Declining numbers of patients prompted the decision to reduce the size of Khay-elitsha field hospital from 60 to 30 beds, indicating cautious optimism among health workers. The field hospital will send 30 of its life-saving oxygen concentrating machines to other parts of the country where they are desperately needed, an aid worker, Sean Christie, said. Where they will go is still to be decided.

There have been calls for the machines from “all over” South Africa, he said. They take room air and boost its oxygen content before delivering it to a patient through a mask or nasal tube and have proved to be critical in helping save the lives of some COVID-19

patients.Virus hospitalisations are

surging across other parts of South Africa, especially in Gauteng province, which includes the country’s biggest city, Johannesburg, and the capital, Pretoria. Numbers are also growing significantly in the more rural Eastern Cape province.

The Khayelitsha field hos-pital was constructed in a sports hall in one of Cape Town’s poorest and most densely pop-ulated areas as a partnership between Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym MSF, and the local Western Cape province’s health department.

The field hospital will be reduced to 50% of its capacity as soon as possible, MSF spokesman Christie said.

He said some of the MSF team would be re-deployed to help in a town in the Eastern Cape province, where health services are reportedly struggling.

Gauteng province this month overtook the Western

Cape in total confirmed COVID-19 cases. In just a week, Gauteng’s cases have increased by more than 37,000 to 112,714, according to the health min-istry. In the same time period, Cape Town’s confirmed cases increased by just over 8,000 to 81,556. South Africa has more than 311,000 cases, according to the tally by Johns Hopkins University, making it the country with the eighth-biggest caseload in the world, above Britain, Spain and Italy. South Africa has had relatively few deaths, at around 4,500.

There are fears the death rate may spike if hospitals else-where in South Africa aren’t able to handle the surge in cases. Gauteng, currently the province under the most pressure, is South Africa’s most populated with more than 12 million people.

“The storm of the virus is expected to hit Gauteng, which has 25% of South Africa’s people, many in densely pop-ulated areas,” Bandile Masuku, the province’s top health official, said yesterday.

Africa COVID-19 cases climb to over 644,000ANATOLIA — ADDIS ABABA

The number of people who have tested positive for the coronavirus in the African continent has reached 644,205, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said yesterday.

At least 14,044 people died of virus-related complications across 54 countries in the con-tinent, according to the latest figures.

The recoveries hit 334,547, the Africa CDC update showed.

Some 322,000 infections were recorded in Southern Africa, North Africa registered 130,200 cases, West Africa 100,800, East Africa 50,100 and Central Africa 41,100.

In terms of death toll, North Africa suffered 5,600 fatalities, Southern Africa 4,700, West Africa 1,600, East Africa 1,300, and Central Africa 839.

According to the update, 164,700 patients have recovered in Southern Africa, 61,300 in West Africa, 57,700 in North Africa, 26,300 in East Africa, and 23,600 in Central Africa. The pandemic has killed over 584,000 people worldwide.

Armed men kill villagers in Mali REUTERS — BAMAKO

Armed men killed at least 12 villagers in central Mali, local officials said yesterday, while in the capital Bamako West African mediators held talks on how to end a wave of protests against Malian Pres-ident Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Several mass protests since early June have demanded Keita’s resignation, accusing him, among other things, of failing to quash violence by militant groups and ethnic militias that has killed hun-dreds of civilians this year.

In the latest attacks, armed men on motorbikes targeted seven villages inhabited by Dogon farmers in Mopti region, said Ali Dolo, the mayor of a nearby town.

“Among the dead, 10 were cultivating their fields,” he told Reuters. “This means the attacks are aimed at pre-venting people from farming.” Another local mayor placed the final death toll at 13.

In Bamako, meanwhile, Nigeria’s former president Goodluck Jonathan arrived on Wednesday to lead a dele-gation from West African regional bloc ECOWAS.

The delegation is due to meet with Keita, opposition leaders and the electoral com-mission in an effort to end violent clashes between pro-testers and security forces that have killed at least 11 people since last Friday.

“With the cooperation of you and people of good will who want the problem to be resolved, I am hopeful that the crisis will end,” he told the state radio station yesterday.

Last Saturday, Keita promised to move to implement recommendations made by a previous ECOWAS delegation last month, including that the government “reconsider” the results of dis-puted March legislative elec-tions that helped spark the protests.

The violence over the past week has hardened the oppo-sition’s calls for his resignation.

08 FRIDAY 17 JULY 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

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

EDITORIAL

MESAIEED Hospital has become the second dedi-cated COVID-19 treatment facility in Qatar to discharge its final batch of patients and return to normal healthcare operations, following the Ras Laffan Hospital which saw off the last coronavirus patient earlier this month. Both these hospitals were rapidly upgraded and opened in April as part of the country’s preparedness against the pandemic. They were part of the seven health facil-ities that exclusively dealt with coronavirus patients.

The Minister of Public Health, H E Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, who met the last patients leaving the hospital on Wednesday, praised the remarkable success of the country’s healthcare system against the challenge of the COVID-19. 6,170 patients treated at Mesaieed Hospital are among the more than 100,000 people who have recovered from COVID-19 in Qatar with the support of the healthcare system.

A crucial aspect of Qatar’s response to the pan-demic has been the efficiency and increased capacity of its healthcare network which ensured that every patient was able to quickly access the medical care they needed. Rass Laffan, Mesaieed, Lebseeyer Hos-pitals as well as the Doha Industrial Area filed hospital were converted into advanced treatment facilities for COVID-19 patients within just a few weeks, significantly boosting the healthcare sectors capacity. Mesaieed Hospital was originally built with an intended capacity of just 120 beds, but it provided 610 acute beds, 45 intensive care beds and 27 acute pediatric beds throughout its time as a COVID-19 facility.

Overall, 3,500 new hospital beds and 700 intensive care beds were created for COVID-19 patients.

Over the past four and a half month Qatar has passed through a major coronavirus outbreak. However, effective containment measures and proactive testing coupled with years of investments in the healthcare have resulted in the country achieving the second lowest mortality rate from COVID-19 in the world.

The wonderful results Qatar has achieved so far in fight against COVID-19 are also the result of country’s sustained investments in science, technology and innovation.

As an active partner at the international level, Qatar has also been at the forefront of global efforts to mit-igate the effects of the pandemic, particularly for vul-nerable communities. Qatar has provided $10m to the World Health Organization, in addition to contributing $20m in global efforts to find a vaccine against COVID-19. It has also provided financial aid and medical equipment to many affected countries to enhance the capacity of their healthcare systems and aid their efforts against COVID-19.

Success against COVID-19

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Quote of the day

If you are going to get healthy, you have to admit

that you are sick. And that is something that our

leaders cannot seem to do today because they

always have to tell this story of success to get

re-elected or to become popular.

Greta Thunberg, Climate Activist

H E Ambassador Ali Khalfan Al Mansouri, Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the UN Office in Geneva, attending an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on racism regarding the report on her visit to the State of Qatar.

QNA — GENEVA

The State of Qatar reiterated its principled position in support of equality and the prevention of racial discrimination in all its forms and manifestations, stressing the importance of the work undertaken by the Special Rapporteur on contem-porary forms of racism in this regard, as well as its full support for her mandate and willingness to cooperate with her to carry out her duties in an optimal manner.

This came in the speech of the State of Qatar, delivered by Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Office in Geneva H E Ambassador Ali Khalfan Al Mansouri, during an inter-active dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on racism regarding her report on her visit to the State of Qatar.

His Excellency thanked the Special Rapporteur on con-temporary forms of racism Tendayi Achiume, for her visit to the State of Qatar, appreci-ating the constructive discus-sions held during the visit.

His Excellency also thanked her for her efforts in preparing the report, which included many positive issues that could support the efforts of the State of Qatar to further fulfill its obligations in the field of promoting and pro-tecting human rights.

His Excellency said that Qatar welcomes the Special Rapporteur’s praise of the important reforms undertaken by the State of Qatar in labor laws, and the measures and guarantees that have been adopted to promote and protect the rights of migrant workers, which the rapporteur described as “truly distinctive” and Qatar affirms in this regard to move forward in these efforts.

His Excellency

also welcomed the Special Rapporteur’s praise of the procedures and measures established by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) to protect workers who are building the World Cup stadiums, which are a major component of the championship’s legacy.

His Excellency empha-sized that the government of the State of Qatar took note of the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur contained in the report, and His Excel-lency announced that work is already underway to implement a number of these recommendations.

His Excellency pointed out that in this regard, that there is interest in including a definition of racial discrimination in national law in line with Article 1 of the International Con-vention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, noting that the national legal framework of the State of Qatar, including the constitution and other relevant legislation, includes the general rules of the provisions of the Convention, of which the principle of equality and prevention of discrimi-nation is one of its basic pillars.

His Excellency noted that the Special Rapporteur referred in some paragraphs of the report to information that needs further clarifi-cation, indicating that with regard to updating the national legislative system in the field of promotion and protection of workers’ rights, the State of Qatar has repealed the sponsorship law and a fundamental reform has been made on the legal structure of labor relations since 2015, and according to Law No. (21) regarding organ-izing entry and exit of expa-triates and their residency, this law, and the subsequent executive measures for it,

have included many guar-antees aimed at securing migrant workers rights.

His Excellency said that within the framework of coop-eration and taking advantage of the relevant international mechanisms, the State of Qatar has entered into a tech-nical cooperation agreement with the International Labor Organization for the period 2018-2020, which includes providing the organization with technical advice in vital areas such as: improving the wage protection system, the inspection and safety and occupational health system, and implementing a con-tractual system to replace sponsorship and improve con-ditions and procedures for employment of workers.

His Excellency said that Qatar has some reservations on some of the interpretations stated in the report, indicating the existence of discrimi-nation based on racial and ethnic stereotypes, and stresses that these assump-tions are contrary to the pro-visions of the Constitution and the laws and procedures in force in the State of Qatar, which work to enhance the spirit of equality, solidarity and brotherhood and prevent the stirring of sectarian or racial prejudices or others among the population.

His Excellency stressed that with regard to combating direct and indirect racial pro-filing in the framework of work, Qatar reports that bilateral agreements to recruit workers from abroad concluded by the State of Qatar with the countries of origin of workers are not based on any discrimination, as a unified model has been adopted for all bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding related to recruitment of workers of

different nationalities, which amounted to 36 bilateral agreements and 13 memo-randa of understanding, the terms of those agreements, and the model contracts, are unified for all countries and do not have any discrimi-nation between one country or another with regard to the rights of migrant workers.

His Excellency added that Qatar notes with appreciation what the Special Rapporteur indicated about her knowledge of the significant impact of the measures taken by the four countries on the human rights of Qataris in those countries, and Qatar welcomes her calling to all parties to respect their obligations under international human rights law, and to adhere to the findings of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Court of Justice, which are currently consid-ering complaints submitted by the State of Qatar regarding these measures.

His Excellency expressed his hope that the Special Rap-porteur will continue in her future reports to address human rights violations resulting from coercive and discriminatory measures imposed by the blockading countries, especially as it is, in our assessment, within the mandate of the Special Rap-porteur, and as these measures have targeted Qataris.

His Excellency added that Qatar also hopes that the Special Rapporteur will also address the serious conse-quences of these measures, in particular, the spread of hate and discrimination speeches based on nationality in the region and that this will be reflected in her forthcoming reports to be submitted to the Human Rights Council within the framework of her mandate.

THE WASHINGTON POST

Facebook gave itself a test, and the results are in: The company’s recent record on nondiscrimination, according to an expert civil rights audit it commissioned, has been marked by pitfalls as much as progress.

Facebook’s audit began two years ago at the encour-agement of advocacy groups concerned that the company’s commitment to free speech above all else had allowed toxicity to seep throughout the platform, giving bad actors an excuse to harass and to spread hate, and even

leading to real-world violence as seen in Charlottesville, Va. Now, the top-level takeaway from the detailed assessment is that Facebook wrongly pri-oritizes free expression - yet that’s a too-simple reading of the complicated world of platform governance.

Facebook was created to give people a place to speak and be spoken to; free expression will always be a lodestar. The question is to what extent the company allows other values to guide it, too. The civil rights report reveals how Facebook has struggled to weave a com-mitment

to nondiscrimination and protection for minorities into a system that didn’t put its focus there to start with.

Facebook clearly recog-nizes that harms such as incitement of violence, voter suppression or mere intimi-dation into silence can out-weigh the benefits of unfet-tered expression. But it’s a constant challenge to figure out when. The audit is useful in spelling out the various levels where that challenge takes place, from policy for-mulation to enforcement to platform design, including algorithmic bias.

The auditors recognize

improvements in all these areas. Facebook has, for instance, instituted more robust bans on voter sup-pression and barred explicit support for white nationalism. The site has launched a pilot to guard against a too-common enforcement error of punishing those who com-plain about hate speech. It is going after census inter-ference with tough policy and tough enforcement alike. And Facebook has overhauled its advertising infrastructure so that US housing, employment and credit ads can no longer be targeted by age, gender or Zip code.

Qatar renews its position to support equality, prevent racial discrimination

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09FRIDAY 17 JULY 2020 ASIA

New lockdowns ordered as India coronavirus cases near one millionAFP — PATNA

One of India’s most impover-ished states went into lockdown yesterday, but near-normal traffic on Patna’s streets showed the difficulty of corralling over 125 million people.

The lockdown in the northern state bordering Nepal started as India reported more than 600 deaths in the previous 24 hours, and the Red Cross warned the virus was spreading at “an alarming rate” across south Asia.

With India’s caseload on course to hit one million on today or tomorrow — and fatal-ities approaching 25,000 — local authorities across the country are reimposing restric-tions that have only recently been lifted.

Bihar, a largely rural state with feeble health infra-structure, went into a 15-day lockdown at midnight, a day after IT hub Bangalore — home to 13 million people — shut down for a week.

All schools, clubs, temples

and non-essential businesses were ordered to close in Bihar, but construction and agricul-tural activity allowed to continue.

And while public transport was shut down, private vehicles are still allowed to operate, and a reporter in the state capital Patna said traffic appeared to be as busy as ever on Thursday morning.

“We have not faced such a

situation in my life before, it is really a horrible experience,” said Radhika Singh, a housewife in her late 40s as she jostled to buy rice and lentils Wednesday before the lockdown started.

A lack of coronavirus disci-pline forced Goa, another Indian state, to announce a three-day shutdown from Thursday evening and a night curfew until August 10.

Chief minister Pramod Sawant said too many people were “stepping out to meet people at parties” and that there was a low level of “awareness and sensitivity”.

“We have more than 40,000 people fined for not wearing masks, plus there are many who are detained for flouting rules, but they continue to loiter,” Sawant told local media. “This only establishes that people only understand the language of the law.”

Bangalore appeared to be coping far better. Many firms that handle the back-office operations of global corpora-tions were little affected by the

re-imposed restrictions having already working from home.

Still, the health minister of Karnataka, of which Bangalore is the capital, said on Wednesday that “only God can save us” as the number of cases in the state approached 50,000.

The International Feder-ation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said that the entire region is fast becoming the next epicentre for the coronavirus.

“While the world’s attention has been focused on the unfolding crisis in the United States and South America, a concurrent human tragedy is fast emerging in South Asia,” the organisation said.

“COVID-19 is spreading at an alarming rate in South Asia, home to a quarter of humanity.” While India has reported almost 970,000 cases, the pandemic is also still raging in Pakistan and Bangladesh with almost 260,000

and 195,000 cases respectively.In total the three countries

have recorded more than 1.4 million cases and almost 33,000 deaths, according to official figures that many experts say in reality are much higher.

The IFRC also cited a report from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientists —yet to be peer-reviewed — that in six months India could be reporting up to 287,000 cases per day.

A medical technician (centre) checking the body temperature of a man before taking a sample for a COVID-19 anti-body tests at a temporary testing facility for frontline workers during a lockdown in Chennai, India, yesterday.

Philippine capital

may return to

lockdown as

infections rise

BLOOMBERG — MANILA

The Philippine capital will remain under loose movement restrictions starting July 16, but may return on a stricter lockdown in two weeks if coronavirus cases continue to rise.

Metro Manila will stay under general community quarantine until end-July, allowing most businesses to remain open, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said at a televised briefing Wednesday. The health department yesterday said the nation added 2,498 cases, bringing total infections to 61,266 while deaths increased by 29 to 1,643.

Roque said President Rodrigo Duterte initially wanted to reimpose strict stay-home orders and limit business operations in the capital following a University of the Philippines’ study which projected that virus cases may rise to 80,000 by the end of the month. Mayors in the capital region however pledged to intensify targeted lockdowns and testing.

Coronavirus cases in the Philippines have more than tripled since stay-home orders in the capital were lifted and most businesses were allowed to reopen starting June.

The Philippines has the second-highest number of infections in Southeast Asia, next to Indonesia.

Bangladesh arrests hospital owner over fake virus resultsAFP — DHAKA

A Bangladesh hospital owner accused of issuing thousands of fake negative coronavirus test results to patients at his two clinics was arrested on Wednesday while trying to flee to India in a burqa, police said.

The arrest marked the end of a nine-day manhunt for Mohammad Shahed over alle-gations of giving fake certifi-cates to patients saying they were virus-free without even testing them.

Shahed, 42, was one of more than a dozen people detained

by authorities over the past few days in connection with the scam.

Experts warn the false doc-uments has worsened the already dire virus situation in the country of 168 million people by casting doubt about the veracity of certificates issued by clinics.

“He was arrested from the bank of a border river as he was trying to flee to India. He was wearing a burqa,” Rapid Action Battalion spokesman Colonel Ashique Billah said.

“His hospitals carried out 10,500 coronavirus tests, out of which 4,200 were genuine and

the rest, 6,300 test reports, were given without conducting tests.” Shahed is also accused of charging for the certificates and virus treatments even though he had agreed with the gov-ernment that his hospitals in the capital Dhaka would provide free care.

A well-known doctor and her husband were also arrested by police and accused of issuing thousands of fake virus certifi-cates at their Dhaka laboratory.

The alleged scams could badly hurt migrant workers seeking to go abroad and whose remittances are key to

Bangladesh’s economy, said Shakirul Islam of migrant rights group OKUP.

Italy last week suspended flights to Rome from Bang-ladesh to stem the spate of coronavirus cases within the community.

Several passengers arriving from Dhaka had tested positive for COVID-19.

“Some of the Bangladeshis who were tested positive in Italy were allegedly carrying neg-ative COVID certificates from Bangladesh,” Islam claimed.

“The government must ensure quality of COVID-19 tests in local laboratories for the

sake of its overseas job market.” Nearly $19bn was sent back to Bangladesh by an estimated 12 million migrant workers last year, according to the central bank.

Bangladesh has reported just over 193,000 infections and 2,457 deaths so far.

But medical experts say the real figures are likely much higher because so little testing has been carried out.

The impoverished country has restarted economic activ-ities after lifting a months-long virus lockdown at the end of May, even as the number of cases continues to rise.

An aerial photograph shows submerged houses in Sunamganj, Bangladesh, yesterday.

Bangladesh battered by floods amid pandemicANATOLIA — DHAKA

With fight against the COVID-19 pandemic aside, Bangladesh is also struggling to face the flash floods that killed at least eight people so far, a government official said yesterday.

The South Asian country reported around 2,500 deaths from coronavirus while the con-firmed cases neared 200,000, up from 193,590 on Wednesday, according to Health Ministry data.

Meanwhile, week-long floods, which are expected to be severe in some parts of the country in the upcoming days, have already affected more than two million people, forcing more than 20,000 to leave their homes and to take shelter in government-provided facilities

in northern areas of the country, an official from the Disaster Management and Relief Ministry said.

“The situation caused by floods has been deteriorating since July 11 after slight improvement since it first hit us on June 25,” Enamur Rahman, state minister for the ministry, said in a virtual news briefing.

Eight people were killed and 2.25 million others are still inun-dated by the flood water, he added. Rahman said floods hit almost one-third of the country, affecting more than 487,000 fam-ilies across 18 out of 64 districts.

He, however, assured that the government is concerned with both pandemic and flood and is working to deliver suffi-cient relief items to all people affected.

Man blamed for half of Sri Lanka virus cases speaks outAP — COLOMBO

For months he’s been anon-ymous, but now Prasad Dinesh, linked by Sri Lankan author-ities to nearly half of the coun-try’s more than 2,600 corona-virus cases, is trying to clear his name, and shed some of the stigma of an addiction at the root of his ordeal.

Under President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a former army lieu-tenant colonel credited with helping end Sri Lanka’s long civil war in 2009 with a brutal military campaign against sep-aratists, the Indian Ocean island nation has used the armed forces to combat the virus.

When Rajapaksa was elected president last year, a health unit was created in the intelligence service that sprang into action when COVID-19 first appeared, according to State Intelligence Service Assistant Director Par-akrama de Silva. Intelligence officers, health workers, police

officers and military troops have worked together to identify infected people, trace their con-tacts and send them to military-run quarantine centers.

After Dinesh, 33, tested pos-itive for the virus in April, navy sailors raided his village, forcing his contacts into quarantine. But authorities have blamed a melee that ensued not on the military, but on Dinesh — and said the rumpus ended up leading to at least 1,100 additional virus infections.

These cases, they publicly declared, were all linked to a single patient.

Referring to him only as “Patient 206,” government officials lambasted Dinesh on TV and social media, blaming him for at least three clusters of cases, including about 900 navy sailors who were infected after an operation in Ja-Ela, a small town about 19km north of the capital, Colombo.

“I can’t accept that I am responsible for infecting so many, including the navy

sailors,” Dinesh said, after he had returned home following his release from a monthlong stay at a hospital.

Before the pandemic reached Sri Lanka, resulting in an island-wide lockdown, Dinesh worked as an auto rickshaw driver. But now he’s unable to find work.

“No one gives a job when they realise that I am Patient 206,” he said.

Likening him to South Korea’s “Patient 31,” whom media in that country labelled a “super spreader” because she was the first person to test pos-itive in a secretive church com-munity where the virus was later found endemic, police spokesman Ajith Rohana said Dinesh had undermined Sri Lanka’s fight against COVID-19.

“He is the turning point and has done huge damage to our country,” Rohana said.

Authorities say that on April 5, Dinesh was caught by village

residents for a robbery and handed over to police. At the station, Dinesh had a fever as well as a leg injury sustained during the robbery, so author-ities admitted him to a nearby hospital, where he tested pos-itive for the coronavirus and stayed for 31 days.

Dinesh hasn’t contested charges that he and others broke into a house in a nearby village to take coconuts they could sell.

After he tested positive, the police who made the arrest, Dinesh’s friends and more than 100 people in his neigh-bourhood were ordered to quarantine at home.

But not everyone complied.

Afraid that the virus would spread quickly in the congested area, Sri Lanka’s navy sent in a team of sailors to help health workers. As the sailors approached, some of Dinesh’s associates panicked.

Two cops jailed for acid attack on Indonesian graft busterAFP — JAKARTA

Two Indonesian police officers were jailed yesterday for partially blinding a top corruption investigator in an acid attack that sparked wide-spread anger in the graft-riddled Southeast Asian nation.

A Jakarta court handed Ronny Bugis and Rahmat Kadir Mahulette one-and-a-half and two-year prison sentences, respectively, after convicting them of the 2017 attack on Novel Baswedan, a senior member of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradi-cation Commission.

Baswedan, 43, was set upon in the capital as he walked home from a mosque following early morning prayers.

The sentences were longer than the one-year jail terms sought by prosecutors — slammed by critics as too lenient.

But the court ruled that the officers tried to scare Baswedan rather than cause serious injury, saying they had sought to “teach him a lesson”.

Anti-graft investigators in Indonesia — considered by some watchdogs to be among the world’s most corrupt coun-tries — have been targeted in the past, including with threats and violent attacks.

Before yesterday’s ruling, rights groups and Baswedan himself — who was perma-nently blinded in one eye — derided the hearing as a show trial and said key evidence was not presented, including some eyewitness testimony.

“There was an effort to create the perception that the attack was a personal one instead of an attack on a graft investigator,” Baswedan said yesterday before the sentencing.

With India’s caseload on course to hit one million today or tomorrow — and fatalities approaching 25,000 — local authorities across the country are reimposing restrictions that have only recently been lifted.

Summit with North Korea unlikely: PompeoAP — SEOUL

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo downplayed the possi-bility of another summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un before the US presidential election, saying Trump would only want to engage if there were real pros-pects of progress.

Pompeo’s comments during a forum in Washington on Wednesday followed repeated North Korean statements insisting it would no longer gift Trump high-profile meetings he could boast as foreign policy achievements when it’s not being substantially rewarded in return.

“The North Koreans have given mixed signals, but the

truth is President Trump only wants to engage in a summit if we believe there’s a sufficient likelihood that we can make real progress in achieving the outcomes that were set forth in Singapore,” Pompeo said during the event hosted by The Hill, referring to the first Trump-Kim summit in June 2018.

“You need to have a willing partner, and the North Koreans have chosen at this point in time

not to engage in a way that can lead to a potential solution. We hope they’ll change their mind.” Trump and Kim have met three times since embarking on high-stakes nuclear diplomacy in 2018, beginning with their meeting in Singapore where they issued vague vows for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula without describing when and how it would occur.

But negotiations have fal-tered since their second summit

in February 2019, where the Americans rejected North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capability.

Some analysts believe North Korea will avoid serious talks with the Americans for now before attempting an eventual return to negotiations after the US election in November. They say North Korea likely doesn’t want to make any major commitments or con-cessions when there is a chance US leadership could change.

But others say another Trump-Kim meeting wouldn’t be impossible. Trump could opt for something dramatic to improve his sliding poll numbers while Kim could see a window of opportunity closing with a Trump presidency and attempt

a quick exchange between reversible denucleariszation steps and hard-to-reverse sanc-tions relief.

In a statement last week, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the North Korean leader, said she doesn’t expect another summit with the United States this year, insisting that such a meeting would be “unpractical” for the North.

But she also said “you never know,” saying that a meeting would depend on the determi-nation of the two leaders, and called for major concessions from Washington to keep alive the nuclear diplomacy.

The prolonged stalemate in nuclear talks have raised doubts on whether Kim Jong Un would ever agree to fully relinquish the nukes he likely sees as his strongest guarantee of survival.

South Korean

prosecutors

launch probe into

Kim’s sister

BLOOMBERG — SEOUL

South Korean prosecutors have launched an investigation in Kim Jong Un’s sister, in a rare but symbolic gesture that risks renewing tensions with North Korea.

Kim Yo Jong and North Korean military chief Pak Jong Chon are being investigated over their involvement in the destruction of a liaison office that South Korea built north of the border, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office said Thursday. The investigation was opened in response to a criminal complaint filed by a local lawyer, the agency said.

President Moon Jae-in has so far declined to seek damages from North Korea for the June 16 bombing of the $15 million building, which was the most concrete achievement of his efforts to improve ties with Kim. North Korea announced that the building had been “tragically ruined with a terrific explosion,” blaming Moon for failing to stop activists from sending anti-Kim leaflets across the border.

Kim Yo Jong, who in 2018 became the first member of North Korea’s ruling family to visit the presidential office in Seoul, took a high-profile role in the episode. In the days before demolition, she warned that it was “high time” to break ties with South Korea and said the next action against the “enemy” would come from the army.

Even if prosecutor’s decide to charge Kim Yo Jong or Pak, any prosecution is unlikely. Still, the decision to pursue a key member of the regime could provide North Korea with a fresh pretence to renew provocations. The probe into Kim Yo Jong was reported earlier by the Yonhap News Agency.

Thai finance minister resigns amid economic team shake-upREUTERS — BANGKOK

Thai Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana resigned yesterday in a move that adds uncertainty to policy-making as Southeast Asia’s worst-performing economy struggles to recover from the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

Two other ministers and economic policy czar Somkid Jatusripitak also resigned, in a major cabinet shake-up that left investors anxious over who would lead Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy out of a deep slump.

The departure of Uttama comes as the government rolls out billions of dollars of stimulus measures to support the economy through the pan-demic, which has battered tourism and domestic activity.

“It’s an appropriate time to resign,” Uttama told reporters,

adding it was his own decision and he was under “no pressure” to leave.

Uttama and the two min-isters quit the ruling Palang Pra-charat party of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha last week after Uttama was replaced as party leader late last month.

He said he decided to quit his cabinet post to “lessen pos-sible political pressure, partic-ularly on the prime minister” and to end uncertainty about a rumoured cabinet reshuffle.

Thai Bankers’ Association President Predee Daochai is expected to be the next finance minister, according to media reports.

Prayuth said the cabinet reshuffle would take place by next month, having earlier said it would happen in September.

“We have to reshuffle the cabinet so there won’t be a gap.

It must be done as quickly as possible... no later than next month,” Prayuth told reporters.

In the meantime, Deputy Finance Minister Santi Promphat would run the day-to-day affairs of the ministry.

Thosaporn Sirisumphand,

secretary-general of the state planning agency, is reported to be the favourite to replace Deputy Prime Minister Somkid, according to media.

The energy minister and the minister of Higher Education, Science, Research and

Innovation also resigned as part of the shake-up.

“One of the most immediate issues is how soon a new eco-nomic team will replace them,” said Tim Leelahaphan, econ-omist at Standard Chartered Bank.

Thailand’s Finance Minister Uttama Savanayana (right), arrives to hold a press conference at Government House in Bangkok, Thailand, yesterday.

China slams US response to Hong Kong security lawReuters — HONG KONG

China accused the United States of “gangster logic” after US President Donald Trump ordered an end to Hong Kong’s special status under US law in response to Beijing’s imposition of new security legislation on the former British colony.

Beijing’s Liaison Office in the Asian financial hub said the move would only damage US interests while having little impact on Hong Kong.

“Unreasonable meddling and shameless threats by the United States are typical gangster logic and bullying behaviour,” the office said in a

statement late on Wednesday.The Beijing-drafted law

punishes what China broadly defines as subversion, secession, terrorism and col-lusion with foreign forces with up to life in prison.

Critics of the law fear it will crush the wide-ranging freedoms promised to the ter-ritory when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997, while sup-porters say it will bring stability after a year of sometimes violent anti-government and anti-China unrest.

This week, a younger, more defiant generation of Hong Kong democrats secured the most votes in unofficial

“primary” elections in the city in what many saw as a protest vote against the security law.

The vote was organised by the pro-democracy camp to pick candidates for a Sept. 6 election for the 70-seat Legislative Council, or mini-parliament.

Beijing warned the vote may have violated the new law. On Wednesday, former Hong Kong lawmaker Au Nok-hin said he was pulling out as an organiser of the weekend vote amid Beijing’s accusations.

Yesterday, another organiser, Andrew Chiu of the Democratic Party, said his work was done and he would no longer help coordinate the

Legislative Council election campaign.

“After carefully considering different views... I would like to withdraw from the coordination work,” Chiu said in a Facebook post.

Earlier on Thursday, police arrested a 17-year-old for unlawful assembly and 19-year-old man for obstructing police on July 1, when hundreds were arrested in protests against the national security law.

The 19-year-old tried to help the 17-year-old escape arrest by a policeman who was stabbed in the skirmish. The man accused of stabbing the officer was caught at the airport

that night. Last week, police arrested seven people for assisting him.

Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to end prefer-ential economic treatment for Hong Kong, allowing him to impose sanctions and visa restric-tions on Chinese officials and financial institutions involved in the imposition of the law.

China has threatened retal-iatory sanctions of its own, and summoned the US ambassador to protest.

The Hong Kong government said on Wednesday it would support any action Beijing chose to take against the United States.

Too early for Pakistan to declare victory against coronavirus: ExpertsANATOLIA — KARACHI

New coronavirus cases in Pakistan have continued to decline in the past two weeks — a development the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan dubbed as the result of its “successful” anti-COVID-19 strategy.

But health experts are sceptical about the govern-ment’s claim, warning it is too early to declare victory against the virus that has already infected more than 250,000 people across the country with near 5,500 deaths, while around 70 percent of the patients have recovered.

On Tuesday, the country recorded slightly below 2,000 new cases, the lowest number of daily cases in months, com-pared to between 5,000 and 6,000 in May and June.

The government shut down a 1,000-bed facility for corona-virus patients in northeastern Lahore, citing a reduction in the number of new cases and a “home isolation” policy for patients.

Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar, who also heads the country’s anti-coro-navirus campaign, claims a 28 percent reduction in recent weeks in the number of patients who require ventilators and oxygen cylinders.

“This happened due to the government’s smart lockdown policy, enforcement of SoPs (standard operating proce-dures), and on top of all, the collective response from the people,” he said on Twitter.

Last month, he warned that infections could exceed 1 million by the end of July if daily numbers continued to rise at the previous rate.

Health experts cite a signif-icant decrease in the number of tests as one of the reasons behind dwindling new COVID-19 cases.

Contrary to the doctors’ advice, the number of average coronavirus tests have dropped from 28,000 per day to below 24,500 in the past few weeks, even though the government claims to have enhanced testing capacity to 32,000.

Two armoured vehicles launch smoke grenades during the annual Han Kuang military drills in Taichung, Taiwan, yesterday.

Two Taiwan copter crew killed in China ‘invasion’ drillAFP — TAICHUNG

Two crew members were killed in a helicopter crash yesterday as Taiwan’s military held drills across the island — including one simulating coastal assaults from China.

Thursday’s climax of the five-day drill aimed to test how democratic Taiwan’s armed forces would repel an invasion from its giant neighbour.

Beijing regards Taiwan as

part of its territory and has vowed to one day seize it — by force if necessary.

Yesterday’s main simulation saw Taiwan fighter jets, warships and ground troops repelling an enemy attempt to land on a beach in the central city of Tai-chung in an operation involving some 8,000 service members.

The military said a Bell 0H-58D helicopter crashed as it returned to Hsinchu airbase from one of the exercises,

killing the pilot and co-pilot.Taipei has lived with the

threat of invasion by China since the two sides split in 1949 after a civil war. In recent decades it has found itself increasingly out-numbered and outgunned by China’s enormous People’s Lib-eration Army.

Beijing has piled military, economic and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan since Pres-ident Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016.

“The North Koreans have given mixed signals, but the truth is President Trump only wants to engage in a summit if we believe there’s a sufficient likelihood that we can make real progress in achieving the outcomes that were set forth in Singapore,” Mike Pompeo said.

10 FRIDAY 17 JULY 2020ASIA

Clashes re-erupt

on border between

Azerbaijan

and Armenia

QNA — BAKU

Ministries of defence in Azerbaijan and Armenia said that clashes erupted again yesterday between the two sides following a day-long lull along their shared border.

Azeri Defence Ministry said that its forces detected and destroyed Armenian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) “X-55” as it attempted to carry out a recon-naissance flight over the posi-tions of the units of Azerbaijan Army in the Azerbaijan-Armenia state border.

It added that a number of border villages are under attack with heavy weapons and grenade launchers, which cased material damage and no civilian casualties, According to the Azeri news agency (Azertac), In turn, Armenian defence min-isters spokeswoman Shushan Stepanyan said that Arminian armed units destroyed an Azerbaijani tank, artillery sites, and mortar batteries.

In a statement carried by Armenia’s news agency (Armen-press), Stepanyan said that the country’s armed forces pre-vented a sabotage infiltration attempt of the Azerbaijani side after “After a hot battle”.

Spokesperson of the Azeri Defense Ministry Colonel Vaqif Dargahli denied the Armenian report on destroying a tank, calling it incorrect information. “All tanks of the Azerbaijani Army are in line. The armoured vehicles of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces are not on the front line. Azerbaijani tanks are in an area that enemy units cannot hit, “ he said.

The Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict began in 1988, when the Karabakh Armenians demanded that Karabakh region be transferred from Soviet Azerbaijan to Soviet Armenia. The conflict esca-lated into a full-scale war in the early 1990s.

Former PM wins North Macedonia vote

BLOOMBERG — SKOPJE

Former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev’s party scored a tight win in North Macedonia’s general elections but fell short of a majority, setting the stage for a struggle to form a coalition government in the European Union aspirant.

The domestic drama plays out against a backdrop of political turmoil in the Balkans. The war-scarred region thought it had put the worst of the coro-navirus pandemic behind it, but a second wave of infections has added to the public anger in this restive corner on the EU’s southeastern flank.

Zaev’s coalition, which includes a small party repre-senting ethnic Albanians, got 36.1 percent of the votes, fol-lowed by the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE with 34.9 percent, the State Electoral Commission reported yesterday, with 98 percent of precincts counted. The Democratic Union for Inte-gration, the biggest party rep-resenting ethnic Albanians, took its traditional kingmaker role in third with 11.3 percent.

“We’ll build our North Mac-edonia as a European, modern” country, “an established Nato member and negotiator” with the EU, Zaev told reporters in Skopje.

The former premier’s

previous government changed the country’s name to help resolve a dispute with Greece and clear the way for it to join Nato and the EU after decades of making no progress. The landlocked former part of Yugoslavia became the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 30th member in March, and the EU published a negotiation framework in July for North Macedonia’s accession.

Zaev brought down that administration in January by resigning after initially failing to secure a date to start EU accession talks. It’s unclear whether he’ll now be able to form a ruling coalition.

Former Macedonian prime minister and leader of the ruling SDSM party Zoran Zaev celebrates his victory in a parliamentary election, in Skopje, North Macedonia, yesterday.

Three French cops charged over chokehold deathAFP — PARIS

Three French police members have been charged with manslaughter over the asphyxiation death of a delivery man who was pinned to the ground by arresting officers in January, judicial sources said yesterday.

Cedric Chouviat, 42, died in hospital two days after a heated exchange with police officers who held him down, still wearing his scooter helmet, for about 20 seconds after his arrest near the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Chouviat, of North African origin, said “I’m suffocating” seven times before his body went limp, according to a review by investigators of video footage of the incident.

France has seen demon-strations in recent weeks against alleged police brutality and racism.

The protests were sparked by a report clearing the officers who arrested Adama Traore, a 24-year-old black man who died in police custody in 2016. One of the officers had admitted the young man was pinned to the ground with their combined bodyweight.

The controversy has gained resonance since mass protests erupted in the United States over the killing by police of George Floyd, a black man who similarly died after being pinned to the ground as he pleaded: “I can’t breathe”.

Rushed to hospital in a critical condition, Chouviat died of asphyxiation with a “fracture of the larynx” according to a prosecutor’s report.

Two of the officers involved in Chouviat’s arrest were charged last week, a judicial source said, and a third yesterday, according to his lawyer. A fourth police officer is under investigation but has not been charged.

Chouviat’s family said that a charge of manslaughter was too lenient “for the violence and aggressiveness of the police officers” as seen in video footage.

Dutch King opens disease exhibitionAP — LEIDEN

A museum in the Dutch city of Leiden finally opened an exhi-bition on contagious diseases through the ages yesterday after a long delay caused by the disease currently sweeping the world — COVID-19.

Dutch King Willem-Alex-ander, who briefly self-isolated with his wife and three daughters as a precautionary measure after returning from a skiing vacation in Austria in

March, opened the “Conta-gious!” exhibition at the Rijks-museum Boerhaave.

The exhibition — with real-life social distancing stickers on the floor — was updated at the last minute to include refer-ences to the coronavirus pan-demic, but also sheds light on the history of contagious dis-eases from the bubonic plague and smallpox to AIDS.

On one stand, a dummy wearing a replica of a plague doctor’s long robe and

elaborate face mask with a long beak stuffed with aromatic spices to protect against infection stands near another mannequin wearing the blue medical gown, plastic goggles, face mask and disposable gloves that have become one of the signature images of the battle to treat victims of COVID-19 in intensive care units around the globe.

Some of the historical arti-facts on display owe more to superstition than to science.

Dutch King Willem-Alexander (second left) visits the exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, in Leiden, The Netherlands, yesterday.

Germany ready for tougher lockdowns to ward off second wave of virusAFP — FRANKFURT AM MAIN

Germany’s federal and regional governments yesterday agreed on tougher, more targeted lockdown measures to contain local outbreaks and ward off the threat of a second corona-virus wave.

The new rules allow for a ban on travel “in and out of the affected areas” to limit the spread of the virus, according to an agreement adopted by federal and local authorities.

It comes as countries across the world are reimposing curbs on public life in response to a surge in new infections.

Germany, which has been less affected by the pandemic than many of its neighbours, aims to respond to new clusters with hyper-local lockdowns and rapid contact tracing and testing, rather than blanket lockdowns of whole towns or districts.

The need for clear rules was highlighted last month when a COVID-19 outbreak at a slaugh-terhouse in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia led to Germany’s first renewed lockdowns, covering two neighbouring districts.

However a local court later ruled that the lockdown was

too broad, and locals from the districts on holiday elsewhere in Germany complained about being turned away from their accommodation.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday voiced support for travel bans in and out of coro-navirus hotspots.

She said that it was “better for citizens” to have certainty rather than being denied entry to a hotel upon arrival.

The text agreed yesterday that states that a travel ban should be imposed “if the numbers continue to rise and there’s no certainty that the chain of infection has been broken” in the affected area.

Anyone wanting to leave a localised lockdown for another state must be able to show a negative coronavirus test that is less than 48 hours old, the agreement said.

Merkel’s chief of staff Helge Braun told the ZDF broadcaster that the goal was to fight the virus with “faster, smaller and more precise” curbs rather than the larger lockdowns that have caused such economic devastation.

He said the military could even be called in to help ensure locals in an affected area get tested as quickly as possible.

Police dismantle counterfeit money-makers, nab 44 in EuropeAFP — PARIS

European police have dismantled a counterfeit money printing gang with links to a mafia clan, arresting 44 people in Italy, France and Belgium, French police said yesterday.

Forty suspects were arrested in Italy, three in France and one in Belgium in the culmination of a years-long investigation coor-dinated by policing agency Europol, according to France’s OCRFM, the branch of the police force dealing with counterfeiting.

Police also seized $9.1m in cash and the same value in property.The group had ties to the Camorra mafia clan of southern Italy,

said the OCRFM.They are suspected of having produced counterfeit money,

mainly 50-euro notes, with a face value of some 10 million euros. “For several years now, 90 percent of high-quality counterfeit

currency (in circulation) has come from Italy,” Eric Bertrand of the OCRFM said.

“The Camorra have a sort of monopoly on this market.”

Russia accused of hacking virus vaccine trialsAP — LONDON

Britain, the United States and Canada accused Russia yesterday of trying to steal information from researchers seeking a COVID-19 vaccine.

The three nations alleged that hacking group APT29, also known as Cozy Bear and said to be part of the Russian intel-ligence service, is attacking aca-demic and pharmaceutical research institutions involved in coronavirus vaccine development.

Britain’s National Cyberse-curity Centre made the announcement, which was coordinated with authorities in the US and Canada.

“It is completely unac-ceptable that the Russian Intel-ligence Services are targeting those working to combat the

coronavirus pandemic,’’ British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said in a statement. “While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health.’’

The persistent and ongoing attacks are seen by intelligence officials as an effort to steal intellectual property, rather

than to disrupt research. The campaign of “malicious activity’’ is ongoing and includes attacks “predominantly against government, diplomatic, think-tank, healthcare and energy targets,’’ the National Cyberse-curity Centre said in a statement.

It was unclear whether any information actually was stolen but the centre says individuals’ confidential information is not believed to have been compro-mised. The Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cozy Bear, also known as the “dukes,” has been identified by Washington as one of two Russian government-linked hacking groups that broke into the Democratic National Com-mittee computer network and

stole emails ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The other group is usually called Fancy Bear.

The director of operations for the British cybersecurity center, Paul Chichester, urged “organisations to familiarise themselves with the advice we have published to help defend their networks.”

The statement did not say whether Russian President Vladimir Putin knew about the vaccine research hacking, but British officials believe such intelligence would be highly prized.

A 16-page advisory pre-pared by the US National Security Agency and made public by Britain, the US and Canada accuse Cozy Bear of using custom malicious software to target a number of

organisations globally. The malware, called WellMess and WellMail, has not previously been associated with the hacking group, the advisory said.

“In recent attacks targeting COVID-19 vaccine research and development, the group con-ducted basic vulnerability scanning against specific external IP addresses owned by the organisations. The group then deployed public exploits against the vulnerable services identified,” the advisory said.

The US Department of Homeland Security’s cyberse-curity agency warned in April that cybercriminals and other groups were targeting COVID-19 research, noting at the time that the increase in people teleworking because of the pandemic had created

potential avenues for hackers to exploit.

Vulnerable targets include health care agencies, pharma-ceutical companies, academia, medical research organizations, and local governments, security officials have said.

The global reach and inter-national supply chains of these organisations also make them vulnerable, the US Cyberse-curity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in an alert published in conjunction with its counterparts in Britain.

CISA said it and the British cyberseucity agency have detected the threat groups scanning the external websites of targeted companies and looking for vulnerabilities in unpatched software. It did not name any of the targeted companies.

The persistent and ongoing attacks are seen by intelligence officials as an effort to steal intellectual property, rather than to disrupt research.

Top court scraps EU-US data pactAFP — BRUSSELS

A crucial online data arrangement between Europe and the US was invalidated yesterday, as a top EU court decision over Facebook threw trans-Atlantic big tech into legal limbo.

The decision stemmed from a legal complaint by Austrian activist Max Schrems, who in 2015 scuppered a previous EU-US deal on which tech giants depended to do business.

“It seems we scored a 100 percent win,” Schrems said on Twitter. “For our privacy, the US will have to engage in serious surveillance reform to get back to a ‘privileged’ status for US companies.”

The setback comes a day after another European court invalidated a landmark tax bill from the EU against Apple.

While disappointed, the US

and the EU said they would work closely to find a solution and give companies the legal certainty they need.

Schrems’ legal assault began after revelations by Edward Snowden of mass digital spying by US agencies, which the EU court at the time said were incompatible with European norms on privacy.

The previous decision struck down a deal called “Safe Harbour” that allowed for data transfers between Europe and US servers, throwing transat-lantic business into chaos.

EU and US officials swiftly drew up its replacement, “Privacy Shield”, which is cur-rently used by thousands of US companies, but has now been invalidated as well.

The judges at the European Court of Justice, the EU’s top court, said that provisions of the pact “do not grant Europeans

actionable rights before the courts against the US authorities”.

The court said, however, that another arrangement known as standard contractual clauses, could stand, giving companies an alternative framework.

The case decided yesterday originally focused on these complex clauses, an EU invention by which companies outside Europe commit to meeting EU laws on data and privacy.

The court said these were backed up by GDPR, the EU’s strict rules on data privacy that can result in massive fines to companies.

During the hearings, judges turned their focus to “Privacy Shield” and a legal advisor to the court warned that it was illegal and not compliant with GDPR.

11FRIDAY 17 JULY 2020 EUROPE

12 FRIDAY 17 JULY 2020AMERICAS

Trump replaces campaign manager amid slide in polls

After SC nod, US executes second federal prisoner in 17 yearsREUTERS — WASHINGTON

The US federal government yesterday executed its second prisoner this week, following a 17-year pause after the US Supreme Court again inter-vened to allow the execution to proceed, overturning a lower court ruling that had blocked it.

The Justice Department exe-cuted convicted murderer Wesley Purkey by lethal injection,

and he was pronounced dead at 8:19am EDT (1219 GMT) at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said.

The execution had been blocked by a federal court, but the Supreme Court overruled it, just as it did in another case on Tuesday, and putting the federal government back in the business of executing prisoners.

“This sanitised murder

really does not serve no purpose whatsoever. Thank you,” a remorseful Purkey said in his final words, according to a reporter who was allowed to witness the killing and share notes with the media.

Purkey, 68, was convicted in 2003 in Missouri of raping and murdering 16-year-old Jen-nifer Long before dumping her dismembered and burned remains in a septic pond.

His lawyers argued he had dementia and brain damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease and no longer understood his punishment, though he had accepted responsibility for his crime. Killing him would breach the US Constitution, they said.

“I deeply regret the pain and suffering I caused to Jennifer’s family. I am deeply sorry. I deeply regret the pain I caused to my daughter, who I love so

very much,” Purkey said after he was strapped to a gurney inside the execution chamber, his arms tied to side boards, and an intravenous syringe was inserted into his right arm.

Before Tuesday, when the Justice Department executed convicted killer Daniel Lee in Terre Haute, the federal gov-ernment had only executed three people since 1963, all from 2001 to 2003.

Spacecraft snaps closest images of sun, ‘campfires’ aboundAP — CAPE CANAVERAL

A European and Nasa spacecraft has snapped the closest pictures ever taken of the sun, revealing countless little “campfires” flaring everywhere.

Scientists yesterday released the first images taken by Solar Orbiter, launched from Cape Canaveral in February.

The orbiter was about 77 million km from the sun — about halfway between Earth and the sun — when it took the stunning high-resolution pictures last month.

Nasa’s Parker Solar Probe is flying much closer to the sun than Solar Orbiter — too close for cameras to safely photo-graph the sun. Its lone camera faces away from the sun to observe the solar wind.

That’s why Solar Orbiter’s new pic-tures showing vibrant swirls of yellow and dark smoky gray - the first images from so close and at such small scale - are so precious. The team had to create a new vocabulary to name these tiny flare-ups, said European Space Agency project scientist Daniel Muller.

Muller described the observed mul-titude of “campfires” shooting into the corona, or sun’s crown-like outer atmos-phere, as quite possibly “the tiny cousins of the solar flares that we already know.” Millions if not billions of times smaller,

these tiny flares may be heating the corona, he said, long known to be hun-dreds of times hotter than the actual solar surface for unknown reasons.

The Royal Observatory of Belgium’s David Berghmans, principal scientist of the instrument that captured the images, said he was blown away. He said his first response was: “This is not possible. It cannot be that good.”

“It was really much better than we expected, but what we dared to hope for,” Berghmans said.

These so-called campfires, Berghmans noted, are “literally every-where we look.” Not yet well understood, they could be mini explosions, or nano-flares. More measurements are planned.

The $1.5bn spacecraft will tilt its orbit as the mission goes on, providing unprec-edented views of the sun’s poles.

This vantage point will allow it to capture the first pictures of the solar poles.

Solar Orbiter will get even closer to the sun in two years.

“This is just the beginning of the long epic journey of Solar Orbiter,” Muller said.

The pandemic has forced Solar Orbiter’s scientists to work from home for months. Only a few engineers are allowed at any one time inside the control centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

A photo released by the European Space Agency (ESA) yesterday, shows images of the Sun, taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) instruments onboard the Solar Orbiter spacecraft from May 30 to June 18, 2020.

Venezuela slams

UN report on

judicial indepence

AFP — CARACAS

Venezuela has dismissed as “biased” a United Nations report that said the inde-pendence of the Latin American country’s justice system is undermined by inse-curity and a lack of trans-parency.

The damning 15-page doc-ument said that alleged victims of human rights violations had difficulty obtaining justice in Venezuelan courts.

“This biased report... is a palpable example of the double standards, manipu-lation and shameful political use of international mecha-nisms by a small group of countries,” the foreign min-istry said in a statement yesterday.

It accused the United States and other nations of “aggression” towards Vene-zuela, which has been in political turmoil since last year.

The report by Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was released on Tuesday, a week after Vene-zuela’s Supreme Court ordered Juan Guaido to relinquish his position as leader of the main opposition party.

It said the justice system is “considerably undermined due to insecurity of tenure of judges and prosecutors, the lack of transparency in the process of designation, pre-carious working conditions, and political interference.”

Last year, Guaido declared himself acting president, charging that President Nicolas Maduro’s 2018 re-election was fraudulent.

The United States no longer recognises Maduro as leader and has been trying unsuccessfully to oust him, in part by recognising Guaido as the country’s interim head.

Around 60 other countries have followed Washington’s lead.

US extends travel restrictions with Canada & Mexico through August 20REUTERS — WASHINGTON

The US Homeland Security Department said yesterday it will extend restrictions on non-essential travel at US land borders with Canada and Mexico through August 20.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf announced the 30-day extension on Twitter that “close collaboration with our neighbors has allowed us to respond to #COVID19 in a North American approach and slow the travel-related spread of the virus.”

Reuters reported on Monday that Canada and the United States were set to extend a ban imposed to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

The rules, first issued in March, have been repeatedly extended in 30-day blocks.

The restrictions do not cover trade across a US-Canada border that stretches 8,891km or air travel.

Passenger crossings have fallen by 90 percent or more at many border crossings and hit tourist destinations along US borders. In May, passenger traffic in Detroit fell to 45,000 people crossing, down from 502,000 passengers crossing in February.

At San Ysidro, California, on the US-Mexico border, pas-senger and pedestrian traffic fell from more than 2.9 million people crossing in February to 1.3 million in May.

The restrictions do not apply to travelers who are getting to work, or people trav-elling for family care, educa-tional or humanitarian reasons.

The number of virus cases in the US is just short of 3.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins University — the most of any country in the world — and there have been 584,990 deaths, also the highest figure in the world.

Brazil President tests positive for coronavirus againAFP — BRASÍLIA

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro (pictured) announced that he still has the coronavirus (COVID-19), after undergoing a new test the day before.

“I’m fine, thank God. Yes-terday morning, I took the test, and in the evening the result was that I am still pos-itive for the coronavirus,” the far-right leader said in a Facebook Live broadcast from his official residence in Brasilia.

Bolsonaro said he is not experiencing symptoms and that his use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychlo-roquine, which he said he has been taking since he was

diagnosed last week, is working.

“I am not recommending anything. I recommend that you talk to your doctor. In my case, a military doctor recom-mended hydroxychloroquine, and it worked,” he said.

The presidential press office said in a brief statement that Bolsonaro, who at 65 is in a high-risk group, will remain in quarantine at the official Alvorada Palace resi-dence, where he will continue to work by video conference.

The far-right president, who has caused huge contro-versy in Brazil for repeatedly flouting lockdown measures in place to curb the spread of

the virus, first tested positive a week ago.

He admitted on Monday by telephone interview with CNN that he “can’t stand this routine of staying at home” and said he was waiting “anx-iously” to be given the all-clear to leave the house.

He told the television channel he hasn’t had any symptoms such as a fever or respiratory difficulties since July 6, adding that he con-tinues to take the anti-malar ia l medicat ion hydroxychloroquine.

The drug has been pushed as a treatment for COVID-19 in many countries — but its effectiveness has not been formally proven and the issue

is deeply dividing the global scientific community.

He is due to take a new test “in the coming days.”

Since his diagnosis on July 7, Bolsonaro has been con-fined to the presidential palace alongside other people who have already contracted the virus.

It’s a far cry from his regular daily routine that includes leaving the residence to greet his supporters, often while ignoring social dis-tancing measures and without wearing a face mask.

Brazil is the second worst-hit country in the world by the virus after the US, with more than 74,000 dead and 1.9 million cases.

AP — WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump shook up his campaign staff amid sinking poll numbers less than four months before the election, replacing campaign manager Brad Parscale with veteran GOP operative Bill Stepien.

“I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been pro-moted to the role of Trump Campaign Manager,” Trump said on Facebook. “Brad Parscale, who has been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous digital and data strategies, will remain in that role, while being a Senior Advisor to the campaign.”

Trump and Parscale’s rela-tionship had been increasingly strained, with the president annoyed by the publicity Parscale had garnered in the role. But the final straw appeared to be a Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally last month that drew an unexpectedly low crowd of about 6,200 people after Parscale had bragged that more than a million people had requested tickets. The president was furious.

The shake-up injected familiar turmoil to Trump’s 2020 campaign, which had so far largely avoided the regular staff churn that dominated the president’s 2016 campaign and his White House. It comes as

Trump has been struggling in his re-election campaign against presumptive Demo-cratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, with the nation facing health and economic crises during a pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 Americans.

The staff change was not expected to alter the day-to-day running of the campaign. News of the shuffle was delivered to Parscale on Wednesday afternoon by White House adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Parscale, a political novice, ran Trump’s digital advertising in 2016 and was credited with helping bring about his surprise victory that year. Stepien has been in politics for years, working for former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and serving as Trump’s national field director in 2016.

Parscale had been

increasingly sidelined in the weeks since the Tulsa rally and as the president’s public and private poll numbers have taken a hit amid the pandemic. Speculation had been rampant about who might be promoted to lead the operation, with names like former Trump strat-egist Steve Bannon floated.

Parscale, a Florida resident, had not been a regular presence of late in the campaign’s Arlington, Virginia, head-quarters, sparking some resent-ments among staffers.

Rather than parting ways completely, Parscale was retained in part because of the difficulty the campaign would have faced in rebuilding its digital advertising operation so close to the November 3 general election. While the Republican National Committee owned most of the campaign’s data, voter modeling and outreach tools, Parscale ran most of the microtargeted online adver-tising that Trump aides believed were key in 2016.

Parscale’s digital advertising firm was among the campaign’s most significant vendors, and some in Trump’s orbit have alleged that the former cam-paign manager was profiting off the president’s reelection. Parscale has repeatedly denied the claims.

Trump has been pressed by

allies in recent months to expand his political circle and more forcefully define his run against Biden. Last month, Trump announced a promotion for Stepien and returned former communications chief Jason Miller to his campaign, taking away some of Parscale’s clout and influence.

Biden also shuffled his cam-paign team, albeit much earlier in the cycle, amid a disastrous

stretch in his primary run. For Biden, the moves marked genuine shake-ups that expanded and changed how his campaign operated.

Biden elevated Anita Dunn, effectively displacing his first campaign manager, Greg Schultz, after a fourth-place Iowa finish and as he was already headed for a second embarrassing finish in New Hampshire.

Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale during a Make America Great Again rally at Aaron Bessant Amphitheater in Panama City Beach, Florida, in May.

Brad Parscale was retained in part because of the difficulty the campaign would have faced in rebuilding its digital advertising operation.