Volume 24 | Number 7951 | 2 RiyalsSaturday 13 July 2019 | 10 Dhul-Qa'da 1440 www.thepeninsula.qa

BUSINESS | 13 SPORT | 20

Wimbledon: Ageless Federer holds off Nadal to set up Djokovic final

VW to invest in Ford-backed

Argo AI at $7bn valuation

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Amir: US visit an important milestoneQNA & THE PENINSULA DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said in a tweet yesterday at the conclusion of his visit to the United States that it marked an important mile-stone of the Qatar-US part-nership.

“Today we concluded our visit to the US, which marked an important milestone of the #QatarUSA partnership. It was a pleasure and an honour to meet all our friends in DC,” H H the Amir tweeted on Thursday evening.

H H the Amir left Washington DC, after a four-day official visit to the United States, yesterday. H H the Amir sent a cable to Pres-ident of the US Donald Trump, expressing deep thanks and appreciation for the hospitality and the honour accorded to him and the accompanying dele-gation during the visit.

H H the Amir also expressed satisfaction with his talks with US President and senior officials, which provided an opportunity for exchanging views on the most important regional and international issues of common concern and also contributed to the consolidation of bilateral

relations and the strategic part-nership between the two coun-tries in various fields for the benefit of the two friendly peoples.

During his successful official visit, H H the Amir and President Donald Trump discussed the strong bilateral strategic coop-eration relations and ways of promoting and enhancing them in various fields.

The US President underlined that H H the Amir is a real leader who is highly respected in an important part of the world. The US President highlighted the role of Al Udeid Air Base and its stra-tegic importance in the Middle East, tapping it as one of the biggest military bases in the world.

H H the Amir and the US Pres-ident also witnessed the signing of agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) between the two countries, at the White House. The two leaders witnessed

Russian S-400 defence components arrive in TurkeyREUTERS ISTANBUL

Turkey began taking delivery of an advanced Russian missile defence system yesterday, a move expected to trigger US sanctions against a Nato ally and drive a wedge into the heart of the Western military alliance.

The first parts of the S-400 air defence system were flown to the Murted military air base northwest of Ankara, the Turkish Defence Ministry said, sealing Turkey’s deal with Russia which Washington had struggled for months to prevent.

In the first comments from Wash-ington, acting Defence Secretary Mark Esper said the US position on the issue has not changed. The United States has threatened to impose sanctions on Ankara, saying Russian military hardware is not compatible with Nato systems and that the acquisition may lead to Turkey’s expulsion from an F-35 fighter jet programme.

Investors in Turkey have been unsettled by the deal. The Turkish lira weakened as much as 1.6% to 5.7780

against the dollar, before recovering somewhat, after the ministry announced the arrival of the S-400 consignment. The main Istanbul share index fell 2.13%.

Turkish broadcasters showed footage of huge Russian Air Force AN-124 cargo planes offloading equipment at the air base. “Today three cargo planes arrived,” Defence Minister Hulusi Akar told state-owned Anadolu news agency, adding that deliveries would continue in coming days.

A second delivery by air will take place soon, Russia’s TASS news agency quoted an unnamed military-diplomatic source as saying. A third delivery - of 120 guided missiles - will be carried out by ship at the end of the summer, the source said. Twenty Turkish servicemen received training from Russia in May-June and 80 more Turkish servicemen will receive training to use the S-400 system, the source was quoted as saying.

“We are aware of Turkey taking delivery of the S-400, our position regarding the F-35 has not changed and I will speak with my Turkish counterpart Minister Akar this afternoon,” Esper said.

“There will be more to follow after that conversation,” he said. Turkey says the system is a strategic defence requirement, particularly to secure its southern borders with Syria and Iraq. It says that when it made the deal with Russia for the S-400s, the United States and Europe had not pre-sented a viable alternative.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after meeting President Donald Trump at a G20 summit last month that the

United States did not plan to impose sanctions on Ankara for buying the S-400s. Trump said Turkey had not been treated fairly but did not rule out sanc-tions, and U.S. officials said last week the administration still plans to act. Under legislation known as Countering Amer-ica’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which targets purchases of mil-itary equipment from Russia, Trump should select five of 12 possible measures.

A Russian military cargo plane carrying S-400 missile defence system is seen at the Murted military airbase, also known as Akincilar millitary airbase in Ankara, yesterday.

the signing of an agreement between Qatar Petroleum and Chevron Phillips for the devel-opment of an international petro-chemical complex in the Gulf Coast of the United States, and an agreement between Qatar Airways, and each of General Electric (GE) and Boeing for the purchase of five Boeing 777 cargo planes and Gulf-stream Aviation.

On July 8, H H the Amir and the US President attended a dinner banquet hosted by the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in honour of the Amir and the accompanying delegation. In the dinner, President Trump praised the friendship with H H the Amir. “Tamim, you’ve been a friend of mine for a long time, before I did this presidential thing, and we feel very comfortable with each other,” Trump said.

In turn, H H the Amir thanked President Trump and Treasury Secretary, stressing that the stra-tegic relations between the two

countries have witnessed a great progress recently through bilateral strategic dialogue meetings between the two friendly countries.

H H the Amir had talks with with the Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo, on Wednesday, at H H the Amir’s residence in Washington, DC. The meeting reviewed the strategic bilateral relations and ways of enhancing the partnership between the two countries in various fields.

H H the Amir also met with US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and his accompa-nying delegation, Senator at the United States Congress, Lindsey Graham, Acting Secretary of Defence, Mark T Esper, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Gina Haspel, Chairman of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Eliot Engel; Chair of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senator James Risch; Chairman of the Armed Services Committee of the US Senate, Senator Jim Inhofe; Chairman of the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Adam Schiff among other high ranking US officials.

Qatar Cultural and Literature Festival ends on a high noteTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Cultural and Literature Festival concluded on a high note yesterday with the participation of prominent luminaries such as famous Indian singer Mika Singh and bestselling author Chetan Bhagat.

The festival launched on Thursday with a concert by Singh who enthralled the audience at Katara Drama Theatre per-forming some of his hit songs while Bhagat opened the second day of the event with an

engaging session on ‘Making a Nation Read.’

Among the key features of the two-day festival held at Katara Cultural Village were cul-tural performances, panel dis-cussions and book launches.

Organised in line with Qatar-India 2019 Year of Culture, the festival brought the two coun-tries closer through art and culture with speakers coming from both countries including Bollywood actor Vindu Dara Singh, acid attack survivor and motivational speaker Laxmi Agarwal, Qatari artist Amal Al

Aathem and Doha-based artist Rashmi Agarwal, to name a few.

“I am very excited to see this combination of two such rich cultures on the same platform. We did not just have speakers from India but we also had speakers from Doha. Seeing them having a conversation on various important issues was very interesting. We all are one at heart and with this festival we have shared our feelings and our rich cultures with each other and got to know each other in a better way,” said Ruhi Ganguly, Festival Producer and CEO of

Question Associates Pvt. Ltd. Festival Director and award-

winning author Anamika Mishra, who was in Doha for the first time, said she had fallen in love with the city and its people.

“I felt privileged to direct this festival as we got to see an inter-esting amalgamation of two dif-ferent cultures on our platform. It also feels great to see such a positive response from the people of Qatar for our show. We had an amazing event with a lovely audience from Doha,” said Mishra.

Other members of the

organising team were of the same view, lauding the great support extended to them in Doha.

‘The people of Doha are really friendly and supportive. We didn’t face any problem despite having different lan-guages and culture. I believe our festival was all about the same. We come from diverse back-grounds but that didn’t stop us in communicating and exchanging ideas. With this fes-tival, we created a benchmark,” said Festival Producer Ankit Satija. �P3

US House votes to curb Trump powers to start Iran warAFP/WASHINGTON

The US House of Representa-tives voted yesterday to restrict President Donald Trump’s ability to attack Iran, voicing fear that his hawkish policies are pushing towards a needless war.

The Democratic-led House approved an amendment on a broad defence bill that would prohibit funding for military operations against Iran unless they are in self-defence or explicitly approved by Congress. But a similar measure failed in the Senate, where Trump’s Republican Party holds the majority. The two chambers will have to negotiate over the language as they finalise the defence bill.

Representative Ro Khanna, the Democrat who led the amendment, said the measure showed that the United States was fed up with war. “Frankly, what it will prevent is what this president promised to the American people not to do — to get into another endless, costly war in the Middle East,” he said on the House floor.

Trump, who walked out of a nuclear accord with Iran and instead slapped sweeping sanc-tions, last month authorized a strike on the Islamic republic after it shot down a US spy drone — but called it off at the last minute. Trump has said he believes he has the legal right to attack Iran. US administra-tions have used an authori-zation of force passed by Con-gress after the September 11, 2001 attacks to justify a slew of operations around the world.

Today we concluded our visit to the U.S., which

marked an important milestone of the #QatarUSA

partnership. It was a pleasure and an honor to meet

all our friends in DC.

02 SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019HOME

Qatar condemns blast in BenghaziDOHA: The State of Qatar

has strongly condemned

the explosion that took

place in Eastern Libya’s city

of Benghazi, killing and

injuring several people.

In a statement issued yes-

terday, the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs reiterated

the State of Qatar’s firm

stance rejecting violence

and terrorism, regardless of

motives and reasons.

The statement expressed

the condolences of the

State of Qatar to the

victims’ families, the Gov-

ernment and people of

Afghanistan, wishing the

injured a speedy recov-

ery. QNA

OFFICIAL NEWS

Qatar condemns blast at wedding ceremony in AfghanistanDOHA: The State of Qatar

has strongly condemned

the suicide bombing that

targeted a wedding cere-

mony in Afghanistan, killing

and injuring several people.

In a statement issued yes-

terday, the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs reiterated

the State of Qatar’s firm

stance rejecting violence

and terrorism, regardless of

motives and reasons.

The statement expressed

the condolences of the

State of Qatar to the

victims’ families, the Gov-

ernment and people of

Afghanistan, wishing the

injured a speedy recov-

ery. QNA

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum34oC 44oC

HIGH TIDE 00:11–15:30 LOW TIDE 08:16 – 22:22

Hot daytime with slight dust to blowing

dust at some places.

FAJRSHOROOK

03. 24 AM04. 52 AM

11. 40 AM03.04 PM

06. 29 PM07. 59 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS

Application centre for visas to Ukraine opens in QatarTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The citizens and expatriates of Qatar can apply for visas to Ukraine at the new Visa Appli-cation Centre jointly launched by the Embassy of Ukraine in Qatar and VFS Global centre in Doha.

With the launch of the centre, applicants no longer need to visit the Embassy (except for addi-tional interview as per the request of the Consul in each personal case) in Qatar and instead need to submit their visa applications at the VFS Global centre in Doha.

The Visa Application Centre provides outbound travellers from Qatar a very convenient visa application platform, ensuring enhanced quality of services and seamless proce-dures. It should be noted that Visa Centre will only provide applicants with pre and post decision-making services, however, the decisions on visa issues will continue to be carried out only by Ukrainian diplomatic

mission.During the official inaugu-

ration of the Visa Application Centre recently, Vasyl Bodner, the Charge d’Affairs of Ukraine in Qatar, said: “We are pleased to partner with the VFS Global and accelerate the journey

towards advancement of travel between the Ukraine and Qatar. Our collaboration is also part of a more global plan to promote Ukraine as an upcoming desti-nation for tourism and business. The launch of the Visa Appli-cation Centre comes in line with

the efforts of MFA of Ukraine to modernize existing visa proce-dures according to the best world standards and is a step forward in Ukraine’s goal to serve appli-cants more efficiently.”

VFS Global has been asso-ciated with the Client

Government of Ukraine since 2017 and presently serves appli-cants through a network of 57 Visa Application Centres across 34 countries.

Vinay Malhotra, Regional Group COO for Middle East, South Asia & China, VFS Global, said, “Today’s event reflects the Ukraine government’s faith in our abilities and our com-mitment to providing unparal-leled quality of services to visa applicants in Qatar. The new Visa Application Centre is now open in the context of promoting tourism to Ukraine and it is a tes-tament to the keenness of VFS Global to strengthen ties with government entities worldwide.”

Managed by professionals trained to provide secure services in an efficient manner, the centres also offer optional Premium Lounge services to visa applicants for a more person-alized service as well as doorstep delivery of passports. Visa Appli-cants in the Qatar could visit 3rd Floor (301) Jaidah Square, Al Matar Street (Airport Road), Doha.

Vasyl Bodnar (second left), Charge d’Affairs of Ukraine in Qatar, inaugurates the visa application centre at the VFS Global centre in Doha.

UCL Qatar supports country’s budding cultural experts to improve their skills THE PENINSULA DOHA

UCL Qatar students have recently returned from placements at some of the top cultural institutions in the world, as part of the university’s commitment to develop Qatar’s future workforce in the fields of cultural heritage and knowledge management.

Students from the Library and Infor-mation Studies MA Programme and from the Museum and Gallery Practice MA Programme completed their placements over the summer at organisations including: Urban Art Projects (UAP) in Brisbane, Australia, the British Library in London, UK, The German National Library of Science and Technology in Hannover, Germany and the National Museum of History, Seychelles.

Through working with global experts, students can apply the knowledge gathered in the classroom in a practical work environment. Work placements are a central part of students’ growth and development, helping prepare them to become future leaders in the cultural heritage and knowledge management sector in Qatar.

Dr Sam Evans, Director of UCL Qatar, said that the placements put to test the knowledge gained at UCL Qatar and Education City and apply it to a dif-ferent environment, “Every year, we hear incredible testimonials from students that really showcase the depth of what

they have learnt at UCL Qatar and how that shaped their experience at these prestigious organisations. I look forward to seeing how this combined knowledge will influence their work and contri-bution to Qatar’s growing cultural sector.”

Six students completed their placement at the British Library, mainly working with the Qatar Digital Library, a product of the partnership between Qatar National Library and the British Library. Students were involved in archival research from the Arab Gulf and worked across multiple departments at

the London-based institution. Ignacio Zamora Sanz, a student on

the Museum and Gallery Practice MA Programme, was based in Australia for his placement. He worked closely with the Urban Art Project’s Curatorial Team in Brisbane, learning about the creative processes behind the conception of public art master plans. Zamora stated: “This trip will certainly have a positive impact on my academic and professional practice as I enter the workforce. I am truly thankful for UCL Qatar for the unbelievable support in helping me com-plete the module.”

Precious Mubiana, who did her placement at the Seychelles’ National Museum of History, told the Seychelles Nation newspaper, UCL Qatar offers the opportunity to choose which country we want to do our placement in. I have heard about Seychelles being a tourist desti-nation and I wanted to see how museums function here”

Zainab Idriss completed her placement at the German National Library of Science and Technology of Hannover, Germany and has mentioned, “The internship provided me with immense knowledge, exposure and net-working experience that is needed to enhance my educational, social and psy-chological development. The practical aspect of this internship exceeded my expectations, which undeniably reflected the theoretical framework learnt in class.”

HBKU student honoured by ISSSCR for amazing research on diabetes THE PENINSULA DOHA

A student at the College of Health and Life Sciences (CHLS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) has received recognition from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSSCR) for her outstanding research on diabetes.

Bushra Memon, currently pursuing her PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, was honoured with the ISSCR Abstract Merit Award during the 2019 ISSCR Conference in Los Angeles, United States. Her research examines how human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived pancreatic beta cell pro-genitors present a promising alternative to traditional means of treatment for diabetes.

The research was conducted under the guidance of Dr Essam M. Abdelalim, an assistant pro-fessor at CHLS and a scientist at the Diabetes Research Center at Qatar Biomedical Research Institute (QBRI) – part of HBKU. Through her research, the HBKU student discovered that these novel hPSC-derived beta cell precursors can be used as a promising alternative source of insulin-secreting cells for cell therapy for diabetes and

studying human pancreatic beta cell development. Commenting on the achievement, Memon, said, “I am grateful to Dr Abde-lalim whose guidance and support as my adviser not only gave me confidence in my research endeavor, but also ensured I had access to a state-of-the-art laboratory and was able to tap into his expertise.”

CHLS delivers graduate pro-grams in biomedical and bio-logical sciences, and in genomics

and precision medicine, enriching its students with knowledge and hands-on experience in basic, clinical and translational research approaches.

Dr Abdelalim, said, “Diabetes is a prevalent illness in the region and a key medical challenge for Qatar. Through our research, we

are committed to promoting a deeper understanding of the illness so that we may be better equipped to formulate advanced means of diagnosis and treatment. It is a proud moment for all of us, to have the work of one of our stu-dents recognized and honored on a global stage.”

Bushra Memon, who was honoured with the ISSCR Abstract Merit Award, shares a light moment.

Ministry notifies 97 companies for violating summer work timings QNA DOHA

The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs represented by the Labour Inspection Department has intensified inspection campaign to ensure that companies are complying with summer work timings.

According to the Ministerial Decision No. 16 of 2007 working under the sun or open places is prohibited from 11:30am to 3pm from June 15 to August 31.

The inspectors of occupa-tional safety and security inspected the work sites during the hours when work was pro-hibited. A total of 97 companies from different sectors including construction, agricultural and industrial were caught for vio-lating the summer timings. The owners were notified to shutdown work-sites for three days for violating the provisions of the ministerial decision.

The Ministry called on all companies in different sectors to abide by the ministerial decision and to stop work in open places or under direct sunlight during prohibited time.

The action was taken under the framework of the keenness of the State of Qatar to ensure the safety of the workers and the working environment. In this regard, many national labor legislation were issued for the welfare of workers.

Students from the Library and Information Studies MA Programme and from the Museum and Gallery Practice MA Programme completed their placements over the summer at organisations including: Urban Art Projects (UAP) in Brisbane, Australia, the British Library in London, UK, The German National Library of Science and Technology in Hannover, Germany and the National Museum of History, Seychelles.

QRCS sends medical convoy to cover Syrian refugees in TurkeyTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has sent a medical convoy to perform vital surgeries for Syrian refugees in Turkey.

This is part of QRCS’s annual

medical convoy programme, done in partnership with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).

In coordination with the Turkish government, the convoy will cover poor Syrian patients in Turkey, as well as some injuries from northern Syria, where secondary health care

services are inadequate due to the war. The five-day mission will cost a total of QR143,000, funded mainly from the dona-tions of benevolent Qataris. It is headed by Dr. Abdullah Rashid Al-Naimi, board member of QRCS, Urologist at HMC, and general supervisor of the medical

convoy program. More than 132 patients have been examined using all the necessary radiog-raphy and physiological tests. Based on the results of examina-tions, 13 urology, pediatric, and ENT surgeries have been per-formed. Throughout the mission, it is estimated to perform 40

surgeries at Sevgi Hospital in Reyhanlı Town, which hosts the surgeries and post-surgical medical care. According to Dr. Al-Naimi, the surgeries have had a success rate of 100%. Medical convoys is a strategic medical programme of QRCS that has recently been expanded, with

several missions in Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Jordan, Gaza, Turkey, just to name a few.

This reflects QRCS’s focus on this life-saving form of relief intervention, which has a direct and effective impact on the lives of the victims of disease, poverty, and war.

Bushra Memon was honoured with the ISSCR Abstract Merit Award. Her research examines how human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived pancreatic beta cell progenitors present a promising alternative to traditional means of treatment for diabetes.

03SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019 HOME

Jordanian heritage experts share best practices at QNLTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Qatar National Library (QNL) hosted a group of five specialists in the field of heritage conser-vation from Jordan in its role as the IFLA Regional Center for Preservation and Conservation for Arab Countries and the Middle East, recently.

The participants represented Jordan’s Ministry of Culture, the National Library of Jordan, the Documentation and Manuscript Center at the University of Jordan, and the Royal Jordanian Hashemite Documentation Center.

The three-day capacity building programme was organised by Unesco office in Amman, Unesco office in Doha and the IFLA Regional Preser-vation and Conservation Center at the Library. It comprised workshops, tours of the Library facilities and digitisation centre, and lectures from the library’s specialists, where participants

were able to learn about the methods and procedures for the preservation and conservation of manuscripts and heritage items.

A series of lectures addressed risk management and assessment in libraries, while other topics included the theo-retical and practical preservation methods for long-term digitised materials to make them available to researchers. Attendees also learned about the technology used to set up the Qatar Digital Library and how it helps in achieving the objectives of the Library in the preservation of digital heritage.

Ahmad Khraisat, Director of the Department of Technical Services at the Documentation and Manuscript Center at the University of Jordan, said, “This is my first visit to Qatar and its national library, a pearl in the desert. I was impressed by the facilities and the international experience of the staff, and espe-cially with their dedication to

collecting manuscripts related to the history of the Arab and Islamic world.” The library is undertaking several projects to

support of the preservation of documentary heritage in the Arab region. An 18-month long project in collaboration with

Unesco focuses on identifying documentary heritage in Arab countries and offers support in capacity building and

professional development to specialists working in this field.

Stephane Ipert, Preservation and Conservation Manager at the Library, said, “We were delighted to host experts from Jordan in our role as the IFLA Regional Preservation and Conservation Center, which is part of our efforts to preserve the heritage of Qatar and the region. The library’s world-class in-house resources allows us to extend these opportunities to raise awareness of the best practices in maintaining rare books, doc-uments and manuscripts.” Ikhlas Aal Khawaldh, National Program Officer at Unesco office in Jordan, said: “As part of Unesco’s goals of preserving documentary heritage, including digital her-itage, we were thrilled at the opportunity to learn more about the practices at QNL. The pro-gramme has served to hone the skills of the five specialists from Jordan on the best methods of conserving and preserving doc-umentary heritage.”

Experts discuss various heritage preservation methods at the capacity-building programme organised by Qatar National Library.

HMC expert receives international breast health certificationTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Dr Mohammed Ilyas Khan (pictured), Breastfeeding Specialist, Obstetrics and Gyne-cology Department at Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Al Khor Hospital has been certified as a MammaCare Specialist by the US-based MammaCare Foundation. Dr Khan is thought to be the first specialist in Qatar to hold the international certifi-cation which is considered the gold standard for performing and teaching clinical breast examinations. “The training and technology provided to Dr. Khan will enable him to make an even greater contribution to women’s health throughout Qatar and the region,” said Dr H.S. Pennypacker, President of the MammaCare Corporation.

MammaCare began in 1974 as a research project endorsed by the National Cancer Institute. The original research goal was to develop a training program to teach effective and thorough ways of examining breast tissue as part of a larger strategy to support the early detection of small breast cancer tumors. Commenting on the significance of the certification, Dr Khan said the training he received will help him empower patients to perform breast self-exams and to be their own health advocate.

“Early detection of breast cancer leads to better treatment outcomes. Mammograms are an important resource for our patients, but clinical breast exams are crucial to help detect tumors or breast tissue changes in between mammogram screenings. The MammaCare certification has provided me

with additional skills that I will add to my years of experience in order to give our patients the best possible care and health outcome,” said Dr Khan.

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide and Dr Khan said it is essential for women to take responsibility for their own breast health and to be diligent about not only getting regular breast exams but also conducting their own self-exams.

As a graduate of the Mam-maCare Specialist Course, Dr Khan is now qualified to serve as a breast health educator and to instruct healthcare profes-sionals and patients.

GU-Q students in Spain as part of ZCZP programmeTHE PENINSULA DOHA

A group of Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) students recently travelled to the Basque Country, an autonomous community in Spain, to study the causes of conflict and the complexity of resolution, as part of the award winning Zones of Conflict, Zones of Peace ( ZCZP) programme the university offers to their students of international affairs.

The trip was the capstone of a ZCZP 3-credit course that examined the Spain–Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) conflict, an armed political struggle that began in 1959 between the gov-ernment and the Basques, an indigenous ethnic group. They also studied peace-building strat-egies used to overcome 40 years of violence in the region.

“The objective was to offer students the two ‘sides’ of the

story, not as a way of justifying any or both of them, but as a way of understanding the challenge of peace-building that lies ahead for Basque society,” said Asso-ciate Professor of Government Sonia Alonso Sáenz de Oger. The

trip to Spain complements the history and theories learned in class, but they also have a real and personal impact on the stu-dents, said Naila Sherman, Director of Student Life at GU-Q. “I think the real value of these

classes and trips is the way in which they bridge theory and practice, showing students that these are real people with real stories, and what they study actually matters outside of the classroom in the world.”

GU-Q students in Spain as part of the award winning Zones of Conflict, Zones of Peace programme.

Illuminated palm trees on the Doha Corniche road as part of the ongoing ‘Summer in Qatar’ programme. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT /THE PENINSULA

QNTC backs Doha Workers Cricket Cup 2019 THE PENINSULA / DOHA

With the International Cricket Cup (ICC) reaching its conclusion in the UK, fans in Qatar can catch live action at the Doha Workers Cricket Cup 2019, on until July 26 at the MIC Cricket Ground in Mesaieed.

The T-12 tournament is part of the Summer in Qatar activ-ities organised by QSports and Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC). Mashal Shahbik from QNTC, commented, “Qatar rec-ognises the power of sport to bring people together, and we have ensured that this summer features e-sports through the competitions at Virtuocity as well as a cricket cup, through which we pay tribute to the Qatar-India Year of Culture. Promising live action right here, the Doha Workers Cricket Cup

2019 is part of a packed calendar of events this Summer in Qatar.”

The Doha Workers Cricket Cup is a T-12 tournament with 16 teams playing in 4 groups. Each team will play minimum

three group matches with eight teams reaching in the playoffs. The matches will be played on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 5.30pm and 7.20pm, with the final match and awards

ceremony taking place on July 26. The winning team will win a cash prize of QR15,000 with medals and the tournament trophy and there are over QR20,000 worth of cash prizes and trophies for players of dif-ferent categories throughout the tournament.

Ghanim Al Mohannadi, Vice-Chairman of QSports, said: “It is a unique tournament in Qatar. In its second edition, this is the first year it is being supported and sponsored by the National Tourism Council. Targeting lab-orers at companies around the country to enjoy a professional tournament with the highest standards, the Cricket Cup fea-tures total prize money in excess of QR40,000. We hope that the tournament will expand to include more teams in the future.”

Indian singer Mika Singh performs at the opening of Qatar Cultural and Literature Festival at Katara Drama Theatre on Thursday. PIC: ABDUL BASIT / THE PENINSULA

Qatar Cultural and Literature Festival ends on high noteFROM PAGE 1

‘Being a coordinator of this fes-tival, at first I thought I would have a hard time in coordinating because we were working from India but I was surprised to see the level of support that we got from Doha. People who connected with us from Doha had made it easier for me to work for the event. I am humbled to see the response and excitement in both the nations,” said Festival Coordinator Deepali Verma.

Among the other highlights of the festival were a poetry per-formance by actor, singer and poet Piyush Mishra, a musical theatre and panel discussions that delved into significant topics including ‘Empower Women, Empower Society,’ ‘Impact of Culture on Writing Books’ and ‘Cinema and Cultural Difference.’

Corniche Road illuminated

A click during the ongoing Doha Workers Cricket Cup 2019.

Dr Khan is thought to be the first specialist in Qatar to hold the international certification which is considered the gold standard for performing and teaching clinical breast examinations.

04 SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Duncan (D37) sails in the Bosphorus, on its way to the Mediterranean Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday.

UK sends second warship to Gulf after tanker standoffAFP LONDON/TEHRAN

Britain said yesterday it was sending a second warship to the Gulf and raising the alert level in the region as tensions spike after Iranian gunboats threatened a UK supertanker.

The decision was disclosed as US President Donald Trump stepped up his war of words with the Islamic republic over its nuclear programme. “Iran better be careful,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “They’re treading on very dangerous ter-ritory. Iran, if you’re listening, you better be careful.”

The UK is in talks with the US and other allies about beefing up their military presence in the Gulf to deal with the rising threat to shipping posed by Iran.

“We are talking with the US about building on our presence in the face of recent threats to shipping in the area,” Prime Min-ister Theresa May’s spokes-woman, Alison Donnelly, told reporters yesterday. “We have a number of military assets already in the region” and the US is dis-cussing “with a number of coun-tries — including ourselves — how we might build on this.”

British officials said the naval deployment was part of a

pre-planned rotation and meant to ensure a continued British naval presence in one of the most important but volatile oil shipment routes in the world.

But a source said the switchover was brought forward by several days and should see two of Britain’s most advanced warships jointly navigating the waters off Iran for a period that might last a number of weeks.

A government spokesman said the HMS Duncan was “deploying to the region to ensure we maintain a continuous mar-itime security presence while HMS Montrose comes off task for pre-planned maintenance and crew changeover”.

Sky News television reported that HMS Duncan would not be part of the international military escort team for vessels in the Gulf proposed on Thursday by the

United States. HMS Duncan is an air defence destroyer that carries a set of heavy Harpoon anti-ship missiles and a crew in excess of 280.

The BBC reported that it had reached Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait as it makes its way from the Black Sea through the Suez Canal to the Gulf. HMS Montrose was forced to warn off three fast Iranian gunboats on Wednesday that UK officials said were trying to “impede” the progress of a British supertanker through the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf.

Iranian officials have denied the incident ever happened.

The Strait of Hormuz episode occurred a week after UK Royal Marines helped the Gibraltar authorities detain an Iranian tanker that US officials believe was trying to deliver oil to Syria in violation of separate sets of EU and US sanctions.

Iran has bristled at the arrest and issued a series of increasingly ominous warnings to both the United States and Britain about its right to take unspecified actions in reprisal. “If the enemy had made the smallest assessment they wouldn’t have done this act,” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards deputy com-mander Ali Fadavi said on Thursday.

A source said the British

government decided at the start of the week to raise the alert level for ships travelling through Iranian waters to three on a three-point scale.

The decision means that Britain views the security threat in Iranian waters for commercial ships as “critical”.

But UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt called on Friday for “cool heads” to prevail as threats mount and Iran’s response to its growing isolation — and eco-nomic suffering from US sanc-tions—becomes increasingly

unpredictable. “We want to do everything we can to make sure that we don’t have an unin-tended escalation which could be very dangerous for the world,” Hunt said.

The authorities of Gibraltar —a British overseas territory on Spain’s southern tip — said that the Iranian supertanker was car-rying 2.1 million barrels of light crude oil. They also insisted that they had asked British Naval Marines to help with the Iranian tanker’s arrest without any outside political pressure.

“These important decisions about breaches of our laws were certainly not decisions taken at the political behest or instruction of any other state or of any third party,” Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said.

The Gibraltar police on Thursday announced the arrest of the Iranian tanker’s Indian captain and officer.

Yesterday, they detained two more Indian crew members as part of an “investigation of the suspected export of crude oil to the Banyas refinery in Syria”.

Palestinian drones ‘tactical threat’ to Israel: ExpertsANATOLIA JERUSALEM

Unmanned drones used by Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip are becoming a “tactical threat” to Israel in any future conflict, analysts believe.

On Sunday, the Israeli army said it shot down a drone flying over the buffer zone in the northern Gaza Strip.

The army said the drone’s remnants were collected and transferred for further exami-nation in order to determine its origins and type.

“Resistance movements in Gaza have managed to develop some 10 types of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] in the past five years,” Wasef Erekat, a Palestinian military expert, told

Anadolu Agency.He said two types of drones

are now being sent into Israeli territory. “The first one is the commercial drones which can be used to collect information and photos or for surveillance during war,” he said.

“It can also be used to carry out attacks by arming them with an explosive charge of between 10-15 kg,” he said. According to Erekat, the second type is the fixed-wing UAVs.

“This type of drones can fly at high altitudes and for long periods and they can be armed with guided missiles with a load of more than 200 kg,” he said.

The drone Israel downed on Sunday was reportedly of the commercial type.

Erekat believes that drones

can pose a real threat if they are used by the Palestinians instead of arson balloons to reach further distances.

“The Israeli army usually bombs military posts for Pales-tinian resistance factions in response to these drones,” he said. Israel is a world leader in drone technologies and has used the UAVs extensively during mil-itary conflicts.

Following the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza, Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) identified the UAVs as “enemy guerrillas”.

In an article published in July 2018, Alex Fishman, a military commentator in Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, warned that the UAVs pose a major threat to Israel in any future conflict.

Libya demands explanation over French missilesANATOLIA/TRIPOLI

Libya’s UN-recognised government yesterday called for answers after Paris admitted the presence of missiles in the Libyan territory, which were found at a base used by commander of rival forces Khalifa Haftar.

Libya’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Siala has asked his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian to explain as to when and in what quantity the arms were sent to Libya and how they reached Haftar forces, according to Libya’s Foreign Ministry.

According to media reports on Wednesday, the forces of Libya’s UN-recognised Gov-ernment of National Accord (GNA) based in capital Tripoli had seized four French missiles when it overran a camp of Haftar forces in northwestern city of Garyan in June.

Responding to the reports, the French Defence Ministry said the anti-tank Javelin mis-siles were intended for the “self-protection” of French forces deployed for counterter-rorism, confirming the presence of French forces on Libyan ter-ritory. However, the ministry denied providing missiles to forces loyal to Haftar.

Libya has remained beset by turmoil since 2011 when a bloody Nato-backed uprising led to the ouster and death of long-serving President Muammar Gaddafi after more than four decades in power.

Sudan military, protesters set to sign political deal todayAP/KHARTOUM

A transition agreement between Sudan’s ruling military council and a pro-democracy coalition was scheduled to be signed Saturday, a top African Union diplomat said, just hours after the military claimed it thwarted an attempted coup by a group of officers.

The AU’s Mohammed el-Hassan Labat made the announcement yesterday. The transition agreement sets up a joint Sovereign Council that will rule for a little over three years while elections are organized.

Ethiopian mediator Mahmoud Dirir, who has been involved in mediating between the two sides, told reporters that the political declaration will be “debated on, discussed and signed at the same time.” The deal is meant to break the political deadlock that has gripped the country following the overthrow of autocratic Pres-ident Omar al-Bashir in April.

Lt. Gen. Gamal Omar, a member of Sudan’s military council, said the coup attempt took place late Thursday, just days after the military and the pro-democracy coalition had agreed to the joint sovereign council.

In a statement, Omar said at least 16 active and retired military officers were arrested. Security forces were pursuing the group’s leader and additional officers who took part in plotting the coup attempt, he said, but the council did not reveal the name of the attempted leader, his rank or other details.

UN chief makes climate change plea in cyclone-hit MozambiqueAFP BEIRA, MOZAMBIQUE

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres yesterday issued a strong plea for action on climate change as he visited Beira in central Mozambique, which was devastated by a cyclone in March.

“Mozambique’s case must be a clear example to the world,” he told reporters. “The larger nations must assume strong positions against global warming.

“It’s urgent to stop funding fossil fuels.”

Cyclone Idia, followed by Cyclone Kenneth, smashed into Mozambique in March and April 2019, hitting the centre and north of the country just six weeks apart in an unprecedented weather pattern.

More than two million people were affected and about 650 died.

The UN has said Mozam-bique is highly vulnerable to extreme weather and rising sea-levels caused by climate change.

Rising sea levels increase the strength of storm surges and drive more powerful waves towards the shore.

Four months after Cyclone Idai, Guterres visited a camp where 480 families have shel-tered in tents since the storm.

“My husband has disap-peared since the night of the

cyclone,” Marta Muchanga, the mother of two children, said, adding that her house and all her belongings had been swept away.

“We do not know if he died because his body was never found. I live here with my two children and I have no job. I

braid hair to survive and feed my children.”

Jonas Chicote, a local leader in the Mandruzi resettlement camp, said that many families had been split up.

“The rescue process priori-tised the rescue of children in the first place and many parents lost

their children. Over the course of time, some have been re-united,” he said.

One survivor said the dis-placed families in the camp were short of food.

Aid agencies Save the Children, CARE and Oxfam on Friday issued a joint-statement

calling for further emergency food assistance as 433,000 fam-ilies had had their farming land destroyed.

“The cyclones and flooding are proof that climate change hurts the poorest, the most,” the statement added.

The UN said that humani-tarian relief operations had reached 1.8 million people since Cyclone Idai stuck, with 1,000 aid workers deployed across the impact zone.

But it added that less than half of the $282m required to complete the recovery work had been raised.

“I was impressed with the capacity of Mozambicans to recover from disasters,” Guterres said.

“Everywhere I saw people busy rebuilding their lives. I’ve launched major appeals to the world to mobilise aid to Mozambique but we still need more.

“There’s recent research indicating that Mozambique is the second country worldwide most vulnerable to climate change effects.

“Mozambique’s contribution to global warm is zero, so the bigger nations that most con-tribute to global warming must assist it.

“I don’t want to see our money financing destruction like w h a t h a p p e n e d i n Mozambique.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres greets people at the Mandruzi Resettlement area in Dondo District, yesterday as part of his visit to assess recovery efforts from two cyclones earlier this year in Mozambique.

Toll in migrant ship disaster off Tunisia rises to 72REUTERS/TUNIS

More bodies were found from a ship packed with migrants that sank off the Tunisian coast last week, bringing the official death toll to 72 in a disaster feared to have killed more than 80 people, the Tunisian Red Crescent said.

The boat capsized after setting off for Europe from neighboring Libya. Four sur-vivors have been rescued, who told Tunisian coast guards the ship was carrying around 86 people. The coast of western Libya is one of the main departure points for African migrants hoping to reach Europe.

“We are talking with the US about building on our presence in the face of recent threats to shipping in the area,” Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokeswoman, Alison Donnelly, told reporters.

Interim relief

05SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019 ASIA

SC orders status quo on Karnataka rebel MLAs issue till TuesdayIANS NEW DELHI/BENGALURU

The Supreme Court yesterday ordered status quo with regard to the plea of the 10 Congress MLAs of Karnataka who approached it against the Assembly Speaker for not accepting their resignations.

After high-decibel arguments between advocates of the rebel legislators and the Speaker, a bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, said the matter required a detailed hearing and listed it for Tuesday.

Till then, there would be status quo on the issue, the bench ruled.

“Various issues of interpretation of the constitutional provisions arise in this case...Question of judicial interference also comes up. It also needs to be examined if the Speaker needs to decide disqualification (of the rebel MLAs) first,” the court said.

During the course of the hearing, a high-decibel argument broke out in the courtroom.

Mealwhile, a defiant Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said he was ready to seek trust vote to prove that his JD-S-Congress coalition government had majority in the Assembly.

“I am ready to seek a trust vote to prove my government has majority. I request you fix a date and time to move it in the House,” Kumaraswamy told state Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar as the 10-day Monsoon session of the legislature began here.

Appearing for the rebel MLAs, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi said the Speaker could be given a day or two to decide, but he couldn’t challenge the authority of the apex court.

He contended that the top court should issue a contempt notice against the Speaker, as he was deliberately delaying the decision on the resignation of the MLAs despite its order. The court yesterday asked the Speaker

to take a decision on issue of resignations within a day.

The Chief Justice asked the counsels: “Is the Speaker challenging the authority of this court?...and is the Speaker saying Supreme Court should keep its hands off?”

To this, senior advocate A.M. Singhvi, appearing for the Karnataka Speaker, replied, “No.. He isn’t saying that.”

Singhvi submitted before the court that the Speaker is a very senior member of the Assembly and he will decide on the disqual-ification first, as he is duty-bound.

“The Speaker cannot be maligned and lampooned like this. He is a senior member and knows the Constitutional law,” con-tended Singhvi. He also told the court that MLAs did not try to meet him earlier, and this information was not presented before the court. Rohatgi said the Speaker had earlier accepted resignation of one MLA even though disqualification proceedings were pending.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, described the plea filed by the MLAs as “an overtly political petition” and denied the allegations made against the CM in the petition by the MLAs.A

Dhavan asked what exactly the MLAs wanted the court to do?

“They claim that the government has failed, and now, they want it fail to further. They have simply dragged the top court into this political battle,” he said.

A defiant Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said he was ready to seek trust vote to prove that his JD-S-Congress coalition government had majority in the Assembly.

AFP/CHENNAI

A special 50-wagon train carrying 2.5 million litres of water arrived in the Indian city of Chennai yesterday, as the southern hub reels under one of its worst shortages in decades.

The wagons were hauled by a special locomotive, decorated with flowers and with a “Drinking Water for Chennai” banner on its front.

Four special trains a day have been called up to bring water to Chennai — India’s sixth most populous city— from Vellore, some 125km away, to help battle the drought.

The first consignment will

be taken to a water treatment centre, and then distributed in trucks to different parts of the metropolis on Saturday.

Chennai has seen only a fraction of the rain it usually receives during June and July.

The city of 4.9 million people also needed trains to bring water in when it suffered a similar crisis in 2001.

The bustling capital of Tamil Nadu state normally requires at least 825 million litres of water a day, but author-ities are currently only able to supply 60 percent of that.

With temperatures regu-larly hitting 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), reservoirs

have run dry and other water sources are dwindling further each day.

The Chennai metro has turned off its air conditioning, farmers have been forced to stop watering their crops, and

offices have asked staff to work from home. The city’s economy has also taken a hit as some hotels and restaurants shut shop temporarily, and there have been reports of fights breaking out as people queue for water.

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi (centre), comes out of the Metropolitan Court premises in Ahmedabad yesterday. Ahmedabad court granted bail to Rahul Gandhi in the defamation suit filed against him by the District Cooperative Bank.

India prepares to land rover on moon in global space raceAP NEW DELHI

India is looking to take a giant leap in its space programme and solidify its place among the world’s spacefaring nations with its second unmanned mission to the moon, this one aimed at landing a rover near the unex-plored south pole.

The Indian Space Research Organization plans to launch a spacecraft using homegrown technology on Monday, and it is scheduled to touch down on the moon Sept. 6 or 7. The $141m

Chandrayaan-2 mission will analyze minerals, map the moon’s surface and search for water.

It will “boldly go where no country has ever gone before,” ISRO said in a statement.With India poised to become the world’s fifth-largest economy, the ardently nationalist gov-ernment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is eager to show off the country’s prowess in security and technology.

India successfully test-fired an anti-satellite weapon in March, which Modi said

demonstrated the country’s capacity as a space power alongside the United States, Russia and China. India also plans to send humans into space by 2022, becoming only the fourth nation to do so.

The country’s ambitions are playing out amid a resurgent space race.

The US —which is marking the 50th anniversary this month of the Apollo 11 mission that made Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first humans on the moon - is working to send a manned spacecraft to the lunar

south pole by 2024. In April, an unmanned Israeli craft crashed into the moon in a failed attempt at the first privately funded lunar landing.

Decades of space research have allowed India to develop satellite, communications and remote sensing technologies that are helping solve everyday problems at home, from fore-casting fish migration to pre-dicting storms and floods.

India’s first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, whose name is Sanskrit for “moon craft,” orbited the moon in 2008 and helped

confirm the presence of water. In 2013-14, India put a satellite into orbit around Mars in the nation’s first interplanetary mission.

Some have questioned the expense in a country of 1.3 billion people with widespread poverty and one of the world’s highest child mortality rates. But author and economic commentator Gurcharan Das said that the cost of the second moonshot is small compared with India’s overall budget and that the project could have a multiplier effect on the economy.

Student members slam SFI unit in Kerala college as ‘fascist’IANS/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

In a first public outburst by Students’ Federation of India (SFI) members, angry students at the University College here yesterday slammed the func-tioning of the SFI unit at the college, forcing the union’s national president to disband the college unit.

This turn of events followed the stabbing of BA Final Year student Akhil, and injuries to two other students, in a fight at the college between the SFI unit members and other students.Akhil and the other two injured students have been admitted to the Medical College hospital.

“We are all supporters of the SFI, but today the 13 unit members in the college are acting like fascists. None can freely move around the college and if we sit around a tree or sing songs, we are abused beaten and chased away,” one of the protesting students said.

“There is total disarray and we are forced to speak against SFI, to whom we all belong,” he added. Reacting quickly to the situation, SFI President V P Sanu, told the media that it has been decided to dismiss the SFI unit of the University College.

Following the stabbing, angry students of the college protested by blocking the main road, forcing the police to act.

This college is regarded as an SFI bastion and is located a stone’s throw from the state secretariat. The SFI is affiliated to the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which is the lead alliance partner of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF).

“Akhil was sitting under a tree and singing a song. Soon the unit members came and started to beat him badly. The unit members know that whatever they do, they will get the necessary support from the CPI-M. What happened to a probe when a girl tried to commit suicide?” another pro-testing student asked.

Water express delivers emergency supplies to drought-hit Indian city

Labourers connect pipes to collect water from a special train of 50 wagons carrying litres of water at Villivakkam railway station in Chennai, yesterday.

Man teaches 3-year-old son to load gun in viral videoAFP/NEW DELHI

A viral video of an Indian man teaching his three-year-old son to load a gun sparked a police investigation yesterday.

The clip shows the boy being shown how to load bullets into the revolver. The man then hands the gun to his son with the barrel pointed towards the boy. Police said that the man who runs a school for poor children in the western state of Maharashtra has a permit for the weapon. “It’s a licensed pistol and he has sent us the relevant doc-uments,” police inspector B. Pandhare said, adding that the questioning would continue.

IANS NEW DELHI

Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) yesterday issued a show-cause notice to executives of top private carrier IndiGo over safety-related lapses.

The regulator carried out sur-veillance on the airline and found it had not taken corrective steps in the area of training. The safety action group (SAG) was also not in

the training department as required by aviation rules.

“The corrective action actions taken are inconsistent and not com-mensurate with the severity of the FOQA (Flight Operations Quality Assurance) events,” DGCA Director (air safety) Maneesh Kumar said in the notice to IndiGo’s Head of Training Sanjiv Bhalla. The DGCA audit focussed on the area of occur-rence reporting, FOQA monitoring and analysis, implementation of

Safety Management System, aircrew training, flight operations and air-worthiness. The show-cause notice has also been sent to senior airline executives Rakesh Srivastava, Ashim Mitra and Hemant Kumar.

The DGCA has asked the four airline executives why action should not be taken against them in view of the lapses and violation of the regulatory requirements. It has given 15 days’ time to the executives to respond.

IANS/RANCHI

The Jharkhand High Court yesterday granted bail to RJD chief Lalu Prasad in a fodder scam case related to fraudulent withdrawal of funds from the Deoghar treasury, however, he will remain in jail in two other cases related to the scam. He will remain in jail in two more fodder scam cases in which he was awarded five years and 14 years imprisonment.

Lalu gets bail in fodder scam case

IndiGo executives served show-cause over safety lapses

Police raid rights groups over fund misuse chargeAFP NEW DELHI

A legal rights group run by two of India’s top lawyers yesterday accused authorities of trying to intimidate and silence them after police raided their offices for alleged foreign funding viola-tions.

Since 2014 Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has suspended or barred nearly 10,000 non-profit groups from

receiving foreign funding, accusing some of using the funds for “anti-national activities”.

The Central Bureau of Inves-tigation (CBI) said it had found “certain incriminating docu-ments” during a search of offices belonging to the non-profit Lawyers Collective in New Delhi and Mumbai on Thursday.

The group— which is headed by top lawyers Anand Grover and Indira Jaising— had received and misused $4.7m in

international funding, the CBI said in a statement.

The agency was acting on a complaint from the home min-istry that the NGO had conspired “with an intent to cheat the gov-ernment of India” by siphoning off money it received from abroad.

Lawyers Collective said the raids were “nothing but a vicious means to humiliate, intimidate and silence its trustees... whose fierce independence and

advocacy for human rights, per-turbs the political establishment of the day.”

Opposition lawmakers called the CBI action the “latest in a long line of coercion and intim-idation” against Jaising and Grover.

The group is the latest to face action after Modi’s nationalist government launched a crackdown against foreign non-government organisations in 2014 when they assumed power.

Aviation Secretary Shahrukh Nusrat said Indian officials have been told that Indian airbases are still laden with fighter jets and Pakistan will not allow resumption of flight operations from India until their removal.

06 SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019ASIA

Pakistan rejects India’s request to open airspaceINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Pakistan has turned down India’s request to lift the restriction on the use of its airspace with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) subjecting the use of its airspace to the removal of fighter planes from Indian airbases.

Aviation Secretary Shahrukh Nusrat, who is also the Director- General of the CAA, informed the Senate Standing Committee on Aviation that his department has intimated Indian officials that Pakistani airspace would remain unavailable for use by India until war jets are removed from Indian airbases.

The session, chaired by Senator Mushahidullah Khan, was informed that Pakistan had

shut down its airspace after esca-lation of tensions between the two countries in February this year which remain intact to date.

After the restrictions, India has been diverting all of its pas-senger flights to alternative routes. The CAA official also con-tested India’s claim that Delhi had opened its airspace for

Pakistan. “Pakistani flights from Thailand have not been restored since the closure of the Indian airspace. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights for Malaysia also remain suspended,” the CAA DG informed the committee.

He further apprised the com-mittee that Indian officials have contacted Pakistan requesting it to lift the airspace restriction. “However, Indian officials have been told that Indian airbases are still laden with fighter jets and Pakistan will not allow resumption of flight operations from India until their removal,” said Nusrat.

The CAA officials also briefed the committee regarding inves-tigation into financial irregular-ities during the construction of Islamabad airport. The director of human resources of the CAA,

Samar Rafiq, briefed the com-mittee regarding two inquiries conducted in the matter.

She said a commission, headed by Justice Shamsul Malik, investigated the allegations, and added that the inquiry report sub-mitted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had not proved any financial irregularities.

“However, the investigation agency has identified some tech-nical glitches in the financial records.” The standing com-mittee expressed its dissatis-faction with the briefing pro-vided by the CAA while observing that the authority had been pro-viding conflicting statements.

The committee maintained that one of the earlier reports had established corruption while the other stated the opposite.

Federal Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said the investi-gation into the matter was incomplete while vowing to ensure that no one was given special treatment. “We will bring all those involved to book,” he said, adding that he was personally holding an inquiry into the matter as he believed that the con-struction of the airport suffered from financial irregularities at the hands of CAA officials.

He requested the committee to give eight weeks to complete the inquiry, which the committee accepted. During the session, PIA’s Chief Executive Officer Air Marshal Arshad Malik presented a briefing over the performance of the national carrier and observed that the institution was showing improvements.

Pakistan joins US-led call for Afghan truce and dialogueAFP WASHINGTON

Pakistan, which supported Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime, yesterday joined the United States, Russia and China in a call on the insurgents to agree to a ceasefire and nego-tiations with Kabul.

Pakistan joined the three powers in talks in Beijing that come as the United States moves closer to an agreement with the Taliban to pull troops from Afghanistan and end its longest-ever war.

The four countries “encouraged all parties to take steps to reduce violence leading to a comprehensive and per-manent ceasefire that starts with intra-Afghan negotia-tions,” said a joint statement issued by the United States.

They called for direct nego-tiations involving the Taliban, President Ashraf Ghani’s gov-ernment and other Afghans to “produce a peace framework as soon as possible.” Members of the Taliban and government met earlier this week in Qatar, a breakthrough even though participants were said to be there in a personal capacity.

Amid talk of a US troop with-drawal, US envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said that America is not “cutting and running” from its longest war and that women will continue to have seats in peace talks to end nearly 18 years of fighting.

The Washington event was heavily focused on raising the voices of women who fear any peace accord with the Taliban will rollback gains they’ve made and return them to the days of repressive Taliban rule. “We would like to leave a very pos-itive legacy here,” said the US envoy, who was born in Afghanistan. “We are not cutting and running. We’re not looking for a withdrawal agreement. We’re looking for a peace agreement. And we’re looking for a long-term rela-tionship and partnership with Afghanistan.”

PM Imran to outline his vision of ‘Naya Pakistan’ in USINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will stay back in the US for at least four more days after Prime Minister Imran Khan’s visit is over.

Prime Minister Imran Khan will meet President Donald Trump on July 22.

The White House confirmed on Wednesday that both leaders will focus on strengthening cooperation between the two countries to bring peace, sta-bility, and economic prosperity and will also discuss a range of issues, including counterter-rorism, defence, energy, and trade, “with the goal of creating conditions for a peaceful South Asia and an enduring part-nership between our two countries”.

Clearly, the focus will be regional situation, especially when US desperately wants to reach a peace deal with the Taliban so it could withdraw from Afghanistan.

Imran Khan is scheduled to stay for three days in Wash-ington along with his cabinet members including the foreign minister, adviser on finance, adviser on investment and commerce.

The Foreign Minister, as part of the delegation, will accompany the Prime Minister but will remain in Washington for four more days to meet offi-cials, US dignitaries, and law-makers and other stakeholders

to discuss matters of mutual and regional concerns, sources said. The embassy here has not shared any details of the meetings so far.

However, the Foreign Office has released a statement highlighting that the prime minister will also be meeting prominent members of the US Congress, corporate leaders and opinion makers as well as members of the Pakistani diaspora.

The visit will contribute towards building a broad-based, long-term and enduring part-nership between the two coun-tries on the basis of mutual interest and mutual benefit, according to the Foreign Office.

“During his various engagements in Washington, the Prime Minister will outline his vision of “Naya Pakistan” and underscore the importance Pakistan attaches to a broader and multi-faceted relationship with the United States.

In the regional context, the Prime inister will underscore Pakistan’s commitment to peace and stability and the importance of constructive engagement to promote a political solution in Afghanistan.

He will also highlight Paki-stan’s policy of “peaceful neighbourhood” aimed at resolving disputes through dia-logue and promoting the vision of peace, progress and pros-perity in South Asia and beyond,” the Foreign Office statement said.

Islamabad High Court requests govt to remove judge after video controversyINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) yesterday requested the law ministry to remove accounta-bility court judge Arshad Malik over the video controversy.

Earlier in the day, judge Malik had written a letter to the IHC refuting Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz’s allegations and the video purportedly showing the judge admitting to lack of evidence against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

In an affidavit submitted to the IHC, Malik denied the

contents of the video and termed them as edited, fabricated, aimed to defame him, sources said.

According to an IHC spokes-person, acting IHC Chief Justice Amir Farooq received judge Malik’s letter and then decided to request the law ministry to remove him from the post.

The spokesperson further said, on the order of Chief Justice Farooq, judge Malik’s affidavit and letter has been made part of Nawaz Sharif’s acquittal plea.

Sources said, the IHC chief justice had summoned judge Malik two to three times and interrogated him regarding the controversy. Sources said, judge

Malik was interrogated about meeting PML-N’s Butt and others, however, he failed to satisfy the Chief Justice Farooq with his answers.

Judge Malik is currently hearing the fake accounts case against former president Asif Ali Zardari, rental power case against former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and refer-ences against former prime min-ister Shaukat Aziz.

The judge is also hearing several National Accountability Bureau references as well. Last week, the PML-N had released a video clip of the judge allegedly embroiling Malik.

Six dead in suicide blast at weddingAFP JALALABAD

At least six people were killed and 14 wounded yesterday when a suicide bomber attacked a wedding ceremony in eastern Afghanistan.

The Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate later claimed responsibility for the bombing in Nangarhar province close to the Pakistan border, where a host of insurgent organisations operate.

“This morning at 8am (0330 GMT), a suicide bomber deto-nated himself at a wedding cer-emony... in Pachiragam dis-trict,” Attaullah Khogyani, the Nangarhar governor ’s spokesman, said.

He said six people had been killed and 14 wounded, a change from an earlier toll of five dead and 40 wounded. “All the villagers were gathered for a wedding ceremony,” said witness Saleem Jan, who was himself a guest and who was wounded in the blast.

Speaking to a witness from hospital, he described con-fusion as the bomb exploded and people began running.

“I didn’t know what hap-pened,” he said. “When I turned my face I saw dozens of people were wounded, lying on the ground.”

Nangarhar regional hos-pital spokesman Zahir Adil said that two bodies and 11 injured victims had been taken to the hospital in central Nangarhar city.

AI miracle cure coming to Pakistan soonINTERNEWS KARACHI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) could soon be playing an important role at hospitals across Pakistan, performing important diagnostic tests and even surgeries with greater precision than surgeons. Such medical advances are expected under the federal gov-ernment’s first Artificial Intelli-gence project.

Approved last week by the Central Development Working Party (CDWP), Artificial Intelli-gence (AI) is among 35 projects planned by the prime minister’s Task Force on Technology Driven Knowledge Economy.

To promote AI, the CDWP will set up a Postgraduate Center for AI in agriculture and health sciences at the International Center for Chemical and Bio-logical Sciences (ICCBS) at the University of Karachi.

The ICCBS will function under the Ministry of Science and Technology for the devel-opment of AI project, which is expected to cost Rs525.68m. About 75 per cent of the project’s funds will be dedicated to AI in

health science during the current fiscal year.

Commenting on the project, Dr Attaur Rahman, who heads the PM’s task force for the knowledge economy, said: “The first phase of the project will focus on Artificial Intelli-gence in health science. Work on the project will commence within two months of the release of funds.”

The AI project is expected to cover human resource training for various health fields, including medical diagnostics related to MRI, X-Ray and CT scan. The technology will allow diagnostic testing through robotic examination.

In addition, the AI project will also assist in the automation of medical record-keeping, remote supervision of surgical procedures and robotic surgery for cancer and other diseases.

According to the CDWP working paper, the facilities proposed for AI in the health sector include applications for AI-driven monitoring as well as an application for surgical operations through automated devices.

Sri Lanka seeks fresh trial over student massacreAFP COLOMBO

Sri Lanka’s state prosecutor is to seek a fresh trial over the noto-rious murder of five students during the country’s Tamil sep-aratist war after a magistrate dismissed a case against security forces, a spokeswoman said.

Attorney-General Dappula

de Livera ordered police to trace three key witnesses to the 2006 killings that drew international condemnation, his spokes-woman Nishara Jayaratne said.

The move came after a mag-istrate this month discharged 13 security personnel, including 12 Special Task Force (STF) com-mandos, accused of gunning down the Tamil students in the

eastern port of Trincomalee.Medical records showed that

the students were shot dead. But the STF said one of them was carrying a hand grenade which exploded and killed them.

The so-called “Trinco 5” case figured at UN Human Rights Council sessions with calls for Sri Lanka to bring the perpe-trators to justice.

Heavy rainfall in DhakaA Bangladeshi driver makes his way through heavy rainfall at a water-logged street during the monsoon season in Dhaka yesterday.

Wall clocks made of seashellsWall clocks decorated with seashells of various shapes and colours are put up for sale along Clifton beach in Karachi.

Neither side greeted the other and, in front of television cameras, they faced each other in stony silence. South Korean media reported there was a “cold reception” for their officials, and that the meeting took place in a room that looked like a “garage”.

07SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019 ASIA

Japan, South Korea fail to mend disputeREUTERS SEOUL/TOKYO

Japan and South Korea failed to mend a dispute that could threaten global supplies of microchips and smartphone dis-plays after officials met in Tokyo yesterday for a more than five-hour briefing that drew media attention for its frosty start.

Japan has tightened restric-tions on the export of three materials used in high-tech equipment, officially citing what Japan has called “inadequate management” of sensitive items exported to South Korea, as well as a lack of consultations about export controls.

However, the dispute also appears to be rooted in a decades-old wartime disa-greement. It comes amid deep frustration in Japan over what is seen as Seoul’s failure to act in response to a South Korean court ruling ordering a Japanese company to compensate former forced labourers.

The briefing in Tokyo got off to an uncomfortable start when two South Korean bureaucrats were ushered into a narrow room in the Japanese trade min-istry, where their Japanese coun-terparts were already seated.

Neither side greeted the other and, in front of television cameras, they faced each other in stony silence. A Japanese official later explained that the bureaucrats had earlier met and exchanged greetings. South Korean media, however, reported there was a “cold

reception” for their officials, and that the meeting took place in a room that looked like a “garage”.

Japan told South Korea that its trade controls system was vulnerable, the Japanese official told reporters after the meeting. South Korea said it has proposed more talks with Japan by July 24. Japan did not say whether it would accept the request for more talks, made at a meeting in Tokyo, Lee Ho-hyeon, a director at South Korea’s trade ministry, told a briefing in Seoul.

The dispute between the US allies could disrupt supplies of chips and displays from South Korea’s tech giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which count Apple Inc and other smart-phone makers as customers.

Japan has said the curbs on exports of the materials — which include hydrogen fluoride and etching gas used to make chips — were not retaliation in the feud over compensation for South Koreans forced to work for Japanese firms.

But complicating the matter are Japanese media reports that some quantity of hydrogen flu-oride was shipped to North Korea after being exported to the South. Hydrogen fluoride can be used in chemical weapons.

Kim You-geun, South Korea’s deputy director of national security, has said South Korea has fully enforced UN sanctions on North Korea and international export control regimes on sen-sitive materials and dual-use tech-nology. “We express deep regret that senior Japanese officials have been recently making irre-sponsible comments without presenting a clear basis for them, suggesting our government was violating export controls and not enforcing sanctions,” Kim said.

Relations between Washing-ton’s two Asian allies have long been plagued by memories of Japan’s 1910-45 colonisation of the peninsula and the war, including the matter of “comfort women”, a euphemism for girls and women forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels.

The dispute over wartime forced labour worsened last year after a South Korean court ordered Japanese firms to com-pensate former conscripted labourers. Japan says the matter was settled by the 1965 treaty and by demanding compen-sation, South Korea is violating international law. Many Jap-anese resent being urged to atone for wartime deeds of seven decades ago, while many in South Korea doubt the sincerity of Japan’s past apologies.

Twisty puzzleA competitor races to finish the puzzle in the pyraminx event at the World Cube Association (WCA) World Championships being held in Melbourne yesterday. The World Championships are held every two years and have attracted 905 competitors from around the world competing in 18 different events. The most famous twisty puzzle is the 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube, invented by Professor Rubik from Hungary in 1974.

China to impose sanctions on US firms in Taiwan arms saleAFP BEIJING

China yesterday said that it would impose sanctions on US companies involved in a potential arms sale worth $2.2bn to self-ruled Taiwan — a move that has infuriated Beijing.

“The US arms sale to Taiwan has severely violated the basic norms of international law and international relations,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in an online statement. “In order to safeguard national interests, China will impose sanctions on US enter-prises participating in this sale

of weapons to Taiwan,” he said.The planned weapons sale,

the first transfer of big-ticket United States military gear to democrat ical ly-governed Taiwan in decades, comes as ties between Washington and Beijing are already strained by their trade war.

China views Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if nec-essary. It bristles at any countries that might lend Taiwan diplo-matic support or legitimacy.

Earlier this week, the Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing had lodged formal complaints through diplomatic channels

expressing “strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition” at the potential weapons sale, which includes battle tanks and anti-aircraft missiles.

China on Tuesday had also demanded that the US “imme-diately cancel” the $2.2bn potential arms sale. The US later shrugged off China’s complaints, responding that the equipment would contribute to “peace and stability” in Asia.

Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday that Taipei would “continue our self-defence to counter the threats and chal-lenges” from Beijing. It is not the first time that Beijing has

threatened sanctions following a planned US arms sale to Taiwan.

In 2010, the US approved a package of Patriot missiles, Black Hawk helicopters, and other mil-itary hardware totalling $6.4bn.

The planned deal drew an angry response from Beijing, which cut off military and security contracts with Wash-ington and threatened to impose sanctions on the firms involved in the transaction. Still, the latest move marks “a significant esca-lation on the part of the Chinese government” said Steve Tsang, a China-Taiwan relations expert at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Though diplomatic relations are strained over a number of issues, China’s sanctions threat is indicative of a “broad downward trend,” and not necessarily a sig-nificant “downturn in bilateral relations,” said Roy Kamphausen, senior vice president for research at the US-based National Bureau of Asian Research.

With the US currently engaged in a trade war with China, relations between Taipei and Washington have warmed considerably. Unlike the last three American presidents, who were wary of angering Beijing, Donald Trump has ramped up relations with Taiwan.

New North Korea statute calls Kim head of stateREUTERS SEOUL

Kim Jong Un has been formally named head of state of North Korea and commander-in-chief of the military in a new consti-tution observers said was pos-sibly aimed at preparing for a peace treaty with the US.

North Korea has also long called for a peace deal with the United States to normalise rela-tions and end the technical state of war that has existed since the 1950-1953 Korean War con-cluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

The new constitution, unveiled on the Naenara state portal site on Thursday, said that Kim as chairman of the State Affairs Commission (SAC), a top governing body created in 2016, was “the supreme represent-ative of all the Korean people”, which means head of state, and “commander-in-chief”.

A previous constitution simply called Kim “supreme leader” who commands the coun-try’s “overall military force”. Pre-viously, North Korea’s official head of state was the president of the titular parliament, known as the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly.

“Kim had dreamed of

becoming the president of North Korea and he effectively made it come true,” said Kim Dong-yup, a professor at Kyungnam Univer-sity’s Far East Institute in Seoul.

“He has long sought to shake off the abnormal military-first policy the country has stuck to for a long time.” Kim shifted his focus to the economy last year, launched nuclear talks with the United States and moved to revamp his image as a world leader via summits with South Korea, China and Russia.

Hong Min, a senior researcher of the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said the title change was also aimed at pre-paring for a potential peace treaty with the United States.

“The amendment may well be a chance to establish Kim’s status as the signer of a peace treaty when it comes, while pro-jecting the image of the country as a normal state,” Hong said.

Washington had baulked at signing a comprehensive peace treaty before North Korea takes substantial steps toward denu-clearisation, but US officials have signalled they may be willing to conclude a more limited agreement to reduce tensions, open liaison offices, and move toward normalising relations.

Four Britons arrested in ChinaAFP SHANGHAI

Four Britons have been arrested in an eastern China province, the British embassy said yesterday, two days after Chinese police announced a drug bust there involving 16 foreigners.

Police in the city of Xuzhou in Jiangsu province said on Wednesday that a total of 19 people were arrested in a drugs case centring on a local branch of a language school.

Those arrested included seven foreign teachers and nine foreign students, police said. Police gave no other details on specific nationalities or facts of the case.

“We are in contact with the Chinese authorities following the arrest of four British people in Jiangsu province, and are pro-viding consular assistance,” a spokeswoman with the British embassy in Beijing said.

The spokeswoman said the embassy could not confirm

whether the arrests were related to the drugs case.

Swiss-based Education First, which operates a chain of language schools in China, released a statement acknowl-edging the involvement of seven of its teachers in the sus-pected drugs case at one of its branches in Xuzhou.

The alleged offences “were limited to seven of our teachers and did not take place during working hours or impact any students.

Duterte mocks Iceland over UN vote on drugs warREUTERS MANILA

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took a swipe at Iceland yesterday for spearheading a U..resolution to investigate his war on drugs, saying it was a nation made entirely of ice, with no understanding of his coun-try’s problems.

“What is the problem of Iceland? - Ice only. That is your problem. You have too much ice and there is no clear day and night there,” he said in a ram-bling speech to corrections department officials. “So you can understand why there is no crime, no policeman either, and they just go about eating ice. They don’t understand the social, economic, political problems of the Philippines.”

The resolution on the Philip-pines, led by Iceland, was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday by a vote of 18 coun-tries in favour and 14 against, with 15 abstentions. The exact number of dead in Duterte’s war on drugs is impossible to independently verify. Police say they have killed 6,600 who were armed and fought back during attempts to arrest them, but activists say

there may have been as many as 27,000 drug-related killings.

Human rights groups say there is a pattern of executions, planted evidence and falsified reports, and a state unwilling to investigate widespread allega-tions of systematic abuses by police during the three-year-old crackdown. The government rejects that as lies.

Duterte’s spokesman, Sal-vador Panelo, said yesterday that Iceland had introduced

a resolution “based on false information, bogus news”, and relied on narratives of Duterte’s opponents and biased media.

He told news channel ANC that Duterte would permit United Nations investigators to conduct a probe in his country “if he finds the purpose legit-imate”. Duterte defended his crackdown and said something had to be done because millions of Filipinos were “slaves to a drug called shabu”.

Tinay Palabay (centre), of Karapatan, an alliance for the advancement of people’s rights, speaks in Manila, a day after the UNHRC approved a resolution mandating a comprehensive international review of the drug war in the Philippines.

Canadian accused of abuse freed from jail in JakartaAFP JAKARTA

A Canadian teacher jailed in Indonesia after being convicted of child sexual assault has been freed and returned home after being granted a presidential pardon, an official said.

Neil Bantleman, who also holds a British passport, was released from Cipinang prison in Jakarta on June 21 and returned to Canada later that month. “He was granted a clemency from the president and his sentence was reduced from 11 years to five years and one month,” justice ministry spokesman Ade Kusmanto said.

Bantleman, 50, was also ordered to pay Rp100m ($7,000) as part of his original conviction, Kusmanto said. He was sen-tenced in 2015 — along with Indonesian teaching assistant Ferdinand Tjiong — to 10 years for abusing students in Jakarta, in a legal process criticised as fraught with irregularities.

Thai man sentenced to death for German tourist’s murderAFP BANGKOK

A Thai garbage collector has been sentenced to death for the grisly rape and murder of a German tourist holidaying on a beach island.

Ronnakorn Romruen was arrested in April, hours after the bloodied body of a 27-year-old German woman was found buried under dried leaves and rocks on the picturesque island of Koh Sichang in the Gulf of Thailand.

A Thai court announced the verdict and sentenced the 24-year-old garbage collector to death on Wednesday.

Ronnakorn was under the influence of methampheta-mines when he raped the victim, the court said. When she attempted to escape, he used a rock to repeatedly batter her head and face.

Bridges are a defining feature of Mosul. The city boasts five of them that stretch across the Tigris River, connecting the eastern part of the city to its western side. But the war to drive ISIL from the city has left this vital infrastructure largely crippled.

THE WASHINGTON POST

08 SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019VIEWS

Two years after Mosul’s liberation,damaged bridges frustrate residents

It’s a blistering 45C, and tempers are running hot as gridlocked vehicles inch their way over the “Old Bridge” — the only fully

functioning bridge in Mosul. Eighteen-year-old Shaymaa Al

Saffar is among the legions of frus-trated commuters. A second-year medical student at Mosul University, she carpools with five other girls to travel to and from her home on Mosul’s battle-ravaged west side to her classes on the east side of the city.

“Of course it affects my life here,” Al Saffar told. During rush hour, it can take Al Saffar up to 30 minutes to cross from one side of the Old Bridge — also called the First Bridge — to the other. “In the morning, sometimes I need to run to my classes because I have a teacher who doesn’t like us to be late,” she said.

Bridges are a defining feature of Mosul. The city boasts five of them that stretch across the Tigris River, con-necting the eastern part of the city to its western side. But the war to drive the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the city has left this vital infrastructure largely crippled.

Coalition air strikes designed to corner ISIL in the western part of Mosul partially damaged all five of the city’s bridges. ISIL then completely destroyed two of then in an ultimately

futile effort to stop the Iraqi army from advancing on its stronghold.

But two years after Mosul’s liber-ation, rebuilding the city’s bridges has proven to be painfully slow, bringing misery and frustration to daily routines and disrupting efforts to recon-struct the city and return it to business as usual.

The glacial pace of rehabilitating Mosul’s bridges is brutal for those living west of the Tigris in the Old City, which was deci-mated during the war to root out ISIL.

Once filled with shops, schools, hospitals and hundreds of thousands of homes, much of the Old City is still in ruins, forcing those who live there to cross a bridge to either go to work, get to school, or perform other routine functions of daily life.

But the bridge traffic — which is often restricted by the military during

the afternoon rush hour so it flows eastward, where most people live — makes residents of the Old City reluctant to venture across the river unless it is absolutely necessary.

Beyond the inconvenience, the Old Bridge can’t accommodate large trucks — a fact that hinders efforts to rebuild the devasted western parts of the city.

Mosul’s five bridges were named numerically according to when they were built. Before the war against ISIS, Al Saffar preferred to travel over the Fourth Bridge — the closest one to her home on the west bank of the Tigris.

But the Fourth Bridge is only par-tially fixed, and crossing it in heavy traffic can take up to three hours.

“It didn’t take any time before the war,” said Al Saffar. “It was just open and you got on it. It was maybe half an hour from my home to the university.”

Donors have pledged upward of $30bn towards Iraq’s reconstruction. But nailing down how much of that money has been received and ear-marked for Mosul’s bridges — and how much has been spent so far on actual rebuilding — is difficult to determine.

The Iraqi government established the Reconstruction Fund for Areas Affected by Terrorist Operations (REFAATO) to plan and coordinate Iraq’s recovery and reconstruction - including the repair of damaged bridges and the construction of new ones. REFAATO publishes no data about funding or how much money has been spent on Mosul’s bridges. Al Jazeera asked the project manager for the Nineveh Governorate, Salim Othman, to count the cost. While Othman confirmed he was responsible for managing the funding for Nineveh (an area that includes Mosul), he said he could only provide rough figures.

According to Othman, the Old Bridge — currently Mosul’s smallest and only fully functioning bridge — cost between $2.5m and $2.7m to rebuild. The Fourth Bridge, which is only partially repaired, has cost REFAATO $1.7m so far. The Second Bridge, which is under repair, will cost the fund $8m, while the Third Bridge will cost about $15m to bring back into full service.

The Fifth Bridge was returned to partial service by the Iraqi military, which performed repairs. But Othman

told it would take REFAATO another two and half years to restore the Fourth and Fifth bridges to full service.

He said that though he under-stands why people are frustrated with the slow pace of progress, “those bridges are delayed because of the slow release and shortage of the funding”. Nevertheless, the delays and the lengthy timelines for restoring Mosul’s bridges have raised some eyebrows.

Fifty-one-year-old Muhammed, who asked Al Jazeera to withhold his surname to protect his privacy, owns a construction company that won the contract to rebuild a bridge between Mosul and the city of Erbil. The bridge spans 70 metres and has two-lane traffic each way.

Muhammed told Al Jazeera it took him only 10 months to finish the job.

“If they want to work, they can, but they don’t want to,” said Muhammed, who added that he believes the delays have nothing to do with a lack of funding or a shortage of qualified con-tractors to carry out repairs.

“Everyone wants to take the money and put it into their own pockets,” he said.

Ahmad said the Iraqi government provides financial support for recon-struction, but that much of it disap-pears when it reaches Mosul.

A brief published this year by the Middle East Research Institute noted that during a policy debate in Feb-ruary, Iraq’s Minister of Housing and Reconstruction, Bangen Rekani, “stressed that no pledge from the donors has materialised so far, and the Iraqi government has failed to suffi-ciently address its own structural and functional weaknesses, including corruption”.

While reconstruction drags on, some Mosul residents find comfort by putting their frustrations in a per-spective that few outsiders can even imagine.

“Because everything happening now is better than living with ISIS,” said Ahmad, “I can withstand hours in crowded traffic rather than living with ISIS.”

The author is a freelance journalist focusing on conflict areas, indigenous affairs, gender issues and the environment.

TESSA FOX AL JAZEERA

QUOTE OF THE DAY

UNICEF is saddened and shocked at

the killing of three children as a result of an attack in the

border town of Afrin north of Syria

yesterday.

Geert Cappelaere UNICEF Regional Director

for Middle East and North Africa

It’s time to treat tech platforms like publishers

By now, most con-servatives are con-vinced that our voices are being

shadow-banned, throttled, muted and outright censored online. In fact, amid protesta-tions by groups including the Internet Association, which claims Facebook, Google and Twitter are bias free, it’s an open fact that Big Tech is run predominantly by those on the ideological left. Face-book’s founder Mark Zuck-erberg and Twitter’s chief executive Jack Dorsey even admitted this before Con-gress, and footage of Google’s leadership consoling one another after President Trump’s victory in 2016 indi-cates the same is true for them.

Many on the right have complained loudly and often of anti-conservative bias online. Unfortunately, all too often this is where our efforts

stop. Once we’re ignored or dismissed long enough, con-servatives seem to just shrug our collective shoulders and accept defeat. It’s this type of passivity that has allowed progressives to dominate film and television, universities and large swaths of the main-stream news media. How did they accomplish that? By fighting tooth and nail for what they believe in every vertical.

I founded Turning Point USA to take the fight for ideo-logical diversity directly to a progressive stronghold: the nation’s leading colleges and universities. Now, with Trump’s Social Media Summit on Thursday, we have an opportunity to challenge another progressive hegemony, this time in Big Tech. If we don’t yet know the exact solution to the problem, Thursday’s summit is an important step in fighting to ensure social media platforms remain

forums where all ideologies have a voice.

However, fighting back against private companies with governmental action is a politically and ideologically fraught idea for those of us on the right. Why? Because the last thing we want is more government regulation against private businesses. Regulation often helps Big Industry remain entrenched in power. The burdensome costs of complying with any new regulation would be a rounding error for the likes of Facebook and Google, but it might completely destroy a promising start-up poised to challenge their dominance. Conservatives by and large believe in the corrective power of the free market above all. If we don’t like how private companies are doing business, we should just start our own to compete, right?

There is one glaring problem with this: The free market must be functioning

freely for this to be true. There is now ample reason to believe the market’s normal corrective powers are being blocked by anti-competitive forces.

Many reputable econo-mists and business execu-tives have already made compelling arguments that these companies should be considered monopolies and are unfairly stifling compe-tition. Jeremy Stoppelman, the co-founder of Yelp, con-cluded start-ups similar to his firm would no longer be successful today since “that opportunity has been closed off by Google and their approach.” Consider that Google alone controls more than 90 percent of all online searches, and its monopo-listic power comes into frightening focus. The European Union even levied a $2.7billion fine against Google, claiming the company manipulated search results to suppress competitors.

Qatar’s contribution for sustainable development is also noteworthy as it emphasises the need for education to be interconnected with every aspect of sustainable development.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH 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

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Education for sustainability

Qatar has taken many significant steps in enriching biodiversity demonstrating that the country attaches great importance to the protection and preservation of biological diversity. An estimated 7.6 billion people live on the planet and it could swell to 9.9 billion by

2050, according to the report of the Population Reference Bureau. It grows at an alarming rate. To the woes, the existing natural resources are not sufficient enough to feed them.

Reading the above lines will make one understand how important is to live sustainably. Sustainable living and devel-opment are not possible by a population which is unedu-cated and this is the sole reason why there is a growing inter-national recognition for ‘Education for Sustainable Devel-opment’ (ESD). ESD is developed by the United Nations and it calls for change in the way people think and motivates them to work towards a sustainable future.

Qatar is always at the forefront with world nations for addressing any challenge and it contributes significantly for coming up with a solution. Qatar’s contribution for sus-tainable development is also noteworthy as it emphasises the need for education to be interconnected with every aspect of sustainable development.

Recently, the Vice-Chair-person and CEO of Qatar Foun-dation (QF), H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, outlined, at the UN High-Level Political Forum, how fostering human devel-opment through education is at the core of Qatar’s vision for a sustainable future and nationwide efforts to realise this vision.

Qatar’s support for the cause reflects its commitment to inclusive education, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to drive positive social change, and nurturing a new generation of leaders and role models who have integral roles in Qatar’s development journey.

Going by the words of H E Sheikha Hind, education has to evolve in line with indi-vidual and societal needs, reflect a world where disruption is a way of life, and retain its fundamental principles while not reducing its scope to try new things.

H E Sheikha Hind explained how QF’s unique model of quality, inclusive education interconnects with all sectors in Qatar, enabling young people to see and follow a direct pathway into fields from which they can contribute to the nation’s sustainable development vision while also achieving their personal goals.

It aims to improve access to quality education on sus-tainable development at all levels to transform societies. It calls for reorientation of education and also by helping people to develop the required knowledge, skills, values, behaviors for sustainable development.

Qatar has got a clear vision on sustainable devel-opment, which is backed by sheer determination and arrant willpower. The model which Qatar showcased to the world for sustainable development is really a ray of hope for the world plagued by population rise and natural resources’ depletion.

Even though the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea has dropped significantly since 2015, Europe’s right-wingers and liberals are once again sounding alarms - although in very different ways.

09SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019 OPINION

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As glacial lake bursts, preparation saveslives in Pakistan

On migration, Europe can’t claim the moral high ground

ZOFEEN T EBRAHIM REUTERS

RICK NOACK THE WASHINGTON POST

Efforts to prepare Pakistani mountain communities threatened by the collapse of glacial lakes, as climate

change brings faster glacier melt, paid off this week as a flood ravaged five villages in Chitral district but appeared to cost no lives, Pakistan and international officials said.

The flood in the Golain valley swept away roads and bridges, and damaged homes, irrigation channels and crops, according to residents and ini-tial assessments carried out by the district commissioner’s office.

“Our standing crops (and) apple and apricot orchards have been com-pletely destroyed,” said Safdar Ali, whose shop in the valley was heavily damaged.

As well, “there has been huge loss of livestock, the stored grain has been swept away (and) our irrigation channels and small village-level micro hydro-power plants have also been ruined,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone.

But none of the more than 4,000 people living in the affected villages appears to have been killed, in part because the communities received early warning of the approaching flood from a shepherd upstream, who alerted those in the water’s path, offi-cials said.

The warning gave communities in the lower part of the valley up to an hour and a half to evacuate and try to protect some of their animals and belongings, residents said.

“I see no loss of human life this time as a positive. It shows our training has been a success,” said Amanullah Khan, assistant country director for the UN Development Pro-gramme (UNDP), which helped establish flood protection systems in the area starting in 2011.

That pilot project now is being expanded, using $37 million from the Green Climate Fund, to 15 other mountain districts in Pakistan that are vulnerable to glacial outburst floods, with the aim of reaching more than 7 million people at risk.

Still, the latest flood caused wide-spread displacement and losses, according to residents in the valley.

“I don’t even have a matchstick to light a candle with. Everything I owned has been taken away by the deluge,” said an emotional Abdul Rauf, 35, speaking by phone from a camp where he and his family of 10 took refuge after the dis-aster.

He said they escaped “just in time” because they heard a glacial lake had burst in the upper reaches of the valley.

Rauf was among over 150 people brought down from flood-hit villages by rescuers. Many others were still stranded, officials said, with bridges and roads washed away and travel by foot difficult in the steep terrain.

The area is “highly disaster prone” due to “difficult topography”, a gov-ernment report on the flood noted.

The Golain valley, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has more than 50 glaciers and nine glacial lakes, some of which overspill to provide water for communities downstream.

But since the late 1980s the area also has seen an accelerating drumbeat of glacial lake floods, which happen when a natural dam of rock or other material holding back water gives way as a lake overfills, said Hamid Mir, an environmental analyst at the province’s planning and devel-opment department.

The last significant previous lake outburst was in 2010, said Mir, who worked with the UNDP pilot project to reduce disaster risk in the area.

As part of flood preparations, resi-dents in at-risk areas are seeing weather monitoring stations and river discharge sensors installed, as well as new small-scale drainage systems and mini-dams according to UNDP.

They are also learning new skills - including simple first-aid tips, as emergency help often takes time to arrive.

Rashid Ul Ghafoor, who works with the district disaster management unit, under the Chitral District Com-missioner, acknowledged his department had “limited capacity” to prepare for and respond to calamities.

Problems include a lack of heavy machinery for debris removal, dif-ficult terrain, and a failure to ensure roads and bridges are built with flood risks in mind, he said.

“The building codes ignore the disaster risk,” he said. The first to arrive at the scene of the latest flooding was a team of 70 volun-teers from the Al-Khidmat Foundation, Rauf said.

The team, which took seven hours to reach the first affected village after setting off from Chitral, brought along bamboo ladders to help cross rivers where bridges were washed away, and to climb steep sections of terrain, said Fazle Ali Jan, a spokesman for the foundation.

The government is now working to restore 4 km (2.5 miles) of road and bridges that once linked the affected valley and Chitral but were washed away in the flooding, Ghafoor said.

But rescuers from Al-Khidmat said they were running out of flood, tents, and medicine for families they had rescued.

“We will be able to access the next two villages after my men repair the bridge by the end of the day, but how will we feed them and where will we put them up?” Jan said by telephone.

To some in Europe, the past two weeks may have echoed the agitation and confusion of 2015, when more than a

million refugees and migrants arrived on the continent’s shores. Again, migrants have become a front-page topic from Rome to Berlin after Italy’s populist government shut its ports to them, recalling the Balkan and central European countries that closed their borders in 2015 and 2016.

But this time, Europe isn’t dealing with an influx of millions. Instead, Europeans are fiercely debating over about 40,000 migrant arrivals in 2019 in a bloc of more than 500 million.

Even though the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea has dropped significantly since 2015, Europe’s right-wingers and lib-erals are once again sounding alarms - although in very different ways. One side wants to preserve Europe as the fortress it has become, fenced off by the Mediterranean Sea. The other side is asking: At what ethical price?

Europe’s resurgent migration debate has largely been triggered by Italy’s populist government and far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who has banned private rescue ships with migrants aboard from entering Italian ports and waters. The opera-tions, Italy’s hard-liners and other critics say, provide incentives for migrants to risk the treacherous sea journey to Europe. Supporters of those missions argue that Europe has

a moral responsibility to rescue the migrants, many of whom have escaped conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa that include ethnic warfare and persecution.

The European Union has effec-tively sided with the critics in recent years, scaling back governmental rescue programs. Private groups have tried to fill the void, but have faced growing resistance, too.

When German Capt. Carola Rackete ignored Italy’s orders to stay away from its waters in late June and steered her Sea-Watch 3 vessel into the port of Lampedusa, she was swiftly arrested by Italian authorities.

To Rackete’s supporters, her sub-sequent release barely offered much consolation, as more showdowns appear likely. Italy’s populists are unlikely to give in to their foreign and domestic critics, as their recent rows with private rescue NGOs have allowed them to again rally their voters behind an issue that otherwise would have largely disappeared from public consciousness.

Unlike Salvini and his allies are suggesting, there is no actual migrant crisis in Italy. Of the very few migrants who still arrive, many are transferred to other EU member states, where support for private sea rescue groups has remained higher.

In Germany, for instance, thou-sands took to the streets in several cities last weekend to express support for the rescue missions. But protesters’

anger was also directed at their own government and the European Union in a broader sense.

Many supporters of private sea rescue groups see the woes of the past two weeks as symptomatic of a flawed EU migration strategy in North Africa and the Mediterranean, with a deadly fallout that can no longer be ignored. At the center of their anger is an EU-backed deal with the Libyan government, struck in 2017. In return for preventing North African migrants from being able to embark on or com-plete the sea route to Europe, the Libyan coast guard was promised partial funding and training.

From the beginning, human rights groups were stunned by the move and warned that Europe was backing authorities in a war-torn country, where they had no oversight and no influence to prevent human rights violations.

Their worst-case scenarios soon appeared to be justified. When Human Rights Watch visited several migration centers last summer, the organization found “inhumane condi-tions that included severe over-crowding, unsanitary conditions, poor quality food and water that has led to malnutrition, lack of adequate health care, and disturbing accounts of vio-lence by guards, including beatings, whippings, and use of electric shocks.”

Under the EU-backed arrangement, more than 10,000 migrants have been returned to the controversial detention centers in Libya after they unsuccessfully tried to cross the Mediterranean, my col-league Sudarsan Raghavan reported from Tripoli. Many more migrants never made it to the coastline.

“What horrible thing has to happen next before these people who remain locked in cells, without any ability to flee from the fighting, are evacuated out of the country to safety?” asked Craig Kenzie, the Tripoli project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders.

The EU has defended its strategy, saying that its policy has stopped migrants from drowning in the Medi-terranean. But it has not stopped all from coming — and those who still risk the journey are now more likely to die than before.

The estimated death rate among migrants trying to reach Italy or Malta stands at 10 percent, according to the International Organization for

The flood in the Golain valley swept away roads and bridges, and damaged homes, irrigation channels and crops, according to residents and ini-tial assessments carried out by the district commissioner’s office.

Migration, which is almost two times higher than it was a year ago during the same period. As condi-tions in Libya are deteriorating, more migrants may risk crossing under conditions that have deliber-ately been made more dangerous with EU backing.

That’s why some critics of Europe’s immigration policies are comparing the EU migration approach to President Trump’s efforts to keep South American migrants out of the United States. “It’s easy to criticise Washing-ton’s migration policies as inhumane,” German magazine Der Spiegel’s Mathieu von Rohr wrote in a recent editorial, “but the approach taken by the European Union is even more outrageous. Politicians in the EU outsource the horrors and wash their hands of any guilt.”

For Europeans opposed to such practices, finding a more humane solution might turn out to be even more difficult than for Democrats in the United States. While Democrats theo-retically have to elect only one president, liberal Europeans are fighting 28 battles in 28 separate EU member states. But some leaders don’t think that’s enough of an excuse.

“Saving human lives is a duty and can never be an offence or a crime; not to save them, on the contrary, is one,” Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn wrote.

The author currently covers inter-national news from The Wash-ington Post’s Berlin bureau. Previ-ously, he worked for The Post from Washington as an Arthur F. Burns Fellow and from Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

A file photo showing an overcrowded boat with migrants from different African countries is pictured off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean Sea.

10 SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019EUROPE

Sweden not to sign UN nuclear ban treatyAP COPENHAGEN

Sweden said yesterday that it will refrain from signing a United Nations convention on nuclear weapons, with the foreign minister arguing that the treaty “in its current form is not ready.”

Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said the text has “no clear definition of nuclear weapons and there are a number of issues that must be answered.”

Wallstrom told a news con-ference that there is no majority in Sweden’s parliament, the Riksdagen, to sign the convention.

The country’s two-party, center-left minority needs the backing of a majority to sign it.

The Social-Democratic-led government of Sweden, which is not a Nato member, has been internally divided over the issue, with some saying it could find its cooperative relationship with the alliance weakened if it endorses the UN convention.

Nato supports the idea of a world without nuclear weapons,

but doesn’t believe it can be achieved by imposing a ban through the United Nations convention.

Wallstrom added the gov-ernment will continue “its nuclear disarmament efforts” and will continue “to work for a ban on nuclear weapons” as an observer.

Wallstrom said “the goal of the government’s work is clear: Sweden is a strong voice in the

world for a nuclear-free world.”In a statement, the Swedish

Foreign Ministry said a con-ference in 2020 to review the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons “needs to lead to concrete disarmament pledges from nuclear-weapon states. If this does not happen, the security policy situation will be worsened.”

It said Sweden considers nuclear disarmament “a key pri-ority” and that “the threat posed by nuclear weapons is greater now than for several decades. A number of states are modern-izing their arsenals, and the lack of trust between states is an urgent problem.”

There are believed to be about 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world today. Amid rising tensions over Iran and North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, the United Nations says the threat of a nuclear attack is at its highest level since the end of the Cold War.

Under the UN treaty’s terms, non-nuclear nations agreed not to pursue nukes in exchange for a commitment by the five original nuclear powers — the US, Russia, Britain, France and China — to move toward nuclear disarmament and to guarantee other states’ access to peaceful nuclear technology for pro-ducing energy.

France launches new nuclear-powered attack submarineAFP CHERBOURG

President Emmanuel Macron yesterday launched the first of a new fleet of nuclear-powered attack submarines that aims to ensure French naval superiority in the coming decades.

The first French submarine to be launched in a decade, the Suffren is the frontrunner for a new line of Barracuda attack-class vessels, 12 of which have already been ordered by Australia.

A vast, 99 metre behemoth of black steel, the Suffren was launched at a dry-dock cer-emony in the northern port of Cherbourg.

Built by French shipbuilder Naval Group for the French navy, the Suffren is a Barracuda-class nuclear attack submarine designed to replace the Rubis-class submarines which have

been in service since the 1980s.The vast billion-euro stealth

vessel, whose sides were draped with the French flag, dwarfed a 700-strong crowd of interna-tional delegates who looked on as Macron officially launched the Suffren by simply pulling down a lever.

French Defence Minister Florence Parly was there alongside her Australian coun-terpart Linda Reynolds, whose country inked a deal in February to buy 12 conventionally-powered attack-class subma-rines from Naval Group.

“With the Suffren, a hunter is born today, not a vessel which is going to hide in the depths of the ocean,” Admiral Christophe Prazuck, the French navy’s chief of staff, said. “This is a vessel which has been fashioned to fight... to face down enemies.”

The dock where the Suffren is standing will be flooded later

this month, then it will be trialled at sea. It will be formally delivered to the French navy at the southern port of Toulon near Marseille by summer 2020.

The SSN’s mission is to protect strategic vessels such as aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered submarines which are

equipped with ballistic missiles (SSBNs) but also to track enemy vessels and to gather intelligence.

“This puts us in the top division,” said Naval Group’s chief executive Herve Guillou of the vessel, which took 10 years to develop and build as part of a

9.1-billion-euro programme. The Barracuda also has other

capabilities, including a long-range, 1,000km strike with a cruise missile, and a mini sub-marine for special forces which is housed in a dry-deck shelter fitted on the hull.

It can also lay mines.

French President Emmanuel Macron attends the official launch ceremony of the new French nuclear submarine “Suffren” in Cherbourg, north-western France, yesterday.

Albanian policearrest Russianman over IS links

REUTERS/TIRANA

A Russian national accused of fighting for the IS militant group against Syrian government forces was arrested in Albania and will be extradited to Russia, Albanian police said yesterday.

Police said the 34-year-old man, identified as RM, who was born in and a resident of Norilsk in Russia, entered Albania ille-gally after a court in Russia’s Chechen Republic ruled in April 2015 he should be arrested for being part of a terrorist group.

“In June 2013, this citizen left Russia for Syria, joined the illegal armed group named ‘IS’ and was an active participant in fighting against government forces in Syria,” a police statement said.

British Premier takes swipe at Boris JohnsonAP LONDON

Outgoing British Prime Minster Theresa May (pictured) has leveled a thinly disguised swipe at Conservative Party front-runner Boris Johnson as she underscored the necessity of character in taking on the coun-try’s top post.

May told the Daily Mail in an interview published yesterday that the job of prime minister is not about power but about public service. Though she didn’t mention Johnson by name, he has made a career out of being the biggest personality in the room.

“All too often, those who see it as a position of power see it as about themselves and not about the people they are serving,” she said. “There is a real difference.”

May stepped down from being Conservative Party leader after her failure to get Par-liament to approve a plan for Britain’s departure from the European Union.

Johnson and Foreign Sec-retary Jeremy Hunt are in a runoff for that post, which will also make the winner Britain’s next prime minister. The runoff vote will be announced July 23.

May underscored she had done all she possibly could to try to get her Brexit deal approved and did nothing to conceal her frustration with the fact that some of her most strident

opponents on Brexit are those now backing Johnson.

She added it’s unlikely that her successor will negotiate further Brexit concessions from the EU.

“I had assumed mistakenly that the tough bit of the negoti-ation was with the EU, that Par-liament would accept the vote of the British people and just want to get it done, that people who’d spent their lives cam-paigning for Brexit would vote to get us out on March 29 and May 27,” she said. “But they didn’t.”

May, who will return to Par-liament as a lawmaker, also took issue with those who chided her for becoming emotional as she announced her departure from the post. “If a male prime min-ister’s voice had broken up, it would have been said “what great patriotism, they really love their country.” But if a female prime minister does it, it is ‘Why is she crying?’” she said.

Man arrested in London double homicide probeREUTERS LONDON

Detectives investigating the double homicide of a pregnant woman and her baby arrested a 25-year old male on suspicion of murder, Britain’s Metro-politan police said.

Kelly Mary Fauvrelle, 26, who was eight months pregnant, was found stabbed to death in a house in Croydon, south London, last month. Her baby boy Riley, who was delivered after the attack, was taken to a hospital in a critical condition and later died.

“The male has been taken to a central London police station where he remains at this time,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement, adding that enquiries would continue.

French minister vows to stay despite lobster scandalAFP PARIS

A senior French Cabinet minister defiantly vowed yesterday to stay in his job despite fresh claims he used the public purse to fund an extravagant lifestyle including lobster feasts.

Environment Minister Francois de Rugy has endured a torrid week after the Mediapart investigative website said he hosted lavish dinners — allegedly for friends — while serving as

parliament speaker. Piling on the pressure, Medi-

apart published a new report saying that Rugy rented a council flat with subsidised rent in western France, even though his salary was “far higher” than the maximum allowed for such aid.

But Rugy, who also holds the portfolio of minister of state which makes him the gov-ernment number two after Prime Minister Edouard Philippe — insisted he was not shifting.

“Of course, you feel like

giving up” when “you’re attacked morning, noon and night,” he said, close to tears in an interview.

But he added: “I won’t do that because I’m very angry when I read an article which claims I live in a council house.”

Mediapart said that the dinners hosted by Rugy included luxuries like lobster, champagne and vintage wines from parlia-ment’s cellar.

Most damagingly, it alleged that the dinners had little con-nection to his function and were

essentially social gatherings hosted by his wife, a journalist with the people magazine Gala, and funded by taxpayer.

Rugy has not denied the existence of the dinners but insisted they were linked to his work, defending the gatherings as “informal working dinners”.

In another blow, French daily Le Parisien reported yes-terdaythat Rugy’s wife used public money to buy herself a golden hairdryer worth 561$. He said the claim was a “lie”.

In a statement, the Swedish Foreign Ministry said a conference in 2020 to review the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons “needs to lead to concrete disarmament pledges from nuclear-weapon states”.

Lithuania’s President-elect, Gitanas Nauseda and his predecessor Dalia Grybauskaite during the handover ceremony at the Presidential Palace, in Vilnius, yesterday.

Six kids among10 dead in Russiacar accidentAFP MOSCOW

Six children were among the ten people killed when an all-terrain vehicle capsized while crossing a remote Siberian river, authorities said yesterday.

Apparently members of two families, they are thought to have drowned in the Siberian region of Tyva bordering Mon-golia, the head of the region said.

“Ten people died as they attempted to cross the Shui river in their UAZ-469,” Sholban Kara-ool said in a post on Facebook, referring to an offroad light utility vehicle that seats up to seven people.

In a separate statement, investigators said locals found ten bodies in a vehicle that appeared to have capsized in the water.

Russia’s Investigative Com-mittee, which probes serious incidents, said that it has opened a criminal probe into a possible violation of traffic safety rules.

Road accidents are common in Russia, where many people ignore traffic rules.

Lithuania’s new President sworn in

Eritrean cleared of being trafficking kingpin in mistaken identity caseAFP PALERMO

An Italian court ruled that an Eritrean accused of being a human trafficking kingpin known as “the General” was

telling the truth when he claimed it was a case of mistaken identity.

Carpenter Medhanie Tes-famariam Berhe was arrested in Sudan in 2016 on suspicion of being at the heart of one of the world’s largest migrant

trafficking networks, but after a 21-month trial the court ruled that police had the wrong man.

Behre was accused of being Medhanie Yehdego Mered, known as “the General”, and was extradited to Italy.

But the Palermo court accepted his argument that this was a case of mistaken identity.

It did however give him a five-year prison sentence for aiding illegal immigration.

The judge ordered he be

immediately set free, having spent more than three years behind bars already.

Behre quietly thanked and shook hands with his interpreter. He was then taken by police van to prison to collect his belongings.

11SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019 EUROPE / AMERICAS

SPD lists von der Leyen’s policy failures in paperREUTERS BERLIN

Germany’s Social Democrats have circulated a damning paper to their European political group in which they call Ursula von der Leyen an “inadequate and inap-propriate candidate” to lead the European Commission ahead of a vote on her nomination next week.

The European Parliament is due to vote next Tuesday on whether von der Leyen, Ger-many’s defence minister and a conservative ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel, should succeed Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the EU executive.

Von der Leyen’s nomination

by EU leaders has infuriated the Social Democrats (SPD), Merkel’s coalition partners, who feel aggrieved that the leaders ignored the lead candidates from the main parliamentary blocs in

their horse-trading over top posts.

Merkel said on Thursday the coalition’s situation “is not easy”. She was the only EU leader to abstain in a vote last week on an EU top jobs package after she consulted the SPD, which rejected the deal.

Von der Leyen is currently lobbying lawmakers in the European Parliament to confirm her as Commission chief. The Socialist grouping to which the SPD belongs has 154 of the assembly’s total 751 seats, not enough alone to block her.

In its paper, the SPD dis-sected what it presented as von der Leyen’s policy and leadership failures as defence minister,

highlighting a scandal over the awarding of contracts, her alien-ation of the army top brass and gaps in the military.

“From the very beginning, she ... overestimated herself,” read the document, written in English.

The paper is sure to inflame tensions in the coalition, already running high after former SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel suggested the party could quit the ruling alliance over von der Leyen’s nomination as European Com-mission chief.

The SPD is plumbing new post-war depths in polls as a result of its decision, deeply unpopular with supporters, to prop up Merkel’s government and is divided over whether to

stay in the coalition for another two years. Under a sub-heading “Lack of support in the Bun-deswehr”, the SPD took aim at von der Leyen’s 2017 attack on “weak leadership” in the armed forces (Bundeswehr) after an officer was arrested on suspicion of planning a racist attack to frame refugees.

“Soldiers of higher ranks were horrified,” the paper read. “It took weeks to calm the internal critics. Nevertheless, there is still talk of alienation between the minister and the Bundeswehr.”

Of her efforts to fix gaps in military readiness, the SPD said von der Leyen had failed to make significant improvements and that the Bundeswehr was

still “in a shabby state”.Less than half Germany’s

Eurofighter and Tornado fighter jets and none of its six subma-rines were ready for combat in 2018, a parliamentary report said in January.

The SPD paper also pointed to a “cost explosion” in the refur-bishment of a military training ship, for which it said: “Ursula von der Leyen has political responsibility.”

Martin Schulz, another former SPD leader, has called von der Leyen “our weakest min-ister.” But Katarina Barley, who led the SPD’s campaign for elec-tions to the EU Parliament in May, has said the coalition will not collapse over her nomination.

Venezuela govt, opposition agree to pursue crisis talksAFP CARACAS

Venezuela’s government and opposition have agreed to set up a platform for ongoing negotia-tions to resolve the country’s simmering political crisis after three days of talks in Barbados, mediator nation Norway said.

Representatives of Pres-ident Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido met from Monday to Wednesday in the Caribbean island nation, but have yet to

comment on the result.The Barbados talks were an

extension of the first round of negotiations in Oslo in May, which ended with no concrete advances.

“We announce that the rep-resentatives of the main political actors in Venezuela are con-tinuing the negotiations that were initiated in Oslo,” Norway’s Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide said in a statement.

“As part of this process, a negotiation table has been estab-lished that will work in a

continuous and efficient manner to reach an agreed-upon solution within the framework of the Constitution.”

Late Wednesday, Maduro’s chief negotiator, Communica-tions Minister Jorge Rodriguez, said there had been “a successful exchange” and thanked Bar-bados Prime Minister Mia Mottley for hosting the talks.

Crisis-wracked Venezuela has been mired in a political impasse since January when Guaido proclaimed himself acting president, quickly

receiving the support of more than 50 countries.

The oil-rich, cash-poor country has been in a deep recession for five years. Shortages of food and medicine are frequent, and public services are progressively failing.

Guaido and the opposition accused Maduro of having rigged the 2018 poll that saw him re-elected, and they describe the socialist leader as a “usurper.”

They want him to stand down so new elections can be held.But Maduro’s right-hand

man Diosdado Cabello on Wednesday ruled out early elections.

“They say: the government’s going to Barbados because there are going to be presidential elec-tions in I don’t know how long and the candidates are X and Y,” he said. “Here there are no pres-idential elections, here the pres-ident’s name is Nicolas Maduro,” said Cabello, who heads the pro-regime Constituent Assembly and is considered the country’s second most powerful politician.

In its paper, the SPD dissected what it presented as von der Leyen’s policy and leadership failures as defence minister, highlighting a scandal over the awarding of contracts, her alienation of the army top brass and gaps in the military.

Google launches review after leak of audio conversationsAFP SAN FRANCISCO

Google said it was conducting an internal review after it discovered confidential audio had been leaked by a contractor of private conversations with its digital assistant.

The US Internet giant acknowledged “misconduct” in the leak of the Dutch language conversations by one of its lan-guage experts contracted to help refine its Google Assistant, the artificial intelligence-powered system for voice interactions.

Google made the announcement following a report by Belgian broadcaster VRT that it could access frag-ments of conversations from

smart speakers and other Google devices in Belgium and Netherlands.

The leak appeared to be from one of the language experts Google uses around the world to help it refine its programme.

“We just learned that one of these language reviewers has violated our data security pol-icies by leaking confidential Dutch audio data,” Google product manager David Monsees said in a blog post.

“Our security and privacy response teams have been acti-vated on this issue, are investi-gating, and we will take action. We are conducting a full review of our safeguards in this space to prevent misconduct like this from happening again.”

UK authorities to file charges against climate change activistsAP LONDON

British authorities are charging hundreds of climate change protesters with public order offences in hearings that will take weeks to process.

Two courtrooms are being set aside for one day each week for 19 weeks to deal with E x t i n c t i o n R e b e l l i o n defendants, who range in age from 20 to 76.

The Metropolitan Police are pushing for the 1,151 people arrested to face charges after demonstrations brought parts of central London to a stand-still in April. Dozens of climate change protesters appeared yesterday.

The youngest defendant pleaded guilty to a public order offence relating to Waterloo Bridge on 17 April.

Many of the cases involve an alleged failure to comply with a police order to remain in an allocated area to minimise disruption

Extinction Rebellion said activists are pleased to have a day in court but “the burden this tsunami of cases will place on the courts is unprecedented.”

A number of trials were scheduled for September and October.

Dutch PM to hold talks with TrumpAP THE HAGUE

Prime Minister Mark Rutte is visiting US President Donald Trump next week, the Dutch government announced yesterday, amid reports that the Netherlands is considering an American request to help protect shipping in the Gulf.

Rutte will visit Trump at the White House next Thursday to discuss bilateral relations, inter-national trade and defence and security cooperation, the gov-ernment said in a statement.

Last month, acting US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said after a meeting in Brussels

that Nato allies gave him no firm commitments that they will par-ticipate in a global effort to secure international waterways against threats from Iran.

Since then, Dutch media, citing unnamed sources, have reported that the government in The Hague is considering sending a frigate to the Gulf.

The chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen Joseph Dunford, said on Tuesday that Washington will move ahead with plans to build a coa-lition of nations to monitor and deter Iranian threats against commercial shipping in the Gulf area and in a busy waterway between the Arabian Peninsula

and the Horn of Africa.Dunford said the Pentagon

has developed a specific plan, and that he believes it will be clear within a couple of weeks which nations are willing to join the effort.

The Dutch government said that during the prime minister’s visit to the White House, the owners of an American flag that was flown on the stern of the boat that led the first US troops onto Utah Beach on D-Day will present it ceremonially to the American people.

Dutch businessman and art collector Bert Kreuk bought the flag for $514,000 at an auction in Dallas in 2016.

Shops looted in France after Algeria football winAFP PARIS

Shops in central Paris were looted and a woman was killed in a high-speed car crash in southern France in what the government slammed yesterday as “unacceptable” unrest following a key victory for Algeria’s national football team.

Fans of the Algerian team flocked to the Champs-Elysees in central Paris and the Vieux Port area in Marseille late Thursday after their side defeated Ivory Coast on penalties to reach the semi finals of the Africa Cup of Nations.

Two stores near the Champs-Elysees in Paris were looted, including a motor-cycle shop where people took helmets,

gloves and even bikes, a witness said. Police used tear gas to disperse

thousands of people who had gathered in Paris. The same measures were used to scatter crowds in Marseille.

“The damage and incidents last night on the sidelines of the celebra-tions... are unacceptable,” Interior Min-ister Christophe Castaner said in a tweet.

“I hail the actions of the security forces in Paris and across the country to maintain order and contain the excesses,” he added.

In total, 43 people were detained. In the southern city of Montpellier,

an Algerian football supporter cele-brating his team’s win lost control of his car and ran over a family, killing a woman and seriously injuring her baby,

a security official said.The 21-year-old man was driving at

high speed in the Mosson neigh-bourhood, the official said. The driver was taken into police custody.

The woman was walking with her one-year-old baby and 17-year-old daughter when the accident happened.

The baby suffered traumatic injuries and was rushed to hospital. The 17-year-old had a slight ankle injury.

Algeria, the favourites in this year’s Africa Cup of Nations, defeated the Ivory Coast 4-3 on penalties in the Egyptian city of Suez to set up a semi-final showdown with Nigeria.

Paris and Marseille are home to large minority communities of Algerian origin.

A broken window seen on the Grande Armee street, near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, yesterday.

Wildfire in Maui Island forces evacuationsREUTERS KIHEI

Thousands of residents and visitors on Hawaii’s Maui Island were ordered to evacuate two communities as a spreading wildfire sent smoke billowing high into the sky, officials and local media said.

The 3,000 acre brush fire in Maui’s central valley was uncon-trolled on Thursday night, Maui Mayor Mike Victorino told a news conference.

He said that firefighters would monitor it overnight but that it was too dangerous to battle the blaze in the dark.

“We can’t fight the fire tonight,” he said. “We’re not

going to send any firefighters into harm’s way.”

A National Weather Service satellite photo showing smoke hanging over the island was posted on local media and social media sites.

The brush fire was reported about 10:30am, local time, and steady winds of up to 20 mph fanned the flames, officials said. It jumped a highway and spread across fallow fields and more brush.

Two helicopters from the fire department also dropped water on the blaze to try to contain it.

While thousands were ordered evacuated, it was unclear how many people fled

the west Maui coastal commu-nities of Maalaea and Kihei. But three shelters housed about 500 people late Thursday, media reports said.

The Maui High School housed about 200 cats and dogs moved from a local animal shelter, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

Kahului Airport was briefly closed and flights were diverted because of the smoke, which also forced the closure of two major roads. But operations were back to normal around 7 pm local time, media reported.

No injuries or damage to structures were reported, but some farm equipment burned, HawaiiNewsNow reported.

A plume of smoke spreads across the sky during a wildfire in Kihei, in Maui, Hawaii, yesterday.

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Trump confirms migration raids set for weekend

AFP WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump confirmed yesterday that agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency will launch raids across the country this weekend to round up thou-sands of undocumented migrants for deportation.

“They came in illegally,” he told reporters at the White House. “They are going to take people out and they are going to send them back to their country.”

Trump said ICE would focus mainly on people with convic-tions, including gang members, but also others.

“It starts on Sunday and they’re going to take people out and they’re going to bring them back to their countries,” Trump said. “Or they’re going to take criminals out, put them in prison, or put them in prison in the countries they came from.”

While the focus will be on removing criminals, Trump said the raids would also target “people that came into our country, not through a process, that just walked over a line. They

have to leave.The ICE raids are expected

to take place in 10 major cities, pursuing people for whom courts have already issued removal orders, according to media reports.

They could potentially target families who have been inside the United States for many years, with homes, businesses and US-born children, the reports said.

Migrant communities and immigration and rights activists around the country were girding for the raids.

Migrants were being told to not open their doors to ICE agents if they do not have search or arrest warrants, to record their encounters with agents, and to call immigration attorneys for help.

Democrats warned the Trump administration on Thursday about breaking up long-resident families with members who are inside the country legally.

House leader Nancy Pelosi called the ICE plan “heartless” and said Sundays are when many Hispanic immigrant fam-ilies are in church.

“These families are hard-working members of our com-munities and our country. This brutal action will terrorise children and tear families apart.”

According to the Pew Research Center, there are about 10.5 million undocumented migrants in the US, and two-thirds have been in the country more than 10 years.

Democrat says separation policy can damage kidsAP WASHINGTON

A Democratic House committee chairman said the Trump administration’s now-aban-doned policy of separating migrant children from their families as they crossed the US-Mexico border was a tactic to discourage future immigrants but could damage the children for their entire lives.

Maryland Rep Elijah Cummings made the remarks yesterday as his House Oversight and Reform Committee opened a hearing on the treatment of apprehended children and con-ditions in border detention centres.

Four Democratic freshmen including New York Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reported seeing horrid conditions at detention centres during a recent visit and are testifying, as are four border state Republicans.

The panel’s top Republican is Ohio’s Jim Jordan, who said President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies are about pro-tecting the border, not about politics.

Democrats accuse Trump of seeking to satisfy his conservative base with harsh policies.

A study by House Democrats provides new detail on nearly 2,700 migrant children taken from their families last year when they were detained at the US-Mexico border.

The House Oversight and Reform Com-mittee report said federal figures show at least 18 children under age 2 were taken from

their parents and held up to a half-year. It says at least 241 children were held in Border Patrol stations beyond the 72-hour legal limit. They’re then supposed to be transferred to government-run shelters.

The report added that some families were broken up even though the parents ended up not being prosecuted. It says at least 30 children remain separated.

The Democrats call separating children “a deliberate, unnecessary and cruel choice”

by Trump. The Republican president said his immigration policies are meant to keep the country safe.

Yesterday’s House Oversight and Reform Committee session comes as partisan and internal Democratic tensions near a boil over Trump’s immigration policies. Surging numbers of families, children and other migrants entering the US from Mexico have overwhelmed the government’s capacity to house them adequately.

Immigration activists gather to protest President Trump’s immigration policy in front of the US Customs and Border Protection Headquarters in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Trump said the raids would also target “people that came into our country, not through a process, that just walked over a line. They have to leave.

Judges spar with Trump lawyer over subpoena on finance recordsREUTERS WASHINGTON

A US appeals court yesterday appeared unlikely to grant Pres-ident Donald Trump’s request that it block a congressional subpoena for his financial records.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit heard oral arguments in a lawsuit Trump filed arguing his accounting firm, Mazars LLP, does not need to comply with a

House of Representatives Over-sight Committee subpoena.

The three judges on the panel did not say how or when they would rule. But they repeatedly sparred with Trump’s personal lawyer William Con-sovoy over his central argument that the subpoena is unconsti-tutional because it is “law enforcement” that would not further Congress’ main task of enacting laws.

Judge David Tatel said the House is already working on

legislation relating to presi-dential conflicts of interest and government ethics, and sug-gested that the financial records requested from Mazars are rea-sonably related to that effort.

“These bills have passed the House and are directly related to the subject of this subpoena,” Tatel said.

The House Oversight Com-mittee has also said it needs Trump’s financial records to examine whether he broke the law by not disentangling himself

from his business holdings, as previous presidents have done.

But Consovoy urged the judges to look at the “totality of the evidence,” including media reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told fellow Dem-ocrats that she wants to see Trump in prison.

Consovoy said Pelosi’s remark makes clear that Con-gress’ real objective with the Mazars subpoena is to investigate Trump so it can make him look bad and score political points.

Thousands flee as Storm Barry menaces New Orleans and Louisiana coastAFP/PORT SULPHUR

Evacuations ramped up yesterday across coastal Loui-siana as the southern US state — including its main city New Orleans — braced for a poten-tially disastrous deluge from Tropical Storm Barry, which threatens to strengthen into a hurricane.

The large storm in the Gulf of Mexico chugged towards land, bringing heavy rains, a storm surge and flooding that pose a threat reminiscent of 2005’s

deadly Hurricane Katrina. Thousands packed up and

left their homes as floods hit low-lying areas like Plaquemines Parish, where road closures left some communities isolated as they braced for Barry’s arrival.

By mid-day yesterday the storm was packing winds of 100kph, nine mph shy of hur-ricane strength. It was expected to reach hurricane strength early today as it closed in on the coast, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

Dozens took shelter in

Plaquemines’s Bell Chase audi-torium, while others headed inland to stay with friends or rel-atives and avoid what the NHC called “life-threatening flooding” to coastal and river areas.

Governor John Bel Edwards said New Orleans was well pre-pared to withstand the storm, and the levees protecting it were not expected to be overtopped.

“But this is going to be a very, very significant rain event across most of Louisiana,” he said. “This is going to impact just a huge swath of our state.”

Brazil President considers appointing son as US envoyANATOLIA ANKARA

Brazil’s president said he is considering appointing his son as ambassador to the US, in line with Brasilia’s stronger ties with Washington under his presi-dency.

Far-right leader Jair Bol-sonaro said that his son Eduardo (pictured) could be “a suitable” person and is “perfectly

qualified” to serve in Wash-ington, Spanish daily El Peri-odico reported yesterday.

Eduardo Bolsonaro also said that he would accept “any mission” offered by his father, adding that no formal requests have yet been made for him to take the helm of the embassy in Washington.

Bolsonaro, who is following in his father’s ideological foot-steps and is an informal foreign

policy adviser to the president, would have to resign from the Chamber of Deputies if he accepts the position.

A view of the Mississippi River as Tropical Storm Barry approaches land in New Orleans, Louisiana, yesterday.

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PAGE | 14 PAGE | 15

Powell does not veer from signal

that rate cuts are coming

Chinese conglomerate considers $940m rescue of Thomas Cook

13SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019

VW to invest in Ford-backed Argo AI at $7bn valuation

Oil prices firm on tropical storm and geopolitical tensionsREUTERS LONDON

Oil prices edged higher yesterday and were on track for a weekly gain as US oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico cut more than half their output because of a tropical storm and as tensions continued to simmer in the Middle East.

However, an International Energy Agency (IEA) forecast for a global oil surplus capped the gains. The agency yesterday predicted that surging US oil output will outpace sluggish global demand and lead to a large stocks build around the world in the next nine

months. Opec also predicted on Thursday the return of a surplus next year despite an Opec-led pact to restrain supplies.

Brent crude futures were up 36 cents at $66.88 a barrel by 1315 GMT after hitting a session high of $67.29.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 6 cents at $60.26 after touching a high of $60.74.

Brent prices have climbed 4.1 percent this week while WTI has gained 4.9 percent. Both registered declines last week.

“It is fair to say that Opec’s best-laid plans to rebalance the oil market have, so far this year, fallen flat,” said Stephen

Brennock, analyst at PVM Oil Associates. “The oil cartel has led from the front in curbing supply since the start of 2019, yet it has failed to quash stubborn over-supply.” US crude oil inventories have declined for four weeks and prices were also supported by oil companies in the Gulf of Mexico cutting production because of Tropical Storm Barry. Com-panies cut more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of output -- 53 percent of the region’s production -- as the storm headed for possible landfall on the Lou-isiana coast today.

The storm was forecast to become a category one hurricane with winds of at

least 74 mph (119 kmh).Warren Patterson (pictured), ING’s

head of commodity strategy, said that concerns will soon grow around the amount of refining capacity at risk.

“Disruption to refining operations as a result of the storm would likely prove supportive for product cracks, and given the growing importance of the United States as a refined product exporter, this strength would likely be felt in other regional markets as well,” he said.

The market remained on edge as ten-sions intensified between Iran and the West. Tehran yesterday said that Britain was playing a “dangerous game” after

last week’s seizure of an Iranian tanker on suspicion it was breaking European sanctions by taking oil to Syria. “As things stands, market players are clearly not envisaging a supply shock in the region.

Singapore cautions wealth managers on aggressively courting HK businessREUTERS SINGAPORE/HONG KONG

Singapore has cautioned wealth managers against aggressively marketing their services or making other efforts to woo clients to the city state by capitalising on rival Hong Kong’s political turmoil, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Officials from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) made the request last month to wealth managers, including DBS and a unit of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, the people said, declining to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

The central bank told bankers it wanted to ensure wealth managers in Singapore were sensitive to the situation in Hong Kong and did not design campaigns specifically targeting business from Hong Kong, the people said.

The move comes as Hong Kong has been thrown into turmoil by a proposed extra-dition bill - declared dead this week by its CEO Carrie Lam - that for the first time would have allowed China to seek extraditions from the city,

sparking demonstrations that attracted at least a million protesters.

Some tycoons in the Chinese-controlled territory have moved funds, or con-sidered doing so, given provi-sions in the bill that would have allowed China to potentially freeze funds or other assets in the city.

The unrest has also encouraged some wealth managers to choose to set up in Singapore after also consid-ering Hong Kong, the main offshore hubs for wealth man-agement in Asia, Reuters has reported.

When asked for a comment for this story, MAS referred to comments last month by its

managing director, Ravi Menon, that there were no signs of “any significant shift of business or funds” from Hong Kong to Singapore.

He had said that any upheaval in Hong Kong could actually be negative for Singapore.

It was not immediately clear how many banks had received the MAS guidance. Private banks routinely and legally help clients to move and manage their assets in different parts of the world.

“The message was that we shouldn’t be taking undue advantage of what’s going on in Hong Kong,” a senior banking source said on con-dition of anonymity.

“We have to act responsibly and not launch campaigns to convince clients that this is a good time for them to move their assets,” he said, adding he was not aware of any banks making a big push to get business from Hong Kong in the current climate.

“We are getting a lot of enquiries. What can we do if clients are looking to moving money here? We can’t stop the flows,” the Singapore-based banking source added.

Cryptocurrencyhack: Japan firm says $32m missing

AFP TOKYO:

A Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange said yesterday it had halted all services after losing cryptocurrency worth more than $32m in the latest apparent hack involving virtual money.

Remixpoint said its sub-sidiary BITPoint Japan dis-covered overnight that about 3.5 billion yen ($32.3m) in various digital currencies had gone missing from its management.

The apparent hack was dis-covered after an error appeared in the firm’s outgoing funds transfer system on Thursday night.

It said the cryptocurrency went missing from a so-called “hot wallet”, which is con-nected to the internet, but that currency held in “cold wallets” that are offline was not affected.

BITPoint Japan handles various virtual currencies, including bitcoin, ethereum and ripple.

Remixpoint said the firm was still analysing the loss and offered no further details.

It said it would compensate customers for the losses. Around 2.5 billion yen worth of the missing currency was customer funds, with the rest owned by the firm.

Remixpoint shares plunged 18.6 percent following the announcement.

The incident is the latest in a string of similar cases at Jap-anese cryptocurrency exchanges.

In 2018, Japan-based exchange Coincheck sus-pended deposits and with-drawals for virtual currencies after it was hacked, resulting in a loss worth half a billion dollars at the time.

And the Tokyo-based MtGox exchange, which at one time handled nearly 80 percent of all global bitcoin transactions, was shut down in 2014 after 850,000 bitcoins (worth half a billion dollars at the time) disappeared from its virtual vaults.

The hacks have prompted greater oversight of crypto exchanges by Japan’s Financial Services Agency but critics says security gaps remain.

Italy’s Economy Minister Giovanni Tria (centre) arrives to attend the 100th anniversary of the Italian Banking Association (ABI) in Milan, yesterday.

100th anniversary of ABI

Some tycoons in the Chinese-controlled territory have moved funds, or considered doing so, given provisions in the bill that would have allowed China to potentially freeze funds or other assets in the city.

VW will invest $2.6bn in Ford’s autonomous-car partner Argo AI in a deal that values the operation at more than $7bn, the two manufacturers said yesterday in a joint statement in New York.

BLOOMBERG FRANKFURTMICHIGAN

Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co. will cooperate on electric and self-driving car technology, sharing costs on a global scale to take a major step forward in the industry’s disruptive transfor-mation.

VW will invest $2.6bn in Ford’s autonomous-car partner Argo AI in a deal that values the operation at more than $7bn, the two manufacturers said yes-terday in a joint statement in New York. This includes $1bn in funding and VW contributing its Audi $1.6bn Autonomous Intel-ligent Driving unit.

“While Ford and Volkswagen remain independent and fiercely competitive in the marketplace, teaming up and working with Argo AI on this important tech-nology allows us to deliver unmatched capability, scale and geographic reach,” Ford Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett (pictured) said.

Unprecedented shifts facing the auto industry are forcing players to consider new partner-ships and potential consolidation. VW, the world’s top automaker, offers the industry’s most ambi-tious roll-out of electric models, while Ford, also in the top 10, is developing advanced self-driving technology with Argo.

For VW, the Argo investment offers an opportunity to poten-tially catch up with Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, and General Motors Co.’s Cruise unit. Road tests and accu-mulating huge amounts of data are critical for the further devel-opment of self-driving cars, and few apart from Waymo are equipped to do it alone.

“It took a while to get this deal done, but it’s because we actually sorted out a lot of the hard problems,” Bryan Salesky, Argo AI’s co-founder and CEO, said in an interview. “We have a clear line of sight to production, vehicle supply and we have clear line of sight to where we want to go to market and how.” Besides sharing costs for the devel-opment of self-driving cars, Ford will use VW’s electric-car under-pinnings that form to backbone of the most aggressive rollout of electric cars in the industry with Volkswagen spending some €30bn ($34bn). Adding more vehicles to production lines would help gain scale and save costs, and offer Ford a platform to better comply with tougher rules on carbon-dioxide emis-sions in Europe.

Ford will build at least one mass-market battery car in Europe starting in 2023 and deliver more than 600,000 European vehicles based on VW’s platform, dubbed MEB, over six years. A second electric model for Europe is “under dis-cussion,” it said. Teaming up with its US peer is one of the key initiatives of VW Chief Executive Officer Herbert Diess to overhaul the German industrial giant. Both sides reiterated on Friday the tie-up does not include entering equity ties between Ford and VW.

For Ford, a deal with VW fits with CEO Jim Hackett’s $11bn overhaul of the company, which includes exiting the slow-selling sedan market in the US, shifting to focus on commercial vehicles in Europe and investing in electric-truck startup Rivian Automotive Inc.

14 SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019BUSINESS

Taking stock of economy

Italy wants to enlist France, Spain in push to change EU fiscal rulesREUTERS ROME

Italy wants France and Spain to support its campaign to change the European Union’s fiscal rules and focus them more on growth in the face of a regional and global economic slowdown, Economy Minister Giovanni Tria (pictured) said in remarks published on Friday.

Italy’s ruling coalition, forged a year ago by the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement and the right-wing League, has always been critical of the EU Fiscal Compact treaty, which in 2013 introduced stricter budget rules.

League leader and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini blames them for impoverishing the country by forcing it to adopt austerity when more expansive fiscal policy is required.

Italy has the euro zone’s second biggest debt burden after Greece, proportionally, at more than 130 percent of eco-nomic output, and has twice in six months narrowly avoided EU disciplinary action after pursuing budget stimulus,

including major new welfare measures.

In an interview with Italian daily La Stampa, Tria said EU states should review their pri-orities and denied that Italy was isolated in its push for a revision of the rules.

“Italy is certainly standing next to France and Spain and partially to Germany. There are the prerequisites for changing EU economic policies,” said Tria, a technocrat who is con-sidered a moderate voice inside the government.

“Relaunching a debate over the Fiscal Compact is possible,” he added. “We need to discuss how to change these rules.”

France has not shown much public enthusiasm for Italy’s cause. On Friday, a French finance ministry source said the EU rules must be respected before members set about changing them.

“Before the rules can be changed, they must be respected,” the source said, adding that Paris was open “to any theoretical discussion”.

France has embarked on its own new budget spending and tax cuts, unveiling last year a package worth more than €10bn ($11.3bn) in response to prolonged street protests.

The European Commission pulled back from a debt pro-cedure against Italy last week, a sign of Rome’s willingness to compromise but also of Brussels’ lenient interpretation of EU fiscal rules.

This week, euro zone finance ministers agreed by “broad consensus” to keep the zone’s fiscal stance unchanged at neutral for 2020, an approach that encourages heavily indebted states such as Italy to strengthen their finances and those nations in stronger fiscal positions to spend more.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin (right), Finance Minister Anton Siluanov (second right)), Governor of Russian Central Bank Elvira Nabiullina (left), Kremlin aide Andrei Belousov (second left) and head of the Kremlin administration Anton Vaino in Moscow, Russia

Traders dump hedges as currency volatility easesBLOOMBERG LONDON/NEW YORK

The $5 trillion-a-day market for foreign exchange is a calm place these days. Perhaps a little too calm.

In an era of almost unprece-dented low volatility for cur-rencies, there’s increasing evi-dence traders are taking out less protection against big moves. That risks losses if the market turns against them, and poten-tially a cascade effect to other asset classes if they’ve made unhedged investments.

It’s the latest reason for worry in global foreign exchange, where price swings have evaporated this year even as volatility surged in the rates market. The big concern is that the perceived structural nature of the decline could be breeding complacency.

“When vol is low, markets become more vulnerable as market participants tend to take more risk,” said Nikolaos Pan-igirtzoglou, strategist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. “We see this right now in implied vola-tilities embedding very little premium over realized volatil-ities.” As JPMorgan’s Global FX Volatility Index hovers near a record low, the ratio of expected price swings to those which actually occur -- a proxy for hedging activity -- is well below its historical average, according to Panigirtzoglou. Put another way: Because price moves have become so subdued, traders feel less need to guard against future turbulence.

It’s on show for the world’s most-traded currency pair, too. The implied-to-realized volatility ratio for the euro against the

dollar is well below the five-year average. A measure of expected price swings over the next 12 months dropped to a record low this week.

Sky-high hedging costs are another part of the equation. Despite recent rates moves, short-term interest rates -- which determine the price of currency

futures contracts, or forwards -- are much higher in the US than in Europe and Japan. That raises the cost of shorting the greenback, a key hedge for investors in dollar-denominated assets.

The evidence is anecdotal but persuasive. Most notably, Jap-anese insurers have been open about a reduction in hedging. Prior to the start of it most recent fiscal year, Nippon Life Insurance Co. said that it planned to boost holdings of foreign bonds without currency hedges because of the high cost of protection.

Dead Calm There is no end of theories to explain the disap-pearance of volatility across cur-rencies. Chief among them is the competing policies of central banks, who want to keep exchange rates in check in a world of weak growth and tepid inflation. When the Federal

Reserve turned dovish this year and the dollar started to weaken against its major peers, it wasn’t long before policy shifted in places like Frankfurt, Sydney and Tokyo. “Whenever something starts to move, someone else is whacking on it,” said Thomas Stolper, former chief currency strategist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., now head of his own firm Embankment Currency Research. “There are very, very rare moments now when cur-rencies really move with per-sistence.” Stolper also cites the lack of major asset allocation shifts in recent years. It means there are less fundamental flows which he says reduce the potential for currencies over-shooting. For others, such as Panigirtzoglu, a dearth of macro surprises is the main reason for the tranquility.

Whatever the cause, the retreat of volatility doesn’t mean the market is now risk free, as evidenced by a series of mini-flash crashes. In January the Jap-anese yen surged nearly 4 percent against the dollar in a span of minutes. Closely connected to that move were positions in Tur-key’s lira, an emerging-market currency notorious for sudden big moves.

That kind of thing hasn’t discouraged even traders of developing-nation assets from eschewing hedges, though. Philippos Kassimatis (pic-tured), co-founder of Maven Global, a London-based hedging advisory firm, said traders who used to protect themselves against moves in currencies like the Mexican peso or Brazilian real are no longer doing so.

Powell does not veer from signal that rate cuts are comingREUTERS NEW YORK

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (pictured) indicated again that an interest rate cut from the US central bank is likely at its next meeting later this month as businesses slow investment due to trade disputes and a global growth slowdown.

In the second day of semi-annual testimony on Capitol Hill, Powell did not veer from the line he took a day earlier before the House Financial Services Committee, when he pledged the Fed would “act as appropriate” to defend the economy. That appearance served to cement financial market expectations for benchmark lending rates to be lowered at the conclusion of the Federal Open Market Com-mittee’s July 30-31 meeting.

This time addressing members of the Senate Banking Committee, Powell repeated his litany that three main risks threaten what is now a record-long U.S. economic expansion: trade uncertainty, slowing growth abroad and stubbornly low inflation.

The economy remains gen-erally in “a good place,” he said, and consumer spending remains robust. But the uncer-tainty stirred by the Trump administration’s multi-fronted trade disputes is weighing on the outlook.

“Business are beginning to hold back on investment, for example,” Powell said in response to a question from Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican. “We see business investment having weakened after having been quite strong in ‘17 and most of ‘18.” “Business investment is critical. It has really slowed down here, and one of the reasons is uncer-tainty around trade and global growth,” Powell continued.

“I think many of my

colleagues on the FOMC have come to the view that a somewhat more accommo-dative monetary policy may be appropriate,” Powell said.

Powell held his ground that soft inflation, which has per-sistently failed to rise to the Fed’s 2% target, presents a sig-nificant risk the Fed must guard against.

Earlier on Thursday, the government reported that underlying consumer price inflation ticked up at its briskest pace in nearly a year and a half last month and the labor market shows no signs of weakening.

The Fed, however, tracks a different measure of price pres-sures, and that has drifted well below target.

Financial markets took Powell’s two days of congres-sional testimony as a signal that when policymakers next gather in about three weeks, the Fed would cut rates for the first time since the financial crisis.

The Fed’s policy rate is cur-rently in a range of 2.25-2.50%, and the bank’s last rate increase occurred in December, a hike that has been fiercely criticized by President Donald Trump.

Irish economy expands by 8.2% in 2018AFP /DUBLIN

Ireland’s economy expanded by a stellar 8.2 percent in 2018, according to official gross domestic product figures out Thursday that showed a strong jump in the export of goods and services.

Ireland’s GDP figures are often treated with caution due to the distorting effects of the business flows and accounting practices of multinational firms based in Ireland, especially US

companies. But gross national product (GNP) - which excludes the profits of Irish-based multi-nationals - grew by 6.5 percent, the Central Statistics Office said.

The CSO said the surprising performance was due to an increase of more than 10 percent in the export of goods and services.

Meanwhile personal con-sumption of goods and services, a key measure of domestic eco-nomic activity, grew by 3.4

percent. The size of the Irish economy was measured at €324bn ($365bn) last year using GDP.

Using GNI, an measure intended to strip out the retained earnings of international firms headquartered in Dublin, it stood at €197bn.

Preliminary first quarter results for 2019 showed a 2.4 percent increase in GDP com-pared with the last quarter of 2018, while GNP was up 2.1 percent.

Indonesia looks east to expand tradeREUTERS SYDNEY

Indonesia will establish diplo-matic relations with the Pacific states of Niue and Cook Islands while pursuing trade deals with Fiji and Papua New Guinea, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said yesterday, as the country moves to strengthen regional ties.

As Chinese influence grows, the region is increasingly becoming the focus of diplomacy, aid and military investment by Western powers, including the United States and Australia.

Indonesia has also sought to increase its involvement.

“We are connecting the dots between the 17,000 Indonesian islands and the thousands of Pacific islands, Australia and New Zealand,” Marsudi said in Auckland at a trade and tourism conference Indonesia hosted as part of its engagement efforts.

“One of the steps that we are taking to connect is by opening diplomatic relation-ships with Cook Islands and Niue,” she said, according to a copy of her speech seen by Reuters.

India-US trade talks end without major progressREUTERS NEW DELHI

US and Indian trade negotiators ended talks yesterday without making major progress on a range of disputes over tariffs and other protectionist measures imposed by both sides that are straining bilateral ties, according to officials with knowledge of the discussions.

Many of the toughest ques-tions on agricultural commod-ities, e-commerce, and steel and aluminum, have been put off until Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal (pictured) goes to Washington for talks with United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer next month. The dates for that trip are yet to be settled.

“No breakthrough,” said one

of the senior Indian officials involved in the talks in New Delhi that went on for a little over three hours. He declined to make any further comment.

Two other Indian officials said they hoped that some of the issues will be resolved when Goyal goes to Washington.

Friday’s talks were more about understanding each other’s positions in various dis-putes, they said.

There was no official statement issued by either country by early yesterday evening. The two sides resumed talks after US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the side-lines of the G20 summit in June where they agreed to seek to deepen the two countries’ relationship.

Trump said at that summit that there would be a “very big trade deal” with India, though he set no timeline, and has only this week used Twitter to attack what he says are high Indian tariffs on American goods as “unacceptable”.

The US sought the rollback of Indian tariffs imposed on some agricultural products, such as almonds, when the two sides met on Friday, said one of the Indian government sources.

15SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019 BUSINESS

Chinese conglomerate considers $940m rescue of Thomas CookBLOOMBERG HONG KONG/ FRANKFURT

Thomas Cook Group Plc’s bonds rallied but its shares fell after China’s Fosun Group said it may help fund a £750m ($940m) rescue of the ailing British travel firm that would heavily dilute its stock.

The deal will give Cook’s biggest investor control of the UK company’s tour operations and a minority stake in its airline, the sale of which will be put on hold, while swapping debt for equity and issuing new shares, Fosun Tourism Group said in a statement yesterday.

The talks are advanced, with the money set to provide liquidity through the tradi-tionally slow winter season, according to London-based Thomas Cook. A takeover of a tour operator with roots dating to 1841 would mirror the Asian insurance-to-drugs conglomer-ate’s acquisition of Club Med, the French resort chain it bought in 2015 and has boosted by bringing in more Chinese tourists.

“This plan will put the company on a totally different financial footing with a massive reduction of debt,” Thomas Cook Chief Executive Officer Peter Fankhauser (pictured) said on a call. “While this is not the outcome any of us wanted for our shareholders, this proposal is a pragmatic and responsible solution.” He added that while existing stockholders face having their stakes diluted under the plan, they have an opportunity

to reinvest alongside Fosun.Cook’s bonds jumped 18

percent on the news, gaining as much as 6 cents on the euro to 40 cents. Its shares fell as much as 50 percent, the most since 2011, to a record low. They were trading down 46 percent as of 12:35 p.m. in London, taking declines this year to 77 percent and valuing the company at £109m.

Margins at Thomas Cook have been shrinking amid a sluggish European vacation market as more people holiday at home following last summer’s heatwave. Uncertainty over the economic impact of Brexit has also weighed on demand, with tour operator bookings down 9 percent this summer and airline sales 3 percent, leading the company to predict lower second-half operating profit.

A deal would require agreement from stakeholders and regulators, Cook said, adding that its main lenders are supportive of a recapitalization. A group of bondholders is in “constructive dialogue” with the company, according to their

financial adviser Houlihan Lokey Inc. and law firm Milbank.

“Fosun is hoping Thomas Cook’s brand name and global reach will expand its business among wealthy Chinese tourists,” said Andrew Collier, managing director at Orient Capital Research.

Fosun already owns about 18 percent of Thomas Cook, and protecting that stake may also have prompted its owner, Guo Guangchang, to agree to the rescue, said Brock Silvers, man-aging director at Kaiyuan Capital in Hong Kong. Investment in an unprofitable business in a declining sector is otherwise “puzzling.” The refunding plan means the mooted sale Cook’s airline business has been “paused,” according to the com-pany’s statement, though Fankhauser said it may be resumed. A number of carriers had looked at the assets, though none indicated that they would bid.

Sanford C. Bernstein Richard Clarke and Harry Martin said in a note that the recapitalization “effectively admits failure in the process to sell the airline,” leaving an intervention from Fosun “the only option to save the business.” Creditors had been seeking to exit loans on concern that Cook’s declining per-formance would weaken its ability to repay debt that totaled £1.9bn as of March 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

In May, S&P Global ratings and Fitch Ratings pushed the company’s credit score deeper into junk territory, citing high indebtedness.

US producer prices up slightly, point to moderate inflationREUTERS WASHINGTON

US producer prices rose slightly in June as the cost of energy and other goods dropped for a second straight month, resulting in the smallest annual increase in producer inflation in nearly 2-1/2 years.

The report from the Labor Department yesterday also showed a slowdown in underlying producer prices last month, a sign that overall inflation could continue to rise moderately despite strong gains in prices of some consumer goods and services in June.

Low inflation and growing risks to the economy from a trade war between the United States and China, and cooling global growth are likely to see the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates this month for the first time in a decade.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Wednesday told lawmakers the US central bank would “act as appropriate” to protect the economy against these risks.

The producer price index for final demand edged up 0.1 percent last month after a similar gain in May. In the 12 months through June, the PPI rose 1.7 percent, the smallest gain since January 2017, slowing further from a 1.8 percent increase in May.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the PPI unchanged in June and increasing 1.6 percent on a year-on-year basis. Excluding the volatile food, energy and trade services components, pro-ducer prices were unchanged in June after rising 0.4% for two straight months. The so-called core PPI increased 2.1 percent in the 12 months through June after advancing 2.3 percent in May.

The dollar was little changed against a basket of currencies, while US Treasury prices rose. US stock index futures were trading higher.

The Fed, which has a 2 percent inflation target, tracks the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for monetary policy.

CROSSWORD

After security expert Ray Breslin is hired to rescue the kidnapped daughter of a Hong Kong tech mogul from a formidable Latvian prison, Breslin’s girlfriend is also captured.

ESCAPE PLAN: THE EXTRACTORS

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 4:15, 8:45 & 11:30pm; Gorilla (2D/Tamil) 2:00pm; Rustum (2D) 2:30pm; Coconut: The Little Dragon (2D/Animation) 2:15pm; Aladdin (2D) 5:30pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 3:45pm; Hamlet Faroun (2D/Arabic) 7:45pm;Spider-Man: Far From Home 7:00 & 9:15pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 4:45 & 11:30pm; Escape Plan: The Extractors 7:00 & 9:45pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 9:45pm; Venilla Kabaddi Kuzhu 2(Tamil) 11:30pm

Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 2:00, 8:30 & 11:15pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 6:15 & 11:30pm;Coconut: The Little Dragon (2D/Animation) 2:15 & 4:45pm; Spider-Man: Far From Home 3:45 & 6:15pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 4:30pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 6:00pm; Escape Plan: The Extractors 7:45pm; El Mamar (2D/Arabic) 8:30pm; Hamlet Faroun (2D/Arabic) 9:30pm; Gurkha (2D/Tamil) 11:15pm

Spider-Man: Far From Home 12:45, 3:30, 6:15, 9:00 & 11:45pm; Shubha Rathri 10:30am, 4:00 & 9:30pm;And The Oscar Goes To 8:45 & 11:30pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 10:45am; Gorilla 1:00 & 6:15pm; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 1:00, 6:30pm & 12:00midnight; Venilla Kabaddi Kuzhu 2(Tamil) 3:30 & 11:00pm; Gurkha (2D/Tamil) 8:45pm

MALL

LANDMARK

AL KHOR

Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 12:30, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00, 10:30pm, 01:00am; Gorilla (2D/Tamil) 12:30 & 8:15pm & 01:15am; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 12:15, 3:00, 5:45, 8:45, 11:45pm & 02:30am And The Oscar Goes To (2D/Malayalam) 2:45pm; Rustom (2D/Kannada) 12:30pm; Gurkha (2D/Tamil) 5:45pm; Kakshi: Amminipilla (2D/Malayalam) 5:30 & 10:30pmThamasha (2D/Malayalam) 8:00pm;Venilla Kabaddi Kuzhu 2(Tamil) 10:45pm

ASIAN TOWN

FLIK Mirqab Mall

ROXY

Aladdin (2D/Comedy) 10:00am, 12:35, 3:10pm;Anna (2D/Action) 11:00am, 1:20, 3:05, 5:20, 8:20 & 10;35pm; Annabelle Comes Home (2D/Comedy) 7:10, 9:20 & 11:30pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 10:50, 11:15am, 12:45, 1:05, 2:55, 4:35, 6:30, 8:25, 10:20pm & 12:20am; Hamlet Faroun 5:50 & 7:50pm;Men In Black International 11:05am, 1:20 & 3:35pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 10:20am, 11:00, 12:25, 1:00, 2:30, 3:00 & 5:00pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 4:45, 7:25pm & 12:10am; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 5:40, 8:00, 9:00, 10:05 & 11:20pm; Spider-Man: Far From Home 10:15, 11:15am, 12:50, 2:40, 3:25, 5:15, 6:00, 7:00, 8:35, 10:10, 11:10pm & 12:15am 3D 1:50, 4:25 & 9:35pm

Spider-Man: Far From Home 11:00, 1:00, 5:10, 7:50, 8:00, 7:20, 10:00 & 10:30pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 11:00am, 12:30, 1:00, 2:30, 3:40, 4:00, 6:20 8:20 & 10:30pm; Gurkha (2D/Tamil) 3:10, 8:40, 9:10pm & 12:10am; Hamlet Faroun (2D/Arabic) 1:40, 6:00, 5:40, 7:10, 9:30, 10:40 & 11:30pm; The Extractors 8:20 & 11:50pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 10:30am, 1:10, 3:10, 6:00, 6:30, 11:40pm & 12:30am;Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 10:30am, 12:30, 1:50, 3:00, 3:50, 4:30, 10:00 & 10:30pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 10:30am, 12:30, 12:40, 2:20, 2:50, 3:20, 4:50, 5:00 & 7:00pm

Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 2:15 & 9:00pm;Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 4:30pm; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 2:15, 6:15 & 11:15pm; Coconut: The Little Dragon (2D/Animation) 2:15pm Venilla Kabaddi Kuzhu 2(Tamil) 3:45pm; Spider-Man: Far From Home 5:00 & 9:15pm; Step-Up: Year of The Dance (2D/Drama) 6:15pm Hamlet Faroun (2D/Arabic) 7:15pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 9:45pmEscape Plan: The Extractors 8:00pm; Gorilla (2D/Tamil) 11:30pm; We Have Always Live In The Castle (2D/Horror) 11:30pm

ROYAL PLAZA

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SPORT British Grand Prix

Qualifying at Silverstone

Circuit

Wimbledon, Women’s

Singles final: Serena

Williams vs Simona Halep

FORMULA ONE TENNIS

17SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019

I think New Zealand throughout the whole tournament has been

probably the hardest side to beat and the best side in the group

stages.

England captain Eoin Morgan says ahead

of ICC World Cup final

against the ‘Black Caps’.

TO

DA

Y’S

AC

TIO

N

Serena, Halep chase milestones in finalREUTERS LONDON

Serena Williams no longer wants to obsess about elusive Grand Slam “number 24” and Simona Halep is desperate to win Wimbledon more than to stop the American reaching that milestone but there will be no place for either to hide in today’s final.

No matter who wins the title decider on Centre Court, the one thing for certain is that it will be a historic occasion.

The 37-year-old Williams is chasing an eighth All England Club singles crown which would see her match Aus-tralian Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 major singles titles.

National pride will be at stake for Halep as she bids to become the first Romanian to win a singles title at the spiritual home of grasscourt tennis.

Halep said if she dwelt on Williams’ records over the past 21 years it might be game over before she stepped on court for a contest compatriot and gym-nastics great Nadia Comaneci said would be “watched by every Romanian alive on the planet”.

“I will focus on myself. I’m not thinking about her record. Her records are huge already. It’s nothing about that. It’s just a tennis match, big chal-lenge, a great match. So I will try just to give my best,” said Halep, who has lost just one set so far.

A quick study of their rivalry would also suggest Williams will probably be the one holding aloft the Venus Rose-water dish considering she has won nine of their previous 10 meetings.

The 27-year-old Halep’s only victory over Williams was almost five years ago, while the American has won all three of their Grand Slam clashes, including at Wimbledon in 2011.

So which memory from those tussles will Williams rely on as she gets

ready for what could be one of the most memorable days in the history of women’s tennis?

“The biggest key with our matches is the (6-0 6-2) loss that I had. I never forgot it,” said the 11th seed, who is also bidding to become the first mother to triumph at Wimbledon since Australian Evonne Goolagong beat American Chris Evert in 1980.

“She played unbelievable. That makes me know that... she can get there again. So I have to be better than that.

“There’s so many impressive things about her. Obviously her tenacity, her ability to find power. Can’t underes-timate her. She’s like a little power-house. I feel like she’s back. She wants to prove that she can do it again.”

Halep will also take heart from their battle at this year’s Australian Open being a close one and the fact that she

has more than just an A-game in her repertoire.

“I have a better game these days. I can play everywhere, against anyone. When I go on court... I know how to change some things when (other things) don’t work very well,” said the 2018 French Open champion.

“Now, I believe that I have my chance to win against her. I respect a lot what she has done and what she’s doing. But I feel mentally stronger facing her.”

A ‘Plan B’ or even ‘Plan C’ could come in handy for Halep as Williams was at her devastating best in a 59-minute destruction of unseeded Czech Barbora Strycova in the semi-finals. Moving as smoothly and striking the ball as crisply and as pow-erfully as at any time in her career, the American has so far unleashed 45 aces

and won 83 percent of her service games.

Playing mixed doubles with Andy Murray, albeit in a losing cause this week, has also helped her to sharpen her volleys - an ominous sight for anyone on the opposite side of the net.

Williams has already had two failed attempts in finals to win that 24th major - after contesting last year’s Wimbledon and US Open showpiece matches - and, regardless of what she says, everyone knows the American wants that record.

“I just trained and I trained and I trained to get physically more fit. So I’m definitely at a different place,” said Williams.

“It’s really not about 24 or 23 or 25. It’s really just about going out there and giving my best effort no matter what. No matter what I do, I will always have a great career.”

SERENA WILLIAMS Age: 37

WTA Ranking: 10 (Highest ranking: 1)

Grand Slam titles: 23 (Australian Open 2003,

2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2015, 2017; French Open

2002, 2013, 2015; Wimbledon 2002, 2003, 2009, 2010,

2012, 2015, 2016; U.S. Open 1999, 2002, 2008, 2012,

2013, 2014)

2018 Wimbledon performance: Runner-up

Best Wimbledon performance: Winner (2002,

2003, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2016)

Sets dropped at Wimbledon 2019: 2

Since winning her last Grand Slam title in Australia

in 2017, Williams has reached two more major finals -- at

Wimbledon and the U.S. Open -- and failed in her quest to

win a record-equalling 24th major singles crown.

However, she goes into Saturday’s Wimbledon

final with a stellar record against Halep, having lost to the

Romanian only once in 10 meetings between the pair

back in 2014.

SIMONA HALEP Age: 27

WTA Ranking: 7 (Highest ranking: 1)

Grand Slam titles: 1 (French Open 2018)

2018 Wimbledon performance: Third round

Best Wimbledon performance: Final (2019)

Sets dropped at Wimbledon 2019: 1

Halep has yet to win a title in 2019 but has been

in menacing form at Wimbledon, even though grass is not

her favourite surface.

The counter-puncher has stuck to her clay-court

strengths on the grass and dictated play from the base-

line to reach her first Grand Slam final since winning the

French Open last year.

HEAD-TO-HEAD: WILLIAMS LEADS 9-1

Last five meetings

2019 Williams d Halep 6-1 4-6 6-4 (Australian

Open, hard)

2016 Williams d Halep 6-2 4-6 6-3 (US Open, hard)

2016 Williams d Halep 6-4 6-3 (Indian Wells, hard)

2015 Williams d Halep 6-3 7-6(5) (Cincinnati, hard)

2015 Williams d Halep 6-2 4-6 7-5 (Miami, hard)

FACTBOX: WILLIAMS VS HALEP

Serena WilliamsSimona Halep

Bottas leads Hamilton in British GP practiceREUTERS SILVERSTONE

Valtteri Bottas kept Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton off the top of the timesheets in practice for the Formula One leader’s home British Grand Prix yesterday, with Ferrari emerging as best of the rest.

The Finn, 31 points behind the five times world champion after nine races, lapped the former air-field in one minute 26.732 seconds on soft tyres.

Crowd favourite Hamilton was 0.069 slower with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc third in 1:26.929.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, winner at Silverstone last year but yet to triumph in 2019, was fourth but had an off-track excursion at Becketts.

Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly was quicker than team-mate Max Verstappen in both sessions, fastest overall on an overcast and changeable morning and then fifth in the afternoon.

Bottas had been top for most of that first session, however, until Gasly went quicker right at the end when conditions improved and a light drizzle ended.

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas during practice, yesterday.

Verstappen, winner of the previous race in Austria to end Mercedes’ run of 10 successive wins, was third fastest in the morning.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner suggested earlier in the week that the pressure of trying to match Verstappen was getting to Gasly and he should just focus on his driving and ignore social media.

The Frenchman was lapped by his team mate in Austria and his seat has been under increasing scrutiny.

Hamilton has won four of the last five British Grands Prix and is chasing a fifth successive pole position in front of what is likely to be a record crowd and well in excess of 140,000 tomorrow.

Renault raised their hopes with Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo seventh and eighth in the morning but they dropped down to 14th and 15th after lunch, with the Australian ahead of his German team mate.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was sixth in the second session, another impressive performance from a 19-year-old fast becoming a fan favourite.

Spanish team mate Carlos

Sainz was eighth. Romain Grosjean provided a talking point of the morning when he crashed his Haas in the pit lane, smashing the car’s front wing and leaving debris on track after exiting.

Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raik-konen stopped on track, bringing out a red flag.

Williams are determined to keep British Formula One rookie George Russell for the long term and have no plans to replace Polish driver Robert Kubica this season, deputy principal Claire Williams said at the British GP.

Addressing rumours swirling around the former champions who have fallen far from their glorious past, Williams also dis-missed speculation the team could switch from Mercedes to Renault engines.

“We haven’t had any conver-sations about George potentially leaving the team in the short term because he’s on a long-term contract with us,” she told reporters.

“Personally I feel he is world champion material and why would I want to lose George from our team? I would do everything in my power to keep George Russell at Williams.”

Hamilton has won four

of the last five British

Grands Prix and is

chasing a fifth successive

pole position in front

of what is likely to be a

record crowd and well

in excess of 140,000

tomorrow.

Groenewegen wins Tour Stage 7 as Ciccone retains yellow jerseyREUTERS CHALON SUR SAONE

Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen put his nightmare of a Tour de France start behind him when he won the seventh stage in a bunch sprint after a pancake-flat 230 km ride from Belfort yesterday.

The Jumbo-Visma rider, who crashed heavily in the opening stage in Brussels, beat Australian Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and Slovak Peter Sagan (Bora Hans-grohe) into second and third, respectively.

It was Groenewegen’s fourth stage win on the Tour, two years after his first came in the pres-tigious final ride on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

“The start of the race what not what I’d expected but in the past days I tried to recover to be ready for today,” Groenewegen, whose team and room-mate Mike Teunissen won the first

stage in Brussels to don the yellow jersey, told a news conference.

“Today we did a very good job as a team. I was a bit boxed in with 500 metres to go and I asked Mike (Teunissen) to make space for me and he put his life on the line to do it.”

Italian Giulio Ciccone (Trek Segafredo), who extended his contract with Trek-Segafredo by two years until 2021, retained the overall lead.

Today’s eighth stage is a 200 km ride from Macon to St Etienne, where France’s Julian Alaphilippe, second overall six

seconds off the pace, is expected to try and regain the yellow jersey on a hilly course in central France.

“I know that the terrain will suit him well and that six seconds is nothing,” said Ciccone, nicknamed Il Gekko for his fast climbing abilities.

“Riding in the yellow jersey through France is such a special feeling and I could really enjoy it because the first 200 kilo-metres were taken at a slow pace.”

On the longest stage of the race, Frenchmen Yoann Offredo and Stephane Rossetto formed the day’s breakaway with vir-tually no chance of going all the way against a peloton working towards a bunch sprint finish.

Ireland’s Nicolas Roche lost focus and fell off his bike without any injuries while American Tejay van Garderen, once a Tour overall contender, suffered damages in a crash early on.

Riding in the yellow

jersey through France is

such a special feeling:

Giulio Ciccone

Netherlands’ Dylan Groenewegen (centre) celebrates as he wins Stage 7, yesterday.

18 SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019SPORT

England’s head coach Trevor Bayliss attends a training session at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Wednesday.

England must block out ‘noise’ ahead of Lord’s final: Bayliss

AFP LONDON

England head coach Trevor Bayliss knows his side must shut out the noise of an expectant nation as they prepare for a first World Cup final in 27 years.

The host nation produced an inspired display to complete an eight-wicket victory over Australia at Edgbaston on Thursday and will meet New Zealand at Lord’s tomorrow.

With the showpiece event also being broadcast on a free-to-air platform following an agreement between rights holders Sky and Channel 4, expectations will be elevated even further.

Australian Bayliss, though, has called for calm as England look to go one better than they did in their last World Cup final appearance in 1992, when they lost against Imran Khan’s Pakistan in Melbourne.

“We had a chat in the changing room (at Edgbaston) afterwards and realised we have not won anything yet,” Bayliss told BBC radio.

“There is going to be a lot of noise around ‘you guys are

now the favourites’, and all this type of thing -- we can’t listen to any of that.

“We have just got to con-centrate on the way we have gone about our cricket over the past four years and what has got us to this point and go through our process.”

After Australia were all out for 223 in 49 overs, England opener Jason Roy struck a superb 85 from 65 balls as he put on yet another big stand with Jonny Bairstow to break the back of the run chase.

Roy was fined for showing dissent at the umpire’s decision after he was wrongly given out caught behind.

Bayliss, though, feels the 28-year-old can soon put the incident behind him.

“I think it shows the passion Jason has got for the game, and it is such a big game as well, when he was on the verge of scoring a hundred,” the England head coach said.

“He will learn from that and go on to bigger and better things, I am sure.”

The Surrey batsman is expected to be in contention for a place in the Ashes squad but Bayliss was giving little away, keeping his focus on the one-day format.

Bayliss said the return of live international cricket to tra-ditional free-to-air television for the first time since the 2005 Ashes was “an oppor-tunity to influence another generation of young cricketers”.

The 56-year-old is set to step down at the end of his current deal in September, no matter what the summer brings.

“I have always been a believer that four or five years is long enough, whether you are doing well or not,” he said. “It is time for a new voice for the boys, to hopefully take them to another level,” said the coach.

There is going to be

a lot of noise around

‘you guys are now

the favourites’, and

all this type of thing

-- we can’t listen to

any of that: Bayliss

New Zealand ready for long night, says coach Stead

Rashid named Afghanistan captain for all formats

AFP LONDON

New Zealand coach Gary Stead believes sports fans across the rugby-mad country will be pulling an all-nighter in front of their television sets when his side face tournament hosts England in the World Cup final.

Neither side have won the World Cup before, although tomorrow’s showpiece match at Lord’s will be New Zealand’s second successive appearance in the final after they finished runners-up to Australia four years ago.

In Britain, an agreement between rights-holders Sky and Channel 4 will see the match screened on free to air television in the hope that millions of new followers will tune in to watch an England side captained by Eoin Morgan go one better than their predecessors of 1979, 1987 and 1992 by winning the final.

Stead believes it will be a similar story back home as his team look to emulate New Zealand’s rugby union All Blacks by being crowned world champions.

“My understanding is it’s on free to air back home also, which is awesome,” Stead told reporters at Lord’s yesterday.

“Many people will stay up late and I know a lot of them will be spending some late hours. Monday might be a public holiday back home because most of New Zealand will be staying up watching the game.”

“We’ve had a lot of supportive messages and we’re really excited about what’s ahead,” added Stead.

England thrashed New Zealand by 119 runs in the teams’ final group match but the Black Caps put that disappointment behind them with an upset 18-run semi-final win over India.

AFP KABUL

The Afghan Cricket Board (ACB) named leg spinner Rashid Khan captain across all the major formats yesterday, despite a disap-pointing World Cup for the Twenty20 sensation.

Asghar Afghan was also appointed vice-captain, the ACB said in a statement announcing the decision. Khan came into the World Cup as cricket’s hottest property after catching the eye with his leg spinners for minnows Afghanistan.

But the Twenty20 star, who played a leading role for many sides in franchise cricket across the globe, claimed only six wickets in nine games as the Afghans returned home without notching up a single win.

At a news conference announcing his new role, Khan acknowledged the respon-sibility on his shoulders and expressed hopes for the team’s future.

“We all play as one team and play only for the country. Whatever I am today, is because of this country and this team,” Khan said, according to the ACB.

Gulbadin Naib, who skippered Afghan-istan for the World Cup, defended his premier spinner after their final loss to West Indies, saying “he gives 100 percent”.

The 20-year-old Rashid, who is number one in the T20 rankings, set the cricket world abuzz when he became the fastest bowler to take 100 ODI wickets, in 44 matches.

Afghanistan is one of the fairytale stories of modern sport, with cricket introduced to the war-torn country by returning refugees who had learnt about the game in camps in neighbouring Pakistan.

Gary Stead

Australia back to drawing board with 2023 World Cup on radar

REUTERS LONDON

Australia’s eight-wicket mauling by England in the World Cup semi-final could see an overhaul of the squad, tactics and selection policy for the five-times champions as they plan for the 2023 tournament in India.

The comprehensive loss to a rampant England side was the first time Australia had made the last four of the competition and not advanced to the final.

England now face New Zealand in the final at Lord’s tomorrow.

Despite a mixed buildup after they won just three of 18 matches in last 14 months until March this year, Aaron Finch’s team entered the tournament as one of the favourites having beaten India and Pakistan in away series.

They stretched their winning streak to 10 matches until their 36-run loss to India at The Oval in the pool phase of the tournament.

Finch’s men then won another five in succession

before they lost to South Africa at Old Trafford in their last game before the semi-final.

Much of their success at the tournament was built on a patient approach from their opening batsmen with the pair of David Warner and Finch both assessing condi-tions expertly to score over 500 runs in the tournament.

It was a far cry from the tactics favoured until earlier this year when they tried to

emulate England’s all-out attacking approach by selecting power-hitting Twenty20 players like D’Arcy Short and Chris Lynn at the top.

Short and Lynn, however, were victims of a rotational selection policy with numerous changes to the team personnel over the last four years, ostensibly to rest senior players for Test matches.

Of the 27 players given ODI debuts since the last

World Cup in 2015, just five made the initial 15-man squad for the tournament with only wicketkeeper Alex Carey making a significant contribution in England.

It is also debatable how much of the current squad will be around in four years’ time, with most, likely to be approaching, or in their mid 30s in 2023.

Finch added that Aus-tralia, like other countries, would undergo a debrief as they plan for India but it was too early if they would follow England’s blueprint of starting from scratch and building over four years.

“I think that after a World Cup you always start looking and you have one eye towards the next one,” he said.

“I think that as a man-agement, senior players, I’m sure over the next couple of months or so we will sit down and start talking about that and start planning how we think that we can best plan and prepare and improve over the next four years to get us to go, well two steps further.”

Australian captain Aaron Finch reacts during semi-final against England on Thursday.

Dharmasena to stand in final despite Roy rowAFP LONDON

Sri Lankan umpire Kumar Dharmasena has been appointed to stand in the World Cup final between England and New Zealand at Lord’s tomorrow despite finding himself involved in a contro-versial incident with home batsman Jason Roy.

The opener had made 85 to set hosts on their way to an eventual 8-wicket win against Australia in Thursday’s semi-final at Edgbaston, when he was given out caught behind down the legside by Dharmasena.

Roy requested a review but England had already used their lone review of the innings. Roy, his arms spread wide, clearly believed Dharmasena should have signalled a wide delivery instead and the audibly furious batsman had to be ushered away from the crease by square-leg umpire Marais Erasmus.

Replays suggested he did not touch the ball. The England star, 28, was fined 30 percent of his match fee for showing dissent.

De Villiers defends offer to play for ProteasREUTERS CAPE TOWN

AB de Villiers (pictured) said he did not expect to be included in South Africa’s squad for the World Cup after telling captain Faf du Plessis that he was available, as he clarified his role in a selection drama that blew up in England.

South Africa endured a mis-erable tournament, exiting with only three wins from their nine pool matches.

Their cause was not helped when it was reported that De Villiers, who had retired from international cricket in May 2018, had spoken to Du Plessis about making himself available on the eve of the t e a m ’ s s q u a d

announcement. That led to accusa-tions that De Villiers, one of the best batsmen in the limited overs cricket, had been selfish in trying to force his

way back into the squad.He said, however, he was

only reiterating what he had told an unnamed Cricket South Africa official a year earlier upon his retirement.

“Now the Proteas’ World Cup campaign

is over, and the t e a m

cannot be distracted, I would like to respond to unjustified criticism of me during the tournament,” De Villiers said in a statement yesterday.

“I announced my retirement from international cricket in May 2018 because I wanted to reduce my workload and spend more time with my wife and young sons. Some have insisted I was motivated purely by money. They are wrong.

“In truth, I have turned down many lucrative offers to play around the world, and have cut the time spent away from home each year from eight months to just over three months.”

De Villiers said that immediately after his retirement he was asked if the door was open for a return to the team, and he confirmed he would consider it.

In a phone-call to long-time friend Du Plessis during this year’s Indian Premier League, he repeated the door was open for South Africa “if I was needed”.

“I had been in decent form during the Indian Premier League and cas-ually repeated what I had said when asked a year earlier, that I was available if required... but only if required.

“I made absolutely no demands at all. I certainly did not try to force my way into the World Cup squad on the eve of the tournament, and did not expect to be included.”

De Villiers said the story was leaked to the media after South Africa’s loss to India, their third in a row at the World Cup, as a way of deflecting attention away from the team’s troubles.

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REUTERS CAIRO

Tunisia ended Madagascar’s remarkable Africa Cup of Nations run when they beat the rank outsiders 3-0 in their quarter-final on Thursday, notching their first win of the tour-nament in the process.

Madagascar, a country with little football tradition and who had not been expected to progress beyond the group stage on their first appearance at the finals, held out until the second half when they were undone by Ferjani Sassi’s deflected shot.

Youssef Msakni added a second on the hour for the Carthage Eagles, ranked 25th in the world against Madagascar’s 107th, and substitute Naim Sliti finished it off on the break in stoppage time to earn them a semi-final against Senegal tomorrow.

Tunisia had drawn their previous four matches at the tournament, beating Ghana on penalties in the last 16.

The Indian Ocean islanders had beaten Nigeria on their way to winning their group and then knocked out Democratic Republic of

Congo on penalties in the previous round but it was always going to be different proposition against streetwise, if uninspiring, Tunisia.

Tunisia began to take control towards halftime, however, and Madagascar goalkeeper Melvin Adrien twice had to dive at the feet of the marauding Tunisian forwards and then parried Wahbi Khazri’s curling free kick around the post.

He was then called into action again to save Ghaylen Chaalali’s low

drive from 25 metres. Khazri had a goal disallowed for offside at the start of the second half but it was not long before Tunisia went ahead, although it was very tough on Madagascar.

Sassi’s shot in the 52nd minute appeared to offer no real threat to Adrien until it took a wicked deflection off Thomas Fontaine to leave the hapless goalkeeper com-pletely wrongfooted.

Eight minutes later, Tunisia struck again. Adrien saved Khazri’s shot but

was powerless when Msakni collected the rebound, slipped past a defender and planted the ball in the bottom corner.

After that, Tunisia decided to sit back on their lead and Madagascar never looked like mounting a fight back. Although they kept pushing forward, their remarkable campaign ended with something of a whimper with Sliti’s breakaway goal in stoppage time rubbing salt into the wounds.

AFP MADRID

Antoine Griezmann is likely to win the titles at Barcelona so far lacking in his club career but leaving Atletico Madrid brings few other guarantees, even for one of the world’s most talented players.

Griezmann’s long-anticipated move to the only team that finished above Atletico last season was con-firmed yesterday, his €120m ($135m) release clause activated and a five-year contract signed.

“With his arrival,” Barcelona said in a statement on their website, “the Frenchman takes another step

forward in his career with the goal of consolidating his place as one of the best players in the world.”

For Atletico, meanwhile, another star is lost and their hopes of absorbing this latest, and perhaps most crushing, departure of the close season may rest on the shoulders of 19-year-old Joao Felix, their €126m arrival from Benfica.

Their fury at the manner in which the Griezmann deal was con-ducted was laid bare in a statement claiming the fee paid was “insuffi-cient” and indicating they should be entitled to €200m - the value of his release clause before the end of last month.

It means the saga is not over yet, but Atletico are used to

adjusting. In contrast, at 28, Griezmann now faces the biggest challenge of his

career, which boasts last year’s World

Cup triumph with France, yet still

not a single league title.

In that way, Bar-celona, who have won

La Liga eight times in the

last 11 seasons, are something

of a sure bet, so much so that fin-ishing top of the

table is no longer a barometer for success.Instead, their Cham-pions League humili-

ation by Liv-e r p o o l

might have been persuasive in going again for a player who not only rejected them last year but embar-rassed them, his decision revealed at the end of a television documentary.

“My fans, my team, my home: Atletico Madrid,” Griezmann said then.

The risk for Barcelona is small. Coach Ernesto Valverde needs to reduce his reliance on Messi and Luis Suarez for goals, particularly in the Champions League, where Suarez remains inexplicably inefficient.

Griezmann scored 94 in 180 league games for Atletico after joining from Real Sociedad in 2014 and could expect his numbers to soar in a team where chances are more frequent and defensive duties less demanding.

He is hungry too, not just for sil-verware but recognition, his coveting of the Ballon d’Or overly brazen for some, who believe Griezmann’s words are yet to be matched by achievement.

At Atletico, he was the poster-boy and difference-maker. At Bar-celona, he will have to fight even to play -- especially if Neymar ends up returning -- and when he does he will have to fit around Messi.

There are obstacles to overcome. When Griezmann bid farewell to Atletico he said he wanted a new challenge. This could be his toughest

yet.

AFP MADRID

Barcelona announced the signing of Antoine Griezmann yesterday for €120m ($135m), sparking a furious reaction from Atletico Madrid over the amount the La Liga cham-pions paid for the World Cup winner.

In a statement, Barca revealed that they had paid the €120m ($135m) to activate the Frenchman’s release clause, adding that he would sign a five-year deal that included a “buyout clause of €800m”.

However, within minutes Atletico said they believed “the amount paid is insuffi-cient to meet the release clause as it is obvious that t h e a g r e e m e n t between the player and Barcelona had been concluded be for e t h e release clause dropped from €200m to €120m” at the start of the month.

They said that Griezmann had gone to the headquarters of Spanish Football League (LFP) to “unilaterally” break his contract after Barca met the release clause, and added that they had already “begun appropriate pro-cedures” to defend their “rights and legitimate interests”.

The announcement was the latest episode in a spat between the two clubs and Griezmann after the 28-year-old failed to show up for Atletico’s pre-season gath-ering on Sunday following his announcement in May that he would be leaving for an unnamed destination - long-suspected to be Barcelona.

Last week Atletico accused Barcelona and Griezmann of a “lack of respect” after Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu revealed the two clubs had held talks about the former Real Sociedad forward.

Atletico then claimed that Griezmann had told the club that he had struck a deal with Barcelona in March, just days before the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie with Juventus, which saw them dumped out by a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick after winning the first leg 2-0 in Madrid.

Griezmann joined Atletico in 2014 and has scored 133 goals in 257 appearances, lifting the Europa League in 2018.

He won the Golden Boot at Euro 2016 when France were beaten in the final on home soil by Portugal before helping to guide his country to World Cup glory in Russia last year.

The sale of Griezmann comes after Atletico stumped up a whopping €126m to sign rising star Joao Felix from Benfica last week, making the 19-year-old one of the five most expensive players in history.

The fee was a record paid by the capital club and the highest ever received by a Por-tuguese outfit, and the sale of Griezmann helps finance such a huge transfer for a young player.

Felix burst onto the scene last season, scoring 20 times and making 11 assists in all competitions for Benfica as they won the Primeira Liga and reached the quarter-

finals of the Europa League.Yesterday, Atletico also unveiled

Felix’s former Benfica team-mate Ivan Saponjic. The 20-year-old Serbian

forward has signed a three-year deal with the Spanish club.

19SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019 SPORT

New challenges await Griezmann

Barcelona sign Griezmann in $135m deal

Africa Cup of Nations: Tunisia end Madagascar’s dream run to reach semis

Indonesian court jails six in first trial over match fixingREUTERS JAKARTA

An Indonesian court has handed down jail sentences to six people, including a former referee and members of the national soccer asso-ciation, in the country’s first trial over match-fixing, according to a statement on the court’s website.

The three-month trial at the Banjarnegara dis-trict court on Java island was connected to a game in Indonesia’s third tier league between Persibara Banjarnegara and PSIP Pemalang in 2018.

Pemalang had won the game 1-0, but the Pers-ibara manager later reported to authorities sus-picions of match-fixing, resulting in a police investigation

The suspects were charged under the coun-try’s fraud statute that can result in a maximum jail term of three years.

The six, who had already been banned for life from working in soccer in Indonesia, received sentences of up to three years in jail as well as fines.

A lawyer for Tjan Ling Eng, a former exec-utive committee member of Indonesian soccer’s governing body (PSSI), said his client would decide next week whether to appeal his 21-month jail sentence.

FIVB World Tour: Cherif, Tijan finish fifth in GstaadTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan finished fifth in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Swatch Major Gstaad after going down to their Brazilian counterparts in Round 3 yesterday.

In yesterday’s second match in the main draw, Evandro Gonçalves Oliveira Júnior and Bruno Oscar Schmidt beat the Qatari pair 2-1 (20-22, 23-21, 15-10) in a keen tuscle to make it to the semi-finals of the $600,000 five-star event in Gstaad, Switzerland.

Finishing fifth in the tournament also earned Cherif and Tijan a prize cheque for $12,000.

Earlier yesterday, Cherif and Tijan defeated

Latvia’s Martins Plavins and Edgars Tocs 2-0 (26-24, 21-19).

In the pool stage, the reigning Asian cham-pions beat their Chilean counterparts before clinching their second win in Group C against Russia’s Ilya Leshukov and Konstantin Semenov.

Today, Oliveira Júnior and Schmidt, seeded 7th in Gstaad and ranked 4th in the FIVB Tour, will meet Anders Mol and Christian Sorum of Norway in the first semi-final.

The second semi-final match will feature two teams that shared the Rio 2016 Olympic podium as 21st-seeded Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen of The Netherlands challenge 12th-seeded Daniele Lupo and Paolo Nicolai of Italy.

Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan react

during their round-3 match of the 20th Swatch Gstaad Major, another stop in the

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, in Gstaad,

Switzerland, yesterday.

Former skipper of Qatar’s Al Duhail SC, Youssef Msakni (top left) scoring Tunisia’s second goal during the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final match against Madagascar, on Thursday.

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At Atletico, he was the

poster-boy and

difference-maker.

At Barcelona, he will have to

fight even to play and when

he does he will have to fit

around Messi.

Antoine Griezmann

AFP LONDON

Roger Federer reached his 12th Wimbledon final yesterday, defeating old rival Rafael Nadal, 11 years after the Spaniard triumphed in their epic 2008 title showdown at the All England Club, a match widely regarded as the greatest ever played.

The 37-year-old eight-time champion won 7-6 (7/3), 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the pair’s 40th career meeting to move into his 31st Grand Slam final where he will face defending champion Novak Djokovic.

Top seed and four-time winner Djokovic reached his sixth Wim-bledon final, and 25th at the majors, with a nervy 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Spain’s 23rd seed Roberto Bautista Agut.

Federer is the third oldest man ever to play in a Grand Slam final after 39-year-old Ken Rosewall featured in the 1974 Wimbledon and US Open finals.

However, he will have his work

cut out tomorrow if he is to secure a 21st major title as he trails 15-time Slam winner Djokovic 25-22 in career meetings.

Yesterday’s semi-final was never likely to match the knife-edge theatrics of the 2008 final although Federer needed five match points to secure victory.

Federer will not mind with his win coming just a month after Nadal handed him his worst loss at a Slam in 11 years in the Roland Garros semi-finals.

In a tight 51-minute opener, Nadal managed to save the only break point in the eighth game before surrendering the advantage of an early mini-break in the tie-breaker which Federer claimed thanks to five points in a row.

The Spaniard finally carved out the first break of the semi-final in the fourth game of the second set, backing it up with a hold for 4-1.

Nadal then broke again for 5-1 as Federer suffered a sudden and severe power outage with the two-time champion comfortable lev-elling the contest.

Federer, the oldest semi-finalist in a Grand Slam semi-final since Jimmy Connors at the 1991 US Open, broke Nadal for the first time in the fourth game of the third set.

He then fought off three break points for a key 4-1 lead, coming out on top in a 23-shot rally and then a 25-stroke exchange.

There was no respite for Nadal, an 18-time Slam winner, who slipped a break down at 2-1 in the fourth.

Nadal saved two match points in the ninth game and two more in the 10th but a loose return sealed his fate.

Federer finished with 14 aces and 51 winners.

Djokovic, meanwhile, will be looking to add another Wimbledon title to the Australian and US Open crowns he already holds.

“This has been a remarkable tournament for me and to be in another final is a dream come true,” said the top seed.

“I had to dig deep, Roberto was playing his first semi-final at a Grand Slam and he was not really overwhelmed.

“It was a really close opening four to five games of the third set that could have gone either way -- thankfully it went mine.”

Djokovic swept through the first set with breaks in the second and eighth games.

It seemed certain that Djokovic was going to spend a lot less time on court in this semi-final com-pared to 12 months ago when he needed five sets and five hours and 15 minutes to beat Nadal.

However, Bautista Agut, who had already defeated the Serb twice this year, eventually settled and broke for 2-1 in the second set.

Djokovic fought off two break points, via a 23-shot rally, in the fifth game.

But the 31-year-old Bautista Agut held his nerve to eventually

level the semi-final at 6-4 off a for-tuitous net cord.

Djokovic, increasingly irritated by a restless crowd, broke for 4-2 in the third set and held for 5-2 off the back of a lung-busting 45-shot rally.

The set was secured, ironically off another net cord which fell this time in the Serb’s favour.

Bautista Agut, who had planned to be in Ibiza this week for his stag party, fought off break points in the opening game of the fourth set.

But Djokovic was relentless and tightened his grip, breaking twice for a 4-1 lead, and eventually claimed victory on a fifth match point.

PAGE | 17 PAGE | 18

Serena and Halep chase

milestones in Wimbledon final

Australia back to drawing board with 2023 World Cup on radar

20SATURDAY 13 JULY 2019

Silk Way Rally: Al Attiyah wins 6th successive stage

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic

reacts after scoring a point against Spain’s

Roberto Bautista Agut

during their men’s singles

semi-final match,

yesterday.

Overdrive Racing’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and his French navigator Matthieu Baumel in action during the 6th stage of the 2019 Silk Way Rally between Mandalgovi and Dalanzadgad in Mongolia, yesterday. It was the Qatari driver's sixth successive stage win in the rally. The win also extended their outright lead in the Silk Way Rally to 40:33 minutes. RIGHT: Al Attiyah gestures after winning the stage.

Switzerland’s Roger Federer in action during his Wimbledon men’s singles semi-final match against Spain’s Rafael Nadal at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in London, Britain, yesterday.

Defending champion

Djokovic beats Bautista

Agut in four sets as Spanish

23rd-seed forces Serb to

dig deep.

The semi-final win is

Serbian world number 1's

12th victory in his last 13

Grand Slam semi-finals.

Djokovic is now one win

away from his fifth title at

Wimbledon and 16th Grand

Slam singles crown.

Federer holds off Nadalto set up Djokovic final

Roger Federer reaches his

12th Wimbledon final with

a 7-6 (7/3), 1-6, 6-3, 6-4

win over his Spanish rival

Rafael Nadal, in a match

widely regarded as the

greatest ever played.

The 37-year-old eight-

time champion - the third

oldest Grand Slam finalist

in the modern era - will be

appearing in his 31st final

at the majors.

It is the first time the Swiss

legend has beaten Nadal

in a Grand Slam semi-final

having lost all four of their

previous encounters, most

recently at this year's

French Open.

Spain’s Rafael Nadal (right) greets Roger Federer after the Swiss star advanced to the men’s singles final of the 2019 Wimbledon Championships, yesterday.