210 fils (includes VAT)

KNOW WHAT

TOTAL TESTED

ACTIVE CASES

DEATHS

DISCHARGED

NEW CASES

CRITICAL

2463161

2849

355

92,113

287

12

BAHRAIN

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced a US-backed deal to end a dispute with Qatar that saw Riyadh, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt imposed an embargo on Doha over allegations that it supports terrorism.

C r i s i s e n d s

Trump wants own Twitter• Twitter permanently cut off Trump’s account

• Nancy Pelosi instructed House Rules Committee to move ahead with a motion for impeachment

TDT | agencies

The repeated setbacks on Twitter has made an increasingly iso-lated and angry US President Donald Trump think out of the box.

He is now grooming an idea to create a platform of his own, where no one would cast him out, as Dem-ocrats got further energised with the idea to remove him from of-fice.

News of Trump creating his platform also raised the risk of further incitement of violence

following the storming of the US Capitol on Wednesday by hundreds of his supporters.

Trump sent the latest tweets on his @POTUS account after Twitter banned his

account.Trump, addressing the 75 mil-lion “great patriots” who voted for him, wrote: “We will not be SILENCED!” as

he also considering building his own social media platform.

Twitter permanently cut off Trump’s ac-count and access to his nearly 90 million

followers late on Friday, three days after the Capitol storming.

The resulting chaos, viewed with shock around the world, left a po-lice officer and four others dead in its wake.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Friday that if Trump did not resign, she had instructed the House Rules Com-

mittee to move ahead with a motion for impeachment and legislation on the US Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which provides for the removal of a president who is unable to discharge his official duties.

Iran playing with fire

TDT | agencies

Iran has warned that it would expel the inspec-tors of the United National nuclear watchdog unless sanctions against it are lift-ed by a February 21.

The hardline-dominated Iranian parliament, in No-vember, passed a law that obliges the government to halt inspections of its nucle-ar sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Parliament also required the government to step up uranium enrichment be-yond the limit set under Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal if sanctions are not eased.

Iran’s Guardian Council watchdog body approved the law on Dec. 2 and the government has said it will implement it.

Iran said on Monday it had resumed 20% urani-um enrichment at an un-derground nuclear facility, breaching the nuclear pact with major powers and pos-sibly complicating efforts by US.President-elect Joe Biden to rejoin the deal.Separately, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has also revealed the exist-ence of a new top-secret underground missile base belonging to the IRGC Navy.

Iran claimed that the missiles housed at the new underground base have a range of hundreds of kilometers, and have a high level of accuracy and destructive power, including anti-electronic warfare capabilities.

Qatari vehicles cross border into Saudi• Qatar Airways said will resume flights to Saudi Arabia, starting with the capital Riyadh tomorrow

TDT | agencies

Qatari vehicles rolled into Saudi Arabia through a land border for the first time since Arab states severed diplomatic and transport ties with Doha in mid-2017, Saudi state TV said.

The borders were opened following a deal reached this week by the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council nations to

restore relations. “It’s good the crisis has been

resolved, and the warm wel-come we had, and the happi-ness we see in our brothers,” the driver of the second car to pass through the Abu Samra-Salwa crossing told Ekhbariya TV.

A UAE official this week said travel and trade links could re-sume within a week of the deal, but restoring diplomatic ties requires more time as parties work to rebuild trust.

Meanwhile, Qatar Airways said will resume flights to Saudi Arabia, starting with the capital Riyadh on Monday, followed by Jeddah on Jan. 14, then Dam-mam on Jan. 16, the airline tweeted yesterday.

Queen Elizabeth and husband receive COVID-19 vaccinesLondon

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and her husband Phil-ip, both in their nineties, have received vaccinations against COVID-19, Bucking-ham Palace said on Satur-day.

“The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have to-day received COVID-19 vac-cinations,” the palace said in a statement. The Queen is 94 years old and Philip is 99, putting them in the priority category in Britain’s coronavirus vaccine rollout.

Iraq calls the US blacklisting of militia leader ‘unacceptable’Baghdad

Iraq denounced yesterday as “unacceptable” a US decision to blacklist Faleh al-Fayyad, head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forc-es (PMF).

The US Treasury accused him of leading militia that killed hundreds of protest-ers with live ammunition during a crackdown on anti-government demon-strations in 2019. It said he had coordinated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

“We confirm that the de-cision was an unacceptable surprise,” the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in a state-ment, adding that “it will carefully follow up with the current and the new admin-istration in Washington on all decisions issued by the US Treasury Department against Iraqis.”

P7

Indonesian plane crashes after take-off with 62 aboard

6WORLDS P O R T S

Roma proves BRX pace in DakarSpaniard steers team’s Hunter T1 car to seventh in the stage to rise to fifth overall in general ranking after stage six | P 12

SUNDAYJANUARY, 2021

210 FILS ISSUE NO. 8713

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02SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2021

Bahrain-based entrepreneur Baburajan wins Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award

Indian Ambassador Piyush Srivastava says, “Pravasi Bharatiya Samman brings great joy to Indian community”.

TDT | Manama

Indian Ambassador to Bah-rain Piyush Srivastava yesterday congratulated Bahrain-based entrepreneur Baburajan Vava Kalluparambil Gopalan for winning the highest honour conferred on overseas Indians - the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award.

Baburajan is among the 30 Non-Resident Indians and In-dian Origin people and Organ-isation who were conferred the award during a virtual event

yesterday as part of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Conven-tions.

“The news brings great joy to the members of the Indian com-munity here in the Kingdom,” said the Indian Ambassador con-gratulating Baburajan for being among the very best of India.

Baburajan is one of the di-rectors of 4 PM NEWS, a Bah-rain-based newspaper. 4 PM NEWS is the first evening daily from the Middle East

The award is the highest hon-our conferred by the President of India on a Non-Resident In-

dian (NRI), Person of Indian Or-igin (PIO), and organisations or institutions established and run by NRIs or PIOs. The Indian Am-bassador also thanked Baburajan for his invaluable contributions to the enrichment of the Indian Diaspora, which had played a crucial role in the development of Bahrain and India and en-hancing bilateral ties.

Piyush Srivastava further ac-knowledged the contribution of Baburajan at the forefront of humanitarian causes, which included building houses for the needy, providing educational

assistance within India and GCC.The Ambassador wished

the community and Babura-jan every success in promoting Bahrain-India ties and a better understanding of India’s rich culture and diversity across the world during celebrations of 16th PBD Convention at the embassy.

Srivastava said that the awards represent the vibrant achieve-ments made by the Indian dias-pora in various fields. “Besides being professional and high work ethics, the success of our community in Bahrain can be

attributed to the liberal, tolerant and welcoming society of the Kingdom.” Ambassador Srivas-tava thanked the Leadership and Government of Bahrain “for the care taken by them of our com-munity, particularly during the difficult times of COVID 19 pan-demic.”

The 67-year-old has a career spanning more than 40 years and has lent his expertise and experience to world-renowned projects, in India, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Russia, Iraq and the UAE.

Baburajan is also the Chair-

man and Managing Director of BKG Holding, Qatar Engineering Laboratories and Quality Piling and Construction companies, and has operations across the GCC.

Baburajan was instrumental during the construction of the prestigious 25-kilometre-long Saudi Arabia to Bahrain Cause-way. Baburajan is the only In-dian member in the US-based International Accreditation Service, which is a semi-gov-ernment- body that accredits calibration and testing labora-tories worldwide.

Congratulate Mr K G Baburajan

on winning the highest honour for Non Resident Indians by the

Indian government - the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award 2021

The Chairman, Board of Directors, Management & Staff of SPAC WLL, The Daily Tribune & 4PM News

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Indian Ambassador to Bahrain Piyush Srivastava and Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award winner KG Baburan with top officials and guests

03SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2021

Al-Qalia project is distinguished by the design of its units that simulate the Bahraini

architectural style and the coastal environment of the Hidd area

PROJECT DIRECTOR, MOHAMMED RASHDAN

Finding moments of joy amid the pandemic

East Hidd residents had their housing dreams fulfilled yesterday, thanks to HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa TDT | Manama

Finding moments of joy amid the deadly coronavi-rus pandemic has become a task on its own.

The wide-spread outbreak has turned happy cries, surprises and even graduations a thing of the past.  

However, people in East Hidd found one such moment yes-terday, which made their eyes watery, but with joy. 

Those happy moments were created by the Ministry of Hous-ing.

And the scene was the minis-try handing over several hous-ing units to beneficiaries in Al Qulai’a district in East Hidd as directed by    His Royal High-ness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister. 

The project is also a crucial part of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s directive to distribute 40,000 housing units to citizens in the Kingdom. 

The East Hidd Town Project includes 4,306 units and 496 housing plots which can accom-modate up to 28,000 people. In its first phase, 740-units were completed and handed over.  

Muhammad Rashdan, the Di-rector of the East Hidd City pro-ject, said the Al Qulai’a housing units were distributed on time by the ministry in coordination with the departments of housing services and projects.. 

Beneficiaries were handed over keys after they signing a contract and opening a bank ac-count with the housing bank. 

“Following which, they called the ministry’s hotline and a de-livery time was fixed,” said Rash-

dan. The ministry had ensured the unit ’s readiness before handing over as directed by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al

Khalifa, and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Rashdan added. 

He stressed that the ministry attaches high priority in main-taining quality.

“The project draws inspiration from traditional Bahraini archi-tectural styles and the coastal environment of the Hidd,” said Rashdan, the manager of the East Hidd project. 

The ministry, he said, pre-pared the designs by preserving general characteristics and so-cial fabric of Hidd. 

The units enjoyed great atten-tion to detail and features inte-rior courtyards. Coastal walk-

ways, parks and children’s play areas make the project further attractive. 

“The approach is in line with the government’s keenness to implement the eleventh goal of The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which calls for “Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, re-silient and sustainable.”

He indicated that the speed in finalising these procedures stems from the ministry’s keen-ness on meeting the schedule of distributing 5,000 housing units and services ordered by HRH the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

As per the order of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to distribute 5,000 housing units and services, the Ministry of Hous-

ing handed over the units in Al-Qalia neighborhood, in East Hidd town, to citizens who were presented with their contracts over the past weeks.

40kHM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has directed to deliver 40,000 housing

units across Bahrain and prioritise development

projects that contribute to improved living standards

for citizens

When puppets talk, children listen TDT | Manama

Bahrain education system is pursuing creative ways to enrich students’ learning experience.

The latest innovation is pup-pet. 

Teacher Haya Salem is utilis-ing the potential of puppets as a pedagogical tool to change the classroom forever. 

Al- Orouba Primary Girls school is where puppets are in charge of opening the young minds to the amazing world of knowledge and learning.

Salem uses the puppet with-out an actual theatre, stage or script. 

For example, she uses the pup-pet to ask children questions and then discuss it with them. 

Result: Entire classroom got buzzing with creative and criti-cal thinking and curiosity. 

“One of the strategies we fol-low is to show students pre-shot videos explaining part of the

lesson, where students also take a role. 

The puppets will jump into action to introduce or conclude a lesson in a fun-filled way. 

“We use distinctive dolls to engage students and help them develop emotionally, and grow their language and communica-tion skills.” 

Virtual classrooms, Salem said, also allowed developing teachers’ skills with the help of technology.  

“Thanks to frequent practising

and learning, we are now able to continue online classes, despite the extraordinary circumstanc-es.” 

“The technology is mostly used to display videos and im-ages that illustrate the concepts clearly and effectively. Games likes Padlet, Quizalize, Micro-soft forms, Wordwall are also employed.”

On students interaction, she said, “It was impressive, in terms of the race to raise their hands to participate in the classes.”

“There is a sporting spirit be-tween them to win the compe-titions, and I am always keen to implement activities that target all students to increase compe-tition and the opportunity to interact.”

“On the other hand, I am keen on giving equal participation op-portunities to all my students.”

“Among all, there is no chaos or obstruction to the lesson. The quota laws have contributed to supporting this aspect.”

Teacher Haya Salem is utilising the potential of puppets as a pedagogical tool to change the classroom forever.

KNOW WHAT

Ventriloquism is the art of talking with the tongue and not

moving the mouth or face. When a skilled

ventriloquist does this sitting beside a figure

(or “dummy”) that has a moving mouth, it looks like the figure

is talking. It works because humans use

their eyes to find sound sources.

How do puppets talk?

04SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2021

Of late, it would seem that we are all preparing for a year ahead when people will get out of homes and cautiously enjoy the luxury of family outings and friends’ gatherings in public spaces very soon. The refurbishment of the Water Garden in Salmaniya and now the Ain Rayya in Sama-heej and Al Dair are welcome signs that Bahrain is once again putting the spotlight back on developing public spaces.

As our country expands and ur-ban communities spread across the nation with the resulting pop-ulation density, it is even more important that we build recrea-tional spaces and greenery into the community areas so that the bal-ance is main-tained between concrete struc-tures and spa-tial windows for relaxation and renewal. In many South Asian countries like Japan and South Korea, there is a strong t r a d i t i o n o f nurturing gar-dens and Na-ture. In Japan, I believe there a r e g a r d e n s themed to cele-brate aspects of harmony with nature such as water, cherry blossoms, flow-ers and even meditation and silence. Simi-larly, in South Korea, many local parks will have a built-in gym space where the pub-lic can use running tracks or gym bars to work out for free. It is a valuable investment in the health of the country.

In Bahrain, we have developed a proud modern practice of investing in the development of public space for beautification, recreation and to give urban areas much-needed “green lungs”.

The walkways, the beach-front corniches and the little neigh-bourhood gardens that dot our residential areas are a testimony to this principle.  It has been proven that recreational and beautified spaces in urban areas are social stress-busters too and serve to help reduce psychological pressure and promote mental well-being.

Going forward, I believe that a strong private sector partner-ship must emerge to make this development vision of our leaders a viable template for the future. The well-being of our citizens is of paramount importance to our national progress and I believe that both private and public sectors should work together to make this a reality.

The refurbishment of the Water Garden in Salmaniya and now the Ain Rayya in Samaheej and Al Dair are welcome signs that Bahrain is once again putting the spotlight back on developing public spaces.

C A P T A I N S C O R N E R

A development rethink

(Captain Mahmood Al Mahmood is the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Tribune and the President of the Arab-African Unity Organisation for Relief, Human Rights and Counterterrorism)

Stop clogging streets with junk cars Mobile Monitoring system records 141pc jump in violations in 2020

• Muharraq topped the count with 834 violations

TDT | Manama

Junk vehicles, covered in rust, cobwebs and dust, piling up in neigh-bourhoods and parking lots, and with “for sale” tags are a common sight on the streets here. The latest data on vio-lations released by municipal ‘Mobile Monitoring System’ reveals.

The system identifies plac-ing or leaving dilapidated ve-hicles in the streets, sidewalks, squares, or public squares as the most common violations detected during 2020.

Overall, the ‘Mobile Moni-

toring System’ recorded a 141 per cent jump to 2,444 viola-tions in 2020 from 1,728 re-corded a year ago, said Under-secretary for Municipal Affairs at the Ministry of Works, Mu-nicipalities Affairs and Urban Planning, Sheikh Muhammad bin Ahmed Al Khalifa.

Muharraq municipality topped the count with 834 vi-olations during 2020. Closely

following was the northern region with 746 and Southern with 473 violations. Capital recorded the lowest, with 391 violations in 2020.

The ‘Mobile Monitoring Sys-tem’ launched in January 2020 works by providing inspectors seamless access to an inte-grated database on violations through an electronic portal.

“The Public Cleanliness

Law, the Ministerial Decision regarding the registration of communal housing and oth-er regulations, legislation and laws in force” are put into practice with the help of this system,” said Sheikh Muham-mad.

In this regard, he pointed out that the most common viola-tions were regarding the Pub-lic Cleanliness Law No. (10) of 2019 and the Public Road Works Law No. (2) of 1996.

Conducting road works without a permit, illegally oc-cupation of streets, placing ‘for sale’ or ‘for lease’ tagged ve-hicles on public squares, and other places, washing vehicles, or engaging in similar work leading to runoff water ending up on streets are the other vio-lations detected.

On the most monitored vio-lations by the Control and In-

spection Department, he said, “Those violations were related to the Building Regulation Law No. (13) for the year 1977 and law No. (28) for the year 2009 related to the regulatory re-quirements for reconstruction. The most important violation in this regard was the unau-thorised additions to existing buildings.”

Muharraq

Northern

Capital

Southern

Total Number Region

Qatari actions taunt Bahrain sentiments

Bahrain’s champion bodybuilder arrested by Qatari forces during a fishing cruise

TDT | Manama

The Qatari authorities have detained Bahrain’s world champion bodybuild-er, Sami Al-Haddad, who was on a fishing cruise, said an AlAyam report.

The report, accusing Qatar of holding systematic cam-paign against Bahraini sail-ors, described the incident as a clear breach of the Gulf Peace agreement conclud-ed at Al Ula Summit. Sami Al-Haddad, the Lion of Bah-rain, is well-known to be the first Mr Olympia amateur winner and world champion overall winner in 2011. He is a talented bodybuilder and spectacular personal coach. He is an IFBB PRO bodybuild-er from Bahrain, and owner of BlacksmithGym.

The leaders of the six-na-tion Gulf Cooperation Coun-cil had signed a normalisa-tion deal with Qatar ending long-standing disputes.

Recently, Qatar also falsely claimed in a letter to the UN that four Bahraini fighter jets violated its airspace.

Rejecting the claims, Bah-rain Foreign Ministry had said that on that date, four

F-16s, two of Bahrain’s and two from the US, were on a military drill in the designat-ed military exercise area in Saudi Arabia’s airspace.

After the exercises, the planes headed back to Bah-rain, crossing Saudi Arabia to land at Isa Air Base.

The ministry also affirmed that the aircraft did not fly through Qatari airspace. “The Royal Bahraini Air Force fighters always pro-fessionally perform their sor-ties, making sure not to pen-etrate the borders of other countries.” Meanwhile, in an-other development, Bahrain Professional Fishermen’s So-ciety, Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society, Bahrain Jour-

nalists Association and other independent human rights advocates, hailed the royal directives to compensate Bahraini sailors affected by the Qatari abusive practices.

They commended the de-cision of the Cabinet, chaired by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khal-ifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, directing competent authorities to assess the damage, disburse compensation and protect fishermen’s rights.

The participants said the Qatari practices against Bahrain’s sailors must stop immediately, calling for the release of the Bahraini sailors.

Sami Al-Haddad

Coast guards seize 14 trawl nets

TDT | Manama

Bahraini marine patrols yes-terday seized 14 trawl nets off the coast of Zallaq for hin-dering navigation and flouting fishing laws.

“Coast guards seized the nets and tools used as they vi-olated the rules, endangered the lives of sea-goers and hin-dered navigation,” said the

Coast Guard Commander. The commander urged

sailors to abide strictly to the laws regulating fishing in the Kingdom to protect the marine environment and preserve the marine wealth of the Kingdom.

The top cop also announced continuing sea and land cam-paigns to prevent all such vi-olations.

Violators, he said, will be prosecuted.

COVID-19 violations: Court issues verdict in less than 12 hours TDT | Manama

A Bahraini court yesterday took less than 12-hours to reach a verdict in a COVID-19 violation case.

The fast track trial result-ed in the court slapping fines of BD1,000 and BD2,000 on two people found guilty of vi-olating mandatory COVID-19 precautionary measures in a restaurant.

Court files said the res-taurant failed to adhere to social distancing measures, and breached the 50 per cent capacity cap placed for each table.

The Public Health Directo-rate early morning yesterday notified the Ministries and Public Entities Prosecution of

the violations. The authority also immedi-

ately shut the restaurant. The Public Prosecution

completed its investigation soon and referred the two de-fendants to a relevant criminal court.

The court issued the verdict in less than 12 hours.

Separately, the Direc-tor- General of Muharraq Governorate Police said that a beach in Amwaj Island was closed down for violating pre-cautionary measures against COVID-19.

The action was taken in co-ordination with the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism and the Ministry of Health.

SIU establishes ‘Victims and Witnesses Affairs Division’TDT | Manama

Attorney General, Dr Ali bin Fadhl Al-Buainain, announced establishing a “Victims and Witnesses Af-fairs Division” at the Special Investigation Unit (SIU).

The Division, Dr Al-Buainain said, shall com-municate with the victims, their families, witnesses and anyone who provides infor-mation related to the cases

examined by the SIU to in-form them about the legal procedures and investigation progress.

The new unit shall also receive and study requests to impose the legally-pre-scribed measures and ex-ecute protection orders to ensure the safety of the victims, witnesses or any persons of close relation to them. “The unit shall also provide them with the nec-essary psychological support and guidance on how to get legal compensations,” added Dr Al Buainan.

Dr Ali bin Fadhl Al-Buainain

Sheikh Muhammad

04SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2020

The COVID-19 virus has spawned thousands of myths and fake claims – alongside the frontliners, the brave hearts and warriors who are fighting to right this topsy-turvy world, there are many who are looking to make a fast buck from the disease that has robbed the world of a whole year of progress. I have lost count of the number of sanitisers and disinfectants which claim to prevent the virus attack – a claim that is partly true but only if supported with other safe-ty measures such as wearing face masks, observing social distancing and avoiding crowds and gatherings. I have come across many a d v e r t i s e -m e n t s f o r textiles and dress mate-r i a l w h i c h claim to have anti-bacteri-al properties woven into t h e w e av e to prevent C O V I D - 1 9 . Yes, we are all thinking of the head of a power-ful country who asked his people t o l i t e r a l -ly swallow bleach to kill the germs.

N o w comes news t h a t B a h -rain’s Minis-try of Health and the University of Bahrain have conducted rigorous research into claims that UV light destroys the COVID-19 virus. The study has found definitive evidence that the claim is a tall tale. Does the UV light destroy germs? Yes. But to extend this to destruction of the COVID virus and ask people to buy these lights is a fake claim that is making money for the manufacturers and has no scientific backing.

The slowdown of the virus’ re-lentless attack in Bahrain has been largely due to the absolute scien-tific temperament of all the au-thorities charged with braking the march of the disease. As the vac-cine makes its way to our shores, we will no doubt hear about why we should or should not take the shot, who is first priority in the queue and many more unfounded details that will confuse us. Let us listen to our government in this matter. Our leaders and govern-ment have done a sterling job of containing the virus and we must continue to repose our trust in them.

The slowdown of the virus’ relentless attack in Bahrain has been largely due to the absolute scientific temperament of all the authorities charged with braking the march of the disease.

C A P T A I N S C O R N E R

SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 2020

This means they were broadly advocates of a federated (or

confederated), centralized European state, without

ever having the necessary political debate that

raged in the US in the 1790s between the

advocates of centralism (Alexander Hamilton) and decentralization (Thomas

Jefferson).

Hon. Chairman Najeb Yacob Alhamer | Editor-in-Chief Mahmood AI Mahmood | Chairman & Managing Director P Unnikrishnan | Advertisement: Update Media W.L.L | Tel: 38444692, Email: sales@newsofbahrain.com | Newsroom: Tel: 38444680, Email: news@newsofbahrain.com

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DR. JOHN C. HULSMAN

I have long suspected that the endless undoubtedly boring Eu-ropean summit meetings are so turgid for a reason. It is easy to get lost in the byzantine complexities of false agreements that actually solve nothing. And that is how the EU likes it: For us to have little idea that it is a paper tiger, so much less than meets the eye in terms of its geostrategic power.

But crises clarify. And there is absolutely no doubt that the coro-navirus has made crystal clear that the old model governing the EU has finally, after a brilliant 70-year run, entirely run out of steam. The sup-posed deal over emergency Europe-an coronavirus funds pledged last week to the plague-ravaged south, far from being a concord, has ex-posed the EU’s haplessness for all to see.

First, if you are brave enough to wade through the actual agreement reached, it becomes palpably clear that it is full of policy holes. The Eurogroup of finance ministers has recommended using the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), estab-lished in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession, to meet the southerners’ needs.

A basic problem with this is that the ESM was set up in the wake of an asymmetric shock — the par-ticular economic follies of Greece and possibly other southern econ-omies — rather than the symmetric shock of a global pandemic. In other words, there can be no doubt that Greece was largely to blame for its own parlous situation. The same

cannot now be said of the Southern European states ravaged by a global pandemic. The basic issue of fairness is in real question.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte rightly calls the proposed €540 billion ($587 billion) rescue plan “a trap.” The accord is there to only deal with the immediate impact of the virus. However, over the much larger rescue efforts necessary to revive the Italian and other south-ern economies necessitated by the debilitating lockdown, normal con-ditionality will be imposed.

This is understandably political-ly toxic in Italy, where it is seen as surrendering basic sovereignty to the uncertain mercies of economic overlords the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the Europe-an Central Bank. No Italian leader could accept such colonization and survive. In true Kafkaesque fash-ion, no country in the south that truly needs the ESM can politically accept it. These design flaws have become so obvious that the deal has unraveled almost immediately upon delivery.

This amounts to more than Eu-rope’s glaring inability to behave as a union when it truly counts; it also illustrates the limits of the guiding philosophy of the EU. The “Monnet method” — functionalism — is a pol-icy strategy based on the advocacy of small, technocratic, apolitical agree-ments being agreed to precisely be-cause they seemed secondary, or technical, eventually amounting to decisive movement toward a con-federated European state.

In the 1950s, rather than talking about grand visions of European

union (a Valhalla that had far less than majority support), it was better to discuss seemingly inoffensive coal and steel union, even as the latter led to further economic union, and then to a degree of political union. Large political questions were to be pur-posefully avoided in favor of getting to large political answers (always in the direction of ever closer union) through the backdoor of technical, apolitical initiatives. Over decades, functionalism met with the great-est of success, as a broadly united Europe emerged, all without ever answering the basic question of what sort of political construct was truly being created.

While this seemed clever and it worked for a long while, in actuality, functionalism has stored up a great deal of trouble for Europe, which has come home to roost since the Great Recession of 2008. The founders of the EU wanted a powerful Hamilto-nian Brussels without ever having their Hamiltonian moment..

This means they were broadly advocates of a federated (or confed-erated), centralized European state, without ever having the necessary political debate that raged in the US in the 1790s between the advocates of centralism (Alexander Hamilton) and decentralization (Thomas Jef-ferson). In the end, the federalist ad-ministration of George Washington opted for Hamilton’s centralizing vision, won overwhelming re-elec-tion and a popular mandate for the national government to assume state debt, while at the same time estab-lishing a powerful national Treas-ury, brilliantly headed by Hamilton himself.

Due to an overly clever function-alism, present European leaders (with the honorable exception of President Emmanuel Macron of France) shied away from this diffi-cult argument in the happier times that preceded the coronavirus. But the failure of functionalism over the past 70 years to decisively answer the question of what sort of union Europe was to become is now fatally handicapping basic and necessary efforts to combat the coronavirus — the political risk event of our gen-eration.

The result is an EU built only for sunny weather, which trundles along nicely in good times, but is fatally overmatched in bad ones. A political union that no one really believes in and whose members are not willing to make the basic sacrifice of blood and treasure for is a union only in name. And, without the Hamiltoni-an moment in these times of crisis, Europe will be increasingly unfit for purpose.

A FOOL THINKS HIMSELF TO BE WISE, BUT A WISE MAN KNOWS HIMSELF TO BE A FOOL.WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Once again the leaders, the busi-ness houses and the people of the Kingdom of Bahrain have come together in the spirit of patriot-ism and unity to raise defenses against an unusual and unseen enemy – the COVID-19 virus pandemic.

In just 24 hours, these parties, led by the example of HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, have raised over BD 21 million to help people and business-es struck by the impact of the virus. The funds, under the project ‘Feena Khair’ (There is Good in Us) will be used for business support and medical support as well as humanitarian food and clothing aid.

The Bahrain Chamber of Commerce & Industry also provided its spacious and centrally-located old premises for use by the COVID-19 task force.

In the midst of our peculiar con-dition of isolation, social dis-tancing and despair, we must rejoice in this stream of com-passion that has sprung from amidst us to counter the harsh reality of the crisis. It is praise-worthy of the big businesses to have come forward to sup-port the vision of the leaders of Bahrain and keep the hu-manitarian consideration as the first priority in this crisis.

Long after the dust has set-tled around the world, those who will be remembered are leaders who led from the heart. Undoubtedly, the response of Bahrain’s lead-ership will shed a beacon of light on our historic response. Inspired by His Majesty, our Crown Prince and First Dep-uty Premier guided the gov-ernment in the crucial early days to approach the sensi-tive themes of quarantine and treatment with compassion. When he returned from his

sojourn abroad, our beloved Prime Minister immediately galvanized the Cabinet and government officials, displaying his admirable energy and crisis management in managing the situation.

I am sure you will all agree that this has inspired our business houses and individuals to donate so generously and tap the vein of goodness within us and reach out to help fellow-residents of Bahrain. The days are challenging but when we have great leaders, we all rise to the occasion and to greater heights of goodness than we ourselves thought possible.

Yes indeed. There is good in us all..

(Captain Mahmood Al Mahmood is the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Tribune and the President of the Arab-African Unity

Organisation for Relief, Human Rights and Counterterrorism)

Great leaders inspire us to

goodness

CAPT. MAHMOOD AL MAHMOOD

I am sure you will all agree that this has inspired our

business houses and individuals

to donate so generously and

tap the vein of goodness within us and reach out

to help fellow-residents of

Bahrain.

EU doomed without the Hamiltonian moment

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte calls the proposed €540 billion rescue plan a trap.

HH Shaikh Nasser

Avoiding the virus myths

(Captain Mahmood Al Mahmood is the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Tribune and the President of the Arab-African Unity Organisation for Relief, Human Rights and Counterterrorism)

KNOW WHAT

The capital municipality announced removing 1,160 violations related to cleanliness in the first quarter of this year, with the majority of them being cars abandoned on streets. The municipal officials said they conducted extensive field visits to monitors violations as well as campaigns to remove abandoned vehicles during the period. Officials said 628 of such vehicles found on streets were taken away by owners, after serving notices. For the rest, the officials said had initiated the process to remove them, if the owners are not responding. 1,160 violations detected in Capital

Thank you volunteers, says HRH CP• 2020 Theme: Together We Can Through Volunteering

• International Volunteer Day (IVD) mandated by the UN General Assembly, is held each year on 5 December.

TDT | Manama

Bahrain yesterday joined the rest of the world in celebrating Interna-tional Volunteer Day, which falls on December 5 every year.

In a message on his Insta-gram account, HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khali-fa, the Crown Prince, Depu-ty Supreme Commander and Prime Minister thanked the contribution of volunteers.

HRH Crown Prince Wrote: “For every citizen and resi-dent who volunteered for the sake of Bahrain and the sake of humanity, your donation is appreciated and is a place of pride for everyone.”

“On the International Vol-unteer Day, we thank you for your contribution that repre-sents the highest meanings

of the authentic and unifying spirit of our Bahraini society,” said HRH Prince Salman.

The post also had a combo of pictures showing volun-teers during their line of duty as a tribute.

This year’s IVD campaign thanks volunteers worldwide and also sheds light on the difficulties and needs of vol-unteers during the pandemic with the message: “Together We Can Through Volunteer-ing.” The day is viewed as a unique chance for volunteers and organizations to celebrate their efforts, to share their values, and to promote their work among their commu-

nities, non-governmental or-ganizations (NGOs), United Nations agencies, government authorities and the private sector.

In his message on the day, Antonio Guterres, the UN Sec-retary-General, appealed to

all governments to promote volunteering, support vol-unteer efforts and recognize volunteer contributions to the achievement of the Sustaina-ble Development Goals. “Vol-unteers deserve our heartfelt thanks,” he said.

A Combo showing frontline workers in the Kingdom (Courtesy of BahrainCPNews)

For every citizen and resident

who volunteered for the sake of

Bahrain and the sake of humanity, your donation is

appreciated and is a place of pride for

everyone.HRH CROWN PRINCE AND PRIME

MINISTER

International Volunteer Day (IVD) mandated by the UN General Assembly is viewed as a unique chance for volunteers and organizations to celebrate their efforts, to share their values, and to promote their work among their communities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), United Nations agencies, government authorities and the private sector.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, holding a discussion with the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Levant Affairs and Special Envoy for Syria at the US Department of State, Joel Rayburn. They reviewed ways of boosting cooperation and discussed security and political issues of common concern. The meeting was attended by Foreign Ministry Undersecretary for International Affairs, Dr Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and Director of Americas and Pacific Affairs Directorate, Ambassador Shaikh Abdullah bin Ali Al Khalifa. From the American side, the meeting was attended by the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Kimberly Reed, the Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Margaret Nardi, and the accompanying delegation.

Boosting ties

Oman backs multilateral strategyTDT | Manama

Oman’s Foreign Minis-ter, Badr bin Hamad bin Hamoud Al-Busaidi affirmed his country’s commitment to settling conflicts peacefully and supporting peace and sta-bility.

Addressing the 11th Ma-nama Dialogue forum, he stressed the importance of multilateral participa-

tion to achieve success in an interrelated world.

“ T h e S u l t a n a t e o f Oman is looking forward to revitalising economic, commercial and tourism fields”, he said, adding that community security repre-sents an essential compo-nent to reaching compre-hensive security, a secure social fabric and economic environment.

Badr bin Hamad bin Hamoud Al-Busaidi

ICRC efforts in crisis-hit countries underlinedTDT | Manama

The President of the In-ternational Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer stressed the importance of focusing on the humanitarian side and working on countering ter-rorism in all its forms.

He pointed out that that humanitar-ian aid is important, but insufficient unless it is accompanied by eradicat-ing the ideology of terrorism.

He said that human de-velopment indicators in the Middle East and Africa show the need to empower women and youth and eliminate the challenges of insecurity in some areas.

Addressing the third ses-sion of the Manama Dialogue forum, he underlined the

ICRC-led role in providing humanitar-ian aid in areas of armed conflict and working to alleviate the psychological and social impacts.

Peter Maurer

05SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2021

Labour market in a critical state: Minister • Minister pledges more efforts to develop LMRA’s work

TDT | Manama

Labour and Social Devel-opment Minister warned that the labour market is going through a critical situa-tion.

“We need to enhance the king-dom’s investment atmosphere and maintain its pioneering po-sition as an investment-attract-ing destination,” said Jameel Humaidan.

The Chairman of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority also said the current situation warrants further steps to en-hance the Kingdom’s ability to

attract local and foreign capitals to boost economic growth and generate more jobs.

Humaidan was chairing the first meeting of the newly-re-structured LMRA Board of Di-rectors.

The minister also pledged

more efforts to develop LMRA’s work, commensurate with the latest developments, while tak-ing into account the rights and interest of work parties.

He called on board members to spare no effort to overcome the challenges and meet the roy-

al vision of consolidating the labour market based on sustain-ability, fairness and competi-tiveness.

Humaidan affirmed that LMRA’s priorities and projects follow the directives and aspi-rations of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister.

He expressed thanks and ap-preciation to the former mem-bers for improving the quality of

the services delivered to various social segments.

He also praised LMRA’s ongo-ing cooperation and coordina-tion with various government entities and private establish-ments, stressing that they are the pillars of LMRA’s work.

Members of the new LMRA board pledged to do their utmost to maintain the labour environ-ment of the Kingdom in line with HM the King’s vision.

The panel elected the Chief

Executive Officer of the Infor-mation and e-Government Au-thority, Ali Mohammed Al-Qaed, as Deputy Chairman of LMRA board, and formed the relevant committees.

Earlier, His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa issued Decree 83/2020, re-structur-ing the Board of Directors of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), under the chairmanship of the Labour and Social Development Minister.

We need to enhance the kingdom’s

investment atmosphere and

maintain its pioneering position as an investment-

attracting destination

JAMEEL HUMAIDAN

KNOW WHAT

The new LMRA Board of Directors include Mohammed Ali Mohammed Al-Qaed, Maha Ab-dulhamid Mufiz, Abdulrahman Saleh Al-Sinan,

Ahmed Jaffar Al-Hayki, Mohammed Abdul-jabbar Al-Kooheji, Ahmed Abdulla bin Hindi Al-Mannai, Jaffar Khalil Ibrahim and Bassim Ali Siyadi as members for a four-year term.

Secretary-General of the Royal Humanitarian Foundation (RHF), Dr Mustafa Al-Sayed with the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Kuwait Finance House (KFH-Bahrain), Abdulhakeem Al-Khayyat. Dr Al-Sayed conveyed the greetings of HM the King’s Representative for Humanitarian Work and Youth Affairs, HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, to Al-Khayyat, and presented him with the “Friend of the Orphan” Certificate, granted to KFH-Bahrain for its efforts to support the humanitarian work of the RHF. Al-Khayyat presented Dr Al-Sayed a donation from KFH-Bahrain to the educational and health projects implemented by the RHF for its sponsored Bahrain orphans. He affirmed KFH’s continuous support for the RHF’s future humanitarian projects benefiting widows and orphans.

Nio launches first electric sedan model as Tesla delivers China-built SUVReuters | Chengdu, China/Shanghai

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker Nio Inc yesterday launched its first sedan model, eyeing a greater share of the world’s largest car market.

The launch of the ET7, at an event in the western city of Chengdu, came as rival Tesla started selling its China-made Model Y sport-utility vehicle in the Chinese market.

Nio is aiming to expand its product lineup to attract more customers. In China’s passenger car market, sedans and SUVs each make up around 46% of overall sales.

Chief Executive William Li said Nio’s new battery technolo-gy will give the ET7 a drive range of over 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) between charges.

The starting price will be 378,000 yuan ($58,378) for the car without the battery pack, one of the most expensive EV components, which can then be leased from the company. With

the battery pack, the starting price is 448,000 yuan.

Li said the ET7 will be fit-ted with lidar sensors - which help the car perceive its sur-roundings, and are often found in autonomous cars - to assist drivers, a technology dismissed

by Tesla Inc’s outspoken chief Elon Musk.

Nio, which delivered 43,728 vehicles last year, has a mar-ket capitalisation of over $92 billion, surpassing convention-al automakers Daimler AG and General Motors Co. Investors

have poured billions of dollars into electric vehicle develop-ment. It is currently selling three SUV models built at a car factory in China’s eastern city of Hefei. Nio’s rival Xpeng Inc also said that it plans to roll out a new sedan model.

William Li, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio Inc, unveils Nio’s ET7 sedan at a product launch event in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China

FAA chief vows tough line after some Trump supporters disrupt flightsReuters | Washington

The head of the Federal Avi-ation Administration (FAA) yesterday vowed to take “strong enforcement action” against unruly passengers following reports of supporters of US President Donald Trump dis-rupting flights returning from Washington.

The FAA said it shared the concerns raised by airlines and Association of Flight Attend-ants.

“I expect all passengers to follow crew member instruc-tions, which are in place for their safety and the safety of flight,” FAA Administrator Steve Dickson said in a statement.

Dickson said “unruly pas-senger behavior ... can distract, disrupt and threaten crewmem-bers’ ability to conduct their key safety functions.” He added the “FAA will pursue strong en-

forcement action against any-one who endangers the safety of a flight, with penalties rang-ing from monetary fines to jail time.”

Earlier this week, the flight attendants union said Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol should not be al-lowed to depart Washington

on commercial flights after exhibiting “mob mentality behavior” on flights into the region.

Alaska Airlines said on Friday it banned 14 passengers from future travel with the carrier after “unacceptable” behavior on a flight from Washington to Seattle.

Pro-Trump protesters scale a wall as they clash with police

Biden to unveil trillions in pandemic economic relief spending next weekReuters | Wilmington,Del.

US President-elect Joe Bid-en said Americans need more economic relief from the coronavirus pandemic now and that he will deliver a plan costing “trillions” of dollars next week.

Biden, introducing sever-al members of his economic team, spoke on Friday after data showed the US economy lost jobs for the first time in eight months in December as a resurgent COVID-19 pandemic shuttered restaurants and oth-er businesses.

He said the proposal in-cludes relief for state and local governments grappling with the pandemic, as well as new support for people who lost their jobs or cannot afford rent.

Biden also called for rais-ing the minimum wage to $15, a campaign promise, and for sending out $2,000 in direct cash payments. Democrats sought those cash payouts in

the last relief bill, passed in December, but only were able to get Republicans to agree to $600.

“We need more direct re-lief flowing to families, small businesses, including finishing the job of getting people that $2,000 relief direct payment. $600 is simply not enough,” he said. Biden said he would unveil the plan on Thursday. Markets have reacted quickly to expectations that govern-ment spending will rise since Democrats won the Georgia elections.

Pope Francis to have COVID-19 vaccine as early as next week

Reuters | Vatican City

Pope Francis said yesterday he planned to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as early as next week and urged everyone to get a shot, to protect not only their own lives but those of others.

“I believe that ethically every-one should take the vaccine,” the Pope said in an interview with TV station Canale 5. “It is an ethical choice because you are gambling with your health, with your life, but you are also gambling with the lives of others.”

Vatican City, the smallest in-dependent county in the world, home to about 450 people includ-ing Pope Francis, has said it will shortly launch its own vaccination campaign against the coronavirus.

THE PERSON WHO CAN BRING THE SPIRIT OF LAUGHTER INTO A ROOM IS INDEED BLESSEDBENNETT CERF

QUOTE OF THE DAY

SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2021

49BC 1776 1839 1946TODAY IN

HISTORYJulius Caesar defies the Roman Senate and cross-es the Rubicon, uttering “alea iacta est” (the die is cast), signaling the start of civil war which would lead to his appointment as Roman dictator for life

“Common Sense” Pam-phlet by Thomas Paine published, advocating American independence

Tea from India 1st arrives in the United Kingdom

UN General Assembly meets for 1st time in London

Bahrain surrounded by polluted seas

SRIRAJ KOTA

TOP

4TWEETS

04

03

01

If the world trusts In-dia, one of the impor-tant reasons is the Indi-an diaspora. World over, people have seen our diaspora’s accomplish-ments and through them, seen glimpses of India’s glorious culture as well as ethos.

@narendramodi

Our hospitals are un-der more pressure than at any other time since the start of the pandemic, and infection rates continue to soar at an alarming rate. The vaccine rollout has given us renewed hope, but it’s critical for now we stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.

@BorisJohnson

From working with unions as San Fran-cisco’s District Attorney, to helping author the Do-mestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in the U.S. Senate, I’ve always fought for workers. And so will the economic team we an-nounced today.

@KamalaHarris

My administration will get right to work distributing emer-gency aid swiftly and equitably. Our focus will be on the small business-es on Main Street — not those that are wealthy and well-connected.

@JoeBiden

Disclaimer: (Views expressed by columnists are personal and need not necessarily reflect our

editorial stances)

02

Bahrain derives its name from the beautiful Arabic connotation “al-bahrayn” or two seas which essentially mean the meeting point of sweet water from natural springs at one end and the salt water from the sea’s on the other end, thereby giving a unique identity to the nation. The nation comprising of the Bahrain main island and an archipelago of 30 smaller islands finds its identity and history interwoven with the sea’s surrounding it and yet today the very same sea waters are exposed to immense pollution in the form of plastic and other waste that threatens to forever change the ecology and biodiversity of the marine life.

The extent of the pollution in the seas can be gauged by the amounts of litter and garbage getting washed up ashore. Many previous beach clean-up initiatives have found that on an average 300 kilos of waste can be found on a 1.6 km stretch of beach in Bahrain. This is not sur-prising considering the fact that at any given time nearly 46,000 tonnes of plastic waste and other debris is floating in a sq. Mile of the ocean. Underwater aquifers originating from Saudi Arabia bring sweet water under the sea to Bahrain. Out of these aquifers categorised as high, medium and low, only medium aquifers need no pre-usage treatment before consumption. At one time there were 220 natural springs in Bahrain. But now almost all have dried up necessitating ground water extraction which too is drying up in many parts. Sea water pollu-tion remains the root cause in all these deplorable circumstances.

According to Water Research Institute (WRI), Bahrain figures at the top of the list of 167 coun-tries that are set to become se-verely water stressed by 2040. The same situation took shape in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) in 1972 wherein the rate of consump-tion surpassed the rate of water resource replenishment result-ing in the MENA nations having to rely on heavy desalinisation to supplement their water re-sources. This has made MENA the largest desalinisation mar-ket in the world. But nothing can replace an original and pure natural resource like water and desalinisation is the second best option fraught with pollution related problems.

Today MENA region desalinis-es water for drinking purposes from the Arabian (Persian) Gulf region which also happens to be the busiest shipping lanes with one ship passing through the straits every 6 minutes. In fact world’s 40 per cent of oil transportation takes place through this route, the Strait of Hormuz for example see’s 15.5 million barrels of oil transport every day. All this makes the waters extremely prone to pollution as the oil tankers release oil laced ballast waters and water that has been used to clean the on-board oil storage tanks. This is made worse by pollution origination from drilling platforms and maritime accidents resulting in oil spills. The same waters are taken for desalinisation and for human consumption which can cause enormous health issues as the water is extremely carcinogenic due to presence of heavy metals.

The time has come for Bahrain to draw up a national action plan that presses for reduction of pollution from land and seeks to draw inter-national collaboration to reduce pollution from sea itself through the ships using commercial corridors. The Kingdom must create consensus on the need to realise the current threat perception level posed to the environment and human health on account of rising pollution levels of the seas. The desalinised water samples must be subjected to stringent quality tests and long term usage of such water on human health must be a studied and scientific papers be published on the same. This will increase public confidence besides further establishing the credibility of sea water as a sustainable alternative to natural spring water.

Similarly, herculean efforts are needed to safeguard the waters of Bahrain from waste getting generated in-land and finding its way to the sea. In order to do this disposable plastic must be removed from every walk of life as it can have extreme detrimental impact on the health of seas, marine life and biodiversity of the beaches surrounding Bahrain. The seriousness of the waste in the seas can be understood by the fact that plastic takes 600 years to fully decompose in the sea, whereas fishing lines take 400 years to completely disappear and styrofoam on the other hand takes 50 years to wither away in the seas. These are but just a few examples as the seas around Bahrain are taking brunt in the form of many more varieties of non-biodegradable waste that will either wash up ashore or end up destroying fragile marine ecology.

A nations identity and well-being is only as well preserved as the well-being of its immediate environment. In the case of Bahrain the seas surrounding the nation are its identity and source of prosperity and their well-being means well-being of Bahrain.

89,742,254

1,928,531

64,251,727

Deaths

Recovered:

New cases

New deaths +399,071

+7,412

Country Total cases

new cases

Total deaths

New Deaths

Total recovered

Active cases

Egypt 147,810 8,085 117,529 22,196

Saudi Arabia

363,692 +110 6,286 +4 355,382 2,024

UAE 227,702 +2,998 702 +5 203,660 23,340

Kuwait 153,900 +427 942 +2 148,728 4,230

Oman 130,070 1,505 122,556 6,009

Qatar 145,672 +206 246 142,572 2,854

Middle East

Country Total cases Total deaths

1 USA 22,529,117 379,120

2 India 10,451,339 151,048

3 Brazil 8,034,358 201,843

4 Russia 3,379,103 61,381

5 UK 3,017,409 80,868

6 France 2,747,135 67,431

7 Turkey 2,317,118 22,631

8 Italy 2,257,866 78,394

9 Spain 2,050,360 51,874

10 Germany 1,902,025 40,633

11 Colombia 1,755,568 45,431

12 Argentina 1,703,352 44,273

13 Mexico 1,507,931 132,069

14 Poland 1,376,389 31,011

G l o b a l t a l l y

C O V I D - 1 9 : C o u n t r i e s w o r s t a f f e c t e d

Figures as of closing

News in brief u The US Justice Department charged three Sri Lankans with supporting

terrorism for their participation in the 2019 Islamic State Easter attack that killed 268 people. The department said the three were part of the “ISIS in Sri Lanka” group behind the attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels in three cities on the Christian holiday on April 21,

2019. The Islamic State claimed responsibility and called the well-planned attacks a retaliation for Western coalition actions against the group in Syria.

u Unidentified gunmen burst into a wake in the central Mexican city of Celaya and shot dead nine people, authorities said, one of the worst outbreaks of violence to hit the country during the past few weeks. One person was also wounded in the attack outside a house where the wake was being held in a neighborhood in the west of Celaya, the municipal government said in a statement.

u Three people were killed after an avalanche swept through a ski resort outside

the Arctic city of Norilsk overnight, Russian investigators said. The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it was notified at 00:30 local time (1730 GMT) that an avalanche had buried four buildings under snow at the Otdelnaya Gora ski complex in the

town of Talnakh, 25 kilometres (16 miles) north of Norilsk. Rescuers had recovered the bodies of a 38-year-old woman, her 18-month-old child and 45-year-old husband. A 14-year-old was found alive and hospitalised with frostbite.

u Google said it had pulled the Parler app from its mobile store for allowing “egregious content” that could incite deadly violence like that seen at the US Capitol. The Parler social network has become a haven for far-right personalities who say they have been censored by other social media platforms. “We’re aware of continued posting in the Parler app that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the US,” Google said.

u Ten newborns were killed in a massive fire at a hospital in Maharashtra, India’s richest state, a doctor said, as leading politicians expressed grief at the loss of life. “The fire broke out at 2am (2030 GMT) today,” said Pramod Khandate, civil surgeon at Bhandara District General Hospital in the western state. Seven of the 17 children in the Sick Newborn Care Unit were rescued, Khandate told ANI. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thakre ordered a probe into the incident.

US charges 3 Sri Lankans over 2019 IS Easter attacks

Avalanche kills three at Russian Arctic ski resort

Nine killed in armed attack on wake in central Mexico

Google pulls Parler from app shop for ‘egregious content’

Kim says US is North Korea’s ‘biggest enemy’North Korean leader says no matter who is in power in the US, the true nature of American policies towards Pyongyang never changes

• Kim’s latest comments came during his nine-hour work report to rare congress, spread across three days

AFP | Seoul

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the United States is his nu-clear-armed nation’s “biggest enemy”, state media reported yesterday, as he threw down the diplomatic gauntlet to the incoming administration of Joe Biden.

The declaration comes less than two weeks ahead of the new US president’s inaugura-tion and after a tumultuous re-lationship between Kim and the outgoing leader Donald Trump.

Kim and Trump first engaged in a war of words and mutual threats, before an extraordinary

diplomatic bromance that fea-tured headline-grabbing sum-mits and declarations of love by the US president.

But little substantive pro-gress was made, with the pro-cess deadlocked after their February 2019 meeting in Ha-noi broke down over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return.

The North “should focus and be developed on subverting the US, the biggest obstacle for our revolution and our biggest en-emy”, Kim told the five-yearly congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, the official KCNA news agency reported.

“No matter who is in pow-er, the true nature of its policy against North Korea will never change,” it quoted him as saying, without mentioning Biden by name.

“The check has come due on the Singapore and Hanoi Sum-mits,” tweeted Ankit Panda of

the Carnegie Endowment. “And the Biden administration gets to pick up the tab.”

The change of leadership in Washington presents a chal-lenge for Pyongyang, which has previously called Biden a “rabid dog”, while he characterised Kim as a “thug” during the pres-idential debates.

The US is expected to return to more orthodox diplomatic approaches under Biden, such as insisting on extensive pro-gress at working-level talks be-fore any leaders’ summit can be considered.

Kim “sees a stalemate that won’t change anytime soon”, said Harry Kazianis of the Center for the National Interest.

The process with Trump was brokered by South Korean Pres-ident Moon Jae-in, but Kim said Seoul was in breach of inter-Ko-rean agreements and “and dis-regarding our warnings that it should stop joint military drills with the US”.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) speaks during the third day of the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang

India to continue export of medicines, including vaccines: ModiReuters | New Delhi

Indian Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi said yesterday the nation would continue to export medicines, including vaccines, as companies have ramped up production.

The country, with the high-est number of infections in the world after the United States, is developing two indigenous COVID-19 vaccines.

“The world is not only wait-ing for India’s vaccines but is also keenly watching how In-dia handles the world’s biggest vaccination program,” Modi said in an annual address to the overseas Indians.

“Being the biggest pharmacy of the world, India had supplied medicines to the needy across the globe in the past and it is doing it today as well.”

India is the world’s biggest vaccine maker. Its pharmaceu-

tical industry has been freeing up capacity and pushing ahead with investments to help sup-port a global vaccination cam-paign.

Health secretary Rajesh Bhu-shan earlier this month said there was no ban on vaccine exports, following media re-ports that the government had imposed restrictions to ensure domestic vaccine requirements

were met first.Modi said India used to im-

port protective equipment kits, masks, ventilators and testing kits but today the na-tion is not only self-reliant but also exporting some of these products.

COVID-19 infections are de-creasing in India, which saw a daily peak of nearly 98,000 cases in September.

Queen Elizabeth and husband receive COVID-19 vaccinesReuters | London

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and her husband Phil-ip, both in their nineties, have received vaccinations against COVID-19, Bucking-ham Palace said.

“The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have to-day received COVID-19 vac-cinations,” the palace said in a statement. The Queen is 94 years old and Philip is 99, putting them in the pri-ority category in Britain’s coronavirus vaccine rollout.

A royal source said the vaccines were administered by a household doctor at the queen’s Windsor Castle residence, adding that she made the news public to counter any speculation.

With a highly transmis-sible new variant of the virus surging across Brit-ain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has shuttered the economy and is rushing out vaccines in a bid to stem the spread of the pandemic.

The government plans to vaccinate the elderly, the vulnerable and frontline workers - around 15 million people - by mid-February, to ease a new strict lockdown imposed after a spike in cas-es to daily records.

Britain has the world’s fifth-highest official death toll from COVID-19 at nearly 80,000, and the 1,325 deaths reported within 28 days of a positive test on Friday sur-passed the previous daily record toll from last April.

Narendra Modi

Queen Elizabeth

Pope Francis

Indonesian plane crashes after take-off with 62 aboardThe Sriwijaya Air Boeing 737-500 headed to Pontianak in Indonesia crashed into the sea minutes after taking off from Jakarta

• Navy vessels deployed to look for the aircraft

Reuters | Jakarta

A Sriwijaya Air plane crashed into the sea yesterday minutes after taking off from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on a domestic flight with 62 people on board, and their fate was not known.

The Boeing 737-500, en route to Pon-tianak in West Kalimantan, disappeared from radar screens after taking off just after 2.30 pm (0730 GMT) - 30 minutes after the scheduled time because of heavy rain.

Indonesian Transport Minister Budi Kar-ya told a news conference that 62 people had been aboard Flight SJ 182, including 12 crew. The detik.com website quoted him as saying the plane crashed near Laki Island, some 20 km (12 miles) from the airport.

Rescue agency Basarnas said in a state-ment it would send a team to the Thousand Islands area to help in the search for victims “after the crash of Sriwijaya Air SJ 182”.

All those on board were Indonesian, In-donesia’s transport safety committee said.

Indonesia’s Navy had pinpointed the site of the missing aircraft and ships had been sent there, a Navy official said. Authorities did not say whether they believed there were survivors.

Indonesian airline Sriwijaya Air’s chief executive, Jefferson Irwin Jauwena, told a news conference that the plane had been in good condition before the flight.

The nearly 27-year-old Boeing 737-500 was much older than Boeing’s prob-lem-plagued 737 MAX model, one of which crashed off Jakarta in late 2018, killing all 189 people aboard the Lion Air flight. Older 737 models are widely flown and do not have the system implicated in the MAX safety crisis.

A Boeing spokeswoman said, “We are aware of media reports from Jakarta, and are closely monitoring the situation. We are working to gather more information”.

Reliable tracking service Flightradar24 said the Boeing jet took off at 2:36 p.m. lo-

cal time (0736 GMT) and climbed to reach 10,900 feet within four minutes. It then began a steep descent and stopped trans-mitting data 21 seconds later.

A transport ministry spokeswoman said air traffic control at Soekarno-Hatta Inter-national Airport had asked the pilot why the plane was heading northwest instead of on its expected flight path just seconds before it disappeared. There were no im-mediate clues on what may have caused the

sudden descent and safety experts stress most air accidents are caused by a cocktail of factors that can take months to establish.

Distraught relativesIndonesian television channels showed

pictures of suspected wreckage.“We found some cables, a piece of jeans,

and pieces of metal on the water,” Zulkifli, a security official, told CNNIndonesia.com.

Distraught relatives waited at Pontianak, around 740 km (460 miles) from Jakarta.

Yaman Zai, a father of three children who were aboard the plane with their mother, said that he was at the airport in Pontianak waiting for them, when he heard the news.

“I will never meet her again,” he said, holding up a photo of his oldest daughter.

Indonesia’s KNKT safety agency was ex-pected to launch an immediate investiga-tion. The U.S. National Safety Transporta-tion Board will automatically be part of the probe, since the plane was designed and built in the United States.

Founded in 2003, Jakarta-based Sriwi-jaya Air group flies largely within Indo-nesia. The airline has a solid safety record until now, with no onboard casualties in four incidents recorded on the Aviation Safety Network database.

A security personnel stands in front of a sign for a crisis centre for Sriwijaya Air flight SJY182 at the Soekarno-Hatta international airport near JakarthaThe time has come

for Bahrain to draw up a national action

plan that presses for reduction of

pollution from land and seeks to

draw international collaboration to

reduce pollution from sea itself

through the ships using commercial

corridors

Joe Biden called Kim Jong Un a “thug” dur-ing the election cam-paign. In 2019 North Korea called Biden a

“rabid dog” that need-ed to be “beaten to

death with a stick”

KNOW WHAT

Being the biggest pharmacy of the world, India had

supplied medicines to the needy across the globe in the past and it is doing it today as

wellNARENDRA MODI

Sriwijaya Air flight lost more than 10,000 feet of altitude in

less than one minute, four min-utes after it took off from the Soekarno-Hatta International

Airport in Jakarta. Its last known location was at 11,000

feet

KNOW WHAT

India to start COVID-19 vaccination drive from January 16Reuters | New Delhi

India will start its COVID-19 vaccination drive from Jan. 16 with priority given to about 30 million health-care and frontline workers, a government statement said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the prepar-edness for COVID-19 vac-cination programme yes-terday, it said. India hopes to inoculate 300 million of its 1.35 billion people free of charge in the first six to eight months of this year.

After healthcare and frontline workers, the vac-cines will be given to “those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidi-ties, numbering around 2.7 million,” the statement said.

Pope Francis to have COVID-19 vaccine as early as next week

Reuters | Vatican City

Pope Francis said yesterday he planned to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as early as next week and urged everyone to get a shot, to protect not only their own lives but those of others.

“I believe that ethically every-one should take the vaccine,” the Pope said in an interview with TV station Canale 5. “It is an ethical choice because you are gambling with your health, with your life, but you are also gambling with the lives of others.”

Vatican City, the smallest in-dependent county in the world, home to about 450 people includ-ing Pope Francis, has said it will shortly launch its own vaccination campaign against the coronavirus.

THE PERSON WHO CAN BRING THE SPIRIT OF LAUGHTER INTO A ROOM IS INDEED BLESSEDBENNETT CERF

QUOTE OF THE DAY

SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2021

49BC 1776 1839 1946TODAY IN

HISTORYJulius Caesar defies the Roman Senate and cross-es the Rubicon, uttering “alea iacta est” (the die is cast), signaling the start of civil war which would lead to his appointment as Roman dictator for life

“Common Sense” Pam-phlet by Thomas Paine published, advocating American independence

Tea from India 1st arrives in the United Kingdom

UN General Assembly meets for 1st time in London

Bahrain surrounded by polluted seas

SRIRAJ KOTA

TOP

4TWEETS

04

03

01

If the world trusts In-dia, one of the impor-tant reasons is the Indi-an diaspora. World over, people have seen our diaspora’s accomplish-ments and through them, seen glimpses of India’s glorious culture as well as ethos.

@narendramodi

Our hospitals are un-der more pressure than at any other time since the start of the pandemic, and infection rates continue to soar at an alarming rate. The vaccine rollout has given us renewed hope, but it’s critical for now we stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.

@BorisJohnson

From working with unions as San Fran-cisco’s District Attorney, to helping author the Do-mestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in the U.S. Senate, I’ve always fought for workers. And so will the economic team we an-nounced today.

@KamalaHarris

My administration will get right to work distributing emer-gency aid swiftly and equitably. Our focus will be on the small business-es on Main Street — not those that are wealthy and well-connected.

@JoeBiden

Disclaimer: (Views expressed by columnists are personal and need not necessarily reflect our

editorial stances)

02

Bahrain derives its name from the beautiful Arabic connotation “al-bahrayn” or two seas which essentially mean the meeting point of sweet water from natural springs at one end and the salt water from the sea’s on the other end, thereby giving a unique identity to the nation. The nation comprising of the Bahrain main island and an archipelago of 30 smaller islands finds its identity and history interwoven with the sea’s surrounding it and yet today the very same sea waters are exposed to immense pollution in the form of plastic and other waste that threatens to forever change the ecology and biodiversity of the marine life.

The extent of the pollution in the seas can be gauged by the amounts of litter and garbage getting washed up ashore. Many previous beach clean-up initiatives have found that on an average 300 kilos of waste can be found on a 1.6 km stretch of beach in Bahrain. This is not sur-prising considering the fact that at any given time nearly 46,000 tonnes of plastic waste and other debris is floating in a sq. Mile of the ocean. Underwater aquifers originating from Saudi Arabia bring sweet water under the sea to Bahrain. Out of these aquifers categorised as high, medium and low, only medium aquifers need no pre-usage treatment before consumption. At one time there were 220 natural springs in Bahrain. But now almost all have dried up necessitating ground water extraction which too is drying up in many parts. Sea water pollu-tion remains the root cause in all these deplorable circumstances.

According to Water Research Institute (WRI), Bahrain figures at the top of the list of 167 coun-tries that are set to become se-verely water stressed by 2040. The same situation took shape in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) in 1972 wherein the rate of consump-tion surpassed the rate of water resource replenishment result-ing in the MENA nations having to rely on heavy desalinisation to supplement their water re-sources. This has made MENA the largest desalinisation mar-ket in the world. But nothing can replace an original and pure natural resource like water and desalinisation is the second best option fraught with pollution related problems.

Today MENA region desalinis-es water for drinking purposes from the Arabian (Persian) Gulf region which also happens to be the busiest shipping lanes with one ship passing through the straits every 6 minutes. In fact world’s 40 per cent of oil transportation takes place through this route, the Strait of Hormuz for example see’s 15.5 million barrels of oil transport every day. All this makes the waters extremely prone to pollution as the oil tankers release oil laced ballast waters and water that has been used to clean the on-board oil storage tanks. This is made worse by pollution origination from drilling platforms and maritime accidents resulting in oil spills. The same waters are taken for desalinisation and for human consumption which can cause enormous health issues as the water is extremely carcinogenic due to presence of heavy metals.

The time has come for Bahrain to draw up a national action plan that presses for reduction of pollution from land and seeks to draw inter-national collaboration to reduce pollution from sea itself through the ships using commercial corridors. The Kingdom must create consensus on the need to realise the current threat perception level posed to the environment and human health on account of rising pollution levels of the seas. The desalinised water samples must be subjected to stringent quality tests and long term usage of such water on human health must be a studied and scientific papers be published on the same. This will increase public confidence besides further establishing the credibility of sea water as a sustainable alternative to natural spring water.

Similarly, herculean efforts are needed to safeguard the waters of Bahrain from waste getting generated in-land and finding its way to the sea. In order to do this disposable plastic must be removed from every walk of life as it can have extreme detrimental impact on the health of seas, marine life and biodiversity of the beaches surrounding Bahrain. The seriousness of the waste in the seas can be understood by the fact that plastic takes 600 years to fully decompose in the sea, whereas fishing lines take 400 years to completely disappear and styrofoam on the other hand takes 50 years to wither away in the seas. These are but just a few examples as the seas around Bahrain are taking brunt in the form of many more varieties of non-biodegradable waste that will either wash up ashore or end up destroying fragile marine ecology.

A nations identity and well-being is only as well preserved as the well-being of its immediate environment. In the case of Bahrain the seas surrounding the nation are its identity and source of prosperity and their well-being means well-being of Bahrain.

89,742,254

1,928,531

64,251,727

Deaths

Recovered:

New cases

New deaths +399,071

+7,412

Country Total cases

new cases

Total deaths

New Deaths

Total recovered

Active cases

Egypt 147,810 8,085 117,529 22,196

Saudi Arabia

363,692 +110 6,286 +4 355,382 2,024

UAE 227,702 +2,998 702 +5 203,660 23,340

Kuwait 153,900 +427 942 +2 148,728 4,230

Oman 130,070 1,505 122,556 6,009

Qatar 145,672 +206 246 142,572 2,854

Middle East

Country Total cases Total deaths

1 USA 22,529,117 379,120

2 India 10,451,339 151,048

3 Brazil 8,034,358 201,843

4 Russia 3,379,103 61,381

5 UK 3,017,409 80,868

6 France 2,747,135 67,431

7 Turkey 2,317,118 22,631

8 Italy 2,257,866 78,394

9 Spain 2,050,360 51,874

10 Germany 1,902,025 40,633

11 Colombia 1,755,568 45,431

12 Argentina 1,703,352 44,273

13 Mexico 1,507,931 132,069

14 Poland 1,376,389 31,011

G l o b a l t a l l y

C O V I D - 1 9 : C o u n t r i e s w o r s t a f f e c t e d

Figures as of closing

News in brief u The US Justice Department charged three Sri Lankans with supporting

terrorism for their participation in the 2019 Islamic State Easter attack that killed 268 people. The department said the three were part of the “ISIS in Sri Lanka” group behind the attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels in three cities on the Christian holiday on April 21,

2019. The Islamic State claimed responsibility and called the well-planned attacks a retaliation for Western coalition actions against the group in Syria.

u Unidentified gunmen burst into a wake in the central Mexican city of Celaya and shot dead nine people, authorities said, one of the worst outbreaks of violence to hit the country during the past few weeks. One person was also wounded in the attack outside a house where the wake was being held in a neighborhood in the west of Celaya, the municipal government said in a statement.

u Three people were killed after an avalanche swept through a ski resort outside

the Arctic city of Norilsk overnight, Russian investigators said. The Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said it was notified at 00:30 local time (1730 GMT) that an avalanche had buried four buildings under snow at the Otdelnaya Gora ski complex in the

town of Talnakh, 25 kilometres (16 miles) north of Norilsk. Rescuers had recovered the bodies of a 38-year-old woman, her 18-month-old child and 45-year-old husband. A 14-year-old was found alive and hospitalised with frostbite.

u Google said it had pulled the Parler app from its mobile store for allowing “egregious content” that could incite deadly violence like that seen at the US Capitol. The Parler social network has become a haven for far-right personalities who say they have been censored by other social media platforms. “We’re aware of continued posting in the Parler app that seeks to incite ongoing violence in the US,” Google said.

u Ten newborns were killed in a massive fire at a hospital in Maharashtra, India’s richest state, a doctor said, as leading politicians expressed grief at the loss of life. “The fire broke out at 2am (2030 GMT) today,” said Pramod Khandate, civil surgeon at Bhandara District General Hospital in the western state. Seven of the 17 children in the Sick Newborn Care Unit were rescued, Khandate told ANI. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thakre ordered a probe into the incident.

US charges 3 Sri Lankans over 2019 IS Easter attacks

Avalanche kills three at Russian Arctic ski resort

Nine killed in armed attack on wake in central Mexico

Google pulls Parler from app shop for ‘egregious content’

Kim says US is North Korea’s ‘biggest enemy’North Korean leader says no matter who is in power in the US, the true nature of American policies towards Pyongyang never changes

• Kim’s latest comments came during his nine-hour work report to rare congress, spread across three days

AFP | Seoul

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the United States is his nu-clear-armed nation’s “biggest enemy”, state media reported yesterday, as he threw down the diplomatic gauntlet to the incoming administration of Joe Biden.

The declaration comes less than two weeks ahead of the new US president’s inaugura-tion and after a tumultuous re-lationship between Kim and the outgoing leader Donald Trump.

Kim and Trump first engaged in a war of words and mutual threats, before an extraordinary

diplomatic bromance that fea-tured headline-grabbing sum-mits and declarations of love by the US president.

But little substantive pro-gress was made, with the pro-cess deadlocked after their February 2019 meeting in Ha-noi broke down over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return.

The North “should focus and be developed on subverting the US, the biggest obstacle for our revolution and our biggest en-emy”, Kim told the five-yearly congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, the official KCNA news agency reported.

“No matter who is in pow-er, the true nature of its policy against North Korea will never change,” it quoted him as saying, without mentioning Biden by name.

“The check has come due on the Singapore and Hanoi Sum-mits,” tweeted Ankit Panda of

the Carnegie Endowment. “And the Biden administration gets to pick up the tab.”

The change of leadership in Washington presents a chal-lenge for Pyongyang, which has previously called Biden a “rabid dog”, while he characterised Kim as a “thug” during the pres-idential debates.

The US is expected to return to more orthodox diplomatic approaches under Biden, such as insisting on extensive pro-gress at working-level talks be-fore any leaders’ summit can be considered.

Kim “sees a stalemate that won’t change anytime soon”, said Harry Kazianis of the Center for the National Interest.

The process with Trump was brokered by South Korean Pres-ident Moon Jae-in, but Kim said Seoul was in breach of inter-Ko-rean agreements and “and dis-regarding our warnings that it should stop joint military drills with the US”.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (C) speaks during the third day of the 8th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang

India to continue export of medicines, including vaccines: ModiReuters | New Delhi

Indian Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi said yesterday the nation would continue to export medicines, including vaccines, as companies have ramped up production.