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

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020 / ZUL HIJJAH 22, 1441 AH emergency number 112 NO. 17455 20 PAGES 150 FILS

basketball

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markets

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Detailed demographics bill submittedPutin daughter inoculated

Skepticism as Russia clears virus vaccineSpeaker signs on

By Saeed Mahmoud SalehArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: National As-sembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim, MP Ahmed Al-Fadl, MP Rakan Al-Nisf, MP Nasser Al-Doussari and MP Khalid Al-Shatti submitted a bill on demograph-ic issue.

The bill states that the Council of Ministers will specify the maximum number of required expatriate workers in accordance with the results of researches and studies. The council will then specify the re-quired number of expatriates who will be brought to Kuwait every year, as well as their specializa-tions and qualifi cations. Diplomatic, judiciary, po-litical and military delegations are exempted from the specifi ed number; in addition to GCC aviation workers, domestic laborers, wives and children of Kuwaiti citizens, and the workers hired by foreign companies executing infrastructure projects.

The council will terminate the excess expatriate work-ers in the public, private and oil sectors within five years. There will be no residency renewal for the abovemen-tioned expatriates, except for cases defined in the execu-tive decree of the bill.

The Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) will estab-lish and administer a fund for supporting expatriate work-ers, cover the plane ticket cost for those deported, and compensate those who will be injured or die because of job hazards. This compensation does not nullify the civil and criminal responsibilities of the employer in case the laborer is injured or he dies due to job hazards.

Resources for financing the fund include fees to be collected from expatriate workers in the form of stamps worth KD 5 for the issuance of visa, vehicle registration and driving license. The expatriates will also pay KD 3 in the form of stamps for renewing these documents; as well as the issuance and renewal of the Civil ID, while KD 1 will be collected over the price of every plane ticket booked by an expatriate worker, and KD 1 to be added to the electricity and water bills.

The State will allocate part of the collected fees and fines for the expatiates fund according to this Bill and Law No. 17/1959.

DonationsThe fund will receive donations from Zakat House, dip-

lomatic delegations and civil society organizations. The gains resulting from investing the money of the fund will be used to increase its capital.

Apart from Law No. 1/1999 on health insurance for for-eigners, the employers in private and oil sectors will pay fees for the health insurance of their expatriate workers. The fees will be specified in the executive decree of this bill; taking into consideration the qualifications and spe-cializations of the expatriates.

Companies owned by the government or those where it has shares are exempted from aforementioned fees.

Banks will update PAM about the regular payment and withdrawal of salaries, especially if the process is execut-ed through one or a few number of ATMs but the number of beneficiaries is big. PAM must investigate the issue in order to see if the company hires workers without provid-ing them jobs.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry will inform PAM about companies which do not send their budget for two years.

An Arbitration Section will be formed in the First In-stance Court to be chaired by one judge and two arbitra-tors – each of them representing the two disputing parties (laborer and employer). The verdict can be appealed at the Court of Cassation in case the disputed amount is more than KD 5,000.

Whoever violates the organizing decisions issued by the Council of Ministers concerning this bill will be im-prisoned for three years and fined KD 1,000 maximum for importing each labor illegally.

Whoever attempts to urge, call or threat any public offi-cial to help him accomplish an illegal transaction concern-ing this bill will be imprisoned for three years and fined KD 1,000 maximum.

Any employer proven to be hiring workers for visa trad-ing will be imprisoned for two years maximum and fined equal to the money he collected from the workers or any of these two penalties. The Public Prosecution is tasked to investigate the crimes stipulated in this bill.

In another development, the parliamentary Complaints and Petitions Committee on Monday met with representatives of the Society of Workers in Education Technology. They discussed the petition that the society submitted on Sept 16, 2019 about Civil Service Commission (CSC) Decision No. 16/2019 to grant allowances to support staff in schools.

The complaint focused on discrimination between the workers in schools and their colleagues in the main admin-istration districts at the Ministry of Education, which led to low turnout of workers in the central administration sites.

PlausibleThe committee listened to the presentation of the repre-

sentatives of the society and promised to study them and present plausible recommendations.

Chairman of the committee MP Mubarak Al-Hajraf, Rapporteur MP Naif Al-Merdas and members Sa’ad Al-Khanfour and MP Soud Sguwai’er attended the meeting as well as the representatives of CSC.

On the other hand, MP Osama Al-Shaheen forwarded queries to Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior and State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh about the quantity of nitrate ammonia stored in Kuwait. He wants to know where this dangerous substance was imported, pur-pose and place of storage.

He asked about the institution tasked to store such a substance, if the storage rooms meet the security and safe-ty criteria, and if the storages are near the residential areas.

Meanwhile, MP Muhammad Al-Dallal forwarded que-ries to Minister of Finance Barrak Al-Shitan about the circulars issued by the Central Bank of Kuwait to imple-ment the decision of the Council of Ministers to tackle the economic consequences of coronavirus (COVID-19) including the provision of low interest loans and financial facilities.

He asked Al-Shitan to provide him with copies of cir-culars issued in this regard by every bank, list of the loan applications submitted by citizens and companies to the banks, total amount of requested money compared to the granted amount, and time needed to accomplish each re-quest.

Also, MP Ahmed Al-Fadl disclosed that he submitted a proposal to the Council of Ministers to task the Public Authority for Manpower to exempt the owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from depositing the full salary of expatriate workers to their bank accounts in case the owners supplied the authority with written agreement between the employer and worker to reduce the salary due to the coronavirus crisis.

MOSCOW, Aug 11, (AP): Rus-sia on Tuesday became the first country to clear a coronavirus vaccine and declare it ready for use, despite international skepticism. President Vladi-mir Putin said that one of his daughters has already been in-oculated.

Putin emphasized that the vac-cine underwent the necessary tests and has proven efficient, offering a lasting immunity from the coronavirus. However, sci-entists at home and abroad have been sounding the alarm that the rush to start using the vaccine before Phase 3 trials – which normally last for months and involve thousands of people – could backfire.

Speaking at a government meeting Tuesday, Putin said that the vaccine has undergone proper testing and is safe.

“I know it has proven efficient and forms a stable immunity, and I would like to repeat that it has passed all the necessary tests,” he said. “We must be grateful to those who made that first step very important for our country and the entire world.”

The Russian leader added that one of his two adult daugh-ters has received two shots of the vaccine. “She has taken part in the experiment,” Putin said.

Putin said that his daughter had a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius (100.4ºF) on the day of the first vaccine injection, and then it dropped to just over 37 degrees Celsius (98.6ºF) on the following day. After the second shot she again had a slight in-crease in temperature, but then it was all over.

“She’s feeling well and has high number of antibodies,” Putin added. He didn’t specify which of his two daughters – Maria or Katerina – received the vaccine.

The Health Ministry said in Tuesday’s statement that the vac-cine is expected to provide im-munity from the coronavirus for up to two years.

InoculatedPutin emphasized that vacci-

nation will be voluntary, Russian authorities have said that medical workers, teachers and other risk groups will be the first to be in-oculated. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said that the vaccination of doctors could start as early as this month.

Professor Alexander Gints-burg, head of the Gamaleya Insti-tute that developed the vaccine, said that vaccination will start while the Phase 3 trials continue. He said that initially there will be only enough doses to conduct vaccination in 10-15 of Russia’s 85 regions, according to the In-terfax news agency.

Russian officials have said that large-scale production of the vac-cine will start in September, and mass vaccination may begin as early as October.

Russia has registered 897,599 coronavirus cases, including 15,131 deaths.

When the pandemic struck Russia, Putin ordered state offi-cials to shorten the time of clini-cal trials for potential coronavi-rus vaccines.

Becoming the first country in the world to develop a vaccine was a matter of national pres-tige for the Kremlin as it tries to assert the image of Russia as a global power. State television stations and other media have praised scientists working on it and presented the work as the envy of other nations.

Gintsburg raised eyebrows in May when he said that he and other researchers tried the vac-cine on themselves.

Human studies started June 17 among 76 volunteers. Half were injected with a vaccine in liquid form and the other half with a vaccine that came as soluble powder. Some in the first half were recruited from the mili-tary, which raised concerns that servicemen may have been pres-sured to participate.

Amid Russia’s rush to become the first to create a vaccine, the US, Britain and Canada last month accused Russia of using hackers to steal vaccine research from Western labs.

As the trials were declared completed, questions arose about the vaccine’s safety and effec-tiveness. Some experts scoffed at Russian authorities’ assurances that the vaccine drug produced the desired immune response and caused no significant side effects, pointing out that such claims need to be backed by published scientific data.

Protesters celebrate after removing a concrete slab from a barrier to open a road leading to the parliament building during demonstrations following Tuesday’s massive explosion which devastated Beirut, Lebanon

on Aug 10. (AP) – See Page 6

Cabinet holds weekly meetingKUWAIT CITY, Aug 11, (KUNA): The Cabinet held on Monday its weekly meeting virtually under the chair-manship of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sa-bah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

At the onset of the meeting, the Prime Minister briefed the ministers on the stable health condition of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, say-ing that it is improving, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anas Al-Saleh said after the meeting.

The ministers expressed their deep satisfaction about His Highness the Amir’s health, praying to Allah the Almighty to bless His Highness the Amir with a speedy recovery and full well-being, and his safe return to the homeland in the near future.

The ministers were apprised of the directives of His Highness the Deputy Amir and the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on providing aid and relief materials to the brotherly Lebanese people to face the consequences of the huge blast that rocked Bei-rut port last Tuesday.

His Highness the Prime Minister informed the Cabi-net of the results of the Kuwaiti delegation’s participa-tion in the donors ‘conference on Lebanon that was held via videoconference Monday.

The videoconference, co-organized by France and the UN, gathered a number of world leaders and pledged to provide urgent assistance worth about $300 million to help the Lebanese people overcome the repercussions of the Beirut port explosion.

During the conference, Kuwait declared the realloca-tion of the remaining amounts from the prior obligations of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development worth $30 million, in agreement with the Lebanese government to cover the costs of rebuilding the damage resulting from the blast, in addition to urgent medical and food aid worth $11million, Al-Saleh, also Minster of State for Cabinet Affairs, said.

The Cabinet expresses its sincere condolences to Leb-anon and the families of the victims in particular, stress-ing Kuwait’s solidarity with brothers in Lebanon and its backing to every effort that contributes to mitigating the impacts of this humanitarian disaster, he noted.

In addition, the Cabinet is following up with deep

sorrow the effects resulting from the massive blast in the Beirut port and the consequent of severe damage that claimed the lives of dozens of people, and injured thousands of persons, in addition to several missing and severe material damage.

The ministers lauded the precautionary preparations and organized efforts made by Saudi Arabia to ensure means of perfuming easily rituals of pilgrimage, point-ing to the wonderful and safe organization amid the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

They said this organization reflected a civilized image and a good example of brothers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and their keenness on maintaining the safety and health of pilgrims.

Al-Saleh informed the Cabinet of the application of “Hawiyati”, means my identity, launched by the Public Authority for Civil Information that enables both resi-dents and nationals to issue a digital ID to be used at all government and non-government bodies.

He pointed out that this application is a digital alterna-tive to the ID and will facilitate services of both expats and citizens. The ministers extolled this application and good efforts made by the authority.

The Cabinet, meanwhile, listened to a presentation by Minister of Health Dr Sheikh Bassel Al-Sabah on the developments of country’s health conditions, the de-tails and statistics pertaining to the injuries, recoveries, deaths and those who are receiving treatment.

The Cabinet was informed of the recommendations by the Legal Affairs Committee on a draft law regarding the residence of foreigners that aims to address and set-tle the deficiencies and gaps shown by the reality of ap-plying foreigners’ residence law issued six decades ago.

The draft included a set of provisions aimed at boost-ing coordination of procedures and provisions of super-vision on circumventing the law and combating trade in residence and illegal profiting therein.

Furthermore, it was briefed on a draft law on prac-ticing medicine, its auxiliary professions, the rights of patients and health facilities that aim to regulate the practice of these professions and legalize medical trans-actions at their institutions and their human staff as well as the rights of patients.

In this file photo taken on July 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures during a video conference meeting at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow in Russia. Putin says that a coronavirus vaccine developed in the coun-try has been registered for use and one of his daughters has already been inoculated. (AP)

US military probes blast claim

No attack on border post: KuwaitKUWAIT CITY, Aug 11, (Agencies): Kuwait’s army has denied reports about a sabotage attack on a northern border post.

The army’s General Staff stressed, in a statement early Tuesday, that the northern borders are stable and secure.

The US military, meanwhile, said it was investi-gating a militant claim by a newly formed Iraqi Shi-ite militant group of a bombing at the Iraq-Kuwait border. Both the Iraqi and Kuwaiti military denied an attack had taken place.

A little-known group, called Ashab al-Kahf, claimed in an overnight statement it destroyed “equipment and vehicles belonging to the American enemy” in a bombing targeting a border crossing south of the Iraqi city of Basra.

The group later published an 11-second video clip it claimed showed the blast, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors militant groups. The out-of-focus video shows what appeared to be an explosion and lights in the distance, with a man speaking in Arabic. The Associated Press could not immediately verify the video.

US Army Maj John Rigsbee, a Central Command spokesman, said the American military was looking into reports of the explosion.

Early Tuesday, the Iraqi military denied the at-tack took place and called the video a fabrication intended to “mislead public opinion.” A Kuwait military statement carried by the state-run KUNA

news agency similarly denied reports about “a sabo-tage attack on a northern border post.”

Kuwait has been a staunch US ally since the 1991 Gulf War expelled Saddam Hussein’s occupy-ing Iraqi forces. Today, Kuwait hosts some 13,500 American troops, many at Camp Arifjan, home to the forward command of US Army Central.

Since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam and the later war against the Islamic State group, American troops and contractors sometimes travel by road with equipment and supplies between the two countries.

Ashab al-Kahf means “Companions of the Cave” in Arabic, referring to a Christian and Islamic story about youths escaping religious persecution hiding in a cave for hundreds of years.

The group has emerged alongside renewed threats by Shiite militias amid rising tensions between the US and Iran. In January, an American drone strike killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad. Tehran re-sponded with a ballistic missile attack that wounded dozens of American troops at a military base in Iraq.

The SITE Intelligence Group has referred to Ashab al-Kahf as “reportedly an Iranian proxy unit.” The group initially threatened US forces in April and claimed an attack on a convoy in July in Iraq’s Salaheddin province.

On Aug 9, another explosion targeted a convoy in the southern Dhi Qar province, reportedly caused minor damage.

Newswatch

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s Min-istry of Health said Tuesday that 668 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), while four patients died of the disease in the past 24 hours.

The fresh fi gures bring the country’s total number of con-fi rmed infections and death toll to 73,068 and 486 respectively, the Health Ministry’s Spokesman Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad told KUNA.

The new cases include 432 Ku-waiti citizens, or 64.67 percent, and 236 non-Kuwaitis, or 35.33 percent, he said.

Of the overall cases, 117 pa-tients are in intensive care units and 7,890 people are receiving due medical treatment, Dr Al-Sanad added. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

KUWAIT CITY: Statistics is-sued by the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) show the number of illiterate ‘non-Kuwaitis’ workers who have reached the age of 60, is 183,397, and now they face the possibility of their residence permit not be-ing renewed in line with the new government proposal to amend the demographics.

The statistics also indicated the number of illiterate workers among the expatriates is 108,973, and the number of those who reached the age of sixty is 74,424, of whom 65,376 work in the private sec-tor and 9,048 in the government sector, while the total number of non-Kuwaiti employees registered in the private sector is 1,656,983 workers. As compared to 120,208 expatriates working in the govern-ment sector.

❑ ❑ ❑

KUWAIT CITY: There are four ways of gradual economic re-covery amid a looming oil price rebound, opined the chief of a Kuwaiti planning agency.

Addressing a virtual forum on the fi nancial and economic ramifi cations and challenges of the novel coronavirus, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development (SCPD) Dr Khaled Mahdi listed the four approaches as abrupt recovery, abrupt recovery asso-ciated with a steady stage, dual recovery and slow long-term re-covery. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s Finance Minister Barrak Al-Sheetan said on Monday the “government has not taken any decisions that impact the pockets of nationals, their salaries or their rights.”

Speaking to KUNA, he said social media reports of contact made between his ministry and others in June were in relation to suggestions circulated by the Cabinet, which tasked the minis-try to coordinate with its counter-parts on the matter.

Salaries and incentives were not affected by any means whatsoever in the fi nancial year 2020-2021 draft budget presented by the gov-ernment to the National Assem-bly, he underlined. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

KUWAIT CITY: Empowering Kuwait youth and developing their capabilities by involving them in various national pro-grams presented and supported by Kuwaits Youth Public Au-thority (YPA) comes at the top of the Authority’s priorities, YPA Director General Abdulrahman Al-Mutairi said on Tuesday.

He said in a press statement that as YPA celebrates the International Youth Day on Aug 12, the Author-ity encourages young people to join volunteer work in new various envi-ronments, seeking new experiences and getting the appreciation of people, especially during the coro-navirus pandemic time, as Kuwaiti youth presented the most wonderful role models in serving their country. (KUNA)

LOCALARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

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Photo by Bassam Abu ShanabKuwaitis and expatriates shopping at Souq Mubarakiya recently during the evening time.

150 Kuwaitis and expatriates participate

Kuwaiti Banks Club holdsblood donation campaign

MoI completes 1,377,582 e-transactions

MoE to hire teachers of 12 specialties

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: The Kuwaiti Banks Club organized a blood donation campaign, in cooperation with the Central Blood Bank at its headquarters in Jabriya region, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

Director-General of the Kuwaiti Banks Club, Abbas Al-Balushi, said, “We organ-ize blood donation campaigns annually, and this campaign is the eighth in a row. This year has been very different, given the num-ber of donors which is very big – 150 Ku-waitis and expatriates of all nationalities.” However, this initiative comes within the framework of periodic social activities.

“Since the beginning of our announce-ment of organizing the campaign in the so-cial media, we found a lot of support and solidarity, and we thank everyone who sup-ported the campaign – the donors (citizens

and residents) and we also thank the Blood Bank for their hospitality and good recep-tion,” he said.

Al-Balushi went on to say, “On this occa-sion, I would like to express my condolenc-es to our brothers, the Lebanese people, for their grave misfortune, and I say to them, “May God bless and reward you, and we wish the injured a speedy recovery.”

Al-Balushi pointed to the solidarity and praised everyone for support, including the employees, their families, their children, their relatives and many segments of soci-ety, and everyone who cooperated, stress-ing that the love of the homeland is a duty for everyone and our role is to answer what he called ‘the call’, and every human being who lives on this planet must be loyal and show love for the homeland.

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: In conjunction with the start of the fi rst day of the second semester of the twelfth grade through ‘dis-tance learning’, the Ministry of Education announced it needs teachers of 12 special-ties for the next academic year 2020/2021 to be hired locally, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The daily quoting education sources the priority will be for Kuwaiti teachers with the required specializations, the children of Kuwaiti women married to foreign men, the Bedoun and citizens of the Gulf Coopera-tion Council countries.

The ministry has set conditions for ap-pointment which includes three years ex-perience for all subjects, with the exception for music education and decoration (two years).

Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr Saud Al-Harbi told the daily the renewal of the term of the As-sistant Undersecretary for Special and Spe-cifi c Education Dr Bader Al-Mutairi and the Assistant Undersecretary for the Legal Sector Dr Abdul-Mohsen Al-Huwaila are subject to evaluation and study before de-ciding to renew their tenure for another four years.

On the sidelines of an inspection tour of twelfth grade students on the fi rst day of their study, accompanied by Acting Under-secretary of the ministry Faisal Al-Maqsid, Al-Harbi said, “We are in front of a historic and decisive opportunity to kick-start the education wheel and it is also an opportu-

nity for us to re-evaluate efforts and an op-portunity for educators to deal with crises.”

Al-Harbi pointed out that the second se-mester ends on September 17, and the 12th grade certifi cates will be distributed on Sep-tember 20, 2020.

❑ ❑ ❑E-transactions: Since the launching of its online services at the beginning of March to avoid the repercussions of the corona pan-demic, the Ministry of Interior completed 1,377,582 transactions through its website, reports Al-Jarida daily quoting sources from the ministry.

Sources revealed the number of com-pleted transactions during the fi rst week of August reached 48,307 including 6,523 for workers in the private sector, 2,057 for do-mestic workers, in addition to 6,468 proce-dures for renewing dependent visas.

Sources affi rmed the ministry has pre-pared a mechanism that will be implement-ed in early September, which includes car-rying out large-scale security campaigns, in coordination with security and government agencies, to control residency violators and deport them; noting that the ministry’s esti-mated about 126,000 violators.

Sources added the proposed mechanism provides for raiding and prosecuting viola-tors through the implementation of closures of the expatriate areas with the establish-ment of security points at their entrances, and the issuance of search and raid orders for some sites; especially those suspected of using marginal labor.

People waiting to donate blood at the Blood Bank.

Photos by Bassam Abu ShanabSome of the people donating blood.

MEED sheds light on Kuwaitefforts to contain COVID-19

Magazine divides measures into two parts

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: In the context of following up on the developments of the coronavirus in the Gulf countries, ‘MEED’ maga-zine reviewed the reper-cussions of the epidemic in Kuwait until the fi rst week of this month, saying the number of confi rmed cases infections until Aug 3 was 67,911, while the num-ber of people recovering from the epidemic reached 59,213 cases, reports Al-Anba daily quoting https://www.meed.com.

The magazine shed light on the efforts exerted by Kuwait in this regard which it divided into two parts -- the fi rst measures taken to reduce the impact of the economic crisis in the coun-try, while the second focuses on measures to confront the spread of the epidemic.

The magazine listed below the measures taken by Kuwait to mini-mize the impact of the economic crisis.

On August 1: Kuwait barred com-mercial fl ights from 31 countries deemed high-risk and banned them until further notice. The countries in-cluded India, Pakistan, Egypt, the Phil-ippines, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, China, Iran, Brazil, Mexico, Italy and Iraq. Egypt Air is also halting fl ights to the country.

Tests■ July 26: Free Covid-19 tests were

offered at government hospitals for citizens and expatriates.

■ July 20: Cultural and art events by the National Council of Culture, Art and Letters were postponed to 2021 due to Covid-19. The organization was considering a virtual platform to host the Kuwait International Book Fair be-fore the end of November.

■ June 18: Public sector employ-ees were not allowed to return to work from offi ces following week due to growth in Covid-19 cases.

■ May 18: Kuwait made wearing masks in public mandatory, with jail time threatened for violators.

Measures were taken to minimize the economic crisis.

■ July 28: Directorate-General of Civil Aviation said airlines operating at Kuwait International airport will start commercial fl ights to 20 countries on August 1. The airlines that were to start operations were those of the UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon, Qatar, Jor-dan, Egypt, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ethiopia, the UK, Turkey, Iran, Nepal, Switzerland, Germany, Azerbaijan, the Philippines and India, DGCA’s director of the air transport department, Abdullah al-Rajhi, said.

■ July 27: The Kuwaiti govern-ment prepared to reopen its airport for commercial fl ights on August 1. Travelers were told to register their fl ight details at www.kuwaitmosaf-er.com to schedule an appointment for their Covid-19 tests, which most countries are asking of their arriving passengers. Kuwait International airport was to reopen on August 1 at 30 percent capacity under the fi rst of a three-phase plan.

■ July 23: Phase three of Ku-wait’s reopening to begin from July 28. Curfew hours were shortened to 9 pm-3 am and worshippers were al-lowed to attend Eid al-Adha prayers

Offi cials during the meeting.

Programs to allow users to monitor prices

UCCS discusses ongoing work on itsonline platform during joint meeting

at select mosques. ■ July 21: Civil aviation author-

ity released guidelines to ensure the safe resumption of air travel in August, with measures includ-ing random testing of passengers, mandatory use of face masks, and maintaining physical distance. De-parting travelers are required to pro-vide negative Covid-19 certifi cates before boarding and the manual checking of tickets will be replaced with digital scanning to avoid physi-cal contact.

■ July 18: Public Authority for Industry (PAI) says it will estab-lish a six-month stock of protective masks. The daily local production of masks was estimated at more than fi ve million, with 522 tons of raw materials currently available at industrial facilities and 133 tons of imported raw materials to increase production capacity. The number of mask manufacturing factories since

the outbreak has increased from one to nine.

■ July 15: Kuwait University to begin new academic year online on August 9.

■ July 13: The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, the Kuwait Municipality and Public Authority for Food and Nutrition to prepare a comprehensive plan to avoid over-crowding during slaughtering and distributing sacrifi ces around Eid al-Adha. Kuwait Oil Company con-fi rms budgetary cut of 25 per cent and operating expense reduction of 18 per cent for the 2020/21 fi s-cal year as part of measures to boost “state fi nancial stability”.

The national oil company also confirmed projects had been can-celled as part of austerity meas-ures.

■ July 8: Ministry of Finance ap-proves disbursement of KD 240.5m to 70,000 Kuwaitis following a re-

quest submitted by the Public Au-thority for Manpower.

■ July 2: Kuwait International airport to reopen from August 1, and will operate at 30 per cent ca-pacity for six months, capping out at 10,000 passengers and 100 daily fl ights. The country plans to raise capacity to 60 per cent in February 2021 and full capacity in August 2021.

■ June 25: Second of fi ve-phase plan to restore normalcy by Septem-ber to begin on June 30 and span three weeks; curfew hours reduced from 8pm – 5am. Public and private sectors will resume work with less than 30 per cent capacity, in addi-tion to the resumption of work in the fi nancial and construction sectors, malls and retail shops, parks, and pick-ups from restaurants and ca-fes. Lockdown of Farwaniya, Jleeb al-Shuyoukh and Mahboula to con-tinue until further notice.

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: The Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies (UCCS) Monday held a joint meet-ing to present the initial vision of the union’s online platform, which is an important national project prepared by UCCS in coordination with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Ministry of Social Affairs, and with the cooperation of the com-pany called “Business Concept”, which is one of market leaders in the fi eld of information technology and software solutions in Kuwait, reports Al-Rai daily.

The meeting was attended by UCCS offi cials and representatives from several concerned bodies led by the UCCS Chairman Fahad Al-Kash-ti, who applauded the online platform as it represents the fi rst phase of the project, which includes the app and the website in addition to the sup-porting programs that will allow us-ers to monitor prices instantly.

Among the objectives of this plat-form are portals linking UCCS and the suppliers as well as UCCS and

cooperative societies, price monitor-ing portal for the UCCS, and an inter-face for the consumers. The platform will also allow stock and fi nancial management, human resources, sales, and media content control.

Al-Kashti explained that the plat-form is already being operated by employees and supervisors. All pric-es have been added to the application so that supervisors can verify the cor-rect prices in all cooperative societies in Kuwait.

The union is currently preparing for the second phase of the project, which is to update the system in or-der to enable consumers to monitor prices in cooperative societies.

He stressed that such national pro-jects are of interest to the public, and are important to strengthen the ef-forts of state agencies to activate the role of cooperative societies in the necessary oversight, to control viola-tions and refer them to legal authori-ties, and to provide a more transpar-ent commercial environment.

Al-Kashti indicated about a follow

up with the heads of cooperative so-cieties to explain the work mecha-nism of the UCCS e-platform, and discuss all opinions and proposals of the heads of cooperative societies.

Others present at the meeting were the Assistant Undersecretary for the Cooperative Sector at the Ministry of Social Affairs Salem Al-Rashidi, As-sistant Undersecretary for Technical Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Muhammad Al-Enezi, and Assistant Undersecretary for Su-pervision and Consumer Protection Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry Eid Al-Rasheedi.

From USSC, Treasurer Khaled Hamid Al-Mutairi, Chairman of the Financial and Administrative Com-mittee Muhammad Raghian Al-Azmi, Chairman of the Media and Public Relations Committee Salah Salman Al-Azmi, Chairman of the Group Import and Purchase Com-mittee, and Chairman of the Price Follow-up and Control Committee, Abdullah Abdul-Redha Hassan were present at the meeting.

LOCALARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

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A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION

DIWANIYA‘Something justifiable when Beirut at crossroads’

‘France role likely to increase in future Lebanon political scene’“JUST 48 hours after the disastrous Beirut explosion, French President Emmanuel Macron was in the streets of Beirut embrac-ing and reassuring people: ‘Lebanon is not alone’. Then he said in his press conference, in Arabic: ‘Ahebeck Ya Lebnan’ (I love you, Lebanon). For their part, the Lebanese people sent a petition via the Internet signed by 60 thousand Lebanese requesting him to return the French Mandate to Lebanon, “ columnist and attorney Riyad Al-Sanea’a wrote for Annahar daily.

“Macron was listen-ing to the Lebanese, angry at their politi-cians, with attentive ears. It seemed as if he was more interested than anyone else in solving Lebanon’s problems. Macron wants to reinforce the impression among the Lebanese and others that France is still the father and the terms of reference.

“The frustration and loss that appears on the faces of Lebanon’s youth, men and women, was the most prominent motive for sticking to anything and searching for any savior, regardless of the objectivity of the request and the capabilities of the savior, Macron or someone else.

“And with a logic that seemed unusual, at least in the language of diplomacy; Macron asserted that the French aid will not be deliv-ered to the corrupt, as if it is expressing a lack of confidence in the current government.

“Once again, under the crowd’s chants of cheering at the front, enthusiasm took Macron to the brink of diplomacy, where he said that he came to express solidarity with the people, to provide aid and medicine, and to discuss the issue of corruption.

“France and Lebanon are linked by close relations dating back to the 16th century, when an agreement was reached between King Francois I and the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman Al-Qanouni, (during the time when Lebanon was part of the Ottoman Khelafat), regarding placing the Christians of the East under the protection of France.

“Sultan Suleiman Al-Qanouni actually enjoyed a good relationship with the King of France, but he felt a kind of tutelage over France, whose king sought the help of the Ottomans to protect him from attacks by the Spanish.

“Since then, France has supported Lebanon, striving for its stability, development, and preservation of civil and constitutional life, moving away from sectarianism, and ensur-

ing that Christians and others practice their religious rituals without restriction or expo-sure from others.

“Upon the conclusion of the visit, the French President called for an ‘international investigation’ to be conducted into the Beirut port explosion, while the Lebanese military judiciary announced the start of a campaign of arrests and interrogations in connection with the port explosion last Tuesday.

“‘An open and transparent international investigation must be conducted to prevent matters from being hidden first and to prevent suspicion,” Macron said at a press confer-ence.

“The French measure seems very coura-geous, as the Lebanese prevented their minis-ters, who went to the streets in order to inspect the effects of the explosion; it is Macron who toured without Lebanese minis-ters accompanying him and received com-plaints from people and support, which indi-cates that the French love for Lebanon has exposed the popular anger of politicians.

“Therefore, it is not surprising that France will turn into a major player in the Lebanese internal political scene in the future, espe-cially with the presence of a great Iranian influence in Lebanon through Hezbollah.

“However, as long as Lebanon is currently at a historical crossroads, in my own opinion, resorting to France at least to guarantee a sustainable development, culture and global progress under a French patronage, shall rep-resent something justifiable.”

Also:“The wounded Lebanon, and its defeated

people, has been afflicted with politicians who they do not love or are loved by,” colum-nist, the general manager of Scope Satellite TV Channel and former MP Talal Al-Saeed wrote for Annahar daily.

“These are the same politicians who used to shift this people from one misfortune to another. In other words, immediately follow-ing the exit from one calamity, these politi-cians cast them into another, as such, we pray to Almighty God to heal this people, cure their patients, and bestow His mercy upon their dead and compensate them for their losses.

“From the horror of the explosion of Beirut, the bodies of the dead went flying in the air, and distant buildings collapsed.

“We pray to Almighty God to help this persecuted people and its country which has never tasted the flavor of stability for a long time. This people is currently suffering due to hunger, poverty, unemployment and to make matters worse all this happens in the midst of the corona pandemic to such an extent the

country’s hospitals is not in a position to accommodate all.

“The economic deficit, and the decline of the price of the lira against the dollar, will eat the savings of the ordinary Lebanese people, and eliminate the middle class, so those who survive the crisis will be either the rich or poor.

“Then the dollar disappeared from the mar-ket by a man-made action, so the rich and the poor are equal, and unemployment worsened until conditions tightened for the people to go out to the street to protest, or to express their opinion, and yesterday’s terrible explosion destroyed all hope of life for the Lebanese people.

“Even if the explosion had not happened the day before ‘yesterday’, it would have on another day, since the politicians had stored them to destroy Lebanon and its people one day.

“It is the government that became weak and no longer protected its people, not only the current government, but even previous governments, and unless the government is strong, the people will not rally around it.

“In other words, the Lebanese politicians are destroying their country by their own hands, while the poor pay the price. Every Lebanese is currently searching for a country to migrate to looking for a strong local party in the wake of the government weakness and inability to provide the necessary protection for its people.

“Anyway, Lebanon needs to be assisted for the sake of its people, because the people are innocent and they deserve all assistance.

“In other words, during these critical cir-cumstances, Lebanon, should not be left alone, because this country under the current situation will not be able to put the ordeal behind them.”

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“There has been increased talk in the last phase about the need to accelerate dealing with the demographic imbalance after the COVID-19 crisis exposed many negative aspects caused by the residency dealers who flooded the country with marginal and ran-dom labor. They brought thousands of expa-triates via fake companies and projects and then left them to face their unknown fate. Some of them succeeded in getting work and others continued looking for a livelihood. At the same time, these people put pressure on the services provided by the government including health, electricity and water servic-es”, Meshari Mulfi Al-Metraqah wrote for Aljarida daily.

“In fact, any discussion on this subject is frustrating due to which the problem has not been resolved for years. The National

Committee for Addressing Demographics was established five years ago, but nothing has been achieved on the ground. Government officials are talking about rem-edying the imbalance in the demographics but this will take many years. This means the absence of will and seriousness in facing this big problem, leaving not only the door open for residency trading but also other doors to bring in unqualified workers to the country through sub-companies that bring them to work in government, small and medium enterprises.

“The demographic crisis is closely related to the spread of unemployment among Kuwaitis, as expatriates have dominated for years many jobs that could have been taken up by citizens. Although the state is striving to implement the Kuwaitization policy, there are many government agencies that are still tweeting out of the flock. They employ expa-triates instead of Kuwaitis and bring in labor from abroad despite the presence of thou-sands who registered at the Civil Service Commission for employment. This raises confusion and surprise about the seriousness in facing crucial issues like dysfunctional demographics and cunning jobs for the citi-zens.

“Kuwait is facing a real challenge in the future, as the population at present is 4.8 mil-lion, of whom Kuwaitis represent 1.45 mil-lion or 30 percent and non-Kuwaitis 3.35 million or 70 percent. This highlights a major imbalance in the demographics.

“We need to embark on immediate reform before it is too late. It should begin with stop-ping the recruitment of workers from abroad and setting standards to be based on compe-tence, skill and need. It is necessary to apply the quota system so that one nationality does not dominate the expatriate workers. Thus, the path is clear and the solutions are there.

“However, the question remains - Will the government take this matter seriously and work hard to solve this fateful problem? Or will the story remain suspended for many years such that the demographic crisis will remain even after the COVID-19 crisis pass-es?”

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“The minister of interior and the undersec-retary -- one or both of them -- must be aware of the importance of putting an end to name tampering, which is taking place in front the eyes of the Ministry of Interior,” columnist Talal Al-Saeed wrote for Al-Seyassah daily.

“You will find the name of the policeman, non-commissioned officer, or even the officer written on his military uniform completely different from his real name on the civil ID.

“Someone chooses a family name, a tribe,

or a surname as he likes and goes to ‘Tailors in Sharq’, then puts it on the right side of his suit, and there is no account or watchdog, so if you want to complain or report about it, you are reporting a person who does not exist -- this military or that whose name is com-pletely different with the civil ID!

“If we go further than that, the basis for granting citizenship to his father is the name that came in the official papers, and natural-ization was made on the basis of it, but if he was writing it on his official suit as his real name, then this is a clear fraud, the national-ity investigation unit must re-investigate the granting of citizenship.

“According to his name, which he cher-ishes and writes it willingly on his uniform, he does not deserve citizenship in the first place. Thus, he would have presented danger-ous information on a gold plate to the compe-tent authorities, and admitted without coer-cion to forgery.

“The Ministry of Interior must summon those groups of forgers through the national-ity investigation unit, and ask about the names that they wrote on their chests at ‘Tailors of Sharq’, and thus the results will astonish the investigators.”

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“The controversial Malaysian Fund case lurked behind a group of old and new issues, which have become almost common,” colum-nist Iman Jawhar Hayat wrote for Al-Qabas daily.

“Now, controversy is being raised over the issue of the appointment of a woman as a judge, and some extremist claimants have rejected this decision with flimsy and superfi-cial arguments that were previously used to address the right of women to run for the elections and be elected.

“Then, these opponents became the benefi-ciaries of the deficient reason and religion, as described by the so-called perfectionist, whose preoccupation in this period is flirting with their electoral bases, or perhaps they are just a tool to distract the public from more important matters!

“Women’s equality is one of the 17 goals approved by the United Nations to reach eco-nomic growth that takes into account the social, environmental and demographic dimensions, and to achieve the expected sus-tainable development by the year 2030.

“In September 2015, Kuwait committed itself to implementing these goals completely and without exception, and they were approved by the Kuwaiti Parliament, and for which workshops and conferences were held.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb

Al-Sane’a

We’re forced to work in severe hot andhumid weather, laments manual labor

Contractors, employers violating 11am-4 pm ban rule

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: A number of construction workers lamented the circumstances that force them to work under severe weather conditions such as high temperatures and humidity, reports Al-Qabas daily.

During an interview with the daily, several workers affirmed that their eagerness to earn their livelihood forces them to yield to the timings set by the contractors or employers even if the timings fall

within the banned period during the day, which exposes them to severe suffering due to the severe weather conditions.

Regarding the continued violation by some business entities of the law that prohibits outside work during the period between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm, the workers of a project stressed that they are forced to work during this period.

They explained that they were isolated in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh and Khaitan areas throughout the coronavirus crisis. After the lockdown

ended, they returned to work but are required to work more within less time in order not to fall into the contractual fines window.

The workers said, “We do not bear the fines of the violations imposed by the Public Authority for Manpower. The contrac-tor or the company is referred for investigation after the inspection team visits the site. However, the workers are incapable of doing anything in this regard in the end.

Meanwhile, a source from the National Center for Occupational Safety affirmed that efforts are ongoing to ensure the requirements for employ-ment are applied.

He said the most promi-nent violations are record-ed in the new construction areas such as West Abdullah Al-Mubarak area in addition to indus-trial zones or ongoing construction sites.

The sources explained that there is a large per-centage of projects, espe-cially of the government, that are committed to the decision to ban work dur-ing the period between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm. However, many of such violations are committed by some subcontractors or construction workers working in private plots. The workers complain about the contractor’s lack of commitment, but unfor-tunately most of their resi-dencies are not under the contractor who holds the contract.

Fees for patients outstanding: embassy

Kuwait, US medical centers discuss payment of duesKUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: The US embassy in the country confirmed that Kuwait is in discussions with medical centers in the United States regarding the payment of fees for health services provided to Kuwaiti patients there, reports Al-Anba daily.

In an exclusive statement to the daily, the embassy pointed out that the United States government is helping facilitate talks about the

payment. It added: “We are looking forward to reaching a solution between the Kuwaiti government and the American medical centers, and we are confident of achieving that.”

The embassy affirmed that the United States provides highly distin-guished health care services. “We are proud to provide these vital ser-vices to many. The history of health care between the United States and

Kuwait goes back more than a cen-tury, through the establishment of the American Hospital in 1914. We are looking for ways to expand the volume of medical cooperation between our two countries, espe-cially around coronavirus (covid-19). We look forward to discussing these opportunities for coordination between us in the next strategic dia-logue,” the embassy added.

Register till Aug 13 for salaries: ministryKUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: The Ministry of Social Affairs announced that the ‘Kuwaitis without salaries’ committee which looks into affairs of citizens who were affected by the ‘Corona’ pandemic had until yesterday received 4,726 appli-cations, and said the window for receiv-ing applications will close next Thursday, Aug 13, 2020, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Abdulaziz Shuaib, con-firmed the committee has members from several government agencies to examine

these requests and called on the affected citizens to register before the deadline.

He added, the electronic platform was established to receive citizens who were affected either due to the disruption of work, ending contracts, interruption of unemployment allowance, or failure to complete recruitment procedures due to stoppage of work in government agen-cies, pointing out that the committee will discuss all cases and put in place appro-priate solutions in coordination with the concerned government authorities.

Photo by Mohammad MorsiWorshippers observing the SOPs, maintaining social distance, wearing masks, bringing own prayer mat at one of

the mosques during prayer in a Kuwaiti suburb.

LOCALARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

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‘Services in many secondary schools lacking’

Teachers complain about frequent interruption of NetKUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: On the sec-ond day of online education for the supplementary school year 2019-2020, complaints from educational staff in schools about the frequent interruption of the Internet escalated, reports Al-Rai daily.

The staff told the daily that this per-manent defect caused confusion in the

virtual lessons and prevented the school day from continuing well.

Teachers indicated that services in many secondary schools are lacking, while the presence of educational staff in this environment does not make any sense; especially since the teaching mechanism is carried out in their per-sonal devices, accessories, communi-

cation networks, and other service-related matters.

They emphasized that some schools lack sterilization tools, have problems with maintenance and air condition-ing, and shortage of cleaning workers that made the work environment com-pletely unsuitable for continuing the school day electronically.

The teachers said: “Most of the virtual class time is devoted to the explanation and not to students’ ques-tions or participation. Here, the teach-er cannot measure the extent of stu-dents’ interaction, acceptance of the new educational system and the extent of their understanding, but through the experience which is still

nascent and difficult to judge. We can say their interaction is good up to this point, although there are no concrete indications for that.”

They explained that the absenteeism rate is normal in most schools and the number of those who failed to partici-pate in the classes is within the accept-able range, but the regulation will be

applied to them and the grading deduc-tion clause will be activated despite the registration of the educational seminar, and the student’s ability to enter it any time; stressing that the grading distribution mechanism in this system is distributed as follows: par-ticipation, attendance, homework and reports.

Dutch Ambassador Frans Potuyt.

Austrian Ambassador Sigurd Pacher.

Photo by Rizk TaufiqThe operation being performed.

‘Corona pandemic’ reveals major weaknesses of industry in Kuwait

Industrialists facing challenges

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: The corona pan-demic revealed major weaknesses in the joints of industry in Kuwait. The supply chains of the major manufactur-ing raw materials have stopped due to difficul-ties in importing and shipping, as the air-ports and seaports remain closed in sever-al industrial countries of the suppliers, espe-cially China, India, and Europe, reports Al-Qabas daily.

Industrial sources were quoted as saying if Kuwait did not have distinguished diplomatic relations with the countries of the world that enabled her import from abroad, repercussions of the pandemic would have been more serious in the months of March, April and May, espe-cially in fulfilling the coun-try’s need for necessary con-sumer goods, especially food commodities and simple pro-tective items such as masks and sterilizers, because Kuwait does not have any of these basic materials that go into its manufacture, while all of them are imported.

The same sources stated the challenges facing industrialists in Kuwait, as they have been for half a century and more, citing the lack of workable industrial lands. They noted the business environment in the industrial sector is still repulsive and dis-couraging.

TransferThey explained that many

industrialists for years have endeavored to transfer their work to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman due to the ease of business environment in those countries, and the avail-ability of developed industrial lands in vast areas.

They indicated the establish-ment of any industrial project in Kuwait is very expensive, and the largest part of the cost is in the land on which the project will be built, as there are no suitable lands in the possession of the Public Authority for Industry for that purpose. The prices of indus-trial plots are very expensive in terms of rental price per meter or the price of the usufruct right, which is sold for millions of dinars.

With regard to small and medium industrial enterprises, the sources saw that they die even before they are born, as the issuance of industrial license is subject to a lease contract for the location of the project, and the value of one rental meter is no less than 5 or 6 dinars. They indi-cated the investor provides a place to establish his project and pays his fee up to 4 months before the start of the operation process until the arrival of the manufacturing equipment imported from abroad.

ImportThey pointed out that small

industrial enterprises known as “craft” do not have any advan-tage at all, in terms of providing lands or exemptions from cus-toms duties from any raw materi-als that they import from outside the GCC countries, in addition to the fact that the investor must pay 5 per cent of the total value of the imported invoice.

They added that investors of small crafts in Kuwait are treated in government transactions as if they are investors of large indus-trial establishments, and they are the ones that are supposed to receive special treatment and care from concerned authorities in order to grow and expand their business in the market.

A Kuwaiti entrepreneur informed that the dream of young industrialists in Kuwait to obtain lands to settle their existing proj-ects has become like “tracking the mirage,” especially those supported by the National Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises Development, as 10 percent of Shadadiyah plots were

Operation 100 pct successful: Dr Al-Sulaimi

Surgery and Obesity Dept performsrare, complicated surgery on womanKUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: The Consultant General for Surgery and Obesity at the Sabah Hospital, Dr Muhammad Al-Sulaimi, announced a medical team under the supervision of consultant of general surgery and head of the surgery department at the Sabah Hospital, Dr. Mubarak Al-Kandari, successfully conducted a rare and complicated surgery at the hospital on a patient who was in her 50s and was suffering from abdomen and colon problems, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

Al-Sulaimi said the operation was 100 percent successful, and the patient began to improve quickly and reassuringly, indicating that she had undergone two surgeries in 2009 and 2011 suffering from health

problems such as high blood pres-sure, diabetes, mental illness and severe depression.

He pointed out that this kind of complex surgery is performed abroad through two surgical teams, one devoted to colectomy, and the other to trim the adhesions, but here the whole operation was performed in both parts by only one team, and it succeeded in ridding the patient of all her problems.

She does not suffer from any com-plications at the present time.

Dr. Muhammad Al-Sulaimi said that what has been accomplished by the medical team is a great success, and an important step that makes Kuwaiti doctors equal to their peers in medically advanced countries.

FM meets outgoing Dutch, Austrian envoysForeign Minister and Acting Defense Minister Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser Mohammad Al-Sabah received Tuesday Dutch Ambassador in Kuwait Frans Potuyt on the occasion of end-ing his tenure, and commended his contributions to boosting bilateral rela-tions.

Meanwhile, Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser

received Tuesday Austrian Ambassador in Kuwait Sigurd Pacher on the occa-sion of ending his tenure, and com-mended his contributions to boosting bilateral relations.

The meetings were attended by Assistant Foreign Minister for the Foreign Minister’s office Saleh Al-Loughani. (KUNA)

KUNA photosKNPC’s new fuel station in Sabah Al-Ahmad City.

KNPC opens ‘clean’ fuel station No. 140

The Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) opened yester-day a new fuel filling station in Sabah Al-Ahmad residential city bearing the number 140, which is the fifth station that the company has been operating in this city since last December, while work is underway to establish 4 other similar stations to meet the needs of its residents, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The company stated that the opening of this station comes

within the framework of the com-pany’s plan to establish 18 new fuel stations in various regions of the country as a first batch within a plan that includes the construc-tion of 100 stations to keep pace with the urban expansion in the new areas.

It indicated that 12 stations were opened, four in Jaber Al-Ahmad residential city, five in Sabah Al-Ahmad residential city, and one each in northwest Al-Sulaibikhat, Abdali farms and

Saad Al-Abdullah city.It stated that the new KNPC

station uses advanced solar ener-gy technology that enables it to produce clean energy that pro-vides 30% of the station’s need for electricity.

It also contains a steam recov-ery unit that captures vapors while filling the car’s tank with fuel, then condenses it and returns it to the tank, which contributes to pre-serving the environment.

allocated on paper for their benefit almost two years ago.

He explained that the most affected by the delay in the completion of the Shadadiyah project are the industrial entrepreneurs supported by the National Fund, as they pay thousands of dinars per month in rent for the headquarters of their factories, while they have large financial obligations toward suppliers and workers’ salaries.

ProjectsThis is in addition to the fact that

the special grace period given for a number of them to pay the fund financing installments has ended or it is nearing completion. This means they will face a new financial com-mitment that will compound the problems and may lead a number of the owners of these projects to default in payment, and thus enter into legal confrontation with the National Fund, and end up in prison.

He added the distribution of land to industrial entrepreneurs means dropping a large obligation such as rent, while it is treated as a facility transaction. Therefore, the entrepre-neur will be exempted from customs duties while importing raw materials from abroad, and be freed from large financial obligations transferred to support production quality, and to increase its capacity.

Industrial sources say that the Public Authority for Industry has had a legacy of persistent problems since it began its work in early 1997 while its specializations overlap with a number of state ministries such as Kuwait Municipality and Ministry of Public Works.

It has been charged with burdens that do not belong to the main objec-tives for which it was established. They pointed out that a number of activities entrusted to the authority have become a burden, including cut-ting and transporting milling tires, lands for storing slabs, lands for sand quarries (drakes), areas of general scrapes or car scrapes ... all of which are non-industrial activities, and are not within the authority’s jurisdic-tion.

An industrial source says: The industrial city of Shadadiyah includ-ed in the projects of the new Kuwait Vision 2035 has become like “quail

egg” the people hear about but do not see it. He quoted officials in the industry as stating that more than 1,000 industrial plots were to be delivered in this city before the end of 2019, then confirmed that it would open during the first quarter of 2020, and they finally announced that the handover would be the end of June of the current year, with the end of all appointments, but this city is still unseen.

He noted the construction, com-pletion, operation and maintenance of the infrastructure of the Shadadiya Industrial Zone”, with an area of 5.89 million square meters, is scheduled to contain more than 1,036 industrial plots, in addition to many services. Its objectives are divided into three main sectors: chemical, food, and multipurpose industries.

Industrialists said the corona pan-demic has revealed that it is possible to complete some industrial facility trans-actions in the Public Authority for Industry within hours, despite the sus-pension of government work and the absence of 95 percent of the employ-ees, while it used to take weeks before work was completed and employees were on the job in full number! This is evidence that bureaucracy experienced by the local industry can be eliminated, as it is man-made.

Sources said the Public Authority for Industry is still managed with traditional mentality, as dozens of industrial activities are suspended under the pretext that their number is large in the market, while no industrial country in the world clos-es its activities and refuses to issue licenses to practice, preserving it for some companies and suppliers. He stressed at the same time the need to reopen all closed activities and the market, and allow the industrialists to compete with each other for the benefit of consumers and the Kuwaiti market.

The Industry Authority created an account on the social networking site (Twitter) in February 2018 to report the most important developments in the establishment of Shadadiyah Industrial City, but the account stopped running one year after the news related to the project was reported. The last tweet on the account was in February 2019. Does

this mean that there is no new thing in the project for about a year and a half?

ObstaclesA number of industrialists in

Kuwait who were contacted summa-rized the problems and obstacles to the industry in Kuwait into 12 obsta-cles:

1- Lack of developed industrial lands for establishing new projects or expansions to increase production.

2- Bureaucracy in completing some industrialists’ transactions in the Industry Authority and related state bodies.

3- Non reliance on national prod-ucts in government projects and pref-erence for foreign goods.

4- No significant encouragement or facilities for the procedures of exporting Kuwaiti products abroad.

5- Lack of logistical support, such as the presence of warehouses to accommodate the production of some factories.

6- Environmental law is imported and suffocating and does not fit the nature of the industry in Kuwait.

7- Industrial craftsmen pay very high rents for not providing them with lands from the state.

8- Industrial crafts are not exempt-ed from customs duties, and those in charge of them pay 5 percent fees for raw materials they import from abroad.

9- The abundance of imports from abroad and dumping of Chinese, Indian and Turkish goods caused a number of local factories to suffer huge losses and to exit from the mar-ket.

10- There are no advanced govern-ment laboratories for examining products and conducting tests for the purpose of developing and promoting them.

11- Some of the decisions taken in Gulf countries have repercussions on the work of industrialists in Kuwait, indicating poor communication and coordination with government agen-cies responsible for the industrial sector with neighboring countries.

12 - Lack of workers’ cities and adequate housing for a large number of industrial facilities and crafts workers.

LOCALARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

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Bid to help out Lebanon

KSE launches ‘campaign’ torestore damaged buildingsKUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: The Ku-wait Society of Engineers (KSE), in cooperation with the Federation of Arab Engineers, headed by Kuwait, launched the campaign under the title ‘Arab Engineering’ in solidarity with Lebanon, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The aim of the campaign is to offer engineering and technical consulta-tions and some building materials to help Lebanon restore the buildings damaged by the Beirut Port blast, in addition to providing fi nancial sup-port through governmental and trade union organizations and institutions separately by each country.

The President of the Union and the President of the KSE, Engr Faisal Al-Atal, said during the emergency meeting of the heads of the engineer-ing societies and the executive offi ce of the Arab Engineers Federation, which was held via the ‘video-link “We thank the Arab engineers for their response to our invitation to hold this meeting and discuss launch-ing of the Arab engineering cam-paign to support brotherly Lebanon during its ordeal.

He pointed out 18 presidents and representatives of most Arab unions, societies, and engineering bodies that are members of the Federation and a number of members of the Ex-ecutive Offi ce refl ected their keen-ness to provide possible support to Lebanon.

In his speech, Al-Atal said, “We are keen to respond to any require-ment from colleagues in Lebanon,” and explained, “We have received from the brothers in Lebanon their need for some building materials such as glass, wood and aluminum.”

In turn, the KSE representative, Eng. Muhammad Al-Subaie, said the Kuwaiti engineers support any Arab decisions to help the brothers in Leb-anon, pointing out that their initiative includes three main axes, the fi rst is to provide immediate fi nancial sup-port through offi cial channels, and the second is to form an engineering survey team of experts to provides advice and technical support for the, and the third urged engineers and concerned authorities to cooperate with the syndicate in Lebanon.

Reconstruction

Engineer Faisal Al-Atal in his offi ce.

KFSD photoGDFD resumes study of the second supplementary semester.

Fire dept diploma coursesThe Public Relations and Media Department of the Directorate-Gen-eral of Fire Department (DGFD) announced the Human Resources Development Sector has resumed studies for the second supplementa-ry semester for the 2019-2020 aca-demic year for all courses held at the Firefi ghters Training Center, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

A fi re-fi ghting source explained the courses include Fire Engineering Diploma for Offi cers, Batch 25, Fire Engineers Diploma, Batch 26, Marine

Sergeant, Protection Inspector Ser-geant, Fire Trainer Sergeant, Mecha-nism Operator Sergeant, Machine Operator Sergeant and Airports, and Control Corporal Agent.

The administration said the period of study was seven academic weeks for the second supplementary semester, which began recently and will end on October 8t, 2020, through the use of Microsoft Teams for distance educa-tion in cooperation and coordination with the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training.

Many impounded vehicles stolen fromMunicipality yard ; ‘fence is improper’

Corruption cases pop up despite crackdown

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: A member of the Municipal Council Eng Ham-oud Al-Enezi says Kuwait Municipal-ity’s vehicle im-pound yard in Salmi area has been expe-riencing a series of thefts because the compound is not properly fenced and secured, reports Al-Qabas daily.

In a press statement, Eng. Al-Enezi indicated that the present location of the municipality’s ve-hicle impound yard is in the desert area where the roads are not paved and the area lacks services and security.

He stressed that some sites are not fenced and the ones that are fenced can be easily infi ltrated, adding there are cases of thefts and vehicle vandalism reported every month.

Eng Al-Enezi said he as-pires, through the Municipal Council, to secure the site and put a fence around it, especially since the current location holds about 5,000 thousand cars worth about KD fi ve million.

He urged the concerned offi cials to respond to the re-quirements of the workers in the center.

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Governor briefed: The Governor of Ahmadi, Sheikh Fawaz Al-Khaled, was briefed on the resumption of work for the second semes-ter for 2019/2020 academic year for the twelfth grade in which 6,200 governorate’s students participated, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The Governor thanked God Almighty and the great efforts exerted by the Gen-eral Director of the Ahmadi Educational Area, Mansour Al-Dayhani, and the region’s affi liates of various degrees and areas of specialization.

Al-Dayhani, also ex-pressed his thanks and ap-preciation to the Governor of Al-Ahmadi for his interest and diligent follow-up of the various aspects of the edu-cational process in the gov-ernorate, and referred to the very important instructions and directives given by the Governor during his meet-ing at the General Offi ce of the Ahmadi Governorate two weeks ago, which, he said, had the greatest impact.

Al-Daihani pointed out the offi cials of the Ahmadi Educational Area made in-spection visits to a number of schools, in order to look into the preparations and fol-low up the issue of distance education, through video-link classes and according to the prepared schedules and according to the plan of the public education sector at the Ministry of Education.

He praised the extraordi-nary efforts exerted by the department directors, educa-tional stage supervisors, and technical mentors for school offi cials and teachers, and for all those who made efforts to train male and female teach-ers in the area of video-link teaching in all secondary schools for boys and girls in the region.

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Corruption cases: Al-though the cases of corrup-tion keep popping up every now and then, this has not deterred others from indulg-ing in this dirty activity, re-ports Al-Anba daily.

In a new case, a director of a government department is charged with accepting cash as bribe to offer a contract to the company.

According to a source the Public Prosecution has or-dered the imprisonment of the suspect and the owner of the company for 21 days. They have been sent to the Central Prison pending in-vestigation.

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Surgeon sued: An uni-dentifi ed Syrian has fi led a complaint against a plastic surgeon accusing him of a failed surgery on his but-tocks, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The Syrian, according to what a security source told the daily, has fi led the com-plaint with the Salmiya Po-lice Station.

In his complaint the Syr-ian said he is not satisfi ed with the desired results. He said after the surgery he has lost his balance and unable to walk properly.

The signing of agreement in process.

Kuwait, Guyana ink ‘visa exemption’ agreementKuwait and Guyana has signed an agreement on mutual exemption of entry visas for diplomatic corps, and holders of special service passports, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement: The agreement was signed on behalf of Kuwait by the Undersecretary of the Ministry

Khaled Al-Jarallah, and on behalf of Guyana by Ambassador of the Guyana to Kuwait, Ambassador Dr Shamir Ali.

The signing ceremony was at-tended by Asst Undersecretary Protocol Affairs at the Foreign Ministry for Ambassador Dhari Al-Ajran and Assistant Undersecre-tary at the Foreign Ministry Offi ce

Ambassador Ayham Al-Omar.On the other hand, Al-Jarallah

met via video link the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the country, Tariq Al-Quni.

During the meeting, issues con-cerning bilateral relations between the two countries were discussed in addition to developments on the regional and international arenas.

Dept heads reshuffl e announced

MEW statistics show 28 % rise in power productionKUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: Sta-tistics issued by the Ministry of Electricity and Water concern-ing future expectations of the installed capacity of electric power stations in megawatts during the period from 2019 to 2024 will reach 23,798 thou-sand megawatts, which at the moment is 18,600 megawatts, meaning the rate of increase is expected to be 28 percent and future expectations for the maximum load from 2019 and 2026 is expected to be about 15,000 megawatts, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The statistics stated that the ministry’s plan to produce electricity includes many fu-ture projects that will be im-plemented by the ministry, in-cluding the Nuwaiseeb plant to produce 3,600 megawatts and 75 million gallons of water,

and the northern Az-Zour plant (the second and third stages) to produce 2,700 megawatts and 165 million gallons of water.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Oil and the Acting Minister of Electricity and Water Dr. Khaled Al-Fadhel said minis-terial decisions have been is-sued to reshuffl e the heads of departments in the electrical distribution networks sector as and when required.

The decisions include the transfer of Eng Ali Asad Ab-dul Karim, head of the opera-tion department in monitoring the electrical distribution net-works in Jahra governorate, to work as head of the Qurain de-partment (4) which falls under the supervision of Mubarak Al-Kabeer in the Customer Services Department, and the transfer of Eng for sub-control

in the city in the maintenance department – the monitoring and control sector.

It also includes the transfer of Eng Abdul Hadi Al-Sarraf, Head of the Overhead Power-lines Department in the Emer-gency Department of Distribu-tion Networks - Distribution Networks Sector to work as the Head of the Maintenance Department at the Sub-Control Center in Jabriya, Maintenance Department in the Monitoring and Control Sector, and the transfer of Engineer Muham-mad Yousef Al-Haddad, Head of Emergency Department in Hawalli Governorate, Distri-bution Networks Department to work as head of Port Abdul-lah Warehouse Section, Ware-house Department in Financial Affairs Sector.

MIDEASTARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

6

Lebanon Govt orderedto stay on as caretaker

‘Beirut could run out of bread’

BEIRUT, Aug 11, (Agen-cies): Lebanese President Michel Aoun has accepted the resignation of the coun-try’s government and asked it to stay on in a caretaker capacity until a new cabinet is formed.

A statement by the Lebanese Presidential Offi ce said President Aoun has received the written letter of resignation from Prime Minister Hasan Diab.

Earlier, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced his govern-ment resignation over public anger following a recent deadly explosion in Beirut.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s prime minis-ter stepped down from his job Monday in the wake of the catastrophic explo-sion in Beirut that has triggered public outrage, saying he has come to the con-clusion that corruption in the country is “bigger than the state.”

The move risks opening the way to dragged-out negotiations over a new Cabinet amid urgent calls for reform. It follows a weekend of anti-government protests after the Aug. 4 explosion in Beirut’s port that decimated the facil-ity and caused widespread destruction, killing at least 160 people and injuring about 6,000 others.

In a brief televised speech after three of his ministers resigned, Prime Minis-ter Hassan Diab said he and his govern-ment were stepping down.

“May God protect Lebanon,” he said, repeating the last phrase three times. As he spoke, protesters demon-strated in the streets near parliament for a third straight day. The moment typi-fi ed Lebanon’s political dilemma. Since October, there have been mass demon-strations demanding the departure of the entire sectarian-based leadership over entrenched corruption, incompe-tence and mismanagement.

But the ruling oligarchy has held onto power for so long – since the end of the civil war in 1990 – that it is dif-fi cult to fi nd a credible political fi gure untainted by connections to it.

Diab blamed corrupt politicians who preceded him for the “earthquake” that has hit Lebanon.

“They (the political class) should have been ashamed of themselves be-cause their corruption is what has led to this disaster that had been hidden for seven years,” he added.

“I have discovered that corruption is bigger than the state and that the state is paralyzed by this (ruling) clique and cannot confront it or get rid of it,” said Diab, who was a professor at the Amer-ican University of Beirut before he took the job.

After the catastrophe, Diab had sought to stay on for two months to organize new parliamentary elections and allow a map for reforms. But the pressure from within his own Cabinet proved to be too much. With the mass resignation, the call for early elections appears dead, so the same factions will debate on forming a new Cabinet.

Diab’s government was formed after his predecessor, Saad Hariri, stepped down in October in response to the dem-onstrations. It took months of bickering among the leadership factions before they settled on Diab. His government, which was dominated by the Hezbollah militant group and its allies and seen as one-sided, was basically doomed from the start, tasked with meeting demands for reform but made up of all the fac-tions that reformers want out.

Now the process must start again.“I hope that the caretaking period

will not be long because the country cannot take that. Lets hope a new gov-ernment will be formed quickly,” Pub-lic Works Minister Michel Najjar said. “An effective government is the least

we need to get out of this crisis.”The pressure from the streets - and

from French President Emmanuel Ma-cron, who visited Beirut last week after the blast - could push the political fac-tions to put aside their differences and form a unity government. Diab’s gov-ernment largely excluded Hezbollah’s opponents, the Eurasia Group said in an analysis, adding that the factions may now see the need to carry out greater reform.

The group said a government of in-dependent experts could be created, al-though Hezbollah is a main obstacle to that since it fears that would eventually lead to the group being forced out of the political system.

The weekend protests saw clashes with security forces fi ring tear gas at demonstrators.

The explosion is believed to have been caused by a fi re that ignited a 2,750-ton stockpile of highly volatile ammonium nitrate that had been stored at the port since 2013 with few safe-guards despite numerous warnings of the danger.

The result was a disaster that the Leb-anese people blame squarely on their leadership’s corruption and neglect. Losses from the explosion are estimated at $10 billion to $15 billion, with nearly 300,000 people left homeless.

On Monday, a French chemical ex-pert working at the shattered port told The Associated Press that his team is working to secure at least 20 potentially dangerous chemical containers there af-ter fi nding one that was leaking.

He also said there are fl ammable liquids in other containers as well as batteries and other products that could increase the risk of an explosion, de-scribing huge containers tossed around the port by the powerful blast. The ex-pert identifi ed himself only as Lt. An-thony in accordance with French gov-ernment policy.

The last decision by Diab’s govern-ment before its resignation was to refer the case of the explosion to the Su-preme Judicial Council, which handles crimes infringing on Lebanon’s nation-al security as well as political and state security crimes.

The Supreme Judicial Council is Lebanon’s top judicial body.

A judge on Monday questioned the heads of the country’s security agencies. Public Prosecutor Ghassan El Khoury questioned Maj. Gen. Tony Saliba, the head of State Security, according to state-run National News Agency. It gave no further details, but other generals are scheduled to be questioned.

State Security had compiled a report about the dangers of storing the mate-rial at the port and sent a copy to the offi ces of the president and prime min-ister on July 20. The investigation is focused on how the ammonium nitrate came to be stored at the port and why nothing was done about it.

Najjar, the public works minister, said he learned about the material’s presence 24 hours before the blast, receiving a report about the material and holding a meeting with port offi cials before calling its chief, Hassan Korayetem.

“I wrote a report in the morning the explosion happened in the evening,” Najjar said. Asked why he only learned of it the day before, Najjar said, “I don’t know. Truly I don’t know.”

About 20 people have been detained after the blast, including the head of Leb-anon’s customs department and his pre-decessor, as well as the head of the port. Dozens of people have been questioned, including two former Cabinet ministers, according to government offi cials.

On Sunday, world leaders and inter-national organizations pledged nearly $300 million in emergency humanitar-ian aid to Beirut, but warned that no money for rebuilding the capital would be made available until Lebanese au-thorities commit themselves to the po-litical and economic reforms demanded by the people.

Passengers sit next to their luggage as they wait to cross the border to the Egyptian side of Rafah Crossing, in Rafah, Gaza Strip on Aug 11. Egypt reopened Rafah Crossing for three days starting Tuesday for humanitarian cases in and out of the Gaza Strip. (AP)

Egypt allows Gazans to leave strip in monthsEgypt on Tuesday reopened Gaza’s main passenger crossing point for the fi rst time in months for thousands of Palestinians who have been stranded on both sides of the border due to the coronavirus crisis.

Gaza residents holding Egyptian passports, foreign passports and patients seeking treatment abroad were to leave through the Rafah crossing point during its three-day opening, the Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza said. Some 500 people were scheduled to exit Tuesday, the fi rst time the cross-ing has allowed departures since March.

Palestinians stranded in Egypt and abroad will be allowed to return

home, the ministry added. Traffi c for arrivals had been shut since May.

Gaza appears to have managed to keep the pandemic in check – in part of because of an Israeli-Egyptian blockade that severely re-stricts movement in and out of the territory. Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade after the Islamic mili-tant group Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

Gaza has reported 81 cases of the coronavirus, but all of the cases were people who were in manda-tory quarantine centers set up by Hamas for anyone returning to the territory. There have been no re-ported cases of community trans-mission inside Gaza.

To prepare for thousands of Pal-estinians expected to return via Rafah, Hamas has opened more isolation facilities across the Gaza Strip.

Life in Gaza has returned to normal with the virus at bay. Last week, schools reopened normally. Mosques, wedding halls, cafes and gyms are also open.

Israel and Hamas are bitter en-emies that have fought three wars and numerous skirmishes since 2007. On Tuesday, Israel closed its only commercial crossing point with Gaza in response to explosives-laden balloons being launched by Palestinians into Israel. The bal-loons started dozens of fi res in Is-raeli farmland near Gaza. (AP)

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Mon-day reported 32 fatalities attrib-uted to coronavirus, while 1,257 more people tested positive in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.

The new fi gures take the king-doms death toll to 3,199 and con-fi rmed cases hit 289,947, accord-ing to health ministry data, which showed the number of recoveries reached 253,478.

Saudi Arabia has the highest count among the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council. (KUNA)

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MANAMA: The Bahraini Health Ministry registered Monday 382 new COVID-19 cases and 418 recoveries.

The total confi rmed COVID-19 cases reached 2,882 and 40,967 recovery cases. said ministry in a press statement. (KUNA)

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DOHA: The number of corona-virus infections in Qatar rose by 315 on Monday to up the total to 113,262, the health ministry said, putting the death toll at 188 after a fourfold increase in the past 24 hours.

Some 109,993 people have re-covered from the virus in the Gulf state, according to health ministry fi gures. (KUNA)

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MUSCAT: The Oman Health Ministry announced on Monday 207 new COVID-19 cases, raising the country’s total number of con-fi rmed cases to 81,787.

The ministry, in a pressed re-lease, said the total recovered cases reached 76,124, while 521 patients died from the disease, said the ministry. (KUNA)

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RAMALLAH: Palestinian Health Minister May Al-Kaila declared on Monday that seven people have succumbed to COVID-19, raising the death toll to 110, with 467 new infections and 545 recoveries in the past 24 hours.

The total confi rmed cases reached 19,121, the minister said in a statement, adding that 24 patients are in intensive care, in-cluding three put on ventilators. (KUNA)

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AMMAN: Jordan announced Monday that 16 new COVID-19 cases were recorded, bringing the total of confi rmed cases since the start of the pandemic to 1,268.

Jordian Premiership and Health Ministry said in a joint statement that no recovery cases were recorded, adding that au-thorities performed around 6,200 tests, raising the total to 652,700 tests.

However, they denied reports on a total or partial curfew, stress-ing that Jordan is in the moderate-risk phase. (KUNA)

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TUNIS: Tunisia’s Health Ministry announced on Monday that 20 ad-ditional people tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19) over the past 24 hours.

The fi gures took the overall infections to 1,717, the ministry added in a statement, noting that up to 1265 patients recovered from the virus.

It pointed out that some 51 pa-tient dies of the pandemic so far. (KUNA)

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RABAT: Morocco said on Mon-day coronavirus cases grew by 826 as deaths climbed by 18.

This brings the tally to 34,063 and the death toll to 516, the health ministry said.

On the other hand, recoveries rose by 1,177 to 24,524. (KUNA)

In Brief

INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

7

Weather

Tore across Midwest

Powerful ‘derecho’leaves devastationIOWA CITY, Iowa, Aug 11, (AP): A rare storm pack-ing 100 mph winds and with power similar to an in-land hurricane swept across the Midwest on Monday, blowing over trees, fl ipping vehicles, causing wide-spread property damage and leaving hundreds of thou-sands without power as it moved through Chicago and into Indiana and Michigan.

The storm known as a derecho lasted several hours as it tore from eastern Nebraska across Iowa and parts of Wisconsin and Illinois, had the wind speed of a major hurricane, and likely caused more widespread damage than a normal tornado, said Patrick Marsh, science support chief at the National Weather Ser-vice’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

In northern Illinois, the National Weather Service reported a wind gust of 92 mph near Dixon, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Chicago, and the storm left downed trees and power lines that blocked roadways in Chi-cago and its suburbs. After leaving Chicago, the most po-tent part of the storm system moved over north central Indi-ana by late afternoon.

“The storm system as a whole is defi nitely beginning its decay,” said Northern Illi-

nois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini.A derecho is not quite a hurricane. It has no eye and

its winds come across in a line. But the damage it is likely to do spread over such a large area is more like an inland hurricane than a quick more powerful tor-nado, Marsh said. He compared it to a devastating Su-per Derecho of 2009, which was one of the strongest on record traveled more than 1,000 miles in 24 hours, causing $500 million in damage, widespread power outages and killing a handful of people.

Storm“This is our version of a hurricane,” Gensini said in

an interview from his home about 15 minutes before the storm was about to hit. Minutes later he headed to his basement for safety as the storm took aim at Chi-cago, starting with its suburbs.

Gensini said this derecho will go down as one of the strongest in recent history and be one of the nation’s worst weather events of 2020.

“It ramped up pretty quick” around 7 am Central time in Eastern Nebraska. I don’t think anybody ex-pected widespread winds approaching 100, 110 mph,” Marsh said.

Several people were injured and widespread prop-erty damage was reported in Marshall County in cen-tral Iowa after 100 mph winds swept through the area, said its homeland security coordinator Kim Elder.

She said the winds blew over trees, ripped road signs out of the ground and tore roofs off of buildings.

“We had quite a few people trapped in buildings and cars,” she said. She said the extent of injuries is unknown and that no fatalities have been reported.

Elder said some people reported their cars fl ipping over from the wind, having power lines fall on them and getting injured when hit by fl ying debris. Dozens of cars at one factory had their windshields blown out. Buildings have also caught on fi re, she said.

“We’re in life-saving mode right now,” Elder said.Marshalltown Mayor Joel Greer declared a civil

emergency, telling residents to stay home and off the streets so that fi rst responders can respond to calls.

MidAmerican Energy said nearly 101,000 custom-ers in the Des Moines area were without power after the storm moved through the area. Reports from spot-ters fi led with the National Weather Service in Des Moines had winds in excess of 70 mph.

Roof damage to homes and buildings were reported in several Iowa cities, including the roof of a hockey arena in Des Moines.

Across the state, large trees fell on cars and houses. Some semi-trailers fl ipped over or were blown off highways.

Farmers reported that some grain bins were de-stroyed and fi elds were fl attened, but the extent of damage to Iowa’s agriculture industry wasn’t imme-diately clear.

MidAmerican spokeswoman Tina Hoffman said downed trees are making it diffi cult in some locations for workers to get to the power lines. In some cases power line poles were snapped off.

“It’s a lot of tree damage. Very high winds. It will be a signifi cant effort to get through it all and get eve-rybody back on,” she said. “It was a big front that went all the way through the state.”

Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has “both signifi cant and wide-spread damage throughout the city,” said public safety spokesman Greg Buelow. Tens of thousands of people in the metro area were without power.

“We have damage to homes and businesses, includ-ing siding and roofs damaged,” he said. “Trees and power lines are down throughout the entire city.”

Cedar Rapids on Monday night issued a 10 pm cur-few that will continue until further notice, as crews work to clean up fallen debris.

What makes a derecho worse than a tornado is how long it can hover one place and how large an area the high winds hit, Marsh said. He said winds of 80 mph or even 100 mph can stretch for “20, 30, 40 or God forbid 100 miles.”

“Right now, it’s making a beeline for Chicago,” Marsh said Monday mid-afternoon. “Whether or not it will hold its intensity as it reaches Chicago remains to be seen.”

ConditionsBut the environmental conditions between the

storm and Chicago are the type that won’t likely di-minish the storm, Marsh said. It will likely dissipate over central or eastern Indiana, he said.

What happened is unstable super moist air has parked over the northern plains for days on end and it fi nally ramped up Monday morning into a derecho.

“They are basically self-sustaining amoebas of thunderstorms,” Gensini said. “Once they get going like they did across Iowa, it’s really hard to stop these suckers.”

Derechoes, with winds of at least 58 mph, occur about once a year in the Midwest. Rarer than torna-does but with weaker winds, derechoes produce dam-age over a much wider area.

The storms raced over parts of eastern Nebraska before 9 a.m. Monday, dropping heavy rains and high winds. Strong straight-line winds pushed south into areas that include Lincoln and Omaha, National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Barjenbruch said.

“Once that rain-cooled air hit the ground, it surged over 100 miles, sending incredibly strong winds over the area,” Barjenbruch said.

Omaha Public Power District reported more than 55,500 customers without power in Omaha and sur-rounding communities.

The weather service’s Marsh said there’s a huge concern about power outages that will be widespread across several states and long lasting. Add high heat, people with medical conditions that require power and the pandemic, “it becomes dire pretty quickly.”

Patrick

The steeple at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois was toppled during a storm on Aug 10, in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. Church offi cials check out the dam-age from the rooftop which also left several trees in the nearby park heavily damaged. (AP)

Trump breaking promise to older Americans: DNC

‘Payroll tax break weakens Social Security’WASHINGTON, Aug 11, (AP): President Donald Trump’s move to defer Social Se-curity payroll taxes could be taking him into treacherous political territory.

His directive – aimed at boosting an economy shaken by the coronavirus pan-demic – doesn’t affect retirement benefi ts but impacts how they’re paid for. Demo-crats seized on it Monday as a signal that Trump would cut the social safety net and break a promise he made as a candidate in 2016 not to touch Social Security and Medicare. Some nonpartisan experts also expressed concerns.

Deferral of the 6.2% payroll tax on em-ployees for the last three months of this year could mean that up to $100 billion in payments to the Social Security Trust Fund would be delayed, according to an updated estimate by the nonpartisan Committee For A Responsible Federal Budget, which ad-vocates for reducing government defi cits.

“What it does is undercut Social Se-curity,” Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., said Monday, addressing Trump’s move. The president “is defunding Social Security and breaking his promise. ... He will say, ‘I’m not doing anything to touch Social Secu-rity, I’m just deferring this,’ but it’s as clear as my hand in front me.” Larson chairs the House Ways and Means subcommittee overseeing the retirement program.

The Democratic National Committee was out with a video accusing Trump of breaking his promise to older Americans.

The White House pushed back.“Providing a payroll tax deferral poses

no risk to the Social Security Trust Fund and puts more money in the pockets of hardworking Americans as we fi ght to end this pandemic from China and rebuild our economy safely,” spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. “This has been a pri-ority for President Trump and while con-gressional Democrats played politics the president acted for the forgotten men and women of this country as he has done so many times before.”

With more than 60 million benefi ciaries, Social Security is funded by a 12.4% pay-roll tax evenly divided between employees

and employers. But there’s a cloud over the program’s long-term fi nances, and even be-fore the pandemic, government experts es-timated it would be unable to pay full ben-efi ts starting in 2035. Medicare’s hospital fund is also fi nanced by a payroll tax, but that’s not affected by Trump’s directive.

Social Security and Medicare are seen as politically untouchable. It’s not just that seniors have clout in elections, but the two programs have longstanding inter-genera-tional support.

Trump acted on his own after negotia-tions with Congress on another COVID-19 relief package broke down. The president has authority to take such limited steps dur-ing the national emergency due to the coro-navirus.

Trump has also directed Treasury Sec-retary Steven Mnuchin to work with Con-gress to forgive the entire amount of the payroll taxes deferred. Otherwise, the tax holiday would become a tax liability for workers when the government comes back to collect the money owed to Social Secu-rity.

TroublesThe whole exercise troubles some

nonpartisan experts, who say the bed-rock principle of Social Security is that earmarked payroll taxes from employees and their employers pay for earned ben-efi ts for retirees.

“This undermines the dedicated funding, which is the foundation of Social Security,” said William Arnone, CEO of the National Academy of Social Insurance, a nonparti-san public policy organization.

Although the White House says the Treasury Department will guarantee that the Social Security Trust Fund is made whole, Arnone said he’s worried because payroll tax collections have already taken a hit this year in the coronavirus economy.

“The question of the reimbursement of the trust fund is not clearly spelled out ,” said Arnone. “It is a big boost in take-home pay for workers, but what is the long-term cost to them if it makes Social Security less stable?”

Under Trump’s plan, workers making below $104,000 a year would get the tax deferral. But the president’s directive is in-complete because many key details are still not known.

For example, the benefi t is limited to workers who “generally” make less than $4,000 every two weeks. However, Trump didn’t defi ne “generally” in his directive to the Treasury. What happens to people who make $4,001?

Economist Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute think tank said other practical is-sues seem to have been ignored.

“It raises all sorts of questions with re-spect to people who can’t come up with the money down the road to pay back the tax cut,” said Steuerle. That would have to be dealt with if Mnuchin can’t persuade law-makers to permanently forgive the taxes owed.

Yet there are lots of reasons to think Congress won’t bend to Trump’s will.

It isn’t just Democrats, as the White House suggests. Many congressional Re-publicans have been cool to Trump’s pay-roll tax cut.

Lawmakers are loathe to reward the Re-publican president for trying to change tax policy without their consent and for trying to break the longstanding tie between So-cial Security payroll taxes and the earned benefi t that they are paying for.

Businesses also have misgivings, because the plan would require them to change their payroll systems and could leave them re-sponsible for collecting deferred taxes later on. How much of a boost to the economy Trump’s plan would provide is a matter of debate.

In a previous coronavirus relief bill, Con-gress and Trump together gave employers the option of deferring their share of Social Security payroll taxes this year, but it’s un-clear how many businesses have taken that up.

A payroll tax break is not a new idea. Congress approved a a temporary cut in the Social Security tax during the Obama years, in the aftermath of the 2007-09 re-cession. That cut was 2 percentage points.

Politics

President Donald Trump ar-rives for a news conference in the James Brady Press Brief-ing Room at the White House, on Aug 10, in Washington. Trump briefl y left because of a security incident outside the fence of the White House.

(AP)

Rogers Villanueva

Trump abruptly escorted: President Donald Trump was abruptly escorted by a US Secret Service agent out of the White House briefi ng room as he was beginning a coronavirus briefi ng Monday afternoon. He returned minutes later, saying there was a “shooting” outside the White House that was “under control.”

“There was an actual shooting and somebody’s been taken to the hospital,” Trump said. The president said the shots were fi red by law enforcement, saying he be-lieved the individual who was shot was armed. “It was the suspect who was shot,” Trump said.

Trump said he was escorted to the Oval Offi ce by the agent. The White House was placed on lock-down following the incident.

The shooting took place near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue just blocks from the White House, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. Law enforce-ment offi cials were still trying to determine the suspect’s motive (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

LA sheriff concerned: The Los Angeles County sheriff said Mon-day he has concerns about tactics deputies used to detain three Black teenagers at gunpoint after the mother of one said the youths had been threatened by a man holding a knife.

Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a social media post that he had seen a video of the incident – which was uploaded by one of the teen’s mothers to her Instagram profi le last week – and that the matter is being investigated.

CBS Los Angeles reported that the trio were teenagers. Deputy Juanita Navarro, a spokeswoman for the department, said the youths were not arrested during the inci-dent Friday and had been released at the scene.

Tammi Collins wrote on Insta-gram that her son was sitting with friends at a bus stop in the Santa Clarita Valley when a man asked them if they had any drugs and then tried to steal their belongings. She said the man then pulled out a

America

Protestors block Fourth Avenue outside Seattle City Hall and listen to Monday’s Seattle City Council budget committee voting, which included potential Seattle Police Department cuts, Aug 10. Organ-izers said the protest puts pressure on defunding Seattle Police

and reallocating funds into the Black community. (AP)

knife and tried to stab them.Collins wrote that bystanders

called police to help the boys, though she wrote that apparently one caller reported that the teens were attacking the man.

Navarro said a caller reported that two Black men in their early 20s had struck a man with a skate-board.

The 11-minute video Collins posted shows at least three deputies pointing their guns at the teens - in-cluding one deputy who had a long gun. The teens obeyed the deputies’ commands to back up with their hands up and knelt on the ground to be handcuffed.

Bystanders shouted at the

offi cers that the teens didn’t do anything. (AP)

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Virginia man gets 6 yrs in jail: A Virginia man who a prosecutor described as a leader of the Ku Klux Klan and who drove through a Black Lives Matter protest in June was sentenced Monday to six years in jail.

Harry H. Rogers, 36, was convicted of six misdemeanors and sentenced to a year in jail for each charge, the Richmond Times-Dis-patch reported. Rogers still faces three felony charges of attempted malicious wounding in connection with the June 7 incident.

The three felony counts were certifi ed Monday to a grand jury by the same Henrico County General District Court judge who found Rog-ers guilty of four simple assaults, property damage and hit-and-run. The felony charges will be heard by a grand jury in September, the newspaper reported.

The judge didn’t uphold hate crime enhancement on four simple assault charges, agreeing with the defense argument that the three victims, all of whom are white, were not targeted because of their race (AP)

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Mail-in voting cause rigging: US President Donald Trump warned on Monday that the use of mail-in voting in the upcoming presidential elections could result in a disaster or election rigging.

“We don’t want to have a rigged election I know that, and you have to be very careful when you mention as you constantly do Russia or you mention China, or you mention Iran or others that attack our election sys-tem, and when you have this mail-in voting it’s a--it’s very susceptible,” Trump said in a press conference at the White House.

“It is something that can be easily attacked by foreign countries and by frankly Democrats and by Republi-cans, and I think that it is something you have to start thinking about very seriously.”

He argued that the US postal system is not equipped for it.

“The post offi ce is not equipped for it, and people should vote like they did in World War I and World

War II and your numbers will be--in 90 days or less your numbers will be very good I think much better on the coronavirus,” he said.

The US leader claimed that half a million incorrect ballot applications sent all over the state of Virginia to many people that weren’t living.

“This is what we are going to get into, and it’s going to be a disaster, and it’s going to be thought a very poorly. It’s going to hurt our coun-try,” he warned. (KUNA)

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Cow chase leads to rescue: A confrontation between an elderly couple and a cow and her calf re-quired the intervention of the Cali-fornia Highway Patrol in Northern California this weekend.

Authorities said on Facebook that the unidentifi ed couple had fallen to the ground after a cow gave chase to them in the Lynch Canyon Regional Park. They were hoisted into a heli-copter to elude the angry bovine.

In a minutes-long video taken by highway patrol mid-air, a cow and calf are seen standing feet away from the couple on the barren trail. As the chopper hovers above the site, the cow is seen rearing its head and bellowing, while the calf stands nearby.

Highway patrol succeeded in moving the cow by sounding the helicopter’s alarm, CHP wrote in a Facebook post.

Offi cials lifted the couple 75 feet (22.8 meters) into the air and trans-ported them to a hospital to treat their injuries. There was no word on what happened to the mother cow or her calf.(AP)

INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

8

Hong Kong

‘Respect media tycoon’s rights’

Hong Kong ‘residents’defend the free pressHONG KONG, Aug 11, (AP): Last year, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Hong Kong to demand full democracy, many egged on by a tab-loid newspaper critical of China’s ruling Communist Party.

On Tuesday, they lined up at newsstands across the city to buy that same paper, handing over 10 Hong Kong dollars ($1.25) a copy in a bid to help the Apple Daily - and press freedom - survive.

The public show of support came a day after police rounded up 10 people, including the paper’s found-er, and raided its headquarters. The move reinforced fears that a new national security law would be used to suppress dissent in Hong Kong after months of anti-

government protests shook the city’s leadership and the central government in Beijing last year.

Police have expanded their use of the law since it took ef-fect six weeks ago, fi rst arresting protesters with slogans deemed to be in violation and then ac-tivists over online posts. Media tycoon Jimmy Lai, the Apple Daily founder, and his Next Dig-ital media group were the largest targets to date.

That people protested by buying a newspaper rather than by taking to the streets shows how much the cli-mate has changed since the stormy protests last year. People also bought Next Digital stock to show sup-port, driving its price up more than 300% on Tuesday,

The Apple Daily, known for its celebrity coverage as well as its condemnation of China’s authoritarian rule, remained defi ant, printing 350,000 copies - fi ve times its usual print run - after police investigators left Next Digital and told employees they could go back to work.

Lines formed at newsstands Tuesday in a public show of support, and Apple Daily said it would print an additional 200,000 copies. “Apple Daily will fi ght on,” the newspaper said on its front page.

“I do not like the way Apple Daily reports news but I think it symbolizes press freedom in Hong Kong,” Tiffany Chan said after buying a copy at a conve-nience store. “I cannot just sit and watch the govern-ment destroy press freedom. This is the least I can do.”

OperatorOne newsstand operator said he had sold 200 of his

allotment of about 300 papers by late morning. On a typical day, he sells about 100 copies, he said.

Hong Kong, and to a lesser degree Taiwan, have become battlegrounds for the competing world views of China and the United States. The U.S. imposed sanctions on 11 Hong Kong and Chinese offi cials last week, including city leader Carrie Lam, over the secu-rity law. China responded Monday by sanctioning 11 Americans, including six members of Congress.

The Trump administration, which is feuding with China on multiple fronts, sent Health and Human Ser-vices Secretary Alex Azar to Taiwan this week for the highest-level visit by a U.S. offi cial since the United States broke off diplomatic relations to recognize Bei-jing as the government of China in 1979.

Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, meeting Azar on Tuesday, said the self-governing island is for-tunate to have U.S. support at a time when “our life has become increasingly diffi cult as China continues to pressure Taiwan into accepting its political condi-tions, conditions that will turn Taiwan into the next Hong Kong.”

The fate of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents ulti-mately lies in the hands of the Communist Party lead-ership in Beijing.

Worry“You can’t really worry about it, it is what it is,”

said Anna Yuen, a retiree who said her family could leave if the situation really deteriorates. “But I can’t bear to leave Hong Kong. I think Hong Kong people are really admirable, especially the youth.”

The fear in Hong Kong, which has its own laws and courts and greater freedoms than mainland China, is that the Communist Party wants to mold the territory over time into a city similar to those on the mainland.

Press freedom is just one characteristic that sepa-rates Hong Kong from the rest of China.

“If they crack down on Apple Daily today, they will go down the list of media that do not support the Com-munist Party or the Hong Kong government, and what will be left is just news that sings the praises of the Communist Party,” Chan said.

Meanwhile, France on Monday called for the rights of media tycoon Jimmy Lai to be respected and for freedom of expression to be protected in Hong Kong.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said it had been informed of the arrest of Lai, who owns Hong Kong media Apple Daily, and of the search of the newspa-per’s premises.

Lai’s offi ce was searched by hundreds of police and many documents were seized on the basis of China’s new National Security Law, which is controversial and has been widely criticized.

“France reaffi rms its attachment to respect for free-dom of the press and of opinion everywhere in the world (and) calls for Jimmy Lai’s rights to be respect-ed,” the statement said.

“As the European Union has recalled, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is a central element of the Fundamental Law and of the “one coun-try, two systems” principle,” in Hong Kong, which re-verted to China’s control from Britain in 1997.

Furthermore, long lines of people bought up copies of the Apple Daily paper at Hong Kong newsstands Tuesday to support a free press in the semi-autono-mous Chinese territory.

The public support came one day after police ar-rested the publisher of the pro-democracy paper and raided its premises in the most signifi cant enforcement yet of Hong Kong’s new national security law.

“The government is suppressing freedom of the press,” said Michael Hung, who bought two copies for 10 Hong Kong dollars ($1.25) apiece.

At least 200 police descended on the headquarters of Next Digital, which publishes the Apple Daily, and carted away boxes of what they said was evidence a few hours later.

Earlier, owner Jimmy Lai, his two sons and others from the company were detained under the national security law. An aide to Lai said they were suspected of collusion with a foreign power, which the law crim-inalizes. Police did not release details.

The arrests, along with that of democracy activist Agnes Chow on Monday night, have stoked fears that authorities are using the new law to suppress dissent and free speech.

Lai

Protesters denounce the arrest of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai during a rally against the National Security Law imposed in Hong Kong near the Chinese Em-bassy in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020. Hong Kong police arrested Lai and raided the publisher’s headquarters Monday in the highest-profi le use yet of

the new national security law Beijing imposed on the city after protests last year. (AP)

Migrants crossing in small boats

UK fl ies air force plane over ChannelLONDON, Aug 11, (AP): A Royal Air Force surveillance plane fl ew over the English Channel on Monday as the British government sought to stop a growing num-ber of people making the hazardous cross-ing from France in small boats.

Britain’s Conservative government has talked tough amid a surge in the number of migrants crossing the Channel during recent warm summer weather. More than 650 have arrived so far in August - includ-ing 235 in a single day last week - with pregnant women, babies and unaccompa-nied children among them.

An infl atable dinghy carrying about 20 people was met by a U.K. Border Force boat on Monday and escorted to the port of Dover.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said try-ing to make the voyage was “a very bad and stupid and dangerous and criminal thing to do.”

“Be in no doubt what’s going on is the activity of cruel and criminal gangs who are risking the lives of these people taking them across the Channel, a pretty danger-ous stretch of water in potentially unsea-worthy vessels,” Johnson said during a visit to a school near London.

U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel ap-pointed a former Royal Marine commando, Dan O’Mahoney, as “clandestine Channel threat commander” to try and make unau-thorized sea crossings “unviable.”

Patel has also said the Royal Navy could be called in to prevent boats reaching U.K. waters, though other senior offi cials and politicians say that would be impractical and potentially dangerous because small boats could capsize if they are forced back to the French shore.

The Ministry of Defense said it was con-sidering how the military could best help. It said the RAF Atlas aircraft was deployed on Monday “to support Border Force op-erations in the Channel.”

Migrants have long used northern France as a launching point to get to Britain, either in trucks through the Channel tunnel or on ferries. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the U.K.’s strong economy and need for

farm and restaurant labor drew migrants from around the world who could speak some English.

Some have turned to small boats orga-nized by people smugglers because coro-navirus lockdowns have reduced opportu-nities to stow away on ferries and trucks. Fine summer weather is also prompting more people to make the risky journey across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes - about 20 miles (32 kilometers) at its narrowest point - in vessels as small as dinghies and kayaks.

The British and French immigration minis-ters were due to hold talks in Paris on Tues-day about the Channel crossings, as some British politicians accused France of not do-ing enough to stop boats leaving shore.

The migrants, and the smugglers who profi t off them, have long dogged French politicians, who have failed to fi nd an ef-fective way to deter them.

RoutinelyFrench authorities routinely pick up mi-

grants trying to illegally cross the Channel, most recently on Sunday, when rescuers retrieved 17 migrants from a rubber dinghy in distress off Calais.

Over the past week, French rescuers have picked up 125 migrants from kayaks, rubber boats or other small vessels trying to cross the Channel, according to near-daily statements from the regional mari-time authority.

Last month Britain and France agreed to set up a joint intelligence unit to allow for better exchanges of information about people-smuggling networks.

The lawmaker for Calais accused the U.K. government of political grandstand-ing with talk of sending in the Royal Navy.

“This is a political measure to show some kind of resource to fi ght against smugglers and illegal crossings in the Channel, but technically speaking that won’t change anything,” Pierre-Henri Du-mont told the BBC.

Human rights groups also criticized the British government’s harsh rhetoric and

said asylum-seekers should be given safe routes to reach the U.K.

Lisa Doyle, director of advocacy at Brit-ain’s Refugee Council, accused the prime minister of using “inaccurate and infl am-matory language.”

“Seeking asylum is not a crime, and it is legitimate that people have to cross borders to do so,” she said.

Meanwhile,A pair of eyeglasses that are believed to have once belonged to Mohan-das Gandhi are being auctioned, decades after the independence leader gave them as an impromptu gift.

The gold-plated, circular-rimmed spec-tacles are going under the hammer at East Bristol Auctions later this month. Gandhi was known for giving away “his old or un-wanted pairs to those in need or those who had helped him,’’ the auctioneers said.

The seller’s uncle was working for Brit-ish Petroleum in South Africa and met Gandhi when the independence leader and champion of non-violent resistance was taking a tour.

Auctioneers compared the custom-shaped nose bridge of the glasses to others known to have belonged to Gandhi in de-termining their authenticity. The prescrip-tion also coincided to that which Gandhi would have worn at the time of the visit.

“It can be presumed that these were gift-ed by way of thanks from Gandhi for some good deed,’’ the auctioneers said.

It’s fair to say that the owner didn’t quite realize their value: He put them in the auction house’s mail slot where they dangled for a weekend, said auctioneer Andy Stowe.

When Stowe explained to the seller - a man in his 80s - that he would place a guide price of of 15,000 pounds ($19,600) on the item, he could sense the shock.

“The line went very quiet for a mo-ment,’’ Stowe said. “I think he thought I was joking.’’

The sale date is Aug. 21, but pre-sale bids stand at 50,000 pounds. The auction house has received interest from all over the world, particularly India.

Britain

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson takes part in archery during a visit to the Premier Education Summer Camp at Sacred Heart of Mary Girl’s School, Upminster, England, Aug 10, to see the steps they are taking to be COVID se-cure ahead of children return-

ing in September. (AP)

Lavrov Maas

German FM visits Moscow: German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is due to visit Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Russian offi cials on a host of international issues, topped by the Libyan con-fl ict, the foreign ministry said.

A ministry statement, cited by German news agency, added Maas would hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the Libyan crisis, Iran, Syrian confl ict and Ukraine.

The visit of Maas takes place amidst the confl ict in Libya, seven months after the Berlin conference on the crisis in the North African nation as international efforts were underway to cease hostilities and create suitable atmosphere for political negotiations. (KUNA)

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Man severs another’s hand: A 22-year-old is under investiga-tion after chopping off another man’s hand with a machete at an outdoor recreation area in western Germany, prosecutors said Monday.

Prosecutors in Koblenz said the suspect told authorities he had been chopping fi rewood in a forested area west of the city on Saturday night when he witnessed a car crash.

According to the suspect, he ran to the car still carrying the machete to see if the driver needed help and that the driver pulled out a gun from the glove box and started fi ring at him, prosecutors said.

In reaction, he swung the machete at the driver, severing the 21-year-old’s left hand. Minutes later, a large vehicle drove up from a nearby grilling area, and two men jumped out and punched the suspect multiple times in the face, prosecutors said the 22-year-old recounted.

The suspect was treated in a hospital for injuries to the face and released after being interrogated, prosecutors said. The investigation is still underway, but prosecutors said they were considering wheth-er he acted out of self-defense.

The man whose hand was severed was treated in a hospital and reported to be in stable condi-tion. (AP)

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Missing man’s body found: The body of a man missing after a storm sparked fl ash fl oods on

Europe

People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of the new coronavirus walk in a park in Yokohama near Tokyo, Aug

10. (AP)

the Greek island of Evia over the weekend was recovered Monday near the Greek mainland, Greece’s coast guard said, bringing the death toll from the storm to eight.

Rescue crews had been search-ing for the 72-year-old since Sunday, after he was reported missing following fl ooding that swept away cars and sent residents of some villages scrambling to their roofs to await rescue.

The coast guard said the man’s body was recovered from the sea off the coast of mainland Greece opposite Evia just after midday Monday.

The dead from the storm and fl ash fl oods include an elderly couple found in their fl ooded home Sunday morning, and an 8-month-old baby found in a

fl ooded ground-fl oor apartment. Parts of Evia saw rainfall that

reached 80% of the annual rainfall for the area in the space of a few hours overnight Saturday to Sunday, Greece’s meteorological service has said.

A river burst through its banks and fl ooded part of the village of Politika, forcing many residents to climb to the rooftops of their homes. Another river in the village of Bourtzi also burst its banks. Authorities estimated that 3,000 residences had been partially or totally damaged by fl oodwaters and police said many local roads were made impassable. Power and water were also knocked out in some areas.

The fl ood swept away cars and storage containers, tossing them

state court – equal to the number of people believed to have been killed at Stutthof during his ser-vice there in 1944 and 1945.

Because he was 17 and 18 at the time of his alleged crimes, Dey’s case was heard in juvenile court and he was given a two-year suspended sentence.

Dey was convicted under new legal reasoning that even though there was no evidence linking him to a specifi c crime, as a camp guard he was guilty of accessory to murders committed while he was there.

The reasoning had been successfully used in the past to convict death camp guards, and the precedent set in 2015 when a federal court upheld the 2015 conviction of former Auschwitz guard Oskar Groening.

Dey’s case extended the argu-ment to apply to a guard at a con-centration camp – camps where people were killed by the tens of thousands, but that did not exist for the sole purpose of extermina-tion like the Nazi death camps.

His conviction is now con-sidered legally binding, after his attorney and three people who had joined the trial as co-plaintiffs decided to retract their appeals, the Hamburg state court said.

That eases the way for more possible prosecutions of concen-tration camp guards even though it’s 75 years since the end of World War II.

Last month, another former Stutthof guard, aged 95, was charged and the special prosecu-tors’ offi ce that investigates Nazi-era crimes has more than a dozen ongoing investigations.(AP)

into streets and against the walls of buildings. On Monday local authorities, emergency crews and residents cleared debris and piles of mud from streets, homes and stores.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis surveyed the affected region by helicopter Monday afternoon, met with local residents and pledged speedy assistance for households and businesses. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

Woman kills self, twin kids: A German woman appears to have killed her four-year-old twin girls near the Swiss village of Utikon and then committed suicide, Zu-rich authorities said Monday.

Police said a passer-by found all three in a car in a wooded area near the village, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of Zurich at 7:30 a.m.

Rescue crews rushed to the scene but found the 30-year-old and the two girls dead on arrival. Further details were not released and the investigation was ongoing.

Utikon municipality leader Christ Linder told the local Blick newspaper that so far there are no indications the woman had any link to the town. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

Guard conviction dropped: All appeals against the conviction of a 93-year-old Nazi concen-tration camp guard have been dropped, a Hamburg court said Monday, making the decision legally binding and easing the way for possible future prosecutions.

Bruno Dey was convicted last month of 5,232 counts of accessory to murder in Hamburg

Market Movements 11-08-2020

Business Change Closing ptsAUSTRALIA - All Ordinaries +25.04 6,272.11HONG KONG - Hang Seng +513.25 24,890.68JAPAN - Nikkei +420.30 22,750.24INDIA - Sensex +224.93 38,407.01S. KOREA - KRX 100 +69.38 5,197.74PHILIPPINES - PSEi +23.02 5,953.94PAKISTAN - KSE 100 +644.39 40,559.15

Change Closing ptsCHINA - Shanghai SE -38.96 3,340.29

Japan tech giant SoftBank’s profits rise on investments

Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group Corp.’s said Tuesday that its profit rose 12% in April-June from a year earlier as its investments added to its coffers, including sales of its shares in US carrier T-Mobile.

Tokyo-based SoftBank reported Tuesday a fiscal first quarter profit of 1.2 trillion yen ($11.5 billion), up from 1.1 tril-lion yen in the previous fiscal year.

Quarterly sales inched down 2% to 1.45 trillion yen ($13.7 billion).

SoftBank, whose group includes the

carrier that introduced the iPhone to Ja-pan, said it has been shoring up its cash reserves.

Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said the company already has raised in sev-eral months nearly all the 4.5 trillion yen ($41 billion) it had promised in March to attain within a year.

But he acknowledged worries about a second or third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

The company compared the crisis to the hard times of the Great Depression

of the late 1920s and early 1930s. SoftBank announced last month that

it’s setting up a new subsidiary company to carry out coronavirus tests and will start giving them first to its employees and members of the SoftBank Hawks professional baseball team.

SoftBank got a lift from US carrier Sprint’s merger with T-Mobile, a deal in the works for a few years that was finally completed in April. That means Sprint is no longer part of SoftBank’s group or earnings. (AP)

In this file photo, people walk by a SoftBank shop in Tokyo. (AP)

Many states already facing budget crunches caused by the pandemic

States on hook for billions under Trump’s unemployment planFALLS CHURCH, Virginia, Aug 11, (AP): Whether President Donald Trump has the constitutional au-thority to extend federal unemployment benefi ts by executive order remains unclear. Equally up in the air is whether states, which are necessary partners in Trump’s plan to bypass Congress, will sign on.

Trump announced an executive order Saturday that extends additional unemployment payments of $400 a week to help cushion the economic fallout of the pandemic. Congress had approved payments of $600 a week at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak, but those benefi ts expired Aug. 1 and Congress has been unable to agree on an extension. Many Republicans have expressed concern that a $600 weekly benefi t, on top of existing state benefi ts, gives people an incentive to stay unemployed.

But under Trump’s plan, the $400 a week requires a state to commit to providing $100.

Many states are already facing budget crunches caused by the pandemic. Asked at a news conference how many governors had signed on to participate, Trump answered: “If they don’t, they don’t. That’s up to them.”

Trump expressed a different view on Sunday night, following a day of state offi cials questioning how they could afford even $100 per person in additional weekly payments. He told reporters as he returned to Washington that states could make application to have the federal government provide all or part of the $400 payments. Decisions would be made state by state, he said.

Several state offi cials questioned how Trump’s ini-tial proposal would work and often expressed doubt that they could afford to participate at the level Trump initially set without using federal funds.

Aubrey Layne, secretary of fi nance for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said in a phone in-terview Sunday he believes it would be feasible for Virginia to participate in such a program if states are allowed to use money that’s been allocated to them under the already passed CARES Act. He said his pre-liminary understanding is that states can do so, but he and others are waiting to see the rules published.

The better solution, Layne said, would be for Con-gress to pass legislation.

“It’s ludicrous to me that Congress can’t get togeth-er on this,” he said. “I think it would have been better for the president to use his infl uence in those negotia-tions, rather than standing on the sideline and then rid-ing in like a shining knight.”

Details about the program were confused on Sunday - and that was even before Trump’s declaration that states could ask the federal government to pay all or part of the $400 week payments.

On CNN’s “State of the Nation” White House eco-nomic adviser Larry Kudlow said confl icting things about whether the federal money was contingent on an additional contribution from the states. Initially Kud-low said that “for an extra $100, we will lever it up. We will pay three-quarters, and the states will pay 25 percent.” In the same interview, though, he later said that “at a minimum, we will put in 300 bucks ... but I think all they (the states) have to do is put up an extra dollar, and we will be able to throw in the extra $100.”

A clarifying statement from the White House said the “funds will be available for those who qualify by, among other things, receiving $100/week of existing assistance and certify that they have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.”

Several advocacy groups that follow the issue,

though, said it’s clear the way the executive order is structured that the federal money will be contingent on states making a 25 percent contribution.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, called the plan “an impossibility.”

“I don’t know if the president is genuine in think-ing the executive order is a resolution or if this is just a tactic in the negotiation,” Cuomo said. “But this is irreconcilable for the state. And I expect this is just a chapter in the book of Washington COVID misman-agement.”

In Connecticut, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the plan would cost his state $500 million to provide that benefi t for the rest of the year, and called Trump’s plan “not a good idea.”

“I could take that money from testing - I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Lamont said.

On CNN, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine praised Trump for issuing the order.

“He’s trying to do something. He’s trying to move the ball forward,” DeWine said.

Still, he was noncommittal about whether Ohio would participate.

“We’re looking at it right now to see whether we can do this,” he said.

In Maryland, Michael Ricci, spokesman for Repub-lican Gov. Larry Hogan, said in an email that “we will wait on new guidance from US Department of La-bor before looking at any (unemployment insurance) changes.”

In Minnesota, Department of Employment and Eco-nomic Development Commissioner Steve Grove said his agency is “awaiting further guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor.”

Kevin Hensil, a spokesman for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, said “reducing the benefi t by a third will make it harder for families to get by and it places a larger fi nancial burden on states.” He said state offi cials are studying the impact of the cuts.

In Louisiana, Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards said “Right now we are reviewing the President’s order to deter-mine exactly what the impact to the state would be.”

And in Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a press release that Trump “cut fed-eral funding for unemployed workers and is requiring states that are facing severe holes in our budgets to provide 25% of the funding.”

On ABC”s “This Week,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it “an unworkable plan.

“Most states will take months to implement it, be-cause it’s brand new. It’s sort of put together with spit and paste. And many states, because they have to chip in $100, and they don’t have money, won’t do it,” Schumer said.

Many states struggled to adjust outdated computer systems to accommodate the $600 payment, which along with the massive infl ux of new claims resulted in long delays in providing benefi ts. Reprogramming the computers again to accommodate the new amount could result in similar glitches.

On ABC, Kudlow said that many of those outdated systems have since been upgraded.

“I don’t think there will be a huge delay. Labor De-partment has been working with the states. The states are the ones that process the federal benefi ts before. So, I don’t see any reason why it would be all that dif-fi cult,” he said.

In this file photo, a customer walks out of a US Post Office branch under a banner advertising a job open-

ing, in Seattle. (AP)

Pull back on hiring

US employers post ‘more’ jobs in JuneWASHINGTON, Aug 11, (AP): U.S. employers advertised more jobs in June compared with the previous month, but overall hiring fell, painting a mixed picture of the job market.

The number of jobs posted on the last day in June jumped 9.6% to 5.9 million, the Labor Department said Monday, a solid gain but still below the pre-pandemic level of about 7 mil-lion.

And employers hired 6.7 million people in June, down from 7.2 million in May, a record high.

The figures suggest that restaurants, bars, re-tail shops, and entertainment venues — busi-nesses that were subject to shutdown orders in April — continued to bring back workers at a healthy pace.

Job openings in those industries also rose. But outside those categories, employers re-

main reluctant to bring on new workers, a trend that could weigh on the economy in the coming months.

Hiring slowed sharply in manufacturing, con-struction, and health care services in June.

The government has previously reported that the nation gained 4.8 million jobs in June.

That figure, however, is a net total, while Monday’s report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, pro-vides gross hiring figures, without subtracting layoffs or quits.

On Friday, the government said employers add-ed a net 1.8 million jobs, a solid gain but far below June’s increase and below the 2.7 million added in May.

Employers slashed 22 million positions in March and April, and so far 42% of those lost jobs have been regained.

The number of people quitting their jobs, mean-while, rose by one-quarter to nearly 2.6 million, a huge gain that is unusual in the depths of the recession, when workers typically try to hold onto their jobs.

Many workers may be reluctant to remain in jobs that they believe put their health at risk. Economists also worry that many women and men are quitting jobs to look after children, a trend that could also hold back job growth.

UK’s employment falls by biggestquarterly amount since ’09 crisis

Jobs market hurtling toward cliff-edge moment in Oct

LONDON, Aug 11, (AP): The UK has kept a lid on the un-employment rate so far during the coronavirus pandemic but, scratch beneath the surface, and there are worrying trends that will likely see the jobless total soaring by the end of the year.

Official figures released Tuesday showed that the number of people working fell in the April-June quarter by the most since the global financial crisis more than a decade go, even as the unemployment rate held steady at a historically low 3.9% in June.

The stable jobless rate is largely due to a government salary support scheme that will end in October, a cliff-edge moment that many economists think will lead to an almost immediate doubling in unemployment. The number of jobseekers could rise to over 3 million, a level not seen since the 1980s.

The UK has been partly spared the sharp rises in unemployment seen in the United States, for example, because of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, under which the government has been paying a large chunk of the salaries of workers who have not been fi red. Some 1.2 million em-ployers have taken advantage of the pro-gram during the lockdown to furlough 9.6 million people at a cost to the government of 33.8 billion pounds ($44 billion).

Though these employees have not been working over the past few months, they are not counted as unemployed. The gov-ernment has started phasing out the fur-lough program, with fi rms now having to cover some of the costs of the plan. The government has said it will end the pro-gram in October on the grounds it gives “false hope” to furloughed workers while at the same time limiting their prospects of getting new jobs as their skills fade.

While admitting that not every job can be saved, Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said Tuesday’s fi gures said the support mea-sures, have helped to “safeguard millions of jobs and livelihoods that could other-wise have been lost.”

The big question is how many of those furloughed workers will be kept on payroll after October as many parts of the econo-my are still operating way below potential.

“A wide range of indicators suggest that job losses will crystallize from Au-gust, when employers must start to cover some of the costs of furloughed staff,” said Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics.

He noted that surveys of employment intentions are “at least as weak” as they were at the worst point of the global fi nan-cial crisis in 2008-9.

In a sign of the weakness of the UK’s labor market, employment fell in the April to June

People, some wearing masks queue outside a John Lewis store, in London on July 16, 2020. Unemployment across the UK has held steady during the coronavirus lockdown as a result of a government salary support scheme, but there are clear signals emerg-ing that job losses will skyrocket over coming months. The Office for National Statistics said Thursday there were 649,000 fewer

people, or 2.2%, on payroll in June when compared with March when the lockdown restrictions were imposed. (AP)

quarter by 220,000, its biggest three-month decline since the 2009 recession. Offi cial fi g-ures due for release on Wednesday are set to show the economy contracted by nearly 25% in the second quarter of the year from the pre-vious three-month period.

The Offi ce for National Statistics on Tuesday also reported that the number of people on payroll in the UK fell by a a fur-ther 81,000 in July to 28.27 million. The number of people coming off the payroll since March is now 730,000, with the falls in employment greatest among younger and older workers, along with those in lower-skilled jobs.

Unions are urging the government to at least extend the furlough scheme to those sectors that are still suffering because of lockdown restrictions.

“The alarm bells couldn’t be ringing any louder,” said Frances O’Grady, gener-al secretary of the Trades Union Congress.

German factory orders surgeBERLIN, Aug 11, (AP): German fac-tory orders surged in June, according to fi gures released, giving hope that Eu-rope’s largest economy is on track for a recovery from declines suffered from the coronavirus pandemic lockdown earlier in the year.

Industrial orders rose by 27.9% in June over the previous month, accord-ing to fi gures from the Economy Min-istry adjusted for seasonal and calendar factors.

That was more than double the in-crease economists had expected, and followed an already strong 10.4% in-crease in May.

ING bank chief economist Carsten Brzeski noted that after the lifting

of lockdown measures in April, it was mainly private consumption in Germany that rose strongly, while industrial activity had been lagging behind.

“Today’s numbers suggest that the in-dustry could catch up with the momen-tum in the rest of the economy,” he said in a research note.

Germany’s economy took a massive hit during the pandemic shutdowns, shrinking by 10.1% during the April-June period from the previous quarter as exports and business investment col-lapsed.

Even with the surge in June, industrial orders are still down by more than 11% on the year.

US passenger train company drops Virgin as partner

The partnership between Rich-ard Branson’s Virgin Group and the private Florida passenger train service Brightline has end-ed with a whimper, less than two years after it was celebrated with Branson’s typical pizzazz.

Brightline announced in a monthly report that it has end-ed its affi liation with the Virgin Group and will halt its rebranding to Virgin Trains USA.

“Virgin no longer has any af-

fi liation with us, our parents or its affi liate,” Brightline said in the report released Friday that does not go into details about what led to the split. The report says Vir-gin may have objections to the plan.

Brightline declined comment Monday. Virgin did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Virgin has had several recent setbacks. Its Virgin Atlantic air-line fi led for bankruptcy in the

U.S. last week after announcing a restructuring plan in the United Kingdom last month. It resumed fl ights last month after a three-month closure because of the coronavirus pandemic. It ended its Virgin Trains UK service in December after a 22-year run.

The companies had an-nounced the partnership nearly two years ago and celebrated it with a rollout party in April 2019. (AP)

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

10

Kuwait’s market swingshigher, volume ticks up

KFH rallies 9 fi ls, Ooredoo slips

By John MathewsArab Times Staff

KUWAI CITY, Aug 11: Kuwait stocks swung high-er on Tuesday extending the gains to third consecu-tive session.The All Shares Index jumped 46.21 to 5,099.57 points led by banks even as the overall mood remained mixed.

The Premier Market sprinted 61 pts to 5,608 points while Main Market climbed 16.6 pts to 4,094 points. The BK 50 Main was up 28 pts at 4,095 points. The volume turnover meanwhile fell slightly. Over 193 million shares changed hands – down 1 pct from the day before.

The sectors closed mostly in green territory. Consumer Goods outshone the rest with 2.6 percent gain where-as Consumer Services shed 0.55 pct, the worst performer of the day. Bank continued to dominate in both vol-ume and value with 44.46 million shares worth KD 24.29 million.

Among the prime movers, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait rallied 7 fi ls to 808 fi ls on back of 4.9 million shares while Kuwait Finance House scaled 9 fi ls after pushing 17.6 million shares to close at 605 fi ls and has gained 27 fi ls so far dur-ing the month. Mabanee Co was up 7 fi ls at 642 fi ls.

Zain climbed 6 fi ls to 569 fi ls on

back of 7.8 million shares while Ooredoo gave up 2 fi ls to end at 577 fi ls. stc fell 3 fi ls to 827 fi ls while Agility dialed down 2 fi ls after mov-ing 2.8 million shares and closed at 642 fi ls. Humansoft Holding slipped 7 fi ls to KD 2.502 and KIPCO eased 1 fi l to 149 fi ls .

The market opened fi rm and head-ed north in early trade. The main in-dex continued to rise and peaked at 5,097 pts ahead of the mid-session helped by strong buying in banking shares. It drifted sideways thereafter and closed with moderate gains.

Top gainer of the day, Fujiarah Cement Co climbed 7.33 pct to 32.2 fi ls and Energy Holding sprinted 6.83 percent to stand next. Gulf Ce-ment Co skidded 9.47 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Gulf Petroleum Investment topped the volume with 29.5 million shares.

Despite the day’s gains, the market spread was almost even. 48 stocks advanced whereas 45 closed lower. Of the 117 counters active on Tuesday, 24 closed fl at. 7,019 deals worth over KD 38 million were transacted during the session.

National Industries Group inched 1 fi l higher to 158 fi ls while Mez-zan Holding rallied 16 fi ls on back of 1.03 million shares. Boubyan Petrochemical Co rose 7 fi ls to 553 fi ls and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co stood pat at 281 fi ls. Integrated Holding too paused at 378 fi ls whereas Mashaer Holding eased 0.5 fi ls to 58.5 fi ls.

Jazeera Airways fell 2 fi ls to 608 fi ls and is down 12 fi ls month to date while ALAFCO tripped 1fi l af-

ter moving 2.4 million shares. Oula Fuel edged 1 fi ls down to 108 fi ls and Soor Fuel added 3 fi ls. Inovest rose 2.4 fi ls to 57.5 fi ls. IFA Hotels and Resorts was unchanged at 23.4 fi ls.

Kuwait Cement Co took in 1 fi l while Kuwait Portland Cement climbed 7 fi ls to 740 fi ls. Education-al Holding was unchanged at 290 fi ls while Heavy Engineering Indus-tries and Shipbuilding Co trimmed 1 fi ls. KCPC slipped 4 fi ls to 281 fi ls and KPPC eased 0.1 fi ls.

Kuwait Foundry Co dialed up 2 fi ls and Gulf Cable gave up 2 fi ls before settling at 577 fi ls. ACICO Industries fell 1.7 fi ls to 98 fi ls and NICBM closed 3 fi ls in red. KGL Logistics ticked 0.4 fi ls lower and Kuwait National Cinema Co dropped 25 fi ls.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank rose 3 fi ls on back of 13.4 million shares to 204 fi ls and Kuwait In-ternational Bank followed suit after moving over 4 million shares. Bur-gan Bank took in 1 fi ls and Boubyan Bank rallied 12 fi ls with a volume of 4.7 million.

Commercial Bank jumped 14 fi ls to 514 fi ls with thin trading while Al Ahli Bank and Al Mutahed dialed up 2 fi ls each. Warba Bank inched 1 fi l higher to 199 fi ls and Ahli United Bank added 2 fi ls on back of 14.2 million shares.

The market has been upbeat so far during the week scaling 89 points in last three sessions. It has advanced 131 points from start of the month and is down 1,287 points year-to-date.

Market regains momentum

US probes electrical fi resin 2014 Chrysler minivans

China auto sales rise in July

DETROIT, Aug 11, (AP): The US government’s road safety agency is investigating complaints of fi res in a power and charging port in some Chrysler Town and Country minivans.

The National Highway Traffi c Safety Administration says it has three reports of fi res and one injury in minivans from the 2014 model year. About 150,000 vans are cov-ered by the probe.

The agency says owners com-plained of fi res starting in the ports, which are mounted in a trim piece on the driver’s side between the second- and third-row seats. The ports are used to power and charge

mobile devices.Fiat Chrysler, which makes the

minivans, says it’s cooperating with the investigation. Owners with problems should contact their deal-ers.

The agency will determine what caused the fi res and how often they happen. An investigation could lead to a recall.

One owner reported that on May 26 smoke started coming through a driver’s side vent, and then a pow-er supply caught fi re. The driver stopped and tried to smother the fi re with a beach towel, but suffered a minor hand burn, according to the complaint.

BEIJING, Aug 11, (AP): China’s auto sales rose by 16.4% in July over a year earlier to 2.1 million units in a sign of sustained recovery for the industry’s biggest global market, an industry group said Tuesday.

The China Association of Auto-mobile Manufacturers reported that sales of passenger cars jumped 8.5% from a year earlier to 1.67 million.

In the fi rst seven months of the year, passenger vehicle sales tum-bled 18.4% from a year earlier, to 9.5 million, the CAAM said, as many cities in China imposed wide shut-downs during the fi rst quarter to bat-tle the new coronavirus pandemic.

Demand already was weak before the pandemic hit, due to consumer jitters over a slowing economy and trade tensions with Washington. Sales fell 9.6% last year, the second straight annual decline. But custom-ers appear to have returned to show-rooms, looking for deals.

“The trend is good after recover-ing momentum in the second quar-ter of the year,” the group said in a statement.

Weakness in the China market has hurt global automakers that are look-ing to China to propel sales growth.

It also squeezes cash fl ow at a time when global and Chinese brands are spending billions of dollars to devel-op electric vehicles under pressure to meet government sales quotas.

Demand for electric vehicles weakened last year after Beijing re-

duced subsidies that helped to make China their biggest market, account-ing for half of global sales.

But in July sales of gasoline-electric hybrid and pure-electric ve-hicles rebounded, jumping 19.3% to 98,000 units. Still, in the fi rst seven months of the year, sales slumped 32.8% to 486,000.

Sales of commercial vehicles surged 59.4% from a year earlier, to 447,000, led by trucks. In the fi rst seven months of the year, sales

climbed 14.3% from a year earlier to 2.8 million.

SUV sales in July rose 14% from a year earlier while sales of sedans rose 4.6%.

China’s market is still dominated mainly by foreign brands. Sales of Chinese vehicle models rose 4.5% in July from a year ago to 585,000 units. They had an overall market share of 35.1%, down slightly from a year earlier.

A busy highway is seen in Beijing on July 21, 2020. China’s auto sales rose by 16.4% in July over a year earlier to 2.1 million units in a sign of sustained recovery for the industry’s biggest global market, an industry group said

on Tuesday. (AP)

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

11

shipyard, union reach tentative deal to end strike in Maine

Navy shipbuilder Bath Iron Works and production workers reached a tenta-tive agreement to end a strike that has stretched on for more than a month dur-ing a pandemic, offi cials announced Sat-urday.

The proposal, which was unanimous-ly endorsed by the union’s negotiat-ing team, will be put forth to the 4,300 members of Machinists Local S6 later this month, said Jay Wadleigh, a district union offi cial.

A federal mediator helped to bring the

two sides together on subcontracting, seniority and work rules. The tentative agreement, reached late Friday, retains the company’s proposal for annual wage increases of 3% over three years, along with some health care improvements, Wadleigh said.

“It preserves our subcontracting pro-cess, protects seniority provisions and calls for a collaborative effort to get back on schedule,” he said.

The tentative agreement positions the shipyard and workers “to partner together

to improve schedule performance, restore the yard’s competitiveness and ensure ‘Bath Built’ remains ‘Best Built’ for genera-tions to come,” said Dirk Lesko, the ship-yard’s president, referencing the shipyard slogan “Bath built is best built.”

Voting on the proposal will take place online and via telephone from Aug. 21-23.

Production workers went on strike June 22 after overwhelmingly rejecting the company’s fi nal offer. The strike dragged on for more than six weeks against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic –

during which workers lost their company-paid insurance – and an election year in which some politicians sought to get in-volved on behalf of workers.

Frustration at the shipyard – a subsidi-ary of General Dynamics that builds guid-ed-missile destroyers for the US Navy – had been building among workers since the last contract in which the Machinists accepted concessions that were deemed necessary to win a US Coast Guard con-tract - and save shipbuilding jobs.

Bath Iron Works lost that contract to an-

other shipyard in 2016. It also lost a lucra-tive competition for Navy frigates in late April. Shipbuilders contended production workers shouldn’t shoulder the cost for problems they blame on mismanage-ment.

The pandemic exacerbated the ten-sions at the shipyard. Some workers were angry when the shipyard rebuffed requests to shut down for two weeks. The shipyard was considered essential and production continued even though hun-dreds of workers stayed home. (AP)

Asia extends rally; S&P 500 within 1% of recordSentiment boosted by Trump’s stopgap moves to aid economy

TOKYO, Aug 11, (AP): Shares advanced in Asia on Tuesday, extending an-other rally that took the S&P 500 to within striking distance of its all-time high set in February.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 added 1.9% and Hong Kong gained more than 2%, even as the tally of confi rmed new coronavirus cases worldwide topped 20 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The gains followed President Don-ald Trump’s announcement over the weekend of stopgap moves to aid the economy, after talks on Capitol Hill for a bigger rescue package faltered.

Sentiment got an extra boost from signals that the talks might resume, and by Trump’s suggestion to report-ers that he is planning a capital gains tax cut and a tax reduction also for “middle income” earners.

Despite the lack of fresh news to sup-port the markets, “investors are happy to live with the mounting global infec-tions as long as they do not trigger a new round of strict confi nement measures,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya, of Swissquote Bank said in a commentary.

The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 2.5% to 24,947.40, while the Nikkei 225 climbed to 22,750.24. In South Korea, the Kospi picked up 1.4% to 2,420.54. Sydney’s S&P/ASX 200 gianed 0.4% to 6,133.30, while the Shanghai Composite index gave up earlier gains, slipping 0.2% to 3,372.47.

India’s Sensex gained 0.8% to 38,498.02. Shares rose in Taiwan but fell in Singapore, Malaysia and Indo-nesia. US stock indexes closed mostly higher Monday, nudging the S&P 500 within striking distance of its all-time high set in February.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3% after wa-vering between small gains and losses in the early going. The benchmark in-

dex is now within 1% of its last record high.

The gains came on the fi rst trading day since President Donald Trump an-nounced several stopgap moves to aid the economy in response to the col-lapse of talks on Capitol Hill for a big-ger rescue package.

Trump signed executive orders over the weekend to extend an expired ben-efi t for unemployed workers, among other things. The orders were more limited than what investors hoped to see from a full rescue bill for the econ-omy, but hopes remain that the White House and Congress can return to talks and fi nd a compromise.

The S&P 500 gained 9.19 points to 3,360.47. The Dow Jones Indus-trial Average rose 357.96 points, or 1.3%, to 27,791.44. The Nasdaq com-posite lost 42.63 points, or 0.4%, to

10,968.36. Most stocks across Wall Street rose,

with hotels, cruise operators and air-lines - among the hardest-hit compa-nies due to the pandemic - seeing the biggest gains. Smaller stocks also had a strong showing, pushing the Russell 2000 index up 15.49 points, or 1%, to 1,584.67. Losses in technology, health care and communication services stocks, which have been among the biggest gainers this year, kept the mar-ket’s gains in check.

“The more economically sensitive stocks are driving the market higher,” said Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist of Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management. “The rest of the market today and over the past few days is doing better.”

MGM Resorts International jumped 13.8% for the biggest gain in the S&P

500 after IAC disclosed that it had built a roughly $1 billion stake in the company. Like other businesses that depend on people feeling safe enough to travel, MGM Resorts has been pum-meled by the pandemic, and its shares more than halved in March alone. Bar-ry Diller, IAC’s chairman, called it a “once in a decade” opportunity, citing its potential to move business online.

But losses for technology stocks weighed on the market. It’s a continua-tion of their struggles from Friday, when worries rose that worsening US-China relations could mean retaliations against the US tech industry. It’s a relatively rare setback for the industry, which has been the year’s biggest winner so far and cruised through much of the pandemic. Critics had already been calling tech stocks overpriced, even after accounting for their huge and resilient profi ts.

Amazon Project Zero launched in seven new countriesSEATTLE, Aug 11, (Agencies): Amazon announced the expansion of Project Zero to seven new coun-tries – Australia, Brazil, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Turkey, and the UAE – making it available in 17 countries where Amazon has a store. Project Zero combines Amazon’s ad-vanced technology, machine learning, and innovation with the sophisticated knowledge that brands have of their own intellectual property so we can to-gether drive counterfeits to zero.

Launched in 2019, Project Zero builds on Amazon’s long-standing work and investments to ensure that customers always receive authentic goods when shopping on Amazon. Over 10,000 brands – from large, glob-al brands to emerging entrepreneurs including Arduino, BMW, ChessCen-tral, LifeProof, OtterBox, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Veet – have already enrolled in Project Zero.

“Amazon is committed to protect-ing our customers and the brands we collaborate with worldwide,” said Dharmesh Mehta, Vice President of Worldwide Customer Trust and Part-ner Support. “Project Zero has been a leap forward in protecting brands, es-pecially for those that use all three of its components.”

BMW, one of the world’s leading automotive brands with a portfolio of global trademarks, said: “Project Zero has been a very easy and effective tool at protecting BMW on Amazon. We are very appreciative of the tools Ama-zon has built to enable us to protect our brand.”

“We are excited to see that Project Zero is expanding into the new mar-ketplaces,” said Adrienne McNicholas, Co-Founder and CEO of Food Hug-gers. “The program has already had a very positive impact on our enforce-ment efforts and we are glad to see

Amazon’s continued commitment to protecting our brand across the world.”

Brands that are enrolled in Ama-zon Project Zero and already have a trademark enrolled in one of the newly launched countries will automatically be able to use Project Zero in these ad-ditional stores. New brands can learn more about and enroll in Amazon Pro-ject Zero at: www.ProjectZero.com.

Project Zero uses three key compo-nents to protect and empower brands:

Amazon’s automated protections proactively and continuously scan more than 5 billion attempted daily product listing updates globally to look for suspicious listings. These au-tomated protections are powered by Amazon’s machine learning and are continuously fed new information, so we continue to get better in automati-cally preventing and blocking potential counterfeit listings. We have invested signifi cant resources over the years to

proactively prevent counterfeits and continue to innovate and build technol-ogy-based solutions. Project Zero goes further with a self-service tool to em-power brands and provides them with an unprecedented ability to directly remove listings from our store. These removals also feed into our automated protections, so we can better catch po-tential counterfeit listings proactively in the future. Product serialization is enabled by a unique code that brands apply within their manufacturing or packaging process, and it allows us to individually scan and confi rm the authenticity of every single purchase of a brand’s enrolled products from Amazon’s stores. While product seri-alization is optional, brands enrolled in Project Zero are seeing the best re-sults when using product serialization. Project Zero is among a suite of tools Amazon has introduced to empower brands to protect their IP.

A couple wearing face masks walk past a bank’s electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Aug 11. Shares advanced in Asia on Tuesday, extending another rally that took the S&P

500 to within striking distance of its all-time high set in February. (AP)

Prumo, bp and Siemens ink deal with SPIC BrazilRIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 11, ( Agencies): Prumo, a private Bra-zilian company controlled by EIG Global Energy Partners, bp and Siemens signed a binding agree-ment with SPIC Brasil. Under the agreement, SPIC will initially acquire 33% of the GNA I and GNA II LNG-to-power projects, located in Port of Açu, Rio de Ja-neiro. SPIC has also entered into an agreement to participate in the future expansion projects GNA III and GNA IV, which are expected to be fueled by a combination of LNG and domestic gas from Bra-zil’s vast pre-salt reserves.

The closing of the agreement, scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2020, is subject to the fulfi llment of certain conditions precedent usual to this type of transaction, among others.

GNA I and GNA II is the larg-est gas-to-power project in Latin America, with 3 GW of installed capacity - enough to supply energy for up to 14 million households. The complex also includes an LNG terminal with a total capac-ity of 21 million m 3 / day. GNA I, which has an installed capacity of 1.3 GW, is expected to commence operations in the fi rst half of 2021. The agreement improves the poten-tial for expansion projects GNA III and GNA IV, the domestic gas hub strategy and renewables projects. The estimated total planned invest-ment in the GNA gas and power complex is approximately $5 bil-lion.

SPIC Brasil’s contribution to this partnership is centered on its expertise in operation and project management strategy in Brazil. Siemens - via its fi nancing arm, Siemens Financial Services, and in close cooperation with Siemens Energy – will contribute capital, innovative technology and its ex-pertise managing similar projects. In addition, bp will contribute its global portfolio of LNG acting as a key integrated and innovative gas supplier and Prumo contrib-utes the entire port infrastructure, operations, project development and integration. The partnership fa-cilitates the expansion of a range of projects and demonstrates a com-mitment to completing the invest-ments that are under development.

BofA Securities and Lakeshore Partners acted as fi nancial advisors of GNA and its sponsors. Itaú BBA acted as exclusive fi nancial advisor of SPIC. Mattos Filho acted as le-gal advisors of GNA and its spon-sors. Trench Rossi Watanabe acted as legal advisors of SPIC.

Siemens AG (Berlin and Mu-nich) is a global technology power-house that has stood for engineer-

ing excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 170 years. The com-pany is active around the globe, focusing on the areas of power generation and distribution, intel-ligent infrastructure for buildings and distributed energy systems, and automation and digitalization in the process and manufacturing industries. Through the separately managed company Siemens Mo-bility, a leading supplier of smart mobility solutions for rail and road transport, Siemens is shaping the world market for passenger and freight services. Due to its major-ity stakes in the publicly listed companies Siemens Healthineers AG and Siemens Gamesa Renew-able Energy, Siemens is also a world-leading supplier of medical technology and digital healthcare services as well as environmentally friendly solutions for onshore and offshore wind power generation. In fi scal 2019, which ended on Sep-tember 30, 2019, Siemens gener-ated revenue of �86.8 billion and net income of �5.6 billion. At the end of September 2019, the compa-ny had around 385,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com.

Siemens Financial Services (SFS) – the fi nancing arm of Sie-mens – provides business-to-busi-ness fi nancial solutions. A unique combination of fi nancial expertise, risk management and industry know-how enable SFS to create tailored innovative fi nancial solu-tions. With these, SFS facilitates growth, creates value, enhances competitiveness and helps custom-ers access new technologies. SFS supports investments with equip-ment fi nancing and leasing, cor-porate lending, equity investments and project and structured fi nanc-ing. Trade and receivable fi nancing solutions complete the SFS portfo-lio. With an international network, SFS is well adapted to country-spe-cifi c legal requirements and able to provide fi nancial solutions glob-ally. Within Siemens, SFS is an expert adviser for fi nancial risks. Siemens Financial Services has its global headquarters in Munich, Germany, and has almost 3,000 employees worldwide. www.sie-mens.com/fi nance.

SPIC Brasil, owned subsidiary of State Power Investment Cor-poration (SPIC), a global energy generator and related projects com-pany. In Brazil, this is translated into the union between the exper-tise and fi nancial strength of a large Chinese group and the Australian pioneering over 20 years of experi-ence in renewable energy.

exchange rates – Aug 11

US dollar

BuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuy

BEC

Muzaini

Commercial Bank

Gulf Bank

NBK

Burgan Bank

ABK

KFH

KBE

BuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuy

Cash.303100.307800

——

.299000

.307550——————

.305300

.307400

.303590

.309120—

Draft.304350.306700.301500.306700.305200.307300.305200.307300.305300.307400

—.303400.302800.308900.305300.307400

—

Danish krone

Cyprus pound

BEC Muzaini

Gulf Bank

ABK

KFH

KBE

BECCommercial BankGulf BankAl-Ahli Bank

BECMuzaini Exchange

BuySellBuySell BuySellBuySellBuySellBuy

US dollar————

Gold 999 kg— —

Gold 999 10 tola——

Gold ounce——

Gold gm 22k——

Gold gm 21k——

Gold gm 18k——

100 gm 999——

10 gm 999——

Transfer.304350.306700.301500.306700.305200.307300.305200.307300.305300.307400

—.303400.302800.308900.305300.307400

—

Cash.044483.049483

———————————————

Draft.044358.049358

——

.048559

.048893

.048497

.049116

.048550

.049080————

.048311

.048957—

Cash———————————

Draft——— ————————

Transfer——— ————————

Sterling pound

Cash.393779.407679

— —

.397000

.404000——————

.396190

.409500

.395153

.406802—

Draft.393278.405278

—.404690.398866.401610.396653.406521.399330.403770.404920

—.394730.405790.397836.403770

—

Indian rupee

Yemeni riyal

Transfer.393278.405278

—.404690.398866.401610.396653.406521.399330.403770.404920

—.394730.405790.397836.403770

—

Cash.004350.005250

——

.004000

.007000———————————

Draft.004014.004115.041150

——

.004109—

.004152

.004055

.004116

.004304—

.004050

.004150

.004043

.004126—

Transfer.004014.004115.041150

——

.004109—

.004152

.004055

.004116

.004304—

.004050

.004150

.004043

.004126—

Cash.000997.001077

—————————

Draft.009873.001087.001232

————————

Transfer.009873.001087.001232

————————

Euro

Cash.352611.366311

——

.358000

.365000——————

.355340

.368590

.354715

.365627—

Draft.354611.364611

—.364670.359297.361769.355237.366071.358610.362760.338430

—.354210.364710.357170.362824

—

Pakistani rupee

Thai baht

Transfer.354611.364611

—.364670.359297.361769.355237.366071.358610.362760.338430

—.354210.364710.357170.362824

—

Cash.001401.002171

———————————————

Draft.001804.001870.001860

——

.001828—

.001855—

.001838————

.001799

.001832—

Transfer.001804.001870.001860

——

.001828—

.001855—

.001838————

.001799

.001832—

Cash.009514.001006

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Draft.009434.009925

——————

.009726

.009958—

Transfer.009434.009925

——————

.009766

.009997—

Japanese yen

Cash.002804.002984

———————————————

Draft.002803.002983

—.002899.002882.002901.002849.002936.002874.002909.338430

—.002850.002930.002863.002911

—

Sri Lankan rupee

South African rand

Transfer.002803.002983

—.002899.002882.002901.002849.002936.002874.002909.338430

—.002850.002930.002863.002911

—

Cash .001327.001907

——

.002000

.003600———————————

Draft .001608.001685.001675

——

.001658—

.001677

.001637

.001664————

.001639

.001660—

Transfer.001608.001685.001675

——

.001658—

.001677

.001637

.001664————

.001639

.001660—

Cash———————————

Draft—————

.017951—————

Transfer—————

.018503—————

Swiss franc

Cash.328317 .339317

——

.333000

.342000———————————

Draft.329316.336316.339080

—.333461.335755.329607.339760.333120.337430

——

.330250

.342090

.331884

.337951—

Bangladesh taka

Korean won

Transfer.329316.336316.339080

—.333461.335755.329607.339760.333120.337430

——

.330250

.342090

.331884

.337951—

Draft.003596.003635.003635

——

.003627—

.003665——————

.003564

.003653—

Cash.002974.003775

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Transfer.003596.003635.003635

——

.003627—

.003665——————

.003564

.003653—

Cash.000247.000262

—————————

Draft———————————

Transfer———————————

Canadian dollar

Cash.224600.233600

——

.227000

.234000———————————

Draft.222600.235600.230260

—.228025.229594.225591.232445.228860.231390

——

.226960

.233770

.228142

.231476—

Philippine peso

Syrian pound

Transfer.222600.235600.230260

—.228025.229594.225591.232445.228860.231390

——

.226960

.233770

.228142

.231476—

Cash.005889.006189

——

.005000

.008000———————————

Draft.005786.006275.006265

——

.006281—

.006339

.006070

.006290————

.006164

.006316—

Transfer.005786.006275.006265

——

.006281—

.006339

.006070

.006290————

.006164

.006316—

Cash.001301.001521

——— — —————

Draft.001533.003733

—— ———————

Transfer.001533.003733

—— ———————

Swedish krona

Cash.030974.035974

———————————————

Draft.030973.035973

——

.034893

.035133

.033090

.034106

.034860

.035220————

.034792

.035276—

Australian dollar

Iranian Riyal

Transfer.030973.035973

——

.034893

.035133

.033090

.034106

.034860

.035220————

.034792

.035276—

Cash.210606.222606

——

.219000

.227000———————————

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——

.219025

.220533

.219041

.221906

.219440

.222640——

.218640

.222040

.217363

.222145—

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.219025

.220533

.219041

.221906

.219440

.222640——

.218640

.222040

.217363

.222145—

Cash———————————

Draft———————————

Transfer———————————

Saudi riyal

Cash.080700.082000

——

.081139

.081955————————

.081309

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—.081383.081943.080879.082560.081340.082100.081460

—.080440.082510 .081309.082070

—

Hong Kong dollar

Lebanese pound

Transfer.081200.081930.082133

—.081383.081943.080879.082560.081340.082100.081460

—.080440.082510 .081309.082070

—

Cash.037740.040490

———————————————

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—.039341.039612.039125.039909

—————————

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—.039341.039612.039125.039909

—————————

Cash.000061.000255

—————————

Draft.000187.000207.002050

——— —————

Transfer.000187.000207.002050

——— —————

UAE dirham

Cash.082840.083672

——

.082840

.083672————————

.083007

.083799—

Draft.082056.083557.083683

—.083089.083661.082819.083838.083040.083800

——

.082540

.084260

.083007

.083799—

Singapore dollar

Malaysian ringgit

Transfer.082056.083557.083683

—.083089.083661.082819.083838.083040.083800

——

.082540

.084260

.083007

.083799—

Cash.217772.227772

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Draft.218391.224891.224690

—.222669.224202.222207.224716

————

.221910

.224950

.221552

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—.222669.224202.222207.224716

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.221910

.224950

.221552

.224843—

Cash.068426.074426

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Draft.067550.074550.079662

—————

.072664

.073427—

Transfer.067550.074550.079662

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.073427—

Bahraini dinar

Cash.807085.815197

——

.807085

.815197————————

.809449

.815774—

Draft.806126.814626.817870

—.809549.815119.805082.816467.808370.816420

——

.801950

.817280

.809449

.815774—

Jordanian dinar

Indonesian rupiah

Transfer.806126.814626.817870

—.809549.815119.805082.816467.808370.816420

——

.801950

.817280

.809449

.815774—

Cash.427684.436684

——

.420000

.440000———————————

Draft.426814.434314.433190

——

.043413

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.427560

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Cash.000017.000023

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Draft.000016.000022

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2.11E-5—————

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———

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Omani riyal

Cash .791214.799166

——

.791214

.799166————————

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—.793758.799220.787851.806265.792210.799430

——

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Egyptian pound

New Zealand dollar

Transfer.785628.798378.799218

—.793758.799220.787851.806265.792210.799430

——

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Cash.018308.021989.019350.019730.012000.023000

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——

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.019476

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.019476

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.019810

.018798

.019375—

Cash.197062.206562

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Draft.194204.208204

——

.201346

.205500—————

Transfer.194204.208204

——

.201346

.205500—————

All rates in KD per unit of foreign currency

travellers cheques local gold — Sterling————

Euro————

Transfer.044358.049358

——

.048559

.048893

.048497

.049116

.048550

.049080————

.048311

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BEC

Muzaini

Commercial Bank

Gulf Bank

NBK

Burgan Bank

ABK

KFH

KBE

Business PlusPlus

We’re in a multi-polar world in which

there are multiple locomotives –

China, Europe as well as the United

States

So this motion is apparently a vehicle

to make more defamatory and

baseless accusations about a competitor

that is winning in the marketplace

‘

‘

’

’

US unlikely to pull world economy out of its rut as it did in past downturns

Virus surge makes US weak link in global economic recovery

by the country’s inability to bring the virus under control.

The United States’ diminished ability to drive global growth isn’t just related to its coronavirus response. Its share of global eco-nomic output – and growth – has been eroding.

China’s economy has consist-ently grown faster than America’s and has steadily narrowed the gap between them. From 2009 through 2019, China accounted for almost 28% of global economic growth; the United States, just 17%.

“We’re in a multi-polar world in which there are multiple locomo-tives – China, Europe” as well as the United States, Behravesh said.

Germany’s carmakers, who dominate the global market for expensive cars, are already see-ing their sales buoyed by China. BMW saw car sales in China rise 17% in the second quarter, compared with a year earlier – before anyone had heard the term “COVID-19”. Competitor Daimler’s revenues in China rose 15% during the same period from a year earlier while they sagged 36% in the US.

Economist Philipp Hauber at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy said that “in fact China has been the locomotive of the global economy in recent years. That does not mean that the devel-opment of the economy in the US is inconsequential. Both economies are about the same size, depending on how one measures ... and the two of them are the biggest trading partners for the eurozone.”

He said that a weak US econom-ic rebound is the greatest risk to the eurozone and world economy, along with a second wave of coro-navirus contagions.

Chinese exporters already were looking for alternatives to the US market after President Donald Trump raised tariffs on their goods in 2018. That has helped Chinese exports grow faster than the world average, taking away market share from other developing countries. But markets in Asia, Europe and Latin America usually buy lower-priced, less profi table goods.

The ruling Communist Party has been trying for a decade to reduce the country’s reliance on exports and to encourage economic growth based on consumer spending at home.

Businesses around the globe are hoping America gets its act together, and soon.

The general manager of Yiwu Sinohood Bags Factory, which makes canvas tote bags, said it usually exports 40% to the United States, but sales in America have dropped to zero.

“We tried to develop the Euro-pean market, but Europe has also been hit hard by the epidemic,” said the manager, David Hu. “The US market is important for us, and I am not confi dent about fi nding a replacement.” (AP)

In this fi le photo, model Arizona Muse (left), is fl anked by designer and Offi cina del Poggio owner Allison Hoeltzel Savini as they present a creation of the Offi cina del Poggio women’s Fall-Winter 2019-2020 collection in Milan, Italy. The United States’ fumbling response to the pandemic is casting doubt on its economic prospects and making it one of the chief risks that could undermine

the rebound. Offi cina del Poggio sells 60% its vintage motorcycle-inspired satchels to US customers. (AP)

FCA calls GM’s bribery allegations ‘preposterous’

DETROIT, Aug 11, (AP): Allega-tions by General Motors that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles bribed union offi cials are “preposterous” and read like a script from a “third-rate spy movie,” FCA lawyers wrote in court documents fi led Monday.

GM, in a motion last week, al-leged that Fiat Chrysler used foreign bank accounts to bribe union of-fi cials so they would stick GM with higher labor costs.

But in a response, the Italian-American automaker fi red back, calling GM’s claims “defamatory and baseless.”

GM alleged in its motion that FCA spent millions on bribes by stashing the money in foreign ac-counts. The assertion that there is new evidence came as GM asked a federal judge to reconsider his July dismissal of a federal racketeering lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler.

In trying to revive the lawsuit, GM alleged that bribes were paid to two former United Auto Work-ers presidents, as well as a former union vice president and at least one

former GM employee. In its response, Fiat Chrysler

said the judge should deny GM’s motion. GM, FCA said, has to know that the prospect of getting the judge to overturn the dismissal is slim to none. “So this motion is apparently a vehicle to make more defamatory and baseless accusations about a competitor that is winning in the

marketplace.”FCA denied allegations by GM

that FCA paid two “moles” to infi ltrate GM and send inside infor-mation. The company also denied that foreign bank accounts were involved. “That GM has extended its attacks to individual FCA of-fi cers and employees, making wild allegations against them without a

shred of factual support, is despic-able,” FCA lawyers wrote.

GM’s claims are based on the alleged existence of foreign bank accounts, which are legal, Fiat Chrysler wrote. “There is not one well-pled allegation in the proposed amended complaint (by GM) that these foreign bank accounts were used to pay bribes or facilitate any other illegal conduct,” FCA’s response said.

GM contends that bribes were paid to former United Auto Work-ers Presidents Dennis Williams and Ron Gettelfinger, as well as Vice President Joe Ashton. It also alleges money was paid to GM employees including Al Iacobelli, a former FCA labor negotiator who was hired and later released by GM.

GM alleges that payments were made so the offi cials would saddle GM with more than $1 billion in additional labor costs.

Gettelfi nger, whose name had not come up previously in a wide-ranging federal probe of UAW

corruption, vehemently denied the allegations in a statement and said he had no foreign accounts. Williams’ California home was raided by federal agents but he has not been charged. Iacobelli, who is awaiting sentencing in the probe, also denied the claims.

In July, U.S. District Judge Paul Borman in Detroit tossed out GM’s lawsuit that alleged that Fiat Chrysler paid off union leaders to get better contract terms than GM.

He wrote that GM’s alleged injuries were not caused by FCA vio-lating federal racketeering laws, and that the people harmed by the bribery scheme were Fiat Chrysler workers.

GM’s motion contended that payments were made to accounts in places like Switzerland, Luxem-bourg, Italy, Singapore and the Cay-man Islands. The accounts were set up to avoid detection in the federal criminal probe, according to the mo-tion. The accounts were discovered recently by private investigators working on GM’s behalf, according to court records.

By David McHugh, Paul Wiseman and Joe McDonald

People in China are back to buying German luxury cars.

Europe’s assembly lines are accel-erating. Now the global economy is waiting for the United States to get its coronavirus outbreak under control and boost the recovery, but there’s little sign of that.

The United States’ fumbling response to the pandemic is casting doubt on its economic prospects and making it one of the chief risks to a global rebound.

After springtime restrictions, many US states prematurely declared victory over the virus and began to reopen their economies, leading to a resurgence in COV-ID-19 cases. Confi rmed infections are rising in most states, and many businesses have had to scale back or even cancel plans to reopen. And while it does not dominate global commerce like it did 20 years ago,

America is still by far the biggest economy – accounting for 22% of total economic output, versus 14% for No. 2 China, according to the World Bank.

That makes its handling of the pandemic and its economy crucial for companies like Offi cina del Poggio, a producer of luxury handbags in Bologna, Italy, that sells 60% its vintage motorcycle-inspired satchels to US customers.

Company owner Allison Hoelt-zel Savini said retail sales dried up during the spring. She had already suffered a blow when Barneys, her main client, went bankrupt and didn’t pay for the spring-summer collection that had shipped.

Hoeltzel Savini said she has had to hold off on new hires, and hasn’t been able to do her usual sales trip to the United States. She got some orders by trying to fi nd consumers directly through newsletters and social media, but remains cautious about the future, as she sees the US

market for her goods continuing to slow down.

“I am really concerned for the next season, if wholesale clients will be placing orders,” she said.

Same for of Shenzhen Aung Crown Industrial Ltd, which makes baseball hats. The company usually sells about 60% of its output to the United States. “We can’t afford to lose the US market,” said general manager Kailyn Weng. “It is dif-fi cult to fi nd other markets that could digest such a great amount of high-quality hats ... We have no alternative but to focus on the US market.”

The United States is unlikely to pull the world economy out of its rut as it did in past downturns such as after the Asian fi nancial crisis of the late 1990s.

“The US won’t be the locomo-tive,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Markit.

The American economy shrank at an annual pace of 32.9% from

April through June, by far the worst quarter on record. The numbers are expected to bounce back strongly in the second half but to leave the US economy well short of where it stood at the beginning of 2020.

The European Union, which has reduced the number of conta-gions more effectively than the US, shrank at a similar pace but is forecast to grow more quickly next year and government sup-port for workers has contained the rise in unemployment for now. China, meanwhile, was the fi rst major economy to resume growth since the pandemic struck, record-ing a 3.2% expansion during the April-June period from the quarter before.

If the US had done a better job managing the outbreak, “the re-bound would have been stronger,” Behravesh said. “There’s no doubt in my mind about that.”

Hopes for a strong and quick recovery have largely been dashed

McDonald’s sues ousted CEO, alleging employee relationships

McDonald’s says it’s suing Ste-phen Easterbrook, the CEO it ousted last year over an inap-propriate relationship with an employee, alleging Monday that he covered up relation-ships with three other employ-ees and destroyed evidence.

The company now wants to reclaim hundreds of thou-sands of dollars in compensa-tion paid to Easterbrook on his departure.

“McDonald’s does not toler-ate behavior from employees that does not refl ect our val-ues,” said McDonald’s Presi-dent and CEO Chris Kemp-czinski, who was promoted following Easterbrook’s de-parture, in a message to em-ployees Monday.

McDonald’s fi red Easter-brook last November after he acknowledged exchanging videos and text messages in

a non-physical, consensual relationship with an employee. Easterbrook told the com-pany that there were no other similar instances. Easterbrook and his wife divorced in 2015, the same year he became Mc-Donald’s CEO.

Based on what the company knew at the time, McDonald’s board approved a separation agreement “without cause” that allowed Easterbrook to

keep nearly $42 million in stock-based benefi ts, accord-ing to Equilar, which tracks ex-ecutive compensation. Easter-brook also collected 26 weeks of pay, amounting to compen-sation of about $670,000.

McDonald’s says in a law-suit that in July, it received an anonymous tip that Easter-brook had engaged in a sex-ual relationship with another employee. (AP)

In this fi le photo, McDon-ald’s CEO Steve East-erbrook is interviewed at the New York Stock

Exchange. (AP)

This fi le photo shows the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles world headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan. (AP)

HEALTHARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

13

Vilifi ed, burnout

US health offi cialsquit or get sackedPROVIDENCE, R.I., Aug 11, (AP): Vilifi ed, threatened with violence and in some cases suffering from burnout, dozens of state and local public health leaders around the US have resigned or have been fi red amid the coronavirus outbreak, a testament to how politically combustible masks, lockdowns and infection data have become.

One of the latest departures came Sunday, when Califor-nia’s public health director, Dr Sonia Angell, was ousted following a technical glitch that caused a delay in report-ing hundreds of thousands of virus test results - informa-tion used to make decisions about reopening businesses and

schools.Last week, New York City’s health

commissioner was replaced after months of friction with the Police De-partment and City Hall.

A review by the Kaiser Health News service and The Associated Press fi nds at least 49 state and local public health leaders have resigned, retired or been fi red since April across 23 states. The list has grown by more than 20 people since the AP and KHN started keeping track in June.

Dr Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention, called the numbers stunning. He said they refl ect burnout, as well as attacks on public health experts and institutions from the highest levels of government, including from President Donald Trump, who has sidelined the CDC during the pandemic.

“The overall tone toward public health in the US is so hostile that it has kind of emboldened people to make these attacks,” Frieden said.

The cuts come at a time when public health expertise is needed more than ever, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Of-fi cials.

“We’re moving at breakneck speed here to stop a pan-demic, and you can’t afford to hit the pause button and say, ‘We’re going to change the leadership around here and we’ll get back to you after we hire somebody,’” Freeman said.

Confi rmed As of Monday, confi rmed infections in the United States

stood at over 5 million, with deaths topping 163,000, the highest in the world, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

Many of the fi rings and resignations have to do with confl icts over mask orders or social distancing shutdowns, Freeman said. Despite the scientifi c evidence, many poli-ticians and others have argued that such measures are not needed, no matter what health experts tell them.

“It’s not a health divide; it’s a political divide,” Freeman said.

Some health offi cials said they were stepping down for family reasons, and some left for jobs at other agencies, such as the CDC. Some, like Angell, were ousted because of what higher-ups said was poor leadership or a failure to do their job.

Others have complained that they were overworked, un-derpaid, unappreciated or thrust into a pressure-cooker en-vironment.

“To me, a lot of the divisiveness and the stress and the resignations that are happening right and left are the con-sequence of the lack of a real national response plan,” said Dr Matt Willis, health offi cer for Marin County in Northern California. “And we’re all left scrambling at the local and state level to extract resources and improvise solutions ... in a fractured health care system, in an under-resourced public health system.”

Public health leaders from Dr Anthony Fauci down to of-fi cials in small communities have reported death threats and intimidation. Some have seen their home addresses pub-lished or been the subject of sexist attacks on social media. Fauci has said his wife and daughters have received threats.

In Ohio, the state’s health director, Dr Amy Acton, re-signed in June after months of pressure during which Re-publican lawmakers tried to strip her of her authority and armed protesters showed up at her house.

It was on Acton’s advice that GOP Gov. Mike DeWine became the fi rst governor to shut down schools statewide. Acton also called off the state’s presidential primary in March just hours before polls were to open, angering those who saw it as an overreaction.

The executive director of Las Animas-Huerfano Coun-ties District Health Department in Colorado found her car vandalized twice, and a group called Colorado Counties for Freedom ran a radio ad demanding that her authority be re-duced. Kim Gonzales has remained on the job.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice forced the resignation of Public Health Commissioner Dr Cathy Slemp in June over what he said were discrepancies in the data. Slemp said the department’s work had been hurt by outdated technology like fax machines and slow computer networks.

“We are driving a great aunt’s Pinto when what you need is to be driving a Ferrari,” Slemp said.

Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins, was critical of Slemp’s fi ring and said it was deeply concerning that public health offi cials who told “uncomfortable truths” to political leaders had been removed.

Response “That’s terrible for the national response because what

we need for getting through this, fi rst of all, is the truth. We need data, and we need people to interpret the data and help political leaders make good judgments,” Inglesby said.

Since 2010, spending on state public health departments has dropped 16% per capita, and the amount devoted to lo-cal health departments has fallen 18%, according to a KHN and AP analysis. At least 38,000 state and local public health jobs have disappeared since the 2008 recession, leav-ing a skeletal workforce for what was once viewed as one of the world’s top public health systems.

Another sudden departure came Monday along the Texas border. Dr Jose Vazquez, the Starr County health author-ity, resigned after a proposal to increase his pay from $500 to $10,000 a month was rejected by county commissioners.

Starr County Judge Eloy Vera said Vazquez had been working 60 hours per week in the county, one of the poorest in the U.S. and recently one of those hit hardest by the virus.

“He felt it was an insult,” Vera said.In Oklahoma, both the state health commissioner and

state epidemiologist have been replaced since the outbreak began in March.

In rural Colorado, Emily Brown was fi red in late May as director of the Rio Grande County Public Health De-partment after clashing with county commissioners over reopening recommendations. The person who replaced her resigned July 9.

Brown said she knows many public health department leaders who are considering resigning or retiring because of the strain. The months of nonstop and often unappreciated work are prompting many public health workers to leave, said Theresa Anselmo of the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Offi cials.

“It will certainly slow down the pandemic response and become less coordinated,” she said. “Who’s going to want to take on this career if you’re confronted with the kinds of political issues that are coming up?”

Coronavirus

Health workers wait for patients to make PCR tests for the COVID-19 at Vilafranca del Penedes in the Barcelona province, Spain on Aug 10. As European countries struggle to manage spikes in coronavirus cases, concern is mounting about a ‘second wave’ of uncoordinated border restrictions within Europe that threatens the

free movement of goods and people - a foundation that the world’s biggest trading bloc is built on. (AP)

An elderly woman is helped by a health worker before screening her for COV-ID-19 symptoms in Dharavi, one of Asia’s biggest slums, in Mumbai, India on Aug 11. India has the third-highest coronavirus caseload in the world after

the United States and Brazil. (AP)

Health

N. Zealand reports 4 cases: New Zea-land Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Tuesday that authorities have found four cases of the coronavirus in one Auckland household from an unknown source, the fi rst reported cases of local transmission in the country in 102 days.

Ardern said Auckland, the nation’s largest city, will be moved to Alert Level 3 from midday Wednesday through midnight Friday, meaning that people will be asked to stay at home, while bars and many other businesses will be closed.

“These three days will give us time to assess the situation, gather information, make sure we have widespread contact tracing so we can fi nd out more about how this case arose and make decisions about how to respond to it once we have further information,” Ardern said at a hastily called news conference late Tuesday.

“I know that this information will be very diffi cult to receive,” Ardern said. “We had all hoped not to fi nd ourselves in this position again. But we had also prepared for it. And as a team, we have also been here before.”

She said that traveling into Auckland will be banned unless people live there and are traveling home.

She said the rest of the country will be raised to Level 2 through Friday, meaning that mass gatherings will be limited to 100 attendees and people would need to socially distance themselves from each other. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

tCompay’s product probed: A Georgia company falsely claimed a vitamin D prod-uct it was selling could lower the risk of becoming infected with COVID-19, federal prosecutors said.

Matthew Ryncarz and his company Fusion Health and Vitality, which operated as Pharm Origins, are accused of saying a product called Immune Shot would lower the risk of getting COVID-19 by 50%, ac-

cording to federal prosecutors in Savannah. The product “bore false and misleading labeling,” leading to a charge of selling a misbranded drug, prosecutors said in a news release Monday.

The company said in a statement released Monday that it was contacted by federal authorities over statements made on marketing materials for Immune shot, “a Vitamin D product we marketed for a few

weeks in March and early April.” (AP)❑ ❑ ❑

697 virus cases in Japan: Japan reported 697 new cases of the coronavirus over the last 24 hours as of 4:00 pm (0700 GMT) on Tuesday, bringing the nation’s total number to 50,078, the health ministry and local authorities said.

The country’s death toll rose by fi ve to 1,053. Tokyo confi rmed 188 new cases, staying below 200 for the second straight day, which brought the cumulative cases in the Japanese capital to 16,252.

The tallies exclude those who were linked to the virus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship in February. Since the government fully lifted a nationwide state of emergency late May, the number of daily new infections across the country has been rising. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

4 virus deaths in Germany: Germany Tuesday announced four deaths resulting from the coronavirus pandemic while 966 people were infected with the disease in the past 24 hours. Robert Koch Institute said in a statement total deaths reached 9,201 and registered infections stood at 217,293.

The German authorities have warned against a second wave of the virus due to return of German tourists from their sum-mer vacations. Germany’s chancellor is Angela Merkel. (KUNA)

A sample is collected at a Texas Division of Emergency Management free COV-ID-19 testing site at Minute Maid Park on Aug 8, in Houston. The newly-opened mega site, which has eight drive-thru lanes and four walk-up lanes, has the abil-

ity to process 2,000 tests per day. (AP)

40pct of infected have no symptoms

Global COVID-19 cases top 20mlnMITO, Japan, Aug 11, (AP): The num-ber of coronavirus cases topped 20 million on Tuesday, more than half of them from the US, India and Brazil.

Health offi cials believe the actual number is much higher than that tally kept by Johns Hopkins University, given testing limitations and the fact that as many as 40% of those who are infected have no symptoms.

It took six months or so to get to 10 million cases after the virus fi rst ap-peared in central China late last year. It took just over six weeks for that num-ber to double.

An AP analysis of data through Aug 9 showed the US, India and Brazil to-gether accounted for nearly two-thirds of all reported infections since the world hit 15 million coronavirus cases on July 22.

The number of new daily cases has continued to rise in India, hitting a roll-ing seven-day average of 58,768. In the US, which has more than 5 million cases, the average has decreased since July 22nd, but remains high at 53,813 new cases a day.

In the 45 days it took reported infec-tions to double to 20 million, the num-ber of reported virus deaths climbed to 736,191 from 499,506, according to the Johns Hopkins count. That’s 236,685 new deaths, an average of more than 5,200 a day.

About one-fi fth of reported deaths, or more than 163,000, have been in the US, the highest in the world.

Caseloads are still rising quickly in many other countries, including Indo-nesia and Japan.

In Mexico, President Andrés Ma-nuel López Obrador, like Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and President Donald Trump, seldom wears a mask and has resisted calls for a strict lockdowns, saying Mexicans should be convinced to observe social distancing, not forced to do so by police or fi nes.

With nearly 500,000 cases and more

than 50,300 deaths, Mexico has strug-gled with how to curb outbreaks given that just over half its people work off the books with no benefi ts or unem-ployment insurance.

A full lockdown would prove too costly for people with little savings and tenuous daily incomes, said As-sistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell, the president’s point man on the epidemic, noting “we do not want a solution that would, in social terms, be more costly than the disease itself.”

TestingMexico’s relatively high death rate

results partly from the country having one of the world’s highest rates of obe-sity and diabetes. There has also been relatively little testing. Of all tests done, 47% are positive, suggesting that only seriously ill people are get-ting tests. That has hindered contract tracing.

India reported 53,601 new cases Tuesday as its count of total infections neared 2.3 million. Its reported case fatality rate, of 2%, is much lower than in the US and Brazil.

In Japan, where outbreaks have been widening as offi cials urge people to consider this year’s summer holidays “special” and stay home, the positiv-ity rate of tests in Tokyo, the worst hit region, has been climbing but remains at 7%.

The pandemic has waxed and waned in many regions, with the U.K. and Spain seeing new outbreaks after the worst of the early waves of cases para-lyzed much of Europe.

In Asia, Vietnam went from hav-ing reported no confi rmed deaths and very few cases to battling fresh out-breaks that emerged in the seaside city of Danang. Australia was preparing to reopen travel with neighboring New Zealand, which has had no confi rmed locally transmitted cases in more than 100 days, when fresh clusters of coro-

navirus cases popped up in Melbourne and the surrounding region.

That outbreak held steady Tuesday with 331 new cases and 19 more deaths in Victoria state, which includes Mel-bourne, raising hopes a strict, renewed lockdown in Australia’s second-larg-est city was working. But authorities in Sydney were investigating a growing cluster of cases centered around a pri-vate Catholic school.

Meanwhile, outbreaks in mainland China and semi-autonomous Hong Kong declined, with the number of new community infections in China falling to 13, all in the northwestern re-gion of Xinjiang. Hong Kong counted 69 new cases.

Similar to many other Asian coun-tries, China requires testing and a two-week quarantine of all new arrivals and has barred most foreigners from enter-ing the country.

Border closures, masks, lockdowns and infection data are now the new way of life for much of the world, not the politically combustible factors they are in the US.

A review by the Kaiser Health News service and The Associated Press found that at least 49 state and local public health leaders have resigned, retired or been fi red since April across 23 states. The list has grown by more than 20 people since the AP and KHN started keeping track in June.

Contributing to that attrition and burnout of badly needed experts have been attacks on public health experts and institutions from the highest levels, including President Donald Trump, who has sidelined the Cent-ers for Disease Control and Prevention during the pandemic.

“The overall tone toward public health in the US is so hostile that it has kind of emboldened people to make these attacks,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, former CDC director.

Coronavirus

Merkel Ardern

Angell

Is it safe to ride public transit during the pandemic?Is it safe to ride public transit during the coronavirus pandemic?

It depends on a variety of factors, but there are ways to minimize risk.

The main way that the virus spreads is through droplets people spray when they talk, cough or sneeze. That means the best way to reduce the spread of infection on public transit and elsewhere is to wear a mask and stay 6 feet from others, ex-perts say.

Transit systems around the world are requiring riders to wear masks and encouraging people to socially distance. Compliance could vary, especially as ridership levels start rebounding and trains and buses get more crowded. But there are other steps you can take to make trips less risky.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention suggests traveling during non-peak hours, avoiding crowded spots in stations and stops, and skipping rows between seats when possible.

Surfaces are also believed to pose a risk, though to a lesser degree, and transit systems are employ-ing a variety of cleaning techniques. Moscow and Shanghai have experimented with germ-killing ul-traviolet light and Hong Kong has deployed a robot that sprays hydrogen peroxide. In New York, sub-ways are shut down overnight overnight for clean-ing.

Even so, the CDC says to avoid touching surfac-es such as turnstiles and handrails if you can. (AP)

SCIENCEARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

14

Glacier threatens valley

Canada’s last intact‘ice shelf’ collapses

By Seth Borenstein

CANADA, Aug 11, (AP): Much of Canada’s remaining in-tact ice shelf has broken apart into hulking iceberg islands thanks to a hot summer and global warming, scientists said.

Canada’s 4,000-year-old Milne Ice Shelf on the north-western edge of Ellesmere Island had been the country’s last intact ice shelf until the end of July when ice analyst Adri-enne White of the Canadian Ice Service noticed that satellite photos showed that about 43% of it had broken off. She said it happened around July 30 or 31.

Two giant icebergs formed along with lots of smaller ones, and they have already started drifting away, White

said. The biggest is nearly the size of Manhattan – 21 square miles (55 square kilometers) and 7 miles long (11.5 kilometers). They are 230 to 260 feet (70 to 80 meters) thick.

“This is a huge, huge block of ice,” White said. “If one of these is moving toward an oil rig, there’s nothing you can really do aside from move your oil rig.”

The 72-square mile (187 square kilometer) undulating white ice shelf of ridges and troughs dotted with blue melt-water had been larger than the

District of Columbia but now is down to 41 square miles (106 square kilometers).

Temperatures from May to early August in the region have been 9 degrees (5ºC) warmer than the 1980 to 2010 average, University of Ottawa glaciology professor Luke Copland said. This is on top of an Arctic that already had been warming much faster than the rest of globe, with this region warming even faster.

Hotter“Without a doubt, it’s climate change,” Copland said, not-

ing the ice shelf is melting from both hotter air above and warmer water below.

“The Milne was very special,” he added. “It’s an amaz-ingly pretty location.”

Ice shelves are hundreds to thousands of years old, thicker than long-term sea ice, but not as big and old as glaciers, Copland said.

Canada used to have a large continuous ice shelf across the northern coast of Ellesmere Island in the Canadian terri-tory of Nunavut, but it has been breaking apart over the last decades because of man-made global warming, White said. By 2005 it was down to six remaining ice shelves but “the Milne was really the last complete ice shelf,” she said.

“There aren’t very many ice shelves around the Arctic anymore,” Copland said. “It seems we’ve lost pretty much all of them from northern Greenland and the Russian Arctic. There may be a few in a few protected fjords.”

❑ ❑ ❑

Lake Tahoe’s fl uctuating clarity got worse last year during an especially cold and wet winter as sedimentation, algae growth and a tiny invasive shrimp continued to pose restora-tion challenges for the famed clear water of the mountain lake straddling the California-Nevada line.

The clarity decline came a year after lake had showed clarity improvement from its worst level in a half-century as climate change continues to drive long-term trends, with rising air temperatures and less precipitation falling as snow, according to the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center.

VisibleA white, dinner plate-sized disc used to measure clarity

was visible at an average depth of 62.7 feet (19 meters) in 2019. That’s down from 70.9 feet (21.6 meters) measured in 2018.

While the average annual clarity is better than it was in previous decades, it’s still short of the current restoration target of 97.4 feet (30 meters) set by state and federal regula-tors, the research center said in recently release of its annual “State of the Lake Report”.

Scientists hope efforts to combat threats to the lake’s clar-ity posed by development and climate change will eventu-ally return Lake Tahoe to its historical clear depth of 100 feet (30 meters).

The lake’s cobalt waters exceeded that at one point in 2019, reaching a maximum depth of 112 feet (34 m) on Feb 19. Last year’s worst reading of 36.1 feet (11 m) was re-corded on May 8, coinciding with an algae bloom.

The scientists said the data reinforces the need to continue to expand efforts to remove the invasive shrimp. Introduced to the lake in the 1960s, Mysis shrimp are driving out native zooplankton that keep the water clear by consuming algae and other small particles.

Last year’s precipitation was a foot (30 centimeters), more than the average of the past 110 years. Average air tempera-ture in February 2019 was several degrees lower than the long-term average – and it was the coldest February since 1956.

The average surface water temperature of 68 degrees (20ºC) in 2019 was down from 72 degrees (22ºC) in 2017.

But the surface water temperature in Lake Tahoe has generally been on the rise since at least 1968, when regular measurements began.

Warmer temperatures have already reduced the percent-age of annual precipitation that comes in the form of snow from about 50% 100 years ago to around 30% today, which means warmer water fl ows into the lake.

The lake’s clarity was at its best when levels were fi rst recorded in 1968, with an average depth of 102.4 feet (31.2 meters). The disc typically was visible at depths of 85 feet (30 meters) or deeper through the 1970s.

The lake’s clarity levels registered their worst perfor-mance during a severe drought in the late 1990s.

❑ ❑ ❑

Experts were closely monitoring a Mont Blanc glacier, a day after they evacuated 75 tourists and residents amid fears the glacier could soon break apart and crash into a popular Italian Alpine valley.

Valerio Segor, a glacier expert in Valle d’Aosta, a region in northwestern Italy, told reporters on Friday that the next 72 hours were critical for the Planpincieux Glacier, which lies under a massif on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps.

Those forced to evacuate came from homes and holiday lodgings in the Ferret Valley in the shadow of the glacier. Tour-ists on Friday were barred from entering the scenic valley.

The glacier’s size has been likened to that of a soccer fi eld under a 80-meter (265-foot) high mass of ice. Abrupt shifts in temperature from hot to cold to hot again are being blamed for the precarious state of the glacier, which Segor says has a stream of water running beneath it.

The glacier’s state has been monitored since 2013. Last year saw similar concerns, but the glacier held on to its grip on the mountain at 2,600-2,800 meters (8,500-9,200 feet) of altitude.

Lately, Planpincieux has been creeping downward at the rate of about 80-100 centimeters (32-40 inches) each day, Segor said.

The Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted glacier expert Fabrizio Troilo as saying there is “the danger it could give way in an instant.”

Corriere said an Alpine refuge was still open for climbers who come from the French side of Mont Blanc, which is known in Italy as Monte Blanco.

Climate

An air tanker drops fire retardant slurry on the ridge directly above No Name after the Grizzly Creek Fire broke out inside Glenwood Canyon just east of Glenwood Springs, Colorado, Aug 10. (AP)

Discovery

3,000-yr-old hoard found: An ama-teur treasure-hunter has uncovered one of the most signifi cant Bronze Age hoards ever found in Scotland, including jewelry and a 3,000-year-old sword, authorities said Monday.

Metal detectorist Mariusz Stepien said he was “shaking with happiness” when he made the discovery in June, in a fi eld near the village of Peebles, about 22 miles (36 kilometers) south of Edinburgh.

“I thought I’ve never seen anything like this before and felt from the very beginning that this might be something spectacular and I’ve just discovered a big part of Scottish history,” he said.

Stepien and his friends contacted the Scottish government’s Treasure Trove unit and camped in the fi eld for 22 days as archaeologists uncovered the assemblage of artifacts. These included a complete horse harness, buckles, rings, ornaments, a sword still in its scabbard and axle caps from a chariot.

They, and the dirt around them, are now at the National Museums Collection Center in Edinburgh.

Emily Freeman, head of the Treasure Trove Unit, said it was a ”nationally signifi cant fi nd.” It is only the second Bronze Age hoard ever excavated in Scotland.

“It was an amazing opportunity for us to not only recover bronze artifacts, but organic material as well,” she said. “There is still a lot of work to be done to assess the artifacts and understand why they were deposited.”

❑ ❑ ❑

Indonesia volcano erupts: Indone-sia’s rumbling Mount Sinabung erupted Monday, sending a column of volcanic materials as high as 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) into the sky and depositing ash on villages.

Falling grit and ash accumulated up to 5 centimeters (2 inches) in already abandoned villages on the volcano’s slopes, said Armen Putra, an offi cial at the Sinabung monitoring post on Sumatra Island.

Farther afi eld in Berastagi, a tourist destination city in North Sumatra prov-ince, about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the crater, motorists switched on headlights in daylight to see through the ash.

Videos and photos on social me-dia showed people wore masks while outdoors.

There were no fatalities or injuries from the eruption, Indonesia’s Volcanol-ogy and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center said.

Villagers are advised to stay 5 kilom-eters (3.1 miles) from the crater’s mouth and should be aware of the peril of lava, the agency said. Air travel was not being impacted so far by the ash, the Transport Ministry said. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

Volunteers rescue dolphins: Nearly 50 dolphins were stranded on a beach on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, over the week-end and needed to be rescued by dozens of volunteers, offi cials said. Massachu-setts governor is Charlie Baker.

The International Fund for Animal

Welfare said some 45 dolphins were found stranded by harbor offi cials in Wellfl eet on Sunday morning.

Stacey Hedman, a manager with the Yarmouth-based group, said many of the dolphins were already sunburned and overheating by the time the organiza-tion’s Marine Mammal Rescue and Research team responded to the stretch of beach known locally as The Gut. International Fund for Animal Welfare founder is Brian Davies.

She told The Cape Cod Times it appeared the dolphins got stranded some-time overnight as the tides changed.

“It was a sad scene to see them out of the water, unable to swim,” Hedman told newspaper.

She said the team of roughly 50 volun-teers used beach-ready stretchers to carry nearly a dozen of the dolphins to safety. They also gave the marine mammals IV fl uids and vitamins, and deployed boats to guide them back to deeper waters. (AP)

An air tanker drops fire retardant slurry on the ridge directly above No Name after the Grizzly Creek Fire broke out inside Glenwood Canyon just east of Glenwood Springs, Colo, Aug 10. (AP)

Davies Baker

Copland

Technology

Will virtual care glow fade?

Telemedicine shines during pandemicBy Tom Murphy

Racked with anxiety, Lauren Shell needed to talk to her cancer doc-

tor. But she lives at least an hour away

and it was the middle of her workday. It was also the middle of a pandemic. Enter telemedicine.

The 34-year-old Leominster, Mas-sachusetts, resident arranged a quick video visit through the app Zoom in May with her doctor in Boston. He reassured her that he was confi dent in their treatment plan, and the chances of her breast cancer returning were low.

“It was really great to be able to talk to him about what I was feeling,” she said. She felt comforted afterward “knowing that I wasn’t alone.”

This is how doctors and health care researchers envision telemedicine evolving after the COVID-19 pan-demic fades. They see the practice – which has grown explosively this year – sticking around to replace many in-person visits and become a greater part of routine care.

ContactImagine more contact with doctors

or nurses but fewer trips to the offi ce. Patients might use telemedicine more for check-ins like Shell did or to talk to a doctor after a procedure or get a sec-ond opinion. There’s also secure mes-saging for quick questions and more remote monitoring of chronic health problems like diabetes.

“Your care is going to get better,” said Dr Thomas Lee, a Harvard profes-sor and care delivery expert with the health care consultant Press Ganey.

But to keep some of telemedicine’s growth, thorny questions about insur-ance coverage and doctor reimburse-ment need to be resolved.

Plus, patients and doctors who were forced to try virtual care during the pandemic need to keep using it.

Doctors scrambled to shift to tel-emedicine when the coronavirus hit the US earlier this year. Care providers like the Cleveland Clinic went from averaging 5,000 telemedicine visits a month before the pandemic to 200,000 visits just in April.

Many insurers waived fees to en-courage its use. The federal govern-ment relaxed restrictions on telemedi-cine’s use in Medicare, the federal coverage program for people age 65 and over. The government also started temporarily allowing visits over apps that didn’t meet patient privacy stand-ards.

That helped Dr Jay Meizlish connect with his mostly older heart patients. At fi rst, they struggled. He often had to hold cards up to his camera, telling patients to unmute their microphone or turn up their volume.

Then he found what worked – he switched to the more familiar and easi-er to use FaceTime.

“That’s how they talk to their grand-children,” the Yale New Haven Hospi-tal doctor said.

“We have learned the power of this, but whether it continues is not in our hands,” he said.

Experts expect some telemedicine restrictions will return, including fees

MTA asks Apple’s help to solveiPhone mask issues by riders

that are now waived. And some doc-tor practices will be reluctant to work telemedicine permanently into their practices until they know exactly how they get paid, noted John League, a senior consultant with Advisory Board, which researches health care strategy.

“They have no appetite for uncer-tainty,” he said.

ExpandingInsurers ultimately will cover more

remote care because it can help keep people out of expensive hospitals and emergency rooms, said Arielle Trzcin-ski, a senior analyst with Forrester, which does research for insurers and hospitals, among other clients.

The insurer Oscar recently an-nounced that it will offer free primary care visits through telemedicine in coverage that starts next year. Lead-ers in Washington also are interested in expanding telemedicine’s use in Medicare.

Trzcinski also thinks doctor groups will provide more virtual care because patients who tried it during the pan-demic may go elsewhere if they don’t. With travel and time in the waiting room, an offi ce visit can carve more than an hour and a half out of some-one’s day on average, she said.

“People value time,” she said.She estimates that virtual care could

eventually replace up to 40% of in-

person doctor visits that don’t involve hospital stays.

Shell, the cancer patient, said she never would have been able to visit her doctor in person that day. She teaches veterinary science at a vocational high school. That makes it hard to break away for an in-person doctor’s ap-pointment.

She wound up using telemedicine a few times because of the pandemic. She hopes the practice continues.

“I feel strongly that increased safety, convenience, and accessibility are all reasons to continue,” she said.

Researchers don’t expect telemedi-cine to replace all in-person care. Mil-lions of people don’t have access to the technology or a reliable internet connection. Some people may still be reluctant to use it.

And not all ailments can be treated remotely.

Alexandra Thomas tried it last spring when she woke up with vertigo that made her so dizzy she could bare-ly walk. The nurse practitioner han-dling her virtual visit wanted Thomas to see someone in person. That meant the 24-year-old Charlottesville, Vir-ginia, resident had to spend another $30 on a co-payment and wait three more hours at a clinic before fi nally getting treated.

Telemedicine, Thomas said, is “a good idea in theory, but maybe not so much in practice”.

NEW YORK, Aug 11, (AP): New York’s mass transit agency wants Apple to come up with a better way for iPhone users to unlock their phones without taking off their masks, as it seeks to guard against the spread of the coronavirus in buses and subways.

In a letter to CEO Tim Cook ob-tained by The Associated Press, Metropolitan Transportation Au-thority Chairman Patrick Foye said riders have been seen removing their masks to unlock their phones using face-recognition technology, despite a recent update by Apple that simplifies the unlock process for people wearing masks.

Previously, an iPhone user wear-ing a mask would have to wait a few seconds as face recognition software tried to identify them be-fore they eventually could enter a passcode. In response to the pan-demic, Apple’s iOS 13.5, released in May, automatically presents the passcode field after a user swipes up from the bottom of the lock screen. Also, Apple Pay Express Transit, introduced last year, allows riders on some bus and subway lines to pay with their iPhone or Ap-ple Watch without having to wake the device.

“We understand Apple is working to address the issue and know that Apple has a range of technologies at its disposal as a global leader among tech companies,” Foye

wrote in the letter sent Sunday. “We urge Apple to accelerate the deployment of new technologies and solutions that further protect customers in the era of COVID-19.”

Foye added that the MTA would be willing to collaborate with Apple on messaging to make sure us-ers know about the recent iPhone modification.

“There’s nothing more important to us than the health and safety of our customers,” Apple said in an emailed statement that noted the upgrades it has already made. “We are fully committed to continuing to work with the MTA to support their efforts to prevent the spread of CO-VID-19.”

Bus and subway use in New York and other cities plunged during the height of the pandemic. The MTA lost more than 90% of its subway ridership, which along with reduced revenue at its other properties has created a fiscal hole that will take years to fill, officials have said. Rid-ership has slowly increased but still lags far behind pre-pandemic lev-els.

In addition to an aggressive cleaning program that has included the unprecedented step of shut-ting down the subway overnight, the MTA requires all riders to wear masks and socially distance. The authority has said in recent weeks that more than 90% are wearing some form of face covering. (AP)

Featu

res

Featu

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In this Aug 12, 1984 fi le photo, American singer Lionel Richie performs during the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics Games in Los Angeles. (AP)

‘Please Baby Please’ to fulfi ll its original intent

Politically charged ‘black-ish’ episode gets belated homeLOS ANGELES, Aug 11, (Agencies): A politically charged epi-sode of “black-ish” from 2017 that was shelved by ABC has found a home on Hulu, a corporate sibling of the Disney-owned broadcast network.

“I cannot wait for everyone to fi nally see the episode for them-selves,” series creator Kenya Barris posted Monday on social me-dia.

Barris said he hopes the half-hour episode, titled “Please Baby Please”, fulfi lls its original intent: to inspire vital dialogue about “where we want our country to go moving forward and, most im-portantly, how we get there together.”

He asked producer Walt Disney Television to reconsider making the episode available and, in recognition of “the importance of this moment, they listened and agreed,” he said.

The network and a representative for Barris did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

The change of heart comes amid ongoing protests and calls for broad social change prompted by the death in May of George Floyd, a Black man, while in Minneapolis police cus-tody.

When ABC decided to pull the episode from the 2017-18 season and put it on ice, the network lauded “black-ish” for its deft exami-nation of “delicate social issues” in an entertaining and educational manner. But “creative differences” over the episode couldn’t be resolved, ABC said.

The Emmy-nominated series has tackled thorny social issues during its ABC run, which began in 2014. That a streaming plat-form was deemed suitable for “Please Baby Please” refl ects the creative freedom producers can gain outside the traditional con-fi nes of broadcasting.

Barris remains executive producer of “black-ish” (and its spin-offs, ABC’s “mixed-ish” and Freeform’s “grown-ish”). But he is making new shows, including the edgy family comedy “#Black..”, as part of a production deal with streamer Netfl ix.

“Please Baby Please” joins the “black-ish” library of past sea-sons on Hulu.

Improvised The episode revolves around a sleepless night in the household

of Dre and Rainbow Johnson (Anthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross). To calm his infant son during a storm, Dre begins by read-ing a children’s book – the Spike Lee-Tonya Lewis Lee work of the episode’s title – then shares his own anxieties.

As Dre offers up an improvised fable, it’s the actions of the then-fl edgling Trump administration that are identifi ed as part of his unease. His monologue includes a thinly veiled reference to “the shady king”.

The episode widens out to look at deep social divisions that Dre says followed the election of America’s fi rst Black president, Barack Obama, and the eye-opening revelation that “not every-

one’s a fan” of change, as the character puts it.“Daddy’s scared too. ... Everything’s so crazy now,” Dre says

softly to his son at one point.Through imagery and concerns expressed by other family mem-

bers, the episode touches on issues besides racism, including mass shootings, climate change and rights.

“Black-ish” has four nominations for next month’s Emmys on ABC, including lead actor nods for Anderson and Ross.

The show revolves around the family’s lives, as they juggle sev-eral personal and sociopolitical issues. The show also features the characters Zoey Johnson (Yara Shahidi), Andre Johnson, Jr (Mar-cus Scribner), Jack Johnson (Miles Brown), and Diane Johnson (Marsai Martin).

In later seasons, the characters of Josh Oppenhol (Jeff Meacham), Ruby Johnson (Jenifer Lewis), Charlie Telphy (Deon Cole), and Leslie Stevens (Peter Mackenzie) were promoted to series regulars, while the character of Earl Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) makes recurring appearances.

The show also ranks relatively highly among shows broadcast by ABC in terms of television season ratings, and ranks among the top ten in the United States for estimated total audience size.The show’s success has also prompted a spin-off titled Grown-ish, which stars Shahidi as her character travels to college. In May 2019, ABC ordered a prequel spinoff, Mixed-ish, centered on young Bow and her biracial family in the 1980s.

NEW YORK: Antonio Banderas says he’s tested positive for COVID-19 and is celebrating his 60th birthday in quarantine.

The Spanish actor announced his positive test in a post Monday on Instagram. Banderas said he would spend his time in isolation reading, writing and “making plans to begin to give meaning to my 60th year to which I arrive full of enthusiasm.”

“I would like to add that I am relatively well, just a little more tired than usual and hoping to re-cover as soon as possible following medical instructions that I hope will allow me to overcome the infection that I and so many people in the world are suffering from,” wrote Banderas.

A spokeperson for Banderas didn’t immediate respond to mes-sages Monday.

Earlier this year, Banderas was nominated for the Academy Award for best actor for his performance in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain & Glory.” (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

LOS ANGELES: Angelina Jolie asked Monday that the private judge overseeing her divorce from Brad Pitt be disqualifi ed from the case because of insuffi cient disclo-sures of his business relationships with one of Pitt’s attorneys.

In a fi ling in Los Angeles Supe-rior Court, Jolie argues that Judge John W. Ouderkirk should be taken off the divorce case that she fi led in 2016 because he was too late and not forthcoming enough about other cases he was hired for involving Pitt attorney Anne C. Kiley.

It says that during the Jolie-Pitt proceedings Ouderkirk has “failed to disclose the cases that demon-strated the current, ongoing, repeat-customer relationship between the judge and Respondent’s counsel.”

It goes on to say that Pitt’s attor-ney “actively advocated for Judge Ouderkirk’s fi nancial interests in moving - over the opposing party’s opposition - to have his appoint-ment (and his ability to continue to receive fees) extended in a high profi le case.”

An email to Kiley and Pitt’s lead attorney Lance Spiegel seeking comment was not returned, nor was an email seeking comment from Ouderkirk.

Pitt and Jolie, like other high-profi le couples, are paying for a private judge in their divorce case to keep many of its fi lings and the personal and fi nancial details within them sealed, though some legal moves must be made within standard court procedure.

Jolie’s fi ling emphasizes that a private judge must follow the same rules of disclosure and confl ict of

interest that other judges must.The fi ling says “it doesn’t mat-

ter if Judge Ouderkirk is actually biased. Under California law dis-qualifi cation is required so long as a person aware of the facts ‘might reasonably entertain a doubt’ about Judge Ouderkirk’s ability to remain impartial.”

Jolie’s attorneys have sought in private proceedings to have

Ouderkirk disqualify himself, but the fi ling says Pitt’s side has insisted on keeping him.

“As is set forth in the fi ling, all my client is asking for is a fair trial based on facts, with no special favors extended to either side,” Jolie’s attorney Samantha Bley DeJean said in an email to The Associated Press. “The only way litigants can trust the process

is for everyone involved to ensure that there is transparency and impartiality.” Pitt and Jolie were declared divorced, and the Pitt was dropped from her name, in April of 2019, after their lawyers asked for a bifurcated judgment, meaning that two married people can be declared single while other issues, including fi nances and child custody, remain. (AP)

Music

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A signature moment for singer

Richie recalls closing ‘84 OlympicsBy Tim Dahlberg

Lionel Richie was just beginning his career away from the Commodores when he got word he

was wanted for what would be the biggest solo gig of his life.

The Los Angeles Olympics were just a few months away and closing ceremony producer Da-vid L. Wolper had a problem. He wanted to put on an all-star singing fi nale to close out the games, but the stars weren’t cooperating.

Michael Jackson was out because he was a Pepsi spokesman and this was a Coca Cola Olympics. Frank Sinatra wasn’t available, and neither were other artists whose managers didn’t want them ap-pearing in an ensemble act.

So it was left to Richie to bring the curtain down on the fi rst Olympics in the United States in 52 years.

“Next thing I know is I’m on a football fi eld out in the (San Fernando) valley somewhere rehears-ing with all these people diving and dancing all over,” Richie recalled in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “I was just getting my feet wet after the Commodores. I think I had done a couple Vegas shows just to warm up, but nothing like this.”

The audience would be vast, so the song had to be good. Some 92,000 people had tickets to the LA Coliseum that night, and an estimated 2.6 billion more would tune into the closing ceremony on tel-evision.

Richie’s new solo album had several hits, but he knew there was only one song to end the celebra-tion that was the successful Los Angeles games.

He would do “All Night Long.” And he did it al-most all night long, singing for 9 minutes as athletes danced on the fi eld and people rocked in their seats.

“I basically just re-enacted the entire All Night Long video and brought it to life on stage,” Richie said. “For the fi rst time in my life they were saying

don’t worry about the budget and just do the song. It was a brilliant moment.”

Before Richie took the stage there had already been a spaceship dubbed “The Aluminum Taco” by producers that hovered over the Coliseum, de-positing a 10-foot-tall alien who got out and hung around the Olympic fl ame. The E.T. movie had just come out two years earlier, and aliens were still a theme.

ParadedBreak dancers were big at the time, too, which

is how Richie found himself surrounded by several hundred of them as he paraded around the stage in-side the Coliseum. Among the break dancers was a 16-year-old named Cuba Gooding Jr, who would go on to big things of his own in Hollywood in later years.

“He turned to me and said, Mr Richie I want to make sure this works, we’ll make you look good,” Richie recalled. “I said, kid, your mom and dad aren’t going to be looking at me they’ll be looking at you. Go out and have the best time of your life because they’ll remember this for a lifetime. Years later he came up to me and said do you remember me backstage?”

Richie hit the stage in white pants and a sparkling open blue glitter blazer. As he began singing some of the break dancers began crashing around him be-cause the stage was slick with evening dew.

As the words came out, the dancing in the sta-dium began. Athletes from around the world partied like it was 1984, and kept partying until they were fi nally told to leave the stadium.

“Well, my friends, the time has come,” Richie sang in the song’s Calypso style, “to raise the roof and have some fun.”

Richie was already a star on the verge of breaking out. Now he was a global superstar, something he found out quickly enough the next day.

“I was sitting in traffi c and a guy four cars up was crossing the street and saw me and yelled ‘Li-onel Richie, All Night Long, All Night Long.’ All the people started honking their horns and a Japa-nese family on the way to visit Disneyland started screaming,” he said. “I realized, I’m no longer the invisible man.”

It was an iconic Olympic moment that elevated closing ceremonies which were mostly an after-thought at previous Olympics to a new status.

And it was a signature moment for Richie, whose career is still in high gear at the age of 71. Richie is a judge on “American Idol” and would have been touring Europe this summer had the pandemic not interfered.

“That was it as far as a performing highlight,” he said. “You can’t get any bigger than the whole world watching.”

Also:LAS VEGAS: The Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Ve-gas will not be happening this year.

Organizers of the electronic dance music festival has announced that the event will be pushed back to 2021. Typically held in May at the Las Vegas Mo-tor Speedway, the festival was postponed initially until October because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Insomniac CEO and Founder Pasquale Rotella says it’s now slated for May 21-23 of next year. Tickets for this year’s festival will be honored. Anyone who can’t make the new dates can fi ll out an online form. In an Instagram post, Rotella said organizers were trying to set up a way for attendees to be tested for COVID-19 before coming to Las Vegas and again at the venue.

“Unfortunately, we just learned that the medical advances necessary to pull this off will not be ready in time,” Rotella wrote.

More than 150,000 people attend each night of the carnival, which features more than 200 per-formers on eight stages. (AP)

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People & Places

NEWS/FEATURESARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

16

Media

‘MacGruber’ back

Bareilles to star in Peacock ‘comedy’NEW YORK, Aug 11, (Agencies): Sara Bareilles will be acting against type in her next role: She’ll be playing a washed-up musician.

The NBCUniversal streaming platform Peacock said Monday the Grammy-winning artist and Broadway songwriter Bareilles will star in “Girls5eva,” co-pro-duced by Tina Fey.

The comedy is about a one-hit-wonder girl group called “Girls5eva” from the 1990s whose members reu-nite to give their pop star dreams one more shot.

Bareilles will play Dawn, a former member of Girl-s5eva who is now managing her family’s small Italian restaurant in New York City.

Bareilles’s hits include “Love Song” and “Brave.” She composed the music and lyrics for the Broadway mu-

sical “Waitress” and made her Broadway acting debut in 2017 by stepping into the show’s lead role.

Recently, she served as execu-tive producer for “Little Voice,” a 10-episode series, for which she created the original music.

“I am a longtime admirer of so many of the characters they have brought to life in other projects, and I am already in love with the

women at the center of ‘Girls5e-va,’” she said in a statement.

Meredith Scardino will be writer and executive pro-ducer for the series. Fey will be an executive producer. No other casting was revealed, nor the date of its pre-miere.

Acclaim Bareilles is an American singer-songwriter and ac-

tress. Her 2007 hit single “Love Song” reached no. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the third season of NBC’s The Sing-Off, Bareilles served as a celebrity judge along-side Ben Folds and Shawn Stockman. She composed music and wrote lyrics for the Broadway musical Wait-ress, for which she earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score in 2016, and a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album. In April 2018, Bareilles received acclaim for her portrayal of Mary Magdalene in NBC’s live television concert adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera Superstar, for which she was nominated for the 2018 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.

Bareilles has sold over one million albums and over nine million singles and downloads in the United States and has earned eight Grammy Award nominations, in-cluding one Album of the Year nomination for The Blessed Unrest (2013), and a win for the song “Saint Honesty” from the album Amidst the Chaos (2019), in the Best American Roots Performance category. In Feb-ruary 2012, VH1 placed Bareilles in the 80th spot of the Top 100 Greatest Women in Music. Her memoir, Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) in Song, was published in 2015; The New York Times listed it as a bestseller.

❑ ❑ ❑

Peacock is launching a pair of weekly late-night com-edy series with Larry Wilmore and Amber Ruffi n to focus on current events. “We can’t wait to write sketches, songs and jokes about this terrible time we call now!”” Ruffi n said in a statement Monday announcing the “The Amber Ruffi n Show.”

A writer and performer on NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” Ruffi n was among the fi rst African Amer-ican women to write for a late-night show.

Wilmore is a sitcom creator (“The Bernie Mac Show,” “grown-ish”) who’s also known for his on-camera Com-edy Central work that included the 2015-16 “The Nightly Show.” His Peacock show is as-yet untitled.

“Apparently there’s a lot going on in the world right now and a big election happening soon, so I’m happy to have a place in the conversation,” Wilmore said in a statement. The shows are set to launch in September, with 11 episodes ordered for Wilmore’s series and nine for Ruffi n’s, Peacock said.

❑ ❑ ❑

“MacGruber,” a parody skit on “Saturday Night Live” that became a movie, is coming back to the small screen.

The NBCUniversal streaming platform Peacock said Monday that Will Forte will once again play the mullet-haired hero for a new half-hour series.

Peacock said the series will follow MacGruber after rotting in prison for a decade as he hunts down a mysteri-ous villain from his past.

Bareilles

This image released by Disney Plus shows Bryan Cranston (right), with a gorilla named Ivan, voiced by Sam Rockwell, in a scene from ‘The One and Only Ivan’, which will stream exclusively Aug 21 on Disney Plus. (AP)

‘The experience is unique’

Intimate Theatre for One goes onlineNEW YORK, Aug 11, (AP): The coronavirus hasn’t stopped the world’s smallest theater.

“Theatre for One”, where one audi-ence member sees one short play per-formed by a single actor in a portable theater, has now gone online.

“The experience is unique to Theatre for One. And in that sense, I think it’s still a venue and a space. It’s a space de-signed specifi cally for this interaction, now designed online,” said two-time Tony-winning scenic designer Christine Jones, who conceived and leads the pro-ject.

In response to both the COVID-19 crisis and the Black Lives Matter movement, the company will feature microplays all written and directed by Black, indigenous and women of color.

A selection of the tiny plays will be performed every Thursday for a six-week run starting later this month, with each actor delivering up to 15 perfor-mances for a single audience member in the 90 minute window. It will be free to the public.

The company has embraced a cus-tom online virtual platform designed by cutting-edge OpenEndedGroup and says it retains the one-on-one in-timacy that made the physical shows so powerful. Audience members and actors will even be able to look into the other’s eyes at the same time, something impossible for platforms like Zoom.

“It feels really unique in how every element of it is distilled and concentrated and thought through in how to heighten this experience with audience and per-former,” said co-Artistic Director Jenny Koons.

The custom designed digital platform will allow audience members and actors to interact more closely than on tradi-tional online platforms. There will even be a virtual lobby where audience mem-bers can gather and chat before and after performances.

Until now, Theatre for One has al-ways been resistant to suggestions to transform into an online experience. “The sense of presence between the two people and the liveness of the moment,

and that one-to-one contact, is so critical and essential a part of that experience that we just didn’t see that it could trans-late,” Jones said.

That thinking altered during the pan-demic. Jones and Koons began discuss-ing options for the company and how the notion of time was being altered and the concept of live was undergoing change. They came up with “Theatre for One: Here We Are”.

“We just started talking and we real-ized, ‘If we could bring the things about Theatre for One with us – that the inti-macy, the surprise, the specifi city and curation of the venue and the experience – then maybe it’s something we would want to investigate.”

Performances will begin on Aug 20 from 6 pm to 7:30 pm ET and will be held each subsequent Thursday through Sept 24.

Registration is free and open to the public starting Aug 17.

ContributingThe eight writers contributing new

works – no more than 10 minutes each – are Jaclyn Backhaus, Lydia R. Diamond, Lynn Nottage, Stacey Rose, Nikkole Salter, DeLanna Studi, Regina Taylor and Carmelita Tropicana.

The directors include Tiffany Nichole Greene, Candis C. Jones, Rebecca Mar-tinez, Taylor Reynolds and Tamilla Woodard. Mara Isaacs is the producer and the company is helped by Arts Brookfi eld with additional support from Thomas M. Neff.

It’s just one way the theater commu-nity is trying to acknowledge the pow-er of Black Lives Matter in theater, including the Black Theatre Coalition, While We Breathe, and Black Theater United. It’s also another example of theater companies trying out new ways to present works during a pandemic.

Jones has been working on the project for years, ever since a magician left her spellbound at a wedding reception by pulling a card she’d selected out of his mouth.

The physical booth is not being scrapped entirely – Theatre for One plans to park in Ireland this fall. Post-pandem-ic the company intends to explore both in-person and virtual experiences.

Also:MANAGUA, Nicaragua: For four months, everything was virtual: the modeling and speech classes, the make-up courses and the emotional support session via videoconference. And when eight contestants vying to be Miss Nica-ragua did fi nally start in-person prac-tices, they did so with masks covering their faces. “We managed to organize the event under the pandemic with masks, social distancing and little money, (but) with talent and creativity,” said Karen Celebertti, who has been running the pageant for two decades in Nicaragua.

On Saturday night, 23-year-old Ana Marcelo, an agroindustrial engineer from Estelí, was crowned Miss Nicara-gua in front of a limited audience (two people per contestant spaced safely) plus a production crew of 85. The masks were off the contestants, but the judges wore them and were spaced at a safe distance.

There were portable handwashing sta-tions and doctors taking temperatures.

Celebertti, herself a former local beauty queen, said they had to “reinvent” themselves to pull it off. The novel coro-navirus arrived in March just days after they had selected the contestants. It was delayed from May to August to develop protocols that would allow them to com-pete safely. “We had trials and classes through Zoom, supervised by me from home,” Celebertti said. “The girls had a speech coach, an image consultant and stylists online who taught them how to do their hair and put on makeup alone. There was no other option.” In July, they had their fi rst in-person practices, walks down the runway wearing masks. “Each session was supervised by doctors and no one got infected,” she said.

Unlike the massive religious and sporting events allowed and even pro-moted by the government during the pandemic, the pageant decided to do without the usual boisterous audience cheering their support for the women.

“Some criticized me for doing this event, but we were very careful to be able to do it,” Celebertti said.

“The truth is that the people need to see some good news, be entertained.”

Theatre

In this Jan 23, 2020 fi le photo, Amber Ruffi n attends the NBC midseason 2020 press day party in New York on Jan 23, 2020. Peacock is launch-ing a pair of weekly late-night comedy series with Larry Wilmore and Ruffi n.

(AP)

Ray Pratt

LOS ANGELES: Chris Pratt and Kather-ine Schwarzenegger say they are “beyond thrilled” and “extremely blessed” after she gave birth to their fi rst child together.

The 41-year-old ”Avengers” actor and the 30-year-old children’s book author an-nounced the birth of daughter Lyla Maria Schwarzenegger Pratt in a joint post on their Instagram accounts Monday.

The post included a photo of the hands of both parents and child. Pratt also has a 7-year-old son with his fi rst wife, Anna Faris.

The baby is the granddaughter of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

NEW YORK: A massive fi re engulfed cook-ing show star Rachael Ray’s New York home, authorities said.

As many as 16 local fi re departments responded to the fi re at Ray’s home in Lake Luzerne, New York, which started around 5:30 pm on Sunday, according to Brian LaFlure, fi re coordinator for the Warren County Offi ce of Emergency Services.

Photos of the house fi re show fl ames bursting through the roof and long plumes of smoke extending into the sky. No one in Ray’s household or from the responding fi refi ghters were injured, LaFlure said.

“Thank you to our local fi rst responders for being kind and gracious and saving what they could of our home,” Ray posted on Twitter on Monday. “These are the days we all have to be grateful for what we have, not what we’ve lost.”

Ray’s representative Charlie Dougiello said in a statement that the extent of the dam-age to the home was not yet clear.

The home is located at the end of a private drive in a rural area that has no fi re hydrants, so fi refi ghters had to pump water from a nearby pond and transport it with tankers to extinguish the fl ames, LaFlure said.

The fi re-fi ghting efforts lasted until around 3 am, he said.

Kenneth Dickinson, a 48-year-old former volunteer fi refi ghter who responded to the fi re at Ray’s home, was listening to the fi re and police scanner at his parent’s house on Sunday when he heard a call go out.

“The way they were asking for, ‘This truck from this place; this truck from that place,’ I knew it was going to be a bad fi re,” he said.

Dickinson said he helped lay a 5-inch hose supplying water to the truck at the house and then took photos of fl ames licking the edges of the roof and blazing through one section.

Investigators with the New York State

Variety

Lynn Nottage presents a performance by the cast of ‘Sweat’ at the 71st annual Tony Awards on June 11, 2017, in New York. Nottage is one of eight writers contributing new works to ‘Theatre for One’, a portable theatre that has now gone online where one audience member sees one short play performed by a

single actor. (AP)

Offi ce of Fire Prevention and Control arrived on Monday to help determine the cause of the fi re, LaFlure said.

“It isn’t suspicious or anything like that,” LaFlure said, “But when we have a loss

of this size, we like to have them come in and help us out.” Since April, Ray has been fi lming “#STAYHOME With Rachael” two days a week from her home in Lake Luzerne. Her husband, John Cusimano, has been the

show’s cameraman, producer, cocktail maker and musical guest.

Amid the pandemic, Ray’s organiza-tion donated $4 million to several charities including food banks, relief funds for laid off restaurant workers and animal rescue work.

She credited her mother, who lives across the street and also operated a restaurant, with motivating her to give the donation.

“She wants a daily update of what you’re doing to help the world. In detail,” Ray said. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

LOS ANGELES: James Harris, a Mississip-pi-born sharecropper who gained interna-tional fame as “Kamala the Ugandan Giant,” a massive professional wrestler who buried opponents with his trademark “splash,” has died.

World Wrestling Entertainment confi rmed his death in a statement Sunday.

Kenny Casanova, who co-wrote Harris’ autobiography, wrote on social media that Harris died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. He was 70.

In recent years, Harris had suffered from many health ailments, including having both legs amputated because of diabetes. Born in Senatobia, Mississippi, the 6-foot-7-inch (2-meter), nearly 400-pound (181-kilogram) Harris began his wrestling career as Sugar Bear Harris and under other names but wasn’t considered successful in the ring. It wasn’t until a promoter suggested the Kamala gimmick loosely based on Ugandan dictator Idi Amin that his career took a turn. (AP)

SPORTSARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

17

2004 champ Kuznetsova out of US Open, citing pandemic

WTA players adjust to new normal in return to action in USLEXINGTON, Kentucky, Aug 11, (AP): Marie Bouzkova ex-pected some adjustment to her fi rst tennis tournament in nearly six months.

First was the matter of shed-ding rust from the layoff caused by the coronavirus shutdown. The Czech Republic player also had to get her mind around the inaugural Top Seed Open and a signifi cantly subdued competi-tive atmosphere without specta-tors and a sprinkling of offi cials around center court.

“The begin-ning felt like practice be-cause my coach was clapping at some point,” said Bouzkova, who quickly adapted to up-set No. 3 seed Johonna Kon-ta, 6-4, 6-4 on Monday. “But that quiet was a little bit weird.”

Say hello to the new normal players will see for the foresee-able future because of the pan-demic.

This week’s event is the WTA Tour’s fi rst competition in the US since March. Added to the schedule in late July, the world’s top players such as Serena and Venus Williams, Victoria Aza-renka and Sloane Stephens aim to hone their hardcourt skills for the US Open later this month.

Practicing social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is important, and easily prac-ticed at Top Seed. Players were at opposite ends of the court, of course, and the benches were spaced six feet away on either side of the umpire’s chair. Masks were prevalent as well.

“The only time that we’re not wearing a mask is obviously on the court,” Bouzkova said, add-ing that players are in a similar bubble at their hotel. “When you’re here walking inside, you’re wearing the mask the whole time.”

Konta donned a black mask during one nervous moment in which she required medical at-tention for an elevated heart rate. The British player acknowledged previous episodes but said they eventually subside before she re-sumes play.

“I’m not worried at all,” Konta said.

Players praised conditions at the Top Seed Tennis Club out-side Lexington, where seating resembled more of country club than a tennis stadium. Cushioned lounge chairs lined center court, though few were occupied with competition just starting.

A smattering of claps replaced the usual loud applause on points, though players’ grunts on returns seemed more amplifi ed. In a way, that seemed to be the perfect place to regain competi-tive focus after time away.

“Obviously, we’ve played a lot of matches with a lot of people watching, big stadiums,” Konta said. “But we’ve also played a lot of matches with nobody watching, whether it’s late-night matches or just the region we’re in.

“It still felt like a match should, but it also felt like I haven’t played a WTA event in six months. It’s kind of fi nding your feet again and fi nding that space and being able to compete well.”

Meanwhile, Svetlana Kuznet-sova, the 2004 US Open champi-on, added her name to the grow-ing group of players withdrawing from the Grand Slam tournament because of the coronavirus pan-demic.

Kuznetsova wrote Monday on Instagram that she was pulling out of the US Open and the tour-nament preceding it at the same site in New York.

The Western & Southern Open starts Aug 22; the US Open starts Aug 31.

Also withdrawing from the US Open on Monday were No. 31 Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic, a Wimbledon semifi -nalist in 2019, and No. 108 Wang Xiyu of China.

Kuznetsova wrote: “I feel very sad, because I have been (wait-ing) for these tournaments so much, but the pandemic changes all plans.”

The 35-year-old Russian, who also won the 2009 French Open, has been ranked as high as No. 2 in singles. She is currently No.

32, which would have put her in line to be seeded at Flushing Meadows.

Three of the top seven women in the rankings, including No. 1 Ash Barty, have pulled out of the US Open, as have the defending men’s champion, Rafael Nadal, and others such as Stan Waw-rinka and Nick Kyrgios.

Also:PRAGUE: Former Wimbledon fi -nalist Eugenie Bouchard won the fi rst and only completed main draw match at the Prague Open on a rainy Monday.

The second European tour-nament in the WTA’s restart amid the pandemic is following the same rules as the Palermo Open last week: No fans and media, players have to handle their own towels and are not allowed to shake hands. The players are isolated on one floor of a Prague hotel that was com-pletely booked by tournament organizers. Bouchard eased past eighth-seeded Veronika Ku-dermetova 6-0, 6-3 for her fi rst win on clay since 2018 and her second victory in two matches against the Russian.

Bouchard, ranked 330th, was given a wild-card entry. The Canadian missed all of Febru-ary with a wrist injury before the tour was halted in March. She’s a former world No. 5 and the 2014 Wimbledon runner-up.

“I’m proud of myself with the way I stayed focused,” Bouchard said. “My rhythm was off on my serve in the fi rst set, so I need to look at that. I’m happy I could fi nd a solution.”

An all-Czech fi rst-round match between Kristyna Pliskova and Linda Fruhvirtova had to be supended twice due to thunder-storms with Pliskova leading 3-2.

Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier (left), drives around New York Liberty guard Jocelyn Willoughby during the fi rst half of a WNBA basketball game on Aug 5 in Bradenton, Florida. (AP)

In this Aug 18, 2019 fi le photo, Svetlana Kuznetsova, of Russia, returns to Madison Keys, of the United States, in the women’s fi nal match during the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament in Mason, Ohio. (AP)

Royal Montreal Golf Club to host ’24 Presidents CupMONTREAL, Aug 11, (AP): Roy-al Montreal Golf Club, the oldest golf club in North America, will host the 2024 Presidents Cup.

The club was founded in 1873 and held the Presidents Cup in 2007. The US won that edition in which Canada’s Mike Weir beat

Tiger Woods in a Sunday singles match.

Royal Montreal will become the second international venue to host

the Presidents Cup more than once, joining The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia.

The Presidents Cup is held eve-ry other year and features a team of US players against players from the rest of the world minus Europe.

GOLF

Stewart rallies Storm pastSky for 5th straight victory

Thomas, Sun hand Dream’s fi fth straight loss

BRADENTON, Florida, Aug 11, (AP): Breanna Stewart had 25 points and a season-high seven assists, and the Seattle Storm won their fi fth straight game with an 89-71 victory over the Chicago Sky on Mon-day night.

Stewart had 10 points and fi ve assists in the fi rst quarter as Seat-tle built a 15-point lead after scor-ing 33 points. Seattle led 46-28 at halftime by holding the Sky to 10 second-quarter points.

Sami Whitcomb added 17 points for Seattle (7-1). Ezi Magbegor scored 13, Alysha Clark had 12 and Jewell Loyd 10. The Storm had 25 assists on 36 fi eld goals and shot 51% from the fi eld.

Allie Quigley led Chicago (5-3) with 13 points. Cheyenne Parker add-ed 12 points and Courtney Vandersloot had nine assists. Sue Bird missed her fi fth game of the season for Seattle, which has only lost to reigning league champion Washington on July 30.

Sun 93, Dream 82Alyssa Thomas scored 21 points,

Jasmine Thomas had 15 points and seven assists and the Connecticut Sun beat the Atlanta Dream 93-82. Jas-mine Thomas and Alyssa Thomas combined to score 26 points in the fi rst half as Connecticut built a 56-46 lead. The Sun put it away in the third quarter by holding the Dream to 15 points.

The Dream lost guard Chennedy Carter in the fi rst quarter with an ankle injury. Atlanta’s shining rookie was averaging 19.4 points per game, but was scoreless in three minutes before getting hurt. DeWanna Bonner scored 12 points for Connecticut (2-6), and grabbed nine rebounds to move into 20th on the WNBA career list.

Shekinna Stricklen scored 18 points – all on 3-pointers in the fi rst half – for Atlanta (2-6), which has lost fi ve straight. Stricklen scored 12 of At-lanta’s fi rst 14 points by making all four of her 3-point attempts in the fi rst quarter. Courtney Williams added 12 points against her former team.

Connecticut Sun’s Brionna Jones (left), reaches back to tie up a rebound with Chicago Sky’s Cheyenne Parker during the second half of a WNBA

basketball game on Aug 8, in Bradenton, Florida. (AP)

Kuwait to host GCCWinter Games ‘HQ’KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11, (KUNA): GCC Winter Games Organising Committee mem-bers have backed Kuwait to host the body’s headquarters, according to Kuwait’s repre-sentative.

During a remotely-held meeting, they also extended, for a second term of four years, the presidency of Ku-waiti Fuhaid Al-Ajmi, who also heads the Kuwait Winter Sports Club.

Committee members saw the need to improve winter sports in the region and place an emphasis on encourag-ing the creation of women’s teams. College football coaches face

tough adversary: ‘uncertainty’NEW YORK, Aug 11, (AP): College football coaches are facing the daunt-ing challenge of getting their players to maintain the required focus to pre-pare for season-openers when the pre-vailing question swirling around the sport is when, or if, the season will even be played because of the world-wide coronavirus pandemic.

Preparation is a regimented endeav-or. Practice periods are measured on a clock on the field, whistles signal the time to hustle from one drill to anoth-er. And uncertainty is a formidable opponent to the process.

Virginia coach Bronco Mendenhall said it adds an “emotional drain” to the rigor of weight lifting and fitness, film study and psychological preparedness.

“With so many variances on the outside of start, stop schedule, new schedule, continued start, stop, there’s an existing emotional drain and dis-traction that is very difficult in terms of managing the external environment that does spill over,” Mendenhall said Monday on a Zoom call with reporters.

Virginia, like many schools with recently revised schedules, has just started practice. But Syracuse coach Dino Babers has a different take, say-ing team workouts seem to provide relief.

“The effort, based off all the stuff that’s gone on, I almost feel like it’s been a release that they can actually lose themselves and do something that they really enjoy with a bunch of guys that are all COVID-free and running around and having fun,” Babers said on Zoom.

West Virginia coach Neal Brown agrees.

“You see guys, their demeanors have changed,” he said. “They have something to look forward to. Our guys have new energy when they’re out there. They’re able to get off their phones. They’re able to get away from all the uncertainty and they’re really going to do what they love to do. So

that’s been a positive experience and I hope it continues.”

The Mountaineers, Brown said, have no current COVID-19 infections.

Army coach Jeff Monken prefers his team focus on when, not if, games are played.

The Black Knights’ biggest chal-lenge might be finding opponents. Their only confirmed home game is Nov 7 against Air Force. The other five scheduled visitors have canceled.

Whatever their take on the situation, coaches at the top levels of college football are facing the distraction chal-lenges. Louisville coach Scott Satterfield refers to it as “the elephant in the room.”

The issue was highlighted Saturday when the Mid-American Conference became the first Football Bowl Subdivision league to cancel its fall season. Monday night saw the Mountain West Conference also can-cel its fall sports.

Connecticut and Old Dominion have also canceled, bringing to 14 the number of schools at the top level to forgo the fall, along with numerous conferences one step down in the Football Championship Subdivision.

In this Jan 7, 2019 fi le photo, Alabama’s Najee Harris reaches for the end zone during the fi rst half of the NCAA college football playoff championship

game against Clemson in Santa Clara, California. (AP)

BASKETBALL

FOOTBALL

TENNIS

Bouzkova

Third-seeded Elise Mertens’ game against Jasmine Paolini didn’t start.

Fourth-seeded Dayana Yas-tremska withdrew from the tour-nament at the last minute due to tooth pain.

No. 2-ranked Simona Halep heads the fi eld.

SPORTSARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

18

Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku (right), and Leverkusen’s Edmond Tapsoba battle for the ball during the Europa League quarter-fi nal match between Inter Milan and Bayer Leverkusen at the Duesseldorf Arena in Dusseldorf, Germany on Aug 10. (AP)

Manchester United’s Brandon Williams (left), and Copenhagen’s Jonas Wind fi ght for the ball during the Europa League quarter-fi nal soccer match between Manchester United and Copenhagen at the Rhein Energie Sta-

dium in Cologne, Germany, on Aug 10. (AP)

Scottish season in ‘jeopardy’

Dortmund say Sancho staying amid Utd links

Inter eliminate Leverkusen

Health offi cials blockclubs ‘plans’ for fans

United scrape into Europa League semis

BERLIN, Aug 11, (AP): German health officials have blocked professional soc-cer clubs’ plans to allow fans at Bundesliga games when the new season begins in September.

“Thousands of fans in the stadiums – that doesn’t fit with the current situation with infections. Now it’s about not tak-ing any unnecessary risks,” national Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Twitter of the coronavirus pandemic on Monday. The 36 clubs in Germany’s top two divisions had been planning on hav-ing limited numbers of socially dis-tanced and seated supporters at games, and had produced a proposal last week that included prohibiting away fans, restrictions in standing areas of stadi-ums, and a ban on sales of alcohol. They mooted personalized tickets to help with contact tracing, though those plans have been criticized by fans.

“The league’s concept is good in the-ory,” Spahn said. “But what’s decisive is what happens every day in practice.”

In a follow-up tweet, Spahn added, “We feel that we have to stay alert.

Having spectators in the stands would be the wrong signal in the current situa-tion.”

Germany’s 16 state health ministers met on Monday and agreed that having fans in stadiums for league games was not a priority.

Germany has registered 217,835 coronavirus infections, and a relatively low number of deaths at 9,203 compared to neighboring France, Spain and Italy, but there has been some concern over a recent increase in the daily rate of new infections.

Last week, Germany recorded its highest daily tally of new infections in three months. The national disease con-trol center, the Robert Koch Institute, said 1,045 cases were recorded last Wednesday – the first time since May 7 that it has counted more than 1,000 cases in a day. Berlin health senator Dilek Kalayci said on Monday the ministers came to a unanimous position that stadi-ums should remain closed to fans based

on the current pandemic situation.“In terms of health policy, we are cur-

rently not in favor of opening the stadi-ums until Oct 31, at least. Then you can discuss the situation again,” Kalayci said. Bavarian governor Markus Söder had been one of those most vocally in favor of the Bundesliga resuming with-out fans after its two-month break last season, but he said allowing fans to attend games when the new season begins on Sept 18 would send the wrong signal.

“It would send a devastating signal to the public, both in terms of what it means for medical capacities and in rela-tion to cultural events,” Söder said.

❑ ❑ ❑

Scottish soccer was in danger of being halted by the country’s government after a Celtic player breached coronavirus rules by taking a secret trip to Spain and failing to self-isolate on his return.

The Scottish champions have begun a “full investigation” into the actions of left back Boli Bolingoli, who played in a 1-1 draw with Kilmarnock in the league on Sunday despite only recently return-ing from Spain without quarantining.

A game between Aberdeen and St Johnstone on Saturday was postponed a day earlier after two Aberdeen players tested positive for COVID-19 and a fur-ther six were instructed to self-isolate following a night out in a bar.

It led to Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warning that Scottish soccer’s privileges to play during the safety restrictions would be at risk if a similar situation arose. All 12 Premiership managers and captains held talks with government officials on Monday and were reminded of their responsibilities over protocols particular to football and also the general public.

Celtic said it has taken its response to COVID-19 “extremely seriously” and has recorded no positive tests so far.

“Our staff have given so much in this area,” a club statement read, “working tirelessly to ensure that all players and other club personnel are safe, fully aware of their own responsibilities and familiar with all guidance and protocols. Safety must always be our priority.”

BAD RAGAZ, Switzerland, Aug 11, (AP): England winger Jadon Sancho will stay with Borussia Dortmund for the upcoming season amid reported interest from Manchester United, club sporting director Michael Zorc said.

“We plan on having Jadon Sancho in our team this season, the decision is fi nal. I think that answers all our questions,” Zorc said at the team’s training camp in Switzerland.

Zorc added that Dortmund had already given San-cho a pay rise “to match the development of his perfor-mances” last summer.

“So in context, we had already extended his contract until 2023 back then,” he said.

Sancho’s contract was originally due to run to 2022. Dortmund made no announcement regarding the one-year extension when it was made.

Sancho has been heavily linked with United in the off-season after the club qualifi ed for next season’s Cham-pions League. Sancho joined Dortmund from Manches-ter City in 2017.

United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer declined to re-spond to the announcement by Dortmund. “I can’t com-ment on other teams’ players,” he said after United beat Copenhagen 1-0 in the Europa League quarter-fi nals.

Sancho was one of Dortmund’s stand-out performers last season. The 20-year-old forward scored 17 goals and set up 17 more in 32 Bundesliga appearances.

Due to circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the transfer period will run to Oct 5. The next day is the closing date for clubs to register players for the group stages of the new season’s UEFA competi-tions.

COLOGNE, Germany, Aug 11, (AP): Manchester United needed an extra-time penalty from Bruno Fernandes to scrape into the Europa League semifi -nals after beating Copen-hagen 1-0.

In sweltering heat, United’s young team controlled the lion’s share of possession but had a hard time creat-ing clear chances until Andreas Bjelland brought down Anthony Martial in the penalty area. Fernandes blasted the ball past the otherwise excellent goalkeeper Karl-Johan Johnsson to give United the 95th-minute lead.

Once again a Europa League game against a team from a smaller league with limited finances was tighter than expected, five days after LASK Linz restricted United to a 2-1 win at Old Trafford.

“Their keeper had probably the game of his life, he was really good, but then again I could say we need to be more clinical in knockout games,” United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said.

United recorded 14 shots on target while Mason Greenwood and Fernandes hit the woodwork with shots during normal time and earlier video reviews cost United two of its best opportunities to score.

First, VAR scratched off a United penalty for offside in the buildup. Just before the break Greenwood put the ball in the net after a lightning break down the right flank but the replay showed he’d been just offside when Marcus Rashford’s pass was played.

That decision was a particular blow for United after the apparent break-through goal came just as the English team had seemed to be getting frus-trated and taking increasingly specula-tive shots against a Danish team play-ing its first ever European quarter-final.

Copenhagen striker Mohamed Daramy muscled his way past the United defense to shoot in the 17th but had his shot blocked by Harry Maguire, and Jens Stage’s follow-up was blocked, too. Copenhagen had other chances blocked or sent wide in the

second half.For United manager Solskjaer, the

game was a reunion with his old Norway teammate and friend Stale Solbakken, the coach of Copenhagen.

Solbakken was vocal on the touch-line, screaming his team forward in extra time. During the earlier drinks breaks he was heard to tell his players that “we have been the better side”, which was true for much of the 90 minutes. Despite creating some scoring chances in promising positions, though, Copenhagen didn’t register a single shot on target.

“We should maybe be a little more cynical. We didn’t go down when we

had chances to go down ... inside the box,” Solbakken said. He drew a con-trast with the penalty Martial won in extra time, but said he didn’t necessar-ily disagree with the referee’s decision.

United plays five-time Europa League winner Sevilla or English club Wolverhampton on Sunday in the semifinals. They play their quarter-final on Tuesday.

Until the semifinal on Sunday, United will be staying within the UEFA “bubble” in western Germany.

Solskjaer said that meant conditions wouldn’t be optimal for recovery, compared to being in Manchester, and he wouldn’t be allowed to visit the

Sevilla-Wolverhampton game. “We just have to make the most out of a dif-ficult situation in conditions which are really hot, humid,” he said.

It’s the third time United have reached a semifinal this season, but they lost the previous two. Manchester City knocked United out of the League Cup and Chelsea knocked United out of the FA Cup.

Meanwhile, Romelu Lukaku scored one goal and set up another as Inter Milan defeated a tenacious Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 to reach the Europa League semifinals.

Lukaku was the driving force from the start, imposing himself on the game and disrupting the Leverkusen defense to keep Inter in the hunt for their first trophy in nine years. Inter last played a European semifinal on their way to the Champions League title in 2010.

“We are growing but we have to learn to kill games off when we have the chances to do it, and we didn’t tonight,” Lukaku said. “Now we have time to recover physically and prepare for another great game.” When Nicolo Barella gave Inter the lead in the 15th minute it was off a rebound from a shot of Lukaku’s which had been blocked. Six minutes later, Lukaku scored after a link up with Ashley Young, even though he was falling as he hit the shot while battling a defender.

Just as Inter threatened to over-whelm Leverkusen, the German team kept themselves in the game. Kai Havertz played a one-two with Kevin Volland and fired the ball past goal-keeper Samir Handanovic to cut the gap to a single goal four minutes after Lukaku scored.

Manchester United’s Mason Greenwood controls the ball during the Eu-ropa League quarter-fi nal soccer match between Manchester United and Copenhagen at the Rhein Energie Stadium in Cologne, Germany on Aug

10. (AP)

SOCCER

SOCCER

SPORTSARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2020

19

Padres ‘edge’ Dodgerson Hosmer’s RBI single

Trout, Angels end A’s 9-game win streak

LOS ANGELES, Aug 11, (AP): Eric Hosmer singled in the go-ahead run with two outs in the sixth inning, and the San Diego Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-1 in the series opener Monday night.

Joc Pederson bobbled the ball on Hosmer’s hit to left and couldn’t attempt a throw as Trent Grisham scored from second after Dustin May (1-1) walked him, giving the Padres a 2-1 lead.

Austin Hedges homered with two outs in the fifth to tie it at 1. It was Hedges’ third hit and first homer of the season and only the second home run given up by May.

Emilio Pagán retired Mookie Betts, Cody Bellinger and Justin Turner in order in the eighth, and the Dodgers managed just four hits. Betts, Bellinger and Turner were 1 for 4 with a strikeout each. Los Angeles was 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

Cal Quantrill (2-0) got the vic-tory with three innings of relief. He allowed two hits and struck out three.

Drew Pomeranz retired the side in the ninth for his third save.

Angels 10, Athletics 9In Anaheim, California, Mike

Trout hit two home runs, includ-ing a tie-breaking shot in the eighth inning, and Los Angeles rallied from an early five-run defi-cit to snap Oakland’s nine-game winning streak.

Trout’s solo drive off Yusmeiro Petit (1-1) in the eighth helped the Angels stop a three-game skid. It was the 20th multi-homer game of Trout’s career, which tied Tim Salmon and Vladimir Guerrero for the franchise record. Slumping newcomer Anthony Rendon also homered for the Angels.

Los Angeles trailed 9-4 in the fourth when Trout began the rally with a two-run drive into the Angels’ bullpen in left field. Shohei Ohtani had an RBI double in the inning to bring them to 9-7 and then tied it with a two-run homer to center in the sixth.

Noe Ramirez, Keynan Middleton, Felix Peña (1-0) and Ty Buttrey held Oakland score-less. Buttrey earned his second save.

Matt Chapman homered twice and tied a career high with six RBIs for AL West-leading Oakland.

Astros 6, Giants 4In Houston, Lance McCullers Jr

pitched no-hit ball into the sev-enth inning, Michael Brantley and Carlos Correa drove in two runs each and Houston snapped a five-game skid.

McCullers (2-1) bounced back from one of the worst perfor-mances of his career with a gem, allowing one hit and striking out five in seven scoreless innings. The 26-year-old tied a career high by allowing eight runs in just 3-2/3 innings of a 14-7 loss at Arizona his last time out.

His only hit allowed Monday came when Donovan Solano extended his MLB-best hitting streak to 15 games with a double in the seventh.

San Francisco rookie starter Logan Webb (1-1) allowed four hits and five runs - only two earned because of two errors – in 3-1/3 innings.

Tampa Bay Rays’ Kevin Kiermaier hits a two-run double during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, on

Aug 10, in Boston. (AP)

Nationals 16, Mets 4In New York, Asdrubal Cabrera

went 4 for 4 with two homers, two doubles and five RBIs, torment-ing his former team again as Washington routed New York.

Juan Soto and Trea Turner homered in the third inning for the Nationals, who scored just 11 runs in their previous five games.

Cabrera, who played in 374 games for the Mets from 2016-18, became the first player to go 4 for 4 with four extra-base hits against a former team since Johnny Cooney of the Brooklyn Dodgers did it versus the Boston Bees in

1937, according to STATS. Cabrera is batting .452 with three homers and 11 RBIs in eight games against New York since Washington signed him last August.

Soto launched a drive that land-ed beyond the Mets’ home run apple in center field and was pro-jected at a career-long 463 feet. He also singled and hit an RBI double that sparked a seven-run fifth.

Patrick Corbin (2-0) cruised to the win. Steven Matz (0-3) was hammered for a career-worst eight earned runs over 4-1/3 innings.

Phillies 13, Braves 8In Philadelphia, Didi Gregorius

hit a grand slam, Bryce Harper blasted a three-run shot and Philadelphia got Aaron Nola his first win in nearly a year.

Nola (1-1) allowed one run, two hits and struck out 10 in eight innings. The ace right-hander was 0-5 in nine starts since his last win at Boston on Aug 20, 2019.

Roman Quinn, Jean Segura and J.T. Realmuto added solo shots for Philadelphia, which bounced back after getting swept in Sunday’s doubleheader to earn a split of the four-game series.

Braves lefty Sean Newcomb (0-2) allowed eight runs in 1-1/3 innings.

Rays 8, Red Sox 7In Boston, Kevin Kiermaier hit

a tie-breaking, two-run double in the seventh inning, Manuel Margot had four hits and Tampa Bay beat Boston.

Kiermaier’s opposite-field line drive off reliever Jeffrey Springs (0-1) rolled all the way to the wall in left-center field. Yoshi Tsutsugo and Margot scored after both sin-gled to start the inning. Kiermaier had three RBIs.

Tampa Bay has won four of five after taking three of four against the New York Yankees at home prior to this season-high 10-game

road trip. Aaron Loup (1-0) struck out three in a scoreless inning, and Andrew Kittredge recorded the final two outs for his first career save.

Twins 4, Brewers 2In Milwaukee, Eddie Rosario

hit a grand slam, Randy Dobnak pitched five strong innings and Minnesota ended a four-game skid.

Dobnak (3-1) struck out three, allowed four hits, walked one and retired his last eight batters to continue his hot start to the sea-son.

Keston Hiura homered and Orlando Arcia hit an RBI double for the Brewers. Adrian Houser (1-1) pitched five innings and gave up only those four runs on Rosario’s grand slam.

Diamondbacks 12, Rockies 8In Denver, Kole Calhoun hit a

leadoff homer and a two-run dou-ble to lead Arizona’s 18-hit out-burst in Colorado.

David Peralta and Ketel Marte got four hits each for the Diamondbacks. Alex Young (1-0) worked two innings of relief and Archie Bradley earned his fourth save.

Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon had four singles to extend his hitting streak to 14 games. He has 10 multi-hit games in that stretch, including the last five to raise his batting average to .484, tops in baseball. Blackmon has 12 hits in his last 15 at-bats.

Nolan Arenado also had four hits and Trevor Story homered for Colorado.

Calhoun set the tone with a leadoff homer against Jon Gray (0-2) and added a two-run double in a three-run seventh that gave Arizona a four-run lead.

Tigers 5, White Sox 1In Detroit, JaCoby Jones hit an

inside-the-park home run and Detroit breezed past Chicago for their fourth straight victory.

Niko Goodrum homered and had four hits for the Tigers, who handed the White Sox their fifth loss in six games. It wasn’t all good news for Detroit, though. First baseman C.J. Cron exited with a left knee injury.

White Sox slugger Jose Abreu came up limping after grounding out in the eighth and left the game as well.

The Tigers improved to 9-5 on the year after losing 114 games in 2019.

Michael Fulmer pitched three scoreless innings for Detroit, and Daniel Norris (1-1) worked two.

Dallas Keuchel (2-2) allowed three runs and six hits in six innings.

Mariners 10, Rangers 2In Arlington, Texas, Kyle

Seager hit a grand slam, Kyle Lewis and Dylan Moore also homered and Seattle won their first game at the new Texas ball-park, snapping the Rangers’ three-game winning streak.

Lewis put the Mariners up 4-2 with a three-run shot in the fifth inning off Kyle Gibson (0-2). Seager added his fifth career slam an inning later.

Justin Dunn (1-1) limited Texas to two runs over six innings for his first big league victory.

With the retractable roof opened at Globe Life Field during a game for the first time, the Mariners’ three homers were only one fewer than opponents had hit overall in the first eight games there.

Los Angeles Dodgers’ Mookie Betts (right), is tagged out by San Diego Padres’ Eric Hosmer after getting caught in a rundown as home plate umpire John Libka watches during the first inning of a baseball game on Aug 10, in

Los Angeles. (AP)

Camel Racing Club announces start of new season on Sept 11KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: The Camel Racing Club has announced that its new season will start on September 11 and continue until April 2020, reports Al-Anba daily.

In a press release, the Secretary of the club Rabih Al-Ajmi explained that the activities in the club will resume following a forced

hiatus due to the COVID-19 pan-demic. The club will implement all of the health precautions and requirements approved by the tri-partite committee concerned with the return of sporting activity in the country. This committee was formed by the Ministry of Health, the Public Authority for Sports and the Olympic Committee of Kuwait.

In light of the observance of social distancing, the club is pre-

paring for the start of the races that will be held on Saturday every week in coordination with the com-mittee. The races will be held in the mornings in order to reduce the gathering of those who are fans of this sport of their ancestors.

Al-Ajmi affirmed that the club allowed owners to train their hybrids at the club from early August based on a schedule pre-pared by the club to ensure there is no crowding during training.

He revealed that the club will allocate races for camels that are young in age on a separate day from their older counterparts, pro-vided they alternate between them on a weekly basis with the aim of reducing the number of breeders and competitors in the club.

Al-Ajmi concluded by assuring that the competitors’ contact with each other in the races remains minimal due to the use of automatic rider devices for many years.

HORSE RACING

Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Julio Teheran throws against the Oakland Athletics during the first inning of a baseball game on Aug 10, in Anaheim, California. (AP)

Chargers’ Ekeler has new role

Witten invigorated by new opportunityNEY YORK, Aug 11, (AP): After fol-lowing Jon Gruden into the “Monday Night Football” booth didn’t work out as well as Jason Witten expected, the veteran tight end hopes playing for Gruden leads to more success.

Witten made the move to Las Vegas this offseason to join the Raiders fol-lowing 16 seasons with Dallas inter-rupted by the one year in the ESPN booth.

“I’m invigorated by this challenge and where I’m at in my career,” Witten said Monday. “It made a lot of sense from the fit, the role and the presence that I could have. I didn’t really over-think it and it’s just a great opportunity to go in there and compete and I’m very fortunate for that, and I’ll chal-lenge myself to play at a high level even where my age is and it’s been a lot of fun for me.”

The 38-year-old Witten pointed to the success Gruden had with older players in his first stint with the Raiders when players like Jerry Rice, Rich Gannon, Albert Lewis and Eric Allen all had late-career revivals.

❑ ❑ ❑

Austin Ekeler has a new role and different training camp this year.

However, the Los Angeles Chargers running back is still trying to maintain the same approach.

Ekeler is the Chargers lead back after a breakout 2019 season and Melvin Gordon’s departure to

Denver. Ekeler knows there is an increased spotlight on him this year, but he thinks that will be the only major difference.

“Now I am the starting running back but that doesn’t mean my game is going to change,” he said on Monday. “There is more of a spotlight on my name, but the offense is a similar dynamic.”

❑ ❑ ❑

Minnesota Vikings second-year linebacker Cameron Smith will miss the 2020 season because of a heart condition that was discovered after he tested positive for COVID-19 upon reporting to training camp two weeks ago.

The Vikings made the procedural move on Monday of waiving Smith with a non-football injury designation. Upon clearing waivers, he’ll revert to the reserve list for non-football inju-ries. Smith, who played mostly on special teams as a rookie, was a fifth-round draft pick out of USC in 2019.

❑ ❑ ❑

Robert Woods spent his workdays during this bizarre NFL offseason sneaking over fences and through unlocked doors onto the fields and tracks of various Los Angeles-area high schools.

“You might see a gate open, so you hop on the track and get your work in,” Woods said. “The next day you may see somebody watching you on the track and they’ll say, ‘Hey, what are you doing out here?’ and then find ways to get you off the track. Next thing you know, you’re shooting texts around try-ing to find another available track.”

Woods did some of that sneaky work with Cooper Kupp, his fellow 1,000-yard receiver with the Los Angeles Rams.

❑ ❑ ❑

In some ways, the chemistry between Tom Brady and Julian Edelman was as key to the Patriots’ success in recent years as the X’s and O’s.

Brady’s departure this offseason certainly created a void, but not one that Edelman wants to dwell on.

“We played a lot of ball together. I love him to death, but the train keeps moving,” Edelman said Monday. “As it will when I’m not playing here someday. It just always keeps going. So we’ve got to worry about the peo-ple that we have here and try to pre-pare ourselves the best we can with the situation we’re in with everything we’re dealing with.”

One of the people that could help ease the transition away from Brady is the arrival of Cam Newton, whom Edelman was able to get a sneak peek at recently when the two got together for an impromptu throwing session shortly before reporting to training camp.

❑ ❑ ❑

After years of playing in a dysfunc-tional organization in Washington, the difference in the vibe of a winning franchise hit Trent Williams as soon as he walked into the building for the San Francisco 49ers this training camp.

Williams saw a culture instilled from management to the coaching staff to the players and an energy he wasn’t used to the past decade in Washington even before the defending NFC champions Niners have held their first real practice.

“Coming where I came from, a walk-through was a walkthrough,” Williams said. “Our walkthrough here was pretty intense. A lot of focus, a lot of attention to detail and guys flying around. You could tell this is a hungry group of guys and I feel like I fit right in.”

In this Oct 10, 2019 file photo, Dallas Cowboys’ Jason Witten (82) warms up before an NFL football game against the Philadelphia

Eagles in Arlington, Texas. (AP)

WASHINGTON, Aug 11, (AP): Results and standings from the MLB games on Monday.Detroit 5 Chic W. Sox 1Minnesota 4 Milwaukee 2TB Rays 8 Boston 7Houston 6 SF Giants 4Seattle 10 Texas 2LA Angels 10 Oakland 9Phillies 13 Atlanta 8Washington 16 NY Mets 4Arizona 12 Colorado 8SD Padres 2 LA Dodgers 1

American LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GBNew York 10 6 .625 –Tampa Bay 9 8 .529 1½Baltimore 7 7 .500 2Toronto 5 8 .385 3½Boston 6 10 .375 4

Central Division W L Pct GBMinnesota 11 6 .647 –Detroit 9 5 .643 ½Cleveland 10 7 .588 1Chicago 8 9 .471 3Kansas City 7 10 .412 4

West Division W L Pct GBOakland 12 5 .706 –Houston 7 9 .438 4½Texas 6 9 .400 5Seattle 7 11 .389 5½Los Angeles 6 11 .353 6

National LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GBMiami 7 3 .700 –Atlanta 11 7 .611 –Philadelphia 5 6 .455 2½Washington 5 7 .417 3New York 7 10 .412 3½

Central Division W L Pct GBChicago 10 3 .769 –St Louis 2 3 .400 4Cincinnati 7 9 .438 4½Milwaukee 6 8 .429 4½Pittsburgh 3 13 .188 8½

West Division W L Pct GBColorado 11 5 .688 –Los Angeles 11 6 .647 ½San Diego 10 7 .588 1½Arizona 7 10 .412 4½San Francisco 7 11 .389 5

MLB Results/Standings

BASEBALL

SAO PAULO, Aug 11, (AP): Brazil’s championship didn’t even complete its opening round over the week-end before its future was cast in doubt when a match was postponed after nine players from the same team tested positive for COVID-19.

Goiás offi cials said on Monday the team will travel to their second round match against Athletico on Wednes-day only if new tests do not rule out more members of its squad.

Striker Rafael Moura said he and eight teammates who have the coronavirus fear they have infected more people.

Goiás expected to receive COVID-19 test results on Saturday, but received them only on Sunday morning with the shocking fi gures. The club asked Brazil’s top sports court to postpone its match against Sao Paulo, and the answer came four minutes before kickoff.

“Our biggest concern is with our family members, with those we had contact before our time together and that were possibly infected,” Moura said. “Unfortunately we are exposed to this invisible virus, it can happen to any-one and maybe one of us gave it to the others between one test and the other. We need to think about the way tests are done or increase the number of tests.”

Goiás received the tests results on such short notice that the team’s third goalkeeper was at lunch with his family when he had to be rushed to the stadium. The team’s fi rst two goalies tested positive and will remain in isolation for at least 10 days, abiding by the championship protocols.

Brazil’s Serie A began on the weekend while the coun-try is dealing with a virus with grim fi gures of 100,000 known deaths and three million registered cases. Only the United States has bigger totals in both categories.

One of the few footballers speaking out about Sunday’s postponement in Brazil, Sao Paulo defender Dani Alves, said the situation was “unacceptable”.

“Either we raise awareness and be professional or this will be just a waste of time,” Dani Alves said on his so-cial media without clarifying whether his criticism was to players, executives or both.

A third division match was also postponed on Sun-day after 12 players of tiny Imperatriz tested positive for COVID-19. They found out only four hours before their match against Treze, in the northeastern state of Paraiba, after travelling by airplane and bus.

The lag in results of tests is also being criticized. Teams have to take them 72 hours before every match, but Al-bert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo – recommended by the national soccer federation – is so late in diagnosing that infected footballers might have played with the virus.

Five players of Serie C team Ypiranga had the virus when they traveled by bus to face Brusque in southern Brazil. Though none of the players who were positive ap-peared in the match, their teammates did not test again before the match and could have spread the virus.

Serie B team CSA tested for COVID-19 on Wednesday

but received its results only hours before Saturday’s clash against Guarani. Eight players were positive and did not play, but their teammates that spent days with them did.

Local giant Corinthians announced it will not send its prematch samples to Albert Einstein due to “failings and inconsistencies”. The club said it will use another clinic to perform the tests, a decision that will be followed by others, according to Brazilian media.

The restart of professional soccer in Brazil amid the pandemic is a victory for President Jair Bolsonaro, who has pushed for a return to normal due to a belief that a col-lapsing economy will kill more than the virus. Flamengo, the reigning Brazilian and South American champions, also pressured for the championship to get underway, af-ter it was originally scheduled to start in May.

Paraguay and Uruguay have largely managed to stop the virus, and restart pro soccer. Argentina, which has a much less alarming situation than Brazil’s, allowed teams to restart practice only on Monday.

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SportsCopenhagen’s Pep Biel (right), challenges Manchester United’s Brandon Williams (left), during the UEFA Europa League quarter-fi nal soccer match between Manchester United and FC Copenhagen in Cologne, Germany on Aug 10. United won 1-0. (AP) – See Page 18

Lakers snap 3-game losing streakSuns improve playoff chances

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla, Aug 11, (AP): Kyle Kuzma hit a 3-pointer with .4 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Denver Nuggets 124-121 Monday night to snap a three-game losing streak.

LeBron James threw an in-bounds pass to Anthony Davis, who fl ipped it to Kuzma on the right wing for the game-winner as the clock ran down.

The Lakers, outplayed down the stretch by Denver’s bench, got 29 points and 12 assists from James, who hit two 3-pointers in the fourth quar-ter. Anthony Davis had 27 points and Kuzma 25.

P.J. Dozier had a chance to put the Nuggets up by one with 4.4 seconds

left but missed the second of two free throws. Kuzma rebounded and the Lakers called timeout to set up the winning play.

Dozier had been fouled by Kuzma while driving the lane after a miss by James.

James had given the Lakers a 121-119 lead by converting a 3-point play with 45.7 seconds to go. Monte Morris made one of two free throws for the Nuggets.

The Lakers had clinched the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference before their losing streak started. They are 3-4 in the bubble with one game to go.

Dozier scored 18 and Michael Porter Jr had 15 for the Nuggets, who are cur-rently the No. 3 seed in the West.

The Lakers took an 87-80 lead late in the third quarter after two buckets by Kuzma and two free throws by Davis. But the Nuggets went on an 8-1 run to finish the quarter in an 88-88 tie. Mason Plumlee made a jumper and Bol Bol and Morris each made a 3-pointer

Davis grabbed the rebound of Kuzma’s miss for a slam dunk at the halftime buzzer that gave the Lakers a 64-59 halftime lead. Davis also made a similar play off miss by Kuzma in the last minute of the first quarter.

Raptors 114, Bucks 106 Chris Boucher scored a career-high

25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to help the Toronto Raptors defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 114-106.

Though the meeting featured the top two teams in the Eastern Conference standings, both teams were missing key players.

Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokoun-mpo, the reigning MVP, missed the game after undergoing oral surgery. Bucks coach Mike Budehnolzer said Monday it was uncertain whether Antetokounmpo would play in the team’s final two seeding games Tuesday against the Washington Wizards and Thursday against the Memphis Grizzlies.

For Toronto, Kyle Lowry sat out with a sore lower back, Serge Ibaka missed the game with a bruised right knee and Fred VanVleet was out with a hyper-extended right knee.

Boucher made the most of it.The Bucks already had clinched the

No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference for a second straight season, and defending NBA champions Toronto was locked into the No. 2 spot, so there was little to gain for either team.

Rookie Matt Thomas scored a sea-son-high 22 points. Raptors coach Nick Nurse said he was glad to see Boucher and Thomas and step up. Boucher averages 6.1 points per game and Thomas averages 4.3.

Norman Powell added points 21 for the Raptors, who improved to 5-1 in the restart.

Kyle Korver scored 19 points and Khris Middleton added 17 for the Bucks, who fell to 2-4 since the restart.

Suns 128, Thunder 101Devin Booker scored 35 points, and

the Phoenix Suns rolled past the short-handed Oklahoma City Thunder 128-101 to improve to 6-0 in the restart and improve their playoff chances.

The Suns have surged in the Western Conference standings. They entered the day just 1-1/2 games behind eighth-place Memphis and a game behind ninth-place Portland in the race to qualify for a spot in the play-in series.

Williams appreciates the position the Suns are in.

“We’ve done a good job of getting to this point,” he said. “No one knew we were going to be here, but we’re here and we’re thankful for that.”

Phoenix center Deandre Ayton sat out the first quarter because he missed his coronavirus test on Sunday. He tested negative on Monday and was cleared. He started the second quarter.

With Ayton out, Oklahoma City led 37-23 at the end of the first quar-ter. After Ayton entered the game, Phoenix dominated the rest of the way. He finished with 10 points and six rebounds in just over 17 minutes.

Oklahoma City was without four of its top five scorers. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (bruised right calf), Danilo Gallinari (left ankle maintenance), Dennis Schroder (birth of child) and Steven Adams (bruised left leg) sat out. Reserve center Nerlens Noel (sprained right ankle) also did not play.

Rookie Darius Bazley had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunder.

The Suns rallied from 15 points down in the second quarter to take a 65-64 lead at halftime. Phoenix opened the second half on an 11-2 run and controlled the game from there.

Mavericks 122, Jazz 114The short-handed Dallas Mavericks

rallied from a 22-point deficit in the second half to stun the Utah Jazz 122-114.

Tim Hardaway Jr led the Mavericks with 27 points and Seth Curry added 22. Boban Marjanovic had 20 points and nine rebounds. It was the biggest comeback for the Mavericks since February 2016 and the win means Dallas still has a slim shot at earning the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

Dallas won despite playing without stars Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, who were both resting because of nagging injuries. Utah was

playing without star Donovan Mitchell and coach Quin Snyder played backups for much of the game to rest his starters.

Utah has lost three straight games and five of seven in the Florida bub-ble. Snyder said his usual rotation players “came out really ready to play” and then the backups were a mixed bag. Snyder added it was important to get the backups mean-ingful playing time as he evaluates who can help the team in the playoffs.

The Mavericks trailed 78-56 with 10 minutes left in the third quarter after Utah’s Emmanuel Mudiay made a 3-pointer. They slowly rallied throughout the third quarter and then scored the first 13 points of the fourth quarter to take a 101-100 lead with about eight minutes left.

Curry said the Mavericks weren’t concerned about who was playing and who wasn’t.

Dallas outscored Utah 34-14 in the fourth quarter. The Mavericks shot 12 of 24 (50 percent) from 3-point range.

Utah was led by Jordan Clarkson, who scored 18 points. Rayjon Tucker scored 17 points off the bench. Georges Niang, who finished with 13 points and made all four of his 3-point attempts, said he wasn’t concerned about the three-game losing streak.

Doncic is dealing with a right ankle injury while Porzingis has an injured left knee. Dorian Finney-Smith also missed the game to rest a left hip strain. All three played in a win against Milwaukee on Saturday.

Heat 114, Pacers 92 Jimmy Butler returned to the

Miami lineup and everything started clicking again for the Heat.

Butler returned from a foot injury and scored 19 points, Derrick Jones scored 18 off the Miami bench and the Heat kept T.J. Warren largely in check on the way to a 114-92 win over the Indiana Pacers.

Butler also had 11 rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Tyler Herro scored 17 while Duncan Robinson and Jae Crowder each added 14 for Miami, which snapped a two-game slide. The Heat took control for good in the third quarter, blowing open what was a tie game with a 35-17 run.

Goran Dragic scored 11 and Bam Adebayo added 10 for Miami.

Warren scored 12 for Indiana on 5 for 14 shooting in 29 minutes. He came into Monday averaging a bub-ble-leading 34.8 points per game on 61% shooting from the field, 56% from 3-point range, but never got roll-ing against Butler and the Heat.

Victor Oladipo scored 14 and Malcolm Brogdon added 12 for Indiana.

Miami moved a game ahead of Indiana in the race for the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Heat (44-27) and Pacers (43-28) both have two games left, and sixth-place Philadelphia (42-28) ends its regular season with three games in four days

starting Tuesday.The Heat own the tiebreakers over

both Indiana and Philadelphia, so one more Miami victory would lock up a spot in the No. 4 vs No. 5 series that will start early next week.

The teams play again Friday in the seeding-game finale for both teams and could meet in the opening round of the playoffs that start next week – raising the possibility that Miami and Indiana could face off as many as nine times in a 10-game span.

It was the first meeting between the clubs since Jan. 8, a game in Indiana where Butler and Warren’s individual match-up stole the show.

What happened that night, in seven seconds of court time, has been talked about for seven months since. Warren grabbed Butler’s arm on a drive midway through the third quarter, and the reaction by each player resulted in double-technicals. Butler fouled Warren on the next possession, Warren taunted him with some clapping after the call and got ejected.

Dallas Mavericks Trey Burke (32) shoots under Utah Jazz’s Rayjon Tucker (6) during the second half of an NBA basketball game on Aug 10, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP)

NBA Results/Standings

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

W L Pct GBx-Toronto 51 19 .729 –x-Boston 47 23 .671 4x-Philadelphia 42 28 .600 9x-Brooklyn 34 36 .486 17New York 21 45 .318 28

Southeast Division W L Pct GBx-Miami 44 27 .620 –x-Orlando 32 39 .451 12Charlotte 23 42 .354 18Washington 24 46 .343 19½Atlanta 20 47 .299 22

Central Division W L Pct GBz-Milwaukee 55 16 .775 –x-Indiana 43 28 .606 12Chicago 22 43 .338 30Detroit 20 46 .303 32½Cleveland 19 46 .292 33

Western ConferenceSouthwest Division

W L Pct GBy-Houston 44 25 .638 –x-Dallas 43 30 .589 3Memphis 33 38 .465 12San Antonio 31 38 .449 13New Orleans 30 40 .429 14½

Northwest Division W L Pct GBx-Denver 46 25 .648 –x-Oklah City 43 27 .614 2½x-Utah 43 28 .606 3Portland 33 39 .458 13½Minnesota 19 45 .297 23½

Pacifi c Division W L Pct GBz-LA Lakers 52 18 .743 –x-LA Clippers 47 23 .671 5Phoenix 32 39 .451 20½Sacramento 29 41 .414 23Golden State 15 50 .231 34½

WASHINGTON, Aug 11, (AP): NBA results and standings after Monday’s games.Phoenix 128 Oklahoma 101Dallas 122 Utah 114Toronto 114 Milwaukee 106

Miami 114 Indiana 92LA Lakers 124 Denver 121

Note: ‘x’ denotes clinched playoff spot; ‘y’ denotes clinched division; ‘z’ denotes clinched conference.

BASKETBALL

SOCCER

Milwaukee Bucks’ Robin Lopez (42) is pressured by Toronto Raptors’ Chris Boucher (25) and Rondae Hol-lis-Jefferson during the fi rst quarter of an NBA basketball game on Aug

10 in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP)

Nine players from same team test positive for COVID-19

Brazil’s Serie A already in doubt

Corinthians’ Jo (top), is fouled by Palmeiras’ Gustavo Gomez, resulting in a penalty kick during the Sao Paulo league fi nal soccer match at Allianz Parque, Sao Paulo, Brazil on Aug 8. The match is being played without

spectators to curb the spread of COVID-19. (AP)