SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020 www.thepeninsula.qa10 SAFAR - 1442 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 8393

Enjoy Ooredoo’s fast 5G network

Sport | 08

Closer coordination required for

sound strategy: QCB Goveror

AFC Champions League: Al Sadd set for Persepolis ‘final’

Business | 01

2 RIYALS

Qatar developing tourism assets in rural areas: Al BakerQNA — DOHA

Secretary-General of Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC) and Group Chief Exec-utive of Qatar Airways, H E Akbar Al Baker underlined that the tourism sector in the State of Qatar has witnessed tremendous growth over a rela-tively short period time, trans-forming the country into one of the most important emerging tourism destinations in the region.

QNTC is developing tourism assets in rural areas such as Zekreet, Bin Ghannam Island, Al Qetaifan Island, Khor Al Adaid and Dukhan, he said.

In a statement marking the occasion of the World Tourism Day 2020, which falls on Sep-tember 27 each year, H E Al Baker said: “Today we celebrate World Tourism Day at a time that is particularly challenging

for our industry. However, Qatar is no stranger to adversity, and by continuing to work together, we will emerge from this pandemic stronger and more resilient than ever before. That strength is evident

in our tourism sector, which has witnessed tremendous growth over a relatively short period of time, transforming our country into an emerging destination”.

“This year’s WTD theme, Tourism and Rural Development,

allows us to showcase our many assets outside Doha, driving visitors to lesser known communities while sharing our heritage with the wider world,” H E Al Baker added.

“To meet the needs of a growing segment of experi-ential tourists, we are developing tourism assets in rural areas such as Zekreet, Bin Ghannam Island, Al Qetaifan Island, Khor Al Adaid and Dukhan, within entertainment

and adventure. A state-of-the-art transit system con-nects these points of interest to the city, making them more accessible to visitors and resi-dents,” H E Al Baker noted.

“As millions descend on Qatar for the FIFA World Cup

2022, our award-winning World Cup stadiums, several of which are located outside Doha, will allow us additional oppor-tunity to develop these commu-nities. While after the event, the stadiums will be repurposed for local use, bringing facilities to, and further developing these neighbourhoods,” he said.

“Together with our partners from both the public and private sectors, we have been working tirelessly to improve our tourism ecosystem, building sector capacity, devel-oping professionals in the industry, and creating space for sustainable growth built around the requirements of the new normal. Qatar’s tourism sector has proven to be resilient and innovative, adapting to changing needs on the ground while leveraging natural and heritage sites,” he concluded.

Qatar, US exploring new investment opportunitiesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The United States is the largest global direct investor and the largest trading partner to Qatar, Qatari Businessmen Association (QBA) Chairman Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani has said at a meeting organised by the QBA with several officials from the US Embassy in Doha recently.

The meeting was aimed at enhancing joint cooperation between Qatar and the United States in all eco-nomic sectors, as well as exploring potential investment opportunities in both countries. Charge’ d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Doha Greta Holtz, Senior Commercial Officer Megan Schildgen, and Economic Officer Mike Schreuder attended the event.

QBA officials including First Deputy to the Chairman Hussein Al Fardan, Second Deputy to the Chairman Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Thani Al Thani, and Board Members Sheikh Nawaf bin Nasser Al Thani, Sherida Al Kaabi, and Saud Al Mana also attended the event. Other QBA members including Sheikh Faisal bin Fahad, Mohamed Althaf and Ihsan Al Khiyami, as well as QBA Deputy General Manager Sarah Abdallah, were also present during the meeting.

During the event, Sheikh Faisal

reiterated the strong bilateral relations between both countries, which con-tinued to develop until reaching a notable level of strategic partnership in all fields. He added that the Qatari private sector continuously seeks to enhance opportunities for cooperation and support economic relations between the two countries. Qatar’s private sector was also able to establish local and regional partnerships through its strategic partnership with the United States, added Sheikh Faisal.

Also speaking during the event,

Holtz highlighted that the Qatari-US relations are based on solid founda-tions and a strategic partnership. She added that Qatar has the capabilities that qualify it to attract the American investors to its markets, pointing out the incentives Qatar provides, whether offered through its taxation system, or the ease of procedures, transparency, stability and security, in addition to the measures taken by the state for the benefit of the foreign investors in order to accelerate and facilitate foreign companies’ investment in the Qatari

market. She also stressed the impor-tance and the role of Qatar free zones.

During the meeting, the members discussed ways to increase cooperation between the two countries.

Al Fardan referred to the need to increase the presence of American companies in Doha and create new partnerships. He also referred to the distinctive regional location of Qatar with the presence of the largest port in the region and a global logistical fleet that will facilitate access to global markets. �P2

Qatari Businessmen Association Chairman Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani (sixth left), First Deputy to the Chairman Hussein Al Fardan (seventh right), Second Deputy to the Chairman Sheikh Dr. Khalid bin Thani Al Thani (fifth left), with other officials and members of the QBA and the US Embassy in Doha recently.

Kuwait praises Qatari efforts in hosting Afghan peace talksQNA — NEW YORK

The State of Kuwait expressed on Friday its satisfaction regarding the outcomes of the Afghan peace talks held in Doha recently, praising the State of Qatar’s efforts in that regard.

The State of Kuwait also expressed its appreciation for the sense of responsibility the participating Afghan parties had for establishing security and peace.

This came during the speech of the Representative of the Amir of the State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, the Prime Minister, H H Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al Hamad Al Sabah at the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

H H Sheikh Sabah said that the Palestinian issue still has a central, historical and pivotal position in the Arab and Islamic worlds, affirming Kuwait’s firm and steadfast stance in sup-porting the choices of the Pal-estinian people to obtain their legitimate rights.

H H also stressed the importance of resuming nego-tiations with a specific time-table to reach a just and com-prehensive peace in accordance with the references of the peaceful process, inter-national legitimacy decisions, the Arab peace initiative, to end the Israeli occupation and an independent Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital, on the borders before June 4, 1967.

On Yemen, he said that the continuation of Yemen’s crisis, which poses dangerous threats to regional stability and security, is a clear signal of a reality on how to deal with the relevant resolutions and out-comes of the UN Security Council, stressing the impor-tance of implementing the Stockholm Agreement.

As for the Libyan crisis, KUNA reported that Kuwait renewed its call for all Libyan parties to self-restraint and pri-oritize peaceful solutions based on dialogue and rejecting vio-lence. �P2

Third Qatari plane

lands in Khartoum

as part of ‘Peace

for Sudan’ aid

QNA — KHARTOUM

A third humanitarian aid plane arrived yesterday at Khartoum Airport from the State of Qatar, within Qatar Charity campaign ‘Peace for Sudan’, to support those affected by torrents and floods, while a fourth plane will arrive today.

The aid was received by Ambassador of Qatar to the Republic of the Sudan H E Abdulrahman bin Ali Al Kubaisi, Chairman of the committee for combating floods at the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs H E Ambassador Muhy-iddin Salem, Commissioner General of the Humanitarian Aid Commission Dr. Ahmed Al Bashir, Director of Qatar Charity office in Sudan Hussein Karmash, and members of the Qatari embassy.

H E the Ambassador of Qatar to Sudan said that this support comes as a feeling from the State of Qatar, H H the Amir, the gov-ernment and the Qatari people of the extent of the suffering caused by the torrents and floods in Sudan, and as a support for the affected people in various states of Sudan, referring to the distinguished relations between the two countries.

He added that the total load of the two planes is 65 tonnes of shelter and other materials, and it includes 546 shelter tents, 5800 blankets, 15 field hospital tents and 15 mobile school tents.

The Chairman of the com-mittee for combating floods at the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs praised the Sudanese-Qatari relations and extended thanks to the State of Qatar for its stance with Sudan to confront the disaster of torrents and floods, which comes within the framework of the brotherly rela-tions between the two countries.

The Commissioner General of the Humanitarian Aid Com-mission, said that the Qatari support is not strange, as Qataris continued to rescue their brothers in Sudan. �P2

Qatari Businessmen

Association holds meeting with

US Embassy officials in Doha

aimed at enhancing joint

cooperation between Qatar and

the United States in all

economic sectors.

Qatari private sector

continuously seeks to enhance

opportunities for cooperation

and support economic relations

between the two countries.

Qatari companies enjoy global

competitive experiences and

advantages and are always

looking to search for

partnerships and explore

investment opportunities in

global markets.

Teachers, parents expect better results from blended learning

Q i i

This year’s WTD theme,

Tourism and Rural

Development, allows us to

showcase our many assets

outside Doha, driving visitors

to lesser known communities

while sharing our heritage with

the wider world.

H E Akbar Al Baker

Secretary-General of Qatar National Tourism Council and Group Chief Executive of Qatar Airways

SANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

Parents and teachers have confirmed that blended learning stream is helping greatly in streamlining the educational process, expecting better results compared to the distance learning which was implemented after COVID-19 outbreak.

However, they said that the new learning system entails more work for them as they have to devote extra time to students.

Speaking to The Peninsula, a number of parents and teachers said that the new method of learning has con-nected students and teacher in a better way because of in-person interaction, which is not possible in distance learning.

The parents also said that their children have started taking learning and homework more seriously under blended system compared to online

teaching. Under the blended system, they have to face teachers which keeps them motivated for taking their studies seriously.

The blended learning or hybrid learning which com-bines classroom teaching with

distance learning was intro-duced by the Ministry of Edu-cation and Higher Education for the first semester of the aca-demic year 2020-21 to continue the education process to limit the spread of COVID-19 infection. �P3

The new method of learning has connected students and teachers in a better way because of in-person interaction.

Children have started taking learning and homework more seriously under blended system compared to online teaching.

Some parents whose children are enrolled in private schools have urged school managements to improve their distance learning system.

OFFICIAL NEWS

02 SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020HOME

Amir sends condolences over deaths in Ukraine plane crashDOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin

Hamad Al Thani and Deputy Amir

H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al

Thani sent yesterday cables of con-

dolences to President of Ukraine

H E Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for the

victims of the crash of a military

plane in northeastern Ukraine,

wishing a speedy recovery for the

injured. Prime Minister and Min-

ister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid

bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani

also sent a cable of condolences

to Prime Minister of Ukraine H E

Denys Shmyhal, over the plane

crash, wishing a speedy recovery

for the injured. — QNA

MoPH: 226 more

recover, 200

new virus cases THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the registration of 200 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. Among them eight were travellers returning from abroad.

Another 226 people have recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 121,738. The Ministry also reported two new deaths due to COVID-19. They were aged 80 and 62 and were receiving medical care.

All new cases have been introduced to isolation and are receiving necessary healthcare according to their health status.

The Ministry further said that measures to tackle COVID-19 in Qatar have suc-ceeded in flattening the curve and limiting the spread of the virus. The number of daily new cases and hospital admissions has gradually declined over the past few weeks.

The Ministry has, however, emphasised the importance of taking precautions against COVID-19. “Unless we follow all precautionary measures, we may experience a second wave of the virus and see numbers increasing – there are already signs of this hap-pening in other countries around the world. Now more than ever, we must be careful and protect the most vulnerable.”

HBKU, Aspetar sign MoU for capacity building in biomedical sciences THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) and Aspetar Ortho-paedic and Sports Medicine Hospital have signed a memo-randum of understanding (MoU) to build and cultivate human capacity in biomedical sciences, genomics and precision medicine.

The MoU establishes mutual cooperation and strategic part-nership through various pro-grammes and research activ-ities relevant to Qatar’s national strategic priorities. These include the development of ini-tiatives covering exercise science and the use of precision

medicine to support physical activity and rehabilitation from injury.

Both parties have com-mitted to establishing beneficial and complementary interaction concerning the College of Health and Life Sciences’ (CHLS) joint degree of Master of Exercise Science. They will also develop specialised courses and workshops, as well as the organisation and participation in seminars, conferences and other activities.

Dr. Edward Stuenkel, Founding Dean of CHLS, said: “Having hosted the 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships, and with FIFA World Cup 2022

on the horizon, Qatar has firmly established itself as a global sporting hub. The country’s sporting infrastructure is second-to-none and supported by high-quality training and medical facilities. Sport is also an essential feature of Qatar National Vision 2030, particu-larly the development of a physically fit and healthy pop-ulation. The more Qatar embraces sport the greater the need for excellence in exercise science and relevant forms of precision medicine becomes.

“To this end, we’re delighted to be building closer ties with such an esteemed authority on sports and exercise medicine.

While the CHLS will be an obvious beneficiary, we’re nev-ertheless confident that the whole HBKU community stands to gain from closer ties with Aspetar. That’s because we employ a multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning across our focus areas, including the health and life sci-ences. Moreover, we are adamant that what we achieve with Aspetar will provide inspi-ration for similarly ambitious partnerships and initiatives in the years ahead,” Stuenkel added.

Dr Abdulaziz Jaham Al Kuwari, Aspetar Chief Exec-utive Officer, said: “In line

with Aspetar’s strategic objective to provide world best integrated medical education and training, this partnership will allow HBKU students to gain practical and hands-on training at Aspetar and benefit from our world-class facilities and diverse qualified experts. We are committed to sup-porting a vibrant clinical and academic environment by assisting the next generation of healthcare professionals through providing and sup-porting comprehensive, evi-dence-based, and inter-pro-fessional Sport and Exercise Medicine and Science education."

Al Marri calls for building more inclusive societies QNA — NEW YORK

Secretary-General and Acting Chairman of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) H E Dr. Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri has called for rethinking governance and how to build more participatory and inclusive soci-eties.

This came during the speech made by Al Marri in the virtual high-level panel discussion on the sidelines of the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, hosted by the Republic of Uruguay, on future challenges of partic-ipation, human rights and governance.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet; Special Rep-resentative of the European Union for Human Rights, Eamon Gilmore; Founder and Executive Director of Action for Justice and Human Rights in Liberia, Satta Sheriff; Member of UN Human Rights Committee and Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Pretoria, Christoph Heinz; and Attorney General and Minister of Justice of the Gambia, Dawda Jallow partici-pated in the panel along with the sponsors from Argentina, Costa Rica, Korea and Ukraine, while the panel dis-cussion was moderated by UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights,

Ilze Brands Kehris. Al Marri said the world is going through unprecedented times that have put the world in front of challenges to adapt and rethink the way used to deal with life itself, noting that human rights contribute construc-tively during the difficult times the world is going through.

Human rights embody values that guide the way forward, including the importance of safety, dignity, decent living, fairness, freedom, equality, respect, well-being, and responsibility, he added.

He noted the necessity to implement

many comprehensive and participatory processes at all levels, within the framework of the central elements to move forward in our path, as well as a safe and conducive environment for those who have a role in promoting and defending human rights. He added that participation in public affairs is a human right and a vital matter for leaving no one behind.

Secretary-General and Acting Chairman of GANHRI said that national institutions are an essential source for preserving democracy and civic space, such as independence, participation,

inclusion, pluralism, and security. He stressed the importance of ensuring that human rights are at the core of the new culture of governance shaped by the current changes.

Al Marri noted that the UN General Assembly recently called on all coun-tries to establish and strengthen national human rights institutions as a means to accelerate and ensure progress within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

He explained that a comprehensive dialogue with governments about public policies, a safe environment for human rights defenders and independent media, as well as the availability of the nec-essary resources to ensure the existence and continuity of civil society organisa-tions are essential requirements for achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sus-tainable Development.

He affirmed that the GANHRI fully supports the mandate of the UN Sec-retary-General and the work of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as a coalition of national institutions at the global level. He explained that GANHRI is looking forward to working with everyone in support of equitable well-being that builds more equitable, participatory societies.

Human rights embody values

that guide the way forward,

including the importance of

safety, dignity, decent living,

fairness, freedom, equality,

respect, well-being, and

responsibility.

H E Dr. Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri

Secretary-General and Acting Chairman GANHRI

Assistant FM meets women members of Afghan negotiation team

Assistant Foreign Minister H E Lolwah Al Khater met yesterday with members of Afghanistan’s negotiating team including Fatima Gailani, Habiba Sarabi, Fawzia Koofi, and Sharifa Zurmati. “Grateful 2 meet the honorable @FatimaGailani @SarabiHabiba, @FawziaKoofi77 & Sharifa Zurmati who are representing the great Afghan women in the Afghanistan negotiations in Doha. So brave, so accomplished. I & many men & women globally have much to learn from Afghan women,” Al Khater tweeted yesterday, sharing the picture.

Qatar, US exploring new investment opportunities

FROM PAGE 1

He also referred to the Hamad International Airport, as it is one of the most important international air-ports which would enhance shipping and transportation routes between Qatar and its global partners.

Dr. Sheikh Khalid indicated that Qatari companies enjoy global competitive experiences and advantages and are always looking to search for partner-ships and explore investment opportunities in global markets, especially from the US. He added that the US economy is attractive and provides great business opportunities for Qatari investments.

He also lauded the efforts made by both countries to remove all challenges facing

business owners from both sides.

For his part, Sheikh Nawaf stressed the need to encourage the US small and medium-sized companies to discover the Qatari market and the impor-tance of providing support from the US government to them, so they can cooperate with Qatari businessmen and work in the Qatari market.

This was confirmed by Schildgen, who is responsible for commercial relations at the US Embassy in Doha, through the presence of a specialised team to support small and medium-sized companies. This team presents an annual report to the US Congress on the support provided to the US companies and the methods of evaluation.

Kuwait praises Qatari efforts in hosting Afghan peace talks

FROM PAGE 1

Kuwait welcomed the pos-itive results made during the talks to draw a roadmap so as to unify the State’s sovereign institutions in line with the UN Security Council resolutions mainly 2501 and the outcomes of the international and regional conferences.

Third Qatari planecarrying aid landsin Khartoum

FROM PAGE 1

He said Qatar's support did not stop during the floods and torrential seasons, adding that this aid will be distributed in cooperation with Qatar Charity in full transparency to alleviate the suffering of those affected in different states. The Director of Qatar Charity office in Sudan said that the airlift will continue, and a fifth plane will arrive in Khartoum early next October. He also announced that a ship carrying food aid and other materials with a load of 300 tonnes, will arrive in Sudan in the coming days. The Director of Qatar Charity office in Sudan added that the sums collected in the State of Qatar as part of ‘Peace for Sudan’ campaign will be allocated to reconstruction projects.

QDB announces winners of Al Furjan, Al Ezab markets drawQNA — DOHA

Qatar Development Bank (QDB) has announced the results of the draw for the third phase of Al Furjan Markets and the first stage of Al Ezab Markets.

The bank adopted an elec-tronic lottery mechanism to select the winners in the two projects after being audited and programmed to suit the process and its transparency, in addition to being reviewed by an external auditing company spe-cialising in this field, under the full supervision of a committee consisting of several gov-ernment agencies that oversee all allocation procedures.

The selection of the reserve for the winners was also made through the same electronic lottery, as this (reserve) qual-ifies if the winner does not wish to continue the project.

QDB had previously announced the end of the reg-istration period for the lottery, which began on August 9 and

continued until September 9. The number of applications reached 155,600 applications submitted to the bank via Al Furjan online application to occupy 130 shops distributed in 12 Al Furjan markets, and 29 stores distributed in three markets of Al Ezab markets.

During a ceremony on the occasion, Executive Director of Real Estate Projects Department at QDB, Bassam Al Mannai, said that the lottery witnessed several facilities provided by the bank, such as overcoming all obstacles and difficulties that complicate the procedures accompanying the lottery, and cancelling the applicants’ loading of some sums of money as a kind of guarantees, or any related licenses, explaining that this edition the Al Furjan and Al Ezab markets draw didn’t witness any administrative or financial requirements to facil-itate the procedures on the cit-izens and encourage them to apply for the two projects.

He expressed pleasure with the great turnout this year and the success of this great project presented by QDB. He added that the bank introduced the Al Ezab markets project for the first time in 2020, in line with QDB’s plans to support the com-mercial and service sector in the country as part of developing a sustainable economy consistent with Qatar National Vision 2030 to create a sustainable and diversified economic

environment. The bank has also set the priority of allocating to residents of areas close to the market based on the desire of entrepreneurs, by linking the cadastral number of the property owned by the applicant with the area number of the market.

The announcement of the winners’ ceremony witnessed the presence of officials from the ministries of commerce and industry and the municipality

and the environment.The two projects aim stra-

tegically to contribute to the economic and urban renais-sance witnessed by the country by providing service and com-mercial facilities in the declared areas, which will play a central role in meeting the needs of the residents of these areas, in addition to providing the nec-essary commercial and service activities for the Al Ezab com-plexes and their workers.

Executive Director of Real Estate Projects Department at QDB, Bassam Al Mannai, and other officials announcing the results of the draw for the third phase of Al Furjan Markets and the first stage of Al Ezab Markets.

03SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020 HOME

Qatar will remain one of the distinguished actors in the

international multilateral action, and has never hesitated to

employ its capabilities and multilateral diplomatic legacy to

support the role of the United Nations and its organs to enable

them to carry out their mandate.

H E Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi

Secretary-General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qatar

Qatar renews commitment to principle of multilateralismQNA — NEW YORK

The State of Qatar renewed its commitment to the principle of multilateralism and affirmed its active role in the international multilateral action, warning that the weakening or absence of the multilateral system would spread the policy of bullying in the international relations and the rule of the jungle law with all its dangers and conse-quences that would affect everyone.

This came in the statement of the State of Qatar delivered by Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, during the minis-terial meeting of the Alliance for Multilateralism, held remotely

on the sidelines of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

H E Al Hammadi stressed the State of Qatar’s support and welcome of the “Alliance for Multilateralism” initiative, launched by the Foreign Min-isters of France and Germany, saying that multilateralism is clearly exemplified by the role carried out by the United Nations in its capacity as the main forum for international cooperation and burden-sharing in facing challenges.

H E Al Hammadi called on the member states to develop their capabilities to enhance the role of the international organ-isation to meet the challenges and enable it to achieve its goals, adding that the State of

Qatar agrees with the initiative as it reflects the goals and objectives of the United Nations Charter and fulfils the common aspirations of the international community.

He affirmed that the State of Qatar will remain one of the distinguished actors in the

international multilateral action, and has never hesitated to employ its capabilities and multilateral diplomatic legacy to support the role of the United Nations and its organs to enable them to carry out their mandate, expressing his pride that Doha has become a capital for

multilateral diplomacy and a platform for dialogue, tolerance and cooperation.

In the framework of the col-lective response to the corona-virus (COVID-19) pandemic, which is severely afflicting the most vulnerable social classes, H E the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs high-lighted the medical aid provided by the State of Qatar to more than 78 countries, in addition to the support it has provided to the World Health Organi-zation, Unicef and the UN High Commissioner for Refugee Agency (UNHCR), stressing that the State of Qatar will continue to provide support and assistance, particularly to the vulnerable groups of civilians, to protect them from this

pandemic, stemming from its commitment to multilateralism, collective action and burden-sharing.

“Since the establishment of the United Nations, multilater-alism has made significant achievements in many areas of concern to mankind. It is the most capable and effective to face the challenges facing the world, and the current crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic makes the interna-tional cooperation an unques-tionable issue,” H E added.

H E warned that the weak-ening or absence of the multi-lateral system would spread the policy of bullying in the inter-national relations and the rule of the jungle law with all its dangers and consequences that would affect everyone.

Qatar participates in virtual session for ISO membersQNA — DOHA

The State of Qatar participated in a virtual session of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) attended by all members of the organisation.

The State of Qatar was represented by Chairman of Qatar General Organisation for Standardization and Metrology (QGOSM), Eng. Mohammed bin Saud Al Musallam.

During the session, Member States were invited to approve the report of the ISO Sec-retary-General by electronic vote, due to the current circumstances.

Head of Governance at ISO Jose Baltar presented a report on the legislative pro-visions that will be adopted, and a brief presentation of the report of the ISO Sec-retary-General on the current work and future planning of the activities and work of the organisation, noting the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the interna-tional community in general and the activ-ities of the organisation in particular.

He also referred to the organisation’s handling of the challenges posed by the pandemic, noting that a team has been established to manage the crisis, maintain business continuity, make recommenda-tions, and assist the organisations general secretariat in making decisions.

The report reviewed the stages of pre-paring the organisation’s strategy for the

period 2021-30, and its implementation plan, the readiness of the work plan for developing countries for the period 2021-25, as well as a gender equality action plan for the period 2019-21, which outlines initiatives and sets ambitious goals towards

supporting gender equality in the field of standardisation.

The report also presented the details and projects of the organisa-tion’s strategic plan for the period 2016-20.

Due to the end of the period covered by the current strategy of the organisation (2016-20) with the end of this year, the organisation began an expanded process for the partici-pation of all parties in preparing the new strategy for the period (2021-30) with the aim of making the ISO spec-ifications used everywhere in the world and meet all needs.

The session included an opening speech by President of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Eddy Njoroge, and an introductory message by the candidate for ISO Pres-ident, Ulrika Francke.

Chairman of QGOSM, Eng. Mohammed bin Saud Al Musallam, during a virtual session of the International Organisation for Standardization.

Teachers, parents expect better results from blended learning

FROM PAGE 1

Some parents whose children are enrolled in private schools have urged school man-agements to improve their dis-tance learning system. “I have noticed that teachers of my child start teaching without ensuring whether students are online or not. The students also continue to speak while the teacher is explaining them,” Abu Mohamad, a parent, told The Peninsula. Abu Mohamad said that ensuring attendance of the students during online classes will encourage students to take the online lessons seriously, urging school management to pay attention to this issue.

A parent also raised concern to a private school management urging them to increase the number of days for classroom teaching. “I think the school management should assign more days for classroom learning for students of grade 1, provided they can maintain social distancing. Pupils in primary classes need teachers’ interaction more than senior students,” said Abu Ahmad.

Parents said that blended learning requires them to sit with their children especially those in lower classes during online classes and helping them with their homework.

“My two children are in primary classes who are receiving online classes during distance learning days. They can not handle this teaching system alone so I have to sit with them,” said Umm Abdurahman.

Teachers said that that they are doing almost double jobs – teaching students in classrooms and also the students at home studying online. “The blended learning requires teachers to teach the students in classroom and follow up with those who are at home learning through online,” said a teacher from an international private school.

Speaking about the benefit of blended learning, the teacher said that blended learning is better for students compared to fully online learning because it provides the opportunity of interaction in person between students and teachers, which is necessary for quality education.

During the session, Member States were invited to approve the report of the ISO Secretary-General by electronic vote, due to the current circumstances.

04 SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020HOME

NBK Automobiles recognised by HMC for support during COVID-19 THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Nasser Bin Khaled Automobiles, the authorised general distributor of Mercedes-Benz in Qatar, received two recognition certificates from Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service Group, recognising its valuable contribution and support during COVID-19 pandemic in Qatar.

The two certificates were presented to the service and sales departments appreciating their effort.

Hamad Medical Corporation Ambulance Service Group uses Mer-cedes-Benz vehicles as its official ambulance vans due to their high capa-bilities, durability and reliability to

execute the tasks in real time.Since the start of COVID-19 in

Qatar, Ambulance Service Group was highly involved in transferring patient and providing services. During these times, NBK Automobiles offered unwa-vering support to maintain the vehicles in real-time to keep them operating in the best way.

Reiterating its commitment in sup-porting the medical crews, NBK Auto-mobiles provided the Ambulance group with Sprinter and Vito vehicles for their operations, for the period of four months without any charges.

During the pandemic, NBK Auto-mobiles established a field force mobile workshop and a temporary service

centre in the HMC facility in Al Khor. The temporary centre was used to service the vehicles at their premises.

To secure the spare parts needed, NBK Automobiles took a quick response to store all the vehicle parts in a store outside the main store in the industrial area, which was under lockdown. This helped the company to respond quickly to the maintenance needs of the ambulances and make them run to serve the community.

In addition, NBK Automobiles workshops extended their working hours to cope with the increasing demands, while the field force was available to provide quick support on site s.

Officials from HMC and Nasser Bin Khaled Automobiles with a Mercedes-Benz vehicle serving as an ambulance van.

HEC Paris in Qatar

to run information

session on its

degree programs

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

HEC Paris in Qatar will be conducting an online infor-mation session about its degree programs on Wednesday, from 4pm to 5pm.

The session will provide prospective participants an opportunity to interact remotely with the admissions team of HEC Paris in Qatar to learn more about how to accel-erate their career path by studying in one of the world’s most prestigious business schools.

Apart from providing useful career tips, the interactive session is also intended to give professionals and entrepre-neurs from the private and public sector in-depth insights into how they can enhance their leadership skills through the institution’s International Executive MBA (EMBA) and Specialized Master’s Degree in Strategic Business Unit Man-agement (SBUM) programs.

In addition to providing world-class education, HEC Paris was also ranked as the #1 Alumni Network in 2019 by The Economist. With more than 60,000 alumni in 150 countries, the institution provides an ideal platform for networking, which is essential for exploring inter-national opportunities, switching industries, or further expanding one’s skills.

The International Executive MBA is a practical and intense 15 to 18-month program developed to provide partici-pants with an understanding of the social, economic and envi-ronmental aspects of interna-tional business, as well as the skills to implement their vision.

Participants will choose one of the eight specialisations, delivered in different locations.

These specialisations are Energy; Innovation and Social Business; Entrepreneurship and Innovation; Differentiation and Innovation through Services; Leading Digital Transfor-mation; Luxury; Finance; and Entrepreneurship — Project Accelerator. The next intake of the Executive MBA will be in February 2021.

beIN partners with WHO Foundation at Roland-Garros 2020THE PENINSULA — DOHA

beIN Media Group is collaborating with the WHO Foundation at Roland-Garros 2020 by giving fans across the Middle East & North Africa (Mena) an opportunity to donate to the fight against COVID-19 via its broadcast and digital channels.

All donations made during the Roland-Garros tournament will be used to support communities worldwide to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the beginning of COVID-19, beIN has supported the World Health Organisation (WHO) in initiatives across the world, including sharing important health and safety mes-sages, broadcasting historic “One World: Together at Home” benefit concert to millions of subscribers, as well as other initiatives.

During Roland-Garros 2020 the

WHO Foundation will work with beIN to integrate a customised fundraising QR code into beIN’s website and live streaming of the tournament.

The WHO Foundation will also share exclusive promotional content to beIN’s social media platforms, fea-turing an accompanying fundraising URL code, in addition to original video content from athletes that will focus on global health.

Commenting on this collabo-ration, beIN Media Group Chairman

Nasser Al Khelaifi, said, “We are proud to strengthen our ongoing partnership with World Health Organisation (WHO), including this latest collabo-ration with WHO Foundation at Roland-Garros. Everyone has a role to play in global response to the pan-demic — no matter how small — and we will continue to do whatever we can to support the WHO and its Foun-dation on their critical work.”

WHO Foundation Chairman Thomas Zeltner, said, “Now more than ever, it is critical for sports fans to show their support. We are excited to be partnering with beIN to offer tennis fans a new way to engage in the tournament while supporting critical global health issues.”

The WHO Foundation encourages the public, individual donors, and corporate partners to scan the QR code and donate to combat coronavirus.

MoI to hold webinar on drug prevention tomorrowTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Interior in association with General Directorate of Drug Enforcement will be organising a ‘Virtual Awareness Seminar on Drug Prevention’ tomorrow through Zoom video conferencing application.

During the seminar, the officers from the Drug Enforcement Directorate will be giving several pieces of information related to the risks of bringing the belongings of others by the pas-sengers to Qatar without verifying its contents as well as bringing the prohibited medicines and medicinal drugs to Qatar. It will highlight the pun-ishments for abusing, producing, selling, importing and trafficking drugs to Qatar and humanitarian approach towards the treatment of drug addicts.

The targeted audience of this seminar in par-ticular are admin and human resource managers, government relations officers and PROs of gov-ernment and private companies, organisations and schools and the heads and representatives of expat community organizations in general.

The virtual seminar will be giving an oppor-tunity for the attendees to interact with officers from the General Directorate of Drug Enforcement, as well as to clear any doubt related with drug prevention in Qatar.

Al Meera launches promotional campaign to reward customersTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Celebrating over a decade of legacy in the retail sector, Al Meera Consumer Goods Company (QPSC) has launched a nationwide campaign on the occasion of its 15th anniversary including special promotions, daily killer deals, and weekly e-raffle draws, to give back to loyal customers for their loyalty and their role in the company’s success. The four-week anniversary celebrations comprise promotional campaigns that will run till October 21 across all Al Meera branches.

Additionally, a weekly e-raffle will be drawn for the first three weeks of the campaign till October 14, giving Meera Rewards members the chance to win a generous sum QR15,000 in Meera Rewards points.

In consideration of customer’s safety and to make it easy to enter the draw in light of precautionary measures, the draws will be held in an e-raffle, as an alternative to

traditional coupons, where customers will be entered automatically on spending a minimum amount of QR150 and are reward members. As many as 15 winners will be announced every Thursday (a total of 45 winners), with the final draw scheduled on October 15. Draw winners will receive an SMS confirmation and the points will be credited to their account within 72 hours of the draw date.

Commenting on the launch of the campaign, Al Meera said: “The last 15 years are testament to Al Meera’s growth, success, and commitment to become the trusted retailer of choice in the country. The foundation of our

legacy stands on the value we provide to customers, stakeholders, our team and to the country, and we strive to build on it every day.”

“With a vision to be present in every community as the favourite neighbourhood retailer, we have now grown to over 50 branches all over Qatar; launched the Al Meera sub-brand, ‘MAAR’ convenient stores, at select Doha Metro stations; expanded our range of quality items and extended our support to locally pro-duced national products.”

“On the occasion of our 15th anni-versary, we pay tribute to the foun-dation of our success: our loyal

customers, who are the focus of our business and whose loyalty the greatest indicator of our success,” said Al Meera. This is not the first time for the retailer to hold special raffles for its members. Last July, Al Meera gave out QR1,000 in reward points to over 200 customers as well as ran a campaign which gifted customers iPads and gold bars on a weekly basis this time last year.

Meera Rewards, Al Meera’s loyalty programme, seeks to give back to cus-tomers on their shopping experience. Frequent shoppers can avail a variety of promotions and campaigns as well as enjoy transferring points from Al Meera’s local partners including Ahlibank.

The four-week anniversary

celebrations comprise promotional

campaigns that will run till October

21, 2020 across all Al Meera

branches.

05SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020 HOME

Experts stress professional assessment before allowing patients with Alzheimer’s to driveTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

While some people with mild Alzheimer’s dementia may still be able to drive safely, people with moderate to severe Alzhe-imer’s disease are often not able to. As the disease progresses, it can cause their memory, reaction, and decision-making abilities to decline, say experts.

“Everyone with dementia will eventually lose the ability to drive safely and although the time at which this happens will be different for each person, most drivers with Alzheimer’s disease stop within about three years of the first symptoms. People who have driven a car for most of their life often find it hard to give up driving in older age as they see it as a sign of growing more infirm with age and losing their independence,” said Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, Director of Public

Health Department, Ministry of Public Health.

“As the Alzheimer’s dementia symptoms progress, patients can have behavioural and psycho-logical symptoms associated with

the condition, which can add to their distress and result in them not being able to drive safely and possibly being a danger to them-selves and others. However, people with any form of dementia are often not able to assess their deteriorating driving skills or the risks that they pose to themselves and to others when they are behind the wheel of a car. While it can be very difficult to discuss driving restrictions with an elderly relative or friend, it is important to do so early in the diagnosis,” added Sheikh Dr. Al Thani.

There are different ways to approach this delicate subject, but all require the family members or caregivers to start the conversation with the individual.

“We encourage people to visit a Memory Clinic in their primary health center or Rumailah Hos-pital, where they can get a simple

professional assessment. Another option is to call the RAHA Alzhe-imer’s and Memory Services Hel-pline, which aims to provide con-fidential care for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and support for their families. The helpline was one of the new services introduced for elderly patients during the COVID-19 pandemic; it is available on (4026 2222) between 8am and 3pm from Sunday to Thursday,” explained Dr. Mani Chandran, Geriatric Psychiatrist at HMC, who helps run the

Memory Clinic, which assesses the cognitive abilities of people who experience various symptoms associated with dementia.

Dementia is the term for a group of symptoms that occur when the brain is damaged by diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease or diseases of the blood vessels that can cause a stroke.

Dr. Fatma Alkuwari, PM&R Program Director and Assistant Chairperson Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department at Qatar Rehabilitation Institute,

has been helping raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in Qatar and explained the importance of education. “Patients and their families who understand the symptoms and how they can manage them find it easier to cope with the con-dition. The World Alzheimer’s Month theme of “Let’s Talk About Dementia” is perfect to encourage more dialogue on this topic, which in turn will lead to more education and understanding, and consequently to reducing stigma,” said Dr. Alkuwari.

FROM LEFT: Dr. Fatma Alkuwari, Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, and Dr. Mani Chandran.

Ooredoo launches Business Edge for Fibre BroadbandTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Ooredoo, the region’s leading enabler of digital business innovation, has announced the launch of Business Edge to enable new levels of connectivity for small- and medium-sized enterprises using Fibre Broadband. In response to feedback from small office and home office (SOHO) customers and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers, the Ooredoo Fibre Broadband with Business Edge aims to meet ICT and Wide Area Network connectivity requirements.

The Ooredoo Fibre Broadband with Business Edge solution uses a cutting-edge com-bination of software-defined Customer Premise Equipment (CPEs) with industry-leading cloud management, enabling organisations to mobilise workforces during pandemic situa-tions such as the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and find new levels of control, security and value-added services.

Chief Business Officer at Ooredoo Qatar, Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad bin Nasser Al Thani, said: “Qatar’s small and midsize businesses face

multiple connectivity challenges, from man-aging multiple devices and sites to scaling WAN and security. Our Fibre Broadband with Business Edge is the ideal solution to meet their connectivity needs and optimise costs, gain more robust operations, and find support from a one-stop-shop partner.”

New and upgrading Fibre Broadband cus-tomers can find a wide range of features, which can serve as the first step towards digital trans-formation. Features include simplified WAN management, Next Generation Firewall to optimise security, advanced threat protection and content filtering, and auto-Virtual Private Network (VPN) using software-defined WAN. The new Business Edge solution also comes with a built-in mobile SIM card for redundancy.

Sheikh Nasser added: “Our Fibre Broadband with Business Edge provides enhanced service availability, and an easy-to-use interface to manage WAN and Wi-Fi access points from anywhere at any time. Our business customers can use a next-gen, multi-functional plug-and-play CPE with a Wi-Fi access point, next-gen firewall, and router.”

QF to recognise innovators, inventorsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

As Qatar Foundation marks its 25th year, its commitment to nurturing innovation will be celebrated by Qatar Foundation Research, Devel-opment, and Innovation (QF RDI) at a virtual event titled Empowering Innovation on October 7-8.

An awards ceremony and an innovation showcase will be part of the event, and will be held across the two afternoons, commencing at 4pm each day. This event is open to public and the registration, through qfrdilive.com, will remain open until October 7. A key com-ponent of the event will focus on the celebration of around 80 inter-national patents that have been granted to Qatar Foundation (QF) in recent years.

“Under normal circumstances, the event would have been very dif-ferent, but these unprecedented times call for extraordinary arrange-ments, which further proves our ability to continue adapting and

thriving through challenging times,” said Dr. Richard O’ Kennedy (pic-tured), Vice President of QF RDI, and VP for Research, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), a member of QF.

“We are very much looking forward to this celebration, where we will all be able to appreciate and applaud the collective efforts of our innovators and inventors who are working towards making the world a better place.”

Qatar’s inventors, scientists and researchers, stakeholders, local

start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises, international and local corporations, and QF innovation partners are among those who will be attending the event. And the awards to be presented will be: Creator of the Year, Innovation of the Year; Inventor of the Year; and Key Contributor Awards.

The event will highlight QF’s innovation ecosystem — one that nurtures the transformative ideas of Qatar’s innovators to deliver solutions that address national pri-orities, benefit society, and have global impact.

Over the past 20 years, Qatar’s research, development and inno-vation (RDI) culture and infra-structure have grown through investment, nurturing talent, and cre-ating partnerships, and now to align with the nation’s ambition, Qatar Foundation’s RDI focus is turning to implementation and impact — impact that contributes to Qatar becoming one of the world’s most advanced innovation economies.

As the Alzheimer’s

dementia symptoms

progress, patients can

have behavioural and

psychological symptoms

associated with the

condition, which can add

to their distress and

result in them not being

able to drive safely and

possibly being a danger

to themselves and others.

Sheikh Dr.Mohammed bin

Hamad Al Thani, Director of Public Health Department

06 SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Lebanon PM-designate resigns after failing to form govtAFP — BEIRUT

Lebanon’s premier-designate stepped down yesterday, saying he had been unable to form a reform-minded government to lift the country out of its worst economic crisis in decades.

Lebanon’s last government resigned in the aftermath of a colossal blast at Beirut’s port on August 4 that killed more than 190 people, wounded thousands and ravaged swathes of the capital.

Since his nomination on August 31, Mustapha Adib has been under pressure to form a new cabinet as soon as possible to carry out the necessary reforms to unlock billions of dollars in foreign aid.

“I excuse myself from con-tinuing the task of forming the government,” Adib said in a tel-evised speech.

“I apologise to the Leb-anese people... for my inability to realise its aspirations for a reformist team,” he said.

Government formation can drag on for months in multi-confessional Lebanon, where a power-sharing agreement seeks to maintain a fragile balance between all sides.

This effectively means that all main political parties must agree on major decisions, including the makeup of any future cabinet even before it is submitted for parliamentary

approval.Adib’s efforts to come up

with a new line-up have been effectively blocked by the two main parties representing Leb-anon’s large Sha community — Amal and Hezbollah.

The two parties have refused to budge on their demand to keep the finance ministry under their control.

Adib, a little-known 48-year-old former ambas-sador, was named just hours before French President Emmanuel Macron made his second visit to the country since the August 4 blast, pressing for the speedy for-mation of a reformist government.

Macron said he had secured commitments from all of Leb-anon’s political parties to help Adib achieve that within a fort-night, but the deadline came and went.

The premier-designate said it had become clear he no longer had support from all political forces.

“As the efforts to form a government reached their final phase, it became apparent to

me that this consensus... was no longer there and that forming one according to the criteria I had determined was bound to fail,” he said.

Even before last month’s blast, Lebanon was already mired in its worst economic crunch since the 1975-1990 civil war, as it grappled with the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In March, Lebanon for the first time defaulted on its sov-ereign debt, before launching talks with the International Monetary Fund towards unlocking billions of dollars in aid that then ground to a halt.

The Lebanese pound has plummeted in value, inflation has soared, and poverty rates have doubled to more than half the population.

Adib has become the third prime minister, or prime min-ister-designate, to step down in less than a year.

Former premier Saad Hariri — who himself quit last autumn, during massive pro-tests — was among several former premiers who yes-terday lamented the deadlock

that led to Adib’s resignation.“You will bite your fingers

in regret... over wasting an exceptional opportunity that will be difficult to repeat to stop the economic collapse and put the country on the path of demanded reform,” Hariri said.

UN envoy to Lebanon Jan Kubis reacted on Twitter: “Such a degree of irresponsibility, when the fate of Lebanon and its people is at stake!”

“Politicians, have you really

scuppered this unique chance created by France?”

President Michel Aoun accepted Adib’s resignation and was set to “take the appropriate measures according to the requirements of the consti-tution”, his office said, adding that the head of state still sup-ported the French initiative.

Just Wednesday, as frustra-tions grew over the delay in forming a new government, France urged the international

community to apply strong and unified pressure on Lebanon.

After the August 4 blast, it emerged the Lebanese author-ities had known about the huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate fertiliser that exploded, but had not moved it.

The port blast has rekindled public anger against Lebanon’s entrenched political elite, with protesters accusing politicians across the board of incompe-tence and corruption.

Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun (left) meets with Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, Lebanon, yesterday.

Rouhani accuses US of ‘savagery’ after new sanctionsREUTERS — TEHRAN

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani accused the United States yesterday of “savagery” for inflicting $150bn of damage on Iran due to sanctions, and said Iranians should direct their anger at the White House.

“With their illegal and inhuman sanctions, and terrorist actions, the Americans have inflicted 150 billion dollars of damage on the people of Iran,”

Rouhani said in televised remarks, his voice shaking with anger.

“We haven’t seen such an extent of savagery... The address for Iranian people’s curses and hatred is the White House.”

Tensions between Wash-ington and Tehran have soared since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal struck by his predecessor and began reimposing sanctions that

had been eased under the accord.

Iran, in turn, has gradually breached the central limits in that deal, according to the Inter-national Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including on the size of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium as well as the level of purity to which it was allowed to enrich uranium.

Washington imposed new sanctions on Monday on Iran’s defence ministry and others

involved in its nuclear and weapons programme.

On Thursday, Washington blacklisted several Iranian offi-cials and entities over alleged gross violations of human rights, including imposing sanctions on a judge it said was involved in the case of an Iranian wrestler sentenced to death.

Rouhani gave no details on the breakdown of the economic damage he said had been incurred due to the sanctions.

Iraq’s foreign minister makes first visit to IranAP — TEHRAN

Iraq’s foreign minister arrived yesterday in Tehran for bilateral talks with senior Iranian officials, according to the state-run news agency.

IRNA reported that Fuad Hussein planned to meet his I r a n i a n c o u n t e r p a r t Mohammad Javad Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani, in what marked his first visit to the Iranian capital.

Zarif visited Baghdad in mid-July, when he met with Hussein and Iraqi Prime Min-ister Mustafa Al Kadhimi. It was Zarif’s first visit to Iraq since a US airstrike in January killed a top Iranian general, Qassim Soleimani, outside Baghdad’s international airport.

The strike catapulted Iraq to the brink of a US-Iran proxy war that could have destabilised the Middle East.

After Zarif’s trip, the Iraqi premier visited Iran in July.

The report did not elab-orate on the main reasons behind the top Iraqi diplo-mat’s two-day trip to Tehran.

Iran sees neighbouring Iraq as a possible route to bypass US sanctions that President Donald Trump re-imposed in 2018 after pulling the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and

world powers.Last year, Iran’s exports

to Iraq amounted to nearly $9bn, the official Irna news agency reported on Tuesday.

It said the two nations will discuss increasing the amount to $20bn.

Before the current global pandemic, some five million Iranian pilgrims annually brought in nearly $5bn visiting Iraq’s Shia holy sites.

Iran has seen the worst outbreak in the region, with more than 443,000 thousand confirmed cases and at least 25,300 deaths.

A news website affiliated with Iranian state TV, yjc.ir, reported that Iran cancelled all its flights to Iraqi cities until the religious holiday of Arbaeen, due to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak.

The holiday marks the end of the forty days of mourning that follow annually on the death anniversary of the seventh-century Muslim leader Hussein, who was killed at the Battle of Karbala during the tumultuous first century of Islam’s history.

Iran fought an eight-year war with Iraq that killed nearly one million people on both sides, after former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded in the early 1980s.

Iran to impose new lockdowns as virus cases riseREUTERS — TEHRAN

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani yesterday authorised the country’s prov-inces to impose lockdowns wherever necessary to stem a rapid rise in corona-virus cases.

“We are forced to intensify regulations and supervisions, starting in the capital Tehran,” Rouhani said in televised remarks.

He said government-run coronavirus task-force offices around the country would make recommendations on restric-tions and whether to impose one-week lockdowns.

Measures could include “restrictions or shutdowns” of schools, universities, seminaries, mosques, cafeterias, sports and cultural venues, hair salons.

“If provincial governors deem it nec-essary, these centers will have to close for

a week,” Rouhani said.Iran’s death toll from the coronavirus

rose by 172 yesterday to 25,394, and iden-tified cases by 3,204 to 443,086, health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV.

Iran’s health officials have expressed

alarm over a surge in infections, urging the country to respect health protocols to control the spread of the disease.

Iran’s health officials have expressed alarm over a surge in infections, urging the country to respect health protocols to control the spread of the disease.

Pedestrians wearing protective face masks due to the COVID-19 pandemic walk through Valiasr Square in the Iranian capital Tehran.

South Africa’s indigenous Khoisan seek better recognitionAFP — PRETORIA

A giant bronze statue of Nelson Mandela overlooks a big black tarpaulin tent that has become a fixture on the emerald lawns of the South African president’s office in Pretoria.

The tent houses cam-paigners from the Khoisan indigenous people — South Africa’s first inhabitants, whose presence in this country has been dated by archaeologists to thousands of years.

For the past two years, the activists have been camping outside the seat of government, demanding the official recog-nition of their languages and to negotiate land ownership.

They also want the word “coloured” — the mixed-race tag they have been carrying since apartheid and which is still largely used in official docu-ments — to be abolished.

The group came here in 2018, walking 1,000km, in a bid to secure an audience with the authorities.

“We will wait here until we have what we came for,” said

one of their leaders, who calls himself King Khoisan South Africa. Union Buildings is an imposing 110-year-old structure that has housed colonial, apartheid and democratic leaders including Mandela and now President Cyril Ramaphosa.

White perspex placards in front of the tent bear various messages.

One has inscriptions in Afri-kaans saying Ramaphosa doesn’t give a damn — “We have been here for more than one year and what does he do? Nothing!” Ramaphosa last year signed into law the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act, which grants more autonomy to the Khoisan community.

But some of the Khoisan remain unsatisfied, and see the law as the starting point for a constitutional and cultural struggle. But how many Khoisan there are, in a population of 59 million, is unclear — and their identity is also a subject of debate.

“We talk about Khoi herders and San hunter-gatherers, but

archaeologically it’s hard to tell them apart,” explained Tammy Reynard, curator of the Origins Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand.

As South Africa marks its heritage month in September while trying to recover from a coronavirus pandemic lockdown, communities such as the Khoisan have been reflecting and questioning their fractured identity.

The Khoisan have been referred to in the past as “Bushmen”— and when the Dutch settlers landed in South Africa in the 17th century, they called them Hottentots, a word derived from the famous clicks in their languages.

In one of the grimmest epi-sodes of colonial times, a Khoisan named Sarah Baartman was taken to Europe in the early 19th century by a British doctor and paraded as an anatomical freak — the “Hottentot Venus,” who people could see and touch for a fee.

Abused and sick, she died in poverty, and her remains were displayed in a Paris museum.

They were returned to South Africa in 2002 and buried with honour in the Eastern Cape. Her tale is described in “Black Venus,” a 2010 French film directed by Abdellatif Kechiche.

“Classified coloureds want to know who they are — they are coming together like it never happened before,” said Anthony Philip Williams, founder of Indigenous First Nation Advocacy SA.

The virus “lockdown put a magnifying glass on the ine-quality that we have inherited,” said Denver Toroga, a Khoisan-language activist and poet.

“But I think it also helped us go beyond the need to acquire wealth and seek a different type of cultural wealth.”

One of the Khoisan lan-guages, which is written as “N|uu,” is listed by Unesco as facing extinction, with just three fluent speakers still remaining.

In a speech marking the country’s heritage day on Thursday, Ramaphosa said the nation “is steadfastly protecting” that and other indigenous languages.

UN condemns clashes in Libya capital, urges security reforms

AFP — TRIPOLI

The United Nations has condemned clashes between two armed groups in a resi-dential suburb of the Libyan capital and the use of heavy weapons.

UNSMIL, the world body’s support mission in Libya, in a statement late on Friday expressed “great concern” over the fighting in the eastern suburb of Tajoura.

“Heavy weapons” were used in a “civilian-populated neighbourhood”, in clashes that caused “damage to private properties and put civilians in harm’s way”, it said.

UNSMIL said it “reminds all parties of their obligations in accordance with interna-tional humanitarian law” and called for urgent reforms to boost security.

The clashes broke out late on Thursday between two militias loyal to the Tripoli-based and UN-recognised

Government of National Accord, but the cause remains unclear.

At least three people were killed and several wounded in the two camps, according to unconfirmed local reports. Residents said the clashes ended at midday on Friday.

The GNA’s defence min-ister, Salah Eddine Al Nam-rouch, has threatened to intervene with force and ordered the two militias to be disbanded and their chiefs brought before a military prosecutor.

Tajoura also suffered damage after eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive against Tripoli in April 2019. Pro-GNA forces repelled his troops after 14 months of fighting. Libya has endured almost a decade of violent chaos since a Nato-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moamer Qadhafi in 2011.

Since his nomination on August 31, Mustapha Adib has been under pressure to form a new Cabinet as soon as possible to carry out the necessary reforms to unlock billions of dollars in foreign aid.

07SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Sudan rejects linking removal from terror list with Israel tiesREUTERS — KHARTOUM

Sudan does not want to link its removal from a US terrorism list that is hindering access to foreign funding for the country’s economy with a normalisation of relations with Israel, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said yesterday.

Sources said this week that US officials indicated in talks with a Sudanese delegation they wanted Khartoum to follow the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and open ties with Israel.

Sudan’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism dates back to its toppled ruler Omar Al Bashir, and makes it difficult for its new transitional government to access urgently needed debt relief and foreign financing.

Hamdok said Sudan had told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a visit last month it was necessary to separate the removal from the US list from the normalisation of relations with Israel.

“This topic (ties to Israel) needs a deep discussion of the society,” he told a conference in Khartoum to discuss economic reforms.

Sudan’s surging inflation and plummeting currency have been the biggest challenges to Ham-dok’s transitional adminis-

tration, which rules with the mil-itary since Bashir’s ouster.

Sudan was put on the US list in 1993 because the United States believed Bashir’s regime was supporting militant groups. But many in Sudan consider this is undeserved since Bashir was removed last year and Sudan has long cooperated with the United States on counter-terrorism.

The White House and State Department have declined to comment when asked about the status of negotiations.

Burhan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a surprise meeting in

Uganda earlier this year. Yet opening ties is sensitive, as

Sudan was a staunch foe of Israel under Bashir.

Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok (left) and Sovereign Council chief General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan attend the opening of the First National Economic Conference in Khartoum, yesterday.

Togo Prime Minister and govt resignAFP — LOME

Togo’s prime minister and his government have resigned, the West African nation’s presi-dency said late on Friday.

President Faure Gnass-ingbe congratulated prime minister Komi Selom Klassou and his team for their “eco-nomic, political and social efforts and the encouraging results despite the health crisis around the world”, a statement on the presidency’s official website said.

Togo has been due for a political reshuffle since Gnass-ingbe was reelected in Feb-ruary for a fourth term in office, but changes were delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The president’s election win, which came after a con-stitutional change allowing him to run, extended more than a half-century of dynastic rule over the former French colony by the Gnassingbe family.

The victory was disputed by the main opposition chal-lenger, who has faced official harassment in the wake of the vote.

The president has led the country of eight million people since taking over in 2005 fol-lowing the death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for 38 years.

Klassou has served as prime minister since 2015.

Togo’s economy has been hit by the pandemic as the authorities have imposed restrictions to limit the spread of the virus. The country has recorded 1,722 infections and 44 COVID-19 deaths.

CAR President Touadera announces candidacy for December pollAFP — BANGUI

Central African Republic (CAR) President Faustin-Archange Touadera announced yesterday he would run in the December election in the country ravaged by more than seven years of civil war.

Touadera, 63, was elected in February 2016 with

two-thirds of the vote, but has since struggled to stem vicious intercommunal violence in the poor, landlocked nation where militia groups control two-thirds of the territory.

“It is a heavy responsibility. A very heavy responsibility. I accept to be your candidate,” the head of state, who had been expected to run for re-election,

told members of his United Hearts Movement (MCU) party in the capital Bangui.

V i o l e n c e r e m a i n s entrenched in the Central African Republic despite a peace accord signed in Feb-ruary 2019 between the gov-ernment and 14 armed groups, which often claim to defend the interests of specific commu-

nities or religions. In 2013, the Seleka, a rebel

coalition drawn largely from the Muslim minority, toppled then-president Francois Bozize, plunging the CAR into a spiral of violence which has forced nearly a quarter of the coun-try’s 4.7 million people to flee their homes. Bozize, who has been back in Central African

Republic for a year, will be Touadera’s main rival in the December 27 election if his can-didacy is validated.

Uncertainty lingers over whether the elections will be held in the planned time frame, as significant delays have emerged in the organisation of the poll including the regis-tration of voters.

Progress against virus brings complacency in parts of AfricaAP — HARARE

With Zimbabwe’s coronavirus infections on the decline, schools are reopening, along with churches, clubs, restau-rants, airports and tourist attractions. Strict lockdowns designed to curb the disease are being replaced by a return to relatively normal life.

The threat has eased so much that many people see no need to be cautious. With his face mask stuffed into his pocket, Omega Chibanda said he’s not worried about COVID-19.

“We used to fear corona-virus, not anymore,” the 16-year-old said in the crowded Chitungwiza town on the outskirts of the capital, Harare. “That’s why I’m not even wearing a mask.”

As the global death toll from COVID-19 approaches 1 million, Zimbabwe and several other African countries have not experienced the wide-spread surges and many deaths that were predicted. T h a t h a s i n v i t e d complacency.

“It’s all relaxed now,” Chibanda said.

Earlier this month, Zim-babwe went a week without recording any deaths from coronavirus, and new infec-tions and deaths have declined, as in South Africa and Kenya.

Africa’s surge has been leveling off, with its 1.4 million confirmed cases increasing relatively slowly. Antibody testing is expected to show many more infections, but most cases are asymptomatic. Just over 35,000 deaths have been confirmed on the con-tinent of 1.3 billion people.

But the improving figures and the start of the searing heat of the Southern Hemi-sphere’s summer could undermine efforts to beat back the virus even further, said community health worker Rosemary Rambire.

She leaves home early in the morning and returns in the evening after going door to door calling “the gospel is here” and gathering families for quick awareness sessions.

“Our job is now harder to do because people are no longer afraid,” Rambire said. “Some even tell us that it has not killed anyone they know. Most of them say the sun kills COVID-19 so they have no reason to worry.” Some think they are immune once they eat garlic, ginger and onions, she said.

In her 14 years on the job and through multiple disease outbreaks, COVID-19 has been the most difficult to get people to take preventive measures, she said.

“It’s different from before,

when we did campaigns on cholera (and) HIV. We could tell that people were afraid. They tried to follow preventive measures,” she said.

“With COVID-19, they are not afraid.” Many people look at the infection and death figures in Zimbabwe, compare them with other countries “and conclude that it only affects other countries and not Zimbabwe,” Rambire added.

In Chitungwiza, a sprawling working-class center on the southern edge of Harare, people no longer wear masks at markets, funerals or other public events. Masks are now the exception in many of Harare’s poor residential areas.

“We have lost both the initial COVID-19 fear factor and the motivation to comply with national guidelines,” said Aaron Sundsmo, of the chari-table organization Mercy Corps. The group has now enlisted local soccer, music and film celebrities to renew awareness.

The government will “not hesitate to do something really strict” to curb any creeping complacency, said Dr. Agnes Mahomva, the chief COVID-19 response coordinator in Zimbabwe.

“The dire projections that ‘Africa, you are going to be toast,’ perhaps actually helped us. We tightened up,” she said.

Members of Istanbul Police Department Mounted Unit patrol against people not wearing protective face masks at Taksim Square as the spread of the coronavirus continues, in Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday.

Police patrol against face mask violations

Add Ivory Coast’sGbagbo to electoralroll: African courtAFP — ABIDJAN

Ivory Coast should allow former president Laurent Gbagbo, who has been barred from running in next month’s key presidential election, to vote in the poll, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights said on Friday.

The court, established by African Union members in 2004, asked Ivory Coast to “take all necessary steps to immediately remove all obstacles” preventing Gbagbo from being added to the elec-toral roll.

Ivory Coast withdrew its recognition of the court’s juris-diction in April this year.

Gbagbo, who was president from 2000 to 2010, is not on the electoral roll which was updated this year, and thus cannot vote or be a candidate in the October 31 election.

The Constitutional Council, Ivory Coast’s top court, has rejected 40 of 44 applications to contest the election, which is taking place against a backdrop of extreme tension.

Those barred include

Gbagbo, 75, and former rebel leader Guillaume Soro, 47, both of whom played key roles in the crisis that engulfed the country after disputed elections in 2010.

The Ivorian court, however, accepted an application by President Alassane Ouattara, 78, who is seeking a third term despite criticism that this side-steps constitutional limits.

Gbagbo was freed condi-tionally by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague after he was cleared in January 2019 of crimes against humanity. He is living in Brussels pending the outcome of an appeal against the ICC ruling.

His candidacy was rejected by the Constitutional Council on the grounds that he was handed a 20-year jail term by an Ivorian court last November over the looting of the local branch of the Central Bank of West African States during the post-election crisis.

The African Court, based in Arusha in Tanzania, also said Gbagbo’s conviction should not be included on his judicial record until it had time to deliver a full judgement.

Nigeria convoy attack death toll rises to 30AFP — KANO

The death toll from a militant attack on the convoy of the regional governor in northeast Nigeria has risen to 30, security sources said yesterday.

Two sources fatalities from the attack on Friday in restive Borno state had doubled as more bodies were found and now included 12 policemen, five sol-diers, four members of a gov-ernment-backed militia and nine civilians.

“The tally has increased to 30 as many bodies were picked in the surrounding areas after the attack,” one of the sources said, adding that “many people were injured”. Sources had earlier said that a convoy transporting Borno governor Babagana Umara Zulum came under attack from insurgents on Friday near the town of Baga on the shores of Lake Chad.

A second security source gave the same death toll of 30 from the assault and said the militants seized eight vehicles.

“The terrorists made away with an armoured personnel

carrier, a gun truck and six sports utility vehicles in the convoy,” the source said.

Police confirmed in a statement that the attack by sus-pected militants on the “security convoy” had killed eight policemen and three gov-ernment-backed militia members. It said 13 other people had been wounded and the attack had been “successfully repelled”.

Zulum — who sources said was unhurt in the attack -- had flown to the area to prepare for the return of residents displaced from Baga by the conflict.

He was driving in the convoy accompanied by government officials under tight security towards Baga ahead of the arrival of the returnees.

The IS-affiliated Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group maintains most of its camps on islands in Lake Chad and the region is known as a bastion for the militants.

The militant group has recently intensified attacks on military and civilian targets in the region.

Militia kills 15

people in

western Ethiopia

REUTERS — ADDIS ABABA

An armed militia killed at least 15 people in a pre-dawn attack on Friday in western Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said in a statement late on Friday, the latest security challenge for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.

The attack follows another similar incident earlier this month that took place in the same Metakal zone of Ethio-pia’s Benishangul-Gumuz region, which borders Sudan, where 30 people were killed.

“Civilians are being sub-jected to repeated attacks with unmitigated cruelty in Benis-hangul-Gumuz,” said Daniel Bekele, the head of the EHRC.

“Federal and regional authorities should take the required steps to enforce the rule of law and bring perpe-trators to account.”

The Commission did not say what was behind the attacks and Abera Bayeta, the region’s peace and security head, did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

Hamdok said Sudan had told US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a visit last month it was necessary to separate the removal from the US list from the normalisation of relations with Israel.

The airport introduced Smart Screening Helmets - wearable intelligent helmets that are portable, safe and effective in enabling contactless temperature measurement. The helmet uses multiple advanced technologies such as infrared thermal imaging, artificial intelligence and AR (augmented reality) display.

08 SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

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

EDITORIAL

IN September every year, the United Nations General Assembly brings together member states and receives world leaders creating global platform for high-level discussion. This year the 75th session meetings, which will conclude on Tuesday (September 29), is being held under the theme “The Future we want, the United Nations we need: reaffirming our collective com-mitment to multilateralism – confronting COVID-19 through effective multilateral action.”

It is the first meeting of the UN General Assembly which is being held entirely virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying health restrictions on travel and gathering of people as measures aimed to mitigate the spread of the virus.

So the pandemic crisis has topped the challenges facing the world’s annual forum although issues like racism, intolerance, inequality, climate change, poverty, hunger, development, disarmament, human rights, international law, regional armed conflicts and the long suffering of the Palestinian people remain unresolved global challenges. Although such high-level global gathering is a critical opportunity for the international community to take action, the event still is not able to come out of its traditional functions such as discuss, debate, and make recommendations on subjects pertaining to international peace and security.

As the UN is a multilateral institution and it remains the most successful and efficient global body to face the challenges the world is going through based on this understanding, the State of Qatar has reaffirmed its support for collective global initiatives.

For this, the State of Qatar renewed its commitment and support to the “Alliance for Multilateralism” initi-ative, launched by the Foreign Ministers of France and Germany, indicating that multilateralism is clearly exem-plified by the role carried out by the United Nations in its capacity as the main forum for international cooper-ation and burden-sharing in facing challenges. Qatar’s commitment to the principle of multilateralism active role in the international multilateral action was reaffirmed by the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs H E Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, during the min-isterial meeting of the Alliance for Multilateralism, held remotely on the sidelines of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

Under the increasing common challenges of the inter-national community which constitute a growing concern for all, H E Al Hammadi called on the member states to develop their capabilities to enhance the role of the UN to meet the challenges and enable it to achieve its goals. He stressed that Qatar will remain one of the distinguished actors in the international multilateral action, and has never hesitated to employ its capabilities and multilateral diplomatic legacy to support the role of the UN.

Collective commitment

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OFFICE: TEL: 4455 7741 / 767FAX: +974 4455 7758

MANAGING EDITOR: TEL: 4462 7505

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR: TEL: 4455 7769

LOCAL NEWS SECTION: TEL: 4455 7743

BUSINESS NEWS SECTION: TEL: 4462 7535

SPORT NEWS SECTION: TEL: 4455 7745

ONLINE SECTION: TEL: 4462 7501email: INFO@PEN.COM.QA

PUBLIC RELATIONS: TEL: 4455 7613email: PR@PEN.COM.QA

ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT: TEL: 4455 7837 / 780FAX: 4455 7870, email: adv@pen.com.qa

CLASSIFIED DEPARTMENT: TEL: 4455 7857email: adv@pen.com.qa

SUBSCRIPTION & DISTRIBUTION: TEL: 4455 7809 / 839 FAX: 44557819, email: info@tawseelqatar.com

D-RING ROAD, POST BOX: 3488, DOHA - QATAREMAIL: editor@pen.com.qa

Quote of the day

The coronavirus pandemic has frayed the bonds

between nations, and urged world leaders to

unite against the common foe of COVID-19.

Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister

HIA staff wearing Smart Screening Helmets.

QNA — DOHA

Being dependent on travel demand, it is no surprise that the tourism and aviation sectors were hit the hardest due to lockdowns, border closures, and other unprecedented measures put in place to safe-guard nations worldwide because of COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic led to significant reductions in tourism activity globally. This is according to the new issue of the World Tourism Barometer from the United Nations specialised agency, interna-tional tourist arrivals have dropped by 65 percent during the first half of the year.

What does this abrupt and enormous decrease really mean?

These changes mean dif-ferent things to different people. For the millions of travel enthusiasts that help spike the annual tourism sta-tistics, this means that they will most likely not board a plane this year or get the chance to strike another des-tination off their checklist. To the millions making up the global tourism workforce,

these changes bring about many uncertainties and com-promises their occupations.

To the aviation industry however, this sudden shift has translated to a set of complex challenges. Many airlines have already collapsed, others are on the brink due to financial difficulties, and air-ports are struggling to con-tinue their operations.

As airlines, airports and their air transport sector partners continue to prepare for the industry’s recovery, a focus on innovation and investment in technologies will have an important role to play.

A global survey conducted as part of the COVID-19 Air Transport Near-Term Impacts and Scenarios report found that over the next two years 68.4 percent of respondents expect investment in digital transfor-mation to increase; 60.3 percent expect investment in auto-mation and the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) tech-nology to rise; and 54.2 percent expect spending to increase on sustainability and environ-mental initiatives.

Hamad International Airport (HIA) has been at the forefront and a major con-tributor to that end. HIA dem-onstrated a clear understanding of the impact the crisis had across all its operations and accelerated its digital transfor-mation accordingly. Qatar’s airport has undertaken various unparalleled measures to ensure business continuity and the safe return of passengers to the skies. In this process, the airport helped rebuild many passengers’ trust in flying again by digitally transforming the airport experience.

The airport introduced Smart Screening Helmets - wearable intelligent helmets that are portable, safe and effective in enabling con-tactless temperature meas-urement. The helmet uses multiple advanced technol-ogies such as infrared thermal imaging, artificial intelligence and AR (augmented reality) display. The airport also introduced UV disinfectant

robots, which are fully auton-omous mobile devices, emitting concentrated UV light. The robots are known to be effective in eliminating the majority of infectious micro-organisms and are being deployed in vulnerable high passenger flow areas to reduce the spread of pathogens.

HIA also enhanced its security measures with the addition of the latest security screening technology. The new C2 technology established a more efficient security screening protocol by allowing transferring passengers the freedom to keep electronic devices such as laptops, tablets, digital cameras, etc., in their hand luggage while going through security checkpoints. This helped reduce queuing times and possible cross-con-tamination among passenger carry-on bags while improving levels of customer service.

HIA is also one of the first airports in the world to suc-cessfully trial a holistic and contactless airport experience by combining passenger’s flight, passport, and facial biometric information in a ‘single travel token’ at the self-check-in kiosk. This digital identity record ulti-mately makes the passenger’s face their pass at key airport touchpoints, such as self-service bag-drop, pre-immi-gration and the self-boarding gate. This approach and early investment in biometric iden-tification technology will prove to be an extremely effi-cient tool in HIA’s battle against COVID-19, allowing passengers to breeze through key touchpoints with minimal physical contact.

Even through these tough times, HIA continues to expand its terminal. This expansion is an important part of the success of the Qatar Airways Group, and the coun-try’s preparations to host the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and beyond. HIA’s expansion plans are progressing as planned while strictly fol-lowing the guidance provided

by the Qatari government, as well as local and global health authorities, to safeguard the health and safety of workers and employees. The second phase of HIA’s expansion con-sists of Phases A and B. Phase A of the current expansion will comprise of the central con-course linking concourses D and E. The expansion will increase the airport’s capacity to more than 53 million pas-sengers annually by 2022. Phase B, which will be com-pleted after 2022, will extend concourses D and E to further enhance the airport’s capacity to more than 60 million pas-sengers annually.

This expansion is part of a massive tourism infrastructure investment that will allow Qatar to handle more tourists in prep-aration for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and beyond. The fact that Qatar’s airport is still continuing this project in time of crises reinforces HIA’s position as a key player in restoring the tourism industry.

On the retail front, Qatar Duty Free (QDF) has also been evolving amid the pandemic with new brands being intro-duced and more in the pipeline. QDF recently opened a Hublot boutique at the airport, making it the first airport in the world to house a standalone Hublot boutique. All these efforts work in favour of restoring the confidence in travel and tourism in the most efficient and safe manner pos-sible. Qatar’s airport is excited to present for the first time a range of the new retail and food & beverage concepts that the development of its duty free will embrace.

COVID-19 has forced all industries to accelerate their digital transformation strat-egies. Investments in inno-vation and technology such as touchless biometrics, self-service and apps will play a crucial role in the industry’s recovery. HIA’s pioneering efforts to revolutionise the airport experience with tech-nology will ensure a safe, comfortable, and convenient environment for its travellers.

THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN

Even if the convenience of financial services through the internet is enhanced, it is meaningless unless security is ensured. It is necessary for the public and private sectors to reconstruct safety measures so that customers can utilize online financial services with peace of mind.

The number of cases in which malicious third parties illegally withdraw customers’ money through online financial services has been increasing. At SBI Securities Co., a major online securities firm, about 100 million yen was illegally

withdrawn from the securities accounts of six customers.

It was a scheme in which a third party acquired the iden-tification numbers and pass-words of securities account owners, illegally logged in to the accounts to sell stocks and get money, opened bank accounts falsely using the names of the real securities account owners and then transferred the money from the stock sales into them.

If such crimes continue, the credibility of online financial services could be shaken. Investigative author-ities are urged to do their best to uncover the criminal

methods and detect the perpetrators.

About 190 cases of unau-thorized withdrawals of money from bank accounts by abusing NTT Docomo Inc.’s e-money payment service have been confirmed at 11 banks as of Wednesday, with the damage totaling about 28 million yen.

At Japan Post Bank, where the damage accounts for much of that total, bank accounts have also been used to illegally withdraw money by abusing services provided by payment service providers other than NTT Docomo. Seven companies, including

PayPay Corp., were con-firmed to have suffered damage. An illegal remittance using a debit card with Japan Post Bank’s prepaid function was also found. To remove the anxiety of users, it is indis-pensable to take thorough preventive measures.

What cannot be over-looked is the fact that the fraudulent actions have exploited the gap between payment service providers and banks in their cross-industry partnerships. It could be that each side heavily relied on the assumption that the other party was taking measures.

HIA digitally transforms airport experience during global tourism standstill

/PeninsulaQatar

/ThePeninsulaQatar

/Peninsula_Qatar

/ThePeninsulaNewspaper

+974 6698 6188

www.thepeninsula.qa

Online service frauds show need to balance convenience, safety

Established in 1996

09SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020 OPINION

High-profile members of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) this week launched the “Forest Positive Coalition of Action”, vowing to speed up work to stop key commodity supply chains causing further loss of forests, in a bid to curb climate change.

When the head of a hospital in a suburb of Mumbai called her oxygen supplier earlier this month, he had disturbing news: he couldn’t meet the full order. Demand for oxygen in the region was just too high as health facilities struggled to keep pace with rising corona-virus cases.

So the hospital chief exec-utive Vaishali Jadhav made the decision that no medical professional wants to make. She began turning away new patients to make sure the hos-pital could care for existing ones. She wasn’t the only one scrambling to grapple with the unprecedented shortage in India for medical oxygen, a crucial component in treating covid-19 patients.

A doctor in Mumbai began making plans to transfer seri-ously ill patients to other facilities in case his oxygen ran out. The owner of another small private hospital in the city said he also stopped admitting patients who needed intensive care.

“Never in my life has this happened,” said Deepak Baid, the owner of the hospital. “There were moments in the past when beds were scarce, he said. But “never oxygen.”

India has added more coronavirus cases in the last

month than any country during the pandemic. While much of the focus was on ventilators around the world during the earlier phase of the outbreak, the surge in India is now intensifying overall demand for oxygen and exposing the weak points in the system for getting it to hospitals.

Officials around India are racing to increase supply and remove bottlenecks to prevent a repeat of the situation earlier this month when medical shortages were reported in several parts of the country, particularly in Mumbai and the surrounding Maharashtra state, the hardest-hit area in the country.

The Indian government says there is more than enough oxygen being pro-duced at a national level, but acknowledged problems in the supply chain.

During a meeting with state leaders Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted “the difficulties faced by some states recently in procuring oxygen supply” and said that “ensuring avail-ability of medical oxygen is of utmost importance,” according to a statement from his office.

With nearly 6 million cases, India is battling the second-largest coronavirus outbreak in the world. In

mid-September, it set a record for the most daily cases - nearly 98,000 - since the pandemic began. The daily totals have since fallen below 90,000, although testing has also decreased. India is on track to overtake the United States as the country with the most coro-navirus cases next month if current trends hold.

More than 1,000 people

have died every day since Sept. 2 and the trend shows no sign of slackening. India’s total death toll is approaching 100,000. But compared to countries such as the United States and Brazil, India has a considerably lower number of deaths per million people.

While earlier the virus was concentrated in large cities, it has now spread to every corner of the country, including the vast countryside where the majority of India’s 1.3 billion people live. The health care infrastructure in such areas is notoriously weak, rendering them ill-equipped to handle rising coronavirus cases.Getting large supplies of medical oxygen can also be a challenge.

In normal times, the bulk of the oxygen produced in India, as in other countries, goes to industrial uses. Oxygen is a key component in manufacturing processes for steel, chemicals, pharmaceu-ticals and paper.

Now the medical need far outstrips the demand from industry.

Saket Tiku, the president of the All India Industrial Gases Manufacturers Association, said that the country currently needs 3,000 metric tons of medical oxygen a day, together with 2,000 metric tons of industrial oxygen - five times the demand in March.

Tiku said his group is working to reopen shuttered oxygen plants and to speed up approvals for new ones that are nearly ready. Transpor-tation is another challenge, he added, since liquid oxygen requires special tankers.

Before the pandemic, medical oxygen would be shipped in a radius of about 125 miles from where it was produced, Tiku said. These days it is moving 10 or 20 times that distance, he said. “We’re transporting from oxygen-surplus places to those that need oxygen,” said Tiku. “Now it’s taking days.”

For hospitals, the increase in the need for medical oxygen over the last two months has been dramatic.

Vidyadhar Gaikwad, the resident medical officer for the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Cantonment General Hospital in the city of Pune, said that the 110-bed hospital once neededfewer than 10”jumbo” oxygen cylinders a day (such cylinders contain 7,000 liters

of oxygen).Now a single covid-19

patient on a regimen of high-flow oxygen will use a jumbo cylinder every two hours. His hospital needs more than 100 such cylinders a day to treat covid-19 patients in its 10-bed intensive care unit, Gaikwad said.

“Frankly, we were not prepared for this,” he said.

The surge in demand “happened suddenly [and] even the dealers and vendors were not prepared.” He scrambled to find new sup-pliers and borrow oxygen from other hospitals, and said the situation had eased com-pared to earlier this month.

Maharashtra also reportedly reduced the oxygen it supplied to neigh-boring states.

Last month, a hospital treating covid-19 patients in Bangalore transferred 47 patients on oxygen support to other hospitals after a manu-facturing issue at its supplier, said R. Ravindra, president of the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association in Karnataka.

Local governments are preparing for a long haul. In the state Punjab, officials summoned 11 oxygen manu-facturers and 20 distributors to a meeting last week and asked them to restart defunct units. Before the pandemic, the demand for medical oxygen was about 40 metric tons a day, said Sibin C, a senior state official. Now it is 100 metric tons.

In the state of Assam, in India’s northeast, officials told oxygen vendors to prepare to divert the entire supply of the gas to medical uses regardless of the impact on industry. The central government is pro-jecting that by next month the demand will surpass the state’s manufacturing capacity, forcing vendors to rely on supplies from neigh-boring states, said Anup Kumar Barman, a medical official in Assam.

Tiku, the head of the industrial gases association, said that thinking about the future is stressful. He is simply praying that India’s cases begin to decrease. “Nobody has been able to project how many will fall sick,” he said. “We don’t know.”

Niha Masih is an India-based correspondent for The Washington Post based in New Delhi.

As coronavirus cases soar, India’s hospitals race to secure badly needed oxygen

A new push by global household brands to combat tropical forest loss must do better at reducing deforest-ation across whole supply chains if it is to succeed where earlier efforts failed, environ-mentalists warned.

High-profile members of the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) this week launched the “Forest Positive Coalition of Action”, vowing to speed up work to stop key commodity supply chains causing further loss of forests, in a bid to curb climate change.

But the launch was met with scepticism by many green groups after the Paris-based CGF struggled to meet a 2020 target set a decade ago to purchase only sustainably produced commodities, including palm oil, soy, beef, paper and pulp.

“We’ve seen ten years of inaction, half-measures and greenwashing from the CGF, while human rights defenders and frontline com-munities have been putting their lives on the line to

defend forests,” said Bri-hannala Morgan, a senior campaigner at U.S.-based environmental group Rain-forest Action Network.

“We have an increasingly narrow window of time to take real action,” she added in a statement.

In 2019, tropical rain-forests - whose preservation is considered crucial to lim-iting planetary heating - dis-appeared at a rate of one football pitch every six seconds, according to data from online monitoring service Global Forest Watch.

Green groups blame the production of palm oil, the world’s most widely used edible oil, and other agricul-tural commodities for much of the destruction, as forests are cleared for plantations, ranches and farms.

The 17 consumer brands, retailers and manufacturers making up the new forest coalition - which have a col-lective market value of $1.8 trillion - include Carrefour, Walmart, General Mills, Mars, Nestle, Unilever and PepsiCo.

Led by their chief exec-utive officers, the group will aim to fast-track efforts to remove deforestation from supply chains, and create best-practice plans for each commodity.

Environmentalists say conserving existing forests

and restoring damaged ones reduces the risk of flooding, reins in global warming by storing more carbon and pro-tects biodiversity.

“The executives of these CGF companies live on the same planet as the rest of us, and we all face the same climate emergency,” said Morgan.

Jeff Conant, forests pro-gramme director at Friends of the Earth US, said agribus-iness and consumer brands had been making “empty promises for a decade while continuing to profit from the destruction”, as wildfires and storms batter a warming world.

“Unless we see real action, we can expect that whatever the CGF says about being ‘forest positive’ is pure, utter greenwash,” he added.

The CGF, a member-funded organisation, seeks solutions to major challenges that companies cannot tackle alone, including deforestation and forced labour.

Late last year, the group said that while progress had been made with its non-binding commitment to halt deforestation by 2020, an overemphasis on green certi-fication had not led to sus-tainability becoming the norm across entire supply chains.

Many companies have invested in ways to ensure their materials can be

certified as sustainable, including technologies - like radar, phone apps and sat-ellite imagery - to detect problems when they arise and tackle them as quickly as possible.

Some have imposed rules on suppliers and stopped working with those that have cleared forests, while others have teamed up with green groups to help small farmers improve practices.

But mapping and tracking supply chains from the farmer to the plate is challenging, especially as many commod-ities are produced by small growers in isolated rural areas.

Didier Bergeret, director of social sustainability at the CGF, said the forum would not set fresh deadlines for now, but companies that wanted to make fast progress would lead, with others able to join later.

“I’m not even saying it’s revolutionary - rather the contrary - it’s just an evo-lution of the way we are doing things, trying to make sure that we learned our lessons,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The commodity “roadmaps” being developed will have performance indi-cators and follow global sus-tainable development goals, with input from environ-mental and other civil society

groups, he added.Regular meetings will be

held to check on progress, including workshops for CGF company CEOs, he said, with the aim of implementing the roadmaps over the next two to three years.

Failing to achieve the 2020 goal “doesn’t prevent us from continuing to believe action is needed”, Bergeret said.

The hope is that the new framework will be “effective in fixing what went wrong last time, while still capital-ising on what was good”, he added.

By joining the coalition, each firm commits to imple-menting the steps in the roadmaps - for palm oil, soy, paper, pulp and fibre-based packaging - within their own supply chains, he said.

The CGF said its members would work with suppliers, traders and governments, in both producer and importing nations, to encourage them to put in place measures to con-serve forests.

“We believe forest pro-tection is a driver of eco-nomic growth, not a sac-rifice to growth,” Mars Chief Executive Grant Reid said in a statement. “(It) provides healthy ecosystems and supports productive land-scapes and resilient communities.”

Can global brands avoid ‘greenwash’ with new forest-saving plan?

JOANNA SLATER, NIHA MASIH THE WASHINGTON POST

MICHAEL TAYLOR REUTERS

Officials around India are racing to increase supply and remove bottlenecks to prevent a repeat of the situation earlier this month when medical shortages were reported in several parts of the country, particularly in Mumbai and the surrounding Maharashtra state, the hardest-hit area in the country.

The Indian government says there is more than enough oxygen being produced at a national level, but acknowledged problems in the supply chain.

A woman sits with her child inside a quarantine centre for the coronavirus disease patients amid the spread of the disease, at an indoor sports complex in New Delhi, on Thursday.

10 SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020ASIA

Malaysia’s ruling alliancewins crucial Sabah pollsAP — KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia’s 7-month-old ruling alliance triumphed yesterday in its first electoral test in eastern Sabah state, a major victory for embattled Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin amid challenges to his leadership.

Sabah was ruled by the opposition and the state poll was seen as a referendum for Muhyiddin’s unelected gov-ernment. Analysts said the victory could push Muhyiddin to call for early national elec-tions to bolster his coalition that has a thin two-seat majority in Parliament.

The win could also help Muhyiddin thwart a challenge from opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who declared Wednesday he has secured majority support in the national Parliament to oust Muhyiddin and form a new government.

Muhyiddin said in a brief televised speech that his camp has won 38 out of the 73 state seats, enough to form a new state government, and thanked Sabah voters for their trust.

“Muhyiddin has secured enough of a strong performance

to strengthen his legitimacy,” said Bridget Welsh, honorary research associate at the Uni-versity of Nottingham in Malaysia.

Sabah and neighbouring Sarawak on Borneo island hold about a quarter of the seats in Parliament and are seen as crucial for political leverage. The two states are rich in oil and timber, but are among the poorest in Malaysia. They have a greater level of autonomy in administration, immigration

and judiciary.The leader of Sabah dis-

solved the state assembly on July 30 to seek early elections and thwart attempts by Muhy-iddin’s ruling alliance to wrest power in Sabah through law-makers’ defections.

The attempted takeover of Sabah was reminiscent of how Muhyiddin took power in March after defecting from the reformist government to form a new Malay-centric administration.

Muhyiddin’s alliance has since taken control of many states after lawmakers defected. The oppo-sition now controls only Sabah and two of the country’s richest states, Selangor and Penang.

But Muhyiddin has been struggling to maintain support amid infighting in his coalition. His leadership was thrown into further doubt after Anwar claimed to have won majority support, including from law-makers in Muhyiddin’s camp.

Anwar hasn’t revealed details, as he is waiting to meet with Malaysia’s king, who is in a hospital for treatment. The king has power to appoint a new prime minister or dissolve Parliament for an early general

election, which is not due until 2023. Muhyiddin has said Anwar’s declaration was a mere allegation until he provides evidence.

The Sabah victory “took wind away from Anwar’s sail,” said Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

Muhyiddin’s heavy cam-paigning in Sabah with pledge for development has worked well in interior seats, Oh said.

Billboards of Muhyiddin’s smiling face dubbed “Abah,” or father, are prominent in many constituencies.

Muhyiddin’s allies in his ruling alliance are likely to increase calls for early national polls after the Sabah win. “Sit-uation remains uncertain, with pressures toward an election real,” Welsh said.

His government is propped up by the United Malays National Organisation, that lost

power in 2018 elections to an alliance that involves Anwar’s party. Muhyiddin’s party is dwarfed by UMNO and that puts him in a weak position.

The Sabah election has been held with enhanced health measures amid rising corona-virus cases in the state in recent weeks. Hours after voting began, a candidate from Muhy-iddin’s alliance announced on social media that he had tested positive for the virus.

President of the Sabah Heritage Party, Shafie Apdal, arrives to vote at a polling station during state elections in Semporna, a town in Malaysia’s Sabah state, yesterday.

3 Bollywoodactresses questioned indrug probe

REUTERS — NEW DELHI

Three popular Bollywood actresses were questioned yesterday in a drug probe that has sent shockwaves through India’s film industry, already hurt by COVID-19 lockdowns.

Officials from the Nar-cotics Control Bureau (NCB) have been investigating alleged drug use in Bollywood for the last month in con-nection with the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, a popular actor who was found dead at his residence in June.

The investigation aims at finding whether there is a nexus between the film industry and the drug trade, a law enforcement official said.

Actresses Deepika Padukone, Shraddha Kapoor and Sara Ali Khan were seen on television walking into the NCB offices in Mumbai for questioning.

Padukone, Khan and Kapoor were not immediately available for comment. Offi-cials at NCB’s Mumbai offices did not respond to requests for comments.

India’s vaccine capacity will help ‘all humanity’: ModiAFP — UNITED NATIONS

India as the world’s biggest vaccine maker will use its resources “for all humanity” in the battle against coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the United Nations yesterday.

In his address to the virtual UN General Assembly Modi made no direct mention of climate change or of India’s current border tussle with China following a clash in June when 20 Indian troops died, however.

“As the largest vaccine pro-ducing country of the world... India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting this crisis,” Modi said.

“India will also help all the countries in enhancing their cold chain and storage capac-ities for the delivery of the vac-cines,” he said.

On Friday Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had insisted in his speech to the UN that any nation that develops a COVID-19 vaccine share it

universally. Morrison made the strongly worded appeal as the United States resists global efforts to collaborate on a vaccine.

“When it comes to a vaccine, Australia’s view is very clear — whoever finds the vaccine must share it,” Morrison said in a message to the virtual UN General Assembly recorded in front of the iconic Sydney Opera House.

“This is a global responsi-bility and it’s a moral responsi-bility for a vaccine to be shared far and wide,” Morrison had said.

But Modi reiterated India’s calls for reform of the United Nations and for the world’s second-most populous country to be given more influence in the global body.

“Over the last eight to nine months, the whole world has been battling the pandemic of the coronavirus. Where is the United Nations in this joint fight against the pandemic? Where is its effective response?” Modi said.

India’s 1.3 billion people “have been waiting for a long

time for the process for the reforms of the United Nations to get completed,” Modi said.

“Today, people of India are concerned whether this reform process will ever reach its logical conclusion. For how long will India be kept out of the decision-making structures of the United Nations?”

India together with Norway, Ireland and Mexico will become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for a two-year term beginning on January 1, 2021.

Police inspect a statue of former premier John Cain while they patrol through Treasury Gardens in Melbourne yesterday, as the state of Victoria waits to hear of a lifting of social restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic due to be announced today.

Victoria Health Minister

quits in quarantine probeMELBOURNE — BLOOMBERG

The Health Minister of the state at the centre of Australia’s coro-navirus outbreak resigned amid a furore over the bungling of quarantine procedures at hotels.

Jenny Mikakos released a statement yesterday saying she could not continue to serve in Victoria’s state Cabinet fol-lowing comments by Premier Daniel Andrews to an inquiry into the government’s quar-antine programme.

While Andrews told the inquiry he didn’t know who made the decision to hire security firms to monitor the quarantine in hotels in the state capital Melbourne, he said Mikakos and her department were accountable for the program.

Andrews told reporters yes-terday that her decision to

resign was “appropriate.” He announced that Martin Foley will replace Mikakos. Foley is currently the minister respon-sible for mental health, equality and creative industries.

Mikakos said in her statement that she never shirked her responsibility but that it wasn’t hers alone.

Victoria reported 12 new COVID-19 cases overnight and one death while New South Wales registered one new infection. Queensland state reported three new cases yesterday.

Epidemiologist Charles Alpren told the judicial inquiry last month that at least 90 percent of the state’s corona-virus cases since May could be linked to the hotel breaches.

Victoria’s virus tally has swelled to more than 20,000 — about 75 percent of the national total.

Yangon under strain as newvirus infections shoot upAFP — YANGON

Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon has rapidly built new quar-antine centres as it scrambles to contain the commercial hub’s first significant coronavirus outbreak, with overworked medical staff fearing thousands more cases to come.

The Southeast Asian nation has one of the world’s most impoverished healthcare systems, but had until recently remained relatively unscathed by the pandemic.

Last month there were fewer than 400 total confirmed cases nationwide and just six deaths from the disease.

But rising case numbers in the country’s west quickly spread elsewhere and infection numbers have doubled every week.

They are expected to pass 10,000 in the coming days with a current death toll of 174.

Yangon has seen the vast majority of patients and is now back under a strict lockdown many fear will devastate the livelihoods of the city’s poorest inhabitants.

Around 6,000 people have been quarantined in the city, and state media reported yes-terday that seven new facilities had been built to isolate another 1,000 people.

“We estimate there could be 10,000 more suspected cases out there,” said Ye Nyi Nyi Htut, a doctor in a city clinic.

Medical staff around Yangon were “exhausted”, he added.

Residents have been told to stay at home unless working in certain key industries or shopping for food or medical supplies.

Domestic travel out of the city is forbidden and a ban on international commercial flights has been extended until

the end of October.Myanmar’s civilian leader

Aung San Suu Kyi has placed herself front and centre in the nation’s fight against the disease.

In an address to the nation Friday, she urged the country to ignore the spread of false rumours and “ridiculous” treatments.

“Don’t believe that certain foods or drinks could relieve the disease,” she said. “Get medical tests at the hospitals.” A leaked letter this week showed the government was even making preparations to “distribute basic foods” to the city’s 7 million people, sowing fears an even stricter lockdown could be on the cards.

But Suu Kyi’s spokesman Zaw Htay dismissed that pos-sibility, telling reporters Friday that authorities were just making contingency plans for the worst case scenario.

Still no cause for mass pilot whale strandingAP — HOBART

The reason for Australia’s biggest mass whale stranding will probably remain a mystery but the social nature of the species involved may have played a part, a marine mammal specialist said yesterday.

Officials said 108 of some 470 long-finned pilot whales had been rescued from sandbars at Macquarie Harbour on the island state of Tasmania’s west coast. There are no living whales remaining in the harbour, the Parks and Wildlife Service said.

The pod got into trouble earlier this week, with efforts now turning to the task of dis-posing 350 carcasses at sea, which the wildlife service said will take a number of days.

Pilot whales are known for stranding in mass groups. The top five largest beachings in Tasmania, dating to the early

1800s, all are from the same species.

David Hocking, a marine mammal scientist at Monash University in Melbourne, said pilot whales form strong family bonds and can travel in groups of up to 1,000.

“If one or a few animals get themselves into trouble, they put out a distress call,” Hocking said. “Rather than running away, their instinct is to come together as a group because they have safety in numbers. But that means a few animals getting into trouble means they call more animals into that same area.” Long-finned pilot whales are more closely related to dolphins and rely on echo-location, a series of rebounding clicks, to navigate.

Australia’s largest mass stranding had previously been 320 pilot whales near the Western Australia state town of Dunsborough in 1996.

Delhi air to worsen

in 3 days, thanks

to stubble burning

IANS — NEW DELHI

It’s that time of the year in Punjab-Haryana-NCR.

Amid the protests over farm Bills, Punjab farmers are back at burning stubble. Sat-ellite images released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa)show that stubble burning has started for nearly five days in the farm basket of India, which means in the next three days, Delhi’s air may turn into ‘poor’ category amid the COVID-19 pandemic, sparking health concerns.

The System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (Safar) has already started to show the results with Delhi’s air quality turning ‘moderate’.

To put things into context, the air quality in Mumbai and Ahmedabad is ‘satisfactory’, while it is ‘good’ in Pune.

Safar has red-flagged that in the next three days alone, PM 2.5, which is in moderate quantity in Delhi air as of now, will turn into ‘poor’. As yes-terday, PM 2.5 count in Delhi air was 68. In the next three days, it is likely to reach 96. PM 2.5 count in Mumbai was 33 yesterday, and is likely to go up to 35 in the next three days.

Sabah and neighbouring Sarawak on Borneo island hold about a quarter of the seats in Parliament and are seen as crucial for political leverage. They have a greater level of autonomy in administration, immigration and judiciary.

11SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020 ASIA

China pushes emergency use of vaccine AP — BEIJING

After the first shot, he had no reaction. But Kan Chai felt woozy following the second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use in China.

“When I was driving on the road, I suddenly felt a bit dizzy, as if I was driving drunk,” the popular writer and columnist recounted in a webinar earlier this month. “So I specially found a place to stop the car, rest a bit and then I felt better.”

His is a rare account from the hundreds of thousands of people who have been given Chinese vaccines, before final regulatory approval for general use. It’s an unusual move that raises ethical and safety ques-tions, as companies and gov-ernments worldwide race to develop a vaccine that will stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Chinese companies earlier drew attention for giving the vaccine to their top executives

and leading researchers before human trials to test their safety and efficacy had even begun. In recent months, they have injected a far larger number under an emergency use designation approved in June, and that number appears poised to rise.

A Chinese health official said on Friday that China, which has largely eradicated the disease, needs to take steps to prevent it from coming back. But one outside expert ques-tioned the need for emergency use when the virus is no longer spreading in the country where it was first detected.

It’s unclear exactly who and how many people have been

injected so far, but Chinese vaccine makers have offered some clues. State-owned Sinopharm subsidiary CNBG has given the vaccine to 350,000 people outside its clinical trials, which have about 40,000 people enrolled, a top CNBG executive said recently.

Another company, Sinovac Biotech Ltd, has injected 90% of its employees and family members, or about 3,000 people, most under the emergency-use provision, CEO Yin Weidong said. It has also provided tens of thou-sands of rounds of its CoronaVac to the Beijing city government.

Separately, the Chinese mil-itary has approved the use of a

vaccine it developed with CanSino Biologics Inc, a biop-harmaceutical company, in mil-itary personnel.

“The first people to have priority in emergency use are the vaccine researchers and the vaccine manufacturers because when the pandemic comes, if these people are infected then there’s no way to produce the vaccine,” Yin said.

Now, large Chinese firms including telecom giant Huawei and broadcaster Phoenix TV have announced they’re working with Sinopharm to get the vaccine for their employees.

Several people who say they work in “front-line” organisa-tions have said on social media that their workplaces have offered vaccinations for about 1,000 yuan ($150). They declined to comment, saying they would need permission from their organisations.

In an established but limited practice, experimental medica-tions have been approved

historically for use when they are still in the third and last phase of human trials. Chinese companies have four vaccines in phase 3 - two from Sinopharm, and one each from Sinovac and CanSino.

The Chinese government referenced the World Health Organization’s emergency-use principles to create its own through a strict process, National Health Commission official Zheng Zhongwei said at a news conference on Friday.

He said there have been no serious side effects in the clinical trials.

“We’ve made it very clear that the COVID-19 vaccine we put into emergency use are safe,” Zheng said. “Their safety can be ensured but their efficacy is yet to be deter-mined.” Under the emergency rule, high-risk personnel such as medical and customs workers and those who have to work overseas are given pri-ority access, he said.

Seoul demands Pyongyang

further probe killing of officialREUTERS — SEOUL

South Korea urged North Korea yesterday to further investigate the fatal shooting of a South Korean fisheries official and suggested it could be an unprecedented joint probe by the two sides, as public and political outrage over the killing grew.

The move came as a rare apology from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to have failed to soothe crit-icism over the Moon govern-ment’s handling over the accident.

After a National Security Council meeting last evening, South Korea’s presidential office said it would call for a joint probe into the case with the North if needed, saying there were discrepancies in accounts of the accident from the two sides.

South Korea’s military said yesterday that the North’s sol-diers killed the man, doused his body in fuel and set it on fire near the sea border.

But the North Korean gov-ernment said in a message on Friday that its soldiers shot the “illegal intruder” and denied burning his body.

The two Koreas have not conducted joint probes into previous accidents, including the death of the South Korean tourist who was shot at the North’s mountain resort of Kumgang in 2008 and the North’s bombing of the Yeo-npyeong Island which killed four South Koreans in 2010.

The two Koreas have been technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.

“A chance of a joint probe is low. How on earth can we investigate the North Korean military?,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

The North has tightened border controls due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which further complicates the prospect of the joint investi-gation, he said.

“Given Kim quickly offered a rare apology, there is a possibility of an exchange of written questions and answers between two Koreas,” he said.

In the message, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was quoted as offering an apology for disappointing his coun-terpart Moon Jae-in and the South Korean people.

The main opposition People Power Party said yesterday Kim’s apology was not genuine, calling on the Moon gov-ernment to send the case to the International Criminal Court and the US Security Council.

The Moon administration faces an intense political backlash over how it responded to the incident, which coincided with a renewed push by the president for engagement with Pyongyang.

Critics questioned why the military did not attempt to save him despite allegedly spotting him six hours before he was shot dead.

Storm destroys house in ThailandVillagers cut down a tree that fell onto a house during a storm in Thailand’s southern province of Narathiwat, yesterday.

Virus cases in

South Korea

fall to lowest

in 44 days

REUTERS — SEOUL

South Korea yesterday reported 49 new domestic coronavirus cases, the smallest number of locally transmitted cases in 44 days in a sign that tighter social distancing rules are paying off.

Health officials reiterated calls on people to refrain from visiting their hometowns and meeting with relatives during the Chuseok holiday, wor-rying that the holiday, which runs from September 30 to October 2, may lead to another spike.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 61 new coronavirus cases as of midnight on Thursday, including 49 local cases, mostly in Seoul and nearby Gyeonggi Porvince.

This brings the country’s total to 23,516, while deaths increased by 4 to 399.

South Korea’s success in crushing early outbreaks of the coronavirus was partially reversed by its biggest out-break in mid-August that began at a church and a political rally.

Cases peaked at 441 in a single day in late August but are posting steady declines since tougher social distancing curbs have taken effect.

South Korea on Friday said it would further tighten restrictions during the Chuseok holiday weeks when people traditionally reunite with families in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area.

The rules include the closure of nightclubs and bars in the Seoul area and keeping at least a 1-metre distance between tables at restaurants and cafes with more than 20 seats.

Imran wants ‘apps like TikToK blocked in Pakistan’INTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD

Prime Minister Imran Khan is of the view that social media apps like TikTok are badly harming the society’s values and should be blocked, Information Minister Shibli Faraz said in an interview with The News.

While talking to the publi-cation, Shibli Faraz said, “PM Imran is extremely concerned about the ‘growing obscenity and vulgarity’ in the society and has directed all the relevant sec-tions to check the trend before it destroys the socio-religious values of Pakistani society”.

The information minister said that the premier had discussed this issue with him not once or twice but 15 or 16 times and wants a comprehensive strategy to check the vulgarity being spread in society through mainstream outlets as well as social media and its applications.

The prime minister in an earlier interview had also shared his views on the matter when his attention was drawn on the barbaric motorway gang-rape incident.

“World history tells when you increase fahashi (vulgarity) in the society, two things happen: sex

crimes increase and the family system breaks down,” the prime minister had said, underscoring that it is not only the responsi-bility of law enforcement agencies to battle out the prev-alent sexual crimes in the country in fact it is the responsibility of the entire society to fight against such heinous offences.

Shibli Faraz said that the premier recently told him that apps like TikTok are badly harming society’s values and thus should be blocked. The minister said that he told the prime min-ister that the owners of such apps will first be approached to

respect the values of society and ensure that no indecent and obscene content is shared.

“He (Imran Khan) is a man who has spent his life in the West and thus understands the strength of our social and cul-tural values, which must be protected,” Faraz said, assuring every step will be taken to check obscenity.

According to The News report, PM Imran has also directed Pakistan Telecommu-nication Authority (PTA) to cleanse the Internet, social media and various apps of vul-garity for users in Pakistan.

Transporting the infected

Health workers prepare to transport patients from a local health centre to a special hospital for those infected with the COVID-19, in Jakarta, Indonesia, yesterday.

China denies think-tank claims of mosque destruction in XinjiangREUTERS — SHANGHAI

China’s foreign ministry denied claims from an Australian think-tank that it had destroyed thou-sands of mosques in its western Xinjiang region, and said there are over 24,000 mosques there, “more mosques per capita than many Muslim countries.”

The Australian Strategic

Policy Institute (ASPI) had released a report on Thursday which estimated that about 16,000 mosques in Xinjiang have been destroyed or damaged as a result of government policies, mostly since 2017.

The estimates were made using satellite imagery and based on a sample of 900 religious sites prior to 2017, including mosques,

shrines and sacred sites.“The Chinese government

has embarked on a systematic and intentional campaign to rewrite the cultural heritage of the Xinjiang Uighur Auton-omous Region... in order to render those indigenous cul-tural traditions subservient to the ‘Chinese nation’,” said the ASPI report.

“Alongside other coercive efforts to re-engineer Uighur social and cultural life by trans-forming or eliminating Uighurs’ language, music, homes and even diets, the Chinese Govern-ment’s policies are actively erasing and altering key ele-ments of their tangible cultural heritage.” In response to the report, China’s foreign ministry

spokesman Wang Wenbin called it “nothing but slanderous rumors” during a press con-ference on Friday, and said the ASPI had received foreign funds to “support its concoction of lies against China.” “It we look at the numbers, there are more than 24,000 mosques in Xinjiang, which is over ten times more than in the US,” said Wang.

Pakistan reaffirms

steadfast support

to Afghanistan

peace process

INTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD

Prime Minister Imran Khan held a telephone conversation with President Ashraf Ghani to discuss the Afghan peace process and urged the warring groups to reduce violence in the country.

The premier reaffirmed Islamabad’s steadfast support to the Afghan peace process and noted the positive results of those efforts culminating the US-Taliban Peace Agreement and the commencement of Intra-Afghan Negotiations, read the statement issued by the PM Office.

Appreciating the steps taken by relevant sides to enable the start of Intra-Afghan Negotiations in Doha, the Premier underlined the impor-tance of all Afghan parties working for a reduction in the violence leading to a ceasefire.

He further emphasised that all the Afghan stake-holders must seize the historic opportunity, and work together to secure an inclusive and comprehensive political agreement through the Afghan-led and Afghan-owned process.

Stable Japan-China ties key to region, says SugaAP — TOKYO

New Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in talks on Friday to work closely together by holding high-level meetings including summits, but did not discuss the possibility of a visit by Xi to Japan.

“I told (Xi) that the stability of Japan-China relations is crucial, not only for the two countries but also for the region and for international society,” Suga told reporters after their phone conversation.

His talks with Xi late Friday were his first since taking office just over a week ago, replacing Shinzo Abe, who resigned due to poor health.

A planned visit by Xi to Japan last April was indefinitely post-poned because of the corona-virus pandemic. The plan had triggered protests even within Japan’s governing party because of China’s tightening of controls over Hong Kong and its assertive actions in regional seas.

“We did not discuss (Xi’s) possible visit to Japan,” Suga said. However, the leaders agreed to hold summits and other high-level meetings to cooperate in bilateral, regional and international issues, he said.

Relations between the two Asian rivals have improved recently as China faces heightened tensions with the United States.

A Chinese health official said that China, which has largely eradicated the disease, needs to take steps to prevent it from coming back. But one outside expert questioned the need for emergency use when the virus is no longer spreading in the country where it was first detected.

12 SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020EUROPE

Thousands protest COVID-19 restrictions in central LondonAP — LONDON

Police moved into London’s Trafalgar Square yesterday afternoon to break up a protest against restrictions imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19 after demonstrators ignored warnings to observe social distancing rules.

Thousands of people, most of whom weren’t wearing masks, crowded into the iconic square to hear speakers who criticised government-imposed restrictions as an overreaction to the pandemic that needlessly restricted the public’s human rights and freedom of expression.

The Metropolitan Police Service had said before the event that officers would first encourage protesters to follow social distancing rules, but that they would take enforcement action if demonstrators failed to comply. As the event began,

officers were visible around the perimeter of the square, but they didn’t move into the crowd for about three hours.

“Crowds in Trafalgar Square have not complied with the conditions of their risk assessment and are putting people in danger of transmitting the virus,’’ police said in a statement, adding that, “We are now asking those in Trafalgar Square to leave.’’ The demon-stration comes as Parliament prepares to review COVID-19 legislation and the government imposes new restrictions to control the disease. Some law-makers have criticised the gov-ernment for implementing the

rules without parliamentary approval.

Speakers at the rally denied they were conspiracy theorists, arguing they were standing up for freedom of expression and human rights.

Dan Astin-Gregory, a lead-ership trainer, acknowledged the deaths and suffering caused by the pandemic, but said the response to COVID-19 has been out of proportion to the threat caused by the disease.

“We are tired of the fear mongering and the misrepre-sentation of the facts,” he told the crowd. “We are tired of the restrictions to our freedoms." The government earlier this week ordered a 10 pm curfew on restaurants nationwide, along with tougher facemask requirements and increased fines for non-compliance.

It has also banned most social gatherings of more than six people, but there is an

exemption for protests as long as organisers submit a risk assessment and comply with social distancing.

The demonstration comes a week after a similar event during which thousands of people crowded into the iconic

square. Police say several officers were hurt during that event when a “small minority’’ of protesters became violent.

Britain has Europe’s worst death toll from the pandemic, with nearly 42,000 confirmed deaths tied to COVID-19. New

infections, hospitalisations and deaths have all risen sharply in recent weeks. In addition to the nationwide COVID-19 rules, several jurisdictions have imposed tighter restrictions to control local spikes in the disease.

Protesters gather in Trafalgar Square in London yesterday, at a ‘We Do Not Consent!’ mass rally against vaccination and government restrictions designed to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus.

British PM urges world leaders to unite against COVID-19AP — LONDON

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday that the coronavirus pandemic has frayed the bonds between nations, and urged world leaders to unite against the “common foe” of COVID-19.

Johnson, who made the remarks in a prerecorded speech to the United Nations General Assembly, said that, nine months into the pandemic,

“the very notion of the interna-tional community looks tat-tered.” “Never again must we wage 193 separate campaigns against the same enemy,” he said. Johnson set out a plan for preventing another global pan-demic, including a network of zoonotic research labs around the world to identify dangerous pathogens before they leap from animals to humans.

Johnson — who contracted COVID-19 in the spring and

spent three nights in intensive care — also called for countries to share data to create a global early-warning system for disease outbreaks, and urged countries to stop slapping export controls on essential goods, as many have done during the pandemic.

Johnson also committed £500m ($636m) through the global COVAX vaccine-pro-curement pool to help 92 of the world’s poorest countries obtain

a coronavirus vaccine, should one become available.

He announced that the UK is boosting its funding for the World Health Organization by 30%, to £340m ($432m) over the next four years.

Johnson is seeking to counter the impression that Britain is retreating from the world stage or becoming more protectionist in the wake of its departure from the European Union. The UK left the bloc’s

political institutions in January and will make an economic break when a transition period ends on December 31.

He has also struck a more measured tone than in last year’s speech to the UN gath-ering, a rambling address about the perils and promise of tech-nology that mentioned “terri-fying limbless chickens,” “pink-eyed Terminators from the future” and fridges that beep for more cheese.

Anti-coal protesters break into German mineAP — LUETZERATH, GERMANY

Hundreds of anti-coal activists staged protests in and around a mine in western Germany yesterday, demonstrating against the continued extraction and use of fossil fuels by Europe’s biggest economy.

Environmentalists oppose the German government’s decision to allow the mining and burning of coal in the country until 2038, a deadline the activists say is too late to effectively tackle climate change.

Activists, dressed in col-oured overalls and braving wind and rain, were also pro-testing the planned destruction

of several villages to make way for the expansion of the Garzweiler strip mine, west of Cologne.

Some protesters broke through police lines early yes-terday before being detained by officers. Utility company RWE said some protesters also entered coal storage facilities.

In her weekly video message yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for sustainable devel-opment, including to confront the threat of global warming.

Merkel cited Germany’s increase in renewable energy production as an example of the measures her country has taken.

Police officers clash with climate activists during a mass action aiming to block huge open-pit coal mine Garzweiler in Keyenberg, western Germany, yesterday.

Paris plans statue of Black woman for anti-slavery heroineAFP — PARIS

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo said yesterday the French capital plans its first statue of a black woman to remember a heroine who fought against slavery on the Caribbean island of Guad-eloupe in the early 19th century.

The woman, Solitude, was a key figure in the resistance movement against slavery in Guadeloupe and was executed for her role aged just 30.

Hidalgo said the new statue was planned as she opened a park in Paris named after Sol-itude, who she said “with her courage and commitment to justice and dignity opened the way towards a definitive abo-

lition of slavery in France”.“Paris is honouring Solitude,

a Guadeloupean figure in the resistance against slavery by dedicating a park to her,” added Hidalgo on Twitter.

“Soon, a statue of this heroine — the very first of a black woman in Paris — will be erected there (in the park). A strong symbol to never forget her fight,” she added.

Slavery was abolished in France in 1794 but under orders from Napoleon Bonaparte troops were sent to Guadeloupe in 1802 to restore the practice there. The move sparked an insurgency, with many black women who were former slaves rising up. Solitude was arrested

and hanged on November 29, 1802, an execution that was held back so she could give birth just one day before.

She was the daughter of a black slave and a white French sailor, who according to some accounts had raped her mother.

“Solitude is the first black woman honoured for herself and for her action in a Paris public space,” Jacques Martial, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of overseas territories issues, told AFP. “A defender of the values of the Republic, a com-mitted woman, she fought for the freedom of all, against the reestablishment of slavery in Guadeloupe. She paid for that fight with her life”, he added.

The debate on France’s colonial past has been revived by protests against racism and police brutality in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement that rocked the United States in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd.

Anti-racism activists in July tore down a statue of Napo-leon’s empress Josephine in the overseas French territory of Martinique.

There have also been calls for the removal of the statue outside France’s National Assembly in Paris of Jean-Bap-tiste Colbert, the man behind the “Code Noir” decree that defined the conditions of slavery in the French colonies.

Youth for Climate Climate activists take part in a demo organised by the movement Youth for Climate, in Paris, yesterday.

Seven in custody

after Paris knife

attack

REUTERS — PARIS

A suspected accomplice of a man believed to have attacked and wounded two people with a meat cleaver on Friday in front of a Paris office building has been released, a judicial source said.

The source said another person close to the suspected attacker and believed to have been a former roommate in a hotel north of Paris had been arrested, following a series of other arrests on Friday evening.

Yesterday morning, seven people remained in custody including the suspected attacker. A police source said the suspected attacker was cooperating with the police.

The attack took place in front of a building where mil-itants gunned down employees of magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015.

It coincided with the start this month of the trial of 14 alleged accomplices in the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack. The gunmen behind that attack killed 12 people.

Police quickly detained the man suspected of carrying out the attack next to the steps of an opera house about 500 metres away.

The suspected attacker was from Pakistan and arrived in France three years ago as an unaccompanied minor, Interior Minister Gerald Dar-manin said.

A second suspect was detained moments after the attack and prosecutors were trying to establish his relation to the attacker. He was released free of charge, the source said.

Charlie Hebdo vacated its offices after the 2015 attack and is now in a secret location. The building is now used by a television production company.

Two of the production company’s staff, a man and a woman, were in the street having a cigarette break when they were attacked, according to prosecutors and a colleague of the victims.

Germany remembers victims of 1980 Oktoberfest bombingAP — BERLIN

Senior officials and survivors paid tribute yesterday to the victims of a deadly neo-Nazi attack on Munich’s Oktoberfest 40 years ago, as Germany’s president warned that far-right extremism remains a persistent problem in the country.

The bombing on the evening of September 26, 1980, claimed 13 lives, including that of three children and the attacker, student Gundolf Koehler, a supporter of a banned far-right group.

“Right-wing extremism has d e e p r o o t s

in our society,” President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at a memorial event in the Bavarian capital.

Steinmeier said the perpe-trators weren’t “disturbed people,” but rather part of “net-works that we need to inves-tigate.” An initial investigation of concluded that Koehler acted alone, out of personal frus-tration. But in 2014, federal prosecutors revisited the case after a previously unknown witness surfaced. In July, pros-ecutors said the witness’s indi-cations that there may have been co-conspirators hadn’t been corroborated.

Madrid at 'serious risk' without tougher COVID-19 rules: MinisterREUTERS — MADRID

Spain’s health minister urged authorities in Madrid yesterday to tighten restric-tions in the coronavirus hotspot, warning that the capi-tal’s residents and surrounding regions were at “serious risk” without tougher curbs.

Madrid extended a partial lockdown on Friday in several dozen districts with high infection rates, rejecting national government recom-mendations for a city-wide lockdown as cases continue to surge in the capital.

“Madrid is in a situation of serious risk and it’s time to act with determination,” Health Minister Salvador Illa told a news conference.

“There is a serious risk for inhabitants, for the neigh-bouring regions,” he said, calling on the capital’s regional authorities to “put the health of citizens first”.

Spain’s tally of confirmed coronavirus cases rose by 12,272 on Friday from the pre-vious day to 716,481, the highest number in Western Europe. More than 31,000 people have died from COVID-19. Spaniards endured one of Europe’s strictest lock-downs from March until May. But after restrictions were totally lifted on June 21, the pandemic has surged again.

Police break up protest after demonstrators ignored social distancing rules.

13SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020 EUROPE

Under virus strain, Europe’s leaders plead at UN for unityAP — PARIS Struggling to contain resurgent virus infections, European leaders decried a collective failure to vanquish the pandemic and told the UN General Assembly on Friday that the time has come for countries to reinvent international cooper-ation.

This year’s unusual work-from-home General Assembly - with leaders communicating only in prerecorded speeches — comes as COVID-19 cases escalate in many regions but especially in Europe, where some of the world’s most advanced hospitals in some of the world’s richest countries are again under strain.

“This emergency has, more than a thousand treaties or speeches, made us suddenly realise that we are part of one single world,” said Spanish

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.The pandemic “has also

revealed the fragility of coun-tries that thought they were strong. It has thrown us all into the same sudden battle, against the same common enemy,” EU Council President Charles Michel said.

And it has exposed weak-nesses within the European Union, which like the UN was founded on the ashes of World War II to avert new conflict and encourage cooperation — coop-eration that was in short supply this year. The EU has fought internally about access to equipment and vaccines, erected barriers among neighbours to keep out virus infections, and struggled to agree on collective solutions to fight COVID.

Italy’s prime minister, whose country became a global symbol of the crisis as the first in the West to face a vast wave of

infections, said the pandemic should offer world governments “the opportunity for collective renewal.” “This tragedy has changed us, but has also offered us the opportunity for a new beginning that is up to us to seize,” Giuseppe Conte said.

As infections tick up, EU countries are again imposing quarantines on visitors from neighbouring nations. Britain and Spain are imposing local lockdowns, the French Open is curtailing access, and COVID intensive care units in the Med-iterranean city of Marseille are reaching saturation.

Meanwhile, the pandemic

has wrecked livelihoods and darkened the world’s economic outlook, and damaged the whole concept of multilateralism that European leaders have long embraced.

“In every corner of the world today, there is a young man, a young woman, looking at their cell phone screen. In the most secluded streets of Naples, in a fish market in Instanbul, in the Zócalo in Mexico City, in the Ecuadorian Amazon or in a market in India. These young people have seen their fathers, their mothers, work ceaselessly,” Sanchez said.

“And maybe these young

people wonder why their fathers, their mothers, work ceaselessly if nothing changes around them.”

“Exactly when did we decide that the expression ‘to change the world’ had lost all sense and meaning? I wonder if any of those millions of young people are watching us right now, on their mobile phones. I wonder what they’re thinking of us, if so.” He also lamented the extra toll the virus has taken on women, “who have taken on the greatest burden of care and attention.”

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said it’s time for Europe to “redefine its role in the world,” and took aim at the World Health Organization’s management of the virus.

Other leaders called for boosting the WHO’s powers and its funding. Greece’s prime min-ister appealed for more

international help for its migrant crisis after feeling abandoned by fellow EU countries that closed their doors to refugees washing up on Greek shores.

Pope Francis said the world has a choice to make as it tries to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis and address the grave eco-nomic impact it has had on the planet’s most vulnerable: greater solidarity and multilateralism, or a self-retreat into greater “individualism and elitism.”

Echoing many speakers at this week’s virtual gathering, the Dutch leader said the pandemic should be a wake-up call for the world and the UN itself.

“If we’re truly going to defeat this virus we’ll have to do even more to enhance interna-tional cooperation,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.

“We can’t tackle today’s challenges with yesterday’s structures.”

Poland’s ruling nationalists cement new coalition dealAFP — WARSAW

Poland’s ruling nationalists signed a new coalition agreement yesterday, ending weeks of in-fighting in the three-party alliance over how it will govern over the next three years.

The leaders of the Law and Justice (PiS) party and the smaller conservative United Poland and Accord groups signed the deal at PiS head-quarters in Warsaw on Sat-urday but gave no details on how the coalition will work in practice.

“I am absolutely sure that these years will be beneficial for Poland. This agreement guarantees that,” Jaroslaw Kac-zynski, the head of PiS and Poland’s de facto leader, told a

news conference that was also attended by the leaders of his two smaller allies and by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Following short statements, the leaders signed the agreement and left.

The three parties already form the government. But the coalition had been split by internal fights over LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) issues, animal rights and relations with the European Union. PiS leaders had threatened a minority gov-ernment and early elections.

The coalition led by PiS has won a series of elections since 2015, but the party has been under pressure because of eco-nomic difficulties exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Yesterday’s agreement is

likely to ensure the coalition maintains its majority in the lower house of parliament, allowing it to increase control over the media and to continue with reforms to the judiciary, seen by the opposition as undermining the independence of the courts.

Earlier this week local media reported that the deal means that Kaczynski will become a deputy prime minister and oversee the Ministries of Justice, Internal Affairs and Defence.

If confirmed, the appointment of Kaczynski would be seen as an effort to rein in Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who heads United Poland and wants Warsaw to take a more combative stance on issues such as women’s and gay rights and judicial reform.

FROM LEFT: Poland Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, leader of Law and Justice Party Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Agreement Party Jaroslaw Gowin, and leader of United Poland Party Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, attend a news conference in Warsaw yesterday.

Ukraine President praises plane crash survivor; toll 26AFP — CHUGUIV

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday praised the only survivor of a military plane crash as the death toll climbed to 26, after another cadet died and three more bodies were found.

Zelensky went to the scene of the tragedy near the northeastern city of Kharkiv where an Antonov An-26 transport plane carrying 20 air force cadets and seven officers crashed during a training flight on Friday evening.

“Ukraine has lost 26 worthy sons,” Zelensky said on Facebook, referring to the cadets and officers of the Kharkiv National Air Force University.

“It is difficult to find words to express the pain of this loss,” he said, declaring Saturday a day of mourning.

The plane burst into flames on

landing near a highway around two kilometres from the Chuguiv military air base. Yesterday, the death toll rose after three more bodies were found under the charred remains of the plane and one of the two survivors died in hospital from extensive burns.

Zelensky visited the only remaining survivor in a military hospital in Kharkiv, posting a picture of the 20-year-old cadet lying in bed with a bandaged head and right arm.

He said the cadet, Vyacheslav Zolo-chevsky, “came to his senses near the wreckage of the An-26.”

“The plane was destroyed, there was fire, darkness and bodies all around. One of the guys was burning,” he said on Facebook, adding that Zolochevsky rushed to try and save him.

The second cadet died in hospital, the Ukrainian president said as he praised Zolochevsky for his “heroism.”

“Ukraine is proud of you!” he said.Doctors said that Zolochevsky suf-

fered a concussion but his life was not in danger.

Most cadets onboard were believed to be between the ages of 19 and 22.

One other cadet was not allowed on the flight.

Zelensky said the cause of the crash should be quickly established and called for an “objective” investigation.

Investigators were looking at several possible causes of the crash including technical malfunction, human error and poor aircraft maintenance.

The SBU security service said the plane was performing a training flight but the cadets were not involved in piloting it.

The security service, citing prelim-inary information, said the pilot reported an engine failure and seven minutes later the plane hit the ground.

People lay flowers in front of Kharkiv National Air Force University yesterday in tribute to the cadets and the officers who died in an Antonov-26 transport aircraft crash on Friday at Chuhuiv military air base, around 30km southeast of Kharkiv, in Ukraine.

Armenia opposition leader detainedREUTERS — YEREVAN

Armenian opposition leader Gagik Tsarukyan (pictured), one of the country’s richest busi-nessmen, was put in custody on Friday for two months ahead of a trial on charges of vote-buying in 2017 parliamentary elections.

Tsarukyan, leader of the Prosperous Armenia party, the second-biggest faction in par-liament, denied any wrongdoing, saying the criminal prosecution against him was political.

Parliament stripped Tsarukyan of his immunity in June, allowing him to be arrested. The National Security Service raided his home and interrogated him.

“This is politically motivated. They will answer for their decision,” Tsarukyan said late on Friday as he was going to the National Security Service. “In a short time everything will be put in its place.”

His arrest was ordered by the Yerevan Court of General Juris-diction over allegations of mis-conduct surrounding the 2017 elections, which preceded a peaceful revolution.

Prosperous Armenia, the Armenian Revolutionary Fed-eration and the new Homeland party led by former national security chief Artur Vanetsyan, said this week they plan a mass protest for October 8.

“The hopes of many people haven’t been fulfilled and the promises weren’t kept for the last two years,” Prosperous

Armenia spokeswoman Iveta Tonoyan told reporters on Tuesday in parliament.

“There is great public dis-content with the government, and to make it heard we will organise a protest.”

Tsarukyan has accused Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government of mishan-dling the economy and failing to fight the COVID-19 pandemic effectively.

Armenia, a country of 3 million, has registered 48,643 confirmed coronavirus cases and 947 COVID-19 deaths as of Friday, the worst-affected country in the South Caucasus region. Pashinyan and his party came to power in May 2018 after the revolution against corruption and cronyism. Tsarukyan aligned himself with that movement at one stage.

Tsarukyan’s party won 26 of the 132 seats in snap parlia-mentary elections in December 2018 after the revolution. Some of its members joined Pashin-yan’s cabinet, but they were soon dismissed.

Hungary hit by large cyber attack from Asia

REUTERS — BUDAPEST

Hungarian financial institutions and telecoms infrastructure were hit with a powerful cyber attack on Thursday from computer servers located in Russia, China and Vietnam, telecoms firm Magyar Telekom said. The event

was a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack where hackers attempt to overwhelm a network with unusually high volumes of data traffic in order to paralyse it.

The volume of the attack was 10 times higher than that of usual DDoS attacks, the company said.

“That means that this was one of the biggest hacker attacks in Hungary ever, both in its size and complexity,” it said. “Russian, Chinese and Viet-namese hackers tried to launch a DDoS attack against Hun-garian financial institutions, ” the company said.

Belarus police arrest over 80 protesters in MinskAP — KIEV

Hundreds of women calling for the authoritarian president to step down protested in Belarus’ capital yesterday, continuing the large demonstrations that have rocked the country since early August.

Police blocked off the centre of Minsk and arrested more than 80 demonstrators, according to the Viasna human rights organ-isation. Some of those arrested were chased down by police in building courtyards where they were trying to take refuge, Viasna said.

Protests, by far the largest and most persistent in Belarus since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, began on August 9 after an election that officials said gave President Alex-ander Lukashenko a sixth term in office.

Opponents and some poll workers say the results, in which Lukashenko was tallied with 80 percent support, were manipulated.

Despite wide-scale deten-tions of demonstrators and the arrest of many prominent oppo-sition figures, the protests haven’t shown signs of abating.

Lukashenko further angered opponents this week by taking the oath of office for a new term in an unexpected ceremony.

Protesters yesterday carried placards denouncing him as “the secret president.”

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Lukashenko’s main election opponent who went into exile in Lithuania after the vote, praised the female demonstrators and derided the police in a statement.

“What about the men them-selves, who, hiding their faces, use force against women? Is it possible to live peacefully with such men?” she said.

Alps surprised by

early snowfall

AP — BERLIN

Parts of Switzerland, Austria and Germany were surprised by unseasonably early snowfall overnight, after a sharp drop in temperatures and heavy precipitation.

The Swiss meteorological agency said yesterday that the town of Montana, in the southern canton (state) of Valais, experienced 25 centimetres of snowfall — a new record for this time of year. Authorities were out in force across mountainous regions in the two Alpine nations to clear roads blocked by snow and ice. In parts of Austria, snowfall was recorded as low as 550 meters above sea level.

Wildfire burning

in Athens suburb

AFP — ATHENS

A fire broke out yesterday at a forested area in a southeastern suburb of Athens, at the foot of Mount Imitos, officials said.

More than 60 firefighters backed by 22 fire engines, five water-bombing helicopters and an aeroplane tackled the blaze near the residential Vyronas suburb with high winds hampering their efforts.

The adjacent houses were not in danger as the wind was blowing the fire towards the forest, the fire brigade said, according to Athens News Agency. Wildfires are a yearly challenge for Greece during the dry summer season.

The pandemic “has also revealed the fragility of countries that thought they were strong. It has thrown us all into the same sudden battle, against the same common enemy,” EU Council President Charles Michel said.

Yesterday marked the six-year anniversary of the students’ disappearance.

14 SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020AMERICAS

Mexico to pursue soldiers, police in abduction probeAP — MEXICO CITY

Mexico has issued 25 arrest warrants for those who carried out and knew about the abduction of 43 students in southern Mexico in 2014, including for the first time members of the military and federal police, the Attorney- General’s Office announced yesterday.

Omar Gómez Trejo, the prosecutor leading the case of the students from the teachers’ college at Ayotzinapa in Guerrero state, said one federal police officer was already in custody. Yesterday marked the six-year anniversary of the stu-dents’ disappearance.

Gómez said that among those being sought are “the intellectual and material authors of the disappearance, and these orders include police from various municipalities, federal police, members of the army,” as well as current and former officials from the federal prosecutor’s office and organized crime.

Included among those being sought are also current and former members of the Attorney-General’s Office.

The students’ families have long demanded that soldiers be included in the investigation. Local police, other security forces and members of a drug gang abducted the students in Iguala, Guerrero on the night of September 26.

It occurred near a large army base and independent investigations showed members of the military were aware of what was occurring.

Pursuing soldiers is a signif-icant move, especially consid-ering President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s coziness with the armed forces.

“Arrest orders have been issued for soldiers that will be carried out,” López Obrador said. “He who has participated and is shown to have done so is going to be judged, that is an advance, there will be no cover-up.” Six years in, not knowing for certain what hap-pened to the students has left the families desperate. Moving against the military is at least symbolically significant.

María Martínez, the mother of one of the missing students, asked that the government “squeeze a little more”, because the families are “mad with pain”. The administration of ex-President Enrique Peña Nieto had said the students were killed and incinerated at a garbage dump outside the nearby town of Cocula. They said their remains were tossed in a river. However, the version was largely based on state-ments made under torture and independent investigators did not find evidence to support the story.

Current Attorney-General Alejandro Gertz Manero said he considers that a “generalized cover-up” has been established. It led to arbitrary arrests and torture.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau takes part in a news conference with government and health officials on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Friday.

Ontario, Quebec clamp down on social gatherings to curb virusREUTERS — TORONTO/MONTREAL

Canada’s two most populous provinces on Friday moved to clamp down further on social gatherings in a bid to slow a second wave of coronavirus infections that since the start of the pandemic now total more than 150,000 nationwide.

Ontario ordered the closure of clubs and restaurants from midnight to 5am except for takeout and delivery. Premier Doug Ford, whose government has already slashed the size of permitted gatherings indoor and outdoors, repeated his con-cerns that the majority of new cases were in people under 40.

“I can tell you I don’t see

seniors going into clubs too often,” he told a daily briefing.

Health officials in Canada have been making increasingly gloomy comments in recent days. Theresa Tam, the chief medical officer, told reporters on Friday that some local author-ities could be overwhelmed unless the wave was curbed.

“We now have active cases in every single province. What we do now will be critical for the weeks and months to come,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the same event.

In Quebec, Health Minister Christian Dube urged residents to cut down on social interac-tions. “We’re asking you to make a special effort for the next 28

days,” he told a news conference, saying the government did not want to close clubs because people might then attend private parties that are harder to control.

Ontario and Quebec together account for 79% of the 150,140 cases reported in Canada so far and 93% of the 9,249 deaths.

Trudeau said Canada signed a deal with AstraZeneca PLC to buy up to 20 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. It is among the leading candi-dates in the global race for a vaccine.

Canada has now signed deals for a total of around 300 million doses of vaccine candi-dates from a number of major pharmaceutical firms.

Confident Biden ready to face Trump’s ‘lies’in first debate

AFP — WASHINGTON

US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said yes-terday that he expects “personal attacks and lies” from President Donald Trump in their first tel-evised debate on Tuesday, but showed confidence in his ability to stand up to him.

“It is going to be difficult,” the former vice-president acknowledged in an interview broadcast on MSNBC. “My guess is, it’s going to be just straight attack. They’re going to be mostly personal. That’s the only thing he knows how to do,” he said of Trump.

“He doesn’t know how to debate the facts. He’s not that smart,” Biden continued. “He doesn’t know much about foreign policy, he doesn’t know much about domestic policy. He doesn’t know much about the detail.”

The debate on Tuesday in Cleveland, Ohio will be the first time the 77-year-old pol-itician has faced the President he has promised to dethrone. The men will meet again for two more debates before the November 3 elections.

But some of his supporters fear that Biden, who is prone to blunders and slip-ups, may waver in these televised duels under the rhetorical blows of the Republican billionaire.

The Democrat, however, said he was prepared. “It’s not like it’s going to come as a sur-prise. And so I’m prepared to go out and make my case as to why I think he’s failed and why I think the answers I have to proceed will help the American people and the American economy, and make us safer internationally.”

Chinese fishing fleet off Peru stirs up diplomatic watersREUTERS — LIMA

Peru’s Navy on Friday was care-fully watching a fleet of around 250 Chinese fishing vessels that had sailed just outside the Andean country’s waters, angering the domestic fishing industry and sparking a Twitter war between Washington and Beijing.

The fleet, previously fishing for giant squid near the Gala-pagos Islands off Ecuador, was detected this week by Peruvian naval forces some 370.15km off the coast of the country, the local maritime authority reported.

“Our Navy is making

overflights ensuring there are no such vessels within the scope of our jurisdiction, which is 200 miles,” Defence Minister Jorge Chávez told reporters on Friday.

The commander of the Coast Guard operations, Rear Admiral Jorge Portocarrero, said the fleet was identified and located after a low-altitude flight of an exploration aircraft and a patrol vessel between Sunday and Wednesday.

“Not all are in a single place, they are scattered,” he said, adding there were 250-270 ships. “We have no evidence of them having entered our mar-itime space.”

The US embassy in Lima said the Chinese vessels had a history of avoiding tracking and seemed to “be dumping plastic” pol-lutants. “Overfishing can cause enormous ecological and eco-nomic damage. Peru cannot afford such a loss,” the US embassy said on Twitter.

The Chinese embassy responded that it attached great importance to protecting the environment and the ocean. “We hope that the Peruvian public is not deceived by false information,” it said on Twitter.

Peru’s Foreign Ministry sought to defuse the tension, saying it had expressed

discomfort to US officials about the “inaccuracy” of the US embassy’s tweets. Peru is the world’s second largest producer of copper, much of which is bought by China.

Vice-Minister Talavera said he had told USofficials that Peru “is a friend and partner” of both the US and China and called on them to resolve their differ-ences through dialogue, under-standing and cooperation.

Local fishing associations said indiscriminate fishing of giant squid hurt the domestic industry. Squid accounts for 43% of Peru’s fishery exports.

“It’s an open secret that every

year vessels mainly from China... are installed just at the edge of 200 miles off Peru to extract this resource,” Cayetana Aljovín, president of the National Society on Fishing, said.

Peru’s government approved a law in August requiring local and foreign boats operating off its coast to use GPS and SISESAT equipment, a satellite tracking system for vessels. Portoccarero stated the fleet of Chinese ships has been present in the Pacific Ocean for years, ranging from the north of Chile, Peru’s coast and close to the Galapagos Islands, depending on the migration pat-terns of the squid.

Air ambulance to the rescueAndrea Lara (right) looks at her father Juan Carlos Lara, 59, a patient with COVID-19, as he is transferred inside a security capsule on an air ambulance from Iquitos to the Intensive Care Unit of the Rebagliati Hospital, in Lima. A small air ambulance is helping save patients in a severe condition due to the new coronavirus in remote zones of Peru, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic, which has a deficient highway system.

LatAm leaders push at UN for free COVID-19 vaccineAFP — UNITED NATIONS

Latin American leaders have appealed at the United Nations for free access to a future COVID-19 vaccine, urging major powers to share their know-how for the sake of global well-being.

Latin America has taken a heavy blow from COVID-19 with nearly nine million cases and more than 330,000 deaths, one third of the global total, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

“With the pandemic, as with poverty, nobody will be saved on their own,” Argentine Pres-ident Alberto Fernandez told the UN General Assembly, which is taking place virtually due to the health crisis. He called on a COVID-19 vaccine to be declared a “global public good”.

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, referring to US-China rivalry over the virus, urged major powers to end “per-manent confrontation” and “lead the fight against this pan-demic and global recession”.

“On the health front this includes sharing solutions and knowledge, coordinating border openings and closings, and joining forces for the development and availability of an effective and safe vaccine, while working with the poorest and most vulnerable nations,” he said.

Dozens of potential

vaccines are being researched around the world but only 11 have reached phase-three clinical trials, in which thou-sands of people are partici-pating. The World Health Organization in late May set up a platform to exchange infor-mation on vaccine research.

But the United States has announced its withdrawal from the UN body, calling it biased with China, and has rejected calls for vaccine sharing, accusing others of stealing intellectual property.

China and Russia — which, to wide international scepticism, has already unveiled a vaccine — are also absent from the global Covax initiative that aims to guarantee two billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021.

“Only through this can we have vaccines and technologies free of patents that can be dis-tributed justly with special attention to the most vul-nerable,” Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno said of Covax.

In their speeches to the General Assembly, Latin American leaders also called for interest-free credit from international lenders in hopes of reducing the economic blow from the health crisis.

The pandemic is set to make the economy of Latin America and the Caribbean contract by 9.1 percent this year and plunge 45 million people into poverty, according to a UN projection.

Bolsonaro released from hospital after surgeryAFP — RIO DE JANEIRO

Brazilian President Jair Bol-sonaro was released from hos-pital yesterday, the government said, a day after he underwent surgery to remove a bladder stone.

“The President was released from Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo this afternoon at

1:30pm,” said a brief statement issued by the communications ministry and signed by Bol-sonaro’s medical team.

Bolsonaro, 65, underwent a procedure known as endo-scopic cystolithotripsy, a min-imally invasive surgery that involves using a laser to break up and remove a bladder stone.

His doctors said the surgery

was successful, without com-plications. It was the latest in a series of health issues for the far-right leader.

Bolsonaro has undergone various surgeries in recent years, including four stemming from an attack in which he was stabbed in the abdomen during his 2018 presidential campaign.

Deal on paid sick leave for all Canadian workers during pandemic

AFP — OTTAWA

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday reached a deal with the opposition leftist New Democrats on paid sick leave for all Canadian workers during the pandemic, avoiding possible snap elections.

The minority Liberal gov-ernment earlier this week had in a so-called throne speech proposed sweeping new measures to help Canadians weather a second COVID-19 wave. But its agenda and a bill to enact key parts of it faced possible defeat in parliament, as the Tories and Bloc Que-becois withheld their support and the New Democratic Party (NDP) made demands for increased social spending to prop up the government.

With the defeat of the bill — and its agenda — the gov-ernment would have fallen. In a last-ditch effort to gain NDP support, the Liberals boosted a weekly benefit for those unable to work during the COVID-19 outbreak, including to care for children or relatives.

And it agreed to NDP demands for the two week paid sick leave for workers who must isolate after being exposed to the new corona-virus. In exchange, the NDP said it would back the bill as well as support the govern-ment’s agenda in a confidence vote that is expected to follow in the coming weeks.

“If this agreement is reflected in the bill,” NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said, “we will support the bill, and we will also support the throne speech.” The bill is to be presented to par-liament tomorrow. Singh said the Liberal concessions will mean “millions rather than thousands” more Canadians will have access to paid sick leave.

Singh called the agreement a “historic moment” and “a major victory for Canadian workers.” “People who are worried about getting sick in this pandemic will now know when this legislation passes, that there will be paid sick leave for them,” he said.

Court rulings this month have allowed officials in the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina to count ballots that arrive after November 3 as long as they were sent by Election Day.

15SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020 AMERICAS

Trump announces judge Barrett as Supreme Court pickREUTERS — WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump yes-terday announced conservative appellate judge Amy Coney Barrett (pictured) as his third US Supreme Court appointment, setting off a scramble in the Republican-led Senate to confirm her before Election Day in 5-1/2 weeks.

Barrett appeared at the White House with Trump as he made the announcement. Trump called her “one of our nation’s most brilliant and gifted legal minds”.

If confirmed to replace liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died at age 87 on September 18, Barrett would become the fifth woman ever to serve on the top US judicial

body and push its conservative majority to a commanding 6-3. With Trump’s fellow Repub-licans controlling the Senate, confirmation appears certain, though Democrats may try to make the process as difficult as possible.

Barrett, 48, was appointed by Trump to the Chicago-based 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in 2017 and is a favourite of reli-gious conservatives, a key Trump voter bloc. Conservative activists have hailed Trump’s selection, which surfaced on Friday night, while liberals have voiced dismay.

Like Trump’s two other appointees, Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, Barrett is young enough that she could serve for decades.

Barrett is the youngest Supreme Court nominee since conserv-ative Clarence Thomas was 43 in 1991.

The White House cer-emony was decorated with American flags arranged in a way similar to the day when

President Bill Clinton nomi-nated Ginsburg in 1993.

The selection kicks off a flurry of activity that must take place before the final confir-mation vote, including public hearings in the coming weeks before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A White House source said the nominee on Tuesday will begin the traditional courtesy calls on individual senators in their offices, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCo-nnell up first. White House Counsel Pat Cipollone is expected to shepherd the nomination.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, who mounted an angry defence of Kavanaugh during tense

confirmation hearings in 2018, has signaled he expects to have Barrett confirmed as a justice by the November 3 election in which Trump is seeking a second term.

Democrats are still furious over McConnell’s 2016 refusal to consider President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nom-ination of Merrick Garland because it came during an election year. Democratic pres-idential candidate Joe Biden has said the winner of the election should get to replace Ginsburg.

Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority. Only two Republican senators have opposed proceeding with the confirmation process.

Abortion rights advocates have voiced concern that

Barrett, a devout Roman Catholic, could cast a vote for overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion nationwide.

Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, an anti-abortion group, in a statement expressed confidence that Barrett “will fairly apply the law and Constitution as written, which includes protecting the most vulnerable in our nation: our unborn children”.

Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, a faith-based advocacy group, added, “Cath-olics are thrilled with the expected nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett and believe she represents the best choice to protect the rule of law and our constitutional rights.”

150 US chefs and restaurateurs urge votes for Joe BidenAFP — NEW YORK

More than 150 US chefs and restaura-teurs this week signed a letter urging public support for Democratic White House candidate Joe Biden, saying their industry faces an “existential crisis” due to President Donald Trump’s misman-agement of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Trump administration blew the pandemic response,” reads the open letter. “Now, the industry is expected to lose an estimated $240bn by the end of this year, and many res-taurants and small businesses are on financial life support.”

Since the start of the crisis “the res-taurant industry has begged this administration for support... Yet, at every turn, the President has mis-handled the response.”

Trump “has proven his unfitness to hold the office of the presidency. He has failed the restaurant industry, our employees, our customers, and the stakes are too high to continue down this path... We need to elect Joe Biden” as the next US president, the letter read.

Biden’s campaign did not immedi-ately provide the names of people who signed the letter. But according to the specialty magazine Eater, more than 150 chefs and restaurateurs have signed the document, including chef Elizabeth Falkner, pastry chef Duff Goldman, New York chef and cookbook author Anita Lo, and Nina Compton of the restaurant Compere Lapin in New Orleans.

In New York and Los Angeles, res-taurants can only open outdoor dining areas. A recent study by the New York City Hospitality Alliance found that nearly nine in ten restaurants could no longer fully pay their rent.

US election winner might not be knownfor months: TrumpREUTERS & AFP — NEWPORT NEWS

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Americans might not know the winner of the November presi-dential election for months due to dis-putes over mail ballots, building on his criticism of a method that could be used by half of US voters this year.

Election experts have said it might take several days after the November 3 election until a winner is known as officials will need time to count mail ballots that arrive after election day.

Speaking at a rally in Newport News, Virginia, Trump said he would prefer to find out quickly whether he won or lost, rather than wait for the mail ballots to come in. “I like watching television and have, ‘The winner is’, right? You might not hear it for months, because this is a mess,” he said.

“It’s very unlikely that you’re going to hear a winner that night,” he said. “I could be leading and then they’ll just keep getting ballots, and ballots, and ballots and ballots. Because now they’re saying the ballots can come in late.”

Court rulings this month have allowed officials in the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wis-consin and North Carolina to count ballots that arrive after November 3 as long as they were sent by Election Day.

Opinion polls show that more Democrats than Republicans plan to vote by mail to avoid exposure to COVID-19 in crowded polling places.

Trump’s campaign has filed lawsuits in several states to restrict mail bal-loting. Trump in recent days has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election to Democrat Joe Biden and has said he expects the Supreme Court will have to declare a winner.

With just 39 days until the US election, Trump ramped up his cam-paigning with back-to-back events on Friday in battleground states — a fre-netic pace in contrast with the more sedate approach of Democratic rival Joe Biden. The 74-year-old President’s gruelling 12-hour, three-state schedule culminated with a nighttime rally in Newport News, Virginia.

Trump — who trails Biden in national polling and is narrowly behind in several swing states seen as crucial to his path to re-election — is under pressure to make the most of the remaining weeks before the November

US President Donald Trump accompanied by Vice-President Mike Pence arrives at a campaign rally in Newport News, Virginia, US, on Friday.

3 election. During his whirlwind day, the President mocked his rival for a lower-energy campaign, saying Biden was “staying in again today”. “This guy never goes out. It’s terrible huh?” he told a black economic empowerment event in Atlanta, where few people wore masks and social distancing was non-existent. “If I lose to a man who doesn’t campaign... I don’t know,” he told the laughing crowd.

Biden travelled from his home in Delaware to Washington on Friday to attend a ceremony at the US Capitol as late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lay in state there. But there was no in-person campaigning on the former vice-president’s schedule.

Trump began the day in Florida with a roundtable with Latino voters, a crucial constituency in the swing state. Biden has “been very bad to Hispanics,” the

President said at the event which took place at his golf club in Doral, near Miami. “I’m a wall between the American dream and chaos.”

Trump next flew to Georgia, which has voted Republican in the last six elections but is now rated a toss-up, where he insisted that as President he did “even more than I promised” for African Americans. “I did more for the black community in 47 months... than Joe Biden did in 47 years,” he said.

Trump said he was unveiling a “platinum plan” that aims to increase capital to African Americans, create three million new jobs for the black community and implement “the highest standards of policing.”

Trump then returned to Wash-ington to gather with supporters and flew to a Make America Great Again rally in Newport News, Virginia.

Bubble tents are set up outside Cafe Du Soliel following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US.

Space bubbles ease NY restaurant troublesREUTERS — NEW YORK

Space bubbles are frothing up business at a New York bistro, offering fresh air in safe capsules on sidewalks for customers on guard against the coronavirus.

The plastic tents, which take a minute to set up and take down, have become an attraction at Café du Soleil on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, especially as the weather gets colder and wetter in the fall.

“With everything going on in this world, eating in a bubble is about one of the best experiences we can have,” said Valerie Worthy, as she dined with two coworkers. “They have every-thing safe, clean. Everything is six feet apart. Love it.”

New York is committed to making outdoor dining

a permanent option for the thousands of restaurants that have embraced the concept since the pandemic struck in the Spring, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. To keep outdoor patrons warm through the autumn and winter months, the city will allow restaurants to use certain heaters and enclosed tents. Res-taurants can also reopen for indoor dining at 25% capacity on Wednesday.

The bubbles caught the eye of Café du Soleil owner Alain Chevreux in July when he was online, figuring out how to stay in business. At limited indoor capacity, Chevreux said the 20 seats would not be enough to pay his chef, cooks and other staff. And who would pay to eat in the cold, rain or snow without shelter? Fifteen bubbles saved

Chevreux much toil and trouble. At $400 a pop, the capsules hold six people, and customers ask to reserve them over the phone.

“Families love it. Kids love it. Friends who want to get together love it,” Chevreux said. “It was raining a couple of weeks ago, midweek, pouring, raining. Everybody that was inside those bubbles were having a blast.” Childhood fan-tasies awaken for some diners.

“As soon as I came in, I said, wait a minute, it looks like Cin-derella’s carriage,” said Sylvia Gonzalez as she dined with her granddaughter and friend. “It’s beautiful.” Her friend Blanca Morales felt safe and optimistic inside the “carriage”. “You’re not being cluttered with other people, crowded, very, like, indi-vidual, you know?” she observed.

Four US states report record one-day rise in virus casesREUTERS — WISCONSIN

Four US states reported record one-day increases in new COVID-19 cases on Friday as the nation surpassed the grim milestone of over 7 million total infections, according to a Reuters tally.

Wisconsin, one of the states where cases are rising the fastest, reported 2,629 new infections, surpassing its pre-vious record set last Friday, according to the tally. Min-nesota, Oregon and Utah also reported record increases in cases on Friday.

All Midwest states except Ohio reported more cases in the past four weeks as compared with the prior four weeks, according to a Reuters analysis. On Thursday, Montana and South Dakota reported record one-day increases in cases.

Earlier this week, Wiscon-sin’s governor declared a new public health emergency and extended a face mask mandate

into November. The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Wisconsin also set a new record for the sixth day in a row, rising to 543 on Friday from 342 a week ago.

Hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients also set records this week in Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. COVID-19 infections in the United States are trending upwards and the average number of cases in the last seven days is up 10% from the prior week, according to a Reuters analysis.

On average, the nation is reporting 44,000 new cases a day and about 700 deaths.

Despite cases still rising in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday lifted all COVID-19 restrictions on businesses, including restaurants and clubs, saying the threat of the coro-navirus pandemic had eased sufficiently to allow the state to enter the final phase of its reopening.

New York logs over 1,000 daily casesAP — ALBANY

More than 1,000 New Yorkers tested positive for COVID-19 in a single day on Friday, marking the first time since June 5 the state has seen a daily number that high.

The number of positive tests reported daily in the state has been steadily inching up in recent weeks, a trend related to increasing numbers of businesses reopening, college campuses reopening and children returning to school. Governor Andrew Cuomo said yes-terday that there were 1,005 positive cases tallied on the previous day out of 99,953 tests, for a 1% positive rate.

From late July through the start of September the state was seeing an average of around 660 people test positive per day. In the seven-day period that ended Friday, the state had averaged 817 positive tests per day.

Test administrator pleads guilty in US college admissions scam

REUTERS — BOSTON

A former college entrance exam administrator pleaded guilty on Friday to charges that she participated in a vast US fraud and bribery scheme that has resulted in charges against dozens of wealthy parents.

Federal prosecutors said Niki Williams, a former employee of the Houston Inde-pendent School District, accepted bribes in exchange for facilitating cheating on ACT and SAT exams.

Williams, 46, appeared before a judge by video to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Defense lawyer Eric Tennen called Wil-liams a dedicated special edu-cation teacher who adminis-tered hundreds of exams.

“Unfortunately, in this capacity, in times of need, she exercised poor judgment and committed a criminal act,” he said. “For that, she is sorry.” She faces sentencing on December 21.

Fifty-eight people have been charged in the scandal, in which prosecutors said parents conspired with California college admissions consultant William “Rick” Singer to secure their children’s college admis-sions fraudulently.

The parents include “Des-perate Housewives” star Felicity Huffman, who received a 14-day prison sentence, and “Full House” star Lori Loughlin, who was sentenced to two months in prison.

16SUNDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2020

W ALRUWAIS : 26o → 35o

W ALKHOR : 26o → 39o

W DUKHAN : 24o → 37o

W WAKRAH : 23o → 40o

W MESAIEED : 23o → 40o

W ABUSAMRA : 21o → 40o

Misty at places at first becomes

hot daytime with local clouds,

relatively humid by night.

Minimum Maximum27oC 41oC

WEATHER TODAY

LOW TIDE 07:01 – 22:02

HIGH TIDE 02:19 – 14:12

PRAYER TIMINGSPPPPRAYRRRAAAYARA MMMMIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGMMMMMMMMMIIINNNNNNGGGGNNNNGGGIINNNNGNNNNNNNNN

PRAYERTIMINGS

FAJR

SUNRISE

04.07 am 05.24 am

DHUHR 11.25 am

ISHA 06.58 pmMAGHRIB

ASR 02.50 pm05.28 pm

Estee Lauder pays Nasa $128,000 for photo shoot in spaceBLOOMBERG — WASHINGTON

Estee Lauder Cos. is sending its newest skincare formula into space, and it’ll cost only about as much as paying a big influ-encer for a few Instagram posts.

The US cosmetics giant is spending $128,000 for Nasa to fly 10 bottles of its skin serum to the International Space Station. Once there, astronauts will take pictures of Estee Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair in the cupola control tower, which has panoramic views of the cosmos. The images will be used on social media, with the company planning to auction one bottle off for charity when the items return to Earth this spring.

The global recession, trig-gered by the coronavirus pan-demic, has pushed brands to get more creative with their adver-tising because consumers are cutting back. Within beauty, several companies are spending less on traditional ads, while looking for new ways to break through the glut of content out there. In a press release, Estee

Lauder highlighted it being the “first beauty brand to go into space” as a means to tout its “skincare innovation.”

The Northrop Grumman Antares rocket that will transport the skin serum as part of a supply run is scheduled to launch on Tuesday night from Wallops Island, Virginia. The Cygnus cargo craft will then dock on the space station early Saturday.

Estee Lauder’s push into micro-gravity is part of Nasa’s effort to commercialise low-earth orbit and make it a domain where private enter-prise eventually does business as routinely as the government conducts spacewalks. Com-panies from Goodyear Tire & Rubber to Merck & Co have used space for research, and Nasa is hoping to expand its use, including private citizens visiting the space station.

“We need to expand peo-ple’s perspective on what we can accomplish in space,” said Phil McAlister, Nasa’s director of commercial spaceflight development.

A child waits for the gate to open during the reopening of Disneyland to public, after a second closure due to the coronavirus disease outbreak, in Hong Kong, China.

Hong Kong Disneyland reopens to publicAP — BEIJING

Hong Kong Disneyland has reopened for the second time as the semi-autonomous Chinese city again appears to have brought new novel coro-navirus (COVID-19) cases down to near-zero.

The resort shut down during the initial stage of

China’s outbreak when Hong kong closed schools and offices. Disneyland reopened after cases dropped off but then was shut again once infections began to climb again over the summer.

The resort reopened on Friday with social distancing measures for lines, restaurant s e a t i n g , r i d e s a n d

other facilities, along with more frequent cleaning and disinfecting in the areas with the most visitors.

Hong Kong’s economy is heavily dependent on tourism and the government has been moving steadily to bring back business without sparking new outbreaks in the densely populated city of 7.5 million.

American sued in Thailand over negative TripAdvisor reviewAFP — BANGKOK

An American has been sued by an island resort in Thailand over a negative TripAdvisor review, authorities said yesterday, and could face up to two years in prison if found guilty.

Domestic tourism is still happening in Thailand, where coronavirus numbers are rela-tively low, with locals and expats heading to near-empty

resorts — including Koh Chang island, famed for its sandy beaches and turquoise waters.

But a recent visit to the Sea View Resort on the island landed Wesley Barnes in trouble after he wrote unflattering online reviews about his holiday.

“The Sea View Resort owner filed a complaint that the defendant had posted unfair reviews on his hotel on the Tri-padvisor website,” Colonel

Thanapon Taemsara of Koh Chang police said.

He said Barnes was accused of causing “damage to the rep-utation of the hotel”, and of quarrelling with staff over not paying a corkage fee for food brought to the hotel.

Barnes, who works in Thailand, was arrested by immigration police and returned to Koh Chang where he was briefly detained and

then freed on bail.According to the TripAd-

visor review Barnes posted in July, he encountered “unfriendly staff” who “act like they don’t want anyone here”.

The Sea View Resort said legal action was only taken because Barnes had penned multiple reviews on different sites over the past few weeks.

At least one was posted in June on TripAdvisor accusing

the hotel of “modern day slavery” — which the site removed after a week for vio-lating its guidelines.

“We chose to file a com-plaint to serve as a deterrent, as we understood he may continue to write negative reviews week after week for the foreseeable future,” the hotel said, adding that staff had attempted to contact Barnes before filing the complaint.