SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020 www.thepeninsula.qa3 SAFAR - 1442 VOLUME 25 NUMBER 8386 2 RIYALS

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Qatar committed to providing quality patient careTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) has concluded the 6th Qatar Patient Safety Week, emphasising the safety of health worker as a priority for patient safety.

The event was organised by the Ministry from September 13 to 19 under the theme “Health Worker Safety: A

Priority for Patient Safety.”In conjunction with the World

Patient Safety Day, which falls on Sep-tember 17, the Ministry organised a con-ference via video-conference tech-nology, with the participation of a group of experts and specialists in the field of patient safety and about 5,000 health workers.

Minister of Public Health, H E Dr.

Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari, pointed out that celebrating Qatar Patient Safety Week for the sixth time affirms the commitment to provide safe and high-quality care to all people in Qatar.

“With the COVID-19 pandemic, this year has been a unique challenge to every healthcare system in the world. It was a practical test for the system resilience and ability to cope with the challenges. Therefore, it makes sense that this year’s theme for Qatar Patient Safety Week and the World Patient Safety Day is to emphasise the safety of health worker as a priority for patient safety.

“As we participate with the whole world in this celebration, we are also adopting this year’s theme; Health Worker Safety: A Priority for Patient Safety. Acknowledging that health worker safety is the essence of the response to COVID-19 pandemic, changes how we perceive health worker safety and how it is intertwined with patient safety and the safety of the healthcare system as a whole,” H E the Minister said.

H E the Minister also lauded the great efforts and commitment of every healthcare workers in Qatar who par-ticipated in combating COVID-19 pandemic.

“I would like to take this oppor-tunity to acknowledge the great efforts and commitment of every health worker in Qatar who took part in the

response to COVID-19 Pandemic. I would like to express our gratitude to all healthcare workers across the globe who struggled and went out of their way to bring this pandemic under control.

Also, we shouldn’t forget those who lost their lives battling the disease trying to protect and cure others,” H E the Minister said.

The 6th Qatar Patient Safety Week aims to promote the concept of patient safety at the national level, urges the community to participate in ensuring healthcare safety and raise awareness

about the importance of the safety of health workers and the safety of the work environment to ensure patient safety through a more holistic approach.

Director of the Strategic Planning and Performance Department at MoPH, Hoda Amer Al Kathiri, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed our lifestyle; the usual ways of social communication, such as wedding parties, funerals, modes of education, how we do work and the ways of how we plan our vacations and our daily practices.” �P2

Minister of Public Health, H E Dr. Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari, during the virtual conference held to mark the World Patient Safety Day.

100 tonnes of aid sent to SudanTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Airways in partnership with Qatar Charity, Monoprix Qatar – a member of Ali Bin Ali Holding – has delivered an aid programme that enabled citizens and residents of Qatar to donate almost 100 tonnes of food and other essential supplies to Sudan following the devas-tating flooding in the country.

Since the aid programme was launched on September 12, thousands of Qatari citizens and residents pur-chased items from Monoprix Qatar’s store on talabat from a special Qatar Airways Box for Sudan. Monoprix Qatar and talabat delivered the boxes to Qatar Airways Cargo at Hamad International Airport (HIA).

Qatar Airways Cargo shipped the donated essential supplies free of charge from Doha to Khartoum on freighter flight QR8792 on September 17. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, H E Akbar Al Baker, was at HIA while the aircraft was loaded with supplies. His Excellency was joined by the Ambas-sador of Sudan to the State of Qatar H E Abdulrahim Al Sediq, Qatar Charity CEO

Yousef bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, and HIA Chief Operating Officer Eng. Badr Al Meer. The donations will be distributed on the ground in Sudan by Qatar Charity.

H E Akbar Al Baker said: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Sudan at this time. The devastating impact of the floods is being felt across the country, with hundreds of thousands of people affected. I have been touched by the large volume of donations from our employees and members of the public in Qatar who have come together as a community to support our brothers and sisters in Sudan."We hope that this community initiative, combined with our special cargo relief flight, will support as many people as possible and I thank our valuable partners for their support in these efforts.”

Yousef bin Ahmed Al Kuwari said: “Qatar Charity continues distributing relief aid to those affected by Sudan’s worst flooding in a century, aiming to reach the largest number of people most in need under the supervision of the Regulatory Authority for Charitable Activities (RACA).”

Al Kuwari praised Qatar Airways

for shipping the relief aid free of charge to Sudan, noting that it constantly extends such support during urgent humanitarian interventions, most recently after the massive explosion that has rocked the port area of Leb-anon’s capital, Beirut. He also pointed out that Qatar Airways provides support for Qatar Charity’s seasonal projects and social welfare programs, especially for orphans.

Qatar Airways’ initiative follows the success of a similar programme it organised in aid of the people of Lebanon following the tragic explosion that took place in Beirut last month. Working with partners Qatar Charity, Ali Bin Ali Holding, Monoprix Qatar, and Talabat, the airline facilitated its employees and members of the public to donate essential supplies that were shipped from Doha to Beirut by Qatar Airways Cargo.

Over the past few months, the cargo carrier has also worked closely with governments and NGOs to transport over 250,000 tonnes of medical and aid supplies to impacted regions. This equates to roughly 2,500 fully loaded Boeing 777 freighters.

Unified training guide fordriving schools proposedSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

Lieutenant Colonel Salem Fahad Ghurab, head of driver's licences at the General Direc-torate of Traffic has said that the Qatari proposal to adopt a unified training guide for driving education has been worked on by a large group of specialists and experts in the traffic field.

The aim of the guide is to raise the level of efficiency of driving schools in a way that contributes to enhancing the protection of all road users.

“The driving training guide has been worked on by a large group of specialists and experts in the traffic field, in addition to a number of authorities concerned in this regard to come up with a comprehensive guide that enables the driver to know everything

related to the road,” he said.Recently speaking to Qatar

TV about the most important contents of the guide, he noted that the guide includes a set of information that a driver must know, including the driver’s knowledge of the requirements for obtaining a licence and traffic violations according to the Qatari Traffic Law.

The State of Qatar, repre-sented by the General Direc-torate of Traffic, recently par-ticipated in the 36th meeting for Traffic Directors-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council States.

The Qatari side presented a proposal to adopt a unified training guide for driving edu-cation, with the aim of raising the level of efficiency of driving schools in the member states and in a way that contributes to enhancing the protection of

all road users, earlier reported after the meeting. The proposed guide also includes the impor-tance of driver’s knowledge of traffic violations and the value of fines, in addition to his knowledge of first aid on roads, he added.

“We are focusing on all these things because driving requires a lot of things, not only experience in driving. Learning the guide will help raise the level of traffic culture to achieve road safety outcomes,” said Lt Col Ghurab.

He also said that driving schools are an essential partner in this regard, and the guide has been circulated among them as they are responsible for training and the goal behind unified driving training guide is to standardize the training process within a specific program. �P2

Over QR263bn invested in Qatar’s industrial sector in 2019IRFAN BUKHARI THE PENINSULA

As Qatar is successfully imple-menting its economic diversi-fication plans, Qatar’s industrial sector attracted QR263.8bn of investment in 2019.

The Government Commu-nications Office (GCO) in a post on its Twitter handle high-lighted importance, achieve-ments and plans of Qatar National Vision (QNV) 2030 including the country’s eco-nomic diversification plans.

“Through its world-class infrastructure and dynamic private sector, Qatar continues to deliver on its ambitious plans to ensure a steadfast and diver-sified economy. QNV2030,” the GCO said in a tweet.

The post says that Qatar is delivering on its ambitious

plans to develop a knowledge-based economy. Hamad Inter-national Airport and Hamad Port play key roles in linking together major economies, it added.

It said that Qatar Rail oversees one of the largest rail projects in the world while in 2019, Qatar’s industrial sector attracted QR263.8bn of investment. “There are over 900 factories operating in Qatar which allowed for rapid supply of PPE during the COVID-19 pan-demic,” the video shared with the tweet said.

It says that Qatar is self-suf-ficient in dairy and expects to be 70 percent self-sufficient in vegetables by 2023. “Despite international economic uncer-tainty due to COVID-19, Qatar took unprecedented measures to fortify its economy providing

the private sector with eco-nomic incentives amounting to QR75bn.”

In another tweet regarding Qatar’s commitment to sustain-ability and environment under Qatar National Vision 2030, the GCO said: “Qatar places the pro-tection of the environment and its resources at the top of its pri-orities and works to build a sus-tainable future by maintaining a balance between economic growth and environmental development. #QNV2030.”

It said that protecting Qatar’s biodiversity is at the centre of Qatar National Vision 2030’s environmental devel-opment pillar. The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be the first carbon-neutral tournament of its kind setting a benchmark for environmental stewardship, it added. �P2

From September 12, thousands of Qatari citizens and residents purchased items from Monoprix and donated to the aid programme.

Monoprix Qatar and talabat delivered the boxes to Qatar Airways Cargo at Hamad International Airport.

Qatar Airways Cargo shipped the donated essential supplies free of charge from Doha to Khartoum on September 17.

To mark the World Patient Safety Day, MoPH organised a virtual conference with the participation of a group of experts in the field of patient safety and about 5,000 health workers.

The great efforts and commitment of every healthcare worker in Qatar who participated in combating COVID-19 pandemic lauded.

The 6th Qatar Patient Safety Week aims to promote the concept of patient safety at the national level and raise awareness about the importance of the safety of health workers and work environment to ensure patient safety.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive,H E Akbar Al Baker (right), with otherofficials during the loading of aid at HIA.

OFFICIAL NEWS

02 SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020HOME

The productive discussions among experts and leaders

from our two countries over the past days truly

demonstrate the depth and breadth of our strategic

bilateral relationship. We look forward to building on these

relationships and further strengthening ties between the

people of the United States and Qatar.

Greta C Holtz

US Chargé d’Affaires Ambassador

Amir congratulates Governor-General of Federation of Saint Kitts and NevisDOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim

bin Hamad Al Thani and Deputy

Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin

Hamad Al Thani sent yesterday

cables of congratulations to Gov-

ernor-General of the Federation

of Saint Kitts and Nevis H E Sam-

uel Weymouth Tapley Seaton, on

the anniversary of his country’s

Independence Day. Prime Minister

and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh

Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz

Al Thani also sent a cable of con-

gratulations to Prime Minister of

the Federation of Saint Kitts and

Nevis, H E Timothy Harris, on the

anniversary of his country’s Inde-

pendence Day. — QNA

MoPH: 229 new

COVID-19 cases,

267 recoveries

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the registration of 229 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country. Among them 21 were travellers returning from abroad.

Another 267 people have recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 120,089. 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 admis-sions has gradually declined over the past few weeks.

'US-Qatar Strategic Dialogue showcased strong ties'THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The third US-Qatar Strategic Dialogue has showcased the strong bilateral ties between both countries, said Greta C. Holtz, US Chargé d’Affaires Ambassador in Doha yesterday.

“The third US-Qatar Stra-tegic Dialogue showcased the many areas in which the United States and Qatar partner,” said Holtz.

“The productive discussions among experts and leaders from our two countries over the past days truly demonstrate the depth and breadth of our stra-tegic bilateral relationship. We look forward to building on these relationships and further strengthening ties between the people of the United States and Qatar,” Holtz added.

The governments of the United States and Qatar held the third US-Qatar Strategic Dia-logue on September 14-15, in Washington, DC. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and US Secretary of State H E Michael Pompeo co-chaired the opening session.

The annual Strategic

Dialogue process underlines the commitment of Qatar and the United States to long-term cooperation on consolidating state-of-the-art defence facil-ities; countering terrorism and violent extremism in all its forms; promoting regional peace and security; engaging in military, commercial, and avi-ation cooperation; providing humanitarian assistance; pro-moting law enforcement col-laboration; combating the financing of terrorism; expanding trade and investment relationships; supporting labour reform; increasing public health partnerships, especially in the global fight against COVID-19; and enhancing educational and cultural cooperation, said a

statement by the US Embassy in Qatar.

During the Strategic Dia-logue, US Secretary of State H E Michael Pompeo and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani signed an agreement designating 2021 the US-Qatar Year of Culture.

In addition, the two sides also announced an agreement between Nasa and Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU)'s Qatar Energy and Environment Research Institute (QEERI) to formulate a study to detect underground water aquifers; HBKU’s acceptance of two US Fulbright scholars to conduct research on hydrology and

Alzheimer’s disease next semester; signed a Memo-randum of Understanding (MoU) between Qatar Foun-dation, Qatar Museums, and the Smithsonian Institution on edu-cational, cultural, and sports collaboration; announced an upcoming MoU between the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) and USAID on interna-tional development and humanitarian assistance; and made an announcement of Intent for Qatar to host an investment forum in the United States in 2021, the statement added.

Qatar and the US look forward to reviewing progress in these areas at the next Stra-tegic Dialogue in Doha in 2021.

Qatar Sustainability Week 2020 from October 31THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC) continues its national campaign to build a sustainable society with the fifth edition of Qatar Sustainability Week (QSW). The event will be held from October 31 to November 7, 2020.

QSW is a unique platform for promoting the nation’s sus-tainability vision and engaging relevant stakeholders under an overarching umbrella to achieve Qatar’s sustainable development goals. The event plays a crucial role in raising awareness of the importance of preserving the environment and implementing sustainable

business practices. Meshal Al Shamari,

Director, QGBC, a member of Qatar Foundation, said, “The complexity of the social and environmental challenges we face today demands the unwa-vering commitment of govern-ments, corporate organisations, and individuals to sustainable living and way of doing business. Qatar Sustainability Week aims to stress the impor-tance of making such a com-mitment by engaging the public and business communities in various sustainability-oriented activities and featuring innova-tions and initiatives that promote sustainability.”

QSW showcases Qatar’s

progress in sustainability and green buildings, as well as the collective efforts of the nation’s public and private sectors in building a sustainable future.

The four previous editions of QSW attracted more than 100,000 people to 760 events across Qatar. This year, QSW aims to engage the community further and reinforce its ongoing national campaign for shared responsibility in com-municating and implementing sustainable practices with the ‘QSW 2020 Pledge’.

The pledge is an encom-passing commitment to protect the environment and combat climate change through bold actions, such as banning

single-use plastics; minimising waste by consuming respon-sibly; reusing and recycling products; promoting healthy spaces; conserving water and energy; choosing a more sus-tainable method to travel; and living a healthy lifestyle.

Individuals can register their pledge to make changes to their lifestyle, while cor-porate organisations can pledge to implement policies that help protect and sustain the envi-ronment, as well as register their sustainability-oriented activity, initiative, or event to become a QSW 2020 partner. Registration can be made at https://www.qatarsustainabil-ityweek.com.

MME's planning forum today

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) will open the first annual planning forum today under the patronage and participation of Minister of Municipality and Environment, H E Eng. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie, (Chairman of the Forum), who will address the opening session of the forum remotely.

The eight-day event is being organised by the Planning and Quality Department of the Ministry.

The opening session of the forum includes a speech by Eng. Yousef Ahmed Janahi, Director of Planning and Quality Department and General Coordinator of the Forum, about the five-year plan of the Ministry of Munic-ipality and Environment.

The first session of the forum will present the main plans, projects and activities of the Urban Planning Affairs Sector, in which the assistant undersec-retary for the sector, Eng. Fahd Muhammad Al Qahtani, will table action plan of the urban planning affairs sector.

Prime MinistercongratulatesSomalia Premier

DOHA: Prime Minister and Min-

ister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid

bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani

sent yesterday a cable of con-

gratulations to H E Mohamed

Hussein Roble on the occasion

of his appointment as Prime Min-

ister of the Federal Republic of

Somalia. — QNA

Saliva-based COVID-19 tests highly accurate: OfficialFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

The new COVID-19 saliva-based testing method is very easy and highly accurate, said Dr. Elinas Al Kuwari, Chair-person Department of Labo-ratory Medicine and Pathology at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), encouraging parents to let their children undergo a COVID-19 test if needed to ensure that they are free of infection.

She has said that the new method of saliva-based tests for COVID-19 is convenient for children. The saliva-based test is less intrusive for children as

it does not require a swab to be inserted into the nose and back of the throat like the most common method of detecting COVID-19.

“Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is the standard test for diagnosing COVID-19 and now a new easiest testing method is available. The test can now by collecting sample of saliva by the patient after spitting. This new method is very easy and highly accurate. It is suitable for children and school students. It does not cause any pain or fear for them.

"Therefore we encourage all parents not to hesitate their children undergo the PCR

testing to ensure they are free of COVID-19,” said Dr. Al Kuwari in a video message.

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) earlier announced plans to introduce saliva-based COVID-19 tests for children from today (Sunday, September 20) as part of a national testing programme to gain a better understanding of

infection rates.Saliva tests can be easily

completed by transferring saliva from the mouth into a sample pot. Studies around the world have been looking at the use of saliva-only swabs and the results have confirmed their effectiveness.

MoPH will work in collab-oration with HMC and Primary

Health Care Corporation (PHCC) to carry out tests for all students in both government and private schools in Qatar.

Parental consent will be sought prior to any child being tested.

According the Ministry, the tests will also help the author-ities concerned diagnose if any child had been infected before, as usually some never show any symptoms.

Out of more than 350,000 students and over 35,000 teachers in Qatar, less than 0.2 percent have tested positive since schools reopened on Sep-tember 1, health officials have said.

The Ministry of Public Health will start conducting saliva-based COVID-19 tests for children from today (Sunday) as part of a national testing programme to gain a better understanding of infection rates.

Lieutenant Colonel Salem Fahad Ghurab

MoI cautions

public against

suspicious calls

about bank cards

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) has urged people to be cautions while dealing with suspicious messages, espe-cially the ones sent by cyber-criminals about blocking bank cards. The Ministry advised everyone to ignore such messages.

In such cases, the Ministry said, the people have to contact the Economic and Cyber Crimes Combating Department at the Ministry.

“Please be cautious while dealing with suspicious mes-sages used by cyber-crim-inals about blocking your bank card,” the Ministry tweeted.

The Ministry has advised the public to contact the bank immediately in case of receiving a suspicious message informing that their bank card has been blocked. Also, they have to ignore the message once confirmed it is fake.

The electronic fraud reports received by the Eco-nomic and Cybercrimes Department during 2018 exceeded 40 percent of the total reports received, most of which were using WhatsApp or SMS that contain an elec-tronic link.

People should be alert to a number of methods used by the perpetrators of these oper-ations, including simulating the brand and sites of reliable establishments, or changing a certain character from the name of the bank dealt with by the victim or changing the case of the character.

The Economic and Elec-tronic Crimes Department constantly advises the public that information must not be shared by telephone, text mes-sages or e-mail, without con-firming the caller or the contact person.

Qatar 2022 to be the best World Cup ever:FIFA PresidentTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has praised Qatar for improving workers' rights. Addressing the 70th FIFA Congress 2020 on Friday, Infantino also said that Qatar 2022 will be the best world cup ever.

The FIFA President high-lighted football’s power as a force for good in society, and praised the unprecedented move by Qatar to improve workers’ rights, said a report posted on FIFA website.

“This is a milestone, this is a game-changer, and it’s not me saying this — it’s the ILO [International Labour Organ-ization], and it is partly thanks to the spotlight of hosting the FIFA World Cup. By the way in 2022, I give you an advanced warning, you will see in Qatar the best ever world cup. So get ready for that,” said President Gianni Infantino.

Further emphasising the strength of the new FIFA as a partner for social change, President Infantino said, “As well as for our stakeholders, sponsors, and broadcast partners, we are also a solid partner for the UNODC [United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime], the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, Unesco, UN Women, the Council of Europe, the African Union, the Associ-ation of Southeast Asian Nations, and the members of the G20.”

Qatar committed to providingquality patient care

FROM PAGE 1

The events and activities organised by the Ministry of Public Health included lectures and panel discussions by 24 local and international speakers, including four panel discussions of the key devel-opments under the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first panel discussion discussed the transformation of Qatar’s healthcare system in the context of COVID-19, moderated by Medical Director of Hamad General Hospital, Dr. Yousef Al Maslimani, with the participation of a group of health officials.

The second panel dis-cussion reviewed infection prevention and control, and was moderated by Chairman of the Medical Research and Education Committee at Al Wakra and the Cuban Hos-pitals and Chairman of the Infection Prevention and Control Committee of the Health System Control Com-mittee on Covid-19, Dr. Nasser Ansari.

The third panel discussion also reviewed risk man-agement and patient safety during crisis, and was mod-erated by Director, Center for

Health Services and Outcomes Research at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Professor Albert W Wu.

The fourth panel dis-cussion also reviewed the psy-chological adjustment of healthcare workers, and was moderated by Vice-President and Senior Safety Expert, Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, MA, Frank Federico, during which the factors representing additional burdens on healthcare workers during crises and their ramifications were explained while taking the COVID-19 pandemic as an example.

Various health and aca-demic institutions have also participated in organizing awareness activities for the 6th Qatar Patient Safety Week in their premises.

Several landmark buildings in Qatar were illuminated in orange as a symbolic gesture in recognition of the efforts made by health workers to provide safe healthcare services to patients daily, in addition to spreading awareness messages on social media platforms.

Over QR263bn

invested in

Qatar’s industrial

sector in 2019

FROM PAGE 1“The State of Qatar has

opened an Aquatic Research Centre contributing to the suc-cessful development of Qatar’s fisheries.”

The GCO further said that Qatar develops its future cities with environment in mind. “Msheireb Downtown Doha is the world’s first sustainable downtown regeneration project.”

Unified training guide for driving schools proposedFROM PAGE 1

Recent statistics, he noted, showed decrease in the number of deaths and the number of acci-dents due to efforts and public awareness to reach this result.

Around ninety seven percent of road acci-dents last year were with no injuries, according to the General Directorate of Traffic Department.

The General Directorate has said that the minor accidents represented 2.7 percent, while the major accidents were about 0.3 percent.

The statistics showed in a recently open awareness webinar on traffic safety held in cooperation with Public Relations Department of MoI.

03SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020 HOME

Sport is an essential factor in

mitigating the impact of the

pandemic on health, and has an

important impact in the

restoration of normal life

activities.

H E Ambassador Sheikha Alya

Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani

Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations

World Cup an opportunity to build better future for next generationsQNA — DOHA

Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations, H E Ambassador Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, has said that Qatar is proud to host the 2022 World Cup for the first time in the Middle East and the Arab world.

Qatar considers the World Cup an opportunity for Qatar and the region to stimulate social development and build a better future for next genera-tions, H E added.

The Ambassador was speaking at a high-level meeting on the prevention of violent extremism through sports.

Within the framework of the United Nations Global Program on the Security of Major Sporting Events, and Pro-motion of Sport and its Values as a tool to prevent violent extremism, the United Nations Office of Counter-Ter-rorism UNOCT organised a High-Level

Meeting on the Prevention of Violent Extremism through Sports, in part-nership with the UN Alliance of Civi-lizations (UNAOC), the UN Interre-gional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI), and the

International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS).

Qatar's Permanent Representative added that it is more important than ever to support sports and physical activities, as a sport should be included

in the recovery plans after the (COVID-19) pandemic and within the national strategies for sustainable development because it is an essential factor in mitigating the impact of the pandemic on health and people and has an important impact in the resto-ration of normal life activities.

The event preceded the launch of a series of initiatives which include, inter alia, the development of a guide for policy makers, a training handbook, a global campaign and a grant-awarding mechanism for local civil society organisations (CSOs) working on sports-based prevention of violent extremism (PVE).

The virtual high-level meeting fea-tured discussions between senior United Nations Officials, Member States and international organisations rep-resentatives, policy makers, and sports personalities committed to the fight

against violent extremism.The President of the International

Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) and founder of “Save the Dream” pro-gramme, Mohammed bin Hanzab, said sport positively affects the lives of mil-lions of people every day, and major sporting events and sports, in general, contain unique tools that stimulate positive change.

The event was followed by a tech-nical level International Expert Group Meeting where representatives from governments, international and regional organisations, sport bodies, academia and CSOs shared experiences and discussed actionable good prac-tices of sports-based interventions aimed at preventing and countering violent extremism that can inspire the inclusion and further acknowl-edgement of sports within national and regional action (PCVE) action plans.

NU-Q explores how smartphones are reshaping journalismTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The smartphone has disrupted the news media by both expanding the reach of jour-nalism and diminishing the relationship between the producer of the news and its consumer.

Northwestern University Qatar (NU-Q)'s museum, the Media Majlis, is exploring the disruption and how journalism has responded in its latest exhi-bition, which is open to the public.

'Breaking News? How the smartphone changed jour-nalism' examines how mobile technology connects personal and professional lives — ena-bling access to a world flooded with information and disinfor-mation, including deep fakes, citizen journalism, and opinions misconstrued as fact.

As a result, this device has reshaped the practice of jour-nalism and recast the role of the audience as contributors and shapers of news.

The exhibition uses

examples of media content that was captured and shared on a smartphone with repercussions worldwide — they include the killing of George Floyd, the out-break of the COVID-19 pan-demic, and citizens reporting on the civil war in Syria.

“The Media Majlis at North-western Qatar, the only uni-versity museum in the country, provides context for the aca-demic programmes at the uni-versity,” said Marwan M. Kraidy, Dean and CEO of NU-Q.

“As one of the leading jour-nalism schools in the world, this exhibition reinforces the con-nection between theory and practice and provides our faculty and students with addi-tional tools and resources in their exploration of the news media. Drawing on our faculty expertise — and broadening our students’ experiences — this museum is another unique facet at Northwestern Qatar.”

Among the artefacts of mobile technology on display at the exhibition are the first cellular phone and the first

mobile phone with a camera. Visitors can also participate

in interactive surveys that track opinion on the impact of fake news, mobile technology usage, and the role of social media in influencing societal reform.

Accompanying its exhibi-tions, the Media Majlis organises a series of programmes. The sessions for this exhibition focus on making change — from smart speakers to media lit-eracy. On October 13, Nic Newman, Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute of the Study of Jour-nalism at the University of Oxford, will discuss the chal-lenges and opportunities that

smart speakers like Alexa and Google Home bring to the news media.

Sumaiya and Yusuf Omar, co-founders of Hashtag Out Story, will speak on October 20 and discuss how the role of social media is fundamentally changing journalism. And on November 10, Phil Rees,

Director of the investigative journalism directorate at Al Jazeera Media Network, will discuss the importance of taking control of media literacy.

Also complementing the exhibition is a publication that delves deeper into the exhi-bition through a collection of contributions from journalists,

broadcasters, critics, educators, and social researchers from around the world.

The Media Majlis is open to the public and accepting private bookings in September and October to support social dis-tancing. Bookings can be made for up to 10 people through the museum’s website.

A view of the exhibition 'Breaking News' at the Media Majlis at Northwestern University in Qatar.

Smartphones have reshaped the practice of journalism and recast the role of the audience as contributors and shapers of news.

04 SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020HOME

Efforts continue to create Alzheimer’s awareness in QatarTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Throughout September, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is supporting World Alzheimer’s Month with a series of public awareness events that underpin the global campaign theme of “Let’s Talk About Dementia”.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions lim-iting public gatherings, this year’s cam-paign features an educational webinar for university students and faculty.

Around the world, Alzheimer’s disease awareness is represented by the colour purple in solidarity with all people living with this disease and on September 21 key landmark buildings in Doha and near the Doha Corniche will be lit up in purple.

Last year, Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) conducted one of the largest-ever global studies on atti-tudes about dementia as a part of ongoing efforts to help reduce stigma and increase awareness about Alzhe-imer’s disease, the most common cause of dementia. Nearly 70,000 people, across 155 countries, including Qatar, took part in the survey.

The findings were published in the World Alzheimer Report 2019: Atti-tudes to Dementia. Some of the most notable findings included that almost 80 percent of the general public are concerned about developing dementia at some point in their life and that one in four people think there is nothing they can do to prevent dementia.

The report also revealed that 35 percent of carers across the world said that they have hidden a family mem-ber’s dementia diagnosis. Over 50 percent of carers globally say their health has suffered as a result of their caregiver responsibilities, even while expressing positive sentiments about their role. Additionally, almost 62 percent of healthcare providers worldwide think that dementia is part of normal ageing and about 40 percent of the general public believe doctors and nurses ignore people with dementia.

ADI research has shown that glo-bally two out of every three people believe there is little or no under-standing of dementia in their country. The impact of World Alzheimer’s Month is growing, but the

stigmatisation and misinformation that surrounds dementia remain a global challenge.

Dr. Hanadi Al Hamad, Qatar’s National Health Strategy lead for Healthy Ageing and Medical Director of Rumailah Hospital and Qatar Reha-bilitation Institute, has been a key driving force in the development of ger-iatric care services and Alzheimer’s awareness in Qatar. Dr. Al Hamad is also the WHO representative for Elderly People Care for the State of Qatar, the Global Dementia Observatory (GDO) focal point, and an executive member of the European Association of Med-icine of Ageing.

“While awareness of dementia is increasing around the world, especially in higher-income countries, under-standing of Alzheimer’s remains low. This has frequently led to a negative impact on patients living with Alzhe-imer’s, their families, and commu-nities,” said Dr. Al Hamad.

“Elderly people with Alzheimer’s often have multiple medical comor-bidities, meaning they have one or more additional diseases or disorders that need medical care. However,

Alzheimer’s symptoms can often make it more difficult to provide even simple care. Often families delay seeking medical support for a family member with Alzheimer’s, or delay getting a diagnosis, due to stigma. However, while there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, an early diagnosis can help people and their families to be better prepared and better cope with the pro-gression of the illness. It can also help them manage other health problems more effectively,” added Dr. Al Hamad.

“Carers, often family members, can be overwhelmed with the

challenges of caring for a relative in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s dementia. They often feel ashamed or conflicted about asking for help or advice because they feel they are obli-gated to provide care to their parent or other elderly relative. We have set up a national helpline to provide con-fidential information and advice for patients living with Alzheimer’s and their families. The RAHA Alzheimer’s and Memory Services Helpline is available on 4026 2222 between 8am and 3pm, from Sunday to Thursday,” said Dr. Al Hamad.

QLM Life and Medical Insurance Company expands global medical networkTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

QLM Life and Medical Insurance Company has announced the expansion of its global medical network based on the company’s keenness to provide the best to its customers. This step highlights the company’s customer focused approach of caring for its customers and upgrading its services.

CEO of Qatar Insurance Group, Salem bin Khalaf Al Mannai said, “QLM is preparing for a major start by developing its products to suit the largest segment of its customer audience. Accordingly, we have expanded our global medical network to include more than 70,000 hospitals and medical centres around the world s p r e a d a c r o s s f i v e continents.”

Salem Al Mannai said, “The development of the company’s

global medical network was completed earlier this year, but w e p o s t p o n e d i t s announcement due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the suspension of international travel. Since travel restrictions are being lifted gradually, we thought that it was time to announce the expansion of the new network, which is con-sidered as one of the largest

medical networks for an insurance company in the region and is comparable in terms of size and excellence of accessibility to major interna-tional insurance companies.”

Salem Al Mannai affirmed that the group is keen to provide a network of medical service providers offering the highest level of quality, efficiency and geographical spread to ensure

the provision of healthcare services to clients all over the world. This indicates that the company aims to expand glo-bally and enter new markets and concludes direct contracts with healthcare service pro-viders around the world as a step in its path towards further growth, he added.

Al Mannai said that QLM will contact its clients to provide

them with details of the global medical network in the near future. QLM Life and Medical Insurance is considered as the largest health insurance company in the State of Qatar and the only specialised company that leads the health insurance sector through its advanced services and flexible insurance programmes that suit all segments of society in the State of Qatar.

Referring to the strength of the newly expanded network, QLM distinguishes itself by its large number of healthcare service providers and its geo-graphical spread that includes all continents. The expanded network contains major hos-pitals, dispensaries, clinics, medical centres, dental and ophthalmology clinics and pharmacies around the world.

QLM provides a help desk with a special representative in

some major countries to help and support customers and facilitate direct payment pro-cedures. Through the integrated mobile phone application, cus-tomers can search for a service provider from QLM’s network of service providers with full details about doctors and their specialities as well as (GPS) location services.

The implementation of the network expansion was com-pleted only after conducting reviews of major hospitals and medical centres before they were included in the network in order to ensure the same quality of healthcare services. The expansion of the network coincides with the company’s willingness to develop its services and upgrade them to the highest level in order to keep pace with the company’s growing customer base at the local and regional level.

Ooredoo launches Nojoom promotion with Kalyan Jewellers

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar’s leading telecommunica-tions provider has launched an exciting autumn promotion with partner store Kalyan Jewellers, which will last throughout the autumn.

Over the next three months, Ooredoo will be offering double Nojoom Points on purchases from Kalyan Jewellers, with an additional gift card worth QR100 for customers spending QR5,000 or more.

The promotion, which builds

on an existing partnership with the jewellery boutique, lasts until December 15 and offers further value to consumers who are part of the Nojoom loyalty programme.

Kalyan Jewellers has a long history of retailing high-quality jewellery in Qatar, offering an array of traditional and contem-porary jewellery designs crafted with gold, diamonds, precious stones and precious metals.

Sabah Rabiah Al Kuwari, Director PR at Ooredoo, said: “We’re delighted to be offering

our customers even more value for their money when they shop at our Nojoom partner store Kalyan Jew-ellers. I t ’s important to us our customers feel valued as part of our com-mitment to com-plete customer satisfaction, and we’re proud to show our appre-ciation for their loyalty with campaigns such as these.” This offer is valid on all purchases at Kalyan Jewellers w i t h t h e exception of gold coins and gold bars.

Home decor became priority during COVID-19SACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

The importance of home decor has increased as COVID-19 has forced more people to stay at home. A survey by Swedish furniture giant Ikea revealed that home decor became a priority with 47 percent people in Qatar focusing on this in the last three months and almost half 48 percent choosing to spend money on their home space rather than saving.

According to the research, almost half of the people in Qatar found themselves spending more time in a different room this year due to COVID-19, with 41 percent using their living rooms to work.

The furniture retail carried out inde-pendent research for the 70th edition of its new catalogue. Ikea’s new 2021 Catalogue, which was launched at a one-of-its-kind virtual event, is created as a handbook that feels like a friendly and optimistic problem-solver full of smart tips, hands-on ideas and small affordable shifts, rooted in real life at home.

It is a way of sharing knowledge and a point of view that a better home creates a better everyday life. The handbook is filled with “how-to’s” that show how creating a better home doesn’t have to be complicated,

expensive or time-consuming.Commenting on the launch, Regional Man-

aging Director, Ikea, Vinod Jayan, said, “Now in its 70th year, the Ikea catalogue 2021 aims to inspire people to live healthier and more sus-tainable lives at home — this has never been as important as it is today. On the path to a better life at home, small steps make a big difference. An armchair, a rug, a potted plant or a lamp can change your mood, day and perspective.”

He continued, “We know that many

people in Qatar have more limited budgets today. That’s why many of the solutions fea-tured in this year’s catalogue are accessible for people with any budget and help them maximise their space and transform their favourite rooms.”

This year’s catalogue comes in both a print version as well as digital version that is opti-mised for different channels and platforms.

General Manager, Marketing and Com-munication, Carla Klumpenaar, said, “The Ikea catalogue 2021 is not just a catalogue — it is a collection of inspiration and knowledge of life at home for all Ikea online and offline channels, for digital and physical touchpoints. We are continuing to develop the global mar-keting channels and at the same time cre-ating content locally to become even more market relevant with a selection of styles, sit-uations, segments and stories.”

Ikea knows that people today want their personalities to be shown in their home. Since multi-function and creativity is key in order to enable both a small space living solution and an expressive design piece, Ikea turned to Greyhound Original. The result is a col-lection influenced by Asia, called SAM-MANKOPPLA which means interconnect or unify. The collection is now out in the stores.

The newly released catalogue of Ikea

While awareness of dementia is

increasing around the world,

especially in higher-income

countries, understanding of

Alzheimer’s remains low. This has

frequently led to a negative impact

on patients living with Alzheimer’s,

their families, and communities.

Dr. Hanadi Al Hamad, Qatar’s National Health Strategy lead for Healthy Ageing and Medical Director of Rumailah Hospital and Qatar

Rehabilitation Institute.

QLM is preparing for a major start by

developing its products to suit the largest

segment of its customer audience.

Accordingly, we have expanded our global

medical network to include more than

70,000 hospitals and medical centres around

the world spread across five continents.

Salem bin Khalaf Al Mannai,

CEO of Qatar Insurance Group

Saving energyA transformer in a residential area at the Old Airport, carrying stickers of Kahramaa’s campaign urging consumers to use LED lights to save energy. Since 2016 Kahramaa started promoting LED lights and the government has banned import and sale of high glowing incandescent tungsten bulbs (75 and 100 watts). The National Programme “Tarsheed” has launched many campaigns to raise awareness about the negative impacts of incandescent lamps and to encourage the use of energy-saving bulbs/lights which consume less energy. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT/THE PENINSULA

MME plants 200 saplings of wild treesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Munici-pality and Environment (MME) represented by the Department of Protection and Wildlife has launched a campaign to plant 200 saplings of wild trees including Al Ghaf, Al Samar, Al Sulam and Al Awsaj at Rawdat Ghafat Makin area.

The campaign came under a project of reha-bilitating the land of the country in cooperation with Public Parks Department, Agricul-t u r a l R e s e a r c h Department and Al Shamal Municipality.

Director of Protect

and Wildlife, Khalid Taleb Al Shahwani and a number of experts from the Department participated in the sapling plantation.

Rawdat Ghanat Makin was fenced and closed in 2017 for con-ducting studies on Qatari endangered Ghaf trees. The area has 11 old Gaf trees and 693 Ghaf plants which are growing naturally.

Meanwhile the Department of Pro-tection and Wildlife at MME seized 10 bird-calling whistles under a campaign. The Ministry called people to void using things which damage environment.

05SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020 HOME

Barwa Real Estate signs MoU with Qatar UniversityTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Barwa Real Estate Group yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Qatar University to enhance and consolidate joint cooperation with the College of Engineering in the field of expertise sharing, scientific research as well as raising the standards of efficient performance.

It will be in accordance with compre-hensive quality standards, specialisations and legislation of the state of Qatar. This is directly addressing the pillars of Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Development Strategy (2018-22).

CEO of Barwa Real Estate Group, Abdullah bin Jobara Al Rumaihi and President of Qatar University, Dr. Hassan bin Rashid Al Derham signed the MoU which will be the basis for this collaboration.

As per the MoU, both Barwa Real Estate and Qatar University will be exchanging knowledge and expertise, as well as information, statistics, data, studies, publications and periodicals which are of interest to both parties.

In addition to the support extended to students of the College of Engineering as part of their graduation projects, prac-tical training, as well as organising joint events, competitions and conferences which serve the aspirations and goals of both parties.

The MoU will provide support in the field of research, scientific studies and

workshops at the College of Engineering through the formation of joint work-shops between the two parties.

Abdullah bin Jobara Al Rumaihi said: “This signing is establishing a new phase of constructive cooperation with Qatar University, the leading educa-tional institution in the fields of aca-demic and research excellence in the region. This will enhance areas of sharing expertise and scientific research, as well as the academic and professional cooperation to support students of the College of Engineering and their training programs.”

He added: “Barwa Real Estate Group always calls for such collaborations and integration with Qatar University, to raise the competitiveness of this vital sector in conducting research and academic studies, in addition to developing the skills of youth who are the main element for the success of long-term devel-opment plans in order to achieve Qatar’s National Vision 2030,.”

Al Rumaihi explained that the MoU with Qatar University will support the different aspects of research and scien-tific studies that will contribute to devel-oping the real estate sector and estab-

lishing its various projects. He added that Barwa has got all the

required expertise, making it a distin-guished and important partner for the university, in order to achieve a scien-tific renaissance and constructive research cooperation that supports the path of students of the College of Engi-neering in the labour market.

President of Qatar University, Dr. Hassan bin Rashid Al Derham com-mented on the cooperation between the two parties, saying: “The signing of this memorandum comes within the framework of Qatar University’s

permanent commitment to community service and cooperation with the private sector on issues that contribute to the development of this sector.”

“The constructive cooperation between Qatar University and Barwa Real Estate Group is diversified and is in line with the two institutions’ plans to develop the capabilities of Qatari youth, and in this context comes the signing of this MoU, which will enable the two parties to exchange experiences and joint research.”

Dr. Al Derham said that the memo-randum also includes cooperation in the field of scientific research, various studies, and field training, all of which are important, as the university seeks to make this partnership an actual beginning for training that ends with the employment of graduates in the various production sites in this important national institution.

CEO of Barwa Real Estate Group, Abdullah bin Jobara Al Rumaihi, and President of Qatar University, Dr. Hassan bin Rashid Al Derham, with other officials during the signing of the MoU.

Ukrainian virtual museum unveils inaugural art exhibitionRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

An art exhibition featuring works by 10 prominent contemporary Ukrainian artists was unveiled online on Thursday serving as the inaugural show of “Ukraine: New Era Art” virtual museum which was recently launched by the Ukrainian Embassy in Qatar.

On show at the exhibition is a rich collection of dozens of stunning art pieces created by Ivan Marchuk, Viktor Sydorenko, Petro Antip, Kateryna Kosy-anenko, Olena Pryduvalova,

Serhiy Gay, Denys Sarazhyn, Andriy Chernovil, Oksana Strati-ychuk and Olesya Dzhurayeva, all of whom are well-known artists who successfully represent Ukraine at different leading inter-national exhibitions and art fes-tivals around the world.

For this exhibition the curators selected works of these outstanding artists which are rep-resentative of different genera-tions, regional schools and forms of art such as painting, drawing and prints, among others.

Running for three months, the exhibition will be accessible

for art lovers through the virtual museum until December 17.

The newly launched arts and culture platform is a product of a joint cultural initiative of the Ukrainian Embassy in Qatar, Cher-novil Art Studio and International Institute for Cultural Diplomacy.

The project was done in coop-eration with Ukrainian artists Andriy and Nadiya Chernovil who are well-known in Qatar, said a statement from the embassy.

“The main goal of this project is to showcase properly modern Ukraine and masterpieces of the Ukrainian artists to the Qatari

and eventually to the wider audience,” said the embassy.

“Ukraine: New Era Art” virtual museum is also devoted to the upcoming 30th anni-versary of the Ukrainian Inde-pendence next year.

“We expect that this new art platform will promote Ukraine and Ukrainian art in the State of

Qatar and will contribute signif-icantly to the development of cul-tural cooperation between our states,” added the embassy.

This initiative also serves as a symbol of new possibilities of the Information Age which, like art, is capable to overcome dis-tances and boundaries and support cultural exchanges

between countries.Art enthusiasts in Qatar can

look forward to more diverse art-works from Ukraine as the virtual museum has announced it will be organising this year and next year a series of new exhibitions which will feature Ukrainian artists and showcase their works to a bigger audience.

Some of the artworks on show at the first exhibition launched by “Ukraine: New Era Art” virtual museum.

The signing of this memorandum

comes within the framework of

Qatar University’s permanent

commitment to community service

and cooperation with the private

sector on issues that contribute to

the development of this sector.

Dr. Hassan bin Rashid Al Derham

President of Qatar University

06 SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020GULF / MIDDLE EAST

Lebanese party offers plan to resolve row over new CabinetREUTERS — BEIRUT

A party founded by Lebanon’s Christian president made a proposal to end a dispute that has blocked the formation of a new cabinet and threatened a French drive to lift the country out of its worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

The proposal, put forward yesterday, involved handing major ministries to smaller sec-tarian groups in a country where power is shared between Muslims and Christians.

There was no immediate

comment from officials in Shia Muslim groups, who have insisted they choose who fills several posts. Lebanon’s efforts to swiftly form a new government have run into the sand over how to pick ministers in a country where political loyalties mostly follow sectarian religious lines.

A September 15 deadline agreed with France to name a cabinet has passed. Paris, which is leading an international push to haul Lebanon back from eco-nomic collapse, has voiced exas-peration and told Beirut to act “without delay”.

The leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, the party founded by President Michel Aoun and allied to Hezbollah, proposed “undertaking an exper-iment to distribute the so-called

sovereign ministries to smaller sects, specifically to the Druze, Alawites, Armenians and Christian minorities”.

The statement was issued after Gebran Bassil, the party

leader and son-in-law of the president, chaired a meeting of the party’s political leadership. Bassil is a Maronite, Lebanon’s largest Christian community.

Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib, a Sunni Muslim under Lebanon’s sectarian system, wants to shake up the leadership of ministries, some of which have been controlled by the same factions for years.

A group of former Sunni prime ministers backing Adib urged the prime minister-des-ignate to press on with forming a government “as

soon as possible.” But the two main Shia groups

— the Amal Movement and the heavily armed, Iranian-backed Hezbollah — want to select the figures to fill a number of posi-tions, including the finance min-ister, a top position often called a “sovereign” ministry.

With the nation buried under a mountain of debt and with its banks paralysed, the finance minister will play a crucial role as Lebanon seeks to restart stalled talks with the Interna-tional Monetary Fund, one of the first steps on France’s roadmap.

Iran’s virus death toll exceeds 24,000REUTERS — TEHRAN

Around half of all coronavirus patients being treated in Iran’s intensive care units are dying, a government health specialist said yesterday. The death toll among those on ventilators is 90 percent.

“In all, 10 percent to 12 percent of hospitalised patients are losing their lives,” Masoud Mardani, a specialist of infec-tious diseases and a member of the government coronavirus task force, told the semi-official ISNA news agency.

He was speaking yesterday as the health ministry said the country’s coronavirus death toll had risen by 166 to 24,118.

Payam Tabarsi, head of infectious diseases at Tehran’s Masih Daneshvari Hospital, said the number of emergency room patients being admitted at his

facility had jumped over the past week from 68 a day to 200. “People are queuing to be admitted,” he was cited as saying by ISNA.

If the trend continues, deaths from coronavirus could reach 600 a day within weeks, he said.

Iran’s total number of con-firmed cases in the last 24 hours spiked by 2,845 to 419,043, health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on state TV.

President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday that a 20 percent decline in public adherence to health protocols had contributed to the spike in infections.

“Today, the health ministry gave a worrying report. The public’s observance, which was 82 percent in earlier weeks, has fallen to 62 percent,” Rouhani

said in remarks broadcast live on state television. He said the ministry report showed a recur-rence of infection among former patients.

Tabarsi called on author-ities to limit school attendance to online classes, saying that in the last few days several stu-dents and teachers had been infected. Schools re-opened on September 5 for 15 million

students after a seven-month closure despite concerns over increased spread of the coro-navirus in the country.

Last month, over one million students sat for a four-day nationwide university entrance exam despite calls to postpone them. Rouhani said no student had tested positive for the virus following the exams.

Three EU nations sayUN sanctions relieffor Iran to continueREUTERS — UNITED NATIONS

Britain, France and Germany told the UN Security Council on Friday that UN sanctions relief for Iran – agreed under a 2015 nuclear deal — would continue beyond September 20, when the United States asserts that all the measures should be reimposed.

In a letter to the 15-member body, the three European parties to the nuclear deal and long-time US allies said any decision or action taken to reimpose UN sanctions “would be incapable of legal effect.” The United States quit the nuclear deal in 2018.

“We have worked tirelessly to preserve the nuclear agreement and remain com-mitted to do so,” said the UN envoys for Britain, France and Germany, adding that they remain committed to “fully implementing” a 2015 Security Council resolution that enshrines the pact, which also included Russia and China.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last month that he triggered a 30-day process at the Security Council leading to a return of UN sanctions on Iran that would also prevent a con-ventional arms embargo on Tehran from expiring on October 18.

But 13 of the Security Council members say Washing-ton’s move is void because it is

no longer a party to the nuclear deal.

The United States say it can make the move because the 2015 Security Council resolution still names it as a participant.

Diplomats say few countries are likely to reimpose the measures, which were lifted under the deal that aimed to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons.

US President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order in the coming days allowing him to impose US sanctions on anyone who violates the UN arms embargo on Iran, sources said, in a bid to reinforce the US assertion that the measure has been extended indefinitely beyond October 18.

Iran President Hassan Rouhani attends meeting over coronavirus in Tehran, yesterday.

Iran Guards vow revenge over Soleimani killingAFP — TEHRAN

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief said yesterday that Tehran will avenge the US killing of its top commander General Qasem Sole-imani by targeting only those involved, in an “honourable” retaliation.

Soleimani, who headed the Guards elite Qods Force, was killed in an American air strike near Baghdad airport in January.

A US media report, quoting unnamed officials, said Iran plans in retaliation to assassinate the American ambassador to South Africa, Lana Marks, before the presidential election in November.

US President Donald Trump threatened Iran this week with a “thousand times stronger” response in case of any attack on his country, following the report.

South Africa’s state security agency said on Friday it had found

no evidence of such a plot against Marks.

Guards’ chief Major General Hossein Salami retorted to the US president.

“Mr Trump, our revenge for the martyrdom of our great com-mander is certain, serious and real, but we are honourable and take revenge with fairness and justice,” he said, quoted by the Guard’s official website Sepahnews.

“You think we would strike at a woman ambassador to South Africa for the blood of our martyr brother? We will target those who were directly or indirectly involved in the martyrdom of this great man,” he said.

“You should know, that we will target whoever was involved... and this is a serious message.” Soleimani was killed in an drone air strike, alongside a top Iraqi commander.

Participants clean trash on a beach in Kuwait City to coincide with the World Clean-up Day, yesterday.

World Clean-up Day marked

SC extends mandate of UN Assistance Mission in Iraq

QNA — BAGHDAD

The Security Council decided unanimously to extend the mandate of the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by ISIS group in Iraq until 18 September 2021.

In unanimously adopting resolution 2544 (2020), the Council took note of the request by Iraq in its September 16 letter (document S/2020/909). It also decided that any further extension would be determined at the request of Iraq’s Gov-ernment, or any other Gov-ernment that has requested the team to collect evidence of acts that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide com-mitted by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) on its ter-ritory, in accordance with res-olution 2379 (2017), UN news centre reported.

Special Adviser and Head of the Investigative Team, Karim Asad Ahmad Khan QC wel-comed the unanimity of the Council’s decision as a demon-stration of the continued col-lective will of the international community and the Gov-ernment of Iraq to work side by side in the pursuit of justice and accountability for the victims

and survivors of ISIS group’s crimes.

Expressing his appreciation for the continued support to the Government of Iraq for the mandate and work of the Team, the Special Adviser underlined the commitment of UNITAD to continue to work closely with Iraqi authorities in the imple-mentation of its mandate.

Special Adviser Khan emphasised that “since the start of our work in Iraq in late 2018, the realisation of our mandate and the fulfilment of the promise made to survivors through Council resolution 2379 (2017) has relied on a unique partnership between our Team, Iraqi authorities, impacted com-munities and all States. I am delighted that, upon the request of the Government of Iraq, the Council has again underlined its unanimous support for this work, and I look forward to building on the progress made to date with our Iraqi counter-parts in the coming year”.

Established through reso-lution 2379 (2017), the Investi-gative Team is mandated to support efforts to hold members of ISIS group accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity and Genocide they committed in Iraq.

Iraq seeks to enforce rule of law: President

ANATOLIA — BAGHDAD

Iraqi President Barham Salih said yesterday that he seeks to enforce the rule of law at the highest level of government.

“The reform process requires the provision of a favourable political climate by holding early elections away from the monopoly of weapons and manipulation so that the people can decide their own future,” he told a conference organised by the Iraqi National Wisdom Movement on vio-lence against women.

“We have many challenges ahead and there is no space for a retreat in holding the corrupt and those who obstruct efforts aimed at rebuilding a country capable of serving the cit-izens,” Saleh said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi, for his part, called on the country’s presidency and parliament to “finish the election law”.

Early elections are scheduled to be held in Iraq in June.

“The Supreme Council for Women will soon be activated and it will be headed by myself with the aim of bringing justice to the Iraqi women,” Al Kadhimi said

US steps up military deployment in SyriaAFP — WASHINGTON

The US Army announced on Friday it was stepping up its military deployment — both troops and equipment — in northeastern Syria despite a push to limit its presence there, a move that follows tensions with Russia in the region.

US Central Command (Centcom) “has deployed Sen-tinel radar, increased the fre-quency of US fighter patrols over US forces, and deployed Bradley Fighting Vehicles to augment US forces” in the area, which is con-trolled by the US and its Kurdish allies, spokesman Captain Bill Urban said in a statement.

The number of armoured vehicles sent as reinforcement did not exceed half a dozen, and “less than 100 people” were sent

to manoeuvre them, a US official who spoke on condition of ano-nymity said.

Without mentioning Russia, Urban said the moves were meant “to help ensure the safety and security of Coalition forces,” and that the US “does not seek conflict with any other nation in Syria, but will defend Coalition forces if necessary.”

The US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said however that the actions “are a clear signal to Russia to adhere to mutual de-confliction proc-esses and for Russia and other parties to avoid unprofessional, unsafe and provocative actions in northeast Syria.”

US Bradley Fighting Vehicles were pulled out of the region last October by President Donald Trump, who tried in early 2019

to recall all US troops from Syria, before agreeing to leave a few hundred to protect oil wells.

Several incidents in recent weeks have pitted the US military against Russian forces now deployed along the Turkish border under an agreement with Ankara. At the end of August, seven American soldiers were injured in a collision with a Russian vehicle.

Videos posted on Twitter, apparently filmed by witnesses and the Russians themselves, showed Russian armour and hel-icopters attempting to block American vehicles and then force them out of the area.

The tanks were flown in from a base in Kuwait, anti-militant coalition spokesman Colonel Wayne Marotto said in another statement.

Kuwait reports 521 new COVID-19 cases, one death

QNA — KUWAIT

Kuwaiti Ministry of Health announced yesterday the regis-tration of 521 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 99,049.

The Ministry also reported one death, bringing the total number of deaths recorded in Kuwait to 581 cases so far.

The Ministry said among the 521 new confirmed cases were contacts with previously con-firmed cases and others under investigation for the source of

infection and examining those in contact with them, pointing out that patients in intensive care units have reached 96.

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health announced earlier the recovery of 722 patients in the past 24 hours, raising the number of recoveries to 89,498.

The proposal, put forward yesterday, involved handing major ministries to smaller sectarian groups in a country where power is shared between Muslims and Christians. There was no immediate comment from officials in Shia Muslim groups, who have insisted they choose who fills several posts.

In a letter to the 15-member body, the three European parties to the nuclear deal and long-time US allies said any decision or action taken to reimpose UN sanctions “would be incapable of legal effect.” The United States quit the nuclear deal in 2018.

07SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Ethiopia files terror charges against opposition leadersAFP — ADDIS ABABA

Ethiopia announced yesterday it was charging leading opposition politicians Jawar Mohammed and Bekele Gerba with crimes including terrorism and incitement to violence, a move that risks further inflaming tensions in the restive Oromia region.

The charges — which could bring life imprisonment — relate to violence that erupted after the shooting death in June of Hachalu Hundessa, a popular singer from the Oromo ethnic group who gave voice to Oromo feelings of political and economic marginalisation.

In the days that followed Hachalu’s June 29 killing, up to 239 people died in inter-ethnic violence and clashes with sol-diers and police that under-scored security challenges facing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Jawar and Bekele were

among more than 9,000 people caught up in subsequent mass arrests that have stoked criticism that Abiy is seizing on the unrest to silence political opponents and critics. The attorney gen-eral’s office announced charges against 24 suspects in a Facebook post yesterday.

These include “trying to incite ethnic and religious based conflict to cause citizens to turn on their fellow citizens”.

Among the other suspects are several high-profile Abiy critics living abroad like prom-inent Oromo activist Tesgaye Regassa and former Abiy

ally-turned-critic Ber-hanemeskel Abebe.

Jawar’s lawyer, Tuli Bayyisa, said yesterday that he had not been informed of the charges but dismissed them as baseless.

“It’s very astonishing. I’m 100 percent sure that, it might take years and years and years, but they will not prove these allega-tions if the law really works,” Tuli said. The attorney general’s statement did not provide details about the charges, but Tuli said in Jawar’s case they seemed to concern a scuffle over Hachalu’s dead body that resulted in the death of a police officer.

“No single witness has con-sistently spoken about any crime... by either Mr Jawar or Mr Bekele,” he said.

Jawar played a central role in anti-government protests that swept Abiy to power in 2018.

Abiy is Ethiopia’s first Oromo leader, but he faces intense crit-icism from Oromo nationalists like Jawar who accuse him of being a

poor advocate for their interests and behaving like a dictator.

Putting Jawar on trial risks fuelling violence in Addis Ababa and in Oromia, the country’s most populous region which surrounds the capital.

Last month security forces shot dead at least five people in a crackdown on demonstrations against Jawar’s detention

triggered by reports he was not receiving proper medical care.

And last October scores were killed after Jawar accused security forces of trying to orchestrate an attack against him.

Jawar and Bekele, both members of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress, are expected to appear in court tomorrow.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ( left ) with Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, Yinager Dessie, during a meeting in Addis Ababa.

Libyan commander rejects Haftar deal on oil productionANATOLIA — TRIPOLI

A Libyan military commander yesterday rejected a deal announced by eastern warlord Khalifa Haftar and Ahmed Maiteeq, the Vice-President of the Libyan Presidential Council, on the resumption of oil production after an eight-month hiatus.

“I reject Haftar-Maiteeq deal on the oil production,” Maj. Gen.

Osama Juili, the commander of the Western Military Zone, told the private Libya Al-Ahrar TV.

“Any unannounced agreement will be doomed to failure,” Juili said, adding that he will wait to see the reactions of members of the Presidential Council and the Tobruk-based parliament over the deal.

On Friday, Haftar said that his militia will let the oil pro-duction resume after an

eight-month blockade. Maiteeq, for his part, said a committee would be formed to ensure fair distribution of oil revenues.

Shortly after Haftar’s announcement, his spokesman Ahmed Al Mismari said an agreement has been reached with Maiteeq.

Libyan local media said that the Haftar-Maiteeq deal was reached in the Russian capital Moscow. There was no

comment from the Tripoli-based Libyan government on the announcement.

Libya’s National Oil Corpo-ration estimates that the blockade imposed the oil facil-ities has cost Libya $10 billion in losses. The NOC has rejected any “politicisation of the oil sector”.

Libya has been torn by civil war since the ouster of late ruler Muammar Qadhafi in 2011. The

Government of National Accord (GNA) was founded in 2015 under a UN-led agreement, but efforts for a long-term political settlement failed due to a mil-itary offensive by forces loyal to Haftar.

Diplomatic efforts have been underway in recent weeks to reach a solution to the Libyan conflict following victories by the Libyan Army against Haftar’s militias.

Cargo plane

crashes at airport

in Mogadishu,

three injured

AP — MOGADISHU

A cargo plane crashed yesterday morning at the international airport in Somalia’s capital, and the country’s transport minister said three of the four crew members on board were injured.

Photos from the scene showed the plane’s cockpit crushed against a concrete barrier just steps from the sea. Transport Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Salad said that the plane had just taken off for Beledweyne town but returned to the airport after having mechanical problems.

Nigerians in EdoState vote to elect new governorAFP — BENIN CITY

Nigerians in the southern state of Edo braved the coronavirus and voted yesterday to elect a new governor in the country’s first poll since the start of the pandemic.

The vote was held as Nigeria struggled to contain the spread of the virus which has so far infected some 57,000 people and claimed almost 1,100 lives.

More than 1.7 million voters in Edo were expected to elect a new governor amid heavy security, with police officers and soldiers screening vehicles on major roads.

Voting began in most polling stations around 9.30am, one hour behind schedule due to late arrival of election personnel and materials.

The majority of stations closed at 3pm, but registered

voters still waiting some centres were allowed to cast their ballots.

“I am happy that people are here with their face masks but physical distancing is com-pletely ignored,” nurse Florence Okonzua, 28 and a mother of two, said in Benin City, the state capital.

She worried that the way voters milled together could help spread the virus.

At another polling centre, a woman distributed free face masks. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, held general elections last year, but there was no governorship poll in Edo. Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said adequate arrangements were in place for the election.

“Everything is set. We have deployed personnel and mate-rials for a smooth and hitch-free poll,” Timidi Wariowei,

state INEC spokesman, said.Final results are expected

today.Although 17 political parties

have fielded candidates for the vote, it is a two-way race b e t w e e n P r e s i d e n t Muhammadu Buhari’s ruling

All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peo-ple’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Incumbent governor Godwin Obaseki of the PDP ran against APC standard-bearer Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

Obaseki was elected on

APC’s platform in 2016 but defected to the PDP after being denied the ticket owing to intra-party squabbles.

Local media reported pockets of violence in some districts, but police said no-one had been hurt.

An official of Independent National Electoral Commission count votes casts after the Edo State governorship elections in Benin City, Midwestern Nigeria, yesterday.

Prosecutor orders probe of virus paymentsin Kenya

AFP — NAIROBI

Kenya’s chief public prosecutor, Noordin Haji, has ordered a probe into $71m in “irregular procurement” linked to the coronavirus by the Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA).

Hard-pressed Kenyan hos-pital staff have staged strikes to highlight what they say are scandalous practices by the authority, which purchases medication and equipment for the nation’s public hospitals.

Three weeks ago, President Uhuru Kenyatta asked the national Ethics and Anti-Cor-ruption Commission (EACC) to investigate contracts granted to influential figures, including politicians, without respect for rules of public procurement.

Its report was submitted Friday to the prosecutor, who concluded that “irregular pro-curement and fraudulent pay-ments” had been made totalling around $71m.

Haji then instructed senior prosecutors “to undertake an independent and compre-hensive review of the file” within two weeks, he said.

The EACC probe has already led to the suspension of KEMSA head Jonah Manjari and supply director Charles Juma.

Several Kenyan busi-nessmen have already been accused of siphoning off around $400m worth of public funds destined to pay for medical equipment needed in the battle against COVID-19.

KEMSA’s overall corona-virus budget is not known.

The virus has infected at least 36,800 people in Kenya, which ranks 137 out of 180 countries on a corruption per-ception index compiled by the non-governmental organisation Transparency International.

Arrested ‘Hotel Rwanda’ hero duped into flying to Kigali: ReportAFP — NAIROBI

Paul Rusesabagina, the polarising hero of the Hotel Rwanda film who was arrested last month in Kigali, was duped into boarding a jet he thought was flying to Burundi, a New York Times report said.

“How I got here - now that is a sur-prise,” he told the US daily in a jailhouse interview with two Rwandan officials in the room. “I was actually not coming here.” Rusesabagina, a Hutu, became famous after the Hollywood film in which he is credited with saving the lives of more than 1,200 people as they sheltered in the hotel he ran during the country’s 1994 genocide.

Some 800,000 mostly Tutsi but also moderate Hutu were killed in the genocide.

The 66-year-old has lived in exile since 1996 and holds both Belgian citi-zenship and a US “green card”.

Over the years, he has become a staunch critic of leader Paul Kagame’s Tutsi-dominated government, accusing his ruling party of authoritarianism and anti-Hutu sentiment.

According to the NYT’s Friday report, Rusesabagina flew from the US to Dubai on August 26, before boarding a private

jet he thought was heading to Bujumbura in Burundi which neighbours Rwanda.

The plane was operated by GainJet, a charter company based in Greece that is often used by Kagame, the report said.

But it landed in Kigali where Ruse-sabagina was arrested. The NYT quoted

Rwanda’s spy chief as saying “he delivered himself here.” He has since been charged with terrorism, financing and founding militant groups, murder, arson and conspiracy to involve children in armed groups.

Rusesabagina says he was heading

to Burundi at the invitation of a pastor, to speak in his churches.

But the NYT was not able to speak to the pastor, and says Rwandan officials believe he was actually heading there to coordinate with armed groups based in Burundi and Congo.

In 2018, Rusesabagina co-founded an opposition group, the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change (MRCD), which is said to have an armed wing called the National Liberation Front (FLN).

In multiple speeches, Rusesabagina has expressed support for the FLN — which has carried out armed attacks and is described as a terrorist organisation by Rwanda -- but the extent of his involvement in its actions is unclear.

“Hotel Rwanda” hero Paul Rusesabagina (second left) is escorted by police officers at the Kicukiro Primary court in Kigali, Rwanda.

Rusesabagina, a Hutu, became famous after the Hollywood film in which he is credited with saving the lives of more than 1,200 people as they sheltered in the hotel he ran during the country’s 1994 genocide.

The charges — which could bring life imprisonment — relate to violence that erupted after the shooting death in June of Hachalu Hundessa, a popular singer from the Oromo ethnic group who gave voice to Oromo feelings of political and economic marginalisation.

Some of these efforts won’t get beyond the research stage. Some may turn out to be too expensive to deploy. And some may take years to have an impact. But the world won’t stop producing and consuming plastic any time soon; total waste volumes are expected to nearly double by 2030. Recycling will be essential to managing all that trash - and that’s no lie.

08 SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMEDm.salim@pen.com.qa

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

EDITORIAL

ON World Day for Safety and Health at Work which falls on September 17 every year, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday concluded a celebration of the 6th Qatar Patient Safety Week. This year celebration held under the theme “Health Worker Safety: A Priority for Patient Safety”, in a powerful gesture to the impor-tance of safety of health workers and acknowledging their critical role in providing health services which are not possible without them.

World Health Organisation estimates that there are more than 136 million involved in health and social services worldwide. As shields, they at the front line in responses to COVID-19, being the most exposed to hazards that put them at risk of infection.

Because of such work conditions, the infection rates among them reached around 14% of coronavirus cases according to latest WHO report. The numbers in some countries lacking personal protective equipment reach 35% making them face high risk of infection and death.

Therefore it is difficult to draw line between safety of patients and safety of health staff, and this prompted the WHO to say: “No country, hospital or clinic can keep its patients safe unless it keeps its health workers safe.”

Exposure to health risk may not be new to health workers dealing with different types of infectious dis-eases, but the COVID-19 has made this year’s chal-lenge a unique one to the healthcare system.

The Qatar Patient Safety Week is an annual event organised by MoPH at the national level since 2014 as an educational and awareness initiative. The Ministry uses the event to highlight several health issues and create a platform to share achievements and promote partnerships keeping abreast of developments in patient safety.

The Minister of Public Health H E Dr. Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari took the advantage of the event to remind the public with role of health workers and expressed her “gratitude to all healthcare workers across the globe that struggled and went out of their way to bring this pandemic under control.”

For marking the event, several landmarks in Qatar were illuminated in orange as a symbolic gesture in rec-ognition of the efforts made by health workers to provide safe healthcare services to patients daily, in addition to getting the community’s attention and send awareness messages to the entire population.

As safety of health workers is critical to ensure con-tinued availability, access and delivery to health services, their great efforts and commitment in particular amid COVID-19 pandemic, deserve appreciation and respect from everyone in Qatar and the entire world.

Saving the saviours

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Quote of the day

It has to be mandatory, all member states have to help when there is a situation when a member state is under pressure, when there is a lot of people that need protection.

Ylva Johansson, EU Home Affairs Commissioner

A woman clears trash by the sea at Tioman Island, Pahang, Malaysia, recently.

Is plastics recycling a lie? That’s the question at the heart of a new investigation into whether Americans have been filling up their blue bins with misplaced hope.

The evidence on the side of recycling doesn’t look good. As far back as 1974, industry insiders were doubting whether plastics could ever be recycled economically. More recently, China’s decision to severely restrict its import of recyclables has left much of

the world looking for new places to send used plastics - and falling short. Most dam-aging of all, waste plastics aren’t valuable, and “never have been,” according to authors of the investigation (a joint undertaking by National Public Radio and PBS’s “Frontline”).

It’s a disturbing story that’s roiling the industry and upsetting environmentalists. But Americans shouldn’t turn their backs on plastic recycling just yet. The production and use of plastics in emerging markets is growing rapidly, and there’s no reason to think that demand will weaken. Without a recycling solution, those tonnages are bound for landfills and incinerators.

Fortunately, the global recycling industry has a history of transforming what was previously “unrecyclable” into useful products. It’s poised to do so again.

Recycling is as old as man-ufacturing. Garments have long been repurposed into rags; swords have been remelted into plough shares. The Industrial Revolution, which created new demand for raw materials to feed fac-tories, transformed this act of personal thrift into a com-mercial enterprise

In early 19th-century Yorkshire, a shortage of wool for the mills led Benjamin Law to develop a process for pro-ducing new fabric from old rags that had accumulated in homes and businesses. By 1855, 30 million pounds of rags were being used in the region each year.

But perhaps the industry’s most important innovation emerged in reaction to one of the 20th century’s biggest - and now forgotten - environ-mental crises: abandoned cars.

In 1970, an engineer at General Motors estimated that over the previous 15 years Americans had abandoned between 9 million and 40 million cars in fields, rivers and city streets.

Among other problems, the cars leaked oil and gas into soil and water, and were such a blot on the landscape that they inspired Lady Bird Johnson’s highway beautification cam-paign. In 1970, President Richard Nixon told Congress that “few of America’s eyesores are so unsightly as its millions of junked automobiles.

So owners took matters into their own hands, dumping their vehicles or occasionally burning them (in the 1950s, auto fires accounted for about 5% of ambient air pollution).Fortunately, a few scrappy entrepreneurs in Texas, seeing an opportunity in all that aban-doned metal, sought an alter-native. Their solution was a complex shredding machine that reduced cars to fist-sized chunks that were separated via magnets and other processes Today, there are hundreds of auto shredders in the US, and nobody spends much time thinking about abandoned cars.

In many respects, plastics present a similar problem. Manufacturers developed them without any plan for dis-posal or recycling. Worse, dif-ferent plastics are often used together and separating them can be uneconomical. Plastics aren’t impossible to recycle - a decade ago, China was home to tens of thousands of small, profitable businesses doing just that - but recycling them in a safe and environmentally sound manner is challenging and expensive.

Five years ago, Chinese demand for American plastics allowed consumers and

regulators to overlook these problems. But thanks to China’s restrictions, as well as heightened awareness of ocean plastics and other negatives associated with the material, manufacturers, regulators and - most important - innovators are finally paying attention. According to one recent analysis, reuse and recycling could be a $60 billion market for the petrochemicals and plastics sector, representing almost two-thirds of its profits growth by 2030.

As a result of all of these factors, the most intensive research-and-development effort in the 200-year history of the recycling industry is underway. Some of this investment comes from the US government, including from a research fund established by the Trump administration. But several intensive commercial efforts are also underway, including the development of plastics engineered to be recycled repeatedly, and enzymes that help to separate different plastics more easily. Chevron is backing an effort to scale-up existing recycling technologies. Perhaps most crucially, other organizations are helping to provide waste collecting and recycling infra-structure to the one-third of the globe that still lacks it.

Some of these efforts won’t get beyond the research stage. Some may turn out to be too expensive to deploy. And some may take years to have an impact. But the world won’t stop producing and consuming plastic any time soon; total waste volumes are expected to nearly double by 2030. Recycling will be essential to managing all that trash - and that’s no lie.

Adam Minter is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist.

AFP — SAN FRANCISCO

Facebook on Thursday said it is updating workplace policy to prevent clashes over politics, racial justice or the pandemic on its internal employee message board.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg discussed the move during a question-and-answer session with employees.

“What we’ve heard from our employees is that they want the option to join debates on social and political issues rather than see them unexpectedly in their work feed,” Facebook spokesman Joe Osborne said in response to an AFP inquiry.

“We’re updating our employee policies and work tools to ensure our culture remains respectful and

inclusive.” Facebook is strengthening its harassment policy so that employees from under-represented commu-nities don’t face hostile work environments, according to Osborne.

The Silicon Valley-based internet titan said will also make it clearer which parts of its Workplace internal message board is for dis-cussing contentious political or social issues, and carefully moderate those conversations.

Facebook’s role in the spread of misinformation, hate, or rhetoric has made those workplace topics as well as issues that employees may have strong personal opinions about.

The tech giant is exploring ways to promote civil, open debates focused on work,

with all involved remaining professional, according to Osborne. Details of how Facebook intends to achieve that goal were still being worked out, he said.

Facebook’s move came on the heels of a CNBC report that Google is calling on workers to more judiciously manage internal message board conversations due to complaints about heated, abusive posts.

A shift to remote work at tech firms has ramped up use of internal message boards for worker collaboration and conversation. A year ago Google updated workplace guidelines for “Googlers,” calling on them to be respon-sible, helpful, and thoughtful during exchanges on internal message boards or other con-versation forums.

“While sharing infor-mation and ideas with col-leagues helps build com-munity, disrupting the workday to have a raging debate over politics or the latest news story does not,” the updated guidelines stated.

“Our primary responsi-bility is to do the work we’ve each been hired to do, not to spend working time on debates about non-work topics.”

Managers or those mod-erating forums were directed to intervene if the policy is violated, revoking comments, ending discussions, or even taking disciplinary action.

The Alphabet-owned internet giant is expanding that moderation scheme to involve more internal dis-cussion groups, according to CNBC.

Don’t give up on recycling plastic

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Facebook moves to cool hot talk on worker message board

Established in 1996

ADAM MINTER BLOOMBERG

09SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020 OPINION

The danger of depoliticising Black Power activism

What a WeChat ban could mean for millions of US usersA file photo of Black Panther Party members demonstrating outside the New York City court on April 11, 1969.

“Black Power!” was an utterance popularised by radical Black activists in the 1960s and 1970s.

Although often ignored ideologically, the iconography of Black Power continues to be circulated in popular culture - without a thorough engagement with the politics that led to its creation.

The glamorisation of Black Power imagery is a phe-nomenon that stretches as far back as the 1960s. However, with the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, it is time that we move beyond our obsession with revolutionary aesthetics and engage with its politics.

In recent weeks, artists Ciara and Teyana Taylor have posted images of themselves on Instagram wearing Black Power-inspired costumes, replicating a 1968 photograph of Black Panther Party (BPP) co-founder Huey P Newton that showed him sitting on a wicker chair wearing the party’s outfit. Both artists were dressed in all-black leather with black sunglasses to match - the only difference being Taylor’s beret and rifle. Despite Ciara and Taylor using their images as symbols of Black pride, they failed to recognise or critically engage with the history and ideology

of Black Power.Formed in 1966, by

Newton and Bobby Seale, the BPP was a revolutionary self-defence organisation formed to safeguard the Black com-munity from police brutality and America’s ubiquitous racism. Members of the party quickly assumed a uniform, which included black leather jackets, black trousers, black berets and black sunglasses. This outfit was adopted due to its militant appearance and its similarity to those worn by revolutionaries such as Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

As frequently expressed in its organisational news-paper, Black Panther, the BPP believed in Black self-defence, self-reliance and self-determination. The organisation placed itself in opposition to white imperial capitalism, which it saw as the cause of societal ine-quality and racial brutality. Despite communicating their objectives through tradi-tional political avenues such as demonstrations and man-ifestos, the Panthers were aware of the political uses of imagery and fashion.

The iconic black uniform served as a visual represen-tation of the organisation’s objectives and principles, as it not only presented the BPP as militant, powerful and revolutionary, but it also gave them visibility at a time when the Black community often felt ignored. Such clothing also served as cultural capital within Black radical circles as it affirmed one’s refusal to assimilate within the dom-inant white culture. Party members, identifiable by their distinct outfits, were frightening to many white Americans, as the authorities deceptively began presenting Black Power advocates as dangerous and violent extremists.

Black Power iconography was not only about clothing but also the natural afro hair-style. The afro became a symbol of the 1960s’ “Black is beautiful” cultural movement. It expressed pride in one’s African features and chal-lenged social norms which largely pressured Black women to conform to Western beauty standards by straightening their hair. During this era, young men

and women began wearing their afro despite pushback from those in mainstream society and even some con-servative members of the Black community.

Black American radical Angela Davis became the embodiment of Black Power after the FBI issued a search warrant for her, falsely charging her with conspiracy to murder. While hiding from the authorities, Davis became a recognisable figure as a mugshot of her wearing her afro was broadcast not only in the US but internationally. In the eyes of the state, Davis represented violent radi-calism, but for many in the Black community, she became a heroine and a represen-tation of Black Power in action.

In the aftermath of her acquittal, Davis became a rev-olutionary style icon and, con-sequently, her image was reproduced as a fashion symbol within radical and mainstream circles. This, as Davis criticised in a 1994 essay, was a disturbing exploitation of her image which erased her radical pol-itics from popular discourse. She noted that there was a “danger that this historical memory may become ahis-torical and apolitical”.

Despite, her protestations in the 1990s, images of Davis

and her afro continue to be co-opted and manipulated today, with fashion label Prada producing a $500

t-shirt, in 2018, with an illus-tration of Davis shouting “Right On!”. Similarly, the British government chose to use images of Davis in their controversial counter-radi-calisation campaign, Prevent.

The irony of an anti-capi-talist and communist being selected on both these occa-sions appears to have been lost on the organisations.

Glamorising Black Power images not only erases the radical politics of the movement, but also leads to a sanitised and inaccurate retelling of the past. Romanti-cising Black Power icons and their aesthetics without criti-cally engaging with the reality of this history often results in a narrative that only recog-nises the successes of the movement and overlooks the lasting pain and trauma of that generation of Black radicals.

In recent interviews, American former Black Panther Denise Oliver-Velez and her British counterpart Beverley Bryan spoke to me about the harsh realities of the Black Power movement. Bryan spoke candidly about the many young people who became “casualties of the movement” and were subse-quently left “broken”. Likewise, Oliver-Velez raised awareness of the older “brothers” who are still being

incarcerated for their involvement in Black radical politics.

Instead of merely focusing on Black Power visuals or nostalgically fawning over its fashion, people should explore the ideologies that underpinned the movement, such as anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism and pan-African solidarity. Such ideas helped form an international movement and provided radical alternatives to the pre-existing systems. The Pan-thers succeeded in raising Black consciousness, chal-lenging police racism and bringing Black struggles to the forefront of political discourse.

However, despite these gains, Black communities around the world are faced with similar issues of institu-tional racism, police brutality and societal marginalisation. Only through serious engagement with the radical politics of Black Power will we be able to draw on our revolutionary predecessors and come up with creative solutions for our current struggles. It is time we focused on politics and not just spectacle.

Bryan Knight is a London-based journalist and oral his-torian. He hosts the Tell A Friend podcast.

BRYAN KNIGHT AL JAZEERA

Black communities around the world are faced with similar issues of institutional racism, police brutality and societal marginalisation. Only through serious engagement with the radical politics of Black Power will we be able to draw on our revolutionary predecessors and come up with creative solutions for our current struggles. It is time we focused on politics and not just spectacle.

Although often ignored ideologically, the iconography of Black Power continues to be circulated in popular culture - without a thorough engagement with the politics that led to its creation.

If you aren’t able to easily find people’s contact info, ask everyone to send you their phone numbers now. Let them know what is happening and share the best way to reach you if the app ceases to work.

At some point on Sunday, an app used by millions of people in the United States could cease to work when a United States government ban goes into effect. Communication and payments app WeChat isn’t as splashy as TikTok, which is also scheduled to be banned, but for the people who use it to stay in touch with their families or do business, the move could be even more devastating.

On Friday, the Commerce Department finally announced the details on how a Trump administration order on Aug. 6 banning the two apps will be executed. As of Sunday, Apple and Google’s app stores will no longer be allowed to offer TikTok and WeChat to users because the Trump administration say-sthey pose an alleged national security risk. And the United States will ban any provision of Internet hosting services, or other network services, that allows the apps to function in the United States starting Sunday for WeChat. (The ban on Internet hosting for TikTok takes effect Nov. 12.)

What does the interna-tional standoff mean for regular WeChat users? Here’s what they should know and do before Sunday’s looming deadline.

Is WeChat a big deal?In a word, yes. The app,

which goes by Weixin inside China, is owned by Chinese company Tencent and has

over a billion users worldwide. As of August, it had 3.3 million active monthly users in the US, according to analytics provider App Annie. The WeChat app has been installed nearly 22 million times through the Apple App Store and Google Play United States since January 2014, according to Sensor Tower, another analytics firm.

It is hard to overstate WeChat’s role in China’s digital ecosystem and in con-necting China to the rest of the world. For Chinese users, it is a super app that serves as a phone book, messaging service, photo album, payment system and news feed in one.

Because China’s Internet is fenced off, WeChat also serves as a crucial link between China and the rest of the world. Facebook, Instagram and many US media outlets are blocked in China, giving people few options when it comes to staying connected with those outside the People’s Republic. Chinese Americans use it to keep in touch with family members back home and American businesses use it to sell products in China. It is a digital bridge.

WeChat is used by families to stay in touch in inexpensive ways that are not easily repli-cated by text messages and phone calls. For many users, especially older generations, pivoting to a new app or using workarounds could be a dif-ficult switch to make. The ban could cut them off, at least temporarily, from loved ones.

Can I still use WeChat?If you already have

WeChat installed on your phone, the app could remain there, but we still don’t know how well it will work and for how long.

People will no longer be able to make financial trans-actions through the app, which is a massive payments platform in addition to a mes-saging tool. Being kicked out of the app stores also effec-tively ends any updates for the app, including critical security patches. That could make WeChat less safe to use as time goes on, and key fea-tures could stop working.

The order could also force Internet service providers to block access to Internet traffic, and other behind-the-scenes companies like hosting services would be required to end their support to WeChat. If that happens, it would be impossible to send messages even if you installed the app before it was banned.

What are the govern-ment’s security concerns?

WeChat’s ubiquity makes it an effective censorship and surveillance tool. Within China, WeChat is heavily censored. Posts about Chinese politics - and many other topics - disappear from the app. Even an emoji can be intercepted as you send it.

When Chinese speakers abroad use the app to read news, they are reading and browsing in a heavily cen-sored news ecosystem, helping Beijing shape com-munities and conversations.

Chinese security personnel also use WeChat to contact, harass and surveil dissidents and exiles, including those in the United States. The Trump administration said the app collects “vast swaths of infor-mation from its users,” which could “allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and pro-prietary information.”

In a statement Friday, Tencent spokesperson Meredith Julian defended the company’s security, saying it “has always incorporated the highest standards of user privacy and data security.”

It is also used by China’s vast domestic security appa-ratus to track and surveil cit-izens. In 2016, a team at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab tested 26,000 keywords on WeChat accounts registered in China, Canada and the United States. It found nearly 200 words that triggered cen-sorship in accounts linked to Chinese phone numbers.

What are the alternatives?

Most popular communi-cation apps used in the US are banned in China, including WhatsApp, Facebook Mes-senger, and Telegram. Encrypted chat app Signal still works in both countries, and another Tencent app called QQ might be unaffected for now.

It’s unknown if going through a VPN will allow WeChat to continue working in its current state on phones in the US. Users in other countries like India that have

banned TikTok have effec-tively used tools like VPNs and switching SIM cards to continue using that app.

There are other more technical options dedicated WeChat users could attempt, like installing the app through non app-store channels, called sideloading. It’s easier to do on an Android phone than an iOS device, but on either platform it comes with increased security risks and is not recommended.

A US governmentofficial told The Washington Post the administration does not intend to prosecute anyone for finding new ways to use the apps.

What should WeChat users do now?

The safest thing to do is back up all contacts and important information from WeChat before the end of the day Saturday. Save contact names, email addresses and phone numbers your phone’s contacts app or even in a spreadsheet. Save any important chats or content that doesn’t exist elsewhere, even if that means just taking images.

If you aren’t able to easily find people’s contact info, ask everyone to send you their phone numbers now. Let them know what is happening and share the best way to reach you if the app ceases to work.

Emily Rauhala writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. Heather Kelly is a reporter covering the ways technology affects everyday life.

HEATHER KELLY & EMILY RAUHALA THE WASHINGTON POST

10 SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020ASIA

India arrests 9 Al Qaeda men planning attacksREUETERS & IANS — NEW DELHI

India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) said yesterday it has arrested nine Al Qaeda militants who were planning attacks in several locations including the capital New Delhi.

“The group was planning to undertake terrorist attacks at vital installations in India with an aim to kill innocent people and strike terror in their minds,” the country’s main counter-terrorism arm said in a statement.

Those arrested “were moti-vated to undertake attacks at multiple places” including the capital region.

Six of the militants were arrested in the eastern state of West Bengal and while three in the southern state of Kerala, the NIA said, adding the individuals were “associated with Pakistan sponsored module of Al Qaeda”.

India has stepped up an offensive against militants in the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir and elsewhere.

In the latest raids, the NIA seized sharp weapons, domes-tically made firearms and locally fabricated body armour. The nine militants will be pro-duced in court for police custody and further investi-gation, the agency said.

The Al Qaeda men have been identified as Murshid Hassan, Yakoob Bishwas and Morshraf Hussien, all three res-idents of Ernakulam. They were picked up from Kochi. While Najmus Sakib, Abu Sufiyan,

Mainul Mondal, Leu Yean Ahmed, Al Mamun Kamal and Atitur Rehman, were all resi-dents of Murshidabad.

These men were from diverse walks of life from second year graduate student to farmer, tailor, cook, elec-trician, computer science graduate.

Those arrested from Kerala were also originally from West Bengal. A man who was staying in the same building as Hassan, said the men came to stay on rent during the pandemic-induced lockdown.

An NIA official related to the probe said: “These terrorists were planning to go to Kashmir for weapons delivery to their handlers.” They had amassed potassium nitrate from fire-crackers bought in large amount.

“During the raids the agency got huge cache of fire-crackers. They bought the fire-crackers to hide procurement

of huge amount of potassium required to make the IEDs,” a senior NIA official related to the probe said.

The agency has registered a case on September 11. “NIA also recovered the crude IEDs along with the switches, bat-teries etc from terrorist Sufi-yan’s residential premises in Murshidabad,” the official said.

The official said that Hassan was the main leader of the terror module. The NIA also recovered sharp weapons, country-made firearms, a locally fabricated body armour, articles and literature used for making home-made explosive devices from their possession.

Kerala Police discovered that Hussien was in Kerala for the past one decade and was working in a textile shop at Perumbavoor, near Aluva. While Hassan started to live in Kerala since the beginning of the nationwide lockdown.

According to NIA officials, Hassan was casual labourer, Bishwas was sales man in gar-ments shop, Hussein was a cook, Rahman has been pur-suing graduation and is a second year arts student, Sufiyan is engaged in farming and was a tailor earlier, Ahmed is an electrician in a college, Mondal is a cook, Sakib is pur-suing graduation in computer science and Mamun is a mason and also a driver.

Last year, Indian forces killed the leader of an Al Qaeda-affiliated militant group in Kashmir, triggering protests in parts of the disputed region.

A health worker (right) takes a swab sample from a man for a COVID-19 test along a road in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, in India, yesterday.

Virus: India may shorten House sessionREUTERS — NEW DELHI

India’s Parliament session that began this week is likely to be cut short after 30 lawmakers were found infected with the coronavirus, two senior parliament officials said, as the number of cases in the country rose to 5.3 million.

The Indian Parliament met for the first time in six months on September 14 and was to function until October 1, but the two officials said its duration could be reduced by a week.

“Since the commencement of the session the number of positive cases have gone up so the government is thinking of cutting short the session,” said

one of the two officials, who are involved in the functioning of parliament proceedings.

The government has also mandated daily tests for jour-nalist entering parliament to cover the session from Saturday.

Piyush Soperna, joint director at the country’s upper house’s secretariat, said in an email response that it has no information on the issue of pre-maturely ending the parliament session next week.

India, which recorded 93,337 new infections in the last 24 hours, has been posting the highest single-day caseload in the world since early August, according to a tally.

India is the second-most

badly hit country after United States with total recorded coro-navirus cases at 5.3 million.

However, deaths in India have been relatively low.

The virus has killed 1,247 people in last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 85,619, government data showed on Saturday.

The lawmakers who have been infected include Nitin Gadkari, highways and medium and small enterprises minister in Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi’s cabinet.

On Wednesday, India’s federal government ordered its states not to hoard oxygen sup-plies and allow free movement to cope with the rising number of cases.

Japan’s former

PM Abe visits

Yasukuni Shrine

for war dead

REUTERS — TOKYO

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine for war dead yesterday, his first visit since December 2013, after refraining from doing so for most of his term to avoid angering China and South Korea.

Abe announced the visit on his official Twitter account along with a photo of himself at the shrine, just days after Yoshihide Suga succeeded him as Japan’s leader. Japan’s longest-serving leader announced his resig-nation in late August, citing health problems.

The shrine is seen by Beijing and Seoul as a symbol of Japan’s past military aggression because it honours 14 Japanese wartime leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal as well as war dead.

Abe had visited the shrine in person once during his last tenure as prime minister but regularly sent offerings via an aide on the anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War Two and during the shrine’s spring and autumn festivals.

His pilgrimage to the shrine in 2013 sparked outrage in South Korea and China and an expression of “disap-pointment” from the United States.

Yesterday, South Korea’s foreign ministry released a statement expressing “deep concern and regret” that Abe paid respect at the shrine “immediately” after his resig-nation as prime minister.

Suga, who was the chief government spokesman under Abe, was not among the Abe cabinet ministers who visited the shrine on the 75th anni-versary of the end of World War Two on August 15.

Suga made a visit to the shrine in August 2011, according to a post on his official blog, well before becoming the Abe govern-ment’s chief cabinet secretary in December 2012.

Washington and Tokyo have become close security allies in the decades since the war’s end but its legacy has left scars in East Asia.

Thousands attend Bangladesh religious leader’s funeralAFP — DHAKA

Tens of thousands of people gathered to mourn the leader of Bangladesh’s largest Muslim group as his funeral was held yesterday in a rural south-eastern town, police said.

Allama Shah Ahmad Shafi, who had led the Hefazat-e-Islam group since it was formed in 2010, died of age-related complications on Friday in the capital Dhaka. He was believed to be over 100 years old.

His death came just a day

after an unprecedented revolt involving thousands of students at his highly influential madrasa, or Islamic school, forced him to resign after three decades as its chair.

Shafi made his mark in national politics when he

marched tens of thousands of his followers into central Dhaka in May 2013, demanding harsh blasphemy laws and the exe-cution of atheist bloggers.

That rally ended bloodily when police evicted his fol-lowers from the capital’s main commercial centre. Around 50 people were killed in clashes with security forces — most of them shot dead — in some of the worst political violence the country had ever seen.

Yesterday, after Shafi’s body was brought back to his school in Hathazari outside the port city of Chittagong, vast crowds of his followers rushed to the town to pay their respects.

Local TV stations aired live footage of people, mostly men in religious dress, packing roads and spaces in and around the school.

“Some 150,000 people have already gathered here on the madrassah ground, in the buildings and out on the roads to his funeral prayers,” regional police chief Anwar Hossain said. Shafi’s supporters said the turnout was far higher.

As supreme leader of Hefazat-e-Islam, Shafi oversaw its growth into the South Asian country’s biggest Muslim group

with millions of supporters.Bangladesh is 90 percent

Muslim and Shafi drew on support from seminaries at the tens of thousands of Islamic schools in the conservative nation of 168 million people.

His followers saw him as a key defender of the faith, but to his critics he was known as the “Tamarind Cleric”, who wanted to roll back the secular char-acter of modern Bangladesh.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina praised Shafi’s contri-bution to the expansion of Islamic education in the country in a statement.

Shafi’s unceremonious res-ignation as head of the madrassah — which is con-sidered the heart of conserv-ative Islam in Bangladesh —took place on Thursday night after a two-day long demon-stration at the school.

Up to 3,000 madrassah stu-dents took part in the revolt, a police spokesman said, which was triggered by the sacking of three madrassah teachers, allegedly orchestrated by Shafi’s powerful son Anas Madani.

The students also forced Madani’s sacking from the school.

Followers of Shah Ahmad Shafi, chief of the Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh group, gather around a vehicle transporting his mortal remains as they come to offer him a funeral prayer in Chittagong, yesterday.

Victoria records fewest virus cases since JuneREUTERS — SYDNEY

The Australian state at the centre of the country’s corona-virus outbreak yesterday reported its lowest daily increase of infections in three months, putting it on course to relax a hard lockdown in the capital city by the end of the month.

Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state and home to a quarter of its 25 million people, recorded 21 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19 in the prior 24 hours, less than half the previous day’s number and its lowest since June 24.

“Those numbers tell a pow-erful story of what can be achieved when you stay the course, when you don’t get sidetracked by some of the loudest voices, who I under-stand are hurting and want to open up,” state Premier Daniel Andrews told a news conference.

“We would all like to open up as quickly as possible, but we won’t be open for very long if we don’t first get these numbers down to a low level.” New South Wales, the largest state and home to largest city Sydney, reported three new cases. The six other states and territories had not reported daily case numbers on Saturday but in recent weeks they have had single-digit or zero case increases.

Victoria reported seven new COVID-19 deaths, taking the national total to 844, according to government figures. The state has had 90 percent of Australia’s corona-virus-related deaths.

Australia has reported just under 26,900 infections. The country had largely escaped the high casualty numbers of many others as the virus swept the world, but a second wave in Victoria put the country on high alert and prompted most states to close their internal borders.

Flurry of activity fuels speculation of North Korea weapons testREUTERS — SEOUL

Analysts and security officials say they are watching for signs that North Korea may use an upcoming holiday to unveil new weapons or test fire a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), after a flurry of activity was detected at a key base.

Formations of troops have been seen practicing for what is expected to be a major mil-itary parade on October 10, the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. Some observers say North Korea may showcase its largest missiles for the first time since 2018.

Imagery analysts and security officials caution that so far there is no conclusive evi-dence of an impending launch. But after several typhoons lashed North Korea in early Sep-tember, satellite photos have shown a flurry of activity at the Sinpo South Shipyard, including in a secure basin where a barge used in previous underwater

missile launches is docked.“We’re monitoring devel-

opments, as there is a possibility that a submarine-launched bal-listic missile test will be con-ducted there using ejection equipment shortly after the repair is done,” Won In-choul, the nominee for chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers this week.

Other South Korean offi-cials have sounded more cau-tious notes, including incoming South Korean defence minister General Suh Wook, who said on Monday that he considered an SLBM test unlikely because there is too little time to prepare ahead of the anniversary.

On Thursday, Daily NK, a Seoul-based website that reports on North Korea, cited a single unnamed source near the shipyard as saying the site “is bustling with activity to prepare for the ballistic missile launch,” with officials and researchers arriving since late August.

38 North, a US-based think

tank, said in a report on Wednesday that imagery showed “heavy activity” at the shipyard, but that “no other indi-cators of launch preparations were observed.” On Thursday the group reported that the missile barge, which had disap-peared from view after the storms, likely after being repo-sitioned under a protective awning, had reappeared.

Although the activity does suggest some kind of work is being done on the missile barge, it would also be consistent with basic repair work after the storm, said Dave Schmerler, a senior researcher at the James Martin Center for Non-proliferation Studies.

On September 4, the US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said satellite imagery showed activity at Sinpo that was “suggestive, but not con-clusive, of preparations for an upcoming test of a Pukguksong-3 submarine launched ballistic missile from the submersible test stand barge.”

“During the raids the agency got huge cache of firecrackers. They bought the firecrackers to hide procurement of huge amount of potassium required to make the IEDs,” a senior NIA official related to the probe said.

11SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020 ASIA

Thai protesters demand democratic reformsAP — BANGKOK

Thousands of demonstrators defied police warnings and occupied a historic field in Thai-land’s capital yesterday to support the demands of a student-led protest movement for new elections and reform of the monarchy.

Organisers predicted that as many as 50,000 people would take part in the two-day protest in an area of Bangkok histori-cally associated with political protests. A march is planned for Sunday.

The early arrivals at Sanam Luang, a large field that has hosted major political demon-strations for decades, were a disparate batch, several with their own flags. Red flags sprouted across the area, rep-resenting Thailand’s Red Shirt political movement, which battled the country’s military in Bangkok’s streets 10 years ago.

By the time the main speakers took the stage in the evening, reporters estimated that around 20,000 people were present. People were still arriving as the nighttime program continued.

At least 8,000 police officers reportedly were deployed for the event, which attracted the usual scores of food and sou-venir vendors.

“The people who came here today came here peacefully and

are really calling for democracy,” said Panupong Jadnok, one of the protest leaders. “The police have called in several companies of officers. I believe they can make sure the people are safe.”

Demonstrators wore face masks but ignored a Thursday night plea from Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to cancel the event, which he said risked spreading the coronavirus and derailing the recovery of Thai-land’s battered economy.

The core demands declared by the protesters in July were

the dissolution of parliament with fresh elections, a new con-stitution and an end to intimi-dation of political activists. They have held a series of rallies since then.

They believe that Prayuth, who as then-army commander led a 2014 coup toppling an elected government, was returned to power unfairly in last year’s general election because the laws had been changed to favour a pro-military party. A constitution promulgated under military rule is likewise undem-ocratic, they charge.

The activists raised the stakes dramatically at an August 10 rally by issuing a 10-point manifesto calling for reforming the monarchy. Their demands seek to limit the king’s powers, establish tighter controls on palace finances and allow open discussion of the monarchy.

Their boldness was virtually unprecedented, as the mon-archy is considered sacrosanct in Thailand. A lese majeste law calls for a prison sentence of three to 15 years for anyone found guilty of defaming the royal institution.

The students are too young to have been caught up in the sometimes violent partisan political battles that roiled Thailand a decade ago, Kevin Hewison, a University of North Carolina professor emeritus and a veteran Thai studies scholar,

said in an email interview.“This is why they look and act

differently and why they are so confounding for the regime,” Hewison said. “What the regime and its supporters see is relatively well-off kids turned against them and this confounds them.”

The appearance of the Red Shirts, besides boosting the pro-testers’ numbers, links the new movement to the political bat-tling that Thailand endured for a large part of the last two

decades. The Red Shirts were a movement of mostly poor rural Thais who supported populist billionaire Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra after the army ousted him in a 2006 coup. Thaksin was opposed by the country’s traditional royalist establishment.

The sometimes violent sub-sequent struggle between Thak-sin’s supporters and foes left Thai society polarised. Thaksin, who now lives in exile overseas,

noted on Twitter yesterday that it was the anniversary of his fall from power and posed the rhe-torical question of how the nation had fared since then.

“If we had a good gov-ernment, a democratic gov-ernment, our politics, our edu-cation and our healthcare system would be better than this,” said protester Amorn Pan-urang. “This is our dream. And we hope that our dream would come true

Anti-government protesters take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok, Thailand, yesterday.

Philippines’

Duterte keeps

one metre social

distancing rule

REUTERS — MANILA

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has decided to retain the one metre social distance requirement on public transport to reduce coronavirus infecions, rejecting moves to reduce it to 30 centimetres, his spokesman said yesterday.

Health experts have warned that reducing gaps between passengers in trains, buses and jeepneys could result in a surge of infections in the Philippines, which has the most confirmed COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia.

Duterte studied recom-mendations and decided to retain the one metre dis-tancing requirement, including a ban on eating and speaking in public transport, presi-dential spokesman Harry Roque told state-run PTV4 network. Passengers still need to wear face shield and mask at all times, he added.

The transport ministry, which cut the distance to 75cm on Monday, 50cm on Sep-tember 28 and 30cm on October 12 to accommodate more passengers returning to work as the economy gradually reopens, said it will comply with the president’s decision.

“We shall aggressively comply and strictly enforce the 1-metre physical distancing in all public transport as envi-sioned and mandated,” the transport ministry said in a statement yesterday.

The World Health Organi-zation recommends at least 1 metre of distancing to avoid the spread of the virus. Manila’s transport systems are notori-ously crowded, with commutes typically involving long queues and several changes.

Experts and medical pro-fessionals have described as dangerous and premature a reduction in distancing requirement, warning it could prolong a first wave of infec-tions that the Philippines has been battling since March.

US diplomat wraps up Taiwan visit as China flexes muscleAFP — TAIPEI

A top US diplomat attended the funeral for former Taiwan pres-ident Lee Teng-hui yesterday which featured a eulogy by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama before wrapping up a visit overshadowed by Chinese military exercises.

Keith Krach, undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, was the highest-ranking State Department official to visit Taiwan since 1979 when Wash-ington switched diplomatic rec-ognition to Beijing.

The trip, the second high-ranking US visit in as many months, sparked an immediate

rebuke from China, which baulks at any recognition of Taiwan and has mounted a decades-long policy of margin-alising the democratic island.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused China of “mil-itary blustering” as Beijing con-ducted military exercises on Friday near the Taiwan Strait during Krach’s visit.

Chinese fighters and bombers crossed the so-called median line dividing the Strait and entered Taiwan’s southwest air defence identification zone (ADIZ) for a second straight day on Saturday, Taiwan’s defence ministry said as it scrambled fighters in response.

China’s “provocative actions

have violated our sovereignty and seriously damaged the status quo of peace and stability in the strait and the region,” it said.

Krach attended the memorial service for Lee, sitting next to former Japanese prime minister Yoshiro Mori, before he is due to leave Taiwan later Saturday after a three-day visit.

Krach did not make any remarks at the service while in a pre-recorded video the Dalai Lama praised Lee’s com-mitment to democracy.

“I admire his commitment to democracy and freedom... as his close friend I always remember him and as a Bud-dhist I always pray,” he said.

Like Lee, the Dalai Lama is

also branded a “splittist” by Beijing which accuses him of seeking Tibet’s independence from China.

Lee, who died in July aged 97, was a towering figure in Tai-wan’s history, helping the once authoritarian island transition to a vibrant democracy and later angering China by pushing for it to be recognised as a sov-ereign country.

China considers self-ruled Taiwan part of its territory, to be absorbed into the mainland — by force if necessary.

Beijing has ramped up dip-lomatic, economic and military pressure on Taiwan since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who rejects its view

that the island is part of “one China”.

Washington’s increased out-reach to Taiwan under President Donald Trump has become yet another flashpoint with China as the countries clash over a range of issues of trade and security issues, as well as the coronavirus pandemic.

On Friday, Krach held closed-door meetings with Tai-wan’s premier and other top officials before joining Pres-ident Tsai for dinner at her official residence.

“I’m sure the productive dis-cussions we had today will bring Taiwan & the US even closer together & open the door to further collaboration,” Tsai tweeted.

Workers stand on artificial sand or crushed dolomite, dumped on a portion of Manila Bay as part of the government’s efforts to rehabilitate and beautify the polluted coastline, in Manila, Philippines, yesterday.

Manila Bay gets fake white sand makeoverREUTERS — MANILA

Residents of the Philippines’ capital yesterday flocked to an artificial white sand beach that the government has trans-formed from a polluted stretch of shoreline to mark Interna-tional Coastal Cleanup day.

Despite opposition from environmental campaigners, President Rodrigo Duterte’s gov-ernment has filled a 500-metre stretch of coastline beside the

US embassy in Manila with sand made from tonnes of crushed dolomite boulders from central Philippines.

Manila Bay is a 60km semi-enclosed estuary facing the South China Sea. Its waters are heavily polluted by oil, grease and trash from nearby residential areas and ports. The use of artificial sand has been met with criticism, with environmental groups saying the facelift focuses only on aesthetics and has little to do

with rehabilitation.Fernando Hicap, President

of fisherfolk group Pamalakaya, said that the pollution was killing fish stocks in the bay. “There is still so much garbage,” he said.

Despite fears that dolomite could be a health hazard, Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso assured the public that the cleanup and beautifi-cation project is not a threat to residents’ well-being.

Slim chance of secondvirus wave in PakistanANATOLIA — KARACHI

The latest study by Pakistan’s leading blood diseases institute suggests there is a slim chance of a second wave of the novel coronavirus here, further strengthening the government’s policy of reopening of busi-nesses.

The cross-sectional study conducted from May to July at the National Institute of Blood Diseases (NIBD) Karachi, has been published by the Oxford University Press’s Journal of Public Health.

Titled, “Challenges in acquiring herd immunity for COVID-19,” the study con-ducted by a team of microbiol-ogist, hematologists and pathologists, led by Dr. Samreen Zaidi, includes nearly 1,700 people from three groups — health care, community and industrial workers.

It included adult male and female participants, who ranged in age from 18 to 60.

The study conducted to assess antibodies levels in diverse a group of residents to comprehend prevalence in the community, revealed that 36 percent of the workforce of Karachi, the country’s largest city and commercial capital, have already developed immunity against the COVID-19.

“This study has been insti-gated to evaluate the seroprev-alence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 anti-bodies in different healthcare and community population from Karachi and with the aim of assessing the importance of seroprevalence in these groups,” the report said.

The overall seroprevalence or the immunity rate, it added, is found to be 36 percent with highest positivity in industrial employees (50.5%), whereas

only 13 percent of health care workers tested positive.

Moreover, the community that comprised of healthy blood donors and walk-in patients for antibody testing had a 34 per cent positivity rate.

Seroprevalence is the inci-dence of a disease or illness within a distinct population at one time, as measured by serology tests. The seropreva-lence rate, the study pointed out, identified in the US popu-lation varies from 1.9 to 6.9 percent, which is very low compared to Pakistan.

The seropositivity rates reported were 10.8 percent and five percent from Switzerland and Spain, respectively.

The study showed that one-third of Karachi’s industrial populat ion developed immunity against the COVID-19, which is still far from the 60 percent to 70 herd immunity that is needed.

“In addition, if we consider acquiring 60 percent of sero-prevalence in next couple of months, then herd immunity is not far from reality provided the antibodies did not decline with time,” the report said. “The present study raises the possi-bility that if 36 percent of adult population of Karachi is sup-posed to be seropositive, then we can hypothesize that in the next 2-3 months 60 percent of general population will become seropositive (immune).” However, according to Dr. Samreen Zaidi, follow up studies show that the seroprev-alence rate has reached 60 percent, as per expectations.

“We, on the basis of a gradual drop in cases, and other relevant factors, assume that there are low chances of a second wave of coronavirus, “ Zaidi said.

Hekmatyar keen to join hands with TalibanANATOLIA — KABUL

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, veteran Afghan mujahideen leader and head of the Hezb-e-Islami party, has expressed his will-ingness to form an alliance with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

“Hezb-e-Islami is ready for direct talks with the Taliban, as well as for partnership and cooperation. We believe that if

these two groups join hands, the crisis in Afghanistan will end soon and no force will be able to stand against it,” he told sup-porters at the party’s head-quarters in the capital Kabul yesterday.

“When the first round of talks between Kabul [the Afghan government] and the Taliban is completed, we are ready for the Hezb-e-Islami

and the Taliban to start talks. The decision now rests with the Taliban.” The Taliban, engaged in landmark direct talks with the Afghan government since last Saturday, is yet to comment on the offer.

Hekmatyar asserted that the Afghan government was “weak and divided,” while the Taliban and Hezb-e-Islami “share mutual beliefs, values, and

ideology.” Earlier this month, he said the US had realized that its presence in Afghanistan had resulted in nothing but financial and human losses.

“They [Americans] want a deal with the Taliban - imple-mented soon and without delay - and the Kabul government has also been told that the agreement will be implemented [even if they oppose it],” he said.

The appearance of the Red Shirts, besides boosting the protesters’ numbers, links the new movement to the political battling that Thailand endured for a large part of the last two decades. The Red Shirts were a movement of mostly poor rural Thais who supported populist former PM Thaksin Shinawatra.

12 SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020EUROPE

UK risks new lockdown as virus cases hit highest since MayREUTERS — LONDON

Britain is likely to need to reintroduce some national coronavirus lockdown measures sooner rather than later, a leading epidemiologist said yesterday, as new cases rose to their highest level since early May.

Neil Ferguson, a professor of epidemiology at London’s Imperial College and a former government adviser, told the BBC the country was facing a “perfect storm” of rising infec-tions as people return to work and school.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that he did not want another national lockdown but that new restric-tions may be needed because the country was facing an “inev-itable” second wave of COVID-19.

“I think some additional measures are likely to be needed sooner rather than later,” Ferguson said.

Ministers were on Friday reported to be considering a second national lockdown, with new COVID-19 cases already at their highest in months, hospital admissions rising and soaring infection rates across parts of northern England and London.

“Right now we’re at about

the levels of infection we were seeing in this country in late February, and if we leave it another two to four weeks we’ll be back at levels we were seeing more back in mid-March, and that’s going to - or could - cause deaths,” Ferguson said.

Government data yesterday showed 4,422 new cases, 100 more than on Friday and the highest daily total since May 8, based on positive test results.

The true rate of infection is likely to be higher. Britain’s sta-tistics agency said on Friday that around 6,000 people a day in England alone probably caught the disease during the week to September 10, based

on its random testing.Scotland’s First Minister

Nicola Sturgeon asked Johnson to meet her and the leaders of the devolved governments of Wales and Northern Ireland within the next 48 hours to try to ensure coordinated measures across different parts of the United Kingdom.

“We know from experience earlier in the year that speed and decisiveness of action is important in the fight against COVID,” she said.

Britain has suffered Europe’s highest death toll from COVID-19, with more than 41,000 deaths on the govern-ment’s preferred measure.

The sharp increase in infec-tions has not yet led to a similar rise in new fatalities - in part because cases have been con-centrated among younger people - but hospital admissions are now beginning to rise.

More than 10 million people in parts of northern and central England are already under some form of lockdown restriction, such as a ban on inviting friends or family to their homes, or visiting pubs and restaurants after 10 p.m.

London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, said on Friday that tighter lockdown measures were becoming “increasingly likely”

for Britain’s capital.Police broke up a protest in

central London yesterday of more than 1,000 people opposed to existing lockdown measures, as the event did not comply with rules limiting public gatherings.

Ferguson served on the gov-ernment’s main scientific advisory board until May, when

he stepped down after breaking lockdown rules himself.

He said future lockdown restrictions did not need to be as strict as those introduced in March to be effective in slowing the renewed spread of the disease.

Britain’s capacity to test for coronavirus infections has also come under strain since schools

in England reopened this month, with many people reporting that tests were una-vailable or only possible at loca-tions hundreds of miles away.

“We have a perfect storm right now, of people — as they have been told to do — getting back to normal, schools reo-pening, a surge in cases,” Fer-guson said.

Demonstrators gather at Trafalgar Square to protest against measures taken to contain spread of new coronavirus, in London yesterday.

UK’s Labour ties with Conservatives for first time since 2019: PollREUTERS — LONDON

Britain’s opposition Labour Party has caught up with the governing Conservatives for the first time since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister in July last year, a YouGov opinion poll showed.

Data released late on Friday showed the Conserv-atives and Labour both on 40

percent support, based on online polling of 1,618 adults conducted on September 16 and September 17.

A previous YouGov poll on September 9 showed the Con-servatives on 42 percent and Labour on 37 percent.

This is the first time YouGov, one of Britain’s main polling organisations, has shown Labour level with the

Conservatives since May 2019, just before Theresa May said she would resign as prime minister and while Jeremy Corbyn still led Labour.

A poll by Opinium on Aug. 30 also showed the two parties level.

Johnson became prime minister in July last year and in December won the

Conservatives their largest election victory since 1987, gaining an 80 seat majority which is likely to keep them in power until at least 2024.

However Johnson’s pop-ularity has fallen since December, due largely to growing public concern about his government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Faced with a choice

between Johnson and Labour’s new leader Keir Starmer - a former chief prosecutor who succeeded Corbyn in April - 35 percent of those polled said they preferred Starmer, while 30 percent favoured Johnson.

Labour begins its annual party conference this weekend, while the Conserv-atives hold theirs from October 3-6.

Raab’s bodyguard

suspended after

gun left on plane

REUTERS — LONDON

London’s police force said yesterday it had suspended an officer tasked with guarding British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab, following a newspaper report that the officer had left a loaded gun on a plane.

The incident is the second time this year that a British police officer has been suspended in similar circumstances. One of former Prime Minister David Cameron’s bodyguards mislaid his firearm and Cameron’s passport in a plane toilet in February.

Britain’s Sun newspaper said a cleaner at London’s Heathrow Airport found a semi-automatic Glock 19 pistol on a United Air-lines plane which had just landed after an overnight flight from Washington.

Raab had been travelling back to Britain on the flight after meeting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

“We are aware of the incident on a flight into the UK on Friday 18 September and we are taking this matter extremely seriously,” London’s Metro-politan Police said in a statement.

“The officer involved has since been removed from oper-ational duties whilst an internal investigation into the circum-stances is taking place,” it said.

The Sun said the officer had been sorting out passports when he took off his holster with the pistol in it, and left it on the seat of the plane.

A police spokesman said he could not comment on the details of the Sun’s report.

France reports new daily record in COVID-19 casesREUTERS — PARIS

France reported 13,498 new confirmed COVID-19 cases over the previous 24 hours, setting another record in daily addi-tional infections since the start of the epidemic.

The new cases pushed the cumulative total to 442,194 as the seven-day moving average of daily new infections rose to more than 9,700, compared with a low of 272 at the end of May, two weeks after the lockdown was lifted.

A faster circulation of the virus and a six-fold increase in testing since the government made it free are the two main reasons for the scale of the increase, epidemiologists have said.

The number of people in France who have died from COVID-19 was up by 26 yes-terday at 31,274, a growth

significantly lower than regis-tered the previous day.

Health authorities reported a sudden jump in the country’s daily death toll from COVID-19 on Friday because of unre-ported cases in one hospital near Paris.

The health ministry reported on Friday that the total number of deaths from COVID-19 increased by 154 to 31,249, a four-month high in the daily death toll and triple the levels of the past week.

That figure included 76 deaths registered in a hospital near Paris, according to an explanatory note issued online by Santé Publique France, the country’s national health agency that reports new COVID-19 cases every day.

These previously unre-ported deaths were retroac-tively added all at once, the agency said, explaining the

magnitude of the jump on Friday. On Thursday, French authorities had said the death toll had risen by 50 in one day.

“This data catch-up con-cerns 237 admission files, including 76 deaths... which explains the increase in the number of deaths reported to

date,” the health agency said.The hospital in question is

located in the department of Essonne, about 55km south of Paris, according to a separate statement from Geodes, which monitors public health data.

“This increase in the number of hospitalized people...

does not reflect new hospitali-zations but newly reported hos-pitalisations,” Geodes said on its website, in reference to that hospital in Essonne.

Spokespeople for the health ministry and its national health agency weren’t immediately available for comment.

People wearing protective face masks stroll through a flea market in Paris centre, yesterday.

Madrid residents facing localised lockdown doubt curbs will workREUTERS — MADRID

A partial lockdown aimed at stemming a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases is set to begin in some of Madrid’s poorer districts next week, but resi-dent’s of one of the worst-hit neighbourhood’s said yesterday they doubted the new measures would work.

Vallecas, a southern district with a lower average income and higher immigrant popu-lation, has one of the highest infection rates in the Spanish capital — almost six times higher than in Chamberi, a wealthier, northern district.

“These restrictions are completely useless because we have to travel from one area which has a lot of cases to another which has less and we are going to spread it,” said Feli, 48, a civil servant who lives in Vallecas.

Under the restrictions, announced by Madrid’s

regional government on Friday, movement between and within six districts that are home to about 850,000 people will be restricted from Monday, but people will still be able to go to work.

Regional leader Isabel Diaz Ayuso said the areas had been chosen because contagion levels there exceeded 1,000 per 100,000 people. Police would be deployed to enforce the lockdown, authorities said on Saturday.

“People are not going to obey because many people do not even have a bank book. If they fine them, how are they going to get the money?” said Lola, 56, a cleaner.

Mercedes, 45, a teacher, backed the measures but said poverty was more dangerous than COVID-19.

“If two, three or seven fam-ilies live in a small apartment, how can they keep their dis-tance?” she said.

Rally in Greece for anti-fascist rapper killed 7 years agoAFP — ATHENS

Thousands of people rallied in Greece to mark seven years since an anti-fascist rapper was murdered in an alleged ambush by supporters of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn whose trial ends next month.

Police estimated that around 3,000 relatives, friends and supporters marched in the area of Pireaus where Pavlos Fyssas, 34, was stabbed to death on September 18, 2013.

The people staged a peaceful protest in the street named after the slain rapper and demanded Golden Dawn members be jailed.

A court verdict in the case is expected to be delivered on October 7, five and a half years after the trial started.

Some 68 members, including the entire top lead-ership face charges of murder, attempted murder,

possessing illegal weapons, racist violence, money laun-dering and running a criminal organization.

Fyssas’ family issued a statement on Friday calling for public support for the conviction of Golden Dawn.

“We anticipate the court’s decision to be a minimum vindication in the memory of Pavlos and all those harmed by Nazi violence,” the family said.

“On October 7, 2020, we expect people to flood the streets outside the Court of Appeals to shout that they are not innocent.” The murder of Fyssas, who used the stage name Killah P, caused shockwaves in Greece

and led to an effort to dis-mantle the party.

In December, the trial’s public prosecutor sparked outrage when she called for the acquittal of the group’s leaders.

The prosecutor told the court it could not be estab-lished that Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos or over a dozen other senior party figures had directly ordered the murder.

A Holocaust denier and protege of Greece’s former dictator Georgios Papa-dopoulos, Michaloliakos has consistently maintained his innocence.

He says the party was p e r s e c u t e d b y t h e

government for its popularity during the Greek economic crisis.

Based on records of phone conversations between Golden Dawn members the night Fyssas was murdered, investigating magistrates had argued the attack was carried out with the knowledge of senior party members.

They say it was part of a broader pattern of violence organised by the party against migrants and political oppo-nents — including beatings of Egyptian fishermen in 2012 and communist trade unionists in 2013.

At the height of its popu-larity in 2015, Golden Dawn was Greece’s third-strongest party, winning more than 370,000 votes. But its for-tunes collapsed in last year’s general election. For the first time in seven years, it failed to win a parliamentary seat.

Police estimated that around 3,000 relatives, friends and supporters marched in the area of Pireaus where Pavlos Fyssas, 34, was stabbed to death on September 18, 2013.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday that he did not want another national lockdown but that new restrictions may be needed because the country was facing an “inevitable” second wave of COVID-19.

13SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020 EUROPE

Two dead in hurricane-like storm in GreeceAFP — ATHENS

Two people were found dead and another person was missing yesterday after central Greece was lashed by a rare hurricane-like storm known as a “medicane”.

Hundreds of people had to be rescued from flooded buildings as heavy rain and high wind wrecked homes, shops and warehouses in regions north of the capital Athens.

Mediterranean cyclone Ianos forced flights and ferries to be cancelled on Friday as it bar-relled across Greece’s western islands. By yes-terday afternoon it was heading south towards Crete but losing strength.

Emergency teams were still searching for a boat carrying 55 migrants yesterday after receiving a distress signal a day earlier, but the coast guard said the vessel may have changed direction after receiving no help.

The city of Karditsa about 300km north

of Athens was badly hit overnight, with mud-slides, falling trees and power cuts.

Local reports said a man was found dead on his farm in the area.

In nearby towns, a woman was found dead in her inundated house and another went missing after her car was swept away by a flooded river, firefighters said.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed condolences over the deaths and promised that all affected regions would receive support from the state.

Medicanes — a portmanteau of Mediter-ranean and hurricane — are a rare phe-nomenon only categorised by experts over the past four decades, according to Kostas Lagou-vardos, director of research at the Athens Observatory. “Mediterranean cyclones or hur-ricanes have tropical characteristics like those in the Atlantic, but they often have a smaller volume and are less intense.”

Navalny posts photo of himself walking, describes recoveryAFP — MOSCOW

Russia’s leading opposition poli-tician Alexei Navalny announced yesterday he could now walk with a “tremble”, and gave the first detailed account of his recovery nearly a month after being poisoned with Novichok nerve agent.

The 44-year-old Kremlin critic posted a photo of himself walking downstairs on Instagram and described how earlier symptoms had included the inability to form words.

“Now I am a guy whose legs tremble when he takes the stairs,” he wrote, detailing moments of “despair” as doctors help him overcome the effects of the nerve agent.

This latest update on his progress came after posted to Instagram on Tuesday that he had spent a first day breathing unassisted, writing ironically: “It’s an amazing process that’s undervalued by many. I rec-ommend it.”

The anti-corruption cam-paigner fell ill on a plane from

Siberia to Moscow on August 20 and spent two days in a Russian hospital before being airlifted to Berlin’s Charite hospital.

Navalny said in his update that during the initial days of his recovery, he had needed therapy to help him recover his speech as he struggled to form words.

“Not long ago, I didn’t rec-ognise people and couldn’t understand how to speak,” he said.

“How to find a word and how to make it mean some-thing? This was all totally incomprehensible.

“I didn’t know how to express my despair either and so I was just silent.”

The nerve agent Novichok disrupts communication between the brain, the main organs and muscles, while doctors say it gradually clears from the body.

Navalny, who said that he did not remember the early stage of his recovery, thanked the “fantastic doctors” treating him at Charite hospital.

He now saw a “clear path,

although not a short one” to recovery, he said.

The message is characteristic of Navalny’s fluent, ironic style of writing.

An avid user of social media, Navalny said he hoped soon to “become the highest form of life in modern society” and be “able to scroll through Instagram and add likes without thinking about it”.

Suggesting he is struggling with fine motor skills, he said he was still unable to use a phone — meaning friends or family probably posted the messages for him — while “pouring myself a glass of water is a real performance”.

Navalny has not assigned any blame in his messages so far but supporters and some European leaders have said that poisoning with Novichok, a mil-itary-grade nerve agent, points to a state-ordered crime.

The Kremlin has dismissed as “absurd” allegations it was behind the poisoning, saying it wants to know what happened.

A photo posted on the Instagram account of @navalny shows Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Berlin’s Charite hospital, yesterday.

Time right for Spainto become a republic,says Deputy PMREUTERS — MADRID

Spain’s far-left deputy prime minister said yesterday that a financial scandal which has rocked the royal family had presented an “historic moment” to push for a republic.

Pablo Iglesias, leader of the Unidas Podemos party, the junior partner in Spain’s coalition gov-ernment, said the monarchy was no longer relevant to a younger generation.

“Less and less people in Spain understand, especially young people, that in the 21st century cit-izens cannot choose who their head of state is and that he does not have to answer to justice like any citizen and cannot be removed from charge if you commit a crime,” Iglesias told a party meeting.

Spain’s former King Juan Carlos left the country under a cloud of scandal last month and is living in the United Arab Emirates.

Once a popular monarch, he abdicated in favour of his son Felipe in 2014 after a tax fraud case involving members of his family and an ill-judged elephant hunting trip at a time when Span-iards were struggling with a deep recession.

In June, the Supreme Court opened a preliminary investi-gation into the involvement of Juan Carlos in a high-speed rail

contract in Saudi Arabia. Switzerland’s La Tribune de

Geneve newspaper reported he had received $100m from the late Saudi king. Swiss authorities have opened an investigation.

The former monarch is not formally under investigation and has repeatedly declined to comment on the subject. His lawyer says that he remains at the Spanish prosecutor’s disposal.

As monarch, Juan Carlos ben-efited from full judicial immunity though he can be prosecuted for any wrongdoing since he abdicated.

A poll published in August for the pro-monarchist ABC news-paper found 56 percent of respondents supported the mon-archy, compared with the 33.5 percent favoured a republic, while 6 percent of respondents did not know and 4.1 percent were indifferent.

A view of a partially collapsed medical centre next to the flooded Pamisos river, following a storm in the town of Mouzaki, in central Greece, yesterday.

Pablo Iglesias, leader of the Unidas Podemos party, said the monarchy was no longer relevant to a younger generation.

Eastern EU states

report record

new virus cases

AFP — WARSAW

Poland yesterday reported a record of 1,002 new corona-virus cases, while neigh-bouring EU members Lithuania and Slovakia also logged their largest daily tallies since the pandemic began.

The Eastern European figures are in line with a surge in cases across Europe since August that has caused many countries to move back towards tougher restrictions.

“The numbers that we’re seeing now are a result of people having returned to normal, everyday life, a return to work,” Polish health min-istry spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz said.

The increase brings the total of reported coronavirus cases in the nation of 38 million people to 78,330. The ministry also reported 12 new COVID-19 deaths, putting that total at close to 2,300.

In neighbouring Slovakia, a nation of 5.4 million people, the latest figure of 290 new infections brought its total to more than 6,500 cases.

Lithuania, a Baltic state with a population of 2.8 million, reported its highest daily count as well. The 99 new infections put the coun-try’s total at more than 3,600 cases.

The Czech Republic for its part reported more than 2,100 new cases, a day after regis-tering a record of 3,130 new infections.

Kosovo awards Trump with Order of FreedomAP — PRISTINA

Kosovo awarded US President Donald Trump on Friday with one of the country’s highest honors for his government’s efforts on peace and recon-ciliation in the former war-torn region.

President Hashim Thaci awarded Trump with Kos-ovo’s Order of Freedom “for his exceptional contribution for the freedom of Kosovo and the strengthening of Peace and reconciliation in the region.”

The honour is given to local and foreign citizens for their high contribution in defending Kosovo’s freedom.

Trump’s administration has been working to nor-malise relations between Serbia and Kosovo, two former Balkan war foes, and two weeks ago Serbian Pres-ident Aleksander Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Avdullah Hoti signed an eco-nomic normalisation deal at the White House.

Thaci also awarded Trump’s National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and his envoy for Serbia-Kosovo talks Richard Grenell with the

lower Presidential Medal of Merits, saying they were “indispensable” for the deal.

Kosovo, a former Serbian province, and Serbia have been negotiating under European Union mediation since 2011 on normalizing their ties.

Serbia fought a brutal 1998-1999 war with separatist fighters in Kosovo. The war ended after Nato conducted a 78-day airstrike campaign against Serbia.

Kosovo was run by the United Nations for nine years before it declared inde-pendence in 2008. Most western nations recognise Kosovo’s statehood, but not Serbia.

In another nod to inroads made this year, a member of Sweden’s parliament nomi-nated the governments of the US, Kosovo and Serbia for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In a letter sent to Trump, Thaci said that the Kosovo-Serbia deal can be achieved “only under the powerful leadership of the United States of America. Your role in that process is vital.”

Thaci also invited Trump for a visit to Kosovo.

Belarus police detain hundreds of women at protestAFP — MINSK

Riot police yesterday detained hundreds of women, dragging many into vans, as opposition protesters marched through the Belarusian capital Minsk demanding an end to President Alexander Lukashenko’s rule.

The women were seized by riot police in black uniforms and balaclavas as well as officers in unmarked khaki uniforms and plain-clothed officers in face masks.

Police blocked the women and began pulling them into police vans as they stood with linked hands, swiftly detaining hundreds, an AFP journalist saw. Police lifted some women off their feet in order to remove them.

Around two thousand women took part in the “Sparkly March”, wearing shiny accessories and carrying red-and-white flags of the protest movement.

The march was the latest in a series of all-women protests calling for the strongman to leave following his disputed victory in elections last month.

His opposition rival Svetlana Tikhanovskaya also claimed the victory.

Alleged police violence and torture of detainees following the elections have prompted the European Parliament to call for sanctions against Lukashenko

and other members of his regime.In a statement released

ahead of the march, Tikhanovskaya, who has taken refuge in Lithuania, praised the “brave women of Belarus”.

“They are marching despite being constantly menaced and put under pressure,” she said.

The marchers chanted slogans such as “Get out, you and your riot police!” and “We believe we can win!”

One of the placards read:

“Our protest has a woman’s face,” a reference to the title of a popular book by the Bela-rusian Nobel prize winner Svetlana Alexievich, who has backed the opposition cause.

Police detained so many protesters that they ran out of room in vans, releasing around 10 women.

Some women managed to run away and took shelter in a nearby nail bar, Tut.by news site reported.

Belarusian law enforcement officers detain women during an opposition rally to protest against police brutality and to reject the presidential election results in Minsk, yesterday.

Romanian families

protest mandatory

use of facial

masks in schoolAP — BUCHAREST

Several hundred Romanians, including many families with young children, protested yesterday in the country’s capital against measures to curb the spread of corona-virus, especially social distancing and the mandatory use of masks in schools.

Like other countries in Europe, the number of new virus cases has spiked in recent days in Romania, with a record 1,713 cases earlier this week and 1,333 more yes-terday. In all, Romania has registered 111,550 cases of COVID-19, with 4,402 con-firmed deaths.

Some 2.8 mill ion Romanian schoolchildren began their academic year on Monday, with classes being held in classrooms, online or a combination of the two, depending on the intensity of the pandemic in a given region. Desks have to be at least one meter apart, masks must be worn by students and teachers at the primary school level or higher and classrooms are disinfected daily.

Protesters at Bucharest’s University Square chanted against President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Ludovic Orban and drew par-allels between the protective measures against the pan-demic and the communist and Nazi regimes.

One of the speakers at the rally compared the measures to the torture of dissidents during communism.

A large sign carried by a protester included a recent quote from Iohannis about the safety measures - “Kids easily get used to unpleasant things” — above a photograph of children behind barbed-wire fences at a concentration camp

Protesters also highlighted the symbolism of holding the rally at University Square, where protests in 1989 against dictator Nicolae Ceausescu led to the fall of his communist regime.

Only police and members of the media wore masks at the event, where participants, many carrying Romanian flags, did not respect social distancing rules, either.

Romania is scheduled to hold a parliamentary election near the end of the year.

Maduro has so far survived attempts to oust him, including when National Assembly speaker Juan Guaido declared himself acting president in January 2019, claiming Maduro had stolen the 2018 election.

14 SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020AMERICAS

Maduro has to leave, says PompeoAFP — BOA VISTA / BOGOTA

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo used a South American tour late on Friday to tell Ven-ezuelan President Nicolas Maduro he “has to leave”, drawing a furious accusation of “war-mongering” from the leftist leader.

Touring a refugee center in the town of Boa Vista, Brazil, on the border with Venezuela, Pompeo emphasized the plight of the nearly five million Ven-ezuelans who have fled the country’s economic meltdown under Maduro.

“Those people I talked to today are desperate to return home,” he said of the refugees being processed at the center — among the estimated 260,000 Venezuelans who have fled to Brazil. “They want what all human beings want — dignity, they want a democratic, peaceful, sovereign Venezuela to call home, one where they and their children can find jobs.”

He called Maduro “a leader who’s destroyed his own country, a man-made disaster of massive proportions,” as well as “a drug trafficker” — referring to charges the US Justice Department filed against Maduro and his inner circle earlier this year.

“We know that the Maduro regime has decimated the people of Venezuela, and that Maduro himself is an indicted narcotics trafficker. That means he has to leave,” Pompeo said earlier in Guyana during a joint press conference with President Irfaan Ali.

Maduro responded with an angry salvo of his own. “Mike Pompeo is on a war-mongering tour against Venezuela, but it has backfired on him... and he has failed in all his attempts to get the governments of the con-tinent to organize themselves in a war against Venezuela,” he said on state TV.

Venezuela, home to the world’s biggest oil reserves, has seen its economy shrink by more than half under Maduro, the political heir to late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez after his death in 2013.

But Maduro has so far sur-vived attempts to oust him, including when National Assembly speaker Juan Guaido declared himself acting president in January 2019, claiming Maduro had stolen the 2018 election.

In Brazil, Pompeo also toured a processing center for refugees and a US-funded soup kitchen run by a local Catholic church for hungry and homeless Venezuelans living on the streets of Boa Vista.

He announced another $348m to help Venezuelan ref-ugees and the countries hosting them, bringing total US contri-bution to more than $1.2bn.

He later met with far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s foreign minister, Ernesto Araujo. The two reiterated their support for Guaido, who is recognized as president by around 50 countries, led by the United States. Backing Guaido as president “doesn’t just mean supporting a courageous young leader, it means sup-porting the Venezuelan consti-tution and its legitimate author-ities”, said Araujo at a joint news conference.

Meanwhile, Colombia’s

President Ivan Duque called yesterday for Maduro to be prosecuted as a “war criminal” in a joint news conference with Pompeo. Duque spoke as Pompeo rounded off a three-day tour of Venezuela’s neigh-bours designed to increase pressure on the socialist leader to leave power.

Duque, a key US ally in the region, said a UN report this week showed “that this is a regime behind violations of human rights that are sys-tematic, and that the head of this dictatorship is a war criminal and the international community must put an end to the situation”.

“Nicolas Maduro is respon-sible for crimes against humanity as is his inner circle,” the Colombian leader said, flanked by Pompeo at Casa de Narino Presidential Palace in Bogota. Pompeo described his right-wing host as “a true leader for the region and the dignity of its people”.

The US Justice Department has put a $15m bounty on Maduro’s head, accusing him of overseeing massive drug traf-ficking into the United States.

However, Maduro has steadfastly refused to back down and retains the support of the armed forces, as well as key allies in Russia and Iran.

Colombian President Ivan Duque Marquez speaks while US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo listens after a meeting at the Presidential House, in Bogota, Colombia, yesterday.

Peru President survives impeachment voteAFP — LIMA

Peru President Martin Vizcarra survived an impeachment vote in Congress late on Friday as his opponents failed to win the votes necessary to remove him from power.

Congress had voted last week to open impeachment proceedings against the 57-year-old President for “moral incapacity” over accu-sations he incited aides to lie to anti-graft investigators.

After a 10-hour debate, only 32 legislators voted for his dis-missal, while 78 voted against and 15 abstained. The oppo-sition needed 87 votes of 130 to dismiss the popular leader.

“Peru’s great challenges require us to act sensibly and responsibly,” Vizcarra tweeted after the vote. “Let us all con-tinue working together for what really matters to Peruvians.” During a statement at the start of the Congressional debate, he had remained defiant.

“I’m not running. I didn’t do it before and I’m not going to do it now,” he said before leaving his defence to his lawyer Roberto Pereira. The heated session was opened by Marino, who would have replaced Vizcarra as Peru’s leader had the impeachment carried.

He began by calling on members present in the chamber to avoid any intolerant gestures

towards the head of state, although most of the 130 law-makers joined the debate by video link due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has taken a heavy toll in the South American country. Vizcarra had accused Marino of “conspiracy” by trying to secure military assurances for a bid to succeed him.

Vizcarra’s cabinet peti-tioned the Constitutional Court this week on the grounds the legislature had exceeded its powers and was not competent in seeking to rule on the presi-dent’s moral capacity.

But the Court ruled by five votes to two to allow the vote.

Vizcarra, in power since 2018, came under fire after audio

recordings were leaked, in which he is heard telling aides to hide details from congressional inves-tigators of his office’s contro-versial hiring of a popular singer as a paid cultural advisor.

Public support for the Pres-ident and his anti-corruption campaign has been evident in opinion polls, with eight out of 10 Peruvians wanting him to continue until the end of his mandate in July 2021.

Peruvians also made their support clear on social net-works and in pot-banging street protests. The President’s main rival, Keiko Fujimori, has pub-licly acknowledged that “there are not enough elements” to remove him from power.

Bolivia election race heats up as field tightensREUTERS — LA PAZ

Bolivia’s presidential election race, a re-run of a fraught ballot last year that plunged the Andean country into turmoil, has tightened after interim President Jeanine Anez dropped out, likely helping rein in the front-running socialist party.

The withdrawal of Anez, who took power in a vacuum last year, will strengthen other centrist and conservative runners, who are behind in the polls against Luis Arce, the can-didate of former leftist Pres-ident Evo Morales’ MAS party.

Morales was forced to step

down last year after allegations of electoral fraud sparked wide-spread protests. Morales, cur-rently in Argentina, has said he was toppled in a coup.

The withdrawal should boost Carlos Mesa, who placed second behind Morales in the since annulled 2019 election. Anez had around 10% of the likely vote, according to a recent major poll.

“(Mesa) is likely to attract the tactical vote and cement his position as the leading candidate that can force a second round and unite the anti-MAS vote,” said Rodrigo Riaza, a Latin America analyst at The

Economist Intelligence Unit. Anez has not yet endorsed another candidate and Mesa said on Friday he was the only candidate that could take on MAS.

Arce leads the pack with around 40% of the vote, the recent poll before Anez’s with-drawal showed, while Mesa had around 26%. A candidate needs 40% of the vote and a 10-point lead to claim outright victory in the first round.

The October 18 election will be key to the direction of the landlocked country, which under Morales was an ally of Venezuela and Cuba, but which under Anez has swung

dramatically toward the right, including rekindling ties with the United States.

“People are aware that the future of the country is at stake in these elections,” said Roberto Luna, a resident of La Paz.

Other voters still scarred by the deadly violence that broke around the last election, said they wanted to avoid Morales’ party coming back into power. He had been criticized for seeking a fourth term despite constitutional limits.

“Many citizens, many prov-inces no longer want to know of MAS, they are tired of so many abnormal situations that

occurred in the 14 years of the government,” said Boris Alcón, a resident of the city of El Alto.

Riaza, the analyst, said that the end of Anez’s controversial candidacy — she has initially ruled herself out — would ease concerns around the legit-imacy of the result, but the risk of further political crisis remained high.]

“The political climate is highly polarized and ripe for social unrest. There is a real chance election results could be disputed again, which could trigger widespread protests and threaten a smooth tran-sition of power.”

Man ‘asleep’ in self-driving car charged in CanadaAFP — OTTAWA

A driver who allegedly set his car to autopilot and then took a nap as it broke the speed limit on a rural Canadian highway has been charged with dan-gerous driving, police said.

The incident took place near the town of Ponoka in Alberta province, the local force said in a tweet on Thursday. “The car appeared to be self-driving, travelling over 140 km/h with both front seats completely reclined & occupants appeared to be asleep,” it said.

According to Canadian public broadcaster CBC, the car was an electric Tesla model set to autopilot and the man charged was 20 years old. The speed limit on that section of the highway is 110km per hour, it added.

Police Sergeant Darrin Turnbull told CBC that he was “speechless” and had not seen such a case in his two-decade career — “but of course the technology wasn’t there”.

Tesla’s autopilot mode allows cars to steer, accelerate and brake automatically within a lane, but is not sup-posed to enable trips without human intervention.

Dominica shaken

by explosion of

steam and gas

REUTERS — CASTRIES

An explosion of steam and gas in the mountains of the remote, jungle-clad Caribbean island of Dominica has shaken residents, who are fearful it is a harbinger for renewed seismic activity in a nation that is home to nine volcanoes.

The Dominica Office of Disaster Management and the Seismic Research team said the activity in the Soufriere area on Wednesday was likely the result of a landslide, fol-lowed by subsequent geo-logical adjustments.

The office’s coordinator Fitzroy Pascal said there had been no volcanic earthquakes recorded in the area asso-ciated with “the strong steam degassing”. Dominica last suf-fered steam-drive volcanic eruptions in 1997.

California wildfire smoke blankets parts of CanadaAFP — VANCOUVER

Smoke from California and Oregon wild-fires has cloaked Canada’s third-largest city of Vancouver — known for its majestic mountain views and fresh ocean breezes — in the dirtiest air in the world this week.

Days have been spent smarting under a thick haze that has irritated eyes and throats, and sent asthmatics gasping for breath. It has also complicated COVID-19 testing.

On Friday, despite forecasted smoke-clearing rain storms, the city — 1,300km north of the biggest California fires — topped for the second time this week the World Air Quality Index for worst air, after briefly ceding first place to Portland in fire-stricken Oregon.

“I’m out of breath all the time, my

chest feels like it’s exploding, I feel like I’m going to suffocate,” Fatima Jaffer, a doctoral student at the University of British Columbia, said. “I’m afraid of the long-term damage this smoke might do to my lungs and my asthma.”

Authorities for the metropolitan region of 2.5 million residents issued daily air quality warnings since September 8, with things so bad that Vancouver opened five filtered “clean air shelters”. Health offi-cials urged all citizens to close windows and avoid strenuous exercise or outdoor activities — especially those with respi-ratory illness.

Jaffer, 58, said her worsening asthma added to a sense of panic and dread, as she had just recovered from COVID-19. Now she worries the smog could increase her odds of reinfection or cause new health complications.

Stanley Park and Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver, Canada, are covered in smog from clouds and smoke due to forest fires in Washington, Oregon and California.

Canada's former PM Turner, in office for just 11 weeks, dies

REUTERS — OTTAWA

Canada's former Prime Min-ister John Turner, who was in office for just 11 weeks and led his Liberal Party to a massive electoral defeat in 1984, died yesterday aged 91, media reported.

Turner, who had previ-ously held the posts of finance and justice minister, took over from Pierre Trudeau in late June 1984 at a time of increasing voter fatigue with the Liberals, who had been in power for 20 of the previous 21 years.

He called an election for September and then presided over what many political observers consider to be one of the worst campaigns in Canadian history, marred by a series of gaffes.

One key turning point came during a televised debate when Turner, under fire from Conservative leader Brian Mulroney, said he had no option but to approve a mass of patronage appointments proposed by Trudeau before he left office.

“You could have said ‘I am not going to do it. This is wrong for Canada’... you had an option, sir, to say no. And you chose to say yes,” responded Mulroney in one of the most memorable moments in Canadian politics. The Conservatives swept to power with 211 seats of the 282 in the House of Commons.

The Liberals fell to just 40 seats from 135 but Turner hung onto his position. His 79-day tenure as prime minister is the second shortest in Canadian history. In the 1988 election campaign he took a strong stance against a proposed free trade agreement with the United States but lost again to Mulroney, although not as badly. He resigned as Liberal leader in 1990 and was replaced by Jean Chretien, who led the Liberals to victory in 1993.

Turner, a lawyer by training, served as finance minister from 1972 to 1975 but quit amid disagreements over policy with Trudeau. He returned to legal work for nine years before winning the Liberal Party leadership in June 1984. John Napier Wyndham Turner was born on June 7, 1929. He is survived by his wife Geills and four children.

Affectionately known as the Notorious RBG, the 87-year-old Ginsburg was the oldest of nine Supreme Court justices. She died after a fight with pancreatic cancer, the court announced, saying she passed away “surrounded by her family at her home in Washington, DC”.

Trump’s short list of potential nominees includes two women jurists: Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa, according to a source close to the White House.

15SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020 AMERICAS

US Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg dies at 87AFP — WASHINGTON

US Supreme Court Justice and liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg died late on Friday, opening a crucial vacancy on the high court expected to set off a pitched political battle at the peak of the presidential campaign.

Affectionately known as the Notorious RBG, the 87-year-old Ginsburg was the oldest of nine Supreme Court justices. She died after a fight with pan-creatic cancer, the court announced, saying she passed away “surrounded by her family at her home in Wash-ington, DC”.

President Donald Trump issued a statement praising Ginsburg as a “titan of the law”.

Accolades flowed in. “Our Nation has lost a jurist of his-toric stature,” said Chief Justice John Roberts. Trump’s prede-cessor Barack Obama said in a tweet that Ginsburg “fought to the end, through her cancer, with unwavering faith in our democracy and its ideals.”

Joe Biden said she was “an American hero, a giant of legal doctrine, and a relentless voice in the pursuit of that highest American ideal: Equal Justice Under Law”.

In Washington, hundreds of tearful mourners laid flowers in front of the Supreme Court, where the diminutive Ginsburg sat for 27 years — even taking arguments and issuing opinions from her hospital bed after repeated bouts of illness over the past two years.

US flags flew at half-mast on each side of the court building. People lit candles on the steps of the court while others held rainbow flags. Among the notably young

crowd was Erin Drumm, a student at the Catholic Uni-versity of America. “I came here because I think RBG represents everything that America should stand for,” the 19-year-old said. “She represents the freedom to choose and respect for science and other people regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity or religion.”

One placard on the court steps read: “We love you Ruthie Bear”. Ginsburg anchored the court’s liberal faction, whittled to four by two Trump appoint-ments since 2017.

Born in Brooklyn in 1933, Ginsburg was a law-school star when women didn’t study law, and a law professor with a powerful impact on the estab-lishment of rights for women and minorities.

She died on the evening that marked the beginning of Rosh Hashanah. According to tradition, those who die during the holiday are revered as a “tzaddik,” or a person of great righteousness.

In this file photo taken on October 08, 2018 (FROM LEFT) US Supreme Court Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito listen as US President Trump speaks during the swearing-in ceremony of Brett Kavanaugh (right) as Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court at the White House in Washington, DC. RIGHT: An image of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is projected onto the New York State Civil Supreme Court building in Manhattan, New York City, US after she passed away late on Friday.

Political battle begins to name successorREUTERS — WASHINGTON

A fierce political battle shaped up over the future of the US Supreme Court yesterday, with President Donald Trump saying he would quickly name a suc-cessor to liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a move that would tip the court further to the right.

“We were put in this position of power and impor-tance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices,” Trump said on Twitter. “We have this obligation, without delay!”

Ginsburg's death gives Trump, who is seeking re-election on November 3, a chance to expand the court’s conservative majority to 6-3 at a time of a gaping political divide in America. Trump’s short list of potential nominees includes two women jurists: Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa, according to a source close to the White House.

Even as large crowds of mourners gathered outside the Supreme Court building well into the night to pay tribute to the iconic liberal jurist, battle lines were forming. Supreme Court appointments require Senate confirmation.

Trump’s Democratic opponent in the presidential race, Joe Biden, on Friday night said the winner of the election should be the one to make the selection and that Trump should not move forward with a nominee. Chuck Schumer, the

Senate’s top Democrat, agreed.Democrats are still seething

over the Republican Senate’s refusal to act on Democratic President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, in 2016 after conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died 10 months before that election. McConnell in 2016 said the Senate should not act

on a court nominee during an election year, a stance he has since reversed.

Despite that anger, Demo-crats have little chance of blocking Trump’s pick. His fellow Republicans control 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has made con-firmation of Trump’s federal judicial nominees a top priority, said the chamber would vote on any Trump nominee.

Obama himself yesterday called on Senate Republicans to honor what he called that “invented” 2016 principle. “A basic principle of the law - and of everyday fairness - is that we apply rules with consistency, and not based on what’s convenient or advantageous in the moment,” Obama said in a statement

posted online. “The rule of law, the legitimacy of our courts, the fundamental workings of our democracy all depend on that basic principle.”

Even before Ginsburg’s death, Trump had made public a list of potential nominees.

Barrett has generated perhaps the most interest in conservative circles. A devout Roman Catholic, she was a legal scholar at Notre Dame Law School in Indiana before Trump appointed her to the Chi-cago-based 7th Circuit in 2017.

A Barrett nomination would likely ignite contro-

versy, as her strong conserv-ative religious views have prompted abortion-rights groups to say that if con-

firmed by the Republican-led US Senate, she would likely vote to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Lagoa has served on the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals for less than a year after being appointed by Trump and con-firmed by the Senate on an 80-15 vote. Prior to that she also spent less than a year in her previous position as the first Latina to serve on the Florida Supreme Court. She previously spent more than a decade as a judge on an intermediate appeals court in Florida.

The two justices already appointed by Trump were Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.

Children are photographed in front of a painting in a storefront on Broadway of Ruth Bader Ginsburg who passed away in Manhattan, New York City, US.

Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice-President Joe Biden bumps elbows with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as he arrives at Amazing Grace coffee shop in Duluth, Minnesota, on Friday.

Biden challenges Trump on economy in face-offREUTERS — BEMIDJI/HERMANTOWN

Democratic US presidential candidate Joe Biden criticised President Donald Trump’s han-dling of the US economy on Friday as the two rivals cam-paigned in the election battle-ground state of Minnesota.

Trump trails Biden in national opinion polls ahead of the November 3 election, but is trying to make up ground in Minnesota, a state he lost by about 1.5 percentage points to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Biden toured a union carpenter training center in Hermantown, a suburb of the Lake Superior port city of Duluth, and painted a grim picture of the economic situ-ation in Minnesota’s iron ore mining region, saying the coronavirus pandemic has driven up joblessness.

The former US vice-pres-ident blamed Trump for the sustained economic downturn, saying the Republican President has done little to contain the public health crisis. “Trump has given up on even pretending to do his job,” Biden said.

Biden repeated a pledge to invest $2 trillion on US infra-structure improvements while tackling climate change. Biden also said he would make sure all federal projects use

American-made materials and union labor. Trump keeps promising an infrastructure plan, but one never materi-alizes, Biden said. “He has no plan,” Biden added.

Trump spoke to thousands of people gathered outside an airport hangar in Bemidji, Min-nesota, on Friday evening.

He would win Minnesota thanks to his economic record, Trump said, pointing to the

strength of Minnesota’s economy in 2019, before the coronavirus struck.

Trump also attacked what he said were Biden’s policies on refugees. “Good luck, Min-nesota,” he said. “Your state will be overrun and destroyed if Biden and the radical left win.”

Recent opinion polls have given Biden a comfortable lead in Minnesota. The poll-tracking website RealClearPolitics

showed Biden up by an average of 10.2 percentage points as of Friday.

The two candidates were in Minnesota on the first day of early voting in the state, a reminder that voting in the election already has begun as voters opt to cast ballots early or by mail during the pandemic. Voters in Virginia, South Dakota and Wyoming also began casting in-person ballots on Friday.

US Senate Democrats report record August fundraising haulREUTERS — WASHINGTON

US Senate Democrats raised a record $26.9m in campaign contributions during August, mainly from grassroots donors hoping to see Democrats win the Senate majority in the November 3 election, the law-makers’ campaign committee said on Friday.

The August haul left the Democratic Senatorial Cam-paign Committee with $41m in cash on hand as it entered Sep-tember and the final two months of the 2020 campaign. The committee raised about $13m in both June and July.

Republicans currently hold a 53 seat to 47 seat majority in

the Senate. But President Donald Trump’s flagging poll numbers over his performance during the coronavirus pan-demic have boosted Demo-cratic chances of winning enough Republican-held seats to control the chamber in January.

The DSCC said more than 86% of its August donations came from grassroots contrib-utors online, over the phone and through the mail, adding that the average online donation for August was $35. “The grassroots community continues to show up for our work to flip the Senate,” said Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, who chairs the DSCC.

Two killed in shooting at US partyAFP — WASHINGTON

Two people were killed and 14 wounded early yesterday in a shooting at a backyard party in Rochester, New York state, police said. Officers responding to reports of gunfire in the area found a “chaotic scene” with about 100 people running in various direc-tions, interim police chief Mark Simmons told reporters.

“In total we have 16 confirmed victims of shooting. And I’m sad to announce that two of the 16 received a fatal wound,” he said. Those killed — one man, one woman — were both between 18 and 22 years of age, and had not been formally identified, he said. The 14 wounded had been taken to hospital and were not in a life-threatening condition. No arrests have been made so far and police could not say if more than one shooter was involved.

16SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2020

W ALRUWAIS : 29o → 37o W ALKHOR : 27o → 41o W DUKHAN : 26o → 38o W WAKRAH : 27o → 39o W MESAIEED : 27o → 39o W ABUSAMRA : 26o → 39o

Hazy to misty at places at first

becomes hot daytime with local

clouds, relatively humid by night.

Minimum Maximum28oC 42oC

WEATHER TODAY

LOW TIDE 01:18 – 13:27

HIGH TIDE 06:03 – 18:00

PRAYER TIMINGSPPPPRAYRRRAAAYARA MMMMIINNNNNNNNNGGGGGGMMMMMMMMIIINNNNNNGGGGNNNNGGGIINNNNGNNNNNNNNN

PRAYERTIMINGS

FAJRSUNRISE

04.04 am 05.21 am

DHUHR 11.28 am

ISHA 07.03 pmMAGHRIBASR 02.55 pm

05.33 pm

“Diplomacy, to be

effective, requires

personal contacts, and I

am very sorry that we are

not going to have the

opportunity to bring

together leaders of

countries.”

Antonio Guterres

UN Secretary- General

UN marks 75th anniversary in a world split by COVID-19AFP — UNITED NATIONS, US

The United Nations will mark its 75th anniversary tomorrow (Monday), celebrating the mantra that “multilateralism is not an option but a necessity,” even as the coronavirus under-scores the fragility of interna-tional cooperation.

The anniversary will kick off the global body’s annual General Assembly, when nor-mally the leaders and repre-sentatives of nearly 200 coun-tries gather en masse to sound off about the world’s problems and offer myriad solutions.

But this year, a part of Man-hattan will not be sealed off for the “UNGA”; there will be no endless limousine convoys, and no busy beehive of diplomats, journalists and translators in the halls of the UN.

Instead, with COVID-19 still limiting global movement, just one representative from each of the 193 UN members will be allowed, and only someone already in the United States.

Everyone else will have to appear by videoconference, including some 160-170 heads of state and government planning addresses.

Appearing by video on Tuesday will be Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, who in the past have let their top diplomats speak for them; and US leader Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, who much of the world sees as ille-gitimate, will address the assembly by video. Missing as speakers are the leaders of Syria and North Korea.

“Diplomacy, to be effective, requires personal contacts, and I am very sorry that we are not going to have the opportunity to bring together leaders of countries,” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Even so, he said, there would be “many virtual meetings” on the sidelines of the assembly, convening by tel-econference on subjects such as climate change, biodiversity and the conflicts in Libya and Lebanon.

The event kicks off with a joint declaration full of good intentions and a call to combat unilateralism.

But that belies the reality of what has happened since COVID-19 erupted early this

year, with borders closed, coop-eration limited and countries forced to go it alone.

Bertrand Badie, professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, said the great powers missed a chance with the coro-navirus to strengthen global cooperation.

Instead, cooperation broke apart amid allegations that China and the World Health Organization moved slowly on the initial outbreak, and the US declared it would act alone and pulled out of the WHO.

T h e s u p e r p o w e r s ’ behaviour has “caused the failure, even the collapse, of the

UN Security Council,” which was set up to lead on such world-shaking challenges as a pandemic, Badie said.

The powers have clung to a “very conservative vision of security, that humanity is only threatened by rivalries between countries,” Badie saud, calling it “a very bad sign for the future.”

The declaration admits that, over seven and a half decades, the UN “has had its moments of disappointment.” “Our world is not yet the world our founders envisaged 75 years ago,” it says, citing growing inequality and the persistence of poverty, hunger, armed conflicts, ter-rorism and climate change.

However, the declaration also notes the UN has helped bring about decolonisation, promote freedom, set standards for development and eradicate disease.

“The United Nations has helped mitigate dozens of con-flicts, saved hundreds of thou-sands of lives through human-itarian action and provided mil-lions of children with the education that every child deserves,” the declaration says.

In the wake of coronavirus,

it says, “we have a historic opportunity to build back better and greener.”

Yet the coronavirus has placed a spotlight on the para-lysing rivalry of the super-powers, especially between the US and China, rapidly eroding Washington’s global leadership. “Everyone has been too focused on the domestic impact of the pandemic to really look at the global picture,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.

“I am frankly deeply pessi-mistic about the chances for real UN reform or innovations in global governance. I cannot see China and the US agreeing on big reforms now,” Gowan said. Badie said the organisation was immobilised by a power rivalry that dates back to the UN’s creation.

To embark on reforms, he said, it is necessary for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to change their Cold War mentality.

The five, though, “will always refuse, because that would lead to an overhaul of the ‘international community’ and the loss of the privileges of the nuclear oligarchy,” Badie said.

Man arrested scaling tallest building in ParisAFP — PARIS

A man was arrested on Friday after climbing up the facade of the Tour Montparnasse, the tallest building in Paris, a police source said.

The unnamed climber, who used no harnesses or other aids, was detained after he got to the top of the 210-metre (690 feet) office block, the source said.

He began the ascent in the early evening and was arrested at 8pm (1800 GMT) after a rescue worker descended on a rope and accompanied him to the roof of the tower.

In 2015 the French “Spi-derman” Alain Robert com-pleted the daring feat with a Nepalese flag in hand, in tribute to the victims of a devastating earthquake in the country.

A man climbs free hand the nearly 210 metre tall Tour Montparnasse, in Paris, on Friday, as he is blocked by the security services who abseil to reach him.

Real-life ‘Pianist’ possessions up for auctionAFP — WARSAW

A fountain pen, silver pocket watch and other prized possessions of the late Jewish-Polish composer Wladyslaw Szpilman, the real-life hero of the Oscar-winning film “The Pianist,” go under the hammer in Warsaw next week.

“This watch and pen that he bought on a trip to Paris in 1937 survived his whole stay in the Jewish ghetto, then kept him company in the ruins of Warsaw,” said Szpilman’s son Andrzej, who is organising the auction with his brother Krzysztof.

The renowned musician, who died in 2000, came to the world’s attention in Roman Polanski’s film based on Szpil-man’s autobiography.

“The watch, an Omega, held special significance for my father,” Andrzej Szpilman said. Another highlight of the collection to be put on sale on Tuesday is the Steinway grand piano owned by Szpilman after the war.

Emmys to raise $2.8m to fight child hungerAP/AFP — LOS ANGELES

Every Emmy Award handed out today will come with something extra — a $100,000 donation to fight child hunger.

The Television Academy announced on Friday that each network and streaming service competing on the telecast has pledged the donation for every Emmy they win.

With 23 Emmys being handed out and the academy committing $500,000, that will mean a donation of $2.8m to No Kid Hungry, a group working to relieve child hunger brought on by the coronavirus crisis.

The 72nd Emmy Awards air

today at 5pm on ABC.Jimmy Kimmel is hosting

from Staples Center in Los Angeles and winners will accept their awards from remote loca-tions, but little beyond that has been revealed about what will happen during the show that is being put on under unique pan-demic circumstances.

Guests set to appear include Anthony Anderson, Mindy Kaling, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Patrick Stuart, RuPaul and Oprah Winfrey. Since entering the fray with its flagship original dramas like "House of Cards" and "Orange Is The New Black," streaming giant Netflix has scooped up a ton of Emmys — but never one for best drama,

best comedy or best limited series. Is this the year? Dark crime series "Ozark" is leading the nominations in the drama categories with 18, but it is tied with HBO's family business hit show "Succession."

And while Netflix prevailed in terms of total nominations with 160 to HBO's 107, it has yet to pull in a major prize.

HBO meanwhile has done it many times before with "The Sopranos," "Game of Thrones," and "Veep." This year, beyond "Succession," it also has "Watchmen," the overall top Emmy nomination getter with 26, and a major contender this year for best limited series and beyond.

French butcher seeks Unesco distinctionAFP — PARIS

Victor Dumas is convinced that his fellow French butchers wield their knives unlike any others, and is hoping the UN will agree they deserve pride of place at the global culinary table.

Dumas, 21, has been touring France for the past year in a campaign to win recognition of his skills from the Unesco cultural agency, which curates a list of Intangible Cultural Her-itage of Humanity.

“There’s a really distinct way of carving in France,” he said this week in Paris, where he met with chefs as well as fellow butchers known for their dedication to using everything from “nose to tail”.

Travelling to Belfast for the World Butchers’ Challenge in 2018, where he took third prize in the apprentice category, made him realise the French had elevated the age-old craft of carving up animals to an art.

“In a beef carcass, we’re going to come up with 40 dif-ferent cuts... whereas others aren’t going to make the most of the meat” and settle for just five or six pieces, Dumas said.

He wants French butch-ering to be honoured alongside Chinese calligraphy, Tinian marble-carving and Kazakh yurt construction on the Unesco list.

The distinction would bring a welcome boost as the number of French artisan butchers has been dwindling, in part reflecting a social shift towards eating less meat.

But Dumas does not think

his profession is in danger.“People will always need to

eat, and more and more are seeking out quality — we saw this during the virus lockdown,” when getting dinner on the table every night suddenly became a preoccupation for millions.

Dumas says he knew his destiny when he was just five, recalling the “human contact and sharing” when neighbours would join his family-butchered animals at their farm in the rolling hills east of Lyon in southeast France.

These days, wearing his crisp white jacket embroidered with “Victor a l’Unesco”, he can carve and mount a rack of lamb, the quintessential cen-trepiece of a fancy Sunday lunch, in under 10 minutes.

He is already preparing to compete in the world champi-onships in California next year, when he also aims to officially s u b m i t h i s U n e s c o application.

“Victor represents all the butchers who adapt according to tastes and seasons,” said Mathieu Pecqueur, head of the Culture Viande industry body.

“The French art of pre-paring meat is recognised in countries worldwide,” added Dominique Langlois, president of the Interbev meat and live-stock association.

“In China, where French beef has just entered the market, we’re being asked to help train people,” he said, referring to Beijing’s recent lifting of a longstanding ban in the wake of the “mad cow” disease scare.

Reality show to award contestant with trip to International Space StationREUTERS

A US-based production company is pitching a reality TV show based on a worldwide hunt for a space-loving contestant who would win a ride to the International Space Station, as Nasa opens up space to entertainers and advertisers.

Space Hero LLC, headquar-tered in the UK, is in discussions with Houston, Texas-based Axiom Space, which procures and arranges private rides to space, to book a seat for “one worthy contestant” in 2023 aboard a private space capsule, the production company announced on Thursday.

No television network or air date has been agreed so far for the show, tentatively titled “Space Hero”. “Space Hero will

provide an opportunity for anyone from any background to become the first globally-elected space explorer to take part in a mission to the Inter-national Space Station,” the company said in a news release.

The unscripted casting show will follow the winning contestant through exhaustive astronaut training before embarking on a week-long stay aboard the space station, an orbiting laboratory travelling in low-Earth orbit at roughly 17,000 miles per hour.

Previously announced Axiom-arranged missions have involved SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, though the company said it could also use other vehicles, such as Boeing’s Star-liner space capsule.

Space Hero’s co-founder

Deborah Sass has described the winning prize as “a $65m ticket with a ten-day stay on the International Space Station.” The reality TV show is the latest deal to capitalise on the Inter-national Space Station, which Nasa in recent years has opened to advertisers and private com-panies in a bid to spur com-mercial opportunities in low-Earth orbit.

The station, which has housed international crews of astronauts continuously for nearly 20 years, will host “Mission: Impossible” star Tom Cruise in the coming years as the set for an action-adventure film.

Cruise will hitch a ride aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule, arranged by Axiom.

Conserving natureDenmark’s Minister of the Environment, Lea Wermelin, collects rubbish during the Danish Society for Nature Conservation’s waste collection initiative, at Roskilde Fjord in Denmark, yesterday.