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TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020 / ZUL HIJJAH 7, 1441 AH emergency number 112 NO. 17444 20 PAGES 150 FILS

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HH Deputy Amir affirmsimportance of Assembly

Speaker voices optimism on Amir’s condition

By Saeed Mahmoud SalehArab Times Staff and Agencies

KUWAIT CITY, July 27: Speaker of the National Assem-bly Marzouq Al-Ghanim confirmed that news from the United States of America about the health of His High-

ness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sa-bah is reassuring and comforting.

While voicing optimism over the health of HH the Amir, Al-Ghanim said the Arab and Muslim nations in addition to the Kuwaiti people are praying to Allah to bless HH the Amir with speedy recovery. He hopes the treatment trip to the US ends with the recovery of His Highness the

Virus vaccine put to final test in volunteers

Amir and his safe and immediate re-turn home.

He disclosed that during his meeting with US Ambassador to Kuwait Alina Romanowski on Sunday, he praised the American Presidency for sending an air-plane with medical equipment to trans-port his Highness the Amir. He said he handed over the letter of the Assembly to Romanowski.

He also met with Deputy Amir and His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah who issued directives and confirmed support for the legislature. He revealed HH the Crown Prince affirmed the importance of the As-sembly and stressed the need to improve State institutions.

He said the National Assembly Office will meet on Wednesday with HH Deputy Amir and Crown Prince to listen to his di-rectives and advice.

In another development, Al-Ghanim confirmed receiving the decree issued by HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled to return the bill regarding the appeal against judicial misconduct to the Assembly.

He also received a proposal signed by 10 MPs who requested for allocating two hours of the upcoming session to discuss educational circumstances and another proposal for allocating a session to discuss the bill on establishing the north zone that was referred to the parlia-mentary Financial and Economic Affairs Committee. He added the Assembly Of-fice will meet on Tuesday to specify the date for the next session.

Meanwhile, MPs Muhammad Al-Dallal, Omar Al-Tabtabaie, Adel Al-Damkhi, Osama Al-Shaheen, Khalid Al-Otaibi, Safa’a Al-Hashem, Abdullah Al-Kandari, Abdullah Fehad, Naif Al-Ajmi and Mubarak Al-Hajraf submitted a proposal to allocate a session to discuss the plan of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in light of the corona-virus crisis.

The MPs pointed out that they want to discuss the situation of scholarships for both public and private educational in-stitutions, role of the ministry in dealing with the issue of fees collected by private schools and universities, readiness of the ministry for the next academic year in case the crisis lasts long, and how the ministry responded to the recommenda-tions of the Assembly during the grilling of Minister of Education and Higher Edu-cation Dr Saud Al-Harbi earlier.

In addition, MP Osama Al-Shaheen forwarded queries to Minister of Health Sheikh Dr Bassel Al-Sabah regarding the decision of the Health Ministry, in coordination with the Central Agency for Information Technology, to launch the ‘shlonek’ (how are you) application to track and determine the location of citizens and residents returning to Ku-wait during the 14 days home quarantine period. He pointed out the ministry uses the application to collect information such as the samples taken from citizens and residents and private data like their photographs and that of their relatives. He asked about the mechanism adopted by the ministry and agency to destroy such private data and protect the privacy of the citizens and residents.

Also:KUWAIT CITY: His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received on Sunday a telephone call from King Hamad bin Issa Al-Khalifa of the King-dom of Bahrain.

The Bahraini Monarch inquired about health of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, wishing him life-long health and wellbe-ing.

His Highness the Deputy Crown Prince expressed deep gratitude to King Hamad, appreciating such brotherly gesture that depicted depth of the historic and solid bonds between the two countries and peoples.

He further wished the Bahraini King good health and welfare.

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His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince received on Monday a telephone call from Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina who inquired about health of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, wishing him life-long good health and wellbeing.

His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince expressed deep gratitude to her, appreciating the sincere gesture wishing her good health and welfare.

Limit riles taxis

New cases at 606KUWAIT CITY, July 27, (Agencies): Ku-wait tallied 606 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours to raise the total to 64,379, while five more people succumbed to the in-fectious disease, upping the death toll to 438, its health ministry said on Monday.

Of those infected, Kuwaiti nationals ac-counted for 358 cases (59.8 percent), while some 248 (40.92 percent) non-Kuwaitis con-tracted the virus, ministry Spokesman Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad told KUNA.

In terms of health zones, he said Al-Ahmadi governorate recorded the lions share of num-bers with 170 cases, followed by Farwaniya and Al-Jahra with 152 infections apiece, Ha-wally (70) and Capital (62).

The spokesman went on to say that 121 cases are currently in the intensive care unit, out of a total of 8,884 “active cases,” while in the last day, some 64 people had completed their quarantine periods in designated facili-ties, however, they are still required to self-isolate at home for no less than 14 days, he added.

Kuwait has ratcheted up its coronavirus testing, with 3,828 tests carried out in the last 24 hours, out of a total of 489,566, he re-vealed.

Meanwhile, some 684 people were cured of the virus in the last day, pushing the total to 55,057, he said, reiterating the strict need to abide by health precautions as outlined by the ministry, mainly, following social distancing rules.

With the start of the third stage in the plan for return to normal life, thousands of taxis have reappeared on the streets following the suspension of their activities for about five months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, re-ports Al-Rai daily.

However, the owners of taxi companies and drivers have expressed great dissatisfac-tion concerning the health restrictions that the government has set. This includes the condi-tion that a taxi is allowed to carry only one passenger; otherwise the driver of that taxi will be issued with a citation.

The owners of taxi companies and drivers insisted that such a decision is irrational and meaningless, and will cause them to incur huge losses, highlighting the injustice shown to them in light of the existence of significant financial obligations on them.

They affirmed their commitment to health requirements and procedures such as wearing face masks and gloves, and isolating the taxi driver from passengers by means of a plastic barrier.

They wondered how this one-passenger-only condition can be implemented in cases where a man uses the taxi with his family or if a person is with his friends or relatives, asking, “Will each one of them ride separate taxis?”

Through the daily, the members of the Taxi Association expressed their concerns on the eve of the day for the resumption of their work, stressing that they hope the decision to allow only one passenger in a taxi will be amended. They also highlighted their concern about facing the owners of private cars who work illegally.

A number of taxi company owners have af-firmed their willingness to cooperate with the Traffic Investigation Department in guiding them to the parking locations of illegal taxi operators.

Since the time Ministry of Education had set Aug 4 as the date to resume work for both teaching and administrative staff in all school departments for the secondary stage, many school principals have been receiv-ing phone calls from teachers who submit-ted applications for getting exempted from work, which is their legitimate right and in line with the decisions of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) that exempt employees who fall in certain categories from report-ing to work during the stages of the plan for the return to normalcy, reports Al-Anba daily.

According to reliable sources from the educational sector, school principals have not refrained from receiving such applications, provided the teachers submit documents to prove their health-related excuse. They need to provide accredited medical reports from the country’s health authorities.

The principals informed the teachers who submitted their applications that they will im-plement the rules and regulations in relation to absenteeism from work.

The sources called on all to abide by the ministry’s instructions and report to school for the benefit of the educational process.

It is worth clarifying that CSC excluded some cases from reporting to work and con-sidered them to be on rest based on the re-quirements of the work interest. These cases included employees who 55 years old and above with the exception of those in super-visory and leadership positions, employees with disabilities, pregnant employees, and employees entitled to reduced work hours due to lactation.

No guarantee

WASHINGTON, July 27, (AP): The world’s biggest COVID-19 vac-cine study got under-way Monday with the first of 30,000 planned volunteers helping to test shots created by the US government – one of several candidates in the final stretch of the global vaccine race.

There’s still no guarantee that the experimental vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Mod-erna Inc, will really protect.

The needed proof: Volunteers won’t know if they’re getting the real shot or a dummy version. After two doses, scientists will closely track which group expe-riences more infections as they go about their daily routines, es-pecially in areas where the virus still is spreading unchecked.

“Unfortunately for the United States of America, we have plen-ty of infections right now to get that answer,” NIH’s Dr Anthony Fauci recently told The Associ-ated Press.

Several other vaccines made by China and by Britain’s Ox-ford University earlier this month began smaller final-stage tests in Brazil and other hard-hit coun-tries.

But the US requires its own tests of any vaccine that might be used in the country and has set a high bar: Every month through fall, the government-funded CO-VID-19 Prevention Network will roll out a new study of a leading candidate – each one with 30,000 newly recruited volunteers.

The massive studies aren’t just to test if the shots work – they’re needed to check each potential vaccine’s safety. And following the same study rules will let sci-entists eventually compare all the shots.

PlansNext up in August, the final

study of the Oxford shot begins, followed by plans to test a can-didate from Johnson & Johnson in September and Novavax in October – if all goes according to schedule. Pfizer Inc plans its own 30,000-person study this summer.

That’s a stunning number of people needed to roll up their sleeves for science. But in recent weeks, more than 150,000 Amer-icans filled out an online registry signaling interest, said Dr Larry Corey, a virologist with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research In-stitute in Seattle, who helps over-see the study sites.

“These trials need to be mul-tigenerational, they need to be multiethnic, they need to reflect the diversity of the United States population,” Corey told a vaccine meeting last week. He stressed that it’s especially important to ensure enough Black and Hispan-ic participants as those popula-tions are hard-hit by COVID-19.

It normally takes years to cre-ate a new vaccine from scratch, but scientists are setting speed records this time around, spurred by knowledge that vaccination is the world’s best hope against the pandemic. The coronavirus wasn’t even known to exist be-fore late December, and vaccine makers sprang into action Jan 10 when China shared the virus’ ge-netic sequence.

Just 65 days later in March, the NIH-made vaccine was tested in people. The first recipient is en-couraging others to volunteer now.

“We all feel so helpless right now. There’s very little that we can do to combat this virus. And being able to participate in this trial has given me a sense of, that I’m doing something,” Jennifer Haller of Seattle told the AP. “Be prepared for a lot of questions from your friends and family about how it’s going, and a lot of thank-you’s.”

That first-stage study that included Haller and 44 oth-ers showed the shots revved up volunteers’ immune systems in ways scientists expect will be protective, with some minor side effects such as a brief fever, chills and pain at the injection site. Early testing of other lead-ing candidates have had similarly encouraging results.

If everything goes right with the final studies, it still will take months for the first data to trickle in from the Moderna test, fol-lowed by the Oxford one.

Governments around the world are trying to stockpile mil-lions of doses of those leading candidates so if and when regu-lators approve one or more vac-cines, immunizations can begin immediately.

Photo by Mahmoud JadeedTaxi service is set to return after a long

period of almost five months.

Pilgrims in Makkah for downsized Hajj

Muslim pilgrims have started arriving in Makkah for a drastically scaled-down Hajj as Saudi authorities bal-ance the Kingdom’s oversight of one of Islam’s key pillars and the safety of visitors in the face of a global pandemic.

The Hajj, which begins on Wednesday, normally draws around 2.5 million people for five intense days of worship in one of the world’s largest gatherings of people from around the world.

This year, Saudi Arabia’s Hajj Ministry has said between 1,000 and 10,000 people already residing in the Kingdom will be allowed to perform the pilgrim-age. Two-thirds of those pilgrims will be from among foreign residents in Saudi Arabia and one-third will be Saudi citizens.

The Kingdom has one of the Mideast’s largest out-breaks of the coronavirus, with more than 266,000 reported infections, including 2,733 deaths.

Fatin Daud, a 25-year-old Malaysian studying Ara-bic in Saudi Arabia, was among the select few whose application for Hajj was approved. After her selection, Saudi Health Ministry officials came to her home and tested her for the COVID-19 virus. She was then giv-en an electronic bracelet that monitors her movement and told to quarantine for several days at home.

After that, Daud was moved to a hotel in Makkah, where she remains in self-isolation, still wearing the electronic wristband. A large box of food is delivered to her hotel room three times a day as she prepares to begin the Hajj. (AP)

A small number of pilgrims circumambulate the Ka’aba, the square structure in the Great Mosque, toward which believers turn when praying, in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, late Sunday, July 26. Anywhere from 1,000 to

10,000 pilgrims will be allowed to perform the annual Hajj this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. (AP)

stc records KD 136.4 mn revenues for H1— Details Page 9 —

Newswatch

KUWAIT CITY: Senior Policy Advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and US special envoy to Iran, Brian Hook, arrived in Kuwait from Doha Sunday to hold talks with senior offi cials Monday regarding de-velopments in the region and the role played by Tehran to destabilize the region, as well as the protracted Gulf crisis and Kuwaiti mediation efforts to resolve it, in ad-dition to Washington’s endeavor to push the Security Council to renew the duration of the arms embargo on Iran, in addition to violations committed by Tehran in its nuclear agreement, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

Prior to his arrival, Hook warned of the danger of the regime in Tehran to the Iranian people and the coun-tries of the region, and the repercussions of not extend-ing the sanctions, including the arms embargo.

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DUBAI: Iran has moved a mock aircraft carrier to the strategic Strait of Hormuz amid heightened tensions between Tehran and the US, satellite photographs released Monday show, likely signalling the Islamic Republic soon plans to use it for live-fi re drills.

An image from Maxar Technologies taken Sunday shows an Iranian fast boat speed toward the carrier, sending waves up in its wake, after a tugboat pulled her out into the strait from the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas.

Iranian state media and offi cials have yet to acknowl-edge bringing the replica out to the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes. However, its appearance there suggests Iran’s paramili-tary Revolutionary Guard is preparing an encore of a similar mock-sinking it conducted in 2015.(AP)

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DUBAI: The US continues to push for an end of the four-nation boycott of Qatar, even after the hospitali-zation of Kuwait’s ruling Amir who led talks to re-solve the yearslong dispute, a US diplomat said Sun-

day.US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook ac-

knowledged the challenge ahead on ending the crisis that’s torn apart the Gulf Cooperation Council, with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emir-ates part of the boycott that’s targeted fellow member Qatar since June 2017. Egypt as well joined the boy-cott, which saw nations close their airspace and bor-ders to Qatar.

Kuwait and Oman, the two other nations in the GCC, have sought dialogue between the nations since, with Kuwait’s Amir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sa-bah leading those efforts.

Sheikh Sabah was hospitalized in Kuwait City on July 18, underwent surgery the next day and later traveled via a US Air Force C-17 fl ying hospital to Rochester, Minnesota, home of the fl agship campus of the Mayo Clinic. Kuwait has yet to say what ails the 91-year-old ruler. (AP)

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BEIRUT: A bomb that exploded Sunday morning in a vegetable market in a north Syrian border town con-trolled by Turkey-backed opposition fi ghters killed eight and wounding 19, an opposition war monitor and the state news agency reported.

The blast scorched market stalls and scattered pro-duce in the town of Ras al-Ayn along the border with Turkey.

The state news agency SANA said the blast was caused by a car bomb while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the explosion was caused by a motorcycle rigged with explosives.

The Observatory said some of the wounded are in critical condition adding that the dead included a wom-an and a child.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry blamed the attack on Kurdish insurgents, as it has in dozens of other such incidents. (AP)

LOCALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

2

Photos by Bassam Abu ShanabOld furniture and garbage is strewn all over the place as Baladiya workers fail to collect the same in Mahboula area

as it was reopened recently after a total lockdown for around three months. Stray dogs seen roaming the area.

Reconsider IICO membership ofDr Bashir: Kuwait parl’y sources

Sudan’s accusations against ex-NCP chief raise question marks

‘Need to tackle issue before start of school year’

Fabric of distance education encircles ‘special education’ schools in KuwaitKUWAIT CITY, July 27: Ministry of Education has fallen into the dis-tance education quandary with seri-ous repercussions for all its sectors, as the fabric of this system threw its threads around the special education schools, leaving dozens of ques-tions for which there are no satis-factory answers – despite beginning the countdown for the resumption of high school teachers on August 9, re-ports Al-Rai daily.

The most important aspect of the question is that Al-Amal, Al-Nour and Al-Rajaa schools have dozens of students in the twelfth grade who have visual, hearing and movement disabilities, so how will they be ca-tered for in the “online” system?

An educational source was quoted as saying each of the special educa-tion schools have their own speci-fi cations, which do not go with the educational portal, stating the needs

of students in those schools in de-tail, beginning with Al-Nour School for visual disabilities whose students need talking computers. The question is: Has the ministry provided a talk-ing device for every student in that school? The ministry used to assign a number of teachers to help them solve the tests and write answers on their behalf, so what will they do now?

Al-Rajaa School for movement disabilities has students with quadri-plegia, and the Department of Spe-cial Education Schools was dealing more fl exibly with them during the testing period.

As for Al-Amal School for hear-ing disabilities who are most in need of visual education, the source ex-plained that writing in their teaching process is not useful, as well as the primary and middle school intellec-tual education students and those in the rehabilitation schools. He said

“it is necessary to appoint a support teacher in the class to control their involuntary behavior”. How about the online learning, he asked.

He pointed to students with “Down Syndrome” and their very simple abilities, in addition to au-tistic students who need a special-ized teaching program, stressing that dozens of obstacles and negatives have begun to surface in the schools where distance education is consid-ered a miracle.

He reiterated the need to deal with this thorny problem in the Ministry of Education before the start of the new academic year in October. He said that Law 8/2010 guarantees for this category all educational, train-ing and cultural services in all edu-cational stages, including kindergar-ten and elementary, in proportion to their physical, sensory and mental capabilities.

KUWAIT CITY, July 27: Kuwait’s parlia-mentary sources have called on the Interna-tional Islamic Chari-table Organization (IICO) – which is one of Kuwait’s humani-tarian charity arms ac-tive all over the world – to reconsider the membership of the for-mer leader of the Na-tional Congress Party in Sudan, Dr Issam Al-Bashir, in the charity organization, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The call came because Dr Bashir accused by the Suda-nese judiciary of money laun-dering and terrorist fi nancing and taken measures against him in Khartoum, which in-cluded stripping him of his posts and slapping a travel ban on him and placing him under house arrest.

The sources say it may be inappropriate or acceptable for Al-Bashir to remain a member on the society’s board of direc-tors – especially after he was accused by the Sudanese pros-ecution of money laundering, considering the presence of his name and photo on the website will harm the noble goals of the society and send a mistaken message to the world.

The sources urged the com-mission to look into the matter since his continued member-ship on the board of directors means he – most likely – still receives fi nancial allocations.

The sources added, the ac-cusations of money launder-ing and supporting terrorism against Dr Bashir are supposed to raise major question marks here in Kuwait, as it is known that Al-Bashir has lived in Ku-wait for years, and he held the position of the Secretary-Gen-eral of the World Center for Mediation, which was affi liated with the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and was paid thousands of dinars annually.

Al-Rai daily photosAbove: Rise of tide seen to nearly four meters higher than normal.

Dr Issam Al-Bashir

Photo by Mohammad MorsiMunicipality workers removing the barbed wires on the streets in Farwaniya area

after the lifting of complete lockdown on Sunday.

Photos by Mohammad MorsiA lone policeman manning a street in Farwaniya on the eve of the lifting of total lockdown, and (inset), a motorist shows a victory sign after the lifting of the total lockdown in the area which was imposed for nearly four months.

KUWAIT CITY, July 27: Environmental experts differ on the reason behind the rise of tide nearly four meters higher than nor-mal recently which fl ooded various parts along the coast of Kuwait, damaged some of the chalets, uprooted some trees and swallowed a large amount of beach sand, reports Al-Rai daily.

Some of the experts attributed the phe-nomenon to global warming and melting of ice in the polar regions, and the subse-quent rise in sea levels.

Another team of experts stressed, “The matter has nothing to do with global warming or melting of ice, but it is a regu-lar, frequent occurrence that is linked to the tides and the beginning of the lunar months.”

In this regard, meteorologist and en-vironmentalist expert Issa Ramadan ex-plained, “What happened in the past days is an unusual rise in the sea levels. This phenomenon is called the fl ooding of the sea and sometimes continues for several days”.

In Kuwait, it started last Tuesday, and the height ranged between 3.25 and 3.95 meters. This is very high compared to the usual tide levels.

What enabled the tide to further en-ter the land was the moderate activity of southeastern winds, and the rise of waves on the coasts.

“I had previously warned of the rise in the sea level compared to what it was before. The rise in the levels of the seas and oceans is caused by the melting of icebergs in the poles. Evidence for this is abundant, and can be attested by satellite

images and researchers.”He stressed that many of the islands

and coasts throughout the world have witnessed high sea levels on their beaches such as Maldives, the Caribbean and other islands, as well as the coasts of the Medi-terranean region, Australia and the Ameri-cas.

Ramadan added, “According to the studies conducted in the fi rst and second Kuwait’s Initial National Communica-tions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was submitted by the National Commit-tee for Climate Change, the height of the water levels will increase from ten cen-timeters to 50 centimeters in the coming years (from 10 to 50 years) as the rate of ice melting in the polar regions increases”.

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Additional service: The General Depart-ment of Public Relations and Security Me-dia at the Ministry of Interior clarifi ed that the General Department of Police Force Affairs, in cooperation and coordination with the General Department of Informa-tion Systems, has established an additional service on the Ministry of Interior’s web-site www.moi.gov.kw to submit requests for admission to the re-service course for members of the Police Force.

This comes within the framework of the Ministry of Interior’s strategy to facilitate those wishing to join and submit their ap-plications through the Ministry of Interi-or’s website as quickly as possible without the need to review the Department in order to ensure public safety.

Phenomenon tied to global warming

Experts ponder over rise intide along the Kuwait coast

LOCALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

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A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION

DIWANIYA‘Doctrine of social media wars needs to be changed’

‘Enable expats unable to fend for themselves to leave for home countries’“THE confl ict in the region is very infl amed, and the soft clashes in the media and social media networks turn into real wars that are no less hideous than the real wars, and this is why the doctrine on which they are based is supposed to change,” columnist Dahem Al-Qahtani wrote for Al-Qabas daily.

“Kuwait’s foreign relations, especially with regard to the impact of what is writ-ten, published and broadcast in the Kuwaiti media and communication networks on Ku-wait’s diplomatic relations.

“In the past weeks, Kuwait was subjected to an unprecedented attack aimed at infl u-encing its internal decision regarding the attitude towards dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood movement in Kuwait, and it was an organized campaign and was based on leaked, and technically unverifi ed facts, for previous meetings of Kuwaiti political fi gures with former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi about 15 years ago.

“The campaign was very smart, and it was built on the famous rule of George W. Bush, ‘If you are not with me, then you are against me’. And if we add to that this campaign was based on predetermined conclusions and as-sumptions, then you will fi nd yourself either to be dragged behind such a campaign in order to avert being accused of adopting a hostile atti-tude against one of the closest Gulf states.

“Either you will fi nd yourself searching for the truth of these conclusions on which the campaign was based, and by this you will be accused of being a supporter of this sup-posed conspiracy against these countries.

“Or, you will have to be silent, and this ap-plies to you the famous saying of Martin Lu-ther King where he said, ‘the ordeal rests in the silence of the good people’, will be applicable to you. And if we know that Kuwaiti diplo-macy, unfortunately, does not have lines of communication with Kuwaiti opinion makers from specialized writers and political analysts, as in most countries of the world, the situation of the writer and independent political analyst in Kuwait will be very diffi cult.

“On specifi c issues, there is a group of political writers and analysts who enjoy the confi dence of Kuwaiti, Gulf and Arab public opinion, who have a balanced proposition, and they understand well where the interest of Kuwait lies.

“But unfortunately, these writers and po-litical analysts fi nd no room to appear in the offi cial Kuwaiti media, because they

prefer those who always praise the govern-ment, and they do not fi nd a place to appear in private Kuwaiti channels, because these channels are often soaked to intoxication in purely domestic matters that are limited to electoral affairs and issues, that are con-sumed by the locals and directed according to special interests.

“This unhealthy situation has made many countries attract Kuwaiti writers and politi-cal analysts to appear on their TV channels and newspapers.

“Of course the content of this appearance is ex-pressing support and de-fend the policy of these countries, and unfortu-nately this happens in several issues where Ku-wait stands in a position of positive neutrality.

“Thus, Kuwait does not help Kuwaiti writers and political analysts to defend the positions of these confl icting coun-

tries. And if we take into account the details, the whole issue amounts to harming the su-preme interests of Kuwait, which requires the State to move to put an end to this harm-ful behavior through decisions that do not affect freedom of opinion, nor the right to expression.

“But it is needless to say that these deci-sions, should be engineered to protect the interests of the country from such suspicious moves against some other states, particularly in dealing with some cases, which require a minimum level of patriotism, and avoid tak-ing sharp and extreme position.”

Also:“In the context of the efforts of the Ku-

waiti government to contain the pandemic of the coronavirus, measures were taken to quarantine some areas that were classifi ed as infested,” columnist and attorney Riyadh Al-Sanea’a wrote for Annahar daily.

“Mahboula, Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh and Far-waniya were locked down, where such type of crisis showed another crisis of different type, or rather the human tragedy with the marginal and unqualifi ed workers as the women in particular the ‘heroes’ of this cri-sis.

“Those who followed the snaking queues waiting for help from charity committees for

hours, realize the extent of the crisis these people live in, especially women among them, as we do not really know where they came from in such large numbers, are they people reported absconding by their spon-sors or cleaning workers working for some beauty parlors or private companies?

“The large numbers revealed by the crisis in the isolated areas, necessitate immediate action by inquiring if they are legal residents and the Ministry of Interior will be in a po-sition to exploit the current circumstances and cooperate with the charity committees to monitor those who reside illegally in the country and deport them.

“I think such action will be for the ben-efi t of these workers, particularly in light of the pictures that have been published by the news channels and the newspapers which depict famine like situations tinted with star-vation.

“This is despite government efforts, but many of these workers are still jobless and some of them currently suffering from suffo-cating psychological diseases, since we hear on daily basis about the Asians committing suicide.

“The diffi cult living conditions, the stop-page of various productive sectors, and the regional embargo are all factors that contrib-uted to the aggravation of that labor crisis.

“Therefore, what is needed is an immedi-ate move in order to enable the violators and those who want them to return to their coun-tries from that, and I am sure that those who wish to return are the vast majority, so eve-ryone has been affected by the consequences of the pandemic.

“The simple humanitarian solutions in dis-tributing supplies for free will not suffi ce in the long run, so the only practical solution is to enable them to return to their home coun-tries. It is a humanitarian solution that must be applied in the country of humanity.”

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“Life is gradually returning to most of the government activities, private sector and the services sector, and the reopening of malls and complexes will begin next Tuesday with the ut-most caution and application of health require-ments. The Ministry of Justice and President of the Court of First Instance Adviser Dr Adel Bursli also announced that work will resume in some of the Court of First Instance circles at the beginning of this week for all urgent de-partments, family courts and fi nancial market

circles,” Yaqoub Abdul-Aziz Al-Sane wrote for Al-Qabas daily.

“Strict health precautions for fear of the vi-rus spreading through mixing, amid the total and partial bans, have completely paralyzed the economic sector. Among the important observations we want to send to His Excel-lency the Minister of Justice, Counselor Dr Fahd Al-Afasy and the technical offi ce is about decisions of the general assembly of the court and those in charge of arranging the conditions of the courts in general to reduce the number of lawyers and litigants in pending cases that were present before the Corona crisis in the event that the defense is ready for adjudication and the case is reserved for ruling without the impact of the absence of one of the parties.

“This mechanism provides the speed of adjudication in cases that have been dis-cussed without further need to hear a word on the previous defense or when announcing the cases if indicated that a particular case does not require the presence of litigants. It will be done in advance through the secretary of the sessions, taking into account the law of pleadings regarding the absence and non-appearance of the litigants or their agents. No doubt, the actual attendance percentage will decrease. New cases will be considered while awaiting the activation of comprehen-sive online services for remote litigation.

“In the experience of reserving shopping dates for cooperative societies, parallel mar-kets, catering branches and other electronic services launched by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Interior, it was able to organize work for the public during the pe-riods of total and partial bans and is still ongoing. With life gradually returning and grace periods just following the statistic of the Ministry of Commerce daily, a great dif-ference between the percentage of reserva-tions and the percentage of actual attendance has been noticed, the last of which was last Friday, where approximately 19,000 booked. The actual attendance was about 8,000, rep-resenting 42 percent.

“I believe the reasons are different but re-stricting the freedom of shoppers after reo-pening the malls and complexes will also in-volve the application of reservations. I think freedom of shopping in cooperative societies and the parallel markets is necessary, given the interest of citizens in various areas, in-cluding government, banking and private sector activities. This is just a proposal I

hope will come up and be implemented. Thank you.”

My uncle, Counselor Ibrahim Abdel Latif Al-Mana, passed on to glory in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. May God have mercy on him. He worked in the Ministry of Justice in Kuwait, then the Arab Oil Company Limited in Al-Khafji Region .. We belong to God and to Him we shall return.

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“The State followed contradictory policies in encouraging citizens to join the private sector. In fact, the successive governments issued confusing decisions regarding em-ployment in the private sector,” columnist Waleed Abdullah Al-Ghanim wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“When the government launched its mar-keting program to encourage Kuwaiti youths to join the private sector, it boomeranged as it led to fi nancial irregularities and random manpower for government agencies.

“Instead of making Kuwaitis work in the private sector, those already working in the sector returned to the government, oil sector or newly created bodies, especially in jobs which offer high material benefi ts without diffi cult conditions if the higher qualifi cation -- ‘wasta’ (infl uence) -- is available. There-fore, the Kuwaiti youths moved from one side to another because of these policies.

“Today, in the corona crisis, the Kuwaiti employee in the private sector has become the weakest link between forcing him to go on periodic leave using his leave balance or bargaining for reduction and adjustment of his salary in light of the government’s hesita-tion and delay in making a decision to sup-port Kuwaiti jobs in the private sector, simi-lar to the position of other Gulf states.

“Today, a draft law is presented to the Parliament to allow companies to reduce employees’ salaries. The employee will be the defeated side in this draft law.

“Attracting Kuwaitis to work in the pri-vate sector is a national priority related to educational curricula, academic and profes-sional institutions, local economic activity, and needs of the labor market. This necessi-tates the ratifi cation of fair laws that guaran-tee the rights of both parties (companies and employees), and provide a real labor market with effi ciency, competition for the best, and protection of the weakest.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb

Al-Qahtani

Accounts of 11 ‘fashionistas’ frozen, travelban imposed to curtail ‘money-laundering’

Infl ated bank balances of some prompted move

KUWAIT CITY, July 27: Amid assurances that the gov-ernment is going to prepare a draft law to regulate the advertising market through social media to prevent it being exploited by the ‘Fashionistas’ as a platform for money laundering operations, a decision has been taken to freeze the accounts of 11 ‘Fashionistas’ and a travel

ban has been slapped against them, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The daily added such news reports of the involvement of Fash-ionistas in money laundering operations have become a daily affair and the 11 are expected to be summoned for interrogation on the background of money laundering cases because such activities have greatly offended Kuwait’s reputation at the international level.

Well-informed security sources revealed told the daily that the famous media outlets that were covered by the Prosecution’s decisions are identifi ed only as B and H, B, D, G, N, G, G, M, F, F, G, S and H, among them are the media and a well-known contracting company and well-known Social Media personalities in Kuwait and the Gulf countries who mar-ket the products. The sources pointed out, one of them is a woman who organizes do-mestic and foreign touristic trips and her bank accounts in three Kuwaiti banks are said to have suddenly bal-looned.

ExplainedThe sources explained that

“the Financial Investigation Unit and the State Security Agency intensifi ed their in-vestigations after the bank accounts of a large number of what it called the ‘media celebrities’ swelled to mil-lions of dinars after some of them a ‘little while ago’ had deposits of a few hundred dinars but became infl ated within a short period of time.

On the other hand, well-informed sources indicated that the measures taken recently against the Fash-ionistas came in response to information received from international institutions which warned Kuwait of the danger of sliding into a regional center for money laundering operations and the dire negative effects that could be infl icted on the country, especially since the American laws see money-laundering opera-tions as fi nancing terrorism.

The sources called on the government to rush to submit a new bill to regulate adver-tising through “social media” to close the door in the face of money laundering opera-tions, similar to laws in force in the other Gulf countries.

Kuwait Ports Association chief elected CEO of AASTMTCAIRO, July 27, (KUNA): The Director General of Kuwait Ports Association (KPA) and President of the Arab Sea Ports Federation Sheikh Yousef Abdullah Sabah Al-Nasser Al-Sabah won the CEO role of the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT) on Saturday, in the elec-tions held by the academy.

AASTMT said in a press state-ment that this came at its general assembly meeting via video confer-encing, with the participation of the Assistant Secretary General of the League of Arab States for Economic Affairs Ambassador Kamal Hassan

Ali, and AASTMTs President Dr. Ismail Abdel Ghaffar.

Speaking to KUNA, Sheikh You-suf Al-Sabah said, regarding his vic-tory in the position, that they seek to push for maritime transport to the refi neries of the world, promot-ing it to be the fi rst in the developed countries.

He dedicated this win to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

Then he thanked AASTMTs representatives, appreciating all the participating countries that sup-ported and voted for Kuwait in the elections.

The new executive council in-cludes nine countries; Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yem-en, Palestine, Mauritania, Libya and Sudan.

AASTMT is an educational or-ganization specialized in science, technology and maritime transport, affi liated with the League of Arab States that aims to teach research training and work, with multiple branches worldwide.

One of the power stations being operated.

‘Second semester for high school ends’KUWAIT CITY, July 27: The Ministry of Education issued a decision regarding the completion of the second semester of the school year 2019/2020 for the secondary grade (high school), adult education and literacy departments, re-ports Al-Rai daily.

The ministry also announced that the work in the administrative supervision services in the adult education and lit-eracy departments will resume on Aug 4, 2020, while classes will resume on

Aug 8, 2020, and 12th grade classes will resume on Aug 9, 2020, through online education during evening period.

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Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad said combating corruption is a battle that be-gins with the purifi cation of State insti-tutions from corrupt individuals without discrimination, especially in light of the diffi cult economic condition, reports Al-Anba daily.

MEW operates 2 new 12 MW sub-stations in KabadThe Ministry of Electricity and Wa-ter put into operation two 12 meg-awatts (6.7) sub-stations in the Kabad region as part of the fi rst phase to strengthen the electrical network in the area. This marks the second phase to strengthen the power network in the camel and equestrian areas, reports Al-

Seyassah daily.The head of the Operations De-

partment in the Al-Farwaniya Gov-ernorate, Engineer Faisal Bastaki, said the Ministry has been keen to strengthen the network in the Kabad area through 3 feeders with a capacity of 12 MW, in addition to strengthening the overhead power

lines in the region.Bastaki said in a press statement

these operations are a fi rst stage of a two-stage network to reduce load in the camel and equestrians areas.

He pointed out that the Ministry of Electricity and Water was keen to strengthen the network to prevent interruptions and overloads.

LOCAL/GULFARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

4

‘297,000 Kuwaitis & 77,000 expats work in govt sector’

PAAET announces launch of e-learning portal

KUWAIT CITY, July 27: According to senior govern-ment sources, there are 297,000 Kuwaitis and 77,000 expatriates working in the gov-ernment ministries, authorities and institutions. These expatriate employ-ees include 34,000 doctors and nurses, 24,000 teachers, 7,000 messengers and cleaners, and 2,200 imams and muezzins, which makes their num-ber 67,200 in total, rendering the num-ber of expatriates in all jobs to be 9,800 whose jobs have undergone K u w a i t i z a t i o n , reports Al-Anba daily.

In the jobs relating to law, politics and Islamic affairs, there are 3,347 expatriates, including 2,200 preachers, imams and muezzins. By replac-ing the expatriates, there will be 1,147 legal experts, with only six percent distributed among all ministries, and 16,906 Kuwaiti legal experts constituting 94 percent. The targeted percentage of Kuwaitization in this legal sector is 88 percent, as there are no legal experts awaiting employ-ment in the government.

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) is pre-paring to announce a new batch of candidates to work in ministries and govern-ment agencies after the reg-istration door for employ-ment closes on Friday, July 31, provided that the remaining employment pro-cess will continue in com-plete transparency within two weeks after the Eid Al-Adha holidays.

e-learningMeanwhile, the Public

Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) announced Sunday the launching of its e-learning portal and tech-nical support on its new platform as part of the development of its work in the field of information technology, reports Al-Qabas daily.

In a press statement, Director of the Information Technology Center at the authority Ali Hussein explained the e-portal sup-ports the efforts of the authority in the field of dis-tance education by using the latest technical and technological means. He disclosed the portal includes several platforms for mem-bers of the teaching and training staff, and students of applied colleges and training institutes.

Hussein said the center created more than 30 class-es, in cooperation with Ibn Al Haytham Training Center, for members of the teaching and training staff, equipped with the latest technical means. He added these classes are available for use in online education for those who need them.

He stressed that the tech-nical support provided by the center is available all the time through a special platform to book appoint-ments for the halls and acti-vate the services of direct communication (live chat) and help desk (morning help desk) through the authority’s exchange num-ber (1333-18666611), as well as the evening period through direct number – 22068036. He confirmed the technical support team is present at the authority’s headquarters from 8:00 in the morning until 4:00 in the afternoon.

He asserted the center spares no effort in overcom-ing any obstacles that the members of PAAET may encounter – whether mem-bers of the teaching and training staff or the stu-dents. He confirmed all types of support will be given to them.

Photos by Rizk TaufiqTop and above: Some photos of Farwaniya area after the lifting of total lockdown.

‘Lockdown period was painful’

Farwaniya residents express satisfaction at govt’s decision to end isolation of areaKUWAIT CITY, July 27: The lock-down period in Farwaniya has been very difficult, especially for those who could not leave for work, especially since many people had to stay put in their homes, while some would have opted to travel to their home countries while yet others said although they have lived and worked in Kuwait for several years the past five months have been a testing time for them, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The period of lockdown was diffi-cult for most of the Farwaniya resi-dents, especially the daily wage work-ers and this forced them to wait in

queue for long hours to obtain free meals provided daily by the social workers and charity committees.

The residents of Farwaniya praised the security authorities for what they called ‘job well done’ as some of those living inside Farwaniya were allowed to leave the area on humanitarian grounds to go to the Farwaniya Hospital when required.

In the midst of all this a resident of the area who identified himself as Hamada Abdel-Younis called on the necessity of real estate owners to waive the rents of the apartments dur-ing the lockdown period and claims

he has been threatened with eviction because he was unable to pay the rent for 3 months. He says he hopes the government will consider special cases of those who could not pay the rent.

Several residents had to tell their pitiful stories as some survived on just bread and falafel while others made ends meet on assistance provided by the charity societies and good-hearted businessmen.

Everyone living in Farwaniya say they are relieved and expressed satis-faction at the government decision to end the isolation of their area.

Pilgrims seen arriving. A pilgrim offloads his baggage.

A view of the isolation-designated hotelPilgrims being directed where to go.

Hajj 2020

Pilgrims finish week-long home isolation

Saudi Arabia readies for Islamicpilgrimage amid COVID-19 crisisMAKKAH, Saudi Arabia, July 27: This year’s Hajj pilgrims on Saturday fin-ished the procedures of a week-long home isolation, according to the health protocol approved for the major Islamic pilgrimage this year that begins next week. Pilgrims started arriving in Makkah, where they will undergo four days of quarantine at designated hotels in the holy city.

The strict health protocol was approved by the Saudi government to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Hajj begins on the 8th of Dhul Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic year 1441, and runs to the 12th or 13th of Dhul Hijjah, corresponding to July 28-Aug 2. The Saudi authorities decided to hold the pilgrimage in the midst of exceptional circumstances caused by the coronavi-rus pandemic, necessitating strict pre-cautionary measures that have been applied to ensure a safer Hajj.

The pilgrimage this year is limited to citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia, who meet preset conditions and have been subjected to quarantine proce-dures. Individuals from 160 nationali-ties residing in the Kingdom have been selected to perform the Hajj. The num-ber of pilgrims has been dramatically reduced to ensure social distancing measures are adhered to.

‘Exceptional Hajj Season’Minister of Hajj and Umrah, H.E. Dr.

Muhammad Saleh bin TaherBenten, said the organization of Hajj for 2020 is being carried out according to a strate-gic plan and strict health protocols. These comprehensive plans will be implemented by security and health and service agencies.

The plans include the provision of the best of health services and most appropriate crowd control, in line with the precautionary measures and preven-tive protocols formulated by the Ministry of Health to ensure pilgrims’ health safety, H.E. Benten said.

“Hajj in 2020 is a truly exceptional pilgrimage by all measures,” H.E. Benten said. “It is taking place amidst the very unusual circumstances of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, which is impacting Saudi Arabia and the world at large. Due to the excep-tional global health circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic, strict precautionary measures have been applied to ensure a healthy Hajj for all pilgrims.”

“We are using engineering standards and protocols, whether in arrivals, or in transport by buses, and in the circum-ambulation around the Kaaba, and in Saee (Hajj ritual), and services that the pilgrim need but in a way to safeguard them against infection, without trans-mission of the virus to the pilgrim or to the workers also serving this pilgrim,” H.E. Benten said.

He lauded the support from the Kingdom’s leadership, stressing that the selection process was carried out in complete transparency, with careful observance of health determinants, the most important of which was the pil-grim obtaining a certified PCR certifi-cate proving a negative COVID-19 result.

“Health determinants are the basis in the process of selecting pilgrims resid-ing inside the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and there are no exceptions to anyone during the Hajj season 1441 AH,” H.E. Benten said, in remarks car-ried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on Friday.

H.E. Benten added: “The Hajj pil-grimage this year will not be performed by any government official or partici-pant in the service of pilgrims.” Ensuring the safety of the pilgrims and the cadres working in the service of pilgrims is the most important thing during this Hajj season, he said.

‘Four pillars’According to Major General

Mohammed bin Wasl Al-Ahmadi, Assistant Commander of the Hajj Security Forces for the Grand Mosque and its premises Security, the Hajj secu-rity plan for is based on four pillars: organization, security, humanitarianism and healthcare.

The Hajj Security Force has put a mechanism fixing ways of entrance and exit from and to the Grand mosque dur-ing the pilgrimage, he said, with pas-sage for pilgrims extending from the southern and western premises of the mosque, as well as special passages around the circumambulation and Saee areas.

This time around, pilgrims will head to Makkah after finishing their isolation period. They will spend days in one of Makkah’s hotels, inspected personally by H.E. Benten.

The pilgrims will receive healthcare inspections at their Makkah hotels to check for any symptoms. Upon a posi-tive signal, the faithful will head to Mount Arafat accompanied by a medi-cal team.

Tents to accommodate pilgrims have been set up at Mount Arafat by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, which also put in place plans to transport the pil-grims while strict social distancing measures are being observed.

Pilgrims arriving at the hotels in Makkah received a special kit provided by the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah. It contained a face mask, Hajj ihram gar-ments, a prayer rug, ritual stones and hygiene items such as shaving instru-ments, personal-care tools and a guide-book for the pilgrimage.

Hotel isolationStarting on Saturday, pilgrims will

start a four-day hotel quarantine, according to H.E. Deputy Minister of Hajj and Umrah, Dr Abdel Fattah bin Suleiman Mashat.

In comments carried by SPA, HE Mashat has confirmed that there was coordination with the Ministries of Health and Interior for the application of health and security protocols, during Hajj, which he also described as an “the exceptional Hajj” of all procedural, organisational and health standards.

“There are 160 nationalities repre-senting all resident pilgrims who were chosen to perform Hajj this year,” he said, adding that was no differentiation in the selection process except in terms of health standards set by the health authorities.

Dr Mashat said that the selection of the resident pilgrims was through the electronic portal, noting that the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah began implementing from early on its detailed and operational plans to organise this year’s Hajj, which came in exceptional circumstances due to the coronavirus pandemic, taking all health, security and organizational measures for pil-grims to perform the rites of the fifth pillar of Islam in peace and security.

Elaborating on the measures, he said a leader was identified for each group of pilgrims to make sure that the pre-ventive measures and health messages were clear to them.

‘Once in a lifetime opportunity’Fawziya Mohamed, 38, from

Malaysia, said: “I am from Malaysia and this is my first time to perform Hajj this year. ‘Alhamdillah’, I feel very grateful because I didn’t think I was going to receive this once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity. They called me to announce my acceptance into Hajj and I truly believe this was a gift, as coinci-dentally I will be celebrating my upcoming birthday which falls on July 28 (first day of hajj rituals).”

Upon his arrival in Makkah, a Macedonian pilgrim who identified himself as Alaaeldine, said: “Selamaleykum. Alhamdulillah we have arrived safe and sound... I want to thank everyone involved in the organi-zation for this year’s Hajj; may Allah be pleased with you all. JazakAllahukhayr.”

Azra Alli, 38, from South Africa, who works as an English language teacher in Jeddah and has been living in Saudi Arabia for the past 6 years, said she was always reluctant to perform Hajj due to the massive crowds in years past.

“I honestly never had any prior inten-tions to do Hajj this year. One of my biggest concerns was always the large number of people that come for Hajj each year. The idea of joining 2.5 mil-lion always made me feel claustropho-bic. But then COVID-19 happened and life as we knew it changed. Initially, I was afraid of the idea of doing Hajj in a pandemic, but then I thought that it was highly unlikely that I’d be chosen any-way, and it wouldn’t hurt just to try.

“I was really impressed at the amount of thought that went into the execution of everything from the enforced quar-antine, to the visit from the Ministry of Health, and the overall coordination of everything given that it all occurred over a very short period of time.”

Asked if she was nervous and why, Alli said: “At this moment in time I’m quite overwhelmed with everything. It feels like everything is happening all at once and that I’m not ready... Is anyone ever really ready? The gravity of this ritual hits home. It’s a kind of reckon-ing, not just with The Almighty, but with oneself too. It’s both equally excit-ing and terrifying.

“This is the most grateful gift and feeling that I have ever known.”

KUNA photosHH the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince receives HH Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad (left), and Defense

Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Mansour.

HH Deputy Amir receives top officialsHis Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received at Seif Palace on

Monday, His Highness Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

The Deputy Amir and Crown

Prince also received at Seif Palace, Defense Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Mansour Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. (KUNA)

LOCALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

5

Court Cases

Jarrah appears in court

‘Colonel’ gets 15 yrs, many expatsjailed in misappropriation of funds

By Jaber Al-HumoudAl-Seyassah Staff

KUWAIT CITY, July 27: The Court of Cassation presided over by Judge Ahmad Al-Ajeel upheld the ruling of the Court of Appeals which sen-tenced an offi cer of rank “Colonel” in the Ministry of Interior to 15-year imprisonment with hard labor, and a number of expatriates to jail terms ranging be-tween seven and ten years after they were convicted of misappropria-tion and laun-dering of funds belonging to the Police Co-operative Soci-ety.

It upheld the dismissal of the “Colonel” from his position and the deportation of expatriate defendants following the completion of the sen-tence.

However, the court decided to in-crease the fi ne imposed by the lower court on the defendants by almost double from KD 1.68 million to about KD 3 million.

It ordered the confi scation of the money subject to the crime of money laundering, stating that the Police Cooperative Society will take into account the rights of the employees in the Ministry of Interior in terms of recovering the looted money.

The court also upheld the acquittal of one of the defendants on charges of money laundering, forgery, and mis-appropriation of the funds of Police Cooperative Society, and repealed the ten-year prison sentence.

According to the case fi le, the Pub-lic Prosecution had accused the de-fendants, considering them as public offi cials occupying positions of the general manager of the cooperative society, a collector, an offi cial in the accounts department, an accountant, and a data logger, of unlawfully ac-quiring KD 1.68 million.

Meanwhile, Assistant Undersecre-tary for Training Affairs at the Minis-try of Interior Major General Sheikh Mazen Al-Jarrah appeared before the Detention Renewal Judge, after he was accused of bribery and money laundering in the case related to the

Bangladeshi MP Mohammad Shahid Islam, known as “Pablo”.

The judge will decide whether to release Sheikh Mazen Al-Jarrah, who is currently in the Central Prison, or extend his detention for another 15 days. The court ordered an extension to the 21-day detention period of the Bangladeshi MP, another accused working in his company, a former parliamentary candidate in the fourth constituency, and an offi cial from in the Public Authority for Manpower for 15 days pending investigation in the same case until the Criminal Court sets the date of their trial.

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Ruling upheld: The Court of Ap-peal upheld the ruling of the Court of First Instance compelling the Direc-tor General of Public Authority for Persons with Disabilities to grant a citizen the certifi cate of proof of dis-ability by which he is proven to be suffering “permanent medium visual impairment”, in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 8/2010 con-cerning the rights of persons with disabilities to obtain all dues and ben-efi ts prescribed to them hereunder, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

In details, defense attorney for the disabled citizen, Lawyer Ali Al-Ali affi rmed that he submitted an appli-cation to register him with the com-mission as having a moderate and permanent visual disability, but the defendant refused it, which led him to complain to the defense body.

However, he did not receive any response. He then fi led a similar case with which he demanded the con-tested decision to be canceled. His contests included the refusal to reg-ister his name on the lists of persons with disabilities amid the consequent obligation.

The court ruled that the authority should add him to the list of disabled persons covered by Law No. 8/2010 regarding the rights of persons with disabilities, as having permanent me-dium visual disability.

In its ruling, the court said it was satisfi ed with the outcome of the fo-rensic report, which concluded that the plaintiff suffers a moderate visual impairment due to the loss of his left eye and weakness of his right eye, which may prevent him from partici-pating fully and effectively in society on an equal basis with others.

Al-Ajeel

Minor incidents will not damage ties betweenKuwait, Egypt; swift action by police praised

Kuwaiti duo detained for drug smuggling

KUWAIT CITY, July 27: Egyptian Minister of Immigration and Ex-patriate Affairs Nabila Makram on Sunday contacted the Egyptian Consul General in Ku-wait Hesham Asran to learn more about the assault on an Egyptian cashier in Kuwait while on duty, reports Al-An-ba daily.

The assailant, believed to be a Kuwaiti, was promptly arrested by police and a mis-demeanor case has been fi led against.

Makram was all praise for Asran and the swift action tak-en by the Kuwaiti authorities for not showing any discrimi-nation between Kuwaitis and Egyptian workers.

Asran said such cases will not damage the strong ties between both nations, and as-sured that hundreds of thou-sands of Egyptian workers are safe in Kuwait.

The Sabah Al-Ahmad asso-ciation, which owns the store where the incident took place, expressed support for the cash-ier.

On the other hand, the Al-Rai daily quoting the Kuwaiti Society for Human Rights said “the repeated attacks on migrant workers are a natural outcome of hate speech and in-citement against them.”

The Society, in a statement, said its human rights monitor-ing team obtained the video recording of the worker who was slapped three times in the Sabah Al-Ahmad Residential Cooperative Society, without showing any negative reaction to the matter, which led to the chairman of the board of direc-tors to submit his resignation to deputy of the cooperative sec-tor, Salem Battah Al-Rashidi, but the latter rejected it.

The society added the local and international organizations interacted with the project and enriched it, and online sessions were held with the aim of con-certed efforts to confront hate speech and societal division that put society in a war of words with itself and with others.

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Kuwaitis detained: Two Kuwaitis, one of whom was wanted to serve 10 years im-prisonment and the other who had been recently released on amnesty have been detained at the Salwa Police Station for investigation on suspicion they were in abnormal condi-tion and traffi cking in narcotic drugs, reports Al-Anba daily.

The first accused has been referred to the Sentences Enforcement Department to serve the 10-year jail term while a case has been regis-tered against the other for at-tempting to stab an officer.

According to a security source, one of the security pa-trols suspected the two peo-ple, and upon their arrest, one of them resisted and tried to stab the officer. The two per-sons appeared abnormal and were in possession of a quan-tity of narcotic substances.

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Asian commits suicide: The remains of an unidentifi ed Asian who committed suicide by hanging inside his spon-sor’s home in Kabad have been referred to Forensics, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The incident was reported to the police by the victim’s sponsor who said he found the corpse of the 33-year-old Asian dangling from a rope.

Captain Yousef Abdel-Khader presents his Master’s degree to Lt Gen Al-Me-krad.

Al-Mekrad receives Captain Abdel-KhaderDirector-General of the Kuwait Fire Services Directorate (KFSD) Lieu-tenant-General Khaled Al-Mekrad received in his offi ce, Captain Yousef Abdel-Khader, who presented him with a copy of the Master’s degree obtained from Northumbria University in the United Kingdom – the degree of specialization in the effectiveness of digital marketing for government insti-

tutions in times of crisis and how to act in times of disasters, especially during the epidemics such as “Covid-19”.

The offi cial praised the efforts of Cap-tain Abdel-Khader to obtain a Master’s degree in this specialization that match-es the requirements of the current and future levels to deal with crises profes-sionally, and called on him to spare no efforts in the service of Kuwait.

‘Providing aid locally is priority’

KRCS distributes Eid clothing to 5,000 needy familiesKUWAIT CITY, July 27: The Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) began distributing the Eid clothing to five thousand needy families in Kuwait, regis-tered with the society, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The Secretary-General of the Society, Maha Al-Barjas, said this charity work coincides with the blessed Eid Al-Adha and is one of the projects which the society undertakes on a large scale to help the needy people in the country and abroad.

She explained the project of distributing Eid clothes to needy families is aimed at bringing joy to the hearts of needy families, and thanked the company that made this donation.

She emphasized the KRCS attaches great importance to dis-tributing aid locally, as well as the assistance it provides to those in need outside the country throughout the year.

She stressed the association’s keenness to support activities

and programs that contribute to serving the community and assisting needy families, and urged people to follow the prin-ciple of giving and cooperation, joint building and activating the value of community partnership as a national principle and strat-egy.

Al-Barjas revealed the associ-ation will initiate the project of distributing sacrificial meat to the needy families on the blessed Eid Al-Adha. The aim is to pro-vide thousand sacrifices and called on those wishing to donate towards the project via Kuwaiti Red Crescent Society website.

KUNA photoLt Gen Al-Khader (right), in talks with Major General Standros.

Army chief bids farewell to US Maj Gen StandrosThe Chief of the General Staff of the Kuwait Army, Lt Gen Muhammad Al-Khader, received in his offi ce yes-terday, the director of the American Military Cooperation Offi ce, Major General Randolph Standros and his accompanying delegation, on the oc-casion of the completion of his duties

in his post, reports Al-Seyassah daily. The Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Army, Lieutenant General Khaled Al-Sabah, also received in his offi ce yesterday, Major General Ran-dolph Standros.

The Moral Guidance Directorate of the Army indicated that the Chief of

Staff and the Deputy Chief of Staff ex-pressed their thanks and appreciation to Major General Randolph Standros for his efforts during his work to con-solidate the bonds of joint coopera-tion between the two countries, espe-cially related to the military aspects, and wished him success. (KUNA)

KRCS volunteers sorting out clothes for distribution.

Top MoC offi cial referred for probeKUWAIT CITY, July 27: State Minis-ter for National Assembly and Services Affairs Mubarak Al-Haris referred an assistant undersecretary at the Ministry of Communications for investigation re-garding the violations uncovered recent-ly, reports Al-Rai daily quoting reliable sources.

Sources added Al-Haris also referred two former assistant undersecretaries to the State Audit Bureau for disciplinary

trial for the violations they committed during their tenure.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior announced the launching of the prac-tice of supplying, installing, operating, guaranteeing and maintaining four ETD devices for the benefi t of the General Ad-ministration of Airport Security; which is affi liated with the General Administration of Security Systems in the ministry, re-ports Al-Rai daily.

Ethiopians go homeKUWAIT CITY, July 27: Around 30,087 Ethio-pians have returned home from Middle Eastern countries in recent weeks, an Ethiopia Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) official said on Fri-day, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting http://www.xinhuanet.com.

Speaking to journalists, Dina Mufti, spokesper-son for MoFA, said 30,087 Ethiopian nationals were returned home from various Middle Eastern countries including Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Ku-wait.

Mufti also said efforts are continuing to repatriate Ethiopians stranded in various countries including those stranded in Western, Asian and Latin Ameri-can countries, partly stranded because of the COV-ID-19 pandemic.

“The Ethiopian government through its overseas diplomatic missions, Ethiopian overseas communi-ties and in collaboration with the IOM and UNHCR is working to assist Ethiopians stranded across the world,” Mufti told journalists.

In recent months, Ethiopia has stepped up efforts to return home its citizens stranded in various for-eign countries, as part of the government’s newly unveiled “citizen focused diplomacy”.

MIDEASTARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

6

2 protesters killed in new clashes in BaghdadViolence comes after months of quiet

BAGHDAD, July 27, (AP): Two anti-government protesters were killed and 21 were injured in Baghdad in new clashes between demonstrators and Iraqi security forces, human rights monitors and offi cials said Monday. The violence comes after months of quiet in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Tension between the security forces and the demonstrators soared when dozens of protesters cut off the road connecting two main intersections – the Tayaran Square and the Tahrir Square. Some burned tires while oth-ers chanted slogans about power cuts in the scorching summer months.

Iraqi security forces eventually fi red tear gas to disperse the crowds, said Iraqi health and security offi cials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

In October, mass anti-government protests erupted in Baghdad and across Iraq’s predominately Shiite south as tens of thousands of angry Iraqi youth took to the streets to decry rampant government corruption, poor services, including electricity, and unemploy-ment. Pressure from protests lead to the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.

His successor, Mustafa al-Kadhimi has vowed to meet protester demands by holding early elections and inves-tigating protester deaths. Since Octo-ber, over 600 demonstrators have been killed during protests due to live fi re and tear gas used by security forces. But al-Kadhimi also has to cope with an unprecedented economic crisis spurred by falling oil prices and a surge in virus cases.

Iraq’s Health Ministry has reported 110,032 cases, including 4,362 deaths.

Iraq is facing electricity shortages amid searing summer months, when temperatures can top 50 degrees Cel-sius, or about 122 degrees Fahrenheit.

A senior Electricity Ministry of-fi cial said the power supply fell short

In this July 26 photo, the luggage of pilgrims is sanitized in a hotel lobby in Makkah ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. The Islamic pilgrimage has been dramatically downsized this year with only a few thousand residents of Saudi Arabia permitted to take part due to concerns over the coronavi-

rus. (Saudi Ministry of Media)

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday recording 30 new deaths due to infection with the contagious germ, COVID-19, and also declared up to 1,969 infections with the bug.

The Saudi ministry of health said in its daily update about the virus that total fi gure of the deaths climbed to 2,733 and infection cases to 266,941.

It put total recoveries at 220,323, with 2,541 new cases. (KUNA)

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MUSCAT: Omani Ministry of Health declared on Sunday recording 1,147 new coronavirus cases with the overall fi gure of contamination cases amounting to 76,005.

Oman News Agency (OMNA) quoted the ministry as saying in a statement that 1,053 among the total cases were of Omani citizens and 94

were of foreigners.Up to 55,299 from among the

76,005 confi rmed cases were pro-nounced as cured of the bug- caused ailment, with the total death toll standing at 384. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

MANAMA: The Bahraini Ministry of Health said on Sunday that 289 more people tested positive for the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) over the last 24 hours. Three more deaths were recorded bringing up total death told to 140, the minister said.

The fresh virus infections in Bahrain include 151 expatriate work-ers, 138 cases of close contacts, the ministry said in a twitter statement. In addition, 379 additional patients were cured of the deadly bug, taking the kingdom’s overall count of re-coveries to 3,402, it added.(KUNA)

News in Brief

‘We are not seeking unnecessary escalation’

Israeli drone crashes in LebanonJERUSALEM, July 27, (AP): Israel said a military drone crashed in south-ern Lebanon on Sunday as regional tensions ran high, days after a series of cross-border exchanges between Israel and Syria and the killing of a Hezbol-lah militant in an Israeli airstrike near the Syrian capital.

The Israeli military issued the state-ment shortly after Israeli Defense Min-ister Benny Gantz met with army brass near the country’s northern frontier. The military said the drone went down over Lebanese territory “during op-erational activities” along the border. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli warplanes and drones fl ew over southern Leba-non throughout Sunday.

Israel has beefed up its troop pres-ence along the borders with Lebanon and Syria since Friday’s strikes on Syr-ian army positions. Israel says those strikes were in response to unspecifi ed munitions fi red on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The exchanges came after Monday’s air raid on Damascus – believed to have been carried out by Israel – that killed fi ve foreign fi ghters,

including a member of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran.

Gantz said in a statement that Israel “has no interests in Syria or Lebanon, aside from security interests, and we will continue to protect them.

“We are not seeking unnecessary escalation, but if we are tested – we have high operative capacity, which I hope we will not need to put to use,” Gantz said.

Israel and Hezbollah fought to a draw in a month-long war in Lebanon in 2006. Hezbollah has previously vowed to respond to the killing of its forces in Syria.

Earlier Sunday, Israeli Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was “acting according to our consistent policy of not allowing Iran to entrench itself militarily on our northern border.” He said Lebanon and Syria “bear responsibility for any attack against Israel emanating from their territories.”

Israel has long considered Iran a re-gional nemesis because of its nuclear program – which Iran insists is for

peaceful purposes only – as well as Iran’s military presence in Syria sup-porting President Bashar Assad, and its backing of armed groups like Hezbol-lah.

Israel has carried out scores of air-strikes in Syria in recent years target-ing Iranian forces there, and has tar-geted what Israel says are weapons shipments bound for Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Israeli military rarely comments on these strikes.

Deputy Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem told the Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV station that the group received a message through the United Nations representative in Lebanon af-ter last week’s airstrike near the Syrian capital in which the Hezbollah opera-tive was killed.

“We did not give an answer and we will not reveal the content of the mes-sage,” Kassim said, without directly stating the message was from Israel. He declined to comment on whether Hezbollah is planning to carry out an attack in retaliation for the death of its operative in Syria last week.

by 10,000 megawatts this summer, down 1,000 megawatts, compared to last year, due to lack of maintenance in several power plants because of lack of of funds in state coffers. This has also slowed investment projects to add more power to Iraq’s grid, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

The spread of the coronavirus had halted mass rallies and prompted most protesters to leave, with only a few remaining at the tent sit-in at Tahrir Square, once the epicenter of the pro-

test movement. Ali al-Bayati, a spokesman for the

semi-offi cial Independent High Com-mission for Human Rights, also said two protesters had been killed. The commission said their reports indicate live fi re and pellet rifl es were used to disperse protesters.

Earlier, Iraqi security offi cials said demonstrators had hurled fi rebombs and stones at the riot police, while rights monitors said security forces set fi re to demonstrator tents at Tahrir Square.

A statement from the military

spokesman Yahya Rasool said security forces had been given strict instruc-tions not to use violence against peace-ful protesters “except in the event of extreme necessity.”

He said the events in Baghdad squares were “unfortunate” and that a probe was underway into what hap-pened. “We are aware of the diffi cul-ties that our people are going through,” Rasool said. “This government, with its short life, is trying to address (them) under exceptional economic and health conditions,” he said.

INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

7

Politics Weather

‘Small slice of overall spending’

Donors pour $100m intofi ght over mail-in votingWASHINGTON, July 27, (AP): Deep-pocketed and often anonymous donors are pouring over $100 million into an intensifying dispute about whether it should be easier to vote by mail, a fi ght that could determine President Donald Trump’s fate in the November election.

In the battleground of Wisconsin, cash-strapped cities have received $6.3 million from an organization with ties to left-wing philanthropy to help expand vote by mail. Mean-while, a well-funded conservative group best known for its focus on judicial ap-p o i n t m e n t s is spending heavily to fi ght cases related to mail-in bal-loting proce-dures in court.

And that’s just a small slice of the overall spend-ing, which is likely to swell far higher as the elec-tion nears.

The massive effort by political par-ties, super PACs and other organiza-tions to fi ght over whether Americans can vote by mail is remarkable con-sidering the practice has long been noncontroversial. But the corona-virus is forcing changes to the way states conduct elections and prompt-ing activists across the political spec-trum to seek an advantage, recogniz-ing the contest between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden could hinge on whether voters have an alternative to standing in lines at polling places during a public health crisis.

Some groups are even raising money to prepare for election-related violence.

“The pandemic has created a state of emergency,” said Laleh Ispahani, the US managing director for Open Society, a network of nonprofi ts founded by billionaire progressive donor George Soros. “Donors who haven’t typically taken on these is-sues now have an interest.”

How much will be spent is unclear because many of the organizations are nonprofi ts that won’t disclose those details to the IRS until well after the election. Even then, many sources of money will remain unknown because

such groups don’t have to disclose their donors, commonly referred to as “dark money.”

Tax fi lings, business records and campaign fi nance disclosures offer some clues. They reveal vast infra-structure that funnels money from wealthy donors, through philanthrop-ic organizations and political groups, which eventually trickles down to smaller nonprofi ts, many of which operate under murky circumstances.

On the conservative side, organi-zations including Judicial Watch, the Honest Elections Project, True the Vote and the Public Interest Legal Foundation are litigating cases related to voting procedures across the US.

A substantial portion of the fi nanc-ing comes from Donors Trust, a non-profi t often referred to as the “dark money ATM” of the conservative movement. The organization helps wealthy patrons invest in causes they care about while sheltering their identities from the public.

In other instances, funding comes from charitable foundations built by the fortunes of Gilded Age industrialists.

Litigation is a primary focus. Dem-ocrats and good government organi-zations are pushing to eliminate hur-dles to absentee voting, like requiring a witnesses’ signature, or allowing third parties to collect ballots.

Conservatives say that amounts to an invitation to commit voter fraud. As these issues wind their way through courts, they say judges could decide complex policy matters that often were already debated by state legislatures.

“The wrong way to go about this is to run to court, particularly a week or two before an election, trying to get judges to intervene and second-guess decisions legislatures have made,” said Jason Snead, the executive direc-tor of the Honest Elections Project.

His organization is a newly formed offshoot of the Judicial Education Project, a group that previously fo-cused on judicial appointments and received more than $25.3 million between 2016 and 2018 from the Donors Trust, records show. They are deeply intertwined with the con-servative Catholic legal movement and share an attorney, William Con-sovoy, with the Republican National Committee, which has pledged $20 million for voting litigation.

Soros

Hundreds of people gather for a vigil in memory of Garrett Foster on July 26, in Austin, Texas. Police have identifi ed Foster as the armed protester who was shot and killed by a person who had driven into a crowd at a

demonstration Saturday against police violence. (AP)

Lewis George Floyd

Molotov cocktails found: A bag containing loaded rifl e magazines and Molotov cocktails was found at a park near where protests have erupted for two months in Portland, Oregon, following the death of George Floyd, police said.

A photo of the items was shared in a tweet from police late Sunday saying someone pointed out the bag to offi cers at Lownsdale Square Park late Sunday. No further information was immediately released.

The discovery came just hours after two people were arrested following reports that a shot was fi red in the same park. Offi cers responded just before 7:30 p.m. A person believed to be the gunshot victim arrived later at a hospital via a private vehicle with non-life threatening injuries, police said.

It wasn’t clear if either incident was connected to the demonstrations.

Portland has seen protests nightly since Floyd was killed in Minneapolis in May. President Donald Trump said he sent federal agents to Portland to halt the unrest but state and local offi cials said they are making the situation worse. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

Body of Lewis crosses bridge: The late U.S. Rep. John Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, for the fi nal time Sunday as remembrances continue for the civil rights icon.

The bridge became a landmark in the fi ght for racial justice when Lewis and other civil rights marchers were beaten there 55 years ago on “Bloody Sunday,” a key event that helped galvanize support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act. Lewis returned to Selma each March in commemoration.

Sunday found him crossing alone –

America

HONOLULU, July 27, (AP): Hur-ricane Douglas gained some strength and began to spin away from many of the Hawaiian Islands as it skirted the state late Sunday. President Donald Trump issued an emergency decla-ration for Hawaii because of the hur-ricane, directing federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts.

Forecasters said a hurricane warn-ing was canceled for Oahu but re-mained in effect for Kauai Coun-ty, including the islands of Kauai and Niihau, which could still be hit by the sys-tem with strong wind gusts and rough surf.

“It’s still not out of the realm of possibilities. So we want people to really remain vigilant and stay prepared, at least for tonight,” Eric Lau, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Honolulu said Sunday.

Late Sunday, Douglas was 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Honolulu. It had maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (150 kph), making it a Category 1 hurricane.

Heavy rain and wind gusts battered Maui during the morning, downing a small tree on the Hana Highway.

Gentle rain fell and blustery winds swayed trees on Oahu, home to the state’s biggest city, Honolulu. Sand and debris washed ashore on a two-lane coastal road.

Despite the dangers, surfers rode waves and residents took selfi es at a lookout point next to the ocean.

Lau said Douglas would have been a lot worse had its track been 20 or 30 miles (32 to 48 kilometers) to the south.

One reason is that this path put Douglas to the north of the state and not directly over the islands. Another is that this path mostly put the island chain near the southwest quadrant of the storm, which is often less destruc-tive than the northeast and the right side of a hurricane’s eye, Lau said.

“We were really playing with a re-ally fi ne line, a razor thin line between what we’ve experienced today com-pared to what we could have experi-enced,” he said.

Duke Stevens, who lives in Hana on Maui’s eastern tip, said by early af-ternoon there was no longer any wind and the light rain that fell persistently through the night had subsided.

with the people in Western China, including Tibet, for 35 years,” the state-ment said.

The American fl ag has been taken down at a U.S. consulate in southwestern China, according to state media, as of-fi cials vacate the premises under order of the Chinese government.

State broadcaster CCTV said on its social media account that the fl ag was lowered at 6:18 a.m. on Monday at the U.S. mission in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan provine.

Police have closed off a two to three block area around the consulate, cutting off virtually any view of the property. Vehicles could be seen moving in the distance behind multiple police lines. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

2 arrests after gunfi re: Police in Portland, Oregon, arrested two people after reports that a shot was fi red Sunday night near where thousands of people have turned out nightly for protests in the city that has become the epicenter of national unrest over George Floyd’s death.

Offi cers responded to the scene near Lownsdale Square Park about 7:24 p.m. A person believed to be the gunshot victim arrived later at a hospital via a private vehicle with non-life threatening injuries, authorities said.

It wasn’t clear if the incident was con-nected to the demonstrations.

Police made multiple announcements telling people not to interfere with the ongoing investigation as protesters were again turning out in the state’s largest city Sunday night following a weekend of huge protests.

Portland has seen protests nightly for two months since Floyd was killed in Minneapolis in May. President Donald Trump said he sent federal agents to Portland to halt the unrest but state and local offi cials say they are making the situation worse. (AP)

instead of arm-in-arm with civil rights and political leaders – after his coffi n was loaded atop a horse-drawn wagon that retraced the route through Selma from Brown Chapel African Method-ist Episcopal Church, where the 1965 march began.

As the black wagon pulled by a team of dark-colored horses approached the bridge, members of the crowd shouted “Thank you, John Lewis!” and “Good trouble!” the phrase Lewis used to de-scribe his tangles with white authorities during the civil rights movement.

Some crowd members sang the gospel song “Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed on Jesus.” Later, some onlookers sang the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” and other gospel tunes. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

US closes consulate: The U.S. says it has closed its consulate in Chengdu, China. China ordered the consulate closed in retaliation for a U.S. order to shut down the Chinese Consulate in Houston last week.

A statement from the State Depart-ment said that the consulate suspended operations at 10 a.m. on Monday. It expressed disappointment at China’s decision and said the U.S. would try to continue its outreach to the region through its other missions in China.

The consulate in southwestern China “has stood at the center of our relations

Trump

‘Gains strength’

Douglas ‘skirts’state of Hawaii

World News Roundup

INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

8

SEOUL, South Korea, July 27, (AP): North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has visited a na-tional cemetery and handed out commemora-tive pistols to army offi cers, state media re-ported Monday, as he pushes to muster public support for efforts to contain a potential coro-navirus outbreak.

On Sunday, North Korea said that Kim had put a city near the border with South Korea un-der lockdown and declared a state of emergen-cy after a person with suspected COVID-19 symptoms was recently found there. If the person is diagnosed with the virus, it would be North Korea’s fi rst offi cially confi rmed case, though many outside experts believe the virus

has already spread to the country.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim visited a cem-etery on the outskirts of Pyongyang where Korean War dead are buried to mark the 67th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 war. Kim laid a single rose

and bowed before a big monument at the Fa-therland Liberation War Martyrs Cemetery, according to KCNA. It didn’t say exactly when Kim went there. He also visited Kim Jong Il’s grave.

A 1953 armistice that ended the war has yet to be replaced with a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula in a techni-cal state of war. North Korea considers the armistice signing as a victory and often uses the anniversary as a chance to pro-mote nationalism.

KCNA also reported that Kim gave “Paek-tusan” commemorative pistols, named after the sacred peak on the peninsula, to senior military offi cials during a ceremony Sunday marking the war anniversary. State media photos showed a beaming Kim, clad in his trademark dark suit, sitting while surrounded by army offi cers holding black pistols.

“The participants held high the pistols and made fi rm pledges to fi ght for Kim Jong Un at the cost of their lives,” KCNA reported.

Kim is in need of stronger internal unity as he struggles to withstand crippling U.S.-led sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic, which forced him in January to close the North’s border with China, its biggest trading partner and aid benefactor.

While announcing the Kaesong city lock-down, North Korea’s state media reported that the suspected virus patient was a runway who had fl ed to South Korea three years ago before illegally slipping back to the North early last week.

Some experts say North Korea was aiming to hold South Korea responsible for a virus spread and apply more pressure on its rival. Others say the North may be trying to fi nd an excuse to win anti-virus aid items from South Korea.

InvestigationSouth Korean offi cials said their investi-

gation into who crossed the border into the North has been narrowed to a single person. Without identifying who that person is, mili-tary spokesperson Kim Jun-rak told reporters Monday that a bag belonging to the person was found on a South Korean border island. Health offi cial Yoon Taeho separately said that the person has never been listed as a virus patient in South Korea.

KCNA on Sunday quoted Kim as say-ing “the vicious virus” may have entered the North while urging the North Korean public to rally behind him to overcome “the present epidemic crisis.”

Monitoring groups and refugees from North Korea have been highly skeptical of the North’s claim that it has had no cases of the coronavirus because the country shares a long, porous border with China, where the virus is believed to have started late last year. Analysts say a virus outbreak in North Korea could cause a humanitarian disaster due to its wrecked health care system and lack of medi-cal supplies.

Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convened an emergency politburo meeting of the ruling party and adopted the “maximum emergency system” against new coronavirus after the country’s fi rst suspected case of coro-navirus was detected, state media reported Sunday.

According to Korean Central News Agen-cy, a person who defected to South Korea three years ago returned to the North’s bor-der city of Kaesong on July 19 was found with suspected COVID-19 symptom, add-ing that the “runaway” illegally crossed the military demarcation line dividing the two Koreas.

The suspected patient was put under strict quarantine as a primary step after several med-ical check-ups of the upper respiratory organ and blood showed “an uncertain result” that can be defi ned as a suspected case, the news agency said.

At the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Saturday, Kim said he took “the preemptive measure of the total lockdown” on Kaesong on Friday, the report said.

It also said “all the persons in Kaesong who contacted that person and those who have been to the city in the last fi ve days are being thoroughly investigated, given medical exami-nation and put under quarantine.”

“Despite the intense preventive anti-epi-demic measures taken in all fi elds throughout the country and tight closure of all the chan-nels for the last six months, there happened a critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country,” Kim was quoted as saying.North Korea had repeatedly claimed it has no confi rmed cases of the new coronavirus.

Jong-il

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, sitting, is surrounded by senior military offi cials holding ‘Paektusan’ commemorative pistols they received from Kim during a ceremony in Pyongyang, North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by

the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verifi ed. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: ‘KCNA’ which is the abbreviation for Korean Cen-tral News Agency. (AP)

North Korea

1st case of virus detected

Kim celebrates 67th war’versary amid concerns

WikiLeaks founder still in British prison

Court hears testimony on AssangeMADRID, July 27, (AP): Spain’s Na-tional Court is due to hear testimony Monday in an investigation into whether a Spanish company was hired to spy on Julian Assange during the seven years the WikiLeaks founder spent in the Ec-uadorean Embassy in London.

The court is investigating whether David Morales, a Spaniard, and his Undercover Global S.L. security agen-cy invaded the privacy of Assange and his visitors at the embassy by secretly

recording their meetings. The intel-ligence that Morales’ company col-lected is suspected of being handed over to third parties, according to court papers.

Among those set to face the court’s questions Monday were prominent Span-ish lawyer Baltasar Garzón, who is part of Assange’s legal team; former Ecua-dorean consul in London Fidel Narváez; and Stella Morris, a legal adviser and Assange’s partner, who revealed earlier

this year that she had two children with him while he lived in the embassy. Staff of the Spanish security company are due to testify on Tuesday.

Assange, whose lawyers fi led a com-plaint at the court to trigger the investi-gation, is in a British prison after being removed from the embassy last year. He is fi ghting extradition to the United States, where he faces espionage charges over the activities of WikiLeaks.

The court is conducting an investiga-

tion, begun last year, before deciding whether there is evidence of wrongdoing that warrants a trial.

Undercover Global, also known as UC Global, was hired by Ecuador’s gov-ernment to provide security at the Ec-uadorean embassy in London between 2015 and 2018. Its main task was to se-cure the property’s perimeter, including the deployment of security staff, due to Assange’s presence inside, court papers say.

Market Movements 27-07-2020

Business Change Closing ptsAUSTRALIA - All Ordinaries +21.59 6,169.60CHINA - Shanghai SE +8.46 3,205.23S. KOREA - KRX 100 +40.79 4,734.96PAKISTAN - KSE 100 +613.54 38,221.16

Change Closing ptsHONG KONG - Hang Seng -102.07 24,603.26JAPAN - Nikkei -35.76 22,715.85INDIA - Sensex -194.17 37,934.73PHILIPPINES - PSEi -142.32 5,860.94

Mitsubishi Motors racks up red ink on pandemic pain

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. reported Monday a 176 billion yen ($1.7 billion) loss for April-June, and forecast more red ink for the fiscal year, as the coronavirus pandemic slammed auto de-mand around the world.

The Japanese automaker had posted a profit of 9.3 billion yen for the fiscal first quarter the previous year. Quarterly sales shrank 57% to 229.5 billion yen ($2.2 billion).

The maker of the Outlander sport utility ve-hicle and I-MiEV electric car expects to chalk up a 360 billion yen ($3.4 billion) loss for the fiscal year through March 2021, because of the

fallout from the outbreak. The shaky results come as Mitsubishi Motors’

alliance partners Nissan Motor Co. and Renault of France work to recover from the downfall of their former chairman, Carlos Ghosn.

Ghosn was out on bail, awaiting trial on vari-ous financial misconduct allegations in Tokyo, when he fled late last year to Lebanon. He has said he is innocent of the allegations of under-reporting future compensation and breach of trust.

Mitsubishi Motors has denounced Ghosn. Mitsubishi officials, in a news conference

relayed in a call to reporters, promised a turnaround, pursuing growth in Southeast Asian markets, where its profitability is rel-atively strong, and building on its strength in four-wheel drive and “off road perfor-mance.”

They said they expect the company’s results to recover next fiscal year, once COVID-19 is brought under control. Product development will leverage “synergies” with alliance partners, and labor costs will be cut through pay cuts, hir-ing freezes and voluntary retirements, the auto-maker said. (AP)

In this file photo, a man walks past a sign of Mitsubishi Motors at its headquarter in Tokyo, June 21, 2019. (AP)

Gold price hits recordBEIJING, July 27, (AP): The price of gold surged to a re-cord above $1,934 per ounce on Monday as investors moved money into an asset seen as a safe haven amid jitters about U.S.-Chinese tension and the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

It added 2% percent after breaking its 2011 record high price on Friday, when it closed at $1,897.50 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

As of 8:35 GMT on Monday, it was at $1,934.60 per ounce and had traded as high as $1,938 per ounce.

Prices of gold and silver have jumped as rising infection numbers and job losses in the United States and some other economies fuel concern the recovery from the virus and the worst global downturn since the 1930s might be faltering.

Precious metals, along with bonds, often are seen as stores of value when financial markets decline. Forecasters watch their prices as an indicator of how investors see the econom-ic future.

Company posts KD 15.9 mn net profi t, EBITDA of KD 35.9 mn for fi rst half of 2020

stc records KD 136.4mn revenues for H1KUWAIT CITY, July 27: Kuwait Telecommu-nications Company (stc), a world-class digital leader providing innovative services and plat-forms to customers, enabling the digital trans-formation in Kuwait, announced its financial results for the six-month period ended 30 June 2020.

On this occasion, engineer Maziad Alharbi – stc’s Chief Executive Officer, stated: During the first half of this year, the telecommunications sector was amongst the least impacted sectors with regard to the losses and economic consequences when compared to the negative effects resulted from the current economic crisis, which have heavily affected numerous vital sectors worldwide.

Despite the negative consequences associated with the COVID-19 outbreak, which had an adverse impact on busi-nesses and vital sectors in general, stc was able to achieve these results through adopting a flexible operating model, implementing its digital transformation strategy and offer-ing integrated advanced solutions that support the Kuwaiti government’s social distancing requirements for both indi-viduals and corporates. stc has focused its efforts on building on the 5G network to deliver a range of services, including entertainment and digital services, meeting the growing de-mand for broadband high-speed networks, in addition to the corporate and institutional requirements for online institu-tional and educational interaction with the highest quality and efficiency.

Alharbi added: stc has proven its ability to overcome the economic challenges and the potential risks, while keeping up its business operations and serve its customers during such circumstances. stc has been located amongst the first class companies of the private sectors, due to the great efforts pro-vided and the dedication of its employees, who demonstrated their determination to address the health risks we experienced from the spread of Corona pandemic. This was the main reason, which helped the company to continue providing services to its customers with the same quality standards despite the growing demand and the convergence of the communications with cus-tomers and customer delivery services to the digital platforms.

Being a pioneer and one of the most advanced companies in the telecommunications services industry and a digital transformation enabler in Kuwait, stc completed a number of projects in addition to introducing advanced services and products backed by the fifth generation technology, includ-ing the data link connection project between the Interna-tional Hospital and the Ministry of Health (MOH), thermal cameras services, integrated solutions for Microsoft 365, 5G LIVEBUS and stc Digital Business services. In addition, launching the 5G E2E SA network with ARM based core and convergent billing services.

Commenting on these financial results, Alharbi stated: stc’s total revenues stood at KD 136.4 mn for the six-month period ended 30 June 2020 in comparison to KD 139.6 mn for the same period last year. The decrease in revenue is attributed to the full and partial lockdown implemented in Kuwait due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which resulted in a decline in the rev-enues from the consumer segment, in addition to the significant decline in revenues derived from roaming services due to the shutdown and suspension of flights in most airports around the world. Moreover, stc provided its customers with free unlim-ited local calls to all operators, as well as free 5GB daily data usage, which started on 22 March 2020 until 20 April 2020 in collaboration with the Communication and Information Tech-nology Regulatory Authority (CITRA) during the COVID-19 crisis. Meanwhile, the business and enterprise sector witnessed a growth in revenues, due to the growing need and demand for digital and information services

On the other hand, EBITDA reached KD 35.9 mn dur-ing the first six-month period of 2020 compared to KD 38.6 mn during the same period in 2019. stc’s EBITDA margin reached 26.3% during the period compared to 27.7% in 2019. As a result, stc recorded a net profit KD 15.9 mn (earn-ings per share of 32 fils) with a profit margin of 12% for the first half of the financial year 2020.

The company has also been able to structure its capital ex-penditure, especially after the negative effects of the current economic crisis, in order to ensure liquidity of cash flows under the current circumstances. stc successfully achieved these results despite the economic challenges the world has witnessed following COVID-19. stc has managed to achieve good levels of revenues and enhance its operational efficien-cy to add value to its customers and achieve better returns for its shareholders”.

Alharbi Added: “stc’s financial results for the first six-month period of 2020 demonstrated the company’s ability to compete and enhance its position as the second largest telecom operator in the Kuwaiti telecom market with a rev-

enue market share of 35%. With the ongoing repercussions and challenges we are facing due to the COVID-19 crisis, we at stc are implementing a cost optimization program in order to achieve the best results and enhance profitability through adopting a balanced and effective financial policy in relation to the operational and capital expenditure.

Considering the Company’s financial position as of 30 June 2020, total assets reached KD 403.7 mn, while total shareholders’ equity reached KD 206.3 mn, with a book value of 413 Kuwaiti fils per share. Furthermore, stc boasts a strong financial solvency position, considered to be amongst the best in comparison to telecom companies in the Middle East. Furthermore, stc’s customer base stood at 1.72 mn cus-tomer at the end of June 2020”.

Corporate Social ResponsibilityAlharbi added, “The first half of 2020 witnessed launch-

ing a number of corporate social responsibility initiatives, including the “Far yet close” campaign in support of the preventive measures taken by the government concerning the Kuwaiti society’s health, safety and awareness. stc has also worked with some government agencies and medical companies to prevent the infectious diseases through distrib-uting facemasks, sanitizers and awareness leaflets to all the airport’s staff as well as departing and returning passengers.

In one of its most important initiatives, stc collaborated with the Communication & Information Technology Regula-tory Authority (CITRA) in a series of programs that aimed to alleviate the Kuwaiti society during the crisis, in line the com-pany’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework. The initiatives were embodied with providing customers with free unlimited local calls to all operators, in addition to free 5GB daily data usage for a one-month period. stc also collaborated with Kuwait Airways and the Ministry of Health, to greet the returning citizens, where it distributed 25,000 free prepaid lines with internet bundles and free local calls”.

Safety measures and proceduresAlharbi concluded: At the onset of the crisis, the company

established a Committee to deal with the crisis through ac-tivating the Business Continuity Plan and adopting new ini-tiatives as imposed by the pandemic crisis and the national measures taken to combat the virus outbreak. Through this Committee, the company is mandated by all its sectors to carry out detailed plans for its continuity and to monitor the logistics required to ensure the business as well as services continuity in addition to minimizing the economic impact of the economic crisis on stc’s business while ensuring the safety of its employees and customers.

stc also undertakes preventive precautionary measures

and procedures to avoid outbreaks of contagious diseases, in accordance with the health guidelines and instructions pro-vided by the Ministry of Health, in addition to sanitizing all facilities within the company and branches as well as install-ing sanitizing stations in the company’s departments and el-evators. stc also distributes face masks, gloves and sanitizers to all employees within the Company’s while distributing awareness leaflets and sending emails to its employees per-taining the health and safety precautions.

As for the branches, stc enforced various preventive mea-sures during working hours throughout the full and partial lockdown periods in accordance with the Government’s plan to gradually return to the normal life in Kuwait. Hence, the Company adopted the highest safety standards and instilled it into the culture of performance among stc’s staff to con-tinue offering high quality services while protecting its cus-tomers and employees. Installing thermal cameras, putting preventive intervals, distributing sanitizers, gloves and face-masks in all stc’s branches in addition adhering to the social distancing protocols and health regulations were the key measures taken by the company to combat the pandemic. To ensure consistent safety measures, contracts were signed with specialized companies to ensure the continuous steril-ization of all branches, machines, and workplaces, coupled with awareness posters and ongoing training for employees to maintain effective preventive measures”.

Maziad Alharbi, stc’s CEO

stc Headquarters

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

10

hedge fund to pay $312m for McClatchy SAP to spin off Qualtrics

Hedge fund Chatham Asset Management says will pay $312 million to buy newspaper pub-lisher McClatchy out of bank-ruptcy protection.

Chatham said that it plans to offer employees at the 30-news-paper chain their current jobs with the same pay and benefits, and it will honor collective bar-gaining agreements.

Chairman Kevin McClatchy, CEO Craig Forman and their fel-

low board directors will step down when the deal closes by Sept 30, the chain said in a statement. The deal would need the approval of a US Bankruptcy Court judge, and a hearing is scheduled for Aug 4.

McClatchy Co, which is head-quartered in Sacramento, California, is one of the largest newspaper companies in the US. It owns the Miami Herald, the Charlotte Observer and the Sacramento Bee. It filed for bank-

ruptcy protection because of a heavy debt load stemming from its $4.5 billion purchase of the Knight-Ridder newspaper chain in 2006, just as the newspaper industry went into steep decline.

Chatham was McClatchy’s largest shareholder and debt holder. It beat out a bid from Alden Global Capital, another hedge fund that has taken a leading role in the US newspa-per business. (AP)

SAP says it plans to spin off Qualtrics and take it public less than two years after acquiring the survey-software provider.

SAP said Sunday it will retain majority ownership of Qualtrics’ shares.

The German software giant announced in November 2018 that it agreed to pay $8 billion cash for Qualtrics, just days before the Provo, Utah, compa-ny was set for its initial sale of

stock to the public. The deal closed in early 2019.

SAP says Qualtrics has already been operating with greater autonomy than most of SAP’s acquisitions but going public will help it expand its cus-tomer base. Its products help companies get feedback from employees and customers.

Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith, who co-founded the startup in 2002, will remain at the helm and

its largest individual shareholder. SAP says a final decision on the IPO is still pending but it will hap-pen in the US.

SAP’s acquisition of Qualtrics was one of the biggest-ever deals for the software giant based in Walldorf, Germany. In 2014, SAP paid about $8.3 bil-lion for Concur, which makes software to manage employee travel and expenses. (AP)

Federal eviction moratorium on millions of rental units to be extended: Kudlow

White House, Senate GOP try again on $1 trillion virus aidWASHINGTON, July 27, (AP): Suggesting a narrower pandemic relief package may be all that’s possible, the White House still pushed ahead with Monday’s planned rollout of the Senate Republicans’ $1 trillion effort as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi assailed the GOP “disarray” as time-wasting during the crisis.

The administration’s chief negotiators – White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin – spent the weekend on Capitol Hill to put what Meadows described as “final touches” on the relief bill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was expected to bring forward Monday afternoon.

“We’re done,” Mnuchin said as he and Meadows left Capitol Hill on Sunday after meeting with GOP staff.

But looming deadlines may force them to consider other options. By Friday, millions of out-of-work Americans will lose an $600 federal unemployment benefit that is expiring and federal eviction protections for many renters are also coming to an end. President Donald Trump’s stand-ing is at one of the lowest points of his term, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

“They’re in disarray and that delay is causing suffering for America’s families,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi panned the Trump administration’s desire to trim the $600 weekly unemployment boost to about 70% of pre-pandemic wages. She also said she opposes

Democrats have yet to begin with billions at stake and deadlines near.

Separately, White House eco-nomic adviser Larry Kudlow said a federal eviction moratorium on millions of rental units, due to expire at the end of the month, will be extended. “We will length-en it,” he said, without specifying for how long.

On the jobless benefits, Republicans have argued that fed-eral jobless benefits should be trimmed because the combination of state and federal unemploy-ment assistance left many people better off financially than they were before the pandemic and therefore disinclined to return to their jobs.

Many Democrats contend that a lot of people don’t feel safe going back to work when the coronavi-rus is surging again around the country.

Meadows, a former congress-man who was the head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said he is working with Mnuchin and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia to address com-plaints that outdated state com-puter systems will make it diffi-cult for the jobless to get their benefits in a timely fashion if the formula is changed.

“It’s our goal to make sure that it’s not antiquated computers that keep people from getting their benefits,” Meadows said.

Pelosi criticized the hold-up on the GOP side. House Democrats passed a $3 trillion relief package a couple of months ago, with the

aim of jump-starting negotiations. The White House and Senate

Republicans were racing to regroup after plans to introduce a $1 trillion virus rescue bill col-lapsed Thursday during GOP infighting over its size, scope and details.

It was expected to bring $105 billion to help schools reopen, new money for virus testing and benefits for businesses, including a fresh round of loans, tax breaks and a sweeping liability shield from COVID-19-related lawsuits.

The expiration of the $600 weekly jobless benefits boost had been propelling the Republicans to act, bracing to prevent social and economic fallout.

The White House floated plans to cut the additional aid back to $100 a week, while Senate Republicans preferred $200, with general GOP agreement about phasing out the flat boost in favor of one that ensures no more than 70% of an employee’s previous pay.

Apart from jobless benefits, Mnuchin said Saturday that new $1,200 direct payments would be based on the same formula from the earlier aid bill. Then, people making $75,000 or less received the full amount and those making more than $75,000 received less, depending on their income. People earning above $100,000 did not qualify for the payment.

The jobless benefit officially expires July 31, but due to the way states process unemployment payments, the cutoff was effec-tively Saturday.

tackling a relief package in piece-meal fashion.

With the virus death toll climb-ing and 4.2 million infections nationwide, the administration officials converged on the Capitol to revive the Republican package that unraveled last week. Republican senators and the White House are at odds over various items, including how to cutback the jobless benefit with-

out fully doing away with it.Meadows said as the White

House was “looking for clarity” on a “handful” of remaining issues with Republicans, but they had yet to talk to McConnell. “We have an agreement in principle,” he said.

Both Mnuchin and Meadows said earlier Sunday that narrower legislation might need to be passed first to ensure that

enhanced unemployment benefits don’t run out for millions of Americans. They cited unemploy-ment benefits, money to help schools reopen, tax credits to keep people from losing their jobs, and lawsuit protections for schools and businesses as priorities.

“We can move very quickly with the Democrats on these issues,” Mnuchin said.

But negotiations with

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, (left), accompanied by Rep Dwight Evans, listens to a question from a reporter during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 24, on the extension of federal unemploy-

ment benefits. (AP)

In this file photo, is the Boeing Company logo on the property in El Segundo, California. (AP)

FAA issues order to airlines

‘Check engines on 737s thatcould shut down mid-flight’WASHINGTON, July 27, (AP): Safety regulators issued an emer-gency order directing airlines to inspect and if necessary replace a critical engine part on popular Boeing 737 jets after four reports of engines shutting down during flights.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that its order affected about 2,000 twin-engine passenger jets in the United States.

The FAA said operators must inspect any 737 that has been parked for at least seven days or been flown fewer than 11 times since being returned to service. That’s because of reports that certain engine valves can become stuck in the open position.

Corrosion of the valves on both engines could lead to a complete loss of power without the ability to restart the engines, forcing pilots to land somewhere other than an airport, the FAA said in the order, dated Thursday.

Chicago-based Boeing Co said that with planes being stored or used less often during the coro-navirus pandemic, “the valve can be more susceptible to corro-sion.” The company said it is providing inspection and parts-replacement help to airplane owners.

Major airlines typically fly their planes several times a day. However, they parked hundreds of planes when the coronavirus pandemic triggered a collapse in air travel this spring and are bringing some of those planes back as passenger traffic has picked up slightly.

The FAA did not provide

details about the four cases of engine shutdowns.

Alaska Airlines said one occurred on a July 15 flight from Seattle to Austin, Texas, and the plane landed without incident. Alaska said six of its planes need inspections, which have already begun.

American, United and Southwest said none of their planes had valve-related engine shutdowns. American said four of its planes needed inspections, which were completed and found no issues. United said it is inspecting 28 planes. Southwest was determining how many planes it needs to check.

Delta Air Lines said it would inspect 20 planes but did not say whether any of its planes suf-fered engine shutdowns.

The emergency order applies to versions of the 737 called the NG and Classic, the latter of which are no longer in produc-tion but remain in some airline fleets. The directive does not apply to the newer Boeing 737 Max, which has been grounded worldwide since March 2019 after two crashes that killed 346 people.

Passenger jets have two or more engines, and multiple engine failures of the type that FAA warned about in its order are rare. One example was the 2009 “Miracle on the Hudson”, in which US Airways pilots land-ed their plane on the Hudson River in New York after bird strikes knocked out both engines. All 155 people on board sur-vived.

German outlook brighter forthird month post-shutdown

‘Economy is recovering step by step’

FRANKFURT, Germany, July 27, (AP): An impor-tant indicator of the German business outlook rose in July for the third month in a row as econom-ic activity continues to pick up after many of the coro-noavirus restrictions were eased or lifted.

The Ifo institute’s index rose to 90.5 points from 86.3 points in June, the Munich-based organization said Monday. “The German economy is recovering step by step,” Ifo head Clemens Fuest said in a statement.

Signs of economic revival have been increasing since the unprecedent-ed shutdowns on business and public life. The Ifo survey is based on inter-views with business executives across the German economy, Europe’s larg-est. Separately, the purchase manag-ers’ index - a gauge of business activ-ity measured by research firm IHS Markit - rose to 55.5 points in July, above the level of 50 that indicates economic expansion. It was the first 50-plus reading since February.

The recovery still has a long way to go, with much international air traffic shut down and firms generally work-ing below capacity.

In this file photo, the buildings of the banking district are seen after the sunset in Frankfurt, Germany. The IFO index indicator of the German business outlook rose in July for the third month in a row as economic activity con-

tinues to pick up after many of the coronavirus restrictions were eased or lifted. (AP)

Huawei CFO is Trump bargaining chip, lawyers sayVANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 27, (AP): Lawyers for a senior executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei say her extradition hearing should be ended because comments by US President Donald Trump reduce her to a “pawn in a politi-cal-economic contest.”

Canada arrested Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, at Vancouver’s airport in late 2018. The US wants her extradited to face fraud charges. Her arrest infuriated Beijing, which sees her case as a political move designed to prevent China’s rise.

The US accuses Huawei of using a Hong Kong shell company called Skycom to sell equipment to Iran in violation of US sanctions. It says Meng committed fraud by misleading the HSBC bank about the company’s business dealings in Iran.

In recent court filing’s Meng’s lawyers argue the United States is using the extradition to secure a trade advantage and say that is under-

mining the integrity of Canada’s judicial pro-ceedings. They say the foundation of the judi-cial process in Canada has been destroyed and request a stay of proceedings for abuse of process.

The filings point to an interview with Trump two weeks after Meng’s arrest in which he was asked if he would become involved in the case if he thought it would secure a trade deal with China.

“I would certainly intervene if I thought it was necessary,” Trump said.

Meng’s lawyers say the US isn’t interested in justice.

“The president and his administration have no real interest in the merits of the criminal proceed-ing ... but are intent on using her chase as a bar-gaining chip in a trade dispute,” the filings say.

A key part of the US case against Meng deals with a Aug 22, 2013, meeting at a Hong Kong restaurant at which she is accused of using a

PowerPoint presentation to give misleading information to HSBC executives about Huawei’s relationship with Skycom.

The filings say US officials selectively sum-marize information from only a few slides and omit “highly relevant information” that was on two slides.

In May, Meng failed in a bid to end the extradi-tion process when a Canadian judge ruled the allegations against her could constitute a crime in Canada as well.

Meng’s arrest has soured relations between Canada and China. In apparent retaliation, China detained former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig and Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor. China has also placed restrictions on various Canadian exports to China, including canola oil seed. China also handed a death sen-tence to a convicted Canadian drug smuggler in a sudden retrial.

Meng remains free on bail in Vancouver.

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

11

AP, Sony reach deal for new still and video cameras

The Associated Press says it has reached a deal with Sony Electronics to exclusively equip its visual journalists with new video and still cameras over the next two years.

The AP sends some 3,000 photos and 200 videos a day to customers worldwide. Visual journalism is a point of pride for the news cooperative, which won its 54th Pulitzer Prize this year, the 32nd it has won for photography.

The new Alpha cameras will be smaller and lighter, and employ mirrorless technology, enabling photographers to work silently.

“This is a game-changer for the AP and will give us way more fl exibility into the future,” said Derl McCrudden, deputy managing editor for visual and digital journalism.

The company would not dis-cuss the size of the investment.

It will be the fi rst time the AP

uses video and still cameras from the same manufacturer, which it hopes will allow for greater consistency in the prod-uct and more speed. Photogra-phers will be able to easily share lenses and memory cards.

“We think we can get images from the back of cameras to cus-tomers in minutes,” said J. David Ake, director of photography.

Ake said he hoped the tran-sition would be complete in between 18 months and two

years, although training on the new equipment will be initially complicated by the coronavirus pandemic.

Neal Manowitz, deputy presi-dent for Imaging Products and Solutions Americas at Sony Electronics, said the company is “honored to equip AP’s jour-nalists with our technology and support, giving them the oppor-tunity to capture, transmit and deliver imagery in ways they never could before.” (AP)

This combination photo shows the Associated Press logo on April 26, 2016, in New York (left), and a Sony logo on July 31, 2014, in Tokyo. The Associated Press and Sony Electronics an-nounced a deal to equip all of the news coop-erative’s still and video photojournalists with new cameras. (AP)

Asia mixed amid US-China feud, pandemicGold surges to record price

BEIJING, July 27, (AP): Global stock markets were mixed and gold surged to a record price Monday amid U.S.-China tension and concern a recovery from the coronavirus pandemic might be weakening.

London, Tokyo and Hong Kong declined while Frankfurt and Shanghai advanced. U.S. stock fu-tures were higher.

Wall Street ended last week down after a new diplomatic fl are-up between Washington and Beijing and mixed earnings reports.

Global markets have regained most of this year’s losses but forecasters warn the rebound might be too big and too early as virus case numbers rise in the United States and some other econ-omies.

Weak stock prices “speak volumes of soured risk appetite amid escalating U.S.-China risks, worsening virus outbreaks and a fl agging recovery,” said Hayaki Narita of Mizuho Bank in a report.

In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London declined 0.1% to 6,117.51 while the DAX in Frankfurt advanced 0.5% to 12,898.10. The CAC 40 in France was off less than 0.1% at 4,953.

Gold jumped $41.80 to a record $1,939.30 per ounce in a sign investors were looking for safe havens to park money.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite In-dex rose 0.3% to close at 3,205.23 af-ter swinging between gains and losses. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost 0.2% to 22,715.85 while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong retreated 0.4% to 24,603.26.

The Kospi in Seoul advanced 0.8% to 2,217.86 and Australia’s S&P-ASX 200 gained 0.3% to 6,044.20. India’s Sensex lost 0.2% to 38,047.55. New Zealand and Singapore declined while Jakarta rose.

Investors were rattled by the lat-est U.S.-Chinese diplomatic feud. The Trump administration told Beijing last week to close its consulate in Houston. China responded by ordering the clo-sure of the U.S. consulate in the south-western city of Chengdu.

That adds to strains over trade, tech-nology, Hong Kong and human rights that have sent relations between the two biggest global economies plunging

to their lowest level in decades.Investors also are worried about a

rise in U.S. layoffs as spiking coronavi-rus infections lead more businesses to shut down. Extra unemployment ben-efi ts expire this week. Congress has yet to agree on more economic aid.

In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude lost 7 cents to $41.21 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 22 cents on Friday to settle at $41.29. Brent crude, used to price in-ternational oils, lost 16 cents to $43.62 per barrel in London.

The dollar declined to 105.49 yen from Friday’s 105.97. The euro de-clined to $1.1711 from $1.1766.

Stocks closed broadly lower for the second day in a row Friday as Wall Street gave back some of its gains from a mostly solid July rally.

The S&P 500 fell 0.6% and ended the week with its fi rst weekly loss in four weeks. The pullback, which eased somewhat by afternoon, came as trad-ers turned cautious amid increased ten-

sions between the world’s two largest economies and a mixed batch of com-pany earnings reports.

Technology and health care compa-nies accounted for much of the selling, with chipmaker Intel posting the biggest drop in the S&P 500. Those losses out-weighed gains by companies that rely on consumer spending, including Ol-ive Garden owner Darden Restaurants, homebuilder PulteGroup and retailers Target and Best Buy. Stocks also sank across Asian and European markets.

Cautious investors shifted money into gold, driving its price to an all-time high of nearly $1,900 an ounce. The last record high for gold was set in 2011. Treasury yields held relatively steady, but remain close to their lowest levels since April.

The S&P 500 dropped 20.03 points to 3,215.63. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 182.44 points, or 0.7%, to 26,469.89. The Nasdaq composite fell 98.24 points, or 0.9%, to 10,363.18.

Each of the indexes had been down more sharply in the morning, with the

Nasdaq off by as much as 2.3%. Small company stocks were the biggest los-ers. The Russell 2000 index gave up 22.65 points, or 1.5%, to 1,467.55.

Despite all those challenges, the S&P 500 remains only about 5% below its record set in February, after roar-ing back from an earlier, nearly 34% plummet. This week’s stall for the S&P 500 follows three straight weekly gains driven by hopes that the economy was regaining its footing. Underlying it all is massive aid for the economy prom-ised by the Federal Reserve, including record-low interest rates.

Technology stocks have also been in the spotlight, after a sharp slide for them on Thursday helped drag the S&P 500 to its worst loss in nearly four weeks.

Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and other giants have cruised through much of the pandemic on expectations that they can keep growing despite all the challenges for the economy. But critics say enthusi-asm for them was overdone, with prices too high even after accounting for the huge profi ts that they can produce.

A woman wearing a face mask walks past a bank’s electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange, July 27. Asian stock markets were mixed Monday amid US-China tension and concern a

recovery from the coronavirus pandemic might be weakening. (AP)

By John MathewsArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, July 27: Ku-wait stocks swung higher on Sunday after incurring steep losses in the previous week. The All Shares Index rebound-ed 60.22 pts to 4922.31 points helped by fresh buying in blue chips led by banks.

The Premier Market soared 88.96 pts to 5352.13 pts paring the month’s losses to 255 points while Main Market ticked 2.58 points higher. The BK 50 Main Index inched 1.67 pts up to 4029 points. The volume turnover meanwhile bounced after hit-ting a multi-month low in the previous session. Over 63 mil-lion shares changed hands – a 70 pct surge from Thursday.

The sectors closed mixed. Banking sector outshone the rest with a solid 1.94 pct gain whereas Basic Materials skid-ded 4.2 pct, the biggest loser of the day. Banking sector contin-ued to dominate in both volume and value with over 30 million shares traded for KD 10.48 mil-lion.

Among the prime movers, sector bellwether National Bank of Kuwait sprinted 26 fi ls to 773 fi ls on back of 3.2 million shares while Kuwait Finance House climbed 9 fi ls to 577 fi ls after pushing 6.6 million shares. Bou-byan Bank gained 9 fi ls with a volume of 1.2 million shares and Mabanee Co swung 11 fi ls higher.

Zain scaled 11 fi ls on back of 2.4 million shares to close at 533 fi ls and is down 22 fi ls so far during the month while Ooredoo stood pat at 570 fi ls. STC gave up 5 fi ls and logistics major Agility dialed down 2 fi ls after trading 2.2 million shares. Humansoft Holding sank 89 fi ls to KD 2.610 and KIPCO took in 2 fi ls.

The market opened on a tame note and edged lower in early trade. The main index plumbed the day’s lowest level of 4857 points about half hour into the session and headed north amid buying in most of the blue chips. It drifted side-ways past the mid-session and an end-spurt helped it close with strong gains.

Top gainer of the day, Mashaer

rallied 9.96 pct to 59.6 fi ls and Salbookh Trading climbed 9.77 pct to stand next. Fujairah Ce-ment skidded 9.52 pct, the steep-est decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank topped the volume with 11.7 million shares.

National Industries Group rose 3 fi ls to 156 fi ls and Mez-zan Holding eased 1 fi l to 579 fi ls. Boubyan Petrochemical Co slumped 47 fi ls to 550 fi ls and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co gave up 4 fi ls. Integrated Holding Co and AAN paused at 380 fi ls and 10 fi ls respectively whereas Kuwait Hotels was down 4 fi ls at 89 fi ls.

Jazeera rose 3 fi ls to 596 fi ls and ALAFCO ticked 1 fi l high-er to 153 fi ls. Inovest took in 1 fi l and SPEC fell 3 fi ls to 64.9 fi ls. Combined Group Contract-ing Co and FutureKid trimmed 1 fi l each whereas Mashaer Holding scaled 5.4 fi ls to end at 59.6 fi ls.

Kuwait Cement Co climbed 4 fi ls to 168 fi ls and Kuwait Port-land Cement jumped 20 fi ls to 740 fi ls. KCPC sprinted 8 fi ls to 277 fi ls and KPPC ticked 0.1 fi l into green. Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co dialed up 2.2 fi ls and KGL Logistics edged 0.5 fi l lower.

Kuwait Foundry Co slipped 5 fi ls to 225 fi ls and Gulf Cable gained 6 fi ls. IFA Hotels and Re-sorts added 1.6 fi ls and Gulf Pe-troleum Investment closed fl at. Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co added 3 fi ls. Oula Fuel clipped 2 fi ls and Soor Fuel was up 5 fi ls at 110 fi ls.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank rallied 5 fi ls on back of 2.3 million shares and Kuwait International Bank scaled 4 fi ls. Burgan Bank rose 3 fi ls to 181 fi ls after moving 1.4 million shares and Warba Bank fol-lowed suit.

Al Ahli Bank took in 1 fi l and Al Mutahed gave up 2 fi ls be-fore settling at 245 fi ls. Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) di-aled up 1 fi l and KAMCO ticked 0.2 fi l into green. Noor Financial climbed 7 fi ls to 139 fi ls.

The market has been mixed so far during the week and has gained 48 points in last two ses-sions. It has tumbled 205 points from start of the month and is down 1257 points year-to-date.

NBK rallies 26 fils, Agility slips

Kuwait index rebounds,volume turnover swells

UK allows e-scooter rentals to aid transportLONDON, July 27, (AP): Britain gave the green light for trials of electric scooter rental programs, as authori-ties look for ways to help people get moving while maintaining distance and easing pressure on public transit as pandemic lockdown restrictions ease.

The Transport Department unveiled new regulations that take effect Sat-urday and pave the way for e-scooter rentals in Britain, helping it play catch-up with the US and countries in Europe and Asia where they’ve operated for years.

“E-scooters may offer the potential

for convenient, clean and cost-effec-tive travel that may also help ease the burden on the transport network, pro-vide another green alternative to get around and allow for social distanc-ing,” Transport Minister Rachel Ma-clean said in a statement. “The trials will allow us to test whether they do these things.”

Dozens of British cities are inter-ested in hosting a trial program, run by private companies. They were ini-tially scheduled for next year and have now been fast-tracked because of the coronavirus. The government wants

them to start by the end of August and run for 12 months. Riders will need to have a valid driver’s license and be at least 16. The scooters won’t be able to go faster than 15.5 mph (25 kph).

Legalization only applies to rentals. Under the new rules it remains illegal for e-scooters owned by individuals to be ridden on public roads in Britain, but that hasn’t stopped an increasing number of people using them.

Rental e-scooters have already be-come a common sight in European cities like Paris and Brussels, often strewn across sidewalks.

Swedish startup VOI, which oper-ates in 10 European countries and plans to expand to Britain, said it ex-pects huge demand for short journeys.

“We’ve seen an explosion of de-mand in all our cities across Europe” because of the pandemic, said UK General Manager Richard Corbett.

The number of VOI’s rides per day has doubled compared with before the pandemic, Corbett said.

“I think a lot of that is driven by people who are scared to use public transport and they see this as a viable alternative.”

exchange rates – July 27

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Transfer.081240.081920.082353

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travellers cheques local gold — Sterling.383858.354394.387741

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Business PlusPlus

The historically domi-nant view was that it

was an individual prob-lem that each person or family had to cope with

on their own

Tesla is one of the most exciting and innovative companies in the world,

and we are proud to welcome its team to the

State of Texas

‘

‘

’

’

Problem compounded by the coronavirus pandemic

Disabled Americans mark milestone as crisis deepens job woesso her scores weren’t high enough for college.

She fi nally got her job after writ-ing to the newly elected mayor. She walked to work every day, even when snow kept her driving col-leagues at home.

She loved joking with the el-ementary school kids who passed her with a vest and stop sign and wishing a good day to the drivers going past - including one woman who changed her route to work because Jetter’s smiles and waves brightened her morning.

“Once you’ve been a crossing guard, it’s in you. You’re never hap-py doing something else,” she said.

But in March, Jetter, 56, and the rest of the crossing guards in Hamil-ton were laid off since the pandemic had shut down schools and kids weren’t crossing the street.

“I remember there were nights I didn’t sleep I was so worried about falling behind on bills,” she said. She’s gotten by so far with help applying for benefi ts like unemploy-ment and rent reductions and fi nd-ing ways to pool her resources with other disabled friends. She’s also been able to wear a mask and return to practicing her Special Olympics sport of skating, where the leg problems caused by the disease fade away as she glides along the ice.

But it’s still unclear whether schools will be able to reopen and allow her job to restart in the fall. She’s worried about returning to the job market with a rush of other people also looking for work, many of whom won’t have to deal with discrimination she’s encountered over the years as a disabled Black woman.

Still, she’s got her optimism, ingenuity and determination on her side.

“The ADA has opened more doors for people with disabilities,” she said. “There’s still a lot more that has to be worked on, but if we keep plugging away things are go-ing to get better and better.”

Advocates with groups such as The Arc are also pushing Congress to add more funding through Med-icaid in the next coronavirus aid package for things like job coaches and transportation to help people such as Jetter get back to jobs that can help them live independently and be more connected to their com-munity.

The pandemic has meant millions of people are working from home, with accommodations that some dis-abled people have long been denied. It’s shown that workers can be pro-ductive from home, though for those gains to translate effectively to the disabled community, access must be increased to the education and computers that make those careers possible, the professors said.

“There may be a silver living,” Kruse said. “Maybe this will shake up the view of how work can be done.” (AP)

Patrice Jetter, a furloughed school crossing guard, poses for a photograph in Hamilton, New Jersey. Jetter, who has cerebral palsy and partial hearing loss, wanted to work with kids when graduating from high school. (AP)

New factory will employ at least 5,000 workers

Tesla picks Texas site for 2nd US assembly plantCALIFORNIA, July 27, (AP): Elec-tric car maker Tesla Inc has picked the Austin, Texas, area as the site for its largest auto assembly plant em-ploying at least 5,000 workers.

The new factory will build Tesla’s upcoming Cybertruck pickup and will be a second US manufacturing site for the Model Y small SUV, largely for distribution to the East Coast.

Tesla will build on a 2,100-acre (85-hectacre) site in Travis County near Austin and will get more than $60 million in tax breaks from the county and a local school district over the next decade. Work on the plant, which will be over 4 million square feet, is already underway, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said.

He did not put a number on how many vehicles the facility would produce. “Long term, a lot,” Musk said.

The company has pledged to invest $1.1 billion and said it will pay a minimum wage of $15 per hour to employees and provide health insurance, paid leave and other benefits.

The area that’s home to the Uni-versity of Texas at Austin and tech

companies such as Dell Inc was a candidate for the plant all along, but Tulsa, Oklahoma, emerged in mid-May as another possibility.

Tesla doesn’t have a lot of time to get the factory running if it wants to meet target production dates. The company says on its website that the Cybertruck will be available start-ing late next year. Tesla has often missed promised production dates

in the past. Musk has reportedly been happy

with Texas, where his SpaceX rocket company has operations in Brownsville and in McGregor north of Austin.

The new factory will be Tesla’s biggest so far, although it may not employ as many workers as the 10,000 at its factory in Fremont, California. The electric car maker

has said it wants the new factory to be in the center of the country and closer to eastern markets.

The Fremont factory currently is Tesla’s only US assembly plant. It has a second US factory in Reno, Nevada, where it builds batteries for its vehicles and em-ploys about 6,500 people. Tesla also has a factory in Shanghai and another one under construction in Germany.

Musk has been unhappy with California, where earlier this year he fl outed local orders to stay closed to help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. Musk has threatened to move the company’s headquar-ters out of Palo Alto and all future vehicles out of the plant in Fremont, a reworked factory that once was run jointly by Toyota and General Motors.

Republican Texas Gov Greg Abbott has not allowed cities and counties to impose local orders that would close businesses as the virus began surging to record levels this summer. The state did not give Tesla any additional fi nancial incentives, Abbott spokesman John Wittman said.

“Tesla is one of the most exciting

and innovative companies in the world, and we are proud to welcome its team to the State of Texas,” Ab-bott said in a statement.

Texas has no corporate or indi-vidual income taxes. It also touts the region’s young workforce as one of the most educated in the country. Nearly 47% of adults have at least a bachelor’s degree, pushing Austin into the top 10 among large metro areas, the site says. But at present, Tesla can’t legally sell its vehicles in Texas. A state law requires cars to be sold through franchised deal-ers, not company stores like Tesla operates.

Tulsa put up a good fi ght, but may have been used to win better terms from Texas. Oklahoma boasts about its low tax rates and cost of living, particularly low utility costs. Musk even visited the Tulsa site earlier this month.

Oklahoma hasn’t had an auto manufacturer in the state since Gen-eral Motors shuttered its Oklahoma City facility in 2005, but Tulsa is home to an American Airlines maintenance facility that employs about 5,200 workers.

By Lindsay Whitehurst

The Americans With Disabilities Act was a major turning point in

opening large parts of U.S. society to disabled people, but three decades after its passage disabled workers still face higher unemployment than other adults -- a problem compound-ed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Sunday marks 30 years since the ADA was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush with wide bipartisan support. It prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in areas such as employ-ment, transportation and public accommodations.

In practice, that’s meant every-thing from usable public bathrooms to seats in movie theaters and access to public schools.

“The historically dominant view was that it was an individual problem that each person or family

had to cope with on their own,” said Douglas Kruse, an economist at Rutgers University who began using a wheelchair after a drunk driver crashed into him in 1990. “The ADA represented a shift in perspec-tive that a lot of the problems with disability are more societal and environmental.”

That’s led to something simple but crucial: visibility.

“It’s not uncommon to see people with wheelchairs or blind people out doing what they need to do, or want to do, in cities or in restaurants,” said his wife Lisa Schur, a politi-cal scientist at Rutgers who studies disability and employment. “Before the ADA, it was unusual. People would be stared at. Now it’s more accepted.”

The law was a hard-fought milestone that came after years of work from disabled people and their supporters, said Peter Berns, CEO

of The Arc, which advocates for people with intellectual and devel-opmental disabilities.

Nevertheless, “the reality still is, people with disabilities are subject to pervasive discrimination in employment and many aspects of life, so the work of the ADA is not done.”

When it comes to employment, things were looking up in the boom-ing June 2019 economy before the coronavirus hit. Still, the unemploy-ment rate was nearly 8% - double that of other workers - even though a large majority said in surveys they can and want to work, Kruse said. Those who are employed often hold low-level jobs in industries like food service, home health care and janitorial work.

“It really seems to be last hired, fi rst fi red,” Schur said. “Even 30 years after the ADA, there’s still a lot of employer reluctance.”

The situation has gotten worse during the pandemic. The entire country is reeling from record un-employment and widespread layoffs as large sectors of the economy essentially shut down to slow the spread of the coronavirus, but it’s even more pronounced among disa-bled people.

In June 2020, the unemployment rate for disabled people rose to 16.5%, compared to 11% for work-ers without a disability, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The ranks of the newly unem-ployed include Patrice Jetter of Hamilton, New Jersey. She applied to be a crossing guard every year for 12 years before she was fi rst hired in 1993. Jetter, who has cerebral palsy and partial hearing loss, wanted to work with kids when graduating from high school, but had little preparation for taking her SATs in special education classes,

NY Times promotes executive Kopit Levien to CEO

The New York Times Co. said that it is promoting its chief operating officer, Mer-edith Kopit Levien, to CEO.

She will start in the new role on Sept. 8, succeeding Mark Thompson, who has been president and CEO since 2012. Thompson will also step down from the com-pany’s board, which Kopit Levien is joining.

“I’ve chosen this moment

to step down because we have achieved everything I set out to do when I joined The Times Company eight years ago,” Thompson said in a statement.

Kopit Levien said she wants to invest in product and technology that grows the company’s business as well as in journalism.

She came to the Times in August 2013 as head of

advertising from Forbes, and was responsible for the newspaper’s subscription and ad businesses before becoming COO in 2017.

The Times has success-fully transformed its business into one increasingly depend-ent on online subscriptions and less so on ad revenues. It first introduced digital sub-scriptions in 2011.

Kopit Levien “has suc-

cessfully led much of our company’s most important work - from reimagining our advertising business to driv-ing our historic subscription growth to fostering a culture of product innovation,” said publisher A.G. Sulzberger. “She’s been Mark Thomp-son’s closest partner over the past seven years and will continue to build on his re-markable legacy.” (AP)

This fi le photo shows the exterior of the New York Times building in New York. The New York Times Co said that it is promoting its chief operat-ing offi cer, Meredith Kopit Levien, to CEO. She will start in the new role on Sept 8, succeeding Mark Thompson, who has been president and CEO since 2012. (AP)

In this file photo, a man wearing a mask walks through the Tesla plant park-ing lot in Fremont, California. (AP)

HEALTHARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

13

COVID-19 corruption

Pregnant women atdeath risk in curfewNAIROBI, Kenya, July 27, (AP): Veronica Atieno remem-bers feeling her way through the dark alleys between the shacks that make up Nairobi’s slums, picking her way past raw sewage and rusty, razor-sharp metal roofi ng with trepi-dation.

Her labor pains had crescendoed during Kenya’s coro-navirus dusk-to-dawn curfew, and there were no public or private means of transport to the hospital where she had planned to give birth. Fears of heavy-handed police enforce-ment of the curfew kept possible helpers away.

With time running out, her only option was to reach the home of a traditional birth attendant nearby, Atieno said. But she was scared.

“I had many concerns about the health of the baby if she was delivered by the traditional car-egiver. How hygenic is her place? Does she have personal protection gear to prevent the spread of COV-ID-19? What if I need surgery?” she worried as her spasms intensifi ed.

Her plight has played out every night for pregnant women across Ken-ya, putting some at deadly risk. That has inspired a local doctor to create an emergency service, Wheels for Life.

Kenya already had one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world,

and though data are not yet available on the effects of the new curfew, experts believe the number of women and ba-bies who die in childbirth has increased signifi cantly since it was imposed mid-March.

The concerns drove obstetrician and gynecologist Jemi-mah Kariuki at the government-run Kenyatta National Hos-pital to attempt a solution.

“When the curfew started we had open hospitals but no women, and we would hear reports of women delivering at home with very dire consequences: Women would come in the morning with babies who passed in the night or they had ruptured the uterus or had signifi cant tears,” she said.

ResponseWhen one mother was reported to have died while in la-

bor, Kariuki felt she needed to do something. She shared her phone number on Twitter, asking women

who needed to consult about their pregnancies to reach out. The tweet quickly went viral.

“The response was overwhelming, I was getting 30 to 40 calls from women telling me, ‘I was anxious, I did not know what to do’. In one week I had fi ve mothers calling me like, ‘I am in labor and I don’t know what to do’,” she said.

Kariuki started to track down vehicles to provide trans-portation to health facilities, but few were on the road be-cause of multiple reports of police brutality while enforcing the curfew. Human rights groups have reported at least 23 curfew violators allegedly killed by police, and videos have circulated of baton-wielding offi cers whipping people.

Kariuki reached out to companies and state organizations for support in providing free services such as transportation and medical personnel. The response was overwhelming, leading to the formation of Wheels for Life.

The Health Ministry, Nairobi University, taxi service Bolt and others pitched in to provide the free services.

“It is really amazing when you can see that people are willing to go beyond the economic gain so that they can help the less privileged in society, especially at a time of COVID when everyone is thinking about cutting costs,” Kariuki said.

Wheels for Life has a toll-free number which pregnant mothers call to be triaged and connected to a doctor. If a mother needs medical attention but it’s not an emergency, a taxi is dispatched to take her to hospital. If it’s an emer-gency, an ambulance is dispatched.

According to the United Nations’ Maternal Mortality Es-timation Inter-Agency Group, maternal deaths in Kenya had fallen from 9,100 a year in 2000 to 5,000 in 2017. That trans-lates to 13 recorded maternal deaths daily, down from 24.

Still, the East African country remains among the top 21 in the world for maternal deaths.

Louisa Muteti, chair of the Midwives Association of Ken-ya, fears that mother and child deaths during childbirth have increased under the curfew.

Muteti said 68% of mothers who give birth in Kenya have access to skilled personnel. Others give birth at home us-ing traditional birth attendants or by themselves, and when deaths occur they are not offi cially recorded.

Transport and security are the biggest challenges under curfew, Muteti said, especially in dimly lit informal settle-ments.

“That’s why some mothers may die at home or struggle and go to hospital in the morning, only to die,” she said.

According to the World Health Organization, which is head by Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreye-sus, women die as a result of mostly treatable complications during pregnancy and following childbirth such as severe bleeding, infections and high blood pressure.

WHO emphasizes the importance of skilled assistance during childbirth, saying “timely management and treatment can make the difference between life and death for the moth-er as well as for the baby.”

Kariuki said Wheels for Life has handled 10,950 calls in the last 100 days while 890 women have been taken to hos-pitals for various issues with their pregnancies.

She envisions the service continuing beyond the curfew, targeting low-income residents and moving beyond Nairobi county. Most users are from informal settlement or low-in-come areas, she said.

Also:JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s COVID-19 response is marred by corruption allegations around its historic $26 bil-lion economic relief package, as the country with the world’s fi fth highest number of COVID-19 cases braces for more.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a wide-rang-ing investigation into claims that unscrupulous offi cials and private companies are looting efforts to protect the country’s 57 million people.

“More so than at any other time, corruption puts our lives at risk,” he said in a national address Thursday night.

Food for the poor. Personal protective equipment for health workers. Grants for the newly laid off. All have been affected, he said.

South Africa is seen as the best-prepared of any country in sub-Saharan Africa for COVID-19, but years of rampant corruption have weakened institutions, including the health system. In October, the head of the government’s Special Investigating Unit said fraud, waste and abuse in health care siphoned off $2.3 billion a year.

The unit is already investigating more than 20 cases of corruption related to the COVID-19 relief money, spokes-man Kaizer Kganyago said.

South Africa now has more than 434,000 confi rmed vi-rus cases – well over half of the continent’s total – and over 6,600 deaths, while a new report has suggested the real death toll could be higher. Public hospitals struggle and some health workers are openly scared. More than 5,000 of them have been infected.

While nurses and others plead for more protection, over-pricing scams for badly needed supplies are on the rise. After infl ating face mask prices by up to 900%, companies Sicuro Safety and Hennox Supplies admitted guilt and were fi ned.

Virus

James Robson, a biomedical engineering graduate student, holds a swab and specimen vial in the new COVID-19, on-campus testing lab on July 23 at Boston University in Boston. (AP)

Veronica Atieno carries her daughter Shaniz Joy Juma, delivered a month earlier by a traditional birth attendant during a dusk-to-dawn curfew, in the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya on July 3. Kenya already had one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the world, and though data are not yet available on the effects of the curfew aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, experts believe the number of women and babies who die in childbirth has increased signifi cantly since it was im-

posed mid-March. (AP)

Health

Pak ends anti-polio drive: Pakistan wrapped up a fi ve-day vaccination cam-paign against polio in the former Taleban stronghold of South Waziristan and else-where in the country amid a surge in cases, offi cials said.

Vaccinations started on Monday, aiming to have about 800,000 children inoculated. Fortunately during this campaign, there were no reports of militant attacks on polio teams or police escorting them, said Aimal Riaz Khan, a spokesman for the polio emergency center in the northwest.

Medical workers participating in the drive also urged parents and families to abide by social distancing regulations to avoid a spike in coronavirus cases.

Pakistan is one of three countries in the world where polio – a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by the polio virus – is still endemic. The other two are Afghanistan and Nigeria. (AP)

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61 virus cases in China: Chinese authorities announced 61 new coronavirus cases, including 57 local infections and no deaths in the past 24 hours.

The new cases raised the total infection cases in mainland China to 83,891 and total deaths at 4634, the authorities said on Monday.

The authorities added that no new local cases were recorded in the capital Beijing or Hubei province and its capital Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus, for 20 consecu-tive days.

They added that 10 people were dis-charged from hospitals, raising the number of recoveries to 78,918 since the beginning of the outbreak, while 339 patients are still receiving medical care. (KUNA)

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390 virus cases in Japan: Japan reported 390 new cases of the coronavirus over the last 24 hours as of 04:00 pm (0700 GMT) on Monday, bringing the nation’s total number to 30,976, the health ministry and local authorities said.

The country’s death toll rose by one to 998. The hardest-hit Tokyo confi rmed 131 new infections, topping 100 for the19th straight day, which brought the total cases in the city of about 14 million people to 11,345.

Since the country fully lifted a nationwide state of emergency late May, the number of daily new cases in Tokyo has been on an upward trend, including group infections in nightlife spots, workplaces and theaters.

The Tokyo metropolitan government maintains its COVID-19 alert level at the highest on a four-tier scale, which means the infections appear to be spreading.

On Sunday, Economic Revitalization Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is also in charge of the coronavirus response, said the government will urge the business community to enhance anti-virus measures, such as cutting offi ce attendance by 70 percent and avoiding holding large-scale gatherings. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

340 cases in Germany: German health authorities confi rmed on Monday 340 more

new cases from coronavirus (COVID-19), while no deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours.

The President of Robert Koch Institute (RKI) Prof Dr Lothar Wieler said in a press statement that the country’s total cases rose to 205,609, while the total death toll remained at 9,118 cases.

He added that all regions in 16 states have recorded less than 50 infections per 100,000 citizens, which is far from the danger zone. (KUNA)Wieler Nishimura

Dr Tedros

Strategies vary widely

US colleges plan for virus testingBOSTON, July 27, (AP): For students heading to Colby College in Maine this fall, coronavirus testing is expect-ed to be a routine part of campus life. All students will be required to provide a nasal swab every other day for two weeks, and then twice a week after that. All told, the college says it will provide 85,000 tests, nearly as many as the entire state of Maine has since the pandemic started.

Colby, a private school of 2,000 students, joins a growing number of colleges announcing aggressive testing plans to catch and isolate COVID-19 cases before they spread. Harvard University says all students living on campus will be tested when they arrive and then three times a week. Boston University plans to test most students at least once a week.

But whether colleges should be test-ing every student – and whether there’s capacity for it – is a subject of debate. Some colleges plan to test students only if they show symptoms or come into close contact with someone who has tested positive. But some research-ers say that approach could quickly cause outbreaks caused by students who don’t show symptoms.

As universities hurry to make plans for virus testing, federal offi cials are warning that they could overload labs that process tests for hospitals. In a call with governors last Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said too many colleges are sign-ing contracts with commercial labs, which threatens to “jam up the capac-ity” of the system.

OperationsInstead, Azar said colleges should

develop testing operations in their own labs, especially at big research univer-sities.

Colleges have been trumpeting test-ing plans as they work to reassure fam-ilies that they can reopen safely. For some, it’s partly meant to signal that offi cials will spend whatever it takes to keep the campus protected.

“It’s fi rst and foremost to provide a safe environment. But truthfully it’s also to give all of us comfort, to give our local community comfort, and to give our stu-dents and families comfort,” said Doug Terp, vice-president for administration and chief fi nancial offi cer at Colby. The testing plan will cost the college an esti-mated $5 million, he said.

But at the University of North Caro-lina at Chapel Hill, offi cials argue that testing every student could “create a false sense of security”. Instead, the school plans to test students who show symptoms or were exposed to the vi-rus, and those in high-risk groups.

Virus testing is just one of many safety measures colleges are planning as they look to reopen. Many also plan to reduce class sizes, limit dorm capac-ity, require masks and ban large gath-erings. By testing, colleges hope to identify sick students and place them in isolation spaces to prevent further spread of the virus.

For months, university leaders have argued that testing is crucial to a safe

US agency vows steps to addressinequalities in ‘coronavirus care’NEW YORK, July 27, (AP): If Black, Hispanic and Native Americans are hospitalized and killed by the coronavirus at far higher rates than others, shouldn’t the government count them as high risk for serious illness?

That seemingly simple question has been mulled by federal health offi cials for months. And so far the answer is no.

But federal public health offi cials have released a new strategy that vows to improve data collection and take steps to address stark in-equalities in how the disease is af-fecting Americans.

Offi cials at the Centers for Dis-ease Control and Prevention stress that the disproportionately high im-pact on certain minority groups is not driven by genetics. Rather, it’s social conditions that make people of color more likely to be exposed to the virus and - if they catch it - more likely to get seriously ill.

“To just name racial and ethnic groups without contextualizing what contributes to the risk has the potential to be stigmatizing and victimizing,” said the CDC’s Leandris Liburd, who two months ago was named chief health equity offi cer in the agency’s coronavirus response.

Outside experts agreed that there’s a lot of potential downside to labeling certain racial and ethnic groups as high risk.

“You have to be very careful that you don’t do it in such a way that you’re defi ning a whole class of

people as ‘COVID carriers.’” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.

COVID-19’s unequal impact has been striking:■ American Indians and Native Alaskans are hospitalized at rates more than fi ve times that of white people. The hospitalization rate for Black and Hispanic Americans is more than four times higher than for whites, according to CDC data through mid-July.

■ Detailed tracking through mid-May suggested Black people ac-counted for 25% of US deaths as of that time, even though they are about 13% of the US population. About 24% of deaths were Hispan-ics, who account for about 18.5% of the population. And 35% were white people, who are 60% of the population.

Other researchers have pointed out problems for minorities as they try access coronavirus tests or health care.

But while sometimes highlighting the disproportionate toll the virus has had on certain racial and ethnic groups, the CDC is being careful not to categorize them as high risk or meriting higher priority for certain health services.

Indeed, in May, the CDC took down guidelines it had posted that said minorities without symptoms should be among those prioritized for coronavirus testing. Govern-ment offi cials later said the posting had been a mistake.

reopening. But with limited guidance from federal offi cials, colleges have created a patchwork of strategies based on advice from state agencies and on research from their own health experts.

The Texas A&M University system recently announced that it will divide 15,000 tests among its campuses each month, to be reserved for those who show symptoms or are exposed to known cases. Other schools planning to focus on those with symptoms in-clude Harvey Mudd College near Los Angeles and Macalester College in Minnesota.

Dozens of universities plan to test students when they arrive, but after that initial screening, some plan to fo-cus on students with symptoms. Some other schools say they will test random samples of students, while some plan to test all students at various intervals.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discourages widespread testing, saying colleges should primar-ily test students with symptoms. The agency says broader testing should be considered only in areas with higher virus transmission rates.

But researchers at several universi-ties warn that relying on symptoms

alone won’t be enough. They say many young people carry the virus but never feel ill. Without catching those cases, they say, the virus could rapidly spread out of control.

At Cornell University, a research team recently found that students would need to be tested every seven days to keep infections down. A sepa-rate study at Yale University and Har-vard Medical School suggested that all students should be tested every two or three days. It found that testing only once a week could lead to thousands of infections over a semester.

Of particular concern for colleges is the risk that students could arrive on campus carrying the virus without knowing it. Some are asking students to get tested before they arrive. Ithaca Col-lege recently announced that students from more than 20 states with higher virus rates will be barred from campus.

At Cornell, students have been asked to get tested before leaving home, and they will face another test when they arrive. Offi cials hope that by testing twice, they will identify asymptomatic cases and drive down false test results. Once on campus, students will be test-ed once a week.

Coronavirus

Featu

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This image released by IFC Films shows Sheila Vand in a scene from ‘The Rental’. (AP)

Queen Elizabeth II joins virtual unveiling of portrait

Rift between royal brothers laid bare in new book extractLONDON, July 27, (AP): Prince William infuriated Prince Harry when he told his younger brother he should move slowly in his relationship with the former Meghan Markle, fearing that he was being “blindsided by lust”, a new book on the Windsors says.

The second installment of a serialized version of the book “Finding Freedom”, which appeared in the Sunday Times, claimed that Harry was angered by what he perceived as William’s snobby tone in a dis-cussion about the American actress when they were dating. Royal re-porters Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote that Harry disliked William’s advice to “take as much time as you need to get to know this girl”.

The authors quote a source close to William as saying he didn’t want Harry to be “blindsided by lust”. The authors wrote that Harry “no longer felt as though he needed looking after,” and took it badly.

“In those last two words, ‘this girl’, Harry heard the tone of snob-bishness that was anathema to his approach to the world,” the excerpt said, noting that Harry has spent 10 years in the military and outside the royal bubble. “Also, to remove Meghan from the equation, Harry was tired of the dynamic that had become established between him and his older brother,” the authors added.

In announcing the book’s publication, Harper Collins UK said the book by Scobie, royal editor of Harper’s Bazaar and Durand, Elle magazine’s royal correspondent, would aim to capture “the real Harry and Meghan”. The publisher said the authors have been given “unique access” and the cooperation of those closest to the couple.

Ahead of the book’s release, Harry and Meghan issued a statement

denying taking part in the publication.“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were not interviewed and did not

contribute to ‘Finding Freedom’,” it said. “This book is based on the authors’ own experiences as members of the royal press corps and their own independent reporting.”

The book described how the rest of the family and the Royal House-hold also didn’t know what to make of Meghan. One senior courtier is said to have told a colleague: “There’s just something about her I don’t trust”. Another called her “Harry’s showgirl”.

SimilarityThe excerpt is even harsher when it comes to the Duchess of Cam-

bridge, suggesting she hardly rolled out the red carpet for Meghan, despite the similarity of challenges both would face.

“Though it was not necessarily her responsibility, Kate did little to bridge the divide. She was fi ercely loyal to her husband and his fam-ily,” the authors wrote. “Once Harry and Meghan were married, the gap between the brothers only widened.

“William and Kate’s feelings seemed obvious to the Sussexes that summer and beyond. Among all the friends and family Harry and Meghan hosted at their house in Oxfordshire between May 2018 and March 2019, the Cambridges failed to visit,” the excerpt said.

The book excerpts have focused on the months of palace intrigue surrounding the decision to step back from senior royal duties. The couple surprised the Royal Household in January by making public their plans to be more independent.

The couple wished to be part-time royals, but the idea fell apart dur-ing talks with the family. In January the queen outlined how the couple would step away from royal duties in March, at least for a while, but always remain part of the royal family.

Harry is sixth in the line for the throne, behind his father, Prince Charles, his brother William, and William’s three young children, George, Charlotte and Louis.

The couple have relocated to North America with their 14-month old son, Archie.

Also:LONDON: Queen Elizabeth II has joined in the virtual unveiling of a new portrait commissioned by Britain’s Foreign Offi ce to honor her services to diplomacy.

The portrait of the monarch by Miriam Escofet is meant to pay trib-ute to the queen’s work in promoting UK interests all over the world.

The queen saw the painting on her computer screen, and observed that a tea cup in the portrait lacked a key ingredient: tea. Escofet told the monarch that she had included the insignia of the FCO on the cup.

“She seemed to react very positively to it,” Escofet said. “She was smiling, asking how long it took and if I had any more projects on the go after this.”

The unveiling took place during a virtual visit in which the monarch was told about how the Foreign Offi ce handled the shock wave of the coronavirus pandemic and brought thousands of British tourists home from far-fl ung travels.

NEW YORK: Actress Spencer Grammer says she was trying to calm an agitated man when he slashed her in the arm and stabbed her friend in the back Friday outside a New York City restaurant.

Grammer, 36, told US Weekly that she and her friend “did what anyone else would do in the same situation” and were “attempting to prevent the altercation from escalat-ing” when they were attacked.

Grammer and her 32-year-old friend were eating at an outside table at The Black Ant in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood around 11:30 pm Friday when the man am-bled up and demanded to be served as the restaurant was closing down.

Grammer and her friend were hurt as they “attempted to break up a dispute between the unidentifi ed male and other patrons at the loca-tion,” police said.

The man ran away after wound-ing Grammer in the right arm and her friend in the lower back with an unknown sharp object, police said. No arrests have been made.

Grammer, who provides the voice of Summer on “Rick and Morty” and previously starred on the ABC Family series “Greek”, is the daughter of “Frasier” star Kelsey Grammer and actress Doreen Alderman. Grammer said she and her friend both expect to recover quickly. Neither suffered serious internal injuries, she said.

In her statement to US Weekly, Grammer thanked the fi rst respond-ers and Bellevue Hospital staff that treated them and noted the “incredible battle” those workers have fought against the coronavirus pandemic. “It was very moving for us to have the opportunity to thank them in person,” Grammer said.

Grammer’s fi rst role was as a child, appearing uncredited on the show Cheers.

Grammer played the female lead, Casey Cartwright, in the ABC Fam-ily series Greek. The show followed the life of a sister (Grammer) and her geeky brother, Rusty Cartwright, played by Jacob Zachar, as they navigate college and life within the world of the Greek system sororities and fraternities in a mid-western Ohio college town.

In late 2012, she was cast in an independent thriller originally titled 2br/1ba. Directed by Rob Margo-lies, it was scheduled to be released in May 2015 as Roommate Wanted.

In 2013, Grammer starred opposite Blair Underwood in Ironside, the remake of the popular 1960s television series of the same

name. On the show, she plays the female lead, Holly, part of detective Robert Ironside’s (Underwood) hand-picked team to solve the most diffi cult cases in the city after he is left paralyzed following a shooting. The show was canceled after three episodes aired. Since 2013 Spencer also lent her voice to the character of Summer Smith on the well-reviewed Adult Swim animated sci-

ence fi ction series Rick and Morty. Grammer married James Hesketh, a fi refi ghter, on Feb 11, 2011. On Oct 10, 2011, she gave birth to their son, Emmett Emmanual Hesketh. In November 2017, Hesketh fi led for divorce from Grammer. (Agen-cies)

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TAMPA, Fla: A television news

reporter in Florida is crediting an ea-gle-eyed viewer for noticing a lump on her neck and emailing her that she should get it checked out. Vic-toria Price, a reporter for WFLA in Tampa, followed the advice and was diagnosed with cancer.

Price tweeted that she is undergo-ing surgery on Monday to remove the tumor, her thyroid and a couple of lymph nodes.

“Doctor said it’s spreading, but not too much, and we’re hopeful this will be my fi rst and last procedure,” she said.

The viewer emailed Price last month, saying the lump reminded her of one she had had.

Price, 28, an investigative reporter, said this week that her television station’s catchphrase is “8 On Your Side”. (AP)

Film

Variety

Peop

le

Scary, suspenseful and even surprising

‘The Rental’, gripping Airbnb horror fi lmBy Jocelyn Noveck

To the list of established movie genres, we must now add another: the Airbnb horror fi lm.

Wait! A sub-genre: The pandemic-era Airbnb hor-ror fi lm.

Halfway through 2020, we’re all surely craving some sort of remote getaway (maybe Pluto?) But this summer, fi rst with “You Should Have Left” and now “The Rental”, the movies seem to be sending those of us seeking such isolation, at least via Airbnb, a stark message: Be careful what you wish for.

More bluntly: Stay home! That gorgeous rental with fl oor-to-ceiling windows? More like fl oor-to-ceiling murder and mayhem. And who knew “drop-dead views” was a literal term?

“The Rental”, the feature directing debut by Dave Franco, starts out in a strikingly similar vein to “You Should Have Left”: Affl uent Californians look online, experience real-estate porn, book re-laxing getaway.

But where the earlier fi lm sputtered just when we expected a good payoff for all that tension, “The Rental” knows how to stick its landing. If such horror fi lms can be split into three parts – dreamy setup, scary stuff happens, all-hell-breaks loose ending – what makes “The Rental” a more satisfying experience is that the ending actually is scary and suspenseful, even surprising.

Not that Franco’s story, written with Joe Swan-berg, breaks any ground; the surprise is mild, rather than revelatory (“Get Out”, it is not.) But it earns our attention because, unlike many horror fi lms, Franco has taken the time to make his characters somewhat interesting, with nice casting (especially the reliably excellent Dan Stevens), a subplot about infi delity, and another about racial profi ling.

We begin with an attractive millennial couple, Charlie (Stevens) and Mina (Sheila Vand), gaz-ing at the online profi le of a cliffside house some-where up the coast from the Bay Area (the fi lm was shot in foggy southern Oregon). It’s costly, but they decide to go for it.

Then Mina’s boyfriend, Josh, enters the room.

Turns out Charlie and Mina are business partners, not lovers. Josh (Jeremy Allen White) is Charlie’s much-less-successful brother. Charlie’s married to Michelle (Alison Brie), the most upbeat and ener-getic of the bunch.

And so the four set off. In the car, Mina stews over the fact that her Middle Eastern last name may have been the reason her initial request to rent the house was denied, while Charlie’s, an hour later, was accepted.

Her suspicions are hardly assuaged when, arriv-ing at the property, the host, a guy named Taylor who lives up the street, appears to be a prejudiced jerk. In any case, the two couples are determined to have a great time: nice hikes, good meals, and a bit of recreational drugs, to get in the mood.

InconvenientThen, in the hot tub, the simmering chemistry

between Charlie and Mina bubbles to the surface, and they end up getting it on in the shower. Which makes it very inconvenient when Mina soon discovers there’s a camera in the shower head. They’re convinced that creepy Taylor is recording them.

Oh, and Josh’s dog goes missing – heck, they weren’t supposed to bring a dog anyway. But still, a missing pet is often the fi rst sign of things going wrong in a horror fi lm.

The best scenes in the film go to Vand, whose role as the emotionally conflicted, strong-but-scared heroine is the meatiest in the script.

Brie is also compelling, though she has less to do. Franco (her husband) directs the proceedings – a taut 88 minutes, perfect for these distracted times – with a sure hand, keeping us interested.

He’s said he based the story on his own “para-noia” about online rentals like Airbnbs. Of course, he was also inspired by “The Shining” – the pio-neering real-estate porn horror fi lm (but very pre-Airbnb) for which there really is no substitute.

But Franco has made a briskly entertaining de-but feature, a nice way to spend an escapist sum-mer evening. Not from your Airbnb, though.

In 2006, Franco made his acting debut on The

CW drama television series 7th Heaven. He ap-peared in television shows such as Do Not Disturb and Young Justice. Franco has also had noticeable roles in fi lms such as Superbad, Charlie St Cloud, 21 Jump Street, Warm Bodies, The Shortcut and Now You See Me. In May 2008, he was cast in The CW teen drama television series Privileged.

The series centered on a live-in tutor for two spoiled heiresses in Palm Beach. Franco was cast in an initial major recurring role. The series pre-miered on September 9, 2008 to 3.1 million view-ers. Ratings continued to slip each week with the series sixth episode reaching 1.837 million view-ers. The CW did not renew the series for a second season due to low ratings.

In March 2019, it was announced Alison Brie, Dan Stevens, Sheila Vand and Jeremy Allen White had joined the cast of the fi lm, with Dave Franco directing from a screenplay he wrote alongside Joe Swanberg. Franco, Elizabeth Haggard, Ben Still-man, Teddy Schwarzman, Swanberg, Christopher Storer served as producers on the fi lm, under their Ramona Films and Black Bear Pictures banners, respectively, while Michael Heimler and Sean Durkin acted as executive producers.

Principal photography began on April 22, 2019, lasting through May 24, in Bandon and Portland, Oregon.

Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans composed the fi lm’s score, released by Lakeshore Records.

In April 2020, IFC Films acquired distribution rights to the fi lm and scheduled it to be released on July 24, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fi lm held its premiere at the Vineland drive-in theatre in City of Industry, California on June 18, 2020.

The fi lm made an estimated $130,000 from 251 theaters in its fi rst day, and $420,871 over the weekend, topping the box offi ce.

“The Rental”, an IFC Films release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America “for violence, language throughout, drug use and some sexuality. Running time: 88 minutes. Three stars out of four. (AP)

Kelsey Spencer

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People & Places

NEWS/FEATURESARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

15

Parks

Safety praised

Can Disney maintainits magic in virus-era?ORLANDO, Fla, July 27, (AP): Every week, it seems, Kaila Barker, her husband and their fi ve children change their minds about whether to travel from their home in Connecticut to Florida’s Walt Disney World as planned in September.

On the one hand, the lack of crowds means more opportunities to go on rides without long waits. On the other hand, Connecticut and Florida have implemented pandemic-related quarantines for each other’s residents and visitors, and the Barkers worry whether the Disney “magic” will get lost with mandatory mask-wearing for visitors and workers, temperature checks and no parades, fi reworks shows or up-close “meet-and-greets” with cos-tumed characters.

“We keep going back and forth. It’s such a hard deci-sion to make,” Barker said last Tuesday.

Two weeks after Disney World started opening its theme parks for the fi rst time since clos-ing in March because of COV-ID-19, the Barkers’ quandary affects not only Disney World’s future but that of central Flori-da’s tourism-reliant economy.

More than 75 million visitors came to Orlando in 2018, mostly due to its reputation as a theme park hub, which also includes Universal Orlando and Sea-World Orlando. But the corona-

virus has upended Orlando’s status as the most visited place in the US.

In the week that Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom started welcoming back visitors, oc-cupancy of hotel rooms in the Orlando area was down more than 60% from the previous year, a much deeper drop than the state as a whole, which declined more than 41%, according to STR, which tracks hotel data.

Less than half of Disney World’s 43,000 unionized workers have been recalled to their old jobs, contributing to two Orlando-area counties having the state’s highest unemployment rates last month – Osceola at 22.9% and Orange at 17.2%. Disney World has an overall work-force of 77,000 employees, the nation’s largest single-site labor force.

SupportMany of those still-furloughed workers are about to

lose federal benefi ts at the end of the month.“This is an extremely diffi cult moment,” said Paul

Cox, president of the local union that represents stage-hands and show technicians at Disney World. “There are still a majority of workers who are staying at home and they’re about to lose support. Things are going to get bad.”

Union offi cials estimate the Disney parks are no more than a third full, but that may be more by design to main-tain social distancing. Disney World doesn’t release at-tendance fi gures, but in pre-pandemic times its four parks and two water parks could host around 150,000 visitors a day.

Florida has had a surging coronavirus caseload recent-ly, and other Disney parks around the globe have run into coronavirus-related roadblocks. Hong Kong Disneyland Park was forced to close earlier this month following the city’s decision to ban public gatherings of more than four people, and Disney’s California parks delayed reopening while they awaited state guidelines.

Cowen Inc. estimated recently that Disney’s parks and resorts won’t return to pre-pandemic profi tability until fi scal year 2025, and there is a “meaningful” probabil-ity that Disney World could close again because of the pandemic. Leaders of the Disney World workers’ unions describe the virus-related safety measures Disney has taken as “exemplary”.

After workers complained about patrons walking around with their masks pulled down while eating food like turkey legs, Disney World updated its mandatory mask policy, requiring visitors to eat in one place while maintaining social distancing.

In response to other worker concerns, Disney has dis-tributed personal hand sanitizer containers for workers to wear on their belts, added additional break rooms to limit the number of workers in them and reduced the number of riders on buses that shuttle workers from parking lots to the parks. Performers dressed as Disney princesses be-ing driven in a horse-powered carriage through the parks now sit individually in rows separated by clear-plastic window partitions.

Strange“Singing their praises seems so strange,” said Julee

Jerkovich, an offi cial with a United Food & Commercial Workers union, which represents Disney merchandise and banquet workers. “As far as this grand experiment, I would have to say Disney has done a really good job.”

But not all unions are happy. The union that repre-sents actors and singers has fi led a grievance with Disney World, saying their 750 members were locked out of re-turning to work after they complained about Disney ig-noring their demands for getting coronavirus tests since they can’t wear masks while performing. Some perform-ers, though, are eager to return to work and are pushing the union to reach an agreement with the company, as they worry about Disney replacing their shows with tem-porary ones featuring non-actors.

Actor’s Equity Association fi red a new salvo against Disney over the weekend by tweeting a re-edited version of a welcome-back video produced by the company fea-turing workers preparing the park for visitors. In Equity’s version, a rolling count of Florida’s coronavirus cases runs on the screen.

There have been isolated cases of workers and visi-tors connected to the theme parks getting sick with COVID-19, “but we haven’t seen any large number of positive cases that come from any of the parks,” Dr Raul Pino, health offi cer for Florida’s Department of Health, said last Monday.

Disney’s policy of granting sick workers with paid time off so they can quarantine has made a difference, said Eric Clinton, president of Unite Here! Local 362, which represents Disney World park greeters, attractions workers and custodians.

But Clinton wonders if the current operating model can last until the pandemic is over, given that just over 20,000 of the 43,000 workers represented by unions have returned to work, only half of Disney World’s 30 onsite hotels currently are back open and several in-park restau-rants still are closed.

Also:ORLANDO, Fla: It’s hard to scare the bejesus out of someone in a haunted house while socially distancing, which may explain the decision by Universal to cancel its Halloween Horror Nights this year at its US theme parks.

The company said Friday it wouldn’t be hosting the celebration of all things scary at its Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood so that it could focus on operating its theme parks for daytime guests un-der pandemic restrictions.

Clinton

In this fi le photo dated on Sept 15, 2004, Actress Olivia de Havilland, who played the doomed Southern belle Melanie in ‘Gone With the Wind’, poses for a photo-graph, in Los Angeles, USA. Olivia de Havilland, Oscar-winning actress has died, aged 104 in Paris, publicist says on July 26. (AP)

Actress Isabelle Huppert poses for photographers at the ‘Filming Italy Sardegna Festival’ in Cagliari, Sar-

dinia, Italy on July 26. (AP)

MURFREESBORO, Tenn: Actor John Saxon, a versatile actor with a lengthy and prolifi c career who starred with Bruce Lee in “Enter the Dragon” and appeared in several “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies, has died at his home in Tennessee, according to the Hollywood Reporter. He was 83.

The entertainment news outlet quotes Saxon’s wife, Gloria, as confi rming that the actor died of pneumonia on Saturday in Murfreesboro.

Saxon won a Golden Globe for best sup-porting actor in 1966 for his role alongside Marlon Brando in “The Appaloosa”.

Born Carmine Orrico, the son of Italian-American parents, Saxon grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and began modeling while still a teenager. He then caught the eye of legendary talent agent Henry Willson, who spotted Saxon on the cover of a maga-zine and brought him to Hollywood. Willson was credited for representing and helping to develop the careers of male stars like Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter, the outlet said.

Then just 17, the aspiring actor signed with Willson, studied dramatics and then fl ew to Hollywood, where he was signed by Univer-sal. His name was changed to John Saxon.

According to internet movie website IMDB, Saxon appeared in nearly 200 roles in the movies and on television in a career that stretched over seven decades since he made his big screen debut in 1954 in uncredited roles in “It Should Happen to You” and George Cukor’s “A Star Is Born”.

His striking, angular profi le and dark eyes led to roles playing Mexicans, Native Ameri-cans and Mongols. Among other characters, Saxon portrayed an Indian chief on the popular TV Western series “Bonanza” and Marco Polo on the futuristic hit TV show “The Time Tun-nel”, according to IMDB. Actress Barbara Crampton wrote on Twitter that Saxon “had strength and charm, which was a great combi-nation. His strong presence allowed him, with ease to command every role he portrayed.”

In 2017, the Tennessee retirement commu-nity where Saxon and his wife lived honored him with a fi lm festival after residents requested screenings of his movies.

Speaking of the popularity of the “Night-mare on Elm Street” franchise in a 1987 interview, Saxon said, “I am intrigued by horror and fantasy-type things because I think it is a way of magnifying some part of the human mind that is exhibited or projected in a highly distorted way.” (AP)

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SANTA FE, NM: A bronze chest fi lled with gold, jewels, and other valuables worth more than $1 million and hidden a decade ago somewhere in the Rocky Mountain wilder-ness has been found, according to a famed art and antiquities collector who created the treasure hunt.

Forrest Fenn, 89, told the Santa Fe New

Variety

Mexican that a man who did not want his name released – but was from “back East” – located the chest a few days ago and the discovery was confi rmed by a photograph the man sent him. “It was under a canopy of stars in the lush, forested vegetation of the Rocky Mountains and had not moved from the spot where I hid it more than 10 years ago,” Fenn said in a statement on his website that still did not reveal the exact location. “I do not know the person who found it, but the poem in my book led him to the precise spot.”

Fenn posted clues to the treasure’s wherea-bouts online and in a 24-line poem that was published in his 2010 autobiography “The Thrill of the Chase”.

Hundreds of thousands have hunted in vain across remote corners of the US West for the bronze chest believed to be fi lled with gold coins, jewelry and other valuable items. Many quit their jobs to dedicate themselves to the search and others depleted their life savings. At least four people died searching for it. (AP)Crampton Saxon

One of Hollywood’s most majestic stars

Golden Age icon De Havilland diesNEW YORK, July 27, (AP): She was one of Hollywood’s most glamorous stars and determined off-screen fi ghters. No one was better suited than Olivia de Havilland to play the sainted Melanie Wilkes in “Gone With the Wind” or more tenacious about the right to appear in the fi lms of her choosing.

Fans and actors alike owe much to de Havilland, the Oscar-winning performer who became, almost literally, a law unto herself.

De Havilland, who died Sunday at 104, was one of the last survivors of Hollywood’s so-called Golden Age. She was beloved to millions as Wilkes in “Gone With the Wind”, but also won Oscars for “To Each His Own” and “The Heiress” and challenged and unchained Hollywood’s contract system.

De Havilland died peacefully of natu-ral causes at her home in Paris, publicist Lisa Goldberg said.

During a career that spanned more than 70 years, de Havilland was praised in roles ranging from an unwed mother to a psychiatric inmate in “The Snake Pit”, a personal favorite. The doe-eyed actress projected both a gentle, glow-ing warmth and a sense of resilience and mischief that made her uncommonly appealing, leading critic James Agee to confess he was “vulnerable to Olivia de Havilland in every part of my being ex-cept the ulnar nerve.”

The sister of fellow Oscar winner Joan Fontaine, with whom she had one of Hollywood’s most famous sibling rival-ries, de Havilland was the last surviving lead from “Gone With the Wind”. The 1939 epic, based on Margaret Mitchell’s best-selling Civil War novel and winner of 10 Academy Awards, is often ranked as the all-time box offi ce champion (ad-justing for infl ation), but is now widely condemned for its glorifi ed portrait of slavery and antebellum life.

DramaticThe pinnacle of producer David

O. Selznick’s career, “Gone With the Wind” had a dramatic and troubled back story. Three directors worked on the fi lm, stars Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable were far more connected on screen than off and the fourth featured performer, Leslie Howard, was openly indiffer-ent to the role of Ashley Wilkes, Mela-nie’s husband. But de Havilland, drawn to Melanie’s empathy and generosity, remembered the movie as “one of the happiest experiences I’ve ever had in my life. It was doing something I wanted to do, playing a character I loved and liked.”

She was otherwise known as Errol Flynn’s co-star in a series of dramas, Westerns and period pieces, most mem-orably as Maid Marian in “The Adven-tures of Robin Hood”. But de Havilland

also was a prototype for an actress too beautiful for her own good, typecast in romantic roles while desiring greater challenges. Her frustration fi nally led her to sue Warner Bros. in 1943 when the studio tried to keep her under contract after it had expired, claiming she owed six more months because she had been suspended for refusing roles.

Her friend Bette Davis had failed to get out of her contract under similar conditions in the 1930s, but de Havilland prevailed, with the California Court of Appeals ruling that no studio could ex-tend an agreement without the perform-er’s consent. The decision is still unof-fi cially called the “De Havilland law” and made her as much a pioneer in the entertainment fi eld as baseball star Curt Flood, who took on the game’s “reserve clause” binding players to teams, was in sports.

Fans of “Gone With the Wind” knew of her talent and determination. She was so anxious to play Melanie that she lobbied the wife of studio boss Jack Warner to receive permission to work for Selznick. When Selznick fi red direc-tor George Cukor and replaced him with Victor Fleming, de Havilland continued to consult privately with Cukor (Leigh did the same).

ReluctantWhen Gable was reluctant to cry dur-

ing one of the movie’s most emotional scenes, Melanie comforting Rhett Butler over Scarlett’s miscarriage, de Havilland helped talk him into it and provided un-forgettable support on screen.

De Havilland was nominated for an Oscar for “Gone With the Wind” and went on to earn her own Academy Award in 1946 for “To Each His Own”, a melodrama about out-of-wedlock birth. A second Oscar came three years later for “The Heiress”, in which she por-trayed a plain homebody (as plain as it was possible to make de Havilland) op-posite Montgomery Clift and Sir Ralph Richardson in an adaptation of Henry James’ “Washington Square.” Agee had noted a breakthrough in the 1946 drama “The Dark Mirror”, writing that her performance was “thoughtful, quiet, detailed and well sustained”.

She moved to Paris in 1953, “at the insistence” of her then-husband, French-man Pierre Galante, she told The Asso-ciated Press in 2016. “Hollywood had become a “dismal, tragic place” and she found no reason to return to the US.

“By 1951, television had already made such inroads on the income gar-nered by motion picture companies that the Golden Era which had prevailed until then was beginning to disintegrate,” she said.

In middle age and after, she appeared in several movies for television, includ-

ing “Roots” and “Charles and Diana”, in which she portrayed the Queen Mother. She also co-starred with Davis in the macabre camp classic “Hush ... Hush, Sweet Charlotte” and was menaced by a young James Caan in the 1964 chiller “Lady in a Cage”, condemning her tor-menter as “one of the many bits of offal produced by the welfare state.” In 2009, she narrated a documentary about Alz-heimer’s, “I Remember Better When I Paint”. Catherine Zeta-Jones played de Havilland in the 2017 FX miniseries about Davis and Joan Crawford, but de Havilland objected to being portrayed as a gossip and sued FX. The case was dismissed.

ReasonFitting for one of Hollywood’s most

majestic stars, she spent her latter years residing in a town house near the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. One reason she liked Paris was because she could walk down the street without being bothered, at least until “Gone With the Wind” aired on French television.

In 2008, de Havilland received a Na-tional Medal of Arts and two years later was awarded France’s Legion of Honor.

She was born in Tokyo on July 1, 1916, the daughter of a British patent at-torney, and as an adult openly envied the security she imagined Melanie enjoyed from a happy family life. The actress’ parents separated when she was 3, and her mother brought her and her younger sister Joan, to Saratoga, California. De Havilland’s own two marriages, to Gal-ante and to Marcus Goodrich, ended in divorce. She had a child with each of them. She is survived by one of those children, daughter Gisele Galante Chu-lack, along with son-in-law Andrew Chulack and niece Deborah Dozier Pot-ter. Her funeral will be private.

De Havilland had lived in Paris since 1953. In a rare interview with The As-sociated Press in her luxurious residence there in 2016, as she celebrated her 100th birthday, she said she moved to the City of Light “at the insistence” of Galante, her late French former husband, and found no reason to return to the US.

She attributed her longevity to three L’s: “love, laughter, and learning”, and displayed a keen sense of humor – even calling her interviewer a “rascal” for a probing question.

Her acting ambitions dated back to stage performing at Mills College in Oakland, California. While preparing for a school production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, she went to Hollywood to see Max Reinhardt’s rehearsals of the same comedy. She was asked by Rein-hardt to read for Hermia’s understudy, stayed with the production through her summer vacation and was given the role in the fall.

Obituary

People & Places

NEWS/FEATURESARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

16

Lifestyle

Colorism persists

‘Whitening’ creamsundergo makeoverDUBAI, United Arab Emirates, July 27, (AP): The world’s biggest cosmetics companies have been sell-ing a fairy tale that often goes something like this: If your husband’s lost interest in you, if your colleagues dismiss you at work, if your talents are ignored, whiten your skin to turn your love life around, boost your ca-reer and command center stage.

No company has had greater success peddling this message across Asia, Africa and the Middle East than Unilever’s Fair & Lovely brand, which sells millions of tubes of skin lightening cream annually for as little as $2 a piece in India.

The 45-year-old brand earns the Anglo-Dutch con-glomerate Unilever more than $500 million in yearly revenue in India alone, according to Jefferies fi nancial

analysts. Following decades of per-

vasive advertising promoting the power of lighter skin, a re-branding is hitting shelves globally. But it’s unlikely that fresh marketing by the world’s biggest brands in beauty will re-verse deeply rooted prejudices around “colorism”, the idea that fair skin is better than dark skin.

Unilever said it is removing words like “fair”, “white” and “light” from its marketing and

packaging, explaining the decision as a move toward “a more inclusive vision of beauty”. Unilever’s Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Unilever Limited, said the Fair & Lovely brand will instead be known as “Glow & Lovely”.

French cosmetics giant L’Oreal followed suit, saying it too would remove similar wording from its products. Johnson & Johnson said it will stop selling Neutroge-na’s fairness and skin-whitening lines altogether.

The makeover is happening in the wake of mass protests against racial injustice following the death of George Floyd, a black man pinned to the ground by a white police offi cer in the US.

It’s the latest in a series of changes as companies re-think their policies amid Black Lives Matter protests, which have spread around the world and reignited con-versations about race.

MarketingActivists around the world have long sought to coun-

ter Unilever’s aggressive marketing of Fair & Lovely, with the brand’s advertisements criticized by women’s groups from Egypt to Malaysia.

Kavitha Emmanuel founded the “Dark is Beauti-ful” campaign in India more than a decade ago to coun-ter perceptions that lighter skin is more beautiful than naturally darker skin. She said multinational companies like Unilever did not initiate skin tone bias, but have capitalized on it. “Endorsing such a belief for 45 years is defi nitely quite damaging,” Emmanuel said, adding that it has eroded the self-worth of many young women across India.

For women raised on these fi xed standards of beauty, the market is awash in products and services that can both brighten pigmentation from skin damage and out-right lighten skin.

At the Skin and Body International beauty clinic in South Africa, owner Tabby Kara said she sees a lot of people inquiring about going one or two shades lighter.

“It’s a general demand in Africa,” she said. “People do want to be a bit fairer simply because society expects or is more interested in the fairness of a person.”

Historically, throughout North Africa and Asia, darker skin has been associated with poor laborers who work in the sun – unlike in Western cultures, where tanned skin is often a sign of time for leisure and beauty.

India’s cultural fi xation with lighter skin is embed-ded in daily matrimonial ads, which frequently note the skin tone of brides and grooms as “fair” or “wheatish” alongside their height, age and education.

The ancient Hindu caste system has helped uphold some of the bias, with darker-skinned people often seen as “untouchables” and relegated to the dirtiest jobs, such as cleaning sewage.

The power of whiter, fairer skin in many countries was further reinforced by European rule, and later by Hollywood and Bollywood fi lm stars who’ve featured in skin lightening ads.

In Japan, pale translucent skin has been coveted since at least the 11th Century. So-called “bihaku” products, based on the Japanese characters for “beauty” and “white”, remain popular today among major brands.

The high-end Tokyo-based skin care brand Shiseido says none of its “bihaku” products contain ingredients that bleach skin, but do reduce melanin that can lead to blemishes. The company says it has no plans to change its product names, including the “White Lucent” line, simply because other global companies have done so.

CosmeticsIn South Korea, the words “whitening” or “mibaek”

have been used in about 1,200 kinds of cosmetics prod-ucts since 2001, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

About $283 million worth of “mibaek” products were manufactured last year in South Korea, the min-istry has said.

South Korean beauty company Amore Pacifi c said it uses the word “brightening” for exports to the US to respect cultural diversity. Domestically, however, they cannot replace words like “mibaek” on creams sold in South Korea because of laws requiring the use of spe-cifi c terms to describe the function of skin lightening products. The US-based Proctor & Gamble, which sells Olay brands “Natural White” and “White Radiance”, declined to comment when asked whether it had plans to re-brand globally.

Emmanuel said she welcomes the decisions by Uni-lever and L’Oreal, but wants to know whether they will evolve their entire narrative around skin lightening.

“We’re really excited it’s happening, but we’re yet to see what is really going to change,” she said.

Unilever said in its announcement that it recognizes “the use of the words ‘fair’, ‘white’ and ‘light’ suggest a singular ideal of beauty that we don’t think is right.” Instead, the statement referred to products that deliver “glow, even tone, skin clarity and radiance”.

Alex Malouf, a Dubai-based marketing executive who was formerly at Proctor & Gamble, said compa-nies had been playing to different audiences around the world but are now paying attention to the societal changes happening in the US and Europe, where share-holders are primarily based.

L’Oreal, for example, tweeted last month it “stands in solidarity with the Black community and against in-justice of any kind.” Its products in the US include the Dark & Lovely brand, aimed at black women.

Outside the US, however, the company was market-ing its “White Perfect” line for a “fair, fl awless com-plexion”.

Emmanuel

A miniature steam train runs across a bridge on Pavel Chilin’s miniature personal narrow-gauge railway twisting through the grounds of his home in Ulyanovka vil-lage outside St Petersburg, Russia on July 19. It took Chilin more than 10 years to build the 350-meter-long mini-railway complete with various branches, dead ends,

circuit loops and even three bridges. (AP)

Russian enthusiast builds his own mini-railwayFor Pavel Chilin, building his own railway was the fulfi llment of a childhood dream.

It took the 62-year-old electrical en-gineer more than 10 years to build a 350-meter (383-yard)-long narrow-gauge railway twisting through the grounds of his steads about 50 kilometers (some 30 miles) outside St. Petersburg. It has vari-ous branches, dead ends, circuit loops,

and even three bridges.The design of his steam train is based

on a classic example from the early 20th century. Chilin built it with the help of a few other enthusiasts and railway fans, and some neighbors who brought him metal parts and other materials.

“I’ve been excited about railways and trains since my childhood and always

wanted to have my own one,” Chilin said. “Finally, I my dream came true.”

His railway quickly became a hit with both adults and children, who are eager to test the train and enjoy a slow journey.

One of the visitors, 9-year-old Alexei Lebedintsev, was delighted to fi nd that the train was “like a real one.”

“It was very interesting for me to try this

train because I also want to become an engineer,” he said.

Chilin said it took him a lot of resolve and determination to complete the pro-ject.

“Another little secret is to switch off your computer and a smartphone for a while in order to be able to concentrate on one important thing,” Chilin said. (AP)

Filipino teen making a difference

Donated bikes help ease diffi cultiesMANILA, Philippines, July 27, (AP): A year after he passed away at age 17, Benjamin Canlas is still making the world a better place – one bike at a time.

The teenager is the inspiration for an unusual giveaway of mountain bikes, presented to Filipinos who are struggling to hold on to jobs in a country hard hit by the coronavirus. A foundation established by Benja-min’s parents is making it happen.

“There is so much need out there,” said Dr Glennda Canlas, co-founder with her husband Dr George Canlas of the private Ben-jamin Canlas Courage to be Kind Foundation. “But people are will-ing to help, you just have to put them together.”

In the wake of business closures and job losses in the Philippines, thousands of Filipinos have found themselves struggling to make ends meet. With a severely restricted public transportation system in metropolitan Manila, many were left with no choice but to take on odd jobs, completing them by foot, walking hours in the sun and rain.

The boy’s parents recalled how once, when Benjamin saw a food peddler riding a beat-up bicycle with its pedals missing, he used his own savings to replace them. And

they saw a way to connect their pri-vate donors with the needy in a way that echoed their son’s good deed.

The idea was to give away bikes to deserving individuals nominated by their peers or loved ones. Un-sure of the demand, the foundation at fi rst announced on social media that it would give away just seven bicycles. But there were more than 50 entries.

NominationsThe nominations were vetted for

authenticity and on July 11, 27 in-dividuals got bicycles that would help make their lives a little less diffi cult.

Among the recipients was 25-year old Ronaldo del Rosario Jr who lost his job at a fast food chain due to the lockdown. He ended up borrowing a bicycle to sell rice cakes in the morning and smoked fi sh in the afternoon, to support his wife and almost 2-month old baby. He traveled tens of kilometers each day. Often, precious time and in-come would be lost when his bor-rowed bike needed repairs.

“I nominated him because he’s so hard working that his (bicycle) wheels always end up breaking down,” said Mharygrace Ortega, del Rosario’s partner.

At fi rst, del Rosario couldn’t be-

lieve that he was getting a new bike. “A bike isn’t just a simple thing,”

he said. “A bike, for me, is what supports my life. A bike is my partner in my work every day. Es-pecially now that we lost regular schedules at my previous job.”

Another new bike owner is homemaker-turned-online seller Liezel Camilla. Mother of a 2-year-old child, the 24-year-old Camilla started selling and delivering food on her own when her husband’s work was put on hold.

“I am so happy that I won’t have to walk so far anymore,” expressed a teary-eyed Camilla.

Even as the contest ended, nomi-nations continued to pour in. The foundation acknowledged that while there are people still in need, much work has to be done.

It is working on launching more sustainable projects that will help more while also inspiring others to pay it forward.

“We live in a world where it still takes courage to be kind,” said Dr Glennda Canlas. “Our goal would be from ‘courage to be kind’, wouldn’t it be great when kindness is just the norm, kindness is just the baseline for everybody?”

Other Lives

In this May 18, 2009 fi le photo, Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto waves during an press event in Tokyo to announce the ‘Fes-tival of Life in Indonesia’ produced by

Yamamoto. (AP)

Feeney Cook

TOKYO: Japanese fashion designer Kansai Yamamoto, known for his avant-garde and colorful work that included fl amboy-ant costumes of the late rock icon David Bowie, has died of leukemia, his company said Monday. He was 76.

Yamamoto developed leukemia in February and was determined to recover and come back with renewed energy, said the company, Kansai Yamamoto. He died last Tuesday.

Born in 1944 in Yokohama, near To-kyo, Yamamoto debuted in 1971, becoming the fi rst Japanese fashion designer to hold a show in London. He became interna-tionally known for blending traditional Japanese motifs with brilliant colors and bold designs.

Yamamoto designed the costume for Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust alter ego, and also developed friendships with top artists including Elton John and Stevie Wonder, his company said.

He contributed to collections in Tokyo, New York and Paris for nearly two dec-ades until 1992 and produced the “Kansai Super Show” and “Nippon Genki Project”.

Yamamoto, who sought a career in engineering before turning to fashion, also demonstrated his talent in design-ing venues and organizing social events for the 2008 G-8 summit in Toyako in northern Japan.

He also won awards for his interior and exterior design of the Keisei Skyliner train connecting Tokyo and Narita International Airport.

“’Human energy is limitless’ was his motto he would never let go, and he bravely kept challenging no matter how hard the situation,” his company said in a statement. (AP)

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MENOMONIE, Wis: A western Wiscon-

Variety

Benjamin Canlas Courage to be Kind Foundation founder Dr George Canlas (left), looks at a recipient pushing a bicycle during ceremonies at the fi nancial

district of Manila, Philippines on July 11. (AP)

sin man will share his millions in lottery winnings with a longtime friend because of a promise they made to each other nearly three decades ago.

Friends Tom Cook and Joseph Feeney shook hands in 1992 and prom-ised that if either one of them ever won

the Powerball jackpot, they would split the money.

That promise came to fruition last month when Cook bought the winning ticket for a $22 million jackpot at Synergy Coop in Menomonie.

When Cook called to give his friend the

good news, Feeney couldn’t quite believe it.

Cook retired after hitting the jackpot while Feeney was already retired. Neither has any extravagant plans for the winnings but are looking forward to enjoying more family time.

“We can pursue what we feel comfort-able with. I can’t think of a better way to retire,” Cook said. The pair said they’re looking forward to some traveling.

The men chose the cash option of about $16.7 million, leaving each with nearly $5.7 million after taxes are paid.

The odds of winning the Powerball jack-pot are 1 in about 292 million. (AP)

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EASTPOINTE, Mich: A man in suburban Detroit was given the wrong lottery ticket. But there was no mistake about the result: a $2 million winner.

The Michigan Lottery said the man stopped at a gas station in Eastpointe, Michigan, to put air in a tire. He needed change for the air machine and also asked for a $10 Lucky 7’s scratch-off ticket.

“The clerk handed me the $20 ticket by mistake. He offered to exchange it for me but something told me to keep it. I am sure glad I did!” the man said in a statement released Tuesday by the Lottery.

The name of the 57-year-old man wasn’t released. He decided to take a lump sum of about $1.3 million instead of $2 million spread over many years, the Lottery said. (AP)

SPORTSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

17

Viñales finishes second again after getting past teammate Rossi

Quartararo wins 2nd consecutive MotoGP race in SpainJEREZ DE LA FRONTERA, Spain, July 27, (AP): Fabio Quartararo won from pole position at the Andalucia Grand Prix for his second consecutive win since the MotoGP season started following the pandemic break.

The young Frenchman cruised to victory a week after earning his maiden MotoGP race in Jerez de la Frontera. The 21-year-old Yamaha rider opened a 10-point lead over Maverick Viñales in the championship standings.

“That one was tough,” Quartararo said. “What an amazing feeling. It feels so good to (win) back-to-back races.”

Paris Saint-Germain soccer star Kylian Mbappé sent Quartararo a

tweet saying “One can say you have good taste,” referring to a picture of Quartararo standing by his bike with his arms folded in the same way the French player celebrates his goals.

Viñales finished second again af-ter getting past Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi with two laps to go at the Circuito de Jerez-Ángel Nieto. Takaaki Nakagami was fourth with Honda for his best career finish in MotoGP.

It was the fi rst time since 2014 that Yamaha had three riders on the podi-um. It was Rossi’s fi rst podium since a race in the United States in April 2019. He now has 199 podium-fi nishes in MotoGP.

“I’m very happy,” the 41-year-old Rossi said. “It feels almost like a win.”

Most riders struggled with the ex-treme heat in southern Spain.

“I could not breathe most of the laps, I was destroyed,” Viñales said.

Six-time defending champion Marc Márquez did not race after breaking his right arm in last weekend’s Span-ish GP. He participated in the practice sessions and qualifying but ended up opting out of the race.

Francesco Bagnaia relinquished second place with a mechanical failure with six laps to go.

The Andalucia GP was the second of 13 races in a reduced calendar that was originally scheduled to start in March. Seven races have been sched-uled to be run in Spain.

The next race will be Aug. 9 in the Czech Republic.

‘Long-term development goals’

DOHA, July 27, (AP): Qatar is keen on hosting the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The gas-rich Persian Gulf na-tion has expressed an interest in hosting the world’s biggest sport-ing events in a letter to the Interna-tional Olympic Committee.

Qatar is turning its focus to bringing the Summer Games to the Middle East for the fi rst time as it prepares to host the region’s fi rst World Cup in 2022.

“Today’s announcement marks the beginning of a meaningful dialogue with the IOC’s Future Host Commission to explore our interest further and identify how the Olympic Games can support Qatar’s long-term development goals,” Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, president of the Qatar Olympic Committee, said in a statement.

“For many years, sport has been a major contributor to our nation’s development. ... It is this proven track-record and wealth of experi-ence, along with our desire to use sport to promote peace and cul-tural exchange, that will form the basis of our discussions with the commission.”

An interest in bidding for the Olympics comes as Qatar contin-ues to face corruption allegations

over how it won the rights to host the World Cup in a FIFA vote in December 2010.

In April, American prosecutors revealed new details of alleged bribes paid to FIFA executive committee members to gain their votes.

An earlier FIFA investigation found some of Qatar’s conduct “may not have met the standards” required by FIFA but concluded there was no “evidence of any improper activity by

the bid team.” Qatar has denied any wrongdoing.

FIFA had to move the World Cup from its usual June-July slot to November-December 2022 due to the desert country’s fi erce sum-mer heat.

While the Summer Olympics is typically held in July and August, Qatar did stage the world track and fi eld championships last year across September and October at an outdoor stadium using air con-ditioning.

The next Summer Olympics are the rescheduled Tokyo Games in 2021, followed by Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028.

Qatar interested in bidding for2032 Olympics & Paralympics

‘Delay only adds to the promise’

NBC resets focus for Tokyo while also looking to BeijingCHICAGO, July 27, (AP): When Molly Solomon took over as execu-tive producer and president of NBC’s Olympics production unit last Novem-ber, she expected to be in Tokyo right now with the Games in full swing. But with the Summer Olympics postponed a year due to the coronavirus, Solomon and her team have reset their count-down clocks while trying to adjust to a new set of challenges.

Any Olympics provides plenty of compelling storylines, but Solomon says Tokyo’s turn takes on bigger importance with everything that has transpired worldwide this year.

“We have tried to reset everything because what we are working on is even more important than forever,” Solomon said. “The impact of the Olympics is profound. The delay only adds to the promise.”

Everybody from NBC to athletes and prominent business executives around the world are hoping the Tokyo Games delivers on that promise after the pandemic created numerous issues for the Olympic movement on multiple levels.

NBC - which has the U.S. me-dia rights through the 2032 Summer

Games - had already done most of its features and taped promos before the International Olympic Committee postponed the Games in March. With hardly any access to athletes currently,

the network is asking them to chron-icle their revised training routines for any updates or new features.

Other issues include how many peo-ple NBC will send to Tokyo. There are

usually over 2,000 in the contingent, but that is likely to be cut back with an additional percentage of the pro-duction emanating from NBC Sports Group’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.

Solomon said that even though the production processes might change, how the network will cover the Games will remain the same.

“We document the competition and the inspiring stories and introduce the host city,” she said. “After everything we have been through, people are crav-ing anything from the ordinary to the extraordinary. It is still about the sto-rytelling and the fascination with the athletes. People know Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky, but there will be other athletes emerge as well. There’s always an interesting mix of familiar and new athletes.”

With three straight Summer and Winter Games being held in Asia, NBC has the advantage of airing most of the popular sports live in prime time in the Eastern and Central time zones.

In a photo provided by NBC Sports, Molly Solomon, executive producer and president of NBC’s Olympics production unit, poses for a photo in

March 2020. (AP)

Michael Thompson watches his tee shot on the 14th hole during the final round of the 3M Open golf tournament in Blaine, Minnesota on July 26. (Inset): Michael Thompson holds the trophy after winning the 3M Open golf tournament in Blaine, Minnesota on July 26. (AP)

Thompson wins 3M Open by 2 strokes in Minnesota

McGreevy takes 1st Korn Ferry title

BLAINE, Minnesota, July 27, (AP): Michael Thomp-son birdied two of the last three holes for a 4-under 67 and a two-stroke victory in the 3M Open, finishing off his second PGA Tour win seven years after his first.

“An unbelievable day,” Thomp-son said. “I played really solid golf. I think I only had three bo-geys all week. Just really stuck to my game, played Michael Thomp-son golf, allowed my putter to speak volumes.”

Thompson fi nished at 19-under 265 at TPC Twin Cities.

Adam Long was second after a 64. Richy Werenski, who shared the lead with Thompson after both Friday and Saturday, had a 70 for his worst round of the tournament and settled for a nine-way tie for third – three strokes back.

Tony Finau fi nished in the third-place group, too, after a 68. He was the only one among the fi ve world top-30 players in the fi eld to reach the week-end, far outperforming fellow high-profi le peers Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Tommy Fleetwood and Paul Casey.

Nobody throughout the windy and muggy week in Minnesota was steadi-er than Thompson, who entered the week 151st in the FedEx Cup stand-ings and rocketed up to 39th on the way to Tennessee for the World Golf Championships event.

He deftly steered around the water danger on the 18th, landing his ap-proach on the back of the green within 15 feet. With Long in the clubhouse, having played fi ve groups ahead, Thompson had two putts to win. He

needed only one, bending backward and thrusting both of his arms straight up in the air after the ball dropped in the cup in a celebration subdued a bit by the absence of spectators due to the pandemic.

Thompson’s best previous fi nish in this stopped-and-restarted 2020 season was a tie for eighth at the Travelers Championship in Connecticut, and he missed the cut in his last start at the Workday Charity Open in Ohio two weeks ago. For this win, he not only secured a spot in the U.S. Open but a prize of $1,188,000.

In Springfi eld, Mo., Max McGreevy shot an 8-under 64 to hold off Jose de Jesus Rodríguez by a stroke in the

Price Cutter Charity Championship for his fi rst Korn Ferry Tour victory.

McGreevy played the back nine 5-under 31, making an eagle on the par-5 11th and birdies on the par-4 10th, par-3 15th and par-4 16th. The 25-year-old former Oklahoma player fi nished at 21-under 267 at Highland Springs Country Club. He earned $117,000 to jump from 40th to eighth in the season race for PGA Tour cards.

“It was really just a great week,” McGreevy said. “It still really hasn’t set in. I’ve never won a four-round event before. I’ve won a lot of three-round events, but to be able to put something together on the fi nal day and fi nally actually do it in a four-round event means a lot to me.”

McGreevy spent last year on the PGA Tour Series - China, winning once and earning Player of the Year honors and a return to the Korn Ferry Tour.

“It took a lot for me to go over there,” McGreevy said. “I had a fun journey with it. Fourteen weeks over there made me a lot stronger as a man and as a golfer.”

Rodríguez, from Mexico, fi nished with a 67. Chad Ramey was third at 19 under after a 67.

In Battle creek, Michigan, China’s Ruixin Liu won the FireKeepers Casi-no Hotel Championship for her fourth career Symetra Tour victory.

The 21-year-old Liu closed with a 1-under 71 for a two-stroke victory at Battle Creek Country Club in the tour’s return after a long layoff because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“It feels really great because af-ter the long offseason,” Liu said. “It proves that everything I am doing is on the right track.”

Liu earned $26,250 to move into second place in the race for fi ve LPGA Tour cards with $30,319. She fi nished at 13-under 203 after opening with consecutive 66s.

Liu will play the next two weeks in Toledo, Ohio, in the LPGA Tour’s return.

Bailey Tardy was second after a 66. Janie Jackson was third at 10 under after a 68. Jackson leads the season standings, and Tardy is third.

BRADENTON, Florida, July 27, (AP): Kahleah Copper scored 18 points, Allie Quigley hit a 3-pointer with 14.7 seconds to play, and the Chicago Sky scored the final 11 points to beat the Las Vegas Aces 88-86 in the season opener for both teams.

Gabby Williams had 14 points for Chicago, Azura Stevens added 12 and Quigley, whose 3 gave the Sky their first lead since midway through the second quarter, finished with 10.

Angel McCoughtry, who signed with the Aces as a free agent in Feb-ruary after missing all of last season with the Atlanta Dream due to a knee injury, scored 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds. A’ja Wilson had 22 points and 11 rebounds.

Dearica Hamby made a layup to give Las Vegas an 86-77 lead with 4:29 to play but the Aces went 0 for 10 from the field with three turn-overs from there.

Lynn 77, Sun 69Sylvia Fowles had 17 points and

18 rebounds, Napheesa Collier scored nine of her 11 points in the final five minutes, and the Lynx ral-lied from an 11-point second-half deficit to beat the Sun.

Shenise Johnson scored 13 points for Minnesota and rookie Crystal Dangerfield 10 in her WNBA debut.

Alyssa Thomas led Connecticut with 20 points, eight rebounds, four assists and four steals. DeWanna Bonner, a three-time All-Star who signed as a free agent this offseason, added 19 points, eight rebounds and three steals.

Dream 105, Wings 95Monique Billings had a career-

high 30 points and grabbed 13 re-bounds, rookie Chennedy Carter added 18 points and eight assists, and the Atlanta Dream beat the Dal-las Wings 105-95 on Sunday in the season opener for both teams.

Betnijah Laney had a career-best 19 points, Elizabeth Williams added 17 and Shekinna Stricklen 16, including four 3-pointers, for Atlanta.

Arike Ogunbowale and Alli-sha Gray led Dallas with 19 points apiece and Isabella Harrison scored 18 and grabbed 11 rebounds.

Satou Sabally had 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals. She was the No. 2 pick, in April’s draft.

Atlanta shot 54.8% and scored its most points since a 109-100 win over Las Vegas on Aug 9, 2018.

Billings made the first of two free throws to give the Dream their biggest lead of the game at 93-81 with 4:02 left. Ogunbowale scored six points in a 14-4 run over the next 2-1/2 minutes to pull the Wings within two but Williams answered with a layup an Dallas got no closer.

Fowles, Collier help Lynx rally, beat Sun 77-69

Sky edge Aces on late 3 by Quigley

Las Vegas Aces guard Angel McCoughtry (right), drives to the lane in front of Chicago Sky guard Courtney Vandersloot (22) during the first half of a

WNBA basketball game on July 26 in Bradenton, Florida. (AP)

BASKETBALL

GOLF

OLYMPICS

OLMPICS/PARALYMPICS

Sheikh Joaan

Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo, of France, holds the trophy after win-ning the MotoGP race during the An-dalucia Motorcycle Grand Prix at the Angel Nieto racetrack in Jerez de la

Frontera, Spain on July 26. (AP)

MOTOR CYCLING

In this file photo dated Dec 20, 2019, construction underway at the Lusail Stadium, one of the 2022 World Cup stadiums, in Lusail,

Qatar. (AP)

SPORTSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

18

Sporting KC deny Vancouver’s upset bid, advance on PKs

NYCFC upset Toronto FC to qualify quarters

Schmidt, Groom score

Upstarts Dash edge Red Stars, win Challenge Cup

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida, July 27, (AP): Jesús Medina scored in the fi fth minute, Valentín Castel-lanos doubled the lead early in the second half and Maxi Moralez pro-vided the clinching goal late as New York City FC beat Toronto FC 3-1 on Sunday night to advance to the quarterfi nals of the MLS is Back tournament.

NYCFC was the last team to qualify for the knockout round of the tournament thanks to Houston’s draw against the LA Galaxy in the next-to-last match of the group stage. A late Galaxy goal knocked out the Dynamo and kept NYCFC in the tournament as the fi nal third-place team to advance.

Despite being the last team in, NYCFC was the dominant side in the round of 16 matchup. NYCFC had just two goals all season and started with four straight losses be-fore beating Inter Miami in the fi nal group stage game. They doubled that goal total in less than an hour against Toronto and got a bit of revenge for losing to the Reds in last year’s MLS Cup playoffs.

NYCFC will play either Portland or FC Cincinnati in the quarterfi nals next Saturday.

“We were talking the whole tour-nament about discipline, we were talking about togetherness, we were talking about doing it for 95 minutes. The team effort today was unbeliev-able,” NYCFC coach Ronny Deila said. “Everybody worked everything they could.”

Toronto won Group C behind a win and two draws, and the fi ve goals from young striker Ayo Ak-inola. But Akinola missed Sunday’s match with tightness in his ham-string and Toronto’s attack only challenged NYCFC goalkeeper Sean Johnson on rare occasions.

Toronto’s Patrick Mullins scored in the 87th minute off an assist from Jozy Altidore, but it was just the Reds second shot on goal in the match.

“You play these knockout games and obviously things are going to be tight,” Toronto midfi elder Michael Bradley said. “You know every part of the game is so important and we we got off to a really bad start and from there never really found a good way in the game.”

Medina was the recipient of a poor clearance by Bradley and was set up by Anton Tinnerholm’s pass. Toron-to goalkeeper Quentin Westberg got his hands on the shot but couldn’t keep it out of the net.

Another clever assist led to Cas-tellanos’ goal in the 55th minute.

MADRID, July 27, (AP): The Spanish league said Sunday that it has decided that a second-division game postponed because of an outbreak of coronavirus cases will not be played.

The league made the announcement after new test re-sults this weekend took the total number of COVID-19 cases at club Fuenlabrada to 28, with players and staff members among those infected.

The team’s fi nal-round match against Deportivo La Coruña was suspended last Monday after six people at the club had tested positive just hours before kickoff.

The league said it made the decision because it was virtu-ally impossible to try to reschedule another date for it. It said it relayed its decision to the Spanish soccer federation, which will ultimately rule on the game’s cancellation.

The cancellation means Fuenlabrada will not have a chance to reach the promotion playoffs for the top fl ight. It needed at least a draw in the game at already relegated De-portivo to make it to the playoffs. The fi nal berth will remain with Elche, which would have been out had Fuenlabrada earned a point in the postponed match.

The playoffs had been on hold since the match was post-poned.

“This enormous sacrifi ce by Fuenlabrada, renouncing the possibility of playing in the playoffs and abandoning what its players had achieved through hard work throughout the sea-

son, allows for the rest of the clubs to fi nish their season,” the league said.

Fuenlabrada later said it “was not renouncing” its playoff spot, only that it would accept the decision made by offi cials. It said the league was not competent to make that decision by itself, and wanted the Spanish soccer federation and the nation’s sports council to weigh in as well. It said it was still willing to play the postponed match if that was the decision reached by all those involved.

The league said Fuenlabrada itself offered two options: to play the match after its players recovered or to have the match canceled. The league chose the latter and thanked Fuenlabrada for is “generosity” in understanding the situation.

Spanish league president Javier Tebas said on Twitter that “soccer owed one” to Fuenlabrada, and that the club’s “op-portunity would eventually come.”

The league had said that even though it was thankful to Fuenlabrada, the investigation into whether the club breached health safety protocols would still go on. Fuenlabrada has al-ways denied any wrongdoing. Tebas said the club wasn’t at fault for making the trip for the match against Deportivo, say-ing it only followed the league’s instructions.

Other clubs had already asked for Madrid-based Fuen-labrada to lose the points from the match against Deportivo because of its alleged breach of protocols that could have been responsible for the outbreak.

Spanish league cancels game involving club affected by virus

Million things learnt: Lampard

EPL’s longest season ends, virus issues linger for clubsLONDON, July 27, (AP): Once the fi nal whistle blew on the Premier League’s longest season, 352 days af-ter it began, there was a sense of relief and grief for Dean Smith.

Joy at Aston Villa ensuring it avoided relegation on the fi nal day of the pandemic-interrupted season was tinged with sadness for the manager who could not share the achievement his father.

Ron Smith was one of the 45,752 re-corded coronavirus victims in Britain, dying at the age of 79 in May during the league’s shutdown.

“It’s been emotional,” Dean Smith said after Sunday’s 1-1 draw at West Ham. “I’m sure he’ll be looking down on us.”

The point earned in east London kept Villa just above the relegation zone. Bournemouth and Watford joined Nor-wich in dropping into the second fl ight of competition.

When the league was suddenly halt-ed in the second week of March, after coronavirus infections were reported at Arsenal and Chelsea, Villa was two points from safety and used the hiatus to regroup.

“I thought we used it really well,” Smith said, “We had to, because we couldn’t keep doing what we were do-ing.”

Throughout the unprecedented 100-day pause in play, uncertainty persisted over whether the season would resume at all. Safety concerns collided with self-interest and fears about the billion-pound bill for not completing the 380 games.

It was a test of resolve for new Pre-mier League chief executive Richard Masters, but Project Restart was ac-complished.

Rules restricted the number of peo-

ple allowed in stadiums to 300 meant when Liverpool fulfi lled its 30-year mission to be champions of Eng-land again, players lifted the Premier League trophy in an empty Anfi eld.

But there was no asterisk on the title triumph. The full program of games was completed, unlike in France, where Paris Saint-Germain was de-clared champion of a curtailed season.

Leicester would have preferred the league positions in March to be the fi nal standings. No team suffered more after the restart in June than the 2016 cham-pions, blowing an eight-point cushion in the Champions League places.

The capitulation was completed by Sunday’s 2-0 loss to Manchester United, which took the last Champions League place off Brendan Rodgers’ lineup.

The game-changer was Manchester City’s big off-fi eld success in a season when the eventual runners-up were de-throned by Liverpool. City’s lawyers convinced the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn a two-year ban from European competitions which meant fi fth place -- where Leicester fi nished -- no longer provided entry to the Champions League.

Meanwhile, Frank Lampard steering Chelsea to fourth place was an unex-pected feat for the club’s all-time lead-ing scorer in his fi rst season in topfl ight management while hampered by the club’s transfer ban.

Chelsea reaped the benefi ts of Lam-pard having to delve into the club’s pool of academy graduates rather than making expensive signings. Fittingly, 21-year-old midfi elder Mason Mount, who only made his competitive debut in August, scored the fi rst goal in Sun-day’s 2-0 victory over Wolverhamp-ton.

“I’ve learnt a million things,” Lam-pard said.

The season could still end for Chel-sea in a Champions League fi nal if a 3-0 defi cit to Bayern Munich can be overcome next month in the round of 16.

Lampard’s fi rst chance of a trophy as Chelsea manager comes in Satur-day’s FA Cup fi nal against Arsenal. Like Chelsea, Arsenal turned to a former midfi elder this season to take charge. Arriving halfway through the campaign as Unai Emery’s replace-ment, Mikel Arteta lacked the time to impose his vision on the north London club.

Arsenal will be absent from the Champions League for a fourth succes-sive season and the only route into the Europa League is by winning the FA Cup after fi nishing eighth. Arsenal was even overhauled by Tottenham, which was adrift in 14th place when Mauricio Pochettino was fi red in November and replaced by Jose Mourinho.

Moralez chipped a blind pass into space and ended up at the feet of Cas-tellanos. He made a quick cut on de-fender Omar Gonzalez and his shot grazed off Westberg’s fi ngers and into the net.

Moralez added the clinching goal in the 81st minute as Toronto was caught on a counter attack.

Tim Melia made two saves during the penalty shootout, Gianluca Bu-sio scored the deciding penalty and Sporting Kansas City beat the Van-couver Whitecaps 3-1 on penalties after the sides played to a 0-0 draw in regulation early Monday morning.

Kansas City advanced to the quar-terfi nals of the MLS is Back tour-nament in a match that wrapped up around 1:15 a.m. Kansas City will face Philadelphia in the quarterfi nals on Thursday.

Alan Pulido, Ilie Sanchez and Bu-sio scored for Kansas City in the pen-

alty shootout, fi nally getting shots past Vancouver goalkeeper Thomas Hasal after he spent the night keep-ing the Whitecaps in the game.

Melia saved attempts by Derek Cornelius and Yordy Reyna, and Cristian Dajome’s attempt hit the post and bounced out as the White-caps unlikely tournament run came to an end.

“Just the life of a goalkeeper right, one one play one decision that affects the game,” Melia said. “Then when you go into a penalty shootout I think our goalkeeper coach does a phe-nomenal job preparing me and all the goalkeepers for those situations and we were fortunate to come out on top tonight.”

It was the fi rst match in the knock-out round of the tournament to go to penalties after the end of regulation.

Vancouver needed a 2-0 win over Chicago in its fi nal group game to

advance in the tournament, but was playing the entire tournament short-handed due to players opting out and injuries.

Kansas City dominated the 90 minutes. It outshot Vancouver 35-8, but only eight of those ended up on target and Hasal saved them all.

Hasal started the tournament as Vancouver’s third-string goalkeeper and was called into duty late in the Whitecaps loss to Seattle after Maxi-me Crepeau suffered a broken fi nger. Vancouver backup Bryan Meredith left the team in Florida earlier in the tournament after the unexpected death of his mother.

Hasal seemed worthy of starting consideration after his performance against Kansas City. He turned away efforts from Graham Zusi, Roger Es-pinoza and Johnny Russell in the fi rst half. Hasal stayed strong into the sec-ond half, again stopping great scor-ing chances by Zusi and Pulido early in the half.

There was concern midway through the second half if Hasal could continue after a collision with Pulido in the 69th minute. Hasal went low to defl ect a cross and Pu-lido’s shin collided with the back of Hasal’s head. Vancovuer nearly had to ask defender Ali Adnan to step into the goal, but Hasal was cleared to continue.

“Thomas needs to stay in his bub-ble, keep focused, keep working,” Vancouver coach Marc Dos Santos said. “It’s the only way he’s going to become better and better. But he’s showed great signs in the last 180 minutes.”

Melia had a mostly relaxed night until the shootout, although he came up with a big stop late in the second half denying Adnan’s free kick from 30 yards.

SANDY, Utah, July 27, (AP): As the underdog Houston Dash celebrated winning the Challenge Cup title, forward Rachel Daly was asked if she could de-fi ne the team’s identity af-ter the month-long tourna-ment.

“Winners,” the Dash co-captain simply said.

Sophie Schmidt scored on an early penalty kick and Shea Groom added a stoppage-time goal to give Houston the trophy with a 2-0 victory over the Chicago Red Stars on Sunday.

The tournament was the National Women’s Soccer League’s re-boot af-ter the regular season was shut down by the coronavirus outbreak. Houston, in its seventh year in the league, had never previously made the playoffs.

“Grit and determination and courage, I could use all of those cliche words but they actually mean something within our team,” Daly said. “After every postgame I say ‘Nothing breaks our

circle, and if anything breaks our cir-cle, we’ll lose.’ Today nothing broke our circle.”

The Red Stars went to the NWSL championship game last season, but were routed 4-0 by the North Carolina Courage.

Houston was aggressive from the start. Kristie Mewis was on the run when she was fouled by Kayla Shar-ples for a Dash penalty kick. Schmidt nailed the PK in the fi fth minute. It was the tournament’s fi rst penalty kick in regulation.

The Red Stars nearly drew even in the 15th minute, but Savannah Mc-Caskill’s header off a rebound hit the post.

McCaskill had another chance from distance in the 67th minute, but Hou-ston goalkeeper Jane Campbell tipped it up and over the crossbar.

The Dash took a hit in the 29th minute when Mewis had to come out of the game with a hamstring injury. She sobbed as she was subbed out.

The NWSL was the fi rst profession-al team sport to return in the United States. Eight of the league’s nine teams have been sequestered in Utah for the duration of the tournament, which started on June 27.

The league’s ninth team, the Orlando Pride, withdrew shortly before the start because of positive COVID-19 tests.

But there were no positive tests in the so-called bubble in Utah for the dura-tion of the event.

The Red Stars were the tournament’s sixth seed going into the knockout round. They advanced to the semifi nals on penalties after a scoreless draw with OL Reign, then held off Sky Blue 3-2 on Wednesday.

Chicago had just two total goals in the tournament before the outburst

against Sky Blue.“I think our challenge has been put-

ting away our fi nal crosses and getting some goals this tournament,” Chica-go’s Julie Ertz said. “So I think in the fi rst half after (the penalty kick), we had a really good reaction to it. And it got harder because once they got up 1-0, they dropped really low in the box, so it’s hard to break down when a lot of numbers are in there. Obviously disap-

pointing, but I’m so proud of the girls.”The Dash were the upstart under-

dogs of the Challenge Cup, after fi nish-ing seventh in the NWSL last season. Daly, who plays for England’s national team, led Houston with three goals in the tournament and was the Challenge Cup’s most valuable player.

Daly had a chance to increase Hou-ston’s lead in the 73rd minute, but couldn’t quite get set after a cross from

Nichelle Prince and the shot went wide. Daly assisted on Groom’s goal in the

91st minute. It was Groom’s third goal of the tournament and she was named player of the match.

“From day one, we had a goal to win this thing and we took it one step at a time, one game at a time, one minute at a time. And I think obviously we’re excited with how it went today,” said Groom, who was traded to the Dash in

the offseason. “Individually, I want to be a part of a

club that valued me and wanted to just bring out the best in me, and that’s what they’ve done.”

Sunday’s game at Rio Tinto Stadi-um, home of the NWSL’s Utah Roy-als and Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake, was broadcast nationally on CBS, the league’s new television part-ner this season.

Tottenham’s Harry Kane (right), celebrates after scoring his side’s opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match be-tween Crystal Palace and Totten-ham at the Selhurst Park Stadium

in London, July 26. (AP)

Sporting Kansas City midfi elder Ilie (6) and Vancouver Whitecaps forward Theo Bair battle for possession during the second half of an MLS soccer

match on July 27 in Kissimmee, Fla. (AP)

Houston Dash’s Sophie Schmidt (left), battles for a head ball against Portland Thorns’ forward Christine Sinclair (12) during the fi rst half of an NWSL Challenge Cup soccer semifi nal match on July 22 in Sandy, Utah. (AP)

SOCCER

SOCCER

SOCCER

SPORTSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020

19

MLB Results/Standings

WASHINGTON, July 27, (AP): Re-sults and standings from the MLB games on Sunday.NY Yankees 3 Washington 2Cleveland 9 KC Chiefs 2Detroit 3 Cincinnati 2Baltimore 7 Boston 4TB Rays 6 Toronto (10 Ins) 5Colorado 5 Texas 2Minnesota 14 Chic W. Sox 2Seattle 7 Houston 6Oakland 6 LA Angels 4Miami 11 Phillies 6Pittsburgh 5 St Louis 1Chic Cubs 9 Milwaukee 1Arizona 4 San Diego 3Atlanta 14 NY Mets 1SF Giants 3 LA Dodgers 1

American LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GBBaltimore 2 1 .667 –New York 2 1 .667 –Tampa Bay 2 1 .667 –Boston 1 2 .333 1Toronto 1 2 .333 1

Central Division W L Pct GBCleveland 2 1 .667 –Detroit 2 1 .667 –Minnesota 2 1 .667 –Chicago 1 2 .333 1Kansas City 1 2 .333 1

West Division W L Pct GBHouston 2 1 .667 –Oakland 2 1 .667 –Los Angeles 1 2 .333 1Seattle 1 2 .333 1Texas 1 2 .333 1

National LeagueEast Division

W L Pct GBAtlanta 2 1 .667 –Miami 2 1 .667 –New York 1 2 .333 1Philadelphia 1 2 .333 1Washington 1 2 .333 1

Central Division W L Pct GBChicago 2 1 .667 –St Louis 2 1 .667 –Cincinnati 1 2 .333 1Milwaukee 1 2 .333 1Pittsburgh 1 2 .333 1

West Division W L Pct GBColorado 2 1 .667 –San Diego 2 1 .667 –Los Angeles 2 2 .500 ½San Francisco 2 2 .500 ½Arizona 1 2 .333 1

Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Joey Wendle (left), is late with the tag as Toronto Blue Jays’ Santiago Espinal steals third base during the 10th inning of a baseball game on July 26 in St Pe-tersburg, Florida. (AP)

New head of ’22 Commonwealth Games after ‘diversity’ concernsLONDON, July 27, (AP): Com-monwealth Games Federation President Louise Martin has re-signed from leading the organiz-ing committee for the 2022 event in the central English city of Birmingham following concerns about the lack of diversity on the board.

The Scot will be replaced by Sandra Osborne, a lawyer who is president of the Barbados Olympic Committee.

The resignation followed “dis-cussions over recent months” and Osborne brings “a wealth of skills, experience and new perspectives to this important role,” the CGF said.

“The CGF is proud that our or-ganization refl ects the diversity of the Commonwealth Sport Move-ment and that we have a person of Sandra’s caliber to actively con-tribute on the Birmingham 2022 board,” the federation statement said.

“The CGF supports the renewed commitment of the Birmingham 2022 organizing committee to en-sure that its governance and man-agement fully refl ects the diversity of the city and region.”

The CGF said Martin would continue to play an “active role in the supporting preparations” for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.

Astros lose 6-7 to Mariners,announce Verlander ‘injury’

Cron homers as Tigers knock off Reds

HOUSTON, July 27, (AP): The Houston Astros sur-rendered a tie-breaking two-run single to rookie Kyle Lewis in the eighth inning of a 7-6 loss to the Seattle Mariners, and then announced ace Justin Ver-lander will be shut down for at least two weeks with a strained right forearm.

Astros manager Dusty Baker denied a report that said the injury would end Verlander’s season. He said Verlander would be evaluated after two weeks.

Lewis and Shed Long Jr each had two hits and two RBIs for the Mari-ners, who had dropped their last 15 games against Houston.

Dan Altavilla (1-0) got the win. Tay-lor Williams yielded an RBI double to Michael Brantley before striking out Alex Bregman for his first career save.

Marlins 11, Phillies 6In Philadelphia, Miami scratched

right-hander José Ureña from its vic-tory at Philadelphia and delayed its post-game trip home amid concerns about a possible coronavirus outbreak within the team.

No reason was given for Ureña be-ing scratched. Manager Don Mattingly said the Marlins decided to wait until Monday to leave Philadelphia, and they planned to arrive in Miami hours before their home opener against Bal-timore. The trip might be made while multiple players remain in Philadel-phia.

Tigers 3, Reds 2In Cincinnati, C.J. Cron hit a tie-

breaking two-run homer in the ninth inning, and Detroit got to Cincinnati’s bullpen for the second straight day.

Miguel Cabrera led off with a 10-pitch walk before Cron connected against Michael Lorenzen (0-1), send-ing an opposite-field drive deep to right.

José Cisneros (1-0) pitched the eighth for the win. Joe Jiménez got Joey Votto to bounce into a game-ending double play for his second save in two days.

Rockies 5, Rangers 2In Arlington, Texas, Trevor Story

homered twice for Colorado after Co-rey Kluber left his Texas debut with shoulder tightness.

Kluber, who was acquired in an offseason trade with Cleveland, lasted just one inning and 18 pitches in his first start in almost 15 months.

The Rangers said Kluber reported feeling the tightness in the first few pitches and it got worse as the inning progressed. The two-time Cy Young Award winner was examined by a team doctor and will be further evalu-ated Monday.

Indians 9, Royals 2In Cleveland, more than a year since

being stricken with leukemia, Carlos Carrasco struck out 10 in six-plus in-nings to help Cleveland take two of three in the delayed season-opening series.

Jose Ramírez hit a three-run homer left-handed in the fourth and added a solo shot from the right side in the sixth for the Indians, who finally put some solid swings together against Kansas City’s bullpen.

Athletics 6, Angels 4In Oakland, California, Shohei

Ohtani failed to record an out in the two-way star’s return to the mound, al-lowing the first six Oakland batters to reach base.

The right-hander from Japan gave up Marcus Semien’s leadoff single and three straight walks before a mound

visit and Mark Canha’s two-run single. Robbie Grossman singled in another run, and Angels manager Joe Maddon replaced Ohtani (0-1) with Matt Andri-ese down 4-0.

The Angels wasted a big day by Mike Trout, who hit a three-run homer in the third and a sacrifice fly in the fifth. David Fletcher wound up with four hits.

Twins 14, White Sox 2In Chicago, Nelson Cruz homered

twice and drove in seven runs, helping Kenta Maeda win his debut with Min-nesota.

Jake Cave hit a grand slam in the first inning for Minnesota, which belt-ed a major league-record 307 homers last season. Marwin Gonzalez added a solo shot in the ninth.

Maeda (1-0), a Japanese right-hand-er who was acquired in a February trade with the Dodgers, allowed two runs in five innings.

Cruz finished with four hits and scored four times. He went 7 for 13 with 10 RBIs and three home runs in the opening series.

Yankees 3, Nationals 2In Washington, Gleyber Torres

homered to help the Yankees rally for the victory.

Torres and Luke Voit connected in the seventh, tying it at 2. Torres then singled in Hicks in the eighth against Sean Doolittle (0-1).

Chad Green (1-0) working two in-nings for the win. Zack Britton got three outs for his first save.

Pirates 5, Cardinals 1In St Louis, Pittsburgh’s Derek

Shelton staged baseball’s first major, socially distanced umpire argument, then got his first victory as a big league manager.

Colin Moran and Jose Osuna hom-ered for the Pirates, and Mitch Keller (1-0) pitched five solid innings.

Shelton came out to argue with plate umpire Jordan Baker in the third in-ning after pitcher Derek Holland was ejected from the dugout for arguing balls and strikes. Baker let Shelton say his piece, and the first-year skipper was not ejected.

Diamondbacks 4, Padres 3In San Diego, Ketel Marte hit a go-

ahead sacrifice fly off Kirby Yates, and Arizona rallied for four runs off San Diego’s vaunted bullpen after the Dia-mondbacks’ Torey Lovullo became the first manager to be ejected in the COVID-19 era.

San Diego’s Garrett Richards left with a 1-0 lead after holding Arizona to one hit in five innings, but the Dia-mondbacks, who struggled offensively in their first two games, came alive three innings after the masked Lovul-lo was ejected for arguing with plate umpire Mark Ripperger, who wasn’t wearing a cloth face-mask.

Cubs 9, Brewers 1In Chicago, Tyler Chatwood pitched

three-hit ball over six innings, Willson Contreras homered and the Cubs beat the Brewers to take two of three in their opening series.

Chatwood (1-0) struck out eight and walked two in an impressive start for a pitcher who struggled with his control his first two years in Chicago.

Ian Happ added a two-run drive in the eighth for Chicago, and Anthony Rizzo belted a solo shot one out later.

Rays 6, Blue Jays 5, 10 InningsIn St Petersburg, Florida, Kevin Ki-

ermaier’s first hit of the season, a two-run triple into the right field corner in the 10th inning, gave Tampa Bay the win.

Tampa Bay’s defensive whiz deliv-ered the second game-ending hit of his career after the Rays scored twice in the ninth to force extra innings, then fell behind again 5-4 when Blue Jays pinch-runner Santiago Espinal stole third base and scored on Lourdes Gur-riel Jr’s sacrifice fly off Chaz Roe (1-0).

Orioles 7, Red Sox 4In Boston, Rio Ruiz and Anthony

Santander each hit a two-run homer, powering Baltimore to the win.

José Iglesias added four hits for the Orioles, who took the final two games of the season-opening series. Wade LeB-lanc (1-0) worked 5 2/3 innings, and Cole Sulser got six outs for the save.

Braves 14, Mets 1In New York, Dansby Swanson tied

his career high with five RBIs and At-lanta chased an erratic Rick Porcello during the third inning of his New York debut.

Atlanta had 17 hits, 11 for extra bases, and took two of three in the sea-son-opening series after losing 1-0 on Friday and coming within a strike of defeat Saturday before rallying.

Porcello (0-1) allowed seven runs – six earned – and got just six outs.

Giants 3, Dodgers 1In Los Angeles, Mauricio Dubon

singled home the go-ahead run in the sixth inning and San Francisco beat Los Angeles.

The Giants gained a split of the four-game series under new manager Gabe Kapler to open the shortened season after the Dodgers took the first two.

The Dodgers left the bases loaded in the eighth and had the potential ty-ing run at the plate in the ninth when Trevor Gott struck out Max Muncy for his first save.

Donovan Solano added an RBI sin-gle for the Giants.

Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani throws against the Oakland Athlet-ics during the first inning of a base-ball game in Oakland, California,

on July 26. (AP)

Houston Astros’ Taylor Jones grounds into a double play as Se-attle Mariners catcher Joe Hudson reaches for the pitch during the second inning of a baseball game

on July 26 in Houston. (AP)

Patriots trim roster

Seahawks release veterans Jackson, HuntRENTON, Washington, July 27, (AP): The Seattle Seahawks released veter-ans Branden Jackson and Joey Hunt, among nine players released by the team.

The released players leaves Seattle’s roster at 81 with players expected to report this week.

Terminating the contract of Hunt will save Seattle about $2.2 million against the salary cap. But it was a bit of a surprising move after Hunt started eight games last season following a season-ending injury to Justin Britt. Seattle added B.J. Finney in free agen-cy and reserve Ethan Pocic also has experience at center.

Jackson appeared in 15 games last season for Seattle and had two sacks. He appeared in 36 games over three seasons for the Seahawks.

Seattle also waived: RB Patrick Carr, WR Seth Dawkins, G Kahlil McKenzie, DB Josh Norwood, G Jor-dan Roos, LB Sutton Smith and TE Dominick Wood-Anderson.

❑ ❑ ❑

The Patriots have trimmed their ros-ter to the NFL-mandated 80 players ahead of the start of training camp.

New England released nine players Sunday: quarterbacks J’Mar Smith and Brian Lewerke, receivers Will Hastings, Sean Riley and Isaiah Zu-ber, defensive backs Malik Gant and Adarius Pickett, linebacker Kyahva Tezino and defensive lineman Court-ney Wallace.

Hastings, Lewerke, Riley, Smith, Tezino, Wallace and Zuber were signed as undrafted rookie free agents in May.

Rookies are set to report to camp on Monday. Veterans are scheduled to ar-rive at the team facility on Tuesday.

❑ ❑ ❑

A person with knowledge of the details says the New York Giants are going to release 2018 Pro Bowl place-kicker Aldrick Rosas.

The person told The Associated Press the team is not ready to announce the move but reports the 25-year-old would not be back with the Giants were accurate. NFL Network was fi rst to report the transaction.

Rosas was arrested in mid-June after being involved in a hit-and-run accident in Chico, California. He was charged with three misdemeanors.

The police report said his SUV failed to stop at a red light and col-lided with a pick-up truck. Rosas left the scene on foot but was later picked up by police and charged with misde-meanor hit-and-run and driving with a suspended license.

Rosas had signed a $3.2 million ten-der offer for the 2020 season.

The Giants are scheduled to report to training camp Tuesday. The team will undergo testing for COVID-19 and then do conditioning and walk-through workouts. Practice is not planned for at least two weeks.

In this undated file photo, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Trevor Siemian is sacked by Seattle Seahawks defensive end Branden Jackson in the sec-

ond half in Minneapolis. (AP)

Ex-Maple Leafs star Shack dies

GLENDALE, Arizona, July 27, (AP): Arizona general manager John Chayka has stepped down, one week before the Coyotes open the Stanley Cup qualifi ers against Nashville.

The Coyotes announced former player and current assistant GM Steve Sullivan will serve as in-terim general manager.

“The club is disappointed in his actions and his timing as the Coy-otes prepare to enter the NHL’s hub city of Edmonton, where the team will begin postseason play for the fi rst time since 2012,” the team said in a statement.

“Chayka has chosen to quit on a strong and competitive team, a dedicated staff, and the Arizona Coyotes fans, the greatest fans in the NHL.”

Chayka made a name for him-self as one of the NHL’s top gener-al managers since being promoted in 2016 and recently signed a con-tract extension through 2024 late last year.

Chayka’s relationship with new owner Alex Meruelo began to deteriorate when he asked for permission to pursue another, non-NHL opportunity. The Arizona Republic reported Chayka was not invited to a recent dinner with Meruelo and new CEO Xavier Gutierrez to talk with Taylor Hall about a contract extension.

❑ ❑ ❑

Eddie Shack, one of the NHL’s most colorful players on and off the ice, has died. He was 83.

The Toronto Maple Leafs an-nounced the news in a tweet Sun-day morning.

“Eddie entertained Leafs fans on the ice for nine seasons and for decades off of it. He will be greatly missed,” the team said in the tweet.

Known for his bruising style, distinctive skating gait and larger-than-life personality, Shack won four Stanley Cups with Toronto in the 1960s, including the franchise’s most recent victory in 1967.

Nicknamed “The Entertainer” – with his trademark cowboy hat and luxurious mustache – he scored the winning goal for the Leafs in the 1963 fi nal.

Chayka steps down as Arizona GM one week before qualifier

In this Oct 11, 2012 file photo from Toronto, former Toronto Maple Leafs player Johnny Bower (right), looks at Eddie Shack’s personalized minia-ture Stanley Cup from the 1962

championship. (AP)

ICE HOCKEY

FOOTBALL

BASEBALL

New York Mets mascots dance in the stands during a break in play in a baseball game between the At-lanta Braves and the Mets on July

26, in New York. (AP)

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SportsRichy Werenski watches his tee shot on the 14th hole during the fi nal round of the 3M Open golf tournament in Blaine, Minn on July 26. (AP)

— See Page 17 —

Halep withdraws from tournamentPALERMO, Sicily, July 27, (AP): Secondt-ranked Simona Halep with-drew from the Palermo Ladies Open Sunday following a quarantine ordi-nance issued by Italy’s health ministry.

“Given the recent rise in Covid19 cases in Romania and my anxieties around international air travel at this time, I have made the tough decision to withdraw from Palermo,” Halep tweeted. “I want to thank the tourna-ment director and the Italian ministry of health for all efforts on my behalf.”

The Aug. 3-9 tournament an-nounced Sunday that the Romanian player’s manager, Virginia Ruzici, had informed Palermo offi cials of the deci-sion.

The move comes after Italy’s health minister on Friday signed an ordinance

requiring all those who have in the last 14 days stayed in Romania or Bulgaria to quarantine.

“We were fi lled with regret when informed of the news,” tournament director Oliviero Palma said. “We had informed Halep’s staff in detail about the fact that professional players shouldn’t have to go into quarantine.

“But nevertheless Halep’s staff in-formed us when their decision was al-ready taken. We are disheartened and deeply upset,” Palma added.

Palma also said that a regional health minister had sent Halep a notice explaining that the government ordi-nance does not apply to workers, and therefore to professional athletes.

Halep was going to be the headline player for the clay-court tournament, the fi rst professional tour-level tennis event following a fi ve-month break for the coronavirus pandemic.

TENNIS

Houston Dash forward Rachel Daly holds the trophy alongside teammates while celebrating their Challenge Cup championship win against the Chicago Red Stars on July 26 in Sandy, Utah. (AP)— See Page 18 —

Juventus seal 9th straight league titleImmobile scores hat trick, nears record

ROME, July 27, (AP): Be-fore the break for the coro-navirus pandemic. After the lockdown. And now for nine years running.

Juventus are the undisputed leader of Italian soccer.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored the go-ahead goal and Juventus beat Sampdoria 2-0 to secure the Turin club’s record-ex-tending ninth straight Serie A title.

At the fi nal whistle, Juventus play-ers danced in celebration and em-braced each other before the empty stands inside the Allianz Stadium.

It was Juventus’ fi rst title under coach Maurizio Sarri, who brought in a completely new system.

“It was the most beautiful title, be-cause it was the most diffi cult,” said defender Leonardo Bonucci, who has been wearing the captain’s armband with Giorgio Chiellini injured. “We started a new era, a new philosophy, ran into so many diffi culties, but we con-tinued to give our all throughout, even when there were so many slip-ups.

“It was so complicated beyond the fi eld, too; the world changed in three months. It was diffi cult to get our heads back into it after three months. We suffered.” Bonucci dedicated the title to Juventus fans who were victims of the coronavirus.

“It’s for those who left us and cheered for us from up above,” Bonuc-ci said. “It’s been an intense year. But we stayed together as a team.” For his 31st goal in 32 matches, Ronaldo com-pleted a set piece when Miralem Pjanić rolled across a free kick for the fi ve-time Ballon d’Or winner to fi re into the far top corner in fi rst-half added time.

Federico Bernardeschi then sealed it by scoring his fi rst Serie A goal in nearly two years by knocking in a rebound of Ronaldo’s shot midway through the second half.

Ronaldo banged a penalty kick off the crossbar in the 89th.

Still, Juventus moved an insur-mountable seven points clear of In-ter Milan with two games remaining and can now switch their focus to the Champions League.

The Bianconeri host Lyon in the de-layed round-of-16 second leg on Aug 7 needing to overturn a 1-0 loss from Feb-ruary. If Juventus can do that, they will advance to the fi nal eight in Lisbon.

“Now we need to recuperate our energy and focus on Lyon,” Bonucci said.

It was a bittersweet night, though, as Juventus lost both right back Danilo and forward Paulo Dybala to injury in the fi rst half.

Danilo clashed heads with a defend-er while Dybala pulled up with an ap-parent left thigh issue.

Juventus entered the break for the coronavirus pandemic with a one-point lead over Lazio in what was expected to be a two-way fi ght for the title but the Roman club struggled for much of the restart.

Sampdoria ended with 10 men when Morten Thorsby picked up his second yellow for a foul on Pjanić. It was Juve’s 36th Italian league title overall.

A hat trick moved Ciro Immobile within three goals of overtaking Gonzalo Higuain’s single-season record for Serie A with two matches remaining.

Immobile netted two penalties and also scored a magnifi cent strike in Lazio’s 5-1 win at Hellas Verona. He now has 34 goals in 34 matches — three more than Ronaldo atop the Ital-ian league’s scoring chart.

Rodrigo De Paul (front), of Udinese, struggles with Artur Ionita of Cagli-ari during a Serie A soccer match between Cagliari and Udinese, at the Sardegna Arena stadium, in

Cagliari, Italy on July 26. (AP)

Juventus’ Federico Bernardeschi celebrates after scoring his team’s second goal during the Serie A soc-cer match between Juventus and Sampdoria at the Allianz Stadium

in Turin, Italy on July 26. (AP)

Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubamey-ang eyes the ball during the English Premier League soccer match be-tween Arsenal and Watford at Emir-ates Stadium in London, England,

Sunday, July 26. (AP)

ICC announces Super League for WC 2023 qualifi cationDUBAI, United Arab Emirates, July 27, (AP): The qualifi -cation for 2023 World Cup begins with the series between world champions England and Ireland starting this week.

The International Cricket Council on Monday said the 12 full members plus The Netherlands, which won the ICC World Cricket Super League 2015-17, will play four home and away three-match ODI series in the one-day format as part of the the Super League. The top seven teams will automatically book spots at the 2023 World Cup in India.

“The league will bring relevance and context to ODI cricket over the next three years, as qualifi cation for the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 is at stake. The Super League gives cricket fans around the world even more rea-sons to watch as the drama of league cricket unfolds,” Geoff Allardice, ICC general manager of cricket operations, said.

Last week the ICC rescheduled the World Cup in In-dia to late 2023 so that countries could get more time to schedule any games lost because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Allardice said the delay was to “preserve the integrity of the qualifying process” and decide the quali-fi cation on the fi eld of play.

International cricket resumed this month after the lock-down with England hosting the West Indies in a three-Test series played in so-called bio-secure “bubbles” at venues in Southampton and Manchester. The West Indies

squad had to quarantine for two weeks after arriving in Britain for the series.

Eoin Morgan, captain of England’s one-day interna-tional squad, said fans around the world would be excited to see white-ball cricket resume.

“Given the situation, it will be quite different to the last time we played at home, when we lifted the World Cup at Lord’s, but it’s nice to be starting our journey for the next edition of the tournament,” Morgan said. “Ireland are a

talented team who have shown over the years that they can beat the best on their day. We look forward to what promises to be an interesting series.”

Ireland skipper Andrew Balbirnie said his team faced a diffi cult return to international cricket.

“It is obviously going to be a huge challenge taking on the team that won the World Cup just a year ago but we have prepared well and have taken confi dence from our form over the early months of 2020,” Balbirnie said. “What is important is that we are getting back on the fi eld. I hope international cricket’s return is steady during these challenging times.”

CRICKET

Bournemouth, Watford down from EPL

United, Chelsea qualify for Champs LeagueLONDON, July 27, (AP): Manches-ter United and Chelsea qualifi ed for the Champions League at the ex-pense of Leicester on a frantic fi nal day of the Premier League season, while Bournemouth and Watford were relegated to end fi ve-year stays in the top fl ight.

United won 2-0 at Leicester through goals by Bruno Fernandes and Jesse Lingard to give Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team a third-place fi nish.

Chelsea beat Wolverhampton 2-0 after a goal and an assist by Mason Mount and fi nished in the fourth and fi nal Champions League qualifying place above Leicester, which have been in the top four for most of the season.

Leicester, instead, will play in the Europa League along with Tot-tenham, which drew 1-1 at Crystal Palace to secure sixth place — above Wolverhampton on goal difference.

The battle to avoid the two remain-ing relegation places went to the wire as Aston Villa scored in the 84th minute, conceded a minute later, then held on for 1-1 draw at West Ham to survive. Captain Jack Grealish scored Villa’s goal in what could be his last game for his boyhood club.

Bournemouth did what they had to do and beat Everton, 3-1, but ended up one point behind Villa. Watford were also relegated as the next-to-last team after losing 3-2 at Arsenal.

Manchester City passed 100 goals for the campaign with a 5-0 win over last-place and already-demoted Norwich, a game that marked the last in the Premier League for David Silva after 10 years with City. Kevin De Bruyne got a record-tying 20th assist of the season and also scored twice.

Goals from Virgil van Dijk, Di-vock Origi and Sadio Mané gave the champions their 32nd win from 38 games — matching Man City’s re-

cord — while 99 points over the sea-son is the second highest-ever total, one point less than City’s in 2017-18.

Liverpool fi nished 18 points ahead of second-place City, one point short of City’s record margin from 2017-18.

Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp opted to start his last game of the sea-son with his fearsome forward line of Roberto Firmino, Mané and Mo-hamed Salah as substitutes, and the visitors were shocked when Dwight

Gayle scored for Newcastle in the fi rst minute.

It took some time for the champi-ons to work their way into the game before Van Dijk fi nally equalized in the 38th after rising the highest to meet Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s free kick.

Origi made it 2-1 in the 59th when he made some space for himself on the left edge of the penalty area be-fore drilling his shot inside the far post.

Klopp brought on his three star

forwards in the 64th. Salah hit the post two minutes later before Mané wrapped up the win with a brilliant curling fi nish in the 89th.

Also, Southampton beat Sheffi eld United 3-1, with Danny Ings scoring his 22nd goal of the season. That left him one behind Leicester’s Jamie Vardy, who won the Golden Boot as the league’s highest scorer.

Andre Ayew’s terrifi c late strike gave Swansea a 1-0 win over 10-man Brentford in the fi rst leg of their League Championship playoff semi-fi nal.

Ayew, who had earlier seen his second-half penalty saved by David Raya, struck nine minutes from time at the Liberty Stadium with a fero-cious volley from 16 yards.

Leeds and West Bromwich have already been promoted to the Pre-mier League from the second-tier Championship.

Bournemouth’s Diego Rico (left), and Everton’s Theo Walcott battle for the ball during the English Premier League soccer match between Everton and

Bournemouth at Goodison Park in Liverpool, England on July 26. (AP)

SOCCER

SOCCER