Friday 22 May 2020

29 Ramadan - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8265

*Valid during Ramadan

Enjoy double data and a complimentary

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SPORT | 08BUSINESS | 01

Qatar Chamber

postpones

GAM to

June 8

The only thing I feel

is responsibility,

not power:

Al Khelaifi

Ramadan Timing

Today's Iftar:

6:18pm

Tomorrow's

Imsak:

03:09am

Awqaf: Decision of suspending congregational prayers applies to Eid Al Fitr

QNA — DOHA

The Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs (Awqaf) confirmed that the decision of, temporarily, closing mosques and suspending congrega-tional prayers as part of the precautionary and preventive measures against the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), also applies to Eid Al Fitr prayers for the year 1441 AH.

In a statement yesterday, the Ministry said that based on the previous statement issued by the Ministry of Endow-ments and Islamic Affairs on April 22, 2020, which was implemented in order to strengthen the preventive measures and precautionary measures taken by the state to curb the spread of the corona-virus (COVID-19) pandemic, regarding the continued closure of mosques and the suspension of congregational prayers, until the safety and tranquility of the worshipers is met, we confirm that the decision also applies to Eid Al Fitr prayers for the year 1441 AH.

The Ministry indicated that the Friday and Eid Al Fitr prayers which are held exclu-sively in the presence of 40 worshipers, as per the Hanbali doctrine, mainly Imams, Muezzins and staff of the Imam Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab Mosque, will be broadcast on TV and radio channels. �P2

Qatar sends urgent medical assistance to KazakhstanQNA — DOHA

Under the directives of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the State of Qatar represented by Qatar Fund For Development (QFFD) sent yesterday a shipment of urgent medical assistance to the Republic of Kazakhstan, in support of the efforts exerted by government of Kazakhstan to contain the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In a statement, Qatar Fund For Development said that the total weight of this shipment amounted to nine tonnes of medical equipment and sup-plies, such as masks, sterilisers, and dis-infectants, pointing it was carried by Qatar Airways.

Qatar Fund For Development Director General Khalifa bin Jassim Al

Kuwari commented saying that this medical assistance reflects the great efforts made by the State of Qatar to combat the spread of the pandemic, which poses a common threat to the whole world.

He pointed out that, because the pandemic threatens the whole world, the efforts made to curb its spread should be a common international responsibility. The State of Qatar has not come short in helping friendly coun-tries to curb the spread of the pandemic, he added.

It is noteworthy that Qatar through Qatar Fund For Development, has pro-vided in the past few months more than one air bridge of urgent medical assistance to sisterly and friendly coun-tries during this unprecedented pandemic.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani with H M Sultan Haitham bin Tarik of Oman yesterday.

Qatar and Oman discuss bilateral tiesQNA — DOHA

H M Sultan Haitham bin Tarik of Oman met yesterday with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. H E the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs conveyed the greetings of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin

Hamad Al Thani to H M Sultan of Oman, and His Highness’ wishes of more progress and prosperity to the Omani people.

H M Sultan of Oman, entrusted H E the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs to convey his greetings to H H the Amir, wishing His Highness good health and hap-piness and the Qatari people

continuing development and prosperity. They discussed bilateral relations and means to bolster them, in addition to a host of regional and international issues of common concern. H E Oman’s Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, and Minister of Finance, H E Ali Shareef Al Emadi attended the meeting.

Amir exchanges Eid Al Fitr greetings with leaders of Arab and Islamic countries

QNA — DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani exchanged greetings, in telephone conver-sations yesterday, with a number of leaders of Arab and Islamic countries, on the occasion of the blessed Eid Al Fitr.

H H the Amir exchanged greetings with King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan H M Abdullah II bin Al Hussein, President of the Republic of Iraq H E Dr. Barham Salih, and Pres-ident of the Republic of Tunisia H E Kais Saied.

H H the Amir also exchanged greetings with President of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria H E Abdelmadjid Teb-boune, President of the State of Palestine H E Mahmoud Abbas, and President of the Federal Republic of Somalia H E Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo.

Officials with the urgent medical supplies to Kazakhstan, yesterday.

Installing Ehteraz app in mobile phones compulsory from today for allQNA — DOHA

Director of the Public Health Department at the Ministry of Public Health, Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani has reiterated that Ehteraz app, which must be installed in mobile phones from today, seeks to protect the community from coronavirus (COVID-19) infections and strengthen preventive measures to limit the spread of the virus in the State of Qatar.

Speaking to QNA, the Director of the Public Health Department said the app seeks such goal by alerting people who have come in contact with a person who has been infected (based on standards determined by specialists in the Ministry of Public Health). When someone is diagnosed with COVID-19, every person with the Ehteraz app that they have recently been in contact with receive an alert to go to the health center to be checked.

He added that the app also provides the latest, official updates and statistics issued by the Ministry of Public Health around COVID-19 in a simple, concise way.

It also has a feature to notify

users of the latest awareness and precautionary instructions issued by the official authorities in the country, he pointed out.

The Director of the Public Health added that the app installation steps are easy as Ehteraz is available for smart-phones and can be downloaded from the Apple Store and Google Play.

Once installed, he said, there are several steps that have to be completed to activate the app. These include reading and agreeing to the Terms and Con-ditions of the app and providing the required information (mobile number, ID number, ID expiry date).

Then, a text message is sent

to the users mobile number which includes a verification PIN that has to be entered in the dedicated field on the app, with which the final phase of user registration on Ehteraz is completed.

After the app has been fully installed, a page containing the current health code of the user appears, through which they can know their health status through different colours, he said.

The green colour means that the user does not have COVID-19. The grey colour means that the user has either come in contact with a person who has the virus or has been tested and is awaiting test

results. The yellow colour is for

individuals currently under quarantine, and the red colour means that the user has COVID-19.

The app also has a page that contains the latest statistics from the Ministry of Public Health around COVID-19 in the State of Qatar. It also has another page containing contact numbers in case of any health or technical inquiries.

Regarding how the app can help to trace those isolating at home or under quarantine, he said that when individuals under quarantine, be it at home, a hotel, or in quarantine facil-ities, leave the quarantine

without the knowledge of rel-evant authorities, the user receives an alert through the app and is contacted by the Ministry of Public Health to inquire about reasons of leaving quarantine and then the nec-essary steps are taken.

On the confidentiality of the data in the app, the Director of the Public Health Department said: “We confirm that all user data on Ehteraz app is completely confidential and is only acces-sible to relevant, specialised teams when necessary.”

He added: “Permission to access photos and files may appear automatically on some Android phones. It’s a common permission on Android phones for an app that needs access to certain phone files.”

He pointed out that Ehteraz needs this access to ensure the user’s data remains completely confidential and not tampered with or otherwise compromised.

This data also provides an important, temporary, redun-dancy in the event of connec-tivity interruption by pro-viding location data gathered during the interruption to ensure users are provided with the correct status and infor-mation, he said. �P2

All user data on Ehteraz app is completely confidential.

Ehteraz alerts people who have come in contact with a person who has been infected with COVID-19.

The app provides the latest, official updates and statistics issued by the Ministry of Public Health around COVID-19 in a simple, concise way.

Ehteraz can be downloaded from the Apple Store and Google Play.

02 FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020HOME

FAJR SUNRISE 03.20 am 04.46 am

W A L R U WA I S : 25o↗ 34o W A L K H O R : 25o↗ 39o W D U K H A N : 25o↗ 40o W WA K R A H : 25o↗ 38o W M E S A I E E D 25o↗ 38o W A B U S A M R A 27o↗ 39o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 02:41–16:53 LOW TIDE 10:31 – 23:25

Hot daytime with some clouds and mild by night.

Minimum Maximum27oC 39oC

ZUHR

MAGHRIB

11.31 am06.18 pm

ASR

ISHA

02.56 pm07.48 pm

Qatari envoy stresses depth of ties with OmanQNA — DOHA

Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Sultanate of Oman, H E Sheikh Jassim bin Abdul-rahman Al Thani stressed that the Omani-Qatari relations have always been deep and strong, cemented by the tribal kinship and affinity.

Coordination between the two countries in all fields in addition to convergence of views on regional and interna-tional issues have contributed to further strengthen these relations, he added.

In a statement to Oman News Agency (ONA), H E the Ambassador stressed that the relations between the two brotherly countries are

exemplary thanks to the keen attention of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and H M Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman.

He said that the relations between Muscat and Doha are characterised by more openness and proximity, considering the natural resources, advanced indus-tries, and strong economies they both enjoy, in addition to their geographical prox-imity and the strong his-torical ties that unite the two countries.

The Ambassador indicated that it has been working to give a boost to a number of projects that have been discussed in the past period.

QRCS, Qatar Airways distribute Iftar food baskets in Jordan and GazaTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS), with funding from Qatar Airways, has distributed food baskets in Jordan and Gaza.

“I am the head of a 5-member family. Being an old person who faces difficulty finding a job, I am struggling to secure food and housing for my children,” said Hajj Maher Haytham (67), describing his suffering as the humanitarian situation in Gaza is getting worse.

He was a recipient of a food basket distributed by Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS), with funding from Qatar

Airways, under the former’s Ramadan Iftar project in Gaza.

Having been subject to several open-heart surgeries, Haytham is unfit for work due to fragile health. He com-mended this benevolent donation in Ramadan, calling for more and more support for Gaza’s poor population.

Hossam Abo El Kheir, Deputy General Manager of Districts, the Min-istry of Social Development of Gaza, said they had already distributed hundreds of food baskets to the poorest families of the blockade.

This contribution from QRCS and Qatar Airways would be of great help

for many disabled, older, and jobless persons.

Each basket contained 20 food staples, including milk, cheese, rice, sugar, and vegetable oil. Distributions were made in a manner that ensured maximum safety and protection against Coronavirus infection.

“The beneficiaries were selected according to a set of criteria, based on a socioeconomic status assessment for each beneficiary, done earlier in the project,” Abo El Kheir explained.

At the same time, Qatar Airways supported QRCS’s Ramadan Iftar project in Jordan, delivering food

baskets to hundreds of poor Syrian and Jordanian families, in order to meet their needs during the holy month of Ramadan.

These distributions fall under QRCS’s Ramadan Campaign 1441 A.H., which involves many humanitarian operations in Qatar and 22 other countries, for the benefit of one million refugees and dis-placed and needy persons.

Qatar Airways has recently allocated 100,000 free flight tickets for health care providers, in recognition of their heroic efforts being at the forefront of the coro-navirus pandemic fighting around the world.

Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS), with the funding from Qatar Airways, distributing food baskets to needy families in Gaza and Jordan.

HMC announces working hours during Eid holidays

QNA — DOHA

Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) yesterday announced operational hours during Eid Al Fitr, the Trauma and Emer-gency Center continues to operate throughout the 24-hour holiday period as normal.

The timings pertain to the Nesma’ak Hamad Patient Contact Centre, 16000 HMC Urgent Consultation Centre and 16000 HMC Pharmacy Services, according to a noti-fication posted on social media.

The Nesma’ak call centre will be closed from May 24 to 26 in observance of Eid Al Fitr, and reopen at 7am on May 27.

The urgent consultation call centre will be closed on May 23 and 24, and reopen on May 25. The timings from then until May 29 will be from 8am to 4pm. From May 30, the regular hours - from 7am to 10pm - will resume.

As for the pharmacy services, the call center will be closed on May 23 and 24, and reopen on May 25. The timings from then until May 28 will be from 8am to 3pm.

Staying at home important during Eid: Health MinisterQNA — DOHA

The Minister of Public Health, H E Dr. Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari, have stressed the importance of staying at home during the upcoming Eid Al Fitr and following the recom-mended measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

In a message to the public, H E Dr. Al Kuwari said: “Throughout this month the number of new cases has grad-ually risen and we are now entering the peak stage of COVID-19 in Qatar. With greater numbers of people testing pos-itive for the virus it is now as important as ever for people to follow preventive measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”

“Eid is traditionally a time of the year when we socialise and celebrate with family and friends, but this year must be different. This Eid, it is really important that you stay at home and only go out when it is abso-lutely necessary. We all have a role to play in successfully overcoming this pandemic and

throughout the last few months the majority of citizens and res-idents of Qatar have responded magnificently. It is especially tempting during Eid to visit friends and family, but I ask you to please continue following social and physical distancing measures to help us get through this challenging time,” added H E Dr. Al Kuwari.

The Minister of Public Health’s message comes at a time when approximately 15 COVID-19 patients a day are being admitted to Intensive Care Units at Hamad Medical Corporation. Despite the majority of people with

COVID-19 in Qatar experi-encing only mild symptoms, a small number of people develop severe symptoms from the virus and require admission to an Intensive Care Unit. These people are in critical conditions as a result of contracting COVID-19 and require compre-hensive medical support in order to save their lives.

“The evidence from around the world has shown that while the virus can affect people of all ages and health status, the elderly and those people with chronic medical conditions are much more likely to experience severe symptoms. For this reason it is especially important that we all play our part in protecting these vulnerable groups of our population and the best way in which you can do this is to stay at home as much as possible.

If you are young and healthy you are not considered to be at high risk of serious complications from COVID-19, but you are just as likely as everyone else to catch the virus and then transfer it to vulnerable friends and family,” explained H E Dr. Al Kuwari.

Amir sends message to Amir of Kuwait

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent a written message to the Amir of the sisterly State of Kuwait H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, pertaining to the deep-rooted fraternal relations between the two countries and ways of developing them, and issues of common concern. The message was handed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, during his meeting with the Prime Minister of the State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al Hamad Al Sabah.

Awqaf: Decision of suspending congregational prayers applies to Eid Al Fitr

FROM PAGE 1

The Ministry affirmed that it is not permissible to follow the Imam in prayer broadcast on radio, television and other means of communication.

The Ministry also stressed it will be in contact with the competent authorities to follow up on the COVID-19 status, and will reopen all mosques as soon as the risk of the pandemic has passed.

On the occasion the closing Eid Al Fitr, the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic Affairs presented congratu-lations and greetings to Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani; Father Amir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani; Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and to the wise government, the hon-orable Qatari people, and the entire Islamic nation.

"With greater numbers of people testing positive for the virus it is now as important as ever for people to follow preventive measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19.”

Installing Ehteraz app in mobile phones compulsory from today for all

FROM PAGE 1

Regarding the Bluetooth feature, Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani said through location services, it is possible to determine the location of the user when con-tacting an infected person, and to know whether this location is a public place such as food stores or any other public location to limit the spread of the virus.

Also, the Bluetooth feature allows the app to accurately determine the distance between users’ phones and identify whether the contact has been within the safe, two-meter dis-tance or more.

Through turning on these two features, relevant author-ities have access to the needed, accurate information to trace transmission in a better way.

The Director of the Public Health said that data provided to the app is only used by rel-evant authorities for medical and health reasons and is not

captured or used for any other purposes.

The app, he said, operates under the strictest privacy and data retention policies, to ensure that any data shared is correctly used. The use is gov-erned by the highest interna-tional standards and Qatar’s privacy and health laws. Spe-cific details are mentioned in the Terms and Conditions and the Privacy policy of the app.

On why the app requires multiple permissions, and why it is always running - even when users aren’t using their phone, he clarified that Ehteraz

app requires permissions in order to access parts of your phone that enable it to run in the background, even when the app is not in use.

It is important that the app is always running in order to accurately record interactions with other users and correctly alert you if you have come in contact with an infected person.

It can urge you to maintain social distancing and can provide vital information that will let you know when you should get tested or enter quarantine, he pointed out.

Regarding the Bluetooth feature, Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani said through location services, it is possible to determine the location of the user when contacting an infected person, and to know whether this location is a public place such as food stores or any other public location to limit the spread of the virus.

Qatar condemns shooting at Texas naval base

QNA — DOHA

The State of Qatar has voiced its strong condemnation of the shooting incident that occurred at a naval base in Texas, which

resulted in the injury of one sailor. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated Qatar’s firm position on rejecting violence and terrorism, regardless of motives and reasons.

03FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020 HOME

Virtual Iftar sees Qatar Foundation and TOMOH spread cross-cultural understandingTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Education, entertainment, interaction, and experiences have been blended by Qatar Foundation to give people from Qatar and beyond an insight into the nation’s Ramadan traditions – and prepare them to celebrate Eid Al Fitr.

An online gathering organised by Qatar Founda-tion’s (QF) Community Engagement team and youth initiative TOMOH For Devel-opment Organization saw social media influencers from Qatar invite fellow influencers from abroad to experience a virtual iftar in a Qatari setting, pro-moting the spirit and the value of cultural exchange.

During the live and inter-active two-hour event, Ramadan With Qatari Vibes, hosts Noor Al Tamimi and Abdullah Al Ghafri explained Qatari customs, traditions, and the practices they perform during the holy month in the

company of guests Alex Macheras and Jose Saucedo. With a local, regional, and inter-national audience invited to tune in, it also featured compe-titions and challenges between the influencers – with the online audience joining in – activities including table prep-arations, decorations, and customs, and a recital of verses from the Quran, as well as Iftar itself.

Ahead of Eid Al Fitr, QF’s Community Engagement team, together with Embrace Doha, also held an online event cen-tered around the annual festival that marks the end of Ramadan – explaining its meaning, the preparations made for it, and how it is celebrated by young and old alike.

“Through our Ramadan With Qatari Vibes celebration, organised in partnership with TOMOH, we aimed to provide a true cross-cultural experience that both engages and enlightens people, both in Qatar

and beyond,” said Ameera Al Aji, Culture and Heritage Pro-gramming Specialist, QF.

“Many people know about Ramadan, but have maybe not had the opportunity to discover how its traditions are reflected within Qatari homes. By bringing together influencers from Qatar and abroad, we wanted to provide a unique edutainment opportunity for people to experience a tradi-tional iftar, even in this time of physical distancing.

“As Ramadan nears its end, we have also looked to bring the essence of Eid Al Fitr home to

people by giving them a wider insight into the message, meaning, and customs of this annual festival, through part-nering again with Embrace Doha. These events reflect our belief that, just because we are physically apart, we can still come together to enjoy, learn, and share experiences.”

Fatma Al Taweel, Deputy CEO, TOMOH, said: “As an organization with a strong focus on empowering young indi-viduals for leadership and com-munity development, we aspire t o p r o m o t e s o c i a l instructiveness.

“We are delighted to have partnered with Qatar Foun-dation to host Ramadan With Qatari Vibes, an event that reflects the importance of fos-tering bonds of understanding that stretch across cultures. Even in these challenging times, technology – and the way we embrace it – has the capacity to keep us connected and bring us together, and we hope that Ramadan With Qatari Vibes has provided people with an oppor-tunity to both enhance their knowledge about Qatari culture and traditions, and to simply have fun.”

Cancer patients urged to take COVID-19 prevention measuresTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) National Center for Cancer Care and Research (NCCCR) is urging patients with cancer to take extra precau-tions to limit their exposure to COVID-19.

“The Department of Radi-ation Oncology at NCCCR understands and appreciates that patients who are facing cancer treatment, or a cancer diagnosis, during the COVID-19 pandemic may experience sig-nificant worry and anxiety, regarding their treatment and their timely and safe accessi-bility to hospitals,” said Dr. Noora Al Hammadi (pictured), Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology.

“As a Department, we would like to reassure our patients that all our radio-therapy-specific cancer services are open as usual. Our doctors are attending their weekly multidisciplinary tumor board meetings to discuss all cases as part of our ongoing efforts to ensure that everyone will be seen and treated without unwanted delays, which could compromise a patient’s treatment outcome,” added Dr. Al Hammadi.

Each day cancer specialists at NCCCR provide radiotherapy to more than 60 patients, totaling more than 300 patient visits each week. Dr. Al Hammadi said the Department of Radiation Oncology is com-mitted to treating all

radiotherapy patients effectively and in a safe manner. She said teams at the NCCCR are con-stantly monitoring the current situation and have implemented risk mitigation strategies to protect patients and staff.

“Our aim is to complete scheduled treatments without any delay or complications. Despite these troubling times, the Department of Radiation Oncology at NCCCR is con-stantly striving to provide radiation therapy in line with HMC’s vision of delivering the safest, most effective, and most compassionate care to each and every one of our Patients,” said Dr. Al Hammadi.

Patients with cancer are urged to take additional pre-vention measures to avoid con-tracting COVID-19 as even a mild illness associated with the virus could cause serious com-plications, due to cancer patients already having a weakened immune system. They are advised to avoid contact with individuals who are sick and to strictly adhere to hand hygiene and social dis-tancing measures.

Al Jazeera English wins Webby award for Rohingya crisis coverageTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Al Jazeera Digital has won two Webby awards – a People’s Voice and a Webby jury award in a competition that the New York Times has called ‘the Inter-net’s highest honour.”

The announcements were made on May 19 from the Webby Awards headquarters in New York City.

Al Jazeera English Online’s Newsfeed emerged with a Peo-ple’s Voice award in the Social, News & Politics category for Rohingya crisis through the eyes of Al Jazeera’s journalists.

The short film, produced in with Al Jazeera English TV and AJE Online correspondents, commemorated the two-year mark of 700,000 Rohingya being driven from their homes by the Myanmar military in 2017. The Rohingya remain in overcrowded, poorly sanitised camps in Bangladesh, suscep-tible to disease, malnutrition and human trafficking.

“I have covered war. I have covered violence throughout my career,” said Al Jazeera English Senior Correspondent

Mohammed Jamjoom in the film, “but I have never heard of anything like that happening to human beings,” he said recalling his interview with Rajuma Begum, a young mother whose baby was taken from her arms and thrown into a fire before being gang raped by Myanmar army soliders.

With journalists, NGO’s and human rights influencers peti-tioning their followers to vote, the story surged from second place to overtake its nearest rival, Washington Post TikTok,

in the final days of voting. Rohingya through the eyes of Al Jazeera’s journalists also won against fellow nominees CBS and Mother Jones and CNN Climate.

I’m proud of our teams who have worked tirelessly to bring news of oppressed communities to our global audience,” said Carlos van Meek, Director of Digital Innovation and Pro-gramming. “We especially appreciate the collaboration with our colleagues at Al Jazeera English TV whose coverage of

the Rohingya crisis – from day one – has set a model for crisis reporting. This win is a powerful example of teams coming together to ensure ongoing cov-erage of an important global story.”

Nominees were selected across dozens of categories by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS), which activated eligi-bility to participate in audience voting whilst judges deliberated on – separate – jury awards for each of the categories.

Al Jazeera Digital’s virtual reality documentary boutique, AJ Contrast, emerged with a jury win for My People, Our Stories: Homelessness in Los Angeles. Produced in part-nership with the University of Southern California’s JOVR-NALISM program, the series won in the Video: Reality cat-egory, beating out competition from the Crackle’s Going From Broke, with Hollywood A-lister Ashton Kutcher.

Always at the nexus of doc-umentary filmmaking, tech-nology and empowerment through storytelling, AJ Contrast worked with Professor Robert Hernandez and USC JOVR-NALISM students to train five men and women in the use of 360º cameras. The participants then documented their daily lives as they navigated the chal-lenges of holding jobs while homeless, living in their cars, constantly being on the move and maintaining love relationships.

My People, Our Stories: Homelessness in Los Angeles also won in the 360 Video cat-egory at the 2019 Shorty Awards

in New York City; and AJ Con-trast premiered it’s latest immersive installation, Still Here, at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

“We’re proud of AJ Contrast for their second Webby win in as many years,” said Dr. Yaser Bishr, Executive Director of Digital at the Al Jazeera Media Network, “and of AJE Newsfeed whose social videos feed our online platforms, day in and day out. These awards are confir-mation that our teams are com-bining their best journalistic instincts with the most inno-vative tools to not only inform but also to give a voice to those who have traditionally been forgotten.”

The Webby live awards gala, normally held in New York City with media industry leaders and celebrities in attendance, was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Re-branded as the Webby’s From Home (WFH), pre-recorded celebrity messages and 5-word speeches from the winning teams were hosted on the Webby site and related social platforms instead.

The online gathering saw social media influencers from Qatar invite fellow influencers from abroad to experience a virtual Iftar in a Qatari setting, promoting the spirit and the value of cultural exchange.

QFBA-Northumbria University concludes ‘Ramadan Show’

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar Finance and Business Academy in partnership with Northumbria University ( Q F B A - N o r t h u m b r i a University) concluded its latest ‘Ramadan Show’ on its social media channels last week.

The show engaged with current university and high school students through QFBA- Northumbria University’s social media platforms in five episodes to raise awareness on topics such as how to choose a university major, options for higher education in Qatar and how to enhance your English language skills from home.

The show concluded with a special episode dedicated for students, who are in the under-graduate programmes appli-cation process and are seeking to sit for the IELTS test. The episode provided background about the IELTS test and shed light on the new IELTS test format which allows students to sit for the test 100 percent online. It also provided tips on how to prepare for the IELTS test from home

MoPH: 688 recovered from COVID-19; 1,554 new cases, one death reportedTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Ministry of Public Health has announced the registration of 1,554 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 and 688 new recovered cases, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 7,288. The Ministry also announced one new death from the virus.

The total number of positive COVID-19 cases recorded in Qatar till now stands at 38,651 and there are 31,346 active cases under treatment. So far, 17 people have died from the coronavirus in Qatar. Ministry conducted 5,045 tests in last 24 hours taking the total tests done so far to 175,482 tests.

The Ministry reports that the new death was due to an 81-year-old resident who was receiving the necessary medical care in intensive care. The Min-istry of Public Health offered sincere condolences and great sympathy to the family of the deceased.

Also 24 new cases have been admitted to intensive care due to complications resulting from the infection, bringing the total number of people cur-rently in intensive care units to 171.

The Ministry states that the new cases are due to expatriate workers who were infected with the virus as a result of contact with individuals who were previously infected, in addition to recording new cases of infection among groups of workers in different regions. The new cases have been

identified after conducting investigations by the research and investigation teams of the Ministry of Public Health that contributed to early detection of cases.

Cases of infection have also increased among citizens and residents as a result of contact with infected family members who had been infected in the workplace or through visits and family gatherings.

The new confirmed cases of infection have been intro-duced to complete isolation in the various medical facilities in the country, where they receive the necessary healthcare according to the health status of each case.

In this context, the Ministry affirms that the high number of infections among citizens and residents is due to the lack of compliance by some with pre-cautionary measures, the most important of which is social and physical distancing, staying at home and refraining from

social visits.The Ministry states that

Qatar has now entered the peak phase of the virus out-break, which is seeing a rise in the number of infections recorded daily, and therefore it is necessary to adhere to, more than ever before, the preventive measures and s o c i a l m e a s u r e s recommended.

The Ministry also stresses the importance for the elderly or those suffering from chronic diseases and their family members to follow strict measures to reduce the chances of infection, including refraining from social visits during the rest of Ramadan as well during Eid Al Fitr.

The reasons for the high number of cases are also due to the Ministry’s redoubling of its efforts in tracking the transi-tional chains of the virus and expanding the search for infected people through intensive and proactive

investigations of large numbers of contacts with people who have been confirmed with the virus recently.

The Ministry notes that the number of daily examinations that it conducts on people depends primarily on the number of contacts with indi-viduals confirmed to be infected with the virus, as it performs random checks in different places of the country as a proactive measure.

This is in addition to the tests that are performed on patients in health centers and emergency departments. The number of examinations per-formed daily is not related to the number of cases dis-covered in terms of increase or decrease.

A n y o n e w h o h a s symptoms of COVID-19 should either quickly contact the 16000 helpline or go directly to one of the designated health centers for testing the virus. This is important as the earlier the disease is detected the easier it will be to receive the right treatment and recover from it.

NEW RECOVERIES

ACTIVE CASES

TOTAL RECOVERIES

TOTAL DEATHS

688 31,346

7,28817

NEW CASES ANNOUNCED

1,554

COVID-19QATAR UPDATES ON 21 MAY 2020

Twenty-four new cases have been admitted to intensive care due to complications resulting from the infection, bringing the total number of people currently in intensive care units to 171.

04 FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020MIDDLE EAST

Eid preparations

Palestine to stop information sharing with CIAAFP — OCCUPIED JERUSALEM

The Palestinian security services will stop sharing infor-mation with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in protest at Israeli plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, a senior official said yesterday.

“It has been 48 hours that the American Intelligence Service have been notified that the agreement with them is no longer in force,” chief Pales-tinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

“Security cooperation with the US no more. Security coop-eration with Israel no more.”

The Palestinian gov-ernment cut all ties with the Trump administration in 2017, accusing the US President of pro-Israel bias.

Certain non-political rela-tions were maintained, however, including between the Palestinian security services and the CIA.

The exact details of the information-sharing is not public but is thought to concern Palestinian resistance groups such as Hamas.

Erekat, speaking via video link from the West Bank city of Jericho, did not provide specific details on what the announcement would mean on the ground. The US embassy in Jerusalem declined to

comment on his statement. On Tuesday night, Pales-

tinian president Mahmoud Abbas announced an end to all agreements with Israel and the US over the new Israeli govern-ment’s plans to annex key parts of the occupied West Bank.

Trump’s January peace proposals gave Israel the US green light to annex settlements in the West Bank, as well as the Jordan Valley — a key strategic area that makes up around a third of the West Bank.

Palestinians say the plan ends prospects for a two-state solution to their decades-long conflict with Israel.

Abbas has made threats to end security coordination with the Jewish state multiple times, without ultimately following through.

A worker packs sweets outside a shop as Palestinians prepare for the upcoming holiday of Eid Al Fitr marking the end of Ramadan, amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, yesterday.

Palestine rejects Emirati aid sent via Israeli airportANATOLIA — RAMALLAH

The Palestinian government rejected to receive an aid shipment coming from the Gulf country of United Arab Emirates, according to a Pales-tinian news agency.

Citing informed sources, Maan News Agency, known for being close to the Palestinian Authority, said the decision came as the aid arrived via an Israeli airport.

Earlier this week, an Emirati

flight carrying medical aid for Palestinians landed in an Israeli airport.

The aid shipment came although the Gulf country has no official ties with Tel Aviv.

“The UAE authorities did not coordinate with the State of Palestine before sending the aid,” the government sources said, adding that “Palestinians refuse to be a bridge for Arab countries seeking to have nor-malised ties with Israel.”

They asserted that any

assistance meant to be sent to the Palestinian people should be coordinated with the Pales-tinian Authority first.

“Sending them directly to Israel constitutes a cover for normalisation,” they added.

Unlike Jordan and Egypt, both of which signed peace treaties with Israel in 1978 and 1994 respectively, other Arab states officially deny having ties with Israel, which is, for decades, illegally occupying Palestinian territories.

Israeli websites targetted in major cyber attack

AFP — OCCUPIED JERUSALEM

Many Israeli websites were hit by a coordinated cyber attack yesterday, with the home pages replaced by images of the country’s commercial capital Tel Aviv in flames.

Israel’s National Cyber Directorate said private com-panies using a particular oper-ating system were targeted, but said the damage was “superficial”.

It did not state the number of pages targeted but Israeli media reported it was more than 1,000, including those of major firms.

The pages were replaced with the slogan “the countdown to the destruction of Israel started long ago”.

A link led to a computer-generated video of Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities on fire, seemingly after a series of attacks.

There were no immediate details on the group which claimed the attack called Hackers of Saviour.

The attack came a day before Israelis celebrate Jeru-salem Day —signifying the country’s capture of the eastern part of the disputed city in 1967.

Iran, Israel’s long-time rival, also commemorates the day but highlights the Pales-tinian and Muslim connection to the holy city.

Their animosity has flared in a war of words on Twitter.

Iran’s supreme leader Aya-tollah Ali Khamenei recently attacked Israel’s founding ide-ology Zionism, charging that Zionists have “been acting like a cancerous tumour, furthering their goals by massacring children, women and men”.

Iran advises against Eid travel as virus cases mountAFP & REUTERS — TEHRAN

Iran called on its citizens yesterday to avoid travel during the upcoming festival marking the end of Ramadan as it announced another surge in coronavirus infections.

The Islamic republic has entered a fourth month in its battle to contain the virus.

“Our biggest concern” is to have “new peaks of the disease in the country by not respecting health regulations,” said Health Minister Saeed Namaki.

“So I ask the dear Iranian people... not to travel during the Eid Al Fitr holiday. New trips mean new COVID-19 infec-tions,” he said, quoted by the semi-official news agency Isna.

The Eid Al Fitr festival marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan is expected to begin on Sunday in Iran.

Namaki’s remarks came as his ministry announced 66 more deaths and another 2,392 cases of coronavirus infection across Iran, which has the Middle East’s deadliest outbreak.

Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the latest figures took Iran’s overall death toll to 7,249 and its caseload of infections to 129,341.

He said that of the new infections, 351 were in people who had been hospitalised and 2,041 who had been in close contact with patients.

Jahanpour added that there were no new deaths in 12 of

Iran’s 31 provinces, and that six provinces reported just one

virus fatality. The minister said people were failing to adhere

to health protocols in Iran’s hardest-hit provinces.

“In Khuzestan province, and in some of the provinces that have experienced new out-breaks of the disease, we found that they had not followed instructions,” he said, referring to the government’s social dis-tancing protocols.

Iran reported its first cases of coronavirus on February 19 — two deaths in the Shia city of Qom. The government of Pres-ident Hassan Rouhani was crit-icised for being slow to react as the virus spread rapidly across the Isamic republic.

It shut schools and places of worship and banned inter-city travel for the Persian New Year holidays in March, but since last month it has gradually eased restrictions aimed at halting the spread of the virus.

Around 10,000 Iranian health workers have been infected with the new corona-virus, the semi-official Ilna news agency quoted a deputy health minister as saying.

“Some 90% of the popu-lation in many areas has not yet contracted the disease. In the case of a new outbreak, it will be very difficult for me and my colleagues to control it,” the minister said. Infected cases have been on a rising trajectory for the past two weeks. However President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran was close to curbing the outbreak.

Iranians wear protective face masks, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease, as they drive with the metro, in Tehran, Iran, yesterday.

Lebanon at risk of a major food crisis as PM sounds alarmREUTERS — BEIRUT

Lebanon’s financial meltdown could tip the country into a full-blown food crisis, as people hit by soaring prices and the fallout of COVID-19 become unable to afford even basics like bread, the prime minister warned.

Lebanon has been paralysed by an eco-nomic crisis that has seen dollars dry up, banks impose tight capital controls, unem-ployment surge, and a sovereign debt default in March — all before the com-pounding blow of the coronavirus outbreak.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said the pandemic could trigger a global food security emergency that would put vul-nerable countries like Lebanon at particular risk.

“Once the breadbasket of the Eastern Mediterranean, Lebanon is facing a dra-matic challenge that seemed unimaginable a decade ago: the risk of a major food crisis,” he wrote in The Washington Post.

He said attempts by some countries to restrict food exports must be resisted and

called on the United States and European Union to set up an emergency fund to help the Middle East avoid a humanitarian disaster.

“Starvation may spark a new migration flow to Europe and further destabilise the (Middle Eastern) region,” he added.

Lebanon entered talks with the Inter-national Monetary Fund this month, hoping to secure $10bn in aid that would partially fund an economic reform programme to cut state waste and overhaul a banking sector steeped in losses.

Meanwhile, the situation has grown dire. Lebanon’s currency, the pound, has collapsed on a parallel market outside com-mercial banks, doubling the price of food in the import-dependent country since January and sparking unrest that has led to banks across the country being burned and a protester killed.

“A few weeks ago, Lebanon witnessed its first ‘hunger protests’. Many Lebanese have already stopped buying meat, fruits and vegetables, and may soon find it dif-ficult to afford even bread,” wrote Diab.

Food importers worry that dwindling

dollars are on the verge of running out, and that the dollars available could reach a price level that would put food out of reach for a growing class of impoverished Lebanese.

“Within two months, if the trend stays like this, we will not be able to find enough dollars to make transfers abroad to buy basic things,” said Hani Bohsali, a major food importer.

Bohsali said food imports required financing of about $5m per day and importers were increasingly unable to find enough banknotes to complete new orders.

“If you can’t finance 50% of your shipment, the whole shipment is gone,” said Bohsali. Fearing shortages, some super-markets have begun to ration items for cus-tomers, placing limits on how many can be purchased at a time.

In a televised address yesterday, Diab said the central bank would begin providing dollars for food imports, part of steps to curb the currency’s slide on the parallel market where it has lost about 65% of its value since October.

Iran dismisses new US sanctions as fruitless and repetitiveREUTERS — DUBAI

Iran dismissed yesterday new US sanctions on several Iranian officials, saying they were a sign of the complete ineffi-ciency of Washington’s previous sanctions on the Islamic Republic, state tele-vision reported.

“Washington’s fruitless and repetitive sanctions against Iranian officials is a sign of weakness, despair and con-fusion of the U.S. adminis-tration,” state TV quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi as saying.

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on several Iranian authorities, including the interior minister, accusing them of engaging in serious cases of human rights abuse. The US Treasury Department said Interior Min-ister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli gave orders authorising the Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) of Iran to use lethal force in response to anti-government protests in November, leading to the killing of protesters, including at least 23 minors.

QNA — KUWAIT

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health reported yesterday 1,041 new coronavirus infections overnight, taking the total tally to 18,609. The ministry also reported five more fatalities, bringing the country’s death toll to 129.

Also, the Kuwaiti Health Ministry confirmed the recovery of 320 patients, bringing the total number of recoveries to 5,205.

The Omani Ministry of Health has regis-tered 327 new cases of coronavirus, of which 105 are Omani, and 222 are non-Omani.

The tally of cases in the Sultanate of Oman is 6,370, the number of deaths due to infection with the virus is 30 cases, and the number of recoveries reached 1,821 people, the Omani health ministry said in a statement carried by Oman’s ONA.

Kuwait records 1,041 new infections, 5 deaths

Staying home means starving to death for Yemen's displacedREUTERS — TAIZ, YEMEN

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed inequalities around the world, with low-income workers from Bogota to London this week risking their health by returning to work in countries easing lockdowns, while wealthier people stay home.

In impoverished Yemen, where the pandemic is now taking hold, millions of displaced people face an even bleaker choice: head out and risk infection or stay home and go hungry. The arrival of the pandemic in Yemen in April — 184 cases have been confirmed —added to afflictions already facing the Arab World’s poorest nation including widespread hunger and a major cholera outbreak.

Five years of war have left 80% of its population of more than 24 million relying on aid and 3.6 million displaced. Healthcare services are collapsing. 68 out of 174 patients admitted to a COVID-19 treatment centre in Aden have died, Medicins Sans Frontieres said yesterday, warning that people perishing from the disease are much younger than in Europe: mostly men between 40 and 60 years old.

Yemen’s government has advised people to only venture out for necessities but there is little authorities can do to impose restrictions in the war-torn country, said Tamuna Sabadze, Yemen country director at the International Rescue Committee (IRC). “Each day Yemenis spend at home— each day the market is closed — they will be losing their income,” she said. “If they don’t have work they have to beg.”

“It has been 48 hours that the American Intelligence Service have been notified that the agreement with them is no longer in force,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.

05FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020 ISLAM

Bidding farewell to Ramadan

FIZA KHALID

Normally, a guest does not stay long with his host. After dropping by for a while and com-pleting his purpose or courtesy call, he shall

finally say goodbye and depart. When he will return is something that cannot be determined exactly by the host since he does not possess the will of his visitor, nor does he have any control and authority over him. Such visitor could return at his appointed time but may not find the same host for he could have left for the destination from which he will never return at all.

This is how Ramadan manifests itself to the Muslim Ummah so that when it leaves and departs in a day or two from now, none of us has the assurance of receiving it again next year simply because none of us knows his fate — whether he will be still around, or will already have joined his Creator — by the time Ramadan returns again next year.

O People who are present here!The Month of Ramadan is coming to an end;where are the eyes that will weep and where

are the hearts that will humble themselves by the fear of Almighty Allah, the Bounteous King?

You have heard this so many times from the Holy Quran: “All the creatures will certainly die.”

Now the time of the departure of the month of Ramadan is very near and with you it will stay just like a night-guest, or like a departing beloved.

Never forget that the separation of good friends

is a very bitter thing; so where are those who will perform as many good deeds in this month?

Undoubtedly those who have fasted, have col-lected great benefits and the transgressors are the losers.

How fortunate is the person, to whom you will return with blessings of Almighty Allah, and how unfortunate is the one, against whose misdeeds you will be a witness (on the Day of Judgement!).

Our Masaajids’ with your presence for a long time,and may He light our lamps with your divine light.

The performance of Taraweeh is coming to an end, and our lamps are going to be put off (by your departure).

No one will wait for Iftaar (breaking fast), and no one will see the stars for his or her Suhuur.

For a time our bellies were under your command, and our eyes were kept awake in con-stant Ibadah.

Undoubtedly, we are for Almighty Allah, and to Him we will all return!

Oh! How sad will be your departure and sepa-ration from us.

The day of your departure will be sorrowful for all of us.

May Almighty Allah take mercy on the person who bid farewell to Ramadan with repentance and devotion.

All of you should say:“O Almighty Allah!Let us be among those who have attained sal-

vation during the Holy month of Ramadan.Deliver us from the fire of Hell, by the honour

of Ramadan.Pardon us with Your Mercy, O Most Merciful of

those who show Mercy. And all praise is due to Almighty Allah, the Lord of all the worlds.

I seek refuge in Almighty Allah, from Devil the rejected one.

(Says Almighty Allah in the Holy Quran)!“The pious will reside in an abode of Peace, in

Jannah (with) fountains; they will be dressed in brocade and silk, as they sit before each other.

As Ramadan announces his departure, it is hard to believe that this blessed season has ended. Never lose hope from the Mercy of Allah, celebrate the Farewell Ramadan with another act of worship, seeking for the forgiveness and do not forget to pay your Zakat Al Fitr (charity which is dis-tributed at the end of Ramadan). Make your con-cluding act with Ramadan perfect, make Eid prayer on time. Celebrate the Farewell Ramadan with takbeer, dhikr and du’a, you definitely need your deeds be accepted.

Stay in touch with Ramadan, continue the good work and start with the sequel event of the six days of Shawwal. Finally, keep the beautiful memories of Ramadan; they will always come handy and will always be a source of inspiration. Farewell Ramadan, my dear guest, may Allah forgive me. For seeing you departing so quickly, I will always be sorry.

Courtesy: www.alquranclasses.com

Allah will accept sincere repentanceAHMAD IBN ABDUL RAHMAN AL SWIYAAN

I was coming back from a long journey and Allah decreed that my seat in the airplane should be beside

a group of carefree young men whose loud laughter and voices were excessive, and the air was filled with clouds of smoke from their cigarettes. By the wisdom of Allah, the plane was completely full and I could not change my seat.

I tried to escape from the problem by sleeping but it was impossible. When I got fed up with their noise, I took out my copy of the Quran, and started to read what I could in a soft voice. Soon after that these young men started to become quiet. Some of them started to read newspapers and others fell asleep.

Suddenly one of them said in a loud voice, even though he was sitting right next to me, “Enough! Enough!” I thought that I had disturbed him because my voice was too loud, so I apologised to him and carried on reading in a whisper that only I could hear. I saw him holding his head in his hands, then fidgeting in his seat, and moving a lot.

Then he raised his head and said to me angrily, “Please, stop it, I can’t stand it!!” Then he got up from his seat and went away for a while, then he came back, greeted me with salaams, and apologised.

He fell silent and I did not know what was going on. But after a while he turned to me with his eyes full of tears and said to me in a whisper, “For three years or more I have not put my forehead on the ground (sujood or prostration), and I have not read even one ayah (Quranic verse)!” For a whole month I have been on this trip, and there is no evil action that I did not indulge in. Then I saw you reading Quran and my world turned black and my heart was filled with despair. I felt as if someone was strangling me. I felt every ayah that you read coming down on my body like a whip. I said to myself, “For how long will this neg-ligence go on? Where will this path lead you? What will happen after all this foolish play?” Then I went to the washroom, do you know why? I had the strong urge to weep and I could not find anywhere else to hide from the people’s sight! I spoke to him in general terms about repentance and turning back to Allah, then he fell silent.

When the plane landed he stopped me and it seemed that he wanted to keep away from his companions. He asked me with a serious expression on his face, “Do you think that Allah will accept my repentance?” I said, “If you are sincere and serious in your repentance, then Allah will forgive all your sins.” He said, “But I have

done terrible things, very terrible.” I said, “Have you not heard what

Allah says: Say: O My servants! who have acted extravagantly against their own souls, do not despair of the mercy of Allah; surely Allah forgives the faults altogether; surely He is the Forgiving the Merciful?

(Azzumar 39: 53) I saw him smiling with joy. His eyes

filled with tears then he bade me

farewell and left. No matter how great a man’s evil and sin, in his heart there is a seed of goodness. If only we can reach it and make it grow, it will bear fruit insha Allah. This seed of goodness is always fighting in man’s heart, even when it is covered with layers of whims and desires.

When Allah wills good for His slave, He causes the light of guidance to shine in his heart and guides him to the path

of those who are guided. Allah says: Therefore (for) whomsoever Allah intends that He would guide him aright, He expands his breast for Islam, and (for) whomsoever He intends that He should cause him to err, He makes his breast strait and narrow as though he were ascending upwards; thus does Allah lay uncleanness on those who do not believe. (6: 125)

Courtsey: www.onislam.net

It is permissible to perform the Eid prayer in one’s home, whether one prays with his family or performs

it alone. He may gather his family and pray with them in the form of two rak’ahs with a khutbah, or two rak’ahs without a khutbah, or even four rak’ahs similar to dhuhr prayer, or two rak’ahs quietly similar to salat Al Duhā.

Eid prayers are not entirely dis-continued due to the lockdown caused by the coronavirus. The basic principle is to preserve the acts of worship and to perform them even if Muslims are unable to complete them.

The Eid prayer is valid in any pure place, and a mosque is not required for it. Preventing people from going out is therefore not necessarily pro-hibiting the same prayer. Imām Ahmad was asked about the one who missed the Eid prayer; namely, where should he pray? He said: If he wants, he can go to the musalla, and if he wants he can pray wherever he deems fit.

(Al Mughni by Ibn Qudama 2/289)The fuqaha agreed that the

Sunnan do not fall apart in their entirety. Likewise, the khutbah is not from the requirements of its validity. It is permissible to suffice with prayer alone.

The Eid prayer is not the same as the Friday prayer, as Friday has dif-ferent conditions and rulings. Scholars have differed over whether attending the Eid is obligatory upon the individual or whether it is a com-munal obligation.

Anas bin. Malik (RA ) once missed the Eid prayer in Basrah, so he gathered his family and had one of his household lead them in two rak’ats. And Ata bin Abī Rabah (d. 114 AH) said regarding one who missed the Eid prayer, “Let him pray two rak’ats and say the takbīrs”; as well Hammād b. Abī Sulayman (d. 120 AH), the famous scholar of Kufa and teacher of Imam Abu Hanīfa, said when asked the same question, “He should pray as they prayed, and do the takbīrat as they did.”

(Musannaf of Ibn Abī Shaybah, 2/4-5).

All of these reports are regarding those who missed Eid for any reason.

Given our current situation, we have to observe all of the Sunnahs of Eid (of taking a ghusl, eating a breakfast, wearing one’s best gar-ments, saying the general takbīrat after Fajr, etc.) and then praying a congregational prayer at home with their own families, with the special takbirat of Eid.

All our four schools of law state that attending the khutbah of Eid is not obligatory, nor is the khutbah a requirement of the Eid prayer, it is not required to give Khutbah in every home.

Eid prayer at home

As Ramadan announces his departure, it is hard to believe that this blessed season has ended. Never lose hope from the Mercy of Allah, celebrate the Farewell Ramadan with another act of worship, seeking for the forgiveness and do not forget to pay your Zakat Al Fitr (charity which is distributed at the end of Ramadan). Make your concluding act with Ramadan perfect, make Eid prayer on time. Celebrate the Farewell Ramadan with takbeer, dhikr and du’a, you definitely need your deeds be accepted.

06 FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Cape Town is virus hot spot for South Africa and continentAP — JOHANNESBURG

Cape Town has become the centre of the COVID-19 outbreak in South Africa and one of Africa’s hot spots.

The popular tourist desti-nation at the southern tip of Africa had more than 12,000 confirmed cases as of yesterday, representing 63 percent of South Africa’s 19,000 cases and about 10 percent of Africa’s 95,000 cases.

Gauteng province con-taining Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, and the capital, Pretoria, had been expected to be the country’s epicentre with its population density and poverty levels, but Cape Town defied predictions with high levels of community transmission.

“No model upfront pre-dicted what we see in Western Cape (province),” Health Min-ister Zwelini Mkhize told jour-nalists yesterday. “The explosion of cases in Western Cape is out of the expected range and it may be that we need to have additional

interventions to try and contain those numbers.” Cape Town’s mountains and beaches may have contributed to its high number of COVID-19 cases. With direct flights to several European capitals, it is believed that tourists not showing symptoms brought the virus and it began to spread undetected.

Cape Town is expected to reach its peak of cases around the end of June, while the rest of South Africa is expected to peak in August or September.

South Africa may see between 40,000 to 45,000 deaths by November, according to the Modelling and Simulation Hub, Africa, a group of scien-tists and academics advising the government.

By year’s end some 13 million of South Africa’s 57 million people could be infected, their study said.

While South Africa reportedly has adequate hos-pital beds it remains short of intensive care facilities. It has about 3,300 intensive care beds but predictions suggest more than 20,000 could be needed.

“It is not just a question of beds, it is trained staff and ven-tilators that will be needed and those are difficult to provide quickly,” said Juliet Pulliam, director of the South African Center for Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis, who contributed to the study. Cape Town could experience a

shortage of ICU beds by the end of June, she warned.

Cape Town and Western Cape province are six to eight weeks ahead of the rest of South Africa in the outbreak, health experts said.

“The lessons we are learning now, we are sharing with the rest of the country,” said Dr. Nomafrench Mbombo, Western Cape’s top health officer.

Khayelitsha, a shantytown of nearly 500,000, is one of Cape Town’s hot spots. A field hospital is being constructed to increase the capacity of Khay-elitsha District Hospital and

should open by June 1, according to Doctors Without Borders.

One local problem is a delay in test results, in some cases up to eight to 10 days, said Dr. Claire Keene, medical coordi-nator for the Doctors Without Borders project. Another is that some healthcare workers have tested positive.

A second hot spot in the out-break is the Tygerburg area near Cape Town International Airport.

Cape Town has suffered a massive economic slump from the tourism slump and

lockdown restrictions, said Western Cape premier Alan Winde, estimating that 200,000 jobs have been lost and 1.2 million to 1.8 million people in the province are hungry.

Winde, in self-isolation after coming in contact with a TV cam-eraman who later died of COVID-19, wants restrictions relaxed to boost economic activity.

“We need to see the economy open up with the new normal operations, but without putting our health system under severe strain,” he told reporters. “We need to keep the curve as flat as possible.”

A South African Police Services officer removes a burning barricade outside the Booysens informal settlement, during a protest in Johannesburg, yesterday.

Election head calls for patience after tense Burundi vote

AFP — BUJUMBURA

The head of Burundi’s election commission appealed for patience yesterday as ballots were collected and tallied following a tense poll to decide who will replace long-serving leader Pierre Nkurunziza.

B u r u n d i a n s v o t e d Wednesday to elect their pres-ident, lawmakers and local officials in a poll marked by allegations of fraud and con-ducted with scant attention paid to the coronavirus pandemic.

The last election in 2015 descended into violence that left 1,200 dead. Nkurunziza won a disputed third term, but did not contest this race after 15 often turbulent years in power.

More than five million voters were asked to choose between Nkurunziza’s hand-picked heir, 52-year-old general Evariste Ndayishimiye, the main opposition com-petitor Agathon Rwasa, and five other candidates.

The chairman of Burundi’s National Independent Electoral Commission urged those “getting impatient” to be calm, saying the process of counting all the votes would take several days, and results would be announced Monday or Tuesday.

The results from more than 3,800 polling stations across Burundi had been counted and the ballot boxes were being transported to local election commission centres for col-lection and tallying.

“This will take time,” said commission chairman Pierre-Claver Kazihise, adding they would announce the results of the presidential, parliamentary and local election at the same time.

He warned against reading into results being posted online.

“The intermediate figures from polling stations do not show anything. It is the official results declared after the count at the commune level that must be communicated to the people,” he said.

Yesterday, popular social network platforms in Burundi remained down, after being offline since election day except to those using virtual private networks.

Burundi has not imposed any movement restrictions on its 11 million people in the light of the coronavirus outbreak, and voters waited in long lines to cast their ballot with no social distancing observed.

Tanzania to reopen universities as virus silence persistsAFP — DAR ES SALAAM

Tanzanian President John Magufuli said yesterday that universities and sports events would resume next month, after declaring that prayer had spared the country the worst of the coronavirus, even as critics say cases are soaring.

Magufuli has repeatedly played down the gravity of the pandemic, and it has been three weeks since the country released official data on case numbers, which stood at 480 with 16 deaths on April 29.

However, while the US embassy has said there was evidence of “exponential growth” and the opposition denounces a dangerous “coverup”, Magufuli is pro-ceeding to open up the East African nation.

“We have decided to reopen universities starting June 1, 2020,” Magufuli said at a political event in the capital Dodoma, adding that a decision on schools would be taken later.

He said sports events would resume on the same date, with spectators required to observe

social distancing measures.“I have not heard any sports

person died from the corona-virus and that means sports are not only important for fun but also in the fight against the viral disease,” he said.

The closing of schools and universities, the halting of sports events and flight restric-tions were the only measures taken in Tanzania to curb the spread of the virus.

On Tuesday, Tanzania lifted restrictions on flights and said those entering the country would no longer need to undergo man-datory quarantine.

Turkish ambassador to Ethiopia Yaprak Alp, Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency coordinator in Ethiopia Mehmet Ali Yetis and Shake Nuredin Ahmed Coordinator for the council are seen as Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency sends food aid to Ethiopian Islamic supreme council in Ethiopia as part of their Ramadan campaign, yesterday.

Turkish charity brings joy to Ethiopia with Ramadan aidANATOLIA — ADDIS ABABA

Turkey’s state-run charity distributed food packets to underprivileged people in Ethiopia as part of their Ramadan aid. On Wednesday and yesterday, the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) handed out 17 tons of food, bringing the total aid to 50 tonnes.

More than 2,062 people benefited from the latest food distribution drive in the capital Addis Ababa as well as camps for internally displaced persons in Sululta and Legetafo cities just outside the city in the Oromia regional state.

"Turkish and Ethiopian people are friends; and friends support each other more during hard times,” Ankara’s Ambas-sador to Ethiopia Yaprak Alp

said. She said Turkish organi-sations stepped up their assistance for the needy in Ethiopia at this difficult time of coronavirus pandemic.

TIKA Ethiopia office repre-sentative Mehmet Ali Yetis said his agency considers Ethiopia a special place as it hosts the first TIKA office in Sub-Sahara Africa and considering the brotherly relations between Ethiopia and Turkey.

Ne’ami Yusuf has been living at the Sululta camp for three years. She fled the vio-lence-hit city of Jijjiga. Now, she has to fend for her six children all alone.

"We welcome this aid as it came in the holy month of Ramadan,” she said, adding the displaced community wants more cooperation from Turkey.

Lagos doctors suspend strike over ‘harassment’ during virus curfewAFP — LAGOS

Doctors in Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos yesterday suspended a strike over alleged police harassment of health workers during a dusk-to-dawn curfew aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19.

The strike by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) began in the city of 20 million people on Wednesday, para-lysing health services at a time of the coronavirus pandemic.

Health workers including doctors have been exempted from the curfew as providers of essential services, but the NMA accused police of

harassing and detaining its members.

In a statement yesterday, the NMA said it was suspending the strike following the inter-vention of the governor and assurances from the police.

“The sit-at-home order issued on the 20th of May is hereby reversed and our members are hereby directed to resume work from 6pm today,” it said.

It said Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu “was exemplary as his timely intervention from the late hours of May 19, helped prevent the worsening of the situation.” The NMA has over 40,000 members, most of whom work in Lagos.

Gauteng province containing Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city, and the capital, Pretoria, had been expected to be the country’s epicentre with its population density and poverty levels, but Cape Town defied predictions with high levels of community transmission.

Tripoli forces seize another key town: Libyan officialAP — CAIRO

Forces allied with Libya’s UN-supported government in Tripoli said yesterday that they have wrestled another key town from their rivals who have been trying to capture the Libyan capital for over a year.

The fall of the town of Al Asabaa, about 50km south of Tripoli, marks another defeat for the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces, loyal to the administration based in the country’s east, which earlier this week lost control of a military base near the capital.

Since 2015, Libya has been divided between two govern-ments; one based in the east and the other in the west, in

Tripoli. The east-based forces under commander Khalifa Haftar launched an offensive in April last year to capture Tripoli from the west-based government. The offensive has had the backing of Russia, France, Egypt and the Unite Arab Emirates.

M o h a m e d G n o n o , spokesman for the Tripoli-allied forces, said in a statement posted on social media that his troops were chasing Haftar’s fighters in Al Asabaa and that their jets were doing flyovers, looking for their rivals’ hideouts.

Al Asabaa is located on a key road that links Haftar’s forces besieging Tripoli to Tarhuna, their main western

stronghold and supply line southeast of the capital.

In recent weeks, Haftar’s forces have sustained heavy losses — in April, the Tripoli-allied forces seized control of the city of Sabrata and the town of Sorman, west of the Libyan capital. On Monday, they seized Al Waitya airbase in Tripoli’s southwestern desert reaches.

Ahmed Al Mosmari, a spokesman for Haftar’s forces, renewed his allegation that there were 1,500 Turkish mil-itary personnel on Libyan soil, fighting on behalf of the Tripoli-based government. “The battle is continuing against terrorism, against the Turkish and against the extremists,” he said at a

n e w s c o n f e r e n c e yesterday.

Turkey has sent armoured drones, air defences and more recently Syrian militants with links to extremist groups to prop up the embattled Tripoli government. Russia, mean-while, has deployed hundreds of mercenaries to boost Haftar’s assault.

On Wednesday, Haftar’s forces announced they would withdraw up to three kilo-metres from the front line around Tripoli in a humani-tarian gesture aimed at giving the residents a respite from the fighting to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid Al Fitr this weekend.

The fighting around Tripoli

had escalated in recent weeks despite international pressures to reach a truce and have local authorities focus their efforts on battling the coronavirus.

Libya has so far reported 71 cases, including three deaths, but there are fears the pan-demic could ravage the war-torn country, given its poor medical infrastructure.

The Russian Foreign Min-istry said Sergey Lavrov had a call with his Turkish coun-terpart, Mevlut Cavudoglu, and that they underlined the need for an immediate cease-fire in Libya and the resumption of a political process based on decisions made at a con-ference in Berlin earlier this year.

07FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020 ASIA

Cyclone leaves 82 dead in India and BangladeshREUTERS — KOLKATA

The most powerful cyclone to strike eastern India and Bang-ladesh in over a decade killed at least 82 people, officials said, as rescue teams scoured devas-tated coastal villages yesterday, hampered by torn down power lines and widespread flooding.

Mass evacuations before Cyclone Amphan made landfall undoubtedly saved countless lives, but the full extent of the casualties and damage will only be known once commu-nications are restored, officials said.

In the Indian state of West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at least 72 people had perished — most of them either electrocuted or killed by trees uprooted by winds gusting up to 185kph.

She said the storm had carved a 400km long swathe through the state and announced a $130m emergency fund to rebuild roads, water and health systems. “These areas have been devastated,” she said.

I n n e i g h b o u r i n g

Bangladesh, the initial death toll was put at 10.

“I have never seen such a cyclone in my life. It seemed like the end of the world,” said Azgar Ali, 49, a resident of Satkhira district on the Bangla-deshi coast. “All I could do was to pray ... Almighty Allah saved us.”

When the cyclone barrelled in from the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday, a storm surge of around five metres caused flooding across low-lying coastal areas.

Reuters’ and other tele-vision footage showed people wading through knee-deep water and buses that had been smashed into each other.

Villagers could be seen trying to lift fallen electricity poles, fishermen hauling their boats out of a choppy sea, and

uprooted trees lying strewn across the countryside.

“Have been seeing visuals from West Bengal on the dev-astation caused by Cyclone Amphan,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted. “In this challenging hour, the entire nation stands in solidarity with West Bengal.”

Designated a super cyclone, Amphan weakened after making landfall. Moving inland through Bangladesh, it was downgraded to a cyclonic storm by the Indian weather office, and it was expected to subside into a depression later.

Low-lying Bangladesh has a history of cyclones, but even by those standards Amphan was powerful, said Mostak Hussain, humanitarian director for Save the Children in Bangladesh.

“We’ve received reports that

more than 5 million people were disconnected from the electricity grid for their own safety as winds of 150kph smashed into power lines, destroying homes and uprooting trees,” he said.

Concern was also growing over flooding in the Sunda-rbans, an ecologically fragile region straddling the Indian-Bangladesh border, best known for its thick mangrove forests and tiger reserve.

“The tidal surge submerged

part of the forest,” said Belayet Hossain, a forest official on the Bangladeshi side. “We have seen trees uprooted, the tin roofs of the guard towers blown off.”

On the Indian side, village official Sanjib Sagar said embankments protecting a low-lying island where some 5,000 people live had been washed away, and he had been unable to contact authorities for help.

Authorities in both countries

managed to evacuate more than 3 million people to storm shelters before Amphan struck. But the effort was focused on communities that lay directly in the cyclone’s path, leaving villages on the flanks still vulnerable.

The two countries are already battling to stop the spread of the coronavirus, and some evacuees were initially reluctant to leave home for fear of infection in packed storm shelters.

A man salvages items from his house damaged by cyclone Amphan in Midnapore, West Bengal, yesterday.

Australian states split over reopening of domestic bordersAFP — BRISBANE

A bitter row has broken out between Australian states, with some refusing to reopen domestic borders to outsiders despite a steep drop in corona-virus infections.

Several states making up more than three-quarters of the Australian continent shut their doors to compatriots from areas like Sydney and Melbourne in late March and are refusing to reopen them.

The debate has highlighted a dilemma set to face the world, as cities, regions or countries

emerge from the pandemic at different speeds.

Like Germany, the United States or India, Australia’s states and territories wield sizable powers. They have largely determined their own COVID-19 responses, some-times ignoring Canberra’s guidance.

While other tourism-reliant countries like Greece and Iceland mull reopening to inter-national visitors within weeks, Australia is still fiercely debating the benefits of domestic travel.

Critics say the restrictions

have no medical basis as cases have dwindled, may be uncon-stitutional and are damaging the economy —making it impossible to fully restart trade and tourism.

The issue has also taken on a political tinge in Australia, with officials looking to tap into regional rivalries for political gain and to score points against states run by rival parties.

Queensland Premier Annas-tacia Palaszczuk — a centre-left leader who faces a tough ree-lection campaign later this year — has trashed demands from neighbouring New South Wales

to reopen the shared state border.

“We won’t be lectured to by the worst-performing state in Australia,” she said, insisting New South Wales must first quash community transmission.

New South Wales — which includes Sydney — accounts for more than 3,000 of Australia’s 7,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and almost half the 100 deaths from the virus.

But new cases in the state are now down to around two a day, prompting centre-right Premier Gladys Berejiklian to call for borders to reopen.

“I often joke with the Queensland Premier that I’ll end up going to Auckland before I go to Brisbane if we continue the way we are going,” she said recently.

Yesterday, Berejiklian doubled down, saying it was “not logical at this stage to maintain those border closures for a prolonged period of time” and suggested other leaders were playing politics.

“What’s really critical to us now as a nation is to get the jobs going, is to stop us falling off an economic cliff in a few months’ time,” she said.

Diamond Princess’ coronavirus cases reveal pattern of diseaseBLOOMBERG — TOKYO

Months after the coronavirus (COVID-19) infected more than 700 people on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, scientists are still gleaning insights into the patterns of illness it causes.

Almost a fifth of the 3,711 passengers and crew on the 13-deck luxury ship in February caught the virus — most of them showing no tell-tale symptoms of COVID-19 at the time.

A detailed analysis of cases found the disease could be very mild, causing a sore throat, dry cough and runny nose, without fever or lower respiratory tract symptoms, a study published in the June edition of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases showed.

That’s problematic and differs with early reports that described COVID-19 mani-festing as pneumonia, according to researchers in Japan.

“Most cases are milder and could have more transmission potential because patients might not seek medical attention,” said Takeshi Ara-shiro, a junior resident at the Asahi General Hospital in

Chiba, just outside Tokyo.Early reports described

COVID-19 manifesting as pneumonia, “but most cases are milder and could have more transmission potential because patients might not seek medical attention,” said Arashiro, who is also a collab-orating researcher with the Infectious Diseases Surveil-lance Center in the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo.

The lower threshold for testing people for the corona-virus while the cruise ship was quarantined in Yokahama “created an opportunity to observe mild coronavirus cases and monitor patient symptoms,” he said.

Understanding the disease pattern that coronavirus infection can cause is important for informing strategies for detecting and controlling it.

The high proportion of people who test positive for the virus and have only mild or no symptoms makes fever-screening travelers, for example, much less useful in detecting probable infections than was the case with the related coronavirus that caused severe acute respiratory syn-drome 17 years ago.

Japan could lift emergency in Tokyo on MondayBLOOMBERG — TOKYO

Japan could lift the state of emergency in Tokyo and surrounding prefectures as soon as Monday, if current trends continue, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said.

The measure was lifted Thursday for Osaka and the two adjoining prefectures of Kyoto and Hyogo after the move was endorsed by a government

panel of health experts earlier in the day. The emergency dec-laration will stay in effect for Tokyo and surrounding prefec-tures, as well as for the northern island of Hokkaido, for the time being, he said.

New infections are declining in the areas remaining under the declaration and their medical systems are less stretched than they were, Abe said.

“The government will do its best in order to protect people’s lives,” he said, adding he would work with regional governors to prepare for a potential second wave of infections.

Japan has seen a steady fall in its new confirmed infections over the past few weeks and its overall numbers for COVID-19 cases and deaths are the lowest among the Group of Seven leading democracies.

A screen shows news footage of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in Osaka, yesterday.

Three crushed to death in Sri Lanka stampede for $8 cash handout

AFP — COLOMBO

Three women were trampled to death during a stampede for an $8 cash handout in Colombo yesterday, amid growing desperation among Sri Lankans struggling to make ends meet during a corona-virus lockdown that has smashed the economy.

Some 1,000 people queued outside a businessman’s ware-house for his annual handout during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, local member of parliament Mujibur Rahman said.

There was a rush for the 1,500-rupee gift – about the same amount as a labourer’s daily wage – when the gates opened, he said. “Some people tried to break the queue and enter.”

“That is when the women at the top of the queue fell and were trampled to death,” Rahman said.

Nine others were seriously hurt in the stampede and taken to hospital, he said, adding that there was a larger-than-usual crowd during this year’s event, which has been taking place for decades.

“People have not earned any money for two months because of the virus lockdown (since March 20),” Rahman said. “People are desperate. When they heard about today’s donation, over a thousand turned up.”

The businessman, who has not been named by authorities, and five of his assistants were arrested for violating the lockdown, Colombo police chief Deshabandu Tennakoon told reporters.

G o v e r n m e n t c a s h handouts this month — 5,000 rupees each to 5.14 million families living below the poverty line — also sparked chaotic scenes in villages.

In West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the storm had carved a 400km long swathe through the state and announced a $130m emergency fund to rebuild roads, water and health systems.

Virus-infected mothers in India give birth to healthy babiesANATOLIA — NEW DELHI

More than 250 babies were born to mothers who tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) at hospitals in India’s glitzy capital of Mumbai, which has been the worst-hit by the pandemic.

The state-run Sion Hospital recorded 130 deliveries in the last one month from mothers infected by the virus. Of the total deliveries, 57 were cesarean born, while the remaining 73 were normal births.

“One child showed COVID-19 symptoms after

delivery, but luckily recovered from it four days later and tested negative. All the mothers are in the quarantine facility. Two of the pregnant mothers

died, the rest all are doing good,” Dr. Ramesh Bharmal, dean of Sion Hospital, said yesterday.

Babies are tested 24 hours after birth.

Due to its proximity to Asia’s largest slum, Dharavi — a COVID-19 hotspot — the hos-pital, with dedicated 25 COVID-19 beds, records at least seven to eight deaths a day, totaling the number to over 100 so far. The hospital has dis-charged 1,000 patients after they recovered.

Nair Hospital, another civic-run hospital in the city,

recorded 120 deliveries in the same period, which include triplets, twins, and a stillbirth.

Mumbai has so far reported 23,935 infections and 841 deaths.

The western state of Maharashtra, which includes Mumbai, is the worst affected state in the country with 39,297 cases, and 1,390 deaths. The state has reported around 35 percent of total cases in the country.

India is expecting 20.1 million births in November and December as partners spend

longer time together due to strict lockdown rules.

The data released by Unicef predicted 116 million babies will be born by the end of this year, with India leading the list of countries with highest number of births.

This is followed by China at 13.5 million, Nigeria at 6.4 million, Pakistan at 5 million and Indonesia at 4 million expected births.

Meanwhile, India's con-firmed cases surged past 100,000 on Tuesday, out-stripping China, where the virus emerged late last year.

The concern is that migrants, who are leaving coro-navirus hotspots such as Mumbai, New Delhi and Ahmedabad, could be carrying the virus into the hinterland.

Since early May, around 70 percent of all coronavirus cases in the densely populated eastern state of Bihar have been linked to migrant workers, the state's top health official, Sanjay Kumar, said.

“The top priority is the people who are coming from delhi because they have the highest percentage of positive cases,” Kumar said.

India is expecting 20.1 million births in November and December as partners spend longer time together due to strict lockdown rules due to coronavirus disease.

Merkel, in her fifteenth year in power, may be riding high in the polls at home for managing the COVID-19 outbreak relatively well. But she’s come under a lot of pressure in the EU of late.

08 FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020VIEWS

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MOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

EDITORIAL

AS the holy month of Ramadan draws to a close, health officials in Qatar and other countries are rightly advising the public to observe the festive occasion of Eid Al Fitr at home. Eid is traditionally a time of the year when Muslims around the world socialise, and celebrate with friends and family. But this year is different, as the world is battling a pan-demic which has killed more than 330,000 people worldwide.

The country, as health officials have said, is passing through the peak phase of the COVID-19 outbreak, which makes it all the more important that people adhere to the guidelines issued by the authorities by staying at home and using protective masks and keeping distance from others if they have to go out. The government has also put in place a number of special measures to safeguard the public against the coronavirus infection. All non-essential businesses and commercial activities will remain closed during the Eid Al Fitr holidays; wearing a face mask in public has been made mandatory for all; and starting today, all citizens and residents are required to have the Ehteraz app on their mobile phones when leaving their homes. The app helps track COVID-19 cases, informing users if they come into contact with anybody who has tested positive for COVID-19.

According to health officials, it’s been around 80 days since the novel coronavirus first emerged in the country. Ever since, the country has recorded more than 38,000 confirmed cases of the infection. Of the total, more than 7,000 have fully recovered. The number of people recovering is on the rise with record 966 people making full recovery on Wednesday alone. This clearly shows the efficiency of the health system in the State of Qatar.

The health authorities have also enhanced the testing capabilities. More than 175,000 people have been tested for the virus in the State of Qatar. The country’s healthcare system has also been lauded for high recovery rate and a very low mortality rate. Qatar’s mortality rate of 0.04 percent --- 17 deaths out of more than 38,651 confirmed cases to date --- is among the lowest in the world.

The Ministry of Public Health has said that the country has now entered the peak phase of the virus outbreak, which is seeing a rise in the number of infections recorded daily, and therefore it is nec-essary to adhere to, more than ever before, the pre-ventive measures recommended by the authorities.

An Eid like no other

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Quote of the dayIt's not the time for parties, nightlife or gatherings. During this phase, more than ever it's fundamental to respect security distances and wear masks, where necessary.

Giuseppe Conte, Italian Prime Minister

German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a joint press conference on Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron who attended via video link.

If it pans out, it could be a break-through in the otherwise sorry tale of the European Union’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Germany and France, the bloc’s two largest countries, are jointly proposing a generous “European recovery fund.” It’s to be administered through the EU’s budget, financed by EU-issued debt and funneled to the regions worst hit by the coronavirus, including Italy and Spain.

Whether German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French Pres-ident Emmanuel Macron can con-vince all the other 25 national leaders to go along with their idea remains to be seen. But for Germany in particular, even this first step already amounts to a dramatic change. A country that has consistently rejected any notion of a European “transfer union” or “mutualized borrowing” is now pushing for a soft and tem-porary form of both. How did this change come about? And how dif-ferent is the direction really?

Merkel, in her fifteenth year in power, may be riding high in the polls at home for managing the COVID-19 outbreak relatively well. But she’s come under a lot of pressure in the EU of late. Espe-cially in Italy and Spain, politicians and voters feel “the north” hasn’t been forthcoming in helping the south, where the medical and eco-nomic devastation is greatest.

Merkel and the whole German establishment have been genu-inely shaken by polls showing the Italians turning into Euroskeptics, and by the specter of the EU as

such becoming irrelevant or even failing outright. Post-war Ger-many’s foreign policy is premised on both transatlantic and European integration. With the US-German relationship already threatening to unravel, the prospect of a dissolving EU strikes almost existential fears in Berlin.

Nonetheless, Merkel per-sonally and her compatriots gen-erally remain as reluctant as ever to assume the mantle of European leader, or “hegemon.” But she has clearly decided that Germany must at least be seen to assume its traditional position again as co-rider of the Franco-German “tandem” that’s pulled Europe forward in fits and starts since the 1950s.

By the time SARS-CoV-2 was spreading to Europe, this Franco-German relationship had in effect broken down. Macron had too many times proposed bold new measures to reform the euro area, only for Merkel to feign support, then stand by idly as fiscally hawkish member states such as Austria and the Netherlands gave Macron the cold shoulder. He no longer even bothered to hide his frustration with Merkel.

But in this hour of crisis, the pair have decided to give their relationship another go. He’ll of course be paying close attention what Merkel does next, and Merkel knows it. Macron expects her to spend her considerable political capital leaning on the remaining member states to accept the pro-posed recovery fund.

First, there’s countries such as Hungary and Poland that used to be behind the Iron Curtain and are today the largest beneficiaries of the existing EU budget, and therefore not keen on seeing more of the pot go to southern countries. These eastern members basically have to be bought in, with promises that the new fund won’t jeopardize their takes.

Then there are the usual sus-pects in the north, including Austria, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. Like the Germans, they are fiscally conservative and philosophically opposed to mutual debt and transfers within Europe. They’re especially aghast at the idea that the new fund should give out grants rather than loans. A counter-proposal from this group is on its way.

What could tilt the European balance one way or the other is therefore how the debate develops in the largest country, Germany. After all, German politicians on the center-right agree with the northern skeptics. Thus con-servative factions within Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union have already signaled their opposition. “They’re our Dutch,” as Christian Odendahl, a German think-tanker, puts it.

But the overall German debate is tilting in favor of Merkel and Macron. Senior Christian Demo-crats in parliament have come out in support. So have Armin Laschet and Friedrich Merz, the two leading candidates to become the CDU’s next party boss and thus possibly chancellor. The backing of Merz, a die-hard fiscal hawk, is especially surprising, and thus telling.

One factor that nudged the change in consensus is a shock ruling by Germany’s constitutional court this month. It sharply cir-cumscribed Germany’s ability to participate in the European Central Bank’s bond-buying pro-grams to stimulate the euro area’s economy. In effect, the court has called a halt to the ECB’s creeping mission drift, or what I’ve called “treaty change on the down low.” The politicos in Berlin understood it as a signal that they must now do their part to save Europe with proper democratic legislation.

The author is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

IAN MARCUS CORBIN THE WASHINGTON POST

Twitter’s recent announcement that its employees have the option of working remotely even after the lockdown ends is a beautifully hopeful sign. If it heralds the beginning of a trend, perhaps it will allow us to begin resettling those parts of the United States that have been cut off from the past few decades of economic growth - one of the ugliest wounds on our socioeconomic landscape.

History has seen this before. As the Industrial Revolution picked up steam in Britain, family farms and local industries became obsolete, and people were forced to relocate from vil-lages to industrial cities, where most of the remunerative work was now being done. The shift led to overcrowded cities,

desolate, abandoned villages and the fracturing of the extended family into smaller, more mobile - but less resilient - units.

A similar desolation has in recent decades been visited upon vast swaths of America, as manufacturing jobs have been outsourced to cheaper climes, and the “good” jobs of the new economy have become concentrated in a handful of ZIP codes, some-times called “Super ZIPs.” In 2013, when the term was first coming into common usage, The Washington Post counted 650 of these elite areas where median household income was $120,000 and two-thirds of adults had college degrees. The most concentrated clusters of super ZIPs are gathered, unsur-prisingly, in and around cities such as Washington, San Fran-cisco, New York and Boston.

This has led to startling con-trasts. A couple of the writers I follow on Twitter have the good fortune and sense to live far away from these super ZIPs, and they occasionally tweet out excruciatingly affordable Mid-western real estate listings that offer stately homes and nice yards for less than $100,000. The listings come with estimated monthly mortgage payments that are usually less than the cost of renting a small bedroom in, say, Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I sit and read their posts through a grimace.

Here in Cambridge, we have leafy streets, interesting work, good restaurants, decent earning potential and hordes of highly educated people. If you want to do white-collar work, it’s a good place to be. We also have a massive economic problem: It’s oppressively expensive to live

here. Few families can survive without two serious incomes, even if they would like to. Nannies and day-care workers abound, but neither they, nor any of the service workers who keep the city running, could dream of living here.

Cambridge is neither unique nor the most egregious example. The Brookings Insti-tution recently found that while the median income in San Francisco rose by 26% between 2008 and 2016, rents doubled during the same period. The Department of Housing and Urban Development defines “Low Income Limits” in San Francisco as $82,200 for an individual and $117,400 for a family of four. The federal poverty guidelines, by contrast, put the poverty line at $12,140 for an individual and $25,100 for a family of four.

Did Angela Merkel just make a U-turn in her European policy?

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09FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020 ASIA

China complains as US plans Taiwan arms saleREUTERS — TAIPEI

The US government has notified Congress of a possible sale of advanced torpedoes to Taiwan worth around $180m, further souring already tense ties between Washington and Beijing, which claims Taiwan as Chinese territory.

The United States, like most countries, has no official diplo-matic ties with Taiwan, but is bound by law to provide the democratic island with the means to defend itself. China routinely denounces US arms sales to Taiwan.

The US State Department has approved a possible sale to Taiwan of 18 MK-48 Mod6 Advanced Technology Heavy Weight Torpedoes and related equipment for an estimated cost of $180m, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement yesterday.

“The Defense Security

Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification noti-fying Congress of this possible sale today,” it added.

The proposed sale serves US national, economic, and security interests by supporting Taiwan’s “continuing efforts to modernise its armed forces and to maintain a credible defensive

capability”, the agency said.In Beijing, Chinese Foreign

Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China had lodged “solemn representations” with Wash-ington about the planned sale.

China urged the United States to stop all arms sales to, and military ties with, Taiwan to prevent further damage to Sino-US relations, Zhao added.

The US announcement came on the same day Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen was sworn in for her second term in office, saying she strongly rejecting China’s sovereignty claims. China responded that

“reunification” was inevitable and that it would never tolerate Taiwan’s independence.

China has stepped up its military drills near Taiwan since Tsai’s re-election, flying fighter jets into the island’s air space and sailing warships around Taiwan.

China views Tsai as a sepa-ratist bent on formal inde-pendence for Taiwan. Tsai says Taiwan is an independent state called the Republic of China, its official name, and does not want to be part of the People’s Republic of China governed by Beijing.

US envoy in Afghan peace deal demands reduction in violenceREUTERS — KABUL

The US special envoy for Afghanistan has demanded that all sides reduce violence, he said yesterday, after shuttling from Kabul to the Gulf to push a peace effort that looks increasingly precarious.

The envoy, Afghan-born Zalmay Khalilzad, the architect of a February agreement with the Taliban clearing the way for a US troop withdrawal, met Taliban leaders on Wednesday, hours

after meeting government leaders in Kabul.

“ On violence, I told the Talibs, violence by all sides must fall,” Khalilzad said on Twitter.

Violence has surged in recent days after a bloody mil-itant raid in Kabul, which the Taliban denied responsibility for, triggered an Afghan gov-ernment order for its forces to go on the offensive.

Clashes have erupted in several parts of the country with dozens killed.

The main element of the February 29 agreement between the United States and the Taliban was the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces in exchange for Taliban security guarantees.

A Taliban ceasefire was not part of the pact though the mil-itants, fighting since their 2001 ouster to expel foreign troops and bring back Islamic rule, promised to enter power-sharing talks with the US-backed government.

But peace efforts have

stalled over disagreement on an exchange of prisoners.

Khalilzad said he met Taliban leaders, including political chief Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and discussed the prisoner release and reducing violence.

Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada on Wednesday released a statement for the Eid Al Fitr holiday calling for progress on peace but also telling his fighters to stay “focused on their objectives” and “consolidate ... ranks”,

which government security offi-cials criticised as inciting violence.

Earlier on Wednesday, Khalilzad met Afghan Pres-ident Ashraf Ghani and his former rival Abdullah Abdullah.

Ghani and Abdullah signed an agreement to share power on Sunday, ending a months-long impasse over a disputed election, and raising hopes that the government would now focus on the US-brokered peace process effort.

A man jogs past a four-legged robot called Spot, which broadcasts a recorded message reminding people to observe safe distancing as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19, during its two-week trial at the Bishan-Ang Moh Kio Park in Singapore.

The US State Department has approved a possible sale to Taiwan of 18 MK-48 Mod6 Advanced Technology Heavy Weight Torpedoes and related equipment for an estimated cost of $180m.

New Zealand PM's election prospects boosted by new poll

REUTERS — WELLINGTON

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s popularity has soared ahead of elections in September as a result of her handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a latest poll showed.

And the 1 NEWS Colmar Brunton Poll showed popu-larity for Ardern’s Labour rose to 59 percent, a rise of 18 per-centage points, which if repeated in the elections would allow the party to govern on its own rather than in coalition.

The Pacific nation was locked down for more than a month and strict social measures enforced by Ardern’s government, moves which helped prevent the corona-virus spreading.

Ardern has won global praise for her leadership during the pandemic and her strat-ospheric rise to become New Zealand’s youngest prime min-ister and third woman to hold the office has been dubbed “Jacinda-mania” by some.

As preferred prime min-ister, 39-year-old Ardern, whose Labour party is now in a coalition with the Greens and the nationalist New Zealand First party, had 63 percent, while rival opposition National Party leader Simon Bridges polled just 5 percent.

Bridges faces a vote at his party’s caucus today on whether he will lead it into the election. The National Party, the biggest party in par-liament, slumped by 17 per-centage points to 29 percent, its lowest since 2003.

Virus deaths, infections in Pakistan tick higherREUTERS — ISLAMABAD

COVID-19 infections in Pakistan trended higher in recent days and were approaching 50,000, official data showed, with total deaths crossing 1,000, as the government remained unsure over the consequences of its decision to end the nation’s lockdown.

Fearful of the economic and financial impact, and swayed by the acute hardship suffered by millions of poor families, Prime Minister Imran Khan has defended the lifting of the lockdown last week, saying the virus spread has been well below projections.

Education is the only major sector that remains closed.

“The ending of the lockdown doesn’t mean the threat is over,” Yasmeen Rashid, the health minister of Punjab, the country’s largest province, said in an interview on Pakistani television, adding that people needed to adopt safety measures themselves.

How the mostly Muslim nation of 207 million people behaves when the fasting month of Ramadan ends and festivities for Eid begins, which is expected on Sunday or Monday, could influence the course of the contagion.

Usually Eid draws big crowds to malls and shops, and people travel in droves to reach their hometowns. While the government has advised people to act responsibly, and avoid going out for

non-essential reasons, there has been little mention of special precautions needed over the festival period.

For a country of Pakistan’s size, levels of testing remains low at around 14,000 a day. But Reuters calculations, using official data, suggest the infection rate has so far remained relatively steady, with total infections doubling every 9 to 11 days since April 1.

Doctors and experts fear Pakistan’s under-funded and creaking healthcare system if the contagion gathers more pace.

In the first 20 days of May, over 630 people have died, compared to around 380 in the entire month of April, data tab-ulated by Reuters shows. There were less than 10 deaths in March.

The 32 deaths reported on Wednesday took the total to 1,017, a government website showed, making Pakistan the 25th country worldwide where the toll has crossed a thousand. On Tuesday, Pakistan reported the most deaths for a single day at 46.

Infections on Wednesday were reported at 2,193 — the second highest for a single day — taking the total number of COVID-19 cases in Pakistan to 48,091.

Regardless of the final death toll, Pakistan expects to suffer an awful human cost, as the government expects mil-lions more of its people to fall into poverty.

Philippine health agency apologises for virus ‘second wave’ confusion

Changing of guards ceremony

BLOOMBERG — MANILA

The Philippines’ Health Department corrected a statement made by its top official that the country is already experiencing its second wave of coronavirus infections, apologising for the confusion it caused.

The Southeast Asian nation is still in the first wave, driven by the local com-munity transmission of the virus, Health Director Beverly Ho said in a virtual briefing yesterday.

Secretary Francisco Duque told lawmakers on Wednesday that the first wave already occurred in January when three Chinese tourists tested positive for the virus.

The first wave of infections hit its peak on March 31 when more than 530 new cases were reported, Ho said. The curve has started to flatten as new infections now average about 220 a day.

The Philippines reported 213 new cases yesterday to take the tally to 13,434. A total of 846 people have died from the virus.

The country is considering downsizing lockdowns to vil-lages from regions, as it bal-ances further reopening its economy with stemming the virus outbreak.

“We will lock down vil-lages with coronavirus cases so that we can preserve eco-nomic activity,” Carlito Galvez, chief implementer of the nation’s policies to stem the outbreak, said in a televised briefing late Tuesday.

Costumed royal guards taking part in a ‘changing of the guards’ ceremony at Gyeongbokgung Palace, in Seoul yesterday. The ceremony has been re-started following a hiatus due to preventative measures against the novel coronavirus.

Pakistan arrests man for ‘honour killings’ of cousinsAFP — PESHAWAR

Pakistan police have arrested a man over the so-called “honour killings” of his two cousins who appeared in a viral video, police said yesterday.

The two women were shot dead last week in a north-western district near the Afghan border, where women are sub-jected to strict tribal codes that limit their movement outside of the home.

Muhammad Aslam, the 26-year-old first cousin of the victims, is accused of carrying out the murders.

“We have arrested the main suspect and trying to recover the pistol he used”, said Mohammad Nawaz Khan, who is investigating the case.

Another senior officer con-firmed the arrest.

Police said the two victims, both in their 20s, were later gunned down in North Waziris-tan’s remote Garyum village

and buried by family members.A third woman seen in the

video, recorded last year, is the wife of the suspected killer but has been safely located, police added.

Two other relatives of the women have also been arrested over the killings, while the man in the video and the man who filmed it have both been arrested for indecency.

Around a thousand Paki-stani women are murdered in honour killings each year — in

which the victim, normally a woman, is killed by a relative for bringing shame on the family.

Perpetrators have often walked free because of a legal loophole that allowed them to seek forgiveness for the crime from another family member.

But the government has since passed a law that man-dates life imprisonment, even if the attacker escapes capital punishment through a rela-tive’s pardon.

Singapore deploys robot dog to ensure social distancing

AFP — SINGAPORE

A yellow robot dog called Spot which found fame online for dancing to hit song “Uptown Funk” has been deployed to patrol a Singapore park and ensure people observe social distancing.

The hi-tech hound is remote-controlled and can clamber easily over all types of terrain, which its creators say means it can go where wheeled robots cannot.

As it trots through the park, Spot — who has the same name as the popular fictional puppy — uses cameras to estimate the number of visitors.

And the robot blasts out a message to ensure joggers and walkers keep their distance to limit the spread of the coro-navirus: “For your own safety and for those around you, please stand at least one metre apart. Thank you.”

Spot, which is being trialled over a three-kilometre (1.8 mile) stretch of the park, also has sensors to ensure it does not bump into people.

Developed by US company Boston Dynamics, Spot is best known for a video

where the robot showed off its moves by bopping to Mark Ronson hit “Uptown Funk” — and which has been viewed over 6.8 million times on YouTube.

On a recent outing, curious onlookers stopped to watch Spot as the four-legged invention passed by and snap pictures on their phones.

Gu Feng Min, a visitor from China out for a walk, said the robot was “cute” and useful as a way to “determine how crowded the place is”.

Others had misgivings, however.“I think it’s really going to be chilling

in a way — something is looking around and I’m not sure how it’s going to react to me when I go near it,” local resident Simon Neo said.

Singapore authorities have played down privacy concerns, saying Spot’s cameras cannot track or recognise spe-cific individuals and no personal data will be collected.

The city-state has reported over 29,000 virus cases, mostly among migrant workers living in dormitories, and 22 deaths.

10 FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020EUROPE

UK confident COVID-19 tracking system will be in place before lockdown easedREUTERS — LONDON

Health secretary Matt Hancock said yesterday he was confident that a COVID-19 track and trace system would be operating by June 1, allowing lockdown rules to be eased without risking a spike in infections.

Health workers have warned that any failure in Brit-ain’s ability to track and trace people with the novel corona-virus and their contacts would result in a second deadly wave.

Britain is currently testing a COVID-19 smartphone app — based on Bluetooth — on the Isle of Wight off the southern coast of England where the gov-ernment says more than half

the residents had downloaded it. James Brokenshire, the junior interior minister in charge of security, said yesterday that there were technical issues with the app but that traditional measures could be rolled out first.

Hancock, however, said the app was working alongside a conventional tracing system that uses phone and email to alert those who had been in contact with anybody who had tested positive for the virus.

“The app is working in the Isle of Wight,” he said. “We want to make sure this whole system lands well and supports the ability safely to make changes to social distancing rules.”

Britain’s tracing coordinator John Newton said the app was not required before conven-tional track and tracing could start. “They are distinct but complementary, and it is per-fectly OK, in fact possibly advantageous, to introduce one

before the other,” he said. The government has recruited 24,000 trackers to manually trace the contacts of people who test positive for COVID-19 using telephone and e-mail, Hancock said.

But Britain’s progress has been criticised: opposition law-makers said an earlier promise of a nationwide roll-out of a National Health Service (NHS)-developed smartphone app had slipped from the middle of this month.

Rival technology developed by Apple and Google was launched in several other coun-tries on Wednesday. The com-panies said they were in talks with Britain about the system.

Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock addressing a remote press conference to update the nation on the COVID-19 pandemic, inside 10 Downing Street in central London, yesterday.

The government has recruited 24,000 trackers to manually trace the contacts of people who test positive using telephone and e-mail.

People stroll along a canal in the Navigli district of Milan yesterday as Italy eases its lockdown after over two months, aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 infection.

Europe’s virus death toll tops 170,000AFP — PARIS

Europe’s coronavirus death toll passed 170,000 yesterday, with the lion’s share of deaths recorded in the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Spain, according to an AFP tally at 1230 GMT yesterday.

With 170,032 deaths out of 1,957,819 cases, Europe is the hardest hit continent by the pandemic that has swept the globe since it first emerged in China in December.

Britain has the highest death toll in Europe with

35,704 fatalities, followed by Italy with 32,330, France with 28,132 and Spain’s 27,888.

The tallies are collated using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO).

France’s virus death rate, new cases slowREUTERS — PARIS

The growth rate of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in France slowed slightly yesterday, with health author-ities reporting an additional 318 known infections, an increase of 0.2% over 24 hours.

The rate of increases in reported deaths also slowed a little, with 83 COVID-19 fatal-ities in the past day, bringing the total to 28,215. That repre-sented a rise of 0.3%.

The number of new cases and deaths increased by 0.3% and 0.4% respectively on Wednesday.

Yesterday was a public holiday in France. Nursing homes in particular can be slower to report fatalities and cases on weekends and national holidays. In the last two weeks of the lockdown, the daily rise in the number of con-firmed cases was on average 0.8%. The indicator is being closely watched by the gov-ernment to ensure the gradual relaxation of lockdown measures does not trigger a

feared second wave of the disease. Genevieve Chene, head of health authority Sante Pub-lique France (SPF), this week said there were no signs the pandemic was picking up, despite some new infection clusters, after France began emerging cautiously from lockdown on May 11.

But she said another week would be needed for a more complete picture of the impact of easing restrictions.

The number of COVID-19 patients being treated in intensive care units fell to 1,745 from 1,794 a day earlier, yes-terday’s numbers showed.

In total, 17,583 people were hospitalised with COVID-19, a decrease of 358 over the past 24 hours.

Spain’s daily death toll at 48, excluding CataloniaREUTERS — MADRID

Spain’s daily death toll from the coronavirus fell below 50 yesterday for the first time since a lockdown was imposed in mid-March, but the figure excludes deaths in the north-eastern region of Catalonia.

Cumulative deaths climbed by 48 to 27,940, while the number of confirmed cases edged up to 233,037, the health ministry said.

Catalan authorities did not update their daily figures due to data-validation problems, the ministry said in a statement, without elaborating on the nature of the problems.

Health Emergency Chief Fernando Simon said officials preferred not to release the Catalan data until they were satisfied with its quality.

“We want to provide the

best possible data so people can take solid and informed deci-sions,” he told a news con-ference. Including deaths in

Catalonia the daily toll would still be around 50, he added.

At the peak of the outbreak in early April, Spain reported as

many as 950 deaths a day. A strict lockdown has helped bring the epidemic under control, prompting authorities to begin lifting restrictions.

Restaurants have reopened their terraces in most of the country, people are allowed out to exercise and some shops can open. But fears of a second wave remain and the gov-ernment introduced mandatory mask use in public from yesterday.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday secured a razor-thin parliamentary majority to extend the emer-gency state by two weeks, allowing his government to control further easing.

Support for his left-wing coalition is flagging in par-liament and on the streets, with pot-banging protests spreading around the country.

Migrant boat crossings to UK surge during virus lockdownAFP — LONDON

The number of unaccompanied young migrants crossing the Channel from France to Britain has spiked during the corona-virus outbreak, as travel restric-tions force them onto boats rather than trucks.

Kent County Council in southeast England, which includes the major port of Dover, was dealing with “230 to 250” young migrants a year ago, its chief executive, Roger Gough, said.

“But that number has pretty much doubled. It’s now nearly 470 and new arrivals are coming in all the time,” he said.

Channel crossing attempts have increased since the end of 2018, despite the danger of heavy maritime traffic, strong currents and low water temperatures.

In 2019, 2,758 migrants were rescued by the French and British authorities while trying

to cross the strait — four times more than in 2018, according to French officials.

The coronavirus pandemic has reinforced the trend, with the reduced number of trucks going through the Channel Tunnel leading migrants to make the crossing in small boats instead.

“We used to see these young people crossing in trucks. This was the typical route,” Gough said.

“Now what we’re seeing is these unaccompanied young people are in the boats.”

Francois Guennoc, vice-president of the Auberge des Migrants aid group in Calais, said the vast majority of foreign nationals seeking refuge in the region were male, aged 16 to 30.

He said milder weather and calmer seas since the beginning of April may have contributed to the increase in crossing attempts.

“The success rate has

increased from around 60 to 80 percent, which also attracts migrants to Calais,” he said.

A police source in Calais said stay-at-home restrictions to curb the coronavirus spread could also have contributed.

“With lockdown, beaches were closed and migrants have indirectly taken advantage of the fact that many local people who used to let us know about attempted crossings weren’t able to do so,” the source added.

At least 1,000 migrants have arrived in Britain by small boats since Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced virus lockdown measures on March 23, according to a count by the domestic Press Association news agency.

At least 145 arrived on May 8, it added. Of those, 17 were unaccompanied minors. Another three arrived the same weekend, said Gough. Most were Iranians, Iraqis and Afghans.

Kent officials face the tough task of dealing with the influx while social distancing measures are in place that have added financial pressures to local budgets.

The county, which used to have only one migrant reception centre, now has three.

In addition to caring for 469 minors, it is also responsible for supporting 932 young migrants between the ages of 18 and 25 who have left the care system.

The Home Office did not respond to a request for the official number of arrivals.

But it said the government “takes the welfare of unaccom-panied children very seriously and provides funding to local authorities, including Kent, as a contribution to the cost of supporting unaccompanied children and those who leave care”.

The police made 418 arrests for immigration offences last year, and 111 smugglers received

prison sentences.More than 10 smugglers

have been convicted and imprisoned since the beginning of the year.

“These ruthless criminal gangs put people’s lives in grave danger and we are working closely with all our partners to dismantle this illegal trade and bring people smugglers to justice,” the Home Office said.

Britain is working with France to send back more migrants who arrive by boat in an attempt to deter those thinking of making the dan-gerous journey.

In the Pas-de-Calais region of northern France, police have recorded 230 attempted crossings this year — 128 of which were intercepted by the French border force, and 102 by their British counterparts.

April was the busiest month, with French officials intercepting 38 attempted crossings. British authorities stopped 41, it added.

A cleaner wipes a table in a classroom as schools in Spain’s Basque region prepare to receive students next week, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in San Sebastian, Spain, yesterday.

UK watchdog clears Johnson of criminal wrongdoingAP — LONDON

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not face a criminal investigation into whether he offered special favours to an American busi-nesswoman during his time as mayor of London.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct ruled yes-terday against a criminal investigation into Johnson’s ties to tech entrepreneur Jen-nifer Arcuri.

The office, which oversees police complaints in England, was asked to consider if there were grounds to investigate him for misconduct in public office. Johnson has vocifer-ously denied wrongdoing.

It said that while its review established that “there may have been an intimate rela-tionship” between Johnson and Arcuri, “we found no evi-dence to indicate that Mr. Johnson influenced the payment of any sponsorship monies to Ms. Arcuri, or that he influenced or played an active part in securing her par-ticipation in trade missions.”

The office added that “it would have been wise” for Johnson to declare the rela-tionship as a conflict of interest.

A spokesman for Johnson welcomed the decision, calling the complaint politically moti-vated and the months-long review “a waste of police time.” “Such vexatious claims of impropriety in office were untrue and unfounded,” the spokesman said.

Johnson served as London mayor from 2008 to 2016.

The case arose from a Sunday Times report that Arcuri’s business was given thousands of pounds in spon-sorship from an organisation overseen by Johnson, as well as privileged access while on trade trips that Johnson led as mayor. Arcuri describes herself on her Twitter feed as an entrepreneur and producer.

Sicily’s COVID-19 tsar arrested on graft chargeREUTERS — PALERMO, ITALY

Sicily’s coronavirus emergency coordinator was arrested along with nine other people yesterday on suspicion of corruption and rigging of health sector tenders while in his previous role, police on the Italian island said.

Antonino Candela was allegedly part of a “power base made up of businessmen and corrupt public officials” the police statement said, referring to activity before he became head of Sicily’s coronavirus response unit.

He was among those responsible for helping to rig public tenders for medical equipment and services worth nearly ¤600m ($660.30m) since 2016, in return for promised bribes of around ¤1.8m, the police alleged.

Candela, who is under house arrest, was not imme-diately available for comment.

Candela was director of a provincial health authority in the Sicilian capital of Palermo, which issued the tenders along with a regional agency.

“This is an absolutely alarming and disheartening picture of the level of illegality in the Sicilian health system, where systemic corruption has allowed very large illicit profits,” the magistrates’ arrest warrant said.

The police also seized seven companies based in Sicily and in the northern region of Lombardy, as well as some ¤160,000 in bribes allegedly already paid.

“Those who steal public money, if the allegations are confirmed, do not deserve the esteem of so many honest people. Everyone must know that healthcare is not a business,” Sicily’s regional president Nello Musumeci wrote on Facebook.

The number of COVID-19 patients being treated in intensive care units fell to 1,745 yesterday from 1,794 a day earlier.

11FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020 EUROPE / AMERICAS

US sends aid as Russia virus cases rise to over 317,000REUTERS — MOSCOW

A US Air Force plane delivered a first batch of medical aid including 50 ventilators to Russia yesterday to help it cope with a rising number of coro-navirus cases and deaths.

Russia’s case tally, the world’s second highest, rose to 317,554 yesterday after 8,849 new infections were reported, while the death toll climbed past the 3,000 mark after 127 people died in the previous 24 hours.

Only the United States has more confirmed infections. At 3,099, Russia’s death toll is much lower than many European countries however, something that has sparked debate about the methods it uses to count fatalities.

Russia cites a huge testing programme, which it says has seen over 7.8 million people tested, as the reason for its large number of reported cases, and says many involve Russians without symptoms of the virus.

Government officials also say there are signs that the out-break is beginning to stabilise and that daily increases in new cases have become smaller in recent days.

US Ambassador John Sul-livan said the 50 US-manufac-tured ventilators were the first

tranche of a $5.6m humani-tarian aid delivery to Russia.

Another 150 ventilators would be delivered next week, he said.

Moscow sent medical sup-plies to the United States last month.

Even though relations between Washington and Moscow remain at post-Cold War lows, the presidents of the two countries have spoken by phone several times in recent months to discuss the pan-demic, oil and arms control.

Russia’s government has ordered thousands of Russian-made ventilators, but suffered a setback when the model of

ventilator it wanted was reported to have caused fatal fires in two Russian hospitals this month.

The same ventilator type was part of the batch of medical supplies Russia sent to the United States.

A shipment containing medical aid from the United States, including 50 ventilators, is carried after being unloaded from a US Air Force plane at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, yesterday.

Polish govt plans to hold presidential vote on June 28AP — WARSAW, POLAND

Poland’s prime minister said yesterday that his government is aiming for June 28 as the date of a presidential election that was postponed due to the coro-navirus pandemic.

The election, in which conservative President Andrzej Duda is vying for ree-lection against nine other candidates, was originally set for May 10.

It was postponed four days before it was due to take place amid coronavirus restrictions and political infighting over

how and when to hold the vote. The ruling coalition had

pushed for an all-postal vote, but the necessary legislation was not ready.

The legislation currently being worked on in parliament would allow for the casting of ballots at voting stations and an optional postal vote.

Duda, whose term expires on August 6, is seeking ree-lection with the support of the ruling conservative Law and Justice party.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the gov-ernment is planning to hold the

election on June 28, saying it is the best date given the end of Duda’s term on August 6.

If no candidate wins 50% of the vote in the first round, a runoff will have to be held two weeks later.

“We want to fulfill our constitutional obligations and conduct these elections in accordance with the consti-tution, and today we plan to do it on June 28, Morawiecki said.

Duda is leading in recent polling. In second place is Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trza-skowski, with the centrist and

pro-European Civic Platform party. Trzaskowski only jumped into the race last week, replacing an earlier candidate, Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, who had dismal polling numbers after threatening to boycott the election she was running in when it looked as if the government would not postpone it.

Civic Platform was previ-ously led by Donald Tusk, a former Polish prime minister and former European Union leader. It lost power after Tusk’s departure from Polish politics.

Hungary closes asylum seeker camps after EU court rulingAFP — BUDAPEST

Hungary said yesterday it would close “transit zone” camps where hundreds of asylum seekers and migrants were held, following a ruling by EU’s top court against their detention.

The decision by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) earlier this month is the latest clash between EU authorities and Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, which has taken a hard line on immigration.

Hundreds of people were being held in shipping con-tainers behind a barbed wire fence at the two camps along the Serbian border, and rights group have slammed them as inhumane.

But senior government min-ister Gergely Gulyas said yes-terday Hungary was “obliged to comply with the verdict” of the ECJ and so “can do nothing

but eliminate the transit zones”.“The transit zone was a

solution that protected Hun-gary’s borders, and the European Court of Justice’s

ruling in this case was unfor-tunate,” Gulyas told reporters.

He said 280 people would be taken from the camps to asylum reception centres but

did not specify how long they would stay there and what would happen to them.

“Asylum applications can only be submitted to embassies outside the country,” he added.

Under amendments passed in 2018, Hungary has been automatically rejecting asylum applications from those who have passed through a “safe transit country”, in this case Serbia.

The Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC), a human rights organisation, said about 300 people had been transferred.

“Great news: Overnight, authorities released everyone — about 300 people, many fam-ilies with small kids — unlaw-fully detained in the transit zones and transferred them to open or semi-open facilities!” HHC tweeted.

The committee represented Iranian and Afghan families,

detained for more than a year at the Roszke transit zone after their asylum applications were refused, in a case brought before the Luxembourg-based ECJ. In its ruling, the ECJ said people could not be detained in the camps without their cases being examined individually and that they could not be held for more than four weeks.

Last year the European Commission warned that con-ditions in the camps violated EU human rights legislation.

Hungary has argued that those in the camps could have left the transit zone in the direction of Serbia, but Serbia has refused to readmit them.

HHC welcomed Hungary’s announcement as a “first step towards the full execution of the judgment”, vowing to help those transferred “to have the oppor-tunity for the authority to finally examine their asylum applications”.

Brazil could soon be No. 2 in virus casesREUTERS — RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO

Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak worsened on Wednesday and the South American nation could soon have the second-highest number of cases in the world as the Health Ministry reported 888 new deaths and nearly 20,000 new infections in a single day.

Brazil might soon trail only the United States in the number of coronavirus cases. Russia currently has the second-highest number of cases. Bra-zil’s coronavirus death toll is 18,859.

Brazil’s confirmed case tally now stands at 291,579, according to the Health Min-istry. On Monday, Brazil overtook Britain to become the country with the third-highest number of infections and reg-istered a daily record of 1,179 deaths on Tuesday.

President Jair Bolsonaro has been widely criticised for his handling of the outbreak. The far-right former army captain has long snubbed social-dis-tancing measures, arguing instead for the reopening the economy.

He has also become an increasingly strong advocate for the malaria drug chloroquine as a possible remedy for COVID-19, despite warnings from health experts.

On Wednesday, the Health Ministry issued new guidelines for wider use of anti-malarial drugs in mild coronavirus cases.

Interim Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, an active-duty army general, authorised the modified protocol after two trained doctors left the minis-try’s top job under pressure to promote the early use of chlo-r o q u i n e a n d hydroxychloroquine.

“We are at war. Worse than defeat would be the shame of not putting up a fight,”

Bolsonaro tweeted about the government decision to put forward the drugs without proof of their effectiveness.

Gonzalo Vecina Neto, the former head of Brazil’s health regulator, Anvisa, called the new measures a “barbarity” that could cause more harm than good because of the dan-gerous potential side effects of the drug.

“It has no scientific evi-dence,” Vecina Neto said. “(It is) unbelievable that in the 21st century, we are living off magical thinking.”

Brazilian opposition activists take part in a protest against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, in front of the National Congress in Brasilia, yesterday.

Bolivian health minister held for suspected corruptionAFP — LA PAZ

Bolivia’s health minister was arrested on suspicion of corruption related to the over-priced purchase of ventilators to fight COVID-19, then fired by interim President Jeanine Anez, officials said on Wednesday.

Marcelo Navajas was detained by police in La Paz, police Colonel Ivan Rojas said, a day after Anez ordered an investigation into the shady purchase.

Two other health ministry officials have also been arrested.

Anez is facing her biggest corruption scandal in six months in power and a fierce wave of criticism over her handling of the crisis.

Bolivia bought 179 venti-lators from a manufacturer in Spain for $27,683 each, costing almost $5m, a purchase funded by the Inter-American Development Bank.

But it later transpired that the manufacturer was offering ventilators for around half that price — ¤9,500-11,000 each ($10,312-$11,941).

Another Spanish company acted as an intermediary.

Anez said on Twitter that Bolivia had already sent more than $2m to pay for the venti-lators but “will no pay one more cent.” She said she was committed to “recovering the money of Bolivians.” The scandal came to light at the end of last week when intensive care doctors com-plained that the ventilators were not suitable for Bolivian intensive care units.

Anez “decided to remove the health minister” to “avoid any interference in the work of the law,” said the govern-ment’s communications chief Isabel Fernandez.

Bolivia has reported 4,500 COVID-19 cases and 190 deaths.

Peru passes 100,000 cases, 3,000 deadAFP — LIMA

Peru has become the second Latin American country after Brazil to reach 100,000 coro-navirus cases, according to health ministry figures out on Wednesday.

The number of dead from COVID-19 has also passed 3,000, with only Brazil and Mexico having suffered more.

Both cases and deaths have tripled since April 30.

The dire statistics come even though Peru has been in lockdown for nine weeks, par-alysing the economy.

The vast majority of cases are in Lima and its port Callao, where one third of the coun-try’s 32 million people live.

Peru’s health system is overwhelmed and teetering on the brink of collapse, with public hospitals facing drastic equipment shortages.

Hospital staff protested in the streets on Wednesday demanding better safety equipment. Peru has 7,500 people receiving hospital treatment for COVID-19, according to the latest figures.

Lima’s crematoriums have had to work day and night to deal with the dead, while queues of funeral cars have formed outside some hospitals in the Callao neighborhood.

“My father died alone, there are no doctors inside, (patients) are dying because there are no doctors and no medicine,” Gloria Baylon, 37, told AFP outside the Luis Negreiros hospital in Callao.

Denmark speeds up reopening as virus spread slowsAFP — COPENHAGEN

Museums and zoos began reopening in Denmark yesterday, as the country decided to accelerate its exit from lockdown and health offi-cials said the spread of the new coronavirus was slowing.

The original plan for Denmark was to keep museums, zoos, theatres, cinemas and similar attractions closed until June 8.

But after a deal was struck in the country’s parliament late Wednesday they were instead allowed to open immediately.

“It was pure cheer. Finally, we can get started,” Peter Kjar-gaard, director of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, told broadcaster DR.

Kjargaard added that he was excited to show off the museum’s new dinosaur exhibit, even if it wouldn’t be ready for another month.

But not all museums reo-pened their doors on Thursday.

Some said they would start receiving customers over the weekend or next week.

Under the deal agreed in parliament, the Danish border remains temporarily closed, but starting next week the list of exceptions allowing travel to Denmark will be expanded to include permanent residents of

all the Nordic countries and Germany wanting to visit rel-atives, loved ones, or homes they own in Denmark.

High school students will also begin returning to class-rooms shortly.

Also on Wednesday, the Danish health agency SSI, which operates under the health ministry and is respon-sible for the surveillance of infectious diseases, released a report indicating the spread of the disease seems to be slowing, even as the country had started opening up.

SSI said that as of May 18 the infection rate, or repro-duction rate, was estimated at 0.6, compared to 0.7 on May 7.

A reproduction rate of 1.0 means that one person with COVID-19 infects on average just one other, while a rate of below 1.0 indicates that the spread is declining.

On April 15, the country started reopening pre-schools and resuming classes for the youngest primary school children. Danish middle schools followed suit this week.

Another report this week by SSI, however showed that only one percent of Danes carried antibodies for the virus, raising concerns that the country could be vulnerable to a new wave of the virus.

A file photo shows security guards standing by the gate of the transit zone where migrants are hosted in container camps and their asylum claims are processed, in Tompa, Hungary.

Russia says a huge testing programme has seen over 7.8 million people tested. Officials say there are signs that the outbreak is beginning to stabilise.

12 FRIDAY 22 MAY 2020AMERICAS

Trump to pull US out of 35-nation Open Skies treatyREUTERS — WASHINGTON

The United States announced its intention yesterday to withdraw from the 35-nation Open Skies treaty allowing unarmed surveillance flights over member countries, the Trump administration’s latest move to pull the country out of a major global treaty.

The administration said Russia has repeatedly violated the pact’s terms. Senior officials said the pullout will formally take place in six months, based on the treaty’s withdrawal terms.

“I think we have a very good relationship with Russia. But Russia didn’t adhere to the treaty. So until they adhere we will pull out,” US President Donald Trump told reporters.

He said there was a “very good chance we’ll make a new agreement or do something to put that agreement back together.”

In Moscow, RIA state news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko as saying that Russia has not violated the treaty and nothing prevents the continu-ation of talks on technical issues

that the Washington calls violations.

Nato allies and other coun-tries such as Ukraine have pressed Washington to remain in the treaty, and Trump’s decision could aggravate ten-sions within the alliance.

The administration also pulled the United States out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia last year.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to a small group of reporters, said the Open Skies decision fol-lowed a six-month review that found multiple instances of Russian refusal to comply with the treaty.

“During the course of this review it has become abun-dantly clear that it is no longer in America’s interests to remain a party to the Open Skies treaty,” said one of the officials.

One administration official

said extensive discussions were held with US allies leading up to the decision but ultimately Washington decided “it is no longer in our interest” to par-ticipate in it.

At the same time, the official said US officials had begun talks in recent days with Russian offi-cials about a new round of nuclear arms negotiations to “begin crafting the next gener-ation of nuclear arms control measures.”

“The United States is com-mitted to arms control. We are committed to European security. And we are committed to a future that puts meaningful constraints on nuclear weapons,” the official said.

The Open Skies treaty, pro-posed by US President Dwight Eisenhower in 1955, was signed in 1992 and took effect in 2002. The idea is to let member nations make surveillance flights over each other’s coun-tries to build trust.

The officials cited a years-long effort by Russia to violate the terms, such as by restricting US overflights of Russia’s neighbor Georgia and its mil-itary enclave in Kaliningrad.

In addition, they said Russia

has been using its own over-flights of American and European territory to identify critical US infrastructure for potential attack in a time of war.

Some experts worry that a US exit from the treaty, which

will halt Russian overflights of the United States, could prompt Moscow’s withdrawal, which would end overflights of Russia by the remaining m e m b e r s , w e a k e n i n g European security.

US President Donald Trump heads to visit the Ford Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti after arriving in Detroit, Michigan, US, yesterday.

Report: 35,000 lives could have been saved with early lockdownAFP — NEW YORK

More than 35,000 lives would have been saved in the US if social distancing measures had begun just a week earlier than they actually did in mid-March, according to a new estimate by researchers at Columbia University.

They said simulations based on several models showed that 61 percent of the US cases of infection as of May 3 — more than 700,000 — and

55 percent of the more than 65,000 recorded deaths could have been averted if social dis-tancing and other safety measures had been in place a week earlier.

These researchers said the simulations illustrate the danger of easing lockdown measures too early, as many experts have noted.

All 50 US states have begun to reopen, to one extent or another and with encour-agement from President

Donald Trump, to try to res-urrect economies devastated by business closures and layoffs in the pandemic.

“Efforts to further raise public awareness of the ongoing high transmissibility and explosive growth potential of COVID-19 are still needed at this critical time,” the researchers wrote.

“Our results also indicate that without sufficient broader testing and contact tracing capacity, the long lag between

infection acquisition and case confirmation masks the rebound and exponential growth of COVID-19 until it is well underway,” they said.

Ten days ago, a New York documentary filmmaker named Eugene Jarecki set up a billboard in Times Square with what he calls the “Trump Death Clock.”

It gives the number of deaths that Jarecki says could have been avoided if Trump had encouraged social

distancing practices on March 9, rather than on March 16.

His figures are higher than those of the Columbia researchers because Jarecki argues that 60 percent of US deaths could have been averted by acting a week earlier.

The United States is the country hardest hit by the pan-demic, with more than 1.5 million cases of infection and more than 93,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Jailed Trump lawyer Michael Cohen released due to pandemicAFP — NEW YORK

US President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen (pictured) was released from prison to home confinement yesterday, as part of a push to stem the spread of coronavirus among inmates.

Cohen is serving a three-year sentence after admitting paying hush money to two women, for tax fraud and for lying to Congress.

He nodded to the media gathered in front of his Man-hattan apartment as he entered wearing a face mask, blazer and a baseball cap.

Once Trump’s right-hand man, the 53-year-old lawyer fell out of favor with the Pres-ident after Cohen testified in federal court and to Congress.

In 2018 Cohen admitted a number of crimes including

violating campaign finance laws.

Cohen, the father of two children in their 20s, was serving his sentence at the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution in upstate New York.

A judge initially rejected his bid for early release over the coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged the state and overrun

prison facilities nationwide.But coronavirus-relief leg-

islation allowed Attorney General Bill Barr emergency powers to send some inmates into home confinement without judicial permission.

An employee of the Trump Organization for a decade, Cohen has been disbarred but has mentioned plans to write a tell-all book.

Cohen’s release came a week after Paul Manafort, the President’s one-time election campaign chairman, was freed from jail over the coronavirus threat. The 71-year-old Repub-lican political consultant is also serving the remainder of his seven-and-a-half year sen-tence at home.

He was jailed last year for tax crimes, bank fraud and conspiracy charges, mostly relating to his business dealings in Ukraine with Russia-allied

politicians and tycoons.As of this week at least 2,265

federal inmates and 188 prison staff members nationwide have been tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

At least 58 inmate deaths have been attributed to the highly contagious disease.

Cohen and Manafort are among the 2,932 released to home confinement since March, according to the bureau.

Their early release has sparked anger as prisoners of less means remain jailed amid the pandemic.

“Andrea Circle Bear, jailed for a non-violent offense, died from the virus after giving birth on a ventilator. There cannot be two justice systems,” tweeted Senator Amy Klobuchar, a former candidate for the Dem-o c r a t i c p r e s i d e n t i a l nomination.

Actress Lori Loughlin to plead guilty in college admissions scandalAFP — NEW YORK

American actress Lori Loughlin is set to plead guilty and accept prison time over her role in a sprawling college admissions scandal, US prosecutors said yesterday.

The star of the 1980s-90s sitcom “Full House” along with her husband, designer Mossimo Giannulli, were among 50 people indicted in an elaborate scam to secure spots for privileged children at prestigious US universities.

They are both set to plead guilty to fraud today before a Massachusetts federal judge, according to the court docket.

Prosecutors in the northeastern state had said the pair paid $500,000 to gain admission for their two daughters at the University of Southern California as recruits to the crew team — a sport neither had ever trained in.

The terms of the plea agreement would see Loughlin serve two months in prison, with a $150,000 fine and two years of supervised release, and 100 hours of com-munity service.

Her husband’s recommended sentence is slightly stiffer: Giannulli’s agreement would involve five months of prison, a $250,000 fine and two years of supervised release with 250 hours of community service.

Both sentences are subject to court approval. Loughlin, 55, and Giannulli, 56, previously had denied charges of

conspiracy to commit money laundering, bribery and transfer funds.

Those charges could carry penalties of up to 45 years in prison if convicted.

The pair are set to become the 23rd and 24th parents to plead guilty in the case, according to a statement from the US Justice Department.

“Under the plea agreements filed today, these defendants will serve prison terms reflecting their respective roles in a con-spiracy to corrupt the college admissions process and which are consistent with prior sentences in this case,” said US Attorney Andrew Lelling.

The ringleader behind the college admissions scam, William “Rick” Singer, who authorities say was paid about $25m to bribe coaches and university adminis-trators, has pleaded guilty and is cooper-ating with authorities. For more than a year Loughlin and Giannulli had insisted on their innocence, saying that Singer led them to believe the funds were not for bribes but a donation of sorts to the university.

If US Judge Nathaniel Gorton accepts the terms of their plea agreements, prose-cutors will drop the money laundering and bribery charges against them.

Actress Felicity Huffman of “Desperate Housewives” fame was released last October from prison, after serving 11 days of a two-week sentence at a low-security California facility for her role in the scam.

She had pleaded guilty during a tearful

court appearance to paying $15,000 to boost her daughter’s SAT college entrance exam score. Other universities targeted in the scam include Stanford, Yale, Geor-getown and UCLA.

One of Loughlin’s daughters, Olivia Jade Giannulli, an influencer on YouTube and Instagram, had faced harsh criticism online when the scandal broke but in recent months has been working to rebuild her brand. For Mother’s Day earlier this month she posted a picture of Loughlin as a young mom, writing: “You are my best friend and have held my hand every day for 20 years.” “You are one of a kind.”

Actress Lori Loughlin arrives to face charges for allegedly conspiring to commit mail fraud and other charges in the college admissions scandal at the John Joseph Moakley US Courthouse in Boston, on April 03, 2019.

Guatemala blasts Trump over infected migrant deportationsAGENCIES — GUATEMALA CITY

Guatemala blasted US Pres-ident Donald Trump yesterday over US deportations of migrants infected with coro-navirus.

President Alejandro Giam-mattei said the deportations had saturated quarantine centers in Guatemala and heaped pressure on the Central American country’s weak health system.

“Guatemala is an ally to the United States, the United States is not an ally to Gua-temala,” he told the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based international affairs think tank.

“We understand that the United States wants to deport people, we understand that, but what we don’t understand is that they send us contami-nated flights.” Among Guate-mala’s 2,000 coronavirus cases, authorities say 100 were migrants deported from the US.

“It’s fine that they send us the deportees, they’re our problem, for sure, but also the United States’ problem. So we should share the problem, we need to be fair,” said Giam-mattei, 64, a doctor by profession.

He also hit out at the failure of the United States to send Guatemala medical supplies.

“We see how the United States has helped other coun-tries, including with venti-lators, we’ve not even had a cob of corn,” Giammattei complained.

Guatemala has confirmed 119 deportees arrived with COVID-19 from the United States. The country has sus-pended the deportation flights on several occasions after infected passengers were detected, but resumed them after assurances from US authorities.

The last flight with deportees who tested positive in Guatemala arrived May 13 from Alexandria, Louisiana. Officials have said 16 of them have tested positive.

Senate approves Trump political ally as US intelligence czarAFP — WASHINGTON

The US Senate confirmed John Ratcliffe as director of national intelligence yesterday, placing a close political ally of Pres-ident Donald Trump in charge of a massive US spy community that Trump brands a troublesome “deep state”.

The Senate voted 49-44 on sharply partisan lines to approve Ratcliffe, a Repub-lican congressman from Texas, ten months after he first withdrew from consideration for the job amid broad doubts about his qualifications.

He will lead the country’s 17 federal intelligence bodies, including the CIA and the National Security Agency, and be responsible for coordi-nating them with the White House.

In July, Trump forced out Dan Coats as director of national intelligence after longstanding tensions between the two, and then struggled to find a suitable replacement.

Ratcliffe was his first choice, but he dropped out after strong criticism from Democrats and tepid support from key Republicans.

Trump then named coun-terterrorism expert Joseph McGuire as acting director.

But he forced McGuire out on February 20 after another official from the directorate told Congress in a closed briefing that the Russians were again supporting Trump’s bid for reelection.

Trump has rejected the intelligence community’s con-clusion that Moscow helped his 2016 election campaign.

Trump then appointed another loyalist with limited intelligence experience, US ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, as acting director. Grenell forced out several officials of the direc-torate not seen as loyal to Trump, and announced reor-ganizations without informing Congress as is required.

He has also refused to appear before Congress, and intelligence briefings for senior legislators have dwindled, leading to complaints that Trump is not keeping Congress informed. So when Ratcliffe was renominated, Republican senators opted to support him as someone they could better work with. Senator Marco Rubio, named earlier this week as acting chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wel-comed the approval of Rat-cliffe’s nomination.

In his confirmation hearing before the Intelligence Com-mittee on May 5, Ratcliffe pledged to “speak truth to power” and said he would not shape intelligence reports to the President’s preferences.

The Open Skies treaty was signed in 1992 and took effect in 2002. It allows member nations to make surveillance flights over each other’s countries to build trust.