Volume 24 | Number 7961 | 2 RiyalsTuesday 23 July 2019 | 20 Dhul-Qa'da 1440 www.thepeninsula.qa

BUSINESS | 13 SPORT | 20

Xavi makes coaching debut as Al Sadd draw against Palamos

GCC looks to add 7GW

renewables by early 2020

NHRC demands immediate release of Qatari student detained in SaudiQNA DOHA

The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has welcomed the release of Qatari citizen Mohsen Saleh Saadoun Al Korbi, who was arbitrarily detained by the Saudi author-ities since April 21, 2018, and was deprived of his most basic rights to contact his family or lawyer.

His family was also unable to know the place of his detention specifically, nor the charges made against him.

In a statement issued yes-terday, the NHRC said that it has been in constant contact with UN bodies, international organ-izations and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to demand the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to determine the Qatari citizen’s place and to release him.

The Committee called on the Saudi authorities to compensate the Qatari citizen for the harm he suffered during his enforced disappearance.

The National Human Rights Committee also called on the Saudi authorities to immedi-ately release Qatari student Abdulaziz Saeed Abdulla, who has been arbitrarily detained in Saudi prisons since July 2018

without trial.The Committee called upon

UN bodies and international organisations to conduct extensive investigations into Saudi authorities’ gross and sys-tematic violations and discrim-inatory measures against Qatari citizens.

In its statement, the National Human Rights Committee also called on the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and funda-mental freedoms while coun-tering terrorism and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to take swift measures to release the Qatari student arbitrarily detained by the Saudi authorities.

The National Human Rights Committee has welcomed the release of Qatari citizen Mohsen Saleh Saadoun Al Korbi, who was arbitrarily detained by the Saudi authorities since April 21, 2018, and was deprived of his most basic rights to contact his family or lawyer.

MME removes over 4,800 abandoned vehicles so far in 2019SANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

The nation-wide campaign to remove abandoned vehicles which began in Doha three weeks ago reached Al Shee-haniya Municipality, yesterday.

The Joint Committee for Impounding Abandoned Vehicles at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment yesterday started removing over 200 abandoned vehicles after putting warning stickers three days ago at a number of places in Al Sheehaniya Municipality.

“The campaign will continue as it will move from one munic-ipality to another and most probably Al Daayen Municipality will be the next target,” Marzouq Al Mesaifir, Assistant Director of Mechanical Equipment Department who is also a member of the Joint Committee told The Peninsula during impounding operation.

He said that over 4,800 abandoned vehicles had been removed from all over the country since the beginning of 2019 under different campaigns and the Committee used to remove about 12,000 aban-doned vehicles in a year.

“The impounded vehicles

will be taken to tow yards in Al Mashaf and Mesaimeer where the owners of the vehicles will be given six months grace period to claim their vehicles after paying a fine of QR1,000 on impounded vehicles and QR500 as transport charge,” said Al Mesaifiri.

He said that after the end of grace period the unclaimed abandoned vehicles will be auc-tioned in public. “The Ministry launched an initiative for local companies to get rid of such vehicles by dismantling them to utilise the parts,” said Al Mesaifiri.

Deputy Head of the Com-mittee for Removing Abandoned Vehicles Saleh Haasan Al Kuwari said that the campaign began from Doha Municipality where so far about 200 abandoned vehicles were removed and the operation is still continued.

He said that the campaign targeted abandoned vehicles located within the adminis-trative boundaries of Al Shee-haniya Municipality.

Director of Al Sheehaniya Municipality Jaber Hasan Al Jaber stressed that the campaign comes within the framework of maintaining the aesthetic and urban sight of Al Sheehaniya Municipality. �P2

Qatar condemns demolition of Palestinian homesQNA DOHA

The State of Qatar condemned yesterday the Israeli occupation army’s demolition of Palestinian houses in the town of Sur Baher, southeast of occupied Jerusalem.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that the demolitions violate the historical rights of the brotherly Palestinian people and is a crime against humanity that reflects the Israeli government disregard for inter-national laws and resolutions of

international legitimacy.It stressed that this crime calls

for urgent international intervention to oblige the Israeli entity to stop the demolitions and to provide pro-tection to the Palestinian people.

The statement reiterated Qatar’s full support for the Pales-tinian cause and the steadfastness of the Palestinian people until all their legitimate rights are restored, foremost of which is the estab-lishment of their independent state on the borders of 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Meanwhile, the European

Union (EU) yesterday said that Israel's forced transfers, eviction and demolitions are illegal under international law, calling on Israel to immediately halt the ongoing demolitions in Wadi Al Hummus area of Sur Baher neighbourhood in occupied East Jerusalem.

“Israel’s settlement policy, including actions taken in that context, such as forced transfers, evictions, demolitions and confis-cations of homes, is illegal under international law,” said a statement issued by the EU spokesperson, Maja Kocijancic. �P6

A Palestinian building is bombed by Israeli forces in Sur Baher in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, yesterday.

Ashghal wins GIS Excellence AwardTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Public Works Authority (Ashghal), represented by the Information Systems Department and the Engineering Services Department, won the GIS Excel-lence Award for the use of GIS technology in Moazanah Program on the sidelines of the Esri Global User Conference 2019 held in San Diego from July 8 to 12, 2019.

The award was received by Saad Mohammed Al-Jermozi, Head of Development Section in the Information Systems Department at Ashghal, he also pointed out that Ashghal is one of the first to use GIS at Qatar.

Moazanah Program has been implemented to enable govern-mental entities, including Ashghal departments, in applying for projects that they wish to implement through Ashghal such as schools, hospitals, health centers, service buildings, infra-structure projects and others.

Moazanah Program includes new additions and features that enable users to request projects, take approvals and follow up their implementation. They can also get integrated reports on projects in record time and much easier way in addition to the program being integrated with Oracle Primavera (P6), GIS is used in an integrated manner, and integrates with CDMS and ERP. �P3

Over 1.5 million transactions by MoI last monthSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

Over 1.5 million transactions were recorded by various departments of the General Directorate of Passports at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) last month within the framework of the services provided by the MoI to the general public.

“The transactions com-pleted by the General Direc-torate of Passports showed increase in the number of transactions as it reached to 1,556,867,” said the Ministry of Interior on its official website.

The departments affiliated with the General Directorate of Passports include Expatriates Affairs Department, Search and Follow up Department, Border Passports Department, Airport Passports Department and Unified Services Department among others.

The number of services and transactions implemented through Expatriates Affairs Department during the month of June 2019 was 61,432 trans-actions, while the total trans-actions completed through the Department of Unified Services was 212,763, the MoI added.

The Ministry said that the number of transactions com-pleted by Border Passports Department was 3,768 while the number of transactions handled by Airport Passports was 1,188,034. The transac-tions completed by Search and Follow up Department reached to 42,922.

The General Directorate of Passports is always working

to develop and improve its services being provided to the public through its specialised departments, in addition to follow up the various transac-tions to ensure the completion of transactions of the public easily and in record time.

On the level of transac-tions completed by service centers, the statistics of the MoI showed that the Service Center of Al Rayyan was on the top by completing 41,436 transactions followed by Al Wakra Services Center with

26,025 transactions and Mesaimeer Services Center c o m p l e t i n g 2 4 , 2 3 3 transactions.

The total number of transac-tions for traffic services and bio-metrics in June 2019 reached 27,667 of which 21,035 transac-tions are related to traffic services while 6,632 transactions are on biometrics.

For the services provided to elderly people and people with special needs, the number touches 718 transactions. The transactions of applications for recruitment

were 51,383 and e-government transactions reached to 162,984.

Also the e-services transac-tions reached to 186,862 trans-actions among them 104,136 transactions were done through the Ministry’s website and 82,439 through Metrash2.

Recently, the General Direc-torate of Information Systems at the Ministry of Interior (MoI) launched a new version for Metrash2 for phones and smart devices, which is the fastest way to attain the Ministry’s services from any place and at any time.

THE GENERAL DIRECTORATE OF PASSPORTS STATISTICS DURING JUNE 2019

Expatriates Affairs

Department

Unified Services

Department

Border Passports

Department

Airport Passports

Department

Search and Follow up

Department

Visa Support Services

Department

1,556,867TOTAL TRANSACTIONS

47,948 42,922 1,188,034 3,768 212,763 61,432transactions transactions transactions transactions transactions transactions

02 TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019HOME

HIGH TIDE 07:55 – 20:13 LOW TIDE 03:56 –14:19

Misty to foggy at places by early morning

becomes relatively hot daytime with some

clouds and humid by night.

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum33oC 38oC

FAJRSHOROOK

03. 30 AM04. 56 AM

11. 40 AM03.02 PM

06. 26 PM07. 56 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS Secretary-General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs receives Ambassadors of Australia, Afghanistan and China The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, received yesterday copies of the credentials of Jonathan James Coulter Muir, Ambassador of Australia to the State of Qatar; Abdul Hakim Dalili, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the State of Qatar; and Zhou Jian, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the State of Qatar. H E the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wished the new ambassadors success in carrying out their duties, and assured them of all support to take the relations between the State of Qatar and their respective countries to closer cooperation in various fields.

HBKU launches online programme with edXTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) has launched a new online programme as part of its ongoing agreement with edX, a global provider of massive open online courses (MOOCs) created by Harvard University and the Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The professional certificate programme in ‘Sustainability and Major Sport Events’ — designed in partnership with Josoor Institute — addresses the critical sustaina-bility aspects of planning and hosting large-scale sporting events in Qatar and around the world. The programme aims to equip stu-dents with the knowledge and skills needed to plan and execute a sustainable major sport event, applying sustainability factors such as infrastructure, environmental impact, social and human consid-erations, and governance.

Josoor Institute, a sports and events expertise hub created by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), is tasked with building the capabilities of professionals in the sports and

events industries to successfully deliver major sporting events in Qatar and the MENA region, including the 2022 FIFA World Cup and beyond. Through certifi-cation and research, Josoor Institute equips industry profes-sionals with the know-how and creativity required to deliver every facet of world-class high-profile sporting and leisure events.

The programme instructors include experts from HBKU entities, Josoor Institute, and the SC, who are directly involved in the delivery of the upcoming FIFA World Cup.

Dr. Marwan Khraisheh, senior research director, HBKU, said: “Our partnership with edX has enabled HBKU to transcend borders and make our unique aca-demic offerings accessible in all parts of the world. The launch of the ‘Sustainability and Major Sport Events’ programme marks the second phase of our successful partnership. The programme is specifically tailored to build human capacity for the growing number of international sporting events held in Qatar, and to support the country as it prepares to host the region’s first FIFA

World Cup.” Afraa Al-Noaimi, Executive Director, Josoor Institute, said: “Sustainability is a significant aspect of every global sports event, and Josoor Institute has the opportunity to train pro-fessionals who will lead Qatar’s efforts to advance sustainability throughout the planning and delivery of our mega-event. The program, and our partnership with HBKU, marks another important step towards the professional advancement of the world-class expertise we need from everyone involved in delivering an out-standing 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.”

The program is designed for event organizers; sustainability and environmental professionals; sports professionals who interact with players, fans, and spectators; those responsible for sports infra-structure, including stadiums and sports fields; professionals in mar-keting and public relations; and project managers.

The professional certificate programme in ‘Sustainability and Major Sport Events’ is now open for enrollment. For more infor-mation, visit: www.edx.org/school/hbkux

Qatar to attend International Chemistry Olympiad in FranceTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

A team of students from Qatar will participate in the 51st International Chemistry Olympiad 2019 in Paris. The compe-tition will run until July 30. This is the first time for the students to participate in this international competition, which consists of two theoretical and practical examinations in the science of chemistry. It is an annual competition for students who are tested on their chemistry knowledge and skills. It is intended to stimulate student interest in chemistry through independent and creative solving of problems.

The officials of the Joint Committee for Impounding Abandoned Vehicles at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment during the nation-wide campaign to remove abandoned vehicles at Al Sheehaniya area yesterday. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT / THE PENINSULA

MME removes more than 4,800 abandoned vehicles so far in 2019

FROM PAGE 1

He said that the campaign will continue until the com-pletion of the removal of aban-doned cars, calling on the owners of the vehicles with

warning stickers to remove them as soon as possible.

Yesterday, the campaign in Al Sheehaniya was held in the presence of a number of senior officials and members of the committee including Mohamad

Faraj Al Kubaisi, Deputy Director of Cleanliness Department, and a member of the Joint Com-mittee; Abdullah Sultan Al Naimi, Head of General Monitoring Section at Al Sheehaniya Municipality.

Qatar condemns Mogadishu blast QNA/DOHA

Qatar expressed its strong condem-nation and denunciation of the explosion that took place near the international airport in the Somali capital Mogadishu, causing deaths and injuries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated Qatar’s firm stance on rejecting violence and terrorism, regardless of motives and reasons.

03TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019 HOME

Messages to Kyrgyz Republic & Hungary

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic, Genghis Aidarbekov, has received a written message from the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, pertaining to bilateral relations and means of supporting and developing them. The message was handed over by the Ambassador of Qatar to the Kyrgyz Republic, Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Sulaiti, during his meeting yesterday with the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic, Noran Niyazliev, in Bishkek. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Hungary, Peter Szijjarto, has also received a written message from H E the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. The message was handed over by the Ambassador of Qatar to Hungary, Mohammed bin Hamad Al Khalifa, during a meeting with the Assistant Foreign Minister for the Development of Relations with the South in the Republic of Hungary, Laszlo Varadi, in Budapest.

Qatar highlights role of youth in global humanitarian systemsTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Education Above All (EAA) Foun-dation’s programme, Reach Out to Asia (ROTA) which focuses on quality education, skill set and knowledge development among underprivileged youth and communities across Asia, recently took part in the UN Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) Humanitarian Affairs Segment (HAS).

Bringing together UN and other humanitarian agency rep-resentatives, as well as diplo-matic envoys and policymakers, the global knowledge exchange platform was held from June 24 to 26 at Geneva’s Palais de Nations.

Under the theme: “Pro-moting action to save lives, reach those in need and reduce humanitarian risk, vulnerability and need: looking towards the 70th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and the climate summit called for by the Secretary-General”, the platform’s agenda featured debates, high-level panels and 15 side events.

At the ECOSOC HAS, the Qatari delegation was repre-sented by Shaheen Ali Al Kaabi, Assistant Director of the Department of International Cooperation, of Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Arwa Musaaed, ROTA’s Acting Director of the International Pro-grammes, Ahmed Al-Lenjawi, a member of ROTA Youth Advisory Board (RYAB), and Omran Musa, member of MYCHA (MENA Youth Capacity Building in Humanitarian Action)

Youth Advisory Group (MYAG) and MENA Regional Focal Point for Humanitarian Affairs for the UN Major Group for Children & Youth.

High-level topics discussed during the forum covered the implementation of international law, the combat of gender-based violence, the localisation of humanitarian efforts, as well as global climate change action. Represented by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Al Kaabi, Qatar co-chaired, alongside Denmark, a side event titled “Youth: Advancing the Agenda”, to discuss the inclusion and role of young people in global human-itarian systems and action.

“We recognise that agencies working in humanitarian affairs have a primary responsibility to support, develop and best guide young people in a bid to empower and sharpen their capacity to work together with policymakers and other key humanitarian actors. It is, therefore, paramount to support collective efforts that recognise the role of youth as agents of change and as active players in laying the foundations for peace

in their home countries and communities,” said Al Kaabi.

ROTA’s MYCHA initiative was presented as one of two success case studies in this direction, alongside UNICEF and the Norwegian Refugee Coun-cil’s development of inter-agency guidelines for working with young people in humani-tarian settings. The guidelines, which are currently being finalized, will be instrumental for international agencies to deliver on their promise, made at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, to transform humanitarian action with and for young people, UNICEF and the Norwegian Refugee Council stressed during the event.

ROTA also shared the upcoming launch of a training toolkit for introducing youth to humanitarian action.

Musa shared his own expe-rience foraying into the human-itarian world in Qatar, having left his crisis-laden home, Sudan: “We mainly want to see agencies working in this sector do two things: one, change how they respond to adolescents’ and youth suggestions, innovations and actions; and two, become more open, better at listening and show a genuine willingness to allow young people to influence processes so that our plights and voices are heard and [followed with action].”

During the session, the floor was also given to young leaders, who emphasised the need to empower their peers as catalysts and actors of positive change, and to engage young first-line responders in times of emergencies.

High-level topics discussed during the forum covered the implementation of international law, the combat of gender-based violence, the localisation of humanitarian efforts, as well as global climate change action.

Ashghal wins GIS Excellence Award

FROM PAGE 1

Through the programme, 522 projects have been requested to budget in the first edition of next year. The authority has re-developed Moa-zanah system to facilitate the process of submitting budget project requests, then reviewed, adopted in record time, in addition to the follow- up of financing projects transparently

to all ministries and government agencies, and enable them to follow through this system.

The Esri International Con-ference brings together thou-sands of GIS participants and

specialists from 130 countries and provides an ideal oppor-tunity to share experiences and showcase different achieve-ments and strategies in the fields of GIS.

Saad Mohammed Al-Jermozi, Head of Development Section in the Information Systems Department at Ashghal, receiving the award.

04 TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019HOME

HMC camp evokes interest in healthcare career among children of its staffTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Doctors, nurses, labs, test tubes, helicopters, emergency drills, robots, fire safety, ambulances, and a wellbeing souq – these are all experiences the attendees at the second annual Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) Hamad Summer Camp ‘Amazing’ 2019 (HSCA) were treated to.

With over 60 children, all of whom have a parent working at HMC, participating in the initi-ative, registration for this year’s camp included attendees being fitted and issued with a special Hamad white coat, HMC ID, and code of conduct.

During HSCA the children observe the same protocols as HMC staff; protection of patients’ rights and acting in a manner that supports the best care always are among the values

promoted. Held over two weeks — the week from July 7, 2019 for children aged 7 to 10 years and the week of July 14 for children aged 11 to 14 years — the week-long camps began with a full day at Al Wakrah Hospital. Children learned firsthand how a hospital delivers its services and the role staff plays in saving lives and supporting patients and their families. A highlight of the camp was participation in an emer-gency activation drill.

Fatima Haidar, HMC’s Chief Human Resources Officer, said, the camp’s activities were designed to both promote an

early interest in healthcare careers among youth and also to highlight the importance of establishing healthy lifestyle patterns.

“My vision for 2019 is that this year’s camp will be the foun-dation for a health sector initi-ative extending to Amazing 2022,” said Fatima Haidar.

The main activities for HSCA were hosted in a purpose-built ‘Amazing’ campus inside Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City’s Bayt Al Dhiyafah facility. Children walking to the camp’s regis-tration desk made their way through a themed arched

entrance stepping onto a floor to ceiling ‘lightning bolt yellow’ hallway.

The summer camps included field visits to the Qatar Rehabil-itation Institute and Ambulance Service. This year HSCA has built

on the plan to become a health-sector wide event with the involvement of government and private sector stakeholders, including the Museum of Islamic Art, Qatar Foundation, Microsoft Gulf, Qatar National Library, the

Ministry for Municipalities and Environment, Gourmet Fruits Company, Lulu Qatar, Qbake, Bakemart, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Gulf Centre, and Doha Import and Export Fish Supplies.

The children of HMC’s staff getting hands-on experience from healthcare professionals during the Hamad Summer Camp at Al Wakrah Hospital.

During the camp the children observe the same protocols as HMC staff; protection of patients’ rights and acting in a manner that supports the best care always are among the values promoted.

ILS chooses Vodafone Qatar’s smart solutionsTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Vodafone Qatar continues its commitment to help Qatar’s businesses succeed in a digital world.

In their most recent case study, Vodafone Qatar has con-nected International Limousine Service (ILS), one of the coun-try’s leading chauffeur services, with its state-of-the-art Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. ILS now relies on Vodafone Qatar’s Fleet Management solution to monitor their 240 cars and drivers. In addition, Vodafone Qatar has equipped all their vehicles with WiFi on-board to cater to the needs of their valuable cus-tomers and provide them with a

more enjoyable experience. Vodafone Qatar was first in the country to launch an end-to-end Fleet Management Solution that enables the delivery of real-time information such as traffic data, vehicle location, driver speeds, fuel consumption and employee work-time. It delivers faster response times through more efficient job allocation, reduction in fuel costs due to shorter journeys and higher revenues as drivers can complete more jobs.

Drivers’ behaviour can also be monitored to encourage safer driving and reduce insurance premiums.

For all companies in this sector, IoT technology has been proven to help companies meet regulatory and corporate

sustainability targets by reducing fuel use and carbon emissions.

“We take pride in our global IoT expertise and in sharing this expertise with local organisa-tions of all sizes in the country. Vodafone Qatar’s Business solu-tions are the key to answering organisational needs to optimise, automate and innovate using IoT technologies,” said Mahday Al Hebabi, Business Services Director, Vodafone Qatar.

Earlier this year, Vodafone Qatar equipped 60 buses for the Shaffalah Center for Persons with Disability with Vodafone’s Smart Bus solution including Fleet Management and Video Surveillance, helping make the children’s journeys safer and more efficient.

Vodafone Qatar has connected International Limousine Service, one of the country’s leading chauffeur services, with its state-of-the-art Internet of Things solutions.

Juan Karlos, Katrina Velarde to perform in Qatar on August 9 RAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

Filipino rock band Juan Karlos and online singing sensation Katrina Velarde, two of the most sought-after artistes in the Philippines today, will be performing for the first time in Doha in a concert dubbed “Summer Jam in Qatar 2019.”

An estimated 2,200 concertgoers are expected to watch the show to be held at the Al Jewan Hall of Al Dana Club on August 9 and produced by Doha City Event Management & Services (DC Event) in partnership with July Dela Cruz.

“They are among the most sought-after performers in our country today. Katrina is widely popular among inter-national voice coaches and reactors on YouTube, while Juan Karlos’ song Buwan is really a mega hit. We believe they are a perfect combination on stage and we are hoping to target mainly the young crowd and other music enthusiasts,” Victor Magnipes, CEO and Managing Director of DC Event told the media.

Juan Karlos’ front man JK is a Fil-ipino-German singer-songwriter who rose to fame after he joined “The Voice Kids Philippines” in 2014. Last year, he released the song “Buwan” which imme-diately gained following taking the No.1 sport on Spotify Philippines Top 50 and on Philippines Viral 50. “Buwan” has already garnered more than 124 million views in YouTube.

Velarde, on the other hand, began her singing career at a tender age of seven joining singing contests. She is well known for covering the hits of inter-national divas and local singing idols, as well as her impersonations. She has already performed across the US and other countries.

This upcoming show follows the success of the concerts of Philippines’ pop star Sarah Geronimo in January and the Philippines’ Concert King Martin Nievera and Asia’s Nightingale Lani

Misalucha just last month, both produced by DC Event.

“We want to be part of the thriving event management industry in Qatar. This year, our focus is more on bringing some of the best talents of the Philip-pines to Qatar to promote our music scene at the same time to provide quality entertainment. Producing a show is not an easy task but we, Filipinos, are known for our creativity, attention to details and dedication to our craft,”said Magnipes.

Tickets are priced QR250 (VVIP),

QR150 (VIP) and QR100 (Gold/General Admission) through www.q-tickets.com and at Hillside Restaurant (Al Mansoura), Mezza Restaurant (BSquare Mall in Al Thumama), Yam’s Kitchen (Le Park Hotel in Al Saad), La Diva Salon (Al Muntazah), Hot Pack Restaurant (Bin Omran and Madinat Khalifa), La Paz Batchoy (Al Saad) and at all Yellow Cab outlets.

Filipino rock band Juan Karlos

Singing sensation Katrina Velarde

An estimated 2,200 concertgoers are expected to watch the show to be held at the Al Jewan Hall of Al Dana Club on August 9 and produced by Doha City Event Management & Services (DC Event) in partnership with July Dela Cruz.

MOCI announces recall of HyundaiSanta FE 2.4L MPI model of 2019THE PENINSULA/DOHA

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOCI), in collaboration with Skyline Automotive, dealer of Hyundai vehicles in Qatar, has announced the recall of Hyundai Santa FE 2.4L MPI model of 2019 because the subject vehicles may encounter intermittently engine cut off, while driving inside of sand-storm area.

The Ministry confirmed the recall campaign comes within the framework of its ongoing efforts to protect consumers and ensure that car dealers follow up on vehicle defects and repairs. The Ministry said that it will coordinate with the dealer to follow up on the maintenance and repair works and will communicate with customers to ensure that the necessary repairs are carried out.

05TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019 HOME

LG unveils OLED, NanoCell TVs with Arabic language capabilitiesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

LG Electronics (LG) has unveiled its new OLED and NanoCell TVs, which highlight its latest innova-tions in television technology.

Bloggers and news outlets came face-to-face with LG’s OLED TVs (models: E9 and C9) and NanoCell TVs (models: SM90 and SM81), which have the ability to understand requests and com-mands in Arabic, using voice service support.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) enables LG’s new televi-sions to work using voice-acti-vated control in multiple lan-guages. Held at the Westin Hotel in Doha, the event gave over 120

attendees access to the com-pany’s new lineup of TVs which are now available locally in Qatar.

Families in Qatar will now be able to experience unrivalled levels of comfort and ease-of-use, by simply speaking to their TVs in the language that they most frequently use at home. Users can control their televisions and ask complex questions. With

evolving communication, a user watching a movie can ask the tel-evision for more information per-taining to the TV content such as the actor’s name, films they have starred in, the background score and more.

LG’s OLED and NanoCell TVs come with support for a total of 15 languages, including English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian and more – catering to

National Museum of Qatar launches summer programTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ) launched a series of workshops and demonstrations to celebrate the important role of traditional crafts in Qatar. Taking inspiration from the objects on display in the museum galleries, the work-shops focus on design and deco-rative patterns that are typical of local craftsmanship and integral to Qatari identity.

Running until August 8, the NMoQ Summer Program encourages residents and vis-itors to discover Qatar’s history through its traditions and the crafts that Qatari people used to make during the summer months while living by the coast. Jewellery making, Al Khous (palm weaving), gypsum carving, net and rope making are some of the crafts that attendees will have the oppor-tunity to learn during the workshops.

The series of workshops was developed by NMoQ as part of its wide variety of exciting and engaging learning activities

available to the public throughout the year. The museum hosts quarterly public events to ensure a dynamic and ever-changing cultural offering to multiple audiences.

Talks and discussions for adults and students, practical art

and design workshops, family weekend drop-in activities, along with special evening per-formances and courses, are just some of the upcoming initiatives for 2019. For more information on NMoQ education program visit: http://nmoq.org.qa

Ooredoo adds Ghasham International to its Money Services NetworkTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Ooredoo has confirmed that Ghasham International RP Tech have joined the Ooredoo Money network of Premium Dealers, in addition to the existing Jumbo Electronics, Starlink and Al Anees. This means that Ooredoo Money

customers can now use selective branches of all four dealers to carry out Ooredoo Money trans-actions.

Selective branches of Ghasham International RP Tech, Jumbo Electronics, Starlink and Al Anees has been set up to provide customers with the services they need, including

loading cash into their mWallets or registering recipient details for sending money home. Once registered and with a balance in their mWallets, customers will be able to send money home to more than 200 countries.

Ooredoo Money is the most convenient way for customers to easily access everyday

financial transactions, such as sending money home, topping up Ooredoo prepaid mobile accounts and depositing cash to their mWallets or even topping up prepaid mobile number in over 140 countries, purchasing data bundles or paying their DTH bills.

The service is simple, secure

and offers some of the lowest fees and best exchange rates in Qatar, and partners include the world’s most renowned money transfer companies such as MoneyGram and local Exchange House partners like AlDar Exchange. Speaking about the latest addition to the Ooredoo Money network, Manar Khalifa Al Muraikhi

Director PR and Corporate Communications said: “We are very happy to expand our money services providers network, with the latest addition of Ghasham International. This will make it even easier for our customers to access our services wherever and whenever they need.”

Sajed Jassim Mohammed Sulaiman, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Jumbo Electronics; C V Rappai, Director & CEO; Rohit Pandit, COO; and Hongju Jeon, President, LG Electronics Gulf; with other officials during the launch.

Running until August 8, the NMoQ Summer Program encourages residents and visitors to discover Qatar’s history through its traditions and the crafts that Qatari people used to make during the summer months while living by the coast. Jewellery making, Al Khous (palm weaving), gypsum carving, net and rope making are some of the crafts that attendees will have the opportunity to learn during the workshops.

the various expat communities living in Qatar.

Empowering consumers to live more efficiently, Open Con-nectivity Foundation (OCF) enables home appliances and entertainment devices to be con-trolled directly from the TVs Home Dashboard. Just as they would control the TV’s own set-tings from a webOS interface, homeowners can now also operate their speakers, washing machines, air purifiers and more from the comfort of the living room.

Commenting on LG’s new OLED and NanoCel l

TV technology, Hongju Jeon, President LG Electronics Gulf said, “It is with great pride that we are introducing our most advanced TVs to consumers in Qatar. As a leading corporate citizen, LG Electronics is playing an active role towards providing solutions that speak to the local communities in which we operate. I believe that with our unique ThinQ AI platform and now the world’s first Arabic-enabled AI TVs, we can create more immersive entertainment experiences for families to enjoy in Qatar.”

“The world’s f irst

Arabic-enabled AI TV’s from LG will surely change the way people interact with televisions and being able to do so by simply talking to it in a familiar lan-guage makes for one gratifying experience. Jumbo Electronics, a leading distributor and retailer in Qatar is happy to provide this expanded range of televisions from LG that are designed to provide customers with cus-tomized solutions to help them enjoy content with greater ease,” said Sajed Jassim Mohammed Sulaiman, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, Jumbo Electronics.

LG’s OLED and NanoCell TVs come with support for a total of 15 languages, including English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian and more – catering to the various expat communities living in Qatar.

Fourth Local Dates Festival opens todayTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Visitors can explore a wide variety of locally grown dates at at the fourth Local Dates Festival which opens today at Souq Waqif.

Organised by the Ministry of Municipality and Envi-ronment and Souq Waqif, the festival features over a dozen local varieties from over 80 local farms — nearly quad-ruple the number of

participants from the previous year.

The festival is open from 4pm to 10pm until August 3.

Part of Summer in Qatar, curated by Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC), the Local Dates Festival is aimed at promoting home-grown products by providing local pro-ducers with a platform to market their goods and reach newer consumers.

It is part of a wider strategy to diversify offerings for both

residents and visitors in Qatar, showcasing local businesses and providing authentic expe-riences and traditional products.

Summer in Qatar includes a plethora of retail offerings across participating malls, as well as entertainment for all, summer camps for children and youth, thrilling experiences and sporting tournaments in addition to exciting travel and hospitality promotions running until August 16.

06 TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Israeli security forces tearing down one of the Palestinian buildings still under construction in the West Bank village of Dar Salah, adjacent to the Sur Baher area which straddles the West Bank and Jerusalem, yesterday.

Iran says it arrested 17 allegedly recruited by CIAAP DUBAI

Iran said yesterday it has arrested 17 Iranian nationals allegedly recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to spy on the country’s nuclear and military sites, and that some of them have already been sentenced to death.

The arrests took place over the past months, and those taken into custody worked on “sen-sitive sites” in the country’s mil-itary and nuclear facilities, an Iranian intelligence official told a press conference in Tehran. He did not elaborate, say how many of them were sentenced to death or when the sentences were handed down.

President Donald Trump tweeted that the claim had “zero truth,” calling Iran a “total mess.”

The announcement comes as Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers is unraveling and ten-sions have spiked in the Persian Gulf region. The crisis stems from Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the agreement last year and intensify

sanctions on the country.The Iranian official did not

give his name but was iden-tified as the director of the counterespionage department of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. It’s rare in Iran for intelligence officials to appear before media, or for any official to give a press conference without identifying himself.

The official claimed that none of the 17, who allegedly had “sophisticated training,” had suc-ceeded in their sabotage mis-sions. Their spying missions included collecting information at the facilities where they worked, carrying out technical and intelligence activities, and transferring and installing mon-itoring devices, he said.

Zimbabwean V-P in China to receive treatment for unknown illness

REUTERS/HARARE

Zimbabwean Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga has been flown to China for medical treatment, a presidential spokesman said, but gave no details of the health problems that have kept Chiwenga away from work for more than two months.The 62-year-old former general led a coup against Robert Mugabe in 2017 and was subse-quently appointed one of the two deputies to President Emmerson Mnangagwa. He retained that position after last year’s election.

Zimbabweans closely follow the health of Chiwenga because he is widely seen as the power behind Mnangagwa and the front-runner to succeed him. His absence from public duties has stoked speculation about the gravity of his illness, which authorities have sought to play down. Chiwenga, who has previously received treatment in India, was in a hospital in South Africa before being taken to China, presi-dential spokesman George Charamba said.

World condemns as Israel razes Palestinian homesREUTERS SUR BAHER, WEST BANK

Israeli forces demolished a cluster of Palestinian homes near a military barrier on the outskirts of Jerusalem yesterday, in the face of protests and international criticism.

Israel said the 10 apartment buildings, most of them still under construction, had been built ille-gally and posed a security risk to Israeli armed forces operating along the barrier that runs through the occupied West Bank.

UN officials, who had called on Israel to halt the demolition plans, said 17 Palestinians faced displacement. In a statement, the European Union said the struc-tures, containing some 70 apart-ments, were in areas under PA jurisdiction and that Israel’s dem-olition policy in occupied territory was illegal under international law.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) condemned the Israeli demolition of dozens of Palestinian homes in East Jeru-salem. In a statement, the Jeddah-based grouping described the

demolitions as a “serious esca-lation that aims to change the demographic composition” of the holy city. It called on the interna-tional community to force Israel to refrain from “its illegal prac-tices and violations against the Palestinian people”.

Last week, UN humanitarian coordinator Jamie McGoldrick and other UN officials called on Israel to halt the demolitions.

France condemned the move by Israel to demolish Palestinian homes near Jerusalem, saying the destruction set a “dangerous precedent” and violated interna-tional law. “France condemns the demolition by the Israeli army of several buildings in the area of

Wadi al Hummus, in the southeast of Jerusalem,” a statement from the French foreign ministry said.

“These demolitions have taken place for the first time in an area controlled by the Pales-tinian authority under the Oslo Accords. They represent a dan-gerous precedent, which poses a direct threat to the two-state solution,” it added.

Bulldozers accompanied by hundreds of Israeli police and sol-diers moved into Sur Baher, a Pal-estinian village on the edge of East Jerusalem in an area that Israel captured and occupied, along with the West Bank, in the 1967 Middle East War.

Palestinians fear that the razing of buildings near what Israel describes as a security barrier against Palestinian attacks will set a precedent for other towns along its route, which snakes through the West Bank for hundreds of kilometres.

The demolition is part of the latest round of protracted wran-gling over the future of Jerusalem, home to more than 500,000 Israel is and 300,000

Palestinians. Israeli forces cut through a wire section of the barrier in Sur Baher under cover of darkness early yesterday, and began clearing residents, before bulldozers and mechanical tore down homes. Palestinian owners said their buildings lay within areas run by the Pales-tinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the

West Bank under the Oslo interim peace deals with Israel.

“I built this house stone by stone. It was my dream to live in this house. Now I am losing eve-rything,” said Tareq al-Wahash, 37, his voice breaking as a bull-dozer destroyed his unfinished three-floor home. “I had a permit to build from the Pales-tinian Authority. I thought I was

doing the right thing,” he said. Israel’s Supreme Court ruled

in June that the structures vio-lated a construction ban. Pales-tinians and rights groups say Israeli building permits are nearly impossible to obtain. Pal-estinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said the Palestinians would complain to the International Criminal Court.

Britain calls for European-led navalmission to ensure passage of shipsREUTERS DUBAI/LONDON

Britain called yesterday for a European-led naval mission to ensure safe shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, days after Iran seized a British-flagged tanker in what London described as an act of “state piracy”.

Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt outlined the plans to par-liament after a meeting of COBR, the government’s emergency committee, which discussed London’s response to Friday’s capture of the Stena Impero tanker by Iranian commandos at sea. “Under international law Iran

had no right to obstruct the ship’s passage - let alone board her. It was therefore an act of state piracy,” Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told parliament.

“We will now seek to put together a European-led maritime protection mission to support safe passage of both crew and cargo in this vital region,” Hunt said.

REUTERS/MANAGUA

Iran took measures against a ship in the Strait of Hormuz to implement international law, not in retaliation to actions by Britain, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif said in Nica-ragua, where he met with his local counterpart.

The Iran military seized the Stena Impero ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday in what appeared to be an act of retaliation for the British capture of an Iranian tanker two weeks earlier.

Iran: Ship seizure not retaliation

Airstrikes leave 50 civilians dead in Syria’s northwest: MonitorAFP/MAARET AL NUMAN, SYRIA

Regime and Russian air strikes killed 50 people in northwest Syria yesterday, most of them in a crowded market, a war monitor said, in the latest violence to plague the opposition bastion.

In the town of Maaret Al Numan in Idlib province, men covered in blood were carried away from the market by residents and rescue workers, who used mattresses as makeshift stretchers, an AFP pho-tographer said. He saw the corpse of one man sprawled on the ground near a motorcycle, rubble surrounding his lifeless body.

With his eyes closed and his face covered in dust, another man clutched the arms of two people helping him out of the bombed area, the photographer added.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes on the vegetable market and surrounding areas in Maaret al-Numan killed 36 civilians and two unidentified persons.

The Britain-based monitor said Russian aircraft carried out the air raids, but Moscow denied it was responsible.

“The Russian air force was not carrying out any missions in this part of Syria,” said a defence ministry statement.

Palestinian owners said their buildings lay within areas run by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under the Oslo interim peace deals with Israel.

07TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019 ASIA

India launches historic Moon mission

AFP SRIHARIKOTA, INDIA

India yesterday launched a low-cost rocket on a historic bid to put a landing craft on the surface of the Moon and join an elite space force.

A week after an initial launch was halted just before blast-off, Chandrayaan-2 — or Moon Chariot 2 — took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre car-rying national pride and the hopes of Indian scientists.

India is seeking to become

just the fourth nation after Russia, the United States and China to land a spacecraft on the Moon. If the rest of the mission goes to plan, the Indian probe will land on the lunar South Pole in early September.

There were applause, hand-shakes and hugs in the mission control room as the rocket blasted off from the base on an island just off the coast of Andra Pradesh state.

“Today is a historic day for space, science and tech in India,” Indian Space Research

Organisation (ISRO) chief K Sivan said as he hailed the efforts made to fix a fuel leak that forced the earlier launch to be postponed.

India was also hailed by its international counterparts. The US state department said on Twitter that the launch was “an incredible achievement!” while the European Space Agency sent congratulations.

Chandrayaan-2 was launched on India’s most pow-erful rocket, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) MkIII. It carried an orbiter, a lander and a rover almost entirely designed and made in India. The country’s love affair with the film industry saw the media dub the rocket “Baa-hubali” after one of India’s most popular screen heroes, known for his ability to lift heavy items.

Sivan said the mission’s next stage would be critical to its success, with scientists set to conduct some 15 crucial manoeuvres of Chandrayaan-2 over the next month-and-a-half to position it around the moon.

“After that, D-day will come — and that day we are going to experience 15 minutes of terror to ensure that the landing is safe,” he said. The lander — named after Vikram A Sarabhai, the father of India’s space pro-gramme — will carry the rover to near the lunar South Pole.

ISRO scientists will remotely control the rover named Pragyaan—“wisdom” in San-skrit— as it carries out experi-ments. It will work for one lunar

day, the equivalent of 14 Earth days, studying rocks and soil on the Moon’s surface.

The 2.4-tonne (5,300-pound) orbiter is expected to circle the Moon for about a year, taking

images of the surface, looking for signs of water, and studying the atmosphere.

The mission’s next stage would be critical to its success, with scientists set to conduct some 15 crucial manoeuvres of Chandrayaan-2 over the next month-and-a-half to position it around the moon. “After that, D-day will come — and that day we are going to experience 15 minutes of terror to ensure that the landing is safe,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Sivan said.

India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk III-M1 blasts off carrying Chandrayaan-2 from the Satish Dhawan space centre at Sriharikota, India, yesterday.

Residents wave national flags to celebrate the “historic day” for the nation.

84 saved from burning building in MumbaiIANS MUMBAI

Mounting one of the biggest rescue operations in recent years, Mumbai firefighters saved a total of 84 persons trapped on the terrace and upper floors of the burning Mahanagar Tele-phone Nigam Ltd. exchange building at Bandra here last evening.

Fireman Sagar D. Salve, 25, who was suffocated by smoke while fighting the blaze, was admitted to the Bhabha Hospital nearby and his condition is stable.

It was around 3.10 p.m., during the post-lunch period, that a massive blaze engulfed the third and fourth floors of the ground plus nine storey building and quickly spread upwards, trapping many MTNL employees working on the upper floors.

Some MTNL staffers, who were out for lunch at that time, said they saw huge clouds of smoke billowing out of the building and immediately alerted their colleagues to move to safety.

As there was no escape route to go down, many of them did

the next best thing by rushing towards the upper floors and terrace, which proved to be a life-saver for them.

Some of the trapped women wrapped their ‘dupattas’ around their faces to keep out smoke, while men used hand towels, as they frantically waved their hands and handkerchiefs while screaming for help from the rescue teams below.

Braving strong winds, calm firemen, using sophisticated ladders, managed to reach the terrace and rescued those trapped there, including several women. Many of those trapped

there seemed dazed but had not panicked.

For the first time in the country, the Mumbai Fire Brigade also deployed its sophis-ticated fire-fighter robot, costing around Rs 2 crore and unveiled last week, to battle the blaze in the MTNL Building.

The fire-fighting work con-tinued till late evening but the cause of the blaze is not known, a BMC Disaster Control official said. The MTNL telephone exchange is located on the busy S.V. Road and as many as 31 fire tenders were rushed to fight the conflagration.

All crew on British-flagged tanker in good health: Iranian embassyREUTERS NEW DELHI/KOCHI

All crew members of a British-flagged tanker that Iran seized on Friday are safe and still on the vessel, the Iranian embassy in India said. The seizure of the Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz— the world’s most important waterway for the oil trade — has deepened a crisis between Tehran and the West that was triggered in May when Washington tightened sanctions, effectively barring all coun-tries from buying Iranian oil.

“All the crew members including the Indian nationals are in good health, they are still on board the tanker,” the embassy said.

Eighteen of the Stena Impero’s 23-strong crew are Indian nationals, Iranian authorities said previously.

The family of one of them - 26-year-old mess worker Dijo Pap-pachen, who joined the vessel just a month ago - said the company operating the tanker had told them about the sequestration on Friday.

“Neither has Dijo contacted the family nor could we contact him after the tanker was captured,” his tearful father Pappachen T V said in their hometown of Kochi in southern India.

Britain called on Iran yesterday to release the tanker and its crew immediately, describing the seizure as illegal.

European countries including Britain have stuck with the nuclear pact that Iran signed with world powers in 2015 since the United States pulled out three years later. But the pact is now hanging by a thread and Britain was thrust more directly into the confrontation on July 4, when its Royal Marines seized an Iranian tanker, the Grace 1, off the coast of Gibraltar. Britain accused it of violating sanctions against Syria, prompting repeated Iranian threats of retaliation.

Grace 1 also had Indian crew, who are now in British custody. The brother of that ship’s junior officer K . Ajmal said from their

hometown in Malappuram in southern Kerala state that they exchanged voice notes via social media on Sunday.

Mohammed Shareef said his 27-year-old brother told him the captain and the engineer were separated from the rest of the crew once British commandos took over the vessel.

Ajmal said he and the other crew were getting food, water and other essentials.

Deena (left), with her husband Pappachan T V, parents of Dijo Pappachan, one of the crew members of British-flagged vessel owned by Stena Bulk, seized by Iran, cries as she watches television news at their home in Kochi, India, yesterday.

Karnataka Assembly adjourned, trust vote by 6pm today: SpeakerAGENCIES BENGALURU

The Karnataka assembly was adjourned close to midnight yesterday, with Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar giving a fresh deadline for the trust vote — 6 pm today.

“I do not want this 11pm thing again. Everyone has health conditions,” the Speaker said at the end of a turbulent day. The house wit-nessed chaos as the Speaker turned down Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s request for more time before the floor test and the BJP insisted on sitting till midnight if need be. The coalition has been asked to prove majority after its 16 lawmakers resigned and two independents withdrew support. The BJP has accused the Chief Minister of delaying the trust vote in hopes of reprieve from the Supreme Court.

Earlier in the day the Speaker summoned the 12 rebel Congress MLAs who resigned from their Assembly seats for a hearing in response to a notice by their party disqualifying them for defying the whip.

“Individual notices were sent to all the 12 Con-gress rebel MLAs under rule 7 of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly (disqualification of members on ground of defection) Rules 1986,” said Speaker’s Secretary M K Vishalakshmi in a statement.

The emergent notices, dated July 18, are in response to the complaint on July 11 by Congress

L e g i s l a t u r e Party (CLP) leader Siddara-maiah and the party’s state unit chief Dinesh Gundu Rao for disqualification of the rebels under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, also known as t h e a n t i -defection law.

The rebels, h o w e v e r , sought more time to appear

before the Speaker as they were in Mumbai after submitting their resignations in the Speaker’s office while he was not present in the office on that day (July 6). On the Supreme Court’s directive in response to their July 8 joint petition for its inter-vention, as the Speaker was not accepting their resignations, the rebels appeared before the latter on July 11 in his office and re-submitted their res-ignations in a proper format.

Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar

IANS/NEW DELHI

Leaders from across the political spectrum yesterday applauded the successful launch of the Chandrayaan-2 Mission and termed it a proud moment for the country.

Soon after India’s second lunar mission ‘Babubali’ GSLV rocket put Chandrayaan-2 into the orbit, President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi called the launch historic and a proud moment for all the countrymen.

“The historic launch of Chandrayaan-2 from Sriharikota is a proud moment for all Indians. Congratulations to our scientists and engineers for furthering India’s indigenous space pro-gramme. May ISRO continue(s) to master new technologies and continue to conquer new

frontiers,” the President tweeted. Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu said the landing of Chan-drayaan-2, “an indigenously developed space-craft launched by India’s most powerful rocket GSLV MKIII, on the moon in a few weeks would make India the fourth country to do so.”

Noting that Chandrayaan-2 will be the first spacecraft to land close to the moon’s South Pole in some 50 days from now, he said, “The mission is expected to lead to new discoveries and enrich our knowledge systems. I wish the Chandrayaan-2 team every success.” Modi called it a special moment “that will be etched in the annals of our glorious history!” The Congress also congratu-lated the ISRO team for the successful launch of Chandrayaan-2 and recalled country’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

Nation applauds success of Chandrayaan-2

India rejects Trump offer on Kashmir, says Modi never made such request

IANS/NEW DELHI

India yesterday rebuffed US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate on the Kashmir issue, saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had never made such a request to him, and stressed that all outstanding issues with Pakistan are “discussed only bilaterally”.

“We have seen the US Pres-ident’s remarks to the press that he is ready to mediate, if requested by India and Pakistan, on the Kashmir issue. No such request has been made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US President,” Min-istry of External Affairs spokes-person Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

“It has been India’s con-sistent position that all out-standing issues with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally. Any engagement with Pakistan would require an end to cross-border terrorism. The Simla Agreement & the Lahore Dec-laration provide the basis to resolve all issues between India & Pakistan bilaterally,” he said.

The Conservative frontrunner has vowed to take Britain out of the European Union by October 31 — no matter the strong risk of a “no deal” scenario that could lead to economic havoc and hardship across the country.

KEN MORITSUGU AP

08 TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019VIEWS

Trump’s bigotry poses challenges for Britain’s next leader

The furor over President Donald Trump’s racist tweets found its way across the pond and into the Tory leadership

contest taking place in Britain. The two politicians vying to replace Prime Min-ister Theresa May — former foreign secretary Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt — were asked what they thought of Trump’s telling four minority congresswomen to “go back” to their countries of origin.

Speaking during a debate for the leadership of the Conservative Party, both agreed with a statement released by May’s office earlier in the day branding Trump’s remarks “com-pletely unacceptable.” But they were visibly flustered when asked if they thought Trump was being “racist” and dodged the question.

Johnson said such rhetoric has no place in the present. “If you’re the leader of a great multiracial, multicul-tural society, you simply cannot use that kind of language about sending people back to where they come from,” he said. Yet when pressed by the moderator about the explicit racism of the remarks, Johnson refused to answer.

Hunt said Trump, who is histori-cally unpopular among Britons for a US president, was being “totally offensive.” But he said that “it’s not

going to help the situation” to accuse the pres-ident of Britain’s closest ally of racism.

That “situ-ation” is already a bit tense. There’s still acrimony over the resignation of Kim Darroch, the British ambassador in Washington who was com-pelled to step down last week after diplomatic cables he wrote

describing Trump as “insecure” and “inept” were leaked to the news media. Trump reacted angrily to Dar-roch’s analysis — a view that myriad diplomats in Washington share in private — and stridently tweeted that he would no longer deal with the British ambassador.

While Hunt, Darroch’s boss, said Trump was being “disrespectful” to Darroch, Johnson, the Conservative front-runner and possible future prime minister, offered no resistance.

“That was a body blow not just to Darroch but to every diplomat and civil servant in Britain, who have the right to expect ministers to defend them when they are attacked for doing their duty,” former foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind wrote of Johnson’s silence.

Johnson’s rise to power has been years in the making: A scion of wealth and privilege, Johnson launched his political career after a mixed record in journalism. His penchant for provoc-ative bluster have drawn comparisons to Trump.

“But while Trump is a plutocrat who poses as an ordinary guy, Johnson revels in exhibiting class privilege,” Nick Cohen wrote in the right-of-center Spectator. “His descents into obscenity and racism are done in a language that has the uninitiated reaching for their dictionaries.

Nevertheless, as the mayor of London, Johnson lambasted Trump’s ignorance about life in Britain and suggested that Trump’s vilification of Muslims made him “unfit” for the White House. Then, sensing oppor-tunity, Johnson became one of the leading Brexiteers ahead of the 2016 referendum, championing an anti-establishment, nationalist cause that Trump also came to embrace.

The Conservative frontrunner has vowed to take Britain out of the European Union by October 31 — no matter the strong risk of a “no deal” scenario that could lead to economic havoc and hardship across the country. Observers warn that Johnson may drag the country to a precipice. “With few qualities beyond animal energy and ruthless ambition, Boris Johnson has been remarkably suc-cessful,” wrote conservative commen-tator Bruce Anderson. “This appears to have convinced him that if he wants something badly enough, he will get it. He might now be about to discover that there are limits to the power of insensate egotism.”

Over all this, Trump looms large. Divorce with Europe, especially a messy and sudden one, would make Britain all the more dependent on a substantive trade deal with the United

States. To this end, Washington, and Trump in particular, holds the cards. During a debate, Johnson suggested that his government could persuade the United States to raise its hygiene standards — British media are already abuzz with fear over a flood of chlo-rinated US chicken swamping British shops — to match those of Britain. The suggestion was widely mocked by experts, who recognise how little lev-erage Britain would have in negotiations.

Johnson throughout has sought to marshal a sense of Churchillian bravado, summoning the spirit of World War II resilience that inflames British nationalism to this day. But as Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman observed, he may end up looking more like “a British version of Marie Antoinette,” leading the nation to ruin with highhanded delusion.

“The real difficulty for Johnson is that the UK is profoundly divided over Brexit,” Rachman wrote. “By the time of the Blitz, Britain was more or less united in the belief that it was fighting for its survival and faced an evil and implacable enemy. But in the event of a no-deal Brexit, half the country is likely to see Johnson, not the EU, as the true villain of the story. That will be all the more the case if he has ensured a no-deal Brexit by proroguing par-liament, a course of action he has refused to rule out.”

Britain is less divided over Trump. “There is little demand among British voters for politicians to suck up to the United States,” wrote the Atlantic’s Helen Lewis, noting Trump’s stagger-ingly low 21 percent approval rating among Britons. “Unfortunately, that is exactly what Trump demands. He sees international diplomacy as a zero-sum game, where there can be only one winner. Autocrats can gain his respect, but cooperation is for the weak.”

And potential allies may end up looking like targets.

The author writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. He previously was a senior editor and correspondent at Time magazine, based first in Hong Kong and later in New York.

ISHAAN THAROOR THE WASHINGTON POST

QUOTE OF THE DAYThe war against

terrorist groups is not limited to Somalia

alone, and countries in the region must

fight extremism and terrorism together

through a unified vision to achieve security and

stability.

Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo President of Somalia

Hong Kong protests could push China to intervene

While China doesn’t want to intervene in the summer-long

protests that have shaken Hong Kong, that doesn’t mean it won’t. The movement, now in its seventh week, has veered into more dangerous territory on two fronts.

Protesters, who had previ-ously besieged the city’s legis-lature and police head-quarters, directed their ire at China itself on Sunday, defacing the central govern-ment’s official emblem and pelting its building in Hong Kong with eggs. Needless to say, their actions were not well-received in Beijing.

In an escalation on the other side, a group armed with metal rods and wooden poles

beat up anti-government pro-testers and others inside a subway station late Sunday night. The attack injured 45 people, including a man who remained in critical condition. Beijing supporters had tussled with protesters previously, but not on this scale.

Neither side wants China’s People’s Liberation Army to step in, but the growing chaos and what China will see as a direct challenge to its authority raise the risks. The thuggish attack on the protesters brought accusations of con-nivance between police and criminal gangs, though Hong Kong’s police commissioner flatly denied it and it remained unclear who was behind it.

Any intervention by China would likely bring interna-tional condemnation and could endanger Hong Kong’s position as a financial center governed by rule of law. It would also draw comparisons to China’s deadly military crackdown on Beijing’s pro-democracy Tiananmen pro-tests in 1989, an event the

government wants the world to forget.

For China, it’s not just an economic question but also a political one. Hong Kong, a former British colony, was returned to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” concept that gives the city a fair degree of autonomy over its affairs. Hong Kong residents have much broader rights and freedoms than mainland Chinese.

The success of the formula is important to China, which wants to use it to bring the self-governing island of Taiwan back under its control. Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is already using the unrest in Hong Kong to argue that “one country, two systems” doesn’t work, and a Chinese military intervention would confirm the fears of many Taiwanese.

The best outcome for China would be a de-esca-lation of the protests and a return to relative normalcy, as happened after the last major

pro-democracy demonstra-tions in Hong Kong, the student-driven “Umbrella Movement” that occupied streets for more than two months in 2014.

Many of this summer’s protesters are Umbrella Movement veterans who were disappointed that those pro-tests failed to bring about change. At least some have shown themselves unwilling to back down this time - but the question is how far they will push, and how far Beijing will let them.

“The problem is that it is not entirely up to the central government,” said Zhang Lifan, a Chinese historian and political commentator. “If the radical people in Hong Kong put forward the advocacy of independence, making the sit-uation spin out of control, the central government will cer-tainly intervene.”That is not the most likely outcome, but with no clear way out of the ongoing protests, they could well escalate further, making Beijing more skittish.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI

osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIALAccomplishing the vision

As Qatar is fast completing various mega development projects in different sectors and materializing Qatar National Vision 2030, country’s healthcare system

too is advancing at full pace and healthcare facilities, strat-egies of Qatar can be compared with those the best in the world.

In recent years, Qatar has established many new healthcare facilities and upgraded the older ones. At the same time, Qatar is successfully implementing its National Health Strategy 2018-2022. The five-year strategy reflects that the development of a nation’s health system not only sustains well-being and treats ill health, but is also a critical investment in its communities and future.

Taking the strategy forward to accomplish the national vision in health sector, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) through the Academic Health System (AHS) is all set to begin the region’s largest diabetes research project, the Qatar Diabetes Prevention Programme (QDPP).

The five-year programme is funded by Qatar Founda-tion’s Qatar National Research Fund and co-funded by HMC.

“Diabetes is one of the most pressing health conditions in Qatar. It is estimated that at least 17 percent of the adult Qatari population have diabetes and this number is expected to rise unless wide scale steps are taken to change behaviour and address the risk factors asso-ciated with diabetes,” said Pro-fessor Abdul-Badi Abou-Samra, Director of the Qatar Metabolic Institute (QMI), Chairman of Internal Medicine at HMC, and Director of the QDPP.

The flagship research pro-gramme is the result of a multi-institutional research collabo-ration between healthcare, edu-

cation, and research organisations. The research programme aims to identify the best methods to predict, prevent, and reverse type 2 diabetes.

Meanwhile, Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) newest hospital, Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital (HMGH) has also completed the first phase of its surgical services imple-mentation programme.

Two operating theatres for elective general surgery and urology procedures are now open, and upwards of 15 sur-geries are expected to be performed each week as part of the initial phase of the implementation of the new service. This development also indicates Qatar’s priority towards national healthcare system. According to another report, Hamad Medical Corporation’s Al Wakrah Hospital, the coun-try’s second busiest hospital has planned to increase its bed capacity by 10 percent in 2020 to meet the growing demand.

The hospital will also have a dedicated facility for children in need of long-term care next year as well as a cath lab for patients with cardiac problems as part of the ongoing expansion plan, said Dr Sabah Alkadhi, Medical Director of Al Wakrah Hospital.

Al Wakrah Hospital provides comprehensive, high quality healthcare to people of all ages, from emergency care to general medicine and surgery and highly specialized treat-ments and mainly cater for people in the southern part of the country.

The five-year strategy reflects that the development of a nation’s health system not only sustains well-being and treats ill health, but is also a critical investment in its communities and future.

Boris Johnson, a leadership candidate for Britain’s Conservative Party, speaks during a hustings event in London.

09TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019 ASIA

Pakistan PM gathers over 30,000diaspora in Washington, DCANATOLIA ANKARA

More than 30,000 Pakistanis gathered in the US capital on Sunday to attend a speech by Prime Minister Imran Khan, astonishing even the Pakistani-Americans who have never seen such a crowd for any other Paki-stani leader before on American soil.

Imran Khan began his three-day maiden visit to the US on

Sunday by addressing the Paki-stani diaspora at a landmark rally at the Capital One Arena stadium in Washington DC, which was scheduled days in advance. Imran emphasised that Pakistan would not be seeking any US aid and assured the jubilant crowd that his country won’t bow to anyone.

In a first, the country’s top military leadership, including the powerful army chief, Gen Qamar J a v e d B a j w a , a n d

newly-appointed head of the spy agency, Inter Services Intelli-gence (ISI), Gen Faiz Hameed, are also accompanying Imran in his talks with the Trump admin-istration on a variety of issues ranging from terrorism to Afghanistan. Bajwa will visit Pentagon to see newly-appointed chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to discuss the ongoing reconcil-iation process in war-struck Afghanistan.

Pakistan govt buys time on Senate no-trust moveINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Buying more time for countering the opposition parties’ no-confi-dence move against the Senate chairman, Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi has summoned a session of the upper house of parliament on August 1 for a vote on the motion, which has not been included in the agenda of the session scheduled for today.

Voting on the no-confidence motions against both the Senate chairman and deputy chairman will take place on August 1.

Sources in the Senate secre-tariat said opposition members

would only be allowed to speak on the no-trust confidence against the chairman during the session requisitioned on July 23.

The agenda for the requisi-tioned session would be pre-pared today.

On Saturday, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani sum-moned a session of the upper house of parliament on July 23 on the requisition of the opposition.

The session will convene at 3pm, according to a notification issued by the Senate secretariat.

On July 18, Sanjrani approved a notice for the “Motion for

Removal of Chairman Senate” in terms of Rule 12 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, 2012.

The Senate Secretariat has also circulated the notice among the members and written a letter to the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs for further necessary action at its end.

On Friday, Senator Hasil Bizenjo, the opposition parties’ joint candidate for the top Senate slot, warned that any attempt to delay the no-confidence motion against the chairman of the upper house of parliament would be in violation of the constitution.

Earlier, the opposition parties in a letter informed the secretariat that there was no provision in the constitution that prohibited moving a no-confi-dence motion in a requisitioned session.

Senator Sherry Rehman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said the opposition had sub-mitted a no-confidence motion to the secretariat in accordance with the provisions of the con-stitution. “The requisition was submitted as per the rules and regulations,” she added.

“After July 9 when the req-uisition was submitted, a session has to be convened within 14

days.” On July 9, the opposition parties submitted a no-trust motion against the Senate chairman to the secretary of the upper house of the parliament to ramp up pressure on the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

The motion was submitted by Zafarul Haq, Sherry Rehman, PML-N leader Javed Abbasi and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam’s (JUI-F) Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri.

In a tit-for-tat move, sen-ators of the PTI and its allies also moved a no-confidence motion against Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla, who is from the PPP.

Sri Lanka extends emergency for fourth monthREUTERS COLOMBO

Sri Lanka yesterday extended a law granting security forces emergency powers for a fourth month following the Easter Day bomb attacks on hotels and churches that killed more than 250 people.

Under the law, security forces can interrogate suspects without court orders. More than 100 people have been arrested in the crackdown launched after the bombings, which were claimed by Islamic State.

President Maithripala Sirisena issued orders for the law to be extended for another month from midnight on Sunday, according to a gazette notification.

Sirisena said in the official notification that extending emergency rule was “in the interest of public security, the preservation of public order and the maintenance of sup-plies and services essential to the life of the community”.

Authorities say the threat of more attacks has been con-tained and security services have dismantled most of the network linked to the Easter bombings, but operations are still under way to find remaining suspects.

Sirisena told foreign dip-lomats in May that he planned to lift the emergency once the security situation was “99 percent” back to normal.

8 Afghan civilians die in strikeAFP LOGAR, AFGHANISTAN

At least eight civilians — including children — were killed in an air strike that destroyed two homes in eastern Afghan-istan, an official said yesterday.

The deaths come amid a flare-up in violence across war-torn Afghanistan, where civilians are dying each day even as the US and the Taliban have claimed progress in an ongoing series of peace talks.

Six people were wounded in Sunday night’s strike in the Baraki Barak district of Logar, some 70 km southeast of Kabul, according to district Governor Ahmad Wais Abdul Rahimzai.

“The air strike has hit two residential houses in the dis-trict,” he said, noting that the homes were occupied by Kuchi, an ordinarily nomadic

people who sometimes settle in permanent structures. “Two children are among those killed, and two women are among the wounded,” he said.

D i d a r L a w a n g , a spokesman for the provincial governor, confirmed that the air strike had resulted in civilian casualties, but did not provide details.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the strike. US forces in Afghanistan declined to comment, but the Afghan Defence Ministry said it would issue a statement later. The conflict in Afghanistan has in recent weeks intensified with both Afghan forces and the Taliban claiming to have inflicted heavy casualties on the other’s forces. The clashes have also killed or injured scores of civilians, including many children.

Imran, Trump discuss way out of Afghanistan war

REUTERS WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump voiced optimism yesterday that Paki-stani Prime Minister Imran Khan could help broker a political settlement to end the nearly 18-year-old US war in Afghan-istan and held out the possibility of restoring aid to Islamabad.

“I think Pakistan is going to help us out to extricate our-selves,” Trump said, with Imran sitting next to him at the start of a White House meeting.

Trump spoke of possibly restoring $1.3bn in American aid that he had cut last year, depending upon the results of the meeting, and offered to mediate in the longstanding dispute between Pakistan and India over the Kashmir region.

The United States and Pakistan have a complicated relationship. Trump last year complained on Twitter that the Pakistanis “have given us nothing but lies & deceit” and “give safe haven” to militants.

“They were really, I think, subversive. They were going against us,” Trump said yes-terday, adding that the US rela-tionship with Pakistan had improved.

Imran told Trump that a peace deal with the Taliban was closer than it had ever been.

“We hope that in the coming days we will be able to urge the Taliban to speak to the Afghan

government and come to a set-tlement, a political solution,” Imran said in the Oval Office meeting when reporters were present.

Trump wants to wrap up US military involvement in Afghan-istan and sees Pakistan’s coop-eration as crucial to any deal to end the war and ensure the country does not become a base for militant groups like Islamic State.

W a s h i n g t o n w a n t s Islamabad to pressure Afghan-istan’s Taliban into a permanent ceasefire and participation in

talks with the Afghan government.

Trump last year slashed millions of dollars of security assistance to Islamabad. Pakistan has denied the accu-sations. The Pentagon said Pakistan’s army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, will meet later on Monday with the top American military officer, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford.

Analysts believe Bajwa will play a key role in behind-the-scenes discussions.

Trump says ‘could win’ Afghan war ‘in a week’ANATOLIA WASHINGTON

The 18-year war in Afghanistan could be ended within a matter of days, but doing so would result in the country being “wiped off the face of the Earth,” President Donald Trump said yesterday.

“I could win that war in a week. I just don’t want to kill 10 million people,” Trump said in the Oval Office while hosting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. “It would be over in, lit-erally, 10 days. I don’t’ want to go that route, so we are

working with Pakistan and others to extricate ourselves. Nor do we want to be policemen, because basically we are policemen right now.”

Trump has repeatedly crit-icised the US’s lengthy cam-paign in Afghanistan, which he repeated yesterday calling operations that have lasted for nearly two decades “ridiculous.”

The US has roughly 14,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan amid Trump’s push to wind down their presence in tandem with ongoing peace talks with the Taliban.

World Bank chief, businessmen meet PM Imran

US President Donald Trump meets with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan (left) in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and US President Donald Trump during the meeting at the White House, yesterday.

Baggage wrapping order withdrawnINTERNEWS KARACHI

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of Pakistan has with-drawn its order that made mandatory for all air travellers to have their luggage wrapped in plastic sheets, a federal minister said.

“As per the decision of the federal government, all check-in baggage of international and domestic passengers are to be wrapped with plastic sheet at the initial stage of scanning at combined search counters of Airport Security Force, Anti-Narcotics Force and Customs,” said a CAA notification issued on July 18.

The decision drew strong criticism from public at large as

well as ruling and opposition parties.

Prime Minister Imran Khan’s point man Jahangir Khan Tareen termed it “illogical”. He tweeted: “Just came across a very illogical notification issued by the CAA. Forcing passengers to wrap their luggage is not on. People should have the right to decide whether they want their luggage wrapped or not. The notification should be with-drawn asap.” Before him, Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari also criticised the order in a Twitter posting that read: “At a personal level I think it is an absurd decision and financially an unnecessary burden on overseas Pakistanis visiting Pakistan.

I believe it is compulsory for those going for Haj as part of the ‘Road to Makkah’ pro-gramme. But shdnt be for all other passengers.” Late on Sunday night, she posted a CAA notification dated July 21 on Twitter, saying: “The incorrect notification withdrawn as I had said this morning it was never a federal govt decision.

Will ask to have an inquiry as to how and who in CAA put out such a notification. All bureaucracy should know that Federal Govt means Cabinet! This issue never discussed!” The notification signed by CAA’s director commercial and estates reads: “The letter under reference is to be treated as cancelled an initio with imme-diate effect.”

P US President says relations with Pakistan have improved

P Peace deal with the Taliban was closer than it had ever been: Pakistan Prime Minister

INTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

David Malpass, President of the World Bank, called on Prime Minister Imran Khan at the Embassy of Pakistan in Wash-ington.

The Prime Minister was assisted by Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Foreign Min-ister; Dr Hafeez Shaikh, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance; Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser

to the Prime Minister on Com-merce; Sohail Mahmood, Foreign Secretary; and Ambassador Asad Majeed.

The Prime Minister congrat-ulated Malpass on his assumption of the important responsibility of World Bank President. The Prime Minister appreciated the tremendous support extended by the Bank in different sectors of the Pakistan’s economy over the years.

He re i terated his

government’s people-centric development agenda focused on increased spending on health, education and youth of Pakistan.

He hoped that the Bank would roll forward the pipeline projects and assured the Bank’s President of his government’s support in this regard.

Appreciating Prime Minis-ter’s development agenda, David Malpass observed that Pakistan was an important country in the region with a large portfolio of

World Bank projects.Meanwhile, a number of

businessmen and investors also met the Prime Minister to discuss investment opportunities in Pakistan.

The investors expressed their interest in the Food sector and improvement of health facilities in Pakistan.

Qureshi, Abdul Razak Dawood, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh and others were present during the meeting.

10 TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019ASIA / EUROPE

Attack targeting Hong Kongprotesters raises tensionsAFP HONG KONG

Anger soared in Hong Kong yesterday over a vicious assault on pro-democracy protesters by suspected triad gangsters that left dozens wounded, a dramatic escalation of the political turmoil plaguing the Chinese city.

The financial hub’s roiling unrest took a dark turn late Sunday when gangs of men — most wearing white T-shirts and carrying bats, sticks and metal poles — set upon anti-gov-ernment demonstrators as they returned from another huge march earlier that day.

Footage broadcast live on Facebook showed people screaming as the men beat mul-tiple protesters and journalists in Yuen Long station and inside subway trains, leaving pools of blood on the floor.

Hospital authorities said 45 people were wounded in the attack, with one man in critical condition and five others with serious injuries.

Critics rounded on the city’s embattled police force, accusing officers of taking more than an hour to reach the site and failing to arrest the armed assailants who stayed in the streets around the station into Monday morning.

Some men in white shirts

were later filmed leaving the scene in cars with Chinese mainland number plates.

Pro-democracy lawmakers held a press conference yes-terday where they accused the city’s pro-Beijing leaders of turning a blind eye to the attacks.

“This is triad gangs beating up Hong Kong people,” fumed legislator Alvin Yeung. “Yet you pretend nothing had happened?” City police chief Stephen Lo defended his force, saying his officers were busy dealing with violent anti-government protests elsewhere.

“Definitely our manpower is stretched,” he told reporters, describing any suggestion police colluded with triads as a “smear” and adding his officers would pursue the attackers.

A police spokeswoman said late yesterday they had arrested five men for “unlawful assembly” over the Yuen Long attacks. Yuen Long lies in the New Territories near the Chinese border where the criminal gangs and staunchly pro-Beijing rural committees remain influential.

Similar assaults by pro-gov-ernment vigilantes against dem-onstrators during the 2014 “Umbrella Movement” protests were blamed on triads.

Masked protesters yesterday trashed the office of staunch pro-Beijing lawmaker Junius Ho, who was filmed shaking hands with white-shirted men in Yuen Long shortly before Sunday’s violence.

Also on Sunday, China’s Hong Kong Liaison Office was daubed with eggs and graffiti.

Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam condemned both the tar-geting of the Liaison Office and the pro-government mobsters saying the scenes “outraged the whole city”. “We absolutely do not condone those sort of violent acts,” she told reporters.

Men in white T-shirts and carrying poles are seen in Yuen Long after attacking anti-extradition bill demonstrators at a train station in Hong Kong, yesterday.

China says attack on its HK office ‘intolerable’AFP BEIJING

China reacted furiously yesterday to anti-government protesters vandalising the walls of its representative’s office in Hong Kong and defacing the national emblem, branding their actions “absolutely intolerable”.

Thousands of masked pro-democracy demonstrators briefly occupied the road outside the office in the semi-auton-omous city Sunday night and targeted the building with eggs, projectiles, laser lights and

graffiti. Hong Kong has been shaken by massive, sometimes violent, protests initially organised to oppose a now-sus-pended bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China. They have now morphed into a wider and sometimes violent movement for demo-cratic reforms.

“Actions by some radical demonstrators have affected the bottom line of the ‘one country, two systems’ principle, and that is absolutely intolerable,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in Beijing,

referring to the former British colony’s special status under the terms of its 1997 handover to China.

Geng said Beijing opposes all acts of violence and “firmly” supports the use of “all necessary measures to safeguard central government agencies in Hong Kong”. “These (acts)... have seri-ously damaged the feelings of all Chinese people including seven million Hong Kong compatriots,” Wang Zhimin, China’s top envoy to the city, told reporters, calling on authorities to pursue the “rioters”.

Duterte urges lawmakers to restore death penaltyAFP MANILA

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (pictured) urged lawmakers yesterday to bring back the death penalty as part of his internationally-condemned crackdown on narcotics in which police have already killed thousands.

Buoyed by exceptionally high approval ratings and a legislature dominated by his allies, Duterte used his annual State of the Nation address to urge action on a key unre-alised plank of his tough-on-crime stance.

“I respectfully request congress to rein-state the death penalty for heinous crimes related to drugs as well as plunder,” he said referring also to the nation’s deep-rooted corruption problem.

“My countrymen, it is a sad commentary that we cannot distinguish our need from our greed, our principles from prejudices,” he told hundreds of assembled lawmakers, diplomats and celebrities in Manila.

Amnesty International immediately warned over the proposal’s impact on a nation where police claim to have killed more than 5,300 drug suspects, but activists say

the true toll is at least four times higher.“Talk of bringing back the death penalty

for drug-related crimes is abhorrent, and risks aggravating the current climate of impunity,” Amnesty section director in the Philippines Butch Olano said.

Though Duterte’s campaign is the subject of a recently launched review by the United Nations’ rights body and a preliminary

inquiry from International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors, he was defiant in his address.

“Duterte — extrajudicial killing — report to the ICC,” he said. “If you can provide me with a good comfortable cell, heated during winter time... unlimited conjugal visits, we can understand each other.”

In May’s mid-term elections Duterte backers won control of the Senate, which had stopped cold some of his most contro-versial proposals, such as bringing back capital punishment.

However, his allies, including the daughter of deceased former dictator Fer-dinand Marcos and the first head of Duterte’s drug war, have voiced support for the death penalty.

Just as the president began his 90-minute address, he pointed to the popular support that underpins his brash rule, which faces censure for locking up detractors and attacking critical journalists.

“The latest survey results shows that my disapproval rating is three percent,” he said to applause. It “inspires me with determi-nation to pursue relentlessly what we have started.”

A road along burnt forests after a wildfire in Macao, central Portugal.

Firefighters battle wildfire in Portugal, 31 people hurtAP LISBON, PORTUGAL

More than 1,000 firefighters yesterday were battling a major wildfire amid scorching temper-atures in Portugal, where forest blazes wreak destruction every summer.

About 90% of the fire area in the Castelo Branco district, 200km northeast of the capital Lisbon, was brought under control during cooler overnight temperatures, according to local Civil Protection Agency com-mander Pedro Nunes.

But authorities said they expected heat and winds to increase again in the afternoon, and warned that forests are tinder-dry after weeks with little rain.

Nunes told reporters that the

fire, in its third day, has injured 31 people. The Portuguese Civil Protection Agency said 321 vehicles and eight water-dumping aircraft were deployed to tackle the blaze, which has raced through th ick woodlands.

Police said they were inves-tigating what caused the fire amid suspicions it may have been started deliberately.

Temperatures were forecast to reach almost 40C yesterday — prolonging a spell of blistering weather that is due to hit northern Europe late this week.

Recent weeks have also seen major wildfires in Spain, Greece and Germany and the European Union authorities have warned that wildfires are “a growing menace” across the continent.

In May, forest fires also

plagued Mexico and Russia.Huge wildfires have long

been a summer fixture in Por-tugal. The country’s deadliest fire season came in 2017, when at least 106 people were killed.

The average annual area charred by wildfires in Portugal between 2010 and 2016 was just

over 100,000 hectares. That was more than in Spain, France, Italy or Greece — countries which are significantly bigger than Por-tugal. Almost 11,500 firefighters are on standby this year, most of them volunteers. Volunteers are not uncommon in fire brigades in Europe.

Japan’s PMvows to reformconstitution AFP TOKYO

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday pledged to keep alive his plans to amend the country’s pacifist constitution, despite failing to secure a “supermajority” in upper house elections.

His ruling coalition retained its majority in the upper house in Sunday’s vote for around half the seats in the chamber, but fell short of securing a two-thirds majority in favour of revising the constitution.

“The hurdle of two thirds in both the lower and upper houses is extremely high,” Abe told a news conference at his party headquarters.

“I want to produce a reform proposal that can be agreed upon by two thirds beyond the borders of the ruling and oppo-sition camps,” he said.

Abe has long harboured dreams of revising the consti-tution, which prohibits the country from waging war and maintaining a military.

But public support for revising the document is low and there is discomfort with the idea even among the ruling coa-lition. Abe’s LDP and its coalition partner Komeito took 71 of the 124 seats up for grabs in Sun-day’s vote, accounting for about half of the upper chamber. The two parties already control 70 seats in the other half of the 245-seat chamber that was not being contested. Analysts said Abe’s coalition benefitted from a weak opposition, and voter turnout underscored apathy among the electorate, falling below 50 percent for the first time since a 1995 upper house election.

The outcome of Sunday’s election means Abe remains on track to become the country’s longest-serving prime minister later this year.

Zelensky’s party heads for absolute majority in UkraineAFP KIEV

Ukraine’s comedian-turned-President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to control an absolute majority in parliament, ushering in a generational shift in the ex-Soviet country’s political arena.

The 41-year-old became Ukraine’s youngest ever post-Soviet leader when he took office two months ago and has promised to stamp out cor-ruption and end a separatist war.

His newly created Servant of the People party — named after a sitcom in which he played a president – took around 42

percent of the weekend vote, with 50 percent of votes counted.

Media projections yesterday showed this puts the party on track to pick up more than half of the parliament’s 450 seats, the best showing by any party in Ukraine’s post-1991 history.

The result is the culmination of a stunning turnaround in

Ukrainian politics and will bring a host of newcomers into par-liament and government.

Four other parties — including one openly supported by the Kremlin — passed the five percent threshold to enter the assembly, the results showed.

At 49.8 percent, the turnout was the lowest of any election in

Ukraine’s post-independence history.

It was initially thought Zel-ensky would have to form a coalition.

Speaking shortly after exit polls were released Sunday, Zel-ensky said his primary goals were to bring peace and tackle corruption.

Bolton meets Japanese FM to discuss IranAP TOKYO

US National Security Adviser John Bolton held talks with Japanese officials yesterday, presumably to discuss a US-led military coalition to safeguard shipping in the Strait of Hormuz amid escalating tensions in the region.

Japan, whose use of force is limited to self-defence of itself and its allies under its pacifist constitution, is cautious about a military coalition. Prime Min-ister Shinzo Abe reiterated yes-terday that he wants to learn more about Washington’s intentions before deciding if or how Japan can cooperate, hinting that he is not planning to join the effort immediately.

“In order to ease tensions, we hope to make Japan’s own effort first,” Abe said. “We have to wait until we hear more about what the US is talking about, as we don’t have a clear picture of its purposes and other details.” Bolton, after meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono, said they “covered a lot of ground ... We talked about all the issues that confronted us from a national security point of view,” he said.

French TV crew detained in AustraliaREUTERS MELBOURNE

A well-known French television reporter and his crew were arrested yesterday while filming protesters blockading a coal port in Australia’s north-eastern state of Queensland, media said.

State police confirmed people had been arrested and charged with trespassing at the Abbot Point coal terminal, but were unable to give immediate details.

Reporter Hugo Clément and his television crew were filming an environmental documentary for France 2, said Frontline Action on Coal, the group leading the protest at the port against India’s Adani Enter-prises, which is digging a con-troversial coal mine in Queensland.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam

Hospital authorities said 45 people were wounded in the attack, with one man in critical condition.

11TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019 EUROPE

UK minister quits, decries ‘dark cloud’ of BrexitREUTERS LONDON

A minister and longstanding critic of Boris Johnson quit yesterday, the latest resignation before the presumed new prime minister takes office with a “do or die” pledge to take Britain out of the European Union with or without a deal.

The resignation of Alan Duncan (pictured), a junior foreign office minister, under-lines the strength of feeling in the governing Conservative Party and parliament against a no-deal Brexit which many businesses say would be catastrophic for the economy.

He follows Margot James, who stepped down as culture

minister last week, describing as “quite incredible” Johnson’s promise to leave the EU by October 31 regardless of whether a deal was in place to smooth the process. Business organisations that are traditional allies of the Conservative Party have repeatedly warned against such a scenario.

On Sunday, finance minister Philip Hammond also said he would resign rather than be

sacked by Johnson, promising to fight with others in parliament to stop a rupture in relations with the EU, the country’s biggest trading partner.

In his resignation letter, Duncan said: “The UK does so much good in the world. It is

tragic that just when we could have been the dominant intel-lectual and political force throughout Europe, and beyond, we have had to spend every day working beneath the dark cloud of Brexit.”

He pointedly noted that he had worked with “two very dif-ferent foreign secretaries” —Johnson and his rival to become prime minister, Jeremy Hunt.

His decision to step down comes as little surprise. Duncan has shown no reticence in criti-cising Johnson, his former boss at the foreign office, once describing him as a “circus act”.

Earlier this month, he attacked Johnson for not defending Britain’s former ambassador to the United States

after a leak of his criticism of US President Donald Trump’s administration. Duncan said Johnson had “basically thrown our top diplomat under the bus”.

Several other ministers are expected to leave their posts if, as expected, Johnson becomes Britain’s new prime minister tomorrow. The man who led the “Leave” campaign in the 2016 EU referendum will then immedi-ately face the riddle that is Brit-ain’s Brexit negotiation.

Johnson, a former London mayor, has said he will ramp up preparations for a no-deal exit to try to force the European Union’s negotiators to make changes to the agreement that Prime Minister Theresa May sealed and British lawmakers

voted down three times.But opposition in parliament

to leaving without a deal is growing and the EU is refusing to budge over the withdrawal agreement.

On Sunday, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said “we’ll all be in trouble” if the new prime minister wanted to tear up the agreement to try to get rid of the so-called Northern Irish backstop, an insurance policy to prevent a return of a hard border between the British province and EU member Ireland.

“We hope that the backstop that many in the UK don’t seem to like can be avoided,” Coveney said. “(But) we are simply not going to move away from that withdrawal agreement.”

French submarine lost in 1968 locatedAFP PARIS

A private search vessel has located a French submarine that went missing in the western Mediterranean more than 50 years ago, officials said yesterday, raising hopes the mystery over the disappearance can finally be solved.

“It’s a success, a relief and a technical feat,” Defence Minister Florence Parly wrote on Twitter, after the wreck was discovered off the southern French port of Toulon.

“I am thinking of the families who have waited for this moment for so long.”

The Minerve submarine was lost off France’s southern coast with 52 sailors on board on January 17, 1968. Despite mul-tiple search efforts over the years, it had never been found.

Parly announced a new search mission at the beginning of 2019, backed by the latest technology and naval vessels, following fresh demands from

the families of deceased sailors to find the remains of their loved ones.

Tides and currents in the western Mediterranean were modelled by the team, while data from the time of the accident was also re-analysed, including seismic reports indicating the likely implosion of the vessel as it dropped to the seabed.

But the discovery was ulti-mately made by a boat belonging to private US company Ocean Infinity, which found the Minerve 45km from Toulon at a depth of 2,370 metres, a senior French naval officer said.

The boat, the Seabed Con-structor, arrived on the scene last Tuesday, the officer said on con-dition of anonymity.

The Seabed Constructor was also successful in locating Argen-tina’s lost San Juan submarine in November 2018 which had dis-appeared in the Atlantic Ocean a year earlier.

The cause of the accident involving the Minerve has never been announced.

Experts have speculated that it could have been due to a problem with its rudder, a col-lision with another boat, the explosion of a missile or torpedo, or a fault with its oxygen supply systems.

The 1960s were deadly times for submarine crews, with a host of accidents reported around the

world.In April 1963, the nuclear-

powered USS Thresher sank with 129 people aboard off Cape Cod, while 99 lives were lost in the USS Scorpion when it sank in the Atlantic five years later.

Also in 1968, the Soviet K-129 submarine armed with three nuclear missiles was lost in the

North Pacific. It was found by the US in a covert operation in 1974.

The year 1968 was also marked by the disappearance of The Dakar, an Israeli vessel car-rying out its maiden voyage with 69 men on board.

It disappeared and was only found off the Greek island of Crete in 1999.

The AsterX submarine drone returns on board the Antea research vessel during the second phase of the search for the wreckage of the Minerve submarine, yesterday.

Italy drafts ‘no-mobile-phone phobia’ lawAFP ROME

Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) has drafted a law aimed at preventing and treating the rising phenomenon of addiction to mobile phones and computers, particularly among the young people.

The bill seeks to treat so-called “no-mobile-phone

phobia” (also known as “nomo-phobia”) or the fear of not being able to get regular access to social networks or messaging apps.

It proposes education pro-grammes for parents to detect excessive mobile phone use in children.

The bill also lays out plans for “education towards for a con-scientious use of the Internet and

social networks” in schools and universities.

Nomophobia particularly affects young people, often pre-venting them getting a good night’s sleep.

Half of Italians aged 15 to 20 consult their mobile phones at least 75 times a day, Italian media quoted research by the National Association of Techno-logical Dependance as saying.

Around 61 percent of Italians use their tablet or mobile phone in bed, according to another report published in June, with the figure rising to 81 percent among 18 to 34 year olds.

The ruling M5S said in its draft that mobile phone addiction is comparable to gam-bling addiction, causing “inter-ference with dopamine production”.

Manchester attack suspect kept in custodyAP LONDON

The younger brother of the suicide bomber who killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester has been kept in custody at a bail hearing.

Hashem Abedi appeared at Oxford Crown Court yesterday via video-link from Belmarsh Prison in southeast London.

Judge Nigel Sweeney ordered the 22-year-old to be placed in custody before a pre-liminary court hearing at the Old Bailey in London or in Oxford on July 30.

Abedi travelled to Libya before his older brother deto-nated his suicide vest on May 22, 2017. He is suspected of helping plan the attack.

He faces almost two dozen counts of murder for the attack’s victims, one count of attempted murder for those injured and one count of con-spiring with his brother to cause explosions.

The attack took place after an Ariana Grande concert that was part of her 2017 Dangerous Woman Tour.

Many exiting concert-goers and waiting parents were in the foyer at the time of the explosion. According to evi-dence presented at the coroner’s inquest, the bomb was strong enough to kill people who were up to 20 metres away.

Greater Manchester Police declared the incident a terrorist attack and suicide bombing. It was the deadliest attack in the UK since the July 7, 2005 London bombings.

Several other ministers are expected to leave their posts if, as expected, Johnson becomes Britain’s new prime minister.

EU ministers meet on migration issuesAP PARIS

European ministers met yesterday in Paris seeking some unity on how to deal with migrants crossing the Mediter-ranean Sea, people who are now being blocked out of ports by Italy and Malta, dragged back unwillingly to lawless Libya or used as pawns in political standoffs across Europe.

Yet absent from the

closed-door meeting of European Union interior and foreign min-isters was Italy’s populist Matteo Salvini, who tweeted a day earlier his strong disagreement with letting France and Germany determine the bloc’s refugee policy while nations like Italy are on the front line.

Despite Salvini’s absence, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas voiced hope that a solution was on the horizon. “The hag-gling about emergency rescue in

the Mediterranean must finally end,” Maas said at a press briefing.

“It is really necessary that we manage to put together a coa-lition of those who are prepared to help, and I think we came a step closer to that today.”

He said talks would continue among interior ministers about how an ad hoc mechanism might look that would make it possible for Italy and Malta to open their harbours.

Officials and delegates attend a working meeting focused on the migration issues in the Mediterranean zone, in Paris, yesterday.

Spanish PM seeks backing in formation of new govtANATOLIA ANKARA

Spain’s Prime Minister called on all parties yesterday not to block the formation of a new government after years of deadlock and inability for any party to receive a vote of confi-dence from the parliament.

Speaking at a parliamentary debate on the investiture of a new government, socialist leader Pedro Sanchez offered a “pact of state” in order to avoid deadlock and allow the party with the most votes to govern.

“People should not suffer the threat of a repeat election anymore,” he stressed, arguing that his party had received “enough votes” in the last election with 123 deputies of the ruling PSOE party in the Assembly.

Lacking the necessary support for a vote of confidence, Sanchez sought support from the other parties. If he is unable to garner enough backing, Spain could be thrown into a new bout of general elections.

He asked his preferred partner, the Podemos Party, to advance with negotiations.

Admitting that the ruling Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and Podemos came from “two different traditions of the left”, the Prime Minister insisted on working towards what he said would not be an “easy consensus”.

Sanchez will undergo a vote of confidence today after nego-tiations to form a minority gov-ernment led by the ruling PSOE failed.

In the 350-seat Spanish Assembly, a prospective gov-ernment requires 176 votes to get the vote of confidence.

If Sanchez fails to form a government next week with the vote of confidence, the country will hold its fourth general election in four years.

Sanchez raised six points as part of his government’s pro-gramme, including a moderni-zation of the labour system, digital revolution, ecological transition, gender equality, social justice and a European policy.

Spain needs closer ties with the EU, he stressed, arguing that the Brexit process in the UK “weakened Brit ish democracy.”

Sweden drops probe of man in US rapper assault caseAFP STOCKHOLM

Swedish prosecutors yesterday dropped an investigation into one of the men involved in a street brawl with US rapper ASAP Rocky, saying the man was acting in self-defence.

The fight between two men and ASAP Rocky and his entourage in Stockholm on June 30 led to the July 3 arrest of the rapper, who has been detained since on suspicion of assault.

Parts of the brawl were captured on a video published by US celebrity news outlet TMZ which showed the rapper tossing a young man to the ground. But the 30-year-old New York rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, posted his own videos on Instagram showing the lead-up to the clash.

In those videos the young man can be seen arguing with the rapper, who repeatedly asks the man and his friend to stop following them. The young man can also be seen hitting the rap-per’s large bodyguard with a pair of headphones.

Following Mayers arrest, the bodyguard filed a counter-complaint against the man claiming to be a victim, accusing him of harassment and assault.

However the Swedish Pros-ecution Authority announced yesterday it was dropping the investigation, saying the man’s actions were in self-defence as he was being pushed and that the bodyguard — or “counter-plaintiff” — had grabbed his throat.

12 TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019AMERICAS

House Republicans vow tough questions for MuellerAP WASHINGTON

House Republicans are pledging tough questioning of special counsel Robert Mueller when he testifies before Congress this week as Democrats plan to air evidence of wrongdoing by Pres-ident Donald Trump in a poten-tially last-ditch bid to impeach him.

Rep Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judi-ciary Committee, said the American public is growing weary of the Russia investigation three months after the release of the special counsel’s 448-page report and that “any thought of impeachment is waning.”

He said Republicans will be focused on making clear that the report represents a “final episode” in the Russia probe, which he described as flawed.

“Remember, the Mueller report is a one-sided report,” Collins said. “It has not been

questioned from the other side. This is our chance to do that.”

Days before back-to-back hearings tomorrow, both sides seemed to agree that Mueller’s testimony could be pivotal in shifting public opinion on the question of “holding the pres-ident accountable.”

“This is a president who has violated the law 6 ways from Sunday,” said New York Rep Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the

Judiciary Committee. He argued that Mueller’s

report lays out “very substantial evidence” that Trump is guilty of “high crimes and misde-meanours,” the constitutional standard for impeachment.

The House Judiciary Com-mittee and the House Intelli-gence Committee will question Mueller in separate hearings on the report. While the report did not find sufficient evidence to

establish charges of criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to swing the election, it said Trump could not be cleared of trying to obstruct the investigation.

But Mueller believed Trump couldn’t be indicted in part because of a Justice Department opinion against prosecuting a sitting president.

Still, Democrats on the Judi-ciary Committee plan to focus

on a narrow set of episodes laid out in the report to direct Amer-icans’ attention to what they see as the most egregious examples of Trump’s conduct, which point to obstruction of justice.

Collins, meanwhile, said Republicans will focus in part on the origins of the Russia investigation.

“There’s going to be a lot of questions for what he did say, what he didn’t say, and how this thing started,” he said, referring to Mueller.

“This is the time that the Democrats have got to show on their end how much time they have been wasting of our com-mittee and how we have not been getting things done because they simply don’t like this pres-ident, who was elected by the people in 2016, and they’re just trying to derail him for 2020.”

Nadler said he’s not worried that Republicans might seek to attack the credibility of the Russia investigation.

US records 25 new measles cases as outbreak spreadsREUTERS WASHINGTON

The US recorded 25 new measles cases last week, bringing the total number of cases in the year to 1,148 as the country recorded its worst outbreak of the disease since 1992, federal health offi-cials said.

The 2.2% weekly increase in the number of cases of the highly contagious and some-times deadly disease also included Ohio and Alaska, bringing the total to 30 states as of July 18, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. It was the first time since June 10 that the disease spread to additional states.

The total number of cases, the country’s highest total since 2,126 were recorded in 1992, includes both active cases and those that have since resolved.

Federal health officials attribute this year’s outbreak to parents who refuse to vaccinate their children, with many believing, contrary to scientific evidence, that ingredients in the measles vaccine can cause autism.

Manhunt under way after tourist deaths in CanadaREUTERS TORONTO

The Canadian federal police said they are searching for two missing teenagers in northern Canada, days after an Australian and an American were found dead on a remote highway, in what authorities are treating as a double homicide.

Lucas Fowler, 23, from Sydney, Australia, and his girl-friend, Chynna Deese, 24, from Charlotte, North Carolina, were wrapping up a two-week-long road trip through Canada when their bodies were found on Highway 97, 20km south of Liard Hot Springs, a popular tourist destination, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said.

The RCMP believe their murder occurred between 4pm PDT (2300 GMT) on July 14 and 7am (1400 GMT) on July 15. It took three days for the bodies to be identified as those of Fowler, son of a chief inspector with the New South Wales Police Force (NSWPF), and Deese.

The RCMP said they are searching for two missing teen-agers believed to have been driving a vehicle that was found in flames on a highway about 500km from the site of the cou-ple’s murder, leading to specu-lation in local media about a serial killer in the area.

However, the RCMP

disputed this concern, stating that the investigation into Fowler and Deese’s deaths is still in early stages.

“At this point, we have nothing to indicate that their deaths are linked to any other active and ongoing inves-tigations in the area, or if there is a heightened risk to public safety,” Janelle Shoihet, media relations office for the RCMP, said in a statement.

A New South Wales police officer told the Sydney Morning Herald that the couple were shot, but this has not been con-firmed by the RCMP, who said the deaths had been deemed “suspicious” early in the inves-tigation, and that major crimes units had been called in to assist.

The families of the victims have described the deaths as violent.

“To lose someone so young and vibrant, who was travelling the world and just enjoying life to the full, is devastating,” Fowler’s family said in a statement released by the New South Wales Police, adding that Deese’s death was also “too cruel.

All our love and best wishes go to Chynna’s family and friends.”

Members of the NSWPF are accompanying the Fowler family to Canada. The RCMP said they will not participate in the investigation.

Titanic survivor’s cane sold for $62,500 at auctionAP PROVIDENCE

A Titanic survivor’s walking stick, with an electric light she used to signal for help from a lifeboat, sold for $62,500 at an auction of maritime items, the auction house said yesterday.

Guernsey’s held the sale at the International Yacht Resto-ration School in Newport, Rhode Island, on Friday and Saturday.

The top bid on Ella White’s cane was $50,000, plus the sur-charge added by the auction house, Guernsey’s President Arlan Ettinger said.

Ettinger had expected it to sell for far more, with a pre-auction estimate of $300,000 to $500,000. He described it as one of the most extraordinary items to survived the sinking.

The walking stick was con-signed to Guernsey’s by Wil-liams family in Milford, Con-necticut. Some family members contested the sale.

The relatives agreed before the auction on how to split the proceeds and the issue was resolved, but the dispute may have made potential bidders nervous, Ettinger said.

NY leader slamsutility firm afterlatest blackoutAFP NEW YORK

New York’s mayor slammed power company Con Edison after thousands of homes suffered electricity cuts just a week after a major outage plunged Manhattan into darkness.

About 53,000 customers — mostly in Brooklyn — lost power on Sunday night, leaving them without air conditioning as a crippling heat wave swept across much of the US.

Con Edison said it cut some services “to protect vital equipment” after consumption hit a new record of 12,063 meg-awatts at 6:00pm Sunday (2200 GMT) as New Yorkers sweltered in dangerously hot weather.

That was in contrast to the five-hour blackout on July 13, which was caused by equipment failure on a high-voltage line.

“I am extremely disap-pointed with Con Ed,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said adding that their decision to turn off the power when it was dark raised “safety and security issues.”

He called for a “full investi-gation” into both outages.

Trump attacks Mueller ahead of hearingAFP WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump attacked Robert Mueller yesterday, even as he insisted he would not watch the special counsel’s potentially damaging Congressional testimony this week about the two-year Russia investigation.

Two days before Mueller testifies the president repeated

his longstanding claim it was a biased “witch hunt.”

The US leader also repeated his false claim that Mueller’s final report, released in April, found no collusion with Russia by the 2016 Trump campaign team and no obstruction of justice by the president himself.

“Highly conflicted Robert Mueller should not be given another bite at the apple. In the

end it will be bad for him and the phony Democrats in Con-gress who have done nothing but waste time on this ridiculous Witch Hunt,” Trump tweeted.

“Result of the Mueller Report, NO COLLUSION, NO OBSTRUCTION!”

Trump said he would not be watching Mueller’s much-awaited, nationally broadcast appearance tomorrow.

US expands rapid deportation nationwideREUTERS MEXICO

The US Department of Homeland Security said yesterday it will order more speedy deportations of immigrants who crossed ille-gally and are caught anywhere in the United States, expanding a programme typically applied only along the southern border with Mexico.

The new rule set to be pub-lished in the Federal Register today would apply “expedited removal” to any illegal crossers who cannot prove to immi-gration agents that they have been living in the country for two years.

Legal experts said it was a dramatic expansion of a pro-gramme that cuts out review by an immigration judge. Previ-ously, only those immigrants caught within 100 miles of the border who had been in the country two weeks or less could be quickly ordered deported.

President Donald Trump has struggled to stem an increase of mostly Central American fam-ilies arriving at the US-Mexico border, leading to overcrowded detention facilities and a political battle over a growing humani-tarian crisis.

The government said increasing rapid deportations would free up detention space and ease strains on immigration courts, which face a backlog of more than 900,000 cases.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which has filed suit to block numerous Trump immigration policies in court, vowed to sue.

“Under this unlawful plan, immigrants who have lived here for years would be deported with less due process than people get in traffic court,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project.

The policy will create chaos and fear in immigrant commu-nities, and could have unin-tended consequences, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor at Cornell Law School.

“US citizens could be expe-ditiously removed by error,” he

said. “You don’t have a lot of room to challenge that. You can’t go before an immigration judge.”

The policy comes after a US Court of Appeals in California in March ruled that those ordered deported in the sped-up process have a right to take their case to a judge.

DHS said 37%, or 20,570, of

those encountered by Immi-grat ion and Customs Enforcement in the year to Sep-tember had been in the country less than two years.

If individuals in expedited removal cannot establish a “credible fear” of prosecution in their home country, they can be quickly deported. In fiscal 2018,

those in these sped-up pro-ceedings were detained for an average of 11.4 days, according to DHS, compared to 51.5 days for those in full proceedings.

Many immigrants in depor-tation proceedings are released and allowed to live in the US for the months and years it takes to decide their immigration cases.

A member of the Mexican National Guard observing a group of migrants that crossed illegally into El Paso, Texas, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, in Mexico, yesterday.

Jose Luis Gonzalez Meza, a lawyer representing Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, holding a poster with other protesters in front of a security car of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Mexico City, yesterday.

Drug kingpin ‘El Chapo’ appeals life sentenceAFP NEW YORK

Fallen Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, once one of the world’s most powerful and notorious criminals, has appealed his life sentence, court documents published yesterday showed.

Guzman, the 62-year-old former co-leader of Mexico’s feared Sinaloa drug cartel, was convicted in February of smug-gling hundreds of tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphet-amine and marijuana into the United States.

On Wednesday last week, he

was sentenced to life in prison in a New York federal courtroom, and sent to the noto-rious ADX federal maximum security prison in the US state of Colorado nicknamed the “Alc-atraz of the Rockies.”

A symbolic 30 years was also added to the sentence and he was also ordered to pay $12.6bn in forfeiture — a sum based on a conservative estimate of rev-enues from his cartel’s sales in the United States.

Guzman’s new lawyer, Marc Fernich, filed an appeal the next day, documents show. Fernich did not immediately comment.

A decision by an appeals judge could take up to a year.

Guzman — whose moniker “El Chapo” translates as “Shorty” — is considered the most influ-ential drug lord since Colombia’s Pablo Escobar, who was killed in a police shootout in 1993.

He was extradited from Mexico to the United States in January 2017.

Current ADX inmates include convicted “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols, the British “shoe bomber” Richard Reid and the Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is awaiting execution.

The new rule would apply “expedited removal” to any illegal crossers who cannot prove to immigration agents that they have been living in the country for two years.

BUSINESSPAGE | 14 PAGE | 15

Oil outlook sours as sanctions,

global tensions fail to bring out bulls

Emerging markets may get tough lesson on complacency over rates

13TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019

GCC looks to add 7GW renewables by early 2020SATISH KANADY THE PENINSULA

The GCC region is expected to witness drastic rise in renewable energy deployment. Nearly 7GW of new renewable power generation capacity is expected to become operational by the early 2020s in the region, including Qatar.

An update on the region’s utility-scale renewable energy projects devel-opment showed the first phase of Qatar’s 900MW Al-Kharsaag project is expected to be completed by 2020. The project is structured as a 25-year build, own, operate, and transfer (BOOT) public-private partnership.

Deloitte’s Islamic finance Insights Series on ‘Sustainable Finance’ revealed yesterday that the GCC renewable energy market has seen an upward trend in recent years with all countries incorporating renewable energy targets in their National Determined Contribu-tions (NDCs) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

“Energy efficiency and green energy concepts have been embraced and deployed in the national visionary strat-egies (of GCC countries). A clear trend is the growing importance of Islamic finance as an alternative funding choice

for many countries and governments, supported by Multinational Devel-opment Banks (MDBs) and local industry supporting initiatives”, said Dr. Hatim El Tahir, FCISI Director, Islamic Finance Group Leader, Deloitte ME IFKC

Renewable energy financing in the GCC region generally has long tenures with high debt-equity-ratios (more than 70 percent). However the rise of the green bond market is seen as one of the innovative financing methods one of the lead banks in the region issuing the first green bond in the Middle East valued at $587m in 2017.

Islamic finance is considered one of the new options for solar financing apart from conventional loans, bonds and equity schemes. One of the popular finance techniques, Green Sukuk, which are Shariah-compliant green bonds, have recently been used in many renewable energy projects. The adoption of Green Sukuk as one of alternatives to several traditional financing techniques will rise due to factors such as increasing number of solar projects, lower capital cost, faster, favorable green energy pol-icies, along with preference towards Shariah-compliant instruments.

Global new investment in clean energy almost increased by 66 percent from $200bn in 2008 to $332bn in 2018, with a maximum investment per MW in solar sector compared to the rest of renewable energy sources. This is largely due to a drastic decrease in required capital cost thereby reducing the total investment in solar to $130bn in 2018, as reported by Bloomberg NEF.

According to Deloitte, solar energy developers and investors alike now have enviable structures of Islamic finance to boost growth of green energy in the region. The drive for more Sukuk and other Islamic financing structures such as Murabah, Ijarah and Mudaraba in greenfield projects will continue to play a key role in the solar industry investment landscape.

The International Finance Corpo-ration (IFC) has committed a record of $2bn to support the Middle East and North Africa private sector, boost inno-vation, drive economic growth, and create jobs. It focused on supporting power and renewable energy projects, and helping entrepreneurs. Among key projects in FY18 were the first green-bonds program in Lebanon and the Levant, and a solar project in Gaza, the first privately financed energy project in more than a decade. The IFC has also invested more than $300m to support

clean energy options in Jordan, enabling well over $1bn in private sector invest-ments in Jordan’s power distribution and generation sectors, including solar power.

Professor Mohamad Akram Laldin Executive Director International Shariah Research Academy for Islamic finance said global investment is focusing strongly on investing in renewable and clean energy. For example, investments into global clean energy recorded an increase from $200bn in 2008 to $332bn in 2018. This is due to lower investment costs in green energy, espe-cially solar.

An update on the region’s utility-scale renewable energy projects development showed the first phase of Qatar’s 900MW Al-Kharsaag project is expected to be completed by 2020. The project is structured as a 25-year build, own, operate, and transfer (BOOT) public-private partnership.Dr Hatim El Tahir, FCISI Director, Islamic

Finance Group Leader, Deloitte ME IFKCProfessor Mohamad Akram Laldin, Executive Director International Shariah Research Academy for Islamic finance

14 TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019BUSINESS

Sci-Tech Innovation Board

10,542.24 +41.02 PTS0.39%

QSE FTSE100 DOW CRUDE

7,514.02 +5.53 PTS0.074%

27,187.73 +33.53 PTS0.12% Dow & Brent before going to press

$56.16 +0.53

MARKETWATCHQNB wins three coveted ABF awardsTHE PENINSULA DOHA

QNB Group, the largest financial institution in the Middle East and Africa, recently received three prestigious awards by Asian Banking and Finance (ABF) Magazine during their awards ceremony in Singapore.

QNB received, “Domestic Retail Bank of the Year - Qatar”, “Digital Banking Initi-ative of the Year – Qatar” and “Mortgage and Home Loan Product of the Year – Qatar” awards based on its con-tinuous efforts to provide an enhanced banking experience and a unique range of products and innovative services tailor-made to its customers. These awards highlight the Bank’s long-term commitment and

success in delivering its cus-tomers the best products and services.

Recognised as a leading publication for banking and finance executives in Asia, Asian Banking and Finance magazine evaluates the most

outstanding practices and innovative strategies in Asia.

QNB Group is committed to expanding its international network in line with its goal to become a leading bank in the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia by 2020.

The QNB headquarters.

Officials attending an opening ceremony of the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s Sci-Tech Innovation Board, in Shanghai yesterday. Trading began on a new Nasdaq-style technology board in Shanghai that represents one of China’s most significant market reforms, and a potential weapon in its growing tech rivalry with the United States. Twenty-five stocks debuted on the Shanghai Stocks Exchange’s Sci-Tech Innovation Board - dubbed the STAR Market - in which listing and trading rules have been eased to help channel funding to start-ups.

Starbucks’ China rival Luckin Coffee plans first foray overseasREUTERS/BEIJING

Starbucks’ Chinese challenger, Luckin Coffee, plans to open coffee shops in the Middle East and India, in its first move overseas.

Luckin, which raised $561m in May in a US initial public offering, said yesterday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a joint venture with Kuwait’s Americana Group to launch the business in the Greater Middle East and India regions, without providing further details.

“This collaboration represents Luckin Coffee’s first step toward bringing its leading products from China to the world,” Luckin Cof-fee’s Founder and CEO, Jenny Qian Zhiya, said in a statement.

Kesri Kapur, CEO of Amer-icana Group which operates 1,800 restaurants and 29 food production sites in the Middle East, said the Greater Middle East and India regions provided promising prospects for expansion. Luckin has been locked in a supercharged expansion plan to unseat Star-bucks as the No.1 coffee chain in the world’s second-largest economy and aims to open 2,500 stores in China this year.

It has spent cash to offer lower prices, discounts, speedy delivery and promotions on social media, which in turn pushed Starbucks to form a tie-up with Chinese tech giant Alibaba to deliver coffee to customers. Luckin has also expanded outside coffee, offering customers other beverages such as grapefruit cheese jasmine tea and food items, including Sichuan cold noodles with pulled chicken via its app.

Oil outlook sours as sanctions, global tensions fail to bring out bullsREUTERS LONDON/NEW YORK

Sentiment in the oil market has shifted dramatically in recent days, with hedge funds, producers and traders all taking a more bearish tack in response to what they see as weakness in worldwide demand. The oil market has struggled to sustain a rally despite supply restric-tions that generally would be considered bullish. US sanc-tions on Venezuela and Iran have removed more than 1.5 million barrels of daily supply from the market, Opec extended a supply-cut deal into 2020 and tensions between the United States and Iran are rising.

Yet, Brent futures have

struggled to sustain a move above $65 a barrel and slumped about 7 percent last week, while US futures have rarely moved above $60 a barrel. “Given all the bullish news we’ve had, the flat price has hardly changed,” said Janelle Matharoo (pictured) of InsideOut Advisors, a commod-ities trading and risk man-agement consultancy. “Fifteen years ago, this kind of news would have shifted the price $20, $30 per barrel.”

Hedge funds and investors have exited bullish bets on the realization that demand may be weaker than anticipated while US production surges. Producers, meanwhile, have rushed to lock in future prices, betting that this may be their

best chance to protect against a selloff, oil traders and brokers said.

Front-month, or current, futures contracts have not had a massive selloff - but looking at later-dated contracts, the underlying weakness is apparent. The premium on front-month Brent crude

futures compared with oil to be delivered in half a year has fallen from a six-year high in May at more than $4 a barrel to less than $1.50 last week. That is a signal that worries about tight supply have abated.

Even rising tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, where the United States and others are moving to protect tankers against Iran, has produced only modest gains. On Friday, news that Iran had seized a British tanker supported prices - but futures rose less than 1 percent. The steady rise in US oil output and demand worries from a protracted Sino-US trade war, however, have weighed on demand forecasts. The Inter-national Energy Agency recently cut its expectation for

global demand through 2019 and 2020 and said it may cut it again if the global economy - and especially China -show further weakness, while Saudi Arabian exports fell to a 1-1/2-year low in May.

Traders said there has been “relentless” selling in bullish Brent call options as far as December 2021 and 2022, a reflection of growing expecta-tions that demand for oil is weakening as supply grows. “There’s a feeling on the margin that the current price is poten-tially unsustainable and the market structure supports that,” said Matharoo. Average 2020 Brent oil prices slipped to the weakest in a month at $60.28 a barrel last week. Separately, bullish speculator bets on US

crude futures and options on the NYMEX are near the lowest level since 2013. The price weakness presents challenges for oil producers, and many have started to hedge to protect against a damaging future downturn in prices. With the recent weakness in the market, some consultants are warning about waiting too long to protect against future market moves by buying options to sell or buy oil at a certain price in the future.

“We’re telling producers it’s time to lock in,” said Thibaut Remoundos of London-based hedging consultancy CTC. “We’re less bullish than most of our clients... We believe there is greater downside risk than is priced in.”

Indian panel recommends cryptocurrency banREUTERS/NEW DELHI

An Indian government panel has recommended banning all private cryptocurrencies and a jail term of up to 10 years and heavy fines for anyone dealing in digital currencies, which could signal the end of them in India.

The panel drew up a report and draft legislation, which will be examined by the gov-ernment and regulators before they make a final decision, the government said in a statement yesterday.

The panel has, however, asked the government to con-sider the launch of an official government-backed digital currency in India, to function like bank notes, through the Reserve Bank of India.

Authorities in various coun-tries are considering how to regulate cryptocurrencies, par-ticularly after Facebook announced plans to launch one called Libra, because of risks to the financial system and con-sumer data.

The Indian government has issued repeated warnings against investing in digital currencies, saying these were like “Ponzi schemes” that offer unusually high returns to early investors.

The government panel, headed by finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, recom-mended a fine of up to 250 million rupees ($3.63 million) and imprisonment for up to 10 years for anyone who mines, generates, holds, sells, transfers or issues cryptocurrency.

“There is no underlying intrinsic value of these private cryptocurrencies,” the panel said in its report submitted to the finance ministry.

SNC to take $1.5bn charge as reorganisation ramps upBLOOMBERG TORONTO

SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. will take C$1.9bn ($1.5bn) in charges to exit turnkey contracting and split its resources and infrastructure construction segments into separate business lines as the embattled Canadian company retrenches to focus on high-growth areas such as engineering.

SNC also is exploring options for its resource unit, including moving to a service-based business or divestiture, the Mon-treal-based company said in a statement yesterday.

The company withdrew its forecast for the year amid the reorganisation, saying it expects

significantly lower results than previously anticipated. It pre-dicted a second-quarter loss before interest, taxes depreciation and amortisation of C$150m to C$175m for engineering and con-struction. SNC expects to reports result August 1.

“Lump-sum, turnkey projects have been the root cause of the company’s performance issues,” interim Chief Executive Officer Ian L. Edwards said in the statement. “By exiting such contracting and splitting it off from what is oth-erwise a healthy and robust business, we are tackling the problem at the source, and as a result we expect to see a material improvement in the predictability and clarity of our results.”

Microsoft joins project on ethical artificial intelligenceAFP SAN FRANCISCO

M i c r o s o f t y e s t e r d a y announced a $1bn investment in an OpenAI ethical artificial intelligence project backed by Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon.

The partnership will be devoted to developing advanced AI models on Micro-soft’s Azure cloud computing platform while adhering to “shared principles on ethics and trust,” the companies said in a joint release.

OpenAI and Microsoft expressed a vision of “artificial general intelligence” (AGI) working with people to help solve daunting problems such as climate change.

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said the goal of the effort is to allow artificial intelligence to be “deployed safely and securely and that its economic benefits are widely distributed.” Microsoft will become the preferred partner for commercializing new “supercomputing” arti-ficial intelligence technologies developed as part of the initiative.

“AI is one of the most transformative technologies of our time and has the potential to help solve many of our world’s most pressing challenges,” said Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella.

“By bringing together OpenAI’s breakthrough tech-nology with new Azure AI supercomputing technologies, our ambition is to democratize AI.” A joint statement noted that OpenAI is producing “a sequence of increasingly pow-erful AI technologies, which requires a lot of capital for computational power” and that the agreement with Microsoft would help in com-mercializing these products.

OpenAI was launched in 2015 with financing from tech entrepreneur Musk, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal with Musk who has been active in technology and who is an ally of President Donald Trump.

Musk and others have warned that artificial intelli-gence could pose risks to humanity if mismanaged, allowing the potential emer-gence of “Terminator”-type killer robots, for example.

OpenAI researchers early this year announced they had developed an automatic text generator using artificial intel-ligence so good that it was keeping details private.

Microsoft is also a member of the nonprofit “Partnership on AI” focused on helping the public understand the tech-nology and practices in the field along with Amazon, Google, Facebook and IBM.

China pulls Philips sales higherAFP/THE HAGUE

Dutch electronics giant Philips posted yesterday a 6.0 percent rise in comparable sales for the second quarter, driven by growth in demand for diagnosis and treatment equipment in China and Europe.

Sales topped ¤4.7bn ($5.2bn), up from ¤4.3bn over the same period in 2018, the Amsterdam-based company said.

Net profit from ongoing operations jumped by 28 percent to ¤260m ($291.6m) from 186m year-on-year, it said in a statement.

“I am pleased with the 6.0 percent comparable sales growth in the second quarter, with all businesses contributing,” Philips chief executive Frans van Houten said.

“We continue to expect our performance momentum to further improve in the second half of the year, supported by sales growth and our productivity programmes,” Van Houten said, adding the group will “maintain our overall targets of 4 to 6 percent sales growth.” Its image-guided therapy equipment did particularly well, driven by double-digit growth in China and high single digit growth in central and western Europe, Philips said.

Best known for its lighting business, Philips now focuses its activities on high-tech medical equipment and services as well as lifestyle products. The group, which sold its first light bulb a few years after it was founded in 1891, spun off and listed its Philips Lighting division, now known as Signify, on the Amsterdam stock exchange in March last year.

15TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019 BUSINESS

Emerging markets may get tough lesson on complacency over ratesBLOOMBERG SINGAPORE/CAPE TOWN

Central bank meetings are turning into something of a minefield for emerging-market investors.

Turkey will announce its rate decision on Thursday, with estimates for a reduction ranging from 50 to 800 basis points. Russia is expected to ease monetary policy a day later.

The concern among analysts is that central banks, especially Tur-key’s, will disappoint investors by lowering borrowing costs too aggressively, eating away at the rel-atively high real rates in emerging markets. But that risk hasn’t been priced in, with implied volatility for currencies near the weakest level since 2014 and the yield on local bonds at a record low.

Currencies as they are “getting to a point where they are cyclically overvalued,” said Anders Faer-gemann (pictured), a fund manager in London at PineBridge Invest-ments. “The wall of money looking to target in on emerging markets makes for a challenging investment environment as fundamentals are getting more fragile.” Every currency across developing nations has risen since May 17 after concern over global growth spurred the world’s most powerful central bankers to turn dovish, prompting a hunt for yield. That helped narrow the dif-ference in implied volatility between emerging-market currencies and their developed peers to the smallest since March 2018, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. indexes.

Turkey’s rate decision will be a first for Murat Uysal, who unex-pectedly replaced Murat Cetinkaya as central bank governor earlier this month. The median forecast is for a 200-basis-point cut in Turkey’s one-week repo rate, now at 24 percent, a move that would lower the real rate to a little over 6 percent. That would still be among the highest in emerging markets. But given President Recep Tayyip

Erdogan’s push for lower borrowing costs, the concern is the central bank may opt for an aggressive cut, which could trigger a sell-off in the lira and a pickup in inflation.

“The central bank could trigger another currency crisis with a deeper-than-expected cut,” Ziad Daoud, the Dubai-based chief Middle East economist at Bloomberg Economics, wrote in a report. The market is pricing in a 200-250 basis point reduction, he said.

Russia is expected to reduce its benchmark rate by a quarter point on Friday as the ruble outperforms all of its peers this year. Hungary’s central bank will probably keep its policy rate unchanged after a small tightening step in June. The next adjustment may come in September, when rate setters will review their stance based on updated economic forecasts. In Africa, Kenya and Nigeria are seen holding borrowing costs for now on rising inflation. Angola, which has been easing since last July, will decide on its next move Friday, as it seeks to boost growth after a contraction last year. Colom-bia’s central bank will probably keep its key rate unchanged when it meets Friday amid optimism about recov-ering growth. The peso led gains among Latin American peers last week. The Reserve Bank of India, the most aggressive central bank in Asia this year to ease policy, signaled a more cautious stance on future action. Policy makers have effec-tively delivered more easing than the

three interest-rate cuts this year, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in an interview.

In Brazil, money managers will today watch for another low inflation reading, which could feed expecta-tions that the central bank will make its first rate cut in more than a year. The government may also announce on Wednesday a measure to try to boost consumption.

After last week’s widely expected rate cut by South Africa’s central bank, the first in more than a year, inflation data on Wednesday will help investors to gauge the direction of monetary policy in the coming months. Data in line with expectations would bolster the mar-ket’s confidence in another rate reduction this year. South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago will deliver a public lecture about monetary policy, inflation and sustainable economic growth in Pretoria tomorrow.

South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni will today present funding plans for state-owned power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. President Cyril Ramaphosa said in June the government would expedite giving Eskom what it needs to remain solventSouth Korea reports preliminary second-quarter GDP data on Thursday after its central bank last week unexpectedly cut its policy rate and lowered growth forecasts.

The Philippine stocks last week entered a bull market and the peso in 2019 may end a six-year losing run. The International Monetary Fund will probably justify central banks’ moves to cut rates when it updates its forecasts for the global economy today. In April it forecast growth of 3.3 percent this year, the weakest since 2009. Second-quarter US GDP due Friday is forecast to slow to 1.8 percent, the weakest pace since early 2017Leb-anese bonds may rise after par-liament passed an overdue, def-icit-cutting 2019 budget.

Bayer sells Dr Scholl’s for $585mAFP FRANKFURT AM MAIN

German chemicals and pharma-ceuticals giant Bayer said yesterday that it had agreed to sell over-the-counter foot care brand Dr Scholl’s to US-based Yellow Wood Partners.

The Boston private equity firm will pay $585m (¤521m) for the business, which generated $234m in revenues last year, Bayer said in a statement.

“We look forward to seeing the brand taken to the next level of success under Yellow Wood’s own-ership,” board member Heiko Schipper said, praising its “exciting pipeline of innovative products”.

Bayer is selling off chunks of its over-the-counter medicines division, known as Consumer Health, as it struggles with ebbing revenues and profits.

The unit includes household-name brands like painkiller Aspirin and indigestion treatment Alka-Seltzer.

After taking over US seeds and pesticides giant Monsanto for $63bn last year, the Leverkusen-based group is reorganising itself around its core businesses and biggest earners in agrichemicals and pre-scription pharmaceuticals.

Meanwhile it is busy battling thousands of US lawsuits over flagship Monsanto herbicides con-taining chemical glyphosate, which plaintiffs argue caused them to develop cancer after years of use.

Last week, a judge slashed damages awarded by a jury to one claimant, Edwin Hardeman, from $75m to $20m - while continuing to highlight “reprehensible” conduct by Monsanto.

Such wider concerns, with potential costs for the group running into the billions, left the Bayer share price little moved by yesterday’s announcement.

CROSSWORD

The story of a young boy who witnesses Billy the Kid’s encounter with Sheriff Pat Garrett.

THE KID

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

iSmart Shankar(Telugu) 2:00pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 2:15pm;The Lion King (2D/Drama) 2:30, 4:45, 7:00 & 9:30pm; Sathyam Paranja Vishwasikkuvu (2D/Malayalam) 2:30, 5:00 & 9:15pm; The Kid (2D/Drama) 9:30pm; Kadaram Kondon (2D/Tamil) 7:00, 9:15 & 11:30pm; Pathinettam Padi (2D/Malayalam) 11:30pm;Jhootha Kahin Ka (2D/Hindi) 11:30pm;

Pathinettam Padi (2D/Malayalam) 2:00 & 11:00pm; The Lion King (2D/Drama) 2:15, 4:45, 7:00 & 8:45pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 4:30pm; Sathyam Paranja Vishwasikkuvu (2D/Malayalam) 6:15 & 9:15pm; Spider-Man: Far From Home 4:00pm; Kadaram Kondon (2D/Tamil) 2:15, 9:15 & 11:30pm; iSmart Shankar(Telugu) 4:30 & 11:30pm

The Lion King (2D/Drama) 10:45am, 1:15, 3:45, 6:15, 8:45 & 11:15pm; iSmart Shankar (2D/Telugu) 4:15pm;Kadaram Kondon (2D/Tamil) 11:15am, 1:45, 7:00, 9:30pm & 12:00midnight; Pathinettam Padi (2D/Malayalam) 11:45am, 5:30, 8:30 & 11:30pm; Sathyam Paranja Vishwasikkuvu (2D/Malayalam) 2:15pm

MALL

LANDMARK

AL KHOR

Pathinettam Padi (2D/Malayalam) 5:30, 8:00, 11:00pm; Kadaram Kondon (2D/Tamil) 4:30, 5:30, 6:45, 7:45, 9:00, 10:00 & 11:15pm; Sathyam Paranja Vishwasikkuvu (2D/Malayalam) 3:00, 8:30 & 11:00pm

ASIAN TOWN

FLIK Mirqab Mall

ROXY

Aladdin (2D/Comedy) 10:45am, 3:40 & 8:30pm;Anna (2D/Action) 11:00am, 1:20, 3:05, 5:20, 8:20 & 10;35pm; Annabelle Comes Home (2D) 11:45pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 11:40, 1:35, 3:30, 5:25, 7:25, 9:20pm & 12:20am; Finding Steve McQueen (2D/Drama) 11:10am, 3:00 & 6:55pm;John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum (2D) 11:15am;Kadaram Kondon (2D/Tamil) 9:50, 10:45pm & 12:00am; The Lion King (2D/Drama) 10:25, 11:55am, 12:50, 1:15, 2:20, 3:15, 4:45, 6:107:10, 9:35, 10:30 & 11:00pm; The Extractors 10:55pm;Pathinettam Padi (2D/Malayalam) 5:40pm; Spider-Man: Far From Home 10:50am, 1:25, 3:20, 4:00, 5:50, 6:35, 8:20 & 9:10pm;Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 10:35, 11:20am, 12:35, 1:20, 2:35, 4:35pm; The Kid (2D/Drama) 1:00, 4:55 & 8:45pm

Spider-Man: Far From Home 12:30 & 10:30pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 1:00, & 3:10pm; Kadaram Kondon (2D/Tamil) 12:30, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00 & 10:30pm; Pathinettam Padi (2D/Malayalam) 1:00, 4:30, 7:40 & 11:00pm; The Extractors 3:00 & 11:00pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 10:30am, 1:10, 3:10, 6:00, 6:30, 11:40pm & 12:30am;The Lion King (2D/Drama) 1:00, 3:30, 5:00, 6:00, 7:30, 8:00 & 8:30pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 5:10pm

The Lion King (2D/Drama) 2:15, 4:30, 6:45 & 9:00pm; Aadai (2D/Tamil) 2:15pm; iSmart Shankar(Telugu) 2:30 &11:30pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 4:45pm; Ardaas Karaan (2D/Punjabi) 5:00pm; Kadaram Kondon (2D/Tamil) 6:30 & 11:30pm; Spider-Man: Far From Home 7:30pm; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 8:45pm; A.M.I (2D/Horror) 9:45pm; Pathinettam Padi (2D/Malayalam) 11:15pm

ROYAL PLAZA

16 TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019CLASSIFIEDS

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REGENCY PEARL 1 (THE PEARL): Fully furnished 1 bedroom ��� ��������� ������ �������� ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � ��������������-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..��� �������� ���E��*�+� ���� ��!�"�#$�("�/'�"()� 02�������G��*��������������+��������������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("� ��44)� 567829� 8;02� ??20 � ::<8� <=7>� � ::<7� <070� � :::2� =?;<� � ::<:� ;2=>� ��� "%�'4)� � ���*���=�������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 1 (THE PEARL): Fully furnished 1 bedroom ��� ��������� ������ �������� ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � ��������������-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..��� �������� ���E��*�+� ���� ��!�"�#$�("�/'�"()� 02�������G��*��������������+��������������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("� ��44)� 567829� 8;02� ??20 � ::<8� <=7>� � ::<7� <070� � :::2� =?;<� � :::0� ?=2;� ��� "%�'4)� � ���*���=�������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 2 (THE PEARL): 3���+�.���������=�D����������������� ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � � ����������� ��-�����!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()� (�������� *����� �+��� ��..��� ���������� ���E�� *�+� ���� ��!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()� 02� ������ G��*� �������������+� �� ����������� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("���44)�567829�8;02�??20� �::<7�<070� �??;;�=>07� �::<:�;2=>����"%�'4)����*���=�������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 1 (THE PEARL): Fully furnished 1 bedroom + �.I��������������������������������������������������������� ��������������-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..��� �������� ���E��*�+� ���� ��!�"�#$�("�/'�"()� 02��������������+��������������������������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�::<8�<=7>� �::<7�<070� �??;;�0>72� �??;;�0>:?����"%�'4)����*���=�������@�������������������

REGENCY PEARL 2 (THE PEARL): 3���+�.���������0������������ ��������� ������ �������� � ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � ��������������-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..��� �������� ���E��*�+� ���� ��!�"�#$�("�/'�"()� 02��������������+��������������������������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�8;02�??20� �::<7�<070� �??;;�0>72� �??;;�0>:?����"%�'4)����*����������@������������������ UMM BAB TOWER (WESTBAY):� 3���+� .���������0����������0� %����A�� �������� ����� ������� ��������� ������ ����������������� ������� �� ������� ���� ��!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()� '��������������� *����� .���+� �J��**��� �+��� �����+�� ��������E��*�+������� �� �������� *������� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("� ��44)� 567829� >>072>0=� � :::0� ?=2;� � ::<7� ;2?0� ���"%�'4)������+�������@�������������������

UMM BAB TOWER (WESTBAY): 3���+� .��������� >� ��������6� ���A� ����� � � K�����)� >� %����A�� �������� ����� �������������������������������������������������������������!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()� '������ ��������� *����� .���+� �J��**��� �+��������+�� ��������E�� *�+������� �� �������� *������� 3!��%!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)� 567829� >>072>0= � ??;;�2?>?� � :::=� 08>2� ::<7� <070� ��� "%�'4)� �����+�������@�������������������

COMPOUNDBEVERLY HILLS GARDEN 10 (Al WAAB): (���� .��������� 2�������������)� >���������������� �������� �����+� ������ ��������� ������� ���� �������� � � �*���� ��A��� ��!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()�(�������� *����� D�������� ��������-�� *�+� ���� L+����������!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()� 02� ������ �������+� �� ����������� 3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�>>:0�=8=>� �??;;�0>:?� �::<:�;2=>� �:::2�=?;<� �::<7�;0;8���"%�'4)�����������@�������������������

AIN KHALID GATE:� 3���+� .��������� 2� �������� ����� ����� 0�%����-���������������������������������������������������������������A�������������+�������0������������������������� �������� � � ����������� ��A��� ���+��� ��� �� *��������������� *����� ��!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()� (�������� ��������������� B������� ������� L+��� ������� B������� ���� ����������� ������ �������� ������� ������� ������� �J���� ���������J������*��������������+����*��������+����������������������������!�"�#$�("�/'�"()�02��������������+��������������3!��%!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)� 567829�::?=�870?� �::<:�:08=� � �??;;�0>:?� � �::<7�;2?0� ����"%�'4)���������������@�������������������

AIN KHALID GATE:� 3���+� .��������� 0� �������� ����� ����� 0���������� �������� 5�*��� ��� ������9� � � ����������� ��A�����!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()� (�������� ������� �������� B��������������L+����������B������������������������������������������� ������� ������� �J���� ������ ���J���� ��*��������������+� ���*�� ������+� ������� �� ��� ���� ��������� ��!�"�#$�("�/'�"()� 02� ������ �������+� �� ����������� 3!�� %!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�::?=�870?� �::<:�:08=�� �::<7�;2?0� ����"%�'4)���������������@�������������������

BEVERLY HILLS GARDEN 2 (AL WAAB): (���� .��������� 2��������������)�0�%����-��D������������������������������ .���+� ������ ������ ��������� ������ �������� �*��������������������������+�����-������������������������������� ������� ������ ��������� ������ ��� *��� ��� ���+������!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()� (�������� *����� �+��� �������� ����������������������������������������������-��*�+�������!�"�#$�("�/'�"()� 02� ������ �������+� �� ����������� 3!�� %!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�>>:0�=8=>� �??;;�0>:?� �::<:�;2=>� �:::2�=?;<� �??;;2?>?����"%�'4)�����������@�������������������

BEVERLY HILLS GARDEN 1 (AL WAAB):� (���� .��������� 2��������������)�0�%����-��D������������������������������.���+�������������������������������������*���������������� ����� �����+�� ���-�� ����� ����� ��������� ������� ����������������������������������*���������+������!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()� (�������� *����� �+��� �������� ������ ������� ��������������� ������� ��� ��������-�� *�+� ���� ��!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()�02� ������ �������+� �� ����������� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�>>:0�=8=>� �??;;�0>:?� �::<:�;2=>� �:::2�=?;<� �??;;2?>?����"%�'4)�����������@�������������������

BEVERLY HILLS GARDEN 13 (AL WAAB):� (���� .��������� 2��������������)�0�%����-��D������������������������������.���+���������������������������������������-��������������������� ������� ��� ������� ������ .���+� �J��**��� ��������� ����!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()� (�������� *����� .���+� �J��**��� �+����������.���������������������.���������������������!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()� 02� ������ �������+� �� ����������� 3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)� 567829�>>:?�8=:?� �>>2>�>=?<� �::<:�;2=>� �:::2�=?;<� �??;;2?>?� �::<7�;0;8����"%�'4)�����������@�������������������

Q BEL AIR COMPOUND (LAQTAH): (����.���������:�D�����������)� 0� %����-�� �������� ����� ������� ��������� ������������������������������������������������!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+��������������������������������*��*����������3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)� 567829� >>07� 2>0=� �??;;�0>:?� �:::0�?=2;� �::<7�;0;8����"%�'4)�����������@�����������������

Q BEL AIR COMPOUND (LAQTAH):�(����.���������:�D�����������)� 0� %����-�� �������� ����� ������� ��������� ������������������������������������������������!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(�������� *����� �+��� ������� ������� �������� �� �����*��*��������� � 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)� 567829� >>07�2>0=� � ??;;� 0>:?� � :::0� ?=2;� � ��� "%�'4)� ����������@�����������������

COMPOUND APARTMENTAIN KHALID COMPOUND (AIN KHALID): Fully furnished 0� �������� �)� 0� �������� ������� �� ������� ��� �� �����������!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()� (�������� *����� �+��� ������������*�������� �� ���A�� *�+� ���� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("� ��44)� 567829� >>;7� ?2<< � :::0� ?=2;� ��� "%�'4)� ���������@�����������������

AIN KHALID COMPOUND (AIN KHALID): Fully furnished 0� �������� �)� 0� �������� ������� �� ������� ��� �� �����������!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()� (�������� *����� �+��� ������������*�������� �� ���A�� *�+� ���� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("� ��44)� 567829� >>;7� ?2<<� � :::0� ?=2;� ��� "%�'4)� ���������@�����������������

BUILDING APARTMENTREGENCY RESIDENCE AL SADD 1 (AL SADD): Fully furnished =� �������� �)� %����A�� �������� ����� ������� ����������������������������������������������������� ������������� �����!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()� (�������� ������ L+��� (��� ������B��������(������������!�"�#$�("�/'�"()�02��������������+��� ����������� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)�567829� >>=;� 0?2?� � � ??;;� =>07� � >>77� 20??� � ??;;2?>?� ���"%�'4)������������@������������������

MESAIMEER/BARWA CITY:� M�.��������� >� ��������� �)�%����A������������������������������������������������������ ������� ���� ��������� ����������� ��� � ��!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()�02� G����� �������+�� � ���������� �� ����������� 3!�� %!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�>>07�20??� ::<:�;2=>����"%�'4)�������@������������������

REGENCY RESIDENCE AL SADD 3 (AL SADD): Fully furnished >N�������� �)� %����A�� ��������� � ��������� ������ �������������������������������������� ������������� �����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()� 3���+� "J��**��� L+���� ��!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()� 02������� �������+� �� ����������� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�>>=;�0?2?� �::<:�;2=>� �:::2�=?;<� �??;;�0>72� �??;;2?>?����"%�'4)������������@������������������

REGENCY RESIDENCE ALSADD 3 (AL SADD): Fully furnished >� �������� �)� %����A�� �������� ����� ������� ������������������������������ �������� ������������������������������ � ����������� � ��� ��!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()� 02� G����� �������+��������������������������3!��%!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�>>=;�0?2?� ??;;�0>:?� �:::0�?=2;� �??;;2?>?����"%�'4)������������@������������������

REGENCY RESIDENCE AL SADD 10 (AL SADD): Fully furnished >� �������� �)� %����-�� �������� ����� ������� ��������������� ��������� ������ �������� ������� ��� ������� ��� ������������� ������������ ��� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("���44)� 567829� >>=;� 0?2?� ??;;� 0>:?� � :::0� ?=2;� � ��� "%�'4)������������@������������������ � �����������@������������������

REGENCY RESIDENCE AL SADD 2 (AL SADD): Fully furnished 0� �������� �)� 0� ��������� �� ������ ��������� ������ ����������������������������������������������������� ���3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)� 567829�>>=;�0?2?� ??;;�0>:?� �:::0�?=2;� ����"%�'4)������������@������������������������������@������������������

REGENCY RESIDENCE AL SADD 6 (AL SADD): Fully furnished 0� �������� �)� 0� ��������� �� ������ ��������� ������ ����������������������������������������������������� ���3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)� 567829�>>=;�0?2?� ??;;�0>:?� �:::0�?=2;� ����"%�'4)������������@������������������������������@������������������

REGENCY RESIDENCE AL SADD 12 (AL SADD): Fully .��������� =� �������� �)�� ��������� ������� �� ������� ��� ���������� � � (*���� � ��� ��!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()� 3���+� �J��**����+��� ��!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()� 02� ������ �������+� �� �����������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)� 567829�>>=;�0?2?�� �??;;�=>07� �::<:�;2=>� �??;;2?>?����"%�'4)������������@������������������

REGENCY RESIDENCE AL SADD 12 (AL SADD): Fully

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AFP LAS VEGAS

Father Time may be unde-feated, as the old boxing saying goes, but Manny Pacquiao is not going down without a fight.

The 40-year-old Filipino legend wrote another improbable chapter in his glit-tering career on Saturday, with an age-defying split decision victory over the hitherto unbeaten Keith Thurman.

Pacquiao, a full decade older than the 30-year-old Thurman, rolled back the years with a vintage performance that had a sold out crowd at the MGM Grand Garden Arena roaring in delight.

It was the Filipino’s 62nd win of a 71-fight career that has spanned 24 years. Veterans at ringside described the per-formance as Pacquiao’s best since his dazzling win over Antonio Margarito in 2010.

Thurman, who had returned to boxing in January after a 22-month layoff, admitted he had not been able to cope with Pacquiao’s relentless energy.

Post-fight statistics told the story, with Pacquiao

outpunching Thurman by 686 to 571.

A weary Thurman later said he had been chasing the fight from the moment he was sent crashing to the canvas by a stunning combination in the first round.

“He had a lot of momentum from that point,” Thurman said. “I ended up paying attention to the number of rounds. By the time we got to the seventh I was like ‘we’re in the seventh already’.”

Pacquiao’s experience and conditioning had proved crucial at key moments, Thurman added.

“He’s been in so many wars, he just knows what to do at the right time,” he said. “I had a good training camp but I felt like I needed a better output to go toe to toe with Manny Pacquiao.”

Thurman wasted no time after the fight in requesting a rematch. While fans would happily line up for a sequel to what is a strong candidate for the fight of the year, Pacquiao’s c a m p w e r e m o r e circumspect.

Pacquiao, who paid tribute to Thurman’s “heavy hands” and punching power after the

fight, pocketed an estimated $20m from Saturday’s contest.

By recapturing a slice of the welterweight division in such dazzling style, he has thrust himself back into relevance.

Even more lucrative paydays are his for the asking if he chooses to pursue them.

A unification fight with Errol Spence Jr, the Interna-tional Boxing Federation’s wel-terweight champion, would sell itself. The question of a rematch of his 2015 “Fight of the Century” against Floyd Mayweather also continues to linger.

Mayweather, who was at

ringside to watch Pacquiao’s masterclass on Saturday, remains firmly retired, and has not fought since his cross-combat spectacle with mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor nearly two years ago.

Leonard Ellerbe, the chief executive of Mayweather Pro-motions and a close confi-dante, said last week May-weather has “zero interest” in a second Pacquiao fight. Whether that interest could be piqued by the prospect of a gargantuan payday remains to be seen.

Pacquiao, whose departure from Las Vegas for the Philip-pines was delayed until 6pm (0100 GMT) on Sunday as a precaution, suggested he will not fight again this year.

Long-time trainer Freddie Roach, meanwhile, said that Pacquiao’s camp would take their time before choosing their next opponent.

“Someone just asked me ‘What’s next?’,” Roach said. “Well, you know what? We don’t need to think about what’s next for a while.

“Manny can go away and rest and we’ll think about it later on. We need to see what’s out there.”

SPORT17TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019

He is going to play the first match. After that he is retiring. That’s what he said to me. I don’t know what he said for the selectors but for me he

said he is playing only one match.

Sri Lankan captain Dimuth Karunaratneon Lasith Malinga’s plan to retire during the Bangladesh ODI series.

Pacquiao mulls future after WBA title stunner

Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao celebrates after beating US boxer Keith Thurman during their WBA super world welterweight title fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday.

Players fight for the ball during the 2019 Rugby Championship match between South Africa and Australia, at the Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg, on Saturday.

Wallabies woes can be fixed before Argentina match, says WhiteREUTERS JOHANNESBURG

Australia’s first-up thrashing by a second-string South Africa side in the Rugby Championship on Saturday has riggered alarm bells at home but scrumhalf Nic White has said all the Wallabies’ ills can be fixed within a week.

Australia were belted 35-17 by a Springboks team shorn of regular flyhalf Handre Pollard, number eight Duane Vermeulen and powerful hooker Malcolm Marx among others, and head home to face an Argentina team that pushed the All Blacks hard in defeat in Bueno Aires.

Following on from a 2018 season that yielded only four wins from 13 games, the Boks defeat has heaped further pressure on coach Michael Cheika, less than two months before the start of the World Cup in Japan.

White, who played his first test in four years and started ahead of regular

scrumhalf Will Genia, said there was no need for Wal-labies fans to panic, despite the team shipping five tries, blowing two try chances of their own and generally being dominated at Ellis Park.

“It may have been a little bit clunky but we feel that we’re putting a few things in place and that we’re not far away,” White told reporters in Johannesburg.

“We are trying to do things a bit differently so there’s going to be a few teething problems but I felt like in that first half when we were patient we were cre-ating opportunities.

White made a positive return to international rugby but was ultimately upstaged by rookie scrumhalf Herschel Jantjies, who scored two tries on debut as South Africa claimed a bonus-point victory.

Argentina upset the Wal-labies on the Gold Coast last year and will head into Sat-urday’s match in Brisbane with confidence.

Rivera leads Hall of Fame classAFP NEW YORK

Legendary New York Yankees closing pitcher Mariano Rivera, the first player unanimously voted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, was a fitting closer at the 2019 induction cere-monies on Sunday.

The Panamanian capped an emotional day in Cooperstown, New York, where he was inducted along with fellow closing pitcher Lee Smith, starting pitchers Mike Mussina and Roy Halladay and sluggers Edgar Martinez and Harold Baines.

Rivera and the late Halladay were the 55th and 56th players to be voted into the hall on their first ballot.

Halladay was named as a first ballot entrant in January, just over a year after his death at the age of 40 in a plane crash in the Gulf of Mexico in 2017.

Rivera’s 425 votes were unprecedented in the history of Hall of Fame voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America, an acknowledgement of a 19-season career with the Yankees in which he produced 652 saves.

A 13-time All-Star, Rivera helped the Yankees win five World Series titles and seven American League pennants.

His presence helped draw a crowd of some 55,000 to the ceremony, and he said fan support had buoyed him throughout his career.

“You guys always pushed me to be the best,” he said. “When I was at Yankee Stadium pitching, it felt like I was pitching with 55,000 people next to me throwing one pitch after another.”

Rivera spoke movingly of growing up a fish-erman’s son who dreamed of emulating Pele on a football field before finding baseball.

When he had his first chance to try out for the Yankees, he said: “I had no uniform. My spikes had a big hole in my big toe. I didn’t have a glove. But I went.”

It is something that crossed everybody’s mind over the past several months, but never more so than Sunday.

Hall of Fame Inductee Mariano Rivera is introduced during the 2019 National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony held in Cooperstown, New York, on Sunday.

Liverpool fall to Sevilla in BostonAFP NEW YORK

Alejandro Pozo delivered the late dagger in 10-man Sevilla’s 2-1 friendly win over Liverpool in Boston Sunday, a defeat made worse for the European cham-pions when they saw Yasser Larouci stretchered off.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was furious at Joris Gag-non’s outrageous kick at an on-rushing Larouci in the 76th minute.

Gnagnon was shown a straight red card after sweeping one of the Frenchman’s legs out from under-neath him, toppling him to the pitch where his head bounced hard on the ground.

Even with the La Liga outfit reduced to 10 men, however, Liv-erpool were unable find a way ahead, and Pozo sealed it in the 90th minute as he smoothly col-lected a pass from Munir El Haddadi, rounded Liverpool keeper Simon Mignolet and knocked the winner into an unguarded net on a sweltering evening at Fenway Park -- home of the World Series Champion Boston Red Sox.

Liverpool’s Harry Wilson (left) and Sevilla’s Rodriguez Sergio Reguilon vie for the ball during a pre-season friendly match played at Fenway Park in Boston, on Sunday.

TOUR DE FRANCE

Stage 16

Loop in Nîmes, France

FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Gwangju, South Korea

(Swimming and Water polo)

CYCLING WATERSPORT

TO

DA

Y’S

AC

TIO

NThe 40-year-old

Filipino legend wrote

another improbable

chapter in his

glittering career on

Saturday, with an

age-defying split

decision victory over

Keith Thurman. It was

Pacquiao’s 62nd win

of a 71-fight career

that spans 24 years.

18 TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019SPORT

Cycling: Tour de France is heading for thrilling finaleREUTERS NIMES

With only five days of actual racing left, there is still no clear front runner in this year’s Tour de France, making it the most open and exciting competition in 30 years.

In 1989, Laurent Fignon was left distraught as he missed out on the title by eight seconds, with American Greg Lemond pulling off the narrowest margin of victory in the Tour’s history.

Julian Alaphilippe holds a 1:35 minute lead going into the final week but with the Frenchman fading, the yellow jersey appears to be slipping off his back as the finishing line gets closer.

With the riders placed between second and sixth sep-arated by just 39 seconds, Alap-hilippe knows that the chasing pack led by defending champion Geraint Thomas will be a constant threat to his hopes of ending France’s 34-year wait for a home-grown champion.

It has been a frustrating race for Team Ineos as they have not been able to take control in the absence of Chris Froome, the four-time champion who is missing the race following a horror crash last month. Apart from Thomas, the main challengers are his Ineos team mate Egan Bernal, Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk, German Emanuel Buchmann and Thibaut Pinot, who is also carrying the hopes of the home nation.

While Alaphilippe out-classed his rivals during the first two weeks on short, punchy climbs, hanging on in the Pyr-enees and by upsetting Thomas in the time trial, Pinot is closing in on the lead fast.

It took the 29-year-old two stages to write off the 1:40 minutes he lost due to a posi-tioning error in the crosswinds on a flat stage last week. Fol-lowing that, he emerged as the best climber as he won stage 14 and also gained time over all his rivals on Sunday.

With three gruelling stages in the Alps likely to decide the race, Pinot is the bookmakers’ favourite as he trails Thomas by 15 seconds.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen a tiger on his bike. The look in his eyes says he wants to eat everyone,” Cyrille Guimard, who was the sports director of Bernard Hinault’s La Vie Claire team when he was the last French winner of the Tour in 1985, said.

“I’m in the game but I’m clear-headed and I keep my feet on the ground. The momentum can switch at every stage,” Pinot said.

In Sunday’s final climb up to the Prat d’Albis, Pinot first dropped Kruijswijk and Thomas, then Buchmann and Bernal, showing his superiority for the second day in a row.

Without Froome, Ineos have not been able to suffocate the competition as they did to win six of the last seven editions when they were known as Team Sky. The British outfit, however, may have a tactical advantage as they have two riders in position to win the race, although it could also play against them as they have not yet named a clear leader.

They are confident the race will go their way, with Thomas banking on his consistency.

“Alaphilippe still has a nice lead and he has a few days now to recover and obviously Pinot is climbing very well but the main thing about grand tours is being consistent and strong all the way through it and how you deal with any sort of bad day you get,” the Welshman said.

Smith is raring to go ahead of Ashes openerREUTERS LONDON

Sixteen months after leaving Test cricket in disgrace over the ball-tampering furore, Steve Smith’s preparations for the Ashes have gone up to a manic level as the former skipper looks to return to red ball cricket in top form.

Australia captain Tim Paine said former skipper Smith had given batting coach Graeme Hick long and taxing work-outs in the nets as he looks to hone his for-midable game ahead of the Ashes opener in Edgbaston on August 1.

Renowned for his obsessive approach to training, Smith is back in the Test squad along with David Warner and Cameron Ban-croft, the other two players hit with long bans for their involvement in the Cape Town scandal in March, 2018.

“You don’t become one of the best players in the world and average 60 in Test cricket if you don’t have some sort of a mission,” Paine told reporters of Smith at the team’s training base in Southampton.

“The boys have been having a bit of a laugh the last couple of days because nothing’s changed - he’s hit a million balls and our coach’s arm is falling off already on day two of the trip.

“It’s great to see that him, and David (Warner) and Cameron Bancroft have come back in and fitted perfectly in our group.

“They are guys who have always trained at exceptionally high standards and set the standard for others. The three of them have been outstanding since they’ve been back and involved.”

Australia are bidding to retain the urn and erase the disap-pointment of their one-day World Cup campaign, which ended in the semi-finals at the hands of hosts and eventual champions England.

Australia will play a four-day intra-squad match starting today, with two sides padded out by Australia A players.

With the final Ashes squad to be named after, Paine said it would be no gentle hit in the park.

“Both sides will be looking to win and both sides will have indi-vidual players wanting to do really well to press their final case for Ashes selection,” he said yesterday.

“We’re looking at it as a real opportunity to test each other’s skills so when we get to the first Test we know exactly where we’re at and everyone’s had a perfect preparation, and every-one’s been put on pressure.”

Top order batsman Usman Khawaja, who suffered a ham-string strain during the World Cup semi-final, is being rested for the unofficial match but Paine said he was expected to be fully fit and available for selection for Edgbaston.

“I don’t think he’s in serious doubt (for the Test),” Paine said. “He’s in a rehab stage so the decision has been made that he won’t play at this stage.

“There is a possibility, maybe, if something were to happen to someone else he might be right for the back end of the (practice) game,” the Australian skipper said.

England’s Joe Root during

nets at Lord’s Cricket Ground,

London, Britain,

yesterday.

Will develop ‘best’ Pakistan team before next WC, says PM KhanIANS WASHINGTON

Imran Khan, former Pakistan skipper and current Prime Minister, has said that he is working on a plan to develop “best cricket team of the world” following the dismal performance of the Men in Green in the recently concluded World Cup in England and Wales.

Pakistan were knocked out in the group stage of the 2019 World Cup.

Sarfaraz Ahmed’s men finished fifth in the points table -- at equal points (11) with New Zealand after the round-robin stage. However, the Black Caps qualified as the fourth team for the sem-ifinals owing to better net run rate.

“After the World Cup, I have decided that I will improve this Pakistan team. I am going to reform Pakistan cricket,” said Khan while addressing a massive gathering of Pakistani-Americans at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington DC on Sunday.

“There have been a lot of disappointments. Hopefully, in the next World Cup, you will see a very professional, best Pakistan team. Remember my words,” he added.

He, however, did not divulge the details about his plans for reforming Pakistan cricket.

The Pakistan Prime Minister is currently on a three-day visit to the US.

Ireland won’t be overawed in Lord’s Test, says WilsonAFP LONDON

Ireland wicketkeeper-batsman Gary Wilson insists his side are deter-mined not to be overawed when they play England in their country’s Test debut at Lord’s.

William Porterfield’s team will embark on their maiden Test at cricket’s spiritual home tomorrow in another sign of the sport’s devel-opment in Ireland.

Ireland have played two Test matches since their ascension to Full Membership status of the International Cricket Council two years ago.

But those defeats to Pakistan and Afghanistan were far less pres-tigious occasions that the four-day Test with newly-crowned World Cup winners England. Playing at Lord’s has given many great players stage-fright in the past and Wilson urged his team-mates not to get intimidated by the hallowed venue’s unique atmosphere.

“In my generation I don’t think any of us expected to be playing a Test match at Lord’s, so to have the opportunity is great,” Wilson said on Sunday after Ireland’s opening training session at Lord’s

“But we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that we have to come here and perform as well. I mean that’s what it is about, it’s not just turning up and having all the fanfare around Lord’s.”

With scorching temperatures forecast for the match in north London, Wilson admitted the conditions could have a say in the outcome of their Lord’s Test debut.

“It might have an impact on the wicket in that it might dry it out as the game goes on,” the 33-year-old added.

Ireland players pose for a team photo before nets at Lord’s Cricket Ground, London, Britain, yesterday. Australia retain women’s Ashes after draw in only TestREUTERS LONDON

Australia retained the women’s Ashes after the only Test match in the series played across multiple formats ended in a draw at Taunton on Sunday.

After Australia had declared their first innings on 420-8, England avoided the follow-on and asked Australia to bat again, declaring at 275-9.

However, the visitors elected not to set a victory target and had reached 230-7 at the end of play.

Elysse Perry was again the pick of the Australian batters, following up her first innings 116 with an unbeaten 76 in the second.

The result means Ashes holders Australia, who lead England 8-2 on points having won all three of the one-day internationals, will retain the trophy.

England can only level the series if they win the three remaining Twenty20 interna-tional games, starting on Friday.

“It’s certainly a good position to be in. We had a hard four-day battle and it was a good challenge. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a result here, but it was a great test,” Australia skipper Meg Lanning said.

A points system to determine the winner of a series has been used in women’s cricket since the 2013 Ashes. Teams are awarded two points for victory in limited-overs games and six in Tests.

Dhoni role explained as team grooms PantIANS NEW DELHI

Chief selectors M S K. Prasad started Sunday’s press conference with great gusto after picking the Indian squads for the Windies tour. Not only did he say that he would clear all doubts about the strange replacement pattern during the World Cup, but also added that he would clear the air over M S Dhoni’s position.

While he started on the lines that Rishabh Pant is being groomed with an eye on the 2020 World T20, what he did not reveal was how the team management has requested Dhoni not to retire at the moment.

Speaking to IANS, sources in the know of developments said that while Pant is being readied with an eye on the 2020 World T20, the team management doesn’t wish for Dhoni to hang his boots as that could create a

sudden vacuum in the set-up which will be hard to fill if Pant suffers an injury by any chance going into the next showpiece event.

“Dhoni knows what his role and position is. All these talks about his retirement and when he will call it quits makes no sense as he is a team player. He will never react to any controversy and I am sure you all know this much about the man and his ethics,” Prasad said.

“While the team management is grooming Pant with an eye on the next T20 World Cup and beyond, they want Dhoni as a mentor and back-up if he is needed going into the tournament. They want him to stick around a bit longer.

“Take a look around and tell me who are your options if Pant suffers an injury? To be honest, all the names on the other side don’t match-up to be half as good as Dhoni still is. Yes, there is no denying the fact that Pant is

the future and he will be looked at across all formats, but Dhoni’s guidance as well as presence is still needed,” the source explained.

Prasad said that the team was looking at Pant across all formats and that it was on Dhoni to decide when he wishes to retire.

“Retirement is purely individual. A leg-endary cricketer like Dhoni...he knows when to retire. But as far as the future roadmap is considered, that is in the hands of the selectors. He (Dhoni) is unavailable for this series.

“We thought of giving as many opportu-nities to Rishabh Pant to see he is groomed. That’s our plan right now. Pant hasn’t done anything wrong for his non-inclusion in the playing XI.

“Pant will be playing all the three formats so we will have to look about his workload management,” he said.

1ST TEST: Aug 01 - 05At Edgbaston, Birmingham

2ND TEST: Aug 14 - 18At Lord’s, London

3RD TEST: Aug 22 - 26At Headingley, Leeds

4TH TEST: Sep 04 - 08At Old Trafford, Manchester

5TH TEST: Sep 12 - 16At The Oval, London

19TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019 SPORT

A decade after amateur triumph, Lowry steals the limelight againAFP PORTRUSH

Shane Lowry burst onto the professional scene with an incredible victory as an amateur at the Irish Open a decade ago, and he delivered again on Sunday by romping to a memo-rable British Open triumph at a wind-swept Royal Portrush.

The 32-year-old became only the second player from the Republic of Ireland to win the Claret Jug, after Padraig Har-rington, to the delight of the home crowds as the Open was given a dream result on its return to Northern Ireland after a 68-year absence.

The stunning six-shot win, after leading by four strokes overnight, also banished the demons of Lowry’s collapse when four clear in the 2016 US Open at Oakmont.

The son of Gaelic football player Brendan Lowry, who won the All-Ireland title with Offaly in 1982 alongside his brothers Mick and Sean, claimed one of the unlikeliest of titles on his European Tour debut in 2009.

Lowry entered that Irish Open at County Louth without a world ranking, but fired a 62 en route to an eventual win over England’s Robert Rock on a third sudden-death play-off hole.

That victory had him ear-marked as a potential star of European golf, but until this incredible week on the Causeway coast, he had perhaps slightly under-achieved despite some high moments.

Lowry missed out on the 500,000-euro winning prize, though, due to his amateur status, and he quickly turned pro the next week. Three straight missed cuts followed, but he steadily found his feet on the tour and took his second title at the Portugal Masters in 2012.

He announced himself to a wider audience with a

two-stroke win over Bubba Watson in the 2015 WGC-Bridge-stone Invitational, and then put himself in pole position to grab a first major title at Oakmont.

Lowry played brilliantly to seize a four-shot advantage heading into the fourth round that Sunday in 2016, but he cracked, falling to a 76 and a tie for second, three strokes behind winner Dustin Johnson.

But he said that experience had put him in good stead this time around.

“Obviously I learned a lot that day. I learned a lot about myself at Oakmont.”

Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell, the 2010 US Open winner, said that Lowry has always possessed the game of a major champion.

“(Coach) Pete Cowen tells an amazing story. (He) went to the Irish squad training down in Dublin and the guy said, ‘Who do you like?’ And he obviously said, ‘Rory McIlroy looks pretty good, but that slightly overweight kid with the glasses on, who was Shane Lowry at the time, he looks good’,” said McDowell.

“So he’s always been talented.”

Lowry slipped down the rankings after his US Open dis-appointment from a career-high 17th, finding himself the world number 92 after the Open 12 months ago.

“I sat in the car park in Carnoustie on Thursday, almost a year ago right to this week, and I cried,” he said.

He found form this year, though, winning his fourth European Tour title in the Abu Dhabi Championship and fin-ishing in the top 10 at May’s PGA Championship, his first top-10 at a major since Oakmont.

He says a more relaxed approach has helped him return to the upper echelons of the game, as he is projected to climb back to 17 in the rankings on Monday.

“I feel like I’m a different person. I don’t think I’m a much different golfer, but I feel like I’m a different person now.

“It probably doesn’t mean as much to me as it did then.”

That did not appear to be the case on the last green at Portrush on Sunday, though, as Lowry took the acclaim of thousands of jubilant fans on a spine-tingling walk up the 18th fairway, with his arms held aloft.

The party could last long into the night, after the fresh-faced lad who had become only the second home winner of the Irish Open 10 years before, saw his career come full circle as, with a big smile across his bearded face, he lifted golf’s oldest major trophy.

Memorable Open debut for young MacIntrye

REUTERS PORTRUSH

Perhaps only British Open champion Shane Lowry left Royal Portrush on Sunday more pleased than Robert MacIntyre, the young Scot who tied for sixth in his first major championship.

The 22-year-old left-hander from Oban, already with a pair of runner-up fin-ishes on the European Tour this season, made his debut a memorable one and further enhanced his growing repu-tation as one to keep an eye on.

He made only one bogey in a stellar three-under-par 68 in difficult conditions on Sunday, when the wind blew and the rain fell, just how it’s meant to be in links golf he observed.

And he could hardly have been happier after capping off his week by sinking a lengthy birdie at the final hole.

“Highlight of the week has to be holing a 15-20-footer on 18 there. The hair is standing on the back of your neck when that putt went in,” said MacIntyre.

“Unfortunately that putt wasn’t to win the Open but it’s put me in good position for the future.”

The result will boost Mac-Intyre’s world ranking to the edge of the top 100, and he is a healthy 14th on the European Tour’s Race to Dubai season-long ranking.

Now he will have three weeks off before gearing up for the end of the season, and he will certainly savour his recent form.

“You never know how many of these you’re going to get,” he said of his Open appearance.

“For the first one, it’s been a dream come true. It’s time to enjoy this one.”

FINA Worlds: Peaty, Hosszu strike gold as Sjostrom losesREUTERS GWANGJU, SOUTH KOREA

Three of the most dominant swimmers in the world took centre stage at the World Championships yesterday but only Adam Peaty and Katinka Hosszu maintained their aura of invincibility while Sarah Sjostrom’s reign in the 100m butterfly came to an end.

A night after becoming the first swimmer to go under the ‘Magic 57’ mark in the men’s 100 metres breaststroke, Peaty cruised to his third straight gold in the event, though his time -- 57.14 -- was off his world record of 56.88 set in Sunday’s semis.

“I’m very happy, but... there is (also) a little bit of disappointment in me, but I think that’ll fuel me for next year as I want to go even faster - for now though, I’ll enjoy the moment,” he said.

With team mate James Wilby taking the silver, Peaty said Britain was setting the bar in the breaststroke.

“It’s looking like Britain is a stronghold for breaststroke and it has been for a long time now,” he said.

No less dominant is Hosszu, who cruised to her fourth world title in the 200m individual medley in a time of 2:07.53. China’s Ye Shiwen took the silver and Canada’s Sydney Pickrem the bronze.

It has been a turbulent year for the Hungarian. The Olympic champion at both the 200 and 400m split from her husband and coach Shane Tusup in 2018 and she said the victory on Monday was her reward for a “tough journey”.

“From the outside it might seem just another gold medal but obvi-ously for me it’s definitely special to be here and being able to win this title,” she added.

Sjostrom had no excuses for her defeat in the 100m butterfly as she saw Canadian 19-year-old Margaret MacNeil end her run of three straight victories at the worlds.

“I wish I could complain and say I got water in my goggles or something like that but I actually had a pretty good race with good turns, good start,” said the 25-year-old Swede.

“It’s just the back-end speed, but maybe that’s just age.”

MacNeil said she had just been hoping for a medal and to beat Sjostrom to gold was “really unbelievable”.

“She congratulated me and was just super-nice and so great and I have looked up to her forever so it means the world.”

With the swimming world still debating Mack Horton’s refusal to share a podium with Sun Yang on Sunday over the Chinese swim-mer’s doping history, FINA said it

had warned the Australian over his protest. While other swimmers at the world championships applauded his stance, the 23-year-old has received death threats from Chinese fans on social media over his protest.

“Obviously death threats on something like this is pretty insane,” said American Lilly King. “He is standing up for the right reason so I’m sure Australia would take care of him.”

Caeleb Dressel became the first American to win the men’s 50 but-terfly at the world championships, and while the event continues to have a low profile in the United States he said it was slowly gaining traction.

“The 50 strokes are a little weird in the United States,” he added. “We are starting to do them more and more but it’s not really a thing.

“I guess it’s good we got one guy in there, I’m glad it was me.”

Britain’s Adam Peaty (centre) competes in the final of the men’s 100m breaststroke final yesterday.

Hungary’s Katinka Hosszu competes in the final of the women’s 200m individual medley event at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, yesterday.

Swimmers slam Sun as doping row boils overAFP GWANGJU

World championship swimmers slammed China’s Sun Yang over lurid doping allegations and said compet-itors were firmly behind Australia’s Mack Horton, who snubbed the Olympic star on the podium.

America’s Matt Grevers said many competitors “don’t trust” Sun, while world record-holder Lilly King said athletes “erupted in applause” after Horton refused to join his rival on the podium for photos after the 400 metres freestyle medals ceremony.

Triple Olympic champion Sun is facing allegations, outlined in a leaked FINA doping panel report, that he smashed vials of blood with a hammer when testers visited him last year.

FINA cleared Sun to compete but the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has appealed the decision at the Lausanne-based Court of Arbi-tration for Sport (CAS), putting the swimmer’s career on the line.

If Sun is found guilty of a doping violation, he could face a lifetime ban after serving a three-month sus-pension in 2014 for taking a banned stimulant he claimed was for a heart problem. Grevers, along with King and several other swimmers, praised Australian Mack Horton for his “risky” protest on Sunday after fin-ishing second behind Sun in the 400m freestyle final.

Ireland’s Shane Lowry poses with the Claret Jug after winning the British

Open at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland, on

Sunday.

The 32-year-old is only

the second player from

the Republic of Ireland

to win the Claret Jug,

after Padraig Harrington,

as the Open returned to

Northern Ireland after a

68-year absence.

AP TOKYO

The countdown for the Tokyo Olympics has hit 365 days.

To mark the year-to-go mark, the gold, silver and bronze Olympic medals are to be unveiled tomorrow as part of daylong cer-emonies around the Japanese capital.

Tokyo’s 1964 Olympics show-cased bullet trains, futuristic designs and a new expressway, underlining Japan’s recovery fol-lowing World War II. Those games were the first seen worldwide by early satellites, sending the Olympics into a new era.

Japan’s capital has less to prove this time when the games open July 24, 2020. Many of the venues are completed, Tokyo has abundant infrastructure and Japan is a byword for know-how. There are, however, other matters: Expected heat (though this summer has been wet and mild), traffic and subway con-gestion, costs, earthquake pre-

paredness and ticket scarcity.Ticket demand by Japan res-

idents alone is reported to be at least 10 times the supply. Abroad, prices are sure to soar on sec-ondary ticket markets.

Organizers have shattered records for local sponsorship revenue, which has passed $3bn - about three times more than any previous Olympics. The main driver has been Japan’s giant advertising and marketing company Dentsu Inc., the

exclusive marketing agency for Tokyo.

“The fact that the talk is so much about not being able to get tickets,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said a few days ago, “is a symbol, a representation of the enthusiasm and expectations that a lot of people have toward the games.”

Tokyo doesn’t need the Olympics to build infrastructure. It has some of the world’s best. Pressed to justify spending billions

on the games, Koike described the Olympics and Paralympics as an “accelerator” to get more things done, even if evidence over-whelmingly shows that working on Olympic deadlines drives up costs.

Sports economist Robert Baade, who teaches at Lake Forest College outside Chicago and has researched the Olympics, says the games are “about marketing and branding. The most important part from a commercial standpoint is

the opening and closing cer-emony. Sport is the subtext.”

Tokyo is building eight venues. The other 35 are defined as “tem-porary” or older buildings being reused, which organizers say has saved billions. But even existing venues need renovation. The centerpiece is the $1.25bn National Stadium, which will open at the end of the year, and the Olympic Village for more than 10,000 ath-letes on the edge of Tokyo Bay.

Tokyo will showcase four new

sports - karate, skateboarding, sports climbing, surfing. A fifth - baseball and softball - is returning after being dropped following the 2008 Olympics.

Exact costs - what are and are not Olympic expenses - are dif-ficult to sort out. But Tokyo is spending about $20bn to get ready, 70% of which is taxpayer money.

IOC President Thomas Bach has repeatedly called Tokyo’s prepara-tions “the best” in history.

Tokyo organizers were also forced to redesign their logo when the original draft faced charges of plagiarism, and an international labor union has alleged work-safety violations at Olympic venues, largely regarding migrant labour.

A futuristic design for the new stadium by the-late British architect Zaha Hadid was scrapped when costs soared to $2bn. Japanese architect Kengo Kuma was chosen instead with a design focused on wood lattice and greenery that will be finished by the end of the year.

PAGE | 17 PAGE | 18Pacquiao

mulls future after WBA title

stunner

Australia’s Smith is raring to go ahead of Ashes opener

20TUESDAY 23 JULY 2019

Olympics: Tokyo begins one-year countdown

Malinga to quit ODIs after first Bangladesh matchAFP COLOMBO

Veteran Sri Lankan pace bowler Lasith Malinga (pictured) will retire from one-day international cricket with the first match of a three-match series against Bang-ladesh, skipper Dimuth Karu-naratne said on Monday.

Malinga was named to the 22-man Sri Lanka squad for the series with matches scheduled for July 26, 28 and 31 at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

But speaking at the team’s press conference in the Sri Lankan capital, Karunaratne confirmed the 36-year old fast bowler and former captain would only appear in the first game.

“He is going to play the first match. After that he is retiring. That’s what he said to me. I don’t know what he said for the selectors but for me he said he is playing only one match,” said Karunaratne.

Malinga, 35, will leave as Sri Lanka’s third highest wicket-taker in ODI cricket with 335 wickets in 219 innings so far.

Only Muttiah Muralitharan (523) and Chaminda Vaas (399) have taken more wickets than Malinga in ODIs for Sri Lanka.

He was Sri Lanka’s highest wicket-taker at the World Cup, claiming 13 scalps in seven innings. Malinga retired from Test cricket in 2011 but con-tinued to remain available in other formats since then.

est c c et 0 but cotinued to remainavailable in other formatssince then.

Al Sadd coach Xavi Hernandez bringing in debutant South Korean Nam Tae-Hee during the second half of their pre-season practice match against Palamos in Olot, Spain, on Sunday. RIGHT: An action during the match.

Algerian international Hanni joins Al Gharafa THE PENINSULA DOHA

Algerian International Sofiane Hanni has joined Qatar’s Al Gharafa, the club announced during a press conference in Doha yesterday.

The former Anderlecht (Belgium) player who was with Spartak Moscow for eighteen months, was unveiled during the event which took place at Al Gharafa SC headquarters.

At the Doha club, the 28-year-old attacking midfielder will join a host of inter-national stars, including Dutchman Wesley Sneijder, Iranian Mehdi Tarmi, Portuguese Diogo Amado and Slovak Vladimir Weiss.

The French Algerian national will now leave for The Netherlands, where his new team-mates are taking part in a pre-season training camp.

Xavi makes coaching debut as Al Sadd draw against PalamosTHE PENINSULA OLOT, SPAIN

Al Sadd drew 1-1 against Spanish side Palamos as Barca and Wolves legend Xavi Hern-andez made his coaching debut in Olot, Spain, on Sunday.

The match was part of Al Sadd’s pre-season training

schedule and was the first of their series of friendlies in Spain.

Palamos took the lead in the 75th minute, but South Korean Nam Tae-hee equalised 10 minutes later to kick off his tenure with the Wolves in style.

The 28-year-old who was named Qatar Stars League Player of the Year in 2017 when

he was with Al Duhail (Then Lekhwiya), joined Al Sadd in February.

According to Spanish media, around 1,400 spectators were present at the venue on Sunday, with many of those attending to see their World Cup-hero Xavi up close.

Xavi used Saad Al Dosari,

Tarek Salman, Jung Woo-young, Khaled Al Yazidi, Ahmed Sayyar, Yasir Abubakar, Gabi, Hashim Ali, Abdulaziz Al Ansari, Akram Afif and Hamza Al Sanhaji as starters before bringing in Meshaal Barsham, Bahaa Ellethy, Hamed Ismail, Abdelkarim Hassan, Ali Asad, Salem Al Hajri, Hassan Al Haydos and Tae-hee.

Al Gharafa’s new signing, Algerian international Sofiane Hanni holding a team jersey with an official during the official unveiling of the former Spartak Moscow player in Doha, yesterday.

Barca move brought ‘Tears of joy’ for GriezmannAFP MADRID

Antoine Griezmann admitted on Sunday that he was moved to tears of happiness when his big-money move to Barcelona finally came through after a contro-versial exit from former club Atletico Madrid.

The World Cup winner is in Tokyo with Barca ahead of a clash with Chelsea today after the La Liga giants shelled out €120m ($135m) to match his release clause amid a blistering row between the player and the two clubs.

“I called my father and I started crying with joy because the transfer was all done, it all was over,” Griezmann said in an interview with sports daily Marca.

“I was with my friends, with my wife, with my children and it was an incredible moment.”

The 28-year-old added he was targeting European glory with Barcelona after two humil-iating exits for the Catalans from the Champions League in the last two years -- to Roma and Liv-erpool -- after throwing away commanding first-leg leads.

Shortly after Barca had announced the signing of Griezmann, Atletico complained they and the Frenchman had negotiated the deal before the buy-out price dropped from 200 million euros at the start of July, adding that they had already “begun appropriate procedures” to defend their “rights and legit-imate interests”.

Spanish media claim that Atletico will go to FIFA to argue that Barca owe them more than the fee they eventually paid earlier this month.

Antoine Griezmann

Children form a human letter in shape of “1 Year to Go!” during a ceremony to mark one-year to go until Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, at Ajinomoto Stadium in Tokyo, yesterday.