Tuesday 21 July 2020

30 Dhul-Qa'da - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8325

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BUSINESS | 13 PENMAG | 15 SPORT | 20

Stokes

magic helps

England level

series

Classifieds

and Services

section

included

Qatar's business

leaders, top bankers

optimistic about

reigniting economy

5th Local Dates Festival 2020 kicks off

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

With the participation of over 100 local farms and dates producers, the Ministry of Municipality and Envi-ronment (MME) yesterday launched the fifth Local Dates Festival 2020 in cooperation with Al Meera Consumer Goods Company at Al Meera’s Hyatt Plaza branch.

The festival will run across all Al Meera branches from July 20, 2020 until the target stock

of 300 tonnes of local dates lasts.

“The Ministry gives priority to marketing of local produce which can significantly aid in improving the quality of local agricultural production whilst reducing waste. These efforts are aimed at motivating the

local farm owners to increase production and improve quality using modern technology,” said Yousuf Khalid Al Khulaifi, Director of the Agricultural Affairs Department at MME.

The event was held in the presence of high-level officials from the Ministry’s Agriculture

and Fisheries Affairs Depart-ments as well as Al Meera Con-sumer Goods Company.

Different verities of fresh dates like Hilali, Ikhlas, Shishi and Al Barhi have been dis-played at Al Meera stores in dif-ferent areas . The price is set at QR10 per kg. �P4

Traditionally held at

Souq Waqif, the fes-

tival is being held at Al

Meera stores this year.

Over 100 local farms

and dates producers

are participating in the

festival, which runs

until the 300 tonnes of

stocks last.

Popular local date vari-

eties including Hilali,

Ikhlas, Al Barhi and

Shishi are on display.

Officials from the Ministry of Municipality and Environment at the launch of 5th Local Dates Festival 2020 at Al Meera outlet at Hyatt Plaza mall.

E-Govt: Over

125,000 digital

correspondences

in six monthsIRFAN BUKHARI THE PENINSULA

Over 125,000 government e-correspondences were completed in first half of the current year, reflecting high momentum in Qatar Digital Government initiative.

As many as 125,365 gov-ernment e-correspondences were done via Government e-Correspondence System (Morasalat) in the first six months of 2020, the Ministry of Transport and Communi-cations (MoTC) said in a tweet yesterday. Increased digital correspondence has helped in faster, secured and efficient delivery of services by gov-ernment departments and institutions. Under Qatar Digital Government pro-gramme, ministries have come together to accelerate digital government initiatives to make Qatar’s government more efficient, effective, a c c e s s i b l e , a n d customer-centric.

Building on the progress made over the past years, Qatar Digital Government pro-gramme will better serve indi-viduals and businesses, create efficiency in government administration, and develop a more open government with enhanced participation of cit-izens and residents.

According to information available on MoTC website, Morasalat has been developed to provide all government entities with a secure and robust system for sending and receiving correspondences (official letters) through the government network.

Government entities can access the system to send the outgoing correspondences directly to the target entity in a simple yet secured channel. The system also provides the entities with the ability to track receipt of correspondence and to capture the user who received the correspondence along with the date and time. �P4

Over 1.8 million vehicles entered The Pearl-Qatar since JuneTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

United Development Company (UDC), a leading Qatari public shareholding company and master developer of The Pearl-Qatar and Gewan Island, has said that over 1.8 million vehicles entered The Pearl-Qatar since the gradual lifting of COVID-19 restrictions beginning of June, marking a 50 percent increase in June compared to last May before the restrictions were lifted.

The figures saw a remarkable increase in the past two weeks as a result of the

reopening of beaches, mosques, retail stores and restaurants, with 668,000 vehicles entering the Island in the first two weeks of July, which represents an increase of 17 percent com-pared to the numbers recorded in the same period last year. Peak hours were registered between 5 pm and 9 pm.

The increase in visitor influx has evidently contributed to an increase in retail activity, as The Pearl-Qatar continues to be a prime destination for entertainment, shopping and dining, with more than 350 retail and F&B outlets currently operating on the Island.

Based on the current figures, it is expected that the number of visitors will continue rising with more restrictions being lifted by next month, including the reopening of parks, playgrounds, nurseries, salons, spas and gyms.

UDC has taken active pre-ventive measures and imposed strict restrictions since the out-break of the COVID-19 pan-demic, to ensure the safety of all residents and visitors of The Pearl-Qatar; and continues to do so in light of the State of Qatar’s directives.

CEO of Qatar Media Corporation, H E Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al Thani, reviewing the arrangements ahead of the launch of Qatar 2 channel, yesterday.

Amir directs to send two field hospitals to IraqQNA — DOHA

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani held yesterday a telephone conversation with Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq H E Mustafa Al Kadhimi.

The call dealt with reviewing bilateral relations and the means to enhance them in different fields.

H E the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior informed H E Al Kadhimi that the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued directives to send two field hospitals equipped with different medical devices to the Republic of Iraq in support of the efforts to contain the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

For his part, the Iraqi Prime Minister thanked H H the Amir for the State of Qatar’s support for the Republic of Iraq.

Deputy PM and State Minister for Defence meets Turkish Defence Minister & Libya’s Interior MinisterDeputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs, H E Dr. Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah, met yesterday in the Turkish capital Ankara with Minister of National Defence of the Republic of Turkey, H E Hulusi Akar and Libyan Minister of Interior, H E Fathi Bashagha. The meeting reviewed the latest regional and international developments, particularly developments in Libya. Qatar’s Ambassador to Libya H E Mohammed bin Nasser bin Jassim Al Thani and Qatar’s Military Attaché in Ankara, Brigadier General Mohammed Rashid Al Awami attended the meeting. The Deputy Prime Minister also met Turkish Defence Minister separately. The meeting reviewed bilateral relations in the defence field, and the means to enhance them. Brigadier General Mohammed Rashid Al Awami attended the meeting.

QMC to launch Qatar 2 channel on Thursday

QNA — DOHA

CEO of Qatar Media Corporation (QMC), H E Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al Thani reviewed yesterday the final touches of Qatar 2 channel which will be launched on Thursday. The new channel will focus on Qatar TV’s most prominent content from series and plays, to programmes.

A team of specialists is choosing the content in order to rebroadcast it and benefit from Qatar TV’s valuable content library.

H E Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al Thani said that the new channel will join other high-quality Qatari channels, praising Qatar TV and its ability to meet the demand of viewers over the years.

He added they will work on broad-casting the most memorable content from Qatar TV’s valuable archive in order to ensure it remains in the memory of the public.

Assistant Director of Qatar TV, Mubarak Al Awami, said launching the new channel was preceded by days of work to choose the content worth broad-casting. He said that channel’s pro-gramming will include series and plays among other programs. He also said that Qatar TV remains a favourite channel to many viewers, and not just in Qatar. Qatar TV teams have been working intensely on preparations for the new channel, which is set to have high view-ership ratings, thanks to the wide variety of high-quality programming it will have.

The new channel will broadcast some of the best content from Qatar TV’s rich archive in order to ensure it remains in the memory of the public.

668,000 vehicles entered the

Island in the first two

weeks of July, an

increase of 17 percent

over same period last

year.

OFFICIAL NEWS

02 TUESDAY 21 JULY 2020HOME

FAJR SUNRISE 03.29 am 04.56 am

W A L R U WA I S : 33o↗ 39o W A L K H O R : 32o↗ 39o W D U K H A N : 31o↗ 39o W WA K R A H : 35o↗ 38o W M E S A I E E D 35o↗ 38o W A B U S A M R A 31o↗ 42o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 03:31 – 17:33 LOW TIDE 00:39– 10:48

Misty at places at first becomes hot daytime with some

clouds and slight dust at places, relatively humid by night.

Minimum Maximum33oC 41oC

ZUHRMAGHRIB

11.40 am06.27 pm

ASR ISHA

03.06 pm07.57 pm

Amir congratulates President of ColombiaDOHA:: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim

bin Hamad Al Thani, Deputy Amir

H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al

Thani, and Prime Minister and Min-

ister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid

bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani

sent yesterday cables of congratu-

lations to President of the Republic

of Colombia H E Ivan Duque on the

occasion of his country’s Independ-

ence Day. -QNA

Minister heads Qatari delegationto GCC ministerial meetings

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim Saif bin Ahmed Al Sulaiti headed Qatar’s delegation participating in the 26th Meeting of the GCC Ministerial Committee for Post, Telecommunications and Infor-mation Technology, held via videoconferencing and attended by their excellencies ministers of communications and infor-mation technology in the GCC.

The meeting discussed several topics relating to the developing of post, telecommu-nications and information tech-nology sectors in the GCC member states and means of boosting cooperation in these vital industries.

The Ministerial Committee also discussed the outcomes and recommendations of the 28th Meeting of the GCC Telecommu-nications and Information Tech-nology Undersecretaries Com-mittee, and future orientations

for work mechanisms against the background of the lessons learnt from the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The meeting was attended by President of the Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA), Mohamed Ali Al Mannai and high-level representatives from the Ministry of Transport and Communications and Qatar Post. In a related context, H E the Min-ister headed Qatar’s delegation participating in the 6th GCC e-Government Ministerial Com-mittee meeting. Held via video-conferencing, the meeting was attended by a number of their excellencies ministers and senior officials of communications and information technology in the GCC. During the meeting, the GCC malware analysis platform was launched to be used by com-puter emergency response centers of GCC Member States.

The Ministerial Committee also reviewed the implemen-tation of the 2nd phase of the

joint initiatives of the GCC eGov-ernment Strategy, the endorsement of new initiatives in order to start activating them, the implementation of a number of shared e-services, as well as going ahead with implementing the information security strategy for GCC Member States.

The meeting also discussed the recommendations of the GCC eGovernment Executive Com-mittee at its recent meetings, which highlighted several topics relating to egovernment and IT in cybersecurity and information emergency response, as well as issues on Public Key Infra-structure (PKI). Other key topics were the GCC joint procurement for software and equipment and GCC shared eservices. The Min-isterial Committee stressed on the importance of working as per the future orientations based on lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting was attended by high-level repre-sentatives from MoTC.

Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim Saif bin Ahmed Al Sulaiti, participating in the 26th Meeting of the GCC Ministerial Committee for Post, Telecommunications and Information Technology held via videoconferencing.

Qatar takes part in GCC meeting on human rightsQNA — DOHA

Qatar participated in the meeting of the permanent committee of human rights specialists for the Gulf Cooper-ation Council states, held via video conferencing. Acting Director of Department of Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Dr. Turki bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud repre-sented Qatar in the meeting.

Qatar’s workforce gradually returning to officesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a surge of office employees working from home; however, Google Mobility statistics, based on GPS tracking, illustrate that the workforce in Qatar has gradually been returning to the office since Eid Al Fitr, Cushman & Wakefield Qatar noted at a webinar yesterday while presenting its Qatar Real Estate Market report for the second quarter of 2020.

While work-from-home (‘WFH’) has proved a success for many companies, Cushman and Wakefield anticipate that there will be a gradual change in how offices are used, rather than a steep drop in office demand.

Workplaces of the future are more likely to see an increased ‘hot-desks’ and meeting rooms rather than traditional worksta-tions, while greater flexibility towards employees working from home will be expected.

The webinar also focused on the impact that COVID-19 has had on the various sectors of the real estate market in Qatar in recent months.

After the implementation of lockdown in Qatar, real estate activity fell in April and May by 72 percent and 45 percent respec-tively from the corresponding months in 2019. However, a strong recovery in transactional activity in June saw the total for the quarter fall by just 5 percent from the second quarter of 2019.

The residential market remained relatively stable during the second quarter of the year, with tenants continuing to relocate at the expiry of their lease agree-ments, taking advantage of rent-free incentives and reduced rents.

The report added that the full impact of COVID-19 will materi-alise in the third quarter with a fall in demand brought about by recent cutbacks in government-related companies and a likely slowdown in new residents trav-elling to Qatar.

The retail and hospitality sectors have experienced the most significant impact from the COVID-19 lockdown, with a sudden drop in tourism and the enforced closure of retail malls coming into effect in mid-March.

While the retail sector is expected to start its recovery in line with the staged re-opening of Qatar in the third quarter of 2020, Cushman and Wakefield anticipate that the recovery in the hospitality sector, which is linked to the public’s con-fidence in travelling and attending large events, may take longer.

COVID-19’s impact on land values was discussed in depth. Analysis of the transactional activity during the first half of the year showed a significant increase in the total value of properties sold. However, average prices fell by approximately 11 percent year-on-year.

Cushman and Wakefield also presented their international ‘Recovery Ready’ document, which is a guide to help landlords

and employers safely re-open workplaces.

The report, which provides a strategic and practical guide was prepared with input from various international experts in health & safety and is based on Cushman & Wakefield’s property management experience in Asia, where they assisted more than 10,000 com-panies with over one million employees return to the workplace by the end of April 2020

Edd Brookes, General Manager of Cushman & Wake-field Qatar, and Head of Middle East, said: “While this has been a challenging period for everyone in the property market, the staged re-opening of Qatar should see performance metrics improve as we approach 2021”.

MoPH: 389 new

virus casesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) yesterday announced the registration of 389 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country.

Another 405 people have recovered from the virus, bringing the total number of recovered cases in Qatar to 103,782. The Ministry has also reported two new deaths due to COVID-19. The deceased aged 70 and 71 were receiving the necessary medical care.

MoPH launches survey on behavioural changes afterpandemic

QNA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy launched a survey aimed at evaluating COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes and prac-tices.

The survey targets Qatari nationals and residents to address their knowledge, com-pliance, and perceived chal-lenges related to five key areas, namely; physical distancing, self-isolation, wearing masks, handwashing and the proper use of disinfectants. The results of the survey will be used to enable more targeted COVID-19 communication and messaging during the coming weeks.

This survey is an example of the collaborative effort by organisations across Qatar to towards fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. It also exemplifies the level of commitment to evi-dence-based decision making.

The survey, which is in col-laboration with the Supreme Committee’s Behavioural Insights Unit — B4Devel-opment, one of a number of projects led by the Scientific Reference and Research Task-force (SRRT), formed by MoPH as part of the response to COVID-19. The taskforce includes membership from MoPH, Hamad Medical Corpo-ration, Primary Health Care Corporation, Sidra, Qatar Foun-dation, Qatar University, Weil Cornell University, and Hamad Bin Khalifa University.

It aims at providing advice to MoPH leadership to enable evidence-based decision making, through facilitating collaborative research at the national and international levels, and contributing to intel-ligence and data analysis.

Defence Minister meets Libyan Interior Minister

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs H E Dr. Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah with Libyan Minister of Interior H E Fathi Bashagha in Ankara. The meeting reviewed the latest developments in Libya. Qatar’s Military Attache in Ankara, Brigadier General Mohammed Rashid Al Awami attended the meeting.

Justice Ministry calls on real estate brokers to complete registrationQNA — DOHA

The Ministry of Justice has called on real estate brokers and their offices working in the real estate sector to register to complete licensing and accred-itation procedures for prac-ticing real estate brokerage profession, in accordance with the provisions of Law No. 22 of 2017 regarding the regulation of real estate brokerage.

The Ministry said that in order to facilitate citizens wishing to practice the pro-fession, brokers and offices cur-rently operating, a registration page was launched on the Min-istry’s official website. The real estate brokerage affairs department at the Ministry of Justice is also receiving those who wish to register in person at the department headquarters located in the main building of the Ministry.

The Ministry explained that the official page for registering real estate brokers allows the registration of brokers in all their categories. The page also includes a preview of all the required data in a way that allows the broker to register all their data without the need to visit the administration, unless they want to register in person.

Registration is open to all companies and individuals wishing to practice real estate brokerage according to the standards in line with the pro-visions of the law, the Ministry stated.

The announcement of the start of the registration of real estate brokers comes within the efforts of the Ministry of Justice to activate Law No. 22 of 2017 regarding the regulation of real estate brokerage, which will include the issuance of exec-utive decisions of the law, both of which are related to fees for licensing and renewing real estate brokerage business or permission for some brokerage business, among others.

The Real Estate Affairs Committee at the Ministry handles all matters related to the profession, whether in

terms of licenses and follow-up, or through procedures related to real estate services, or through checking and con-trolling documents, records and books that the broker has.

The Ministry has also authorised some officials responsible for real estate bro-kerage affairs with the status of judicial control to detect viola-tions that fall within the scope of the provisions of the law.

The Ministry’s call on real estate brokers to complete their registration procedures coin-cides with the final deadline to settle their status that H E the Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Dr. Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi had issued a decision extending it during the recent period that gave the real estate offices a period of 6 months to settle their status, pending the issuance of the executive reg-ulations of the law, as there will be no room for persons who are not licensed to practice the pro-fession in the local market.

The new measures are aimed at creating a national database of real estate brokers, strengthening national legislation aimed at improving the business envi-ronment and enhancing the attract iveness of the investment climate.

This includes protecting the real estate market from speculation and sub-bro-kerage and other measures that will enhance the fortifi-cation of this sector and encourage its growth in line with the goals of Qatar National Vision 2030 to build a diversified economy.

The Ministry of Justice is working to develop the real estate brokerage profession and to raise it to the desired level, including reducing real estate disputes.

For this purpose, incentive measures have been put in place that will qualify the oper-ating real estate offices, as these offices will have powers, including access to real estate data electronically and others.

Judicial officer title given to a number

of inspectors at the Ministry of

Administrative Development

QNA — DOHA

A number of employees at the Labour Inspection Department of the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour, and Social Affairs were given the title of judicial officers for matters relating to implementing the provisions of the labour law and decisions that implement it.

The title of judicial officer allows the ministry’s inspectors to report crimes that violate the provisions of law no. 12 of 2004.

In that context, Minister of Administrative Development, Labour, and Social Affairs H E Yousef bin Mohammed Al Othman Fakhroo stressed the important role that the ministry’s inspectors and judicial officers play in completing missions that serve the country, praising the role of the ministry’s inspectors in enforcing laws and decisions that regulate work at the state’s different sectors. The employee is given a judicial officer title for crimes that fall within his jurisdiction, which are crimes related to his duties. The title must be issued in a decision by the Attorney-General in agreement with the designated minister.

03TUESDAY 21 JULY 2020 HOME

Qatar takes part in GCC meeting of Ministerial CommitteeQatar participated in the 20th meeting of the Ministerial Committee on following up the implementation of the joint work decisions of the Gulf Cooperation Council. The meeting was held via video conference. The delegation of Qatar participating in the meeting which was chaired by Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers HE Hamad bin Ahmed Al Mohannadi.

NHRC organises training workshop on reporting in the field of human rightsQNA — DOHA

The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) organised a training workshop on reporting in the field of human rights for the benefit of the committee’s staff and representatives of the ministries concerned. The workshop was held in cooper-ation with the UN Human Rights Training and Documentation Centre for South-West Asia and the Arab Region.

In her opening remarks at the workshop that was held via video conference, NHRC Sec-retary-General Maryam Abdullah Al Attiyah said the process of preparing human rights reports in a scientific, professional, accurate, credible and transparent manner is the backbone of the work of national institutions.

She added that the process of preparing and writing reports is considered one of the most important roles undertaken by national human rights

institutions through which they undertake large and multiple efforts and contribute effec-tively to the process of dissem-inating a culture of human rights at the national level.

She further said these reports come with recommen-dations on human rights con-ditions and what must be done in accordance with the obliga-tions of the state stipulated in the ratified international con-ventions, and in light of the advice provided by the national human rights institutions to state institutions contained in

the objectives for the estab-lishment approved by the Paris Principles.

The NHRC Secretary-General noted the urgent need to work on training sustainable national cadres to perform the task of preparing reports in order to ensure the high quality of reports submitted by national institutions, whether internal or external, national or interna-tional and other types of reports, in accordance with its mandate and competencies in the process of promoting and protecting human rights.

It is in this spirit that this training workshop was organised to introduce and explain the methodology of reporting, its mechanisms, objectives, types and basic prin-ciples of monitoring and infor-mation gathering operations, she said, adding that the workshop targeted employees and cadres of national human

rights institutions.For his part, the Director of

the UN Human Rights Training and Documentation Centre for South-West Asia and the Arab Region Dr. Abdel Salam Sidahmed said that monitoring human rights is one of the most important tasks of national human rights institutions within the protection mandate,

stressing the need for this mandate to include monitoring of economic, social and cultural rights in addition to civil and political rights, and that national institutions must have the power to collect information and evidence that they need to perform this function effectively.

He stressed the importance of the role of national institu-tions in providing advice to the government and other con-cerned authorities, reporting and recommendations on the human rights situation in general and submitting prac-tical proposals for their pro-tection and promotion, noting that national institutions can publish reports and recommen-dations and highlight the level of progress related to their implementation through their annual reports or other periodic reports or press releases or reports on specific topics of concern to the human rights situation.

A virtual training workshop organised by NHRC.

QSRSN members shine in second edition of Colour FestivalTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The members of the Qatar Society for Rehabilitation of Special Needs (QSRSN) have achieved distinguished results in the second edition of Colour Festival for people with disa-bilities.

The event was organised by Doha International Center for Special Needs.

Around 251 creators from people with disabilities from Arab and foreign countries par-ticipated in the event. Among the participants from QSRSN, Mahmoud Atef Al Sawi and Nahed Abdel Moneim Ali won advanced positions and were appreciated by the jury of the competition.

Chairman of QSRSN, Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani, has praised the ways they organised the event and the great local and international participation. He also congrat-ulated the members of QSRSN who participated in the festival.

“These advanced levels they reached was through joint efforts between persons with

disabilities, their parents and specialists in the QSRSN,” he said.

Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani emphasised the work of QSRSN on the early explo-ration of the skills and capabil-ities of persons with disabilities through scientific and practical methods through the QSRSN ‘s specialised work team and its educational and qualification centres for girls, boys, and the

social and cultural centre with special needs.

The QSRSN provides spe-cialised workshops for its members in drawing, painting, ceramics, recycling, and others.

It also through the partici-pation of families and spe-cialists aims to integrate people with disabilities in the com-munity, which reflects posi-tively on the psychological, social and behavioural health.

QSRSN Chairman Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani

Ralph’s Coffee truck marks Middle East debut in DohaTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Ralph’s Coffee truck makes its debut in Doha, marking the first time the signature mobile coffee bar has travelled to the Middle East.

It is a collaboration between IN-Q Enterprises by Qatar Museums, Msheireb Properties, Whitney Robinson’s DW Northstar, and Ralph Lauren, as part of Qatar Creates, cele-brating the best of arts and culture, fashion, and design.

Ralph’s Coffee truck, a hunter green 1965 Citroen, will first be parked inside the atrium lobby of M7, Qatar Museums’ new hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in fashion, design and technology located in Msheireb Downtown Doha, a mixed-use development that is reviving the city’s historic core as a sustainable new live-work neighbourhood.

In May, M7 launched an online mentoring programme to help provide young designers the necessary tools, training, and resources to realise a career in the fashion and design industries.

When M7 is officially inau-gurated, it will offer a wide range of engaging programmes and exhibitions targeting both the general public and design community.

H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson, Qatar Museums, said: “We are thrilled to host Ralph’s Coffee truck at our new creative hub, M7, in Msheireb, the world’s first sustainable urban regeneration project, in the heart of downtown Doha. Like M7 itself, with its seven principles to guide Qatar’s cre-ative industries, Ralph Lauren’s brand is dedicated to timeless style, protecting the envi-ronment, and improving peo-ple’s lives. The arrival of the vintage Ralph’s Coffee truck will

enrich the enduring spirit of our city — already robust in fashion, tradition, and cultural diversity — while paying homage to the past and the legacy of the Ralph Lauren brand.”

Ali Al Kuwari, Acting CEO, Msheireb properties said, “Msheireb Downtown Doha is excited to welcome its visitors to experience its unique creative hub, M7. Ralph’s Coffee Truck is the ideal addition to our second-to-none café selection and would enhance the vibrant, diverse, cultural scene of Doha. We also see the addition of a prominent international brand of this calibre as another step towards our objectives of cre-ating an inspiring and vibrant ecosystem for Qatari start-ups and entrepreneurs.”

Following its stay at M7, Ralph’s Coffee truck will then travel to other Doha landmarks, including the Museum of Islamic Art, the National Museum of Qatar, the Fire Station: Artist in Residence, and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. A schedule is forthcoming.

To celebrate its inaugural visit to the region, Ralph’s Coffee truck will offer guests a specially crafted Doha Tur-meric Latte and fresh baked goods featuring dates, nods to Qatar’s diverse culinary her-itage. Ralph’s Coffee’s famous brownies and chocolate chips will also be available for pur-chase. All proceeds from the sales will go towards artwork instal lat ion in Doha hospitals.

Ralph’s Coffee truck makes its Middle East debut in Doha.

Qatar is active participant in UN programmes: Sheikh Dr Thani THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar International Centre for Conciliation and Arbitration (QICCA) board member for International Relations, Sheikh Dr. Thani bin Ali Al Thani, said that Qatar’s legis-lations and laws highly support professional media activity, guarantee freedom of opinion and expression, press and media freedom and keep pace with the techno-logical development of publi-cations, publishing and arts.

He also said that Qatari laws deal with cybercrime and impose severe penalties for protecting individuals’ freedom.

Speaking at the opening session of the “Third Interna-tional Scientific Conference on Electronic Media,” Sheikh Thani noted that the State of Qatar is omnipresent in most of the UN activities, affirming that Qatar’s accession to the International Covenants on Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is an important step in improving human rights and promoting Qatar’s overall development and its National Vision 2030, with all its eco-nomic, social and political pillars.

The conference held via the video conference was organised by the Interna-tional Centre for Consulting “Markaz Al Khebrah” with the participation of many notable Arab and foreign speakers and experts.

Sheikh Thani stressed Qatar’s belief in the impor-tance of strategic partnership

with the United Nations by acceding to and participating in international conventions, noting that Qatar has actively contributed to strengthening the international community’s

efforts to maintain interna-tional peace and security.

Qatar is also interested to support the development process, he said, adding that without it the United Nations will not achieve its objectives in promoting human rights, enhancing humanitarian assistance and promoting the participation in collective action to address the existing and emerging challenges facing the world.

Sheikh Thani reviewed the most important laws regu-lating media in Qatar such as Law No (8) of 1979 on Publi-cations and Publishing.

He also referred to Law No 13 of 2019 on the estab-lishment of media city which aims at managing and devel-oping media activity in Qatar, and enhancing its position as a venue for attracting inter-national media, technology companies, research and training institutions in media and digital media.

QICCA board member for International Relations, Sheikh Dr. Thani bin Ali Al Thani, speaking during a conference on electronic media.

Sheikh Thani stressed Qatar’s belief in the importance of strategic partnership with the United Nations by acceding to and participating in international conventions, noting that Qatar has actively contributed to strengthening the international community’s efforts to maintain international peace and security.

Ralph’s Coffee truck, a hunter green 1965 Citroen, will first be parked inside the atrium lobby of M7, Qatar Museums’ new hub for innovation and entrepreneurship in fashion, design and technology located in Msheireb Downtown Doha, a mixed-use development that is reviving the city’s historic core as a sustainable new live-work neighbourhood.

The NHRC Secretary-General noted the urgent need to work on training sustainable national cadres to perform the task of preparing reports in order to ensure the high quality of reports submitted by national institutions in accordance with its mandate and competencies in the process of promoting and protecting human rights.

The work of QSRSN on the early exploration of the skills and capabilities of persons with disabilities

through scientific and practical methods through the QSRSN ‘s specialised work team and its educational

and qualification centres for girls, boys, and the social and cultural centre with special needs.

04 TUESDAY 21 JULY 2020HOME

GU-Q professor writes essential Arabic guide for Mideast diplomacyTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

A new book co-written by Yehia Mohamed, a professor of Arabic at QF partner Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q), and Elisabeth Kendall, a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford, offers Arabic language learners an essential guide for success in diplomatic communi-cation and international affairs.

Titled “Diplomacy Arabic: An Essential Vocabulary” the book can be utilised by readers as either a compre-hensive vocabulary reference guide or as an active study tool to develop their discipline-specific vocabulary.

The book features more than 1,300 expressions, terms, and idioms divided into ten areas of diplomatic discourse, from diplomatic service to treaty nego-tiation and conflict resolution, to civil society, globalisation and economic development. Each thematic group provides easy to learn lists to test trans-lation, and an online audio resource provides a pronunciation guide. An

alphabetical index of all English-lan-guage terms makes looking up the precise word needed easy.

Unlike most specialised Arabic language books which focus on media or business terminology, explained Dr. Mohamed, “Diplomacy Arabic” focuses on politics and international affairs, topics which have been largely over-looked in the publishing world. “With this book, we really hoped to fill a major gap in the body of knowledge in the field of Arabic language and com-munication. As a professor of Arabic, I know that there simply aren’t enough substantive Arabic language textbooks on politics and diplomacy.”

As a ten-year professor of Arabic and the co-founder of GU-Q’s Arabic Language Program, Dr. Yehia said it was his students who inspired him to write the book. “All of our Arabic-speaking students are pursuing majors in international affairs, which means they need to be qualified to work at the highest levels of language profi-ciency. It is the needs of our students

at GU-Q and across Qatar Foundation who cross-register for our program that I wanted to address first and foremost.”

With the growing importance of the Arab region in international affairs, the book, which was the result of two years of intensive research collecting editorials, newspapers, TV talk shows, and digital media, is also an essential resource for professionals currently working in the field of diplomacy and international affairs who need to develop their discipline-specific vocab-ulary in order to perform and grow within their field, he said. General lan-guage learners can also benefit.

With the successful launch of “Diplomacy Arabic: An Essential Vocabulary,” which is published by Georgetown University Press, Dr. Mohamed’s next project is to explore options for developing Arabic courses in diplomatic communication for credit courses at the university level and for working professionals seeking to refine their Arabic negotiation skills.

HMC warns public on dangers of leaving children in hot carsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

With the hot and humid weather expected to continue into the coming weeks, and with temperatures rising above 40°C in most parts of the country, representatives from the Hamad Trauma Center’s Hamad Injury Prevention Program (HIPP) are providing the public with best prac-tices to keep children safe.

“With the increasing temperatures, we want to remind the public of the increased health risks associated with children being left in hot cars. The tem-perature inside a parked car can be as much as 40°C hotter than it is outside. On a cool day, the temperature can be over 20°C hotter. Most of this temper-ature increase can happen within five minutes, putting children at great risk for high fever, dehydration, seizures, heatstroke, and even death,” said Dr. Rafael Consunji, Director of the HIPP.

“The hot weather can be a danger for everyone, but for children, the dangers are magnified. A child’s

temperature will rise five times faster than an adult’s temperature, especially on hot days,” Dr. Consunji added.

He further explained that parked cars can get very hot, very quickly.

“Even when a car is parked in the shade, the temperature inside can rise to dangerous and even fatal levels very quickly. The younger the child, the greater their sensitivity to heatstroke,

and the faster they can become dehy-drated. Deaths from heatstroke can happen even when cars are parked in the shade and the windows are down. A small opening of 5 centimeters, for example, has little effect on the rising heat. The colour of the seats and interior of the car also does not affect the rising heat. And large cars heat-up just as fast as small cars,” said Dr. Con-sunji. “The bottom line is that it is not safe to leave a child unattended in a vehicle for any amount of time, even for a minute. If you must leave your car for any reason, always take your child with you”.

Dr. Consunji noted that some children have been left in hot cars unintentionally, with parents forgetting the child is there, often because he or she has fallen asleep in the backseat.

“There are things parents can do to help safeguard against this, such as keeping their mobile phone, wallet, or bag, or another item that they will need, in the backseat with the child. He also recommends placing an item

belonged to the child in the front seat, to serve as a visual reminder, such as the child’s lunchbox”.

He said parents should always lock their vehicle doors when the car is not in use, adding that children might hide inside and accidentally lock themselves in. He recommended keeping car keys out of reach of children, never allowing children to play with the car’s control buttons and encourages parents to talk to their children about safety around

vehicles, including teaching the child how to use the horn in the case of an emergency.

Dr. Aisha Abeid, Assistant Director of the HIPP, said the elderly and those with existing medical conditions are also at increased risk for heat-related illnesses.

She added that these individuals can be more vulnerable to dehydration heatstroke, and even death when left inside a hot vehicle.

Dr. Rafael Consunji, Director of the HIPP

HEC Paris in Qatarlaunches Center for Humanistic Executive Education ResearchTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

HEC Paris has announced the launch of the Center for Humanistic Executive Education Research (CHEER).

Founded by Professor Dr. Wolfgang Amann, CHEER has been set up keeping in mind the practical needs of HEC Paris’s learning partners.

The centre creates and dis-seminates thought leadership and relevant research insights on how to optimise executive education efforts at the indi-vidual, team, organisational, and societal levels. It was established on the observation that an organisation’s internal and external changes often lead to skill gaps. CHEER cur-rently investigates a number of themes that come under executive education: artificial intelligence and its impact on society, business, and man-agement education; human-istic business schools and management education.

CHEER offers a variety of initiatives such as knowledge labs to bring together key expert practitioners.

A view of HMC’s Trauma and Emergency Center.

Ooredoo unveils

new summer offer

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Ooredoo, Qatar’s leading tele-communications provider, is offering customers the oppor-tunity to upgrade their devices while enjoying significant discounts and additional benefits this summer.

This summer-long cam-paign, available for purchases at the Ooredoo eShop and retail shops, offers customers great value by retailing an exclusive selection of devices at especially discounted prices, with the additional reward of double Nojoom Points for every QR1 spent. Key dis-counted products include the 5G-enabled Samsung S20 smartphone and tabs, selected Huawei handsets and acces-sories and two different top-of-the-range routers — the Netgear MBB M2 and the Netgear MBB M5 — plus more devices to come.

Sabah Rabiah Al Kuwari, Director PR at Ooredoo, said: “Ooredoo is dedicated to ena-bling customers to fulfil their ambitions — of communi-cation, education and enter-tainment – in a digital world. By making this impressive suite of 5G-enabled, latest-tech-nology products available with significant discounts, we hope to help them upgrade and save, so as to maximise their partic-ipation in life online in the coming summer months.”

The offer ends on Sep-tember 2020.

E-Govt: Over

125,000 digital

correspondences

in 6 monthsFROM PAGE 1

Morasalat is a secure cor-respondence system which is automating correspondence and improving connectivity between government entities. It saves time and effort spent on exchanging corre-spondence between gov-ernment departments. It also reduces administrative costs by saving time, effort and human and financial resources and activates the ‘paperless organisation’ concept.

Local Dates Festival 2020 kicks off at Al MeeraFROM PAGE 1

Al Khulaifi added: “Al Meera has been active in creating ini-tiatives and regularly working with the Ministry to run cam-paigns on national products in addition to the successful local vegetables and the instrumental Qatar Farms Programme.”

Al Meera has allocated special areas for display of dates across all of its branches.

Al Meera said it constantly seeks to provide its customers

with high quality goods, which now include the complete range of local dates displayed at com-petitive prices for the entirety of the festival.

Commenting on the launch event, Al Meera Consumer Goods Company stated: “We are pleased to host the 5th Local Dates Festival at Al Meera branches this year in cooper-ation with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment. The Rutab is a special date as it

represents for us the traditions and local culture of our country.

“By holding the festival this year, we have the unique opportunity to support our community, customers, and

local producers as part of our continued efforts to support national products,” it added.

The locally-produced Rutab will be available to customers with a special promotion by Al Meera.

The dates festival has been traditionally held at Souq Waqif. This year, however, the festival is being held at Al Meera, the largest network of retail chains that serve 54 locations across Qatar.

Al Meera has allocated special areas for display of dates across all of its branches.

Bomb attack in Kirkuk

Lebanese against sweeping layoffs

05TUESDAY 21 JULY 2020 MIDDLE EAST

A fruit vendor wearing a face mask waves for the camera as he waits for clients at a market in Kuwait City, yesterday, amid the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

Lebanese activists demonstrate along with former employees of the American University Medical Center outside the hospital in the capital Beirut, after they were dismissed from their jobs last week as part of a series of sweeping layoffs planned for the American University of Beirut and its medical centre to cope with a severe recession resulting from economic and financial crisis.

A damaged car is seen as people inspecting the damaged building, belonging to Badr Brigade backed up by Hasdi Sabi forces closely related to Iran after the bomb attack in Kirkuk, Iraq, yesterday.

Iran executes man convicted of spying for CIA and MossadAFP — TEHRAN

Iran yesterday executed a former translator convicted of spying for the US and Israel, including helping to locate a top Iranian general killed later by the Americans, the judiciary said.

The killing of Major General Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport in January brought decades-old arch enemies Iran and the United States to the brink of conflict.

The judiciary’s Mizan Online website said Mahmoud Mousavi Majd’s death “sentence was carried out last morning over the charge of espionage so that the case of his betrayal to his country will be closed forever”.

Its spokesman said earlier this month that Majd had been sentenced to death for spying on “various security fields, especially the armed forces and the Quds Force and the where-abouts and movements of martyr General Qasem Soleimani”.

Majd had been found guilty of receiving large sums of money from both the US Central Intelligence Agency and Israel’s Mossad, said the spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili.

Soleimani headed the Quds Force, the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolu-tionary Guard Corps.

Iran retaliated against the United States for his death by firing a volley of ballistic mis-siles at US troops stationed in Iraq, but US President Donald Trump opted against responding militarily.

While the attack on the

western Iraqi base of Ain Al Asad left no US soldiers dead, dozens suffered brain trauma.

Majd was arrested about two years ago and was not directly involved in the killing of Soleimani, according to a statement the judiciary issued in June.

Majd had migrated to Syria in the 1970s with his family and worked as an English and Arabic language translator at a company, Mizan said.

When war broke out, he chose to stay in the country while his family left.

“His knowledge of Arabic and familiarity with Syria’s geography made him close to Iranian military advisers and he took responsibilities in groups stationed from Idlib to Latakia,” the site added.

Majd was not a member of the Revolutionary Guards “but infiltrated many sensitive areas under the cover of being a translator”.

He was found to have been paid “American dollars to reveal information on adviser convoys, military equipment and communication systems, commanders and their move-ments, important geographical areas, codes and passwords” until he came under scrutiny and his access was downgraded.

Iranian state television showed footage of what it said was one of Majd’s CIA handlers, saying the alarm was raised after the interception of com-munications between the two.

It also showed Majd in an apparent confession video saying he had received coded messages and reportedly met his handlers with documents, including “photos and identifi-cation documents of forces and commanders”.

According to the report, he had been planning to also work with Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services before being detained.

He was arrested in October 2018, Mizan said.

Iran said last week it had executed another man con-victed of spying for the CIA by selling information about Iran’s missile programme.

Reza Asgari had worked at the defence ministry’s aero-space division for years but retired four years ago, after which he sold “information he had regarding our missiles” to the CIA in exchange for large sums of money.

Iran in February handed down a similar sentence for Amir Rahimpour, another man convicted of spying for the US and conspiring to sell infor-mation on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Iran reports 217 more deaths from coronavirusAGENCIES — TEHRAN/MUSCAT

Iran yesterday confirmed 217 additional fatalities from the novel coronavirus, bringing the nationwide death toll to 14,405.

A further 2,414 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, raising the overall count to 276,202, Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said.

She said more than 240,087 people have so far recovered and been discharged from hospitals, adding that 3,583 patients remain in critical condition.

On Saturday, Iranian Pres-ident Hassan Rouhani said an estimated 25 million people have contracted the corona-virus in Iran in the past five months.

Meanwhile, the Omani Ministry of Health reported yesterday 1,739 new cases of coronavirus (COVID-19), 1,514 of them were Omanis and 225 were non-Omanis.

This brings the total number of cases in Oman to 68,400, while the number of recoveries reached 45,150.

The Ministry also announced eight deaths due to the virus, bringing the total deaths in the country to 326, Omans News Agency (ONA) reported.

The Ministry conducted 3,957 tests during the past 24

hours, while the total cases in intensive care were 170.

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health announced yesterday the registration of 559 new cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) during the last twenty-four hours, brining the total of confirmed cases in the

country to 59,763. The Ministry said that no Coronavirus deaths were reported over the past 24 hours and that the death toll remained unchanged at 408.

The fresh cases included 337 Kuwaitis and 222 non-Kuwaitis, the Ministry

spokesperson Dr. Abdullah Al Sanad said.

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health had announced earlier yesterday the recovery of 652 people from COVID-19 during the last twenty-four hours, bringing the total to 50,339 recoveries.

Young emergency doctor dies of coronavirus in first for LebanonAFP — BEIRUT

A young emergency doctor yesterday became Lebanon’s first medic to die of corona-virus, state media said, as daily infections rise in the eastern Mediterranean country.

Loay Ismail, 32, “died from coronavirus at the Nabih Berri hospital in Nabatiyeh”, southern Lebanon, the National News Agency said.

The Lebanese-Italian Hos-pital in the nearby city of Tyre where he worked said Ismail contracted the illness “while carrying out his medical and humanitarian duty”.

Firass Abiad, head of the main public hospital treating COVID-19 patients in Beirut, said: “Today we mourn Dr.

Loay, our young colleague, who fell while doing his duty, treating a patient with #Covid19.”

“We have taken an oath and are willing to sacrifice all for our patients. Yet this does not take away the heartache or make the loss tolerable,” tweeted the director of Rafik Hariri Uni-versity Hospital.

Lebanon said yesterday it has confirmed more than 2,900 cases of the novel coronavirus, including 41 deaths.

The country has gradually lifted lockdown measures and opened Beirut airport to com-mercial flights at the start of July, after a closure of more than three months.

Over the past two weeks,

the daily infection rate has risen, with dozens of new cases announced each day.

In the highest such increase, the government announced 166 new cases on July 12, including 131 sanitation workers.

At the height of summer, some beaches and bars are again thronging with people.

Health Minister Hamad Hassan on Monday warned of a possible return to lockdown over “people’s behaviour” and non-compliance with social distancing.

The pandemic arrived with Lebanon already mired in its worst economic crisis in decades and many fearing the health sector could not cope with a spike in cases.

Israel probes Palestinian Jerusalem governor over ‘terrorism’AFP — JERUSALEM

Israel is investigating the Pales-tinian governor of Jerusalem over suspected terrorism, in the first such allegation against the often-arrested leader, his lawyer said yesterday.

Adnan Ghaith has been arrested by Israeli security forces more than 10 times over the past two years, but typically over the minor offence of engaging in “illegal” political activities in the dis-puted city.

He has generally been released within a day or two.

But Ghaith’s lawyer Mohammed Mahmoud said that in addition to political offences the governor was being probed over “planning an act of terrorism,” and not expected to be released soon.

Under Israeli law, a broad range of offences fall under the terrorism umbrella, and the probe does not necessarily mean Ghaith is suspected of plotting an act of violence.

It was the first time Ghaith was the subject of a terrorism investigation and Israel’s pow-erful domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, was involved in

the case, Mahmoud said.The Shin Bet did not imme-

diately respond to a query about the investigation.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that Ghaith had been arrested at his east Jeru-salem home on Sunday.

“He is being questioned by security forces,” Rosenfeld said. Israel occupied east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the inter-national community.

It considers the entire city its capital, while the Pales-tinians see the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

Israel bans all Palestinian Authority activities in the city.

As a result, the PA has a minister for Jerusalem affairs and a Jerusalem governor located in Al Ram, just on the other side of an Israeli wall that separates the city and the occupied West Bank.

Ghaith has repeatedly been arrested for allegedly carrying out PA activities in east Jeru-salem, including for working to ensure Palestinians in the city had access to essential services in the battle against coronavirus.

KRG blocks return of Arab familiesANATOLIA & AFP— BAGHDAD

Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday accused the author-ities in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region of blocking the return of 1,200 Arab families to their homes in the region.

In a statement, the New York-based organization said the Kurdistan Regional Gov-ernment (KRG) was preventing these families from returning home to five villages more than six years after the area was retaken from the Daesh/ISIS terrorist group.

“KRG authorities have allowed Kurdish residents in neighboring villages, in the Rabia subdistrict, west of Dohuk, to return,” HRW said.

Belkis Wille, HRW’s senior

crisis and conflict researcher, said that “KRG has permitted neighboring Kurdish villagers to go back suggests that the Arabs are being blocked as punishment”.

She said the Kurdish Pesh-merga forces re-took control of Jidria, Mahmoudia, Qahira, Suadia, and Sufiya villages, where the Daesh/ISIS terrorist group captured on August 3, 2014.“KRG authorities have no justification for preventing these Arab families from returning to their villages,” Wille said.

In the summer of 2014, Daesh/ISIS overran much of northern and western Iraq. But Iraq declared in late 2017 that the terrorist group had been eliminated through operations

backed by a US-led interna-tional alliance.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Kurdish authorities yesterday denied handing over to Turkey the niece of an influential Syrian Kurdish official wanted by Ankara, as claimed by her family.

The interior ministry in northern Iraq's semi-auton-omous Kurdish region dis-missed the accusation from the family of Dalia Mahmoud Muslim, echoing an account given by official Turkish news agency Anadolu.

Citing security sources, Anadolu reported on Saturday that the 21-year-old had "handed herself in" to Turkish security forces on July 15 in a southern province of Turkey.

Mahmoud Mousavi Majd was found to have been paid “dollars to reveal information on adviser convoys, military equipment and communication systems, commanders and their movements, important geographical areas, codes and passwords” until he came under scrutiny and his access was downgraded.

06 TUESDAY 21 JULY 2020MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Turkey urges immediate end to Haftar support in LibyaAFP & ANATOLIA — ANKARA

Turkey yesterday urged an “immediate” end to the support for rebel commander Khalifa Haftar in Libya after trilateral talks held in Ankara between Libyan, Maltese and Turkish officials.

Turkey earlier this year stepped up its support for the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) after Haftar launched an offensive in April 2019 to seize the capital.

Libya has been entrenched in chaos since the 2011 over-throw of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi with rival political and armed groups bat-tling for control.

Haftar is backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates —countries with whom Turkey’s relations are strained — as well as Russia. “It is essential that all kind of help and support given to putschist Haftar, which pro-hibits ensuring Libya’s peace, tranquility, security and terri-torial integrity, ends immedi-ately,” Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said.

His comments came after a meeting with the interior

ministers of Libya and Malta at the defence ministry in the Turkish capital.

Haftar’s backers should “stop supporting an unrealistic and wrong project,” GNA Interior Minister Fathi Bashaga said, according to a Turkish defence ministry translation.

“The international com-munity should prioritise the preservation of a united Libya,” Malta’s Interior Minister Byron Camilleri said, joined by Akar and Bashaga.

After the GNA signed

security and maritime agree-ments with Turkey last year, Ankara’s military support including drones helped it re-impose control over Libya’s northwest. Turkey’s defense

minister said his meetings with top Maltese and Libyan officials had been fruitful, adding that their efforts to ensure peace and stability in the Mediterranean region would set an example for

the whole world. “We held a highly positive,

productive and constructive meeting,” Akar said, including such issues as the fight against trafficking, irregular migration,

regional security, and peace. Akar went on to say that the

countries’ collaboration would significantly promote regional stability, help practice upcoming measures more effectively, and lead to important gains for both coun-tries and the region.

Libya and the Mediter-ranean island of Malta are sep-arated by only about 357km.

Emphasising that all par-ticipants at the meeting were on the same page on many important issues, both in two- and three-way meetings, Akar said: “I see that we agreed to continue the coordination between our countries in the coming days for the sake of reg ional peace and tranquility.”

Stating that Turkey’s responsibilities in the interna-tional arena have gradually grown, he went on to say that Turkish contributions to stability and security have begun to bear fruit. Turkish activities in Libya were carried out as part of its agreements last November with the UN-recognised Libyan administration based in the capital Tripoli.

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar (centre), makes a speech as he holds the joint press conference with Libyan Interior Affairs Minister Fathi Bashaga (left) and Maltese National Security and Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri following their tripartite meeting for Libya at the National Defence Ministry Building in Ankara, Turkey, yesterday.

Tunisia welcomes back tourists after pandemic lockdownAFP — DJERBA, TUNISIA

Tourists are back on Tunisia’s beaches after charter flights resumed to the North African country following a break of more than three months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Some 155 mask-clad holiday makers from France, Germany and Luxembourg were greeted late last week on the resort island of Djerba with temper-ature checks — but also by host-esses offering them bouquets of jasmine.

“We can’t save the whole season, but we will do every-thing we can to save part of it,” said Tourism Minister Mohamed Ali Toumi, who was at the airport to welcome the Luxair flight. Tunisia, a country of some 11.5 million people, has officially registered 1,374 novel coronavirus infections and 50 deaths.

It reopened its borders on June 27, and travellers from countries it classifies as “green”, including France, Germany and Luxembourg, are not subject to any coronavirus restrictions.

“You have managed the health crisis better than us,” said

Patrick, a Frenchman in his sixties who arrived with his son for 10 days in the Tunisian sun.

Tourism accounts for between eight and 14 percent of Tunisia’s GDP, and employs around half a million people.

The novel coronavirus crisis has hit the sector hard.

Tourism revenues declined by around 50 percent between January 1 and July 10, compared to the same period last year, according to official figures.

Authorities are counting on health regulations to reassure tourists and the sector, and have halved hotel capacity in order to comply with anti-corona-virus measures.

“We are determined to strictly apply the health pro-tocol,” the tourism minister said. Authorities are hoping for a revival of the sector in early 2021.

Elsewhere in North Africa, Morocco announced on Sunday a further easing of its own novel coronavirus restrictions, allowing tourist establishments to operate at full capacity but keeping borders closed.

A “third phase” of easing was set to come into effect

today, authorities said in a statement, as part of “the con-tinued implementation of measures necessary for a gradual return to normal life and restarting the economy”.

Tourist businesses are now allowed to “use 100 percent of their capacity, without exceeding 50 percent in common areas” such as restaurants, pools and indoor sports facilities. But the kingdom will keep its borders closed “until further notice”, except for returning Moroccans and residents.

Since June, Morocco has allowed cafes, restaurants and shops to reopen and for domestic tourism to restart.

A state of health emergency remains in place in Morocco until August 10. Cultural centres, libraries, museums and archae-ological sites are also allowed to reopen “without exceeding 50 percent capacity”, the statement said, and gatherings and activities with fewer than 20 people are also allowed.

But wedding parties and funeral gatherings remain pro-hibited, and cinemas and public pools will stay closed, the statement added.

Zimbabwe police detain prominent journalist, protest leaderAP — HARARE

Zimbabwe police yesterday swooped in and detained a prominent journalist and an opposition leader ahead of anti-government protests planned for the end of this month, their lawyers said.

The journalist, Hopewell Chin’ono, has a huge following on Twitter, where he regularly

posts about alleged government corruption. He has also been using his account to encourage Zimbabweans to speak out and act against corruption.

“They are breaking into my home. Alert the world!” Chin’ono tweeted as police raided his home. His lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa said he is detained at a police station in the capital, Harare, but is being

denied access to lawyers.“Political intimidation of

the press has no place in democracies,” tweeted the US embassy in Harare, which in the past has been accused by the ruling party of “spon-soring” Chin’ono.

The organizer of the planned July 31 protest, oppo-sition politician Jacob Ngarivhume, is also in police

custody, said Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, which is providing lawyers for him. Charges against both men are not yet clear, the lawyers said.

Journalists, lawyers, doctors and nurses are among hundreds of people who have been arrested in recent months in Zimbabwe for protesting, striking for better pay or, in

some cases, simply doing their work as tensions rise in the troubled southern African country.

A deteriorating economy and reports of widespread cor-ruption linked to government contracts for the purchase of COVID-19 personal protective gear and drugs amid poor service delivery have further stoked public anger.

Kenya fishermen say they are squeezed by Ethiopian mega-damREUTERS — LAKE TURKANA, KENYA

Fishermen on the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana, the world’s biggest desert lake, have no doubt about what is to blame for their dwindling fish stocks: a giant hydroelectric dam built by Ethiopia on the River Omo, which feeds the lake.

“We are now seeing Nile perch stocks drastically reduce,” said fisherman Fitbo Lalukol. He says boats must sail much further out into the lake to get a good catch.

Officials at Ethiopia’s min-istry of water, irrigation and energy did not respond imme-diately to a Reuters request for comment on the fishermen’s claims.

Complaints about the Omo dam have been overshadowed by another major water dispute, between Ethiopia and Egypt. Ethiopia is building the Grand

Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, which Cairo says will strangle its lifeline, the Nile.

The government in Addis Ababa has said it needs the mega-dams to generate enough electricity for its population of 109 million, only about a third

of whom have access to power. But people who live around

Lake Turkana, Kenya’s poorest region, say the power from Gibe 3 — which is nearly 250 meters high — is produced at their expense. Around 90% of Lake Turkana’s water comes from the Omo river.

Sudan to try ousted Bashir over 1989 coupAFP — KHARTOUM

Sudan’s former autocratic pres-ident Omar Al Bashir, ousted amid a popular pro-democracy uprising last year, faces trial from today over the military coup that brought him to power more than three decades ago.

Bashir, 76, who is already behind bars for corruption, could face the death penalty if convicted over his 1989 coup against the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadek Al Mahdi.

The Khartoum trial starting at 0800 GMT against him and 16 co-accused comes as Sudan’s post-revolution transitional government has launched a series of reforms in hopes of fully rejoining the international community.

Sudan has also pledged to hand over Bashir to the Inter-national Criminal Court to face trial on war crimes and gen-ocide charges related to the Darfur conflict, which left 300,000 people dead and mil-lions displaced in a scorched earth campaign against a 2003 insurgency.

It is the first time in the modern history of the Arab world that the architect of a coup goes on trial, although the

man dubbed the true brain behind the military overthrow, Hassan Turabi of the National Islamic Front, died in 2016.

“This trial will be a warning to anyone who tries to destroy the constitutional system,” said Moaz Hadra, one of the lawyers who led the push to bring the case to court.

“This will safeguard Sudanese democracy. In this way, we hope to bring an end to the era of putsches in Sudan.”

Bashir will be in the dock with 10 military personnel and six civilians, including his former vice-presidents Ali

Osman Taha and Bakri Hassan Saleh, as well as former min-isters and governors.

They are all accused of having plotted the June 30, 1989 coup when the army arrested Sudan’s political leaders, sus-pended parliament and other state bodies, closed the airport and announced the putsch on the radio. Bashir, who was later elevated to the rank of general, stayed in power for 30 years before being overthrown on April 11 last year after several months of unprecedented, y o u t h - l e d s t r e e t demonstrations.

Sudanese lawyer Moaz Hadra, representative of the indictment committee in the trial of the former president Omar Al Bashir, speaks during an interview at his office in Khartoum.

A general view of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), near Guba in Ethiopia.

AFP — JOHANNESBURG

African leaders are expected to hold a summit today to discuss a controversial mega-dam on the Nile River that has caused tension between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, the South African presidency said yesterday.

The meeting will be organised under the auspices of the African Union (AU), which South African President Cyril Ram-aphosa currently chairs.

The Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been a source of friction in the Nile River basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on the project in 2011.

Sudan and Egypt view the dam as a threat to essential water supplies, while Ethiopia considers it essential for its elec-trification and development.

Ramaphosa’s spokeswoman said the Bureau of the Assembly of the AU Heads of State and Government would hold a “virtual meeting” to discuss the dam today.

Data from the United States Department of Agriculture shows the lake’s water level dropped to 363 metres in 2016, when Gibe 3 opened, from 365 metres. Unseasonably heavy rains mean levels are back up, but fishermen fear that is only temporary.

“At one point you have the

lake totally receding and no fish,” said Ikal Angelei, a local environmental activist. Angelei said Kenya and Ethiopia need to share resources so poor communities aren’t left behind. “The local community has to be involved in this whole process, both for conservation and eco-nomic value,” she said.

AU leaders to discuss Nile dam today

Ebola cases in DR Congo rise to 60

ANATOLIA — YAOUNDE

At least 60 Ebola virus cases have been recorded in the latest outbreak in the Demo-cratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced yesterday.

So far there are 60 cases (56 confirmed, 4 probable), 24 deaths and 17 recoveries from the 11th Ebola virus outbreak in Mbandaka, Equateur province, WHO African Region tweeted.

The WHO office in the Central African country said that a total of 12,959 people have been vaccinated since the start of the drive in early June. The most affected areas in the northwestern province are Bikoro, Bolomba, Iboko, Mbandaka, and Wangata.

Last week, expressing concern, the UN health agency said it deployed over 70 experts in DR Congo to support it in the fight against the virus.

The WHO and the DR Congo government had declared the country free from the 10th outbreak on May 14.

Starting in North Kivu on August 1, 2018, the epidemic was the second largest out-break in the world, and par-ticularly challenging as it took place in an active conflict zone. There were 3,470 cases, 2,287 deaths and 1,171 sur-vivors, according to the WHO. Ebola, a tropical fever that first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the DRC, is transmitted to humans from wild animals.

“It is essential that all kind of help and support given to putschist Haftar, which prohibits ensuring Libya’s peace, tranquility, security and territorial integrity, ends immediately,” Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said.

07TUESDAY 21 JULY 2020 ASIA

Floods kill 84 in India’s Assam; 9 rhinos drownREUTERS — GUWAHATI

Intense rain and floods in the Indian state of Assam have killed at least 84 people and displaced more than 2.75 million since May, authorities said yesterday, as they tried to collect the bodies of nine rare rhinos drowned in the past 10 days.

Rescue teams were facing a double challenge of rising flood waters amid the novel coronavirus as villagers driven from their homes huddle in shelters.

“It’s hard to enforce social distancing when people are being ordered to move away from the rising waters,” said Sanghamitra Sanyal, a member of the northeastern state’s flood management force.

“We’re urging people to at least cover their mouth and nose with a piece of clean cloth.” Officials warned that the water level in the Brahmaputra river was expected to rise by 11 cm (4.3 inches), two weeks after it burst its banks swamping more than 2,500 villages.

Assam, famous for its tea plantations, is hit by flooding every rainy season despite flood-control efforts.

Rights groups accuse

corrupt officials of siphoning off funds meant for flood projects, resulting in shoddy construction of embankments which are often breached.

Floods have also inundated the Kaziranga National Park, home to the world’s largest concentration of one-horned rhinoceros, with an estimated 2,500 out of a total population of some 3,000 of the animals.

“Nine rhinos have drowned and over 100 other animals have been killed,” Atul Bora, Assam’s agriculture minister who is Kaziranga’s member of the state parliament, told Reuters.

With the park waist-deep in water, rhinos, elephants and deer have been forced to seek refuge on roads and in human settlements.

Monsoon rain lashes Bangladesh A man rows in flood waters in Dohar, Dhaka District, yesterday. The death toll from heavy monsoon rains across South Asia has climbed to nearly 200, officials said, as Bangladesh and Nepal warned that rising waters would bring further flooding.

India reports

record 40,425

new virus casesAP — NEW DELHI

India reported more than 40,000 new cases of the coro-navirus yesterday, a record high for the country.

The 40,425 new cases raised India’s total to 1,118,043, including 27,497 deaths.

The ministry said late Sunday that India’s corona-virus fatality rate — currently at 2.49% — is “progressively falling” due to an effective containment strategy and aggressive testing.

A country of 1.4 billion people, India has been con-ducting nearly 10,000 tests per million people. More than 300,000 samples are being tested every day now, compared to just a few hundred in March, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research, India’s top medical research body.

Living on the trackPeople living near active railroad track go about their daily activities in Jakarta, Indonesia, yesterday. The country’s Central Statistics Agency says the number of poor people climbed by 1.63 million in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thai activists follow up large protest with smaller actionsAP — BANGKOK

Thai political activists held small protests yesterday outside the prime minister’s offices and an army installation, seeking to sustain momentum from a surprisingly large anti-government demonstration on Saturday.

The weekend protest in Bangkok, which drew more than 2,000 people, represented a revival of a movement that had been gathering steam until the coronavirus pandemic hit and a state of emergency declared to deal with it made political organising virtually impossible by mid-March.

The protest movement is in broad agreement on a set of pro-democracy demands that were presented on Saturday in Bangkok, including a new con-stitution, new elections and an end to repressive laws. Smaller but spirited demonstrations were held in at least two other

Thai cities. The protests yes-terday were modest in comparison.

A representative of a student group named the “New Life Network” criticised what

he said was the government’s inability to adequately manage the economy during the coro-navirus outbreak. Pumiwat Rangkasiwit said if the gov-ernment of Prime Minister

Prayuth Chan-ocha cannot deal with the situation, it should step down.

Pumiwat declared to reporters outside Government House that he was beginning a hunger strike to back the demands for reforms, though he left the venue soon after. There have been no notable hunger strikes in Thailand since the 1990s, when an earlier gen-eration of pro-democracy activists took to the streets.

A separate group of several dozen protesters held a rally yesterday outside of army headquarters, where a series of speakers decried Prayuth’s gov-ernment and its efforts to muzzle its critics.

Prayuth as army com-mander came to power in 2014 after ousting an elected gov-ernment. He became prime minister again last year after a pro-military party was able to form a coalition government following a general election.

Many critics of the gov-ernment feel the established powers have bent democratic principles to their will to shut out dissenting voices.

Prayuth’s military regime passed laws giving its allies an advantage in last year’s polls, and in February this year, a court ordered the dissolution of a popular opposition political party whose democracy-pro-moting policies had attracted substantial support among younger Thais.

The court’s action triggered a string of student protests that were cut short by the corona-virus crisis.

The military holds a privi-leged position in Thai politics, largely because of its frequently demonstrated ability to stage coups. The army justifies its influence by claiming the mantle of protector of the coun-try’s constitutional monarchy, which is treated as a near sacred institution.

Pro-democracy activists attending a protest demanding the resignation of Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, in front of Royal Thai Army headquarters, in Bangkok, yesterday.

Bangladesh to host late-stage trial of China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccineREUTERS — DHAKA

Bangladesh’s state medical research agency has approved a third-phase trial of a potential COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd, as infections rise in the densely populated South Asian country.

Sinovac has been looking for volunteers outside China as the number of coronavirus cases there has dwindled, said a member of Bangladesh’s national technical advisory committee to tackle COVID-19.

The trial, to be conducted by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), could begin next month.

“We have given ethical per-mission for the trial after

reviewing the research pro-tocol,” Mahmood Uz Jahan, director of the Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC), told Reuters.

The trial will involve 4,200 volunteers, Jahan said.

“Half of them will get vac-cinated,” he said.

The trial would be con-ducted in seven hospitals spe-cialising in treating novel

coronavirus infections in Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital, an ICDDR,B official said on the condition of anonymity.

A Sinovac representative told Reuters that it was waiting for official approval from Bangladesh.

A senior Bangladesh health ministry official, who declined to be identified, said there should not be any objection from the government as Bang-ladesh would “get priority” if they can successfully develop the vaccine.

Bangladesh had 204,525 confirmed coronavirus cases as of Sunday, with 2,618 deaths.

Sinovac said this month it was starting Phase III trials of its potential coronavirus vaccine in Brazil.

Elephant crushes scholar to death in Sri LankaAFP — COLOMBO

A young university scholar has become the latest victim of a deadly wild elephant attack in Sri Lanka, officials said yesterday, after a growing spate of similar incidents across the island nation.

The 32-year-old was returning to her hostel at the University of Jaffna on Sunday when she was trampled.

“She was with another friend who managed to escape

the attack,” a local police officer said.

“Wildlife authorities have tried to track down the ele-phant, but with no luck.” She sustained multiple head injuries and died in hospital yesterday, officials added.

Elephant attacks in Sri Lanka’s remote regions are not uncommon.

But Sunday’s encounter was in a populated area in the northern town of Kilinochchi, where there had been no pre-

vious incidents.A total of 121 people were

killed by elephants across the country last year, up from 96 the year before, according to government data.

A record 405 elephants were also killed by humans last year.

The country’s elephant pop-ulation has declined to just over 7,000 according to the latest census, down from an esti-mated 12,000 in the early 1900s.

Malaysia mulls making masks compulsory in public

REUTERS — KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia is considering making face masks compulsory in public following the emergence of 13 new coro-navirus clusters since the government relaxed broad curbs on movement and busi-nesses last month, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said yesterday.

Malaysian health author-ities recorded 21 new corona-virus cases yesterday, lifting the total since the outbreak began to 8,800 cases and 123 deaths.

Yesterday’s was the second straight daily double-digit rise in infections, after Malaysia managed to broadly hold daily growth to single digits since the lockdown was eased on June 10.

The number of positive cases climbed by 15 on Sunday, and by 18 two days prior.

Muhyiddin said the string of double-digit daily increases, coupled with the new clusters detected in several states across the country, has led the government to think that it may be necessary to make wearing face masks in public compulsory.

“The details will be announced once the relevant regulations are finalised by the government,” Muhyiddin said in an address broadcast on national television.

Malaysia was among the earlier countries in the region to impose strict curbs on public activity, closing borders, barring mass movement, and ordering all but key sectors to shut operations in March as it fought to contain the spread of COVID-19. Last week, Sin-gapore and Malaysia agreed to resume essential business and official travel between their countries, letting people cross their border for the first time since most movements were suspended because of the coro-navirus in March.

Kaziranga National Park, home to the world’s largest concentration of one-horned rhinoceros, has been inundated with animals seeking refuge on roads and in human settlements.

Australia warns virus outbreak will take weeks to tameREUTERS — SYDNEY

A surge in COVID-19 cases in Australia’s second-biggest city could take weeks to subside despite a lockdown and orders to wear masks, Australia’s acting chief medical officer said yesterday as the country braces for a second wave of infection.

Authorities in the state of Victoria, whose capital Mel-bourne is in partial lockdown amid a new outbreak, reported

275 new COVID-19 cases yes-terday, down from a daily record of 438 three days earlier.

Australia’s Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said it would take “weeks” to slow the outbreak to levels seen as recently as June, when Victoria and the rest of Australia reported single or double-digit daily infections.

“We have learned over time that the time between intro-ducing a measure and seeing its

effect is at least two weeks and sometimes longer than that,” Kelly told Australian Broad-casting Corporation radio.

Australia has recorded about 11,800 coronavirus cases with a death toll of 123, a fraction of what has been seen in other countries. In most Aus-tralian states the disease has been effectively eliminated.

Less than a month ago, Aus-tralia was widely heralded as a global leader in combating

COVID-19 but quarantine lapses in Victoria triggered a flare-up in infections in June. An official inquiry into the outbreak began hearings yesterday.

Victoria’s government has ordered about five million people into a partial lockdown for six weeks and told residents around Melbourne to cover their faces if they have to leave their homes.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said it was too soon to

declare that such measures had flattened the outbreak.

“Until we bring some sta-bility to this, we won’t be able to talk about a trend,” he said, referring to the drop in daily new cases.

The Victorian outbreak and rising daily cases in neigh-bouring New South Wales, the country’s most-populous state, are stoking fears of a national second wave. NSW reported 20 new infections yesterday.

A senior health ministry official said Bangladesh would “get priority” if the Chinese firm can successfully develop the vaccine.

Nelson Mandela spent his whole life fighting against inequality and injustice. “As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world,” he said, “none of us can truly rest.”

08 TUESDAY 21 JULY 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

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

EDITORIAL

QATAR has been a vociferous supporter and strong, learned advocate for the Palestinian people and their cause for decades. The country has used its time and resources for the support of the brotherly palesitinian people.

The Palestinian people in general and their leaders in particular always acknowledged Qatar’s help and support and they see Qatar as a true friend who will always be there when in need. Chairman of Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh, while talking the Qatari media, praised Qatar’s contributions to the Palestinian cause. He told the press that the Palestinian people recognise the sup-portive position of Qatar, especially during the crises expe-rienced in the past years stressing the Qatari diplomacy in the supportive Arab and Islamic positions for the Pal-estinian cause as it is the first country to support the Pal-estinian people internally and externally. He thankfully remembered that the financial help provided by Qatar over the past years for Palestine still continues adding that the financial support amo0unted to $180m in the past year alone, which helped the construction of 10,000 homes that were destroyed in wars in Gaza.

Whenever the Palestinians were in need, Qatar was there with support. On March 22 this year, Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani directed to provide $150m over a period of six months in order to com-plement the efforts of the Qatar to alleviate the suffering of the brotherly Palestinian people and in support of the United Nations relief and humanitarian programmes in Gaza Strip. It also included assistance to combat COVID-19 for the besieged people in Gaza Strip.

Qatar had funded the expenses of 100 medical pro-fessionals in April and in the same month the country provided aid to Palestinians quarantined in Gaza and QRCS provided medical equipment to detect corona-virus cases in Gaza.

Qatar has made it equally important to raise the issue of the sufferings of the besieged people in in inter-national forums, even during this trying times of pan-demic. In June Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul-rahman Al Thani, while addressing the virtual ministerial meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee to coordinate international assistance to the Palestinians, said Qatar will continue to support the Palestinian people and called on the international committee to redouble their efforts to rescue the Palestinians from the occupying forces. Every time when Qatar got a chance to speak at the UN events, Palestinian cause occupied a prominent place in those speeches. Qatar will stand by the cause until the occupied areas are liberated and the Pales-tinians enjoy a peaceful and dignified life as the citizens of a free country.

Standing by the Palestinians

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Quote of the day

The last steps are always the most difficult, but

I'm confident. Even if it is difficult, it is important

to continue to work. I think an agreement (post-

coronavirus recovery package) is possible.

Charles Michel, EU Council President

A file picture of UN Secretary-General António Guterres speaking at a high-level session meeting on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

From the exercise of global power to racism, gender discrim-ination and income disparities, inequality threatens our well-being and our future. We desper-ately need new thinking to halt and reverse it.

We often hear that a rising tide of economic growth lifts all boats. But in reality, a rising tide of inequality sinks all boats. High levels of inequality have helped to create the global fragility that is being exposed and exploited by COVID-19.

The virus is shining a spotlight on inequalities of all kinds. It poses the highest risk to the health of the most vulnerable, and its social and economic impact is concentrated on those who are least able to cope. Unless we act now, 100 million more people could be pushed into extreme poverty and we could see famines of historic proportions.

Even before COVID-19, people everywhere were raising their voices against inequality. Between 1980 and 2016, the world’s richest 1 percentcaptured 27 percentof the total cumulative growth in income. But income is not the only measure of ine-quality. People’s chances in life depend on their gender, family and ethnic background, race, whether or not they have a disa-bility, and other factors. Multiple inequalities intersect and rein-force each other across the gen-erations, defining the lives and expectations of millions of people before they are even born.

Just one example: more than

50 percentof 20-year-olds in countries with very high human development are in higher edu-cation. In low human devel-opment countries, that figure is 3 per cent. Even more shocking, some 17 percentof the children born twenty years ago in those countries have already died.

The anger fueling recent social movements, from the anti-racism campaign that has spread around the world in the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing to the chorus of brave women calling out the powerful men who have abused them, is yet another sign of utter disillu-sionment with the status quo. And the two seismic shifts of our age – the digital revolution and the climate crisis – threaten to entrench inequality and injustice even more deeply.

COVID-19 is a human tragedy. But it has also created a generational opportunity to build a more equal and sustainable world, based on two central ideas: a New Social Contract, and a New Global Deal.

A New Social Contract will join Governments, their people, civil society, business and others in common cause.

Education and digital tech-nology must be two great ena-blers and equalizers, by pro-viding lifelong opportunities to learn how to learn, to adapt and take on new skills for the knowledge economy.

We need fair taxation on income and wealth, and a new generation of social protection policies, with safety nets including Universal Health Cov-erage and the possibility of a Universal Basic Income extended

to everyone. To make the New Social Con-

tract possible, we need a New Global Deal to ensure that power, wealth and opportunities are shared more broadly and fairly at the international level.

A New Global Deal must be based on a fair globalization, on the rights and dignity of every human being, on living in balance with nature, on respect for the rights of future genera-tions, and on success measured in human rather than economic terms. We need global gov-ernance that is based on full, inclusive and equal participation in global institutions. Developing countries must have a stronger voice, from the United Nations Security Council to the Boards of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and beyond.

We need a more inclusive and balanced multilateral trading system that enables developing countries to move up global value chains.

Reform of the debt archi-tecture and access to affordable credit must create fiscal space to generate investment in the green, equitable economy.

The New Global Deal and the New Social Contract will put the world back on track to realise the promise of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals – our globally-agreed vision of peace and prosperity on a healthy planet by 2030.

Our world is at breaking point. But by tackling inequality, based on a New Social Contract and a New Global Deal, we can find our way to better days ahead.

BORIS GROENDAHL & JONATHAN STEARNS — BLOOMBERG

The European Union moved closer to agreeing on a massive stimulus package to reboot the economy after four of the bloc’s governments that have been holding up negoti-ations indicated they were ready to agree on a key plank of the deal, officials said.

After negotiating through the night, the Netherlands, Austria, Denmark and Sweden are satisfied with 390 billion euros ($450 billion) of the fund being made available as grants with the rest coming as low-interest loans, the officials said, asking not be named discussing private conversations. The total size of the recovery package is in flux, but an earlier proposal was for 750 billion euros.

The bloc’s 27 leaders will gather again at 4 p.m. in Brussels to settle the out-standing issues such as the overall size of the fund and the mechanisms for controlling its

spending. A French official said that their delegation now see a path to a full deal. “After lengthy talks last night, we worked out a framework for a possible agreement,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday. “It’s progress and gives hope that perhaps today an agreement will be made, or at least that an agreement is possible.”

The progress boosted markets, with the euro rising to a four-month high. Italy’s 10-year bond yield spread over Germany, a key gauge of risk in the region, fell to the lowest level since March.

The proposal under dis-cussion earmarks a third of the recovery fund and the next budget -- more than half a trillion euros -- for projects that contribute to fighting climate change. On top of that, any expenditure that’s not consistent with the goal of reducing greenhouse gases will not be approved, making it the greenest stimulus the

world has seen.That would help Europe

reach its 2050 climate-neu-trality target and also could convince the frugal nations, which support stepping up efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, to endorse the deal.

With investors already pricing in an agreement after a series of bold announcements in recent weeks, leaders are under intense pressure to bridge their differences. At times the discussions grew heated, with several officials saying the whole negotiation was on the brink of collapse during Sun-day’s dinner session as familiar fault lines emerged between the richer northern nations and the southern countries worst affected by the coronavirus.

“It didn’t look good at a couple of moments tonight but taking everything together, I believe progress has been made,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.

“We are willing to make the shift from loans to

subsidies if reforms are taking place and if these reforms can be enforced,” he added. “There is a very good text on this now and my impression is that it has consensus support.”

Rutte and his allies have been trying to water down the handouts that the highly indebted southern countries see as critical for shoring up their finances -- the European Com-mission’s initial proposal included 500 billion euros of grants. Yet for all the frustration facing Rutte from the other side of the table, his opponents can’t afford to push him too far. The Dutch prime minister has just 75 deputies in his country’s 150-seat parliament so he’ll need opposition support to ratify any deal he strikes with the bloc.

When the leaders gather this afternoon, they’ll still have to overcome two contentious issues: how to make sure the funding is properly used and whether to make distributions contingent on the adherence to democratic standards.

Tackling the inequality pandemic: A new social contract for a new era

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EU inches closer to stimulus deal with major obstacle overcome

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09TUESDAY 21 JULY 2020 ASIA

Pakistan resumes anti-polio campaign after virus pauseAFP — ISLAMABAD

Pakistan resumed its polio v a c c i n a t i o n c a m p a i g n yesterday after a four-month pause due to the coronavirus outbreak, which health authorities feared would cause a surge in cases of the crip-pling disease.

The country is one of only two in the world where polio is still a serious problem.

Vaccination teams in the southern port city of Karachi went door to door, flanked by armed police, administering polio drops into children’s mouths without touching them, in line with new coro-navirus safety guidelines.

“Right now we can’t say what impact the four-month suspension will have on our fight against polio, but one thing is sure — that the current year is going to be worse than the previous years in regard to the number of new cases,” Zul f iqar Babakhel , a spokesman for the country’s vaccination authority, said.

As well as the pause to the campaign, a further 2.8 million newborns also missed out on polio vaccinations, he said.

Muhammad Nadeem, a 63-year-old shopkeeper from

Karachi, said his family had been waiting anxiously for their two-year-old son to be vaccinated against the highly infectious disease.

“It is a matter of our son’s future, and today we are finally feeling relieved after four months of fear and impa-tience,” he said.

The drive will first target 800,000 children under the age of five in districts where polio is in continuous circu-lation -- including in parts of Quetta, Karachi and Lahore — before broadening to a nationwide campaign by the end of the year.

Health minister Zafar Mirza said the programme was

restarting as a result of the coronavirus situation in Pakistan improving.

Authorities have declared more than a quarter of a million coronavirus cases, although with low testing the true figure is expected to be much higher.

Rana Muhammad Safdar, who is leading the polio erad-ication programme, said the temporary suspension had “widened the immunity gap among vulnerable children significantly”.

Gains made at the start of year had been reversed, he added, after cases jumped to 147 in 2019, up from 12 in 2018.

So far this year 60 cases have been reported, but experts said the impact of the pause could take months to emerge.

The United Nations chil-dren’s agency Unicef warned in May that millions of children were at risk of diseases such as diphtheria, measles and polio after the coronavirus pandemic disrupted routine immunisation services around the world.

Pakistan is one of only two countries where polio remains endemic. The other is neigh-bouring Afghanistan, where

last month officials detected the disease in areas previously declared free of it, following a s i m i l a r p a u s e i n vaccinations.

Inoculation teams in both countries are often viewed with suspicion.

Opposition grew after the

CIA organised a fake vacci-nation drive to help track down Al Qaeda’s former leader Osama bin Laden in the Paki-stani city of Abbottabad.

As Pakistan has tried to eliminate polio, a new chal-lenge has emerged in the form of a growing global movement

against vaccinations.The phenomenon has

a t t r a c t e d a d h e r e n t s worldwide, fuelled by medi-cally baseless claims and pro-liferated on social media, resulting in a resurgence of once-eradicated, highly con-tagious diseases.

A health worker administers polio vaccine drops to a child during a door-to-door campaign on the outskirts of Quetta, Pakistan, yesterday.

Pakistan population continues to grow rapidly, says reportINTERNEWS — ISLAMABAD

Pakistan’s total population is estimated at 220.9 million and it is growing rapidly with an annual fertility rate of 3.6 children per couple, says a world population report.

The 2020 World Population Data Sheet released by the US Population Reference Bureau, Washington also estimates that the world today has a total of 7.8 billion inhabitants.

Referring to the COVID-19 crisis, the report warns that “population density in urban areas, household size, and pop-ulation aging contribute to our vulnerability to pandemics”.

The report places South Asia among the fastest growing regions in the world and within the region, it marks Afghanistan and Pakistan as the fastest growing populations.

Afghanistan has a faster growth rate than Pakistan, 4.5 per couple. But because of high death rates and low life expectancy, the country’s total population is still 38.9 million.

At Pakistan’s growth rate 3.6 a population doubles in 19.4 years. A country needs to bring its growth rate down to 2 per cent a year to reduce its popu-lation. The replacement fertility rate is 2.1, the average number of children a couple needs to have to replace themselves.

Bangladesh’s total popu-lation in 2020 is estimated at 169.8 million, with an annual growth rate of 2.3.

With a total of 1.424 billion people, China still has the largest population in the world but has been able to reduce its fertility rate to 1.5. China’s population is projected to decrease by 2050.

With 1.4 billion people, India has the second largest popu-lation in the world but has redced its fertility rate to 2.2.

The United States has a total of 329.9 million inhabitants and between 2020 and 2050 its population is projected to increase, but at a much slower pace than recent decades. The US has an annual fertility rate of 1.7, which forces it to allow immigrants to strengthen its work force.

In 91 countries and terri-tories — nearly 45 per cent of the world’s population — total fertility rates are below replacement level.

Middle Africa is the youngest region where 46 percent of the population is under the age of 15 years. Southern Europe is the world’s oldest region with 23 per cent of the population aged 65 or above.

Asia is the world’s most populous region and its overall population is projected to increase by 15 percent — from 4.6 billion in 2020 to 5.3 billion in 2050.

However, the pattern of future population change varies within the region from a 3 per cent decline in East Asia to a 38 percent increase in Western Asia. Asia’s total fertility rate is below replacement level at 2.0.

Japan protests Chinese maritime survey off southern isletsAP — TOKYO

Japan has protested to Beijing over a Chinese survey ship that operated for 10 days inside the exclusive economic zone claimed by Japan around Okinotorishima, a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, officials said yesterday.

Japan says Okinotorishima — two uninhabited rocky out-croppings about 1,700km southwest of Tokyo — are islands. China says they are only

rocks and do not qualify as a demarcation point for Japan’s exclusive economic zone, as Japan claims under interna-tional law.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters that coast guard officials spotted a Chinese ship using survey equipment in the waters beginning July 9 and ordered it to stop. The Chinese ship stayed in the area until Saturday and Japan protested to Beijing via diplomatic channels, Suga said.

“We have not given per-mission to the Chinese side to conduct a maritime scientific survey in the waters,” Suga said. Japan says Okinotorishima anchors the country’s EEZ under the United Nations Con-vention of the Law of the Sea, which requires foreign ships to gain prior consent to operate surveys or fishing.

Just the tips of the small out-croppings are visible at high tide. They have been heavily enhanced by concrete

embankments to avoid further erosion. A few years ago, Jap-anese fisheries officials planted corals around the outcroppings in an attempt to enlarge them.

China does not dispute Japan’s control over Okinotor-ishima, but has criticised Tokyo’s claim that it is an island. On Friday, Chinese foreign min-istry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Okinotorishima is a reef under the UN con-vention, not an island, so Japan cannot use it to claim an EEZ.

Cinemas reopen in Chinese cities as normality returnsAFP — SHANGHAI

Hundreds of cinemas reopened in scores of Chinese cities yesterday after a six-month nationwide shutdown due to the coronavirus, highlighting its success in taming an epidemic still raging in parts of the world.

But it will be an altered expe-rience for moviegoers: online-only ticket sales, shuttered snack bars, and social-distancing during screenings as worries over COVID-19 persist.

Cinemas can sell no more than 30 percent of available tickets per show, and seat-selection charts on leading tick-eting apps indicated that in many theatres people will need to sit two seats apart.

“We are really looking forward to it, because our front desk often receives calls from viewers asking when our theatre will re-open,” said Bao Yaopei, manager of a Shanghai outlet of the SFC chain, one of China’s largest movie-theatre franchises.

Bao spoke before the cinema’s first screening yesterday, as staff painstakingly wiped down seats and 3D glasses with disinfectant-soaked cloths.

“Audiences are really looking forward to this too — to be able to enter cinemas, sit together with others and feel the hap-piness that movies bring.” But coronavirus anxiety remains in the air, with cinemas in Beijing still closed for now.

The capital did, however, lower its virus alert level beginning yesterday after going more than two weeks without a new local infection, declaring that it had contained a cluster that emerged in June.

That outbreak infected more than 330 people in the city and triggered a resumption of some restrictions seen earlier in the health crisis.

Beijing’s lowered alert will allow venues such as parks, museums, fitness centres and libraries to increase daily visitor traffic to 50 percent of normal

capacity, and conferences of up to 500 participants can go ahead with proper safeguards in place.

Chinese film authorities had announced in March that they would reopen cinemas, which were shut in late January, but swiftly reversed course after fresh clusters of cases were dis-covered across the country.

Among the last businesses to reopen, cinemas have suffered a massive earnings hit.

China’s largest cinema chain, Wanda Film, said it expects to report a loss of at least $214m for

the first half of the year.Industry recovery will be

slow due to lingering COVID-19 concerns and restrictions placed on movie houses, said Chinese producer and screenwriter Fang Li, who has three productions stuck in the pipeline due to the virus.

“Even if commercial films are released after cinemas reopen, they will suffer more than 50 percent losses compared to before the epidemic,” Fang said, predicting it could take a decade for the industry to fully recover.

A worker cleaning a cinema hall, in Beijing, yesterday.

Kim berates officials over troubled flagship hospitalAFP — SEOUL

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un berated officials for their “careless” construction of a flagship hospital in Pyongyang and ordered those responsible to be sacked, state media reported yesterday.

The North has long used giant infra-structure projects to try to burnish the gov-ernment’s credibility, including housing developments in Pyongyang and the con-tinuing Wonsan-Kalma tourism development, but critics say speed is often prioritised over quality. The latest scheme is the Pyongyang General Hospital, in a prime location across the Taedong river from Mansu hill, where giant statues of the North’s founder Kim Il Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong Il — father of the current leader — look out over the capital.

Completion is scheduled for October 10 to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party, and Kim called its construction a “crucial task” for the coun-try’s public health programme at a ground-breaking ceremony in March.

But after being briefed on the progress during a visit to the construction site, Kim “pointed out serious problems”, the official KCNA news agency reported.

The commission in charge had organised the finances “in a careless manner with no

budget for the construction properly set up”, Kim was quoted as saying.

The project had been initiated for the “good of the people” but was “burdening” them with demands for “assistance”, Kim said.

No details were provided, but Kim ordered the ruling party’s Central Com-mittee to investigate and “replace all the officials responsible”.

The report did not give the exact date of Kim’s visit. It comes amid speculation

that construction is being hampered by the North’s difficulties securing materials due to tightened border controls over the coro-navirus pandemic. The already isolated, nuclear-armed North quickly shut down its borders after the virus was first detected in neighbouring China in January, and imposed strict containment measures. Pyongyang insists it has not had a single case of COVID-19 despite the virus having infected more than 14.3 million people around the world and killing over 601,000.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (centre) giving guidance to the officials of the Pyongyang General Hospital, which is under construction in the capital, on Sunday.

TikTok under scrutiny in Australia over security and data concernsREUTERS — SYDNEY

Australia is scrutinising the popular Chinese-owned social media TikTok platform for any risks it may pose to users from around potential foreign interference and data privacy issues, government sources said.

Owned by Bytedance, TikTok opened an office in Australia in recent weeks. Offices of both the Home Affairs and Attorney-General are discussing TikTok’s operations, the sources said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government was “having a good look” at TikTok, which has also fallen under US scrutiny for “national security risks”.

“If we consider there is a need to take further action than we are taking now, then I can tell you we won’t be shy about it,” Morrison told Melbourne radio station 3AW on Friday.

Separately, Labour Senator Jenny McAllister, the chairwoman of a parliamentary inquiry into foreign interference through social media, has identified TikTok as needing further scrutiny, noting 1.6 million young Australians used the app.

“Some of these approaches to moderating content might be incon-sistent with Australian values,” she told ABC radio.

“For example, removing material about Tiananmen Square, or deprioritising material about Hong Kong protests,” she added, referring to student protests in Beijing in 1989 and pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong over the past year.

Two of the three directors of the new Australian TikTok oper-ation are senior executives of Chinese parent company ByteDance, company records seen by Reuters show.

TikTok Australia general manager Lee Hunter, who was recruited from Google in June, has written to Australian politicians saying TikTok was “being used as a political football”.

Vaccination teams in the southern port city of Karachi went door to door, flanked by armed police, administering polio drops into children’s mouths without touching them, in line with new coronavirus safety guidelines.

10 TUESDAY 21 JULY 2020EUROPE

Hopes for EU recovery deal rise as summit enters 4th dayREUTERS — BRUSSELS

European Union leaders said yesterday they were cautiously optimistic that agreement on a massive stimulus plan for their coronavirus-blighted econ-omies was within reach, but tensions between them remained high after days of summit squabbling.

Slow to coordinate their initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic and already weakened by Britain’s departure from the bloc, a deal on the economic aid plan would demonstrate that Europeans can step up to a crisis and remain united.

“It has been a long summit and a challenging summit but the prize is worth negotiating for,” Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said as the Brussels summit dragged into its fourth day. Summit chair Charles Michel had urged

leaders on Sunday to achieve a “miss ion imposs ib le” , reminding them that more than 600,000 people had now died from COVID-19 around the world. However, diplomats said it was far from certain that the leaders could put aside the rancour that stood in the way of a compromise over hours of haggling through the weekend, and one said negotiations could run deep into Monday night.

Indeed, a session of all 27 leaders scheduled for yesterday afternoon was delayed by two hours to 6:00pm (1600 GMT).

Emotions ran high at a dinner on Sunday as a group of

fiscally frugal northern nations led by the Netherlands stood their ground on the level of free grants within a proposed special recovery fund of ¤750bn overall. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki railed against the ‘frugals’ before negotiations resumed yes-terday, branding them “a group of stingy, egotistic states that look at things very narrowly through the prism of their own interests”.

Poland would be one of the top beneficiaries of the recovery package, receiving tens of bil-lions of euros in grants and cheap loans, along with

high-debt Mediterranean-rim countries that have taken the brunt of the pandemic in Europe.

Despite the rhetorical skir-mishing, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the leaders

now had a new basis for a deal on the stimulus package and, linked to it, the EU’s 2021-2027 common budget of around ¤1.1 trillion. “We worked out a framework for a possible agreement last night after long

negotiations,” she told reporters. “This is progress and gives hope that an agreement can be reached today.”

French President Emmanuel Macron lost patience in the early hours yesterday and banged his fist on the table in frustration at “sterile blockages” by the ‘frugals’, two diplomats said. But by daylight, he shared Merkel’s optimism, telling reporters: “I’m starting today with a lot of determination to make progress.” Hopes for a deal to help address Europe’s deepest recession since World War Two sent Italy’s borrowing costs to their lowest since early March and pushed the euro to a 19-week high.

Diplomats said within the ¤750bn recovery fund, ¤390bn could be considered as non-repayable grants, a compromise between the ¤350bn level of the ‘frugals’ and the ¤400bn demanded by France and Germany.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for a meeting during an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, yesterday.

UK suspends extradition treaty with Hong KongAFP — LONDON

Britain yesterday risked wors-ening strained ties with China, as it suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in protest at a controversial new security law in the territory.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed the widely expected move in parliament, despite Chinese warnings that Britain was making a grave foreign policy error and risked reprisals.

He also announced an extension to Hong Kong of an arms embargo of “potentially lethal weapons” already in force against mainland China for the last three decades.

Diplomatic ties between London and Beijing have been frayed by the security law, which Western powers see as an erosion on civil liberties and human rights in the financial hub.

China threatened unspec-ified counter-measures after

Britain relaxed immigration rules for Hong Kongers with British overseas passports, and the potential of citizenship.

Adding to the tensions have been British criticisms about China’s treatment of the Uighur ethnic minority group, and the blocking of telecoms giant Huawei from its 5G networks.

Raab said Britain wanted to engage constructively with China, acknowledging its “extraordinary transformation” and the key role it had to play in world affairs.

But he said a positive rela-tionship with a country that had international obligations as a global player also included the right to disagree.

The security law had “sig-nificantly changed key assump-tions underpinning our extra-dition treaty”, particularly a provision to try certain cases in mainland China, he said.

The legislation does not provide legal or judicial safe-guards, and there was concern

about its potential use in the former British territory, he added. “The government has decided to suspend the extra-dition treaty immediately and indefinitely,” he said.

“We would not consider reacting to it unless and until there are clear and robust safe-guards.” Raab said there was also cause for concern about the extent to which China was playing a role in law enforcement and internal security in semi-autonomous Hong Kong.

“The UK will extend to Hong Kong the arms embargo that we’ve applied to mainland China since 1989,” he told lawmakers.

“The extension of this embargo will mean that there will be no exports from the UK to Hong Kong of potentially lethal weapons, components or ammunition. “And it will also mean a ban on the export of any equipment already banned, which might be used for

internal repression.” Wang Wenbin, spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, earlier warned Britain of reprisals for meddling in its internal affairs, and called criticisms of its Uighur policy “slander”. “We urge the UK not to go further down this wrong path, in order to avoid further damage to China-UK relations,” Wang said.

“Recent erroneous remarks and measures concerning Hong Kong have seriously violated international law and basic norms governing international relations...

“China strongly condemns this and firmly opposes it.” Brit-ain’s extradition treaty sus-pension comes after similar tough action against China by the United States, Canada and Australia. Beijing has accused London of being a puppet to US foreign policy over Huawei, after Washington slapped sanc-tions on the Chinese firm’s access to US chips vital to its 5G networks.

PM visits schoolchildren Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson playing with pupils during his visit to The Discovery School in Kings Hill, south east England, yesterday.

UK secures 90 million doses of potential cornavirus vaccinesAFP — LONDON

Britain has secured access to 90 million doses of potential corona-virus vaccines in deals with biotech firms BioNTech, Pfizer and Valneva, the government said yesterday.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said Britain would now have access to three different types of vaccines being developed domestically and around the world, and it had also launched a website for volunteers to sign up for vaccine studies.

“The hunt to find a vaccine is a truly global endeavour and we are doing everything we can to ensure the British public get access to a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible,” said Sharma.

The deals involve 30 million doses of a vaccine being developed

by BioNTech and German firm Pfizer, and 60 million doses of another created by France’s Valneva.

The government has already said it would purchase 100 million doses of a vaccine currently being trialed by Oxford University in partnership with AstraZeneca.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was “hopeful” of a vaccine, “but to say that I’m 100 percent confident that we will get a vaccine this year or indeed next year is, alas, just an exaggeration.” “It may be that the vaccine is going to come riding over the hill like the cavalry, but we just can’t count on it right now,” he said in a televised interview.

Britain has been one of the worst affected countries in the world since the outbreak began, suffering more than 45,000 deaths.

Cruise ships

return to Danube

with strict safety

rules on board

REUTERS — BUDAPEST

River cruises are making a quiet comeback on the Danube after the COVID-19 pandemic brought global tourism to a standstill and forced companies to suspend voyages.

Holiday makers are adapting to strict new safety measures on the elegant ships with Germany’s Nicko Cruises the first to restart Danube trips on June 22.

The company is now oper-ating three vessels for the six to eight-day trips from Passau, in Germany, to Budapest, passing scenic hills and old castles along the way. “Normally, we have 90% occupancy, this year we have around 70%. There are no limits to how many guests you can have on board, so we are glad for every guest we have,” said cruise manager Alexander Steiner on board the vessel NickoVISION which was docked in central Budapest.

Guests come mostly from Germany, Austria and Swit-zerland as there are still travel limitations on groups coming in from the United States, United Kingdom and Israel, he said. Passengers must take a COVID blood test before coming onboard, and wear masks when moving around. Tables are placed well apart with dividing screens and waiters wear masks and gloves.

Guests have their temper-atures checked daily, and special safety rules apply for excursions.

“I don’t think they booked the cruise fully ... it seems like it is a safe experience so I don’t have any worries,” said Kilian Weber, an English teacher from Switzerland travelling with his partner.

Another couple from Germany, Pia and Michael Rusp, booked their trip in January, well before the pandemic started spreading in Europe. As experi-enced cruise vacationers, the only thing they miss are the buffet breakfasts, which have been dropped due to the danger of spreading the virus.

A river cruise ship arrives following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Budapest, Hungary, on July 16, 2020.

France says up to 500 virus clusters but no 2nd wave yetAFP — PARIS

French authorities have reported 400 to 500 active coronavirus outbreak clusters but there are no signs of an imminent “second wave,” Health Minister Olivier Veran said yesterday.

Many of the current virus clusters involve abattoirs or other contained professional settings such as old age homes, he said. Others had resulted from family reunions during the summer holidays.

“At this point we are very far from a second wave,” Veran told Franceinfo radio, as face masks were made mandatory in all enclosed public spaces including shops, covered markets and administrative buildings.

“The goal is not to worry people excessively, but to keep them on their guard,” he said.

Nationwide the “R” number indicating the viral transmission rate now stands at 1.2, meaning 10 infected people will infect an additional 12 on average, according to the

Sante Publique France health agency.

But in some areas on the French mainland, the rate is much higher, with the southern Mediterranean region including Marseille and Nice now reporting a rate of 1.55.

Brittany in western France stood at 2.6 percent — meaning 10 infected people could infect on average 26 more people.

If the “worrying trends” continue the government will again consider regional lock-downs or even new nationwide confinement orders, Veran said, adding: “All options are on the table.”

People without face masks in public spaces risk fines of ¤135, but “we’re not going to start handing out fines for people reuniting with their fam-ilies!” he added.

Asked if France had enough masks to go around, Veran said he was focusing on ensuring there were stocks in vacation hotspots as well as the Paris region.

EU parliament to

block recovery

deal if it falls short

of demandsREUTERS — BRUSSELS

The European parliament will withhold support for any deal struck by EU governments on the bloc’s huge coronavirus stimulus package if it fails to meet certain conditions, its leader said yesterday.

An EU summit spilled into its fourth day yesterday, as member countries wrangled over a proposed 1.8-trillion-euro ($2 trillion) package for the European Union’s next long-term budget and a coro-navirus economic recovery fund.

David Sassoli told EU leaders that even if they strike a deal, the package will still need to win approval from the European parliament.

“The European parliament has set out its priorities and it expects them to be met,” he said in a statement.

“If these conditions are not sufficiently met, the European parliament will not give its consent.”

Lawmakers also want an end to reductions on contri-butions to the EU’s joint coffers, currently received by rich net payers.

Parliament wants new EU taxes to help pay back the ¤750bn the commission plans to borrow on the market to create a recovery fund for member states.

On the table are possible new levies on carbon dioxide emissions and single-use plastic waste.

EU leaders were due to resume talks at 1400 GMT, with European Council Pres-ident Charles Michel expected to put forward a new basis for a deal to bridge the competing demands of north and southern Europe.

Diplomats said that within the ¤750bn recovery fund, ¤390bn could be considered as non-repayable grants, a compromise between the ¤350bn level of the ‘frugals’ and the ¤400bn demanded by France and Germany.

Spain’s COVID-19 rate triples in three weeks after lockdown easingREUTERS — MADRID

The prevalence of the novel coronavirus in Spain has risen three-fold over the last three weeks as authorities struggle to contain a rash of fresh clusters, mainly in the Cata-lonia and Aragon regions, Health Ministry data showed yesterday.

After registering thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths per day during an early April peak, Spain succeeded in slowing the number of new infections to a trickle.

But since restrictions on movement were lifted and Spaniards relaxed back into daily life, some 201 new clusters have appeared, with heavy concentrations in and around the Catalan cities of Barcelona and Lleida.

The occurrence of the novel coronavirus has jumped from eight cases per 100,000 inhabitants at the end of June, when the country’s state of emergency ended, to 27 per 100,000, deputy health emer-gency chief Maria Sierra told a news conference yesterday.

Over the weekend 4,581 new cases were recorded, bringing the total to 264,836, she added. More than 28,000 people have died.

“Where measures have been relaxed is where these clusters appear,” Health Min-ister Salvador Illa said. “We’re talking about gatherings of extended family and spaces associated with nightlife.” Describing the situation in Catalonia as concerning, he appealed to residents to respect health measures.

On Friday the Catalan regional government urged some four million people, including residents of Spain’s second largest city Barcelona, to stay at home and avoid gatherings of more than 10 people. It also told bars and restaurants to reduce their capacity. That was in addition to ordering the mandatory confinement of at least 160,000 people around Lleida.

11TUESDAY 21 JULY 2020 EUROPE / AMERICAS

Catalan activists protest Spanish royals’ visitAP — L’ESPLUGA DE FRANCOLI

Hundreds of Catalan inde-pendence supporters protested a visit by King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia yesterday to the northeastern region, during a royal tour across Spain meant to boost morale amid the coro-navirus pandemic.

The visit came amid mounting media reports accusing the king’s father, former monarch Juan Carlos I, of allegedly hiding millions of untaxed euros in offshore funds.

Prosecutors in the country’s Supreme Court are determining whether Juan Carlos can be investigated for allegedly receiving the funds from Saudi Arabia, possibly as kickbacks for a high-speed railway project. The former king hasn’t publicly addressed the allega-tions against him.

The scandal is the latest to rock the Spanish royal family. In mid-March, it prompted Felipe to renounce any inher-itance he could receive from his father and stripped him of the annual stipend he received.

Juan Carlos abdicated on behalf of his son in 2014.

With that backdrop, the royal couple launched a visit to all of Spain’s 17 regions that was designed as a show of support for the citizens and the economy as it recovers from the first wave of the pandemic.

The Catalan leg of the tour was initially planned for last week, covering several towns and Barcelona, but the palace said it had postponed it and scaled it back to a short visit to a monastery because of the spike in virus cases in and around the regional capital.

Protesters yesterday carried photos of Felipe upside down

and letters completing the sen-tence “Catalonia doesn’t have a king” during a march organised by ANC, the region’s largest pro-independence civil society group.

“Are the king and the queen here to promote tourism? What they promote is repulsiveness,” said protester Marta Martí. “They know we don’t want them. But they come here to test our patience.”

Tensions between separa-tists in Catalonia, which has a population of 7.5 million, and those in support of Spanish unity came to a head in late 2017. A banned referendum was met with police violence, and prompted the prosecution of top elected officials and activists.

“We want democracy, simply democracy,” said school teacher Marcel Barbosa, adding that the king had shown disre-spect for Catalans’ demands for independence. “They know they are going to lose and that they will need to leave, that’s why we are not allowed to vote.”

The march was headed to the Royal Monastery of Poblet,

which the king and the queen were visiting, but police blocked access at the main road. Some of the activists tried to reach the monastery by venturing into nearby vineyards.

Separated by a line of riot police, a dozen people expressed support for the Spanish royals. All protesters left after the end of the visit.

High-speed and regular trains in and out of the northern Catalan city of Girona were also delayed or cancelled due to “acts of vandalism,” according to a tweet by Spain’s railway infrastructure operator, ADIF. A photo circulated on mes-saging apps showed tires burning on railways next to a sign showing a crossed-out,

upside-down image of a crown.Quim Torra, the head of the

Catalan government and a fervent separatist, on Sunday said that he’s asked the regional government’s legal services to study how a personal lawsuit can be filed against the former king and anybody who was involved in the alleged corruption.

Catalan pro-independence demonstrators take part in an anti-monarchy march in Monasterio de Poblet, yesterday, coinciding with a visit of the Spanish royals to the Royal Abbey of Santa Maria de Poblet.

Thunberg to donate $1.14m prize to green causesREUTERS — ROME

Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg said yesterday that she would donate $1.14m from a new prize she has won to groups tackling climate change and defending nature.

The first projects to benefit from Thunberg receiving the inaugural Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity are medical aid for indigenous communities in the Amazon battling the corona-virus pandemic and a push to make “ecocide” an interna-tional crime.

The 17-year-old said in a

video posted on Instagram that the award was “more money than I can even begin to imagine” and she hoped it would help her “do more good in the world”.

“All the prize money will be donated through my foundation to different organisations and projects who are working to help people on the frontlines affected by the climate crisis and ecological crisis, especially in the Global South,” she said.

One of Thunberg’s first two donations of 100,000 euros each will go to SOS Amazonia, a crowdfunding campaign

launched in June to buy medical supplies and provide telemed-icine services to residents of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.

The second will back the Stop Ecocide Foundation, which is lobbying for the Hague-based International Criminal Court to prosecute people responsible for large-scale destruction of the natural world.

Thunberg was selected from 136 nominees in 46 coun-tries for the prize, launched by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foun-dation, a Portuguese philan-thropic organisation.

Canada sceptical into Iran's report on downed Ukraine jetREUTERS — PARIS

Investigators examining the black boxes from the Ukrainian jet accidentally shot down by Iran have recovered its cockpit voice data, France’s BEA accident investigation bureau said yesterday.

Iranian forces say they downed the Ukraine Interna-tional Airlines Boeing 737 jet on January 8 after mistaking it for a missile amid heightened ten-sions with the United States.

All 176 people on board — including 57 Canadians — were killed.

“CVR data — including the event itself — has been success-fully downloaded,” the BEA said in a tweet, referring to the cockpit voice recorder.

It did not elaborate on the content of the audio, which records pilots’ verbal commu-nications and other cockpit sounds. The release of any further information is a matter for Iranian authorities leading

the investigation, a BEA spokesman said.

Iran agreed in June to send the recorders to the BEA for analysis, ending a long standoff with Canada, Ukraine and France.

Canadian Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Iran’s transfer was a much-needed and long-overdue step.

But he expressed doubt over an interim report by Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation that blamed a misalignment of a

radar system and lack of com-munication between the air defence operator and his commanders.

“I don’t put much credibility into that report. It’s not just the result of human error - I think that would be an oversimplifi-cation of what really hap-pened,” he said via telephone interview.

“We need to understand who the responsible people are, who gave that order, how could the airspace still be

open, how were these missiles fired?”

The aircraft was shot down hours after Iran fired missiles at Iraqi air bases housing US forces in retaliation for the US drone killing of a senior Iranian commander.

The data extraction is being carried out with an Iranian investigator and observed by Canadian, US, Swedish and British experts and represent-atives from UIA, Boeing and engine maker Safran.

US actress Amber Heard leaves after day ten of the libel trial by her former husband actor Johnny Depp against News Group Newspapers (NGN), at the High Court in London, yesterday.

Heard says Depp threatened to kill herREUTERS — LONDON

American actress Amber Heard told London’s High Court that her ex-husband Johnny Depp had threatened to kill her, testi-fying yesterday as a witness in the Hollywood star’s libel action against a British tabloid.

Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publishers of the Sun newspaper, over a 2018 article which labelled him a “wife beater” and questioned his casting in the “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them” franchise.

The 57-year-old actor — who earned a fortune from his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie series — denies ever being violent with her or with any other woman.

In a sworn written statement to the court, released as she began her oral evidence in the witness box, Heard said she had been severely abused by Depp.

“Some incidents were so severe that I was afraid he was going to kill me, either inten-tionally or just by losing control and going too fara,” she said in the statement. “He explicitly threatened to kill me many times, especially later in our relationship.”

Heard, 34, said the actor would obsess about her appearance and would call her “fame-hungry” and “an attention seeker” if she wore certain outfits.

“The physical abuse included punching, slapping, kicking, head-butting and choking me, as well as throwing

me into things, pulling me by my hair, and shoving me or pushing me to the ground. He threw things at me, especially glass bottles.” she said.

Heard also said that after his rages had abated, Depp would blame his actions on an alter ego he would call “the monster”.

Heard was asked by Eleanor Laws, a lawyer for Depp, about allegations from his side that the couple had clashed over whether to sign a pre-nuptial agreement and that she was motivated by money.

Heard said she was “not interestead in Johnny’s money, never have been”.

Depp says the accusations are a hoax, with some collated for years as part of an insurance policy by Heard.

Murders in Mexico hit new

high in first half of 2020REUTERS — MEXICO CITY

Murders in Mexico edged up to a new record high in the first half of 2020, despite easing during the last few months, preliminary government data showed yesterday.

Mexico has been blighted by gang violence for many years, with successive govern-ments failing to tackle the problem. According to the latest data available, more than 34,600 murders were regis-tered last year, a record.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador promised to reduce the violence with a new strategy after taking power in December 2018, but homicides have continued to tick up.

In the first six months of 2020, there were 17,439 murders, a 1.7 percent increase on the same period last year, according to figures presented

by Security Minister Alfonso Durazo at a regular news con-ference with Lopez Obrador.

While murders fell in June by 2.2 percent compared with the previous month, the third con-secutively monthly drop, Durazo conceded the figures remained “very high in absolute terms”.

Murders of women because of their gender, categorised as femicides, increased more swiftly during the first six months, rising by 9.2 percent from last year to 489, the figures showed.

Bringing about a lasting reduction in Mexico’s murder rate would take time as the government works to tackle poverty and other root causes of crime, Durazo noted.

“If (the) increase (in murders) was the product of a long social process, its decrease will also be the product of a long social process,” he said.

Protesters yesterday carried photos of King Felipe upside down and letters completing the sentence “Catalonia doesn’t have a king” during a march .

UK to release report on Russia's election meddling today, say sourcesBLOOMBERG — LONDON

According to two people familiar with Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee report into Russian espionage and electoral inter-ference, which was due to be published last October but will finally come out today, there is “no nuclear bomb” that will

shake the government. In fact, many in the intelligence community regard the findings as already out of date.

According to one version of events, Johnson canceled its publication last year because he didn’t want the committee’s then chairman, Dominic Grieve, to receive any publicity at a time when the Remainer

was making the government’s life difficult over Brexit.

A general election followed in December, further delaying the process before Johnson dragged his feet over the nom-ination of a new committee.

The government’s eventual efforts to reconvene the cross-party panel with a friendly c h a i r m a n w e r e

embarrassingly thwarted last week, when members voted not for former Transport Sec-retary Chris Grayling, but Julian Lewis, who was promptly kicked out of John-son’s Conservative Party.

The long-awaited report will finally be published at 10:30am today amid some last-minute panic from individuals

who fear their names will feature in its pages.

“What could be in the report that nobody knows is donations from rich Russians to the Conservative Party,” Elisabeth Schimpfössl, author of Rich Russians, said in an interview. Billionaire Brexit backer Arron Banks has also asked for the right-to-reply

before publication if his name is in the report.

Even without any bomb-shell revelations, the report will put Russia once again in the UK political spotlight, days after Johnson’s government accused it of trying to hack novel coro-navirus (COVID-19) vaccine research, a charge Moscow denied.

Russia starts building 6 new combat vesselsANATOLIA — MOSCOW

Russia’s president gave yesterday a symbolic start to the construction of six new combat vessels at a keel-laying ceremony.

Addressing via video link, Vladimir Putin said two uni-versal landing crafts will be built in Kerch, two frigates in St Petersburg, and two nuclear-powered submarines carrying hypersonic missiles in the port city of Severodvinsk.

“The new vessels will be equipped with advanced weapons, control and long-range communication systems. They will significantly strengthen the navy’s combat potential and increase its stra-tegic capabilities,” the Russian leader said.

The landing ships and frigates will be named after Russia’s military leaders and naval commanders, while nuclear submarines after Russian cities of military glory, Voronezh and Vladivostok, Putin added.

Over the past eight years, the Russian naval fleet has increased by more than 200 vessels of various classes.

The country’s leadership set an ambitious goal of increasing the share of modern vessels to 70 percent by the year 2027.

While landing craft is designed to take soldiers and their equipment from a ship onto land, a frigate is a warship with mixed armament.

12 TUESDAY 21 JULY 2020AMERICAS

Trump to send federal forces to more ‘Democrat’ citiesREUTERS — WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump yesterday said he would send law enforcement to more US cities, as a federal crackdown on anti-racism protests in Oregon with unmarked cars and unidentified forces in camouflage angered people across the country.

Trump, a Republican, cited New York, Chicago, Phila-delphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland, California, as places to send federal agents, noting the cities’ mayors were “liberal Democrats.” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot frequently blasts Trump on Twitter.

“We’re sending law enforcement,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “We can’t let this happen to the cities.”

State and local leaders in Oregon, as well as members of Congress, have called for Trump to remove Department of Homeland Security paramil-itary forces from Portland, Oregon, after videos showed unidentified federal personnel taking people off the street and

whisking them away in black minivans.

“Not only do I believe he is breaking the law, but he is also endangering the lives of Port-landers,” the city’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, tweeted, having pre-viously called the federal presence “political theater” in an election year.

Another video showed federal agents beating and spraying chemicals on a Navy veteran protester on Saturday,

the man lauded as an “anti-fascist super-soldier” on social media for standing passively as he took the blows.

Federal forces last week began cracking down on Portland protests against police brutality and systemic racism, using tear gas to defend federal buildings and taking some activists into custody without explanation. “They grab a lot of people and jail the leaders. These are anarchists,” Trump said of federal agents sent to the historically liberal city to quell often unruly protests.

Despite a national outcry over the tactics, Department of Homeland Security officials yesterday said they would not back down and would not apol-ogise. The Chicago Tribune reported that Homeland Security was making plans to deploy around 150 agents in the city where police defending a statue clashed with protesters on Friday.

Anti-racism demonstra-tions began across the United States after the police killing of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May.

New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer attends ‘Strike for Black Lives’ protest in front of Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York, yesterday. Tens of thousands of union workers joined social and racial justice advocates in more than 25 US cities in walking off the job, in support of dismantling systemic racism.

Trump, a Republican, cited New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland, California, as places to send federal agents, noting the cities’ mayors were “liberal Democrats.” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot frequently blasts Trump on Twitter.

REUTERS — WASHINGTON

The top US Democrat said yesterday that Donald Trump might not like the outcome of the November 3 presidential election but reminded the Republican president that he will have to vacate the White House if he loses.

“There is a process. It has nothing to do with if the certain occupant of the White House doesn’t feel like moving and has to be fumigated out of there because the presidency is the presidency,” House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi (pictured), said in an interview with MSNBC.

Trump equivocated when asked in a “Fox News Sunday” interview, “Are you suggesting that you might not accept the results of the election?”

“No. I have to see,” Trump said. “Look you - I have to see.

No, I’m not going to just say ‘yes.’ I’m not going to say ‘no.’ And I didn’t last time, either.”

Despite lack of evidence, Trump frequently complains that mail-in balloting, which promises to be more widely used in this coronavirus-plagued election year, could lead to voter fraud.

He did not elaborate on what he believed his options are.

“Whether he knows it yet or not, he will be leaving,” Pelosi said. “Just because he might not want to move out of the White House doesn’t mean we won’t have an inauguration ceremony to inaugurate a duly

elected president of the United States.”

Trump, who is seeking re-election in November against Democrat Joe Biden, faces plunging approval ratings amid a widespread resurgence of the coronavirus that has crippled the US economy and altered everyday life for Americans.

Biden spokesman Andrew Bates said yesterday: “The American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting tres-passers out of the White House.”

Pelosi hinted that the subject of Trump refusing to go came up at a regular “con-tinuation of government” briefing last week.

“This might interest you because I say to them, ‘This is never going to happen. God willing, it never will.’”

Trump will be ‘fumigated out’ if he refuses to leave after White House loss

Two men put their shopping inside a car after using US dollars to buy, in Havana, yesterday as Cuba eliminated the dollar tax to boost the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Cuba, the old foe’s currency makes a comebackREUTERS — HAVANA

State-run stores in Cuba began selling some food and hygiene products in US dollars yesterday as the import-dependent country faces a grave shortage of tradable currency to purchase goods abroad.

Cuba last had to open such dollar stores for basic goods in the 1990s when the fall of the Soviet Union plunged the Com-munist-run island into a deep economic depression.

This time it is the corona-virus pandemic, which has shuttered tourism and hit other revenue earners, worsening an existing liquidity crisis due to the implosion of ally Vene-zuela’s economy and the tight-ening of US sanctions on old foe Cuba.

Lines formed in front of the stores yesterday and Cubans packed banks to obtain the bank card needed to purchase dollar goods although most res-idents resigned themselves to obtaining the basics in local currency.

“Not all Cubans can buy

there, we don’t all have family abroad,” Lazara Rodriguez, 43, a dancer who lives near one of the stores, said.

The government said 62 stores were opening across the country with more to follow in the coming months.

Some 80 outlets selling domestic appliances, car parts and other items such as motor-bikes opened late last year, and used cars went on sale for greenbacks earlier in 2020.

The Cuban state monopo-lises retail and foreign trade but

pandemic fallout has worsened shortages of food, medicine and other goods and there are long lines at retail outlets.

Consumers said the dollar stores provided an option amidst scarcity for some, but complained they still lacked

many products. “Its good, the prices are acceptable, but it does not have many products like detergent and oil,” retiree Guillermo Antigua said, exiting a store in Havana.

Cuba is reopening with no new cases of COVID-19 reported yesterday, but private eateries with no access to wholesale markets have been finding it difficult to put together an offer.

The new stores are an option for some.

“This is good. We have options to keep working. At least they are selling us products,” cafeteria owner Daniel Gonzalez said as he packed cheese and other items into his car.

Cuba legalised the dollar after the fall of the Soviet Union but it was taken out of circu-lation in 2004.

Since then, there have been two currencies, the peso and the convertible peso, which is valued at 24 pesos, circulating although possession of the dollar and other tradable cur-rencies remained legal.

New York cautiously reopens as coronavirus surges elsewhere in USREUTERS — NEW YORK

New York state reported the fewest hospitalisations from the coronavirus in four months yesterday just as New York City entered a new phase of reopening, but the progress was eclipsed by the rapid spread of COVID-19 elsewhere in the United States.

The state, at one time the epicenter of the pandemic, recorded eight deaths on Sunday while the total number of people hospitalized for the disease fell to 716, the fewest since March 18, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

Cuomo called the figures “good news,” although a Reuters analysis of data from the COVID Tracking Project showed cases rose in the past week for the first time since April, to more than 5,000, breaking a 13-week streak of declines.

Elsewhere, nearly every metric for the country as a whole was growing worse including a rising number of cases, deaths, hospitalisations and rates of positive test results.

The virus has killed 140,000 Americans and infected some 3.7 million, both figures leading the world.

The city of Los Angeles is on the brink of issuing a new stay-at-home order and at least 14 states have reported record hospitalisa-tions so far in July, including Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North

Carolina and Texas. Meanwhile, the adminis-

tration of US President Donald Trump is pushing for schools to reopen in a few weeks and resisting a federal mandate that people wear masks in public, part of what Cuomo called an “incompetent” federal government response.

“I’ve said to the president from Day One: This virus does not respond to politics,” Cuomo told a news conference. “The solution is medicine and science.” The governor said the country was still “totally unprepared” as other states lagged in testing, contact tracing, and personal pro-tective equipment or doctors and nurses.

“Their mistake was they listened to the president,” Cuomo said, while also blasting “stupid and reckless” people in his own state who persistently gather in large groups.

Trump denied trying to play down the danger in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, blaming China for allowing the virus to escape and criticizing experts for being wrong in their early analysis of the outbreak.

Trump called Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease official, an “alarmist.”

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams on Monday said the United States now has better testing capacity and more personal protective equipment.

Son of US District

Judge Esther

Salas killed,

husband shot

AP — WASHINGTON

A gunman posing as a delivery person shot and killed the 20-year-old son of a federal judge and wounded her husband at their New Jersey home before fleeing, according to judiciary offi-cials.

The shooting occurred Sunday evening at the North Brunswick home of US Dis-trict Judge Esther Salas, and killed her son, Daniel, Chief District Judge Freda Wolfson said. Her husband, defence lawyer Mark Anderl, was injured in the attack, Wolfson said.

Salas was in the basement at the time and wasn’t injured, according to a judiciary official. The perpetrator, believed to be a lone gunman posing as a FedEx delivery person, was not in custody, the official said. The U.S. Mar-shals and the FBI said in a series of tweets that they are looking for one suspect in the shootings.

Daniel Anderl, who was named to the Dean’s List this spring at The Catholic Uni-versity of America in Wash-ington, D.C., was the judge’s only child, the official said. He was shot once in the chest with a semi-automatic weapon as he answered the door, while his father, just behind him, was struck several times, the official said.

The gunman fled the scene in a car, the official said.

Mark Anderl had surgery for his wounds Sunday night, the judiciary official said.

Two more Brazilian ministers hit with COVID-19AP — BRASILIA

Two more ministers in the Cabinet of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said yesterday they have tested positive for the new coronavirus, which has been raging through Latin America’s largest nation.

The 65-year-old minister of citizenship, Onyx Lorenzoni, said he started having symptoms Thursday, but is now feeling better and working from home. Milton Ribeiro, the

62-year-old minister of edu-cation, said Monday on Twitter that he is also infected - the fourth Cabinet minister so far, in addition to Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro himself tested positive July 7. He has said he has been taking the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloro-quine, which most studies have found to be ineffective and potentially dangerous for some patients. Lorenzoni said he is taking a closely related drug, chloroquine. The Ministry of

Health on Sunday reported 716 additional deaths from COVID-19 and 23,529 newly confirmed infections. Brazil has now recorded more than 2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 79,488 deaths.

Meanwhile, Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro’s low approval ratings rose for a third consec-utive month, a poll showed, as the perception of his handling of the coronavirus crisis and the economy’s direction continued to improve gradually.