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FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019 / RAMADAN 19-20, 1440 AH emergency number 112 NO. 17088 24 PAGES 150 FILS

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Ramadan TimingsIftar ..................................................... Friday ............................................18:38Imsak .................................................. Saturday ........................................03:09Iftar ..................................................... Saturday ........................................18:39Imsak .................................................. Sunday ..........................................03:09

After Iftar

Iran tells German envoy N-patience overBERLIN, May 23, (Agencies): Iran told a German envoy seeking to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal that its patience was over and urged the treaty’s remain-ing signatories to fulfill their commitments after the United States pulled out, the Fars news agency reported on Thursday.

Jens Ploetner, a political director in the German Foreign Ministry, met Ira-nian Deputy Foreing Minister Abbas Araghchi. A German diplomatic source told Reuters that talks with other Iranian official were also planned.

The semi-official Fars news agency said Araghchi had relayed Iran’s im-patience during the talks.

Britain, France and Germany, which signed the 2015 deal along with the United States, China and Russia, are determined to show they can compen-sate for last year’s US withdrawal from the deal, protect trade and still dis-suade Tehran from quitting an accord designed to prevent it developing a nuclear bomb.

But Iran’s decision earlier this month to backtrack from some commit-ments in response to US measures to cripple its economy threatens to unravel

the deal, under which Tehran agreed to curbs on its uranium enrichment pro-gramme in exchange for the removal of most international sanctions.

“At the centre of the political director’s visit is the preservation of the Vi-enna nuclear accord (JCPOA),” the German diplomatic source told Reuters.

“After Iran’s announcement to partly suspend its commitments under the JCPOA, there is a window of opportunity for diplomacy to persuade Iran to continue to fully comply with the JCPOA.”

Ploetner knows Araghchi from the negotiations to clinch the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action).

Tensions have soared between Iran and the United States since Washing-ton sent more military forces to the Middle East, including an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and Patriot missiles, in a show of force against what US of-ficials say are Iranian threats to its troops and interests in the region.

On Wednesday, US officials said the Defense Department was consider-ing a US military request to send about 5,000 additional troops to the Middle East.

Ramadan, summer and travel

Hill seeks end to endless war ... Pentagon ME buildup

By Tarek Aleryan,TV Announcer and Producer

This is the sixth consecutive year I write an article in the Holy Month

of Ramadan for the Arab Times! This holy month comes every year to remind us of valuable meanings and teachings we sometimes get too busy with our daily lives to pay attention to.

Ramadan, the ninth and holiest month in the Islamic calendar, in which the Holy Quran was revealed to the proph-et Muhammad, peace be upon him. For 29-30 days, Muslims will be fasting, no food, no water – from sunrise to sunset, yet they go to work, school and practice their daily life functions as usual. For those who would like to know, Rama-dan moves back by 11 days each year and its conclusion, Eid, is announced on sighting of the moon, which varies from region to region.

Fasting during Ramadan is not just abstaining from food, it’s also reem-phasizing the necessity of doing good deeds such as charity, kindness and compassion.

This year, Ramadan falls in a festive time of the year, where it’s the begin-ning of summer. Schools will soon be off, and time usually flies by quickly during Ramadan, and Eid will be just around the corner.

Whenever I travel, I enjoy experienc-ing the local cultures, and traditions. Experiencing how other communities live, helps us in one way or another, to understand each other better and en-riches our souls to become more toler-ant of one another. Ramadan, teaches us to be more observant towards our ac-tions, words and how we make others feel. If you think deeply about it, you will realize that it’s all connected.

I hope all of you readers have found something of benefit in my article. And finally, always remember to take care of yourself and each other and let’s always remember to respect one an-other. I would like to wish everyone a Ramadan Kareem and a Happy Eid in advance, until next year’s article.

Tarek Aleryan

KUNA photoHH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah during his reception of the Iraqi PM. Also present is HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf

Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

KUNA photoFormer Kuwait Ambassador to Japan Abdurrahman Al-Otaibi during his honoring by the Japanese government on Thursday.

Newswatch

DUBAI: Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement on Thursday launched a drone attack on a Patriot missile battery in the airport of the Saudi city of Najran near the Yem-eni border, the group’s Al-Masirah TV said on Thursday.

The Saudi-led coalition fi ghting the Houthis said the drone was in-tercepted and destroyed by the king-dom’s air defences. (RTRS)

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CAIRO: Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince said on Wednesday the United Arab Emirates is working with Arab coun-tries to guarantee maritime freedom in the region, Emirates news agency (WAM) reported.

Hosting Jordan’s King Abdul-lah, on an offi cial visit to Emir-ates, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan said “UAE is working to coordinate with Arab countries, especially Jordan ... to preserve Arab interests, maintain regional security and stability, and guarantee maritime freedom in this region of strategic importance to the whole world,” WAM said. (RTRS)

Up to 10,000 troops sought

WASHINGTON, May 23, (Agencies): Rising tensions between the United States and Iran prompted some Demo-cratic and Republican lawmakers on Wednesday to call for the repeal of a law that presidents have used for two decades to justify US military action around the world.Representative Bar-bara Lee, a Democrat, and Thomas Massie, a Republican, held a news conference with other members of the House of Representatives to call for the repeal of the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed days after the Sept 11 attacks on New York on Washington.A House subcom-mittee on Tuesday approved an amend-ment to a defense spending bill that would repeal the AUMF.

The lawmakers said that, after nearly 18 years, it was time for Congress to repeal and replace the law, stressing that it was too broad from the start and saying it definitely should not be used to justify war with Iran.Washington and Tehran have this month escalated rhetoric against each other, following President Donald Trump’s decision to try to cut Iran’s oil exports to zero and beef up of the US military presence in the Gulf in response to what he said were Iranian threats.

Lee, the only member of Con-gress to vote against the 2001 autho-rization, said it has been used “as a blank check for endless war by three administrations.”When she voted against the 2001 AUMF, Lee said it gave too much leeway for presidents to pursue military action. “It was so broad, it covered almost every military operation in perpetuity,” she said.

Lawmakers have expressed fears that Trump might order an attack on Iran. Top administration officials sought to tamp down such concerns at classified briefings on Tuesday for every mem-ber of Congress at which they also de-scribed what they see as a heightened threat from long-term rival Tehran.

The Pentagon on Thursday will pres-ent plans to the White House to send up to 10,000 more troops to the Middle East, in a move to beef up defenses against potential Iranian threats , US officials said.

The officials said no final decision has been made yet, and it’s not clear if the White House would approve send-ing all or just some of the requested forces. Officials said the move is not in response to any new threat from Iran but is aimed at reinforcing security in

the region. They said the troops would be defensive forces, and the discussions include additional Patriot missile bat-teries, more ships and increased efforts to monitor Iran.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans have not been formally announced.

Thursday morning’s meeting comes as tensions with Iran continue to sim-mer, and it wasn’t clear if a decision would be made during the session. Any move to deploy more forces to the Middle East would signal a shift for President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly emphasized the need to re-duce America’s troop presence in the region.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday Trump was evaluating the force posture in the region “every day.”

“We’re evaluating the risks, making sure that we have it right,” he told “Fox and Friends.”

US officials have provided few de-tails about possible Iranian threats but indicated they initially involved mis-siles loaded onto small Iranian boats. This week officials said the missiles have been taken off the boats near Iran’s shore, but other maritime threats continue.

Sending more troops could also raise questions on Capitol Hill. Dur-ing back-to-back closed briefings for the House and Senate on Tuesday, de-fense leaders told congressional offi-cials the US doesn’t want to go to war with Iran and wants to de-escalate the situation.

Pompeo and Acting Defense Secre-tary Patrick Shanahan told lawmakers the US is seeking to deter, not provoke, Iran, even while accusing Tehran of threatening US interests in the Mideast. Shanahan told reporters, “Our biggest focus at this point is to prevent Iranian miscalculation.”

Many in Congress are skeptical of the administration’s approach to Iran, questioning whether it is responding to significant new Iranian threats or esca-lating a situation that could lead to war.

CNN first reported that the Pentagon will brief the White House on a plan that could send thousands of additional US troops to the Middle East.

Air Force Col Patrick Ryder, spokes-man for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, de-clined to comment, saying, “As a matter of long-standing policy, we are not go-ing to discuss or speculate on potential or alleged future operations or plans.”

Amir hosts visiting Iraqi PM

Amb Al-Otaibi receives prestigious Japanese honour

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah re-ceived on Wednesday Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi who ar-rived in the country earlier Thursday on an official brief visit.

Attendees of the audience included His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and a number of Iraqi officials accompanying the premier in his mission in the country.

The Kuwaiti and Iraqi sides held cordial conversations in a brother-

ly atmosphere, addressing means for boosting cooperation in various spheres, beefing up Iraq’s security and stability.

The conversations also touched on efforts to achieve Iraq’s territorial unity and sanctity, boosting efforts against terrorism, issues of common interest and diverse regional and international affairs.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh later held at Dasman Palace an iftar (fast-breaking) banquet in honor of the visiting Iraqi Prime Minister and his accompanying delegation. (KUNA)

By Miyoko Ishigami

Former Kuwaiti Ambassador to Japan Abdurrahman Al-Otaibi was con-ferred a prestigious honour by the Japanese government on Thursday for his significant contributions in boosting relations between the two countries.

In an award ceremony at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe presented the ‘Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star’ to Al-Otaibi, who was also greeted by Emperor Naruhito.

Al-Otaibi, who is currently Ambassador to the Netherlands, was the head of the Kuwaiti mission in Japan from 2007 to 2018. During his 11-year tenure, Al-Otaibi had “contributed to strengthening bilateral rela-tions and promoting friendship between Japan and Kuwait,” the Japa-nese government said. Al-Otaibi also served as a driving force for Ku-wait’s efforts to help Japan in the wake of the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that struck the country in 2011.

“I am really honoured to receive this decoration from the Japanese

government today, and I deeply appreciate their decision,” Al-Otaibi told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) after the award ceremony. “Today’s hon-our is reflecting good relations between the two countries and people. This is decoration is not for me, but for our Kuwaiti leadership of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, our people and our government for efforts have been done, particularly what Kuwait did for our dear friends in Japan after the 2011 earthquake-tsunami disaster,” the senior diplomat said.

“Prime Minister Mr Abe talked about the roles achieved during my 11-year tenure here during the ceremony. His Majesty Emperor Naruhito also delivered a message referring to the roles have been made by all the participants at the ceremony today, which we appreciated,” Al-Otaibi said, while wishing the Emperor happiness and prosperity in his Reiwa Era.

The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star is one of the high-est orders that the Japanese government bestows on foreigners. Estab-lished in 1875, the Order is Japan’s first national decoration. (KUNA)

Kuwait GDP up 1.6 pct: WBBy Mohammad Al-Enezi

KUWAIT CITY, May 23, (KUNA): Kuwait’s GDP rose 1.6 percent in 2018 after dropping 3.5 percent the year prior, the World Bank revealed on Wednesday.

The fi gures were mentioned by Issam Abousleiman, Gulf Coopera-tion Council Country Director, on the fringes of the World Bank’s bi-

annual GCC economies’ report announcement.This is due to the rise of oil prices and the emergence of further job op-

portunities in the public sector, he said.The banking sector remains in a good position, he maintained, with capi-

tal adequacy ratios of 18.4 percent exceeding the 13 percent requested by the Central Bank. Limited inflation is at 0.6 percent due to a drop in hous-ing costs, low food prices, and Central Bank flexibility in tightening mon-etary policy at a pace slower than the US Federal Reserve.

Banking sector in good position

LOCALARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

2

KUNA photoQ8 station in Belgium

Photo from the Ramadan Ghabqa

BRUSSELS, May 23, (KUNA): Kuwait Petro-leum International, known by its trademark Q8, an-nounced Thursday that it is investing heavily in its Belgian network following the acquisition of 75 service stations from U Car Servic-es and VP Oil, both part of the Uhoda Group.

There will soon be 540 stations in the Q8 network – a 15 percent increase. This allows Q8 to fur-ther strengthen its position and optimize its national coverage, said Q8 in a press releae here.

The newly acquired stations are mainly situated in Liege and Limburg provinces in eastern Belgium.

In Limburg, Q8 was less present than in other parts of the country un-til now. “Thanks to this acquisition, we have optimized the geographical spread of our offer. So these 75 extra stations are perfectly complementing our existing network, which is now expanding by one sixth,” said Fadel Al-Faraj, KPI Managing Director Northwest Europe.

“This signifi cantly larger network is part of our strategy of stronger cus-tomer focus, more mobility products and services. We are proud that we are strengthening our position as one of the top players in Belgium,” he noted.

In total, Q8 will have 540 stations in Belgium after the acquisition; 325 stations are manned, 215 stations are unmanned, 126 stations with Shop and Go and 122 stations with Panos stores.

On his part, Azzam Al Muttawa, Executive Vice-President Market-ing, KPI said “I’m very proud of this tremendous achievement. The acquisition of 75 stations in Bel-gium by our colleagues from Q8 Northwest Europe is the largest in 15 years.

“It is the result of splendid cross-departmental teamwork. This is the way forward in the 2040 strategy; to anchor and strengthen our presence in Europe,” he stressed. Some 65 of the 75 stations are currently operating under different brand names. Over time, most will undergo a rebranding consistent with the Q8 house style.

This acquisition is subject to sev-eral conditions precedent, including the agreement of the Belgian Com-petition Authority, which is expected in the coming months, noted the Q8 press release.

Q8’s future strategy aims at maxi-mum customer connection. The ac-quisition is part of that strategy.

‘Trump pronounces words not carefully chosen’

100,000 Yemeni children suffering from acute malnutrition

Kuwaiti technical body to fl oat tender to obtain telecom gear

Kuwait Association of Surgeons organizes Ramadan Ghabqa

MP says it is not clear which govt body is responsible for crisis management

US losing credibility in Middle East,says ex-US ambassador to Kuwait

Al-Rahma International kick starts Children Campaign

Kuwait Association of Surgeons recently organized Ramadan Ghabqa under the auspices of the chairman and head of Surgi-cal Department at Jaber Hospital Dr Salman Al-Sabah.

Minister of Health Dr Basel Al-Sabah, Ministry of Health Un-dersecretary Dr Mustafa Redha, US Ambassador to Kuwait Law-rence Silverman, General Man-ager of Bader Sultan & Brothers

Company Emad Al-Zebn were among several other offi cials in attendance, including doctors from various hospitals in the country.

Parliamentary investigations reveal several fl aws in civil defense structure

Kuwait Petroleum International adds75 new stations to its Belgian network

KUWAIT CITY, May 23: The for-mer US Ambassador to Kuwait, Ed-ward Ghneim said during his visit to the Middle East, especially to the Gulf, that he felt that the United States was losing its credibility, and expressed his understanding of this saying the American President (Don-ald Trump) hastily pronounces words that are not carefully chosen or are considered reckless and may easily be misunderstood, “but the United States is always committed to its re-sponsibility, especially to our friends in the Gulf, and I do not think that can be changed,” reports Al-Rai daily.

In an interview with Al-Rai, Ghneim said that the Kuwaiti-Chi-nese rapprochement and strategic partnership do not affect US-Kuwaiti relations, “because I think they meant that China is a partner in economic aspects. There is important economic cooperation in both countries, threat-ening Kuwait’s relationship with America.”

Reconciliation“We are supporting Kuwait’s ef-

forts ... We support the Gulf recon-ciliation and try to resolve the issue more quickly, but I do not think we can force one of the parties to recon-cile,” he said.

On Gulf Arab Institute in Wash-ington, Ghneim said, that institute was established five years ago. “The members of the board of directors of the Institute, Frank Weisner, Thomas Pickering and George Salem, may agree with me that there are no Amer-ican groups or institutions that have given importance to the Gulf region and its issues except at times, like the other gatherings of the Zionist lobby and the European and Asian groups.”

“We believe that the Gulf region is important to the United States of America. To create awareness about the region, we have decided to build

an institution that is interested in ex-ploring and analyzing the region, for example the Gulf crisis. We are pre-paring studies and analyzing to pres-ent their contents to the American so-ciety, presenting the true image of the Gulf to America,” he said.

TiredWhen asked why there are no se-

rious US efforts to speed up solving the Gulf crisis, he said, “America has tried and tried and it may seem that the US president’s statement at the beginning of the crisis is biased to one side, but when studying the issue and analyzing it, it became clear to us that it is not that simple and you may see through military relations that we have a good relationship with the two countries (Qatar and Saudi Arabia).

We invited the Amir of Qatar to visit the White House in Washington, and we support Kuwait’s efforts to try to resolve the Gulf dispute. We see the role of Kuwait in both countries when we discuss the issue with both coun-tries. We support the Gulf reconcilia-tion and try to resolve the issue more quickly, all the GCC countries are our allies, we depend on them and we all work to resolve any threat or thorny issues.” “Any disagreement between any two Gulf States will reduce and hamper our success, and give Iran the opportunity to play its tricks further, so the situation becomes worse, and this is not in the interest of the Gulf or America. Therefore, our efforts are working more forcefully and diplo-matically.

I have traveled to all the Gulf states, worked in the Pentagon for two years and dealt with all the coun-tries of the Middle East, I understand the personality of individuals, let us be realistic, I think that the problems between some of the Gulf countries did not create overnight, but it was a long time ago.”

KUWAIT CITY, MAY 23: Al-Rahma International Society has introduced the “Yemeni Children Campaign” in its first phase to treat 100,000 Yemeni children who are suffering from acute malnutrition.

Chairman of Arab Sector in the society Bader Bu Rahma stated the

campaign will help rescue 100,000 Yemeni children from the point of death within the first three months. He said information gathered from Yemen indicated that rapid re-sponse is of high necessity in res-cuing the children.

He declared the humanitarian

situation in Yemen is catastrophic, considering that 400,000 children are suffering from acute malnutri-tion and struggling to survive. He added that 22 million Yemenis need humanitarian aid, noting 3 out of every 4 Yemeni nationals rely on aid for survival.

KUWAIT CITY, May 23: One of the specialized technical bodies in Kuwait is preparing to fl oat a tender for European companies to obtain ad-vanced telecommunications systems to ‘monitor’ mobile phones and install communications devices in general, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting in-formed sources.

The sources told the daily the ten-der, which is in the process of being fl oated to European companies, will

be covered by the cyber security law. The items in the law allow the said specialized technical body to acquire the necessary technologies to control communications devices, both uy6j-67mobile or land lines.

The sources added, this trend is new to the state, as the laws do not allow the control of communications devices without permission from the Public Prosecution, and the concerned security authorities and supervisory

and oversight bodies.In the meantime, MP Shuaib Al-

Muwaizri has asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah about the role of the ministry in handling companies that supply spyware.

He asked for the names, purpose and nationality of the programs purchased and whether they were handled directly or through interme-diaries.

By Ahmed Al-Naqeeb Arab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, May 23: Parliamen-tary investigations and follow ups re-vealed several fl aws in the civil defense structure of the country, prompting MPs to call for allocation of two hours of the upcoming session to discuss security and defense protocols in light of the recent developments in the region.

MP Mohammed Al-Dallaal pointed out it is not clear which governmental

body is responsible for crisis manage-ment in Kuwait, unlike neighboring countries where independent bodies were established for this purpose. He said he had earlier submitted queries on civil defense and emergency prepa-rations, but the response was one page only and it did not mention any emer-gency plan.

He asserted the country lacks public bunkers for emergency situations such as nuclear or chemical warfare; indicating all that the country has are 80 ordinary

shelters for natural disasters only with a total capacity of 50,000 which does not cover even a quarter of the popula-tion. He added it is also unclear whether hospitals and other governmental bodies have adequate housing for their employ-ees.

Therefore, he urged all concerned au-thorities to pick up the pace; hoping the next couple of days will witness solid de-cisions on the improvement of the coun-try’s emergency preparedness, as no one wishes for war, but the geographic loca-

tion of the State of Kuwait places it be-tween confl icts; hence, the need for the best emergency protocols.

Taking parliamentary involvement further, MP Osama Al-Shaheen submit-ted a request for the National Assembly to instruct every committee to look into the country’s level of preparedness and the government’s efforts in this regard within their respective area of responsi-bility On the other hand, as rapporteur of the Handicapped Affairs Committee, Al-Dallaal confi rmed the ministries of Edu-

cation and Health have been given the ultimatum to submit their plans for im-plementation of the Handicapped Law.

He said that since approval of the law fi ve years ago, and considering these two ministries are dealing with the handi-capped, they have yet to submit their implementation plans to the Assembly despite the last reminder in January. If they do not submit their plans within two weeks, the committee will look into the possibility of taking harsher measures, he warned. Furthermore, earlier this

week, a member of the Egyptian house of representatives disclosed during a ses-sion that there are around 500 Kuwaiti law students in Beni-Suef University, Egypt who graduated without taking ex-aminations.

This prompted MP Safaa Al-Hashem to investigate and submit several queries to Minister of Higher Education Hamed Al-Azmi on the steps taken in this re-gard. She also requested for a list of Kuwaiti law students at Beni-Suef Uni-versity.

540 stations in Q8 network,15 pc increase

Municipality records violations: The Public Rela-tions Department at Kuwait Municipality has revealed that the branch in Jahra Governorate collected fees amounting to KD15,634 in April, reports Al-Rai daily.

In a press statement, Director of the department Fahad Al-Qaraifa disclosed the general cleanliness monitoring unit collected 128,193 cubic meters of leftovers and gar-bage; in addition to the distribution and replacement of 981 containers.

He added the unit also recorded 845 violations while pledges were written and 491 warnings were issued to the owners of illegal structures and abandoned cars.

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Lawmaker affi rms new 5-yr plan: State Minister for Economic Affairs Mariam Al-Aqail has confi rmed the completion of the new fi ve-year development plan from 2020 to 2025; indicating the Secretariat General of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development will refer the plan to the government soon and then to National Assembly for discussion at the beginning of the new legislative term in October, reports Al-Qabas daily.

Speaking to the daily, Al-Aqail asserted the plan was drafted in coordination with a group of international consultancy fi rms. She said the plan is distinguished for the inclusion of green housing, construction and other environment-friendly projects; in addition to following international health standards and conditions for the con-struction of factories and houses.

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KNPC CEO: Ready for any problem: CEO of Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) Waleed Al-Badr has affi rmed “readiness of the oil sector to face possibili-ties – war or any other problem,” reports Al-Rai daily.

He told the daily, “We have strategic stock of oil prod-ucts – enough for at least 25 days, and the local market’s needs are covered.”

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MPW to sign road dev project: Minister of Public Works and State Minister for Housing Affairs Dr Jenan Bushehri said the ministry will soon sign the Road 245 development project which the Cabinet approved recent-ly, reports Al-Anba daily.

Bushehri told the daily that Kuwait Municipality fully cooperated in the implementation of the proposal to de-velop and increase the number of exit and entrance points in Al-Metla’a Housing City at the end of 2016 and begin-ning of 2017.

News in Brief

LOCALARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

3

All surgical specialties available at Jaber Hospital: Dr Bassel

MoH exempts expats from paying fees for cardiac catheterizationKUWAIT CITY, May 23: The Minister of Health Dr Bassel Al-Sabah has issued a ministerial decree exempt-ing non-Kuwaiti patients with acute heart attack and the high risk MSTEML and STEMI from cardiac catheteriza-tion, which is performed in emergency cases at hospitals and health centers of the Ministry of Health from paying

fees for the process, reports Al-Jarida daily.

The second article of the decision states that these cases are determined according to the prescribed form, approved by the treating physician, the head of the unit and the head of the concerned medical department.

Meanwhile, the president of the

Kuwait Surgeon’s Society, the head of the surgery department at Jaber Hospital Dr Salman Al-Sabah, has performed 200 surgical operations since January and until now in all spe-cialties of surgery.

Dr Bassel said in a statement to reporters on the sidelines of a Ghabqa organized by the Association of

Surgeons in the presence of the Minister of Health Dr Bassel Al-Sabah and the ministry Undersecretary Mustafa Redha, US Ambassador to Kuwait Lawrence Silverman, General Manager of Badr Sultan and Bros Company and his brother Imad Al-Ziben and a large crowd of doctors and surgeons, that “our goal is to make

Jaber Hospital the best hospitals in the region, pointing out that work is under way in the hospital and at a global level.”

He added that all surgical specialties are available in the hospital, including general surgery, laparoscopy, orthope-dics, urology, etc.

He warned of the increasing preva-

lence of obesity in the country, and revealed that the number of surgical operations for obesity, which was con-ducted in public hospitals, was 3,000 in two years.

He confirmed that the rate of obesi-ty in Kuwait, according to World Health Organization statistics is 38 percent.

KUNA photoSpeaker of the National Assembly Al-Ghanim receives Iraqi Prime Minister Adel

Abdul-Mahdi.

Kuwaiti & Iraqi ministersco-chair high-level talks

Parliament Speaker Al-Ghanim receives Iraqi PM

KUWAIT CITY, May 23, (KUNA): Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and Iraqi Minister of Oil Thamer Al-Ghadban presided over senior-level talks on a range of bilateral issues and ways to boost cooperation in various fields.

The meeting gathered, from the Kuwaiti side, Minister of Finance Nayef Al-Hajraf, Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Mohammad Al-Jabri, Minister of Commerce and Industry Khaled Al-Roudhan, Minister of State for Economic Affairs Maryam Al-Oqail, Minister of Oil and Minister of Electricity and Water Khaled Al-Fadhel, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah, President of the National Guard Sheikh Thamer Ali Al-Sabah, Director General of Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) Abdul-Wahab Al-Badr, and assistants to the foreign minis-ter Fahad Al-Awadhi and Ayham Al-Omar, as well as other officials.

The Iraqi officials are part of the delegation accompanying Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi who paid a brief visit to Kuwait on Wednesday.

AffairsMeanwhile, head of the

National Assembly’s committee on legislative and legal affairs Khaled Al-Shatti and head of the committee on financial and eco-nomic affairs Salah Khorshed met with visiting Iraqi MPs on Wednesday to discuss ways of cementing the cooperation in various fields.

The two sides reviewed the implementation of the existing agreements on commercial, eco-nomic and parliamentary coop-eration, Al-Shatti said in a press release carried by Al-Dustor news network this evening.

The meeting highlighted the need to activate the social and economic roles of both parlia-ments, and revive the trade exchanges and economic integra-tion between the two countries, he added.

In the meantime, National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim held talks at his office with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and the delegation accompanying him on Wednesday.

The talks dealt with regional secu-rity and political issues with empha-sis on the need to double efforts to de-escalate the tensions and protect the security and stability in the region through peaceful means.

Both sides also discussed the bilateral relations and means to enhance them with a view to serving the common interests of both nations, Al-Dustor news network reported this evening.

The meeting gathered, from Kuwait, master of ceremonies and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh, MPs Salah Khorshed and Khaled Al-Shatti, Secretary-General of the National Assembly Allam Al-Kandari and Ambassador to Iraq Salem Al-Zamanan, and Iraqi MPs Amer Al-Fayez, Haibet Al-Halbousi and Juan Fawzi, and Ambassador to Kuwait Alaa Al-Hashemi.

In the meantime, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah said Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi’s visit to Kuwait was “fruitful and positive,” presenting an opportu-nity to exchange viewpoints and discuss relations.

During the visit, the prime minister and his delegation met their Kuwaiti counterparts and discussed bilateral relations and issues of mutual importance, Al-Jarallah said.

At a ministerial committee meeting, attending officials also adopted a “clear-cut” plan ahead of putting an end to crucial pend-ing matters between the neigh-bouring countries, he revealed.

Official talks being held between the State of Kuwait and the Republic of Iraq.

KUNA photos Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi leaves after a short visit to Kuwait.

Iraqi PM concludes brief visit to KuwaitIraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and the delegation accom-panying him have concluded a brief official visit to Kuwait and left for home on Wednesday.

They were seen off at Kuwait International Airport by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, and Emcee

and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh, as well as a number of sheikhs, senior officials and the two ambassadors of both countries. (KUNA)

‘Vital to prepare basic plans and alternatives’

Kuwait is not far from effects ofUS-China trade war: RamadanKUWAIT CITY, May 23: Referring to the trade war between America and China which esca-lated with the two countries announcing the exchange of cus-toms duties on goods, Mohammed Ramadan, an economist said “Kuwait is not far from the effects of the US-China trade war, wheth-er on the government, Kuwaiti companies, or even consumers,” reports Al-Rai daily.

He stressed in a statement to the Al-Rai daily on the need for the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) to prepare basic plans and alternatives to all the expected sce-narios in order to avoid the impact of the trade conflict on the values of investments and returns.

He pointed out that the most impact of the trade conflict may be reflect-ed on the public revenues of the state, represent-ed by oil reve-nues, which may decline in the event of any contraction or recession or slow global

growth rates, especially given the onset of the slowdown in China, which is among the highest con-sumption of oil globally, which leads to lower prices, which will negatively affect the revenues of the Kuwaiti budget.

He stressed on the need for Kuwaiti companies that have investments abroad to look at the map of investments, and plans to remedy the situation, not to men-

tion companies that are engaged in the import of Chinese or American goods, or any goods manufactured by the industrial component of the two countries, as this will affect the prices of many goods and materials directly, which is reflect-ed on the overall cost of the prod-uct, and ultimately raise prices for consumers.

He pointed out that the eco-nomic principle that “opportuni-ties arise from crises” will also be present, but the emergence of these opportunities may be delayed to a later stage if the crisis deepens and suitable acquisition opportuni-ties emerge, indicating that this will require sustained efforts at the governmental level represented by KIA and its arms abroad.

SpecializedIn this case, the specialized enti-

ties can seize opportunities and redistribute their investments geo-graphically and technically in a manner that helps to capture the opportunities resulting from the crisis while maintaining levels of return on investments to the gen-eral reserve and the reserve of future generations at safe borders as well as for companies with investments abroad.

The war, which began months ago, is not limited to Washington and Beijing, but spreads to all over the world, prompting the IMF Executive Director Christine Lagarde to warn that the trade war between the two giants could be a risk factor for the global economic outlook, say sources.

Despite the difficult negotia-tions that have been going on for

quite some time, the two sides have so far failed to reach an agreement that could defuse the war. At the time, the most impor-tant question remains what are the repercussions of the fight between the “commercial elephants”?

Abdul Hamid Al-Awadhi, an oil expert, pointed out that the impact of the trade war between China and America on the oil market car-ries many scenarios, which are governed by two factors, namely raising China’s pace of conflict by raising the proportion of taxes on goods, to the world economy’s expression of itself in another way through the decline in global growth rates, which will inevitably be coupled with a decline in China’s demand for oil.

Al-Awadhi said that America has reached its oil production rate of 13 million barrels per day, and currently exports between 1 to 1.2 million barrels of oil per day, China holds about 500 thousand barrels, which is equivalent to 9 billion dollars a month, which may make it one of the mechanisms of force for China in its war, which if it stopped importing, or imposed a fee on it will open the way for the oil producing countries in the Middle East to take advantage of that share.

He pointed out that Kuwait’s oil exports to China range from 350 to 375 thousand barrels per day, which is the number that Kuwait can benefit from if China stopped importing US oil, but prevents the achievement of that goal due to the lack of surplus production in Kuwait, and divided area.

Prayer TimingsFajr ............................................................... 03:20Sunrise .......................................................... 04:52Zohr ............................................................... 11:45Asr ..................................................................15:20 Maghrib ........................................................ 18:38 Isha ............................................................... 20:07

WeatherExpected weather for the next 24 hours:By Day: Hot with light to moderate north west-

erly wind, with a speed of 12-38 km/h and a chance for blowing dust.

By Night: Fair with light to moderate north west-erly wind, with a speed of 10-32 km/h. Station Max Min Exp RecKuwait City 42 31Kuwait Airport 42 24Abdaly 42 27Bubyan — —Jahra 42 27Failaka Island 38 26Salmiyah 38 28Ahmadi 35 30Nuwaisib 38 26Wafra 42 24Salmy 41 24

4 days forecast - WeatherFriday, May 24

Expected weather: .......Hot and a chance for rising dustMax Temp ........................................................43CMin Temp .........................................................26CWind Direction ............................................ NW-SEWind Speed .......................................... 15-40 km/h

Saturday, May 25Expected weather: .............................................HotMax Temp ........................................................43CMin Temp .........................................................25CWind Direction ............................................ SE-SWWind Speed .......................................... 08-32 km/h

Sunday, May 26Expected weather: .............................................HotMax ...................................................................43CMin Temp .........................................................24CWind Direction ...........................................VRB-SEWind Speed .......................................... 08-28 km/h

Monday, May 27Expected weather: .Hot and some hugh clouds will appearMax Temp ........................................................44CMin Temp .........................................................27CWind Direction ............................................ SW-SEWind Speed .......................................... 08-30 km/h

Marine ForecastStation Max Min Sea Today’s Exp Rec Surf Waves Ht DirectionSouth Dolphin - - - 5ft NWUmm Mudayrah - - - 5ft NWBeacon M28 - - - 5ft NWBeacon N6 37 - - 5ft NWQaruh Island 35 - - 5ft NWUmm Al-Maradem 35 - - 5ft NWSea Island Buoy - - - - -Salmiyah 38 28 - 5ft NW

4 days forecast - MarineFriday, May 24

Expected weather: .......Hot and a chance for rising dustSea state ..........Slight to moderate, rough at timesWave height .................................................... 2-6ftMax Temp ........................................................43CMin Temp .........................................................26CWind Direction ............................................ NW-SEWind Speed .......................................... 15-40 km/h

Saturday, May 25Expected weather: .............................................HotSea state ...................................Slight to moderateWave height .................................................... 1-4ftMax Temp ........................................................43CMin Temp .........................................................25CWind Direction ............................................ SE-SWWind Speed .......................................... 08-32 km/h

Sunday, May 26Expected weather: .............................................HotSea state ...................................Slight to moderateWave height .................................................... 1-4ftMax Temp ........................................................43CMin Temp .........................................................24CWind Direction ...........................................VRB-SEWind Speed .......................................... 08-28 km/h

Monday, May 27Expected weather: .. Hot and some high clouds will appearSea state ...................................Slight to moderateWave height .................................................... 1-4ftMax Temp ........................................................44CMin Temp .........................................................27CWind Direction ............................................ SW-SEWind Speed .......................................... 08-30 km/h

Tide times at Shuwaikh Port1st high tide ................................................... 13:422nd high tide .................................................. 04:181st low tide .................................................... 08:332nd low tide ................................................... 21:38Sunrise .......................................................... 04:52Sunset ........................................................... 18:38

Recorded yesterday at Kuwait Airport

Max temp ........................................................ 42°CMin temp ......................................................... 25°CMax Rh ............................................................ 50%Min Rh ............................................................. 11%Max Wind ........................................... NW 43 km/hTotal Rainfall in 24 hrs .................................. 0 mm

Recorded yesterday at South Dolphin

Min/Max/ Air Temp ............................................. -/- CMin/Max Rel Hum ..............................................- / - %Wind Direction/Wind Speed ................... N / - km/hPrev Wave Dir/Max Wave Ht ....................... N / - ftMin/Max Sea Surface Temp .......................... - / - CSea Current .............................................Upwelling

— Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Meteorological Dept.

deathsFatma Dhiyab Saleh Al-Otaibi, widow of Awadh Mansour Al-Otaibi, 74 years old, buried. Condolences: (Men) Jahra, Naseem, Block 2, Street 19, House 505. (Women) Jahra, Qasr, Block 3, Street 5, House 401, Tel: 99799919 Fahad Quraash Surur Al-Otaibi, 81 years old, buried. Condolences: at the cemetery only. Muhammad Fahad Hamad Abdullatif Al-Maghlouth, 52 years old, buried. Condolences: (Men) Adailiya, Block 2, Street 28, House 2 (Women) Hateen, Block 2, Street 306, House 24, Tel: 99758252, 97220425. Habibah Eid Salim Al-Saadi, widow of Awadh Muflih Zaydan Al-Saadi, 75 years old, buried. Condolences: (Men) Sulaibikhat, Block 3, Street 114, Avenue 3, House 29 (Women) Qairawan, Block 3, Street 306, House 24, Tel: 99990504, 99500919 Aminah Ali Muhammad Al-Abeed, 62 years old, buried. Condolences: (Men) Faiha, Block 7, Street 74, House 16 (Women) Mubarak Al-Kabeer, Block 4, Street 5, House 6, Tel: 90964108, 99822505, 25410349, 99478631 Fahad Yaqoub Yousef Al-Matouq, 68 years old, buried. Condolences: (Men) Bayan, Block 4, Street 1, House 16 (Women) Shuhada, Block 5, Street 515, House 12, Tel: 99661655, 99539356. Mubarak Shuwaimi Shuba Al-Dabous Al-Azmi, 64 years old, buried. Condolences: (Men) Salwa, Block 12, Street 1, House 199. (Women) Salwa, Block 1, Street 5, House 9, Tel: 51200441, 66468666

May 23, 2019

Ramadan

LOCALARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

4

A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION

DIWANIYA‘Hefter obstacle in peace moves’

‘Libya roadmap ends in failure’“LIBYA is stuck between the anvil of the war and the hammer of the narrow solutions,” columnist and attor-ney Riyadh Al-Sane’a wrote for Annahar daily.

“In this connection, we say the prime minister of the Libyan National Concord Government Fayez Al-Sarraj was on a shuttle tour for the sake of gaining interna-tional legitimacy of his government, while his opponent Khalifa Hefter, in turn paid visits to many capitals both in the East and West to gain support for his recent mili-tary move that resulted in displacing 26,700 people and the killing of 454.

“It is known that the economic and commercial mo-tives are behind the eruption of any war, hence, Hefter wants to undermine the legitimacy of the National Con-cord Government and impose his full domination on the Libyan oil fi elds and commercial ports that shall enable him to im-pose his domination on the entire country.

“However, in the midst of this struggle which currently takes place on the Libyan territories, the Russian newspaper “Niza-visimaya” recently published a report indicating that the speedy domination on the Libyan capital Tripoli which the major general (ret) Khalifa Hefter, had pledged to realize, had failed.

“It added that instead of entering into the streets of Tripoli in a festival procession, his troops are currently facing obstructions on the outskirts of the city.

“Meanwhile, the Russian writer and the specialist in the Middle East affairs Rafaeil Mustafi n says in his re-port that Hefter’s attempts to have access to the center of Tripoli was halted because of the counterattacks by the forces of the National Concord Government led by Fayez Al-Sarraj.

“He added that the confl icting parties in Libya are currently using the sophisticated military weapons and warplanes in an exceeding manner, hinting that Hefter had failed to mobilize enough troops to run the capital and close down its maritime borders and this facilitated the process of supplying Al-Sarraj troops with various types of their needs.

“Apart from the above, Hefter troops were deprived even to the minimum limit what is required for his troops to carry out traditional attacks.

“For his part, the French security expert Arnold Di-laland, was quoted as saying the number of those who have been killed by Hefter troops equals those who were killed defending both Tripoli and Misratta cities.

“In the same context, the member of the American House of Representatives Tom Malinoswcki said Hefter had committed crimes overtly. He described the current situation in Libya as very ‘important moments’ for this county.

“Meanwhile, he said there are strong and enough evidences that call for starting an investigation over the crimes that have been committed by Hefter in Libya, confi rming that the US Congress members are in agree-ment over bringing Hefter to book, because Hefter is US citizen and as such he should be subjected to American laws. He added we would like to investigate his current work in Libya – the destabilization of Libya.

“For his part, the French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, was earlier quoted as saying the situation in Libya is very upsetting, because the roadmap that was submitted by the United Nations to deal with the Libyan crisis was supposed to end the disputes by the end of February 2019, but this roadmap has failed due to what is done by Hefter and due to the absence of necessary measures that should have been taken by the Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj.

“On the other hand, it was reported that Hefter had recently had a meeting with the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. This meeting came amid European at-tempts to fi nd an agreement between the two warring parties to achieve a ceasefi re in Libya.

“In this context, we say a statement that was issued by the offi ce of the Italian prime minister emphasizing the need to reach an agreement between the relevant parties leading to the ceasefi re as early as possible in order to avert Libya a humanitarian crisis and protect the people.

“Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) had, last Monday, condemned the attack by Hefter troops on Tripoli and considered this attack as a danger to inter-national security. It had also called for an immediate ceasefi re in Libya.

“Given the above the struggle in Libya, can be mostly attributed to the absence of regional concords, particu-larly since we know that this absence was behind the eruption of the war where the catastrophic outcomes of the latter had surfaced at the popular level.”

Also:“The region is currently witnessing a fostering politi-

cal and military move in addition to new changes and developments in this part of the world like never be-fore,” columnist Owaied Al-Sulaili wrote for Al-Shahed daily.

“This happens amid acute differences among some Gulf and regional states, let alone what is currently taking place in the region represented by sectarian and doctrinal tension has contributed to the agitation of the situation and created a state of instability in the region.

“However, His Highness the Amir, we pray to Al-mighty Allah to protect him, had already warned about the tension in the region and he had repeatedly called on both the Kuwaitis and the National Assembly mem-bers to deal carefully with the repercussions of the for-eign risks. He also called on all people to immunize the national front and ingrain national unity which is our choice to protect the homeland amid such acute strug-gles which currently take place around us.

“But the Amir’s repeated warnings, we found that some of the MPs still concentrating only tickling the emotions of the voters to achieve fake heroisms at the expense of the homeland without paying any attention to the external risks and without keeping in mind the im-portance of maintain the balance of the internal policy.

“It is needless to say the MPs ignoring the boiling situation in the region which looks like sitting on a hot plate, signifi es a deep ignorance in foreign policy. These MPs are concentrating only on the local and popular affairs, without paying attention to what is currently taking place around us – seditions, sectarian, ethnic and civil wars – that have destroyed everything in the relevant countries in addition to displacing and killing many people.

“In this context, we say anyone who goes through the regional, political and military situations, will inevitably conclude that the drums of war are beating in this part of the world.”

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“Recent sabotage attacks on oil tankers off the coast of Fujairah last week indicate the importance of enhanc-ing protection at our oil installations,” Kamel Abdullah Al-Harami wrote for Al-Qabas daily.

“Despite the incidents did not affect oil supply or oil prices, there’s still a strong need to protect Kuwaiti oil facilities and relevant information systems. Concerning the protection of oil in Gulf waters, it’s an international responsibility since we export about 15 million barrels

of oil per day, which represents about 15 percent of the world’s need of oil. The Asian countries are the most af-fected since the Gulf countries export 60 percent of their oil and gas production to Asia. This means that interna-tional commercial activities will be adversely affected in case the Strait of Strait Hormuz is closed.

“It is too diffi cult to deal with advanced technology like drone that can fl y long distances exceeding 500 miles. It is not easy to watch thousands of square miles of oil production areas, refi neries and export zones in countries like Saudi Arabia that are enormous in size. It is also diffi cult to deal with crimes targeting oil tank-ers with the use of mines planted on routes in order to destabilize oil markets.

“Oil prices went up to $72 but did not reach $75 due to considerable storage and recent statements indicate that war is not an available option. There is also another dangerous challenge of digital threat by hackers target-ing oil installations. This kind of threat requires enough awareness to deal with in order to avoid negative reper-cussions on the global oil market based on the current political situation. Protecting our oil utilities must be a top priority at present- especially cyber attack that has reached unprecedented levels of advancement”.

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“The situation is catastrophic in the real sense of the word. Highways are dying while internal streets and surroundings are not usable, yet the Ministry of Public Works does nothing except what we hear about signing contracts to modernize roads without seeing vehicles or trucks working on the roads,” columnist Abdulrahman Al-Awwad wrote for Al-Sabah daily.

“What is the Ministry of Public Works waiting for to start upgrading and replacing asphalt on dilapidated roads? Why all this delay in repairing roads that directly and indirectly cause injuries and loss of innocent souls, as well as huge material losses that have exhausted citi-zens as a result of disruption?

“For example, the Sixth Ring Road is vital yet it has been plagued with negligence since the fi rst crisis of fl ying gravel while the route from Sabah Al-Nasser to Jahra Industrial Area is being used as a testing fi eld for mixtures in a bid to fi nd the suitable mix. Until now, the equipment of the Ministry of Public Works is scraping part of the road and then put asphalt on it, and then goes back to scrape another part, until it became patchy.

“If the Ministry of Public Works is unable to revive these roads despite the billions of budget for repairing them, it should at least sign a contract with foreign com-panies to replace the asphalt every 10 years. Have mercy on us and save us from these deadly traps.”

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“About two weeks ago, First Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, in his capacity as acting Prime Minister, issued a decision to dissolve the Board of Trustees of the Silk City Development Authority,” col-umnist Hassan Ali Karam wrote for Al-Seyassah daily.

“As soon as announcement of the dissolution of the Council was made via the media, several people started expressing concern through comments and praise of the world. Some of them were in support of the resolution and paid tribute to Sheikh Nasser- originator and brain behind the project from beginning to the end. A sister newspaper was quick to condemn opinions of the spe-cialists, especially in the areas of development, econo-my and fi nance.

“The irony is that everyone without exception praised the project, despite the fear of the few and its lack of confi dence in the government administration. However, Mr Ahmad Baqer, a veteran politician, parliamentarian and former minister- not to mention his Salafi orienta-tion and membership in the Planning Council- turned to a different opinion laced with certain doubts and fears. With due respect to the person of Mr Ahmad Baqer, he found himself in confl ict with his religious orientation and the success of the project, especially as features of the project indicates it should be sited in an isolated area and operated under semi-independent administrative au-thority of the government.

“Perhaps Mr Ahmad Baqer and conservatives like him are more afraid of turning the islands into chaos and swimming with obscenities, alcohol and other aspects of recreation. Certainly, until this moment, the project is still an idea yet-to-be accomplished. It is not known who the well-known local and foreign partners are, except what we have read about China’s willingness to join in the project’s implementation as a partner or project fi -nancier, and of course, China’s entry will only be on its terms- especially as projects are offered to the Chinese in our region alone. The Chinese presence in Africa and Asia is similar to that of China and Kuwait dozens of times and the digit is in billions.

“We do not doubt that some foreign enemies do not want the Kuwaiti project to succeed, and they are not far from us. Perhaps, the most accurate description of them, the “enemy brothers” and some of the inhibitors and cogs of the project locally turn in the orbit of “en-emy brothers” who feed on the crumbs they throw to them. Here, we recall the words of Imam Ali, “O God, protect me from my friends, but my enemies, I can han-dle them.”

“Kuwait is estranged, and the more it moves forward, the more the disabled, the disobedient, the oppressors, the frustrated, the underground and the cracks in the walls. The speech in this case may be full of blood. In any case, Kuwait is victorious with the love of its loyal citizens and trust in Allah.

“The decision to dissolve the board of directors of Silk City and to assign its tasks to a committee affili-ated to the Planning Council without detail only indi-cates that the project has become an anthrax thrown by state parties and disowned... The project began as an idea from Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al Ahmad, so he will not give up his idea with simplicity; thereby paving the way for the shameless and the hateful to spread their poison...!”

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“The current Gulf reality indicates that the security of GCC countries is at its worst in this diffi cult period of domestic challenges and external threats, as well as the state of caution and suspicion of the sudden occurrence of horrifying incidents at the highest level of military confrontation between major regional poles,” columnist Nasser Al-Mutairi wrote for Annahar daily.

“Worst of all is the internal security of GCC countries whose crisis continues and intensifi es for the second year without fl exibility or resolution, prompting some Gulf citizens to consider the GCC entity a thing of the past.

“The Iranian threat is no longer a threat to the security of Gulf states alone, as there is a bilateral internal dan-ger among countries in the Gulf region themselves. The previous Kuwait summit discussed a proposal to turn the council into a Gulf Union to unite and strengthen the ranks in order to confront the Iranian threat. We now live in a crisis ignited by Gulf-Gulf media that raises concern over the risks.

“GCC countries should take advantage of the collec-tive security situation, overcome their internal differ-ences and restore their relations in order to maintain the security of the Gulf entity as a strategic objective.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb

Al-Sane’a

‘No peace in Mideast if Israeliexpansionist policies continue’

‘Massacres, settlements must end’

NEW YORK, May 23, (KUNA): The State of Kuwait reiterates that there will be no peace in the Middle East under the Israeli occupation’s efforts to continue its illegal expansion over Palestinian lands, said a senior Kuwaiti diplomat late Wednesday.

In a speech to the UNSC session the Middle East’s situation, Kuwaiti Permanent Representative to the UN headquarters in New York Ambassador Mansour

Al-Otaibi affi rmed that the expansion of illegal settle-ments was the biggest obstacle in achieving a compre-hensive and just peace in the region.

On May 9, Kuwait chaired with Indonesia and South Af-rica the Arria-Formula Meeting on (Israeli-Settlements and Settlers: Core of the occupation, protection crisis and ob-struction of peace), indicated Al-Otaibi who condemned all settlements expansion activities and violence against Pal-estinians which seriously hindered any chances for peace.

He added that the international community should have an active role in ending Israeli injustice against the Palestinians and continuous degrada-tion of holy sites chiefly the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Al-Otaibi reminded the gathering that they were meeting a year or so after the massacre committed against the innocent Pal-estinians in the Gaza Strip on May 14, 2018, leaving some 60 people, including children, dead while 2,000 suffered some serious in-juries.

Reports regarding atrocities against innocent Palestinians should be thoroughly investigated by members of the UN to prevent any further crimes committed by the occupy-ing force Israel, indicated Al-Otaibi who called on the UNSC to force Israelis to follow all humanitarian laws namely the 1949 Ge-neva Conventions.

He noted that peace should be based on a solid desire to end the confl ict, pointing out that the Arab World had reiterated its stance on the issue of just peace in the March 31 Summit held Tunisia.

MiserableWhile Israel continues

to make life miserable by taking unilateral decisions, Palestinians have barely the means to run a govern-ment especially with weak fi nancial capabilities and resources, said Al-Otaibi who accused the Israelis of disrespecting the Oslo Accords, which refl ected their truce disregard of any chances for peace in the region.

Ambassador Al-Otaibi affi rmed that Arab nations refused Israel’s attempts to impose its unlawful ver-sion of the peace process, adding that the Arabs have an unequivocal stance in support of the Palestinian cause.

The Kuwaiti diplomat also shed light on the fi nan-cial diffi culties faced by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Pales-tine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), stress-ing that the important role played by the agency in support of the Palestinians.

Despite Israeli meddling and efforts attempting at shutting down UNRWA, Kuwait continues to be a strong backer of the agen-cy’s efforts to support Pal-estinians, said Al-Otaibi, adding that his country donated a sum of $113 mil-lion in the last four years and will continue to pro-vide its assistance.

Stopping all sorts of encouragements by some parties towards the Israeli oppression and focusing on a comprehensive and just peace plan based on inter-national conventions and laws will put an end to the long confl ict in the Middle East, affi rmed Al-Otaibi.

He mentioned that the last Arab European summit held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, had called for a peace process based on the 1967 borders and including the issue of east Jerusalem, the proposed capital for the future Palestinian inde-pendent state.

KUNA photoThe Permanent Representative of Kuwait to the United Nations Ambassador Mansour Al-Otaibi takes the fl oor.

KUNA photoMember of Kuwait’s Permanent Delegation to the United Nations expresses his

views.

‘Movement normal’

‘No congestion at border crossing’KUWAIT CITY, May 23: The Direc-torate-General of Public Relations and Media Security Department of the Inte-rior Ministry has denied what has been published in the social media outlets that there was a congestion at the border crossing point in Salmi and Nuwaiseeb, reports Al-Anba daily.

The Ministry of Interior said it is determined to take legal action against those who have spread false rumors, adding that the video clip is old and dates back to 2018.

In the meantime, the department has called on all social media outlets to check on the accuracy of the news, stressing that the doors are open to receive any queries around the clock. On a related note, a source at the Nuwaiseeb Customs said the movement at the border point is normal throughout Ramadan.

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Minister of Social Affairs Saad Al-Kharaaz has affi rmed that the committee formed to review controls and proce-dures in the collection donations for pay-ment of blood money and compensation, which consists of the representatives of many governmental authorities, will be in charge of setting legal controls, re-ports Al- Anba daily.

Al-Kharaz told the daily that the com-mittee will look into ways of dealing with foreign blood money legally and set controls in this regard.

On the other hand, acting Undersec-retary of the Ministry of Social Affairs Hanaa Al-Hajri said the ministry has stopped receiving applications for or-ganizing campaigns to collect donations for payment of blood money until the committee sets the controls based on the decision of the Cabinet.

LOCALARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

5

1 dead, 4 hurt in wall collapseAn Egyptian died and four others, in-cluding a fi re offi cer, were injured when a three meters high wall collapsed in the basement of a building under construc-tion on Baghdad Street in Salmiya, re-ports Al-Rai daily.

When police and fi remen arrived at the scene of the mishap they discovered the wall had come down on the scaffolding.

Three Egyptians working on the site were injured and rushed to the Mubarak Al-Ka-bir Hospital. One of them, 42, was taken to the intensive care after losing conscious-ness, but died of injuries sustained.

A security source said one of the offi c-ers of the Salmiya fi re station suffering from shortness of breath was treated on site by emergency medical personnel.

MoI jobs reshuffl e: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Lt Gen Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah has taken the decision to transfer Colonel Bader Seyar Al-Shammari from the Control and Inspection General Department to appoint him as Director of Jahra Residence Af-fairs Department, as well as the appointment of Colonel Saoud Tami as Direc-tor of Mubarak Al-Kabeer Resi-dence Affairs Department, re-ports Al-Shahid daily.

The decision includes transfer of Mubarak Al-Kabeer Immigration Depart-ment Director Colonel Mubarak Sanaideh to the Control and Inspection General Department where he will serve as alter-nate director.

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Cheating in exams: The case of a school principal and a guardian who allegedly exchanged accusations of insult, beating and destruction of public property against the backdrop of the latter’s daughter who was caught cheat-ing in exams, has been referred to the community police, since the two parties are accusing each other, reports Al-Rai daily.

Right of way

2 in traffi c brawlKUWAIT CITY, May 23: Police have arrested an Egyptian and a Syrian for exchanging blows following a dispute over the right of way, re-ports Al-Rai daily.

The daily said when the Opera-tions Room of the Interior Ministry received a report on the incident po-lice rushed to the spot and found the men beating each other.

They were taken to the police sta-tion and the Egyptian said the Syr-ian blocked his way and refused to move causing traffi c disruption and this led to a verbal spat between them and ended in assaulting each other.

A case of causing nuisance on a public road and assaulting each other has been fi led against them.

A security source told Al-Rai that “the administration of one of the schools after accusing the female student of cheating, her father went to the police station with his daughter and submit-ted a medical report indicating that his daughter was beaten and insulted by the school principal and the head of one of the departments.

News in Brief

Bail plea rejected

Fine & good conduct pledgefrees ex-member of DAESH

By Jaber Al-HamoudAl-Seyassah Staff

The Court of Cassation upheld the verdict issued by a lower court

to refrain from penalizing a Kuwaiti woman in her 20s who was accused of joining DAESH in Sinai, Egypt.

The court also upheld the verdict is-sued to impose a fi ne of KD 500 and obligated her to sign a pledge of good conduct for a period of two years.

Lawyer Dr Khalid Al-Khafi fa ex-plained that his client became a victim to the calls for “Jihad” made by some scholars.

Previously, the Public Prosecution had charged the citizen with joining DAESH and being a member of the banned organization during the period from 2015 to April 26, 2017. She was also charged with committing aggres-sive acts against a friendly country and attempting to harm the relations be-tween the two countries by traveling to Egypt with the aim of executing Jihad-ist operations in Sinai.

Public Prosecution also charged her with using social media to promote the terrorism ideology of DAESH.

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Bail plea rejected: The Criminal Court rejected the request to release on bail the Kuwaiti lawyer and the Egyp-tian expatriates who are accused of kidnapping Lawyer Saud Al-Halfi . The court adjourned the case fi led against them to the session of July 2 for hear-ing.

The accused lawyer denied any re-lations with the Egyptian suspects, ex-plaining that the investigation offi cers allowed him to see those suspects, after which he informed the offi cers that he did not know them.

The Egyptian suspects admitted that they committed the crime based on an agreement with the Kuwaiti suspect.

It is worth mentioning that a video clip of the crime was discovered in the smartphone of one of the Egyptian sus-pects. When questioned, they admitted that they fi lmed the crime and sent the video clip to the Kuwaiti lawyer who had hired them to commit the crime.

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Kuwaiti’s jail upheld: The Misde-meanor Court of Appeals upheld the verdict issued by the Court of First In-stance, which sentenced a Kuwaiti man to three-year imprisonment with hard labor for defrauding some expatriate

women by receiving a certain sum of money from them in return for lending them money on a monthly installment basis.

According to the case fi le, the Public Prosecution charged the man with col-lecting money from those women based on the understanding that they would obtain loans to be paid on monthly in-stallment basis. He even issued them with receipt for the payments made in order to reassure them of the deal, but he reneged on the promise shortly after collecting the monies.

The plaintiffs’ counsel Lawyer Ab-dulwahab Bin Salama said the defend-ant actually committed the offense at the location and date mentioned in the court summon, stressing that all neces-sary documents to prove the case be-yond any doubt have been presented.

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Blogger fi ned: The Misdemeanor Court of Appeal cancelled the ruling of the Court of First Instance that declared Twitter user Nasser Al-Jeqhair inno-cent in a defamation lawsuit involving HH Sheikh Nasser Al-Muhammad.

The court fi ned the defendant KD 3,000 on charges of posting tweets deemed offensive to the entity of Sheikh Nasser and abusing mobile phone usage based on a complaint fi led on behalf of Sheikh Nasser by Lawyer Emad Al-Seif.

In a statement, Lawyer Al-Seif af-fi rmed that he’s waiting for directives from HH Sheikh Nasser after issuance of the verdict.

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Raja’an hearing adjourned: The Criminal Court, presided over by Judge Ahmad Al-Muqalid, adjourned until June 27 the hearing on the embez-zlement of social security funds case of former director of the Public Institution for Social Security Fahad Al-Raj’aan and his wife.

In the previous session, the accused failed to appear before the judiciary, whereas the prosecutor explained the seismic offence which the two commit-ted against the pension fund, let alone the breach of trust.

The prosecution, led by Hamoud Al-Shami, explained how the two embez-zled the pension fund and transferred $100 million to secret accounts in Switzerland, and that as part of the sen-tence, they should be forced to return the money they embezzled.

Other Voices

KFSD photo

Firemen carry an injured person to the ambulance.

Encroachments razed, citations issuedagainst hawkers, illegal ads removed

Municipality in countrywide campaigns

KUWAIT CITY, May 23: Head of the Emergency Team of Hawally Municipali-ty Ahmad Ramadan says the achieve-ments of his team during the month of April included lift-ing of 108 violations related to encroach-ment on state prop-erties and issuance of 37 citations for violation of cleanli-ness regulations.

In a press release, he ex-plained that the team also issued 97 warnings against cases of encroachment on state properties, 32 cita-tions against the misuse of road pavements, fi ve citations against hawk-ers, 53 warnings against the violation of housing bachelors, and four warn-ings against constructions built on state properties. It also removed 213 ille-gal advertisements along certain streets in Hawally Governorate, dealt with 33 complaints lodged by Kuwaiti citizens and nine complaints received via the hotline, and placed 23 warning stickers on aban-doned vehicles.

Meanwhile, Kuwait Municipality’s Public Relations Department urged the public to call the hotline No. 139 or contact via social media to report any com-plaint relating to the work of Kuwait Municipality.

In addition, Department of Public Hygiene and Road Usage in Mubarak Al-Kabeer Municipality lift-ed 8,552 cubic meters of garbage, cleaned a number of main roads and internal streets, and lifted three aban-doned vehicles and three boats and referred them to the seized-vehicle garage of Kuwait Municipality.

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Entry of 2 prevented: The security officers at the Kuwait International Airport have prevented the entry into Kuwait of two men – a Nigerian and a Sudanese – because when they arrived at the airport they gave conflicting state-ments, reports Al-Rai daily.

The daily added, although the men arrived on valid visas, they failed to tell the authorities where they will lodge during their stay in the country since they had not made prior reservations in any hotels or elsewhere and also they failed to justify the purpose of their visit.

They were referred to the investigation office and a decision was taken to send them back to the point of destination although one of them claimed to have some relationship with his coun-tryman in Kuwait.

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Freed in drugs case: The Court of Cassation has over-turned the verdict of the lower courts and acquitted a Kuwaiti of the charge of trad-ing in narcotic substances and stimulants and set him free, reports Al-Anba daily.

The lower court had sen-tenced the man to 15 years imprisonment. The verdict was upheld by the Court of Appeals.

The Prosecution had charged the Kuwaiti of pos-sessing and trafficking in drugs on the strength of interrogations carried out by security personnel.

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Verdict upheld: The Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation has upheld the verdict of the Court of Appeals and acquitted five Syrians and an Iraqi who were accused of violating Law No. 106 of 2013 on money laundering and financing terrorism (ISIS), reports Al-Anba daily.

The security services charged the men of transfer-ring $11 million through the offices in Kuwait to Syria via Dubai.

The daily did not give more details.

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Delivery man robbed: Police have taken into cus-tody two men – a Kuwaiti and a Saudi – for robbing a fast food delivery man of KD 72, reports Al-Rai daily.

The daily added, the sus-pects chased the victim who was riding a motorbike, caught him and beat and robbed his money and escaped.

KUNA photoKuwait Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Mohammad Al-Khader receives the Belgium Embassy’s Defense

Attaché Lieutenant Colonel Eric Michiels who is currently on an offi cial visit in Kuwait.A

Kuwait Army chief receives foreign diplomatsKuwait Army Chief of Staff Lieuten-ant General Mohammad Al-Khader received in his offi ce Belgium Em-bassy’s Defense Attaché Lieuten-ant Colonel Eric Michiels who re-sides in Abu Dhabi and is currently on an offi cial visit in Kuwait, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

After Lieutenant General Al-Khader welcomed the guest, they discussed a number of military-related matters including ways to enhance the military relations be-tween the two countries.

Lieutenant General Al-Khader also received in his offi ce the Am-

bassador of Slovakia to Kuwait Igor Hajdusek.

During the meeting, they ex-changed friendly talks and dis-cussed issues of mutual interest for both countries. They also com-mended the deep friendly relations between the two countries.

Money sent from Kuwait: report

Indian principal held in alleged ‘hawala’ transferKUWAIT CITY, May 23: India’s Assam police have arrested a Mus-lim cleric and businessman for their alleged involvement in a “hawala” (money order) transaction amount-ing to about 845,000 Indian rupees which was allegedly sent from Ku-wait, reports Al-Rai daily quoting the Business Standard website.

Nurul Islam, the principal of the Jamia Islamia Salafi a Arabic Col-lege in Barpeta, has been arrested and the money has been confi scated from him, according to Barpeta’s Superintendent of Police (SP) Rob-in Kumar.

“During interrogation Nurul Is-lam has admitted that the money came from a transfer from Kuwait,” Kumar said.

The website said the Barpeta po-lice have also arrested a business-man Aaron Sarf residing in Guwa-hati after he admitted to facilitating the so-called ‘hawala (money order) deal’.

Kumar noted that Nurul Islam had previously deposited 2,800,000 rupees in the University’s bank-ing account through three separate transactions since December 2018. “The defendant was not able to tell

us where the money came from and the nature of its expenditure,” Ku-mar said.

Barpeta police chief did not rule out that Nurul Islam was spending money on what he called “anti-social activities,” adding that investigations were continuing in this regard.

The hawala system works es-sentially through an underground network, where a handler in one country or place accepts cash from a customer and then a handler in an-other country or place hands out the equivalent amount (minus commis-sion) to the receiver.

Al-Jarrah

World News Roundup

INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

6

Britain

Pull June vote: Labour

British minister quitsover new Brexit dealLONDON, May 23, (RTRS): Prominent Brexit sup-porter Andrea Leadsom resigned from Prime Minister Theresa May’s government on Wednesday, piling pressure on the British leader after a new Brexit gam-bit backfired and fuelled calls for her to quit.

So far May has resisted, vowing to press on despite opposition from lawmakers and other ministers to her bid to get her Brexit deal through parliament by soft-ening her stance on a second referendum and customs arrangements.

But Leadsom’s resignation further deepens the Brexit crisis, sapping an already weak leader of her authority. Almost three years since Britain voted to leave the European Union, it is not clear when, how or even if Brexit will happen.

Leadsom, Leader of the House of Commons, said she could not announce the new Withdrawal Agreement Bill, which will implement Britain’s departure, in parliament on Thursday as she did not believe in it.

“I no longer believe that our approach will deliver on the referendum result,” Leadsom, once a challenger to May to become prime minister, said in a resignation letter.

“It is therefore with great regret and with a heavy heart that I resign from the government.”

A Downing Street spokesman praised Leadsom and expressed disappointment at her decision, but added: “The prime minister remains focused on delivering the Brexit people voted for.”

TradingMay might still try to press on with her new Brexit

plan, which includes a vote on whether to hold a sec-ond Brexit referendum – once her legislation passes the first stage – as well as closer trading arrangements with the EU.

But it has been met with a swift backlash, with several lawmakers who have supported her in previ-ous Brexit votes saying they could not back the new plan, particularly over her U-turn regarding a possible second referendum.

“I have always maintained that a second referen-dum would be dangerously divisive, and I do not support the government willingly facilitating such a concession,” Leadsom said.

“No one has wanted you to succeed more than I have,” Leadsom wrote to May. “But I do now urge you to make the right decisions in the interests of the country, this government and our party.”

Labour lawmaker Ian Lavery, chair of the opposi-tion party, said the resignation underlined that “the prime minister’s authority is shot and her time is up”.

“For the sake of the country, Theresa May needs to go, and we need an immediate general election,” he said.

Labour’s call echoed those of many of May’s own Conservatives, who say that a fourth attempt to get her deal approved by parliament should be shelved and she should leave office to offer a new leader a chance to reset the dial.

“There is one last chance to get it right and leave in an orderly fashion. But it is now time for Prime Minister Theresa May to go – and without delay,” said Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, chairman of parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

“She must announce her resignation after Thursday’s European (Parliament) elections,” he wrote in the Financial Times.

But while so much about Brexit is up in the air, what is clear is that May plans to stay for now, or at least for the next few days.

The chairman of the powerful Conservative 1922 Committee, which can make or break prime ministers, told lawmakers that she planned to campaign in the European poll on Thursday before meeting with the group on Friday to discuss her leadership.

BidsMay has so far fended off bids to oust her by prom-

ising to set out a departure timetable once parliament has had a chance to vote again on Brexit, but a new discussion on a possible date could now take place on Friday.

Earlier on Wednesday, May stood firm during more than two hours of questions in parliament, urging lawmakers to back the bill and then have a chance to make changes to it, so they can have more control over the final shape of Brexit.

Asked by eurosceptic lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg whether she really believed in the new deal she had proposed or whether she was simply going through the motions, May said: “I don’t think I would have been standing here at the despatch box and be in receipt of some of the comments I have been in receipt of from colleagues on my own side and across the house if I didn’t believe in what I was doing.”

Britain’s marathon crisis over Brexit has stunned allies and foes alike. With the deadlock in London, the world’s fifth-largest economy faces an array of options including an exit with a deal to smooth the transition, a no-deal exit, an election, a second refer-endum, or even revocation of the Article 50 notice to leave the EU.

The pound was on track for its longest-ever losing streak against the euro as some traders said they saw the rising chance of a no-deal Brexit. Those fears pushed investors into the relative safety of govern-ment bonds – particularly those that offer protection against a spike in inflation.

“The proposed second reading of the WAB is clearly doomed to failure so there really is no point wasting any more time on the prime minister’s forlorn hope of salvation,” Andrew Bridgen, a Conservative lawmaker, told Reuters. “She’s got to go.”

Michael Gove, Britain’s environment minister and a high-profile Brexit supporter, will not follow his colleague Andrea Leadsom and resign, a BBC report-er quoted him as saying on Thursday.

Leadsom, leader of the House of Commons, quit on Wednesday in protest at May’s latest attempt to get a Brexit deal through parliament.

British lawmaker Mel Stride was appointed as the government’s Leader of the House of Commons on Thursday, replacing Andrea Leadsom who quit in protest at Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit strat-egy.

Stride, who was previously a junior minister in the finance ministry, will take on the senior role which is primarily responsible for organising government busi-ness in parliament. He will attend cabinet meetings, May’s office said.

May

US President Donald Trump speaks during a Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington on May 22. (AP)

Congress has legal authority to demand records: judge

Trump loses bid to block recordsNEW YORK, May 23, (RTRS): US President Donald Trump, three of his children and the Trump Organization on Wednesday lost their bid to block Deutsche Bank AG and Capital One Financial Corp from providing finan-cial records to Democratic lawmakers investigating Trump’s businesses.

In a decision read from the bench after hearing arguments, US District Judge Edgardo Ramos in New York said Congress has the legal authority to demand the records, clearing the way for the banks to comply with sub-poenas issued to them by two US House of Representatives committees last month.

The committees have agreed not to enforce the subpoenas for seven days, the judge said. It was the second time in three days that a judge had ruled against the Republican president in his fight with Democrats and Trump’s lawyers were expected to appeal both decisions.

Ramos said he would not suspend his decision pending appeal.

Some Democratic lawmakers wel-comed the decision.

“So far, I think the president would be wise to come to the realization that our legitimate areas of inquiry are going to be supported by the courts,” Representative Dan Kildee, a Michigan Democrat and member of the House Ways and Means Committee, told Reuters in an interview.

Representative Brad Sherman, a Democratic member of the financial services committee, was more cau-tious, telling Reuters in an interview that he expected the decision would be appealed.

Asked if lawmakers should be satis-fied that they will get the information they seek, Sherman said, “I’ll believe it when I see it out of the US Supreme Court.”

The White House did not immedi-ately respond to requests for comment. Deutsche Bank said it would abide by the court’s decision. Capital One did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump, who is seeking re-election

next year, has aggressively sought to defy congressional oversight of his administration since Democrats took control of the House in January.

Ramos said that the committees had the power to issue the subpoenas under Congress’ “broad” power to conduct investigations to further legislation. He also rejected Trump’s argument that they were barred by a federal financial privacy law, the Right to Financial Privacy Act, saying the law does not apply to congressional inves-tigations.

AttemptsTrump said last month that the

administration was “fighting all the subpoenas” issued by the House, hard-ening his position after the release of a redacted report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller on how Russia inter-fered in the 2016 US election to help Trump and on the president’s attempts to impede the investigation.

“We remain committed to providing appropriate information to all autho-rized investigations and will abide by a court order regarding such investiga-tions,” Deutsche Bank spokeswoman Kerrie McHugh said in an emailed statement after the ruling.

Lawyers for the Trump family members and the Trump Organization declined to comment on the decision.

Some parts of the subpoenas have been included in court filings. The subpoena on Deutsche Bank seeks extensive records of accounts, transac-tions and investments linked to Trump, his three oldest children, their immedi-ate family members and several Trump Organization entities, as well as records of ties they might have to for-eign entities.

Deutsche Bank has long been a principal lender for Trump’s real estate business and a 2017 disclosure form showed that Trump had at least $130 million of liabilities to the bank.

The subpoena on Capital One seeks records related to multiple entities tied to the Trump Organization’s hotel business. In March, before issuing their subpoena, Democratic lawmak-

ers asked Capital One for documents concerning potential conflicts of inter-est tied to Trump’s Washington hotel and other business interests since he became president in January 2017.

Trump, his adult children, Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka, and the Trump Organization had sought a preliminary injunction to prevent Deutsche Bank complying with the subpoenas from the House Financial Services Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, and Capital One from complying with a subpoena from the Financial Services Committee.

In a lawsuit filed on April 29, law-yers for the Trumps argued that the subpoenas were too broad, and that Democrats are hoping they will “stum-ble upon something” that could be used for political attacks on the presi-dent.

Patrick Strawbridge, a lawyer for Trump, said at Wednesday’s hearing that the subpoenas were “the epitome of an inquiry into private or personal matters,” and that the House commit-tees were reaching beyond their role as legislators.

Douglas Letter, a lawyer for the committees, said the subpoenas were part of a “very serious investigation on behalf of the American people” that could lead to legislation aimed at reducing foreign influence in US poli-tics. He denied that it was intended to target Trump personally.

“He clearly sees us as some sort of nuisance,” Letter said.

The banks are the only defendants in the case, but the House committees intervened to oppose Trump’s effort to block the subpoenas.

Representative Maxine Waters, who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, told reporters after the lawsuit was filed that Trump had “cast a gauntlet.” “We will fight him,” she said.

On Monday, a federal judge in Washington ruled against the president in a similar case, finding that Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars LLP, must comply with a congressional subpoena for Trump’s financial records.

Politics

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage stands at the entrance of the polling station at Cudham Primary School in Biggin Hill, England on May 23. Some 400 million Europeans from 28 coun-tries head to the polls from Thursday to Sunday to choose their representa-tives at the European Parliament for

the next five years. (AP)

Lindh Pompeo

‘American Taleban’ released: John Walker Lindh, the American captured in Afghanistan in 2001 fighting for the Taleban, was released early from federal prison on Thursday, the Washington Post reported, citing Lindh’s lawyer.

Lindh, who was 20 years old when he was captured, left prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, on probation after serving 17 years of a 20-year sentence, the newspaper said.

Now 38, Lindh is among dozens of pris-oners to be released over the next few years after being captured in Iraq and Afghanistan and convicted of terrorism-related crimes fol-lowing the attacks on the United States by al-Qaeda on Sept 11, 2001.

His release brought objections from elected officials who asked why Lindh was being freed early and what training parole officers had to spot radicalization and recidivism among former jihadists.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Lindh’s release “unexplainable and unconscionable.”

“There’s something deeply troubling and wrong about it,” he said on Fox News on Thursday morning.

Leaked US government documents pub-lished by Foreign Policy magazine show the federal government as recently as 2016 described Lindh as holding “extremist views.”

“What is the current interagency policy, strategy, and process for ensuring that ter-rorist/extremist offenders successfully reintegrate into society?” asked US Senators Richard Shelby and Margaret Hassan in a letter to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Lindh’s parents, Marilyn Walker and Frank Lindh, did not respond to requests for comment and Lindh’s lawyer, Bill Cummings, declined to comment.

Melissa Kimberley, a spokeswoman for the prison in Terre Haute, could not imme-diately be reached for confirmation of the Post’s report. (RTRS)

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Tornadoes kill three: Tornadoes killed at least three people in southwest Missouri and slammed into the state capital just before midnight on Wednesday, with rescue workers in Jefferson City searching

America

This still image taken from video provided by Chris Higgins shows a tornado in Carl Junction, Mo, on May 22. The tornado caused damage in the town about

4 miles (6.44 kilometers) north of the Joplin airport. (AP)

into the morning for the injured, officials said.

The St Louis office of the National Weather Service confirmed that reported twisters hit near Joplin, Mo, late Wednesday, and local media including the Joplin Globe reported at least three dead.

No other information about the deaths was immediately available from officials

early Thursday.The NWS reported that a “massive”

twister also hit the southeastern part of Jefferson City, damaging buildings, top-pling trees and power lines and tossing around parked cars.

There were no immediate reports of fatalities in the city as of early Thursday, said Jared Maples, a meteorologist with the

NWS St Louis office.The Jefferson City Fire Department was

sending rescuers house-to-house searching for people in need, officials posted on social media, with reports of people trapped in debris.

“We’re doing okay but praying for those that were caught in damage, some still trapped,” Missouri Gov Mike Parson said on Twitter early Thursday. (RTRS)

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$105m fund for wildfire survivors: Pacific Gas & Electric Corp received approval Wednesday to establish a $105 million fund to help survivors of recent California wildfires started by the utility’s equipment.

A federal judge overseeing PG&E’s bankruptcy case approved the utility’s wildfire assistance program to provide relief for people who lost property during the huge fires in 2017 and 2018.

Lawyers for wildfire victims argued that PG&E could pay up to $250 million to adequately help their clients and pointed out that the utility sought last month to pay $235 million in bonuses for its employees.

US Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali said he couldn’t under the law impose a larger amount, and said the fund, created voluntarily by PG&E, was an “appropriate remedy.” He said he wanted to see the fund up and running as quickly as possible and wanted both sides to name an indepen-dent third party in five days to administer the program. (AP)

INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

7

Khan congratulates Modi: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated India’s Narendra Modi on the runaway election victory of his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“I congratulate Prime Minister Modi on the electoral victory of BJP and allies. Look forward to working with him for peace, progress and pros-perity in South Asia,” Khan tweeted.

The two nations have had tense ties in recent months following a confron-tation that saw both countries carry out an aerial bombing mission against each other, and even fought a brief dogfi ght, before tensions subsided.

In a possible warning to India, Pa-

kistan also announced that it has con-ducted a training launch of a Shaheen II, surface-to-surface ballistic missile, which it said is capable of delivering

conventional and nuclear weapons at a range of up to 1,500 miles. (RTRS)

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Pakistan test fi res missile: Paki-stan’s military says it has successfully test-fi red a long-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

A statement from the military says the surface-to-surface Shaheen II missile, which has a range of 1,500 kilometers, or 932 miles, was launched on Thursday and ended in the Arabian Sea.

The announcement comes after a six-week general election in neighbor-ing India, Pakistan’s chief regional rival.

Both nations have nuclear arms and have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947. They regularly test-fi re missiles.

Vote counting in India shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party have a commanding lead, making another fi ve-year term for the Hindu

nationalist leader very likely. (AP)❑ ❑ ❑

Taleban bombs kill 4: A confronta-tion between Afghan forces and Taleban fi ghters Wednesday in eastern Ghazni province left two members of the secu-rity forces and two civilian passers-by dead, provincial offi cials said.

The Taleban were driving in a stolen Humvee packed with explosives that detonated as the police fi red warning shots to get the suspicious vehicle to stop. The incident took place in the city of Ghazni, the provincial capital.

Arif Noori, the provincial gover-nor’s spokesman, said offi cials had received intelligence reports that the Taleban were preparing to stage such an attack. Noori said four Taleban were also killed in the incident.

Hospital chief Baz Mohammad Hemat said 10 civilians and fi ve police

were wounded in the explosion.Zabihullah Mujahid, Taleban

spokesman, claimed responsibility for the attack in Ghazni.

The Taleban carry out near-daily attacks on Afghan forces, and despite ongoing peace talks with the US, the insurgent group refuses to stop fi ghting until US and NATO troops withdraw from the country.

In August last year, the insurgents overran parts of Ghazni, leading to days of intense fi ghting before they were driven out.

Ghazni was the only one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces in which parliamentary elections did not take place in October. Voting there has been postponed for a year, according to the national Election Commission. Both presidential and parliamentary elections will take place on Sept 28 in the province. (AP)

Subcontinent

India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah is show-ered with fl ower petals as he arrives at the party offi ce in New Delhi, India on May 23. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party claimed it had won re-election with a commanding lead in Thursday’s vote count, while the stock market soared in anticipation of another fi ve-year term for

the pro-business Hindu nationalist leader. (AP)

World News Roundup

INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

8

Climate

‘Protect the planet’

Eco-mosque to become force for ‘climate’ goodLONDON, May 23, (RTRS): Europe’s fi rst green mosque is hoping to harness the power of Islam to tack-le climate change, urging Muslims who worship in the British newbuild to do more to protect the planet.

As one of the fastest growing faiths in the world, Is-lam could be a powerful force if Muslims were stirred to environmental action, climate activists say.

Which is where Cambridge Central Mosque steps in.Located in the world-famous British university city,

the mosque opened its doors in May just in time for the fasting month of Ramadan. It is adorned with latticed columns, clad in solar panels and surrounded by crab apples, with space for 1,000 and a mission to become a force for climate good.

“The mosque symbolises the spiritual heart of the Muslim community, it’s the central locus where the wor-shipper connects to God,” said mosque trust patron and musi-cian Cat Stevens.

Stevens, famous for hit songs “Wild World” and “Morning Has Broken”, became Muslim in the 1970s and is now known as Yusuf Islam. He told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that Muslims had an important role to play in tackling the cli-

mate crisis.“It (the mosque) is part of the re-education process,

digging deeper into the true nature of Islam to reveal its harmony with the balance of the universe,” said Ste-vens.

“Many Muslims have forgotten this and are not con-tributing enough to the present climate crisis.”

The 24-million-pound ($30-million) building, fund-ed largely by the Turkish government, will welcome hundreds of worshippers for night prayers every night, during this month of Ramadan - following a 18-hour fast from food and drink in daylight hours.

With recycled rainwater to irrigate the gardens and energy-harvesting heat pumps, the mosque says it pro-duces close to zero carbon emissions and boasts better green credentials than the thousands of other mosques that are scattered across Europe.

Harmony“The Holy Qu’ran emphasises the beauty and har-

mony of the natural world as a sign of God’s creative power and wisdom,” said mosque trust chairman and Cambridge University professor, Timothy Winter, also known as Abdal Hakim Murad.

“The struggle against climate change and the mass extinction of species is not only a practical question of human survival, but is a battle to respect and protect God’s gifts.”

Large skylights illuminate the main prayer hall so no artifi cial lights are needed by day, while the rooftop is dressed in panels that turn sun to power.

It is not just the building that is green.The mosque follows broad Islamic principles that

favour environmental protection, say Muslim climate experts, be it the stewardship of God’s earth or sacred teachings on preserving water, planting trees and pro-tecting animals.

“Muslims could be a powerful force that can be mo-bilised against climate change,” said Shanza Ali, co-founder of Muslim Climate Action, a British advocacy group.

“However this would require us to go back to Islamic teachings and back to valuing the skills, ideas and re-spect that communities would give the environment,” she said.

For Ali, a fi xed ecomessage would not work for the world’s diverse 1.8 billion Muslims; a pluralistic ap-proach could better “revive the connection” between Islam and the environment.

“Projects like the Cambridge mosque are going to be critical in raising awareness and showing people that this isn’t just a niche issue that some Muslims have picked up, but it’s an issue at the heart of our belief,” she said.

In 2015, Islamic faith leaders came together to urge Muslims to play a more active role in combating cli-mate change in a declaration that was welcomed by the United Nations. The declaration lamented the “corrup-tion” that humans had caused and called for lower emis-sions, an end to deforestation and greater commitment to renewable energy sources.

Religious leaders from Pope Francis to the Dali Lama have preached similar ecomessages, warning their faithful of the dangers of growing climate change.

According to the Alliance of Religions and Conser-vation charity, the world’s big faiths could galvanise some 5 billion people into climate action, 85% of the world’s population.

In Britain, former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams - representing some 85 million Christians globally - endorsed Green Party political candidates ahead of Thursday’s European elections, saying it was “harder and harder to pretend that we’re not living in the middle of the most serious environmental crisis in recorded history.”

Cambridge is home to about 6,000 Muslims, born as far afi eld as Indonesia and Italy, many of them students or professionals.

Worshipper Haseef Ahmed, 27, said the green mes-sage chimed with his values and served as a reminder that the world’s natural supplies were limited.

“The mosque is the central point of all Muslim com-munities,” said Ahmed, by telephone. “It’s the space. So if we’re going to engender more green, environ-mentally ethical behaviour into the community, it’s that space that will have to transform.”

The mosque was designed with Islamic and local architectural traditions in mind, said architect Julia Barfi eld of Marks Barfi eld Architects, responsible for iconic structures such as the London Eye observation wheel on the Thames.

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China blamed in ODS spike: China is to blame for much of the increase in illegal ozone-depleting sub-stances (ODS) since 2013, according a study published by the journal Nature on Thursday, with domestic com-panies accused of violating a global production ban.

About 40-60 percent of the global rise in the prohibit-ed ozone-destroying refrigerant trichlorofl uoromethane (CFC-11) since 2013 could be attributed to the industri-al provinces of Shandong and Hebei in northern China, researchers from Australia’s Commonwealth Scien-tifi c and Industrial Research Organisation and Britain’s University of Bristol said.

After studying atmospheric data from South Korea and Japan, they estimated CFC-11 emissions from east-ern mainland China during the 2014-2017 period were around 7 million kilograms per year higher than over 2008-2012. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment did not respond immediately to a request for comment on Thursday.

Islam

In this May 14 photo, a nearly complete lower jaw bone with worn down teeth of an adult mastodon is displayed, at the University of Iowa Paleontology Reposi-tory on the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City, Iowa. A teen searching for arrowheads in southern Iowa found the prehistoric jawbone of a mastodon. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that the 30-inch bone belonged to a juvenile

mastodon, an elephant-like animal believed to have roamed Iowa some 34,000 years ago.

Offi cials with the University of Iowa Paleontology Repository, which now has possession of the bone found last week, say the mastodon might have stood around 7-feet tall. (AP)

Surge of algae kills millions of salmon

Fossil of earliest fungus unearthedWASHINGTON, May 23, (RTRS): Microfossils of a globular spore con-nected to a T-shaped fi lament excavat-ed in an Arctic region of northwestern Canada represent the oldest-known fungus, a discovery that sheds light on the origins of an important branch in Earth’s tree of life.

Scientists said on Wednesday the multi cellular fungus that they named Ourasphaira giraldae - forerunner to an immensely diverse group that to-day includes the likes of mushrooms, yeasts and molds - lived in an estuary environment about 900 million to 1 billion years ago. Until now, the old-est-known fungus fossil was one about 410 million years old from Scotland.

Fungi play a crucial role in global ecosystems such as in the organic de-composition process.

Fungi belong to a broad group of organisms, called eukaryotes, that pos-sesses a clearly defi ned nucleus and also includes animals and plants. A fundamental difference between fungi and plants is that fungi are incapable of photosynthesis, harnessing sunlight to synthesize nutrients.

Because of a close evolutionary re-lationship between fungi and animals, the researchers suspect that early forms of microscopic animal life may have lived at the same time as Ourasphaira. The earliest fossils of rudimentary ani-mals are about 635 million years old.

“Fungi are one of the more diverse

groups of eukaryotes known today and, despite this, their ancient fossil record is very scarce,” said paleobiol-ogist Corentin Loron of the University of Liège in Belgium, lead author of the research published in the journal Na-ture.

The microscopic fossils, contained in shale rock from the Northwest Ter-ritories of Canada, dated to the Prote-rozoic era before the advent of com-plex life forms.

The fossil record from that era “is still a mysterious jigsaw puzzle, and we just added a new piece to it,” Loron said.

In determining that the fossils were of fungi, the researchers identifi ed the presence of a fi brous substance called chitin in Ourasphaira’s cell walls, a key fungal characteristic. Chitin also is present in the durable exoskeletons of invertebrate animals such as insects and crustaceans.

“Of course, when talking about fun-gi, we think of poisonous mushrooms or mold that grows on food,” Loron said. “But fungi are also well known to help productivity in cultivated fi elds, for fermentation purposes like yeast in beer, or for their role in the digestive system - for example, in the rumen of cows - to help cellulose digestion.”

Also:OSLO: A surge of algae has killed an estimated 8 million salmon at Nor-

wegian fi sh farms over the past week, wiping out more than half of this year’s expected sales growth, the state-owned Norwegian Seafood Council said on Wednesday.

The algae, which has spread rapidly around the coast of northern Norway, sticks to the gills of the fi sh, suffocat-ing them. Wild fi sh can swim away from the algae belt while farmed fi sh is trapped.

Harmful algal blooms happen when the normally occurring aquatic plants grow out of control due to warm, still weather, among other factors. The al-gae is continuing to spread, the Norwe-gian Directorate of Fisheries said.

The Directorate of Fisheries said on Tuesday more than 10,000 tonnes of farmed salmon, with a sales price of some 620 million Norwegian crowns ($70 million), had perished, but Sea-food Council said the loss would be much greater.

“It’s too soon to say how big the losses will be for the producers. Pre-liminary numbers point to 8 million dead fi sh, corresponding to 40,000 tonnes of salmon that won’t reach mar-kets,” Seafood Council analyst Paul Aandahl said.

Norway, the world’s largest exporter of salmon, will likely see about half of the expected growth in salmon volumes wiped out this year as a result, and prices are likely to rise, said Lars Konrad Johnsen, analyst at Fearnleys.

Science

A female red wolf peers from within a tree trunk in its habitat at the Mu-seum of Life and Science in Durham, NC, on May 13. Confl icts over wolves have persisted since Europeans ar-rived in America. Bounties paid by early settlers gave way to government extermination campaigns as the ani-mals clashed with the agrarian way of

life. (AP)

Musk Inslee

SpaceX sues Air Force: Billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX accused the US Air Force of breaking contracting rules when it awarded money to three rocket makers but passed on Musk’s rival bid, and said the tender should be reopened, according to a court fi ling unsealed on Wednesday.

In the complaint, Space Exploration Technologies Corp said contracts were awarded for three “unbuilt, unfl own” rocket systems that would not be ready to fl y under the government’s timeline, “defeat-ing the very objectives” outlined by the Air Force’s program.

SpaceX asked the court to force the Air Force to reopen the $2.3 billion Launch Service Agreements competition and reconsider the Hawthorne, California-based company’s proposal.

The agreement is part of a Department of Defense initiative to assure constant military access to space and curb reliance on Russian-made RD-180 engines.

In the watershed race for dominance in the space industry, new entrants including SpaceX and billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, compete for lucrative contracts for military launch services. The arena has been long dominated by incumbents like Boeing Co-Lockheed Martin Corp’s United Launch Alliance (ULA).

ULA was granted $967 million under the program for developing its heavy-lift Vul-can rocket, Blue Origin won $500 million for its New Glenn rocket, and Northrop Grumman Corp was awarded $791.6 mil-lion for its OmegA rocket development.

In separate court fi lings this week, all three companies argued they should be parties to the lawsuit because of their direct fi nancial interest in its outcome.

A SpaceX spokesperson said the com-pany sued to “ensure a level playing fi eld for competition.”

Representatives for the Air Force and ULA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Blue Origin declined to comment.

SpaceX’s complaint was fi led with the US Court of Federal Claims last Friday under seal, along with a request for the court to keep the proceedings secret under a protective order, citing proprietary in-formation. A redacted complaint was fi led Wednesday.

SpaceX alleged the Air Force broke contracting rules on fi ve different counts

Discovery

In this April 4, 2013 fi le photo, a mechanized shovel loads a haul truck that can carry up to 250 tons of coal at the Spring Creek coal mine near Decker, Mont. Federal offi cials say the Trump administration’s decision to lift a moratorium on coal sales from public lands could hasten the release of more than 5 billion tons of greenhouse gasses. The report comes after a court ruled last month that the administration failed to consider the environmental effects of its resumption in 2017 of coal sales. A moratorium had been imposed under president Barack

Obama over worries about climate change. (AP)

and asked the court to halt deliveries of the award to the three companies and force a re-evaluation of the proposals.

The Air Force rejected a formal objec-tion from SpaceX in April regarding the terms of the awards. (RTRS)

❑ ❑ ❑

State legalises human composting: It saves space, cuts emissions and feeds plants - now human composting may go mainstream after Washington became the fi rst US state to legalise the transformation of human remains to nurturing soil.

The bill passed by wide margins and was signed into law on Tuesday by Washington state Governor Jay Inslee, a presidential candidate running on a climate ticket.

Its backers say “natural organic reduc-tion” is an eco-friendly alternative to burial or cremation, and has obvious benefi ts in urban areas with dwindling land avail-

ability.“Burial is problematic fi rst and foremost

because it’s land use. Cremation is prob-lematic because of greenhouse gas emis-sions and energy use. So what’s our next option?” said Katrina Spade, founder of Recompose, a Seattle-based company plan-ning to offer commercial services around organic reduction.

The Washington city has already passed a moratorium on building cemeteries be-cause offi cials say they are “not a good use of land”, Spade told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The process follows a longstanding tradition of farmers composting horses and livestock after they die, said Spade, who along with colleagues has been testing a method that would see a corpse put into an enclosed pod and covered in grasses.

Microbes already in the body heat the pod to about 150 degrees Fahrenheit (65

Celsius), she said, and in about a month, yield a cubic yard of soil (0.65 cubic m), which could be given to family or donated.

The drive to deal with dead bodies in new ways comes amid dwindling space in urban cemeteries.

On Wednesday, a British council said it plans to reclaim unused grave plots - where burial rights had been purchased but never used - and is also considering “grave recla-mation”, which involves reopening graves to intern new bodies.

Green burials have risen in popularity, with growing demand for caskets that bio-degrade and ceremonies that leave no trace.

Post-death traditions are quickly changing across the United States, and environmentally friendly options are “growing in popularity among consumers,” the National Funeral Directors Association said in an email.

According to a 2018 survey by the association, almost half of respondents ex-pressed interest in exploring green options.

One is known as a “natural” burial, in which a body is simply put into the ground in designated areas, casket-free.

But there are few designated zones in urban areas, said Spade, who sees organic reduction as the “urban conceptual equiva-lent for natural burial”. (RTRS)

❑ ❑ ❑

Dinosaur fossils unearthed: Construc-tion workers have unearthed fossils in a Denver suburb that experts say could be from a rare horned dinosaur.

The Denver Museum of Nature and Science said Monday that it is exploring the construction site near a retirement community in Highlands Ranch where a dinosaur’s lower leg bone and several ribs were found.

Fossil expert Natalie Toth told KDVR-TV the fossils could be from a torosaurus - a dinosaur similar to the triceratops but differentiated by three bones.

Toth says the fossils seem to be intact, so crews are hoping to uncover the entire dinosaur.

The fossils are embedded in a 66- to 68-million-year-old rock layer.

Toth says fossils in the Denver forma-tion are from dinosaurs that were among the last “walking around before the big extinction.” (AP)

Featu

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Featu

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Actresses Luana Bajrami (from left), Noemie Merlant, director Celine Sciamma, actresses Adele Haenel and Valeria Golino pose for photographers at the photo call for the film ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ at the 72nd international film festival, Cannes, southern France, on May 20. (AP)

A one idea movie

Cool concept lost in execution in Yarovesky’s ‘Brightburn’By Lindsey Bahr

‘Brightburn’ is a one idea movie. What if a baby from another planet crash lands on earth and is adopted and raised by a

nice childless couple living on a farm? This kid doesn’t get hurt, never bleeds and, right around puberty starts to discover that he has superhuman strength too. At this point you’re probably think-ing that you’ve heard this one before, right? Sure, everyone knows about Superman. But “Brightburn” twists that hero origin story and wonders what would happen if this alien child was not a good per-son. This is a kind of bad seed with superhero powers and it doesn’t bode well for all those around him.

It’s an interesting premise, certainly, but the movie around it is wholly unexceptional and rushes through key set up that might make the audience actually care for the characters in order to get to the sadistic gore.

The fi lm introduces Tori (Elizabeth Banks) and Kyle Breyer (Da-vid Denman) in their bedroom, surrounded by fertility books and talking about conceiving when a fi ery object crash-lands in their fi eld. The fi lmmakers must assume everyone coming in knows the basic premise because it does nothing to help explain, cutting im-

mediately to grainy home videos showing a little boy growing up surrounded by love. By this point you feel about as attached to the Breyer family as you might the family in a cereal commercial.

SmartWhen the montage ends, Brandon Breyer (Jackson A. Dunn) is

about to turn 12. He’s a smart kid, far beyond those in his class, and he knows it. Although an outsider with his peers, the positive rein-forcement he receives from his teacher, his mom and a pretty girl in his class go to his head and he starts believing he’s superior to everyone. So you can only imagine what happens when a strength component and some demonic voices are added to the mix - a super villain is born, and he is not messing around.

This kid goes from a little quirky to supremely evil and merci-less in no time at all. But this is a frustrating evolution to watch, especially considering all the denial that’s happening around him. When the adults are witness to some of the disturbing behavior, they chalk it up to puberty. And Tori gets the most thankless job of all as the mother whose unconditional love and support for her son quickly becomes a full on character fl aw, since the fi lm has never really earned the audience’s empathy.

“Brightburn” was conceived by Brian Gunn and Mark Gunn, the

brother and cousin of “Guardians of the Galaxy” maestro James Gunn who hopped aboard to produce with David Yarovesky, another Gunn friend, at the helm. Much is being made of James Gunn’s association, naturally, because of the goodwill he’s right-fully earned from the endlessly charming “Guardians” franchise. But none of that charm exists here. This is a return to the gritty, sci-fi horror he came of age with.

But there’s not much to grab on to, as the situation in Bright-burn, which is the name of the town, devolves from bad to worse to entirely hopeless. And the excessive gore and carnage is de-ranged. The faint at heart might want to go in with an empty stomach, or a blindfold and some ear plugs for when things get really gnarly.

Perhaps I’m expecting too much from a high-concept summer horror, but I couldn’t help but think of how well a fi lm like “He-reditary” (which was also very bleak) did in making you care about the family at the center of it. It’s too bad, too, because “Brightburn” was a good idea. Unfortunately the creativity stopped there.

“Brightburn,” a Sony Pictures release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for “horror violence/bloody im-ages, and language.” Running time: 90 minutes. One and a half stars out of four. (AP)

LOS ANGELES: Warner Bros has pushed back the release of “DC Super Pets” back a year, avoiding opening against “John Wick 4.”

The studio announced Wednesday that “Super Pets” would be moved from May 21, 2021 to May 22, 2022.

“Super Pets,” based on the Cartoon Network shorts, is di-rected by Jared Stern and Sam Levine with Patty Hicks as the producer. The characters include Ace the Bat-Hound, Krypto the Super-Dog, and Streaky the Super-Cat.

Meanwhile, RLJE Films has acquired the action-thriller “Into the Ashes,” starring Luke Grimes, Robert Taylor, James Badge Dale and Frank Grillo.

“Ashes,” written and directed by Aaron Harvey, will be re-leased in theaters and on demand on July 19. Grimes will portray a former criminal who has tried to escape from his past, but has to deal with his former crew taking what he values the most – his wife. (RTRS)

❑ ❑ ❑

LOS ANGELES: Spanish produc-er-turned director Chelo Loureiro of Galicia’s Abano Producions has teamed with Spanish multi-hy-phenate Emilio Aragon at Caribe Music to produce the upcoming animated feature “Valentina.”

Valentina turns on a girl who is tired of having Down syndrome, and believes it to be the reason she’ll never be a trapeze artiste. But Valentina’s grandmother tells her that if a caterpillar can become a beautiful butterfl y, nothing is impossible. As a matter of fact, Valentina’s grandma wants to become a orchestra conductor and hasn’t given up that dream.

A celebrated Spanish TV showman and director-producer, Emilio Aragon was born in Cuba and worked as a popular clown in the late ‘70s, was a co-founder of TV series production house Globomedia in the ‘90s, directed the dramedy “Pajaros de papel” (Paper Birds), wrote the musical score for the fi lm, and recently produced Spanish hit TV drama “Pulsaciones” (Lifeline).

Aragon has also composed several songs for “Valentina.” A major producer on the Galician animation scene, Loureiro’s

productions include Miguelanxo Prado’s “De Profundis” and Pe-dro Rivero’s “Animal Crisis,” shorts such as Juan Pablo Etch-everry’s “The Biggest Flower in the World,” Luis da Matta Almeida and Julio Vanzeler’s “O Gigante” and Manane Rodriguez’s live action feature “Breadcrumbs.” (RTRS)

❑ ❑ ❑

LOS ANGELES: Rolling off the success of “Serial (Bad) Wed-dings 2,” Romain Rojtman is reteaming with UGC and Orange Studio on the the third opus of France’s comedy B.O. hit franchise.

“Serial (Bad) Weddings 2” was released on Jan 30 and grossed over 45 million euros from 7 million admissions in

France, breaking a four-year record for a local language fi lm. The movie is currently having a theatrical roll-out in several countries, including Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada.

The franchise centers on the Verneuil family, an upper-class couple (Christian Clavier and Chantal Lauby) from a

French province and their three daughters who have married men of different faiths. Rojt-man, who is producing “Serial (Bad) Weddings” for Les Films du 24 and UGC Images, said the project’s plot will have a greater international appeal than the second opus, notably through the characters of the in-laws. (RTRS)

Cannes

Variety

Film

Sciamma’s fi lm hailed as a masterpiece

‘Lady on Fire’ sends Cannes swooningBy Jake Coyle

Since her shimmering, shattering period romance “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” premiered to raptur-

ous acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival, its direc-tor Céline Sciamma has had some time to consider the passionate response.

“I think it’s because it’s a love story,” Sciamma said in an interview on a sunny terrace in Cannes. “You can get some love back. It’s kind of beauti-ful, actually.”

The French fi lmmaker’s movie has arguably provoked more ardor than anything else in Cannes. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” has been hailed as a masterpiece not just for the tender relationship it depicts between the young painter Marianne (Noémie Merlant) and her portrait subject, Heloise (Adéle Haenel), in 18th century France, but for its resonate and acutely contemporary portrait of fe-male identity as refl ected in art.

In the fi lm, Marianne has been hired by Heloise’s mother to paint her daughter’s portrait for her mar-riage to a Milanese man she’s never met. Heloise, a fi ercely independent young woman, resents both the wedding and the portrait, so Marianne, posing as a companion, must steal glances to capture her. It’s a movie built subversively through looks and glimpses. A love develops, one seen and rendered through a woman’s eyes.

Sciamma was inspired to make the fi lm by for-gotten women who painted, mostly other women, in the 1700s. For her, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is about reclaiming the past lives and art of women.

“There was no transmission of our memory, and art is about portraying life,” she says. “We’ve been cut off of our intimacy because we’ve not been told our story. I’ve missed those images. They’ve been missing from my life.”

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is likewise a movie that had been missing. Like Marianne and Heloise,

Sciamma, 40, is seeking new imagery of women’s lives.

“It’s an opportunity for new sensations in the theaters, a new excitement, new journeys,” says Sciamma. “It’s a reservoir of emotions, new but-tons that will be pushed.”

Sciamma is a founder of the collective 50/50x2020, the French sister group to Time’s Up, which has pressed the French fi lm industry and Cannes to improve gender equality. Sciamma has been coming to Cannes since 2007 when her debut, “Water Lilies,” also a coming-of-age tale where paintings plays a role, screened in the festival’s Un Certain Regard section.

Transparency But she was last here to help 50/50x2020 organ-

ize a demonstration in 2018 on the Cannes red-carpet steps and to get Cannes artistic director Thierry Fré-maux to sign a pledge for parity and transparency in its selection process. The festival this year for the fi rst time released gender statistics on its submissions. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is one of four out of 21 fi lms in Cannes’ main lineup directed by a woman, a number that ties Cannes’ previous high.

Asked whether her art and activism are linked, Sciamma responds: “I have no choice. To me, life and activism are connected.”

In the 72 years of Cannes, female directors have seldom appeared in competition, and no female fi lmmaker has ever outright won the festival’s prestigious top honor, the Palme d’Or. In 1993, Jane Campion’s “The Piano” won the Palme in a tie with Chen Kaige’s “Farewell My Concubine.”

This year, Sciamma could go from protester to Palme d’Or winner.

“It’s not about what it means to me. It would mean a lot for a lot of people. That would be the most important,” she says. “It wouldn’t belong to me that much.”

The Palme will be decided by the jury presided over by Alejandro Iñárritu in an awards ceremony Saturday. “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” is already rid-ing high, though. On Wednesday, it was acquired by Neon and Hulu, with plans for a fall release in North America and a robust awards campaign. Even one of the other fi lmmakers in competition in Cannes, the Canadian fi lmmaker Xavier Dolan, hailed the fi lm as “magnifi cent.”

“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” was made with a fe-male producer, cinematographer, fi rst-assistant di-rector, costume designer, make-up artist and others. Walking the red carpet, they collectively cut a sel-dom, if ever, seen image in Cannes. Sciamma calls “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” a kind of culmination.

“In a way, it sums it all,” she says. “It feels full. It feels like home.”

Also:CANNES: Russian director Fedor Bondarchuk and his Art Pictures Studio have released the English-subbed teaser to “Attraction 2,” the sequel to Bond-archuk’s 2017 sci-fi blockbuster, which Variety has acquired exclusively.

The director behind record-breaking Russian fi lms such as World War II epic “Stalingrad” was in Cannes this week, where he presented footage from Art Pictures’ slate of upcoming releases at an invitation-only event.

“Attraction 2” is the follow-up to the sci-fi ac-tioner in which Moscow becomes the battleground for all-out war against an army of alien invaders. In the sequel, an alien spaceship crash lands in Mos-cow, and an ordinary girl gains superpowers that make her the focus of study in secret government labs. But it’s not only the humans who are interest-ed in her new powers, and she will have to decide which side she is on.

Art Pictures Studio will release the fi lm in Russia on Jan 1, 2020. (Agencies)

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People & Places

NEWS/FEATURESARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

10

Film

Tarantino docu scores

Pitt, DiCaprio talk QT’slove letter to H’woodCANNES, France, May 23, (Agencies): Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio said they forged a “cinematic bond” making Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time a Time ... in Hollywood,” while Tarantino bris-tled at the suggestion at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday that Margot Robbie’s Sharon Tate isn’t primary enough in the fi lm.

“Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood” made its splashy premiere Tuesday evening at Cannes, 25 years after Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” debuted at the French Riviera festival, where it went on to win the Palme d’Or. Tarantino’s latest is about an actor (DiCaprio) in TV Westerns and his stunt double (Pitt) in 1960s Los Angeles, set against the backdrop of the Manson family murders.

It’s the fi rst time DiCaprio and Pitt have made a feature together, though the two co-starred in a 2015 short directed by Martin Scorsese. They both suggested it might not be the last.

“There was an incredible ease and comfort getting to work alongside Brad. We kind of grew up in the same genera-tion, got our start around the same time,” said DiCaprio. “We together forged, hopeful-

ly, a great cinematic bond in a fi lm about our industry together.”

Opposite Pitt concurred. “It’s that thing of knowing you’ve

got the best-of-the-best on the opposite side of the ta-ble holding up the scene with you,” he said. “I hope we get to do it again.”

The anticipation and glamour of “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood” brought a frenzy unlike any-thing else has to this year’s Cannes. Festival artistic director Thierry Fremaux had desperately sought its inclusion. The fi lm was a late addition after Tarantino was able to fi nish post-production work in time.

The stakes have been high for Sony Pictures, which gave Tarantino a $95 million budget to make what DiCaprio called “his love letter to the industry.” On Wednesday, Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman sat front row as Tarantino and his cast spoke to reporters.

Tarantino was made a free agent in Hollywood after the downfall of his regular producer, Harvey Weinstein. The director has previously acknowledged knowing about some of the accusations against Wein-stein for years, saying: “I knew enough to do more than I did.”

Tarantino made no mention on Wednesday of Weinstein or the controversy last year involving Uma Thurman. The actress said an unsafe stunt on “Kill Bill” left her neck and knees permanently damaged. Tarantino later apologized, calling the incident “the biggest regret of my life.”

He was, though, asked about his feelings toward di-rector Roman Polanski, who was Tate’s husband at the time of the Manson family murders. Played by Rafal Zawierucha, Polanski is seen only sparingly in “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood.” Tarantino previously defended Polanski for having sexing with a 13-year-old girl, telling Howard Stern in 2003 that she “wanted to have it.” On Wednesday, Tarantino said only that he’s a deep admirer of Polanski’s “Rosemary’s Baby.” He said he didn’t consult Polanski on the new fi lm.

The tensest moment for Tarantino came when a New York Times reporter asked why an actress as tal-ented as Robbie had relatively few lines in the fi lm. Robbie’s Tate is largely a side narrative in the movie, which focuses on her fi ctional neighbors (DiCaprio and Pitt).

“I just reject your hypotheses,” Tarantino retorted curtly. Robbie gave a fuller defense, calling her Tate “a ray of light.” She said Tarantino referred to her character as “the heartbeat of the story.”

“The moments that I got gave the opportunity to honor Sharon,” she said. “I did feel like I got a lot of time to explore the character even without dialogue, specifi cally.”

When another reporter asked Tarantino if he ever had any hesitation about turning a real-life tragedy into a movie, he replied, simply: “Um, no.”

“Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood,” which opens in US theaters on July 26, has been met with largely good reviews in Cannes, with critics calling it a nos-talgic ode to a bygone Hollywood.

Asked if he would have rather made movies in 1969 than now, Tarantino said: “I prefer any time before cell phones.”

Also:LOS ANGELES: Wood Entertainment has completed sales for France, Germany, Turkey, Italy and Rus-sia for “QT8: The First Eight,” a documentary that chronicles Quentin Tarantino’s fi rst eight fi lms.

The fi rst buyers’ screening took place on Sunday at the Cannes Film Festival. Tarantino’s ninth fi lm, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” premiered at Cannes on Tuesday night.

Producer Tara Wood completed “QT8: The First Eight” after a protracted legal battle to regain the rights following a production deal with the Weinstein Company back in 2016. The screening in Cannes was the fi rst time potential distributors saw the fi nal cut of the fi lm.

The documentary profi les Tarantino’s fi rst eight movies through interviews with his casts, producers and industry friends, including Zoe Bell, Bruce Dern, Robert Forster, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Diane Kruger, Lucy Liu, Michael Madsen, Eli Roth, Tim Roth, Kurt Russell and Christoph Waltz, plus producers Stacey Sher and Richard Gladstein, fi lmmaker Scott Spiegel, and fi lm critic Louis Black.

Wood also produced “21 Years: Richard Linklat-er,” which was released in 2014, and had originally called the Tarantino documentary “21 Years: Quentin Tarantino.” Both fi lms draw upon the idea that the fi rst 21 years of work defi ne an artist’s career.

Wood’s battle began three years ago when she sold worldwide rights to the Weinstein Company in a deal announced at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival with Harvey Weinstein’s enthusiastic endorsement. Harvey and Bob Weinstein began working with Tar-antino three decades ago on “Reservoir Dogs” and had partnered with the director on all of his projects – until the company shut down last year in the wake of an onslaught of sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein.

Wood said production meetings with TWC on the project stopped in October 2016, and the company was uncommunicative after that. When the sexual misconduct scandal broke, Wood asked TWC to re-turn the distribution rights “to allow the project to be handled with the care and consideration it, Mr. Taran-tino and all the participants deserve.”

Pitt

This image released by Annapurna Pictures shows Beanie Feldstein (left), and Kaitlyn Dever in a scene from the fi lm ‘Booksmart,’ directed by Olivia Wilde. (AP)

A winning fi lm boasts many breakthroughs

In ‘Booksmart,’ teen comedy revolutionBy Jake Coyle

The insanely winning “Booksmart” boasts too many breakthroughs to

count. There are the two leads, Kait-lyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein, both of whom we’ve seen before but not like this. There is the director, Olivia Wilde, whose debut behind the camera is remarkably assured. And then there is the teen comedy genre, itself, which “Booksmart” has blown wide open.

You can tell a lot by a movie’s fi rst minutes. In “Booksmart,” you know that the smile on your face isn’t likely to leave from the fi rst moment that Molly (Feldstein) is picked up by Amy (Dever) for their last day of high school. Without a beat but out of pure enthusi-asm for each other, they awkwardly but confi dently pop and lock their way into the street. The party that is “Booksmart” has already begun.

From “Porky’s” to “American Pie,” the high-school comedy has tradition-ally been ruled by ups and downs of male conquest. Yet that’s been chang-ing at least since “Clueless.” Recently, Kelly Fremon Craig’s “The Edge of Seventeen,” Marielle Heller’s “The Di-ary of a Teenage Girl” and Greta Ger-wig’s “Lady Bird” have pushed movies about teens in enthralling new direc-tions, delving deeper into parenthood, friendship and the pains of coming-of-age with indelible female protagonists who exist well outside of the genre’s prescribed archetypes.

“Booksmart” feels like a victory lap in that evolution. Having spent their high-school years studying and pre-paring to launch their ambitious lives, Molly, the class president, is headed to Yale and Amy to Columbia. With RBG and Michelle Obama photos on her wall, Molly plans to be on the Supreme

Court. But when they approach who they assume to be the deadbeats of their Crockett High School in Los Angeles ready to fl aunt their sterling futures, it’s a rude awakening. They, too, are head-ed for Ivy league schools or, at worst, a primo job at Google. “You guys don’t even care about school,” Molly pro-tests. “No, we just don’t only care about school,” one replies.

With one last night to reverse course, the two friends embark on last/fi rst hur-rah, trying to cram a year’s worth of partying into one night rather than go through with their original plans for the evening: watching Ken Burns’ “The Dust Bowl.”

OdysseyNot being pros at it, though, they

spend much of the movie – penned by Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins and Katie Silberman – on an eventful odyssey just trying to fi nd the popular-kids party and, hopefully, run-ning into their long-concealed crushes: the popular vice-president Nick (Mason Gooding) for Molly; a smiley skater girl name Ryan (Victoria Ruesga) for Amy.

The plot line won’t startle anyone for its originality, but its vitality will. Wilde is especially good at sketching out the girls’ classmates. It’s a diverse and colorful spectrum of characters, the sort of fashionable and hip kids you might see at LA’s Hollywood High. Among the many standouts: Skyler Gisondo, as a rich kid without friends; Nico Hiraga as another skater kid; and Molly Gor-don, whose character’s reputation has earned her the nickname Triple A, as in “roadside assistance.”

It could be argued that by divesting itself of the kind of “Breakfast Club” stereotypes, “Booksmart” has sapped itself of the kind of confl ict that exists

in every high-school hallway. No one turns out to be so bad. It’s full of that graduation feeling where old grudges slip away. Rivals become friends, or even lovers.

But from that rude awakening scene onward, Wilde’s movie is about how none of the people around us are neces-sarily who we think they are. One after another, the movie disarms superfi cial assumptions. Clichés get comically stripped away and real people step for-ward. It’s a blast.

Along the way, Wilde rides the night’s ebbs and fl ows to the thumping score of Dan the Automator, sometimes widening the view to the larger ensem-ble (also here are Jessica Williams and Jason Sudeikis), but always returning to the relationship between Molly and Amy. It’s a sweetly sincere bond they have, complete with their own code word. In a time of need, either can in-voke their hero, the young Pakistani ac-tivist Malala Yousafzai, to demand the other’s absolute faithfulness.

And Dever and Feldstein are just incredibly good company. Feldstein, whose brother Jonah Hill was part of another excellent teen comedy (“Su-perbad”), has the show-stopping perfor-mance but even better is the more dead-pan Dever. Just like their characters, they have big futures in store.

Every generation gets their own last-day-of-school romp to replay over and over. If “Booksmart” is the movie for this era, well, lucky kids. I call Malala. Go see “Booksmart.” “Booksmart,” a United Artists release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for strong sexual content and language throughout, drug use and drinking, all involving teens. Running time: 105 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four. (AP)

Film

Director Arnaud Desplechin (from left), actors Lea Seydoux and Rosch-dy Zem pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the fi lm ‘Oh Mercy’ at the 72nd international fi lm festival, Cannes, southern France, on

May 22. (AP)

Craig Rihanna

LOS ANGELES: Daniel Craig will undergo ankle surgery after sustaining an injury while fi lming “Bond 25.”

“Daniel Craig will be undergoing minor ankle surgery resulting from an injury sustained during fi lming in Jamaica,” the franchise’s offi cial Twitter account posted. “Production will continue whilst Craig is re-habilitating for two weeks post-surgery. The fi lm remains on track for the same release date in April 2020.”

According to the Sun, the actor fell earlier this month while sprinting on the set of the latest James Bond fi lm.

“He was sprinting during fi lming when he slipped and fell quite awkwardly,” a source told the British tabloid. “He was in quite a lot of pain and was complaining about his ankle.”

News of the injury fi rst emerged earlier this month, when production in Jamaica was delayed after the 51-year-old Craig reportedly was hurt while fi lming an action sequence.

The news does not appear to be a major setback for the yet-to-be-titled “Bond 25.” Original director Danny Boyle exited last August over creative differences, which led to the fi lm’s release being delayed nearly six months from October 2019 to April 2020.

“Bond 25” will now be directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and co-stars Oscar-winner Rami Malek, Ana De Armas, Lashana Lynch, David Dencik, Billy Magnussen, Dali Benssalah, Lea Seydoux, Jeffrey Wright, Ben Whishaw, Rory Kinnear, Naomie Harris and Ralph Fiennes. Along with shooting in Jamaica, it’s set to shoot in locations including London, Italy and Norway. (RTRS)

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MELBOURNE: Australian actor Geoffrey Rush has been awarded a A$2.8 million ($1.9 million) defamation payment against a News Corp tabloid, the largest defamation payout in Australian history, after it accused him in reports of inappropriate behaviour.

Australia’s Federal Court ordered that an Australian arm of News Corp pay the Oscar-

Variety

Actress Sara Forestier (from left), director Arnaud Desplechin and actress Lea Sey-doux pose for photographers at the photo call for the fi lm ‘Oh Mercy’ at the 72nd

international fi lm festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 23. (AP)

winning actor A$1.98 million for past and future economic loss, in addition to an initial A$850,000 payment awarded in April, court documents showed on Thursday.

A News Corp spokeswoman did not im-mediately respond to emailed and telephoned requests for comment. Rush’s lawyer declined to comment.

Rush, 67, had said the articles in the Daily

Telegraph of Sydney were hastily compiled because the newspaper had wanted an Australian angle on accusations of sexual assault levelled at US fi lm producer Harvey Weinstein. (RTRS)

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PARIS: Rihanna, the fi rst black woman in history to head up a major Parisian luxury

house, is unveiling her fi rst fashion designs for Fenty at a pop-up store in Paris.

The collection, named after the singer-turned-designer’s last name, comprises ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, and eyewear and is available for sale Paris’ Le Marais area from Friday and will debut online May 29.

“This is a moment in history,” Rihanna, 31, said at a preview of the store in a white structure tuxedo dress. “It’s a big deal for me and my entire generation.”

News of the singer’s groundbreaking new deal with LVMH, the world’s largest luxury group, shook up the fashion industry earlier this month. The Barbados-born star’s lines are the second time LVMH has created an original brand.

But the move also acknowledges the fashion industry of today considers a major popstar can have as much to say in fashion design as established and trained design-ers such as Nicolas Ghesquiere of Louis Vuitton, or even the lauded Alber Elbaz, formerly of Lanvin, who is out of work.

Fenty has been heralded by some critics as the fi rst major house of the Instagram age.

Fenty says the brand will be based in Paris, like its parent company, conglomer-ate LVMH, but will operate from a digital fl agship on a “See-Now-Wear-Now” model forgoing to usual luxury fashion seasonal previewed designs.

It’s expected to capitalize on the acclaim received by her most popular luxury venture Fenty Beauty line in 2017 - which some said revolutionized the makeup industry by cel-ebrating diversity by showcasing foundations in 40 shades. (RTRS)

ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

11

h o r o s c o p eBy Jacqueline Bigar

Happy birthday for Friday, May 24, 2019: This year, you follow the unusual path. You could opt to travel or become more worldly. You might read more or meet a foreigner who has an impact on you. If you’re sin-gle, you will want to grow with the person you choose. He or she might be very differ-ent from you. If you’re attached, the two of you fi nally decide to schedule a special trip. Aquarius opens mental doors for you.

The Stars Show the Kind of Day You’ll Have: 5-Dynamic; 4-Positive; 3-Average; 2-So-so; 1-Diffi cult.

Capricorn - (Dec 22 - Jan 19)

**** Loosen up the bonds between you and a loved one. You could feel as if you do not have a choice, but you need to give the other party a greater sense of freedom. Your

sense of humor emerges toward the end of the day. Tonight: Avoid confusion; confi rm plans.

Aquarius - (Jan 20 - Feb 18)

***** You seem to have a certain magic and draw others to you. In general, you could feel as if there is no choice but the present one. Today you will see otherwise. Be more upbeat than in the recent past. Stay on top of your email and calls. Tonight: Let the party begin.

Pisces - (Feb 19 - Mar 20)

*** Handle a personal matter directly. How you feel and what you do could change radically. Your sense of humor might give you some distance for a problem. You will see this issue differently in the next few days. Tonight: Quiet and intimate works.

Aries - (Mar 21 - Apr 19)

**** Be easygoing when dealing with friends. A lot of talk surrounds a friend. Be more optimistic than usual as you make fun plans for the weekend. Note a sense of indul-gence that could come into play as soon as lunch. Tonight: Out and about.

Taurus - (Apr 20 - May 20)

**** Back out of a conversation involv-ing your professional life. You could cause a problem that might need to be dealt with almost immediately. A boss might be more than aware of your actions. Tonight: A force to be dealt with.

Gemini - (May 21 - June 20)

**** Reach out for a loved one or some-one you often have lively discussions with.

You do not need to agree, but you learn a lot from each other. A sense of mutual respect exists between you. Confusion surrounds plans. Tonight: You cannot be ignored.

Cancer - (June 21 - July 22)

**** You gain if you keep your conversa-tions on a one-on-one level. Your ability to get past a problem is highlighted. You might make plans to get together with a friend. Know that you will catch up with this person on the weekend. Tonight: Accept an invita-tion out.

Leo - (July 23 - Aug 22)

*** Be willing to take action if someone starts getting upset or if a misunderstanding comes up out of the blue. You will be able to bypass a problem if you do. Indulgence seems to be the theme at present. Tonight: The only answer is yes.

Virgo - (Aug 23 - Sept 22)

*** Pace yourself. Keep your emotions out of a situation. You will see this matter in a different light soon enough. Stay open to possibilities. Clear your desk and complete today’s work. You will feel much freer than you do now. Tonight: Kickback. TGIF.

Libra - (Sept 23 - Oct 22)

**** You could be in a situation that demands unusual creativity and dynamic thinking. Your ability to get past a problem is highlighted. You might want to rethink a decision with more care. Listen to news with a grain of salt. Tonight: Stay sensitive to a friend who might be singing about a case of the blues.

Scorpio - (Oct 23 - Nov 21)

**** Be aware of what needs to hap-pen in order for you to feel more se-cure. Your domestic life becomes more important, as a partner could be more volatile than usual. He or she might be going through unusual changes and might be having difficulty adjusting. Tonight: Make it an early night.

Sagittarius - (Nov 22 - Dec 21)

**** Clear your mind and say exactly what you are thinking. You could feel as if a change is inevitable. Process a personal matter by simply discussing what is on your mind and how you feel. Tonight: Honor a fast change of pace.

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Born today: Singer/songwriter Bob Dylan (1941), singer Patti LaBelle (1944), actress/businesswoman Priscilla Presley (1945)

home decor indoor gardening beauty tips taste buds

nautical rope display coelogyne marmorata home foot spa peach melbaCreate a marine theme with rope and twine. To create a vignette like this, cut and coil lengths of rope in glass vessels to showcase their natural tones and coarse textures. An oversized fishbowl pairs nicely with a length of chunky sisal, while a narrower hurricane shows off loops of twine.

Call it coiled rope art or the art of displaying rope. Bold and modern! The tone of the color, the shape and textures make a great nautical state-ment.

Coelogyne marmorata is commonly known as Marbled Coelogyne is found in the Philippines. It is named Marbled Coelogyne referring to the marbled side lobes of the lip. The fragrant waxy flowers have a elongate pseudobulbs enveloped by several, dry, membranous sheaths.

Site: Plants are usually grown in baskets. Plant grows in intermediate to warm temperatures with partial shade.

Temperature: Can get down to 2C (36F) in winter, and up to 35°C (95°F) in summer.

Water: In winter this would only get watered once a week, and in summer 4 times with misting on really hot days to cool the air.

Step 1. Melt 4 bars of paraffin wax in the micro-wave oven; Step 2. Massage in a rich moisturizer; Step 3. Dip one foot into warm paraffin 3 times, pausing between layers to allow them to dry; Step 4. Wrap each foot with plastic wrap tight enough to make an airtight seal. This will help the moistur-izer to penetrate; Step 5. Let set for twenty min-utes; Step 6. Remove wrap and peel off the wax.

Ingredients: 1 punnet of raspberries; low fat cus-tard; 2 fresh peaches, sliced; 4 -6 ramekin dishes

Method: Place the custard into a saucepan, bring to the boil and stir, then simmer for 5 min-utes. Meanwhile divide the raspberries equally. Pour the custard over the raspberries and leave to cool then transfer to the fridge for an hour until the custard is chilled. Decorate with sliced peach-es.

Dear Abby what’s on todaywhat’s on today emergency number 112

Civil ID info: 1889988Site for checking travel ban www.kuwaitcourts.gov.kw/mojweb/NGeneral/Main.jsp

FRIDAY

■ St Paul’s Church weekly activities: English worship services on Fridays at 10.30 am and on Sundays at 6.30 pm. The Friday English service has separate sessions for children and youth. A Man-darin language speaking congregations meets separately on Fridays at 10.30 am in the Youth Centre at St Paul’s. A com-bined service with the English and Man-darin language congregations is held on the first Friday of every month. A family service is held on the second Friday of every month with presentations from dif-ferent organs of the church. The Church of Pakistan has services in English every Thursday at St Paul’s at 5.35 pm and for Urdu language speaking members every Friday at Diwaniya of the NECK Centre, Kuwait City at 5.45 pm. Please contact Fr Michael Mbona on mobile 65960781 or call at Church house on 23985929 or email to chaplain@stpaulskuwait.com or mrmbona@gmail.com For Mandarin speaking congregation contact Revd Zhu Peijin on 99551783 and her email address is greenolivettc@hotmail.com

Contact person: Fr Michael Mbona Mobile: 65960781 Email: mrmbona@gmail.com

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■ Arnis/Eskrima training: Eskrimador-Kuwait a member of Cacoy Doce Pares World Federation now opens a new batch of training. Learn the Philippine national sports, which is Arnis/Eskrima with the authentic style and techniques. Training schedule will be every Friday from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm @ Kaifan Sports Complex-Karate Gym. Text or call #50292148-Herms.

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■ Free IFRA coaching classes: Indian Football Referees Association (IFRA) will be starting free refresher/coaching classes for existing referees, new recruits, those aspiring to be referees and even those who would like to learn about the laws of the game at IEAS – Salmiya (Don Bosco).

Classes will be from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm every Friday. Those interested may call 99519439 or get in touch with any IFRA member for registration.

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■ FBC tournament: Filipino Badminton Committee (FBC) is inviting all badmin-ton enthusiast in Kuwait to join their regular badminton tournament being held every Friday from 8 am to 7 pm at

Kuwait Disabled Sports Club, Bin Khaldoun Hawalli. Over 10 badminton courts are now available for badminton practices and tournament and it is open for all nationalities and from different badminton organizations. Exclusive-private court are also available on per hour rental. For more information, please contact Dr Chie Umandap – 97197268

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■ UBC badminton tourney: United Badminton Club (UBC) is inviting all players and enthusiast of all nationalities to join their badminton tournament every Friday from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. UBC offers 10 badminton courts for their tour-naments, where an exciting price awaits

to the winners. And not just that, they also have raffle prizes for those who joined their tournaments. UBC also allowing exclusive badminton courts for hourly rentals. UBC is a newly-formed badminton club located at Street 9, Block 3, Fahaheel Sports Club, Fahaheel, Ahmadi Al Asimah Kuwait headed by Dennis Romeo Malay and Jimmy Carandang. For more information please contact the following number 6566753.

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■ ENK’s worship service: Every Nation Kuwait (ENK) invites you to our Worship Service every Friday, 9 am at Royal King Palace Restaurant, Kuwait City. Pls con-tact: 99248990 for more details.

SATURDAY

■ Creating an Exhibition workshop: Join this ‘man’, a dozen other South Arabian objects, four trainers, and a host of like-minded individuals for Creating an Exhibition Workshop by Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, in cooperation with the UNDP from May 25 through June 1, 2019.

With support from the UNDP, the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah has brought together four exceptional scholars, each with special skills and unique perspec-tives on exhibition development and implementation. Over the course of a week, you are invited to work with each of these scholars in hands-on workshops designed to provide practical experience in each skill.

In addition, throughout the process you will enjoy informal lessons on South Arabian history from the 7th century BCE to the dawn of Islam. The scholars, all steeped in the history of the region, will share their knowledge as they share the stories being told in the new exhibition to open Spring 2020.

Please note: With the exception of Dr Leila Ali Aquil’s sessions which will be held in Arabic, the training will be done in English.

Agenda – May 25, 2019, Yarmouk Cultural Centre (Bold)

09:30 – 09:45 – Registration09:45 – 10:00 – Welcome 10:00 – 11:15 – How to ‘See and Read

Objects’ by Dr Leila Ali Aquil and How to ‘See and Read Objects’ by Dr Christian Robin

11:15 – 12:30 – Exhibition Curation by Dr Sabina Antonini

12:30 – 12:45 – Break 12:45 – 02:00 – Exhibition Curation

(continued) by Dr Sabina Antonini 02:00 – 03:00 – Daily review and

homework assigned by all Agenda – May 26-May 30, 2019,

Yarmouk Cultural Centre (Bold)09:45 – 10:00 – Arrival 10:00 – 11:15 – How to ‘See and Read

Objects’ by Dr Leila Ali Aquil (Arabic) and How to ‘See and Read Objects’ by Dr Christian Robin (English)

11:15 – 12:30 – Exhibition Curation by Dr Sabina Antonini

12:30 – 12:45 – Break 12:45 – 02:00 – Exhibition Design by

Architect Roberto Fabbri 02:00 – 03:00 – Daily review and

homework assigned by all Agenda – June 1, 2019, Field Trip to

Amricani Cultural Centre (Bold)09:45 – 10:00 – Arrival 10:00 – 03:00 – Exhibition Design by

Architect Roberto FabbriTo sign up, please e-mail info@dar-

museum.org.kw

Items for the What’s On page can be sent directly to the Arab Times, P.O. Box 2270, 13023, Safat or faxed to 24818267 or e-mail to arabtimes@arabtimesonline.com. All items on this page are published as a courtesy to the public. These announcements can include birthday greetings, weddings, social functions or any other non-commercial events. Photographs of all events are wel-come.

Family won’t stop remindingwoman of ‘failed’ marriage

By Abigail Van Buren

Dear Abby: I married when I was in my early 20s and stayed married for four years. It has been five years since my divorce. We had no children, and I haven’t had contact with my ex. The problem is, my family won’t stop bringing him up. My sis-ter is being married soon, so they constantly dis-cuss my wedding.

I didn’t live near my family before the divorce, so they don’t know how bad my marriage really was. I didn’t tell them because I don’t think it’s their business. They didn’t like him, but they don’t know all of my reasons for getting divorced. I have moved on with my life.

I recently moved back to be near my family, which I regret now because they can’t let go of my past. I have changed a lot in the time that I lived away from them. I worked my way through college and dealt with a genetic, life-threatening health issue (hospital stays included), all without their support. Since then, I have focused on my career, my health, self-care and my happiness. I’m proud of

myself and have made only positive changes since my divorce.

I have told my family I don’t appreciate their constantly bringing up my failed marriage and my sister’s wedding all the time, but they continue to do so. They say they don’t understand why it both-ers me. Am I overreacting? How do I establish boundaries with them about this? As of now, I’m spending less time with them in order to stay focused on my life goals.

– Keeping in the past Dear Keeping: You shouldn’t blame your

relatives for something they don’t know – spe-cifically, the fact that your marriage was much worse than they realize. This is wedding sea-son, your sister’s nuptials are fast approach-ing, and it’s only natural that the subject of weddings – present, future and past – comes up. Remind them that your marriage is a sen-sitive subject. If they don’t stop bringing it up after that, then continue to distance yourself.

❑ ❑ ❑

Dear Abby: After many years of much silence, backstabbing and abuse from my sister, I got a text from her telling me she’s starting chemo for a form of leukemia. This has been going on for more than four years, but she thought now I should be “in the loop.”

I told her I will be praying for her. I had to hold back the emotional, “What can I do for you?” She lives about five hours away, but knowing my sib-lings, I know they’ll be hanging around and judg-ing me on what I do next. I told her I am in shock right now.

I have very mixed emotions about how to handle this news – from trust issues to guilt to pain. We are both in our mid-60s. Any advice would be helpful.

– Lost SisDear Lost Sis: Start by doing what you said

you would – praying for her. A few days – or weeks – after her treatment has started, call to see how she is doing. If the call goes well, continue to check in on her. If she wants you to come, put aside your differences and pay her a visit. If the call doesn’t go well, don’t put yourself in that position again, and do not apol-ogize or feel guilty for doing it. Forgive her and forgive yourself.

❑ ❑ ❑

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Bu-ren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Con-tact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

(Source: Universal Uclick)

A fl yer of the event

Indo-Arab Confederation Council, Kuwait chapter president and Loka Kerala Sabha member Babu Francis handed over memorandum to Indo-Arab Confederation Coun-cil Trust Global President K.V. Kunhamu by offering cooperation for various social, cultural and welfare programs under the leadership of the India, Bombay-based IACC. General Secretary Attakoya Pallikandi, and organizing secretary PM Koya were also present. IACC members are organizing programs and events in states of India and in other Arab countries including Kuwait, with the co operation of NRI’s, prioritizing India-

Arab relations over the past 25 years.

Abigail

Happy Birthday Sami. May you have many more birthdays to celebrate. Best

wishes from friends

ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

12

Fincube to help banks to better meet challenges of ‘Bank 4.0’ era

Huawei, Forms Syntron release open banking service solutionKUWAIT CITY, May 23: Huawei and Forms Syntron have jointly released a distributed open platform solution “Fincube” for the global fi nancial industry. Fincube will help banks to better meet the challenges of the “Bank 4.0” era, reduce innova-tion costs, optimize technologies, and continuously improve service openness capabilities that enhance the experience of bank customers.

The focus of the “Bank 4.0” era is experience-oriented banking services; an open banking model based on distributed architecture. The online digital world and the offl ine physical world are converging rapidly, and in this way the business model of the modern bank is being transformed.

Huawei has continued to work with top fi nancial institutions, research institutes, and independent software

developers worldwide to acceler-ate the transformation of fi nancial institutions. Huawei currently serves

more than 1000 fi nancial institutions, including 20 of the world’s top 50 banks.

The Forms Syntron solution is built on Huawei’s high-density integrated distributed technology solution Fu-sionCube. Based on the advanced computing, network, and storage capabilities provided by FusionCube, the Forms Syntron Universe Analytics Platform uses FusionCube as the basic unit of the distributed architecture and bears platform management and control capabilities. The BaaS (Bank-ing as a Service) capability library consisting of thousands of microser-vices enables customers to quickly innovate based on standard versions and continuously integrate and deliver new services.

Zhou Zhiqun, chairman and general manager of Forms Syntron, said: “We

are very honored to form a global partnership with Huawei. These products enable fi nancial institutions to achieve strategic transformation based on the Fincube product system, and fully prepare for the challenges facing banking services in the new era. At the same time, we will work with Huawei to bring the innovative achievements of the Chinese fi nancial industry over the past decade to the global market. “

“The fi nancial industry solu-tion jointly released by Huawei and Forms Syntron is based on the open capabilities of Huawei FusionCube hyper-converged infrastructure and a deep understanding of the fi nan-cial industry,” said by Cao Chong, President of Huawei’s EBG Financial Services Business. “It can meet users’ diversifi ed requirements for mobile

banking services and Internet fi nancial services, eliminate performance bottlenecks, while fl exibly expand-ing capacity to help commercial banks quickly build digital cores and reconstruct core competitiveness in the mobile era.”

Huawei Enterprise’s “Platform + AI + Ecosystem” strategy focuses on cooperation with partners to provide ubiquitous connectivity and pervasive intelligence. Cur-rently, more than 700 cities around the world, and 211 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, including 48 of the top 100, have selected Huawei Enterprise as their partner in digital transformation.

Huawei FusionCube will provide the following new support capabilities in the Fincube solution:

The CubeCenter API is released to

partners for the fi rst time so that the management capabilities of hardware and IaaS technologies can be better integrated into the upper-layer archi-tecture management and control and automatic O&M system to achieve more effi cient and accurate manage-ment and control and further improve the service continuity of fi nancial services.

The latest FusionStorage technol-ogy is upgraded to provide better and reliable storage capabilities. Data reli-ability and data access performance are the most critical technical features of fi nancial institutions. With the integration of the Universe Analytics Platform with FusionStorage and the integration of mature technologies of Huawei PaaS, Fincube can deliver a brand-new experience to fi nancial institutions.

Huawei HQ

Photos from the event.

A group photo from the event.

ABK and KACCH staff at Farwaniya Hospital

Shares Ramadan spirit

ABK staff visit kids in hospitalsin ‘collaboration’ with KACCH

Millennium Hotel hosts Ghabqafor local and social media gurus

KUWAIT CITY, May 23: In an ef-fort to demonstrate its commitment to the community during the Holy Month of Ramadan, Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait (ABK) staff in collabo-ration with Kuwait Association for the Care of Children in Hospital (KACCH) recently visited Amiri and Farwaniya Hospitals to share the joys of Ramadan and Girgean with children who are not able to spend this time at home with their

families.ABK staff distributed Girgean

bags and engaged the children through fun activities including hand painting, coloring books, and a sur-prise visit from a caricature, offering some support to young patients dur-ing their stay in hospital.

For more information about ABK please visit eahli.com or contact an ABK customer service agent via ‘Ahlan Ahli’ at 1899899.

KUWAIT CITY, May 23: Aiming to share Ramadan spirit and vibes with local media, Millennium Hotel and Convention Centre Kuwait hosted its annual Ghabqa for journalists and social media gurus to enjoy the fasci-nating Ramadan atmosphere at the Millennium.

Guests were welcomed by the Hotel’s General Manager, Ahmed Al-Serafi, Director of Sales and Marketing, Fayad Emadalong with the hotel’s crew in the VIP Hall located at the 17th floor that is known for its exceptional and luxurious interior. Media guests also enjoyed their tour in the royal suites, exquisite hotel rooms and fancy ballrooms, which captured their admiration and attention.

Then, they joined the Ghabqa in the El Publico Restaurant and enjoyed the highest level of hospitality standards along with the mouth-watering South

American cuisine selection prepared by the Peru’s celebrated chef Renzo and his experienced crew from Brazil and Chile. Guests savoured the extrav-agant, appetizing dishes and enjoyed the great selection of music.

The Hotel’s General Manager, Ahmed Al-Serafi expressed his great pleasure to receive their guests and said in his welcoming speech, “Dear guests, we wish you a blessed Ramadan, may Allah bring you peace and prosperity. As every year, we are keen to get together during Ramadan to acknowledge your efforts and sup-port as successful journalists and social media gurus. We hope you enjoy your time with us tonight and Happy Ramadan”.

Attendees thanked the hotel’s man-agement for the lovely gathering and fine hospitality in this friendly Ramadan Ghabqa.

Bank visits student residences in Kaifan and Shuwaikh

NBK shares Iftar, Suhoor banquets with KU studentsKUWAIT CITY, May 23: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) visited both student residences in Kaifan and Shuwaikh areas to share Iftar and Suhoor banquets with the students and spent some good times with them, as part of “Do Good Deeds in Ramadan” program.

The visit was fi lled with family-friendly atmosphere, in which NBK ex-pressed its support and encouragement to the students and how much it values their participation in the Iftar banquet as an initiative to make up for being unable to gather around one table with their fami-lies during the holy month of Ramadan.

“It gives us a great pleasure to share this banquet with our valued students, as they choose Kuwait to be their learning destina-tion. We have introduced this new initia-tive of holding Iftar and suhoor banquets with our valued students in order to share our customs and traditions and to capture the unique ambiance of the holy month of Ramadan as we fi rmly believe that reach-ing out to the community is a deep-rooted Kuwaiti tradition,” said Manal Faisal Al-Mattar, NBK Assistant General Manager of Public Relations and Communications.

Al-Mattar added that Kuwait Univer-sity is a top rated academic initiation that highly values its students. As part of our annual “Do Good Deeds in Ramadan” program, we have included the univer-sity and its students as an integral part of our coverage to offi cial institutions, com-munity service societies and mosques, besides our other humanitarian and char-itable initiatives dedicated to the holy month of Ramadan.

Bank distributed total worth of prizes up to KD 2,200,000

NBK announces Al Jawhara weekly draws winnersKUWAIT CITY, May 23: The Nation-al Bank of Kuwait continues to reward its customers with Al Jawhara Account through weekly, monthly and quarterly draws. The bank recently announced the winners of the weekly draw for the month of May, naming, Minor Betool Esmael Suliman Dashti, Saja Abdul-lah Syed Al Behbehani and Nadiah Ali Asghar Adoumi, as the winners of the KD 5,000 prize each.

Automatically entering customers into the draws, Al Jawhara Account gives customers a chance to win KD 5,000 weekly, KD 125,000 monthly and a KD 250,000 grand prize quarter-ly for every KD 50 deposited into their account. If no withdrawal or transfers

occur on the account during the re-quired period, customers will receive an additional chance to enter the draw for every KD 50 held in the account, doubling their chance to win.

Since 2012, the National Bank of Kuwait has rewarded loyal customers with a total worth of prizes up to KD 2,200,000 in the weekly, monthly, and quarterly Al Jawhara draws. All the draws are conducted in the presence of a representative from the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and the name of all the winners are announced.

Customers can open an Al Jawhara Account by simply visiting any NBK Branch. Also, NBK Customers can conveniently open an Al Jawhara Ac-count through the NBK Online Bank-ing and NBK Mobile Banking.

For more information about Al Jawhara Account, please visit: nbk.com.

Al-Mattar pointed out that visiting the student residence felt like a family gath-ering, where we learned about the dif-ferent habits and traditions related to the holy month of Ramadan in the GCC and neighboring countries. “We also aimed at establishing NBK’s consistent presence in various social occasions as part of be-ing actively involved in the community and in line with our fi rm belief that the NBK’s corporate social responsibility initiatives are integral part of community

development and porosity,” she added.Head of the student residence depart-

ment, Sharifa Al-Kandari, Head of the activities department Mai Al-Osaimi and residence controller Nada Al-Qabandi, as well as students welcomed NBK team led by the Bank’s executive management. Deputy residence controller Mubarak Al-Enezi and social worker Salman Boodai also welcomed NBK team at the student residence.

For over 20 years, NBK has carried

out the “Do Good Deeds in Ramadan” program, which includes many events, contributions, social welfare and volun-tary activities. This initiative is in line with NBK’s keenness to reach out to var-ious social institutions and all sectors of the society, maintaining its leading posi-tion as a dedicated private institution that is keeping true to its CSR values through translating them into valuable programs and initiatives that have substantive so-cial dimension.

Baku Olympic Stadium to host fi nal between Arsenal and Chelsea

Azerbaijan invites football fans to enjoy UEFA Europa League fi nal live in BakuKUWAIT CITY, May 23: Azerbaijan is excited to welcome global football fans to enjoy the fi nal of Europe’s second biggest club football tournament, the UEFA Europa League,at the Baku Olympic Stadium on May 29. The match will see two English teams – Arsenal and Chelsea – battling it out for European glory, attracting excitement from their fans around Europe and the world.

After hosting a series of successful high-profi le sporting events over the last few years, including the European Games, the Islamic Games and the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix this April, Baku, the capital of Azerbai-jan, is well placed to accommodate a large infl ux of visitors for this important game.

Besides watching the game, Azerbai-jan hopes to tempt spectators to explore the country’s many offerings of outdoor pursuits and high-energy activities to ‘Take Another

Look’ at all it has to offer. As one of the saf-est family-friendly destinations in the region, the country is blessed with endless natural beauty, modern architectural wonders and remnants of rich medieval history. From Baku’s modern Flame Towers, to the UN-ESCO- protected Old City, mud volcanoes and timeless rural villages, there’s something for everyone in Azerbaijan.

Baku’s buzzing cafés and bazaars make it an ideal destination for fans to enjoy both before and after the match. The country’s unique geography and location have re-sulted in a cuisine infused with the fl avours of the Caucasus, the Caspian and the Great Silk Road. From traditional bistros serving local delicacies to chic international restau-rants, tourists can revel in a vibrant and af-fordable culinary scene.

What’s more, visitors to Baku can still

fi nd a wide range of affordable accom-modation options, with an abundance of luxury and mid-range hotels near the sta-dium and across the city, as well as plenty of well-priced hostels and Airbnbs rentals.

“We are excited to welcome European and global fans to visit Azerbaijan, with two powerhouses of global sport competing for victory here in Baku. After an intensive plan-ning phase for the highly anticipated event, all stakeholders including the State Tourism Agency, government bodies and private busi-nesses are prepped and equipped to welcome visitors and fans for a celebration of football,” commented Florian Sengstschmid, CEO of Azerbaijan Tourism Board.

To meet the increased demand for fl ights, Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) and others have organized more than 40 charter fl ights to accommodate fans for the match.

All services of Baku’s Heydar Aliyev In-ternational Airport will function at full capacity to ensure the smooth operation of the fl ights and fl ow of passengers.

InformationFor more information on what to do in

Baku, visa questions and accommodation suggestions, visit: https://bakufi nal.azer-baijan.travel/andhttps://fi nalbaku2019.az/

For packages including fl ights, hotels

and tickets to the match, visit leading travel companies including:

■ OnTravel- www.ontravel.az■ Baku Holiday Travel - www.bht.az■ Pasha Travel - www.pashatravel.az

Updated visa details All tourists with tickets for the fi nal are

eligible for visa upon arrival in Azerbaijan for a fee of 26 USD. To check the list of countries that require a visa visit: https://

fi nalbaku2019.az/asan-visa/required/.It is strongly recommended to apply and

get an e-visa before the 25th May 2019 to avoid queues. Passport holders of 95 coun-tries are eligible to apply for an e-visa to the Republic of Azerbaijan on www.evisa.gov.az/en/apply-step1 . The only docu-ment required for an e-visa application is the scanned data page of ticket holder’s passport. Please note that in the “Purpose of Visit” fi eld of your e-visa application please opt for “Europa League Final”.

E-visas can be obtained for a fee of 23 USD within 3 days via https://evisa.gov.az/en/in 3 simple steps (application, payment and download) at your convenience. Please note that in the “Purpose of Visit” fi eld of your e-visa application you should opt for “Europa League Final”. For more informa-tion, please contact info@evisa.gov.az.Baku Olympic Stadium

ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

13

NEW YORK, May 23, (Agencies): The US opioid crisis is taking a toll on children of users as a study pub-lished on Wednesday showed they were more likely to attempt suicide.

The study in JAMA Psychiatry published by the American Medical Association found chil-dren whose parents were pre-scribed opioids were twice as likely to attempt suicide as the offspring of people who did not use those drugs.

The latest study from research-ers at the University of Chicago and the University of Pittsburgh is the first research attempting to tie rising suicides among US children to the opioid crisis.

“I think that it’s obvious in many ways; it’s just that we were able to put it together and prove it,” said Dr David Brent, one of the authors of the study.

Brent, of the University of Pittsburgh, said he believes some opioid users might display less care, monitoring and affection for their children, which would explain the higher suicide rate in those kids.

SuicideSuicide increased across all

ages in the United States between 1999 and 2016, spiking by over 30% in half the country, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year.

Another study found that among girls age 10 to 14 the suicide rate rose by 12.7% per year after 2007.

In the latest study, researchers used medical insurance data from 2010 to 2016 for more than 300,000 children ages 10 to 19, and broke that group down into those whose parents were pre-scribed opioid drugs and those whose parents were not.

Among the children of parents who used opioids, 0.37% attempt-ed suicide, compared to 0.14 % of the children of non-users, accord-ing to the study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

The parents were all legally pre-scribed opioids that they used for at least a year. The study did not

identify which of those users may have been abusing painkillers, as opposed to using them in line with doctor recommendations.

Children of opioid users still had a significantly higher risk of attempting suicide after research-ers adjusted for factors such as depression and parental history of suicide.

Some researchers have suggest-ed social media could harm chil-dren’s self-esteem and increase their suicide risk.

But Brent and his co-authors noted social media is prevalent in countries that have not seen a rise in child suicide.

CrisisUS President Donald Trump

declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency in October 2017 and has promised to hold drug-makers accountable for their part in the crisis.

Nearly 400,000 people died of overdoses between 1999 and 2017 in the United States, resulting in the lowering of overall life expec-tancy for the first in more than 60 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Eric Rice, an associate profes-sor at the University of Southern California’s school of social work, said other research has found chil-dren of drug users face challenges.

“A doubling in the suicide rate is a pretty shocking manifestation of that, I’ve got to be honest,” Rice said. “But to hear that there are impacts on children which are negative is not a surprising thing,” said Rice, who was not involved with the study.

Also:NEW YORK: Two US lawmakers are calling on the World Health Organization to withdraw pain care guidelines that include what they say are false claims about the safety of prescription opioids.

They say the guidelines could lead other countries toward the same kind of addiction and over-dose crisis that has plagued the US in recent years.

‘Change opioid guidance’

Opioid users’ kids morelikely to attempt suicide

Cathy Chester, (left), and Caroline Craven, (right), who both live with multiple sclerosis (MS), attend the MS MindShift educational event in Liberty State Park, NJ on May 21. The event is part of the MS MindShift campaign which aims to educate about the importance of brain health for those

living with MS. Learn more about the campaign at MSMindShift.com. (AP)

Parents who avoid smoking at home may still vape around kids

E-cigs can double quitting smoking success ratesLONDON, May 23, (RTRS): People using e-cigarettes to quit smoking are about 95% more likely to report success than those trying to quit without help from any stop-smoking aids, according to the results of a large study in England.

The research, funded by the charity Cancer Research UK and published in the journal Addiction on Thursday, ana-lysed success rates of several common stop-smoking methods - including e-cigarettes, nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) patches and gum, and Pfi zer’s varenicline, sold as Champix in the UK.

It also adjusted for a wide range of factors that might infl uence success rates for quitting - such as age, social level, degree of cigarette addiction, previous attempts to quit, and whether quitting was gradual or abrupt.

Latest World Health Organization data show that smoking and other to-bacco use kills more than 7 million people a year globally. Of the 1.1 bil-lion people worldwide who smoke, around 80 percent live in poor or mid-dle-income countries.

E-cigarettes have no tobacco, but contain nicotine-laced liquids that the user inhales in a vapour. Many big tobacco companies, including British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands and Japan Tobacco, sell e-cigarettes.

This study involved almost 19,000 people in England who had tried to quit smoking in the preceding 12 months, collected over a 12-year period from 2006 to 2018. Successful quitters were defi ned as those who said they were still not smoking.

As well as the 95% increased success rate for e-cigarettes, the study found that people prescribed Champix were around 82% more likely to have succeeded in stopping smoking than those who tried to quit without any aids.

Using e-cigarettes, or ‘vaping’, is considered by many experts to be an effective way for smokers to give up tobacco, but some in the scientifi c community are sceptical of their pub-lic health benefi ts, fearing they might normalise the idea of smoking and lead young people into the habit.

Smokers who were prescribed NRT by a medical professional were 34% more likely to quit successfully, the study found. But those buying NRT from shops were no more likely to suc-ceed that those trying to quit without

any help at all.Experts said the results were robust

and important.

Also:NEW YORK: Parents who use both traditional and e-cigarettes may vape around kids at home and in cars even when they don’t smoke around their kids, a US study suggests.

Big tobacco companies, including Altria Group Inc, Lorillard Tobacco Co and Reynolds American Inc, are all developing e-cigarettes. The battery-powered devices feature a glowing tip and a heating element that turns liquid nicotine and other fl avorings into a cloud of vapor that users inhale. As in traditional cigarettes, the nicotine in e-cigarettes can be addictive.

Health

ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

14

bridgebridgeBy Steve Becker

contract bridgebridge

Challenger

DIRECTIONS:Fill each square with a

number, one through nine.■ Horizontal squares

should add to totals on right.

■ Vertical squares should add to totals on bottom.

■ Diagonal squares through center should add to total in upper and lower

right.

THERE MAY BE MORE THAN ONE SOLUTION.

Today’s ChallengeTime 6 Minutes

3 SecondsYour Working

Time __ Minutes__ Seconds

Yesterday’s solution

Eugene Sheffer Crossword

Drinking problem?: Friends of Bill W. are available to help. Totally confi dential. Email: rohsecretary@gmail.com

❑ ❑ ❑

Narcotics Anonymous: NA can help with addiction problems. Totally confidential: 94087800 English/Arabic.

❑ ❑ ❑

Cancer online support group: If you are Cancer patient or family member fi ghting with this deadly disease, come join our online support group. Best way of dealing with this disease is providing support and share our experience with each other. There are lot of things which even doctors can’t tell so be member of this website and start sharing your experiences which may help others. October is recognized as National Breast Cancer Aware-ness Month (NBCAM). The primary purpose is to promote self examination and screening mammography as the most effective way to save lives by detecting breast cancer at early stage. For more information visit: http://fi ght-ingwithcancer.webs.com/

ArtCAP presents ‘Digital Flow’: The Contemporary Art Platform, in collaboration with HORS-CADRE Gallery and The French Institute in Kuwait will hold an opening of an exhibition titled ‘Digital Flow’ on Wednesday, May 1, at 7:00 pm. The exhibition will be on view until May 31.

Digital technologies are shaping the way we act and interact with our daily environment. In this era of ubiquitous digital fl ows and artifi cial intelligence fed by big datas, men have entered a new space of sensitivity. In the framework of a unique partnership between Contemporary Art Platform (CAP), the French Institute of Kuwait and HORS-CADRE gallery, “Digital Flow” showcases two emerging French artists Mathieu Merlet Briand and Cesar Bardoux who reveal, each in their own way, the infl u-ence of digital technologies on the perception of our contemporary reality.

GeneralIEI Kuwait membership: The Institution of Engineers (India), Kuwait Chapter invites all its members to update their membership information for the year 2018-19 and actively participate in the chapter activities. Indian en-gineers residing in Kuwait are welcome to join the pool of more than 750,000 engineers by becoming corporate or non-corporate members of The Institution of Engineers (India).

IEI, Kuwait Chapter conducts many techni-cal events for the benefi ts of its members. Please watch for further details in your regis-tered e-mail or announcement in media. The chapter has science club activities for mem-bers’ children, and ladies wing activities for the member’s family. IEI, Kuwait Chapter has facility to register student members for AMIE Examination for those interested in pursuing career enrichment.

For more information and on chapter mem-bership, kindly contact IEI, Kuwait Chapter on Mob: 90098667 or through email to ieikwt@hotmail.com

❑ ❑ ❑

Advisory for OCI card holders: All those having OCI Cards are required to carry both their OCI Card and passport to travel to India so that they do not face any diffi culty in im-migration clearance.

From October 2018, ICAO will accept only machine readable travel documents, hence, existing PIO Cards, which are handwritten will therefore, become invalid. Thus it will be necessary upon PIO Cardholders to obtain machine readable OCI Cards in lieu of existing hand written PIO Cards before October 2018 to avoid any inconvenience.

❑ ❑ ❑

Q8BBall Season 13: Q8BBall is beginning our 13th season with Boys U13 (ages 10-13) and U17 (ages 14-17). We train three times a week and play regular games throughout the year with schools and clubs. Contact Coach T 97128884 for information.

❑ ❑ ❑

NYF offers free yoga classes: NYF Kuwait offers free yoga, breathing, meditation and reiki classes by a well-experienced female yoga teacher for all age groups. Classes are given on the basis of different health problems, stress and other problems by different techniques. Contact: 99315825.

❑ ❑ ❑

AWL registration: If you would like to join the American Women’s League (AWL), please call 99039723 or 94067999 or email: kuwait-awl@yahoo.com. All American women and wives of Americans are welcomed.

click

Word by Word

Storm AsefaAny port in a storm.End al asefa yofzai ela ai marfaa.

Numbers

8177 Eight thousand one hundred and seventy seven

Thamaniyat alaaf wa maah wa sabah wa saboun

Conceptis SudokuThe grid must be so completed that every row, column and 3x3

box has every digit from 1 to 9 inclusive

Answer to yesterday’s puzzle

Sunday: Be thankful for small favors

…

Market Movements 23-05-2019

Business Change Closing ptsPAKISTAN - KSE 100 +944.20 35,581.34

Change Closing ptsAUSTRALIA - All Ordinaries -13.80 6,584.30EUROPE - Euro Stoxx 50 -59.21 3,327.20GERMANY - DAX -216.33 11,952.41FRANCE - CAC40 -97.61 5,281.37INDIA - Sensex -298.82 38,811.39JAPAN - Nikkei -132.23 21,151.14PHILIPPINES - All Shares -12.59 4,809.26

Deutsche Bank ready for ‘tough cuts’ as share price sags

The CEO of Deutsche Bank says he is ready to make “tough cuts” to improve the struggling bank’s profi tability and raise a “disappointing” share price as negative headlines continue to plague Germany’s biggest bank.

Christian Sewing made the remarks Thursday in front of restive shareholders at the bank’s annual meeting in Frankfurt, Germany.

He touted the bank’s full-year profi t from 2018 – the fi rst since 2014 – and achievement of its cost-cutting goals. The

bank has cut staff to 91,700 employees, from 99,700 in 2016.

But the meeting takes place amid a heavy fl ow of bad news for the bank. Shares traded at record lows Thursday, U.S. congressional committees have sub-poenaed the bank records of President Donald Trump, and on Wednesday the fi rm admitted it had used faulty software to screen customer transaction for money laundering.

The bank has struggled for years with high costs, low profi tability and heavy

fi nes and settlements for regulatory and legal breaches. Sewing took over as CEO last year with a mandate to accelerate change and put the bank’s troubles be-hind it.

Past issues continue to bedevil the bank, however. The New York Times this week reported that bank employees recommend-ed reporting transactions involving entities controlled by Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner to federal fi nancial watchdogs but that such reports were not fi led. Deutsche Bank denied the report. (AP)

CEO of Deutsche Bank Christian Sewing (right), and head pf supervisory board Paul Achleitner are on their way to the annual shareholders meeting in Frankfurt, Germany on May 23. (AP)

Further sign policymakers see little need to change rates in either direction

Fed’s patience on interest rates to last ‘for some time’WASHINGTON, May 23, (RTRS): US Federal Reserve offi cials at their last meeting agreed that their current patient approach to setting monetary policy could remain in place “for some time,” a further sign policymakers see little need to change rates in either di-rection.

“Members observed that a patient approach...would likely remain ap-propriate for some time,” with no need to raise or lower the target interest rate from its current level of between

2.25 and 2.5 percent, the Fed on Wednesday reported in the minutes of the central bank’s April 30-May 1 meeting.

Recent weak infl ation was viewed by “many partici-pants...as likely

to be transitory,” while risks to fi nan-cial markets and the global economy had appeared to ease - a judgment rendered before the Trump administra-tion imposed higher tariffs on Chinese goods and took other steps that intensi-fi ed trade tensions.

Still, Dallas Federal Reserve presi-dent Robert Kaplan in a Wednesday interview on Fox Business said that to move rates higher or lower, “I would need to see something compelling...We are basically at the right policy set-ting.”

Analysts saw little new in the min-utes regarding Fed policy, though some noted that policymakers’ views may have changed in the intervening weeks since Trump took a harder trade line with China.

“The re-escalation in the trade ten-sion between US and China since the meeting, that could change Fed’s out-look a lot,” said Eric Stein, co-director of the global income group at Eaton Vance Management in Boston.

LossesYields on US Treasury securities

briefl y rose following the release of the minutes while US stock markets and the dollar pared losses through mi-dafternoon.

The minutes showed the Fed delv-ing deep into the mechanics of how they could best structure their holdings of several trillion dollars of securities to battle a future economic downturn.

“Many participants,” the minutes noted, saw advantage in stocking the portfolio with shorter-term securities, which could, in a crisis, be swapped for long-term bonds in hopes of lower-ing the longer-term interest rates that impact home mortgage rates, business borrowing, and a number of forms of credit important for the economy.

But a staff report on various balance sheet strategies posed a dilemma. If the Fed skewed its bond holdings toward shorter-term Treasuries, it might come at the cost of higher longer-term rates now - in effect tightening credit condi-tions for many borrowers.

ScenariosThat would “imply that the path of

the federal funds rate would need to be correspondingly lower to achieve the same macroeconomic outcomes.” In the scenarios being discussed that would, ironically, mean the Fed would have less room to cut rates in a crisis - and be more likely to have to rely on its balance sheet tools to boost the economy.

No decisions were made.Though the support for a “patient”

approach to rate hikes was widespread, according to the minutes, “a few” par-ticipants did warn of the risk of higher infl ation and a possible need for higher rates given the low rates of unemploy-ment. “Several” warned, on the other hand, that infl ation could weaken.

But overall “it appears as though the Fed is exactly where they want to be and don’t have to lean one way or the other,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York.

The Fed meets next on June 18-19, when policymakers will update their economic projections, and incorporate any new risks they see raised by recent Trump administration trade policies.

While Fed offi cials have largely downplayed the trade dispute as a short-term problem, they have of late begun discussing the risks if the tariffs and trade tensions persist and begin to reshape global supply chains and pric-ing.

In comments in Hong Kong over-night, St. Louis Fed president James Bullard said that a failure to resolve the trade dispute in the near term could change global trading patterns, and is another reason for the Fed “to tread carefully.”

MENA fund managers increase investments in Egypt and UAE

Regional markets will continue to be very volatile in coming weeks

DUBAI, May 23, (RTRS): Middle Eastern funds plan to increase their invest-ments in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates over the next three months, while largely keeping their expo-sure to other countries in the region at current levels, according to a Reuters poll.

Six of the 11 fund managers polled said they would increase their investments in Egypt.

“We see UAE and Egypt be-ing structurally the most attractive markets in MENA,” said Vrajesh Bhandari, senior portfolio manager at Al Mal Capital.

The Egyptian market is up 4.94 percent this year, outperforming other markets in the Middle East re-gion, including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar.

Aiming to shore up investor confi -dence, Egypt has been implementing economic reforms as part of a three-year, $12 billion agreement with the International Monetary Fund in No-vember 2016. The reforms included a value-added tax, cuts to energy subsi-dies and a steep currency devaluation.

Economists polled by Reuters last month expected Egypt’s economy to grow 5.5% in the current 2018/2019 fi scal year.

“Egypt is undoubtedly the best growth story in MENA,” Bhandari said. “The reform programme is on track and once the infl ationary pres-sures ease, we expect a pick up in the capex cycle.”

Fifty-fi ve percent of fund mangers said they would increase investments in the UAE, continuing a trend from previous months.

Dubai was one of the worst-perform-ing markets globally last year, but has rebounded somewhat this year, with its benchmark index up 2.16 percent so far. Abu Dhabi, meanwhile, is down 3.36 percent this year.

While Dubai’s index had shown signs of a stronger recovery earlier this year, rising past 9% by the end of April, it has fallen this month, due to global trade war and regional geo-political tensions.

“Regional markets are and will continue to be very volatile in the coming weeks, given the rising geo-political tensions,” said Talal Sam-houri, head of asset management at Amwal LLC.

“That will be an opportunity to take advantage of price volatilities, as usually these gyrations overshoot to either way, so we intend to emphasize security selection versus country al-location during the coming months.”

Five of the 11 fund managers said they would increase their investments in Kuwait. Kuwait’s index is up 15.1 percent, making it the best perform-ing market in the region.

“Currently the only markets that have sensible valuations are Qatar and Kuwait,” Samhouri said.

Most of the fund managers polled said they were keeping their alloca-tions in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Tur-key the same.

Over shaky US ties

Turkish ‘lira’ slides againISTANBUL, May 23, (RTRS): Tur-key’s lira weakened on Thursday on concerns over troubled US ties due to Ankara’s plan to buy a Russian S-400 missile defence system, and it failed to rebound when the government un-veiled a $4.9-billion package for strug-gling importers.

Softer economic data this month also weighed as the lira stood at 6.1340 against the dollar at 1306 GMT, shed-ding some 0.65% from Wednesday’s close of 6.0945. It weakened as far as 6.1510 earlier in the day.

Investors were still digesting com-ments late on Tuesday by Defence Minister Hulusi Akar who said Tur-key was preparing for potential US sanctions over its purchase of the S-400s, even while he said there was some improvement in talks with the United States over buying F-35 fighter jets.

There are “fresh concerns over the escalation of tension between Turkey and the United States,” said Jason Tu-vey, senior emerging market economist at Capital Economics. “Investors are getting increasingly concerned that this (sanctions) could be how it plays out.”

RecessionTies with Washington neared a

breaking point last year over the trial in Turkey of an evangelical pas-tor. The pastor was returned to the United States in October, but the currency had already spiraled into a crisis that tipped Turkey’s economy into recession.

The lira is down 38% since 2017 and has undergone a new bout of sell-ing in the last two months in part due to US ties, a trend of Turks stockpil-ing foreign currencies, and uncertainty over local election results.

Separately, Finance Minister Albay-rak on Tuesday announced the pack-age to bail out import-dependent sec-tors such as manufacturers, saying it would focus on automotive and chemi-cal sectors, among others.

Economists have also expressed concerns about the central bank’s abil-ity to defend the lira in the case of an-other sharp decline given its reserves have fallen in recent months.

The central bank’s net international reserves stood at $24.9 billion as of May 17, down some $1.8 billion from a week earlier. Its gross forex reserves stood at $71.75 billion, data showed on Thursday, down some $1.25 billion from a week earlier.

Confi dence in the lira among Turks fell after last year’s currency crisis, with local individuals’ forex holdings rising steadily in the six months to April.

Locals’ forex holdings reached a record high as of May 17, standing at $182.26 billion.

Several indicators also deteriorated in May, signaling a downturn in eco-nomic activity as Istanbul mayoral elections were annulled and resched-uled for June 23. Economists have warned that this could divert attention from longer-term reforms and lead to more public spending.

Consumer confi dence fell to its low-est on record, data showed on Tuesday. The manufacturing confi dence index, which indicated pessimism when be-low 100, fell to 98.9 points from 105.5 points in April, data showed.

The capacity utilisation rate, a measure of how much of the econo-my’s potential output is used, rose to 76.3% from 75%.

Turkey’s dollar bonds also weak-ened across the curve with the 2030 issue losing 1.4 cents in the dollar, ac-cording to Tradeweb data.

Trader Jonathan Corpina works on the fl oor of the New York Stock Exchange on May 23. Stocks are falling at the open on Wall Street as investors worry about an apparent stalemate in trade talks between the US and

China. (AP) –See Page 19

Move to attract more foreign cash

Qatar stock exchange looks to new ETFsDOHA, May 23, (RTRS): Qatar’s stock exchange is devel-oping two new Exchange Traded Funds, part of efforts by the Middle East’s strongest performing stock market in 2018 to boost foreign investment, CEO Rashid al-Mansoori said.

Qatar has been on a drive to attract capital from new sources since Saudi Arabia, the United Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt imposed an economic boycott over what they al-lege is Qatar’s support of terrorism, which Doha denies.

Companies on Qatar’s exchange have since increased for-eign ownership limits to 49%, most of which had previously been set at 25%, drawing a fl ood of cash that helped to boost the main index by more than 20% last year.

The index has since cooled, falling about 5 percent since the start of the year on profi t taking after last year’s rally and amid international political tensions.

The higher ownership limits are just one of the ways the tiny Gulf state has tried to attract capital from over-seas. The new liberalised investment code allows 100% foreign ownership of projects and new areas of real estate have been opened up for foreign buyers.

This month, six more companies said they would al-low up to 49% foreign ownership, making them the latest batch of the exchange’s 46 companies to do so, Mansoori said from his Doha offi ce.

Liquidity“Now the minimum will be 49% for all Qatari compa-

nies ... this will attract more liquidity and more room for foreign investors to invest,” said Mansoori.

Foreigners hold about 11 percent of the companies list-ed on the exchange but make up about 30-40% of daily turnover, Mansoori said.

Mansoori said the exchange was looking to launch the two new ETFs, one focused on gold and another for sha-ria-compliant assets outside of Qatar, over the next year.

“They are in a very good stage now and a very good position,” he said, without providing further detail.

Qatar launched its fi rst two ETFs last year, one track-ing the overall exchange and a second for local sharia compliant stocks.

Mansoori said the addition of three Qatari companies to the MSCI Emerging Market Index from May 28 will draw an estimated $412 million in passive investment on the fi rst day. For the companies joining the index this means investments fl ow automatically from passive funds with set allocations for Qatar’s stocks.

The three companies to join the MSCI index are Me-saieed Petrochemical, Qatar Fuel and Qatar Aluminum Manufacturing Company.

A ten-to-one stock split for companies on the exchange will be phased in from June 9, aiming to encourage small investors to invest to increase liquidity.

Local dairy producer Baladna is expected to hold its ini-tial public offering by the end of 2019, only the third com-pany to do so since the boycott of Qatar began in 2017.

Mansoori hopes others will follow suit, with talks tak-ing place for listings in areas like pharmaceuticals, edu-cation, and shipping.

“I want more than this. I want four to seven IPOs per year, at least,” he said.

LONDON, May 23, (RTRS): Sovereign wealth funds invested more than $3 billion in unlisted technology companies in 2018, the highest level in three years, research showed on Thursday, as public markets shrank due to fewer initial public offerings and big share buybacks.

The renewed push into private markets, via in-vestments in segments like software, fintech, bio-tech and healthcare, is part of a broader trend of wealth funds viewing private companies as a less speculative bet than they used to be.

In a turnaround of a trend noted the previous year, sovereign wealth funds’ direct investment in unlisted firms rose by 17 percent to 147 in 2018, according to the 2018 International Forum of Sov-ereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF) Annual Report.

Such investments were often made jointly with both asset owners and asset managers, the report showed.

Wealth funds poured $3.4 billion into unlist-ed technology firms across 44 deals in 2018. They also ploughed money into private health-care firms, completing 40 deals, up from 21 in 2017.

Many tech firms have steered clear of following the likes of Uber Technologies with initial public offerings as they struggle to make a profit, instead favouring raising money from institutional inves-tors, private equity and venture capital firms.

Generate“These are precisely the types of companies in

which SWFs are looking to invest, as they have the potential to generate high returns in a gener-ally low-return environment,” the report said.

A high number of share buybacks also damp-ened opportunities for wealth funds to participate in public market activity. More than $1 trillion buybacks were completed by large US com-panies in 2018, led by asset-light firms such as Apple, Alphabet, Cisco, Microsoft and Oracle, to bolster their share prices and earnings per share, the report noted.

With public markets retreating, wealth funds sharpened their focus on venture and growth cap-ital financing rounds to find higher returns.

The report also noted that wealth funds’ com-mitment to early-stage firms doubled from the previous year, while the number of transactions at the growth-capital stage rose by over 40%.

Private market surges

Sovereign investors favour unlisted tech

Egypt’s cbank holds key ratesCAIRO, May 23, (RTRS): Egypt’s central bank on Thursday kept its key interest rates unchanged, in line with a Reuters poll of economists.

The central bank held its overnight deposit rate at 15.75% and its over-night lending rate at 16.75%, a bank statement said.

Leaving them unchanged is “con-sistent with achieving the infl ation-ary target of 9 percent (±3 percentage points) in 2020 Q4 and price stabil-ity over the medium term,” the bank said in a statement.

Headline infl ation slowed to 13% in April from 14.2% in March. It had fallen slightly in March from 14.4% in February, its highest since No-vember. The bank’s target range is 10% to 16%.

Core infl ation, which strips out volatile items such as food, also fell in April to 8.1% from 8.9% the pre-vious month.

The Egyptian pound hit a two-year high on Thursday, bucking a down-trend among emerging market cur-rencies with help from infl ows in the tourism and energy sectors.

While the deepening trade confl ict between the United States and China has generally heaped pressure on emerging currencies, the pound has risen nearly 5% against the dollar since the beginning of the year.

Eleven out of 14 economists polled by Reuters said the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) monetary policy committee was unlikely to change its overnight rates.

Powell

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

16

Co celebrates its staff at annual Ramadan Ghabqa gathering: Al Kharafi

‘Zain’s strategic vision centers around culture of giving’KUWAIT CITY, May 23: Zain, the leading digital service provider in Kuwait, celebrated and recognized its employees in the annual Ramadan Ghabqa gathering held at Courtyard Marriott Hotel – Al Raya Hall. The event witnessed the attendance of Zain Vice-Chairman and Group CEO Bader Nasser Al Kharafi , Zain Group CEO-Operations Scott Gegenheimer, and Zain Kuwait CEO Eaman Al Roudhan.

This year’s Ghabga gathering cen-tered around the eighties theme, where Kuwaiti actor Dawoud Hussain took Zain employees to a nostalgic trip of beautiful memories from the eight-ies era. The annual Ramadan Ghabga gathering is one of Zain’s main social programs held for its employees during the Holy Month of Ramadan of every year. The event brought together staff and senior executive management to-gether, further strengthening the links between members of the Zain family, and renewing the spirit of teamwork it enjoys being the leader in the Kuwaiti telecom market.

Addressing the guests, Zain Vice-Chairman and Group CEO Bader Nasser Al Kharafi said: “fi rst, I would like to welcome the entire Zain fam-ily here at this wonderful gathering at such a blessed time of year, and I take this opportunity to express my delight in the milestones we have reached together that have placed Zain in the leadership position it enjoys today”.

Al Kharafi spoke about the eight-ies era, which was the theme of this year’s event: “we all surely have a lot of beautiful memories from the eight-ies, and many of us relate to this period with stories and experiences that we cannot forget. Today, I do not regard this gathering as an offi cial event, but I am among my family. The time I spent at Zain makes me feel home, and you’re all my sisters and brothers”.

Al Kharafi expressed his pride in the company’s recent accomplish-ments in the telecom sector: “today I am extremely proud of the fact that Zain’s network is one of the very best, and this has not been possible without

the great efforts exerted by our techni-cal team. I challenge anyone to go to Europe and not miss Zain’s network in Kuwait, and I always aspire to fi nd a network that matches the stability and steadiness of Zain’s network when I personally travel abroad”.

Al Kharafi further explained: “as for our operational performance, we have achieved very excellent num-bers recently in regard to our rev-enue, EBITDA, and bottom line. This achievement was possible because of your efforts as a team”.

Al Kharafi added: “as I see it myself, numbers are not the important factor here, which is our responsibility towards our shareholders, but what makes me tru-ly happy is the culture change Zain went through, and the wonderful spirit we see among Zain members every day. This is true not just in Kuwait, but across all our operations. We are happy to fulfi ll our duty and commitment towards our share-holders, and the company’s success in continuing the growth of its operations, but at the same time, we are also very de-lighted of what we have achieved on the workplace cultural change level”.

Al Kharafi continued: “if we visit any of the countries in which Zain op-erates, we fi nd the same culture, the same spirit, and the same initiatives, which all center around the culture of giving that we spoke of two years ago. Today, every member of the Zain family embodies this culture and even live by it. I personally believe that our beautiful values are what makes us truly happy, not numbers and statis-tics. True, achieving numbers is our responsibility, but values like forgive-ness, keeping in touch, and giving are what achieves true happiness in each and every one of us. Even better, if we truly embody such values in our work, we will eventually end up see-ing them refl ect on our numbers and performance”.

Al Kharafi concluded: “during the past period, we identifi ed the culture of giving as the strategy that our vi-sion centers around, and we worked on spreading peace and love, empowering women, empowering youth, and mak-ing our workplace a better one. This is what granted us people’s trust in our message, a message that is always clear in our Ramadan TVCs. We will always be committed to enriching this message of giving, which is why our customers trust us and choose to jour-ney with us”.

During the event, Zain Kuwait CEO Eaman Al Roudhan addressed the guests by saying: “today we gather to-gether in this blessed time as one fam-ily. On this occasion, I’d like to thank Mr. Bader Al Kharafi , the executive management, and all staff members of Zain Kuwait, Zain Group, and all Zain operations. Today we truly refl ect the spirit of a single family, which makes us stronger and brings us closer to each other”.

Al Roudhan added: “I am extremely

proud of what we have achieved during the past period. We have succeeded in establishing work models that can be set as an example for digital transformation strategies. Since the beginning, we have focused on the customer fi rst, and we will always continue doing that”.

Al Roudhan continued: “we have started our digital transformation pro-cess with our communication chan-nels, which we see as a very important priority. We have also seen – during the end of last year and the beginning of this year – more traffi c and shifting

from legacy channels to digital chan-nels. This proves that we are on the right track”.

Al Roudhan further explained: “focusing on digital transformation leadership is of our main priorities this period. This will allow us to face upcoming obstacles and challenges with more strength, and I believe what makes us different is that we dare to think differently, something we take a lot of pride in”.

During the event, Zain recognized and honored employees who have been part

of the Zain family for a long time, and who’s efforts, hard work, and achieve-ments added to the company’s success during the past years. Zain also show-cased a documentary that highlighted the array of initiatives, programs, and activities of the company’s extensive so-cial campaign during the Holy Month of Ramadan, which witnessed the participa-tion of Zain’s volunteers throughout the Holy Month.

Zain has always been keen to orga-nize a number of social and humanitar-ian initiatives during Ramadan to sup-port the various sectors of the Kuwaiti

society, and the company is keen on refl ecting the religious as well as tra-ditional humanitarian values and prin-ciples to enrich the art of giving and to increase bonding between individuals.

The company further affi rmed its Corporate Sustainability campaign during the Holy Month of Ramadan, which includes an extensive array of programs that cover different areas. The initiatives and programs include humanitarian, voluntary, cultural, re-ligious, sports, and recreational activi-ties to cater to the different segments of society.

Al Roudhan with Zain’s team.

Al Kharafi, Gegenheimer, and Al Roudhan recognizing a distinguished Zain employee.

Al Kharafi, Gegenheimer, and Al Roudhan during the Ghabqa.

Al Kharafi addressing the guests during the event.

Huawei defines digital city needs with Maslow model

Global city leaders explore smart future at forumKUWAIT CITY, May 23: The 2019 Shenzhen Smart City Forum with In-ternational Friendship Cities opened on Tuesday with the theme “ushering in a bright future for smart cities”. The forum brings together Shen-zhen officials, Huawei executives and smart city experts, UN-Habitat experts and scholars, delegates from cities around the world with smart city experience, as well as high-tech enterprises to share their latest de-velopment concepts and practices. The forum aims to promote commu-nication and cooperation in building smart, digital cities.

Ai Xuefeng, Deputy Mayor of Shenzhen, hosted the opening cer-emony with Wang Weizhong, Secre-tary of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Committee, Xie Yuan, Deputy Chair of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Coun-tries, and Frank Ross, Lord Pro-vost of Edinburgh speaking at the forum’s opening. Guest speakers included Guo Ping, Rotating Chair-man of Huawei; Ugo Valenti, CEO of Smart City Expo World Congress; and Rui Costa dos Santos, Governor of the State of Bahia, Brazil.

Wang Weizhong, Secretary of the CPC Shenzhen Municipal Commit-tee, delivered a welcome speech: “This year witnesses the 70th anni-versary of People’s Republic of Chi-na, and also 40 years since the estab-lishment of Shenzhen city. Shenzhen reflects the historical achievements China has made, serving as a win-dow to display China to the world. We hope to make more friends with an open heart taking the opportunity of this forum, and together contrib-ute wisdom and power for a common human community.”

“Huawei is dedicated to build-ing a smart city digital foundation that enables integrating, exploring, analyzing, and sharing data, by us-ing ubiquitous connectivity, a digi-tal platform, and pervasive intelli-gence,” said Guo Ping in a speech entitled ‘Building a Maslow Model for Smart Cities’. “More important-ly, we develop a digital brain for cit-ies in hand with application partners, building a common ecosystem with mutual advantages. This brain will provide advanced ways to help cities make informed development deci-sions and will allow e-government, transportation, and policing domains to go digital. In doing so, we hope to build smart cities featuring smart administration, more benefits for residents, and prosperous industry development.”

In his speech ‘A New World of Smart Cities’, Ugo Valenti said: “In-novative technologies, including 5G, IoT, AI, and cloud, are disruptively renovating how cities are governed and managed. By nurturing Public-Private-People Partnerships, a co-creation model among government, corporations, and citizens, smart cities will facilitate a more open decision-making process, and bring a people-centric new world.”

The highlight of the opening cer-emony was a high-end dialogue. It attracted attendees from government departments, enterprises, and the academic community. The panel ex-plored emerging technologies, how to construct big-data-based city ICT infrastructure to safeguard public se-curity and order, and how to enhance modern city governance, public welfare, and economy by leverag-ing digital services and a disruptive digital brain. The result will be better smart cities with active smart econo-mies.

“The usage of digital technology has become one of the criteria to as-sess a city’s intelligence level. Fu-ture smart cities will have five new infrastructural platforms, namely

cloud, IoT, data lake, AI, and a video surveillance network. These five platforms will form a foundation for us to achieve ubiquitous connectiv-ity, realize pervasive intelligence, and streamline heterogeneous ICT systems. Huawei uses its cloud as the basis to integrate various new ICT technologies, such as AI, IoT, big data, converged communica-tions, video, and GIS, to build a comprehensive digital platform,” said Yan Lida, President of Huawei Enterprise BG.

“This platform provides techni-cal enablement for government and enterprise customers, helping them easily cope with complicated techni-cal issues. In addition, Huawei built 12 OpenLabs around the globe to conduct customer-oriented joint in-novation with partners. Building a smart city is a long and constantly evolving process. Based on Hua-wei’s digital platform, cities will be like organic life. New applications will emerge and grow through itera-tion, and eventually achieve overall prosperity,” continued Yan Lida.

“The United Nations 2030 Sus-tainable Development Goals in-clude one on sustainable cities and

communities. We hope to drive the realization of SDG through smart city endeavors with confidence. We are to face the challenge from smart city construction, but also embrace its unlimited potential. From the perspective of the UN, international cooperation is significant. We see a very good platform here today for cities to share experience,” said At-sushi Koresawa, Director for UN-Habitat Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

This event is hosted by Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government and organized by Shenzhen Foreign Affairs Office. As a co-organizer, Huawei is a global leading Smart City and Safe City solution provider. Huawei has developed city digital platform, digital brain, and city IoT solutions leveraging new ICT tech-nologies, such as IoT, big data, video cloud, converged communications, GIS, and AI. Together with ecosys-tem partners, Huawei is drawing a blueprint for smart cities. Huawei Smart City and Safe City solutions have served more than 700 cities in over 100 countries, helping to pro-mote local security and social and economic development.

We have got well-prepared: Ren

Huawei founder reiterates firm is in ‘strong’ positionKUWAIT CITY, May 23: In his lat-est meeting with the media, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has reiterated that the company is in a strong position to move ahead despite recent political actions in the United States.

Addressing questions about the im-pact of the White House’s recent ex-ecutive order, Ren noted: “What the US will do is out of our control. To us, the most important thing is to do our job well. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the US companies that we work with. Over these 30 years, they have helped us to grow into what we are today. They have made many contributions to us. As you know, most of the compa-nies that provide consulting services to Huawei are based in the US, including dozens of companies like IBM and Ac-centure. In the face of the recent crisis, I can feel these companies’ sense of justice and sympathy towards us.”

The Huawei founder then went into greater detail about its relationships with US companies. “The US is a coun-try ruled by law. US companies must abide by the laws, and so must the real economy. The media should understand that these US companies and Huawei share the same fate. We are both play-ers in the market economy. Our close relationships with US companies are the result of several decades of effort on both sides. These relationships won’t be destroyed by a piece of paper from the US government.”

The supply of products to Huawei from international partners was also dis-cussed. “Our company will not end up with an extreme supply shortage. We have got well-prepared. Even if there is an insufficient supply from our partners, we will face no problems. This is because we can manufacture all the high-end chips we need ourselves,” said Ren.

As long as these companies can ob-tain approval from Washington, Ren commented that Huawei will continue to buy in large volumes from them. “It may be the case that they cannot obtain approval quickly. We have ways to go through this transition period. Once approval is granted, we will maintain our normal trade with these US com-panies and work together to build an information society for humanity. We don’t want to work alone.”

In an answer to a direct question about why the US is targeting Huawei, Ren responded: “I don’t know exactly what [those US] politicians are think-ing. I think we should not be the target of US-led campaigns just because we are ahead of the US.”

The Huawei founder also responded to questions about overall disruptions to the international ICT market. “Eu-

rope will not follow in the footsteps of the US, and the majority of US companies are communicating closely with us. We will certainly be able to continue serving our customers. Our mass production capacity is huge, and adding Huawei to the Entity List won’t have a huge impact on us. We are mak-ing progress in bidding worldwide.”

With regards to Huawei’s own busi-ness outlook for 2019, Ren added: “Our growth will slow down, though not by as much as everyone imagines. In the first quarter of this year, our rev-enue grew 39% over the same period last year. This rate decreased to 25% in April, and may continue decreas-ing towards the end of this year. But the US ban will not lead to negative growth or harm the development of our industry.”

In sectors where Huawei have the most advanced technologies, at least in the 5G sector, Ren added that there “won’t be much impact”. Not just that, but Huawei competitors won’t be able to catch up with it within two to three years.

5G standards are widely consid-ered to have a huge impact on society, added Ren. The company appears to be well prepared for the future in terms of technology innovation and R&D. Huawei has 26 centers of expertise for R&D globally, over 700 mathemati-cians, 800 physicists, and 120 chemists working at Huawei, according to Ren. He further noted that Huawei have the most 5G standard-essential patents in the world – about 27% of the total.

“We have an Institute of Strate-gic Research, which provides a large amount of funding to well-known professors at top universities around the world. We don’t expect return on this investment. The way we sponsor research is similar to how investment works according to the US Bayh-Dole Act. It’s the universities that ben-efit from the investment. By doing so, we will work with more scientists researching technologies at different stages,” says Ren.

As for its three business groups, when asked about where revenue will come from over the long term, Ren doesn’t take the view that the most profitable one is necessarily the most important. “Only the department that is responsible for building network connections will be able to become number one in the world. It is the very department that has come under at-tacks from the US. I have compared it to a badly damaged aircraft. Actually, we have realized that this department does not face as many difficulties as others because it has been preparing for a long time.”

From Left: Gao Erji, Vice-President of Caixin Media and Executive President of Caixin Insight; Atsushi Koresawa, Director for UN-Habitat Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific; Yan Lida, President of Enterprise Business Group, Huawei; Jane Lim, Assistant Chief Executive of Infocomm and Media Development Authority, Singapore; Ugo Val-enti, CEO of Smart City Expo World Congress; Luigi Gambardella, President of the ChinaEU; and Kalle Toivonen, Senior Specialist of Innovation and New Experiments, Economic Development, City of Helsinki Executive Office,

Finland.

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

17

This fi le photo shows the Scunthorpe steel plant, now owned by British Steel, in Scunthorpe, England. Britain’s government pledged on May 21, to do its utmost to support British Steel amid

reports the company is facing bankruptcy. (AP)

Japan’s economy up for 2nd straight quarter

Clock ticking to fi nd British Steel buyer

TOKYO, May 23, (KUNA): Japan’s economy grew at an annualized pace of 2.1 percent in the January-March period, the second straight quarter of expansion, despite sluggish personal consump-tion and exports, the government said.

The growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) was stronger than the 1.6-percent expansion in the previous quarter, according to preliminary data re-leased by the Cabinet Offi ce. On a quarterly basis, the world’s third-biggest economy’s GDP rose 0.5 percent in the three months ended March 31 from

the October-December period.“Export growth has slowed partly due to China’s

economic slowdown, and production activities re-mained weak,” Economy and Fiscal Policy Minis-ter Toshimitsu Motegi told a press conference after the Cabinet released GDP data.

But Motegi underlined the improvement in the employment and income environments and high levels of corporate profi ts, saying that “the fun-damentals supporting domestic demand remain solid.”

Drop in German business moralepoints to meagre growth: surveyECB more concerned about growth rebound

Confi dence in services sector deteriorates

FRANKFURT, Germany, May 23, (AP): Offi cials at the European Central Bank at their last meet-ing had grown more concerned about chances for a return to stronger economic growth in the second half of the year as they underlined their readiness to deploy more stimulus if needed.

The written account of the April 10 meeting, re-leased Thursday, showed that the bank’s 25-mem-ber governing council felt that economic data con-tinued to point to a second-half upswing.

They acknowledged, however, that there was “somewhat less confi dence in this baseline scenar-io” and that the “range of other possible outcomes had widened.”

The 19-country eurozone economy entered a soft patch at the end of last year but showed some-what stronger growth of 0.4 percent in the fi rst quarter from the quarter before. The US-China trade dispute and slowing global trade have held

back economic output.ECB President Mario Draghi said after the April

meeting that the bank remained ready to deploy all its tools to support the economy if infl ation threat-ened to head downward. The ECB aims to have annual infl ation of less than but close to 2 percent – it was 1.7 percent in April.

At the end of last year, the central bank ended a 2.6 trillion euro ($2.9 trillion) bond-buying stimulus program carried out over almost 4 years, predicting that infl ation was headed consistently toward its goal. A string of weak reports about growth and trade have since led the bank to shift its stance toward maintaining stimulus, rather than withdrawing it. In March, the bank put off the ear-liest date it would consider an interest rate increase from this fall to the end of the year. Some analysts think the ECB could extend that even farther into the future.

The ECB has joined the US Federal Reserve in pausing a withdrawal of stimulus policies de-ployed in the wake of the Great Recession and global fi nancial crisis.

A longer period of low interest rates has wide-ranging impact on companies and consumer pock-etbooks. Low rates make fi nancing cheaper for companies to operate and invest, and reduce bor-rowing costs for people buying houses through mortgages. But they also reduce returns for savers, strain pension systems and can infl ate the prices of assets such as stocks and bonds, with uncertain outcomes for markets when rates eventually go up.

The ECB’s benchmark rate for lending to banks is at a record low of zero. It has also imposed a negative 0.4 percent rate on deposits it takes from private-sector banks. The negative rate is in ef-fect a penalty aimed at pushing banks to lend the money.

Co collapses, putting 25,000 jobs at risk

LONDON, May 23, (RTRS): Time is of the es-sence if the UK authorities are to broker a rescue of British Steel after it collapsed into liquidation, putting 25,000 jobs at risk.

British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty House has emerged as one potential bidder for the country’s second largest steel producer, two sourc-es told Reuters on Thursday.

The Financial Times reported that Chinese group Hesteel, which owns a steel plant in Serbia, and private equity fund Endless could also be bid-ders.

A buyer would need to be in place within 2-3 months as the business needs access to 400 to 500 million pounds of working capital and a cash injec-tion in excess of 75 million pounds ($95 million), one of the sources said.

Business minister Greg Clark said British Steel was open to new buyers while the opposition La-bour Party and trades unions have called for the steelmaker to be nationalised.

Based in Scunthorpe, northern England, Brit-ish Steel employs around 5,000 people directly, while 20,000 more depend on its supply chain. It is owned by investment fi rm Greybull Capital, for-mer owners of collapsed airline Monarch.

Despite going into liquidation on Wednesday, staff have been kept on and operations maintained.

There are practical reasons for this as it would facilitate a rescue but the cash crunch could be felt by suppliers as all of British Steel’s lenders are in the process of pulling out, the source said.

British Steel produces steel from scratch in its blast furnace in Scunthorpe. Blast furnaces cannot easily be turned on or off, but need to be continu-ally supplied with raw materials to keep their tem-perature steady.

“Electricity, gas and oxygen, these things you don’t stock, if suppliers decide to stop they (British Steel) close. Some suppliers need to be paid every day, its a very diffi cult situation,” the source said.

“We’re going to see announcements from these

companies explaining that they have to make peo-ple redundant,” he added.

On the customer side, Network Rail, which buys about 100,000 tonnes of rail a year from British Steel, said its contingency plans include stockpil-ing rail, reallocating stock and servicing rail to re-use it.

Liberty House, one of the world’s largest pri-vately owned industrial groups and Europe’s third largest steel producer, has expanded rapidly in recent years, snapping up distressed steel and alu-minium assets around the world since.

“Gupta is showing interest (but) to make it fea-sible you need a pool of banks supporting the busi-ness,” said the source.

He explained the government was keen to put money into the business so long as the funds were structured in such a way that a private buyer does not benefi t from them should the steelmaker fold for good.

Liberty House declined comment.Greybull Capital, which specialises in trying

to turn around distressed businesses, paid former British Steel owners Tata Steel a nominal one pound for the business three years ago.

Jon Bolton, director of global steel development at Liberty House, was formerly director at Tata Steel Long Products Europe – the business sold to Greybull and renamed British Steel.

British Steel had asked the government for a 75 million pound loan this month, later reducing its demand to 30 million pounds. It had already se-cured a government loan of around 120 million pounds ($154 million) to cover its carbon taxes.

Having turned a profi t in 2017, British Steel cut around 400 jobs last year, blaming factors such as the weak pound and uncertainties surrounding Brexit, which it said hammered its order book.

Making a profi t in steel is particularly diffi cult in Britain, where steelmakers pay some of the highest green taxes and energy costs in the world, as well as facing high labour costs and business rates.

Huawei ban rattles supply chains

US needs to fi x ‘wrong actions’ for talks to continue: ChinaBEIJING, May 23, (RTRS): China said the United States needs to cor-rect its “wrong actions” in order for trade talks to continue after it black-listed Huawei, a blow that has rippled through global supply chains and bat-tered technology shares.

Japanese conglomerate Panasonic Corp joined a growing list of global companies that is disengaging from Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, the world’s second-largest seller of smart-phones and the largest telecom-gear maker, saying it had stopped ship-ments of some components.

Its move came a day after British chip designer ARM said it had halted relations with Huawei to comply with the US supply blockade, potentially crippling the Chinese fi rm’s ability to make new chips for smartphones. Hua-wei uses ARM blueprints to design the processors that power its smartphones.

“If the United States wants to con-tinue trade talks, they should show sin-cerity and correct their wrong actions. Negotiations can only continue on the basis of equality and mutual respect,” Chinese Commerce Ministry spokes-man Gao Feng told a weekly briefi ng.

“We will closely monitor relevant developments and prepare necessary responses,” he said, without elaborat-ing.

The United States has accused Hua-wei of working for the Chinese gov-ernment and engaging in activities contrary to national security, accusa-tions Huawei denies.

The Trump administration softened its stance slightly this week by grant-ing the fi rm a licence to buy US goods until Aug 19 to minimize disruption for customers.

However, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo kept up the pressure against Huawei in a CNBC interview on Thursday, saying its founder chief executive was lying about his com-pany’s ties to the Beijing government.

“That’s just false. To say that they don’t work with the Chinese govern-ment is a false statement. He is re-quired by Chinese law to do that. The Huawei CEO, on that at least, isn’t telling the American people the truth, nor the world,” Pompeo said.

RiskPompeo said he expected other

American companies to cut ties with Huawei as the risk of doing business with it becomes clear.

Japan’s Toshiba Corp said it had re-sumed some shipments to Huawei af-ter temporarily suspending shipments to check whether they included US-made components.

“What we are witnessing is a poten-tial reconfi guration of global trade as it has stood since World War II ... inves-tors should begin thinking about how sensitive their portfolios are to global supply chain-exposed shocks,” Saxo Bank’s head of equity strategy, Peter Garnry, wrote in a note titled, “Are you ready for a cold war in tech?”

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei told Chinese fi nancial magazine Caixin on Thursday that he did not see ARM’s decision to suspend business with Huawei as having an impact on the company.

He said Huawei had a long-term agreement with ARM and specu-lated the British firm had made such a move because its parent, Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, was waiting for US approval for the merger of Sprint Corp, which it owns, and T-Mobile US Inc.

Industry experts have called out Huawei for its claims it could ensure a steady supply chain without US help, saying the technology it buys from American companies would be “hard to replace.”

No further trade talks between top Chinese and US negotiators have been scheduled since the last round ended on May 10, when US President Donald Trump sharply hiked tariffs on $200 bil-lion worth of Chinese goods and took steps to levy duties on all remaining Chi-nese imports.

China has retaliated with its own levies on US imports, but it was Wash-ington’s subsequent move against Huawei that took the trade war into a new phase, stoking fears about risks to global growth and knocking fi nancial markets.

BERLIN, May 23, (RTRS): Ger-man business morale deteriorated more than expected in May as confi dence in the services sector worsened, a survey showed on Thursday, suggesting that Europe’s largest economy is losing steam after solid growth at the start of the year.

The Munich-based Ifo institute said its closely watched business climate in-dex fell to 97.9 in May. This was the lowest reading since November 2014 and clearly missed the consensus fore-cast for a reading of 99.1.

“The German economy is still lack-ing in momentum,” Ifo President Clem-ens Fuest said.

In the services sector, business cli-mate took a “substantial hit”, Fuest said, with the sub-indicator of current sentiment in services posting its biggest monthly drop since April 2013.

Ifo chief economist Klaus Wohlrabe told Reuters that a slowdown in manu-facturing was now spilling over to ser-vices as transport and logistics fi rms, that depend on contracts from industrial companies, reported steep declines in confi dence.

While business morale in wholesale trade deteriorated, retailers were more upbeat about both their current condi-tions and business outlook, the survey showed. This suggests that consumer spending could remain robust in the second quarter despite the overall de-cline in services sentiment.

Domestic demand has become the main pillar of economic support, pro-viding a buffer against external shocks such as US President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ trade policies and Brit-ain’s chaotic departure from the Euro-pean Union.

HikesGerman shoppers have been open-

ing their wallets as they are benefi ting from record-low borrowing costs, his-torically high levels of employment and infl ation-busting pay hikes.

The Ifo survey also showed that the business climate in construction im-proved for the third time in a row as al-ready upbeat assessments of the current business situation improved further.

“The construction boom continues,” Fuest said.

The survey followed gross domestic product data released earlier on Thurs-day that showed household spending rose at its strongest pace in eight years, driving a rebound of 0.4% quarter-on-quarter growth in the fi rst quarter.

A pick-up in construction activity and surprisingly solid exports also helped the economy to get back on track in the fi rst three months of the year.

The German economy avoided a re-cession by a whisker at the end of last year after a 0.2% contraction in the third quarter and a stagnation in the fourth.

“The ongoing trade confl ict between the United States and China is a clear headwind for the already battered ex-port sector,” ING economist Carsten Brzeski said.

A separate survey from IHS Markit among purchasing managers showed on Thursday that activity in Germany’s ser-vices and manufacturing sectors fell in May, refl ecting the toll that unresolved trade disputes are having on the economy.

However, signs that the worst may be over for German manufacturers were evident in a slower contraction in output, new orders and export sales, the survey showed.

Under new immigration law

Japanese fi rms ‘resist’ hiring foreign workersTOKYO, May 23, (RTRS): Only one in four Japanese companies plan to actively employ for-eign workers under a new government immigra-tion scheme, a Reuters poll found, complicating Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to ease the country’s tightest job market in decades.

And the bulk of the fi rms that may hire these immigrants do not plan to support them in secur-ing housing, learning Japanese language skills or getting information on living in Japan, the Reu-ters Corporate Survey showed.

The survey results underscore the challenge for Japan to cope with its dwindling and ageing population that has put pressure on the govern-ment to relax tight foreign labour controls. Im-migration has long been taboo here as many Japanese prize ethnic homogeneity.

The lack of language ability, cultural gap, costs of training, mismatches in skills and the fact that many foreign workers cannot stay per-manently in Japan under the new system were among factors behind corporate wariness about hiring foreign workers, the Reuters poll showed.

CrunchThe law, which took effect in April, creates

two new categories of visas for blue-collar workers in 14 sectors such as construction and nursing care, which face a labour crunch. It is meant to attract up to 345,000 blue-collar work-ers to Japan over fi ve years.

But the survey suggests the government may struggle to get the workers it needs to ease the country’s labour shortage where there are now 1.63 jobs available for every job seeker, the most since the beginning of 1974.

“Taking education costs, quality risks and yields into account, costs will go up” by hiring foreign workers, wrote a manager at a rubber-making company, who said the fi rm has no plans to hire foreign workers.

“We have failed in the past by employing for-eign workers who could not blend in with a dif-ferent culture,” a manager of a metal-products maker wrote.

Some 41% of fi rms are not considering hir-ing foreigners at all, 34% are not planning to hire many and 26% intend to hire such foreign workers, the survey conducted from May 8-17 showed.

Of those considering hiring foreign workers, a majority said they have no plans to support them in areas such as housing, Japanese language study and information on living in the country, it showed.

The survey, conducted monthly for Reuters by Nikkei Research, polled 477 large- and mid-size fi rms, with managers responding on condition of anonymity. Around 220 answered the questions on foreign workers.

Under the new law, a category of “specifi ed skilled workers” can stay for up to fi ve years but cannot bring family members. The other catego-ry is for more skilled foreigners who can bring relatives and be eligible to stay longer.

While foreign workers are generally viewed as cheap labour in Japan, 77% of fi rms see no change in wage levels at Japan Inc as a whole, when hiring specifi ed skilled workers. Some 16% expect wages to decline and just 6 percent see wages rising.

Foreign workers “will help ease the labour crunch, bringing down overall wages,” a steel-maker manager wrote in the survey.

Abe, whose conservative base fears a rise in crime and a threat to the country’s social fabric, has insisted that the new law does not constitute an “immigration policy.”

Tesla deliveries set to top record in Q2

Morocco’s CPI dropsNEW YORK, May 23, (RTRS): Tesla Inc is on course to top its record for quarterly deliveries in the second quar-ter, beating the 90,700 it sent to cus-tomers in the fi nal quarter of last year, according to an email from Chief Ex-ecutive Offi cer Elon Musk to staff.

Musk’s email, widely posted on social media and authenticated for Reuters by a source familiar with the matter, also said the company had on average produced 900 Model 3 cars per day this week, bringing it closer to a target of 7,000 per week.

Demand for the Model 3 sedan and Tesla’s other cars has moved to the top of investors’ list of concerns around the company after it reported slack fi rst quarter demand for its vehicles against a backdrop of US-China trade tensions.

In the email sent late Wednesday, Musk also said the company had racked up over 50,000 net new orders this quarter as of Tuesday.

RABAT, May 23, (RTRS): Morocco’s consumer price index dropped 0.2 per-cent in April from a year earlier, after falling 0.1 percent year-on-year the previous month, the high commission for planning said on Wednesday.

Food prices fell by 1.2 percent year-on-year in April after rising by 1.8 per-cent year-on-year in March. Non-food prices increased year-on-year by 0.8 percent in April compared with a rise of 1.1 percent a month earlier.

On a month-on-month basis, the consumer price index rose 0.6 percent in April.

Core annual infl ation stood at 0.3 percent on a month-on-month basis and 1.1 percent year-on-year.

The central bank expects infl ation to drop to 0.6 percent in 2019 from 1.9 percent in 2018 before picking up to 1.1 percent in 2020.

Japanese fi rms prefer to use 5G networks of domestic carriers

An overwhelming majority of Japa-nese fi rms have no plans to use 5G mobile networks by China’s Huawei or other foreign fi rms, preferring in-stead to rely on domestic telecom carriers due to security concerns, a Reuters poll showed.

The Corporate Survey results come amid Washington’s concerns that the Chinese telecom giant’s equipment could be used for spying. Japanese carriers are set to launch high-speed wireless services next year.

The United States has warned countries against using Chinese tech-nology, saying Huawei could be used by Beijing to spy on the West. China and Huawei have strongly rejected the allegations.

In written comments, no Japanese company singled out Huawei or any other foreign fi rms by name, but they expressed concerns about security issues when using the equipment of foreign fi rms.

“It is utterly impossible to adopt

products and services of a company that cannot dispel concerns about national security,” a wholesale com-pany manager wrote on condition of anonymity.

“In terms of 5G-related patents, Chinese fi rms hold an overwhelm-ingly dominant position. But it will be diffi cult to adopt them given the pos-sibility of a leakage of information,” a machinery maker manager wrote in the May 8-17 survey. The Corporate Survey found 88% of Japanese fi rms

said they are likely to pick domestic telecom carriers when utilising 5G, 2% chose Chinese fi rms including Huawei, 1% named Qualcomm Inc and 11% opted for “others”.

About four out of fi ve fi rms had no specifi c business plans to use high-speed wireless technology, the sur-vey showed. It underlined the fact that Japan is lagging other countries such as South Korea and the United States that have already begun rolling out 5G services. (RTRS)

In this fi le photo, a sign advertises 5G at the Qualcomm booth at CES In-ternational in Las Vegas. (AP)

Germany’s Bosch fi ned $100 mln

German prosecutors have fi ned auto parts and technology compa-ny Bosch 90 million euros ($100 million) over its role in the diesel emissions scandal that erupted at Volkswagen in 2015.

Prosecutors in Stuttgart said Wednesday that the company, formally called Robert Bosch GmbH, was fi ned for a negligent violation of supervisory obliga-tions, and that the company had decided not to appeal.

Bosch delivered millions of en-gine control systems that were in-stalled on various manufacturers’ cars starting in 2008 and whose software, in prosecutors’ words, “contained in part prohibited strat-egies” - leading to cars emitting more nitrogen oxide than permit-ted by regulators.

However, prosecutors said they believe that “the initiative to inte-grate and shape the prohibited strategies came from employees

of the auto manufacturers.”They said that the fi ne does not

affect ongoing criminal probes of Bosch employees. The bulk of the fi ne - 88 million euros - stems from profi ts on the sales of the parts, with the remaining 2 million euros covering the misdemeanor itself.

Prosecutors said that they took account of Bosch managers’ full and constructive cooperation with investigators since 2015. (AP)

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

18

Kuwait index winds up week in red turf

Humansoft Holding dips 30 fi ls, Markaz up

By John MathewsArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, May 23: Kuwait stocks swung into red on Thursday to wind up the week on a dour note. The All Shares Index dropped 25.62 pts in vola-tile trade to 5,578.94 points weighed by select heavy-weights even as some of the mid and small caps eked modest gains.

The Premier Market slid 40.16 pts to 6,023.25 points taking the month’s losses to 44 points while Main Market added 4.47 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile was little changed from previous session. Over 96 million shares changed hands – down 1 pct from the day before.

Among the notable losers, National Bank of Kuwait slipped 9 fi ls to 953 fi ls after trading 3.5 million shares and Bur-gan Bank gave up 4 fi ls to settle at 303 fi ls taking the month’s losses to 25 fi ls. Humansoft Holding skidded 30 fi ls to KD 3.440 and has gained 204 fi ls year-to-date.

Zain fell 3 fi ls to 487 fi ls partly eras-ing last session’s gains while Ooredoo clipped 2 fi ls before settling at 668 fi ls. Kuwait Telecommunications Co (VIVA) stood pat at 800 fi ls and Agil-ity was down 16 fi ls at 693 fi ls after trading 3.8 million shares.

The market opened fi rm and headed south in early trade. The main index continued to erode amid selling in some of the heavyweights and plumbed the day’s lowest level of 5,554 points al-most an hour into the session. It clawed back slightly and drifted sideways thereafter to close with moderate losses.

Top gainer of the day, Remal rallied 10.04 pct to 26.3 fi ls and Equipment Holding climbed 9.7 percent to stand next. AAN slumped 8.6 pct, the steep-est decliner of the day and Gulf Bank continued to top the volume with 23.8 million shares.

National Industries Group ticked 1 fi l higher to 211 fi ls on back of 1.8 million shares and Mezzan Holding skidded 24 fi ls to 506 fi ls with thin trading. Bouby-an Petrochemical Co added 3 fi ls before settling at 942 fi ls and Al Qurain Pet-rochemical Co tripped 1 fi l. Integrated Holding Co climbed 10 fi ls to 554 fi ls.

Jazeera Airways was unchanged at 890 fi ls while ALAFCO eased 1 fi l to 245 fi ls. Soor Fuel and Mashaer Hold-ing tripped 1 fi l each to end at 118 fi ls and 63.4 fi ls respectively whereas SPEC dialed up 2 fi ls. Jiyad added 1.6 fi ls on back of over 1 million shares.

Kuwait Foundry Co dropped 10 fi ls to 240 fi ls with thin trading while Gulf Cable rose 4 fi ls to 370 fi ls. Heavy En-gineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co eased 1 fi l to 381 fi ls and Equip-ment Holding dialed up 2.2 fi ls to close at 24.8 fi ls. Combined Group Contract-ing Co was unchanged at 205 fi ls off early highs and UPAC climbed 15 fi ls to 445 fi ls. ACICO Industries fell 5 fi ls to 134 fi ls and NICBM gave up 2 fi ls to close at 180 fi ls. Salbookh Contracting and Trading Co added 1.4 fi ls before settling at 47.4 fi ls.

Gulf Petroleum Investment Co trimmed 0.6 fi l and Safat Energy ticked 0.3 fi l into red. Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co edged 0.3 fi l higher to

EZ PMI undershoots expectations

Blue chips gain in Egypt

German bond yields dip on negative data

Weak oil weighs on Saudi

82.7 fi ls and KGL Logistics clipped 0.4 fi l. Inovest slipped 5.9 fi ls to 68.1 fi ls.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank rose 3 fi ls to 304 fi ls with brisk trading and Kuwait International Bank stood pat at 260 fi ls with a volume of over 1 million. Boubyan Bank took in 1 fi l and Warba Bank eased 1 fi l to 228 fi ls and the coun-ter saw 1.6 million shares change hands.

Kuwait Finance House fell 3 fi ls to 650 fi ls after trading 5.6 million shares and Ahli United Bank gave up 3 fi ls with a volume of 7.3 million shares, Commercial Bank added 3 fi ls and Al Mutahed dialed up 2 fi ls to close at 297 fi ls. Al Ahli Bank was not traded during the session. KIPCO eased 1 fi l to 209 fi ls and Gulf Finance House trimmed 0.9 fi l to end at 69 fi ls. Kuwait Invest-ment Co inched 1 fi l higher to 120 fi ls and FACIL tripped 1 fi l. Coast Invest-ment Co edged 0.9 fi l higher and Arzan eased 0.1 fi l to 30.1 fi ls.

Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) rose 3.5 fi ls to 89.5 fi ls and Securities House gave up 1.5 fi ls. Al Aman took in 0.2 fi l and ALOLA clipped 0.6 fi l af-ter trading over 2 million shares. Al Mal Investment ticked 0.1 fi l higher to 17.4

fi ls and Aayan Investment added 1.7 fi ls to wind up at 42.7 fi ls.

KAMCO fell 1.9 fi ls to 70 fi ls where-as KFIC added 1.4 fi ls on back of 5.7 million shares. NIH fell 4.9 fi ls to 70 fi ls and Unicap ticked 0.2 fi l into red. Al Deera Holding and Asiya took in 0.1 fi l each while Al Salam clipped 2.5 fi ls. KSHC gave up 3.2 fi ls.

Bayan Investment fell 3 fi ls to 35 fi ls and Osoul was down 4.9 fi ls at 59 fi ls. Noor Financial Investment Co di-aled up 0.6 fi l and Al Imtiaz paused at 128 fi ls. Gulf Insurance Co jumped 23 fi ls to 623 fi ls.

Mabanee Co rose 3 fi ls to 671 fi ls extending Wednesday’s gains while United Real Estate and AREEC took in 1 fi l each. Injazzat slipped 3.9 fi ls to 80 fi ls and Argan climbed 10 fi ls to 160 fi ls. The bourse was largely downbeat during the week. The main index closed lower in three of the fi ve sessions eras-ing 81 pts week-on-week. It has skid-ded 56 pts from start of the month and is trading 255 pts higher year-to-date. Boursa Kuwait, with 176 listed stocks, is the second largest market in the re-gion.

LONDON, May 23, (RTRS): German 10-year bond yields fell back towards 2-1/2 year lows on Thursday as a fresh dose of disappointing economic news added to concern about the harmful impact of trade wars, with Britain’s po-litical turmoil only fuelling demand for safe-haven debt.

It was another day of hefty yield falls, and sharp prices rises, across ma-jor bond markets. US and British 10-year bond yields hit their lowest levels since 2017.

In the eurozone, IHS Markit’s May Flash Composite Purchasing Manag-ers’ Index(PMI), a good guide to eco-nomic health, nudged up to 51.6 from a 51.5 in April, but was below market expectations for 51.7.

French business activity jumped to its strongest level in six months, but German business activity undershot expectations. Business morale in Ger-many – Europe’s biggest economy – also deteriorated more than expected in May, the Ifo institute survey indicated.

“The weak eurozone PMI and the German Ifo survey, which was particu-

larly poor, flag concern that any growth rebound in Q1 was likely temporary,” said Chris Scicluna, head of economic reserach at Daiwa Capital Markets.

Germany’s 10-year government bond yield fell 4 basis points to minus 0.12%, within striking distance of 2-1/2 year lows of minus 0.132% hit last week and set for its biggest one-day fall in over two weeks.

It has been a dismal few months for the global economy with the trade con-flict sending a shiver through markets and chilling business activity across the world.

Europe in particular has seen its re-covery sputter and Germany’s indus-trial sector has gone into reverse.

European Central Bank policymak-ers are concerned that economic growth in the bloc is even weaker than feared, the accounts of their April 10 meeting showed on Thursday.

Anyone hoping the data will prompt a change in European Central Bank policy will be disappointed, said Com-merzbank rates strategist Rainer Gun-termann.

“It is a mixed picture but the data for April is not weak enough for the ECB to revise down their GDP expectations ... and when the ECB council looks at the data flow ... overall it is still a mixed picture,” he said.

Still, there were some worrying sig-nals from the bond market – the US yield curve as measured by the yield gap between three month and 10-year notes inverted again in a sign that con-cern about the economic growth out-look is building.

Heightened uncertainty in Britain, where pressure was mounting on Prime Minister Theresa May to step down, added to demand for higher-rated bonds.

Ten-year US Treasury yields tum-bled to 2.32%, their lowest since De-cember 2017. Britain’s 10-year bond yield fell to 0.95% – its lowest level since June 2017.

Tumbling oil prices, down over 4% in late trade, weighed on market infla-tion expectations – helping push down 10-year bond yields in the eurozone 2-3 bps on the day.

DUBAI, May 23, (RTRS): Saudi Arabia’s stock market fell sharply on Thursday as banks and petrochemical shares dropped amid falling oil prices, while Egypt’s blue-chip index closed higher.

Saudi’s index dropped 1.4% with 10 of its 11 banks trading lower. Al Rajhi Bank shed 1.7% and Saudi Basic In-dustries fell 2.5%.

Oil prices dropped on Thursday, ex-tending falls from the previous session amid growing US crude inventories as low refinery runs and trade standoffs weigh on the demand outlook. The in-dex has lost 8.6% this month in a sell-off triggered by global trade disputes and regional geo-political tensions.

The market, however, is still up 8.8% year-to-date driven higher main-ly by foreign capital flows into Saudi stocks. Saudi Arabian mall operator Arabian Centres, which debuted on Wednesday, dipped further by 2% to 24.5 riyals ($6.53) from its initial public offer price of 26 riyals. Egypt’s blue-chip index closed 0.8% higher as Alexandria Mineral Oils jumped 5.6% after its board approved launch-ing a study for the second phase of a heavy refining project to extract high economic-value products.

El Sewedy Electric gained 2.1%. On Tuesday, it partnered with General Authority For Suez Canal Economic Zone to establish a new company with issued capital of 1 billion Egyptian pounds ($59.49 million), in which the firm will own 49%.

Dubai’s index rose for its third straight session,up 0.2%, rebound-ing from as much 1% loss earlier in the session,with most of real estate shares gaining. Dubai’s largest listed developer Emaar Properties rose 1.8%, while its unit Emaar Malls added 1.7%. The Abu Dhabi index rose 0.6% with First Abu Dhabi Bank, the country’s largest lender, adding 0.6%. J.P. Mor-gan retained an ‘overweight’ rating on the stock despite recent price volatility and said it preferred the bank over Abu

Dhabi Commercial Bank, which edged up 0.1%. Dana Gas rose 2.9%.

The stock has been gaining since Tuesday when the energy firm said it had started drilling operations at the Merak-1 offshore well in Egypt.

Qatar’s index declined 0.3% with Qatar National Bank, the Middle East and Africa’s largest lender, drop-ping1.2% and Qatar Fuel losing 2.1%. Companies on Qatar’s exchange had in 2018 increased foreign ownership lim-its to 49%, most of which had previ-ously been set at 25%, drawing a flood of cash that helped to boost the main index by more than 20% last year.

The index has since cooled, falling about 5 percent since the start of the year on profit taking amid international political tensions.

Saudi Arabia ■ The index fell 1.4% to 8,531

points

Abu Dhabi ■ The index rose 0.6% to 4,777

points

Dubai ■ The index edged up 0.2% to 2,590

points

Qatar ■ The index lost 0.3% to 9,731

points

Egypt ■ The index was up 0.8% at 13,777

points

Bahrain ■ The index slid 0.2% to 1,408

points

Oman ■ The index closed 0.4% higher to

3,876 points

Kuwait ■ The index declined 0.7% to 6,023

points

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

19

Modi’s job deficit

J&J’s India plant ‘idle’ 3years after completionPENJERLA/NEW DELHI, India, May 23, (RTRS): It was supposed to be Johnson & Johnson’s biggest manufacturing plant in India. It was to eventually employ at least 1,500 people and help bring devel-opment to a rural area near Hyderabad in southern India.

Yet, three years after the US healthcare company completed construction of production facili-ties for cosmetics and baby prod-ucts on the 47-acre site, they stand idle.

Two sources familiar with J&J’s operations in India and one state government official told Reuters production at the plant, at Penjerla in Telangana state, never began because of a slowing in the growth in demand for the prod-ucts.

One of them said that demand didn’t rise as expected because of two shock policy moves by Prime Minister Narendra Modi: a late 2016 ban on then circulating high-value currency notes, and the nationwide introduction of a goods and services tax (GST) in 2017.

J&J spokespeople in its Mumbai operations in India and at its glob-al headquarters in New Brunswick, New Jersey, declined to respond to a list of questions from Reuters.

Modi’s office did not respond to a call and an email with questions.

Aimed at rooting out corruption and streamlining the tax system, the double whammy of ‘demoneti-zation’ and GST – were two of Modi’s signature policy moves. But instead of encouraging eco-nomic activity as intended, they did the opposite, at least in 2016-2018, by sapping consumer demand, according to some econ-omists.

ImpactMany businesses, especially

small and medium-sized enterpris-es, complained publicly – some in their financial statements – that they suffered a drop off in orders. The suspended J&J project stands as one of the most vivid examples of the impact on the broader investment picture.

In the first month after demon-etization, some business surveys showed that sales of products such as shampoos and soap fell more than 20 percent.

Lack of jobs growth and a farm-income crisis because of low crop prices have hurt Modi in the cur-rent general election, according to several political strategists.

Still, Modi and his ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party are expected by many of the strat-egists to be in a position to get a second term – probably with sup-port of some other parties – when votes are counted on Thursday, partly because of his strong stance on national security issues.

A range of Modi’s business policies, such as capping prices of medical devices, forcing tech

companies to store more data locally and stricter e-commerce regulations have in the past two years hurt plans of American mul-tinationals such as J&J, Mastercard, Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart.

The groundbreaking of the J&J facility in Penjerla, its third in the country, was carried out with much fanfare in 2014, attended by Telangana state’s Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao, who hailed the foreign investment as a big win for local communities.

A document dated April 2017 that lists products the company planned to make at the facility, submitted to the Telangana government and reviewed by Reuters, names baby oil, baby shampoo, baby lotion, baby hair oil, face wash and creams.

StallShaukat Ali, running a tea shop

under a bamboo stall on barren land outside the plant, said local workers check in routinely for possible vacancies at the J&J site, but nothing has come up in years.

At the local pollution control board office, the member secre-tary Satyanarayana Reddy said the J&J plant had all the required approvals and he was not sure why it hadn’t started production.

“It is unusual for such a big plant to stay idle for so long,” he said. “But there is no problem from our side.”

Chandrasekhar Babu, an addi-tional director at the Telangana industries department, said a J&J company official told him the plant hadn’t started due to lack of demand.

GST and demonetisation were two key reasons the plan didn’t kick off, one of the sources said, adding that lack of consumer demand since then dented compa-ny’s plans.

The second source familiar with J&J’s plans said the company mis-calculated Indian market demand.

On a recent visit by a Reuters reporter to the J&J plant, plush, furnished conference rooms and cubicles sat inactive; M. Sairam, who said he was the site manager, told Reuters production areas with machines were idle too.

Local officials had hoped the ini-tial J&J plant would be only the beginning. After the groundbreak-ing in 2014, Pradeep Chandra, who was Telangana’s special chief secre-tary of industries, told Business Today magazine that “based on the extent of land (J&J) have acquired we believe that they are looking at much larger expansion here.”

Local media reports at the time said the J&J facility would employ some 1,500 people.

A J&J official, who was not iden-tified by name, was reported subse-quently in December 2016 in India’s Business Standard as saying that the $85 million plant would be opera-tional by 2018 after it had overcome procedural delays.

Shares slide on fear trade spat isnow a tech cold war; dollar gains

Oil extends losses, set for worst week in six months

NEW YORK, May 23, (RTRS): World shares skidded further on Thursday as concerns grew that the China-US trade conflict was fast turning into a technology cold war between the world’s two largest economies, leading oil prices to plunge and strengthening the dollar.

Worries over German manufac-turing, the impact of the trade war on Asian economies and deepen-ing concerns over Brexit and European parliamentary elections have curbed risk appetite and sent investors scurrying to perceived safe-haven assets.

The dollar hit its highest level in two years against a basket of six major currencies and the euro slumped to levels last seen in May 2017 as a recovery in euro zone business activity was weaker than expected.

Stocks tumbled on Wall Street and yields on the benchmark 10-year US Treasury note fell to their lowest since December 2017 as IHS Markit data showed US manufacturing growth in May posted its weakest pace of activ-ity in nearly a decade.

Equity investors, basking in the luxury of low interest rates, had been hoping for the best since US-China trade talks soured, said Michael O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading in Greenwich, Connecticut.

As of Wednesday’s close, the S&P 500 was just 3% off its record closing high on April 30.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 1.10% while the FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares fell 1.18%.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 312.3 points, or 1.21%, to 25,464.31. The S&P 500 lost 32.48 points, or 1.14%, to 2,823.79 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 102.01 points, or 1.32%, to 7,648.83.

Asian stocks fell overnight to a four-month low.

One of the few markets to escape the turmoil was India. Its main stocks market touched an all-time high after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party scored a historic election victory. Official data showing Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead in 292 of the 542 seats available.

The rupee also climbed but that, too, was an outlier.

Investors piled into the dollar as a relative safe haven because of its importance in the global economy and the extra cushion of the United States having some of the highest interest rates in the developed world.

The dollar hit a high of 98.371 against a basket of six major curren-

cies, its highest since May 2017, as it headed for a fourth consecutive month of gains.

The euro was down 0.04% at $1.1148 after touching $1.1109. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.52% ver-sus the greenback at 109.79 per dollar.

Oil prices extended declines from the previous session as trade tensions dampened the demand outlook and put the main benchmarks on course for their biggest daily and weekly falls in six months.

Brent crude futures, the internation-al benchmark, fell to a session low of $67.53 per barrel, and was trading down $3.00 at $67.99.

US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were off by $3.47 at $57.95 per barrel.

USUS stock indexes fell more than 1%

on Thursday, as investors sold off technology, industrials and energy stocks on fears that a spiraling trade war between the United States and China would crimp global growth.

Technology, among sectors most exposed to China, was the hardest hit. Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc were down more than 1%, dragging the sec-tor lower, while the chip index dropped 2.3%.

Materials, financial and consumer discretionary sectors also posted losses of more than 1% in a broad-based decline.

Stocks have succumbed to selling pressure in May after Washington and Beijing engaged in tit-for-tat tariffs and other retaliatory measures, with the S&P 500 on track to post its worst monthly decline since the December sell-off.

At 11:23 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 357.04 points, or 1.39%, at 25,419.57. The S&P 500 was down 37.88 points, or 1.33%, at 2,818.39 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 117.30 points, or 1.51%, at 7,633.54.

US Treasury yields dropped, and two yield curve indicators briefly inverted on Thursday, sending the banking index down 1.95%.

Defensive utilities was up 0.2%, while real estate was flat.

Among other stocks, NetApp Inc slumped 11.9%, the most on the S&P 500, after the data storage equipment maker forecast current-quarter profit and revenue below Wall Street esti-mates.

In a bright spot, L Brands Inc jumped 12.5% after the retailer report-ed better-than-expected quarterly earn-ings.

UKHeightened concerns over the

course of Brexit and mounting pres-sure on Prime Minister Theresa May to step down weighed heavily on Britain’s mid-cap index and domesti-cally-focused blue-chip stocks on Thursday.

As the pound fell, the FTSE 250 lost 1.4% to hit its lowest point since March 29, when Britain was originally scheduled to exit the European Union. Dublin’s main index , often regarded as a barometer of Brexit jitters, was also down nearly 1.4%.

Oil majors were the biggest drags on the FTSE 100 as unresolved Sino-US trade tensions hit demand outlook and pressured oil prices.

Shares of TUI fell 4.8% to the bot-tom of the main bourse after a survey by Barclays showed more Britons would opt for “staycations” this year over heading for trips abroad, with many citing the impact of Brexit on travel and finances.

Mid-cap outsourcing firm Serco jumped 7.4% on its best day in more than five months, after saying it would buy US Navy supplier Alion’s Naval Systems Business Unit.

Madame Tussauds-owner Merlin Entertainments advanced 7.5% after hedge fund ValueAct urged it to explore a go-private deal, calculating the move could boost the company’s value by around a third.

Europe European shares sank on Thursday

as the latest round of US-China trade friction and a soft set of business sur-veys sapped investors’ risk appetite, while pressure on British Prime Minister Theresa to quit added to Brexit concerns.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 1.4% lower, with Germany’s traditionally trade-sensi-tive DAX down 1.8%, while Italian shares slumped more than 2%.

Europe’s auto sector index, among the most exposed to trade tensions, fell nearly 3% to an over three-month low, while energy stocks led losses with a 3.3% fall, tracking oil prices lower.

In Italy, the banks index has slipped 20% from mid-April peak, confirming that the battered sector is in bear mar-ket, amid renewed worries about a showdown between Rome and Brussels over the euro-zone’s No. 3 economy’s budget.

London’s blue-chip FTSE 100 slumped 1.4% and its exporter-heavy components shrugged off the benefit of a slide in the pound to four-month lows on Brexit woes.

At the bottom of the STOXX 600 were shares of Royal Mail that hit record low as the threat of renationali-sation took its toll.

Deutsche Bank also touched an all-time low. Its chief executive promised “tough cutbacks” at its underperform-ing investment bank as he battled to convince shareholders he can turn around Germany’s biggest lender.

Shares of Daimler, Commerzbank, trading ex-dividend, were also down sharply.

AsiaAsian markets were broadly lower

on Thursday as traders focused on ten-

sions between the US and China and braced for the impact of their tariff hikes.

The Shanghai Composite index retreated 1.2% to 2,858.21 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled 1.6% to 27,264.42. The Kospi in South Korea was 0.3% lower at 2,059.59. Australia’s S&P ASX 200 fell 0.3% to 6,491.80.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index lost 0.6% to 21,151.14, after a private survey suggested that manufacturing contract-ed in May. The Markit/JMMA flash purchasing managers’ index fell to 49.6 in May from 50.2 in the previous month. Numbers above 50 on the index show acceleration.

India’s Sensex jumped 1% to 39,486.51 and other benchmarks in the country soared. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party captured an early lead as vote counting for the general election began Thursday. Shares slipped in Taiwan, Singapore and the Philippines but rallied in Indonesia.

OilOil prices dropped on Thursday,

extending falls from the previous ses-sion as trade tensions dampened the demand outlook, putting the main benchmarks on course for their biggest daily and weekly falls in six months.

World shares were deep in the red as concerns grew the China-US trade conflict was fast turning into a tech-nology cold war between the world’s two largest economies.

Brent crude futures, the internation-al benchmark, fell to a session low of $68.35 per barrel, trading down $2.50 at $68.49 by 1343 GMT.

Meanwhile, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down by $2.56 cents at $58.86 per bar-rel, after falling 2.5% the previous day.

US crude oil inventories rose last week, hitting their highest levels since July 2017, the government’s Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, while industry data had also shown a surge in US crude stock-piles.

Commercial US crude inventories rose by 4.7 million barrels in the week ended May 17, to 476.8 million bar-rels, the EIA data showed.

CurrenciesSterling weakened again on

Thursday as pressure mounted on Prime Minister Theresa May to name a date for her departure after a backlash over her last-ditch plans for Britain’s exit from the European Union.

May’s final attempt to get col-leagues’ backing for a divorce deal triggered a revolt on Wednesday by some of her Brexit-supporting minis-ters, deepening political uncertainty in Britain and sparking another round of selling of the pound.

The pound dropped 0.4% to a new 4-1/2 month low of $1.2605 , before recovering some of those losses.

former Nissan chairman Ghosn appears in Tokyo court

Nissan’s former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, appeared in a Japanese courtroom Thursday for a hearing ahead of his trial on accusations of financial misconduct.

It was the first of a series of hearings to iron out logistics for Ghosn’s actual trial. The trial date has not been set, and experts say it could be months away.

Ghosn, who led the Japanese auto-maker for two decades, was arrested in November and charged with underreport-ing his income and breach of trust. He was released on bail in March, rearrested

in April on fresh accusations and then released again on bail on April 25.

Ghosn insists he is innocent and says he was targeted in a “conspiracy” by oth-ers at Nissan Motor Co.

Nissan, which is allied with Renault SA of France, has seen profits nose-dive amid the fallout from Ghosn’s arrest.

Ghosn has hired a strong legal team as he fights to clear his name. One of his top lawyers, Junichiro Hironaka, was seen walking into the courtroom Thursday with Ghosn.

One of the conditions of Ghosn’s release on bail is that he is forbidden to contact his wife. Prosecutors say that’s to prevent evidence tampering.

Ghosn’s lawyers challenged that restriction, saying it is a violation of human rights, but the Supreme Court rejected their appeal Tuesday.

The lawyers can appeal again to have the restriction removed.

In a briefing Thursday, Deputy Chief Prosecutor Shin Kukimoto welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision. (AP)

Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn (center),

arrives at Tokyo District Court for a pre-trial meet-ing in Tokyo on May 23.

Ghosn, who is out on bail, has been charged with

under-reporting his post-retirement compensation

and breach of trust in diverting Nissan money and allegedly having it shoulder his personal

investment losses. (AP)

exchange rates – May 23

US dollar

BEC

Muzaini

Commercial Bank

Gulf Bank

NBK

Burgan Bank

ABK

KFH

KBE

BuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellSell

BEC

Muzaini

Commercial Bank

Gulf Bank

NBK

Burgan Bank

ABK

KFH

KBE

BuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuySellBuy

Cash.300800 .306100

——

.297000

.305850——————

.303500

.305600

.301790

.307320—

Draft.302550.304900.304700

—.302750.306350.303500.305600.303000.306100.303450.305500.301000.307100.302500.305600

—

Danish krone

Cyprus pound

BEC Muzaini

Gulf Bank

ABK

KFH

KBE

BECCommercial BankGulf BankAl-Ahli Bank

BECMuzaini Exchange

BuySellBuySell BuySellBuySellBuySellSell

US dollar.302550.302750.303500.303200

Gold 999 kg— —

Gold 999 10 tola——

Gold ounce——

Gold gm 22k——

Gold gm 21k——

Gold gm 18k——

100 gm 999——

10 gm 999——

Transfer.302550.304900.304700

—.302750.306350.303500.305600.303000.306100.303450.305500.301000.307100.302500.305600

—

Cash.041563.046563

———————————————

Draft.041563.046563

——

.045197

.045735

.045165

.045747

.045240

.045700

.045795

.046378——

.045097

.046124—

Cash———————————

Draft——— ————————

Transfer——— ————————

Sterling pound

Cash.378100.392000

— —

.382000

.393000——————

.381670

.386730

.379380

.390757—

Draft.377600.388100.399160

—.382948.387502.387180.394975.380810.391130.393683401642.378250.388970.384292.391963

—

Indian rupee

Yemeni riyal

Transfer.377600.388100.399160

—.382948.387502.387180.394975.380810.391130.393683401642.378250.388970.384292.391963

—

Cash.003743.004515

——

.004000

.006500———————————

Draft.004269.004349.437200

——

.004371—

.004441

.004284

.004396

.004455—

.004350

.004450

.004309

.004433—

Transfer.004269.004349.437200

——

.004371—

.004441

.004284

.004396

.004455—

.004350

.004450

.004309

.004433—

Cash.000991.001071

—————————

Draft.000812.001081.001224

—————

.001197

.001231—

Transfer.000812.001081.001224

—————

.001197

.001231—

Euro

Cash.332213.345913

——

.337000

.348000——————

.336920

.341840

.334082

.345581—

Draft.334213.342713.343240

—.337188.341197.336250.343115.335420.345280340810.347767.333910.343820.344536.332296

—

Pakistani rupee

Thai baht

Transfer.334213.342713.343240

—.337188.341197.336250.343115.335420.345280340810.347767.333910.343820.344536.332296

—

Cash.001524.002294

——————————————

Draft.002067

.002099 .218700

——

.002077—

.002146—

.002138

.002189———

.002059

.002131—

Transfer.002067

.002099 .218700

——

.002077—

.002146—

.002138

.002189———

.002059

.002131—

Cash.009251.009801

—————————

Draft.009238.009653 .096520

—————

.009414

.009826—

Transfer.009238.009653 .096520

—————

.009414

.009826—

Japanese yen

Cash.002679.002859

———————————————

Draft.002678.002858.002773

—.002751.002783.002741.002783.002715.002796270070274260.002740.002780 .002687.002841

—

Sri Lankan rupee

South African rand

Transfer.002678.002858.002773

—.002751.002783.002741.002783.002715.002796270070274260.002740.002780 .002687.002841

—

Cash .001376.001956

——

.002000

.003500———————————

Draft .001687.001731.001734

——

.001744—

.001755

.001705

.001755.0017730

———

.001708

.001743—

Transfer.001687.001731.001734

——

.001744—

.001755

.001705

.001755.0017730

———

.001708

.001743—

Cash——————————

Draft—————

.021744—————

Transfer—————

.021744—————

Swiss franc

Cash.295771.306771

——

.299000

.307000———————————

Draft.296770.303770.300790

—.299901.303467.299058.305145.296830.306160.298771.394915.299360.304310.293918.309099

—

Bangladesh taka

Korean won

Transfer.296770.303770.300790

—.299901.303467.299058.305145.296830.306160.298771.394915.299360.304310.293918.309099

—

Draft.003574.003608.035900

——

.003660—

.003658——

.003666———

.003535

.003657—

Cash.003010.003811

— ——————————————

Transfer.003574.003608.035900

——

.003660—

.003658——

.003666———

.003535

.003657—

Cash.000245.000260

—————————

Draft———— ———————

Transfer———— ———————

Canadian dollar

Cash.221238.230238

——

.225000

.232000———————————

Draft.219238.229238.227390

—.226194.228884.224332.228898.222540.230430225974230523.224770.227950.221207.230277

—

Philippine peso

Syrian pound

Transfer.219238.229238.227390

—.226194.228884.224332.228898.222540.230430225974230523.224770.227950.221207.230277

—

Cash.005772.006072

——

.005000

.007900———————————

Draft.005332.005802.005847

——

.005827—

.005898

.005620

.005880

.005985———

.005672

.005907—

Transfer.005332.005802.005847

——

.005827—

.005898

.005620

.005880

.005985———

.005672

.005907—

Cash.001291.001511

——— — —————

Draft.001292.001512

——— ——————

Transfer.001292.001512

——— ——————

Swedish krona

Cash.027556.032556

———————————————

Draft.027555.032555

——

.030000

.030700

.031401

.031759

.031380

.031830

.327390

.331070——

.031215

.031811—

Australian dollar

Iranian Riyal

Transfer.027555.032555

——

.030000

.030700

.031401

.031759

.031380

.031830

.327390

.331070——

.031215

.031811—

Cash.202663.214663

——

.208000

.219000———————————

Draft.299524.212524

——

.207989

.210462

.208989

.211792

.206590

.215130

.217273

.220121

.208500

.211750

.203260

.217709 —

Transfer.299524.212524

——

.207989

.210462

.208989

.211792

.206590

.215130

.217273

.220121

.208500

.211750

.203260

.217709 —

Cash———————————

Draft———————————

Transfer———————————

Saudi riyal

Cash.080220

.081520 ——

.080688

.081498————————

.080551

.081598—

Draft.080720.081360.813080

—.080688.081711.080789.081896.080860.081620.082167.843620.079960 .082020.080551.081598

—

Hong Kong dollar

Lebanese pound

Transfer.080720.081360.813080

—.080688.081711.080789.081896.080860.081620.082167.843620.079960 .082020.080551.081598

—

Cash.036717.039467

———————————————

Draft.036587.039687.038840

—.038530.038989.038415.039187

——

.038465

.039237—————

Transfer.036587.039687.038840

—.038530.038989.038415.039187

——

.038465

.039237—————

Cash.000151.000251

—————————

Draft.000191.000211.002030

——— ——

.000196

.000206—

Transfer.000191.000211.002030

——— ——

.000196

.000206—

UAE dirham

Cash.081588.083288

——

.082379

.083207————————

.082246

.083308—

Draft.081543.083039.830130

—.082371.083351.082358.083374.082570.083340.082423.083446.081940.083820.082246.083308

—

Singapore dollar

Malaysian ringgit

Transfer.081543.083039.830130

—.082371.083351.082358.083374.082570.083340.082423.083446.081940.083820.082246.083308

—

Cash.217044 .227044

——————————————

Draft.217679 .223679 .224710

—.219884.222501.220968.223536.219760.224790.223699.226182.220710.223640.219208.224799

—

Transfer.217679

.223679 .224710

—.219884.222501.220968.223536.219760.224790.223699.226182.220710.223640.219208.224799

—

Cash.069406.075406

—————————

Draft.068188.075188.077928

—————

.071850

.074048—

Transfer.068188.075188.077928

—————

.071850

.074048—

Bahraini dinar

Cash.794183.810683

——

.802598

.810664 ————————

.801919

.816065—

Draft.801682.810182.809620

—.803519.813074.800659.811903.803870.811900.801234.812481.795890.816220.801919.816065

—

Jordanian dinar

Indonesian rupiah

Transfer.801682.810182.809620

—.803519.813074.800659.811903.803870.811900.801234.812481.795890.816220.801919.816065

—

Cash.424715.433715

——

.420000

.440000———————————

Draft.424127.431627.430430

——

.432794—

.434448

.422770

.436230

.434804—

.427170

.436010

.425155

.431702—

Transfer.424127.431627.430430

——

.432794—

.434448

.422770

.436230

.434804—

.427170

.436010

.425155

.431702—

Cash.000071.000023

—————————

Draft.000016.000022

—— —

.000213——

Transfer.000016.000022

—— —

.000213—————

Omani riyal

Cash .785630.791310

——

.786815

.794723————————

.787841

.794220—

Draft .780540.791540 .791943

—.794723.786588.786917.797765.787800.795010.786828.797676.784460.797270.787841.794220

—

Egyptian pound

New Zealand dollar

Transfer .780540.791540 .791943

—.794723.786588.786917.797765.787800.795010.786828.797676.784460.797270.787841.794220

—

Cash.017605.020205.020750

—.012000.023000

———————————

Draft.017136.017963.177290

——

.018537—

.018194

.017150

.018260—

.016700

.016940

.018430

.017378

.018425—

Transfer.017136.017963.177290

——

.018537—

.018194

.017150

.018260—

.016700

.016940

.018430

.017378

.018425—

Cash.193586.203086

—— ———————

Draft.189912.200912

——

.197631

.201717—————

Transfer.189912.200912

——

.197631

.201717—————

All rates in KD per unit of foreign currency

travellers cheques local gold Sterling.377600.382948.387180.388040

Euro.334213.337188.336250.338510

Transfer.041563.046563

——

.045197

.045735

.045165

.045747

.045240

.045700

.045795

.046378——

.045097

.046124—

Business PlusPlus

We continue to think the apparel

and footwear con-sumer’s willing-

ness to spend remains tepid at

best

‘

’

Technology like this can help us

solve that gap between demand

and supply because it means we can pinpoint when a

careworker needs to be in a person’s

home

‘

’

Proposed actions could add $7bn in additional costs for customers every year

Retailers, shoppers could feel more pain if tariffs spreadshoes, which lost a big player Payless ShoeSource, retailers will have more power to increase prices since the shoe supply has gone down, he said.

Meanwhile, UBS is offering a dire analysis of what the new tariffs could mean in terms of store closures. UBS was already forecasting that nearly 21,000 stores in the US would shut-ter by 2026, but with the next round of tariffs, more than 50% of those closures would occur within one year instead of four, it said.

“We continue to think the ap-parel and footwear consumer’s willingness to spend remains tepid at best,” UBS retail analyst Jay Sole wrote in his report.

In fact, nearly 200 footwear retailers and brands including Adidas and Shoe Carnival wrote a letter to President Donald Trump on Monday calling for him not to slap tariffs on footwear imported from China.

The group, the Footwear Dis-tributors and Retailers of America, estimates Trump’s proposed actions will add $7 billion in ad-ditional costs for customers every year.

Many retailers from Macy’s to Walmart warned that even though the escalating trade wars would mean higher prices for shoppers, the situation is still fl uid.

Walmart said it’s been closely working with suppliers and says it will look at price increases on a case by case basis. Target’s CEO Brian Cornell said it will be able to weather the storm better than others because it sells a variety of items instead of focusing on a single product.

“Our ability to fl ex our focus from category-to-category is something that’s somewhat unique to Target versus single-category retailers,” he told analysts Wednesday.

Among department stores, the big concern is its private label clothing offerings, much of its sourced in China.

T.J. Maxx parent, on the other hand, which sells top brands at discounts and has been a darling in the retail world, sees itself benefi ting from other retailers’ woes.

“Disruptions in the market-place have created off-price buy-ing opportunities for us,” Ernie Herrman, CEO of TJX Cos. told analysts earlier this week. “Fur-ther, because of our great values, if retail prices overall increase, that may create an opportunity for us to attract new customers.” (AP)

This fi le photo shows prices in the toy section at Walmart in Teterboro, NJ. An escalating trade war with China could mean higher prices on a broad array of products from toys to clothing. But some retailers will feel more pain than others, further deepening the divide between the winners and the losers that was evident in the latest earnings reports. Analysts say big box giants like

Walmart and Target, which have had strong performances, are best positioned to absorb the higher costs because of their clout with suppliers. (AP)

Analyst sees competition from smart home providers

IBM, Cera Care to test self-driving car in elder homesBERLIN, May 23, (RTRS): IBM and British start-up Cera Care plan a six-month pilot to test whether lidar laser sensors, used to help self-driving cars “see”, can enable elderly people to stay in their homes for longer - without compromising privacy.

Lidar systems that work by using laser light pulses to render fi ne-grained images of surround-ings, have typically been used to make high-resolution maps, catch speeding motorists and more re-cently help automated cars navigate through the streets.

If the pilot is successful, it could potentially open up a new market for lidar just as it falls out of favour with some automakers, including Nissan and Tesla, who have called it expensive and unnecessary.

Jack Narcotta, a senior smart home analyst at Strategy Analyt-ics, said lidar lasers were one of the more advanced solutions for elderly monitoring, but were still in the very early stages.

Even though lidar doesn’t rec-ognise faces, some consumers may be concerned about the amount of tracking and location data collected and the ability to see repeatable pat-

terns, he said.In the pilot, IBM Research UK

and Cera Care plan to install lidar sensors in around 10-15 volunteer households in Britain from June, and see whether they can build up a detailed picture of a care client’s daily routine and home environ-ment using IBM’s machine learning software.

Their aim is to alert caregivers to any possible deterioration in a

person’s physical and psychological health, such as changes in gait, or emergency situations such as a fall.

Ben Maruthappu, co-founder and CEO of Cera Care, hopes the technology will help the care system become more personalised even as the demand for care outgrows the number of careworkers on the front line.

“Technology like this can help us solve that gap between demand and

supply because it means we can pin-point when a careworker needs to be in a person’s home,” Maruthappu told Reuters.

The world’s population is ageing rapidly, with those over 60 expected to more than double to 2 billion by 2050 from 900 million in 2015, according to the World Health Organization.

Lidar sensors have become a key element in self-driving systems from General Motors Co, Ford Mo-tor Co and Alphabet Inc’s Waymo. But their use in the home remains an emerging fi eld.

Narcotta sees competition from the likes of ‘Hive Link’, a con-nected care service from a division of Centrica’s British Gas, launched last December, that uses sensors and smart plugs to learn a person’s routine and sends notifi cations to subscribers when it detects any unusual changes.

Nicola Palmarini, IBM’s top research scientist for ageing and longevity, says lidar - which doesn’t recognise personal characteristics such as faces, age and gender - provides precise data without people feeling like they are being watched.

He believes they will only need

one lidar sensor per room, poten-tially making it more scalable and reducing overall care costs if people can stay at home for longer.

Still, the technology comes with a high price-tag, with 3D sensors currently costing between $800 and $1,000 each, according to Palmarini. He expects the cost to fall over time.

Aejaz Zahid, a director at assis-troniX and expert on new technolo-gies to help people age well, said one major benefi t of lidar could be fall detection - a major pain point for health systems that research-ers have struggled to crack with wearables.

Other fi rms looking at lidar’s potential in the smart home include scanning technology maker Micro-vision that has launched a lidar sen-sor with a range of up to 10 metres with machine-learning capabilities.

Researchers are also examining the possibility of using lidar to give smart home devices “vision”.

While there is some concern that prolonged staring into even Class I lasers - which use less power - may pose a risk to eyesight, IBM and Cera Care said they plan to trial lidar technology that has been certi-fi ed as safe for domestic use.

By Anne D’Innocenzio

An escalating trade war between the US and China

could mean higher prices on a broad array of products from toys to clothing. But some retailers will be less equipped to handle the pain than others, leaving consum-ers to carry the load.

Analysts say big box giants like Target and Walmart who marked their latest quarter with strong performance are best positioned to absorb the higher costs because of their clout with suppliers. They’re also taking a judicious approach to price increases to lessen the impact.

The losers will be the ones that have been struggling all along – the mall-based clothing

stores and others that sell com-moditized products like basic sweaters or that don’t have the fi nancial wherewithal to absorb extra costs.

Consumers, as well as most retailers, had been left largely un-scathed by the fi rst several rounds of tariffs that the US imposed on China because they mostly focused on industrial and agricul-tural products. But that began to change when items like furniture saw an increase in tariffs to 25% two weeks ago.

Retailers will absorb the extra costs when those products arrive in US ports in June. But now the Trump administration is prepar-ing to extend the 25% tariffs to practically all Chinese imports not already hit with levies, including

toys, shirts, household goods and sneakers.

Cowen & Co estimates shop-pers could see as much as 10% to 15% in price increases across all goods imported from China, which would mean an incremental cost of $100 billion or more.

Retail executives from a wide array of stores from Walmart to Kohl’s said on conference calls with analysts this week and last week that they remain optimistic about the fi nancial health of the consumer, citing low unemploy-ment and a strong economy. But shoppers could balk at paying higher prices on things they don’t need, especially those in the lower income bracket who are sensitive to any cost increases.

Analysts believe shoppers’ hab-

its will change if the trade wars escalate and the next round of hikes stay in place for a while.

“It will change behaviors and change how much people buy and where people do that buying,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.

Greg Petro, CEO of First Insight, a technology fi rm that advises retailers and brands on pricing decisions, believes that if prices do rise because of the new tariffs, they will be permanent but not all products will be hit the same way. For example, home decor is less sensitive to price increases than big furniture based on millions of data points his fi rm collects monthly. Women’s cloth-ing is more sensitive to price hikes than men’s clothing. In children’s

FAA chief says fl ying public will regain faith in Boeing jet

Public confi dence in Boeing’s 737 Max jet is “maybe” shaken after two deadly crash-es but that will eventually change, said the chief of the Federal Aviation Administra-tion.

Representatives from 33 other global aviation regulators will meet in Fort Worth, Texas, Thursday to hear FAA offi cials de-scribe the steps they have taken – and what remains to be done - before the plane fl ies again.

The list of foreign regulators includes delegates from Indonesia and Ethiopia,

where the two crashes occurred before the plane was grounded worldwide in March. In all, 346 people died.

Acting FAA Administrator Daniel Elwell repeated that his agency won’t lift the grounding of the Max until it is safe. He said people eventually will get back on the plane. “Is public confi dence shaken right now? Maybe,” Elwell told reporters, adding that once the FAA fi nishes its study of Boe-ing’s changes to the plane, “the public will fl y it and the public will be confi dent in US and global travel.”

Boeing said it has fi nished work on fl ight-control software that has been implicated in both accidents. The company, however, hasn’t submitted fi nal paperwork to regu-lators or scheduled a mandatory test fl ight with FAA experts.

Three US airlines – Southwest, Ameri-can and United – have 72 Max jets and hoped that with the software fi x and addi-tional training for pilots, they could be fl ying again by August.

Elwell declined to say whether that would happen. (AP)

In this fi le photo, Air China passen-ger airliners park at the Beijing In-

ternational Airport in Beijing, China.

Air China Ltd, one of China’s three

major state-owned airlines, is joining

carriers that are asking Boeing Co for compensation for the grounding of their 737 Max

jetliners following two fatal crashes.

(AP)

In this fi le photo, a sign bearing the company logo is displayed outside a Tesla store in Cherry Creek Mall in Denver. A new automatic lane-change feature of Tesla’s Autopilot system doesn’t work well and could be a safety risk to drivers, according to tests performed by Consumer Reports. (AP)

SPORTSARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

21

Team prepare to face St Louis Blues in final

Bruins hoping to win Stanley Cup, join Boston’s title paradeBOSTON, May 23, (AP): It’s been more than three months since the last championship parade in Boston, and the city is getting antsy.

Sure, the Red Sox won the World Series last October. And the New Eng-land Patriots earned their sixth Super Bowl victory in February.

But since then: Nothing.And Boston’s sports fans are count-

ing on the Bruins to end the intermi-nable title drought.

“It definitely lights a fire under you to see the other teams in the city bring home their champion-ships,” defense-man Brandon Carlo said as the team prepared to face the St. Louis Blues in the Stan-ley Cup Final. “We want to be a part of it.”

It wasn’t too long ago that Boston was a sad sack of a sports city, with the Patriots the joke of the NFL and the Red Sox mired in a dynasty of disappointment that would stretch to 86 years. The Celtics won far more than their share, but they endured the longest championship drought in fran-chise history from 1986-2008.

The Bruins went from Bobby Orr’s two championships in the early 1970s until Zdeno Chara and Patrice Bergeron brought the Cup home in 2011.

If that doesn’t seem like a long time ago, try telling that to the newly spoiled Boston fans who have grown up with the Belichick-and-Brady Patri-ots and a Red Sox franchise that has won as many championships in the past 15 seasons as it did in the previ-ous 100.

“It feels like there’s been a little bit of a gap in there,” said Carlo, a Colo-radan who is 22 years-old, and has only been in the city for three years. “The way things have gone for Bos-ton, we’re looking to be like the other teams.”

And now they have their chance.

The Bruins are at their strongest heading into the Cup final, with a sev-en-game winning streak that includes a sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Goalie Tuukka Rask has allowed more than two goals just twice in the past 13 games, and he won the last two playoff clinchers with a shutout. Brad Marchand is the leading scorer remain-ing in the playoffs.

And, with the Celtics done, the Pa-triots in the offseason and the Red Sox still recovering from their early season championship hangover, the Bruins have the city’s attention.

“We want to be considered the best game in town. Why wouldn’t we?” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We have some serious competition.”

Cassidy said he has developed a relationship with the other coaches in town, and he reached out to the Pa-triots for advice on how to handle the long layoff between series.

The Celtics practice facility is next door to the Bruins’; on the morning of an NBA playoff game, Cassidy wore a Celtics shirt to his media availability.

When he took the podium for Wednesday’s news conference, Cas-sidy looked at the unusually large crowd and said, “Red Sox off today?” (They’re on the road.)

The Bruins have also noticed the difference when they’re out and run into fans around town.

“You do see how the city rallies around you,” Bruins forward Jake De-Brusk said. “I grew up in Edmonton, and we only have one sports team. To come in here, and there’s four sports teams and they’re usually pretty good, in the playoffs or in the hunt or win-ning.

“It’s very lucky to be playing here,” DeBrusk said. “Ever since I’ve gotten here I fall in love with the city. To see the teams win around here, and how the people supported it, it’s very spe-cial.”

In this May 16, 2019 file photo, Boston Bruins players celebrate during the closing moments in Game 4 of the team’s NHL hockey Stanley Cup Eastern Conference final victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh,

North Carolina. (AP)

NFL Roundup

Vikings’ Rudolph confirms 5-yr offer

Panthers QB Newton not throwing, Olsen healthySOUTH CAROLINA, May 23, (RTRS): Cam Newton was not cleared to throw as the Carolina Panthers worked out together Wednesday, four months after the quarterback had shoulder surgery.

Head coach Ron Rivera said the team remains focused on Newton re-turning at full strength for the start of training camp in July.

Tight end Greg Olsen, whose 2018 season ended in December with a foot injury, told reporters he can be a full participant at OTAs. Injuries have limited him to just 16 games com-bined over the past two seasons.

❑ ❑ ❑

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the league has not been in touch with Kansas City Chiefs wideout Tyreek Hill as authorities continue to investigate allegations of child abuse.

Specifically, Goodell said any disciplinary action from the NFL will wait until the investigation concludes.

❑ ❑ ❑

A relative of Tyrann Mathieu has been accused of trying to extort $5 million from the Chiefs safety.

ESPN reported that Geour-von Keinell Sears, 21, allegedly threatened to reveal personal in-formation to TMZ if he didn’t re-ceive the money.

❑ ❑ ❑

Robert Kraft’s trial has been suspended indefinitely as prosecu-tors appeal a judge’s ruling over the admissibility of video surveil-lance footage.

The suppression of the key video evidence could end the case against Kraft, who was charged with a misdemeanor alleging he

paid for sex at a massage parlor in Jupiter, Fla.

❑ ❑ ❑

Minnesota Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph confirmed report that the team has offered him a five-year extension.

Rudolph, 29, told ESPN that Pro Football Talk’s report – which said the team’s offer would make Rudolph one of the NFL’s highest-paid tight ends – was accurate.

❑ ❑ ❑

The NFL awarded the 2021 draft to Cleveland and the 2023 draft to Kansas City.

The event in Cleveland will be centered downtown, around First-Energy Stadium, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and on the shore of Lake Erie.

❑ ❑ ❑

The NFL Scouting Com-bine will remain in Indianapolis through at least 2021, while on-field workouts will be moved to the afternoon and prime time in 2020.

The agreement to hold the com-bine in Indianapolis also includes a series of annual options in the future.

❑ ❑ ❑

Recently retired defensive end Chris Long admitted to using marijuana as an NFL player, say-ing the league should move toward a place where testing positive does not result in a suspension.

❑ ❑ ❑

The Washington Redskins placed linebacker Reuben Foster on injured reserve with a torn left ACL and signed free agent line-backer Jon Bostic.

Foster, 25, sustained the season-ending injury Monday. Bostic, 28, is on his fifth NFL team after spending last year in Pittsburgh.

❑ ❑ ❑

The Oakland Raiders signed tight end Erik Swoope and re-leased quarterback Landry Jones.

Newton

Long-running Colonial back on solid footing with new sponsor

Rose set to defend title as Palmer playing on home course

FORT WORTH, Texas, May 23, (AP): Colonial Country Club is the lon-gest-running host of a PGA Tour event played on its original site, a fact that seemed in jeopardy not too long ago.

Local companies backed the tournament last year when it was called the Fort Worth Invitational following an upscale grocer’s withdrawal as title sponsor two years into a six-year contract.

Now the event that was first played at Hogan’s Alley in 1946 is on solid footing again as the Charles Schwab Challenge. The tournament starts Thursday.

“Been here since 1946. Been in essentially the same spot in our schedule. Been a lot of change in our schedule. This hasn’t changed. I don’t see it changing,” PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan said Wednesday at Colonial. “It’s the his-tory, the tradition, the passionate fan base, the success we’ve had, the im-pact we’ve had. We’ll do everything we can to make certain these events are here.”

The Dallas-Fort Worth tour stops, the Byron Nelson and Colonial, were split up this year with the PGA Championship’s move up to May from late summer. The Nelson two weeks ago was played at Trinity Forest Golf Club for the second time after moving from the TPC Four Seasons.

Nine of the world’s top 20 play-ers are at Colonial, topped by third-ranked Justin Rose, the defending champion .

While PGA Championship win-ner Brooks Koepka and runner-up Dustin Johnson, the top two players, are taking a week off, five of the top 10 are in North Texas. Koepka, who at 17 under was the 2018 Colonial runner-up three strokes behind Rose, was one of only two top-20 players at the Nelson two weeks ago.

Financial services provider Charles Schwab & Co. was already deeply involved in golf when it be-came title sponsor at Colonial, where Hall of Famer and Fort Worth native Ben Hogan was a club member and won the inaugural PGA Tour event for first of his five wins on his home course.

Charles Schwab has a four-year agreement through 2022 with an op-tion to add to that.

“We love being here in Fort Worth,” Monahan said. “We love the support we get. And knowing that this is a brand that’s all about elevation and about innovation and challenging, it’s a perfect time to come in. This event has a great fu-ture, and we know you’re going to push it along with us to new heights in the years ahead.”

On the PGA Tour Champions, for players over 50, the Charles Schwab Cup is awarded to the season’s top player. The company on Wednesday made a $5 million donation to the First Tee program to help the organization expand its programs and deepen its im-pact on young people in Texas.

After Dean and Deluca reneged on a title sponsorship after two years, local companies such as American Airlines, AT&T, XTO Energy and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway supported Colonial Country Club in putting on the tournament last year.

Jordan Spieth, winless since the 2017 British Open, is coming off his first top-20 finish of the season when he tied for third last week at the PGA.

While Spieth played his first tour event as a 16-year-old amateur at the Nelson in 2010, the Dallas-born player also considers Colonial a hometown tournament. Spieth won the 2016 Colonial.

Ryan Palmer is playing on his home course, the one where caddie James Edmondson has won multiple club championships. Palmer’s only PGA Tour victory since 2010 came in the two-man team event with Jon Rahm, though his four top-10 finish-es in 14 starts this season are already his most since 2015.

At Colonial, Palmer missed the cut last year, after finishing tied for 70th in 2017, a year after his Colonial-best finish of third. He has missed the cut four times at Hogan’s Alley, and has an average finish of 33rd in his other 11 appearances, including three top 10s.

“It’s hard at times because the pressure I put on myself and you want to play so well, and so many of my friends and family are here at Colonial Country Club,” Palmer said. “James and I both play regu-larly. I guess this is our fifth major.”

Justin Rose drives off the 10th tee during the final round of the PGA Championship golf tournament, on May 19, at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York. (AP)

Stewart, Gibbs, Labonte elected to NASCAR HoFCHARLOTTE, North Carolina, May 23, (AP): Tony Stewart headlines a Joe Gibbs Racing trio that has been elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

The three-time Cup Series cham-pion will be inducted alongside car owner Joe Gibbs and former team-mate Bobby Labonte. Driver Buddy Baker and mechanic Waddell Wil-

son were also voted in Wednesday.Stewart won 49 Cup Series races

during his 17-year NASCAR career, including championships in 2002 and 2005 driving for Gibbs and an-other in 2011 with Stewart-Haas Racing. He won another champion-ship as an owner in 2014 with driver Kevin Harvick.

Labonte won the Cup Series title

in 2000, giving Gibbs the first of his four championships at NASCAR’s highest level.

Gibbs, the Super Bowl-winning former coach of the Washington Redskins and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, won his most recent owner championship in 2015 with Kyle Busch behind the wheel.

Cassidy

ICE HOCKEY

GOLF

set the Champions League as their clear target their season and Gattuso could be fi red even if they qualify.

At the bottom, Genoa are in the relegation zone with 37 points with Empoli above them on 38 and Udinese and Fiorentina on 40, al-though there is no combination of results which can relegate Udinese.

Fiorentina, who returned to the top fl ight in 2004 after recovering from bankruptcy and have been ever-present since, host Genoa and defeat will condemn them to the second tier if Udinese avoid losing.

Vincenzo Montella’s side have lost their last six games in all com-petitions, are scoreless in their last four and winless in their last 13.

“Everything is going wrong at the moment, but we mustn’t think of ourselves as victims,” said Mon-tella after they lost 1-0 at Parma last Sunday. “We mustn’t waste energy, or think everything has been thrown away. We must go onto the pitch without fear.”

SPORTSARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

22

MILAN, May 23, (RTRS): Atalan-ta, facing one of the biggest matches in the club’s 112-year history, will be playing away at home on Sunday as they bid to pip one of the two Mi-lan teams to a place in next season’s Champions League.

The Bergamo team’s own sta-dium began rebuilding work this month and they are playing their fi nal home matches of the season at the Maipei ground in Reggio Emilia – which happens to be the home of Sassuolo, their opponents on Sun-day.

Around 18,000 fans are expected to make the 240-kilometre trip from Bergamo for what could be an his-toric evening for their team who have never previously played in the Champions League, or its predeces-sor the European Cup.

The remaining 4,000 places will be reserved for Sassuolo fans – in the away sector.

Atalanta are among four teams chasing the remaining two Champi-ons League places on the fi nal day of the Serie A season while, at the other end of the table, Fiorentina are among three sides trying to avoid the last of the three relegation spots.

Atalanta, Serie A’s topscorers with 74 goals, are third with 66 points from their 37 games ahead of Inter Milan on their head-to-head record, with AC Milan fi fth on 65 and AS Roma sixth on 63.

Juventus won the title with fi ve matches to spare and Napoli have guaranteed second place.

“Our confi dence is now sky high and that is going to be crucial,” said Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasper-ini after his team held Juventus 1-1 away last Sunday to extend their

Inter confi dence at low ebb

Atalanta play away at home in fi nal Champs League push

Juventus FC’s Cristiano Ronaldo, (top right), goes for the ball during a Serie A soccer match against Ata-lanta BC at the Allianz Stadium in Turin, Italy, Sunday, May 19. (AP)

Relaxed Japan hoping to peak at WCupTOKYO, May 23, (RTRS): A fun and relaxed at-mosphere prevailed at Japan’s training camp on Wednesday as Asako Takakura’s team began their fi nal preparations for the women’s World Cup in France.

The “Nadeshiko” head to France on Monday hoping to reach their third consecutive fi nal of the tournament they won in 2011.

Takakura is keen to keep preparations light and enjoyable for her players before the hard work be-

gins in France. “We will be together for a long time and in-

dividually there will be tense moments, ups and downs, so I told the squad let’s enjoy,” Takakura told reporters after the fi rst day of camp in Nar-ashino, near Tokyo.

“Each player has to remember that you move for-ward, not go backwards.”

Takakura is taking a young squad to France with one eye on the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and has stressed the importance of building confi dence to peak when the tournament starts.

“Each player has their own different training re-gime so that they will peak at or after the opening of the World Cup,” she said.

Takakura’s squad average less than 38 caps each with 14 players aged 23 or younger.

The more experienced players in the squad have also welcomed the relaxed atmosphere, which was apparent throughout the training session on Wednes-day as players laughed and joked with their coaches in a series of small games.

Takakura has also arranged a training match at the weekend against a local university men’s team.

“Each player should send good and loving ener-gy, keep relaxed but have good discipline,” stressed forward Mana Iwabuchi, who has 61 caps for her country at the age of 26.

Defender Aya Sameshima, a veteran of the 2011 victory, hopes to serve as an inspiration for young, aspiring Japanese soccer players.

“By making progress and having results, our ex-posure in the media will be bigger and I hope that we will inspire young girls,” she said.

The world number seven have been drawn in Group D alongside Argentina, Scotland and Eng-land, who defeated Japan in the fi nal of the SheBe-lieves Cup in March.

Nikao of Brazil’s Athletico Paranaense (left), heads the ball pressures by Milton Casco of Argentina’s River Plate during a Recopa Sudamericana fi rst leg fi nal soccer match in Curitiba, Brazil on May 22. (AP)

Valencia seek fi rst crown since 2008

Barca want to redeem themselves with Copa del Rey titleBARCELONA, Spain, May 23, (AP): Although Barcelona are still smarting from their collapse at Liv-erpool two weeks ago, the team have another cup final to play in this weekend.

The Spanish champions can com-plete a second straight domestic double when they face Valencia on Saturday in the Copa del Rey final.

“It’s the last game of the sea-son and we need to win so we can go on vacation with a better feeling than the one we had after the match against Liverpool,” Barcelona de-

fender Clement Lenglet said. “That’s why we want to win this final.”

Barcelona have won a record 30 Copa del Rey titles, including the last four, but they were eliminated from the Champions League by Liv-erpool after blowing a 3-0 lead from the first leg.

Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde could have a lot riding on the out-come of the game against Valencia, which will be played on neutral turf in Seville.

While Valverde has had an almost impeccable record in the Spanish

league and the Copa del Rey since taking charge two years ago, many Barcelona fans now doubt he can win it all in Europe. So while anoth-er cup is almost expected by Barce-lona’s supporters, a loss to Valencia

would increase the pressure on the club to consider a coaching change.

Barcelona will play without strik-er Luis Suárez, who underwent ar-throscopic surgery to repair a menis-cus injury in his right knee following

the loss to Liverpool. Suarez scored 25 goals for Barcelona this season, second only to Lionel Messi and his 50 goals.

Forward Ousmane Dembele is also out with a muscle injury, while goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen will most certainly keep his starting job after the club said Marc-Andre ter Stegen has pain in his right knee and won’t be available.

Valencia have had a very strong second half of the season. They surged up the league standings to finish fourth and earn a Champions

League berth, and they reached the Europa League semifinals before losing to Arsenal.

They will be seeking their eighth Copa del Rey title and first since 2008.

“(Valencia) are very compact, solid team, with a strong defense, a talented goalkeeper, which transition very quickly to attack with players who take advantage of open spaces,” Lenglet said. “We have to be very careful with Valencia because they are very dangerous.”

Dani Parejo will lead a Valencia

attack that rely on the speed of strik-ers Rodrigo Moreno and Santi Mina, and forward Goncalo Guedes.

Midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia said Valencia took note of how much trouble Liverpool caused Barcelona with thier aggressive pressure and relentless attacking.

“Whenever a team beat Barca, you have to study them as an example,” Kondogbia said. “But we have to be ourselves. We have to play like we know how and try to find the points where we can do Barcelona some damage.”

SOCCER

SOCCER

Torino vs Lazio beIN SPORTS 4 HD16:00 local (Saturday)

Sampdoria vs Juventus beIN SPORTS 11 HD

19:00 local (Saturday)

Atalanta vs Sassuolo beIN SPORTS 3 HD

21:30 local (Saturday)

Inter vs Empoli beIN SPORTS 11 HD

21:30 local (Saturday)

unbeaten league run to 12 matches. “The Champions League would

be extraordinary, but we mustn’t think that it’s already in our grasp.

Inter Milan’s confi dence, on the other hand, is at a low ebb after they were thrashed 4-1 at Napoli last Sunday. They now face an Empoli side who are themselves battling to avoid the drop and have three suc-cessive wins behind them.

Inter’s erratic form has led to speculation over the future of coach Luciano Spalletti amid widespread media reports that former Juventus, Chelsea and Italy coach Antonio Conte is being lined up to replace him.

AC Milan coach Gennaro Gat-tuso is a similar position as his team prepare to visit SPAL. Milan

Keita, Firmino make progress: Liverpool’s Naby Keita is recover-ing faster than expected from a thigh injury and will be given every chance to prove his fi tness ahead of next week’s Champions League fi nal against Tottenham Hotspur, manager Juergen Klopp said.

Guinea midfi elder Keita sustained an adductor injury in Liverpool’s 3-0 semi-fi nal fi rst leg defeat at Barce-lona this month and was ruled out for two months, meaning he would likely miss the African Cup of Nations in June. (RTRS)

❑ ❑ ❑

Putin honours Infantino: FIFA President Gianni Infantino thanked Russia on Thursday for hosting the “best World Cup ever” as President

Vladimir Putin presented him with a state award for his role in making last year’s tournament possible.

In a Kremlin ceremony broadcast on television, Putin thanked “all those who helped making this dream come to life,” including the head of soc-cer’s global governing body. (RTRS)

❑ ❑ ❑

Redmayne rewarded: Goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne has been reward-ed for his heroics in the A-League fi nal with a call-up to the Australia squad for an international friendly against South Korea next month.

The uncapped keeper saved two spot-kicks on Sunday as Sydney FC won their fourth A-League title 4-1 in a penalty shootout after the fi nal against Perth Glory had fi nished

deadlocked at 0-0 after extra time.Redmayne was one of six un-

capped players in the 24-man squad along with his Sydney FC team mate Brandon O’Neill, Melbourne Vic-tory’s Lawrence Thomas as well as Europe-based players Harry Souttar, Ryan Williams and Brandon Bor-rello. (RTRS)

❑ ❑ ❑

Baptista retires from soccer: Former Brazil midfi elder Julio Bap-tista is retiring from soccer.

The 37-year-old Baptista, who won two Copa America titles and also played with Real Madrid and Arsenal, has been struggling with injuries.

Writing on Twitter, Baptista said it was time to start a new life. (AP)

Best of the Rest

SPORTSARAB TIMES, FRIDAY-SATURDAY, MAY 24-25, 2019

23

Baltimore Orioles’ Pedro Severino, (right), slides into home as New York Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez (24) prepares to make the tag during the fi fth inning of a baseball game, on May 22, in Baltimore. (AP)

Oakland Athletics’ Nick Hundley hits an one-run double off Cleve-land Indians relief pitcher Tyler Clippard in the seventh inning of a baseball game, on May 22, in

Cleveland. (AP)

scoreless innings as visiting Oakland completed a sweep of Cleveland.

Nick Hundley belted a homer among his three hits and joined Robbie Gross-man in driving in a pair of runs for the Athletics, who extended their season-high winning streak to six games.

Jake Bauers launched a two-run homer in the eighth inning, and Francis-co Lindor reached base four times (two singles, two walks) for the Indians, who have lost nine of their past 12 encoun-ters with Oakland.

Brewers 11, Reds 9In Milwaukee, Mike Moustakas had

three hits and scored three runs as Mil-waukee rallied from a pair of early fi ve-run defi cits to beat visiting Cincinnati.

Hernan Perez also had three hits, Orlando Arcia had two hits and three RBIs, and Eric Thames had two hits and two RBIs for the Brewers. Moustakas, Keston Hiura and Yasmani Grandal homered for Milwaukee.

Jose Iglesias had three hits and drove in two runs, Derek Dietrich had two hits and scored twice, and Tucker Barnhart hit a three-run homer for the Reds.

Padres 5, Diamondbacks 2In San Diego, Eric Lauer (3-4) al-

lowed one run on four hits with no walks over seven innings, and San Die-go scored all of its runs in the fi rst three innings to beat visiting Arizona.

The Padres swept the three-game se-ries, their fi rst sweep of the Diamond-backs since June 14-16, 2013.

Four Padres – Greg Garcia, Franmil Reyes, Eric Hosmer and Ty France – reached base three times each for the

Padres, who handed the Diamondbacks a season-high fi fth straight loss.

Rangers 2, Mariners 1In Arlington, Texas, Hunter Pence

homered, and Adrian Sampson pitched 5 1/3 strong innings in relief as Texas defeated Seattle Mariners to complete a sweep of a three-game series.

Sampson (2-3) allowed one run on four hits, with no walks and fi ve strikeouts. Sampson, a right-hander who made his major league debut with the Mariners in 2016, came in for open-er Jesse Chavez, who pitched the fi rst 1 2/3 innings without allowing a run.

Pence scored both runs for the Rang-ers, who won their fourth consecutive

game. Pence hit a one-out homer to left-center fi eld in the sixth, his 10th long ball of the season.

Royals 8, Cardinals 2 (Game 1)Cardinals 10, Royals 3 (Game 2)

In St Louis, Jorge Soler capped a six-run third inning with a three-run homer as visiting Kansas City trounced St Louis in the fi rst game of a day-night doubleheader.

Brad Keller (3-5) gave up two runs on two hits over seven-plus innings. He walked four and struck out three. It was his best outing since throwing seven shutout innings on Opening Day against the White Sox, when he allowed just two hits with one walk and fi ve strikeouts.

Michael Wacha (3-2) took the loss in his second shortest outing of the sea-son. He gave up seven runs (six earned) on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. Wacha walked three and struck out four.

In the second game, St Louis hit four home runs to defeat Kansas City and earn a split of the double-header. Marcell Ozuna and Kolten Wong each had three-run homers in the nightcap. Both teams entered the two-game series having lost their past five series.

Adam Wainwright (4-4) picked up the win for St Louis, but it wasn’t easy. He gave up three runs on six hits and four walks in fi ve innings. Wainwright struck out two and hit a batter.

Kansas City’s Homer Bailey (4-5) allowed fi ve runs on four hits and two walks in just 1 2/3 innings. He is now 6-16 all-time against the Cardinals.

Mets 6, Nationals 1In New York, Juan Lagares laced a

bases-clearing double with two outs in the eighth inning for host New York, which surged back to beat Washington.

Rajai Davis, who was called up from Triple-A Syracuse earlier in the day, added a three-run homer in his fi rst plate appearance later in the eighth for the Mets, who have won the fi rst three

games of the four-game series. New York has not swept the Nationals/Mon-treal Expos in a four-game series since July 1-4, 1991.

A solo homer in the fi rst by the Na-tionals’ Adam Eaton was the only run through the fi rst seven innings as the pitching duel between the National League’s last two Cy Young Award winners, the Mets’ Jacob deGrom and Washington’s Max Scherzer, lived up to expectations.

Marlins 6, Tigers 3In Detroit, Brian Anderson homered

for the second straight game, Garrett Cooper smacked his fi rst career homer, and Miami stretched its winning streak to fi ve games with a win over slumping Detroit.

Neil Walker rapped a two-run dou-ble in the seventh inning that tied the score. Miguel Rojas added three hits, including the go-ahead RBI single in the seventh. Jose Urena (2-6) gave up

three runs, two earned, on seven hits in six innings. Sergio Romo collected his eighth save with a spotless ninth.

Christin Stewart had three hits and an RBI for Detroit, which has lost eight consecutive games.

Rockies 9, Pirates 3In Pittsburgh, Daniel Murphy and

Tony Wolters each hit two-out, three-run homers in Colorado’s pasting of host Pittsburgh.

Every member of the Rockies start-ing lineup had at least one hit, with the team collecting 16 hits in all. Colorado has won the fi rst two games of the three-game series following a four-game los-ing streak.

Rockies starter Jon Gray (4-4) gave up three runs on a night of sevens – sev-en innings, seven hits, seven strikeouts. He walked one. Pittsburgh went with rookie right-hander Montana DuRapau (0-1) in an opener role. He lasted two-thirds of an inning, facing fi ve batters and giving up Murphy’s three-run shot.

Braves 9, Giants 2In San Francisco, Dansby Swanson

and Austin Riley each smacked three-run homers as Atlanta sailed to a vic-tory. Freddie Freeman added a solo blast and went 3-for-4 with a walk for the Braves, who won for the ninth time in their past 12 games.

Max Fried (7-2) won his third straight start and became the National League’s fi rst seven-game winner. He allowed two runs and four hits over six innings, striking out fi ve and walking two.

Tyler Austin homered for San Fran-cisco, which has dropped two of three in the four-game series that concludes Thursday. Jeff Samardzija (2-3) al-lowed six runs – all unearned – in six innings.

Twins at Angels, ppd.Minnesota’s scheduled game against

Los Angeles at Anaheim, Calif, was postponed due to a wet fi eld following afternoon rains. The teams will make up the contest Thursday afternoon.

Torres, Yankees continue to punish OriolesChavis’ 13th-inning homer lifts Red Sox past Jays

BALTIMORE, May 23, (RTRS): Gleyber Torres continued his homer bar-rage against Baltimore with two more on Wednesday night, and the visiting New York Yankees fi nished with fi ve long balls in a 7-5 vic-tory over the Orioles.

Torres now has 12 homers this season, with 10 off Orioles pitch-ing. Gary Sanchez, Thairo Estrada and DJ LeMahieu also homered for the Yankees, who have hit 11 round-trippers while winning each of the fi rst three games of the four-game series.

Nine of Sanchez’s 15 homers have come against the Orioles this season, including blasts in each of the fi rst three games of this series. New York now has banged out 34 homers as a team against Baltimore in 2019.

The Yankees hit three or more hom-ers in six straight games at Camden Yards. According to STATS, that’s the longest streak by any team in any major league stadium – ever. The Bal-timore pitching staff now has allowed 105 homers this season. The Orioles on Tuesday became the fastest to allow 100 in a year.

Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 5 (13 in-nings)

In Toronto, rookie Michael Chavis hit his 10th homer of the season in the 13th inning, and visiting Boston defeat-ed Toronto.

Mookie Betts hit his eighth homer

BASEBALL

with two outs in the top of the 12th in-ning against Joe Biagini to give Boston the lead. Rowdy Tellez tied the game at 5 with his ninth homer with two outs in the bottom of the 12th against Heath Hembree (1-0). Hembree pitched a per-fect bottom of the 13th.

The Blue Jays tied the game in the ninth on pinch hitter Danny Jansen’s two-out RBI single against Marcus Walden.

Cubs 8, Phillies 4In Chicago, Albert Almora Jr drilled

a go-ahead, fi fth-inning grand slam, and the bullpen contributed fi ve innings of one-run relief to lift host Chicago over Philadelphia.

Chicago had three home runs while winning for the seventh time in 11 games and earning at least a split of the four-game series that is set to conclude on Thursday afternoon.

Almora snapped a 3-all tie with two outs in the fi fth, delivering his fi rst ca-reer grand slam on the fi rst pitch from Phillies left-hander Cole Irvin (2-1).

Rays 8, Dodgers 1In St Petersburg, Florida, Brandon

Lowe hit a go-ahead single, and Avi-sail Garcia and Kevin Kiermaier added three-run home runs, all in a seven-run seventh inning, as Tampa Bay ended a brief two-game skid with a victory over Los Angeles.

In what had been a pitchers’ duel through six innings, the Rays fi nally broke through once Dodgers starter Rich Hill left the game. Lowe’s RBI hit and Garcia’s home run came against previously dependable reliever Dylan Floro, who had given up just one earned run in his 19 appearances this season.

Max Muncy hit a home run for the Dodgers, while Hill gave up just one run on fi ve hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in six innings. The left-hander has 17 strikeouts over his past two starts after striking out 14 in his previous three starts.

White Sox 9, Astros 4In Houston, Charlie Tilson made

his fi rst career home run a memorable one, socking a grand slam that capped a six-run sixth inning as visiting Chicago slugged its way past Houston.

Josh James entered with no outs, after the White Sox scored two in the inning to take a 4-3 lead. James walked the fi rst batter he faced to load the bases, then got two outs before Tilson broke the game open.

Fellow White Sox rookie Eloy Jime-nez belted a pair of homers, notching his second career multi-homer game, as the White Sox rebounded after totaling one run over the fi rst two games of the four-game series. Chicago had lost 11 of 12 games against the Astros dating to the 2017 campaign.

Athletics 7, Indians 2In Cleveland, Mark Canha homered

and drove in three runs, and Frankie Montas (6-2) struck out nine over six

MLB Results/ Standings

WASHINGTON, May 23, (RTRS): Results and standings from the MLB games on Wednesday:

Oakland 7 Cleveland 2Milwaukee 11 Cincinnati 9Kansas City 8 St. Louis 2Texas 2 Seattle 1San Diego 5 Arizona 2Colorado 9 Pittsburgh 3NY Yankees 7 Baltimore 5Boston 6 Toronto 5Tampa Bay 8 LA Dodgers 1Miami 6 Detroit 3NY Mets 6 Washington 1St. Louis 10 Kansas City 3Chicago Cubs 8 Philadelphia 4Chicago W Sox 9 Houston 4Atlanta 9 S Francisco 2

American LeagueAmerican League — East

W L Pct GbNY Yankees 31 17 .646 —Tampa Bay 28 18 .609 2Boston 26 23 .531 5-1/2Toronto 20 29 .408 11-1/2Baltimore 15 34 .306 16-1/2

American League — Central W L Pct GbMinnesota 32 16 .667 —Cleveland 25 23 .521 7Chicago W Sox 22 26 .458 10Detroit 18 28 .391 13Kansas City 17 32 .347 15-1/2

American League— West W L Pct GbHouston 33 17 .660 —Texas 24 23 .511 7-1/2Oakland 25 25 .500 8LA Angels 22 26 .458 10Seattle 23 29 .442 11

National LeagueNational League — East

W L Pct GbPhiladelphia 28 21 .571 —Atlanta 27 23 .540 1-1/2NY Mets 23 25 .479 4-1/2Washington 19 30 .388 9Miami 15 31 .326 11-1/2

National League — Central W L Pct GbChicago Cubs 29 18 .617 —Milwaukee 29 22 .569 2Pittsburgh 24 22 .522 4-1/2St. Louis 25 24 .510 5Cincinnati 22 27 .449 8

National League — West W L Pct GbLA Dodgers 32 18 .640 —San Diego 26 24 .520 6Arizona 25 25 .500 7Colorado 22 25 .468 8-1/2San Francisco 21 27 .438 10

OLYMPICS

Los Angeles Dodgers’ Rich Hill pitches to a Tampa Bay Rays batter during the fi rst inning of a baseball game on May 22, in St Petersburg,

Florida. (AP)

Martyr Issa Al-Saad team celebrate after winning the 23rd Jabriya Cooperative Society Futsal League for Martyrs at Mohammad Ismail Al-Ghanim School in Jabriya area.

23rd Jabriya Cooperative Society Futsal League for Martyrs concludesThe Martyr Issa Al-Saad team emerged winners of the 23rd Jabriya Cooperative Society Futsal League for Martyrs at Mohammad Ismail Al-Ghanim School in Jabriya area.

Martyr Issa Al-Saad team defeat-ed Martyr Mousa Ashkanani team by a score of 4-1 to win the title.

The title cup was handed over to the winning team by the spon-sor of the league Sheikh Fahad

Al-Jaber in the presence of MPs Abdullah Al-Kandari and Abdulhadi Ghodonfori as well as the executive chairperson of Jabriya Cooperative Society among other guests.

Prior to the fi nal match, fans

were thrilled to watch a fun match between the board members of the cooperative societies and members of Jabriya Cooperative Society, in which the latter were defeated by a score of 1-0.

Olympic offi cial reassures sports federations about cuts

Tokyo 2020 organisers welcome IOC boxing decisionTOKYO, May 23, (RTRS): Tokyo 2020 organisers welcomed on Thursday the International Olympic Committee’s rec-ommendation to include boxing at next year’s Games.

The IOC executive board recom-mended on Wednesday that boxing should keep its place at the Tokyo Games but recognition of AIBA, the governing body of the sport’s amateur version, should be suspended.

The recommendations came as the IOC published a 30-page report fol-lowing an inquiry into the fi nances and governance of AIBA which has been in turmoil for years.

The IOC have instead set up a task force, led by IOC member and Inter-national Gymnastics Federation head Morinari Watanabe, to organise boxing in Tokyo. “Of course it is the most im-portant thing for the athletes who have been training and preparing for this,” said John Coates, the man entrusted by the IOC to oversee the smooth running of the Games, following meetings in Tokyo.

“(There is) obviously much work to be done by Mr Watanabe’s committee but we have got no doubt that with the cooperation of the organising commit-tee we can meet the expectations and dreams of all athletes.”

The IOC has made gender equality a priority leading into Tokyo 2020 yet at the last two Olympics there have been three boxing medal events for women and 10 for men.

“You can be assured that whoever organises the Olympic competition, we will insist on this principle of gender equality for boxing,” IOC President Thomas Bach said earlier this month.

John Coates, (left), Chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, Tokyo Olympic Organizing Com-mittee President Yoshiro Mori, attend a press conference on May 23, in

Tokyo. (AP)

The 60-year-old Watanabe said on Thursday he understood the importance of gender equality but is still getting to grips with the world of boxing.

“Gender equality is common sense,” added Watanabe, who said he only found out about his new responsibilities when Bach called to interrupt his dinner two

opinions so I want to fi nd the best way... for the athletes and for justice.” An Olympic offi cial has made a guar-antee that should please the heads of world sports federations who are con-cerned that Tokyo Games organizers might be cutting things they see as “decoration” but federations view as “essential.”

Christophe Dubi, the executive direc-tor of the Olympic Games, says “the ex-pectations are extremely high and what we have to do now is make sure we can deliver. Anything that has to do with the experience, starting with the athletes, will be top notch. It’s guaranteed.”

Many federations fear what happened at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where bankrupt organizers began slash-ing everywhere a few months before the opening ceremony.

Meanwhile, with North Korea so far declining to send a team, organizers of the aquatics world championships in South Korea in July are urging a change of heart.

A joint declaration on Thursday by host city Gwangju and swimming world body FINA says “we earnestly desire the North Korean team to participate.”

The July 12-28 championships – in swimming, water polo, diving, open wa-ter swimming, artistic swimming, high diving – will confi rm qualifi cation places for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

When North Korea sent invited ath-letes and an offi cial delegation to the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, it fueled optimism in Olympic circles of future cooperation and a joint hosting bid for the 2032 Summer Games.

However, no North Korean has been entered for Gwangju ahead of a June 12 deadline.

FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu says “all channels remain open.”

Also, South Korea will send its own team to the women’s Hockey Series Fi-nals next month after talks with North Korea over fi elding a unifi ed team at the Olympic qualifying event stalled, Yon-hap News Agency reported.

The International Hockey Federa-tion’s (FIH) deadline for submitting squads for the June 8-16 tournament in Ireland was Thursday.

The two countries agreed to fi eld joint teams in various sports in February but the Yonhap report said South Korea had decided to go it alone in women’s hockey after its northern neighbour did not respond to calls for joint training sessions.

nights ago. “Sport is just an element within that common sense.”

Watanabe was less sure when pressed on whether he would consult profession-al boxing organisations.

“Sorry, I have no idea. I don’t know the organisations of boxing in the world,” he said.

“I want to listen to many people’s

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E friday— (all times are Kuwait local)

Sports08:16 japan vs ecuador/soccer............bein sports 8hd13:00 handball..................................bein sports 8hd13:30 handball...................................bein sports 9hd14:00 basketball.................................bein sports 1hd16:45 tahiti vs senegal/ soccer............bein sports 8hd18:50 honduras vs nz/soccer...............bein sports 8hd19:30 boat show.................................bein sports 1hd22:00 soccer.....................................bein sports 10hd

‘Under the current circumstances such a proposal could not be made now’

FIFA keeps 32 teams for 2022 World Cup, scrapping expansionMANCHESTER, May 23, (AP): FIFA scrapped plans to expand the 2022 Qatar World Cup to 48 nations, deciding to stick with 32 countries due to the political and logistical complexities.

FIFA President Gianni Infan-tino’s hopes of expanding the Middle East’s first World Cup in the region were stymied by the regional diplomatic crisis and the governing body’s demands on host nations to adhere to its human and labor rights requirements. That means the World Cup will not be expanded until 2026, with FIFA already having approved a format with 48 teams for that tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

A meeting of the FIFA Council in March authorized Infantino to work with Qatar on seeing if it was feasible to use at least one more country in the region to accommo-date an additional 16 matches and present a proposal at meetings in June.

“Following a thorough and com-prehensive consultation process with the involvement of all the rele-vant stakeholders, it was concluded that under the current circumstances such a proposal could not be made now,” FIFA said in a statement on Wednesday. “Due to the advanced stage of preparations and the need for a detailed assessment of the po-tential logistical impact on the host country, more time would be re-quired and a decision could not be taken before the deadline of June. It was therefore decided not to further pursue this option.”

A FIFA internal report had al-ready concluded that the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia could not join as co-hosts unless they restore the economic and travel ties with Qatar that were severed two years ago.

The regional diplomatic crisis left neutral Kuwait and Oman as the vi-able options. Oman has said it isn’t keen on hosting games at the FIFA showpiece. Infantino visited Kuwait last month in an attempt to persuade them to host matches in 2022.

But FIFA has now concluded that it lacked to the time to prepare a country to host the extra games.

In Kuwait, Jaber Al-Ahmad In-ternational Stadium has 60,000 seats and the capacity at Sabah Al-Salem Stadium is only 26,000. Both venues would require up-grades to be used at the World Cup, putting the spotlight on work-ing conditions and labor rights.

FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura wrote to human rights ac-tivists last month to offer assuranc-es that there was going to be “an assessment of human rights risks and potential opportunities associ-ated with a possible expansion.”

Qatar has an exemption that al-lows foreigners to drink alcohol, but Kuwait has a complete ban which would have be problematic for FIFA, which has Budweiser as a major sponsor.

FIFA has already had to adapt to cope with taking its showpiece tournament to the Middle East for the first time.

While Qatar won a vote in 2010 on the basis of staging a June-July Worlvd Cup, FIFA shifted the tournament to from its usual slot because of the fierce summer heat to Nov 21-Dec 18, 2022.

Leandro Carvalho, (left), of Brazil’s Botafogo fights for the ball with Matias Prado of Paraguay’s Sol de America during a Copa Sudamericana soccer game, in Villa Elisa city, Paraguay, May 22. (AP)

Polanc takes overall Giro lead from Conti

Benedetti wins 12th stage

PINEROLO, Italy, May 23, (AP): Cesare Benedetti won the 12th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Thursday for his first victory as a professional while Jan Po-lanc took the overall lead-er’s pink jersey from UAE Emirates teammate Vale-rio Conti.

Benedetti, an Italian with the Bora team who has been a support rider for his entire career, was part of an early breakaway then accel-erated from a select group of riders in a sprint finish.

“I’ve worked a lot for the others in the past but today I got my op-portunity,” Benedetti said. “I’m not

(usually) a winner.”Benedetti required 3 hours, 41

minutes to complete the 158-kilo-meter (98-mile) leg from Cuneo to Pinerolo, which featured one major climb and another shorter but steep-er ascent just before the finish.

Damiano Caruso crossed second and Eddie Dunbar came third, each with the same time as Benedetti. Polanc, a Slovenian who was also in the breakaway, finished 25 sec-onds behind.

In the overall standings, Polanc leads Primoz Roglic by 4 minutes, 7 seconds. Vincenzo Nibali, one of the pre-race favorites, is fifth over-all, 5:51 behind.

“It was a team tactic that I would go in the breakaway so we could have a better control over the race,” Polanc said. “It was also a way to keep the pink jersey in the team.”

Mikel Landa and Miguel Angel Lopez attacked on the first-category climb to Montoso and gained about 30 seconds on the other overall favorites.

Before the stage began, sprinters Caleb Ewan and Elia Viviani with-drew from the race. Ewan won two stages, including the 11th leg a day earlier, while Viviani posted three second-place finishes.

Stage 13 on Friday is one of the race’s toughest, with two category one climbs and one category ascent, along with an uphill finish at the end of the 196-kilometer leg from Pinerolo to Ceresole Reale.

The Giro ends June 2 in Verona.

Italy’s Cesare Benedetti celebrates crossing the finish line to win the 12th stage of the Giro d’Italia, tour of Italy cycling race, from Cuneo to Pinerolo, on May 23. Cesare Benedetti won the 12th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Thursday for his first victory as a professional while Jan Po-lanc took the overall leader’s pink jersey from UAE Emirates teammate

Valerio Conti. (AP)

Ronaldo heads Portugal squadLISBON, May 23, (RTRS): Hosts Por-tugal named their squad for next month’s inaugural Nations League fi nals on Thursday with Cristiano Ronaldo head-ing the bill and an inclusion for Benfi ca teenager Joao Felix. Portugal will kick off the new competition with a semifi nal against Switzerland in Porto on June 5, with the winners playing either England or The Netherlands in the fi nal at the same venue four days later.

Ronaldo, Portugal’s leading scorer with 156 goals and most capped player with 85 appearances, was included as expected, the 34-year-old having re-turned to the squad after missing six matches last year following an agree-ment with coach Fernando Santos.

Joao Felix has had an outstanding debut season for Benfi ca, attracting the interest of clubs from around Europe, but is still uncapped by Portugal.

The Nations League was created

to replace friendly internationals that were unpopular with clubs, players and fans as they interrupted league action.

UEFA has divided the competition into four divisions, or leagues, with each league itself sub-divided into groups.

Goalkeepers: Beto (Goztepe), Rui Patricio (Wolves), Jose Sa (Olympiakos)

Defenders: Raphael Guerreiro (Dortmund), Mario Rui (Napoli), Ru-ben Dias (Benfi ca), Jose Fonte (Lille), Pepe (Porto), Nelson Semedo (Barce-lona), Joao Cancelo (Juventus)

Midfi elders: Danilo Pereira (Por-to), William Carvalho (Betis), Ruben Neves (Wolves), Bruno Fernandes (Porto), Pizzi (Benfi ca), Joao Moutin-ho (Wolverhampton Wanderers),

Forwards: Rafa Silva (Benfi ca), Gon-calo Guedes (Valencia), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), Joao Felix (Benfi ca), Diogo Jota (Wolves), Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus), Dyego Sousa (Braga)

‘Accusations not based on any tangible proof’

PARIS, May 23, (RTRS): The Qa-tari president of French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain, Nasser al-Khe-laifi , is under formal investigation in France for alleged corruption related to Doha’s bid to host the athletics world championship, a French judi-cial source said on Thursday.

Two other sources said Khelaifi and a close associate were ques-tioned by investigators in March in relation to the bidding process for the 2017 athletics event.

Qatar was unsuccessful in its bid to host the championships, which went to London. But Qatar did go on to secure the rights to hold the 2019 world champion-ships to be held in October.

The judicial source said the in-vestigation into Khelaifi ’s alleged wrongdoing spanned both bidding processes.

The move by an investi-gative judge is a demon-stration of the broaden-ing scope of France’s probe into a suspected web of cor-ruption once rife in world athletics, including bribes to cover up athletes’ posi-tive drugs tests.

Offi cials with Paris Saint-Ger-main did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Reuters was not immediately able to reach Khe-laifi ’s representatives in Qatar. But Francis Szpiner, a lawyer for Khel-aifi , told Le Parisien newspaper:

“The name Nasser al-Khelaifi doesn’t appear on any document in the case. These accusations are not based on any tangible proof.”

Khelaifi , 45, is deeply involved with sports and sporting events in Qatar. He serves as chairman of Oryx Qatar Sports Investments and the Qatar Tennis Federation, alongside his role as president of Paris Saint-Germain. He is also a minister without portfolio in the Qatari government.

The judge’s decision means Khelaifi is now formally treated as a suspect and takes the legal pro-cess one step closer to trial. Under French law, however, a suspect is not formally charged with a crime unless he is sent to trial.

French prosecutors this week recommended that Lamine Diack, the Senegalese former head of the IAAF, and his son stand trial for a host of suspected illicit practices, committed over a number of years with the active involvement of ath-letes and their federations.

French prosecutors began their in-vestigation into Diack in 2015, shortly after the IAAF’s ethics commission and the World Anti-Doping Author-ity (WADA) uncovered evidence that a Russian athlete paid a six-fi gure sum to cover up a positive test.

In the four years since, the French probe has widened to in-clude the bidding process for the Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo Olympic Games, as well as the world athlet-ics championships. The investiga-tive judges presiding over the Di-ack case accuse the Senegalese of favouring Qatar’s bid for the 2017 world championship in return for a kick-back, sources have said.

The indictment handed to judg-es on Monday and seen by Reuters accuses Diack and his son, Papa Massata Diack, of bribe-taking and money laundering.

France’s fi nancial prosecutors allege that a company belonging to Papa Massata received $3.5 million from Oryx Qatar Sports Investments, just one of several multi-million dollar payments re-ceived by the Diacks.

A source familiar with the matter said Oryx Qatar Sports Investments had undertaken to pay $32.5 million for the commercial rights to the 2017 championships of which a fraction was paid upfront as a non-refundable deposit. The full amount was condi-tional on Qatar winning the bid, the source said.

Qatari president of PSG underinvestigation for graft – source

Al-Khelaifi

SOCCER

CYCLING

SOCCER