Tuesday 16 June 2020

24 Shawwal - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8290

BUSINESS | 01 PENMAG | 03 SPORT | 08

Qatar’s

‘Diamond in the

Desert’ shines

bright

Classifieds

and Services

section

included

Spend more

and keep

receipts: IMF’s

Georgieva

Qatar condemns, rejects Israel’s plan to annexparts of occupied West Bank, Jordan ValleyQNA — DOHA

The State of Qatar has expressed its condemnation and firm rejection of the Israeli government’s plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley in July. Qatar has warned that such an illegal step that violates the relevant international laws and agreements would lead to committing more human rights violations against the Pales-tinian people, as well as under-mining the two-state solution and finishing off the peace

process, its security, economic and social consequences will be disastrous for the entire region.

This came in the statement

of the State of Qatar, delivered by H E Ambassador Ali Khalfan Al Mansouri, Permanent Rep-resentative of the State of Qatar

to the United Nations Office in Geneva, at the public debate of the 43rd Session of the Human Rights Council Item (7) on the situation of human rights in Pal-estine and other occupied Arab territories.

H E Ambassador Al Mansouri called on the international com-munity to stand firmly against these flagrant Israeli violations and its continuous challenge to international legitimacy, and to take all necessary measures to prevent these violations and respond to them effectively and quickly if they occurred. �P2

Shura Council praises Amir’s directives to provide aid to over 20 countriesQNA — DOHA

The Shura Council held its regular weekly meeting, respecting social distancing practice, yesterday under the chairmanship of Speaker, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud.

H E the Speaker of the Shura Council praised the supreme directives of Amir

H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to provide medical assistance to more than 20 countries around the world in the framework of human solidarity to confront the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, in addition to the financial assistance provided by Qatar to the multilateral health care institutions working in developing vaccines, and to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI ).

His Excellency lauded the efforts of the esteemed gov-ernment and its measures to confront the coronavirus pan-demic, the procedures taken by the Supreme Committee for Crisis Management as well as the efforts of all ministries and state agencies, particularly the Ministry of Public Health. These efforts resulted, thanks to the

grace of Allah Almighty, and to the awareness and cooperation of all members of society, in overcoming the peak phase of the virus and limiting its spread, which led to gradually lifting the restrictions imposed to address it and reduce its health, economic and social effects.

H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud referred to the special session previously held by the Council on this epi-demic and its recommenda-tions for the esteemed gov-ernment to contribute to its efforts to combat the corona-virus and limit its spread.

The Council then looked into its agenda which included discussing a draft law amending some provisions of Law No. 12 of 2006 on Mesaieed Municipality which was cancelled. The Council dis-cussed the Services and Public Utilities Committee’s report on amending some provisions of Law No. 1 of 1986 on registering pharmaceutical companies and their products. Based on the draft law, the Ministry of Public Health could allow govern-mental health institutions to import medicine that is not reg-istered in the state. �P2

Greta Holtz named Chargé d’Affaires at US Embassy in QatarTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The US State Department has named H E Greta C Holtz (pictured) as Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Doha. In this capacity, H E Ambassador Holtz will represent the United States government and lead the embassy in its diplomatic engagement with the State of Qatar. H E Ambassador Holtz is a senior, career US diplomat with extensive experience in the region. H E

Ambassador Holtz assumed her duties as Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy in Doha, Qatar on June 14.

H E Ambassador Holtz previously served as Senior Advisor in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, in May 2019. Prior to this, she has served in senior positions including the US Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman from September 2012 to December 2015 and the Minister-Counselor for Provincial Affairs at the US

Embassy in Baghdad from 2009 to 2010. She also served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs from 2010 to 2012.

Additional overseas assignments include postings in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Tunisia, Syria, and Turkey. At the State Department, H E Ambassador Holtz was the Director of the Middle East Partnership Initiative. �P2

Qatar urges the international community to stand firmly

against flagrant Israeli violations and its continuous chal-

lenge to international legitimacy.

Qatar has expressed condemnation of the continued

imposition of an unjust blockade of the Gaza Strip

Importance of monitoring and following up on human

rights violations and crimes committed by the Israeli

authorities against the Palestinians stressed.

Amir hails medical staff as championsQNA — DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani gave yesterday a speech to mark the completion of Education City Stadium, the third venue for the World Cup 2022. H H the Amir greeted the medical staff and all the staff of the teams working on the frontline against the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As we celebrate the com-pletion of Education City Stadium, the third venue for the World Cup 2022, we greet the champions of these times: The medical staff and all the staff of the teams working on the frontline against the COVID-19 pandemic who have saved the lives of many people and brought back hope to them. We thank you and we support you,” said H H the Amir.

“As the world begins to open up, it is through your courage, dedication and sincerity that we truly believe in better days to

come, the days when we will enjoy together watching the stars of the game in our sta-diums. Qatar is looking forward, and more excited and enthusiastic than ever, to

welcome guests from all over the world for an exceptional World Cup,” said H H the Amir.

To mark the completion of Education City Stadium, an online celebration was broadcast

by beIN Sports. FIFA President Gianni Infantino also participated in the celebration and expressed his thanks to H H the Amir for the opportunity to participate in cel-ebrating the milestone.

“While announcing the completion of another stadium hosting the FIFA World Cup 2022, we pay a very special tribute to those who suffered, fought and are still fighting

against the COVID-19 pandemic giving us a remarkable example of resilience during such a dif-ficult moment,” he said before adding “We must not forget...Health comes first.”�P2

As we celebrate the completion of Education City Stadium, the third venue for the World Cup 2022, we greet the champions of these times: The medical staff and all the staff of the teams working on the frontline against the COVID-19 pandemic who have saved the lives of many people and brought back hope to them. We thank you and we support you.

As the world begins to open up, it is through your courage, dedication and sincerity that we truly believe in better days to come, the days when we will enjoy together watching the stars of the game in our stadiums.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani

The Education City Stadium features triangles that form complex,

diamond-like geometrical patterns which appear to change colour

with the sun’s movement across the sky. Like diamonds, it’s design

represents quality, durability and resilience.

Stadium’s seating capacity during Qatar 2022 will be 40,000. After

the tournament, the capacity will be reduced to 20,000 following the

removal of the modular upper tier. The excess seats will be donated

to countries which lack sporting infrastructure.

Education City Stadium will provide sporting facilities for the entire QF community, including faculty and students. Parts of the stadium will be turned into classrooms and event spaces for QF schools and universities after the tournament.

OFFICIAL NEWS

02 TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020HOME

The Shura Council held its regular weekly meeting yesterday, under the chairmanship of Speaker, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, while observing social distancing as a precautionary measure against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Malls, shopping centres reopen with limited capacitySANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

Some shops and outlets oper-ating in malls and shopping centres reopened their doors for customers as the first phase of lifting of restrictions kicked-off yesterday.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry in a recent circular allowed partial opening of some shops in the commercial centres, provided that the out-let’s floor space is not less than 300 square metres.

The decision came under the first stage of the gradual lifting of restrictions on malls and shopping centres.

The malls and shopping centres were found adhering strictly to the state preventive and precautionary measures in term of measuring tempera-tures of customers at the entrance, checking health

status in Ehteraz mobile app, and enforcing use of face mask, gloves and social distance.

Volunteers and security

personnel are helping cus-tomers in complying with the preventive and precautionary measures.

Al Bidda Park reopens for exerciseTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has announced reopening of Al Bidda Park at Doha Corniche for exercise only from 4am to 10pm daily as part of the gradual lifting of restriction which were in place to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The Ministry through its social media handles urged visitors to comply strictly with the preventive and precau-tionary measures like main-taining social distancing, avoiding sitting in the park or making gathering.

The visitors were also asked to maintain hygiene for the health and safety of all.

Ministry had earlier announced the opening of eight public parks for exercise during specific times from June 15, 2020 as part of the first stage of lifting of restric-tions. The ministry explained that the public’s access to these 8 parks will be from 4am till 9am and from 4pm till 10pm and only for exercise.

The parks, which will be allowed to visit in the first stage are Al Wakra Public Park, Al Khor Park, Park 66 - Al Qatifia, Al Shamal City Park, Al Sailiya Park - Abu Nakhleh, Al Dafna Park, MIA Park and Al Rayan Park.

Customers shop at an outlet in City Center, as commercial centres reopened with limited capacity yesterday. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT/THEPENINSULA

Amir hails medical staff as champions

FROM PAGE 1

He noted that it was better to look forward to better times in some parts of the world, while other parts have to be extremely careful, stay strong and united.

“The new stadium in Edu-cation City reminds us that football will return, and with more passion than ever. When time comes, we will be sharing the stands with family and friends... In this beautiful and modern stadium, we will come together to celebrate the FIFA World Cup in 2022... Until then, stay healthy, strong and positive,” he added.

Qatar condemns, rejects Israel’s plan to annex parts of occupied West Bank, Jordan Valley

FROM PAGE 1

His Excellency affirmed the necessity of keeping the 7th item as a main item in the agenda of the Human Rights Council, because it is important in monitoring and following up on human rights violations and crimes committed by the Israeli authorities (the occupying force) against the Palestinians, and strengthening efforts to ensure that all Israeli officials are held accountable for these violations and crimes.

H E Ambassador Al Man-souri expressed Qatar’s con-demnation of the insistence of the Israeli authorities (the occu-pying force) to continue the attacks and establish settlement outposts and create the envi-ronment for this through dem-olitions, destruction and con-fiscation, and the continued arbitrary detention of detainees, including children, to torture and other ill-treatment, and attempts to change the legal status and identity of the city of Jerusalem. Qatar has expressed condem-nation of the continued impo-sition of an unjust blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has exac-erbated the humanitarian and economic crises of its residents.

His Excellency welcomed the release of the database by

the Office of the High Commis-sioner for Human Rights on companies that engage in illegal commercial activities related to Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian terri-tories, noting that it is a correct step in implementing interna-tional legitimacy decisions, and is in line with the international positions condemning these settlements.

His Excellency called on the Office of the High Commis-sioner to make an annual update of the database and refer it to the Human Rights Council.

Concluding his speech, H E Ambassador Al Mansouri reit-erated the State of Qatar’s firm position in support of the Pal-estinian people and their just cause.

H E the Ambassador stressed that a just and com-prehensive peace in the Middle East would not be achieved until the end of the Israeli occupation of the occupied Palestinian and Arab lands, and enabling the Palestinian people to restore and exercise all their inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination, and the estab-lishment of a fully sovereign independent State on the 1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

Greta Holtz named

Chargé d’Affaires

at US Embassy

FROM PAGE 1

H E Ambassador Holtz was the State Department’s Coor-dinator for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and a Senior Watch Officer in the State Department’s Executive Sec-retariat’s Operations Center.

Ambassador Holtz received a B.S. in political science from Vanderbilt Uni-versity, a M.A. in International Relations from the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy and Interna-tional Commerce, and a M.S. in National Security Studies from the National War College. Ambassador Holtz joined the Foreign Service in 1985 and studied Arabic at the Foreign Service Institute’s Field School in Tunisia, and Turkish at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia.

Ambassador Holtz is the recipient of numerous awards.

Shura Council praises Amir’s directives to provide aid to over 20 countriesFROM PAGE 1

A decision from H E the Minister of Public Health would determine these institutions and the conditions for importation. The Council also discussed the report of the Legal and Legis-lative Affairs Committee on a

draft law that would amend some provisions of Law No. 12 of 1998 regulating the central municipal council.

After deliberations, the Council approved the three draft laws and decided to refer it along with its recommenda-

tions to the government. The Council also discussed

the report of the joint com-mittee comprised of the Legal and Legislative Affairs and Cul-tural and Information Affairs Committees on a draft law reg-ulating journalism, publishing,

media activities, and arts. The draft law includes 74

articles and has provisions reg-ulating journalism and media, publishing houses, and the dis-tribution of publications, movie theaters, private broadcast sta-tions, advertising, public

relations, and media services offices.

The Council decided after detailed deliberations to return the draft law to the joint committee to examine further and present a supplemental report.

Volunteers from the Qatar Red Crescent Society are also working at various shopping centres to help implement the safety guidelines.

In addition to the main entrances to the malls, almost all stores operating inside major shopping centres are also measuring temperatures of customers and checking the health status on the mobile app.

Malls and stores have placed stickers instructing vis-itors to maintain social distancing.

Customers returned to clothing, sports and toy shops and electronic showrooms among others which reopened yesterday as part of the first phase of lifting of coronavirus restrictions in the country.

Ashok Gubta, a salesman at a clothing store, said trousers and T-shirts were among most selling items yesterday.

“My mobile is giving me trouble as it hangs frequently. I came to buy a new mobile from the electronic shop,” Ahmad Abdurrashid, an AC Mechanic told The Peninsula while shopping at a mall.

Abdurrashid said that he was waiting for a while to open the mobile shop at the mall because they run promotions occasionally.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has allowed malls and shopping centres to operate during weekdays from 8am to 8pm. They will be closed on Fridays and Saturdays.

Malls and shopping centres have reduced the number of parking spaces available to vis-itors to 50 percent and are operating at less than 30 percent of their regular capacity.

Malls and shopping centres can allow shoppers in the premises only after checking the colour code identifying the individual’s health condition in the Ehteraz app. Only green code holders are allowed to enter.

They are also required to bar people not wearing a medical mask and compel vis-itors to wear one throughout their time at the mall.

Those under the age of 12 and over 60 years are not allowed to enter the malls.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has allowed malls and shopping centres to operate during weekdays from 8am to 8pm. They will be closed on Fridays and Saturdays.

Amir sends cable of congratulations to King of Morocco on successful surgeryDOHA: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim

bin Hamad Al Thani and Deputy

Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin

Hamad Al Thani sent yesterday

a cable of congratulations to H M

King Mohammed VI of the sisterly

Kingdom of Morocco, on the occa-

sion of the successful surgery he

underwent, praying to Almighty

Allah to grant H M good health and

the well-being. — QNA

03TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020 HOME

Envoy lauds Qatari authorities' support to Pakistani communityTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the State of Qatar, H E Syed Ahsan Raza Shah has thanked the authorities in Qatar for their solid support to the Pakistani community in the wake of the difficult situation arising out of the coronavirus pandemic.

Ambassador especially thanked Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, THE Ministry of Interior, QCAA and Qatar Airways for their valuable support and cooperation owing to which more than 90 percent of the Pakistani Community members (who had registered with the Embassy to return to Pakistan) have already reached their homes through 37 special flights operated by Qatar Airways and Pakistan Interna-tional Airlines.

The repatriated Pakistanis included those who were in Qatar on visit, short-term business and family visas as well as emergency cases. The

remaining would be repatriated in the coming days.

Ambassador of Pakistan has lauded the efforts of the author-ities in the State of Qatar in fighting the pandemic and especially expressed his pro-found gratitude to Qatari authorities for provision of medical facilities of the highest standard to the affected Paki-stani community members. The role of Qatar Charity and other agencies has been praise-

worthy, he said. Ambassador has also

thanked the Ministry of Admin-istrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs for promptly and effectively addressing issues of Pakistani community related to employment issues.

The ambassador said that the Pakistani community con-siders Qatar their second home and will continue to provide full cooperation and support to the authorities during the current situation and in the coming months and years.

Ambassador of Pakistan to Qatar, H E Syed Ahsan Raza Shah

Ambassador says over 90% of Pakistani nationals who registered with the Embassy have been repatriated through 37 special flights operated by Qatar Airways and PIA.

Court to resume

sessions with

COVID-19 safety

measures: SJC

QNA — DOHA

The Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC) announced yesterday the gradual resumption of litigation sessions while continuing to implement all preventive measures and provide a safe environment for litigants in accordance with established health regulations and require-ments.

This step is in line with the decisions of the Supreme Com-mittee for Crisis Management to gradually lift the restrictions imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and within the efforts to preserve the interests of litigants in achieving justice.

On Sunday, judicial announcements were sent to those concerned to attend the sessions on the specified dates. Attendance in these sessions is limited to lawyers and litigants.

In this regard, everyone attending the sessions will be obligated to show the green healthy status on Ehtiraz app installed on mobile phones. Medical masks are a must and everyone inside should keep a safe distance. The maximum number of people in the meeting and waiting rooms will also be determined.

It added that priority will be given to issuing verdicts and urgent cases, and sessions will be held alternately and at dif-ferent times between one session and another, in addition to holding evening sessions.

SJC will provide new services through the electronic court program (Al Mahakem), in addition to activating elec-tronic technologies and a remote video communication system in cases legally estab-lished. The proportions of employees in the workplaces will be taken into account and the necessary logistical services will be provided to the courts and litigants to facilitate pro-cedures, while continuing daily sterilization of court head-quarters, courtrooms and waiting rooms.

Worshippers observe social distancing as select mosques reopen in first phase People wear face masks and observe social distancing while offering collective prayers in a mosque in Al Hilal, Doha, yesterday. Some mosques have reopened to worshippers after weeks of closure as a preventive measures against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs has advised the elderly and those who are chronically ill or displaying symptoms of a disease to continue praying at home, instead of a mosque, to safeguard their health. PIC: ABDUL BASIT/ THE PENINSULA

Low COVID-19 death rate in Qatar due to widespreadtesting and efficient patient management: OfficialFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

The average length of hospital stay and the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is low in the country due to the efficient management of patients.

They receive world-class care from experienced, highly-qualified medical, nursing, and allied healthcare professionals, said Dr Turki Al Ahbabi, a vol-unteer Intensive Care Unit (ICU) physician at Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital.

“Qatar has been able to cope so well with the pandemic because of widespread testing and ample capacity to treat patients who require hospital-level care. Every patient is given care according to their con-dition and majority of patients have a good recovery period between 10 to 14 days,” he told The Peninsula.

“Majority of ICU patients have recovered enough to be

transferred to a non-critical care unit or released into home quarantine, or a designated quarantine facility,” he said.

Dr Al Ahbabi is Bariatric Medicine Specialist, Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Department in Hamad Medical Corporation and now assigned as a volunteer physician at Hazm Mebaireek General Hos-pital to support ICU doctors amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is one of those several phy-sicians who care for mild and moderate COVID-19 patients.

“Unfortunately, most patients above the age of 55 years present with medical con-ditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and high cho-lesterol. They are at the risk of developing complications with COVID-19. But because of the proper management of patients most of them recover fast,” said Dr Al Ahbabi.

Severely ill COVID-19 patients require sophisticated treatment are cared by spe-

cialized ICU physicians. “Specialized and experi-

enced ICU physicians care for the sickest patients,” said Dr Al Ahbabi.

In March Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital was desig-nated as a dedicated COVID-19 treatment center converted it into a hospital able to provide the highest level of care to crit-ically ill COVID-19 patients.

It is one of five COVID-19 treatment facilities, with The Cuban Hospital, the Communi-cable Disease Centre, Mesaieed Hospital, and the newly opened

Ras Laffan Hospital also being dedicated COVID-19 treatment facilities, each able to provide ICU-level care.

At Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital, a team of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, respi-ratory therapists, clinical phar-macists, dietitians, and social workers, all specialists in caring for critically ill patients.

“The whole health system is working together to overcome the situation and to ensure optimal care for all patients, especially the seriously ill,” said Al Ahbabi.

He also stressed that, though numbers of deaths are less than in other regions of the world and number of COVID-19 cases have started to decline, the public must remember this is a very serious virus which can be fatal. People should continue to adhere to all infection pre-vention measures directed by the Ministry of Public Health, he said.

Dr Turki Al Ahbabi, Bariatric Medicine Specialist at HMC

“Qatar has been able to cope so well with the pandemic because of widespread testing and ample capacity to treat patients who require hospital-level care. Every patient is given care according to their condition and majority of patients have a good recovery period between 10 to 14 days."

DFI to organise online youth summer campRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

Doha Film Institute (DFI) has announced it will kick off this month a series of online work-shops in line with its youth summer camp offerings this year.

“Continuing the spirit of DFI and the Ajyal Film Fes-tival, we’re pleased to announce this years’ youth summer camp - a set of cre-ative online workshops with renowned mentors,” DFI has announced on its social media accounts.

The camp, open to partic-ipants aged eight to 17 years old, comprises three creative online workshops which cover animated storytelling, photog-raphy and visual arts, and doc-umentary filmmaking.

The workshops, DFI said, “are designed to nurture sto-rytelling skills through hands-on personal projects that encourage both creative and

critical thinking.” They are “centred on the values of the Ajyal Film Festival and follow a close curriculum and phi-losophy of active learning—leading up to our ever-popular Ajyal Jury Programme later this year.”

Catered to participants aged eight to 10 years old, “Animated Stories Summer Camp” will delve into the basics of storytelling and modern animation and enable participants to learn how to develop an idea into a com-pelling narrative and produce their own short animation.

Animated storytelling workshop will run from June 28 June to July 18 and classes will be held from 3pm to 4pm every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It will be under the mentorship of Fadi Syriani - an animator, writer and director.

“Photography and Visual Arts Summer Camp” will focus on the theoretical basis of

image composition and sketching visual stories to help participants gain a deeper insight into different types of cinematography. In this workshop, participants aged 11 to 13 years old will produce their own content for an e-book that members of the class will collectively conceptualize.

Running from July 5 to 30, classes for photography and visual arts workshop will be held from 4.30pm to 6pm on S u n d a y s , M o n d a y s , Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Mentors include Jordanian-Texan photographer Tanya Habjouqa and multidisci-plinary artist Bayan Dahdah.

A thought-provoking workshop, “Contribute to Your Own Film Summer Camp” will provide participants hands-on and enjoyable exercises for them to learn all the technical and practical techniques on documentary film, from the basic elements of narrative

development and visual sto-rytelling to the actual pro-duction of the story.

This documentary film-making workshop is open to participants between 14 to 17 years old and will take place from June 28 to July 30 on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 10am to 12pm. It will be conducted by Marcus Zaiser, who has par-ticipated in more than 100 film productions since 1998.

Prices are QR700 for the a n i m a t e d s t o r y t e l l i n g workshop, QR900 for the pho-tography and visual arts workshop, and QR1,500 for the documentary filmmaking workshop. Qatar Museums Culture Pass members will receive 10 percent discount on lab fee by including a copy of Culture Pass when applying.

Those who wish to join the camp may register by sending their names and details via email at youth@dohafilmin-stitute.com.

Qatar Scientific Club designs respirators to protect medical staffQNA — DOHA

Qatar Scientific Club has designed and manufactured an air purification and breathing respirator that can protect the medical staff and provide them with air after purification through a technology developed by Club.

A committee from Qatar Sci-entific Club and Hamad Medical Corporation has been formed to study the alternative solutions to address the risk of spread of the coronavirus, given the importance of providing per-sonal protective equipment to the medical staff while

performing their duties. A study had been requested to discuss the possibility of designing and manufacturing fresh air breathing apparatus that is easy to use, sterilize and maintain, and allows a clear vision when using. Consequently, Qatar Sci-entific Club harnessed its capa-bilities to designed and execute the respirator, and tested it several times to ensure its usa-bility without any problems or defects.

The respirator is distin-guished by a battery that works for long periods of time, the ability to control the energy level, in addition to the ease of

use. This device provides healthy air for medical staff through an air compressor that is easy to carry, light and comfortable. Moreover, there is an alert indi-cator when the air flow is low for any reason to ensure safety requirements. The device is also connected to a head cover to keep it isolated from sur-roundings in order to protect it from any potential infection, thus providing users with great protection.

Executive Director of Qatar Scientific Club Eng. Rashid Al Rahimi said that since the start of this pandemic, Qatar Scien-tific Club has been keen to

provide all help needed to combat the spread of the coro-navirus, and has employed tech-nology to help in the fight the virus. The Club designed and manufactured several devices, including the medical face shield which was distributed to several medical, security and educa-tional institutions in the State, including Hamad Medical Cor-poration, Qatar Red Crescent, Aspire Academy and some sec-ondary schools. The Club also designed and manufactured a safe assistant robot and a medical face mask.

Regarding the new device, Al Rahimi stressed the

importance of developing and supplying such a devise locally at this juncture as it has become difficult to import such machines in a timely manner. Accordingly, the new devise was developed and built by local expertise and potential in cooperation with a number of entities concerned in the country.

Head of Infection Control at HMC Dr. Nasser Ali Al Ansari described the new device as excellent with better tech-nology than what is already available at the market. It is also a comfortable suit for the user with more durable battery, he added.

MoPH: 1,274 new

COVID-19 cases;

1,783 recoveries

QNA – DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) announced yesterday that 1,274 new confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) have been registered, and 1,783 people have recovered from the disease in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries in the State of Qatar to 58,681. The Ministry also announced three deaths due to the virus.

The Ministry said in a statement that during the last 24 hours, 18 new cases have been admitted to intensive care due to health complica-tions resulting from infection with the virus, bringing the total number of cases currently in intensive care to 238.

The Ministry also said that there has been a small decrease in the number of acute COVID-19 positive patients being admitted to intensive care thanks to the measures taken by the Min-istry of Public Health and the concerned authorities to limit the spread of the virus.

The Ministry added that the new cases are expatriate workers who were infected with the virus as a result of contact with individuals who were previously infected, in addition to recording new cases of infection among groups of workers in different regions. The new cases have been identified through track and trace efforts by MoPH.

The new confirmed cases of infection have been intro-duced to complete isolation in the various medical facilities in the country, where they receiving medical care.

04 TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020HOME

Sidra Medicine awarded 11 grants by QNRFTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Sidra Medicine, a member of Qatar Foundation, has been awarded 11 grants valued at approximately QR10.4m from the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).

The grants will support both Sidra Medicine’s as well as Qatar’s national precision medicine program; enabling personalised clinical care for patients in Qatar and beyond.

Commenting on the grants, Dr. Khalid Fakhro (pictured below), Acting Chief Research Officer, Sidra Medicine said: “Over the past four years, Sidra

M e d i c i n e ’ s r e s e a r c h department has been awarded over 35 grants from the Qatar National Research Fund. This is testament to the founda-tional role Sidra Medicine is playing in expanding Qatar’s research capacity and knowledge base. Many of our grants are tied to addressing a real clinical or research chal-lenges that can positively impact patient outcomes.”

The grants are under four QNRF streams: the National Priorities Research Program Cycle 12; Path Towards Pre-cision Medicine Cycle 3; Con-ference and Workshop Spon-sorship Program Cycle 17 and the Researchers Exchange and Mobility Program.

Key projects awarded include biomedical and health programs that will allow clini-c i a n s t o s e l e c t

suitable treatments for specific infectious diseases; how stem cells can be used as a thera-peutic tool for type 1 diabetes as well as a precision medicine approach to prevent diabetic complications in affected Qatari individuals. Grants were also awarded to projects that will map the genetic causes of infertility and genome editing for cell-based cancer immunotherapy.

The four recipients of the QNRF grants, which are valued at approximately QR10.4m.

MME, IAEA hold

training course

on radiological

emergencies

QNA — DOHA

The Ministry of Munici-pality and Environment (MME), represented by the Department of Radiation and Chemicals Protection, held a training course for first responders to radio-logical emergencies, in cooperation with the Inter-national Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The course, which took place via video confer-encing technology, covered a number of topics and seminars on containment operations, control of radi-oactive sources and radio-active disinfection. 50 trainees from various stakeholders in the country participated in the three-day course.

It also dealt with inter-ventions, and the use of the equipment needed to make a radiological survey, in addition to how to commu-nicate with the public and learn from the lessons of previous incidents in the world.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) commended the results of the course and the distinguished interaction of the participants with its activities. The Ministry of Municipality and Envi-ronment launched on Sunday the first implemen-tation phase of 2020 of the field radiological survey of the radioactive envi-ronment monitoring program in the State of Qatar.

Medicine home delivery service aims to reduce patient visits to health centersTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Head of the Environmental Safety Section of the Occupational Health and Safety Department, Dr. Nida Mohammad Mansour has said that the Primary Health Care Corporation has, since the beginning of the COVID -19 crisis, taken many precautionary measures to protect the medical staff and patients especially elderly patients. One of the services is home delivery of medicines that aims to reduce patients’ visits to health

centers for refill of prescription.Talking about medication home

delivery service, Al Mansour said that, “The purpose of precautionary measures taken by the Primary Health Care Corporation is to protect both medical staff and patients, which is represented in a number of proce-dures and services, including medi-cation home delivery service in coop-eration with Qatar Post.”

Speaking to Qatar TV, she further said that “Focus was placed on this category for a number of reasons because infection with this group

poses a great risk to their lives and they may suffer from more serious symptoms.”

The Primary Health Care Corpo-ration announced the start of imple-menting the home delivery service for medicines in cooperation with Qatar Post, through contacting phone numbers through the “WhatsApp” app, which has been allocated to each health center.

To access HMC’s medication home delivery service, patients should call 16000 between 7am and 3pm daily from Saturday to Thursday. Q-Post

will deliver their medications on the next business day.

All Q-Post drivers are adhering to the highest standards of hygiene and have been specially trained to handle medications, including those that require refrigeration and special handling.

The expansion of the service was made possible as a result of an ongoing partnership between HMC and Qatar Post and includes both new and refill prescriptions.

The service is available to all HMC patients with a valid health card.

Nespresso launches Barista Creations flavoured coffee rangeTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Nespresso yesterday relaunched its flavoured coffees under the Barista Creations range — expertly crafted to achieve a perfect balance between roasted coffee notes and sweet indul-gence.

Complementing existing roast and ground blends

in Nespresso’s Barista Creations range, the revamped flavoured coffees include tree exquisite recipes inspired by the craft and creativity of the world’s finest baristas, allowing coffee lovers to enjoy barista quality recipes in the comfort of their home.

Nespresso’s Barista Creations flavoured coffees come in a collection of mouthwatering flavours. From a delicious Vanilla Éclair, Caramel Crème Brulée or Cocoa Truffle, there’s a recipe to suit every taste and occasion. Velvety Vanilla Éclair blends into a round, smooth Latin American Arabica espresso to leave customers with a sweet and silky taste. Caramel Crème Brulée hints of caramel soften the roasted notes of this Latin American Arabica espresso, creating rich and creamy taste sure to sweeten the day. In Cocoa Truffle dark cocoa meets the cereal roasted notes of a Latin American Arabica espresso to inspire a richness reminiscent of dark chocolate truffle.

Public must follow protective measures even after easing of restrictions: ExpertTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Dr. Jameela Al Ajmi (pictured), Executive Director, Corporate Infection Prevention at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has said that as COVID-19 restric-tions in Qatar begin to be lifted, health officials will be relying on the public to help contain the spread of the virus by continuing to adhere to infection prevention measures.

“This virus will be in our world for some time to come and we know that as public health measures and restric-tions are lifted, some degree of COVID-19 transmission will be unavoidable; therefore, we must all continue to follow pro-tective measures to help prevent the spread of the virus. We must continue to maintain physical distancing practices, good hand hygiene, and to not leave home if feeling sick. If you have COVID-19 symptoms, get tested,” said Dr. Al Ajmi.

“The public needs to remember that we do not yet have a vaccine or cure, so we must all work together to care-fully balance the risks. We must not become complacent in fol-lowing infection prevention measures. These life-saving practices will be essential to protecting the members of our community who are most likely to experience serious illness should they contract COVID-19,” added Dr. Al Ajmi.

She said restrictions will be lifted slowly, and with control, because the risk of severe illness remains high for some people, such as the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. Dr. Al Ajmi said following infection pre-vention measures is the responsibility of everyone, but she encourages parents of

young children to be especially vigilant in ensuring they adhere to infection prevention practices.

“The data seems to indicate that children are less affected by COVID-19 but they may still fall ill and they can be powerful carriers of the virus. Children are generally less compliant with effective hand hygiene, and the concept of social dis-tancing can be challenging for younger children to under-stand. As we begin to see a lifting of restrictions, parents should reinforce the impor-tance of regular hand-washing and other precautions."

Dr. Al Ajmi said restrictions will be lifted slowly, and with control, because the risk of severe illness remains high for some people, such as the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.

Dr. Jameela Al AjmiDPS-MIS Principal shares views at global platform

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Principal of DPS-Modern Indian School (DPS-MIS), Asna Nafees, was invited as a panelist to a global webinar conducted by O P Jindal Global University, India, on the topic “Global Expe-riences: Continuing Education in Times of COVID-19”.

The panel that comprised of eminent speakers from UAE, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Oman and Mauritius gave a deep insight into the innovative and engaging ways adopted by them as leaders and their respective institutions to adapt to the new, creative methods of teaching and maintain con-tinuity during these unprece-dented times.

The moderator Ankur Vohra, Head-Outreach and International Admissions O P Jindal Global University, India, introduced the topic and recounted Unesco’s evaluation of the current trials in education due to the present situation.

Asna Nafees provided a detailed view of the innovative techniques used by the school to cater to the educational, emotional and social needs of the students during these dif-ficult times. She discussed her

school’s uniquely tailored cur-riculum which is a blend of aca-demics and co-curricular activ-ities conducted online to develop a diversity of talents, strengthen competencies and boost the confidence of the stu-dents. She also stressed on striking a balance between syn-chronous and asynchronous learning to suit the need of the hour and facilitate uninter-rupted learning.

The five chosen panel members were Dr. Baby Sam Saamuel, Chairman, Board of Directors for Indian Schools in Oman, Dr. Harsha Alles , Chairman Gateway Group of Colleges , Colombo, Sri Lanka, Nargish Khambatta, Vice Pres-ident for Education,

GEMS Education UAE, Prabha Dhoonooah, Career Guidance Counselor, College du Saint-Esprit Mauritius and Asna Nafees.

All the queries of the attendees were satisfactorily answered by the panelists. The panelists stressed on a hybrid/ blended learning, even after going back to the conventional learning environment. In one voice, all them, appreciated teachers and educators for rising to the situation, going beyond what was normal and comfortable, adapting quickly to the changing needs and making the process of imparting education effective, irrespective of the challenges faced.

Asna Nafees and other panelists during the global webinar.

MoCI recalls Jeep Wrangler 2018 modelTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI), in cooperation with United Cars Almana (After Sales), dealer of Jeep in Qatar, announced the recall of Jeep Wrangler Model of 2018, due to possibility of missing instructions for installing the rear window in the owner's manual.

The recall campaign comes within the framework of the Minis-try’s continuous efforts to protect consumers and ensure that dealers follow up on vehicle defects and repairs.

The Ministry said that it will coordinate with the dealer to follow up on the maintenance and repair works and will communicate with customers to ensure that they carried out the necessary repairs.

The Ministry urges all customers to report any violations to its Con-sumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Department, which processes complaints, inquires and suggestions.

05TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020 HOME

WCM-Q research links proteins to diabetesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) and the University of Iceland have identified a group of proteins that are involved in causing type 2 diabetes in humans.

Using advanced analysis techniques, the researchers measured over 4,000 different proteins in blood samples from more than 5,000 Icelandic indi-viduals and identified 536 pro-teins that were associated with type 2 diabetes. They confirmed their findings with the results of the Qatar Metabolomics Study of Diabetes, a 2012 study of 374 human subjects conducted in Qatar by Hamad Medical Corpo-ration and WCM-Q.

Following further analysis, the researchers determined that 15 proteins appear to have a causal role in the development of type 2 diabetes, while a further 23 proteins are markedly more prevalent in blood after the development of the condition. To support these findings, the study investigated how genetic predis-position for type 2 diabetes affects blood serum protein levels in the study participants.

Proteins that are shown to be causal for the disease provide

targets for future research to develop new therapeutic drugs to treat or possibly prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes in at-risk groups. Furthermore, the discov-eries of proteins that are changed by the disease open the potential for the development of new diag-nostic tests to determine whether an individual is likely to develop type 2 diabetes or already has the condition.

WCM-Q Research Associate, Dr. Shaza Zaghlool, a joint first author on the study, said: “This research has allowed us to identify a number of proteins that have very strong associations with type 2 diabetes, which is exciting because it helps us understand with greater clarity how the disease develops. It also means we have identified targets for further research that could eventually lead

to new drug therapies for type 2 diabetes, which is highly prevalent in the Gulf region.”

Type 2 diabetes is a complex disorder that typically develops over a sustained period of time, with many normal metabolic processes becoming disrupted well before more conspicuous symptoms like excessive thirst and hunger, fatigue, frequent uri-nation and blurred vision become apparent. As such, any test that can identify the disease in its early stages when interventions will have the most benefit are extremely important.

The research was based on samples of elderly Icelandic indi-viduals and was conducted in collaboration with scientists at the University of Iceland in Rey-kjavik, the Icelandic Heart Asso-ciation, GNF Novartis in San

Diego, California, and the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massa-chusetts. The study – titled “Cir-culating protein signatures and causal candidates for type 2 dia-betes” – is being published in Diabetes, the journal of the American Diabetes Association.

WCM-Q has very significant capabilities in protein analysis, having established a core facility dedicated to proteomics (the study of proteins and their inter-actions) equipped with some of the world’s most advanced protein biomarker discovery tools, which can measure thou-sands of human proteins in a single blood sample. The researchers believe the primary data used in the study to be the largest protein dataset to be described to date in any diabetes research in terms of the number of proteins measured and human samples screened.

WCM-Q’s Dr. Karsten Suhre, one of the senior authors in the study, said: “The highly sophisti-cated protein analysis platforms WCM-Q has established here in Qatar gives it a huge capacity for analyzing proteins in large pop-ulation and clinical studies to dis-cover protein associations, not only with diabetes, but also many other diseases relevant to the

country. This gives us the ability to take part in ground-breaking international studies such as this one, furthering our under-standing of how type 2 diabetes develops and providing targets for future research into new medications.”

Dr. Khaled Machaca, senior associate dean for research, inno-vations, and commercialization at WCM-Q said: “For Qatar and the wider region, type 2 diabetes is perhaps the most pressing health concern that we face, with more people being diagnosed and at much earlier ages than previously. It is therefore great news that this international col-laboration has found common protein markers between cohorts

in Iceland and Qatar to help better understand the pro-gression of this complex disease, especially in the context of the local Qatari population.”

The research was supported by the Biomedical Research Program at WCM-Q, a Qatar Foundation partner university. Dr. Suhre’s work is also supported by Qatar National Research Fund grant NPRP11C-0115-180010 to the Qatar Diabetes Prevention Program (QDPP), a cluster of research projects aiming to understand the disease in greater detail and pave the way for new treatments. The paper can be read in full at https://diabetes.diabe-t e s j o u r n a l s . o r g / c o n t e n t /early/2020/05/07/db19-1070.

Dr. Karsten Suhre (right) and Dr. Shaza Zaghlool

HBKU Press releases books in honour of Qatar-France Year of Culture 2020THE PENINSULA — DOHA

In honour of the Year of Culture Qatar France 2020, Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press) has released several newly translated books in Arabic that were originally published in French and acquired from prom-inent French publishers.

The books, which vary in genres and target audience, are a part of HBKU Press’s over-arching initiative to build bridges between nations though cross-cultural communications and to participate in the knowledge economy.

“Every year, HBKU Press plans its publishing schedule to align with Qatar’s chosen partner country for the annual Year of Culture,” explained Amani Al Banna, who is in charge of cop-yright exchange at HBKU Press. “This includes participating in copyright exchange whereby we purchase translation rights for important works from the chosen country, and we also promote the sale of translations rights for original work that we publish to foreign publishers from that country as well.”

The newly published books include an in-depth look at a

French football legend and various French learning mate-rials for children, now available for the first time in Arabic.

Football enthusiasts will be enthralled with the exclusive biography of Paris Saint-Germain F.C. superstar, Kylian Mbappé. This stunning self-titled book follows this iconic young player’s meteoric rise to fame including rare images and exclusive interviews collected by the journalists of France Football. It traces the ascent of this raw talent to superstardom depicting how he aspired to achieve eve-rything he’d ever dreamed of, setting no limits to the bound-aries of his success, and becoming a world champion twice over.

Additionally, several non-fiction titles have been released for children of all ages. The Book of Trees (Kitab Al-Ashghar/Le Livre Aux Arbres) and The Book of Birds (Kitab Al Toyour/Le Livre des Oiseaux) from French pub-lisher Belin Education, are two great resources for aspiring nat-uralists. Filled with fun facts and detailed anatomic illustrations, each book has over 200 facts about various trees and birds.

From the French publisher

Nathan, HBKU Press has trans-lated two books from the Dis-cover and Learn series: The Science of an Egg (Al Beydaa/La science est dans l’oeuf) and The Science of a Lemon (Al Liymoon/La science est dans le citron). A wonderful collection in Arabic for budding scientists every-where, these books include ten fun and easy experiments that explore basic scientific principles using everyday items found in our daily environment. The final two books in this series, The Science of Water (Al Maa’/ La Science est dans l’eau) and The

Science of Paper (Al Wara’/La Science est dans le papier) will be released in late 2020.

Also from Nathan, HBKU Press previously launched the final two books in a series of three parenting books translated from French to Arabic. How to Manage Your Child’s Emotions Calmly (Fard Saytara Al-Walidin Bi-Leen), Daddy for the First Time (Ab Li-Mara Al-Owla), and How to Control Anger (Fawrat Al-Ghadab; 2019) aim to help parents everywhere navigate their child’s emotions and their role as parents in thoughtful and

nurturing ways. HBKU Press also launched

François Charles Mauriac’s crit-ically acclaimed novel, The Kiss for the Leper (Qubla Lal-Abrous) at the 2020 Doha International Book Fair. It follows the ill-fated, maladroit, misshapen, misbe-gotten young man Jean Péloueyre, heir to an extensive estate in southern France. Arabic readers will follow Jean, the very antithesis of a hero who is very much in need of saving, on his dramatic journey. When his father arranges for him to marry a young girl, Naomi, upon the suggestion of the village priest, he is delighted by the prospect of finally being in love but weary since the girl agrees to marry him without having seen him first.

Jean and his young bride, leprous, unenlightened souls, find redemption in the pun-ishment that makes them—and us—whole.

“Translated works allow readers to cross cultural thresholds to discover new per-spectives and ways of thinking, while highlighting key figures from other countries. In that way, we see ourselves as cultural ambassadors showcasing our lit-erary creativity and culture to

other nations while getting to know other nations’ cultures at the same time,” Al Banna said.

The Year of Culture program was established by Qatar Museums and aims to convey Qatar to an international audience. Through a variety of exhibitions, festivals, competi-tions and events, their programs promote mutual understanding, recognition, and appreciation between countries. They invite people to explore their cultural similarities, as well as their differences.

The Year of Culture Qatar France 2020 contains a series of events celebrating the relations between the State of Qatar and the Republic of France through cultural partnerships between French and Qatari organizations, institutions, and individuals also in collaboration with the Embassy of Qatar in Paris, the Embassy of France in Doha and The French Institute.

HBKU Press’s catalog of works is available in bookstores across Qatar and on Amazon Kindle as eBooks. Hard copies can also be purchased and delivered in Qatar through the Rafeeq and Snoonu applications.

Proteins that are shown to be causal for the disease provide targets for future research to develop new therapeutic drugs to treat or possibly prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes in at-risk groups.

HEC Paris in Qatar professors publish book on executive educationTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

HEC Paris, ranked 2 worldwide for Executive Education by the Financial Times in 2020, yesterday announced the publication of ‘Doing business in Qatar — case studies for executive education’ by Dr. Laoucine Kerbache and Dr. Wolfgang Amann. The book is the second such project carried out by the duo, following on their previous volume ‘Doing business in the MENA region’, which featured award-winning cases from the global case writing competition, organized by the European Foundation for Management Development.

The two professors have now drawn on their long tenure and experience in Qatar to publish their next volume. ‘Doing business in Qatar — case studies for exec-utive education’ consists of case studies authored by the HEC Paris faculty, with a focus on Qatar. The book covers different industries, organizations, ownership struc-tures, and degrees of diversification.

With their latest publication, Dr. Kerbache and Dr. Amann, along with their colleagues, aim to balance international best and next practice case studies with local ones in the school’s short, custom, certificate and degree programs. Case studies have a long tradition at HEC Paris in Qatar. They are an essential pillar in their high-impact learning framework, which takes the learner through four key stages: clarifying why a topic matters; illustrating how it works; practicing holistic problem solving; and discussing what gained insights mean for individuals, their teams, and organizations.

Professor Dr. Laoucine Kerbache is the former Dean and CEO of HEC Paris in Qatar after serving for twenty years as full pro-fessor at the main campus in France including as Director of the HEC Paris PhD Program. For over thirty years of academic and research activities in his areas of

expertise, Operations and Supply Chain Management, Dr. Kerbache has published over 100 papers in international journals.

Among his other numerous textbook publications, he is the co-author of the three bestseller editions of the textbook “Man-agement Industriel et Logistique: Conception and Pilotage de la Supply Chain”. Fur-thermore, he has been serving on various international academic and research boards as well as consulting and developing exec-utive education programs in many different countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Professor Dr. Wolfgang Amann has been designing and delivering executive edu-cation seminars for more than 20 years. He currently serves as Professor of Strategy as well as Academic Director of Degree and Custom Programs at HEC Paris in Qatar. Dr. Amann has published 45 books for execu-tives and compiled more than 100 case studies for his executive education seminars. He has received several academic impact, case writing, book publishing, research and teaching awards. Most notably, he repeatedly won best course awards amongst all CEMS courses offered in the global CEMS network of top business schools.

Professor Amann also is the founder of CHEER – The Center for Humanistic Exec-utive Education Research at HEC Paris in Qatar. The center researches and develops cutting-edge, next generation solutions in executive education and thus supports the school in its efforts to have impact and enhance academic excellence. HEC Paris in Qatar programs cover a wide range of topics such as leadership, decision making, people management, finance, negotiation skills, strategy, and change management. In 2020, HEC Paris celebrates its 10-year anniversary of its partnership with Qatar Foundation and campus in Qatar.

QU-QAPCO journal gets ‘Web of Science’ indexingTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Emergent Materials (EMMA), a multi-disciplinary journal launched by the Qatar University (QU) and Qatar Petrochemical Company (QAPCO) has been indexed by the prestigious “Web of Science” after assessing the quality, number, and characteristics of papers published in EMMA.

Web of Science is a platform comprising of immense literature used to search databases designed to support the world’s most trusted citation index for scientific and scholarly research. EMMA aims to provide a publication source to the growing community of materials scientists- chemists, engineers, physicists, and researchers who are involved in doing research in mate-rials science and Engineering. Its goal is to publish a series of high quality and high impact research articles that reflect and bring the best research to the forefront in physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering of advanced materials, to the international research community.

The foundress of the Journal, Prof. Mariam Ali Al Maadeed, Vice- President of Research and Graduate Studies, Qatar University, empha-sized that, “QU is replete with many distinguished journals published under the umbrella of the Qatar Uni-versity Press (QU Press).

She added that, “Accepting of EMMA in the Web of Science is a great moment and beneficial towards the journal’s quality assessment. Prof. Mariam added that, ‘this indexing will certainly enhance the reputation and add on to the trust for the journal by the

scientific community to submit their top research articles to EMMA.”

She conveyed her special thanks to Dr. Mabrouk Ouederni, R&D Manager Qatar Petrochemical Company QAPCO and Dr. Nabil Khélifi, Publishing Editor of the journal, for their kind support.

Editor-in-Chief Karim Alamgir, Dow Chair Professor, University of Houston, USA extended his wishes by “We have great news for the sci-entific community - EM is now indexed by Web of Science! This is indeed a reflection of the first-rate papers that were published in the last two years, and we wish to thank the many authors for their high-quality papers that have contributed to this success story. We hope they will continue to publish their best research in EM and encourage their peer colleagues to do so as well”

Dr. Kishor Kumar, Managing Editor, expanded upon the idea and

said, “Web of Science indexing is a pivotal achievement for our journal, and this success tremendously reflects our quality of professionalism due to the choosing of this journal by the scientific community. It will also ensure the researchers regarding the quality of the journal and for other members of the scientific community.”

Dr. Talal Al Emadi, Director of QU Press, commented on this remarkable achievement, saying, “This is one of the fruits of scientific research at QU, and QU Press is simply of this journal

which sits on our Editorial Committee.”

QU has constantly invested in strengthening infrastructure support for materials research. There are around 100 faculty members and researchers affil-iated with conducting research in the materials and nanotechnology areas. These researches span across several colleges and centers/institutes. Excellent research facilities and infra-structure exist in these units for material synthesis, characteri-zation and testing. The prime motto of the Emergent Materials journal is to encourage the indig-enous and international researchers to work on materials science in a way that serves global industrial and technical progress and establishes the role of QU in the global map of development in this direction.

Iran, Turkey sign agreement

06 TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020GULF / MIDDLE EAST

Lebanon vows arrests after violent protestsAFP — BEIRUT

Lebanese authorities toughened their tone on protests yesterday, promising arrests for “vandalism” after several days of angry demonstrations sparked by the country’s deep-ening economic crisis.

Hundreds of protesters clashed with security forces at the weekend across the Medi-terranean nation whose cur-rency has collapsed amid the worst financial crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war.

Relative calm returned on Sunday evening, with protesters holding a peaceful rally in the capital Beirut, while dozens marched to a central square in the northern city of Tripoli, reporters said.

That came after three nights of violence in which demon-strators, angered by sky-rock-eting prices and the govern-ment’s apparent inability to tackle a dizzying devaluation of the Lebanese pound, blocked highways and scuffled with security forces in the capital and the country’s north.

In Tripoli, young men attacked banks and shops and threw rocks at security forces who responded with rubber bullets and tear gas. Medical services reported dozens of injured.

President Michel Aoun dis-cussed the protests with the country’s top security body including ministers and military officials.

“Such acts of vandalism will not be allowed after today,” he said after the meeting of the Higher Defense Council.

Aoun called for “a wave of arrests, including of those who planned and carried out” such acts, according to a statement read on television after the meeting.

He ordered authorities to beef up “preemptive” opera-tions to prevent similar violence from reoccurring.

In a sperate statement released before the meeting, Prime Minister Hassan Diab condemned acts of “sabotage” committed by “thugs” in Beirut and Tripoli.

“Thugs have no other motive than vandalism, and

they should be thrown in jail, period,” said a statement released by his office.

The official National News Agency later reported that the Lebanese army had launched a series of raids in Tripoli to arrest perpetrators of vandalism and violence.

The latest wave of demon-strations come almost eight months after the start of a mass protest movement over Leba-non’s crumbling economy and perceived official corruption.

The Lebanese pound plumbed new lows on Thursday, hitting 5,000 to the dollar for the first time.

The next day, authorities vowed to pump greenbacks into the market to limit the rout. A Beirut money-changer said that the dollar was selling for up to 4,400 pounds.

Diab on Monday called for an investigation into the rapid

devaluation of the Lebanese pound, calling the fluctuation a “deliberate” act committed by currency manipulators.

Lebanon’s economic crisis, which has led to soaring unem-ployment and forced the country to default on its sov-ereign debt for the first time, has sparked an outpouring of anger at a political elite seen as incompetent and nepotistic.

The government has put together a reform package to relaunch the economy and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund to access des-perately needed financial aid.

Inflation is expected to top 50 percent this year, in a country where 45 percent of the population live under the poverty line and over a third of the workforce are out of jobs.

The economy has been hit hard by years of war in neigh-bouring Syria.

On Saturday in Tripoli, pro-testers blocked trucks suspected of smuggling food products into Syria.

But the UN World Food Pro-gramme in statement said it had sent the convoy of 39 trucks carrying food aid bound for the war-torn country.

President Michel Aoun (centre) chairing a meeting of the Supreme Council of Defence, in the presence of Prime Minister Hassan Diab (centre, left), at the Presidential Palace in Baabda, east of the capital Beirut, yesterday.

Iran may reimposetough virus controlsas deaths spikeAFP — TEHRAN

Iran warned yesterday it may have to reimpose tough measures against the novel coronavirus to ensure social distancing, as it reported more than 100 deaths for a second straight day.

Health ministry spokes-woman Sima Sadat Lari said 113 new fatalities took to 8,950 the total number of COVID-19 deaths since the country’s outbreak began in February.

She also said another 2,449 people had tested pos-itive for the virus in the past 24 hours, taking the Islamic republic’s overall caseload to 189,876.

Iran’s government shut schools, postponed major public events and barred inter-city travel to stop the virus’s spread in March before grad-ually easing restrictions from April.

Official figures have shown a rising trajectory in new con-firmed cases since early May, when Iran hit a near two-month low in daily recorded infections.

Government spokesman Ali Rabiei on Monday bemoaned the lack of social

distancing among people at holy sites and on public transport.

“In the (Tehran) subway, although 90 percent of pas-sengers use masks, social distancing is not being observed,” he told a news conference.

“In some provinces, we have reached the peak of the disease, but that does not mean a new peak.

“The gradient of the death toll is still not sharp”, with a slight decline in Tehran, but increase in some other prov-inces, Rabiei said.

“If we find that the spread of the virus is out of control... then we will defi-nitely apply strict decisions again.”

Iran had on Sunday reported 107 deaths from the COVID-19 illness -- the first time the tally has surpassed 100 since April 13.

According to Lari, five of Iran’s 31 provinces are cur-rently classified as “red” -- the highest level on Iran’s colour-coded risk scale.

There has been scepticism at home and abroad about Iran’s official COVID-19 figures, with concerns the real toll could be much higher.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (right) and Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif during an agreement signing ceremony at the Dolmabahce Palace Presidential Work Office in Istanbul, yesterday.

Kuwait reports

511 new COVID-19

cases, two deaths

QNA — DOHA

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health announced 511 new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total infections to 36,431.

H e a l t h M i n i s t r y ’ s spokesman Dr Abdullah Al Sanad told a press briefing that two deaths were reported raising the number of fatalities to 298.

All the new cases were in contact with previously infected people or are being investigated for sources of infection, Al Sanad said.

Earlier, the Health Min-istry announced the recovery of 772 people from the COVID-19, bringing the tally to 27,531.

The Omani Ministry of Health announced yesterday that it reported 1,043 new con-firmed cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19), 614 of which were of Omanis and 429 were of Non-Omanis, bringing the total to 24,524 confirmed cases, 108 deaths and 9,533 recoveries.

The total number of tests that were conducted in the last 24 hours were 3,283, while patients in the intensive care units have reached 104, the Ministry stated in its daily briefing.

UN nuclear watchdog chief asks Iran for access to disputed sitesAFP — VIENNA

The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog yesterday called on Iran to allow “prompt access” to two sites where past nuclear activity may have occurred.

“I hope we can do better,” Rafael Grossi, Director-General of the Vienna-based Interna-tional Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told reporters when asked about the agency’s current relationship with Iran.

Grossi was speaking at the start of a meeting of the agency’s Board of Governors which is expected to discuss a report earlier this month in which the IAEA expressed “serious concern” that Iran has been blocking inspections at two sites.

“There are areas where our cooperation is ongoing and there is this issue where quite clearly we are in disagreement,” he said. Grossi repeated an appeal to Iran to “cooperate

immediately and fully” with the agency. If the Board of Gov-ernors pass a resolution critical of Iran, it would be the first of its kind since 2012.

Even though the two sites in question are not thought to be directly relavent to Iran’s current activities, the agency says it needs to know if activ-ities going back almost two decades have been properly declared and all materials accounted for.

President Michel Aoun called for “a wave of arrests, including of those who planned and carried out” vandalism. “Such acts will not be allowed after today,” he said after the meeting of the Higher Defence Council. Prime Minister Hassan Diab condemned acts of “sabotage” committed by “thugs” in Beirut and Tripoli.

Hamas calls for Palestinian unity and resistance against West Bank annexation

AFP — GAZA CITY

Gaza rulers Hamas yesterday called for unity among Pales-tinians and resistance” against Israeli plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu aims to begin a process of annexing West Bank settlements and the Jordan Valley from July 1, as part of a US peace initiative.

“We call for the annexation project to be confronted with resistance in all forms,” said senior Hamas official Salah Al Bardawil. “We call on our people to transform this hardship into an opportunity to get the Pales-tinian project back on track,” he told a press conference.

Deep divisions remain between Islamist movement Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, but Bardawil called for a “union of the political class”.

“It is the duty of each free

Palestinian citizen to rise up against this flagrant aggression on our land,” he said.

Bardawil called for a meeting between Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organ-ization, which includes various other Palestinian groups.

Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, after ousting forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a near civil war. Both the PA and Hamas stand opposed to annexation in the West Bank, which forms part of a peace plan unveiled in January by US President Donald Trump.

The initiative paves the way for the eventual creation of Pal-estinian state, but on reduced territory and without key Pal-estinian demands such as a capital in east Jerusalem.

Israel’s intention to press ahead with annexation has been met with warnings from the United Nations that such a move would likely spark violence.

An aerial view shows a bridge under construction as part of The American Road, an Israeli ring road that is being built through East Jerusalem.

Israel builds new Jerusalem road linking settlementsREUTERS — OCCUPIED JERUSALEM

Construction is under way on a major new ring road for Jeru-salem that Israeli officials say will benefit all of its residents, but critics of the project say is another obstacle to Palestinian hopes to make East Jerusalem the capital of a future state.

The bypass, called The American Road, will connect Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank that are north and south of Jerusalem. The central and southern sec-tions of the road are already being built, and tenders for the northernmost stretch —at a projected cost of $187m — will be issued towards the end of the year, a Jerusalem municipality official said on condition of anonymity.

In total, the project, which will run along or near the outer rim of East Jerusalem, is forecast to cost more than a quarter of a billion dollars. Israel annexed East Jerusalem, in a move that has not won international recognition, after capturing the area, along with the West Bank and Gaza Strip,

in a 1967 war. The construction comes as the Israeli gov-ernment is set to begin cabinet-level discussions from July 1 about implementing Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election promise to annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank — a planned step that is sparking growing international criticism. Peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2014.

Israeli officials say the road, which will include a 1.6km

tunnel east of the Mount of Olives, will ease traffic con-gestion for both Israelis and Palestinians living in the area.

“It doesn’t unite the set-tlements. It’s not about uniting borders or municipal lines,” said Arieh King, a Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem and a leading figure in the city’s settler movement. “But it does connect them more on the daily level - whether it’s studies, tourism or commerce. And then in practice you

create a huge Jerusalem metropolis.”

Palestinians say the new road will primarily benefit set-tlers, and will further undermine the feasibility of East Jerusalem as the capital of the state they seek in the West Bank and Gaza.

“This project cuts off Pales-tinian neighborhoods within the city from one another,” Fadi Al Hidmi, the Palestinian Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, said via email. Responding to questions from Reuters, Al Hidmi said The American Road was part of Israel’s “illegal” ring road project, which “surrounds occupied East Jerusalem to further connect Israeli settle-ments and sever the occupied Palestinian capital from the rest of the West Bank.”

Israel’s West Bank settle-ments were built by successive governments on land captured in the 1967 war.

More than 400,000 Israelis now live there, with another 200,000 in East Jerusalem. Pal-estinians say the settlements make a future state unviable, and most of the world views them as illegal under interna-tional law.

Artists against racism

07TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020 AFRICA

Talks between Somalia and Somaliland hailed as ‘historic’ANATOLIA — ADDIS ABABA

Talks between Somalia and the breakaway Somaliland region are being hailed as historic, as kick-starting a political dialogue between the two to resolve their longstanding differences.

S o m a l i a P r e s i d e n t Mohamed Abdullahi Formajo and Somaliland leader Moussa Bihi Abdi met on Sunday in Dji-bouti, their neighbour in the Horn of Africa, in the presence of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the Nobel laureate who in 2019 brought the two sides together in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

Their host, Djibouti Pres-ident Ismail Omar Guelleh, said at the opening of the meeting: “As we all know, a few days from now will mark the 60th anniversary of the end of colonial rule in the Somali ter-ritories. After the struggles of the last 30 years, the time for a rebirth is now.

“Indeed this new gener-ation of young people are not burdened by the violence of the past and I believe they are the best suited to build anew.”

Abiy also tweeted that he was “pleased” with the summit, calling it a “critical demon-stration of open dialogue &

reconciliation for national & regional development.”

“It is a historic meeting and great opportunity, but talks will be difficult given the entrenched positions on both sides are still very opposed,” Omar Mahmood, Somalia analyst for the International Crisis Group, said.

“I don’t think either side has fundamentally altered their positions. For Somaliland, that means it views itself as inde-pendent of Somalia having dis-solved its voluntary union with Somalia in 1991, backed up by a constitutional referendum that affirmed this point in 2001,” he said.

Somalia “does not rec-ognise Somaliland’s breakaway status, and therefore maintains it is still part of Somalia’s terri-torial integrity, and that the Federal Government bases in Mogadishu therefore has authority over Somaliland as

well,” he added. Calling the summit’s timing

“odd” as Somalia is set to hold elections next year, he said: “The point seems to be to restart a high-level dialogue process, but will be difficult to see where it goes given all the other factors ongoing.”

Both Somalia and Soma-liland are set to celebrate in a few days the 60th anni-versary of the liberation of the whole of Somalia from colonisers.

A former British protec-torate, Somaliland got its inde-pendence in 1960 but days later joined Somalia. In 1991, it declared independence from the rest of the country following war with the government in Mogadishu.

Somalia said it will go ahead with plans to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in early 2021, despite current COVID-19 fears.

Sudan finds mass

grave of students

killed during

Bashir’s rule

REUTERS — KHARTOUM

Sudan’s public prosecutor yesterday announced the discovery of a mass grave east of Khartoum suspected to contain the remains of students killed in 1998 who tried escaping military service from a training camp.

An investigation has been launched, the prose-cutor said, adding that some of the suspected killers belonging to the ousted administration of Omar Al Bashir had fled.

A source in the investi-gators’ team said dozens of bodies had been found at the site east of the capital.

The prosecutor said the conscripts were shot while fleeing the El Eifalun camp fearing they would be sent to southern Sudan where Bashir’s Islamist regime was fighting a civil war with rebels.

Poorly trained and equipped conscripts were sent into the bush fighting against the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

The students were also angry that they had been denied time to spend with their families during an Islamic holiday, according to the prosecutor.

No more details were immediately available.

C o m m a n d e r s a n d instructors of conscripts were often members of Bashir’s ruling party and allied Islamists which often framed the conflict against the SPLA, from the mainly Christian south, as holy war.

The Sudan People’s Lib-eration Movement, the political wing of the SPLA, won independence for the south in 2011 following a peace deal with Bashir’s regime in 2005.

Nigerian doctors strike for better benefits amid coronavirus crisisREUTERS — ABUJA

Resident doctors in Nigerian public hospitals went on strike yesterday to demand better benefits, including the provision of more protective equipment, as they battle the coronavirus, the union said.

Those treating COVID-19 patients will stay on the job but their union, the National Asso-ciation of Resident Doctors (NARD), gave the government

two weeks to meet the demands or else they would also walk out.

Resident doctors are those who have graduated from medical school and are training as specialist consultants. They are pivotal to frontline healthcare in Nigeria as they dominate the emergency wards in its hospitals. Strikes are common in Nigeria’s public health system, with clinicians frequently seeking pay rises and

improvements to under-funded infrastructure to meet the rising burden of healthcare in the West African country of 200 million people.

“If the government fails to meet our minimum demands within two weeks, the resident doctors working in (COVID-19) isolation centres will automat-ically join the strike,” Aliyu Sokomba, the head of the union, said in a statement.

The resident doctors are

seeking a COVID-19 pay sup-plement in addition to life insurance for doctors and more funds in the federal budget for their training, among other demands. The union has com-plained about inadequate pro-tective equipment to treat COVID-19 patients and has said that 10 doctors have died so far from the highly infectious respi-ratory disease.

Health Minister Osagie Ehanire told reporters

government officials were holding talks with the union.

Nigeria has had more than 16,000 confirmed cases of the virus and 420 deaths. Most cases have been in Lagos, sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest city of 20 million inhabitants. Last month, doctors in Lagos staged a one-day strike over what they described as police harassment of health workers trying to move through the city to treat patients during a coronavirus curfew.

Tunisia has beaten coronavirus: PMANATOLIA & REUTERS — TUNIS

Tunisian Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh announced that the country has achieved a victory against the novel coronavirus as it has recorded almost no new new cases.

Fakhfakh made the statement on a local TV channel, saying Tunisians should be proud of themselves for beating the virus.

“We came out of this crisis with really important health consequences and the least damage,” he said. He noted that the country would reopen its borders on June 27.

Fakhfakh stressed that since the onset of the pan-demic, the country has brought back 25,000 citizens from abroad.

The Health Ministry stated that the number of cases in the country totaled 1,096 and the death toll remained at 49 while recoveries had reached 998.

The Prime Minister said he had decided against the use of more external debt and that all new expenses that arise for the country would be funded only through internal loans.

He said that he will freeze increases in the wages of public employees because of the critical state of public

finances which was worsened by the coronavirus crisis.

This move could spark a conflict with the powerful UGTT Union, which is expected to reject the decision, and could lead to protests and strikes.

Tunisia needs an additional 4.5bn dinars ($1.6bn) of loans because of the coronavirus crisis, and the government will seek it from the local market, he added.

“External debt reached dangerous levels and now reached 60% of GDP, com-pared to 30% in 2013 and I decided not to continue in this way,” Fakhfakh said in interview with Attessia TV.

Tunisia expects the economy to shrink by up to 4.3% this year, the steepest drop since independence in 1956.

Tourism revenues fell by about 50% in the first five months of this year compared to the same period in 2019, as western tourists deserted Tunisia’s hotels and resorts.

“Public finances are very critical and we cannot con-tinue with the approach of increasing wages,” Fakhfakh said.

If the situation continues as it is, the government could be forced to reduce wages, he added.

A man looks on as a member of Radikal Bomb Shot (RBS), a collective of Senegalese artists, paints a mural depicting key American and African anti-racism activists, in a show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement, in Dakar, yesterday.

South Africa’s Ramaphosa condemns surge in femicides as lockdown easesAFP — JOHANNESBURG

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday condemned as “barbaric” and “acts of inhu-manity” a surge of femicides since South Africa eased anti-coronavirus stay-at-home measures.

Murders of women have spiralled since the start of June, when lockdown restrictions were loosened allowing for more movement of people, according to the police.

Speaking at a ruling African National Congress virtual meeting, Ramaphosa said gender-based violence “con-tinues to plague our country and we have been saddened by the continuous and recurring news of men attacking and killing women in the past few weeks.”

“Men continue to kill women in the most horrific and barbaric fashion” he said, warning “it must end”.

In a weekly newsletter earlier, he described the attacks

as “acts of inhumanity”. One of the most gruesome

attacks was that of an eight-months pregnant woman whose stabbed body was found hanging from a tree in Roode-poort, a western suburb of Johannesburg.

Five days later, the body of another young woman was found on Friday dumped under a tree in Soweto.

Police have reported several other cases of femicide across the country in recent

days. The reasons for the sudden increase are being investigated. Police Minister Bheki Cele has said that an overall rise in crime was caused by the lifting of a ban on the sale of alcohol.

On Saturday Ramaphosa referred to the past week as “a dark and shameful week for us as a nation”.

“We note with disgust that at a time when the country is facing the gravest of threats from the pandemic, violent men

are taking advantage of the eased restrictions on movement to attack women and children,” he said in a statement.

Ramaphosa called on young men to become even more active in fighting gender-based violence as he spoke on the eve of the 44th anniversary of the June 16 Soweto massacre of black school children by the apartheid regime.

Springbok rugby captain Siya Kolisi joined calls to end femicide saying “enough is

enough”. “Let’s be the gener-ation of men to break this attack on women,” he said to his half-a-million Instagram followers. South Africa is ranked among countries with one of the highest levels of intimate partner violence in the world.

A woman is killed every three hours in South Africa, according to police statistics —a rate five times the world average. Around one in two are murdered by men with whom they had a close relationship.

Three women activists in Zimbabwedenied bail, accused of lying about abuseAP — HARARE

Three young female opposition activists in Zimbabwe, who charge they were tortured and assaulted by state agents, were sent back to prison when a court denied them bail on new charges that they lied about their ordeal.

The three women were returned to Chikurubi

maximum security prison, notorious for housing hardcore criminals in poor conditions, after Magistrate Bianca Mak-wande rejected their bail appli-cation Monday.

The magistrate agreed with the prosecution that the women could commit more crimes or flee the country before their case is concluded if they are released on bail. The ruling will be

appealed, according to their lawyer, Alex Muchadehama who is with the organization Zim-babwe Lawyers for Human Rights. The three women, all members of the opposition party the Movement for Dem-ocratic Change, face up to 20 years in prison or a fine. Their case has been highlighted by human rights groups in Zim-babwe and internationally.

A Turkish deminer taking part in the clearance of unexploded ordnance remaining in the Salah Al Din area, south of the Libyan capital Tripoli, yesterday.

Turkey in talks to use 2 Libya military basesREUTERS & AFP — TRIPOLI

Turkey and Libya’s interna-tionally recognised government are discussing possible Turkish use of two military bases in the North African country, a Turkish source said yesterday, teeing up a lasting Turkish presence in the south Mediter-ranean.

No final decisions have been made over possible Turkish military use of the Misrata naval base and the Al Watiya air base, which was recently recaptured by the Turkey-backed Government of

National Accord (GNA).The GNA has driven back

Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) - backed by Russia, France, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates - in recent weeks and recaptured several positions.

Last week, Turkey said it could expand its cooperation in Libya with new energy and construction deals once the conflict ends.

“Turkey using Al Watiya... is on the agenda,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It could also be possible for the Misrata naval

base to be used by Turkey.”Turkey and Russia will

continue to hold talks on a ceasefire in Libya despite a high-level meeting being can-celled on the weekend, Turkish officials said.

Russian ministers were due to visit Istanbul on Sunday but both countries said the visit would not take place, and neither gave a reason.

"We decided it would be more helpful to continue talks at a technical level," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavu-soglu told reporters in Istanbul yesterday.

Both Somalia and Somaliland are set to celebrate in a few days the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the whole of Somalia from colonisers. A former British protectorate, Somaliland got its independence in 1960 but days later joined Somalia. In 1991, it declared independence from the rest of the country following war with the government in Mogadishu.

Desperation for a way to keep economies from collapsing under the weight of COVID-19 could mean settling for a vaccine that prevents people from getting really sick or dying but doesn’t stop them from catching the coronavirus.

Although a knock-out blow against the virus is the ultimate goal, early vaccines may come with limitations on what they can deliver, according to Robin Shattock, an Imperial College London professor leading development of an experi-mental shot.

“Is that protection against infection?” Shattock said. “Is it protection against illness? Is

it protection against severe disease? It’s quite possible a vaccine that only protects against severe disease would be very useful.”

As countries emerge warily from lockdowns, leaders are looking to a pre-ventive shot as the route to return to pre-pandemic life. Fuelled by billions of dollars in government investment, vaccines from little-known companies like China’s CanSino Biologics and giants like Pfizer and AstraZeneca are in development.

At least one of the fastest-moving experimental shots has already advanced into human trials after showing an impact on severe disease -- but less so on infection -- in animals. Experts say such a product would probably be widely used if approved, even if that’s as much as it con-tributes, until a more effective version comes to market.

“Vaccines need to protect against disease, not necessarily infection,” said Dennis Burton, an immunologist and vaccine researcher at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.

There are drawbacks, though. While holding the potential to save lives, such vac-cines might lead to complacency in lockdown-weary nations, said Michael Kinch, a drug devel-opment expert who is associate vice chancellor at Washington University in St. Louis.

“My guess would be that the day after someone gets immunized, they’re going to think, ‘I can go back to normal. Everything will be fine,’” he said. “They’re not going to necessarily realize that they might still be sus-ceptible to infection.”

COVID-19 is already thought to be spread by people without symptoms, and a symptom-preventing vaccine may create even greater numbers of them.

Vaccines are among the most effective weapons against infectious disease, and prevent up to 3 million deaths a year, according to the World Health Organization. Yet few, if any, are 100% effective in all people who get them. For example, about 3% of people who get measles vaccine develop a mild form of the disease, and can spread it to others.

In their attempts to con-front a rapidly growing threat, developers are turning to technologies that have never been used successfully in humans. More than 130 shots are in the works for COVID-19 prevention, according to the World Health Organization.

Vaccines work by pre-senting the immune system with a form of a germ -- or a key part of it -- preparing the body to respond when a real exposure occurs. When that happens, immune proteins called antibodies glom onto the virus, halting its entry to cells. Sometimes vaccines ramp up immune T-cells, which don’t do as much to prevent infec-tions, but can slow and even-tually stop their progression.

A common approach to raising levels of antibodies is with injection of a virus that’s been inactivated or killed. About nine of these are in experimentation: One, made by China’s Sinovac Biotech, led to high levels of COVID-tar-geted antibodies in monkeys.

Another shot developed at the University of Oxford uses an innovative approach in

which COVID genes are inserted into a different, harmless virus. Those make proteins that are recognized by the immune system, which raises defenses against a real infection.

About a quarter of the experimental shots listed by the WHO, including two already in human studies, follow the same approach as the Oxford vaccine. One of the advantages of the technology is its speed. AstraZeneca, which is partnering with Oxford, has said it will begin delivering doses for the U.K. as soon as September, and will have doses for the US, which helped fund development, the following month.

Over the weekend, AstraZeneca and four European Union countries said they reached an agreement to distribute hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine.

How the shot affects infections and infectiousness still isn’t clear. William Haseltine, a former HIV researcher at Harvard University, pointed out in a blog for Forbes that animals had roughly the same amount of viral genetic material, called RNA, in their systems, whether or not they’d received shots. Levels of antibodies against the virus weren’t as high as in very protective vaccines, he said.

However, clinical signs of severe infection, like high breathing rate and pneumonia, were better in vaccinated monkeys. That might still make such a shot useful, according to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

As countries emerge warily from lockdowns, leaders are looking to a preventive shot as the route to return to pre-pandemic life. Fuelled by billions of dollars in government investment, vaccines from little-known companies like China’s CanSino Biologics and giants like Pfizer and AstraZeneca are in development.

08 TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

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

EDITORIAL

THE completion of Education City Stadium, the third tournament venue for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, is a source of pride for citizens, residents and the entire Arab region. The first Qatar 2022 venue to achieve a 5-star sustainability rating, the 40,000-capacity Education City Stadium is slated to host matches up to the quarter-finals stage of the game's showpiece tournament held every four years.

The brand new stadium is the third tournament-ready venue for Qatar 2022 following the successful redevelopment of the iconic Khalifa International Stadium in 2017 and the inauguration of Al Janoub Stadium last year in May. With the Al Rayyan and Al Bayt Stadiums expected to be completed by the end of the year, Qatar 2022 now seems closer than ever. The other three Qatar 2022 venues - Al Thumama Stadium, Ras Abu Aboud Stadium and Lusail Stadium are heading towards completion.

H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice-Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation, said: “The eyes of the world will be on this stadium when it hosts matches as the World Cup comes to Qatar and the region in 2022, but its value will extend far beyond the tournament. The Stadium’s place at the heart of Qatar Foundation’s vibrant, open community will make it an enduring focal point and a hub of activity, social interaction and knowledge. It will con-tinue to bring people together long after the World Cup, encourage them to embrace sport and healthy living, and as one of the world’s most sustainable sporting venues promote the importance of making sustainability a key element of our lifestyles.”

Known as Qatar’s ‘diamond in the desert’, the design of the Education City Stadium represents quality, durability and resilience. It is a venue to be treasured, both for the memories it will assist in making and adding sporting value to the country.

FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Chairman and Sec-retary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), H E Hassan Al Thawadi, said: “The completion of the third tournament-ready venue is a proud moment for the SC, the QF and the entire country. We remain on track to delivering the first FIFA World Cup in the Middle East and Arab world and hope to unveil two more stadiums by the end of the year.”

Qatar, under its wise leadership, is completing all projects related to the World Cup ahead of schedule and at an accelerated pace. It is becoming evident that FIFA 2022 World Cup will strengthen bonds of friendship around the globe.

Another promise fulfilled

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Quote of the day

The faster we can do this (Brexit trade deal), the

better, and we see no reason why you shouldn't

get that done in July... I don't want to see (the

talks) going on until the autumn, winter.

Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister

A scientist prepares samples during the research and development of a vaccine against the coronavirus disease at a laboratory of BIOCAD biotechnology company in Saint Petersburg.

SEAN CHANG — AFP

Deserted streets, cabin fever and worries over COVID-enabling commutes in Europe and America have sent demand for bikes into high gear -- with factories in Taiwan racing to push out new units and scrambling to find parts.

The deadly virus has sparked a global recession and hammered many indus-tries, but it is boom time in the bike world and a major bonus for Taiwan, which is a leading bicycle producer and has managed to avoid mass lock-downs by defeating the coro-navirus early on.

At Giant, the world's largest bike company, it has been a dizzying few months, according to CEO Bonnie Tu.

"We saw what happened

and then we reacted quickly," Tu said in an interview last week at their new head-quarters in the industrial city of Taichung.

"We mobilise our com-panies, including our factories and sales company... in order to meet the consumer demand."

The orders have kept on coming, with reports of empty bike racks at dealers and long waits for resupply across Europe and North America.

In Britain, the Association of Cycle Traders said some 20,000 bikes awaiting manu-facturing and delivery had already been sold or reserved.

"We've seen a mixture of everybody to be honest," Lincoln Romain, director of Brixton Cycles, in London, told AFP last month.

"People that commute all

the time, we've seen new cyclists, we've seen people that have to get in so they have bikes that have been in Across the Atlantic, demand has also rocketed.

Year-on-year sales of commuter and fitness bikes increased 66 percent in March, leisure bikes leaped 121 percent and electric bikes rose 85 percent, according to market research firm The NPD Group.

Giant's Tu said demand in both the US and Europe has centred on the more affordable "$1,000 and under" category of bikes.

While Giant's factories in Taiwan kept rolling, many of their facilities on the Chinese mainland had to temporarily shut down when the virus first spread from the central city of Wuhan.

A return to full capacity has been slowed by struggles to get parts from suppliers as they refill factory floors and restock inventories.

"We have to wait for them," Tu said. "So it is actually quite difficult, but we manage."

For Europe, Giant will soon benefit from a large factory it has built in Hungary, part of a gradual shift many Taiwanese manufacturers are making to diversify away from China and be closer to consumer markets.

Gina Chang, secretary-general of the Taiwan Bicycle Association, said manufac-turers initially suffered in the first quarter from cancelled or postponed orders when the virus first spread. But since then, demand has roared back.

The first COVID-19 vaccines may not prevent you from getting coronavirus

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Taiwan pedals faster to meet global pandemic demand for bikes

Established in 1996

JOHN LAUERMAN & JAMES PATON — BLOOMBERG

09TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020 OPINION

Data from an Indonesian anti-poverty program that began in 2007 provided researchers a natural way to answer that question. The result: Cash payments to people in impoverished areas led to a 30% drop in tree loss, even though the payments came with no conservation conditions.

Indonesia has made significant progress fighting forest loss through targeted programs, as well. Primary forest loss fell by 60% in 2016 due to stepped-up policies and enforcement, and the years since have sustained those gains. It’s a part of a broader strategy for the country to moor its development to a realistic and practical relationship with its environment, says Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

COVID-19 has created an unprecedented global health crisis. But with more than 50,000 travel restrictions in more than 200 countries, an equally unprecedented mobility crisis is emerging. The global system of mobility and travel has been returned to its factory settings. A priv-ilege that so many of us take for granted, and others struggle to access, has been temporarily withdrawn. How - and when - we decide to reboot it will be critical to the future health of our popula-tions, but also the future economic and social health of our countries.

The United Nations Sec-retary-General, Antonio Guterres, recently highlighted that people on the move find themselves particularly vul-nerable to the effects of the

crisis. While the organisation I lead, International Organi-zation for Migration (IOM), is focused on the immediate needs of those migrants and communities most affected by the pandemic, we are also reflecting on the long-term implications of this dramatic suspension of movement.

The current political, social and economic reaction to the virus is volatile. At the onset of the outbreak, governments shut borders in near unanimity. But beyond this, their reactions have diverged massively and haphazardly. In some coun-tries, public services have been extended to undocumented migrants on the understanding that, just as viruses do not dis-criminate, neither can govern-ments. In other parts of the world, rapid returns and expul-sions of migrants are over-whelming countries of origin which are unprepared to support sudden, sometimes large-scale, arrivals.

The broadening scope of possible responses - both pos-itive and negative - makes it difficult to identify where the new political equilibrium will settle when the fog of the pandemic itself lifts.

But some interesting con-vergence is emerging.

Much of the public debate in recent years - in Europe, as elsewhere - has centred on the value of skilled migrants. The unfortunate corollary of

this has been an often-public rejection of unskilled migration. The current crisis, however, has driven home the “essential” nature of migrant labour, regardless of skill. We have seen how vital those who deliver food, clean public spaces, and provide domestic care have been in holding our societies together.

Indeed, a number of coun-tries have prolonged visas and work permits, exempted sea-sonal workers from travel restrictions, and extended the right to work to asylum seekers in order to fill critical gaps in the workforce, a welcome antidote to the negative dis-course around migration in Europe and elsewhere over the past several years.

Looking further ahead, this appreciation for the role of mobility will be important to retain. Researchers in Aus-tralia, for example, are pointing to a projected shortfall in immigration numbers as a result of the travel shutdown, which they warn could cripple Australia’s economic rebound.

The predicted economic recession will not only deeply affect migrants but also the global and regional patterns of mobility to which we have become accustomed. Geo-graphic proximity and trust will be more important than ever for states - with an emphasis on “local” travel - and there is a risk that future mobility becomes two-tracked or two-speed based on national health concerns, placing those coun-tries and individuals perceived to be at highest risk at a disad-vantage. For example, if the health infrastructure of one country is seen by another as subpar, or COVID-19 testing fees at an airport are too steep, many will be excluded from travel or entry.

If we are unable to relaunch migration and mobility safely - and univer-sally - the world’s ability to recover from economic recession will be limited. This is the paradox facing govern-ments today. Health concerns have driven restrictions in movement, but there will be no sustainable recovery without trade and mobility,

without reopening borders in a smart and safe way.

Threats such as terrorism have affected travel before. But states are now facing an invisible enemy, albeit carried with benign and unwitting intent. States and regions will now need to find a new balance between health con-cerns and the need for mobility. This means health-proofing border management systems without jeopardising the social and economic potential that migration holds or marginalising specific groups.

We can take cues from previous crises. The 9/11 attacks taught governments how to assess and incorporate new risks flexibly, and without shutting down entirely. The recent Ebola crises have reinforced the value of preventive infra-structure at borders, and the importance of contact tracing, but also the need to balance the opportunities and risks of surveillance and avoid social polarisation. The 2008 eco-nomic recession brought home the need to build com-munity cohesion and identity, including for migrants, or risk deep and paralysing political rifts.

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the dangers of persistent inequality in our societies, particularly for migrants and those citizens who struggle at the margins. While we go about the con-suming work of mitigating the pandemic’s large-scale impacts and reestablishing human mobility, we should seize the opportunities ahead of us to address critical pro-tection gaps, from social pro-tection safety nets to public health access.

Just as we have realised that migration is a critical part of our economies and soci-eties, it is important to rec-ognise that inclusive migration is not just good for migrants, but a public good which will benefit all of us. Our recovery can leave no one behind as we get moving again.

Antonio Vitorino is Director General of the Inter-national Organization for Migration (IOM).

Without safe migration, economic recovery will be limited

Forest destruction is respon-sible for 10% of human carbon dioxide emissions, and much of it is the result of extreme poverty. For local commu-nities, selling timber and clearing land for cultivation is an income stream of last resort. Researchers, govern-ments, and non-govern-mental organizations have debated for years how to rid the world of these twin scourges. But which comes first, alleviating the poverty or saving the trees?

Data from an Indonesian anti-poverty program that began in 2007 provided researchers a natural way to answer that question. The result: Cash payments to people in impoverished areas led to a 30% drop in tree loss, even though the payments came with no conservation conditions.

“Conservationists don’t have to see this as a zero-sum game-that if the money goes to poverty, it’s not helping the environment,” says Paul Ferraro, a Bloomberg Distin-guished Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School and the study’s co-author. (While

Michael R. Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, endowed the research chair, neither Ferraro nor any of the other Bloomberg Distinguished Professors coordinates with Bloomberg or Bloomberg Philanthropies.) “For years, these two camps have been at loggerheads, anti-poverty and the environmental protection camp.”

Indonesia’s Program Kel-uarga Harapan, or Family Hopes Program, promises six years of quarterly payments as long as recipients register with local health and edu-cation institutions and ensure that pregnant women and children receive exams and vaccines. Children must also attend school.

While the relationship between anti-poverty and conservation measures is poorly understood, past con-servation efforts have had unforeseen or unde-sirable social impacts, and community-driven deforest-ation drives have achieved mixed results. Research efforts have more com-monly looked at the effects of healthy forestry on well-being, not the other way around, note Ferraro and co-author Rhita Simorangkir, an economics researcher at the National University of Singapore.

Even more surprising than the result itself, says Ferraro, is that the drop in deforestation seen in Indo-nesia was about the same as

those achieved by policies in other countries designed specifically for conser-vation. The paper doesn’t advocate for reallocating conservation payments to anti-poverty programs or vice versa, and while Ferraro says he’s encouraged by the results, he also cautions against reading too much into them.

“This is always the issue of single-country studies,” he says. “They’re more credible than all these global studies that just look at patterns in global data, but they have less ability to generalize, so it’s still unclear.”

Kira Sullivan-Wiley, a post-doctoral researcher at Boston University who spe-cializes in conservation and human behavior, says the study is “a very tidy and thorough analysis.” She credits the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, an ambitious program to attack the world’s ills by 2030, with drawing anti-poverty and environmental advocates closer together. Solid results showing that an anti-poverty measure has for-estry benefits “will please a lot of people who care about both,” Sullivan-Wiley says.

Indonesia has made sig-nificant progress fighting forest loss through targeted programs, as well. Primary forest loss fell by 60% in 2016 due to stepped-up policies and enforcement, and the years since have sustained those gains. It’s a part of a

broader strategy for the country to moor its devel-opment to a realistic and practical relationship with its environment, says Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

“What this pandemic has shown us in such a terrifying way is that we need to rebuild our economies, so they provide us with not only jobs but also a society that is secure, resilient and safe,” Indrawati says. “We can no longer built our economies-our societies-in a way that too often ignores natural science and our dependence on the natural environment.”

Yet she also warns there’s a danger that the challenge of climate change could be put to aside if it appears to clash with short-run political and eco-nomic objectives. Economic pain from the pandemic now threatens poverty-relief efforts that Indonesia has carried out for more than a decade. At the end of March, President Joko Widodo signed into law a stimulus program that includes further relief for the 10 million households in the Family Hope Program.

It’s too soon to tell whether today’s hardships will lead to further deforest-ation. Temporary cash transfers and forest-friendly job creation can help reduce the need for people to revert to deforestation if they take a financial hit from the pan-demic, says Frances Seymour, distinguished senior fellow at the World

Resources Institute. “We need to distinguish between crackdowns on organized crime and appropriate actions to address exploi-tation of forests by people made desperate by the eco-nomic crisis,’’ she says.

How fighting poverty accidentally stopped deforestation

ANTONIO VITORINO AL JAZEERA

ERIC ROSTON & JESS SHANKLEMAN — BLOOMBERG

Just as we have realised that migration is a critical part of our economies and societies, it is important to recognise that inclusive migration is not just good for migrants, but a public good which will benefit all of us. Our recovery can leave no one behind as we get moving again.

The United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, recently highlighted that people on the move find themselves particularly vulnerable to the effects of the crisis. The organisation I lead, International Organization for Migration (IOM), is focused on the immediate needs of those migrants and communities most affected by the pandemic.

Migrants from Africa, Cuba and Haiti stranded in Honduras after borders were closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, board a bus going to a shelter, during their trek northward in an attempt to reach the US, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

10 TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020ASIA

India to reimpose viruslockdown in Chennaias new infections surgeAFP, IANS — NEW DELHI

A lockdown will be reimposed on Friday on some 15 million people in the Indian city of Chennai and several neigh-bouring districts, state officials said, as coronavirus cases surge in the region.

Home to 1.3 billion people, India has been gradually lifting a nationwide lockdown in a bid to get the economy back on track.

But new infections have still been rising across the country — particularly in Chennai, capital of Tamil Nadu.

“Full Lockdown from 19th for Chennai, Thiruvallur, Chen-galpet & Kanchipuram dis-tricts,” the Tamil Nadu state government tweeted yesterday. It will be in place until the end of June.

The southern state has recorded just over 44,000 cases out of a nationwide total of 332,424, according to official figures.

A majority of the cases are

in Chennai, according to media reports, the headquarters of India’s huge automotive industry.

Only shops selling essential items and restaurants will be allowed to remain open from early morning until 2pm local time during the lockdown.

The lockdown will be tightened further on Sundays.

The state government also ordered an audit of the number of coronavirus deaths after media reports said at least 200 fatalities were not reflected in

the official toll of 435.India now has the world’s

fourth-highest number of infec-tions after the United States, Brazil and Russia, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Meanwhile, for the second consecutive day yesterday, Maharashtra notched a drop in COVID-19 deaths while the recoveries continued to improve, health officials said.

The state recorded 3,390 new patients to take its total of 107,958, with a recovery rate of 47.02 per cent.

Maharashtra also marked another three-digit toll of 120, down by 32 from the record high of 152 on June 11, and also notched a drop in new cases by 217 from the highest of 3,607 on May 11.

For almost all days in June, the state has been recording three-digit fatalities — 103 deaths on June 2, 122 on June 3, 123 on June 4, 139 on June 5, 120 on June 6, 109 on June 8, 120 on June 9, 149 on June 10, 152 on

June 11, 127 on June 12, 113 on June 13 and 120 on Sunday.

This comes to roughly one death every 12 minutes, and a whopping 141 new cases notched every hour in the state on Sunday.

Maharashtra has been recording 100-plus fatalities and over 3,000 cases almost daily for the past 13 days.

With 120 fatalities, the state death toll zoomed to 3,950 while the total number of Coro-navirus patients catapulted

from Saturday’s 104,568 to 107,958 — both highest in the country.

The Health Department said of the total number of cases declared till date, 53,017 were active cases — increasing by 1,638 from Saturday.

Despite the gloomy data on the perpetually growing number of Covid-19 deaths and cases, the state continues to record an impressive recovery rate, standing now at 47.02 per cent and a mor-

tality rate of 3.65 percent.Of the total fatalities on

Sunday, Mumbai notched 69 deaths for the second day — taking the city death toll up to 2,182 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here went up by 1,395 cases to touch 58,226 now.

Dharavi—Asia’s biggest slum — continued to show improvements with 13 new cases, taking the total to 2,043 cases and the number of fatal-ities stable at 77.

A worker wearing protective gear sanitises a room at a hotel, after authorities eased lockdown restrictions, in Kolkata, India, yesterday.

‘Black Lives

Matter’ banner at

US Embassy in

Seoul removed

BLOOMBERG — SEOUL

A large “Black Lives Matter” banner draped on the front of the US embassy in Seoul was removed on Monday after it was brought to the attention of President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, according to people familiar with the matter.

Pompeo and Trump were both displeased about the banner, the people said. A large, multicoloured banner was also removed yesterday. They were replaced with a banner commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.

The embassy unfurled the “Black Lives Matter” banner on its mission building on Sat-urday to support worldwide anti-racism protests that have followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last month.

The US Embassy “stands in solidarity with fellow Americans grieving and peacefully pro-testing to demand positive change,” the embassy said Sat-urday on Twitter, posting a picture of the banner. “Our #BlackLivesMatter banner shows our support for the fight against racial injustice and police brutality as we strive to be a more inclusive & just society.” The embassy said Monday that it had no further comment, apart from its official tweet.

“USA is a free and diverse nation... from that diversity, we gain our strength” the US Ambassador to South Korea, Harry Harris said in a re-tweet of the official embassy message.

Duterte-critic journalist convicted in Philippine libel caseAFP — MANILA

Philippine journalist Maria Ressa was convicted yesterday of cyber libel and faces up to six years behind bars in a case that watchdogs say marks a dangerous erosion of press freedom under President Rodrigo Duterte.

Ressa, 56, and her news site Rappler have been the target of a series of criminal charges and probes after publishing stories critical of Duterte’s policies, including his drug war that has killed thousands.

The award-winning former CNN journalist was sentenced to up to six years’ jail in the cul-mination of a case that has drawn international concern.

It was not immediately clear how long she would actually have to serve if the conviction becomes final, and Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa allowed Ressa to remain free on bail pending an appeal.

“We are going to stand up against any kind of attacks against press freedom,” a defiant Ressa told journalists after the conviction in Manila.

“I began as a reporter in 1986 and I have worked in so many countries around the world, I have been shot at and threatened but never this kind of death by a thousand cuts,” she said.

Monday’s verdict decided a trial that stemmed from a busi-nessman’s 2017 complaint over

a Rappler story five years earlier about his alleged ties to a then-judge on the nation’s top court.

Ressa, who Time magazine named as a Person of the Year in 2018, did not write the article and government investigators initially dismissed the business-man’s allegation.

But state prosecutors later filed charges against her and Reynaldo Santos, the former Rappler journalist who wrote it, under a controversial cyber crime statute aimed at online offences such as stalking and child pornography.

Santos was also found guilty yesterday and allowed to remain free on bail.

The law they are accused of violating took effect in

September 2012, months after the article was published.

But prosecutors say Rappler’s typographical correction to the story in 2014 to change “evation” to “evasion” was a substantial modification and the article was thus covered by the law.

Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque said the president backs free speech and has never filed a libel case against a journalist while in government.

“The president supports freedom of expression and freedom of the press. I hope that’s clear,” Roque said.

But rights groups and press advocates say the libel charge along with a series of tax cases against Rappler, and a gov-ernment move to strip the news

site of its licence, amount to state harassment.

“Ressa... and the Rappler team are being singled out for their critical reporting of the Duterte administration,” Amnesty International said.

“With this latest assault on independent media, the human rights record of the Philippines continues its free fall.” Human Rights Watch said the case “will reverberate not just in the Phil-ippines, but in many countries that long considered the country a robust environment for media freedom”.

The Philippines has fallen in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index to 136 out of 180 nations and territories.

Shopping during pandemic in BangladeshPeople gather at a market to buy their needs amid coronavirus pandemic in Feni, Bangladesh, yesterday. The Bangladesh government declared red zone in several areas of city corporation area of Feni district and markets are open only two days in a week.

Japan to scrap land-based US missile defence systemAP — TOKYO

Japan’s Defence Ministry said yesterday that it has decided to stop unpopular plans to deploy two costly land-based US missile defence systems aimed at bolstering the country’s capa-bility against threats from North Korea.

Defence Minister Taro Kono told reporters that he decided to “stop the deployment process” of the Aegis Ashore systems after it was found that the safety of one of the two planned host communities could not be ensured without a hardware redesign that would be too time consuming and costly.

Considering the cost and time it would require, I had no choice but judge that pursuing the plan is not logical,” Kono said.

The Japanese government in 2017 approved adding the

two missile defence systems to bolster the country’s current defences consisting of Aegis-equipped destroyers at sea and Patriot missiles on land.

Defence officials have said the two Aegis Ashore units could cover Japan entirely from one station at Yamaguchi in the south and another at Akita in the north. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government will now have to reconsider Japan’s missile defense program.

The plan to deploy the two missile defence systems already

had faced a series of setbacks, including questions about the selection of one of the sites, repeated cost estimate hikes that climbed to 450bn yen ($4.1bn) for their 30-year operation and maintenance, and safety con-cerns that led to local opposition.

Critics have also said that the systems were to intercept long-range North Korean mis-siles from hitting Guam or Hawaii rather than for Japan’s self-defence, possibly inter-fering with the country’s war-

renouncing constitution.Kono said that Japan had

already spent 180bn yen ($1.7bn) for the systems, but that not everything will go to waste because the system is com-patible with those used on Jap-anese destroyers.

It was ultimately the ina-bility to guarantee the safety of the community in Yamaguchi that was the deal breaker. Defence officials had promised that any boosters used to intercept a missile flying over Japan would fall only on a mil-itary base there, and ensuring a safe fall of boosters to the base was proving impossible with the current design of the systems, Kono said.

Japan chose Aegis Ashore over a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defence, or THAAD, system because of its cheaper cost and versatility.

Traffickers demand ransoms for Rohingya held at seaREUTERS — DHAKA

Rohingya refugees attempting to reach Malaysia by boat from Bangladesh are being held hostage by human traffickers who have demanded large ransoms from their relatives with threats of violence, according to several families and aid organisations.

About a dozen Rohingya ref-ugees living in camps in Bang-ladesh told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they had received phone calls from traffickers demanding money to stop rela-tives from being abandoned at sea and, in some cases, raped or killed.

More than a million mostly Muslim Rohingya reside in camps in Bangladesh, with the majority having fled a 2017 army-led crackdown in largely Buddhist Myanmar.

With the refugees fearful of

returning to Myanmar and frus-trated with life in the camps, smugglers and traffickers have capitalised by charging for places on boats to Malaysia - a favoured destination for Rohingya seeking better lives.

Long viewed as a smuggling issue, where people willingly pay to cross borders illegally, activists said examples of extortion of the Rohingya were instead a sign of human trafficking which involves individuals being exploited through force or deception.

“I don’t know if she is alive or dead,” said Abdul Hakim, a Rohingya refugee, who last saw his 17-year-old sister in March before she left their camp to take a boat destined for Malaysia.

“A broker called me from the ship a month after she left and asked me to pay 100,000 taka ($1,180) if I wanted her to stay alive and enter Malaysia.

Nepal to deport 5 foreign

tourists for joining protest

REUTERS — KATHMANDU

Nepal will deport five foreign tourists and ban them from entering the Himalayan nation for two years after they joined protests against the govern-ment’s response to the corona-virus outbreak, officials said yesterday.

Police arrested three Chinese nationals and one each from the United States, Aus-tralia and Norway during a street protest on Saturday in the capital Kathmandu.

The demonstrators demanded better quarantine facilities, and more testing and transparency in the purchasing of medical supplies to fight COVID-19, the highly contagious respiratory disease caused by

the novel coronavirus.The director general of

Nepal’s Department of Immi-gration, Ramesh Kumar K C, said the Chinese and US tourists were fined 10,000 Nepali rupees ($82.75) each. The Aus-tralian was fined double that because he was also taking pic-tures of the protests.

“All five will be banned for two years from entering Nepal and deported to their respective countries after international flights resume,” he told Reuters. Nepal has suspended all flights until July 5 as part of its coro-navirus lockdown.

He said the Norwegian woman, who is married to a Nepali, will have to pay a 5,000-rupee fine but can remain in the country.

Defence Minister Taro Kono told reporters that he decided to “stop the deployment process” of the Aegis Ashore systems after it was found that the safety of one of the two planned host communities could not be ensured without a hardware redesign.

Tamil Nadu has recorded just over 44,000 cases out of a nationwide total of 332,424. Maharashtra notched a drop in COVID-19 deaths while the recoveries continued to improve.

11TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020 ASIA

Beijing races to control spread of new outbreakREUTERS — BEIJING

Several districts of the Chinese capital put up security check-points, closed schools and ordered people to be tested for the coronavirus yesterday after an unexpected spike of cases linked to the biggest wholesale food market in Asia.

After nearly two months with no new infections, Beijing officials have reported 79 cases over the past four days, the city’s biggest cluster of infec-tions since February.

The return of the corona-virus has shrouded Beijing, home to the headquarters of many big corporations, in uncertainty at a time when China is trying to shake off the economic torpor caused by the disease.

“The containment efforts have rapidly entered into a war-time mode,” senior city

government official Xu Ying told a news conference.

Xu said 7,200 neighbour-hoods and nearly 100,000 epi-demic-control workers had entered the “battlefield”.

The outbreak has been traced to the sprawling Xinfadi market where thousands of tonnes of vegetables, fruits and meat change hands each day.

A complex of warehouses and trading halls spanning an area the size of nearly 160 soccer pitches, Xinfadi is more than 20 times larger than the seafood market in the city of

Wuhan where the outbreak was first identified.

The new cases have led to officials in many parts of Beijing reimposing tough measures to stifle the spread of the virus, including round-the-clock security checkpoints, closing schools and sports venues and reinstating temperature checks at malls, supermarkets and offices.

Beijing residents were also advised to avoid crowds and gathering in groups for meals.

Some districts even sent officials to residential com-pounds in what they described

as a “knock, knock” operation to identify people who had visited Xinfadi or been in contact with people who had.

None of Beijing’s 16 districts has been hit by a blanket lockdown.

But access to the neighbour-hoods of the people who were infected has been blocked as nucleic acid tests are being administered to residents.

The 11 neighbourhoods around Xinfadi and 10 others near another market have also been sealed as 90,000 residents undergo tests.

Beijing began mass testing on Sunday.

The World Health Organi-zation said on Sunday it was informed of the outbreak and an investigation by Chinese officials.

“WHO understands that genetic sequences will be released as soon as possible

once further laboratory analyses are completed,” it said in a statement.

An epidemiologist with the Beijing government said on Sunday a DNA sequencing of the virus showed the Xinfadi outbreak could have come from Europe.

“The pattern of mutation and transmission of the new coro-navirus is not yet fully under-stood, and with the epidemic still spreading overseas, the situation in the capital is very severe,” Xu Hejian, spokesman for the Beijing city government, told a news conference.

Governments in many parts of China warned residents against non-essential travel to the capital and imposed quar-antine requirements on visitors from Beijing.

Some provinces asked people arriving from Beijing’s designated high and medium-risk areas to be quarantined for

seven days. One city in Hei-longjiang province is demanding three weeks.

The municipality of Shanghai and nine other prov-inces including Hubei, Guangdong and Hainan have yet to impose quarantine rules on Beijing visitors and returnees, though local condi-tions vary.

Wang Xiaoyang, who works in public relations in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen in Guangdong, said she got a text message from authorities telling her to stay at home for 14 days after returning from Beijing on Friday.

Baoding, an industrialised city near Beijing, was closely monitoring arrivals.

“Every gate to Baoding should be strictly guarded to prevent the contagion from spreading,” state media quoted officials as saying.

China will handle some Hong Kong national security cases: OfficialAFP — HONG KONG

China will have jurisdiction over “some extremely rare” national security cases in Hong Kong under a new law to be imposed on the semi-auton-omous city, a senior official said yesterday.

The revelation came as thousands of Hong Kongers gathered yesterday evening on the anniversary of the death of a man during last year’s pro-democracy protests.

Beijing has signalled the new security law -- which will bypass the city’s legislature -- needs to be passed quickly to end such protests, which have gained fresh momentum since the measure was announced.

Deng Zhonghua, deputy head of China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said enforcing the national security law would largely fall to Hong Kong’s local authorities and police.

“However, the central authorities should also reserve jurisdiction over some extremely rare cases when an

offence takes place in Hong Kong and poses a serious threat to China’s national security,” Deng said.

Under a “One Country, Two Systems” agreement ahead of the handover by Britain, China said it would let Hong Kong maintain certain liberties and autonomy until 2047 —including legislative and judicial independence.

But Deng’s comments are the first time a Beijing official has made clear that mainland authorities will have jurisdiction over some national security cases once the law is passed.

Hong Kong was rocked by months of huge and often violent pro-democracy protests last year.

In response, Beijing has announced plans to impose the new law covering subversion, secession, terrorism and foreign influence.

Beijing says the law will return stability and leave political freedoms intact, and that Hong Kong’s legislature has failed to pass its own national security laws over the years.

But opponents — including many Western nations — fear it will bring mainland-style political oppression, given how anti-subversion laws are rou-tinely used to crush dissent in authoritarian China.

They also fear it will start the erosion of Hong Kong’s leg-islative and judicial autonomy, the bedrock of the city’s success as a major international business hub.

In the latest protest on Monday evening, thousands defied coronavirus bans on public gatherings to lay flowers outside a mall where a man died during last year’s protests.

Leung Ling-kit fell to his death as he held a rooftop protest during last year’s unrest. Police said he was suicidal.

Huge crowds marched the day after his death in a rally

organisers said was some two-million strong, and the yellow raincoat Leung was wearing became an early symbol of the protests.

Many of those attending on Monday evening spoke of how they feared Beijing’s security law.

“They are creating the threat the threat of national security only to justify forces to crack down on this movement,”

Pro-democracy demonstrators hold flags to call for independence during a vigil for a protester Marco Leung Ling-kit who fell to his death during a demonstration outside the Pacific Place mall a year ago, in Hong Kong, China, yesterday.

Pilot ejects safely

as Indonesian

fighter jet

crashes

AP — PEKANBARU

An Indonesian air force fighter jet crashed during a training mission on Sumatra island yesterday, injuring the pilot, who was able to eject to safety, an official said.

The pilot was on a solo flight following a routine training mission when the British-built Hawk 200 went down into a residential housing complex in Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province, said Indonesian air force spokesman Fajar Adriyanto.

He said in a statement that the cause of the crash, which happened about 5km from Pekanbaru’s Rusmin Nuryadin air force base, was under investigation.

The pilot, who ejected and parachuted to safety and landed on the roof of a house, was taken to a hospital for examination, Adriyanto said. He said the crash did not cause any casualties on the ground.

Television news channels showed orange flames coming from the crash site, sending black smoke billowing from the wreckage in a house’s backyard.

A resident whose home is about 100 metres from the crash site told Kompas TV that he saw flames coming from the fighter jet as it flew very low before crashing into an empty two-story house. “The explo-sions and blazing from the crash made all the residents run away in fear,” he said.

The accident comes after the June 6 crash of an Indo-nesian army helicopter on the main island of Java that killed five of the nine troops on board.

The military, which suffers from low funding, has also regularly suffered airplane and helicopter crashes.

Lawmaker claims Afghans living in Iran being ‘mistreated’AP — KABUL

An Afghan lawmaker accused Iranian authorities yesterday of involvement in recent attacks on Afghan refugees in Iran, inci-dents that have sparked protest rallies in Afghanistan and else-where.

The lawmaker, Abdul Sattar Husseini, said that he is part of a government team investi-gating complaints that author-ities in Iran had mistreated Afghans living there, including in an incident earlier this month in Yazd province when three

Afghans died after their vehicle was shot at — allegedly by police — and set on fire.

In another incident, a large group of Afghan migrants was captured by Iranian border police last month, he said. Some from the group who got away later recounted that at least two dozen among them were allegedly pushed into a river by Iranian policemen and drowned. Tehran has vehemently dis-missed the allegations.

More than one million Afghans live as refugees in Iran having fled four decades of war

in their homeland. Iran has been accused of forcing Afghans back across the border into Afghanistan.

Also, a graffiti has surfaced in Kabul to protest the Yazd deaths, inscribed with the words “we can’t breathe” in the Dari language — a homage to the last words of George Floyd, the African American who died when a white police officer knelt on his neck, killing him. The slaying has sent shock waves across the world and sparked protests against racism and police brutality.

The International Office of

Migration says more than 200,000 Afghans have returned from Iran since the beginning of the year.

The Yazd incident sparked protests earlier this month in Kabul, outside the Iranian Embassy, and there have also been similar rallies in several European cities and Canada.

Husseini, the lawmaker, said the government team would present a report later this week to Parliament. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday that a delegation would go to Iran to have a larger discussion

about the living condition of Afghan refugees in Iran and ways to improve the ties between the two neighbours.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Monday that the Afghan ambas-sador to Iran had been summoned and told that Tehran considers the rally outside the Iranian Embassy in Kabul destructive.

Mousavi said Tehran is coop-erating with Kabul to “to answer questions and clear up obscurities,” and claimed some, including the foreign media, are “taking advantage of this situation

Workout to beat coronavirus in IndonesiaIndonesian doctors, nurses and volunteers conduct morning workouts with COVID-19 patients with light symptoms (at balconies) at the quarantine house, in Tangerang, yesterday.

Pakistan identifies 20 hotspots for COVID-19ANATOLIA — KARACHI

Pakistan yesterday said it iden-tified 20 big cities with potential hotspots for the coro-navirus pandemic, which has already infected 144,478 people across the country.

“A total of 20 cities across Pakistan have been identified as having likely increase in ratio/speed of infection, which need restrictive measures for containment of COVID-19,” said a statement from the National Coordination Com-mittee, a government-run body formed to deal with the pan-demic in the country.

The capital Islamabad, the commercial capital and most populous city Karachi, the second largest district Lahore, Peshawar, and Quetta are among the tar-geted cities.

Authorities plan to seal the hotspots or clusters for the virus in the respective cities in

line with government’s “smart lockdown” policy.

Rejecting the World Health Organisation’s advice for a two-week strict lockdown across the country to mitigate the spread of the pandemic, Prime Minister Imran Khan said a “smart lockdown” was the only pos-sible option for the South Asian nuclear state in given circumstances.

On Monday, the country recorded 5,248 new cases with 97 deaths, taking the death toll to 2,729.

Some 53,721 patients have so far recovered, according to the Health Ministry.

Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar, who is leading the country’s anti-coronavirus strategy, on Sunday warned that the COVID-19 cases could exceed 1 million by the end of July if the current trend persists.

PPP leader Shehla

Raza tests positive

for coronavirus

INTERNEWS — KARACHI

Pakistan People’s Party leader Syeda Shehla Raza said yesterday she has tested positive for the coronavirus, requesting people to pray for her recovery.

In a Twitter post, the PPP Minister shared a photo of her test result, adding that she is awaiting the results of her family members. She has gone into isolation at her residence.

PPP leader and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gillani also tested positive for the virus.

His son, Kasim Gilani alleged that the government and National Accountability Bureau eandangered the life of his father by summoning him in corruption reference.

Earlier, PML-N President and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif had tested pos-itive for coronavirus.

The new cases have led to officials in many parts of Beijing reimposing tough measures to stifle the spread of the virus, including round-the-clock security checkpoints, closing schools and sports venues and reinstating temperature checks at malls, supermarkets and offices.

Spain to reactivate tourism

Flashmob protest

London reopens retail shops

12 TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020EUROPE

PM Johnson creates anti-racism panel; critics want more actionAP — LONDON

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he will establish a commission to look at racial equality in the UK, a move that comes after two weeks of protests spurred by the death of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. Opponents accused the Conservative government of opting for talk rather than action.

Writing in yesterday's Daily Telegraph newspaper, Johnson said the body would look at “all aspects of inequality — in employment, in health out-comes, in academic and all other walks of life.”

“What I really want to do as prime minister is change the narrative, so we stop the sense of victimization and discrimi-nation,” he wrote. “We stamp out racism and we start to have a real sense of expectation of success. That’s where I want to get to but it won’t be easy.”

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in hundreds of demonstrations across the UK since Floyd was killed on May 25, demanding that Britain confront its own history of imperialism and racial inequality.

Johnson has repeatedly been accused over the years of making racist or offensive statements for which he has declined to apologise. He has called Papua New Guineans

cannibals, used the derogatory term “piccaninnies” to refer to members of the Common-wealth and compared Muslim women who wear face-cov-ering veils to “letter boxes.”

Johnson said the new body would investigate “discrimi-nation in the education system, in health, in the criminal justice system,” but gave few other details. His spokesman said it would also look at “wider inequalities” including the poor academic performance of working-class white boys, and would produce recommendations by the end of the year.

Opposition Labour Party lawmaker David Lammy, author of a government-com-missioned 2017 report on Brit-ain’s ethnic minorities and criminal justice, accused the government of stalling.

“It feels like yet again in the

UK we want figures, data, but we don’t want action,” he said. “The time for review is over and the time for action is now.”

While the government says it sympathizes with the aims of Black Lives Matter protesters, Johnson has criticized calls to remove statues of figures asso-ciated with the British Empire and slavery.

Last week demonstrators toppled a statue of 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston in the English city of Bristol and dumped it into the harbor. That reinvigorated demands for the removal of other monuments, including a statue of Victorian imperialist Cecil Rhodes at Oxford University. The city of Bristol has since fished the statue out of the water, but it is not being reinstated.

After a statue of wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill outside Parliament in London was daubed with the words “was a racist,” local offi-cials boarded it and other mon-uments up to protect them from vandalism.

Soccer hooligans and far-right activists gathered near the Churchill statue on Saturday under the guise of guarding his-toric monuments. Anti-racism protesters called off a planned march to avoid conflicts with them, leaving hundreds of largely white, male demon-strators to hurl objects and fight with police.

Nurses stage a flashmob protest over contracts, wages, precarious employment and job rights on Piazza del Popolo in Rome, as Italy eases its lockdown aimed at curbing the spread of the COVID-19 infection, caused by the novel coronavirus.

A man wearing a protective face mask browses books in Henry Pordes secondhand book shop in central London, yesterday, as some non-essential retailers reopened after shutdown.

German tourists disinfect their hands upon arrival at the RIU Concordia Hotel in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, yesterday, as part of a pilot programme to reactivate tourism a week before Spain reopens its borders. Spain will re-establish free travel with fellow EU countries from June 21.

French court orders jail terms for six over 1990s arms deal kickbacksAFP — PARIS

A Paris court yesterday found three former senior French government officials and three others guilty on charges involving millions of euros in kickbacks from arms sales to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed in 1994.

The court handed the men prison sentences of two to five years over the so-called “Karachi affair” which has dogged former prime minister Edouard Balladur, facing trial separately on charges he used the kickbacks to help fund his failed 1995 presidential bid.

They were the first

convictions to emerge after more than a quarter-century of investigations named after the Pakistani city where a bus carrying French defence engi-neers was blown up in 2002, killing 15 people.

Al Qaeda was initially sus-pected of the attack, but the focus later shifted to the arms deals on suspicions the bombing may have been in retaliation for non-payment of promised bribes.

The three former aides are Nicolas Bazire, Balladur’s former campaign manager; Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, a former advisor to his defence minister Francois Leotard; and

Thierry Gaubert, a former aide to then budget minister Nicolas Sarkozy who became president in 2007.

Bazire and Donnedieu de Vabres were sentenced to three years in prison, with the court saying Bazire “knew perfectly well” that as much as 10 million francs (some 1.5 million euros) from dubious sources had landed in Balladur’s campaign accounts.

Gaubert was handed a two-year sentence, as was Dominique Castellan, a former head of the international division of French naval defence contractor DCN (since renamed Naval Group).

24-hour virusdeath toll inFrance below 30 for sixth day

REUTERS — PARIS

France reported 29 new coro-navirus deaths yesterday, taking the total to 29,436, the fifth-highest in the world, and marking the sixth day with under 30 fatalities.

The government also reported the number of people in hospital fell by 129 to 10,752 and those in intensive care units fell by 23 to 846, with both tallies continuing weeks-long down-trends.

These figures are pub-lished a day after President Emmanuel Macron said he was accelerating France’s exit from its coronavirus lockdown, with, amongst others, a full reopening of restaurants and cafes in Paris.

Sweden extends

ban on visits to

elderly care homes

REUTERS — STOCKHOLM

Sweden will extend its ban on visits to elderly care homes to August 31, Health Minister Lena Hallengren said yesterday. “This is one of many tough measures that needs to remain in place,” Hallengren told reporters at a news conference.

More than 4,800 people have died in Sweden after being infected with the novel coronavirus, the vast majority of them over 70 years old and of those, many were resident in elderly care homes.

The ban on visits was put in place on March 30.

Police pressure mounts against Germany’s far-right AfDAFP — BERLIN

An entire regional chapter of Germany’s far-right AfD party has been placed under police surveillance because of its extremist tendencies, local authorities said yesterday, increasing pressure on the anti-migrant group.

The Brandenburg chapter of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is now “a suspicious case and an object of surveil-lance”, said a spokesman for the region’s interior ministry.

There were “enough important factual indications” to show that the AfD in

Brandenburg was “striving against the free democratic order”, said Joerg Mueller, the head of the state’s office for the protection of the constitution.

The decision will give the authorities in Brandenburg far-reaching powers to monitor the AfD’s institutions and officials in the state, where the party came second in 2019 elections with 23.5 percent of the vote.

Such surveillance is reserved for groups or organi-sations judged to pose a threat to democracy and the rule of law.

Party co-chief Alexander Gauland said the decision to

keep tabs on the group was “wrong”.

The move comes three months after the party’s most radical fringe, known as the “Wing”, was also placed under police surveillance due to its association with known neo-Nazis.

The Wing, which has about 7,000 members nationwide, was co-founded by firebrand AfD lawmaker Bjoern Hoecke, who has sparked outrage with attacks on Germany’s culture of remembrance for Nazi crimes.

The Brandenburg chapter of AfD was headed by Andreas

Kalbitz, who was thrown out of the party in May for concealing his past membership in a neo-Nazi outfit, “German Youths Loyal to the Fatherland”.

However, he continues to exert influence in the party and is challenging his expulsion in court.

Kalbitz’s sacking fanned the flames of an increasingly hostile feud between the party’s pop-ulist ultra-conservatives and elements with ties to the right-wing extremist scene.

Founded in 2013 as a protest party against the euro single currency, the AfD has grown and shifted further right,

scooping up a significant number of votes from those unhappy with the government’s migration policy.

It is now the largest oppo-sition group in the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament.

But with several right-wing extremist attacks in Germany in recent months, the party has also come under fire for fuelling anti-immigration sentiment.

A neo-Nazi sympathiser suspected of murdering a pro-migration politician last year is set to go on trial in Frankfurt today.

Irish parties reach draft deal with rotating PMAFP — DUBLIN

Three Irish parties yesterday agreed a draft deal to form a coalition government with a rotating prime minister, sparking outrage from Sinn Fein, which was excluded.

Four months after a landmark election, the largest party in parliament, Fianna Fail, said it had “signed off on the draft programme for gov-ernment” with Fine Gael and the Green Party.

Prime Minister Leo Var-adkar of Fine Gael —acting in a caretaker role since his party was routed at the polls — earlier said there would be a rotating prime minister at dates that had been agreed upon.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, who leads a 38-seat bloc in a 160-seat parliament, would become the first premier until December 2022 and

Varadkar would then take over, RTE said. But Sinn Fein, the former fringe left-wing repub-lican party which won the second largest number of votes, blasted the agreement.

Sinn Fein seeks to break the traditional dominance of centre-right Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, but was excluded from the negotiations. Leader Mary Lou McDonald said the two main parties were only interested in “protecting the status quo and stopping change”.

The deal, which involves 35 Fine Gael and 12 Green law-makers with those from Fianna Fail, still requires approval from rank-and-file party members. If passed, the agreement would represent a milestone in Irish politics as Fine Gael and Fianna Fail — rivals since the Republic’s civil war — would govern together for the first time.

Norway halts use of virus-tracking appBLOOMBERG — OSLO

Norway halted the use of its mobile phone tool for tracking the spread of COVID-19 after the country’s data privacy watchdog raised flags that it’s too invasive now that infection rates have slowed.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health stopped gath-ering information and deleted all data from its mobile app after the Data Protection Authority warned that it will

temporarily ban the processing of personal information asso-ciated with the Smittestopp application.

“Smittestopp is a very invasive measure, even in an exceptional situation where society is trying to fight a pan-demic,” the Data Protection Authority said in a statement. “The legality of Smittestopp depends on the social benefits.”

Norway has largely escaped the large-scale infection rates

seen elsewhere in Europe after closing its borders early and going into lockdown. It now has only 16 people hospitalized with the virus, with just 4 in intensive care.

E u r o p e a n p r i v a c y watchdogs have been surpris-ingly flexible during the pan-demic on the collection of data to protect people’s health and stem the infection’s spread. Still, regulators have warned that contact tracing apps can’t store data for longer than needed.

Writing in yesterday's Daily Telegraph newspaper, Johnson said the body would look at “all aspects of inequality — in employment, in health outcomes, in academic and all other walks of life.”

13TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020 EUROPE

Russia jails former US marine for 16 years in spy trialREUTERS — MOSCOW

A Russian court convicted former US marine Paul Whelan of spying for the United States yesterday and sentenced him to 16 years in jail, a ruling that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said outraged Wash-ington.

Whelan, who holds US, British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained by agents from Russia’s Federal Security Service in a Moscow hotel room on December 28, 2018 as he prepared to attend a wedding.

Russia says Whelan, 50, was caught with a computer flash drive containing classified information.

Whelan, who pleaded not guilty, said he was set up in a sting operation and had thought the drive, given to him by a Russian acquaintance, con-tained holiday photos.

“This is all political theatre,” said Whelan, who watched pro-ceedings from a glass box inside the Moscow city courtroom.

He told the judge he had not understood the verdict as pro-ceedings were conducted in Russian without translation.

Whelan had held up a piece of paper on which he denounced the proceedings as a “sham trial” and asked for US President Donald Trump and

the leaders of Britain, Canada and Ireland to take “decisive action”.

Whelan’s lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said an appeal would be made against the verdict. Questioning the court’s independence, Whelan’s family said in a statement “Russian judges are political not legal entities”.

Pompeo said Washington was furious and wanted Moscow to immediately free Whelan.

“The United States is out-raged by the decision of a Russian court today to convict US citizen Paul Whelan after a secret trial, with secret evi-dence, and without appropriate allowances for defence wit-nesses,” said Pompeo.

“The treatment of Paul Whelan at the hands of Russian authorities has been appalling. Russia failed to provide Mr Whelan with a fair hearing before an independent and impartial tribunal; and during

his detention has put his life at risk by ignoring his long-standing medical condition; and unconscionably kept him isolated from family and friends.”

John Sullivan, US Ambas-sador to Russia, told reporters that no evidence had been pro-duced to prove Whelan’s guilt during what he called a mockery of justice.

The ruling would not have “a good impact” on ties between Moscow and Wash-ington - already strained by a range of issues - but that dia-logue would continue, he said.

Zherebenkov said Whelan was told when he was detained that he would be part of a prisoner swap with the United States and that he believed this was what Moscow now wanted to do.

The Russian Foreign Min-istry told the Russian news agency RIA it had proposed detailed prisoner swaps to Washington many times but

gave no further details.Moscow has called for the

release of two Russians jailed in the United States — arms dealer Viktor Bout, who agreed to sell weapons to US under-cover agents posing as Colombian guerrillas planning to attack American soldiers, and Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine.

Zherebenkov said he believed Moscow wanted to do a deal involving Bout and Yaro-shenko. Whelan did not oppose the idea of formally asking Russia to pardon him, Zhere-benkov said, but wanted to appeal against the verdict first.

Bout’s wife, Alla, told the RIA news agency yesterday she was ready to pen an appeal to US authorities asking them to

swap her husband for Whelan.A New York court in 2012

sentenced Bout, subject of a book called “Merchant of Death” and inspiration for the film “Lord of War” starring Nicolas Cage, to 25 years in jail.

Whelan will serve his sen-tence in a maximum security prison, the court said. State prosecutors had sought an 18-year term.

Paul Whelan, a former US marine accused of espionage and arrested in Russia in December 2018, stands inside a defendants’ cage as he waits to hear his verdict, in Moscow, yesterday.

Russia expels two Czech diplomats in quid pro quo moveAP — MOSCOW

Russia’s Foreign Ministry yesterday ordered two Czech diplomats to leave the country in a quid-pro-quo response to Prague’s expulsion of Russian diplomats, amid tensions rooted in differences over history.

The ministry said it sum-moned the Czech ambassador yesterday to announce the move, saying the two diplomats must leave Russia tomorrow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow wouldn’t tolerate “unfriendly actions” by Prague and would always respond in kind. He added, however, that “we

remain interested in supporting and developing good partner-like and mutually beneficial ties with the Czech Republic.”

“I hope that the whole matter has been solved by this reciprocal step,” Czech Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek said.

Earlier this month, the Czech government ordered two Russian diplomats to leave the country. Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said the nation’s spy agency discovered that one of them had spread false infor-mation about a Russian assassin allegedly targeting Czech politicians. The alleged assassination plot surfaced in

April when a magazine reported that Czech intelli-gence services suspected that a Russian who arrived in Prague on a diplomatic passport was sent to poison Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib and Prague 6 district mayor Ondrej Kolar with a potent toxin.

Kolar, Hrib and the mayor of Prague’s Reporyje district, Pavel Novotny, all conse-quently received police pro-tection. Moscow has dismissed the allegation as baseless. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov ridiculed the claims published in the mag-azine, saying the notion that

Czech authorities spotted a Russian man equipped with ricin and let him through didn’t make sense.

The three politicians had been involved in actions that previously angered Russia.

In February, a Prague square in front of the Russian Embassy was renamed after slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, with Hrib unveiling the new nameplate.

In April, Kolar’s district removed a statue of Soviet World War II commander Ivan Konev, whose armies com-pleted the liberation of Prague from Nazi occupation. The

statue’s removal caused outrage in Russia, which has angrily lashed out at any attempts to diminish the nation’s decisive role in defeating the Nazis.

Novotny provoked Mos-cow’s ire with plans to build a monument to the soldiers of Gen. Andrei Vlasov’s army. Over 300 of them died when they helped the Czech uprising against Nazi rule and con-tributed to Prague’s liberation. Their role is controversial for Russia, however, because they previously fought against the Red Army alongside Nazi troops.

Russian scientist

charged with

treason over

'passing state

secrets' to ChinaREUTERS — MOSCOW

State prosecutors have charged a prominent Russian scientist with treason after accusing him of passing state secrets to China, his lawyer said yesterday, adding that his client could serve up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

Valery Mitko, president of the Arctic Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg, has been under house arrest since authorities charged him with high treason in February.

Ivan Pavlov, his lawyer, said the 78-year-old academic trav-elled to China twice a year to speak as a guest lecturer and denied handing state secrets to the Chinese authorities.

Mitko did travel to China with documents for his lectures, but these contained academic and open source information only, Pavlov said.

“There were no state secrets in there at all. We consider these accusations to be absurd,” Pavlov said, saying he hoped the case would be dismissed before trial.

A source told the Interfax news agency that Mitko has been accused of having given China information pertaining to methods used to detect submarines.

Mitko is also a former navy captain and served in the Pacific Fleet, according to an associ-ation of Russian navy veterans.

Poland PM seeks toreassure Germanyover US troop moveAFP — VILNIUS

Poland’s prime minister sought yesterday to ease German fears over a plan to boost the number of American troops in his country.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki confirmed in an interview that he was in talks to increase US troop levels days after the Wall Street Journal reported that the US planned to slash its military presence in Germany.

“It is not our intention to achieve this goal at the expense of reducing the American contingent in Germany,” Morawiecki told the BNS Baltic News Service.

The comments came ahead of a visit today by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to Warsaw.

G e r m a n p o l i t i c i a n s expressed alarm at the plan to cap troop numbers at 25,000 down from current levels of 34,500, saying it would be a blow to the Nato alliance and another victory for Russian strategy.

It was unclear if the US move to boost numbers in Poland was directly related to the reported decision to r e m o v e t r o o p s f r o m Germany.

Nato member Poland has long campaigned for a per-manent US troop presence on its soil to ward off Russian adventurism.

US President Donald Trump has already upped his country’s troop rotations in Poland to 5,500 personnel as part of a wider Nato response to concerns in the region trig-gered by Russia’s 2014 annex-

ation of territory from neigh-bouring Ukraine.

The WSJ quoted unnamed sources saying that US Pres-ident Donald Trump had ordered the Pentagon to cut the number of military per-sonnel in Germany by 9,500 from the current 34,500 per-manently assigned there.

White House and Pen-tagon officials declined to confirm or deny the WSJ story, which comes amid ten-sions between the Trump administration and European allies over longstanding cooperation agreements.

Washington’s ambassador to Warsaw said last week that talks focused on beefing up the US presence in Poland were “on track” and to expect an announcement “soon”.

“ N e g o t i a t i o n s o n increasing the number of American troops in Poland are proceeding as planned and I believe that the outcome will be impressive,” Morawiecki said yesterday.

He added that main-taining strong ties with the US was “in the interest not only for Poland, but for the whole of Europe, inc luding Germany”.

Conservative Polish Pres-ident Andrzej Duda has tried to charm the US president, even pitching the idea of Poland building a “Fort Trump” to house thousands of US soldiers.

Thousands of US and Polish troops are currently engaged in the June 5-19 Defender-Europe 20 manoeuvres in northern Poland, the first large-scale war games in Europe since the coro-navirus pandemic struck the continent.

Finland withdraws

emergency powers

act as coronavirus

spread slowsREUTERS — HELSINKI

Finland is withdrawing the emergency powers act that parliament adopted in March to tackle the coronavirus as the infection rate has slowed and exceptional measures are no longer needed, the prime minister said yesterday.

Sanna Marin said there were no longer legal grounds for the government to keep the emer-gency legislation and the state of emergency was to end at midnight yesterday.

“It doesn’t mean the threat of the virus spreading would be over,” she said.

There were 26 hospitalised COVID-19 patients and only one person in intensive care yes-terday across Finland, the gov-ernment said, adding there had been around 15 to 25 new cases a day for several weeks, totalling at 7,104 on Sunday.

Belgian royal asks nation to apologise to DRC over mistreatment of CongoleseANATOLIA — KAMPALA

A member of Belgium’s royal family has asked the government to apologise for the mistreatment of the Congolese people during the colonial period in the wake of the death of George Floyd in the US.

Under the brutal rule of King Leopold II from 1885 to 1908, some 10 million Con-golese died through murder, starvation, torture and disease which is condemned by people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to this day.

Princess Marie-Esmeralda, the youngest child of King Leopold III and aunt of King Philippe of Belgium, said in an interview with Radio Television Belge Francophone (RTBF) that the Belgian government should take the initiative to apologise

to the DRC for the crimes and abuses committed during col-onisation, the DRC website 7sur7CD said on Sunday.

“I think it is very important that we raise the issue of apol-ogies on behalf of Belgium to the Congolese people for the atrocities committed by our country during colonization,” said Esmeralda.

She said the decision to apologise to the Congolese people must come from the government.

“The government must decide it. The king can never do it himself. But it would obvi-ously be very strong if the gov-ernment and the king do it together, given the personal side of the royal family in this debate,” she said.

Esmeralda said she sup-ports the destruction of statues of colonial figures and opposes

those who believe they teach the past. She said she hopes this aspect of history will also be taught from the point of view of Africans.

Over the past several days, there have been acts of van-dalism against statues of Leopold II in Brussels by anti-colonialist groups who believe the European government is beholden to Africans following the crimes committed during the era of colonialism.

It also comes as successive Confederate monuments in the US have been taken down through official directives and protester actions in the wake of Floyd’s death on May 25.

The Confederacy, a group of southern states, seceded from the US to maintain the legal right to own black people as slaves, sparking the dead-liest war in American history.

'The United States is outraged by the decision of a Russian court today to convict US citizen Paul Whelan after a secret trial, with secret evidence, and without appropriate allowances for defence witnesses,' said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Poland President Andrzej Duda attends an election rally in Lublin, yesterday.

Election rally

14 TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020AMERICAS

US Supreme Court rejects cases over ‘qualified immunity’ for police

REUTERS — WASHINGTON

The US Supreme Court yesterday declined to hear eight cases involving a legal defence called qualified immunity that can be used to shield government offi-cials from lawsuits including seven involving police accused of excessive force or other misconduct.

In six of the seven cases involving police, plaintiffs who sued officers were challenging actions in lower courts that pro-tected the defendants through qualified immunity. The other one involved two officers who argued they deserve such pro-tection but lost in a lower court.

Among the cases the justices declined to hear was a dispute over whether officers in Ten-nessee can be sued for using a police dog that bit a man who has said he had put up his hands in surrender. Justice Clarence Thomas, a sceptic of qualified immunity, said in a dissent that the court should have heard that case.

The court could still take up other qualified immunity cases awaiting attention by the justices. The issue of police use of force has been in the spotlight since a black man named George Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes while detaining him on May 25. Floyd’s killing sparked protests in US cities demanding police reform, with some demonstrators calling for eliminating qualified immunity for law enforcement officers. Democrats and Repub-licans in Washington have been pulling together their own ver-sions of police reform legislation.

A Democratic plan unveiled in the House would roll back qual-ified immunity for law enforcement officers. Some Republican lawmakers have come out against abolishing qual-ified immunity, and the White House has signaled its opposition.

The Supreme Court recog-nised qualified immunity 50 years ago to protect government officials from frivolous lawsuits. Police have said the doctrine ensures they can make split-second decisions in dangerous situations without worrying about being sued later.

Critics have said the doctrine too often lets police brutality go unpunished. On the high court, Sonia Sotomayor has chided her fellow justices for what she has called a “disturbing trend” of favoring police in qualified immunity cases.

Reuters published an inves-tigation on May 8 that showed how qualified immunity, with the Supreme Court’s continual refinements, has made it easier for police to kill or injure civilians with impunity.

The investigation found that based on Supreme Court guidance, police often escape lia-bility even when a lower court determines officers used excessive force in violation of US Constitution’s the Fourth Amendment, so long as their spe-cific conduct has not been “clearly established” in earlier cases as unconstitutional.

Amid the mounting criticism of qualified immunity, the jus-tices had signaled an interest in potentially revisiting the issue by letting multiple appeals seeking to roll back the doctrine pile up.

In the Tennessee case, a homeless man named Alexander Baxter arrested during a 2014 home break-in in Nashville chal-lenged a lower court’s ruling granting immunity to two officers who used a police dog on him.

Baxter said he had already put up his hands in surrender when the dog bit him, resulting

in an injury to his arm that required hospital treatment. The officers, Brad Bracey and Spencer Harris, said Baxter had not responded to warnings and that they did not see his hands raised.

Baxter sued the officers in federal court, accusing them of using excessive force. The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in

Cincinnati, Ohio, granted the officers qualified immunity.

Two cases turned away on yesterday involved law enforcement officers sued over alleged misconduct not involving excessive force and one case involved Texas Medical Board investigators who relied upon qualified immunity in a lawsuit.

Democratic Party,

Biden campaign

jointly raise

$80.8m in May

REUTERS — WASHINGTON

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden (pictured) and the Democratic National Committee jointly raised $80.8m in May, the Biden campaign said yesterday, one-third more than they collected in April.

The campaign has tripled its online donors since February and recorded an average online donation of $30. But President Donald Trump, a Republican, still holds a significant fund-raising advantage.

Biden and the DNC estab-lished a joint fundraising vehicle, the Biden Victory Fund, in May that allows them to collect larger sums from wealthy donors, after raising $60.5 million in April.

Several top fundraisers said this month that they were seeing a swell of support as the country was gripped by wide-spread protests over the killing of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody.

The haul comes as Biden has opened up a lead over Trump in most national polls.

The Trump campaign has not yet announced its May figures. In April, Trump and the Republican National Committee jointly brought in $61.7m, just a shade more than Biden and the Democrats.

The committee said it and the Trump campaign raised $14m on Sunday, Trump’s 74th birthday.

Last week, Trump attended his first in-person fundraiser in months, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Biden, who has only recently begun to travel outside of his home state of Delaware, has continued to hold virtual fundraisers, including one scheduled for yesterday evening with US Senator Eliz-abeth Warren.

A group of demonstrators display signs outside of the US Supreme Court after the court declined to hear a Trump administration challenge to California’s sanctuary laws, in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Apex Court snubs Trump on challenge to California ‘sanctuary’ lawsREUTERS — WASHINGTON

The US Supreme Court yesterday handed Pres-ident Donald Trump a defeat in his legal showdown with the most-populous US state, declining to hear his administration’s challenge to “sanctuary” laws in California that protect immigrants from deportation.

The justices left in place a lower court ruling that upheld the bulk of three laws in the Demo-cratic-governed state that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement authorities. The Trump administration had appealed that ruling to the high court.

Trump, seeking re-election on November 3, has made his hardline immigration policies a focus of his presidency, including a crackdown on legal and illegal immigration.

His administration sued California in 2018 in federal court, accusing the state of unlawfully obstructing enforcement of federal immigration law and saying the measures violate the US Con-stitution’s provision that federal laws take prec-edence over state laws. The California “sanctuary” laws in question prohibit private employers in the state from voluntarily cooperating with federal immigration officials and bar local law enforcement authorities from sharing information with federal officials about the release of poten-tially deportable immigrants from custody.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, has argued that the laws protect privacy in the workplace and prevent the state from being coerced into enforcing federal immi-gration law.

FDA revokes emergency use status of drug touted by Trump for COVID-19REUTERS — WASHINGTON

The US Food and Drug Admin-istration yesteray revoked its emergency use authorisation for hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, the drug cham-pioned by US President Donald Trump to stave off the corona-virus.

Based on new evidence, the FDA said it was no longer rea-sonable to believe that oral for-mulations of hydroxychloro-quine and the related drug chloroquine may be effective in treating the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.

The move comes after several studies of the decades-old malaria drug suggested it was not effective, including a widely anticipated trial earlier this month that showed it failed to prevent infection in people who had been exposed to the virus.

The drug’s anti-inflam-matory and antiviral properties suggested it might help treat COVID-19, and the FDA authorized its emergency use in March at the height of a pan-demic for which there were no approved treatments.

While it did appear to neu-tralize the virus in laboratory experiments, hydroxychloro-quine, which is also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, has failed to prove its worth in human COVID-19 trials, thus far.

In March, Trump said hydroxychloroquine used in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin had “a real chance to be one of the biggest

game changers in the history of medicine,” with little evi-dence to back up that claim.

He later said he took the drugs preventively after two people who worked at the White House were diagnosed with COVID-19, and he urged others to try it.

Doctors in recent weeks had already pulled back on the use of hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment, after several studies suggested it is not effective and may pose heart risks for certain patients.

Current US government treatment guidelines do not recommend use of the malaria drugs for COVID-19 patients outside of a clinical trial.

France, Italy and Belgium late last month moved to halt the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients. But the United States last month supplied Brazil with 2 million doses for use against the coro-navirus, as the South American country has emerged as the pandemic’s latest epicenter.

Meanwhile, some 400 trials are listed as using hydroxychlo-roquine or chloroquine as interventions for COVID-19, more than half of them still ongoing, according to a recent analysis from research firm GlobalData.

In the United States, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases last month launched a trial designed to show whether hydroxychloro-quine in combination with azi-thromycin can prevent hospi-talization and death from COVID-19.

Kin of Rayshard Brooks seek justice after Atlanta shootingREUTERS — NEW YORK

The family of Rayshard Brooks, a black man whose death reignited protests in Atlanta over the weekend, yesterday called for “drastic change” in policing and justice for their relative who died after a police officer shot him twice in the back.

The death of 27-year-old Brooks, which the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office ruled a homicide, was the latest police killing of a black man to fuel nationwide outrage against police bru-tality and racial injustice.

“We’re tired and we are frustrated. Most importantly we’re heartbroken, so we need justice for Rayshard Brooks,” his cousin, Tiara Brooks, said at a news conference.

“The trust that we have in the police force is broken. The only way to heal some of these wounds is through a con-viction and a drastic change in the police department,” she added.

Brooks’ fatal encounter with the police came after police responded to a call that he had fallen asleep in his car in a Wendy’s restaurant drive-through lane.

Caught on video, the encounter seemed friendly at first but when an officer moved to arrest him, Brooks struggled with him and another officer at the scene before breaking away across the parking lot with what appears to be a police Taser in his hand.

A video from the restau-rant’s cameras shows Brooks turning as he runs and pos-sibly aiming the Taser at the pursuing officers, both white, before one of them fires his

gun and Brooks falls.An attorney for Brooks’

family, Chris Stewart, said the police should have let Brooks walk home rather than pur-suing and shooting him.

“It didn’t have to go to that level,” he said. “Where is the empathy in just letting him walk home?” Atlanta’s police chief, Erika Shields, resigned

over the shooting. The officer suspected of killing Brooks was fired, and the other officer involved in the incident was put on administrative leave.

Prosecutors will decide by midweek whether to bring charges, Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said on Sunday.

Several members of

Rayshard Brooks’ family attended yesterday’s news conference in tears and spoke of him as a warm family man who loved to take his daughter skating. One man left the room during the briefing in hysterics, shouting, “Somebody took my cousin!” Brooks’ death reignited protests in Atlanta after days of worldwide dem-onstrations against racism and police brutality prompted by the death of George Floyd, an African American, when a Min-neapolis policeman knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes on May 25.

Brooks’ widow, Tomika Miller, implored the public to protest peacefully in her hus-band’s name.

“We want to keep his name positive,” she said.

Attorney Justin Miller speaks to the media with the family of Rayshard Brooks behind him in Atlanta, Georgia, yesterday. Rayshard died while fleeing from two police officers outside an Atlanta Wendy’s restaurant on June 12.

'We’re tired and we are frustrated. Most importantly we’re heartbroken, so we need justice for Rayshard Brooks,' Brooks cousin, Tiara Brooks, said at a news conference. 'The trust that we have in the police force is broken. The only way to heal some of these wounds is through a conviction and a drastic change in the police department,' she added.

Among the cases the justices declined to hear was a dispute over whether officers in Tennessee can be sued for using a police dog that bit a man who has said he had put up his hands in surrender. Justice Clarence Thomas, a sceptic of qualified immunity, said in a dissent that the court should have heard that case. The court could still take up other qualified immunity cases awaiting attention by the justices.

15TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020 AMERICAS

Poll: Black Americans most likely to know a COVID-19 victimAP — DETROIT

African Americans are dispro-portionately likely to say a family member or close friend has died of COVID-19 or respi-ratory illness since March, according to a series of surveys conducted since April that lays bare how black Americans have borne the brunt of the pandemic.

Eleven percent of African Americans say they were close with someone who has died from the coronavirus, compared with 5 percent of Americans overall and 4 percent of white Americans.

The findings are based on data from three COVID Impact surveys conducted between April and June by NORC at the Uni-versity of Chicago for the Data Foundation about the pan-demic’s effect on the physical, mental and social health of Americans. While recent surveys conducted by the AP-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research have found that black Americans are especially likely to know someone who had the virus, the new data from the COVID Impact research further details the toll the pandemic has taken on black Americans.

Pre-existing conditions and limited access to health care have been identified as reasons black Americans have been par-ticularly susceptible to the virus. Experts and medical profes-sionals say the longstanding effects of structural racism and generational trauma exacted upon black Americans in the centuries following slavery also cannot be ignored.

“The health inequities that we’re seeing here are nothing

new, because we’re starting in a place where during slavery, we had black women who were enslaved and were being exper-imented on by white male phy-sicians,” said New York-based Dr Uché Blackstock, a former associate professor at the NYU School of Medicine and the founder of Advancing Health Equity.

“So our healthcare system is founded on racism, and our communities have been essen-tially made sick by racism. We carry the highest disease burden in almost every parameter. We were already in a crisis.”

The COVID Impact surveys show the racial gap is equally striking in some cities and states hit especially hard by the virus. In Louisiana, 16 percent of black adults, compared with 6 percent of white adults, are close with someone who has died, according to the surveys. Black people represent about 33 percent of the state’s population but account for 53 percent of the state’s nearly 3,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to data from the state’s health department.

The differences are equally

stark in several metropolitan areas: Among black adults in Atlanta, 14 percent have a family member or close friend who has died, compared with 4 percent of white adults. The comparison is 12 percent vs. 4 percent in Bal-timore, 15 percent vs 2 percent in Birmingham, Alabama, and 12 percent vs. 4 percent in Chicago.

Twentysix percent of non-white New Yorkers say a family member or close friend has died from COVID-19, compared with just 10 percent of white adults in New York City.

Meanwhile, an analysis of data from state and local health departments nationwide found that more than a quarter of all COVID-related deaths nationwide have been black victims — nearly double the share of the black population in the areas sampled. The data, from early June, included nearly 87,000 deaths in which the dead person’s race was known in 38 states and Washington, DC.

In a number of states, the dis-parity was even more outsized - for instance, in Michigan, black deaths per 100,000 black resi-dents were four times the rate of white deaths per 100,000 white residents.

“I think we will have a national conversation, not only about those inequities, but about how we get to solutions, because it’s not just about what’s going on right now, it’s really what has gone on for decades regarding structural racism, implicit bias, discriminatory housing policies and the like,” said Dr Patrice Harris, the immediate past pres-ident of the American Medical Association and the first African-American woman elected pres-ident of the organisation.

People attend a rally against racism and fascism in Sao Paulo, on Sunday.

Rally against racism

Brazil prosecutors arrest Bolsonaro supporter over security threatsAP — SAO PAULO

The leader of a group that backs Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was detained yesterday, accused of raising funds for anti-democratic actions that could threaten the country’s national security.

Prosecutors didn’t immedi-ately give details about the alle-gations against Sara Fernanda Giromini, better known as Sara Winter, though she has publicly threatened to punch a Supreme Court justice on several occa-sions. The arrest warrant authorises authorities to hold her for five days while she is investigated.

The order, signed by Justice Alexandre de Morais, also requests the arrests of five other individuals who were yet to be identified. Giromini, a 27-year-old former feminist turned

anti-abortion campaigner, leads a group, “Brazil’s 300,” that has staged demonstrations vocifer-ously defending Bolsonaro’s con-servative policies and denouncing the Supreme Court and Congress for blocking them.

Brazil’s top prosecutors’ office said in a statement that “the objective of the arrests is to hear the investigated and gather information on how the criminal scheme works.”

A post on Giromini’s Twitter account yesterday said the arrest means, “It is official: to support Jair Bolsonaro is a crime.”

“Sara Winter was arrested because of an investigation on the financing of anti-democratic protests,” it added. “That’s right, demonstrations in which seniors, children, handicapped, women came to the support of President Bolsonaro.” On May 30 Giromini led a few dozen people on a

torchlit march to the Supreme Court to protest an investigation into an alleged conspiracy to spread defamatory and threat-ening social media posts about justices. Giromini was among the people named in the probe.

On Saturday members of her group set off fireworks in the direction of court building, hours after police cleared away one of the group’s encampments from the area.

Prosecutors said in their request to remove the camp that Giromini’s group is a risk.

“The presence of armed militias in the central region of the country’s capital represents unequivocal damage to order and public security,” the Brasilia-based prosecutors said.

Giromini acknowledged that many of her supporters carried weapons, but said they were only for self-defence.

Brazil education

minister fined

for failing

to wear mask

AFP — BRASÍLIA

Brazil’s education minister has been fined for failing to wear a face mask at a rally for Pres-ident Jair Bolsonaro, who has himself repeatedly flouted Brasilia’s masks-in-public rule amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Abraham Weintraub, one of the far-right president’s most controversial ministers, appeared at a rally organised by Bolsonaro supporters on Sunday.

He shook hands and posed for pictures with demon-strators — many of whom also went without masks, which have been mandatory in public in the Brazilian capital since April.

That got him a $385 fine from the Brasilia district gov-ernment for being “caught in public without a protective mask,” according to Brazilian media, which ran photos of his fine slip.

Weintraub said on Twitter he had not yet been notified of the fine but that it appeared authentic.

“They’re trying to shut me up at any price,” he said.

Bolsonaro, who has likened the new coronavirus to a “little flu” and condemned the “hysteria” around it, also regularly goes without a mask at weekend rallies by his sup-porters, though he has not been fined so far.

W e i n t r a u b h a s repeatedly been embroiled in controversy, making anti-Chinese comments that were widely deemed racist, mis-spelling words in official documents and on Twitter, and recently saying the Supreme Court’s justices are “criminals” and should be “thrown in jail.”

He alluded to that comment again on Sunday, telling demonstrators: “I’ve already said my piece on what I’d do with those criminals.”

Trudeau says in talks to extend Canada-US border closureAFP — OTTAWA

Ottawa and Washington are in talks to extend the closure of the Canada-US border, as concerns persist over the spread of the new coronavirus, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said yesterday.

“It is clear that there is broad consensus across the provinces that we need to con-tinue to keep our current border measures in place,” Trudeau said after consulting with pro-vincial leaders.

“We will keep discussing with the United States admin-istration on ways forward,” he told a daily briefing.

“Our priority on this is to ensure that we’re keeping Canadians safe while con-tinuing to ensure the flow of essential goods and services.” The world’s longest interna-tional frontier — at 8,900km — was closed to all non-essential travellers on both sides on March 21 in response to the coronavirus crisis.

The border was originally

set to reopen in April but the closure was twice extended, until at least June 21.

The closure has led to a massive drop in cross-border traffic — of up to 95 percent, according to Statistics Canada — but trade has continued una-bated. Prior to the pandemic, Can$2.4 billion worth of goods and more than 400,000 people crossed the border each day on average.

Ottawa last week announced an exemption to allow thousands of foreign

nationals to reunite with their families in Canada, following reports of hardship cases such as an American looking to join his Canadian wife for the birth of their first child.

They must, however, self-quarantine for two weeks upon arrival.

A loophole allowing Amer-icans from southern 48 states to transit through Canada to Alaska, meanwhile, has raised fresh concerns.

Several travellers were reportedly observed recently

flouting rules requiring them to take a direct route, and to social distance at stops along the way.

Banff residents, for example, told public broad-caster CBC they’d spotted license plates from Texas, Washington and even New York, and overheard tourists joking about how easy it was to get to the national park.

Trudeau said his gov-ernment was “looking into” the reports, adding: “We need to make sure that we’re able to apply the rules consistently.”

Miners’ unions inChile allege risein virus casesREUTERS — SANTIAGO

Chilean copper miners’ unions called on Sunday for a re-eval-uation of the operational conti-nuity plans of the country’s biggest miners during what they said was an “alarming” increase in coronavirus cases among workers.

In a statement signed by the union leadership of state-owned Codelco, the Mines Federation - which groups the majority of workers for Chile’s major copper mines - rejected the “business as usual” discourse advanced by miners and the mines minister, Baldo Prokurica.

“The increase in cases is alarming and demonstrates that the preventive measures imple-mented with health and safety protocols aimed at self-care are

not working and makes it evident that contrary to what the union believed, security and iso-lation measures have not immu-nized workers from contagion,” the statement added.

The statement comes just days after unionised workers at Codelco, the world’s largest copper miner, said they were weighing walking off the job at some sites in order to implement a self-imposed quarantine after one of their members died from COVID-19.

So far, large copper com-panies including Codelco, BHP Group Ltd and Antofagasta Plc have maintained production levels, bolstering Chile’s sinking economy. But they have been hit by a drop in prices led by a reduction in demand from China, where the

coronavirus outbreak started.The Mines Federation

argued that the metal market “is on the rise and with the revival of the Chinese market does not presage the financial debacle that some mining companies have wanted to sustain to endorse hasty measures such as

the dismissal of workers alluding to the scope of the coronavirus.” It also called on authorities to order mining companies to be more transparent about con-firmed coronavirus cases among their workers, and dismissed an audit ordered by Prokurica of mine operations amid the

pandemic as “late and reactionary.”

Chile has more than 170,000 cases and 3,300 deaths from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, one of the highest rates of infection in the world per 100,000 inhabitants.

Health workers carry a patient with symptoms of the new coronavirus after being admitted to a hospital, in Santiago, Chile.

Peru frees 1,500 inmates out of fear of COVID-19 spreadAFP — LIMA

Peru has freed 1,500 inmates over the past two months to ease overcrowding in prisons that have seen riots and deaths from the coronavirus.

The announcement of the

freeing of people serving time for minor offences was made in a weekend statement by Justice Minister Fernando Castaneda.

On April 14, the government pledged to free 3,000 prisoners to ease overcrowding.

Peru has the second-most

coronavirus cases in Latin America after Brazil, reporting 229,736. It is third in deaths after Brazil and Mexico, with 6,688.

Inmates fearing contagion with the virus in jam-packed prisons have staged several riots in Peru. The last of these came

on May 19 in the south of the country, and left 14 prisoners and guards injured. The government says at least 212 inmates have died of COVID-19 and at least 67 are being treated for it in hos-pitals. Another 15 prison guards have died of the disease and 17

have been hospitalised. Hun-dreds more have resigned, fearing infection.

In the worst prison riot, nine inmates died in an uprising in late April at a prison near Lima. A total of 67 prisoners, guards and police were injured.

In a number of states, the disparity was even more outsized — for instance, in Michigan, black deaths per 100,000 black residents were four times the rate of white deaths per 100,000 white residents.

16 TUESDAY 16 JUNE 2020MORNING BREAK

FAJR SUNRISE 03.14 am 04.43 am

W A L R U WA I S : 31o↗ 36o W A L K H O R : 29o↗ 45o W D U K H A N : 31o↗ 37o W WA K R A H : 27o↗ 48o W M E S A I E E D 27o↗ 48o W A B U S A M R A 30o↗ 37o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 15:29 – 00:00 LOW TIDE 08:16– 19:43

Very hot daytime with slight dust to blowing dust at some

places and relatively hot by night.

Minimum Maximum32oC 47oC

ZUHRMAGHRIB

11.34 am06.27 pm

ASR ISHA

02.57 pm07.57 pm

Remembering the victim of Israeli police shootingPalestinian men watch artist Taqi Spateen paint a mural of Iyad Hallak, a 32-year-old autistic Palestinian man shot dead by Israeli police, on a section of Israel’s controversial separation barrier in the city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Sunday.

Hong Kong Disneyland to reopen on ThursdayAFP — HONG KONG

Hong Kong’s Disneyland will reopen its doors on Thursday following nearly five months of closure, the park said yesterday, in a fresh boost for a city that has largely managed to defeat the coronavirus.

Visitors will need to sign health declarations, submit to regular temperature checks and wear masks at all times unless eating, the park said in a statement yesterday.

It is just the second Dis-neyland around the world to resume services during the pan-demic after Shanghai turned its lights and rides back on last month.

Tokyo and Paris remain closed while the company’s flagship park in California is eyeing a July reopening.

Hong Kong was one of the first places to record

coronavirus infections after the disease first emerged in central China, morphing into a global pandemic and enveloping much of the world in a recession.

But the finance hub has since managed to largely halt local transmission with just over 1,100 infections and four deaths.

All overseas passengers are screened at the airport and quarantined by authorities if found to be infected — on top of a mandatory 14-day home quarantine for arrivals.

Across the globe, tourism

operators are desperate to restart business, trialling dif-ferent forms of social distancing as lockdowns ease.

Last month, a group of Jap-anese amusement parks announced guidelines on how

to operate safely under the threat of the virus, including asking guests to “refrain from vocalising loudly” on roller-coasters and other rides.

Park staff, including those dressed up as stuffed animal

mascots and superheroes, were also advised to not shake hands or high-five with young fans.

Hong Kong authorities cur-rently ban gatherings of more than eight people because of the virus. That ban is up for renewal on Thursday, the day Dis-neyland reopens.

David Hui, a leading infec-tious disease expert in the city, told RTHK radio the anti-virus ban could be further relaxed as most activities in the city have resumed. Authorities have also used the public gathering ban as a way to refuse permission for pro-democracy protests which have bubbled up again in recent weeks and been quickly dispersed by riot police citing the emergency measures.

Last year, the city was rocked by seven straight months of huge and often violent pro-democracy demonstrations.

A locked gate is seen after the Hong Kong Disneyland theme park closed due to the coronavirus outbreak on January 26, 2020.

“Avatar” sequel

resumes filming

in virus-free

New Zealand

REUTERS — WELLINGTON

Filming the sequel of James Cameron’s sci-fi blockbuster “Avatar” will bring hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars to New Zealand after it ended its coronavirus outbreak, the film’s producer told media as p r o d u c t i o n r e s u m e d yesterday.

The film’s crew, including director Cameron and pro-ducer Jon Landau, was given special permission to fly to New Zealand two weeks ago, even though its borders are closed to keep out the corona-virus, stirring some grumbling about unfair treatment.

But Landau said New Zealand had much to gain.

“This one production alone is going to hire 400 New Zea-landers to work on it,” Landau told 1News after coming out of a hotel in Wellington where he and his colleagues have been in quarantine since they arrived. “We’re going to spend, in the next five months alone, over $70m here,” he said.

Filming was suspended in March, shortly before New Zealand went into a strict coronavirus lockdown.

The lockdown smothered the outbreak and last week, New Zealand lifted all restric-tions except border controls after declaring it was free of the virus, one of the first coun-tries in the world to return to pre-pandemic normality.

Cameron, Landau and dozens of crew members working on the “Avatar” sequel were allowed back on economic grounds, which critics said was unfair while families are still separated and businesses are struggling without key staff.

Bollywood star's death sparks mental health debateAFP — MUMBAI

Bollywood stars yesterday joined family members for the funeral of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, whose death aged 34 has sent shock waves through the Indian film industry and rekindled a national debate about mental health.

Rajput was found dead on Sunday in his Mumbai apartment, with police saying he took his own life.

A star of hits on the big and small screen, Rajput died just days after the shock death of his former manager, Disha Salian.

Those attending the funeral included Shraddha Kapoor, who starred with Rajput in his las t movie re lease , “Chhichhore”, which dealt with societal pressure and mental health.

Others, including actress Kriti Sanon and producer Ekta Kapoor, joined Rajput’s family in heavy monsoon rain to pay their last respects as his body was cremated according to Hindu rituals.

The young actor’s death has sparked emotional discussion on social media about mental health, with stars including Deepika Padukone and Anushka Sharma posting mes-sages about the importance of seeking help.

Padukone, who has previ-ously shared her struggle with depression, tweeted with the hashtag #YouAreNotAlone.

“As a person who has had lived experience with mental illness, I cannot stress enough about the importance of reaching out,” tweeted Padukone.

“Talk. Communicate. Express. Seek help. Remember, you are not alone. We are in this together. And most importantly, there is hope.” Sharma, the actress wife of Indian national cricket team captain Virat Kohl i , a lso tweeted condolences.

She too had previously opened up about struggling with anxiety.

“Sushant, you were too young and brilliant to have gone so soon. I’m so sad and upset knowing that we lived in an environment that could not help you through any troubles you may have had.” Born in the eastern state of Bihar, Rajput quit engineering studies to pursue a career in acting and dance.

He got his big break in 2013 with “Kai Po Che”, a film about

cricket, love, and politics that won acclaim at the Berlin film festival.

He was lauded for his por-trayal of Indian cricket hero Mahendra Singh Dhoni in the 2016 hit “M S Dhoni: The Untold Story”.

His most recent films were t h e c o m e d y - d r a m a “Chhichhore”, and action movie “Drive” — both released last year.

He had been working on a string of projects, including a Hindi remake of the Hollywood romance “The Fault in Our Stars”, titled “Dil Bechara” (“Poor Heart”).

Bollywood is still struggling to come to terms with the loss of two luminaries, Irrfan Khan and Rishi Kapoor, who died in April after long illnesses.

EU border app will help tourists plan in age of virusAFP — BRUSSELS

Can I go on holiday to Spain? Will I face quarantine? Have the museums and restaurants re-opened yet?

As European Union member states accelerated the reopening of their frontiers yesterday, tourists’ questions are being answered by an official European Union website.

On “Re-open EU” or reopen.europa.eu, travellers can enter the name of the country they hope to visit and find out what the rules are in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown.

The site is available in 24 languages so far and covers only the 27 European Union member states — there is no information for Britain nor the

four non-EU members of the Schengen travel zone.

A resident of France, for example, can consult the site to find out that high speed rail links to Luxembourg are being restored progressively and are at 60 percent of normal.

If he or she wants to go to Austria a face mask is required on the train, and before flying home to France he or she will need to provide a statement of honour that they have no coro-navirus symptoms.

The site and an eventual app will be updated as the sit-uation evolves. Most EU coun-tries reopened their internal borders within the block yes-terday, but social distancing rules vary widely across the bloc and some members con-tinue to restrict arrivals from high-risk areas.

80 years on, secrecy shrouds deadly WWII sinking of ship off FranceAFP — NANTES, FRANCE

Eighty years ago on Wednesday, thousands of people met a watery Atlantic grave when Nazi planes sank a cruise ship requisitioned by the British government to evacuate troops from France after the invasion by German troops.

In one of the single dead-liest events of World War II, the sinking of the Lancastria saw seaside communities in France’s western Loire-Atlantique region scramble to rescue survivors, tend the wounded and bury the dead.

Bodies washed up on their beaches for weeks on end.

“I remember, when he

found the bodies, there was an old man who said: ‘This one was still warm’,” recounts Michel Adrien, a resident of Ile de Noir-moutier, who was six at the time of the tragedy on June 17, 1940.

Now approaching 90, Adrien may not live to know the true toll.

Details of the sinking, including the number of souls lost when the Lancastria sank, remain shrouded by a so-called D-notice issued by Winston Churchill to hide the news of the sinking from a demoralised wartime public.

The media blackout was decreed for 100 years, until 2040, though much has become known about the incident via

survivors, next-of-kin and his-torical researchers such as the Lancastria Association of Scotland.

The thousands of pas-sengers were mainly troops but also civilians who boarded the former cruise liner at Saint-Nazaire to flee the German advance.

Luftwaffe planes caught the ship exposed off France’s Atlantic coast and bombed it, causing it to roll over and sink within 20 minutes as lit fuel set the surrounding sea ablaze.

There were 2,477 survivors.

The death toll is estimated at 2,500 to 6,000 — more than the sinkings of the Titanic and

the Lusitania combined.“Secrecy... continues to

shroud the Lancastria like the dark, silt-laden waters which now cover the wreck site,” says the Lancastria Association, whose website lists survivor accounts and a petition for the wreck to be declared a maritime war grave under British law.

Valerie Roux, a WWII expert with the archive of the Loire-Atlantique department of France, has gathered spotty records over the years, mainly from a government building at Saint-Nazaire bombed during the war.

The papers in her collection, yellowed with time and now open to the public, reveal just

how little is known about the victims. “He was dressed in khaki pants and a khaki shirt with grey socks,” states an entry on a list of washed-up corpses compiled by one municipality.

Another “wore a metal ring on his left ring finger.”

In the seaside commune of Piriac were found the remains of soldiers Harry Bullock and Charles Heron, but a third body was listed as “unknown” according to “documents seized by the occupying army.” At Bernerie, records are incom-plete because “the mayor, the deputy mayor and the mayor’s secretary (were) all in the army.” Thibaud Harrois, a senior lecturer in British politics

at the Sorbonne Nouvelle Uni-versity in Paris, said the Lan-castria was a “failed” evacu-ation, which explains the desire by officials to conceal it, he said.

Descendents of victims and survivors continue to honour the fallen.

“It is important for them,” said Karine Allioux, in charge of international relations at the Saint-Nazaire city hall. “For many it is the trip of a lifetime, to come here to pay homage to their ancestors,” she said.

The ceremony to mark the anniversary has had to be toned down this year, limited to only 10 people because of the restric-tions imposed to fight the coro-navirus epidemic.

Facebook rejects

call to share

revenue with

Australian media

AFP — SYDNEY

Facebook yesterday rejected calls from the Australian government and news companies that it share adver-tising revenue with the media, suggesting it would rather cut news content from its platform.

The US tech giant said in a submission to Australia’s com-petition watchdog that news represents a “very small fraction” of the content in an average user’s news feed.

“If there were no news content available on Facebook in Australia, we are confident the impact on Facebook’s community metrics and rev-enues in Australia would not be significant,” it said in a thinly veiled threat to boycott local news companies.

“Given the social value and benefit to news publishers, we would strongly prefer to con-tinue enabling news pub-lishers’ content to be available on our platform,” it said.

In an effort being closely watched around the world, Australia is set to unveil plans to force Facebook and Google to share advertising revenue they earn from news featured in their services.

The initiative has been strongly pushed by Australia’s two biggest media companies.

They argue that the crisis roiling the news industry worldwide is mainly because of Google, Facebook and other large tech firms capturing the vast majority of online adver-tising revenues, without fairly compensating media com-panies for advertisements placed against news content.

Visitors will need to sign health declarations, submit to regular temperature checks and wear masks at all times unless eating.