and blessed eid amir performs eid al adha prayer · 8/1/2020  · eid al adha, and we also...

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Saturday 1 August 2020 11 Dhul-Hijja - 1441 2 Riyals www.thepeninsula.qa Volume 25 | Number 8336 Wishing you a warm and blessed Eid SPORT | 16 BUSINESS | 11 BA owner IAG to raise $3.3bn to ride out virus crisis QSL: Stay focused, coach Aguirre tells Al Rayyan ahead of Al Arabi ‘final’ QR1.25 QR1.20 QR1.25 Price of super grade petrol for a litre. Price of premium grade petrol for a litre. Price of diesel for a litre. AUGUST FUEL PRICE Qatar Petroleum (QP) has announced yesterday the prices of super and premium grade petrol and diesel for August. Amir performs Eid Al Adha prayer QNA DOHA Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani performed Eid Al Adha prayer along with citizens at Al Wajba praying area yesterday morning. Personal Representative of H H the Amir, H H Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani; H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa I wish everyone in our beloved country the blessed Eid Al Adha and I pray to Allah for your safety and well-being. I also congratulate our brothers across the world on this blessed occasion wishing our peoples and our homelands goodness, prosperity and stability. I greet H H the Amir on the occasion of blessed Eid Al Adha, and we also congratulate the citizens and residents of Qatar and the Arab and Islamic nations on this happy occasion, praying to Allah to return it with goodness, safety and blessings. Al Thani and H E Sheikh Jassim bin Khalifa Al Thani took part in the prayer. The Eid Al Adha prayer was also attended by Speaker of the Shura Council H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud and a number of Their Excel- lencies Sheikhs, Ministers, members of the Shura Council and ambassadors in addition to citizens. Sheikh Dr Thaqeel Sayer Al Shammari, Court of Cassation judge and Supreme Judiciary Council member, who led the prayer, delivered the Eid sermon in which he high- lighted the merit of the Day of Sacrifice and being the good Qatar celebrates Eid Al Adha with fervour and joy SANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA Citizens and expatriates in Qatar celebrated Eid Al Adha with fervour and joy following the preventive and precau- tionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. Thousands of worshippers performed Eid Al Adha prayer wearing face masks and main- taining social distancing at 401 mosques and prayer grounds prepared by the Mosques Man- agement Department at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs across the country. Officials from the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and security personnel from the Ministry of Interior helped people in making social dis- tancing around prayer places and inside it. After prayer, people rushed to the slaughterhouses to sac- rifice animals. The people who had already bought coupons issued by Widam queued up at the slaughterhouses to get the slaughtered sacrificial animals. Adequate safety measures were placed at the slaughter- houses with the help of security from the operators and police patrolling to maintain social distancing. “I bought a coupon worth QR480 for a sacrificial sheep from Widam outlet on Thursday,” Mumtaz Ahmad an Indian citizen told The Peninsula. Ahmad said that as per the instruction in coupon he went to the slaughterhouse of Abu Hamour (old Central Market) to get the a sacrificial animal. “The security personnel asked me to wait in the car. When I reached in front of the premises, a porter handed over the slaughtered sheepe as it was not allowed to get down from the car because of social distancing measures,” said Ahmad. Families also visited their relatives and friends while fol- lowing the measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. “I visited with my family to the home of my uncle in Al Gharrafa but we did not stay for long as we used to do in pre- vious Eids and vacations,” said Abdurrahman Abdul Qadeer, a resident of Salata Al Jadeeda. P3 MME reopens playgrounds at public parks THE PENINSULA — DOHA The Ministry of Municipality and Environment represented by the Public Parks Department has reopened playgrounds at public parks with the capacity of 10 people. SEE ALSO PAGE 2 NHRC begins phase 2 of field visits to follow up measures to limit COVID-19 spread QNA DOHA The monitoring and field visits team of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) started the second phase of the exceptional visits to follow up on the precautionary measures undertaken by the state to limit the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. During the follow-up phase, the team held meetings with the Penal and Correctional Institu- tions Department, the Capital Security Department, the Search and Follow up Department, and the Human Rights Department of the Min- istry of Interior. The Deputy Chairman of NHRC and head of the visits and monitoring committee Dr. Mohammed Saif Al Kuwari said that this phase comes as a continuation of the first phase undertaken by the team, which included many relevant authorities to follow up the precautionary measures taken by the state to confront the pandemic and limit its spread, pointing out that the follow- up visits are scheduled to include all the bodies included in the first phase, adding that there are new institutions that will be covered by the second phase related to the right to education and the right to practice religious rites. With regard to the meetings with officials in the security authorities and the Human Rights Department at the Min- istry of Interior, Al Kuwari said that the visits team followed up the human rights standards stipulated in international laws and covenants during crises, and in light of these exceptional circumstances that the world is facing due to the spread of this pandemic. Dr Al Kuwari added that the team examined the extent of the promotion and protection of human rights, especially for detainees, and responding to reports in accordance with Article 3 paragraph 6 of Decree Law No. 17 of 2010 organizing the National Human Rights Committee, which provides for monitoring what may be raised about human rights conditions in the country and to coordinate with the concerned authorities to answer them P2 Katara celebrates Eid Al Adha with innovative activities Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani performing Eid Al Adha prayer along with citizens at Al Wajba praying area yesterday morning. THE PENINSULA — DOHA The Cultural Village Foun- dation — Katara kicked off its four-day Eid Al Adha celebra- tions yesterday with a variety of new activities in a joyful atmosphere. The distribution of Eid gifts to the cars visiting the Cultural Village brought excitement and smiles to the children who went to Katara with their fam- ilies. Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager Katara, expressed great pleasure on the first day of the celebration as Katara prepared new innovative activities to give children joy during these festive days, in line with the government’s plan to gradually lift the restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Dr. Al Sulaiti also extended his congratulations on Eid Al Adha to all Katara employees appreci- ating their efforts to provide the best services to the visitors of the Cultural Village. P2 Virtual fireworks display streamed on Katara’s social media accounts on the occasion of Eid Al Adha yesterday. Amir reviews bilateral ties with Iraq PM over phone QNA DOHA Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held yesterday via telephone a conversation with H E Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq Mustafa Al Kadhimi, during which they exchanged greetings on the occasion of the blessed Eid Al Adha. They reviewed bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries and means of enhancing and developing them in various fields, in addition to discussing the most important developments in the region. Also, they reviewed the efforts of the two countries in combating the COVID-19 pan- demic, and in this regard, HE Iraqi Prime Minister thanked H H the Amir for the medical assistance provided by the State of Qatar to Iraq, and its permanent position in sup- porting the Iraqi people. deed to please Allah the Almighty, noting the impor- tance of kindness to people on this day, even by saying the kind word. Sheikh Dr Thaqeel Sayer Al Shammari also urged worshipers to thank Allah for the grace of Islam, for His many blessings and for the security and stability of the country, noting that the religion of Islam is based on moderation and fol- lowing clear evidence. The field visits team monitored the extent of adherence to the United Nations model rules for the treatment of prisoners and their living conditions, hygiene and sanitizing procedures, washing and ventilation, in addition to the psychological aspect, and the activities that are permitted to be practiced from recreational, educational and sports.

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Page 1: and blessed Eid Amir performs Eid Al Adha prayer · 8/1/2020  · Eid Al Adha, and we also congratulate the citizens ... Shura Council H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud and

Saturday 1 August 2020

11 Dhul-Hijja - 1441

2 Riyals

www.thepeninsula.qa

Volume 25 | Number 8336

Wishing you a warm and blessed Eid

SPORT | 16BUSINESS | 11

BA owner IAG to

raise $3.3bn to

ride out

virus crisis

QSL: Stay focused,

coach Aguirre tells

Al Rayyan ahead of

Al Arabi ‘final’

QR1.25

QR1.20

QR1.25

Price of super gradepetrol for a litre.

Price of premium grade petrol for a litre.

Price of diesel for a litre.

AUGUST FUEL PRICE

Qatar Petroleum (QP) has announced yesterday the prices

of super and premium grade petrol and diesel for August.

Amir performs Eid Al Adha prayer

QNA — DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani performed Eid Al Adha prayer along with citizens at Al Wajba

praying area yesterday morning.

Personal Representative of H H the Amir, H H Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani; H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa

I wish everyone in our beloved country the blessed Eid Al Adha and I pray to Allah for your safety and well-being. I also congratulate our brothers across the world on this blessed occasion wishing our peoples and our homelands goodness, prosperity and stability.

I greet H H the Amir on the occasion of blessed Eid Al Adha, and we also congratulate the citizens and residents of Qatar and the Arab and Islamic nations on this happy occasion, praying to Allah to return it with goodness, safety and blessings.

Al Thani and H E Sheikh Jassim bin Khalifa Al Thani took part in the prayer.

The Eid Al Adha prayer was also attended by Speaker of the Shura Council H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud and a number of Their Excel-lencies Sheikhs, Ministers, members of the Shura Council and ambassadors in addition to citizens.

Sheikh Dr Thaqeel Sayer Al Shammari, Court of Cassation judge and Supreme Judiciary Council member, who led the prayer, delivered the Eid sermon in which he high-lighted the merit of the Day of Sacrifice and being the good

Qatar celebrates Eid Al Adha with fervour and joySANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

Citizens and expatriates in Qatar celebrated Eid Al Adha with fervour and joy following the preventive and precau-tionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Thousands of worshippers performed Eid Al Adha prayer wearing face masks and main-taining social distancing at 401 mosques and prayer grounds

prepared by the Mosques Man-agement Department at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs across the country.

Officials from the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and security personnel from the Ministry of Interior helped people in making social dis-tancing around prayer places and inside it.

After prayer, people rushed to the slaughterhouses to sac-rifice animals. The people who

had already bought coupons issued by Widam queued up at the slaughterhouses to get the slaughtered sacrificial animals.

Adequate safety measures were placed at the slaughter-houses with the help of security from the operators and police patrolling to maintain social distancing.

“I bought a coupon worth QR480 for a sacrificial sheep from Widam outlet on Thursday,” Mumtaz Ahmad an

Indian citizen told The Peninsula.

Ahmad said that as per the instruction in coupon he went to the slaughterhouse of Abu Hamour (old Central Market) to get the a sacrificial animal.

“The security personnel asked me to wait in the car. When I reached in front of the premises, a porter handed over the slaughtered sheepe as it was not allowed to get down from the car because of social

distancing measures,” said Ahmad.

Families also visited their relatives and friends while fol-lowing the measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.

“I visited with my family to the home of my uncle in Al Gharrafa but we did not stay for long as we used to do in pre-vious Eids and vacations,” said Abdurrahman Abdul Qadeer, a resident of Salata Al Jadeeda.

�P3

MME reopens

playgrounds at

public parks

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment represented by the Public Parks Department has reopened playgrounds at public parks with the capacity of 10 people.

SEE ALSO PAGE 2

NHRC begins phase 2 of field visits to follow up measures to limit COVID-19 spreadQNA — DOHA

The monitoring and field visits team of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) started the second phase of the exceptional visits to follow up on the precautionary measures undertaken by the state to limit the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

During the follow-up phase, the team held meetings with the Penal and Correctional Institu-tions Department, the Capital Security Department, the Search and Follow up Department, and the Human Rights Department of the Min-istry of Interior.

The Deputy Chairman of NHRC and head of the visits and monitoring committee Dr. Mohammed Saif Al Kuwari said that this phase comes as a continuation of the first phase undertaken by the team, which included many relevant authorities to follow up the precautionary measures taken by the state to confront the pandemic and limit its spread,

pointing out that the follow-up visits are scheduled to include all the bodies included in the first phase, adding that there are new institutions that will be covered by the second phase related to the right to education and the right to practice religious rites.

With regard to the meetings with officials in the security authorities and the Human Rights Department at the Min-istry of Interior, Al Kuwari said that the visits team followed up the human rights standards stipulated in international laws and covenants during crises, and in light of these exceptional

circumstances that the world is facing due to the spread of this pandemic.

Dr Al Kuwari added that the team examined the extent of the promotion and protection of human rights, especially for detainees, and responding to reports in accordance with Article 3 paragraph 6 of Decree Law No. 17 of 2010 organizing the National Human Rights Committee, which provides for monitoring what may be raised about human rights conditions in the country and to coordinate with the concerned authorities to answer them �P2

Katara celebrates Eid Al Adha with innovative activities

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani performing Eid Al Adha prayer along with citizens at Al Wajba praying area yesterday morning.

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Cultural Village Foun-dation — Katara kicked off its four-day Eid Al Adha celebra-tions yesterday with a variety of new activities in a joyful atmosphere.

The distribution of Eid gifts to the cars visiting the Cultural Village brought excitement and smiles to the children who went to Katara with their fam-ilies. Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager

Katara, expressed great pleasure on the first day of the celebration as Katara prepared new innovative activities to give children joy during these festive days, in line with the government’s plan to gradually lift the restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Dr. Al Sulaiti also extended his congratulations on Eid Al Adha to all Katara employees appreci-ating their efforts to provide the best services to the visitors of the Cultural Village. �P2

Virtual fireworks display streamed on Katara’s social media accounts on the occasion of Eid Al Adha yesterday.

Amir reviews bilateral ties with Iraq PM over phoneQNA — DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held yesterday via telephone a conversation with H E Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq Mustafa Al Kadhimi, during which they exchanged greetings on the occasion of the blessed Eid Al Adha.

They reviewed bilateral relations between the two brotherly countries and means of enhancing and developing them in various fields, in addition to discussing the most important developments in the region. Also, they reviewed the efforts of the two countries in combating the COVID-19 pan-demic, and in this regard, HE Iraqi Prime Minister thanked H H the Amir for the medical assistance provided by the State of Qatar to Iraq, and its permanent position in sup-porting the Iraqi people.

deed to please Allah the Almighty, noting the impor-tance of kindness to people on this day, even by saying the kind word.

Sheikh Dr Thaqeel Sayer Al Shammari also urged

worshipers to thank Allah for the grace of Islam, for His many blessings and for the security and stability of the country, noting that the religion of Islam is based on moderation and fol-lowing clear evidence.

The field visits team monitored the extent of adherence to the United Nations model rules for the treatment of prisoners and their living conditions, hygiene and sanitizing procedures, washing and ventilation, in addition to the psychological aspect, and the activities that are permitted to be practiced from recreational, educational and sports.

Page 2: and blessed Eid Amir performs Eid Al Adha prayer · 8/1/2020  · Eid Al Adha, and we also congratulate the citizens ... Shura Council H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud and

OFFICIAL NEWS

Doha: The State of Qatar has

expressed its strong condemnation

and denunciation of the explosion

that occurred in Diyala governorate in

northeastern Iraq, killing one person

and injuring two others. In a state-

ment issued yesterday, the Ministry

of Foreign Affairs reiterated the State

of Qatar’s firm stance on rejecting

violence and terrorism regardless

of motives and causes.

The statement expressed the State

of Qatar’s condolences to the family

of the victim as well as the govern-

ment and people of Iraq, wishing the

wounded a speedy recovery. -QNA

Doha: The State of Qatar has

expressed its strong condemnation

and denunciation on the explosion

that took place in Logar province

south of the Afghan capital Kabul,

leaving a number of people dead

and injured.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiter-

ated the State of Qatar’s firm stance

on rejecting violence and terrorism

regardless of motives and causes.

The statement expressed Qatar’s

condolences to the family of the vic-

tim as well as the government and

people of Afghanistan, wishing the

injured a speedy recovery.-QNA

Qatar strongly condemns explosion in Iraq

Qatar condemns explosion in Afghan's Logar province

Amir performs Eid Al Adha prayer at Al Wajba ground

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani performing Eid Al Adha prayer at Al Wajba praying area yesterday morning. Personal Representative of H H the Amir, H H Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani, H E Sheikh Jassim bin Khalifa Al Thani, Speaker of the Shura Council H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud and a number of Their Excellencies Sheikhs, Ministers, members of the Shura Council and ambassadors in addition to citizens took part in the prayer.

02 SATURDAY 1 AUGUST 2020HOME

FAJR SUNRISE 03.37 am 05.01 am

W A L R U WA I S : 31o↗ 39o W A L K H O R : 33o↗ 39o W D U K H A N : 30o↗ 39o W WA K R A H : 32o↗ 41o W M E S A I E E D 32o↗ 41o W A B U S A M R A 31o↗ 41o

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER TODAY

HIGH TIDE 01:20 – 15:48 LOW TIDE 08:43– 23:28

Hot daytime with local clouds and a chance of rain to the

west, relatively humid by night.

Minimum Maximum33oC 40oC

ZUHRMAGHRIB

11.40 am06.21 pm

ASR ISHA

03.07 pm07.51 pm

MME reopens playgrounds at public parksTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment repre-sented by the Public Parks Department has reopened playgrounds at public parks with the capacity of 10 people.

The visitors should

adhere to preventive and precautionary measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 for public parks, the Ministry has twitted.

The visitors are required to show Ehtraz app and maintain social distancing.They will undergo thermal screening of temperatures and

follow the instructions of security personnel. The vis-itors should keep away from games and touching the sur-faces and maintain necessary hygiene. The decision was taken following the gov-ernment plan of gradual lifting of COVID-19 restrictions on public parks.

NHRC begins phase 2 of field visits to follow up measures to limit COVID-19 spread

FROM PAGE 1

The Deputy Chairman of NHRC Dr. Mohammed Saif Al Kuwari said: "The meeting with security officials discussed the measures taken to protect the inmates from the Coronavirus pandemic, the available medical equipment and the number of checks conducted on detainees and inmates, in addition to the plans prepared by the penal institutions to provide the necessary instructions, and adequate awareness of the means of protection."

He pointed out that the field visits team monitored the extent of adherence to the United Nations model rules for the treatment of prisoners and their living conditions, hygiene and sanitizing procedures, washing and ventilation, in addition to the psychological aspect, and the activities that are permitted to be practiced from recreational, edu-cational and sports. Dr.

Mohammed Saif Al Kuwari explained that a questionnaire was conducted on the inmates that included a set of questions related to the instructions they receive or how to prevent the Coronavirus pandemic, noting that there is a great focus on the psychological side and the health and living conditions of inmates.

Dr. Al Kuwari confirmed that the team was well received by the officials of the correctional and penal institutions and said that the officials in the relevant authorities cooperated in all phases of the visit and provided all the aids to accom-plish the goals with the trans-parency and professionalism required by field visits.

NHRC formed a field visits team to determine the precau-tionary measures taken by the state to limit the spread of the Coronavirus, as the team started its meetings with the relevant

authorities and quarantine centers in the first phase last April and the field visits and institutions included institutions concerned with the right to health and work and quar-antine centers in Umm Salal and Mukaynis, and a number of quar-antine hotels, the industrial area, and workers’ housing.

Dr. Al Kuwari added that now the team is in the follow-up phase, during which all the parties that were covered in the first phase will be visited, but it will not include quarantine centers in Umm Salal and Mukaynis, due to the discharge of the last batch of its residents, which is supervised by Qatar Red Crescent in cooperation with the Ministry of Public Health and the Emergency Preparedness Com-mittee at Hamad Medical Corpo-ration. This phase is witnessing the addition of new institutions specialized in other basic human rights.

Katara celebrates Eid Al Adha with innovative activitiesFROM PAGE 1

The Katara Drama Theater yesterday presented a theatrical performance titled “Went to Death” under the supervision of director and artiste Nasser Abdul Ridha featuring the participation of Qatari artistes, namely Faisal Rashid, Abdullah Al Assam, Khaled Khamis, Muhammad Adel, and Ali Al Shar-shani.

Coinciding with the Eid Al Adha celebration, Katara inaugurated its new mural at the southern main entrance of Cultural Village titled

“Katara thanks the healthcare pro-fessionals in Qatar.” Twelve famous fine artists created artworks with a message of gratitude and Katara’s pride for the medical frontliners in their battle against the pandemic and as models of humanitarian work around the world.

Katara also presented virtual fireworks on its website in addition to the Eid Al Adha competition, which selects the most beautiful children’s costume during Eid days. Participants have to send a photo or video of the participating child to join the contest. Katara has

allocated prizes for the first five winners in the each of the two com-petitions namely photo or video. The photo or video should be in high quality, and Katara will own the copyright for the winning photos and videos and entitled to use them for any purpose.

Meanwhile, many visitors expressed their happiness of the Katara Eid Al Adha celebration, appreciating the efforts of the Cultural Village to provide everything that con-tributes to bringing joy and happiness to the hearts of children and family members during Eid days.

A Katara volunteer distributes Eid gifts to visitors of the Cultural Village yesterday.

Mathaf to launch three exhibitions tomorrowRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

A diverse lineup of exhibitions, two of which are first in the region, will be unveiled tomorrow at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.

“Yto Barrada: My Very Edu-cated Mother Just Served Us Nougat”, “Huguette Caland: Faces and Places” and “Lived Forward: Art and Culture in Doha from 1960–2020” simul-taneously open tomorrow and run until November 30.

Marking her first major solo museum exhibition in the Gulf region, Moroccan-French artist Yto Barrada will showcase pho-tographs, films, videos, sculp-tures, prints and fabric works that

focus on threads of regeneration and growth in social and geo-logical transformation. Barrada is known for her work which engages with self-education, architecture, palaeontology, botany and modernist histories in order to explore forms of knowledge production. She is the founder of Cinémathèque de Tanger and has exhibited exten-sively internationally.

Huguette Caland’s first solo museum exhibition in the Arab

region features six decades of her paintings, drawings, caftans, smocks and sculptures, including a selection of never before exhibited works. Born in the cos-mopolitan city of Beirut in 1931, Caland was the daughter of the first president of the independent Republic of Lebanon, but defied social expectations by pursuing a career as an artist. The exhi-bition is organised around three different geographical locations that define Caland’s personal and

professional journey namely Beirut, Paris and California.

“Lived Forward: Art and Culture in Doha from 1960–2020” focuses on Mathaf col-lection as a starting point that expands on research and local collaborations and looks at ref-erence points of generations of artists, intellectuals and cultural activists who played a major role in activating the cultural scene in Doha for more than half a century. The show presents the work of key artists and figures through the display of paintings, archival materials, photography, video, and instal-lation. Artists whose works will be displayed at the exhibition are Salah Taher, Faiq Hassan, Gazbia Sirry, Adam Henein,

Ibrahim Al Salahi, Khalifa Al Qattan, Jassim Al Zaini, Dia Al Azzawi, Abdulwahed Al Mawlawi, Hassan Al Mulla, Youssef Ahmad, Wafika Sultan Al Essa, Faraj Daham, Mohammed Ali Abdulah, Saif Al Kuwari, Ali Hassan, Salman Al Malik, Yousef al Sharif Hassan bin Mohammed Al Thani, Wafa Al Hamad, Aisha Al Misned, Sophia Al Maria, Bouthayna Al Muftah, and Sara Al Obaidly.

Founded in 2010, Mathaf is home to over 9,000 works, making it the world’s largest specialised collection of its kind. Located in Education City, Mathaf hosts exhibition of its permanent collection as well as temporary historical and exper-imental exhibitions in addition to educational programmes.

MoPH: 235 new cases, 242 recoveriesTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

The Ministry of Public Health yesterday announced the registration of 235 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 while 242 people recovered from the virus bringing the total number of cases recovered in Qatar to 107377.

In addition, the Ministry announced three new deaths, for people aged 53, 58 and 64 - all were receiving the necessary medical care. All new cases have been introduced to isolation and are receiving necessary healthcare according to their health status.

The Ministry said that measures to tackle COVID-19 in Qatar have succeeded in flattening

the curve and limiting the spread of the virus and the number of new daily cases and hos-pital admissions is continuing to decline each week. “Qatar’s proactive and extensive testing of suspected cases has enabled us to identify a high number of positive cases in the com-munity,” it added. The Ministry further said: “Unless we follow all precautionary measures, we may experience a second wave of the virus and see numbers increasing – there are already signs of this happening in other countries around the world. Avoid close contact with others, crowded places and confined closed spaces where other people aggregate.”

“Yto Barrada: My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nougat”, “Huguette Caland: Faces and Places” and “Lived Forward: Art and Culture in Doha from 1960–2020” simultaneously open tomorrow and run until November 30.

Page 3: and blessed Eid Amir performs Eid Al Adha prayer · 8/1/2020  · Eid Al Adha, and we also congratulate the citizens ... Shura Council H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud and

03SATURDAY 1 AUGUST 2020 HOME

Eid prayer held on D-Ring Road Lulu Hypermarket parking area. RIGHT: People celebrating the first day of Eid on the Corniche, yesterday. PICS: ABDUL BASIT/THE PENINSULA

People waiting for the Friday prayer at a mosque in Doha. PICS: ANVAR SADATH

HBKU’s College of Law webinar examinesfunctioning of courts during COVID-19

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

How courts have adapted to COVID-19 provided the backdrop for a recent webinar co-organised by the College of Law at Hamad bin Khalifa University and the Qatar Inter-national Court and Dispute Resolution Centre (QICDRC). The American Society of Inter-national Law (ASIL) also served as a sponsor of the event, which attracted participants from around the world.

The webinar featured a dis-tinguished panel of experts with vast experience and knowledge in trying cases and conducting hearings. QICDRC contribu-tions were led by its president, The Rt. Hon. the Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, and Christopher Grout, the court’s registrar. Since the beginning of the pan-demic, the QICDRC has handled hearings online. Chief Judge

Barbara M. G. Lynn of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, the first federal judge to try a criminal case in the United States since the pandemic sur-faced, also participated. College of Law Dean Susan L. Kara-manian, a lawyer who tried cases in US courts, provided insights principally from the perspective of access to justice.

The discussion primarily focused on the challenges of remote hearings and new ways of structuring in-person trials to maintain social distancing while respecting due process. The webinar highlighted the important role of technology yet also acknowledged its limits, particularly when examination of witnesses is critical to the fact-finding process. Pro-ceedings concluded with ques-tions and answers and addi-tional interventions from an

online audience.Speaking after the webinar,

College of Law Associate Pro-fessor Dr. George Dimitro-poulos and moderator of the session remarked: “While dis-ruptive, COVID-19 has prompted courts to adapt and do so quickly. Many courts, such as the QICDRC, the Qatar courts, and U.S. courts, have the technology for e-filings and online hearings. An interesting

observation from the session is whether in certain jurisdictions what were once “live” hearings, in which legal argument is the sole matter before the court as opposed to admission of evi-dence and examination of wit-nesses, will now largely shift to the online platform. Our pan-elists confirmed there is no one-size-fits-all approach to keeping courts up-and-running during crises.”

The webinar featured a distinguished panel of experts

HEC Paris in Qatar hosts online webinar session for QF staffTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

HEC Paris organised an online webinar session for the staff of Qatar Foundation (QF), recently. The session, supported by QF Learning & Development to promote employee learning, was led by Dr. Serge Besanger, Professor of Strategy and Economics at HEC Paris and consulting expert at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The webinar was also marked by the presence of Dr. Pablo Martin de Holan, Dean of HEC Paris in Qatar. Com-menting on the partnership between HEC Paris and QF, Dr. Martin de Holan said: “We have completed 10 years of our part-nership with Qatar Foundation and we are very honored to deliver this online webinar for its staff. This program reflects Qatar Foundation’s mission and that HEC Paris’ share its objective with its commitment to the development of a knowledge-based economy in Qatar.”

He further added: “Over the last decade, we have set the benchmark for executive edu-cation in Qatar by demon-strating impact and excellence which also signals our plan for

the future. For us, excellence means world-class programs, and impact means sustaining and increasing our contribu-tions to the State of Qatar and its institutions, guided by the Qatar National Vision 2030.”

The webinar session pro-vided an overview to the coro-navirus pandemic and its aftermath - ‘Covid-19: where do we stand?’ and comprised three sessions, each of which included a Q&A round.

In the first session ‘Building better resilience during and after a crisis’, Dr. Besanger offered valuable recommendations on how to make company’s rela-tionships more robust and identify those relationships that needed strengthening; as well as how to build organizational and financial resilience.

In the second session ‘Pro-moting agility and innovation during times of crisis’, Dr. Besanger addressed the topic of organizational agility and how this may represent, to some firms, a paradigm change in their way of conducting business. He thereby stressed the importance of leaving one’s comfort zone and espousing a culture where error is seen as a positive.

Engineers at QF partner university transform snorkeling masks to ventilatorsTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Professors and lab engineers from Texas A&M University at Qatar mobi-lized their resources to develop face shields, valves, and other tools that would help fight COVID-19.

One such prototype was that of a snorkeling mask that could be converted into a ventilator using just an adapter and being plugged into ventilating machines at hospitals, or used as a sub-stitute for the widely used N-95 masks.

A startup company in Italy first began to apply this model – using snor-keling masks manufactured by Decathlon, a sporting goods company, and modifying them to be plugged into ventilators. Using the open source infor-mation available online, Dr. Marwan Khraisheh and Dr. Yasser Al-Hamidi of Texas A&M University at Qatar’s (TAMUQ’s) Mechanical Engineering Program led the efforts to design and develop similar versions for Qatar. Qatar Foundation Research, Development and Innovation arranged for the masks to be donated by Decathlon to the engineering team for modification.

The team at the Qatar Foundation partner university began by designing a better-engineered version of the

open-source concept available, and used the fabricating facilities and 3D printers available in their laboratories. The idea was to repurpose these com-mercially available snorkeling masks by connecting them to adapters/valves to be used as non-invasive ventilators.

For patients with respiratory diffi-culties, a ventilation procedure called intubation is typically employed, which involves inserting a tube into the trachea. Using the adapter designed in-house connected to a snorkeling mask, the invasive procedure can be omitted entirely.

Additionally, these masks feature a filter and a PEEP valve that the team at TAMUQ worked to modify, to ensure little to no leakage of contaminated air once worn by a patient with COVID-19, and to keep positive pressure inside lungs to keep lungs from collapsing. This could significantly reduce the risk to healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients. It would also make it a good option for healthcare workers to use as it dials down the risk of con-tracting the virus.

Having already delivered hundreds of modified face shields to both Qatar Foundation and Qatar Red Crescent,

TAMUQ has also delivered prototypes of the snorkeling mask adapters to Hamad Medical Corporation, should there be a need to use them. Other innovations in the works include iso-lation chambers for patients and hands-free door openers for the general public now that countries are opening up again.

“We certainly know that we, as an institution, are constantly innovating and are prepared to help during these tur-bulent times. We have manufactured the adapters and valves and modified the

masks proactively, but thankfully, the situation in Qatar has been handled well from the beginning, which means we have not needed to use them. However, if there are opportunities to use them to help less fortunate countries with over-whelming cases, we are happy to help,” Dr. Khraisheh, Professor and Chair of TAMUQ’s Mechanical Engineering Program said.

“I think this is the first time we have put so much effort into something and are hoping it will never be used,” Dr. Al Hamidi, the Laboratories Manager

in the Mechanical Engineering department said. Dr. Al-Hamidi and his team were given special permis-sions early on in the pandemic to work in the TAMUQ laboratories to finalize their prototypes.

“As an engineering school, we have the capability to design, develop, and manufacture a number of innovations that can help in a situation like this, and we are grateful to have the oppor-tunity to support the medical com-munity during this time,” Dr. Khraisheh added.

Having already delivered hundreds of modified face shields to both Qatar Foundation and Qatar Red Crescent, TAMUQ has also delivered prototypes of the snorkeling mask adapters to Hamad Medical Corporation.

FROM PAGE 1

People also visited parks, Corniche, beaches and other picnicking places to enjoy Eid Al Adha vacation.

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment represented

by the Public Parks Department reopened yesterday play-grounds at public parks with the capacity of 10 people. Many families visited public parks with their children where they played for hours at the

playgrounds.Large number of families

and single employees and workers also preferred pic-nicking at beaches to have good time. Ministry of Municipality and Environment prepared

beaches across the country to receive the visitors during Eid Al Adha.

The Ministry provided all necessary services including ambulance services at the beaches like Sealine, Al Wakra Family Beach, Khor Al Udaid, Dukhan, Al Marona, Al Ghariya, Al Mafir and Fuwairit beaches. Some beaches including Al Wakra, Sealine, Simaisima and Al Khor were dedicated for family to maintain the privacy.

Qatar celebrates Eid Al Adha with fervour and joy

The discussion primarily focused on the challenges of remote hearings and new ways of structuring in-person trials to maintain social distancing while respecting due process.

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Millions across Turkey performed special prayers on the first day of Eid Al Adha amid protective measures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

04 SATURDAY 1 AUGUST 2020 GULF / MIDDLE EAST

Millions mark Eid Al Adha across the region

AP & ANATOLIA — DUBAI/ ANKARASmall groups of pilgrims performed one of the final rites of the Haj yes-terday as Muslims worldwide marked the start of the Eid Al Adha holiday amid a global pandemic that has impacted nearly every aspect of this year’s pilgrimage and celebrations.

The last days of the annual pil-grimage to Makkah in Saudi Arabia coincide with the four-day Eid Al Adha, or “Feast of Sacrifice”, in which Muslims slaughter livestock and dis-tribute the meat to the poor.

Millions across Turkey performed special prayers on the first day of Eid Al Adha amid protective measures due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the historic metropolis of Istanbul, Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, which last week reopened for worship after an 86-year gap, witnessed the first Eid prayers, also known as Salat Al Eid, for the feast of the sacrifice holiday.

Thousands of people joined the prayers lead by Ali Erbas, the head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate at the historic building. Local officials handed out free disposable prayer rugs, disinfectants, masks, and water to people heading to prayers.

Giant screens helped the faithful in the back rows feel more connected to the occasion. Officials in the city’s Fatih district handed out silver-plated com-memorative medallions for the Muslim holiday for those who came to Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque.

In the Turkish capital Ankara, prayers were performed in accordance

with social distance and hygiene rules. Disinfectants were placed at mosque entrances, and those who came to mosques wore masks and brought prayer rugs with them.

In a phone call, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan exchanged holiday greetings with soldiers deployed in the southeastern province of Sirnak.

The Haj pilgrimage has also been drastically impacted by the virus. Last year, some 2.5 million pilgrims took part, but this year as few as 1,000 pil-grims already residing in Saudi Arabia were allowed to preform the Haj.

The Saudi Health Ministry said there have been no cases of the COVID-19 illness among this year’s pil-grims. The government took numerous precautions, including testing pilgrims for the virus, monitoring their movement with electronic wristbands and requiring them to quarantine before and after the Haj. Pilgrims were selected after applying through an online portal, and all had to be between 20 and 50 years of age.

Just after dawn yesterday, small groups of pilgrims — masked and physically distancing — made their way toward the massive multi-storey Jamarat Complex in the Saudi valley area of Mina. There, the pilgrims cast pebbles at three large columns.

The Haj, both physically and spir-itually demanding, intends to bring about greater humility and unity among Muslims. It is required of all Muslims to perform once in a lifetime.

Masked pilgrims, clad in white and spaced apart on marked spots to observe social distancing, threw seven stones each at a wall symbolising Satan. Instead of gathering the pebbles themselves as in past years, they were handed them bagged and sterilised by hajj authorities, to protect against the novel coronavirus.

Sheikh Abdullah Al Manea, member of the Supreme Council of Senior

Pilgrims circumambulating around the Holy Kaaba, in the Grand Mosque in Makkah, yesterday.

Scholars of Saudi Arabia, said:“We thank the positive role of Muslims around the world that have complied with the regulations of the country to protect them from the spread of this virus, which leads to the protection of Makkah and Madinah.” On Thursday, pilgrims scaled Mount Arafat.

Around the world, Muslims gathered with relatives or remained at home to mark the start of Eid.

In Somalia, the price of meat has slightly increased. Abdishakur Dahir, a civil servant in Mogadishu, said that for the first time he won’t be able to afford goat for Eid because of the impact of the virus on work.

“I could hardly buy food for my

family,” Dahir said. “We are just sur-viving for now. Life is getting tougher by the day.” In some parts of West Africa, the price for a ram has doubled. Livestock sellers, used to doing brisk business in the days before the holiday, say sales have dwindled and those who are buying can’t afford much. “The sit-uation is really complicated by the coronavirus, it’s a tough market,” Oumar Maiga, a livestock trader in Ivory Coast said.

In the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, streets were largely empty due to a 10-day lockdown imposed by author-ities to prevent further spread of the virus. Eid prayers in mosques were cancelled.

“We had hoped that the curfew would be lifted during the Eid period... we were surprised that the lockdown period included the Eid holiday and more,” said Marwan Madhat, a Baghdad cafe owner. “This will cause losses.” The United Arab Emirates also closed mosques to limit the spread of the virus.

In Lebanon, worshippers prayed in mosques under tight security, despite a partial lockdown imposed on Thursday that will continue through August 10. Worshippers at the Mohammad Al Amin Mosque in the capital, Beirut, spilled onto the street outside to maintain social distancing rules.

Khamenei says sanctions failed, no talks with TrumpAFP — TEHRAN

Iran will not open talks with the United States that will only benefit Donald Trump, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday, insisting the US president’s sanctions policy had failed.

Decades-old tensions between Tehran and Wash-ington have soared in the past year or so, with the sworn enemies twice appearing to come to the brink of war.

The tensions have been building since 2018, when Trump withdrew the United States from a landmark nuclear accord and unilaterally reim-posed crippling sanctions. “There is no doubt that sanc-tions are a crime,” Khamenei said in a televised speech.

“But the smart Iranian has made the best use of this attack, this animosity and benefited... by using sanctions as a means to increase national self-reliance.” Khamenei said Western “think-tanks admit that the maximum pressure (policy) of sanctions and US force has not succeeded”.

The 2015 deal between Tehran and major powers promised relief from sanctions in return for limits on Iran’s nuclear programme.

After abandoning the accord, the United States reim-posed sanctions on Iran’s vital oil exports and its access to the international banking system, and pressured allies and rivals

alike to fall in line.Iran has responded by

trying to boost its non-oil exports, particularly to neigh-bouring countries. “This has caused the country’s economy to be naturally less reliant on oil,” Khamenei said, casting the development in a positive light.

Khamenei condemned calls for Iran to open new talks with the United States, saying he would not agree to meetings that were aimed only at boosting Trump’s re-election hopes. The 81-year-old even called Trump an “old man”, even though he is seven years older than the US president.

“This old man in charge, he apparently made some propa-ganda use out of his negotiations with North Korea. Now he wants to use (talks with Iran) for the (November 3 US presidential) election.” Khamenei said that in

return for new talks, the US would demand: “Reduce your defensive capability, destroy your regional power and give up the vital nuclear industry.” “No logic dictates giving into the aggressor’s demands,” he said.

He also accused European partners to the nuclear deal of “having done nothing” to provide Iran with the economic benefits of the accord and said their barter system designed to bypass US sanctions was a “useless play-thing.” The system, called Instex, is meant to function as a clearing house and allow European com-panies to deliver medical sup-plies to Iran without being exposed to sanctions.

European signatories said in March they had delivered medical goods to Iran in the first transaction under Instex, more than a year after the mechanism was announced.

Iran rules out attack as cause of nuclear site incident

AFP — TEHRAN

A member of an influential Iranian security body said yes-terday that it had ruled out drone or missile attacks as the cause of an incident at a nuclear site earlier this month.

The incident occurred at a warehouse under construction at the Natanz nuclear complex in central Iran on July 2, but caused no casualties or radi-oactive pollution, according to Iran’s nuclear body.

“What is certain is that in our view, a drone, missile, bomb or rocket attack is not the case,” ISNA news agency quoted Mojtaba Zolnour, head of parliament’s national security and foreign affairs committee, as saying. “There are traces of an explosion from elements on the inside (of the building) but since investiga-tions are ongoing, I will not disclose the details,” he added.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council announced on July 3 that the “cause of the accident” at Natanz had been “accurately determined” but declined to release details, citing security reasons.

State news agency IRNA at the time published an editorial warning Iran’s arch-foes against hostile actions. It said Israeli social media accounts had claimed the Jewish state was behind the incident, without identifying the accounts.

Kuwait confirms 428 new COVID-19 cases, 2 fatalitiesQNA — KUWAIT

The Kuwaiti Ministry of Health said yesterday that 428 new coronavirus (COVID-19) infec-tions were confirmed over the past 24 hours, taking the count of cases up to 66,957.

The ministry also recorded two fatalities due to the viral infection, bringing the country’s death toll to 447 so far, the min-istry’s spokesman, Dr. Abdullah Al Sanad, said in a statement carried by Kuwait news agency (KUNA).

The latest infections include 296 Kuwaitis and 132

non-Kuwaitis, he added. In addition, 8,578 virus patients were still receiving necessary medical treatment, including 134 cases in intensive care units, Dr. Al Sanad pointed out.

Medical teams carried out 2,920 COVID-19 tests over the last 24 hours, bringing the total count of swab tests to 505,088 since the outbreak of the virus in the country, he added.

Earlier in the day, Kuwait’s Ministry of Health said 602 patients recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic in the past 24 hours to raise total recov-eries to 57,932.

Ferris wheels, tombs off-limits to Iraqis on Eid holidaysAFP — BASRA

On the Muslim holiday of Eid Al Adha, when Iraqis visit loved ones’ tombs and take children to the funfair, the coronavirus pandemic put both cemeteries and Ferris wheels off-limits yesterday.

The virus has cost almost 4,700 lives and infected over 121,000 people in Iraq, but it has also sharpened an eco-nomic crisis born of a slide in lifeline oil revenues.

“Civil servants’ salaries are being paid late, taxis or day labourers no longer have work, this has an impact on eve-ryone,” said Ahmed Abdel

Hussein, an official in Basra, a port city near the southern tip of Iraq. “I’m thinking of all the children who this year will not get any presents because of the crisis,” he said on the first day of the feast, being celebrated with the country under curfew.

“Eid used to be the happiest day of the year before, now it’s a burden,” said another official, Falah, 35, who has two children and an elderly mother to support.

Shopkeepers and traders, who rely on Eid Al Adha for a large part of their annual turnover, are also affected.

Abu Hassan Al Bazouni, who owns a sheep farm in

Basra, has seen sales decline despite the tradition of sacri-ficing a lamb for the feast.

Apart from high unem-ployment, “this year, con-finement has prevented trade from one province to another, so sheep prices have increased,” he said.

In a survey by the Interna-tional Rescue Committee, 73 percent of Iraqis said they were eating less to save money, while more than 60 percent had taken loans to make ends meet.

Said Attiya, who runs a clothes store, said business was down 95 percent on last year.

For Eid in 2019, he hired eight vendors. This year, he is

on his own, opening the store only five hours a day.

Many other stores in Basra, he said, have closed “because you can’t import anything and many can’t even pay the rent”.

For Ahmed Nejem, another resident, it’s hard to stay at home during the holidays, tra-ditionally a time for family gatherings. “This year, we’re not going out and we can’t even buy for presents for the kids,” he said.

Animated messages, most decorated with flowers, others jokes, sent on social media apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook have taken the place of family visits.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives a live broadcast on state television on the occasion of Eid Al Adha in Tehran.

Iraq PM promisesearly parliamentarypolls for June 2021AFP — BAGHDAD

Iraq will hold its next parlia-mentary elections nearly a year early the premier announced yesterday, as he seeks to make good on promises he offered when he came to power.

“June 6, 2021, has been fixed as the date for the next legislative elections,” said Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhemi, who came to power in May after months of protests forced his predecessor to resign. “Everything will be done to protect and ensure the success of these polls,” Kadhemi said in a televised speech.

Elections in Iraq are some-times marred by violence and often by fraud. The next par-liamentary elections had orig-inally been due to take place in May 2022.

But months of protests that began in October — with thou-sands taking to the streets of Baghdad and across the south — railed against the political system. Demonstrators demanded that the system be dismantled, pointing to endemic corruption and what many see as the malign influence of sectarian interests.

Kadhemi was nominated in April, months after Adel Abdel Mahdi stepped down — the first time a premier has resigned before the end of his term since the US-led invasion of 2003.

Abdel Mahdi’s government

proposed to parliament a new electoral law, which was quickly passed late last year.

But the section detailing voting procedures and constit-uency boundaries has not been finalised, according to dip-lomats and experts.

It was not clear what role Iraq’s election commission would have in organising the polls. The United Nations mission in Iraq (UNAMI) welcomed Kad-hemi’s announcement.

“Early elections fulfil a key popular demand on the road to greater stability and democracy in Iraq,” it said in a statement.

“The United Nations is ready to provide support and technical advice as requested by Iraq to ensure free, fair and credible elections that win the public’s trust.” The 2018 election was marred by a record low turnout of 44.5 percent, according to official figures. Independent observers believe the true turnout was much lower.

Voters abandoned major political parties in favour of Shiite leader and former militia leader Moqtada Sadr, who allied with communists on an anti-corruption platform.

Alongside months of political crisis, Iraq is also grappling with a major economic downturn due to the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the demand for oil, the lifeblood of the country’s economy.

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Dangarembga, 61, was taken away in a police truck as she demonstrated in the upmarket Harare suburb of Borrowdale alongside another protester.

05SATURDAY 1 AUGUST 2020 AFRICA

Zimbabwe author held during banned protestsAFP — HARARE

Police in Zimbabwe yesterday arrested internationally-acclaimed novelist Tsitsi Dan-garembga (pictured) as they enforced a ban on protests coinciding with the anniversary of President Emmerson Mnan-gagwa’s election.

Dangarembga, 61, was taken away in a police truck as she demonstrated in the upmarket Harare suburb of Borrowdale alongside another protester, witnesses saw.

Streets in the centre of the city were largely deserted as police and soldiers set up checkpoints to prevent entry.

Opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume, head of a small party called Transform Zim-babwe, had called for demon-strations against alleged state corruption and the country’s slumping economy The protests were timed to coincide with the second anniversary of Mnan-gagwa’s election, which the opposition says was a fraud.

But most people stayed at home after police on Thursday issued a ban and warned of a tough response. “All security arms of government are on full alert and will deal decisively with any individuals or groups fomenting violence,” it warned.

There were more check-points and roadblocks than usual on roads leading to the centre of the capital, manned by police and soldiers. In the central business district, police carrying batons or riot shields were heavily deployed.

In the suburbs, only a handful of people appeared to brave the ban. Witnesses saw Dangarembga and a fellow pro-tester, Julie Barnes, hauled into a truck full of police armed with AK-47 rifles and riot gear.

Shortly afterwards, she

tweeted: “Arrested! At Bor-rowdale. Ope it will be OK”. She also tweeted a photo of herself and Barnes, sitting on the floor at a police station.

She had been carrying placards calling for reforms and the release of Hopewell Chin’ono, a prominent jour-nalist arrested last week under a government crackdown.

Minutes before her arrest, she said: “It seems that there has been a big reaction by the authorities to this protest.

“They declared it illegal -- I’m not quite sure (why), apart from the fact that they don’t want it...Our constitution gives Zimbabweans the right to dem-onstrate peacefully and that’s what we are doing.”

The Cambridge-educated author is the only Zimbabwean woman writer to win the Com-monwealth Writers’ Prize and has often been praised for speaking out on women’s issues. She leapt to prominence in 1988 with “Nervous Conditions”, a coming-of-age story about a girl’s battle to escape poverty and gain an education. The book became an instant classic.

Her arrest came days after her latest novel, “This Mournable Body,” entered the long list for the Booker Prize. In a statement, police confirmed she had been arrested “for trying to incite the public to engage in illegal dem-onstrations while carrying

placards written various political messages meant to cause public disorder.”

Among several others arrested yesterday was Fadzayi Mahere, a lawyer and spokes-woman for the main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change-Alliance.

Mahere live-streamed via Facebook images of riot police scaling metal barriers into a suburban eatery where she had retreated after her protest, and arrested her.

The British ambassador in Harare, Melanie Robinson tweeted: “Very concerned about reports of abductions, arrests and threats targeting those exercising constitutional rights. Freedom of expression is vital even in times of COVID19, with social distancing observed”.

The government had denounced the protests, calling them an “insurrection”. Ruling ZANU-PF spokesman Patrick Chinamasa earlier this week claimed that US ambassador Brian Nicholls was sponsoring the protests and called him “a thug”. Mnangagwa took over from longtime ruler Robert Mugabe after a coup in November 2017.

But hopes among many that he would end Mugabe’s disas-trous economic slump have been dashed, and many Zim-babweans say they are worse off than before.

Eid Al Adha prayer in Ivory CoastA drone photo shows Muslims performing Eid Al Adha prayer in Korhogo, Ivory Coast, yesterday.

Darfur violence cuts healthcareand food aid to 14,000 childrenAFP — KHARTOUM

A wave of violence in Sudan’s Darfur region has forced Save the Children to close facilities providing health services and food for 14,000 children, the charity said yesterday.

The move came after hun-dreds of armed men attacked Masteri, a town largely inhabited by farmers from non-Arab minority groups, killing more than 60 people and wounding dozens.

Save the Children, which said five children were among the dead, announced the tem-porary closure of two health facilities and its field office in Masteri, cutting off “more than 14,000 children from life-saving health services”.

“The health facilities were the only two centres which pro-vided health and nutrition

services for children in the area,” it said.

The attack sparked panic in Masteri and nearby villages. The United Nations humanitarian coordination office OCHA said around 10,000 people had fled towards the town of El-Geneina and another 1,000 had crossed the border into Chad.

Conflict struck Darfur in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against then-president Omar al-Bashir, citing marginalisation and discrimi-nation. Khartoum responded with a scorched-earth campaign that left 300,000 people dead and displaced 2.5 million.

Violence in Darfur had eased since Bashir’s ouster by the army amid mass protests against his rule last year, and after an interim deal between the transitional government and rebel groups.

But recent weeks had seen a surge as long-displaced farmers returned to their land.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said security forces would be deployed to the arid western region to protect residents and allow the farming season to go ahead.

Arshad Malik, Save the Chil-dren’s Sudan director, called on Khartoum to investigate the killings and bring those respon-sible to justice.

“It is indefensible that children have been killed and wounded in the violence, and our thoughts go out to their families,” he said. “If the centres are not reopened soon, chil-dren’s lives will be put at further risk. With already 1.1 million children facing hunger in Sudan, this conflict can only increase the number of children in need.”

As COVID-19 cases begin to surge, Ethiopia battles complacencyAFP — ADDIS ABABA

The car paused at a traffic light, its rooftop megaphone pumping out a message that the city gov-ernment of Addis Ababa has been hammering for months. “Yes, we can and you can!” the recording began.

It then ticked off basic coro-navirus prevention, such as hand-washing, physical dis-tancing and avoiding the hand-shake-plus-shoulder-bump greeting that is normally a fixture of street life in the Ethi-opian capital.

But the message was drowned out by the din of rush hour and seemed barely to reg-ister with customers crammed around tables in roadside cafes.

Inside the car, the health workers themselves questioned what effect they were having.

“We teach people to apply these precautions, but some

people put their masks in their pocket and wear it only when our teams are around,” said Wondimu Taye, a city health communications officer.

Officials worry this lax

approach could hobble Ethio-pia’s pandemic response just as the surge in cases they have been warning about for months finally arrives. To date, Ethiopia has recorded just over 16,600

infections and 260 deaths — modest figures given its popu-lation of 110 million.

Yet the numbers have been trending sharply upward and have doubled in less than three weeks — and the World Health Organization (WHO) frets that unrest sparked by the killing of a pop star from the Oromo ethnic group could further accelerate transmission.

To officials’ dismay, the upward spiral is coinciding with mounting signs of virus fatigue.

Once-ubiquitous hand-washing stations are becoming scarcer. Once-empty restaurants are filling up. And even some health workers say they are struggling to maintain the same vigilance they had in March.

Africa’s second most pop-ulous country earned high marks early on in the pandemic. At the international airport in Addis Ababa, which has

remained open, officials used temperature checks and quar-antine policies to slow COV-ID-19’s arrival.

After the first case was con-firmed in mid-March, the gov-ernment closed land borders and schools, freed thousands of prisoners to ease overcrowding, introduced compulsory mask-wearing and discouraged large gatherings.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed also declared a state of emer-gency in early April, though he stopped short of imposing a lockdown out of concern for those who must “make ends meet daily”.

Despite those measures, community transmission was in full swing well before the shooting death in late June of Hachalu Hundessa, a politically active pop star who was a hero to many Oromos, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group.

Families seek justice for Sudan’s slain anti-Bashir plottersAFP — KHARTOUM

After decades of searching for their loved ones’ remains, the families of slain Sudanese officers who attempted a coup against strongman Omar Al Bashir are demanding the killers held accountable.

Since the 1990 attempt, they have endured intimidation, arrests and beatings — but Bashir’s ouster in April 2019 spurred hopes that they could finally receive justice.

Last week, investigators looking into crimes during the strongman’s 30-year rule found the bodies of the 28 officers dumped in a mass grave in the city of Omdurman.

The coup attempt came just months after Islamist-backed Bashir overthrew the demo-cratically elected government of Sadiq Al Mahdi in 1989.

The attempt to oust him was thwarted and the officers were immediately executed.

“We have been searching for their graves for 30 years. It

was a heinous crime. There was no trial, no investigation and they were executed only 24 hours after their arrest,” said Awatef Mirghani, the sister of one of the officers, Esmat.

“They were all dumped in a single grave, still wearing their uniforms. It was a vio-lation of human dignity,” she said, choking back tears.

In her Khartoum house, Fathiya Kembal keeps at a framed photo of her husband, Bashir Abudeik, in uniform and flashing a broad smile.

The photo, taken as he attended training in the United States, bears a black band on one side as a sign of mourning.

It was April 22, 1990 when the couple and their children gathered at a friend’s house for iftar, an evening meal to break the day-long fast during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan.

Abudeik later drove his family to her father’s house, where “he said he would be busy for two days.” The fol-lowing morning, she woke up

to the news of a failed coup attempt. She rushed to a nearby military base to check on her husband. At the gate, she met some of her husband’s col-leagues, who avoided her gaze.

“They knew he would be killed,” the 61-year-old lawyer said. The news of her husband’s execution, along with other coup plotters, was announced on the official Radio Omdurman the next day.

“It was a massacre. (Abu-deik’s killing) was an extraju-dicial execution,” she said. The families of the slain officers quickly united to call for justice and find the bodies of their loved ones. “Our movement was formed in the spur of the moment and has never stopped since with women — wives, sisters, mothers — at its core,” said Kembal.

As they sought answers, they faced a heavy-handed crackdown. Many were arrested or banned from civil service jobs. Some were forced into exile.

Gangs kidnap scores for ransom near DR Congo wildlife reserve

AFP — KINSHASA

Criminal gangs have kidnapped more than 170 people in a three-year reign of terror on the edge of the Virunga National Park in eastern DR Congo, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

“Small groups armed with guns and machetes have beaten, tortured, and murdered hostages, abusing women and girls... while using threats to extort money from their fam-ilies,” the watchdog said in a report on Thursday.

The gangs seized villagers, sometimes with their babies, who were working in the fields or making their way home, it said.

The abductions occurred in the Bukoma area of Rutshuru territory in North Kivu province, a region where vio-lence is endemic.

The area lies on the fringe of the famous Virunga National Park, a haven for the critically-endangered mountain gorilla.

Victims and their families

who turned to the police say that nothing was done, HRW said. It urged the authorities to work with the UN mission in the country, MONUSCO, which has a base “within a 10km radius” of the area where kid-nappings occurred.

Between December 2019 and June 2020, HRW ques-tioned 37 people about the kidnappings, notably 28 sur-vivors of systematic violence. It said the estimate of abduc-tions and abuses was probably conservative.

“Women and girls were often abused multiple times a day and sometimes by multiple men. Only a few among the oldest and the youngest were spared,” the report said.

The captors would walk their victims for several hours into the Virunga National Park, a UNESCO Heritage Site affected by more than two decades of successive con-flicts. Most were released only when relatives paid a ransom ranging from $200 to $600, the report said.

Rights groups urge release of Algerian scribeAFP — TUNIS

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), fellow journalists and rights groups called on Thursday for Algerian authorities to release detained journalist Khaled Drareni.

The head of the Casbah Tribune website and corre-spondent for RSF and French-language television channel TV5Monde, Drareni has become a symbol of the fight for press freedom in the North African country.

He was arrested in March while covering an anti-gov-ernment protest and accused of “inciting an unarmed gath-ering” and undermining the territorial integrity of the nation. His trial is expected to start on August 3.

RSF says he could face 10 years in prison. “Khaled Drareni must be released, out of loyalty to the ideals of Algerian inde-pendence,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire and Pierre Audin, the son of anti-colonial activist Maurice Audin, wrote in an opinion piece pub-lished in French daily Le Monde.

Pierre Audin is also a member of an international support committee for Drareni whose creation RSF announced Thursday. The committee includes Algerian and foreign journalists, and groups including Human Rights Watch.

“Algerian independence... for which the Algerian people fought hard, aimed to liberate the country from colonial domination based in particular on the control of information,” Deloire and Audin wrote.

“Remaining faithful to the fight for emancipation clearly presupposes respecting freedom of expression, in par-ticular freedom of the press.” Arrests of journalists have increased in recent months.

The latest were a corre-spondent and a cameraman who have worked with France 24 and were released Wednesday after being arrested a day earlier.

A March 17, 2020 picture shows a worker of the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) measuring a passenger’s temperature at a control point at the Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa.

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06 SATURDAY 1 AUGUST 2020ASIA

Hong Kong delays election citing pandemic

REUTERS — HONG KONG

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam yesterday postponed a September 6 election to the Chinese-ruled city’s legislature by a year because of a rise in coronavirus cases, dealing a blow to the pro-democracy opposition which had hoped to make huge gains.

The United States quickly condemned the move, saying it was the latest example of Beijing undermining democracy in the Chinese-ruled territory.

“This action undermines the democratic processes and freedoms that have under-pinned Hong Kong’s pros-perity,” White House spokes-woman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters.

The decision to delay the vote came after 12 pro-democracy candidates were disqualified from running for perceived subversive intentions and opposition to a sweeping new security law imposed by Beijing, prompting questions among many about whether the pandemic was the real reason for the delay.

“Postponing the September elections for a year is a cynical move to contain a political emergency, not a public health one,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch.

“This simply allows Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam to deny Hong Kong people their right to choose their gov-ernment.” Avery Ng, secretary-general of the League of Social Democrats, was equally sceptical.

“Obviously the Chinese Communist Party is using COVID-19 as a cover to stop Hong Kongers from voting

against the government and democrats’ potential majority win,” he said.

“Together with the mass disqualification of candidates, the CCP... only allows an election in which they can control the outcome to take place.” Germany announced it would suspend its extradition agreement with Hong Kong fol-lowing Lam’s decision.

The opposition had aimed to ride a wave of resentment over the national security law to win a majority in the Legis-lative Council, where half the seats are directly elected with the other half filled mostly by pro-Beijing appointees.

Lam said she had to invoke an emergency law to make the postponement and no political considerations were involved. China’s parliament would decide how to fill the legislative vacuum, she added.

She told reporters the decision was aimed at safe-guarding people’s health.

“We have 3 million voters going out in one day across Hong Kong, such flow of people would cause high risk of infection,” Lam said.

Hong Kong has reported more than 3,000 coronavirus cases since January, far lower than in other major cities around the world. But the number of new infections has been in the triple-digits for the past 10 days.

Rival finance hub Sin-gapore, which has had a larger coronavirus outbreak, held a general election in July. Many pro-democracy activists had suspected Lam would use the coronavirus to delay the election.

The poll would have been the former British colony’s first

official vote since Beijing imposed the security law to tackle what China broadly defines as secession, sub-version, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, with pun-ishment of up to life in prison.

Hong Kong returned to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula guaranteeing freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland. Critics of the new law say it under-mines that autonomy.

The Chinese and Hong Kong governments say the law is nec-essary to preserve order and prosperity after months of often-violent anti-China pro-tests last year.

“I anticipated it, because of this year’s social movements, we already anticipated that the gov-ernment wouldn’t give us the right to let us vote,” said resident Janis Chow, 25. “I’m disappointed but I was ready for it.”

News of the postponement came as the nomination period for candidates seeking to run in the election closed.

Among the 12 opposition candidates disqualified was Joshua Wong, who rose to fame leading pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong as a teenager in 2012 and 2014.

“Barring me from running... would not stop our cause for democracy,” said Wong, 23.

Wong, who China calls a “black hand” of foreign forces, said his disqualification was “invalid and ridiculous” and the new law a “legal weapon used against dissidents”.

The government denies political censorship or sup-pression of the right to run for the legislature.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (centre) leaves at the end of a press conference at the government headquarters, in Hong Kong, yesterday.

Arrest warrants issued for six HK democracy activists: CCTV

REUTERS — HONG KONG

Chinese state television said yesterday that Hong Kong author-ities had issued arrest warrants for six pro-democracy activists who fled the city and are suspected of violating a national security law that came into effect on June 30.

CCTV said the six were wanted on suspicion of secession or colluding with foreign forces, crimes that the new law pun-ishes with up to life in prison.

It named the six as Nathan Law, Wayne Chan Ka-kui, Hon-cques Laus, Samuel Chu, Simon Cheng and Ray Wong Toi-yeung.

Wong said he believed the move showed that the Chinese government was afraid of the advocacy work of Hong Kong activists internationally, and wanted to pressure them.

Nathan Law, who is currently also in Britain, remained defiant. He said on Facebook the “wanted bulletins”, recent arrests, and mass disqualifications of pro-democracy activists from a now-delayed election are “indications of our need to remain active on the global stage.” “That Hong Kong has no place for even such moderate views like ours underscores the absurdity of Chinese Communist rule.”

Nepal reopens Everest despite uncertaintyAFP — KATHMANDU

Nepal has reopened its moun-tains — including Everest — for the autumn trekking and climbing season in a bid to boost the struggling tourism sector, officials said yesterday, despite coronavirus uncer-tainty.

The Himalayan country shut its borders in March just ahead of the busy spring season when hundreds of mountaineers usually flock to the country, costing jobs and millions of dollars in revenue.

A nationwide lockdown was lifted last week, and Nepal is now open “for tourism activ-ities, including mountaineering and trekking.” Mira Acharya of the tourism department said.

The government will permit international flights to land in the country from August 17. The decision comes despite over 1,000 new coronavirus infec-tions reported this week, with a total of 19,547 cases.

Officials were “working on” safety protocols Acharya added, including for how long visitors would have to quar-antine on arrival.

Mingma Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks, one of the biggest Nepali expedition organisers, said that clients were calling, but were waiting to find out how long arrivals will have to quarantine for.

“It would be a relief for mountaineering workers if we can run expeditions after an empty spring season,” Sherpa said. Tent cities grow at the foot of Everest and other peaks in the climbing seasons, with climbers and support staff all living in close quarters.

Lukas Furtenbach of Fur-tenbach Adventures said that they had cancelled all expeditions.

“I think running an expe-dition now would be trial and error. Trial and error was never our strategy for expeditions, where we are responsible for the lives of our staff and our clients,” he said.

India sees emergence of new virus hotspotsANATOLIA — NEW DELHI

India is seeing the emergence of new virus hotspots as cases decline in the major cities of Mumbai and Delhi.

According to data from the Indian Health Ministry, a rise in cases was reported in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Kar-nataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.

“Areas like Delhi and Mumbai have managed to gradually bring the curve down. But now we’re seeing new areas and states adding to the tally,” Dr. Digambar Behera, a renowned pulmonol-ogist in North India, told Anadolu agency.

“I guess it’s bound to happen because the cases continue to spread in the community.” Offi-cials warned the public not to let their guard down even when cases are falling and they con-tinue social distancing and wearing masks.

“Cases are coming up in new and rural areas because the disease is spreading further,” Dr. Kapil Yadav of the Centre for Community Medicine in New Delhi-based All India Institute of Medical Sciences said.

“In Delhi, the positive rate is around 30 percent and from Mumbai (Dharavai) we’re seeing 50 percent. Definitely cases would decline because the sus-ceptible population is very less now. It is a normal trend.”

What is worrying now is that infections are going up in places like India’s most populous state Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Bihar. Officials say they have stepped up testing.

“Earlier, the number was less and now every day we are seeing approximately 1,500-2,000 new cases a day. The reason for the rise is because we have increased the testing through which we are able to detect more cases,” Dr. DS Negi, director general of Medical Health in Uttar Pradesh, said.

The state last week wit-nessed a surge of more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours. In Bihar, officials also say the number has increased. “Yes there is an increase in the cases. But I think the reason is because we are doing 16,000 tests per day. When the number of testing is more, the cases also increase,” Dr. Naveen Chandra Prasad, director of Disease Control in the provincial health department,

said. But Dr. Shahid Jameel, virol-ogist and CEO of the Wellcome Trust, argued that cases in these states have increased due to migration.

“It’s a no-brainer that cases would increase in villages and small towns of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, etc. as people migrated from Delhi, Mumbai, etc. after losing jobs. Now that we have increased

testing in those areas, we are finding more and more. The Bihar numbers show a 10% daily increase; the national average is about 3-4 percent,” he said.

He said testing is a strategy to detect more cases. “Test, trace contacts of positives, and isolate. The point is that you won’t know if you don’t test at a high enough density. Testing has to move to small towns and rural areas.

That’s the only way to know,” added Jameel.

With a record number of 55,079 cases, India yesterday crossed the 1.6 million mark, along with 779 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said. The ministry also said that India “achieved another landmark” with more than 600,000 COVID-19 tests done in the last 24 hours.

Vietnam reports first ever virus death after renewed outbreakAP — HANOI

Vietnam yesterday reported its first-ever death of a person with the coronavirus as it struggles with a renewed outbreak after 99 days with no local cases.

The Health Ministry said a 70-year-old man died after con-tracting the disease while being treated for a kidney illness at a hospital in Da Nang. More than 100 new cases have been con-firmed in the past week, more than half of them patients at the hospital.

Da Nang is Vietnam’s most popular beach destination, and thousands of visitors were in the city for summer vacation. Across the country, authorities are rushing to test people who have returned home from the coastal city.

Dr. Luong Ngoc Khue, head of the country’s Administration of Medical Examination and Treatment, said there are at least six other elderly patients with COVID-19 currently in critical condition. All have other under-lying illnesses, he said.

Vietnam had been seen as a global success story in com-bating the coronavirus with zero deaths and no confirmed cases of local transmission for 99 days. But a week ago an outbreak began at Da Nang Hospital. It has grown to 104 confirmed cases in six parts of the country, including three of the largest cities, forcing authorities to reimpose virus restrictions.

Experts worry the actual number of cases could be far higher. Before the latest out-break it had a total of only 416

cases. In Hanoi, where two people have tested positive after returning from Da Nang, over 100 clinics have been set up with test kits to detect the virus. Hanoi is expected to test about 21,000 people who declared that they had recently returned from Da Nang.

“I want to be tested so I can stop worrying if I have the virus or not. It is for me and for the community,” said Pham Thuy Hoa, a banking official who recently went to Da Nang for a family vacation.

“Since coming back, my family and I have quarantined ourselves at home. I did not go to work or see others. We must be responsible for the entire community.” Ho Chi Minh City plans to test 18,000 Da Nang returnees. Da Nang was put under lockdown on Tuesday and testing and business restrictions increased in other areas. The city yesterday began setting up a makeshift hospital in a sports auditorium and doctors have been mobilised from other cities to help.

Health officials collect a nasal swab sample from a woman to test for the coronavirus at a civil hospital, in Amritsar, Punjab, yesterday.

The decision to delay the vote came after 12 pro-democracy candidates were disqualified from running for perceived subversive intentions and opposition to a sweeping new security law imposed by Beijing, prompting questions among many about whether the pandemic was the real reason for the delay.

Seasonal flu

reports hit record

lows amid global

social distancing

REUTERS — BEIJING

Global social distancing rules targeting coronavirus have pushed influenza infection rates to a record low, early figures show, signalling that the measures are having an unprec-edented impact on other communicable diseases.

In China, where the earliest wide-scale lockdown measures began, new reports of diseases including mumps, measles and some transmitted diseases, have declined significantly, though influenza cases have seen the sharpest drop off.

Infections reported monthly by the county’s health ministry have dropped by over 90 percent since the beginning of the lockdown, from an average of around 290,000 cases a month to 23,000.

Canada’s flu surveillance system also reported “excep-tionally low levels” of influenza in a recent report, as did other countries that report weekly flu surveillance statistics including the UK and Australia.

In its most recent weekly report, South Korea’s infectious disease portal reported an 83 percent decrease in cases from the same period a year earlier.

“We’ve seen the lowest ever rates of other viral infection admissions for this time of year,” said Ben Marais, an expert in infectious disease at the Uni-versity of Sydney and clinician at the children’s unit at Westmead Hospital.

“We normally have wards full of children with wheezy chests at this time of year, in winter…but this year the wards are essentially empty,” he said.

The World Health Organi-sation (WHO) estimates there are some 3-5 million severe ill-nesses and up to 500,000 deaths annually linked to sea-sonal influenza globally.

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07SATURDAY 1 AUGUST 2020 ASIA

Philippines extends virus curbs as infections hit record for second dayREUTERS — MANILA

The Philippines reported Southeast Asia’s biggest daily jump in new coronavirus cases for a second straight day yesterday, as its president extended restrictions in the capital to quell the spread, and promised normality would return in December.

President Rodrigo Duterte in a televised address also said the Philippines would be given pri-ority in supplies should China make a breakthrough with a COVID-19 vaccine and the poorest Filipinos would be treated with it first.

The Philippines this month recorded the region’s largest daily rise in coronavirus deaths and yesterday its biggest daily jump in new cases for the second successive day, with 4,063 infec-tions adding strain on inundated hospitals and frontline healthcare

workers. The capital region, provinces south of it and some central cities remain subject to curbs on internal travel, restric-tions on the elderly and children and some business operations.

“My plea is to endure some more. Many have been infected,” Duterte said.

The lockdowns imposed in mid-March are among the world’s strictest and longest, and have taken a toll on the country’s normally fast-growing economy, with gross domestic product expected to shrink 2 percent to 3.4 percent this year, the first contraction in more than two decades.The measures were

eased on June 1 to restart com-merce and stem the losses, but infections have since increased five-fold to 93,354, with deaths more than doubling to 2,023.

Duterte’s coronavirus task force said it would lock down areas where cases surged, while urging government and private hospitals to increase bed capacity. Metropolitan Manila, an urban sprawl of 16 cities home to at least 13 million people, accounts for more than half of the COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Duterte also promised free vaccinations if available by later this year and said the poor would be prioritised, followed by the

middle classes and security forces.

“I promise you, by December, by the grace of God, we will be back to normal,” Duterte said.

Pharmaceutical companies in countries including China, the United States and Britain are

conducting late-stage trials on vaccines.

Duterte on Monday said he had made a plea to Chinese Pres-ident Xi Jinping to make the Phil-ippines among the first to receive vaccines.

The Philippines would buy

40 million doses worth $400 million for 20 million people, about a fifth of its 107 million population, said Finance Sec-retary Carlos Dominguez.

“Once the vaccine is available I am sure we can fully open,” Dominguez said.

Filipinos stranded due to the coronavirus disease restrictions are crammed inside a baseball stadium while waiting to be transported back to their provinces through a government transportation programme, in Manila, Philippines.

Afghan President

orders release

of 500 Taliban

prisoners

AFP — KABUL

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani yesterday ordered the release of 500 Taliban prisoners as part of a new ceasefire that could lead into long-delayed peace talks.

Ghani said the militants would be freed during the Eid Al Adha holiday, which started on Friday and has prompted a national ceasefire for three days.

The release would com-plete the government’s pledge to free 5,000 Taliban fighters as outlined in a deal the insur-gents signed with Washington, he said.

“To show goodwill and accelerate the peace talks, we will release 500 Taliban pris-oners in response to the group’s three-day ceasefire announcement,” Ghani said in an Eid speech.

However, the 500 inmates are not on the original list of 5,000 demanded by the Taliban.

Kabul authorities have already released 4,600 of those prisoners but are hesi-tating about the release of the final 400, deeming them too dangerous.

“I do not have the right to decide on the release of those 400 Taliban prisoners who are accused of serious crimes,” Ghani said, adding that a gath-ering of Afghan elders would decide their fate.

The Taliban, who have insisted on the release of those 400 militants, did not imme-diately comment.

The US-Taliban accord signed in February stipulated Kabul would release 5,000 insurgents in return for 1,000 government forces held captive by the militant group.

Late Thursday, the Taliban claimed they had completed the release of all 1,000 gov-ernment prisoners.

The contentious prisoner swap is a key precondition for peace talks. Both Ghani and the Taliban signalled this week they were ready for talks after Eid, provided the prisoner swap is complete.

Pakistan reports lowest COVID-19 cases since MayANATOLIA — ISLAMABAD

Pakistan yesterday reported around 900 new coronavirus cases, the lowest daily figure in three months, official statistics showed.

With 903 new cases reported over the past 24 hours, the total number of infections to date reached 278,305, with 1,146 of them currently in critical condition, according to Health Ministry

data. This is the lowest daily figure since May 14 when the country reported only 490 confirmed cases.

Following a gradual decline in the number of fatalities, some 27 patients died due to the deadly virus across the country, raising the death toll to 5,951. Over 88 percent of patients, or 247,171, have recovered so far.

According to the ministry, Pakistan has done over 1.97

million tests so far, with 20,507 more samples tested over the past 24 hours.

On Monday, the gov-ernment announced strict restrictions to contain the virus’ spread during the Muslim Eid Al Adha holiday.

During the holiday, mar-riage halls, business centres, expo halls, restaurants, amuse-ments parks, public parks, sports clubs, tourist spots, retail shops, and shopping malls will

remain closed. Authorities have imposed

locality-based lockdowns in virus hotspots across 20 cities since June, and many officials, including Prime Minister Imran Khan, have credited this strategy for the country’s improving numbers.

“The world is widely acknowledging our smart lockdown strategy as our cases are gradually declining,” Khan told a media briefing on

Monday. “However, he urged the

public to continue to follow measures against the virus during the holiday and the Islamic month of Muharram.

“Virus cases could spike again if people neglect the safety guidelines on Eid Al Adha and Ashura,” the anni-versary of the martyrdom of Hussain, the Prophet Muham-mad’s (Peace Be Upon Him) grandson, Khan cautioned.

Surge in damaged cash as worried SouthKoreans try to microwave the virusREUTERS — SEOUL

Worried South Koreans are putting banknotes in their microwaves and washing machines, damaging the bills in their attempts to cleanse them of the coronavirus.

The central bank said yes-terday that people had exchanged three times as much burnt money in the past six months as in the same period last year, much of it thought to be from botched efforts to disinfect bills. A Bank of Korea official said that the amount of money returned to the bank after being burnt between January and June had risen to $1.1 billion from $400 million in the same period last year.

“There was a considerable amount of bills being burnt in the microwave ovens in the first half of this year,” the official said, referring to efforts to prevent the coronavirus.

In a statement, the bank said overall a total of 2.69 trillion won worth of damaged notes and coins were destroyed and of that it exchanged 6.5 billion won worth in the first half of 2020.

Besides using microwaves or ovens to heat the bills, some people also put them in their washing machines, the bank said.

In one example given by the bank, a person surnamed Um came in to redeem at least 35.5 million won ($30,000) in notes damaged after he had

put them in the washing machine.

Um only recovered 22.9 million won, losing at least 35 percent of the original money, which he had received as con-dolence donations for funeral expenses for a family member, the BOK said.

Another case involved a person surnamed Kim, who put 5.2 million won in the microwave to sterilise the money against COVID-19. But the damage was limited so Kim was able to redeem most of the money. In March, the BOK said it was quarantining bank notes for two weeks to remove any traces of the coro-navirus and even burning some as part of efforts to stem the outbreak.

A woman wearing a face mask stands next to workers wearing traditional dress during the daily re-enactment of the changing of the Royal Guards at Gyeongbok Palace, in central Seoul.

South Korean general sacked over defector’s return to North KoreaAFP — SEOUL

A South Korean marine major-general was relieved of his command yesterday after the military failed to prevent a man’s illegal defection back to the North, officials said.

The man’s departure only came to light when Pyongyang — which insists it has not had any coronavirus cases — announced at the weekend that a “runaway” who had returned across the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone was sus-pected of having the disease.

Defections from the South to the North are extremely rare, and doubly so across the DMZ, which divides the peninsula and is one of the world’s most secure borders.

But the South Korean mil-itary later confirmed a 24-year-old man surnamed Kim had gone North by crawling through a drainage channel on Ganghwa island, northwest of Seoul, and then swimming across the Han river.

Yesterday, the joint chiefs of staff (JCS) said that Kim was detected on his journey seven times by surveillance cameras or thermal observation devices, but the military did not intervene.

A guard at a post about 200 metres from the water conduit spotted “lights” when Kim arrived in a taxi at 2.18 am, but took no action, they added.

Marine corps general Baek

Kyung-soon had been removed from his position for the security failure, Seoul’s defence ministry official said.

The JCS said it took Kim about 12 minutes to crawl through the drain, and around an hour to swim across the Han to his destination.

Kim originally defected to the South in 2017, also by swimming across the river. He was being investigated on abuse allegations in the South before his return.

Rights groups say defectors face severe punishment if they return to the North.

The South’s health author-ities said his name did not appear in the database of con-firmed coronavirus cases, nor lists of their contacts.

But analysts say the North is seizing on his arrival to point the finger at Seoul over the coronavirus, after months of denying it had any cases.

Inter-Korean relations have been in a deep freeze following the collapse of a summit in Hanoi between Kim and US President Donald Trump early last year over what the nuclear-armed North would be willing to give up in exchange for a loosening of sanctions.

Yesterday’s announcement comes days after the South’s defence minister Jeong Kyeong-doo apologised over Kim’s departure, saying: “I have no excuse even if I’m told off a hundred times over this.”

Japan ruling party proposes strike capability to halt missile attacksREUTERS — TOKYO

A ruling party committee yesterday approved a proposal for Japan to acquire capabilities to halt ballistic missile attacks within enemy territory, bringing the pacifist nation a step closer to acquiring weapons able to strike North Korea.

“Our country needs to con-sider ways to strengthen deter-rence, including having the capa-bility to halt ballistic missile attacks within the territory of our adversaries,” the proposal doc-ument said.

The proposals, crafted by senior Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers, including former defence minister Itsunori Onodera, will be presented to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as early as next week.

The proposal “is to stay within the bounds of the consti-tution and to comply with inter-national law, that has not changed,” Onodera said at a briefing following policy com-mittee meeting.

The recommendations will be discussed by Japan’s National Security Council, which is

expected to finalise new defence policies by the end of September. Abe has pushed for a more mus-cular military, arguing Japan needs to respond to a deterio-rating security environment in East Asia as North Korea builds missiles and nuclear weapons, China builds a modern, powerful military and Russian forces re-engage in the region.

A strike option is attractive because it is much easier to hit missiles on launch pads than warheads in travel at several times the speed of sound. Finding mobile launchers to hit, however,

require close surveillance with satellites that Japan does not cur-rently possess, meaning it would have to rely on help from ally the United States.

Japan’s defence ministry could decide on equipment pur-chases by the end of the year, government officials told Reuters.

The LDP document included a recommendation that Japan consider how to acquire a defence radar system on a par with Lockheed Martin’s Aegis Ashore system that could also track other threats such as drones and cruise missiles.

New Zealand military slammed over ‘murky’ Afghan raid claimsAFP — WELLINGTON

New Zealand ordered the creation of an independent military watchdog yesterday after an inquiry found senior officers repeatedly misled government ministers about a special forces raid in Afghanistan.

The inquiry, co-chaired by former prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, found no misconduct by elite SAS troops during the 2010 raid, which was carried out with US air support.

But it criticised the military for subsequently dismissing claims that civilians were killed during the operation, even though there was evidence suggesting up to five non-combatants died, including a girl aged 8-10. Attorney-General David Parker said the conduct undermined fundamental tenets of democracy, including the prin-ciple that the civilian government controls the military.

President Rodrigo Duterte in a televised address also said the Philippines would be given priority in supplies should China make a breakthrough with a COVID-19 vaccine and the poorest Filipinos would be treated with it first.

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With the number of cases approaching 500,000 - more than half of Africa’s total and the world’s fifth-highest - the country’s harsh inequalities appear to have contributed to its undoing, government advisers and independent experts said.

08 SATURDAY 1 AUGUST 2020VIEWS

CHAIRMANDR. KHALID BIN THANI AL THANI

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

[email protected]

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

[email protected]

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI [email protected]

EDITORIAL

QATAR has always been a role model in the region for protecting workers’ rights and following the same policy of the State, all government and private entities are providing utmost care to workers during COVID-19 pandemic.

A number of steps have been taken so far for the safety of migrant workers from viral outbreak. As well all infected people in the country including workers are being provided with state-of-the-art health facil-ities and that too sans any charges.

Like other state organisations and companies, National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has been at the forefront to ensure that workers’ health and safety requirements are not being compromised by the employers.

The monitoring and field visits team of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) has now started the second phase of the exceptional visits to follow up on the precautionary measures undertaken by the State to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

During the follow-up phase, the team held meetings with the Penal and Correctional Institutions Department, the Capital Security Department, the Search and Follow up Department, and the Human Rights Department of the Ministry of Interior.

NHRC had formed a field visits team to determine the precautionary measures taken by the State to limit the spread of the coronavirus, as the team started its meetings with the relevant authorities and quar-antine centers and the field visits in the first phase last April.

Under phase three of lifting of restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the outbreak, the Ministry of Public Health also launched a COVID-19 testing cam-paign to swab the workers of beauty centres, barber-shops, health clubs and gyms.

The Deputy Chairman of NHRC and head of the visits and monitoring committee Dr. Mohammed Saif Al Kuwari said that the second phase comes as a con-tinuation of the first phase undertaken by the team, which included many relevant authorities to follow up the precautionary measures taken by the State to con-front the pandemic and limit its spread. He said that that there are new institutions that will be covered in the second phase related to the right to education and the right to practice religious rites.

Al Kuwari added that the visits team followed up the human rights standards stipulated in international laws and covenants during crises, and in light of these exceptional circumstances that the world is facing due to the spread of this pandemic.

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Quote of the day

We're now seeing a warning light on the

dashboard. Our assessment is that we should

now squeeze that brake pedal in order to keep

the virus under control.

Boris Johnson, British Prime Minister

People stand in a queue to receive food aid amid the spread of the coronavirus disease, at the Itireleng informal settlement, near Laudium suburb in Pretoria, South Africa.

When coronavirus patients started arriving at South Africa’s government-run Thelle Mogo-erane Hospital, workers scrambled to set up isolation wards to treat them.

They can’t keep up. Video filmed inside the hospital and seen by Reuters shows patients with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, being treated in a general ward, separated from other patients only by curtains.

“There’s no space anywhere,” nurse Rich Sicina said outside the modernist, iron-roofed hospital in a southern Johannesburg township. “It’s a mess.” Kwara Kekana, spokeswoman for the department of health in Gauteng, the province containing Johannesburg, said that at the beginning of the pandemic, Thelle Mogoerane Hospital had dedicated wards for patients under investigation.

“Once we had a first positive case, a ward was created for confirmed positive cases,” she said, adding that it strictly fol-lowed South Africa’s national infection prevention guidelines.

The struggle is what Pres-ident Cyril Ramaphosa wanted to avoid when he imposed one of the world’s toughest lockdowns in late March - when the country had confirmed just 400 cases - to buy health workers time to prepare.

But the measures battered the economy of Africa’s most industrialised nation, which was in recession before the pan-demic, and Ramaphosa lifted many of them long before infec-tions peaked in order to save livelihoods.

Four months later, South Africa faces a runaway epidemic that has overwhelmed public hospitals in a country where roughly half the population lives below the poverty line, according to the latest government figures from 2015.

With the number of cases approaching 500,000 - more than half of Africa’s total and the world’s fifth-highest - the coun-try’s harsh inequalities appear to have contributed to its undoing, government advisers and inde-pendent experts said.

The first cases were wealthy travellers who brought the virus in from Europe, Asia and beyond, they said.

“They could isolate in their mansions,” said Wolfgang Preiser, a virologist at Stellen-bosch University. “The problem is that these places are main-tained by a whole crowd of domestic workers. They were exposed, and they travelled home in (communal) taxis.” Once the virus reached South Africa’s poor, densely populated townships - a legacy of decades of oppressive white minority rule - it spread quickly, said Yunus Moosa, chief infectious disease specialist at the Uni-versity of KwaZulu-Natal and a senior member of the govern-ment’s COVID-19 advisory panel.

It overwhelmed public hos-pitals “already on the brink of collapse”.

Police and soldiers battled to enforce the lockdown in areas where people live in close quarters and depend on daily earnings to eat. Bustling markets in Soweto, Johannesburg’s biggest township, were a stark contrast to nearly deserted streets in the city’s more affluent suburbs.

Mismanagement and looting of public funds, which have hol-lowed out public services for years, exacerbated shortages of protective clothing and other supplies at some hospitals, according to both the gov-ernment and its critics.

Ramaphosa pledged a crackdown, saying on July 23 that authorities were investi-gating at least 36 corruption alle-gations in areas including COVID-19 procurement and relief programs.

Other factors were less fore-seeable: some epidemiologists think the virus was circulating before it was first detected in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province in early March, including across the country in the tourist hotspot of Western Cape.

Global shortages of testing materials undid an ambitious screening policy.

“I understand people might ask if things could have been done better, but honestly, what more could we have done?” Moosa said.

“If we had a magic wand we could wave and turn our healthcare system into a world-class one overnight, then we would have done it.” The World Health Organization says South Africa is a “wake-up call” for other African nations, where confirmed infections are lower but climbing.

GERNOT WAGNER BLOOMBERG

Is climate change scary because of “black swans” - the low-probability, high-impact tail risks that are, by definition, unlikely? Or is it about what’s well known, already quantified, and very likely to happen unless the world slams on the emissions brakes? And does the difference matter?

Headlines are typically driven by extremes: droughts, floods, fires, tropical cyclones, temperature records, and other nightmares both real today and projected to happen in the near and not-so-near future. It’s easy to see these headlines and want to appear “rational” by coun-tering the “emotional” climate “alarmism.”

That reasoning has two fundamental flaws. First, even

the most middle-of-the-road predictions of what’s likely in store are bad enough, pointing to the very real need to cut CO2 emissions yes-terday. Second, the low-prob-ability, high-impact tail risks make action now even more desirable. Uncertainty is not our friend.

Last week saw the publi-cation of a crucial new assessment on one of the most basic of climate science questions: the link between CO2 in the atmosphere and eventual global average warming. For over 40 years, the answer to the question of how much temperatures increase when atmospheric CO2 doubles has been a “likely” range of 1.5 to 4.5°C. The definition of what “likely” means has changed over the years. The range itself has barely budged, and not for a lack of trying.

This new assessment narrows the “likely” range to 2.6 to 3.9°C.

Good news, bad news. It’s good news because climate change just became signifi-cantly more predictable. After all, it’s the uncertainty itself that’s costly.

It’s bad news for the rest of us. It looks like we aren’t going to get lucky. The best likely case no longer includes any-thing close to 1.5°C. That number increased by around a degree to 2.6°C. Under various other scenarios, the scientists who assessed the evidence did move the lower bound back to 2.3°C to cover all their statis-tical bases. That’s still almost a full degree up from the prior lower bound.

Either way, increasing the lower bound wasn’t much of a surprise. The 1.5°C on the low end always seemed like a reach. Temperatures, after all,

have already increased by at least 1°C, even though CO2 concentrations have not yet increased by 50%-and the goal of rapidly decarbonizing the world economy is to keep it so.

Sadly, we are not as lucky on the upper end. The decrease from 4.5°C to 3.9°C is clearly good. Even more extreme outcomes now are less likely to occur. Alas, that bound goes right back up to 4.5°C under various other sce-narios in the scientists’ assessment. And we can’t cut things off even at 4.5°C. There’s a chance-a small chance, but a chance nonetheless-that tem-peratures would rise even further due to a doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere. That’s the truly scary bit.

By definition, any of these large temperature increases are unlikely and far out in time. That does not mean we can wish them away.

How inequality and poverty underminedSouth Africa’s COVID-19 response

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09SATURDAY 1 AUGUST 2020 EUROPE

Northern Ireland launches UK’s first COVID-19 tracker appREUTERS — DUBLIN

Northern Ireland yesterday launched the United King-dom’s first COVID-19 tracing app, and the first one that can also trace users in another country, Ireland, who have been in contact with someone suffering from the disease.

The developer NearForm, which hopes the app will become a blueprint eventually synching up all of Europe, launched a similar app in Ireland on July 8, and cases can now be traced across the island’s open border by two separate health services.

NearForm’s technical director Colm Harte said the technical approach it used in developing StopCovid NI would work with apps across the rest of the UK and that it could apply across Europe if

countries agree how to share and store data.

Scotland’s devolved gov-ernment announced yesterday that its tracing app is in devel-opment using the same software as Ireland’s and is also being built by NearForm.

It is due to be available in the autumn.

“It’s definitely doable, it’s technically very doable because more and more coun-tries are switching across to the Apple and Google API’s (application programming

interface),” Harte told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“I think it will happen. I don’t know when but countries across Europe are aware that there’s more people starting to travel now, this is a problem that’s going to have to be solved.”

Britain moved to the same Apple and Google model last month when it ditched a homegrown model initially due in May.

NearForm, based in the seaside town of Tramore in

southern Ireland, is building Pennsylvania’s contact tracing app and is in discussions with other states and governments

after the successful Irish launch, Harte said.

Almost 1.5 million people, or 37 percent of the Irish

Republic’s population over the age of 15, have downloaded the Irish app since July 8 and 137 users have been alerted via the app that they have been in close contact with a confirmed case.

Ireland has had one of the lowest infection rates in Europe in recent weeks with an average of around 20 per day until a spike on Thursday. Northern Ireland has a simi-larly low rate with no related deaths reported since July 12.

NearForm’s Harte said that if either app can break even a handful of transmission chains, it will be a success.

“You can get into conver-sations about how many it needs to break before it’s con-sidered really successful, but its goal is to break trans-mission chains. As soon as it’s doing that, it’s having an impact,” he said.

The StopCOVID NI app used for contact tracing the spread of coronavirus in Northern Ireland is displayed on a mobile phone, as it is held up for an illustration photograph, yesterday.

Johnson elevates brother, Brexit allies to House of LordsREUTERS — LONDON

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has elevated to the House of Lords his younger brother, a cricket hero and some of his allies in the campaign to take Britain out of the European Union.

Under an arcane system whose inner workings are not exposed to public scrutiny, British political leaders are entitled on certain occasions to nominate people to the upper chamber of parliament, where they can sit for life.

Among 36 nominations announced yesterday was Jo Johnson, the prime minister’s younger brother, who quit as a junior minister last year because he disagreed with his boss and older sibling’s Brexit strategy.

Jo Johnson supported remaining in the European Union in a 2016 referendum, in sharp contrast to Boris Johnson, who led the successful campaign for Britain to quit the bloc.

In another apparent olive branch to heal Brexit divisions within his Conservative Party, the prime minister nominated

former finance minister Philip Hammond, a prominent remainer who was long the target of vitriolic attacks by Brexit supporters.

Other political nominations tilted more towards the Brexit camp, with peerages bestowed on former opposition Labour lawmakers Kate Hoey and Gisela Stuart, who as ardent Brexiteers became unlikely allies of Johnson during the referendum.

He also nominated former England cricket captain Ian Botham, who in his heyday in the 1980s was regarded by many

fans of the sport as one of its finest all-rounders. Botham was not recognised for his achieve-ments on the field, however, but for his enthusiastic Brexit campaigning.

Among other eye-catching nominations was that of Evgeny Lebedev, the British-Russian owner of the Evening Standard and Independent newspapers. He is the son of Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB agent who became an oligarch.

Evgeny Lebedev, who has spent most of his life in Britain, is frequently seen in high society

circles in London, where he is active as a charity campaigner and patron of the arts. He con-troversially appointed former Conservative finance minister George Osborne, who had no previous experience in jour-nalism, as editor of the Evening Standard in 2017.

The House of Lords has more than 800 members, and despite perennial complaints that the number is far too high and the nominations process opaque and prone to cronyism, prime min-isters from all sides have enthu-siastically added to its numbers.

France readies COVID-19

tests for travellers from

high-risk countriesREUTERS — PARIS

France’s busiest airport was yesterday preparing to start testing passengers for COVID-19 on arrival from high-risk coun-tries, a move that could reduce the need for quarantine measures causing pain to the tourism industry across Europe.

From around 6am today, Paris public hospital official Ben-jamin Paumier was to lead a team of about 30 testers working out of a makeshift space near baggage reclaim at Charles de Gaulle airport.

Anyone landing from one of 12 countries identified by the French government will be required to visit the testers. One worker will record their contact details, then direct them to a col-league who will insert a swab into their nasal passage to gather a sample for testing.

Travellers are then allowed

to continue their journey. Test results will come through between 24 and 48 hours later, when travellers will be contacted by public health workers.

“The test (results) are not available immediately. We don’t know if someone is positive or negative,” Paumier told Reuters at the airport.

“But the objective is to follow these people, especially those who are positive, to follow them up, and find out who they’ve been in contact with.”

With fears around Europe of a second wave of the coronavirus epidemic, some governments have advised against travel to high-risk destinations, or told travellers they must quarantine themselves on their return.

That has prompted anger from some holidaymakers, and the travel and tourism industry, who say it is a blunt instrument. Travel executives have proposed

testing on arrival as a way to curb the epidemic without disrupting travel plans.

Charles de Gaulle airport has been trialling the testing — on a voluntary basis — near a bureau de change in the arrivals area. Paumier supervises a team of around 15 workers which has

been testing close to 1,000 people per day.

But from today, Paumier said, “we’ll have a team two times bigger than we have here because we will have a workload that’s much bigger.” Vincent Lemire, 47, volunteered to take a test yesterday after flying in

from Tel Aviv. Israel is among countries whose travellers will be subject to compulsory testing from today.

“It seems logical,” Lemire said about the new rules. “You know you have passports, customs, baggage. And now you have tests.”

A health worker wearing protective gear talks with a passenger to be tested for COVID-19 on arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport, in Roissy, near Paris, yesterday.

France swelters under heatwave, putting firefighters on alertAFP — PARIS

Intense heat spread across much of France yesterday ahead of a heavy holiday travel weekend, prompting officials to warn of wildfire risks in exceptionally dry and windy conditions.

Around one-third of the country’s 101 departments were on high alert, with Paris forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius in the shade after several cities hit record highs on Thursday.

Authorities in the capital imposed driving restrictions to limit ozone pollution as tens of thousands of Parisiens prepared to flee to cooler climes, according

to the nation’s traffic surveillance agency.

“The heatwave requires the state to be vigilant, and everyone to be cautious,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said while visiting with firefighters in Bourg-en-Bresse, southeast France.

Earlier yesterday, a dramatic wildfire in the middle of the Atlantic coast resort of Anglet was brought under control after it destroyed nearly a dozen homes and forced around 100 people to evacuate. The blaze erupted late Thursday in the Chiberta forest park at Anglet in southwest France, whose beaches just north of Biarritz draw surfers from around the world.

It was the latest of several that erupted in southern and central France this week, kicking off the annual fire season which officials warn could be worsened by the drought and dry heat.

“Ninety percent of these fires are caused by humans,” Envi-ronment Minister Barbara Pompili told BFM television, asking people to use “common sense.”

Officials also urged families and neighbours to check in on the elderly, and retirement homes are on high alert since air-con-ditioners are being discouraged over fears they could foster coro-navirus contagions.

An increase in COVID-19

cases prompted officials to tighten face mask requirements in several cities this week, with many making them mandatory outdoors despite the heat.

The Meteo France weather agency said that storms could bring relief late yesterday in central France. Night

temperatures elsewhere were likely to stay high, falling to just 25 Celsius in cities like Lyon or Grenoble. Last year was France’s hottest on record, and Meteo France has warned that global warming could double the number of heatwaves by 2050.

A fire in Chiberta forest in Anglet, southwestern France, destroyed at least 40 hectares of pine trees, on Thursday.

New virus cases in Spain surge past 3,000ANATOLIA — OVIEDO

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Spain shattered post-lockdown records for the second day in a row, with the Health Ministry reporting 3,092 new cases yesterday.

Over the last two weeks, 27,020 people have been infected with the disease, a three-fold increase compared to a fortnight

ago. Meanwhile, virus hotspots are beginning to shift.

Aragon in northeastern Spain is reporting a rising number of cases with 173 people hospi-talized within last week.

On the other hand, the pace of new contagions in Catalonia remains high but stable, with weekly infections in the region at 5,008. Madrid, however, con-tinues to see a rapid surge in new

infections. Over the last week, Spain’s capital has confirmed 2,074 cases. Last Friday, the weekly total was at 789.

All other Spanish regions, with the exception of Navarra and La Rioja, have also seen an increase in weekly totals com-pared to last Friday.

With the uptick in cases, Germany moved to put Catalonia, Navarra and Aragon on its

high-risk list yesterday, meaning arrivals from those regions will either have to present a negative coronavirus test or quarantine when they land in Germany.

Earlier this week, the UK announced a quarantine on all arrivals from Spain, angering Spanish officials who were caught off guard and depending on the British market to help save the summer tourism season.

Yesterday, the Catalan High Court of Justice struck down another measure passed by the regional authority to control the virus’ spread. The court ruled that clubs in the area cannot be forced to close down at midnight.

Earlier, the same court ruled that gyms, movie theatres and sports centres should re-open, again knocking down the gov-ernment restrictions.

Moscow urges

Belarus to free 33

detained RussiansAP — MOSCOW

The Kremlin demanded yesterday that Belarus quickly release 33 Russian private security contractors it detained on terrorism charges, dismissing accusations of plots during the Belarus presidential campaign as bogus.

The allegations represent an unprecedented escalation of tensions between Russia and neighboring Belarus, tradi-tionally close allies, as Belarus’ P r e s i d e n t A l e x a n d e r Lukashenko seeks a sixth term in the Auguest 9 election.

Belarusian officials said the employees of private Russian military contractor Wagner, who were detained on Wednesday, are facing a criminal probe on charges of plotting terror attacks in Belarus amid the country’s pres ident ia l e lect ion campaign.

The Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, said yesterday they will ask Belarus to hand over 28 of the detainees on charges of fighting alongside Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The Wagner company is linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman who was indicted in the United States for meddling in the 2016 US presi-dential election. The firm has allegedly deployed hundreds of military contractors to eastern Ukraine, Syria and Libya.

Independent observers and opposition supporters in Belarus see the detention of the Russians as part of the authoritarian Lukashenko’s efforts to shore up sagging public support.

Greece migrant

camp lockdown

extendedAFP — ATHENS

Greece yesterday announced another extension to the end of August of a controversial coro-navirus lockdown on its over-crowded migrant camps as infections in the country pick up.

The lockdown on camps introduced in March will now be extended until August 31 “to prevent the emergence and dis-persal of coronavirus cases,” the migration ministry said in a statement.

Greece, with 203 corona-virus deaths, has so far not been as badly hit as many other European countries — and there have been no deaths in the migrant camps.

But the presence of more than 26,000 asylum seekers on the five Aegean islands — in camps with capacity of under 6,100 — has caused major fr ict ion with local communities.

The reopening of Greek air-ports and borders to tourism, accompanied by the removal of lockdown restrictions for the general population, has led to an increase in cases.

Since July 1, there have been over 340 confirmed infections among nearly 1.3 million incoming travellers, the civil protection agency said on Tuesday.

The developer NearForm, which hopes the app will become a blueprint eventually synching up all of Europe, launched a similar app in Ireland on July 8, and cases can now be traced across the island’s open border by two separate health services.

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Under the deal announced by the governor, the agents will withdraw in phases. But federal officials insisted that the agents will not leave the city completely and will be kept on standby.

10 SATURDAY 1 AUGUST 2020AMERICAS

Eid Al Adha prayer in VancouverMuslims perform Eid Al Adha prayer within precautions against the novel coronavirus pandemic at Masjid Al Salaam in Vancouver, Canada, yesterday.

Portland has no fires and arrests as federal agents withdraw AP — PORTLAND

Leaders in Portland, Oregon, caught their breath and moved forward with cautious optimism yesterday after the first nightly protest in weeks ended without any major confrontations, vio-lence or arrests.

The dramatic change in tone outside a federal courthouse that’s become ground zero in clashes between demonstrators and federal agents came after the US government began drawing down its forces under a deal between Democratic Governor Kate Brown and the Trump administration.

As agents from US Customs and Border Protection, the US Marshals Service and Immi-gration and Customs Enforcement pulled back, troopers with the Oregon State Police were supposed to take over. There were no signs of any law enforcement presence outside the Mark O Hatfield Federal Courthouse, however, where a protest lasted into early yesterday.

“Last night, the world was watching Portland. Here’s what they saw: Federal troops left downtown. Local officials pro-tected free speech. And Orego-nians spoke out for Black Lives Matter, racial justice, and police accountability through peaceful, non-violent protest,” Brown said in a tweet yesterday.

Mayor Ted Wheeler also struck an optimistic tone but cautioned that there was much work to be done after more than 60 days of protests — and not just in cleaning up downtown Portland.

Local and state leaders are taking action on calls for racial justice reform, he said. Brown and regional and local leaders are pushing for a raft of measures that would address systemic racism in everything from policing to housing. Those proposals could be fast-tracked for consideration in a special legislative session later this summer.

Portland’s City Council also voted this week to refer a ballot measure to voters in November that would create a police review board independent from any elected official or city department.

“We need the time to heal. We need the time to allow people to come back downtown and experience the great downtown that people remember from just a few months ago,” said Wheeler, a Democrat.

“The mass demonstrations that we’ve seen over many, many weeks, those demands have been heard. The demands have been understood.”

The scene outside the federal courthouse stood in

sharp contrast to the two weeks of violent clashes between pro-testers and the agents sent by President Donald Trump to quell the unrest in Oregon’s largest city. Protests have roiled Portland for more than 60 days following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

At the protest that began on Thursday night, there was little violence and few signs of con-frontation as several thousand people gathered near the courthouse.

In preparation for the handover from federal author-ities to state troopers, the local sheriff and Portland police met and agreed not to use tear gas except in situations with a threat of serious injury or death, the mayor said.

Wheeler, who was gassed when he joined protesters outside the courthouse last week, added that tear gas “as a tactic really isn’t all that effective” because protesters have donned gas masks and often return to the action after recovering for a few minutes. He apologized to peaceful dem-onstrators exposed to tear gas used by Portland police before federal officials arrived.

Under the deal announced by the governor, the agents will withdraw in phases. But federal officials insisted that the agents will not leave the city com-pletely and will be kept on standby.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell said he believes the new collaboration between local law enforcement agencies will be seen “as a victory in many ways”.

Coronavirus infects hundreds of children at US summer campAFP — WASHINGTON

Hundreds of children con-tracted the coronavirus at a summer camp in the US state of Georgia last month, health authorities said yesterday, adding to a growing body of evidence that minors are both susceptible to infection and vectors of transmission.

The virus infected at least 260 of the 597 attendees, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, adding that the true number was probably higher since test results were only available for 58 percent of the group.

The camp ignored the CDC’s advice that all participants in summer camps wear cloth masks — requiring them only for staff.

It did however adhere to a state executive order requiring all par-ticipants to show proof of a neg-ative COVID-19 test taken 12 days or less before their arrival.

Other precautionary measures included physical dis-tancing, frequent disinfection of surfaces, keeping children among the same small group, also known as “cohorting,” and staggering the use of communal spaces.

The camp held an orien-tation for 138 trainees and 120 staff members from June 17 to June 20 — the vast majority of whom were themselves aged 21 and under. The staff remained when the camp offi-cially opened on June 21 and were joined by 363 campers, who ranged in age from six to

19, as well as three more senior staff members.

Camp attendees “engaged in a variety of indoor and outdoor activities, including daily vig-orous singing and cheering,” the report said. They slept in cabins housing up to 26 people.

One June 23, a teenage staff member left camp after devel-oping chills the previous evening. The staff member was tested for SARS-CoV-2 — the novel coronavirus — on June 24 and got a positive result the same day. The camp began sending campers home that day and closed the camp on June 27.

A health investigation started June 25 found that 260 of 344 people for whom test results were available were positive.

Rally outside Trump TowerPeople take part in a “Get Your Knee Off My Neck” march and rally outside Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, US, yesterday.

Florida, Mississippireport record increasein COVID-19 deathsREUTERS — MISSISSIPPI

Florida reported a record increase in new COVID-19 deaths for a fourth day in a row yesterday, with 257 fatalities, according to the state health department.

In numerical terms, the loss of life is roughly equivalent to the number of passengers on a single-aisle airplane.

Mississippi also reported a record increase in deaths on Friday, with fatalities rising by 52. That was a record rise for the state for the second day in a row.

Overall in the United States, deaths have increased by nearly 25,000 in July to 153,000 total lives lost since the pandemic started.

Florida also reported 9,007 new cases, bringing its total infections to over 470,000, the second highest in the country behind California. Florida’s

total death toll rose to nearly 7,000, the eighth highest in the nation, according to a Reuters tally.

Florida is among at least 18 states that saw cases more than double in July.

Florida had over 311,000 new cases in July, more than triple the 96,000 new cases it reported in June. The state also recorded over 3,400 deaths in July compared with about 1,000 the prior month.

Florida reported record one-day increases in cases three times during the month, with the highest on July 12, at 15,300 new cases in a single day.

Nationally, deaths are rising at their fastest rate since early June and one person in the United States died about every minute from COVID-19 on Wednesday, the day with the largest increase in deaths so far this week.

Mexico to eclipse Britain with third highest virus death tollREUTERS — MEXICO CITY

Mexico is poised to overtake Britain as the country with the third-highest coronavirus death toll as the pandemic reaches new milestones in Latin America and threatens to disrupt efforts to reopen the economy.

The unwanted record will place Mexico behind Brazil, Latin America’s largest and most populous nation, and the United States. More than 91,000 people have died in Brazil and the death toll in the United States has surpasses 152,000.

Mexico on Thursday recorded 639 additional fatal-ities to bring its confirmed coro-navirus toll to 46,000, with 416,179 confirmed cases. The United Kingdom has recorded 46,084 deaths and 303,913 cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Mexican officials say the spread of the pandemic is likely far more extensive than official figures reflect. The rising tolls have cemented Latin America’s status as one of the epicenters of the virus as cases in the region have doubled over the past month to over 4.7 million infections.

While the UK appears to have put the brakes on the virus, the pandemic shows few signs of slowing in Mexico.

“We’re opening when we’re not yet ready to open,” said Rosa Maria del Angel, head of Infec-tomics and Molecular Patho-genesis at Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who angered some health advo-cates by refusing to wear a face mask in public, yesterday said Mexico plans to go ahead with celebrations in the capi-tal’s massive Zocalo Square to mark the Independence Day.

The September 16 cer-emony that celebrates a his-toric call to revolt known as “El Grito” would be “socially distanced”, Lopez Obrador said in a press conference.

Hurricane lashes Bahamas,churns towards FloridaAFP — MIAMI

Hurricane Isaias lashed the Bahamas Friday as it churned toward Florida, bringing new dangers to a US state suffering record deaths from an unre-lenting coronavirus outbreak.

The category one storm, packing winds of 75 miles (120km) an hour, gained strength on Thursday night after sweeping over the Dominican Republic.

As of 1500 GMT, it was an expansive storm, moving northwest at a speed of 16 mph, kicking up heavy squalls and whipping the southeastern Bahamas and Turks and Caicos island chains with strong winds, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

“Some strengthening is possible today, and Isaias is expected to remain a hurricane for the next few days,” it said.

The eye of the storm was expected to pass over south-eastern Bahamas and reach the central Bahamas during the night. On its current path, it should be in the northwestern

Bahamas by today and near Florida tomorrow, the fore-casters said.

Hurricane warnings were up across the low-lying Bahamas while parts of Flor-ida’s east coast — including Palm Beach, the location of President Donald Trump’s Mar a Lago resort — were under a hurricane watch.

Florida Governor Ron De Santis signed an emergency declaration for counties on the exposed Atlantic coast. But a slight shift westward in the storm’s trajectory raised hopes that Florida will be spared a direct hit. DeSantis said it was too early to open shelters, but urged residents to stock up on enough water, food and med-icine to last a week.

Bahamas Prime Minister Hubert Minnis on Thursday relaxed strict stay-at-home orders imposed because of the coronavirus to allow residents to prepare for the hurricane. “I beg you, do not use this period for hurricane preparation to go socializing and visiting friends or family,” Minnis said.

Argentina extends virus lockdown as cases rise

REUTERS — BUENOS AIRES

Argentina will extend a man-datory lockdown until August 16 as its coronavirus cases continue to rise, President Alberto Fernandez announced yesterday. The lockdown, which has been the strictest in the capital Buenos Aires, was due to expire on Sunday.

The South American nation has seen its caseload spike in recent weeks and recorded a record daily tally on Thursday with 6,377 new cases. There are now 185,373 confirmed cases and 3,466 deaths, according to the latest gov-ernment data.

“The big problem that we have had in the last 15 days is that we relaxed, we felt that it was contained... I ask you please to help us and to join us,” Fernandez said in a news conference.

Argentina has been under lockdown since March 20, though restrictions were pre-viously relaxed in many parts of the country.

Bolsonaro sticks to travel plan despite ‘mold’ in lungsREUTERS — BRASILIA

Brazilian President Jair Bol-sonaro made a scheduled visit to the south of the country yes-terday, after revealing the night before that he is taking antibi-otics for a lung infection.

Bolsonaro has previously tested positive three times for the coronavirus, but, according to one source, doctors accom-panying him on the trip have not linked the lung infection to COVID-19.

Bolsonaro is one of a handful of world leaders to have tested positive for coro-navirus. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was rushed into intensive care in April, and took several weeks to fully recover.

Having spent most of July self-isolating at his official res-idence in Brasilia, Bolsonaro said on Saturday that his last coronavirus test was negative.

However, a week back into his normal schedule, the president said in his weekly live broadcast on Thursday that he felt weak and the test results revealed an infection.

“I just had a blood test, you know, I had a little weakness yesterday, they even found a little bit of infection too. I’m on antibiotics now.... After 20 days indoors, I have other problems. I have mold in my lungs,” he said.

His wife, Michelle Bol-sonaro, tested positive on Thursday, according to a statement from the presidential palace. Science and Technology Minister Marcos Pontes also tested positive for the virus, making him the fifth Cabinet minister diagnosed publicly.

Despite his lung infection, Bolsonaro on Thursday visited the states of Bahia and Piauí, which both boast warm weather.