French wildfire forces resort evacuations

Amir, Merkel stress peaceful transfer of power in Afghanistan

Amir congratulatesIndonesia president

Iran’s uranium enrichment near weapons-grade: IAEA

Heavy rains lash Haitiquake survivors

Belarus officers crossLithuania border

Hundreds of French firefighters battled to contain a raging wildfire near the glitzy Mediterranean resort of Saint-Tropez yesterday, with thousands of residents and holidaymakers forced to evacuate. Roughly 900 firefighters were using high-pressure hoses, aircraft and helicopters in an attempt to control the flames, which began racing through the scrubland and trees of the Plaine des Maures nature reserve on Monday evening. Page 11

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani held a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday evening. During the phone call, which the Amir received from the German Chancellor, the two sides reviewed the latest developments on the regional and international arenas, in particular the developments in Afghanistan and their repercussions. Both sides underlined the importance of continuing the talks and intensifying the necessary eff orts to achieve the national reconciliation and the peaceful transfer of power for the interest of the Afghan people. The phone call also touched on the strong bilateral relations and means of promoting and enhancing them. (QNA)

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, His Highness the Deputy Amir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz al-Thani sent yesterday cables of congratulations to Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the anniversary of his country’s Independence Day. (QNA)

Iran has accelerated its enrichment of uranium to near weapons-grade, the UN atomic watchdog said in a report yesterday, a move raising tensions with the West as both sides seek to resume talks on reviving Tehran’s nuclear deal. Iran increased the fissile purity to which it is refining uranium to 60% from 20% in April. Weapons-grade is around 90% purity. In May the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Iran was using one cascade, or cluster, of advanced centrifuges to enrich to up to 60% at its above-ground pilot enrichment plant at Natanz.

Heavy rains overnight lashed thousands of people left homeless by a weekend earthquake in Haiti that killed about 2000, causing flooding and complicating relief eff orts, even as the storm moved past the Caribbean country yesterday. The quake brought down tens of thousands of buildings in the poorest country in the Americas, which is still recovering from a temblor 11 years ago that killed over 200,000 people.

A dozen Belarusian off icers in riot gear illegally crossed into Lithuanian territory yesterday while pushing a group of 35 Iraqi migrants over the border, Lithuania’s border guard service said. Lithuania, a member of the European Union, accuses Belarus of deliberately flying in Iraqi migrants to Minsk and then ferrying them over the border to claim asylum as retaliation for sanctions imposed by the EU on the former Soviet republic.

GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978WEDNESDAY Vol. XXXXII No. 12009

August 18, 2021Muharram 10, 1443 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

Qatar and Jordan sign MoU to develop and strengthen education sector

QATAR | Page 3BUSINESS | Page 1

Dukhan Bank off ers customers ‘Apple Pay’, a safer, more secure way for transactions

HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Aff airs Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met yesterday morning with a delegation of Taliban headed by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The meeting reviewed the latest security and political developments in Afghanistan, stressing on the protection of civilians, intensifying the necessary eff orts to achieve national reconciliation, working for a comprehensive political settlement and a peaceful transfer of power, with the importance of preserving the gains made by the Afghan people. (QNA)

FM meets Taliban delegation

Blended educationin new school yearThe Ministry of Education and

Higher Education (MoEHE) has decided to adopt a blended

education system for academic year 2021/2022, with rotation attendance on campus for government schools starting on August 29 and for private schools and kindergartens according to their academic calendars.

All government and private schools and kindergartens have to maintain 50% attendance. The situation will be continuously monitored and assessed in direct co-ordination with the Min-istry of Public Health (MoPH). The decision is based on the updated in-dicators published by the MoPH on the Covid-19 pandemic and in line with the precautionary measures set by the state to contain the spread of infection.

It was also decided to make it man-datory for students from Grades 1-12 to wearing masks throughout their presence in the school premises. The precautionary measures inside the educational buildings will remain in

force, as it is mandatory for all gov-ernment and private schools to ensure the following:

Dividing students into groups of a maximum of 15 students each, while maintaining a social distance of 1.5m between each student.Commitment to wearing a mask

across all school stages, starting with Grade 1 of primary stage.Maintaining 50% capacity of the

school buses when transporting stu-dents.Continuously observe the bub-

ble system inside the classrooms and organising the entry and exit of stu-dents to prevent overcrowding.Students who suff er from dis-

eases that prevent them from receiv-ing education at school are excluded from physical attendance, as deter-mined by the MoPH, provided they continue to attend their classes re-motely. Such students must submit a recent medical certifi cate approved by the MoPH.It is forbidden to go out on recre-

ation. Students must eat their meals inside the classroom. To Page 2

50% rotation attendance on campusGrades 1-12 students to wear masks Only 15 students in each classroomNo recreation activities or assemblyExaminations in school premises

Taliban promise amnesty, women’s rightsReuters Kabul

The Afghan Taliban said yester-day they wanted peaceful rela-tions with other countries and

would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law, as they held their fi rst offi cial news brief-ing since their shock seizure of Kabul.

The Taliban announcements, short on details but suggesting a softer line than during their rule 20 years ago, came as the United States and Western allies evacuated diplomats and civil-ians the day after scenes of chaos at Kabul airport as Afghans thronged the airfi eld.

As they rush to evacuate, foreign powers are assessing how to respond to the changed situation on the ground after Afghan forces melted away in just days, with what many had predicted as the likely fast unravelling of women’s rights.

“We don’t want any internal or ex-ternal enemies,” the movement’s main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said.

Women would be allowed to work

and study and “will be very active in society but within the framework of Islam”, he added.

“All those in the opposite side are pardoned from A to Z,” he said. “We will not seek revenge.”

He also said they were “committed to letting women work in accordance with the principles of Islam”, without off ering specifi cs.

A spokesman for the group in Doha, Suhail Shaheen, told Britain’s Sky News that women would not be required to wear the all-covering burqa, but did not

say what attire would be acceptable.In response, UN spokesman

Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York: “We will need to see what actually happens and I think we will need to see acts on the ground in terms of promises kept.”

The European Union said it would

only co-operate with the Afghan gov-ernment following the Taliban’s return to power if they respected fundamental rights, including those of women.

Taliban spokesman Mujahid said the group would not seek retribution against former soldiers and members of the Western-backed government, and

was granting an amnesty for former Afghan government soldiers as well as contractors and translators who worked for international forces. Page 11

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid (L) gestures as he speaks during the first press conference in Kabul yesterday.

Afghan people sit as they wait to leave the Kabul airport yesterday.

QNB brings Apple Pay to customers

QNB Group, the largest fi nancial institution in the Middle East and

Africa (MEA), is off ering its customers Apple Pay, a safer, more secure and private way with iPhone and Apple Watch.

This helps customers avoid handing their payment card to someone else, touching physi-cal buttons or exchanging cash and uses the power of iPhone to protect every transaction.

Customers need to hold their iPhone or Apple Watch near a payment terminal to make a contactless payment. Every Apple Pay purchase is secure as it is authenticated with face ID, touch ID, or device passcode, as well as a one-time unique dynamic security code.

Apple Pay is accepted in gro-cery stores, pharmacies, taxis, restaurants, coff ee shops, retail

stores, and many more places.QNB has developed a wide

array of digital payment solu-tions in order to cope with the challenges of the Covid-19 and to make payments contactless, whilst customer payment data remains secure.

“We are proud for taking the initiative of bringing Apple Pay to the Qatari market. QNB has a reputation of providing its cus-tomers with state-of-the-art technologies. With Apple Pay payment services enabled to our customers, we commit to ad-dress their changing needs with the highest and most advanced

levels of service,” said Heba al-Tamimi, general manager, QNB Group’s Retail Banking.

Customers can also use Ap-ple Pay on iPhone, iPad, and Mac to make faster and more convenient purchases in apps or on the web in Safari without having to create accounts or repeatedly type in shipping and billing information.

Apple Pay makes it easier to pay for food and grocery deliveries, online shopping, transportation, and parking. It can also be used to make pay-ments in apps on Apple Watch. To Page 4

Huge international airlift under wayA huge international airlift of foreigners and Afghans who worked with them continued yesterday as thousands of people terrified at the prospect of Taliban rule flocked to Kabul airport. Nato Secretary-General Jens Stolten-berg said the alliance would send ad-ditional aircraft to bolster the operation after member states met, adding that evacuations were “gradually resuming” following chaotic scenes on Monday after commercial flights were halted. In addition to aircraft, the US has sent military reinforcements to protect the exodus, with troop numbers swelling to 4,000. Major General Hank Taylor, a top military off icial, said the US aimed to increase its airlift to one aircraft an hour so that between 5,000 and 9,000 pas-sengers could be carried out per day.

Taliban co-founder back in AfghanistanThe Taliban’s co-founder returned to Afghanistan yesterday following the group’s stunning takeover of the country. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar’s arrival from Qatar - where he has spent months leading talks with the United States and then Afghan peace negotiators - crowns an astonishing comeback for the Taliban after being ousted 20 years ago.

QATARGulf Times Wednesday, August 18, 20212

HE the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs Dr Ahmed bin Hassan al-Hammadi met yesterday with Malta’s ambassador to Qatar Charles Sultana. During the meeting, bilateral relations were reviewed. — QNA

Fatimah bint Ahmed al-Kuwari, member of the Central Municipal Council (CMC) for the 9th constituency, has submitted her resignation for “personal reasons”, the CMC said yesterday. She thanked the CMC chairman and members for their support and co-operation. CMC chairman Mohamed bin Hammoud al-Shafi expressed his appreciation for her achievements and service for the country.

Al-Hammadi meets Malta’s envoy

Farewell to CMC member

US thanks Qatar for help in Afghan evacuations

HE the Deputy Prime Min-ister and Minister of Foreign Aff airs Sheikh

Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani received yesterday a tel-ephone call from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The call dealt with reviewing strategic bilateral relations, and the latest security and political developments in Afghanistan.

Blinken thanked Qatar for its role in continuing talks and providing the necessary assistance in the process of the evacuation in Af-ghanistan.

The two sides stressed the im-portance of protecting civilians, intensifying eff orts to achieve a national reconciliation, and working on a comprehensive political settlement to ensure a

peaceful transition of power in light of the gains the people of Afghanistan have achieved.

HE the Minister of Foreign Af-fairs also received a phone call from UN Secretary-General An-tonio Guterres. During the phone call, the two sides discussed the latest security and political de-velopments in Afghanistan and the implications of the current

situation in the country. Mean-while, HE Sheikh Mohamed held yesterday phone calls with Indo-nesian Minister of Foreign Aff airs Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi and South Korean Minister of Foreign Aff airs Chung Eui-yong. The latest security and politi-cal developments in Afghanistan were reviewed during the phone calls. — QNA

Blended education in new school yearFrom Page 1

Cancellation of the morning assembly and group activities, including trips, camps and celebrations. The events can be organised re-motely.Students are to take all exams inside the

school premises.Specialised and technical schools, and

schools for students with special needs and village-based schools shall adhere to 50% at-tendance rate. As for schools that have a small number of students, the attendance shall be 100%, provided that the number of students in one class does not exceed 15 while maintaining a distance of 1.5m between them.

While 94% of the educational and adminis-trative personnel in all government and private schools and kindergartens in Qatar have re-ceived their vaccinations, the MoEHE stressed the need that all administrators and teachers apply the precautionary measures and co-op-erate fully with the authorities concerned in the event of diagnosing or suspecting any cases of Covid-19.

They are urged to fi rmly and swiftly deal with any violation of the precautionary measures in schools.

The MoEHE reiterated that any violation to these measures will result in taking legal actions against the transgressor(s). The administrative and teaching staff in government and special-ised schools, schools for students with special needs, and private schools and kindergartens are obligated to conduct the rapid antigen Cov-id-19 tests approved by the MoPH on a weekly basis for those who did not receive or complete the doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. Those who have completed doses of the Covid-19 vaccine and those who have recovered from the disease are exempted from conducting the tests.

In a special speech, addressing the school personnel, HE the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohammed Abdul Wa-hed Ali al-Hammadi congratulated them on the advent of a new academic year to build a prom-ising future for the students.

“We highly appreciate your exceptional ef-forts, especially during the pandemic period as we have a growing trust in you and your role in building and educating the human element, an essential pillar of building the nation. The achievements of the students are the fruit of

your eff orts and performance. I also would like to welcome our new teachers and I express my support to them for choosing this great profes-sion, that of building generations for the future. Ensuring the progress of students and increas-ing their academic achievements is the primary goal of the educational process, as it repre-sents the fi rst and most important indicator of the school performance as a whole. Let us join hands together to accomplish this great mission in providing the best educational opportunities for our students.”

Qatar Fund for Develop-ment (QFFD) and the Ministry of Higher Edu-

cation and Scientifi c Research in Jordan have signed a memoran-dum of understanding (MoU) to contribute to the development and strengthening of the educa-tion sector by rehabilitating and improving the educational capa-bilities of young people, in co-operation with Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, which will implement and manage all the designated projects.

The MoU was inked in the presence of Jordan’s Minister of Planning and International Co-operation, Nasser Shraideh. The MoU will cover 800 students of Jordanian nationality and refu-gees hosted by Jordan to provide them with educational services, in accordance with selection cri-teria of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientifi c Re-search. Luminus Technical Uni-versity College will implement the programme, which will in-clude the provision of certifi cates such as bachelor’s degree, local

diploma and technical diploma. On this occasion, QFFD di-

rector-general Khalifa Jassim al-Kuwari said: “This agreement comes in the context of co-oper-ation between the two brotherly countries, which contributes to the rehabilitation and improve-ment of the educational capa-bilities of young people through the support and fi nancing of the Scholarships Programme for Youth of the Qatar Scholarships Programme. The scholarships cover the costs of tuition fees.”

He added: “Qatar Fund for De-velopment is proud to support the higher education sector in sisterly Jordan, as this agreement is an extension of the eff orts made by Jordan during the previous decades to develop the educa-tion sector, which made it one of the leading countries in general-ising primary school enrolment and gender equality in Jordanian schools. We also affi rm, once again, the State of Qatar’s keen-ness to support education with the aim of securing decent life and empowering youth.”

Prof Dr Mohamed Khair Abu Qudais, Minister of Higher Edu-cation and Scientifi c Research, noted: “This programme will have the greatest impact on sup-porting Jordanian students and enabling them to complete their studies in technical and applied disciplines required in the local and regional labour market. The program will also provide support to a large number of refugee stu-dents residing in the kingdom and ensure a safer future for them, as they will also be able to complete their studies.”

He stressed that the govern-ment of Jordan, represented by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientifi c Research, looks forward to achieving more co-operation with QFFD, which is a Qatari public institution entrust-ed with co-ordinating and imple-

menting foreign development aid projects on behalf of Qatar. QFFD has provided assistance to many countries all over the world in line with the objectives of interna-tional co-operation set forth by the Qatar National Vision 2030, a press statement notes.

Commenting on this partner-ship, Fahd bin Hamad al-Sulaiti, CEO of EAA Foundation, assert-ed: “We are pleased to witness the agreement concluded between Qatar Fund For Development and the Jordanian Ministry of Educa-tion, aimed at providing impor-tant educational opportunities for marginalised youth, as we also witness new co-operation between Qatar and Jordan in the education sector.”

He added: “Education is an es-sential tool to support the grow-ing number of Syrian refugees in

Jordan, and combat the exacer-bating eff ects of poverty, social inequality and the continuing impact of the Covid-19 pandem-ic. We aim to provide the next generation, regardless of their economic background, with the essential pillars to reach suitable career opportunities and a bet-ter future.” Shraideh praised the depth of the bilateral relations between Jordan and Qatar, which were laid down by King Abdullah II bin al-Hussein and His High-ness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, while express-ing Jordan’s constant aspiration to strengthen and develop these relations at various levels to serve the interest and good of the two brotherly peoples.

Shraideh stressed the Jorda-nian government’s appreciation of the QFFD and EAA Foundation for contributing to the fi nancing of the scholarship programme for youth, as this initiative will con-tribute to supporting Jordanian students and enabling them to complete their studies in tech-nical and applied disciplines re-

quired in the local and regional labour market. This is in addition to the fact that the programme will provide support for a number of refugee students residing in the kingdom.

He also referred to the sup-port provided by Qatar to the development eff orts of the Jor-danian government, wherein Qatar Charity recently provided a grant of QR10mn to provide Covid-19 vaccines for the benefi t of the Ministry of Health. QFFD contributed to the joint account of donor countries in the health sector (MDA) by pumping a grant amounting to $4.2mn, as this ac-count had a basic and important role in enabling the Jordanian Ministry of Health to provide ap-propriate health services in light of the diffi culties it faces, repre-sented by the repercussions of the spread of Covid-19 and the continuing challenge of hosting Syrian refugees.

Sheikh Saud bin Nasser bin

Jassim al-Thani, Qatar’s ambas-sador to Jordan, said: “We are proud of the progress made by the two countries in the educational fi elds at all levels, and are looking forward to further to accomplish progress and partnership in this area. May Allah protect our two brotherly countries and grant them all the reasons for progress and prosperity under the lead-ership of His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Amir of the country, and his brother, His Majesty King Abdul-lah II bin al-Hussein.”

QFFD, along with its strate-gic partner, EAA Foundation, is completing the mission of pro-viding educational facilities to developing countries and helping students complete their educa-tion journey in line with Qatar’s support for education, which in-cludes the Fund’s vision of giving hope and promoting peace and justice through sustainable and comprehensive development.

QATAR3Gulf Times

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

QFFD signs agreement with Jordan’s education ministry

MoU inked under umbrella of Qatar Scholarships Programme to develop and strengthen education sector, in co-operation with EAA Foundation

Dignitaries at the signing of the MoU.

QFFD inspects health projects dedicated to Syrian refugees in Jordan

A high-level delegation, headed by Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD)

director-general Khalifa Jassim al-Kuwari, initiated an inspection tour of the fund’s health projects in Jordan, including the projects of the Zaatari camp.

The delegation has visited healthcare centres and hospitals providing various health serv-ices to Syrian refugees, which the QFFD contributes to through fi -nancing.

Strategic partners at Qatar Charity (QC) and Qatar Red Cres-cent Society (QRCS) also briefed the QFFD delegation on the most important developments regard-ing health centres and their func-tioning in the Zaatari camp, in ad-dition to highlighting the ongoing co-ordination between QC and QRCS to ensure comprehensive healthcare support in the camp, a press statement noted.

The existing medical support

comes in various forms, including the provision of primary health-care services and referral services to specialised advisory facilities, namely specialised post-referral healthcare after receiving primary and secondary care, including di-rect support through the provi-sion of equipment and supplies,

capacity-building and boosting the healthcare system, the state-ment added.

Priorities also include strengthening infectious disease surveillance, detection, response and prevention of these diseases, and ensure access to chronic dis-ease treatment services. The Zaa-

tari camp hosted by Jordan is the second largest refugee camp in the world, hosting nearly 77,000 Syrian refugees. Half of the Syrian refugees based in Jordan are chil-dren. With the increasing pres-sures on healthcare systems and infrastructure due to the Cov-id-19 pandemic and the growing

number of refugees, the prior-ity now is to generally amplify the capacity of healthcare services in host countries with the aim of enabling these states to eff ec-tively provide appropriate medi-cal services to Syrian refugees and host communities alike. The visit also included an inspection of the

projects of Jordan Health Fund for Refugees, fi nanced by QFFD in co-operation with the Minis-try of Planning and International Co-operation and the Ministry of Health in Jordan.

This inspection fi eld visit is not the fi rst of its kind, but is rather a part of periodic visits

that take place from time to time with the aim of following up on the progress of projects in an ef-fective and sustainable manner, with a special focus on reaching the target groups and the most needy persons, and ensuring the achievement of transparency and quality standards.

The high-level delegation, headed by QFFD director-general Khalifa Jassim al-Kuwari, during the inspection tour in Jordan.

238 overseas Filipinos repatriated from Qatar

The Department of Foreign Aff airs (DFA) of Philip-pines, through the Offi ce

of the Undersecretary for Mi-grant Workers’ Aff airs and the Philippine embassy in Doha, welcomed home the latest batch of 238 overseas Filipino workers from Qatar via Philippine Air-lines Flight 8685 yesterday (Au-gust 17).

While 66 shelter wards at the embassy were supposed to join the fl ight, they were unable to do so after testing positive for Covid-19, according to a OFW Help Facebook post, which was reposted by the embassy.

In addition to the fl ight home, the repatriates also received $200 fi nancial assistance which would help them to start a new life in the Philippines. Upon ar-rival, the repatriates underwent the appropriate medical pro-tocols as required by the De-partment of Health – Bureau of Quarantine. They would also be required to undergo quarantine in accordance with the omnibus guidelines established by the Inter-Agency Task Force.

“In line with the commitment of the DFA to protect the wel-fare and well-being of Filipinos overseas, we welcome home this morning 238 distressed OFWs, who have sought repatriation assistance from the department. The DFA acted decisively and brought them home,” said For-eign Aff airs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Aff airs Sarah Lou Y Arriola in a press state-ment. The DFA, together with its Philippine embassies and consu-lates around the world, continues to work with the various national agencies in assisting Filipinos around the world in the midst of the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

DFA welcomes repatriated overseas Filipinos from Qatar yesterday. (Pictures from the Philippine embassy in Doha Facebook page)

Court imposes penalty for breach of building contractA civil court in Doha has

ordered the termination of a contract for build-

ing a factory and a storehouse of around QR6mn for falling to abide by the delivery dates and halting work at the construction sites.

Local Arabic daily Arrayah reported that the court also or-dered the contractor to pay to the claimant a sum of QR448,000 as

compensation for the damages involved and the losses incurred due to the delay in construction works. In addition, the court or-dered the contractor to pay a sum of QR500,000 as compensation for harms caused by such failure to abide by the terms and condi-tions of the signed contract. The issue started when the claimant company fi led a case against the contractor, requesting the court

to order the termination of the contract and order the contrac-tor to pay the diff erence between what had been accomplished (of works carried out) and what should have been achieved as per the contract.

The agreement stipulated that the contractor would build a fac-tory and a storehouse for the claimant at the cost of QR6mn within a period of 10 months

with a penalty of a maximum of 10% of the value of the project in case of failure to abide by the set deadline or a fi ne of QR1,200 for each day of delay.

However, the contractor halted the work on the project without showing any plausible reasons. Accordingly, the court delegated an expert to fi le a report on the case and issued its judgment on this basis.

Online vehicle auction fetches QR925,600The 11th edition of the online auction, organised by the judicial evictions and auctions department at the Supreme Judiciary Council, has made QR925,600 from selling 39 vehicles out of a total 41 vehicles that were on display at the auction. There were no bids

for two vehicles. Yousef Mohamed al-Bakir, head of the department, told local Arabic daily Arrayah that auction was held through the auctions app of the courts. The first edition of the online auction was launched on November 25 last year. If

a successful bidder fail to make the full payment before the deadline, the transaction will be cancelled and the insurance sum confiscated, in addition to banning the same QID number from the future online auctions of the courts.

Kahramaa to build two new electricity stations

As part of a continuous endeavour to improve the quality of the electrical sector and develop its capabilities, the Qatar Gen-eral Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has decided

to build two new stations at a total cost of QR155mn. Kahramaa an-nounced yesterday in a statement that it has awarded a project to build both Al Luqata and Gharfat Al Rayyan stations with a voltage of 11/132 kV. A local company has been chosen for the project implementation.

This project comes within the framework of the corporation’s con-tinuous eff orts to develop electrical transmission networks in propor-tion to the growth in demand.

“This is in order to meet the future electricity needs of the country and ensure the security and continuity of services through electrical transmission and distribution networks in line with the stations’ op-erational frameworks,” the statement noted.

The importance of the two proposed stations also lies in enhanc-ing the capacity of the electrical network in Al Luqata and Gharafa Al Rayyan areas. The new stations will ensure the improvement of the quality of electrical services in these areas, which in turn contributes to serving and supporting all vital future projects in the country.

4 Gulf TimesWednesday, August 18, 2021

QATAR

Qmic releases new version of Wain with user-inspired updates

Bangladesh embassy observes National Mourning Day

Qatar takes part in Arab workshop on guidelines on specialinvestigations

Katara announces winners of Mobile App IdeasCompetition in Love of Prophet Muhammad

Total Covid recoveries rise to 226,389

Qatar Mobility Innovations Centre (Qmic) has released a new version of its next generation navigation

and location-based services mobile super-application, Wain.

The new version includes many signifi -cant updates directly inspired by Wain us-ers’ feedback and comments. It is another step towards making Wain the leading relia-ble local guide and road companion in Qatar for residents and tourists alike, especially those attending 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The enhancements and updates include: an improved search mechanism, an updated bank of thousands of locations and desti-nations in Qatar, a brand-new Arabic voice navigation instruction engine and enhanced navigation experience, an enhanced highly informative parking section, and a new 24x7 micro-app off ering info about venues that are open 24 hours a day.

As Qatar is a rapidly growing coun-try, locations and destinations are prone to change quickly as more businesses and landmarks are established continually. Therefore, it was crucial for Wain team to review the database of locations and places that are incorporated within the app’s map, search engine, and dedicated “Places” sec-tion. Over 2,000 new locations have been

added to Wain’s database of locations. Ad-ditionally, a thorough review of over 30,000 places has been conducted to enhance the quality of existing places.

There is a similar enhancement in the search mechanism to make it easier, faster, and more effi cient to use. Users can view the information they are looking for inside the search feature in a more organised manner, as well as having the option to browse loca-tions by categories. This newly added option sorts the content under a certain category by distance so that users can see locations clos-est to them. Ultimately, the combined eff ort of enhancing the search mechanism, in ad-dition to updating the locations bank aim to improve the overall experience of “Wain” users and enable them to fi nd what they’re looking for more quickly and effi ciently.

Wain has always prided itself in being a fully local mobile platform, that is “made in Qatar, for Qatar.” Therefore, it was vital to provide a more comfortable and depend-able navigation experience for Arabic users. In this version of the app, Wain provides a new natural Arabic voice navigation op-tion. Likewise, the navigation engine has undergone some enhancements to further improve the user experience in both Eng-lish and Arabic. Navigation voice instruc-

tion logic has been modifi ed to improve its timing and frequency in-line with feedback provided by users.

Furthermore, the parking feature was given a major overhaul to make it more in-formative, valuable, and useful to users of the application. Users can still view live in-formation about parking availability across major locations in Qatar, but addition-ally users are able to see information about over 100 other locations in Doha whether parking is free or paid. With this unique enhancement, users can be more prepared when planning their trips and are able to make informative decisions about their des-tinations and mode of transport.

Omar al-Jaber, director, Strategic Part-nerships & Outreach,Qmic commented: “This is the most signifi cant update we have made to Wain in the last few years. Our strategy to make Wain as the leading na-tional super-app and companion for road users in Qatar is taking shape with these latest enhancements and updates. Our full ownership and control over all technologies and data within Wain platform will allow us to continuously make necessary changes and enhancements to serve the needs of our local users, national partners, and visitors of Qatar.”

The Bangladesh embassy in Qatar observed the ‘National Mourning Day’ and the 46th

martyrdom anniversary of the Fa-ther of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, with due reverence and solemnity on Sunday.

The programme started with hoisting of the National Flag at half-mast by ambassador Mohamed Jas-him Uddin at the Bangladesh MHM School at Abu Hamour.

Later at an event at the embassy, the envoy hoisted the National Flag at half-mast. Embassy offi cials and community members were present. Ambassador and his colleagues paid homage by placing fl oral wreaths at the portrait of Bangabandhu.

This was followed by a discussion on the life and works of the Father of the Nation. One-minute silence was observed as a mark of profound re-spect to the Father of the Nation and the martyrs of August 15, 1975.

The messages from President, Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and State Minister for Foreign Af-fairs of Bangladesh were read out. A documentary on the life and works of Father of the nation was screened on the occasion. Community lead-ers in their speeches paid tributes to Bangabandhu and the other martyrs of August 15, 1975.

In his speech, ambassador Jashim Uddin, recalled the heroic leader-ship role played by Bangabandhu in the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent country. Bangabandhu by virtue of his proactive diplomacy put Bangladesh on a new height in the international area within a very short period of time. Secondly Bangaband-hu succeeded in framing a constitu-tion for Bangladesh in a very short time. Thirdly within three and a half years Bangabandhu laid a good foun-dation for the reconstruction of a war ravaged country like Bangladesh.

The envoy also mentioned that Bangabandhu’s patriotism, courage, confi dence and love for the masses were unparalleled. He urged all to work hard to fulfi l the unfi nished dream of the Father of the Nation for building a Golden Bengal. “For show-ing the true love and respect for Bang-abandhu we have to follow the rules

and regulations of the native country and need to work together to uphold the image of our country,” he added.

A special prayer was held on seek-ing eternal peace for Bangabandhu and other martyrs of August 15, 1975 and also for the continued peace, progress and prosperity of Bangla-desh.

Qatar, represented by the Ministry of Interior (MoI), yesterday took part in a

workshop organised by the Arab Interior Ministers’ Council. Titled Developing Arab Guidelines on Special Investigative Techniques, the workshop was organised in co-operation with the Anti-Ter-rorism Project in the Middle East and North Africa.

The online workshop was at-tended by Brig Nasser Abdul-lah al-Mahmoud, director of the Criminal Evidence and Informa-tion Department, along with a number of specialised offi cers at the MoI.

The workshop discussed inter-national procedures and the Euro-pean Union guidelines on special investigations of diff erent types

of crimes, in addition to the legal guardrails and electronic evidence among other related topics, Qatar News Agency reported.

The workshop also saw an anal-ysis of good practices internation-ally and nationally related to spe-cial investigative techniques.

The Cultural Village Foun-dation (Katara) an-nounced the fi rst three

winners of the Mobile App Ideas Competition in Love of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. The competition was held from April 20 to May 29, 2021, as part of the activities of Doha Capital of Culture in the Islamic World.

Mohamed Aref al-Dabbas from Iraq won the fi rst prize of $3,000. In the second place was Nardine Shafe’e Abadi from Jor-dan who received $2,000, while Anas al-Homsi from Syria came in third with a prize of $1,000.

The competition was aimed at encouraging talented and inno-vative young people to keep pace

with knowledge economies, and preparing a generation capable of entering into projects to serve religion and society.

The competition, which was open to everyone inside or out-side Qatar, attracted about 110 participants, with Egypt and Sudan ranking fi rst with 50 par-ticipants, and the Levant and

Iraq second with 27 participants, while the participation of the GCC states reached 19. The were also nine participants from the Arab Maghreb countries, and fi ve from non-Arab countries.

The competition’s organising committee defi ned the condi-tions for participating by sub-mitting a report explaining the

idea of the application, of no less than two pages, and no more than four pages, provided that the idea is new, and not previously pre-sented in the application stores.

If two ideas submitted are similar, the winning idea will be the fi rst, and the name of the idea owner will be placed on the application information page.

The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) reported yesterday 183 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 among the community and 86 among travellers. The MoPH recorded 231 recoveries from the virus during the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases recovered in Qatar to 226,389. The health ministry said that 4,162,791 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered since the start of the national vaccination programme. Some 27,729 doses have been given in the past 24 hours.

Bangladesh ambassador Mohamed Jashim Uddin addressing one of the events.

HE the Chief of Staff of Qatar Armed Forces Lieutenant-General (Pilot) Ghanem bin Shaheen al-Ghanem, who is currently visiting Turkey, met separately with Turkish Minister of Defence Hulusi Akar and the Chief of General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces General Yasar Guler. The meetings reviewed the bilateral military relations and ways to enhance them. HE al-Ghanem also visited during Istanbul International Defence Industry Fair (IDEF). He was accompanied by senior off icers of the Armed Forces. (QNA)

Chief of Staff meets Turkish military officials

From Page 1

Ensuring security and privacy, which are the core of Apple Pay; when customers use a credit or debit card with Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are neither stored on the device nor on the Apple servers. Instead, a unique device account number is assigned, encrypted, and securely stored in the secure element, an industry-standard, certified chip designed to store the payment information safely on the device.

Apple Pay is easy to set up. On iPhone, open the wallet app, tap “+”, and follow the steps to add QNB’s credit or debit cards. Once customers add a card to iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac, they can start using Apple Pay on that device right away. Customers will continue to receive all of the rewards and benefits offered by QNB’s cards.QNB Group, currently ranked as the most valuable bank brand in the MEA, is the off icial MEA supporter of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the

off icial Qatari bank of the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020.Through its subsidiaries and associate companies, the QNB Group extends to more than 31 countries across three continents providing a comprehensive range of advanced products and services.The total number of employees is 28,000 serving approximately 20mn customers operating through 1,000 locations, with an ATM network of more than 4,600 machines.

QNB brings Apple Pay to customers

ARAB WORLDGulf Times Wednesday, August 18, 20216

Lebanese parliament to discuss fuel crisis on FridayReutersBeirut

The Lebanese parliament will convene on Friday to discuss what to do about

a fuel crisis that has brought much of the country to a halt and sparked deadly violence.

Speaker Nabih Berri called the session to discuss “appropri-ate action” over crippling fuel shortages, a crunch point in a

two-year fi nancial meltdown that marks Lebanon’s worst cri-sis since the 1975-90 civil war.

A rocket-propelled grenade was fi red near a Beirut petrol station during a dispute over petrol, a security source said. Gunmen opened fi re on soldiers who had detained a man who tried to fi ll his car by force. The station caught fi re.

The steadily worsening fuel crisis has hit a low in the last week, with power blackouts

forcing some hospitals, bakeries, and businesses to scale down or close.

A senior UN offi cial said wa-ter supplies and essential health services were threatened, warn-ing of a humanitarian catastro-phe. “A bad situation only stands to get worse unless an instant solution is found,” said Najat Rochdi, the UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Lebanon.

Last week, the central bank announced it could no longer

fi nance imports of petrol and diesel at heavily discounted ex-change rates, eff ectively ending a subsidy scheme which prom-ises to increase prices sharply.

Governor Riad Salameh has been at odds with the govern-ment over the move, as the government says it should have been done only after the provi-sion of prepaid cash cards for the poor. Salameh has said he can resume subsidising imports only if a law is passed allowing him to

dip into the mandatory reserves. The crisis has sparked a renewed push by Lebanon’s squabbling politicians to agree on a cabinet that can start tackling the fi nan-cial crisis, which has depressed the currency by more than 90%.

“We still have a few meters (yards) left in the race, but god willing we are sorting it out ap-propriately,” Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati said after meeting with President Michel Aoun yesterday.

Despite soaring poverty, Leb-anon’s ruling elite have failed to form a new cabinet since Prime Minister Hassan Diab quit after last year’s devastating Beirut port explosion.

The past week has seen re-peated violence at gas stations. At least 28 people were killed in northern Lebanon at the week-end when a fuel tanker exploded as people rushed to get a share. Suggesting some subsidised im-ports were continuing, broad-

casters MTV and al-Jadeed said the central bank had approved fi nancing for two diesel ship-ments at the subsidized rate of 3,900 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, compared to the parallel market rate of 18,500 on Tues-day. The central bank did not immediately respond to a re-quest for comment from Reu-ters. The channels reported that the bank did not approve fi nanc-ing for a fuel shipment on the same terms.

Hospitals in north Lebanon grapple with power outagesAFPBeirut

Hospitals in the Akkar re-gion of north Lebanon where a fuel tank explo-

sion killed at least 28 people this week struggled to operate yes-terday as life-threatening power cuts and telecom outages swept the area.

Lights and phone lines went out across the impoverished and marginalised region that has long suff ered from an ailing power grid but that is now grappling with an unprecedented crisis due to se-vere diesel shortages nationwide.

The outages come less than two days after a fuel tank exploded in the village of Al-Tleil, scorching people clamouring to fi ll petrol that the army was distributing. Around 80 people, including sev-eral soldiers, were injured, many of them left with severe burns, overwhelming hospitals.

Fuel shortages since the start of summer have aggravated hardship in Lebanon, a country of more than 6mn that is in the throes of an economic crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the worst since the mid-19th century.

Without the diesel fuel needed to power private generators, busi-nesses, hospitals and even the country’s main telecom opera-tor have been forced to scale back operations or close entirely due to outages lasting up to 22 hours a day.

In Akkar, hospitals still stor-ing corpses of victims charred in Sunday’s blast were left with-out power, internet and work-ing landlines, as health offi cials pleaded for help from the authori-ties. “We have a stock of 700 litres

(almost 185 gallons) of diesel fuel which will last for only one day,” said Riad Rahal, director of Ra-hal Hospital in the Akkar town of Halba.

The nearby El-Youssef hospital also had enough stock of diesel to last until Wednesday morning and no working phone lines, said Nathaline el-Chaar, assistant to the director. “Since yesterday, landlines have been out of serv-ice... and we are trying hard to se-cure diesel,” she told AFP.

She said the hospital’s diesel provider had delayed deliveries fearing attacks on a north Leba-non highway where incidents in recent days have seen angry groups seize fuel from trucks. The offi cial National News Agen-cy said Tuesday that diesel fuel

shortages and power outages had forced the Ogero telecom provid-er to cut internet, landlines and mobile phone services in several parts of Akkar, eff ectively para-lysing banks, businesses and state offi ces.

Ogero head Imad Kreidieh warned that other regions in Lebanon would have to follow suit unless the situation improved. In the southern suburbs of Beirut, live shots were fi red at a petrol station, the latest in a series of lethal incidents rattling motorists lining up in long petrol queues.

The NNA said the army de-ployed in the area after several people were injured in the shoot-out, but it did not provide more details.

A security source told AFP that

people who had illegally stored petrol at a pumping station fi red live rounds as army soldiers tried to confi scate their stock.

They also started a fi re at the petrol station, accusing its owner of having tipped off the army. Videos and pictures circulating on social media showed men opening machine-gun fi re.

AFP could not independently verify the authenticity of the footage. The army on Saturday started raiding fuel stations and confi scating stocks of fuel that distributors have been hoard-ing to sell at a higher price in the black market or across the border in Syria.

Motorbike drivers wait to get fuel at a gas station in Dora.

People push their cars due to a lack of fuel, near a gas station in Dora.

A pharmacist sits on a stretcher holding a sign reading in Arabic “no petrol = no ambulance” while others stands by holding signs reading reading: “no electricity = no hospital” and “no vaccine = no treatment” as they stage a demonstration in the Achrafieh district of Lebanon’s capital Beirut denouncing the critical condition facing the country’s hospitals while grappling with dire fuel shortages.

The outages come less than two days aft er a fuel tank exploded in the village of Al-Tleil, scorching people clamouring to fi ll petrol that the army was distributing. Around 80 people, including several soldiers, were injured, many of them left with severe burns, overwhelming hospitals

Algerian villagers suff er from wildfire aftermath

When Algeria’s deadly wildfires tore through the forest around their village, brothers Khelaf and Lyazid Tazibt could only hustle their families out of the door and abandon the home they shared to the flames. The two men, both retired, and their wives and children, are now among hundreds of Algerians left homeless by the country’s worst fires in memory, which have burned swathes of the northeast over the past week, killing dozens of people.“Like anyone else who saw those flames, it was impossible to do anything. We all gave up,” said Khelaf Tazibt, 55, standing in one of their single-storey home’s damaged rooms, its walls cracked and black with soot. He held up cracked plates and other belongings misshapen by the inferno. “The firefighters arrived a little late and there was nothing they could do,” he said.His brother, Lyazid simply said “the fire reached the sky”. Their village of Ait Sid Ali, in the northeastern Bejaia province, sits in rocky hills and was previously surrounded by forest. The Tazibt house was on the village edge, close to the trees and one of many there lost to the flames. This month, a European Union atmosphere monitor said the Mediterranean had become a wildfire hotspot as massive blazes engulfed forests in Turkey, Greece and North Africa, aided by a heatwave. The fire that suddenly engulfed Ait Sid Ali killed four people, they said. The surrounding hills are now a mass of scorched trunks but beyond the village another hillside is dark with smoke above the raging flames. The two families are awaiting compensation and rehousing by the government, and in the meantime are receiving donations of food, medication and blankets from local aid organizations.“We have lost everything,” said Lyazid Tazibt, overlooking the remains of the family home.

Israeli security forces face off with a reporter amid clashes with Palestinian students from Birzeit University demonstrating near the Israeli settlement of Beit El, close to Ramallah city in the occupied West Bank, yesterday, to protest the killing of four Palestinians a day earlier in Jenin in clashes with Israeli security forces.

Protests in Ramallah

Libya political upturn boosts migrant exodusAFPTripoli

As violence in Libya has waned this year, the number of would-be migrants to Europe intercepted

so far has doubled compared to the same period of 2020, experts say. The Inter-national Organisation for Migration (IOM) says 20,257 people have been in-tercepted at sea and returned to Libya so far this year.

The North African country remains one of the main departure points for

tens of thousands of migrants, mainly from sub-Saharan Africa, hoping to attempt the dangerous Mediterranean crossing. Most try to reach the Italian coast around 300km away.

A Libyan navy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also told AFP of a “100 percent increase in departures from January to July” compared with the same period last year, without giving figures.

Lawyer Anwar al-Werfalli, a special-ist in migration law, attributes the rise in migrant numbers “in particular to the end of the fighting” in Libya.The 2011

uprising that brought about the down-fall and death of dictator Muammar Gaddafi plunged the country into chaos and years of infighting between militias.

But a UN-brokered ceasefire in Octo-ber 2020 has been generally respected, and a transitional government was in-stalled this year. Werfalli said this has created some “stability which, though relative, encourages migrants to under-take the crossing”.

The central Mediterranean crossing between Libya and Italy or Malta is by far the deadliest in the world, according to IOM figures.

The most recent tragedy was last month, when at least 57 migrants drowned. According to UN refugee agency the UNHCR, more than 10,000 migrants and refugees made landfall in Italy in the first four months of 2021, an increase of about 170 percent over the same period of 2020.

Werfalli said people smugglers have now boosted operations “to compen-sate for the shortfall during the many months of lockdown” for the Covid-19 pandemic. “Many migrants who had to put their plans on hold are now back on the road,” he said.

In this file picture, migrants arrive at the naval base in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, after the coastguard intercepted an inflatable boat carrying 99 Europe-bound migrants off its west coast.

Water cuts loom as USreservoir sees shortageGuardian News and MediaWashington

Offi cials have declared a dire water shortage at Lake Mead, the US’s larg-

est reservoir, triggering major water cuts in Arizona and other western states.

The US Bureau of Reclama-tion’s fi rst-ever declaration of a “tier 1” shortage represents an acknowledgement that after a 20-year drought, the reservoir that impounds the Colorado River at the Hoover Dam has re-ceded to its lowest levels since it was created in the 1930s.

Already, the lake is at about 35% capacity – the white “bath-tub ring” that lines its perimeter indicates where the water level once was.

The lake’s level is projected to fall even lower by the end of the year, prompting cutbacks in January 2022, the Bureau of Rec-lamation announced.

Arizona will be hardest hit, losing nearly a fi fth of the water it receives from the Colorado River.

In Pinal county, farmers and ranchers will see the amount of water they get from the river drop by half next year, and dis-appear altogether by 2023, when the federal government is pro-jected to enact even more severe cuts.

Farmers, who have already had to make some land fallow, will probably have to continue to do so in the coming years and rely increasingly on groundwa-ter.

“What we hoped we would never see is here,” said Camille Calimlim Touton, a deputy commissioner at the Bureau of Reclamation.“At the heart of the announcement is also an ac-knowledgement of the hardship the drought has brought.”

Household water supplies will remain unaff ected, though fami-lies are likely to see their water prices tick up.

Nevada will lose 7% of the wa-ter it gets from the Colorado Riv-

er, though residents are unlikely to feel a real change because the state has alternative water sources and has begun to use its supplies more effi ciently.

Mexico will see its supply re-duced by 5%, and California will be unaff ected.

“This is a very big deal, be-cause there’s never been a short-age like this over the almost 100-year history,” said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University.“The immediate im-pacts of this will not probably be felt by most people.

“But it’s a big, giant red fl ag telling a region that is dependent on Colorado River water that we need to adjust to a drier future.”

Cutbacks and conservation ef-forts – though crucial – are un-likely to reverse the reservoir’s decline in the near future.

When it’s full, Lake Mead’s elevation sits at about 1,221ft above sea level.

But by next year, the lake’s lev-el is expected to drop to 1,065ft, below the 1,075ft cutoff that triggers fi rst-tier water reduc-tions.

By 2023, federal offi cials and water experts expect a tier 2 shortage.

And when the lake’s level dips to 1,025ft, a tier 3 declaration will trigger supply cuts to cities and tribal lands.

Lake Mead, which was formed after the construction of the Hoover Dam in the 1930s, has been declining faster than many experts predicted, amid a devas-tating drought and intense heat-waves that have resulted in less water trickling down from the Rocky Mountains into the Colo-rado River.

The dam, which provides power to about 1.3mn people in Nevada, Arizona and California, has seen its effi ciency drop by 25%, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.

The Colorado River system overall is now at half its capac-ity, according to the US interior department.

US ‘to announce Covidbooster shots campaign’AFPWashington

The US government will announce that Americans should get booster shots

for coronavirus vaccines eight months after their last shot, part of a campaign that could begin as early as mid-September, ac-cording to US media.

The move could be announced as early as this week, The New York Times reported, citing un-named sources in President Joe Biden’s administration.

The campaign is likely to kick off with booster shots for nurs-ing home residents and health-care workers, followed by the elderly, all of whom were among

the fi rst to be eligible to receive their initial vaccinations.

The general public would then follow, according to the Times.

US offi cials are considering whether a third dose should be the same type of vaccine – Moderna or Pfi zer – as the fi rst two.

People who received the sin-gle-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a minority of the US population, should also receive an additional dose, however more data is still necessary, the Times said.

Administering booster shots would not begin until approved by the US Food and Drug admin-istration, The Washington Post reported.

Pfizer/BioNTech said it

had submitted preliminary clinical data to the FDA in an effort to seek third-dose au-thorisation.

With the US facing a surge in coronavirus infections due to the Delta variant, experts fear that the eff ectiveness of vac-cines may wane over time.

An advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the principal US public health agency, is due to meet next week to discuss the matter, paving the way for FDA clearance.

The discussion has changed sharply since the beginning of July, when the FDA and CDC issued a joint statement saying vaccinated Americans did not need a booster shot.

New daily cases were averag-ing around 12,000 then but have since soared above 130,000.

The US last week authorised an additional dose of the Pfi zer or Moderna vaccines for immu-nocompromised people.

Also last week, infectious dis-ease expert Anthony Fauci said “sooner or later” even healthy Americans would need a booster shot “for durability of protec-tion.”

Meanwhile Nevada governor Steve Sisolak said large event operators will be allowed to opt out of the state’s mask require-ments if they can verify that attendees are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Those partially vaccinated and children could still attend

provided they wear a mask, he said.

“If a large event venue choos-es to require vaccination proof for all attendees, those that are fully vaccinated will be allowed to take their masks off ,” the Democratic governor wrote on Twitter.

Sisolak said the exception was “not a mandate”, but an op-tion available for those operat-ing venues with the capacity of 4,000 or more.

His announcement comes af-ter San Francisco and New Orle-ans joined New York City in or-dering patrons to show proof of vaccination to enter restaurants, gyms and other venues in an ef-fort to stem the fast-spreading Delta variant.

Democrats ride trains tospotlight spending pushReutersWashington

US Democrats are rid-ing buses and trains and holding roundtable dis-

cussions this summer as they make the case that a government spending blitz backed by Presi-dent Joe Biden is improving vot-ers’ lives ahead of 2022 congres-sional elections.

In New Jersey last week, Repre-sentative Tom Malinowski rode a train with Transportation Secre-tary Pete Buttigieg to highlight the benefi ts of a $1tn infrastructure package that he said would upgrade train service, roads and bridges and water pipes in the state.

“There’s not a town among the 75 towns I represent that won’t benefi t in some way,” Malinowski said at a news conference in the town of Westfi eld, a New York City suburb. Along with the bi-partisan infrastructure bill which has passed the Senate and is

pending in the House, Democrats are backing an even larger, $3.5tn social policy measure.

The party’s pitch is getting a road test ahead of the November 2022 congressional elections.

Democrats control the House of Representatives and the sen-ate by narrow margins and are acutely aware of the real risk of losing that majority next year.

A memo from senior House Democrats stressed the party’s message “must stay laser-fo-cused on the substance of what we are getting done and how it will make life better for the people we serve.” The Demo-cratic National Committee has launched a 10-state “Build Back Better” bus tour, touting a $1.9tn Covid-19 relief measure Con-gress passed last March, as well as the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the larger Democratic plan to boost social spending and fi ght climate change.

Republicans say the trillions in spending are infl ationary.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy accused Dem-ocrats of going on “a socialist spending binge that will crush families, dismantle our economy and reshape our country in the worst possible way.”

Democrats say they will pay for the $3.5tn bill by raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

Polls say the American public likes the agenda.

“It’s already very popular,” said Representative Matt Cartwright, one of several House Democrats in charge of the party’s messag-ing. “Americans care about our results, and they want all of it.”

After visiting a wastewater treatment plant on Friday, New Hampshire senator Maggie Has-san said the infrastructure bill would clean up toxic perfl uoro-alkyl chemicals and “help bring peace of mind to parents who should not have to worry about whether the water fl owing from their tap is safe for their chil-dren.”

Two ex-police offi cersreject plea off ers

Fire-fighting helicopters cross paths while dumping water on the Mount Law wildfire near Peachland, British Columbia, Canada.

Fighting wildfire

ReutersWashington

Two former police offi cers from Rocky Mount, Vir-ginia, have rejected initial

plea deal off ers by the US justice department to resolve charges stemming from their role in storming the US Capitol on Jan-uary 6, a federal prosecutor said yesterday.

Thomas Robertson and Jacob Fracker, who at the time was also a corporal for the National Guard, are both charged with obstruct-ing an offi cial proceeding, as well as lesser charges including violent entry and disorderly conduct.

In a status hearing yesterday, federal prosecutor Elizabeth Aloi said both defendants had reject-ed initial off ers to settle the case, though an attorney for Fracker said his client would be open to negotiating a separate deal that is not tied to Robertson’s alleged conduct.

Last month, US district judge Christopher Cooper ordered

Robertson to be detained in jail pending trial after prosecutors said the FBI had discovered that since his arrest, Robertson was still buying fi rearms and ammu-nition online.

The FBI searched Robertson’s home on June 29 and found a loaded M4 military assault rifl e and what appeared to be a par-tially assembled pipe bomb.

Cooper, in his ruling on July 28, said there was “probable cause to believe that Roberston committed a felony” by ship-ping fi rearms while on pretrial release.

To date, however, the govern-ment has not fi led any additional charges against him.

Fracker, meanwhile, remains out of custody on his own per-sonal recognizance.

His attorney, Bernard Crane, told the judge yesterday his cli-ent “didn’t have an opportunity to consider or reject” the plea of-fer “because it’s wired to the co-defendant and the co-defendant doesn’t have any interest in a plea off er.”

The Canadian province of Ontario will begin of-fering third Covid-19 vaccine doses to vulnerable people as early as this week, its chief medical off icer said yesterday. Eligible populations will include transplant patients, some cancer patients on active treatment, people on immunosup-pressant medications and residents in high-risk settings including long-term care homes and indigenous elder care lodges. The province is also pausing its planned full reopening until further no-tice, according to a statement from the provincial government. The move would have removed capacity limits on business and social settings completely.

Tropical Storm Grace pounded Jamaica with heavy rain and wind yesterday after causing flooding in parts of Haiti, which is scrambling to deal with a major earthquake at the weekend that killed more than 1,400 people. Grace, which is expected to become a hurricane by the time it hits Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula tomorrow, was by late morning about 177kms east of Montego Bay with maximum sustained winds of 85km/h, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Higher gusts were reported. “A whole heap of water is on the road. Trees are broke down, and the place a flood-out,” said Yankee Paul Junior, 21, a tax collector who was stranded in Jamaica’s eastern parish of St. Thomas.

Mexico said yesterday it wanted negotiations it is hosting between Venezuela’s government and op-position to lead to the lifting of international sanc-tions against the crisis-hit country. “Our strategic objective...is that there be a series of agreements that allow Venezuela to continue its path without sanctions and with full recognition of the entire international community,” Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told reporters. Representatives of the two Venezuelan sides on Friday held initial meetings in Mexico City that mediator Norway described as “constructive.” They agreed to reconvene from September 3 to 6 for more talks expected to focus on elections and a possible easing of sanctions.

Solar could supply more than 40% of the nation’s electricity by 2035 — up from 3% today — if Con-gress adopts policies like tax credits for renew-able energy projects and component factories, according to a memo published yesterday by the US department of energy. The memo is part of a push by the White House to pump up solar as a jobs engine and pivotal pillar in the climate change agenda of President Joe Biden. The sector is also taking centre stage as off icials plug the administration’s legislative priorities on the road, with Labour Secretary Marty Walsh touring a new First Solar facility in Ohio yesterday that is expected to create about 500 jobs.

US authorities yesterday arrested a Chicago phar-macist for selling dozens of off icial cards showing proof of Covid-19 vaccination on eBay, the justice department said. The department said Tangtang Zhao sold 125 off icial Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination cards for $10 each. Zhao worked at an unidentified chain of pharmacies and had access to the cards, which are provided to each person who gets a coronavirus vaccination. The cards are increasingly important as more busi-nesses, off ices and public events demand proof of vaccination by workers or participants. Zhao was in-dicted on 12 counts of theft of government property and faces up to 10 years in prison on each count.

Ontario to off er third Covid vaccine doses

Storm pummels Jamaicawith heavy rain, wind

Venezuela talks must bringend of sanctions: Mexico

Solar ‘could be 40% of US power by 2035’

Pharmacist held forselling vaccine cards

HEALTHCARE WEATHEROBJECTIVE PLAN CRIME

People check-in on arrival for their Covid-19 vaccine from AltaMed Health Services in Los Angeles, California, yesterday. LA county health off icials will begin off ering third doses of the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for people with severely compromised immune systems this weekend.

WORLD7Gulf Times

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

New Zealandshuts downover singleCovid caseAFPWellington

New Zealand imposed a snap three-day lock-down yesterday after

identifying a single case of lo-cally transmitted Covid-19 sus-pected to be the Delta variant, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

Ardern said New Zealand, which had not recorded any in-fections in the community for six months, could not take any chances with the “game chang-er” Delta strain.

“We have seen what can hap-pen elsewhere if we fail to get on top of it. We only get one chance,” Ardern said in a televised nation-al address.

The New Zealand leader cited Australia’s struggles to contain the highly transmissible variant for her “short, sharp” response after a 58-year-old Auckland man was diagnosed with corona-virus from an unknown source.

“We are better to start high and be cautious, then move out as soon as we are comfortable doing so, than to start low and be in that phase (lockdown) for much, much longer,” she said.

“You only need to look at Aus-tralia to see the alternative.”

The initial plan is for New Zea-land to remain in lockdown for three days, with Auckland and the nearby Coromandel area fac-ing the restrictions for a week.

Offi cials said a major factor behind the strong response was the fact that the Auckland case has no obvious connection to the border or managed isolation.

“This case was identifi ed in Auckland but is a national issue,” director-general of health Ashley Bloomfi eld said.

“Because we cannot link it to the border it’s possible there could be other cases around in Auckland and other chains of transmission (outside the city).”

New Zealand has won wide-spread praise for its coronavirus response — centred on eliminat-

ing the virus rather than con-taining it — and has recorded just 26 deaths in a population of 5mn.

It had not needed to impose national stay-at-home orders for more than a year and life has remained close to normal, with no limits on social gatherings and limited mask use.

It also maintains strict border controls — with mandatory two-week quarantine for internation-al arrivals.

“The reason New Zealand has been held up as an example is be-cause we’ve used strategies like this before and they’ve worked...the best thing we can do to get out of this as quickly as we can is to go hard,” Ardern said.

Ardern said New Zealand was one of the last places in the world to record Delta in the community, giving it the advantage of learn-ing from others’ experience.

But she said it was safest to presume the strain was now present, even though laboratory tests would not off er confi rma-tion until today.

“Every case we’ve had at MIQ (border quarantine) recently has been the Delta variant and Delta is surging around the world,” she said.

“We need to assume this will be too and this has shaped all the decisions we have made.”

Auckland has previously been forced into three brief periods of lockdown since an initial eight-week national state of emergency at the beginning of the pandemic last year.

The most recent stay-at-home orders in the city of 2mn ended in March.

Offi cials earlier yesterday out-lined details of unrelated virus cases found at a border quar-antine facility in Auckland that showed how easily the Delta strain spreads.

An investigation found three people sharing a room were in-fected by a Delta case staying across the corridor after their doors were both open at the same time for just three to fi ve seconds.

China holds drills nearTaiwan after ‘provocations’ReutersBeijing

China carried out assault drills near Taiwan yes-terday, with warships

and fi ghter jets exercising off the southwest and southeast of the island in what the country’s armed forces said was a response to “external interference” and “provocations”.

Taiwan, which Beijing claims as Chinese territory, has complained of repeated People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drills in its vicinity in the past two years or so, part of a pressure campaign to force the island to accept Chi-na’s sovereignty.

In a brief statement, the PLA’s

Eastern Theatre Command said warships, anti-submarine air-craft and fi ghter jets had been dispatched close to Taiwan to carry out “joint fi re assault and other drills using actual troops”. It did not give details.

A senior offi cial familiar with Taiwan’s security planning said China’s air force had carried out a “capturing air supremacy” drill, using their advanced J-16 fi ghters.

“In addition to seeking air su-premacy over Taiwan, they have also been conducting frequent electronic reconnaissance and electronic interference opera-tions,” the person said.

Taiwan believes China is try-ing to gather electronic signals from US and Japanese aircraft so that they can “paralyse rein-

forcing aircraft including F-35s in a war”, the source said, refer-ring to the US-operated stealth fi ghter.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said 11 Chinese aircraft entered its air defence zone, includ-ing two nuclear-capable H-6K bombers and six J-16 fi ghters, and that it had scrambled jets to warn China’s planes away.

While the Chinese statement gave no exact location for the drills, Taiwan’s defence min-istry said the aircraft fl ew in an area between mainland Taiwan and the Taiwan-controlled Pra-tas Islands at the top part of the South China Sea.

Some of the aircraft also briefl y entered the strategic Bashi Channel off southern Tai-wan that leads to the Pacifi c, ac-

cording to a map provided by the ministry.

“The nation’s military has a full grasp and has made a full as-sessment of the situation in the Taiwan Strait region, as well as related developments at sea and in the air, and is prepared for various responses,” it added.

The PLA statement noted that recently, the US and Taiwan have “repeatedly colluded in provo-cation and sent serious wrong signals, severely infringing upon China’s sovereignty, and severe-ly undermining peace and sta-bility in the Taiwan Strait”.

“This exercise is a necessary action based on the current se-curity situation across the Tai-wan Strait and the need to safe-guard national sovereignty. It is a solemn response to external

interference and provocations by Taiwan independence forces.”

It was not immediately clear what set off the fl urry of Chinese military activity, though earlier this month, the US approved a new arms sale package to Tai-wan, an artillery system valued at up to $750mn.

China believes Taiwan Presi-dent Tsai Ing-wen is a separatist bent on a formal declaration of independence, a red line for Bei-jing.

Washington has expressed its concern about China’s pattern of intimidation in the region, including towards Taiwan, reit-erating that US commitment to Taiwan is “rock solid”.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

Japan extends Covid-19 lockdown as cases surgeReutersTokyo

Japan yesterday extended its state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions and an-

nounced new measures covering seven more prefectures to coun-ter a spike in Covid-19 infections that is threatening the medical system.

The current state of emergen-cy, the fi fth of the pandemic so far, was due to expire on August 31 but will now last until Septem-ber 12.

Tokyo announced 4,377 new coronavirus cases yesterday, af-ter a record 5,773 on Friday.

“The Delta variant raging across the world is causing un-precedented cases in our coun-try,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said. “Serious cases are increasing rapidly and severely burdening the medical system, particularly in the capital re-gion.”

The emergency will now cover nearly 60% of Japan’s population with the prefectures of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Shizuoka, Kyo-to, Hyogo and Fukuoka included.

Less strict “quasi-emergency” measures will be applied to a fur-ther 10 prefectures.

Restaurants are being asked to close early and stop serving alco-hol in exchange for a subsidy.

Suga announced a fresh sub-sidy of 300bn yen ($2.7bn) to help businesses cope with the fall-out.

Suga said the government would also request occupancy limits at department stores and ask people to reduce by half the times they go to crowded areas.

Speaking at a news confer-ence explaining the steps, the government’s top health advisor, Shigeru Omi, said Japan needed to come up with steps to “prod individuals to avoid taking action that could potentially spread in-fections”.

He said that could be done un-

der the current laws, which are mostly based on voluntary co-operation, but added that there’s also room for a nationwide de-bate on how to do this under a new legal framework. He did not go into details.

Speaking beside Omi, Suga said the government would consider crafting legislation to swiftly prepare enough hospital beds for critically ill Covid-19 patients, and speed up vaccina-tions.

Suga dismissed the idea of imposing a blanket, nationwide state of emergency, saying that would pose “excessive restric-tions for some prefectures” that were succeeding in containing new infections.

Japanese shares fell for a fourth day yesterday as concerns about the Delta variant overshadowed optimism about upbeat earnings.

Japan’s case fatality rate stands at about 1.3%, compared with 1.7% in the US and 2.1% in Brit-ain.

Malaysia king seeks unityas new PM hunt starts

Nepal citizens arrive at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, yesterday after being evacuated from Afghanistan.

Back home

AFPKuala Lumpur

Malaysia’s king yester-day urged rival politi-cians to unite to battle

a worsening coronavirus out-break as the hunt began for a new prime minister, an opposition leader said.

Analysts said the monarch, who appoints the premier, was trying to push the country’s po-litical parties towards forming a unity government following Muhyiddin Yassin’s resignation Monday.

Following a turbulent 17 months in office, Muhyiddin finally quit when he lost his parliamentary majority and amid mounting public anger at his government’s handling of Malaysia’s worst Covid-19 wave.

The king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, has ruled out elections due to the out-break, meaning it will likely be up to him to pick the next pre-

mier based on who commands most support.

But there is no clear successor for 74-year-old Muhyiddin, as no alliance has majority backing in parliament.

An opposition bloc is pushing for Anwar Ibrahim, remnants of Muhyiddin’s collapsed govern-ment may try to build a coali-tion, while some have proposed a unity administration until the outbreak is under control.

After a meeting at the national palace with other party chiefs, long-time opposition leader An-war said the king had told them “the country is a facing political and constitutional crisis”.

“So we should unite to fi ght the coronavirus and help bolster the economy.”

“By the look of it, all the par-ties seem to have come to a consensus — that is to end ‘old politics’... and focus on the de-velopment of the country,” he added.

The monarch was accompa-nied by the infl uential deputy king at the meeting.

8 Gulf TimesWednesday, August 18, 2021

WORLD

Covid-19 cases are set to “rise substantially” in Sydney in the coming weeks despite a prolonged lockdown, authorities said yesterday, warning soaring infections have already put hospitals under enormous strain. Australia, once a world leader in curtailing Covid-19, is struggling to suppress a third wave of infections driven by the Delta variant despite locking down more than half its population. New South Wales (NSW) state, whose capital Sydney is the epicentre of the latest outbreak, reported 452 cases in the past 24 hours, the third-biggest one-day jump, and one new death. “We envisage cases in the next two or three weeks will bounce around and are likely to rise substantially,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

The man dubbed the “father of Sudoku” for his role in popularising the numerical brainteaser loved by mil-lions, has died of cancer at 69, his Japanese publisher has announced. In a notice posted, Nikoli said Maki Kaji died at home on August 10 after battling cancer, and a memorial service would be held at a later date. “Kaji was known as the father of Sudoku and was loved by puzzle fans all around the world,” the publisher said in a statement on its website. Sudoku, a sort of numerical crossword, was invented by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in the 18th century. The modern version is sometimes said to have been formulated in the US, but Kaji is credited with having popularised the puzzle.

Five suspected poachers have been arrested over the beheading of an endangered Sumatran elephant, Indonesian authorities said yesterday, as the Southeast Asian archipelago’s battle with wildlife crime continues. Police in Aceh, on the tip of Sumatra island, said they nabbed the suspects after a month-long investigation and were still searching for a sixth poacher. The 12-year-old male elephant’s rotting carcass was discovered with its head and tusks miss-ing at a palm oil plantation in July. An autopsy found that the animal had also been poisoned, authorities said. One of the arrested suspects killed and then decapitated the elephant, and his accomplices tried to sell pieces of its valuable tusks, police said.

Thailand will purchase an additional 12mn doses of Sinovac’s coronavirus vaccine to try to expedite its rollout, a senior off icial said yesterday, despite concerns over its eff icacy against the Delta variant of Covid-19. Thailand’s strategy had planned to use mainly locally produced AstraZeneca vaccines but with supply short of the government’s target, Sinovac shots are being used in a mix-and-match approach to inoculate the population faster. The mass vaccination campaign started in June but the rollout is being hastened by Thailand’s worst coronavirus wave so far, which is challenging Bangkok’s healthcare system at a time when just 7.3% of the population has been fully vaccinated.

The 6,000-plus islands that make up the Japanese archipelago have a new addition, after scientists said an undersea volcanic eruption 1,200km south of Tokyo had created a new landmass. The island was formed in the Pacific Ocean about 50km south of Minami Ioto, the southernmost island of the Ogasawara group. Japan’s coastguard said the new island is crescent-shaped with a diameter of about 1km. But if history is any precedent its presence could prove ephemeral. Much will depend on what it is formed from: ash and other fragments are un-likely to resist a constant battering from waves, but continued volcanic activity could produce lava flows that eventually form a more durable hard shell.

Sydney coronavirus cases seen rising

Japan’s ‘father of Sudoku’ dead at 69

Five arrested overelephant killing case

Thailand seeks 12mnSinovac vaccine

Volcanic eruption creates new Japanese island

WARNING OBITUARYPOACHING PANDEMIC OFFBEAT

Covid precautions

Employees work between polythene sheets, as a safety measure to reduce the spread of coronavirus disease, at The Civil Engineering Limited garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, yesterday.

Thousands ‘couldhave isolated forno reason due toCovid app error’Guardian News and MediaLondon

Many thousands of peo-ple may have isolated unnecessarily because

a government error meant they were “pinged” by the Covid app for a “close contact” in the prior fi ve days rather than two days, a Whitehall whistleblower has told the Guardian.

As the isolation rules for dou-ble vaccinated people were re-laxed on Monday, it has emerged that users were never told the app could notify of contact with an infected person as far back as fi ve days before the positive test.

Offi cial guidance for the NHS Covid app defi ned close contact as occurring two days before the infected person had symptoms, while the offi cial NHS test-and-trace service has always used two days as its defi nition.

The Whitehall source said that the error had been fl agged in a submission to Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, shortly before he resigned at the end of June but it had never been pub-licly admitted.

Around a month later, Sajid Javid, the new health secre-tary, said he would be updating the app so that people without symptoms would only have their contacts searched for two days prior to their positive test, rather than fi ve days.

He said this was being “updat-ed based on public health advice to look back at contacts two days prior to a positive test”.

It is understood that the de-partment of health and social care’s (DHSC) online guidance on the Covid app has never had a reference to a lookback period of fi ve days.

The disclosure means that many thousands of people – those who had contact with symptomless people between fi ve and three days before the positive test – were potentially asked to isolate unnecessarily.

“The standard defi nition of a contact in all the scientifi c and public stuff from Public Health England and NHS test and trace

is someone who has been in con-tact from two days before they have symptoms and if they don’t have symptoms but test positive, you go back two days from the test,” the Whitehall source said.

“But the app had fi ve days in it. A submission was made to Han-cock from test and trace people around the time of his resigna-tion saying ‘it’s fi ve days but it should be two days: should we change it now? And it didn’t happen.’”

Justin Madders, the shadow health minister, said it was “an-other shambolic situation from hapless ministers”.

“The Covid app has been one mess after another and a lack of clear information and guidance around the app only undermines its eff ectiveness,” he added.

The DHSC did not challenge the whistleblower’s account and was not able to point to a place where the Covid app guidance publicly referred to contacts be-ing searched fi ve days prior to a positive case.

Al Ghaff , chief operating of-fi cer of the privacy campaigning organisation the Open Rights Group, said the government’s approach to privacy risked un-dermining public trust.

“The disclosure means that many thousands of people have been pinged by the Covid app without their consent,” he said. “Since the outset of the pandem-ic, this government has displayed an extremely poor and cavalier attitude towards basic privacy and transparency safeguards.

“The government needs to stop turning public health tools into privacy nightmares and public health risks.”

There are predictions that ris-ing case numbers could force more than 1mn people to stay at home.

It is understood the depart-ment is making the case that the Covid app had diff erent defi ni-tions of a close contact to test and trace, with a fi ve-day period chosen for the asymptomatic be-cause it is the halfway point in a potential 10-day infectious pe-riod.

India evacuates 170 from AfghanistanReutersAhmedabad

An Indian air force plane evacuated over 170 peo-ple from Kabul yesterday,

including India’s ambassador to Afghanistan, a government offi -cial said, as diplomats and civil-ians scrambled to get out of the country.

The fl ight landed in the west-ern Indian city of Jamnagar for refuelling on the way to Delhi, Jamnagar collector Sourabh Par-dhi said.

Speaking to reporters, ambas-sador Rudrendra Tandon said

that nearly 200 personnel of the Indian mission in Afghanistan had been evacuated within three days, alongside Indian civilians working in the country.

“You cannot imagine how great it is to be back home,” Tan-don said. “We are back home safely, securely, without any accidents or harm to any of our people.”

Tandon described the situ-ation in Afghanistan as “fl uid”, adding that a small number of Indian nationals remained in the country who authorities were attempting to bring back.

India, which has invested mil-lions of dollars in development

projects across Afghanistan, once operated four consulates in the country, besides the em-bassy in Kabul.

The last operating consu-late in Mazar-i-Sharif was shut down a week ago, days before Taliban took control of the northern city

Meanwhile, the Indian gov-ernment has announced a new category of electronic visas to fast-track applications of Af-ghans who want to come to India in view of the prevailing situa-tion in Afghanistan.

“MHA reviews visa provisions in view of the current situation in Afghanistan. A new category

of electronic visa called “e-Emergency X-Misc Visa” was introduced to fast-track visa applications for entry into In-dia,” the home ministry said in a statement.

All Afghans, irrespective of their religion, can apply for the ‘e-Emergency X-Misc Visa’ on-line and the applications will be processed in New Delhi.

Offi cials said since Indian mis-sions in Afghanistan are shut, the visa can be applied online and applications will be examined and processed in New Delhi.

The visa will initially be valid for six months, they said.

Security issues will be looked

into while processing the appli-cations and granting the visa to Afghan nationals, the offi cials added.

Meanwhile, External Aff airs Minister S Jaishankar said India is closely monitoring the situa-tion in Afghanistan .

In a series of tweets, Jaishankar said: “Understand the anxiety of those seeking to return to India. Airport operations are the main challenge. Discussions on with partners in that regard.”

The ministry of external af-fairs has also set up a special Afghanistan cell to co-ordinate repatriation and other requests from the country.

Covid vaccinations

in India near recordReutersNew Delhi

India administered more than 8.8mn doses of Covid-19 vac-cines in the past 24 hours, gov-

ernment data showed yesterday, close to its all-time record and speeding up a campaign to inocu-late all eligible adults by December.

The surge in inoculations came alongside a sharp decline in daily new infections that fell to 25,166, the lowest since March 16, health ministry said.

India has undertaken one of the world’s largest Covidd-19 vac-cination drives and has so far ad-ministered 554mn doses, giving at least one dose to about 46% of its estimated 944mn adults.

Only about 13% of the popu-lation have had the required two doses.

After hitting a record high of 9.2mn doses on June 21, the

pace of daily inoculations had dropped to around 4.2mn on an

average in July, according to data compiled from the government’s CoWIN website.

In the fi rst two weeks of Au-gust, India administered about 5mn doses on an average every-day.

Experts have said India needs to administer 10mn doses a day to achieve its aim of inoculating all adults by December.

“For each day we fall short of it, the required target goes fur-ther up,” Rijo John, health econo-mist and a professor at the Raja-giri College of Social Sciences in the southern city of Kochi.

“Realistically, I do not think we will be able to cover all adults fully by this year’s end.”

Kerala on Monday logged 12,294 new Covid-19 cases pushing the infection count to 36,81,965, as the number of peo-ple succumbing to the disease rose to 18,743 with 142 additional deaths.

Police search for man suspected of killing wife

People stand in a queue to get inoculated with a dose of the Covaxin vaccine against Covid-19 at a temporary vaccination centre set up inside a school in Mumbai yesterday.

Guardian News and MediaLondon

Police are searching for a man suspected of murder-ing his wife before going

on the run to Scotland.West Yorkshire police took the

rare step of naming Mark Bar-rott, 54, as a suspect in the mur-der of his wife, Eileen Barrott, at their home in Leeds on Sunday.

Eileen, a nurse at St James’s hospital, was found dead at the couple’s home in the Whinmoor area of the city on Sunday evening.

Detectives released CCTV im-ages yesterday of her husband, who was last seen in Aberdeen city centre shortly after 9pm on

Sunday after arriving on a train from Leeds via Edinburgh.

Detective chief inspector Va-nessa Rolfe said Eileen’s family were “completely devastated” by her death and appealed for help to trace the victim’s husband.

“We are continuing to carry out extensive enquiries to locate Mark Barrott as a suspect for his wife Eileen’s murder,” she said.

“We are liaising closely with our colleagues from Police Scot-land who have established the most recent sighting of Barrott on CCTV in Aberdeen city centre on Sunday night.

“We are keen to hear from anyone who has seen him since then or who has any information that could assist in tracing him.”

Eileen had worked for 25 years at St James’s hospital, where col-leagues paid tribute to her yes-terday.

A spokesman for Leeds Teach-ing Hospitals NHS Trust said: “It is with great sadness that we have heard about the sudden and unexpected passing of Eileen Barrott.”

The government hopes to attract at least £4bn of investment to the hydrogen economy by 2030 under plans to produce the equivalent of enough hydrogen to replace fossil fuel gas for heating and cooking in about 3mn households in the UK. The government has published its long-awaited plans for a UK-wide hydrogen economy, which it says could be worth £900mn and create more than 9,000 high-quality jobs by the end of the decade, rising to £13bn and 100,000 new jobs by 2050. The strategy document lays out its eff orts to attract investment in 5 gigawatts of hydrogen production by 2030, which would mostly power heavy industry, as well as transport and up to 70,000 homes.

Britain’s medicines watchdog yesterday said it had approved the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 12-17, after previously giving the green light to Pfizer. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said in a statement that the jab was “safe and eff ective in this age group”. But it added it would now be up to government advisory body the Joint Com-mittee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) to recommend whether to start giving the jab. Britain began its mass vaccination programme in December last year and has to date seen nearly 90% of all adults receive a first dose. More than three-quarters (77%) have had two doses.

Britain’s unemployment rate dipped in the second quarter on reopening of the economy that has resulted in record-high vacancies, off icial data showed yesterday. While the number of payroll employees has surged, it remains below the pre-pandemic total, the Off ice for National Statistics added. The unemployment rate eased to 4.7% in the second quarter from 4.8% in the three months to the end of May, the ONS said in a statement. “The world of work continues to rebound robustly from the eff ects of the pandemic,” said ONS stat-istician Jonathan Athow. But he added that “early survey figures show the number of job vacancies passed 1mn for the first time ever in July”.

More than 300 senior lawyers, including Cherie Blair, whose husband Tony was British prime minister, have signed a petition urging one of London’s oldest gentlemen’s clubs to start admit-ting women. The Garrick Club, founded in 1831 for actors and “men of refinement and education”, is one of the last such clubs not to allow women in, except as guests of men. Several previous votes by members proposing a change to the men-only policy have failed after not reaching a two-thirds majority. Signatories of the petition include some 300 male and female senior lawyers, who argue the gender bias means women miss out on networking opportunities.

Six children and an adult were taken to hospital with injuries after a car collided with pedestri-ans in a school car park in southern England, the Sussex Police said. At least one person was reported to have been pinned under a Tesla Model 3 in a car park of Ardingly College, the Telegraph, first to report about the incident, said. The police said officers responded to reports of a collision involving a blue Tesla car and pedestrians in College Road, Ardingly. The driver, a 47-year-old woman who was in the car at the time of the collision, was uninjured, according to the police. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

UK reveals plans for £4bnhydrogen investment

Moderna jab approvedfor children aged 12-17

UK unemployment dipsas economy reopens

Petition urges Londonclub to admit women

Seven people injured as carcollides with pedestrians

PROPOSAL HEALTHCAREDATA DISCRIMINATION ACCIDENT

Indian civilians who were evacuated arrive in the western Indian city of Jamnagar for refuelling on the way to Delhi.

US eases Indiatravel advisory

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday lowered India to “Level 2: Moderate,” while the State Department eased its In-dia rating to “Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution.”US President Joe Biden on April 30 imposed new travel restrictions on India in light of Covid-19, barring most non-US citizens from entering the US who had been in India within the previous 14 days.The new travel advisory of Level 2 – which is considered as safe – came in the wake of the significant improvement in Covid situation in India.

“We are liaising closely with our colleagues from Police Scotland who have established the most recent sighting of Barrott on CCTV in Aberdeen city centre on Sunday night”

WORLD9Gulf Times

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

The Brics countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – collaborate in a number of areas and have

emerged as a forceful voice for global governance reform. But with their lukewarm co-operation on Covid-19 vaccines, they have missed an impor-tant opportunity to demonstrate their ability to mount a strong collective response to a global crisis.

The pandemic has hit the Brics hard. India has recorded the highest number of infections within the group (and the second most globally, after the United States), with 32.2 million at the time of writing. Brazil has reported 20.3 million cases, Russia 6.6 million, South Africa 2.6 million, and China – where the pandemic originated – fewer than 100,000. Total Covid-19 deaths across the five countries now stand at 1.25 million, with Brazil and India accounting for 80% of these.

This heavy toll – and the fact that the rich countries of the G7 have purchased over one-third of the world’s Covid-19 vaccine supply, despite accounting for only 13% of the global population – should have provided an impetus for stronger co-operation among the Brics countries. But as the University of the Witwatersrand’s Vishwas Satgar noted recently during a webinar hosted by the Brics Policy Centre, the Brics “have seen a divergence, inconsistency, and lack of co-operation on Covid-19 vaccination.”

The Brics countries are not new to so-called “vaccine diplomacy,” or efforts to strengthen ties through co-operation in vaccine-related research and innovation. During South Africa’s presidency of the bloc in 2018, for example, its government proposed establishing a joint Vaccine Research Centre – an idea that became part of the Brics’ Johannesburg Declaration.

Although the centre has yet to materialise, there were hopes that the Brics would work together closely on Covid-19 vaccine development and distribution. But even some of the vaccines developed by Brics countries themselves have received a mixed reception within the bloc.

In August 2020, Russia became the first country in the world to register a Covid-19 vaccine candidate, and three months later, it became the first among the Brics to announce a high-efficacy vaccine: Sputnik V. The vaccine is reportedly 92% effective against the coronavirus. But scientists have criticised the rapidity of the Sputnik V trials and lack of transparency regarding the raw data, and the World Health Organisation has yet to approve the vaccine.

Among the other Brics countries, the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency initially blocked Sputnik V in response to data indicating adverse side effects. It reversed this decision in June 2021 and allowed the import

of 928,000 doses. India received 125 million doses of the vaccine in May 2021.

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority has not approved Sputnik V for use and is awaiting further data from the Russian Gamaleya Research Institute, which developed the vaccine. Although SAHPRA is coming under increasing pressure from the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters party to approve “non-Western” Covid-19 vaccines, the agency remains steadfast in its science-based approach free of political influence or pressure.

In contrast, the WHO granted the

Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines emergency-use listings in May and June 2021, respectively. Brazil participated in Sinovac trials and, following positive results, has continued to use this vaccine. But although the Drugs Controller General of India announced in June that WHO-approved Covid-19 vaccines will no longer require post-approval bridging trials and batch testing in India, it is unclear whether the country will include the Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines in its immunisation programme. Likewise, South Africa gave the Sinovac vaccine the green light for use in July 2021, but has yet to announce any

procurement plans.Then there is vaccine

manufacturing. India accounts for 50% of all global vaccine supplies, and the Serum Institute of India – the world’s largest vaccine producer – has worked with the Oxford Vaccine Group to produce Covishield, a local version of the AstraZeneca-Oxford Covid-19 vaccine. But despite its vaccine-production might, India has fully vaccinated only 8.8% of its population against Covid-19, while 22% have received one dose.

Similarly, the Cape Town-based Biovac company will start manufacturing the Pfi zer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in 2022 for distribution within Africa. Currently, just 6.9% of South Africans are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and a further 5.6% have received one dose. Biovac would become a “fi ll-and-fi nish facility” before vaccines make their way to their intended destinations.

The Indian and South African vaccine producers have entered technology-centred agreements with their Western partners, but do not own any Covid-19-related patents. In an attempt to address this issue, even before concluding these agreements, the two countries’ governments led a push at the World Trade Organisation in October 2020 to waive intellectual-property rights for Covid-19 technologies and vaccines.

But Brics foreign ministers did not collectively support this proposal until June 2021, eight months after it was fi rst submitted. China and Russia had previously remained silent on the issue, while Brazil, as Brics expert Karin Costa Vazquez notes, was the only member of the group openly to oppose this idea, in direct alignment with former US president Donald Trump.

Brazil’s position became more supportive only in early 2021, after India said it would start sending Covid-19 vaccines to key partner countries, and US President Joe Biden’s administration announced its support for the proposed IP waiver.

For now, India and South Africa’s role in manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines must not distract them from pursuing their important proposal at the WTO. In addition, the Brics countries should prioritise the establishment of the Vaccine Research Centre in order to enhance co-operation in this domain.

Whether they will succeed remains to be seen. The Covid-19 pandemic has tested the Brics countries’ collective strength, and found them largely wanting. The bloc has therefore missed a chance to bolster its advocacy of international governance reform, and cast doubt on its fitness for purpose in responding to arising critical global challenges.

— Project Syndicate

Luanda Mpungose is Programme Officer at the African Governance and Diplomacy Programme at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

For most of the 13-year life of cryptocurrencies, exchanges were the epicentre for cyberheists. Now, a bigger hacking risk in the growing sector has exploded into view: peer-to-peer crypto platforms.

One such site, Poly Network, was at the centre of a $610mn crypto theft last week, one of the biggest ever. Within days of the heist, the decentralised finance (DeFi) platform said the “white hat” hacker or hackers had returned nearly all the loot.

The unusual ending to the Poly Network saga belies fast-emerging risks in this growing corner of crypto, where an estimated $80bn or more is held, interviews with industry executives, lawyers and analysts show.

DeFi sites allow users to lend, borrow and save — usually in cryptocurrencies — while bypassing the traditional gatekeepers of finance such as banks and exchanges. Backers say the technology offers cheaper and more efficient access to financial services.

But the heist at Poly Network — previously a little-known site — has underscored the vulnerability of DeFi sites to crime.

Would-be robbers are often able to exploit bugs in the open-source code used by sites. And with regulation still patchy, there is usually little or no recourse for victims.

Centralised exchanges, which act as middlemen between buyers and sellers of crypto, had previously been the main targets of crypto cyberheists.

Tokyo-based exchange Mt.Gox for instance collapsed in 2014 after it lost half a billion dollars in hacks. Coincheck, also based in Tokyo, was hit by a $530mn heist in 2018.

Many major exchanges, under the regulatory spotlight and striving to attract mainstream investors, have since bolstered security and

heists on such scale are now relatively rare.An onus on security at major platforms such as Coinbase Global

Inc has pushed less-secure venues to the sidelines, said Ross Middleton, chief financial officer at DeFi platform DeversiFi.

“What’s happened is the big exchanges have got really good (on security) and the smaller exchanges aren’t around anymore,” he said. “The frontier is definitely DeFi now.”

Losses from crime at DeFi platforms are at an all-time high, crypto intelligence firm CipherTrace said last week, with thieves, hackers and fraudsters making off with $474mn from January through July.

The spike came as funds poured into DeFi, mirroring fl ows into crypto as a whole. According to DeFi Pulse the total value held at such sites is now more than $80bn, compared with just $6bn a year earlier.

DeFi specialists say security risks tend to lie at newer sites which may run on less secure code.

“There is a widening security and risk gap between old, battle-tested DeFi protocols, and new, untested DeFi protocols,” said Rune Christensen, former head of the body behind high-profile DeFi application maker.

Proponents says the use of open-source code means vulnerabilities can be quickly identified and solved by users, reducing the risk of crime. DeFi can police itself, they say.

Yet for financial watchdogs and governments across the world looking at regulating the crypto sector, DeFi is increasingly in focus.

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler has signalled he would take a tough stance on DeFi.

Such platforms may be captured by US securities laws, he said in a speech this month, calling on Congress to draft legislation to rein in DeFi and crypto trading.

The SEC this month brought its first enforcement action involving DeFi tech, alleging the company issued unregistered securities and misled investors. The SEC did not respond to further questions on its stance.

Officials at the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission have also signalled greater scrutiny.

Commissioner Dan Berkovitz in June called DeFi a “Hobbesian marketplace” — a reference to a 17th century philosopher who saw life without government as “nasty, brutish and short”. Unlicensed DeFi platforms for derivatives were violating commodities trading laws, he suggested. — Reuters

Gulf Times Wednesday, August 18, 2021

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEFFaisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka

Deputy Managing Editor

K T Chacko

Decentralised fi nance: Latest front in crypto’s hacking problem

Thieves, hackers and fraudsters made off with $474mn from January through July

Brics misses opportunity to lead vaccination driveBy Luanda MpungoseCape Town

FALLING SHORT: The Covid-19 pandemic has tested the Brics countries’ collective strength, and found them largely wanting.

WORLD11Gulf Times

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

90 countries back Pakistan to host UNHRC session on AfghanistanThe UN Human Rights Council is to hold a special session next week on the situation in Afghanistan to address “serious human rights concerns” after the Taliban takeover, a United Nations statement said yesterday.The Geneva forum is set to convene on August 24 at the request of Pakistan and nearly 90 other countries supporting the move, it said. Convening a special session requires support from one-third of the council’s 47 member states.Backers so far include members Britain and France — but not China or Russia — while the United States was not among supporting countries with observer status, a provisional UN list showed.

Fall of Kabul and images that could tarnish Biden’s legacy

President Joe Biden alone at a giant table in Camp David. A helicopter evacuating diplomats from the US embassy in Kabul. Armed militants celebrating victory in Afghanistan’s presidential palace.The seizure of power by the Taliban has generated images that are sure to make history and threaten to leave a stain on Biden’s legacy.

Alone at Camp David The photo showing Biden being briefed on the situation in Afghanistan by video conference while on retreat at a presidential resort was published Sunday by the White House.But even as the commander-in-chief hears from a number of military and security advisers, the image portrays him as isolated, silent and immobile

in a big room, seated at a long table with many empty chairs. Many US media, including progressive outlets, called the picture a public relations blunder.

The helicopter at the embassy The photograph of a heavy-lift Chinook helicopter flying over the US embassy in Kabul on Sunday, apparently to evacuate embassy personnel, has drawn comparisons to a similar image taken of the 1975 fall of Saigon as the Vietnam War ended in humiliation.Republicans immediately seized on the image to blast the US leader, calling it “Biden’s Saigon.”Just last month, during a press conference at the White House, Biden sought to reassure Americans that “there’s going to be no circumstance where

you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan”

The Taliban in the presidential palace Armed with Kalashnikov rifles and wearing black turbans, Taliban militants posed for photographs inside the presidential palace in Kabul after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, in images that were sure to become iconic.To make matters worse, one of the militants in the widely shared pictures claimed that he had spent eight years in the notorious US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The claim could not be verified by AFP.

Panic at the airport The dramatic video showing dozens of Afghans running after

a US military plane as it was lifting off from Kabul’s airport and trying desperately to cling on to the aircraft has made headlines around the world.The footage flew in the face of the Biden administration’s promise in recent weeks that the evacuation would unfold smoothly.

Afghans crammed into cargo plane The photo of 640 Afghans squeezed inside a US Air Force cargo plane is a powerful symbol of the haste, chaos and anguish that marked the evacuation eff ort.The Pentagon sought to refute that message yesterday, saying that the image in fact demonstrated the US army’s compassion. “It speaks to the humanity of our troops in this mission,” said spokesman Major General Hank Taylor.

President Joe Biden during a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris, their security team and senior off icials to obtain updates on the draw down of civilian personnel in Afghanistan, evacuations of SIV applicants and other Afghan allies, and the ongoing security situation in Kabul, in this handout photo obtained from The White House Twitter account on Monday. (Reuters)

An image grab taken from Al Jazeera television on Monday, shows members of Taliban taking control of the presidential palace in Kabul after Afghanistan’s president flew out of the country. (AFP)

This US Air Force image shows the inside of Reach 871, a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III flown from Kabul on Sunday. The plane evacuated 640 Afghans from Kabul according to US defence off icials contacted by Defence One. (AFP)

Nato: Taliban risk military strikes if they host terrorists againReutersBrussels

The Taliban must not let Afghanistan become a breeding ground for ter-

rorism again, Nato said yester-day, warning that the alliance after its withdrawal still has the military power to strike any terrorist group from a distance.

“Those now taking power have the responsibility to en-sure that international terror-ists do not regain a foothold,” Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in his fi rst news conference since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

“We have the capabilities to strike terrorist groups from a distance if we see that terror-ist groups again try to establish themselves and plan, organise attacks against Nato allies and their countries,” he added.

The fi ght against al Qaeda, the militant organisation re-sponsible for the 9/11 attacks whose leadership was hosted by the Taliban, was the main reason for the West’s interven-tion in Afghanistan in 2001 in what was to become Nato’s fi rst major operation beyond Europe.

But as the alliance wrapped up military operations this summer after almost two decades, the Taliban rapidly advanced, capturing the big-gest cities in days. The sudden takeover of the capital, Kabul, caused thousands of people to fl ee to the city’s airport, which is still being held by the US military, desperate to get on evacuation fl ights.

In Brussels, a female Afghan journalist on the verge of tears asked Stoltenberg what the West would do for all those vulnerable back in her country, leaving the Nato chief visibly moved.

Stoltenberg called on the

Taliban to facilitate the de-parture of all those who want to leave the country, and said that Western defence allies had agreed to send more evacuation planes to Kabul.

At the same time, he ex-pressed frustration with the Afghan leadership, blaming it for the Taliban’s easy success.

“Part of the Afghan security forces fought bravely,” Stolten-berg said. “But they were un-able to secure the country, because ultimately the Afghan political leadership failed to stand up to the Taliban and to achieve the peaceful solu-tion that Afghans desperately wanted.”

The EU foreign policy chief said yesterday it will only co-operate with the Taliban if they respect fundamental rights, including those of women, and prevent the use of Afghani-stan’s territory by terrorists.

Josep Borrell outlined the EU’s stance in a statement after an emergency meeting of Euro-pean Union foreign ministers to discuss the Taliban’s quick sei-zure of the Afghan capital Ka-bul. “I haven’t said that we are going to recognise the Taliban,” Borrell told a news conference. “I just said that we have to talk with them for everything, even

to try to protect women and girls. Even for that, you have to get in touch with them.”

The Taliban, in their fi rst of-fi cial news briefi ng since the seizure of Kabul, said they wanted peaceful relations with other countries and would respect the rights of women within the framework of Is-lamic law.

Their announcement, short on details but suggesting a softer line than during their rule 20 years ago, was made as the United States and Western allies evacuated diplomats and civilians the day after scenes of chaos at Kabul airport as Af-ghans thronged the airfi eld.

Borrell said the EU’s prior-ity was to evacuate EU staff and Afghan helpers from Kabul. He put the number of locals who have been working for the EU at almost 400, their families included.

Spain has off ered to act as a hub to receive these people before they are sent on to EU countries that have off ered them shelter, he said.

Humanitarian aid for Af-ghans must be maintained and even increased, but assistance will only go to the Afghan gov-ernment if conditions are met, Borrell said.

Prime Minister Imran Khan and his British counterpart Boris Johnson held a telephonic conversation yesterday on the latest situation in Afghanistan.Khan, who received the call, underscored the importance of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan for Pakistan and stressed that ensuring safety, security and respect for rights of all Afghans was critically important.Britain will work with other countries to avoid a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan and any recognition of the new government must be on an international basis, Johnson told his Pakistani counterpart.“The prime minister stressed his commitment to work with international partners to avoid a humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan and the wider region,” a Downing Street spokesperson said after the call with Khan.The Pakistani PM was reported to have highlighted the role played by Islamabad in facilitating evacuation of diplomatic personnel and staff of international organisations and others from Afghanistan.The two prime ministers agreed to remain in contact with respect to the evolving situation in Afghanistan.Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke yesterday with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on the situation in Afghanistan, the US State Department said in a statement.

Johnson-Khan, Blinken-Qureshi discuss situation

Raging French wildfi re forces evacuations near Saint-Tropez

AFPLe Luc

Hundreds of French fi re-fi ghters battled a raging blaze near the Mediter-

ranean resort of Saint-Tropez yesterday, with thousands of residents and holidaymakers forced to evacuate.

Roughly 750 fi refi ghters using high-pressure hoses and water-dropping aircraft were attempt-ing to control the fl ames, which began racing through a nature reserve on Monday evening.

“Thousands of people have been evacuated as a precaution-ary measure, but there are no victims,” fi re service spokes-woman Delphine Vienco told AFP, adding that the blaze was “still very fi erce”.

Among those moved to safe-ty were 1,300 people staying at a campsite in the village of Bormes-les-Mimosas down the coast from glitzy Saint-Tropez.

As tourists and locals fl ed, offi cials warned them to avoid

blocking roads used by the emergency services.

President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte are on holi-day nearby, and he announced he would visit the area later.

Southern France is the latest area around the Mediterranean basin to be hit by wildfi res this summer, a seasonal phenome-non that climate scientists warn will become increasingly com-

mon because of man-made glo-bal warming.

Large fi res have already rav-aged parts of Greece, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, Algeria and Mo-rocco this year.

The blaze is believed to have started near a motorway that runs through the Plaine des Maures nature reserve some 18 miles northwest of Saint-Tropez.

Flames rise as light from the setting sun is filtered through during a wildfire, near Gonfaron, in the department of Var, southern France, yesterday. (AFP)

Some Afghan women stay defi antReutersKabul

Afghan women and girls who have won freedoms they could not have dreamt of un-der the last Taliban rule that ended 20 years

ago are desperate not to lose them now the militant movement is back in power.

Taliban leaders have made reassurances in the build-up up to and aftermath of their stunning con-quest of Afghanistan that girls and women would have the right to work and education, although they have come with caveats.

Some women have already been ordered from their jobs during the chaos of Taliban advances across the country in recent days. Others are fear-ful that whatever the militants say, the reality may be diff erent.

“Times have changed,” said Khadija, who runs a religious school for girls in Afghanistan.

“The Taliban are aware they can’t silence us, and if they shut down the Internet the world will know in less than 5 minutes. They will have to accept who we are and what we have become.”

That defi ance refl ects a generation of women, mainly in urban centres, who have grown up being able to attend school and university and to fi nd jobs.

When the Taliban fi rst ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, they dictated that women could not work and girls were not allowed to attend school.

Women had to cover their face and be accompa-nied by a male relative if they wanted to venture out of their homes. Those who broke the rules some-times suff ered humiliation and public beatings by the Taliban’s religious police.

During the past two years, when it became clear that foreign troops were planning to withdraw from Afghanistan, Taliban leaders made assurances to the West that women would enjoy equal rights in ac-cordance with Islam, including access to employ-ment and education.

Yesterday, at the Taliban’s fi rst press conference since seizing Kabul on Sunday, spokesperson Za-bihullah Mujahid said women would have rights to education, health and employment and that they would be “happy” within the framework of sharia.

Specifi cally referring to women working in media, Mujahid said it would depend on what laws were in-troduced by the new government in Kabul.

Yesterday, a female anchor for the private Afghan channel Tolo TV interviewed a Taliban spokesman live on air. Afghan girls’ education activist Pashtana Durrani, 23, was wary of Taliban promises.

“They have to walk the talk. Right now they’re not doing that,” she told Reuters, referring to assurances that girls would be allowed to attend schools.

“If they limit the curriculum, I am going to upload more books to (an) online library. If they limit the Internet ... I will send books to homes. If they limit teachers I will start an underground school, so I have an answer for their solutions.”

French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday faced accusations from the left and activists that he was letting down ordinary Afghans after he pledged a robust European approach against illegal migration in the wake of the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban. His stance however gladdened the right in France in what is due to be one of the most contentious battlegrounds as Macron prepares for 2022 presidential elections that may come down to a duel with the far-fight. Macron promised in a televised address on Monday that France would “protect those who are most under threat in Afghanistan” while also vowing Europe would put together a “robust” initiative to thwart illegal migration.

Macron in row over illegal migration pledge

12 Gulf TimesWednesday, August 18, 2021

QATAR

Qatari envoy takes part in celebration

Qatar’s ambassador in Jakarta, Fawzia bint Idris al-Sulaiti, participated via videoconferencing in the Indonesian presidency’s celebration of the 76th anniversary of the country’s independence, with the attendance of President Joko Widodo. (QNA)

Indonesians celebrate 76th Independence DayBy Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

The Indonesian mission and members of the In-donesian community

in Doha marked their nation’s 76th Independence Day yester-day with a fl ag-hoisting cer-emony, ‘tumpeng’ cutting, and a number of virtual activities.

Speaking at the event, Indo-nesian ambassador Ridwan Has-san highlighted the importance of keeping the nation’s diversity and tolerance saying that all In-donesians, including those living in Qatar, “have no room for divi-sion and confl icts.”

The envoy noted that Indone-sia is one of the most diverse and largest archipelagic countries in the world, comprising thou-sands of islands, hundreds of ethnicity and local languages, as well as diff erent religions.

“More importantly, Indo-nesia is built on and by various groups ranging from political belief, ethnicity, religion, and so on. All these groups have their own contribution in maintain-ing, defending, and protecting independence. Everyone should embrace our diversity,” he said.

Hassan was also joined by his spouse, Madam Lita Kadartin at the tumpeng-cutting ceremo-ny (Tumpeng is an Indonesian cone-shaped rice dish with side dishes of vegetables).

The celebration, held on the embassy premises at the Ona-iza area with strict Covid-19 precautionary measures, was attended by embassy offi cials and members of the Indonesian community in Qatar.

According to the embassy, some 17,000 Indonesian nation-als currently live in Qatar and work in various sectors such as oil and gas, education, health-care, and hospitality, among others.

“Indonesian citizens in Qatar have also been known for their activeness and creativity in so-cial and community activities. The activeness of the Indone-sian diaspora in Qatar is a good asset for Indonesian diplomacy here, particularly in enhancing

people-to-people contact be-tween the two countries,” Has-san stressed.

In a statement, Indonesian community member Agri Su-mara said the Independence Day commemoration “should be used not only to reflect but also to put on reality the vision

of the country. “Seventy-six years for a na-

tion may not be too old, but it is surely not young, too. As a na-tion we should be more mature to take a step ahead”.

Amy Smith, one of the Indo-nesian young diaspora in Qatar, said such an event has a special

meaning for her. Born to a Brit-ish father and an Indonesian mother, she stressed that she has always been very proud of being an Indonesian.

“I love Indonesia and I feel honoured to join the celebra-tion here at the embassy”, said Smith, who was also one of the

participants at the embassy’s programme dubbed ‘Indonesian Language for Us (Bikta)’.

The embassy also organised a series of activities in line with

the Independence Day com-memoration, but due to the cur-rent Covid-19 restrictions, many were held virtually. Fun race in-dividual trial (fun bike competi-

tion), underwater fl ag hoisting, and badminton competition ti-tled ‘Ambassador Cup’ are set to take place in person from August 21-28.

The Indonesian Independence Day celebration began with a flag-hoisting ceremony.

Indonesian ambassador Ridwan Hassan was joined by his spouse, Madam Lita Kadartin, at the tumpeng cutting ceremony yesterday at the embassy. (Pictures supplied)

Doha Forum

ViewPoint

Series hosts

Unicef

regional

director

Doha Forum ViewPoint Series hosted Afshan Khan, the Unicef Re-

gional Director for Europe and Central Asia and Special Co-or-dinator for Refugee and Migrant Response in Europe.

In an exclusive interview with Doha Forum ViewPoint Series, Khan reviewed her viewpoint about the changing world, alongside how Unicef has amended its own policies in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, including its mechanism of work with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in Qatar to help in the fi eld of education from home.

Khan said the world has seen a massive change and the Unicef was keen on changing its way of operation in the wake of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

“First of all, we have been changing rapidly to employ dig-ital platforms to help children learn, with hundreds of millions of children out of school.” She noted that the pandemic has had a great impact on the children, especially in terms of education, adding the Unicef has partner-ships in Qatar that are working with digital learning platforms in order to expand the possi-bilities of developing skills for young people. ViewPoint Series is an interview platform for the Doha Forum, which provides the opportunity to talk with promi-nent political and industry fi g-ures from around the world.

The series opened its current edition last week with an inter-view with Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies Patrick Pouyanne who explained the company’s special relation with Qatar.

Inspection tours

Umm Slal Municipality’s Health Control Section carried out 168 inspection tours during last week targeting various food outlets and retailers. Restaurants, Central Market, Fish Market, slaughter-houses and other relevant locations were covered to ensure their compliance with the stipulation of Law No 8 of 1990 on the Regulation of Human Food Control. The inspection campaigns resulted in issuing eight violation reports, and four food outlets were shut for 30 days for operating without valid licences. In addition, some violation reports were referred to the security entities concerned to take the necessary procedures against the violators. A number of health inspectors and veterinarians took part in the inspections.

QCRI holds Creative Space

Summer Camp for students

Qatar Computing Re-search Institute (QCRI), part of Hamad Bin

Khalifa University, welcomed enthusiastic middle school seniors from across Qatar to its annual Creative Space Summer Camp, which began on August 8.

The two-week programme aims to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines through innovative learning activities. As the K-12 students learn the fundamentals of web design, coding, and computa-tional thinking, they also de-velop skills such as creativity, innovation, problem-solving, and teamwork.

Students will have the op-portunity to apply and practise their new skills under the guid-ance of QCRI’s scientists. To demonstrate their understand-ing, each student will develop a mini-project of their own dur-ing the summer camp, ensur-ing a productive and impactful experience for the youngsters.

“Creative Space empow-ers young learners to become creators of technology, and to learn how to explore, innovate, and solve problems so they can see meaningful applications of STEM in their everyday lives,” said, Ikram Zidani, creative space co-ordinator at QCRI.

“The summer camp creates an atmosphere that is con-ducive to inspiring creativity

in these learners. They get to develop the latest technical skills and grow their knowl-edge in computer science and engineering programming with incredible teachers from QCRI. By giving them a fun summer learning experience, we hope to ignite their passion for technology and help them prepare for future career in-terests.”

Al Daayen Municipality’s Cleanliness Section has carried out campaigns to clean various areas, fight rodents and insects and sanitise garbage containers in some areas. The campaign is set to continue to cover the entire jurisdiction of the municipality.

Cleanliness drive