Call for united front - newsofbahrain.com · Southern Transitional Council’s call for...

Jordanian teachers come out on strike for promised pay raiseAmman

Nearly all state school teachers in Jordan began a strike yesterday, insisting that they will not return

to teaching until the government’s prom-ise of a 50 per cent increase is addressed.

A statement by the powerful teachers’ union that called for the strike said that

“commitment to the strike was nearly 100pc.”

Naser Nawasrah, the union’s vice pres-ident, told the press that teachers “will not enter the classrooms until those responsible for transgressions against teachers during Thursday’s protest are held accountable.”

Speaking on Radio Al Balad at the end of the first day of the strike, Nawasrah complained the government had not re-

sponded to the demands of the teachers. “We have asked for a long time to have

a dialogue but were stonewalled, and then when we protested our teachers were humiliated, beaten and arrested.”

Nawasrah said that there had been no plans for a strike until September, but the harsh government response pushed them to strike.

02King returns to Bahrain after Nice, Madrid visit

03Expat club stresses adherence to local laws after jobs fair row

04MoE denies tasking teachers ‘to cover irrelevant subjects’

6

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His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa received at Sakhir Palace yesterday His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier, as well as a number of senior officials. HM the King reviewed with HRH the Premier and HRH the Crown Prince local issues, commending their tireless efforts to boost comprehensive development and upgrade the public institutions’ performance to enhance their competitiveness, distinction, innovation and productivity. His Majesty praised the Kingdom’s development strides and achievements, stressing the importance of supporting plans and initiatives aimed at meeting citizens’ aspirations and bringing about more accomplishments.

People ‘top priority’

Call for united front Calls come as rebels and government meet over Hodeidah deal to enforce a ceasefire agreement in Yemen

• The joint statement concluded with a declaration that the two countries will continue providing humanitarian assistance to Yemeni governorates liberated from Houthi control.

• The Saudi-UAE statement came as a joint committee negotiating the redeployment of forces from Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah boarded a UN ship in the Red Sea.

Dubai

The UAE and Saudi Arabia believe a united front is needed in Yemen to com-

bat the Houthi rebels and rein-state the internationally recog-nised government, a statement by the Arab Coalition countries said yesterday.

Talks between the government and the Southern Transitional Council took place last Thurs-day in Jeddah under the Saudi government’s mediation. The in-

tervention of Riyadh is seeking to end recent fighting in Yemen’s southern provinces.

“We welcome the response of the Yemeni government and the Southern Transitional Council’s call for dialogue,” the statement said.

“We assert the importance of completely halting all military ac-tions, or violations against public and private property.”

The UAE and Saudi Arabia went on to reaffirm their “continued support for the legitimate gov-

ernment of Yemen in its efforts to maintain the integrity of the Yemeni state while defeating the

Houthi militias and terrorist or-ganisations operating in Yemen, in addition to curbing Iranian expansionism”.

Both countries said that they have been working in close co-or-dination with various parties to implement a ceasefire in prepa-ration for constructive dialogue that aims to end the conflict and address its reverberations.

The joint statement concluded with a declaration that the two countries will continue providing humanitarian assistance to Yem-

eni governorates liberated from Houthi control.

The Southern Transition-al Council responded with its own statement, welcoming the UAE and Saudi joint statement. Spokesman Nazar Haitham said “dialogue and peace are what the STC have called for from the start”.

The Saudi-UAE statement came as a joint committee negotiating the redeployment of forces from Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah boarded a UN ship in the Red Sea over the weekend to resume talks over the pullback from the key ports in the city.

Representatives of the gov-ernment and the Houthi rebels boarded the Antarctic Dream on Saturday night to join the UN representatives on board, Col Wathah Al Dubaish, the spokes-person of the pro-government joint forces on the country’s west coast told The National.

Sunday’s meeting was moni-tored by the UN Redeployment and Co-ordination Committee, led by Lebanese General Hani Nakhlah – the disengagement observer for the UN committee. He is leading the current round of negotiations after the head of the committee, Danish General Michael Lollesgaard, left his post and returned home in July 2019, Col Al Dubaish said.

Fighters from the pro-government Security Belt Forces discuss launching a mortar towards Houthi rebels in an area called Moreys, on the frontline in Yemen’s Dhale province.

50,000people have died in

Yemen in recent years after the country

suffered a heavy famine.

We suggest a five-year plan where the increase is 10pc each year.

OWEIS

Uranium ‘traces found’ Vienna

Samples taken by the UN nuclear watchdog at

what Israel’s prime minis-ter called a “secret atom-ic warehouse” in Tehran showed traces of uranium that Iran has yet to explain, two diplomats who follow the agency’s inspections work closely say.

The International Atom-ic Energy Agency (IAEA) is investigating the particles’ origin and has asked Iran to explain the traces.

But Tehran has not done so, according to the dip-lomats, stoking tensions between Washington and Tehran. US sanctions have slashed Iranian oil sales and Iran has responded by breaching its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Tanker ‘sold oil’ Tehran

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman yesterday

said an Iranian oil tanker at the center of a dispute between Tehran and West-ern powers had reached its destination and sold its oil, state television reported.

“The tanker has gone to its destination, the oil has been sold,” spokesman Ab-bas Mousavi told the tele-vision station without dis-closing whether the crude oil had been delivered.

02MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

Bahraini-Moroccan relations on track

Manama

His Royal Highness P r i m e M i n i s t e r Prince Khalifa bin

Salman Al Khalifa yesterday received, at his Palace in Riffa, the newly-appointed Moroc-can Ambassador to Bahrain, Mostafa Benkhayi.

HRH Premier congratulated Mostafa Benkhayi on his ap-pointment to his post, wishing him every success in achieving common aspirations.

The ambassador expressed deepest congratulations to HRH the Prime Minister on the on the UN’s declaration of the 5th of April of each year as an “In-ternational Day of Conscience”, in response to an initiative launched by HRH the Premier earlier this year.

“As Arabs, we are proud of this achievement, and this in-itiative for which the world is currently in dire need. This demonstrates that the King-dom of Bahrain has become an active player at the inter-national arena thanks to HRH Premier’s vision in support for realism, clarity and responsibil-ity. It also proves that Bahrain has an in-depth analysis of the events aimed at consolidating the International Communi-ty’s efforts towards peace and stability,” he said.

The Prime Minister stressed

that the deep-rooted Bah-raini-Moroccan relations are based on solid foundations of mutual understanding and love between the two kingdoms’ leaderships and brotherly peo-ples.

HRH Premier highlighted the kingdom’s desire to strengthen cooperation with Morocco in various fields to serve common interests and open up new ho-rizons that would benefit the two countries.

HRH the Prime Minister commended the efforts ex-erted by Morocco, under the leadership of HM King Moham-med VI, to enhance joint Arab action, wishing the Moroccan leadership and people further progress and prosperity.

The envoy expressed sincere thanks and appreciation to HRH the Prime Minister for his sup-port for all efforts aimed at bol-stering cooperation between the two brotherly countries, expressing delight at meeting HRH Premier, who, he said, is a prominent Arab and interna-tional personality whose wis-dom is widely acclaimed.

He stressed his country’s keenness on strengthening sol-idarity and consultation with Bahrain across various sectors, particularly the economic and investment ones.

He lauded the progress boom currently witnessed by the kingdom in various fields.

King returns to Bahrain after Nice, Madrid visit

His Majesty’s visit highlighted the Kingdom’s ties with France, Spain Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa was welcomed upon his re-

turn home by His Royal High-ness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Su-preme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister.

HM King Hamad had made a visit to the Spanish capital Ma-drid where he visited former Spanish Monarch, HM King Juan Carlos, was reassured about his health.

HM King Juan Carlos ex-pressed sincere thanks and ap-preciation to HM King Ham-ad for his kind visit and noble feelings, wishing HM the King abundant health and happi-

ness.HM King Hamad also attend-

ed the conclusion of the 2019 Ironman 70.3 World Champi-onship, held in the city of Nice, France, with the participation of the Bahrain endurance team, and athletes from various coun-tries.

Upon arrival, HM King Ham-ad was welcomed by the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, sen-ior local officials and senior of-ficials from the high organising committee of the 2019 Ironman 70.3 World Championship.

HM the King’s Representative for Charity Work and Youth Affairs and Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, briefed HM King Hamad on the participa-tion of the Bahrain endurance team in the championship, as

well as its preparations for such a world sporting event.

On the occasion, HM the King expressed pleasure at attending the world championship, and lauded the solid good relations of friendship between Bahrain and France, especially in the youth and sports fields.

HM King Hamad congratu-lated Bahrain’s endurance team for winning the first and sec-ond places in the 2019 Iron-man 70.3 World Championship, praising their strong determi-nation and distinguished levels throughout the event, hailing the numerous world titles at-tained by Bahrainis at various championships and competi-tions, citing HH Shaikh Nasser’s winning of the Ironman World Championship 2018 in the US.

HM the King stressed his un-wavering keenness to provide

all kinds of care and support for Bahraini youth in order to con-tinue achieving successes and maintain the kingdom’s sports accomplishments and gains.

HM King Hamad commended the tremendous efforts exert-ed by HH Shaikh Nasser, and the First Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and President of the Bahrain Olympic Committee, HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, to boost the march of sports in Bahrain, diversify games and encourage Bahraini youth in participate in them and lift the national flag at var-ious gatherings.

HM King Hamad praised such world sporting gatherings, noting that they are platforms to strengthen friendship and co-operation among world ath-letes and youth.

His Majesty being received by HRH the Crown Prince and senior government officials. HRH the Premier receives Mostafa Benkhayi.

Shura Council Chairman Ali Al Saleh received yesterday Pakistani Ambassador to Bahrain Afzaal Mahmood. He lauded growing bilateral relations, mainly in the parliamentary field, praising solid ties of friendship binding both countries. The Pakistani ambassador commended the Shura Council’s keenness to bolster bilateral relations, stressing growing co-operation between both countries and wishing Bahrain constant growth and prosperity.

Commander-in-Chief of the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF), Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, received here yesterday the Riyadh-Resident New Zealand Ambassador to Bahrain, James Monroe. The commander-in-chief welcomed the envoy, and lauded the steadily-growing friendship relations between the two countries, as well as ways to enhance them in various fields. Defence Affairs Minister, Lieutenant-General Abdulla bin Hassan Al Nuaimi, BDF’s General Command’s Court Director, Major-General Hassan Mohammed Saad, and senior BDF officers attended.

Finance and National Economy Minister Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa reaffirmed the strong ties between Bahrain and India that contributed in bolstering the economic co-operation in various areas. The minister cited the role of potential trade and investment opportunities to reap the benefit in the interest of both friendly countries and peoples in growth and prosperity. This came as he received Ambassador of India to Bahrain Alok Kumar Sinha, praising the bilateral ties in various fields especially in the financial and banking sector. He stressed the importance of continuity of proceeding to open up further fields of cooperation to achieve the aspirations of both countries.

The BDF Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa received Shaikh Khalifa bin Duaij Al Khalifa, President of HRH the Crown Prince’s Court, accompanied by his son Shaikh Duaij bin Khalifa Al Khalifa on the occasion of his graduation from the British Royal Military Academy of Sand Hurst. The Commander-in-Chief congratulated Shaikh Duaij on his graduation praising his persistent efforts and academic prowess at one of the world’s ancient military colleges, wishing him further academic and career success.

Minister of Finance and National Economy, Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, has lauded the distinguished long-standing Bahraini-British relations, and the advanced level they have reached in various fields. The minister stressed the importance of bolstering cooperation between the two friendly countries, and enhancing joint coordination to further boost bilateral relations and serve common interests. Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa was speaking as he received here today the newly-appointed UK Ambassador to Bahrain, Roddy Drummond. He wished the ambassador every success in carrying out his diplomatic duties to contribute to enhancing joint cooperation, especially in the financial and economic fields to benefit the two countries and their friendly peoples.

Under the patronage of Chief of Public Security, Major-General Tariq Al Hassan, the Second National Workshop on Combating Oil Spills was held by the Supreme Council for Environment. The workshop was held in cooperation with the National Disaster Management Committee and the Oil Spill Response (OSRL) Company. It was attended by the Council’s Chief Executive, Dr Mohammed Mubarak Bin Daina and senior Interior Ministry officers. The Chief asserted the importance of training programmes and activities to enhance awareness of risks and threats that could happen because of crises and accidents. Training could help in determining how to deal with those risks and take up responsibilities.


‘Bahrain, US working together to ensure networks are more secure, faster’ Manama

Chairman of the United States Federal Communi-cations Commission (FCC)

Ajit Pai has hailed the success of his meetings in the Kingdom.

“We shared the views of FCC and other government agencies on some of the issues with respect to 5G, the next generation of the wireless kind of activity, one as-pect of which is the security of those networks,” Pai told Bahrain News Agency (BNA) yesterday.

According to the FCC position, 5G will promote tremendous ben-efits for consumers and business-es around our country and across the world, he said.

Mr Pai said the 5G has a very fast speed and is “100 times faster than 4G”.

“A huge amount of data can be pushed through the airwaves wirelessly, so we think of the ap-plications that will be developed based on this 5G platform. It will transform entire industries like healthcare, education, agriculture and transportation,” he said.

“We are in the dawn of this age but we are confident that there

will be tremendous benefits. Just as we saw the mobile app econo-my developed from the 4G plat-form, 5G will promote a lot more innovation and investment for the consumers around the world.”

Mr Pai said that it was difficult to say how long the 5G would last. “We are announcing some of 5G commercial deployments in the United States, and I know that also Bahrain is exploring new com-mercial deployments, but we are already seeing some hints of the promising future to come. In terms of transportation for example, car makers are working with wireless innovators to come up with a con-

nected car solutions that will make transportation more efficient, re-duce pollution and mitigate the number of car accidents that are happening,” he said.

“We are announcing healthcare at least in the US. Patients would have wireless sensors that would remotely track, so instead of hav-ing the patient coming to the hos-pital when there is an emergency, he or she would be monitored re-motely and healthcare providers could intervene before something becomes an emergency.”

Mr Pai said that the US govern-ment pays a very high attention to these networks not only to be

strong but also to be secure. “At the end of the day, 5G involves

the creation of lots of data, a lot of new devices aside of phones, refrigerators, cars and all kinds of things that we connect to the Internet,” he said.

“The generation of that data has to be protected and one of the issues we have been thinking about is how to ensure the secu-rity of these networks in the US and around the world. One of the things we have been encouraging our allies like Bahrain to think about is a risk base frame. It is impossible to eliminate risks in most cases, but we can have a regulatory work frame base that allows you to have the network

services secured and that is some-thing really important to us.”

The FCC chairman, who stressed that Bahrain is a close ally to the US, said that Bahrain officials share the US priority to make sure that those networks are secure both from national se-curity perspective and consumer perspective.

“They appear to have taken steps to make sure that the net-works are secured. It is an issue that officials have to confront, but we are confident that we are working together and making sure that this value is upheld,” he said.

Finance Minister Shaikh Salman held a meeting with Mr Pai and his accompanying delegation.

Just as we saw the mobile app economy developed from the

4G platform, 5G will promote a lot

more innovation and investment for the

consumers around the world.

MR PAI

Expat club stresses adherence to local laws after jobs fair row

Indian Club’s 104-year’s history proves its commitment to Bahraini values and laws, says President Stalin Joseph

• Club executive committee members led by Mr Joseph yesterday met senior Labour Ministry officials.

• Mr Joseph slammed attempts to tarnish the image of the club “by some people with vested interests”.

TDT | Manama

The Indian Club yesterday stressed its commitment to the Kingdom’s laws

and regulations after a group of lawmakers criticised it for re-portedly hosting a jobs fair for expatriates.

The Mega Free Job Fair 2019 was organised by Bahrain Tamils Unarvalargal Sangam (BTUS) at the club premises on Friday.

Speaking to Tribune, Indian Club President Stalin Joseph said that the club’s 104-year’s history proves its commitment to Bahraini values and laws.

“We were totally misguided and the club has nothing to do with the jobs fair. We apologise

for whatever has happened. It is quite unfortunate that we couldn’t confirm whether the organisers had received permis-sion from the Labour Market Regulatory Authority and other offices concerned before con-ducting such an event.

“We lease out our premises to so many expatriate associations and event management com-panies for conducting events related to Indian diaspora in the Kingdom.

“Unfortunately, I was out of the country when this hap-pened while other club officials

were under the impression that the organisers would have taken all relevant approvals from the part of authorities concerned before conducting the event.”

Club executive committee members led by Mr Joseph yesterday affirmed its commit-ment to the Kingdom’s laws and regulations as they met senior Labour Ministry officials.

“The officials were informed about as to what happened in reality,” Mr Joseph said.

“We will be extremely careful henceforth while renting out our premises to third parties for

conducting any event.” Mr Joseph thanked the min-

istry officials for “their kind understanding of the matter”.

He also thanked the King-dom’s leadership for the great support the club has received since its inception over 100 years ago.

Mr Joseph slammed attempts to tarnish the image of the club “by some people with vested interests”.

“The club has been serving a pillar of ties between Bahrain and India and its credibility re-mains intact,” he pointed out.

Gang members accused of telephone fraud arrested Manama

The Director-General of An-ti-corruption and Economic and Electronic Security an-

nounced yesterday the arrest of some members of a foreign gang specialised in phone-related fraud cases.

The arrest was carried out by the

Directorate of International Affairs and Interpol in co-operation with the Abu Dhabi Communication Division and co-ordination with the Gulf Police Authority, he said.

He said that the Anti-Economic Crime Directorate and Police Directo-rates had received cases from citizens and residents in Bahrain after falling

victims to fraudsters who called them through Bahraini and UAE phone num-bers.

The directorate coordinated with the Gulf Police Authority to monitor those phone numbers in cooperation with security authorities from both countries.

The investigation led to the arrest of

some members of the gang. The Director-General said that

the cooperation between the two countries in solving the case was part of the strategic goals of the Gulf Police Authority to reinforce joint efforts between regional police departments in fighting all types of crimes.

The arrest was carried out by the Directorate of International Affairs and

Interpol in co-operation with the Gulf Police Authority.

THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL

Senior Labour Ministry officials led by Sabah Al Dossary held talks with Mr Joseph and other club representatives.

The Mega Free Job Fair 2019 was organised by Bahrain Tamils Unarvalargal Sangam.

We will be extremely careful henceforth while renting out our premises to third parties for conducting any

event. MR JOSEPH


MoE denies tasking teachers ‘to cover irrelevant subjects’

Ministry clarifies after lawmaker raises the allegation

• The official further pointed out that assigning teachers to cover different subjects doesn’t mean that it’s a permanent measure.

TDT | Manama

The Ministry of Education has denied tasking teach-ers to educate students

with subjects irrelevant to their academic field.

It stated that the newly re-cruited instructors were tem-porarily assigned to teach ma-terials linked to their university studies.

“We have put a comprehen-sive plan to cover our require-ments for the new academic year, putting into consideration the needed number of teachers,”

Fawaz Al Shurooqi, Head of the Public Relations Department at the ministry said in a statement issued.

“We have hired many Bahraini teachers this year to fill the gap and we have been wisely using

them in order to ensure classes are all attended by teachers.

“We wanted to make the best use of the teachers’ skills in the fields that are suitable to their qualifications and experiences as well as the training courses

and programmes under their belt.”

This came after MP Hamad Al Kooheji claimed that new teach-ers at the Ministry of Education have been requested to teach students subjects that were un-related to their academic quali-fications.

“The Ministry of Education has taken into consideration many criterion that help the teachers in their roles such as the selection of the teacher to cover an additional subject that

is close to what he studied as per the requirements of the ministry; for example Islamic teachers are sometimes handpicked to teach Arabic in the primary phase only and temporary due to their strong language skills and their capabilities to teach this subject.

“Senior teachers and co-or-dinators are also extending support to the teachers,” Mr Al Shurooqi explained in the state-ment.

“The administrations of the schools are also tasked to pro-vide the necessary backing to the teachers and follow them in the classrooms, while there are many training and development programmes that the teachers undergo to improve their skills,” he added.

The official further pointed out that assigning teachers to cover different subjects doesn’t mean that it ’s a permanent measure.

HM King praised over sports strides

• Shaikh Salman lauded the great support enjoyed by Bahraini sports from HM the King, which, he said, has contributed to bringing about distinguished achievements at the world level.

Manama

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for

Youth and Sport (SCYS) Shai-kh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa has extended deep-est congratulations to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on the histor-ic achievement of the Bah-rain endurance team, which clinched the first and second places at the 2019 Ironman 70.3 World Championship, held in the city of Nice, France.

Shaikh Salman lauded the great support enjoyed by Bahraini sports from HM the King, which, he said, has contributed to bringing about distinguished achievements at the world level.

He praised the new ac-complishment of Bahrain endurance team, stressing the great support accorded by the leadership to the sport movement to boost the king-dom’s standing in the inter-national sport arena.

Shaikh Salman also con-gratulated HM the King’s Representative for Charity Work and Youth Affairs and SCYS Chairman, HH Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khal-ifa, on the victory, stressing that the landmark victory is the dividend of his efforts to support the Ironman sport in Bahrain and motivate ath-letes to stand out in various sporting events.

He praised the high perfor-mance of Bahrain endurance team in the world champion-ship, pointing out the posi-tive impact the achievement would have on the future of Ironman sport in Bahrain.

MoE says newly recruited instructors were temporarily assigned to teach materials linked to their university studies.

We wanted to make the best use of the

teachers’ skills in the fields that are suitable to their qualifications

and experiences. MR AL SHUROOQI

Trucker detained by police for reckless driving• This is the third trucker to be arrested within three weeks because of reckless driving.

TDT | Manama

A truck driver, who was seen in a viral video on-line while speeding and

driving on the hard shoulder of one of the Kingdom’s highways, will remain behind bars for one week as per a decision taken by the Public Prosecution yesterday.

In the footage, the man was seen over-speeding and over-

taking other vehicles using the emergency lane on one of the roads in Bahrain.

He was filmed by a concerned driver who shared the video on local social media networks, call-ing the authorities to take action against such violators.

The Interior Ministry yester-day announced through a tweet that the driver has been appre-hended.

“Concerning the circulated video on social media about reckless driving by a truck driver on the road in a way that risk the safety of road users, the General Directorate of Traffic seized the vehicle and arrested the driver,” the ministry tweeted.

Traffic Prosecution Chief

Prosecutor Hussain Al Sairafi confirmed in a statement issued yesterday that the “Public Pros-ecution has launched an inves-tigation into a video on social

media showing a truck being driven at a speed exceeding the speed of the street and wrong crossing using the emergency lane and driving in a way that

risks lives”.Mr Al Sairafi said: “The Public

Prosecution has interrogated the suspect and he confessed to the charges against him.

“The Prosecution ordered to detain him for seven days pend-ing investigation and to refer him to the concerned court.”

This is the third trucker to be arrested within three weeks be-cause of reckless driving.

It followed a nationwide peti-tion calling to curb the “deadly” behaviours of truckers on the Kingdom’s roads, especially after it claimed the lives of two Bah-raini drivers in the same period.

No further information was revealed on the driver’s nation-ality or age.

The truck was seized by the Interior Ministry.

Teachers’ Day was celebrated with passion and delight at Bahrain Indian School – BHAVANS on 5th September 2019. As per the tradition, senior students got the chance of being teachers as they handled junior classes. Principal Saji Jacob guided teachers during the pledge-taking ceremony and also motivated all to continue doing the great work. The teachers pledged that they would work towards providing quality education and will be dedicated and committed towards their profession.

Teachers’ Day marked

Lawmaker seeks monthly support of BD20 for each Bahraini child TDT | Manama

An MP recently submitted a proposal to disburse a monthly allowance of

BD20 to Bahraini parents for each child they have until they reach the age of 18.

Submitted by MP Hamad Al Kooheji, the proposal excludes

families with more than four children and includes children who cross 18 years of age, in case they’re unable to work.

Mr Al Kooheji stated that his proposal aims to provide cash to support breadwinners of families for each child in the family to help them to provide the necessities of living and the

requirements of life necessary for the proper upbringing of the children, especially in light of the high cost of living in the country.

According to the MP, the pro-posal comes as “part of the ob-ligations of the State to provide the necessary support to the family, which is the backbone

of the society” adding that “the stability and prosperity of the family leads to the stability and prosperity of the society”.

Emphasising more on this point, Mr Al Kooheji quoted Ar-ticle 5 of the Kingdom’s Consti-tution, which reads: “The family is the basis of society, deriving its strength from religion, morality

and love of the homeland. The law preserves its lawful entity and strengthens its bonds and values.”

The government’s reply to the proposal is expected to be dis-cussed in the parliament during the upcoming legislative term, which is scheduled to resume by October this year. Mr Al Kooheji speaking in the House.

05

world

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

Japan ex-empress undergoes cancer surgeryTokyo

Japan’s former empress Mi-chiko “safely” underwent

surgery yesterday after the 84-year-old was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, the Imperial Household Agency said.

Michiko’s husband Akihito formally stepped down as em-peror in April, the first abdica-tion for 200 years in the world’s

oldest monarchy.Her operation began Sunday

morning “as scheduled” at the

University of Tokyo Hospital, the agency official said.

“It ended safely and (she) went back to her room,” the official told AFP, adding that further details would be an-nounced later.

Akihito and daughter Say-ako Kuroda, a former princess who left the royal household to marry a commoner, visited the hospital to see Michiko before the operation.

Michiko had an operation in Tokyo

Chandrayaan-2 lander located, says ISRO

PTI

Th e C h a n d raya a n -2 s Vikram module has been located on the lunar sur-

face and it must have been a hard-landing, ISRO chairman K. Sivan said yesterday, in an admission that the planned soft-landing wasn’t successful.

“Yes, we have located the lander on the lunar surface. It must have been a hard-land-ing,” Sivan told PTI.

He said the lander rover Pragyan is housed inside it was located by on-board cameras of the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter.

Asked if the lander was dam-aged during the hard-landing, he said, “That we do not know.”

Sivan said efforts to establish contact with the lander were continuing.

India’s mission to soft-land on the moon suffered a setback during the wee hours on Sat-urday, with ‘Vikram’ module losing communication with ground stations, just 2.1 km from the lunar surface during its final descent.

Considered as the most com-plex” stage of the country’s sec-ond expedition to the moon, the lander was on a powered decent for a soft-landing when it lost the communication.

“Vikram Lander descent was as planned and normal performance was observed up to an altitude of 2.1 km.

Subsequently, communi-cation from the lander to ground stations was lost,” Mr. Sivan had said.

“The data is being analysed”, he had

added at the Mission Opera-tions Complex at ISRO Telem-etry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) here.

Hopes fading on re-establishing link

Experts say time is running out and possibility of re-estab-lishing communication looks “less and less probable.”

Sivan said on Saturday that the space agency will try to es-tablish link with the lander for 14 days.

A senior official associated with the mission said, “Pro-gressively... as time goes by... it’s difficult (to establish link).”

However, with “right orien-tation” it can still generate pow-er and recharge batteries with solar panels, he added.

“But it looks less and less probable, progressively,” the official said on the condi-tion of ano- n y m -ity.

Another t o p I S R O offi-c i a l

said “hard-landing” of Vikram on the lunar surface has made the task of linking again with it that much difficult as it may not have the “right orientation,” and may not have landed on its four legs.

“Impact shock may have caused damage to the lander,” he said.

The successful landing would have made India the fourth country after erstwhile USSR, the US and China to achieve a soft-landing on the moon, also the first to launch a mission to the unexplored south pole of the Moon.

The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is healthy and safe in the Lunar orbit, an ISRO official said after the lander lost contact with ground stations minutes be-fore the touchdown on Moon’s surface.

“The orbiter is healthy, in-tact, functioning normally and safely in the lunar orbit,” the official told PTI.

The mission life of the 2,379-kg orbiter is one year.

The orbiter payloads would conduct re-mote-sensing ob-servations from a 100-km orbit.

Vikram Lander

Russians vote in regional electionsReuters | Moscow

Moscow citizens voted yesterday in some of the

most closely observed region-al elections in years, after the exclusion of many opposition candidates triggered huge pro-tests in the capital.

Early turnout was meagre in the capital for elections that, while only affecting lo-cal legislatures and regional governorships, have been ear-marked by Navalny and his allies as an opportunity to make inroads against the rul-

ing pro-Putin United Russia party.

The president, asked after voting in central Moscow if he would have preferred more di-versity and a bigger number of election candidates, said quality was a bigger factor than quan-tity.

“In some countries there are 30, 50 and 100 (candidates),” he said in comments broadcast by TV channel Russia 24. “The quality of their work does not depend on that. It’s important not how many, it is important of what quality.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin casts his vote in Moscow

Trump calls off talks, summit with TalibanKabul

US President Donald Trump said he had called off a secret summit with

the Taliban and Afghanistan’s leader, abruptly slamming the door on a year of diplomacy to end America’s longest war.

In a Saturday evening bomb-shell, Trump said that he had planned unprecedented, albe-it separate, talks with the two sides yesterday in Camp Da-vid, the presidential retreat in Maryland, but that the Talib-an’s persistent, grisly violence made them untrustworthy partners.

“Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan, were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday,” Trump said in a tweet.

“Unfortunately, in order to build false leverage, they ad-mitted to an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people. I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations.”

“What kind of people would kill so many in order to seem-ingly strengthen their bargain-ing position? They didn’t, they only made it worse!” Trump said. A US soldier and another service member from Roma-nia were killed in the bombing Thursday in Kabul -- the latest major attack claimed by the Taliban even as they negotiated with a US envoy on the with-drawal of thousands of troops.

Trump would have met the

Taliban at Camp David days before the 18th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, which triggered the US invasion that toppled the militants’ regime.

Congressman Tom Mal-inowski, a Democrat who has been pressing for clarity on the US strategy in Afghanistan, called the idea of Taliban lead-ers at Camp David “weird.”

“But I’m glad the president called off this farce, and hope this good decision sticks,” Mal-inowski tweeted.

The decision comes weeks before Afghanistan is set to hold elections, an unwieldy exercise even in more stable times. The Afghan government said it “in-sists” the polls should go ahead in its statement yesterday.

US President Donald Trump

Pompeo doesn’t rule out new talksWashington

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo yesterday did not

rule out reopening talks with the Taliban if they make a “sig-nificant commitment”.

Pompeo said Trump had not decided whether he would still withdraw US troops -- but warned the Taliban of renewed military pressure if they keep up attacks.

“I hope it’s the case the Tal-iban will change their behav-

iour and recommit to things we’ve talking about. In the end this will be resolved through a series of conversations,” Pom-peo told ABC television pro-gram “This Week.”


Hon. Chairman Najeb Yacob Alhamer | Editor-in-Chief Mahmood AI Mahmood | Chairman & Managing Director P Unnikrishnan | Advertisement: Update Media W.L.L | Tel: 38444692, Email: [email protected] | Newsroom: Tel: 38444680, Email: [email protected] & circulation: Tel: 38444698/17579877 | Email:[email protected] | Website: www.newsofbahrain.com | Printed and published by Al Ayam Publishing

SRIJAN PAL SINGH

The Cold War was marked not just by an arms race and the growing threat of nucle-

ar weapons. It was also a period of space race.

The first milestone of this space race was achieved by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, when they placed the world’s first arti-ficial satellite Sputnik (Russian for “traveller”) into the Earth’s orbit. Four months later, the Americans launched their own satellite -- Explorer 1.

The second milestone in this space race came four years later on April 12, 1961, when Russia’s Yuri Gagarin became the first hu-man to fly in space. The Americans were not far behind, sending Alan Shepherd into space just 23 days later!

The third and decisive mile-stone of this race came on July 20, 1969, when humanity for the first time stepped beyond this planet. When Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin set foot on the moon -- be-coming the first humans to do so -- the Americans finally defeated the Soviets in the space race.

The 1960s were certainly the boom era for space exploration. However, India was nowhere to be seen on this scientific map.

Nevertheless, without much fanfare, India kicked off its space programme in 1962 with the for-mation of the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), which later became the Indian Space Research Organ-isation (Isro).

I n Nove m b e r 1 9 6 3, I n d i a

launched the first sounding rock-ets, carried often on bicycles and bullock carts, and assembled inside a church building at the Equatorial Rocket Launching Sta-tion in Thumba, Kerala. From a humble beginning with limited re-sources in the 1960s to launching a Mars probe that cost less than the budget of a Hollywood movie, Isro has come a long way.

Before we discuss why being on the Moon is so important, we need to understand the birth of the sat-ellite. 4.6 billion years ago, our Sun

was born and its birth set off the creation of the solar system.

Earth, our home, was formed 4.54 billion years ago -- 60 million years after the Sun was formed. On a cosmic scale that is a mere blip on the time radar. Back then, the Earth was a hot spinning ball of gases and the solar system was a traffic jam of flying bodies collid-ing into one other.

The most popular theory for the creation of the Moon is what is known as the planet crash theory. It is believed that around 30-50

million years after the Earth was born, a large rock named Theia crashed into the planet. Theia was huge rock, 100 million times big-ger than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs and was almost the size of Mars.

It broke off large chunks from this early Earth and threw them into space. In time, gravity brought these pieces together to form the Moon. If the planet crash theory is to be believed, the Moon is made up of the remnants of the early Earth and so, offers the best insight

CHOOSING TO BE POSITIVE AND HAVING A GRATEFUL ATTITUDE IS GOING TO DETERMINE HOW YOU’RE GOING TO LIVE YOUR LIFE.JOEL OSTEEN

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Why are we going to

the Moon again?

The Chandrayaan-2 saw an Indian probe go to the Moon

a decade after Chandrayaan-1 reached the satellite

BARIA ALAMUDDIN

My article last week was entitled “Four days to save the United King-

dom.” Yet recent days turned out to be mind-bogglingly more dramatic than anticipated.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was outflanked by oppositionists and rebels from his own party, who seized control of the House of Commons (ahead of Johnson’s bid to close Parliament down), and forced through legislation prevent-ing him from crashing Britain out of Europe without a deal. Such was the enormity of his defeat that Johnson immediately sought fresh elections. However, the opposition — opting to hold Johnson’s feet in the fire a few weeks longer — will block elections until they can guar-antee that the deeply mistrusted PM doesn’t subvert the law and impose a no-deal Brexit. The op-tions for Johnson (who says he’d rather be “dead in a ditch” than delay Brexit) are so lamentable that he may be forced to resign or call a vote of no-confidence against himself — if his own party doesn’t throw him out first. Senior legal

experts, including former Attorney General Dominic Grieve (another rebel), warned that Johnson “could be sent to prison” if he ignored Parliament’s bill.

Johnson’s Conservative col-leagues were particularly infuriat-ed by his “Stalinist” purge of 21 MPs who voted to block no deal and the ruinous economic consequences it would have entailed. The de-frocked parliamentarians included veteran ministers and grandees like Philip Hammond, Kenneth Clarke, Alistair Burt, and Nicholas Soames, a grandson of Winston Churchill.

This purge is symptomatic of the party’s lurch toward the populist right: Mutating from being the par-ty of economic rectitude, the rule of law and traditional moral values to a brash, financially incontinent entity with a Trumpian grasp of honesty and ethics. It is now led by a narrow cabal of misogynistic, convention-burning Etonians who treat Parliament’s centuries of tra-dition with naked contempt.

Just as Donald Trump’s early presidency took its ideological bearings from white supremacist guru Steve Bannon, Johnson’s hatchet man is Dominic Cummings — widely reviled as the architect of Johnson’s kamikaze no-deal strategy. Senior Conservatives are ferociously denouncing him as a menace to the party.

Even populist right-wing news-

papers took a few moments away from their tireless onslaughts against hard-left Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to lampoon Johnson’s successive forced errors, including several excruciatingly awful speeches. Johnson’s own brother has resigned from govern-ment, citing “irreconcilable differ-ences” between family and national interest.

It is too early to proclaim that

Johnson’s brand of Trumpian pop-ulism has died in a ditch — there are still scenarios where he could survive a forthcoming election. Yet tragicomic misfires have thus far rendered British populism an increasingly unpalatable brand. And good riddance.

While in Italy recently, I wit-nessed equally far-reaching po-litical realignments, which saw the extreme right — personified

by Matteo Salvini — thrown out of government. Just weeks previ-ously, Salvini had appeared to be an unstoppable force who wasn’t just rewriting Italy’s political map, but was working to transform the European continent into a hostile environment for immigrants, mi-norities and law-abiding citizens. In Austria, Poland, Germany, Slova-kia and Spain, populism is likewise increasingly on the defensive.

Far-right populism

wasn’t invented in 2016, but it

has burst into flames with

disconcerting rapidity

Saving the politics of decency from the ravages of populism



SRIJAN PAL SINGH

The Cold War was marked not just by an arms race and the growing threat of nucle-

ar weapons. It was also a period of space race.

The first milestone of this space race was achieved by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957, when they placed the world’s first arti-ficial satellite Sputnik (Russian for “traveller”) into the Earth’s orbit. Four months later, the Americans launched their own satellite -- Explorer 1.

The second milestone in this space race came four years later on April 12, 1961, when Russia’s Yuri Gagarin became the first hu-man to fly in space. The Americans were not far behind, sending Alan Shepherd into space just 23 days later!

The third and decisive mile-stone of this race came on July 20, 1969, when humanity for the first time stepped beyond this planet. When Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin set foot on the moon -- be-coming the first humans to do so -- the Americans finally defeated the Soviets in the space race.

The 1960s were certainly the boom era for space exploration. However, India was nowhere to be seen on this scientific map.

Nevertheless, without much fanfare, India kicked off its space programme in 1962 with the for-mation of the Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), which later became the Indian Space Research Organ-isation (Isro).

I n Nove m b e r 1 9 6 3, I n d i a

launched the first sounding rock-ets, carried often on bicycles and bullock carts, and assembled inside a church building at the Equatorial Rocket Launching Sta-tion in Thumba, Kerala. From a humble beginning with limited re-sources in the 1960s to launching a Mars probe that cost less than the budget of a Hollywood movie, Isro has come a long way.

Before we discuss why being on the Moon is so important, we need to understand the birth of the sat-ellite. 4.6 billion years ago, our Sun

was born and its birth set off the creation of the solar system.

Earth, our home, was formed 4.54 billion years ago -- 60 million years after the Sun was formed. On a cosmic scale that is a mere blip on the time radar. Back then, the Earth was a hot spinning ball of gases and the solar system was a traffic jam of flying bodies collid-ing into one other.

The most popular theory for the creation of the Moon is what is known as the planet crash theory. It is believed that around 30-50



CHOOSING TO BE POSITIVE AND HAVING A GRATEFUL ATTITUDE IS GOING TO DETERMINE HOW YOU’RE GOING TO LIVE YOUR LIFE.JOEL OSTEEN

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Why are we going to

the Moon again?

The Chandrayaan-2 saw an Indian probe go to the Moon

a decade after Chandrayaan-1 reached the satellite

BARIA ALAMUDDIN

My article last week was entitled “Four days to save the United King-

dom.” Yet recent days turned out to be mind-bogglingly more dramatic than anticipated.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was outflanked by oppositionists and rebels from his own party, who seized control of the House of Commons (ahead of Johnson’s bid to close Parliament down), and forced through legislation prevent-ing him from crashing Britain out of Europe without a deal. Such was the enormity of his defeat that Johnson immediately sought fresh elections. However, the opposition — opting to hold Johnson’s feet in the fire a few weeks longer — will block elections until they can guar-antee that the deeply mistrusted PM doesn’t subvert the law and impose a no-deal Brexit. The op-tions for Johnson (who says he’d rather be “dead in a ditch” than delay Brexit) are so lamentable that he may be forced to resign or call a vote of no-confidence against himself — if his own party doesn’t throw him out first. Senior legal

experts, including former Attorney General Dominic Grieve (another rebel), warned that Johnson “could be sent to prison” if he ignored Parliament’s bill.

Johnson’s Conservative col-leagues were particularly infuriat-ed by his “Stalinist” purge of 21 MPs who voted to block no deal and the ruinous economic consequences it would have entailed. The de-frocked parliamentarians included veteran ministers and grandees like Philip Hammond, Kenneth Clarke, Alistair Burt, and Nicholas Soames, a grandson of Winston Churchill.

This purge is symptomatic of the party’s lurch toward the populist right: Mutating from being the par-ty of economic rectitude, the rule of law and traditional moral values to a brash, financially incontinent entity with a Trumpian grasp of honesty and ethics. It is now led by a narrow cabal of misogynistic, convention-burning Etonians who treat Parliament’s centuries of tra-dition with naked contempt.

Just as Donald Trump’s early presidency took its ideological bearings from white supremacist guru Steve Bannon, Johnson’s hatchet man is Dominic Cummings — widely reviled as the architect of Johnson’s kamikaze no-deal strategy. Senior Conservatives are ferociously denouncing him as a menace to the party.

Even populist right-wing news-

papers took a few moments away from their tireless onslaughts against hard-left Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to lampoon Johnson’s successive forced errors, including several excruciatingly awful speeches. Johnson’s own brother has resigned from govern-ment, citing “irreconcilable differ-ences” between family and national interest.

It is too early to proclaim that

Johnson’s brand of Trumpian pop-ulism has died in a ditch — there are still scenarios where he could survive a forthcoming election. Yet tragicomic misfires have thus far rendered British populism an increasingly unpalatable brand. And good riddance.

While in Italy recently, I wit-nessed equally far-reaching po-litical realignments, which saw the extreme right — personified


Far-right populism

wasn’t invented in 2016, but it

has burst into flames with

disconcerting rapidity

Saving the politics of decency from the ravages of populism


TOP

4TWEETS

04

02

03

01

India will never ever forget the morning of

7th September. It was on that day that we saw the true essence of the ‘ISRO Spirit.’

@narendramodi

Climate change had already hit New Eng-

land Fishmongers hard—before Trump’s tariffs decimated the markets they spent years build-ing. Thanks to Captain Tim Rider and everyone I met, who, in the face of these challenges, contin-ues to feed our country. We need to do right by them.

@BetoORourke

Kamala Harris apologiz-ing for laughing along

with a supporter who called Trump “mentally retarded” was the right thing to do. But she’s getting bashed by supporters of a president who mocked a disabled re-porter, and not only never apologized, but now denies he did it. #badfaith

@mehdirhasan

....an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people. I immedi-ately cancelled the meet-ing and called off peace negotiations. What kind of people would kill so many in order to seem-ingly strengthen their bargaining position? They didn’t, they....

@realDonaldTrump

Disclaimer: (Views expressed by columnists are personal and need not necessarily reflect our

editorial stances)



into the early history of our planet and perhaps the solar system.

Yes. Earth’s present surface pre-serves negligible amount of infor-mation about its past. Regular tec-tonic activities have recycled the crust of the planet over and over again and have even shifted land-masses. This, complemented by the weathering of the surface because of rainfall, snow and wind over the course of billions of years has erased most of the craters formed by asteroid and comet impacts dur-ing the early years of the Earth.

But the situation on the moon is completely different.

Unlike Earth, its surface is com-pletely filled with craters of all shapes and sizes. This is especially true for the dark side of the Moon -- which never faces our planet. On top of that, there is no rain, snow or wind on the Moon which could erase these ancient impacts.

This is why the Moon provides us undisturbed records of the ear-ly years of the solar system. It is like the oldest photocopy of how Earth’s surface was like in its early

years stored safely away. By exam-ining the chemical composition of its rocks, we could obtain a glimpse into the early history of our planet and the solar system.

We have found some of the most extreme environments of the so-lar system on the Moon. With an absence of air to balance the heat from the Sun, the Moon can see its temperature reach over 125 de-grees Celsius during day time and dip to minus 173 degrees Celsius in the night. Any water present on the lunar surface would almost certainly have boiled off in these conditions.

That is where the south pole of the Moon comes in. It remains in the shadow for more time as compared to the north pole. Scien-tists believe that the permanently shadowed craters on this side of the Moon could be a storehouse of age-old frozen water, the crit-ical compound that is needed to sustain life that may have been transferred from our mother planet to our nearest cosmic companion.

(Srijan Pal Singh is an IIM Ahmedabad graduate and was the Adviser for Policy and Technology to APJ Abdul Kalam, 11th

President of India.)

1892Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.

1896Glider pioneer Otto Lilienthal dies in a fatal crash.

1902Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1907The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England

TODAY DAY IN

HISTORY

Are we dredging out our future?

The decision of HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister of the kingdom of Bahrain,

to stop the dredging of sand and prevent sand-mining operations in the northern areas of Muharraq and Jaradah is a huge step towards a more stable marine environ-mental future for Bahrain.

In a country that is continuously expand-ing its urban spaces with the consequent need for sand for construction, it seemed inevitable to dredge the marine space for sand. Law No. (37) of 2014 was issued to regulate the process of extraction and sale of marine sand, and it sadly allowed the depletion of this irreplaceable wealth.

This law prohibits the extraction of ma-rine sand except with a license from the minister in charge of organizing fishing, exploitation and protection of marine wealth, and after obtaining the approval of the relevant authorities and the opinion

of the municipality con-cerned, while excluding the Supreme Council for the Environment from expressing their opinion on those licenses.

Unfortunately, a l l these terms and condi-tions are like band-aids for a gaping wound. We have known for long about the impact of drilling and sand dredg-ing on the marine envi-ronment and it is clearly in violation of the Envi-ronment Law.

I think it is necessary to reconsider this law, which does not preserve the marine environment

but legalizes its dredging and killing of marine organisms.

Some time back, a friend sent me a video of fishermen in Oman catching abundant quantities of fish in one of the natural ma-rine areas there, which was not affected by any sand-mining. He commented that the surplus fish, which clearly could not be consumed in Oman, could be consumed in Bahrain, if the excess fish is imported here. I was struck by how he could not see the truth. After all, Bahrain too had abun-dant fish in the seas surrounding it. Sadly we have killed the marine wealth of our Kingdom by allowing unchecked dredging of sand from the sea for industrial and housing projects.

Let us hope that our Prime Minister’s wisdom percolates to the people and we are able to recover our balance and our precious marine environmental wealth.

(Captain Mahmood Al Mahmood is the Edi-tor-in-Chief of The Daily Tribune and the President

of the Arab-African Unity Organisation for Relief, Human Rights and Counterterrorism)

CAPT. MAHMOOD AL MAHMOOD

Let us hope that our Prime

Minister’s wisdom percolates to the

people and we are able to recover our

balance and our precious marine

environmental wealth.

HRH the Premier

Theia was huge rock, 100 million times bigger than

the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs and was almost

the size of Mars.


My first experience of elections was in Beirut, where my husband voted on my behalf (with my con-sent), for his uncle. I was left with the distasteful impression that politics was all about nepotistic cliques protecting vested interests. How Lebanon has changed.

When the civil war propelled me to the UK, as a journalist I vis-ited the Houses of Parliament to observe parliamentary sittings. I was invigorated by passionate de-bates over life-and-death issues. I accompanied Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe during one election campaign. Despite the grandness of his office, Howe and his wife dutifully went round knocking on doors and delivering leaflets, while citizens unabashedly criticized his

government (mostly in a respectful manner). This was democracy in action — light-years from anything I’d witnessed in the Middle East.

Far-right populism wasn’t in-vented in 2016, but it has burst into flames with disconcerting rapidity. It is repellent not just for its nativist xenophobia, but also for its sub-version of the values necessary for a flourishing democratic society: Accountability, mutual respect and common decency. However, the Conservatives’ rightward plunge would have been inconceivable without Corbyn dragging the La-bour Party to the extreme left fring-es of militancy, anti-Semitism and rudderless unelectability.

Trump, Johnson, Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu have, between them, faced accusations of almost every conceivable form of political impropriety — short of shooting someone dead on Fifth Avenue, as Trump famously boast-ed he could get away with. We have entered an age of impunity, de-fined by Russian fake news troll armies, shamelessly dishonest, ex-pletive-ridden partisan attacks, and the demise of effective mechanisms of international justice.

To cap off the UK government’s week of humiliation, the Iranian oil tanker the British authorities (ignoring protests from the US) re-leased after Tehran pledged that it wouldn’t violate sanctions against

the Assad regime has turned up off the Syrian coast. Iran has further-more not released the British tank-er it illegally impounded. It also continues to detain several inno-cent British-Iranian dual nationals. Johnson’s strategy of “taking back control” has left Britain friendless and alone in the world, at the mercy of hostile, third-rate pariah states.

Johnson has proved there are limits to what lies and unconsti-tutional actions citizens will swal-low. Netanyahu may conceivably face electoral defeat next week, and possibly jail on multiple cor-ruption charges. Salvini is under investigation as his party allegedly sought dirty Russian money. Even Fox News ridiculed Trump last week after he used a map that had been doctored with a marker pen to prove his claim that Alabama had been in the path of Hurricane Dorian.

For generations with no living memory of Nazism, we must re-learn why the jingoistic politics of thuggish demagoguery paves the way to civilizational demise. Britain’s Parliament last week won several crucial battles against populist isolationism — but there is a long war ahead of us.

(Baria Alamuddin is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster in the Middle

East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has inter-

viewed numerous heads of state.)

Saving the politics of decency from the ravages of populismIt is too early to proclaim that Johnson’s brand of Trumpian populism has died in a ditch, there are still scenarios where he

could survive a forthcoming election.

08

business


Saudi oil policy will be enhanced by the

appointment of Prince Abdulaziz,

through strengthening cooperation among OPEC and with non-

OPEC

A SAUDI OFFICIAL

Saudi Prince Abdulaziz named energy minister, replacing Falih• The prince, 59, is an older half-brother of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

• Appointment was announced in a royal decree

• Last month, Riyadh created a ministry for industry and mineral resources

Reuters | Dubai

Saudi Arabia’s king appoint-ed his son, Prince Abdu-laziz bin Salman, as energy

minister yesterday, replacing Khalid al-Falih and for the first time handing the portfolio in the world’s top oil exporter to a member of the royal family.

Prince Abdulaziz, a long-standing member of the Saudi delegation to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) with decades of experience in the oil sector, is not expected to change the kingdom’s oil and OPEC policies, Saudi officials and analysts say.

He helped negotiate the cur-rent agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC countries, a group known as OPEC+, to cut global crude supply to support prices and balance the market.

“Saudi oil policy will be en-hanced by the appointment of Prince Abdulaziz, through

strengthening cooperation among OPEC and with non-OPEC,” a Saudi official told Reu-ters.

Saudi Arabia has cut more than its oil output target under the OPEC+ supply pact to sup-port oil prices needed to achieve a high valuation of state oil giant Aramco ahead of a planned list-ing in 2020-2021.

“He (Prince Abdulaziz) is an incredibly capable technocrat, who is steeped in the energy industry,” said Helima Croft, managing director of RBC Capi-tal Markets.

“I do not think there will be any major shifts coming on

OPEC policy or broader initia-tives.”

The prince, 59, is an older half-brother of powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He was named minister of state for energy affairs in 2017 and worked closely with previous oil minister Ali al-Naimi for years as his deputy.

Prince Abdulaziz’s appoint-ment as energy minister was announced in a royal decree published by state news agency SPA.

Saudi Arabia has had five oil ministers since 1960, and none of them has been a royal.

Last month, Riyadh created a ministry for industry and miner-al resources, separating it from the kingdom’s colossal energy ministry. Previously, Falih had overseen more than half the Saudi economy through the su-per-ministry, which was created in 2016 to help streamline new reforms.

Last week, Falih was also removed from his post as chairman of Aramco, and Yas-ser al-Rumayyan, who heads the sovereign wealth fund PIF, was named as the new chairman.

Saudi Arabia has been pump-ing less than 10 million barrels per day for most of 2019, below its OPEC output target. Falih has helped broker the deal with non-OPEC producers led by Rus-sia, emerging as the main face of OPEC and the kingdom’s oil diplomacy over the past three years.

Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, Saudi Minister of Energy (Courtesy of alarabiya)

Britain’s Johnson vows to fight on despite Brexit blowsLondon

The British government in-sisted yesterday that Bo-

ris Johnson would fight on as prime minister de-spite seeing a top cabinet ally quit and his do-or-die Brexit strategy blocked by par-liament.

Johnson rose

to power six weeks ago by inject-ing his trademark optimism into a ruling Conservative party that was cracking under the pressure

of Britain’s worst crisis in generations.

He now finds himself outflanked by pro-EU

opponents and the country barrelling to-

ward a chaotic October 31 breakup with its closest

neighbours after 46 years.Fears of Britain and the

27 EU nations splitting without a plan for what comes next were compound-ed when France threw up its hands at the possibility of another Brexit extension.

“In the current circumstances, it’s no!” French Foreign Minis-ter Jean-Yves Le Drian told

a Sunday politi-cal talk show in Paris.

“We are not going through

this every three months,” he said.

All 28 cur-

rent EU leaders must approve what would be the third Brexit delay this year.

‘One-page’ Brexit planJohnson’s awful run at home

got worse with the resignation on Saturday of Conservative heavyweight Amber Rudd from her work and pensions post.

Rudd was a moderate member of former prime minister The-resa May’s government whose endorsement Johnson coveted during his successful UK lead-ership challenge.

But Rudd said on Sunday that she could no longer be part of the team that oversees what both businesses and the mar-kets fear would be a very messy “no-deal” divorce.

“When I asked Number 10 for a summary of what the plan was for actually getting a deal, I was sent a one-page summary,” she told BBC television.

“I believe (Johnson) is trying to get a deal with the EU. I am just saying what I have seen in government is that there is this huge machine preparing for no-deal.”

Johnson is adamant that he needs the no-deal threat to wrest a better agreement from Brussels at a leadership summit on October 17-18.

He is instead seeking to hold an early general election on Oc-tober 15 that could give him a mandate to take Britain out on time and at any cost.

But parliament has mandated Johnson to seek an extension should his approach fail by Oc-tober 19.

Lawmakers are also expected on Monday to block his call for a snap vote for a second time.

This appears to leave Johnson with few other options but to resign -- something two top min-isters said on Sunday he would not do.

“The prime minister will not be resigning,” interior minister Sajid Javid told the BBC.

“He will be keeping this gov-ernment’s promise to leave on the 31st.”

Yet Javid gave few specifics about what Johnson will do should parliament tell him to ask for an extension after turn-ing down his election challenge.

“We have a plan, which is to stick to what we have been do-ing,” Javid said.

Winning with votersForeign Secretary Dominic

Raab suggested that one option would be for the government to challenge parliament’s potential delay request in court.

“It will be challenged in the courts,” Raab told Sky News.

“What we are going to do with that legislation is test very care-fully what it does and doesn’t require and that’s not only the lawful thing to do, I think that’s the responsible thing to do,” Raab said.

And Johnson himself said in a letter to two Sunday news-papers that his government would “simply carry on” if his election call is turned down.

“We will surmount all the obstacles in our path,” Johnson said.

“Whatever happens we will get ready to come out on October 31 and we will serve this country and its people with the energy and com-mitment they deserve.”

That mes- s a g e still appears t o b e resonating with Brit-ish voters.

Three separate polls published on Sunday showed Johnson’s Conservatives either holding or extending their lead over the main opposition Labour Party to around 10 percentage points.

iPhone to share the spotlight with services at Apple’s big eventSan Francisco

The iPhone will be front and centre at Apple’s upcom-

ing media presentation even as the California tech giant steps up its efforts in content and services for its devices.

In its trademark, tight-lipped style, Apple disclosed little about its plans for Tues-day’s event at its headquarters in the Silicon Valley city of Cu-pertino.

For years now, Apple has hosted events in the fall to launch new iPhone models ahead of the holiday shopping season.

Speculation is that Apple will introduce three upgrad-ed iPhones, including “Pro” models, and a successor to its more affordable iPhone XR, as premium handset prices hover around $1,000.

Some analysts say services, subscriptions and online con-tent will share the stage with the company’s glitzy hardware as Apple seeks to shift its focus.

“I think it is going to be the first year the event is going to also be about services,” Crea-tive Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi said.

“We might get to see what Apple looks like as a company when they are talking about services and hardware as one product.”

Milanesi was curious to see whether Tuesday’s presenta-tion includes offers iPhone deals that “bundle” music, tel-evision or game services with

new handsets.“You have an opportunity to

really bring value to the hard-ware with services,” Milanesi said.

TV+ turned on?Apple recently released a

smartphone-generation credit card in the US and is keen to launch its TV+ streaming ser-vice before Disney goes live with a rival service in Novem-ber.

Many wonder whether the launch of Apple TV+ will be among Tuesday’s announce-ments. With Hollywood stars galore, Apple unveiled stream-ing video plans along with news and game subscription offerings as part of an effort to shift its focus to digital content and services to break free of its reliance on iPhone sales.

The company also plans to launch a new game subscrip-tion service called Apple Ar-cade internationally by the end of this year.

Apple, which launched its iPhone Xs models , is expected to unveil new handsets which may be branded as iPhone 11

Johnson suffered a new blow on Saturday when Conservative heavyweight Amber Rudd resigned from her work and pensions post

Boris Johnson


China’s exports fall in August as US trade war rumbles

Beijing

China’s exports fell by 1.0 per cent on-year in August,

official data showed yesterday, amid a bruising trade war with the US that has roiled markets in the world’s top two econ-omies.

The drop comes after a sur-prise 3.3pc rebound in July de-spite the yearlong battle with Washington and weakening global demand.

But economists cited by Bloomberg had forecast a 2.2pc rise ahead of the release of Sunday’s figures by the cus-toms administration.

China’s trade surplus also dropped sharply in August to $34.83 billion, from $44.58 billion the previous month, while imports continued a four-month decline at 5.6 percent on-year, matching the July figure.

Washington imposed new tariffs on September 1 as it stepped up its high-pressure campaign to coerce Beijing into a new trade deal.

The additional levies come on top of the 25 percent tariffs on $250 billion in imports al-ready in place.

China said Thursday that new talks with the US would be held in Washington in early October.

In a sign of continued pres-sure on the Chinese econo-my, Beijing’s central bank an-nounced Friday it would cut deposit reserve requirements for banks.

The measure would allow an estimated $126 billion in additional loans to businesses facing an economic slowdown.

China’s GDP growth was 6.2 percent on-year in the second quarter, the lowest rate in nearly three decades.

China’s exports fell by 1.0pc on-year in August, after a surprise 3.3 percent rebound in July despite the yearlong battle with Washington and weakening global demand

Hong Kong protesters take message to US consulateHong Kong

Pro - democracy activists rallied outside the United

States consulate in Hong Kong yesterday as they try to ramp up international pressure on Beijing following three months of huge and sometimes violent protests. Millions have taken to Hong Kong’s streets over the last 14 weeks in the biggest challenge to China’s rule since the city’s handover from Britain in 1997.

The protests were ignited by a now scrapped plan to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland, seen by opponents as the latest move by Beijing to chip away at the international finance hub’s unique freedoms.

But after Beijing and city lead-ers took a hard line the move-ment snowballed into a broader campaign calling for greater de-mocracy, police accountability

and an amnesty for those ar-rested.

A huge crowd, some waving the Stars and Stripes flag, rallied in a park in Hong Kong’s com-mercial district and marched to

Washington’s nearby consulate.They called on the US to pres-

sure Beijing to meet their de-mands and for Congress to pass a recently proposed bill that ex-presses support for the protest.

“More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested. We can’t do anything but come out onto the streets, I feel hopeless,” 30-year-old protester Jenny Chan, said.

“I think aside from foreign countries, no one can really help us,” she added.Beijing riled by criticism

Hong Kong is a major inter-national business hub thanks to freedoms unheard of on the mainland under a 50-year deal signed between China and Brit-ain. But Beijing balks at any criticism from foreign govern-ments over its handling of the city, which it insists is a purely internal issue.

Authorities and state media have portrayed the protests as a separatist movement backed by foreign “black hands”, primarily aiming their ire at the US and

Britain.While some politicians on

both sides of the aisle have ex-pressed support for the dem-ocratic goals of the protesters, the Trump administration has maintained a more hands-off approach as it locks horns with China over trade.

President Trump has called for a peaceful resolution to the political crisis in Hong Kong and urged China against escalating with a violent crackdown.

But he has also said it is up to Beijing to handle the protests.

Washington has rejected Chi-na’s allegations that it is backing the protesters.

In an updated travel advisory for Hong Kong on Friday, the US State Department warned that citizens and consular employees had become targets of a prop-aganda blitz by China “falsely

accusing the United States of fomenting unrest”.

The ongoing protests show no signs of abating.

Locals have marched in histor-ic numbers in multiple peaceful rallies while smaller groups of more hardcore protesters have clashed with police.

The city’s unelected pro-Bei-jing leader Carrie Lam has struck an uncompromising tone for much of the last three months.

But on Wednesday she made a surprise concession, announc-ing the full withdrawal of the proposed extradition bill which sparked the demonstrations.

Protesters across the spec-trum dismissed the gesture as too little, too late, saying their movement would only end once the remainder of the core de-mands were met.

Washington has rejected China’s allegations it is backing the protesters

Most Gulf markets drop• Dubai’s ENBD snaps four days of gains

• Property shares also weak in Dubai

• Aldar rises on a residential project launch

• Cleopatra Hospital drops on lower Q2 Profit

• Egyptian Resort falls as Q2 loss widens

Reuters

Most Gulf markets fell ye s t e rd a y, p u l l e d down by financial

shares, while Dubai’s stock mar-ket unperformed regional peers as its top lender Emirates NBD broke a four-day winning streak.

Dubai’s index closed 0.7 per cent lower with Emirates NBD falling 2.9pc.

The bank’s shares have ris-en in recent sessions after NBD raised its foreign ownership limit to 20pc from 5pc and an-nounced its intention to further hike the limit to 40pc in future.

Dubai’s developers also weighed on the index as DA-MAC Properties and contrac-tor Arabtec Holding both shed 1.2pc.

Dubai house prices are ex-pected to decline sharply this year and next as a slowdown in the economy and an oversupply of housing units pose big down-

side risks to their already weak outlook, a Reuters poll found.

Dubai’s property prices have contracted by 25-35pc since a mid-2014 peak.

In Saudi Arabia, the index reversed course to close rough-ly flat as financial stocks also slipped back into negative ter-ritory.

Samba Financial Group and Saudi British Bank both fell 2.4pc.

The market’s 2019 gains were as high as 20pc in May, outper-forming most regional markets ahead of the inclusion of Saudi stocks in the MSCI that attracted billions of dollars from foreign investors, who have been net buyers every month this year.

However, the index has re-

duced its gains for the year to 2.9pc as the US-China trade dis-pute and regional geopolitics hurt investor sentiment.

Middle East funds plan to re-duce investment in Saudi Ara-bia, a Reuters poll showed late last month.

In Abu Dhabi, the index was down 0.2pc in a drag led by market heavyweight Abu Dha-bi Commercial Bank which lost 1.6pc.

However, Al Dar properties closed 0.9pc up after launch-ing a residential project on the Saadiyat island that it said would be open to all national-ities.

This is the first development on the Saadiyat island since the introduction of new laws en-abling foreign buyers to own freehold land in investment zones in Abu Dhabi.

In April, Abu Dhabi amend-ed its real estate law allowing all foreigners to own land and property in investment areas on a freehold basis.

Qatar’s index closed 0.2pc higher with blue-chip petro-chemical maker Industries Qa-tar and Masraf Al Rayan gaining 1.5pc and 1.4pc, respectively.

Egypt’s blue-chip index trad-ed flat amid a couple of weak corporate earnings.

Cleopatra Hospital fell 2.7pc after posting a 38.7pc decline in the second-quarter profit, while Egyptian Resorts lost 1pc after reporting a wider loss for the same period.

Kuwaiti traders follow the stock market at the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) in Kuwait City on October 14

Closing BellSAUDI 0.05pc » 8,051 pts

ABU DHABI 0.2pc » 5,105 pts

DUBAI 0.7pc » 2,871 pts

QATAR 0.2pc » 10,275 pts

EGYPT n » 14,931 pts

BAHRAIN 0.2pc » 1,549 pts

OMAN 0.2pc » 3,991 pts

KUWAIT 0.5pc » 6,512 pts

Nissan CEO Saikawa tells he plans to resignReuters | Tokyo

Nissan Motor Co Chief Ex-ecutive Hiroto Saikawa has

told some executives he plans to resign, the Nikkei newspa-per reported yesterday, in what would mark the latest upheaval over governance at the troubled Japanese automaker.

Nissan, which has struggled to right itself after former chair-man Carlos Ghosn was oust-ed late last year, was battered by another crisis just days ago when Saikawa admitted to being overpaid in violation of internal procedures. The admission fol-lowed the results of an internal

investigation.Nissan’s board members

are scheduled to meet today to discuss the issue. The com-

pany, and its relationship with top shareholder Renault SA, has been damaged following Ghosn’s arrest in November and subsequent departure.

Citing unnamed sources, the Nikkei said Saikawa’s decision had been prompted by increas-ing doubts over his ability to steer the automaker to recov-ery, given the recent plunge in Nissan’s profit and the salary payments.

Nissan was not immediately available to comment on the report. Pressure has mounted on Saikawa, a Ghosn protege, given the company’s poor per-formance and strained ties with

Renault. Profit has tumbled to an 11-year low and prompted hefty job cuts.

One alliance source told Reu-ters that a nominations commit-tee established in June to find a successor to Saikawa had drawn up a shortlist containing more than 10 possible candidates.

Names included Jun Seki, who is overseeing the com-pany’s performance recovery, Chief Competitive Officer Yas-uhiro Yamauchi, and Makoto Uchida, chairman of Nissan’s management committee in Chi-na, one of its largest markets, the person said on condition of anonymity.

Nissan Motor Co Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa

Armed robbery takes place at office of Libyan state oil firmReuters | Tripoli

Libya’s state oil firm (NOC) said armed men had

opened fire on Friday at the headquarters of a wells drilling and maintenance unit in the capital.

NOC said in a statement that two masked men had stormed the building, holding two guards captive until the next morning.

“The personal belongings of the two captives were sto-len, in addition to a number of devices belonging to the com-pany,” NOC said.

No more details were imme-diately available.

In September 2018, militants loyal to Islamic State attacked the NOC headquarters in Trip-oli, killing two and wounding at least 25.

The building housing Libya’s oil state energy firm, the National Oil Corporation (NOC)

10 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2019

Eva Longoria was bullied

on ‘Desperate Housewives’ sets

Los Angeles

Actress Eva Longoria says Fe-licity Huffman helped her survive bullying on the sets

of “Desperate Housewives”.Longoria, who played Gabrielle

Solis in the series, looked back at the time when Huffman stood up for her when she was bullied at work as she wrote a letter to support Huffman amid the US college admissions scan-

dal, reports dailymail.co.uk.“Felicity was the first one to take me under

her wing. From the first table read of the script, she noticed me sitting alone, scared and unsure

of where to and what to do. Her gentle character and kind heart immediately opened up to me. She approached me, introduced herself and said, ‘Don’t be scared, we will get through this together’, as she sat down beside me and never left my side since that day.

“I dreaded the days I had to work with that person (I was being bullied by) because it was pure torture,” said the actress, without naming the bully.

Huffman starred as Lynette Scavo in “Desperate Housewives”.

Longoria continued: “Until one day, Felicity told the bully ‘enough’ and it all stopped. Felicity could feel that I was riddled with anxiety even though I never complained or mentioned the abuse to any-

one. I know I would not have survived those 10 years if it wasn’t for the friendship of Felicity.”

Longoria made the revelation in a letter she penned to the judge as part of the case to secure Huffman a lower sentence after she admitted

to paying money to a scheme to secure a top university spot for her daughter.

Shraddha starts prep for ‘Baaghi 3’

Mumbai

Actress Shraddha Ka-poor, who wooed the audience with her per-

formance in the first install-ment of “Baaghi”, has already started preparing for the upcom-ing third part of the franchise.

Shraddha on Saturday took to Instagram Stories to share an update about the project.

She posted a photograph of the front page of the script. It read: “’Baaghi 3’”

“’Baaghi 3’ prep. Shoot starts in a few days,” Shrad-dha said of the film that

will be directed by Ahmed Khan, and will also star Ti-ger Shroff.

Kristen Stewart excited about Pattinson’s

Batman avatarToronto

Actress Kristen Stewart is happy about the casting of her “Twi-light” co-star and former

boyfriend Robert Pattinson as Bat-man, saying he is the “only guy that could play that part”.

Pattinson has replaced actor Ben Af-fleck to be the caped crusader. He will be seen as the superhero in filmmaker Matt Reeves’ upcoming film.

“I feel like he’s the only guy that could play that part,” variety.com quoted Stewart as saying.

“I’m so happy for him. It’s crazy. I’m very, very happy about that. I heard that and I was like, ‘Oh man!’ It’s awe-some,” she added.

Stewart and Pattinson broke out in the Hollywood scene with “Twilight” series. Pattinson essayed the role of swoon-worthy vampire Edward Cullen

and Stewart was his Bella Swan.

Pierce Brosnan pitching for female BondLos Angeles

Actor Pierce Brosnan says it is time to in-

troduce the female James Bond.

“Yes,” hollywoodreport-er.com quoted Brosnan as saying to the prospect of a female Bond.

“I think we’ve watched the guys do it for the last 40 years, get out of the way, guys, and put a woman up there. I think it would be exhilarating, it would be exciting,” added the actor, who essayed the role of the famous spy four times.

There are rumours that Lashana Lynch is expected to take over as the next 007 from Dan-iel Craig in the up-coming “No Time to Die” installment.

Brosnan ex-pressed doubt that the change will play out on screen under the current producers.

“I don’t think that’s going to happen with the Broccolis. I don’t think that is going to happen un-der their watch,” he said.

In the #MeToo era, Bro-snan said Bond will have to change.

“Without question, yes... The #MeToo movement has been relevant and sig-nificant and well needed in our society, so they’ll have to address that,” he said.

Brosnan calls work-ing on the “James Bond” franchise as a highlight of his career.

Shah Rukh Khan opens up on his rumoured projectsMumbai

Shah Rukh Khan has not featured in any movie since “Zero”

in 2018. The absence of the superstar from the silver screen has spawned a lot of rumours about his projects.

T h e r e we r e r e -p o r t s o f h i m r e -placing Sal-man Khan in Sanjay Leela B h a n s a l i ’ s “Inshallah”. The latest buzz is that he is a part of director Ali Abbas Zafar’s next pro-ject.

Reacting to all these speculations, SRK on Sunday took to Twitter and wrote: “It’s always nice to know that in my absence and behind my back, I have surrepti-tiously signed so many films that even I am not aware of.”

Venice

Jo a q u i n Phoenix’s “Joker” was

awarded the Gold-en Lion for the best film at the 76th annual Ven-ice Film Festival.

“Joker” is loosely based on the popular DC supervillain of the same name. It follows the life of Arthur Fleck (essayed

by Phoenix) as an as-piring stand-up comedian and his transition into be-coming the Joker.

In his acceptance speech, director Todd

Phillips thanked Warner Bros. and DC for stepping “out of their comfort zone and taking such a bold swing on me and this movie”, re-ports dailymail.co.uk

Kevin Hart starts walking again after back surgeryLos Angeles

Actor-come-dian Kevin

Hart has started walking again after undergoing back surgery fol-lowing a horrific car crash.

It is believed that the car crash left him with a fractured

spine. Hart is slowly walk-ing again but is still in excruciating pain.

According to TMZ, Hart is still “miles away” from a full re-

covery, but has managed to keep a “positive mood”, reports mirror.co.uk.It is being said that the ac-

tor will start physical thera-py soon.

Heidi Klum, Tom Kaulitz make their first red carpet appearance as couple

Los Angeles

Su p e r m o d e l He i d i Klum and Tom Kau-litz who tied the knot

last month made their debut red carpet appearance on

Friday.The couple made

heads turn for their night out at the Harper’s Ba-zaar Celebrates “ICONS by Carine Roitfeld” event at The Plaza Hotel in

New York City.The former ‘America’s Got

Talent’ judge was dressed in an orange turtleneck floor-length gown. She completed the look with a red lip, peep-toe red shoes, and a small matching clutch.

Kaulitz wore a black bomber jacket over a black shirt with matching pants and shoes.

The supermodel had worn a traditional white gown for her wedding on August 3. She went for a strapless dress with layers of tulle adding to its charm.

Pierce Brosnan

Shah Rukh Khan

Guess what J.Lo’s

secret success mantra is

Los Angeles

Pop diva Jennifer Lopez had revealed her simple, two-word secret to success: “work hard”.

“My business philosophy is that you have to work harder than everybody else. I always tell my kids

and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we know you work hard.’ I’m like, ‘No, it’s not just that I work hard. I put in harder work than everybody else. I work harder and harder and harder and harder. When everybody is sleeping, I’m doing more.’ It’s just a relentless pursuit of crea-tivity,” she said, reports “variety.com”.

J.Lo also revealed that she did not let discrimi-nation of any kind hamper her hunt for glory over the years.

“Very early in my career I dealt with a lot of stuff like that. Not getting the passes that men get when

they’re misbehaving or doing whatever. I was never someone to misbehave, but you’re late and you’re

chastised in front of the whole crew and you’re the lead of the movie. The male lead is late and

nobody says anything,” she said.She also recalled how, in her early years,

people often said that she would lose out in the race after a few years.

Kevin Hart

Kristen Stewart

Jennifer Lopez

Eva Longoria

Australia retain Ashes with tense Test win

AP | Manchester

Australia retained the Ashes after beating England by

185 runs in the final session of the fourth test at Old Trafford yesterday.

Josh Hazlewood claimed the winning wicket, trapping Craig Overton lbw, as Australia dismissed England’s second innings for 197 deep into the evening session to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series.

As the holder, Australia only needs to draw the series to keep cricket’s famous urn.

“We’ve retained it, we ha-ven’t won it,” Australia cap-tain Tim Paine said. He add-ed: “We’ll have a bloody good night together.”

The fifth and final test in cricket’s oldest regular inter-national series starts Sept. 12 at The Oval.

Australia star batter Steve Smith was player of the match — and the major difference between the two teams — with scores of 211 and 82.

England resumed Day 5 on 18-2, went to lunch on 87-4 and tea on 166-6.

Jack Leach, who scored a 51-ball 12, was promoted to No. 10 and batted for an hour with England fans hoping for a repeat of his third test heroics, or even bad light.

Australia held on to the Ash-es in England for the first time in 18 years. It thrashed Eng-land by 251 runs in the opening test at Edgbaston, the second test at Lord’s was drawn before England won at Headingley by one wicket to level the se-ries 1-1.

“Bitterly disappointed,” England captain Joe Root said,

“to come so close to taking it to The Oval is quite hard to take.”

Pacer Pat Cummins finished with 4-43 off 24 overs. He bowled Jason Roy (31) in the 18th over of the day, knocking over his off stump, and then claimed the key wicket of Ben Stokes, hero at Headingley with Leach. The England all-rounder got an inside edge and was well caught behind the wicket by Paine. Stokes, who had scored just one, did not wait for a decision from the umpire and walked as Austral-ia appealed.

That left England in deep trouble on 74-4.

Joe Denly brought up his half-century after lunch with a crisp off drive off Cummins. It was his sixth boundary and took him to 53 off 112 balls. He fell without adding fur-ther to his score when he was caught out by the bounce from a delivery from Nathan Lyon (2-51) and offered a catch to Marnus Labuschagne at short leg.

Jonny Bairstow and Jos But-tler came together and steadily took the score to 138-5 after 53 overs as Paine turned to part-time bowlers Labuschagne and Travis Head in the hope of breaking their concentration.

Cool Leclerc delivers Ferrari Monza triumphFerrari’s Charles Leclerc delights Italian F1 GP crowd with Monza win

• Valtteri Bottas second with Lewis Hamilton third for Mercedes

• Leclerc follows up win in Belgium but Sebastian Vettel struggles

AFP | Monza, Italy

Charles Leclerc secured Ferrari’s first victory at their home Italian Grand

Prix since 2010 yesterday when he resisted race-long pressure from both Mercedes rivals to claim his second successive For-mula One triumph.

The 21-year-old Monegasque, who dedicated his maiden win last Sunday to the memory of his late friend Anthoine Hu-bert, who was killed in an F2 race a day earlier, was exultant as a vast army of ‘tifosi’ in an estimated crowd of more than 150,000 celebrated deliriously.

“What a race!” said an ex-hausted Leclerc. “I have never felt so tired in a race. It was so difficult. For me, it is a dream to win here like this in front of the ‘tifosi’ – thanks to everyone!”

Lelcerc came home narrowly ahead of second-placed Valtteri Bottas and his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who pursued the victor for most of the race until his tyres let him down.

After a late pit stop, Hamilton then claimed the fastest lap of the race.

Leclerc’s Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel endured a tor-rid and disappointing day, fin-ishing 13th after spinning off and taking a penalty for rejoin-ing in a dangerous fashion.

Hamilton apologised to Mercedes and said his tyres “had gone off the cliff…. I’m sor-ry I wasn’t able to pull it off,” he said.

The defending five-time c h a m p i o n n ow l e a d s h i s Mercedes team-mate Bottas by 63 points in the drivers’ cham-pionship.

Daniel Ricciardo came home fourth ahead of his Renault team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, Red Bull new boy Alex Albon, Sergio Perez of Force India and Max Verstappen, who finished eighth after starting from 19th in the second Red Bull.

Local hero Antonio Giovinaz-zi came home ninth for Alfa Ro-meo ahead of Lando Norris of McLaren, who continued his

impressive rookie season.The air temperature was 20

degrees Celsius and the track 33 as the lights went out, Leclerc making a clean start and fending off Hamilton at the first chicane.

Sizzling Verstappen was an opening

lap casualty and required a pit stop for a new front wing and a set of hard tyres, after a collision at the first chicane.

After a wheel-banging battle between Albon and Sainz, Le-clerc clocked a fastest lap and then Vettel spun at Ascari, clip-ping Lance Stroll’s Racing Point as he re-joined.

Both cars were damaged, Vet-tel pitting for a new front wing.

Vettel was given a 10-sec-onds stop-and-go penalty and dropped to last.

By lap 19, Hamilton and Vettel had warned their tyres were gone, the Briton pitting immedi-ately for ‘mediums’ as Mercedes went for the ‘under-cut’.

He fell to fifth, but Leclerc hung on to pit a lap later for ‘hards’ and return fourth as the champion roared down the straight.

The two fought ferociously, Hamilton attempting to pass

twice, the second attack ending with him escaping across the grass. “He didn’t leave me a car’s width,” said Hamilton.

The stewards agreed and Le-clerc was shown a black-and-white flag, warning him to be-have.

“I need more power, man,” ex-claimed Hamilton after another foiled attack as Leclerc surged out of range again.

On lap 36, Leclerc kept his lead by scampering across the run-off at the first chicane.

“Some dangerous driving here,” reported Hamilton as the stewards noted the incident and Bottas, remorselessly fast, closed to within three seconds in third.

His tyres worn, with 10 laps to go, Hamilton out-braked him-self and ran into the first chi-cane escape road. Bottas passed for second and the hunt was on. “I’ve nothing left in these tyres,” said Hamilton.

Bottas cut the lead to a second, but the ice-cool Monegasque tyro hung on, his harder rubber keeping him ahead, while Ham-ilton pitted with three laps to go to seek an additional point for fastest lap.

11

sports


Ferrari’s Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc competes to win the Italian Formula One Grand Prix

197runs were only scored

by England in their second innings before losing all the wickets

KNOW WHAT

Charles Leclerc held onto pole position in an absorbing race to

claim a second consec-utive race win and give

Ferrari a first Italian GP triumph since 2010

Josh Hazlewood of Australia celebrates taking the wicket of Craig Overton of England

Serena Williams reacts after dropping the US Open final to Bianca Andreescu

Serena says her poor effort ‘inexcusable’AFP | New York

Serena Williams is wondering when she will start playing

like a 23-time Grand Slam cham-pion again in a major final, calling her poor showing in Saturday’s US Open final loss “inexcusable.”

Williams fell to Bianca Andree-scu on the same court where she won her first Grand Slam title 20 years ago, nine months before Andreescu was born.

“I love Bianca. I think she’s a great girl. But I think this was the worst match I’ve played all tournament. It’s hard to know

that you could do better,” Wil-liams said.

“Bianca obviously played well. I think her returns make me play better and put pressure on my serve.

“At the same time it’s inexcus-able for me to play at that level.”

Williams had 33 winners but just as many unforced errors. She hit nine aces but misfired eight double faults and hit only 44 percent of her first serves. She dropped 30 of 43 points on her second serve.

“I believe I could have played better. I believe I could have done

more. I believe I could have just been more Serena today,” Wil-liams said.

“I honestly don’t think Serena showed up. I have to kind of fig-ure out how to get her to show up in Grand Slam finals.”

Williams, who remains one Slam title shy of matching Mar-garet Court’s all-time record, has lost the past two Wimbledon and US Open finals since returning after having a baby two years ago.

And she’s struggling to find answers for bad performances in the biggest matches.

“All of it honestly, truly is super

frustrating,” Williams said. “I’m so close, so close, so close, yet so far away.

“I don’t know what to say. I guess I got to keep going if I want to be a professional tennis player. And I just got to just keep fighting through it.”

Williams, who turns 38 later this month, downplayed the pur-suit of Court’s record.

“I’m not necessarily chasing a record. I’m just trying to win Grand Slams,” she said. “It’s definitely frustrating, but for the most part I just am still here. I’m still doing what I can do.”

Andreescu stuns Serena to win titleTeen Bianca Andreescu topples record-chasing Serena Williams to win the US Open title

• Andreescu held her nerve to defeat six-time US Open champion in her first Grand Slam final

• Andreescu’s victory prevented Williams from claiming what would have been her record-tying 24th major singles championship

AFP | New York

Teenager Bianca Andreescu be-came Canada’s first Grand Slam singles champion Saturday with

a rollercoaster 6-3, 7-5 win over 23-time major champion Serena Williams in the US Open final.

The 19-year-old Andreescu became the youngest Grand Slam winner since Svetlana Kuznetsova at the 2004 US Open, handing Williams a fourth con-secutive defeat in the final of a major to again deny her a record-equaling 24th Slam title.

“It’s so hard to explain in words but I’m just beyond grateful and truly bless-ed. I’ve worked really, really hard for this moment,” said Andreescu, who had won just two Grand Slam matches ahead of her US Open main draw debut.

She improved her record over top-10 opponents this season to 8-0 and will rise to a career-high ranking of fifth on Monday.

“This year has been a dream come true. Being able to play on this stage against Serena, a true legend of the sport, is amazing.

“It wasn’t easy at all. I tried to pre-pare my best like I do every match, I tried not to focus on who I’m playing. I’m really proud of how I dealt with everything.”

Andreescu tied Monica Seles, who

lifted the 1990 Roland Garros trophy in her fourth major, for the record as the fastest player to win her first Slam title in the Open era.

Williams, 37, suffered a second finals loss in a row at Flushing Meadows, after a 2018 defeat against Naomi Osaka best remembered for a furious tirade against chair umpire Carlos Ramos.

“Bianca played an unbelievable match, I am so proud and happy for you. It was incredible tennis out there. If anyone could win this, outside of Venus, I’m happy it’s Bianca,” Williams said.

Appearing in a 33rd Grand Slam final, and fourth since the last of her 23 major

titles, Williams made an inauspicious start at Arthur Ashe Stadium by con-ceding her opening service game with successive double faults.

Generous Serena Andreescu, who wasn’t even born

when Williams won her maiden Slam at the 1999 US Open, responded with a comfortable hold, a pattern that repeat-ed itself until the Canadian threatened to run away with the opening set.

Serving at 2-4, Williams erased five break points with a combination of aces and booming groundstrokes but Andreescu was knocking on the door

once more as the American served to stay in the set.

A forehand winner earned the young-ster a set point, and Williams duly her gifted her the opener with another double fault.

Andreescu had failed to even reach the main draw at Flushing Meadows the past two years, twice falling in the first qualifying round, and her confi-dence continued to flow as she surged 2-0 ahead in the second -- Williams again doubled-faulting on break point.

That prompted forlorn looks from the Williams box, where her close friend Meghan Markle, the Duchess

of Sussex, was seated alongside sister Venus and fashion titan Anna Wintour.

The American carved out four op-portunities to hit back the following game, benefiting from a huge stroke of luck when a forehand brushed the tape and trickled over to haul herself back on serve.

Undeterred, Andreescu promptly re-gained the initiative with another break and looked to be marching towards the title when she followed a routine hold by again breaking the Williams serve for a 5-1 lead.

Andreescu brought up championship point in the ensuing game, but Williams smacked a forehand winner to stay alive and then rattled off 14 of 17 points to peg her opponent back at 5-all.

“I was just fighting at that point, just trying to stay out there a little bit longer,” said Williams, feeding off the energy of 24,000 cheering fans as she briefly sparked hopes of an incredible comeback.

“The fans started cheering so hard it made me start playing a little bit better and fighting a little bit more.”

The Canadian stemmed the bleed-ing by holding for 6-5 and an errant Williams backhand handed Andreescu two more shots at the title. Williams saved the first with an ace but Andree-scu secured victory on the next with a blistering forehand return.


Bianca Andreescu of Canada celebrates with the championship trophy

KNOW WHAT

Serena Williams has lost her fourth grand-slam

final in a row

Kane nets hat-trick as England romp past

Reuters | London

England’s serene progress towards Euro 2020 con-

tinued as skipper Harry Kane grabbed a hat-trick in a 4-0 demolition of Bulgaria in Group A at Wembley on Sat-urday.

Kane opened the scoring after 24 minutes and struck home two penalties after the break as well as providing the assist for Raheem Sterling to get on the scoresheet.

Gareth Southgate’s side have now scored 14 goals in their opening three Group A games and lead the table with nine points from Kosovo (8) who beat the Czech Republic 2-1 earlier on.

England host Kosovo for the

first time on Tuesday when another victory will leave them looking virtually assured of reaching next year’s tourna-ment that culminates on home soil.

It was not a perfect display by England with Bulgaria hav-ing three good chances, one when the score was 0-0, but England proved far too strong as they left the visitors lan-guishing at the bottom of the group with two points from five games.

Kane’s second hat-trick for England, following the one he scored against Panama at last year’s World Cup finals, took his tally to 25 goals in 40 ap-pearances — eight of which have arrived from the penalty spot.

Harry Kane fires home his second penalty to put England into a 4-0 lead

Coman brace helps France ease past AlbaniaAFP | Saint-Denis, France

Kingsley Coman scored twice as world champions

France cruised past Albania 4-1 on Saturday to move back to the top of their group in qualifying for Euro 2020.

“It went well for me,” Coman told French television after be-ing selected man of the match.

The Bayern attacker was not part of the victorious French squad at last year’s World Cup. On Saturday, he replaced Kylian Mbappe, one of three starters from last year’s Moscow final who was missing injured.

Asked if Coman had finally put is international career on track, France coach Didier De-schamps said: “That was closer to what he has been doing for the last year for Bayern. He was more drawn to the goal. He was more decisive.”

Iceland briefly led the stand-ings in Group H outright after beating Moldova 3-0 earlier in the day, and are joined by Turkey, who scored in the last minute to edge Andorra, 1-0 as well as Les Bleus at the summit on goals difference.

The match kicked off late because the hosts played the Andorran anthem.

“It was a big thing,” said Al-bania’s Italian coach Edoardo Reja. “The players said they wouldn’t start without the right anthem.”

After the stadium announc-er apologised to the “Armeni-an fans” the correct song was played.

- ‘Could have won by more’ -Perhaps fired up, Albania

started aggressively, and man-aged a couple of menacing early attacks.

When the visitors did escape

from their own half they often found space against a French midfield shorn of Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante.

At the other end, France re-

peatedly tore their guests apart with quick, incisive attacks.

Les Bleus took the lead after eight minutes when Coman, who had not scored on the in-ternational level since March 2016, outpaced the visiting de-fence as he ran onto a precise pass from Raphael Varane and toed the ball inside the near post.

Then, Olivier Giroud a couple of feet past the far post, opted to head back to a non-existant teammate rather than nod the

ball over the line.The Chelsea striker did score

his 36th international goal in the 27th minute. Lucas Her-nandez escaped down the left and crossed for Giroud, who had outpaced the defence, to sidefoot the ball home.

Nine minutes before half time, left back Hernandez won a penalty.

He was up-ended on the edge of the six yard box by Albanian captain Mergim Mavraj. An-toine Griezmann blasted the spot kick off the underside of the bar and the ball bounced clear.

France ended a bright first half 2-0 up.

France’s forward Kingsley Coman (blue jersey) scores a goal

The balance sheet was very positive. We

could have won by more. We did what we had to do, even if we relaxed a bit at the

endDIDIER DESCHAMPS

Portugal beat Serbia to claim first Euro 2020 qualifying win

AFP | Belgrade

Re i g n i n g E u r o p e a n champions Portugal

kick-started their bid to qualify for Euro 2020 after beating Serbia 4-2 in Bel-grade on Saturday to secure their first victory of the qualifying campaign.

Fernando Santos’ side had started the defence of their title with two draws but goals from William Carval-ho, Goncalo Guedes, Cris-tiano Ronaldo and Bernardo Silva put them second in Group B on five points from three games.

They are eight points be-hind leaders Ukraine, who top the group unbeaten hav-ing played five times after their 3-0 drubbing of Lith-uania. The hosts’ goals came from Nikola Milenkovic and Aleksandar Mitrovic.

Carvalho opened the scoring following a defen-sive mix-up in the Serbian just before half-time.

Bruno Fernandes crossed into the area, Serbia goal-keeper Marko Dmitrovic dropped the ball after col-liding with his defenders and the Real Betis midfield-er finished easily.

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