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WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020 / RAMADAN 27, 1441 AH emergency number 112 NO. 17387 16 PAGES 150 FILS

baseballPage 15

soccerPages 14&16

Trump threatens permanent freeze on WHO fundingProbe agreed

GENEVA, May 19, (AP): The World Health Organization bowed to calls from most of its member states to launch an independent probe into how it managed the international response to the coronavirus, which has been clouded by fin-ger-pointing between the U.S. and China over a pandemic that has killed over 300,000 people and leveled the global economy.

The “comprehensive evalua-tion,” sought by a coalition of African, European and other countries, is intended to re-view “lessons learned” from WHO’s coordination of the global response to COVID-19, but would stop short of look-ing into contentious issues such as the origins of the new coro-navirus. U.S. President Don-ald Trump has claimed he has proof suggesting the coronavi-rus originated in a lab in China while the scientific community has insisted all evidence to date shows the virus likely jumped into humans from animals.

In Washington on Monday, Trump faulted WHO for hav-ing done “a very sad job” and said he was considering wheth-er to cut the annual U.S. fund-ing from $450 million a year to $40 million.

“They gave us a lot of bad advice, terrible advice,” he said. “They were wrong so much, always on the side of China.”

Later Monday, Trump tweet-ed a letter he had sent WHO Director-General Tedros Ad-hanom Ghebreyesus. In the let-ter, Trump said “the only way forward” is if WHO “can actu-ally demonstrate independence from China.”

Trump said that unless WHO commits to “substantive im-provements over the next 30 days,” he will make a tempo-rary suspension of U.S. funding permanent.

WHO’s normally bureau-cratic annual assembly this week has been overshadowed by mutual recriminations and political sniping between the U.S. and China. Trump has re-peatedly attacked WHO, claim-ing that it helped China conceal the extent of the coronavirus pandemic in its early stages. Several Republican lawmakers have called on Tedros to resign.

U.S. Health and Human Ser-vices Secretary Alex Azar said Monday it was time to be frank about why COVID-19 has “spun out of control.”

“There was a failure by this organization to obtain the in-formation that the world need-ed and that failure cost many lives,” Azar said. Speaking hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China would provide $2 billion to help respond to the outbreak and its economic fallout, Azar said the U.S. had allocated $9 billion to coronavirus contain-ment efforts around the world.

Tedros said he would launch an independent evaluation of WHO’s response “at the earli-est appropriate moment” - al-luding to findings published Monday in a first report by an oversight advisory body com-missioned to look into WHO’s response.

The 11-page report raised questions such as whether WHO’s warning system for alerting the world to outbreaks is adequate, and suggested mem-ber states might need to “reas-sess” WHO’s role in providing travel advice to countries.

In his opening remarks at the WHO meeting, Tedros held firm and sought to focus on the bigger troubles posed by the outbreak, saying “we have been humbled by this very small mi-crobe.”

“This contagion exposes the fault lines, inequalities, injustices and contradictions of our mod-ern world,” Tedros said. “And geopolitical divisions have been thrown into sharp relief.”

China, meanwhile, sought to divert attention to its renewed ef-forts to slow the coronavirus pan-demic, with Xi announcing the $2 billion outlay over two years to fight it. Last year, China donated about $86 million to WHO.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Ul-lyot characterized China’s newly announced contribution as “a token to distract from calls from a growing num-ber of nations demanding ac-countability for the Chinese

Continued on Page 4

Vaccine encouraging

1,073 cases on lockdown-9

More testing needed

MoI warns on curfew permits

PORTS PARALYZED ... FOOD SECURITY THREATENED

WASHINGTON, May 19, (AP): An ex-perimental vaccine against the coronavirus showed encouraging results in very early test-ing, triggering hoped-for immune responses in eight healthy, middle-aged volunteers, its maker has announced.

Study volunteers given either a low or medium dose of the vaccine by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna Inc. had antibodies similar to those seen in people who have recovered from COVID-19.

In the next phase of the study, led by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, researchers will try to determine which dose is best for a definitive experiment that they aim to start in July.

In all, 45 people have received one or two shots of the vac-cine, which was being tested at three different doses. The kind of detailed antibody results needed to assess responses are only available on eight volunteers so far.

The vaccine seems safe, the company said, but much more extensive testing is needed to see if it remains so. A high dose version is being dropped after spurring some short-term side effects.

The results have not been published and are only from the first of three stages of testing that vaccines and drugs nor-mally undergo. U.S. government officials have launched a project called “Operation Warp Speed” to develop a vaccine and hopefully have 300 million doses by January.

Worldwide, about a dozen vaccine candidates are in the first stages of testing or nearing it. Health officials have said that if all goes well, studies of a potential vaccine might wrap up by very late this year or early next year.

More than 4.7 million infections and 315,000 deaths from the coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide since it emerged in China late last year. There are no specific ap-proved treatments, although several are being used on an emergency basis after showing some promise in preliminary testing.

KUWAIT CITY, May 19, (Agencies): The Ministry of Health of Kuwait an-nounced Tuesday that the novel coro-navirus (COVID-19) has claimed the lives of three people in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll up to 121.

In his daily coronavirus update, the Health Ministry Spokesperson Dr. Abdullah Al-Sanad stated that 1,073 people have tested positive for the highly contagious virus today, increas-ing the overall number of infections in the country to 16,764.

He estimated the overall number of active cases at 11,962, including 179 patients who are receiving care in the intensive care units.

Earlier, Health Minister Sheikh Dr. Basel Al-Sabah announced the recov-ery of 342 COVID-19 patients, bring-ing the total to 4,681 recoveries.

Kuwait ports paralyzedThe total lockdown, which was

implemented in Kuwait from May 10, has completely paralyzed the country’s ports as a result of companies and in-dividuals not being granted security permits to allow the release of their goods, which are accumulating beyond the ports’ capacity to accommodate, re-ports Al-Qabas daily quoting informed sources.

They rang the bells of danger, warn-ing that continuation of this situation will lead to a greater crisis and cause shortage of both food and medicine stocks, unless the concerned agencies are aware of the seriousness of the situ-ation and take necessary action.

The sources explained that thou-sand tons of commodities are stacked in the warehouses and con-tainer yards in Shuwaikh and Shuai-ba ports. They are no longer capable of receiving incoming ships due to the accumulation of goods.

Continuation of this situation may endanger import of food and frozen meat, and consequently thousands of importers and consumers will be af-fected.

Security permits for shipping agen-cies, customs clearance companies and individuals have not been issued since the implementation of the total lock-down. This prevents them from receiv-ing imported goods and commodities, as thousand tons of them are accumu-lated in the container yards and ware-houses.

The sources said, “About 90 percent of the goods and commodities in the country are imported. The absorptive capacity of the ports has been exhaust-ed, as 26 warehouses in Shuwaikh Port as well as the container yards in Shuai-

ba are full to the maximum capacity.”They indicated that truck drivers are

currently unable to load the goods, be-cause some checkpoints of Ministry of Interior have stopped them due to lack of security permits.

The sources revealed that Kuwait Ports Authority’s inability to receive ships and vessels currently would ex-pose Kuwait to pay fines up to $50,000 for keeping them in waiting areas or returning those ships to the regional ports, thereby exposing companies and individuals to face huge losses.

MoI warns on curfew permitsPersons with curfew permits to go

see a doctor should register precise in-formation of their destinations in order to allow them further permits and thus avoid legal consequences, Ministry of Interior said Monday.

A ministry statement said persons wishing to see doctor in hospitals or clinics could obtain a curfew permit through: https://curfew.paci.gov.kw.

The person should show the permit for employee at the hospital or clinic who would verify information in the permit, it said, a step that would enable this person to obtain another permit in future if needed.

If the location mentioned in the

permit does not match the actual des-tination, it said, the person would be banned from future permits and be questioned.

Kuwait Government imposed the curfew on May 10-30 with the aim of curbing spread of coronavirus.

Security arrest two girlsKuwait security forces arrested two

girls for breaking the curfew and would face legal charges, Ministry of Interior said monday.

A video was posted on social me-dia showing the two girls bragging for violating the curfew and that they were above the law, a MoI statement said.

Security forces investigated the video and arrested the girls - an Arab and a Kuwaiti citizen - who were re-ferred to questioning ahead of being charged, it added.

The security authorities will take all legal actions against any person violat-ing the curfew, said the ministry.

MoH sets mask supply criteriaThe Kuwaiti Ministry of Health set

out new ineluctable technical condi-tions and criteria for medical mask sup-plies.

Issues dent tech-assisted‘tracking’ for coronavirusPROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, May 19, (AP): Harnessing today’s technology to the task of fighting the coronavirus pandemic is turn-ing out to be more complicated than it first appeared.

The first U.S. states that rolled out smartphone apps for tracing the contacts of COVID-19 patients are dealing with technical glitches and a general lack of interest by their residents. A second wave of tech-assisted pandemic surveil-lance tools is on its way, this time with the imprimatur of tech giants Apple and Google. But those face their own issues, among them po-tential accuracy problems and the fact that they won’t share any in-formation with governments that could help track the spread of the illness.

Contact tracing is a pillar of in-fection control. It’s traditionally conducted by trained public health workers who interview those who may have been exposed, then urge them to get tested and isolate them-selves. Some estimates call for as many as 300,000 U.S. workers to do the work effectively, but so far those efforts have lagged.

Other tech companies like Salesforce have offered database tools to assist manual tracing ef-forts, although those also raise privacy concerns because of the need to collect and store detailed information about people’s social connections, health status and whereabouts.

Privacy advocates warn that the danger of creating new gov-ernment surveillance powers for the pandemic could lead to much bigger problems in the future.

In a new policy paper shared with The Associated Press, the American Civil Liberties Union is warning state governments to tread more carefully and establish stricter privacy procedures before deploying technology meant to detect and curb new coronavirus outbreaks.

Even the most privacy-minded tools, such as those to be released soon by Apple and Google, require constraints so that they don’t be-come instruments of surveillance or oppression. “The risks of getting it wrong are enormous,” said Neema Singh Guliani, a senior legislative counsel with the ACLU.

ACLU’s report says the worst lo-cation-tracking technology should be rejected outright, such as apps that track individual movements via satellite-based GPS technology and feed sensitive personal data into centralized government data-bases. “Good designs don’t require you to gather people’s location information and store that,” Singh Guliani said.

She urged governments to set rules addressing both privacy and efficacy so that surveillance tools don’t interfere with more conven-tional public health methods.

Utah, North Dakota and South Dakota were the first U.S. states to launch voluntary phone apps that enable public health departments to track the location and connec-tions of people who test positive for the coronavirus. But governors haven’t had much luck getting the widespread participation needed for them to work effectively.

Opinion

Prepare, catch up; more is yet to come

By Ahmed Al-JarallahEditor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

THE effects of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have pushed the world’s refresh button, something that happens once every century. Testimony to that fact is that the world, one century ago after the end of the First World War which had claimed millions of lives, went on to battle the “Spanish Flu” that took the lives of more than 60 million people all around the world.

However, people managed to coexist with this virus after a period of time. In fact, this deadly fl u had sparked a major economic renaissance in the 1920s due to the reconstruction of Europe. People eventually started to experience better living standards and fi nancial well-being that gave them the appetite to spend. It is said that automobile factories used to produce a car every ten seconds during the period between 1920 and 1929.

At that stage, the demand for expensive goods and the construction of palaces and houses increased. However, all this changed with the economic setback suffered by the United States of America in 1929 when stock prices stumbled and the so-called “The Great Depression” or “the year of depression”, as the Americans call it, began due to the frenzy in making quick profi ts through stock trading fueled by con-sumption craze.

The effects of the Great Depression in the US had extended to Eu-rope, rendering the world to change its popular mood and political trends, and causing extremist movements to emerge. This facilitated the rise in power for people like Hitler’s Nazi in Germany and Mus-solini’s fascism in Italy, let alone the surge of racism and anti-semetic rhetoric that, after ten years, ignited the Second World War during which millions lost their lives and countries were ruined.

The effects of that war reached such an extent that Europe was un-able to reconstruct what was destroyed without the help of the Ameri-cans. It was at that point the victors set in motion the project to es-tablish a Jewish state in Palestine in a bid to come up with an historic solution to solve the crisis between Europe and the Jews.

After the war, and with the 1948 Marshall Plan (US foreign aid to Western Europe), a new economic renaissance began. Productive sec-tors in urgent need of energy expanded and the oil industry fl ourished, especially in the Arabian Gulf region.

This renaissance helped change the region where great fi nancial prosperity was witnessed. It changed the way of life in the region, and developmental projects started increasing signifi cantly in Kuwait, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf countries that were not affected much by the Second World War.

During the current COVID-19 crisis, there are many reasons for op-timism. This is because, despite the great losses in all aspects and in the absence of a vaccine for eradicating coronavirus that continues to take lives, there are signs of a change for the better.

It is true that the price may be exorbitant, but since when did human-ity fail to pay such a price at every historic turn in the world?

Since the beginning of this pandemic, we have been witnessing changes at the level of international relations, new alignments, and various economic alliances. Societies have started seeking their safety by relying on themselves. This invisible virus has led individuals to alter their ways of life and even spendings.

However, despite all this, the changes that ended yesterday’s crises will not be a replica of the variables of today. There will be no fall of empires, as in the case with the Ottoman Empire. There will neither be division within the Arab world similar to the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agree-ment nor religious wars. Also, there won’t be another Hitler or another Mussolini in this planet.

There is no doubt that international relations are changing; health and medical technologies have become a greater area of human con-cern. This brings to mind the saying: “Prepare yourselves and catch up before you fi nd yourselves outdated, more greater is yet to come.”

Email: ahmed@aljarallah.com

Follow me on:

ahmedaljarallah@gmail.com

Billionaire Saudi bank tycoon dead at 79RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, May 19, (AP): Billionaire Saudi businessman Saleh Abdullah Kamel, who founded the banking and real estate conglomerate Dallah Albara-ka Group, has died, according to relatives quoted in the kingdom’s media. He was 79.

People close to Kamel told The Asso-ciated Press he died at the Dr. Samir Ab-bas Hospital in the city of Jeddah, where he was taken after suffering a heart attack early on Tuesday.

Kamel’s business empire grew from its humble beginnings in the late 1960s - at the same time that the kingdom was us-ing its oil wealth to rapidly develop and in need of homegrown companies to build roads, highways and cities.

Over the years, the business expanded to tens of thousands of employees and to-day includes subsidiaries and stakes in a

range of businesses, such as the operation and maintenance of airports and roads, tourism, trade, trucking and transporta-tion, telecommunications, media, agricul-ture, poultry and health care.

Kamel’s son and the CEO of Dallah Albaraka Group, Abdullah Kamel, was quoted in the state-linked Okaz newspa-per that he oversees as saying that funeral prayers will be held Tuesday afternoon in Makkaha’s Grand Mosque, which has been closed to visitors amid the coronavi-rus pandemic.

The fact that his funeral prayers are being permitted at the mosque, which is home to Islam’s holiest site, reflects Ka-mel’s prominence and stature in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV network said Kamel, who was born in Makkah

but based in Jeddah, was instrumental in helping build many of the kingdom’s ports and major projects.

He served on numerous boards and was the chairman of the General Council for Islamic Banks and the Jiddah Cham-ber of Commerce. He once owned a sig-nificant stake in Saudi broadcaster MBC, which owns and operates Al-Arabiya.

Al-Arabiya dubbed him “the father of contemporary Islamic finance”.

His life, however, was not without con-troversy. Following the 9/11 attacks, he and other prominent Saudi businessmen and princes were sued on charges of fi-nancing the attacks. The lawsuits were dismissed by the U.S. District Court of New York in 2005.

Continued on Page 4

Continued on Page 4 Continued on Page 4

2ARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020

editor’s choice

Class of 2020: Fear of the future

Corona clouds a class with crisis

University of California at Berkeley graduate Tyler Lyson stands in front of Sproul Hall on the closed Cal campus in Berkeley, Calif., on Monday, May 11, 2020. Lyson watched his parents’ fi nancial collapse in the Great Recession, a decade ago. He vowed he’d fi nd the security they never had: He would get a college degree. (Inset): This May 8, 2020 photo provided by Mireya Benavides shows her in Del Valle, Texas. The 17-year old

had considered a community college to save money, but instead chose the University of Texas-San Antonio. She knows it will be a fi nancial squeeze. (AP)

By Sharon Cohen and Jocelyn GeckerCALIFORNIA, May 19, (AP): Tyler Lyson watched his parents’ fi nancial collapse in the Great Recession, a decade ago. He vowed he’d fi nd the secu-rity they never had: He would get a college degree.

The 27-year-old won a full scholarship to the University of California-Berkeley and, on Monday, will become the fi rst in his family to graduate from college. “I’m supposed to be doing great,” he said.

Instead, he feels powerless and panicked, with a political science degree that he fears may prove worthless. He has a 7-month-old baby and his wife, a United Airlines fl ight attendant, fears losing her job. In the past several weeks, he has applied for about 35 jobs, all over the country.

He’s also considering the military. “Unfortunately, they always need peo-ple,” he said. “And the benefi ts are so good.”

Mere months ago, the graduates of the Class of 2020 seemed all but as-sured of success. The economy was booming. The stock market had closed the year strong. The unemployment rate, on the decline for years, had dropped to a 50-year low of 3.5% in February. Jobs outnumbered applicants, and fears of a recession had faded.

Then came the pandemic, shattering the economy. Last month, more than 20.5 million jobs vanished as the unemployment rate soared to 14.7% -- the worst since the Great Depression. The high hopes of graduates crashed as corporations slashed budgets and rescinded offers of jobs and internships.

For working-class students who defi ed the odds to get a college education, it’s hard to be optimistic about the future. There’s a sense of an unending crisis, with loans due and family members laid off.

These graduates will be competing not just with experienced workers but with those in another Class of 2020 — high school graduates who aren’t college-bound or have put their dreams on hold to join the job hunt, in some cases to help newly unemployed parents .

Others are opting for a two-year junior college instead of a four-year pro-gram or taking a gap year or have decided it’s not worth paying tuition for schooling that may be conducted only online.

In California’s agricultural Central Valley, the county of Merced has six high schools with about 2,500 graduating seniors, many from low-income or immigrant families. Typically, about 40% head to college and the rest go straight to jobs in mechanics, construction, agriculture and hospitality — in-dustries that, for now, are wiped out or stagnant.

“The future looks very, very grim,” Merced’s assistant superintendent Constantino Aguilar said. “Where do these students go? A lot of doors have been closed. We’re trying to plan for our students’ futures and there is noth-ing out there for them.”

Still, some high school grads are determined to proceed with their college plans despite the economic chaos.

Mireya Benavides, 17, had considered a community college to save mon-ey, but instead chose the University of Texas-San Antonio. She knows it will be a fi nancial squeeze. Her single mother, a school custodian, is the sole support for her and three siblings and was out of work part of this spring.

Benavides hopes a work-study program — and maybe eventual scholar-ships and loans, along with fi nancial help from her mother -- will be enough to make ends meet. She said she’s confi dent something will work out. Col-lege has always been next on her agenda.

“If I don’t go to school, where would I be?” she asked. “Who would I become? I want to have a future. I just want to point myself in the right direc-tion and move forward.”

So does 22-year-old DJ Brooks, who fi nds himself in an uneasy limbo.Just months ago, he thought he’d be welcoming family for a June gradu-

ation celebration at Carleton College in Minnesota as the fi rst in his family to earn a degree. He’d worked two jobs while in school, helping his mother pay her bills. He fi gured he would have a job lined up, likely as a counselor, having earned a psychology degree.

Instead, he’s navigating what he calls a “sea of unexpectedness,” sending

‘This is like a safety net’

Thousands defer plans to quit militaryWASHINGTON, May 19, (AP): Army Sgt Antonio Gozikowski was planning to leave the military next month and head to college.

After serving for six years, the dental assistant’s goal was to be-come a dentist, and then return to the Army in a few years with his expanded medical skills. But now, with the coronavirus forcing univer-sities to consider virtual or reduced schooling this fall, he decided to take advantage of a new Army pro-gram and extend his military service for six more months.

Across the military, uncertainty about future jobs or college op-portunities is driving more service members to re-enlist or at least postpone their scheduled depar-tures. As unemployment, layoffs and a historic economic downturn grip the nation, the military - with its job security, steady paycheck and benefi ts - is looking much more appealing.

“Everything from elementary schools to universities is closing down and there’s no saying how it’s going to go when the fall semester

opens,” said Gozikowski, adding that he’s hoping schools start open-ing up for spring semester. “This is like a safety net. I have a source of income and I’ll be able to continue working.”

Gozikowski, who is from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and is serving at Fort Hood, Texas, is one of hun-dreds of service members who are taking advantage of newly devel-oped, short-term extensions being offered by the military.

As of last week, the Army had already exceeded its retention goal of 50,000 soldiers for the fi scal year ending in September, re-enlisting more than 52,000 so far. And the other services have also met or are closer than planned to their target numbers. The infl ux of people re-enlisting will offset any shortfalls in recruiting, which has been ham-pered by the outbreak. And that will help the services meet their total required troop levels for the end of the year.

“We’re hiring,” said Army Sec-retary Ryan McCarthy. “Like any-thing, market dynamics come into

effect and people will see where the opportunities lie.”

Sgt Maj Stuart Morgan, the sen-ior Army career counselor, said Gozikowski was able to take advan-tage of a new program designed to help soldiers who were planning to leave this year but are now worried and reconsidering their options. The program allows them to delay their departure for up to 11 months to get them past the peak coronavirus period. By early last week, he said, 745 soldiers had signed up.

“What we’re seeing this year, which is directly related to COVID, is we do have a population of sol-diers that what they were expecting at the end of transition has suddenly disappeared,” Morgan said. “And now you have a soldier that is try-ing to go through a transition period that is now facing uncertainty on the outside.”

The Air Force is already expect-ing to fall short of its recruiting goal by as much as 5,800 as a re-sult of the virus. And that gap, the Air Force said, could be fi lled by service members who decide to re-

enlist or extend their service.So far, the number of Air Force

personnel who have withdrawn their requests to leave the service or have asked to extend their enlist-ment is 700 more than last year at this time, including 230 pilots and medical staff.

For one pilot, the opportunity to make that sudden change of course was a relief. In discussing his plans, he asked that his name not be used to preserve any future employment options.

Nearly two months ago, he was in Miami taking an airline certifi cation course and getting ready for his next career. For months, he and his fel-low pilots at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois had been talking about which airlines were hiring.

“Everybody was getting out,” the 10-year transport aircraft pilot said in an interview from the air base. “The conversations were like, oh, who got picked up by Southwest, who got picked up by American, who got picked up by Delta. And then the whole coronavirus thing started to play its course.”

out resumes at a time of furloughs and hiring freezes. He’ll probably return to Chicago to live with his mother.

“I don’t have a backup plan,” he said. “I had higher hopes.”It took just a few weeks for the pandemic to derail Tariq Murphy’s future.In December and January, the Morehouse College senior was fl ying high,

interviewing for internships. In March, it all fell apart.The school was forced to close and Murphy, a marketing major, had no

place to live. Morehouse put him and about 30 other students up in a hotel. He’s now plotting his next steps, with $88,000 in debt hanging over him.

“I can’t sugarcoat the fear,” the 28-year-old New Jersey native said. “I’m someone who likes to have a plan. It’s sometimes hard to sleep. I said to my dean it’s like a nightmare that never ends.”

Some graduates have managed to fi nd work despite the shrinking oppor-tunities. After graduating from Morehouse, Grant Bennett will return to the high-tech fi rm in Silicon Valley where he interned last year.

“I kind of have survivor’s guilt,” he said. “I see a lot of friends struggling and I feel very cozy knowing I have something.”

He’s defi nitely one of the lucky ones. Historically, college graduates en-tering the work force during a recession have faced setbacks that can last a decade or longer.

It’s a “frightening” time to be looking for a fi rst job, said Jesse Rothstein,

a senior economist in the Obama administration who teaches public policy and economics at Berkeley. “If you don’t get a good job when you start out, it hurts you not just now but for years to come.”

In the short term, young graduates are more likely to be unemployed or settle for lower-paying work. They often miss out on valuable training that can set them on a career path and, once the economy recovers, they have permanently lower employment and earnings, Rothstein found in a study published last year on the impact of the 2008 recession on college grads.

Whether the Class of 2020 will face long-term setbacks depends on the severity of the recession and the speed of economic recovery, he said. The longer it lasts, the worse the damage.

As he struggles to fi nd work, Tyler Lyson is considering leaving Berkeley to move back home to Post Falls, Idaho, where it’s cheaper, even though it would feel like giving up on his dreams.

As a teen, he watched his family lose everything in the recession. His father’s construction business collapsed and the family had to leave their foreclosed house so quickly that they dumped just about everything they owned into a pit and set it on fi re.

“I watched it all go up in smoke — everything we owned,” Lyson said. “Ever since then, I knew I needed to go to college and have something to fall back on.”

LOCALARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020

3

Move to protect homeland and society from coronavirus epidemic

Activation of e-government need of the hourKUWAIT CITY, May 19: It is impera-tive that the concerned parties begin to activate the e-government quickly and apply the system fully after the end of the total ‘lockdown’, to protect the homeland and society from this epi-demic and achieve social divergence and prevent gatherings, reports Al-Rai daily quoting sources.

The activation of e-government is very important at this stage in par-ticular, with the economic situation gradually limping back to normal in order to reduce the risks of spread-ing infection, and reduce the number of people in work areas keeping in mind the safety of the people which is a priority.

Every citizen aspires to see his coun-try rubbing shoulders with developed countries, especially since Kuwait has ample expertise among its citizens and they should be given opportunities to work in various fi elds.

Here it must be pointed out that education is the cornerstone because excellent education will undoubtedly

give birth to genius engineers, chem-ists and physicists who will benefi t the homeland.

The best way to address all obstacles and mistakes which are piling in all sectors, including health, food, con-struction, and others, is to start devel-oping education and restructuring it.

The sources say, the stage that

we are going through is sensitive at the cost levels, and therefore it is not permissible to disrupt the work of the National Assembly, because there are proposals that must be ap-proved at this stage, especially the electronic litigation (electronic sys-tem) to preserve the rights of liti-gants, and to give a role to lawyers

to perform their work.Countries can progress scientifi cally

and practically only with conscious governments and peoples, and here we realize the diffi culty of imposing awareness on some and convincing them of the importance of values in a way that is diffi cult to fi nd a vaccine for the corona virus, added the sources.

600 people register online

Minister Gowda assures ‘repatriation’flights to Karnataka from Kuwait soon

FM receives call from UNRWA Comm-General

BENGALURU, India, May 19: Honorable Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and former chief minister of Karnataka Sri D. V. Sadananda Gow-da assured Kannadigas residing in Kuwait that Indian government will arrange fl ights to Ban-galore/Mangalore with-in 10 days for repatria-tion of 600 people who have registered online.

Various Karnataka associations in Kuwait have requested the Indi-an government to arrange fl ights from Kuwait for the people of Karnataka stranded in Kuwait having medical emergency issues, pregnant

women, jobless Indians and those with expired visas in Kuwait.

In a video conference with Honorable Minister Gowda organized by Tulu Koota Kuwait on 16th May, Ramesh S. Bhandary, President of Tulu Koota Kuwait explained the situation of about 50,000 Kannadigas living in Kuwait and requested for repatria-tion of people affected by COVID-19 pan-demic. Leaders of other associations partici-pated in the meeting are Kuwait Kannada Koota Association’s Rajesh Vittal, Kuwait Canara Welfare Association’s Steven Rego, Karnataka Muslim Welfare Association’s Abdul Naser Khan, Kuwait Bhantara Sang-ha’s Guru Hegde, Kuwait Billava Sangha’s Krishna S. Pojari and Indian Muslim Asso-ciation’s Jafar Sadik.

KUWAIT CITY, May 19, (KUNA): For-eign Minister Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah received a video call from the new Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Pales-tine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini.

Sheikh Ahmad affi rmed Kuwait’s sup-port for the agency’s work and its lofty goals once again in light of what the world is go-ing through as a result of the outbreak of the

coronavirus pandemic.For his part, Lazzarini hailed Kuwait’s

vital role in supporting the agency, express-ing his deep appreciation, gratitude for the pioneering and distinguished humanitarian role played by Kuwait in supporting the af-fl icted and affected peoples, and assuming a prominent position on the level of humani-tarian work regionally and internationally led by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

Al-Jassem’s decision to reducenumber of expats wins support

‘Kuwaitization will happen, to be more effective in govt sector’

KUWAIT CITY, May 19: The article published recently on the front page of Al-Rai newspa-per concerning the state-ment made by the State Minister for Municipal Affairs Walid Al-Jassem about the first step taken towards dispensing with expatriates had sparked broad public and parlia-mentary reactions main-ly in support of the step taken by Al-Jassem, and amid calls for taking sim-ilar steps in all parts of the state for eliminating unproductive workers, reports Al-Rai daily.

According to sources in-formed about the marginal workers’ file, Al-Jassem’s de-cision to stop appointing expa-triates and dispense with those present in Kuwait Municipality had stirred the stagnant water in the issue of Kuwaitization. The legal aspect relating to vio-lation of the residency law re-vealed a governmental plan to reduce those workers as the first step, followed by serious steps through legislation and laws that will put an end to unreasonable increase in the proportion of the number of expatriates which has exceeded 70 percent of the total population.

KuwaitizationThe sources affi rmed that Ku-

waitization will happen, and its ap-plication in governmental jobs will be more effective, highlighting that the fi rst hint was the directive from the state minister for municipal af-fairs not to appoint expatriates and to sift through fi les of their employ-ees in Kuwait Municipality.

They revealed that the number of marginal workers, both legal and il-legal, has exceeded 600,000.

According to the latest statistics, the number of residency violators who took advantage of the amnesty granted by Ministry of Interior to leave the country within a month without paying any fi nancial fi nes incurred by them reached 168,000. This is in addition to monitoring more than 400,000 others who can be considered marginal workers as they do not work for their spon-sors and work on the basis of daily wages.

In addition to the marginal work-ers and residency violators, the workforce that can be dispensed with is the non-technical employees working in public and private sec-tors in areas and professions that do not need expatriates as they often carry out offi ce tasks that do not require contracting with other coun-tries except within narrow limits.

The sources emphasized that the train of the containment governmen-tal plan to sort out the number of un-productive expatriates who proved to be burden for the country and its infrastructure during the coronavirus crisis is on the rails, and is now in the process of being approved, adding that as soon as this plan is approved, its implementation will begin on both short-term and long-term basis.

The sources explained that the re-placement of expatriate workers in the public sector will be carried out within three months after the end of the coronavirus crisis. Expatriates in the public sector will be screened. Those who work on the basis of the system of assignment and services, as well as those in non-technical jobs will be terminated. The con-tracts of those working on contract

Dr Ibtisam Al-Hammadi with the heroes of ‘Muhammad Ali Road’.

‘Role of fashion in enriching TV drama vital’

Two series turning point in my career: Dr Ibtisam

ACA launches Voice Your Vote write-in campaign

KUWAIT CITY, May 19: Dr Ibtisam Al-Hammadi, a professor of Fashion at the Higher Institute of Theatri-cal Arts, considers the series ‘Umm Haroun’ and ‘Muhammad Ali Road’ a turning point in her career spanning more than two decades, at the same time stressing on the importance and role of fashion in enriching TV drama, reports Al-Rai daily.

Dr Ibtisam revealed the design stages of any drama or theater work, stressing that the first stage in fashion design in addition to dealing with per-sonalities begins after reading the text, “where I deal with the text as if it is a novel in order to leave space for my imagination to coexist with events and be with the characters within time and location, so that the first aura of each

pattern is formed’.She continued, saying this is fol-

lowed by the second stage, which is the study of the boundaries of the temporal era of the text and the work of studying the compatibility between patterns of personalities in their social and economic degrees.

Here, she says, the initial image of the third stage figures is formed, dealing with the design and color, and its compatibility with the psy-chological state of each personality, with its dramatic and time-shifting movements and transmissions, sep-arately.

Regarding the color formula that she works on, Dr Ibtisam re-plied: “The color formula is the case that deals with the costume

to highlight the formation of the dramatic character. In every work I put a plan that matches color and its connotations, and I rely a lot on (theology) whether in decora-tion or fashion as a modern line compatible with modern art and adapting it to serve the era, as the task of the fashion designer is very difficult which is to convince the recipient, because he needs to reach a color climate condition that convinces the recipient that what he sees is within the limits of logic.”

She drew attention to the interest of Kuwaiti art since ancient times in fashion as it is part of the culture of society, and this was manifested in several works.

WASHINGTON, DC, May 19: ACA, a section 501(c)(4) tax-ex-empt, non-profit, nonpartisan, vol-unteer organization, has launched its Voice Your Vote write-in cam-paign. As the premier thought-lead-er on issues affecting U.S. citizens living and working abroad, ACA has consistently supported legisla-tion assuring the fundamental rights of overseas American voters. Vot-ing rights along with citizenship transmission was one of the found-ing issues of ACA.

Today the organization continues to support those rights by providing overseas Americans with a write-in campaign where voters can ask the incumbents and candidates running for office in the 2020 Presidential and Congressional elections their opinions on issues directly affecting the overseas American community.

The write-in campaign is quick and easy to use either on your laptop or portable phone. Voters provide their U.S. voting address – this is the last known address an overseas American resided at prior to leav-ing the U.S. incumbents and candi-dates running in their district and for President will pre-populate the form so individuals can directly write to those running for office asking where they stand on issues. Many

Americans born overseas but never lived in the U.S. may still qualify to vote using their parent’s last known U.S. residential address.

ACA Voting Director, Roland Crim, views the write-in campaign as a natural extension of ACA’s ad-vocacy work: “The campaign com-plements our voting rights advocacy by giving voters a voice, provid-ing the community with a tool for speaking to candidates directly. Campaigns have traditionally been seen as a one-way flow of infor-mation to targeted voters, and this should not be the norm. In a bet-ter world, voter sentiment impacts a candidate’s positions throughout the campaign, and the more chan-nels we offer for the expression of popular sentiment, the better.”

“Candidates running for office and those incumbents running for reelection must remember that their constituency includes Americans living and working overseas. ACA estimates that there are 5 to 6 mil-lion Americans living overseas. These voters’ issues and their voice in the voting process should not be overlooked. Far too often the issues of overseas Americans are over-shadowed by domestic issues, but this makes them no less important,” added Jonathan Lachowitz, ACA

Chairman. ACA’s research from its work on

Residency-based taxation, estimates that 5 to 6 million Americans live and work overseas. With more and more tax legislation directly affect-ing Americans overseas and with concerns over COVID-19 and the effects of the pandemic, ACA an-ticipates overseas American voter turnout in the 2020 elections to be high.

The ACA Voice Your Vote cam-paign builds on ACA’s already ex-isting write-in campaign platform where Americans overseas can also find a write-in campaign to sup-port hearings on the tax issues of Americans living and working over-seas – Tax Fairness for Americans Abroad: An Idea Worth Fighting For. ACA anticipates adding more write-in campaign efforts to its plat-form in the coming months.

Contact: MarylouiseSerrato+1 202-322-8441info@americansabroad.orgIf you would rather not receive

future communications from Amer-ican Citizens Abroad, let us know by clicking here.

American Citizens Abroad, 11140 Rockville Pike Suite 100-162, Rockville, MD 20852 United States

basis will not be renewed, regard-less of their position, especially consultants in governmental agen-cies. The government sectors will develop educational and training programs to prepare Kuwaiti youth to occupy specialized jobs.

The sources went on to explain that the legislation currently being prepared will put an end to the ex-cessive increase in the number of certain expatriate communities, en-suring the application of the quota system. No community will exceed 20 percent, and no community can monopolize any jobs.

They said technical positions in Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health will be occupied by peo-ple from different countries, instead of focusing on specifi c countries.

The sources revealed that Minis-try of Education will contract teach-ers from Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia and Mauritania, and Ministry of Health will hire doctors from India and Pakistan.

Regarding this matter, Chairman of Human Resources Development Committee Khalil Al-Saleh said,

“The Resources Development Com-mittee warned repeatedly about the negative implications of coronavi-rus crisis, especially about the high number of expatriates and the need to implement Kuwaitization in gov-ernment jobs and approve the quota system. The issue of marginal labor is the reason behind the depletion of state resources, so the government has become obligated to take strict measures and address this fi le seri-ously. This fi le can be addressed by draining sources of residency deal-ers and applying the quota system to the proportions of communities.”

FailureHe stressed that the root of the prob-

lem lies in the failure of the govern-ment to impose strict control on the re-cruitment of workers from abroad and that it allowed residency trade to fl our-ish without accountability or scrutiny.

Al-Saleh said, “Implementation of the Kuwaitization policy has become a public and parliamentary demand. As a form of support, we in the Human Resources Committee presented recommendations and so-lutions for this fi le.”

Meanwhile, MP Safaa Al-Hash-em said she prefers the application of the quota system on the expatri-ate communities, provided the num-ber of members in each community should not exceed 100,000.

She called for an end to the infi l-tration of expatriates into sensitive positions and their control of the governmental decisions.

Al-Hashem declared that “The repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis require the government to be serious in dealing with the demo-graphics fi le. For about three years, I have been for a solution to the demographic makeup, because the imbalance was clear and obvious.”

She added, “The error of fatali-ties in which the government fell is the clear penetration of expatriates in leadership positions to the extent that important information have fallen in the hands of expatriates.

The Civil Service Commission is the biggest evidence. Therefore, it is not logical for the decision of CSC to be in hands of a number of expatriate advisers who control the future of our children.”

Gowda

Ramadan Timings

Prayer TimingsFajr ............................................................ 03:23Sunrise ...................................................... 04:54Zohr ........................................................... 11:44Asr ............................................................. 15:20Maghreb .................................................... 18:36Isha ............................................................ 20:04

Kuwait WeatherExpected weather for the next 24 hours:By Night: Fair and partly cloudy with light to

moderate south easterly wind to south westerly wind with speed of 10-30 km/h.

By Day: Hot and partly cloudy to cloudy with light variable wind to light to moderate south easterly wind with speed of 08-30 km/h.

Station Max Min Exp RecKuwait City 41 31Kuwait Airport 44 26Abdaly 44 28Bubyan - -Jahra 43 29Failaka Island 38 27Salmiyah 39 31Ahmadi - -Nuwaisib 40 25Wafra 41 25Salmy 43 27

4 days forecast - WeatherWednesday, May 20

Expected weather ......... Hot and some scattered ................................................ clouds will appearMax Temp.................................................... 42˚CMin Temp..................................................... 24˚CWind Direction .........................................NW-SEWind Speed .......................................12-32 km/h

Thursday, May 21Expected weather ......... Hot and relatively humid...............over coastal areas and some scattered................................................ clouds will appearMax Temp.................................................... 41˚CMin Temp..................................................... 24˚CWind Direction ........................................VRB-SEWind Speed .......................................08-28 km/h

Friday, May 22Expected weather ......... Hot and relatively humid............................................... over coastal areasMax Temp.................................................... 40˚CMin Temp..................................................... 23˚CWind Direction ........................................VRB-SEWind Speed .......................................08-30 km/h

Saturday, May 23 Expected weather .......................................... HotMax Temp.................................................... 41˚CMin Temp..................................................... 24˚CWind Direction ........................................VRB-SEWind Speed .......................................08-28 km/h

Marine ForecastStation Max Min Sea Today’s Exp Rec Surf Waves Ht DirectionSouth Dolphin - - - 3ft NWUmm Mudayrah - - - 3ft NWBeacon M28 - - - 3ft NW

Beacon N6 - - - 3ft NWQaruh Island 39 28 - 3ft NWUmm Al-Maradim 39 27 - 3ft NWSea Island Buo - - - - -Salmiyah 39 31 - 3ft SE

4 days forecast - MarineWednesday, May 20

Expected weather ......... Hot and some scattered ................................................ clouds will appearSea state ................................Slight to moderateWave height.................................................1-4 ftMax Temp.................................................... 42˚CMin Temp..................................................... 24˚CWind Direction .........................................NW-SEWind Speed .......................................12-32 km/h

Thursday, May 21Expected weather ......... Hot and relatively humid............................................... over coastal areasSea state ................................Slight to moderateWave height.................................................1-3 ftMax Temp.................................................... 41˚CMin Temp..................................................... 24˚CWind Direction ........................................VRB-SEWind Speed .......................................08-28 km/h

Friday, May 22Expected weather ......... Hot and relatively humid............................................... over coastal areasSea state ................................Slight to moderateWave height.................................................1-4 ftMax Temp.................................................... 40˚CMin Temp..................................................... 23˚CWind Direction ........................................VRB-SEWind Speed .......................................08-30 km/h

Saturday, May 23Expected weather .......................................... HotSea state ................................Slight to moderateWave height.................................................1-3 ftMax Temp.................................................... 41˚CMin Temp..................................................... 24˚CWind Direction ........................................VRB-SEWind Speed .......................................08-28 km/h

Tide times at Shuwaikh Port1st high tide: ...............................................10:082nd high tide: ..............................................22:331st low tide:.................................................16:382nd low tide: ...............................................04:33Sunrise: ......................................................04:54Sunset: .......................................................18:35

Recorded yesterday at Kuwait AirportMax temp ..................................................... 42˚CMin temp ...................................................... 22˚CMax Rh .........................................................39%Min Rh ..........................................................06%Max Wind.............................................S 21 km/hTotal Rainfall in 24 hrs ................................0 mm

Recorded yesterday at South DolphinMin/Max/ Air Temp ...........................................-/-Min/Max Rel Hum ......................................... -/-%Wind Direction/Wind Speed................... N/- km/hPrev Wave Dir/Max Wave Ht ....................... N/- ftMin/Max Sea Surface Temp .........................-/-˚CSea Current ..............................End of downdraft-- Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Meteorological Dept.

deaths

May 19, 2020

Hessah Salem Al Hilal, widow of Ibrahim Khaled Ibrahim Al Hasawi, 86 years old, buried on Monday. Condolences: Tel. 99077202. Elham Ibrahim Mahmoud, widow of Suhail Abdul Ghali Al Jaian, 56 years old, buried on Monday. Condolences: Tel. 66331477. Haifaa Matar Ali Matar, wife of Minawar Deghaim Al Rasheedi, 66 years old, buried on Monday. Condolences: Tel. 99724320.

Iftar .............................................Wednesday ................................................... 18:37Imsak ..............................................Thursday .................................................. 03:08

Walid Al-Jassem

LOCALARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020

4

MP Al-Dallal submits queries on coronavirus to Al-Saleh

‘Parliament should discuss gradual re-opening plan with govt’By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh

Arab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, May 19: The Par-liament should discuss the gradual re-opening plan with the govern-ment, says MP Yousef Al-Fadalah.

Al-Fadalah suggested that the plan should take into consideration the health condition of employees suffering from chronic diseases and female employees who are preg-

nant, because their immune system is weak.

Meanwhile, MP Muhammad Al-Dallal submitted queries on coronavirus to Deputy Prime Min-ister, Minister of Interior and State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh. He asked if the Council of Ministers studied the impact of coronavirus on the plans of Ku-wait such as the 2035 vision, if the council has alternative plans, if

the council studied the hypothesis that coronavirus will remain for a long period, and if there are plans to deal with the issue in the long term and ‘coexist’ with the virus in terms of social, economic, health and security fields.

He inquired if Kuwait studied the plans of other countries in order to get some ideas to lay down its own plans, and steps taken by the Cabinet to coordinate the efforts of relevant

bodies to implement such plans like the civil society organizations, of-ficial planning institutions and aca-demic institutions and figures.

On the other hand, MP Ham-dan Al-Azmi forwarded queries to Minister of Finance Barrak Al-Shitan on the privileges and allow-ances granted to the members and chairman of the Board of Directors of Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) before April 1, 2018 com-

pared to the privileges and allow-ances allotted after the appoint-ment of the current board.

He wants to know if the current board amended the decree on allow-ances and incentives. If yes, he re-quested for a copy of the decree.

He also demanded for the list of current board members with their allowances and incentives, as well as the list of employees appointed as assistant of the chief executive

officer (CEO) of KAC along with their curriculum vitae. He asked if they were appointed according to the relevant procedures including job advertisements and interview, if those appointed as heads of depart-ments and assistants of the CEO are highly qualified, if retirees were ap-pointed to administrative posts, and if yes, he requested for a list of their names along with their positions and reasons for hiring them.

‘Citizens, residents spend KD 537 million in 17 days’

KNET preps study to measure rates of spending during partial curfew

KUWAIT CITY, May 19: The CEO of Joint Automated Banking Ser-vices Company (KNET) Abdullah Al-Ajmi re-vealed that the volume of spending by citizens and residents from May 1-17 reached 537.180 million dinars, reports Rai daily.

Al-Ajmi disclosed that the to-tal withdrawals exceeded 1.123 billion dinars in April, compared to 1.672 billion in April 2019, while the expenses in March reached about 1.385 billion, all of which indicate successive de-clines in the volume of spending in general.

He pointed out that the total daily withdrawals of citizens and resi-dents declined during the ban period to about 16 million dinars, com-pared to the size of last Saturday’s withdrawals reaching 15.6 million dinars, compared to the average withdrawals of approximately 50 million dinars that were disbursed before the Corona crisis.

In details, Al-Ajmi indicated that KNET prepared a study to measure the rates of local spending during the partial ban period, specifi cally since the fi rst of April. It was dis-covered that the exchange aspects during this period and within the total ban period focus on purchases in the cooperative societies and markets, which accounted for about 80 percent of the total exchange in this period.

WithdrawalsHe explained that the rate of daily

withdrawals executed through POS devices reached 10 million dinars during the period between April 1 and before the total ban scheduled for May 9, indicating the rate fell by 65 percent since the beginning of the total ban.

He pointed out that the highest daily withdrawal rate implemented through point of sale devices since the beginning of April and until 9 May this year amounted to 16 mil-lion dinars, which reached the low-est daily rate of 6 million dinars. This refl ects a wide gap in the curve of withdrawals whose strength is determined according to various considerations.

He explained that the average withdrawals implemented through POS devices have declined signif-icantly since the approval of total ban on the 10th of this month, registering a decline of about 3.5 million dinars out of 10 million dinars withdrawn during the par-tial ban period, noting the largest withdrawals made through the points of sale in the past 8 days amounted to 4 million dinars.

It is worth mentioning the points of sale operations during the month of March amounted to 547 million dinars compared to 784 million dinars withdrawn through devices last February, and 832 million dinars were withdrawn in March 2019, which means the value of operations de-clined by about 160 million dinars last April compared to March.

The highest numberWith regard to automated “cash”

withdrawals, Al-Ajmi said the high-est number of cash withdrawals in the previous 50 days was recorded prior to announcing the date of the total ban, noting that cash withdraw-als on Friday, May 8, amounted to 28 million dinars and the average of cash withdrawals up to the day of implementing the total ban reached 13 million dinars. The highest rate of withdrawals “other than the day of the attack on cash” reached an av-erage of 20 million dinars, and the lowest rate of withdrawals amount-ed to 8 million dinars.

Of course, electronic payment has been most prevalent after the to-tal ban, as Al-Ajmi indicated the av-erage daily rate of electronic with-drawals reached 10 million dinars in the fi rst phase of the ban, then rose to 15 million dinars after instituting home delivery service.

Last March, the value of online withdrawals amounted to 354 mil-lion dinars, compared to 307 million dinars in February and 205 million dinars in March 2019. As for the number of operations, Internet with-drawals increased from 5.3 million transactions in February to 6 million in March, compared to 4.4 million in March 2019.

KUNA photosTop: HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah chairs the Cabinet meeting, and (above) an-

other photo of the meeting.

Cash declineAl-Ajmi noted that after the total

ban, cash withdrawals decreased at extremely large rates, with an esti-mated average of about 2.5 million dinars per day, while withdrawals from the ATM in cooperative soci-eties that are within the residential areas were concentrated.

A day in the banRegarding the nature of with-

drawals that took place during the past few days, Al-Ajmi clarifi ed that KNET offi cials prepared a study entitled (Day of Ban Withdrawals) to show the sources of daily with-drawals and aspects of exchange, and concluded that withdrawals of this day included 2.6 million dinars

cash, and 4 million point-of-cash withdrawals compared to 9 million implemented via electronic pay-ment channels.

Al-Ajmi said the “Day in Ban” statistics showed that 77.8 percent of the total withdrawals of last Sat-urday were spent in cooperative societies and markets, while phar-macies covered 5.5 percent, fol-lowed by other withdrawals with an estimated share of 6.4 percent. In the fourth place was public pur-chases covering 4.4 percent, while the small supermarket withdrawals were appended by 4 percent.

1,400 new sale points in coop-eratives and pharmacies

Al-Ajmi reported that KNET pro-vided its customers in the month of

April with 1,400 additional point of sale devices, explaining those de-vices were distributed to coopera-tive societies, central markets and others due to an increase in demand for them in the recent period.

He stated that many cooperative societies, including catering, fam-ily supplies and the library, recently stopped trading with cash and only receive payments through points of sale, as part of the preventive mea-sures.

Al-Ajmi reiterated that this trend, in addition to the delivery of or-ders from cooperative societies and pharmacies, further strengthened the need to order more POS devices, especially as they’re relied upon and transferred to the customer to pay from his home.

Operations resume next Wed

KUWAIT CITY, May 19, (KUNA): Kuwait’s stock ex-change, Boursa Kuwait, said it would go on a three-day break for the Eid Al-Fitr holidays start-

ing Sunday.The stock exchange’s work-

ing hours will begin again on Wednesday, read a statement on its website.

Trading closed on Tuesday with the stock market index up by 68.98 points to 4,894.35 points, representing a 1.43 per-cent leap.

Kuwait stock exchange to go on 3-day Eid recess as of Sunday

Value of govt contracts for 64 days reaches KD 752m

SAB prevents waste of hundreds of thousands of dinarsKUWAIT CITY, May 19, (KUNA): Kuwait State Audit Bureau (SAB) said Sunday it prevented waste of hundreds of thousands of Kuwaiti dinars for cancelling a Ministry of Defense’s request to buy a large quantity of sanitizers because the Ministry of Health submitted a simi-lar demand but with lesser prices.

The MoD submitted a request to SAB to purchase 200,000 sanitizers, 500ml size, for 2.950 KD each, but the MoH tabled a demand to purchase the same sanitizers from a local factory but with 880 fi ls per unit, said Khawla Al-Hathran, acting director of prior moni-toring department for economic affairs.

SAB, she said, informed the MoD about the variation of prices which prompted the ministry to withdraw the request.

SAB, added Al-Hathran, thus prevented the waste of KD 390,000 (USD 1.248 million).

Al-Hathran said SAB was keen on preventing waste of public funds.

Meanwhile, the value of gov-ernment contracts for urgent cases from March 12 to May 16 (64 days) reached KD 752 million -- about 558 contracts, while the savings from these contracts totaled KD4.1 mil-lion, reports Al-Anba daily.

The State Audit Bureau (SAB) stud-ied urgent contracts related to ongoing efforts to deal with coronavirus. The data released by the bureau recently revealed that the number of Health

Bid to resume work gradually

Banks draw preliminary action planKUWAIT CITY, May 19: Local banks have drawn their prelimi-nary action plan for gradual re-sumption of work once the total curfew is lifted by the end of May, reports Al-Anba daily quoting a source from the banking sector.

According to the source, the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) in-structed the banks to develop an operational plan for their branch-es and departments in the main branches at a rate ranging from 25 to 50 percent; but the banks decided to resume 25 percent of their operations to cover mini-mum banking services at the ini-tial stage of implementation.

The source disclosed the banks set preliminary scenarios for resumption of work in their branches in order to ensure strict

compliance with precaution-ary and health measures. The source confirmed that social dis-tancing will be observed between customers and employees as per the directives of health authori-ties, while the working hours in branches will be limited to four hours at the beginning of the resumption of work. The start of work hours has yet to be deter-mined -- 8:00 or 9:00 in the morn-ing, the source added.

Asked about the plan of some banks to require their clients to book appointments, the source clarified some banks offer this particular service while others do not have such a facility. He stressed the decision ultimately depends on the instructions of the Council of Ministers.

Ministry contracts reached 205 valued at KD221 million, the Ministry of Fi-nance maintained 32 contracts worth KD30 million as it did not sign any new contract, the Ministry of Electricity and Water has 39 contracts valued at KD80 million, the Ministry of Defense has 45 contracts valued at KD41 million, the Cabinet has 37 contracts valued at

KD68 million, the Ministry of Interior has 25 contracts valued at KD60 mil-lion, the Ministry of Public Works has 36 contracts worth KD195 million, and other agencies have a total of 139 con-tracts worth KD57 million.

According to the bureau, these contracts are valid for several fi scal years.

1,073 casesContinued from Page 1

The conditions embrace a certifi cate showing that masks are compatible with relevant standards, along with samples of various sizes, the ministry’s undersecre-tary for drug and food control Dr. Abdul-lah Al-Bader told KUNA.

Should China be the country of origin, then the name of the Chinese supplier has to be mentioned in both Chinese and Eng-lish and the number of a registered certifi -cate be attached, he stressed.

The fresh criteria mainly aim at thwart-ing the entry into the country of any medi-cal product incompatible with relevant global standards with a view to protecting medical teams in the country, Al-Bader noted.

Time extended for food supplyUndersecretary of Kuwait’s Ministry

of Social Affairs Abdulaziz Shuaib said Monday the cooperative stores are al-lowed to receive farm produce and other foodstuffs from 2:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.

“The decision of the ministry to extend this time is meant to ensure that the co-operative stores are well supplied, thus providing the citizens and residents with suffi cient fruits, vegetables and other foodstuffs,” he said in a press release.

“The total lockdown, meant to combat coronavirus pandemic, forced consumers to shop only once in six days,” he said, noting that the measure will ensure the availability of basic supplies for every-body.

Shuaib added that the ministry spares no effort in coping with the current emer-gency, praising the cooperation of the un-ion of cooperative stores with the ministry in serving the consumers.

Cabinet touts SAB scrutinyThe Kuwaiti Cabinet on Monday un-

derlined the signifi cant role of the State Audit Bureau (SAB) in surveillance over spending on the fi ght against novel Coro-navirus (Covid-19).

This came following a briefi ng by SAB Chairman Faisal Al-Shaya during a cabi-net meeting held at Al-Seif Palace under chairmanship of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

Al-Shaya expounded on the mechanism of considering spending orders from dif-ferent state agencies for combatting the virus and fulfi lling all relevant needs, said a cabinet statement.

The cabinet voiced satisfaction with the briefi ng of the SAB’s chief and stressed the agency’s constructive supervisory role and positive cooperation with other state bodies, leading to smooth disbursements and fi nancing.

a second app based on the Apple-Google technology. The existing app “was rushed to market, because of the urgent need, Vern Dosch, the state’s contact tracing facilitator, told KFYR-TV in Bismarck. “We knew that it wouldn’t be perfect.”

The ACLU is taking a more measured approach to the Apple and Google method, which will use Bluetooth wireless technol-ogy to automatically notify people about po-tential COVID-19 exposure without reveal-ing anyone’s identity to the government.

But even if the app is described as volun-tary and personal health information never leaves the phone, the ACLU says it’s im-portant for governments to set additional safeguards to ensure that businesses and public agencies don’t make showing the app a condition of access to jobs, public transit, grocery stores and other services.

Among the governments experimenting with the Apple-Google approach are the state of Washington and several European countries.

Swiss epidemiologist Marcel Salathé said all COVID-19 apps so far are “fundamen-tally broken” because they collect too much irrelevant information and don’t work well with Android and iPhone operating soft-ware. Salathé authored a paper favoring the privacy-protecting approach that the tech giants have since adopted, and he considers it the best hope for a tool that could actu-ally help isolate infected people before they show symptoms and spread the disease.

“You will remember your work col-leagues but you will not remember the ran-dom person next to you on a train or really close to you at the bar,” he said.

Other U.S. governors are looking at tech-nology designed to supplement manual con-tact-tracing efforts. As early as this week, Rhode Island has said it is set to launch a “one-stop” pandemic response phone app. It will pair with a new contact-tracing da-tabase system built by software giant Sales-force, which has said it is also working with Massachusetts, California, Louisiana and New York City on a similar approach.

Salesforce says it can use data-manage-ment software to help trained crews trace “relationships across people, places and events” and identify virus clusters down to the level of a neighborhood hardware store. It relies on manual input of information gathered through conversations by phone, text or email.

“It’s only as good as a lot of us using it,” Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo said of the soon-to-be-launched mobile app at a news conference last week. “If 10% of Rhode Is-land’s population opts in, this won’t be ef-fective.” The state hasn’t yet outlined what people are expected to opt into.

The ACLU hasn’t weighed in on the Salesforce model, but has urged contact-tracing public health departments to protect people from unnecessary disclosure of per-sonal information and to not criminalize the requirement for self-isolation.

Billionaire SaudiContinued from Page 1

The Wall Street Journal had reported at the time that U.S. intelligence and counter-terrorism officials had information linking the Dallah Albaraka Group to transactions by suspected al-Qaida members. However U.S. officials gave no indication that Kamel or his son, Abdullah, knowingly aided al-Qaida or other militant groups.

Kamel was also reportedly swept up in Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s anti-corruption purge in 2017. The unprec-edented Saudi crackdown saw the country’s top princes and businessmen detained at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh, with many forced to sign over billions of dollars in assets. The sweep, which was conducted largely in se-cret behind closed doors, helped the young crown prince consolidate power and was widely criticized by international rights groups.

Across Muslim countries and at home, Kamel was heavily involved in philanthropy and charity.

A multi-million dollar donation in 2010 established the Abdallah S. Kamel Center for the Study of Islamic Law and Civiliza-tion at Yale Law School in the U.S.

Issues dentContinued from Page 1

Nearly a month after Utah launched its Healthy Together app to augment the state’s contact-tracing efforts by tracking phone locations, state officials confirmed Monday that they haven’t done any contact trac-ing out of the app yet. Instead, people who download the app have been able to “assess their symptoms and get testing if appropri-ate,” Utah’s state epidemiologist, Angela Dunn, said last week.

The state with the highest known rate of participation so far is South Dakota, where last week about 2% of residents had the Care19 app on their phones. Last week was also the first time it recorded a single infec-tion. The same app is getting even less sup-port in North Dakota.

“This is a red state,” said Crystal Wol-frum, a paralegal in Minot, North Dakota, who says she’s one of the only people among her neighbors and friends to down-load the app. “They don’t want to wear masks. They don’t want to be told what to do. A lot of people I talk to are, like, ‘Nope, you’re not going to track me.’”

Wolfrum said she’s doubtful that the app will be useful, both because of people’s wariness and its poor performance. She gave it a bad review on Google’s app store after it failed to notice lengthy shopping trips she made one weekend to Walmart and Target stores.

North Dakota is now looking at starting

Trump threatensContinued from Page 1

government’s failure to meet its obliga-tions.” He said that since China was “the source” of the outbreak, it had “a spe-cial responsibility to pay more and give more.”

Xi insisted that China had acted with “openness, transparency and responsibility” when the epidemic was detected in Wuhan. He said China had give all relevant outbreak data to WHO and other countries, includ-ing the virus’s genetic sequence, “in a most timely fashion.”

Xi said that in recent weeks, China has dispatched medical supplies to more than 50 African countries and that 46 Chinese medi-cal teams were currently on the continent helping local officials.

Other world leaders including the presi-dents of France, South Korea and South Africa and Germany’s chancellor were also piped in to throw their support to the WHO, which has been put on the defensive from a Trump administration that has blamed it for mishandling the outbreak and shower-ing excessive praise on China’s response. The European Union and others staked out a middle ground.

The Trump administration has claimed that WHO criticized a U.S. travel ban that Trump ordered on people arriving from China.

Trump ordered a temporary suspen-sion of funding for WHO from the United States - the health agency’s biggest single donor - pending a review of its early re-sponse.

The advisory body, echoing comments from many countries, said such a review during the “heat of the response” could hurt WHO’s ability to respond to it.

Xi said China supports the idea of a com-prehensive review of the global response to COVID-19 and that it should be “based on science and professionalism led by WHO, and conducted in an objective and impartial manner.”

Tedros emphasized that WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak to be a global health emergency on Jan. 30, its highest level of alert, at a time when there were fewer than 100 cases outside of China. In the following weeks, WHO warned coun-tries there was a narrowing “window of opportunity” to prevent the virus from spreading globally.

During the first few months of the outbreak, WHO officials repeatedly de-scribed the virus’s spread as “limited” and said it wasn’t as transmissible as flu; experts have since said COVID-19 spreads even faster.

It declared the outbreak to be a pan-demic on March 11, after the virus had killed thousands globally and sparked large epidemics in South Korea, Italy, Iran and elsewhere.

LOCALARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020

5

A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION

DIWANIYA‘Expats, no awareness major cause’

Pandemic ... Kuwait and Singapore“SINGAPORE – the beautifully developed republic – which sits on an area of no more than 720 square kilo-meters and boasts of a population of just over 5 million people, is one of the great tigers of Asia. It has the dis-tinction of being an advanced nation in the area of health services that guarantee its citizens the best wellness and managed in record time to control the pandemic,” col-umnist Dr Ali Abdul Rahman Al-Huwail wrote for Al-Rai daily.

“However, within a few weeks its control over the virus fell apart and went on to become one of the worst coronavirus infected countries in Asia with the number of people infected with the virus exceeding 9,000 cases and with the detection of average 1,400 new cases daily.

“The Singapore Health Ministry and the US Time magazine reported that the cause of this decline is due to the large number of expatri-ate workers and about 10 to 12 people huddled in one room, lack of minimum health awareness and disregard to the commitment of personal hygiene and disre-spect for instructions issued by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Professor Larry Brilliant -- who predicted in 2006 of a health pandemic -- says quarantine, so-cial distancing and personal pro-tection are very important mea-sures because they save time for medical staff to deal with illnesses other than COVID-19, reduces stress on health services, and they give the opportunity to conduct diagnostic examinations and pursue the infected people and identify those who should be isolated. Professor Brilliant’s views explain the negative impact of the pres-ence of large numbers of people who do not commit to personal protection and their controls on successful ef-forts for combating the virus.

“Kuwait, with its four and a half million population, including 1.45 million Kuwaitis and the rest expatriates, a majority of who are marginal workers with irregular income and human characteristics are believed to be liv-ing in similar conditions to their ‘counterparts’ in Sin-gapore.

“Kuwait has achieved outstanding success in the face of Covid-19, but it is vulnerable to what happened to Singapore and even to what is worse than what the latter is currently facing, unless exceptional measures are taken, most importantly -- as Bill Gates emphasizes -- the expansion of diagnostic examination, and isola-tion according to the results of the examination which is the method by which South Korea has achieved its success.

“The second necessity is the emptying of public hos-pitals in the country from epidemic cases by transfer-ring stable and non-critical cases to field hospitals un-der the management of the armed forces, and keeping only critical cases in the hospitals. Without this proce-dure, the medical institution will face the difficult task and deciding who should be given the priority, to the citizens or the expatriates who occupy most hospital beds.

“The low level of some newly appointed nursing staff doubles the chances of putting stress on health services, in addition to the fact that the numbers available are not sufficient to deal with epidemic cases, so the final class students in the nursing institutes must be trained and prepared for use when necessary, and this procedure may apply to the graduates of the College of Supportive Medical Services, and reducing the numbers of marginal employment during the next 6 to 8 months, by half, or more, thus reducing the stress and depletion of health services.

“However the expatriate workers residing in Kuwait entered the country in an official and legal manner, so you cannot deport any of them unless by mutual consent between the parties. If mutual consent is absent, Kuwait is obliged to host them and treat them as Kuwaitis, in-cluding the provision of full health care.”

Also:“Coronavirus appeared several months ago, and ev-

eryone thought it would go away quickly, but it has been with us for a long time now and no one knows when it will end and when it will disappear forever,” Dr Hind Al-Shoumar wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“This virus is like the rest of the viruses; when they first appeared, the whole world was not ac-customed to their presence, and did not know how to treat infected cases or how to prevent infection. However, people now seem to know how to prevent infection, which is by avoiding contact, social dis-tancing, wearing protective clothing such as gloves, masks and face cover, and washing hands for not less than 20 seconds using soap and water, as well as using alcoholic sanitizers.

“A weak virus, which we do not see with the naked eye, has been able to infect those who do not adhere to precautionary measures and sometimes even cause death. All that is required for all is to adhere to all mea-sures that limit its spread so that we can get rid of it.

“What is important now, considering Eid Al-Fitr holi-days are fast approaching, is for us not to go easy on all these procedures and return to social communication, as this is dangerous for everyone. We should stick to com-municating through social media and video calls and en-joy the holiday together without trying to make physical contact so that we do not give the virus an opportunity to spread among us.

“Eid, which is fast approaching, will be different this year compared to the previous years, as we must adhere to social distancing to protect us from COVID-19, so that we can return to our normal lives.

“Coronavirus has given everyone an opportunity to think, hold oneself and others accountable, keep people staying in their homes and avoiding family visits and visits to markets and complexes. This time must be spent in homes for activities that are beneficial such as worshiping and reading the Quran, cooking, practicing hobbies and sports and communicating with family and friends via phone and messages.

“We should not succumb to depression or distress because of the changes to the lives that we are ac-customed to, especially those who are extroverts and enjoy being with people. Because of the current ex-ceptional circumstances, it is necessary to adapt to the new situation in order to defeat this virus and eliminate its existence. After its elimination, we can go back to communicating with family and friends happily and lovingly.

“Those who want to meet with their families and loved ones in the future must sacrifice now in staying away from them in order to protect everyone and pre-vent the spread of the virus among us. ‘After hardship comes ease,’ said God Almighty.”

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“Both the leadership and people of Kuwait are char-acterized by the spirit of initiative and creativity, so we were ahead of almost the entire region after gaining our independence from British,” columnist Dr. Anwar Shari’aan wrote for Al-Shahid daily.

“Kuwait was a forerunner in building the state of in-stitutions and adopting the Constitution in 1962, in addi-

tion to building unique economic models and redistrib-uting income through valuation of properties and other policies.

“From its early years, Kuwait managed to establish a distinguished educational system which was, at that time, at par with the developed countries, and also built an integrated health sector. The fact is that creativity covered all aspects of it’s cultural, social, urban and hu-man life.

“However, we started stepping backwards and ruin-ing all that is beautiful when personal interests over-whelmed public interest. Portfolios were handed to undeserving people, and the distribution of wealth got contaminated with nepotism and favoritism.

“Knowledge turned into certificates, and things start-ed falling apart one after the other. However, despite all that, Kuwait remained the forerunner and proactive, but once we conceive a beautiful idea- in terms of an ini-tiative, decision, law or appointment, we end up facing poor implementation until we reach the stage of ques-tioning everything that is beautiful and rejecting all ini-tiatives.

“At the early stages of dealing with the coronavirus, His Highness the Amir directed the government to take all necessary measures to combat the pandemic, and everyone praised what the State of Kuwait has done in dealing with it, but currently, it appears we have re-turned to our old habits of poor implementation of poli-cies; persisting on mistakes until we reach a state of chaos in every step we take in combating the pandemic.

“For us to achieve the ultimate goal of preserving the health of society and the well-being of the economy and other aspects of life, there must be an administration ca-pable of implementing and translating such policies into a reality. Such administration should include all quali-fied and well experienced brains, and most important of all, be strong and firm in enforcing the rule of law and executing their responsibilities.”

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“The powerful and influential figures or the so-called ‘shadow government’ decided to attack Finance Minister Barrak Al-Shitan, in conjunction with the in-creasing pace of talks about the economic package,” columnist Dr. Hamoud Hattab Al-Enezi wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“Media outlets with strong influence and are sup-ported by some lawmakers began to silence the min-ister in a vulgar way with the aim of intimidation, be-cause they were apparently affected by his opposition to their tendencies from the beginning. The attack in-tensified after the minister issued a series of decisions that contravene the directions of the shadow govern-ment as follows:

● Referring several officials in the Public Author-ity for Social Security to the Anti-Corruption Authority for buying shares of a private company and increasing shares of the institution during the corona crisis.

● Halting the merger of Kuwait Finance House with Ahli United Bank.

● Issuing a directive to hand over billions of oil prof-its that could expose their irregularities.

“At this point, it is useful to cite the monitoring en-countered by the Trends Center for Research and Stud-ies, which yielded several results. Following are the most important of these results:

● Systematic campaign to remove the finance min-ister from the government despite the repercussions of corona.

● The minister confronted the ‘crises dealers’ by tak-ing decisive steps, and then the lawmakers attacked him fiercely!

● The minister courageously took decisions to pro-tect public money and confront the ‘crises dealers’, but these decisions drew negative parliamentary statements, instead of praising him and motivating him to continue this approach.”

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“The Ministry of Interior -- represented by the port security, rescue, public security and traffic sectors, Ministry of Health and Customs General Administra-tion exerted tremendous efforts to implement the direc-tive of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on the return of his people, resulting in the arrival of about 40,000 citizens on 185 flights from 58 destinations and about 2,000 who traveled by land through Nuwaiseeb border,” columnist Lieutenant General Eng Tariq Hamada wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“Thousands of citizens, who were stranded in vari-ous countries, expressed their desire to return home under exceptional circumstances caused by the coro-navirus outbreak.

“In these circumstances, we monitor those who spread information that Kuwait intends to open the way for expatriates residing here to return to their home countries. This prompted us to raise the follow-ing questions:

“Is this the time to allow dissemination of such con-fusing and far-fetched information, away from logic? Why do we bring tens of thousands of people to sit in their homes due to the lockdown and suspension of work in most institutions and companies? Is there food and health security to provide for their needs? Neither circumstances nor time permits this.

“In view of the number of infected cases, we find that it doubled among the Asian and Arab arrivals, while the quarantine centers are almost full. There are humanitari-an considerations for expatriates. It is normal for Kuwait to allow them to enter, but their number shall remain very limited and within the controls in place until this epidemic is addressed.”

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“Those who monitor medical circles today find a lot of different opinions about coronavirus -- that it can be controlled or not controlled. This could be natural be-cause it is impossible to unify opinions about it. These contradictory views abound because corona is a new virus and there are few studies on how to control the disease and save us from this evil,” columnist Saqr Al-Ghilany wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“Imposing curfew is one of the methods that many countries have adopted to implement the principle of so-cial distancing, but there are different opinions on this procedure.

“In an interview, Professor Johan Giesecke -- a Swed-ish epidemiologist – said Sweden follows a path differ-ent from the rest of the countries. He disclosed there is no curfew, but there are constant public awareness messages and instructions about the importance of hand washing and preventing the gathering of more than 50 people.

“This is due to the fact that Sweden is adopting ev-idence-based procedures, not assumptions, since there are no studies proving that social distancing and curfew could curb the spread of the virus.

“Also, majority of the studies are based on assump-tions, so they could be incorrect. One of these assump-tions is that the number of hospitals remains the same in the fight against the epidemic, but in reality, hospitals have expanded and additional hospitals were built to treat the infected persons.”

– Compiled by Ahmad Al-Shazli

Dr Ali Al-Huwail

‘GCC banks will be forced tocancel dividends this year’

‘Will survive but profitability low’

KUWAIT CITY, May 19: Analysts at S&P credit ratings agency suggested that banks in the Gulf Coopera-tion Council (GCC) countries will be forced to cancel dividends for the current year, with profits declining due to the repercussions of the effects of the coronavi-rus, indicating that this may lead to the emer-gence of a new wave of mergers in the long term, reports Al-Rai daily.

“It is unlikely that lenders in the region will need addi-tional capital in the event of high loan defaults, despite facing the headwinds related to the impact of the corona-virus and low oil prices,” the agency said in a report.

According to S&P, 23 the GCC banks had assets totaling $1.5 trillion at the end of 2019, and can absorb up to $36 billion in additional provisions, before capital rules begin to erode.

For his part, the chief director and head of the global Islamic fi nance at the agency, Moham-mad Damak, expected that Gulf banks will witness deterioration in asset quality indicators, due to the multiplication of bad loans during the current year, but he in-dicated that the capitalization of those banks will continue to sup-port their ratings.

In turn, the head of the fi nancial affairs division for the Middle East and North Africa and researcher in the shares of the EFG-Hermes group, Elena Sanchez, explained that Gulf banks are supposed to be able to lead the current situ-ation in a relatively appropriate manner, indicating that the banks will be able to survive the current crisis, but that their profi tability will decrease signifi cantly, and in some cases they will have to cancel the distribution of profi ts during 2020.

According to the S&P report, the MSCI index for Gulf banks fell by 18.2 percent during the fi rst four months of this year, compared to a 16 percent drop in broad Gulf indexes during the same time period, and according to the banks index on April 30. It provided a dividend yield of about 5.16 percent.

On the other hand, the agency estimated that credit losses take up to 3 years to appear in the budgets of Gulf banks, noting that on aver-age, lenders in the region can ab-sorb up to 2.7 times their normal losses, despite the existence of a large discrepancy between the banks covered by the ratings.

S&P indicated that Saudi banks are the most fl exible in the face of these losses, unlike the Bahraini banks, which are the lowest in the region. In re-turn, the agency emphasized that the large real estate exposure to Kuwaiti banks makes them more vulnerable to their counterparts in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Photos by Samer ShaqairTop and above: Tests for coronavirus conducted at the airport facilities. Cars are disinfected after the occupants

undergo the virus tests.

Photo by Rizk Taufi qMinister of Information and Youth Affairs, Mohammad Nasser Al-Jabri, who also looks after the local agricultural produce paid a visit to the Fruits and Vegetable Market. Local farmers have delivered their produce to the market in abundance.

Kuwait among emerging marketsbut some negativity seen: reportKUWAIT CITY, May 19: A report published by the ‘Global Finance’ magazine ranks Kuwait among the regions for emerging markets that enjoy investment opportunities, but they face some negativities, reports Al-Rai daily.

The magazine’s report confirmed the strength of the Kuwaiti banking sector for incentives for foreign di-rect investment, but the report point-ed out that the negatives lie in the heavy dependence on the oil sector, in addition to the presence of a huge and inefficient public sector, which lacks transparency.

This classification was based on the aggregation of a number of data, including growth forecasts for the current year, as the country is likely to witness a contraction of 1.1 per-cent, in addition to the percentage of change in foreign direct investment during 2018/2017 in which Kuwait recorded a decline of about 1 percent.

This is in addition to the country’s ranking in the Global Competitive-ness Index, the Corruption Percep-tions Index for 2019, and the Ease of Doing Business Index for the current year.

Despite the expectations issued by the International Monetary Fund a few months ago, which indicate a positive growth in per capita income in 2020 for more than 160 member countries, the report pointed out that these expectations run contrary to the Fund’s expectations that it will wit-ness negative growth in per capita income in more than 170 countries, with low-income countries especially at risk.

According to the report, it may seem almost inappropriate to cel-ebrate the power and achievements of many emerging countries in the world in the midst of one of the worst crises in modern history, indicating that the commercial clashes and glob-al geopolitical tensions that were the

hallmark of the past year seem almost trivial now, compared to the frighten-ing epidemic caused by the spread of coronavirus.

However, the report pointed out that the experts agree at the present time that these conflicts, along with the deterioration of confidence, made us weak and unable to provide a co-ordinated response, pointing out that the current circumstances remind us of the extent of dependence on each other.

On the other hand, the report point-ed out that despite the epidemiologi-cal setback, emerging economies are preaching the greatest amount of new growth, indicating at the same time that it will also be inaccurate to look back and into the future and see ad-versity only, rather than the determi-nation and flexibility that these enor-mous challenges.

The report pointed out that despite all the experiences and difficulties, the emerging markets have never stopped on their path to sustainable development and prosperity.

The report noted that in the face of one threat after another, the govern-ments of these countries often inter-vened more quickly and firmly than their more developed counterparts to protect their hard-earned gains, which confirms that these efforts were not in vain.

From a more optimistic point of view, the report indicated that the re-cession will be short-lived for emerg-ing markets, and after this painful interruption, the start button will be pressed again to return life to normal. On the other hand, others reject this explanation and insist that the recov-ery will take years.

In both cases, the report stated that most developing countries are today stronger, richer, and more competi-tive than ever before, and are in a bet-ter position to withstand and recover from a crisis of this magnitude.

Economy

LOCALARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020

6

Photos by Samer ShaqairTop and above: Security forces have put up checkpoints at various places on the main roads to verify the curfew permits of those moving around

with their cars on the roads.

Politicians, experts say govt’s plan forreturn to normal lifestyle not specifi c

‘No clear strategy on how to live with coronavirus’

KUWAIT CITY, May 19: Despite their praise and support for calls to ease restrictions of coro-navirus crisis and imple-ment gradual return of normal life in line with regulations at the end of this month, a number of MPs, politicians and economists describe the government’s views on implementing this ap-proach as “vague” and “not specifi c”, reports Al-Qabas daily.

They said the return of normal life and coexisting with corona-virus require more transparency and seriousness, as the govern-ment has not presented a clear plan about what it would be like to live with coronavirus.

They affi rmed that Kuwait initial-ly excelled many countries in deal-ing with the coronavirus crisis, but the government’s actions reached a roadblock later whereby its deci-sions hit hesitation and confusion.

They insisted that decisions to al-low activities that were banned with the exacerbation of the epidemic revealed the weakness of the gov-ernment’s decisions and absence of the planning horizon for fi nding solutions.

They called on the government to use local and international consult-ants to properly plan the gradual re-turn of normalcy instead of random and confused decisions that could exacerbate the crisis eventually.

In this regard, MP Safaa Al-Hashem said: “I support the return of life to normal if the health author-ities give the green signal for this”.

She stressed that the return must be deliberate and with great com-mitment, ensuring adherence to all warnings, measures, precautions and instructions such as social distanc-ing, use of masks and gloves,and continuous sterilization.”

Also, MP Muhammad Al-Dalal praised the introduction of the topic towards searching for a mechanism to coexist with the coronavirus cri-sis in case it persists.

He stressed that the government should lay down a clear scenario for the next stage, irrespective of whether or not there is a cure for the disease.

Al-Dalal said, “It is not reason-able that we remain in total or par-tial lockdowns. An alternative plan for coexistence and gradual return to normal life must be established. In this regard, I will submit a par-liamentary question to the State Minister for Cabinet Affairs about the government’s preparations for the next stage and how it will deal with all assumptions that may oc-cur. This is to consider end of the epidemic in case a treatment is found or if the epidemic will con-tinue for a long time, and what vi-sions and strategic plans could be used to deal with the epidemic if it continues, including the topic of coexisting with the epidemic”.

Meanwhile, former minister Dr. Ali Al-Omair expressed enthusiasm about the return of normal life and the measures put in place to come out of the total lockdown through

12 steps that can be applied.He insisted that Kuwait has to

learn from the experiences of other countries.

Dr. Al-Omair said, “We are now witnessing gradual resumption of life in countries where the spread of the virus has been more deadly, such as Britain, the Netherlands and Germany. Despite being coun-tries more developed in the health aspect, the infections were fatal and the death rate was high. Neverthe-less, they have started returning to normal life. This is because irre-spective of the impact of the virus, life has to move on.”

He added, “Kuwait will undoubt-edly have to coexist with the virus. This was highlighted in the speech of His Highness the Prime Minister when he spoke about the end of this month, a date that seems to have been set in light of what was report-ed to him by the health authorities that the number of smears by that date will be required to know extent of the spread of the virus”.

In addition, Professor of Politi-cal Science at Kuwait University Shafi q Al-Ghabra said he believes the return to normal life should be gradual with careful consideration of the opinions of experts, doctors and specialists regarding the next steps, adding that politicians cannot act without taking into account the opinion of experts.

He explained that the country needs an approach through which it is possible to answer many public questions. The fi rst would be to ad-dress about the groups that will rep-resent the greatest danger upon re-turn, and how the country will open. At the same time, it is necessary to

protect the groups that can be af-fected negatively by further spread of the epidemic.

Consideration should be given to whether there will be classes that will continue to work from home for a while. Preparing for this step requires classifying all of the people living in the country into different categories related to safety and pro-duction.

Al-Ghabra added, “The most dangerous thing that would happen is that the country opens without a deliberate plan and without listening to experts”.

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Sept 1 sports begin: The Olympic Committee has proposed September 1 as the date for resumption of lo-cal sports activities, in accordance with the agreement made with the Public Authority for Sports. The proposal related to the new date was discussed during a meeting held by the Head of the Kuwait Olympic Committee Sheikh Fahad Nasser Al-Sabah with the sports federations and specialized clubs, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The meeting addressed a number of points on the agenda. The attend-ees negotiated on these points in a bid to reach an agreement that will be in the public interest of Kuwaiti sport. Among the items presented during the meeting was the resump-tion of training for some of the teams’players in July after coordi-nating with Ministry of Health and the Public Authority for Sports.

Regarding the possibility of hold-ing the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Games, the discussion led to the pitching of a new date - De-

cember 8, 2020. The federations participating in this event expressed their willingness to work on prepar-ing the sports facilities and ensuring the technical and physical readiness of the players, which requires suf-fi cient time. So it was suggested to start training for the participating teams in the month of July.

However, the approval of the participating countries remains the most important decision concern-ing whether or not the games will be held.

They also discussed about hold-ing the ordinary general assembly of the Olympic Committee in July 2020, as well as shifting the Olym-pic Committee to its new temporary headquarters in Jaber Al-Ahmad Youth Center in the month of Au-gust.

The Olympic Committee af-fi rmed its real desire for the Kuwaiti sport to exit out of the stalemate it experienced due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Nonetheless, there is a lot to con-sider despite the positive step taken by Kuwait Olympic Committee in coordination with the Public Au-thority for Sports to ensure resump-tion of sports activities on Septem-ber 1.

For instance, there are a number of clubs - namely Al-Nasr, Khaitan and Tadamoun - where the facilities are being used by competent authorities to confront the COVID-19 crisis. So far, no specifi c timeline has been set to evacuate those facilities, let alone the fact that these facilities will need a lot of maintenance work, and steri-lization. Therefore, these three clubs may not manage to start their sports activities at the proposed dates.

KUWAIT CITY, May 19: Das-man Diabetes Institute (DDI), in collaboration with the Min-istry of Health (MoH) and Kuwait University, recently developed a model to study the spread of coronavirus infection in Kuwait. This model is called the Predictive Mathematical Model SARS COV 2.

Dr. Qais Al-Duwairi, Direc-tor General of DDI, explained that the Predictive Mathemati-cal Model SARS COV 2 takes into consideration geographic location, or where you live in Kuwait, and demographic in-formation like age, ethnicity, gender, marital status, income, education, and employment.

“We use this information to stimulate the current reality in Kuwait and evaluate a virus containment strategy before its application.” Dr. Qais also stat-ed that this model and its capa-bilities have been offered to the MoH to support their efforts to contain the virus. DDI has also cooperated with the MoH to

carry out genetic sequencing of the COVID-19 virus. Dr. Qais continues by stating that: “This is a part of the active support and cooperation between the ministry and DDI that allows us to utilize our scientifi c ex-pertise to further study COV-

ID-19.”In col-

laboration with the K u w a i t F o u n d a -tion for the Ad-vancement of Sci-

ences (KFAS), DDI sequenced four samples of the coronavirus COVID-19. Dr. Qais highlight-ed that “while all virus sequenc-es show a slight variation to one another, the genetic sequence gathered from these samples shows a slight similarity to the strain in Wuhan, China and Ger-many, with some genetic dif-ferences. Our researchers have found that the COVID-19 strain

found in other European coun-tries is a diversifi ed and mutated version of the virus.”

Dr. Qais continues by stating that everyone is susceptible to the virus. However, older peo-ple and those with pre-existing or underlying medical condi-tions are at a high risk of be-coming severely ill with the virus. High risk conditions are dependent on age (65 years or older), diabetes, moderate to severe asthma, serious heart conditions, auto-immune dis-eases, obesity, liver disease and kidney disease.

“My advice to everyone is to fi rst listen to the information and guidelines given to you by the MoH and the government. Wash your hands regularly. Maintain social distancing. Avoid touching your eyes, face and mouth. Monitor your blood glucose levels to maintain good glucose control. Any infection will raise your glucose levels. Make sure you have a supply of your diabetes medication.”

DDI, MoH study spread of infection

‘All can get ill, but older people at high risk’

How to perform Eid prayer at home ?

Kuwaiti farmers encouraged togrow onions, other vegetablesKUWAIT CITY, May 19: Minister of Information and State Minister for Youth Affairs Mohammad Al-Jabri affi rmed that the state will provide Kuwaiti farmers with incentives to grow onions and other varieties of vegetables, reports Al-Anba daily.

He stressed that the Kuwait Union of Farmers has arranged electronic ordering services for the cooperative societies via its website due to which the orders come directly.

The minister said this during his tour of the stores of Public Author-ity for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) and the head-quarters of the farmers union in Ar-diya area. He was accompanied by the chairperson and members of the Kuwait Union of Farmers. The tour was aimed at inspecting the local produce and the strategic stock in the PAAAFR stores.

In his statement, Al-Jabri reassured all citizens and residents about the level of food security in Kuwait, giv-en the availability of local agricultur-al products to achieve food security in the country with full local support.

The minister explained that the lo-gistical site in Ardiya area allocated to the union is fully equipped and will be open round the clock. There are 4,000 spare cartons of each type.

The union produces crops of high quality and with excellent produc-tion. The produce will be delivered to more than 28 cooperative societies.

He reassured the cooperative so-cieties about the availability of all needed goods at all sales outlets

Al-Jabri indicated there was no delay in the disbursement of fresh produce until the fi rst few days of the total lockdown, praising the govern-ment agencies for facilitating proce-dures to solve the matter.

The minister affi rmed that the agri-

cultural stock in Kuwait is suffi cient and there is no need for concern, particularly due to the tremendous efforts exerted by the union in this regard and the support given by the state to facilitate matters including the allocation of a site and provision of subsidies to farmers.

He said, “The cooperative societies can request their needs for local agri-cultural products through the website and directly link these stores to the cooperative societies.

The onion crisis happened due to the lack of support in the past to mo-tivate Kuwaiti farmers to cultivate onions despite its import and avail-ability in large quantities. However, there is no need to worry anymore”.

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Eid prayer at home: Kuwait’s Min-istry of Awqaf said Monday evening that Eid al-Fitr prayers are prefer-ably to be performed in their format at home instead of mosques due to coronavirus pandemic.

The ministry surveyed by phone the opinions of several Muslim scholars who agreed that the audi-ble prayers, consisting of “rak’atin” (two prescribed movements), could be performed at home without the post-prayer sermon, according to a statement by the Ministry’s fatwa (religious opinion) dept.

In the fi rst rak’a, a worshipper has to utter six “takbirat” (statement of “Allahu Akbar”) after “Takbiratul Al-Ihram” (the inaugural part of the prayers) and then start reading Surat Al-Fatiha.

In the second, there should be fi ve takbirat after the standup takbira and then Surat Al-Fatiha, the statement explained.

A worshipper can perform the prayers alone or along with their fam-ily members, it added.

Farmers union

Coronavirus

Photo by Rizk Taufi qAn unidentifi ed quarantined person is seen cutting off the ‘Shlonik’ bracelet after

completing his stay in the quarantine.

300 pharmacies have passes

A total of 300 pharmacies throughout the country have been granted security passes to deliver medicines to homes, reports Al-Seyassah daily quoting Sec-retary General of Kuwait Pharmaceuti-cal Association Ali Hadi.

In a statement to the daily, Hadi praised the Ministry of Interior’s efforts, particularly Security Passes Unit Head Colonel Ahmed Al-Azmi, in implement-ing mechanisms and solutions for the delivery of medicines and medical sup-plies to citizens and residents during the

total curfew period.He confi rmed the ministry approved

the electronic request of the associa-tion to provide security passes for the delivery of medicines, indicating the as-sociation is the only authorized body to receive requests for passes to deliver medicines from pharmacies and phar-maceutical companies.

He thanked the ministry for facilitating procedures for the issuance of passes, considering the importance of supplying medicines during this period.

Dr. Qais

Farmers increase production

‘Market loaded with local vegetables’KUWAIT CITY, May 19: Chairman of Kuwaiti Farmers Union Abdullah Al-Dimak confi rmed the abundant sup-ply of local vegetables in the market, disclosing that production ranges from 700,000 to 1.2 million boxes of vari-ous local agricultural products daily, reports Al-Rai daily.

“Despite the lockdown, the local farmers have proven their ability to overcome this crisis without any citizen or resident experiencing the shortage of agricultural products. We asked the farmers to increase production and they increased it to 1.2 million boxes per day,” Al-Dimak narrated.

He then urged the Council of Minis-ters to support the farmers fi nancially, in addition to subsidized electricity and water.

He also praised the decision of Social Affairs Minister Maryam Al-Aqeel to cancel the mediator, as the farmers and consumers fully benefi ted from this step.

Meanwhile, Acting Minister of Elec-tricity and Water Dr Khaled Al-Fadil confi rmed the country’s strategic water reserve is safe and it is currently at the highest level, reports Al-Anba daily.

He denied the rumor that the min-istry’s plan to use the strategic water reserve to narrow the gap between consumption and production is a threat

to the reserve. He pointed out the utili-zation of strategic reserve is a normal measure taken throughout the year; even during winter for maintenance, cleaning and other purposes.

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Bid to prevent waste: The State Au-dit Bureau (SAB) said it is committed to practicing “effective scrutiny” over public funds and government contracts related to coronavirus measures to pre-vent any waste of these funds.

Several state bodies have received similar purchase orders, particularly for sterile materials, amid the exceptional circumstances that the country is going through and the preventive measures as-sumed by these bodies, Acting Director of Advance Oversight for economic Af-fairs Khawla Al-Hathran told KUNA.

A Ministry of Defense order for 200,000 (500ml) sanitizer packages, from a company, was worth KD 2.950 per package (USD 9) while a similar order for the Ministry of Health, for one million (500ml) sanitizer packages from a local factory, was valued at KD 0.800 (USD 2.5) per package, she said.

The bureau has informed the defence ministry of the need to coordinate with the Ministry of Health on this matter due to the low price of the offer pre-sented to the health ministry.

7ARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020

Dubai

editor’s choice

Majority of MENA travellers set to goDUBAI, May 19: Wego, the larg-est online travel marketplace in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), today released its survey on travellers’ behaviors and MENA travel trends.

The survey which is based on re-spondents from the MENA region revealed that 60% of people are plan-ning to travel upon resumption of do-mestic and international flights.

The countries’ technological in-novation, post-COVID-19 plans, their dynamic hospitality offerings along with the significant precau-tionary measures taken by the GCC national carriers gave reassurance for travellers to travel again.

Mamoun Hmedan, Manag-ing Director, MENA, and India, Wego, said:” The coronavirus has reshaped the travel industry scene in the world. Most countries in the MENA are introducing precaution-ary measures to curb the outspread

of the virus and revive the industry. As a result, we will see an increase in the demand for intra-regional travel in the MENA region.”

Among the respondents, 40% are eager to book a relaxing getaway as soon as the country’s restrictions are lifted. The majority of respon-dents are planning to travel within the next 3 months.

With the restrictions being eased in the region and particularly in the UAE where residents can travel between emirates, we expect to see more demand for domestic travel as hotels gradually reopen with access to beaches and limited water sports activities.

Mamoun added: “Even in times of prolonged uncertainty, we at Wego maintain an optimistic mindset and this survey is a true testament that 60% of people have travel plans in the next couple of months.”

ABU DHABI, May 19, (KUNA): The UAE Ministry of Health on Tuesday reported three additional deaths due to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), bringing the death toll to 227.

The number of infections with the highly contagious bug in this Gulf country rose by 873 to 25,063, the ministry said in its daily briefi ng.

The latest cases were confi rmed as more than 38,000 new Covid-19 tests for citizens and residents were conducted, using sophis-ticated testing devices, the ministry added.

A total of 1,214 more patients have re-covered from the deadly virus, raising the country’s total count of recoveries to 10,791.

Dr Saif Al-Dhaheri, spokesman of the National Authority for Management of emer-gencies, crises and disasters, announced reo-pening of shopping centers and malls as of Wednesday from 9:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m..

He said in a statement people over 60 years old and children under 12 years old would be banned from entering the shop-ping centers, which should comply with health instructions. People will have two hours to shop, he added.

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DOHA: The Qatari government decided Monday to close all commercial activities starting tomorrow Tuesday until May 30.

The government excluded food sotres, pharmacies and restaurants doing home deliveries, Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Dr. Essa Al-Nuaimi said in a statement.

He said citizens and expatriates should download Ehtiraz application on their smart phones when they leave their homes start-ing Friday.

Al-Nuaimi said cars should not contain more than two persons.

The government allowed people to excer-cise outdoors but people should avoid gath-ering while practicing, wear masks and keep physical distancing.

Al-Nuaimi said people violating the regu-lations would be fi ne or jailed. (KUNA)

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DOHA: Qatar announced 1,365 new cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 33,969.

According to the Health Ministry, recov-eries from the virus were at 529, putting the grand total at 4,899.

The ministry indicated that the new in-fections were sent to quarantine to receive proper medical treatment. (KUNA)

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MUSCAT: The Ministry of Health of Oman announced on Tuesday the death of a new novel coronavirus patient, increasing total fatalities to 26.

In a press statement, the ministry said 292 new coronavirus infections were reported in the past 24 hours, raising the tally up to 5,671. (KUNA)

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MANAMA: Bahraini Ministry of Health declared on Monday recording 200 new infection cases with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), amid 19 newly registered re-coveries.

The ministry said in a statement that the new cases included 121 for incoming work-ers and 79 others for persons who mingled with infected persons. Whole number of the recoveries reached 2,929 after 19 patients were relieved of quarantine isolation.

Existing cases are in the range of 4,215 including 4,207 stable ones and eight in in-tensive care units. (KUNA)

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RIYADH: Eight persons infected with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) died rais-ing fatalities’ toll due to the virus to 320, spokesperson of the Saudi Ministry of Health said on Monday.

Dr. Mohammad Alabduali, in his daily briefi ng about status of the virus in the king-dom, said 2,593 people contracted the germ in past hours, increasing tally of contamina-tions with the bug to 57,345. (KUNA)

Hawaya Founders - Sameh Saleh, Tamer Saleh, Shaymaa Ali, Aly Khaled

‘Scientifi c, safe, culturally accepted approach’

Muslim matchmaking platform across GCCDUBAI, UAE, May 19: Following its suc-cess in Egypt, Hawaya, a Cairo-based mo-bile application that approaches match-making with respect for Muslim traditions and cultures, has announced the expan-sion of their platform across the GCC. Now accessible in UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the platform is set to take the region by storm, offering a carefully curated solution for young, modern, and confi dent Muslim adults who want to take the search for a life partner into their own hands.

Hawaya was founded in 2017 by an Egyptian entrepreneur, Sameh Saleh, who crafted the app to help his sister go through a pleasant, comfortable and safe journey towards marriage. Shortly after, Saleh joined forces with co-founders Sh-aymaa Ali, Tamer Saleh and Aly Khaled, to amplify the platform. Ever since, Ha-waya has grown in popularity and facili-tated hundreds of marriages in Egypt.

Currently operating across the GCC, Turkey and Indonesia, the name Hawaya was inspired by the word “Hawa” which means “love” in Arabic. The program was specifi cally developed to connect single Muslims who are looking for a secure ex-change with one another right up to a serious relationship. Hawaya uses a scientifi c, safe, and culturally accepted ap-proach, and was founded keeping in mind sisters, cousins,

and friends, as well as the founders’ col-lective personal experiences with match-making.

“Finding a life partner is hard, and in our community, we often face the pres-sure to settle down sooner rather than later. The use of regular dating apps often fails to offer the right prospects, experi-ences, or results. It could be because of a mismatch in values, beliefs, or just not knowing how to move the conversation forward. In the end, many people hit a dead-end and never get a chance to see what is beyond that fi rst match. However, at Hawaya, we are here for you through-out your entire journey, from the moment you match to when forever begins. We en-sure that the journey to discovering your soulmate begins and remains respectful of your values, culture, and intentions. This is a great milestone for Hawaya, and we are humbled that Muslim community have warmly welcomed this unorthodox and modern approach to matchmaking. We look forward to celebrating many more success stories”, said Sameh Saleh, CEO, Hawaya.

Recently, Hawaya witnessed a 40% surge in app-internal communication and

a general increase of almost 25%. Saleh believes this was a result of current circumstances and social distancing di-rectives enforced by authorities. “Undoubtedly, individuals

are feeling an increased need for connection as face-to-face time with friends and even strangers is limited. Nonetheless, this is a good time for people to discover new ways of en-gaging with others, and the app offers a platform to do just that. We want to create an ecosystem of support and provide people with a sense of companionship and the possibility of fi nding lifelong true love.”

Hawaya’s matchmaking algorithm has been built with the help of a team of psychologists, where the users’ prefer-ences are analyzed to bring them the appropriate matches to choose from. Hawaya also attaches great importance to the privacy and security of its members. When signing up, Hawaya authenticates all new members using a ‘selfi e veri-fi cation’ system that works with a highly developed techno-logical infrastructure to prevent the creation of fake profi les. The app also offers female users the option of initially dis-playing profi le pictures out of focus. In addition, Hawaya has a security function “Guardian”, which offers users the opportunity to involve a trusted person, such as a friend or family member, in the communication while getting to know their match.

Hawaya also has helpful tools to facilitate a more fruitful conversation – engaging icebreakers, and personalised con-versation starters. Another unique feature of the app is the “Exclusive Mode”, for when users have decided that they would like to be exclusive. This disables any other ongoing conversations for both users.

Hawaya is available on the AppStore on Apple devices and Google Play Store on Android devices. For more infor-mation, visit www.hawaya.com.

Qatar shuts Eid

ADIHEX 18th edition off to September 2021ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, May 19, (AETOSWire): The Higher Organizing Com-mittee of the Abu Dhabi International Hunt-ing and Equestrian Exhibition (ADIHEX) has announced that the 18th edition of the exhibi-tion, which was scheduled for 29th Septem-ber-3rd October 2020, will be rescheduled to September 2021, under the theme of ‘Sustain-ability and Heritage… A Reborn Aspiration’.

The 18th edition of ADIHEX will be or-ganised by the Emirates Falconers’ Club at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler’s Rep-resentative in Al Dhafra Region and Chair-man of Emirates Falconers’ Club.

The decision to postpone the exhibition for a year was taken in consideration due to the COV-ID-19 pandemic outbreak, to ensure the health and safety of all participants and visitors.

H.E. Majid Ali Al Mansouri, Chairman of the Higher Organizing Committee of the exhibition has revealed major changes for ex-

hibitors and visitors including enhancing the quality of its exhibits, products, and unique innovations from the world of hunting and equestrian; maintaining ADIHEX’s profi le as the largest annual event of its kind in the Mid-dle East and Africa.

The comprehensive expansion plan also includes improving the content of the event by providing innovative services, technolo-gies, activities, and events with a renewed vision, strengthening the exhibition’s role in preserving the UAE’s heritage and pro-moting sustainable hunting. This is in ad-dition to organizing more environmental, heritage, art, educational and awareness-raising activities.

ADIHEX continues in its effort to achieve its mission by developing long-term plans in line with the national strategy of celebrating UAE’s fi ve decades of achievements in 2021 and preparing for the coming 50 years with an ambitious vision which looks towards the future.

Malls in UAEready to open

Hawaya in Appscreenshot

MIDEAST/HEALTHARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020

8

In this Friday, May 15, 2020 photo, Dr Melek Nur Aslan, the local health di-rector for Fatih, a large district in the historic peninsula of Istanbul adjusts her goggles as she prepares to deploy a team of contact tracers with Turkey’s Health Ministry’s coronavirus contact tracing team. Teams of contact tracers in Istanbul, the epicenter of the pan-demic in Turkey and its most populous city, and also nationwide, are going house to house to test people experi-encing COVID-19 symptoms and in-

form patients on isolation. (AP)

News in Brief

TEHRAN: Iranian authorities an-nounced, on Tuesday, 62 deaths due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the last 24 hours, bringing the total succumbing to the virus to 7,119.

A Health Ministry offi cial said that the number of those who contracted COVID-19 reached 124,603 in the country after 2,111 new cases were registered.

Those who recovered from the virus reached 97,173. (KUNA)

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RABAT: Morocco decided Monday to extend the lockdown for three weeks as the Ministry of Health registered 82 new coronavirus cas-es in the past 24 hours.

Prime Minister Saaduddine Othmani, addressing a parliamen-tary session, said the government decided to extend the lockdown for three weeks, until June 10, to continue efforts to curb the spread of the virus.

He attributed the extension deci-sion to the good results achieved so far.

“We cannot take the risk in lift-ing the lockdown in this stage ... because it might result in setback,” he said.

The ministry of health said the 82 new cases increased infections to 6,952.

It added no deaths were reported since yesterday, while 98 people recovered to raise recoveries to 3,758. (KUNA)

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TUNIS: The Tunisian Ministry of Health announced on Monday that six persons more tested positive for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall infections to 1,043.

Five of the cases involve recent arrivals who have been quaran-tined and the sixth one is a locally transmitted, the ministry said in a press release.

A Covid-19 patient has died in Al-Mahdiya province, bringing the deaths from the pandemic to 46 while three patients have recov-ered, pushing the overall recover-ies 819, according to the statement.

Last Monday the Tunisian au-thorities relaxed the lockdowns and allowed some businesses to reopen after the daily rate of infec-tions dropped to nil, but the pan-demic cropped up in the country on Friday. (KUNA)

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BEIRUT: Lebanon declared on Monday recording 20 new coro-navirus infection cases raising the toll of contaminations with the pandemic to 931.

Lebanese Ministry of Health said in its daily update about the pandemic status that no deaths with the contagion were reported in past 24 hours, thus the tally of fatalities remained at 26.

Recoveries reached 252, it said, adding that health personnel con-ducted 945 tests for the virus in past 24 hours. (KUNA)

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AMMAN: Jordanian Ministery of Health Saad Jaber said Monday 16 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus to raise infections to 629.

He told a news conference seven infectees came into close contact with previously-infected persons, four Jordanian truck drivers who came from abroad, three citizens traveling from Malaysis and two in the Irbed.

Jaber said fi ve people recovered from the virus. (KUNA)

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ADEN: Yemen Monday said two persons were diagnosed positive of the novel coronavirus, Covid-19, in the past 24 hours.

The national committee tasked with confronting the pandemic said total infections rose to 130 af-ter the registration of two cases in the eastern governorate of Shabwa.

It added in a statement 20 persons have died of the virus. (KUNA)

Syria so far not hit at scale feared

Iraq faces full local lockdowns as virus cases jumpBAGHDAD, May 19, (Agencies): Iraq will impose a complete lockdown on some areas of the capital, the country’s new health minister said on Monday, amid an uptick in coronavirus cases in recent weeks since curfew hours were relaxed.

The new government under Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhi-mi was sworn into power just two weeks ago following a fi ve-month leadership vacuum. Responding to the pandemic and a severe economic crisis brought on by falling oil prices is fore-most on its agenda.

Areas of Baghdad believed to play a role in spreading the virus will face a full lockdown as of Wednesday for a period of two weeks, Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi said in a statement.

The areas lie in Baghdad’s peripheries and are mostly im-poverished and over-crowded. They include Sadr City, Habibia, Hurriya, Shula, Ameria, and Kamalia.

Al-Tamimi said in the statement the measures were taken in view of the rising number of cases in recent weeks and to stem the spread of the virus, according to the statement.

Meanwhile Iraq declared on Monday recording four deaths and 150 infection cases with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the highest daily proportion of such cases since the pandemic broke out in the nation.

Iraqi Ministry of Health said in a statement whole number of infection cases climbed to 3,554 throughout the country includ-ing Kurdish regions.

It said among the 3,554 infections, there were 127 deaths and 2,310 recoveries.

Monday is the second consecutive day Iraq witnesses record hike of infections -- by local standards. Yesterday’s count of the contaminations with the deadly bug amounted to 144

The number of confi rmed cases per day has risen since curfew hours were relaxed during the holy month of Ramadan from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m.. Before curfew hours were relaxed, only between 22-30 new infections were being reported daily.

Sudan’s health emergency committee also said it will extend the lockdown of its capital, Khartoum, and the surrounding prov-ince for two weeks, starting on Tuesday.

The strict order was renewed as the number of known infec-tions jumped to 2,591 in the country, stoking fears that more cases will overwhelm the state’s dilapidated health system. The curfew bars citizens in Khartoum from visiting families in far-fl ung provinces and potentially bringing the virus with them dur-ing Eid al-Fitr, the three-day festival that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Meanwhile, the U.N. special envoy for Syria on Monday said the pandemic “has so far not hit Syria at the scale initially feared - but also fears that it still could do so.”

Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council that the offi -cially reported number of cases is 64 in Syria, of which 58 are in government-controlled areas and 6 are in the northeast, but he cautioned that testing has been limited. No cases have yet been reported in the northwest, the last rebel-held stronghold, he said.

Pedersen called for unimpeded humanitarian access across confl ict lines to deliver assistance, including to prevent and pro-tect against the outbreak in government-controlled areas, in the northwest, and in the northeast “where gaps in medical supplies have widened.”

He again urged the Syrian government and all other combat-ants to follow the example of other governments in the region and elsewhere and initiate the release of detainees held by both sides in the confl ict.

Schools back in September

Eid shutdown in TurkeyISTANBUL, May 19, (Agencies): Turkey’s president has announced a new four-day curfew during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr to be applied across the country to stem the spread of COVID-19.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped the restrictions would no longer be needed after the next round of lockdowns between May 23 and 26. Previous weekend and national curfews were applied to a maximum of 31 provinces but this round will restrict people to their homes in all 81 provinces.

The country has opted to impose short weekend and holiday cur-fews, instead of full lockdowns, fearing possible negative effects on the already troubled economy.

Turkey’s health ministry announced 31 new deaths in the past 24 hours, the lowest since the end of March, bringing the death toll to 4,171. The data also showed 1,158 confi rmed new infections, with the total now at 150,593.

People aged over 65 and under 20 have been under full lockdown. Erdogan announced that older people will be allowed out for several hours Sunday for the third week running, while everyone else is inside. Children and teenagers will be allowed out for a second time this week, at allotted days and times.

The school year has ended, Erdogan said, and will resume in September. A ban on travel to and from 15 major cities, including Istanbul, was

extended for an additional 15 days.

Egypt

This May 9, 2020 photo, shows printed photographs of football defender 28-year-old Mahrous Mahmoud, during football training at a club, in Manfalut, a town 350 kilometers (230 miles)

south of Cairo in the province of Assiut, Egypt. (AP)

In this May 9, 2020 photo, 28-year-old football defender Mahrous Mahmoud, from left, his father 56-year-old Mahmoud Mahrous, his 20-year-old brother goalkeeper Hossam Mahmoud, and their uncle 60-year-old Mohammed Mahrous, pose for a photograph inside their home,in Manfalut, a

town 350 kilometers (230 miles) south of Cairo in the province of Assiut, Egypt. (AP)

In this May 9, 2020 photo, 28-year-old defender Mahrous Mahmoud holds up his Egyptian national football team jersey he trains with, inside his home, in Manfalut, a town 350 kilometers (230 miles) south of Cairo in the province of Assiut, Egypt. Mahmoud should be on the fi eld at this time of the year playing as a defender for Beni Suef, a club in Egypt’s second division. But like

millions in the Arab world’s most populous country, he has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. (AP)

‘Those like me and my family have to survive’

Pandemic turns Egyptian soccer player into vendorMANFALUT, Egypt, May 19, (Agencies): On a hot Saturday af-ternoon, Mahrous Mahmoud is busy as can be. The professional soccer player, however, is working up a sweat in a different way these days - as a street vendor.

At this time of the year, Mahmoud would be on the fi eld playing as a defender for Beni Suef, a club in Egypt’s second division. But like millions in the Arab world’s most populous country, he has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

These days, he heads to work in a crowded market in an Up-per Egypt town. Shoulder-to-shoulder, shoppers jostle around stalls as he prepares a pancake-like pastry. Prior to the pandemic, Mahmoud made about $200 a month playing for his club. That went a long way toward feeding his family of three but he also did part-time jobs to supplement it.

The league was shut down mid-March and Mahmoud’s main source of income dried up. Egypt has implemented a strict curfew and closed cafes, malls and other shops as part of a government effort to stem the spread of the virus. His club told players to stay at home until they could return to playing.

That’s not an option for Mahmoud, or many others in the Nile River region of Assuit. His family has to eat.

“I should do any kind of work to help feed them,” he said.The market in Manfalut, a town 350 kilometers (230 miles)

south of Cairo, has remained open throughout the pandemic, bus-tling as shoppers buy provisions for the evening meal that breaks the daily fast during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. The small pancakes that Mahmoud makes, called qatayef in Arabic, are among the most favorite Ramadan desserts.

Mahmoud returned to his hometown not long after the country’s partial lockdown was implemented. He looked for jobs but could only fi nd work as a daily laborer in construction. Before the crisis, he said he could fi nd regular work on construction sites, usually making no more than $7 a day, but now he says he’s lucky if he can get two days of work a week. Then came Ramadan, and the temporary job at the pastry stall.

In Manfalut, where most of the residents are daily laborers, staying at home and social distancing are not viable. In rural and poor parts of Egypt, many have taken a fatalistic approach to the pandemic, because they consider the cure worse than the disease. Should the virus gain a foothold here, it could spread fast.

Like many other places in the world, the repercussions of the pandemic were disastrous for most of Egypt’s 100 million people, particularly in the south. Even before the virus crisis, poverty has swelled because of austerity measures taken by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s government, part of reforms to overhaul the coun-try’s battered economy.

Prior to the outbreak, one out of every three Egyptians, or rough-ly 33 million people, were living on about $1.45 per day.

The 28-year-old Mahmoud is the eldest of two sons. His fa-ther worked as a part-time driver but is retired with heart prob-lems. He supports his father, mother and brother, who live in one room of a three-story building they share with six other families of his uncles.

Mahmoud showed athletic talent from a young age. He started as a boxer in a local club, then moved on to handball, before coaches convinced him to join the club’s soccer team. By 16, he went pro-fessional.

“They told me I would be a good defender,” said Mahmoud, whose teammates nicknamed him Kompany after former Man-chester City captain Vincent Kompany.

However, Mahmoud sees Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk as his role model.

Mahmoud helped his team to the top of its league, and he hopes to advance to the country’s top division.

In the meantime, he’ll just have to keep working, despite the dangers. There’s his family, and another reason to save - Mahmoud had been scheduled to get married next month.

“Nobody is immune,” he said. “But those like me and my family have to survive.”

HEALTHARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020

9

‘A patient would beg ... Air, air, give me air’

Overburdened doctors in desperate fi ght ... It’s like a warCHERNIVTSI, Ukraine, May 19, (AP): A breathing machine at a Ukrainian hospital breaks down, leaving a coronavirus patient gasping helplessly for air. Dr. OlhaKobevko rushes from room to room to see if there is an electrician among her other patients who can fi x it.

Eventually, she fi gures out a way to get the device working again on her own.

“We are like in a war situation here, like on a front line!” she exclaims in despair.

Kobevko, 37, is the only infectious disease specialist at the infection division of a hospital in the western city of Chernivtsi that is sup-posed to accommodate 60 patients but now holds about 100.

The deplorable conditions — broken or substandard equipment, a lack of drugs, low wages — refl ects the meltdown of Ukraine’s health care system, which has been quickly overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic even with the country’s relatively low number of cases.

Ukraine’s corruption-plagued economy has been weakened by six years of war with Rus-sia-backed separatists in the east. President Vo-lodymyr Zelenskiy’s year-old administration inherited an underfunded health care system that was further crippled by a reform launched by his predecessor that drastically cut state sub-sidies.

It has left Ukraine’s hospitals without vital equipment. The infectious disease wing of the main regional hospital in Chernivtsi was built more than a century ago when the city was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and it lacks a centralized oxygen supply system that is standard in any modern clinic.

The hospital’s oxygen supply system is lo-cated in just one room, and nurses have to manually refi ll bags they call “oxygen pillows” every few minutes and carry them to patients elsewhere.

“A patient would beg, ‘Air, air, give me air!’ and there is nothing you can do,” Kobevko said. “You just keep squeezing the bag, unable to

save a life. That is the most painful thing, and it costs very little to secure centralized oxygen supply.”

The sound of coughs muffl ed by oxygen masks mixes with the squeaking of medical equipment in the hospital’s old building as nurs-es rush through dimly lit corridors to change the oxygen bags. The air smells of ozone from the ultraviolet lamps used to disinfect the wards.

The critically ill are moved to a separate build-ing that has a few ventilators, but it’s also fi lled beyond capacity and cannot always accept new patients, even those in serious condition.

Ukraine has 18,291 confi rmed coronavirus cases, with 514 deaths. Chernivtsi has 2,694 of those infections, a hot spot of contagion, along with another western city, Ivano-Frankivsk, 100 kilometers (60 miles) away, and the capital, Kyiv. Thousands of Ukrainians who had tem-porary jobs in Italy, Spain and other European countries returned home amid the pandemic and some carried the infection with them.

In the hospital’s kitchen, workers nap on

mattresses. But ambulance crews soon arrive with more patients, giving them little chance to sleep, even after an exhausting tour of duty.

Svetlana Padynich is a medic on an ambu-lance crew that brings in COVID-19 patients during her 12-hour shifts.

Lately, workers on the crews have been fall-ing ill. A week ago, one died of pneumonia caused by the virus. Another four medics at her station also have come down with pneumonia but are in stable condition.

“We are experiencing a staff shortage,” said Padynich, 42. “Half of ambulance personnel have gotten sick and those who remained have to carry a colossal load.”

Padynich wears an FFP2 mask, which of-fers some but not complete protection, and she wears another medical mask underneath it.

“I understand that I’m taking high risks, but someone needs to work,” she said.

Protective gear is in short supply, with most of it coming from private donors. Deliveries have been irregular.

In this photo taken on Saturday, May 9, 2020, ambulance medic Svetlana Pa-dynich, puts on protective goggles at the start of her ambulance shift at an am-bulance station in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Ukraine’s underfunded health care system was quickly overwhelmed by the coronavi-rus, with medics accounting for one fi fth of all coronavirus cases in the country. (AP)

‘We’re very worried’

Virus sickensBrazil nativesMANAUS, Brazil, May 19, (AP): In the remote Amazon community of Betania, Tikuna tribe members suspect the coro-navirus arrived this month after some re-turned from a two-hour boat trip down the Solimoes River to pick up their govern-ment benefi t payments.

Dozens subsequently got headaches, fevers and coughs. Two died. And the fi ve government medical workers for the community of about 4,000 are not treat-ing the sick because they lack protective equipment and coronavirus tests, said Si-nésio Tikuna, a village leader.

So the Tikuna rely on their traditional remedy for respiratory ailments: Inhaling clouds of smoke from burning medicinal plants and beehives.

The Tikuna’s plight illustrates the dan-ger from the coronavirus as it spreads to rainforest areas where tribe members live in close quarters with limited medical ser-vices. Most are reachable only by boat or small aircraft.

“We’re very worried, mainly because help isn’t arriving,” Sinésio Tikuna said in a telephone interview.

Brazil has Latin America’s highest COVID-19 death toll, with more than 15,000 as of Sunday. The country’s hard-est hit major city per capita is in the Ama-zon - Manaus, where mass graves are fi ll-ing up with bodies.

As Sinésio Tikuna described in an interview his belief that beehive smoke saved four sick tribe members, there was no one at a Manaus hospital to help a feverish woman, struggling to breathe, make it inside the emergency room. A po-lice offi cer put her on a gurney, wheeling it inside with an Associated Press photog-rapher’s help.

The indigenous people dwelling up the Solimoes and Negro rivers that merge in Manaus to form the Amazon River tried for weeks to seal their reserves off from the virus, pleading for donations while awaiting government deliveries of food so they could remain isolated. It didn’t come for many, indigenous advocates said.

The Upper Solimoes basin has 44 tribal reserves and has emerged as the Brazilian Amazon’s indigenous infection hotspot. Testing is extremely limited, but shows that at least 162 of the area’s approximate-ly 76,000 indigenous people have been infected and 11 have died. There are more than 2,000 confi rmed infections in parts of the area not overseen by the government’s indigenous health care provider.

In a Tikuna village named Umariacu near the border with Peru and Colombia, the fi rst three COVID-19 deaths were el-derly tribe members infected by younger members who left town to receive gov-ernment welfare payments and trade fi sh and produce for chicken and other food, said Weydson Pereira, who coordinates the region’s indigenous government health care.

“Our biggest anguish today is the in-digenous people who aren’t staying in their communities and coming in and out of town. Today the safest place for them is inside their villages,” Pereira said this month, infected and isolating at home with his infected wife and daughter.

Two weeks of tribal quarantine for the region would have provided time to iden-tify and isolate cases, but “unfortunately, that hasn’t happened,” he said.

In the same area, people of Kokama ethnicity have been unable to get medical treatment fromhealth system in the small city of Tabatinga or from the govern-ment’s indigenous care provider, federal prosecutors said in a lawsuit fi led this week seeking to expand Tabatinga’s hos-pital.

That hospital’s 10 ventilators are in use for coronavirus patients and the nearest intensive care is 1,000 miles (1,600 kil-ometers) downriver in Manaus, also fi lled with patients, Pereira said.

Manaus’ lack of coronavirus treatment prompted Pedro dos Santos, the leader of a slum named Park of Indigenous Na-tions, to drink tea made of chicory root, garlic and lime to combat a high fever that lasted 10 days. A 62-year-old neighbor of Bare indigenous ethnicity needed an ICU bed, but none were available and he died, said the man’s son, Josué Paulino.

Some frightened residents of Manaus, population 2.2 million, are fl eeing but they may be asymptomatic carriers and could spread the virus elsewhere, said Miguel Lago, executive director of Bra-zil’s Institute for Health Policy Studies, which advises public health offi cials.

About 575 miles (925 kilometers) up the Negro River from Manaus is the com-munity of Sao Gabriel Cachoeira, where people of 23 indigenous ethnicities make up more than 75 percent of the population.

About 46,000 live in the urban area and on rural reserves with frequent back-and-forth transit, said Juliana Radler, an advisor for the Socio-Environmental In-stitut, an environmental and indigenous advocacy group.

In this May 10, 2020 photo, Pedro dos Santos, the leader of a community named Park of Indigenous Nations, poses for a photo, in Manaus, Brazil. Manaus’ lack of the new coronavirus treat-ment prompted Pedro dos Santos to drink tea made of chicory root, garlic and lime to combat a high fever that lasted 10 days. (AP)

Virus delivers devastating fi nancial blow

Health sector reels from COVID damageWASHINGTON, May 19, (AP): The global coronavirus pandemic has created a huge need for health care in the US, but it also is delivering a devastating fi nancial blow to that sector.

COVID-19 worries have kept patients away from doc-tors’ offi ces and forced the postponement and cancellation of non-urgent surgeries. The pandemic also has shut down large portions of the American economy, leaving many would-be patients without insurance or in a fi nancial pinch that makes them curb spending.

All of this has forced hospitals, health systems and doc-tors to lay off staff, cut costs and hope a return to normal arrives soon.

“You couldn’t ask for a worse situation, really,” said Joe Antos, an economist with the American Enterprise Institute.

Health care provided the biggest drag on the US economy in the fi rst quarter. Spending on care fell at an annual rate of 18%, the largest drop for that sector among records going back to 1959.

Economists point to hospital systems, a key driver of the sector’s performance, as a big reason behind the drag from COVID-19, which initially hit some parts of the sector more intensely than others.

The nation’s largest hospital chain, HCA Healthcare, said its hospital-based outpatient surgery totals for last month were down about 70% through late April.

In many cases, hospitals that lose those profi table surger-ies are gaining COVID-19 patients - and losing money on them. Those patients may require hospitals to expand inten-sive care units, spend more on infection control and stock up on gowns and masks, among other items.

The American Hospital Association estimated in a recent report that the nation’s hospitals and health systems will collectively lose more than $36 billion from March to June treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

When adding factors like lost revenue from postponed surgeries, the total balloons to more than $200 billion, said the association. Congress has set aside about $175 billion so far to help hospitals and other care providers, but the hospi-tal association says more assistance is needed.

“We’re facing perhaps the biggest fi nancial crisis in our history,” association CEO and president Rick Pollack said.

From the doctor’s offi ce, the view also is bleak.Dr. Seemal Desai said patient visits for his Dallas-area

dermatology practice plunged about 85% after COVID-19 hit.

He started seeing patients over the internet with help from smartphone or tablet cameras. But that created fresh prob-lems. Desai said some patients don’t have the technology to do online visits. Others hesitate because they aren’t sure their insurance will cover them.

Only about half the patients who were offered a telemedi-cine visit actually did one.

“You would think my volume would be shooting through the roof and people would be clamoring for it, but it’s com-pletely the opposite,” Desai said.

The dermatologist cut expenses, including marketing, and he’s reduced some employee hours.

Nationally, the health care sector shed nearly 1.5 million

jobs from February to April, or about 9% of its total, accord-ing to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A big chunk of that came from dentist offi ces. Prelimi-nary data shows that employee totals for that slice of the sector sank by more than 500,000, or 53%.

Overall economic growth, as measured by the gross do-mestic product, fell at an annual rate of 4.8% in the January-March quarter even though the severe impact of the virus was only felt in the last couple of weeks of March.

The current quarter is expected to be much worse. The Congressional Budget Offi ce forecasts that the GDP will plunge 40%. That would be four times the largest drop on quarterly GDP records that go back to 1947.

Even so, health care researchers expect hospitals, doc-tor’s offi ces and surgery centers to rebound gradually. But they’re not sure yet how much patient volume will return.

People who have lost jobs and insurance coverage may not make doctor visits unless they absolutely have to.

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently estimated that nearly 27 million people - or about 8 percent of the US pop-ulation - could have become uninsured at least temporarily between March and early May due to the loss of employer-sponsored insurance.

It also may take a while for some patients to become con-fi dent that a hospital or doctor’s offi ce is safe enough to visit without catching COVID-19.

“People are just afraid to go to any medical setting right now,” Antos said, noting that the economy also could face another setback if infection rates spike again.

In Texas, Dr. Desai has pulled chairs out of his waiting rooms to increase social distancing for patients and staff. He’s also asking other patients to wait in their cars until the exam room has been sanitized.

The dermatologist got some government assistance in the fi rst round of payroll protection loans, and that will help him for a few more weeks.

But he’s not expecting a quick rebound. It’s hard to re-build patient volume when only two people can be in the waiting room at the same time.

“After another month I honestly have no clue whether we will be able to remain open,” he said.

Dermatologist Dr Seemal Desai poses for a photo in the waiting room of his offi ce in Plano, Texas, Thursday, May 7, 2020. Desai said that at this time of day, early afternoon, his offi ce would typically be fi lled with several patients. (AP)

Europe to salvagesummer vacationsATHENS, Greece, May 19, (AP): Europe reopened more widely on Monday, allowing people into the Acropolis in Athens, shops in Italy, markets and museums in Belgium, golf courses in Ireland and beer gardens in Bavaria while its leaders discussed how to salvage Europe’s hallowed summer vacations.

As nations carved out a new normal amid the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization opened its main annual meeting - con-ducted online this year. Chinese President Xi Jinping was among a handful of world leaders expected to address the two-day online gath-ering that comes amid high tensions between his nation, where the pandemic began, and the United States, the country hardest hit by the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump, who has suspended US funding to the WHO and accused it of failing to stop the virus from spreading when it fi rst surfaced in China, was not expected to address the meeting. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was to represent the US

New infections and deaths have slowed considerably in Europe, where some countries started easing lockdowns a month ago and even the harshest shutdowns - such as those in Italy and Spain - have loosened signifi cantly. Many nations are now preparing to open their borders next month, trying to sketch out the parameters for a highly unusual summer tourist season.

Germany’s foreign minister, who was discussing the options Mon-day with colleagues from 10 largely southern European countries, cau-tioned that this year’s holidays will be like no other.

“Even if a summer vacation will be possible elsewhere in Europe, which I hope, one has to say that this vacation this year won’t be like the ones we know from the past,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told ZDF television. “The pandemic is still there and we must at least have safety precautions for the worst case that the fi gures get worse again.”

More than 4.7 million people worldwide have tested positive for the coronavirus and over 315,000 deaths have been reported, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Those fi gures are believed to un-derstate the true dimensions of the pandemic because of limited testing, differences in counting the dead and concealment by some governments.

The US has reported almost 90,000 deaths and Europe has seen at least 160,000 dead.

Greece reopened the Acropolis in Athens and other ancient sites, along with high schools, shopping malls and mainland travel. Paving stickers were used as markers to keep visitors apart outside the Acropo-lis. Tourists were local, for the country still has a 14-day quarantine for arrivals, and travel to the Greek islands remains broadly restricted.

Authorities are keen to reopen the vital tourism sector, following a warning by the EU Commission that Greece is likely to suffer the worst recession in the 27-nation European Union this year.

Greece’s public beaches reopened over the weekend amid a heat-wave with strict social distancing rules, but buses from Athens to the nearby coast were crowded.

In Belgium, more students returned to school, hairdressers began clipping locks again and museums and zoos opened their doors, all with strict reservation systems to avoid overcrowding. Hoping to make the most of the sunny weather, open-air markets started selling their plentiful spring fruit and vegetables.

Golf courses and garden stores reopened in Ireland but Health Min-ister Simon Harris said he’s still nervous because the virus hasn’t gone away. He hoped that social distancing and other measures will make more normalcy possible.

MIDEASTARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020

10

Democrats raise concern over fi ring

Trump defends arms deal with Saudi ArabiaWASHINGTON, May 19, (AP): Congressional Democrats say the State Department watchdog fi red by President Don-ald Trump last week was investigating possible impropriety in a massive arms sale to Saudi Arabia last year, adding new questions to the watchdog’s abrupt dismissal.

Democrats said Monday that ousted Inspector General Steve Linick was probing how the State Department pushed through a $7 billion Saudi arms sale over congressional objections. Democrats previously suggested the dismissal might have been tied to Linick’s investigation of allegations that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo may have improperly ordered staff to run personal errands for him.

Linick’s dismissal late Friday comes amid broader con-cerns over Trump’s removal of inspectors general at various departments. Trump has said he had lost confi dence in those fi red but has not given specifi c reasons, which lawmakers

from both parties have criticized.Pompeo told The Washington Post on Monday that he

had recommended to Trump that Linick be removed because he was “undermining” the State Department’s mission. He would not address specifi cs except to say it was not in retali-ation for any investigation.

“It is not possible that this decision, or my recommenda-tion rather, to the president rather, was based on any effort to retaliate for any investigation that was going on, or is cur-rently going on,” Pompeo told the Post, adding that he did not know if Linick’s offi ce had been looking into possible impropriety on his part.

Under Secretary of State for Management Brian Bulatao told the Post that confi dence in Linick had begun to wane af-ter leaks to the media last year about an IG investigation into political retaliation against career employees by political ap-

pointees. When released, that report was critical of several political appointees for having acted against career offi cials deemed insuffi ciently loyal to Trump.

Trump confi rmed Monday that he fi red Linick at Pompeo’s request.

“I have the absolute right as president to terminate. I said, ‘Who appointed him?’ And they say, ‘President Obama.’ I said, look, I’ll terminate him,” Trump said at the White House.

Rep Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he was troubled that Linick was fi red before the completion of the Saudi investigation. Engel had called for that probe after Pompeo in May 2019 invoked a rarely used pro-vision in federal law to bypass a congressional review of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

“His offi ce was investigating — at my request — Trump’s

phony declaration of an emergency so he could send weapons to Saudi Arabia,” said Engel, D-NY. “We don’t have the full picture yet, but it’s troubling that Secretary Pompeo wanted Linick pushed out before this work could be completed.”

He called for the State Department to turn over records related to Linick’s fi ring that he and the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, had demanded on Saturday.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was “alarming” to see reports that the fi ring may have been in response to Linick’s investigation into the Saudi arms deal. In a letter to Trump, she demanded an explanation.

Trump notifi ed Congress of the dismissal, as required. But Pelosi said it was essential that he provide “detailed and substantial justifi cation for the removal” before the end of a 30-day review period.

Shooter ... tactics

Qaeda contactin ‘Pensacola’WASHINGTON, May 19, (AP): The gunman who killed three US sailors at a military base in Florida last year com-municated with al-Qaeda operatives about planning and tactics in the months leading up to the attack, US offi cials said Monday, as they lashed out at Apple for failing to help them open the shooter’s phones so they could access key evi-dence.

Law enforcement offi cials discovered contacts between Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani and operatives of al-Qaeda after FBI technicians succeeded in break-

ing into two cell-phones that had pre-viously been locked and that the shooter, a Saudi Air Force offi cer, had tried to destroy before he was killed by a sher-iff’s deputy.

“We now have a clearer understand-ing of Alshamrani’s associations and ac-tivities in the years,

months and days leading up to his attack,” Attorney General William Barr said at a news conference in which he chastised Apple for not helping open the phones.

The new details, including that Alshamrani had been radicalized abroad before he arrived in the US, raise fresh questions about the vetting of foreign military members and trainees who spend time at American bases. The announce-ment also comes amid tension with the US over instability in the oil market dur-ing the coronavirus pandemic and as the Trump administration faces criticism that it has not done enough to hold the king-dom, which has been trying to improve its international image, accountable for human rights violations.

The criticism directed at Apple could also escalate divisions between the US government and the technology company, which rejected the characterization that it has been unhelpful. The company said Monday that it does not store customers’ passcodes, does not have the capacity to unlock passcode-protected devices and that weakening encryption could create vulnerabilities that undermine national security and data privacy.

Alshamrani was killed by a sheriff’s deputy during the Dec. 6 rampage at a classroom building at Naval Air Station Pensacola. He had been undergoing fl ight training at Pensacola as part of instruc-tion offered at American military bases to foreign nationals. Besides the three sailors who died, eight other people were injured.

Once unlocked, US offi cials said, the phones revealed contact between Alshamrani and “dangerous” operatives from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Pensinsula, or AQAP, that continued until shortly before the shooting. They also revealed that he had been radicalized since at least 2015, before he arrived in the US, and had meticulously planned the attack.

Alshamrani created minicam videos as he cased a military school building and saved a will on his phone that purported to explain himself - the same document AQAP released after the shooting when it claimed responsibility for it, said FBI Director Chris Wray, who called the at-tack “the brutal culmination of years of planning and preparation.”

“He wasn’t just coordinating with them about planning and tactics,” Wray said. “He was helping the organization make the most it could out of his murders.”

Asked whether al-Qaeda had directed or inspired the attacks, Wray said it was “certainly more than just inspired.”

The phones have already yielded valu-able intelligence, offi cials said, citing a recent counterterrorism operation in Yemen that targeted an AQAP associate Alshamrani had been in touch with.

The Justice Department had asked Ap-ple to help extract data from two iPhones that belonged to the gunman, including one that authorities say Alshamrani dam-aged with a bullet after being confronted by law enforcement.

But Wray said Apple provided “effec-tively no help,” delaying by months the FBI’s ability to access the devices and hampering the investigation since agents did not have a full picture of what to look for or ask about. He did not say what method was used to open the phones, but said it was a targeted fi x and not a broad solution to the problem.

Barr used Monday’s news conference to forcefully call on Apple to do more to cooperate with law enforcement.

“In cases like this, where the user is a terrorist, or in other cases, where the user is a violent criminal, a human traffi cker, a child predator, Apple’s decision has dangerous consequences for public safety and the national security and is, in my judgment, unacceptable,” Barr said.

In a statement Monday, Apple said it had provided the FBI with “every piece of in-formation available to us, including iCloud backups, account information and trans-actional data for multiple accounts.” It re-jected the idea of making its products more accessible for law enforcement’s benefi t.

Alshamrani

New evidence against DAESHUN team cites progress

UNITED NATIONS, May 19, (AP): A UN investigative team says it has made “signifi cant progress” in collecting new sources of evidence in Iraq against Is-lamic State extremists, including over 2 million call records that should strength-en cases against perpetrators of crimes against the Yazidi minority in 2014.

The team also reported progress in its investiga-tions of the mass killings of unarmed cadets and military personnel from the Tikrit Air Academy in June 2014 and crimes committed by Islamic State extremists in Mosul from 2014 to 2016.

In a report to the UN Security Council obtained by The Associated Press, the investigative team said it is con-tinuing to engage with the Iraqi government on pending legislation that would allow the country to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide allegedly committed by the Islamic State, also known as ISIL.

“In the coming six months, the team will continue its work with the government of Iraq in order to capitalize on this opportunity, with a view to securing the commence-ment of domestic proceedings based on evidence collected by the team,” the report said.

The Islamic State group’s self-declared “caliphate” that once spanned a third of both Iraq and Syria, has been de-feated on the ground but its fi ghters are still staging insur-gent attacks.

ScarsThe atrocities its fi ghters and supporters committed

have left deep scars. Thousands of members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, mainly women and girls, were raped and enslaved, while men were killed. Suspected homosexuals were pushed off roofs to their deaths. Captured Americans and other Westerners were beheaded, and an unknown number of suspected opponents were killed.

A Security Council resolution backed by more than 60 countries to refer the Syrian confl ict to the International Criminal Court was vetoed by both Russia and China in May 2014.

The General Assembly established an independent panel in December 2016 to assist in the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for war crimes or crimes against humanity in Syria.

In September 2017, the Security Council voted unani-mously to ask the UN to establish an investigative team to help Iraq preserve evidence and promote accountability for what “may amount to war crimes, crimes against hu-manity and genocide” committed by Islamic State extrem-ists, both in Iraq and the Levant which includes Syria.

The latest report by the investigative team said that as a result of its expanded cooperation with the Iraqi judiciary, security services and Directorate of Military Intelligence, it stands “at a pivotal moment in its work.”

Cooperation with the Iraqi judiciary in obtaining call data records and with Iraqi security services in extracting and analyzing data from cellphones, SIM cards and mass storage devices previously used by ISIL “have the poten-tial to represent a paradigm shift in the prosecution of ISIL members,” the investigators said.

The data has provided “access to a wide range of internal ISIL documents, cell data, videos and images,” they said.

The team said it is already identifying evidence that can fi ll gaps in ongoing proceedings as a result of the cell phone data as well as from putting documents held by Iraqi authorities in digital form, and using enhanced dis-covery and evidence-management systems.

In its investigation of attacks committed by IS against the Yazidis in Sinjar district in August 2014, the team said the recent receipt of more than 2 million call data records from Iraqi cell phone service providers “relevant to time periods and geographic locations connected to this inves-tigation provides a signifi cant opportunity to strengthen case fi les in relation to alleged perpetrators.”

Also:BAGHDAD: A rocket struck Baghdad’s heavily fortifi ed Green Zone, the seat of Iraq’s government, early on Tues-day morning, according to an Iraqi military statement, the fi rst attack on the area since a new prime minister was sworn in earlier this month.

The Katyusha rocket hit an empty house, causing minor damages. The Green Zone is where government buildings and foreign embassies are located. A preliminary investi-gation indicated the rocket was launched from the nearby by Al-Idrisi neighborhood on Palestine Street, the state-ment said.

Previous attacks have frequently targeted the US pres-ence in Iraq, including the US Embassy and Iraqi bases hosting American troops. The US has blamed Kataib Hez-bollah, an Iraqi militia group backed by Iran, of perpetrat-ing the attacks.

The new administration of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who came to power earlier this month, is pre-paring for a strategic dialogue with Washington, expected to take place next month. The talks will touch on security and economic cooperation between both countries.

The issue of militias acting outside of state control is also expected to be on the agenda.

❑ ❑ ❑

An angry mob stormed the offi ces of a Saudi-owned chan-nel in Iraq on Monday following the airing of a television show that suggested Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Mu-handis, killed in a US strike earlier this year, was involved in orchestrating an attack in Lebanon nearly 40 years ago.

Saudi channel MBC 1 aired a show on Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani, which mentioned that his Iraqi wife was killed in the 1981 bombing of the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut during the Lebanese civil war.

The show suggested a link in that attack to Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was killed in the January US drone strike in Baghdad. The attack also killed Iranian Gen Qas-sem Soleimani.

The airing of the show prompted outcry from dozens of angry Iraqis who stormed the offi ce of the television channel located in the Al-Waziriya district, north of the Iraqi capital.

Al-Muhandis was the deputy leader of the Popular Mo-bilization Forces, an array of militia groups created to help defeat the Islamic State group. Some militia groups within the PMF have links to Iran.

An anti-government protester shouts slogans, while wearing a mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, during ongoing pro-tests in front of the Ministry of Economy, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, May 18, 2020. (AP)

News in Brief

TEHRAN: A special anti-corruption court in Iran has sentenced a couple to death on money laundering and other charges, the judiciary said Tuesday.

The couple - Najva Lasheidaei and her husband Vahid Behzadi - are said to have smuggled hard currency and laundered $200 million, said judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili.

Authorities also confi scated nearly 300 kilograms of gold from the couple and said they had bought 6,700 cars from Saipa, one of top two automakers of the country.

In connection to the Saipa part of the charges, the court separately sentenced lawmakers Fereidoun Ahmadi and Mo-hammad Azizi to fi ve years in prison each, as well as Mehdi Jamali, a former CEO of Saipa, to seven years in prison.

Both lawmakers represent the city of Zanjan, about 300 kilometers (187 miles) northwest of the capital, Tehran.

Under Iranian law, the couple can ap-peal the verdicts within 20 days. Their lawyers were not reachable for comment.

Iran is struggling to battle corruption, including among its lawmakers. Last week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed the trade and industry minister amid ongoing economic problems that have seen car prices skyrocket by more than 60%.

Iran’s constitutional watchdog barred some 90 lawmakers from running for ree-lection in February’s parliamentary elec-tions, accusing an unspecifi ed number of them of corruption. (AP)

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MINNEAPOLIS: A Lebanese man has pleaded guilty in federal court in Minne-sota to conspiring to export drone parts and technology from the US to Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

US Attorney Erica H. MacDonald said Monday that Usama Hamade, 55, plead-ed guilty to conspiring to illegally export goods and technology.

His brother, Issam Hamade, pleaded guilty in March in federal court in Min-nesota.

Prosecutors said the brothers acquired sophisticated technology for drones from 2009 to 2013 and illegally exported them to Hezbollah, which the US considers a terrorist organization.

The Hamades were arrested in Febru-ary 2018 in South Africa and were extra-dited to the US last fall.

According to an indictment, the parts included inertial measurement units, which can be used to track an aircraft’s position, and digital compasses, which can be paired with the inertial measure-ment units for drone guidance systems. The parts also included a jet engine and 20 piston engines. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

DOHA: Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Al Thani on Monday received a verbal mes-sage from Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tareq on fi rm fraternal ties between both countries and ways of promoting them.

The message had also something to do with a set of key regional and internation-al issues and subjects of mutual concern, Qatar’s offi cial news agency reported.

The message was delivered by Omani Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs Yousef bin Alawai as he was welcomed by the Amir of Qatar earlier today, the agency said. (KUNA)

UN calls for Syria talks

Former Syrian secret police offi cer declares his innocenceBERLIN, May 19, (AP): A former Syrian se-cret police colonel testifi ed in a German court Monday that he was not involved in the tor-ture of opponents of the regime of President Bashar Assad, in the fi rst war crimes trial out-side Syria linked to the country’s years-long confl ict.

Anwar R., 57, is accused of crimes against humanity, rape and murder as head of the Al Khatib detention center, also known as Branch 251, near Damascus.

As a senior member of Syria’s General In-telligence Directorate, R. is accused of over-seeing the “systematic and brutal torture” of more than 4,000 prisoners between April 2011 and September 2012, resulting in the deaths of at least 58 people, according to the indictment.

His co-defendant, 43-year-old Eyad A., is accused of being part of a police squad that detained protesters and brought them back to Branch 251, where they were then mistreated. Neither of their last names has been released, in line with German privacy laws.

In his fi rst statement since his trial opened in April, Anwar R. told the Koblenz state court that he was not guilty of the accusations against him.

“I have not committed the crimes I’m ac-cused of,” he said in a statement read by his at-torneys, the dpa news agency reported. “I have never taken part in human rights violations.”

Instead, he said, he was a secret supporter of the Syrian opposition, and testifi ed that he sympathized with the victims of torture.

Patrick Kroker, a lawyer for the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights that is supporting several of the victims, called the defendant’s statement “grotesque.”

At least nine torture victims are represented as co-plaintiffs in the case, as allowed under German law. They and several others are ex-pected to be called as witnesses.

Kroker told The Associated Press that R. had accused all witnesses of either lying or not having been under his responsibility.

R.’s attorney couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

The two defendants left Syria for Germany before their arrest in February 2019. If con-victed, Anwar R. could face life imprison-ment. Eyad A. could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted of complicity in crimes against humanity.

The Koblenz regional court, where the trial is being held, has reduced the number of seats available to reporters and the general public by a third due to social distancing rules to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The trial is expected to run several months.Meanwhile, the UN special envoy for Syria

called Monday for talks between Russia and the United States to help end the more than nine-year-old war, saying the two major pow-ers could play “a key role.”

Geir Pedersen’s encouragement to Moscow and Washington to take a leading role was his fi rst public appeal to the rival powers on op-posing sides of the confl ict - Russia which has been the key backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the United States which supports the opposition.

Pedersen told the UN Security Council on Monday that the three countries that have tak-en the lead in arranging cease-fi res in Syria - Assad allies Russia and Iran and opposition backer Turkey “are key players too.”

He said members of a committee from the Syrian government, opposition and civil soci-ety who are supposed to draft a new constitu-tion for the country and the 15 council nations are key players as well.

Pedersen said there have been too many fl eeting opportunities in the past decades to move from confl ict to a political path that were lost, and “those missed moments were followed by renewed violence and a harden-ing of positions among regional and interna-tional actors.”

“We must not repeat this pattern,” he said. Pedersen said there is anxiety that while

violence has somewhat abated at the moment it could escalate at any time, and deep disap-pointment that the political process hasn’t de-livered tangible improvements for the Syrian people.

“And there is a widespread sense that inter-national competition is more prominent than cooperation, with Syrians paying the price,” he told the UN’s top council.

With some calm at the moment and the world facing common threats from the COVID-19 pandemic and Islamic State extremists, Ped-ersen stressed that building trust between key international parties and with Syrians “is essen-tial - and could unlock progress” toward peace.

He then encouraged the US and Russia along with the others to engage in dialogue.

Ultimately, Pedersen said, “there is a need to come together to support a renewed effort in a Syrian-led, Syrian-owned, UN-facilitated political process” toward a political settle-ment based on the 2015 Security Council resolution that endorsed a road map to peace including drafting a new constitution and UN-supervised elections.

The longstanding divisions between the US and Russia over Syria were evident in their speeches to the council that followed, which gave no indication of a desire for talks.

US Ambassador Kelly Craft said fully im-plementing the 2015 road map, starting with an immediate nationwide cease-fi re, is “what will move Syria toward a future of peace” - and that’s what the Security Council must pursue.

She urged the council to ensure that the Syrian government reverse “its destructive pattern of behavior against its own people” and agree to a cease-fi re instead of pursuing a military solution to the confl ict.

In this Sunday, April 19, 2020 photo Syr-ian Wassim Mukdad poses for a photo-graph at the Berlin offi ces of the Europe-an Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, Germany. Together with more than a dozen other witnesses, Mukdad will testify before a German court in the trial of Anwar R., a former member of Syr-ia’s secret police suspected of overseeing the abuse of detainees at a notorious jail near Damascus known as Al Khatib, or

Branch 251. (AP)

Market Movements 19-05-2020

Business Change Closing ptsAustralia - Al Ordinaries +101.30 5,658.84China - Shanghai SE +23.16 2,898.58Hong Kong - Hang Seng +453.36 24.388.13India - Sensex +167.19 30,196.17Japan - Nikkei +299.72 20,433.45Pakistan - KSE 100 +353.58 34,158.55Philippines - PSEi +76.50 5,55.85

Change Closing pts

WASHINGTON, May 19, (AP): States are trying to fi gure out the safest way to restart their economies despite confl icting guidance out from Wash-ington. The same goes for companies.

■ As Apple begins opening stores in the U.S., it will be checking the tem-peratures of everyone before they can enter and handing out masks to any customer who isn’t wearing one. Like other retailers, Apple will be limiting the number of people inside and doing deep cleanings throughout the day.

The iPhone maker reopened fi ve U.S. stores last week in Idaho, Ala-bama, South Carolina and Alaska. Another 27 stores will be reopening in California, Washington state, Florida, Colorado, Hawaii, Oklahoma and Ar-kansas. The stores in California and Washington initially will only offer curbside and storefront service.

Apple so far has reopened about 100 stores worldwide, roughly one-fi fth of its brick-and-mortar outlets.

■ The Children’s Place plans to reo-pen stores in 10 states: Alabama, Ar-kansas, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah. More than 40% of U.S. stores are in areas where they are unauthorized to open again.

GOVERNMENTS & CENTRAL BANKS: Dozens of economies are either heading for a recession, or area already there. On Monday, that desig-nation become offi cial in Japan. Coun-tries are trying to general economic activity with new parameters.

■ Greece reopened the Acropo-lis in Athens and other ancient sites Monday, along with high schools, shopping malls, and leisure travel. There is some urgency. The EU Com-mission warned that Greece is likely to suffer the worst recession in the EU bloc this year.

■ Ireland is taking its fi rst steps out of lockdown, with some stores reopen-ing and outdoor work resuming. Gar-den centers, hardware stores and opti-cians are among the businesses being allowed to open Monday.

■ Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan eased lockdown restrictions Monday. In Kazakhstan’s capital, some mosques, markets cafes and restaurants reo-pened Monday. In Azerbaijan, cafes and restaurants reopened in the capital, Baku, and four others cities.

■ Thousands of people in Bosnia who lost their jobs over the past two months have been blocked by cumber-some and lengthy application proce-dures from accessing unemployment benefi ts they had been promised by the government. According to incomplete offi cial statistics, over 30,000 people have lost their jobs in Bosnia since March.

TRAVEL & LEISURE: Tourist destinations are beginning to release reopening dates, but there will be new rules in place governing activities and the number of people allowed.

■ The Florida Keys will reopen to tourists on June 1, more than two months after the island chain put up check points to limit outsiders. Those will be removed next month, accord-ing to Monroe County Emergency Management. Hotels and other lodg-ing establishments will be allowed to reopen at 50% occupancy.

■ New Hampshire restaurants were allowed to begin serving customers for outdoor dining on Monday.

■ Delta Air Lines plans to restart several domestic and international routes in June, including service to China if Beijing approves. The airline plans to add some fl ights next month in Atlanta and New York and resume some international routes.

■ Allegiant Air said April traffi c tumbled 97% and empty seats quad-rupled compared with a year earlier. Allegiant is a budget airline that fl ies people from smaller cities to vacation destinations like Las Vegas, where many of the major attractions were closed to limit spread of the corona-virus.

■ Ryanair is cutting around 3,000 jobs and is looking at pulling out of a number of airports in Europe. The budget Irish carrier cut the number of passengers it expects to fl y this year from 154 million, too 100 million last week. It cut that again Monday to about 80 million.

■ Finland’s national airline, a major carrier between the European Union and China, is adding fl ights and routes, with long-haul routes beginning in July. Finnair will start in phases, with a strong focus on Asia.

IRS HELP: The IRS said Monday that it is adding 3,500 telephone rep-resentatives to answer some of taxpay-er’s questions about economic impact payments. The bulk of the estimated 150 million payments have been sent but some questions remain.

Separately, the Treasury and IRS began to send nearly 4 million of the relief payments by prepaid debit card, instead of paper check. The free, pre-paid cards are being distributed to those without bank information on fi le with the IRS.

States trying to fi gure out the safest way to restart their economies

Global businesses and governments operate under new rules

World economy faces tough ‘journey’back from coronavirus crisis: reports

UK unemployment claims surge 69% as pandemic takes hold

WASHINGTON, May 19, (AP): The world economy likely faces a long slog back from the coronavirus crisis.

Two reports out Monday predict that global growth will struggle to bounce back from the lockdowns, travel restrictions and business clo-sures meant to contain the pandemic.

IHS Markit said that it expects the world economy to shrink 5.5% this year, triple the damage it sustained in the 2008 financial crisis, and then struggle to regain traction.

“While growth in the hardest hit economies may snap back briefly, the momentum will soon fade,’’ the financial research firm warned. It expects the U.S. economy to con-tract 7.3% this year and the collec-tive economy of the 19 European countries that share the euro curren-cy to recoil 8.6%.

Hobbling the rebound, IHS pre-dicts, will be a wave of business bank-ruptcies and cautious spending by consumers trying to repair their house-hold finances and uneasy about resum-ing old habits that drive economic growth - shopping, eating out, book-ing vacations and going to movies.

“Government leaders wanted to err on the side of caution, and, as a result, we basically shut down large parts of the economy,” said Sara Johnson, executive director at IHS Markit. “I suspect we overdid it, but it’s perhaps too soon to second guess.’’

Likewise, Deutsche Bank Wealth Management warned Monday that a “hoped-for’’ rebound in the second half of 2020 won’t be strong enough to undo the damage absorbed in the first, at least among the advanced economies of the United States, Europe and Japan. “We don’t expect developed economies output to be back to pre-crisis levels until 2022,’’ the report said.

Economies normally bounce back rapidly - registering so-called V-shaped recoveries - from sudden shocks such as natural disasters. But Deutsche Bank notes that the virus is different: Recovering from the pan-demic won’t require any of the growth-stimulating rebuilding that follows earthquakes and typhoons.

Many economists say any recov-ery is likely to be subdued until the virus has been tamed by a vaccine or effective treatments.

“I don’t believe you can have a credible economic recovery or a V-shaped recovery unless you have the pandemic really largely under control,’’ said Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Meanwhile, unemployment claims in Britain jumped 69% in April, as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and hit the labor market, U.K. authorities said Tuesday.

The Office of National Statistics says jobless claims surged by 856,000 to 2.1 million in April as compared to the month before. The figures covered only the first weeks of the lockdown, said Jonathan Athow, deputy national statistician for economic statistics at the ONS.

“In March, employment held up well, as furloughed workers still count as employed, but hours worked fell sharply in late March, especially in sectors such as hospi-tality and construction,’’ he said.

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey told the BBC that the government was focused on those claiming benefits under Universal Credit, a welfare payment for those who need help, including the unemployed.

In this fi le photo, cars are parked at a Fiat Chrysler car dealer in Milan, Italy. European car sales bottomed out last month as the automotive industry faces the worst crisis in decades. (AP)

Strict lockdown measures to contain the coronavirus cited

Europe car sales see worst drop since records beganMILAN, May 19, (AP): European car sales bottomed out last month as the automotive industry faces its worst cri-sis in decades.

Strict lockdown measures to contain the coronavirus closed most dealer-ships across the continent for the full month of April amid a precipitous drop in consumer spending, causing sales to collapse by an unprecedented 76%, the ACEA car manufacturers’ association said Tuesday.

Carmakers across the continent sold just 270,682 vehicles last month, com-pared with 1.14 million a year earlier, the ‘’strongest monthly drop in car demand since records began,’’ ACEA said.

Southern Europe was the hardest hit with new car registrations down 97.6% in Italy and 96.5% in Spain -- as both countries struggled with some of the highest levels of coronavirus infec-tion in Europe. France saw an 89% contraction while Germany suffered a 61% drop.

European car sales for the fi rst four months of the year were down 39%.

Like March’s 55% drop, the decline was far worse even than during the 2008-9 global fi nancial crisis, which triggered a six-year slump in car pur-chases. The steepest losses during that fi nancial crisis occurred in January 2009, when sales fell 27%.

The crisis was striking both mass-market and luxury carmakers indis-criminately.

The Volkswagen group maintained the largest market share, expanded by 30% despite a 73% drop in sales. French rivals PSA Group and Renault saw declines hovering around 80% while Fiat Chrysler -- which is seeking a 6.3-billion-euro Italian government-backed loan to relaunch -- dropped by 88%. German luxury carmakers BMW and Daimler saw sales sink 65% and 79% respectively.

Uber cuts 3,000 jobs as pandemic slashes demand for rides

Uber has cut 3,000 jobs from its workforce, its second major wave of layoffs in two weeks as the coronavirus slashed demand for rides.

The San Francisco com-pany has cut a quarter of its workforce since the year be-gan, eliminating 3,700 people from the payroll earlier this month.

Uber will be re-focusing on its core business, moving

people and delivering food and groceries, said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, in a note to employees Monday.

The ride-hailing giant will be closing or consolidating 45 offi ces globally, and al-most all departments will be affected by layoffs. The com-pany is closing its business for developing products and services for its platform and a unit working on artifi cial in-

telligence. It will also pursue strategic alternatives for its job recruiting app, Uber Works, Khosrowshahi said.

“This is a decision I strug-gled with,” Khosrowshahi said. “Our balance sheet is strong, Eats is doing great, Rides looks a little better, maybe we can wait this damn virus out .... I wanted there to be a different answer ... but there simply was no good news to

hear.”Uber’s rides business, the

company’s main profi t genera-tor, fell 80% in April compared to the same month last year.

“Ultimately, I realized that hoping the world would re-turn to normal within any pre-dictable time frame, so we could pick up where we left off on our path to profi tability, was not a viable option,” he said. (AP)

In this fi le photo, the logo for Uber appears above a trading post on the fl oor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP)

April job losses fall hardon restaurants, retailersNEW YORK, May 19, (AP): Who remembers their last meal at a sit-down restaurant? Better yet: who knows when their next one will be?

That’s the question bedevil-ing not just diners but Wall Street, where analysts and investors have seen investments in publicly traded restaurant chains like Olive Gar-den, Denny’s and KFC owner Yum Brands crater amid shutdowns forced by the global coronavirus pandemic.

While some states like Georgia and Texas have recently taken ten-tative steps to permit restaurants, shops and other businesses to reopen, the sector remains in deep crisis. Of the more than 21.4 million jobs lost since the pandemic struck the U.S. in March, 28% of them are in the restaurant and bar industry and another 10% are in retail.

“Following a natural disaster,

restaurants are the last businesses to reopen and to start recovery,” the National Restaurant Associa-tion said in a statement. “This is a nationwide disaster that’s going to need a nationwide plan for restau-rants to recover.”

Orlando, Florida-based Darden Restaurants, which owns the Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse chains, told investors its sales had already fallen by nearly half in its current quarter, with one month left to go. Denny’s sales were 76% lower in April alone. Both restaurant chains have cut staff as demand plummeted.

Retailers, especially those focus-ing on clothing and apparel are also hurting. Kohl’s shut down stores na-tionwide in March and only started reopening in some states earlier in May. Gap took similar measures, shutting down stores and furlough-ing workers.

Mabanee Co gains 16 fi ls, KFIC skids

Blue chips push Kuwait index higherBy John MathewsArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, May 19: Kuwait stocks headed north on Tuesday ex-tending its gains to third straight ses-sion. The All Shares Index rallied 68.98 points in a broad advance to 4894.36 points paced by heavyweights even as the overall mood remained upbeat.

The Premier Market soared 91 pts to 5287.34 points trimming the month’s losses to 69 pts while Main Market rose 24.81 points to 4120.73 pts. The BK 50 Main Index climbed 27.25 points. The volume turnover meanwhile rose for the third consecutive session to hit the month’s high. Over 177 million changed hands – a 70 pct surge from Monday.

All sectors, barring one, closed in green territory. Consumer Services out-shone the rest with 2 pct gain whereas Oil and Gas, the only loser, eased 0.04 pct. Banking sector continued to top in both volume and value with 117.6 mil-lion shares traded for KD 32.25 mil-lion.

Among the prime movers, National Bank of Kuwait rallied 12 fi ls on back of 6.8 million shares to 747 fi ls and Ku-wait Finance House followed suit after pushing over 16 million shares at the

counter. Mabanee Co sprinted 16 fi ls to 584 fi ls paring the month’s losses to 52 fi ls and Kuwait National Cinema Co soared 65 fi ls.

Zain took in 2 fi ls on back of over 3 million shares to close at 524 fi ls while Ooredoo gained 12 fi ls. STC fell 5 fi ls to 830 fi ls and logistics major Agility added 5 fi ls before winding up at 638 fi ls with a volume of over 2 million shares. Humansoft Holding climbed 70 fi ls to KD 2.680.

The market opened fi rm and moved sideways in early trade. The main index gained traction and headed higher amid strong buying in most of the heavy-weights and peaked at 4905 pts half way into the session. It sagged slightly thereafter and closed with robust gains.

Top gainer of the day, Kuwait Na-tional Cinema Co rallied 9.9 pct to 720 fi ls and Thuraya sprinted 9.8 percent to stand close behind. KFIC skidded 8.5 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Ahli United Bank topped the volume with a whopping 63 million shares.

Mirroring the day’s gains, the mar-ket spread was skewed towards the winners. 33 stocks advanced whereas 65 closed lower. Of the 108 counters active on Tuesday, 10 closed fl at. 7547

deals worth KD 39.9 million were transacted during the session.

National Industries Group rallied 9 fi ls on back of over 4 million shares to 171 fi ls while Mezzan Holding climbed 6 fi ls. Boubyan Petrochemi-cal Co jumped 18 fi ls to 510 fi ls and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co gave up 2 fi ls. Metal and Recycling Co and ACICO Industries fell 3 fi ls each while Kuwait Foundry Co jumped 20 fi ls to 250 fi ls.

Jazeera Airways rose 3 fi ls to 531 fi ls and ALAFCO dialed up 2 fi ls. Kuwait Cement Co added 3 fi ls and Kuwait Portland Cement rallied 24 fi ls to 740 fi ls. Kuwait Foundry Co gained 20 fi ls and Educational Holding Group sprint-ed 18 fi ls to 288 fi ls. Combined Group Contracting Co added 3 fi ls.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank scaled 5 fi ls on back of 4.3 million shares while Burgan Bank was up 4 fi ls at 194 fi ls after moving over 5 million shares. Boubyan Bank gained 9 fi ls and Kuwait International Bank took in 1 fi ls with brisk trading

The market has been upbeat so far during the week gaining 194 points in last three sessions. It is down 81 points from start of the month and has retreat-ed 1406 points year-to-date.

Air France to expand destinations in weeksEasyJet reveals sophisticatedhack of customer information

PARIS, May 19, (KUNA): French fl ag-carrier Air France said on Monday that it plans to ramp up the number of do-mestic and European destinations over the coming weeks and hopes to resume other destinations, including the Mid-dle East, after June 30.

The statement indicated that the airline is currently only providing be-tween 3-5 percent of its normal servic-es because of the lockdowns in many countries and restrictions on air travel.

The company said that it is provid-ing very limited services in Europe and internationally, with only 43 des-tinations covered.

“By the end of June and subject to the lifting of travel restrictions, Air France plans to gradually resume its fl ights, with a gradual increase in the number of frequencies and des-tinations, in particular to mainland France, the Overseas Territories and Europe,” the company remarked.

The increase in services will bring the airline up to 15 percent of normal

LONDON, May 19, (AP): U.K.-based budget airline easyJet says that “highly sophisticated” hackers have accessed the email addresses and travel details of approximately 9 million customers.

It also said Tuesday that its “fo-rensic” investigation found that the credit card details of 2,208 people were accessed.

It added that all affected custom-ers will be contacted in the next few days and that there was “no evi-

dence” that the personal informa-tion has been misused.

“Since we became aware of the incident, it has become clear that owing to COVID-19 there is height-ened concern about personal data being used for online scams,” said easyJet Chief Executive Offi cer Jo-han Lundgren.

Lundgren apologized to those customers affected and said every business must continue to “stay ag-ile to stay ahead of the threat.”

operating capacity, putting 75 of its 224 planes in the air.

Beyond June 30, however, subject to conditions and travel restrictions, Air France’s services will be expand-ed internationally.

Destinations like Beirut, Dubai, Cairo, as well as fl ights to India could be resumed after that date, in addition to a resumption of fl ights to North America, South America and parts of Africa and Asia.

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020

12

Finnair wants to resume flights in July, focus on Asia

Finland’s national airline, a major carrier between Europe and China, said Monday it will add more flights and routes be-ginning in July if governments ease their lockdowns enough for travel to resume.

The outlook for flying over-all, however, remains uncer-tain, with companies fore-casting a slow recovery even next year due to public health restrictions and concerns.

Finnair, which had been forced to temporarily cancel flights to mainland China and other Asian destinations be-cause of the coronavirus, said it will restart in phases, “with a strong focus on Asia, which is strategically important” for the state-controlled airline.

The Helsinki-based com-pany said it will fly to Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, adding it was pending gov-

ernment approval, but also to Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo Narita in Japan; and to Sin-gapore, Seoul and Bangkok.

“We expect aviation to re-cover gradually, starting in July”, Finnair Chief Commer-cial Officer Ole Orver said in a statement. “Our intention is to operate approximately 30% of our normal amount of flights in July, and we will also start long-haul flights to

our key Asian destinations. We will then add routes and frequencies month by month as demand recovers.”

In July, Finnair would also resume flying to several ma-jor cities in Europe, including Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, London, Moscow, Munich, and Paris, as well as six do-mestic routes. Destinations in Spain, Italy and Poland would be added in August. (AP)

In this fi le photo, workers un-load a Finnair cargo plane at the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in Vantaa, Finland after arriving from China carrying medical equipment for the coronavi-

rus. (AP)

Commerce, ITt and Consumer Goods among most appealing industries – Bayt.com & YouGov

Almost 7 in 10 Kuwait residents prefer to be self-employedKUWAIT CITY, May 19: The En-trepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa survey, conducted recently by Bayt.com, the Middle East’s #1 job site, and YouGov, global online market research com-pany, has found that almost 7 in 10 (68%) of Kuwait residents prefer to be self-employed/have their own business if given the choice.

The survey found that even among those who are employed, 65% are currently thinking of starting a busi-ness, 23% of respondents have tried to start their own business in the past, while 8% never thought of starting their own business.

When it comes to being self-em-ployed, personal fulfi llment (53%), higher monetary gains (46%) and being my own boss (43%) emerge as the top reasons for preferring to be self-employed. This is followed by freedom to choose work-life balance (32%) and ability to give back to the community (32%).

Those who have already started their business seem to have similar reasoning. When asked about the reasons MENA professionals have for starting their own business, the top three answers were: more in-come (36%), better work-life bal-ance (35%) and independence in what I want to achieve (31%).

Of those who prefer to seek em-ployment in a company in Kuwait, the main reasons for their preference are: regular income (52%), learning new skills (33%) and job security (24%).

“Understanding the views of en-trepreneurs in the region is essential

to maximizing impact and driving growth and innovation in the econ-omy,” said Ola Haddad, Director of Human Resources at Bayt.com. “As part of our research strategy, Bayt.com conducts surveys annually and shares interesting insights about the opportunities and challenges of en-trepreneurship for the benefi t of the sector.”

Kuwait Entrepreneurial Ecosys-tem

Entrepreneurship continues to be a growing trend in Kuwait. Despite the given challenges of setting up a business, the survey indicates that entrepreneurship has become more popular than ever before. Many en-trepreneurs are looking to grow their startups and establish business. Over a third (36%) of MENA respondents have personal ambitions to grow their business further in their country of residence, followed by 23% who aim to become an important interna-tional player.

Of those who are self-employed

No ratings affected, says S&P

Saudi BICRA trends remain stable despite oil price dropRIYADH, May 19: Following a recent review of the Banking Industry Country Risk Assessment (BICRA) for Saudi Arabia, S&P Global Ratings has confi rmed the group classifi cation for the Sau-di Arabia BICRA remains unchanged at ‘4’, and the economic risk and industry risk scores remain unchanged at ‘5’ and ‘3’, respectively. In addition, we continue to see stable trends for both economic risk and industry risk. No ratings were affected by this review.

Of the factors contributing to our assessment of industry risk, we have revised downward our as-sessment of the institutional framework to inter-mediate risk from low risk. We now view Saudi Arabia’s regulatory framework as comparable with that of peers, having previously considered

it more conservative in terms of limiting risk ap-petite in the sector. Over the past few years, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) has relaxed capital requirements for mortgage lending and increased the loan to value ratio in order to help more nationals become homeowners, which is a Vision 2030 objective. These changes have led to a signifi cant increase in mortgage lending, a trend that we expect will continue over the next couple of years.

Under our base-case scenario, we expect Saudi banks’ cost of risk will increase, reaching an aver-age of 1.2% - 1.4% in 2020 - 2021, up from 0.8% in 2019. This is because we anticipate an eco-nomic recession in 2020 due to a lower oil price and COVID-19-related restrictions. At the same

time, we believe Saudi banks will have suffi cient capacity to absorb this stress, despite a decline in net interest margins, which still compare well with those of most peers. Notwithstanding the expected decline in profi tability, most Saudi banks will re-main profi table in 2020 and 2021 under our base case scenario.

Our stable trend for economic risk remains largely contingent on our oil price assumptions and resumption of economic activity globally in third-quarter 2020 as pandemic-related restric-tions are lifted.

If the recession has a more signifi cant effect on Saudi Arabia than we expect, or there is a signifi -cant delay in economic recovery, we may revise our assumptions.

in the MENA region, 36% are at the start up stage of the business, while 26% state that their business is estab-lished but not performing well. On the other hand, 16% say their busi-ness is well established and perform-ing well.

The top concern of Kuwait re-spondents while setting up their own business would be procuring fi nanc-es to start (64%) and the uncertainty of profi t/ income (39%).

Among the most appealing in-dustries for entrepreneurship in Kuwait are Commerce/Trade/Retail (17%), IT/ Internet/ E-commerce (15%), and Consumer Goods/ FMCG (6%).

Perception of Entrepreneurship

The survey shows even greater benefi ts of entrepreneurship for so-cieties and the economy. The per-ceived image of entrepreneurs in the region is very positive – Kuwait respondents perceive entrepreneurs to be opportunity-driven (81%) and that they help in creating new jobs (83%).

The best pieces of advice of-fered to budding entrepreneurs by respondents in the MENA region is to not be afraid of failure (44%) and doing an extensive amount of mar-ket research (12%). Over a quarter (28%) of respondents believe that innovation is the key to success as an entrepreneur, followed by access to funding (23%) and employing the

right people (21%).Zafar Shah, Research Director,

Data Services at YouGov said: “En-trepreneurs are the primary source of new job creation. The ideas and innovations born in small companies and startups disrupt industries and create a stronger economy, offer-ing greater opportunities for upward mobility. Therefore, it became im-perative for us to explore upcoming entrepreneurs and what challenges they face in a new survey with Bayt.com.”

As part of its ongoing commit-ment to empower entrepreneurs and startups across the region with the tools and information to source, hire, and manage talent,

Bayt.com introduced free job post-ings to push more work opportuni-ties. Entrepreneurs can post their jobs for free and access the largest and most comprehensive database in the Middle East of over 38 mil-lion CVs by clicking on this link: https://bit.ly/2WNaLcm.

Data for the Entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa Survey was collected online from January 29, 2020 to February 26, 2020. Results are based on a sam-ple of 1,818 respondents from the following countries: UAE, KSA, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan and others.

Asian markets rise on hopes forvaccine & economies reopening

Oil prices jump

TOKYO, May 19, (AP): Asian shares rose Tuesday on optimism about a poten-tial vaccine for the corona-virus after hopes for a U.S. economic recovery in the second half of the year sent Wall Street into a rebound.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 1.5% to finish at 20,433.45. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 jumped 1.8% to 5,559.50. South Korea’s Kos-pi was up 2.2% to 1,980.07. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 2.1% to 24,442.42, while the Shanghai Compos-ite edged up 0.7% to 2,895.46.

India’s Sensex added 1.8% to 30,558.23 and markets also rose in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

“The mood is assertively risk-on with sentiment having been tipped over by fresh hopes sparked for a COVID-19 vaccine,” said Jingyi Pan, market strategist for IG.

Pan said reports that drug com-pany Moderna had found prom-ising results on a vaccine have “no doubt been the biggest mood booster for markets, given the fact that the lingering coronavirus im-plications remains the single big-gest issue holding back the market from recovery and a contributor to other risk factors including US-China tensions.”

Massachusetts-based Moderna saw its stock jump 20% in New York trading Monday.

The S&P 500 climbed 3.2%, its best day since early April. The gains erased all of its losses from last week, when the index posted its worst showing since late March and its third weekly loss in the last four. Bond yields rose broadly in another sign that investors were becoming more optimistic.

Investors were also encouraged by remarks over the weekend from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who expressed optimism that the U.S. economy could begin to recover in the second half of the year. Once the outbreak has been contained, he said, the economy should be able to rebound “sub-stantially.”

The S&P 500 gained 90.21 points to 2,953.91. The benchmark index is still down 12.8% from its all-time high on February 19.

The Dow Jones Industrial Aver-

age surged 3.9% to 24,597.37. The Nasdaq composite rose 2.4% to 9,234.83. Small-company stocks fared better than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 index picked up 6.1%, to 1,333.69.

Investors are hoping that a work-ing vaccine for COVID-19 can be developed and that it will help re-assure people and businesses as economies reopen.

“The question of how quickly people come back, or will they come back to the way they used to do things, that’s much different if you have a vaccine,” said Megan Horneman, director of portfolio strategy at Verdence Capital Advi-sors.

Economies in Asia also are starting to relax restrictions, al-though worries remain about another surge in illnesses. In crowded cities it is difficult to maintain social distancing. As the cases drop, people are letting their guard down in going out and mingling in crowds.

But traders have been encour-aged by signs that, so far at least, there hasn’t been a lot of data im-plying a resurgence in the number of COVID-19 cases, said Sam

Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.

“Of course, because we are re-sponding to impressions, we could end up giving back some of these gains should additional informa-tion contest our beliefs,” he said.

Technology, fi nancial and in-dustrial stocks accounted for a big slice of Monday’s broad gains, along with companies that rely on consumer spending. Energy stocks also rose as the price of U.S. crude oil closed above $30 a barrel for the fi rst time in two months. Oil production cuts are kicking in at the same time that demand is ris-ing as the U.S. and other countries ease some of the restrictions aimed at stemming the spread of the out-break.

Benchmark U.S. crude oil add-ed 43 cents to $32.25 a barrel. It jumped 8.1% to settle at $31.82 a barrel Monday. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 37 cents to $35.18 a barrel.

Bonds yields rose overnight, another sign that pessimism was diminishing. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, a benchmark for interest rates on many consum-er loans, climbed to 0.72% from

0.64% late Friday. On Tuesday morning it was at 0.70%.

Fears of a crushing recession due to the coronavirus sent the S&P 500 into a skid of more than 30% from its high in February. Hopes for a relatively quick rebound and unprecedented moves by the Fed-eral Reserve and Congress to stem the economic pain fueled a historic rebound for stocks in April.

May got off to a downbeat start as investors balance cautious opti-mism of a recovery as economies around the world slowly open up again against worries that the moves could lead to another surge in coronavirus infections and more economic uncertainty. But Mon-day’s strong start to the week re-versed all of the market’s losses so far this month.

Wall Street is hoping that the reopening of businesses and the relaxation of stay-at-home man-dates continue without any major setbacks, paving the way for cor-porate profi ts to bounce back.

The U.S. dollar inched up to 107.38 Japanese yen from 107.31 yen on Monday. The euro rose to $1.0933 from $1.0920.

A woman wearing face mask walks past a bank electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index Tuesday, May 19, 2020. Asian shares rose Tuesday on optimism about a potential vaccine for the coronavirus after hopes

for a U.S. economic recovery in the second half of the year sent Wall Street into a rebound. (AP)

Shaikh Nayef bin Khalid Al Khalifa, Chairman of Bahrain Tender Board

Over $740m awarded in Q1 of 2020

Bahrain awards tenders worth $4.9 billion in 2019MANAMA, May 19: New data re-leased by the Tender Board, an in-dependent regulator of government procurement practices in Bahrain, revealed that the country awarded 1,730 tenders in 2019 worth a total of US$4.9 billion.

The construction and engineer-ing services sector took the lion’s share of the awarded tenders, with 45% worth US$2.2 billion. The oil and gas sector placed second with tenders valued at US$1.2 billion or 24% of the total. The aviation sector came third accounting for 13% of awarded tenders valued at US$627 million.

In the fi rst quarter of 2020, Bah-rain awarded 372 tenders worth a total of US$740 million, with the procurement of equipment and materials accounting for 30% of the awarded tenders valued at US$233 million. The construction and engineering services sector ac-counted for 26% of tenders worth US$188.7 million, followed by the aviation sector, which took 18% of the tenders valued at US$132 mil-lion. The fourth and fi fth largest shares were taken by the oil and gas sector and the services sector, accounting for 15% of the awarded tenders worth US$113 million, and 11% worth US$82 million, respec-tively.

The results reaffi rm Bahrain’s efforts to continue public and private sector spending on major infrastructure projects despite the exceptional circumstances cur-rently affecting the globe regard-ing the COVID-19 outbreak. The Kingdom’s US$32 billion infra-structure project pipeline is a ma-jor contributor and driver of na-tional economic growth. Among the key projects currently under-way is the Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) refi nery mod-ernisation project (now 40% com-

plete), the US$1.1 billion Bahrain International Airport expansion project that will contribute to dou-bling the airport’s capacity to 14 million passengers annually, and the fl eet upgrade of Bahrain’s na-tional carrier Gulf Air.

Shaikh Nayef bin Khalid Al Khalifa, Chairman of Bahrain Tender Board, said: “The new data reflects the stability of the bids awarded in all sectors, and reinforces the sustainability of Bahrain’s development services as part of the ongoing urban in-frastructure expansion that the country is undertaking. In line with the objectives of the Bah-rain Economic Vision 2030, these numbers encourage us to provide best-in-class services that meet and exceed our citi-zens’ expectations and align with our national priorities to achieve sustainability and encourage investment, further driving the country’s economic evolution.

He added: “In an effort to en-hance market competitiveness, the Board sought to encourage a wider range of suppliers and contrac-tors to participate in government tenders and bidding last year. The Tender Board achieved distin-guished results in 2019 in terms of its selection of government tenders and auctions, with the number of public tenders constituting 70.5% of the 2019 total – up from 57% the previous year.

“In addition, the number of lim-ited tenders declined from 25% to 19.3% of the total number of ten-ders, while the contracting ratio registered 10.3% in 2019, com-pared to 18% in 2018. This refl ects the progress the Tender Board has made in adopting best international practices to increase its competi-tiveness and optimise the value of public funds spent.”

Ola Haddad

Business PlusPlus

Those consumers who are still unem-

ployed are not likely to be making auto

purchases

They don’t quite understand what

compounding inter-est means

‘

‘

’

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Ford is predicting stronger sales in the future in Europe, China and US

Auto workers’ tenuous return a ray of hope in jobs crisis

30% in May. Sales have been juiced by incentives, with offers of 0% fi -nancing for seven years.

Pickup trucks are giving au-tomakers the most hope, said Jeff Schuster, senior vice president at LMC Automotive, a consulting fi rm. From January through April, total auto sales were down 21%, but pickups were only off 4%, he said.

Yet Schuster says automak-ers could be a little too optimistic. “Those consumers who are still un-employed are not likely to be mak-ing auto purchases,” he said.

Some U.S. automakers, like Gen-eral Motors, are restarting slowly, only bringing back workers on one shift in factories, some of which ran around the clock before the pandemic. Others, like Subaru in Indiana, have a full complement of employees.

Although companies are taking precautions, one big virus out-break at an auto plant could send the industry back into hibernation. And the industry could face parts supply interruptions from Mexico, where the government wants to reopen factories despite rising vi-rus cases.

Automakers in the U.S. are re-quiring employees to fi ll out ques-tionnaires daily to see if they have symptoms, taking temperatures with no-touch thermometers before workers enter buildings, and requir-ing gloves, masks and face shields. They’ve also tried to keep at least six feet between workers, staggered time between shifts so workers don’t interact, and put up plexiglas barriers when possible.

All the steps were tested on U.S. workers who volunteered to make protective gear and breathing ma-chines while they were laid off. Automakers say they know of no virus cases among workers in the effort.

But Phil Cuthbertson a worker at GM’s transmission plant in Toledo, Ohio, who will return this week, said he has mixed feelings.

“I just don’t want the whole thing to be pushed on us to go back if it’s not safe,” he said.

Cindy Estrada, United Auto Workers vice president for Fiat Chrysler, said she’s been impressed by the companies’ safety commit-ment. But she’s sure some workers, especially in the hard-hit Detroit area, will be fearful because fam-ily members or co-workers have had COVID-19. At least 25 UAW members employed by Detroit au-tomakers have died from the vi-rus, although no one is sure if they caught it at a factory.

The union will be watching in case workers get infected, though there’s no magic number for when it will try to close a factory, Estrada said.

“If something looks like it’s be-coming a hot spot, then we need to act quickly and make adjustments,” she said. “No one wants to see that happen.” (AP)

In this fi le photo, an autoworker assembles a transmission at the General Motors Transmission Plant in Toledo, Ohio. Defying a wave of layoffs that has sent the U.S. job market into its worst catastrophe on record, at least one major industry is making a comeback: Tens of thousands of auto workers are returning to factories that have been shuttered since mid-March

due to fears of spreading the coronavirus. (AP)

Move could be the right tool at the right time ... or an expensive mistake

Should seniors consider a reverse mortgage now?By Liz Weston

NerdWallet

Reverse mortgages allow older homeowners to turn part of

their home equity into tax-free cash, using a loan that doesn’t have to be paid back until they die, sell or move out.

That sounds good to a lot of sen-iors navigating fi nancial fallout dur-ing the coronavirus pandemic. Stay-at-home orders may have taken away jobs needed to make ends meet, while low interest rates and a vola-tile stock market have endangered income from retirement savings.

A reverse mortgage could be ex-actly the right tool at the right time. Or it could be an expensive mistake. It’s important to understand exactly how these loans work and to explore alternatives before you commit.

REVERSE MORTGAGE BA-SICS

Most reverse mortgages are Home Equity Conversion Mortgag-es (HECMs), which are insured by the federal government. Borrowers

must be 62 or older and have sub-stantial home equity.

The amount you can borrow not only depends on your equity and the home’s value, it also varies based on your age, current interest rates and HECM program limits. The higher your age and the lower the prevailing interest rate, the more you can typically borrow. Currently the program will let you borrow against a maximum of $765,600 in home value.

Borrowers can get a lump sum, a line of credit or a series of regular payments. Reverse mortgages can also be used to pay off an existing mortgage or to buy a home.

You don’t have to make pay-ments on a reverse mortgage, even if you end up owing more than the house is worth. You can, however, wind up in foreclosure if you fall behind on property taxes, home-owners insurance or homeowners association fees.

REVERSE MORTGAGES AREN’T CHEAP

Most of the costs are taken from

your loan proceeds, so you don’t pay them out of pocket, but it’s still an expensive way to borrow. HECM loans require a 2% upfront mortgage insurance payment, plus an additional 0.5% annual charge, on top of origination costs and lend-ers’ fees. Any amount you borrow, including these fees and insurance, accrues interest, which means your debt grows over time.

Many borrowers don’t realize this, or that the debt can grow to the point where they may not have anything left to borrow against in an emergency or to leave to their kids, says Barbara Jones, a senior attor-ney for AARP Foundation.

“They don’t quite understand what compounding interest means,” Jones says. “So they don’t have the equity in their home that they thought they did.”

LOOK ELSEWHERE FOR SHORT-TERM NEEDS

If you have a short-term need for cash, consider other options fi rst, Jones recommends. Many low-income seniors don’t realize they

qualify for the earned income tax credit, a refundable tax break that can put cash in your pocket. You also could use Benefi tsCheckUp, a site run by the National Council on Aging, to see what other help you may qualify for. People of any age can ask for forbearance, or the ability to skip payments, from their mortgage company and other lend-ers.

Another possibility is a regular home equity loan or line of credit. This type of borrowing requires you to make payments, and lenders can freeze or lower limits on lines of credit, but the borrowing costs are much lower.

REVERSE MORTGAGES CAN BE USED AS A RELIEF VALVE

Although fi nancial planners long considered reverse mortgages to be a last resort for struggling seniors, researchers in recent years found a potential use for more affl uent peo-ple: as a relief valve to take the pres-sure off investments in bad markets. Tapping a reverse line of credit for income instead of selling beaten-

down stocks gives investment port-folios a chance to recover along with the market. That can allow people to spend more with less risk of depleting their portfolios, says Wade Pfau, professor of retirement income at The American College of Financial Services.

A reverse mortgage also can pro-vide monthly guaranteed income that isn’t dependent on stock market swings or a healthy labor market, says Steve Resch, vice president of retirement strategies at Finance of America Reverse, a reverse mort-gage lender. So can an income an-nuity, which is an insurance product that gives you a stream of payments, typically for the rest of your life, in exchange for a lump sum.

Before you proceed with either a reverse mortgage or an annuity, you’d be smart to consult a certifi ed fi nancial planner or other fi duciary advisor. Most people promoting these products get paid to sell them, and you’ll want to check in with an objective advisor committed to put-ting your interests fi rst. (AP)

By Tom Krisher

Defying a wave of layoffs that has sent the U.S. job market

into its worst catastrophe on record, at least one major industry is mak-ing a comeback: Tens of thousands of auto workers are returning to fac-tories that have been shuttered since mid-March due to fears of spread-ing the coronavirus.

Until now, it was mostly hair sa-lons, restaurants, tattoo parlors and other small businesses reopening in some parts of the country. The auto industry is among the fi rst major sectors of the economy to restart its engine.

About 133,000 U.S. workers - just over half of the industry’s workforce before the pandemic - are expected to pour back into auto plants that will open in the coming week, according to estimates by The Associated Press. In addition, parts-making companies began cranking this week to get components fl ow-ing, adding thousands more work-ers.

Looming in the background is an economy decimated by the pandem-ic. Nearly 3 million laid-off U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefi ts last week, raising the total seeking aid in the past two months to about 36 million. Although some states have begun to let se-lected businesses reopen, workers are still reporting diffi culty getting unemployment benefi ts. Freelance, gig and self-employed workers are struggling.

Even the auto sector won’t see a full return to normal yet, and if people don’t start buying vehicles again, workers could be sent home. Yet automakers say there’s enough pent-up demand, especially for pickup trucks, to get factories hum-ming again.

That could help states slow the drain on their unemployment ben-efi t funds. In Michigan, where over one-third of the labor force sought benefi ts, the fund fell from $4.6 bil-lion before the pandemic to $4.1 bil-lion on April 30, said Jeff Donofrio, director of the state Department of

Labor and Economic Opportunity. Some returning auto employees could work part-time and get still some unemployment benefi ts, but federal programs could cover part of their payments, he said.

At Ford, where about 47,000 U.S. factory workers will return this week, there’s optimism that consumer demand will accompany them. Chief Operating Offi cer Jim Farley said the company has seen sales start to recover.

Ford is predicting stronger sales in the future in Europe, China and the U.S. based on data collected from new models equipped with in-ternet modems that show the num-ber of times an engine is turned on and off. The company found a cor-relation between the number of trips people take and auto sales, with trips increasing as restrictions eased.

“We started to see in early April a change where people started to take more trips,” Farley said Thursday. “The (sales) decline stopped and our retail sales improved a lot.”

Auto sales in China, where the

virus peaked before the U.S., could be a harbinger of things to come. China sales fell just 2.6% in April from a year earlier, compared with a 48% free-fall in March. Produc-tion at many plants is nearly back to normal after being shut down in January and February. Volkswagen, Honda, Mercedes and Ford reported no virus cases among employees since reopening. Fiat Chrysler had two, but said the workers never en-tered factories.

Things are worse in Europe, where sales plummeted 55% in March and some factories are run-ning at only 40% of capacity. The pandemic has affected over 1.1 mil-lion European auto industry work-ers, almost half the sector’s manu-facturing jobs. Most are getting paid through government support. A sur-vey of auto parts suppliers shows that a third of executives believe it will take at least two years for the industry to recover.

U.S. sales fell 46% in April com-pared with a year ago, but analysts are forecasting a smaller decline of

TikTok names top Disney streaming exec as new CEO

TikTok, the popular short-video app that has also drawn nation-al-security and privacy concerns, has a new high-profi le CEO from Disney, Kevin Mayer.

Mayer will also be chief oper-ating offi cer of TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and report to its founder and CEO, Yiming Zhang, the com-pany announced Monday.

He led Disney’s streaming business, which launched Dis-

ney Plus in November and has already emerged as a threat in the increasingly competitive streaming-video arena, with 54.5 million subscribers. Mayer was also known for his role in building Disney through merg-ers, including the industry-changing 2019 acquisition of 21st Century Fox’s TV and fi lm business that created an enter-tainment behemoth.

TikTok’s app features short

videos, many with music and dancing, that has become a fa-vorite of younger people and is known for its goofy, light-hearted feel. Like YouTube, it’s known for “user-generated” content rather than the big-budget, professional movies and TV shows Disney is famous for.

Having a U.S.-based CEO from a major American media company could help TikTok navi-gate the U.S. regulatory environ-

ment and approach to privacy and data security, said eMar-keter analyst Debra Williamson. “Having someone who’s familiar with that at the helm is certain to be helpful for them,” she said.

TikTok has been the focus of U.S. national-security concerns because of its Chinese owner-ship. A U.S. national-security agency is reviewing ByteD-ance’s purchase of TikTok’s precursor, (AP)

In this fi le photo, Disney chief strategy offi cer Kevin Mayer visits the company’s ‘accelerator’ space in Glendale, California. (AP)

LOS ANGELES, May 19, (AP): LeBron James reiterated Monday that he is hopeful the NBA season can resume, with the caveat that the health and well-being of players won’t be jeopardized by a return to play.

The Los Angeles Lakers star, speak-ing on the Uninterrupted platform’s “WRTS: After Party” show that was released Monday, said it remains his wish that the season comes back “soon-

er than later.” The NBA suspended the season on March 11 because of the coronavirus pandemic, and two uniden-tified members of the Lakers were among the league’s players who subse-quently tested positive for the virus.

“Definitely not giving up on the season,” James said. “Not only myself and my teammates, the Lakers organi-zation, we want to play. There’s a lot of players that I know personally that want to play. And obviously, we don’t ever want to jeopardize the health of any of our players or any of the play-ers’ families and so on and so on.

“This is a pandemic that we have no

idea (about). We can’t control it,” James added.

James was among a group of some of the league’s highest-paid players, National Basketball Players Association president Chris Paul of the Oklahoma City Thunder also part of

the group, who met last week to talk about the season. Those players affirmed to one another on that call that they would like to see the season resume.

N B A Commissioner Adam Silver told players’

union members on May 8 that he was hoping to make some sort of decision about the future of the season within no more than a four-week window. By that timeframe - barring any adjust-ments based on what’s happening with the pandemic - Silver and the NBA would be hoping to decide upon some course of action by June 5.

That said, there has been no defini-

tive timetable from the NBA on when a decision would be made. The league is prepping for many options.

As of Monday, just over half of the league’s 30 franchises had reopened their practice facilities for voluntary workouts. But other sports are showing promising signs, with NASCAR restarting its sea-son this past weekend, baseball working through some plans that could lead to a summer opening day, and live golf returning to television Sunday with a skins game in South Florida.

“We’re seeing a lot of sporting events, UFC, soccer, we’re hearing baseball’s about to get going in a little bit,” James said. “You know, I want to get back to playing. I love to play the game of basketball. I know how inspiring the game of basketball is. I know how inspiring sport is, itself. As soon as possible, when we can get back out there, we’d love to bring the game of basketball back to our fans.”

James and the Lakers were atop the Western Conference standings when the NBA suspended play. At 49-14, the NBA’s second-best record behind Milwaukee, the Lakers had already clinched what would be their first play-off spot since 2013.

SPORTSARAB TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2020

14

NBC says 2.35 million viewers for live golf’s return to TV

US Open no longer ‘open’, eliminates qualifying for majorNEW YORK, May 19, (AP): The U.S. Open might feel more like a closed shop this year.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which already has postponed the U.S. Open at Winged Foot from June to Septem-ber, has forced the USGA to do away with qualifying for the fi rst time since 1924.

Open qualifying is the hallmark of golf’s second-oldest championship. The USGA often points out that typi-cally half of the 156-man fi eld has to go through either 36-hole qualifying or 18-hole and 36-hole qualifying.

It even invested in a marketing cam-paign that was rolled out in February titled, “From Many, One,” to illustrate that more than 9,000 people apply to play in the U.S. Open, eventually yielding to one winner.

The USGA did not announce Mon-day how other players would become exempt.

Among those who have yet to qual-ify is Phil Mickelson, a runner-up six times in the only major he hasn’t won.

M i c k e l s o n said in February he would not ask the USGA for an exemp-tion, and that if he didn’t qual-ify or become exempt, he wouldn’t play. Winged Foot is where Mickel-son made dou-ble bogey on the

fi nal hole in 2006 to lose by one.The fi eld presumably will be smaller

because of the later date, though the USGA did not mention the fi eld size in its April 6 announcement that the U.S. Open was moving to Sept. 17-20 at Winged Foot, in Mamaroneck, New York.

“As you can imagine, this was an incredibly diffi cult decision, as quali-fying is a cornerstone of USGA cham-pionships,” said John Bodenhamer, senior managing director of champi-onships for the USGA. “We take great pride in the fact that many thousands typically enter to pursue their dream of qualifying for the U.S. Open and we deeply regret that they will not have that opportunity this year.”

Bodenhamer said no qualifying pro-vides “the best path forward” to hold-ing the U.S. Open.

The USGA said there would not be qualifying for three other champion-ships it will hold this year - the U.S. Women’s Open (moved to December in Houston) and the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Women’s Amateur, both still scheduled for August.

The U.S. Open, which dates to 1895, had so many players wanting to compete in the years after World

War I that it introduced qualifying in 1924. Then, it went to two stages of qualifying in 1959 - 18-hole lo-cal qualifying and 36-hole sectional qualifying.

Ken Venturi in 1964 and Orville Moody in 1969 are the only U.S. Open champions who got through both stag-es. Lucas Glover in 2009 was the last U.S. Open champion to go through 36-hole qualifying.

The USGA had 108 local qualifi ers planned in 45 states and one in Cana-da, followed by 12 sectional qualifi ers - nine in the U.S., one each in Canada, England and Japan.

When the U.S. Open was postponed, 50 players were exempt through vari-ous categories, such as past champions the last 10 years or top 10 from last year’s U.S. Open, major champions from the last fi ve years and the top 30 players who reached the Tour Champi-onship last year.

The pandemic shut down golf on March 13, two months before the top 60 in the world ranking would have been exempt for the U.S. Open. The world ranking has been frozen since the shutdown. It was unclear when it would resume because while the PGA Tour is to resume on June 11, circuits in Europe, Japan and Asia have not said when they would re-turn.

The USGA, meanwhile, has lost 10 championships to the coronavirus. It said Monday that four more were canceled - the U.S. Mid-Amateur and Women’s Mid-Amateur, and the U.S. Senior Amateur and U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur.

Meanwhile, the return of live golf to television brought 2.35 million viewers across all platforms, which NBC Sports says was 16% higher than the fi nal of the Dell Match Play last year.

The TaylorMade Driving Relief on Sunday from Seminole Golf Club was shown from 2 p.m. to just after 6:30 p.m. on NBC, Golf Channel, NBCSN, along with NBC Sports and PGA Tour streaming outlets.

Rory McIlroy won a closest-to-the-pin playoff worth six skins valued at $1.1 million as he and Dustin Johnson defeated Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff. More than $5.5 million was raised for COVID-19 relief funds, with more donations being accepted through Tuesday.

NBC used the Match Play as a com-parison because only four players were on the course in both formats. Kevin Kisner beat Matt Kuchar in the Match Play last year that had a total audience delivery of 2.03 million.

The Seminole exhibition was up against the offi cial return of NASCAR. The Match Play last year on March 31, however, was part of a TV lineup fi lled with sports, including NCAA basket-ball tournament, Major League Base-ball and a NASCAR race.

NBC says the Skins game at Semi-nole was roughly the same as viewer-ship for network coverage of the PGA Tour in the second quarter of 2019.

Celtic soccer team fans celebrate outside Celtic Park in Glasgow, Scotland after Celtic were crowned champions of the Scottish Premiership, on May 18. (AP)

Mickelson

James

Celtic crowned champions againafter ‘Scottish league’ called off

Final season placings determined by average points per game

GLASGOW, Scotland, May 19, (AP): Celtic won its ninth straight Scot-tish title on Monday after the country’s top soccer league was cut short because there was no immediate prospect of play restarting amid the cor-onavirus pandemic.

Scotland joined France, the Netherlands and Belgium in calling off the season early, with Scottish soccer at all levels suspended until June 10 at the earliest. There have been no games in the Scottish league since March 13.

Celtic dedicated the club’s latest league title - its 51st, only three behind the national record held by Glasgow rival Rangers - to “key workers who are saving lives, cleaning hospitals, stacking

shelves and shielding loved ones at home.”

“DO NOT come to Celtic Park,” Celtic urged fans, with Scotland still under strict lockdown restrictions during the pandemic.

Final season placings were deter-mined by average points per game, which left Celtic with 2.66 after col-lecting 80 points from 30 games. Rangers finished second with 2.31 points per game.

The only change to the standings under the points-per-game scenario saw St. Johnstone jump above Hibernian into sixth place.

Last-place Hearts was relegated but the Edinburgh club, which had been one of the teams opposing the controversial decision to allow the season to finish early, said it will “continue to fight against what we believe is an unjust outcome.”

“We have stated from the outset that we don’t believe it is right that any club should be unfairly penal-ized because of the COVID-19 pan-demic,” Hearts said. “Legal action would be both time-consuming and expensive. However, the cost to the club of relegation would outweigh these considerations.”

The Scottish Professional Football League said clubs in the top division expressed a unanimous view on Friday that there is no pros-pect of completing the remaining matches.

Confirmation that the season was curtailed by the SPFL came Monday.

“This is not the way anybody involved with Scottish football would have wanted to conclude the league season but, given the grave and unprecedented circumstances that we are facing, the board has agreed that it is the only practical way forward,” SPFL chairman Murdoch MacLennan said.

“COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on sporting competitions around the world and the repercussions will be felt for a long time.”

Along with the government restrictions, MacLennan said “deep concerns for both player and specta-tor safety” were behind the decision to cut the season short.

The SPFL will now pay out $8.5 million in fees “to help clubs stay afloat,” chief executive Neil Doncaster said, adding that the next league season is due to start on Aug. 1.

“Nobody should be under any illusion,” MacLennan said, “as to how complicated and difficult a challenge it will be to return Scottish football to normality.”

In this, March 5, 2020, fi le photo, Peshawar Zalmi pacer Hasan Ali, center, celebrates after taking the wicket of Quetta Gladiators batsman Shane Watson, left, during a Pakistan Super League T20 cricket match, in

Rawalpindi, Pakistan. (AP)

NEW DELHI, May 19, (AP): The Board of Control for Cricket in India says it will “wait further” to organize training camp for its contracted play-ers despite the government relaxing restrictions on sporting events, allow-ing them to resume without fans.

The Indian Premier League - the BCCI’s marque event -- was post-poned last month due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Twenty20 tourna-ment will only take place this year once travel restrictions are eased and the cricket board can find a suitable window for it in the schedule.

“Taking into the account the restric-tions on air travel and movement of people till May 31, the BCCI will wait further before organizing a skill-based training camp for its contracted play-ers,” cricket board treasurer Arun Dhumal said in a statement.

“The board reiterates that the safety and well-being of its athletes and sup-port staff is paramount and will not rush into any decision that can hamper or jeopardize India’s efforts in con-taining the spread of the virus.”

Maharashtra and Karnataka are among several prominent states in India in complete lockdown. Cricket activi-ties have been stopped around the coun-

try, but the BCCI wanted to try organiz-ing training camps at local levels.

The Indian government extended the lockdown for two weeks on Sunday but said that sports complexes and stadiums will be permitted to open without spectators.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said all large gatherings will continue to remain prohibited, as will air travel “except for domestic medical services, domestic air ambulance and for security purposes or purposes as permitted by MHA.”

Also:ISLAMABAD: When cricket resumes, no team will be better prepared for playing in front of empty stands than Pakistan.

Pakistan did it for more than 10 years until last year.

The United Arab Emirates became Pakistan’s home away from home after the 2009 terrorist attack against the Sri Lanka team convoy in Lahore. No teams were willing to go to Pakistan to play a test until Sri Lanka last year in Rawalpindi.

“It’s ironic that we played our home cricket in front of almost empty stadia for 10 years and now the world is heading in that direction,” Pakistan limited-overs captain Babar Azam said on Monday in a video news con-ference. “No team knows what it feels like playing in front of empty stands more than Pakistan.”

Babar hopes T20 WCup goes ahead even without spectators

BCCI to wait further before organizing training camps

Defi nitely not giving up on the season: LeBron

SOCCER

BASKETBALL

CRICKET

GOLF

Sports PlusPlus

We emphasize that this is a first draft, and will undergo several rounds

of changes as we collect comments and sugges-

tions from the clubs, the players’ association,

players, and government officials

‘

Some consideration is now being given to

whether things like that wax applicator will

become part of cricket’s new normal.

‘

’

’

Spit banned but sweat OK to polish cricket balls amid virus

Saliva ban could change the swing of things in cricketfraught: at present the use of any artifi cial substance constitutes ball tampering and members felt any relaxation or variation of the rule might be problematic.

However, amid fears that an ina-bility to swing the ball might tip the balance of cricket matches too far in favor of batsmen, various methods to reproduce swing in the absence of saliva have been promoted.

The Australian cricket ball manu-facturer Kookaburra last month sug-gested the use of a small sponge or applicator to apply wax to the ball with the oversight of the umpires. The great Australian test leg-spinner Shane Warne suggested weighting the ball to create swing.

Moves are underway for cricket to resume in Darwin, in Australia’s north, as early as next month and local cricket chairman Lachlan Baird said experimentation would be necessary.

“The ICC is working really closely with all the cricket bodies around the world in terms of fi nding new ways,” Baird told the Austral-ian Broadcasting Corp. “Some consideration is now being given to whether things like that wax appli-cator will become part of cricket’s new normal.”

Meanwhile, the use of saliva to polish cricket balls is set to be pro-hibited as part of changes to regula-tions recommended by the sport’s world governing body during the coronavirus pandemic.

The International Cricket Council said, however, that sweat can still be used to polish the ball because medical advice shows “it is highly unlikely that the virus can be trans-mitted” that way.

An ICC committee also recom-mended that local match offi cials be appointed in the short term “given the challenges of international travel with borders being closed, limited commercial fl ights and mandatory quarantine periods.”

If there are no local match of-fi cials available from the “elite panel,” the best local offi cials from the international panel will be chosen.

Offi cials appointed by the ICC haven’t come from the same coun-try as the participating teams since 2002.

An additional DRS review per team per innings is also set to be introduced in each of cricket’s for-mats as an interim measure.

The recommendations of the committee will be presented to the ICC chief executives’ committee in June for approval.

“We are living through extraordi-nary times,” committee chair Anil Kumble said, “and the recom-mendations the committee have made today are interim measures to enable us to safely resume cricket in a way that preserves the essence of our game whilst protecting everyone involved.” (AP)

In this July 30, 2015, file photo England captain Alastair Cook polishes the ball during their Ashes Test cricket match against Australia in Birmingham, England. A move to ban the use of saliva to shine a cricket ball because of the danger of transmitting Covid-19 may force bowlers to relearn or reinvent one of the sport’s most prized but troublesome skills. (AP)

Hitting in indoor cages discouraged, batting gloves encouraged

New MLB rules: shower at home, don’t spit, Mr Met stay away

NEW YORK, May 19 (AP): Major League Baseball will look some-what like high school ball this year under protocols to deal with the new coronavirus, with showers at ballparks discouraged and players possibly arriving in uniform, like they did when they were teenagers.

Team personnel will be banned from eating at restaurants on road trips.

Even the Phillie Phantic and Mr. Met will be missing, banned from the fi eld along with all other team mascots.

The traditional exchange of lineup cards would be eliminated, along with high-fi ves, fi st bumps, and bat boys and girls, according to a 67-page draft of Major League Baseball’s proposed 2020 Opera-tions Manual. A copy was sent to teams Friday and obtained by The Associated Press. The guidelines, fi rst reported by The Athletic, are subject to negotiation with the play-ers’ association.

Teams will be allowed to have 50 players each under the plan, with the number active for each game still be negotiated.

Spitting is prohibited along with water jugs and the use of saunas,

steam rooms, pools and cryotherapy chambers. Hitting in indoor cages is discouraged, batting gloves encour-aged.

Batting practice pitchers are to wear masks, dugout telephones dis-infected after each use. Players may not touch their face to give signs, and they’re not allowed to lick their fi ngers. Teams are encouraged to

hold meetings outdoors, players spread apart.

Teams were asked to respond with their suggested input by May 22. The protocols were written by MLB senior vice presidents Patrick Houlihan, Bryan Seeley and Chris Young, and vice president Jon Coyles. Young is a former pitcher who retired after the 2017 season.

Protocols include details on test-ing for team staff, who are divided into three tiers. All others may not enter clubhouses, dugouts and the fi eld.

Seats in the empty stands near the dugout should be used to maintain distance, according to diagrams in the manual, and the next day’s start-ing pitcher can’t sit in the dugout. Everyone must keep their distance during “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “God Bless America,”

Fielders are “encouraged to retreat several steps away from the baserunner” between pitches. First and third base coaches are not to ap-proach baserunners or umpires, and players should not socialize with opponents.

Managers and coaches must wear masks while in the dugouts. The entire traveling party -- includ-ing players -- must wear personal protective equipment while on buses and fl ights. Restaurants are off lim-its on the road, including the ones in hotels, as are hotel fi tness centers.

“We emphasize that this is a fi rst draft, and will undergo several rounds of changes as we collect comments and suggestions from the clubs, the players’ association,

players, and government offi cials,” deputy commissioner Dan Halem wrote in an email to owners, team presidents and CEOs, and general managers that accompanied the protocols.

“The document is designed to set minimum standards and identify best practices, but we have attempted to provide clubs with enough fl exibility to achieve the desired health and safety objectives in a manner that is tailored to their particular circum-stances, including ballpark confi gura-tion, location, and the nature of any local governmental regulations or restrictions,” Halem wrote.

Scoreboard video is prohibited but music allowed. While there won’t be fans, at least not at the start, it will provide a familiar background audio for the telecasts critical to MLB’s bottom line.

A ball will be thrown away after it is touched by multiple players, and throwing the ball around the in-fi eld will be discouraged. Personnel who rub baseballs with mud for the umpires must use gloves.

“Individuals must avoid any physi-cal interactions (such as high-fi ves, fi st bumps, or hugs) while at club facilities,” the manual says.

By Steve Mcmorran

A move to ban the use of saliva to shine a cricket ball because of

the danger of transmitting COV-ID-19 may force bowlers to relearn or reinvent one of the sport’s most prized but troublesome skills.

The International Cricket Coun-cil’s cricket committee, comprising a roll call of former top players, has recommended on medical advice that spit polishing the ball should be prohibited while the coronavirus outbreak persists. Unlike baseball, where the spitball has long been il-legal, some methods in cricket are a well-established part of the game.

The cricket decision was based on evidence from Dr. Peter Harcourt, the chair of the ICC’s medical ad-visory committee, of “the elevated risk of the transmission of the virus through saliva.”

It found at the same time that it is “highly unlikely that the virus can be transmitted through sweat and saw no need to prohibit the use of sweat to polish the ball.”

The decision of the committee, chaired by former India captain Anil Kumble and comprising high-profi le ex-international stars such as England captain Andrew Strauss, Sri Lanka’s Mahela Jayawardene, India’s Rahul Dravid and South Africa’s Shaun Pollock, seems a straight-forward hygiene precau-tion as cricket considers a path to resumption amid the coronavirus pandemic. But nothing to do with swinging a cricket ball is ever simple.

Even the science around out-swing, inswing and reverse swing bowling isn’t generally agreed or understood, nor are the conditions that favor swing bowling or the means that allow a bowler to cause the ball to deviate in the air as it travels towards the batsmen. Induc-ing swing is one of cricket’s most desired skills but also a minefi eld threaded by a narrow path which divides legality from illegality.

Spit-polishing by the bowler or the fi elding team has been for decades the accepted method of

shining one side of the ball to create the aerodynamic asymmetry which, in conjunction with the position and angle of the seam and the grip and delivery action of the bowler, causes the ball to swing.

Licking the fi ngers, applying the saliva to the ball and rubbing it vigorously on the trousers to improve the shine has become an ingrained, almost instinctive action by players between deliveries - one that will be hard to resist or unlearn. Whether sweat can be as effectively employed as saliva is uncertain but it is likely every swing bowler in the world will be working to fi nd out as the ban on spit-polishing passes through the ICC machinery.

The recommendation of the cricket committee moves now to the chief executives committee where likely it will be quickly endorsed.

The use of saliva was always fraught because by chewing gum, sucking boiled candy or some other confectionery it was possible to apply to the ball some combination of saliva and another agent that

enhanced the shine. Ball tamper-ing - the use of illegal methods or substances to change the condi-tion of the ball - has been one of cricket’s most chronic or intractable problems.

The former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis was twice sanctioned for ball tampering: fi rst for rubbing the ball on the abrasive zip of his trousers and later for applying to the ball saliva mixed with a mint or other candy.

Ex-Australia captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were banned for 12 months and batsman Cameron Bancroft for nine months by Cricket Australia for their involvement in an attempt to use sandpaper to alter the condition of the ball in a test in South Africa in 2018.

For that reason the cricket committee cautiously considered whether, in the absence of saliva, the use of an artifi cial substance such as wax to shine the ball should be temporarily approved. The committee found the question too

In this March 3, 2020, file photo, St. Louis Cardinals’ Paul DeJong, left, talks to Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa during the second inning

of a spring training baseball game in Jupiter, Florida. (AP)

Tokyo Olympics protest parody of logo that depicts COVID-19

Tokyo Olympic officials are incensed that the games emblem has been used in the cover de-sign of a local magazine that combines the logo with the coronavirus.

Tokyo spokesman Masa Takaya said in an online news conference on Tuesday that orga-nizers had requested the Foreign Correspon-dents Club of Japan “take down” the image.

Takaya did not answer a direct question if the organizing committee was planning a legal challenge. He said negotiations were going on “in a private manner” with the Tokyo foreign journalists’ club.

“It is very disappointing to see the games emblem being distorted and associated with the novel coronavirus, which affects human life, people’s lives, the economy, and our soci-ety,” Takaya said. “The design is clearly using the design of the Olympic emblem. We there-fore consider it an infringement on our legally secured copyright to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic emblem.”

He said the organizing committee had not yet received a formal reply to its request.

The “look-alike” emblem, which had “CO-VID-19” written underneath, was published on

the cover the the April issue of the club’s maga-zine. It also appeared in an online edition.

The FCCJ did not respond immediately to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

In an article about the logo published several days ago by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, it named the artist as Andrew Pothecary. It iden-tified him as a British designer based in Japan who serves as the magazine’s art director.

The artist said he viewed the design as a par-ody, though other designers interviewed by the newspaper suggest parody was difficult with a topic such as the virus and pandemic. (AP)

The cover design of Number 1 Shimbun is seen in Tokyo, on May 19. (AP)

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Ronaldo reports to Juventus for tests after 10-week absence

Havertz, Leverkusen cruise past Bremen

Serie A suspension extended to June 14

Bundesliga faces next test as players return to live at home

ROME, May 19, (AP): The Serie A is suspended until June 14 unless the Ital-ian government gives it the green light to resume a day earlier as planned.

The league announced last week that its 20 teams agreed to resume competi-tion on June 13 in empty stadiums.

However, the Italian soccer federa-tion announced on Monday, a day after a government decree banning sports until June 14, that it was complying.

The FIGC announced that “pending any further and desirable decision by the competent authority” its competi-tions will remain suspended until that date.

Serie A has been off since March 9, when the government ordered a na-

BREMEN, Germany, May 19, (AP): Bayer Leverku-sen cruised past Werder Bremen 4-1 as the Bundes-liga completed its first full round of games after re-suming competition.

German soccer has so far avoid-ed major pitfalls in three days of games following a two-month sus-pension for the coronavirus pan-demic.

Some of Leverkusen’s players clus-tered together after scoring in Werder’s empty stadium, rather than opting for the league’s recommended celebra-tions of minimal physical contact.

Werder was without one player who was isolating at home after someone in his personal life tested positive for the coronavirus. Werder said on Friday that the player, who the club has not named, tested negative.

The Bundesliga faces its next test this week as players return to live at home ahead of the weekend’s games. Teams spent the seven days leading up to their fi rst games in a group quaran-tine in hotels, but that was a one off.

Both Leverkusen and Werder kept up their form from before the break, with Leverkusen staying six league

games unbeaten and closing in on the Champions League places, while Werder remained stuck in the relega-tion zone.

Werder was still struggling for fi t-ness after two months without games, defender Theodor Gebre Selassie said in televised comments, as it edged closer to dropping out of the German top division for the fi rst time since 1981.

The fi rst three goals came in the space of fi ve minutes. Kai Havertz headed Leverkusen into the lead in the 28th off a cross from Moussa Diaby, but Werder soon hit back when Theo-dor Gebre Selassie defl ected a corner into the net. Werder’s defense failed to mark Havertz for the fi rst goal and did so again for the second as he headed in at a free kick.

Leverkusen made sure of the win in the second half as Mitchell Weiser headed in from another Diaby cross, again with plenty of space in the Werder defense, and Kerem Demirbay chipped over the goalkeeper.

Leverkusen handed a start to Janu-ary signing Florian Wirtz at just 17 years, 15 days, making him the club’s youngest Bundesliga player. That broke a record previously belonging to Havertz.

The Bremen city government had been skeptical about hosting soccer games, though it joined other German states in letting them go ahead.

Mayor Andreas Bovenschulte said on Monday on TV channel ARD that it was a “very problematic signal to so-ciety” to allow football at a time when other people in Germany were encour-aged to follow social distancing.

“We’re allowing major sports events in which it’s part of the routine for 22

people to come into close contact. And not even from two households but from 22 different households,” he said, according to German agency dpa.

Earlier, third-division club Chem-nitz said one of its players tested posi-tive for the coronavirus, in the latest obstacle to restarting lower-league games in Germany.

Chemnitz did not name the player. The club said he is “completely symp-tom-free.” That player and two other

players who had contact with him will spend 14 days in isolation at home.

The fi rst and second divisions in Ger-many returned to play on Saturday but the third-division restart was postponed last week from its planned date of May 26.

Some clubs have still not received clearance from local authorities to play or hold full trainings. Chemnitz said it still planned to resume full training on Tuesday despite having three players in isolation.

Spanish league teams start group trainingMADRID, May 19, (AP): The Span-ish league took another step toward restarting the soccer season by al-lowing teams to resume group train-ing on Monday.

Practices were closer to routine for the first time since the league was suspended in mid-March be-cause of the coronavirus pandemic.

Keep-aways, exchanges of passes and player interaction were back at the training camps. Up to 10 players are allowed to practice together in what is expected to be

the second-to-last phase before the competition can resume.

The move by Spain came after the Bundesliga in Germany became the first top soccer league to re-sume on Saturday.

Full squad training is expected to begin in the coming weeks, with the Liga hoping to restart on the second weekend of June. Players had been training individually since last week.

The league said the start of group training represented “a significant step forward on the road towards

restarting professional football in Spain.”

The Spanish government at the weekend authorized all teams to resume practicing in groups even though stricter lockdown restrictions remained in place in parts of Spain. Cities such as Madrid and Barcelo-na have not been allowed to loosen confinement measures like most of the country, but teams such as Real Madrid and Barcelona have been given the go ahead to move into the second phase of training.

20 clubs agreed to protocols

EPL could face a year of coronavirus restrictionsMANCHESTER, England, May 19, (AP): The Premier League has been told by government experts that coro-navirus restrictions could endure for at least a year across English football, with players allowed to resume only non-contact training.

England’s top division has been studying how the Bundesliga was able to resume competition at the weekend while being realistic about missing its aspiration of getting back underway by June 12.

“We have to be fl exible about it,” Premier League chief executive Rich-ard Masters said in a media call Mon-day. “The Germans are a couple of steps ahead of us obviously and we can learn from them and watch them and take confi dence from their success.”

Team executives will hold talks next Tuesday to discuss protocols for allowing players to take part in contact training, but it is dependent on govern-ment approval and there being no new spike in COVID-19 cases after an eas-ing of lockdown restrictions.

“(Once) we have had a proper dis-cussion with clubs about how much is required to create the fi tness levels

before they can start playing, we are then in a position to be able to confi rm when the season start is,” Masters said.

The 20 clubs on Monday agreed to protocols for small groups of players to train while maintaining social distanc-ing that exists in wider society. Inspec-tors will drop into training complexes to check the rules are being followed.

“That will enable us to give every-one confi dence that the protocols are being complied with, and give the pub-lic confi dence that we are trying to cre-ate a very safe working environment,” said Richard Garlick, the league’s di-rector of football.

“We can request information from videoing of the sessions and GPS data, too.”

The protocols have been formed in conjunction with the government,

which has cautioned a COVID-19 vac-cine may not be developed at all, de-spite the huge global effort to produce one.

“They’ve made it very clear that the social situation, the public health situa-tion is not going to change over the next six to 12 months,” Premier League medi-cal adviser Mark Gillett said. “We’re go-ing to be looking to make the same kind of cultural changes at training grounds and in footballers’ behaviours whether we have this conversation now or at any point this year. It is important that people understand that.”

Regular testing of players, coaches and support staff is the league’s way of trying to quickly detect any infections and stop the virus spreading at clubs. Testing is due to take place twice weekly at clubs on up to 40 people.

Training will be allowed to begin on Tuesday once the results of the fi rst set of results are delivered on Tuesday.

Players will have to arrive at the training ground on their own - already in their kit - and leave at least three spaces between each car in the park-ing area.

“We strongly discourage tactical meetings on site so that social distanc-ing is maintained at all times,” Gillett said.

tionwide lockdown.There are 12 rounds remaining in

Serie A, plus four matches that were

postponed in the 25th round. Also, the Italian Cup is in the semifi nal stage.

Italian clubs resumed training on an individual basis on May 4 when lock-down measures in the country started to ease. They were slated to return to train-ing together on Monday but they have not been given the green light to do so by the Italian government’s science panel.

The medical protocol for the resump-tion of Serie A has proved contentious but a revised document was delivered to Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora on Sunday and the science panel is ex-pected to give its verdict this week.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo re-ported to Juventus’ training center for medical tests on Tuesday after a 10-week absence.

The fi ve-time Ballon d’Or winner observed a two-week isolation period at his home in Turin after spending the lockdown period in his native Portugal.

He has not been alongside his team-mates since helping the Serie A leaders beat Inter Milan 2-0 on March 8, after which he fl ew to his home island of Madeira, Portugal.

Serie A was suspended a day later

when the Italian government ordered a nationwide lockdown. The league is hoping to resume on June 13 if it can reach an agreement with the govern-ment, which has banned sports events until June 14.

Outside the training center in Tu-rin, journalists and photographers plus some fans were on hand when Ronaldo arrived alone driving a Jeep. He’s the fi rst of several Juventus players who left Italy during the lockdown to report back to the team.

Like all Serie A players, Ronaldo was to be tested for the coronavirus and undergo other physical exams.

Three Juventus players -- Daniele Ru-gani, Blaise Matuidi and Paulo Dybala -- tested positive for COVID-19 during the lockdown. All three recovered.

Ronaldo was in top form before the lockdown, scoring 21 times in 22 Se-rie A matches. In his penultimate game before the suspension, Ronaldo marked his 1,000th offi cial match by scoring in his 11th straight Serie A game. That matched the Serie A record set by Ga-briel Batistuta in 1994 and equaled by Fabio Quagliarella last season.

SOCCER

SOCCER

Bremen’s Maximilian Eggestein, left, and Leverkusens’s Florian Wirtz challenge for the ball during the German Bundesliga soccer match between Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen 04 in Bremen, Germany, on May 18. (AP)

In this, May 6, 2018 file photo, the English Premier League trophy is displayed on the pitch prior to the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester City and Huddersfield Town at Etihad sta-dium in Manchester, England. (AP)

SOCCER

In this March 8, 2020 file photo, Juventus’ Cristiano Ronaldo runs with the ball during the last Serie A soccer match Juventus played before the coro-

navirus stop, at the Allianz Stadium in Turin, Italy. (AP)