THE FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY IN FREE KUWAITEstablished in 1977 / www.arabtimesonline.com

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021 / RABEE’A AL-AWWAL 22, 1443 AH emergency number 112 NO. 17827 16 PAGES 150 FILS

basketball

marketsPage 15

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Great challenges of Mishal Al-Ahmad

O flying manhole ... We have becomeone of those whose hearts are broken!

Speaker in Doha

By Saeed Mahmoud SalehArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27: His Highness the Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani welcomed National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim and his ac-companying delegation who are currently on a two-day official visit in Doha, Qatar.

Al-Ghanim conveyed messages of regards and ap-preciation from His High-ness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, stressing that relations between the two sisterly countries are deep-rooted and special. He said the political leaders of both countries are keen on strengthening ties between their citizens.

He congratulated Sheikh Ta-mim bin Hamad Al-Thani on the successful parliamentary elec-tions, praising his remarkable role in this achievement.

Also present at the meeting were Speaker of Qatari Con-sultative Assembly Hassan bin Abdullah Al-Ghanim and Kuwaiti Ambassador to Qa-tar Hafeez Al-Ajmi; as well as members of the Kuwaiti par-liamentary delegation consist-ing of Assembly Secretary Farz Al-Daihani, Observer Osama Al-Shaheen and MPs Abdullah Al-Turaiji, Nasser Al-Dousaari, Mubarak Al-Arow and Salman Al-Azmi.

Speaker of Qatari Consultative Assembly Hassan bin Abdul-lah Al-Ghanim, Deputy Speaker Hamdah bin Hassan Al-Slaiti and Secretary General of the Consultative Assembly Ahmed bin Nasser Al-Fadalah also wel-comed the speaker and his ac-companying delegation.

CoordinateThe Speaker was scheduled to

meet with his Qatari counterpart to discuss common parliamentary issues and coordinate positions to be adopted in the meetings of regional and global parliaments; foremost of which is the meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union slated for November in Madrid, Spain.

It is worth mentioning that the Kuwaiti parliamentary delega-tion is the first to visit Qatar after the successful election of mem-bers of the Qatari Consultative Assembly.

In another development, the Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee in Kuwait’s Assem-bly held its second meeting on Wednesday; during which MP Obaid Al-Wasmi was elected chairman and MP Hesham Al-Saleh as rapporteur.

Al-Saleh disclosed that the committee agreed on dismissing the expatriate consultants and replace them with nationals and making remarkable changes in its work mechanism, through which it will deal with bills as legisla-tive packages rather than as re-actions to certain incidents. He said the committee will consider methods adopted by similar com-mittees in other countries like the United States of America (USA) and Europe.

Affi rmedHe affirmed the committee

is keen on seeking public par-ticipation in making laws by announcing the bills earlier for the citizens and concerned pro-fessionals to attend panel meet-ings to share their opinions and present recommendations. He stressed the importance of the role of civil society organiza-tions in making laws more ef-fective.

He then wished Al-Wasmi speedy recovery, confirming the committee will keep in touch with him during his overseas treatment trip and inform him about the proceedings.

Meanwhile, MP Muhannad Al-Sayer resigned from the com-mittee due to what he described as manipulation of the election of the members of committees during the opening session of the second round of the 16th legisla-tive term.

He claimed that majority of the elected members of com-mittees are loyal to the speaker, adding he can predict what will happen in this round based on the period he spent as rapporteur of the committee in the previous round.

By Ali Ahmed Al-BaghliFormer Minister of Oil

Most citizens and expatriates were terrified a few days ago when

news spread about the flying manhole covers, scattered on the roads and streets. A heavy iron manhole cover hit a citizen who was driving in peace along one of our streets. This is similar to our conditions on many levels…cor-ruption, backwardness, thefts in broad daylight, and in-frastructure suf-fering from back-wardness and negligence.

The citizen, who was hit by the manhole cover which fl ew from his place and smashed his windshield, died instantly due to the fatal injury … If we were in a self-respecting country, we would exact punishment on anyone who, through his negli-gence and corruption, caused that citizen to lose his life.

Last week, I was happy when I traveled for several days to our second beloved country – Lebanon. I stayed in one of the beautiful resorts there, enjoying the supernatural magic and beauty day and night. I did not go any-where along the streets of the capital, Beirut ... because of the problems that occurred there last week and upon the advice of my dear friend Abdel Aal Al-Qena’i, Kuwait’s Ambassador to Lebanon.

Lebanon, which does not have oil and suffers from a record financial deficit at the level of the State and its citizens, and even the banks in which you may have a bloated ‘dol-lar’ balance, but you cannot with-draw your own money ... The value of a dollar recently reached 21,000 pounds. The so-called ‘gas canis-ter’ has reached more than 300,000 pounds.

The minimum wage is no longer suffi cient to purchase two jerrycans per month, in parallel with the steady increase in the price of a cylinder of gas; which reached 230,000 pounds and is expected to reach 280,000 pounds in the next two weeks. With-out this cylinder, the people in homes on the mountains and cities of Leba-non cannot live.

What caught my eye after all these misfortunes that the Lebanese have been experiencing for about two years are their roads in cities and mountains. Their roads are clear of gravel and the asphalt everywhere I went by car is as soft as an Iranian carpet!

As much as I was happy about the conditions of my family in Lebanon – Shiites, Sunnis, Christians, Druze and others; I was saddened by our precarious conditions as manifested in the fl ying manhole covers, and dozens of misfortunes we witness daily and make our blood fl ow ... We have be-come one of those whose hearts are broken!!

According to one of Basil Al-Sa-bah’s conditions to board any plane from Kuwait, I had a PCR test be-fore traveling for an amount equal to $60!

I was surprised when I arrived at Rafi c Hariri Airport in Beirut as they conducted another PCR test for me and it was free … Yes, this country that suffers from bankruptcy did not force me to pay even one dollar when entering it!

Basil Al-Sabah, before traveling back to Kuwait; I had the test at my hotel in Mount Lebanon and it did not cost me more than $12.

Upon my return to Kuwait, the ri-diculous and annoying electronic programs (Shlonik and others) forced me to adhere to home quarantine and monitored me to make sure that I did not leave the house for seven days – until I did the home test which cost me $60. I got the result after eight hours, stating I was free of Covid-19. The Minister of Health promised us that this will last until the Day of Resur-rection.

ali-albaghli@hotmail.com

Kuwait hails Qatari poll, Assembly

KUNA photoQatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani poses with Kuwait Par-

liament Speaker Marzouq Ali Al-Ghanim.

Strikes kill 105 Houthis

Vote recount begins

Kuwait slams remarks byLebanon on Riyadh, UAE

Amir condoles Iraq attack

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27, (KUNA): The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry on Wednesday voiced vehement con-demnation and disapproval of the Lebanese information minister’s re-marks on Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

In his comments, the Lebanese minister pressed baseless accusations against both sisterly countries, which ignore their great and much-appreci-ated role in supporting Yemen and its people and even contradict the authen-tic reality of the current situation in Ye-men, the ministry said in a statement.

The statements also run counter to the Lebanese government’s official position and wink at the crucial role of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the UAE as well as the Arab coalition to support Yemen’s legitimacy, it added.

The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry has summoned the Lebanese charge d’affires in Kuwait Hadi Hashem and handed him an official memo of protest including Kuwait’s utter dis-approval of these comments which have nothing to do whatsoever with the reality and contradict the simplest rules of dealings between countries.

Saudi Foreign Ministry summoned Wednesday Lebanon’s Ambassador and handed him a letter of protest regarding comments made by the Lebanese information minister about Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted the foreign ministry as say-ing in a statement that the “state-ments contradict the simplest politi-cal norms and are inconsistent with the historic relations between the two brotherly peoples.”

Lebanon Foreign Ministry, mean-while, defended its position that con-demns “terrorist attacks” on Saudi Arabia, and stressed the security and safety of the Gulf States and their citizens.

Responding to the Information Minister George Kordahi’s latest controversial comments, the minis-

try said in a statement, “a personal statement was previously issued by Lebanon’s Minister of Information, George Kordahi, prior to his appoint-ment as minister, and it was pub-lished yesterday”.

Late Tuesday, Lebanon Prime Minister Najib Mekati said in a state-ment that “Lebanon highly respect and appreciates the people pf the Gulf States, stressing the Lebanese government adherence to “brother-hood ties with the Arabs”.

Regarding Minister Kordahi’s comments, Mekati said that these stances does not reflect those of the Lebanese government.

He stressed his countries keenness to keep the good relations with Saudi Arabia, rejecting any interference in the kingdom’s internal affair.

GCC Secretary-General Nayef Al-Hajraf on Wednesday voiced utter rejection of the Lebanese information minister’s statements (on Saudi Ara-bia and UAE), which reflect an inad-equate understanding and superficial reading of happenings in Yemen.

In a press statement, Al-Hajraf de-plored the Lebanese minister’s criti-cism of Saudi Arabia, which leads the Arab coalition to support Yemen’s legitimacy, as well as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while the co-alition has been trying to improve the situation in Yemen since Houthi coup in September 2014.

Also: JEDDAH: The Arab coalition sup-porting legitimacy in Yemen de-clared Wednesday killing more than 105 Houthi “terrorists” in 26 air raids carried out on their sites in Al-Jubah and Kassara areas in the Yemeni Marib Governorate.

“The military operations launched over the past 24 hours destroyed 13 military vehicles and killed more than 105 Houthi terrorists,” Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted a coali-tion statement on Twitter.

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27, (Agencies): His Highness Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable of condolences Wednes-day, to President of Iraq, Barham Saleh, and Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Khadhemi, on the terrorist attack in Diyala governorate that killed and injured innocent people.

In the cable, His Highness the Amir expressed sincere condolences on the demise of terrorist attack victims, and asked Allah the Almighty for speedy recovery for those injured in the attack.

His Highness the Amir reaffirmed Kuwait’s condemnation of terrorist attacks, stating they go against all hu-man values.

His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah sent similar cables.

Gunmen from the Islamic State extremist group attacked a village northeast of Baghdad on Tues-day, killing at least 11 civilians and wounding six others, Iraqi security officials said.

The officials said the attack oc-curred in the predominantly Shiite village of al-Rashad northeast of Baqouba in Diyala province. The circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear, but two officials who spoke to The Associated Press said Islamic State group militants had kidnapped two villagers earlier and then raided the village when their de-mands for ransom were not met.

Machine guns were used in the at-tack, they added, speaking on condi-tion of anonymity in line with regu-lations. They said all the dead and wounded were civilians.

Also:BAGHDAD: Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission said on Wednesday it has started the manual recount of votes at several polling stations whose results were rejected by losing rivals.

Representatives and observers from the country’s political parties and blocs are attending the manual recount, the commission said in a post on its twitter account.

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

WITH a clear vision and deter-mination to change the environ-mental situation of his country, the speech of His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad at the “Middle East Green Initiative” summit in Riyadh can be considered as a road map, not only for the of-ficial Kuwaiti institutions but also for citizens who bear great responsibility in this regard, to work on reducing carbon emis-sions and their negative effects on the Kuwaiti environment, which has changed in the last five decades due to the absence of urban planning based on a balance between the environ-ment, human well-being and urbanization.

In this well-studied scien-tific discourse, there are les-sons that must be taken into account in terms of combat-ing desertification, which has increased in the past three de-cades as a result of the contin-uous encroachment on natural life, and the reduction of the afforestation area, which in-creases pollution.

This phenomenon has led to higher temperatures than what they were nearly 40 years ago, in addition to the increased re-liance on import of food items due to decline in the agricul-tural areas and the failure to pay necessary attention to food security, or to limit it to orna-mental trees.

Therefore, when His Highness the Crown Prince says,“The continuation of cli-mate change leads us to a se-ries of natural disasters”, he is sounding the alarm bell that should push everyone to as-sume responsibilities, each in his position, to combat the causes of environmental dete-rioration in the country. They are undoubtedly affected by what is happening around the world, which is subject to cli-matic changes, especially con-sidering that our environment is fragile and lacks studied green spaces, due to which the negative consequences will be higher.

Here begins the responsibil-ity of the concerned authori-ties, either in terms of treating thousands of dead trees due to neglect and failure to care for them, or the lack of afforesta-tion of sidewalks and islands, as well as helping to reduce pollution resulting from car emissions.

It is true that Kuwait is a water-poor country, but in light of advanced technolo-gies, the exploitation of sea water desalination, and treat-ment of wastewater and using it for agriculture and afforesta-tion would help increase green spaces and would benefit ev-eryone.

His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ah-mad affirmed that “Kuwait will increase the area of afforesta-tion and reservoirs, rehabilitate the oil sector, and reduce emis-sions”. This is a generous invi-tation and a directive to those concerned to immediately start working with all honesty and responsibility to achieve the environmental strategy in line with “New Kuwait 2035” vi-sion, which is fast approach-ing.

This is the real challenge and test for everyone in terms of preserving the local environ-ment and paying more atten-tion to agriculture, as well as contributing to the fight against global warming, from which we are the first to suffer as a result of the harsh nature of our country.Email: ahmed@aljarallah.com

Follow me on:

ahmedaljarallah@gmail.com

Opinion

Other Voices

Newswatch

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday 21 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, taking the total to 412,594.

The death toll from the virus stood at 2,461 as no deaths were reported in the same period, the ministry’s spokesman Dr. Abdullah Al-Sanad told KUNA.

As many as 38 recoveries were registered in the corresponding pe-riod, raising the tally to 409,717, he added.

Four patients are at ICUs, while the number of those receiving treat-ment at COVID wards is 21, he re-vealed, indicating that 416 others are receiving treatment for the viral infection.

Swab tests conducted in 24 hours hit 15,882, increasing the total to 4,756,962, he stated. (KUNA)

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KUWAIT CITY: The Egyptian Min-istry of Manpower is currently re-viewing labor contracts from Kuwait in a bid to prevent the recurrence of the marginal employment and fake contracts crisis, which surfaced at the height of the Corona pandemic; especially now that Kuwait re-opened the application for all types of visas, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting a reliable source.

According to the source, there have been recommendations to scru-tinize the employment contracts of Egyptians working in the private and government sectors in Kuwait; par-ticularly the terms and conditions to ensure they are in line with interna-tional standards on labor contracting. The source pointed out the most im-portant of these standards are wages, annual and weekly holidays, medical and social insurance policies, and al-lowances for those with dangerous and rare jobs.

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RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco said on Tuesday it signed fi ve agreements with local and global companies for potential investments to develop low-carbon energy technologies and sustainable solutions as part of the country’s ambitious plans to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emmissions by 2050.

Five memoranda of understand-ing, signed during the Future Invest-ment Forum, outline “potential new projects in green hydrogen, sustain-able technology solutions, advanced nonmetallic building materials and digitalization,” read a statement by the energy giant.

These include Modern Industrial In-vestment Holding Group and Intercon-tinental Energy to develop a green hy-drogen and ammonia project in Saudi Arabia along with South Pole Carbon Asset Management Ltd. and Yousef Abdulrahman AlDhabyan Agricul-tural Est. to evaluate the feasibility of establishing a National Green Services Company to develop and innovate na-ture-based solutions that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (KUNA)

❑ ❑ ❑

WASHINGTON: An 84-year-old Iranian-American man who has been detained in Iran for more than fi ve years underwent surgery on Tuesday to clear a blockage in an artery to the brain that his fam-ily and supporters have described as life-threatening.

The surgery on Baquer Namazi “appears to have been a success and Baquer is awake, al-though he remains grog-gy,” accord-ing to a state-ment from Namazi’s at-torney, Jared Genser. He is expected to remain in the intensive care unit for two more days and then be transferred to a general recovery ward before being released.

Genser and Namazi’s son, Babak, urged Iran weeks ago to lift a travel ban that has kept his father inside the country so that he could receive medical care in another country. Genser submitted a brief earlier this month to the United Nations saying Iran’s actions violated Namazi’s rights. (AP)

Al-Baghli

Namazi

ARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021 2

Fajr ........ 04:38Sunrise .. 05:58Zohr ....... 11:32

Asr .......... 14:42Maghrib .. 17:07Isha ........ 18:24

Prayer TimingsExpected weather for the next 24 hours:

By Day: Rather hot and partly cloudy with light variable wind to light to moderate south easterly wind with speeds of 08-38 km/h with a chance for scattered light rain later on.

By Night: Fair and partly cloudy with light moderate south easterly wind with speeds of 10-35 km/h with a chance for scattered light rain with a chance for light fog forming over some areas.Station Max Exp Min RecKuwait City 32 23

Kuwait Airport 33 17Abdaly 34 17Jahra 34 19Salmiyah 31 25Ahmadi 31 25Wafra 34 16Salmya 32 18Jal Aliyah 33 19

Weather

VACCINE REGISTRATION WEBSITE: https://cov19vaccine.moh.gov.kw/SPCMS/CVD_19_Vaccine_Registration.aspx

KPC, KFAED sign MoUswith UN-Habitat body

Bid to attain SDGs

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27, (KUNA): Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and United Nations Human Settle-ments Programme (UN-Habitat) on Wednesday signed a memo of understanding (MoU) for attaining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The MoU was signed by KPC’s CEO Hashem Hashem and Director of the Regional Offi ce for the Arab States at the UN-Habitat Erfan Ali, with offi cials from both sides attending.

Addressing the signing ceremony, Hashem said the document is meant to provide a cooperative framework for both sides to work together to realize SDGs.

The MoU will be put in place in Kuwait by means of focusing on environment recovery, urban governance, decision-support mechanism, social inclusion and basic service management, Hashem elaborated.

The document defi nes joint cooperation programs for carrying out particular projects purposed to make the KPC a role model for sustainable corporations that are capable of surviving and working together for improving the environment performance of the KPC and its subsidi-aries and even the State of Kuwait.

It further offers environmental consultations and oil sector-bearing sustainability consultations with a view to attaining sustainable urban development goals, to-gether with cooperation for implementing new envi-ronment projects in the oil sector, eventually leading to further revamping Kuwait’s reputation regionally and globally.

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assem-bly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shel-ter for all.

Meanwhile, Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Devel-opment (KFAED) and United Nations Human Settle-ments Program (UN-Habitat) also Wednesday signed a grant agreement worth KD 4 million (USD 13.2 million) to fi nance Improved Resilience to Transboundary sand and Dust Storms in Kuwait and Iraq Project.

National Bank of Kuwait rallies 9 fi ls, Ooredoo slips

Boursa’s All Shares Index breaches 7000 mark, volume ebbsBy John MathewsArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27: Kuwait stocks scaled new highs on Wednesday to breach the 7000 mark. The All Shares Index, after an insipid start, sprinted 35.92 in a broad advance to 7,035.08 points as the trading fl oor sentiment turned markedly positive.

The Premier Market climbed 36.28 points to 7,598.10 pts taking the month’s gains to 102 points while Main Market scaled 36.24 points. The BK Main 50 paced 40.85 points to close at 6,132.69 pts. The volume turnover meanwhile receded from last session’s year’s highest level . Over 615 million shares changed hands – a 17 pct drop from the day before.

Of the 13 sectors, 11 closed in green zone while 2 ended fl at. Technology outshone the rest with 6 percent jump while Financial Sector stood next with 1.17 pct gain. Volume wise, Real Es-tate topped with 240 million shares and the sector also was ahead in value with KD 24 million.

PrimeAmong the prime movers, sector

bellwether National Bank of Kuwait rallied 9 fi ls to 965 fi ls on back of 5.5 million shares and Commercial Bank followed suit to close at 509 fi ls. Bour-sa Kuwait Securities Co soared 44 fi ls to KD 2.020 while Gulf Investment House sprinted 14 fi ls. Sultan Centre extended last session’s gain with 16 fi ls jump to 219 fi ls while Land Unit-ed Real Estate Co rallied 14 fi ls after pushing 6.5 million shares. NAPESCO paced 12 fi ls.

Zain inched 1 fi l higher to 595 fi ls on back of 3.53 million share whereas Ooredoo gave up 8 fi ls. stc dialed up 2 fi ls and logistics major Agility rallied 14 fi ls to 995 fi ls after pushing 4.6 mil-lion shares. Kuwait National Cinema Co skidded 40 fi ls to 850 fi ls.

KIPCO and National Investment Co added 2 fi ls each to close at 150 fi ls and 208 fi ls respectively while. Mabanee Co ended 2 fi ls in green while Human-soft Holding and Mezzan Holding took in 1 fi l each. Mezzan Holding added 1 fi l while Aznour amd Integrated Hold-ing paused at 236 fi ls and 373 fi ls re-spectively.

ClimbedNational Industries Group climbed 4

fi ls to 261 fi ls on back of 8.3 million shares while Gulf Cable jumped 20 fi ls to 883 fi ls. Boubyan Petrochemical Co climbed 6 fi ls to 920 fi ls and Al Qurain Petrochemical Co gained 5 fi ls. Jazeera Airways soared 20 fi ls to KD 1.030 with a volume of 1.2 million whereas ALAFCO clipped 1 fi l.

The market opened fi rm and moved sideways in early trade. The market slipped briefl y into red to plumb the day’s lowest level of 7,010 points al-most an hour into the session. It pivoted north thereafter amid fresh buying in some of the counters and continued to rise in the second half before closing with moderate gains.

Top gainer of the day, Land Real Estate Co soared 21.82 pct to 134 fi ls while REMAL sprinted 18.42 percent to stand next. Salbookh Trading and Contracting Co skidded 7.69 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and

GFH topped the volume with 58 mil-lion shares.

Refl ecting the day’s gains, the mar-ket spread was heavily skewed to-wards the winners. 88 stocks advanced whereas 43 closed lower. Of the 147 counters active on Wednesday, 16 closed fl at. 20,400 deals worth KD 83.03 million were transacted during the session.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank took in 1 fi l on back of 14.9 million shares and Burgan Bank followed suit. Kuwait International Bank stood pat at 223 fi ls whereas Kuwait Finance House dialed up 2 fi ls. Boubyan Bank slipped 3 fi ls to 777 fi ls and Warba Bank trimmed 2 fi ls. Ahli United Bank BSC paused at 291 fi ls.

ClosedKuwait Cement Co fell 2 fi ls to 252

fi ls whereas Kuwait Portland Cement paced 6 fi ls. Shuaiba Industrial Co di-aled up 2 fi ls while HEISC and Metal and Recycling Co both closed 3 fi ls in green. ACICO Industries inched 1 fi l up to 127 fi ls whereas Kuwait Foundry slipped 5 fi ls to 375 fi ls. Equipment Holding Co gained 6 fi ls.

Educational Holding Co eased 1 fi l to 799 fi ls whereas NCCI took in 2 fi ls on back of 5.9 million shares. Salbookh Trading gave up 5 fi ls whereas Warba Capital took in 1 fi l. Arabi Group Hold-ing sprinted 13 fi ls to 162 fi ls while Ku-wait and Gulf Link Transport Co crept 0.2 fi l up.

United Projects Co scaled 5 fi ls whereas Oula Fuel and Egypt Kuwait Holding trimmed 1 fi l each. Privatiza-tion Holding paced 4.2 fi ls and Gulf Franchising Holding gained 5.2 fi ls. KCPC added 3 fi ls with thin trading.

Burgan Company For Well Drilling rose 4 fi ls to 166 fi ls while Combined Group Contracting Co scaled 7 fi ls. PAPCO gave up 3.4 fi ls whereas IFA Hotels and Resorts paced 3 fi ls on back of 3.6 million shares.. Jassin Transport Co gained 8 fi ls.

The market has been largely up-beat so far during the week rallying 58 points in last four sessions. It has gained 169 points from start of the month and is up 1487 points year-to-date.

Euro/KD 0.3495

Yen/KD 0.0026

British £/KD 0.4139

Indian Rs/KD 0.0040

Philippines Peso/KD 0.0059

FTSE -25.07 pts at 18:50 Oct 27

Nikkei -7.77 pts at closing Oct 27

Gold $1,783.85 per oz (London)

US$/KDUS$/KD 0.30160/70 0.30160/70

NYMEX crude $83.77 per barrel

Brent crude $85.32 per barrel

LIBOR rate 0.13588%

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53% Kuwaitis opt for private sector‘Delay in cash for students abroad will be tackled’

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27: A report issued by the National Employment Sector of the Public Authority for Manpow-er shows many Kuwaitis now prefer to work in the private sector, although the number of those preferring to work in government sector has not waned, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The report, a copy of which has been obtained by the daily, say since

the beginning of this year 8,537 Kuwaitis or 53.2 of all the registered individuals have shown their interest to work in the private sector

The report indicated that the number of Kuwaitis wanting jobs in the pri-vate sector is the highest compared to nine years ago, while the percentage is expected to rise until the end of this year.

The report pointed out that the registered number of those desiring to work in the “private sector” between 2010 and 2020 was between 5 to

7 thousand citizens, while the highest number of citizens who opted to work in government sector was more than 65 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Higher Education Dr. Mo-hammad Al-Fares affi rmed the follow-up of the issue related to the delay in disbursing allow-ance to students on overseas scholarships since September, reports Al-Rai daily.

In a press statement, Dr. Al-Fares said, “The delay in disbursing the fi nancial allow-ance may lead to our students missing out on the opportunity to study abroad or the loss of their future if their families are unable to support them.

The issue is being followed up by the undersecretary of the Ministry to fi nd out its details, causes and treatment.”

On the other hand, a num-ber of department heads and instructors of the Ministry of Education who are supervising the training of intern students from the colleges of Education and Basic Education revealed the delay in the disbursement of their dues by Kuwait Uni-versity and the Public Author-ity for Applied Education prior to the COVID-19 crisis, which is about two years ago.

They clarifi ed that the value of the reward for each student is KD 125, with a maximum of fi ve students for each instructor or department head.

They said, “Every time they study the issue to fi nd out the reasons for the delay, the re-sponse they get is that the lists have been referred and the pay-ment is being completed”.

In an another development, the Kuwait Airways Cor-poration (KAC) announced Tuesday, that it will resume commercial flights to Baku, the capital of the Azerbaijan, from Nov 18 — with two flights per week, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The KAC director of Public Relations and Media Depart-ment, Fayez Al-Enezi, said in a press statement that the scheduled commercial fl ights to Baku will be on Sundays and Thursdays of each week.

He added, Baku is one of the destinations that have increased in demand recently.

Photo by Iehab QurtalEditor-in-Chief Ahmed Al-Jarallah receives Australian Ambassador Jonathan Gilbert and Mrs. Elise Cole Andrews.

Australian envoy visits Arab TimesAhmed Al-Jarallah, Editor-in Chief of Al Seyassah and the Arab Times newspapers, received in his offi ce at Dar Al Seyassah on Wednesday, Australian Ambassa-dor Jonathan Gilbert and Head of the Political Depart-

ment Mrs. Elise Cole Andrews.During the meeting, they exchanged conversations

related to the media and international and regional de-velopments.

Saudi’s FII wins praise‘Door to business’

RIYADH, Oct 27, (KUNA): Minister of Information, Culture, and State Minister for Youth Affairs Abdulrah-man Al-Mutairi, affi rmed on Wednesday that Saudi Ara-bia’s Future Investment Initiative (FII) sets foot on world economic map due to its achievements.

This came in a statement for KUNA, on the sidelines of the fi fth edition of the Future Investment Initiative and his meeting with Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmad Al-Khateeb.

Al-Mutairi noted that the four past initiatives have es-tablished a strong economic grounds that attract the atten-tion of investors and economists that helped Saudi Arabia to achieve economic growth and attain an advanced posi-tion in global economy.

“This event witnessed vast participations of more than 2000 delegations and 5000 participants of political and economic leaders from around the world, which refl ects Saudi Arabia’s central position in the world of econo-my,” said Al-Mutairi.

“In Kuwait, we look closely to the forums set up by Saudi Arabia, as they undoubtedly benefi t Kuwait and the region as a whole,” he added.

He also noted that Kuwait is keen to participate in these major economic initiatives to benefi t from the experi-ences.

MoE planning to open‘night schools’ in NovKUWAIT CITY, Oct 27, (KUNA): Ministry of Educa-tion Undersecretary Dr. Ali Al-Yaqoub said Wednesday that the ministry plans on compensating educational wastage by opening night schools in November, in coor-dination with Ministry of Health.

Al-Yaqoub announced, on sideline of a forum discuss-ing educational wastage, organized by Hawally educa-tional area, that the compensation plan hinges on medical authorities.

Al-Yaqoub mentioned that 34 diagnostic and analyti-cal tests were run to fi nd solutions and put forth policies to improve students’ performance.

He clarifi ed that students being absent from schools for about a year and half caused disparate educational levels, therefore; plans will put into considerations each student’s case in an effort to compensate what they have missed in skills.

He also indicated that by the end of each month, plans are reviewed and the ministry will be working with health authorities to look into all measures, including class-time and attendance mechanism.

He further affi rmed that the ministry of education is committed in coordinating with health authorities espe-cially with the possibility of opening night schools.

LOCALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021

3

‘Dependent on foreign goods, people … where are we among nations?’‘While I was recently searching through my wardrobe, I came across

a package covered with bright blue glossy paper that caught my attention. I went through the package and found a piece of men’s clothing. Inside it was written the specifications and the amount of cotton in the ma-terial. It was written in elegant handwriting and in classic Arabic, indicat-ing that these clothes were made in China,” columnist Mohammad Salem Al-Balhan wrote for Al-Qabas daily.

“China, as is well known, is an Asian country where there are a large number of Muslims among the people there. Their qualities are not very different from our qualities, let alone being children of one continent (Asia).

“These struggling people, thanks to the proper guid-ance of their leader former Chairman Mao Zedong, have been able to create tankers, planes, cannons, plowing machines, sickles, axes, missiles, satellites and finally atomic bombs, making China a nuclear defense state comparable to the largest atomic country in the world - the United States of America.

“These people did not settle for that distinguished in-dustry. They did not stop at that industrial production. They instead entered the field of industrial trade markets to manufacture cars, bicycles, refrigerators, household and office appliances, furniture and electrical refrigeration tools. They also make clothes that are being marketed commer-cially in all markets of the world, even in countries that are hostile to China.

“As for us in a sovereign Arab nation, we are mostly nothing but a deaf machine that produces nothing besides a lot of talks and fights with each other, and performs actions that do not indicate human maturity, but rather ignorance and lack of awareness.

“We claim democracy but most of us are far from it. Our lives, the lives of our children and the future of our people depend on what comes to us from the industrial productions of outside parties.

“We eat with the agricultural crops that their farms produce. We drink the carbonated water and natural water that they make for us. We sleep on mat-tresses made of Chinese industrial sponge, and with British-made blankets and duvets. Our Arabic coffee is actually Brazilian coffee, and our clothes are of Swiss fabrics. There is nothing left for us in this world but regret.

“We live to die, but even our corpses are transported to the graves by im-ported friendly hands that settle the dirt on our bodies. These imported hands could be Indian workers, and the ones reciting Surah Al-Fatihah (first chapter of the Holy Quran) over our graves could be our brothers from Bangladesh.

“So, where are we? Isn’t it time that we look at what we are and leave the

competition over access to positions and fame and collecting money? Should we not forget all the thefts and violations that happen to our people and other things that are not acceptable? In the end, everyone should know that Kuwait is a trust that must be preserved.”

Also:“The rainy season is approaching, and every year we remind the Ministry

of Public Works and the Public Authority for Road and Land Transportation (PART) to announce early their plans and the readiness of their projects to face the rain and to ensure the safety of the water drainage network,” columnist Khaled Al-Arafa wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“There are problems that we suffer from every year following the onset of the rainy season, related to the condition of the roads, which are still a source of discomfort which for the citizens and residents, in addition to the flying gravel, a problem that has yet to be solved and increases during the rainy season, which causes damage to the vehicles of citizens and residents due to potholes despite the maintenance work that need more follow-up and accountability by the regu-latory authority.

“The state ministries announce through the media that they are readiness for the rainy season and that they have addressed on the shortcomings, if any. We hope the Ministry of Public Works announces its readiness with full transpar-ency for this season, and ensures that all old and new projects are covered by maintenance contracts before it is too late and before issuing statements that will have a significant impact on officials in the ministry if the readiness is incomplete and not as has been ‘advertised’.

“What is now required from the Ministry of Public Works and PART is to follow up on the declared readiness, through field visits, and check on the work of maintenance teams in all governorates related to the drainage of water in roads and tunnels before the rains, and to address errors if any.

“It has become necessary to announce the ministry’s plan in a transparent manner and to reassure everyone of the readiness and the situation of roads and tunnels, and to ensure the availability of pumping devices and other mecha-nisms in anticipation of any emergency situations in the roads or projects.”

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“The 150th meeting of the Executive Board of the World Health Organiza-tion (WHO) will be held in Geneva in January 2022. It is the meeting of one of the main organs of the organization, which makes arrangements for the World Health Assembly slated for May of the same year also in Geneva,” columnist Dr Hind Al-Choumar wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“Through this meeting, the agenda is set, technical notes, draft strategies and action plans are prepared for worldwide health work in the coming years.

“Through my previous experience with such important meetings, just look-ing at the agenda – which is published early with the documents on the orga-nization’s website, is an opportunity for those who wish to know what makes the world healthy in the coming years in order to prepare national plans in line with global developments if we want to progress in terms of the performance of the health system.

“There are important topics in the agenda that must be prepared from now on, such as the chronic non-communicable diseases challenge, risk factors like obesity, and extent of the implementation of international recommendations in high-level meetings to address chronic diseases, oral and dental health, preven-tion of cervical cancer, and preparedness and response to health emergencies.

“Do we not have a problem related to any of the topics in the agenda, such as obesity, oral health, detection and prevention of cervical cancer? Do we have scientific strategies? Where are they, if any? Who is monitoring them? Who is responsible for representing Kuwait at the appropriate level in such important meetings? Who is following up such matters at the State level, along with its various ministries?”

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“History records correct facts only once and the facts recorded by history about nations, peoples or rulers will not change,” columnist Mohammad Al-Moqate’a wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“Today, Kuwait is living a historic moment. The loyal people of Kuwait feel the need to document and write their history in the most beautiful and complete form despite the indifference of some souls who seek money, influence or fame through the distorted, incomplete or fake history.

“Perhaps, the convergence of the Amiri will with the public will to close files that burdened Kuwait for a decade came through the historic national reconcili-ation and generous pardon. This goal should be taken care of and accomplished, so the initiator, sponsor, parties and stages are recorded as letters of light that speak of their history and their wise handling of circumstances.

“This should be followed by an urgent revision of laws and legislation that led to the persecution of politicians and those who expressed opinions – a stum-bling block to genuine national reconciliation. It is an end to the decline of freedoms that narrowed their area despite the breadth of the provisions of the Constitution and what the Kuwaitis used to do.

“His Highness the Amir launched a generous initiative to create all condi-tions for comprehensive national reconciliation, beginning with a generous pardon for his sons who are convicted in opinion, stance or political cases. Everyone should be careful in order to preserve its purity.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb

Al-Balhan

KUNA photo Kuwait Army’s Chief of Staff General Khaled Saleh Al-Sabah during the virtual

meeting.

KUNA photoMinister of Interior Sheikh Thamer Ali Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah received in his of-

fice the Indian envoy to Kuwait Sibi George.

Army chief in GCC virtual meeting

Indian envoy calls on Interior Minister

Chief of Staff of Kuwait Army General Khaled Saleh Al-Sabah participated on Wednesday in a virtual meeting of the Supreme Military Committee of the Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces of the GCC.

The Army said in a press statement that the Supreme Committee issued a

number of decisions and recommen-dations that contribute to supporting military integration and cooperation between the armed forces of the GCC states.

The GCC consists of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman. (KUNA)

The Ambassador of India to Kuwait Sibi George, called on Kuwait’s Minister of In-terior Sheikh Thamer Ali Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, on Wednesday ,Oct 27, 2021.

During the meeting both sides dis-cussed wide ranging issues covering all aspects of close bilateral ties between India and

Kuwait. Both sides deliberated on ways and means of further strength-ening the existing bilateral coopera-

tion across various domains, including health and security.

The two sides also discussed the latest evolving situation related to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and mat-ters of mutual interest; in addition to all matters related to Indian Diaspora in Kuwait. The ambassador thanked the Kuwait leadership for care provided to the Indian community during the Coro-na virus challenging times.

Oil ministry to settle old debts

KNPC set to receive KD 28m duesKUWAIT CITY, Oct 27: According to re-liable sources, the amount of the delayed fi nancial dues to the Kuwait National Petro-leum Corporation (KNPC) by the Ministry of Oil in return for the ministry’s use of the oil complex tower 14 years ago was about KD 28.44 million as of the end of March, reports Al-Rai daily.

They revealed that KNPC did not col-lect its dues from the Ministry of Electricity and Water, even though the claim period exceeded 360 days and is related to the pre-vious years, amounting to KD 2.763 mil-lion as of March 31, 2021, in addition to an amount of KD 6.005 million for claims dating more than 30 days and are related to collecting fuel sales revenues from the

Ministry of Electricity and Water in the 2020/2021 fi scal year.

The sources explained that there are amounts of about KD 49.148 million in debts dating more than 361 days that have not been collected from some customers for the sale of petroleum products as of the end of March. There are 150 claims worth $ 11.283 million on some clients of the mari-time administration that were agreed upon but not yet collected by the end of the last fi scal year. Of them, 97 claims were more than 12 months old, and worth $ 6.103 mil-lion, or 54.1 percent of the total value of the agreed claims. There are 329 claims that have not been agreed upon, and with a total value estimated at $ 39.143 million.

Kill reported 5 years too lateArmed robber held

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27: When a 21-year-old Kuwaiti walked into the Salmiya Police Station and complained that his mother had killed his sister five years ago and had kept the remains in the bathroom of the family apartment, securitymen were caught on the wrong foot, reports Al-Jarida daily.

He dropped a bombshell saying he had a quarrel with his mother because she had killed his sister in 2016, but what was surprising is what took the young man more than five years to report the incident. Nonetheless, the securitymen did not take the confession lightly and rushed to the house of the complainant.

When they arrived at the house the mother and the com-plainant’s brother prevented their entry following which the securitymen got a warrant from the Public Prosecution, forced open the door, and found the decomposed remains in the bath-room of the apartment in Salmiya.

The source stated the mother and brother of the complainant have been arrested and referred for interrogation. The corpse has been referred to Forensics Medicine Department to deter-mine the cause and time of the death.

During interrogation the mother acknowledged that she was aware of the existence of the corpse but did not confess to kill-ing her or rather denied killing her. She said she was afraid to report the death to the police for fear of being accused of kill-ing her or covering up the ‘murder’.

The source pointed the Public Prosecution Offi ce is collecting evidence and is continuing interrogations with the family members to unravel the mystery and the identity of the murdered daughter.

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Bank robber arrested: The Hawalli securitymen have taken into custody, in record time, the suspect who robbed a bank branch in Taima at knife-point Tuesday morning, reports Al-Anba daily.

The daily said the suspect was arrested from an apartment in Hawalli where he was holed up after committing the crime. The Hawalli securitymen worked in coordination with the Jahra Investigations Department and arrested the thief within hours of committing the crime.

The source added that the culprit, who is a Kuwaiti, was abnormal at the time of the arrest.

He has been referred to the concerned authorities.❑ ❑ ❑

‘Get insurance done’: The General Traffi c Department (GTD) organized traffi c campaigns in all governorates of the country to ensure vehicles meet the security and durability, re-ports Al-Jarida daily.

The daily added, the campaigns were carried out simultaneous under the supervision of the Technical Testing Department. Dur-ing the campaign the GTD personnel issued 1,940 traffi c citations and arrested one minor and referred him to Juvenile Prosecution. He was caught for driving without a license.

The director of the Technical Testing Department at the GTD, Colonel Misha’al Al-Suwaihi, said the main objective is not to issue citations and impound vehicles but to instill in the minds of motorists the need to adhere to security and durability conditions of vehicles to prevent traffi c accidents.

He pointed out that the technical inspection engineers, dur-ing the security campaigns, noticed the presence of a large number of motorists driving without renewing their insurance documents which means they have not taken their vehicles for technical testing over a long period of time.

He added, all such vehicles have been impounded and will be allowed to ply the roads only after they are declared safe and secure.

Court announces rulingin case of Iranian’s gangKUWAIT CITY, Oct 27: The Court of Appeals recently an-nounced its ruling on the money laundering case involving 19 people; including the leader of the Iranian network identifi ed as F.S., another Iranian, 10 citizens, three Egyptians, two Ye-menis, a Lebanese and a Bangladeshi, reports Al-Anba daily.

The court upheld the verdict of the First Instance Court, which had earlier sentenced F.S. and the head of a unit at the General Traffi c Department to four years in prison for forging vehicle documents, while it did not impose punishment on one of the accused for the charge of possession of an unlicensed weapon and acquitted 16 others.

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Man gets 3 yrs jail: The Criminal Court sentenced a citi-zen to three years in prison with hard labor for offending the authority of the State and publishing false news on the micro-social blogging site ‘Twitter’, reports Al-Anba daily.

Other Voices

Faith, culture, morals, waterBy Ahmad alsarraf

A majority of the devotees perform their religious rituals often with-

out much con-cern for what is around them, the requirements of the environment, the preservation of natural re-sources, and other complexities of the modern era and they are not to blame for that because a vast majority believes that what is important is the perfor-mance of rituals and obligations and other things do not mean much.

In fact, people, including Muslims are the children of their environment wher-ever they are. The environment in early Islam was simple, with no traffi c, no air pollution, no noise, no mountains of gar-bage, and none of the diseases of the era or the phenomena accompanying indus-trial progress, for example, and therefore environmental issues did not receive much attention in our countries.

About two weeks ago, I contacted one of the offi cials of the Endowment Secretariat, the body that keeps large sums of money dedicated to charity work, and I told him that the world may be tired of repeating the topics and ar-eas of spending on charity work, and limiting them to digging wells, hiring preachers, and printing books, and per-haps it is time to get out of this cocoon, and stop spending ‘the billions’ that are spent on other than modern education, because this is a waste, because those who spent millions on education are themselves still ignorant, backward and sick.

I also told him that it is necessary to go out to areas of goodness that are broader and more benefi cial, such as

caring for the environment. The amount of water that is wasted, for example, in thousands of mosques, schools and government departments, is a matter that cannot be tolerated and how it is possible to save more than 70% of wa-ter waste in these places by installing sensor faucets, a project that will not cost much compared to its great ben-efi ts. In fact, the offi cial’s response was nice, and we are writing to remind him of his good promise.

Because of the low price of drinking water, Kuwait is the highest in the Gulf in per capita consumption, reaching 440 liters per day. Can any sane person imagine this frightening fi gure, and the extent of its danger to the state’s in-come and the environment?

Water is distilled from the sea, and this process needs millions of tons of oil, and refi ning produces highly tox-ic pollutants in the sea and in the air, and every reduction in consumption positively affects public money and the health of the citizen. Is the person who sets the curricula or who runs the schools, mosques and public places aware, understands, or wants to un-derstand these facts and examine these numbers, I doubt that very much?

It costs between 8 to 9 dinars to pro-duce 1000 gallons of water, and it is sold to individuals at 800 fi ls, and to the tanker owner at only 500 fi ls.

Also, a large proportion of the dis-tilled water is stolen or gets seeped into the ground, and there is not much inter-est in dealing with this terrible waste.

On a personal initiative to reduce wa-ter consumption in the home and offi ce, I installed sensor faucets. I also put a kilogram of gravel into the water con-tainers in each toilet, to reduce waste. And I expect that the savings, after only a year, from one house, will be close to twenty thousand liters.

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e-mail: a.alsarraf@alqabas.com.kw

alsarraf

A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION

diwaniya

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27, (KUNA): The President of the Kuwaiti Constitutional Court, Counselor Muhammad bin Naji, praised on Tuesday the presidential elec-tions in the Republic of Uzbekistan, which were held recently and were conducted in accordance with democratic standards, in-tegrity and transparency.

This came in a telephone conversation with the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, follow-ing his participation as an international observer in the elections held from 22 to 26 of this month, which resulted in the re-election of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev for a second fi ve-year term.

Counselor Bin Naji said that he had received an invitation from the Embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Kuwait to participate in the presidential elections process as an international observer, point-ing out that this came in appreciation of the Kuwaiti Constitutional Court’s pioneering role and its distinguished experience.

He added that offi cials in Uzbekistan have full faith in the Kuwaiti democratic experience and the integrity and transpar-ency of its parliamentary elections in the country, which are always conducted in accordance with democratic standards and international integrity.

He stated that he was closely acquainted with the work of a number of electoral com-mittees in the cities of Uzbekistan, praising the organization of these committees in the

polling stations, which was characterized by transparency and integrity.

Bin Naji indicated that he met with the President of the Constitutional Court of Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the visit, and they discussed judicial cooperation between the two friendly countries to exchange ju-dicial and legal expertise and experiences.

He stated that an offi cial invitation was sent to the head of the Uzbek Constitu-tional Court to visit the country and learn about the experience of the pioneering Kuwaiti Constitutional Court, which was established in 1973.

He valued the role played by the State of Kuwait’s ambassador to Uzbekistan, Ahmad Al-Jeeran and members of the mission, and their keenness to facilitate all procedures and follow-up the visit.

LOCALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021

4

MoSA eyes fundamental changesto regulate establishing of co-ops

MoU signed in field of spreading arbitration, legal awareness

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27: The Ministry of Social Affairs, repre-sented by the Cooper-ative Sector, intends to introduce fundamen-tal amendments to the decisions regulating the establishment of cooperative societies in the country, espe-cially the stipulated value of the paid up capital upon official declaration of the co-operative, reports Al-Jarida daily quoting sources.

Sources revealed the cur-rent paid up capital value is 5,000 and above; while the proposed amount is KD100,000. Sources pointed out the current amount is very low, compared to the vital role that cooperatives play in society, which is to provide high quality commodities at reasonable prices.

Sources said the regulation on the official declaration of charitable associations, for example, requires the submis-sion of a bank certificate from a local bank affirming the depos-it of 50,000 under the name of the association.

Sources added the ministry is also studying the possibility of obligating the boards of directors of cooperatives to form main committees consist-ing of non-members.

Non-approvalSources said the ministry is

contemplating on the non-approval of the formation of the administrative body of a cooperative, including the board chairman, if the distri-bution of all remaining posi-tions like the secretary and fund manager is not complet-ed. Sources clarified this is aimed at preventing the prob-lem that the ministry encoun-tered in the past – the reluc-tance of some members to run in the election for certain posi-tions, under the pretext that they are not as influential and efficient as others.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Fatwa and Legislation Department of the Council of Ministers, Counselor Salah Al-Masad, signed with Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kuwait Center for Commercial Arbitration of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry Abdulwahab Al-Wazzan, a memorandum of understanding between the two sides on achieving cooperation and spreading arbitration and legal awareness.

The Fatwa and Legislation said in a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on Wednesday that the memoran-dum includes reviewing the nature of the work of the Fatwa and Legislation Department, which is the legal reference and expert in charge of protecting the state’s public treasury.

It added that the memoran-dum aims to provide the best protection for the interests of the state and achieve the com-mon desire to establish coop-eration between the two parties in several areas related to arbi-tration, which will contribute to the promotion and develop-ment of legal thought and the development of the arbitration system.

It explained that this will be done through events, confer-ences and specialized training programs needed by those involved in legal affairs to expand their legal knowledge base, improve professional per-formance and realize the importance of preparing a gen-eration of arbitrators and legal professionals who are scientifi-cally and practically capable of settling disputes.

The Guest Show poster

Ambassador George Othman Boodai

Counselor bin Naji during his meeting with President of Constitutional Court

of Uzbekistan.

Al-Qabas photo

A group photo taken at the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Center.

National Day greetings sent

Building materials in focus

Bin Naji participates as int’l observer

HH Amir congratulates SaintVincent and the Grenadines

Indian Embassy organizesbuyer-seller virtual meeting

Head of Kuwaiti Constitutional Court hailsintegrity, transparency of Uzbek elections

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27, (KUNA): His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable of congratulations to Susan Dougan, Gov-ernor-General of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on the occasion of her coun-try’s National Day.

In the cable, His Highness the Amir

wished her wellbeing and progress and prosperity for her nation and friendly peo-ple.

His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah sent her two similar congratulatory cables.

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27: The Embassy of India in Kuwait in association with Chemicals and Allied Products Export Promotion Council (CAPEXIL) organ-ized a virtual Buyer-Seller Meet on Building Materials on 25 October 2021.

Ambassador of India to Kuwait HE Sibi George in his opening remarks spoke about the strength of Indian building ma-terial sector and opportunities in Kuwait on account of several infrastructure de-velopment projects and invited Indian ex-porters to collaborate with Kuwaiti part-ners to increase Indian exports to Kuwait.

B.H. Patel, President, CAPEXIL spoke on Indian construction industry; Rajpal Tyagi, MD, International Interiors gave a

tour d’horizon of opportunities for Indian exporters in Kuwaiti market and Othman Boodai, CEO of Kuwait Rawaisi Com-pany also highlighted growing scope for construction material supplies coming to Kuwait.

The focus of the meeting was to en-courage sourcing of building materials from India. There was also an interactive session between buyers and sellers after the meeting.

Over 40 Indian exporters presented their range of Indian products available for import to Kuwait from India.

A large number of exporters from India and importers from Kuwait participated in the meeting.

Kuwaitis may witness beginning of 4th cultural season

Amiri Diwan’s supervision of Sheikh Jaber Cultural Center expected to be renewed for one more yearKUWAIT CITY, Oct 27: With life returning to normal and the resumption of artistic and cultural activities and events in neighboring countries, after a long wait, Ku-waitis may witness the beginning of the fourth cultural season at the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Center, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The daily quoting sources the contract of the company operating the center is expected to be renewed for a year. In a context that supports this trend, a source in the Min-istry of Information said the management of the Sheikh Jaber Cultural Center is still under the supervision of the Amiri Diwan, and said the ministry has not received any other assignment related to the management of this facil-ity.

The center was a major turning point in the history of cultural life in Kuwait until early March 2020, when its activities were suspended due to the Corona pandemic. The ‘Kuwait Calling’ show, the fi rst of its kind, was sup-posed to start in March last year, but Covid-19 ended this dream abruptly.

The show was to be held in the open air, on a stage

specially designed to suit this huge work, in cooperation with the British Rambert Dance Troupe, in addition to the pioneers of theatrical designs ‘59 Productions’, which has won several international awards.

This work embodies the story of Kuwait and its arts through a unique and unprecedented experience that combines innovative music and contemporary Kuwaiti traditional dances, which are broadcast live to the audi-ence from the roof of the Jaber Center’s exterior build-ing, taking advantage of the jewel-like architectural design.

The public’s love for the center’s activities did not come out of nowhere. Over the course of four years, the center has played an important role in attracting 270,000 visitors to 328 different activities, with the participation of more than six thousand artists, includ-ing musicians, singers, dancers and lecturers, who represented more than 35 countries around the world. During the first experimental season, it was followed by three seasons that attracted many international shows.

TGS hosts Sheikha IntisarThe Guest Show (TGS) on Radio Ku-wait celebrates the lives of extraor-dinary men and women who have made an imprint on Kuwait, its soci-ety and its culture. On Thursday, we are honored to welcome a woman, a most popular member of Kuwait’s rul-ing family who has not only impacted Kuwait, but the region with her vision and her efforts.

Sheikha Intisar Al-Sabah is one of Kuwait’s leading agents of change. An entrepreneur, activist, philanthro-pist, publisher, fi lmmaker – she is unequivocally passionate about what-ever she does.

An ardent humanitarian, she uses

her position to promote tolerance, ac-ceptance, compassion and positivity. She has managed ailing companies and brought them back to life, and also founded NGOs that has touched innumerable lives.

In all her different avatars, Sheikha Intisar remains centered on the idea of doing good and empowering ben-efi ciaries to become change-makers themselves. Sheikha Intisar‘s exist-ence centers on purpose. Her mission in life is to make a difference and be the change, and she has articulated that message in manifold ways.

This Thursday we celebrate her life and her journey on The Guest Show.

Salah Al-Masad

LOCALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021

5

KUNA photosPart of the Artificial Intelligence Conference and Exhibition for Defense Technology and Cybersecurity held in

Jordan.

Brigadier General Engineer Khaled Al-Mafraj and Lieutenant Colonel Omar Al-Sabti during their partici-

pation in the conference.

Other Voices

The Republic of Turkey is taking firm steps towards the futureBy Ayşe Hilal Sayan Koytak

Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey

On October 29, we celebrate the 98th anniversary of the procla-

mation of the Republic of Turkey. I would like to thank our friends

in Kuwait who did not leave us alone with their messages of celebration.

We are proud because in nearly a century since its establishment, the Republic of Turkey has been a respected country both in its region and beyond, with its democratic structure, economic and political in-dependence.

Particularly in the last 19 years, we have made a great breakthrough in all aspects of state and national life, from education to health, from security to justice, from transpor-tation to energy. With this break-through, we have established the basic infrastructure for the “2023 goals”, referring to the 100th year of the Republic, as well as the 2053 and 2071 visions.

The world has been grappling with deep, devastating and transformative

problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic for the past 2 years. Turkey is one of the few countries that has managed to stay strong during this diffi cult period and even increase its power.

First of all, the Covid-19 pandemic has shown how important quality and accessible health care is. The city hos-pitals, which we have implemented through public-private- partnership, serve our own citizens as well as our guests from abroad. I believe that our Kuwaiti friends will also benefi t from the quality health services offered by Turkey.

In 2020, which was the peak of the pandemic, Turkey became the second country with highest growth rate with 1.8%. This was not coincidental, as we continued with growth rates of 7.2% in the fi rst quarter of 2021 and 21.7% in the second quarter. We ex-pect to complete the year 2021 with 9% growth.

Turkey is one of the few states among OECD countries that has increased its employment too, com-pared to the pre-pandemic period.

While investments decreased by

35% globally during the pandemic period, they have hardly slowed down in Turkey.

We want to increase the scale of international investments in our country even higher. For this, we will

transform our investment incentive system into a much more attractive structure.

We are among the 3 most success-ful countries in unmanned aerial ve-hicle (UAV) technologies. We will

make our drone fl eet number one in the world with the introduction of our combat unmanned aircraft system.

We are among the 10 countries in the world that can design, build and maintain their own warships. We meet the needs of friendly and allied countries along with ourselves in land and sea vehicles. We cur-rently have 7 companies in the top 100 defense companies in the world. We plan to commission the fi rst of our new type of submarines next year. We aim to take our own design electric vehicle off the band by the end of 2022.

Last year, we made 540 billion cu-bic meters of natural gas discovery in the Black Sea with our own seismic exploration and deep drilling vessels. Turkey has written a success story not only in exploration and discovery activities, but also in the widespread use of natural gas and its delivery to households.

After all, compared to the past, we see a Turkey that has increased its national income by 3 times, risen to 11th place in the world according to purchasing parity, and has set records

in investment, production, exports, employment and growth. Despite the multidimensional challenges that we have experienced recently, the prog-ress Turkey has made in democracy and development is promising for our future.

The world is on the eve of a new and radical transformation. We have signifi cant advantages to capture this new revolution, where many com-plex elements from climate change to artifi cial intelligence are combined. Turkey will not miss this new change in the global system.It will reach its targeted levels in all areas.

In this process, it is my greatest hope that relations and cooperation between Turkey and Kuwait continue to further develop and strengthen in all areas.

I avail myself of this opportunity to wish health, happiness and long life to His Highness the Amir, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sa-bah, and His Highness the Crown Prince, Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, as well as the friendly people and Government of Kuwait.

Ayşe Hilal Sayan Koytak, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey

Part of the virtual visit to the Malian refugee camp.

KUNA photosMalian refugee camp project in Mbera, Mauritania.

Project funded by Zakat House

UNHCR Kuwait organizes ‘virtual’field visit to Malian refugee campKUWAIT CITY, Oct 27, (KUNA): The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kuwait organized Tuesday a virtual field visit to the Malian refugee camp in Mbera in Mauri-tania to learn about the impact of the project funded by the Kuwaiti Zakat House, whose initiatives have contributed to supporting more than 63,000 Malian refugees last year.

In a speech he delivered on this occasion about the charitable and humanitarian role of Zakat House with UNHCR, Acting Director General of Zakat House Dr. Majid Al-Azmi said that Malian refugees are almost completely dependent on international aid to survive, as many of them lack adequate food and shelter.

Al-Azmi expressed pride of Za-kat House in its contributions in supporting UNHCR’s efforts in Mauritania to protect Malian refu-gees, as Kuwaiti aid reached more than 63,000 Malian refugees in Mbera camp last year.

For her part, the representative of the High Commissioner to the State of Kuwait, Nasreen Ra-biean, praised in a similar speech the humanitarian partnership with the Zakat House, indicating that this virtual field visit sheds light

on the situation of refugees and the challenges they face in their daily lives.

She said that these Malians were forced to seek refuge in neighboring countries such as Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauri-tania, indicating that UNHCR’s partnership with Kuwait’s Zakat House would expand the scope of the humanitarian response to address thousands of refugees and displaced persons and con-tribute to building a better future for them.

Rabiean reported that the Ku-waiti Zakat House contributed to supporting UNHCR programs and its humanitarian response during 2020 in Bangladesh, Mauritania, Yemen and Syria, and in several areas such as education, health, protection and emergency re-sponse related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Kuwaiti Zakat House was established in 1982. It is an Islamic organization that aims to provide aid and charitable and social ser-vices to support those affected by natural disasters and wars by collecting zakat and distributing donations to various charitable societies in line with the develop-ments of the times and the needs of society.

Kuwait’s defense participates inAI and cybersecurity conference

Latest tech to help defense sector

JORDAN, Oct 27, (KUNA): The first session of the Artificial Intelligence Conference and Exhibi-tion for Defense Technol-ogy and Cybersecurity, in the presence of Jordan’s Crown Prince, Prince Al-Hussein bin Abdullah II, and the participation of delegations from 35 coun-tries, including the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense, kicked off Wednesday.

Brigadier General Engineer Khaled Al-Mafraj and Lieuten-ant-Colonel Omar Al-Sabti rep-resented the Kuwaiti (Defense) delegation to the conference, which is the first meeting plat-form of its kind in the Middle East that brings together artifi-cial intelligence (AI) experts in defense technology and cyberse-curity with decision makers.

The conference, which is being held with the participation of 56 specialized international compa-nies, aims to exchange expertise, experiences and knowledge in driving the wheel of artificial in-telligence, concluding contracts, discussing investment opportuni-ties and forming potential partner-ships.

It also aims to showcase the lat-est technologies and developments in artifi cial intelligence that can help fi nd vital solutions for daily opera-tions in the defense sector, big data, data analysis and protection, and cy-bersecurity.

In his opening speech to the events, the Jordanian Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneur-ship Ahmed Al Hanandeh affi rmed the Jordanian government’s aware-ness of the importance of an ef-fective cybersecurity system and a systematic and comprehensive pro-

tection for it at the international, lo-cal and sectoral levels.

Al Hanandeh added that the gov-ernment worked on issuing the Na-tional Cyber Security Strategy for the period from 2018 to 2023 and the Cyber Security Law due to the rapid growth of digital technology and the development of smart devices, ma-chines and systems.

He indicated his country’s efforts to keep abreast of the latest develop-ments, benefi t from the best global practices and available opportuni-ties, create suitable opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship, and enhance technologies related to artifi cial intelligence in the King-dom, and support research and stud-ies in this regard.

Al Hanandeh stated that arti-

ficial intelligence contributes to reducing costs, creating new job opportunities, automating process-es, increasing business efficiency, productivity, and innovation in all sectors, and provides techniques that help in data analysis process-es, which leads to reducing time and costs, and providing a quick and effective response when crises occur.

For his part, Director General of SOFEX Jordan, the organizer of the conference, Brigadier Ayman Al-Batran, stressed in a similar speech the importance of focusing on build-ing new skills for the digital future through specialized training in the fi elds of artifi cial intelligence, cyber-security, fi fth generation technolo-gies for mobile communications,

Internet of things, block chains, and others.

The activities of the Artifi cial In-telligence Conference and Exhibi-tion for Defense Technology and Cybersecurity will continue for two days, with the participation of a large number of decision-makers, pioneers and researchers in the fi eld of defense technology and cyberse-curity, as well as a group of local and international lecturers.

Discussion sessions, workshops and bilateral meetings will be held within the activities, including several titles, most notably on dig-ital transformation strategies, arti-ficial intelligence ethics, cyberse-curity risks, the future of jobs, and the development of programming skills.

LOCALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021

6

KUNA photoParticipants of the sixth consultative ministerial meeting of the ‘Abu Dhabi Dialogue’ in a group photo.

KUNA photoPart of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding.

Bid to boost cooperation

NCCAL, Kuwait Society forHuman Rights initial ‘MoU’KUWAIT CITY, Oct 27, (KUNA): The National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and co-operation with the Kuwait Society for Human Rights with the aim of increasing cooperation and build-ing bridges of partnership between the Council, NGOs and civil so-ciety sectors in all its bodies and institutions, and joint coordina-tion between them to achieve the government’s vision in sustainable development project.

The offi cial spokesman of the Council and Assistant Secretary-General for the Culture Sector, Dr. Issa Al-Ansari, said in a press statement that the association is one of the independent bodies that were proclaimed by the 2004 law and aims to spread and strengthen the culture of human rights in the State of Kuwait and consolidate work to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Al-Ansari indicated that it does this by issuing publications, or-ganizing meetings and lectures, and cooperating with local, Arab and international human rights associations and organizations similar in goals, indicating that it is one of the leading associations in its field and was distinguished by obtaining consultative status in the United Nations Economic and Social Council in July 2018.

He stated that the memorandum stipulates To cooperate in several areas, including coordinating a joint media campaign to spread the culture of human rights, market-ing for joint events, exchanging information and special reports re-lated to the culture of human rights, preparing basic standards, forming specialized committees to create a clear vision in the areas of exchang-ing research and consultations, and creating a humanitarian strategic partnership that serves the human right to enjoy cultural rights.

He added, “Kuwait is distin-guished by the humanitarian pres-ence that reached the world after Kuwait won the title of Center for Humanitarian Action and His Highness the late Amir Sheikh Sa-bah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, may God rest his soul, obtained the title of Leader of Humanitarian Action,” stressing that the coun-cil will seek to support the asso-ciation’s activities in the cultural aspects to consolidate concepts related to human rights.

The signing ceremony was at-tended by its Secretary-General Hussein Al-Otaibi, its chairman Khaled Al-Ajmi, the project man-ager, Maysoon Abdel Rahim, the council’s Secretary-General Kamel Al-Abdul-Jalil, Dr. Al-An-sari, and the director of the Depart-ment of Foreign Cultural Relations Muhammad bin Reda.

6th ministerial meet seeks new era of labor relations

Kuwait joins ‘Abu Dhabi Dialogue’

DUBAI, Oct 27, (KUNA): The sixth consultative ministerial meeting of the ‘Abu Dhabi Dialogue’ kicked off Tuesday in the Emirate of Dubai, with the participation of ministers con-cerned with labor issues in 16 member states, including the State of Kuwait.

In his opening speech to the meeting, the UAE Minister of Human Resourc-es and Emiratisation Dr. Abdul Rahman Al Awar stressed the importance of establishing a new era of labor relations between the Gulf Cooperation Coun-cil countries and the Asian countries that send workers.

Al-Awar stressed the need to present new visions, agree on common formulas for best practices and develop partnerships to deal with challenges in an optimal manner.

“The economic priorities and development visions of the Gulf Cooperation Coun-cil countries will increase the demand for skilled labor in the future,” he said, point-ing to the importance of modern technological changes and their impact on labor markets and the increasing importance of women’s participation in these markets.

In his turn, Deputy Director-General of the Kuwaiti Public Authority for Man-power, Dr. Mubarak Al-Azmi, stressed in his speech at the meeting, “The research agenda for the Abu Dhabi Dialogue session 2020-2021 is in line with the priorities of member states to face the current and future challenges of the labor markets in

our region.”Al-Azmi expressed his confidence

in reaching many positive results and outcomes from the meeting, which would contribute to charting the path towards the future.

He praised the achievements of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue and its contribu-tion to the development and strength-ening of cooperation among member states in the field of labor movement policies in the region and the strength-ening of legal protection mechanisms for them, stressing at the same time Kuwait’s constant keenness to provide its full support for all dialogue activi-ties and outcomes.

Policies The UAE’s presidency of the Abu

Dhabi Dialogue is scheduled to end with the conclusion of the meeting on Thursday, during which a package of issues related to labor movement policies between member states will be discussed with the participation of representatives from international and regional organizations and private sec-tor institutions.

The Abu Dhabi Dialogue, which was established in 2008, is considered the first regional forum for dialogue and co-operation between Asian countries that send and receive workers, with the aim of identifying best practices for labor mobility between these countries.

The dialogue includes Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Malaysia, as well as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, in addi-tion to Kuwait and the UAE.

The meeting will discuss, through a number of working sessions, the em-ployment scene in the Gulf Coopera-tion Council countries and the expected changes and their impact on the supply and demand for employment, with a fo-cus on women’s job opportunities.

INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021

7

America

Abrams group donates $1.34m: The political organization led by Demo-cratic titan Stacey Abrams is branching out into paying off medical debts.

The Fair Fight Political Action Com-mittee on Wednesday told The Associ-ated Press it has donated $1.34 million from its political action committee to the nonprofi t organization RIP Medical Debt to wipe out debt with a face value of $212 million that is owed by 108,000 people in Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Lauren Groh-Wargo CEO of allied group Fair Fight Action and senior ad-viser to the PAC said paying off medi-cal debt is another facet of the group’s advocacy seeking expansion of Medicaid coverage in the 12 states that have re-fused to expand the health insurance to all poorer adults.

“What is so important about this is the tie between Medicaid expansion and just crushing medical debt,” Groh-Wargo said. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

Police to get stun guns: Philadel-phia will spend $14 million to equip all of its offi cers with stun guns, train them on how to use them and require offi cers to wear them while on duty.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the announcement Tuesday, the anniversary of the fatal police shooting of Walter Wallace Jr., which was fi lmed by a by-stander and sparked days of protests over police brutality. The 27-year-old Wal-lace, who was Black, was having a men-tal health episode.

He was holding a knife when he was shot 14 times by two white police offi cers who were not equipped with stun guns, police offi cials said. The announcement Tuesday was made in coordination with Wallace’s family, in-cluding his mother, who witnessed his shooting. (AP)

‘Mental health too fragile’

Permit ‘extradition’ ofWikiLeaks Assange: USLONDON, Oct 27, (AP): The Unit-ed States asked Britain’s High Court on Wednesday to overturn a judge’s decision that Julian Assange should not be sent to the United States to face espionage charges, promising that the WikiLeaks founder could serve any prison sentence he re-ceives in his native Australia.

In January, a lower court judge refused an American request to ex-tradite Assange on spying charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a dec-ade ago. District Judge Vanessa

Baraitser de-nied extradi-tion on health grounds, say-ing Assange was likely to kill himself if held under harsh US pris-on conditions.

An attorney for the US government, James Lewis,

argued Wednesday that the judge was wrong to conclude that As-sange’s mental health was too fragile to withstand the US judicial system.

HistoryAssange “has no history of seri-

ous and enduring mental illness” and does not meet the threshold of being so ill that he cannot resist harming himself, the lawyer said.

Lewis said American authorities had promised that Assange would not be held before trial in a top-security “Supermax” prison or sub-jected to strict isolation conditions, and if convicted would be allowed to serve his sentence in Australia.

Lewis said the assurances “are binding on the United States.”

“Once there is an assurance of appropriate medical care, once it is clear he will be repatriated to Australia to serve any sentence, then we can safely say the district judge would not have decided the relevant question in the way that she did,” he said.

Assange’s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said in a written submis-sion that Australia had not agreed to take Assange if he is convicted. Even if Australia did agree, Fitzger-ald said the US legal process could take a decade, “during which Mr. Assange will remain detained in ex-treme isolation in a US prison.”

He accused US lawyers of seek-ing to “minimize the severity of Mr Assange’s mental disorder and sui-cide risk.”

Assange, who is being held at London’s high-security Belmarsh

Prison, had been expected to attend the two-day hearing by video link, but Fitzgerald said Assange had been put on a high dose of medica-tion and “doesn’t feel able to attend the proceedings.”

Assange later appeared on the video link at times during the day, seated at a table in a prison room, wearing a black face mask.

Several dozen pro-Assange pro-testers held a boisterous rally outside London’s neo-Gothic Royal Courts of Justice throughout the day, calling the prosecution politically motivated and demanding it be dropped.

The demonstrators included Chi-nese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who said Assange’s case “relates to our society, it relates to our free-dom of expression, it relates to our individual human rights, and we have to watch the government”

The two justices hearing the appeal — one is England’s most senior judge, Lord Chief Justice Ian Burnett — are not expected to give their ruling for several weeks. That will likely not end the epic le-gal saga, however, since the losing side could seek to appeal to the UK Supreme Court.

US prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer mis-use over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison, though Lewis said “the longest sentence ever imposed for this offense is 63 months.”

UnlawfullyAmerican prosecutors say As-

sange unlawfully helped US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Man-ning steal classifi ed diplomatic ca-bles and military fi les that WikiLe-aks later published. Lawyers for Assange argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment freedom of speech pro-tections for publishing documents that exposed US military wrongdo-ing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In her January judgment, Barait-ser rejected defense arguments that Assange faces a politically moti-vated American prosecution that would override free-speech protec-tions, and she said the US judicial system would give him a fair trial.

WikiLeaks supporters say tes-timony from witnesses during the extradition hearing that Assange was spied on while in the embassy by a Spanish security fi rm at the behest of the CIA — and that there was even talk of abducting or kill-ing him — undermines US claims he will be treated fairly.

Britain

Assange

Biden plan takes shape

Dems unveil new billionaires’ tax proposalWASHINGTON, Oct 27, (AP): Push-ing past skeptics, Senate Democrats on Wednesday unveiled a new billion-aires’ tax proposal, an entirely new en-try in the tax code designed to help pay for President Joe Biden’s sweeping domestic policy package and edge his party closer to an overall agreement.

The proposed tax would hit the gains of those with more than $1 bil-lion in assets or incomes of more than $100 million a year, and it could begin to shore up the big social services and climate change plan Biden is racing to fi nish before departing this week for global summits.

The new billionaires’ proposal, cou-pled with a new 15% corporate mini-mum tax, would provide alternative revenue sources that Biden needs to win over one key Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who had rejected the party’s earlier idea of reversing the Trump-era tax breaks on corporations and the wealthy to raise revenue.

Biden met late Tuesday evening with Sinema and another Democratic holdout, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, at the White House.

“No senator wants to stand up and

say, ‘Gee, I think it’s just fi ne for bil-lionaires to pay little or no taxes for years on end,’” said Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, helm-ing the new effort.

Biden and his party are zeroing in on at least $1.75 trillion in health care, child care and climate change pro-grams, scaling back what had been a $3.5 trillion plan, as they try to wrap up negotiations this week.

Taken together, the new tax on bil-lionaires and the 15% corporate mini-mum tax are designed to fulfi ll Biden’s desire for the wealthy and big business to pay their “fair share.” They also fi t his promise that no new taxes hit those earning less than $400,000 a year, or $450,000 for couples. Biden insists all the new spending will be fully paid for and not piled onto the national debt.

While the new tax proposals have appeared agreeable to Manchin and could win over Sinema, whose sup-port is needed in the 50-50 split Sen-ate where Biden has no votes to spare, the idea of the billionaires’ tax has run into criticism from other Democrats as cumbersome or worse.

Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said he told Wyden the billionaires’ tax may be more diffi cult to implement than the route his panel took in simply raising rates on corpo-rations and the wealthy.

Under Wyden’s emerging plan, the billionaires’ tax would hit the wealthi-est of Americans, fewer than 800 peo-ple, starting in the 2022 tax year.

It would require those with assets of more than $1 billion, or three consecu-tive years of income of $100 million, to pay taxes on the gains of stocks and other tradeable assets, rather than wait-ing until holdings are sold.

A similar billionaires’ tax would be applied to non-tradeable assets, includ-ing real estate, but it would be deferred with the tax not assessed until the asset was sold, though interest would have to be paid.

Overall, the billionaires’ tax rate would align with the capital gains rate, now 23.8%. Democrats have said it could raise $200 billion in revenue that could help fund Biden’s package over 10 years.

“I’ve been talking about this for

years,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who campaigned for the presidency on a wealth tax, and backs Wyden’s approach. “I’ve even made billionaires cry over this.”

Republicans have derided the bil-lionaires’ tax as “harebrained,” and some have suggested it would face a legal challenge.

And key fellow Democrats were also raising concerns about the billion-aires’ tax, saying the idea of simply undoing the 2017 tax cuts by hiking top rates was more straightforward and transparent.

Under the House bill approved by Neal’s panel, the top individual income tax rate would rise from 37% to 39.6%, on those earning more than $400,000 a year, or $450,000 for couples. The cor-porate rate would increase from 21% to 26.5%. The bill also proposes a 3% sur-tax on the wealthiest Americans with ad-justed income beyond $5 million a year.

With Sinema rejecting the House’s approach to taxes and Manchin pan-ning the new spending on programs, the senators have packed a one-two punch, throwing Biden’s overall plan into fl ux.

Market Movements 27-10-2021

Business Change Closing ptsEGYPT - EGX 30 +107.66 11,364.20PAKISTAN - KSE 100 +595.06 45,851.04SINGAPORE - Straits Times STI +13.60 3,218.17

Change Closing ptsSAUDI - Tadawul -38.90 11,807.79JAPAN - Nikkei -7.77 29,098.24UK - FTSE 100 -24.35 7,253.27EUROPE - Euro Stoxx 50 -3.09 4,220.88UAE - DFM -1.95 2,864.17PHILIPPINES - PSEi -21.95 7,230.15INDIA - Sensex -206.93 61,143.33

Boeing posts $109mn Q3 loss amid jet production issues

Boeing Co. lost $109 million in the third quarter as it struggled with production problems that have blocked deliveries of the 787, a large plane popular on interna-tional airline routes.

Boeing said Wednesday it is building about two 787s a months and expects to stay at that low rate until deliveries resume. Problems including fuselage fl aws are ex-pected to cause $1 billion in “abnormal costs,” the company said, including a $183 million charge recorded in the third quarter.

The company also took a $185 million

charge for its troubled Starliner space cap-sule. The company plans to try to launch the capsule in another test fl ight next year.

The Chicago-based company offered a hopeful outlook for aircraft sales, saying that the rollout of vaccines against COV-ID-19 and easing of global travel restric-tions will boost demand for planes.

Boeing delivered 85 jets to airlines and other customers in the quarter, up from 28 a year earlier. Deliveries are a crucial source of cash.

The $109 million loss attributable to

shareholders compared with a loss of $449 million in the same quarter last year, when the pandemic caused demand for new planes to collapse.

The most recent loss amounted to 19 cents per share, but the loss excluding special items was wider, at 60 cents per share. Wall Street expected an adjusted loss of 20 cents per share, according to a FactSet survey of 16 analysts.

The commercial airline business suffered an operating loss of $693 million even as revenue rose 24% to $4.46 billion. (AP)

The logo for Boe-ing appears on a

screen above a trading post on the

fl oor of the New York Stock Ex-

change, Tuesday, July 13, 2021.

(AP)

Regulators order China Telecom out of US mktBEIJING, Oct 27, (AP): US regulators are expelling a unit of China Telecom Ltd., one of the country’s three major state-owned carriers, from the American market as a national se-curity threat amid rising tension with Beijing.

China Telecom (Americas) Corp. is required to stop providing domestic interstate and international service in the United States within 60 days, under an order approved Tuesday by the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC cited the danger that Beijing might use the company to eavesdrop or disrupt U.S. communications and “engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the United States.

The Biden administration has extended efforts begun under then-President Donald Trump to limit access to U.S. technology and markets for state-owned Chinese companies due to concern they were security risks or helping with mili-tary development. China Telecom is among companies that were expelled from U.S. stock exchanges under an order by Trump barring Americans from investing in them.

The FCC said in 2019 that due to security concerns it planned to revoke licenses granted two decades earlier to China Telecom and another state-owned carrier, China Uni-com Ltd. It rejected a license application by the third carrier, China Mobile Ltd.

“China Telecom Americas’ ownership and control by the Chinese government raise signifi cant national security and law enforcement risks,” said an FCC announcement.

The company’s conduct and communications to U.S. gov-ernment agencies “demonstrate a lack of candor, trustwor-thiness and reliability,” the FCC said, without giving details.

Visitors take photos near an antique telephone booth and a child at the China Telecom stand during the Chi-na International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in

Beijing, China on Sept. 5, 2021. (AP)

American Airlines passenger jets prepare for departure, Wednesday, July 21, 2021, near a terminal at Boston Logan International Airport, in Boston. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines posted third-quarter profi ts thanks to federal pandemic aid - smaller Alaska Airlines turned the trick even without money from taxpayers - and they expect planes to be packed over the holidays. Still, the carriers reported Thursday, Oct 21, 2021 that higher ex-penses for jet fuel and labor are casting uncertainty over the rest of the year. Southwest expects to lose money in

the fourth quarter. (AP)

US new home sales jump 14 pct in Sept

Strong demand helps offset rising prices

WASHINGTON, Oct 27, (AP): Sales of new homes jumped 14% in September to the fastest pace in six months as strong de-mand helped offset rising prices.

The Commerce Department reported Tuesday that sales of new single-family homes rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 800,000 units last month which was well above what economists had bee expecting.

However, the government revised lower its estimates for sales in the previous two months with August now showing a 1.4% decline to a rate of 702,000 units.

The September sales pace was the strongest since sales reached an annual rate of 873,000 in March.

The median price of a new home, the point where half the homes sold for more and half for less, rose to a record $408,800 in September, up 9.5% from a year ago. The av-erage sales prices in September increased to $451,700, up 11.5% from a year ago.

Prices are being pushed higher by strong demand and increases being faced by builders who are grappling with shortages of critical building supplies such as lumber.

“We expect new home sales to move mostly sideways over the rest of 2021 as strong demand and low mortgage rates are tempered by high prices and construction back-logs,” said Nancy Vanden Houten of Oxford Economics.

The report showed that sales rose in all parts of the coun-try in September except for the Midwest where they slipped 1.5%. Sales were up 32.3% in the Northeast, 17.5% in the South and 8.2% in the West.

Chip shortage dings sales

Germany sees 4% growth

GM Q3 profi t drops 40% to $2.4 billion

BERLIN, Oct 27, (KUNA): The German government stated Wednesday that it expects the rejuvenation of its economy in the year 2022.

Minister of Economic and Energy, Peter Altmaier, stated to a morning show airing on (ARD), that economic growth this current year will be less than expected, however, an in-crease of four percent is expected in the upcoming year.

The German offi cial said that such growth is only to be expected with production lines going back to their original state prior to the coronavirus pandemic.

DETROIT, Oct 27, (AP): High prices for trucks and SUVs helped General Motors post a $2.4 billion third-quarter profi t despite factory closures due to a shortage of computer chips and other parts.

But the profi t was 40% lower than the $4 billion GM made during the same period last year as sales slumped and the company lost market share in the U.S., its most profi table country.

Excluding one-time items, the company made $1.52 per share, beating Wall Street estimates of 98 cents.

Revenue for the quarter fell 25% to $26.78 billion, far short of Wall Street estimates of $30.72 billion, according to FactSet.

On conference call with reporters Wednesday, CEO Mary Barra said the global shortage of semiconductors, plus COV-ID outbreaks at supplier factories, hit the company during the third quarter. “It still continues to be somewhat volatile,” she said.

However, GM is seeing some improvement in the cur-rent quarter and expects additional supplies in the fi rst three months of 2022, she said. “We’ll see this improving, but we’ll see this impact into next year,” Barra said.

GM has said it expects to produce about 200,000 few-er vehicles in the second half of this year compared with the fi rst half, with most of the impact occurring from July through September.

Barra said she’s spoken with the CEOs of most major chip makers, and the companies are working on strategies to make sure the shortages don’t happen again. “I think we’ll defi nitely see changes to ensure we have the right supply,” she said.

GM’s third quarter profi t came even though U.S. sales for the quarter were almost 33% lower than a year ago. The company lost 3.8 percentage points of U.S. market share, according to the Edmunds.com website.

“The ongoing disruption to supply chains created by the chip shortage has been particularly harsh to GM, which ap-peared to struggle with the biggest declines in sales and mar-ket share compared to its Detroit Three counterparts in Q3,” said Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ senior manager of insights.

But Barra said she expects GM’s market share to bounce back when factories get back to normal produc-tion. “We are selling everything we can. I wish we had more vehicles,” she said, pointing to strong pickup truck and SUV market share. “We’ve been for years the No. 1 sales leader in the United States, and I am confident with the product line we have and some of the new prod-ucts coming that we’ll regain that as soon as we have the supply availability. ” Consumer willingness to pay high prices for scarce new vehicles kept the money flowing for GM. The average sale price paid for a GM vehicle topped $50,000 for the quarter, up more than 16% from a year ago, Edmunds said. Barra said that once supplies grow, she expects the high prices to ease.

People walk by a sold sign in front of a house along the Erie Canal in Pittsford, New York, on Monday, Sept. 6, 2021. Sales of new homes jumped 14% in Septem-ber to the fastest pace in six months as strong demand

helped off rising prices. (AP)

Holiday travel set to soar as surge in COVID fades

US airlines betting on big DecemberDALLAS, Oct 27, (AP): Airlines are planning for a big December, believing that the recent surge in a highly conta-gious COVID-19 variant is fading and that holiday travel will soar.

The carriers say that even after en-couraging thousands of employees to quit during the height of the pandemic, they will be able to handle the holiday load.

But in an ominous note, Southwest Airlines reported Thursday that it lost $75 million due to a blizzard of fl ight cancellations this month - disruptions that started with bad weather in Florida but cascaded out of control because of staffi ng problems. The airline trimmed its schedule and believe it has fi xed the problem.

The airlines are also contending with rising fuel costs and the expense of hiring more employees. Southwest predicted it will lose money in the fourth quarter.

American Airlines struggled with widespread delays early this summer, then brought back more pilots from leaves of absence. American said it will run nearly a full schedule, includ-ing more than 6,000 fl ights on some peak days during the holidays.

But United Airlines CEO Scott Kir-by warned this week that some airlines could face disruptions later this year because they have been slower than his company to get workers vaccinated against COVID-19, as required by a presidential order.

The comments about holiday travel came as American and Southwest re-ported third-quarter profi ts, thanks to hefty amounts of federal pandemic aid.

American, based in Fort Worth, Texas, posted a $169 million profi t after

Deutsche Bank makes profi tFRANKFURT, Germany, Oct 27, (AP): Deutsche Bank saw its net profi t increase 6%, to 329 million euros ($381 million), in the third quarter despite a sharp increase in restructuring costs. The bottom line at Germany’s largest bank ben-efi ted from fewer loans going bad as the economy rebounds from the coronavirus pandemic and credit support from governments and the European Central Bank.

The bank said Wednesday that its yearslong effort to streamline its business was on track and that 90% of the costs of its transformation were already accounted for.

Deutsche Bank had to set aside only 117 million euros ($136 mil-

lion) for losses on loans that aren’t being repaid, down 57% from the same quarter a year ago. Since then, some of the worst pandemic restrictions have eased, while gov-ernments have extended credit guarantees and other support for businesses and the European Cen-tral Bank has taken steps to keep market interest rates low, reducing stress on borrowers.

The bank took a 583 million euro ($676 million) loss for its re-structuring, more than fi ve times the total from the same quarter a year ago, largely related to a con-tract settlement and software im-pairments relating to its migration to cloud computing.

collecting nearly $1 billion in taxpayer money to cover most of its payroll costs. The airline felt the late-summer impact of the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19, which caused a slowdown in bookings and a rise in cancellations across the industry.

Leisure travel within the U.S. has re-turned roughly to pre-pandemic levels, and Parker expressed confi dence that business and international travel will soon pick up.

American said fourth-quarter revenue will be down 20% compared with the same quarter in pre-pandemic 2019. In the third quarter, revenue of $8.97 bil-lion was down 25% from two years ago.

Dallas-based Southwest posted net income of $446 million after getting

$763 million in federal aid. Southwest said it does not expect to make a profi t in the fourth quarter because of higher costs and the lingering loss of revenue from the delta variant, which it esti-mated at $100 million.

Both American and Southwest report-ed they would have lost money excluding the federal money and other special items, but the adjusted losses were slightly smaller than analysts had expected.

Alaska Airlines reported a $194 million profi t. Excluding special items, the Seattle-based airline said, it would have earned $187 million, or $1.47 per share, compared with analysts’ fore-cast of $1.36 per share. Revenue of $1.95 billion was slightly more than analysts expected.

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021

9

Stocks ‘wobble’ on Wall Street,easing back from record highs

Big technology and communications companies shine

NEW YORK, Oct 27, (AP): Stocks wobbled on Wall Street Wednesday, a day after the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Aver-age set their latest record highs.

The S&P 500 fell 0.1% as of 11:53 a.m. Eastern. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 126 points, or 0.4%, to 35,631 and the Nasdaq rose 0.4%.

The S&P 500 had more losers than gainers, but several big technology and communications companies gained ground and helped counter losses elsewhere. Microsoft rose 4.1% after reporting a 24% surge in profi ts last quarter as its cloud computing business bounded ahead. Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices rose 1.3% after report-ing encouraging earnings.

Google’s parent company, Alphabet, rose 4.8% as a continued rebound in digital ad spending bolstered surpris-ingly good fi nancial results.

A mix of companies that rely on direct consumer spending also gained ground. Domino’s Pizza rose 2.5%.

Bond yields fell and weighed down banks, which rely on higher yields to charge more lucrative interest on loans. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.56% from 1.61% late Tuesday. JP-Morgan Chase fell 2.2%,

US crude oil prices fell 1.6% and pushed energy stocks lower. Exxon Mobil fell 1.9%.

Investors are busy reviewing the lat-

est round of earnings from a variety of well-known companies. McDonalds rose 2.2% after reporting solid fi nancial results as an easing of business restric-tions helped sales growth. Coca-Cola rose 1.8% as sales grew along with the reopening of many venues and busi-nesses over the summer.

General Motors fell 5.3% after re-porting mixed fi nancial results as the broader auto industry continues to face production problems because of a chip shortage. Rival Ford will report its re-sults later Wednesday.

The steady fl ow of corporate report cards will continue Thursday with industrial bellwether Caterpillar and technology giant Apple. Amazon and Starbucks will also report their results on Thursday.

Outside of earnings, investors are also awaiting the latest update on US economic growth when the Commerce Department releases its report on third-quarter gross domestic product on Thursday.

London and Frankfurt opened low-er, shrugging off strong US corporate profi t reports. Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong declined.

Australia reported infl ation acceler-ated to an unexpectedly high level in the latest quarter, highlighting investor fears central banks might feel pressure to cool prices by pulling back stimulus that is pushing up stocks.

Adding to unease about Chinese fi nance, an offi cial newspaper, the Global Times, cited industry analysts as saying more developers are likely to default on bonds amid pressure from regulators to cut their debt levels.

A midsize developer, Modern Land, said it missed a $250 million payment due Monday. Investors are watching whether one of the biggest developers, Evergrande Group, can avoid a de-fault on 2 trillion yuan ($310 billion) of debt.

Investors are “refusing to chase the carrots dangled by an impressive U.S. earnings season,” said Jeffrey Halley of Oanda in a report.

“China, once again, appears to be the culprit,” Halley said. He said Austral-ian infl ation is “increasing nerves” that its central bank will shift from its ultra-dovish stance.

In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London lost 0.3% to 7,253.67 and the DAX in Frankfurt sank 0.4% to 15,701.84. The CAC 40 in France gave up 0.3% to 6,744.37.

On Wall Street, futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were off 0.1%.

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 index rose 0.2% to its second high in two days, driven by strong earnings reports by some major companies. The Dow and Nasdaq composite edged up less than 0.1%.

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 1% to 3,562.31 after reports that China has halted freight trains bound to and from Europe due to bor-der congestion. Also Tuesday, Wash-ington revoked the license of a unit of state-owned China Telecom Ltd. to operate in the United States as a secu-rity risk.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo lost less than 0.1% to 29,098.24 and the Hang

In this fi le photo, NYSE President Stacey Cunningham takes a selfi e with a big screen and the opening bell outside the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks wobbled on Wall Street Wednesday, a day after the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average set their latest record highs. (AP)

Lineage Logistics unveils fully automated facility in Portsmouth

Lineage Logistics, LLC announced the opening of its newest fully automated fa-cility strategically located near the Port of Virginia’s world-renowned Virginia Interna-tional Gateway in Portsmouth which offers an integrated network of highways, air, rail, and sea services.

The new state-of-the-art cold storage warehouse joins Lineage’s growing net-work of over 22 fully automated facilities worldwide. The Company’s growing auto-mation presence comes at a critical time for the cold chain sector as the pandemic

accelerated much-needed change to oper-ations and systems within the decades-old cold storage industry. Lineage’s industry-leading automation technology increases storage density, maximizes capacity, pro-vides real-time inventory management, and keeps food safe all while reducing en-ergy consumption.

“As a testament to the power of public-private partnership, we are so pleased to announce the opening of our state-of-the-art facility in Portsmouth,” said Brian Beattie, Senior Vice President of Sale at

Lineage Logistics. “Lineage’s innovative technology used in the Portsmouth ware-house will help our customers address ris-ing supply chain demands both nationally and internationally while contributing to the ongoing economic development and job development in the region.”

Portsmouth Economic Development alongside the Virginia Economic Develop-ment Partnership, the Portsmouth Ports & Industrial Commission, and the Virginia Port Authority worked to secure the project for Lineage, which in the end resulted in

the $84 million investment, produced over 80 high-paying jobs with a Portsmouth-fi rst plan, and remediated a former chemical plant site that was previously vacant - all of which have benefi ted and will continue to support the city’s economic expansion.

“Portsmouth is thrilled to welcome Lin-eage Logistics to our business commu-nity,” said Shannon E. Glover, Mayor of Portsmouth. “Lineage has already become a wonderful community partner with its participation in our Portsmouth@Work programs, its commitment to supporting

Portsmouth residents and businesses, and in the redevelopment of a key brownfi eld site. We look forward to Lineage continu-ing to grow in Portsmouth.”

The 167,264 square-foot facility, which is adjacent to the Virginia International Gate-way, provides Lineage with access to key markets and will serve as a critical hub to connect people with food around the world. The facility will also aid in strengthening the supply chain and logistics infrastructure in Portsmouth as well as address the growing demand for cold storage in the region. (AP)

CANBERRA, Australia, Oct 27, (AP): Australian telco Telstra has partnered with the Australian gov-ernment in a $1.6 billion deal to buy the South Pacific operations of Digicel in a deal that would prevent a key part of the region’s telecommunications infrastructure falling into Chinese hands.

Telstra, the nation’s largest tel-co, said in a statement on Monday it would contribute $270 million to the deal and hold 100% of the eq-uity in Digicel Pacific.

The terms of the sale were agreed on and would be completed within six months, Telstra chief executive Andrew Penn said.

“Digicel Pacific is a commer-cially attractive asset and critical to telecommunications in the region,” Penn said.

Digicel is owned by Irish busi-nessman Denis O’Brien, is incor-porated in Bermuda and is head-quartered in Jamaica. It operates in 33 markets in developing countries around the world.

It is the leading mobile phone carrier in Papua New Guinea, Ta-hiti, Tonga, Nauru, Samoa and Vanuatu. It is the second biggest carrier in Fiji after Vodafone.

Trade and Investment Minis-ter Dan Tehan said in a statement the partnership with Telstra, once a state-owned monopoly, was “consistent with Australia’s long-standing commitment to growing quality investment in regional in-frastructure.”

The deal also reflected Austra-lia’s commitment to support the development of secure and reliable infrastructure in the region, which is critical to the region’s economic growth and development, Tehan said.

The U.S. and some other gov-ernments have sought to minimize involvement of Chinese telecoms equipment makers in upgrades of communications networks, citing security concerns. Added to that, trade and other relations between

Australia and China have been strained over a range of issues in the past several years.

Australia signaled it was com-peting head on with China on telecommunications in the Pacific when it paid for a $130 million fiber-optic submarine telecommu-nications cable linking Sydney to Papua New Guinea and the Solo-mon Islands which started operat-ing last year. The cable resulted in the Solomons government ripping up a contract with China’s Huawei to run a cable to Sydney.

Jonathan Pryke, Pacific Islands program director at the Sydney-based Lowy Institute international policy think tank, said Australia’s main concern about Chinese own-ership of Digicel was how heavily Pacific economies would come to rely on 5G telecommunications networks.

“Utilities are going to rely on 5G networks to operate and if Digicel were to fall into a Chinese state-owned enterprise’s hands - and Digicel while not a monopoly does have a very dominant market share - it would give China the power to be a significant disruptor in these economies in time of geopolitical tension,” Pryke said.

“If China and Australia are re-ally having it out, China could flick the switch in Papua New Guinea and cause all sorts of mayhem and distract Australia’s attention,” he added, referring to Australia’s nearest neighbor.

The deal comes against a back-drop of China investing heavily in the Pacific in the last 15 years, largely through the private sector. Australian business have retreated from the region because it is con-sidered too complicated, risky and not profitable enough.

“Australia is really eager to get Australian businesses back into the region,” Pryke said. “We can’t com-mand and control them like China can, we have to incentivize them. This is one really big incentive.”

Australia invests in $1.6bnDigicel Pacifi c telco ‘deal’

Cites concerns over ‘limiting competition’

EU investigates Nvidia’s purchase of ArmLONDON, Oct 27, (AP): European Un-ion regulators opened an investigation Wednesday into graphics chipmaker Nvidia’s $40 billion purchase of chip designer Arm over concerns it would limit competition, adding to global scru-tiny of the deal.

The European Commission said it’s concerned the combined company would have the ability and incentive to restrict access to technology from Unit-ed Kingdom-based Arm Ltd., whose chip designs power the vast majority of the world’s smartphones.

The commission, which is the EU’s top antitrust authority, said it worried the deal would result in higher prices, less choice and reduced innovation in the semiconductor industry.

Nvidia Corp., based in Santa Clara, California, said last year that it was buying Arm from Japanese technol-ogy giant Softbank. The deal raised concerns that Arm would abandon its neutral business model of licensing its chip designs to hundreds of tech com-panies, including many of Nvidia’s rivals.

“Our investigation aims to ensure that companies active in Europe con-tinue having effective access to the technology that is necessary to produce state-of-the-art semiconductor prod-ucts at competitive prices,” said EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who’s in charge of competition and digital issues for the bloc.

The commission said Nvidia had offered concessions to address pre-liminary concerns but that they weren’t enough to ease “serious doubts” about the deal.

Arm referred requests for comment to Nvidia, which said it’s “working closely” with the commission.

“We look forward to the opportu-nity to address their initial concerns and continue demonstrating that the transaction will help to accelerate Arm and boost competition and innovation, including in the EU,” Nvidia said in a statement.

The commission has until March 15 to decide whether to clear the deal. The EU concerns echo those cited by the U.K’s competition watchdog, which opened its own investigation earlier this year.

Nvidia has pledged to maintain Arm’s open licensing model and cus-tomer neutrality, keep Arm’s head-quarters in Cambridge, England, and expand its British staff. Nvidia previ-ously said the purchase would not be completed until early 2022 because of expected scrutiny, including from regulators in the U.S. and China.

In this fi le photo, people gather in the Nvidia booth at the Mobile World Con-gress mobile phone trade show in Barcelona, Spain. European Union regula-tors opened an in-depth investigation Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021, into graph-

ics chip maker Nvidia’s $40 billion purchase of chip designer Arm. (AP)

A man uses a mobile device while sitting near a Telstra public tel-ephone in Sydney, Monday, Oct. 25, 2021. Australian telco Telstra has partnered with the Australian government in a $1.6 billion deal

to buy the South Pacifi c operations of Digicel. (AP)

Seng in Hong Kong declined 1.6% to 25,628.74.

The Kospi in Seoul ended 0.8% lower at 3,025.49 while India’s Sensex retreated 0.4% to 61,106.32.

Sydney’s S&P ASX 200 ended less than 0.1% higher after the Austral-ian government reported underlying infl ation accelerated by unexpectedly strong 0.7 percentage points to an an-nual rate of 2.1% in the three months ending in September.

“A jump in Australian core infl ation highlighted intensifying cost pressures in the global economy,” said Anderson Alves of ActivTrades in a report.

Investors were waiting for US eco-nomic growth data due out Thursday that might infl uence whether the Fed-eral Reserve changes its timeline for reducing stimulus.

In energy markets, benchmark US crude lost $1.20 to $83.45 per per bar-rel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the price basis for international oils, shed 90 cents to $84.75 per barrel in London.

The dollar declined to 113.69 yen from Tuesday’s 114.17 yen. The euro declined to $1.1590 from $1.1598.

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021

10

Microsoft profit up 24% in quarter, driven by cloud growth

Growth in Microsoft’s cloud computing business helped push its profi t up 24% in the July-September quarter over the same time last year.

The Redmond, Washington-based tech company on Tues-day reported quarterly profi t of $17.2 billion, or $2.27 per share, beating Wall Street ex-pectations of $2.08 per share.

Microsoft profi ts have soared throughout the pandemic

thanks to ongoing demand for its software and cloud comput-ing services for remote work and study.

Microsoft posted revenue of $45.3 billion in its fi scal fi rst quarter, up 22% from last year. Analysts had been looking for revenue of $44 billion, accord-ing to FactSet Research.

Sales from what Microsoft calls its “intelligent cloud” seg-ment, which includes server

products and its Azure cloud computing platform, were $17 billion, up 31% from a year ago. The company has been fi ercely competing with Ama-zon, Google and other cloud providers for big business and government contracts.

There was relatively slower growth in Microsoft’s personal computing business segment, which includes Windows soft-ware licenses for new com-

puters. Sales in the segment grew by 12% to $13.3 billion.

Microsoft has been unveil-ing the next generation of its Windows software, called Windows 11, its fi rst major up-date in six years. But the PC market has also been hit by supply chain problems.

Revenue from Microsoft’s LinkedIn jobs networking ser-vice increased 42% from the same time last year. (AP)

In this fi le photo, people walk past a Microsoft

offi ce in New York. Mi-crosoft reported earnings after markets closed, Oct.

26, 2021. (AP)

UK’s Treasury hails economic reboundBudget to mark shift away from pandemic fi refi ghting

LONDON, Oct 27, (AP): Brit-ain’s Treasury chief Rishi Su-nak is painting a relatively rosy picture of the state of the British economy following the country’s deepest recession in around 300 years as a result of the coronavi-rus pandemic.

In his annual budget speech to Parlia-ment, Sunak said Wednesday that in-dependent forecasters at the Offi ce for Budget Responsibility are predicting growth this year to be 6.5%, up from the previous prediction of 4% just a few months ago. He also said that borrowing and debt will be lower as a proportion of national income than previously thought.

The British economy, which suffered the worst recession among the Group of Seven industrial nations last year, has been re-covering over recent months following the lifting of lockdown restrictions as well as a pick-up in global trade.

However, it has suffered a series of short-ages that many blame on Britain’s departure from the European Union and dislocations caused by the pandemic. It is also experienc-ing big price rises, largely due to the sharp pick-up in energy costs.

Because of the improving economic backdrop, Sunak said he would help fami-lies meet the rising cost of living and that every government department will receive a “real-terms rise in overall spending” over the coming three years. He also said a con-troversial cut in the government’s spending

on overseas aid to 0.5% of national income will, according to the forecasts, revert back to the previous level of 0.7% by 2024/25.

“Today’s budget does not draw a line un-der COVID. We have challenging months ahead,” he said. “But today’s budget does begin the work of preparing for a new econ-omy post-COVID.”

Earlier, Sunak emerged from his offi ce at 11 Downing Street with his team, hold-ing up the red budget box that contains the speech that he will give to Parliament. Many of the speech’s headlines had already been revealed, much to the fury of the Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle.

Sunak had already announced that spend-ing on health will go up to resolve a mas-sive virus-related backlog in care and that the minimum wage for low-income workers will go up by an infl ation-busting 6.6% be-ginning in April. He has also said the public sector pay freeze for military personnel, po-lice offi cers and teachers will end.

Given that infl ation is set to rise further in the coming months, potentially to over 5%, there are concerns as to whether the pay increases will be enough to keep track with infl ation.

The main Labour Party opposition is urg-ing Sunak to do more about the high cost of living, accusing him of “smoke and mirrors” in his pre-budget announcements.

Business executives have also expressed concerns about the planned increase in the minimum wage, given that they are already set to pay more taxes over the coming years at a time when they are still trying to recoup pandemic-generated losses and deal with current rising costs.

Consumer demand for BNPL continues to grow globally

Visa helping fuel ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 27, (Agencies): As consumer de-mand for ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ (BNPL) solutions continues to grow, Visa announced a growing list of issuers, acquirers and fi ntechs that are leveraging Visa’s technology - both its network-based Visa Installments Solution and its longstand-ing fi ntech solutions - to bring ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ options to their customers.

A recent Visa study found that nearly half of all global consumers (42%) expressed interest in installment fi nancing that is offered on their existing credit card or one they could apply for. To help partners meet this demand, Visa Install-ments Solution is being deployed globally to make issuer-offered BNPL options available in-store and across ecom-merce channels. With the network-based solution, fi nancial institutions can add BNPL as a customized feature for credit card holders, on their already approved credit lines. And likewise, acquirers on the network can activate the ability to enable installments for any of their retailers that accept Visa. First launched as a pilot in 2019, the solution has expanded to Australia, Canada, Malaysia, Russia and the U.S.

In North America, Visa is collaborating with Canada’s Moneris, and working with CIBC, Commerce Bank, Desjar-dins Group (Desjardins), Equinox Payments, i2c, Scoti-aBank and Versapay. In Asia Pacifi c, following the recent launch with HSBC, Visa is rolling out installment programs with ANZ, GHL Systems Malaysia and Quest Payment Sys-tems. And in Russia, Visa has partnered with Home Credit Bank and Russian Standard Bank. Visa is also working with Cybersource, FIS, Global Payments and TSYS, a Global Payments company, in several markets across the globe to enable the Visa Installments Solution.

The global rollout of Visa Installments Solution comple-ments Visa’s existing support of today’s leading BNPL fi n-techs, including: Afterpay, ChargeAfter, Klarna, Paidy, Sez-zle, SplitIt and Zip. Since 2017, Visa’s fi ntech solutions have helped fi ntechs grow by: issuing digital credentials or vir-tual cards, so consumers can seamlessly use installments at checkout; leveraging Visa’s acceptance and reach with sell-ers; and taking advantage of the security and risk offerings Visa provides. Additionally, this week Visa announced that Klarna has signed a global brand deal with Visa to accelerate its expansion and scale in several markets.

“For years, Visa has been enthusiastically embracing

BNPL for the same reason we pioneered revolving credit, debit and prepaid decades ago: because it expands choice and convenience for buyers and sellers alike,” said Mary Kay Bowman, SVP and global head of payment and platform products, Visa. “If shoppers prefer a BNPL fi ntech solution, we are here and enabling it; if they want an option from their banks, we’re helping offer those too.”

Visa’s recent survey showed that future interest in install-ment plans is high and outpaces current adoption in all coun-tries tested, underscoring the strong opportunity for BNPL us-age looking ahead. 2 Research shows that when BNPL options are available at checkout, retailers also benefi t from an increase in spend and see more shoppers completing their purchases.

“At HSBC we strive to bring new and innovative solutions to our customers. We are excited to partner with Visa and be the fi rst bank outside North America to launch the Visa In-stallments Solution, starting in Malaysia; announcing our en-trance in the digital Buy Now, Pay Later space,” said Madhu Kejriwal, Group Head, Unsecured Lending & Partnerships, HSBC Wealth & Personal Banking. “This feature facilitates point of sale purchases for HSBC Visa credit card customers when they shop with partner merchants, by allowing them to split payments into monthly instalments at no additional cost and no credit application.

A customer uses the contactless payment chip in their Visa card to purchase gasoline at a station in Ridge-

land, Mississippi, Thursday, July 1, 2021. (AP)

CALIFORNIA: A continued rebound in digital ad spend-ing at Google drove its parent company’s profi t up 68% in the third quarter.

Mountain View, Califor-nia-based Alphabet Inc. said Tuesday that it earned $18.94 billion, or $27.99 per share, in the July-September period. Revenue rose 41% to $65.12 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of $23.73 per share on revenue of $63.53 billion. Shares nonetheless slipped 1.7% to $2,740 in af-ter-hours trading.

Google is the world’s domi-nant search engine, owns the biggest mobile operating sys-tem in Android and runs the behemoth video site YouTube. It holds 29% of the global $455 billion digital ads mar-ket, according to eMarketer, followed closely by Facebook. Both tech giants are benefi ting as companies that scaled back on advertising last year dur-ing the pandemic pump more money into marketing. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

NEW YORK: Profi ts at pay-ments giant Visa Inc. jumped in its most-recent quarter, driven by consumers and busi-nesses getting back to spend-ing on their credit and debit cards after the pandemic.

The San Francisco-based company said Tuesday that it earned $3.58 billion in its fi s-cal fourth quarter that ended Sept. 30, or $1.65 a share. That’s was up from a profi t of $2.14 billion, or 97 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Excluding one-time adjust-ments, Visa earned $1.62 a share, up 42% from a year earlier. Analysts had been ex-pected $1.55 a share, accord-ing to FactSet.

Consumers and businesses spent $2.783 trillion on Visa’s network in the latest quarter, up 17% adjusted for currency fl uctuations. Visa saw double-digit growth on both Visa-branded credit cards, as well as debit cards.

Visa also reported its full-year results. The company earned $12.93 billion on an adjusted basis, up 16% from its previous fi scal year. Total revenues last year were $24.11 billion. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

CHICAGO: McDonald’s re-ported stronger-than-expected sales in the third quarter, boosted by larger orders and higher prices on the menu.

The company has had to raise prices like other major restaurant chains to cover rising costs of commodities and labor, but it may have dodged at least some of the most severe labor shortages that have dogged companies like Domino’s.

Sales at stores open at least a year rose 12.7%, surpassing pre-pandemic levels and easily topping the 10% increase Wall Street had been expecting as coronavirus restrictions eased in most markets.

Revenue jumped 14% to $6.2 billion in the July-Sep-tember period, the Chicago burger giant said Wednesday. That beat Wall Street’s fore-cast of $6 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet.

McDonald’s net income rose 22% to $2.1 billion for the quarter. Per-share earnings of $2.86 also beat analysts’ forecast of $2.46. (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

SAN FRANCISCO: Twitter posted a net loss Tuesday due mostly to a lawsuit settlement, but its revenue rose sharply in the third quarter, boosted by solid ad sales around the globe.

The San Francisco-based company said Tuesday that its net loss was $536.8 million, or 67 cents per share, in the Ju-ly-September quarter. That’s down from a profi t of $28.7 million, or 4 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

The loss included a one-time net charge of $766 million from a shareholder lawsuit the company settled. Twitter said last month that it will pay $809.5 million to set-tle a consolidated class action lawsuit alleging that the com-pany misled investors about how much its user base was growing and how much users interacted with its platform.

Revenue rose 37% to $1.28 billion from $936.2 million. (AP)

bottomlinethe

HEALTHARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021

11

Vaccine’s benefi ts outweigh risks in children

FDA panel backs Pfi zer’s low-dose COVID-19 vaccine for kidsWASHINGTON, Oct 27, (AP): The US moved a step closer to expanding COVID-19 vaccinations for millions more children as government advisers on Tuesday endorsed kid-size doses of Pfi zer’s shots for 5- to 11-year-olds.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted unanimously, with one abstention, that the vaccine’s benefi ts in preventing COVID-19 in that age group outweigh any potential risks. That includes questions about a heart-related side effect that’s been very rare in teens and young adults despite their use of a much higher vac-cine dose.

While children are far less likely than older people to get severe COV-ID-19, ultimately many panelists de-cided it’s important to give parents the choice to protect their youngsters - especially those at high risk of illness or who live in places where other pre-cautions, like masks in schools, aren’t being used.

“This is an age group that deserves and should have the same opportunity to be vaccinated as every other age,”

said panel member Dr. Amanda Cohn of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The FDA isn’t bound by the panel’s recommendation and is expected to make its own decision within days. If the FDA concurs, there’s still another step: Next week, the CDC will have to

decide whether to recommend the shots and which youngsters should get them.

Full-strength shots made by Pfi zer and its partner BioNTech already are recommended for everyone 12 and older but pediatricians and many parents are clamoring for protection for younger children. The extra-con-

tagious delta variant has caused an alarming rise in pediatric infections -- and families are frustrated with school quarantines and having to say no to sleepovers and other rites of childhood to keep the virus at bay.

In the 5- to 11-year-old age group, there have been over 8,300 hospitali-zations reported, about a third requir-ing intensive care, and nearly 100 deaths.

States are getting ready to roll out the shots - just a third of the amount given to teens and adults - that will come in special orange-capped vials to avoid dosage mix-ups. More than 25,000 pediatricians and other primary care providers have signed up so far to offer vaccination, which will also be available at pharmacies and other locations.

But for all that anticipation, there also are people who strongly oppose vaccinating younger children, and both FDA and its advisers were inundated with an email campaign seeking to block the Pfi zer shot.

Dr. Jay Portnoy of Children’s Mercy

Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, said despite over 4,000 emails urging him to vote against the vaccine, he was persuad-ed by the data showing it works. Portnoy said he also was representing “parents I see every day in the clinic who are terri-fi ed of sending their children to school. ... They need a voice also.”

Panelists stressed they weren’t supporting vaccine mandates for young children - and the FDA doesn’t make mandate decisions. FDA vac-cine chief Dr. Peter Marks also said it would be highly unusual for other groups to mandate something that’s cleared only for emergency use. Sev-eral advisers said they wished they could tailor the shots for the highest-risk youngsters, a decision that would fall to the CDC.

Dr. James Hildreth of Meharry Medical College said he ultimately voted in favor of the vaccine “to make sure that the children who really need this vaccine - primarily Black and brown children in our country - get it.”

Pfi zer studied 2,268 elementary schoolchildren given two shots three

weeks apart of either a placebo or the kid dose. Vaccinated youngsters devel-oped levels of virus-fi ghting antibodies just as strong as teens and young adults who got the full-strength shots. More important, the vaccine proved nearly 91% effective at preventing sympto-matic infection - based on 16 cases of COVID-19 among kids given dummy shots compared to just three who got vaccinated.

The kid dosage also proved safe, with similar or fewer temporary side effects - such as sore arms, fever or achiness - that teens experience. At FDA’s request, Pfi zer more recently enrolled another 2,300 youngsters into the study, and preliminary safety data has shown no red fl ags.

But that study isn’t large enough to detect any extremely rare side effects, such as the heart infl ammation that oc-casionally occurs after the second full-strength dose, mostly in young men and teen boys.

The panel spent hours discussing if younger children, given a smaller dose, might face that side effect, too.

This October 2021, photo provided by Pfizer shows kid-size doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in Puurs, Belgium. (AP)

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This image released by Netfl ix shows Matthias Schweighöfer, (left), and Nathalie Emmanuel in ‘Army of Thieves.’ (AP)

‘Inclusion pays business as well as social dividends’

Diversity study: TV looks more like US and viewers approveLOS ANGELES, Oct 27, (AP): Television fare that refl ects the nation’s increasing racial and ethnic diversity is fi nding favor with industry gatekeepers and viewers, according to a study of the 2019-20 TV season released Tuesday.

Despite the pandemic that stymied Hollywood production, there were varying measures of growth in the hiring of people of color — and women — in on- and off-camera jobs, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in the report.

In return, audience enthusiasm for shows such as creator-star Issa Rae’s “Insecure” and the miniseries “Watchmen” with Em-my-winning actor Regina King proved that inclusion pays busi-ness as well as social dividends, said Darnell Hunt, dean of the school’s social sciences division.

The report’s biggest takeaway is “the mounting evidence for how important diversity is to today’s audience,” Hunt said in an interview. He co-wrote the annual report with Ana-Christina Ramón, a UCLA social sciences research director.

Across streaming, cable and broadcast platforms, viewership among adults age 18 to 49 peaked in many cases when a show had a “majority-minority cast,” Hunt said.

That conforms to the changing United States. In 2010, four years before UCLA issued its fi rst report on Hollywood’s diver-sity record, whites represented 63.7% of the population. In 2020, that Census fi gure was just under 58%, the lowest on record.

“People basically want to see the TV shows that look like America, that have characters they can relate to and have experi-

ences that resonate with them,” Hunt said.That builds on and reinforces previous fi ndings for TV, he said.

It also refl ects the counterpart UCLA fi lm study released earlier this year.

For all households including whites, for example, median rat-ings were highest for scripted broadcast shows in which people of color were between 31% and 40% of the credited writers, the study found.

For white, Latino and Asian American homes, median ratings peaked for scripted cable shows whose casts were from 41% to 50% people of color, while Black household ratings were highest for shows with “majority-minority casts,” the report said.

InvisiblePeople of color fell short of parity in lead acting roles on all

platforms. But for the fi rst time in the report’s history, overall cast diversity on scripted broadcast TV was slightly higher than in the general US population (just under 43% ethnic and racial groups).

While actors of color also came close to “proportionate rep-resentation” in cable and streaming, most of the gains could be attributed to the increasing share of Black and multiracial roles, researchers found.

Asian Americans — the country’s fastest-growing group — and Latinos remain underrepresented, while Native Americans are “virtually invisible,” the report said.

As study co-author Ramón sees it, the problem lies partly with the industry’s white monolith of network and studio executives who tend to view those ethnicities “very niche.”

“I think they oftentimes think of stories from Latinx creators and Asian American creators as something really quite periph-eral.... and not appealing to the quote-unquote mainstream,” she said.

Hunt also cites “unimaginative” executive-suite decisions that reduce diversity to a choice between Black or white hires which he said underscores the need for other ethnic groups to fi ll deci-sion-making roles.

The study examined a total of 461 scripted shows across all platforms to determine the employment inroads made by women and people of color as actors, writers, directors and series creators.

Generally, there was an increase in racial diversity in nearly all the job categories, with representation among women improving in roughly half of them.

Compared to the previous UCLA report, more people of color were credited writers across all of TV, with the percentage on broadcast episodes increasing from 23.4% to 26.4%; on cable, from 25.8% to 28.6%; on streaming, from 22.8% to 24.2%.

According to the study, “most of these gains can be attributed to women of color” — for instance, Robin Thede and her HBO series “A Black Lady Sketch Show.” In contrast, men of color increased among broadcast credited writers but “treaded water in cable and digital.”

LOS ANGELES: At fi rst glance, broadcast newcomers “Ghosts” and “The Wonder Years” have barely had a chance to prove them-selves in the ratings.

The CBS comedy “Ghosts” has shown early promise, so far land-ing just outside the top 20 for the young season so far, while ABC’s reboot of “The Wonder Years” sitcom is hovering at around No. 65, according to Nielsen fi gures.

But the two have already been granted full-season runs. Admiring reviews for both aside, the reason lies in the numbers — the ones that measure how a show performs in the long run, not just after its fi rst day of airing as refl ected above.

The debut episode of “The Won-der Years” was watched by 3.2 mil-lion viewers on ABC when it aired Sept 22. That fi gure grew to 6.4 million after a week of combined broadcast and digital viewership.

“Ghosts,” based on a hit BBC comedy, created by Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Mar-tha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard, and Ben Willbond for CBS, drew just shy of 5.6 million viewers to its Oct 7 broadcast debut, reaching 7.76 million after seven days that also included on-demand viewing. In October 2021, the series was given a full season order.

“We are gratifi ed that audiences have taken to ‘Ghosts’ so quickly and are incredibly proud of this unique and imaginative show,” CBS Entertainment President Kelly Kahl told The Associated Press shortly after the series bowed. CBS threw “a lot behind it,” he said of the net-work’s only new fall comedy.

The winner of last week’s network derby was NBC, home to two football games that landed in the top 10. It averaged 5.79 million viewers in prime-time, fol-lowed by CBS with 5.11 million. Fox had 4 million, ABC had 3 million, Univision had 1.3 million, Telemundo had 1 million and ION Television had 970,000.

With a lift from the baseball playoffs, TBS topped the cable networks in prime time, averaging 3.1 million viewers. ESPN had 2.9 million, Fox News Channel had 2.3 million, MSNBC had 1.2 mil-lion and Hallmark had 1.1 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening news ratings contest, averaging 7.9 million view-ers. NBC’s “Nightly News” had

6.7 million, and the “CBS Evening News” had 4.9 million. (AP)

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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa: A Chi-cago man has been sentenced in Iowa to federal prison for running a scheme in which he collected deposits and money for other expenses related to music concerts

that never took place. Romel Murphy, 43, was sen-

tenced last week to more than six years in federal prison after plead-ing guilty in January to one count of wire fraud, federal prosecutors in Cedar Rapids said in a news release. There is no parole in the federal system.

Investigators said Murphy used

his talent booking agency to solicit music venues to send him money to secure artists’ performances. Prosecutors said Murphy would send signed contracts to victims that appeared to have come from the artists, but that had actually been drafted and signed by Mur-phy himself. The venues would sign the contracts and wire funds

to Murphy, which he never paid to the artists, but used for gambling and other personal uses.

Murphy defrauded his victims of more than $410,000 from No-vember 2017 through March 2019, prosecutors said, and his sentenc-ing judge ordered him to pay more than $414,400 in restitution to his victims. (AP)

Film

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‘Dune’ to get sequel, with theater-only release set for 2023

Oddball safecracker charms in ‘Thieves’By Mark Kennedy

One of the unlikeliest heroes to emerge from Zack Snyder’s horror-action fl ick “Army of the

Dead” earlier this year was an oddball safecracker named Dieter.

Part nerdy Eurotrash, part pretentious busybody, Dieter was never going to make it out alive. He was like one of those guys wearing a red shirt in “Star Trek.” Sooner or later, Dieter was gonna be gone.

Well, that turns out to be dead wrong: Dieter has escaped — by way of the prequel, “Army of Thieves,” an improbable fi lm starring this strange, fussy German creature who eats cheese and cucum-ber sandwiches and wears turtlenecks with suspend-ers. It’s a fi lm no one really demanded and yet is loads of fun.

“Army of Thieves” takes place in the months be-fore “Army of the Dead,” which was set in a Las Vegas overrun by a zombie apocalypse. But zombies aren’t really on the menu here. Don’t tune in for un-dead thrills.

Instead, this is Dieter’s show — acted and directed with glee by Matthias Schweighöfer — with a plot that leads us right up to the time when he joins the gang of safe robbers in a very gnarly Las Vegas. Shay Hatten, who helped write “Army of the Dead,” gives us a story of a small-town bank clerk who lives his best life as a master safecracker in a previous robbery crew.

Dieter’s sad little life in Germany is cracked open when a mysterious woman (Nathalie Emmanuel, be-guiling) recruits him — back then he’s Sabastian and hasn’t yet taken the name Dieter — to join their jet-setting ring. “I’m the woman who’s going to change your life forever,” she says. She proposes the heist of vaults built by the world’s greatest safe-maker, the last having 72 trillion possible combinations. She of-fers him “a life less ordinary.”

Dieter politely declines and goes back to his sad sandwiches. No, of course he doesn’t. He joins the crew, which consists of a hacker, a getaway driver,

the muscle and his recruiter as they go about robbing three banks across Europe, each more complex and dangerous than the last.

“Is it like in a movie fi lm where each one of us has a different skill-set and it’s only working together that we can pull off that which needs the pulling off?” Dieter asks. (There’s more than a little Borat in our Dieter).

Dieter is naïve, excitable and adorable and relata-ble. He actually exclaims “gulp!” when he’s stunned — ”Did you just say ‘gulp?’” asks his recruiter — and recognizes fi lm cliches, including when the crew inevitably grow close: “May I ask, are we doing the bonding right now?” he says. His skills, to be hon-est, seem just to be really good at listening to safe tumblers clicking.

ThrillersThe fi lm is a hoot as it celebrates previous thrillers

— the use of a Nixon mask during a robbery (“Point Break”), a bicycle chase (“Premium Rush”), an un-derground safe-cracking competition (“Fight Club”) and the obsessive tracking by an unhinged detective (“The Pink Panther”). One cop says it feels like he’s in a spy movie. We are. There are name-checks of Nicholas Cage and Zach Ephron.

You fi nd yourself rooting for this unlikely safe-cracker, a savant when it comes to vaults and opera but a bumbling, awkward guy otherwise who stuns even himself with his bravery. He’s after the glory of opening the vaults, not the money. Those of us who have watched the “Army of the Dead” know what’s in store for him in Las Vegas so giving him a mo-ment in the sun is only fair, the disposable sidekick come good.

“Army of Thieves,” a Netfl ix release, is rated TV-MA for violence, language and adult situations. Running time: 129 minutes. Three stars out of four.

Also:LOS ANGELES: “Dune” isn’t done.Legendary Entertainment announced Tuesday that

Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune,” which adapts the fi rst half of Frank Herbert’s 1965 science-fi ction epic, will get a sequel. Whether that would be the case had been an unanswered question throughout the fi lm’s release, which was delayed a year by the pandemic and ultimately debuted both in theaters and on HBO Max.

Warner Bros. Chairman Toby Emmerich said the studio will release “Dune: Part II” in October 2023. This time, the release is expected to be exclusively in theaters. Arguing that “Dune” belonged to the big screen, Villeneuve had protested passionately when Warner Bros. turned to hybrid releases for all of its 2021 fi lms due to the pandemic.

But Villeneuve had lobbied hard for a sequel to “Dune,” which he has said is easily the best mov-ie he’s made. It stars Timothee Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa and Zendaya. Some actors, like Zendaya, would potentially have a larger role in part two.

“This is only the beginning,” said Villeneuve in a statement.

Over the weekend, “Dune” launched with a sol-id $40.1 million in ticket sales in US and Canada theaters. “Dune,” a 155-minute $165-million movie that introduces itself as “Part 1,” has thus far grossed $225 million worldwide.

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LOS ANGELES: A new documentary tells the story of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Nick Ut, the man who captured the horrors of the Vietnam War with a single black-and-white photo of a 9-year-old girl in 1972. Ut was only 21 at the time he took the “Napalm Girl” photo and after the fall of Saigon was transferred to the Los Angeles bureau of The Associ-ated Press, where he would take many thousands of photographs — covering everything from the riots to celebrity trials — before his retirement in 2017 (after 51 years). Ut gets the chance to tell his own story in “From Hell to Hollywood,” available on VOD start-ing Oct. 26. (AP)

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People & Places

NEWS/FEATURESARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021

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Obit

He satirized politics

Stand-up comedypioneer Sahl diesNEW YORK, Oct 27, (AP): Satirist Mort Sahl, who helped revolutionize stand-up comedy during the Cold War with his running commentary on politicians and current events and became a favorite of a new, restive generation of Americans, died Tuesday. He was 94.

His friend Lucy Mercer said that he died “peaceful-ly” at his home in Mill Valley, California. The cause was “old age,” she said.

During an era when many comedians dressed in tuxedos and told mother-in-law jokes, Sahl faced his audiences in the ’50s and ‘60s wearing slacks, a sweat-er and an unbuttoned collar and carrying a rolled-up newspaper on which he had pasted notes for his act. Reading news items as if seated across from you at

the kitchen table, he made his inevitably cutting comments, often joining the laughter with a horsey bellow of his own and ending his routines by in-quiring: “Is there any group I haven’t offended yet?”

“Every comedian who is not doing wife jokes has to thank him for that,” actor-comedian Albert Brooks told The Asso-ciated Press in 2007. “He re-ally was the fi rst, even before Lenny Bruce, in terms of talk-

ing about stuff, not just doing punch lines.”Sahl took pride in having mocked every president

from Dwight Eisenhower to Donald Trump, although he acknowledged he privately admired Democrat John F. Kennedy and counted Republican Ronald Rea-gan among his closest friends. Of President George W. Bush, he observed: “He’s born again, you know. Which would raise the inevitable question: If you were given the unusual opportunity to be born again, why would you come back as George Bush?”

Sahl became famous in 1953 at San Francisco’s hun-gry i (the i stood for intellectual), the perfect place for a comedian of his type. The city was a meeting ground for beatniks and college activists, and they crowded into the tiny club to hear someone who spoke to their disdain for the status quo. Word spread quickly about the young comedian with the distinctive style. Soon Sahl was earning $7,500 a week at nightclubs across the nation and appearing on television with Steve Allen and Jack Paar. He made the cover of Time magazine in 1960 and was profi led in The New Yorker.

GenerationA new generation of comedians, including Bill Cos-

by, George Carlin and the team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May, was inspired by Sahl. David Letterman continued the iconoclastic tradition, and more recently Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and John Oliver. Woody Allen would liken his work to the jazz of Charlie Park-er and reviewers compared him to Will Rogers, who had tweaked politicians in a gentler manner.

“I don’t have the image of myself as a comedian,” Sahl himself said. “I never said I was one. I just sort of tell the truth and everybody breaks up along the way.”

Sahl was cast as a wisecracking GI in two war mov-ies, “In Love and War” (1958) and “All the Young Men” (1960). He starred in his own TV special. His comedy albums became best sellers. At the Academy Awards in 1959, he was co-host along with Bob Hope, Laurence Olivier, Jerry Lewis and others. Fearing he would seem to be joining the establishment, Sahl cracked: “We’ve just lost the college crowd; all across the country they’re yelling, ‘Sellout!’”

In the 1980s he frequently ridiculed his friend Rea-gan, but he said the president was never offended.

“If you’re his friend, it doesn’t matter if you’re an escaped con,” Sahl once said of Reagan. Democrats, he added, were often not as forgiving. In the 1990s, Sahl had fallen out of favor with them when he com-plained that President Bill Clinton’s only lasting legacy would be his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

“A lot of people I have met in the Democratic Party are extremely expedient,” he said. “Once it’s over, they don’t want to know you. Of course, that’s not ge-neric to the Democrats.”

Sahl thought so highly of Kennedy, however, that he even wrote jokes for him on the campaign trail, including one which inspired JFK’s quip at his own expense — about a telegram from his wealthy father. “Don’t buy a single more vote than is necessary. I’ll be d---ed if I’m going to pay for a landslide.”

But when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Sahl was devastated and the tragedy foreshadowed a de-cline in the comedian’s fortunes that lasted for years. He quickly became convinced that Kennedy had been killed as part of a CIA plot and he accused the govern-ment of staging a massive cover-up. He devoted much of his monologues to reading long passages from the report by the government’s Warren Commission, which had been appointed to investigate the assassi-nation. Audiences stopped laughing and his bookings plummeted.

TragedySahl also suffered a personal tragedy in 1996 when

his only child, Morton Jr., died at age 19. Ten years later, the subject was so raw that mention of his son’s name could bring him to tears.

“My kid was like a more human version of me,” he once said.

Through the tough times, he continued to work the college circuit and small clubs. Although he never regained his former stature, he eventually returned to making a comfortable living with comedy

He continued to carry his newspaper on stage with him, although as the 21st century dawned he joked that he should probably have replaced it with a laptop.

At age 80 he also began teaching a class in critical thinking at Southern California’s prestigious Clare-mont McKenna College.

It was a return to the academic life Sahl had known decades earlier when he earned a degree in urban planning from the University of Southern California in 1950.

Putting plans for graduate study on hold, he decided to make money writing jokes for comedians. He took to the stage himself, he once said, when he discovered the ones he was writing for were “too dumb” to get the material.

Morton Lyon Sahl was born on May 11, 1927, in Montreal, to a Canadian mother and a New York fa-ther who managed a tobacco shop. The family moved to the United States where Sahl’s father, Harry, worked for the Department of Justice in various cities.

They eventually settled in Los Angeles, where young Morton joined his high school ROTC program and excelled at speech. His mother said he had started to talk at 7 months and by age 10 already spoke like a man of 30.

Sahl

A staff member watches a preview of the Imagine Picasso immersive exhibition where more than 200 works by Pablo Picasso are projected on screens and three-dimensional structures, in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Tuesday, Oct. 26. The exhibit opens Wednesday and runs until Jan. 8, 2022. (AP)

Authorities to present fi ndings in movie-set shooting

Potential legal woes mount for BaldwinLOS ANGELES, Oct 27, (AP): Alec Baldwin the actor, who pulled the trig-ger on a prop gun while fi lming “Rust” in New Mexico and unwittingly killed a cinematographer and injured a direc-tor, likely won’t be held criminally or civilly liable for the tragedy.

But Alec Baldwin the producer might be, along with several others in leadership positions for the Western.

Experts predict a tremendous legal fallout from the tragedy, defi nitely in civil lawsuits and potentially in crimi-nal charges. In addition to Baldwin, a call sheet for the day of the shooting obtained by The Associated Press lists fi ve producers, four executive produc-ers, a line producer and a co-produc-er. They, as well as assistant director Dave Halls and armorer Hannah Gut-ierrez, could all face some sort of li-ability even if they weren’t on location Thursday.

The payouts — which could be covered in part by insurance held by the production company, Rust Movie Productions — would likely be in the “millions and millions” of dollars.

“There was clearly negligence on the set,” said Adam Winkler, a profes-sor at the UCLA School of Law and a gun policy expert. “The producers had a duty to preserve the safety of the crew. There were obvious hazards on the set.”

Investigators plan to discuss their initial fi ndings Wednesday in the fa-tal movie-set shooting in which Alec Baldwin fi red a prop gun, killing a cinematographer and wounding the director.

The news conference by Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza and Dis-trict Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies promises the fi rst detailed public com-ments by investigators about the killing of 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal at a New Mexico ranch.

The sequence of events on Oct. 21 has baffl ed Hollywood professionals and prompted calls to better regulate fi rearms of sets or even ban them in the age of seamless computer-generated imagery.

Court records say that an assistant

director, Dave Halls, grabbed the gun from a cart and handed it to Baldwin, indicating the weapon was safe by yelling “cold gun.” But it was loaded with live rounds, according to a written affi davit from a detective.

Baldwin has described the killing as a “tragic accident.”

Carmack-Altwies told The Associ-ated Press prior to the news conference that the investigation is still in its early stages — far from any decisions about whether or not to fi le criminal charges.

She said those involved in the pro-duction were cooperating with law en-forcement and that prosecutors won’t fully review evidence until the com-pletion of an initial investigation by the sheriff’s offi ce.

The gun Baldwin used was one of three that a fi rearms specialist, or “ar-morer,” had set on a cart outside the building where a scene was being re-hearsed, according to court records.

DisputesThe production of “Rust” has been

beset by disputes from the start in early October and included seven crew members walking off the set just hours before the shooting. The Los Angeles Times, citing two crew members it did not name, reported that fi ve days be-fore the shooting, Baldwin’s stunt dou-ble accidentally fi red two live rounds after being told the gun didn’t have any ammunition.

Alarmed by the misfi res, a crew member told a unit production man-ager in a text message, “We’ve now had 3 accidental discharges. This is su-per unsafe,” according to a copy of the message reviewed by the newspaper.

Winkler called the previous misfi res — and an apparent lack of any action taken after them — “a recipe for a very signifi cant liability in damages.”

“You can’t have a dangerous situa-tion, know about it and then do noth-ing,” he said.

Rust Movie Productions, the pro-duction company, says it is cooperat-ing with Santa Fe authorities in their investigation.

“Though we were not made aware

of any offi cial complaints concern-ing weapon or prop safety on set, we will be conducting an internal review of our procedures while production is shut down,” Rust Movie Productions said in a statement to The Los Angeles Times.

Although New Mexico law defi nes involuntary manslaughter in part as a lawful act that resulted in death from “an unlawful manner or without due caution and circumspection,” defense attorney Nina Marino said she doubts any criminal case would be fi led.

“If a local agency in New Mexico was going to go forward with criminal charges, that would have a real chill-ing effect on further fi lming taking place in New Mexico, and I think New Mexico appreciates the business,” said Marino, who specializes in white col-lar cases as a co-founder of the Kaplan Marino law fi rm.

Any fi lm requires insurance cov-erage and any policy for a Western would hit upon the use of horses, other animals and fi rearms. The call sheet for Thursday alone mentions multiple guns, several horses and a daily snake wrangler.

An insurer would likely cover any accidental events, but the company might not pay for negligence claims on a movie set, according to Julie Shap-iro, law professor and director of Loy-ola Law School’s Entertainment and Media Law Institute.

The insurance company will do its own investigation, Shapiro said, to determine if negligence occurred. The exact wording of the policy will deter-mine what the company would pay.

While Baldwin, the other producers, the assistant director and the armorer might be named as parties in a civil lawsuit, not all may be found to be li-able — particularly if they played no role in the safety aspects of the pro-duction or only held a vanity credit. The plaintiffs would likely go after the production company’s deeper pockets.

“How much? To what extent will insurance cover it? This is a loss of life — there is no dollar amount you can place,” Shapiro said.

Film

Jack Farthing, (left), and Kristen Stew-art, cast members in ‘Spencer,’ pose together at the premiere of the fi lm at the Directors Guild of America, Tues-

day, Oct. 26, in Los Angeles. (AP)

Obama Dangarembga

VIENNA: Accepting a prestigious Ger-man prize Sunday in honor of her work, Zimbabwean writer and fi lmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga called for a “new Enlight-enment,” saying a fundamental shift is needed to overcome the structures of racial hierarchy that have led to violence in her home country and across the world.

“What we can look to is to change our thought patterns word by word, consciously and consistently over time and to persevere until results are seen in the way we do things and in the outcomes of our actions,” she said.

Dangarembga is the fi rst Black woman to win the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, which is endowed with 25,000 euros ($29,100) and has been awarded since 1950.

In her remarks, Dangarembga spoke about Zimbabwe’s colonial past and the various forms of violence white colonialists infl icted on its Black inhabitants in the 19th and 20th centuries. That violence continued when Zimbabwe became independent in 1980, she added.

“These kinds of violence are structured into the global order that we live in and have their root in the structures of Western empire that began to be formed over half a millennium ago,” she said.

As a result, Dangarembga said the world is in need of new ways of thinking. She said bringing about real change will require not “miracle cures,” but hard, conscious work on behalf of those who have benefi ted from western power structures.

Dangarembga is known for her works including the bestselling novel, “Nervous Conditions” and its sequel, “This Mourn-able Body.” Announcing the prize earlier this year, the jury said she is “not just one of her country’s most important artists but also a widely audible voice of Africa in contemporary literature.”

Auma Obama, a sociologist and activ-ist and half-sister of former US president Barack Obama, introduced Dangarembga. She said the writer and fi lmmaker has fought “against all odds” and “with all possible means” for “the voiceless and for freedom of expression” in Zimbabwe.

“You presented a differentiated picture of the African continent worldwide,” Obama added.

In addition to the Peace Prize, Dan-garembga has also been awarded the PEN

Variety

A dancer of Baghdad ballet performs Swan Lake during a concert in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Oct. 22. (AP)

Pinter Prize and the PEN International Award for Freedom of Expression this year. (AP)

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LONDON: An extraordinarily rare coin with a face value of just pennies when it was minted in mid-17th century New England could sell for the equivalent of about $300,000 when it’s put up for auction

in London next month.The silver one shilling coin made in

Boston in 1652 — considered the fi nest ex-ample of the roughly 40 such coins known to still exist — was recently found in the United Kingdom inside a candy tin con-taining hundreds of older coins, auctioneer Morton & Eden Ltd, said in a statement.

James Morton, the auctioneer’s coin

specialist, called the New England coin the “star of the collection.”

“I could hardly believe my eyes when I realised that it was an excellent example of a New England shilling, struck by John Hull in 1652 in Boston for use as currency by early settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony,” he said in a statement.

The Massachusetts General Court in 1652 appointed Hull and his assistant, Robert Sanderson, as Boston mint master, responsible for producing North America’s fi rst silver coinage. The mint, considered treasonous by King Charles II, was shut down in 1682, according to the statement.

The coin of rudimentary design has the initials NE for New England on one side, and the Roman numeral XII, for 12, the number of pennies in a shilling, on the other.

Jim Bailey, a coin expert and metal detectorist in Warwick, Rhode Island, who caused a sensation earlier this year by unearthing 17th-century silver coins believed linked to the notorious English pirate Henry Every, called the UK shilling “a phenomenal discovery.”

“The coin has tremendous eye appeal,” Bailey said Wednesday. “Because there are only about 40 such coins in existence, this specimen can be called the fi nest known.”

The coin was consigned to the auction-eer by Wentworth “Wenty” Beaumont, whose father found it in a tin in his study at the family estate in northern England. (AP)

SPORTSARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021

14

Sunderland top second-tier Queens Park Rangers 3-1

Penalties for Chelsea, smoother for Arsenal to win in CupLONDON, Oct. 27, (AP): Chelsea advanced in the League Cup thanks to its third penalty shootout success of the season. Arsenal had a smother path into the quarterfi nals.

Reece James netted the penalty that sealed Chelsea’s 4-3 victory against Southampton in the shootout at Stamford Bridge. The game was tied 1-1 through 90 minutes after Kai Havertz’s header for Chelsea just before halftime was canceled out by Che Adams’ tap-in two minutes into the second half.

But Southampton saw Theo Wal-cott’s penalty saved by goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga and Will Small-bone shoot over, while visiting goal-keeper Fraser Forster denied only Mason Mount.

Thomas Tuchel’s Premier League leaders had reached the fourth round by beating Aston Villa on penalties, having also started the season by win-ning the UEFA Super Cup in a shoot-out against Villarreal in August.

There was another all-Premier League encounter in London at Emir-ates Stadium where Arsenal beat Leeds 2-0.

Calum Chambers put Arsenal in front with his fi rst touch after re-placing the injured Benjamin White, heading in a knock back from Nico-las Pépé in the 55th minute. It was the defender’s fi rst goal since 2019.

Eddie Nketiah, who previously spent time on loan at Leeds, doubled

Arsenal’s advantage. He latched onto a weak defensive header from Liam Cooper, rounded goalkeeper Illan Meslier and came close to missing a tap-in before being able to celebrate.

Arsenal has now won six of its last eight games in all competitions and is unbeaten since August but is 10th in the Premier League.

There will be a third-division team in the last eight after Sunderland beat second-tier Queens Park Rangers 3-1 on penalties after the game at Loftus Road in west London ended 0-0 after 90 minutes.

Southampton’s Shane Long, (front), duels for the ball with Chel-sea’s Malang Sarr during the Eng-lish League Cup fourth round soc-cer match between Chelsea and Southampton, at Stamford Bridge Stadium in London, on Oct. 26.

(AP)

Kraken rout Montreal, notch franchise’s first home victory

Ehlers’ 2 late goals powers Jets past Ducks 4-3

SEATTLE, Oct 27, (AP): Brandon Tanev had two goals and Jordan Eberle added another to give the Seattle Kraken their first home win in franchise his-tory, beating the Montreal Canadiens 5-1.

Mike Hoffman scored for a second straight game for Mon-treal and Jake Allen had 21 saves, but it was an ugly start to the Canadiens’ West Coast trip. Montreal is last in the Eastern Conference with just two points in six games and being out-scored 24-11.

Eberle got Seattle started by scoring 62 seconds into the game with his fi rst of the season.

Yanni Gourde scored his fi rst of the season as well, in the second period, and Ryan Donato scored the fi fth for Seattle on a breakaway early in the third period.

Philipp Grubauer made 23 saves in Seattle’s most complete per-formance of season. Seattle’s fi ve goals on Tuesday were a season high and came on just 26 shots.

Tanev is the Kraken’s goal-scoring leader with fi ve in seven games.

Jets 4, Ducks 3In Anaheim, Calif., Nikolaj

Ehlers scored twice 19 seconds apart in the third period as Winni-peg rallied over Anaheim.

The Jets trailed 3-2 late in the third period before Ehlers tied it with 1:20 remaining after a scram-ble following a faceoff deep in the offensive zone. He then scored the winner with 1:01 with a shot from the right faceoff circle.

Ehlers also had an assist, while Andrew Copp had a goal and two assists.

Evgeny Svechnikov also scored, and Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves for the Jets, who have won three straight.

Trevor Zegras and Sonny Milano had a goal and an assist, and Josh Manson also scored for Anaheim. John Gibson stopped 21 shots for the Ducks, who have dropped fi ve of their last six.

Wild 3, Canucks 2In Vancouver, British Colum-

bia, Minnesota’s Matt Dumba scored his first goal of the sea-son midway through the third pe-riod to spoil Vancouver’s home opener.

Mats Zuccarello and Jonas Bro-din also scored for the Wild, and Cam Talbot made 22 saves.

Alex Chiasson scored on a power play, and Bo Horvat added a goal for the Canucks, who had

their two-game win streak halted. Thatcher Demko stopped 27 shots for Vancouver.

Vancouver’s home opener was the fi rst game with full capacity at Rogers Arena in 595 days. The last time was a 5-4 shootout win over the New York Islanders on March 10, 2020 - two days before the NHL was put on pause due to COVID-19.

Flames 5, Devils 3In Newark, N.J., Andrew Man-

giapane had two of Calgary’s four goals in the fi rst period as the team extended its winning streak to four games with victory over New Jer-sey.

Milan Lucic, Elias Lindholm and Matthew Tkachuk also scored for the Flames. Calgary backup goalie Dan Vladar made 27 saves.

Pavel Zacha had two goals and Dawson Mercer also scored for the Devils.

Nico Daws allowed three goals on seven shots in his second career start before being lifted in favor of Scott Wedgewood, who fi nished with 20 saves.

The Flames have won all four games on their current road trip, which concludes with a matchup at Pittsburgh on Thursday.

Lightning 5, Penguins 1In Pittsburgh, Ondrej Palat and

Ryan McDonagh scored 10 sec-onds apart in the second period and Tampa Bay picked up its fi rst regulation victory of the season by beating Pittsburgh.

Brayden Point’s backhand 31 seconds into the second gave the Lightning their fi rst lead in regu-lation this season as Tampa Bay bounced back from a lopsided loss

in Buffalo on Monday. Mikhail Sergachev and Alex

Killorn added third-period goals for Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasi-levskiy stopped 28 shots for the Lightning, who won in Pittsburgh for just the fourth time in their last 17 visits.

Tuesday was the Penguins’ fi rst regulation loss of the season. Jason Zucker scored in the third period to spoil Vasilevskiy’s bid for a shut-out. Tristan Jarry made 26 saves for the Penguins.

Pittsburgh spoiled the Light-ning’s celebratory vibe two weeks ago, beating them 6-2 in the sea-son-opener after Tampa Bay raised its 2021 Stanley Cup banner to the rafters. But the Lightning restored a bit of order Tuesday to their shaky start to the 2021-22 season, playing with an edge it has lacked

early on. Golden Knights 3, Avalanche 1In Denver, Reilly Smith scored

a short-handed goal, Robin Lehner stopped 26 shots and injury-plagued Las Vegas snapped a four-game slide with win over Colo-rado.

It was Smith’s seventh short-handed goal for Vegas.

Chandler Stephenson also scored and Evgenii Dadonov added an empty-netter with 29.9 seconds left to seal the win in the matchup between two of the top teams in the West who haven’t exactly been playing at their best.

Vegas has a valid reason - in-juries to big names. But the Ava-lanche just hasn’t been able to hit its stride so far this season. They dropped to 1-2 at Ball Arena after fi nishing 22-4-2 in friendly con-fi nes a season ago, which was tied for the most wins.

Cale Makar had the only goal for Colorado. Darcy Kuemper settled in after a rough start to make 26 saves.

Predators 3, Sharks 1In Nashville, Tenn., Juuse Saros

made 28 saves to lead Nashville over San Jose.

Matt Duchene, Filip Forsberg and Mikael Granlund scored for Nashville, winners of two straight.

Timo Meier scored and James Reimer made 23 saves for the Sharks, which have lost two in a row following their season-open-ing four-game winning streak.

Duchene scored the game’s fi rst goal a little more than a minute into the opening period on a Nash-ville power play.

Seattle Kraken center Jaden Schwartz (17) passes the puck as Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jake Allen and de-fenseman David Savard, (right), look on during the third period of an NHL hockey game, on Oct. 26, in Seattle. (AP)

Winnipeg Jets defenseman Neal Pionk takes a shot against the Ana-heim Ducks during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Ana-

heim, Calif., on Oct. 26. (AP)

NHL Results/Standings

WASHINGTON, Oct 27, (AP): Results and standings from the NHL games on Tuesday.Tampa Bay 5 Pittsburgh 1Calgary 5 New Jersey 3Vegas 3 Colorado 1Nashville 3 San Jose 1Seattle 5 Montreal 1Winnipeg 4 Anaheim 3Minnesota 3 Vancouver 2

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GAFlorida 6 6 0 0 12 27 12Buffalo 6 4 1 1 9 19 11Detroit 6 3 2 1 7 20 21Tampa Bay 7 3 3 1 7 21 27Boston 4 3 1 0 6 14 11Toronto 7 2 4 1 5 13 23Ottawa 6 2 4 0 4 15 19Montreal 7 1 6 0 2 11 25

Metropolitan Division GP W L OT Pts GF GACarolina 5 5 0 0 10 22 8Washington 6 4 0 2 10 26 16NY Rangers 7 4 2 1 9 15 18Pittsburgh 6 3 1 2 8 24 17Columbus 6 4 2 0 8 19 15NY Islanders 6 3 2 1 7 15 15New Jersey 5 3 2 0 6 14 15Philadelphia 4 2 1 1 5 18 13

Western ConferenceCentral Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GASt Louis 5 5 0 0 10 25 11Minnesota 6 5 1 0 10 23 20Winnipeg 6 3 2 1 7 24 22Dallas 6 3 3 0 6 12 15Nashville 7 3 4 0 6 20 20Colorado 6 2 4 0 4 16 23Chicago 6 0 5 1 1 12 27Arizona 6 0 5 1 1 11 30

Pacific Division GP W L OT Pts GF GAEdmonton 5 5 0 0 10 24 13Calgary 6 4 1 1 9 21 15San Jose 6 4 2 0 8 20 14Vancouver 7 3 3 1 7 22 24Seattle 7 2 4 1 5 18 24Anaheim 7 2 4 1 5 20 24Vegas 6 2 4 0 4 13 20Los Angeles 6 1 4 1 3 14 20

Note: Two points for a win one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per con-ference advance to playoffs.

Alavés edge Elche 1-0

Villarreal score in stoppage time in 3-3 draw with Cádiz

MADRID, Oct. 27, (AP): Arnaut Danjuma scored five minutes into stoppage time as Villarreal salvaged a 3-3 draw against Cádiz in the Spanish league.

Danjuma got the equalizer with a shot from inside the area to keep Unai Emery’s team from losing its third league match in a row.

Anthony “Choco” Lozano scored a hat trick for Cádiz, whose winless streak reached six matches.

Lozano scored twice in the fi rst half and once after halftime to give Cádiz a two-goal lead until Boulaye Dia pulled the hosts closer in the 80th minute. Pau Torres had evened the match for Vil-larreal in the fi rst half.

Cádiz has only one win this season and is one point from the relegation zone.

Villarreal, with only two victories, stayed in 12th place.

Athletic Bilbao was held by Espan-yol to a 1-1 draw, missing a chance to get closer to the lead.

Athletic had won two in a row and could have gotten within two points of leader Real Sociedad with another victory.

Raúl de Tomás opened the scoring for mid-table Espanyol by converting a penalty kick in the 33rd. Iñaki Wil-liams equalized for the visitors in the 52nd.

De Tomás was sent off in stoppage time after an altercation with an oppo-nent.

Espanyol was unbeaten in three matches in a streak that started with a home win against Real Madrid.

Alavés edged Elche 1-0 at home to win its second consecutive match and leave the relegation zone.

Mamadou Loum scored the winner early in the second half.

ICE HOCKEY

SOCCER

SOCCER

SPORTSARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021

15

NBA Results/Standings

WASHINGTON, Oct 27, (AP): Results and Standings from the NBA games on Tuesday.New York 112 Philadelphia 99Golden State 106 Oklahoma City 98Dallas 116 Houston 106LA Lakers 125 San Antonio (OT) 121Utah 122 Denver 110

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

W L Pct GBNew York 3 1 .750 —Brooklyn 2 2 .500 1Boston 2 2 .500 1Philadelphia 2 2 .500 1Toronto 1 3 .250 2

Southeast Division W L Pct GBCharlotte 3 1 .750 —Miami 2 1 .667 -1/2Washington 2 1 .667 -1/2Atlanta 2 1 .667 -1/2Orlando 1 3 .250 2

Central Division

W L Pct GBChicago 4 0 1.000 —Milwaukee 3 1 .750 1Cleveland 2 2 .500 2Indiana 1 3 .250 3Detroit 0 3 .000 3-1/2

Western ConferenceSouthwest Division

W L Pct GBDallas 2 1 .667 —Memphis 2 1 .667 —New Orleans 1 3 .250 1-1/2Houston 1 3 .250 1-1/2San Antonio 1 3 .250 1-1/2

Northwest Division W L Pct GBUtah 3 0 1.000 —Minnesota 2 1 .667 1Denver 2 2 .500 1-1/2Portland 1 2 .333 2Oklahoma City 0 4 .000 3-1/2

Pacific Division W L Pct GBGolden State 4 0 1.000 —LA Lakers 2 2 .500 2Phoenix 1 2 .333 2-1/2LA Clippers 1 2 .333 2-1/2Sacramento 1 2 .333 2-1/2

Walker drops 19, Knicks romp tosnap 15-game skid against 76ers

Curry scores 23, Warriors top Thunder to remain unbeaten

NEW YORK, Oct. 27, (AP): Kemba Walker scored 19 points in his best game with his home-town team and the New York Knicks snapped a 15-game losing streak against the Philadelphia 76ers with a 112-99 vic-tory.

Evan Fournier added 18 points in the Knicks’ fi rst victo-ry over Philadelphia since April 12, 2017. Julius Randle had 16 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.

Joel Embiid didn’t have a fi eld goal in the fi rst half of his career loss to the Knicks, who seized con-trol by outscoring Philadelphia 39-16 in the second quarter.

Tobias Harris scored 23 points for the 76ers. Embiid fi nished with 14 points and six rebounds, shoot-ing just 2 for 7. He had been 12-0 in games he played against New York.

Warriors 106, Thunder 98

In Oklahoma City, Stephen Cur-ry scored 23 points and the Warri-ors remained unbeaten, rallying in

the second half to beat the Thunder.Andrew Wiggins had 21 points

and Damion Lee scored 20 for the Warriors, who have opened the season with four straight wins.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30 points on 11-of-19 shooting for the winless Thunder.

Oklahoma City led by 11 points at halftime and by 12 midway through the third quarter before Golden State began chipping away.

A 3-pointer by Otto Porter Jr. put the Warriors ahead for the fi rst time, 78-76, with a minute left in the third. The Warriors took an 81-76 edge into the fourth, and they remained in control the rest of the way.

Jazz 122, Nuggets 110In Salt Lake City, Rudy Gobert

had 23 points and 16 rebounds and Donovan Mitchell added 22 points to lead the Utah Jazz to a win over the Denver Nuggets in a game where Nikola Jokic left with a knee injury.

The reigning NBA MVP had 24 points in just 15 fi rst-half minutes before he got hurt.

Mike Conley and Bojan Bogdanovic each contributed 15 for the Jazz, who moved to 3-0 on

the season.Two minutes before halftime,

Jokic banged knees with Gobert and stayed down holding his right leg. He eventually got up with as-sistance and limped to the locker room. He will be examined again, but initial injury report was a knee contusion.

Mavericks 116, Rockets 106In Dallas, Luka Doncic had 26

points and 14 rebounds, Reggie Bullock had his best game with his new team by scoring 16 points and the Mavericks beat the Rockets in coach Jason Kidd’s fi rst home game.

Kristaps Porzingis had another rough shooting night, starting 1 of 9 before fi nally making his 3-point-er and leaving a short time later. The oft-injured Porzingis didn’t return because of lower back tight-ness. He came into the game with a black eye.

Eric Gordon scored 22 points, and Christian Wood had 16 points and 17 rebounds for the Rockets, who lost Dallas’ home opener for the fi rst time after winning the pre-vious three times.

Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 16 points, including the fi rst bucket of

the second half to start a 13-0 Dal-las run for a 70-60 lead.

After the Porzingis 3 gave the Mavericks their biggest lead to that point at 73-62, the Rockets answered with a 10-0 run before Dallas posted up Doncic to end the run.

Lakers 125, Spurs 121, OTIn San Antonio, Anthony Davis

had 35 points and 17 rebounds, Russell Westbrook added 33 points and 10 rebounds, and the Lakers rallied without LeBron James to beat the Spurs.

Dejounte Murray had 21 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds for his fi fth career triple-double, and he missed a jumper in the closing seconds that would have won it for the Spurs. Jakob Poeltl added 27 points and 14 rebounds for San Antonio, and Lonnie Walker IV had a season-high 21 points.

James missed the Lakers’ fi rst road game of the season with a sore right ankle, an injury that occurred in Sunday’s win over Memphis. The Lakers decided to be cautious with the early-season injury.

Malik Monk started in James’ place and gave the Lakers a 114-112 lead on a 3-pointer with 58.6 seconds remaining. Monk fi nished with 17 points and was 4-for-10 on 3-pointers.

Davis and Westbrook had sea-son highs in scoring. Playing be-fore a sold-out AT&T Center that was equally divided between the two teams, the Lakers won their second straight to reach .500.

New York Knicks’ Julius Randle (30) dunks the ball in front of Philadelphia 76ers’ Paul Reed (44) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, on Oct. 26, in New York. (AP)

Tsitsipas, Zverev advance in Vienna

Raducanu rallies to beat Hercog in RomaniaCLUJ-NAPOCA, Romania, Oct. 27, (AP): Emma Raducanu rallied to beat Polona Hercog of Slovenia 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 at the Transylvania Open for her fi rst win since her stunning run to the U.S. Open title more than six weeks ago.

It was also the teenager’s fi rst vic-tory on the WTA Tour.

Raducanu, whose father is Roma-nian, became the fi rst qualifi er to win a Grand Slam tournament. Less than two weeks later, she split from her coach, Andrew Richardson. She had only played in Indian Wells since, falling in the opening round.

The 23rd-ranked Raducanu, of Brit-ain, lost fi ve straight games from 4-1 up in the opening set against Hercog but eased to victory after breaking her

124th-ranked opponent at 6-5 in the second.

Grand Slam tournaments are not run by the WTA or ATP Tours.

In other fi rst round play, Varvara Gracheva of Russia outlasted Andrea

Petkovic of Germany 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to set up a match against either top-seed-ed Simona Halep or Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania.

In Vienna, Stefanos Tsitsipas saved three set points before beating Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (6), 6-4 to join Olympic champion Alexander Zverev in the second round of the Erste Bank Open.

Zverev also advanced in straight sets but had to rally from 5-2 down in the second to overcome Filip Kraji-novic 6-2, 7-5.

The top-seeded Tsitsipas, who lost to Dimitrov in the second round last year, was 6-3 down in the tiebreaker before reeling off fi ve straight points to claim the opening set.

Tsitsipas converted his fi rst match point with Dimitrov serving at 5-4 when the 22nd-ranked-Bulgarian hit a fore-hand wide. The third-ranked Greek, who is striving for his third title of the season, next plays Frances Tiafoe, who defeated Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-4.

Emma Raducanu, of Britain, re-turns the ball to Polona Hercog of Slovenia at the Transylvania Open WTA tournament in Cluj, Romania,

on Oct. 26. (AP)

TENNIS

Golden State Warriors guard Ste-phen Curry, drives against Okla-homa City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the second half of an NBA basketball game, on

Oct. 26, in Oklahoma City. (AP)

BASKETBALL

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ARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021 16

SportsAC Milan’s Alexis Saelemaek-ers, (right), fi ghts for the ball with Torino’s Tommaso Pobega during a Serie A soc-cer match between AC Milan and Torino, at the San Siro Stadium, in Milan, Italy. Milan beat Torino 1-0. (AP)

England keep Bangladesh winlessTrumplemann leads Namibia over Scotland

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Oct 27, (AP): Allrounders Moe-en Ali and Liam Living-stone perfectly executed the roles of offspinners Wednesday to lead Eng-land over Bangladesh by eight wickets for their second straight win at the T20 World Cup.

Ali (2-18) picked up the wick-ets of the openers with the new ball and Livingstone (2-15) got the two set batsmen out in the middle overs to restrict Bang-ladesh to 124-9 in the fi rst ever T20 between the two countries.

Jason Roy (61) celebrated his 50th T20 ap-pearance for England with an impressive half century as the top-ranked team eased to 126-2 in 14.1 overs.

Bang ladesh captain Mah-mudullah’s de-

cision to bat fi rst after winning the toss didn’t work out. Leftarm fast bowler Shoriful Islam, who replaced the injured Mohammad Saifuddin, and leftarm spinner Nasum Ahmed both went only 1-26.

“The bowlers have started the tournament exceptionally well,” England captain Eoin Morgan said. “They’ve adapted really well again today, very disciplined and backed up with good catching and ground

fi elding.” England, which routed defending champions West In-dies in the fi rst game, leads Group 1 with four points. Bangladesh, which lost to Scotland in the quali-fi ers, were beaten by Sri Lanka in their group opener.

“It was a good wicket but we didn’t start well and didn’t have any partnerships in the middle ei-ther,” Mahmudullah said. “We’ve been lacking a good start (and) on these wickets it gets diffi cult later on. We need to reassess and come up with a good plan.” Liton Das hit two boundaries in the opening over before Ali got wickets off his suc-cessive deliveries in the next over. Das top-edged a sweep against the offspinner and Mohammad Naim gave a tame catch at mid-off off the next ball.

Chris Woakes (1-12) dealt a ma-jor blow when in-form Shakib Al Hasan (4) was brilliantly caught by Adil Rashid at short fi ne leg as he ran backward and grabbed the ball over his shoulders while div-ing forward.

Mushfi qur Rahim (29) and Mahmudullah (19) also couldn’t pace the innings against some tidy bowling before falling to Living-stone while going for extravagant shots. Mushfi qur attempted a re-verse sweep against the offspinner to get out lbw and Mahmudullah skewed a catch at backward point.

Tymal Mills (3-27) got three late wickets in his last two overs as Bangladesh fell way short to chal-lenge the strong England batting lineup.

Roy used his feet well against the spinners and was hardly trou-bled by the experience of medium fast bowler Mustafi zur Rehman. He smashed three sixes and fi ve fours before slicing a catch to third man with only 13 runs required for victory.

“The way Jason plays is so im-posing, makes it diffi cult to set fi elds,” Morgan said. “Great to see him in good touch.”

Meanwhile, fast bowler Ruben Trumpelmann rattled Scotland with three wickets off his fi rst four balls as Namibia won by four wickets.

Namibia looked by far the better of the two ICC associate member nations that qualifi ed for the main

Ali

Atlanta Braves’ Jorge Soler runs a home run during the fi rst inning of Game 1 in baseball’s World Series between the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves in Houston. (AP)

England’s Jason Roy bats during the Cricket Twenty20 World Cup match between England and Bangladesh in Abu Dhabi, UAE. (AP)

Namibia’s Ruben Trumpelmann celebrates the dismissal of Scot-land’s Richie Berrington during the Cricket Twenty20 World Cup match between Namibia and Scotland in

Abu Dhabi, UAE. (AP)

Atlanta overcomes Morton injury, top Astros in Game 1

Soler powers Braves to smashing start in WSHOUSTON, Oct 27, (AP): A healthy swing by Jorge Soler powered the At-lanta Braves to a smashing start in the World Series.

Making his fi rst start since testing positive for COVID-19, Soler became the fi rst player to begin a World Series with a home run and the Braves, de-spite the loss of pitcher Charlie Morton to a broken leg, hushed the Houston Astros 6-2 Tuesday night in Game 1.

Boosted by a strong bullpen effort, a two-run homer by Adam Duvall and a late sacrifi ce fl y from Freddie Free-man, the Braves coasted in their fi rst Series appearance since Chipper Jones and their Big Three aces ascended in 1999.

Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa and the Astros mostly looked lost at the plate. This is their third World Series in five seasons - and first since their 2017 illegal sign-stealing scheme was revealed.

Before the game, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Man-fred said there were plenty of sleuths monitoring the dugouts, clubhouse and stands to guard against any possible shenanigans.

“There’s a lot more people watching what goes on as a result of the issues that we’ve had,” he said.

Soler’s no-doubt jolt into the left-fi eld seats on Framber Valdez’s third pitch quickly took all the juice out of Minute Maid Park, quieting a boister-

ous, sellout crowd.Fresh off dispatching the defend-

ing World Series champion Dodgers in the playoffs, the Braves weren’t done, either. Aggressive in every way, they kept teeing off against their former, longtime National League rivals.

Moments later, Ozzie Albies stole a base and Austin Riley hit an RBI double, taking a rare swing at a 3-0 pitch.

Soler added an RBI grounder in the second and when Duvall launched a two-run homer, it was 5-0 and the Braves had made even more October history - the only team to score in each of the fi rst three innings in a World Se-ries opener.

At that point, Braves batters were far from the only ones making noise. The few Atlanta fans sprinkled in the sea of orange had started their familiar

chop chant, too.By then, it looked as if everything

was going right for the Braves.But baseball can be a fi ckle game,

and the fates can spin faster than the best curveball.

Because in the bottom of the third, Atlanta absorbed its own big hit.

As he struck out Altuve, Morton suddenly grimaced and took an awk-ward step. His teammates, manager Brian Snitker and a trainer soon joined him on the mound, and just like that, Morton was gone.

Turned out a hard comebacker by Yuli Gurriel that ricocheted off Morton’s leg to Freeman at first base for an out to begin the second had done more damage than anyone realized.

Morton stayed in for another inning, amazingly, before gingerly walking off with a fractured right fi bula.

Milan move 3 ptsclear atop Serie AMILAN, Oct 27, (AP): AC Milan again struggled in a 1-0 win that saw it move three points clear at the top of Serie A . Olivier Gi-roud scored the only goal of the match in the 14th minute to help Milan move clear of second-place Napoli, which host Bolo-gna on Thursday.

“We take the three points, that’s the most important,” Giroud said. “We play every three days and it’s very diffi cult for the body. Every-thing was not perfect, but we are very pleased with the win tonight. Torino is a tough team to play against.” The Rossoneri were still dealing with an injury crisis, but defender Theo Hernández was fi t for a place on the bench after re-covering from the coronavirus.

Milan were the only team in the top six in Serie A to win over the weekend but only narrowly avoid-ed embarrassment as two late goals helped them beat nine-man Bolo-gna 4-2. It seemed as if matters had improved when Milan took the lead after Rade Krunić nodded on a corner for Giroud to tap in from a

couple of yards. It was the 35-year-old’s fourth goal in his six league matches for Milan.

However, the Rossoneri barely had another sight of a goal in a mediocre match. To-rino went closer, with one of its best chances coming in the 76th as Antonio Sanabria ran onto a through ball but Milan goalkeeper Ciprian managed to parry his effort and Fikayo To-mori cleared the loose ball off the line.

The visitors almost scored a last-gasp equalizer. Torino goal-keeper Vanja Milinković-Savić had come up for a free kick and stayed in the area for the ensu-ing corner. He managed to fl ick it on toward Sanabria but the forward couldn’t adjust to get a proper shot in and Milan cleared the danger, much to the relief of coach Stefano Pioli who celebrat-ed as if his side had scored a goal.

Pioli will be hoping to have more of his fi rst-choice play-ers back heading into a diffi cult week in which Milan play title rivals Roma and Inter Milan, ei-ther side of a match against Porto in the Champions League, where they are bottom of their group with zero points.

SOCCER

T20 WC Standings

Group 1 P W L N/R T NRR PtsEngland 2 2 0 0 0 +3.614 4Sri Lanka 1 1 0 0 0 +0.583 2Australia 1 1 0 0 0 +0.253 2South Africa 2 1 1 0 0 +0.179 2Bangladesh 2 0 2 0 0 -1.655 0West Indies 2 0 2 0 0 -2.550 0

Group 2Pakistan 2 2 0 0 0 +0.738 4Afghanistan 1 1 0 0 0 +6.500 2Namibia 1 1 0 0 0 +0.550 2New Zealand 1 0 1 0 0 -0.532 0India 1 0 1 0 0 -0.973 0Scotland 2 0 2 0 0 -3.562 0

Note: Standings read as played, won,lost, net run, tied, net run rate and pointsX

draw with Scotland restricted at 109-8.

Namibia stuttered in the mid-dle overs against spinners before JJ Smit (32 not out) carried it to 115-6 in 19.1 overs with a six over point boundary. It was Scotland’s second successive loss in Group 1.

In the absence of injured skipper Kyle Coetzer, Scotland slipped to 3-2 in leftarm paceman Trumpel-mann’s (3-17) fi rst over with both the runs coming through wide balls.

George Munsey dragged the fi rst ball back onto his stumps. Calum MacLeod was beaten by the bounce and edged behind the wicketkeeper, and stand-in captain Richie Barrington was out leg be-fore wicket off a delivery which swung into the right-hander.

Michael Leask (44) and Chris Greaves (25) did their bit in the middle overs to carry them above three fi gure mark in the end.

Scotland came into the Super 12s off the back of three straight victories in the qualifi ers but since then their batsmen have put up two disappointing scores. Afghanistan bowled out Scotland for just 60 in a massive 130-run victory in the fi rst match.

CRICKET

BASEBALL

Kuwait extend medal haulABU DHABI, Oct 27, (KUNA): Kuwait’s swimming team added to their medal tally at the Arab Swim-ming Championship in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday with a trio of silvers and two bronzes, bringing the total to 15. Waleed Abulrazaq and Omar Al-Hatem clinched silver medals at the 50 and 100-metre freestyle constests, respectively, while their teammate Lara Dashti also won a silver in the women’s contest, said Ayman Al-

Enezi, the national side’s manager.He commended the team’s suc-

cess despite a lengthy layoff forced

by the COVID pandemic, saying he expected similar achievements to follow in major events comping up.

SWIMMING