Panel Rejects Any Withdrawal from Sovereign Wealth Fund MP Calls for Reducing Salaries of Ministers, Senior Officials

RAJAB 18, 1442 AH TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2021 16 Pages Max 25º Min 09º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18373 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net In historic first, Pope Hope for new momentum ‘Nomadland’ makes history as Police search Barcelona club 6 Francis to visit Iraq 8 as Ngozi takes WTO reins 12 ‘Crown’ rules Golden Globes 16 offices, make several arrests Panel rejects any withdrawal from sovereign wealth fund MP calls for reducing salaries of ministers, senior officials By B Izzak fund. The first is for future generations allow any withdrawal. the salaries of ministers and senior was only to criticize opposition MPs. As a only, while the other provides for govern- Kuwait posted an accumulative budget government bureaucrats, saying result, the committee decided to cancel KUWAIT: The National Assembly finan- ment expenditures. The general reserve deficit of KD 26 billion between the reforms should start from the top. The the contract. cial and economic affairs committee yes- fund has run out of money because of a 2014/2015 fiscal year, when oil prices lawmaker also called for suspending all Meanwhile, MP Hamad Rouh El-Din terday strongly rejected a government- sharp drop in oil prices and as public began to slide, and 2018/2019 fiscal year. forms of additional benefits and perks yesterday sent a series of questions to the sponsored draft law to withdraw KD 5 spending continues to rise, especially on The finance ministry has projected given to them. health minister over the coronavirus pan- billion annually from the future genera- non-investment items like salaries and deficits worth KD 55.4 billion over five MP Bader Al-Dahoum, rapporteur of demic. He asked the minister about legal tions fund, the country’s sovereign wealth subsidies. years from 2019/2020 until 2023/2024. the budgets committee, said yesterday measures taken against holders of fake fund, a lawmaker said. MP Saadoun As the Assembly has refused to allow Notably, the budget for the upcoming fis- the committee decided to cancel a con- PCR tests. He also asked the minister Hammad, a member of the panel, said the the government to borrow from interna- cal year is calculated based on an average tract with a private lawyer who was hired about a reported plan to close the airport, committee informed the finance minister tional and domestic markets, it was oil price of $45 per barrel, while the to help defend the Assembly’s channel. which has already led to an increase in and his team that the panel has rejected forced to propose withdrawals from the budget for the current fiscal year is based Dahoum said the committee found that airfares. The lawmaker also asked the the bill and will not discuss it. future generations fund. Withdrawal on oil prices of $30 per barrel. the lawyer, who was getting KD 30,000 minister about studies on which the min- Kuwait has two funds, the future gen- from the fund is banned by law and a MP Muhalhal Al-Mudhaf yesterday annually, was not involved in any case istry based its decision to close restau- erations fund and the general reserve legislative amendment is needed to submitted a proposal calling to reduce since he was hired in 2014 and that his job rants, cafes, salons and health clubs. News in brief 400 EU MPs slam Kuwait reports 1,179 COVID cases Israeli annexation; KUWAIT: Kuwait announced yesterday that 1,179 people tested positive for COVID-19 over UAE envoy arrives the previous 24 hours, while two patients died during the same period, taking total cases to JERUSALEM: More than 400 European parlia- 192,031 and deaths to 1,085. The percentage of mentarians have urged leaders to use Joe Biden’s daily cases compared to tests was estimated at new presidency as an opportunity to stop what they 15.6 percent. — KUNA (See Page 3) term Israel’s “de-facto annexation” of the occupied West Bank. A letter seen by AFP was signed by 400 European politicians from across a range of back- 40% rise in deaths in 2020 grounds who serve in national legislatures and sen- ates or in the European parliament. KUWAIT: Deaths in Kuwait in 2020 rose around Addressed to European foreign ministers and EU 40 percent (3,230) to 11,302 by Dec 31, 2020, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the letter argues compared to 8,079 by Dec 31, 2019. Excluding that “the Biden administration presents a chance to deaths due to the coronavirus - 934 by Dec 31, correct course” in Middle East diplomacy. “The pre- 2020 - the difference in deaths between the two vious US administration left the conflict farther away years is 2,296, an increase of around 28 percent. from peace than ever,” it added. Former president Deaths among non-Kuwaitis rose 60.5 percent Donald Trump broke with much of the international during 2020 (2,028) to reach 5,380, compared to consensus concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 3,352 in 2019. Deaths among Kuwaitis increased Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivid- 25.46 percent (1,202), reaching 5,922 in 2020 ed capital” and moved Washington’s embassy JERUSALEM: Palestinian Hatem Hussein Abu Rayala points at his house which was demolished again compared to 4,720 in 2019. — Al-Rai Continued on Page 2 by Israeli forces in the neighborhood of Issawiya yesterday. — AFP Consumer protection society formed the end of the year. First Covax jab Akufo-Addo received his AstraZeneca KUWAIT: Minister of Commerce and Industry shot live on television along with his wife, a and Economic Affairs Faisal Al-Medlej issued yes- day before the rest of the first batch of terday a ministerial decision to establish the Kuwaiti injected; Modi 600,000 Covax doses are deployed across Consumer Protection Association, the third associa- Ghana. “It is important that I set the exam- tion to be announced by the ministry. The first arti- gets vaccinated ple that this vaccine is safe by being the cle of the resolution stipulates “the establishment of first to have it, so that everybody in Ghana the Kuwaiti Consumer Protection Society is ACCRA: Ghana’s President Nana Akufo- can feel comfortable about taking this vac- attached to its statute where its board of directors Addo yesterday became the first recipient cine,” the president said. practices work without pay or reward.” — KUNA of a coronavirus vaccine under the global In Ivory Coast a short while later, Patrick Covax scheme, as US health workers pre- Achi, President Alassane Ouattara’s pared to distribute nearly four million doses spokesman, was vaccinated in a tent vacci- Iran denies attacking ship of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson jab. nation center set up in a sports complex in Covax, a scheme designed to ensure that Abidjan, the country’s economic hub. TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign ministry yesterday poorer countries do not miss out on Getting the jab, said Achi, was a “patriotic “strongly” rejected accusations by Israel’s Prime COVID-19 vaccines that have so far been duty”. Vaccination “offers the hope of a largely hoovered up by rich nations, is aim- return to normal in the coming months,” he NEW DELHI: A health worker inoculates India’s Prime Minister Narendra Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Tehran was Modi with a COVID-19 vaccine at AIIMS hospital yesterday. — AFP behind a recent attack on an Israeli-owned ship in ing to deliver at least two billion doses by Continued on Page 2 the Gulf of Oman. “It is indeed an Iranian act, that’s clear,” Netanyahu told Israel’s public broad- caster Kan. “We strongly deny this accusation,” Action Conference in Orlando. spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said, adding that Trump teases In a keynote speech - his first “the source of this accusation itself shows how since leaving the White House on Jan invalid (the claim) is.” — AFP (See Page 5) 20 - he repeated his false claims that 2024 run, airs he won the election instead of President Joe Biden, and hammered grievances establishment Republicans who voted Warships dock in Sudan against him in the latest impeachment ORLANDO: Donald Trump told con- drama. But while he teased his future PORT SUDAN: A US warship docked in Sudan servatives Sunday he was considering plans, he left the crowd guessing yesterday, a day after a Russian frigate arrived in running for president again in 2024, as about whether he will challenge Biden the same key Red Sea port where Moscow is he reasserted dominance over the in a rematch. planning to establish a naval logistics base. The Republican Party and warned of a “With your help we will take back arrival of the guided-missile destroyer USS “struggle” for America’s very survival. the House, we will win the Senate, and Winston S Churchill to Port Sudan follows Echoing the grievance politics of his then a Republican president will make Washington’s delisting of Khartoum as state 2016 campaign and the harsh rhetoric a triumphant return to the White sponsors of terrorism. The USS Churchill docked of his one-term presidency, the 74- House - and I wonder who that will shortly after Russia’s Admiral Grigorovich frigate year-old fired up an enthusiastic be?” Trump said to a raucous cheer. ORLANDO: Former US President Donald Trump addresses the Conservative arrived in Port Sudan. — AFP crowd at the Conservative Political Continued on Page 2 Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Sunday. — AFP 2 Established 1961 Tuesday, March 2, 2021 Local Amir receives Crown Prince, Speaker, Premier, Deputies KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al- Sabah meets His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al- His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets His Jaber Al-Sabah.

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