Interior Minister Comfortably Defeats No-Confidence Vote
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MUHARRAM 8, 1442 AH THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 2020 16 Pages Max 45º Min 29º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18215 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net World Health Organization NBK-Bahrain reports profit of World’s biggest rooftop Flustered Williams crashes out, 5 declares Africa free of polio 8 BD 60.89 million in H1 2020 12 greenhouse in Montreal 16 Djokovic reaches quarterfinals Interior minister comfortably defeats no-confidence vote MPs file two grillings against premier • Hayef to grill Saleh again By B Izzak agency, but added that he withdrew the decision yesterday and asked the government’s legal depart- KUWAIT: Interior Minister Anas Al-Saleh yester- ment to determine its legality. day comfortably defeated a no-confidence motion The secret service chief and seven officers had filed by 10 MPs last week following a grilling in already been suspended pending further investiga- which he was accused of benefiting from his post tion and the entire case was sent to the public pros- and violating the law. Minutes after the vote, MPs ecution for investigation. The minister also said he Abdulkarim Al-Kandari and Al-Humaidi Al-Subaei had sent to the public prosecution a ministry official filed two separate grillings against HH the Prime for allegedly destroying archive files of the ministry. Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah over MP Shuaib Al-Muwaizri, who had grilled Saleh, alleged violations and mismanagement of the coro- charged members of what he called the “deep state” navirus crisis. of threatening the security and future of the country MP Mohammad Hayef, one of those who voted and urged action against them. MP Safa Al-Hashem, against the interior minister, said he will file a fresh defending the minister, criticized Muwaizri’s grilling grilling against the minister today. Thirty-five law- as lacking evidence, saying he only focused on per- makers renewed their confidence in the minister sonal accusations. while 13 MPs voted in support of the motion, which In his grilling, MP Kandari charged that the would have unseated the minister had it won the prime minister failed to manage the coronavirus cri- support of 25 MPs. sis regarding issuing appropriate policies and deci- HH the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh sions to control the negative impacts of the pan- Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable of demic. He said the premier failed to check misman- congratulations to Saleh for winning confidence of agement in the signing of contracts worth KD 1.1 the Assembly. He commended Saleh’s answers to the billion between March and the end of June. He also grilling he faced on Aug 18 and the consequent con- accused the premier of failure to take decisions to fidence of the parliament during yesterday’s session. control the influx of expatriates into the country The grilling of the minister was marred by the during the pandemic and also failed to draw appro- leaks of two sensitive videos allegedly showing top priate policies to rectify the imbalance of the popu- officials plotting to tap social media accounts of a lation structure that is in favor of expats. number of Kuwaiti citizens. Saleh told the house Kandari also accused the prime minister of fail- KUWAIT: Interior Minister Anas Al-Saleh holds a document during a session at the National Assembly ahead of the vote that he had taken a decision to ing to manage public finances, whose resources yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat send into retirement the chief of the state security Continued on Page 2 Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Inter News in brief Top clubs circle Milan are among the clubs to have been linked to Messi, who is among the greatest players in history MoE approves remote learning and has wages to match, with a reported weekly as Messi calls salary of nearly one million euros. ESPN reported KUWAIT: Education Minister Saud Al-Harbi on that Messi spoke last week with Manchester City Tuesday approved a decision to implement time at Barca manager Pep Guardiola about a possible move. remote learning across all educational stages in Barcelona have yet to react officially but are under- the coming semester. The decision applies to all BARCELONA: Six-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel stood to believe Messi’s release clause expired in public, private and religious schools, according Messi has told Barcelona he wants to leave in a June, and that he remains under contract until the end to a press release from the ministry. The decision “bombshell” fax that is expected to spark a legal bat- of the 2021 season. is subject to revision in November in light of tle over a buy-out clause worth hundreds of millions Relations have plummeted this year and specula- public health conditions, the statement added. of dollars and a fight from top European clubs eager tion swirled about Messi’s departure after this month’s to sign up the Argentinian. Signaling the end of an humiliating 8-2 Champions League quarter-final era at Barcelona, where Messi is the record scorer defeat to Bayern Munich, which left Barca without a Sheep exports to Kuwait allowed and has won four Champions League titles, the dis- trophy for the first time since 2007. The 33-year-old’s gruntled Argentine wants to terminate his contract demand, faxed by his lawyers, prompted protests CAPE TOWN: A South African court ruled on “unilaterally” by triggering a release clause, a source against Barcelona’s under-fire president Josep Maria Lionel Messi Tuesday that Kuwaiti livestock exporter Al told AFP. Bartomeu . — AFP (See Page 15) Mawashi could ship thousands of sheep to the Middle East, dealing a blow to animal welfare activists seeking to ban such exports on con- Turkey and Iran bear fruit. Nowhere is the effect on Their new dams on the Tigris and Euphrates, and cerns that extreme heat could kill the animals en As neighbors build the country more palpable than in Basra, Iraq’s only the tributaries that feed them, have reduced water coastal province. Here, the Tigris and Euphrates - on flows into Iraq by half, said Baghdad’s Water Minister route. The court ruled that Al Mawashi could which millions of Iraqis rely to farm - meet at the Shatt Mehdi Al-Hamdani. But he remains hopeful, with plans transport up to 56,000 sheep on a vessel out of dams, Iraqis watch al-Arab waterway before spilling into the Gulf. in the works to improve access across the country and South Africa’s East London port “to destinations But with flows already heavily weakened, seawater guarantee drinking water to all, even in a worst-case in the Middle East”. — Reuters is pushing back into the freshwater rivers, strangling scenario. twin rivers dry up wildlife and human settlements that have survived on Hamdani, who headed Iraq’s dams directorate DIWANIYAH, Iraq: With its neighbors activating these banks for millennia. Iraq’s water woes aren’t new. before becoming minister, said there were plans to Bahrain backs two-state solution But with increasing regional desertification and popu- build a large reservoir in Makhoul, north of Baghdad. new dams, Iraq’s historic twin rivers could run dry - unless new infrastructure projects and tense talks with lation growth, Turkey and Iran are keener than ever to But new dams alone won’t save Iraq’s waterways, MANAMA: Bahrain said yesterday it was com- keep precious water resources for themselves. experts warn. — AFP (See Page 8) mitted to the creation of a Palestinian state in talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, implicitly rejecting his push for Arab countries health emergency. to swiftly normalize ties with Israel. “The king Record COVID Qatar’s health authorities are stressed the importance of intensifying efforts adamant that their high per-capita to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict according cases, but few infection rate is down to one factor to the two-state solution... to the establishment above all: Testing. Almost 600,000 of an independent Palestinian state with East people have been tested for the novel Jerusalem as its capital,” the official Bahrain deaths in Qatar coronavirus, over a fifth of the popu- News Agency reported. —AFP lation. “Because of our low threshold DOHA: Qatar has the world’s highest for testing, we have identified many per-capita coronavirus infection rate more asymptomatic and mild cases of but one of the lowest death rates, due the virus than other countries,” the Longer wait for US visas to extensive testing, a young popula- chair of the National Strategic Group tion and lavish healthcare spending. on COVID-19 Abdullatif Al-Khal told WASHINGTON: US Citizenship and With 40,702 cases per million since AFP. Immigration Services (USCIS), the US agency the pandemic began, Qatar is well But beyond that, Qatar has faced in charge of processing immigration applica- ahead of next-placed Bahrain, which local outbreaks that spread fast tions, said on Tuesday that it had avoided a has seen nearly 29,000 cases per mil- because of its reliance on foreign planned furlough of 70 percent of its staff but lion, and San Marino at just over laborers living in cramped, unsanitary warned that it still faced financial hardship that 21,000. Here is an explanation of why conditions, as it transforms the coun- could result in some applicants experiencing Qatar, home to 2.75 million people, try ahead of the 2022 World Cup. DOHA: In this photo taken on May 7, 2020, a health worker collects a swab longer wait times. USCIS is dependent on fees has reported so many positive cases Antoine Flahault, co-director of the sample from a man at a drive-thru testing service for COVID-19.