THULQADA 27, 1442 AH WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2021

16 Pages Max 48º Min 29º 150 Fils Established 1961

ISSUE NO: 18479 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net

Up to 6,000 people vaccinated Indonesia in oxygen emergency Glamour, politics and a geeky Djokovic, Federer in Wimbledon 3 daily at Jaber Causeway center 5 as Delta variant wreaks havoc 12 movie as Cannes fest returns 14 landmarks as showdown nears

Court hands death sentence to Farah Akbar’s murderer

Outcry after elderly Kuwaiti poet arrested over tweets By B Izzak her although she was already married. He had been Meanwhile, opposition MPs and activists yester- working hours and should enjoy legal guarantees. arrested but was released on bail. The interior day strongly lashed out at the government for MP Muhalhal Al-Mudhaf said oppression KUWAIT: The criminal court yesterday sen- ministry said at the time of the murder that Akbar arresting elderly poet Jamal Al-Sayer for writing against people is rejected and what happened to tenced a man to death after convicting him of the had been stabbed in the chest. The attacker was tweets deemed offensive to HH the Amir, and Sayer will “add to the political cost on the govern- kidnap and murder of a mother of two, a crime arrested shortly afterwards and confessed to the demanded his immediate release. MP Muhannad ment”. Lawyer Adel Abdulhadi held the interior which shocked the country. The brutal killing of crime, sparking calls for his execution. Al-Sayer, a relative of the poet, said the public minister responsible for the safety of Sayer, whose Farah Hamzah Akbar, 32, whose body was dumped After the killing, some 200 people, including prosecution interrogated him for allegedly insulting health condition requires extreme care. outside a hospital on April 20 after she was men, rallied to mourn the victim and demand HH the Amir and spreading false news on Twitter. Former MP Abdulwahab Al-Babtain said the snatched in broad daylight, sparked protests and tougher penalties for violence against women. The prosecution ordered his detention until law was changed on March 30, 2021 and the new calls for justice. Kuwaiti women are pushing the boundaries of their today, when he will be interrogated again and amendments bar the detention of those accused “The verdict hit the nail on the head, and we society, considered one of the most open in the could be either freed on bail or detained pending in freedom of expression cases, wondering why hope it is backed and implemented so the family Gulf. A law against harassment exists but discus- trial. In his tweets, Sayer expressed dissatisfaction Sayer has been detained. MP Hamad Al-Matar can rest,” the Akbar family lawyer Abdulmohsen sions about gender-based violence remain taboo. over the state of affairs in the country. questioned how Sayer was arrested at night and Al-Qattan said. He added that the case will now be “Women in Kuwait demand protection from Opposition MPs strongly criticized the way without informing his family, saying authorities referred to the court of appeal for review. The harassment, abuse and murder by providing them Sayer was arrested by state security men from his must apply the law in summoning people for man, who had persisted in stalking Akbar despite with shelters and laws that protect them,” Lulwa home, saying he should have been summoned to interrogation. several complaints to authorities, dragged her from Saleh Al-Mulla, head of the Kuwaiti Women’s the public prosecution and not arrested in this way. MP Mohammad Al-Mutair said the deep state is a car during the holy month of Ramadan. Cultural and Social Society, said following the ver- MP Abdulkarim Al-Kandari, a lawyer, said if there using state agencies to “bury” freedoms, adding Akbar had previously filed two harassment dict. “Farah’s (killing) was the straw that broke the was any reason to arrest him, Sayer should have that arresting Sayer in this way will be added to complaints against the man who had proposed to camel’s back. Enough is enough.” been asked to come to the prosecution during the grilling of the prime minister.

News in brief Ethiopia begins Oil hammered after talks fail filling mega Nile

LONDON: US oil prices briefly spiked yester- day to near a seven-year peak after OPEC+ dam reservoir crude producers failed to agree on lifting out- put, fueling concern about inflation. But the CAIRO: Ethiopia has started the second phase of prices then fell sharply as traders mulled the filling a mega-dam’s reservoir on the upper Blue longer-term implications. The contract for West Nile, Egypt and Sudan said, raising tensions yester- Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for August day ahead of an upcoming UN Security Council delivery leapt to $76.98 per barrel, a level last meeting on the issue. Both Cairo and Khartoum said seen in Nov 2014, before plunging to $73.45 in they had been notified by Addis Ababa that the sec- later trading. The price of Brent North Sea oil ond phase of filling had begun at the Grand advanced to a Nov 2018 peak at $77.84 before Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. plummeting to $74.65. The OPEC+ group on Egypt’s irrigation ministry late Monday Monday cancelled a meeting that was supposed expressed its “firm rejection of this unilateral meas- to overcome an impasse between the UAE and ure” and Sudan’s foreign ministry yesterday fol- other members on how to lift output. — AFP lowed suit, labelling the move a “risk and imminent threat”. In Addis Ababa, the offices of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Irrigation Minister Seleshi Donors urged to ‘save’ Lebanon Bekele did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests for comment. BEIRUT: Lebanon’s The huge dam, set to be Africa’s largest hydro- caretaker premier electric project when completed, has sparked an This file photo taken on Dec 26, 2019 shows a general view of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Hassan Diab yesterday Continued on Page 2 under construction near Guba in Ethiopia. — AFP urged donors to “save” the country, despite the fact it has hardest hit by the pandemic. no formal government, Some bodies of COVID victims as it struggles through Tunisia hit have been left lying in rooms, next to a dire economic crisis. Hassan Diab Warning that Lebanon by COVID other patients, for up to 24 hours is “just days away from a social explosion,” because there were not enough staff Diab urged the international community to to organize their transfer to over- “help save Lebanese from death and prevent ‘tsunami’ stretched mortuaries. Tunisia has Lebanon’s demise”. He urged foreign donors to officially recorded more than 15,000 TUNIS: release financial aid even though the multi-con- Tunisian hospitals are bat- deaths since the start of the pandem- fessional country has failed to form a new gov- tling to keep operating as the number ic last year with the toll rising in ernment in almost 11 months. “Linking aid to of people dying of COVID-19 spikes recent weeks. Lebanon with government formation has started and bodies are left in rooms because More than 600 COVID patients to threaten the lives of Lebanese,” Diab told a mortuaries are running at full capaci- are in intensive care units around the Beirut meeting with foreign envoys. — AFP ty. “Some patients have died without country, and authorities have set up us realizing it,” said Imen Fteiti a field hospitals to cope with a crisis nurse at the Ibn Jazzar hospital in the they have compared to a “tsunami”. KAIROUAN: A Tunisian medic attends to patients at a gym that was converted to deal UK braced for 100K daily cases central city of Kairouan, one of the Continued on Page 2 with a surge in new COVID-19 infections in this east-central city on July 4, 2021. — AFP

LONDON: The UK announced plans to further relax to its pandemic curbs yesterday despite After ordering at self-service terminals, clients can warning that the number of daily new cases is Paris gets a watch as the machines flatten fresh dough, spread set to more than treble to reach 100,000. From tomato sauce, add organic vegetables, cheese and Aug 16, adults in England who have received taste of pizza other toppings, then whisk the creations into the oven. both doses of a coronavirus vaccine will no “It’s a very fast process, the timing is perfectly con- longer need to self-isolate if they are in close trolled and quality is assured because the robots are contact with a positive case, Health Secretary making robots consistent,” says Sebastien Roverso, 34, a co-founder Sajid Javid said. The highly contagious Delta and inventor of the Pazzi robot and its namesake variant now accounts for nearly all new COVID- PARIS: Behind the dark green facade of a new Paris restaurant. 19 cases in Britain, and daily infection rates have pizzeria, arms wielding ladles and spatulas perform an “And it’s a pretty cool and relaxed atmosphere,” he soared to nearly 30,000 in recent days. Javid intricate ballet to churn out made-to-order pies - but says. “The idea is that you spend a few pleasant min- said that figure was likely to reach 50,000 a day no human hands are involved in the performance. The utes watching the robot while waiting.” Or as the sign glass-enclosed kitchen is staffed by silver robots that says in English out front: “Come for the show, Stay for PARIS: This photograph taken on July 1, 2021 by July 19, and as high as 100,000 later in the shows “Pazzi”, a pizza-making robot, at work in a summer. — AFP build, bake and box up pizzas with the help of special- the Pizza!” Roverso and a fellow engineer and ly developed equipment, at a rate of up to 80 an hour. Continued on Page 2 restaurant. — AFP 2 Established 1961 Wednesday, July 7, 2021 Local Amir reassures on successful medical tests in phone call with Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal receives award-winning students

KUWAIT: His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al- Sabah received a phone call on Monday from His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al- Jaber Al-Sabah, informing him, Sheikhs, government and National Assembly members on the successful medical tests he went over, extending his greetings to all Kuwaiti citizens and residents alike. In turn, His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince expressed his thanks and appreciation for this kind gesture, wishing him a continuous good health and thrive to continue fulfilling his mission and progress for the wellbeing of the country. Meanwhile, His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al- Sabah received at Bayan Palace yesterday Director General of Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Science (KFAS) Dr Khaled Al-Fadhel. Fadhel pre- sented Fatma Qarashi and Majed Al-Muneefi who won international awards, as well as their excellence at KFAS’ Giftedness and Creativity school. His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince con- gratulated the two students for their achievements, and urged them to continue their hard work. In the meantime, His Highness Sheikh Mishal received His KUWAIT: His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets Director General of KFAS and the award-winning Highness Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al- students. — KUNA photos Sabah. — KUNA

His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al- Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets His Highness Sheikh Nasser His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al- His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al- Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets student Fatma Qarashi. Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets student Majed Al-Muneefi.

he noted. Kuwait, Germany eager On the defense level, the ambassador said that Germany provides Kuwait with military vehicles that protect against to develop relations chemical, nuclear and biological attacks. The two countries also aim to develop at all levels: Ambassador cooperation in the field of renewable energy, especially in technologies to use BERLIN: Kuwaiti Ambassador to Assembly, said Bader, adding that green hydrogen and solar power. Germany Najeeb Al-Bader has hailed the Kuwait’s investment office in London Moreover, Kuwait Embassy is looking strong Kuwaiti-German ties at all levels. was launched in 1953, eight years prior forward for more cooperation in the The two sides’ relations began in the 70s to the country’s independence in 1961. educational field for graduate and post- when Kuwait started to show interest in Meanwhile, the ambassador said that graduate studies. In the same context, he investment in Germany, Al-Bader said in Kuwait aims to boost partnership with affirmed that the Technical University of an interview with Souq magazine, of the Germany in different fields including Munich will open its branch in Kuwait Arab-German Chamber of Commerce defense, health and education. Speaking and will provide Bachelor, Masters and and Industry. In 1974, Kuwait started of economic cooperation, Al-Bader said PHD certificates for about 6,600 stu- investing in Germany’s Daimler Benz that Germany exports cars, medical and dents, and is expected to begin within company, and today Kuwait owns 6.8 chemical products and electronics worth two years, said Bader. percent of shares, becoming the second 1.6 billion euros annually to Kuwait, As for Kuwait’s request for Schengen biggest investor. Kuwait was also the while it imports petrochemicals worth visa waiver on its citizens, the ambassa- BERLIN: Kuwaiti Ambassador to Germany Najeeb Al-Bader speaks during an interview first Arab country to invest in Germany, about 40 million euros from Kuwait dor said that Kuwait had completed all with Souq magazine. — KUNA with current investment of 35 billion annually. There are over 700 German requirements needed for the waiver by euros, he noted. brands and companies or their represen- the European Union (EU), adding that appreciation of the German leadership crisis. He also hailed its role in reaching a These investments are approved by tatives in Kuwait, as part of the country’s this step would be a boost to the policy in Europe and its stance on Arab political settlement in Libya by hosting the government and the National development plan and the 2035 vision, European economy. Bader expressed his issues, especially the Syrian refugees two international conferences. — KUNA

Mahdi met in New York ahead of the Security table cleanup. “We’re finalizing contracts for new spots” Ethiopia begins Council talks and reiterated their “firm rejection” of Paris gets a in Paris, “and in March or April we’ll open in Ethiopia’s move, Cairo said. Addis Ababa had previ- Switzerland,” said Philippe Goldman, a former L’Oreal ously announced it would proceed to the second executive who came on as managing director for the filling mega Nile... stage of filling in July, with or without a deal. Ethiopia taste of pizza... start-up. argues that adding water to the reservoir, especially The Pazzi robots are almost completely autonomous during the heavy rainfalls of July and August, is a nat- and in theory won’t be susceptible to breakdowns. “And Continued from Page 1 ural part of the construction process. Continued from Page 1 we have engineers who work remotely and can take con- “Filling goes in tandem with the construction,” said trol and watch with cameras, so they can correct things if almost decade-long diplomatic stand-off between a senior official at the water ministry. “If the rainfall is inventor, Cyrill Hamon, launched their adventure eight necessary to make sure service continues,” Roverso said. Addis Ababa and downstream nations Egypt and as you see it now in July, it must have begun.” The years ago in a family garage, securing millions of euros The tricky part was dealing with fresh dough, since using Sudan. Ethiopia says the project is essential to its Nile - which at some 6,000 km is one of the longest from venture funds including the state-owned develop- frozen products was out of the question. development, but Cairo and Khartoum fear it could rivers in the world - is an essential source of water ment bank, Bpifrance. “The dough is alive... every hour that passes, it’s differ- restrict their citizens’ water access. Both governments and electricity for a dozen East African countries. After a first restaurant in a Paris suburb in 2019, the ent,” said Thierry Graffagnino, a chef and three-time win- have been pushing Addis Ababa to ink a binding deal Egypt, which depends on the Nile for about 97 per- company has its sights on an international chain where ner of World Pizza Contest in Rome, who was brought in over the filling and operation of the dam, and have cent of its irrigation and drinking water, sees the dam employees would focus solely on customer service or to help elaborate Pazzi’s recipes and process. — AFP been urging the UN Security Council to take the mat- as an existential threat. ter up in recent weeks. Sudan hopes the project will regulate annual hospitals, both private and public, and just 250 oxygen Tomorrow’s UNSC meeting was requested by flooding but fears its own dams would be harmed cylinders are available, they added. Tunisia on behalf of Egypt and Sudan, a diplomatic without agreement on the Ethiopian operation. The Tunisia hit Since June 20, authorities have imposed a total source told AFP. But France’s ambassador to the UN 145-m tall mega-dam, construction of which began in lockdown on six regions across Tunisia, including said last week that the council itself can do little apart 2011, has a reservoir with a capacity of 74 billion cu by COVID... Kairouan, as the number of COVID cases spiraled in from bringing all the sides together. “We can open m. Filling began last year, with Ethiopia announcing in the North African country. The capital Tunis has been the door, invite the three countries at the table, bring July 2020 it had hit its target of 4.9 billion cu m - placed under partial lockdown since last week, with them to express their concerns, encourage them to enough to test the dam’s first two turbines, an impor- Continued from Page 1 weekend lockdowns from July 10 to prevent crowds at get back to the negotiations and find a solution,” he tant milestone on the way towards actually producing beaches. told reporters. energy. The goal is to add 13.5 billion cu m of water Doctors, nurses and non-governmental organiza- But the health situation in Kairouan, home to Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said in this year. tions have sounded the alarm particularly for Kairouan, 593,000 people, is among the worst and for health a note to the UN that negotiations are at an impasse, Reaching that target would be a political boon for a marginalized region where intensive care beds and workers it has become a nightmare. At the Ibn Jazzar and accused Ethiopia of adopting “a policy of intran- Ethiopia’s Abiy as he strains to end the brutal war in oxygen supplies are lacking. “We have reached a point hospital there are only three nurses for 35 COVID sigence that undermined our collective endeavors to Tigray, said Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, a where we don’t know who to assist first,” Fteiti said. patients. “Our day begins very early in the morning reach an agreement”. Relations between Cairo and public policy expert at Addis Ababa University. “This In Kairouan, 5,500 liters of oxygen are now needed and we never know when it will be over,” said nurse Addis Ababa have been icy over the past decade. is a unifying factor for Ethiopians in the middle of so daily to treat those stricken by COVID compared to Fteiti. The day starts with caring for incoming patients Tensions have also risen between Ethiopia and Sudan many ethnic conflicts you see here, and therefore it’s 400-500 liters two weeks ago before the number of who have slept on the floors of hospital corridors as the Tigray conflict has sent refugees fleeing across important for the country and the leadership of the cases spiked, regional health officials said. And there because no beds were available when they arrived, the border into Sudan. country to complete the dam in accordance with the are only 45 beds in intensive care units in Kairouan she said. — AFP Shoukry and his Sudanese counterpart Mariam Al- schedule,” Costantinos said. —AFP Established 1961 3 Local Wednesday, July 7, 2021 Up to 6,000 people vaccinated daily at Jaber Causeway center People advised to arrive on time or shortly before appointment

By Nawara Fattahova appointment should register again. “If they miss the appointment, they won’t receive a new appointment KUWAIT: Between 5,000 and 6,000 people are unless they register again. I expect that by vaccinated daily at the Kuwait Vaccination Center September, we will finish with all registered people. on Jaber Causeway. Due to the weather conditions, Also, vaccinations of students will start in August the working hours are from 5:00 pm to 1:00 am. before the school year,” she explained. The staff at the center are doing hard work in the “Last week we were vaccinating employees of extremely hot weather. They aim to make the vacci- various companies, with between 5,000 and 7,000 nation process easy for those who are coming to doses daily. This week we are inoculating individu- get vaccinated, and have some pieces of advice. als - between 2,000 and 2,500 daily doses. Administrative Supervisor Dalal Al-Ajmi advised Currently we are administering the Oxford- those coming for vaccination to come on time or AstraZeneca vaccine,” Ajmi said. shortly before their appointment. “Some people There are around 70 administrative staff working arrive before 4:00 pm, while their appointment is at at Jaber Causeway, not including the nurses and 6:00 pm. After waiting for over two hours in this doctors. “The staff welcome those coming for vac- heat, they reach the vaccination point upset and cination at the gate. They check the information complaining,” she told Kuwait Times. including the SMS from the ministry of health with According to Ajmi, there is no shortage of vac- the appointment time and location. The person is cines. “For those who registered months ago and then directed to the vaccination point, where the didn’t receive a message yet, it may be due to a mis- information is checked again,” she said. take in their registration or they didn’t see the SMS. Everyone coming to get vaccinated should have KUWAIT: People queue in their cars to receive a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at a drive-thru inoculation I advise them to check their registration again and another person accompanying them. “We will not site at the Jaber Causeway on Monday. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat update their information. They can also check with vaccinate the driver if they are alone. If they are the IT desk at the Kuwait International Fairground in driving, they should switch with the passenger and Dr Talal Al-Fadhala, General Supervisor of the here including technical and administrative teams, Mishref to see what’s wrong. Also, some of those then only they can get vaccinated. Also, we don’t Center, said on average they vaccinate around medical emergency, nursing, pharmacy, volunteers who registered got infected with the coronavirus, so accept anyone without an appointment. But if 5,000 people daily. “We accept 80 vehicles at a from the Civil Defense and the Red Crescent, and they won’t receive a jab,” Ajmi told Kuwait Times. someone misses their second dose that was at this time. The Jaber Causeway center started operating Fire Force and the Interior Ministry teams,” he Those who missed the SMS with the vaccination location, then we will accept them,” concluded Ajmi. at the beginning of June, and different teams work pointed out.

Political affairs parties that have direct dealings with Pakistani medics Afterwards, the ministers discussed Arabi organizes customers, whether in residential political affairs in light of the latest develop- areas and engineering projects or to back up local ments on the political scene at the Arab and vaccination through the company’s showrooms international levels. They extolled Saudi located all-over Kuwait. Arabia’s efforts aiming to resolve the crisis Arabi Company had expressed its health sector in Yemen and welcomed the consensus of campaign interest in awareness initiatives earli- representatives of Yemen’s government and er, as the company launched a wide KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Cabinet, in its the Southern Transitional Council to halt all campaign to support and encourage weekly session on Monday, approved a for employees forms of escalation. The Cabinet con- vaccination by delivering the largest request presented by Ministry of Health on KUWAIT: Arabi WLL made a wide number of awareness messages to recruiting Pakistani doctors, nurses and KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime demned strongly Houthi militia’s attempt vaccination campaign against the the Kuwaiti community through technicians to back up the health sector, Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al- aiming to target international navigation in coronavirus, which included all the social media, regarding the necessity and direct flights to Azerbaijan as of July 7. Hamad Al-Sabah chairs the Cabinet’s the Red Sea with two booby-trapped boats company’s employees, in cooperation of receiving vaccination against the The meeting headed by His Highness the meeting. —KUNA in Hodeida Governorate, lauding the efforts and coordination with the Ministry of coronavirus. Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al- of the coalition supporting legitimacy in Health. The vaccination campaign was It is worth noting that Arabi Hamad Al-Sabah declared some measures. Yemen to thwart this criminal hostile act recommendation of the Economic Affairs held recently, at the Millennium Hotel At the onset of the meeting, Minister of seeking to impede the movement of naviga- Company is always keen on the Committee on health insurance for stu- and Conference Centre in Kuwait, Health Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah briefed tion in this vital area. On the 245th anniver- health and safety of employees in dents abroad, and assigned the Ministry of with the presence of field medical implementation of the instructions of the Cabinet on the latest developments Higher Education to take all relevant meas- sary of the America’s Independence Day, units. The vaccination process was the Council of Ministers and the regarding the coronavirus pandemic on the ures, and coordinate with the Ministries of the Cabinet congratulated sincerely the US carried out in a flexible, easy and health authorities in the country, as it local, regional and international levels, Health and Finance to arrange all technical President, government and people on this well-organized manner, which result- periodically sterilizes the workplaces mainly in light of the spread of the Delta and financial matters in this regard. The occasion, affirming the depth of historic and ed in the successful vaccination of of all company buildings, including variant, Minister of State for Cabinet affairs Cabinet reviewed the committee’s recom- good ties between the two countries and nearly 1000 employees in one day. staff offices, corridors, meeting and Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nasser mendation on a draft law approving the their friendly peoples. Abdullah Al-Ghanem, Head of rooms and other places where Mohammad Al-Sabah said after the meet- final account of the state’s financial man- The Cabinet further offered its sincere Public Relations at the Company, employees are located on an ongoing ing. Dr Basel also informed the ministers agement for the 2020-2021 fiscal year, and condolences to Japan’s Emperor Naruhito expressed the company’s thanks and basis, in addition to providing masks about the current health situation in Kuwait endorsed and referred the bill to His for the victims of the landslide in Tokyo, gratitude to the Ministry of Health that witnesses growing numbers of infected Highness the Deputy Amir to refer it to the and to the acting governor-general of and sterilizers inside buildings, and and its officials and the member of cases, deaths, and hospitals and intensive National Assembly. In addition, the Canada for the victims of the wildfires in placing posters of health guidelines the field team, Ali Muhammad Khaja, care units’ patients. He also told the Cabinet Cabinet studied the recommendation of the Province of British Columbia. It also on walls and floors to limit the about the ministry’s efforts to fulfill the anti- the Public Services Committee on the offered sympathy to Cyprus’ President for sending medical units to the spread of the coronavirus. COVID-19 vaccination in order to boost request of the Minister of State for Nicos Anastasiades for the victims of the Millennium Hotel and Conference And last but not least, this step herd immunity in light of the spread of the Communications and Information forest fires that broke out north of Centre Kuwait to vaccinate all comes as part of Arabi Company’s mutated strains, and the number of vacci- Technology to form a higher committee to Limassol and Larnaca, voicing its confi- employees, and for their tireless and endeavor to complete its pioneering nated citizens and expats. In this regard, the approve the government applications to dence in the ability of officials of these tangible efforts to quickly respond to role in the participation of other sec- Cabinet stressed the necessity of boosting expedite the digital transformation in friendly countries to overcome these natu- the company’s request by sending tors of the state in the prevention of cooperation amongst health authorities to Kuwait. the Cabinet assigned the Minister, ral disasters. Finally, the Cabinet expressed medical units to vaccinate the the coronavirus, as well as working to ensure the safety of the society and in coordination with all government agen- its great sorrow over the crash of employees of Arabi Company, in accelerate the pace of vaccination enhance heath system so as to control the cies, to take all necessary measures to find Philippines’ military plane that led to the order to preserve the health and and to reach the desired percentage pandemic to return to normal life. a unified regulatory framework for e-gov- deaths or the injuries of some people, safety of citizens and residents to of community immunity, which the ernment applications in a manner that offering heartfelt condolences to President limit the spread of the novel coron- health authorities are seeking to Students’ insurance ensures consistency and integration of Rodrigo Duterte and the families of the avirus; as the company is one of the achieve at the earliest opportunity. Furthermore, the Cabinet discussed the services. victims. — KUNA

Interior Minister visits injured policeman in Jahra KUWAIT: Minister of Interior Sheikh Thamer Al-Ali Al-Sabah visited a police officer who was stabbed in Al-Jahra Governorate on Monday. The minister checked on the police officer’s health, made sure that the officer get all the care he needs, and praised his dedication to work and order through providing secu- rity and safety for citizens and residents. In a state- ment, the ministry of Interior said that one person was arrested after stabbing incident to a security officer while performing his duty in Al-Jahra Governorate, stressing that they firmly will handle anyone who vio- lates the law. The ministry stated that the police officer suffered a small injury in the left shoulder. — KUNA 4 Established 1961 Local Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Established 1961 The First Daily in The Arabian Gulf Zain takes part in welcoming THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF ESTABLISHED 1961 Founder and Publisher YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN Kuwait University’s freshmen Editor-in-Chief ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN EDITORIAL : 24833199-24833358-24833432 At the Admission and Registration Hall in Shuwaikh ADVERTISING : 24835616/7 FAX : 24835620/1 CIRCULATION : 24833199 Extn. 163 KUWAIT: Zain, the leading digital service provider ACCOUNTS : 24833199 Extn. 125 in Kuwait, took part in welcoming freshmen stu- COMMERCIAL : 24835618 dents at Kuwait University’s Admission and P.O.Box 1301 Safat,13014 Kuwait. Registration Hall in Shuwaikh. The initiative, which Email: [email protected] Website: www.kuwaittimes.net featured strict health measures, came in line with the start of the admission and registration period of the new academic year, and reflected the company’s keenness in offering a comfortable atmosphere for students and staff. KFAS wraps up The visit witnessed the presence of Kuwait University’s Admission Department Manager Hind program to boost Al-Salem, Zain Kuwait’s External and Internal Department Manager Hamad Al-Matar, Admission national cadres skills Department Supervisor Samar Al-Awadhi, and Dean’s Office Coordinator Jassem Al-Asfour. KUWAIT: Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Zain joined in welcoming the students by pre- Sciences (KFAS) has wrapped up the 2020 “innovation senting them with cold drinks in an effort to lighten challenge” program, virtually organized in coordination the hot weather conditions. This initiative comes in with Wharton Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. continuation of the company’s ongoing support of The activity involved teams from ten Kuwaiti companies the hall’s various activities and events all year- specialized in upgrading skills of national cadres in sci- round. The hall, which serves over 14,000 students ences, technology and innovation. KFAS Director annually, is sponsored by Zain for over 11 years. General Dr Khaled Al-Fadhel said in a statement on Last year, Zain supplied the Admission and Tuesday that the foundation has launched the program Registration Hall in Shuwaikh with a number of to lure private companies into engagement in the scien- MoH-approved precautionary health measures to KUWAIT: Hind Al-Salem with Hamad Al-Matar and Zain and KU officials during the visit. tific, technological and innovative sectors. Future of curb the spread of COVID-19. The move came in social and economic development largely hinges on line with Zain’s commitment to contribute to the efforts aimed at shifting to an economy based on health and safety of the university’s students, fac- knowledge as foundation of scientific research, he ulty, and staff. added. Due to COVID-related constraints on travel and lockdowns, the program had lasted for 15 months, Zain supplied the hall with signs and banners to Fadhel explained, indicating that the participants con- remind visitors of the necessary health guidelines cluded the third part of the program, virtually, with that must be followed while inside, as well as floor respect of digital transformation and virtual learning. stickers to achieve social distancing. The company Meanwhile, Bassam Al-Feeli, KFAS’ director of com- also installed see-through dividers to separate stu- panies and innovation, said in a statement that the pro- dents and staff in a safe manner during registra- gram that has been organized annually since 2015 tion, while enabling sound to pass efficiently. In hinges basically on diverse learning methods, teaching addition, some seats were made unavailable inside curricula known for stimulating creativity and absten- the hall to guarantee a safe space between stu- tion from conventional ways in commerce. Feeli said the dents while seated. coronavirus spread created new challenges to compa- This initiative comes as an extension of Zain’s nies, whereby participants in the 2020 program had to contributions during the past two years, where the revise their projects, during time between two phases, company fully renovated the hall in an effort to offer to enable their companies cope with challenges and a more comfortable atmosphere for students and new conditions caused by the pandemic. Among the staff. The company is keen on continuously sup- participants were Kuwait Finance House, the National porting education by actively partnering with vari- Bank of Kuwait, the Commercial Bank of Kuwait, the ous education bodies from both the public and pri- Gulf Bank, Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait, Kimco, Wara vate sectors, as it is a firm believer in the impor- hospital, Equate, Burgan Bank and Al-Kout Food Group. tance of supporting the youth and preparing them The program included workshops and seminars that to become tomorrow’s leaders. were held in Kuwait. A number of elite professors of the American university had delivered lectures and partici- Zain partnered with Kuwait University’s Deanship of Admission and Registration to fully pants examined experience of conglomerates namely Zain’s sponsorship for KU’s Admission and Registration Hall. Facebook, Casic, Google, Spacex, Inc Autodesk and renovate the Admission and Registration Hall and Databricks. KFAS launched the program late 2014. It prepare it with the necessary furniture and equip- had involved up to 236 Kuwaiti personnel from 29 ment. The hall receives thousands of students oping education, as it is essential for individuals to human capital. By adopting such initiatives, Zain Kuwaiti companies. They had launched initiatives that throughout the year during the admission approval then go-on to be successful and contributing mem- seeks to support students and allow them to apply proved efficient for the participating companies partic- and freshmen registration period. bers of society. The company is committed to play- their skills, achieve their potential, and fully develop ularly with respect of overcoming challenges. — KUNA Zain firmly believes in the importance of devel- ing an active role in the investment of the Kuwaiti their capabilities.

tions and technology giants eg KFH enhances cooperation Google, Apple and Microsoft. with GUST to support students Enhanced partnership Nawaf Erhama, Chairman of KUWAIT: Acting Group CEO at and banking trends which have Trustees at GUST has expressed Kuwait Finance House (KFH), gained significant momentum. his pleasure for the visit of KFH AbdulWahab Essa Al-Roshood Al-Omar added that universities team, headed by Acting CEO emphasized the significance of carry great responsibilities in AbdulWahab Al-Roshood, to the cooperating with academic institu- achieving high caliber concerning university campus to enhance tions, holding strategic partner- their educational products. There is cooperation between the two ships with them in the field of a joint responsibility with the insti- organizations and exchange scien- internships, enhancing graduates tutions which attract these gradu- tific and practical experience in all capabilities, recruiting distin- ates, increase their efficiency, and fields between university students guished youth to work at KFH, qualify them vocationally through and the bank employees and devel- exchanging researches, supporting highly developed work programs. op educational products to match students conferences and clubs Other comprehensive programs on the needs of the Kuwaiti market. He and other aspects of cooperation. the banking sector are also avail- added that the two parties are He indicated that these activities able including courses on technol- looking forward to signing a mem- would stand as an added value for ogy applications, Sharia basics in orandum of understanding to both parties, enhance KFH position Islamic banking, Anti-money laun- enhance partnership between the and strengthen the role of educa- tional institutions in growth and development. A meeting held between KFH delegation and the officials of Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST). KFH delega- tion comprised Acting Group CEO, AbdulWahab Essa Al-Roshood, Group Chief HR Officer Ziad Abdullah Al-Omar and Group DGM- Public Relations and Media, KUWAIT: AbdulWahab Essa Al-Roshood, Ziad Al-Omar and Yousef Al- Yousef Al-Ruwaieh. The GUST Ruwaieh with GUST Officials. team comprised the Chairman of Trustees, Nawaf Erhama, Acting dering , risk management, banking banking sector and the academic Chairman for Academic Affairs, and finance products so that sector in Kuwait. Meanwhile he Professor Doctor Bassam employees would have a compre- indicated that cooperation with Alamuddin and the Manager - stu- hensive look on the nature of bank- KFH shall cover several aspects dents recruitment center, Dr. ing business while focusing at the including giving KFH employees Fatima Al-Hashem. same time on the field and job role training courses focusing on mod- Al-Roshood indicated, during of each employee. ern banking fields. the meeting, that the partnership Al-Omar affirmed KFH commit- KFH is considered as a strategic with GUST aims to qualify stu- ment to honor its responsibilities in partner of GUST and the leading dents and give them the required labor nationalization and recruit- sponsor of the several activities of skills to work in the banking sector, ment of highly skilled youth. He the Islamic finance club at the uni- train national labor in the required added that KFH has successfully versity. KFH has signed earlier a fields and refurbish their skills in proved itself as the largest labor memorandum of understanding highly significant fields e.g. risk nationalization entity in the private with GUST including the enhance- management, digitalization and sector in Kuwait. KFH has reached ment of cooperation and coordina- cyber security. highest levels on the Kuwaitization tion between the two sides in the indicators and achieved qualitative field of training, research, and Students’ energy progress in the field of training via organizing of joint educational and The Group Chief HR Officer, fully integrated and advanced pro- social programs. Furthermore, Ziad Al-Omar emphasized that grams in cooperation with the most learning workshops, seminars and KFH is always keen on continuing reputable educational institutions to conferences are organized to cooperation and partnership with fulfil the modern requirements of develop scientific performance, dis- GUST and supporting its efforts in the banking industry. The bank has cuss economic issues, and highlight directing the students’ energy to introduced the “Forsah” program Islamic economy. KFH is keen on develop their creativity through for the distinguished Kuwaiti gradu- participating annually in the univer- programs specialized in Islamic ates who joined KFH. The program sity job opportunities fair, organiz- economy applications and Islamic provides its members with highly ing educational seminars for the banks activities. Also, the bank sophisticated and rich information students and many other activities, offers specialized programs in the in accordance with global standards thus reiterating the success of part- fields of information technology laid by highly reputable organiza- nership between the two parties. International WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2021 Going to waste: The children who survive Warlords, jihadists, Islamic republics: The key players in Afghanistan Page 7 on garbage dumps Page 6 COVID explosion batters Indonesia Jakarta imports oxygen as hospitals buckle under pressure

JAKARTA: Indonesia warned yesterday it was Nearly 1,000 Indonesian medical workers have directed to hospitals overflowing with virus bracing for a punishing surge in COVID-19 cases died of COVID-19, including more than a dozen patients as the highly infectious Delta variant tears as its daily toll soared to a record 728 deaths and who were already fully inoculated, according to across Indonesia’s main Java island, home to more hospitals crumble under the weight of the coun- the country’s medical association. than half of the country’s nearly 270 million people. try’s deadliest wave yet. Emergency oxygen sup- Desperate families are hunting for oxygen “The team is preparing for a scenario of up to plies for virus patients were being flown in from tanks to treat the sick and dying at home. 50,000 cases a day, maybe even 60,000 to neighboring Singapore, while the government said Thousands of troops and police are scrambling to 70,000 per day at worst,” said senior minister Southeast Asia’s worst-hit nation could see cases enforce new virus curbs to bring down record dai- Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, tasked with enforcing new soar to more than 50,000 a day. ly cases, which soared yesterday to 31,189 new virus rules. “But we hope that won’t happen.” Hospitals in the hard-hit capital Jakarta were infections and 728 deaths - as much as seven times Offices, mosques, parks, shopping malls and topping 90 percent occupancy and more than a the daily mortality rate less than a month ago. Daily restaurants have been shuttered across Java under dozen facilities in Indonesia’s second-biggest city COVID-19 burials in Jakarta alone are up 10-fold new curbs that started from the weekend. Surabaya shut out new patients because they since May, overwhelming exhausted cemetery But there have been widespread violations. could no longer handle the huge influx. A Surabaya workers scrambling to keep up. Authorities in Java’s Semarang city fired water hospital spokeswoman described jammed ICUs hoses at shops that have refused to close. Jakarta’s and exhausted doctors, some infected with ‘Worst case’ governor Anies Baswedan yesterday ordered COVID-19. Yesterday, Jakarta said about 10,000 concen- dozens of offices to be sealed after some employ- “The hospital no longer has rooms for patients trators - devices that generate oxygen - were to ers ignored work-from-home orders. Surabaya’s who need ventilators. The ICU rooms are also full,” be shipped from nearby Singapore with some mayor at the weekend ordered that vaccine-rule said the woman who asked not to be identified. arriving by a Hercules cargo plane earlier. The violators be forced to tour a local cemetery, while “We’re overwhelmed. Many of our health workers government was also in talks with other countries in locals in Malang dressed as ghosts in the hopes SURABAYA: People receive the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine at a makeshift mass vacci- have collapsed from exhaustion and some are also including China for help, it said. Jakarta has of scaring rule-breakers in a country where super- nation clinic at a football field in East Java yesterday. —AFP infected. We trying to get volunteers to help out.” ordered all the nation’s oxygen supplies to be natural beliefs are widespread. —AFP Migrants welcomed in impoverished southern Tunisia MEDENINE, Tunisia: In the front row of a small classroom, three women, all different nationalities, avidly learn French in southern Tunisia’s stifling sum- mer heat - grateful for support from an umbrella of charities. Based in the city of Medenine, it’s a rare locally driven opportunity for migrants to better themselves and integrate, in a wider North Africa region that is often far MEDENINE: Sub-Saharan migrants gather at a center run by the from welcoming. Organization for the Support of Migrants in this southern Tunisian city And despite Tunisia’s own biting economic crisis and the rampant pover- on June 15, 2021. —AFP ty in its under-developed south, local associations have banded together to offer the less fortunate support. Awa, from Ivory Coast, speaks good weekend, when over 60 migrants disappeared or died as two boats sank in French, but wants to learn to read and write in the language. “I never went less than 72 hours off Tunisia. With the country mired in an economic crisis to school,” she said, her baby on her knee. “If you cannot read or write, it is that leaves it unable to meet the needs of its own citizens, migrants are low as if you live in the dark - you cannot do anything.” on the list of political priorities. Two reception centers managed by UN Banished by her family for refusing to marry, she travelled to war-torn agencies were established in Medenine in 2014 and 2015, but were quickly Libya in the hope of crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, but was pre- overwhelmed. vented from taking to the sea and detained. “I was pregnant, and due to These limitations prompted the Organization for the Support of give birth,” Awa said, adding that she was told Tunisia “was welcoming Migrants to form and kick into action. “We felt that things were wrong - we because it is not in a state of war”. saw migrants begging in the street,” explained Abdallah Said, a Tunisian of That advice brought her to Medenine, where she attends a day center Chadian origin whose work as a civil servant in Medenine involves collabo- run by the Organization for the Support of Migrants, an initiative by eight ration with the umbrella group. The organization advises day center atten- Tunisian medical outfits that offers support to mainly female migrants. “I dees on their options and provides them “with time to think about what was welcomed... I am very happy,” Awa added. they want to do” next, Said explained. “That’s why they feel comfortable.” Fellow Ivorian Bintou has discovered an inner confidence thanks to sewing lessons offered at the day center. “I have already sewn beautiful Uphill battle dresses - it’s a job that fascinates me,” she said. “It inspires me,” she added, The initiative also brings the migrants into contact with Tunisian noting that she’d wanted to be a tailor even before she left her home coun- women. In the small classroom hosting the French class, Tunisian citizen try. Like Awa, Bintou arrived in Tunisia in July last year. Both are tempted to Fatma hopes to learn French in order to join her brother in France. The stay, largely because, as Bintou puts it, “it is peaceful,” even if she some- West African migrants help her develop her skills. “I teach them Arabic times suffers street harassment and racism. and they teach us French,” she said. The initiative has had some help from the authorities - Medenine municipality provided a building for it to use ‘Feel comfortable’ as its headquarters. Over the last decade, the number of migrants of sub-Saharan origin But the area is severely economically deprived, suffering an unemploy- arriving in Tunisia has swelled substantially. They range from foreign work- ment rate of nearly 20 percent, and cannot do more, according to municipal ers displaced from Libya - a country mired in chaos since the 2011 fall of mayor Moncef Ben Yemma. “I don’t even have the funds to build roads,” he dictator Muammar Gaddafi - to asylum seekers and new immigrants look- lamented. While there is an inclination to help migrants at the local level, ing for work in Tunisia. In the last six months alone, 1,000 people who there is resistance at the national level. Tunisia tolerates irregular migrants, embarked from Libya to Europe have been picked up in Mediterranean but it is very difficult for such foreign African nationals to legitimize their waters by Tunisian vessels and ended up in the country, according to the immigration status. And Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi has rejected calls International Organization for Migration. by the European Union and others to establish reception centers. “Tunisia The danger of that crossing was brought into sharp focus again this will not be a land of asylum”, he declared in May this year. —AFP Five jailed in ‘horrific’ German child abuse case MUNSTER, Germany: Four men received lengthy prison sentences in Germany yesterday for taking part in the repeated sexual assault of children and filming the abuse in a case that prompted reform of pedophilia laws. A regional court in the western city of Muenster jailed the defendants for between 10 and 14 years fol- lowed by preventive detention. The mother of the 28-year-old main defendant was convicted of aiding and abetting the abuse and sentenced to five years in prison. Presiding judge Matthias Pheiler expressed shock at the “horrific events” covered in the trial, calling the video recordings “deeply disturbing”. “The proceedings also clearly showed how pedophiles operate: They trick, they lie, they manipulate those around” the victims, he said, adding that he was repulsed to see that the defendants “grinned” and even “laughed loudly” while evidence against them was presented. Pheiler said he was relieved none of the victims had had to testify in the trial. The principal defendant, a computer technician identified only as Adrian V, was found to have trapped boys in a garden shed in April 2020 along with several male accomplices, drugged them and raped them repeatedly over the course of three days. One of the victims, now 11 years old, was the son of his girlfriend. Prosecutors presented some 30 hours of video evidence, much of which had been shared in darknet forums. The other men, aged 31 to 43, are believed to have met Adrian V online. The chief defendant’s mother Carina V, who owns the shed, was found to have been aware of the abuse. The court heard that she had brought the men breakfast while they took turns assaulting the children. Police are still screening evidence uncovered from the abuse in the shed and have used it to identify suspects across Germany and abroad. Five men have already been convicted and sentenced in connection with the case and investigators have identified 50 suspects, of whom around 30 are in custody. The current trial began last November and the sentences were broadly in line with what prosecutors had demanded. —AFP 6 Established 1961 International Wednesday, July 7, 2021 Going to waste: The children who survive on Gabon’s garbage dumps ‘I work 15 hours a day, I don’t go to school and I don’t have a choice’

LIBREVILLE, Gabon: Larry, a scrawny eight-year- “Stand back, don’t get so close!” yelled Grace old, struggles to haul along a sack that is bigger Ongo-Mbou, president of the Gabonese civic rights than he is, crammed with bits of metal that have association Les Guerriers du Social (Social Justice caught his eye. Dressed in ragged clothing and rub- Warriors). Her NGO is campaigning to raise aware- ber boots, dozens of children like him live and scav- ness for children who work on the waste tip, urging enge on the Mindoube rubbish tip on the outskirts them to go to school and organizing sports events. of Libreville, the capital of oil-rich Gabon. “The state must ban child labor on the landfill,” Makeshift dwellings of sheet metal and recycled Ongo-Mbou said. “You can find five-year-old chil- materials have been built on the landfill, a mountain dren here, there are children who also die, crushed several tens of meters (dozens of feet) high and by the trucks, who get injured. It kills me to see chil- hundreds of meters (yards) long. dren grubbing in the waste.” Every day, dump trucks discharge about 800 Gabon, a small central African country of two tons of waste. Diggers churn the garbage in a con- million souls, is one of the continent’s largest oil stant hubbub of heavy machinery while a stink, producers, and one of the richest per capita in the fuelled by the sultry tropical heat, emerges from the region. Yet according to the World Bank, a third of debris. In the middle of this, children wander in Gabon’s people lived below the poverty line in 2017. search of metals, especially copper, which they can The situation has since worsened as the COVID-19 sell for 2,000 CFA francs (around $3.5 / three pandemic severely slowed the economy. “We have euros) per kilo (2.2 pounds). Acrid smoke pervades seen more and more children coming to work at the the neighborhood when the scavengers burn elec- landfill over the past year,” said Roselin Bendome, tronic objects, such as televisions or computers, to who also works with Les Guerriers du Social. “The strip out the copper elements inside. “I work there state has to take care of them.” 15 hours a day,” says Larry, who has been coming to Mindoube for several months. “I don’t go to Health risks school any more. I don’t have a choice,” he said, his The scavengers are exposed to numerous health gaze fixed on the mounds of trash. “I earn a few dangers, from skin rashes to respiratory diseases. thousand francs each day.” “I’m worried for my health but we have to do it,” LIBREVILLE: Young men search through trash at the Mindoube dump in Libreville. —AFP said Ekomi, 12, who has been coming to the dump ‘Children who die’ for the past fortnight. Daniel, 17, walks around shirt- At that moment, a boy throws an empty paint can less, revealing a huge scar across his chest, which he small hut made of wooden pallets, keeping his on his head to protect himself from the sun. Crepin under the wheels of a dump truck, wanting to flatten said was caused by a metal bar. He said he comes to clothes in a discarded cooler. “This is our livelihood, and others like him see no other choice to survive it while the vehicle backs up. The boy, in a T-shirt “make a bit of money and help the family”. The our daily life,” says Crepin, a young man of 20 who than to work at the mountain of junk, in a country much too big for his frail body, is just a few cen- tough teenager says he can earn some 15,000 CFA has been scavenging on the waste tip for five years. with an unemployment rate of 20 percent in 2020, timeters (inches) from being crushed by its tyres. francs (around 23 euros) a day. He lives alone in a He was hauling a bag of copper and wore a t-shirt according to the World Bank. —AFP

46 million Belarusian rubles ($18 million, 15 million News in brief Top Belarus opposition euros) in damages, according to local independent rights group Viasna. Strache pleads not guilty figure Babaryko ‘14 years for an idea’ VIENNA: Austria’s former vice-chancellor and longtime jailed for 14 years Exiled opposition leader Svetlana leader of the far-right Freedom Party pleaded not guilty in Tikhanovskaya called the verdict “insane” and his trial for alleged corruption yesterday, in a case stem- MOSCOW: One of Belarus’s leading opposition said it was aimed at silencing Babaryko. “14 years ming from a scandal that brought down the government. for faith in an idea,” Tikhanovskaya, who fled Heinz-Christian Strache, one of Europe’s most high-profile figures was sentenced to 14 years in prison yester- abroad after claiming to win the vote against far-right leaders, was forced to resign as vice-chancellor in day, the latest move in a months-long crackdown 2019 after a video was published showing him offering on critics of strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko, wrote on the Telegram messaging public contracts in return for electoral campaign support Lukashenko. Former banker Viktor Babaryko-con- app. “The regime is doing everything to kill ideas from a woman posing as a Russian investor. The scandal, sidered one of Lukashenko’s strongest opponents- in us that are even remotely similar to hope.” The dubbed “Ibiza-gate” because the video was secretly filmed was handed the sentence by the Supreme Court in US embassy in Minsk called the sentence a on the Spanish party island, spawned a sweeping corrup- Minsk. His Twitter account, which is run by sup- “sham” and said it showed that “the Lukashenko MINSK, Belarus: Opposition politician and banker Viktor tion investigation which uncovered several different accu- porters, said he would serve the 14 years “in a regime will stop at nothing to keep power.” Babaryko, charged with corruption and money launder- ing, stands inside a defendants’ cage during his sen- sations of wrongdoing. A prosecutor laid out the charges in maximum security colony.” Western diplomats were present at the hearing, tencing in Minsk yesterday. —AFP the current trial yesterday, saying Strache stood accused of The 57-year-old was arrested in June last year according to Viasna, which said two people were a “serious crime” that was “no trivial offence”. —AFP on fraud charges ahead of a disputed presidential detained outside the court after “dozens” of election that sparked demonstrations which gripped Babaryko supporters arrived at the building but were about 45,000 euros ($53,000) and barred from the ex-Soviet country for months. Babaryko was not permitted inside the courtroom. Prosecutors had holding senior official positions. Seven other defen- Caceres’ murderer convicted accused of receiving bribes and of money launder- requested a 15-year sentence, the maximum possible dants in the case, including several Belgazprombank ing when he was head of Belgazprombank, the punishment. Babaryko denied any wrongdoing executives, were prosecuted on the charges. They all TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: The general manager of a Belarusian branch of a bank belonging to Russian throughout his trial. The sentence is not subject to pleaded guilty and yesterday were sentenced to hydroelectric company in Honduras on Monday became appeal. Babaryko was also fined the equivalent of terms of between three and six years. —AFP the eighth person convicted in the 2016 murder of a energy giant Gazprom. He was also ordered to pay renowned environmentalist. A judge said Roberto David Castillo, a former member of the armed forces who gradu- ated from the West Point military academy in New York, that he was “effectively” seeking to interdict the was the “co-perpetrator of the crime of murder.” The vic- South Africa’s Zuma execution of the arrest warrant for a man who turns tim, Berta Caceres, was a fervent opponent of the activities 80 on his next birthday and whose “health condition of the Desarrollos Energeticos S.A. (DESA) company in back in court in fresh is uncontestably precarious”, is not a flight risk and indigenous territories in Honduras. Castillo is due to be is in the care and security of the state. sentenced on August 3. —AFP bid to avoid jail ‘Volatile security situation’ Before the hearing even started, lawyers for the Convictions overturned by court JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s ex-president police had written to Constitutional Court saying Jacob Zuma, who has been handed a 15-month jail they will pause on the order to arrest Zuma given term for contempt, made another legal attempt LONDON: Appeal court judges in London yesterday the “unique situation presented by the developments overturned the convictions of three black men for yesterday to dodge incarceration going to court and the legal matrix involved.” Mpofu commended attempting to rob a corrupt police officer nearly half a to seek the suspension of an arrest order. His lat- century ago. The Court of Appeal cleared the trio follow- est bid in the Pietermaritzburg High Court came the police for considering “the aggravated situation ing a referral by a criminal cases review commission, and as police said they will not make any move to in the country around this matter,” pointing to the “volatile security situation that may be posed by this NKANDLA, SOUTH AFRICA: Former South African presi- comes just over a year after the acquittals of four men in arrest him until he has fully exhausted his legal dent Jacob Zuma removes his eyeglasses as he matter”. The hearing continued yesterday. Zuma has a similar case. The latest ruling is the third time convic- battle against the sentence. Zuma has mounted a addresses the media in his home in Nkandla, KwaZulu- tions have been overturned based on the tarnished evi- two-pronged last-ditch attempt to avoid jail after separately pleaded with the Constitutional Court to Natal. —AFP dence of discredited British Transport Police officer the Constitutional Court, the country’s top judicial reconsider and rescind its jail order. That challenge Detective Sergeant Derek Ridgewell. The three men-all authority, slapped him with the sentence last will be heard on July 12 He was ordered to be jailed aged between 17 and 20 at the time-and three friends week. for disobeying a court order to appear before a individual cannot take precedence over or jeopard- were accused of trying to rob Ridgewell in 1972 on the He was told to turn himself in by midnight on commission probing massive state corruption under ize the interests of our democracy or of the nation,” London Underground while travelling from Stockwell Sunday, failing which police would be instructed to his nine-year tenure. said the party’s deputy secretary general Jesse station, south London. —AFP arrest him within the following three days. On Friday, His ruling African National Congress (ANC) has Duarte following a special meeting of the ANC’s Zuma, 79, rushed to court seeking to halt the execu- vowed not to interfere in Zuma’s attempt to evade National Executive Committee held on Monday. Rescue ship seeks EU port tion of the arrest order. His lawyer Dali Mpofu told jail because “we believe that the judiciary must be “We believe that the judiciary must be left to make the Pietermaritzburg High Court, as it started sitting, left to make its own decisions”. “The interests of an its own decisions,” she said.—AFP MARSEILLE, France: The Ocean Viking migrant rescue ship urged EU members yesterday to allow 572 people picked up in the Mediterranean Sea over three days to be ly”, adding that he would stay in Rome’s Gemelli brought ashore. The NGO vessel carried out one of its Pope Francis hospital for around seven days unless there were largest rescues in years on Sunday night, involving a boat complications. that set off from Libya with 369 men, women and children ‘had breakfast and and that was at risk of capsizing. “Such large unseaworthy Open surgery wooden boats launched from the coast of Libya had not walked’ after operation According to Italian newspapers, the surgeons been encountered by our teams in several years,” the initially planned to carry out a less invasive Ocean Viking’s operator, SOS Mediterranee, said in a ROME: Pope Francis, 84, yesterday had breakfast laparoscopy on the pope but in the end reverted to statement. The operation was Ocean Viking’s sixth rescue and got up to walk, two days after undergoing sur- open surgery. Also known as keyhole surgery, within days and brought the total number of migrants laparoscopy involves a thin tube being inserted onboard to 527. —AFP gery for an inflamed large colon, the Vatican announced. “His Holiness Pope Francis rested well into the body, avoiding the need for large incisions during the night,” spokesman Matteo Bruni said in in the skin. But the presence of a scar from previ- Court upholds Wilders insult conviction an update following Sunday’s operation. “This morn- ous abdominal surgery required a laparotomy, a ing he had breakfast, he read some newspapers and type of open surgery, the reports said. Health THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The highest Dutch court got up to walk.” Bruni added that the results from experts say it is not unusual to change method ROME: A picture shows the statue depicting late pope yesterday upheld Geert Wilders’ conviction for collec- routine check-ups “are good”. during an operation. John Paul II outside the Policlinico A. Gemelli Hospital in tively insulting Moroccan people at a 2014 rally, saying The Argentine pontiff underwent a planned oper- The reports added that the pope did not require Rome, where Pope Francis arrived the day before to politicians too “must adhere to the basic rule of law”. ation on Sunday for what the Vatican described as a colostomy and there was no evidence of a fever undergo a surgery. —AFP The case in which the far-right Dutch leader is accused symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon. Also afterwards. Francis is in the same suite on the 10th of asking supporters seven years ago whether they known as diverticulitis, it is a potentially painful floor of the Gemelli hospital used by Pope John Paul gery for the summer to allow time to convalesce, wanted “fewer Moroccans” in the Netherlands, went to inflammation of pockets that form in the colon. The II. The late pope underwent surgery there a number according to Corriere della Sera newspaper. The the supreme court after his conviction was previously three-hour operation was conducted under general of times, including after an attempt on his life in 1981, pontiff had already put his Wednesday general audi- upheld by lower courts. An appeals court in 2020 main- anaesthetic and Francis underwent a left hemicolec- and for a tumor in the colon in 1992. He was there so ence on hold for the summer, and has no other offi- tained Wilders’ conviction, but it threw out a charge of tomy, in which the descending colon-the part often that he dubbed it “Vatican 3”, third in line after cial appointments in his calendar until Sunday, when inciting discrimination over the 2014 gathering, where attached to the rectum-is removed. The remaining the tiny city state and the papal summer palace at he is due to lead the Angelus prayer. If, as expected, the crowd chanted back “Fewer! Fewer!” to Wilders’ bit of the colon is then attached directly to the rec- Castel Gandolfo outside Rome. he is still in hospital on Sunday, he could follow John question. —AFP tum. On Monday, Bruni said the pope was “in good Pope Francis had been suffering pain from diver- Paul II’s example and lead the prayers from his hos- general condition, alert and breathing spontaneous- ticulitis for several months, but scheduled the sur- pital window. —AFP Established 1961 7 International Wednesday, July 7, 2021 Warlords, jihadists, Islamic republics: The key players in Afghanistan Fighting intensifies for control of war-weary country KABUL: With US and international troops all but the insurgents seem focused on positioning their gone from Afghanistan and the Taleban making rap- troops for a military takeover. The Taleban appear id gains, a number of players are positioning them- to be united, operating under an effective chain of selves for the next phase of the conflict. Here is a command, despite perennial rumors of splits among rundown of what these powers, from the govern- the group’s leadership. ment in Kabul and local militias to regional nations, seek to gain or lose in Afghanistan as fighting inten- President Ashraf Ghani sifies for control of the war-weary country: Known for his academic disposition and infa- mous temper, Ghani is said to be increasingly isolat- Afghan security forces ed at a moment when he is in desperate need of Thinly stretched with supply lines strained, the allies. He has remained defiant despite mounting Afghan security forces have come under immense pressure on his government in the face of territorial pressure in the final stages of the US military with- losses. “He was the creature, the man of the drawal. Afghan troops are facing blistering attacks Americans, but he is now considered to be uncon- from the Taleban, including onslaughts on positions trollable and an obstacle to the peace process,” a in the militants’ southern strongholds and a light- Western diplomat in Kabul said. ning offensive in the north. A recent shakeup of the country’s defense and But government forces continue to maintain con- interior ministries pulled his supporters closer, and trol over the country’s cities, with most territorial may prove pivotal to his future political survival losses in the sparsely populated rural areas. “Many along with continued backing from Washington. TALOQAN, Afghanistan: Afghan militia forces stand guard at an outpost as they patrol against the Taleban fighters in of the districts that have fallen were low-hanging However, many of his team, who have spent years the Tange Farkhar area of Taloqan in northern Takhar province yesterday. —AFP fruit - remotely positioned and difficult to resupply living abroad, are accused of being out of touch or reinforce, with little strategic military value,” said with the complex fabric of Afghan society. Still, a foreign intelligence agencies to secure cash and insurgents either participate in or lead. Islamabad’s Andrew Watkins, a senior analyst on Afghanistan recent trip to the White House saw Ghani secure weapons in exchange for on the ground reconnais- major goal will focus on preventing archrival India for the International Crisis Group. promises of billions of dollars in security and sance. New strongmen among Afghanistan’s ethnic from establishing any influence and posing a threat humanitarian assistance. minorities have also begun arming and training to its western border. The Taleban recruits, which may further inflame the country’s Iran is also hedging its bets. After nearly going to Never has the jihadist movement appeared so The warlords deep ethnic and sectarian divisions. war with the Taleban in the 1990s, Tehran has engi- strong since being toppled by US forces two Afghanistan’s warlords may be waiting to make a neered considerable clout over at least one major decades ago. The group has executed a successful comeback as the country’s security forces increas- Regional countries faction within the group. It also retains links with string of offensives across Afghanistan, capturing ingly look to militia groups to bolster their depleted A new front in the region’s great game is opening warlords who fought the Taleban during the coun- fully or partially about 100 out of more than 400 ranks. As the Taleban battered their way through with neighboring countries looking to influence try’s civil war. “Some in Iran and Pakistan might cer- districts at a dizzying rate since early May. The the north in June, a call for national mobilization was momentum on the ground in Afghanistan while also tainly wish their favorites to get a bigger portion of international community blames the Taleban for sounded, with thousands taking up arms in scenes courting the conflict’s likely winners. Pakistan has the pie,” said Asad Durrani, the former head of stalling landmark peace talks with the Afghan gov- reminiscent of the 1990s civil war. Militia leaders backed the Taleban for decades and may finally be Pakistan’s formidable spy agency. “I doubt if the ernment in Doha. Instead of a political settlement, may attempt to leverage their past contacts with able to cash its chips in a future government the Taleban will let them have their way.” — AFP Afghan forces vow to retake News in brief districts lost to Taleban 6 kids arrested for ‘bomb plot’ KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghan they intend to focus on securing HONG KONG: Six secondary school children authorities yesterday vowed to retake major cities, roads and border towns were among nine Hong Kongers arrested on ter- all the districts lost to the Taleban and in the face of the Taleban onslaught, ror charges for allegedly trying to manufacture a deployed hundreds of commandos to launched as US and NATO troops powerful explosive, police announced yesterday. counter the insurgents’ blistering pressed ahead with their final with- Five males and four females aged between 15 offensive in the north, a day after drawal in early May. The militants’ and 39 were arrested Monday on suspicion of more than 1,000 government troops rapid gains have spurred fears that “conspiracy to use explosives for terrorist activ- fled into neighboring Tajikistan. Afghan forces are facing a spiraling ities”, police said. “The operation we conducted Fighting has raged across several crisis, particularly now that vital US yesterday was against gangsters (who) tried to provinces, but the insurgents have air support has been massively cur- manufacture TATP explosive inside a home- primarily focused on a devastating tailed by the handover of Bagram made laboratory inside a hostel,” senior super- campaign across the northern coun- Air Base. intendent Steve Li, from the city’s new national tryside, seizing dozens of districts in security unit, told reporters. TATP is a high- the past two months. Last week, all Afghan forces flee BAGRAM, Afghanistan: An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier take a selfie with his powered explosive. Police said the nine people US and NATO forces left Bagram Air Mohib acknowledged that the mobile phone inside the Bagram US air base after all US and NATO troops left, some belonged to a pro-independence group that Base near Kabul-the command center Afghan air force was stretched and 70 Kms north of Kabul. —AFP called itself “Returning Valiant”. —AFP for anti-Taleban operations-effective- largely unable to support bases that ly wrapping up their exit after 20 were in remote districts. But he said frontier with its own soldiers. Several forced Moscow to close its consulate years of military involvement that the air force was now being reorgan- hundred Afghan troops had already in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the capi- Philippines retrieves black boxes began in the wake of the September ized and would offer the needed crossed into Tajikistan in recent tal of Balkh province and one of 11 attacks. backup to troops on the ground. “We weeks, in the face of an advancing Afghanistan’s largest urban centres MANILA: Philippine security forces have “There is war, there is pressure. had some glitches as a result of the Taleban. Tajik President Emomali near the border with Uzbekistan. retrieved the cockpit voice and flight data Sometimes things are working our (US) retrograde... (that put) additional Rakhmon has ordered “the mobiliza- “The situation is changing rapidly. recorders of a military aircraft that crashed in a way. Sometimes they don’t, but we pressure on the Afghan air force, he tion of 20,000 reserve troops to fur- The Afghan forces, as they say, have coconut grove and killed 53 people, a top com- will continue to defend the Afghan said. “Next week we will receive sev- ther strengthen the border between abandoned too many districts. This mander said yesterday. The C-130 Hercules people,” National Security Adviser en Black Hawks” as part of Tajikistan and Afghanistan”, a state- logically creates nervousness,” transport plane was carrying 96 people, mostly Hamdullah Mohib told reporters. “We Washington’s continued support of ment from the presidency said late Moscow’s envoy to Afghanistan Zamir fresh army graduates, when it overshot the run- have plans to retake the districts,” he Afghan forces, he said. on Monday. Kabulov told the state-run TASS way on Sunday while trying to land on Jolo added. Troops and pro-government President Ashraf Ghani blamed the “We had to abandon our base news agency on Monday. Mohib said island in the southern Sulu province. Witnesses militiamen were deployed in the Taleban for all the “bloodshed and because there was no coordination or the soldiers who fled were returning and survivors told investigators the plane landed northern provinces of Takhar and destruction”, adding that his govern- interest among our commanders to and rejoining the security forces. “hard” and then bounced twice before taking off Badakshan where the Taleban has ment will not “surrender” to the mili- counter the attack,” said Mohammad “They may have abandoned their again, said Lieutenant General Corleto Vinluan, captured large swathes of territory at tants, a palace statement said. On Musa, a soldier who had fled to posts because they ran out of ammu- chief of the Western Mindanao Command. lightning speed, often with little Monday, more than 1,000 Afghan Tajikistan after his base in Kunduz nition or they ran out of supplies, but “Then at the right side of the airport it hit a resistance. troops fled into Tajikistan, forcing the province fell to the Taleban last week. by no means has anyone defected to tree-that’s the account of the injured,” Vinluan Afghan defense officials have said neighboring country to bolster the The fighting in the north has also the Taleban,” he said. —AFP told AFP. —AFP

Afghan troops Academic charged with spying BERLIN: A German political scientist has been struggle to replace charged with spying for China by exploiting high-level official contacts made via his position Americans at key base as the head of a think tank, federal prosecutors said yesterday. The accused, identified only as BAGRAM, Afghanistan: After American troops Klaus L., is suspected of “regularly passing on withdrew without notifying them, Afghan soldiers information to Chinese intelligence ahead of or guarding the Bagram Air Base have been left with after state visits or multinational conferences” thousands of Taleban prisoners and a certainty that between 2010 and 2019. Klaus L. had been run- the enemy will attack. The sprawling military com- ning a political think tank since 2001, gaining plex was at one point home to tens of thousands of international importance due to his scientific US and allied soldiers, and one of the most impor- reputation and networks he had built up over tant sites to prosecute the two-decade war in many years, the prosecutors said. He was MUMBAI: People hold posters outside the church holding memorial mass for the Indian rights activist and Jesuit Afghanistan. But the last of the American soldiers approached by members of a Chinese intelli- priest Father Stan Swamy, in Mumbai yesterday. —AFP quietly left the base last week, effectively complet- gence service during a lecture tour to Shanghai ing their withdrawal from Afghanistan and leaving a in June 2010, they said. —AFP in Geneva. Swamy was denied bail despite suffering massive security vacuum that the Afghan military UN ‘disturbed’ by from Parkinson’s disease and other ailments. He was will struggle to fill. admitted to hospital in May with coronavirus and The new commander of the Bagram base, Suu Kyi vaccinated suffered a cardiac arrest over the weekend. The General Mirassadullah Kohistani, on Monday spoke death in jail of priest had been detained under the Unlawful candidly about the challenges ahead, as reporters NAYPYIDAW: Ousted Myanmar leader Aung Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), which effectively were given a tour of the largely deserted base. “You San Suu Kyi and her personal staff have been Indian priest allows people to be held without trial indefinitely. know, if we compare ourselves with the Americans, fully vaccinated against COVID-19 since being Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s govern- it’s a big difference,” Kohistani said, admitting his taken into military custody, her lawyer said GENEVA, Switzerland: The United Nations said ment has made use of the law to have campaigners, forces could not be as “powerful” as the Americans. Tuesday, as the country battles a spike in cas- yesterday it was deeply disturbed by the death in journalists, students and others arrested, in what “But according to our capabilities... we are trying to es. Suu Kyi has been all but invisible since pre-trial detention of Father Stan Swamy, an 84- critics say is an attempt to silence dissent. “High do the best and as much as possible secure and being detained by the military in February, year-old Indian rights activist and Jesuit priest. Commissioner Michelle Bachelet and the UN’s serve all the people.” with a handful of court appearances in a spe- Swamy, who was detained for nine months without independent experts have repeatedly raised the The lack of a clear handover or transition plan cial court in Naypyidaw her only link to the trial under Indian anti-terror laws, died on Monday cases of Father Stan and 15 other human rights appears to have made the task even more challeng- outside world. Coronavirus infections are ris- ahead of a bail hearing. The priest, who campaigned defenders associated with the same events with ing. Kohistani said he only knew of the foreign ing sharply in Myanmar, with authorities for marginalized tribal communities, was arrested the government of India over the past three years, forces’ exit after they had left. “We did not know of reporting almost three thousand cases last year for allegedly inciting violence between dif- and urged their release from pre-trial detention,” their timeline for departure. They did not tell us Monday, up from around 100 per day in early ferent Indian castes in 2018. said Throssell. “The high commissioner has also when they left.” Just 50 kilometers (30 miles) from June. The impoverished country of 54 million is “We are deeply saddened and disturbed by the raised concerns over the use of the UAPA in rela- Kabul, the base is key to the security of the capital rushing to secure more vaccines after receiv- death of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy,” Liz tion to human rights defenders-a law Father Stan while also providing strategic cover to much of the ing 1.5 million doses from India and 500,000 Throssell, a spokeswoman for the Office of the UN was challenging before Indian courts days before country’s rugged north where the Taleban have from China earlier this year. —AFP High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters he died.” —AFP focused their recent offensives. —AFP Established 1961

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2021

BERLIN: Manufacturing sector keeps Germany on path to recovery. German orders fall on weak demand Industrial orders are closely watched as key indicator of future economic activity

FRANKFURT: German industrial orders fell tries and 9.3 percent from the rest of the world traditional link between industrial orders and pected slide in investor sentiment. sharply in May, hit by weak demand from abroad according to month-on-month data. production”. Concern about the rapid spread of coron- as the pandemic continued to pummel Europe’s Industrial orders are closely watched as a key “Consequently, the industrial rebound could be avirus variants and material shortages in pro- top economy, official data showed yesterday. indicator of future economic activity, especially a bit more erratic than previously anticipated,” he duction weighed on the notoriously volatile Orders were down by 3.7 percent, according to in manufacturing powerhouse Germany. said. “Order books are more than richly filled and index, sending it plunging 16.5 points month on the federal statistics office Destatis, dashing the Germany’s economy shrank in the first quarter as reducing backlogs is a bigger problem for month to 63.3 for July. Analysts surveyed by hopes of analysts polled by Factset who had pen- restrictions were imposed to counter a winter German companies than acquiring new orders.” Factset had been counting on a much higher cilled in a rise of 0.8 percent compared to April. surge in COVID-19 cases. Last week German business confidence rose to score of 75.1 points. However, a year-on-year comparison showed a But ING analyst Carsten Brzeski suggested the a near three-year high in June, buoyed by ZEW President Achim Wambach noted that whopping 54.3 percent increase compared to disappointing May industrial orders data should reopenings and falling coronavirus infection despite the fall of the indicator it was “still at a May 2020, when the economy came to a screech- be taken with a “pinch of salt”. He noted that rates, according to the Munich-based Ifo insti- very high level”. “The financial market experts ing halt during the first wave of the global pan- “ongoing supply chain disruptions, delivery tute’s monthly confidence barometer. But yester- therefore expect the overall economic situation to demic. International orders in May sank particu- delays and lack of materials and intermediate day the ZEW institute’s monthly barometer meas- be extraordinarily positive in the coming six larly sharply, by 2.3 percent from eurozone coun- goods” due to the pandemic have “blurred the uring economic expectations showed an unex- months,” he said. — AFP

new console “is a great option for players who want Nintendo unveils to experience the new vibrant screen when playing in handheld and tabletop mode,” said Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser. new Switch game “With the addition of this new model to the China deepens Nintendo Switch family of systems, people have an console additional choice of a system that best fits the gam- crypto crackdown ing experience they desire.” The Switch, a wildly SAN FRANCISCO: Nintendo yesterday popular handheld game console, was first released announced its updated Switch hand-held game in early 2017 and offers game franchises such as with CB warning console would be available in October, after a Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Animal BEIJING: China’s central bank warned com- pandemic year in which gaming activity surged. Crossing and more. panies yesterday against assisting cryptocur- The new Switch OLED model will feature a larger, The Switch was the top-selling US console in rency-related businesses as it shut down a seven-inch screen and launch at a suggested price 2020, a year that saw record sales of video games, software firm over suspected involvement in of $350 on October 8, the Japanese firm said in a consoles and accessories, according to NPD TOKYO: File photo shows logo of Nintendo is pictured digital currency transactions. Beijing has statement. group, a market research firm. Nintendo reported at its store in Tokyo. Nintendo yesterday announced its turned a sharp eye on cryptocurrency in The device will feature upgraded graphics and its highest ever annual profit in 2020 after virus updated Switch hand-held game console would be recent months as it widens its regulatory memory and include an adjustable stand to allow for lockdowns caused sales of its blockbuster Switch available in October. —AFP play in “tabletop mode” with multiple players. The console to soar. —AFP crackdown on the tech sector. Cryptocurrency trading is banned in China, and authorities have recently closed mines and by depriving Hong Kong businesses and consumers, increasingly rattled by Beijing’s campaign to make warned banks to halt related transactions. Hong Kong leader whilst also creating new barriers to trade,” it added. the city more like the mainland, including its push to Yesterday, a Beijing office of the central bank Asked about the warning yesterday, the city’s dismantle the finance hub’s popular democracy ordered the closure of software company chief executive Carrie Lam dismissed those con- movement. The national security law gave police Beijing Qudao Cultural Development, alleging dismisses Big Tech cerns. “We are targeting illegal doxxing and new powers, including the ability to issue internet it had been involved in providing software empowering the privacy commissioners to investi- takedown notices as well as conduct investigations services for cryptocurrency transactions. privacy law fears gate and carry out operations, that’s it,” she told and freeze the assets of any company deemed a The move was necessary “to prevent and reporters. threat to China. control the risk of speculation in virtual cur- HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s leader yesterday Lam likened the new data privacy powers to a Soon after the law came in, many American and rency transactions, and protect the safety of brushed off a warning by major tech companies national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong other tech firms announced they would suspend the public’s assets”, it said in a statement. The including Google, Facebook and Twitter that they Kong last year to stamp out dissent after huge and processing requests from Hong Kong’s law enforce- bank also warned organisations not to “pro- may quit the financial hub if authorities push ahead often violent democracy protests in 2019. ment agencies. Plans to build an undersea data vide premises, commercial display, advertis- with a new privacy law. Lam said that security law had been “slandered cable between the United States and Hong Kong ing... and other services for cryptocurrency- City authorities have unveiled plans to pass a and defamed”. “It’s the same case for the privacy were also scrapped — and some major internation- related business activities”. new law targeting “doxxing” — the act of publish- law,” she concluded. al firms began moving crucial data off any servers Financial and payment institutions are ing someone’s private details online so they can be based in the city. instructed not to provide cryptocurrency- harassed by others. But the broad wording of the Tech jitters related services to customers. The announce- proposed legislation has spooked major tech com- Lam added that the city’s privacy commission ‘Disproportionate’ ment comes shortly after provinces including panies who fear they could be held liable and their would be happy to meet with tech industry repre- Doxxing become an issue during the political Sichuan, Inner Mongolia and Qinghai shut employees prosecuted for users’ content. sentatives to deal with any anxieties they might unrest of 2019. Democracy supporters used it to down crypto mines-causing miners to look They detailed their concerns in a letter sent to have. But she suggested that her government was post private details about police, judges and offi- abroad-and follows an earlier warning for Hong Kong’s government by the Asia Internet determined to press ahead with fast-tracking the cials. Beijing loyalists also doxxed pro-democracy banks and a payment giant to halt crypto- Coalition which includes tech giants such as new legislation. “Of course, it would be ideal to supporters. In its letter, the Asia Internet Coalition related transactions. Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Apple. relieve this anxiety when we make the legislation. said it was opposed to doxxing and supported find- Last month, bitcoin tumbled after China’s “Introducing sanctions aimed at individuals is But sometimes it needs to be demonstrated via ing ways to tackle the issue. But it warned the legis- mining ban in southwestern Sichuan. China is not aligned with global norms and trends,” the let- implementation,” she said. lation’s current vague wording could curtail “inno- in the middle of a wide-ranging regulatory ter, which was dated 25 June but made public this Authoritarian China monitors and strictly con- cent acts of sharing information online” and place crackdown on its fintech sector, whose biggest week, warned. trols the internet but semi-autonomous Hong Kong tech firms at risk of prosecution for what users players-including Alibaba and Tencent-have “The only way to avoid these sanctions for tech- has fewer restrictions and markets itself as a write. It described the government’s current data been hit with big fines after being accused of nology companies would be to refrain from invest- regional tech centre. privacy plan as a “completely disproportionate and monopolistic practices. —AFP ing and offering their services in Hong Kong, there- Yet international technology firms have been unnecessary response”. —AFP Established 1961 9 Business Wednesday, July 7, 2021 Up to 1,500 businesses hit in Kaseya ransomware attack Cyberattack cripple hundreds of companies worldwide for the past four days

PARIS: Hundreds of Swedish supermar- While Kaseya is little known to the behind Friday’s assault. A post on Happy kets remained shut yesterday after a public, cybersecurity analysts say it was Blog, a site on the dark web associated major cyberattack that has crippled a ripe target as its software is used by with the group, claimed responsibility hundreds of companies worldwide for thousands of companies, allowing the for the attack, saying it had infected the past four days, with the perpetrators hackers to paralyse a huge number of “more than a million systems”. demanding $70 million in bitcoin to businesses with a single blow. Kaseya The hackers demanded $70 million in undo the damage. Kaseya, the Miami- provides IT services to some 40,000 bitcoin in exchange for the publication based IT company at the centre of the businesses globally, some of whom in of an online tool that would decrypt the hack, said late Monday that up to 1,500 turn manage the computer systems of stolen data. While the hackers are businesses had been affected by Friday’s other businesses. thought to have been reaching out to attack, which has been blamed on The hack affected users of its signa- individual victims requesting smaller Russian-speaking hackers. ture VSA software, which is used to payments, the unprecedented demand Experts believe this could be the manage networks of computers and for $70 million has surprised analysts. biggest “ransomware” attack on record- printers. While Kaseya said Monday French cybersecurity expert Robinson an increasingly lucrative form of digital that while less than 60 of its own cus- Delaugerre suggested that REvil could hostage-taking in which hackers encrypt tomers were “directly compromised”, it be treating the Kaseya attack as a final victims’ data and then demand money estimated that up to “1,500 downstream spectacular act before going out of for restored access. The Kaseya attack businesses” had been affected. business. has ricocheted around the world, affect- Kaseya said it was hoping to bring its The group was responsible for ing businesses from pharmacies to gas own servers back online yesterday around 29 percent of ransomware stations in at least 17 countries, as well afternoon between 2:00 pm and 5:00 attacks in 2020, according to IBM’s as dozens of New Zealand kinder- pm Eastern Time, with a software Security X-Force unit, looting an esti- gartens. update released within the following 24 mated $123 million. “Our hypothesis is BREST: File photo shows a close-up view of a computer keyboard. Up to 1,500 busi- Most of Sweden’s 800 Coop super- hours to allow customers to restore their that REvil is going to disappear and this nesses around the world have been affected by a major ransomware attack that has markets were shut for a third day running systems. is its final big act,” he told AFP, predict- shuttered hundreds of Swedish supermarkets. —AFP after the hack paralysed its cash regis- ing that the group-which also goes by ters. “Before the end of the day, the hope Going out with a bang? the name Sodinokibi-could re-emerge cessing giant JBS, which ended up pay- attacks in recent months blamed on is that there will be more open stores REvil, a group of Russian-speaking under a new name. The FBI believes ing $11 million to the hackers. Russia-based hackers, with the Colonial than closed ones,” Coop press officer hackers who are prolific perpetrators of REvil was also behind a ransomware The United States has been a partic- oil pipeline and IT firm SolarWinds Tarik Belqaid told broadcaster SVT. ransomware attacks, are believed to be attack last month on global meat-pro- ular target of high-profile ransomware among the targets. —AFP

That is why we are demonstrating.” enues hit hard by the pandemic, the government Ghana opposition Others waved banners attacking economic hard- has introduced new taxes while an increase in the ship and joblessness, referencing the price of fuel has hiked the cost of some essential #FixTheCountry hashtag that has become a popu- goods and services. In May, citing coronavirus rallies over lar social media protest on Twitter in Ghana. restrictions, police blocked a planned protest, but New Kaspersky Yesterday’s rally was the first major protest by the discontent has simmered. economic woes National Democratic Congress (NDC) since March, Ghana is often praised as a stable democracy in password manager when a top court dismissed the opposition party’s volatile West Africa and observers viewed the ACCRA: Ghana’s opposition supporters marched in challenge to Akufo-Addo’s re-election victory late December election as generally free and fair. But aspersky Password Manager Accra yesterday, rallying against President Nana last year. the vote heightened political tensions. has implemented several Akufo-Addo’s handling of the economy and Akufo-Addo won a second term but gained only The NDC has described both the presidential Kimprovements across all plat- demanding justice after two protesters were shot a small majority in parliament. He has since been and parliamentary election as flawed and amount- forms and enhanced control over pass- dead last month. under pressure from political opponents as Ghana ing to an “attack” on democracy. In March, the word strength. The version on Chanting and waving banners with slogans struggles with economic woes amplified by the Supreme Court dismissed a bid by the runner-up, Windows has become more convenient “Everybody is Suffering, Fix the country” and coronavirus pandemic. Two protesters were shot the NDC’s John Mahama, who had asked for a and transparent: new features will allow “Ghanians are Dying, Akufo-Addo Wake Up!”, sev- dead and four were wounded in clashes with secu- rerun of the December 7 vote. customers to monitor the status and eral thousand protesters marched peacefully in the rity forces in the southern region of Ashanti last Akufo-Addo, the champion of the New Patriotic security of all passwords. The option that allows the scanning Ghanian capital. “The police is filled with tyrants month, in rallies over the death of youth activist Party (NPP), won 51.59 percent of the ballot ahead of multi-page documents is now available for iOS users. The Android version received support for 10 browsers as well as and vigilante groups,” Alisu Ibrahim, a protest Ibrahim “Kaaka” Mohammed. of Mahama, with 47.36 percent, according to offi- for Huawei devices. Burdened with growing public debt and its rev- cial figures. —AFP organiser said. “They have been killing our people. Passwords are the keys to our accounts, personal data and all our activities in the digital space. They are also the barrier between our personal data and attackers who are decision will not only power Ellesmere Port into a tery electric vehicles will go towards achieving the trying to steal it. An effective way to protect personal infor- Stellantis keeps UK clean future, but will secure thousands of jobs UK government’s decision to stop sales of pure mation is to create strong and unique passwords for each across the region in the supply chain,” said UK petrol and diesel engined vehicles from 2030”. Car account. However, it is extremely difficult to remember this Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng. manufacturers are rapidly shifting away from vehi- amount of data, and it is unsafe to write down all the cre- plant to produce Stellantis became the world’s fourth biggest car- cles that run on petrol and diesel, as governments dentials on paper or in notes on a smartphone. All of this is maker by volume after marrying PSA brands Peugeot ramp up efforts to meet net zero carbon emissions driving the growth of password managers. electric vehicles and Citroen with Fiat, Chrysler, Jeep, Maserati and by 2050. others. Vauxhall, along with Opel, became part of “In this global race to secure electric vehicle Improvements for Windows To make the Kaspersky Password Manager user experi- LONDON: European carmaker Stellantis yesterday PSA in 2017 after it purchased General Motors’ production, we are proud to support Britain’s auto European subsidiary. From next year, the Ellesmere sector,” Kwarteng added. Stellantis yesterday said it ence easier, clearer, and more transparent on Windows, said it was keeping its Vauxhall plant in northern Kaspersky implemented several significant improvements. Port plant will produce an electric van and car for was looking at Ellesmere Port becoming carbon England, which will become the group’s first factory The new dashboard is filled with easy navigation tabs, real- to produce a solely battery-electric vehicle. It is each of the Citroen, Opel, Peugeot and Vauxhall neutral by 2025. time password security, and actionable advice. Navigation pumping £100 million ($138 million, 117 million brands for sale in the UK and abroad. Thanks also to UK government investment, through the vaultwas also improved, with “recent” and euros) into the facility, with help from the UK gov- A separate Vauxhall factory in Luton, near Japanese carmaker Nissan last week unveiled plans “favorite” tabs added in order to help users keep their ernment, Stellantis announced in a statement. London, is reportedly operating at full capacity to to build a vast battery gigafactory in northeastern most-needed entries at hand. Stellantis, which was created in January via the produce light commercial vehicles. “Producing bat- England, where it will also manufacture a new elec- merger of French giant PSA and Italian carmaker tery electric vehicles... (at Ellesmere) will support tric vehicle. The battery plant, which will power up Updated navigation through the vault Fiat, has been mulling the future of Vauxhall’s clean, safe and affordable mobility,” said Stellantis to 100,000 Nissan electric vehicles annually, is seen Managing password security became easier: the app Ellesmere Port plant on the northwest English coast, chief executive Carlos Tavares. as key to its transition away from high-polluting now groups passwords in accordance to their strength with which employs more than 1,000 staff. “Today’s The company added that its “dedication to bat- fossil fuel vehicles. —AFP easy-to-use status icons. Also, the new feature, “Password security status bar” will help users to track their password security in real-time. Moreover, the new option, ‘Fill in apps’ MateBook D15 to project the screen of the tablet onto allows users to set up hotkey combinations to get quick HUAWEI MatePad 11: your laptop and enable seamless cross-device file sharing access to their Kaspersky Password Manager entries as with simple a drag and drop. The laptop can be connected well as be able to search for the necessary passwords. with a USB-C cable to the HUAWEI MateView and use Updated password security status bar The latest and the mouse and keyboard to easily navigate and work right Updated Password Check on the HUAWEI MateView’s larger screen. Mac updates The HUAWEI MatePad 11 also supports the new Mac users now can use Kaspersky Password Manager on greatest tablets Tablet-PC Multi-screen Collaboration capabilities which new Macs on Apple M1. The app was also optimized for contains three modes; Mirror Mode, Extend Mode and KUWAIT: Have you ever tried working on a laptop in bed more devices that use the Apple Silicon CPU. The updated Collaborate Mode. In Mirror Mode, your laptop’s screen is or on the bus? Or carrying it on your back while hiking version also got a more polished and user-friendly appear- mirrored to your tablet display, allowing you to directly because you know you will have to work at the end of the ance. Safari users can now copy their card numbers, address- work on files and documents, or draw/sketch on your lap- hike? How about writing a lengthy email on your phone? es, and login data directly from the browser extension. top with the stylus of the HUAWEI MatePad 11 just as pro- While both of these devices are great at what they do, fessional designers would. 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The new HUAWEI MatePad 11 is compatible with tions, giving you peace of mind that your eyesight is pro- In designing the tablet, Huawei sought for a clean, sim- the most sought-after things by cybercriminals, because it the HUAWEI M-Pencil (2nd generation), the Huawei sty- tected, even after working on the tablet for hours. ple and unobstructed display that lets you focus better on allows access to personal data. At the same time, the grow- lus that has been upgraded to better help you capture Super Device capabilities to Switch between wired and the task at hand. The latest tablet features a 10.95-inch, ing list of online services requiring authorization increases your inspiration. The HUAWEI M-Pencil (2nd generation) wireless connection as well as between work and personal 16:10 ultra-wide display, 86% screen-to-body ratio and the risks for consumers: banks, shops, accounts in online features a new platinum-coated pen nib, an ultra-low mode The new HUAWEI MatePad 11 Leverages the revolu- 7nm slim bezels. This not only provides a more balanced games, training courses, social networks, etc. To help con- latency and support for 4,096 levels of pressure sensitiv- tionary distributed technologies to pool resources from a look, but also naturally directs your attention to the con- sumers manage this smoothly and securely, there are tools ity. In addition, it supports a breadth of innovative inter- number of different devices such as laptop and monitor and tent on display. like our Password Manager. 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Double-tap to switchbetween the current tool and the wirelessly through Huawei Share with the HUAWEI ing it our top pick for 2021 tablets in Kuwait right now! 10 Established 1961 Business Wednesday, July 7, 2021 Ocado logs more losses despite pandemic sales boom More people switch to online grocery deliveries

LONDON: British online food retailer Ocado yester- The company has ramped up investment in highly day said first-half net losses deepened on heavy automated customer fulfilment centres, as more people investment made to help meet booming demand during switch to online grocery deliveries. “As we head the pandemic. Losses after tax hit £77.8 million ($108 towards a post COVID-19 future, it is increasingly million, 91 million euros) in the first half of its financial clear that the landscape for grocery worldwide has year or six months to May, Ocado said in a results changed, for good,” said chief executive Tim Steiner. statement. That was worse than the £57.4 million loss “Over the last eighteen months, we have shown that posted in the same period of 2020, when the COVID- the Ocado model works even in the most challenging 19 crisis erupted and sparked heightened demand for and fluid of environments. “That ours is a proven mod- online food supplies. However, Ocado added that earn- el in online grocery has been again demonstrated by ings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisa- the strong performance of Ocado Retail, the historic tion (EBITDA) more than tripled to £61 million in the core of the Ocado business, which has led the market first half. in customer experience, increasing sales by 20 percent And sales surged 21.4 percent to £1.3 billion in the in the period, thanks to a significant increase in cus- reporting period, despite the easing of coronavirus tomer numbers, while continuing to show sustainable curbs in England since March. Ocado sells food via its and industry-leading profitable growth.” app and website under a tie-up with traditional high- Ocado has signed a deal with Auchan to help devel- street retailer Marks & Spencer, and also sells its tech- op online activities of the French giant’s Spanish divi- nology to supermarket firms around the world. sion Alcampo, it added. — AFP

ers amounted to $4.85 trillion, a 4.4 percent composite LuLu Hypermarket year-over-year retail revenue growth. The report also highlights some of the key impacts of COVID-19 on leading global retailers, including essential versus non- named among global essential retail, reduced demand, enforced store clo- sure, travel bans and other preventive measures intro- retail powers duced by governments. On the other hand, online retailers have benefited from increased consumer aver- sion to in-store shopping due to the pandemic crisis. KUWAIT: LuLu Hypermarket, the leading retailer in However, leading retailers were able to capitalize on the region, has been named among the most powerful the new consumer opportunities presented by the retailers in the world. The latest ‘Global Power of pandemic, particularly online shopping and delivery Retailing 2021’ list by international consultancy firm, and were able to continue trading from their stores. Deloitte, which ranks the world’s 250 most powerful Since the start of the pandemic, LuLu Group has retailers, includes UAE-based retail giant, LuLu opened 26 new hypermarkets and supermarkets, Hypermarket. including four e-commerce fulfillment centers across LuLu Group, which operates hypermarkets and the region. superstores across 10 countries, posted $7.4 billion Commenting on the Group’s immediate future plans, revenues in the financial year ending 2019, achieving a Chairman of Lulu Group, Yusuffali MA, said: “No compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5 percent. doubt, these are very challenging times and we had to The Group has 210 retail outlets across the six-nation delay our expansion plans last year due to lock-downs Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, as well as in and COVID-19 restrictions, but now we are fully back Egypt, India, Indonesia and Malaysia. on track to open 30 new hypermarkets and 10 e-com- The ‘Global Power of Retailing 2021’ list is led by US merce fulfillment centers in the GCC, Egypt and Far- giants, with Wal-Mart Stores at No.1 followed by East by the end of this year. The upcoming Dubai Amazon, Costco Wholesale Corp., Schwarz Group, and LIVERPOOL: File photo taken on February 10, 2019 shows a delivery driver returning empty crates to his Ocado delivery EXPO 2020 coupled with a fast-improving health and The Kroger Co. among others. The total aggregate van after supplying to a residential address near Liverpool in north west England. — AFP safety situation is sure to boost the market sentiments retail revenue generated by the world’s top 250 retail- sooner rather than later.”

o one expected a global pan- important than ever. This unprece- Ndemic to hit the world last dented global crisis makes us col- March to re-write how we get laborate more, be more creative information, how we entertain and and find new ways to transform our how we connect and do business. industry for the better. The keep Building a strong social professional changing consumer habits, techni- network as a human capital has nev- cal developments and regulatory er been more important than in frameworks bring continuous chal- extraordinary times of a global crisis, lenges and make thought leader- regulatory storm, fundamental mar- ship crucial.” ket changes and shrinking profes- She added: ‘We at IAA have the sional networks. power of the most influential brands The White report Global Limited and have the knowledge to share it board was ahead of the curve last widely - with more corporations, January when they decided to devel- SMEs and students globally, so they op Mediaspace.global, the profes- can use the power of creativity, sional social network for the media, advertising and communication to marketing, tech and regulation indus- grow. On this mission collaborating try. Since the beta launch in May with Mediaspace brings mutual bene- 2020, early adopters have joined fits to reaching out to more decision Mediaspace.global from 60+ coun- come from gave us the idea and the own online event series in Director based in New York and her makers and engage with them, while tries across the globe, hundreds of opportunity to start talking also to September - ‘Regulation Meets global team in Autumn 2020. Since also involving the next generation of members attended Mediaspace’s regionally operating professional Market & Innovation’. then, they launched a co-branded professionals.’ interactive online events and 100+ communities who want to look The goal of the platform is to “privacy law: need-to-know videos Walid Kanafani, Founder of leaders, innovators and professional beyond their current circles. Let’s break professional bubbles and for practitioners in 10 minutes”, held Beyond Consulting Services and influencers have shared their knowl- admit that until now our industry has support collaboration, knowledge common networking events online, Chapter Leader at the International edge and inspiration so far on the been operating in quite a physical sharing, business networking, as amongst other activities. Advertising Association is a well-con- exclusive Mediaspace Members’ manner and circles - it’s time to build well as to help professionals and This partnership brings both par- nected leader in the Middle East’s Daily series. a global B2B space and Mediaspace businesses find new opportunities ties a greater influence to help tackle media and ad industry, who started Mediaspace.global celebrated its is going to lead the way.” on a truly global market in the era of the global crisis and industry chal- to discuss collaboration opportunities first anniversary by holding a global Mediaspace provides an inde- social distancing. lenges by the power of brands, com- with Mediaspace Founder, Kinga online networking event last month. pendent social platform, as well as Mediaspace have found a strate- munication, professional networking, Incze around the 1st anniversary Mediaspace Founder, Kinga Incze Members’ Daily Video interviews, gic partner in the global collaboration and innovation. after actively participating at network- said: ‘It’s amazing how global the proprietary business intelligence International Advertising Dagmara Szulce, Managing Director ing and knowledge sharing events. professional space has become with- services, curated news and market Association. The collaboration start- of IAA said: ‘The role of communica- Walid said: “I believe Mediaspace in a year due to the shift to digital. insights. Mediaspace started their ed with Dagmara Szulce, Managing tion and so the role of IAA is more can bring new business and profes- The 60+ countries our members sional collaboration opportunities for our region in the media, marketing, tech and regulatory space, as well as industry solution exchanges because a lot is happening everywhere. When Kinga mentioned Mediaspace began to think about connecting profession- als among regions as everyone has something valuable to share or sell to other regions, I fully supported the idea as I see the potential in it for all parties. I encourage everyone to sign up to Mediaspace.global, connect, join net- working and interactive professional events and benefit from this growing global opportunity.” Established 1961 11 Wednesday, July 7, 2021 Business Al-Sayer car rental opens new head office, service center Strategic expansion towards delivering better and quicker customer service

Inauguration New Car Rental at Ahmadi

KUWAIT: Committed to exceeding customer Growth of Al-Sayer Car customers specially from the oil sector, with a total Rental & Leasing Company.” expectations and as part of the strategic Rental - 45 years of Heritage built-up area of 15,000 sqm, the new Al-Sayer Car We realized the companies working with the oil sec- expansion of the group towards delivering Mubarak Naser Al Sayer commented “We thank all Rental building will feature: tor have some special requirements such as quick serv- quicker service to the growing business sector our customers for choosing us. Since establishing the l Office spaces for General Management and Sales ice as they do not have the luxury to keep the vehicles in the governorate, Al-Sayer Group Holding Company in 1976, Al-Sayer Car Rental has grown to one operations for maintenance service for a long time because of the has opened a brand-new building for head of the leading companies with high reputation of excel- l State-of-the-art quick service facility with a pro- Gate Pass issues related to the entry to many vital office, sales operations and service center in lent service and customer care for more than 45 years in vision of 20 vehicles at a time and up to 100 vehicles installations in the Oil sector. Today by opening of this Ahmadi. Kuwait. While the division grew and the fleet size per day facility, we solved that problem as well” added Jacob The opening ceremony which was held in increased, it was a major challenge to cater the require- l Highly trained and qualified technicians as per Varghese. full compliance with COVID-19 protocols and ments of customers only from our main location in Toyota standards Ministry of Health guidelines, was attended by Ardiya. Therefore, we took a strategic decision to l Premium customer lounge for men and women as Sustainable Solutions Faisal Bader Al Sayer Chairman, Mubarak expand our operations in Ahmadi. I also thank Car per COVID-19 protocol In addition to the above the new building also fea- Naser Al Sayer CEO, Jacob Varghese Senior Rental team for their dedication and hard work and wish l Spacious outdoor car parking for customers and tures sustainable environment friendly solutions such as: General Manager for Al-Sayer Car Rental, them best results with the opening of this new facility”. visitors l Full compliance to COVID protocols Sebastian Thomas Deputy General Manager Al-Sayer Car Rental offers long term leasing and l Basement levels for safe parking up to 250 new l Large glass panels to utilize natural day light and Operations, Basem Hathat Senior Sales spot rental services across extensive range of vehicles vehicles. minimize energy consumption. Manager, members from sales and service team including Toyota, Lexus, Hino Trucks and Ashok According to Jacob Varghese “As we are the author- l Entire facility illuminated with latest technology along with distinguished guests from various Leyland buses. At Ahmadi, customers will benefit from ized distributors of Toyota, Lexus, Hino, and Ashok LED light fittings, ensuring minimum energy con- government ministerial departments and valued outstanding service supported by 100 team members Leyland in Kuwait, we became the only car rental com- sumption. business partners. including senior management, sales management, oper- pany providing scheduled preventive maintenance l Water saving sensor taps throughout the location. Faisal Bader Al Sayer welcomed the distin- ations management, service team. service as per manufacturer standard along with the l Safe methods adopted to dispose waste oil. guished guests to the opening ceremony and best post-rental customer support in Kuwait. This is one l Advanced technology during the construction in conveyed his gratitude for their patronage on New Car Rental Head Office - We Care of the major factors attracted several foreign companies terms of execution methods, high standards of the fin- behalf of the Al-Sayer Board of Directors. Offering better convenience for B2C as well as B2B having subcontract with Oil Sector to Al-Sayer Car ishing materials.

Customer Reception

VIP female lounge VIP male lounge 12 Established 1961 Lifestyle Cannes Film Festival Wednesday, July 7, 2021

(From left) US actor Adam Driver, US actor Simon Helberg, Us music composer and member of the (From left) French producer Charles Gillibert, French director Leos Carax, Us music composer and member of the Sparks Ron Mael, Sparks Russell Mael, French actress Marion Cotillard and Us music composer and member of the French actress Marion Cotillard, Us music composer and member of the Sparks Russell Mael, US actor Adam Driver and US actor Simon Sparks Ron Mael pose during a photocall for the film “Annette” at the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Helberg pose during a photocall for the film ‘Annette’ at the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. Festival in Cannes, southern France. — AFP photos

nnette”, the musical brainchild out the screening while “playing with sta- Us” in 1974. not an issue, said Driver: “The singing “Aof enigmatic director Leos plers” and making phone calls. Describing And some 25 albums later, they still was secondary to what our intentions Carax and geeky pop duo his usual technique, he said “then I go have an uncanny knack for coupling musi- were.” Night-time Los Angeles is the Sparks, opened Cannes yesterday, with back, and when the lights come up, I cal elegance with tonal weirdness and backdrop for the action, with a vintage- lead Adam Driver telling AFP he will stand up I pretend that I was there the unusual lyrics, resulting in a wealth of style motorcycle as Carax’s prop of sneak off during the screening to avoid whole time.” If that stunt points to a touch catchy pieces. “Annette” was their idea, choice, apart from a puppet that plays a seeing himself act. Driver, best-known for of eccentricity, Driver is in good company. which they brought to Carax after meeting very central role in the story. his roles in TV show “Girls” and the Star Strangeness is the stock in trade of him at Cannes at 2013. They feared that Cotillard said the film is about “the Wars franchise, features alongside French director Carax, who was once his intermittent engagement might mean need for recognition, about how we are France’s Marion Cotillard in a rollercoast- called a sadist by actor and ex-girlfriend that film would never see the light of day affected by the strong need to be looked er production tracing the rise and fall of a Juliette Binoche. Ever since bursting on but “we kept the faith and Leos stayed at, listened to and loved.” But Driver said celebrity couple. It’s a film that brings US actor Adam Driver (left) and French the international scene with his “The focused on the project”, Ron Mael told Carax stayed mum about its meaning: together the supremely gifted and the actress Marion Cotillard pose during a pho- Lovers on the Bridge”, he has had film AFP. The result is a rock opera with musi- “We never talked about any of the themes socially awkward as the stars sing their tocall for the film “Annette” at the 74th edi- lovers debating whether he is the best cal styles ranging from danceable electro of the movie.” “Annette” is the first of 24 way through a story that began as an idea tion of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, French filmmaker in generations, or just to classically inspired lyrical passages. films vying for the Palme d’Or, the festi- by Ron and Russell Mael, the eccentric southern France. an oddball. Adam Driver has picked his The stars do most of their own singing val’s top prize. — AFP Los Angeles pop duo Sparks. side: “He’s one of the best directors of all which, Cotillard told AFP, required “a But as an eager crowd climbs the is to go in and when the lights go down, I time,” he said. Meanwhile, the Mael broth- major preparation effort in a very limited Cannes steps on opening night for the run,” Driver, who has a history of avoiding ers have had dibs on eccentricity in pop time”, adding that “music is a strong vec- first major post-pandemic film festival, one watching his own films, told AFP. He said ever since topping the charts with “This tor of emotion”. man will be heading for the exit. “My plan he would try to find an empty office and sit Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Neither is a trained singer, but that was

mantlepiece full of Academy Awards. Carax was just 30 when “Lovers” came Leos Carax: out but he had already been hailed as the new Godard-displaying similar stylistic Tormented talent brilliance and baffling storylines. ‘Films for dead people’ opens Cannes It also helped that like the French New Wave master, Carax is never without his dark shades. “In my films there is no fear with latest oddity of ridicule,” he declared. “You make films for dead people, but you show them to the living,” he added, equally enigmatical- etflix and the other streaming giants eos Carax, whose rock opera ly. There was more than enough promise Nhave yet to discover one great “Annette” opens the Cannes film fes- in his first features “Boy Meets Girl” in director, the head of the Cannes L film festival said Monday. Thierry tival on Tuesday, has never been 1984 and “The Night is Young” two years afraid of freaking people out. It’s a typical- later to justify the hype. Not that Carax Fremaux threw petrol on the simmering ly idiosyncratic Carax tale, with a singing has ever gone for easy hits nor mass feud between the French festival-the Adam Driver as the stand-up comic father appeal-which was just as well. world’s biggest-and the US platform when of a toddler with a weird gift. Marion After the furore over “Lovers on the he challenged reporters to “name me a Festival staff roll the red carpet as the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival kicks off in Cotillard plays her world-famous soprano Bridge”, he took nearly a decade to make director who has been discovered by a southern France, yesterday. — AFP mother. Strangeness has been Carax’s “Pola X”, a steamy tale about a young platform” on the eve of Cannes’ opening. stock and trade since he burst onto the novelist who dates his sister starring “Not yet, even after 10 years...” Fremaux international scene 30 years ago with Russian actress Yekaterina Golubeva, added archly as journalists struggled to “The Lovers on the Bridge”, a financial Carax’s partner at the time. But “Pola X” come up with a name. Netflix has effec- calamity that became a cult classic. His was a flop and it would be another 13 tively boycotted Cannes since 2018 after leading man Denis Lavant was badly years before Carax managed to make being told it had to show its films on the big screen in France if it wanted them to injured on the set and did not speak to the another film. During this hiatus, Carax left he famed Cannes Film Festival The film is Carax’s first since “Holy compete for its Palme d’Or top prize. director again for 15 years. France for New York, and faced a horrific opened yesterday, and despite Motors” nine years ago, which also com- series of personal and professional set- T While Fremaux praised Netflix-which social distancing subduing some of peted at Cannes. began streaming in 2007 — for their backs that would have sunk others. In its signature glamour, excitement is rife It tells the story of a celebrity couple “extraordinary work”, he was quick to turn 2011 Golubeva, who suffered from for the first fully fledged film festival since and their mysterious child, the titular the knife in his defense of the magic of depression, committed suicide at 44, the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Annette. Cotillard told AFP that after the big screen. “We just celebrated the leaving Carax to raise their six-year-old Last year’s edition was cancelled over the months of pandemic-induced confine- 125th anniversary of the invention of cine- daughter. health crisis, and although stars will be ment, the tragic love story “invites the ma. Let us see if in 100 years we will cel- He dedicated his next film “Holy allowed to go maskless on the red carpet spectators to come and be transported, to ebrate the birthday of the platforms. “I Motors” to the actress. Released in 2012 this year, a health pass is required for be present at a great spectacle”. Her co- don’t think Netflix or the others can skip it was an unexpected hit with audiences, entrance and many of the glitzy after-par- star Driver famously hates watching him- the Cannes film festival,” he warned. “You and Lavant-finally reconciled with the ties that are the festival’s calling card self on screen, and said this film will be no will see the names of the future in our director-won the Cesar, a French Oscar, have been postponed because of distanc- exception. When the lights go out, he said line-up...,” he added. “That is why the dia- for best actor. But what the film was actu- ing measures. “COVID is still there, but he will flee to an office until it is finished. “I logue must be opened.” Relations ally about was anyone’s guess. It follows being here for the return of the festival, in sit there playing with a stapler or some French actress Marion Cotillard (left) and between Cannes and the Californian tech actor-for-hire Mr Oscar-another wink to the opening film... it’s a huge sense of scotchtape and come back when the French director Leos Carax pose during a giant began to turn sour in 2017 after Carax’s alter ego, as well as a jab at relief and excitement,” US actor Adam lights are back on,” he smiled. “And I act photocall for the film “Annette” at the 74th French cinema owners protested over the Hollywood-who takes us into a weird Driver told AFP. as if I’d been there the whole time!” edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, inclusion of two of the streamer’s movies world of talking limousines. “The film is Driver co-stars with French actor southern France, yesterday. — AFP in the main competition. simple if you accept to not know where Marion Cotillard in the opening night film, ‘Packs a punch’ you are going,” Carax said. “A child that “Annette”, a musical directed by cult This year, 24 films will compete for the Co-star Juliette Binoche-who had sees the film has no problem (under- favorite Leos Carax. Members of the jury- festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or. once dated Carax-accused him of being standing it).” headed for the first time by a black man, Festival director Thierry Fremaux has a sadist. The gaunt, dishevelled Carax US director Spike Lee-arrived Monday promised that the line-up “packs a Rock opera put the pair through hell, forcing them to night and will gave their traditional press punch”. The directors vying for glory hang around and drink with homeless Kylie Minogue singing “Who Were conference yesterday afternoon after- include such perennial Cannes favorites people to get into character as tramps. We?”-which Carax wrote for the sound- noon, before embarking on their 24-film as Italy’s Nanni Moretti with his new film track of “Holy Motors”-would foreshadow marathon. The festival palace-a squat, “Tre Piani,” France’s Jacques Audiard Bridge too far his latest feature, a musical. “Annette” is concrete construction dubbed “the (“Les Olympiades”) and Thailand’s master The baroque story of penniless lovers the story of a glamorous couple, a come- bunker”-is draped in a poster featuring of the slow burn, Apichatpong living on some of Paris’ grandest streets dian and an opera singer, who have a Lee, in oversize spectacles, peering Weerasethakul, with his English-language quickly ran into problems, not least very gifted child. Nearly all the dialogue in French-Senegalese director and Jury member between two palm trees. debut (“Memoria”). of the Official Selection Mati Diop (left) and because it was to be shot on the famous the film is sung, with Driver and Cotillard His jury this year has a female majority, Other contenders include Sean Penn, Pont Neuf bridge. When that proved a using their real voices, and the music Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux including US actor Maggie Gyllenhaal, whose Africa-based humanitarian love stand on the balcony of the Martinez Hotel on nightmare, an expensively-built set recre- written by the American indie band Canadian-French singer Mylene Farmer story “The Last Face” bombed at Cannes ating the French capital’s historic heart Sparks. the eve of the opening of the 74th edition of and French-Senegalese actor Mati Diop. in 2016; Iran’s two-time Oscar winner the Cannes Film Festival. — AFP was all but washed away in a storm. Pop queen Rihanna and Hollywood Other members include Tahar Rahim, star Asghar Farhadi; and Russian director Then filming was halted entirely when star Michelle Williams were originally in of 2009 film “A Prophet”, and South Kirill Serebrennikov, who is barred from The following year Cannes changed its Lavant-who had learned to breathe fire to the frame for the Amazon-backed movie, Korean actor Song Kang-ho, who dazzled leaving the country due to an embezzle- rules requiring a French release for films play the beggar who performs circus Carax’s English-language debut. But like in the festival’s last winner two years ago, ment conviction widely seen as punish- competing for the Palme d’Or, but allow- tricks for spare change-badly injured his so many Carax projects, it appeared “Parasite”. ment for his criticism of President Vladimir ing streaming-only movies out of competi- thumb. Tragedy and disaster would go on cursed. First Rihanna and then Williams Putin. With just four female directors in tion. Netflix retaliated by withdrawing to mark Carax’s career as much as his dropped out, with production delays and ‘Be transported’ the competition, the festival’s tendency to three films from Cannes at the last minute great ambition. Driver’s “Star Wars” schedule also getting As evening falls, stars will strut down pick the usual (male) suspects of the art- in a move that seemed to be timed to Born Alexandre Christophe Dupont in in the way of shooting in the US, Belgium the recycled red carpet, which has been house elite is once again under scrutiny. cause maximum chaos. With the cinema 1960 — the son of a revered Paris-based and Germany. Then when it did finally chopped in size as part of a green Only one woman has won the Palme d’Or world aghast, and Cannes cast as the American film critic, Joan Dupont-Carax wrap, the world’s cinemas shut because makeover. American actor and director in 73 editions of the festival: Jane defender of the big screen and traditional has never lacked confidence. His screen of the coronavirus pandemic.— AFP Jodie Foster is guest of honor at the Campion for “The Piano” in 1993. — AFP cinema, Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings lat- name is an anagram of his first name opening ceremony, and will be awarded er admitted that they had gone too far. Alex and “Oscar”. And indeed it looked an honorary Palme d’Or before the “Sometimes we make mistakes. —AFP like his destiny might be to have a screening of “Annette” gets underway. Established 1961 13 Lifestyle Features Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Farmers remove weeds from a hollyhock field in the vil- A woman wearing a hat picking up medicinal herb lage of Sheqeras near the city of Korca. Centaurea cyanus, commonly known as cornflower.

Farmers pick up medicinal herb Centaurea cyanus, com- A woman removes weeds from a lavender field in the vil- This aerial view of the village of Sheqeras near the city of Korca shows farm workers picking medicinal herb monly known as cornflower in the village of Sheqeras lage of Koplik. Centaurea cyanus, commonly known as cornflower. near the city of Korca.

cents of sage, lavender and corn- Booming exports flowers rise from the meadows of Demand has been soaring since the SAlbania, which has seen soaring coronavirus pandemic increased interest overseas demand for medicinal herbs in herbs believed to strengthen the since the coronavirus pandemic. In immune system and amid growing enthu- Sheqeras, at the foot of the Mali i Thate siasm for natural and organic products. mountain in Albania’s south, it is the sea- “Every cloud has a silver lining,” says Altin son for cornflowers, a plant traditionally Xhaja, whose company, Albrut, has, like valued for its ability to boost the metabo- many others in the sector, expanded lism and resistance to infections. Early in areas under cultivation and intensified the morning, before the heat of the day, harvesting of wildflowers. In 2020, Albania dozens of women wearing broad-rimmed exported more than 14,000 tons of medic- hats, hand-pick the magnificent signature- inal and aromatic herbs worth 50 million blue flowers that attract clouds of butter- euros ($59 million). That was 15 percent flies and bees. more compared with the previous year, official figures show. And the trend contin- ues, with exports 20 percent higher in the first three months of 2021 from a year earlier.

‘We have to be quick’ The boom is a windfall for one of Europe’s poorest countries which, with a population of 2.8 million people, is largely dependent on tourism along the Adriatic coast that has been hard-hit by the pan- demic. Nettle, wild apple trees, cowslip and other medicinal plants provide a living for some 100,000 Albanians, who have long used them themselves in traditional remedies. “It’s a race against time. We have to be quick,” says Xhaja. “Cornflowers are the most expensive at the moment; a kilo of dried flowers will go This aerial view of the village of Sheqeras near the city of Korca, shows farmers picking up medicinal herb Centaurea cyanus, commonly for around 30 euros,” he says. known as cornflower. — AFP photos Just next to the fields of cornflowers, a beautiful violet carpet of mallows can wait stress properties. They are used to make crediting local sage, lavender and wild by hand,” she says. Meanwhile, 91-year- a bit longer before the harvest. As dozens teas rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, herbs with “magical powers” for the old Drane Cukaj attributes her longevity to Farm workers pick medicinal herb Centaurea of workers busily select and sort plants at oils or ointments. health. the sage infusion she drinks every morn- cyanus, commonly known as cornflower in his factory in Lac, north of Tirana, Filip But farmers complain about the difficul- ing. “Life is in the meadows, sage is my the village of Sheqeras near the city of Korca. Gjoka says that the sector has also bene- ‘Sage is my life’ ty in finding funding for expansion and the life, my love, it has always made me hap- fited from tensions between Washington The rocky plateaus in Albania’s north construction of storage and drying facili- py,” says the mother of nine who also has The cornflowers are then dried in dark- and Beijing. “The trade war between the are home to sage, for which demand has ties, and say that any financial aid they do 40 grandchildren. Cukaj says she’s con- ened rooms to preserve their color before United States and China has forced many increased by 40 percent, prompting farm- get comes in dribs and drabs. vinced that the wild herbs “help against being shipped abroad. For the past few Western players to turn towards the ers to increase the area under cultivation. Professionals are also calling for a law for the coronavirus”. Still, that didn’t stop her years, Albania has been one of Europe’s Albanian market,” says Gjoka, who also “It was unforeseen. It had to be done labels to guarantee quality, which would from getting the jab-just in case. — AFP top producers of medicinal herbs, mostly heads the association of medicinal and quickly to be able to respond” to the promote the sector’s growth. “Everything wild plants harvested in the foothills. aromatic herbs. Around 30 Albanian com- demand, says farmer Pjeter Cukaj, wiping is pure, without pesticides, without any- About 95 percent are exported to the panies are authorised to export the plants the sweat from his forehead. “These thing,” says Edlira Licaj, as she pulls United States, Australia, New Zealand, used in herbal medicine due to their anti- plants provide a living for more than 50 weeds from around the sage along with a France, Germany or Italy. inflammatory, anti-septic and even anti- percent of families in the region,” he adds, dozen other women. “We do everything

Two female workers clean sage before it is packaged for export in the Filipi Co Two female workers clean wild roses before they are packaged for export in Female workers clean hollyhock before it is packaged for export in the Filipi factory in Lac. the Filipi Co factory in Lac. Co factory in Lac.

Canterbury in Kent, southeast England. said, adding that the operation is planned The charity said it would work with anti- for next year. “In time, their descendants Dumbo jet: UK poaching teams to help ensure the long- will number in the hundreds-and then the term survival of the herd-which includes thousands-and form part of the incompa- three babies-once it reaches one of two rable ecosystem that helps drive the elephants head to sites under consideration in southern Kenyan tourist economy.” The Aspinall Kenya. The charity’s head of communica- Foundation operates two wildlife parks in the wild in Kenya tions is Carrie Johnson, wife of British Kent. While the attempt to rewild ele- Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said phants is a first, last year it transported the plan would also support Kenya’s two cheetahs back to their native territory outing a world first for “rewilding”, an economy after the coronavirus pandemic. in South Africa. — AFP animal charity said yesterday it was “Life in Kent is pretty good for these Tset to fly a herd of elephants from a elephants, all things considered. But British zoo to a new home in Kenya. The Africa is where they belong,” she said in Aspinall Foundation said it would use spe- an article for The Sun newspaper, co-writ- In this file photo a general cially built crates aboard a Boeing 747, ten with foundation chairman Damian view of elephants grazing dubbed the Dumbo jet, to take the 13 Aspinall. It is the first time a breeding herd at Kimana Sanctuary in pachyderms from their current home near of elephants will have been rewilded, they Kimana, Kenya. — AFP 14 Sports Wednesday, July 7, 2021 Djokovic, Federer in Wimbledon landmarks as title showdown nears

LONDON: Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer ‘Left in the tank’ Rap and romance can inch closer to a Wimbledon title showdown Djokovic enjoys a 2-0 head-to-head record over Berrettini reached his maiden Slam quarter-final at today when they make landmark appearances in 29-year-old Fucsovics who has made the last-eight the French Open last month where he lost to the quarter-finals. World number one Djokovic, of a Slam for the first time. Fucsovics knocked out Djokovic. Auger-Aliassime, 20, is in the last-eight of a chasing a sixth title at the All England Club and fifth seed Andrey Rublev in the fourth round in five Slam for the first time after knocking out German record-equaling 20th Grand Slam, plays his 50th sets after the Russian had swept their previous four fourth seed Alexander Zverev in five sets. quarter-final at the majors. The Serb tackles matches in a nine-month spell. The two are close friends while their respective Marton Fucsovics, the first Hungarian man to get Worryingly for the Hungarian, Djokovic has only girlfriends are cousins. Auger-Aliassime is dating this far since 1948. faced nine break points through four rounds at the Nina Ghaibi while Berrettini is romantically involved Federer, just five weeks shy of his 40th birthday, tournament. Federer, chasing a ninth Wimbledon title, with Australian player Ajla Tomljanovic who reached is in his 18th Wimbledon quarter-final and 58th at boasts a 3-0 advantage over Medvedev and won his the women’s quarter-finals. Berrettini defeated his the majors. He faces either second seed Daniil only meeting against Poland’s 18th-ranked Hurkacz. friend in the final of the Stuttgart grass court final in Medvedev or Hubert Hurkacz with their last-16 tie “We’ll see how much more I got left in the tank,” 2019. “Both our girlfriends are cousins, so it just hap- still to be decided due to Monday’s rain. Having said 39-year-old Federer, the oldest man to make the pens that we spend a lot of time together,” said already become just the third man to win all four quarter-finals in the Open Era. He struggled in his Auger-Aliassime. Slams more than once by lifting his second French opener against Adrian Mannarino who had to retire Today will see two Canadian men in the last-eight Open last month, Djokovic now has another record injured at two sets each. of a Slam for the first time with Denis Shapovalov in his sights. He is halfway to a rare calendar Grand “I felt like now I’ve had some good progress. I’m taking on Russia’s Karen Khachanov. Shapovalov, a LONDON: Switzerland’s Roger Federer celebrates win- Slam, a feat only achieved by two other men — Don taking the ball earlier. Obviously I’ve gotten used to quarter-finalist at the US Open last year, holds a 1-0 ning against Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego during their men’s Budge in 1938 and Rod Laver in 1962 and 1969. the conditions, gotten used to the balls, the court career edge over Khachanov, who made the French singles fourth round match on the seventh day of the As a result, the 34-year-old is already being speed,” said Federer whose comfortable last-16 win Open last-eight in 2019, following a win at the 2019 2021 Wimbledon Championships at The All England hailed as the greatest player of all time, surpassing against Lorenzo Sonego was the 105th of his Davis Cup. Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on even Federer and the absent Rafael Nadal. “I feel Wimbledon career. Should Federer reach the semi- Left-handed Shapovalov followed up his win over Monday. — AFP privileged and honored of course and very happy finals, he will face either Italian seventh seed Matteo two-time champion Andy Murray with a straight-sets to be in this position to make history in the sport,” Berrettini or Felix Auger-Aliassime, the 16th-seeded victory over 2019 semi-finalist Roberto Bautista Agut. (Moutet playing in Mallorca on the eve of said Djokovic. “At the same time I need to go about Canadian. Berrettini, the Queen’s Club winner, has Khachanov has hit with Shapovalov — and even Wimbledon), and I told her, You know that he’s a rap- my everyday routines and everyday life on the tour emerged as a champion-in-waiting should Djokovic admits he’s a fan of the Canadian’s venture into rap per, you know? She said, Oh, really? I said, Yeah, he pretty much the same way that I feel it has reaped or Federer falter. He has fired a tournament-leading music with French player Corentin Moutet. has a remix with Denis. We were listening to that. It a lot of success for me.” 67 aces and dropped serve just twice. “I was sitting with my wife Veronika watching was a fun one.” — AFP Romania’s canoeing Paqueta sends champions Brazil past Peru into take on water Copa America final

MILA 23, Romania: Mila 23 — a fishing hamlet of RIO DE JANEIRO: Star forward Neymar set up Lucas some 450 people in the heart of the Danube Delta — Paqueta to score the only goal as hosts Brazil beat Peru has produced a stream of world and Olympic canoeing 1-0 on Monday to qualify for the Copa America final. The medals for Romania. But it is running out of momen- semi-final was a repeat of the last final, two years ago, tum, raising concerns for the future of a sport that is when a Brazil team shorn of the injured Neymar also tri- central to the country’s sporting success. umphed on home soil. In the past children in Mila 23, which is only acces- The Selecao will play either Lionel Messi’s Argentina sible by boat, learned to row from an early age, and or Colombia, who meet in Brasilia today, in Saturday’s since the 1960s, around twenty have become Olympic, final at Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Maracana stadium. “I want world or European champions. In total, Romania has Argentina. I’m supporting Argentina because I have won 34 Olympic medals in the sport, including ten gold friends there and Brazil will win the final,” said Neymar. medals. But now in Mila 23, weeds have overgrown “Paqueta is a great player, he’s getting better in every rotten wooden canoes abandoned on the Danube’s game and in every game with the national team,” he said sandy banks and at the back of gardens as locals pre- about the 23-year-old match winner, who plays his club fer motorboats, and money to support canoeing as a football for Lyon in France. “He’s just had a great season sport has also dried up. with his club and is showing that he can be a very impor- tant player for the Brazilian national team.” MONTREAL: Josh Anderson #17 of the Montreal Canadiens is congratulated by his teammates after scoring the Fading sport game-winning goal to give his team the 3-2 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning as Blake Coleman #20 reacts “It was a way out of poverty because my parents Gallese thwarts Brazil during the first overtime period in Game Four of the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Final at the Bell Centre on Monday in Brazil totally dominated the first half at the empty could not afford to keep me in school,” former Montreal, Quebec, Canada. — AFP European canoe vice-champion Chiriac Marcov told Nilton Santos stadium in Rio but had to survive some AFP. Forced to stop rowing shortly after the 2000 nervous moments after the break before securing a spot Sydney Olympics following a muscle tear, the 44-year- the score deadlocked, Tampa forward Nikita Kucherov in the final. They opened up Peru on eight minutes as old now earns a living working in construction. Anderson scores twice hit the post on a deflection from the side of the net. Paqueta’s pass sent Richarlison in behind the defense, but Chiriac, who is from the Russian-speaking Lipovan after beating goalkeeper Pedro Gallese to the ball, the minority, like most other villagers, says he regrets that as Montreal stays Price was right forward tried to pull it back to Neymar who blazed high children now are unlikely to follow his path. Vasile “What could we have done different? Probably not hit and wide under pressure. Diba, the 1976 Olympic kayak champion from as many posts as we hit,” Cooper said. Anderson drew Gallese spilled a fierce Casemiro free-kick from dis- Jurilovca, an hour by boat from Mila 23, shares those alive in NHL finals first blood at 15:39 of the first by getting open in front of tance but gathered the loose ball before winger Everton regrets. Diba says the communist regime — which fell the Tampa net. Suzuki hit him with a perfectly timed pass could turn in the rebound. Brazil were turning the screw in 1989 — used to cover the expenses to train children from the behind the goal that Anderson snapped past and Everton cut in off the right flank but shot straight at LOS ANGELES: Josh Anderson’s second goal at 4:21 of from a young age, eager to show off its superiority Vasilevskiy. Tampa forward Barclay Goodrow scored late Gallese. The Peruvian shot-stopper was the busiest play- overtime lifted the Montreal Canadiens to a 3-2 victory everywhere, including in sports. But now underfunded in the second to tie it 1-1. American Ryan McDonagh did er on the pitch in the first quarter and after saving anoth- over the Tampa Bay Lightning in game four of the 2021 and undermined by the lack of interest of children the heavy lifting on the play forcing a turnover to keep er Casemiro piledriver from distance he made an incredi- Stanley Cup finals. Anderson’s game winner came more attracted by new technology, Romanian canoeing the puck in the Montreal zone and then getting a ble double point blank save from Neymar and then moments after Montreal had killed off a four-minute has lost its luster. rebound and delivering a no-look back pass to a wide Richarlison. Tampa powerplay and it cut the Lightning’s series lead to After a slow decline, the country’s canoe federation open Goodrow. And when Gallese suffered a rush of blood to the head 3-1 in the best-of-seven NHL championship series. was also suspended in 2016 for a year for doping. Defenceman Alexander Romanov restored Montreal’s and charged out of his area only to be beaten to the ball “We understood the hole that we were in, but we just “Before, hunger pushed parents to send their children lead at 8:48 of the third, making it 2-1. But Tampa’s Pat by Richarlison, Brazil couldn’t capitalize as Peru’s defend- kind of talked about it: Find a way to win one game here,” to play sports. Today they have to pay for the equip- Maroon tied it 2-2 five minutes later, finishing off a two- ers threw themselves in front of Everton’s shot. Peru were Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher said. “(Anderson) ment, for the preparation courses,” Diba told AFP. on-one with Mathieu Joseph. Maroon is seeking to win non-existent as an attacking force and when they did stepped up and scored a couple of big goals for us.” The 66-year-old used to row for the Interior his third straight Stanley Cup having won last season with manage to win a corner just after the half hour, they end- Anderson, who opened the scoring in the first period, Ministry’s Dinamo Bucharest club, which was battling Tampa and in 2019 with St Louis.—AFP ed up playing the ball all the way back to Gallese. Brazil dove out front and chipped the puck over the right leg with Steaua, sponsored by the army. The two clubs deservedly took the lead 10 minutes before halftime after pad of Tampa goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, sparking a had an intense rivalry across a number of sports. Those Peru gave the ball away in midfield for the umpteenth wild celebration in front of the pandemic-limited crowd who remain kayak enthusiasts in Mila 23, like 16-year- time. Neymar’s twinkling toes got him free of three of 3,500 at the Bell Centre arena. The goal kept Montreal old Paul Marcov, are left with few chances to shine. defenders in the box and he teed up Paqueta to fire home alive in the playoffs as they avoided being swept in four “Last year I won a kayak competition, but this year no from 12 yards. straight games in a finals series for the first time since one is organizing it,” the teenager said. Fans urged to 1952 when they lost to Detroit. Self-preservation Montreal have struggled to keep pace with the Tokyo hopes Peru finally had their first attempt at goal on the Lightning’s explosive offence in the finals, but Canadiens stay away from At the Tokyo Olympics, only two athletes — Catalin counter attack four minutes after halftime, but goalkeeper fans are hoping that Anderson’s two goals and goaltender Chirila and Victor Mihalachi — will row for Romania. Ederson comfortably parried Gianluca Lapadula’s pow- Carey Price’s improved play on Monday will give them a “Of the thirteen teenagers recruited at the same time Olympic marathon erful drive. Soon after, Raziel Garcia shot wide twice in confidence boost moving forward. The series now as me, I am the only one still canoeing,” Chirila, 23, told quick succession as Peru showed far greater ambition switches back to Florida on Wednesday night. “We didn’t AFP last month while training at Snagov, 30 kilometres than during the first period. want to end it tonight in front of our fans,” Anderson said. TOKYO: The public will be urged not to line the Peru were now on top with Garcia at the heart of their (18 miles) north of Bucharest. route of the Olympic marathon over fears that “We expected to go to Tampa. I think everybody in that attack and his shot on the hour mark was parried by Under a leaden sky, his canoe glides over the sil- crowds of fans could spread the coronavirus, locker room did.” Ederson. Brazil started to wrestle back control and very waters of the lake, bordered by imposing villas Tokyo 2020 organizers said yesterday. With less Montreal killed off a double minor penalty to captain Everton shot straight at Gallese before Neymar blazed before a passing jet-ski causes strong waves that dis- than three weeks before the pandemic-postponed Shea Weber to start the overtime and then created one of well over the bar. Peru should have been level nine min- turb his rhythm. Coach Florin Popescu, an Olympic Games begin, concern is growing over a rebound their best scoring chances while shorthanded when utes from time when Yoshimar Yotun fired a free-kick canoe champion at the 2000 Sydney Games, says the in virus cases in Japan. Canada’s Nick Suzuki got free for an open shot but into the box and Alexander Callens beat Ederson to the jet skis often disrupt the training “but we cannot do “In view of the current COVID-19 situation, it Vasilevskiy got his pad on it. ball but headed wide from just six yards out. It would anything about it”.—AFP will be necessary to reduce the risk of infection The puck immediately went down to the other end of prove their last chance and coach Ricardo Gareca rued by restricting the movement of members of the the ice where Price robbed Brayden Point in close as their slow start. “We paid for being slow to settle into the public,” organizers said in a statement about the both goaltenders made huge saves early in the extra ses- game,” he said. —AFP sion. Price had his best game of the series, finishing with marathon and race walk events. “It has therefore 32 saves in the second of two straight games in Montreal been decided to ask the public to refrain from which is hosting its first Stanley Cup final since winning spectating along the course.” their most recent Cup in 1993. The marathon was at the center of controversy Montreal has won 24 Stanley Cups more than any in the original build-up to the 2020 Games, when other team in history while the Lightning are trying to it was moved to northern Sapporo from Tokyo to win their second in as many seasons and third overall. avoid the capital’s punishing summer heat. The History though is not on Montreal’s side, as teams that women’s and men’s marathon finals are among the have gone down 3-0 in the final’s first three games have last events at this summer’s Games and will take lost 26 of the last 27 series. place on August 7 and 8. Heading into game four, the Lightning had outclassed At a marathon rehearsal event in Sapporo in the Canadiens, using their superior speed, offensive skill May, security guards stood with signs around and playoff experience to open up a substantial series their necks asking people to “please refrain from lead. Montreal’s coaches have also struggled to match watching the race” to prevent infections. That wits with Tampa’s boss Jon Cooper, whose staff includes event had unfolded in a muted atmosphere, with RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’s Danilo (left) and Peru’s JURILOVCA, Romania: Vasile Diba, 66, former kayak former Canadien forward Jeff Halpern. But Price was the scattered onlookers in facemasks clapping but Gianluca Lapadula vie for the ball during their Olympic champion at Montreal in 1976, rows a boat on difference-maker, setting the tone early in the first period refraining from cheering, to avoid spreading Conmebol 2021 Copa America football tournament Razim lake in the village of Jurilovca, Romania, on with a point-blank save off Tampa’s Blake Coleman. He droplets.—AFP semi-final match at the Nilton Santos Stadium in Rio June 22, 2021. — AFP also got a little help from his goal post late in third. With de Janeiro, Brazil, on Monday. — AFP Wednesday, July 7, 2021 15 Maguire never feared for England career despite turbulent year

LONDON: Harry Maguire insists he never feared weeks of the season that his importance was fully for his England career after a turbulent year on and appreciated. off the pitch that will see him aim to make amends Ankle ligament damage suffered in May meant against Denmark in the semi-finals of Euro 2020 Maguire missed the Europa League final, which tonight. Just 11 months ago, the Manchester United United lost to Villarreal on a penalty shootout. He captain found himself locked up in a Greek jail for was also a major doubt for the European two days after a post-season holiday went wrong. Championship, but Gareth Southgate waited on him Maguire, 28, was given a suspended 21-month even though the former Leicester defender was not sentence after being found guilty of assaulting a fit until the third group game. police officer, swearing, resisting arrest and bribery “He picked me to make my debut and then I think during an incident in Mykonos. He always protested ever since I’ve been available I’ve pretty much his innocence and launched an appeal which nulli- played in every game possible,” added Maguire on fies the verdict and means he has no criminal record Southgate’s backing over the past year. “That gives ahead of a full retrial. me great confidence and belief and trust going into BURTON-ON-TRENT: England’s coach Gareth Southgate The incident just days after the end of the the game to enable me to perform to my best. Every arrives to England’s MD-1 training session at St George’s delayed 2019/20 season had consequences that time I step onto the pitch I’m trying to repay the Park in Burton-on-Trent, central England, yesterday on the rolled into the new season. He was dropped for faith and the trust, because every time I go onto the eve of their Euro 2020 semi-final football match against England’s Nations League ties with Iceland and Harry Maguire pitch I want to do my best for the country.” Denmark. — AFP Denmark in September and looked like a man with Maguire followed England as a fan to Euro 2016 the weight of the world on his shoulders even when where their run ended in an embarrassing defeat to he did return from club and country. consecutive clean sheet in the process to set a Iceland. Two years later he was one of the stars of United conceded 12 goals in their opening three national record. the World Cup as England surpassed expectations Game changers: Who Premier League games, while his England return in “I never felt for my international career. I always to make the semi-final. Twelve months on, he October saw him sent off for two yellow cards after felt I had something to bring and offer,” said became the world’s most expensive defender when England can turn to in just 31 minutes as Denmark went onto win 1-0 at Maguire on Monday. “Without getting into too United paid £80 million ($111 million) to the Foxes. Wembley thanks to a Christian Eriksen penalty. much detail of what went off in the summer I knew And he believes his greater experience at the The two sides meet again in very different cir- where I stood on behalf of that. I always knew what highest level is reflected throughout a squad filled Denmark semi-final cumstances tonight. Denmark are riding an emo- went off. I’m totally over it, it was a tough time, for with Champions League and Premier League win- tional wave after the shock of seeing Eriksen suffer sure, but I’ve moved on.” ners, who are better equipped to deal with the a cardiac arrest in their opening game. But in stark weight of expectation in the latter stages of a major LONDON: England have eased into their first contrast to their last encounter behind closed doors, Southgate’s ‘trust’ repaid tournament. “I think we are in a much better place European Championship semi-final for 25 years at Euro England will have 60,000 fans on their side and one As Maguire’s form improved, so did United’s as than we were (in 2018). We have had a lot of big 2020 and will face Denmark at Wembley tonight for a of their key players back to his best. they briefly threatened a title challenge early in games in that period to improve on, a lot of time place in the final. Manager Gareth Southgate has been Maguire scored with a bullet header as England 2021 before falling back to finish comfortably spent together on the training pitch and friendlies able to regularly change his team, with a plethora of stormed into the last four with a 4-0 win over second in the Premier League to Manchester and qualifiers. Every game we play together we feel attacking talent at his disposal. Here, AFP Sport takes a Ukraine in Rome on Saturday, registering a seventh City. However, it was in his absence for the final we are going to improve.” — AFP look at five England players who could make an impact off the bench if not named in the starting line-up:

Jack Grealish Damsgaard making The Aston Villa forward has impressed during the tournament despite seeing limited game time. The 25- most of unexpected year-old, who has been linked with a move to Manchester City, set up Raheem Sterling’s winner on his only start in the final group game against the Czech Euro 2020 baptism Republic. “This is what I was born to do. I can’t wait,” he said before the last-16 match against Germany, ROME: Thrust into the starting line-up after when he came off the bench to claim another assist, this Christian Eriksen’s near-fatal cardiac arrest, Mikkel time for Harry Kane. He did not feature in the quarter- Damsgaard has emerged as Denmark’s revelation of final thrashing of Ukraine at the Stadio Olimpico, so will Euro 2020, helping his country resurrect a cam- be fresh if called upon by Southgate this week. paign that was almost over before it started. Nicknamed ‘Damsinho’, the gifted Damsgaard, Phil Foden whose flamboyant talent has caught the eye of The 21-year-old enjoyed a stellar season for Europe’s elite, embodies the enthusiasm and deter- Manchester City, scoring 16 goals in all competitions as mination of a Danish team that faces England in Pep Guardiola’s men won the Premier League and tonight’s semi-final at Wembley. reached the Champions League final. Foden was widely “I could never have dreamed of a better birthday tipped to be one of the stars of Euro 2020, but after present. It’s crazy to get to Wembley,” said the starting England’s opening two matches, has not played Sampdoria winger, cited by Danish daily BT, after since. Saturday’s 2-1 quarter-final win over the Czech Republic, on the day of his 21st birthday. “It’s an Jadon Sancho adventure to be here. Crazy, after everything that When England were struggling to create chances has happened.” Hand-picked by Kasper Hjulmand during the group stage, Southgate was criticised by to rebuild the attack in the absence of Eriksen, pundits and supporters for not giving a chance to Damsgaard is more familiar than most with the Sancho, who made only one late substitute appearance Denmark coach, who handed the Jyllinge-born across the first four games. But he started in Rome on youngster his professional debut at Nordsjaelland Saturday and caught the eye with his dribbling skills in 2017. “He’s a super player,” said Hjulmand. “The and direct style of play. The 21-year-old, who is set to fact that’s he’s been able to throw himself into this leave Borussia Dortmund for Manchester United for 85 and do it on this stage (Euro 2020) is fantastic,” million euros ($100 million) after the tournament, could he told Danish media. be in line to start again in the semi-final.

‘100 percent inspired by Eriksen’ Bukayo Saka His superb opening goal in the crucial 4-1 group- The Arsenal teenager was a slightly surprising stage win over Russia saw him become Denmark’s selection in the 26-man squad ahead of Jesse Lingard, youngest scorer at a European Championship. The but has more than played his part in England’s run. Danes scraped through as runners-up of Group B Saka shone against the Czech Republic and then kept despite losing their first two games, and Damsgaard Mikkel Damsgaard his place in the starting line-up for the Germany match, impressed again in the 4-0 thrashing of Wales. only to miss out on the quarter-final with an injury. “He resembles a graduate fresh out of school... Southgate has the luxury of choosing between Foden, but on the big stage at the Euro, he appears like Sampdoria reluctant to sell While under contract until 2024 at Sampdoria, Sancho and Saka for a spot on the right wing against an old, seasoned fighter for the national team, His performances haven’t gone unnoticed either a successful first year in Italy punctuated by a Denmark, with Harry Kane, Raheem Sterling and almost like Christian Eriksen in his prime,” wrote in Italy, where Damsgaard made steady progress surprise breakout display at the Euro has already Mason Mount all likely to start. BT. Like the Inter Milan midfielder, Damsgaard is this season under Claudio Ranieri at Sampdoria. He drawn interest from big clubs, including AC Milan. technically adept, strong with both feet and pos- played 35 times in Serie A, scoring twice and adding But he will have to bide his time at Sampdoria, Marcus Rashford sesses great vision. four assists, no mean feat in a league where it can who are reluctant to let go of a player bought for The most experienced player on this list is the only “I have been inspired by him, 100 percent,” he be hard for youngsters to settle. six million euros from Nordsjaelland a year ago. one yet to make a start at Euro 2020, although the told Danish news agency Ritzau. “He is one of the “Ranieri has been crucial in accelerating my “How much is he worth? I don’t know because winger is carrying foot and shoulder injuries and is players I have watched the most. I really looked up adaptation to Italian football,” Damsgaard said in he’s not for sale. I am keeping a tight hold of him expected to undergo surgery following the tournament. to him when I was younger and played more like a an interview with Sportweek magazine in February. and we’ll help him to develop because I want to Rashford, who has scored 12 goals in 45 internation- number 10, just like him.” Damsgaard though is “I needed to make the step up by playing more get to the amount he’s worth, between 30 and 50 al appearances, could still have a significant part to quick to point out the two play different roles, competitive football than the Danish league... and I million. He’s a pure talent,” said Sampdoria presi- play in England’s bid to win a first European title, explaining: “I’m a bit more on the wing and in attack have to say that it matched my expectations, I dent Massimo Ferrero, in a bid to ward off poten- despite playing 57 times for Manchester United in a than him.” needed that.” tial suitors. — AFP grueling season. — AFP Established 1961 Sport

WEDNESDAY, JULY 7, 2021 England fans dare to dream of Euro 2020 glory as Denmark semi looms

LONDON: England is gripped by Euro British astronaut Tim Peake praised 2020 fervor as Gareth Southgate’s men the team for their performance in the prepare to take on Denmark for a place quarter-finals, saying: “Bring on the in the final of a major tournament for semi-finals!” One man has covered his the time in 55 years. England will walk house with 64 England flags, with dona- out to a wall of noise at Wembley tions going to charity. “We are on a tonight with the bulk of a crowd of main road and there are a lot of buses 60,000 willing them on, backed by mil- and work people going past and the lions of passionate supporters at home. response has been brilliant,” Lee Southgate’s side started the tourna- Johnson told the BBC. “We get a lot of ment slowly but have rapidly picked up people beeping and screaming ‘come on momentum, beating old foes Germany the boys’.” in the last 16 and hammering Ukraine 4-0 in the quarter-final in Rome. ‘Positive vibes’ Nearly 21 million people tuned into the Defender Harry Maguire said the Ukraine game, making it the most- players were aware of the mounting watched live TV event of the year, but excitement around the country as they that record is likely to be obliterated seek to reach a first European against Denmark. Championship final in England’s history. Southgate’s men are back at home “We see all the positive vibes and the tonight, and would play at Wembley videos going around. It’s a great atmos- again if they reach the final, as the pan- phere to be involved in and winning European event turns into a “home” football matches enables that,” he said. tournament for the Three Lions. Belief is “We’re on this journey together. Us, growing in a nation weary of the coron- players, staff, fans, we’re all in this avirus pandemic and hungry for success together. We all want the same thing, we that Southgate’s young team can deliver all want to win football matches and go glory for the first time since the 1966 as far as we can.” World Cup. Maguire admitted that home advan- Cars and homes are decked out tage would benefit England in the last with St George’s Cross flags and four, with bigger crowds allowed back BURTON-ON-TRENT: England’s defender Harry Maguire (left), forward Harry Kane (second left), midfielder Jack Grealish (second right) and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson into Wembley as coronavirus limits are goalkeeper Jordan Pickford (right) attend a training session at St George’s Park in Burton-on-Trent, central England, on Monday. — AFP has reportedly given the green light eased despite a surge in infections. The for pubs to remain open later on Manchester United player said the going to be electric, it’s going to be a Former England captain Alan knowing the whole nation is supporting Sunday to prepare for a potential atmosphere in the Germany game was great atmosphere. “We’re on this jour- Shearer, who reached the semi-finals at you on a stage as big as this,” he wrote England final. Johnson, who unveiled a one of the best he had experienced, ney together as players, staff and fans, Euro 96 on home soil, urged the current in his BBC column. “The team are back huge England flag on Downing Street with Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline” and they’re right behind us. We’re really generation of players to drink in the on home soil now for the rest of the before the Ukraine game, tweeted: belted out by 40,000 delirious fans. feeling their support and their love and atmosphere. “You can’t escape the tournament and there is going to be one “We’re all behind you for the semi- “We’ve got even more fans in the it’s really pushing us, spurring us on to atmosphere, but then you don’t really heck of a din when they walk out at finals, bring it home.” stadium for the semi-final,” he said. “It’s do great things.” want to — it’s an incredible feeling, Wembley.” — AFP