SHAWWAL 14, 1442 AH WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 2021 16 Pages Max 42º Min 29º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18443 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Kuwait taxi drivers can Belarus isolation grows as air Brazil’s favela gamers From Manchester to Montevideo: 3 barely make ends meet 5 links cut over diverted plane 12 dream big with e-sports 15 CFG targets global domination Govt boycotts Assembly again, sessions canceled Opposition MPs occupy ministers’ seats, file motion to remove speaker By B Izzak place in a bid to force HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah to accept to face grillings. KUWAIT: Opposition MPs occupied seats reserved The dispute is over a decision taken by the for Cabinet ministers for the second time yesterday, Assembly on March 30 to postpone grillings against prompting the government to boycott the session and the prime minister until the end of 2022. The opposi- leading Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem to cancel the tion is insisting the decision is unconstitutional. MP sessions. Ahead of the start of the regular session yes- Obaid Al-Wasmi, who was elected on Saturday in an terday, the first in around a month, a group of opposi- impressive fashion, said canceling the session in the tion MPs sat in the front row of the Assembly chamber, presence of 40 lawmakers under the pretext of the normally reserved for the prime minister and other government’s absence is a constitutional violation, Cabinet members. adding that parliament is not a committee of the Ghanem then told some 40 MPs assembled in the Council of Ministers. chamber that he was informed by the government that MP Marzouq Al-Khalifa said the situation is headed they will not attend the session because MPs had tak- for a bitter standoff amid popular anger against the en their seats. He said yesterday’s and today’s sessions government. MP Saleh Al-Mutairi said sitting in the are cancelled and the next regular Assembly meeting place of Cabinet members is not a cause of chaos but a will convene on June 8. Assembly sessions were sus- political response, calling on the prime minister to quit. pended for about a month late last month after MPs Meanwhile, 25 MPs filed a motion calling for the also sat in Cabinet members’ seats. dismissal of Ghanem, holding him responsible for The speaker later said that a special session will be obstructing the work of the Assembly. The motion calls held on Thursday to debate the developments in for amending the internal charter of the Assembly to Jerusalem, financial rewards to frontline workers and add a clause that would allow the removal of the the education ministry decision to hold written exams speaker. A similar attempt was not allowed to be for higher secondary students. Opposition MPs sat in debated in the Assembly earlier because it is not men- KUWAIT: Opposition MPs occupy seats reserved for Cabinet ministers yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat the Cabinet’s seats to prevent the session from taking tioned in the law. News in brief Miss Universe’s dress copied WhatsApp blocks Palestinian journos from Kuwait-based designer GAZA CITY: Messaging app WhatsApp has By Nawara Fattahova detailed video. He also participated blocked the accounts of dozens of Palestinian with this design in a fashion show held journalists following this month’s fighting KUWAIT: The design of a shimmery in Kuwait in the same year. “It took between the Zionist entity and Gaza’s Islamist red fringe gown worn by Miss me around 10 days to design this rulers Hamas. The vice president of the Universe 2020 Andrea Meza from dress that was made from tulle with Palestinian Journalists Syndicate, Tahseen Al- Mexico while being crowned on May Swarovski crystals and fringe beads,” Astall, said “around 100 journalists” in Gaza had 16, 2021 was allegedly copied from a Soudaiha said. seen their accounts blocked. The Arab Center gown designed by Nadim Soudaiha, a According to Soudaiha, this story for the Development of Social Media said the Lebanese designer based in Kuwait. gets more interesting as he has group documented 500 cases in which Pictures of Soudaiha’s gown - Mexican roots. “The designer of the Palestinian “digital rights” had been violated though gold-colored - were posted in stolen dress is Mexican, the Miss between May 6 and May 19. “Content and 2017 on his personal account on Universe winner is also Mexican and HOLLYWOOD, Florida: Miss Mexico Andrea Meza is crowned Miss Universe 2020 accounts were removed, reduced and restricted, Instagram, as well as on the account my grandmother is Mexican as well.” onstage at the 69th Miss Universe competition at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & hashtags were hidden, and archived content of the La Bourjoisie atelier with a (See Page 13) Casino on May 16, 2021. — AFP deleted,” the report said. — AFP EU embraces COVID pass Minister Boris Johnson. The former journalist’s com- complaints relating to 727 incidents of alleged dis- Islamophobia ments comparing Muslim women in veils to letter- crimination, more than two-thirds of the incidents - BRUSSELS: EU leaders yesterday welcomed boxes and bank robbers, in a newspaper column in 496 cases - related to Islam. the introduction of a bloc-wide COVID-19 pass a ‘problem’ in 2018, contributed to a “widespread” perception that But while the report found “there were examples that they hope will unlock a tourist surge this the Tories have a “Muslim problem”, the report said. of anti-Muslim discrimination by individuals and summer. The 27 member states would like the “Anti-Muslim sentiment remains a problem within the groups at local association level”, it said those prob- EU Digital COVID Certificate, to be launched UK ruling party party. This is damaging to the party, and alienates a lems fell short of claims of “institutional racism”. The July 1 for citizens and residents, to turn the page significant section of society,” the investigation led report said there was no evidence that complaints on restrictions that have crimped Europeans’ LONDON: Islamophobia within Britain’s ruling by Swaran Singh, a former commissioner at the related to Islam are treated differently from those freedom of movement. Coupled with a separate Conservative Party is a problem both at an individual Equality and Human Rights Commission, found. related to other forms of discrimination. Johnson told plan to let in fully vaccinated travelers from out- level and beyond but falls short of “institutional Singh said he believed the report was “going to be Singh’s probe he was “sorry for any offence taken” side the EU, Europe believes its vital tourist racism”, an independent investigation concluded yes- very uncomfortable for the party”, and hoped it over his 2018 column and added he would not use industry could claw back some of its losses. The terday. The center-right party has been dogged for would “spur them into action”. The investigation said “some of the offending language from my past writ- certificate will show the bearer’s vaccination years by accusations of anti-Muslim sentiment that since 2015 the “bulk” of discrimination complaints ings” now that he was prime minister. status, or whether they have immunity from a have been levelled against members, including Prime had been made over anti-Muslim allegations. Of 1,418 Continued on Page 2 COVID infection they have recovered from, or the result of a COVID test. — AFP “Day of Rage” protests and a general Conflict forged strike on May 18 that cut across sepa- Tiny number of ‘breakthrough’ cases rate areas. Administrative offices, unity among schools and businesses closed across WASHINGTON: About 0.01 percent of people the West Bank to protest the bom- became infected with COVID-19 between bardment of Gaza but also against January and April despite being fully vaccinated, Palestinians expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. a US government study confirming the shots’ RAMALLAH: The latest escalation in In a rare move, the shutters also high efficacy showed yesterday. The report pub- the Middle East conflict served to came down in east Jerusalem, the part lished by the Centers for Disease Control and unite the geographically fragmented of the Holy City annexed by the Prevention documented so-called “break- Palestinian community in a way not Zionist entity, and in Arab population through” cases among 101 million people fully seen in years, analysts say. From the centers such as Nazareth and Acre. vaccinated in the US. A total of 10,262 infections blockaded Gaza Strip to the occupied “To see every single Palestinian com- were documented at 14 days or more after the West Bank and annexed east munity rise up together, this is final dose of a vaccine provisionally authorized Jerusalem to Arabs living inside the extremely rare,” said Salem Barahmeh, by the Food and Drug Administration. Of these Zionist entity, scattered people pulled director of the Palestine Institute for cases, 6,446 or 63 percent occurred in females, closer together. Public Diplomacy. “To go on a nation- RAMALLAH: Palestinian demonstrators carry mock coffins of children who were and the median patient age was 58 years. — AFP A sea of Palestinian flags flew in al strike and protest and to have the killed in Gaza as they protest the visit of the US Secretary of State in the occupied solidarity rallies, especially during Continued on Page 2 West Bank yesterday. — AFP 2 Established 1961 Wednesday, May 26, 2021 Local Amir, Crown Prince receive Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets His Highness Sheikh His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets His Highness Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.