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Action-packed BRAVE CF 35 kicks off European InvasionBRAVE CF kicked off a series of five events in five weeks in Europe-an | P 08

WEDNESDAYJULY, 2020

210 FILS ISSUE NO. 8543

Armed man takes ‘around 20’ hostages on bus in Ukraine

Nicki Minaj says she is expecting first child 7 CELEBS

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TWITTER@newsofbahrain

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210 fils (includes VAT)

TOTAL CASES

ACTIVE CASES

DEATHS

DISCHARGED

NEW CASES

CRITICAL

37,316

3,732

129

33,455

380

47

BAHRAIN

DON’T MISS IT

First drive-in cinema officially

inaugurated

P 028

‘Continue government development’

HRH the Crown Prince calls to further enhance civil service efficiency, performance

TDT | Manama

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa,

Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Depu-ty Prime Minister, emphasised yesterday the importance of fur-ther enhancing the operation-al efficiency and performance of the government, in order to meet the goals of the Kingdom’s comprehensive development, led by His Majesty the King.

In this regard, HRH the Crown Prince highlighted Bah-rain’s commitment to further develop the quality of govern-ment services to citizens and residents.

This came as HRH the Crown Prince chaired the Civil Service Council meeting, held remotely.

HRH the Crown Prince noted the Civil Service Bureau’s (CSB) efforts in successfully restruc-turing the organisational struc-

tures of various government en-tities, efforts which will support the Kingdom’s further growth and development.

On this note, HRH the Crown Prince highlighted that 51 out of 57 government entities have successfully completed their or-ganisational restructuring pro-cesses, which will pave the way to facilitate the implementation of strategies and plans during the next phase of development.

HRH the Crown Prince fur-

ther highlighted the important role played by Team Bahrain during this next phase as the Kingdom further strengthens its key sectors.

HRH the Crown Prince un-derscored that cooperation be-tween Team Bahrain members is vital to overcome the chal-lenges presented by the global coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, adding that joint efforts be-tween all entities is imperative to ensure the Kingdom contin-

ues on its path towards further development.

HRH the Crown Prince noted that current challenges and op-portunities call for the further strengthening of government operational efficiency to ensure flexibility when dealing with challenges, as well as to ensure quality services benefitting citi-zens and residents can continue to be provided.

HRH the Crown Prince ex-pressed his gratitude to various government entities that have successfully completed restruc-turing processes, and for their continued cooperation with the CSB on this matter.

The restructuring process-es have reduced the number of assistant undersecretaries within the different entities from 80 to 63, and the number of directors from 261 to 228; thus enhancing the efficiency of government performance and productivity.

HRH the Crown Prince chairing the Civil Service Council meeting

HM the King orders Eid Al Adha gifts for widows, orphansTDT | Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the

Royal Humanitarian Founda-tion (RHF) honourary presi-dent, has ordered the defrayal of Eid Al Adha clothing for all RHF-registered widows and orphans.

HM the King assigned the RFH, chaired by HM the King’s Charity Works and Youth Af-fairs representative, Nation-al Security Advisor and RHF Board of Trustees chairman His Highness Shaikh Nass-er bin Hamad Al Khalifa, to oversee and follow-up on the defrayal for all beneficiaries.

HH Shaikh Nasser offered his best wishes of a blessed Eid Al Adha to HM the King, pray-ing to the Almighty to grant HM King Hamad steady health and well-being and to protect the leadership, government, and people of Bahrain.

HH Shaikh Nasser also ex-tended his sincere thanks and appreciation to HM the King for sharing the joy of Eid with RHF members, praising the annual gesture, as HM King Hamad is keen on providing various forms of care for fam-ilies in a way that guarantees them a decent and stable life.

First drive-in cinema officially inaugurated

TDT | Manama

Bahrain’s first drive-in cine-ma was officially inaugurat-

ed last night in a ceremony held under the auspices of Industry, Commerce and Tourism Min-ister and Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority chair-man Zayed R Al Zayani.

The event was held at the cinema’s sea-front location at Bahrain Bay, with a number of VIP guests present.

The drive-in cinema opens its doors to the public today.

A project of Mukta A2 Cin-emas and event management company Pico Bahrain, its es-tablishment follows the tem-porary closure of cinema halls across the Kingdom as part of precautionary measures put in place to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

During the inauguration, the Industry Minister was treated to the first movie showing on the drive-in cinema’s giant screen.

On this occasion, the Indus-try Minister affirmed that the Bahraini private sector is always keen to find innovative ways to develop the business environ-ment in the Kingdom.

He said that drive-in cinemas are a new option these days for leading companies working in the entertainment industry to keep pace with the global chang-es imposed by the coronavirus crisis.

Mukta A2 Cinemas COO Ak-shay Bajaj, who was present at the ceremony, expressed his

thanks to the government of Bahrain and the relevant au-thorities for the opportunity to establish the drive-in cinema.

He said that the drive-in cin-ema is a place where people can have an enjoyable and safe expe-rience, with ample space being given between cars.

Pico Bahrain chairman Khalid Juman was also on hand. He em-phasised that all measures are being taken to protect the health and safety of all, and hoped that people would enjoy the unique experience.

Two films are scheduled to be shown each week at the drive-in cinema, which can accommo-date up to 100 cars.

The drive-in cinema has al-ready received a rave review, with one member of yesterday’s audience saying that enjoying a movie under the stars is a new

experience. You are also able to react or laugh loudly and use your mobile phone without having to worry about theatre etiquette, while the food is also delivered to your vehicle, the person said.

As part of safety precautions, tickets are being sold online at wanasatime.com. They are avail-able in two categories: either for two persons per vehicle or up to four people in one vehicle. In addition, a range of food and drinks are included with the ticket price.

02WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

DON’T MISS IT

The drive-in cinema opens its doors to the public today.

Two films are sched-uled to be shown

each week. Tickets are being sold online at wanasatime.com. They are available either for two per-sons per vehicle, or up to four people in one vehicle. Ticket

prices include a range of food and

drinks.

H R H T H E C R O W N P R I N C E C H A I R S G O V E R N M E N T

E X E C U T I V E C O M M I T T E E M E E T I N G

HH Shaikh Nasser receives French AmbassadorTDT | Manama

National Security Advisor and Royal Guard Com-

mander His Highness Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa received French Ambassador Jérôme Cauchard.

HH Shaikh Nasser stressed the importance of the great de-velopment in relations between Bahrain and France, which has contributed to opening more areas of cooperation between the two friendly countries.

HH Shaikh Nasser also

praised the levels of coopera-tion and coordination achieved by the two countries at various levels.

HH Shaikh Nasser lauded the efforts exerted by Ambassa-dor Cauchard and his keenness on strengthening ties between Bahrain and France.

The French diplomat ex-pressed his appreciation of Bahrain’s keen interest in con-solidating ties and boosting co-operation across all areas.

The meeting also covered is-sues of shared interest.HH Shaikh Nasser

A view of the drive-in cinema. Pictures courtesy Al Ayam

The Industry Minister is welcomed by officials yesterday

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister chaired yesterday the 335th meeting of the Government Executive Committee, held remotely. In the meeting, the latest developments on measures to combat the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic were discussed, along with the further development of the Kingdom’s telecommunications sector. Left, HRH the Crown Prince chairing the meeting.

Bahrain’s Ambassador to the UAE invited to historic Hope Probe launch

TDT | Manama

Bahrain’s Ambassador to the UAE Shaikh Khalid bin

Abdullah Al Khalifa attended remotely the historic moments of launching the Hope Probe on its Mars mission.

The ambassador had re-ceived a special invitation from Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre.

Shaikh Khalid extended his congratulations to UAE Presi-dent Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister and Du-bai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and to Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and UAE Armed Forces Dep-uty Supreme Commander

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on the landmark achievement.

The ambassador said that the Hope Probe, the first of its kind in the Arab world, is a new achievement in the UAE’s pio-neering record and an indica-tion of its progress in all areas.

He also noted that the launch coincides with the world’s grad-ual exit from the restrictions of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which gives new hope that nothing can stand in the way of moving forward and achieving new outstanding scientific accomplishments.

Shaikh Khalid attending the mission launch remotely

Tokyo Governor congratulated

TDT | Manama

Southern Governor His Highness Shaikh Khalifa

bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa held a telephone call with To-kyo Governor Yuriko Koike, and congratulated her on win-ning the 2020 Tokyo guberna-torial election.

HH the Southern Gover-nor stressed the depth of the

Bahraini-Japanese relations, highlighting ways to bolster cooperation between the gov-ernorate and Tokyo across var-ious fields.

The Tokyo Governor ex-pressed thanks and apprecia-tion to HH Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali for congratulating her on her victory, praising his in-terest in enhancing relations between Bahrain and Japan.

HH Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali Governor Koike

One death, 490 more recoveries from COVID-19

• From 9,202 COVID-19 tests conducted yesterday, 380 new cases were detected, which was one of the lowest in recent weeks. They included 205 expat workers, 166 contacts, and nine travel-related cases

TDT | Manama

The coronavirus (COVID-19) took the life of a 61-year-old

expatriate man in Bahrain yes-terday, the Ministry of Health announced.

His passing brought the total number of virus-related deaths in the Kingdom to 129.

The Health Ministry ex-pressed its condolences to the victim’s family.

Meanwhile, the ministry

announced early this morn-ing that out of 9,202 COVID-19 tests conducted yesterday, 380 new cases were detected—one of the lowest in recent weeks. These included 205 expatri-ate workers, 166 contacts of active cases, and nine travel-re-lated cases.

The new cases brought the overall number of confirmed cases in Bahrain to over 37,000 ever since the first case was re-ported.

There were also 490 addition-al recoveries from the virus yes-terday, bringing the Kingdom’s total number of discharged in-dividuals to 33,455.

Following those recoveries, the total number of current ac-tive cases continued to drop as they went to 3,732, with 47 in critical condition and 90 receiv-ing treatment.

The remaining 3,685 cases are stable.

The total tests conducted in Bahrain increased to 744,694.

School fees payment appeal

By P UnnikrishnanTDT | Manama

One of the largest schools in the Middle East is facing huge financial

crunch due to the unexpect-ed economic situation that has resulted from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The Indian School Bahrain (ISB) recently issued a circular addressed to parents regard-ing the “unprecedented” low collection of fees caused by the current health crisis.

In the circular dated June 22, principal VR Palaniswamy stated: “We would like to bring to your kind attention that the school is passing through a bad financial situation, due to un-precedented low fee collection during these days.

“The fees due as of now are more than BD 700,000 from 7,950 students, which is affect-ing the day-to-day operations of the school and leading towards an unmanageable situation.

“We appeal to the parents to give top priority for the pay-ment of school fees and clear

the pending fees at the earliest to ensure the stability of the school.”

ISB chairman Prince Natara-jan said that the school’s author-ities had alerted parents who have been affected by COVID-19 repercussions to submit an ap-plication for fee concession last April itself.

“We have received nearly 1,500 applications requesting for fee concession,” Natarajan told TDT. “The committee al-ready verified the documents

submitted by 350 parents and is also making online interviews to understand their problems. We are in the process of verifying 1,000 eligible applications.

“We are not able to reduce any costs mainly because the teach-ers are putting extra efforts to make videos and PowerPoint presentations to prepare for on-line classes.

“Right now we have a two-month delay for staff salaries and we want to clear at least 75 per cent of this amount before

Eid. This can happen only if the parents pay the fees with immediate effect.”

Parents are urged to make the fee payments using the existing online platforms.

“The parents should take this issue seriously to save the school,” Natarajan added. “Since we have only 1,500 applications for fee concession, we assume the rest of the parents can afford to pay the fees, but delays are happening exploiting the mar-ket situation or for no reason.”

03WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

Speaker attends meeting of Gulf parliament headsTDT | Manama

Representatives Coun-cil Speaker Fawzia bint Abdullah Zainal attend-

ed yesterday the 13th periodic meeting of the GCC General As-semblies Chairpersons, which was held remotely.

It was organised by the Fed-eral National Council of the UAE and the GCC Secretariat General.

During the meeting, the Speaker said that solidarity be-tween GCC nations has permit-ted to face the challenges posed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, taking the necessary precautionary measures to pro-tect lives and launch economic

and social initiatives to provide support to segments of society.

The Speaker conveyed the

greetings of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and his welcome of Bahrain’s hosting

the next GCC legislative councils’ meeting.

She emphasised the need for

further cooperation between GCC countries and the role of legislative councils in backing efforts to serve national inter-ests.

The Speaker pointed out oth-er challenges that are no less important than the coronavi-rus, such as attempts by some regional countries—mainly Iran and Turkey—to interfere in the GCC’s internal affairs and sup-port terrorist militias.

She reiterated condemnation of the Iran-backed Houthi mi-litias’ attempts to target some regions in Saudi Arabia using missiles or drones. She under-scored Bahrain’s full support to its brotherly Kingdom in its policies and measures to main-

tain its security, sovereignty and stability.

The Speaker affirmed the im-portance of the Arab League’s recent statement on Libya and the denunciation of Turkey’s interference in Libyan affairs. She underlined the importance of the initiative of Egyptian Pres-ident Abdelfattah El Sisi, which called for a ceasefire in Libya and commitment to the political march.

She also called to map out unconventional solutions and a forward-looking vision for the future to deal with issues like water shortage, food security, desertification, environment, unemployment, and diversifica-tion of income sources.

The Speaker, fourth from left, with officials before attending the remote meeting

The ISB campus in Isa Town

We appeal to the parents to give top

priority for the payment of school fees and clear the

pending fees at the earliest to ensure the stability of the

school. ISB PRINCIPAL VR PALANISWAMY

Natarajan

Fish farming land development nears completion

TDT | Manama

Seventy per cent of develop-ment work in lands desig-

nated for fish farming invest-ment in the Ras Hayyan area has been completed, Minister of Works, Municipalities Af-fairs and Urban Planning Eng Essam bin Abdullah Khalaf revealed yesterday.

He said that this was being done to prepare to invite in-vestors interested in launching projects to breed fingerlings, with the aim of achieving a volume that would be com-mercially viable in order to supply the local market.

The Works Minister con-ducted an inspection visit of the land, accompanied by the

ministry’s Agriculture and Marine Resources Affairs Dr Nabil Abu Al Fath and Roads Projects and Maintenance Directorate director Bader Al Alawi.

The Works Minister was briefed on the plans of the project, which is being held in partnership with the private sector to raise the production levels from local fingerlings.

The importance of taking advantage of marine areas for fish cultivation in the south-east of Bahrain was stressed, most especially in the period following the summer sea-son, in order to provide an opportunity to support fish farming in a natural marine environment.

The Works Minister, second from right, with other officials during their inspection visit

Galali housing project deal signed

TDT | Manama

The Ministry of Housing has secured the contracts

to build the Galali housing project in Block 255, funded by the Gulf Development Pro-gramme.

Housing Ministry under-secretary Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and Saleh Abdullah Al Muhanna Contracting Company repre-sentative from Saudi Arabia Salman Al Jasser signed the agreement.

The Galali housing project includes 194 units and land for building a mosque. Con-struction work is scheduled to last 20 months and the houses will be delivered at the end of the first quarter of 2022.

The ministry said the pro-ject represents a new housing achievement to be added to the list of accomplishments during the prosperous era of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and a new step towards implementing HM the King’s order to build 40,000 housing units.

The project also reflects the vision of the government, headed by His Royal High-ness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, and the support of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander, and First Depu-ty Prime Minister, to ensure adequate housing for citizens in accordance with the highest standards.

Shaikh Abdullah and Al Jasser with other officials at the signing ceremony

Bahrain Clear director elected as AMEDA presidentTDT | Manama

Bahrain Clear announced yesterday the election of its

operations senior director Ab-dulla Abdin as Africa and Middle East Depositories Association (AMEDA) president, following the retirement of Mohamed Ab-dulsalam.

Kuwait Clearing Company CEO Khaldoun Al Tabtabaie was elected as vice-president during

the association’s global meeting, which was held virtually.

On this occasion, Abdin com-mented: “The election reflects the progressive steps undertaken by Bahrain Clear in the devel-opment of its central depository and post-trade services.

“Its active participation in re-gional and international associ-ations re-assures confidence to all stakeholders in the capital markets sector in general and

the central depository and post-trade services in particular.”

AMEDA, established in 2005, is a non-profit organisation com-prised of 30 central securities depositories and clearing houses across Africa and the Middle East. It was formed for the ben-efit of its member community, as an elective, inter-professional and regional facility, to foster a spirit of cooperation, reciprocity and harmony among members.Abdin

Man loses final appeal in drugs peddling case

• A piece of hashish (0.23g), methamphetamine, shabu (2.77g), prescription pills, and tools used to abuse drugs such as rolling papers and pipes, were all found in the appellant’s home during a police raid

TDT | Manama

The Court of Cassation yes-terday rejected the appeal

of a Bahraini man, who was earlier sentenced to five years of imprisonment and fined BD3,000, after he was convict-ed by the First High Criminal Court for selling drugs (hash-ish) to two young women—a Bahraini, 22, and a Gulf na-tional, 19.

The man had earlier ap-pealed not guilty against the verdict and had his plea re-jected by the Supreme Court of Appeal.

According to court files and statements of the Anti-Nar-cotics Department at the In-terior Ministry, it showed that the man was arrested at his residence in Hidd after the department was tipped off about his possession of drugs with the intent of selling.

The arrest took place on

May 14 last year when a po-lice force raided the appel-lant’s house and found the two women inside his room at his residence.

A piece of hashish (0.23g), methamphetamine, shabu (2.77g), and prescription pills were found in the man’s pos-session. Additionally, tools used to abuse drugs, such as rolling papers and pipes, were seized.

It was also mentioned in the police report that an amount of BD129, which is believed to have been collected from selling drugs, was found.

The appellant earlier told interrogators that he buys the drugs through a person in Pa-kistan, claiming that he would transfer amounts of money to the alleged overseas dealer, who would lead him to the location where the drugs are hidden here in Bahrain.

As for the women, they told the officers that the man forced them to abuse the drugs, denying any relation to his peddling activities.

The First High Criminal Court earlier convicted both women of drugs abuse.

The Bahraini woman was sentenced to one year of im-prisonment and fined BD100, while the Gulf national re-ceived a sentence of one year in jail, a BD1,000 fine, deportation, and blacklisting from entering Bahrain for three years.

Increased web dependenceTRA survey indicates internet services in the Kingdom have become

increasingly affordable

TDT | Manama

Internet services in the Kingdom are becoming increasingly affordable, it

has been suggested in the latest Telecommunications Services Residential Market Survey re-port published recently by the Telecommunications Regulato-ry Authority (TRA).

According to survey results, 99.7 per cent of respondents said that they have used the internet in the last three months, which is a clear indication of its rising affordability.

Bahrain was ranked fourth globally in relation to the per-centage of individuals using the internet in the latest Global Competitiveness Report pub-lished by the World Economic Forum in October of last year.

With regards to mobile te-lephony services, almost all re-spondents said that they have mobile phone service. However, the survey results showed that the percentage of users having two or more mobile SIM cards has declined and reached 14 per cent in 2019, compared to 38 per

cent in 2017.This reflects the develop-

ments in mobile telephony packages, such as the introduc-tion of new and comprehensive bundles as well as the change in usage pattern, specifically the significantly increasing use of mobile data and the decreased use of traditional telecoms ser-vices, such as voice calls and SMS messaging.

The survey indicated that respondents’ main reason for having more than one SIM card

is to have separate business and personal use.

As for fixed line services, the results of the survey showed that the percentage of house-holds with a fixed telephone line has dropped to 8 per cent, compared with 13 per cent in 2017. This suggests that most households depend on mobile phone services.

Regarding users’ satisfaction of telecommunications services, the survey results showed that 85 per cent of respondents ex-

pressed their satisfaction.Moreover, users’ proposals

for telecommunications service improvement were focused on lowering prices and increasing quality. The TRA ensures this by encouraging and promoting competition and maintaining the interests of users.

“The advanced telecom-munications infrastructure in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the high penetration rates for various telecommunications services, in particular internet services, have contributed to supporting government efforts to effectively combat the global crisis caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,” said TRA acting general director Shaikh Nasser bin Mohamed Al Khalifa.

“The high penetration rate of Internet services has support-ed the government’s efforts to activate education and work remotely. The availability of high speeds and large data ca-pacity has helped support the implementation and use of the applications necessary to per-form the tasks of education and work remotely.”

04WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

The availability of high speeds and large

data capacity has helped support the

implementation and use of the applications necessary to perform the tasks of education

and work remotely. TRA ACTING GENERAL DIRECTOR SHAIKH

NASSER BIN MOHAMED AL KHALIFA

Arig House, Building 131, Road 1702, Diplomatic Area 317, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, C.R. No. 10701Arab Insurance Group (B.S.C.) – A reinsurance firm regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain

INVITATION TO THE EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING TO BE HELD ON 13/08/2020 at 11.30 AM

ChairmanOn behalf of the Board of DirectorsExplanatory Note to the Agenda items of this EGM have been issued separately and published in the websitesof Bahrain Bourse, Dubai Financial Market and Arig.

The Board of Directors of Arab Insurance Group (B.S.C.) (the “Company”) is pleased to invite the shareholders to attend its Extraordinary General Assembly Meeting (EGM) to be held electronically at 11.30 a.m. on Thursday, 13 August 2020, from Arig House, Building no. 131, Road no. 1702, Diplomatic Area 317, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, to consider, discuss and approve the following business agenda items:

AGENDA FOR THE EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING 1. To read and approve the minutes of the last Extraordinary General Meeting held on 25 March 2018. 2. To discuss the significant issues raised by the Central Bank of Bahrain in its Inspection report issued on 14 July 2019 and the response submitted by the Company. 3. To discuss and approve the following: a. Cease writing further reinsurance business; b. Authorise the Board to either carry out an orderly run-off of the existing portfolio internally or by appointing a third party to carry out the run-off including sale of portfolio; c. While the company is under run-off, explore the possibility of finding a buyer to take over the company; d. Authorise the Board to take all actions as required to preserve and enhance Shareholder value.

Important notes to Shareholders: 1. Any shareholder registered in the Company’s Share Register on the date of the meeting is entitled to attend the meeting or to appoint a proxy to attend and vote on the shareholder’s behalf. A proxy shall not be the Chairman, members of the Board of Directors or employees of the Company. 2. In case the shareholder is a legal entity, the person who will represent the shareholder should have a letter signed and stamped by the corporate, and to be presented before the due date. 3. Shareholder who wish to attend must send an email request which must include a clear copy of passport or identity card of the shareholder or the person representing them as proxy by email to bahrain.helpdesk@karvy.com at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled time of the EGM. Please also include the contact number and email of the person attending the online session. 4. After receiving the required documents and information, a link will be provided to enable the attendee to take the necessary steps to join the session electronically. The device used to participate in the online session must be compatible with video and telecom services. We advise the shareholders to abide with the instructions to ensure a swift and smooth conduct of the meeting in line with the Laws and Regulations. 5. Proxies must be registered with the support Share Registrar, Karvy Fintech (Bahrain) W.L.L., Office No.74, 7th Floor, Al-Zamil Tower, Building 31, Road 383, Block 305, P.O. Box 514, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, by hand or Fax: +973 17 212055, or electronically by email (bahrain.helpdesk@karvy.com) at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. Any proxies received after the deadline will be void. 6. For any queries, please contact the Investor Relations department: (Tel: +973 17 544160) or email address: investor@arig.com.bh 7. In the absence of a quorum for the EGM, a second meeting of EGM will be held electronically at 11:30 a.m. on 19 August 2020 from Arig House, Diplomatic Area, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain to discuss the same agenda, and in the absence of a quorum at the second meeting, a third meeting of EGM will be held at 11:30 a.m. on 26 August 2020 from the same venue to discuss the same agenda.

Arab Insurance Group (B.S.C.)

COVID-19 patient remanded for ‘deliberately coughing on doctors’TDT | Manama

A man diagnosed with the coronavirus (COVID-19)

has been thrown behind bars for deliberately attempting to spread the virus by coughing on doctors and applying his saliva and mucus on them, it has been learnt.

The man could be facing a jail term of three years and a hefty fine of up to BD10,000 if convicted by the court.

Confirming the news, Chief Prosecutor Adnan Al Weda’ee

explained that the man has been remanded and is awaiting his trial before the concerned court.

Al Weda’ee said in a press statement issued by the Pub-lic Prosecution yesterday that the suspect was diagnosed with COVID-19 after undergoing a test.

When called to the exami-nation centre after being diag-nosed with the virus, the man deliberately removed his face-mask and coughed on doctors, in an effort to transmit the virus to them.

According to Al Weda’ee’s statement, the suspect also pur-posely coughed in his palms

and touched doctors with his secretion-covered hands.

“The Public Prosecution has interrogated the suspect and charged him with exposing oth-ers to infection, which is a crime punished by Law 34 for 2018 on promulgating the Public Health Law,” Al Weda’ee said. “The punishment of this crime is imprisonment for three years and a fine of up to BD10,000.

“The prosecution ordered to detain the suspect pending fur-ther investigation in order to re-fer him to the concerned court.”

Al Weda’ee

Policemen’s drunk attacker has appeal rejectedTDT | Manama

The First Supreme Criminal Court of Appeal upheld

the punishment of a man who attacked policemen and oth-ers in Manama last year while under the influence of alcohol.

The man had mentioned in his defence before the court that he wasn’t responsible for his actions as he was drunk. However, the court rejected his pretext as he intentional-ly consumed alcoholic bev-erages, and therefore bears the legal consequences of his actions.

Details of the case showed that the appellant was dining at a restaurant inside one of the hotels in the capital in De-cember of last year.

Due to his excessive con-sumption of alcohol, the man caused chaos in the facility and verbally and physically as-saulted some of the customers and employees there.

Security guards escorted him outside the hotel while

awaiting the arrival of police, who were notified about the incident. Upon the arrival of a police force, the man showed strong resistance and assault-ed an officer by shoving and punching him in the face, in-juring the cop.

Additionally, the man climbed on top of the police patrol vehicle and was forci-bly brought down by the of-ficers, who cuffed him and put him inside the car after a long struggle.

The force took the man to the police station and he was later referred to the Public Prosecution.

On December 11 last year, the prosecution interrogated the man and heard witnesses’ testimonies. He was charged with assaulting an on-duty public servant, who was the policeman, while carrying out his duties.

A first degree court sen-tenced him to one year of im-prisonment after finding him guilty of the crime.

Three detained in case involving 60,000 missing drugs from SMCTDT | Manama

Three individuals have been apprehended, including

two Salmaniya Medical Com-plex (SMC) employees who sold sedatives and narcot-ic pills to the third arrestee, the Ministry of Interior an-nounced yesterday.

The Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Se-curity director-general report-

ed he arrests following reports on social media about a large quantity of missing sedatives and narcotic pills from SMC.

Initial details have indicated that the missing quantity is around 60,000 sedatives and narcotic pills in 2020.

The director-general said that the search continues for the remaining suspects to refer the case to the Public Prose-cution.

05WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

India, US closing in on trade deal: Piyush GoyalReuters | New Delhi

India and the United States are closing in on a trade deal,

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said yesterday, after two years of negotiations.

India is seeking concessions for generic drugs it exports to the United States in return for opening its dairy markets and slashing tariffs on farm goods as the two sides seek to clinch a new trade accord, three sources told Reuters.

They have been negotiating a limited trade pact aimed also at restoring zero tariffs on a range of Indian exports to the United States under its Gener-alised System of Preferences (GSP), from which the Trump administration withdrew last year, citing lack of reciprocal access to Indian markets.

“In the long term, I believe we have a quick trade deal which has some of the pending matters built up over the last couple of years, which we need

to get out of the way quickly. We are almost there,” Goyal said at the US-India Business Council’s India Ideas Summit, being conducted virtually.

Goyal further said New Del-hi and Washington should look at a preferential trade pact with 50 to 100 products and services before moving to a free trade pact.

“We believe we should also look at an early harvest in the form of a preferential trade agreement rather than waiting for the gains of a free trade agreement, which can take several years to conclude,” he said.

Piyush Goyal

Oxford cautious on 2020 roll-outReuters | London

The University of Oxford’s possible COVID-19 vaccine

could be rolled out by the end of the year but there is no cer-tainty, the lead developer of the vaccine said yesterday.

The experimental vaccine, which has been licensed to AstraZeneca, produced an im-mune response in early-stage clinical trials, data showed on Monday, preserving hopes it could be in use by the end of 2020.

“The end of the year target for getting vaccine roll-out, it’s a possibility but there’s abso-lutely no certainty about that because we need three things to happen,” Sarah Gilbert told BBC Radio.

She said it needed to be shown to work in late-stage trials, there needed to be large quantities manufactured, and regulators had to agree quickly to license it for emergency use before large numbers of people could be vaccinated.

England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and his deputy Jonathan Van-Tam took differing views on the potential timeline.

“The chance of us getting a

vaccine before Christmas that actually is highly effective are, in my view, very low,” Whitty told lawmakers.

Van-Tam, however, said he was “cautiously optimistic that we will have some vaccine this side of Christmas.”

Late-stage trials crucial for providing data are under way in Brazil and South Africa and are due to start in the United States also.

P o s s i b l e C O V I D - 1 9 v a c c i n e

KNOW

BETTER

There are no approved vaccines yet for COVID-19, but the World Health Organization has said AstraZeneca’s shot is one of the leading candidates.

The Oxford scientists had eyed a million doses of the potential vaccine to be produced by September. Although the deal with AstraZeneca has provided manufacturing capacity to do that, the lower prevalence of the novel coronavirus in Britain has complicated the process of proving its efficacy.

US adds 11 Chinese firms to economic blacklist Reuters | Washington

The US Commerce Depart-ment added to an econom-

ic blacklist on Monday 11 Chi-nese companies it said were implicated in human rights violations regarding China’s treatment of Uighurs in the

western Xinjiang region.The step, which leaves the

firms unable to buy compo-nents from US companies without approval, prompted an accusation of slander from China, which vowed to take measures to protect its com-panies’ rights.

Apple to remove carbon from supply chain, products by 2030

• Apple’s most recent environmental report, put its carbon footprint at 25.2 million tons

Reuters

Apple Inc said yesterday it plans to remove carbon

emissions from its entire busi-ness, including its products and sprawling supply chain, over the next decade.

The iPhone maker said its global corporate operations such as offices and data centers are already carbon neutral but that it will extend its effort to the thousands of suppliers that contribute to its products.

Apple said it aims to achieve 75 per cent of the goal by re-ducing emissions, with the remaining 25pc coming from carbon removal or offset pro-jects such as planting trees and restoring habitats.

For its supply chain, Ap-ple aims to address what are termed “scope three” emis-

sions, which come indirectly from a company’s value chain. In Apple’s case, this means contract manufacturers such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd’s Foxconn. Apple said 74pc of its overall carbon emis-sions are generated by product manufacturing. To address the scope three emissions from manufacturing, Apple said it will help set up a $100 million “US-China Green Fund” for energy efficiency projects.

The company has also been working with suppliers to re-duce emissions by using recy-cled materials, saying its iP-hones now use recycled rare earth elements in a component called the taptic engine.

Apple said its carbon remov-al or offset efforts will come via a fund to assist projects such as restoring mangrove ecosys-tems in Colombia and savan-nas in Kenya. Apple’s strategy contrasts with other compa-nies such as Microsoft Corp, which said it would invest $1 billion over the next four years in engineering-based carbon removal technologies.

Rare-earth oxides (clockwise from top center): praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium, and gadolinium (Courtesy of C&en)

Operating activities Net loss for the year (777,246) (1,255,199)Adjustments for: Depreciation on property, plant and equipment 63,283 79,205 Amortisation of intangible assets 1,867 1,904 Amortisation of right-of-use asset 121,252 131,590 Unrealised fair value loss on financial assets at fair value through profit or loss 680,952 1,432,451 Dividend income (142,939) (286,508) Interest income (2,566) (1,079) Finance cost on lease liabilities 14,239 20,684 Rent concessions on lease liabilities (18,237) - Loss on modification of lease 11,067 - Loss on termination of lease 947 -

Changes in operating assets and liabilities: Inventories 3,138 33,751 Prepayments and other receivables 15,563 8,601 Trade and other payables (85,471) (183,337)Employees’ terminal benefits, net (11,570) 1,935 Net cash used in operating activities (125,721) (16,002) Investing activities Purchase of property, plant and equipment (4,464) (8,953)Purchase of intangible assets - (770)Dividend received 142,939 286,508 Interest received 2,566 1,079

Net cash provided by investing activities 141,041 277,864 Financing activities Lease liability paid (90,645) (139,056)

Net cash used in financing activities (90,645) (139,056) Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents (75,325) 122,806 Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of the period 356,275 172,372 Cash and cash equivalents, end of the period 280,950 295,178

Six monthsperiod ended

30 June2020

(Unaudited)

Six monthsperiod ended

30 June2019

(Unaudited)

Quarter Quarter Six months Six months ended ended period ended period ended 30 June 30 June 30 June 30 June 2020 2019 2020 2019 (Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited) (Unaudited)

Operating income 24,791 305,420 309,168 713,985Operating costs (145,858) (323,196) (462,956) (681,968) Operating profit for the period (121,067) (17,776) (153,788) 32,017

Expenses General and administrative expenses (27,621) (36,566) (62,742) (69,215)Selling and advertising expenses - (14,748) (1,935) (31,450)Finance cost on lease liabilities (6,161) (11,110) (14,239) (20,684)Directors’ fees (7,850) (14,350) (15,750) (22,000)

Total expenses (41,632) (76,774) (94,666) (143,349)

Loss before investment and otherincome/(loss) (162,699) (94,550) (248,454) (111,332)

Investment and other income/(loss) 36,077 (1,287,392) (528,792) (1,143,867)

Net loss and other comprehensive lossfor the period (126,622) (1,381,942) (777,246) (1,255,199)

Basic and diluted loss per share Fils(3.52) Fils(38.39) Fils(21.59) Fils(34.87)

ASSETS (Unaudited) (Audited) Non-current assets Property, plant and equipment 320,379 379,198Intangible assets 18,918 20,785Right-of-use assets 513,606 782,245Financial assets at fair value through profit or loss 3,374,493 4,056,741 4,227,396 5,238,969 Current assets Inventories 26,358 29,496Trade and other receivables 88,838 121,462Cash and cash equivalents 280,950 356,275 396,146 507,233 Total assets 4,623,542 5,746,202 EQUITY AND LIABILITIES Capital and reserves Share capital 4,000,000 4,000,000Statutory reserve 794,927 794,927Capital reserve 68,245 68,245Accumulated losses (843,490) (66,244)Treasury shares (400,000) (400,000) Total equity 3,619,682 4,396,928 Non-current liabilities Employees’ terminal benefits 77,755 89,325Non-current-lease liabilities 361,383 560,904 439,138 650,229 Current liabilities Trade and other payables 377,643 463,114Current portion of lease liabilities 187,079 235,931 564,722 699,045 Total liabilities 1,003,860 1,349,274 Total equity and liabilities 4,623,542 5,746,202

Share Statutory Capital Accumulated Treasury capital reserve reserve losses shares Total

At 31 December 2017 4,000,000 794,927 68,245 1,534,030 (400,000) 5,997,202 Net loss and other comprehensive loss for the period - - - (1,255,199) - (1,255,199) At 30 June 2019 (Unaudited) 4,000,000 794,927 68,245 278,831 (400,000) 4,742,003 At 31 December 2019 (Audited) 4,000,000 794,927 68,245 (66,244) (400,000) 4,396,928Net loss and other comprehensive loss for the year - - - (777,246) - (777,246) At 30 June 2020 (Unaudited) 4,000,000 794,927 68,245 (843,490) (400,000) 3,619,682

Condensed interim statement of financial position as at 30 June 2020(Unaudited) (Expressed in Bahrain Dinars)

Condensed interim statement of cash flows for the quarter and six months period ended 30 June 2020 (Unaudited) (Expressed in Bahrain Dinars)

Condensed interim statement of profit or loss and other comprehensive income for the quarter and six months period ended 30 June 2020 (Expressed in Bahrain Dinars)

Condensed interim statement of changes in shareholders’ equity for the quarter and six months period ended 30 June 2020 (Unaudited) (Expressed in Bahrain Dinars)

30 June2020

31 December 2019

The audited financial statements were approved, authorised for issue by the Board of Directors and signed on their behalf by:

Abdul Latif Khalid Al Aujan Garfield Jones Chairman Vice-Chairman and Managing Director

06WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

CBB T- Bills oversubscribed

TDT | Manama

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) announces that this

month’s BD 100 million issue of Government Treasury Bills has been oversubscribed by 103 per cent.

The bills, carrying a matu-rity of 12 months, are issued by the CBB, on behalf of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The issue date of the bills is 23rd July, 2020 and the ma-

turity date is 22nd July, 2021.The weighted average rate

of interest is 2.77pc compared to 2.79pc for the previous issue on 25th June, 2020.

The approximate average price for the issue was 97.277% with the lowest accepted price being 97.094pc.

This is issue No.71 (ISIN BH000632G031) of Govern-ment Treasury Bills. With this, the total outstanding value of Government Treasury Bills is BD 2.110 billion.

CBB building

Coca-Cola results hit by halt to pro sports, live events

New York

Coca-Cola reported a steep drop in second-quarter

profits yesterday due to a big decline in away-from-home consumption, especially at the height of the coronavirus lock-downs.

The results underscored the soda maker’s reliance for sales on sporting events, movie theaters and entertainment -- economic segments that have been battered by social dis-tancing protocols instituted to address COVID-19.

Net income came in at $1.8 billion, down 32 per cent, be-hind a 28 percent decline in sales to $7.2 bn.

Coca-Cola expects the sec-ond quarter to be “the most severely impacted” period of 2020, “the ultimate impact on

full year 2020 results is un-known,” the company said.

Like many other large com-panies, Coca-Cola withdrew its annual forecast this spring amid the upheaval of the COV-ID-19 shutdowns.

The company did not restore a projection in its second-quar-ter earnings statement, a sign of continued uncertainty as large markets including the United States continue to bat-tle outbreaks.

Volumes bottomed out in April with a decline of 25 pc, but improved gradually to a drop of 10 pc in June as lock-downs eased, the company said.

“Performance has been driven by improving trends in away-from-home channels, along with sustained, elevated sales in at-home channels,” Coca-Cola said.

Coca-Cola’s second-quarter results were dented by lost sales from pro sports and other live events

Stocks rise on vaccine hopesLondon

Global stock markets rose yesterday on promising results from two clinical

coronavirus vaccine trials, and after EU leaders finally clinched a landmark 750-billion-euro ($860-billion) stimulus deal.

“A combination of vaccine optimism and fiscal stimulus is boosting the mood,” City Index analyst Fiona Cincotta said.

“Encouraging results ... in ad-dition to EU leaders agreeing to a 750-billion-euro recovery fund, is overshadowing rising tension between the UK and China -- and soaring COVID-19 numbers in California.”

The clinical studies provided a much-needed shot in the arm for investors, who have been put on edge by spikes in new infections around the world, causing a months-long surge across equities to stumble.

The new cases have prompted authorities to reimpose con-tainment measures, fanning concerns about an economic recovery that has been sup-ported by trillions of dollars in government and central bank stimulus measures.

- Studies spark cheer -But two studies published

in The Lancet medical journal sparked some cheer, with a trial among more than 1,000 adults in Britain finding a candidate vac-cine induced “strong antibody and T cell immune responses” against the coronavirus.

That came as another trial of more than 500 people in China showed most had developed a widespread antibody immune response.

Meanwhile, British bio-tech firm Synairgen said a randomised trial of an aero-

sol-based treatment showed it could drastically reduce the number of new patients dying

of the disease or requiring in-tensive care.

More than 20 candidate vac-

cines are currently being tested on humans.

Stimulus dealThe European Union finally

reached a stimulus agreement after four days of haggling.

“Deal!” tweeted EU Council Chief Charles Michel, whose job was to guide the talks over more than 90 hours.

The package sends tens of billions of euros to countries hardest hit by the virus, most notably heavily-indebted Spain and Italy that had lobbied hard for a major gesture from their EU partners.

Focus now turns to lawmak-ers in Washington who are look-ing to pass a huge new stim-ulus package, with a previous multi-trillion-dollar one set to expire at the end of the month.

Stimulus money is to put EU economies back in the saddle

Key figures around 1540 GMTLondon - FTSE 100: 0.1 pc at 6,269.73 points (close)

Frankfurt - DAX 30: 1.0 pc at 13,171.83 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: 0.2 pc at 5,104.28 (close)

EURO STOXX 50: 0.5 pc at 3,405.35

New York - Dow: 1.2 pc at 27,005.62

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: 0.7 pc at 22,884.22 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng: 2.3 pc at 25,635.66 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: 0.2 pc at 3,320.89 (close)

West Texas Intermediate: 3.4 pc at $42.32 per barrel

Brent North Sea crude: 3.4 pc at $44.74

Euro/dollar: at $1.1492 from $1.1448 at 2100 GMT

Dollar/yen: at 106.85 yen from 107.27 yen

Pound/dollar: at $1.2740 from $1.2661

Euro/pound: at 90.20 pence from 90.41

SpaceX capsule carrying NASA astronauts slated for August 2 returnReuters | Washington

The NASA astronauts who traveled to the Inter-

national Space Station in SpaceX’s first crewed flight in May are expected to re-turn to Earth on Aug. 2 after spending two months in or-bit, a NASA spokesman said yesterday.

US astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will gear up

for the final benchmark test of SpaceX’s so-called Demo-2 mission: a coordinated splashdown somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean that will cap NASA’s first crewed mis-sion from US soil in nearly a decade.

Since 2011, when the US space shuttle program ended, NASA astronauts have had to hitch rides into orbit aboard Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.

Emirates NBD Bank leads Dubai higher; Egypt extends gains• Emirates NBD registers biggest gain in more than 3 months

• Mobily and Bahri advance on second-quarter profit rise

• Etisalat retreats ahead of quarterly earnings

Reuters

Dubai’s stock market end-ed higher yesterday, led by

gains for Emirates NBD Bank af-ter the emirate’s biggest lender received regulatory approval to increase its foreign ownership limit.

The main share index in Du-bai gained 1.1 per cent, with Emirates NBD jumping 5.9pc for its biggest intraday gain since April 9 after Monday’s green light to lift its foreign ownership limit to 40pc from 20pc.

In the previous session, the lender retreated 1.9pc on a 58pc slide in second-quarter profit, having set aside more than $1.1 billion so far this year to cover expected bad loans in the face of the coronavirus crisis.

Egypt’s blue-chip index ad-

vanced 1.7pc, extending gains from the previous session, with 22 of the 30 stocks in the index rising.

That included heavyweight Commercial International Bank, which was up 2.4pc.

Egyptian President Ab-del-Fattah al-Sisi and US Presi-dent Donald Trump on Monday agreed on the need to maintain a ceasefire in Libya and avoid an escalation between the forces fighting there, Egypt’s presi-dency said.

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index closed 0.5pc up, with Al Rajhi Bank and petrochemicals group Saudi Basic Industries gaining 0.7pc and 1pc respec-tively.

Telecoms company Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) rose 2.6pc and National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (Bahri) was up 3.3pc after both reported an in-crease in second-quarter profit.

The Saudi index had retreated on Monday after news that King Salman bin Abdulaziz, who is suffering from inflammation of the gall bladder, had been admitted to hospital.

The Abu Dhabi index rose 0.4pc, helped by a 1.7pc jump for the country’s largest lender, First Abu Dhabi Bank.

However, the gains were capped by losses at Emirates Telecommunications Group ahead of its board meeting to approve second-quarter finan-cials.

In Qatar, the index added 0.3pc, driven by a 2.5pc gain by petrochemicals company Indus-tries Qatar.

Closing Bell SAUDI 0.5pc to 7,417 pts

ABU DHABI 0.4pc to 4,257 pts

DUBAI 1.1pc to 2,089 pts

QATAR 0.3pc to 9,396 pts

EGYPT 1.7pc to 10,558 pts

BAHRAIN 0.7pc to 1,303 pts

OMAN 0.5pc to 3,477 pts

KUWAIT 0.2pc at 5,420 pts

Traders on the floor of Bahrain Bourse

07WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

14,964,060

615,735

8,985,108

Deaths

Recovered:

New cases

New deaths +118,100

+2,894

Covid-19 Cases:

Country Total cases

new cases

Total deaths

New Deaths

Total recovered

Active cases

Serious, Critical

Tot cases/1m pop

Egypt 88,402 4,352 28,924 55,126 41 863

Saudi Arabia

255,825 +2,476 2,557 +34 207,259 46,009 2,184 7,343

UAE 57,498 +305 341 +1 49,964 7,193 1 5,810

Kuwait 60,434 +671 412 +4 50,919 9,103 127 14,141

Oman 69,887 +1,487 337 +11 46,608 22,942 169 13,670

Qatar 107,430 +393 160 +1 104,191 3,079 119 38,261

Middle East

Country Total cases New deaths Total Deaths

1 USA 3,985,788 +469 144,303

2 Brazil 2,129,053 +242 80,493

3 India 1,191,709 +664 28,763

4 Russia 783,328 +153 12,580

5 South Africa 357,681 13,384

6 Peru 357,681 13,384

7 Mexico 349,396 +301 39,485

8 Chile 334,683 +44 8,677

9 Spain 313,274 +2 28,424

10 UK 295,817 +110 45,422

11 Iran 278,827 +229 14,634

12 Pakistan 266,096 +40 5,639

13 Saudi Arabia 255,825 +34 2,557

14 Italy 244,752 +15 35,073

G l o b a l C o u n t r i e s w o r s t a f f e c t e d

Figures as of closing

News in brief u Thousands of US workers

walked out of their jobs across the country Monday for a strike in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and other minority groups which suffer racism. The “Strike for Black Lives” saw employees from a broad range of industries

briefly walk off their jobs in a call to end “systemic racism.” US media reported that tens of thousands of people in more than 200 cities across the country participated in the strike.

u Five Iran-backed fighters were killed in an Israeli missile strike south of the Syrian capital, a Britain-based war monitor yesterday. The missile attack on Monday night hit weapons depots and military positions belonging to Syrian regime forces and Iran-backed militia fighters south of Damascus, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

u South Korea’s first-ever military communications satellite has been successfully launched by private operator SpaceX, Seoul said yesterday, as it looks to build up its defence capabilities. The ANASIS-II is intended to enhance the South’s ability to defend itself against the nuclear-armed North, which invaded in 1950. A

Falcon 9 rocket carrying the satellite blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, Seoul’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a statement. SpaceX confirmed the satellite deployed about 32 minutes after lift-off, on Monday afternoon local time

Armed man takes ‘around 20’ hostages on bus in Ukraine• Shots were heard at the scene but no injuries have been reported so far

AFP | Kiev

An armed man carrying explosives has taken around 20 passengers

hostage on a bus in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk, police said yesterday.

The head of the local police service said shots were heard at the scene but no injuries have been reported so far.

Law enforcement has cor-doned off the centre of Lutsk, a city in western Ukraine some 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the capital Kiev, and advised residents not to leave their homes or places of work.

Police said the SBU security services had surrounded the minibus after two shots were fired from it towards law en-forcement.

“The attacker threw a grenade from the bus, which, fortunate-ly, did not detonate,” a statement said, adding that the attacker was believed to have undergone psychiatric treatment.

Video footage and pictures published by local media showed heavily armed police in Lutsk surrounding a blue and white minivan with several win-dows shattered and its curtains drawn.

The hostage-taker made con-tact with the police and identi-fied himself as Maksym Plok-hoy, deputy interior minister Anton Gerashchenko said.

The authorities were working to confirm the identity of the attacker, he told AFP.

Gerashchenko said law en-forcement was talking with the assailant in the hopes of resolv-ing the crisis “through negoti-ations”.

‘Anti-system’ suspectPosts on social media ac-

counts using Plokhoy’s name claimed he was armed, includ-ing with bombs.

They described him as “an-ti-system” and made demands of the authorities.

The interior ministry said it believed the accounts were genuine.

President Volodymyr Zelen-sky said news of the hostage taking was “disturbing”.

“Every effort is being made to resolve the situation without casualties,” he said on Facebook.

Interior Minister Arsen Avak-ov was travelling to the region to coordinate a resolution to the crisis, the ministry said.

Posts on social media accounts using Plokhoy’s name described him as ‘anti-system’

Afghan girl kills two Taliban fighters after parents murderedGhazni | Afghanistan

An Afghan girl shot dead two Taliban fighters and

wounded several more after they dragged her parents from their home and killed them for supporting the government, of-ficials said.

The incident happened last week when insurgents stormed the home of Qamar Gul, a teen-ager from a village in the central province of Ghor.

The fighters were looking for her father, the village chief, lo-cal police head Habiburahman Malekzada told AFP.

Her father was a government supporter, which is why the Taliban fighters went to his house and dragged him out, Malekzada said.

When his wife resisted, the Taliban fighters killed the cou-ple outside their home, Male-kzada said.

“Qamar Gul, who was inside the house, took an AK-47 gun the family had and first shot dead the two Taliban fighters who killed her parents, and then injured a few others,” he said.

Gul is aged between 14 and 16, according to different officials. It is common for many Afghans

to not know their precise age.Several other Taliban fighters

later came to attack her house, but some villagers and pro-gov-ernment militiamen expelled them after a gunfight.

Afghan security forces have now taken Gul and her younger brother to a safer place, said Mohamed Aref Aber, spokes-man to the provincial governor.

Since the incident, social me-dia networks have been flooded with praise for Gul’s “heroic” act.

A photograph of Gul, wear-ing a headscarf and holding a machinegun across her lap has gone viral in the past few days.

“Hats off to her courage! Well done,” wrote Najiba Rahmi on Facebook. “Power of an Afghan girl,” wrote another Facebook user Fazila Alizada.

“We know parents are irre-placeable, but your revenge will give you relative peace,” said Mohamed Saleh in his post on Facebook.

The Taliban regularly kill villagers who they suspect of being informers for the govern-ment or security forces.

In recent months, the mili-tants have also stepped up their attacks against security forces despite agreeing to peace talks with Kabul.

Gul is aged between 14 and 16, according to different officials.

Gul is pictured brandishing an AK-47 (Daily Mail)

Thousands of US workers walk out in ‘Strike for Black Lives’

Israeli missile strike kills 5 fighters in Syria

South Korea’s first military satellite

launched

It’s been one year since suspected triad gang members attacked pro-democracy protesters at Yuen Long train station in Hong Kong. The assault on 21 July 2019 left nearly 50 people -- including passers-by -- in hospital and pushed the city deeper into political violence.

Over 800 kilos of cocaine were

seizedMembers of the Criminal Investigation Technical Agency (ATIC) of the Public Ministry arrange packages of seized cocaine at the Hernan Acosta Mejia air base in Tegucigalpa

KNOW WHAT

Ukraine, fighting Russian-backed separatists since 2014, has been struggling with a proliferation of illegal weapons.

The fighting broke out between Kiev forces and Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. More than 13,000 people have been killed in the

fighting so far. Police in late 2017 stormed a post office in the eastern city of Kharkiv, where an armed man claiming to be strapped with explosives had captured 11 people.

Russian Black Sea Fleet ships in Russian-occupied Crimea in May 2015

08WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

Face mask fashion: Cuban quinceaneras in the coronavirus eraReuters | Havana

Cuban girls are turning face masks into a fashion ac-

cessory for their quinceanera photoshoots, designing them to match their 15th birthday par-ty outfits - both out of safety concerns and to show how they came of age during the coro-navirus pandemic.

Cuba made face masks obligatory in public spaces early on in the outbreak and credits them with helping it contain the spread of the coronavirus on the island. On Monday it registered zero new cases nationwide.

As the country eases lockdown restrictions, face masks are even becoming part of the quinceanera celebrations - a rite of passage into womanhood common throughout Lat-in America - that typically includes photoshoots with many glamorous ensembles.

“I had to design my face masks to fit with my outfit and for all the colors to work,” said birthday girl Sofia Valenzuela, on the sidelines of a beach pho-toshoot in a floaty white dress.

“The face mask was really im-portant because it marked an

important stage of my life, these three months of pandemic.”

Valenzuela did some of her shoots without a mask - like the one on the beach - and others

with, especially in urban spaces.

In one, for e x a m p l e , s h e p o s e s in front of a

Havana wall covered in color-

ful graffiti while wearing a black top, black and white checkered mini skirt, and matching face mask.

Her seamstress M i g d a l a i x i s S a n c h e z s a i d she interlaced black and white stripes to create the material

for the cloth mask. Some shops are still shut in the wake of the coronavirus-induced lockdown so creating matching masks is not always easy.

“I had to innovate,” she said. “You have to please those cele-brating their quinceanera.”

Photographer Manuel Pa-dron, who has been shooting quinceaneras for more than 10 years, says the girls find sporting a face mask - called “nasobuco” or “nose mouth” in Cuban Span-ish - eye-catching “as if it was part of the whole show.”

Birthday girl Thaidelen Gon-zalez said it was also simply about being careful.

“The photos will turn out well anyway so wearing a face mask and looking after oneself is not too onerous,” she said.

Sofia Valenzuela poses during a photo session for her quinceranera (Coming of age of 15-year-olds) celebration amid coronavirus disease spread concerns in Havana, Cuba

Estefani Linares walks during a

photo session

Thaidelen Gonzalez poses during a photo session

Nantes cathedral fire may be accidental - French ministerReuters | Paris

There is nothing to suggest at this stage that a fire in

the 15-century cathedral in the western French city of Nantes was started deliberate-ly, France’s interior minister said on Tuesday.

“At this hour, nothing sug-gests that this is a criminal act,” Gerald Darmanin told lawmakers in parliament. “An investigation has been opened.

It could be that this was acci-dental.”

A view of debris caused by a fire inside the Cathedral of Saint Pierre and Saint Paul in Nantes, France

UK government failed to probe Russian ‘meddling’, say MPs

London

British lawmakers on Tues-day slammed the govern-ment for failing to look

into any Russian meddling into UK politics, despite evidence of the country posing a credible threat.

Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee’s (ISC’s) long-awaited report had been expected to shed light on whether the Kremlin interfered in the landmark 2016 Brexit ref-erendum.

But MPs said they were unable to come to any firm conclusions as the current government or its predecessor had not ordered any investigation due to an ap-parent “lack of curiosity”.

“There has been no assess-ment of Russian interference in the EU referendum,” lawmakers said after the report was finally published, nearly 15 months af-ter it was completed.

“Nobody wanted to touch this issue with a 10-foot pole. This is in stark contrast to the US response of reports of interfer-ence in the 2016 US presidential election.

“No matter how politically awkward or potentially embar-rassing, there should have been an assessment... and there must now be one, and the public must be told the results.”

The publication of the report was being keenly watched be-cause of the divisive Brexit cam-paign and result, which saw 52 percent of Britons vote to leave the European Union.

The issue has dominated Brit-ish politics ever since, leading to years of parliamentary deadlock that was finally broken by Boris Johnson’s huge election win in December last year.

But after Britain formally left the EU in January, the prime minister and his government

have taken a stronger line on Russia, heightening already tense diplomatic ties.

Last week, Britain said Rus-sian hackers tried to meddle in the 2019 election, and were trying to steal coronavirus vac-cine research from UK, US and Canadian labs.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected claims of Rus-sian meddling in UK politics as “groundless”, and said the re-port contained only “ephemeral accusations”.

“Russia has never interfered in the electoral process of any country in the world, not in the United States, not in Great Brit-ain, nor in other countries,” he told reporters.

“We don’t do it ourselves and we don’t stand for it when other countries try to interfere in our political affairs.”

‘Lack of curiosity’MPs made clear their frustra-

tion with being unable to make firmer conclusions, describing themselves as “shocked” and “baffled” that the government failed to recognise the threat.

That could further fuel claims from Johnson’s oppo-nents about a lack of political will at the heart of government to reveal the extent of Russian involvement and influence in Britain.

Critics have said the prime minister’s apparent reluctance

to publish the report was be-cause it could lay bare donations from wealthy Russians to his ruling Conservative party.

The report said there was “credible open source commen-tary” suggesting Russia tried to influence campaigns in the 2014 Scottish independence ref-erendum.

And it said it should have been a priority to “mitigate the risk” for the Brexit vote.

The government “took its eye off the ball” and “badly un-der-estimated” its response to the threat.

The report said Russian in-fluence in Britain was “the new normal”, with wealthy oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin accepted and well-in-tegrated in UK business and society.

“This level of integration... means that any measures now being taken by the government are not preventative but rather constitute damage limitation,” it added.

Johnson took over last July from Theresa May, who stepped down after failing to secure parliamentary backing for her Brexit divorce deal with Brus-sels.

The ISC’s investigation began in November 2017 after con-cerns that Russia may have tried to influence the Brexit vote in the same way as the 2016 US presidential election.

At the time of the referendum, May accused Russia of “planting fake stories” to “sow discord in the West and undermine our institutions”.

ISC member Kevan Jones said that “ultimately, the prime minister is responsible” for not looking further into any Russian involvement.

“The buck has to stop some-where,” he said.

A Brexit-themed billboard depicting Britain’s former foreign secretary Boris Johnson waving Russian national flags reading “Thank you Boris

The report said Russian influence in Britain was “the new normal”

Boris Johnson took over last July from Theresa May

Mumbai deploys ‘smart helmets’ to screen for coronavirusMumbai

As coronavirus infections climb in Mumbai, authori-

ties in India’s worst-hit city are turning to high-tech “smart helmets” to speed up screen-ings and identify suspected cases in the financial capital’s densely-populated slums.

The portable thermoscan-ners -- previously deployed in Dubai, Italy and China -- ena-ble health workers to record the temperatures of dozens of residents per minute and could emerge as a key weapon in Mumbai’s quest to eradicate the virus from the city of 18 million.

“Traditional screening methods take a lot of time. You go to a slum with 20,000 people and it takes you three hours to screen 300 peo-ple,” said Neelu Jain, a medi-cal volunteer a f f i l i a t e d w i t h t h e n o n - p ro f i t group Bhara-t i y a J a i n Sanghatana.

“But when you use these helmets, all you have to do is ask people to come out of their homes, face them and you can screen 6,000 people in two-and-a-half hours,” she said.

The helmets were donated to authorities in Mumbai and the nearby city of Pune, which have both been locked in a months-long battle against the pandemic, with cases across India soaring past one million on Friday.

But with just two helmets in use in each city, the push to identify and isolate infected residents will take a long time.

The imported helmets -- which cost around 600,000 rupees ($8,045) -- are also in high demand in places like

Dubai, said Jain, making it very difficult to

expand capac-ity.

09WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

Earlier Monday, China denouncec what it said was Britain’s ‘slander’

regarding allegations of human rights abuses

Greta Thunberg donates million-euro rights prize to green groups

• The first 100,000 euros of the prize money will go to the “SOS Amazonia” campaign

• Another 100,000 euros will go to the Stop Ecocide Foundation

AFP | Stockholm

Climate activist Greta Thunberg was on Monday

awarded a Portuguese rights award and promptly pledged the million-euro prize to groups working to protect the environment and halt climate change.

“That is more money than I can begin to imagine, but all the prize money will be donat-ed, through my foundation, to different organisations and projects who are working to help people on the front line, affected by the climate cri-sis and ecological crisis,” the Swedish teen said in a video posted online.

She was awarded the Gul-benkian Prize for Humanity for the way she “has been able to mobilise younger genera-tions for the cause of climate change and her tenacious struggle to alter a status quo that persists”, Jorge Sampaio, chair of the prize jury, said earlier.

The first 100,000 euros of the prize money will go to the “SOS Amazonia” campaign led by Fridays For Future Brazil to tackle the coronavirus out-break in the Amazon.

Another 100,000 euros will go to the Stop Ecocide Foun-dation “to support their work to make ecocide an interna-tional crime”, Thunberg said on Twitter.

The million euro ($1.1 mil-lion) is the largest prize won by the 17-year-old environ-mental campaigner who has also won Amnesty Interna-tional’s top human rights prize and the Swedish Right Livelihood Award, often pre-sented as an alternative Nobel.

She said Monday she was “extremely honoured” to re-ceive the annual Gulbenkian prize.

Thunberg and three oth-er young climate activists on Thursday launched an appeal to EU leaders to “face up to the climate emergency”, in an open letter signed by 150 scientists and a host of ce-lebrities.

US couple charged for drawing guns on protestersWashington

A US couple who became in-ternet infamous for drawing

an assault rifle and a handgun on protesters outside their Mis-souri mansion were charged Monday with a felony.

In a viral video, Mark Mc-Closkey and his wife Patricia McCloskey, both lawyers, stand barefoot in their garden in St Louis, Missouri, on June 28 as anti-racism protesters marched down a private street to demon-strate in front of the mayor’s house.

McCloskey, 63, carried an as-sault rifle, and his wife, 61, was waving a handgun.

“Today my office filed charges against Mark and Patricia Mc-Closkey following an incident involving peaceful, unarmed protesters on June 28th. It is ille-gal to wave weapons in a threat-ening manner at those partici-pating in nonviolent protest,” the

attorney for St Louis, Kimberly Gardner, in a statement.

She added that she was open to letting the couple participate

in one of the circuit attorney’s office’s diversion programmes

that are “designed to reduce un-necessary involvement with the courts.”

“We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through in-timidation will not be tolerated,” Gardner said in the statement.

Missouri governor Mike Par-son, a Republican, told a radio show last week he would likely pardon the McCloskeys if they were charged.

The morning after the pro-test, McCloskey told a local news channel he and his family were “terrified” when the protest-ers arrived, characterizing the demonstration as a “mob.”

The clip sparked outrage on-line, with Gardner tweeting she was “alarmed” to see “peaceful protesters were met by guns and a violent assault.”

Faced with growing backlash, US congressman and Trump ally Matt Gaetz came to the

McCloskeys’ defense on Twit-ter, attempting to paint them as victims of a dystopian future should Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden win the No-vember election.

Mark McCloskey and his wife Patricia pointed guns at protesters who marched down the private street where the couple lives in St Louis, Missouri

KNOW WHAT

US President Donald Trump retweeted with-out comment the video

of the white couple pointing a semi-auto-

matic rifle and a hand-gun at the protesters, the majority of whom

were black.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has won the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity

That is more money than I can begin to imagine, but all the prize money will be donated, through

my foundation, to different

organisations and projects who are working to help

people on the front line, affected by the

climate crisis and ecological crisis

THE SWEDISH TEEN SAID IN A VIDEO POSTED ONLINE.

UK suspends extradition treaty with Hong Kong• Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed the widely expected move

• China threatened unspecified counter-measures

• Adding to the tensions have been British criticisms about China’s treatment of the Uighur ethnic minority group

AFP | London

Britain on Monday risked worsening strained ties with China, as it suspend-

ed its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in protest at a con-troversial new security law in the territory.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed the widely expected move in parliament, despite Chinese warnings that Britain was making a grave for-eign policy error and risked re-prisals.

He also announced an ex-tension to Hong Kong of an arms embargo of “potentially lethal weapons” already in force against mainland China for the last three decades.

Diplomatic ties between London and Beijing have been frayed by the security law, which Western powers see as an erosion on civil liberties and human rights in the financial hub.

China threatened unspecified counter-measures after Brit-ain relaxed immigration rules for Hong Kongers with British overseas passports, and the po-tential of citizenship.

Adding to the tensions have been British criticisms about China’s treatment of the Uighur ethnic minority group, and the blocking of telecoms giant Hua-wei from its 5G networks.

Raab said Britain wanted to engage constructively with Chi-na, acknowledging its “extraor-dinary transformation” and the key role it had to play in world affairs.

But he said a positive rela-tionship with a country that had international obligations as a global player also included the right to disagree.

The security law had “signifi-cantly changed key assumptions underpinning our extradition treaty”, particularly a provision to try certain cases in mainland China, he said.

The legislation does not pro-vide legal or judicial safeguards, and there was concern about its potential use in the former British territory, he added.

“The government has decid-ed to suspend the extradition treaty immediately and indefi-nitely,” he said.

“We would not consider re-acting to it unless and until there are clear and robust safe-guards.”

Arms embargoRaab said there was also cause

for concern about the extent to which China was playing a role in law enforcement and internal security in semi-autonomous Hong Kong.

“The UK will extend to Hong Kong the arms embargo that we’ve applied to mainland Chi-na since 1989,” he told lawmak-ers.

“The extension of this em-bargo will mean that there will be no exports from the UK to Hong Kong of potentially le-thal weapons, components or ammunition.

“And it will also mean a ban on the export of any equipment already banned, which might be used for internal repression.”

A Tuesday statement on the website of the Chinese Embassy in Britain criticised the suspen-sion of the treaty and said “the UK side has gone even further down the wrong road”.

“China urges the UK side to immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs, which are China’s internal affairs,” the statement said, adding that China “strongly condemns and firmly opposes this”.

“The UK will bear the con-sequences if it insists on going down the wrong road.”

Britain’s extradition trea-ty suspension follows similar tough action against China by the United States, Canada and Australia.

Beijing has accused London of being a puppet to US for-

eign policy over Huawei, after Washington slapped sanctions on the Chinese firm’s access to US chips vital to its 5G networks.

The United States believes the private firm is a front for the Chinese state, and that the use of its technology could imperil intelligence sharing, charges that the company denies.

The issue is likely to loom large during US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to London on Tuesday.

Britain’s foreign minister Dominic Raab also announced an extension to an arms embargo already imposed on mainland China

10WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

AFP | Paris

Figuring out what to do with an old mobile phone

just got easier in France, where people can now send them free in the mail to have them recycled or refurbished for sale by a charity group.

An estimated 50 to 110 mil-lion phones are languishing in drawers across the coun-try, since recycling options are not always straightfor-ward and many people worry the personal data they store might still be accessible.

Ecosystem, the NGO behind the project,

said people could order a pre-paid envelope from its web-site jedonnemontelephone.fr (I give my phone) or simply print out a pre-paid address label.

The phones are sent to a processing centre where all data is erased before the phone is either refurbished for sale at Emmaus charity shops, or in the majority of cases (83 percent) broken down for recyling and the re-moval of the most polluting components.

Ecosystem said Monday that it plans to distribute 100 reconditioned phones from

the scheme during each of the 35 stages of this year’s Tour de France cycling race that begins on Au-gust 29.

The project is an ex-pansion of the nonprof-it’s main electronics re-cycling programmes that aim to keep appliances and other devices from incinerators or landfill sites.

In June, it collected a re-cord 62,000 tonnes of ma-terial as people cleared out their homes after two months of coronavirus lockdown.

Old phone to recycle? In France, just drop it in the mail

Pakistan warns video-sharing app TikTok over ‘immoral content’

• TikTok has become a global sensation with its 15 to 60-second video clips and is hugely popular among young Pakistanis, with some users building up millions of followers.

AFP | Islamabad

Pakistan has issued a final warning to Chinese-owned

social media app TikTok to clamp down on what it called “immoral, obscene and vulgar” content on the video-sharing platform.

TikTok has become a global sensation with its 15 to 60-sec-ond video clips and is hugely popular among young Paki-stanis, with some users build-ing up millions of followers.

But the app has come up against backlash in the deep-ly conservative Islamic coun-try, with critics blaming it for spreading nudity and pornog-raphy.

The Pakistan Telecom-munication Authority (PTA) announced it was blocking

another app, Bigo, and had received a number of com-plaints about TikTok over its “extremely negative effects on the society and the youth in particular”.

In a statement late Monday it said it had already issued notices to the company asking it to moderate content, before issuing a final warning order-ing filters be put in place to stop “obscenity, vulgarity and immorality”.

Arslan Khalid, a digital me-dia adviser to Prime Minister Imran Khan, welcomed the decision claimed the “ex-ploitation, objectification & sexualization of young girls on TikTok” was causing pain to parents.

Nighat Dad, a lawyer who offers digital security training to women, told AFP “obsceni-ty” complaints are vague and often aimed at women, prais-ing the app for allowing people to express themselves in ways they often cannot in public.

TikTok has not responded to a request for comment.

The telecommunications authority announced it was blocking the less popular Sin-gapore-based live-streaming app Bigo Live over its content.

TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, has

faced increasing controversy over

how it collects and uses data although it has repeatedly denied sharing

user information with Chinese au-

thorities.

KNOW WHAT

India banned the app, along with dozens of other Chinese mobile platforms, over national security and privacy concerns with the United States considering a similar move.

The app was also banned by Bangladesh last year as part of a clampdown on pornography, while

Indonesia briefly blocked access over blasphemy

concerns

Gut-wrenching image of starving polar bear spotted by Cristina Mittermeier of National Geographic during a sealecacy expedition

What went wrong?

AFP | Paris

Climate change is starving polar bears into extinction,

according to research published Monday that predicts the apex carnivores could all but disap-pear within the span of a human lifetime.

In some regions they are al-ready caught in a vicious down-ward spiral, with shrinking sea ice cutting short the time bears have for hunting seals, scien-tists reported in Nature Climate Change.

Their dwindling body weight undermines their chances of surviving Arctic winters with-out food, the scientists added.

“The bears face an ever longer fasting period before the ice re-freezes and they can head back out to feed,” Steven Amstrup, who conceived the study and is chief scientist of Polar Bears International, told AFP.

On current trends, the study concluded, polar bears in 12 of 13 subpopulations analysed will have been decimated within 80 years by the galloping pace of change in the Arctic, which is warming twice as fast as the planet as a whole.

There is not enough data for six others to make a determina-tion as to their fate.

“By 2100, recruitment” -- new births -- “will be severely com-promised or impossible every-where except perhaps in the Queen Elizabeth Island sub-population,” in Canada’s Arctic Archipelago, said Amstrup.

That scenario foresees Earth’s

average surface temperature rising 3.3 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial benchmark.

One degree of warming so far has triggered a crescendo of heatwaves, droughts and super-storms made more destructive by rising seas.

But even if humanity were able to cap global warming at 2.4C -- about half-a-degree above Paris Agreement targets, but hugely ambitious all the same -- it would probably only delay the polar bears’ collapse.

Timeline of demise“That is still way above an-

ything polar bears have faced during one million years of evo-lutionary history,” said Amstrup.

The threat is not rising tem-

peratures per se but the top-of-the-food-chain predators’ inability to adapt to a rapidly shifting environment.

“If somehow, by magic, sea ice could be maintained even as temperatures increase, polar bears might be fine,” Amstrup said by email.

“The problem is that their habitat is literally melting.”

Half of Earth’s land-based megafauna are classified as threatened with extinction, but only polar bears are endangered primarily by climate change.

But that status may not be unique for long, and should be seen as a harbinger of how cli-mate will impact other animals in the coming decades, the au-thors warned.

There are approximately 25,000 Urus maritimus left in the wild today.

The challenge to their sur-vival has long been understood, but the new study -- building on pioneering work by Amstrup a decade ago -- is the first to put a timeline on their likely demise.

The new approach overlays two sets of data.

One is the expanding fasting period, which varies across re-gions and can last for half-a-year or more.

The other is a pair of climate change projections tracking the decline of sea ice until the end of the century, based on scenarios from the UN’s IPCC climate sci-ence advisory panel.

- In a free fall -“By estimating how thin and

how fat polar bears can be, and modelling their energy use, we were able to calculate the threshold number of days that polar bears can fast before cub and adult survival rates begin to decline,” said lead author Peter Molnar, a professor at the Uni-versity of Toronto.

A male bear, for example, in the West Hudson Bay popula-tion that is 20 percent below its normal body weight when fast-ing begins will only have enough stored energy to survive about 125 days rather than 200 days.

New-born cubs are even more exposed, according to the study, especially when mothers have not fattened up enough to pro-vide nourishing milk.

Females without offspring, however, have the greatest ca-pacity to withstand long periods without food.

The polar bear’s ‘vulnerable’ status on the IUCN Red List of endangered species -- less se-vere that ‘endangered’ or ‘crit-ically endangered’ -- does not accurately reflect their plight, the authors argue.

Climate change on track to wipe out polar bears by 2100

11WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

Germany’s synagogue attacker starts trial with racist rant• Balliet sought to put forward his racist ideas, claiming he had “no problems with religions but with Semitism”

• Balliet told the court he had been inspired by a gunman’s 2019 attack on Christchurch mosques in New Zealand

• If convicted, Balliet could face life in prison

Magdeburg | Germany

A German man accused of killing two people in one of

the worst acts of anti-Semitic violence in post-war Germa-ny sought to lay out his racist world view at the opening of his trial yesterday, prompting stern warnings from the judge.

Stephan Balliet, 28, stands accused of shooting dead two people in October after he tried and failed to storm a synagogue in the eastern city of Halle last year.

He has been charged with two counts of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder in a case that has deeply rattled the country and fuelled alarm about rising right-wing extremism and anti-Jewish violence, 75 years after the end of the Nazi era.

Addressing the court, Balliet claimed he had “decided in 2015 not to do anything more for this society which has replaced me with Muslims and negroes”, in reference to the year when hun-dreds of thousands asylum seek-ers, many fleeing war in Syria and Iraq, were given refuge in Germany.

Judge Ursula Mertens cut him off, warning that he could be thrown out of the hearing.

“I have the possibility to ex-clude you from the proceedings. I will not tolerate you commit-ting crimes and insulting people in this courtroom.”

Undeterred, Balliet sought to put forward his racist ideas,

claiming he had “no problems with religions but with Semi-tism”.

Dressed in black, Balliet was brought handcuffed into the Magdeburg courtroom by three armed guards. He looked direct-ly at the waiting cameras as he removed the face mask he was wearing because of the corona-virus pandemic.

Prosecutors say Balliet used explosives and firearms to try to gain access to the synagogue, where 52 worshippers were cel-ebrating Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

After failing to break through the synagogue’s locked wood-en door, he shot dead a female passer-by and a man in a nearby kebab shop.

He apologised for killing the German woman, saying he “re-ally did not plan to or want to” shoot her.

He filmed the assault and livestreamed it on the internet.

Balliet told the court he had been inspired by a gunman’s 2019 attack on Christchurch mosques in New Zealand, which killed 51 Muslim worshippers.

‘Comprehensive confession’Ahead of the trial, prosecutors

said Balliet had made a “very comprehensive” confession, confirming “far-right and an-ti-Semitic motives”.

Balliet also published docu-ments online that called for the killing of all Jews.

His video of the attack will be

shown in court. Balliet faces an additional charge of incitement to hatred for denying the Holo-caust in the footage.

Mark Lupschitz, the lawyer representing nine worshippers at the synagogue at the time of the attack, said his clients “want answers and want to look him in the eyes to let him know that they have no understanding for what he did.”

According to a report in the Spiegel magazine, a psycholog-ical assessment of Balliet con-cluded that he has a complex personality disorder with ele-ments of autism.

However, he was deemed to be aware of his actions and not exempt from criminal responsi-bility, the report said.

Balliet was brought handcuffed into the courtroom by armed guards

The synagogue in Halle which Stephan Balliet is accused of trying to storm with firearms and explosives during a Yom Kippur ceremony

KNOW WHAT

After failing to break through the syna-

gogue’s locked wood-en door, he shot dead

a female passer-by and a man in a nearby

kebab shop.

Saudi King Salman stable

• King Salman received phone calls from the leaders of Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan on Monday

Reuters | Riyadh

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman is in stable condition, three

Saudi sources said, after the 84-year-old monarch was ad-mitted to hospital in the cap-ital Riyadh on Monday with what state media said was in-flammation of the gall bladder.

The king, who has ruled the world’s largest oil exporter and close US ally since 2015, was undergoing medical checks, state media on Monday cit-ed a Royal Court statement as saying without further details.

Three well-connected Saudi sources who declined to be identified, two of whom were speaking late on Monday and one on Tuesday, told Reuters the king was “fine”.

An official in the region, who requested anonymity, said he spoke to one of King Salman’s sons on Monday who seemed “calm” and that there was no

sense of panic about the mon-arch’s health.

King Salman received phone calls from the leaders of Ku-wait, Bahrain and Jordan on Monday, state media reported.

A diplomatic source said the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mo-hammed bin Salman flew back to Riyadh on Monday from his palace in the Red Sea city of NEOM, cancelling a planned meeting with a visiting Ira-qi delegation. The diplomat-ic source and the third Saudi source said he was still in the capital.

King Salman last spoke pub-licly on March 19 in a five-min-ute televised address about the coronavirus pandemic. State media have published pictures and videos of the king chairing online weekly cabinet meet-ings. Media have also carried images of the crown prince attending those meetings online.

King Salman, the custodian of Islam’s holiest sites, spent more than 2-1/2 years as the Saudi crown prince and was deputy prime minister from June 2012 before becoming king. He also served as gover-nor of the Riyadh region for more than 50 years.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman attends a Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony in Putrajaya, Malaysia

Oman to impose curfew, travel bansReuters | Dubai

Oman will ban travel be-tween all its governorates

from July 25 to Aug. 8, a peri-od that includes a holiday, to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, state news agency ONA said on Tuesday.

A statement from the Health Ministry described the meas-ure as a “total lockdown” of all governorates.

The Gulf state will also im-plement a daily curfew from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the period, which includes the Eid al-Adha holiday period. Shops and public spaces will be closed during the hours of curfew.

Oman, a country of 4.7 mil-lion people, recorded 1,458 new case of infection on Tues-day and 11 deaths, taking the total tally to 69,887 cases and 337 deaths.

Oman introduced lock-downs in March in some re-gions such as Muscat, Dhofar, Duqm and some tourist towns. Since April, it has gradually allowed commercial centres

to reopen and lifted the lock-down in the Muscat region, which includes the capital.

Air and land borders have been closed, except for repa-triation. Last week, the gov-ernment said it would start allowing citizens fly abroad after applying for permission.

In Gulf Cooperation Coun-cil, which includes Oman and five other Gulf Arab states, the biggest nation Saudi Arabia has the highest number of con-firmed infections. Together the group has recorded more than 582,000 cases and more than 3,880 deaths.

General view of old Muscat, Oman

Facebook slaps disclaimer on Donald Trump post on mail-in voting• Trump wrote on his page that mail-in voting, unless changed by the courts, “will lead to the most CORRUPT ELECTION in our Nation’s History!”

Washington

Facebook placed an informa-tional disclaimer Tuesday

on a post from President Donald Trump claiming mail-in vot-ing would lead to a “corrupt” election.

The move, without remov-ing the post, appears to follow through on the social network giant’s pledge to step up efforts to fight misinformation, includ-

ing from world leaders, shifting slightly from its hands-off poli-cy on political speech.

Trump wrote on his page that mail-in voting, unless changed by the courts, “will lead to the most CORRUPT ELECTION in our

Nation’s History!” and added the hashtag #RIGGEDELECTION.

Facebook added an informa-tion tag which said, “Get official voting info on how to vote in the 2020 US Election” with a link to the government-sponsored USA.

gov page on how to cast ballots.Facebook has largely held

firm to a policy that it would not fact-check political leaders, but it has pledged to take down any post which could lead to vi-olence or mislead people about the voting process.

It recently promised to add labels to posts which would normally be removed for vio-lating platform rules, but which are left online as “newswor-thy,” following the example of Twitter.

A coalition of activists has pressed Facebook to be more aggressive in removing hateful content and misinformation, in-cluding from the president and political leaders. Some 1,000 advertisers have joined a boy-cott aiming ramp up pressure on Facebook.

The move, without removing the post, appears to follow through on the social network giant’s pledge to step up efforts to fight misinformation

Katy Perry opens

up about pregnancyANI | Washington

American singer-songwrit-er Katy Perry joined re-

cently talked about an array of topics relating to her pregnancy

and how she’s doing as she antic-ipates the arrival of her first child with Orlando Bloom next month.

According to People magazine, the 35-year-old songstress virtually joined the and Australian radio show ‘Kyle and Jackie O’ and shared expe-riences around her pregnancy.

The ‘Firework’ songstress showed off her growing baby bump in a crop top promoting her upcoming album, Perry revealed that she currently weighs 190 pounds and shared that she is at the stage during her pregnancy where “everything is swollen.”

The ‘Roar’ crooner said, “My hands are swollen, my feet

are starting to swell,” be-fore adding that she wears

sandals everywhere she goes. “It’s starting to

get to that point.”She continued,

“I’m really grate-

ful for my body and I have so much respect for other women going through this process. You get a whole new viewpoint being pregnant.”

However, the singer shared with the radio hosts that her preg-nancy hasn’t slowed her down, as she described herself as liking being a “mother on the move.”

“I’m a very active woman and an ac-tive mom and during this time of COVID -- and quite frankly an A m e r i c a n revolution -- I have been also putting out songs and head-ing towards put-ting out a record,” Perry said. “I’m wo r k i n g re a l l y hard. The one bless-ing is I don’t have to travel extremely, which can really take it out of you.”

Nicki Minaj says she is expecting first child

Fox | Washington

Rapper Nicki Minaj announced that she

is pregnant with her first child.

The “Yikes” rap-per shared some

glam photos of her baby

bump on Mo n d a y t o a n -

nounce her exciting news.

Minaj, 37, did a camp-style pho-toshoot for her pregnancy debut. “#Preggers,” she

captioned one pic-ture as she cradled

her bump.“Love. Marriage.

Baby carriage. Over-flowing with excite-ment & gratitude,” she wrote on another post. “Thank you all for the

well wishes.”Minaj and Kenneth

“Zoo” Petty got mar-ried last October. This

is the couple’s first child

together.In August, she announced

during an episode of her Queen Radio show that she and Petty obtained a marriage license.

“We still had to pick it up and I was traveling, by the time I came back, we had to renew it again,” she ex-plained. “From that time, you have 90 days to get mar-ried. That was about a week ago, so now I have about 80 days.”

The “Barbie Dreams” rap-per also dished on future wed-ding plans.

“I have to work on my al-bum, and I have a lot to focus on that I don’t want to do the big wedding now. We’ll do the big wedding later,” she said. “I’ll be married before my album comes out, but will have my wedding after the album comes out. Before the 90 days is over, yes, I will be married.”

Minaj and Petty have been a solid pair since going Ins-tagram official in December 2018.

12 WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

celebs

Across1- Manipulator; 5- Heartburn; 10- He sang about Alice; 14- Saltimbocca seasoning; 15- African acacia tree; 16- Timber; 17- Obstacle; 18- Cover story; 19- French 101 verb; 20- Reducing enzyme; 22- Barbecue leftovers?; 23- Bleaching agent; 24- Brian of rock music; 25- All together; 29- Creatures; 33- Liquid measure; 34- Radiograph; 36- Piece of fencing?; 37- Pot used to contain the ashes of a dead person; 38- Ornamental coronet; 39- Photographer Goldin; 40- Garage sale sign; 42- Iams alternative; 43- Surmise; 45- Speech; 47- Give an account; 49- Naval rank, briefly; 50- Russian fighter; 51- Maker of Pong; 54- Potassium nitrate; 60- Horse of mixed color; 61- Sub system; 62- Pianist Peter; 63- Mentor; 64- Ancient region of Asia Minor; 65- Injectable diazepam, in military lingo; 66- City near Provo; 67- Inventory; 68- North Sea feeder;

Down 1- The Beatles’ “Back in the ___”; 2- All there; 3- Mild oath; 4- Customary; 5- Lets up; 6- Big bash; 7- Large wading bird; 8- Pipe; 9- The Greatest; 10- Inspiring amazement; 11- Portnoy’s creator; 12- Learning; 13- Lyric poems; 21- Fluid-filled sac; 22- Singer DiFranco; 24- “Only Time” singer; 25- Peer; 26- Suckle; 27- Frenzied; 28- Banish; 29- Biblical broth-er; 30- Sleep issue; 31- Minimum; 32- Logic; 35- Blame; 38- Swabbies; 41- Breastbone; 43- Clench; 44- Insistence; 46- Verse starter?; 48- Pacific Surfliner operator; 51- Golden Fleece ship; 52- Travel from place to place; 53- Bern’s river; 54- Chimney residue; 55- ___ Domini; 56- Not of the cloth; 57- Afternoon affairs; 58- Bald eagle’s relative; 59- Laugh loudly; 61- Bro’s counterpart;

S U D O K U C R O S S W O R D

Yesterday’s solutionYesterday’s solution

How to playPlace a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Kim Kardashian reportedly ‘furious’ at Kanye West

Fox | Los Angeles

As stars, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s mar-riage has always been

the subject of speculation and conjecture, but one thing is certain: Rumors of a troubled relationship between the two have popped up over the years.

Most recently, reports have surfaced that Kardashian, 39, is “furious” at her 43-year-old rapper husband after he claimed that the pair consid-ered terminating Kardashian’s first pregnancy, which eventu-ally resulted in their daughter North.

“Kim is shocked that Kanye spoke about North at the rally,” an insider told People maga-zine on Monday of West’s re-marks during his first cam-paign rally in South Carolina over the weekend. The couple also shares three other chil-dren -- sons Saint, 4, and Psalm, 1, and daughter Chicago, 2 -- together.

“She is furious that he shared something so private,” the source added.

A second source also told the outlet that “things have broken down significantly between the

two of them, and

it’s happened pretty suddenly.”A rep for Kardashian did not

immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

On Sunday, West, speaking without a microphone, became tearful while talking about abor-

tion, about his mother, who died following plastic surgery complications in 2007, and about his wife. “Even if my wife wants t o d i v o r c e me after this speech, she brought North into the world even when I didn’t want to. She stood up and she protected that child. You know who else protected a child? Forty-three years ago, who do you think pro-tected a child?” West said crying.

“My mom saved my life. My dad wanted to abort me. My mom saved my life, there would have been no Kanye West because my dad was too busy,” he said.

West and Kardashian be-gan dating in 2012, welcomed their first child, North, and became engaged in 2013 and married in 2014.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian

Carrie Underwood to release first-ever Christmas

album, ‘My Gift’Fox | Los Angeles

Carrie Underwood is releasing her first-ever Christmas album, titled “My Gift.”

The 37-year-old superstar revealed the news of the upcom-ing record, which is due out in September, on social media on Monday.

“I realize we’re in the middle of a summer heatwave, but I couldn’t wait to tell you….at long last, my very first

Christmas album #MyGift is coming September 25! So much love has gone into this and I cannot wait to share it with you! ❤️❤️,” she captioned a two-minute videoon Instagram.

In the clip, Underwood explained her decision to release a holiday album as well as what in-

spired the name.“This year, it was just kind of on my

heart to do this Christmas album,” she said. “I just felt like this was

such a fitting time, kind of feel like it’s a more perfect time

than ever to record an al-bum like this.”

“I’ve always wanted to make a Christmas album

and it’s something that re-ally has to be well thought

out,” Underwood continued. “So right after the ‘Cry Pretty’ tour 360

was over, this was the next step I knew I wanted to take.”

Idris Elba to receive BAFTA special award for

his contribution to TVANI | London

Actor Idris Elba, popular-ly known for his role as

Stringer Bell in ‘The Wire’, will receive the BAFTA Spe-cial Award, one of the British Academy’s highest honours,

for his creative contribu-tion to television.

The upcoming event is set to take place as a closed studio show on July 31 and will honour the 47-year-old actor for mak-

ing the best use of his influence to push for fur-ther diversity in the cinema industry.

“It’s a great privilege to be honored with

the BAFTA Spe-cial Award. It ’s been a mission of mine to provide opportunity and

access to emerging talent from diverse backgrounds in this industry, which is the same opportunity I re-ceived many years ago from open-minded and diversi-ty conscious casting,” The Hollywood Reporter quoted Elba’s statement.

In 2016 he challenged Brit-ish parliament on the matter and later used his production company Green Door Pic-tures to provide on-the-job training and help undiscov-ered talent.

The ‘Luther’ star also thanked BAFTA for consider-ing him and others for their dedication to the same cause.

“I thank BAFTA for rec-ognizing myself and others who are dedicated to the same cause, as these are all necessary steps towards helping to shift the aware-ness and understanding of the diversity gap in enter-tainment,” the ‘Thor’ actor noted.

Nicki Minaj

Katy Perry

Carrie Underwood

Guardiola takes swipe at Arsenal over ‘respect’AFP | London

Manchester City manag-er Pep Guardiola took a

swipe at Arsenal by admitting he does not respect them off the pitch.

G u a r d i o l a ’s s i d e w e r e knocked out of the FA Cup at the semi-final stage by Arse-nal on Saturday as the Gunners won 2-0 at Wembley.

Guardiola was impressed by Arsenal’s play under his for-mer assistant Mikel Arteta, but he made a distinction in his thoughts about the north Lon-don club when it comes to their approach away from the pitch.

Guardiola’s anger with Arse-nal is thought to come from the role they played in the group of eight Premier League clubs per-ceived to have turned on City during their successful appeal against a two-year Champions league ban.

The group wrote to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), to try to ensure any attempt by City to delay their two-year ban while their appeal was ongoing was dismissed.

City had their ban overturned by CAS earlier this month, but Guardiola told reporters: “The

opponents always deserve my respect and credit, and Arsenal, they have it.

“I have all the respect for what Arsenal are on the pitch -- not much off the pitch, but on the pitch a lot.

So I congratulate them and good luck against Chelsea in the final.”

Meanwhile, Guardiola says he is “optimistic” as City pre-pare to resume their bid for Champions League glory against Real Madrid.

City will host the Spanish champions in the second leg

of their last 16 tie on August 7.Guardiola’s side hold a 2-1

lead from the first meeting in Madrid in February.

City only have two Premier League games to play before the visit of Zinedine Zidane’s men.

They were well below their best against Arsenal but Guar-diola pledged to learn from that performance and is confident his team will be ready for Real.

“Part of the good work Arse-nal have done, I give them a lot of credit for, what they did, how good they defended,” Guardiola told reporters.

Busaiteen crowned second division volleyball champions

TDT | Manama

Bahrain’s first official game took place last night since a

Kingdom-wide ban of all sports was implemented a few months ago.

Busaiteen were crowned champions of the Bahrain Second Division Volleyball League after sweeping their finals series against Al Tadha-

mun in two games, with a 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-15) triumph. The match was played at the Bahrain Volleyball Association (BVA) arena at Isa Sports City in Riffa.

BVA president Shaikh Ali bin Mohammed Al Khalifa present-ed the trophies to Busaiteen players and team officials, in the presence of other BVA of-ficials.

Along with the second di-vision title, Busaiteen also won promotion to the first division.

The game took place with strict health and safety precau-tions in place, including social distancing and the wearing of face masks amongst all those in attendance, temperature checks at the entrance, and others.

• Joe Root hailed ‘Mr Incredible’ Ben Stokes after all-round display in England win

• Stokes’ match haul of 254 runs and three wickets fashioned England’s series-levelling victory against West Indies in the second test

AFP | London

England captain Joe Root said his side was in “the presence of greatness”

following all-rounder Ben Stokes’ latest commanding dis-play in yesterday’s second Test against the West Indies at Old Trafford.

Stokes laid the platform for a 113-run victory that saw England level the three-match series at 1-1 with 176 in a first innings of 469-9 declared.

Stokes was required to bat carefully in difficult conditions, a point underlined by the fact it took him 255 balls to reach his century.

But Stokes’ ability to adapt his game to different situations was brilliantly demonstrated during England’s second innings when, promoted to open in a search for quick runs, he struck 78 not out off just 57 balls as West Indies

were an imposing target of 312 to win.

Stokes’ batting alone would have justified the man-of-the-match award he duly re-ceived, but he then proved his worth with the ball as well.

The West Indies, having slumped to 37-4, kept the hosts at bay during a fifth wicket stand of exactly 100 between Shamarh Brooks and Jermaine Blackwood.

‘Mr Incredible’ But it was paceman Stokes

who broke the stand when, dur-ing a typically committed stint, he produced a short ball on the stroke of tea that Blackwood could only glove to wicketkeep-er Jos Buttler.

“He’s Mr Incredible. I sup-pose,” Root told reporters as he compared Stokes to the cartoon superhero of the same name.

“I certainly think he can keep performing at this level. I think

the sky’s the limit for him really.”It’s one thing to identify the

time to up the tempo but an-other to do that as smoothly as Stokes did in this match, with the 29-year-old Durham star’s natural talent now coupled to a heightened tactical awareness.

“To have such a complete game, and so many different gears at your disposal, allows you the ability to keep getting better,” said Root.

The past year has seen Stokes play a key role in England’s World Cup final win over his native New Zealand at Lord’s before his staggering 135 not out secured a remarkable one-wick-et victory over Australia in the third Ashes Test at Headingley.

And Root, back skippering England after missing West Indies’ four-wicket win in the first Test -- where Stokes dep-utised as captain -- to attend the birth of his second child, forecast more of the same from the team’s talisman.

“If he continues to read situ-ations the way he is, and keeps the confidence that he’s playing

with at the moment, there’s no reason why we can’t continue to see such brilliant performances as we have done this week, and over the last 12 months really.

“I think everyone understands that we are watching a player at the peak of his powers, at the peak of world cricket, delivering time and time again.

“We have to savour that, we have to appreciate that and un-derstand that we are, without trying to pump his tyres too much, in the presence of great-ness.”

With the finale in a behind closed doors campaign that marks international cricket’s return following the coronavirus lockdown starting at Old Traf-ford on Friday, Stokes gave Eng-land a scare when he couldn’t complete the 15th over of his bowling spell.

“It was just my body start-ing to get really stiff. I’m fine,” Stokes insisted.

“I’ll give everything to the team, whatever is asked of me. It’s a case of doing what’s need-ed at the time.”

Arsenal’s Spanish head coach Mikel Arteta (L) bumps arms with Manchester City’s Spanish manager Pep Guardiola (R)

Busaiteen players with officials at the awarding

Ben Stokes plays a shot

England in the presence of Stokes’ ‘greatness’ says Root

Stokes was also a key player for England last year, pushing

them to a thrilling 50-overs World Cup final win and smash-

ing an unbeaten century to ensure victory in an Ashes test against Australia at Headingley

KNOW WHAT

13

sports

WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

Stokes replaces Holder at top of all-rounder rankingsReuters | London

England vice-captain Ben Stokes’ match-winning

performance in the second test against West Indies hoisted him above Wind-ies skipper Jason Holder to become the top-ranked all-rounder in the game’s longest format, the Interna-tional Cricket Council said yesterday.

Stokes followed up his 176 in the first innings with an unbeaten 78 in the second and also picked up three wickets in the contest to pull off a series-levelling win on Monday, earning the player-of-the-match award.

The 29-year-old overtook Holder in the latest rankings to become the first England player to reach the top spot since Andrew Flintoff in May 2006.

His moving average of 497 rating points, the highest of any test all-rounder since South Africa great Jacques Kallis racked up 517 in April 2008, ended Holder’s 18-month reign at the top.

Stokes also climbed to a career-best third position among test batsmen, be-hind India’s Virat Kohli and Australia’s top-ranked Steve Smith.

Meanwhile, Stokes played down injury concerns ahead of the third test at Man-chester starting on Friday, after he did not finish an over when bowling late on Monday.

“I felt very old this test match. The body started to feel really stiff,” Stokes told the BBC. “I asked Broady (Stuart Broad) and he said ‘Just stop’.

Bale’s agent says Real Madrid forward will not leave the club

Reuters | Madrid

Real Madrid forward Ga-reth Bale is not leaving

the club even though he has not been featuring regularly for the La Liga champions in recent weeks, according to his agent Jonathan Bar-nett.

Despite winning four Champions League titles with Real, Bale divides opinion because of a per-ceived lack of commitment and a poor injury record. He seemed set for a move to Chinese club Jiangsu Sun-ing last year before the deal fell through.

The Welshman, who has scored more than 100 goals for the club, infuriated Real fans as he joked about fall-ing asleep with a protec-tive face mask over his eyes while watching the team’s recent 2-0 win over Alaves in Madrid from the stands.

“Gareth’s fine. He has two years left on his contract. He likes living in Madrid and he’s going nowhere,” Barnett told the BBC.

Indian cricket board seeks to host IPL in UAE • Postponement T20 World Cup has presented the BCCI with a new opportunity to stage the IPL

AFP | New Delhi

Th e I n d i a n P r e m i e r League yesterday seized upon the postpone-

ment of the Twenty20 World Cup to propose holding its cash bonanza tournament in the United Arab Emirates from September.

IPL chairman Brijesh Patel told AFP that the Board of Con-trol for Cricket in India was seeking government permission to finally stage the event after multiple hold-ups because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The board is confident it can assemble stars from around the world to line up for the eight IPL teams from late September to early November. The UAE would be hosting the IPL for the second time in six years.

“It will be held in the UAE but first the board will seek per-mission from the Indian gov-ernment to stage it there,” Patel said.

He added that the exact dates would be decided by the IPL’s

governing council next week. Media reports have predicted the IPL would run from Septem-ber 26 to November 7.

Patel would not say wheth-er the games would be played behind closed doors. A final de-cision would rest with the UAE and Indian authorities.

The IPL is the BCCI’s main revenue earner. The Indian board has said it would lose more than $500 million if this year’s tournament does not go ahead.

The seven-week tournament, which normally plays to packed stadiums across the country of 1.3 billion people, is estimated to generate more than $11 billion for the Indian economy.

‘Tough call’ The BCCI had to wait until the

International Cricket Council formally postponed the World Cup on Monday before an-nouncing its new plan.

The World Cup was to be held in Australia from Octo-ber, ahead of a second tourna-ment in India in 2021 to get the World Cup onto a new calendar cycle.

Under the new arrangements, either Australia or India will host the next T20 World Cup in October-November 2021, then the other nation will hold it in 2022.

Cricket Australia’s acting chief executive Nick Hockley said yesterday that the post-

ponement of the T20 World Cup was “absolutely inevitable”.

India has long been pressing for a decision, however, so that it can get the IPL back on track.

The IPL has been held out-side India twice before when it clashed with national elections. South Africa hosted the 2009 event and part of it was held in the UAE in 2014.

The 13th IPL should have started on March 29 but it has been repeatedly postponed be-cause of a nationwide corona-virus lockdown. With the pan-demic not expected to peak in India for several weeks, a tour-nament in India is considered too risky.

A host of international stars including England’s Ben Stokes and Australia’s Steve Smith and David Warner are signed up for the eight teams.

14WEDNESDAY, JULY 22 2020

Emirates Cricket Board made an offer

to host it but we require government

permission to stage it in UAE. We’ll discuss the issue in the next

governing council meeting in 7-10 days

BRIJESH PATEL

IPL Trophy is seen at the stadium prior to the final match in 2019 (file photo)

Chelsea ‘a long way’ behind Liverpool, warns Lampard

AFP | London

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard warned his

side will have to make huge strides to challenge Liver-pool for the Premier League title next year, despite al-ready making big moves in the transfer market.

Lampard’s men travel to the champions on Wednes-day hoping to get the win they need to guarantee Champions League football next season.

Liverpool’s form has tailed off since clinching a first title in 30 years last month, but Jurgen Klopp’s men remain 30 points ahead of Chelsea.

“A long way,” said Lam-pard when asked how far off his side from the consistent standards of Liverpool and Manchester City.

“We have to be realistic about that as a club, as do many of the other clubs, because themselves and Manchester City, particu-larly Liverpool this year, have shown an incredible consistency that only comes through hard work and time with fantastic players and fantastic coaching.

Frank Lampard

Gareth Bale

BRAVE CF expands brand during the pandemic break; boasts six new partnerships TDT | Manama

The Bahrain-based promo-tion, founded by His High-

ness Sheikh Khaled bin Hamad Al Khalifa, signed agreements with Win Sports, Wave, Wohoo, FightGlobe, Elevador Films, and Fighting Spirit in a matter of weeks.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced BRAVE Combat Federa-tion, the fastest-growing MMA organization in the world, to suspend temporarily its activi-ties, with a series of events post-poned.

BRAVE CF is finally back, with BRAVE CF 35, its first event back, taking place in Romania, but the months in which the organiza-tion shows were in hiatus were far from quiet in its headquar-ters.

BRAVE CF executives moved aggressively during the time off and took the opportunity to expand the brand coverage and reach even more, signing a staggering number of six new content agreements in a short period of time, and encompass-ing multiple territories in differ-ent continents.

They were: Colombian-based television Win Sports, Brazilian

TV channel Wohoo, Mexican production company Elevador Films, Social Media conglom-erate Wave, content distribution market leaders Fight Globe, and France-based content giants Fighting Spirit.

Win Sports had previous ex-perience with BRAVE Combat Federation when the truly glob-al promotion visited the Co-lombian capital Bogota in 2019. The new agreement expands the partnership and includes a weekly show, with a prime-time slot every Saturday on the channel dedicated to BRAVE CF content.

A similar deal was signed with Brazil’s Woohoo. The channel, which is available in more than 10 million households nation-wide, will dedicate a weekly slot

for BRAVE Combat Federation fights, focused and specially tai-lored to the Brazilian audience.

The impact in the social me-dia area came with the agree-ment between BRAVE CF and the conglomerate Wave, which counts with more than 60 mil-lion fans around all its plat-forms. The strategic partnership will provide exclusive content to engage audiences around the world, expanding even more BRAVE CF’s social footprints.

The deal with the award-win-ning production company El-evador Films opens up new avenues for BRAVE Combat Federation, with the inclusion of new formats to be added to the promotion’s robust library, including, apart from the live events, documentary series and reality shows.

Last but not least BRAVE CF made official its partnership with the two largest combat sports content distribution companies in the world: Fight-ing Spirit and Fight Globe. Both agencies from now on will rep-resent and increase even more the reach and audience of BRAVE Combat Federation media prod-ucts.

Once more, BRAVE Combat Federation solidifies its position as the strongest sports media property in Asia by ensuring that all the impact caused by the fastest-growing MMA pro-motion inside the sports world is also matched by equally powerful business and media plans.

BRAVE CF executives moved ag-gressively during the time off and

took the opportunity to expand the brand coverage and reach

even moreKNOW WHAT

Solskjaer defends ‘mentally strong’ De Gea after errorsAFP | London

David de Gea is mentally strong enough to deal

with fierce criticism follow-ing a series of costly goalkeep-ing blunders for Manchester United, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said yesterday.

The 29-year-old Spaniard’s place as United’s number one is under severe pressure after he was at fault for two goals in United’s 3-1 FA Cup semi-final defeat against Chelsea on Sunday.

It came after other glaring errors over the past 18 months from De Gea, previously con-sidered among the best goalkeepers in the world.

S o l s k j a e r , speaking at his pre-match press c o n f e r e n c e , w a s d e t e r -mined to keep the focus on Wednesday’s game against West Ham rather than the struggles of his goal-keeper.

“This is not going to become a David de Gea press conference,” he said. “We’re just going to stick together. We’ve got two games, so we’re just going to focus on that one.

“David’s mentally strong enough to know that his job is to perform in training the

next day and then be ready for the games.”

Dean Henderson is snap-ping at De Gea’s heels after impressing on loan at Sheffield United while Sergio Romero, the back-up goalkeeper sur-prisingly omitted from the FA Cup semi-final starting line-up, is waiting in the wings.

Solskjaer has a significant decision to make about the position for their penultimate Premier League match of the season, given victory would give his fifth-placed side a

huge boost in the Champions League race.

Leicester’s 3-0 loss at Tottenham on Sun-

day means United are not only level with the fourth-placed Foxes on 62 points but on goal difference as well, with the clubs going toe-to-toe at the King Pow-er Stadium in fascinat ing season finale on Sunday.

Solskjaer w a s u n d e r

intense pressure him-self earlier in the season but a long unbeaten run either side of the coro-navirus shutdown has turned their campaign around.

The Norwegian said it was clear that Unit-ed were on the right track.

David de Gea

Bahrain Raid Xtreme has big ambitions for Dakar 2021TDT | Manama

Bahrain Raid Xtreme (BRX) – the newly launched team to enter the Dakar

Rally 2021 – has big ambitions for next year’s race.

Speaking after the team’s launch announcement, Team Director David Richards shared details on the team’s motiva-tions, the design and build of the new car and what the Dakar Rally means for him, personally.

The team – born out of a joint venture between British motor-sport manufacturers Prodrive and the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Bahrain, Mumtalakat, – is Bahrain’s latest foray into the world of motorsport.

The project will include the building of a bespoke BRX ve-hicle that will compete in the top-level T1 class of the Dakar Rally.

The vehicle, currently being built out of the Prodrive HQ in Banbury, is over two years in the

making and will be ‘the perfect car for Dakar’, says Richards.

The Dakar Rally – with its extreme desert terrain and chal-

lenging courses – is among the world’s greatest sporting events, according to Richards.

‘When you look at sport and

you look at those famous events, whether it’s the Superbowl in America or the World Cup Fi-nal in football, there are some that stand out above all others. In motorsport, I’d say the In-dianapolis 500, the Le Mans 24-hour race, but I’d also say Dakar.”

It is a challenge that spikes the interest of many great driv-ers, including Fernando Alonso, who will return to Formula 1 with Renault in 2021, he added.

“It is quite interesting, you look at drivers like Alonso, potentially one of the greatest drivers of his era; he’s won at Monaco, he’s won at Le Mans and he’s tried to win Indianap-olis, and he still wants to win Dakar. So that rather speaks for itself.”

This could be David Richards’ final project in motorsports, with a glittering career span-ning over 50 years and the Team Director admits that it is one of the biggest challenges in motor-sport so far alluding him.

“There is one challenge we [Prodrive] have never attempt-ed. A challenge that everyone says is one of the most diffi-cult ones. And that’s Dakar. And that’s still to come,” he said.

15WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020

Hon. Chairman Najeb Yacob Alhamer | Editor-in-Chief Mahmood AI Mahmood | Chairman & Managing Director P Unnikrishnan Advertisement: Update Media W.L.L | Tel: 38444692, Email: sales@newsofbahrain.com | Newsroom: Tel: 38444680, Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

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Bahrain Raid Xtreme (BRX) car in action

Grigore survives onslaught to get a dramatic victory

TDT | Manama

Ion Grigore hoped to move to 7-1 at BRAVE CF 35, as he took

on Mamadou Lamine Sene, but certainly didn’t predict such difficulties. The Roma-nian giant had to endure nearly two rounds of punishment be-fore turning things around in what has truly been one of the best comebacks of the year in mixed martial arts.

A former Glory kickboxer, Lamine Sene started faster in the co-main event of BRAVE CF’s first of five European events in five weeks. Utilizing his kicks and uppercuts, the first-ever Senegalese BRAVE CF fighter kept his opponent

at bay and almost finished the fight in the first round on more than one occasion.

However, Grigore per-severed and barely made to the second frame after eating a sequence of uppercuts by Lamine Sene. It seemed as if things were going to take a similar route, with Sene also adding in takedowns to neu-tralize his Romanian coun-terpart.

When things seemed head-ing for a stoppage victory for Lamine Sene, Grigore turned up the heat and used his boxing combinations to take over, and put “The Black Rock” away with a series of punches.

Ion Grigore (L) and Mamadou Lamine Sene in action during a bout

The team – born out of a joint venture between British motorsport manufacturers Prodrive and the Sovereign

Wealth Fund of Bahrain, Mumtalakat, – is Bahrain’s latest foray into the world of motorsportKNOW WHAT

Action-packed BRAVE CF 35 kicks off European Invasion• BRAVE CF kicked off a series of five events in five weeks in European

TDT | Manama

BRAVE Combat Federation, the fastest-growing MMA organization in the world,

resumed its activities with a behind-the-doors show in Bu-charest, Romania, as BRAVE CF 35 kicked off a series of five events in the next five weeks in European soil. In association with EXF, the six-fight card fea-tured a lot of excitement for fans around the globe with all bouts ending with a finish.

In the main event, Enrico Cor-tese moved to 2-0 under BRAVE CF and got a first-round submis-sion, as he made short-notice newcomer Claudiu Alexe tap out due to strikes in the very first round, after quickly secur-ing a takedown over the kick-boxer Alexe and raining down elbows and punches.

One of the comebacks of the year was made in the co-main event. After being dominated and nearly finished on a few occasions by Mamadou Lamine Sene, Ion Grigore was able to secure a TKO, after connecting with a boxing combination that sent his Senegalese counterpart to the canvas late in the second frame.

Malin Hermansson got the first finish of her MMA career as she submitted Ana Maria Pal in the second round, and Abou Tounkara made the most of his BRAVE CF debut and dominat-ed short-notice Marvin Belec-ciu en route to a second-round TKO.

In the second bout of the

evening, Mihai Laurentiu Iorga scored one of the KO’s of the year with a head kick that immedi-ately separated Ioan Vranceany from his senses, while Mirel Dragan gave himself the per-fect birthday present with a submission win over Marian Olaru in the night’s opening bout.

BRAVE Combat Federation continues the European Inva-sion next week with BRAVE CF 36 also taking place in Romania. In the main event, Todd Stoute takes on veteran Amilcar Alves, while prospects Kevin Ruart, Ion Surdu, Bilal Tipsaev and Matiss Zaharovs will also be in action.

Mihai Laurentiu Iorga and Ioan Vranceanu in action during a bout

After debut win, Malin Hermansson demands spot at BRAVE CF Sweden

TDT | Manama

Flyweight Malin Hermans-son couldn’t have asked

for a better debut at the fast-est-growing MMA organization in the world. During BRAVE CF 35, the Swedish fighter scored the first stoppage win of her career when she locked in a rear-naked choke and made Ana Maria Pal tap out in the second round of their bout. Now, she wants to keep going and plans to take full advan-tage of BRAVE CF’s plans to take over Europe with four more events in the next four weeks.

Fighting out of Örebro, Sweden, “The Herminator” feels she has the opportu-nity to come back and fight at home since BRAVE CF will host the last three events of its “European Invasion” in her home country. BRAVE CF 37 is scheduled for August 1st, while

BRAVE CF 38 and BRAVE CF 39 take place on August 8th and August 15th, respectively.

“I’m healthy and ready to go. It was a great evening for me but it’s in the past now. I want to make a statement. My time is now and I will not let anything come in my way. I’m going to show what Women’s MMA is all about and I’m going to steal the show in Sweden”, said Hermansson, who de-manded to be included in one of the three cards that BRAVE CF will be hosting in the Scan-dinavian country.

With her win over Ana Ma-ria, Hermansson improved to 5-1 as a professional fighter and is now looking to extend her winning streak to four vic-tories and will hope to add a second straight stoppage win, perhaps in her home country of Sweden under the BRAVE CF banner once again.

Malin Hermansson in action during a bout

BRAVE CF 35 results

Catchweight: Enrico Cortese def. Claudiu Alexe via submission (strikes) - Round 1Heavyweight: Ion Grigore def. Mamadou Lamine Sene via TKO - Round 2

Flyweight: Malin Hermansson def. Ana Maria Pal by submission (rear-naked choke)Catchweight: Abou Tounkara def. Marvin Belecciu by TKO - Round 2

Catchweight: Mihai Laurentiu Iorga def. Ioan Vranceanu by KO (Head Kick) - Round 2Welterweight: Mirel Dragan def. Marian Olaru by submission (guillotine choke) - Round 1