THE FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY IN FREE KUWAITEstablished in 1977 / www.arabtimesonline.com

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020 / JUMADA AL AWWAL 9, 1442 AH emergency number 112 NO. 17570 16 PAGES 150 FILS

skiing marketsPage 15 Page 9

We lost Sheikh of Sheikhs

Amir receives condolences Shots from today

Kuwait set to receive all for vaccine

Bill suggests write-off ofinterest on citizen loans

By Saeed Mahmoud SalehArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: The parliamen-tary Response to Amiri Speech Commit-tee on Wednesday elected MP Saadoun Hammad as chairperson and MP Dr Saleh Zeiab Al Mutairi as rapporteur.

In addition, MP Ahmed Muhammad Al-Hamad was elected chairperson of the Financial and Economic Affairs Commit-tee and MP Hamad Said Al-Harshanias rapporteur; while MP Farz Al-Daihani was elected chairperson of the Housing Affairs Committee.

In a press statement after the Response to Amiri Speech Committee meeting, MP Saadoun Hammad disclosed that he met with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Thamer Ali Al-Sabah during which he asked the minister to expedite the promotion of non-com-missioned officers who hold secondary school certificates, have been in service for 15 years and are highly qualified to the rank of lieutenant. He pointed out these officers must undergo the necessary training course prior to their promotion.

Hammad also disclosed that he sub-mitted a bill on writing off the interest of citizens’ loans. He suggested the State will buy these loans from the banks, so the in-terest will be waived. The debtors will then pay the net loan amount (without interest) in installments for 25 years and the amount of installment should not exceed 25 per-cent of the basic salary, he added.

Meanwhile, MP Dr Saleh Zeiab Al-Mutairi has forwarded queries to the fol-lowing ministers about the comments of the State Audit Bureau (SAB) regarding their respective ministries: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah, Minister of Interior Thamer Ali Sabah Al-Salem, Minister of Oil, Electricity and Water Dr Muhammad Abdullatif Al-Fares, Minis-ter of Health Dr Basel Al-Sabah, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Ahmed Nasser Al-Muhammad, Minister of Public Works and State Minister for Municipal Af-fairs Dr Rana Al-Fares, State Minister for National Assembly Affairs Mubarak Al-Harees, Minister of Finance Khalifa Musaed Hamada, Minister of Informa-tion and State Minister for Youth Affairs Abdulrahman Al-Mutairi, Deputy Prime Minister and State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh, State Minister for Housing and Services Affairs Abdullah Marafi, Minister of Commerce and In-dustry and State Minister for Economic Affairs Faisal Al Medlej, Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Ali

Fahd Al-Mudaf, and Minister of Justice Dr Nawaf Soud Al-Yasseen.

Al-Mutairi wants to know if these min-istries have responded to the comments of SAB, steps taken in this regard, inves-tigations conducted and cases referred to the Public Prosecution due to violations recorded by SAB.

In another development, Al-Mutairi criticized the way the government voted for members of parliamentary commit-tees. He pointed out that the government voted for MPs known for being frequent-ly absent in the meetings of committees in the 2016 Parliament. He said one of the MPs that the government voted for was a member of three committees in the previ-ous legislature. He disclosed this MP was absent in 14 out 15 meetings of one com-mittee, three out of five meetings of the other committee, and 21 out of 31 meet-ings of the third committee.

Furthermore, MP Dr Ali Al-Qattan sub-mitted a bill on increasing the pension of retirees to help them cope with inflation and the rising cost of living. He said the amount of increment will depend on the reports of Kuwait Central Statistical Bureau.

MPs Osama Al-Menawer, Hesham Al-Saleh, Muhammad Obaid Al-Rajhi, Hassan Jawhar and Shuaib Al-Muwaizri have pro-posed the establishment of a fund for com-pensating the victims of real estate fraud.

According to the proposal, the budget for this fund will be taken from the Public Reserve Fund. It stipulates granting the victims 80 percent of the compensation amount specified in the final court ruling, while the remaining 20 percent will be paid once the verdict issued against those who committed fraud is implemented.

The finance minister shall supervise the fund, which will consist of two com-mittees. The task of one of these commit-tees, which will have three members, is to receive complaints. The finance min-ister will form the other committee that will specify the amount of compensation based on the documents presented by the victims.

MP Osama Al-Menawer submitted a bill on adding female retirees to the health insurance program ‘Afia’ as well as the male retirees who are not covered by the program. He pointed out that the relevant law allows the health minister to add new categories to the beneficiaries of‘Afia’.

On his meeting with Public Authority for Handicapped Affairs (PAHA) Direc-tor Dr Shafiqa Al-Awadi, Al-Menawer disclosed that he accompanied a female doctor whose expertise is on people with special needsand she applied for permit to establish a school for special needs stu-dents.

By Ali Ahmed Al-BaghliFormer Minister of Oil

WHEN we were young, our parents and grandparents used to implore us by using the phrase – “Pardon, O Sheikh”. To our young understanding, addressing someone with the word “Sheikh” meant that a person is polite, righteous, obedient to his elders, and respectful to his siblings.

In this regard, I comfortably relate to the late Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad, who embodied and represented the title ‘Sheikh’ to the fullest.

We went to the same school – Sabah Primary School – which is located on Ahmed Al-Jaber Street (formerly known as Dasman), as he used to live in Dasman Palace. Half of the Sheikhs’ children and those living under their care studied in Sabah Primary School because of its proximity to Das-man Palace, and the other half studied in the Eastern School in Al-Mutaba neighborhood.

After we completed our primary level education, we went to different high schools. We ended up meeting again in the chairs and terraces of the College of Sharia and Law in Adailiya area in the late 60s of the 20th century.

The late sheikh used to tell me stories about artifacts and antiquities that he bought from the various places he visited in the world. He collected them for his museum in his house, which is located by the sea in Fintas area where he lived with his wife Sheikha Hussa Sabah Al-Salem.

I remember once I visited him along with our late friend and classmate Essam Bader Sheikh Yousef bin Essa, at his house. He showed us some of his rare collections of artifacts. One of our unforgettable moments is sitting at the edge of the swimming pool in his house.

It was the first time I saw his son Sheikh Abdullah Nasser Al-Sabah as an infant carried by a Filipina nanny around the swimming pool because he was crying. It was also the first time for me to see a nanny from the Philippines, as the nannies and housemaids usually came from Egypt and India.

After a while, Sheikh Nasser and his wife Sheikha Hussa established a cultural organization called “Dar Al-Athar Al-Islammiyah”. He requested me to be the organization’s legal advisor under the directorship of Umm Abdullah.

Reacting to one of my articles published in Al-Watan newspaper and then Al-Qabas newspaper, Sheikh Nasser called me to his house in Al-Bida’a area, which later became Salwa House – the residence of his late father.

Our conversations revolved around the widespread corruption in Ku-wait at the time (which would be embarrassing when compared to the level of corruption we are currently enduring) and his intention to bring about reform if he is given some authority.

He was appointed as an advisor to His Highness the Prime Minister and Crown Prince at the time – the late Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah.

Sheikh Nasser used to invite me to exchange views in his office at Saif Palace. At one point he mentioned the idea of the Silk Road, and of Kuwait becoming a financial and cultural hub.

A committee was formed to facilitate these wonderful ideas and aspira-tions. The committee consisted of members such as major businessper-sons, the late Nasser Al-Kharafi, myself, and several people who should pardon me for not remembering their names.

However, after all the preparations to materialize this dream, the entire plan got torpedoed by fundamentalists. Our rational governments allowed them to frustrate every move towards the materialization of this glamorous aspiration.

He was then appointed as the Minister of the Amiri Diwan during his father’s early reign, then as the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. He held corruption and corrupt people by the horn irrespective of their status and influence.

With that unprecedented tough stance against corruption and corrupt individuals – a stance never seen before in his family, Sheikh Nasser’s life ended, and he deservingly earned the title of “Sheikh of Sheikhs”.

May Almighty Allah overwhelm his soul with mercy and grant him the bliss of Paradise. May He grant patience and solace to the bereaved.

❑ ❑ ❑

ali-albaghli@hotmail.com

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23, (KUNA): His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received a cable of condolences from Egyptian President Abdulfatah el-Sisi, in which he expressed his sincere condolences over the demise of late Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad.

In his cable, the Egyptian pres-ident offered his condolences to Al-Sabah family as well.

In a reply cable, His Highness the Amir expressed his gratitude to the Egyptian leader for his kind words and sincere senti-ments.

His Highness Sheikh Nawaf also received a cable of condo-lences on Wednesday from the Prince of Wales – Prince Charles, expressing his sorrow over the demise of late Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of De-fense.

In the cable, Prince Charles also offered his sincere condo-lences to the Al-Sabah family.

In turn, His Highness the Amir thanked Prince Charles for his kind words and sincere senti-ments.

China on Wednesday ex-pressed its sincere condolences to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Sabah, the Kuwaiti government and its people over the demise of late Sheikh Nasser Sabah.

The condolences were con-tained in a cable sent by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Com-munist Party of China (IDCPC) to Kuwait Embassy in China.

In the cable, the Chinese Com-munist Party (CCP) expressed sorrow and sadness over the de-mise of Sheikh Nasser, extending their deepest condolences to Al-Sabah family.

The CCP mentioned that the late Sheikh Nasser was an old friend of theirs, as he made posi-tive contributions to enhancing mutual political trust and intel-lectual exchange between China and Kuwait, while promoting cooperation between both sides within the framework of the Belt and Road initiative, and with his death, they lost a loyal friend.

His Highness the Amir re-ceived earlier on Tuesday cables of condolences from President of UAE Khalifa Bin Zayed Bin Sul-tan Al-Nahyan; UAE Vice Presi-dent and Prime Minister and Rul-er of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum; and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al-Na-hyan expressing their deepest condolences over the death of Sheikh Nasser Sabah.

In their cables, they also prayed to Allah Almighty to be-stow His Highness the Amir and the family of late Sheikh Nasser solace and patience.

His Highness the Amir replied to UAE leaders with cables ex-pressing His Highness’s deep-est thanks, praying to Allah Al-mighty to rest the late Sheikh’s in peace and grant him best place in paradise.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received a cable of con-dolence on Wednesday from Al-Sharja Ruler Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammad Al-Qasemi, ex-pressing sincere sorrow over the demise late Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah.

His Highness the Amir also received a similar cable from Al-Sharja Crown Prince Sheikh Abdullah bin Salem bin Sultan Al-Qasemi, expressing similar sentiments.

In return, His Highness the Amir sent two cables to Al-Shar-ja officials expressing gratitude and appreciation for the kind words and warm sentiments.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received a cable of con-dolences on Wednesday from Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Ajman Sheikh Hu-maid bin Rashid Al-Nuaimi, over the demise of late Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the former Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Defense.

In the cable, Al-Nuaimi also offered his sincere condolences to Al-Sabah family.

His Highness the Amir also received two similar condolence cables from Crown Prince of Aj-man Sheikh Ammar bin Humaid Al-Nuaimi and Deputy Ruler of Ajman Sheikh Nasser bin Rashid Al-Nuaimi.

In cables back, His Highness the Amir thanked Ajman officials and appreciated the messages and sincere sentiments.

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23, (Agencies): The Director of Public Health Depart-ment Dr. Fahad Al-Qimlas announced Wednesday the Ministry’s readiness to re-ceive everyone to take the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines, as it has a well-placed plan to approve vacci-nation centers, namely halls number five and six at Ku-wait International Fair (KIF) grounds, as well as two addi-tional centers in Al-Ahmadi and Al-Jahra governorates.

Al-Qimlas added in remarks to the media, that people desiring to receive COVID-19 vaccinations have to reg-ister their requests electronically to facilitate the process of their entrance to the centers, and to approve their reservations, as the Ministry is ready to receive thousands daily.

Al-Qimlas made his remarks on the sidelines of the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Council of Ministers Af-fairs at the vaccination hall earlier at KIF.

AccurateAl-Qimlas called on people ques-

tioning the credibility of the vaccine ac-tiveness to avoid the spread of rumors, and to take accurate information from its trusted sources, and from special-ized people who are thoroughly look-ing at the studies on the activeness of the vaccine.

The official noted medical cadres are fully in charge and prepared in the vac-cination centers, as they are capable to receive all registered people requiring taking the vaccine, calling on everyone to immediately register via the elec-tronic website.

The storing of the COVID-19 vac-cines are conducted upon the instruc-tions and regulations of the Ministry’s medical stores department, as the vac-cine quantities are enough and covering the need of all demands.

The launch of the COVID-19 vac-cine will begin Thursday, December 24, with the elderly and first frontline workers receiving the jab, said Minister of Health Sheikh Dr. Basel Al-Sabah Wednesday.

During an inspection with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Anas Al-Saleh of Hall-5 at MIshref area’s International Fairs Ground, Sheikh Dr. Basel deliv-ered a statement indicating that the vac-cine would arrive on a monthly basis in Kuwait for a period of a year.

He affirmed that the ministry was keen on delivering the vaccine to peo-ple nationwide.

The minister thanked the medical cadres, technicians, and experts for their around-the-clock efforts in the previous months, saying that it resulted in the logistical success of delivering the vaccine to Kuwait.

EradicateSheikh Dr. Basel said that Kuwait

will now begin a new phase of vac-cination and hopefully beating the virus, adding that it was important to eradicate the COVID-19 rather than focus bringing the number of infec-tions down.

He affirmed that herd immunity could only be achieved through the vaccination campaign.

On his part, Minister Anas Al-Saleh revealed that His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Ha-mad Al-Sabah will the first to receive the jab followed by those registering in the vaccination campaign online.

Al-Saleh expressed pride in the prep-aration for the campaign, thanking the Minister of Health and all the members of the ministry for their efforts.

He added that members of the Interi-or Ministry, Kuwait Fire Force (KFF), and related bodies would do their best to facilitate the campaign’s success.

The first shipment of the COV-ID-19 vaccine arrived at dawn today (Wednesday) as 73,700 people have registered their names on Ministry of Health website — those wishing to re-ceive the vaccine so far, and the num-ber of those registering is increasing.

Sheikh Dr. Basel, said in a press statement that yesterday the ministry has determined or rather shortlisted those who will be given the COVID-19 vaccine during what the ministry called four stages — includes all health care providers, those older than 65 years and workers in the first rows, and the remaining stages include all members and groups of society.

However, informed sources told the Al-Seyassah daily, that the Ministry of Health has mobilized its sectors to train and provide the necessary medical and technical personnel to work at the vac-cination centers, and has requested the directors of health districts and public hospitals to provide 500 nurses, doctors and health inspectors to work at these centers.

Photo courtesy of Ali Al BaghliAli Al Baghli poses with Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al Ahmad at a

chalet in Sabbiyah belonging to the late Sheikh.

Opinion

Our dear Amir ... For the wolf notto die and the sheep not to perish

By Ahmed Al-JarallahEditor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

SINCE review is beneficial, and those fishing in troubled waters should not take it as an excuse to say that, in dealing with the issue of loans, as we mentioned earlier, social injustice, waste of public money, violation of the rights of future generations and other allegations, which I fear is intended to create a rift between the people and the political leadership, are among the calls to reject any solutions to people’s issues, such as the northern oil fields, the “Dhow”, and other economic and social projects that have been aborted by that group. That is why we go back and repeat - Those who borrowed did not have any problem with repayment, and likewise those who lent them were reas-sured that they would recover the debts. However, the economic and financial conditions led to them defaulting. Here I am not talking about huge commercial debts, but rather simple consumer loans, which led to a lot of social problems for Kuwaiti families.

O our pleasant ruler, the honest Crown Prince, and clean-headed Prime Minis-ter, those who express an opinion con-trary to the desire of a large segment of Kuwaitis, and those who are creatively abusing about 120,000 Kuwaitis and their families, do not portray the matter realistically. They exaggerate the issue in order to prove their claims are correct, but the simple solution does not impose any burden on the state. It is to agree with the banks to drop or reduce the interest on loans, and to guarantee the principal of the debt as well as reschedule it for over 20 or 30 years, just like the housing and land loan.

If it did so, it would ensure that the citi-zens pay off the debts in small amounts from their salaries and reduce the social problems arising from that, in addition to alleviating the judiciary which is over-crowded with litigants for very small amounts.

As for creditors, they should pay atten-tion to the fact that a new law has been passed. We are talking about the bank-ruptcy law, which will protect the debtor and prevent him from being imprisoned or selling his house at auction, or even from traveling. Commercial debts have their exits in this law, and thus they must act in line with the proverb - “For the wolf not to die and the sheep not to perish”. They must deal with the issue conscious-ly, so that they do not lose everything and lose their debts.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries rushed to cushion its effects on their people. Here is the US Congress approving for the second time a huge stimulus support package, and granting every citizen $ 2,000, which has been increased from $1,200. Most of the Gulf countries approved credit facilities for citizens, and some loans were written off, while others were reduced.

Unfortunately, in Kuwait, the treat-ment is completely contrary; it is nei-ther scientific nor practical, but imagi-native.

When we look at the conditions set in regard to the insolvency fund, it is clear that they were not set to serve the intend-ed objective, which was to cushion the negative effects of the COVID-19 crisis. They were impossible conditions that no citizen could bear, which is what led to a widening of the economic and financial deficit.

I say from my position as an observer and writer that I fear the goal of those who oppose the resolution of this simple issue is one of the methods of conspiring against the country’s ruling system - by separating the people and the leadership, and increasing the level of discontent.

Email: ahmed@aljarallah.com

Follow me on:

ahmedaljarallah@gmail.com

Day by Day

Other Voices

THE program of the parlia-mentary bloc, which was formed immediately after the 2020 National Assembly poll results were declared, was to bring back fugitives from Turkey and topple Marzouq Al-Ghanim, but Marzouq suc-ceeded turning the tables on his ‘opponents’.

This stunned the ‘se-nior leader and his brother Khaled’. The bloc splintered into several blocs with none able to steer clear and estab-

lish a clear program, so they changed their compass and attempted to control most of the National Assembly com-mittees, especially those that serve them and their interests, but here also they failed.

Now they are preparing to take revenge on ministers and the Prime Minister, because they voted for their opponent Marzouq.

... Yet tomorrow is another day.

Zahed Matar

2ARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

editor’s choice

Self-immolation a grim form of protest in Tunisia

Recourse to a flame that burns inside

Hosni Kalaia, 49, smokes a cigarette in his house in Kasserine, Tunisia on Dec11. He’s among hundreds of Tunisians who have turned to the desperate act of self-immolation in the past 10 years as a form of protest. Kalaia spent three years in a hospital and then a private clinic recovering from his burns. Inset: Hosni Kalaia, 49, displays a photo on Dec 11, that shows his younger brother, Sabre, who died after setting himself

ablaze in 2015, in Kasserine, Tunisia. (AP)

In his old life, Hosni Kalaia remembers strolling the streets of his hometown of Kasserine in central Tunisia with confidence. He flashed

his heavy gold bracelets and rings, and puffed out his chest, broad and sculptured from regular workouts.

Today, Kalaia hides his face from the world behind dark sunglasses and beneath a woolen hat. On his left hand, three blackened, gnarled fingers protrude from one glove; on his right, he has none at all.

He lost them in the few seconds it took to disfigure his life forever, when — angry and distraught about the abuse and injustice he’d suffered at the hands of a local police chief — Kalaia doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire.

He’s among hundreds of Tunisians who have turned to the desperate act of self-immolation in the past 10 years, following the example of Mohammed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old fruit seller in the town of Sidi Bouz-id who set himself ablaze on Dec. 17, 2010, to protest police harassment.

Bouazizi’s gruesome death unwittingly unleashed mass demonstra-tions against poverty and repression, leading to the downfall of Tunisia’s dictator of 23 years. That in turn sparked the Arab Spring uprisings and a decade of crackdowns and civil wars across the region.

“I would never describe the act of self-immolation as an act of cour-age because even the bravest person in the world couldn’t do it,” Kalaia, 49, told The Associated Press in his family home. “When I poured the petrol over my head, I didn’t think very much, because I wasn’t really conscious about what I was doing. Then I saw a flash, I felt my skin start to burn and I fell down. I woke up eight months later in hospital.”

He says it hasn’t gotten any easier seeing the shock on people’s faces when he removes his hat and sunglasses. Rivulets of scars fray and splin-ter across his face and misshapen ears, and there are livid, deep welts on his arms and stomach.

His younger brother set himself ablaze too, killing himself, and his mother tried to do the same, their family a graphic reminder of the chaos and economic turmoil in this North African nation.

Most everywhere in the Arab world, the demonstrators’ dreams have been shattered. Tunisia is often considered a success story and a Tuni-sian democracy group won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, but while it has

more civil liberties, free expression and political plurality, the country is plagued by an ever-worsening economic crisis.

Lack of socio-economic reforms, the devaluation of the Tunisian dinar and weak, inefficient governance have failed to alleviate poverty or fully revive investment. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment has risen to 18%. Attempts to migrate to Europe by sea have soared.

“There is a huge gap between people’s aspirations and their means. It is this gap that pushes people further into misery,” said Abdessater Sahbani, a sociologist at the University of Tunis. “You can have a good job and be well-educated, but it doesn’t give you anything substantial.”

The number of self-immolations has tripled since 2011, and “the rise has persisted right into 2020,” said Dr. Mehdi Ben Khelil of Tunis’ Charles Nicolle Hospital, who studies the phenomenon.

After the revolution, Ben Khelil said, “there was a contrast between what we hoped for versus what we gained. Disillusion kept on growing.”

Although there are no official statistics, the Tunisian Social Observa-tory of the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights recorded 62 such suicides or attempts in the first 10 months of 2020.

Most occur near local administration or government buildings to pro-test financial insecurity and suffering, said Najla Arfa, project manager at the observatory. Police abuse is often a trigger.

The overwhelming majority are working-class men in their 20s and 30s, living in deprived interior areas such as Kairouan and Sidi Bouzid. Of 13 survivors contacted by AP, all said they needed financial help.

In the decade since Bouazizi’s suicide, little has changed in his home-town of Sidi Bouzid. Huddles of jobless young men sit chain-smoking on plastic chairs in cafés. Others stand in line to buy canisters of cooking gas after a strike disrupted supplies and forced people to use firewood.

With monuments in his memory, the town has become a shrine to Bouazizi, whose life resembles those of millions of other Tunisians. But not everyone regards his legacy positively.

“His act had a negative effect on the whole country and especially for Sidi Bouzid,” says 30-year-old accounting assistant Marwa Hamdouni. “I think only his family benefited. But for the governorate of Sidi Bou-zid, the revolution did not bring anything good.”

In 2013, Bouazizi’s family moved to Montreal. Experts say that tales of his family gaining financially from his death spawned other such sui-cides, notably right after the revolution.

Ben Khelil, the doctor, says the reasons go beyond that: “Behind im-molation, there is the desire to express their words and suffering. For certain people, the desire it not to die but to be heard.”

Survivors face immense psychological, physical and financial chal-lenges.

“Some scars may heal badly and might hinder certain functions such as sitting, chewing and expressing facial emotions,” Ben Khelil says. “There can be a lot of persistent pain, especially when the scars are deep and touch the nerves.”

Kalaia spent three years in a hospital and then a private clinic recov-ering from his burns. He cannot hold a bottle of water, dress himself without assistance or fall asleep without medication. His arms are still riddled with infections.

“I’m not going to tell you I regret waking up, but dying would have been better,” Kalaia says, dragging on a cigarette. “Nowadays, I don’t think about killing myself another time, but I ask God for death because I’m so tired.”

The Quran forbids suicide, and many Muslim societies regard it as taboo. This does not prevent hundreds of Tunisians attempting it every year. (AP)

In 2014, Kalaia’s mother, Zina Sehi, now 68, tried to burn herself to death in front of the president’s palace in Tunis, protesting the govern-ment’s lack of support for the family. The next year, his 35-year-old brother Saber did the same, dying instantly. Kalaia blames himself for their actions.

The government created a committee to prevent such suicides in 2015, but political turmoil has led to a series of short-term governments that have taken little deep action to help survivors or their families.

“Do you see what this state did for me? It is the state that left me in this corner,” Kalaia says, gesturing to a mattress on the floor of his home where he sleeps. “It’s over, my life is over.” (AP)

‘Biden arrival won’t guarantee better ties’

The right path, the wrong path … both are ready: IranIran’s supreme leader and the country’s president both warned Ameri-

ca on Wednesday that the departure of President Donald Trump does not immediately mean better relations between the two nations.

The remarks come as Iran approaches the first anniversary of the U.S. drone strike that killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, an attack that nearly plunged Washington and Tehran into an open war after months of tensions. In recent weeks, a scientist who founded Iran’s military nuclear program two decades ago was gunned down in an attack in a rural area outside of Tehran that The Associated Press accessed for the first time Wednesday.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke in Tehran at the Imam Khomeini Hosseinieh, or congregation hall, where he attended a meeting with Soleimani’s family and top military leaders. They all sat some 5 meters (16 feet) away from the 81-year-old Khamenei, who wore a face mask due to the coronavirus pandemic still raging in Iran.

“You saw that what Trump’s America and (former President Barack) Obama’s America did to you,” Khamenei said. “The hostilities are not just for Trump’s America, which ends when he leaves. Obama’s Ameri-ca also did bad things to you and the Iranian nation.”

Earlier in the day, Rouhani, speaking during a Cabinet meeting, made a similar point to criticize Trump - at one point even saying the U.S. president “has committed so many crimes, he was an assassin and a ter-rorist.”

“Some people say, ‘You are excited for Mr. Biden,’” Rouhani said. “No, we are not excited Mr. Biden is taking office, but we are very happy Mr. Trump is gone.”

“The upcoming American administration can choose what to do,” Rouhani said. “The path is open. It’s up to them if they are grateful or ungrateful. If they want the right path, it’s ready. If they want the wrong path, that one is ready for them as well.”

Biden has suggested the U.S. could rejoin Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, from which Trump unilaterally pulled America in 2018 and imposed harsher sanctions on Iran. That decision marked the start of increased tensions between the two countries as Iran abandoned uranium enrichment limits and the Mideast saw a series of escalating incidents and attacks.

In response to Soleimani’s death, Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack that injured dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq. That same night, it also

mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian airliner taking off from Tehran, kill-ing all 176 people on board.

Hoping to pressure Europe, Iran’s parliament recently passed a bill calling on Tehran to increase its uranium enrichment to 20%, a short technical step from weapons-grade levels, and to throw out international inspectors. Rouhani’s government has opposed the bill, exposing a rift inside Iran’s civilian government that the supreme leader appeared to touch on in his speech Wednesday.

“Resolve your disputes by negotiating with each other,” Khamenei said. “Are you not saying that we should negotiate with the world, is it not possible to negotiate and resolve disputes with the internal ele-ment?”

That bill came after the Nov 27 killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who headed Iran’s so-called AMAD project, which Israel and the West have alleged was a military operation looking at the feasibility of building a nuclear weapon. The International Atomic Energy Agency says that “structured program” ended in 2003. U.S. intelligence agencies con-curred with that assessment in a 2007 report and the State Department agreed with it as recently as last year. (AP)

LOCALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

3

‘Special children’

16 schools reopenKUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: Director General of the Public Authority for Handicapped Affairs (PAHA) Dr Shafiqa Al-Awadi said 16 schools that met the health conditions for specialized schools have started to receive students with disabilities from all disability categories, reports Al-Anba daily.

Al-Awadi revealed the health conditions include limiting the number of students in each class to eight, provision of sterilizers and masks, and ensuring per-sonal use of the seats.

She affirmed these conditions were amended in accordance with the law and they took effect after obtaining approval from the Board of Directors of PAHA, as well as the publication of the regulations and conditions in Kuwait Al-Youm Gazette. She said the authority is currently coordinating with the concerned government agencies to implement the decision.

On the early retirement benefit for working moth-ers who are taking care of their children with dis-abilities, Al-Awadi disclosed these mothers must have been in service for 15 years to be eligible for early retirement. She went on to explain that the con-cerned court had earlier ruled on adding KD 50 to the cost of living allowance of persons with disabilities, but this is not applicable to others as per the law; hence, this amount will no longer be added to the allowance.

Other Voices

‘Kids have grown up, pay heed’“AFTER the end of the voting process for the National Assembly’s Office, I discussed with my sons the prac-tices that accompanied this session to know their opin-ion about the role of the National Assembly in enrich-ing and developing the process of democratic life,” columnist Dr Faisal Al-Sharifi wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“In fact, I was taken by surprise to know they have been following up the minute details of the incident and their ability to monitor the positions of the MPs and their expectations of who would win the elections for the Parliament office, and that their problem was not with the results as much as their demand to change the electoral system that they see as one of the causes of the backwardness of political and social life.

“I thought my opinion would be the dominant factor given the situation, and what I propose would win their consensus, but I was wrong, as they had a differ-ent view concerning the development of democracy and social life, the promotion of the principles of justice and equality, and the elimination of corruption and the phe-nomena of ethnic, class and sectarian intolerance. They gave many vivid examples to prove it.

“In front of their examples and the so many problems they mentioned and the solutions they offered, I no longer have anything to add and concluded that the children have grown up and have better ideas than the elite and the so-called decision-makers must give a patient ear to and adopt them to translate their messages into reality. What is appropriate for us is no longer acceptable to them.

“Their fear for their future is evident as they see the difficulty of oil or black gold prices recovering to the era of the glory days of yesteryears, especially after many big factories have begun to abandon oil to operate them and turned to renewable energies, and after most of the big auto manufacturers announced the producing of electric cars.

“Their fear that the state will find itself unable to appoint them in the government sector, that the private sector is repelling and uninterested in participating in the employment of graduates, the lack of real support for small and medium enterprises, the absence of eco-nomic identity, and the absence of strategies for diversi-fying economic resources, all holds water.

“All this did not make them forget the need to eliminate the phenomena of administrative and finan-cial corruption, reviewing indicators of freedom of opinion, developing infrastructure, education and health and addressing the demographics and working to end the suffering of the bedoun and solve their prob-lem.

“In conclusion we talk of the directives given by HH the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah – may God give him long life – for the new government, a road map for reform and advancement of Kuwait to commit to applying the law on everyone and choosing leaders who contribute to the advancement of the nation; the huge responsibilities, that the Amir says the government will be able to face; the burden of challenges that require exceptional effort, hard work and real, serious cooperation with the members of Parliament and addressing the core issues of concern to the nation and its citizens, and working to consolidate the rule of law and institutions.”

Also:“After the parliamentary elections ended and the ship

of the National Assembly sailed under the leadership of its captain who was elected by some of the deputies and the majority of the ministers, it became clear that the winds of the parliamentary majority in the National Assembly blew in the opposite direction contrary to their desires of some,” columnist Dr. Ahmad Al-Husseini wrote for Annahar daily.

“Some of these distinguished MPs were so frustrated that they move in a tight circle when Marzouq Al-Ghanim was elected Speaker as if the world had come to an end at this point, and the wheel of develop-ment had stopped moving, and the laws that they would introduce and voted on by the majority had vanished in thin air. In addition, we began to hear some discordant voices demanding resignation, non-cooperation and ‘back to the polls’.

“All that we mentioned in the previous paragraphs is a reality that cannot go unnoticed but what is most real-istic is that those who brought these people to the dome of Abdullah Al-Salem are the Kuwaiti people, and they did not go to the ballot boxes to invite them to go to the arena in a show of strength in front of the cameras and take to social media to create strife and dismantle the parliamentary majority, accusing others of betrayal, and opening the door to evil doers who want bad for Kuwait and tear apart the national unity with the use of their social media platforms.

“The parliamentary majority at this point must bypass those circumstances, close the windows of discord and be wise and sensible enough by dealing with the Speaker realistically in accordance with the laws and regulations that regulate the parliamentary work process and pre-senting legislation that touches the issues of the home-land and its citizens such as comprehensive amnesty, amending the election system, abolishing the law restricting freedoms.

“They should also work to address the issue of the Bedoun, diversifying sources of income, improving the level of Kuwaiti per capita income and other laws that we have long waited for.

“They are also under obligation to make laws that regulate the administrative process in the ministries of

the state and work hard to cancel nepotism appoint-ments that have shattered the ambition of Kuwaiti youth aspiring to assume leadership positions to serve his country in the ministry in which they work.

“The parliamentary majority should understand the message that the future of the Kuwaiti people does not stop at the choosing of the Speaker. Anyone who wins the post of Speaker should thank the MPs and the gov-ernment. Thus, no deputy has the right to accuse any party of treason as the citizens are the ones who hold accountable those who have betrayed their vote and failed to live up to his promises.

“If the vote for the president’s position was secret, the vote on popular laws will be open by calling by name (agree - disagree), thus, the voters will determine who stood against their will for change.

“The will that brought you to the dome of Abdullah Al-Salem does not seek to change people as much but to change the approach and reform, and the reform that we seek today is the exercise of your legislative and over-sight roles to plug the legislative gaps which some use for selfish interests.

“Many of us accuse the government of not being neutral during the vote for the president of the National Assembly, but forget that the parliamentary majority is not owned by the government and whoever says things don’t always go as they’re planned, we tell him that the voice of the street tells you that legislation is in your hands and that oversight in your courtyard and sincerity will change the equation.”

❑ ❑ ❑

“As expected, there is a possibility of conflict between security legislation and human rights, especially when the interests of some members are directed towards maximizing the protection of human rights at the expense of national security”, Dr Mohammad Al-Duwaihees wrote for Al-Shahed daily.

“Therefore, members of the National Assembly must work to achieve a balance and harmony between the requirements of national security, maintain and protect human rights and public freedoms, and view this rela-tionship as an integral relationship that does not contra-dict and conflict

“The emergency circumstances should not negatively affect the process of drafting legislation or making poli-cies related to the security issue. Also, care must be taken that legislation and policies do not contradict regional and international charters and agreements. The field of security has expanded in our time to include political, economic, social and environmental dimen-sions.

“It is wise that the confidentiality of information, its limited circulation, and the state’s sovereign actions do not impede the process of parliamentary oversight and follow-up on security issues, as the efficiency of ratio-nal parliamentary oversight is based on transparency and disclosure.

“Members of Parliament must take advantage of modern communication systems and information tech-nology for protecting national security and developing methods of regional and international cooperation in the field of national security.

“They must work towards fighting corruption through the legislative function, administrative and financial control, and emphasizing the commitment of government agencies and institutions to the principles of transparency, governance, standards of integrity and honesty.

“MPs must be a good example in applying the law and adhering to the principles of justice, equality, equal opportunities, integrity and transparency.

“Hence, we highlight the importance of developing the Parliament’s performance level through seminars, conferences and training courses, and using modern technological methods in managing the Parliament’s sessions and in training workers at the various adminis-trative and executive levels of Parliament as a legisla-tive authority.”

❑ ❑ ❑

“The issue of Marzouq Al-Ghanim’s speakership was not discussed during the election campaigns. You were elected accordingly, pretending that it was a “popular” demand, but you won the elections for separate and sometimes contradictory reasons. When you found yourselves representing a new majority resembling its old sister, you suddenly decided that it is “popular”. The difference is vast between “popular” and “current”, but we will skip this point”, Fahad Al-Bassam wrote for Aljarida daily.

“If we transcend the point of “popular” demand and its truth, and believe in what Al-Dahoum brought for-ward, we cannot go beyond the point of wanting to get out of the one-person “dictatorship” and submit to the dictatorship of the “majority”. We then overlook all the subsequent depravity, starting with the embarrassment that took place in the meetings through bullying and controlling the MPs with the intention of obtaining their support and votes against Marzouq Al-Ghanim, and leading to the unfortunately historic absurd voting and filming session.

“It is not wrong for any MP to vote for Marzouq Al-Ghanim or reject him for his own reasons, or to declare his neutrality and express an opinion, as Ahmad Al-Shohoumi did, for example. But what is wrong is when a man turns to the other direction and then acts the opposite of what he had been saying, signing and meet-ing. This was expected from the beginning, as political alliances are based on interrelated interests and common goals, not on empty slogans and love of fear that trans-mits the COVID-19. Therefore, the art of the possible is transformed by us in Kuwait with the maneuvering gurus and the strategists into the art of the impossible and embarrassing oneself and comrades.”

— Compiled by Ahmad Al-Shazli

Photo by Bassam Abu ShanabThe Minister of Health Sheikh Dr Basil Hmoud Al-Sabah during his visit to the covid vaccination center built at the Mishref International Fairgrounds area. Dr Al-Sabah and his team inspected the hospital’s readiness to receive

the public for vaccination.

Decision to ‘close borders’ huge blow for travel firms

‘NY revelers bookings losses total KD 5 mln’

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: The travel and tourism offices were happy with the return of life but the decision to close the land, sea and air borders came as a thunderbolt to them, reports Al-Nahar daily.

They explained that the decision to close the borders has deepened the wounds of the offices, as 70 percent of them were close to bankruptcy due to the repercus-

sions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The offices had reserved accommodations for those wishing to travel to spend the New Year holidays in many countries around the world, but all those reservations have been can-celed, and the offices have to pay the full costs.

The offices estimated the losses that are expected to incur to be nearly KD 5 million, as nearly 25,000 tickets were canceled during the week. They stressed that the closure came as a severe blow especially with the Christmas and

Egyptians in transit on way to Kuwaiturged to register data as border shutKUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: Minister of State for Migration and Egyptians Affairs Abroad Nabiha Makram has announced the activation of an opera-tions room for stranded citizens after several countries, including Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, decided to close their borders as part of precau-tionary measures to curb the spread of novel coronavirus (COVID-19), reports Al-Rai daily.

The State Ministry for Migration and Egyptians Affairs Abroad advised the Egyptians, who are in transit on their way to Kuwait, to register their data in order to facilitate communication with them and to determine the number of affected citizens abroad -- in the United Arab Emirates as a transit country or any other country.

The ministry also called on Egyptians to join hands in solidarity with the stranded travelers within the framework of the initiative, “Let us support each other.” It explained this initiative aims to help Egyptians stranded abroad, stressing that “the authentic Egyptian metal shows its strength and toughness

in adversity.” The ministry enumerated various means of communication for the stranded Egyptians as follows: · Registration form found in this link https://forms.gle/opmmSVtydAETfS-jE6 · Official Facebook page of the ministry https://www.facebook.com/Moemigegy · Email: Egyexpcare2020@gmail.com · WhatsApp numbers 01069613755/01062437210

❑ ❑ ❑

‘Zakat’ delivered: Mishref Coope-rative Society said the zakat value of its funds – around KD215,000 – was hand-ed over to the Zakat House delegation during the recent meeting its Board Chairman Ali Al-Fahd, Social Work Committee Chairman Dr Omar Al-Qenaei and acting General Manager Muhammad Taher, reports Al-Jarida daily.

The Zakat House delegation includes Resource Development Department Director Nayef Al-Jemaz, Centers Affairs Supervisor Abdul Latif Al-Busairi and Ali Al-Awadi from the Companies Department.

Dr Al-Sharifi

New Year holidays, and this means a significant increase in the bill of losses incurred by the sector dur-ing the year 2020.

The offices said, “We worked on acquiring bookings and cancellations for a period of two whole weeks without charge ... even our expenses were not paid by customers.”

Some of them are expect-ing an extension of the lock-down, and others said the matter is based on knowledge of the unseen and is mainly based on the decisions of the health authorities.

❑ ❑ ❑

Domestic workers: The request to open the recruit-ment of domestic workers is now on the table of the Cabinet, reports Al-Anba daily quoting sources.

Sources revealed that five government institutions have so far endorsed the rec-ommendation to issue new domestic work permits as per the existing regulations. Sources pointed out this will allow Kuwaiti families to hire new domestic workers, especially those without household workers due to the decision to impose an entry ban on travelers from certain countries.

Sources disclosed the ministries of Health, Interior, Foreign Affairs and Finance in addition to the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM), have agreed to open the door for the issuance of new domestic work permits to cover the needs of Kuwaiti families.

Sources added the Council of Ministers will study the recommendation of these five institutions in a bid to lay down the appro-priate mechanism in this regard — whether to take this step simultaneously with the implementation of the decision to allow the return of domestic workers stranded abroad or issue a separate resolution.

Hamad RouhaldeenFirst Constituency

HAMAD ROUHALD-EEN won fourth place in the First Constituency during the 2020 National Assembly elections with 3,783 votes.

Rouhaldeen was born in 1985 and holds a Doctor of Philosophy

Degree in Law.He is a lawyer and

lecturer at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET). He served as investigator at the Ministry of Interior. He is a member of Kuwait Lawyers Society.

Voting Record

Rouhaldeen has no voting record as he is a first-time MP.

mp profile getting to know you

Rouhaldeen

LOCALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

4

Specially-formed teams continue with daily surveys

Locust swarms expected to enter Kuwait, says PAAAFR

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: The Public Authority For Ag-ricultural Affairs and Fish Resourc-es (PAAAFR) has been following up the swarms of lo-custs that entered the airspace of the Saudi province of Zulfi two days ago, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting reli-able sources.

They indicated that the locusts may enter Kuwait after three days in case the winds are heading towards the Kuwaiti-Saudi border.

The sources explained that locusts move amid temperatures that vary between 17 and 35 de-grees Centigrade most of the time.

Al-Zulfi is approxi-mately 500 kilometers away from Kuwait, which increases the chance for their entry into the country, in the event the wind direc-tion continues towards Kuwait. Teams spe-cially formed to combat locusts are continuing with the daily surveys especially along the borders of Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

WeatherIf the weather remains

as it is, it will be diffi cult for the locusts to enter Kuwait’s airspace, as there are no strong winds that would contribute to its rapid movement into the country.

The sources highlight-ed the prior coordination with the Desert Locust Control Authority in Cairo, and via a liaison offi cer, to monitor the lo-cust movements and lay down means for preven-tion and necessary meas-ures to combat it before it poses immediate dan-ger to the plant crops in the north and south of the country.

They explained that cooperation with the Lo-cust Control Authority includes sending reports on the locust swarms expected to enter the lo-cal airspace, as well as reports on the mecha-nisms used and the con-trol methods adopted by the authority’s teams, with the aim of develop-ing appropriate solutions for any swarms that may head towards Kuwait, and to avoid any materi-al losses that may occur.

EquipmentThe teams are work-

ing with all their equip-ment and in accordance with the plan prepared to confront the move-ment of any locust swarms heading to the country, in prepara-tion for spraying these swarms with pesticides, and using mechanisms equipped for this pur-pose provided they set-tle on the ground, as it is diffi cult to combat them while they are in air, if they arrive.

If the rains continue during this month in some Arabian Gulf countries, locusts could lay their eggs again. Thus the most appro-priate solution to resist them is to regularly spray pesticides, and wait for the rain in the Gulf to recede.

The sources warned against eating locusts or even touching them with bare hands if they reach the ground because they may have been exposed to insecticides contain-ing toxic compounds that pose a threat to hu-man health.

They affi rmed that the authority’s teams are ready to deal with the arrival of any locust swarms at any time.

Stranded in ‘transit’ enter

Number exceeds 765,000

HH the Amir receives former ministers

HH the Amir receives offi cials

3 ‘emergency’ fl ights allowedto land at Kuwait Int’l Airport

Domestic workers category tobe added to ‘My Identity’ app

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received at Bayan Palace Wednesday a number of former ministers.

During the meeting, His High-ness the Amir thanked the offi cials for their efforts during their respec-tive tenure and wished them the best of luck in their future endeav-ors.

The offi cials were former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of De-fense Sheikh Ahmad Al-Mansour Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, former Minis-ter of Justice and Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairsa Dr. Fahad Al-Afasi, former Minister of Oil and acting Minister of Water and Elec-tricity Dr. Khaled Al-Fadhel, former

Minister of Social Affairs and Min-ister of State for Economic Affairs Maryam Al-Aqeel, former Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr. Saud Al-Harbi, for-mer State Minister for Municipal Affairs and State Minister for Social Affairs Waleed Al-Jassem, and for-mer Minister of Finance Barrak Al-Shaitan.

Meanwhile, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received at Bayan Palace Wednesday a number of former ministers.

During the meeting, His High-ness the Crown Prince thanked the offi cials for their efforts during their respective tenure and wished them the best of luck in their future en-

deavors.The offi cials were former Deputy

Prime Minister and Minister of De-fense Sheikh Ahmad Al-Mansour Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, former Minis-ter of Justice and Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Dr. Fahad Al-Afasi, former Minister of Oil and Minister of Water and Electricity Dr. Khaled Al-Fadhel, former Minis-ter of Social Affairs and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Maryam Al-Aqeel, former Minister of Edu-cation and Minister of Higher Edu-cation Dr. Saud Al-Harbi, former State Minister for Municipal Affairs and State Minister for Social Affairs Waleed Al-Jasem, and former Min-ister of Finance Barrak Al-Shaitan. (KUNA)

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received at Bayan Palace Wednesday His High-ness the Crown Prince Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

His Highness the Amir also received Speaker of the National Assembly Mar-zouq Al-Ghanim and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah. (KUNA)

By Munif Nayef, Marwa Al-Bahrawi and Muhammad Ghanem

Al-Seyassah Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: A state of confusion prevailed following the announcement of the air, sea and land borders closure to prevent the COVID-19 mutation spreading into the country, especially when it was reported that the Ministry of Health, had issued a decision to temporarily open the borders for one day only to allow those stranded in the ‘transit’ countries who had spent the 14-day quarantine period, to enter the coun-try, clearly reflecting coordination between the various institutions.

The land border crossings also wit-nessed unprecedented congestion the day before yesterday, at the Saudi-Kuwaiti borders, as vehicles made a last minute attempt to beat the dead-line at the Nuwaiseeb and Salmi bor-der points prior to the closure.

A security source told the Al-Seyassah daily that the land ports did not allow any vehicles until receiving official instructions and clarification because the Ministry of Interior is the body to implement the decisions issued by the health authorities in the Council of Min-isters, and the borders cannot be opened without official decision.

Meanwhile, in the same regard informed sources at the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revealed that the airport was opened yesterday to those stranded in transit at the Dubai, Beirut, Abu Dhabi and Doha airports.

Three fl ights were allowed to land at the Kuwait International Airport (KIA) on humanitarian grounds es-pecially for expatriates who had com-pleted the quarantine period in Dubai and held valid residence permits. They were allowed to enter until mid-night yesterday, thus confi rming that anyone who was stuck during transit was allowed to enter.

However, the DGCA sources said it is not true what has been circulated about the opening of the airport, and the matter is only limited to these fl ights coming from Dubai, Doha and Beirut for transit passengers.

On the other hand, officials in the tourism and travel offices told Al-Seyassah daily the airlines admitted emergency flights were allowed to land in coordination between Ku-waiti embassies in those countries and the concerned authorities in Kuwait. Limited seats were avail-able on these aircraft, and ticket prices ranged between 450 and 720 dinars.

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: The Pub-lic Authority for Civil Information (PACI) has activated new updates to the app “My Identity” to include the Article 20 category (domestic work-ers), whose number in the country exceeds 765,000, reports Al-Qabas daily.

According to informed sources, this step was taken after PACI re-alized the need to include domestic workers in the application, especial-ly since there are a large number of them outside the country, and their residency was renewed electroni-cally and the cards in their posses-sion had expired while the smart card feature is not available in the domestic worker’s card.

They affi rmed that the implemen-tation committee headed by the Di-rector General of PACI Musaed Al-Asousi held regular meetings with the technical experts and other gov-ernment agencies to launch the new system and allow the category of do-mestic workers to be included so that

it can be used for their return to the country and to prove their identity when needed.

The sources revealed that PACI is currently implementing a similar up-date on the app to include children under fi ve years of age, as parents can activate the application upon launch-ing the service at a later time and ob-tain a civil card electronically.

Al-Asousi said the inclusion of do-mestic workers’ category in the ap-plication was based on the keenness of PACI to develop its programs and electronic applications to help its Ku-waiti and non-Kuwaiti clients and fa-cilitate the procedures to complete all transactions.

He revealed that the number of users of the “My Identity” app ex-ceeded 1.1 million, and they bene-fited from downloading the app and using it to prove their identity for the completion of all government and private transactions, as well as for the entry and exit procedures in the country.

KUNA photoHH the Amir while receiving the former ministers.

HH Crown Prince Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad.

KUNA photosNational Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim.

Kuwaiti embassies in Belgium & Hungary urgecitizens to contact if they need any assistanceBRUSSELS, Dec 23, (KUNA): The Embassy of Kuwait in Brussels urged on Wednesday its citizens in Belgium to adhere to and abide by the local authorities’ decisions and instructions regarding health pre-cautions against COVID-19.

The remarks was based on a de-cision by Kuwaiti authorities sus-pending commercial fl ights to and from Kuwait International Airport from Monday December 21, 2020 until the end of next January fi rst

on Friday, the embassy said in a statement.

The embassy called on citizens in case of emergency or any inquir-ies, to contact them on the follow-ing numbers: 0032026477950 and on 00320477775801.

Also, Kuwait’s embassy in Hungary on Wednesday called on citizens in the European coun-try to contact the mission in case they needed assistance due to the fl ights’ suspension to and from Ku-

wait International Airport until the fi rst of January.

In a statement received by Ku-wait News Agency (KUNA) in Vienna, the embassy called on citi-zens to contact the mission on the following number: (+3) 630-898-0000. The embassy also stressed on the importance of adhering to the precautionary and preventive measures taken by the health au-thorities to confront Coronavirus (COVID-19).

LOCALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

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Holy Family Cathedral, Kuwait CityThursday: 24th December 2020

Day Time Language Cath. Holy Court Padre Good Virgin Family Yard Pio Shepherd Mary 5:30 pm Malayalam Yes Yes Yes Yes No No (Latin) 6:30 pm Spanish No No No No No Yes 7:00 pm Tagalog Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 7.30 pm Sinhala No No No No Yes No 8:30 pm Solemn Mass Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 9.00 pm Coptic No No No No No Yes 10:30 pm Konkani No Yes Yes Yes No No 10.30 pm Arabic (Latin) Yes No No No No No 12 Midnight Maronite Yes No No No No No 12 Midnight Syro Malabar No Yes Yes No No Yes

Friday: 25th December 2020Day Time Language Cath. Holy Court Padre Good Virgin Family Yard Pio Shepherd Mary 3.00 am Syro Malankara Yes Yes No Yes No Yes 6:00 am English Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes 7:45 am Syro Malabar Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 9:00 am Sinhala No No No No No Yes 9:15 am Konkani Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 10:45 am Maronite No Yes No No No No 11:00 am Arabic (Latin) Yes No No No No No 12:30 pm Coptic Yes Yes No No No No 3:00 pm Tagalog Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 4:30 pm Malayalam Yes No Yes Yes No No (Latin) 4:30 pm Tamil No Yes No No No No 4:15 pm Sinhala No No No No No Yes 6:00 pm English Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 6:00 pm Bengali No No No No No Yes 7:15 pm Maronite Yes Yes No Yes No No

Thursday: 31st December 2020Day Time Language Cath. Holy Court Padre Good Virgin Family Yard Pio Shepherd Mary 5:30 pm Malayalam Yes Yes Yes Yes No No (Latin) 6:30 pm Malankara No No No No No Yes 7:00 pm Tagalog Yes Yes Yes No No No 8:30 pm Solemn English Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Mass 10:30 pm Konkani Yes No Yes No No Yes 10:30 pm New No No No No Yes No Catechumenal 10:00 pm Coptic No Yes No No No No 11:45 pm Syro Malabar Yes No Yes No No Yes 10:00 pm Maronite Salmiya Basement

Friday: 1st January 2021 Time Language Cath. Holy Court Padre Good Virgin Family Yard Pio Shepherd Mary 3.00 am Syro Malankara Yes Yes No Yes No Yes 6:00 am English Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes 7:45 am Syro Malabar Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 9:00 am Sinhala No No No No No Yes 9:15 am Konkani Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 10:45 am Maronite No Yes No No No No 11:00 am Arabic (Latin) Yes No No No No No 12:30 pm Coptic Yes Yes No No No No 3:00 pm Tagalog Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 4:30 pm Malayalam Yes No Yes Yes No No (Latin) 4:30 pm Tamil No Yes No No No No 4:15 pm Sinhala No No No No No Yes 5.00 pm Bengali No No No No Yes No 6:00 pm English Yes Yes Yes Yes No No 6.30 pm Spanish No No No No No Yes 7:30 pm Maronite Yes Yes No Yes No No

Catholic Church of Our Lady of Arabia, Ahmadi, KuwaitChristmas Vigil

Dec 24, 2020 (Thursday)5:00 pm Syro Malabar (Catechism Block) 5:30 pm English6:45 pm Tagalog 8:00 pm Konkani8:30 pm Syro Malabar (Catechism Block) 9:15 pm English10:30 pm Malayalam

Christmas DayDec 25, 2020 (Friday)

6:00 am English 7:15 am English8:30 am English 9:45 am Syro Malabar12:00 pm English 3:00 pm Malayalam4:30 pm English 5:45 pm Tagalog7:00 pm Tamil

Feast of the Holy FamilyDec 26, 2020 (Saturday)

6:00 pm English 7:15 pm Syro Malabar

Dec 27, 2020 (Sunday)6:00 am English 4:30 pm Syro Malabar6:00 pm English

New Year VigilDec 31, 2020 (Thursday)

5:30 pm Syro Malabar (Catechism Block) 5:30 pm English6:45 pm Tagalog 8:00 pm Konkani8:30 pm Syro Malabar (Catechism Block) 9:15 pm English10:30 pm Malayalam

Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of GodJan 1, 2020 (Friday)

6:00 am English 7:15 am English8:30 am English 9:45 am Malayalam10:00 am Konkani (Catechism Block) 11:00 am Syro Malabar2:00 pm Syro Malankara 4:30 pm English5:45 pm Tagalog 7:00 pm Tamil

Epiphany of the Lord Jan 2, 2021 (Saturday)

6:00 pm English 7:15 pm Syro Malabar

Jan 3, 2021 (Sunday)6:00 am English 4:30 pm Syro Malabar6:00 pm English

St Therese Parish, SalmiyaChristmas and New Year Masses for 2020-2021

Filipino Community: ‘Simbang Gabi’

Dec 15 to 23 @ 9.30 pm & Dec 16 to 24 @ 4:00 amThursday, Dec 24, 2020

4:00 am Simbang Gabi

Christmas Vigil5:00 pm Mass in Tamil 7:00 pm Mass in Konkani9:00 pm Mass in English 11:30 pm Mass in Malayalam (Latin)

Friday, Dec 25, 2020 8:00 am Mass in English 1:00 pm Mass in Tagalog6:30 pm Mass in English 8:00 pm Mass in Malayalam (Syro Malabar)9:30 pm Mass in Tagalog

Thursday, Dec 31, 2020

New Year’s Eve5:00 pm Mass in Konkani 7:00 pm Mass in Tamil9:00 pm Mass in English 11:30 pm Mass in Malayalam (Syro Malabar)

New Year & Solemnity of Blessed Virgin MaryFriday, Jan 1, 2021

8:00 am Mass in English 1:00 pm Mass in Tagalog6:30 pm Mass in English 8:00 pm Mass in Malayalam (Latin)9:30 pm Mass in Tagalog

Parish of St Daniel Comboni, Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, KuwaitPhone: 24340539 & 24339485

Mary of Mother of God & New YearDec 24, 2020 Thursday - Christmas Vigil Mass

3:00 pm Malyalam - Latin Rite St Mother Teresa Hall - B33:00 pm Syro Malabar Rite St. Daniel Comboni Hall - B23:30 pm Syro Malankara Rite Our Lady Of Arabia Hall - B14:30 pm Malyalam - Latin Rite St Mother Teresa Hall - B-3 4:45 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B25:30 pm English Our Lady of Arabia Hall - B16:00 pm Malyalam - Latin Rite St Mother Teresa Hall - B36:15 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B27:30 pm Konkani Our Lady of Arabia Hall - B17:30 pm Tamil St Mother Teresa Hall - B38:00 pm English St Daniel Comboni Hall - B2

Dec 25, 2020 Friday - Christmas Day Mass5:45 am Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B26:00 am English Our Lady Of Arabia Hall - B17:30 am Konkani St Mother Teresa Hall - B37:45 am Malyalam - Latin Rite Our Lady Of Arabia Hall - B18:00 am Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B29:30 am English Our Lady Of Arabia Hall - B19:30 am Tamil St Mother Teresa Hall - B310:00 am Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B211:30 am Malyalam - Latin Rite Our Lady Of Arabia Hall - B111:30 am Syro Malabar Rite St Mother Teresa Hall - B312:00 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B23:00 pm Malyalam - Latin Rite Our Lady Of Arabia Hall - B13:00 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Mother Teresa Hall B33:30 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B24:45 pm Malyalam - Latin Rite Our Lady Of Arabia Hall - B15:30 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B27:15 pm English St Mother Teresa Hall - B37:30 pm Syro Malankara Rite Our Lady Of Arabia Hall-B1 -B1

Thursday, Dec 31, 2020 - Vigil Mass3:00 pm Malayalam - Latin Rite St Mother Teresa Hall - B33:00 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B23:30 pm Syro Malankara Rite Our Lady of Arabia Hall - B14:30 pm Tamil St Mother Teresa Hall - B34:45 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B25:30 pm English Our Lady of Arabia Hall - B16:00 pm Malayalam - Latin Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B36:15 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B27:30 pm Konkani Our Lady of Arabia Hall - B17:30 pm Malayalam - Latin Rite St Mother Teresa Hall - B38:00 pm English St Daniel Comboni Hall - B2

Friday, Jan 1, 2020 – Daily Mass5:45 am Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni - B26:00 am English Our Lady of Arabia Hall - B17:30 am Konkani St Mother Teresa Hall - B37:45 am Malayalam - Latin Rite Our Lady of Arabia Hall - B18:00 am Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B29:30 am English Our Lady of Arabia Hall - B19:30 am Tamil St Mother Teresa Hall - B310:00 am Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B211:30 am Malayalam - Latin Rite Our Lady of Arabia Hall - B111:30 am Syro Malayalam Rite St Mother Teresa Hall - B312:00 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni - B23:00 pm Malayalam - Latin Rite Our Lady of Arabia Hall - B13:00 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Mother Teresa Hall - B33:30 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B24:45 pm Malayalam - Latin Rite Our Lady of Arabia Hall - B15:30 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B27:15 pm English St Mother Teresa Hall - B37:30 pm Syro Malankara Rite Our Lady of Arabia Hall - B17:30 pm Syro Malabar Rite St Daniel Comboni Hall - B2

Christmas & New Year’s Mass schedules (Online registrations at www.avona.org)

KUNA photosKUCP’s award winning design of the planned engineering and petroleum faculty at the KU-affiliated Sabah Al-Salem University City.

Financial & administrativereports get KEPS approval

By Abdel Nasser Al-AslamiAl-Seyassah Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: The Ordinary General Assembly meeting of the Kuwait Environment Protection Society (KEPS) has approved the administrative and financial reports of the society’s board of directors for 2019, as well as the audit office report for 2020.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association, Dr. Wijdan Al-Oqab, indicated in a press statement the meeting of the General Assembly was postponed by the Ministry of Social Affairs due to the Corona pandemic, in compliance with the instructions and the decision issued by the Council of Ministers regarding social distancing and that the meeting was finally held the day before yesterday at the Society’s headquarters in Shuwaikh, in the pres-ence of the members of the Board of Directors, representative of the Ministry of Social Affairs, the observer of the NGOs Department, Dhafer Al-Ajami, a committee from the Ministry of Private Associations Department, and the repre-sentative of the accredited office to audit accounts.

Dr. Oqab explained, the meeting, was held amid precautionary conditions and atmosphere, that witnessed the presenta-tion and discussion of the 43rd annual report presented by the Board of Directors for 2019, the financial state-ments for the year ending Dec 31, 2019, the auditor’s report and the estimated draft budget for 2020, which was approved by the members of the General Assembly. This was in addition to the selection of the auditor for the same year

Dr Oqab thanked the General Assembly for their confidence in the Board of Directors and for their approv-al of the financial and administrative reports, the Ministry of Social Affairs for its cooperation, and the members of the Board of Directors and administra-tive cadres for their kind efforts.

Indian ambassador with detention center officials.

Indian ambassador visits ‘detention center’The Indian Ambassador to Kuwait HE Sibi George paid a visit to Kuwait’s Deportation and Temporary Detention Affairs Department, affiliated to the Ministry of Interior.

During the visit the Indian envoy met Colonel Walid Al-Ali, Director of the center and other senior offi-

cials. Both sides discussed bilateral relations in this domain, ways of enhancing cooperation and issues related to Indian Diaspora.

The Ambassador thanked the security authorities for support and cooperation extended to the embassy and the Indian citizens in Kuwait.

American institute awards Kuwaiti architectural designThe American Institute of Architecture has awarded Kuwait University Construction Program (KUCP) for a design of the planned engineering and petroleum faculty at the KU-affiliated Sabah Al-Salem University City.

The KUCP said in a press

release on Wednesday that the design won the American award at the Middle East level, indicating that it was chosen for the trophy due to special structures that cope well with Kuwait’s heat season.

The design also allows sunlight to reach inner parts of the vast

building where large halls and wide corridors provide ways for easy internal movement of personnel and students. The award jurists granted the prize to the KUCP at the Middle East level for 2020 dur-ing a virtual convention, held on Dec 20. (KUNA)

MoE to conduct interviews for new teachers this week

Ministry satisfied with local contracting

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: Ministry of Education will start conducting interviews for the recruitment of new male and female teachers this week, reports Aljarida daily.

According to high-level educa-tional sources, formation of com-mittees for external contracting of teachers during the current aca-demic year has been suspended. The ministry opts to be satisfied with local contracting in the cur-rently available disciplines until the end of the COVID-19 crisis.

Instructions were issued to the con-cerned sectors in the Ministry of Education to set up their plans to fill the shortage in educational and admin-istrative specialties through local con-tracting of Kuwaiti citizens, Gulf nationals, Bedoun residents, and expa-triates according to the need and required specializations.

The ministry is proceeding with the procedures for appointing children of Kuwaiti women in previously announced majors.

The job interviews, which start soon, will continue until their comple-tion for all applicants whose appoint-ment procedures have been suspended due to the suspension of the interviews

to avoid the spread of COVID-19 infection.

The sources revealed that the Department of Coordination and Follow-up of Public Education has begun to provide the educational zones with the names of applicants for super-visory positions, including heads of departments and assistant directors.

Kuwait virtual book fair extended until Feb 2021KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23, (KUNA): Secretary-General of National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature Kamel Al-Abduljalil announced Wednesday extension of virtual Kuwait Book Fair for two months, until February 2021.

This year’s Book Fair has been

held in cooperation with NCCAL’s strategic partner, Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences.

He said that that Council was keen on continuing its services to the public in light of the cessation of many activities throughout the world.

LOCALARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

6

News in Brief

‘Golden handshake’ soon: Min-ister of Interior, Sheikh Thamer Al-Ali, during a meeting last week, in the presence of the Undersecretary of the Ministry Lieutenant General Essam A l - N a h a m , has informed the Assistant U n d e r s e c -retaries that the Ministry plans to grant f i n a n c i a l privileges to security of-fi cials who opt for retire-ment, reports Al-Anba dai-ly quoting security sources.

“Whoever does not fi nd in himself the ability to work and perform must benefi t from these fi nancial privileges, which will be announced next April and give opportunity for young blood to fi ll these positions,” the minister said.

The source added the Minister also said he has a vision to reduce the number of sectors and departments and merge a number of them with each other.

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3 years in jail: The Criminal Court sentenced a Kuwaiti to three years in prison with hard labor for defaming

the Amiri self on ‘Twitter and ordered the confi scation of his phone and also ordered the deletion of the tweets, says Al-Seyassah.

The Public Prosecution has charged the suspect with publicly written (challenged) the rights of the Amir and his authority by publishing the tweets and deliberately misusing one of the means of communication (a mobile phone).

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US man held, released: An uni-dentifi ed American, born in 1960, who had been arrested by the Salmiya, and referred him for interrogation on sus-picion of photographing a government facility in Salmiya near the area fi re station, has allegedly been released af-ter it became clear there was no crimi-nal intent, reports Al-Anba daily.

At the time of arrest the man had in his vehicle photographic equip-ment and was a suspect so he had to be taken to the Salmiya Police Station.

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‘Pay doctor’s indemnity’: The Circuit Court of Appeals obligated a well-known private hospital to pay a ‘consultant’ 16,000 dinars for the end of his service indemnities and his la-bor rights, says Al-Seyassah.

The lawyer for the plaintiff Ali Jawhar told the court his client joined

the hospital in 2009 in the capacity of an anesthesia consultant on a monthly salary of 3,000 dinars and continued working until 2019 and at this time the defendant prevented him from enter-ing the workplace and told him that he had been dismissed from work with-out giving any justifi cation.

The lawyer said before he was ‘sacked’ he said his client was ‘abused’ and treated inappropriately when it came to fulfi ll certain obliga-tions in the contract, following which he fi led a complaint with the Labor Department but the complaint re-mained ‘unsettled’.

The lawyer pleaded with the court to force the hospital to pay his client end-of-service indemnity, warning al-lowance, the remainder of the contract period, overtime allowance, leave bal-ance, airline tickets allowance, salary difference, and to return to him the original of his university degree and his work permit.

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Police patrol damaged: A police patrol was damaged following a col-lision with an American vehicle on the Fahaheel Expressway, reports Al-Anba daily.

A security source said that the driv-er of the civilian vehicle was injured and taken for treatment.

Sheikh Thamer

Deviating from main goalBy Ahmad Alsarraf

No government agency has been criticized, defamed, and its

senior employees referred to the prosecution, as happened with the Public Authority to take care of the printing and publication of the No-ble Quran and the Sunnah and their sciences.

Despite the fact that ap-prox imate ly 3,650 days have passed since the es-t a b l i s h m e n t of the author-ity, it failed to print one copy of the Quran which is its main goal and tens of millions of dinars were wasted on salaries, committee remuneration, travel, inspection and supervision costs, studying the purchase of printing presses and so on, and the matter ended after ten years with change in the offi cials and referrals to the Prosecution and suspicion of em-bezzlement.

The most obvious evidence of the above is what Mr Fahd Al-Daihani, the third or fourth director general of the authority stated to the press that he had requested, or an amount of 14 million dinars had been al-located to establish the “Great Kuwait Printing Press” on 27,000 square meters area to print the Holy Quran.

Mr Al-Daihani was appointed two years ago, and I do not think that he has done much, and I, as well as others, was provoked by his statement at a time when the state suffers from shortage of resources, knowing that I own a printing press that can print tens of thousands of copies of any book, without a sin-gle type of even if the word count exceeds ten million, as long as the text is carefully written on a fl ash memory.

The area of the printing press is

1,000 square meters, and the price of the machines is up to 500,000 di-nars. What is the need to spend 14 million for 27,000 square meters? Moreover, the government has a big printing press capable of pro-viding all the needs of the authority. Also, the land claimed by Mr. Al-Daihani is suffi cient to build a huge complex that can provide decent housing for thousands of Kuwaiti families.

In conjunction with brother Al-Daihani’s statement, I received a call the same week from the Bait Al Eman , “House of Faith” associa-tion, which is undoubtedly a well-known entity, and has a website and Instagram, and I have all its phone numbers, in which the caller offered me personally to buy any number of copies of the Holy Quran at a price of one dinar a copy to give it to whomever wants, and they will deliver the copies inside and out-side Kuwait for free, as gifts.

If a Kuwaiti association can provide copies of the Qur’an at this price, then why does the gov-ernment not buy its needs from it at a reasonable discount price and provide tens or even hundreds of millions of dinars to build and man-age a huge complex and an army of employees at a time when Saudi Arabia did not fail to provide us with all our needs for authenticated copies of the Holy Quran. Also, the Daihani authority itself had bought 70,000 copies of the Qur’an from an institution in the Emirates some time ago.

We wish the new Minister of Awqaf, His Excellency Issa Al-Kandari will intervene and stop this sluggishness, cancel the authority and continue relying on sister coun-tries’ printing presses to obtain copies of the Qur’an we need, and stop this partisan struggle over an authority from which we have not seen any real benefi t.

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e-mail: a.alsarraf@alqabas.com.kw

Other Voices

‘Tayseer’ platform launched

4,387 ‘Bedouns’ register for jobsKUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: The Director of the Public Relations and Media Depart-ment and the offi cial spokesperson of the Public Authority for Manpower Aseel Al-Mazyad revealed that the total num-ber of those registered in the “Tayseer” platform, which is dedicated to the em-ployment of the Bedoun residents, since its launch on De-cember 2 and until the beginning of this week, reached 4,387 of those with various specializa-tions and academic q u a l i f i c a t i o n s , reports Aljarida daily.

In a press state-ment, she ex-plained that this a fo remen t ioned number was distributed as follows 1,573 applicants of high-school level, 930 of diploma level, 645 university graduates, 408 of primary school level, 211 with high-school certifi cate and underwent one-year course, 201 with high-school certifi cate and underwent a two-year course or more, and 140 high-school certifi cate holders and diplomas with one year of experience. The total number of PhD holders who have reg-istered so far has reached four and those with Masters’ degree 33, in addition to a group of those with primary school qualifi cations and below.

Al-Mazyad indicated that there are

conditions and requirements in the regis-tration mechanism, such as the registrar must have a clearance from the Central System for Remedying Status of Illegal Residents (CSRSIR), ensure their secu-rity card is valid (not expired), and must have the civil number and the nationality specifi ed in the ID card.

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‘Extend fi shing season’: Head of Ku-waiti Fishermen Union Zahir Al-Soyyan has stressed the importance of extending the shrimp fi shing season until Feb 1 — like the neighboring countries — to meet the needs of the market, reports Al-Jarida daily.

In a press statement, Al-Soyyan point-ed out the number of fi shing boats in Ku-wait’s territorial waters declined this year as many fi shermen are outside the coun-try due to the corona pandemic.

He said the bounty of the sea makes it possible to extend the shrimp fi shing season, such that there will be ample sup-ply in the market and prices will remain reasonable.

He revealed the union sent two letters to the Fisheries Sector in the Public Au-thority for Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources requesting for extension of the shrimp fi shing season. He added the neighboring countries will continue their shrimp fi shing season until the end of January 2021. He is hoping for approval of the request as this is in the interest of the public.

Al-Mazyad

alsarraf

Egyptian arrested in sexual assaultof Syrian boy; B’deshi in ‘rape’ bid

Woman beaten many times by husband says will sue him

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: The Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh po-lice have arrested an unidentifi ed Egyptian for alleg-edly luring a Syrian youngster into his room and sexu-ally assaulting him, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

The daily quoting security sources said the arrest came after the victim’s cousin fi led a complaint with the area police station and said the victim was on his way home in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, Block 2, from the house of his aunt when the suspect lured him to his room saying he has birds for sale and sexually assaulted him.

After the complaint was fi led, the suspect who works for a food com-pany was arrested and during interrogation he admitted to the charge.

A case of indecent assault and kidnap has been fi led against him.❑ ❑ ❑

Rape bid foiled: Police have arrested an unidentifi ed Bangladeshi for alleg-edly attempting to rape a Filipino domestic helper, reports Al-Anba daily.

The daily added, the incident happened in Surrah. The suspect was car-rying out some work at the house of a Kuwaiti and he allegedly sneaked into the room of the maid and attempted to rape her and at this point the maid screamed for help.

The sponsor called the police and the suspect was taken to the police station for interrogation where he claimed that it is the maid that lured him, a charge denied by the maid.

A case of indecent as-sault on a woman has been fi led at the police station.

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‘Will not forgive him’: A case of domestic violence has been fi led at the Jaber Al-Ahmad Police Station after all attempts by the po-lice offi cers and the public investigator at the police station failed to get the Ku-waiti couple patch up their differences, reports Al-An-ba daily.

To make matters worse the wife insisted on fi ling a complaint against her hus-band due to what she said ‘repeated assaults’.

She told police after the last assault which allegedly happened Tuesday, she was determined to put an end to her suffering. She also at-tached a medical report to her complaint showing in-juries and abrasions on her body.

The source added out of concern for solving family issues, the wife was asked to sit down with one of the offi cers specialized in deal-ing with family issues, but the wife confi rmed that her last beating incident was not the fi rst, but rather her husband beat her several times earlier.

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Indian’s death probed: The remains of an uniden-tifi ed 35-year-old Indian which were found on the Aqsa Street in Rumaithiya have been referred to Fo-rensics to identify the cause of death.

The daily added, the se-curity authorities have not ruled out foul play since there were traces of blood around the head and the place where the corpse was found. The security sources said all possibilities are open and one of them is that the death may have been caused by a fall.

However, according to Al-Rai daily the Indian worked as electrician and died of electric shock dur-ing maintenance work at one of the power trans-formers in Rumaithiya.

Following the incident, a team of workers from the Ministry of Electricity went to the site and repaired the fault.

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Car crushes Pakistani: An unidentifi ed Pakistani died under the weight of his ve-hicle, reports Al-Rai daily.

According to a security source the vehicle had a breakdown and the victim had raised it up using a car jack. Due to malfunc-tion the carjack gave way and the vehicle came down crushing the Pakistani un-der its weight.

‘SAR 1’ preps for any future disasters

Many govt agencies take part in fi re drillBy Munif Nayef

Al-Seyassah Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: The Maritime Fire and Rescue De-partment affi liated to the Direc-torate-General of Fire Depart-ment (DGFD) carried out a fi re drill “Sar 1” at the waterfront opposite to the Salmiya Mari-time Firefi ghting Center, in co-operation with several govern-ment and private agencies, to raise the level of dealing with marine disasters and assess the level of cooperation between the fi refi ghting force and the com-petent authorities.

The director of the depart-ment, Colonel Bader Al-Kadam, said in a press statement the Maritime Fire and Rescue De-partment is the offi cial interna-tional point of contact with the International Maritime Organi-zation.

Colonel Al-Kadam added the department organized this exer-cise with the aim of evaluating work procedures and contin-gency plans followed during maritime accidents, as well as to assess the level of joint coop-eration between various govern-ment agencies when it comes to facing marine disasters.

Al-Kadam stated the scenario of the “Sar 1” exercise depicted a marine passenger boat catch-

ing fi re in one of the engine rooms, causing injuries of vari-ous types and loss of people at sea, as a result of which search and rescue operations were con-ducted and the injured were re-covered from the ship.

He pointed out the Salmiya, Shuwaikh, and Shuaiba Fire and Maritime Rescue Centers par-ticipated in the exercise through a notifi cation received from the operations room to activate the special emergency plan of fi ght-ing fi re and rescuing the injured through marine rescue teams.

He added, the medical emer-

gency department also partici-pated in the exercise through the fi eld hospital set up to deal with injuries and provided the neces-sary medical care while the En-vironment Public Authority, im-plemented measures to prevent marine pollution.

Also taking part in the drill was the Coast Guard, the Police Aviation Wing Department of the Ministry of Interior and the Maritime Transport Sector of the Ministry of Transportation.

Colonel Al-Kadam thanked all government agencies which participated in the drill.

Traffi c Dept responds to complaintsKUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: As part of the traffi c sector’s ef-forts to enforce law and or-der on the roads, the traffi c police after receiving sev-eral complaints about reck-less motorists and motorists who make annoying noises from the vehicle exhaust, the men in uniform have is-sued scores of citations and arrested several motorists , reports Al-Anba daily.

The General Traffi c De-partment has also impound-ed vehicles and towed them

to the Interior Ministry ga-rage.

The Directorate General of Public Relations and Se-curity Media Department of the Interior Ministry said making annoying sounds is considered one of the grave violations which lead to im-pounding the vehicle.

The GTD said the min-istry can be contacted on the WhatsApp number 99324092 to fi le complaints of recklessness.

KUNA photoHeavy equipment carrier ships and boats used in the fi re drill.

LOCAL/MIDEASTARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

7

News in Brief

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia announced on Monday regis-tering nine Coronavirus (Covid-19) deaths, and 168 new infections.

The pandemic death toll reached 6131, while in-fections reached 361178 cases, the Saudi Ministry of Health added in its daily report regarding the updates pf Covid-19. (KUNA)

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MANAMA: Bahrain’s Ministry of Health recorded on Tuesday 168 COVID-19 infections, with no registered fatalities, stabilizing the death toll at 350.

The ministry said through its Twitter account that 16 of those cases were from abroad. (KUNA)

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MUSCAT: The Omani Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday registering 212 new Coronavirus (Co-vid-19), to allow the total infections to reach 128143.

Oman New agency quoted the Ministry as saying that 119945 patients recovered, while the pandemic death reached 1490. (KUNA)

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DOHA: Qatar announced on Tuesday registering 149 new Coronavirus (Covid-19) new infections during the last 24 hours.

Qatari Ministry of Health said in a statement that the pandemic infections climbed up to reach 142308, as all the new infections were put in quarantine and are receiving the appropriate medical treatment. (KUNA)

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AMMAN: Jordan on Tuesday reported 23 deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and 2,444 infec-tions in the past 24 hours.

The new figures brought the overall death and in-fections to 3,627 and 280,000 respectively since the outbreak of the pandemic, said a joint statement by the government and the Ministry of Health. (KUNA)

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RABAT: The Moroccan Health Ministry announced Tuesday the registration of 30 new coronavirus (CO-VID-19) deaths and 2,646 new infections in the past 24 hours.

The new figures took death tolls up to 7,030, and the number of total infected cases is 420,648, it added. (KUNA)

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TUNIS: Tunisia’s Ministry of Health said on Tuesday that 1,605 people tested positive for the novel corona-virus (Covid-19), bringing the country’s caseload to 123,323.

Thirty-eight more fatalities from the respiratory illness, registered over the past 24 hours, pushed the death toll to 4,237. (KUNA)

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CAIRO: The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Popula-tion on Tuesday reported that 788 people tested posi-tive for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) and 37 pa-tients succumbed to the viral illness over the past 24 hours.

The figures took the country’s tally to 127,061 infec-tions and 7,167 deaths, the ministry’s spokesman Dr. Khaled Mujahed noted in a press release. (KUNA)

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AMMAN: The Syrian Ministry of Health said on Tues-day that 124 people tested positive for the novel coro-navirus (Covid-19), bringing the country’s caseload to 10,442.

Nine more fatalities over the past 24 hours raised the death toll from the illness to 630 while recoveries went up by 50 to 4,885, SANA news agency reported, citing a statement from the ministry. (KUNA)

Mladenov turns down offer to lead UN mission in Libya

Turkish parliament extends law for troop deployment to LibyaISTANBUL, Dec 23, (AP): Turkey’s parliament extended for 18 months a law that allows the deployment of Turkish troops to Libya.

The bill renewed a one-year mandate that came into force in January follow-ing a security and military agreement with the U.N.-backed administration in Tripoli, in western Libya.

The Turkish decision Tuesday comes in the wake of a U.N.-brokered cease-fi re in Libya that was declared in October. The cease-fi re deal envi-sioned the departure of foreign forces and mercenaries within three months.

Opposition parties voted against the extension but the combined votes of Turkey’s ruling party and its national-ist allies allowed the bill to pass.

Libya descended into chaos follow-ing the 2011 uprising that ousted and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi .

The oil-rich North African nation is now split between the Tripoli govern-ment and its rival administration in the east. Both sides are backed by regional and foreign powers and numerous lo-cal militias.

Ankara’s support for the Tripoli-based

Government of National Accord has turned the tide of war in Libya. Turkish military assistance - including advisors, equipment and intelligence - helped block a year-long military attempt to capture Tripoli by forces loyal to Khalifa Hifter, a Libyan commander who rules the eastern half of the country.

Turkey has been accused of send-ing thousands of Syrian mercenaries to Libya. Throughout his march on the capital, which collapsed in June, Hifter had the backing of the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, France and Russia.

Turkey also signed a controversial

maritime agreement with the Tripoli government last year, giving it access to a contested economic zone across the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The deal added tensions to Turkey’s ongo-ing dispute with Greece, Cyprus and Egypt over oil and gas drilling rights.

Meanwhile, Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N. special envoy for the Middle East Peace Process, has turned down an offer to lead the U.N. mission in confl ict-stricken Libya, according to a U.N. spokesman.

Mladenov told U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday

that he would not take up the position of special envoy for the North African country “for personal and family rea-sons,” said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday.

Mladenov’s term as Middle East peace envoy is set to expire at the end of the year and he’ll be replaced by Norway’s Middle East envoy, Tor Wennesland, according to the U.N. secretary-general.

Mladenov was appointed as the U.N. special envoy for the Middle East Peace Process in early 2015. Be-fore that, he was the top U.N. envoy

in Iraq, and had served as Bulgaria’s foreign minister from 2010 to 2013 and in the European Parliament from 2007 to 2009.

He took the job a few months after the end of the deadliest, most destruc-tive war between Israel and the mili-tant Hamas group in the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip.

In recent years, Mladenov, along-side other mediators from Egypt and Qatar, played a signifi cant role defus-ing numerous rounds of cross-border violence that threatened another war between Israel and Hamas.

Mourners attend the funeral of Parvin Enayati, 50, who died from COVID-19 at a cemetery in the Khajoo Kola village on the outskirts of the city of Ghaem-

shahr, in northern Iran on Dec 17. (AP)

Hospitals under strain

Far from the capital, Iranians struggle to bury virus victimsGHAEMSHAHR, Iran, Dec 23, (AP): Deep in the lush valleys of northern Iran, where the Alborz Mountains crumble toward the sea, Ali Rahimi takes up his grisly work.

Day in and day out, Rahimi, a 53-year-old volunteer cleric in the city of Ghaemshahr, puts on his hazmat suit and receives the deceased; disinfecting, washing and shrouding the dead bodies in white cloth.

The northern province of Mazanda-ran, with its forests and farmland, is a four-hour drive from Tehran, the capi-tal, where half of the country’s corona-virus deaths are concentrated. Hospitals in the city of 10 million are coming under strain and the capital’s vast cem-etery is struggling to keep pace with the dead. As the virus ripples across the country, killing over 54,000 people in what has become the Middle East’s worst outbreak, the bucolic countryside has not been spared.

Grave diggers in Mazandaran say that hundreds have died, but numbers are difficult to verify because Iran’s

Health Ministry stopped releasing a breakdown by province. A popular va-cation spot lined with hotels, villas and cafes along the Caspian Sea, Mazanda-ran draws throngs of Tehran residents seeking a break from the city’s pres-sures. Despite sporadic travel bans, the steady stream of visitors from major cities has helped spread the virus deep into the province’s rural corners, thick with rice fields and tangerine orchards.

In the early days of the pandemic, au-thorities feared burials would risk con-tagion. But Rahimi and his colleagues soon learned how to properly wrap and transport the bodies of those who died of COVID-19, providing some ritual and relief to bereaved loved ones.

After noon prayers, families arrive at the cemetery along with the ambu-lances. Rahimi and his medical team prepare each body for the cleansing re-quired for the Muslim dead, which now involves disinfectant. Male relatives, many wearing masks and gloves, car-ry the body aloft for a brief ceremony back at the village.

Minister urges Egyptians working abroad to ‘postpone’ travel plans

1,150 nationals register in ‘stranded form’

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: Ambassador Nabila Makram, Minister of State for Immigration and Egyp-tians Affairs Abroad, has ap-pealed to all Egyptians wish-ing to return to their work in Kuwait or any other country to postpone their travel un-til the picture is fully clear regarding the suspension of air traffic and the opening of airspace, reports Al-Anba daily.

She said they should travel only in case of extreme necessity until the vision is fully clear about air traffic during the coming period in light of the second wave of CO-VID-19 pandemic.

Makram affirmed that the crisis of Egyptians stranded abroad has reap-peared after the suspension of flights in a number of countries, especially in Kuwait due to the number of Egyptians working there, who were forced to travel through the Emirates, Oman and Turkey as “tran-sit” during their return trip to Kuwait.

In a press statement, the Egyptian Ministry of Immigration said the min-ister has been following up the work-flow of the Immigration Ministry’s operations room, and the position of Egyptians stranded abroad after the suspension of flights in a number of countries, including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

Meanwhile, Major General Mazen Fahmy, Egypt’s Assistant Minister of

Ahli United Bank congratulates winners of Al-Hassad Monthly Draw & ‘Privilege Draw’KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: In accordance with full preventive guidelines and measures set by health authorities, Ahli United Bank (AUB) held the Monthly draw of 23 December 2020 of Al-Hassad Islamic account which is the very fi rst draw account in Islamic banking in Kuwait and has won the “Best Savings Product in Kuwait 2019” by the pres-tigious Banker Middle East Magazine for the numerous unique features it pro-vides. Al-Hassad Islamic account offers over 800 prizes,Over 12 Month Period and has reshaped the lives of thousands lucky winners.

The Bank announced the KD 100,000 monthly draw winner as Mona Abdullah Al-Qenaei and the KD 25,000 Privilege Draw winner as Fadheelah Dawoud Abdullah.

The draws of Al-Hassad include several cash prizes, such as KD 100,000 each Eid and the grand quar-terly draw of KD 250,000 prize which continues to be a key aspiration for customers who are wishing to ful-fi ll their dreams. On top of that, Al-Hassad offers a monthly draw of KD

100,000, as well as 20 weekly prizes of KD 1,000 for each winner. In ad-dition to this attractive package of rewards, Al-Hassad Islamic account incorporates a Wakala contract for projected annual profi ts, making this account benefi cial to all customer seg-ments that are aspiring to build their short and long-term savings through a unique savings account with many advantages.

Furthermore, for the fi rst time in Kuwait, the AUB Al-Hassad presents the “Privilege Draw”, which is a quar-terly draw of KD 25,000 exclusively for Al-Hassad customers who main-

tained their balances for more than one year and have not won a prize in the past fi ve years.

For all draws, the clients are eligible for one draw chance for each KD 50 deposited in their Al-Hassad account.

It is worth mentioning that Al-Hassad Islamic account has won the “Best Savings Product in Kuwait 2019” by the Prestigious Banker Mid-dle East Magazine for the numerous unique features it provides. Such fea-tures include the simplest and easiest program, highest number of winners, largest prize value, unique draws dur-ing Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha, loy-alty multipliers, unique online account opening feature, transparent draws held during radio shows with live broadcast on the Bank’s social media platforms.

For more information about Al-Hassad Account added to the invest-ment savings account, the prizes it of-fers and relevant criteria, please visit any of AUB branches, contact “Haya-kom” Service on 1812000 or visit our website: www.ahliunited.com.kw.

Immigration for Communities Affairs, during his review of the number of stranded Egyptians who contacted the operations room through various means or registered with the stranded form prepared by the Ministry of Immigra-tion, said the number of those who have registered has reached 1,150 Egyptians

stranded in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman and Turkey.

These Egyptians expressed their desire to either complete the trip and stay in the country where they are stranded until the flights to Kuwait are reopened, or return to Egypt.

Earlier, Nabila Makram has an-

nounced the activation of an opera-tions room for stranded citizens after several countries, including Kuwait and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, decided to close their borders as part of precautionary measures to curb the spread of novel coronavirus (CO-VID-19), reports Al-Rai daily.

Market Movements 23-12-2020

Business Change Closing ptsAUSTRALIA - All Ordinaries +47.17 6,892.64JAPAN - Nikkei +88.40 26,524.79GERMANY - DAX +167.12 13,587.23FRANCE - CAC 40 +60.73 5,527.59EUROPE - Euro Stoxx 50 +41.77 3,539.26S. KOREA - KRX 100 +80.96 5,958.64PHILIPPINES - PSEi +1.99 7,204.38

Change Closing pts

VW recalls Beetles to replace Takata air bag inflators

Volkswagen is recalling over 105,000 Beetles with faulty Takata front driver’s air bags that can explode and hurl shrapnel.

The recall covers Beetles from the 2012 through 2014 model years.

Dealers will replace the front driver’s air bags at no cost to owners starting on Feb. 12.

Takata used volatile am-monium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate the bags in a crash. But the chemical can degrade when exposed to high heat and humidity and burn too fast, blowing apart a metal canister. Twenty-seven people have been killed worldwide by the exploding inflators, including 18 in the

U.S.Volkswagen says in gov-

ernment documents that the inflators have a mois-ture-absorbing chemical and do not pose an unrea-sonable safety risk. But it’s recalling them at the behest of the U.S. National High-way Traffic Safety Adminis-tration, which is concerned that the air bags could ex-

plode over time. Exploding Takata infla-

tors caused the largest se-ries of auto recalls in U.S. history, with at least 63 mil-lion inflators recalled. The U.S. government says that as of September, more than 11.1 million had not been fixed. About 100 million in-flators have been recalled worldwide. (AP)

In this file photo, a Volkswa-gen car dealer is open in Es-sen, Germany. In times when a pandemic unleashes death

and poverty, the concept of what is essential to keep soci-ety functioning in a lockdown

is gripping Europe. (AP)

Division of labor may no longer make sense

Millennial money: How to discuss family finances in a crisisBy Sara Rathner

NerdWallet

With 10.7 million Americans out of work as of November 2020

(and 3.9 million of those workers unemployed for 27 weeks or more), many have been forced into having tough money conversations as a re-sult of the pandemic.

Whenever your life changes sig-nifi cantly, it’s a good time to check back in on your fi nancial plan, be-cause things like marriage, divorce, a new baby or a career change can profoundly affect your household’s situation and cause you to rethink who is responsible for what.

Whether you share expenses with a roommate, a partner, adult children or parents, now is an especially good time to talk about money. Here are some ways to ease into these diffi cult conversations.

First, feel your feelingsFew are having the 2020 they

thought they’d have, and no one knows when normalcy will return. Mark Reyes, a Los Angeles-based certifi ed fi nancial planner who works for Albert, a fi nancial wellness mo-bile app, experienced a major disap-pointment of his own: Earlier this year, he and his wife canceled their wedding after more than two years of planning, opting to elope in his aunt’s backyard instead.

Though they feel they did the right thing, “we kind of grieved our wed-ding,” Reyes says. “We planned so much and worked so hard for one special day.”

He notes that it’s OK, even nec-essary, to process those emotions; burying them can make it diffi cult to meet fi nancial goals because you’ll continue to fear the unexpected.

“My wife and I were just real with how we were feeling,” Reyes says.

He’s seeing plenty of emotional turmoil from clients, too, he says. His company works with people who have been laid off, and those who’ve lost their jobs may feel like they’ve also lost part of their identity and what they thought their role was in their household.

“Just because there’s a lack of in-come, or you’re not earning income, doesn’t mean you don’t have value as a person,” Reyes says.

Reyes says his company helps such clients with actionable steps, such as identifying and cutting back on nonessential spending, and con-sidering side gigs as a way to get to the next month.

But giving yourself the space to feel sad and angry can also help. Let the process of voicing your worries get you back on the path to setting fi nancial goals and dreaming again.

“Bring it back to what’s realistic and important to you in these trying times,” Reyes says.

Compassionately renegotiate household responsibilities

It’s an age-old recipe for resent-

ment: One spouse loses their job, yet the working spouse still carries the larger burden of household chores. Or both spouses work from home while supervising kids in remote school, but one of them feels like they get interrupted more often and can’t focus on their job. (And let’s be real about whose work gets inter-rupted more in many opposite-sex couples: It’s the mom.)

Chores don’t just include cooking and cleaning. Money management takes time, too, and all adults in a household need to be involved. Ac-cording to UBS Financial Services’ Own Your Worth 2020 report, 49% of women defer to their spouses when it comes to fi nancial decisions.

The report also found that because of the pandemic, more than half of women take care of responsibilities like child care, cooking and clean-ing, while nearly three-quarters of men handle the fi nances.

Depending on your household’s situation right now, the division of labor may no longer make sense, and that means it’s time for a talk. Of course, these conversations can get heated.

Nathaniel Ivers, an associate pro-fessor in the department of coun-seling at Wake Forest University, believes that interpersonal confl icts stem from your desire to be under-stood by the other person, while at the same time, you don’t understand where the other person is coming from. He recommends using “I state-ments” when discussing hot-button issues.

“If you say, ‘I’m feeling over-whelmed with the extra responsibili-ties I have now,’ that will sometimes trigger compassion,” Ivers says. “But if it comes with fi nger-pointing, the last thing you get is compassion and empathy.”

Set boundaries when helping loved ones fi nancially

If a friend or family member needs money and you’re in a position to help, you can do them a world of good at a diffi cult time. But this can be tough if lending or gifting money means you’ll struggle to pay for your own expenses.

“It’s so challenging. You want to help - you are helping - but you only thought it would be a one-time or two-time thing and now it’s been six months,” Reyes says. “That’s a very diffi cult position to be in.”

Rather than providing open-ended help when you can’t afford to do so, offer to pay for specifi c things, like a month of rent or three months of electric bills. Your loved one gets some relief, while you cover a pre-dictable expense you can budget for over a set period.

“You have to be firm yet kind,” Ivers says. “What I would say is, ‘I can help you with this particu-lar thing for this amount of time.’ That’s where the boundary piece is.” (AP)

Deal worth over $1 billion

DP World signs agreement todevelop new port in SenegalDUBAI, Dec 23, (AP): International port operator DP World signed a deal Wednesday to develop a new deep-water port in Senegal worth over $1 billion, the company announced, its biggest ever investment in Africa.

DP World Dakar, a joint venture between the Dubai-based maritime fi rm and the port authority based in Senegal’s capital Dakar, will build and operate a vast new 600-hectare (1,500-

acre) port on the Atlantic Ocean. The deal also includes plans to build a new terminal to handle the world’s biggest container ships and a “special econom-ic zone” to attract foreign capital.

The major investment follows DP World’s delisting from the stock ex-change to become a fully government-owned fi rm. The world’s fourth-largest port operator runs operations in 40 coun-tries as far east as Brisbane, Australia and as far west as Prince Rupert, Canada. Over the years, DP World has won con-cessions to develop commercial ports and logistics hubs at several sites across Africa, including Somaliland, Algeria, Mozambique and Djibouti.

DP World’s forays into Africa come as the United Arab Emirates aggres-sively seeks to gain a strategic foot-hold in the continent. Over the past few years, the Gulf nation has built a series of military bases in the Horn of Africa that allow it to project power far beyond its borders, into the Red Sea and the crucial Bab el-Mandeb strait.

DP World Dakar plans to pour $837 million into the fi rst phase of Senegal’s Ndayane port construction, the single-biggest private sector investment in the West African country’s history, followed by another $290 million, ac-cording to a company statement.

The new port will help cement Da-kar’s status as “a major logistics hub and gateway to West and Northwest Africa,” the company added.

US layoffs remain elevated as 803,000 seek jobless aid

Orders for big-ticket manufactured goods up 0.9% in Nov

WASHINGTON, Dec 23, (AP): The number of Americans seeking un-employment benefits fell by 89,000 last week to a still-elevated 803,000, evi-dence that the job market remains under stress nine months after the corona-virus outbreak sent the US economy into recession and caused millions of layoffs.

The latest figure, released Wednesday by the Labor Depart-ment, shows that many employers are still cutting jobs as the pan-demic tightens business restric-tions and leads many consumers to stay home. Before the virus struck, jobless claims typically numbered around 225,000 a week before shooting up to 6.9 million in early spring when the virus – and efforts to contain it – flattened the econo-my. The pace of layoffs has since declined but remains historically high in the face of the resurgence of COVID-19 cases.

“The fact that more than nine months into the crisis, initial claims are still running at such a high level is, in abso-lute terms, bad news,” Joshua Shapiro, chief US economist at the economic consulting fi rm Maria Fiorini Ramirez Inc., wrote in a research note. “With the pandemic again worsening, it is likely that claims will remain quite el-evated for some time to come.’’

The total number of people who are receiving traditional state unemploy-ment benefi ts fell to 5.3 million for the week that ended Dec. 12 from a week earlier. That fi gure had peaked in early May at nearly 23 million. The steady decline since then means that some un-employed Americans are fi nding work and no longer receiving aid. But it also indicates that many of the unemployed have used up their state benefi ts, which typically expire after six months.

Millions more jobless Americans are now collecting checks under two federal programs that were created in March to ease the economic pain infl icted by the pandemic. Those pro-grams had been set to expire the day after Christmas. On Monday, Congress agreed to extend them as part of a $900 billion pandemic rescue package.

On Tuesday night, though, President Donald Trump suddenly raised doubts about that aid and other federal money by attacking Congress’ rescue package as inadequate and suggesting that he might not sign it into law.

The supplemental federal jobless ben-efi t in Congress’ new measure has been set at $300 a week - only half the amount provided in March - and will expire in 11 weeks. A separate benefi ts program for jobless people who have exhausted their regular state aid and another ben-efi ts program for self-employed and gig workers will also be extended only until early spring, well before the economy will likely have fully recovered.

A tentative economic recovery from the springtime collapse has been faltering in the face of a resurgence of COVID-19 cases: An average of more than 200,000 confi rmed cases a day, up from fewer than 35,000 in early September. Hiring in Novem-ber slowed for a fi fth straight month, with employers adding the fewest jobs since April. Nearly 10 million of the 22 million people who lost jobs when the pandemic hit in the spring are still unemployed.

According to the data fi rm Womply, closings are rising in some hard-hit busi-nesses. For example, 42% of bars were closed as of Dec. 16, up from 33% at the start of November. Over the same period, closures rose from 25% to 29% at restau-rants and from 27% to 35% at salons and other health and beauty shops.

The number of jobless people who are collecting aid from one of the two federal extended-benefi t programs - the Pandemic Unemployment Assis-tance program, which offers coverage to gig workers and others who don’t qualify for traditional benefi ts – rose by nearly 27,000 to 9.3 million in the week that ended Dec 5.

A woman shops at a clothing store on Sept 25, 2020, in New York. US consumer spending slowed in August and personal income fell as a $600 weekly benefit for Americans who are unemployed during the pandemic expired. The Commerce Department reported Thursday, Oct 1 that spending grew by just 1%, the weakest growth since spending fell 12.7% in April when rapidly spreading COVID-19 infections shut down large parts of the economy.

(AP)

First decline since April

US consumer spending drops 0.4%WASHINGTON, Dec 23, (AP): US consumer spending fell 0.4% in November, the fi rst decline since April, as Americans confronted a newly resurgent virus.

The decline followed a 0.3% gain in October and even bigger increases starting in May, the Commerce Depart-ment reported Wednesday, a period when the country was emerging from lockdowns intended to halt the spread of COVID-19. There was a massive 12.7% decline be-cause of that in April.

Also, personal incomes fell 1.1% in November, mark-ing the third drop in the past four months as various gov-ernment relief programs expire.

Infl ation as measured by a gauge preferred by the Fed-eral Reserve showed a modest 1.1% gain in November, well below the Fed’s 2% target. The benign infl ation readings will give the Fed leeway to continue providing support to an economy that has absorbed millions of peo-ple who suddenly unemployed as businesses shut down or lay off workers.

Economists, however, fear that weak spending by Americans will slow economic growth in coming months. Congress passed a $900 billion pandemic rescue package Monday, but President Donald Trump attacked the measure the following day as insuffi cient with direct payments to Americans.

Consumer spending accounts for around 70% of eco-nomic activity so even small declines can weigh heavily on economic growth.

It is unknown if Trump will sign the measure, which as been fought over for months, as his presidency expires.

Without more government help, the economy could be crippled, and economists say the pullback on spending by Americans last month could be a harbinger of worse days to come as a resurgent coronavirus leads to more shutdowns.

COVID-19 has killed more than 318,000 Americans and counting.

“A rapidly worsening health situation, weakening in-come, depleted savings for lower income families and cooler weather ed consumers to slam their wallets shut in November,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at Oxford Economics. “The economy is entering 2021 with very little dynamism.”

The government reported Tuesday that the overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, grew at a record 33.4% annual rate from July through September, rebounding from a record fall in the second quarter.

But the concern is that growth could slow signifi cantly in the current quarter and some analysts belief without further congressional support, GDP could dip back into negative territory in the fi rst quarter of 2021.

The 1.1% fall in personal incomes refl ected the fact that government transfer payments continued to fall sharply in November as more unemployed Americans exhausted their unemployment benefi ts.

The number of people receiving aid under the second – the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Com-pensation program, which provides federal jobless benefi ts to people who have exhausted their state aid – fell by nearly 8,200 to 4.8 million.

All told, 20.4 million people are now receiving some type of unem-ployment benefi ts. (Figures for the two pandemic-related programs aren’t ad-justed for seasonal variations.)

States and cities have been increas-ingly issuing mask mandates, limit-ing the size of gatherings, restricting or banning restaurant dining, closing gyms or reducing the hours and capac-ity of bars, stores and other businesses, all of which has slowed economic ac-tivity. With vaccines now beginning to be gradually distributed, though, opti-mism is rising about 2021.

Months from now, economists say, the widespread distribution and use of the vaccines could potentially unleash a robust economic rebound as the virus is quashed, businesses reopen, hiring picks up and consumers spend freely again.

Until then, the limited aid Congress has agreed to won’t likely be suffi cient to stave off hardships for many house-holds and small companies, especially if lawmakers balk at enacting further aid early next year. And a widening fi nancial gap between the affl uent and disadvantaged households will likely worsen.

“Recession risks are very high,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “I do think the economy’s going to start losing some jobs here. Unemployment will prob-ably go higher. The only thing that will save us from recession is that $900 bil-lion fi scal rescue package.”

Meanwhile, orders to US factories for big-ticketed manufactured goods rose a moderate 0.9% in November with a key category that tracks busi-ness investment plans showing a gain.

The November gain in orders for durable goods, items expected to last at least three years, followed stronger gains in recent months including a 3.8% rise in October, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

A key category that serves as a proxy for business investment spend-ing rose a modest 0.4% in November following much stronger gains of 3.6% in October and 3.9% in September.

Analysts are concerned that busi-ness investment could begin to fade if the resurgence of the coronavirus cur-tails demand.

The strength in November included a 3.4% rise in demand for motor ve-hicles and parts, which represented a rebound following a 2.5% drop in October.

Overall, orders for transportation equipment rose by 1.9%. Demand for commercial aircraft fell by 2.9% as the airline industry continued to be bat-

tered by a slump in travel due to the pandemic.

Oren Klachkin, an economist at Ox-ford Economics, noted the slowdown in overall orders and said “factory ac-tivity is set to grind forward in a low gear in 2021.” He said this would re-fl ect weaker spending on consumer goods and a slowing in economic mo-mentum.

In this file photo, cranes off load containers at the Jebel Ali Port Terminal 2 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. International port operator DP World signed a deal on Dec 23, to develop a new deep-water port in Senegal worth over $1 billion, the company announced, its biggest ever investment

in Africa. (AP)

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

9

Humansoft Holding jumps 81 fils, NAPESCO dips

Kuwait logs modest rebound, volume risesBy John MathewsArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 23: Kuwait stocks pulled higher on Wednesday stemming the three-day decline. The All Shares Index climbed 14.34 points in lackluster trade to 5,572 pts helped by renewed buy-ing in some of the counters.

The Premier Market rose 13.9 pts to 6,094.39 points taking the month’s gains to 86 points while Main Market scaled 15.4 points. The BK 50 Main index was up 17.58 pts at 4627.32 points. The vol-ume turnover meanwhile saw a modest rebound. Over 185 million shares changed hands – up 11.4 pct from the day before.

The sectors closed mostly in the green turf. Technology outshone the rest with 4.89 pct gain whereas Oil and Gas shed 2.21 percent, the worst performer of the day. Volume wise, Financial Services topped with 80.8 million shares while Banking sector dominated the value with over KD 10 million.

Among the standout performers, National Bank of Kuwait paced 4 fils on back of 2.2 million shares to close at 847 fils while Kuwait Finance House added 3 fils after trading 3.5 million shares. Humansoft Holding soared 81 fils to KD 3.706 taking the month’s gains to 105 fils and UPAC jumped 38 fils.

Zain fell 2 fils to 613 fils after pushing 3.9 million shares whereas Ooredoo raced 11 fils before settling at 635 fils. stc dialed down 2 fils whereas Agility eased 1 fils to 675 fils. Boursa was down 5 fils at KD 1.110 and UPAC rallied 38 fils to 298 fils. NAPESCO slid 53 fils to KD 1.049 extending last session’s losses.

KIPCO inched 1 fils higher to 154 fils whereas KAMCO trimmed 0.8 fil. Kuwait Investment Co and National Investment Co took in 1 fil each whereas Noor Financial Investment Co and Tamdeen Investment Co stood pat at 171 fils and 323 fils respectively. Gulf Insurance Co skidded 29 fils.

The market opened firm and headed north in early trade. The main index scaled the day’s highest level of 5,587 pts amid

buying spurt across the sectors and retreat-ed slightly. It drifted sideways thereafter and closed with modest gains.

Top gainer of the day, UPAC rallied 14.62 pct to 298 fils while KSHC sprinted 10.7 percent to stand next. Hilal Cement skidded 17.73 percent, the steepest decliner of the day while Kuwait Real Estate topped the volume with over 16 million shares.

Mirroring the day’s gains, the market spread was heavily skewed towards the winners. 68 stocks advanced whereas 36 closed lower. Of the 124 counters active on Wednesday, 20 closed flat. 7,667 deals worth KD 27.53 million were transacted during the session.

National Industries Group was unchanged at 182 fils after moving over 2 million shares while Mezzan Holding clipped 1 fil. Boubyan Petrochemical Co stood pat at 622 fils whereas Al Qurain Petrochemical Co and Aznoula were up 3 fils each to close at 341 fils and 276 fils respectively. Integrated Holding Co held ground at 377 fils.

Jazeera Airways soared 18 fils to 700 fils and ALAFCO was up 6 fils on back of 8.5 million shares. Soor and Advanced Technology Co were unchanged at 121 fils abd 570 fils respectively while Oula Fuel and SPEC clipped 1 fil each. Inovest dialed up1 fil and Al Rai Media Group eased 0.4 fil to 45.7 fils.

Kuwait Cement Co rose 3 fils to 231 fils whereas Kuwait Portland Cement diald down 2 fils. Metal and Recylcing Co and AAN paused at 43.8 fils and 12.3 fils respectively whereas QIC dialed down 2 fils. IFA Hotels and Resorts trimmed 0.8 fils while Combined Group Contracting Co paced 4 fils. KCPC crept 3 fils higher.

Kuwait Foundry Co jumped 20 fils to 290 fils while Gulf Cable and Kuwait Gulf Links Transport Co rose 3 fils each. NICBM added 2 fils and Automated Systems Co closed 3.3 fils in green. Burgan Well Drilling Co fell 5 fils to 165 fils and ACICO Industries inched 0.3 fil higher to 88.7 fils.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank took in 1 fil on back of 3.6 million shares while

GM recalls vehicles in USDETROIT, Dec 23, (AP): General Motors is recalling nearly 840,000 vehicles in the US for suspension prob-lems or because the front seat belts can fail.

The seat belt recall covers 624,000 2019 through 2021 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500 pickup trucks. Also included are the 2021 Chevrolet Suburban and Tahoe and GMC Yukon XL, and the 2020 and 2021 Silverado 2500 and 3500 and GMC Sierra 2500 and 3500.

All have split bench seats. Pickups with bucket seats are not affected.

GM says in government documents that the seat belt brackets may not have been secured to the seat frame. That means the belts may not properly restrain people in a crash. The company says it doesn’t know of any crashes or injuries.

GM will notify owners starting Feb. 1 and dealers will inspect the seat belt brackets and assemble them correctly.

The suspension recall covers the 2012 and 2013 Buick Regal, the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu, and the 2010 through 2013 Buick Lacrosse midsize cars that were sold or registered in salt-belt states. The rear toe links can rust and fail on 213,000 of the vehicles.

A coating on the links can chip away, exposing the metal and allowing rust. That can cause the links to fracture.

The recall covers vehicles sold or ever registered in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin or Washington, DC.

GM says it has no reports of crashes or injuries.Dealers will replace the toe links when parts are

available. Owners will get a notice on Feb 15 and a second notice when parts are ready around March 15.

Kuwait International Bank and Burgan Bank dialed up 2 fils each. Boubyan Bank too added 2 fils whereas Warba Bank was flat at 237 fils. Ahli United Bank gave up 2 fils after trading 14.2 million shares and Commercial Bank of Kuwait slipped 5 fils.

The market has been largely weak so far during the week shedding 70 points in last four sessions. It has scaled 114 points from start of the month but is down 710 points year-to-date.

Wall St ticks up amid mixed economic data

In this file photo, pedestrians pass the New York Stock Exchange, in New York. Stocks are ticking higher on Wall Street on Dec 23, following a mixed set of reports on the economy. (AP)

ZURICH & TOKYO, Dec 23, (Agencies): Avaloq, a Swiss-based global leader in digital banking solutions and wealth management technology, and Japan-based NEC Corporation today announced the closing of NEC’s acquisition of Avaloq. Each being a market leader in their own field, the combination of their shared vision, technological strengths, and global presence, will accelerate both companies’ long-term growth, global expansion and value creation strategy.

This acquisition was first announced in October 2020, and following receipt of the relevant regulatory approvals, the acquisition was completed on December 22, 2020. NEC now holds 100% of Avaloq’s shares, including the 45% previously held by private equity firm Warburg Pincus, as well as the remaining shares held by Avaloq’s founder Francisco Fernandez and by employees.

Founded in 1985, Avaloq pro-vides powerful cloud solutions for banks and wealth managers around the globe through business process as a service (BPaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) along with on-

premise solutions. Avaloq’s vision for the future of wealth management is to maintain the human relation-ship an investor has with an advisor, to enhance the relationship through technology and to increase engage-ment and satisfaction. The democra-tization of wealth management will allow more people to have access to a greater quantity and quality of investment strategies and advice that was once reserved for ultra and high net worth individuals only.

With more than 120 years of expertise, NEC is a leader in the integration of IT and network tech-nologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. Listed on the Tokyo stock exchange, NEC is a truly global organization with office locations in more than 50 countries.

Masakazu Yamashina, Executive Vice-President of NEC and new chairman of Avaloq, said: “With its 35-year heritage and focus on inno-vation in digital banking solutions, core banking software and wealth management technology, Avaloq is uniquely qualified to launch NEC into the Digital Finance field, which together with Digital Government, is one of the pillars for building

NEC’s global growth. Our joint value proposition will build on Avaloq’s reliable digital finance products and the trust it has estab-lished amongst its clients, coupled with NEC’s cutting-edge technolo-gies, global business network and digital government domain knowl-edge.”

Jurg Hunziker, CEO of Avaloq, said: “Avaloq will be entering a new era together with NEC. This trans-action has generated much interest and we truly believe that NEC is the best partner for our business. Our solutions will only evolve for the better when leveraging NEC’s prov-en expertise with technologies relat-ed to Digital Identity, Artificial Intelligence, Verification, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, and Biometrics. In addition, our innova-tion capabilities will be elevated with NEC’s strong commitment to Research & Development, evi-denced by the resources it has placed towards this, including dedi-cated facilities in Heidelberg, Germany. I am very much looking forward to starting this new part of our exciting growth journey togeth-er with NEC.”

Japan’s NEC completes Avaloq acquisition

S&P 500 on track to break 3-day losing streak

NEW YORK, Dec 23, (AP): Stocks are ticking higher on Wall Street Wednesday following a mixed set of reports on the economy.

The S&P 500 was up by 0.5% and on pace for its first gain after three days of losses pulled it off its record high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 196 points higher, or 0.7%, at 30,211, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was virtu-ally unchanged.

Overnight, Wall Street had seemed to be heading for a rockier day of trading. U.S. stock futures initially dropped after President Donald Trump said that he may not sign the $900 billion rescue for the economy that Congress just approved. But they eventually drifted upward as investors looked past the unexpected push back.

Markets around the world were relatively buoyant. Many Asian and European stock markets also rose, while Treasury yields climbed. Thin trading in this holiday-short-ened week could make market moves more erratic. So could investors looking to close out positions as the end of the year approach-es.

An hour before trading began on Wall Street, the government released an avalanche of data on the economy that showed some optimistic signs and several disappointing ones.

The most encouraging one said fewer U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week. The number is still incredibly high compared with before the pandemic, but it was better than economists were expecting. It also meant at least a temporary halt to the increase in unemployment claims the econo-my had been suffering as the pandemic wors-ens and tightens its chokehold on the econo-my.

Another report said that orders for long-lasting goods strengthened by more than expected last month, a good sign for the nation’s manufacturers.

Other data reports were more grim, though.

Consumers pulled back on their spending by more last month than economists expected. It was the first drop since April, and it’s a dis-couraging signal for an economy that’s driv-en mostly by consumer spending. A big rea-son was the sharp drop in incomes that Americans took in November, worse than economists had forecast.

The resurgent pandemic is pushing gov-ernments around the country and world to bring back varying degrees of restrictions on businesses. Those, plus lost sales for compa-nies from customers scared to do business amid the pandemic, are dragging the econo-my down following its initial bounce-back from its springtime plunge. A new, poten-tially more infectious coronavirus strain identified in southern England is raising wor-ries further.

The hope in markets had been that $900 billion in economic support that Congress approved Monday night could tide the econ-omy over until widespread vaccinations could help the world begin a return to normal next year. The package includes one-time cash payments to most Americans, extra benefits for laid-off workers and other finan-cial support.

But Trump said late Tuesday that he wants to see bigger cash payments going to most Americans, up to $2,000 for individuals. He also criticized other parts of the bill.

Trump did not specifically say he would veto the bill. But if he did, it may regardless have enough support within Congress to override the veto after it passed both the House and Senate by lopsided margins.

Wall Street’s gains on Wednesday were modest but widespread. Roughly three out of four stocks in the S&P 500 were rising, and stocks of companies that would benefit the most from a healthier economy were doing the heaviest lifting.

Energy stocks rose 2.8% for the biggest gain among the 11 sectors that make up the S&P 500. Financial stocks were close behind, up 1.7%.

Travel-related stocks also clawed back

some of their sharp losses from earlier in the week, when countries around the world blocked flights from London and raised wor-ries about more restrictions due to the new coronavirus strain. Cruise-operator Carnival rose 5.9%, and American Air Lines Group gained 3.9%.

In European stock markets, indexes rose as France reopened its border to some British trucks and passengers following a two-day blockade. The French CAC 40 rose 1.3%, and Germany’s DAX returned 1.3%. The FTSE 100 in London gained 0.6%.

Asian stock markets rose Wednesday after President Donald Trump suggested he may veto a $900 billion economic aid plan and the World Bank said it expects China to eke out 2% growth this year and accelerate in 2021.

Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and South Korea advanced in light trading ahead of this week’s Christmas holiday.

Overnight, Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index lost 0.2% after Trump criticized the aid plan approved by Congress. He urged lawmakers to raise payments to the public.

“Hopes for an unambiguous ‘Santa rally’ have been tragically hijacked,” said Mizuho Bank in a report.

Meanwhile, investor nerves were rattled by the emergence of a new coronavirus vari-ant in Britain that spreads more easily. That has prompted some 40 governments to ban travelers from Britain.

The Shanghai Composite Index rose 1% to 3,391.05 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo added 0.3% to 26,470.94. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 0.6% to 26,268.17.

The Kospi in Seoul climbed 0.8% to 2,754.35 and Australia’s S&P-ASX 200 was 0.6% higher at 6,638.60.

India’s Sensex opened 0.5% higher at 46,228.23. New Zealand, Singapore and Bangkok advanced while Indonesia declined.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 0.95% from 0.90% late Tuesday.

Business PlusPlus

For women, it’s a disaster. Most of

them working in the factories are single parents supporting their families and

right now, the indus-try is facing a total

collapse

We must now con-sider reforms to

ensure this vulnera-bility does not

threaten financial stability

‘

‘

’

’

COVID-19 lockdowns have obliterated a retail sector already struggling to survive

Pandemic crushes global supply chains, workers at both ends

unemployed. In the nineties, a fl urry of Taiwanese and Chinese clothing companies moved to Lesotho, and Litali was one of the fi rst women to be taught how to sew, she says. At Tzicc, she would sit at her table fi ve days a week and stitch together T-shirts and gym leggings using an old, worn sew-ing machine. The factory is set on one level, with exposed brick walls, and packed tight with over 1,000 women.

A widow for the last eight years, Litali single-handedly supports her youngest daughter, who is 20, and her 4-year-old grandchild. During the lockdown, her employer delayed her fi nal $94 paycheck for three months until May. Tzicc Clothing also claimed she didn’t qualify for monthly government subsidy payments totalling $160 because she was on a probationary contract.

Malekena Ntsiki, an organizer at the Independent Democratic Union of Lesotho (IDUL), disputed both issues with Tzicc on behalf of Litali, and she says the government subsidy was intended for all workers regardless of their contract type.

The Human Resources manager at Tzicc Clothing, Masefatsa Mofolo, confi rmed the company laid off staff due to limited orders and that Litali lost her job. All employees on pro-bationary contracts were terminated during the pandemic, she said.

While she waited for her fi nal paycheck, Litali received no income or support for three months. The fam-ily survived off food parcels donated by the local church until her salary arrived. “I got so stressed I thought I was going mad,” she explains. “I would spend the whole day in my house sleeping, not doing anything. It got to a stage where I wouldn’t even try to talk with my daughter. She would ask me: ‘Are you sick? What is the problem?’ and I wouldn’t say anything to her. I didn’t want to speak to anyone or ask for help.”

At one point, she considered tying the knot with her partner. An electri-cian, he was paid daily for odd jobs on construction sites but this work dried up during the pandemic, too. “I thought: okay, I’m old, but I’m strug-gling and this person is here...maybe marriage can help somehow,” she half-jokes. Together for a couple of months, the pair have since parted ways.

Back in California, Orozco oc-casionally walks past the J.C. Penney store in town on her way to the bank. The windows are free from sale signs, the gates locked. “It’s upsetting,” she says. “I was really close to the cleaning lady who worked there. She gave me remedies for my insomnia. It broke my heart to know I probably won’t ever see her again.”

A spokesperson for J.C. Penney declined to comment on the impact of countrywide store closures.

Although Orozco lives with her parents, she still needs to cover her car and phone bills. When her J.C. Penney store closed temporar-ily in mid-March in adherence with COVID-19 measures, she was out of work for three months and applied for unemployment.

She used the time to fi nesse her side-hustle: a make-up business. In June, Orozco launched Glossy Baby Cosmetics, selling lashes, lipglosses and clothes via Instagram. She spends hours researching the products online and then buys in bulk when she fi nds something she likes.

“My room is currently like a tornado,” she adds of the boxes piling up.

It’s still early days, and money is tighter than before. She’s currently making an estimated $200-300 per month in sales from her new online business, nearly fi ve times less than her salary at J.C. Penney.

The layoff has taken its toll on her mental health, too. Orozco suffers from bouts of depression and often feels like giving up on her newfound entrepreneurism, though she’s quickly talked out of it by her family, she says. Her 42-year-old mother, Luz, who immigrated to American from Mexico at 13-years-old and set up her own party-planning business is particularly persuasive. (AP)

Alexandra Orozco walks down the main street of Delano, Calif, on Dec 6. Just over a two-hour drive from Los Angeles, the population of Delano is roughly 50,000, and jobs are scarce, she says. (AP)

March turbulence shows need for fi nancial reformsWASHINGTON, Dec 23, (AP): A top government fi nancial oversight panel says that the turbulence in fi nancial markets last spring has exposed problems in the operation of money market funds that will need to be corrected before the next crisis hits.

The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, led by the Treasury Department, issued a report Tuesday which said that the fl ight to safety triggered by the

coronavirus pandemic last spring pointed to the need for reforms that will make money market funds less vulnerable to investors rushing to withdraw their funds.

“During March, money markets experienced signifi cant outfl ows, forcing Treasury and the Fed-eral Reserve to step in to prevent a destabilizing run,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Justin Muzinich said in a statement accompanying the report.

“We must now consider reforms

to ensure this vulnerability does not threaten fi nancial stability,” he said.

The crisis last March prompted the Federal Reserve to purchase billions of dollars in Treasury securities and other bonds to stabilize fi nancial markets and cope with a massive sell-off by investors that was larger than the sell-off that was triggered by the 2008 fi nancial crisis.

While the 2008 bout of instability led to a number of reforms, the new report said that this year’s problems

highlighted the need for further action.

The report did not make specifi c recommendations for changes but instead laid out a number of areas which could be considered such as imposing higher capital require-ments for money market funds or tougher rules for investors to redeem their investments.

The President’s Working Group on Financial Markets is led by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin

and includes Federal Reserve Chair-man Jerome Powell and the heads of the Securities and Exchange Com-mission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Former Fed Chair Janet Yellen, who has been tapped by President-elect Joe Biden to be the next Treasury secretary, is expected to make shoring up the fi nancial system against bouts of investor fl ight one of her priorities once she takes offi ce after being confi rmed by the Senate.

By Louise DonovanThe Fuller Project

In her last weeks working the freight shift at the local J.C. Penney store,

Alexandra Orozco took out her phone and hit record. The 22-year-old shot videos as she and her co-workers slid down a metal shoot (technically meant for empty boxes) in the store room, their heads falling back laughing, and posted them on TikTok. Another, uploaded on 13th October, shows the giant black-and-red “Everything Must go!” posters hanging from ceiling to fl oor, and an eerily half-empty base-ment section.

“Slowing losing my job,” she wrote in the caption, days before the store in Delano, California shut for good, just one of 156 J.C. Penneys across the United States to close since June this year.

Orozco began working part-time at J.C. Penney when she was 18, and in nearly four years rose through the ranks from cashier to freight team as-sociate, unloading trucks stuffed with new stock and doing inventory. Four days a week, she arrived at the store by four or fi ve a.m. The early morn-ings suited her; she loved her job but crowds made her anxious. Now, since being laid off, she’s stressed. She’s applied for a couple of jobs - one counselling kids, the other delivering fl owers - but has yet to hear back from either.

“It’s so sad,” she explains over the phone from her home, noise from a T.V. playing softly in the background. “I never thought this would happen. And Delano is a small place. There’s not that many stores. It’s hard to fi nd jobs here.”

Halfway across the world, Matefo Litali experienced upheaval, too. A skilled sewer, the 53-year-old has worked in garment factories for the past 14 years across Lesotho, a small mountainous country entirely surrounded by South Africa. Tzicc Clothing, which makes apparel for U.S-based giants J.C. Penney and Walmart, employed the seamstress for two months before nationwide lockdown measures forced all facto-ries to temporarily close in March.

On May 6, she returned to work. The next day, at the end of her shift, she says management told her not to come back. Tzicc confi rmed her last day was May 7.

“I felt powerless,” she says. “The fi rst thing that went through my mind was, ‘Why me?’”

Neither woman has met, nor are they likely to meet. One woman lives in a remote agricultural town on the west coast of America, the other some 10,000 miles away in Southern Africa in one of the smallest countries on earth. Now, both of their lives - and livelihoods - are linked by a global pandemic that has crushed one of the world’s supply chains and with it, economies, too. COVID-19 lockdowns have obliterated a retail sector already struggling to survive before the coronavirus hit, which has in turn contributed to the collapse of the global garment trade and wreaked havoc for millions of workers, the vast majority of them women like Orozco and Litali.

In Lesotho, which has a population of 2.1 million, the pandemic’s effects were felt fast. Over the past two dec-ades, the country’s garment industry has boomed to become its largest em-ployer, accounting for more than 20% of Lesotho’s gross domestic product.

Much of this success is down to a trade deal called the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which was signed by then-President Bill Clinton in 2000, allowing duty-free exports to the U.S. Today, Lesotho’s garment workers, 90% of whom are women, craft clothes for some of America’s most iconic brands: Levis Strauss, Wrangler, Macy’s and Walmart.

While Lesotho’s garment industry might be lesser known compared to the powerhouses of China and Bangladesh, it’s another example of an economy heavily reliant on U.S. demand. Outside of the African conti-nent, America is the largest recipient of Lesotho’s exports - accounting for almost half - according to the most recently available World Trade Organization data from 2017. And if the country has escaped relatively unscathed from the coronavirus, with just 2,065 cases recorded since the start, the impact of America’s strin-gent lockdown measures have trickled through the industry in Lesotho down with equally devastating effect.

In the U.S, meanwhile, clothing retailers have been hit particularly hard. While J.C. Penney hasn’t been profi table since 2010, the 118-year-old department store chain fi led for bankruptcy in May. Six months later,

it was bought out but has already reduced its workforce by over 10,000, approximately 11% of its U.S. staff, during the restructuring, a source familiar with the situation confi rmed to The Fuller Project.” The bankrupt-cies of major American retailers have stacked up this year: J.Crew, Neiman Marcus and Brooks Brothers, to name three of the 46 in 2020, according to marketing data from S&P Global.

“And when a big U.S. retailer takes a tumble,” says Neil Saunders, managing director at research fi rm GlobalData Retail, “the effects are felt across the globe.”

The U.S. is one of the world’s top importers of clothing, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total global retail spend. At the beginning of the pandemic in March, as U.S. retailers cancelled or failed to pay for existing orders worth billions of dollars, the ef-fects quickly rippled down the supply chain globally. Thousands of garment factories around the world closed leading to widespread lay-offs and suspensions of employees like Litali in Lesotho. From January to June of this year, imports of garments in the U.S. dropped by 26%, a loss of $17 billion for factories around the world compared to the same period last year, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

“Even though J.C. Penney may not be profi table, it’s still a pretty big business,” says Saunders. “It’s still placing a lot of orders with suppliers and supports a lot of jobs globally, so the fallout is extensive.”

At Tzicc Clothing, which employed Litali, roughly one fi fth of employees have lost their jobs since May, says Tšepang Makakole of the National Clothing Textile and Allied Workers Union (NACTWU) in Lesotho. He knows of at least six factories that have closed across the country, seeing thousands of workers lose their jobs.

“For women, it’s a disaster,” he adds. “Most of them working in the factories are single parents support-ing their families and right now, the industry is facing a total collapse.”

Litali, the seamstress, says she felt weak in the knees when she heard the news that she was suddenly

Apple CEO didn’t take meeting about buying Tesla: Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he once considered selling the electric car maker to Ap-ple, but the iPhone maker’s CEO blew off the meeting.

In a tweet Tuesday, Musk said he reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook “to discuss the possibility of Apple ac-quiring Tesla (for one-tenth of our current value). He re-fused to take the meeting.”

Tesla’s market value is $616 billion, as of the close of trading Tuesday. One-tenth of that is $61.6 billion.

Musk said he sought out the meeting with Cook “dur-ing the darkest days of the Model 3 program,” a refer-ence to Tesla’s fi rst electric car designed for the mass market. As recently as 2018, Tesla was struggling to meet

its vehicle production goals and turn a profi t.

Tesla’s fortunes have changed since then. The automaker is fi nally making money on a consistent ba-sis after years of losses and continues to hit milestones for deliveries of its vehi-cles. Its shares have soared 665% this year alone, mak-ing it the world’s most valu-

able automaker and among the top 10 biggest U.S. com-panies in the S&P 500 in-dex, which Tesla entered on Monday.

Musk’s tweet followed published reports suggest-ing Apple is working on developing its own electric cars.

Apple declined to com-ment. (AP)

In this fi le photo, SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO

Elon Musk arrives on the red carpet for the Axel

Springer media award, in Berlin. (AP)

Matefo Litali, 53, a garment worker and staunch supporter of Lesotho Workers Party (LWP), walks down a street in Maseru, Lesotho. (AP)

SCIENCEARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

11

Virus changes Xmas

A season of fear and‘isolation’, not cheerNEW YORK, Dec 23, (AP): Montserrat Parello lost her husband eight years ago, and Christmas gatherings with children and grandchildren had helped her deal with her loneliness. But this year, the 83-year-old will be alone for the holiday at her home in Barcelona, due to the risk of infection from the coronavirus.

“In these days of pandemic, I feel loneliness and anger,” Parello said, expressing fears that “I will leave this life de-void of affection, of warmth.”

All most people wanted for Christmas after this year of pandemic uncertainty and chaos was some cheer and to-getherness. Instead many are heading into a season of iso-lation, grieving lost loved ones, worried about their jobs or

confronting the fear of a new poten-tially more contagious virus variant.

Residents of London and surround-ing areas can’t see people outside their households. Peruvians won’t be allowed to drive their cars over Christmas and New Year to discour-age visits even with nearby family and friends. South Africans won’t be able to go to the beach on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or New Year’s Day.

The patchwork of restrictions be-ing imposed by local and national

governments across the world varies widely - but few holi-day seasons will look normal this year.

People the world over are facing wrenching decisions - to see isolated elderly relatives despite the risk or to miss one of the potentially few Christmases left in the hopes of spending the holiday together next year.

The United States has not issued nationwide travel re-strictions, leaving that decision to state governments, but a federal agency is advising people to stay home.

Michelle Dallaire, 50, an attorney in Idlewild, Michigan, said this would be her fi rst Christmas away from her father, who lives in northern Virginia. They’ve always gotten to-gether with family for the holidays but decided it wasn’t worth the risk this year.

“It’s sad, but better than never seeing him again,” said Dallaire, who has health issues that also make her particu-larly vulnerable to the virus.

VaccinatedIn Brazil, which has the world’s second-highest virus

death toll after the United States, Francisco Paulo made a similar decision to skip a visit to his elderly mother in Sao Jose do Belmonte, in Pernambuco state. The 53-year-old doorman will work the holiday instead at a building in Sao Paulo.

“Now I’m hoping to drive there (to Pernambuco) in May, and crossing my fi ngers that she’ll be vaccinated by then,” Paulo said. “It isn’t a happy Christmas, but at least I’m healthy and so are all the people I love.”

The virus has been blamed for more than 1.7 million deaths worldwide, and many are still grieving - or worried about loved ones in hospitals or nursing homes as the virus surges anew. But some who have survived sickness - and everything else that 2020 has thrown at them - are looking to rejoice.

Dr. Elisaveta Tomova, an anesthesiologist in North Mac-edonia, is exhausted after months of helping women with the virus give birth and caring for her 26-year-old son, who became infected himself.

“I have faced a nine-headed monster, and my son and I have beat it,” the 54-year-old said. “All I need now is my family to be around me, to celebrate in silence and to fi ll my heart with joy.”

Many people head into the holidays facing fi nancial un-certainty after lockdowns to slow the spread of the virus have decimated economies.

Matteo Zega, a 25-year-old Italian chef who has worked in Michelin-starred restaurants, lost a job offer in France when bars and restaurants there were ordered to remain closed until mid-January. He’s hoping to start an internship in Copenhagen - as long as restrictions don’t scupper that plan, too.

“It makes me stressed,” Zega said. “But at the end of the day, I wouldn’t complain when there are so many people suffering or dying. You can lose many things: jobs, money. But I’m here, I’m healthy.”

In recent weeks, many countries tightened restrictions in the hopes of bringing the spread of the virus under control so that the rules could be relaxed for Christmas. But that has not worked in many places.

In Italy, which has Europe’s highest confi rmed death toll and where many have fallen into poverty following lock-downs, the government has imposed even more restrictions.

The four nations of the UK - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - have all ditched their original Christmas relaxation plans. Hopes that a vaccine could stop the spread were high just weeks ago when Britain was the fi rst country to roll out a rigorously tested shot, but now an aura of dread hangs over the holiday as daily new infec-tions soar.

ResponseAdding to the gloom, a new variant of the virus is surging

around London and its surrounding areas. Dozens of coun-tries banned travel from Britain in response, though France began allowing trucks from the country to enter again after a standoff that raised fears of Christmastime food shortages in the UK.

For Matt Balch, a 40-year-old Australian who lives out-side London, the ability to ditch the Christmas plan came as almost a relief. Balch was set to go to his in-laws’ home in Wales with wife, Kelly, and their two young children.

“The prospect of being in a car for six hours each way with a 3-month-old and a 2-year-old fi lled me with dread,” he said.

But James Wren, who works in Hong Kong’s fi nance industry, was downbeat about his change of plans. He was initially going to fl y home to Ireland - but the rapidly changing travel and quarantine policies, coupled with the uncertainty in the coronavirus situation both in Hong Kong and abroad, led him to cancel.

“This is my fi rst time ever not being with my family for Christmas, even though I have lived outside of Ireland for many years, so it was an extremely upsetting decision to make,” he said.

While many countries tightened restrictions, Lebanon, with the largest percentage of Christians in the Mideast, was actually easing them despite rapidly growing cases. It made that decision to boost an ailing economy and allevi-ate despair exacerbated by a devastating port explosion in Beirut in August.

But even that provided no relief to some.“It will be a disaster after the holidays,” said Diala Fares,

52. “People are acting like everything is normal, and our government doesn’t care.”

Amid all the gloom, at least some children can rest as-sured that Santa Claus is still coming to town.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infection disease spe-cialist, said during a CNN special program with Sesame Street characters that he had been to the North Pole and vaccinated the man himself.

“He is good to go,” Fauci said.

Health

Prof. Dr. Iftahar Koksal shows an image of lungs of a patient, infected with COVID-19 at Acibadem Hospital in Istanbul, Dec 21. Turkey has ordered 50 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine, made by Sinovac, currently on phase III clinical trials at the hospital and elsewhere in Turkey. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said last week that the first batch was expected to arrive within days and vaccination could start at the end of December or early January. Some 12,500 volunteers are taking

part in Phase 3 trials of the vaccine across Turkey but the full vaccination programme is expected to start before the trial is completed. (AP)

Fauci

Questions multiply as fast as new virus strains

Experts urge concern, not alarmNEW YORK, Dec 23, (AP): Does it spread more easily? Make people sick-er? Mean that treatments and vaccines won’t work? Questions are multiply-ing as fast as new strains of the corona-virus, especially the one now moving through England. Scientists say there is reason for concern but that the new strains should not cause alarm.

“There’s zero evidence that there’s any increase in severity” of COVID-19 from the latest strain, the World Health Organization’s emergencies chief, Dr. Michael Ryan said Monday.

“We don’t want to overreact,” the US government’s top infectious dis-ease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN.

Worry has been growing since Sat-urday, when Britain’s prime minister said a new strain, or variant, of the cor-onavirus seemed to spread more eas-ily than earlier ones and was moving rapidly through England. Dozens of countries barred fl ights from the UK, and southern England was placed un-der strict lockdown measures.

Here are some questions and an-swers on what’s known about the virus so far.

Question: Where Did This New Strain Come From?

Answer: New variants have been seen almost since the virus was fi rst detected in China nearly a year ago. Viruses often mutate, or develop small changes, as they reproduce and move through a population - something “that’s natural and expected,” WHO said in a statement Monday.

“Most of the mutations are trivial. It’s the change of one or two letters in the genetic alphabet that doesn’t make much difference in the ability to cause disease,” said Dr. Philip Landrigan, a former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientist who directs a global health program at Boston Col-lege.

A more concerning situation is when a virus mutates by changing the proteins on its surface to help it escape from drugs or the immune system, or if it acquires a lot of changes that make it very different from previous versions.

Q: How Does One Strain Become Dominant?

A: That can happen if one strain is a “founder” strain - the fi rst one to take hold and start spreading in an area, or because “super spreader” events helped it become established.

It also can happen if a mutation gives a new variant an advantage, such as helping it spread more easily than other strains that are circulating, as may be the case in Britain.

“It’s more contagious than the origi-nal strain,” Landrigan said. “The rea-son it’s becoming the dominant strain in England is because it out-competes the other strains and moves faster and infects more people, so it wins the race.”

Moncef Slaoui, the chief science adviser for the U.S. government’s COVID-19 vaccine campaign, said scientists are still working to confi rm whether the strain in England spreads more easily. He said it’s also possible that “seeding” of hidden cases “hap-pened in the shadows” before scien-tists started looking for it.

The strain was fi rst detected in Sep-

BioNTech CEO confident vaccinewill work on ‘UK variant’ of virusBERLIN, Dec 23, (AP): German pharmaceutical company BioN-Tech is confident that its coronavi-rus vaccine works against the new UK variant, but further studies are needed to be completely sure, its chief executive said Tuesday.

The variant, detected mainly in London and the southeast of Eng-land in recent weeks, has sparked concern worldwide because of signs that it may spread more eas-ily. While there is no indication it causes more serious illness, nu-merous countries in Europe and beyond have restricted travel from the UK as a result.

“We don’t know at the moment if our vaccine is also able to provide protection against this new vari-ant,” CEO Ugur Sahin told a news conference the day after the vac-cine was approved for use in the European Union. “But scientifically, it is highly likely that the immune response by this vaccine also can deal with the new virus variants.”

Sahin said that the proteins on the UK variant are 99% the same as on the prevailing strains, and

therefore BioNTech has “scientific confidence” that its vaccine will be effective.

“But we will know it only if the ex-periment is done and we will need about two weeks from now to get the data,” he said. “The likelihood that our vaccine works ... is rela-tively high.”

Should the vaccine need to be adjusted for the new variant the company could do so in about 6 weeks, Sahin said, though regu-lators might have to approve the changes before the shots can be used.

Having to adjust the vaccine would be a blow for the rollout of immunization campaigns and the effort to rein in the pandemic that has so far killed more than 1.7 mil-lion people worldwide.

BioNTech’s vaccine, which was developed together with US phar-maceutical company Pfizer, has been authorized for use in more than 45 countries including Britain, the United States and the EU. Hun-dreds of thousands of people have already received the shots.

tember, WHO offi cials said.Q: What’s Worrisome About It?A: It has many mutations -- nearly

two dozen -- and eight are on the spike protein that the virus uses to attach to and infect cells. The spike is what vac-cines and antibody drugs target.

Dr. Ravi Gupta, a virus expert at the University of Cambridge in England, said modeling studies suggest it may be up to two times more infectious than the strain that’s been most com-mon in England so far. He and other researchers posted a report of it on a website scientists use to quickly share developments but it has not been for-mally reviewed or published in a jour-nal.

Q: Does It Make People Sicker Or More Likely To Die?

A: “There’s no indication that either of those is true, but clearly those are two issues we’ve got to watch,” Land-rigan said. As more patients get infect-ed with the new strain, “they’ll know fairly soon if the new strain makes people sicker.”

A WHO outbreak expert, Maria Van Kerkhove, said Monday that “the information that we have so far is that there isn’t a change” in the kind of ill-ness or its severity from the new strain.

Q: What Do The Mutations Mean For Treatments?

A: A couple of cases in England raise concern that the mutations in some of the emerging new strains could hurt the potency of drugs that supply antibodies to block the virus from infecting cells.

“The studies on antibody response are currently under way. We expect re-sults in coming days and weeks,” Van Kerkhove said.

One drugmaker, Eli Lilly, said that tests in its lab using strains that contain the most concerning mutation suggest

that its drug remains fully active.Q: What About Vaccines?A: Slaoui said the presumption is

that current vaccines would still be effective against the variant, but that scientists are working to confi rm that.

“My expectation is, this will not be a problem,” he said.

United Kingdom offi cials have said “they don’t believe there is impact on the vaccines,” Van Kerkhove said.

Vaccines induce broad immune sys-tem responses besides just prompting the immune system to make antibod-ies to the virus, so they are expected to still work, several scientists said.

Q: Can Travel Restrictions Do Any Good?

A: Landrigan thinks they can.“If the new strain is indeed more

contagious than the original strain, then it’s very, very sensible to restrict travel,” he said. “It will slow things down. Any time you can break the chain of transmission you can slow the virus down.”

CNN quoted Fauci as saying that he was not criticizing other countries for suspending travel to England but that he would not advise the United States to take such a step.

The presence or extent of the new strain in the United States is unknown at this time.

Q: What Can I Do To Reduce My Risk?

A: Follow the advice to wear a mask, wash your hands often, maintain social distance and avoid crowds, pub-lic health experts say.

“The bottom line is we need to sup-press transmission” of all virus strains that can cause COVID-19, said the WHO’s director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“The more we allow it to spread, the more mutations will happen.”

Coronavirus

Lava lake forms: Lava was rising more than 3 feet (1 meter) per hour in the deep crater of a Hawaii volcano that began erupting over the weekend after a two-year break, scientists said Tuesday.

Kilauea volcano within Hawaii Vol-canoes National Park on the Big Island was gushing molten rock from at least two vents inside its summit crater, the US Geological Survey said. A lava lake has formed, rising about 440 feet (134 meters) from the bottom of the crater.

Since the eruption began Sunday night, Kilauea has spewed some 2 billion gal-lons of lava (10 million cubic meters), enough to cover 33 acres (13 hectares). The lava has been contained inside the deep crater.

It isn’t threatening to get close to peo-ple or cover property, like when Kilauea erupted from vents in the middle of a residential neighborhood in 2018 and de-stroyed more than 700 homes.

Still, the Hawaiian Volcano Observa-tory has warned residents to beware of potentially high levels of volcanic gas, rockfalls and explosions.

When erupting, Kilauea tends to spew large volumes of sulfur dioxide, which forms volcanic smog, or vog, when it mixes with oxygen, sunlight and other gases in the air. The state Department of Health warned residents to reduce their outdoor activities if they encounter vol-canic smog conditions.

Kilauea is one of the world’s most ac-tive volcanoes, having erupted some 50 times in the last century. Between 1983 and 2018, it erupted almost continuously. It had a lava lake in its crater for the last decade of that eruption. (AP)

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SKorea virus cases up: South Korea has added another new 1,092 infections of the coronavirus in a resurgence that is erasing hard-won epidemiological gains and eroding public confi dence in the gov-ernment’s ability to handle the outbreak.

The fi gures released by the Korea Dis-ease Control and Prevention Agency on Wednesday brought the national caseload to 52,550, with more than 13,130 cases added in the last two weeks alone.

Seventeen COVID-19 patients died in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 739 as concerns grow about a shortage in intensive care beds. At least 284 of the country’s 15,085 active patients were in serious or critical condition.

South Korea had been seen as a suc-cess story against COVID-19 after health workers managed to contain a major out-break in its southeastern region in spring, when the majority of infections were linked to a single church congregation in Daegu city. South Korea’s prime minister is Chung Sye-kyun.

But critics say the country gambled on its own success by easing social dis-tancing restrictions to help the economy. The spread of the virus is now mainly in the densely populated capital region, and health workers are struggling mightily to track infections occurring just about eve-rywhere, including hospitals, long-term care facilities and army units.

The government has restored some social distancing restrictions in recent

weeks and will clamp down on private social gatherings of fi ve or more people between Christmas Eve and Jan 3. Res-taurants could be fi ned if they accept large groups, ski resorts and national parks will be closed, and hotels cannot sell more than 50% of their rooms during the pe-riod.

South Korea is also stepping up border controls, halting air travel from Britain at least through Dec 31 over concerns of a

new and seemingly more contagious vari-ant of the virus that has been identifi ed in southeast England.

Senior Health Ministry offi cial Yoon Taeho said during a virus briefi ng that South Korean diplomatic offi ces in Brit-ain will also stop issuing quarantine waivers so that all passengers coming from the country are placed under isola-tion for at least two weeks until a nega-tive test. (AP)

In this Dec 8, 2020 file photo, a nurse holds a phial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at Guy’s Hospital in London. UK Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech says the German pharma-ceutical company is confident that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine works against the UK variant of the virus, but further studies are need to

be completely sure. (AP)

Discovery

Chung Yoon

Featu

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Featu

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Tom Hanks appears in a scene from ‘News of the World.’ (AP)

The white-hot producer on the pop music scene

Breakthrough entertainer: Finneas fi nds his lane in musicBy Mesfi n Fekadu

Onstage, Finneas and Billie Eilish come across like a seasoned, veteran musical duo. With her beautifully aching and raw tone

singing relatable and profound lyrics in the starring role, Finneas brilliantly supports on piano or guitar, giving her voice much room to shine.

That was how the pair spent last year on the road promoting Eil-ish’s debut album, which went on to connect with audiences around the world and helped make the then-17-year-old a breakout star.

But as Eilish’s star power grew brighter, so did Finneas’. He was recognized for producing and engineering his baby sister’s music. He also co-wrote the hits that made her famous — some of them he even wrote alone.

As people discovered Eilish, they also uncovered Finneas.The 2020 Grammy Awards solidifi ed this: In January, Eilish won

fi ve honors — making her the night’s second big winner, only to be behind Finneas.

He won six awards and became of one of the youngest acts to be named non-classical producer of the year at 22.

It kicked off a productive year for the artist: In 2020 he re-released his debut EP, dropped the theme song for the upcoming James Bond fi lm with Eilish, earned three nominations for the 2021 Grammys and began lending his talents to folks who don’t share his last name, including Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, Halsey, Kid Cudi, Ben Platt and Tove Lo.

The success has easily made Finneas one of The Associated Press’ Breakthrough Entertainers of the Year, a list that also in-

cludes “Watchmen” actor and Emmy winner Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and breakout President Donald Trump lip-sync-er Sarah Cooper.

Finneas is the white-hot producer on the pop music scene, and he’s got a few collaborations cooking up, though he’s not spilling all the tea: “It’s like when they interview ‘Avengers’ cast members — they can never say anything,” he said. He’s fi elding calls left and right from artists about getting together to make magical music, but Finneas said he’s careful about who he works with.

Interested“The baseline is — if it’s something that I like — I’m interested. I

don’t play a game with that. I’m not trying to do the thing that’s the best strategic career move,” he said. “Sometimes there’s a huge op-portunity and I’m like, ‘I don’t like their music, I can’t do it.’ The other criteria is that I do try to work with people who I know I’m going to be effective and helpful with. Some people don’t need me.”

One of the calls Finneas took was from good friend Benny Blanco. The hitmaker who has collaborated with Bieber on the suc-cesses “Love Yourself” and “Cold Water” said the pop star’s camp was looking for ideas for his next album.

“I was like, ’Gosh, I think being the most famous person in the world, consistently, has to be the most isolating thing. I’d seen it to some degree with my sister, but even then, I was kind of there. She has this brother, not that I’m anywhere near as famous as her, but I’m next to her during the whole thing. For Bieber, especially because he started even younger than Billie — even though Billie was young when she started — Bieber was like the most famous at 15,” he said.

Finneas and Blanco then crafted “Lonely,” a confessional piano pop tune showcasing Bieber’s vulnerable side.

“The biggest sales artist in the world is singing a song about be-ing commercially successful and deeply anxious and unhappy — I’m very proud to play a small role in that,” Finneas said.

This year, Finneas helped Lovato direct a song to President Don-ald Trump with “Commander In Chief,” which features the lyrics: “We’re in a state of crisis, people are dyin’ while you line your pockets deep/Commander in Chief, how does it feel to still be able to breathe?”

The year impacted heavily by the coronavirus pandemic and racial injustice also fueled Finneas’ songwriting: The Black Lives Matter movement and Broadway star Nick Cordero’s death due to COVID-19 inspired him to write and release “What They’ll Say About Us,” giving Finneas’ his biggest solo success on the Billboard rock charts. (AP)

“It’s hard to refl ect on this year in a succinct easy way. It’s such a multi-faceted time. In some ways, you could defi ne this year by coronavirus alone, but then you’d also have to defi ne the year as the murder of George Floyd and the movement across the country and across the planet,” Finneas said.

“I think the name of my game was reassessment and reevaluation of how much stuff I was taking for granted before this year, or under-educated about or unaware of. This year’s been a learning experience for me and my friends and taking stock in the simple things that you don’t necessarily think about every day, otherwise, but they have been so on my mind this year. That’s the summation of my year — counting smaller blessings that mean everything to me.” (AP)

LOS ANGELES: Ariana Grande has announced she is engaged in a series of photos of her and her fi ance and her engagement ring.

The “Rain on Me” singer posted the photos of her cuddling with Dalton Gomez, a luxury real estate agent, on Instagram. Grande included a close-up shot of the ring in the post, which was cap-tioned “forever n then some.”

The singer’s mother congratu-lated the couple on Twitter, saying she was excited to welcome Gomez to the family.

People magazine reported Grande and Gomez started dating earlier this year.

Grande released her latest studio album, “Positions,” in November. On Monday, Netflix will release a behind-the-scenes movie on her “Sweetener” world tour, titled “excuse me, i love you.”

She was previously engaged to “Saturday Night Live” cast member Pete Davidson in 2018, but they ended their relationship later that year.

In 2020, Grande became the highest-earning woman in music on Forbes’ 2020 Celebrity 100 list, placing at number 17 overall with $72 million. At the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards, Grande was nominated for nine awards for both “Stuck With U” (with Justin Bieber) and “Rain on Me” (with Lady Gaga). (Agencies)

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NEW YORK: For the past decade, the Hallmark Channel has been a reliable destination for holiday programming. And in a year when many Americans are home-bound because of the COVID-19 pandemic, network executives say there’s been a craving for the feel-good movies.

Hallmark’s ratings are up 2% over 2019’s holiday season, the Nielsen company said. That may not seem like much, but year-to-year increases are the exception rather than the rule in modern television.

The network turned its pro-

gramming over to holiday fare on Oct 23 and has been the top-rated entertainment cable channel, excluding news and sports, for the fourth quarter, Nielsen said.

“What we have seen is just how much our movies mean to our viewers,” said Michelle Vicary, programming chief.

When coronavirus-related clo-sures began in March, Hallmark

tried to calm anxieties by airing a series of its holiday movies then.

But this season, COVID-19 did not affect the type of movies Hallmark made or how they were scheduled, Vicary said. Of the 40 new movies planned for this sea-son, only one had to be canceled because fi lming couldn’t be done because of the pandemic.

“We made a choice not to let

COVID affect us thematically,” she said. “There are a lot of places you can fi nd information about COVID. What we provided was a respite from that.”

This season’s most popular movie has been “If I Only Had Christmas,” about a perky pub-licist who teams with a cynical executive to help a charity. It stars Candace Cameron Bure, prob-

ably the most reliable draw among a collection of actors who often return to Hallmark each holiday season.

Hallmark says it has also been pleased with the reception for “The Christmas House,” the first time the conservative program-mer has prominently featured gay characters in a holiday film. (AP)

Film

Variety

Music

A soulful message in ‘News of the World’

Hanks doggedly heroic in new fi lmBy Mark Kennedy

Tom Hanks rides a horse and blasts a six-shooter in his new fi lm, “News of the World.” Some of

you might be thinking this must be his fi rst cow-boy role. To those, we respond: Have you forgotten about Woody so soon?

All of Hanks - not just his voice - is employed in this second cowboy role, playing Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd in 1870, a gentle Texan whose quiet and itinerant life is interrupted by the arrival of a girl.

Director and co-screenwriter Paul Green-grass reunites for the first time with Hanks since their 2013 outing “Captain Phillips.” This time, they’ve ditched the open water for an ambitious adventure firmly on land, based on the novel by Paulette Jiles. It’s a visually stunning film with a soulful message about forgiveness and moving past trauma.

Kidd is scarred - literally - by the Civil War and has found a life as a newsreader, a man who goes from town to town reading aloud the nation’s headlines to small-town residents or “for anyone with 10 cents and the time to hear it.”

He comes across a feral 10-year-old girl who is an orphan twice over - her settler parents are dead and the Native Americans who raised her are also gone. She speaks no English and frightens everyone. “She’s got kind of a wild look about her, doesn’t she?” someone comments. Says another: “Sure as I live, that child’s trouble.”

The girl has distant relatives hundreds of miles away and, naturally, it falls on Kidd to be the hero. “This little girl is lost. She needs to be home,” he says. So these two broken souls embark on an epic

odyssey - like “The Searchers” mashed with “True Grit” - through hostile terrain and bandits, while he teaches her English along the way, like a cowboy Henry Higgins. “I guess we both have demons to face going down this road,” he notes.

This is an ugly-beautiful fi lm. You can almost feel the grime, hear the squelch through muddy streets and choke on the smoke. It practically reeks of leather and wet cattle. It’s a setting where dogs bark incessantly, dust is everywhere and socks have holes. In this naturalistic world, Hanks sticks out, but not for the right reasons.

CharacterHis character is a former Confederate soldier who

is dismayed by the lynching of Black men and even kindly buries a victim of it. He notes ruefully that settlers kill Native Americans for their land and that Native Americans kill settlers for doing that, a dead-ly cycle that he stands outside. He feels the frustra-tion between Southern civilians and Union troops but hopes all sides can get along. “We’re all hurt-ing. All of us,” he says “These are diffi cult times.” All around him there is fi lth and violence and yet Hanks’ captain is not of it.

This is the fi lm’s big weakness. The script tries to suggest that our patient captain is riddled with guilt for what he did as a soldier, but the Hanks we see is just too pure and noble. When someone asks him about the motives for his quest - “They paying you or are you doing it out of the goodness of your heart?” - there’s just one answer. “I want to get you away from all this pain and killing, get you clear of it,” he tells the girl.

Hank’s Kidd never shoots fi rst, despite being pur-

sued by murderous thugs. He tries to connect North and South by showing cattlemen in Texas what they have in common with coalminers in Pennsylvania. Even facing off a racist mob, Kidd doesn’t back down - a champion of the poor and democracy. Here is the fi lm’s heavy-handed message to us in (almost) 2021: “The war’s over,” he says. “We have to stop fi ghting.”

Greengrass’ approach is more slack here - cer-tainly from his work on the Jason Bourne films - but he manages to add tension to virtually every scene, often with just an actor scanning the ho-rizon. Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski frames things like a high-art photographer with careful use of light and dark. Many of the best scenes are silent, enhanced by a wonderfully wistful score by James Newton Howard.

Anyone playing the girl faces a challenge but German actress Helena Zengel is a marvel. She can be wild in one scene, defi ant later, curious the next and emotionally shut down in another. She speaks volumes even without dialogue.

The fi lm arrives in the same month we can see a grizzled George Clooney team up with a mute girl for a similarly dangerous quest in “The Midnight Sky.” It must be a boom time for aging Hollywood heroes showing off their fatherly sides.

“News of the World,” a Universal Pictures re-lease, is rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing im-ages, mature thematic material and some strong language. Running time: 118 minutes. Three stars out of four. (AP)

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People & Places

NEWS/FEATURESARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

13

Books

Warren’s ‘Persist’ soon

Rare Shirley story‘fi nally’ publishedNEW YORK, Dec 23, (AP): Laurence Hyman, son of the late Shirley Jackson, has been on a quest for more than 20 years.

Jackson was just 48 when she died, in 1965, and left behind an extensive backlog of unreleased mate-rial. Her husband, the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hy-man, made little effort to organize her papers beyond giving them to the Library of Congress, so Hyman and his sister, Sarah Hyman DeWitt, took on the job. They have made several trips to Washington, sort-ing through boxes and sometimes fi nding sections of a given work in different piles, a process especially time consuming because Shirley Jackson rarely dated her manuscripts.

Hyman, who manages his mother’s estate, has co-edited two posthumous collections of her stories and other writings and otherwise seen her repu-tation soar well beyond being the author of “The Lottery.” Two volumes of her fi ction have been issued by the coun-try’s unoffi cial canon maker, the Library of America, and Jackson was the subject of an award-winning biography by Ruth Franklin. Hyman says at

least 10 fi lm or television adaptations are in the works, along with stage productions, a multimedia project by composer Ryan Scott Oliver and a collection of her letters that is scheduled for 2021.

“There is still material we haven’t gotten to,” Hy-man told The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, an early story never published before, “Adventure On a Bad Night,” appeared recently in the new issue of Strand Magazine. “Adventure On a Bad Night” was likely written during World War II or shortly after, Hyman says. It’s a brief sketch about a housewife named Vivien who takes a needed break to go out and buy cigarettes. She meets a heavily preg-nant woman who seems to have an Italian accent and is being shunned by the store clerk as she attempts to send a telegram. Vivien helps out and the woman re-sponds by paying for her cigarettes.

Strand managing editor Andrew Gulli says the story has “the Jackson trademark touch of imparting some-thing touching and signifi cant out of the mundane.

Survive“Also it shows her knack for showing how those

marginalized by society struggle to survive,” said Gul-li, who has published obscure works by Ernest Hem-ingway and William Faulkner among others.

Franklin, whose “Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunt-ed Life” won a National Book Critics Circle prize in 2017, says the story echoes other Jackson narratives from the time, about “a woman in search of ‘adven-ture’ of some kind and/or an encounter with racism or xenophobia.” She cites “After You, My Dear Al-phonse,” in which Jackson pokes fun at a white wom-an’s presumption that her son’s Black friend is poor, and in need of food and clothing.

Jackson resisted calling herself a feminist, but “Ad-venture On a Bad Night” captures the ongoing ten-sion of a woman coping in a male world. At home, Vivien is preoccupied with chores while her husband remains seated, reading the paper. On her way back from the store, she sees three sailors and wonders if they’ll whistle at her, walking faster before noticing over her shoulder the “sailors were eyeing a girl going the other way.”

Laurence Hyman says that, judging by letters she wrote at the time, Jackson was happy in her marriage while writing the story. But details do mirror Jack-son’s domestic life. Stanley Edgar Hyman was a com-pulsive newspaper reader, and images of indifferent and sedentary husbands appear in cartoons she drew.

“I wouldn’t assume that the couple in the story are an exact replica of Jackson and Hyman, but there do seem to be similarities,” Franklin told the AP. “She often depicts Hyman as removed and distant, even oblivious; in one of the cartoons, she sneaks up behind him with a hatchet as he relaxes behind a newspaper.”

Laurence Hyman called Jackson’s work a “a per-sonal view of the female experience in the 1940s and 1950s, when women were expected to be housewives, and happy to be. But Shirley’s stories and novels - and drawings - cut through that veneer to expose the un-comfortable truths about a woman’s oppressed role in the culture of that era.”

Also:NEW YORK: Sen Elizabeth Warren has a book coming out about six key experiences and perspec-tives. The title should be familiar to those who have followed the Massachusetts Democrat’s career: “Per-sist.”

Henry Holt and Company announced Wednesday that “Persist,” which the publisher calls “a deeply per-sonal book and a powerful call to action,” will be re-leased April 20. “Persist” will refer to Warren’s recent bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, won by Joe Biden, but is not a campaign memoir.

“I wrote ‘Persist’ because I remain as committed as ever to fi ghting for an America that works for eve-ryone,” Warren, whose previous books include “A Fighting Chance” and “This Fight is Our Fight,” said in a statement. “I’ve written a dozen books, but this one is especially personal: I bring the pieces of who I am to the fi ght for real change, and I passionately believe that we are in a moment when extraordinary changes are possible.”

Financial terms for the deal were not disclosed. Warren was represented by Robert Barnett and Dan-iel Martin of Williams & Connolly, where clients have ranged from former president Bill Clinton to a political rival of Warren’s, Sen Mitch McConnell. A portion of author proceeds from “Perisist” will be donated to the Greater Boston Food Bank, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, the Worcester Coun-ty Food Bank, and the Merrimack Valley Food Bank.

Warren became associated with the word “Persist” after a 2017 confrontation with McConnell, the Ken-tucky Republican and Senate majority leader. Warren was giving a speech on the Senate fl oor, denouncing then-attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, when Republicans invoked an obscure rule to silence her.

“Sen Warren was giving a lengthy speech,” McCo-nnell said. “She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Neverthe-less, she persisted.”

Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea Clinton, has collabo-rated with illustrator Alexandra Boiger on a handful of picture books that use McConnell’s expression, including “She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World” and “She Persisted in Sports: American Olympians Who Changed the Game.”

Shirley

In this Dec 8, 2020, file photo, Santa, portrayed by Dan Kemmis, laughs as he talks to Kristin Laidre as she walks her dog, Scooby, a Bassett Hound mix, as he sits inside a protective bubble in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood. All most people wanted for Christmas after this year of pandemic was some cheer and together-ness. Instead many are heading into a season of isolation, grieving lost loved ones, experiencing uncertainty about their jobs or confronting the fear of a potentially

more contagious variant of the coronavirus. (AP)

CHICAGO: A federal judge on Tuesday again delayed R. Kelly’s trial in Chicago on child pornography and other charges because of concerns about the coronavi-rus pandemic, postponing it to next year

The 53-year-old R&B star has been behind bars since his arrest in July 2019 and two trial dates, for April and then October this year, were earlier struck. His new trial date is Sept 13, 2021.

The Grammy Award-winner has pleaded not guilty federal charges in Chicago.

During a Tuesday hearing held by phone, US District Judge Harry Leinen-weber said the September date could still be subject to change.

Once a trial does get underway, prosecutors told Leinenweber it would take around three weeks to present their evidence to jurors. (AP)

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LAKEWOOD RANCH, Fla: Mick Jag-ger, Florida Man?

The Rolling Stones front man recently purchased a mansion south of Tampa as a Christmas present for his girlfriend, ballet dancer Melanie Hamrick.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports that the four-bedroom home sits on roughly a third of an acre in the planned community of Lakewood Ranch. Perched next to a lake and close to its neighbors, it includes nearly 8,400 square feet (780 square meters) under the roof.

The real estate fi rm that sold the home, Michael Saunders & Company, said Jagger, 77, paid $1.9 million for it in late October, with the title put in Hamrick’s name. (AP)

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SHREVEPORT, La: A sexual assault charged was dropped against New Orleans rapper Mystikal, who was released from jail on a $3 million bond almost two years ago.

A Caddo Parish grand jury returned a no true bill against Mystikal, whose real name is Michael Lawrence Tyler, news outlets reported.

The district attorney’s offi ce said the case was resubmitted to a second grand jury after “additional evidence and infor-mation were discovered.”

Tyler, 50, surrendered to authorities in August 2017 when he learned there was a warrant out for his arrest on rape and kid-napping charges. Tyler was accused of a sexual assault at a Shreveport casino in October 2016.

Tyler was later jailed for 1½ years before being released in Feb 2019 on a $3 million bond. (AP)

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NEWARK, NJ: A reputed mobster ad-mitted assaulting the then-boyfriend and now husband of a former “Real House-wives of New Jersey” cast member in exchange for a deeply discounted lavish wedding reception.

John Perna, 43, of Cedar Grove, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering activity.

Prosecutors allege the former husband of cast member Dina Manzo, Thomas

Manzo, hired Perna to assault his ex-wife’s then boyfriend. Perna is part of the Lucchese organized crime family and carried out the assault with a member of his crew in July 2015, prosecutors said.

Authorities said a month later, Perna held a wedding reception for 330 guests at Thomas Manzo’s Brownstone Res-taurant in Paterson for “a fraction of the price.” Many of the guests were members of the Lucchese crime family, according to prosecutors. (AP)Kelly Jagger

Finneas O’Connell poses at his home in Los Angeles on, Dec 4. O’Connell has been named one of The Associ-ated Press’ Breakthrough Entertain

ers of 2020. (AP) – Details Page 12

Variety

‘It’s different this year... but it’s still magical’

Seeing Santa: Salve in turbulent yearNEW YORK, Dec 23, (AP): Seeing Santa is for many families a holiday tradition that goes back generations. It’s the annual snapshot that year-after-year marks the passage of time, and a reminder that children believe in magic, and that a jolly bearded man can make their wishes come true.

But it’s Christmas in 2020, and eve-rything is different. Santa sits behind plexiglass, or in a life-sized snow globe. And then, of course, there’s Zoom Santa.

Associated Press photographers set out to capture the socially distanced, decidedly 2020 Santa visits taking place across the United States.

Much of the tradition is altered this year. Sitting on Santa’s lap is out. There is no whispering of wish lists into his ear. Getting in to see Santa this year often requires making an appoint-ment and temperature checks upon ar-rival. Many stores, from Macy’s and Nieman Marcus to smaller venues around the country, have opted for vir-tual visits.

Conversations with Santa this year, inevitably, include the virus.

Kids ask if Santa will wear a mask when he visits their homes on Christ-mas Eve. He asks in turn if they’ve been naughty or nice - and good about washing their hands with water and soap.

Some children have lost parents, grandparents or other loved ones. They miss their schools and friends.

EnduresYet the Christmas spirit endures. “It’s different this year, but it’s still

magical,” said Larry Jefferson, who has converted a room in his suburban Dallas home to Santa’s workshop where he conducts virtual visits. “The children see me on the screen, they’re like, ’Oh my gosh, Santa Claus is talk-ing to me from the North Pole.”

Perhaps, seeing Santa is the salve families needed at the end of this tumultuous year. Despite all that has changed, Santa still looks pretty much the same and restores a feeling of comfort in an otherwise turbulent time.

“I didn’t think there was going to be Santa this year. We were super excited to fi nd out we could see him,” said Tarah Peargin, a California mother of 8-year-old twins William and Payton.

Like every year, the twins dressed up in the outfi ts they will wear on Christmas. For William, a red dress shirt, a waistcoat and tie with pin-striped dress pants; Payton wore a velvety red dress. They went to visit Santa’s Wonderland inside a Bass Pro

‘Charlie Brown’ Christmas trees liftschool and spirits of neighborhoodRICHMOND, Va., Dec 23, (AP): Frank Pichel’s Christmas trees will probably never be chosen to light up New York’s Rockefeller Center. They look more like the droopy, piti-ful tree made famous in the 1965 children’s animated classic, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

But Pichel and his customers don’t seem to mind in a year when little seems normal. His trees have been fl ying off a tiny neighborhood lot since he started selling them last month to raise money for a private middle school that provides schol-arships for students from an impov-erished area of Richmond.

Customer Camm Tyler, a 36-year-old digital consultant, looked over his uneven tree as he propped it up against a fence and prepared to carry it home.

“This is the perfect 2020 tree,” he said.

Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School in Richmond’s East End was started in 2009 by a group of local Episcopal parishioners and priests who wanted to help children from low-income families change the trajectory of their lives. The faith-based school is funded entire-ly by donors and local foundations. All of its 118 students receive full scholarships.

Pichel, a commercial animator and part-time professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, doesn’t have children or any other connec-tion to the school. But after donat-ing some athletic equipment to the school a few years ago, he decided he wanted to do something more this year.

He thought of the gangly Virginia pine trees that grow wild on a 66-acre (27-hectare) plot of land he owns about two hours west of Rich-mond. Would people want them for their Christmas trees, he wondered?

His trees are not like the full-branched, perfectly shaped trees many people buy for Christmas. Instead, most are scrawny and un-even-looking.

But Pichel decided to give it a try. At fi rst, he picked out the best-

looking trees on his land, thinking they would appeal to more buyers. But then he thought of the sad-looking tree in the Charlie Brown Christmas special. His trees are taller than Charlie Brown’s but just as scraggly.

“When people want a Charlie Brown tree, they want the unique-ness and the weirdness. The ones with the fewest branches sold the quickest because they’re even more like Charlie Brown’s,” Pichel said.

Pichel cut down 70 trees, loaded them into the back of his pickup truck and started selling them right after Thanksgiving from a small grassy lot he rented for $1 from two generous owners who wanted to help. He was stunned by the re-sponse. He sold 180 trees in three weekends, raising a total of $5,554 for the school. He let people set their own prices; most paid $20 to $50 for a tree.

“Some people just stopped by and said, ‘I don’t want a tree. I just want to make a donation,’” he said.

Rei Alvarez, an illustrator and musician, said he and his wife loved the nostalgia and “Charlie Brown aesthetic” of Pichel’s trees.

“I totally grew up with it, totally,” Alvarez said.

He said buying a less-than-per-fect tree fi ts with his desire to avoid the commercialism of Christmas and to teach his 2-year-old son to appreciate the simpler things in life.

“As an artist, I know it’s not what you have, it’s what you do with it,” he said. “You give the few branch-es you have a little love.”

As Alvarez picked out a tree, Mary Jane D’Arville played the theme song from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and traditional Christ-mas carols on a harp on the side-walk next to Pichel’s lot. D’Arville, who met Pichel at a local dog park, offered to provide Christmas music as soon as she heard what Pichel was doing for the school.

“Those trees, they represent that whole spirit of the Charlie Brown Christmas,” she said.

Shop in Rancho Cucamonga, Califor-nia, near Los Angeles.

William covered up with a plastic visor, and Payton a purple face mask. The idea that Santa, too, needed pro-tective equipment didn’t seem so unu-

sual. “They took it in stride,” said their

mom. It was a fi tting fi nal photo for the

family’s annual album.“It kind of sums up 2020.”

Lifestyle

BERLIN, Dec 23, (AP): Jadon San-cho scored a rare goal to seal a hard-fought 2-0 win for Borussia Dort-mund at second-division Eintracht Braunschweig in the second round of the German Cup.

Sancho, who is yet to score in 11 appearances in the Bundesliga this season, at least hasn’t lost his scoring ability in the cup, where the 20-year-old England forward took his tally to two in as many games. Sancho also scored in Dortmund’s 5-0 win at third-division Duisburg in the fi rst round, when Lucien Favre was still coach.

Favre was fi red on Dec. 13. His re-placement, Edin Terzić, made seven changes from the lineup that lost 2-1 at Union Berlin in the Bundesliga on Friday, giving 22-year-old Steffen Tigges his debut.

Tigges, captain of Dortmund’s un-der-23 team, was given his chance after Terzić opted to rest 16-year-old Youssoufa Moukoko. Moukoko picked up a minor injury in Ber-lin, where he became the league’s youngest ever goal-scorer.

But it was an old hand who got Dortmund underway in Braunsch-weig. Mats Hummels got the visitors off the mark after a free kick from Sancho in the 12th minute.

Tigges missed a great chance late when goalkeeper Jasmin Fejzic got the better of their one-on-one, but Sancho fi nally sealed the result in sec-ond minute of injury time when Mar-co Reus set him up on a counterattack.

Schalke took out their league frustrations against fourth-tier Ulm, which they beat 3-1 at home after the smaller club - like many others - gave up their right to host due to logistics caused by playing during the corona-virus pandemic.

Interim coach Huub Stevens took charge of Schalke, which plan to have a new coach Jan. 2, as they bid to end a 29-game winless run in the Bundes-liga at Hertha Berlin on Saturday.

Also, Borussia Mönchengladbach eased past fourth-tier Elversberg 5-0, Darmstadt won at Dynamo Dresden 3-0, and Union Berlin striker Taiwo Awoniyi struck the post with the last kick of the game in a 3-2 defeat at home to second-division Paderborn.

“If you don’t play at the limit for 90 minutes you haven’t a chance,” said Union coach Urs Fischer, who rued his team’s fi rst-half performance.

Loris Karius made his Union debut but the on-loan Liverpool goalkeeper conceded three goals in the opening 36 minutes.

“He showed some good actions, but I have to say the players in front of him let him down,” said Fischer, who has been keeping faith with An-

dreas Luthe as No. 1 for the league.Leipzig won at Augsburg 3-0, Co-

logne overcame Osnabrück 1-0, and Greuther Fürth defeated Hoffenheim 7-6 in a dramatic penalty shootout af-ter their game ended 2-2.

Hoffenheim goalkeeper Oliver Baumann saved a late penalty to send the game to extra time, but defender Kevin Vogt missed a his shootout penalty when he could have won it for the home side.

SPORTSARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

14

Man City, 2nd-division Brentford into Cup semisA huge opportunity lost: Bruce

LONDON, Dec 23, (AP): If Manchester City’s pres-ence in the semifi nals of the English League Cup is no real surprise, the same can-not be said about second-division club Brentford.

By beating Newcastle 1-0 to take down a fourth Premier League opponents so far in the competi-tion, Brentford reached the semis of a major cup competition for the fi rst time in the southwest London club’s 131-year history.

City’s players, on the other hand, are regulars at the business end of domestic competitions and kept alive their bid to win the League Cup for a fourth straight season with a 4-1 win at Arsenal .

The holders were given a helping hand by Arsenal’s backup goalkeep-er Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson, who - with the score at 1-1 at the start of the second half - fumbled a free-kick attempt by Riyad Mahrez and saw the ball squirm behind him into the net.

Further City goals from Phil Foden and Aymeric Laporte piled on the agony for Arsenal and their under-pressure manager Mikel Arteta, whose team have plunged to 15th place in the Premier League. It was Arsenal’s heaviest home loss in a domestic cup match in 22 years.

City are looking to win the League Cup for an eighth time, which would tie the record of Liverpool in the competition. Six of the titles have come in the previous eight seasons.

Drawn against one of the two non-Premier League teams left in the competition, Newcastle squan-dered a great chance to advance to the semifinals of an FA Cup or League Cup for the first time since the 2004-05 season.

Especially with Brentford field-ing a weakened lineup for the quar-terfinal match owing to their busy upcoming schedule in the Championship, where the team are currently placed fourth. Among the six regulars dropped by the hosts was striker Ivan Toney, the top scor-er in the second division with 16 goals, but they still dominated the match at the recently opened Brentford Community Stadium.

Josh Dasilva’s 66th-minute vol-ley clinched victory for Brentford, which finally won at this stage of a cup competition at the fifth attempt.

“We want to be part of creating some totally new history for Brentford,” said manager Thomas Frank, whose team lost to Fulham in the Championship playoff final last season.

It’s back to a likely relegation scrap in the Premier League for Newcastle, whose manager Steve Bruce acknowledged it was a huge opportunity lost.

“I’m bitterly disappointed,” Bruce said, “and very, very frustrated.”

Rúnarsson was signed by Arsenal in September to be the team’s reserve goalkeeper, having finished last season as second choice for a Dijon team that finished in 16th place in the French league.

Facing City was his biggest test since moving - the Iceland interna-tional had previously only played in the Europa League for Arsenal - and it proved to be a chastening night at Emirates Stadium.

Barely two minutes had been played when Rúnarsson dived to punch clear a left-wing cross from Oleksandr Zinchenko, only for Gabriel Jesus to get in front of him and head the ball into an empty net.

Arsenal equalized against the run of play through Alexandre Lacazette. But after lively winger Gabriel Martinelli was forced off two minutes into the second half with an ankle injury, the hosts had another setback following

Rúnarsson’s fumble.“He hasn’t played a lot of games

for us,” Arteta said of Rúnarsson. “He is just adapting to the league, and that’s it. We all make mistakes and we have to support him.”

Arteta defended his decision to give a rest to first-choice goalkeeper Bernd Leno, who played in the pre-vious round at Liverpool and saved two penalties in a shootout.

“We have to give opportunities to other players,” Arteta said.

Foden might have been in an off-side position when he was played through for the third goal, which saw him deftly chip Rúnarsson. VAR is not being used in the League Cup this season.

The midfielder then crossed for Laporte to head home to make it 4-1 in the 73rd minute.

“At the moment a lot of strange things are happening in every game,” Arteta said.

“We have to turn it around, there’s no other question. If we don’t, we are in big trouble.”

Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva (left), and Arsenal’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles contest for the ball during the English League Cup quarter-fi nal soccer match between Arsenal and Manchester City at Emirates Stadium, London on Dec 22. (AP)

SOCCER

SOCCER

Newcastle’s Miguel Almiron, (left), and Brentford’s Vitaly Janelt chal-lenge for the ball during the EFL Cup soccer match between Brentford and Newcastle United at Brentford Com-munity Stadium in London, England,

on Dec 22. (AP)

Mönchengladbach ease past fourth-tier Elversberg

Sancho scores to seal Dortmund win in Cup

SC Paderborn’s Sven Michel, from (left), fi ghts for the ball against Berlin’s Marvin Friedrich and Robert Andrich, during their German Bundesliga soccer match in Berlin, Germany on Dec 22. (AP)

SPORTSARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020

15

Browns eye title

PITTSBURGH, Dec 23, (AP): The Pittsburgh Steelers have gone from dreams of matching the perfect 1972 Miami Dol-phins to searching for another win.

After winning their fi rst 11 games for the fi rst time in fran-chise history, the Steelers were upset at home two weeks ago against Washington. That was followed by a loss at fellow AFC contender Buffalo before a humbling 27-17 defeat to last-place Cincinnati on Monday night.

The last team to start 11-0 and then lose three straight was the 1969 Rams in a 14-game season. The losing skid carried over to the playoffs with a 23-20 loss to Minnesota, a fate the Steelers would obviously like to avoid.

Pittsburgh would prefer to follow the path of the 2009 Saints, who won their fi rst 13 games before losing the fi nal three in the regular season. They recovered to win three in a row in the playoffs for the only Su-per Bowl title in franchise his-tory.

With the loss in Week 13 to a Washington team that was 4-7 at the time and then this past week to a Cincinnati team that was 2-10-1, the Steelers became the fi rst team in NFL history to lose multiple games when entering with at least 11 wins and playing a team with four or fewer.

The late-season collapse has opened the door for Cleveland to have a chance at winning the division. If the Browns beat the Jets on Sunday and the Steelers lose to Indianapolis, the Week 17 showdown in Cleveland will be for the division title. The Browns last won a division title in 1989, the longest current drought in the league.

No matter who wins the AFC North, the champion will be a team that missed the playoffs last season. Every year since 1977, with the exception of the strike-shortened 1982 sea-son that had no divisions, has featured a division winner that missed the playoffs the previous season.

On the other end of the spec-trum is the New York Jets, who lost their fi rst 13 games before stunning the Los Angeles Rams, who came into the game with a 9-4 record, with a 23-20 victory.

It marked just the third time a team 0-13 or worse broke through for its fi rst win against a team with a winning record. The Colts (0-13) beat Tennessee (7-6) in 2011 and the Raiders (0-13) beat the Patriots (9-3-1) in 1962.

With two weeks to play, home teams still have a losing record this season at 111-112-1. With many stadiums having no fans because of the coro-navirus and others just having small crowds, the advantage of playing at home has been nearly nonexistent.

The last time a season fi n-ished with home teams having a losing record came in 1968, when home teams in the NFL went 49-59-4 (.454) and in the AFL went 34-35-1 (.493).

From Kyler Murray to Lamar Jackson to the recent emergence of Jalen Hurts and the return to the fi eld of Marcus Mariota, quarterbacks are having more success than ever running the ball.

Quarterbacks have rushed for 8,114 yards and 111 touch-downs this season with two weeks to play, the most in a sea-son on record in NFL history. The previous high came in 2018 when QBs had 8,086 yards rush-ing and the TD mark had been 80 set last season.

Jackson leads the way with 828 yards rushing and seven TDs with Murray having 741 yards and 11 touchdowns. Mur-ray has a record nine games this season with both a passing and rushing touchdown, and with 26 TD passes has joined Cam New-ton in his 2015 MVP season as the only players to throw for at least 25 TDs and run for at least 10 in the same season.

Point differential is usually a good indicator of success in the NFL with good teams more apt to have lopsided wins that tilt that number in their favor. That hasn’t been true of the Browns.

Steelers in midst of a historic ‘collapse’

Henrik triumphs in night slalom

‘Emotional win’

MADONNA DI CAMPI-GLIO, Italy, Dec 23, (AP): An explosive second run earned Henrik Kristoffer-sen “one of the most emo-tional wins” of his career, leading Sebastian Foss-Solevaag for a Norwegian 1-2 finish at a men’s World Cup night slalom.

In the traditional last race before Christmas on the floodlit Canalone Miramonti course, Kristoffersen was 1.25 seconds behind in 12th after the first run but charged ahead in the second to beat first-run lead-er Foss-Solevaag by 0.33.

Alex Vinatzer of Italy was 0.34 be-hind in third, edging Austria’s Manuel Feller by one-hundredth.

His frenetic run kickstarted the sea-son for Kristoffersen, who won the World Cup titles in slalom and GS last year but struggled in his key disci-plines in the new campaign.

“The last three weeks have been tough, for sure. I think I have never been this emotional after a win be-fore,” Kristoffersen said. “This is one of the most emotional wins in my ca-reer.”

He fi nished fi fth in the season-open-ing GS in Soelden in October and was runner-up in a parallel event in Lech a few weeks later, but “since then it has been terrible.”

“And skiing is my life. I have a family and skiing - and that’s my life. I don’t have anything else,” Kristoffersen said. “When that goes tough, it’s challenging, especially when you won so many races be-fore and everyone starts thinking: Is he finished now? What’s wrong? It’s really emotional, even with one good run, to win a race.”

Without changes to the setup of his equipment, Kristoffersen looked a dif-ferent racer in the fi nal run.

“It’s all in my head,” he said. “In the fi rst run, I skied technically good, but too round and too calm. It was just slow. In the second run I could only at-tack.”

Kristoffersen was also helped by many racers who were faster in the opening run before struggling on the relatively soft snow surface due to the mild temperatures in the Italian Alps.

Kristoffersen’s fi rst triumph of the season marked his 18th World Cup slalom win and 22nd overall.

The World Cup slalom champion is now in outright third place on the Nor-wegian winners’ list, overtaking Kjetil André Aamodt and trailing only Aksel Lund Svindal, who had 36 wins before retiring in 2019, and Kjetil Jansrud, with 23.

The result meant that Norway has won three of the fi ve races held in the Italian Alps over the past fi ve days, after Aleksander Aamodt Kilde tri-umphed in two speed races in Val Gar-dena on Friday and Saturday.

Chasing his first career win, Foss-Solevaag took a big lead of four-tenths in the opening run, with a flawless run in the steep middle section, before carrying his speed through the finish.

Despite losing his lead, he said that “all in all, I’m happy with my perfor-mance today.”

It was his third career podium, and fi rst since March 2016.

Foss-Solevaag is among the most consistent performers in the slalom discipline. He fi nished in the top 10 in

Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen speeds down the course during an alpine ski, men’s World Cup slalom in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, Dec. 22. (AP)

Braun carries Kansas past West Virginia

Gonzaga beats NW State for 2nd night in rowSPOKANE, Wash, Dec 23, (AP): Top-ranked Gonzaga was coasting to another victory over Northwestern State, but then suddenly found itself in a dogfi ght and had to rely on star for-ward Drew Timme to seal the win.

Timme had 25 points and nine re-bounds as the Bulldogs held off a late challenge to beat Northwestern State 95-78 on Tuesday for the second night in a row.

After managing just 17 points in the fi rst half, the Demons poured in 61 over the fi nal 20 minutes to make it a game. Northwestern State hit 10 3-pointers in the second period.

“They really torched us from 3 and spread us out,’’ Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. ”They just put it on us pretty good after we’d had our best fi rst half of the season.

“They got on a roll and it was like we were on roller skates.”

Jalen Suggs added 19 points and Co-rey Kispert had 18 for Gonzaga (6-0), which owns the nation’s longest home win streak at 41 games.

Jairus Roberson scored 15 points to lead Northwestern State (1-9), which was playing its fourth game in fi ve nights. Jovan Zelenbaba and Trenton Massner each had 14.

The Zags cruised to a 95-57 victory over Northwestern State on Monday. The last time Gonzaga hosted the same non-conference opponent on back-to-back days was a pair of victories over Eastern Montana in 1965.

Gonzaga jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the fi rst fi ve minutes and led 24-2 after nine minutes. The Demons made just one of their fi rst 12 shots.

Gonzaga led 43-17 at halftime, after Northwestern State shot just 27% from the fl oor and committed 16 turnovers that the Zags converted into 17 points.

The Demons opened the second half with a 13-2 run to cut Gonzaga’s lead to 45-30. The Zags replied with a 12-2 spurt to push their lead back to 25.

A barrage of 3-pointers brought the Demons to 75-64 with seven minutes left. But it was their last gasp.

Timme scored seven points as the Zags pushed the margin to 84-64 with just over three minutes left.

Kansas 79, West Virginia 65In Lawrenge, Kan, Christian Braun

expected West Virginia to deny Kan-sas open shots on the perimeter.

That has been the Mountaineers’ style for years.

So when they backed off to deny the Jayhawks lanes to the basket, Braun’s eyes lit up like the Griswold family Christmas tree. The sophomore sharp-shooter proceeded to knock down six 3-pointers and score 22 points, and Jalen Wilson hit four 3s and scored 17, as No. 3 Kansas cruised to a 79-65 win over the seventh-ranked Moun-taineers .Marcus Garrett added 15 points, Ochai Agbaji had 11 points and 10 rebounds, and David McCormack added 10 points and 11 boards as the Jayhawks (8-1, 2-0 Big 12) won their fi fth straight against the Mountaineers.

Kansas trailed by a point at halftime before Braun and Wilson heated up, carrying the Jayhawks to their eighth consecutive victory overall. Their lone loss came in the opener against top-ranked Gonzaga, and their win streak

eight of the nine slaloms last seasons, more than any other competitor.

Alexis Pinturault extended his lead in the overall standings to 65 points over Kilde, who doesn’t compete in

slaloms.Pinturault was part of a three-way

tie for sixth place, with Germany’s Linus Strasser and his French team-mate, two-time world champion Jean-

Baptiste Grange.Ramon Zenhaeusern, who won a

slalom in Alta Badia on Monday, fi n-ished eight-tenths off the lead in 13th.

Kristoffer Jakobsen of Sweden post-

ed the fastest second-run time for a second straight day, and fi nished 10th.

The men’s World Cup continues with the classic downhill in Bormio next Monday.

In this Sept 24, 2019 file photo, New York Mets starting pitcher Noah Syndergaard winds up during the first inning of the team’s baseball game against the Miami Marlins in New York. The Mets and Noah Syndergaard agreed to a $9.7 million, one-year contract on Dec 22, for next season, when the injured right-hander hopes to return from

Tommy John surgery. (AP)

has included victories over No. 20 Kentucky on a neutral fl oor, eighth-ranked Creighton and No. 14 Texas Tech on the road.

Sean McNeil made six 3-pointers and scored 24 points to lead West Virginia (6-2, 1-1), though almost all of his pro-duction came in the fi rst half, when the outcome was still hanging in the balance. Miles McBride added 19 points, but the bruising duo of Oscar Tschiebwe and Derek Culver was held to a combined 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Kansas controlled the fi rst period from the opening minute, when it took the lead, until the last, when McNeil hit a tightly guarded 3-pointer at the buzzer to cap a torrid half and give the Mountaineers a 36-35 advantage at the break.

That last shot made McNeil 7 of 7 from the fi eld, 6 of 6 from behind the

arc, and gave the junior forward 20 fi rst-half points - four more than his career high. The rest of his teammates were 6 of 24 from the fi eld and 1 of 6 from the 3-point line.

His confi dence must have gotten lost in the locker room. McNeil missed his fi rst couple of shots in the second half, including an air-balled 3-pointer that he claimed – to no avail – was tipped by one of the Jayhawks.

Kansas capitalized on the Mountain-eers’ sudden cold streak.

Braun buried his fourth 3 with about 15 minutes to go, setting off a 14-3 charge that turned a two-point advan-tage into a 60-47 lead - the biggest of the game to that point. Wilson did most of the damage with a trio of 3s, but McCormack’s relentless attack on the glass against one of the nation’s best rebounding teams helped to keep

possessions alive.If Wilson’s barrage staggered the

Mountaineers, Braun delivered the knockout blow. He added two more 3-pointers on consecutive trips down the fl oor, extending the Jayhawks’ lead to 66-51 with just over eight minutes to play, and ignited roughly 2,500 fans that were allowed to attend their fi rst home Big 12 game of the season.

Iowa 70, Purdue 55In Iowa City, Iowa, offense has

spurred No. 4 Iowa’s hot start this season. The Hawkeyes ramped up on defense and rebounding to open Big Ten play.

Luka Garza scored 22 points, Joe Wieskamp added 17 and Iowa beat Purdue 70-55 in the lowest scoring game of the season for the Hawkeyes, who entered leading the nation with 98.7 points per game.

Sasaki named director for Tokyo Oly ceremoniesTOKYO, Dec 23, (AP): The Tokyo Olympic organizing committee appointed Hiroshi Sasaki on Wednesday as the head creative director for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics.

He replaces Mansai Nomura, a well-known actor in traditional Japanese comedic theater, and also a fi lm actor. He was in charge of the ceremonies when the Olympics were postponed in March by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nomura will remain as an adviser.The Olympics are to open on July 23, 2021, followed

by the Paralympics on Aug 24.Sasaki is a former advertising executive with Japan’s

powerful public relations and advertising agency Dent-su, Inc. Dentsu is the exclusive marketing agency for the Tokyo Olympics.

Sasaki was responsible for the fl ag handover ceremo-ny at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He also directed the one-year countdown ceremony fi ve months ago at the National Stadium.

“We must redo the planning from scratch,” Sasaki said, seated next to Nomura during an on-line briefi ng.

“Rather than fl ashy, extravagant ceremonies, we now have a chance to change the content of the ceremonies.”

Organizers are suggesting the ceremonies will be sim-plifi ed, more in keeping with the trials of the pandemic.

Sasaki was part of the creative team that was origi-nally headed by Nomura. Nomura said he was on board with Sasaki leading the new team.

“We need to make many decision, and we need very quick decisions – effi ciency, agility,” Nomura said. “It is something we should prioritize. For now, one person, Mr Sasaki, is leading the team. I’m really in agreement with this new decision.”

Organizers said the new ceremonies would add a cost 3.5 billion yen – about $35 million – to an already swell-ing budget. About $130 million was originally budgeted for ceremonies.

Organizers announced a new offi cial budget on Tues-day that represents a 22% increase from the 2019 ver-sion. Offi cial costs are now $15.4 billion, an increase of $2.8 billion the 2019 fi gure of $12.6 billion.

An audit last year by the Japanese government but the actual costs closer to $25 billion.

Pittsburgh Steelers’ Diontae Johnson (18) makes a catch against Cincinnati Bengals’ Darius Phillips (23) during the first half of an NFL football game, on Dec 21, in Cincin-

nati. (AP)

SKIING

BASKETBALL

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ARAB TIMES, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2020 16

SportsJuventus’ Leonardo Bonucci (right), and Fiorentina’s Du-san Vlahovic (left), compete for the ball during the Serie A soccer match between Ju-ventus and Fiorentina, at the Allianz Stadium in Turin, Italy on Dec 22. (AP)

Tigres players celebrate with the championship trophy after defeating Los Angeles FC 2-1 in the CONCACAF Champions League soccer fi nal on Dec 23 in Orlando, Fla. (AP)

Crotone win

Juve suffer 1st league‘defeat’ of the seasonMILAN, Dec 23, (AP): Juventus fell to their fi rst league defeat of the season as the 10-man Bian-coneri lost 3-0 at home to relega-tion-threatened Fiorentina to slip further behind in Serie A.

Dušan Vlahović got Fioren-tina off to the perfect start when he scored in the third minute. An Alex Sandro own goal and a late effort from former Juventus defender Martín Cáceres sealed the match for Fiorentina, which recorded their fi rst win since Ce-sare Prandelli returned as coach.

Juventus had to play most of the match at a numerical disadvantage after former F i o r e n t i n a winger Juan Cuadrado was sent off in the 18th minute.

“We came on with the wrong attitude and when you go onto the fi eld like this, you get into these bad situations, then we were down to 10 men and at that point it became diffi cult to recover,” Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo said.

“Occasionally it happens that you are not 100%, but in the second half we came out with the right mentality. It could have gone better. Now we have to start again with desire, thinking about the mistakes we made and carry-ing our project forward.”

Juventus had started the day in third place, four points be-hind Serie A leaders AC Milan. But they began the match seven points behind — with a game in hand — after Napoli’s appeal

against a default loss to the Bian-coneri was upheld.

After the loss to Fiorentina, they were still seven points be-hind Milan but having played the same number of matches as the Rossoneri.

Milan are now the only remain-ing unbeaten team in Serie A.

Juventus heard the result of the appeal a few hours before kickoff in Turin. And their day swiftly went from bad to worse when Vlahović ran onto Franck Ribé-ry’s through ball and chipped it over the onrushing Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szcz�sny.

Juve’s hopes of getting some-thing from the match dimin-ished just a quarter of an hour later when Cuadrado challenged Gaetano Castrovilli. The referee initially only booked Cuadrado but then showed him a straight red after looking at the incident again on video review.

Cristiano Ronaldo had a head-ed goal disallowed for offside at the start of the second half.

Both sides had chances to score before Cristiano Biraghi’s cross bounced in off the unfortu-nate Sandro in the 76th.

SOCCER

Caceres

Clippers spoil Lakers partyGeorge scores 33

LOS ANGELES, Dec 23, (AP): After the Los Angeles Lakers got their champion-ship rings, the Los Ange-les Clippers gave a perfor-mance that showed this retooled team is determined to contend for its own jewel-ry several months from now.

Paul George scored 26 of his 33 points in the second half, Kawhi Leonard added 26 points and the Los Angeles Clippers rallied past the Los Angeles Lakers on the NBA champions’ ring ceremony night for a 116-109 victory Tuesday.

George went 13 of 18 with fi ve 3-pointers in an outstanding fi rst game since agreeing to add four years and $190 million to his contract with the Clippers, who never trailed in the lat-est meeting of Southern California’s two NBA powerhouses. The Clippers beat the Lakers in the season opener for the second straight year while win-ning coach Tyronn Lue’s debut.

The Clippers stayed in their locker room while the Lakers received their rings, but they emerged with purpose and determined play — from their two superstars in particular.

“Our focus was on us,” Lue said. “The Lakers, they deserved that ring. They had a great year, and you can’t take nothing away from them. Our fo-cus wasn’t really on the Lakers. They were the best team last year, so con-gratulations to them again, but now we’re moving on.” LeBron James scored 22 points and Anthony Davis had 18 for the Lakers just 72 days after they fi nished off the Miami Heat in the NBA bubble. James said he turned his ankle “pretty good” in the second half, leading him to play just 28 minutes.

“I’m happy today is over with and we can focus on the season, but it’s just a lot to process,” James said. “It felt weird having a basketball game today.” The Lakers returned from the shortest offseason in league history and celebrated the franchise’s 17th title, but they couldn’t keep up with George and Leonard down the stretch. Lakers coach Frank Vogel also limited James’ play-ing time and kept Davis to 31 minutes, anticipating the long grind ahead on his veterans after a 10-week offseason.

“It’s not ideal, but I do feel it’s nec-essary to manage those guys’ minutes the right way,” Vogel said. “Getting through this stretch healthy is a priority, and evaluating how our new guys fi t is a priority when we haven’t had a normal amount of time to do that. The fi ve guys on the fl oor have got to be better than they were tonight.” Serge Ibaka scored 15 points in his debut for the Clippers, who hadn’t played since blowing a 3-1 playoff series lead to Denver and ruin-ing a much-anticipated conference fi nal showdown with the waiting Lakers in the bubble. The collapse led to coach Doc Rivers’ departure, and Lue moved down the bench to take over a star-stud-ded team with several new additions.

NBA Results/Standings

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

W L Pct GBBrooklyn 1 0 1.000 -Boston 0 0 .000 1/2New York 0 0 .000 1/2Philadelphia 0 0 .000 1/2Toronto 0 0 .000 1/2

Southeast Division W L Pct GBAtlanta 0 0 .000 -Charlotte 0 0 .000 -Miami 0 0 .000 -Orlando 0 0 .000 -Washington 0 0 .000 -

Central Division W L Pct GBChicago 0 0 .000 -Cleveland 0 0 .000 -Detroit 0 0 .000 -Indiana 0 0 .000 -Milwaukee 0 0 .000 -

Western ConferenceSouthwest Division

W L Pct GBDallas 0 0 .000 -Houston 0 0 .000 -Memphis 0 0 .000 -New Orleans 0 0 .000 -San Antonio 0 0 .000 -

Northwest Division W L Pct GBDenver 0 0 .000 -Minnesota 0 0 .000 -Oklahoma City 0 0 .000 -Portland 0 0 .000 -Utah 0 0 .000 -

Pacifi c Division W L Pct GBLA Clippers 1 0 1.000 -Phoenix 0 0 .000 1/2Sacramento 0 0 .000 1/2LA Lakers 0 1 .000 1Golden State 0 1 .000 1

Golden State Warriors center James Wiseman (33) and Brooklyn Nets center DeAndre Jordan (6) tip-off at the start of the fi rst quarter of an opening night NBA basketball game on Dec 22, in New York. Nets

won 125 -99. (AP)

BASKETBALL

Los Angeles Clippers guard Paul George (13) shoots against the Los Angeles Lakers during the second half of an NBA basketball game, on Dec 22 in Los Angeles. (AP)

Atlético maintain lead

Messi surpasses Pelé milestoneBARCELONA, Spain, Dec 23, (AP): Lionel Messi broke Pelé’s all-time scoring milestone for their clubs by netting his 644th career goal for Barcelona on Tuesday, while Atlé-tico Madrid beat Real Sociedad 2-0 in the Spanish league.

Messi, who helped Barcelona win 3-0 at Valladolid, had equaled Pelé’s all-time scoring tally on Saturday. His 643rd career goal for Barcelona since his 2004 debut matched Pelé’s tally for Santos from 1957-74.

For his 644th - Barcelona’s third of the night - Messi had help from 18-year-old Pedro “Pedri” González.

After receiving the ball near the edge of the area, Pedri deftly rolled his boot over the ball to push it behind him to meet the Argentine’s run. The slick pass left Messi clear to fi nally beat goalie Jordi Masip, who had denied with twice.

In a meeting between the front-runner and the sensation of the league this season, Atlético put on another dominant performance to show why it is the early title favorite.

Diego Simeone’s team took full advantage of their best scoring opportunities and their defense remained airtight from start to fi nish.

Mario Hermoso headed in a free kick by Yannick Car-rasco to put the visitors at San Sebastián ahead four minutes after halftime. Marcos Llorente put the result beyond doubt in the 74th with a powerful strike from the edge of the area.

Sociedad were left in third place at six points adrift. The Basque Country club had led the league earlier this season but has now gone six rounds without a victory.

Barcelona stayed in fi fth place at eight points behind Atlé-tico.

Atlético have one more game to play than both Madrid and Barcelona and three more games to play than Sociedad.

Messi scored his team’s fi nal goal at Valladolid as Bar-celona excelled in an experimental lineup by coach Ronald Koeman.

Koeman has tried several different lineups since he took over Barcelona last summer with the mission to fi x a team that had hit rock bottom in a historic 8-2 loss to Bayern Mu-nich.

After seeing his side not win away from home in four

games, Koeman opted for his most profound makeover at Valladolid. He deployed a defense of three center backs and kept Antoine Griezmann and Philippe Coutinho - the club’s star signings in recent seasons - and midfi eld leader Sergio Busquets on the bench.

That left Martin Braithwaite alone to spear the attack be-hind two playmakers in Messi and Pedri. The scheme also allowed Sergiño Dest to attack deeper on the right fl ank.

Messi lobbed a pass forward for Clement Lenglet to head in for the 21st-minute opener. Messi then played the ball wide to Dest, who squared it low for Braithwaite to tap home in the 35th.

The connection between Pedri and Messi clicked through-out, but it shone in the 65th when the teenager set up the veteran.

Messi also hit the post in stoppage time.Atlético were without João Félix due to a throat infection.

They made up for the absence of their most dynamic forward by applying a suffocating defense to nullify Sociedad’s nor-mally fl uid attack.

Sociedad had David Silva back after he recovered from a muscle injury that had sidelined him for three consecutive matches.

Valladolid’s Joaquin Fernandez, (left), tries to hold off Barcelona’s Lionel Messi during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Valladolid and Barcelona at the Jose Zorrilla Stadium in Valladolid, Spain, Dec 22. (AP)

SOCCERWASHINGTON, Dec 23, (AP): NBA results and standings on Tuesday.

Brooklyn 125 Golden State 99LA Clippers 116 LA Lakers 109