AL RAYYAN STADIUM - Qatar Tribune

Thursdaydecember 3, 2020

rabi al-akhar 18, 1442Vol.14 no. 5119 qR 2

Fajr: 4:42 am Dhuhr: 11:23 amAsr: 2:23 pm Maghrib: 4:44 pm Isha: 6:14 pm

FIne

HigH : 29°CLOW : 23°C

World 8 In historic first, UK to introduce Pfizer-BioNTech virus vaccine next week

sports 12Melbourne’s Kean excited ahead of decisive clash with FC Seoul

business 9QBA hails govt for supporting private sector amid COVID-19

Amir meets senior Advisor to Us president

His Highness the Amir of State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor to US President Donald Trump, and his accompanying delega-tion at the Amiri Diwan on Wednesday. The meeting dealt with reviewing the strategic bilateral relations between Qatar and the US. It also reviewed regional and international developments, particularly the developments in the Middle east. (QNA)

QNADOHa

Qatar welcomed the agreement reached by the afghan negotia-tors in Doha on Wednesday, which constitutes a milestone in the afghan peace negotia-tions that began on September 12, 2020.

in a state-ment, the Ministry of Foreign affairs said this signifi-

cant progress shows that

the afghan parties are serious and able to overcome differences and address difficult issues.

the ministry said the achievement so far raises hope that the afghan parties will suc-ceed in reaching a political set-tlement of the conflict that has lasted for more than 40 years.

it reiterated that Qatar will continue, in collaboration with the international commu-nity and its strategic allies, to support the peace process in pursuit of reaching permanent and comprehensive peace in afghanistan.

Deal by Afghan negotiators a huge milestone in peace process: Qatar

TribuNe News NeTworkDOHa

The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) has announced that the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 stadium in Al Rayyan will host the final of hh the Amir Cup between Al Sadd and Al Arabi on December 18, which coincides with the country’s national day, exactly two years before the country hosts the FIFA World Cup final.

The stadium, which will become the new home of Al Rayyan Sports Club, is the fourth Qatar 2022 tournament venue to open following Khalifa Inter-national, Al Janoub and education City. earlier this year, it was announced the venue would host seven matches up to the round of 16 stage during the World Cup.

The 40,000-capacity stadium is ad-jacent to the Mall of Qatar and within

walking distance of Al Riffa Station – on Doha Metro’s Green Line. The stadi-um’s most striking feature is a glowing façade, comprised of patterns that char-acterise different aspects of Qatar: the importance of family, the beauty of the desert, native flora and fauna, and local and international trade. A fifth shape – a shield – brings together all the others, representing the strength and unity that is particularly relevant to the city of Al

Rayyan.SC Secretary-General hassan Al

Thawadi said, “The inauguration of this stadium is another major milestone on the road to 2022. This stunning venue and the surrounding precinct will leave a fantastic legacy for Al Rayyan Sports Club and everyone who lives in this proud city.”

“This event also marks the two-year countdown to the biggest match in Qa-tar’s history: the FIFA World Cup final,” added Al Thawadi.

“We are proud that our World Cup preparations remain on track, with 90 percent of infrastructure projects com-pleted. We look forward to unveiling more stadiums next year as we ensure that all tournament venues are deliv-ered well in advance of the big kick-off.”

MoCI caps display, marketing services fees of local goodsTribuNe News NeTwork

DOHa

In a bid to promote national products and highlight their quality, the Ministry of Com-merce and Industry (MoCI) has capped services fees charged for the display and marketing of locally produced or packaged food and consumer goods.

The decision was issued within the framework of the ministry’s efforts to bolster the national industrial environ-ment, consolidate the achieve-ments of local industries and to support national products and showcase their quality.

The decision also falls in line with the ministry’s long-time interest in monitoring national economic develop-ments and transactions in local markets as well as its ongoing efforts to bolster the business environment in a bid to support local dealers, promote national companies and foster their role in con-tributing to the growth and economic development in line with the Qatar national

Vision 2030.The decision outlined the

obligations of retail outlets when displaying and mar-keting locally produced or packaged food and consumer goods as follows: not to exceed the maxi-

mum fee for displaying and marketing locally produced or packaged food and consumer goods. Committing to honour-

ing payment deadlines for lo-cal suppliers. Refraining from practic-

es aimed at imposing service fees, payment deadlines and discriminatory conditions on local suppliers. Complying with the ratio

of displayed local products out of the total percentage of dis-played goods of the same type.

The ministry outlined the maximum service fees to be imposed by retail outlets for the display and marketing of locally produced or packaged food and consumer goods at 10 percent of their sale value.

The MoCI decision aims to promote national products and facilitate their delivery to consumers.

Maximum service fee capped at 10% of sale value

Al rAyyAn stAdiUm TO Be UNVeIleD ON QATAr NATIONAl DAy

Al Rayyan Stadium, the fourth Qatar 2022 tournament venue to

open, will host the final of HH the Amir Cup on

December 18 Continued on page 2

Continued on page 3

tHe Cabinet has discussed the necessary measures to be taken to issue a draft law approving the State budget for the fiscal year 2021. this came after the Cabinet reviewed the recommendations of the Shura Council on the draft law. Prime Minister and Minister of interior He Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin abdulaziz al thani chaired the Cabinet’s regular meeting on Wednesday. pAge 2

Cabinet discusses steps to issue draft law on budget

Qatar committed to promoting culture of peace: sheikha alya

QNANeW YOrK

QATAR has renewed its com-mitment to the culture of peace, and warned against fabricat-ing crises and spreading hatred among people.

In a statement before the 75th session of the Un General Assem-bly to discuss the item “Culture of Peace”, Permanent Representa-tive of Qatar to the United nations Ambassador he Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani under-lined that fabricating crises and spreading hatred among people undermine the efforts of the inter-national community to promote a culture of peace.

She said the violation of the sovereignty of states, interference in their internal affairs, and the lack of respect for international

law and human rights, contradict the international community’s endeavour to spread a culture of peace.

Sheikha Alya pointed to the ongoing unjust blockade imposed on Qatar for more than three years, emphasising that the block-ade represents a flagrant violation of the United nations Charter, which obliges states to refrain from fueling conflicts and resolve differences through dialogue.

Sheikha Alya expressed con-cern over the inflammatory rheto-ric which has taken a dangerous turn due to the persistence of in-

stitutional and systematic calls to repeatedly target nearly two bil-lion Muslims around the world, by deliberately insulting their reli-gious symbols.

She stressed that Qatar con-demns the rise in populist rhetoric that incites insult to religions, and expresses its total rejection of all forms of hate speech that is based on belief, race or religion.

She underlined that Qatar has harnessed its capabilities in field of building and promoting peace, through the adoption of a neutral and credible foreign policy and positive and balanced internation-al relations.

Sheikha Alya said Qatar has worked to prevent and resolve conflicts by peaceful means through mediation and preven-tive diplomacy as tools to achieve peace based on Chapter VI of the Un Charter.

She said the efforts of Qa-tar have contributed to reaching peaceful settlements of a number of conflicts, the latest of which is facilitating and hosting the Afghan peace negotiations in Doha.

tHe Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has urged parents to get their children vaccinated with the annual influenza (flu) vac-cination. Flu prevention is a priority during the COViD-19 pandemic, given that both symptoms can look similar and can spread in similar ways. “getting a flu shot this year is more important than ever because of COViD-19. the flu vaccine will not protect you from COViD-19, but it will reduce your risk of developing the flu and flu-related complications, as well as reduce the possibility of getting infected with both the flu and COViD-19 viruses at the same time,” said Dr Khalid Hamid elawad, Manager, Health Protection, Preventive Health Directorate at PHCC. pAge 3

Flu vaccination necessary for children: PHCC

Envoy warns against fabricating crises and spreading hatred among people

He Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani.

02 Thursday, December 3, 2020

Amir congratulates president of Lao

The Amir his highness Sheikh Tamim bin hamad Al Thani on Wednesday sent a cable of congratu-lations to President of Lao Boun-nhang Vorachith on his country’s National Day. (QNA)

Deputy Amir greets president of LaoThe Deputy Amir his highness Sheikh Abdullah bin hamad Al Thani on Wednesday sent a cable of congratulations to President of Lao Bounnhang Vorachith on his coun-try’s National Day. (QNA)

PM sends greetings to Lao counterpartPrime minister and minister of interior he Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani on Wednes-day sent cable of congratulations to Prime minister of Lao Thongloun Sisoulith on his country’s National Day. (QNA)

Greek parliament speaker meets Qatar ambassadorSPeAKer of Parliament of Greece Konstantinos Tasoulas met today with he Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the hellenic republic Abdulaziz Ali Al Naama. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral cooperation relations and issues of common interest. (QNA)

Paraguay FM meets Qatar’s acting charge d’affairesForeiGN minister of Paraguay Federico Franco Gonzalez met on Wednesday with Acting Charge D’affaires of the embassy of Qatar in Paraguay Saeed bin hamad Al marri. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations and other issues of common concern. (QNA)

News in brief

The services include, but are not limited to, the following: Fixed dis-count percentage, progressive profit margin, new company registration fees, new product registration fees, shelf usage fees, gondola shelving fees, loyalty programme, service organisation activities (assortment management), presentation and promotion, seasonal promotional services, offers or promotions, open-ing of new branches, payment meth-od, exceptional payment methods, product display fees and expired products penalty fine.

Retail outlets shall also maintain the current service fees for display-ing and marketing goods to which this resolution applies if those fees are less than the minimum stipulat-ed in this regard.

As for the payment deadlines to settle dues between retail outlets and local suppliers, the decision stipulates the following:

1- Fifteen days for locally pro-

duced or packaged perishable food products. The list of products in-cludes but not limited to: vegeta-bles and fruits, fresh and chilled fish and seafood, chilled meats and their products, chilled poultry, table eggs, milk and dairy products, and bread of all kinds (grain/slices).

2- Forty days for other locally produced or packaged food products

3- Sixty days for other (non-food) consumer goods or locally produced or packaged goods

The aforementioned deadlines are calculated from the date of sub-mitting the monthly account state-ment to retails outlets and within a period not exceeding 30 days from the date of issuing the invoice.

With regard to their third obli-gation, retail outlets are prohibited from pressuring dealers to secure service fees, and from imposing pay-ment terms or other discriminatory conditions and restrictions in viola-tion of the provisions of the decision. Retail outlets are also prohibited from refusing to deal with local sup-

pliers.Touching on the fourth obliga-

tion relating to the display and mar-keting of goods to which the provi-sions of this decision apply, display and marketing operations have been subjected to controls and proce-dures, such as setting the percent-age of displayed local products at 50 percent at least of the same type of all displayed goods. These goods shall be displayed on middle shelves and priority shall be awarded to the display of national products by plac-ing a “national product” label on shelves.

The ministry said it would inten-sify its awareness campaign to pro-mote national products while car-rying out inspection campaigns to ensure the compliance of retail out-lets with decision No 6 of 2020 by the Committee that Sets Maximum Prices and Profit Ratios, to ensure the compliance of concerned parties with their stipulated obligations and to crack down on any violations in this regard.

Conditions for services fees for display and marketing of goods

Cabinet hails results of Qatar-Turkey Supreme Strategic Committee 6th session in Ankara

QNADohA

The Cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister and Minister of Interior he Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani on Wednesday, wel-comed the results of the sixth session of the Qatar-Turkey Supreme Strategic Committee, which was held in Ankara last Thursday under the chairman-ship of the Amir his highness Sheikh Tamim bin hamad Al Thani and Turkish President Re-cep Tayyip erdogan.

The Cabinet affirmed that the discussions of the Qatari-Turkish summit reflected the depth of the strong strategic relations be-tween the two countries and the common understanding, solidar-ity and desire to enhance them in various fields, especially political, economic, investment, defence, energy, education, transporta-tion and sports.

The fruitful results of the meeting of the Supreme Strate-gic Committee in its sixth session and the agreements, memoranda and declarations signed during will enhance cooperation and un-derstanding, and open new hori-zons for the development of the strategic partnership between the two countries for the good and the interests of their peoples.

At the outset of the meeting, the Cabinet was briefed by Min-ister of Public health Dr hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari on the lat-est developments in the efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).

Minister of Justice and Act-ing Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs he Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi said the Cabi-

net considered the topics on the agenda.

The Cabinet took the neces-sary measures to issue a draft law approving the state budget for the fiscal year 2021 after the council reviewed the recommen-dation of the Shura Council on the draft law.

The Cabinet approved a draft of the first executive programme for the cooperation agreement in the cultural and artistic field be-tween Qatar and Kuwait for the years (2021, 2022, 2023).

The Cabinet also approved a draft agreement between Qa-tar and Rwanda regarding the elimination of double taxation in relation to income taxes and the prevention of tax evasion and avoidance.

The meeting also approved draft agreement between Qatar and the United Nations Develop-ment Programme regarding the establishment of the United Na-tions Development Programme Office in Doha.

The preparation of the draft agreement comes within the framework of the state’s keen-ness to promote and improve the sustainable development goals at the national and global levels, in addition to enhancing coop-eration programmes in areas of common interest between Qatar and the United Nations Develop-ment Programme.

The Cabinet reviewed the results of the results of the 23rd meeting of the ministers con-cerned with municipal affairs in the countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, held on November 10, 2020 via videoconference and took the appropriate decisions regarding it.

GhAnem meeTS TurkiSh Armed ForCeS depuTy ChieF oF STAFF

Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces HE Lieutenant-General (Pilot) Ghanem bin Shaheen Al Ghanem met with the Turkish Armed Forces Deputy Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu in Doha on Wednesday. The meeting reviewed bilateral cooperation in the military field and the means to enhance them. The meeting was attended by a number of senior officers of the armed forces. (QNA)

Continued from page 1

Nation

Nation 03Thursday, December 3, 2020

Tribune news neTworkDoha

The Ministry of Public health (MoPh) and the health sector partners in Qatar will partici-pate to observe the Internation-al Day for Persons with Dis-abilities (IDPD) on Thursday, December 3.

The theme of this year’s celebrations is ‘Building Back Better: Towards a More Dis-ability-Inclusive, Accessible and Sustainable Post-COVID World’. The day aims at pro-moting an understanding of disability issues and mobilising support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. It also seeks to in-crease awareness of benefits to be derived from the integration of persons with disabilities in every aspect of political, social, economic and cultural life.

The IDPD was proclaimed by the United Nations in 1992 under the theme ‘A Day for All’ and started celebrating the day

ever since.On the occasion, the MoPh

stressed the importance of en-hancing the collective efforts to secure health and social protec-tion for the persons with dis-abilities, especially in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, through the activation a group of remote tele-health services and guaranteeing persons with disabilities access to these health services.

The health services, rehabil-itation services and allied health services for persons with dis-

abilities are delivered through clinics and virtual clinics using visual and telephone commu-nication.

The MoPh has prepared a number of educational materi-als and videos to raise public awareness of the precautionary measures for the persons with disabilities during COVID-19. The ministry also issued a guide-booklet, in both Arabic and english, for persons with disabilities as well as an aware-ness video, translated in sign language, addressing all types

of disabilities in addition to is-suing special medical standards and measures for the isolation of persons with disabilities in-fected with COVID-19.

Moreover, the MoPh launched the call centre for the health sector to receive inquiries related to COVID-19. hMC pro-vided a hotline for the parents of children with disabilities to receive consultations related to COVID-19 and disability. The MoPh also launched the e-learning platform to help the families of persons suffering autism spectrum disorder. This platform comprises guidance videos as well as educational and training materials target-ing families, which are pre-pared by behaviour specialists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and mental health professionals.

Dr Khalid Abdul-hadi, the lead of the National health Strategy 2018-2022 priority area health and Wellbeing for People with Special Needs, said

work is going on as part of a strategy to improve the early detection of disability, promote diagnosis procedures and re-ferrals to services, and develop early intervention programmes and services. In addition, regis-ters for persons with disabilities have been established and easy access to general and specialised services have been provided without impediments. Priority will be on integrating persons with special needs to enable them to achieve a better future for themselves and others.

Qatar is one of the first states in the world to ratify the conven-tion of the rights of the persons with disabilities in 2008. Since then, Qatar has made signifi-cant strides in promoting their rights, their total integration in the society as well as to involve them in the development pro-cess in line with Qatar Natioanl Vision 2030 which stipulates the achievement of equality and justice for all the categories of the society.

MoPH, health sector partners set to mark Int’l Day for Persons with Disabilities today


The Primary health Care Cor-poration (PhCC) has urged par-ents to get their children vacci-nated with the annual influenza (flu) vaccination.

The Ministry of Public health (MoPh), in coopera-tion with hamad Medical Cor-poration (hMC) and PhCC, launched the annual seasonal influenza campaign in October to provide free flu vaccinations.

Flu prevention is a priority during the COVID-19 pandem-ic, given that both symptoms can look similar and can spread in similar ways.

Influenza, commonly known as flu, is a contagious vi-ral infection of the nose, throat and lungs. The change of sea-son combined with the inter-acting of children at school, can lead to the spread of the flu in the coming months.

“Getting a flu shot this year is more important than ever be-cause of COVID-19. The flu vac-cine will not protect you from COVID-19, but it will reduce your risk of developing the flu and flu-related complications, as well as reduce the possibility of getting infected with both the flu and COVID-19 viruses at the same time,” said Dr Khalid ha-mid elawad, manager of health Protection, Preventive health Directorate at PhCC

“Children younger than five years of age, especially those younger than two years old, are at a higher risk of developing se-rious complications due to flu. Get your children vaccinated against the flu as the flu vaccine not only protects the children against flu and its potentially serious consequences, but also helps reduce the spread of flu to

others,” Dr elawad added.Most often, children con-

tract flu while at daycare or school, or due to interaction with others. Research has shown that with the flu vacci-nation, there are reduced cases of flu illnesses and doctor’s vis-its, less missed work and school days, and a reduced risk of flu-related hospitalisation of chil-dren.

“Parents need to be in-formed that every child above six months of age need the vac-cination against the flu. The only way to ensure the safety of infants under six months of age, who are not eligible for the vaccine, is to get everyone else in the household, including car-egivers, vaccinated. Remem-ber that infants who get the flu are more likely to have serious complications than older kids. Given the COVID-19 pandem-ic, it is especially important to get your children vaccinated this season against flu to avoid other complications,” said Dr elawad.

Both residents and citi-zens alike can receive the free flu vaccination at any of the Primary health Care Corpora-tion’s health centres. People with an existing appointment at a health centre can ask their doctor for the flu vaccination at the same time or drop in with-out a scheduled appointment at their registered health centre to immediately receive the flu vac-cination.

The clinics are open from 7am to 2pm and 4pm to 11pm.

To schedule an appoint-ment for the flu vaccination contact PhCC’s customer ser-vice hayyak on 107. The full list of private and government clin-ics is available on www.fightthe-flu.qa

Flu vaccination necessary forchildren: PHCC

Stadium area to be modified into regional sporting hub after WCContinued from page 1

eNGINeeR hilal Al Kuwari, chairman of the SC’s Technical Delivery Office, described the stadium’s completion as a mas-sive achievement on the road to the first FIFA World Cup in the Middle east and Arab world.

“Five stadiums have now been completed, including Khalifa, Al Janoub, education City, Al Bayt and Al Rayyan. The remaining three will be delivered in the near future in order to give us plenty of time to test our operational plans,” said Al Kuwari.

he added: “The success-

ful delivery of the stadium in Al Rayyan – on time and within budget – is testament to the outstanding collabo-ration of the SC team, our numerous contractors and valued stakeholders. We are incredibly excited to launch this venue on Qatar National Day, exactly two years to the day before everyone focuses on our country for the World Cup final.”

Considerable sustain-ability and efficiency meas-ures have been embedded in the design to reduce the stadium’s carbon footprint, including the use of recy-cled building materials and

retaining trees from the surrounding environment. Many of the recycled materi-als used in the new stadium complex came from the de-constructed Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium that once occupied the site. As a result, the sta-dium was awarded the fol-lowing Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) ratings: GSAS Design & Build Certification (four-star rat-ing), GSAS Construction Management Certification (Class A*) and a GSAS Sea-sonal energy efficiency Ratio (SeeR) Compliance Certifi-cate.

“The building of this sta-

dium, which incorporated the careful deconstruction of Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium and the reuse of materials from that structure in the new project, is an outstand-ing achievement for the SC,” said engineer Yasir Al Jamal, vice-chairman of the SC’s Technical Delivery Office.

“From the beginning, sustainability was at the fore-front of this project, amid the unique challenges we faced during the development. I’m very proud of the SC team and our valued stakeholders for delivering this outstand-ing venue.”

After Qatar 2022, the

modular upper tier of the sta-dium will be removed, with the seats being repurposed into sporting facilities in Qa-tar and overseas.

The surrounding precinct will also be transformed into a regional sporting hub, where locals will have the opportunity to experience many other sporting facilities that spring up as part of the complex. Six football train-ing pitches, a cricket pitch, horse riding track, cycling track, gym equipment and an athletics track are just some of the facilities that the community of Al Rayyan can look forward to using.

04 Thursday, December 3, 2020 Nation

Tribune news neTworkDOHA

Qatar Duty Free (QDF), in partnership with Puig, has launched a Penhaligon’s pop-up and a Carolina Herrera pop-up at Hamad International airport (HIa). Located in the main retail atrium of HIa, the stunning po-diums showcase the brands’ sig-nature selections of fragrances with exciting interactive features and services for all passengers to experience.

the official opening of the Penhaligon’s podium and the launch of the Inimitable William Penhaligon – a worldwide ex-clusive – was celebrated at a rib-bon cutting ceremony attended by VIP guests and officiated by Qatar airways Group Chief Ex-ecutive akbar al Baker, Hamad International airport Chief Operating Officer Eng Badr al Meer, Qatar Duty Free Vice-President Operations thabet Musleh and the British Chargé d’affaires to Qatar alexandra

Cole.travellers are invited to ex-

plore the Penhaligon’s Portrait collections inspired by their eponymous founder and down-load and use the augmented reality app to delve into Penha-ligon’s delights and learn more about the story of each individ-ual fragrance. For those looking for an extra special touch, guests can have a name or personal

message engraved onto the side of their perfume bottle and to have their items gift wrapped for their friends and family.

at the Carolina Herrera Po-dium, customers will be able to experience a deliciously fragrant universe, with a collection of the brand’s fragrance portfolio care-fully curated to match all tastes. the pop-up includes the most coveted collector editions, di-

vine product customisation and a complimentary wrapping ser-vice that elevates gifting to a new paradigm.

Baker added, “We are de-lighted to be the first airport in the world to launch the Inimi-table William Penhaligon col-lection and are pleased to also open this new Caroline Hererra pop-up. We are very grateful to our friends at Puig for choosing

Qatar Duty Free as their part-ner. I now invite all our passen-gers transiting through HIa this month to take advantage of all the incredible brands we have here for their festive shopping.”

Puig Global travel retail Vice-President Kaatje Noens said, “after the most challeng-ing year ever for travel retail, Puig is happy to bring back some fun and excitement to all Hamad International airport passen-gers that have waited for so long to travel again. Penhaligon’s and Carolina Herrera will both of-fer a unique experience in their own pop-up shop, with exclusive launches, customisation services, holiday offers and new digital ex-periences. this amazing project is truly only possible thanks to the partnership with QDF.”

Engr Meer said, “Hamad International airport is a di-verse lifestyle destination which houses some of the world’s most prestigious brands that on oc-casion offer their products ex-clusively at our award winning

terminal. We, therefore, offer our passengers one-of-a-kind retail experiences with a diverse range of products, keeping ease and convenience in mind. Be it proximity to boarding gates, no-tifications to the latest deals and offers or safe and contactless payment options, HIa’s Duty Free makes shopping enjoyable and hassle-free.”

Musleh said, “Puig is an im-portant brand partner of QDF and we are thrilled to host the exclusive pre-launch of the In-imitable William Penhaligon into travel retail. We invite our customers to try the innovative assistance apps to discover the Penhaligon’s Portrait collection and the fantastic range of Caro-lina Herrera Products at the pop-up store.”

In the month of December, Qatar airways passengers will be invited to visit the Penhali-gon’s podium to discover the Inimitable William Penhaligon and collect their free gift with any purchase made.

QDF, Puig launch Penhaligon’s and Carolina Herrera podiums at HIA QnA

DOHA

tHE General Directorate of traffic has stressed its deter-mination to continue the in-spection campaign launched in mid-November to check speed violations in all regions of the country, especially on external roads such as Salwa road.

the campaign comes as part of the efforts of the General Directorate of traffic to curb these violations, with the aim of strengthening road safety and reducing traffic accidents and deaths and injuries resulting from them.

the directorate pointed out that speed violation is an offence in which reconcilia-tion is not permissible and its procedures do not end at the General Directorate of traf-fic. the violating person is referred to the Public Pros-ecution, with the vehicle be-ing impounded for a period of three months.

the directorate also stated that the campaign’s focus on external roads, especially Salwa road, is due to the increase in the number of users of the roads during the winter camping sea-son, at a time when the General Directorate of traffic seeks to achieve the highest levels of traffic safety.

the General Directorate of traffic investigation developed a comprehensive plan to imple-ment the campaign, which in-cludes the deployment of mili-tary and civilian traffic patrols on all external roads to control speed violations, in addition to monitoring violators through fixed and mobile radars, as well as surveillance cameras.

the directorate urged all road users to adhere to traffic laws and guidelines and void ex-cessive speed, which is the main cause of traffic accidents.

Traffic Dept speed violations control drive continues

QRCS develops first aid skills among school staffTribune news neTwork

DOHA

Qatar red Crescent Society (QrCS) has concluded a series of training workshops for ad-ministrative staff and supervi-sors at public schools in Qatar.

Being part of the QrCS School Program, the work-shops were held in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education’s (MoE-HE) training and Educational Development Center.

Over eight days, some 109

administrative staff and super-visors from 107 public schools attended the first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscita-tion (CPr) courses. they were

nominated by the MoEHE as they have been in direct contact with students throughout the academic year.

Instructed by paramedics

and trainers at the QrCS train-ing and Development Cener, the courses covered a number of topics, including skills in handling injuries, fainting, ac-cidents, burns, bruises, shocks, suffocation and electrocution, as well as CPr fin cases of cardi-ac arrest. the program involved three parts: 1. theoretical lectures with presentations and discussion of emergencies and possible scenarios. 2. Simulation practice to admin-ister first aid and CPr. 3. theoretical and practical test

for each trainee to receive first aid and CPr certification.

this is the second edition of the school leaders training pro-gramme on disaster manage-ment and first aid skills. there were many advantages, such as the shift from simple public awareness sessions to accred-ited training courses. the good commitment of the trainees helped to maximize the benefits of the scientific material taught to them.

there was special training for 13 teachers and administra-

tive staff from Qatar technical School where students attend applied workshops dealing with welding, metalworking, heat, chemicals and electricity. the training was tailored to the needs of teachers and trainers in the labs of the school.

the main focus was on how to respond to emergencies such as suffocation, burns and inju-ries of different types and de-grees, especially those caused by chemicals, taking into ac-count the materials used in the academic curriculum.


Hamad Bin Khalifa Univer-sity Press (HBKU Press) has published the result of a global call for proposals launched in april 2020 for literary and/or artistic works inspired by life in confinement as a result of the global COVId-19 pandemic and the personal changes that have taken place as a result of the global crisis.

The book titled Togeth-er......apart, compiles the per-sonal thoughts, reflections and analysis of more than 100 indi-

viduals from around the world and is now available online as an Open access book on the HBKU Press website.

“When we opened the call for submissions at the start of the lockdown period for many countries around the world, our aim was to document his-tory and provide a literary out-let for people to share their var-ied thoughts and perspectives about this experience that the world was collectively facing,” explains Rima Ismail, Outreach and Special Projects manager at HBKU Press. “We were both shocked and humbled by the

response. We received hun-dreds of submissions from a total of 23 countries around the world, all of them provid-ing very raw and real accounts

and reflections on the different facets of the pandemic.”

an editorial committee was set up to review the sub-missions by which each editor

reads each piece and makes a recommendation for its in-clusion in the book. The final pieces chosen were those that offered unique and thoughtful perspectives, enriching aca-demic insight and a very poign-ant reflection of the times.

The narratives, articles, po-ems, artwork, academic analy-sis, and stories from around the world that were chosen ex-emplify the very real and raw human emotions that defined the first few months of the pandemic: fear, hope, uncer-tainty, love, depression, faith, curiosity, loneliness, and grati-

tude. The book is divided into three sections, aptly titled, The Virus, The Impact, and The Takeaway, to highlight the no-tion that when it seemingly all fell apart, and everything was broken, it was and never will be beyond repair. Each section and the book as a whole dem-onstrate how the COVId-19 pandemic has forced us, in so many different ways, to chal-lenge the status quo and to question and redefine our con-cept of ‘normal’.

“This initiative and the subsequently published book, Together ……apart, reflect

both the importance of liter-acy as a means to communi-cate and the spirit of cultural exchange that is essential to HBKU Press’s mission,” Ismail added.

“We hope that this book becomes a testament to the human spirit and how, at our darkest moment, we remained connected. We built the foun-dations for countless moments of light — small gestures of compassion and acknowledge-ments of gratitude that allow us to show who we are, how we want to live, and what matters to us.”

HBKU Press releases ‘Together...Apart’ documenting COVID-19 lockdown

HBKU researchers, faculty members secure place on global list of top scientistsFaCUlTy members and re-searchers at Hamad Bin Khal-ifa University (HBKU) have been named among the top 2 percent of the world’s most-cited scientists on a new global list compiled by Stanford Uni-versity in the US.

Six faculty from the Col-lege of Science and Engineer-ing were recognised, namely: dr mounir Hamdi, founding dean of CSE; dr Roberto di Pietro, professor of cyberse-curity; dr Gordon mcKay, founding professor of sustain-able development; dr muam-mer Koc, founding professor and program coordinator of CSE’s sustainability division;

dr amine Bermak, founding professor of ICT and associ-ate dean; and dr abdesselam Bouzerdoum, professor of ICT.

Researchers at the Qatar Environment and Energy Re-search Institute, Qatar Bio-medical Research Institute and the Qatar Computing Re-search Institute were also in-cluded on the list.

The Stanford University team analysed millions of sci-entists worldwide, combining several metrics to systemati-cally rank the most influential by scientific field, as measured by citations. The prestigious database has been published in the PlOS Biology journal.


QaTaR Biobank organised a discussion panel at the recent WISH 2020 summit about ‘Ethical, legal and social im-plications (ElSI) in research with vulnerable popula-tions”, in collaboration with its international partners Biobanking and Biological and molecular Research In-frastructure resources - Eu-ropean Union research in-frastructure (BBmRI-ERIC), International Society for Bio-logical and environmental repositories (Isber) and Eu-ropean, middle East & afri-can Society for Biopreserva-tion and Biobanking (ESBB).

during the panel mod-erated by dr Reem al Su-laiman, interim deputy chair of the medical Genetics de-partment at Hamad medical Corporation (HmC) and a core member of the National Qatar Genome Project Com-mittee, the speakers defined who can be considered as vulnerable population and discussed the potential risks of these people participating in research.

They also discussed the

ethics and regulations in biobanking and research while using the data and samples, the challenges and risks in practice and privacy, confidentiality and discrimi-nation along with linking all these points to the national vision of precision medicine in Qatar.

The panellists were as-sociate Professor dan Catch-poole, head of the tumour bank at the children’s hos-pital at Westmead, Sydney, australia; michael Th. may-rhofer, political scientist and historian and interim co-di-rector-general of the research infrastructure for biobanks and biomolecular resources,

BBmRI-ERIC; and dr Sofie Bekaert, trained as a doctor in applied Biological Engi-neering and valorisation and innovation manager at Ghent University.

Qatar Biobank, part of QF-RdI, aims to make vital medical research possible for scientists in Qatar and the world through the collection of samples and information from participants of Qatari citizens and long-term resi-dents on their health and life-styles. To achieve this safely, Qatar Biobank is committed to complying with applicable ethical, statutory, regulatory and legal requirements in Qatar and globally.

Qatar Biobank panel session shines light on ethical, legal, social implications in research with vulnerable populations


THE 17th Edition of Heya ara-bian Fashion Exhibition, held under the patronage of HE Sheikha al mayassa bint Ham-ad bin Khalifa al Thani at the doha Exhibition and Conven-tion Center (dECC), concluded on Tuesday after five days of ex-citing show.

The exhibition was hosted by Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC) and organ-ised by its subsidiary, Qatar Business Events Corporation (QBEC).

as the first event to take place since the lockdown ear-lier this year, the exhibition fol-lowed strict hygiene and safety guidelines put forth by the min-istry of Public Health (moPH).

To maintain safety, all those entering the exhibition had to present their EHTERaZ ap-plication and organisers en-sured visitors and exhibitors wore masks throughout. Social distancing measures were fol-lowed, with visitor capacity in-side the hall maintained at 30 percent.

Qatar Business Events Corporation CEO ahmed al Obaidli said, “I would like to congratulate all partners, par-ticipants and organisers on a successful event, which marks the return of the sector. While the pandemic has altered the way in which these events are held, the continued collabora-tion among our stakeholders, and the support from our part-ners at the ministry of Public Health, enabled us to provide a safe and controlled environ-ment for the public, while show-ing the vibrancy of Qatar’s fash-ion scene.”

This year Heya showcased

Qatar’s homegrown talent, with established brands and busi-nesses to upcoming designers participating.

Over 150 brands present-ed high-street apparel, haute couture and luxury to the lat-est modest evening gowns and abayas. Well-known local fash-ion figures, media personalities, influencers, designers and en-trepreneurs participated in var-ious talk shows and workshops.

Over the years, many local designers and entrepreneurs have made their debut at Heya, going on to building successful and known brands internation-ally. a partnership with Bedaya

Centre for Entrepreneurship and Career development fea-tured talks with inspirational figures in the business, who spoke at Heya and offered ad-vice to aspiring young design-ers wishing to launch their own businesses.

abdulla Faleh al Saeed, board member and acting gen-eral manager of Bedaya Center, said: “Bedaya Center would like to thank Qatar National Tour-ism Council and the manage-ment of Heya arabian Fashion Exhibition for their invitation and support to local entrepre-neurs, especially to projects owned and operated by women,

that are always in need for such kind of support.

“The 17th edition of the ex-hibition has achieved great suc-cess by all standards and we are pleased to be a part of this success by providing the oppor-tunity to female start-up busi-ness owners to showcase their products and businesses. We always seek to provide the best solutions to help entrepreneurs achieve their desired goals and support the SmE sector in the country.”

Over five days, participants at Heya were able to enjoy 10 talk shows, four fashion shows and two workshops, organised for current and budding design-ers. another Heya partner, m7 participated in numerous talk shows focused on empowering young fashion entrepreneurs. an initiative of Qatar museums, m7 helps designers explore, col-laborate and grow into success-ful entrepreneurs.

maha al Sulaiti, acting di-rector of m7, said: “It was a pleasure to be part of this edi-tion of Heya. We at m7 believe

that there is no shortage of crea-tive talent in Qatar and we aim to create an environment that nurtures and develops these designers into successful entre-preneurs. Heya has always been a great platform for young de-signers to showcase their work and engage with the public where otherwise they wouldn’t have that close connection.”

a partner of Heya, Virginia Commonwealth University School of the arts’ (VCUarts Qatar faculty, alumni and stu-dents participated actively in the 17th edition of Heya as panellists and also in the fash-ion shows.

Elizabeth yang Soon Ju, VCUarts Qatar Fashion design alumna and adjunct faculty, said: “Having my ‘New Normal’ collection featured on the run-way at this year’s Heya was a great opportunity for me and indeed very exciting. I received many positive comments and the whole experience gave me confidence and new connec-tions. This show really brings together the entire fashion community and gives Qatar’s new generation of designers a platform to be seen and cel-ebrated.”

The 17th edition of Heya endorsed ‘fashion for a cause’, partnering with Education above all (Eaa).

mubarak al Thani, com-munication manager and head of advocacy at Eaa, said: “We thank the organisers of Heya for their support as this dona-tion contributes to our mission to enabling the most vulnerable and marginalised children, es-pecially those affected by pover-ty, poor infrastructure, conflict, natural disaster and culture barriers, to access quality edu-cation.”

Heya wraps up five days of fashion inspiration

Nation 05Thursday, December 3, 2020

More than 1,000 students from Qatari institutions attend ninth Empower Generation Consortium


QaTaR University Health (QU Health) concluded the ninth edition of the ‘Empower Gen-eration Consortium’ with the participation of 1,147 students from all schools in Qatar. In all, 71.7 percent of the participating students were non-Qatari, for the first time in the history of the programme.

The programme witnessed more than 45 virtual training sessions for the three tracks of-fered under the umbrella of the consortium, such as health, bi-odiversity, genomics and preci-sion medicine, among others.

The total number of train-ing courses in the first part was 25 provided by experts, researchers and specialists in the health and research sec-tors. For the second part, it fo-cused on interviewing experts and specialists in health and research fields, providing the students with an opportunity to have in-depth knowledge of research courses and the nature of work in the various health tracks. The total number of interviews with specialists and researchers exceeded 20.

The Empower Generation Consortium was established at

QU in 2013 in support of Qa-tar Vision 2030. It also aims to invest in Qatari capacities in life sciences, health sector and scientific research. It brings to-gether more than 11 partners in the health and educational sec-tors. This year is considered an exceptional turning point for the programme as it attracted for the first time non-Qatari students.

This year witnessed the par-ticipation of approximately 74 schools, and the training was carried out by colleges of QU Health Cluster, the Biomedical Research Center, Qatar Univer-sity library and the academic advising department at Qatar University, in cooperation with the ministry of Education and Higher Education as well as partners in the health sector in Qatar. This includes the min-

istry of Public Health, the min-istry of Interior, the Forensic Research department, Hamad medical Corporation, the Pri-mary Health Care Corporation, Sidra medicine, Qatar al-Gan-nas association, Qatar Falcon Genome Project, the Equine Veterinary medical Center (EVmC), Qatar Biobank, while the official sponsor was Qatar Genome. The program attracted two external partners: The Frac-tal aB Research Center for arti-ficial Intelligence and the africa Flagship Project for Research.

This training took place under the guidance of the Con-sortium’s founder Prof asma al Thani, professor of Virol-ogy at QU’s department of Biomedical Sciences, assistant vice-president for medical and Health Sciences for Strategic

development. She stated, “We are proud

to achieve this remarkable suc-cess for the Empower Genera-tion Consortium program in its ninth round this year. We are also delighted at the student’s turnout to learn about spe-cialisations in the health sector in Qatar. This year, circum-stances have demonstrated the importance of specialising in various fields of health, wheth-er it is academic, research or clinical. With this interest from the young generation, we look forward to a promising future in the health sector in Qatar, God willing.”

The content of this train-ing has been designed under the supervision of dr Hanan abdel-Rahim, dean of the Col-lege of Health Sciences and associate professor of Epide-miology at QU. She said: “The program is designed to provide a real sample of all health sec-tors in Qatar and the academic disciplines offered in this field within Qatar University. Since the trend was for virtual train-ing, we wanted this year to take advantage of such opportunity to offer disciplines to school students on a more comprehen-sive and wider scale than ever before.”

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Opinion EstablishEd sEptEmbEr 3, 2006

hamad bin suhaim al thani chairmanadel ali bin ali managing directordr hassan mohammed al ansari editor-in-chief

Barring the nearly but not wholly unimaginable (it has been a crazy year), or an act of god, Joseph robinette Biden Jr will be sworn in as the 46th president of the

United States in a few short weeks.Meanwhile, COViD-19 rages and so

do the heathen — all of us, left, right and center. We are angry, jumpy and gener-ally alienated from each other.

The presidency is an impossible job anyway — structurally, politically, symbol-ically — and ideally should be broken down into parts and pieces and delegated out.

But that isn’t going to happen, at least not on the main stage.

Biden will face not just an impossible job but an angry and heartsick country.

We are not only divided, but we have lost faith, in the system and in each other.

Perhaps only Franklin roosevelt and abraham Lincoln faced rougher seas.

One thing Biden has going for him is a practical and deep understanding of the office of the presidency and its operation-al as well as political complexities.

That’s a very good thing. To the extent that it is possible, he will delegate and he will surround himself with competence.

With competence, unfortunately, of-ten comes arrogance. Some of the folks around President Barack Obama were very smart. But as a friend of mine, a longtime Washington correspondent, told me years ago: in Washington, everyone is smart, just ask any one of them.

What is really needed is wariness and a measure of humility.

That’s another good thing about Joe Biden: He does not think he is the smart-est guy in the room.

as a creature of Congress, he will re-spect Congress, even when he is at odds with republican senators, for, again, he understands Congress and its members.

But the best thing about Joe Biden, and i am far from the first to say so, is his empathy.

He has suffered, mightily, in his life. So he really does feel the pain of others. and he really does see all americans as family — all of us bound to each other.

Thus, we are obliged to listen to each other and help each other.

if Obama was the Visionary-in-Chief and ronald reagan was the great Com-municator, Biden will be the Empathizer-in-Chief.

it sounds nice after a president who was a pit bull capable of much, but inca-pable of empathy.

But can it work? Can we progress un-der a great Empathizer — Fred rogers as the most powerful man in the world?

i am of two minds.in an immediate and measurable way,

mostly not.Biden says he wants us to heal. i doubt

the left or right are ready to try.He wants an era of good feeling in

Washington — on the Hill and between the parties. This will not happen on things like a green new Deal. But it is possible on things like infrastructure and Social Security reform and maybe even immigra-tion. it was always possible. Cooperation happens every day in Washington, on the lesser stages.

One key to Biden’s success will be his Cabinet and sub-Cabinet. (and the first signs are comforting.) if he picks mostly old pros and pragmatists, a lot can get done. if he goes all woke and precious and tries to create another new Deal or great Society, Washington’s dysfunction will only deepen.

For we don’t really need new programs and “answers” and initiatives and taxes. We need something far more important — something a president can help us achieve. We need a restoration of values, and faith in those values.

Here Biden can make a difference.The model is not FDr, but Dwight Ei-

senhower.Let us rest and renew ourselves.give us a break from politics and the

presidency. Be the president, Joe Biden. But also let the country be.

if you travel the country’s back roads as i just did for a few days, you see that america is still intact. Families still take

care of each other, teachers still turn on the lightbulb in students’ minds, people still hunt, and fish, and watch football, and cook, and work on old cars, and pray on their knees on Sundays.

We’re actually OK. We just need to escape the blue and the red and the ful-minating haters on TV and social media for a while. The other model for Biden is Biden. Just be what you were during the campaign, sir — a national grandpa, who knows how government works and can forge a compromise, but, most of all, be-lieves empathy equals patriotism.

Wearing a mask and social distancing, says Biden, are acts of civic piety — and brotherhood.

This kind of Biden presidency can succeed. Because the president is not, in the end, primarily the master legislator or reformer. He is the caretaker of the american ideal and the american ethos.

Biden did not really run on issues. He ran on restoring the nation’s soul. He should stick with that — the theme that got him nominated and elected.

When he talks about the dignity of every american, reminds us that we can be adversaries without being enemies, and ends every speech with “May god protect our troops,” he is edging us toward resto-ration.

a presidency based on american values, rediscovered and restored, is worth a try.

(Keith C. Burris is editor, vice president and editorial director

of Block Newspapers).

Emphasising Empathy As Patriotism

Keith C BurristriBune news serviCe

A presidency based on American values, rediscovered and restored, is worth a try

(TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE)

PrESiDEnT-ELECT Joe Biden has named the leaders of his economic pol-icy team. His most important nominee — Janet Yellen, for Treasury secretary — is an especially wise choice, for her

breadth of experience and expertise, and for the respect she commands across the politi-cal spectrum. The rest of the lineup — which includes Cecilia rouse at the Council of Eco-nomic advisers, neera Tanden at the Office of Management and Budget, and (according to people familiar with the matter) Brian Deese as head of the national Economic Council — is shrewdly chosen to combine needed skills with support from different parts of the Dem-ocratic Party coalition.

These officials, once confirmed, will have their work cut out. Their task will be nothing less than to develop a substantially new ap-proach to fiscal policy.

The coronavirus crisis has put extreme demands on economic management every-where. Budget deficits have soared and many central banks have cut interest rates close to zero. For the moment, attention is rightly fo-cused on coping with the resurgence in COV-iD cases, and on the further fiscal support it requires. Biden’s team will need to address this short-term issue ur-gently. But it will also need to think farther ahead, and ask whether the traditional rules of fiscal prudence should be relaxed even af-ter the disease is defeated and normality returns.

a rethink is indeed called for. This doesn’t mean that fiscal prudence is passe. Even in a world of persistently low inflation and interest rates close to zero, fiscal recklessness is still possible, and still involves costs. But sound fiscal policy now allows — indeed requires — more flexibility in budgeting and a more nuanced understanding of the mechanics of public debt than the old orthodoxy recom-mended.

The crucial change is the seeming persis-tence of very low interest rates. This is not solely the result of expansionary monetary policy since the recession of 2008 (though 12 years of monetary stimulus stretches any-body’s definition of “temporary”). Long before the crash, starting in the 1980s, real interest rates began trending downward. The under-lying causes seem to involve a combination of higher worldwide saving (partly for demo-graphic reasons), slower growth, and fewer opportunities for profitable investment. The upshot is a persistent excess of global savings, driving down the price of capital.

This shift has enormous implications for fiscal policy.

First, it makes runaway growth in public debt less likely. When the real interest rate is less than the rate of economic growth, the ex-isting stock of debt shrinks over time in rela-tion to the economy as a whole. This means that budget deficits, if kept within bounds,

don’t necessarily have to be financed by high-er future taxes.

Second, concerns that public borrow-ing will “crowd out” private investment are less pressing. it’s still true, on plausible as-sumptions, that higher public debt implies a smaller stock of private capital — but the economic cost of that reduction in private capital is smaller when rates of return are low. Moreover, if budget deficits are used to increase public investment (as opposed to fi-nancing tax cuts or higher current spending) and those investments are well chosen, the net economic gain will be all the bigger.

Third, persistently low interest rates strengthen the case for relying more heav-ily on fiscal policy to support demand when the economy falters. You might say there’s no choice: With interest rates close to zero, and central banks’ bond-buying programs facing diminishing returns, fiscal policy needs to carry more of the burden of economic stabili-zation regardless. But the point is, it can do so more readily — meaning with less risk and at a lower long-term cost — than the traditional thinking allowed.

To be sure, in the midst of the coronavi-rus emergency, budget deficits in the US and

many other countries are exceptionally large — so big that, without eventual cor-rective action, they’ll drive ratios of public debt to out-put sharply higher even if interest rates stay low. The longer that goes on, the greater is the risk that in-vestors will think the debts are insupportable, which would cause the cost of public borrowing to surge. governments also need to keep in mind that many longer-term trends in pub-

lic finance point to mounting fiscal stress. For instance, aging populations mean higher public spending on health care and pensions, and a higher ratio of depend-ents to taxpayers.

Debt still needs to be kept under control, and seen to be kept under control. For this reason, once the COViD crisis has abated, governments should lean toward growth-promoting public investment and away from expanded transfer programs financed by borrowing rather than taxes. good invest-ments can pay for themselves, especially with interest rates so low. Current spending un-supported by taxation risks creating deeply rooted structural deficits.

all that said, the balance of pros and cons has changed. The calculation has shifted to-ward greater reliance on fiscal stimulus as a remedy for too little demand, and in favour of patience, as opposed to peremptory action, when it comes to restoring fiscal control in due course. it isn’t about throwing caution to the winds. it’s a matter of recognizing that fiscal prudence is more complicated than it used to be, and that smart public borrow-ing has a new role to play in sound economic management.

The Biden Team Will Have To Reinvent Fiscal Policy

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ON THE OPINION AND ANALYSIS PAGES ARE THE AUTHORS’ OWN. QATAR TRIBUNE BEARS NO RESPONSIBILITY.

Facebook’s ‘Ad’ Ban Hurts Political Magazines

SHOrTLY before this year’s presidential election, Facebook — chastened by public opinion

and congressional hearings — an-nounced that it would cease all po-litical ads in order to slow the flood of misinformation and disinforma-tion that abounded on its platform. That made sense, given the power the social media website had over public opinion.

But, more ominously, the plat-form with more than 2.7 billion ac-tive monthly users also announced that, beginning at 12:01 am on nov. 4, the day after the election, it would ban all ads “about social issues, elec-tions and politics in the US” for an indefinite period.

now, a month after the elec-tion, that ban remains in effect. and it impacts a good deal more than what people commonly think of as ads.

Most notably, this ban applies to

paid promotion of posts and articles — the way many publications gain new readers and new audiences for their content. This is a tool used by publications including The Progres-sive, a 111-year-old political maga-zine based in Wisconsin. as the magazine’s publisher, that makes me deeply concerned.

The Progressive has an active following on social media, espe-cially Facebook. But due to these restrictions, we are no longer able to promote our articles and gain new audiences for the high-qual-ity, fact-based reporting that our writers produce.

This is not the first time that progressive news websites have had trouble with Facebook’s re-strictions. in 2018, i reported on our attempts to publicize a public screening of four award-winning films. Facebook initially refused the ad, but later relented with no explanation.

in 2019, Mother Jones magazine issued a report showing significant

loss in site visits (and revenue) due to a tiny change in Facebook’s algo-rithm for driving traffic. The find-ings in the Mother Jones report were confirmed this past October by The Wall Street Journal.

But not only Mother Jones was affected. Facebook’s rules affect all publishers who produce content that addresses social and political issues.

Facebook claims it is trying to re-strict falsehoods and promote truth

on its platform. So i decided to test this premise. On nov. 19, we pub-lished an op-ed by our editor, Bill Lueders, about the importance of truth in journalism.

“We face a common enemy: the preponderance of lies. We also share a common goal: to make truth mat-ter,” Lueders wrote. “Our obligation as journalists and opinion leaders is to insist that truth is knowable, and deserves more fidelity than false-hoods.”

Below this article on our Fa-cebook page is a small box where Facebook asks “Do you want to ‘boost’ this post?” i clicked yes, and filed in the necessary information to make the post available (once i had paid by credit card) to other potentially interested readers who are not “followers” of our page but have similar interests.

Within a few hours, the message came back from the Facebook ads team: “Your ad was rejected because it doesn’t comply with our advertis-ing policies.”

in an online update on nov. 11, Facebook said, “The temporary pause for ads about politics and so-cial issues in the US continues to be in place as part of our ongoing ef-forts to protect the election. adver-tisers can expect this to last another month, though there may be an op-portunity to resume these ads soon-er. We will notify advertisers when this pause is lifted.”

if Facebook truly wants to “give people the power to build commu-nity and bring the world closer to-gether,” as it claims in its mission statement, perhaps it should consid-er allowing fact-based, truth-seeking publications to share content with other interested audiences.

(Norman Stockwell is publisher of The

Progressive. This column was produced for the Progressive

Media Project, which is run by The Progressive magazine,

and distributed by Tribune News Service.)

Facebook should consider allowing fact-based, truth-seeking publications to share content with other interested audiencesnorman stoCKwell

triBune news serviCe

Facebook’s ban applies to paid promotion of posts and articles — the way many publications gain new readers and new audiences for their content.

Janet Yellen


Saudi denies role in Iranian scientist’s killing

AFP Riyadh

A senior Saudi minister on Tuesday lashed out at Iran’s foreign minister for implying Riyadh played a role in the as-sassination of leading nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.

Fakhrizadeh was killed on Friday after his car and bodyguards were targeted in a bomb and gun attack on a major road outside the capital Tehran, heightening tensions between Iran and its foes.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday said on Instagram that a covert meeting in Saudi Arabia between Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benja-min Netanyahu contributed to the assassination, alleging it

was a “conspiracy”.“Iranian Foreign Minister

Zarif is desperate to blame the kingdom for anything negative that happens in Iran,” Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, wrote on Twitter. “Will he blame us for the next earthquake or flood?”

“It is not the policy of Saudi Arabia to engage in assassina-tions,” he added.

Unlike other Gulf states, Saudi Arabia -- a Sunni power-house locked in a decades-old rivalry with Shiite power Iran -- has not formally condemned the assassination. Last month, Netanyahu held landmark talks in Saudi Arabia with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to Israeli media reports and an Israeli government source.

BeiRut: More than 900 pro-turkish Syrian fighters have returned to Syria after the end of fighting in the disputed area of Nagorno-Karabakh, a Britain-based Syrian war monitor said on Wednesday. a November 9 truce ended more than a month of fighting between azerbaijan and armenia over the ethnic armenian enclave that broke away from Baku’s control in a war in the 1990s. turkey has been ac-cused of sending hundreds of Syrian mercenaries to fight alongside azeri forces in the conflict, though an-kara has denied this. More than 2,580 Syrian combat-ants have been sent to back Baku in total, of whom 293 have died, according to the Syrian Observatory for human Rights monitoring group. (afp)

Over 900 Syrian fighters return from Karabakh

COlOMBO: Sri lanka and southern india battened down the hatches for the second time in a week on Wednesday ahead of the scheduled arrival of another cyclone from the Bay of Bengal. Burevi will pack gusts of up to 100 kilometres (60 miles) an hour when it makes landfall late on Wednesday in Sri lanka before moving west and hitting india around 24 hours later, forecasters said. Warning of a storm surge of a metre, and 20 centimetres (8 inches) of rain in places, Sri lanka ordered a three-day closure of schools in the north and east and told fishermen to stay on land. (afp)

Second cyclone in a week threatens Sri Lanka, India

ahMedaBad: Five brothers have been arrested in india after a man was paraded naked in the streets alleg-edly in punishment for a social media post, police said Wednesday. Police said that the 38-year-old victim was kidnapped on tuesday by the brothers, assaulted and made to walk for 45 minutes around the western town of Khambhaliya with no clothes on. “an inves-tigation revealed that the victim... used to do Face-book live videos on regular basis,” police spokesman hirendra Chaudhary said.“ON Sunday, in a Facebook live video (the man) made serious allegations against the five brothers and claimed that they were in-volved in criminal activities,” Chaudhary told aFP. (afp)

Indian man paraded naked for Facebook post

iSlaMaBad: Pakistani authorities have arrested a man suspected of links with international child pornog-raphy rings and recovered hundreds of sexually explicit videos of children, an offi-cial said on Wednesday. the Federal investigation agency (Fia) arrested the suspect from Punjab’s north-eastern city of Narowal following a tip-off from interpol. “We have arrested the suspect on a tip from interpol and started investigations,” Fia official Shaheen asghar told dpa. asghar did not share details about the investigations but said the suspect was in posses-sion of “hundreds of child pornography videos and data of over 600 [gigabytes in size].” the suspect had been uploading and down-loading videos and his lap-top and other devices have been sent for a forensic audit. (dpa)

Pak arrests man linked with global child porn rings

News in brief

AFP addiS aBaBa

EThIoPIA has granted the United Nations full access to deliver aid to the northern re-gion of Tigray, following weeks of lobbying amid military op-erations there, according to an agreement seen on Wednesday by AFP.

The agreement, signed by Ethiopia’s peace minister, al-lows for “unimpeded, sustained and secure access for humani-tarian personnel and services to vulnerable populations in [government]-administered ar-eas in Tigray and bordering are-

as of Amhara and Afar regions”.Prime Minister Abiy

Ahmed, last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, announced mili-tary operations against leaders of Tigray’s ruling party, the Ti-gray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), on November 4, saying they were in response to TPLF-organised attacks on federal army camps.

Thousands have died in subsequent fighting and tens of thousands have fled into neigh-bouring Sudan.

The government blocked phone and internet connec-tions and restricted access to Tigray, making it difficult to

assess conditions within the region.

The UN has been warning for weeks about a possible hu-manitarian catastrophe.

Around 600,000 people living in Tigray depended on food handouts before the fight-ing began, among them 96,000 Eritrean refugees.

Food, fuel and cash are in short supply, according to the UN office for the Coordina-tion of humanitarian Affairs (oChA), while the Interna-tional Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says basic medi-cal equipment is lacking.

A senior UN official told

AFP Wednesday the aid agree-ment would allow the UN and humanitarian partners to ad-minister assistance “wherever people are in need”.

The officials said needs as-sessments would begin “as soon as we get clearance from our security staff”.

on Saturday night Abiy de-clared military operations were “completed” after federal forces took control of the regional cap-ital Mekele.

The TPLF leadership, how-ever, has vowed to fight on and says combat continues in multi-ple locations.

Tigray head Debretsion Ge-

bremichael said Tuesday that fighting persisted in at least three locations, two of which were “around Mekele” and an-other near the town of Wukro, 50 kilometres (30 miles) north.

The communications black-out has made it impossible to verify claims from both sides on how the fighting is going.

Abiy intends to establish a caretaker administration in Ti-gray headed by Mulu Nega, for-merly a senior official at Ethio-pia’s higher education ministry.

on Wednesday Mulu an-nounced administrators had been installed in the town of Shire, located roughly 250 kilo-

metres (155 miles) northwest of Mekele, according to a report by state-affiliated Fana Broad-casting Corporate.

Analysts warn, however, that Mulu’s administration could meet resistance from the Tigrayan population.

The TPLF dominated Ethi-opian politics for nearly three decades before anti-govern-ment protests swept Abiy to power in 2018.

Since then TPLF lead-ers have complained of being removed from top positions, targeted in corruption prosecu-tions and broadly scapegoated for the country’s woes.

UN given ‘unimpeded’ aid access to Ethiopia’s Tigray

AFP JeRuSaleM

ISRAEL’S precarious coalition government took a first step towards collapse on Wednes-day, as lawmakers gave a preliminary approval to a bill dissolving parliament, raising prospects of a fourth election in less than two years.

The measure passed with support from the Blue and White party led by Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz, the key partner in the coali-tion headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a primetime address on Tuesday, Gantz, who is also defence minister, accused Ne-tanyahu of focusing only on his political self-interest, de-priving the country of stability -- and a budget -- during un-precedented economic strife caused by the pandemic.

The opposition-spon-sored bill earned 61 votes on Wednesday, with 54 voting against.

But that only marks a first step and the bill must still pass

several additional parliamen-tary readings before a new election must be called.

Gantz’s decision to side with the opposition, at least for now, highlights the widening cracks in Israel’s centre-right coalition, imperilled from the start by mistrust, infighting and public recriminations.

“I had no illusions about Netanyahu,” Gantz said in his Tuesday speech.

he reminded Israelis that he battled the prime minister in three consecutive incon-clusive elections that did not allow either leader to form a majority government.

Gantz said he decided to agree a unity government with Netanyahu, whom he knew to be a “serial promise-breaker”, because he wanted to spare Israelis “an ugly and costly” fourth election, especially as the coronavirus pandemic was accelerating.

“Netanyahu didn’t lie to me,” Gantz said. “he lied to all of you.”

The Netanyahu-Gantz coalition, agreed in April, in-

cluded strict power-sharing arrangements, with cabinet posts split roughly evenly be-

tween allies of both men.Netanyahu, who heads the

right-wing Likud party, was to serve as prime minister for the first half of the three-year ar-rangement.

Gantz had been due to take over as premier in November 2021 but Netanyahu’s critics have always insisted he would find a way to sink the coali-tion before vacating the prime

minister’s office for Gantz.The unity deal included

multiple triggers that would automatically force new elec-tions, including a failure to pass a budget.

Gantz accused Netanyahu of consistently misleading the public over the budget issue to serve his own political ends.

“Netanyahu committed to pass a budget in August, and naturally did not stand by his word. he promised that it would happen in December and is not following through. Does anyone believe him any-more?” Gantz said.

Gantz directly called on Netanyahu to “put a state budget forward”, making clear that if he did so, new elections could be avoided.

Netanyahu released a vid-eo shortly before Gantz spoke on Tuesday, urging him to keep the coalition together.

“Now is not the time for elections,” Netanyahu said. “Now is the time for unity.”

Gantz also courts huge political risks by taking Israel back to the polls.

The opposition-sponsored bill earned 61 votes on Wednesday, with 54 voting against

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (centre) leaves the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) in Jerusalem on Wednesday. (aFP)

Israel elections loom as lawmakers back bill to dissolve parliament

Netanyahu committed to pass a budget in August, and naturally did not stand by his word. He promised that it would happen in December and is not following through. Does any-one believe him anymore?Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz

AFP dOha

PEACE negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government in Qatar are ready to advance to the next stage, both sides said on Wednesday after agreeing on rules for the talks.

The meetings, which began in September, had been bogged down by disputes on the agenda, the basic framework of discussions and religious interpretations.

Nader Nadery, a member

of the government’s negotiat-ing team, tweeted that “proce-dures for the intra-Afghan ne-gotiations... had been finalised and discussions on the agenda” would follow.

Mohammad Naeem, a spokesman for the Taliban, also tweeted that procedures for the talks had been “finalised and from now on, the negotia-tions will begin on the agenda”.

The warring sides have been engaging directly for the first time following a landmark troop withdrawal deal signed in February by the insurgents

and Washington.The US agreed to withdraw

all foreign forces in exchange for security guarantees and a Taliban pledge to hold talks with Kabul.

Abdullah Abdullah, chair-man of Afghanistan’s high Council for National Recon-ciliation, in a tweet called the development an “initial major step”.

Washington’s special envoy on the conflict Zalmay Khalilzad also welcomed the breakthrough, tweeting that it was a “significant milestone”.

he said the two sides had agreed on a “three-page agree-ment codifying rules and pro-cedures for their negotiations on a political roadmap and a comprehensive ceasefire”.

“This agreement demon-strates that the negotiating parties can agree on tough issues,” he added.

While both sides’ negotia-tors had been ready to proceed with the talks, sources said President Ashraf Ghani had objected to wording in the proposed ground rules that referred to his administration

and the Taliban on an equal basis as “parties to the war”.

It is unclear whether the wording was altered.

Ghani’s spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter “it’s a step forward towards begin-ning the negotiations on the main issues”.

outgoing US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for “expedited discussions” during a visit to Doha on November 21 during which he met with both Taliban and Afghan govern-ment negotiators.

“Rapid progress on a politi-

cal roadmap and a ceasefire is what the people of Afghanistan want more than anything else,” Pompeo said in a statement in response to Wednesday’s an-nouncement.

There has been a surge of violence in Afghanistan in recent weeks.

The insurgents have launched near daily attacks against Afghan forces, primar-ily in rural areas, since signing the deal with Washington in February that paved the way for the withdrawal of foreign troops by May 2021.

Taliban, Afghan govt talks to advance to next stage

Israel releases over $1 bn of withheld funds to Palestine

AFP RaMallah

ISRAEL has released more than $1 billion in funds with-held from the Palestinian Au-thority, a Palestinian minister said on Wednesday, weeks af-ter coordination was renewed between the two sides.

“The #Israeli government transfers all financial dues of the clearance to the account of the #Palestinian Author-ity, amounting to three bil-lion and 768 million shekels,” civil affairs minister hussein al-Sheikh wrote on Twitter, referring to taxes, including customs taxes, that the Jewish state collects on behalf of the PA.

In May, the Palestinians stopped coordination with Is-rael, with PA leader Mahmud Abbas saying it was in response to Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank.

Israel later put its annexa-tion plans on hold, in return for an agreement to normalise ties with the United Arab Emirates, announced in August.

In halting the cooperation with Israel, the PA also stopped accepting transfer of taxes -- particularly customs duties -- collected by Israel on its behalf.

Earlier in the week, an Is-raeli official told AFP on con-

dition of anonymity that the “security cabinet approved transferring the money to the PA”, without specifying the amount.

Palestinian prime minis-ter Mohammed Shtayyeh said on Monday the Palestinians were “entitled” to the funds, expected to relieve pressure on a Palestinian economy in the grips of a severe budget-ary crisis.

officials “will take every-thing they are owed. They have been patient for months and it’s only a matter of a little more time to make everything clear,” Shtayyeh said.

Deprived of this income, the PA had to cut the salaries of its civil servants, at a time when the Palestinian economy had begun grappling with the impact of the novel coronavi-rus pandemic.

Key funddeprived of this income, the Pa had to cut the salaries of its civil servants, at a time when the Palestinian economy had begun grappling with the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic

World 07Thursday, December 3, 2020

DPAWashington

The US Justice Department is investigating a suspected bribery scheme in which a “substantial political contribution” would be offered in exchange for a presi-dential pardon or reprieve of sentence, according to a court document unsealed on Tuesday.

The record was unsealed by Chief Judge Beryl howell, of the US District Court in Washington.

The heavily-redacted 20-page filing does not include the names of the suspects in the scheme. however it says at least

one of the suspects is an attor-ney, and the pardon would be on behalf of person convicted of a federal crime.

The US Justice Department alleges that two suspects acted in a “secret lobbying scheme” to persuade senior White house officials to secure a pardon without registering as lobbyists.

A related suspected bribery scheme “would offer a substan-tial political contribution in ex-change for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence” for the defendant, the filing states.

There is no mention of president Donald Trump - who

has the sole and largely unlim-ited power to grant a pardon - in the non-redacted portions of the filing.

The filing is part of Judge howell’s decision granting the Justice Department’s request to

review several terabytes of data on 50 digital media devices, in-cluding iPhones, iPads and hard drives that were seized in a pre-vious law enforcement raid.

howell determined that the information in the devices are not covered by attorney-client privileges that shield some communications with law en-forcement.

The development comes just days after Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with a Russian official.

US Justice Department probing possible bribe for presidential pardon scheme

AFP san Francisco

A US federal judge on Tuesday blocked rule changes ordered by President Donald Trump making it harder for people to get skilled-worker visas.

The US Chamber of Com-merce, the Bay Area Council and others had sued the De-partment of homeland Secu-rity arguing that the chang-es rushed new restrictions through without a proper pub-lic review process.

Skilled-worker visas, re-ferred to as h1-B visas, are precious to Silicon Valley tech firms hungry for engineers and other highly trained talent.

US District Court Judge Jeffrey White granted a mo-tion to set aside two rules by the departments of Labor and homeland Security that would have compelled companies to pay h1-B visa workers higher wages and trimmed job types that qualify for the visas.

The Trump administra-tion had cited the Covid-19 pandemic and its toll on the economy as reasons for skip-ping required public notice and review processes, accord-ing to court documents.

“This is a major win for our economy and for our ability to recover from the worst down-turn in generations,” said Bay

Area Council chief executive Jim Wunderman.

“The Bay Area and Ameri-ca must continue to be a place where anyone around the world can come to pursue their dream or dream job,” he said.

Wunderman added that many thriving Northern Cali-fornia tech firms were founded by entrepreneurs who first came to the US on visas.

“h-1B workers fill an im-portant need in our economy and provide immense benefits not only to the companies they work for but the communities where they live,” Wunderman said.

“Closing the door to talent from around the world will drive those skills and the op-portunities they create to other countries who are more wel-coming. In the end that means fewer US jobs.”

Wunderman said the rushed restrictions were part of what he called a concerted effort by the Trump adminis-tration to clamp down on all kinds of immigration.

White said in his ruling that the US did not demon-strate “that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on domes-tic unemployment justified dispensing with the due delib-eration that normally accom-panies” making changes to the h-1B visa programme.

Judge blocks Trump rules on H1-B visas

AFP Washington

The cumulative total of Cov-id-19 cases surged by nearly 30 percent across the Ameri-cas in just one month, the Pan American health Organiza-tion warned Wednesday, re-leasing figures for November.

By the end of October, in-fections registered in North, South and Central America as well as the Caribbean for the whole pandemic stood at 20.5 million, according to PAhO figures.

A month later, the total had climbed by more than six million to 26.9 million.

That includes “record-set-ting daily cases registered in North America,” PAhO direc-tor Carissa etienne said.

In the United States, etienne said that more than 96,000 people are hospital-ized -- “the highest number since the onset of the pan-demic.”

The US is seeing more than 150,000 new cases a day and fears a coronavirus su-per-surge following extensive travel over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Canada, which is seeing fresh outbreaks in nursing homes and assisted living fa-cilities, is also seeing worrying surges along with Brazil, and Cuba.

“These continuing cases of COVD-19 are why we must

act swiftly, especially in places where the caseload has not been controlled,” etienne said.

As the world inches closer to a vaccine, “we must contin-ue to rely on the public health measures that we can all take and that have helped to curb previous outbreaks: relying on stay-at-home measures, prac-ticing social distancing and wearing masks.”

She called for “vigorous government action” to ensure testing and efforts to isolate and quarantine patients.

“We have the tools at our disposal, let’s use them,” etienne said.

Close to 1.5 million peo-ple globally had died from the coronavirus by 1800 GMT Wednesday, according to an AFP count based on official sources, while more than 64 million have been infected.

AFPLondon

BRITAIN on Wednesday be-came the first country to ap-prove a Covid-19 vaccine for general use, announcing a roll-out of Pfizer-BioNTech’s jab from next week in a historic advance for humanity’s fight-back against the coronavirus.

“It’s the protection of vac-cines that will ultimately allow us to reclaim our lives and get the economy moving again,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said after the approval by the UK’s independent medicines regulator.

But he urged the public to remain cautious on the day that england exited a four-week lockdown and re-im-posed regional curbs.

health secretary Matt hancock said that starting with care home residents and health and care staff, Britain’s National health Service will begin with 800,000 doses “early next week” and ramp up to “millions” of inoculations by the end of the year.

“help is on its way,” he told BBC radio. “We can see the dawn in the distance but we have to get through to the morning,” hancock added, un-derscoring the appeal for the public to continue adhering to social restrictions.

england’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, also wel-comed the “excellent news” but stressed: “It will take un-til spring until the vulnerable population who wish to are fully vaccinated. We can’t low-er our guard yet.”

The breakthrough will en-courage hopes the world can finally get back on course in 2021 after a year of traumatic losses, both human and eco-nomic.

The novel coronavirus has killed nearly 1.5 million people since the outbreak emerged in China 12 months ago. At least 63 million cases have been reg-istered. Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said the certifi-cation by the UK’s Medicines

and healthcare products Reg-ulatory Agency (MhRA) was a “historic moment in the fight against Covid-19”.

“This authorisation is a goal we have been working toward since we first declared that science will win, and we

applaud the MhRA for their ability to conduct a careful as-sessment and take timely ac-tion to help protect the people of the UK,” he said.

US giant Pfizer and Ger-man newcomer BioNTech added that they expected fur-

ther regulatory decisions from other countries “in the coming days and weeks”.

The United States and eu-rope on Tuesday fleshed out plans to administer Covid-19 vaccines as soon as they gain approval, with a US panel rec-ommending that health care workers and nursing home residents be given top priority.

Other vaccines expected to come on stream soon include ones from Moderna and As-traZeneca/Oxford University, which has strong backing from the UK government.

Scientists also acclaimed the UK news but cautioned that logistical challenges re-mained. The Pfizer-BioNTech jab has to be stored at around -70 degrees Celsius (-94 de-grees Fahrenheit), requiring specialist freezers.

“It’s not easy but we’ve got those plans in place,” hancock said.

Campaigners and govern-ments have stepped up calls to ensure poorer countries enjoy equal access to successful vac-cines. The AstraZeneca/Oxford University candidate can be kept in regular refrigerators and is being offered at cost price, but is undergoing further data analysis after questions were raised over the effective-ness of its dosage regime.

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have both shown effectiveness against the coronavirus of around 95 percent. Both are based on new mRNA technology.

The mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) is used to deliver genetic material to the body that makes human cells create a protein from the vi-rus. This trains the immune system to be ready to attack if it encounters the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

In historic first, UK to introduce Pfizer-BioNTech virus vaccine next week

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London on Wednesday. (aFP)

The novel coronavirus has killed nearly 1.5 mn people since the outbreak emerged in China 12 months ago

World

MoscoW: russian President Vladimir Putin issued an order on Wednesday for health au-thorities to begin providing mass vaccinations against the novel coronavirus to doctors and teachers next week.

russia has already produced about 2 million doses of a state-developed vaccine against the virus, Putin said in comments car-ried by state media.

“Let’s agree that next week you will begin the large-scale vaccination,” Putin told the deputy prime minister in charge of health is-sues, tatyana golikova, via a video chat.

russia was the first country to introduce a vaccine against the virus for widespread use,

registering the sputnik V vaccine in august.the state producer has claimed the vaccine

has demonstrated an efficacy rate higher than 90 per cent without significant side effects.

Putin has personally endorsed the vaccine, saying his daughter took it with no side effect worse than a slight, temporary fever.

the Kremlin’s spokesperson said last week that Putin had not taken the vaccine himself because it was still undergoing a clini-cal trial.

russia has recorded the world’s fourth-largest coronavirus caseload, with more than 2.3 million cases, amid a surge of new infec-tions in recent months. (DPA)

Putin orders Russia to begin mass coronavirus vaccination next week

Total Covid cases in Americas up by 30% in one month

The US Justice Department alleges that two suspects acted in a ‘secret lobbying scheme’ to persuade sen-ior White House officials to secure a pardon without registering as lobbyists

AFP geneVa

ThIS year is on course to be one of the three warmest ever recorded, the United Nations said on Wednesday, as the UN chief warned the world was on the brink of “climate catastro-phe”.

The past six years, 2015 to 2020, are set to make up all six of the hottest years since modern records began in 1850, the UN’s World Meteor-ological Organization (WMO) said in its provisional 2020 State of the Global Climate report.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the 2020 report spells out “how close we are to climate catas-trophe”.

“Apocalyptic fires and floods, cyclones and hurri-canes are increasingly the new normal,” he said in a speech at Columbia University in New York on the state of the planet.

“humanity is waging war on nature. This is suicidal. Nature always strikes back -- and it is already doing so with growing force and fury.”

The 2015 Paris Agree-ment on climate change calls for capping global warming at well below two degrees Celsius above the pre-indus-trial (1850-1900) level, while countries will pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 C.

“2020 has, unfortunately, been yet another extraordi-nary year for our climate,” said WMO secretary-general

Petteri Taalas.“The average global

temperature in 2020 is set to be about 1.2 C above the pre-industrial level.

“There is at least a one in five chance of it temporarily exceeding 1.5 C by 2024.”

The WMO said 2020

seemed on course to be the second-hottest year ever.

The years from 2015 to 2020 are therefore individual-ly “likely to be the six warmest on record”, the report said.

Temperature averages across the last five years, and across the last 10-year period,

“are also the warmest on record”, it added.

Neville Nicholls from Monash University in Mel-bourne said this was “testa-ment to the acceleration of global warming”.

“We took about a century for our greenhouse gases to warm the globe by 1 C; we are on track to add another 1 C in just the next 30 years,” he said.

Oil, gas and coal produc-tion must fall six percent a year in order to limit cata-strophic global warming, said the UN’s annual Production Gap assessment, which meas-ures the difference between the Paris goals and countries’ fossil fuel production plans.

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere -- the main driver

of climate change -- hit record highs last year and continued climbing in 2020 despite measures to halt the Covid-19 pandemic.

The annual impact of the coronavirus crisis was expect-ed to be a drop of between 4.2 and 7.5 percent in carbon dioxide emissions.

however, CO2 remains in the atmosphere for centu-ries, meaning the effect of the pandemic is negligible.

Taalas was nonetheless encouraged by China’s bid for carbon neutrality by 2060 and US president-elect Joe Biden’s 2050 target, saying these and pledges from the european Union, Japan and Canada could trigger coun-tries like India and Russia to follow suit.

2020 one of three hottest years ever recorded: UN

NeWs iN bRief

Bogota: heavily armed robbers attacked a bank and spread terror in a Brazilian town, but did not make off with any booty, lo-cal media reported on Wednes-day. at least 10 criminals struck in the northern municipality of cameta overnight, in the second such attack in the country in two days. armed with high-calibre weapons and explosives, the criminals took hostages in bars and used them as shields so they could move around, news portal g1 reported. one of the hostages was killed and another person injured. the criminals also at-tacked a police barracks.

Robbers attack bank, use hostages as human shields in brazil

(DPA)

(DPA)

Paris: the French government is planning to introduce a seven-day quarantine require-ment for citizens returning from ski holidays abroad, Prime Minister Jean castex said on Wednesday. during the holiday period, random checks are to be carried out along the borders with neighbouring countries where people go skiing, castex said. castex said because of this, he was not planning to go skiing in switzerland. castex said the requirement was also a way to protect French ski operators. France has decided to keep ski resorts open during christmas, but shut down ski lifts.

france plans 7-day quarantine on return for skiers going abroad


A man rides in nearly-empty Metro train during rush hour in Washington on Wednesday. (aFP)

Tribune news neTwork Doha

A comprehensive Covid-19 Re-sponse Report (CRR) jointly pro-duced by Oxford Business Group (OBG) and Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), part of Qatar Foundation Research, De-velopment, and Innovation (QF RDI), explores the country’s RDI landscape in the context of attract-ing new investments in research, innovation, technology develop-ment, and entrepreneurship, as it looks to strongly emerge from the global pandemic.

The first ever OBG CRR on Qa-tar provides in-depth analysis of the country’s response to the pan-demic in an easy-to-navigate and accessible format, focusing on key data and infographics relating to

the socio-economic landscape.Innovation lies at the core of

National Vision 2030, the coun-try’s development plan, with QSTP playing a central role in driving ef-forts to diversify the economy and foster an effective RDI ecosystem.

OBG’s report examines the positive effects that the pandemic-induced wave of innovation could have on the country’s burgeoning tech industry in the longer term.

Fintech, which has benefited from pandemic-related growth in e-commerce and digital payments, is one of several key areas explored. The CRR maps out the many op-portunities that the segment offers for venture capital investments on the back of rising demand for cash-less payment solutions.

The report includes several case studies documenting the part that QSTP and its partners played in supporting Qatar’s response to the pandemic, either directly by deliv-ering solutions or indirectly by pro-moting tech initiatives and sharing pandemic-focused insights.

Elsewhere, OBG charts Qatar’s efforts to increase self-sufficiency, which look set to gain further trac-

tion across diverse segments of the economy as firms continue to strengthen local supply chains.

In its most recent survey of GCC executives, undertaken in July, more than half (53 percent) of Qatar-based CEOs told OBG that they were likely or very likely to relocate their supply chains more locally, in response to dis-ruptions in global supply chains during the pandemic.

Qatar’s plans to continue in-vesting heavily in its energy sector are another area of focus. Here, OBG explores the country’s plans to develop the North Field gas re-serves, which are expected to re-affirm Qatar’s leading position in the global LNG market.

QSTP Executive Director Yo-souf Al Salehi said that although the pandemic has created some unprecedented challenges, it has also provided Qatari businesses and entrepreneurs with the oppor-tunity to innovate.

“Sustained progress in devel-oping Qatar’s RDI and technology ecosystem means we have a robust pool of entrepreneurial talent ca-pable of devising innovative tech-

nology solutions,” he added. “At the same time, the wave

of digital transformation that has been unleashed across the cor-porate sector bodes well for the recovery phase and is likely to en-hance the long-term competitive-ness of our economy,” he said.

OBG Managing Director for the Middle East Jana Treeck said that while Qatar was unable to escape the economic impact of COVID-19, its robust economy and efforts to diversify the economy helped to cushion the impact of a sudden drop in global supply and demand.

“Far-reaching polices focused on developing and expanding im-portant sectors of the economy including infrastructure, health care, ICT and manufacturing, have helped Qatar to both improve its competitiveness and boost in-flows,” she said.

“Against that backdrop, the IMF expects Qatar’s economy to contract by the lowest amount in the GCC this year, before returning to robust growth in 2021,” she said.

OBG, QSTP team up for new COVID-19 response report on Qatar

Qatar puts innovation at the heart of economic transformation


QATAR Islamic Bank (QIB), the largest private bank in Qatar, has been recognised for the second time as the ‘Bank of The Year – Qatar’ by The Bank-er, a magazine owned by London’s The Financial Times.

This exceptional accolade is in recognition of QIB’s outstanding performance through 2020, and its success in outperforming the competition on the levels of financial performance, strategic initiatives, and its response to the challenges related to COV-ID-19 pandemic.

QIB’s recognition took place on Wednesday during a virtual awards ceremony. QIB was repre-sented by its Group CEO Bassel Gamal at an event that was attended by senior global bankers and ex-ecutive editors of The Banker Magazine in Europe, Asia, The Middle East and Africa.

Commenting on the award, Bassel Gamal said, “Receiving the prestigious Bank of The Year award

by The Banker Magazine is a recognition the entire QIB family is proud of. It is a testament to QIB’s stability and sustainable business model. Such recognition can only be achieved through the col-lective efforts of the bank’s staff, the continuous support from the board of directors, our clients’ trust, and our genuine commitment to continuous improvement.”

He said, “2020 was a year of challenges for the

global banking industry, but for QIB it was also a year that we introduced new banking approaches to the Qatari market and implemented successful busi-ness continuity while having the safety of our em-ployees and customers as our number one priority.”

“In an unprecedented operating environment, we have been able to financially support our cus-tomers and introduce new innovative products and services to serve the needs of all customer segments in the Qatari market. Thanks to our digital trans-formation programs, we are able to offer the fastest and most trusted banking solutions to individuals and corporate customers in Qatar remotely through our mobile and online channels. This has also re-sulted in attracting new clients to Islamic Banking, reconfirming that Islamic Banks are now compet-ing with conventional banks across all banking ser-vices,” Bassel said.

QIB has succeeded to maintain positive finan-cial performance levels in 2020 regardless of the impact on the global economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

QnADoha

THE Qatari Businessmen As-sociation (QBA) has praised the government for its con-tinuous support to the private sector and for encouraging private firms to contribute to promoting economic growth and sustainable development in the country.

This came during a QBA meeting, chaired by its chair-man Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani, to discuss the chal-lenges facing the private sec-tor amid the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and effective ways to overcome its economic consequences and effects on the business environment and the private sector.

In this context, the QBA praised the efforts of ‘Private Sector Obstacles Commit-tee’ chaired by the Minister of Commerce and Industry HE Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari to address the challenges facing the sector.

It indicated that the com-mittee, which is a govern-ment initiative to strengthen the partnership between the public and private sectors, has taken forward the govern-ment’s vision to support and

encourage the private sector to play the role assigned to it by overcoming obstacles in the way of achieving sustain-

able development.The QBA members dis-

cussed the requirements of the private sector and the

challenges facing it in light of the global health crisis, and its economic consequences. They presented a series of uni-

fied proposals to meet these challenges, which will be submitted to the concerned authorities.

QBA hails govt for supporting private sector amid COVID-19

The Banker names QIB as ‘Bank of the Year-Qatar’

The report includes several case studies documenting the part that QSTP and its partners played in supporting Qatar’s response to the pandemic.

Members of Qatari Businessmen Association held a meeting in Doha on Wednesday.

Exports by pvt sector exceed QR11 billion in first nine monthsTribune news neTwork

Doha

THE total value of exports by Qatar’s private sector in the first nine months of 2020 amounted to QR 11 billion, Qatar Chamber has said in a report as part of an economic newsletter for November 2020 released on Wednesday.

Exports by the private sec-tor in the third quarter of 2020 reached QR 2.83 billion com-pared to QR2.15 billion in the second quarter, an increase of 32 percent.

According to the report, the trade of private sector dur-ing September according to the certificate of origin issued by the chamber reached QR1 billion, showing an increase of 17 percent compared to August.

The QC reports indicated that exports through GSP model certificate of origin has the largest value in September, increasing 128 percent m-o-m compared to August 2020, fol-lowed by exports through the Unified Arab model by 18 per-cent and Unified GCC model by 4 percent.

There were no goods ex-ported through the Unified GCC certificate of origin for exporting to Singapore, while exports through the General Model decreased by 9 percent.

According to the type of commodities, there are nine main commodities that repre-sented 98 percent of the total volume of the private sector exports during September.

Private sector’s exports of Helium gas and industrial gas have seen a sharp increase of 434 percent from QR 33 mil-lion in August to QR 176 mil-lion in September, followed by Paraffin which increased by 96 percent from QR 40 million in August to QR 78 million in September and petrochemi-cals with exports amounted to QR 50 million in August compared to QR 77 million in September, an increase of 96 percent.

In September 2020, India was at the top of the countries of destination of the private sector’s exports with close to QR274 million, a share of 25.2 percent of the total exports. It was followed by Oman with almost QR193 million and a share of 17.7 percent, Sweden with about QR 120 million, a share of 11 percent.

Turkey came in fourth place with almost QR 116 mil-lion, a share of 10.6 percent and France with about QR 105, a share of 9.7 percent.

These seven countries re-ceived 74.1 percent of the total value of private-sector exports in September.

ThursDAy, DeCemBer 3, 2020

Biden vows no quick rollback of Trump’s China trade tariffs pAge 10

Qatar’s arbitration credentials boost confidence pg 11

Dow QE

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pRicE pERcEntagE48.22 +1.69 %

pRicE pERcEntagE45.25 +1.57 %

GolD

QNADoha

The Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has issued treasury bills for three, six and nine months for the month of December 2020 with a value of QR600 million.

According to a statement posted on QCB website, the treasury bills are distributed as follow: QR 300 million for three months at an interest rate of 0.07%, QR 200 million for six months at an interest rate of 0.09%, and QR 100 million for nine months at an interest rate of 0.11%.

The issuance of the treas-

ury bills comes as part of Qatar Central Bank’s monetary pol-icy initiatives and its efforts to strengthen the financial system in the State of Qatar as well as to activate the tools available for the open market opera-tions.

The issuance is part of a se-ries of issues executed by Qatar Central Bank on behalf of the Government of the State of Qa-tar and in accordance with the schedule prepared by both Qa-tar Central Bank and the Min-istry of Finance.

Treasury bills are issued through auction for banks op-erating in Qatar.

QCB issues T-Bills worth QR600 mn

AFPWashington

Joe Biden will keep Donald Trump’s trade-war tariffs on China for the time being when he moves into the oval office next month, the president-elect has told US media.

Rancor and recrimination have defined the relationship between the world’s two big-gest economies over the last four years, with Trump slap-ping import fees on billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese goods with tariffs.

Biden meanwhile has been a strident critic of China’s hu-man rights record and analysts have predicted his administra-tion will maintain a hawkish posture towards Beijing.

“I’m not going to make

any immediate moves, and the same applies to the tariffs,” Biden told the New York Times in an interview published Wednesday.

“I’m not going to prejudice my options.”

Since winning last month’s presidential election, Biden has hinted at a trade policy that would mend Washington’s al-liances with europe and the Asia-Pacific.

he has said the United States must join forces with other world democracies to present a united front in global trade policy as a counterweight to China. Biden has targeted Beijing on several fronts and singled out Chinese President Xi Jinping during a debate with other presidential candidates in February.

“This is a guy who doesn’t have a democratic - with a small d - bone in his body,” he said then. “This is a guy who is a thug.”

his campaign also referred to the crackdown on the Mus-lim Uighur minority in China’s Xinjiang province as a “geno-cide,” provocative language to Beijing with potential ramifica-tions under international law.

China edges past USChina pushed past the

United States in the third quar-ter to become the european Union’s top trade partner, as the CoVID-19 pandemic dis-rupted the US while Chinese activity rebounded.

over the first nine months of 2020, trade between the eU and China totalled 425.5 bil-lion euros ($514 billion), while trade between the eU and the United States came in at 412.5 billion euros, according to eu-rostat data.

For the same period in 2019, the eU’s trade with China came in at 413.4 billion euros and 461 billion euros with the US. eurostat said the result was due to a 4.5 percent increase in imports from China while exports remained un-

changed.“At the same time trade

with the United States record-ed a significant drop in both imports (-11.4 percent) and exports (-10.0 percent),” euro-stat said.

The eU has been China’s top trade partner since 2004 when it overtook Japan, but this is the first time the inverse has been true, France’s Insee statistics agency said Wednes-day. After a CoVID-19-related shock in the first quarter the Chinese economy has rebound-ed, with the economy growing year-on-year in the third quar-ter. Insee said Chinese imports from europe picked up in the third quarter, while purchases of personal protective equip-ment had boosted Chinese ex-ports.

Biden vows no quick rollback of Trump’s China trade tariffs

US President-elect Joe Biden departs after an event in Wilmington, Delaware. (ChanDan Khanna/aFP)

Analysts predict new president’s administration will maintain a hawkish posture towards Beijing

Australia exits first recession in almost 30 years

AFPsyDney

AUSTRAlIA has exited its first recession in almost 30 years, after official figures on Wednesday showed the economy grew 3.3 percent in July-September compared with the coronavirus-hit pre-vious quarter.

With local transmission of CoVID-19 largely under control, official data showed businesses have begun to re-bound and consumer spend-ing has surged.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said household spending largely drove the economic bounce, rising 7.9 percent compared with the previous quarter.

Treasurer Josh Fryden-berg said the figures “can give Australians cause for optimism and hope”, declar-ing that Australia “has per-formed better on the health and on the economic fronts than nearly any other coun-try in the world”.

however, central bank governor Philip lowe warned that positive eco-nomic indicators masked lingering difficulties.

“These figures... cannot hide the reality that the re-covery will be uneven and bumpy and that it will be drawn-out. Some parts of the economy are doing quite well, but others are in con-siderable difficulty,” he told lawmakers.

Australia’s central bank has predicted the economy will not return to pre-pan-demic levels until the end of 2021.

The economy has yet to fully recover from the coro-navirus-fuelled recession, re-cording a 3.8-percent slump for the year to September.

The return to economic growth followed a record seven-percent decline in the June quarter and a 0.3-per-cent dip in the first quarter of 2020.

A recession is generally defined as two successive

quarters of economic con-traction.

The return to growth comes despite Victoria state -- which accounts for about 25 percent of Australia’s economic output -- spend-ing much of the September quarter in one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, curtail-ing economic activity.

In a pattern repeated across the globe, econom-ic shutdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus sent Australia tumbling into

recession as whole industries ground to a halt.

Around a million peo-ple lost their jobs and many more were forced to take pay cuts or saw their hours slashed.

In response, the gov-ernment and the central bank have embarked on a vast stimulus spending pro-gramme, pumping billions into the economy to avert a full-blown depression.

last month, the Reserve Bank of Australia also cut in-terest rates to a record low of 0.10 percent as it attempted to help hasten the recovery.

“There is a lot of ground to make up and many Aus-tralian households and many Australian businesses are doing it tough -- very tough,” Frydenberg said.

Safe until 2021-end the return to economic growth followed a record seven-percent decline in the June quarter and a 0.3-percent dip in the first quarter of 2020. australia’s central bank has predicted the economy will not return to pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2021.

DPABerlin

eURoPeAN Central Bank (eCB) President Christine lagarde is expected to unveil new stimulus measures next week to help restore economic confidence in the coronavirus-hit eurozone and to fend off the threat of deflation posed by a strong euro.

The centrepiece of the measures is likely to include ramping up the eCB’s 1.35 tril-lion-euro (1.63-trillion-dollar) emergency bond-buying pro-gramme (PePP) by a further 500 billion euros and extend-ing the scheme by six months until at least the end of next year. The PePP was launched in March at the height of the pandemic’s first wave.

After lagarde in october

flagged plans to “recalibrate” the eCB’s response to the worsening pandemic, “the only question is not if but what the eCB will announce” said Carsten Brzeski, ING Bank global head of macroeconom-ics.

The new stimulus meas-ures are also forecast to in-clude further improvements in borrowing conditions for eu-rozone banks under the eCB’s targeted longer-term refinanc-ing operations (TlTRos).

The TlTRos have emerged as crucial policy tools in the bank’s battle to defend the eurozone economy against the virus’ impact across the re-gion, as governments ponder extending lockdown measures into the new year.

About 12 months into her tenure as eCB chief, la-

garde’s term has been largely dominated by the coronavirus, which emerged early this year in europe.

The eCB faces additional pressure to act due to the solid gains in the euro, which has helped fuel worries the euro-zone could face deflation, as the economic slowdown trig-gered by the pandemic un-dercuts inflation, the bank’s prime policy measure.

The euro climbed to a two-and-half year high this week of

1.2084 dollars on the back of optimism about the launch of

a coronavirus vaccine.Up until now, lagarde has

rejected talk of deflation, but she has warned that inflation in the region is likely to remain negative into next year.

The eurozone’s annual in-flation rate remained stuck at a negative reading for the fourth consecutive month in November at minus 3 per cent, the european Union’s statistics office eurostat said on Tuesday.

Consumer prices have now undershot the eCB’s annual inflation target of just below 2 per cent for the last seven years.

Next week’s eCB an-nouncement on fresh emer-gency measures will also co-incide with the bank releasing its new economic and inflation forecasts.

The so-called staff projec-tions indicate how the bank sees economic life in the eu-rozone changing with the ex-pected roll-out of a vaccine next year.

But it remains an open question whether the Frank-furt-based eCB will move to trim interest rates, and in par-ticular whether it might lower the deposit rate further below zero in a bid to boost bank lending.

Currently standing at mi-nus 0.5 per cent, it sets the rate at which financial institutes can park funds at the eCB.

The eCB’s governing coun-cil is expected to leave the bank’s benchmark refinancing rate on hold at a historic low of zero and its marginal lending rate - the eCB’s overnight rate - at plus 0.25 per cent.

ECB set to outline details of fresh stimulus as pandemic worsens

ECB President Christine Lagarde (down L), European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (top C), European Council President Charles Michel (down C) and Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe (down R) attend a virtual meeting by video, in Brussels. (aFP)

DPABerlin

TUI Group, one of the world’s biggest travel companies, says it has secured another 1.8 bil-lion euros (2.2 billion dollars) in financial aid in an agree-ment with private investors, banks and the German gov-ernment.

The hanover-based op-erator has been hit hard by restrictions to travel and tour-ism during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The financing package strengthens TUI’s position and provides it with sufficient liquidity reserves in this vola-tile market environment,” Tui said.

It is also expected to tide the company over amid per-sistent travel restrictions until the beginning of its key sum-mer holiday season in 2021.

“The measures decided to day are important, because the company was profitable before the coronavirus crisis and as a travel company has been deal-ing with difficulties never seen before,” said a spokesperson for the economy Ministry.

“With the measures we are supporting the biggest travel operator in Germany to over-come these difficult times,” the spokesperson said.

The package includes a capital increase with subscrip-tion rights of approximately 500 million euros, which is to

be carried by private investors.The package also includes

a silent participation convert-

ible into Tui shares from the German economy Ministry amounting to some 420 mil-lion euros, and a non-convert-ible silent participation of 280 million euros.

A credit line from the KfW development bank of 200 mil-lion euros is also part of the package.

The agreement supple-ments existing aid packages implemented during the first wave of the coronavirus pan-demic in spring as well as in September.

other travel companies, such as lufthansa and FTI Group, have also received sub-sidies from the economy Min-istry’s stabilization fund due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Tui to get €1.8 bn euros in aid from Germany

The Hanover-based Tui Group has been hit hard by restrictions to travel and tourism during the coronavirus pandemic.

I’m not going to make any immediate moves, and the same applies to the tariffs. I’m not going to prejudice my options.US President-elect Joe Biden

ECB chief Christine Lagarde is set to unveil next week a new round of monetary stimulus measures aimed at shoring up economic confidence in the eurozone amid a renewed coronavirus outbreak.

Real estate deals cross QR297 mn

QNADoha

ReAl estate deals worth QR297.75 million took place in Qatar between November 22 and November 26, according to the sales contracts registered with the Real estate Registra-tion Department of the Ministry of Justice. The deals included plots of land, houses, multi-use and residential buildings and the majority of the trading took place in Al Dhayain , Doha, Al Rayyan, Al Wakra, Umm Salal, Al Khor, Al Dhakhira and Al Shamal municipalities.

Economy & Business10 Thursday, December 3, 2020

‘Digitalization is the future of rapidly changing industries’Tribune news neTwork

Doha

With the support of the Qatar Development Fund (QFFD), international non-govern-mental organisation SPARK recently organised a webinar on jobs going digital during COViD-19.

the digitalization oppor-tunities that will pave the way for immigrant SMEs, entre-preneurs and students; future trends and importance of digi-talization for different indus-tries were discussed in detail in the meeting.

SPARK’s CEO Yannick Du Pont said, “Although the worldwide pandemic affects our lives deeply, we are going through a period of learning more about technology in our daily and business lives. We do our jobs by using opportuni-ties offered by technology too, and digitalization is the future of all sectors. As SPARK, we will continue to support entre-preneurs, students and SMEs to keep up with the transfor-mation in the digitalizing to keep their strengths during this challenging period.”

the conference featured several sessions. Speakers at-tending the panel “Scale-up: Accelerating Digital Jobs” shared companies’ transition to the digital world during the pandemic period, their sup-port and effort in this field.

in the panel of “Match-up: Jobs and Markets”, speakers emphasized that COViD-19 crisis disproportionately af-fects those from more vulner-able backgrounds, such as im-migrant youth. they said the period, therefore, offers new opportunities such as online education and training.

in the panel “Start-up: En-trepreneurship in times of cri-sis”, speakers pointed out that start-ups are essential triggers for innovation and economic growth in times of crises. Cri-ses also reduce the creation, challenge the survival and lim-it the growth of start-ups.

in the “Skill-up: Distant and online learning and edu-cation” panel, the necessity of bridging the existing gap be-tween existing curricula pro-vided by educational institu-tions and the skills needed by employers has been discussed.

AFPLonDon

StOCK markets marked time on Wednesday as a rally fuelled by vaccine hopes petered out despite confirmation that the UK will next week begin rolling out the Pfizer-BioNtech drug against Covid-19.

As is often the case, stock markets rally on hopes of good news and then fall back when the an-ticipation becomes reality.

“the lack of market re-action suggests that this decision was probably widely expected at some point,” noted Michael hew-son, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

On Wednesday, Britain became the first western country to approve a Cov-id-19 vaccine for general use, a major advance in the fightback against the coro-navirus.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the “fantastic” news, while urg-ing the public to remain cautious on the day that England exited a four-week lockdown and re-imposed regional curbs.

London’s FtSE 100 was the only index to post a major gain, although that may have been mostly due at drop in the value of the pound, which tends to boost the value of multina-tionals with most of their earnings in dollars.

the pound slid against the dollar and euro, as EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told diplomats he could not guarantee a trade deal being agreed with Brit-ain ahead of a December 31 deadline.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was posting a slight

gain in late morning trad-ing but the Dow and Nas-daq Composite dipped.

the S&P 500 and Nas-daq Composite had already closed at new record highs on tuesday.

the announcement late tuesday by Salesforce of a $27.7 billion deal to buy online collaboration firm Slack failed to drive the market higher, with shares in both firms also falling.

Lacklustre US jobs data also dampened sentiment.

Payroll services firm ADP said private jobs rose 307,000 last month, seasonally adjusted, with firms of all sizes showing increases, though that gain lagged the expected level and was slower than Octo-ber’s upwardly revised gain of 404,000.

And there was still un-certainty about whether a new stimulus package would be agreed before the end of year when mil-lions of Americans set lose crucial financial support despite a bipartisan group of US lawmakers having of-fered a $908-billion com-promise.

“it is hard to get excited stocks given the elevated levels and uncertainty over how much stimulus Con-gress will be able to deliver before the end of the year,” said Edward Moya at cur-rency trading platform Oanda.

Elsewhere in trading, oil prices rose on reports that OPEC and other major pro-ducers have made progress towards reaching an agree-ment on extending output cuts that have provided support to the commodity through the pandemic.

they were set to meet again on thursday.

Stocks pause after vaccine-fuelled rally


AS part of its continuous sup-port for local and start-up companies, and its efforts to enable innovation, Ooredoo is working closely with Snoonu to deliver customers’ orders of devices using innovative and smart technology.

Ooredoo had successfully delivered thousands of iPhone

12 devices to customers in just a few hours, thanks to the partnership with Qatari start-up Snoonu and its use of last-mile technology.

the last-mile technology features the capability to au-tomatically allocate drivers to delivery jobs in less than 0.01 second, infinitely quicker than a human could complete the same task and reducing con-siderably the time taken for

each delivery.hamad Mubarak Al-hajri,

Chief Executive Officer at Snoonu, said: “i would like to thank Ooredoo for their support. it is our pleasure to partner with a world-leading telecommunications op-erator. Ooredoo has found a strong partner when it comes to delivering its products to its customers’ doorstep in no time; via Snoonu and the fast last-mile operations — the first such delivery technology in Qatar — Ooredoo has suc-cessfully been delivering SiM cards, newly launched mobile phones, and Apple products.”

Sabah Rabiah Al Kuwari, Director PR at Ooredoo, said, “We’re committed to support-

ing innovative start-ups as part of our corporate strategy and dedication to Qatar National Vision 2030, and equally com-mitted to complete customer satisfaction. Working with our partner Snoonu, we were able to demonstrate and fulfil both these commitments; we relied upon Snoonu and its use of smart technology to undertake the not-to-be-underestimated task of delivering these cov-eted devices to customers ea-ger to receive them as quickly as possible, and thanks to Snoonu we were able to ensure our customers received their new iPhones on time.”

Ooredoo joins hands with Snoonu to offer smart, innovative solutionsAdvanced smart technology enables quick delivery of thousands of iPhones


QAtAR has attached great im-portance to alternative means of resolving commercial dis-putes and has signed a number of international agreements to promote arbitration, Sheikh Dr thani bin Ali Al thani, the Qatar international Centre for Conciliation and Arbitration (QiCCA) board member for international relations, has said.

Sheikh thani was address-ing trainee lawyers of the 10th mandatory training course

at the Ministry of Justice’s Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.

the virtual meeting was meant to apprise the partici-pants on QiCCA’s role in pro-moting the culture of arbitra-tion and the latest practices and trends in the field of al-ternative dispute resolution methods.

Qatar Chamber is a mem-ber of the Commercial Arbi-tration Centre for the States of the Co-operation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC Arbitration Centre).

highlighting the growth

of arbitration in Qatar, Sheikh thani said Qatar was at the forefront of the Arab countries that were chosen as a seat of arbitration in cases deliberat-ed before the arbitration bod-ies formed under the supervi-sion of the Arbitration Court of the international Chamber of Commerce in Paris.

Qatar hosted 12 arbitration cases in 2019, he noted.

Qatari law has been ranked sixth in the world among “the most applicable laws” before the iCC international Court of Arbitration out of 124 laws, he said, stressing that this confirmed the confidence of foreign investors in the appli-cation of the Qatari law, es-pecially the recent economic laws aiming to resolve dis-

putes among different parties.Underscoring the role

of QiCCA, Sheikh thani af-firmed that it played a key role in disseminating the ar-bitration culture and raising awareness of the business community on conciliation and arbitration, as well as or-ganising trainings, seminars, and workshops.

Due the precautionary measures to curb the spread of COViD-19, QiCCA has re-sorted to cutting-edge tech-nologies to deal with cases, form tribunal, hold sessions and issue arbitration awards, he said.

Lawyer Yousef Al Zaman, who is also a member of QiC-CA’s Conciliation and Arbitra-tion Committee, explored the

types of arbitration in Qatar.he addressed the most

important advantages offered by commercial arbitration in terms of speed, confidentiality and specialisation.

Lawyer Ali Al Khanji, member of QiCCA’s Concilia-tion and Arbitration Commit-tee, reviewed powers of the ar-bitrator in arbitration dispute.

Lawyer Sultan Al Abdulla said because arbitration is flexible, it managed to over-come the challenges of the lockdown imposed by most countries due to the pandemic.

Dr Minas Khatchadou-rian, legal adviser for QiCCA, presented a brief about the most important recent trends in the field of commercial ar-bitration.

Qatar’s credentials in arbitration boost investors’ confidence: Thani

The participants of the online meetingSheikh Dr Thani bin Ali Al Thani, the Qatar International Centre for Conciliation and Arbitration (QICCA) board member for international relations addresses trainee lawyers at an online meeting.

Sheikh Dr Thani says Qatar hosted 12 arbitration cases in 2019

Sabah Rabiah Al Kuwari, Director PR at Ooredoo

The team behind Qatari start-up Snoonu is pictured in this photo.

QDB’s virtual Investment Forum draws huge participationTribune news neTwork

Doha

QAtAR Development Bank (QDB)’s third annual invest-ment Forum, which concluded on tuesday, witnessed “great success” and “active participa-tion” from entrepreneurs and investors, according to the or-ganisers.

held under the theme “Business transformation and Growth”, this year’s fo-rum, which was held virtually for the first time, was organ-ised with the strategic spon-sorship of the investment Promotion Agency Qatar (in-vest Qatar) and the platinum sponsorship of the Ministry of transport and Communica-tions.

More than 1,000 attend-ees followed the forum’s live broadcast, and they includ-ed angel investors, invest-ment banks, venture capital companies, and business accelerators, in addition to individuals and enterprises interested in exploring busi-ness ventures across sectors and growth stages.

through an integrated digital platform launched dur-ing the Forum, and the first of its kind in Qatar, participants

were able to learn about nine startup ventures – in addition to several other companies featured on the online plat-form – and connect with their founders to explore prospects of collaboration& investment.

Commenting on the suc-cess of the first virtual edition of the Forum, QDB’s CEO Ab-dulaziz bin Nasser Al-Khalifa said: “We are delighted with the success of this year’s edi-tion of the investment Forum and the positive engagement it has generated. this event is a great opportunity through

which we connect Qatari en-trepreneurs and SMEs with angel investors and invest-ment funds, and is an integral part of our strategy to facili-tate access to capital for en-trepreneurs.”

he added: “together with our partners, we seek to ex-plore the international invest-ment landscape on a macro level, and the Qatari one in particular, as well as intro-duce local investors and in-ternational partner funds to promising and innovative Qa-tari enterprises, with the aim

of bolstering theSME invest-ment mindset in the country.”

this year, the forum in-cluded an in-depth panel dis-cussion titled ‘transforma-tion & Growth – Conquering Challenges to Scale & thrive’, in addition to a special work-shop on the Global Fintech investment Landscape. A select group of startups and fast-growing ventures also presented their innovative ideas to investors with the objective of raising capital for their entrepreneurial ven-tures.

through its investment Department, QDB is con-stantly seeking to support in-novative startups and SMEs while consolidating Qatar’s position as a unique invest-ment hub. QDB supports the entrepreneurship ecosystem across sectors and contrib-utes to the growth and di-versification of the national economy, in addition to iden-tifying prominent global in-vestment trends and the most promising opportunities across service and industrial sectors.

Economy & Business 11Thursday, December 3, 2020

AFCDoha

FC Tokyo head coach Kenta Hasegawa called for focus as his side face Perth Glory and direct rivals Shanghai Shenhua simultaneously play runaway Group F leaders Ulsan Hyun-dai in the 2020 AFC Champi-ons League on Thursday.

The two sides faced each other back in February, with FC Tokyo taking the three points through Leandro’s late goal in the Japanese capital.

Now with Shanghai Shen-hua hot on their trail, coach Hagesawa’s men need to bet-ter the Chinese side’s Match-day Six result to secure pas-sage to the next round.

FC Tokyo and Shanghai Shenhua exchanged one-goal margin wins in their double-header earlier in Doha, ruling out head-to-head as a tie-breaker.

“The situation is we can decide our qualification des-tiny on our own, so we must win this game tomorrow,” said Hasegawa.

“It is a simultaneous kick-off for both games. We must win comfortably to avoid having to look at the other game. This is the fourth game in our group stage, so we have to cooperate and play together as a team.

“Winning the game will give us real confidence. If we talk about small details of our play, if you lose concentration in small situations like set-pieces, that has an impact on our overall play, so we need to stay focused.”

Meanwhile, Perth Glory head coach Christian Ola has turned his attention to the up-coming A-League season with

his club eyeing a return to the AFC Champions League in 2022.

“This is the end of the tournament for us, everyone is buzzing and motivated despite injuries and suspensions in

our ranks,” said Ola.“We started in a less than

an ideal situation, but we are improving in all aspects and we are happy with the pro-gress and we hope we can fin-ish our campaign on a high.”


DOHA 2030 on Wednesday hosted regional virtual work-shops for National Olympic Committees (NOCs) in which they sought to demonstrate how Doha 2030 will belong to all of Asia in a celebration of excellence and diversity.

The workshops have been developed to maximise the op-portunity for two-way discus-sions with NOCs who are en-couraged to provide feedback and input. Taking into account time difference and language, NOCs were grouped into three workshops according to the fol-lowing OCA zones: East Asia and South East Asia; South and Central Asia; and West Asia.

The workshops were facili-tated by Doha 2030 Chairman His Excellency Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani.

During the workshop, the team provided a summary

of Doha 2030’s sustainable, world-class Games plan, which guarantees NOCs and their athletes certainty of the very best conditions and a welcom-ing, inclusive environment.

The bid also promises to use the legacy of the Doha 2006 Asian Games to give back to Asia with a number of immedi-ate legacy projects, which only Doha can legitimately provide.

The Doha 2030 team explained during the work-shops how these legacy pro-

grammes will begin from the first quarter of 2021 and run through to 2030, allowing NOCs to overcome existing challenges and build their best teams for the Games.

Doha 2030 Chairman HE Sheikh Joaan, said, “We are delighted to have the op-portunity to meet with our Asian NOC colleagues and friends and have a two-way conversation about our bid. At Doha 2030 we are com-mitted to incorporating the

feedback of the NOC family into our plans, every step of the way. These workshops are just the latest example of that and are a chance to hear NOC feedback before our fi-nal presentation in Oman. If we have the honour of being awarded the Asian Games this process of collabora-tion will of course continue through and beyond 2030.

“As we have always made

clear, our ambition is for Doha 2030 to unite Asian NOCs and celebrate our continent’s wonderful diversity. We are stronger when we are together and when we support and re-spect each other. In Doha, we have a lot of experience we are ready to share but we also value and recognise all that we can learn from our brothers and sisters in the OCA fam-ily. We will take all that on

board so that we deliver a truly Asian, Asian Games, where

every NOC benefits and where we all belong.”

Doha 2030 shares its bid plans with National Olympic Committees during virtual workshops

THURSDay, DECEMBER 3, 2020

Schumacher’s son Mick gets ‘dream’ first F1 spot with HaaspagE 13

We are delighted to have the opportunity to meet with our Asian NOC colleagues and friends and have a two-way conversation about our bid. At Doha 2030 we are committed to incorporating the feedback of the NOC family into our plans, every step of the way. These workshops are just the latest example of that and are a chance to hear NOC feedback before our final presentation in Oman. If we have the honour of being awarded the Asian Games this process of collaboration will of course continue through and beyond 2030.

Doha 2030 Chairman HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani

Speakers on Day Two of Securing Sport 2020 virtual conference.

Combating organised crime, role of sponsors in safeguarding sport hot topicsTribune news neTwork

Doha

TAKING a multifaceted ap-proach towards analysing the issues in sport security, leading international specialists gath-ered during Securing Sport 2020 Expert Debates part of the programme to examine and discuss some of the key industry aspects, such as The Use of Big Data in Combat-ting the Infiltration of Trans-national Organised Crime in Sport, The Role of Sponsors in Safeguarding Sport and Devel-oping an International Frame-work on Private Security at Major Sporting Events.

The objectives of the pan-els were to present an open de-bate on the current challenges, such as on the use and analy-sis of Big Data in combatting crimes in sport, the role of sports sponsors in the organi-sation, sustainability and lega-cy of sport events of national, regional and international in-terest and exploring the devel-opment of frameworks from which bidding and host na-tions, events’ organisers and the private security industry can develop their private secu-rity strategies for MSE’s

Speaking of Big Data, Juli-ette Kayyem, Belfer Senior Lec-turer International Security at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Faculty Chair of the Homeland Security and Security and Global Health Projects, said, “When you think of sharing big data one of the things that big data is really helpful is the tactical deploy-

ment of resources.”Speaking of the big data

and its importance in fighting crime in sport, Giovanni Russo, Deputy Head Prosecutor of the Italian Antimafia and Anti-terrorism National Directorate said, “Sport is not just a social phenomenon. It’s now a sector of the economy that has seen its importance growing exponen-tially in the last few decades. Due to this fact, a large number of people with economic inter-ests started to get involved in sport which led to the observa-tion that sport represents a cor-ruption risk and vulnerability to be controlled by crime.

This indicates the need for an overall and not frag-mented view of the phenom-ena of crime in sport and the need for a holistic approach that allows to correctly detect and interpret information. We are talking about big data and algorithms that are capable of collecting and processing many variables in a short time and present visual results with meaningful logics and forecast patterns to help fight organised crime.”

Phil Walker, Lead, Major Events Program, OSAC, Dip-lomatic Security Service, U.S. Department of State, said, “The private sector is a force of multi-plier in major events. They are a benefit at the operational level.”

Filip Maes, Senior Direc-tor, Global Security & Safety, Visa, Inc said, “The business sector can only be successful if the event is successful. In-formation sharing is the key to success.”

SECURiNg SpORT 2020 ExpERT DEBaTES Melbourne’s Kean excited ahead

of decisive clash with FC SeoulAFCDoha

AHEAD of their Group E de-cider against FC Seoul, Mel-bourne Victory assistant coach Steve Kean expressed his ex-citement in the build up to Matchday Six of the 2020 AFC Champions League.

Sitting in third place on four points, just two points behind their Thursday oppo-nents, a win for Melbourne Victory could see them reach the Round of 16 for the first time since 2016. The first match between the two sides ended in a 1-0 win for FC Seoul courtesy of Park Chu-young’s early effort.

“It has been a very quick turnaround from the last match, so we focused on video analysis and recovery,” said Kean.

“Today we will get to see the stadium and have a tactical session on the pitch. We are in pre-season, this is a time when we are preparing the team and the players. We will choose the players who are physically

prepared for the game.”“We have a strong team to

start tomorrow, it is very excit-ing for us to have such a big

game early in our season with the opportunity to progress to

the next stage of such a high calibre competition.

“We do not expect to ro-tate heavily given the nature of the game, but we do have other players if we need to use them,” said Kean.

For FC Seoul, a draw would be enough to seal a knock-out stage place for the first time since 2016, but for head coach Lee Won-jun, it is all about collecting the three points.

“Tomorrow’s game is our last in the group stage and we have to win it as it is very im-portant,” said Lee.

“It is true that we are bet-ter positioned than Melbourne Victory ahead of tomorrow’s match, but we are only think-ing about winning the game, not drawing.”

“We are preparing on that basis. The players’ condition is very good, and we want to win this game. Our objective is to go beyond the Round of 16, we came to Qatar with the ambition of bringing success to this club. “

The second Group E fix-ture sees guaranteed group winners Beijing FC face elimi-nated Chiangrai United.

Club P W D L GF GA GD PtsUlsan Hyundai FC (KOR) 5 4 1 0 10 4 6 13FC tokyo (JPN) 5 2 1 2 5 5 0 7shanghai shenhua FC (CHN) 5 2 1 2 8 9 -1 7Perth Glory (AUs) 5 0 1 4 5 10 -5 1

Standings Group F

Club P W D L GF GA GD PtsBeijing FC (CHN) 5 5 0 0 11 3 8 15FC seoul (KOR) 5 2 0 3 9 7 2 6Melbourne Victory (AUs) 5 1 1 3 4 8 -4 4Chiangrai United (tHA) 5 1 1 3 4 10 -6 4

Group E

aFC CHaMpiONS LEagUE

Australia’s Melbourne Victory will take on South Korea’s FC Seoul (KOR) in Group G clash of the AFC Champions League at the Education City Stadium at 4pm on Thursday.

Focus key for Tokyo against Perth Glory

Japan’s FC Tokyo will play Australia’s Perth Glory in Group F tie of the AFC Champions League Melbourne at 1pm at the Education City Stadium on Thursday.

Today’s MatchesJassim Bin Hamad Stadium 1pm: Shanghai Shenhua vs Ulsan Hyundai4pm: Beijing vs Chiangrai Utd

At Education City Stadium1pm: Perth Glory vs FC Tokyo4pm: Melbourne Victory vs FC Seoul

AFPMonchengladbach (gerMany)

Romelu lukaku kept Inter milan’s Champions league hopes alive on Tuesday, scoring two second-half goals to seal a dramatic 3-2 win at Borussia moenchengladbach in their pe-nultimate group game.

lukaku’s double gave Inter their first victory in the Cham-pions league this season in a rollercoaster game, blow-ing Group B wide open ahead of the final round of group matches next week.

“A leader? I’m just one of the 25 players in the squad,” said the Belgium striker. “There are a lot of players who have more experience than me. I just want to help the team win, that’s my only moti-vation on a daily basis.

“I have been playing the best football of my career for a year and a half.”

It was another match-win-ning performance from lu-kaku, who now has 13 goals in 15 european games for Inter, and one which left Gladbach midfielder Christoph Kramer scratching his head.

“If you mark him the whole time, then they play around him, so it’s a balancing act. But that’s Inter for you. They have so many different fac-ets to their game, and they showed that today,” Kramer told broadcaster DAZN.

Gladbach still sit on top

of the group after Shakhtar Donetsk beat Real madrid 2-0 earlier on Tuesday, but they are now just three points ahead of bottom side Inter.

With just a single point separating the top three sides, all four teams still have a chance to qualify next week.

“We could have avoided unnecessary suffering (in the group), but we are alive and that is the most important

thing,” said Inter coach Antonio Conte, who is bidding to avoid his fourth Champions league group-stage exit as a coach.

Darmian strikes In need of a win at all costs,

Inter set up to hit Gladbach on the break, with matteo Dar-mian causing early trouble for the German defence on the right wing.

It was Darmian who gave Inter the lead on 17 minutes,

nutmegging goalkeeper Yann Sommer from a sharp angle after a neat passing move be-tween lukaku and Roberto Gagliardini.

Alassane Plea equalised for Gladbach on the stroke of half-time, heading in a pin-point cross from Inter loanee Valentino lazaro.

With Inter unsettled by the equaliser, marcus Thuram al-most headed the hosts in front shortly after the break. Yet the

Italians hit back, with lautaro martinez hitting the post be-fore lukaku restored the lead.

Having been stifled by the Gladbach defence for much of the game lukaku finally found space to shoot on 65 minutes, and sent a low strike whistling past Sommer.

The Belgian doubled the lead seven minutes later, slot-ting home Achraf Hakimi’s cross at the end of a clinically executed counter-attack.

Gladbach hit back equally clinically, Plea squeezing the ball past Samir Handanovic on the break just two minutes after the restart.

The Frenchman found the net again seven minutes from time, but the goal was disal-lowed for offside after Breel embolo was ruled to have blocked the goalkeeper’s view.

“There were a few deci-sions which went against us at the end. I don’t think Breel was in the way. I wished the officials a merry Christmas af-ter the game,” Gladbach coach marco Rose told DAZN.

With the group now poised on a knife edge, Inter hope to complete an unlikely es-cape attempt when they host Shakhtar in their final group game next Wednesday.

Gladbach, meanwhile, travel to madrid with hopes of qualifying from the group stage for the first time in the Champions league era.

Lukaku double keeps Inter alive in UEFA Champions League

AFPMelbourne

THe Australian open tennis Grand Slam will start three weeks late on February 8, reports said on Wednesday, with players cleared to train during quarantine follow-ing lengthy negotiations with state authorities.

According to Australian media, the start date was an-nounced to players by tour-nament director Craig Tiley. If confirmed, it will join the three other major tourna-ments in being disrupted by the coronavirus.

Tennis Australia has been in protracted talks with Vic-toria state authorities in mel-bourne, which only emerged from a months-long lockdown in october following a second wave of cases.

“It’s taken a while, but the great news is it looks like we are going to be able to hold the Ao (Australian open) on 8 Febru-ary,” Tiley was quoted as telling players in a leaked letter.

“Players will have to quar-antine for two weeks from 15 January, but the Victorian government has agreed to special conditions for Ao par-ticipants - agreeing that they need to be able to prepare for a Grand Slam.”

under the plan, players who test negative for the virus will be able to train while in isolation, Tiley wrote.

Tennis Australia did not confirm the reports on Wednesday, and said plans were still awaiting approval from the state government.

A February 8 start date would allow for a week of warm-up tournaments after quarantine, but would likely mean scrapping the flagship ATP Cup men’s team event due to a lack of time.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews earlier said he re-mained committed to holding the Australian open, but that

safety was paramount.“unlike every other ten-

nis tournament that the men’s and women’s tours will play this year, only the Australian open is a tennis tournament in a city where it can likely be assumed that those players will bring the virus here,” he told reporters.

Australian Open delayed to

Feb 8: report

Qatar team prepares FOr WOrld Cup 2022 & asia Cup 2023 QualiFier vs Bangladesh

sports 13Thursday, December 3, 2020

Qatar national football team players during a training session on Wednesday ahead of their FIFA World Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 qualifying clash against Bangladesh on December 4 at the Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium. The Round 8 match will be the first of the Asian qualifiers to be held during the year 2020 after the approval by FIFA and the National Federations. Although Qatar national team has booked a direct qualification ticket to the 2022 FIFA World Cup as the host country, the team is competing to obtain qualification for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup as it aspires to defend the title that it won in 2019. Qatar is top of Group E (13 points from five matches) while last-placed Bangladesh has one point from four games.

Inter Milan’s Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku (right) celebrates with defender Matteo Darmian after scor-ing the opening goal during the UEFA Champions League match against Borussia Moenchengladbach in Germany on Tuesday. (aFP)

AFPSakhir

mICK Schumacher, the son of seven-time world champion michael Schumacher, says his childhood dream has come true following Wednesday’s announcement he will drive in Formula one for the first time with Haas next season.

“It’s incredible and it defi-nitely hasn’t sunk in yet,” the 21-year-old said in a press conference.

“I’m happy it’s been decided - I have been chasing this dream since I was three years old.”

Schumacher junior will partner Russian driver Nikita mazepin, another Formula one debutant, in the Haas lineup.

Haas team principal Guen-ther Steiner welcomed his new drivers, tweeting: “Super ex-cited about having two rookies in our team for next year! Wel-come, mick!”

They replace Haas’s cur-rent driver pairing of Romain Grosjean – who escaped a fiery crash in Sunday’s Bah-rain Grand Prix – and Kevin magnussen.

Haas will be counting on their 2021 pairing to prove their mettle on the track after Grosjean and magnussen’s frugal haul of just three points between them this campaign with two races to go.

Schumacher has shone in Formula Two this season and leads the standings by 14 points after achieving 10 po-dium finishes and feature-race victories at monza and Sochi.

He will get a taste of what is in at the elite level when he takes part in Haas’ free prac-tice ahead of the 2020 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 11 before taking part in testing a few days later.

Confirming the news 24 hours after mazepin’s appoint-ment, Haas announced that they had signed Schumacher “in a multi-year agreement”.

“This is definitely a new challenge,” Schumacher added. “I look forward to finding out what it’s like - how to improve and develop a car from the be-ginning to the end of the year.”

The German said he was prepared for the huge media attention as he prepares to fol-low in his illustrious father’s footsteps.

“I’ve been in the limelight since my childhood, especially because I chose this sport, but so far I have come to terms with it.

“The results speak for themselves,” he added.

“This attention has always been normal for me. The im-portant thing is to have people who tell you the truth, who keep you grounded and help you along the way.

“And I’m lucky to have people like that around me.”

Steiner said the Formula 2 championship had long served as a proving ground for talent

to showcase their credentials.He added: “mick has won

races, collected podiums and excelled against some pretty exceptional talent in 2020.

“I firmly believe he’s earned the opportunity to graduate into Formula 1 based on his performances.

“We are putting in place our building blocks for the continued long-term growth of the team and I look forward to mick’s contributions both on and off the track in that process.”

The Schumacher family fiercely protect the privacy of both mick and his stricken fa-ther. michael Schumacher has not been seen in public since suffering a serious head injury in a skiing accident in Decem-ber 2013.

His wife Corinna, mick’s mother, issued a rare state-ment on the Formula one leg-end’s 50th birthday in January 2019, saying the family were doing “everything humanly possible” to help her husband.

Schumacher paid tribute to his parents, saying: “I owe them everything.”

Schumacher’s son Mick gets ‘dream’ first F1 spot with Haas

Mick Schumacher. (aFP)

WTA rebrandaligns women’stournamentswith ATP PAris: The WTa on Wednes-day announced that it was changing the classification of its tournaments to put its tour in line with that of the men’s aTP tennis tour.The tour’s highest Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 tournament categories will from 2021 be renamed WTa 1000, mirroring the aTP 1000 tournaments which are one step down from the grand Slams.The Premier tournaments will become WTa 500, the in-ternationals will be renamed WTa 250 and the 125ks will take the name WTa 125.“The WTa worked with the aTP to create consistency and alignment across profes-sional tennis,” the WTa said in a statement.in april roger Federer said that he wanted the aTP and WTa tours to merge, with seven bodies managing the professional tennis competi-tions that the likes of the Swiss and Serena Williams compete in.in addition to the aTP and WTa, there is also the inter-national Tennis Federation, which is the sport’s govern-ing body, and separate or-ganisers for each of the four grand Slams -- the uS and australian opens, roland garros and Wimbledon. (AFP)

Kiev: Zinedine Zidane rub-bished suggestions he could walk away from real Madrid and said the Spanish giants did not deserve to lose after going down 2-0 to Shakhtar donetsk on Tuesday, their second defeat by the ukrainians in this sea-son’s champions league leav-ing their hopes of reaching the last 16 in the balance.“i am not going to resign, not at all,” said Zidane. “We are always going to have difficult moments, and we are on a bad run, but we need to keep going.”“i have the strength needed to turn the situation around and i am going to give everything to do that, so are the players,” added the Frenchman, whose team also lost at the weekend, going down 2-1 at home to ala-ves in la liga. “We played well and we deserved more. We just need to lift our heads up and think about the next game.”Struggles without ramos real were returning to the scene of their victory over liverpool in the 2018 final, but they looked a shadow of their former selves in the cold and the snow in kiev’s olympic Stadium. (AFP)

Zidane determined to turn around real madrid slump

Quick read

aJs Wathanan wins late rabiah saad al Kaabi Cup

Al Ghazali Stud’s AJS Wathanan (QA) won the feature event (1900m Conditions for Local Purebred Arabians) to claim the Late Rabiah Saad Al Kaabi Cup in QREC’s 15th race meeting at Al Rayyan Park on Wednesday. Brothers of the Late Rabiah Saad Al Kaabi presented trophies to the winners of the Cup named after their late brother.

‘Chilled’ West Indies ready to put Test heat on New Zealand in Hamilton

AFPHamilton

The West Indies relished the freedom to be out-and-about in Covid-free New Zealand on the eve of the first Test in ham-ilton on Wednesday, but said the pressure was on to be fully focused once the match starts.

It has been months since either side played red-ball cricket, leaving the poten-tial for rust with New Zea-land’s last Test against India in February. The West Indies have played only three Tests, against england in July.

West Indies skipper Jason holder said his Test squad for Thursday’s opening match bore little resemblance to the Twenty20 side whipped 2-0 by New Zealand in the past week, and was much improved on the side crushed by 240 runs when they last played the longest format in hamilton three years ago.

“We’ve had some good suc-cess from then till now so I think the point for us is to just con-tinue to build as a side,” holder said as the West Indies trained Tuesday about 15 metres from a very green Test wicket.

“We’ve got our plans, and it’s just that we have to exe-cute. Where we’ve fallen down in the past is execution.”

The tourists have revelled in finally being able to escape the bubble life that has con-fined many of them for most of the past five months as they played in england and then Dubai, which hosted the IPL because of the pandemic.

“It’s like a kid running into a playground for the first time,” holder said as he de-scribed being able to get out in New Zealand and play cricket before large crowds.

“It’s refreshing. I got a chance to play some golf, I got a chance to sit in a restaurant which I haven’t done for four or five months, so I’m a bit chilled and relaxed.”

Unlucky Young to debut New Zealand have a

chance to play their way into the final of the World Test Championship if they sweep the two Tests against the West Indies and the following two

against Pakistan. But captain Kane William-

son he was not looking that far ahead as he wrestled with getting back into Test mode after a diet in recent months of Twenty20 cricket.

“You try and go back to past experiences and narrow things down with your game. Obviously, the red-ball game is quite different to the white-ball format and no doubt it has its challenges,” he said.

“It’s being able to remove that to a certain extent and fo-cus on what it is that gives you the best chance to play com-petitive, and your best, Test cricket rather than getting ahead of yourself and thinking about where you might end up on ladders.”

Neither side was prepared to name their starting 11 before seeing the state of the pitch on Thursday morning, but Wil-liamson confirmed wicketkeep-er BJ Watling would not play because of a hamstring strain.

he has been replaced by Will Young who will open the batting in his long-awaited Test debut with incumbent opener Tom Blundell moving down the order to take over the keeping duties.

The unlucky Young was named to make his debut against Bangladesh last year before the Test was called off following the Christchurch mosque attacks.

Three months later he missed out on the World Cup squad after suffering a shoulder injury during training camp.

Both teams confirmed on the eve of the Test they would continue to take the knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, as they did before the start of the Twen-ty20 matches in the past week.

West Indies players during their final training session at Seddon Park in Hamilton ahead of their first Test against New Zealand from Thursday. (Pic: Windies Cricket)

English cricket teas back on the menu after re-vote

AFPlondon

CrICKeT teas are back on the menu for village clubs after a vote to scrap the mid-innings feast was overturned by players hungry to hang onto the quin-tessentially english tradition.

The Sussex Cricket League voted late last week to discard the compulsory provision of meals, meaning sandwiches, sausage rolls and cakes were off the menu.

The decision of the league, which describes itself as the big-gest in the world with 140 clubs and 335 teams, created a stir.

Some clubs said they were still prepared to provide teas and former england Test cap-tain Michael Vaughan labelled it

a “disgraceful decision”.The league, based in the

south of england, decided that a re-run was the fairest option given the closeness of the first result. And in a statement on the league’s website on Wednesday, chairman Gary Stanley gave tra-ditionalists the news they had been waiting for.

“I can now confirm to you that, following the re-vote, the proposal to remove the obliga-tion of the home club to provide teas in the 2021 season has been defeated,” he said.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the rules around teas are there-fore unchanged from current rules. This is of course subject to any restrictions that may be imposed due to Covid, which we hope will not be the case.”

AFPCanberra

INDIA survived a blistering Glenn Maxwell half-century to hold their nerve for a 13-run victory and deny Australia a one-day international series clean sweep in Canberra on Wednesday.

While the explosive Max-well was at the crease Aus-tralia were on track to reel in India’s 302-5 total.

But Jasprit Bumrah got the crucial breakthrough bowling Maxwell with a trademark yor-ker for 59 off 38 balls studded with three fours and four sixes.

That left Australia 38 runs away from victory with three wickets and 35 balls left, but India claimed the remaining wickets to clinch victory with three balls left.

Australia won the opening two matches in Sydney by 66 runs and 51 runs, but India emphatically ended their five-game ODI losing streak – their worst since January 2016 – to pull off an exciting victory ahead of Friday’s first of three Twenty20 matches against the Australians in Canberra.

India’s victory was made possible by an unbroken 150-run partnership between man-of-the-match hardik Pandya and ravindra Jadeja to swing the momentum after Josh ha-zlewood once again proved Vi-rat Kohli’s nemesis.

“I have been working hard to play for my country, happy that I’ve got the opportunity,” Pandya said. “You need to be on your toes when it comes to playing against Australia. You got to push hard and face the challenge against them.”

hazlewood again got the measure of the India master batsman, dismissing him for 63 to put the tourists under mid-innings pressure in the dead rubber.

Kohli’s exit threw down the gauntlet to Pandya, who fin-ished top-scorer with 92 off 76 balls with some late fireworks with ravindra Jadeja 66 (50), who seized the momentum for India, adding 76 runs in the last five overs.

“We were put under the pump in the first half and in the second half of Australia’s innings,” Kohli said.

“I would have liked to go on for a bit longer, but it was a great partnership between Pandya and Jadeja.

“The team needed that kind of a boost. That’s needed when you play a team like Australia.”

Kohli was out when a re-view instigated by wicket-keeper Alex Carey picked up a faint spike on ‘Ultra-edge’ off hazlewood which reversed the on-field decision.

It was hazlewood’s third dismissal of Kohli in the three-match series and a massive

breakthrough for the Austral-ians who had reduced India to 152-5 in the 32nd over.

“I thought we fought really well,” said Australia captain Aaron Finch, who topscored for his team with 75 off 82 balls.

“It was a great partnership between hardik and Jadeja. If we got one of those wickets, we could have chased 240 max.”

Marnus Labuschagne,

promoted to open the innings in David Warner’s injury ab-sence, played on T. Natarajan for seven bringing Steve Smith early to the crease after centu-ry-plus opening stands in the first two games.

India got the vital break-through in the 12th over dis-missing Smith, coming off man-of-the-match centuries in the first two games, for just

seven to an innocuous leg-side flick off Shardul Thakur.

“They have been close back-to-back games.” Smith said. “A good series of cricket against a quality outfit. I think this wicket did more with the new ball, it was a bit different as compared to Sydney.”

Alex Carey was run out by Kohli for 38, ending a produc-tive partnership with Maxwell.

Maxwell produced a pro-digious reverse sweep for six

off Yadav which covered 100m high into the stands in argu-ably the biggest hit of the sea-son and then he brought up his half-century with another six of Natarajan.

Bumrah ended Maxwell’s fireworks to India’s great relief with one of his trademark yor-kers, bowling the Australian dangerman and leaving the home side tantalisingly close to victory before India held on for a tense win.

Pandya-Jadeja, pace trio ensure win for India in tense final ODI

India’s captain Virat Kohli (left) celebrates the victory against Australia in the third One-Day International cricket with a teammate India’s Jasprit Bumrah at Manuka Oval in Canberra on Wednesday. (aFP)

India’s batsmen Hardik Pandya (right) and Ravindra Jadeja walk back to the pavilion at the end of the innings. The two shared an unbroken 150-run stand with Pandya making 99 not out and Jadeja 66 n.o. (aFP)

India fans celebrate Hardik Pandya’s half century at the Manuka Oval in Canberra on Wednesday. (aFP)

IndIaS. Dhawan c Agar b Abbott 16S. Gill lbw b Agar 33V. Kohli c Carey b Hazlewood 63S. Iyer c Labuschagne b Zampa 19 K.L. Rahul lbw b Agar 5H. Pandya not out 92R. Jadeja not out 66Extras: (b1 lb1 nb2 w4) 8Total: (50 overs; for five wickets) 302 Fall of wickets: 1-26 (Dhawan), 2-82 (Gill), 3-114 (Iyer), 4-123 (Rahul), 5-152 (Kohli). did not bat: S. Thakur, K. Yadav, J. Bumrah, T. NatarajanBowling: Hazlewood 10-1-66-1 (2w 1nb), Maxwell 5-0-27-0 (2w), Abbott 10-0-84-1, Green 4-0-27-0 (1nb), Agar 10-0-44-2, Zampa 10-0-45-1, Henriques 1-0-7-0.ausTralIaM. Labuschagne b Natarajan 7A. Finch c Dhawan b Jadeja 75

S. Smith c Rahul b Thakur 7M. Henriques c Dhawan b Thakur 22C. Green c Jadeja b Yadav 21A. Carey run out (Kohli/Rahul) 38G. Maxwell b Bumrah 59A. Agar c Yadav b Natarajan 28S. Abbott c Rahul b Thakur 4A. Zampa lbw b Bumrah 4J. Hazlewood not out 7 Extras: (lb6, nb2, w9) 17Total: (49.3 overs; all out) 289 Fall of wickets: 1-25 (Lauschagne), 2-56 (Smith), 3-117 (Henriques), 4-123 (Finch), 5-158 (Green), 6-210 (Carey), 7-268 (Maxwell), 8-278 (Abbott), 9-278 (Agar), 10-289 (Zampa) Bowling: Bumrah 9.3-0-43-2 (5w), Natarajan 10-1-70-2 (4w 1nb), Thakur 10-1-51-3, Yadav 10-0-57-1, Jadeja 10-0-62-1 (1nb).Result: India won by 13 runs series: Australia 2-1Toss: India.

Scoreboard

Malan reaches highest rating in T20 history

AFPlondon

eNGLAND batsman Dawid Malan has set a ranking-points record for batsmen in interna-tional Twenty20 cricket after smashing 173 runs in eng-land’s 3-0 whitewash against South Africa.

The 33-year-old left-hand-er climbed to number one in the world in September after a relentlessly consistent period of scoring in the format and has followed up with a man-of-the-series performance.

he hit a match-winning 55 on Sunday before scoring a superb 99 not out off just 47 balls at Newlands on Tuesday and now has 915 points in the International Cricket Council rankings.

Australia’s Aaron Finch held the previous record with exactly 900 points and he re-mains third on the updated list, behind second-placed Ba-bar Azam of Pakistan.

Malan’s performance helped england leapfrog Aus-tralia to take top position in the team rankings.

The Yorkshire player has been criticised for starting slowly but has made himself an integral member of eoin Morgan’s star-studded side.

he has played 19 T20 in-ternationals and averages an impressive 53 runs per innings at a strike rate of nearly 150 runs per 100 balls.

England’s Dawid Malan. (aFP)

The 33-year-old left-hand-er hit a match-winning 55 on sunday before scoring a superb 99 not out at newlands on Tuesday and now has 915 points in the ICC rankings.

Wellington: an eighth member of Pakistan’s cricket squad has tested positive for CoVid-19 as the team undergoes quarantine in Christchurch, new Zealand health authorities said on Wednesday. the health department said there was one new confirmed case among the squad and a further two members were being investigated, adding to the seven who previously tested positive over the past week. the department said the team would not be allowed to train together until doctors were confident it would not lead to more coronavirus cases. two of the original six cases last week were subsequently found to be historical, meaning they were not infectious, while the other four were active. the 53-member tour party, led by skipper babar azam, arrived in Christchurch on november 24 for two weeks of quarantine which is mandatory for all overseas arrivals in new Zealand. (AFP)

Eighth Covid case hits Pak cricketers in NZ

Quick read

Sports14 Thursday, December 3, 2020

Satyendra PathakDoha

They say when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Few examples would sit as pretty on this dictum as that of Dilip Krishnan Kutty, the CeO of Doha-based Oxitronix Medi-cal equipment. his story of success is truly inspirational, one that marks him out as a pacesetter.

Kutty started working at the age of 15 after his 10th standard and his first job was one of a door to door salesman. This is where he says he “learnt a lot about people and how to deal with people”.

After that, he worked as a sales-man with a distributor for the Kissan Jam and Sauce, a well-known brand in India. In this job, he was cycling around 50 kilometres every day. here, he came across a sales man-ager of an Ayurveda company who hired him to work as a medical rep-resentative.

however, that meant he needed to have a two-wheeler that he sim-ply couldn’t afford at that time. But destiny was about to intervene as his grandfather decided to sell some gold to help Kutty realise his dream.

With this money sent by his grandfather, Kutty finally bought a Bajaj cub scooter. After this, he worked for an allopathic company for some three years before taking up a job with Sun Pharma. What fol-lowed was a job at Tata Docomo call centre after which he got an oppor-tunity to join a bank in the UAe in the sales division.

“This is where I started mak-ing money. however, I lost my job in 2009 due to the financial crisis that shook the world. I had recently got married – in 2007 December,” Kutty says.

After losing his job at the UAe

bank, he went back to Pune and started working at a small company. “Then in 2012, I came to Doha and joined a healthcare company as a product sales executive. I started getting promoted every year and be-came the company’s national sales manager,” he recalls.

he quit this job in 2019-end and joined Oxitronix Medical equip-ment, a company of his friend, as a CeO and as a working partner, in January 2020.

With Kutty at the helm, the company has grown as one of the most reliable and p r e f e r r e d suppliers of medical and dermatology equipment and beauty p r o d u c t s in the coun-try within two years of its estab-lishment.

Putting all his ex-perience into work, Kutty expanded the company almost seven times. The company’s market value has dramatically increased from QR300,000 in 2019 to QR2 million by the end of 2020 under his leadership.

“We started with two people and today, there are 10 people em-ployed in our company. Initially, we had five clients and today we deal with nearly 50 clients. Today, all big hospitals, clinics, beauty salons, and spas are our clients,” he says.

Kutty says the key to excelling in the medical equipment sector is the after-sales service.

“While selling medical equip-ment, what I value most is client

satisfaction and providing the best after-sales services in the country,” he explains.

“Quality products coupled with prompt after-sales services are our unique selling points and this is why all big medial entities like the hamad Medical Corporation, Sidra, Al Ahli hospital, American hospi-tal Clinics, Aster, Turkish hospital, Naseem Al Rabeeh Medical Centre, and others are our clients,” he says.

While the company has grown from strength to

strength in the Qa-tari market, Kut-

ty’s ambition and hard work has seen the c o m p a n y expanding in the global market rap-idly, month after month,

with offices opened in In-

dia, the UAe, the USA, and Kuwait.

“We are also planning to open our offices in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Canada, Aus-tralia, the UK and Malaysia,” he says.

While Oxitronix Medical equip-ment has a strong network globally to source any kind of medical equip-ment for the local market, Kutty says, the company’s tie-up with renowned US company ‘3M’ has worked well for it.

“Our best sellers are from 3M. Slimming machines, fat measure-ment machines, surgical machines, facial machines and types of equip-ment used in body care are in high demand in Qatar,” he says.

“Demand for such products

from our company is so high that we are now looking for strong part-nerships”, he says, adding that the company is already in talks with some big Qatari groups to form such an alliance.

“We already have orders worth around QR1.5 million for immediate delivery and the or-ders are continuing to grow. We need to have a big warehouse to keep our products. As we are also looking to serve indi-vidual clients at their door-steps, we will need service vans. We are looking for a partner that can invest in our company so that it grows faster and big-ger,” he says.

“My vision for the company is that every person in Qatar should have all medical require-ments and services deliv-ered to them at their door-steps,” he says.

Kutty says Qatar has emerged as one of the best markets for medical equipment as the country doesn’t compromise on quality.

“Qatar has the best of health in-frastructures in the region and the country has shown all promises to continue to invest to make it even better. The outlook for Qatar’s health sector is quite bright,” he says.

15Thursday, December 3, 2020

Success Story

Kutty put all his expe-

rience into work and ex-panded the company almost seven times within two years. The company’s market value

has dramatically increased from QR300,000 in 2019 to

QR2 million by the end of 2020 under his

leadership

tribune newS networkDoha

OveR the years, Oxitronix Medical equipment CeO Dilip Krishnan Kutty has continued to not only break ground as an en-trepreneur but also dedicate a large amount of his time to social activities in Qatar.

he is also the president of One India Association (OIA), a unique socio-cultural organisation that aims to bring the vast Indian community under one umbrella in Qatar.

“OIA is dedicated to the goal of preserving, promoting and en-hancing the understanding of In-dian culture and its values among our children and other communi-ties. OIA is built on the platform of SWARAJ, and transparency and responsibility are our pillars. The OIA is an organisation known

for its vision, the dedication of its committee members and volun-teers, and unquestionable integ-rity,” Kutty says.

The OIA is affiliated to the In-dian Cultural Centre (ICC) under the aegis of the Indian embassy.

Keeping Kutty engaged these days is the extensive preparations for the One India Association Uni-ty Cup that is managed by Asian

Premier League (APL-Qatar). The tournament will kick off on March 20.

“Join us for a thrilling sports extravaganza. There will be a total of 12 teams playing in two groups of six teams each. Register for the championship now,” says a state-ment on the OIA website.

As part of its social responsi-bility, OIA also promotes blood donation among Indian residents in Qatar.

“Blood donation is service to humankind. By donating blood you help a needy and save a pre-cious life. The blood you donate gives someone another chance at life. One day that someone may be a close relative, a friend, a loved one or even you. A life may depend on a gesture from you. To give blood you need neither extra strength nor extra food, and you will save a life,” says Kutty.

Rendering yeoman service to Indian community through OIA

One India Association President Dilip Krishnan Kutty

Journey of a door to door

salesman to a Ceo

Oxitronix Medical Equipment CEO Dilip Krishnan Kutty with his team members in Doha.

oxitronix Medical equiPMent ceo diliP kriShnan kutty

Minister of Education and Higher Education HE Dr Mohammed bin Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi visited Khalifa Secondary School for Boys and Al Yarmook Pre-paratory Independent School for Boys on Wednesday. The minister made the visit to inspect the pro-gress of the tests and to review the health precautions in force in schools, in addition to the availability of health services for students with special needs in schools. He directed the school administrations to address any challenges faced by students of all groups in order to write their tests in a healthy and safe school environment. (QNA)

Deep-sea diving culture, ship modelon display at Katara Dhow Festival


The 10th Katara Traditional Dhow Festival continues in compliance with the Ministry of Public health protocols to prevent the spread of coronavirus (CODID-19) as the second day of the festival witnessed the visits of a number of ambassadors accredited to Qatar and other visitors.

The festival will continue to receive visitors from 10am to 10pm on Thursday and Saturday. On Friday, it will be open from 1pm to 11pm.

The festival has a number of heritage pavilions from participating countries - Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, India and Tanzania.

Qatar’s extensive sea culture and maritime heritage

are displayed in different ways and uniquely highlighted for the younger generations to learn from and imbibe each year at the decade-old festival.

Jassim Abdel-Rahman Al Mannai said, “This year, Qatar’s pavilion Bayt Al-ezwa has been divided into two parts: the diving section and the traditional fishing methods section, including Al-Tawash and Al-Nakhudah.

“Six other types of traditional boats used in Qatar for deep sea diving, which are smaller than ships called the Sanbuk and Gilboot, are also on display. Details of Qatari ships used for sea travel in olden times, including the owl and Al-Bateel, are also depicted.”

Further exploring Qatari deep sea-diving culture, Qatar

Museums (QM) is displaying models of boats used in the olden times.

Reda Moussa Al-hajj, supervisor of the heritage Boats Department at QM, said: “every year, we display historic old boats but this year, we have restricted ourselves to some valuable heritage models which have ceased to exist now. These boats were used in the days of diving and old trade, in addition to some original models, which were made in Qatar. They are very rare.”

Kuwait brought along a model of the ‘water ship’ used in Kuwait during the last century.

explaining the importance, Mubarak Al Khashdi said, “In Kuwait, like the rest of the Gulf countries, water was scarce and they carried Shatt al-Arab

(a water reservoir) on the ship, which the children of current generation do not know. This is an opportunity for them to learn about it.”

The Tanzania tent is showcasing the country’s handicrafts and spices.

Zamzam hran, manager of Tanzanian pavilion, said: “We are presenting various documentary photos from Zanzibar and from a number of traditional ports and connections with a number of Gulf countries that had trade relations with Zanzibar. We also have Zanzibar spices and some handicrafts that show our common heritage history with the region.”

Another stand out at the festival is the presence of artists painting the sea, boats and live imagery.

Filipino artists portray hope, resilience in pandemic time

Ailyn AgoniADoha

ThIRTy artworks of Filipino artists in Qatar depicting the sacrifices and triumphs of humanity in the time of global health pandemic are on display at the virtual painting art exhibition being held via Katara website (www.katara.net).

The art event titled ‘Painting the New Normal’, which can be viewed until December 31, is a joint project of the Philippine embassy in Doha, the Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) and the Philippines’ Sentro Rizal under the auspices of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCAA).

Aimed at lifting the spirit and boosting the morale of the viewing public amidst the unprecedented challenges brought by COVID-19, the collection presents the many faces of sacrifice, loss, hope, triumph, unity and resilience of the human spirit.

The exhibition also serves as a tribute by the Philippine embassy to the Qatar government for its important role and efforts in successfully managing the spread of the coronavirus in the country as well as a fitting salute to all medical frontliners in Qatar.

Several of the artworks capture the feeling of loss and yearning of families, includ-ing the sacrifices of overseas

Filipino workers (OFWs) who are miles away from their loved ones, while other fea-tured works show the hero-ism of first responders and frontline healthcare staff.

Among the works on display is a piece titled ‘Luha, Bakuna at Bukang Liwayway’ which loosely translates into ‘tears, vaccine and dawn’. It depicts an image of physical separation between a mother and her children and the hope in their hearts for a cure to the health crisis.

Another featured work is an oil pastel on paper titled ‘Sacrifice’ which mirrors the restrictions to go out and

travel, and the need to “trade a little of our freedom for the greater good of the public”.

The piece titled ‘Waiting you home’ shows an image of a man coming out of the mouth of a monster COVID-19 and raising a flag as a sign of his freedom. It depicts a deliverance from the pandemic and preparedness to face the new normal.

Another painting titled ‘Tiwala’ (Trust/ Faith) which shows elements of Philip-pine heritage represents the feeling of longing and hope for successful recoveries and bright future ahead shared by all the people in the world.

Full-scale emergency drillat Doha Int’l Airport todayTribune news neTwork

Doha

MATAR, the Qatar Company for Airport and Management Company, will conduct its fourth full-scale emergency exercise at Doha Interna-tional Airport today as part of its commitment to ensur-ing a high level of prepared-ness in security and security matters.

The exercise will be con-ducted in coordination with partners and stakeholders including Qatar Airways

Group, Amiri Flight, MA-TAR, Qatar executive, Qatar Aircraft Catering Company, Qatar Aviation Services, Air-port Customs, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Public health, Ministry of Transport & Communications, Ministry of Defense, hamad Medi-cal Corporation Ambulance Service, Qatar Civil Aviation Authority, Qatar Red Cres-cent Society and Qatar State Agencies.

According to the statement by Doha International Air-port, the exercise will involve

aircraft in ground emergency situations and will test how airport partners, stakeholders and government agencies re-spond effectively to the emer-gency scenario.

The simulation, which be-gins at approximately 10 am and ends at 12pm, is not likely to disrupt normal airport op-erations.

This advisory will be cir-culated in order to ensure that there are no misunderstand-ings in the event of any emer-gency reports on that date, the statement added.

WCM-Q researcher wins prestigious L’Oréal-UNESCO young talent award


DR ISRA MAReI, a post-doctoral associate in pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q), has been recognised by the L’Oréal-UNeSCO Women in Science Middle east Regional young Talents Program.

Dr Marei, a member of Dr Christopher Triggle’s research team, was one of the three winners in the Post-Doctorate Research category. She was recognised for her research on developing 3D vascular drug screening platforms based on cord blood endothelial progenitor cells.

The regional programme is now in its seventh year and is part of L’Oréal-UNeSCO’s global initiative, which has recognised more than 3,400 phenomenal researchers since its inception 22 years ago.

Dr Marei said: “I feel very fortunate and humbled to be able to work alongside so many talented and dedicated people, without whom I would not have been able to receive such an award. I am extremely grateful to my colleagues and to L’Oréal-UNeSCO for giving me a wonderful boost that will help me to keep working as hard as I can to make valuable contributions to

scientific discovery.” Remi Chadapaux, L’Oréal

Middle east Managing Director, said: “The seventh edition of L’Oréal-UNeSCO For Women in Science Middle east Regional young Talents Program is a special year for us. While we celebrate these exceptional women and their breakthrough research, recent events have also brought to light the need for a diversified approach to modern day solutions. Today,

we continue this legacy as the most highly regarded initiative in the region in an effort to support a group of women with outstanding dedication to improve the lives of people within our communities.”

Dr Khaled Machaca, professor of Physiology and Biophysics/senior associate dean for Research, Innovations and Commercialisation at WCM-Q, said: “This is an absolutely fantastic achievement, and

we are extremely proud of Dr Marei. It is wonderful that her dedication, intellectual curiosity and contribution to research have been recognized by one of the most prestigious international awards, the L’Oreal-UNeSCO award. Dr Marei’s recognition shows that women scientists in Qatar have the available opportunities and resources required to compete at the highest levels. This is thanks primarily to the efforts

of Qatar Foundation and the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) in advancing research and women scientists in Qatar.”

Dr Marei has been extensively funded by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) through a Postdoctoral Fellowship Award (PDRA) and, more recently, with an early Career Research Award (eCRA). Dr Marei’s host laboratory at WCM-Q has been supported by QNRF through multiple National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) and Undergraduate Research experience Program (UReP) awards focused on cardiovascular physiology.

WCM-Q wins first prize in university debating contest organised by QatarDebate


WeILL Cornell Medicine–Qatar (WCM-Q) won the first place in the second univer-sity debating championship in english organised by Qa-tarDebate Center, a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), recently.

Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) became the runner-up, while Ahmed Al Meer from WCM-Q was adjudged the best speaker of the league.

The competition saw the participation of 16 teams from GU-Q, Qatar University, WCM-Q, Texas A&M Univer-sity at Qatar and Stenden Uni-versity.

With the participation of 16 adjudicators, the teams de-bated on three motions:

1. In times of pan-demics, this house will sig-nificantly relax the mini-mum safety and efficacy standards required for the approval of treatments and vaccines, including but not limited to measures such as: waiving medium-term and long-term safety test-ing, accepting drugs that did not yet show superior out-comes compared to existing treatments, allowing more severe side-effects than those that are usually per-mitted.

2. This house believes that governments should pri-oritise policies focused on assimilation over policies of multiculturalism.

3. This house believes that Nigerian #endSARS protest leaders should form a youth-based political party.

Education minister inspects high school exams progress

Dr Isra Marei, a member of Dr Christopher Triggle’s research team, was recognised for her research on developing 3D vascular drug screening platforms based on cord blood endothelial progenitor cells

Dr Isra Marei was one of the three winners in the Post-Doctorate Research category.

Dr Marei has been extensively funded by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) through a Postdoctoral Fellowship Award and, more recently, with an Early Career Research Award. Her host laboratory at WCM-Q has been supported by QNRF through multiple National Priorities Research Program and Undergraduate Research Experience Program awards focused on cardiovascular physiology

The second day of the festival saw the visits of a number of ambassadors accredited to Qatar and other visitors.

The Last Word16 Thursday, December 3, 2020

AL RAYYAN STADIUM - Qatar Tribune

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