MONDAYDECEMBER 6, 2021

JUMADA AL AWWAL 2 , 1443VOL.15 NO. 5434 QR 2

Fajr: 4:44 am Dhuhr: 11:25 amAsr: 2:24 pm Maghrib: 4:45 pm Isha: 6:15 pm

MIST

HIGH : 26°CLOW : 18°C

World 7Protests against COVID rules draw out thousands to streets across Europe

Business 8 Duda calls on Qatari investors to invest in various economic sectors of Poland

Sports 12Arab Cup: Qatar aim to keep up winning momentum against Iraq

AMIR RECEIVES INVITATION TO ATTEND GCC MEET IN SAUDI ARABIA

His Highness the Amir of State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has received a written message from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of the sisterly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The message included an invitation for HH the Amir to attend the meeting of the 42nd session of the Supreme Council of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) to be held in December 2021 in Saudi Arabia. The message was handed over by HH Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al Saud, during a meet-ing with HH the Amir at the Amiri Diwan on Sunday morning. At the outset of the meeting, the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs conveyed the greetings of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to HH the Amir, wishing HH the Amir every success, and the Qatari people further progress and prosperity. For his part, HH the Amir entrusted HH Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah Al Saud to convey his greetings to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, wishing him good health and the Saudi people further development and prosperity. (QNA)

QNADOHA

HIS Highness the Amir of State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and President of the Republic of Poland An-drzej Duda held an official talks session at the Amiri Diwan on Sunday.

At the beginning of the meeting, HH the Amir wel-comed the Polish president and the accompanying delega-tion, wishing him a pleasant stay, and the relations between the two countries further de-velopment and growth in vari-ous fields.

For his part, the Polish pres-ident expressed his thanks to HH the Amir for the warm re-ception and hospitality, stress-ing his keenness to develop and strengthen the Qatari-Polish re-lations, looking forward for his visit to contribute to achieving

the two friendly people’s aspira-tions in flourishing cooperation

and friendship between the two countries.

During the session, they dis-cussed bilateral relations and the ways of developing them, especially in the fields of econo-my, energy, culture and sports. They also exchanged views on a number of regional and in-ternational issues of common interest. Earlier, upon arrival at the Amiri Diwan, the Polish president was accorded an of-ficial reception.

Amir, Polish president discuss ways to strengthen relations

Talks focus on economy, energy, culture and sports fields

His Highness the Amir of State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda during the official talks session at the Amiri Diwan on Sunday. PAGE 16

I was pleased to receive HE Andrzej Duda, Presi-dent of the friendly Republic of Poland, and we discussed together ways to strengthen relations between our two countries in several fields such as energy, economy and culture. Qatar and Po-land have important relations for both countries,

and I am pleased to see them grow and strengthen to bear fruit for the good of the Qatari and Polish peoples.

PRESIDENT of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan will arrive in Doha on Monday on an official visit to the coun-try. The Turkish president will lead his country’s delegation at the meeting of the 7th ses-sion of the Supreme Strategic Committee between Qatar and Turkey.

His Highness the Amir of State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the Turkish president will discuss on Tuesday the relations of joint strategic cooperation and the ways of enhancing them in various fields. They will also discuss the latest developments on the regional and international arenas. A number of agreements and memo-randums of understanding in various fields will also be signed during the visit. (QNA)

Turkish president to arrive today

QNADOHA

QATAR Tourism and Mwani Qatar have announced the re-turn of cruise tourism with the start of the 2021-22 season. MSC Virtuosa made its first voyage to Qatar on Thursday, bringing around 4,600 visitors to Doha.

The return of cruise tour-ism comes as Qatar resumes holding in-person events and festivals. The winter season is particularly busy, with the line-up including FIFA Arab Cup, Qatar International Food Festival (QIFF) 2021, Qatar Live Festival, and Light & La-ser shows on the Corniche.

Chairman of Qatar Tour-ism and Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said, “The return of the cruise tourism is a testament to the tremendous efforts of

all our partners, and helps put us firmly back on the path of travel recovery. Cruise is an important subsector of tour-ism, allowing large numbers of visitors to discover Doha and its offerings within a short period, turning them into am-bassadors of the destination and contributing to increased

tourism spend.”He added, “The current

cruise season is expected to be the busiest, with the arrival of around 78 cruises. This in-cludes 11 cruise ships making maiden voyages to Doha, 11 turnaround voyages and 10 ships that will dock in Doha Port. With the opening of the

permanent passenger termi-nal at Doha Port, we expect to witness a growth in cruise vis-its in the coming period, par-ticularly in the lead up to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.”

“We have worked tirelessly with our partners to ensure safety protocols in line with the strict guidelines issued by the Ministry of Public Health are followed. The safety of our community and our visitors is paramount, and these proto-cols will also be applied to pas-sengers and crew members on all cruise ships,” Al Baker said.

Cruise tourism came to a halt with the pandemic by end of February 2020. To assuage concerns, the Ministry of Pub-lic Health has put in place special protocols for travellers arriving to or from Qatar on cruise ships.

CRUISE TOURISM RETURNS

Ashghal readies 50 parking lots for Arab CupThe Public Works Author-ity (Ashghal) has completed construction works of 50 new parking lots to serve sports events of the 2021 Arab Cup and the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. The parking lots can ac-commodate more than 51,000 cars and 5,600 buses in an area covering approximately three million square metres. The works were completed in coordination and cooperation with the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) and other service entities.

The new parking locations, which include dedicated park-ing lots for cars, buses and taxis, were implemented in just three months. New parking spaces were provided in ad-dition to the existing ones, to facilitate fans’ access to the stadiums, avoid congestion, and improve traffic movement in the areas surrounding the stadiums during matches. Ashghal handed over the new parking lots to the SC to man-age their operation during the sports events. (TNN) PAGE 16

Qatar, France pledge to advance strategic ties to tackle challenges

QNADOHA

HIS Highness the Amir of State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed on the need to strengthen bilateral cooperation in all areas ahead of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the diplo-matic relations between the two countries. Macron visited Doha on December 4.

On Sunday, Qatar and France issued a joint statement on the occasion of the French president’s visit to Doha.

During their meeting, HH the Amir and the French presi-dent reaffirmed their desire to hold the next session of the French-Qatari Strategic Dia-logue in Doha in early 2022.

Two agreements were signed during the visit: a mem-orandum of understanding be-tween Bruno Lemaire, minister of the economy, finance and recovery and HE Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, minister of finance; and a letter of intent between HE Roselyne Bachelot, minis-ter of culture of France and HE Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Ham-ad Al Thani, minister of culture, on cultural cooperation

HH the Amir and the French president expressed their willingness to take the strategic partnership a step

further to tackle regional and global challenges. Both sides emphasized their shared ambi-tion to find the path to peace for a more stable and prosperous region.

Building on the success of the Baghdad conference con-vened on August 28 at the ini-tiative of Iraq and in coordina-tion with France, both leaders agreed to work together in or-der to encourage a structured regional dialogue for peace and stability.

With respect to Afghani-stan, the French president reiterated his sincere thanks for the remarkable assistance provided by Qatar in repatriat-ing French nationals and their dependents and in protecting Afghans at risk. Macron also commended the successful joint Qatar-France humani-tarian operation to deliver 40 tonnes of urgent aid to Kabul on a Qatari flight. Both sides underlined the preconditions listed by the Security Council in UNSCR 2593 for the further participation of the new inter-im government formed by the Taliban into the regional and international environment.

On Lebanon, both leaders strongly reaffirmed the need for Lebanon’s stability and se-curity to be preserved. Qatar welcomed Frances efforts in Lebanon in the face of an un-precedented crisis.

TODAY’S MATCHES: GROUP A

Oman vs BahrainAhmad Bin Ali Stadium (10pm)

Qatar vs IraqAl Bayt Stadium (10pm)

GROUP B

Syria vs MauritaniaAl Janoub Stadium (6pm)

Tunisia vs UAEAl Thumama Stadium (6pm)

2021-22 season set to be the busiest, with arrival of 78 cruise linersMSC Virtuosa made its first voyage to Qatar on Thursday, bringing around 4,600 visitors

Continued on page 2

02 Monday, December 6, 2021

Contact US: Qatar Tribune I EDITORIAL I Phone: 40002222 I ADMINISTRATION & MARKETING I Phone: 40002155, 40002122, Fax: 40002235 P.O. Box: 23493, Doha.

Geriatric Department provides faster access of age-appropriate care for older patients

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

RUMAILAH Hospital (RH) is a multi-specialty facility that pro-vides specialised care and ser-vices, including medical, surgi-cal, physiotherapy, geriatric and long-term care.

The hospital provides spe-cialised medical care for older adults and has initiated a com-prehensive improvement man-agement programme that ena-bles faster access to Geriatric Outpatient clinics (OPD) for older patients.

Dr Hanadi Al Hamad, medi-cal director at Rumailah Hospi-tal and Qatar Rehabilitation In-stitute, and chairperson for the Department of Geriatrics and Long-Term Care, said the im-petus for the improvements was the desire to deliver enhanced age-appropriate care to older adults.

“Older patients often have multiple health issues, includ-ing chronic conditions that make them less resilient when dealing with illnesses. Potential delays in receiving a diagnosis and treatment can exacerbate the problem and may lead to

more serious complications. It is therefore imperative that our older patients receive profes-sional health care in a timely manner,” she said.

Various teams responsible for delivering geriatric OPD ser-vices in Rumailah Hospital ana-lysed the care delivery to identify opportunities for improvements. The work has led to a sustained reduction in the average ap-pointment wait times in the Ger-iatric Outpatient clinics (OPD).

Hospital data from 2019 to 2020 showed a significant re-duction of 34 percent in aver-age appointment wait times for older patients seen in a geriatric outpatient clinic in Rumailah

Hospital; this was in spite of a substantial increase in the num-ber of patient referrals during this time.

Dr Mahmoud Refaee, con-sultant in Geriatric Medicine at Rumailah Hospital, who was tasked with supporting the ac-cess improvement initiative said that the team used a mul-tipronged approach to enable faster patient access.

“The improvement tracks included expansion of clinics, not only within the hospital but also across HMC or primary care centres; establishment of tem-porary subspecialty clinics to manage higher caseloads; imple-mentation of a robust electronic-triage system that reduced the risk of double referral; enabling bed-bound patients to receive care through home care services to avoid their arduous journey to a hospital clinic; and the estab-lishment of the Elderly Urgent Care Unit, which is immensely important for patients needing immediate clinical care without having to resort to visiting the Emergency Department,” he said.

General geriatric clinics, which provide comprehensive

geriatric assessment and medi-cal care to patients with com-plex medical conditions who are older than 60 years, were able to shorten appointment wait times as part of the patient centered care improvement efforts.

Geriatric Falls Prevention clinics achieved a nearly 35 per-cent reduction in average wait times. The clinic accepts pa-tients aged 60 years and older who have experienced a mobility impairment related fall incident.

The Falls Prevention Clinic aims to enhance patient mobility while preventing falls and frac-tures through evidence-based clinical practice and research. This achievement was made pos-sible by simultaneously expand-ing falls prevention services and clinics.

Elderly patients referred from other HMC departments and primary health care centres to the Memory Clinic have bene-fited from a significant reduction of 57 percent in average waiting time over the last two years.

The Memory Clinic is a very successful service in Qatar that uses an integrated multidiscipli-nary approach to managing de-mentia and memory loss.

‘Qatar’s popularity as attractive tourist destination is increasing’THE 2019-2020 cruise season witnessed the opening of the temporary passenger terminal spanning an area of 6,000 square metres.

Doha Port has also completed several development works contributing to pro-moting the growth of cruise tourism, sup-porting Qatar Tourism’s efforts to attract international cruise ships and companies, and strengthening Qatar’s position on the cruise destinations map in the region.

Mwani Qatar Chief Executive Officer Capt. Abdulla Mohamed Al Khanji said, “We are pleased with the successful re-start of activities of cruise tourism and returning to receive visitors and guests at Doha Port after a 19-month absence due to COVID-19 limitations. Many health and safety procedures put in place in coordination with the stakeholders to ensure the safety of the community and to secure an enjoyable and safe travel ex-perience for tourists, starting from the moment the cruise ships arrive until they leave the quayside”.

He added, “Qatar’s popularity as an at-tractive tourist destination in the region is increasing year after year, as the number of cruises and passengers has increased by more than 6 times in less than 5 seasons. We at Mwani Qatar are committed to sup-porting and developing the tourism sec-tor in the country, by enhancing services,

understanding the requirements of cruise lines and meeting their operational needs, thus contributing to laying the foundations for a well-established cruise industry in line with the Ministry of Transport’s stra-tegic plan.

“Doha Port redevelopment, which is nearing completion, will establish a pio-neering infrastructure in the cruise ship sector that contributes to providing high-quality services in line with the highest in-ternational standards, thus consolidating Qatar’s position as a preferred destination for cruise travelers in the region.”

Qatar Tourism recently partnered with CLIA UK & Ireland (a division of CLIA-Cruise Lines International Association) to boost Qatar’s tourism sector via CLIA’s community of cruise companies (mem-bers), stakeholders, travel agents. As part of its promotional efforts, Qatar Tourism has recently launched its international promotional campaign “Experience a World Beyond”.

The cruise tourism sector has achieved continuous and remarkable growth in the years prior to the pandemic, with col-laboration among public and private sec-tor partners. The 2019-20 cruise season witnessed the arrival of 207,000 visitors, while the 2018-19 season achieved growth of 121 percent in the number of cruises passengers, an increase in the number of cruise ships, with more than 140,000 pas-sengers arriving aboard 44 ships.

Dr Hanadi Al Hamad

Metro stations in Corniche area received 680,000 passengers during road closure

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

QATAR Railways Company (Qatar Rail) has announced that Doha Metro stations located in the Corniche area re-ceived 680,000 passengers during the temporary road closure between No-vember 26 and December 4.

Doha Metro stations located in the

Corniche area, including the National Museum, Souq Waqif, Corniche, Al Bidda, West Bay, DECC and Ras Bu Ab-boud, witnessed a large turnout of pas-sengers.

Al Bidda station, which is located within walking distance of the 11th Qa-tar International Food Festival in Al Bidda Park, witnessed an exceptional turnout from the public, who went to

attend the festival held in conjunction with the 2021 Arab Cup.

At the same time, the Metrolink and Metroexpress services continued to transport passengers throughout the Corniche area. The two services provided alternative routes during the closure period, which helped transport the public around the Corniche area, al-lowing them to reach their destinations

easily.This confirms the integral role of

the Doha Metro in enhancing the pub-lic transport system, providing an effec-tive alternative means of transportation and facilitation of the movement of in-dividuals. In addition, Doha Metro aids the free flow of traffic, avoiding conges-tion, especially during temporary road closures.

POLISH PRESIDENT MEETS PRIME MINISTER Minister of Justice,Egyptian counterpart discuss legal relations

QNA CAIRO

MINISTER of Justice HE Masoud bin Moham-med Al Ameri met with Minister of Justice of Egypt Counsellor Omar Marwan in Cairo on Sunday.

During the meeting, they reviewed areas of bilateral legal cooperation and prospects for its development in various fields, especially in the field of digital transformation, developing legal professions, qualification and training pro-grammes and exchanging experiences, in a way that enhances the efficiency of the legal system in both countries.

Qatar’s Minister of Justice also met sepa-rately with President of the Court of Cassa-tion, President of the Supreme Judicial Council Counsellor Abdullah Omar Shawda and Head of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt Counsellor Saeed Marie. During the meetings, ways of enhancing legal cooperation between the two countries were discussed.

President of Poland Andrzej Duda met with Prime Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani in Doha on Sunday. During the meeting, they reviewed the bilateral relations between the two countries and the ways to enhance them. (QNA)

Amir holds phone talks with president of South AfricaTHE Amir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Sunday held a telephonic conversation with President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa. During the call, they reviewed the relations between the two countries and the ways to support them, in addition to discussing the international efforts to confront coronavirus and the efforts and cooperation of the two countries in this regard. (QNA)

Amir sends greetings to king of ThailandTHE Amir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent on Sunday a cable of congratulations to HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand on his country’s National Day. (QNA)

Sheikha Jawaher meets wife of president of PolandCONSORT of HH the Amir HH Sheikha Jawaher bint Hamad bin Suhaim Al Thani met with Agata Kornhaus-er-Duda, wife of the president of Poland and her ac-companying delegation at the Pearl Palace on Sunday. During the meeting, they exchanged cordial talks on several topics of mutual interest. HH Sheikha Jawaher later hosted a lunch banquet in honour of the wife of the Polish president and her accompanying delegation. (QNA)

Deputy Amir congratulates king of ThailandTHE Deputy Amir His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani sent on Sunday a cable of congratula-tions to HM King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand on his country’s National Day. (QNA)

PM sends greetings to Thai counterpartPRIME Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani sent on Sunday a cable of congratulations to Prime Minister of Thailand Prayut Chan-o-cha on his country’s National Day. (QNA)

Qatar’s ambassador participates in Barbados president’s inaugurationNON-RESIDENT Ambassador of Qatar to Barbados HE Rashid bin Mohsin Fetais participated in the inaugura-tion ceremony of President Dame Sandra Mason as president of Barbados. (QNA)

Mayor of Los Angeles meets Qatari consul-generalMAYOR of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti met with Consul-General of Qatar in Los Angeles HE Mansour bin Abdulla Al Sulaitin. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations between the two countries. The Mayor of Los Angeles expressed his wishes for the success of the consul-general in his new duties in Los Angeles. (QNA)

Quick read

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Nation 03Monday, December 6, 2021

MURAIKHI RECEIVES CREDENTIALS OF YEMENI AMBASSADOR: Minister of State for Foreign Affairs HE Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi on Sunday received a copy of credentials of Ambassador of Yemen to Qatar HE Rajeh Hussain Farhan Badi. The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs wished the new ambassa-dor success in performing his duties, assuring him of providing all support to advance bilateral relations between the two countries to closer cooperation in various fields. (QNA)

Ministry to host virtual forum onbig data & its benefits for SMEsTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

THE Ministry of Communica-tions and Information Tech-nology (MCIT) will host a dig-ital forum, titled ‘Big Data: How can SMEs benefit from big data, best practices, poli-cies & showcases’, on Decem-ber 7, in collaboration with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

The forum aims at in-forming participants about

the main concepts of big data, its challenges and potential socioeconomic impacts, in addition to discussing best regional and international practices on developing data policies. The forum will high-light selected applications that were developed based on this technology to assist policymakers in developing sound evidence-based plans and discuss the ministry’s plans to develop big data policies and applications. To be held virtually due to the

virus situation, the forum will feature three sessions revolv-ing around big data concepts, challenges, policies and big data frameworks and appli-cations.

The forum will host field experts from ESCWA; Dr Haidar Fraihat, leader of statistics, information soci-ety and technology cluster; Dr Nawar Al-Awa, regional adviser on technology for de-velopment; Ahmed Al-Awah, ICT section chief; and Roaa Al-Feel, ICT Section.

First Lady of Poland Agata Kornhauser-Duda learned about the vision and mission of Qatar Foundation during a visit to Education City. Accompanied by Abeer Al Khalifa, president of Pre-University Education, Qatar Foundation (QF), the First Lady was given an insight into the education, research and innovation, and community entities, initiatives and programmes across QF’s ecosystem from the eighth floor view-ing balcony at the 2015 building (QF Headquarters). QF’s multicultural student body includes several Polish students and four Polish teach-ers within its portfolio of schools. (TNN)

FIRST LADY OF POLAND VISITS QF’S EDUCATION CITY

AAB felicitates Aoun Qatar members forhelping people who get stuck in desert

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

ABDULLAH Abdulghani & Bros. Co. (AAB), the distributors for Toyota vehicles in Qatar, or-ganised a felicitation ceremony for members of Aoun Qatar, appreciating their commitment and dedication towards help-ing people who get stranded with their vehicles in the desert. Aoun Qatar is a group of Qataris volunteering to help those stuck or lost in the desert.

The honouring ceremony held in Mesaieed was attended by members of Aoun Qatar as well as senior management of Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros. Co. Welcoming members of Aoun Qatar, Firas Mufti, Sen-ior Manager - Marketing, AAB, stated, “We at AAB are very proud to have you with us today and we truly appreciate Aoun Qatar team for dedicating your time free of charge to help the community and people in need of help”. Kamal Al Hajj, Direc-tor – Customer Service, added, “What Aoun Qatar is doing must be known to all people. He also offered Aoun Qatar mem-bers a special support at all AAB service outlets as a token of ap-preciation for the tremendous effort Aoun Qatar is doing.”

Abdulrahman Al Emmadi, Aoun Qatar President, said, “I would like to thank AAB - Toy-ota for honouring us. We started the team in 2019 with 10 team members only. We decided

to become more professional. Team started to get bigger with the joining of so many young people with the help of older ex-perienced members. We started to help people who are stuck in the sand but after that our ser-vice included those who have got flat tyres or broken cars. We are here to help any person 24 hours a day 7 days a week.”

During the way back, AAB staff witnessed three rescue missions carried-out by Aoun Qatar.

According to Aoun Qatar, off road driving can be hazard-ous. Most people get stuck in the desert because they do not know to drive in the thick sand and tidal waters. Sometimes, drivers can be over confident or not prepared for an emergency situation, which can happen at any time.

To be safe in your Desert trips, Aoun Qatar offers the fol-lowing tips:

1. Inform friends or family before taking a day or overnight

desert trip. This way, if you run into any issues, people will know that you are “out there”.

2. Make sure your car is de-sert-ready. Fill up the gas tank, check fluids and water level, ver-ify your car tyre treads are in tip-top shape and do not forget to deflate the air in all of your tires once you get near the dunes to accommodate the sandy terrain.

3. Carry recovery gear in your vehicle. Have a good-qual-ity “snatch rope” in your car (at least 6m/20 feet) in case anoth-er car needs to pull your car out of the sand.

4. Stay hydrated. Bring enough water for your group and then double it, just in case!

5. Pack with you; non-per-ishable snacks, a flashlight and a couple blankets in case of emer-gency.

6. Ensure your phone/phones are fully charged before you leave and bring a phone charger that easily plugs into your vehicle lighter.

Qatar Charity’s Arab Cup events at Katara a big draw

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

QATAR Charity’s 2021 Arab Cup events at the Cultural Vil-lage Foundation (Katara) will continue until December 18. The events are attracting a large number of visitors from differ-ent nationalities every day.

The events also coincide with Qatar National Day cel-ebrations, offering educational and sports activities catering to younger generations, and ce-menting values of loyalty to the homeland in visitors. In addi-tion to fostering humanitarian and philanthropy values, the event highlights Qatar Charity’s role in serving the local commu-nity and the people of the world.

The events include sports and recreational activities, the-atrical performances and cul-tural competitions.

Cultural activities include the “Memory Challenge” which is a competition of inverted im-ages related to relief needs. QC is also organizing a “Qatar Stadi-ums” competition, where teams can combine the name of the stadium with its image. This is in addition to the “Word Com-position” competition, Balloons and Papers” quiz about Qatar Charity, and “The Postman”, which is a set of postcards that include sports and historical questions.

The event also offers a “Metro Map”, representing Qa-tar’s map divided into six sta-tions; each one includes a set of

cards in the shape of the metro containing several landmarks, sports, and cultural stations.

Qatar Charity pavilion in-cludes an exhibition that reflects the charity’s expansive interven-tions in 50 countries and the im-pact of QC’s projects on the lives of beneficiaries.

Fatima Al-Mohannadi, Di-rector of Local Programs and Community Development De-partment at Qatar Charity, said: “The events aim to celebrate Doha’s hosting of the Arab Cup, which reflects the great efforts made by Qatar in establishing an

integrated sports infrastructure and hosting continental champi-onships. This success will lead to the hosting of FIFA World Cup by the end of next year.”

She added that Qatar Char-ity’s participation on the events aims to highlight its achieve-ments and successes in Qatar and abroad with contributions from the people of Qatar.

Al-Mohannadi urged the public to participate in the events to be acquainted with the values of humanitarian work and its impact on the lives of beneficiaries.

Military Police Forces celebrated the graduation of a number of their training courses. (TNN)

MILITARY POLICE FORCES CELEBRATE GRADUATION OF TRAINEES

04 Monday, December 6, 2021 Nation

Galeries Lafayette Doha celebrates Qatar National DayTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

GALERIES Lafayette Doha is all set to celebrate Qatar National Day (QND) in its own unique style.The department store re-cently inaugurated specially dressed windows that emanate the pride that Qatar National Day entails. For this special oc-casion, Galeries Lafayette Doha once again collaborated with local Qatari artists Fahad Al Maadheed and Nasser Alkubai-si to create some exclusive visu-als to adorn the store.

The artists created exclu-sive lines of artwork to offer a unique and captivating experi-ence for visitors at Galeries La-

fayette Doha, setting the right tone for the celebrations.

While artist Fahad Al Maad-heed is already well-known for his art and also for his paintings on leather goods such as hand-bags, wallets and phone covers, Nasser Alkubaisi is a new star on the horizon.

An interior designer and a digital artist, Nasser has re-ceived a lot of attention and his works can be found in different public spaces and the National Museum Gift Shop.

Fahad’s art installations aim to strengthen the national iden-tity by going back to the past.

His work embodies those who built and defended the land since historical times. The win-

dow takes us back in time and the spirit of the past and present converges through art.

The main inspiration of Nasser’s art is, if Van Gogh was in Qatar, how he would admire

the beauty of the Galleries La-fayette Doha building.

The concept of his window revolves round an exclusive live artwork that you can experience

as you watch it moving and be-coming alive. It is an eclectic combination of art and technol-ogy that creates an illusion of movement and live painting.

Fahad, who has exhibited his art in Galeries Lafayette Doha before, said: “It is indeed a pleasure to be part of Galer-ies Lafayette Doha’s Qatar Na-tional Day celebrations. This is a perfect platform to display my special QND art that depicts the richness of Qatari heritage and my passion for it.”

Speaking about his pres-ence at Galeries Lafayette Doha, Nasser said, “Just as Van Gogh himself said, ‘I dream my painting and I paint my dream’, my art is my dream. I am hum-bled by the opportunity to be able to present my art to the clientele of Galeries Lafayette Doha on the auspicious occa-sion of Qatar National Day. It is

my tribute to my nation and its people.”

The theme of the celebra-tions is also reflected in ex-clusive dishes created for the occasion at the restaurants and cafes in Galeries Lafayette Doha. Limited-edition desserts and a savoury item have been carefully designed to celebrate the occasion.

General Manager of Galer-ies Lafayette Doha Kevin Gerard Pender said, “Celebrat-ing Qatar National Day every year is a part of the depart-ment store’s tradition. It is also a perfect stage to highlight the unparalleled talent of the local artists and merge together pat-riotism and art with retail.”

BPS honours Kumar Mangalam BirlaTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

BIRLA Public School (BPS) organised a memorable event in honour of Kumar Man-galam Birla, the chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, one of the largest conglomerates in India. The dignitaries present on the occasion included HE Sheikh Saoud Bin Abdulrah-man Al Thani, Ambassador of India to Qatar HE Dr Deepak Mittal, Aryaman Birla and Su-shil Agarwal.

The guests of honour were honoured by Chairman of Birla Public School Gope Shahani and directors Mohan Thomas, C.V Rappai and Lu-kose K Chacko.

The dignitaries were hon-oured with a sapling and icons of Qatar’s culture – fal-con, oryx, dhow and pearl.

The guests were welcomed by Academic Director and Principal Harish Sanduja.

The achievements made by the Birla Public School in the field of PISA, NEET and JEE were highlighted during the event.

A special mention was made about the child prodi-gies of Birla for their inven-tions and achievements.

The chief guest of the day,

Kumar Mangalam Birla ad-dressed the gathering with his inspirational words.

The Indian ambassador commended the school for its achievements in various fields and expressed his wish to make cricket an acclaimed international game in Qatar.

Lukose K Chacko, direc-tor, expressed his love and respect for the Aditya Birla group.

A mesmerizing dance and music programme was presented on the occasion by the students of Birla Public School.

DPS Monarch Int’l School signs agreement with Cisco Academy

DPS Monarch International School has signed a membership agreement with the Cisco Acad-emy.

DPS Monarch International is the first school in Qatar to initiate this member-ship agreement to integrate the ICT curricu-lum with CISCO for all primary to secondary school students, said a press statement from the school.

The school believes in providing a wide range of exposure to its students, which can help them enrich their portfolios. This collabo-ration with the leading IT company would serve the purpose in the right direction,” added the press statement.The agreement-signing cer-emony was presided by Mohamad al Hashimi, CTO of Cisco for Qatar. The event was graced with President of the school Hasan Chougule, Vice-President Yasir Nainar, IT Director Sreed-haran Kuniramath, Principal Meenal Bakshi, and other EC members of the school. (TNN)

MESIS expo promotes science & technology among studentsTRIBUNE NEWS NETWORK

DOHA

MES Indian School (MESIS) Abu Hamour Branch held its first science and math exhibi-tion titled ‘EXPERIMENTAL 2021’ recently.

The exhibition, which aimed to promote interest of students in science, math-ematics and technology, saw a large participation.

The programme was held in the multi-purpose hall with exhibits received from stu-dents of all grades displayed together.

The exhibition com-menced with the inauguration held at MESIS FM Radio Sta-tion with prayer recitation by Naja Mehdin Nazer of Grade VII-A.

Heba of Grade VII-D de-livered the welcome address. This was followed by the ad-dress by chief guest of the event, Khaleel A.P, vice-presi-dent of MESIS, who reiterated the importance of science, math and technology in solv-ing daily problems.

The chief guest of the event, M.C Muhamed, direc-tor of Cultural Activities, ME-SIS, said such as an exhibition would open the curious minds of students and foster their in-vestigative approach to learn-ing.

MESIS Principal Dr Mo-hammed Haneef presided over the event and delivered the message of the day: “Sci-

ence and math are two integral parts of our lives”. Accord-ing to him, programmes such as this exhibition would give every student an opportunity to put the theory into practice and explore more about the subjects and related topics.

The event, which was com-

pered by Ridhwan Jasheem of III-A and Sabiha Ahmed of VII-D, concluded with a vote of thanks by Liya Saad of Grade III A.

The exhibition included some highlights such as an in-cubator prepared by Lakshmi Priya, a remote controlled car

named ‘Crawller’ by Jax Jerin, a working model on geometri-cal shapes and multiplication tables prepared by Ananda Krishanan, a tangram by Navneet, a working model Py-thagoras theorem by Hridhya and Sruthi and many more ex-hibits.

The exhibition was a smooth run due to the unin-terrupted contribution of par-ents.

The Experimental 2021 was coordinated by teachers Fathimath Shabna, Sherbina and Shahanas in team work with all the teachers of MESIS.

The event was supervised by Academic Coordinator Ashokan and School Mentor Rashmi Jain.

Lagoona Mall creates exceptional dining & viewing experience

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

LAGOONA Mall is providing the best viewing experience for its visitors during the year’s most anticipated football event, which is taking place in Qatar

from November 30 to Decem-ber 18.

Football fans can cheer on their national teams in an unrivaled environment that puts them right in the middle of the action at Lagoona Mall. The mall’s outdoor Piazza will

be transformed into a festival pitch, where fans can watch the games on two massive screens and eat their favorite food from a variety of restaurants in an open-air setting.

Furthermore, for those who prefer a more private setting, the

mall is providing special VIP pods and a double-decker experience in which families or groups of friends can enjoy delectable cui-sine while watching the matches on private personal screens.

Football is a culture as well as a sport. Lagoona Mall has es-

tablished itself as a sports hub over the years, allowing its visi-tors to share magical moments and unforgettable experiences with family and friends. On this occasion, Lagoona Mall reaf-firms its commitment to Qatar and the much-anticipated foot-ball event that the country will witness in 2022.

Lagoona Mall, located next to Qatar’s iconic ZigZag towers, is Doha’s premium shopping and lifestyle destination, set-ting new standards in terms of service, ease of access, and the number of international brands not previously seen in Qatar. Lagoona Mall is a haven of ex-clusivity, an inspiring mix of

enticing retail brands and fine dining outlets that draws shop-pers in to browse and enjoy its cool and classy lifestyle atmos-phere. Its sophisticated stylish surroundings make it an ideal place to meet and enjoy at lei-sure, and it is located near Do-ha’s affluent West Bay residen-tial lagoon.

A beautiful view for visitors, particularly football fans attending the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 at Lagoona Mall.

Officials at the inauguration of the ‘Experimental 2021’ exhibition at MESIS FM Radio Station recently.

Football fans can watch the matches on giant screens at the mall and cheer for their favourite Arab teams within an open-air ambiance

World

AgenciesNiamey

At least 79 militants and 29 soldiers are dead after an at-tack on a G5 military base in Western Niger, an army of-ficial confirmed on Sunday.

Meanwhile, explosions rocked a truck and a UN camp in Mali. the attack in Mali hit a truck carrying dozens, leav-ing at least 31 people dead.

In the northern city of Gao, two explosions rocked a UN camp early on Sunday. the AFP news agency reported that the blasts caused damage but no deaths.

West African nations have struggled to contain extrem-ist insurgencies in the region, with some groups pledging fe-alty to terrorist groups such as Al-Qaida or IS.

According to staff at the Fianto base in the tillabéri re-gion, the unidentified armed attackers arrived by the “hun-dreds” on motorcycles, the of-ficial told DPA.

No one has yet claimed re-sponsibility for the attack, but there are a number of armed groups active in Niger and oth-er countries in the Sahel region.

the Fianto base is used by the G5 Joint Force, which con-sists of the five Sahel countries of Mauritania, Niger, Chad, Mali and Burkina Faso. It was created in 2017 to establish or-der on their common border regions.

the blasts shook the bar-racks of the UN mission in

Mali. those who were inside were forced to take refuge in nearby shelters for two hours.

the French army reported only limited material damage.

In Niger, which has a pop-ulation of about 25 million, se-rious attacks occur often, es-pecially in the border regions with Mali. the government

has little control in the desert-like expanses outside of cities. this weakness is not only ex-ploited by extremist groups, but also by criminal networks such as human traffickers

In 2017 the G5 Joint Force was created to shore up the ef-forts of the group of five (G5) Sahel countries of Mauritania,

Niger, Chad, Mali and Burki-na Faso to establish order on their common border regions.

the Sahel Alliance, launched by France, Germany and the European Union in 2017, offers support to this region, which stretches from Senegal in the west all the way to Djibouti in the east.

More than 100 killed in Niger terrorist attack

In Niger, which has a population of about 25 million, serious attacks occur often, especially in the border regions with Mali. The government has little control in the desert-like expanses outside of cities. This weakness is not only exploited by extremist groups, but also by criminal networks such as human traffickers

At least 31 more lives lost in Mali as explosions hit truck and UN camp

dpABaNgkok

At least five people died and dozens were injured when Myanmar soldiers crashed into a flash mob protest in Yangon on Sunday, accord-ing to witnesses and local media reports.

Myanmar was plunged into chaos and violence after February’s coup. the mili-tary has responded to most resistance with force, result-ing in hundreds of deaths to date. Anti-coup protests still go on across the coun-try. they are often guerrilla-style, with small number of protesters facing potentially deathly crackdowns.

“A car with very fast speed rammed down the protesters and shots were fired. ... then soldiers ran after the protesters. I wit-nessed three dead bodies on the road,” a witness who asked not to be named for security reasons told DPA.

Videos and photos from the scene, which have gone viral on social media, shows a military-green vehicle ramming through the pro-testers. Soldiers jumped off it, arresting and beating people, according to wit-nesses. At least a dozen of protesters were arrested.

Despite the morning violence, there was another

separate small protest in Yangon. According to esti-mates by the prisoners’ aid organization AAPP, more than 1,300 people have been killed and thousands arrested.

Sunday’s protest was one of at least three held in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, and similar rallies were reported in other parts of the country a day ahead of an expected verdict in the first of several criminal cases against the country’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was toppled in a mili-tary takeover on February 1.

Anti-military protests have continued despite the killing of more than 1,300 people since the coup. the scattered protests are often small groups voicing oppo-sition to the overthrow Suu Kyi’s elected government and the return of military rule.

Five killed, dozens injured as soldiers ram protest crowd in Myanmar

05Monday, December 6, 2021

Rising numbers spur tiger census in Nepal

Protests after botched up anti-insurgency operation in India

‘Omicron precursors have been around for long’

Palestinians, rights group slam Jerusalem ‘execution’

Nepal started a census of Bengal tigers on Sunday to count how many of the big cats now live in the wild, officials said. The nationwide census is expected to take around three months, according to Bed kumar Dhakal, spokesperson of the De-partment of National parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNpWC). “The counting will be done in phases using camera traps. We hope to complete the count-ing process in the next three months, and the images would be analyzed after that,” Dhakal said. DNpWC plans to announce the results on World Tiger Day, on July 29 next year. (DPA)

dpACape ToWN

PrECUrSorS of the recently discovered omicron coronavirus variant are likely to have existed for a very long time, according to their co-discoverer, who hails from Germany.

“According to current knowledge, an early form of omicron evolved as a separate virus type even before Alpha and Delta emerged,” Wolfgang Preiser of Stellenbosch University near Cape town told dpa. He is a member of the research consortium that discovered the variant.this type of virus then probably evolved over many months without attracting attention, Preiser said. “the question is: Why

did omicron remain hidden for so long and only now get going? Were one or two muta-tions still missing to be able to spread quick-ly?” the oldest known evidence of the variant so far dates from the first half of November.

the variant, which was first discovered in South Africa and Botswana, has a particular-ly large number of mutations. Among other things, they affect the spike protein through which the viruses dock onto human cells.

In addition, there are mutations near the so-called furin cleavage site, a region that plays a role in the uptake of the virus into human cells. In Germany, according to the robert Koch Institute (rKI) disease control body, four cases of the omicron variant had

been confirmed by genome sequencing by Wednesday - all of them travellers returning from South Africa.

the variant is suspected in eight other cases in Germany. Experts, however, assume that there are already more cases. According to the European Centre for Disease Preven-tion and Control (ECDC), omicron could be the dominant variant in Europe within a few months.

the EU health authority recently pointed out that while there are still a number of un-certainties regarding transmissibility, the se-verity of an infection and possible impact on immune defences, preliminary data suggests that the disease is already present in Europe.

dpANeW Delhi

ANGrY villagers held protests and attacked an army camp in north-eastern India on Sun-day after more than a dozen people were killed by soldiers during a botched anti-insur-gency operation, news reports and officials said.

Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu rio ordered a high-level probe into the killings, which took place on Saturday evening in the state’s remote Mon district, which borders Myanmar.

“the unfortunate incident leading to the killings of civil-ians at oting [village] is highly condemnable,” he said on

twitter.Security forces had laid an

ambush in the district after receiving intelligence about possible movements by insur-gents but reportedly opened fire on a pick-up vehicle car-rying coal-miners, mistaking them for members of a local militant group. Six of them were killed, domestic media reported, citing local commu-nity leaders.

Angry locals gathered, burned two army vehicles and attacked the troops. then, seven more people were killed when the forces opened fire at the mob in “self-defence,” broadcaster NDtV reported. one soldier was also killed in the clash.

the situation remained tense through Sunday. In re-newed violence in the even-

ing, two more casualties were reported after protesters at-tacked the army’s Assam rifles

camp in Mon, according to lo-cal news outlet Northeast Now. Several more were injured.

the fatalities were yet to be confirmed officially as police remained tight-lipped over the matter. the irate villagers set the camp on fire, after which security forces opened fire to disperse the mob, the report said.

Candlelight marches and vigils were also held in other towns in the state. In an at-tempt to curb further violence, state authorities announced an indefinite curfew in Mon and shut down mobile internet and data services indefinitely in the district, officials said.

Earlier on Sunday, Federal Home Minister Amit Shah had expressed his condolenc-es and said the state’s special investigation team will “thor-

oughly probe this incident to ensure justice to the bereaved families.” In a statement, the army said: “Based on a credi-ble intelligence of likely move-ment of insurgents, a specific operation was planned to be conducted. ... the incident and its aftermath is deeply re-gretted.”

“the cause of the unfortu-nate loss of lives is being in-vestigated at the highest level and appropriate action will be taken as per the course of law,” it added. the Mon area is a stronghold of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang), a Naga militant group. Insurgents often cross into Myanmar after staging at-tacks in the region.

AgenciesoCCupieD eaST JeruSalem

PAlEStINIAN officials and hu-man rights groups have con-demned the killing of a Palestin-ian man after he carried out a stabbing attack in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli police have released surveillance video from the site of the attack near Jerusalem’s old City on Saturday.

In the footage, the Palestinian, identified as 25-year-old Moham-mad Salima, appears to stab an ultra-orthodox Jewish man and then approaches an Israeli police

officer before being shot and fall-ing to the ground.

other footage shot by bystand-ers appeared to show Israeli police officers continuing to shoot Sali-ma from point-blank range while he was lying on the ground and not appearing to pose a threat.

Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said the stab-bing victim was a 20-year-old man who was taken to hospital in “moderate to severe condition”.

the United Nation’s Human rights office (oHCHr) said it was “shocked by the apparent extra-judicial execution”.

“Footage shows Mr Sleemah

attacking a passerby and police of-ficer with a knife before being shot and subdued. While on the ground and injured, Israeli forces shot Mr Sleemah twice, apparently killing him,” it said in a statement.

the office of Palestinian Au-thority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas said the shooting “was a continuity of Israel’s ongoing ag-gression on the Palestinian people that should not be tolerated”.

PA Prime Minister Moham-mad Shtayyeh condemned it as a “crime of execution” and called for it to be added to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) investiga-tion file into Israeli war crimes.

A man walks behind a placard posted at the venue of the Hornbill festival, which was shut after 13 civil-ians were killed in firing by Indian security forces in the northeastern state of Nagaland, at Kisama village in Kohima on Sunday.

Myanmar anti-coup protest-ers run amid a crckdown by security forces in Yangon on Sunday.

DAVID FICKLING

How do we ensure that the world has ac-cess to the CoVID-19 vaccines needed to prevent more variants like the latest omicron strain from emerging?

one disturbingly common response to calls from the world Health organization and others to increase the availability of doses in emerging economies is to suggest supply isn’t really the problem, but demand. South Africa, where omicron was first identified, provides one data point in favor of this hy-pothesis. Despite the fact that barely 24% of the population has been fully vaccinated, the Department of Health last week asked John-son & Johnson and Pfizer Inc. to suspend de-livery of vaccines because its existing stockpile was more than enough at current lackluster rates of uptake.

To be clear, outside of the rich world de-mand is clearly not the main constraining factor on inoculations. All but 14 of the 51 nations with supply agreements sufficient to cover their entire populations are high-in-come countries, according to data collected by UNICEF.

Vaccine manufacturing capacity, which a database kept by Duke University puts at 11.435 billion doses this year, is simply insuf-ficient to double-dose everyone on the planet. The rich nations where most shots have been developed have managed to hog the lion’s share of both first, second and third boosters so far.

Next year, though, that’s likely to change. UNICEF’s figures suggest that we’ll have ca-pacity to produce about 23.53 billion doses, more than enough to put a needle in every person on the planet three times over. At that point, hesitancy in the unvaccinated world may become a real problem — and everything we’re doing now is likely to make it worse.

Tackling the reluctance of people to take action against epidemic disease isn’t a new problem. Indeed, from the heyday of smallpox eradication after world war II to the current campaign to snuff out the last vestiges of po-lio and guinea worm, it’s at the heart of what groups like the wHo do year after year.

The lessons of that experience for lower-income nations are fairly straightforward. People need outside public health experts to show a genuine interest in the problems they face, from a lack of drinking water, sanitation and clean cooking facilities to more neglected and endemic diseases such as HIV, tubercu-losis, malaria and diarrhea. Ideally, vaccines should form part of a package of measures to improve health, rather than be a one-time campaign parachuted into remote communi-

ties. If the motivations of those driving the push and the direct impacts on those receiving doses are unclear, that can lead to suspicion and conspiracy theories, especially among vul-nerable populations.

Looked at that way, it’s clear why our cur-rent strategy is setting itself up for failure. By not ensuring sufficient doses for the world and hoarding those we do have, rich nations are sending a strong signal that vaccinations don’t really matter.

Sub-Saharan Africa in particular has rea-son to take outside advice with a pinch of salt. For reasons that are still unclear but probably relate to the youth of the population (around 1 in 20 Africans are over the age of 60, com-pared to about a quarter of Europeans and North Americans), mortality and severe sick-ness from CoVID-19 has been far lower than other parts of the world. The comparatively affluent and old South Africa is a notable ex-ception.

Unlike polio, which frequently causes prominent leg and spine deformities, the ef-fects of CoVID-19 aren’t particularly visible, making vaccination a harder sell to skeptics. In asking Africans to take doses once they become available, we’re appealing to them to pull together for the sake of our own elder populations, while showing little evidence of solidarity in the other direction.

There are some advantages in this fight. Africa is already more urbanized than much of Asia, meaning there’s a smaller rural popu-lation disconnected from routine health in-formation. Its public health systems, while starved of funding, are well set up to tackle CoVID-19 because communicable diseases have always been the main threat to local pop-ulations. That contrasts with richer countries, which direct resources more toward condi-tions of aging, such as cancer and heart dis-ease. The long, bitter struggle to roll out polio vaccines, HIV antiretrovirals and tuberculosis antibiotics also means we have a head start in knowing what problems to address.

we have to heed those lessons and work fast. while the small size of Africa’s over-60 population might be protecting it from major outbreaks, the legacy of HIV and the preva-lence of undernourishment mean there is an unusually large population with the weak-ened immune systems that are so conducive to cooking up new and concerning variants of CoVID-19.

Richer countries may feel safe behind their walls of boosters and travel restrictions. Un-til the whole world is protected, though, those defenses will be under constant assault.

(David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist)

Opinion

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

Only Winning Over Skeptics Can Avoid

Shocks Like OmicronBoosting vaccine supply will be good, but not enough. Rich nations

should act on the developing world’s wider public health concerns to reduce the space for COVID-19 mutations

EstablishEd sEptEmbEr 3, 2006

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

50 Years And No Cure: How We Can Finally Win The ‘War On Cancer’Dr EmILy r TruNNELL

IN 1971, when then-President Richard Nixon signed the Na-tional Cancer Act and launched the “war on cancer,” taxpayer dollars were poured into the

search for a cure for a disease that was, at the time, the second-lead-ing cause of death in the US.

Today, 50 years and approxi-mately $140 billion dollars later, cancer is still the second-leading cause of death in the US.

How could five decades of near-ly unwavering focus from the pur-portedly sharpest scientific minds in the world fail so spectacularly?

The answer lies in the termi-nally flawed animal experimenta-tion model, upon which an alarm-ing amount of cancer research is based. The fundamental biological differences between humans and other animals lead, unsurprisingly,

to different results. other animals, quite simply, are a poor experi-mental model for humans.

No matter what type of ex-periment it is, how intricately it is designed or how much it costs, experimenters have been unable to surmount the biological, immu-nological and genetic differences between species. This has even led a former director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) — the agen-cy leading the war on cancer — to wave a white flag.

“The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in the mouse,” former NCI direc-tor Dr Richard Klausner said. “we have cured mice of cancer for dec-ades — and it simply didn’t work in humans.”

This is what 50 years of animal experimentation has achieved:

● officials estimate that cancer killed 598,932 Americans in 2020.

● About 39% of people in the US can expect a cancer diagnosis at some point during their lives,

and despite significant investment in research for cancer therapies, only 67.7% of them will survive for

longer than five years after that di-agnosis.

● Cancer drugs developed through animal experimentation fail to get approved 96.6% of the time.

The most significant battles being won in the war on cancer do not come from grafting tumors onto mice. They come from quit-ting smoking, ditching red and processed meat in favor of a vegan diet, and having regular check-ups to screen for indicators before symptoms present. These personal preventive measures have brought cancer rates down 27% over the past two decades.

Yet in 2019, almost 70% of the NCI’s budget was dedicated not to prevention but to experiments in-volving such practices as genetical-ly engineering irradiated mice. In fact, the percentage of NCI funds invested in cancer prevention and

control has changed little over the past several years.

To wage a successful war on cancer, we must increase resources for cancer prevention, eliminate animal experimentation and invest in cutting-edge, human-relevant tools that have far greater poten-tial for generating treatments and cures in humans.

Tools such as in vitro experi-ments, human-relevant computa-tional models, human-based tissue engineering, cancer organoids and epidemiology studies are much more relevant and reliable than animal experiments and hold the promise of actually winning the war on cancer. To learn more and take action, readers can visit PETA.org/Cancer.

(Dr Emily R. Trunnell is a senior scientist with PETA’s Laboratory Investigations Department)

IN 2015, @Jack tweeted: “I think Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness. And I

believe the world needs that right now.” on Monday, the bearded @Jack, otherwise known as Jack Dors-ey, quit his job as the CEo of Twitter, apparently having decided that run-ning that thing was no longer much fun.

Forgive us if we don’t have much sympathy.

Being new and novel, the social media channels that now dominate much of our waking hours man-aged to worm their way into our col-lective consciousness even as their potentially pernicious effects went unnoticed. Subsequent generations will hold us to account for our folly. Right from the start, the tech titans at Twitter and Facebook argued that they were not a publisher. This has proved to be a con.

By hiding behind a federal law, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the so-cial networks claimed broad immunity from liability for content created by their users.

At the same time, those networks relied on, for their revenue and popularity, the distribution of con-tent from traditional publishers, even as they sold targeted advertising that ate into journalistic busi-ness models, hasten-ing the current, well-documented crisis in local journalism. over time, the networks also delivered oblique algorithms that privileged the sharing of content in their own “skin.” That’s why, on Facebook, many of your favorite in-dependent writers working on Sub-stack and elsewhere have taken to posting their work in the comments. They’ve figured out that linking con-tent from elsewhere in a main post will ding their distribution. This is not exactly a world of net neutrality.

Much of the illusion of the pub-lic utility fell apart once Twitter and Facebook discovered that their users often created duplicitous and hateful content that was deleterious to the United States. Their own users and staffers demanded censorship of this detritus, but they of course did so according to their own political and ideological preferences.

And thus Twitter co-founder @Jack and his friends at Facebook found themselves trying to decide what did or did not count as hate speech, the reasonable limits of pri-vacy, whether high political office

(such as, president) implied differ-ent criteria, how much people could be trusted to make their own deci-sions, what was and wasn’t actual news, how much balance is desirable and more.

Tough going, @Jack?For generations, newspapers

have made similar judgment calls, but they’ve used a staff of profession-al journalists to do so, not an algo-rithm. And when mistakes have been made, and they have, those publica-tions have been held accountable by the courts and by their readers. They haven’t hidden under some blather of “global consciousness.”

Mark Zuckerberg has often said he doesn’t think Facebook should be the arbiter of the truth of everything that people say online. But that po-sition is naive and disingenuous. He built a platform for the amplification of opinion with filters set to the in-terests of his own company; he now is chagrined to be held even remotely

accountable.Things have be-

come so rough for these networks – look at what has happened to the reputations of Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, for example – they are rethinking their posi-tions on regulation and seeing the ben-efits of governments offering cover. In es-sence, they’ve been saying, we’re too big, the world is too rough for us to monitor, we need someone else to take the heat in a way

that doesn’t mess with our bottom lines.

The social networks were always publishers, always making editorial choices. They merely used technol-ogy and the seemingly benign aspect of so-called user-generated content to hide their curatorial role.

Free competition is a proven way of limiting power. Public bod-ies must be wary of regulation of the likes of Twitter and Facebook merely becoming a way for these two enti-ties to duck responsibility and keep a stranglehold on power.

we see the promise of Frank Mc-Court’s Project Liberty, an effort to create a social network that gives us-ers more control over their personal data. And Donald Trump should be free to create his new TRUTH Social network, just as you should be free to ignore it.

And, no, it’s not the truth – just his truth. As long we all understand that, and make our societal decisions accordingly, no problem.

What Is Twitter’s Future? Hopefully,

Some Humility And Fresh Competition

Public bodies must be wary of regulation of the likes of Twitter and

Facebook merely becoming a way

for these two entities to duck responsibility

06 Monday, December 6, 2021

dpaAthens

PoPe Francis flew to the Greek island of Lesbos on Sunday where he shook hands, spoke with migrants and placed his hand on children’s heads.

As cardinals and politi-cians sat together with other migrants in a marquee, await-ing the pontiff’s prayer session there, Francis took his time walking along the gravel path, greeting hundreds of people.

“I am here to tell you that I am close to you. I am here to see your faces and look you in the eye. eyes full of fear and expectation, eyes that have seen violence and poverty, eyes redened from too many tears,” the 84-year-old told the crowd.

Francis, who has used his current eastern Mediterrane-an tour to highlight the plight of migrants and refugees, last visited Lesbos in 2016, when the notoriously overcrowded Moria camp still existed.

That camp burned down in 2020, so Francis met the mi-grants at a new facility in Kara Tepe, where the UN Refugee Agency has set up white con-tainers to house people.

Still, the conditions at the site are fairly miserable. Around 2,200 migrants cur-rently live at Kara Tepe, a for-mer military shooting range surrounded by barbed-wire fencing.

“We have been here for three years,” a man called Hamad said.

After a five-month journey from Afghanistan, he and his

wife, together with their three children, first ended up at Mo-ria, before moving down to

the new camp on the Aegean coast.

They are hoping for the

pope’s support. “We need help,” said Hamad, who was in the marquee to watch the

sermon.A few rows behind sat or-

phee, a 28-year-old who fled his native Congo and arrived in Lesbos with his pregnant wife Rosette on June 1. Their daughter Maduda was born on September 21.

“We want a life without this tension and uncertainty,” orphee said.

Francis said that migration is “a world problem, a human-itarian crisis that concerns everyone,” telling the migrants that “your faces, your eyes ask us not to turn away.” The head of the Catholic Church had harsh words for politicians and the public.

He also visited Cyprus as part of his trip, where he gave an impassioned speech on Fri-day decrying the “universal slavery” seen in ongoing mi-gration crises.

on Lesbos, Francis la-mented the fact that “little has changed” since his first visit five years ago, adding that Greece was doing its best but

had been left in the lurch.“Let us overcome the para-

lysing fear, the deadly indif-ference, the cynical disinterest that in kid gloves condemns to death those who stand on the sidelines,” he said.

The problem is not con-fined to Lesbos. According to UN figures, there are currently around 82 million migrants worldwide.

After his prayer, Francis was approached by two girls who received gifts.

Before departing the is-land, Francis once again got out of his black Fiat 500 to speak with migrants.

“If we want to start anew, let us look above all into the faces of children,” the pope said as boys rode around on bicycles. “Let us find the cour-age to be ashamed before those who are innocent and who represent the future.” In parallel with Francis’ visit, the Vatican is arranging for doz-ens of refugees to accompany the pope back to Italy.

dpaLondon

THoUSANdS of homes in Britain are still without power more than a week af-ter Storm Arwen struck the country.

The energy Networks Association (eNA) said that 4,025 homes were still wait-ing to be reconnected as of early on Sunday. This is down from 4,700 homes late on Saturday. The majority of the impacted homes are in the north-east of england, the eNA added.

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is expected to sur-vey the damage from Storm Arwen in durham later on Sunday. It comes after gusts of between 35-50 miles per hour (mph) battered the country overnight on Sat-urday, with temperatures plummeting to below zero in parts of Scotland.

Meanwhile, the Met of-

fice predicts further wet and windy weather heading into next week, with poor weather conditions continuing in ar-eas already impacted by Arw-en. Met office meteorologist Rachel Ayers said: “It will be a relatively nice day today, but overnight tonight it will be windy.

“Temperatures, with the wind and cloud cover, should stay up tonight.

“That should help things a little bit, but we are expect-ing some more changeable and unsettled weather.

“This unsettled weather isn’t going to help areas that have been impacted by Storm Arwen too much.” Stew-art Sexton, from Alnwick in Northumberland, is on day 10 without power.

“Yesterday we had con-firmation that it would be on by close of play today,” the 57-year-old told the PA news agency.

“NPG [Northern Power-

grid] even called us back to say yes - confirmed - back on the 5th.

“However, it’s blowing 40 mph with rain here to-day so that confirmation is highly unlikely, if not im-possible.” The Ministry of defence told PA that 297 personnel from the British Army and Royal Marines

were still providing support to civil authorities and con-ducting door-to-door checks on vulnerable people early on Sunday.

on Saturday, Prime Min-ister Boris Johnson said he had calls with those leading the response to Storm Arwen and the government is ready to further support the recov-ery work “in any way we can.”

The long delays have prompted energy regulator ofgem to warn it will take en-forcement action against net-work companies which failed to restore power to customers quickly enough.

It has also agreed with firms to lift the 700-pound (926-dollar) cap on compen-sation which could be offered to those stuck without power.

The change will allow those affected to claim 70 pounds for each 12-hour pe-riod they have no electricity, and an initial 70 pounds for the first 48 hours’ of any cut.

Pope Francis (second right) meets refugees at the Reception and Identification Centre in Mytilene on the island of Lesbos on Sunday.

Don’t exploit migrants for politics: Pope

Thousands of British homes still without power 10 days after storm

World

Rumours of Downing Street Christmas party weigh on Boris Johnson

dpaLondon

BRITISH deputy Prime Min-ister dominic Raab said on Sunday it would have been a clear breach of Covid-19 rules at the time if Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s staff threw a party in No 10 in the run-up to last Christmas.

Johnson has not denied re-ports that his downing Street team staged a party on decem-ber 18, 2020, when London was under Tier 3 restrictions, but has insisted that no rules were broken.

However Raab, who is also the Justice Secretary, said he did not know the truth of the reports based on “unsubstan-tiated claims all on the basis of anonymous sources,” but if they turned out to be correct, then there would have been a breach.

“Until there is something substantiated, until it is more than anonymous sources, I think we are chasing shad-ows,” he told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show.

“If there is a breach of the rules, there is a breach of the rules.

“But I don’t know the full facts because I wasn’t there.

“of course, if there was a formal party held, of course that it something that is clearly contrary to the guidance.

“If anyone held a party that it is contrary to the rules, of course that is the wrong thing to do.

“If something unsubstanti-ated from anonymous sources actually materialized, then of course it would be wrong.” His intervention will pile pressure on Johnson to explain what exactly went on in downing Street last year, something he has repeatedly refused to do.

Last week The daily Mir-ror reported that two events took place in No 10 last year in the run-up to the festive sea-son.

The first was said to have been a leaving do for a senior aide in November, when the country was in a second na-tional lockdown, attended by Johnson, who gave a speech.

The second was report-edly a staff party in december where, according to multiple reports, party games were played, food and drink were served, and the revelries went on past midnight.

The rules in place in the capital at the time explicitly banned work Christmas lunch-es and parties where it is “a primarily social activity and is not otherwise permitted.” on Saturday, the Metropolitan Police said it was considering complaints submitted by two Labour parliamentarians, even though it did not normally in-vestigate retrospective breach-es of the Covid regulations.

Families who lost loved ones during the pandemic have said they were “sickened” by the reports, with the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group calling for an apology from the prime minister.

Raab, meanwhile, said he will not be holding a Christ-mas party at the Ministry of Justice, even though it would be permitted under the cur-rent coronavirus rules.

Moscow A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Us President Joe Biden is set for tuesday, with both sides now confirming the meeting. Kremlin press secretary dmitry Peskov confirmed the date for the summit to the Interfax news agency. It was confirmed later on saturday by white house spokesperson Jen Psaki. “the leaders will discuss a range of topics in the Us-Russia relationship, including strategic stabil-ity, cyber, and regional issues. President Biden will underscore Us concerns with Russian military activities on the border with Ukraine and reaffirm the United states’ support for the sover-eignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” read the white house statement. (agencies)

Putin and Biden set for online meeting on Tuesday, both sides confirm

MAdRId the volcanic eruption on the spanish island of La Palma has caused more than 842 million euros (952 million dol-lars) in damages over 11 weeks, according to a local government estimate. since the eruption began in cumbre Vieja on septem-ber 19, lava reaching temperatures of up to 1,300 degrees has destroyed almost 2,800 buildings and severely damaged 100 others, the RtVe state broadcaster reported on sunday. the cooled lava has also changed the shape of the island, forming a headland of more than 40 hectares. An area measuring around 1,140 hectares - equivalent to 1,600 football fields - has been covered with lava or metre-thick ash. (agencies)

La Palma volcanic eruption causes 842 million euros in damages

News in brief

RIo de JAneIRo Members of the Venezuelan opposition protested in the state of Barinas this weekend against a court order demanding a rerun of elections there, a state where the opposition won in regional elections last month. “the events today in Barinas show the strength of the majority, which is determined to fight, and it requires a rethink by the leadership,” tweeted opposition leader Juan Guaido on saturday. Initial results after the november 21 regional elections showed a slim victory for Freedy superlano of the opposition MUd coalition, beating Argenis chavez, the brother of deceased Venezuelan leader hugo chavez. But, on Monday, the country’s top court ordered new elections in the state, arguing that superlano had not been allowed to compete. the new elections will be on January 9. (agencies)

Protesters turn out after opposition win overturned in Venezuela

Protests against coronavirus rules draw out thousands of agitators across Europe

dpaVIennA

THoUSANdS turned out in various european cities at the weekend to demand freedom of movement, police said, after authorities across the conti-nent have restricted move-ment in an effort to keep the coronavirus from spreading faster.

In Luxembourg, protest-ers stormed a winter market following rallies against the Grand duchy’s Covid-19 poli-cies. They had disregarded the market’s entry rules and pushed barriers aside, the po-lice said.

There were some “minor altercations” and the Christ-mas market was closed. Be-cause the protesters were also heading for the Chamber of deputies, the entrances there were blocked by police offic-ers. Around 2,000 people had attended the demonstrations.

Meanwhile, police in Vien-na reported that 40,000 had gathered in the Austrian capi-tal on Saturday, many in op-position to a vaccine mandate expected to enter into force in February. Five people were ar-rested.

Protesters bore signs say-ing “No to Vaccine Mandates” or “Jesus Protects the Chil-dren, not Vaccines.” Many ig-nored mask requirements.

Four officers were injured

during the arrest of an inebri-ated demonstrator, the police said.

Austria has been in lock-down since mid-November, with the restrictions set to be in place through december 11.

There were also reports of

5,000 people marching in pro-test in Utrecht, although there were no reports of violence in the dutch city, unlike in recent demonstrations against coro-navirus rules.

Italian authorities also re-ported a variety of demonstra-tions across the country, rang-ing from a few dozen people in Rome to thousands in Turin and Bologna. There were no reports of violence, but multi-ple incidences of people ignor-ing rules requiring the use of a mask.

Plight● Francis, who has used his current eastern Mediter-ranean tour to highlight the plight of migrants and refugees, last visited Lesbos in 2016, when the notoriously overcrowded Moria camp still existed

Keyword● Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he had calls with those leading the response to storm Arwen and the government is ready to further support the recovery work “in any way we can.” the long delays have prompted energy regulator ofgem to warn it will take enforcement action against network firms

Police in Vienna reported that 40,000 had gathered in the Austrian capital on Saturday, many in opposi-tion to a vaccine mandate

07Monday, December 6, 2021

Demonstrators march during a rally against Belgium government’s measures to curb the spread of the Covid-19 and mandatory vaccina-tion in Brussels, on Sunday.

dpaBeRLIn

ALMoST two-thirds of peo-ple in Germany would back a mandate for coronavirus vac-cines — a proposal set to come before German lawmakers soon — according to a poll re-leased on Sunday.

The results showed 63 per cent of respondents backing required immunisation for German residents against the virus that causes Covid-19. Beyond that, 30 per cent were opposed and 7 per cent gave no response.

The survey was conducted by YouGov for dPA and in-volved 2,067 people inter-viewed between Wednesday and Friday.

About a year ago, after the first vaccinations were received in Germany in late december 2020, about 56 per cent backed a vaccine mandate and 33 per cent were against.

Incoming chancellor olaf Scholz has said he intends to bring vaccine mandate legisla-tion before the Bundestag in February or March.

The results come as the country’s infectious diseases agency, the Robert Koch In-stitute (RKI), reported a slight drop in the number of cases. It recorded 42,055 new cases, for a seven-day incidence per 100,000 people of 439.2.

A week ago, those figures were 44,401 and 446.7.

But the RKI cautioned that many cases are probably going unreported, due to a surge of hospitalizations that is leav-ing health care staff with lit-tle time to track and record all cases.

In light of case counts, Volker Wissing, who is expect-ed to take over as transporta-tion secretary next week with the new German government, cautioned Germans to skip Christmas-time trips to visit relatives.

“Winter 2021 is going to be more dramatic than the winter of 2020. We can’t stop taking corona seriously,” he told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper as he urged Germans to mini-mize their number of contacts to the absolute minimum.

Highlighting the danger, Poland and Switzerland were added to Germany’s list of high-risk coronavirus regions on Sunday, joining about 60 other countries. People who return to Germany from such regions and are neither vac-cinated nor recovered from a coronavirus infection face 10 days of quarantine.

Two-thirds of Germans support mandatory Covid-19 vaccination

The results showed 63 per cent of respondents back-ing required immunisation for German residents against the virus that causes Covid-19

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

PURCHASING Managers’ Index (PMI) survey data from Qatar Fi-nancial Centre (QFC) scaled new heights in November, signalling a burgeoning non-energy private sec-tor economy.

Both total activity and new busi-ness rose at the strongest rates since the survey began in April 2017, while a record rise in backlogged work suggested growing capacity pressures despite a further rise in employment.

Moreover, pricing power im-proved as average charges for goods and services increased at a series-record pace during November.

The Qatar PMI indices are com-piled from survey responses from a panel of around 450 private sec-tor companies. The panel covers the manufacturing, construction, wholesale, retail, and services sec-tors, and reflects the structure of the non-energy economy according to official national accounts data.

The headline IHS Markit Qatar PMI is a composite single-figure in-dicator of non-energy private sec-tor performance. It is derived from

indicators for new orders, output, employment, suppliers’ delivery times and stocks of purchases.

The PMI set a new record high for the third month running at 63.1 in November, up from 62.2 in Oc-tober. This indicated the strongest overall improvement in non-energy business conditions since the sur-vey began in April 2017. The head-line figure has risen for the past six months, a record sequence of month-on-month gains.

The latest rise in the PMI was driven by the new orders and out-put components, which together have a weight of 55 percent in the headline figure. Both indicators set new record highs during the month, most notably new business with 54 percent of companies reporting stronger demand growth during November. In contrast, only 2 per-cent of firms reported lower new orders during the month compared with October. Growth rates for out-put and new work have accelerated continuously since June. Firms linked growth to healthy trading conditions, a lack of COVID-19 re-strictions and high levels of custom-er satisfaction as well as retention.

Qatari firms remained confident

of growth in activity from current levels in 12 months’ time, partly linked to increased tourism and business opportunities due to the forthcoming FIFA World Cup. The sentiment was strongest in the ser-vices and construction sectors.

Employment in the non-energy private sector rose for the four-teenth successive month in Novem-ber, and at a stronger rate. Despite the pick-up in hiring activity, the level of outstanding business in-creased at the fastest rate on record.

This suggested growing pressure from demand on business capacity.

Purchasing activity was stepped up to meet rising demand in No-vember. The volume of inputs bought rose at the second-fastest rate on record, surpassed only by the bounce registered in July 2020. Stocked inputs rose for the sixth month running. Average purchase prices increased at the fastest rate since June, contributing to the strongest overall cost pressures since August 2020. Wages and sala-

ries also continued to rise, albeit at a slower rate.

With growing pressure on costs and rapidly improving demand, non-energy private sector firms raised their charges for goods and services in November. Moreover, the rate of inflation accelerated to a survey record high, signalling an improvement in profitability.

November data covering Qa-tar’s financial services sector sig-nalled another substantial increase in business activity. The rate of growth eased slightly from October but was the second-fastest since the series began in 2017.

New business inflows at finan-cial services firms rose further in November. Growth was the second strongest ever, with only July 2020 having recorded a faster increase over the survey history. Expecta-tions for activity over the next 12 months remained positive, leading workforces to be expanded further.

Average input costs rose fur-ther, albeit at a slightly softer rate. Meanwhile, charges levied for financial services rose the most since February 2020, signalling improved profitability.

Commenting on the occasion,

QFC Authority Chief Executive Officer Yousuf Mohamed Al Jaida said, “The latest PMI survey results for Qatar have shown the non-en-ergy economy going from strength to strength as we approach a World Cup year. The PMI set a record high for the third month running in November, backed by surging levels of new business and total activity, which is indicative of the strong, gradual economic recovery being witnessed in Qatar.”

He said, “Moreover, the level of outstanding business at com-panies increased at a record pace during November, despite a fast-er increase in employment. This bodes well for sustained growth over the coming months.

“Companies also raised their prices charged for goods and ser-vices at a record pace in the lat-est survey, encouraged by strong demand but also in response to greater costs.

“The records set by the PMI in recent months are strongly point-ing towards acceleration in the official GDP figures in the third and fourth quarters, though this partly reflects low base effects from 2020.”

Qatar’s non-energy growth hits new peak in Nov

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

PRESIDENT of Poland An-drzej Duda attended the inau-guration of the Poland –Qatar Economic Roundtable featur-ing the participation of Minis-ter of Commerce and Industry HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Qassim Al Thani.

Organised by Qatar Cham-ber in cooperation with the Embassy of Poland in Doha, the roundtable also featured the participation of Qatar Chamber Second Vice-Chairman Rashid bin Hamad Al Athaba, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive and Qatar Tourism Chairman Akbar Al Baker, Investment Promotion Agency of Qatar (IPA Qatar) Chief Executive Officer Sheikh Ali Alwaleed Al Thani, a number of Qatar Chamber board members, senior business people, investors, heads and representatives of major Qatari and Polish companies special-ised in various fields.

The roundtable proceed-ings included a discussion ses-sion and presentations on the business environment in Qatar and Poland. The talks also fea-tured the investment opportu-nities available to companies and business people, in addi-tion to shining a spotlight on a number of investment sectors available in both countries.

The roundtable seeks to enhance trade, investment and industrial cooperation between the two nations. It also aims at opening horizons for commu-nication between representa-tives of the Qatari and Polish private sectors to establish investment projects that serve both countries’ interests.

Speaking at the Qatar-Poland Economic Roundtable, Duda called on Qatari busi-nessmen to invest in his coun-try and learn more about Po-land investment climate.

He underscored the key role played by the Qatari-Polish Business Council which was formed last year in promoting

relations between both parties. HE said that Qatar and Poland are among the world’s most dynamic countries, noting that they enjoy strategic relations and that Poland imports 2.1 million tonnes of LNG from Qatar, reflecting that Qatar is a strategic partner to Poland.

Duda pointed out that Po-land is rife with investment op-portunities in various sectors such as aviation, IT, commu-nication, agriculture and food.

He expressed his hope to see more Polish participation in the infrastructure projects which are being implemented in Qatar to achieve the QNV 2030, stressing the prepar-

edness of his country to ex-change its experience with Qa-tar in organising FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

For his part, Al Athba high-lighted the close relations be-tween Qatar and Poland in all fields, stressing that both coun-tries are keen on developing these relations to broader vistas.

Referring to the visit of His Highness the Amir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to Poland in 2017 that ended with fruitful conclusions, he noted that the Qatari-Polish Business forum held on the sidelines of the visit contributed to further activat-ing both countries’ economic

and commercial relations and opened wider fields for coop-eration in the private sector.

Al Athba said that the two countries’ trade volume tri-pled within the past five years from QR650 million in 2015 to QR2.65 billion last year, while it reached QR 2.8 billion until the end of the third quarter of the current year.

As for mutual investments, he pointed out that there are many Polish companies oper-ating in Qatar in partnerships with Qatari partners in various sectors such as contracting, designing, technical services, health, and consultation.

He indicated that there

are many Qatari investments in Poland in various sectors such as hospitality and indus-try, stressing that Poland is an attractive destination for Qatari investments.

He underscored the cham-ber’s eagerness to strengthen cooperation ties between the Qatari business community and its Polish counterpart, inviting companies from both countries to enhance coopera-tion, establish joint ventures and cooperate in projects that benefit both friendly coun-tries’ economies.

He pointed out that Qatar offers an appropriate environ-ment for businesses, stressing

that it offers world-class infra-structure, attractive economic legislations, and stimulus incentives for foreign invest-ments in the presence of many free, logistic, and industrial zones which provide promising opportunities for investors.

On this occasion, the IPA Qatar CEO delivered a pres-entation about the investment climate in Qatar and the po-tentials for Polish investors to invest in Qatar.

From the Polish side, Pol-ish Oil and Gas Company CEO Pawel Majewski gave a presen-tation entitled ‘Energy security and the future of the regional gas market’, while Bank Gosp-

odarstwa Krajowego CEO Beata Daszynska-Muzyczka delivered a presentation entitled ‘Poland and its Region -Opportunities for Qatari Investors within the Three Seas Initiative’.

On the sidelines of the meet-ing, three agreements were signed between Qatari and Pol-ish companies to boost their co-operation in many sectors.

Qatar National Conven-tion Center and Polish Trade and Exhibition Center, Qa-tar-based Technical Services Group and Polish ZPUE Wlo-szcowa and Qatar-based Ed-raq and Poland-based AIDA Diagnostics signed the three agreements.

Trade volume between Qatar and Poland rises from QR650 million in 2015 to QR2.65 billion in 2020, says QC second vice-chairman

Duda calls on Qatari investors to invest in various economic sectors of Poland

President of Poland Andrzej Duda speaks at the Poland–Qatar Eco-nomic Roundtable in Doha on Sunday.

Minister of Commerce and Industry HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Qassim Al Thani with other dignitaries at the Poland–Qatar Econom-ic Roundtable in Doha on Sunday..

Minister of Commerce and Industry HE Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Qassim Al Thani and President of Poland Andrzej Duda at the Poland–Qatar Economic Roundtable in Doha on Sunday.

Qatar Chamber Second Vice-Chairman Rashid bin Hamad Al Athaba and IPA Qatar CEO Sheikh Ali Alwaleed Al Thani speak at the Poland–Qatar Economic Roundtable in Doha on Sunday.

QFC QATAR PMI vs GDP

MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2021

ExxonMobil Qatar team visits Qatargas 2 Asset PAGE 10

New Business Journey report puts spotlight on Qatar’s SME ecosystem PAGE 7

DOW QE GOLD

SILVERWTIBRENT

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PRICE PERCENTAGE69.88 +0.30%

PRICE PERCENTAGE66.26 -0.36%

Tribune news neTworkDoha

A new report produced by the global research and advisory firm Oxford Business Group (OBG), in partnership with Qa-tar Development Bank (QDB), maps out the country’s efforts to put entrepreneurial activity and innovation at the heart of its long-term growth strategy.

The Business Journey Report shines a spotlight on Qatar’s start-up and SME ecosystem, combining de-tailed analysis, key data and infographics relating to the socio-economic landscape in an easy-to-navigate and acces-sible format.

The country’s ongoing economic diversification and private sector development agenda, which sit at the heart of the Qatar Vision 2030 road-map, are a key focus.

Here, the report charts the measures being implemented to nurture new growth engines, boost FDI and strengthen Qa-tar’s competitiveness, which will help to provide a buffer against future shocks to global energy markets, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. It also pinpoints several segments of the economy that have been earmarked as ripe for devel-

opment, with smart manufac-turing, ICT, financial services, tourism, logistics, professional services and science-related industries, among those iden-tified.

Subscribers will find ex-tensive coverage of the digital transformation process under way in Qatar, which gathered pace during the coronavirus arrived and is set to accelerate

further as more firms move to harness the potential of tech-led solutions.

In addition, the report con-tains an in-depth analysis of the country’s export trajectory, noting that rising demand in Asia meant international sales had returned to pre-pandem-ic levels by early 2021. With energy-related shipments ac-counting for the bulk of sales, it also considers what Qatar can do to tap new overseas growth opportunities by developing

a more diverse export basket and encouraging SMEs to sell products and services beyond the country’s borders.

The report explores the key role that development partners, including QDB, have played in supporting Qatar’s SMEs through the pandemic in an increasingly digitalised economy, with initiatives that range from funding options for expansion to accelerator programmes for emerging in-dustries.

Licence holders will find an in-depth interview with Abdul-rahman Hesham Al Sowaidi, Acting CEO, QDB, in which he shares his thoughts on the need for new ideas to achieve sustainable development and economic stability locally and globally, in the aftermath of the pandemic.

“This is why QDB is fo-cusing on a number of key areas to help the SME eco-system and the private sector adapt to changes and thrive in the new economy, includ-ing digital transformation, achieving self-sufficiency in target industries, enhancing localisation opportunities, and promoting healthy competi-tion, all while nurturing inno-vation and helping introduce forward-looking solutions to

new economic challenges,” he told OBG.

Jana Treeck, OBG’s Man-aging Director for the Middle East, said that a combination of strong economic fundamen-tals and hydrocarbon wealth had enabled Qatar to weather the economic challenges of the pandemic relatively well, with the World Bank forecasting a robust near-term recovery.

“Qatar’s diversification ef-forts are already delivering results, with non-hydrocarbon growth projected to outstrip the oil and gas sector next year,” Treeck said. “While the country’s role as host of the FIFA World Cup 2022 will provide an abundance of op-portunities for start-ups and SMEs in the services sector, the stage is also set for high-potential segments like fashion and design, smart manufactur-ing and fintech, to become new avenues of growth in a more innovation-led economy.”

The Business Journey Report forms part of a series of tailored reports that OBG is currently producing with its partners, alongside other highly relevant, go-to research tools, including a range of country-specific Growth and Recovery Outlook articles and interviews.

New Business Journey report puts spotlight on Qatar’s SME ecosystemQatar Development Bank teams up with Oxford Business Group for latest research tool

How can PPP be cornerstone of Qatar’s post-pandemic rebound?AmiT bhArdwAj

WITH constant fluctuations in oil prices over the past years, governments in the GCC acknowledged the need to diversify their

economies and step away from the traditional reliance on oil revenues.

Almost a decade back, working towards achieving this diversifica-tion and in the aim of fulfilling its National Vision 2030, Qatar put in place the Economic Diversification and Private Sector Development (EDPSD) strategy.

The EDPSD strategy, together with other measures, proved suc-cessful in helping reduce the depend-ency on oil based revenues with GDP contribution of the Oil & Gas sector sitting at 35% in 2019 compared to 60% eight years earlier.

Qatar recognises that enhanc-ing productivity and competitive-ness while generating private sector-led growth is critical to achieve economic diversification. It has taken vast strides over the past decade in creating an attrac-tive business ecosystem, and has successfully established itself as a destination of choice for a range of industries. To bolster on these diversification efforts, in May 2020, Qatar introduced its Public Private Partnership Law (Law no. 12 of 2020).

The law provides dedicated

legislation aimed at encouraging private sector participation in the provision of public assets and/or services and the public sector to seek out PPPs to deliver infrastruc-ture projects.

Outlined below are some of the key factors that would serve as enablers to help push this initiative and maximise its intended benefits:

1. Credible pipeline of bankable projects:

PPP programs are successful when the laws and regulations are backed by a credible pipeline of bankable projects. This pipeline of projects needs to be developed based on a top-down or bottom-up approach of reviewing existing infrastructure/services on a sector basis and identifying potential gaps that need to be filled. Addition-ally, projects don’t have to involve design and build of new assets. These could be O&M contracts for existing assets/projects – provided such projects offer value for money. To that extent, the government has already announced a PPP initiative in the education system, whereby it plans to build forty five new schools at an estimated cost of USD 1 bil-lion. The initiative has been divided into four investment packages, to be offered on a staggered basis.

2. Institutional Capability and Capacity

PPP contracts tend to have complexity to them; requiring very specific and strong financial, legal and technical skills. It’s of vital importance that both the private and public sectors invest time, effort and money to acquire these capabilities.

On the public sector side, the development of appropriate insti-tutional capacities, in the form of a dedicated PPP unit that serves as a center of expertise to launch PPP projects and develop and implement PPP policies, to attract the partici-pation of private partners (local and foreign) and provide governance on PPP projects will significantly increases the confidence of private sector partners. To this extent, the State of Qatar has already estab-lished a PPP unit within the Min-istry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI).

Whilst the creation of a dedicat-

ed PPP unit will be viewed very fa-vorably by the private sector (espe-cially foreign entities), effort needs to be made to increase the capacity and capability of this unit. Private sector investors will be paying close attention to the way the government manages PPP contracts; ensuring fair and transparent bidding, evalu-ation, selection and implementation processes.

3. Available Sources of Finance

Another important factor is the maturity of funders and avail-ability of financing for the PPP projects. In order to attract suffi-cient funding and favorable terms, it is important that the projects are structured, and risks are allocated in a way which makes the project bankable and provides value for money at the same time.

Efficient financing of PPP

projects may also involve the use of government support, to ensure that the government bears risks which it can manage better than private investors and to supple-ment projects which are economi-cally but not financially viable. To this extent, the government may choose to provide government guarantees (which has been the case, especially on utility projects) but it could also look to mobilise private financing (either directly or through local markets), where that financing would not otherwise be available. This is especially true for projects which on their own would not be considered bankable. Exam-ple - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has recently announced the creation of a dedicated fund targeting infra-structure projects in the Kingdom or the RAKIZA Fund established in Oman.

4. Change in Mindset: PPP’s are fundamentally differ-

ent from traditional procurement since a PPP contract undertakes a collaborative approach as opposed to traditional procurement and is long-lasting in its nature (25 years +). As the name suggests, Public Private Partnership, it is more of a partnership between the public sector and private sector based on the principles of fairness and transparency. It is essential to have a healthy contractual relationship

rather than an aggressive one. In addition, the public sector

authority needs to keep in mind that PPP projects are meant to attract and foster private sector in-novation, therefore, private sector companies need to have flexibility to develop their own design solu-tions while still meeting the agreed specifications.

In the case of Qatar, opening up the infrastructure PPP market to the private sector indicates a shift from State balance-sheet spending for the construction of infrastructure, to longer term part-nerships involving both construc-tion and operation.

Conclusion:As economies in the region

come out of the aftermath of the pandemic, there is little doubt that they will need to move swiftly to tackle the challenges that lie ahead.

Qatar has already shown its resilience. The building blocks that have been put in place will un-doubtedly help create sustainable growth in the future. We believe PPPs can play a significant part in the post pandemic recovery and whilst having a legal framework is an important milestone in the development of PPPs, it is by no means self-sufficient. Necessary enablers need to be put in place to develop a sustainable PPP pro-gramme.

Tribune news neTwork Doha

HEC Paris in Qatar, the world’s number one Execu-tive MBA school, is leading the establishment of an Ob-servatory of Entrepreneur-ship & Innovation, a pro-active platform to gather and disseminate knowledge and research findings from different institutions inter-ested in the determinants of entrepreneurship and innovation in Qatar.

The initiative was launched during a dedicated workshop recently at Man-darin Oriental Hotel, located next to the new state-of-the-art HEC Paris campus in Msheireb Downtown, which drew an enthusiastic au-dience from 17 primary stakeholders including mul-ti-national technology com-panies, Qatar government departments and subsidiar-ies, Qatar University, lead-ing local entrepreneurs, and major private sector players.

The observatory will facilitate collaboration, en-courage discussion, and share insights of Qatar’s entrepreneurial ecosystem to develop new models and frameworks for it and im-pact economic development towards the Qatar National Vision 2030.

“We have received a very strong early day response to this initiative which is clear-ly aligned to our redefined values and primary purpose of enabling everyone to make an impact on business and society,” explained Al-lan Villegas-Mateos of HEC Paris in Qatar.

He said,“We are looking to build a community net-work of entrepreneurship scholars, practitioners, and institutions who, and which, can come together to jointly

support the professional de-velopment of their associ-ates and members.

“The Observatory will then encourage impactful research on and about entre-preneurship and innovation in Qatar and the wider Gulf region and promote inter-network exchange and ac-tivities that contribute to the consolidation of a strong en-trepreneurial culture, based on the hands-on experience of the different institutions represented.”

The Observatory will focus on three key posi-tioning areas: being seen as a research meeting space, a think tank and an innova-tion catalyst. This will see it coordinate research ef-forts by organizing work-shops, annual meetings, special calls for publishing as well as training and de-veloping opportunities for members to explore new research avenues.

As a think tank it will communicate findings and facilitate collaboration with investors, industry, educa-tion institutions and other stakeholders while inspiring policymakers. As an innova-tion catalyst the Observatory will be Qatar’s key collabo-rative, enterprise resource

center which enhances en-trepreneurship through ed-ucation, training, research and institutional building capacities.

The Observatory will be guided by an advisory board comprising representatives of the founding institutions who will analyze results, plan an-nual objectives and select an observatory coordinator. The founding partners includes banks, universities, research centers, government agen-cies, investors, incubators, and accelerators.

“We strongly believe that supporting and nurtur-ing an entrepreneurial eco-system within Qatar is very important because it is the fuel for tomorrow’s growth and this event is an amazing opportunity to set an action plan that will help stake-holders reach their goals of supporting the ecosystem,” elaborated Allan.

“Entrepreneurship serves as an important vehicle for economic and social prosper-ity by improving productivity and economic competitive-ness and for this reason co-operation between partici-pants is essential to acquire and diffuse knowledge in the creation of knowledge-based economies,” he added.

HEC Paris in Qatar spearheads establishment of Observatory of Entrepreneurship & Innovation

The report explores the key role that development partners, including QDB, have played in supporting Qatar’s SMEs through the pandemic in an increas-ingly digitalised economy

09Monday, December 6, 2021

Allan Villegas-Mateos of HEC Paris in Qatar speaks at a workshop.

Allan Villegas-Mateos conducts a workshop.

Economy & Business

Tribune news neTworkDOHA

Upon invitation from part-ner Qatargas, an ExxonMobil Qatar team headed by nick pearce, Vice president and Joint Venture Asset Manager and Mohammed al Shareef, Joint Interest Asset Manager, visited Qatargas 2 Asset dur-ing its planned shutdown in november.

The delegation was re-ceived by Hathal al Do-sari, Maintenance Manager; nasser al naimi, Maintenance Shutdown Division Manager; Ahmad Ashkanani, (onshore operations Manager – north); and Ahmad al Fadalah, QG2 Asset Manager.

During the visit, pearce took the opportunity to recog-nise Qatargas by presenting its team with a plaque for world class safety and shutdown performance, especially with

the ongoing challenges of the CoVID-19 pandemic.

presenting the award, pearce said “over the years, Qatargas has continued its tradition of world class shutdown performance with outstanding focus on safety. I would like to express my sincere thanks and apprecia-

tion to the many thousands of employees and contractors of Qatargas who contributed to this achievement. The fo-cus on safety, teamwork and collaboration is truly impres-sive, and I’m thrilled to join my colleagues today in recog-nizing these efforts on behalf of ExxonMobil.”

“our colleagues at Qatar-gas are implementing best practices across operations at Ras Laffan and as a long-standing partner, we’re in-credibly proud of their strong safety achievements and op-erational excellence. We wish them continued success in the years ahead,” he added.

ExxonMobil Qatar team visits Qatargas 2 Asset, recognises shutdown management excellence

Qatar, Algeria economic ties sees qualitative leap: Envoy

dpa JOHAnnesburg

HUnDREDS of South Af-ricans protested on Sunday against plans by Royal Dutch Shell to conduct seismic sur-veys for oil along the country’s eastern coast, after a court ruled that the testing could go ahead.

Several environmental groups gathered in port Ed-ward, Cape Town and Johan-nesburg to show their dissat-isfaction that the court had struck down their applica-tion on Friday to halt the oil company’s exploration on the revered “Wild Coast.” Environmentalists are con-cerned about the effects of the sound-wave blasting on ma-rine wildlife and livelihoods in the largely untouched stretch of sea.

“We were very disap-pointed,” said Greenpeace Africa’s Elaine Mills during an interview with local news network enCA at a protest on a Cape Town beach.

“But it was just a first step, more legal action is on the way,” she said, adding that proper consultation had not taken place with fishing com-munities who depend on the oceans for a living.

She said that they had gathered “huge public sup-port” with more than 400,000 citizens signing a petition and 18,500 writing objection letters.

“We know it will be a very long fight. We ask that those who care about the ocean, boy-cott Shell,” she said, adding that the government should stick to its promises to end its dependence on fossil fuels. The court found that the envi-ronmental groups had not suf-ficiently proved that animals would be irreparably harmed by the survey, which includes loud explosions.

Shell said that it had met all the legal requirements and was pleased with the court’s decision because any resource finds would contribute to South Africa’s energy security.

S Africans protest after court okays Shell seismic survey

Business and Economy

Hundreds of people take part in a protest against the plan by Dutch oil company Shell to conduct underwater seismic surveys at Muizenberg Beach, in Cape Town, on Sunday.

ashraf siddiqui DOHA

RELATIonS between Alge-ria and Qatar are witnessing continuous growth, and the mutual visits between senior officials are the best testimo-ny to the exceptional quality of these relations that bring together the two brotherly countries, HE Mustafa Bout-oura, Ambassador of Algeria to Qatar has said.

He said under the guid-ance of His Highness the Amir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Abdelmadjid Teb-boune, president of Republic of Algeria and , these direc-tives gave an important im-petus to the course of bilater-al relations in various fields.

Mustafa was address-ing at the official reception hosted by him at the embassy premises to mark the 67th an-niversary of Algeria’s glorious november 1st Revolution.

present on the occasion were HE Sheikh Faleh bin nasser bin Ahmed bin Ali al Thani, Minister of Environ-ment and Climate Change; naif al Emadi, Director Arab Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Ibrahim bin Yousuf Fakhroo, Director protocol Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Ibrahim Ali Ahmed, Ambassador of Eritrrea and Head of Diplo-matic Corps.

He said that economic cooperation witnessed a qualitative leap, well em-

bodied in the establish-ment of the Algerian-Qatari Steel Company, which built a huge steel complex in the Bellara region in Jijel prov-ince, east of Algiers, at an investment cost of about $2 billion , and a production ca-pacity of more than 400 mil-lion tonnes of steel for the market.

He said Qatar’s ooredoo Group has achieved remark-able success in Algeria’s tel-ecommunications sector, in addition to several impor-tant investments by Qatari

businessmen in sectors like agriculture, tourism, ser-vices, eco-tourist parks and reputable factories for the manufacture of feed for ani-mals of all kinds and birds.

He lauded the role of the Trust Group playing it’s role actively in several fields in-cluding insurance and rein-surance, finance, real estate and various industries.

The envoy said the Joint Committee for Cooperation and the Council of Business-men is set to sign agree-ments that truly express the

aspirations of both sides in the field of bilateral coop-eration.

He said that embassy’s priority is to work on dou-bling joint investments in the two countries, as well as striving to upgrade Algerian exports to the Qatari market.

He said air link will soon be established between both the countries twice a week, in addition to opening of bank branches that will con-tribute to further strengthen bilateral relations.

Mustafa lauded the ser-

vices rendered by Algerian community in Qatar in vari-ous sectors of economic, so-cial and cultural activity, es-pecially oil and gas, aviation, sports and media.

He said that hosting of 2022 FIFA World Cup by Qa-tar will be pride for all Arabs.

He said Algeria is pre-pared to contribute every-thing possible to the success of this great football event, and are hoping to increase our joy with the qualification of the Algerian national team.

Mustafa paid his grati-tude to the freedom fight-ers who sacrificed their lives and enabled the country to get rid of oppression, suf-ferings and genocides from the hands of French colonial power and won its sover-eignty.

He said under the able leadershipTebboune, the country is moving forward successfully in all directions inspite of challenges.

He said the recently held transparent general national elections in June 2021 fol-lowed by local level and mu-nicipal elections are witness to the right direction of the country.

He said the state is de-termined to form a new Al-geria, where justice, law, and established institutions prevail, and to strengthen the separation of powers to continue meeting the basic needs of citizens in their so-cial, economic and other di-mensions.

The delegation was received by Hathal al Dosari, Maintenance Manager, Nasser al Naimi, Maintenance Shutdown Division Manager, Ahmad Ashkanani, Onshore Operations Manager – North and Ahmad al Fadalah, QG2 Asset Manager.

Ambassador of Algeria to Qatar HE Mustafa Boutoura and other offcials at an event in Doha recently.

10 Monday, December 6, 2021

Agenciesnew york

Parag agrawal, who was ap-pointed this week as Twitter’s CEO, has joined at least a dozen other Indian-born techies in the corner offices of the world’s most influential Silicon Valley companies.

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, and the top bosses of IBM, adobe, Palo alto Networks, VMWare and Vimeo are all of Indian de-scent.

Indian-origin people ac-count for just about 1 percent of the US population and 6 percent of Silicon Valley’s work-force - and yet are dispropor-tionately represented in the top brass. Why? “No other nation in the world ‘trains’ so many citizens in such a gladiatorial manner as India does,” says r gopalakrishnan, former execu-tive director of Tata Sons and co-author of The Made in India Manager.

“From birth certificates to death certificates, from school admissions to getting jobs, from infrastructural inadequacies to insufficient capacities, growing up in India equips Indians to be “natural managers,” he adds, quoting the famous Indian cor-porate strategist C K Prahalad.

The competition and chaos, in other words, makes them adaptable problem-solvers - and, he adds, the fact that they often prioritise the profession-al over the personal helps in

an american office culture of overwork.

“These are characteristics of top leaders anywhere in the world,” gopalakrishnan says.

Indian-born Silicon Val-ley CEOs are also part of a four million-strong minority group that is among the wealthiest and most educated in the US.

about a million of them are scientists and engineers. More than 70 percent of H-1B visas - work permits for foreigners - is-sued by the US go to Indian soft-ware engineers, and 40 percent of all foreign-born engineers in cities like Seattle are from India.

“This is the result of a drastic shift in US immigration policy in the 1960s,” write the authors of The Other One Percent: Indians in america.

In the wake of the civil rights movement, national-origin quo-tas were replaced by those that gave preference to skills and family unification. Soon after, highly-educated Indians - sci-entists, engineers and doctors at first, and then, overwhelmingly, software programmers - began to arrive in the US.

This cohort of Indian im-migrants did not “resemble any other immigrant group from any other nation”, the authors say. They were “triply selected” - not only were they among the upper-caste privileged Indi-ans who could afford to go to a reputed college, but they also belonged to a smaller sliver that could finance a masters in the US, which many of Silicon

Valley’s CEOs possess. and fi-nally, the visa system further narrowed it down to those with specific skills - often in science, technology, engineering and maths or STEM as the preferred category is known - that meet the US’s “high-end labour mar-ket needs”.

“This is the cream of the crop and they are joining com-panies where the best rise to the top,” says technology entrepre-neur and academic Vivek Wad-hwa. “The networks they have built [in Silicon Valley] have also given them an advantage - the idea was that they would help each other.”

Wadhwa adds that many of the India-born CEOs have also worked their way up the compa-ny ladder - and this, he believes, gives them a sense of humil-ity that distinguishes them from many founder-CEOs who have

been accused of being arrogant and entitled in their vision and management.

Wadhwa says men like Na-della and Pichai also bring a cer-tain amount of caution, reflec-tion and a “gentler” culture that makes them ideal candidates for the top job - especially at a time when big tech’s reputation has plummeted amid Congressional hearings, rows with foreign gov-ernments and the widening gulf between Silicon Valley’s richest and the rest of america.

Their “low-key, non-abra-sive leadership” is a huge plus, says Saritha rai, who covers the tech industry in India for Bloomberg News.

India’s diverse society, with so many customs and languag-es, “gives them [Indian-born managers] the ability to navigate complex situations, particularly when it comes to scaling organi-sations,” says Indian-american billionaire businessman and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who co-founded Sun Microsys-tems.

“This plus a ‘hard-work’ eth-ic sets them up well,” he adds.

There are more obvious reasons as well. The fact that so many Indians can speak English makes it easier for them to inte-grate into the diverse US tech in-dustry. and Indian education’s emphasis on math and science has created a thriving software industry, training graduates in the right skills, which are further buttressed in top engineering or management schools in the US.

“In other words, the success of Indian-born CEOs in america is as much about what’s right with america - or at least what used to be right before immi-gration became more restricted after 9/11 - as what’s right with India,” economist rupa Sub-ramanya recently wrote in For-eign Policy magazine.

The huge backlog in the ap-plications for US green cards, and increasing opportunities in the Indian market have certain-ly dimmed the allure of a career abroad.

“The american dream is getting replaced with the In-dia-based start-up dream,” rai says. The recent emergence of India’s “unicorns”- companies worth more than a $1bn - sug-gests that the country is starting to produce major tech compa-nies, experts say. But, they add, it’s too early to tell what global impact they will have.

“India’s start-up ecosys-tem is relatively young. role models of successful Indians both in entrepreneurship and in executive ranks have helped a lot but role models take time to spread,” Mr Khosla says. But most of the role models are still men - as are almost all of the Indian-born Silicon Val-ley CEOs. and their rapid rise is not enough reason to expect more diversity from the indus-try, experts say.

“Women’s representation [in the tech industry] is no-where close to what it should be,” rai says.

Why Indian-born CEOs dominate Silicon Valley

BP oil spill fund: $103 mn to projects in 3 Gulf statesAgencies

london

alaBaMa, Florida and Mis-sissippi are receiving more than $103 million in BP oil spill settlement money for new and continued coastal projects.

“These projects, com-bined with existing invest-ments, continue to advance our goal of protecting and restoring species and habitats impacted by the 2010 Deep-water Horizon oil spill,” Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, said Thursday.

The 11 new projects and two extensions from the foundation’s gulf Environ-mental Benefit Fund bring its total allocations across the five gulf states to $1.6 billion, a news release said.

alabama is getting more

than $43 million for four new projects, the foundation said. Florida is getting nearly $33 million for one new project. The remaining $27 million will support six new projects and continue two others in Mississippi.

The gulf Environmental Benefit Fund received $2.5 billion in settlement money from criminal charges against BP and its codefendants. The fund is for work to fix dam-age and reduce risks of future damage to natural resources affected by the 2010 Deepwa-ter Horizon oil spill.

State and national agen-cies work to identify potential projects to ensure coordina-tion with activities under two other programs that received money from spill settlements or fines.

Three of the new projects in alabama are designed to stabilize eroding shorelines

and restore coastal marsh in Mobile County and on the north side of Dauphin Island.

Previous grants covered engineering, design and permitting for those projects.

The fourth grant will pay for engineering and design of beach and dune restoration

on Dauphin Island’s west end.Florida plans to use its

award to acquire and man-age about 32,000 acres (13,000 hectares) of wetland and floodplain habitat in the apalachicola watershed. That’s aimed at ensuring sufficient freshwater and nutrient flow to apalachicola Bay and the gulf of Mexico to support oysters and marine fishes.

Mississippi’s new projects will expand and plan for future enhancements of arti-ficial reefs across the Missis-sippi Sound and restore and protect vulnerable coastal habitats along the Mississippi gulf Coast.

“The health of our natural resources is intertwined with the strength of the economy of south Mississippi,” said Chris Wells, head of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

“These projects, in addition to the others announced for this year, will continue the essential work necessary to enhance the coastal habitat so vital for marine life.” Mis-sissippi has received about $192 million from the fund. alabama has received about $300 million; Florida, about $290 million; louisiana, $603 million; and Texas, $203 million.

about $940 million remains to be allocated. The plea agreements for BP and other defendants set out the percentage of the total for projects in each state.

Texas has reached its limit. louisiana, which suf-fered the most damage, will ultimately get nearly $1.3 billion for barrier island and river diversion projects, and alabama, Florida and Mis-sissippi will get $356 million each.

Agencieslondon

DONalD Trump’s new so-cial media venture says it has raised $1 billion (£755 mil-lion) from investors ahead of a planned stock market listing.

The Trump Media & Technology group is working to launch a social media app called Truth Social early next year.

It comes as Trump re-mains banned from Twitter and Facebook following the attack on the US Capitol in January.

“$1bn sends an important message to Big Tech that cen-sorship and political discrim-ination must end,” he said.

“as our balance sheet expands, Trump Media & Technology group will be in a stronger position to fight back against the tyranny of Big Tech.” Trump announced plans to launch Truth So-cial earlier this year, saying it would allow conversation “without discrimination on the basis of political ideology”.

The Trump Media & Technology group has partnered with Digital World acquisition, a blank-check acquisition firm, on the venture.

On Saturday, they said they had raised the $1bn from from “a diverse group of institutional investors” with-out revealing who they were. according to reports, the so-cial media venture is now val-ued at almost $4bn.

It underscores the former US president’s ability to at-tract strong financial backing despite the controversy sur-rounding his time in charge.

Trump was banned from top social media platforms

after the 6 January attack by his supporters on the US Capitol in Washington DC amid concerns the then-pres-ident would inspire further violence.

It came after Trump made claims, without evi-dence, of widespread fraud in last year’s presidential election.

Many Wall Street firms snubbed the opportunity to invest in the former presi-dent’s new venture, ac-cording to reuters. But some hedge funds, family investment firms and high net-worth individuals have backed it.

Trump had 89 million followers on Twitter, 33 mil-lion on Facebook and 24.5 million on Instagram at the time he was blocked, accord-ing to a presentation on his company’s website.

He has also repeatedly dropped hints that he might seek the presidency again in 2024. Scrutiny Trump Media & Technology group’s part-nership with Digital World acquisition has already at-tracted scrutiny.

last month Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren asked the Securities and Ex-change Commission to inves-tigate the planned merger for potential violations of securi-ties laws.

The SEC has declined to comment on whether it plans any action.

Truth Social is scheduled for a full rollout in the first quarter of 2022. It is the first of three stages in the Trump Media plan, followed by a subscription video-on-de-mand service called TMTg+ that will feature entertain-ment, news and podcasts, ac-cording to the news release.

Trump’s social media firm raises $1 bn from investors

From left: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai.

Donald Trump

From birth certificates to death certificates, from school admissions to getting jobs, from infrastructural inadequacies to insufficient capacities, growing up in India equips Indians to be “natural managers’R Gopalakrishnan, former executive director of Tata Sons

The Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund received $2.5 billion in settlement money from criminal charges against BP and its codefendants.

11Monday, December 6, 2021Economy & Business

Exciting battles ahead as three spots up for grabs THE group stages of the

FIFA Arab Cup 2021 are coming to a close,

with the final Group A and B matches set to decide which three teams from the two sec-tions will join the hosts in the quarter-finals.

Everything is still to play for, with every team in with a chance of qualifying.

In Group A, Iraq, Oman, and Bahrain are vying to join group winners Qatar in the knockout stages, while com-petition for the two qualify-ing places in Group B also remains fierce. United Arab Emirates, who sit top of the pool, have yet to book their place in the last eight, despite winning both their opening matches.

FIFA.com looks ahead to Matchday 5 of the competi-tion, which promises plenty of excitement and drama.

All or nothingSyria’s victory over Tuni-sia in their second game not only kept their slim hopes of qualifying alive, but also gave hope to their next opponents, Mauritania. The Lions of Ch-inguetti lost both their open-

ing matches, to Tunisia and UAE. Yet, despite that rocky start, they still have a chance to qualify for the next round. Both sides need a win to go through and then hope for the result in the other fixture in the group to go their way. A

Syrian victory would put them in a strong position to qualify, while Mauritania must win big against the Qasioun Ea-gles and hope Tunisia suffer a heavy defeat to UAE to stand any chance of qualifying.

Permutations aplentyUAE go into their last group game in a strong position. A draw will be enough for the Sons of Zayed to book their place in the latter stages as group winners, and even de-feat would not spell the end of

their hopes, though it would leave them dependent on the outcome of Syria’s match against Mauritania. As for Tu-nisia, they must win if are to top the group and avoid fac-ing hosts Qatar in the quarter-finals. The Carthage Eagles, who will be without the sus-pended Ben Romdhane Ali, can still qualify even if they draw or lose, in which case their fate will hinge on that Syria-Mauritania match.

Too close to callAlthough Qatar are assured a place in the last eight as Group A winners, their final fixture against Iraq remains an im-portant one for both teams. The two have met 35 times, and this 36th meeting prom-ises to be an entertaining one. While the hosts are looking to secure their third consecu-tive victory and maintain their unbeaten run in the tourna-ment, a victory for Iraq will be enough to see them qualify for the knockout stages, irre-spective of the other result in Group A.

Old rivalries renewedThe Oman-Bahrain fixture

is the oldest rivalry among this year’s Arab Cup com-petitors, with the two sides having faced each other 40 times previously. The his-tory books show there is lit-tle between them, with Bah-rain having won 12 of those games, just one more than Oman, and the remaining 17 meetings ending in draws. Bahrain’s last triumph over Oman came 11 years ago, at the 2010 West Asian Foot-ball Federation (WAFF) Championship, when the experienced Ismaeel Abdul-latif scored twice to guide his team to victory. Will the man they call Samaa be able to recreate those heroics on Monday and lead his country to the quarter-finals?

Who is saying what?“We’re going into the Tunisia match with the aim of taking home the three points. Beat-ing a strong side like Tunisia will give the players a huge confidence boost and allow us to finish top of the group, sending out a strong signal of intent to the other teams.”

– UAE defender Bandar Al Ahbabi

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

HAVING already made the quarter-final stage of FIFA Arab Cup 2021, hosts Qatar are aiming to sustain their winning momentum in the fi-nal Group A game against Iraq on Monday.

Irrespective of the result at the Al Bayt Stadium, Qatar will finish on top of the group and that will give coach Felix Sanchez an golden opportu-nity to start the match with fringe players as the hosts brace up for tougher matches in knockouts against quality opponents.

For Iraq though, a win will ensure them a place in the knockout stages, with the result of another Group A en-counter between winless Bah-rain and Oman rendering it inconsequential.

Qatar and Iraq have locked horns 35 times, and this 36th meeting promises to be an en-tertaining one. For Sanchez, entertainment could be the last thing on his mind as the Span-iard will look to give some rest to the jaded bodies of his players.

Having played non-stop – for Qatar or their clubs – this year, Qatar players have vis-ibly suffered from fatigue in the first two matches. In both their narrow victories against Oman and Bahrain, their fit-ness levels dropped down con-siderably in the second half. While they maintained their focus despite that and man-aged to eke out two wins is what makes this squad special in Qatar’s history.

On the eve of the match, Sanchez did stick to the norm to say his team will gun for victory while also hinting at making changes to his start-ing XI. “We will make our plan against Iraq, surely there will be changes but we will play to win,” said the Spaniard.

Sanchez confirmed Pedro Miguel, who picked up an in-jury against Oman, will sit out today with the Qatar coach

hopeful the defender would be ready for the quarter-finals.

The Maroons’ possible opponents could be any of Tunisia, the UAE and Syria, with Group B still wide open. Sanchez said his team was confident of taking on any team. “We will be ready to play any team in the knockout stage. We respect all the teams and we think any team we will face in the quarter-finals will be strong,” he said.

ON facing Iraq, Sanchez said the four-time former champions have always

proved a difficult opponent. The last time these today faced – in the 2019 Arabian Gulf Cup in Qatar – Iraq emerged out as the winners. Sanchez said revenge would not be on his or players mind.

“We are not seeking re-venge against them. We lost an important game in the Gulf Cup but here we just want points not revenge,” the 45-year-old said.

“Iraq are tough opponents from what we have experienced in our past matches. We will try to play a competitive game

against them. We know if we have to go far in the tourna-ment we have to be at our best in all the matches. We know Iraq needs points to qualify for the quarter-finals and we ex-pect them to be offensive in the match. Iraq has always been a tough side. But we are going to play for a win,” Sanchez added.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s stand-in coach Zeljko Petrovic said he has the belief in his team to beat Qatar and qualify the quarters. In their opening game against Oman, Iraq sal-vaged a point with an equaliser

in the eighth minute of added time and followed it up with a goalless draw against Bahrain.

“Iraq are still in with a chance of qualifying for the next round, so our sole focus is on beating Qatar. It won’t be a walk in the park because we’re coming up against a strong team that has won two games on the bounce, but I have every confidence in my players’ abilities and I’m sure we can come out on top,” said Petrovic yesterday.

“The most important thing is to believe in our ability to

win and qualify for the next round. The second thing is to give our best and not have re-grets afterwards,” the Monte-negrin added.

When asked whether Qa-tar playing with the reserve players will play into Iraq’s hands, Petrovic said: “I do not think that Qatar starting with substitute players will help us to win because they are also good players. They all play at a high level as well. From my point of view, all Qatari play-ers’ lists are good and our task will not be easy.”

Qatar aim to keep up winning momentum against Iraq

QatarTribune Qatar_Tribune

qatar_tribuneQatarTribuneChannel

MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2021

Fan ID made optional for FIFA Arab Cup 2021

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

THE Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) has an-nounced that the first phase of the Hay’ya Card (Fan ID) pro-ject has been completed. The SC thanks all fans and national stakeholders for their support in delivering the opening stage of this project.

From now on it will be op-tional for fans to use the Hay’ya Card at FIFA Arab Cup match-es. For the remainder of the tournament, fans will only need to show a ticket to enter a sta-dium, along with a gold frame EHTERAZ as proof of vaccina-tion (or proof of a negative test for children aged 12 and under).

Sami Al Shammari, the SC’s Technology & Innovation Executive Director, said: “The first phase of the Hay’ya Card project has been completed. A large number of Hay’ya Card holders used the device to ac-cess free public transport – and this benefit will continue for the remainder of the tournament.”

Al Shammari continued: “The first phase has ended af-ter 16 matches – which is ex-actly half the number of games in the tournament. The data and feedback we have gath-ered will enable us to fully re-view the entire Fan ID process as we continue preparations for next year’s FIFA World Cup. I would like to thank the thousands of fans for their valuable support in relation to this project.”

What it means● Fans will no longer be required to show the Hay’ya Card to attend a FIFA Arab Cup match.

● Fans will only be required to show their match ticket, gold frame EHTERAZ status as proof of vaccination (or proof of a negative test if aged 12 or under).

● Fans who already have a Hay’ya Card will still be able to access free public transport during the tournament.

● Fans should note that no more Hay’ya Cards will be printed from now on.

● International fans should apply for their entry permit to the State of Qatar by using the Hay’ya Card platform. Visit fac21.qa for further information

Qatar’s midfielder Akram Afif (C) celebrates with teammates after scoring the opening goal during the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 Group A match against Oman at the Education City Stadium on Friday. The win saw the hosts qualify for the quarter-finals of the tournament. (AFP)

Syria’s players celebrate with fans after their win over Tunisia in group B of FIFA Arab Cup 2021 at the Al Bayt Stadium on Friday. Syria’s win not only keeps their slim hopes alive but also gives hope to Mauritania. (AFP)

A Palestine fans plays the darbuka at the Education City Stadium on Saturday. (AFP)

Hamilton wins classic in Saudi Arabia to level points with Verstappen in F1 title racePAGE 14

THE quarter-final jigsaw at the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 now

has half of its pieces in place after Algeria, Egypt and Morocco followed hosts Qatar in securing a last-eight berth with a game to spare. Each qualified in fine style, with the Atlas Lions and Pharaohs especially impressive in putting four and five unanswered goals past Jordan and Sudan respec-tively. And while Morocco’s goal difference, the healthiest in the tournament, ensures that they will almost certainly go through as section winners, their fellow North African quarter-finalists face a fierce battle to determine top spot in Group D. FIFA.com looks back on a day that produced remarkable goals, resounding victories and a record number of red cards.

THE MOMENTS

A Pharaoh with fire in his bootsWhen Ahmed Refaat sent a wonderful right-foot free-kick crashing back off the crossbar just four minutes into Egypt’s 5-0 win over Sudan, it seemed we’d narrowly missed out on one of the goals of the tour-nament. But the Egypt star had other ideas. When the panicked clearance that fol-lowed spun and looped in his direction, Refaat adjusted his body in an instant and - with his left foot this time, and from an even greater distance – smashed home an unstop-pable volley. It was a display of pure, glorious, two-footed technique that will take some beating between now and the final on 18 December.

Moroccan eyes on the prizeOf all the bands of travelling supporters at this tourna-ment, Morocco’s have been among the most colourful and enthusiastic. They are una-bashed, too, in loudly stating their lofty ambitions for the Atlas Lions in Qatar, chant-ing today: “The people want the Arab Cup title!” And while there is a long way to go, and

more than a few strong sides with the same ambition, the Moroccans – as they have shown with two successive, highly impressive 4-0 wins – will take some stopping.

Cedars’ sad salute Lebanon’s FIFA Arab Cup squad woke up this morning to the devastating news that COVID-19 had claimed the life of Mahmoud Hammoud, a towering figure in the country who had both played for and coached the national team. Several of the current players had worked under the 57-year-old, and all marked his passing by sporting black armbands in their match against Algeria. They honoured him, too, with a determined and disciplined performance against the sig-nificantly higher-ranked Fen-necs, holding out for three-quarters of the match before ultimate succumbing to their opponents’ superior quality.

One first achieved, anoth-er thwartedBefore Saturday, Palestine’s Mohammed Rashid had never

scored an international goal. The 26-year-old ended his wait in spectacular style, bursting for-ward from midfield to unleash a right-foot rocket that flew high into the net from 30 yards. It was a stunning strike from a player who spent a season play-ing in Saudi Arabia’s second tier, and who looked to have all but ended the Green Falcons’ chances of making the quarter-finals. But just as Rashid’s first-ever international goal looked to have secured Palestine’s first-ever win in this fixture, Saudi Arabia substitutes Abdullah Al Hamdan and Haitham Asiri combined for a late equaliser that leaves three teams chasing second spot in Group C.

The stat13 - This was the highest-scoring matchday of the FIFA Arab Cup thus far, with 13 goals – an average of 3.25 per game – bringing fans to their feet. It also set a less desirable record, with four red cards – spread evenly between just two matches - comfortably registering a new tournament benchmark for ill-discipline.

Saturday flashback: North Africans excel as Saudi Arabia strike back to stay alive

IT is said that good things come to those who wait, and Yacine Brahimi has certainly waited a long

time for his second goal at a FIFA tournament.

His first came during the group stage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil. Algeria had built up an impressive 3-0 lead over Korea Republic, courtesy of goals from Islam Slimani, Abdelmoumene Djabou and Rafik Halliche, but conceded a goal to give hope to their Asian opponents.

Brahimi and Sofiane Feg-houli had other plans, how-ever, and after a neat one-two with his Algerian team-mate, Brahimi coolly slotted the ball past the Korean goalkeeper, scoring his team’s fourth goal of the match and his first at a World Cup.

Fast forward over seven years to today and the Paris-born midfielder was to be found scoring once again in

a FIFA tournament, when he converted a penalty kick earned by Youcef Belaili in a hard-earned 2-0 win over Lebanon at the ongoing FIFA Arab Cup 2021™.

“Scoring at the World Cup and then at the Arab Cup makes me extremely happy,” Brahimi told FIFA.com. “I hope that’s not the end of me

scoring here, as I’d love to get more goals.”

Tricky taskIn contrast to their opening fixture against Sudan, Algeria struggled against the Leba-nese, who were disciplined and organised at the back. The out-siders held out until the 69th minute, when the Les Fennecs

(Desert Foxes) were finally able to break the deadlock.

“We were well aware that the match would be difficult, and that Lebanon tend to de-fend very well,” said Brahimi. “The problem was that we didn’t score early on. Had we done that, things might have been a bit easier, but the most important thing is that we

won, and we’re delighted with that. They certainly made it very difficult for us; we knew that they would defend and rely on counter-attacks.”

Despite having trouble breaking down their oppo-nents, the Algerians never gave up, and continued to alternate between attacking through the middle and via

the wings. They missed sev-eral chances through Belaili, Baghdad Bounedjah and Hil-lal Soudani, before Belaili was fouled inside the box and the referee awarded the aforemen-tioned penalty, which Brahimi put away in composed fashion.

“We kept plugging away; we were so close to scoring on more than one occasion,” explained the 31-year-old for-mer Granada star. “Our team showed perseverance in build-ing attacks, and we ultimately succeeded, which is what mat-ters the most.”

Heavyweight clashWith Algeria and Egypt having defeated Sudan and Lebanon, both nations have now sealed a spot in the quarter-finals. On Tuesday, the regional power-houses will lock horns to de-

termine who will go through in first place: the winners of Group D will avoid a tough-looking encounter with a for-midable Morocco side in the knockout stage.

“It’s still a match against a strong team,” pointed out Brahimi. “We’ll get a bit of rest after the first two games, because we played those in a short space of time, which might have an impact on us physically.

“The Egypt game is in three days’ time, so we need to concentrate on recovery and then start preparing for that important match. We’ll go into it looking for a victory, because our goal is to win all of our games in Qatar, so we have to keep working hard and to remain focused on this tournament.”

I’d love to get more goals for Algeria: Brahimi

Morocco’s players congratulate each other after their win at the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 Group C match against Jordan at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium on Saturday. (AFP)

Sports 13Monday, December 6, 2021

Algeria’s forward Yacine Brahimi controls the ball as he is marked by Sudan’s defender Walid Hassan (R) during the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 Group D match played at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium on December 1 (Wednesday). (AFP)

Yacine Brahimi with the Man of the Match award.

The Yacine show● Yacine Brahimi has now scored at the World Cup and the Arab Cup.

● Algeria midfielder discusses his goal and the tough encounter with Lebanon.

● He looks forward to Les Fennecs’ third match against Egypt.

Saudi Arabia’s forward Abdullah Al Hamdan celebrates scoring the equaliser during the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 Group C match against Palestine at the Education City Stadium on Saturday. (AFP)

Egypt’s forward Ahmed Refaat reacts after scoring the opening goal during the Group D match against Sudan at the 974 Stadium on Saturday. Refaat’s strike was a display of pure, glorious, two-footed technique that will take some beating between now and the final on 18 December. (AFP)

DPAJEDDAH

MERCEDES driver Lewis Hamilton won the inaugural Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday after title rival Max Verstappen was ordered to hand him first place follow-ing a dangerous move as the Briton was poised to overtake.

In a dramatic race where the lead changed hands due to safety cars, a pitstop and two race restarts because of crashes on the new twisting street cir-cuit, Hamilton went level on points with Red Bull’s Verstap-pen at the top of the standings.

It sets up one of the great-est finales in the history of Formula One in the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi next weekend with Verstappen nominally ahead in the stand-ings because of race wins.

Hamilton had tried to pass the Dutchman and after the pair touched, Verstappen was told to give his rival first place. The 24-year-old then slowed down so much when Hamilton tried to overtake again that they came into contact anoth-er time.

Verstappen was then given a five-second penalty for the

original infringement and sev-en-times champion Hamilton, with a damaged front wing, went by to claim his 103rd F1 victory in a wild race.

“I’ve been racing a long time, but that was incredibly tough. I tried to be as tough and as sensible as I could out there, with all my experience over the years,” Hamilton said.

Verstappen, booed by some of the crowd, said: “It was eventful, a lot of things happened that I don’t fully agree with.

“I slowed down, I wanted to let him by, I was on the right but he didn’t want to over-take and we touched.” Ham-ilton had got away from pole smoothly with Verstappen, third on the grid after hitting a wall in qualifying on an other-wise flying lap, failing to make an immediate attack.

Valtteri Bottas, who ulti-mately finished third, stayed between the title contend-ers with his Mercedes but the midfield racers showed early on that overtaking was possible on the high-walled track, before a series of bizarre events intervened.

Mick Schumacher in his Haas suffered the first crash

into the barriers.That led to the pack being

bunched behind the safety car and Hamilton immediately pitting on lap 10 in a strategy gamble. Verstappen in con-trast stayed out to assume the lead with Bottas also coming in.

A red flag was then waved as the barrier hit by Schu-macher could not be repaired easily, meaning all the cars had to come into the pit-lane, with Verstappen able to change tyres while still in the lead.

Hamilton swore over the radio, adding: “I don’t know what the reason for the red flag is.” The huge stroke of luck for Verstappen meant he began on “pole” for the restart but Hamilton immediately got past him only for the Red Bull man to retake the lead but by cutting the corner as Esteban Ocon tried to go past both.

A multiple car crash at the back of the restart meant yet another race suspension.

Race control gave Red Bull the option of restarting from third place because Verstap-pen cut the corner, in order to avoid a full investigation. They accepted and Ocon took over

as the leader, with Hamilton second.

On the second restart, Ver-stappen made a superb move on the inside to quickly get beyond Ocon and Hamilton to lead once again.

Hamilton made it into sec-ond and then hunted down Verstappen before the late chaos between the pair put him ahead and pushed Mer-cedes towards the construc-tor’s title.

Human rights groups have protested against Saudi Arabia holding its first grand prix, ac-cusing the regime of “sports-washing” to hide human rights abuses and blaming Formula

One for only following the money.

Further tributes to former race team owner Frank Wil-liams, who died last week, took place at the race.

Winner Mercedes’ British driver Lewis Hamilton (R) reacts with his trophy flanked by second-placed Red Bull’s Dutch driver Max Verstappen during the podium ceremony after the Formula One Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah on Sunday. (AFP)

Hamilton wins wild Saudi GP after Verstappen forced to give up lead

PA MEDIA/DPALONDON

THE Ralf Rangnick era got off to a winning start as Fred fired Manchester United to a hard-fought Premier League victory against Crystal Palace.

Having watched Thursday’s 3-2 triumph against Arsenal from the stands, the 63-year-old interim manager was on the Old Trafford touchline for the first time when Patrick Vieira’s men came to town.

Rangnick’s reign - and first match as a manager in 925 days - began in victorious fashion on Sunday, when Fred proved the unlikely match-winner with a superb curling late effort that saw off Palace 1-0.

United’s third Premier League win in 10 matches also brought with it a first home clean sheet of the campaign when a superb start petered out, providing the German with plenty of food for thought.

The hosts began with im-pressive intensity and energy under their new boss, with Cris-tiano Ronaldo having a host of chances before their perfor-mance began to drift against hard-working Palace.

Alex Telles saw a free-kick skim the bar and Jordan Ayew went agonizingly close at the other end as United began to slip into familiar ways, only for Fred to produce a moment of magic to seal three points.

Rangnick stood in the tech-nical area for the majority of his first match in charge. The Ger-man kept with the side that beat Arsenal but favoured a 4-2-2-2

formation as players pressed with more regularity and effec-tiveness.

That tweak, and the chance to impress Rangnick, saw the hosts start strongly, with Telles flashing an early shot wide be-fore a Ronaldo cross-shot just evaded Bruno Fernandes.

The 36-year-old star then powered over a header from just inside the box and stung Vicente Guaita’s palms as United con-tinued on the front foot.

Guaita stretched to tip away a low Fernandes effort, before Palace survived some penalty box pinball and a deflected Ja-don Sancho effort looped just over. It was an encouraging first half followed by a more cumber-some second period by United.

Cheikhou Kouyate saw a header blocked from a threaten-ing set-piece from Conor Gal-lagher, who helped close down Marcus Rashford as the forward shaped to shoot.

Mason Greenwood replaced Sancho in a bid to inject new life into a performance that had be-come flat and somewhat sloppy.

Greenwood swiped wide and Rangnick turned to Antho-ny Elanga to aid a performance that was now a far cry from the start of proceedings, with Pal-ace going agonizingly close to breaking the deadlock in the 75th minute. James Tomkins headed a fine corner to the far post, where Ayew could only di-rect across the face of goal from an acute angle. It was a let-off punished in style three minutes later as Greenwood laid back to Fred, who curled a superb 20-yard effort beyond Guaita.

Fred gets unlikely winner as Rangnick era starts with

Manchester Utd victory

Drivers compete in the Formula One Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Sunday. (AFP)

A race marshal assists Haas’ German driver Mick Schumacher after he crashed the Formula One Saudi Arabian Grand Prix at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Jeddah on Sunday. (AFP)

Russia win Davis Cup title beating Croatia after Rublev and Medvedev romp

DPAMADRID

RUSSIA’S men’s tennis play-ers won a third Davis Cup ti-tle on Sunday after Andrey Rublev and Daniil Medvedev gave them an unassailable lead over Croatia.

Rublev beat Croatia’s Bor-na Gojo 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) in the first singles rubber.

US Open champion Med-vedev then defeated 2014 Flushing Meadows winner Marin Cilic 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 as the Russians followed up tri-umphs in 2002 and 2006 with another success in the team competition.

Their quick singles victo-ries made the third doubles rubber redundant.

The final of the revamped tournament took place on the hard-court in Madrid after the group phase and knockout stages were held in Spain, Turin and Innsbruck over the past week and a half.

The Russians were official-ly known at the Davis Cup as the Russian Tennis Federation because of a wider sports ban on using their own flag linked to doping.

(From L) Russia’s Davis Cup captain Shamil Tarpischev, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, Russia’s Andrey Rublev, Russia’s Aslan Karatsev, Russia’s Karen Khachanov and Russia’s Evgeny Donskoy celebrate with the trophy after winning the Davis Cup at the Madrid arena in Madrid on Sunday. (AFP)

Results1. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 2hr 06min 0:15.118, 2. Max Verstappen (NED/Red Bull-Honda) at 11.825, 3. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Mercedes) 27.531, 4. Esteban Ocon (FRA/Alpine-Renault) 27.633, 5. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/McLaren-Mercedes) 40.121, 6. Pierre Gasly (FRA/AlphaTauri-Honda) 41.613, 7. Charles Leclerc (MON/Ferrari) 44.475, 8. Carlos Sainz (ESP/Ferrari) 46.606, 9. Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA/Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari) 58.505, 10. Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren-Mercedes) 1:01.358, 11. Lance Stroll (CAN/Aston Martin-Mercedes) 1:17.212, 12. Nicholas Latifi (CAN/Williams-Mercedes) 1:23.249, 13. Fernando Alonso (ESP/Alpine-Renault) at one lap, 14. Yuki Tsunoda (JPN/AlphaTauri-Honda) one lap, 15. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari) one Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 1:30.734 on 47th lap Retirements: Mick Schumacher (GER/Haas-Ferrari), George Russell (GBR/Williams-Mercedes), Nikita Mazepin (RUS/Haas-Ferrari), Sergio Perez (MEX/Red Bull-Honda), Sebastian Vettel (GER/Aston Martin-

Mercedes) World championship standings (after 21 of 22races):Drivers: 1. Max Verstappen (NED) 369.5 pts (9 wins), 2. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) 369.5 (8 wins), 3. Valtteri Bottas (FIN) 218, 4. Sergio Pérez (MEX) 190, 5. Charles Leclerc (MON) 158, 6. Lando Norris (GBR) 154, 7. Carlos Sainz (ESP) 149.5, 8. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) 115, 9. Pierre Gasly (FRA) 100, 10. Fernando Alonso (ESP) 77, 11. Esteban Ocon (FRA) 72, 12. Sebastian Vettel (GER) 43, 13. Lance Stroll (CAN) 34, 14. Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) 20, 15. George Russell (GBR) 16, 16. Kimi Räikkönen (FIN) 10, 17. Nicholas Latifi (CAN) 7, 18. Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA) 3, 19. Mick Schumacher (GER) 0, 20. Robert Kubica (POL) 0, 21. Nikita Mazepin (RUS) 0 Constructors: 1. Mercedes 587.5 pts, 2. Red Bull-Honda 559.5, 3. Ferrari 307.5, 4. McLaren-Mercedes 269, 5. Alpine-Renault 149, 6. AlphaTauri-Honda 120, 7. Aston Martin-Mercedes 77, 8. Williams-Mercedes 23, 9. Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari 13, 10. Haas-Ferrari 0.

Results & Standings

LONDON: Patrick Bamford stepped off the bench to score a stoppage-time equalizer as Leeds rescued a point in a 2-2 Premier League draw against Brentford. Bamford, making his first appearance in over two months as a second-half substitute after recovering from an ankle injury, marked his comeback by levelling in the fifth minute of added time. The Bees had struck twice in seven second-half minutes through Shandon Baptiste and Sergi Canos to turn the game on its head following Tyler Roberts’ opener, but - for the second straight home game - Leeds scored in time added on. Raphinha’s stoppage-time penalty clinched a 1-0 win against Crystal Palace on Tuesday and Bamford sparked similar scenes of jubilation at Elland Road with another last-gasp effort. (DPA)

Patrick Bamford’s stoppage-time goal earns point for Leeds against Brentford

Quick read

Sports14 Monday, December 6, 2021

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

ALI bin Ghanem Al Kuwari, President of the Qatar and West Asia Federation, Vice-President of the Asian Confed-eration, member of the FIVB Beach Volleyball Board of Di-rectors, chaired the General Assembly of the West Asian Volleyball Federation, which held at the Sharq Hotel in Doha on Saturday.

The meeting was attended by Dr. Abdul Hadi Shabib Al Mutairi, President of the Ku-waiti Federation, Dr. Khalid bin Mansour Al Zughaibi, President of the Saudi Federa-tion, Walid Shehadeh Al Kas-souf, President of the Leba-nese Federation, Eng.Ibrahim bin Abdullah Al Muqbali, President of the Oman federa-tion, Hamza Mahmoud Radi, President of the Palestinian federation, Jamil Aziz, Presi-dent of the Iraqi federation, Mohsen Ahmed Saleh, Presi-dent of the Yemeni federation, and Anas Sami Qabilat, Secre-tary-General of the Jordanian federation, Mufeed Elias Al Shareet, Secretary-General of the Syrian federation, and Muhammad Salem Al Kuwari, a member of the Board of Di-

rectors of the Qatar Volleyball Federation.

The meeting was also at-tended as an observer by Ab-dulaziz Al Baloul, Vice-President of the Asian Volleyball Federa-tion, Youssef Ahmed Kanou, Secretary-General of the Qatar Volleyball Association, and Sad-ah bint Saeed Al Azari, member of the Omani federation.

At the beginning of the meeting, Ali Al Kuwari wel-comed the attendees and wished them a pleasant stay in their second country, Qatar, and emphasized the depth of fraternal relations between the Arab federations.

Ali Ghanim Al Kuwari re-viewed the recommendation of the President of the Asian Volleyball Federation that it is necessary to activate the stat-ute and bylaws of the federa-tions of the Asian Volleyball Regions on December 5, and the minutes of the previous General Assembly meeting held last October were rati-fied and approved via video communication technology, and the agenda of the Gen-eral Assembly was ratified. In addition to presenting and discussing the Union’s future policies, plans, objectives and programmes, the appointment

of Sadah bint Saeed Al Azari as Head of the Women’s Com-mittee was approved.

During the meeting, chaired by Ali Al Kuwari, the ratification and approval of the accreditation and nomination of: Eng. Ibrahim bin Abdul-lah Al Muqbali, President of the Omani federation, as Vice-President of the West Asian Federation, and Brigadier Ji-had Qteishat, Vice-President of the Jordanian federation, as Vice-President of the West Asian Federation. Moham-med Salem Al Kuwari (Qatar) Secretary-General of the West Asian Federation, and the rati-fication of the selection of the treasurer, Kuwaiti Dr. Abdul Hadi Shabib Al Mutairi, and Youssef Ahmed Kanou (Qa-tar), the Assistant Treasurer of the West Asian Federation.

Muhammad Salem Al Ku-wari, a member of the Board of Directors of the Qatar Volley-ball Federation, expressed his optimism in the West Asian Federation Council headed by Ali Ghanem Al Kuwari, not-ing that there is an ambitious development plan targeting all the basic axes of the game, most notably: national teams, competitions, promising cent-ers, competitions and others.

Board of Directors of West Asian Volleyball Federation formed at meeting in Doha

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

QATAR’S International Master Husain Aziz won the bronze medal following a close battle in the Arab Individual Open Chess Championship 2021 which con-cluded in Dubai on Saturday.

The championship, which began on November 25, was conducted by the UAE Chess Federation and saw the par-ticipation of 33 chess players from all the world including two Grand Masters and 11 In-ternational Masters.

Husain Aziz tied after nine rounds at the top with 7 points alongside GM Bilel Bellahcene of Algeria and GM Amir Zaibi of Tunisia.

In the tie-breaker, Hu-sain Aziz finished third which asusred him the bronze. Bilel won gold and Zaibi the silver.

The achievement was ap-

plauded by Qatar Chess Fed-eration President Mohamed Al-Mudahka. “I congratulate Aziz Husain on his great per-

formance & achievement at the Arab Open Chess Champion-ship which had some top play-ers participating. To finish with

a bronze after a tie-break is as worthy as any other. We at QCF are proud of the success.”

Speaking after his admi-rable performance, Husain Aziz said: “It was a very close competition and challenging. It was my bad luck that It had to come down to the tie break in end. But I’m glad to have claimed the bronze.”

Husain Aziz had six wins and two draws in the nine crosstable rounds including against GM Zaibi.Results (Top ten)1. GM Bilel Bellahcene (ALG) 7pts2. GM Amir Zaibi (TUN) 73. IM Husain Aziz (QAT) 74. FM Ilyass Msellek (MAR) 6.55. IM Sami Khader (JOR) 5.56. FM Amro El Jawich (LBN) 5.57. IM Moheb Ameir (EGY) 5.58. IM Bashir Eiti (SYR) 5.59. IM Saeed Ishaq (UAE) 5.510. IM Mohamed Ezat (EGY) 5.0

Qatar’s Husain Aziz wins bronze at Arab Open Chess C’ship 2021

ANIMUMBAI

INDIA dominated Day 3 of the second Test against New Zealand as the hosts on Sun-day and now need five more wickets for a series win here at Wankhede Stadium.

New Zealand batters Daryl Mitchell and Henry Nicholls were the only positive for the visitors on as Kiwis’ score reads 140/5 of the ongoing second Test against India. Resuming the third session at 13/1, Ravi-chandran Ashwin struck again as he scalped two wickets and sent back Will Young (20) and Ross Taylor (6) in the 15th and 17th over respectively.

Following two big dismiss-als, Mitchell (60) and Nicholls (36*) kept the scoreboard moving for the visitors but In-

dian bowlers had other plans in store and spinner Axar Patel showed Mitchell the way to the dugout. Later, Tom Blundell

also departed without opening his account.

The visitors still need to cross a huge mountain of 400

runs in order to win the game.Earlier, India declared the

innings at 276/7 setting New Zealand a target of 540 when Ajaz Patel dismissed Jayant Yadav out caught and bowled picking up his 4th wicket of the innings and 14th of the match.

The left-arm spinner fin-ished with figures of 14-225 the best bowling figure in Test matches against India and the 2nd best bowling figure by a New Zealander after Sir Rich-ard Hadlee who took 15 wick-ets conceding 123 runs against Australia in Brisbane in 1985.Scores: India 325 and 276/4 decl (Mayank Agarwal 62, Cheteshwar Pujara 47, Shub-man Gill 47; Ajaz Patel 4-106); New Zealand 62 and 140/5 (Daryl Mitchell 60, Henry Nicholls 36*, Ravichandran Ashwin 3/27).

India dominate NZ, close in on series win

ICCDHAKA

PLAY was called off early on day two in Mirpur in the second Test between Bangladesh and Pakistan due to persistent rain.

Only 6.2 overs of play was possible on day two of the sec-

ond Test between Bangladesh and Pakistan at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Sta-dium.

The groundsmen were hard at work, bringing the covers on and off multiple times with rain playing hide and seek throughout the first session.

The play finally started at 12:50 PM local time, more than three hours after the scheduled start. Babar Azam kicked things off with a bound-ary off the first ball of the day.

Azhar Ali took a liking to Ebadot Hossain’s right-arm pace, smashing three bounda-ries including two consecu-tive fours to bring up his half-century, the 34th of his Test career.

Soon after, it once again started pouring and kept get-ting heavier as time passed. The umpires then decided to call the play off for the day, with Pakistan batting at 188/2 in the first innings.

Rain plays spoilsport on day two of Bangladesh-Pak Test

Sports 15Monday, December 6, 2021

Qatar’s Husain Aziz (4th left) along with the other winners and officials at the conclusion of the Arab Individual Open Chess Championship 2021 in Dubai on Saturday.

The Arab Individual Open Chess Championship 2021 Arab was con-ducted by the UAE Chess Federation and saw the participation of 33 chess players from all the world including two Grand Masters and 11 International Masters.

The overall winners of fifth round of the Qatar Off Road Championship, organised by the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF), celebrate on the podium during the pres-entation ceremony at Sealine. Kuwaiti rider Abdullah Al Shatti emerged victorious in the fifth round after completing 14 laps in one hour nine minutes and 40.544 secs to challenge the Championship leader Mohammed Al Balooshi for the title. Emirati Al Balooshi, who finished 8th in Round 5, is at 74 points on the points table, same as Al Shatti, with one more round remaining for the completion of the season. Apart from winning the penultimate round, Al Shatti also clocked the fastest lap-time, completing the 5.7km course in 4 minutes and 48.035 secs. South African Michael Anderson came second in the overall classification as well as Class 1, after completing the round 32.269 secs behind Al Shatti. Khalid Al Falasi of the UAE won the third place. Yaghoob Azadi of Qatar (Class 2) and Emiel Stuckens of Belgium (Class 3) won their respective classes. Class 1: 1: Abdullah Al Shatti (Kuwait); 2: Michael Anderson (South Africa); 3: Khalid Al Falasi (UAE); Class 2: 1: Yaghoob Azadi (Qatar); 2: Jaco Anderson (South Africa); 3: Ahmed AlJaber (Saudi Arabia); Class 3: 1: Emiel Stuckens (Belgium); 2: Dawood Al Sharshani (Qatar); 3: Hussain Al Sharshani (Qatar).

ABDULLAH AL SHATTI TOPS QATAR OFF ROAD C’SHIP FIFTH ROUND

Ali bin Ghanem Al Kuwari, President of the Qatar and West Asia Federation, Vice-President of the Asian Confederation, member of the FIVB Beach Volleyball Board of Directors, chaired the General Assembly of the West Asian Volleyball Federation held in Doha on Saturday.

QVA-Oman V’ball Assn sign cooperation agreement

The Qatar Volleyball Association (QVA) signed a co-operation agreement with Oman Volleyball Associa-tion on Sunday at the QVA headquarters in Doha. The agreement includes many aspects related to volleyball and how to enhance its role between the two sides to serve the game and ways to advance it in the two brotherly countries. The agreement was signed by Ali bin Ghanem Al Kuwari, QVA President , and for the Omani side, Eng. Ibrahim bin Abdullah Al Muqbali, President, Oman Volleyball Association. By signing this agreement, the two federations aim to invest in the brotherhood, friendship and distinguished bilateral relations between the two countries, and to look forward with them to broader horizons of close cooperation, especially since this agreement intends to develop means of exchanging experiences and resources between the two federa-tions, and at the same time supports the develop-ment of volleyball in the two brotherly countries.

Bangladesh’s captain Mominul Haque (L) speaks to field umpire on the 2nd day of the second Test against Pakistan at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Dhaka on Sunday. (AFP)

India’s Axar Patel (2L) celebrates with his teammates the dismissal of New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell on the third day of the second Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday. (AFP

TRIBUNE NEWS NETWORKDOHA

THE Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has completed con-struction work of 50 new park-ing lots to serve the 2021 Arab Cup and the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, with a total capac-ity of more than 51,000 cars and 5,600 buses on a total area covering approximately three million square metres within three months.

The project was imple-mented in coordination with the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) and other service entities.

The new parking locations include dedicated parking lots for cars, buses and taxis, and were implemented within just three months. The new parking spaces were provided in addi-tion to the existing ones to facili-tate fans’ access to the stadiums, avoid congestion and improve traffic movement in the areas surrounding the stadiums dur-ing matches.

Ashghal handed over the new parking lots to the SC to manage their operation dur-ing the sports events in coor-dination with the concerned authorities at the Ministry of Interior (MoI).

Engineer Yousef Al Ema-di, Projects Affairs director at Ashghal, said the authority has placed projects and works that serve sports facilities among its top priorities, as the sites for the 2021 Arab Cup have al-ready been handed over in co-ordination with the concerned

authorities in the country, which constitute 70 percent of the preparations for the 2022 World Cup.

He added that work is un-derway on the remaining sites according to the scheduled timetables.

On his part, Abdulaziz Ali Al Mawlawi, Host Country Mo-bility Operations director at the Supreme Committee for Deliv-ery & Legacy, said SC is coor-dinating on regular basis with Ashghal and all other concerned entities in the country to ensure the successful organisation of the 2021 Arab Cup and upcom-ing sport events.

He added that the complet-ed parking lots would facilitate access of football fans to the sta-diums, public transport network and the Metro.

He said Ashghal has imple-mented multi-purpose arenas and delivered to SC to meet all its requirements, from storage spaces to equipment, and re-quired parking spaces.

Engineer Saoud Al Tamimi, Roads Projects Department

manager at Ashghal, said that the completion of this large number of parking lots within a short span of time is a signifi-cant achievement and proves the integration of efforts of all sectors of the state with the aim of making the upcoming sporting events very successful, pushing the name of Qatar as a major international destination for sport.

He pointed out that the completed parking lots are suitable for all types of vehicles and meet the current needs, adding that Ashghal is current-ly implementing additional parking lots to serve the FIFA

World Cup Qatar 2022.Engineer Abdullah Ahin,

Designs Department manager at Ashghal, said: “A team was formed within the Designs De-partment to complete the de-signs for these sites as soon as possible to meet the priorities of the SC and also to enable those involved in implementation from all Ashghal departments to complete the work according to the established timetables.

“Approvals of the service entities within the design work were also obtained in record time as the roads network sur-rounding each parking lot was studied, and all safety standards were met for the entrances and exits of the parking lots, accord-ing to periodic coordination with representatives of the SC, to ensure that all their needs and requirements are met.”

The 50 new parking lots are divided into 26 parking lots that directly serve the stadiums directly, and 17 parking lots in different places far from the sta-diums that serve the public by providing a ‘Park & Ride’ service

using the Metro as well as the bus network of the Karwa trans-portation company.

Four parking lots were im-plemented to serve the train-ing grounds, in addition to the construction of three multi-use spaces.

As for the parking lots that serve the stadiums directly, 7 parking lots were implemented to serve Al Bayt Stadium, with a capacity of 19,000 cars and 1,930 buses. As for Al Janoub Stadium, three parking lots were built to serve it with a ca-pacity of 1,800 cars and 750 buses. In addition, five parking lots for 4,000 cars and 370 bus-es were built to serve the Educa-tion City Stadium, in addition to four parking lots for Al Thu-mama Stadium serving about 11,400 cars and 400 buses, and three parking lots to serve Sta-dium 974 with a total capacity of 2,900 cars and 350 buses.

As for the parking lots that were built outside the stadium boundaries and in various plac-es, they can accommodate about 11,900 cars and 1,800 buses.

The Last Word16 Monday, December 6, 2021

QF and TED unveilfirst TEDinArabicevent in the region

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THE first regional event to be held through TEDinArabic – a groundbreaking initiative be-tween Qatar Foundation and TED that is amplifying ideas in the Arabic language around the world – will be held in Doha this week, as the partnership be-tween the two organisations is extended for a third year.

TEDinArabic was launched in July 2020 as TED’s first ini-tiative dedicated to sharing so-lutions, inventions and stories in Arabic. Since then, its website has been visited 36 million times and its videos have received 14 million views.

The inaugural TEDinArabic regional event will be held at 9am on December 9 as top TED speakers share their perspec-tives in Arabic with a live global audience, who can now register to attend or to watch online at https://tedinarabic.ted.com/en/wise-event. It comes as Qa-tar Foundation (QF) and TED have extended their original two-year partnership, which reflects QF’s commitment to preserving and celebrating the Arabic language and promoting its continuing use and relevance to the world.

“The shared belief of QF and TED in the power of ideas, and the importance of provid-ing platforms for them to be communicated to the world, has driven the creation and growth of TEDinArabic, and the response to this initiative from across the Arabic-speaking world illustrates what the Ara-bic language means to so many millions of people,” said Aysha Al-Mudahka, director of Strate-gic Initiatives and Partnership Development, QF.

“Through TEDinArabic, Ar-abic speakers the world over are projecting their ideas, solutions, and stories in this rich and vi-tal language to a vast audience, shining a spotlight on thinking that is fresh, inventive, and chal-lenging – in keeping with the best traditions of Arab knowl-edge and science.”

Lisa Choi Owens, head of Partnerships, TED, said: “We couldn’t be more excited to be able to convene in person in Doha this December to cel-ebrate the launch of TEDinAr-

abic regional events. What’s unique about this initiative is the authentic connection with the Arabic-speaking communi-ties we are building together by giving their ideas a platform to be empowered to speak up and share ideas with the world-- all in Arabic.

Through TEDinArabic, an idea search with Arabic speak-ing countries will lead to 16 Ara-bic speakers who propose the most imaginative and inspiring ideas in the Arabic language be-ing selected to give TED Talks at a flagship event in Doha in 2023, which will bring the re-nowned TED conference experi-ence to the region.

This ideas search will be supported by three regional TEDinArabic events across the lifespan of the partnership, the first of which will take place on December 9 during the WISE 2021 Summit hosted by QF’s World Innovation Summit for Education. Hosted by Al Jazeera presenter Asma Al-Hammadi, the TED Session will welcome TED speakers Farah Al Taweel, a Qatari designer; Rana Dajani, scientist and professor at Hash-emite University in Jordan; Mohammed Al-Janahi, Head of Outreach, Teach for Qatar; and architect and eco-tourism specialist Aziza Chaouni, a TED Fellow.

The partnership between QF and TED has also seen a customized digital destination created as a vault for TEDinAra-bic’s content library, enabling high-quality content in the Ara-bic language – including blogs, TED-Ed video lessons, and custom video content – to be amplified across the world. The TEDinArabic website and con-tent will remain live and acces-sible even after the culmination of the partnership.

The Amir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and President of Poland Andrzej Duda held an official talks session at the Amiri Diwan on Sunday. During the ses-sion, they discussed bilateral relations between the two countries and the ways to develop them, especially in the fields of economy, energy, culture and sports, in addition to exchanging views on a number of regional and international issues of mutual interest. A number of ministers and members of the official delegation accompanying the president attended the session. HH the Amir later hosted a luncheon banquet in honour of the president and his accompanying delegation. (QNA)

Ashghal completes 50 parking lots in three months to serve 2021 Arab Cup

Eminent speakers offer insights at Sidra Medicine’s PMFG event

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THE second day of Sidra Medi-cine’s Precison Medicine and Functional Genomics (PMFG) conference focused on preci-sion care in maternal and child health and advances in innova-tive therapies.

Comprising of two tracks running concurrently, day two of the flagship research con-ference saw keynote speakers such as Dr Anna David, Uni-versity College London, UK, discuss Precision Medicine in Utero, while Dr Michael Snyder, Stanford University, USA of-fered insights into Big Data and Health. Local speakers included Dr Nady El Hajj, Hamad Bin Khalifa University; Dr Johnny Awwad, Sidra Medicine, and Dr Albert Adu Opoka, Hamad Medical Corporation.

The Organising Chair of Track Three, Dr Souhaila Al Khodor, director, Maternal and Child Health Program and asso-

ciate level principal investigator, Microbiome and Host-Microbes Interactions Laboratory at Sidra Medicine, said, “We learned a lot from our international and local speakers today, and a key message was that to improve outcomes of fertility, it is impor-tant to understand pre-implan-tation genetics, and that preci-sion medicine starts as early as in-utero. During a session pre-sented by Prof Rachel Tribe and Prof Ramkumar Menon, we ap-preciated the need for clinically useful biomarkers that can be

used to predict pre-term birth and how using extracellular vesicles to deliver anti-inflam-matory drugs could reduce the risk for pre-term birth.”

Track four keynote speakers included Dr Alessandro Aiuti, San Raffaele Hospital Milan, Italy, discussing Hematopoi-etic Stem Cell Gene Therapy for Inborn Errors: Turning Blood (stem) Cells Into a Medicine and Dr Steven A. Rosenberg, National Cancer Institute, USA, presenting Cell Therapy for Metastatic Cancer. Other inter-

national speakers included Dr Ronald Crystal, Weill Cornell Medicine-NY, USA; Dr Stanley Qi, Stanford University, USA; and Dr Paolo G.V. Martini, Moderna Therapeutics, USA.

The Organizing Chair of Track Four, Dr Cristina Mac-calli, Assistant Level Principal Investigator, Laboratory of Im-mune Biological Therapy at Sidra Medicine, noted, “We had the privilege to learn from the pioneer of cancer immunother-apy, Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg, on how to translate the potency of the immune system into im-proving the overall survival of patients with advanced cancer.”

Dr Mamoun Elawad, the Di-vison Chief of Gastroenterology presented Sidra Medicine’s own developments in the field of pre-cision medicine for young pa-tients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). He highlighted how precision medicine-based clinical care at Sidra Medicine could change pediatric patients’ lives and clinical outcomes.

HBKU-CHLS, Sidra join forcesto promote precision medicine

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IN its efforts to help address health challenges at the per-sonalised medicine level, the College of Health and Life Sci-ences (CHLS), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), is participating as a partner in Sidra Medicine’s flagship Preci-sion Medicine and Functional Genomics Conference.

The international forum’s sixth edition convenes clinical and scientific expertise to ex-plore the latest developments and innovations in biomedical research, including efforts driv-en by industry, to deliver preci-sion medicine solutions.

The conference’s satellite symposium on December 6 will focus on ‘Unlocking the Full Po-tential of Precision Medicine: Overcoming the Challenges and the Geographical Distribution of Advanced Therapies’ and measures needed to overcome challenges in clinical applica-tion in local and global contexts.

While highlighting the im-pact of advanced international efforts, the conference also fo-

cuses on achievements in the Arab and Middle Eastern re-gion led by advances in genom-ics knowledge. Throughout the conference, speakers are sharing research underway at HBKU, Sidra Medicine, Qatar Genome, Qatar Biobank, Ham-ad Medical Corporation, and other national entities.

The forum highlights how local health care can benefit from innovative translational applications of precision medi-cine and large-scale genome sequencing efforts.

Dr Nady El Hajj, assistant professor of Genomics and Precision Medicine at CHLS,

HBKU, presented a talk titled ‘Male Obesity and Aging Effects on the Sperm Epigenome and Possible Consequences for the Next Generation’.

Dr El Hajj joined panel-lists from Sidra Medicine and University College London, the UK, to demonstrate the need for prenatal genetic counsel-ling and precision medicine in utero.

Dr Edward Stuenkel, found-ing dean at CHLS, said: “Sidra Medicine’s conference is one of the most important forums to help move precision medicine forward into clinical applica-tions in Qatar and regionally. By bringing our scientific research findings into these exchanges, CHLS benefits from access to knowledge from the global sci-entific community. That helps our goal of advancing Qatar’s pioneering efforts to translate innovations into personalized treatment approaches for press-ing health risks.”

Contributions by research-ers, healthcare professionals, policymakers, industry experts and community members are guided by thematic tracks.

Mohammed Al-Janahi, Farah Al Taweel, Aziza Chaouni and Rana Dajani

Dr. Cristina Maccalli

Dr Nady El Hajj

Dr. Souhaila Al Khodor

Pioneering initiative is amplifying ideas, solutions and stories from across the Arabic-speaking world

Hosted in Qatar and streamed worldwide, top-flight leaders in their fields discussed Precision Care in Maternal and Child Health and Advances in Innovative Therapies for Precision Medicine

AMIR, POLISH PRESIDENT HOLD TALKS

The new parking lots can accommodate more than 51,000 cars and 5,600 buses in an area of 3mn m2The partnership between QF and TED has also seen a customized digital destina-tion created as a vault for TEDinArabic’s content library, enabling high-quality con-tent in the Arabic language – including blogs, TED-Ed video lessons, and custom video content – to be ampli-fied across the world