Gulf diplomacy kicks into high gear - Arab Times

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

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021 / JUMADA AL-AWWAL 3, 1443 AH emergency number 112 NO. 17861 16 PAGES 150 FILS

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In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presi-dency, President Ebrahim Raisi, (right), meets with United Arab Emirates’ top national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, (left), in

Tehran, Iran, Dec. 6, 2021. (AP)

Dr. Manjul Shukla transfers Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine into a syringe, Dec. 2, 2021, at a mobile vaccination clinic in Worcester, Mass. As the U.S. re-corded its first confirmed case of the omicron variant, doctors across the country are experiencing a more imminent crisis with a delta variant that is sending record numbers of people to the hospital in New England and the

Midwest. (AP)

In this photo released by Saudi Royal Palace, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, waves to French President Em-manuel Macron, upon his ar-rival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 4. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince was heading Dec. 6, 2021, to Oman, the first stop of a tour of Gulf Arab states. (AP)

KUWAIT CITY: Envoy of His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Sheikh Ah-mad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah took part in opening the F1 Grand Prix competition held in Jeddah on Sunday, in the pres-ence of Saudi Crown Prince Mo-hammad bin Salman bin Ab-dulaziz Al-Saud, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister.

Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah is the head of His Highness the Crown Prince’s Diwan. (KUNA)

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RIYADH: The Saudi-led coali-tion, on Monday, intercepted two drones that were fl ying across the Yemeni skies in the direction of Saudi Arabia.

Offi cial Saudi Press Agency (SPA), citing the coalition, said “In response to the threat and barbaric behavior, the threat was dealt with fi rmly”.

It stressed that the coalition’s operations were in accordance with international humanitarian law and rules. (KUNA)

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BEIRUT: A U.S. airstrike target-ing an al-Qaida leader in north-ern Syria wounded a family of six, including a 10-year-old child who suffered serious head injuries, The Associated Press has learned.

Ahmad Qassim had picked up his family from his in-laws in northwestern Syria where they had spent four days and was driving back home Friday morn-ing when an explosion occurred, riddling their vehicle with shrap-nel.

Qassim, a 52-year-old farm-er, his wife, two sons and two daughters suffered various wounds in the blast apparently caused by a missile fi red from a U.S. drone. The drone was targeting a man on a motorcy-cle that Qassim was trying to overtake, according to Qassim and fi rst responders. The blast occurred near the northwestern village of Mastoumeh as the family drove back home to the northern town of Afrin.

Syria’s 10-year confl ict has killed hundreds of thousands and left large parts of the country de-stroyed. (AP)

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BANGKOK: State television in Myanmar announced Monday night that country’s military leader reduced Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence by two years.

Suu Kyi, who was ousted in a de facto coup this year, was sentenced to four years in pris-on earlier in the day after being convicted on charges widely dismissed as politically moti-vated.

But hours later, her sentence was cut in half, as was the sen-tence of former President Win Myint, convicted alongside her. The TV report said the sentence reductions were part of an am-nesty.

According to the report on MRTV, the sentences would be applied “at their current deten-tion places,” apparently meaning they would not be sent to prison. It’s not clear where Suu Kyi has been held but she has not de-scribed it as a prison.

Meanwhile, Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader of Myan-mar who was ousted in a de facto coup this year, was convicted of incitement and another charge Monday and sentenced to four years in prison - in a trial widely criticized as a further effort by the country’s military rulers to reverse the democratic gains of recent years. (AP)

‘Joint action’key on terror

TOP UAE ADVISER IN IRAN ... SAUDI CROWN PRINCE TOURS GULF

Gulf diplomacy kicks into high gearRIYADH, Dec 6, (Agencies): The Gulf tour by the Saudi Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al-Saud will fea-ture examination of a host of files and cement inter-GCC solidarity, according to prominent personalities.

Fadl Al-Bouainain, member of the Saudi Shura Council, said in a state-

ment to KUNA that the Saudi leadership is keen on strengthening joint Gulf action and attaining optimum integration among the GCC states for sake of regional security and stability. Moreover, Riyadh aspires to bol-ster economic prosperity in the Council’s member states.

The Crown Prince Gulf tour is designed to bolster the joint GCC action, attain highest form of merger in various spheres namely in the security and economic sectors. Additionally, his mission will affirm significance of brotherly-level meet-

US, Abu Dhabi hold talks

MOST, if not all zakat money, the ‘khums’, and what is collected in the name of charity go to murder-ous militias and/or fill the pockets of rogues and smugglers.

Most people of this rich region who have kind hearts look to heav-en for reward for their good deeds.

Unfortunately they are victims of deception because the money they donated for the needy and the poor — if not all money — feed the ap-petite of terrorist organizations and criminal gangs.

… Yet, tomorrow is another day.

Zahed Matar

Omicron spreads

Early data shows moredanger in delta variantWASHINGTON, Dec 6, (Agencies): U.S. health officials said that while the omicron variant of the coronavirus is rapidly spreading throughout the coun-try, early indications suggest it may be less dangerous than delta, which contin-ues to drive a surge of hospitalizations.

President Joe Biden’s chief medi-cal adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN’s “State of the Union” that sci-entists need more information before drawing conclusions about omicron’s severity.

Reports from South Africa, where it emerged and is becoming the dominant strain, suggest that hospitalization rates have not increased alarmingly.

“Thus far, it does not look like there’s a great degree of severity to it,” Fauci said. “But we have really got to be careful before we make any determi-nations that it is less severe or it really doesn’t cause any severe illness, com-parable to delta.”

Fauci said the Biden administration is considering lifting travel restrictions against noncitizens entering the United States from several African countries. They were imposed as the omicron variant exploded in the region, but U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has blasted such measures as “travel apartheid.”

“Hopefully we’ll be able to lift that ban in a quite reasonable period of time,” Fauci said. “We all feel very badly about the hardship that has been put on not only on South Africa but the other African countries.”

Omicron had been detected in about a third of U.S. states by Sunday, in-cluding in the Northeast, the South, the Great Plains and the West Coast. Wis-consin, Missouri and Louisiana were among the latest states to confirm cases.

But delta remains the dominant vari-ant, making up more than 99% of cases and driving a surge of hospitalizations in the north. National Guard teams have been sent to help overwhelmed hospitals in western New York, and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker issued an emergency order requiring any hospitals facing lim-ited patient capacity to reduce scheduled procedures that are not urgent.

U.S. officials continued urging peo-ple to get vaccinated and to receive booster shots, as well as take precau-tions such as wearing masks when among strangers indoors, saying any-thing that helps protect against delta will also help protect against other vari-ants.

Even if omicron proves less danger-ous than delta, it remains problematic, World Health Organization epidemi-ologist Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove told CBS’ “Face The Nation.”

“Even if we have a large number of

cases that are mild, some of those in-dividuals will need hospitalizations,” she said. “They will need to go into ICU and some people will die. ... We don’t want to see that happen on top of an already difficult situation with delta circulating globally.”

Two years into the outbreak, COV-ID-19 has killed over 780,000 Ameri-cans, and deaths are running at about 860 per day.

More than 6,600 new hospital ad-missions are being reported daily, ac-cording to tracking data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention.

COVID-19 cases and deaths in the U.S. have dropped by about half since the delta peak in August and Septem-ber, but at more than 86,000 new in-fections per day, the numbers are still high, especially heading into the holi-days, when people travel and gather with family.

Kuwait’s Civil Service Commission has instructed all government institu-tions to adhere to all government health protocols while on duty, reports Al-Qabas daily.

The CSC in a circular to all govern-ment agencies said this is required to confront and contain the new mutant of the Corona virus ‘Omicron’.

The CSC said the circular was issued after discussions with the Corona Com-mittee on Dec 2, 2021, which conclud-ed that it is mandatory to observe health requirements related to combating the Corona virus, given the latest develop-ments on this front.

Following the improvement in the epidemiological situation in Kuwait and the world many breathed a sigh of relief, took off their face masks and al-most forgot about hand sterilizing and social distancing, only to be haunted by the new Covid-19 mutant Omicron, re-ports Al-Qabas daily.

In the face of this, the daily said, during a visit to pharmacies and super-markets many people were seen buying protective gear once again and the sales are said to have almost doubled espe-cially for face masks and hand sanitiz-ers although the government has not yet sounded an alarm over the outbreak of Omicron elsewhere in the world, but citizens and residents are leaving noth-ing for chance.

The good news is, the daily said, the supply of face masks, sterilizers, disin-fection materials and gloves are plen-tiful and available without any notice-able increase in retail prices.

Kuwait’s Embassy in Germany urged, Monday, Kuwaiti citizens on German lands to follow new coronavi-rus countermeasures the German gov-ernment put into effect.

ings for boosting the inter-GCC relations, tackling challenges and unifying views toward various crucial files, he said.

Al-Bouainain elaborated, saying the Kingdom Vision 2030, launched by Crown Prince Mohammad, not only fo-cuses on the local economy but also calls for creating economic links with the neighboring states.

The security file, he has added, is a main basis upon which all development and economic objectives are placed, also noting that the GCC countries have fac-ing emerging dangers such as sabotage schemes.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ibrahim Al-Nahas, member of the Saudi Shura Council, said the tour is complementary to previous coordination among the GCC countries regarding key files that collectively affect the council member countries.

Dr. Al-Nahas indicated that among the topics on the tables of talks with the of-ficials due to meet with the Crown Prince would be combating terrorism and ex-tremism.

Moreover, he said, the tour will ad-dress “a certain mechanism to beef up the confrontation against the Iranian regime that continues to support terrorist orga-nizations and groups, meddle in internal affairs of the GCC and Arab States, thus the need arises in this context to unify the efforts of the GCC states.”

Furthermore, the Crown Prince tour emits a message to the global and region-al communities; that the GCC states share concerns and policies at the political and security levels.

The Saudi Crown Prince was head-ing Monday to Oman, the first stop of a tour of Gulf Arab states that will see him meet neighboring rulers and allies as the kingdom closely watches negotiations in Europe to revive Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

CoincidesCrown Prince Mohammed bin

Salman’s visit coincides with a flurry of other diplomatic meetings in the re-gion, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to ally Qatar and a visit by a high-ranking security official from the United Arab Emirates to Iran. Confirmed by Saudi and Omani media, the tour also comes ahead of an upcom-ing annual six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council meeting of rulers this month.

Erdogan, whose country rushed to sup-port Qatar during a diplomatic standoff that ended earlier this year with other Arab states, said Turkey welcomes rec-onciliation efforts in the Gulf region. Turkey has been trying to repair frayed relations with some Arab states, includ-ing with a visit by Erdogan to the UAE in February.

Meanwhile, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s tour will take him this week to the UAE, where a rivalry has heated up for business amid diverging foreign poli-cies between the traditional allies, as well as Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, according to diplomats who spoke to The Associ-ated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss tour details.

The diplomats said the tour aims to eliminate geopolitical differences and enhance cooperation and coordination among the six Gulf Arab countries, par-ticularly in dealing effectively with Iran’s nuclear program and regional ambitions.

The national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates met Monday with Iran’s hard-line president in Tehran, a major visit for the Gulf Arab federation that has long viewed the Islamic Republic as its main regional threat.

The visit by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan comes as the Emirates and Sau-di Arabia are both negotiating with Iran amid efforts in Vienna to save Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

The UAE, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, reached a diplomatic recogni-tion deal last year with Israel, increas-ing tensions with Tehran. The UAE has long served as a lifeline to the outside world for Iran amid international sanc-tions.

Sheikh Tahnoon, wearing a navy-blue thobe, black suit jacket and his signa-ture aviator sunglasses, met first with Ali Shamkhani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. The two men smiled and shook hands in front of jour-nalists before their meeting, a large map of Iran and the Arabian Gulf looming be-hind them, with just a sliver of the Emir-ates visible on it.

Also: WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Sunday with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mo-hammad bin Zayed Al-Nahyan during which they discussed “important regional matters.”

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement that Blinken and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, a phone call, “reaffirmed their countries’ strong partnership and discussed ways to broaden and deepen their wide-ranging cooperation.”

CAIRO, Dec 6, (KUNA): Justice ministers from across the Arab region agreed on Monday that it was imperative to bolster coop-eration across the board in order to stamp out terrorism, saying the fight against the scourge has to be a “collective” endeavor.

Citing a pan-Arab agreement against terrorism, the ministers, during talks in the Egyptian capi-tal, said member states should introduce common measures to bring relevant legislations to fruition, calling for more coordi-nation on the matter.

Withdrawing support for all “individuals or entities complicit in terrorist acts” is a necessity, the ministers underlined, in addi-tion to more cooperation on the legal front through concerted and unified legislations, they added.

These measures will only bear fruit if rigid policies, running the gamut from tougher hate speech laws to anti-cybercrime efforts, in addition to initiatives espous-ing religious tolerance, are in-troduced on a national level, the ministers agreed.

Reaching out to international partners to boost cooperation on a global level is another effec-tive measure given that the fight against terrorism is a collective effort, the ministers underlined.

The ministers stressed the need to bolster cooperation to keep crime and terrorism at bay, saying such a measure was nec-essary in light of mounting chal-lenges.

The Secretary General of the League of Arab States (LAS) Ahmad Abul Gheit stressed the importance of regional and in-ternational judicial mechanisms for cooperation against serious threats facing the Arab world.

This came in Aboul Gheit’s speech, Monday, before the opening session of the 37th as-sembly of the Arab Justice Min-isters Council, under the chair-manship of Algeria, at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.

In this context, Aboul Gheit called for “taking advantage of all opportunities and means provided by these mechanisms to promote an effective and comprehensive strategy to face terrorism on both Arab and National fronts.”

He pointed out the “complex-ity” of terrorism and how it is linked to money laundering, smuggling, organized crime and irregular migration, and how it is impossible to face it unless they follow a comprehensive ap-proach and strategy, that’s not limited to a security aspect but also legal, technological and fi-nancial aspects.

He considered that success in facing terrorism is imperiled to the incorporation of all these aspects through a comprehensive strategy, while stressing on the great potentials offered by the Arab Agreements on Combating Terrorism, Money Laundering and Financing Terrorism, and Combating Information Technol-ogy Crimes.

Aboul Gheit clarified that these agreements “together con-stitute an integrated system not only to besiege terrorism, but also to eradicate its roots and dry its sources,” noting that terrorism feeds on another phenomenon and that is hate speech.

What it takes to normalizeLebanon-GCC relations

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

SINCE the beginning of the crisis with Lebanon, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been clear in terms of diagnosing the cause of the problem, and they developed a road map to solve it.

This is what Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati should be well aware of, so that he does not assume, after the joint phone call with the French President Em-manuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that the call is enough to render the water back to its normal course between the Gulf capitals and Beirut, and that the problem is over.

In fact, the Prime Minister should take into account several political issues so that such situations do not recur in the fu-ture, including:

1. This call can be considered as a sign of the GCC’s goodwill. However, the question still remains - Can the Lebanese officials invest in practical steps that can contribute to implementing the roadmap for remedying the Gulf relations?

2. The Prime Minister Mikati should know that Qardahi’s resignation does not enter into the Gulf accounts in its broadest sense, as it is a purely internal Lebanese affair, even if his statement is what healed the wound.

3. All Lebanese political forces are required to distance Lebanon from being a conduit for smuggling of drugs to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, by taking strict security measures at the country’s ports, and in full coordi-nation with the GCC capitals.

4. Distance Lebanon from being a me-dia platform for attacking Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries under the guise of personal opinion or freedom of opin-ion.

5. The most important thing is to clip Hezbollah’s nails to stop tampering with the security of Saudi Arabia and the in-ternal affairs of the Gulf states in order to pass the scheme of the Mullahs regime through the Iranian occupation agent Hassan Nasrallah.

For all of the above, we say that the problem is not with people so that it can be ended with phone calls, reproaches and promises. Instead, it is with the peo-ple of these countries who have tasted both of the practices of the terrorist group Hezbollah, either through the cells of ter-rorism and espionage that Kuwait has suffered and is still suffering, or the mon-ey laundering networks, for collection of donations, and the use of zakat and “one fifth” to support it.

Therefore, the matter is in the hands of the people. They are the ones to decide, not the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed.

Finally, if this gang was able to destroy the beautiful Lebanon and turn it into a dumping ground for the regimes of op-position, there is no doubt that the GCC countries and their people will not accept this deadly virus to reach them.

Hence, the Lebanese officials must abandon the policy of submission to Nas-rallah, and make up their minds to save their country, so that the GCC countries can help them and lift Lebanon out of its crisis.

Those who think that the Gulf’s return to Lebanon is possible in the presence of Hezbollah are mistaken.

The Lebanese officials should not build palaces of illusions just over a phone call. They should realize the reality of their difficult situation, and not rely on mak-ing verbal promises. They should take the initiative to stop Nasrallah’s plans and rescue the country and its people from his clutches and that of his masters.

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lineup for 2022 emirates airline festival of literature

Ahlam Bolooki, Director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, during an immersive event at Expo 2020 revealing the full lineup for 2022 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.

2ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021

The 2022 Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, one of the top literary festivals in the world and the biggest celebration of stories in the Middle

East, will take audiences behind the screen and into the heart of some of the most compelling stories of recent time. Authors of Netflix sensations Bridg-erton by Julia Quinn and Chernobyl 1986 by Serhii Plokhy; silver screen smash hit House of Gucci by Sara Gay Forden; the tv show No Music at Al Ahmadi by Mona Al Shammari; and superstar animators Mohammed Saeed Harib, creator of Freej, and Ken Arto, animator of Demon Slayer, are all com-ing to the Festival, 3-12 February.

The full line-up, which was revealed at an immersive event at Expo 2020 featuring a soulful performance by Emirati singer Arqam, captures the spirit of this year’s Festival theme, ‘Here Comes the Sun’. The majority of sessions will be taking place at its brand new canal-side home for 2022, the Habtoor City Hotels. Other big names in the packed programme include Gary Vayner-chuck, Nadiya Hussain, David Walliams, Iman Mersal, Indra Nooyi, Mark Billingham, Shahad Al Rawi and Omar Saif Ghobash; actor Ben Miller, who starred as Lord Archibald Featherington in Bridgerton, with his latest chil-dren’s book; YouTuber Ahmed El Ghandour, aka Al Da7ee7; while master thriller writer David Baldacci will be joining the Festival virtually.

Ahlam Bolooki, director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature said: “It’s exciting to be at the dawn of a new era – one where we are more aware of our connections to each other and the world around us, as is reflected in many of the sessions. We are thrilled to be able to welcome international au-thors back in person, and brimming with excitement about our new venue, our phenomenal programme, and as always, the unforgettable stories the Festival will give rise to. We have some very special sessions planned for the coming edition, and I am telling everyone to book early because if you blink, you will miss your chance.”

Special eventsAudiences can feel the fear at the special ‘Fright Night’, an evening of

thrills and chills with sessions paying homage to horror, crime and all things dark. The Fear Factor panel brings together Hanna Alkaf, David Eagleman, Polly Philips and Waleed Owdah, who will be spiralling into the deep dark pits of terror.

Celebrating Charles Dickens’ birthday on 7 February, the Festival invites audiences to Miss Havisham’s Wedding, starring special guest Lucinda Dick-ens Hawksley, the great-great-great granddaughter of the man himself and author of many books about women in history.

Not to be missed is the magical evening at Expo 2020 Dubai with stars of spoken word, the incomparable Carlos Andrés Gómez and Dubai’s Dr Afra Atiq, accompanied musically by Nashville-based singer/songwriter Brent Shuttleworth.

Performance poetry is always a hugely popular element of the Festival and this year is no exception, with a stellar international cast featuring Nikita Gill, Noor Naga, Queena Bergen and Sascha A Akhtar, joining UAE talents Da-nabelle Gutierrez, Farah Ali, Zainab Arrefai and Amal Al Sahlawi. The Fes-tival’s signature event, Desert Stanzas, returns with captivating spoken word performances from top artists, set against the atmospheric starlit backdrop.

FictionNovelists flying in from across the globe include the hottest new talent Brit

Bennet (The Vanishing Half), C Pam Zhang (How Much of These Hills Is Gold), Lucy Foley (The Guest List) and Felicia Yap (Yesterday). There is also crime writing star Mark Billingham, Alka Joshi (The Henna Artist) and

renowned author David Grossman, who won the International Booker with A Horse Walks Into a Bar.

Toshikazu Kawaguchi has life-affirming tales of café-based time travel in Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Pakistani actress and model Mira Sethi will be talking about her first book of short stories, Are You Enjoying? and the for-mer Emirates Writing Prize winner Polly Phillips will be here with her debut novel, My Best Friend’s Murder.

The Festival will also host the much anticipated launch of HE Omar Saif Ghobash’s first novel.

Boutros Boutros, Divisional Senior Vice President, Corporate Communi-cations, Marketing and Brand at Emirates said: “This year’s theme for the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is incredibly fitting with the wonderful opportunities that the event will bring, helping encourage storytelling and in-person conversation, which are at the heart of what makes us human. We’re proud to support an event that gives literature lovers the chance to meet and engage with inspirational authors, and we look forward to helping welcome the star-studded line-up to Dubai. As the title sponsor of the festival, Emirates is committed to supporting the growing cultural, arts and creative industries in Dubai, and we are delighted to bringing people together to discuss some of the biggest issues of our time, and help spread joy and optimism to imagine the world anew.”

The Festival opens on 3 February 2022 with a dedicated Emirati day, and a strong presence throughout the whole of the ten days from writers based in the region.

Dr. Saeed Mubarak bin Kharbash, CEO of the Arts and Literature Sector at Dubai Culture, expressed the Authority’s readiness to enrich this edition of the festival with several events aimed at celebrating culture and spread-ing the joy of reading and learning among society members, especially the younger generations, and supporting local and international talents, saying: “We are proud to continue our partnership with the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature on the international scene, which cements Dubai’s position as a destination for the exchange of culture and knowledge among people, and as a model for spreading the values of tolerance and peace among different races and cultures. Through this pioneering festival, we offer a valuable platform to stimulate participation and make literature and culture accessible to everyone as well as encouraging the young generation to make reading a daily habit, to inspire them and instil creativity in their souls and minds, and qualify them to follow the emirate’s comprehensive development process.”

Kharbash added: “Through the dedicated Emirati day that we are organis-ing during the festival, we continue to support and empower local talent and provide them with the opportunity to reach global horizons. This contributes to strengthening the cultural and creative industries in the emirate, within the framework of our vision to cement Dubai’s position as a global centre for culture, an incubator for creativity, and a thriving hub for talent as well as achieve the objectives of the Dubai Creative Economy Strategy, which aims to make Dubai the global capital of the creative economy by 2025.”

The first day of the Festival will feature a strong line-up of Emirati authors of all genres, with sessions of short story readings, poetry, panel discussions on diverse topics from writing for cinema, or women in education, to the art and science of being a collector. An esteemed panel of experts will discuss the stigma of being in the arts, while another panel brings together three impres-sive Emirati women taking unconventional paths: Fatima Al Mansoori, Hana Al Hashimi, and Alamira Reem Al Hashimi.

Life coach Hala Kazim will share her insights into positivity, wellness and mental health, offering practical steps to acceptance.

Food for ThoughtFoodies can join the Great British Bake Off star, mental health campaigner

and author Nadiya Hussain, for a slice of cake as she shares how her life has been transformed since winning the hit show. Italian restaurateur and TV personality Alessandro Borghese will bring his unique take on his favourite dishes; Salma Serry founder of @Sufra_kitchen, will be talking about the histories, culture and ephemera of food from the SWANA region, and Zahra Abdalla will be there with modern interpretations of Middle Eastern recipes as featured in Zahra’s Kitchen food range.

There’s also Dr Rupy Aujla, bestselling author of The Doctor’s Kitchen and Eat to Beat Illness, who explains how to create healthy and delicious recipes for optimum mental and physical health.

Arab WorldNovelists from the Arab World include acclaimed Egyptian poet and novel-

ist Iman Mersal, winner of the 2021 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for her novel In the Footsteps of Enayat Al Zayyat; Bushra Khalfan, putting the experiences of women in the Arab world centre-stage; founder of Snob Al-Hasn and prize-winning novelist, Alawiya Sobh; and IPAF-nominated author Rasha Adly. There’s also Selma Dabbagh, chairing a panel to how the erotic and intimate has been depicted by Arab female writers through the ages and the limits to this expression.

Saudi fantasy writer of the popular trilogy, Orchards of Arabistan, Osamah Mohammed Al Muslim will be at the Festival, as well as Egyptian author and legal expert Ashraf Al Ashmawi with his latest work, Orvanelli Lounge (2021), and Naji Bakhti with his debut novel Between Beirut and the Moon, about a young boy who dreams of becoming an astronaut, but must contend with issues closer to home in post-civil war Lebanon.

Ahmad Alzamam will speak about the relationship between writers and publishers in the GCC, while Jalal Bargas discusses writing politics as an Arab Writer, and Sultan Al Mousa tells of his journey as a young writer spe-cialising in history of ancient religions and civilizations, in a panel on histori-cal fiction writing.

HistoryMarina Wheeler, an Anglo-Indian with roots in what is now Pakistan, ex-

plores the story of her mother’s early years which were shaped by the Partition in The Lost Homestead. Raphael Cormack gives a taste of the cosmopolitan counterculture in Egypt during the inter-war years of the last century, while Ukrainian author Serhii Plokhy examines Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy in his Baillie Gifford Prize-winning work.

Paleoanthropologist, evolutionary biologist and presenter of BBC2’s Ne-anderthals: Meet Your Ancestors Ella Al-Shamahi brings hair raising tales of her adventures as an extreme explorer in the world’s most inhospitable landscapes.

Art and DesignArt and design take centre stage in many of the 2022 Festival sessions.

Find out where graphic novelists and animators get their ideas from with two masters of their art, Fumio Obata and Ken Arto. Jessica Cerasi, curator of the 2019 Venice Biennale asks ‘Who’s Afraid of Contemporary Art?’ based on her course at the Tate modern, while Lucinda Dickens Hawksley discusses What Makes Great Art: 80 Masterpieces Explained with Myrna

editor’s choice

Continued on Page 3

‘Here comes the sun’

flyin’ high for a good read

ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021 3

Fajr ........ 05:05Sunrise .. 06:29Zohr ....... 11:39

Asr .......... 14:31Maghrib .. 16:49Isha ........ 18:11

Prayer TimingsExpected weather for the next 24 hours:

By Day: Mild and partly cloudy with light to moderate north west-erly wind to light variable wind with speeds of 08-30 km/h with a chance for rising dust over open areas.

By Night: Rather cold and partly cloudy with light to moder-ate north westerly wind to light variable wind with speeds of 06-26 km/h.Station Max Exp Min RecKuwait City 26 18Kuwait Airport 27 14

Abdaly 27 13Jahra 28 12Salmiyah 24 15Ahmadi 25 17Nuwaisib 26 10Wafra 27 12Salmy 26 13Jal Aliyah 26 15

Weather

VACCINE REGISTRATION WEBSITE: https://cov19vaccine.moh.gov.kw/SPCMS/CVD_19_Vaccine_Registration.aspx

fl yin’ highContinued from Page 2

Ayad, director of Art Dubai. The golden age of glamour is also invoked when Egyptian jewellery designer Azza Fahmy reveals her inspirations.

Finding the light A number of sessions examine self-care, mental health

and becoming the best you can be. Psychotherapist Sasha Bates blends the personal and the professional as she comes to terms with the loss of her husband in The Languages of Loss: A Psychotherapist’s Journey Through Grief. Jessica Moxham is a champion for disability rights and parenting and shares what she has learnt from her disabled son in The Cracks That Let the Light In. Battles with mental health is-sues are candidly revealed in her autobiography by Ameri-can journalist, author and mum blogger Jenny Lawson. Behavioural scientist Pragya Agarwal looks at the subject of motherhood, unconscious bias and talking with children about race and, joining virtually, is Robin Dunbar, an an-thropologist and evolutionary psychologist known for the concept Dunbar’s Number — the number of people with whom you can comfortably maintain stable social relation-ships, explored in his book Friends.

ScienceWorld-leading American neuroscientist, bestselling

author and presenter of the BBC series The Brain, David Eagleman describes the marvels of brain plasticity in his session, Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain. Rowan Hooper, senior editor at New Scientist maga-zine and host of the New Scientist Weekly podcast invites us to find out How to spend a trillion dollars – saving the world and solving the biggest mysteries in science.

Business WorldIndra Nooyi, ranked among the world’s 100 most power-

ful women, former CEO of PepsiCo and currently on the board of Amazon, will be bringing her thoughts on shatter-ing the glass ceiling and how government and corporations can create work environments that promote prosperity at a personal, societal and ecological level. There’ll also be cutting-edge insights from Belarusian-American entrepre-neur, internet personality and chairman of New York-based communications company VaynerX, Gary Vaynerchuk, who rose to fame with his daily YouTube show in the early years of social media. Khalaf Al Habtoor will also speak at the Festival about his books.

A highlight of every Festival is the announcement of the winner of the Emirates LitFest Writing Prize. This year also sees a new event — the announcement of the very first batch of selected writers for First Chapter – The Elf Sed-diqi Writers Fellowship, putting ten talented people on the path to success through an international standard mentor-ship programme.

As always there are workshops for young and old, ses-sions on creative writing, translation and publishing and the popular quick pitches and masterclasses with literary agents Luigi and Alison Bonomi as well as Sheila Crowley.

Children’s and YA FictionHe’s here in Dubai! Don’t miss this chance to jump into

the world of David Walliams and celebrate Gangsta Gran-ny’s tenth anniversary, or discover the horrors of The Cruel School and the mysterious science teacher Doctor Doktur. Fun and hilarity guaranteed!

The multi-talented Ben Miller takes us on his latest romp – this time to find out what it’s like to become a dog, as he talks about his most recent adventure story, with the odd magical mishap along the way!

The man behind the internet sensation #DrawWithRob, Rob Biddulph, will be in Dubai to introduce you to Peanut Jones and her incredible adventures, as she draws herself in and out of danger. Greta Woebegone has her adventures with the ghosts who share her house -- hear what happens from best-selling children’s author Sam Copeland.

For pre-teens there’s award-winning author of the Shape-shifter series Ali Sparkes, with the final book in her most recent fantasy adventure – Night Forever – which reaches its heart-stopping conclusion at the top of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. Award-winning Erin Entrada Kelly is a Filipino-American award-winning writer of books including Hel-lo Universe, The Land of Forgotten Girls, and her latest, We Dream of Space, a story of three siblings discovering that life rarely goes smoothly. Ben Bailey Smith aka Doc Brown, is a British actor, rapper, comedian. His hilarious hero Carmichael discovers what really matters in life and whether being infamous is a good thing, in his first solo fiction title Something I said!

Ben’s picture books for younger children, with illustrator Sav Akyüz, will get you on your feet with the purple bear showing off his dance moves in I Am Bear and Bear Moves.

Nadiya Hussain’s session for younger children explores feelings and emotions, and deals with the overwhelming feel-ings of being different, helping children confront their fears, and acknowledge their differences. Well-known UAE TV per-sonality Layne Redman will be making his first appearance at the Festival to celebrate his new series of books featuring Luam, whose first adventure Luam’s Balm, is set in Jamaica.

The Arabic children’s programmes features Dubai Abul-houl with her retelling of Emirati folk tales for children, Hadil Ghoniem, author of Layali Shahrzizi (The Nights of Shahrzizi) which won the 2020 Etisalat Book of the Year award for Arabic Children’s Literature and Nasser Al Dos-seri, also known as Mr. Noon. There’s also Julnar Haju, Sanaa Chabbani, Safia Al Shehi, Sahar Naja Mahfouz, Ab-dulrahman Al Dasuki and Ali Ashoor Al-Jafar.

YA fiction (14+) Award-winning Dominican-American author Elizabeth

Acevedo explores the many themes from her novel in verse, Clap when You Land, including grief, love, and the bonds that connect us.

Hanna Alkaf, Malaysian author of middle grade and YA children’s books, takes us back in time to 1969 Malaysia and tackles the complexity of identity, the effects of rac-ism and the impact of mental illness on young people, all brought to the reader in an approachable way.

S.K. Ali brings the engaging character of Janna Yusuf, an Egyptian and Indian American, to life in her series of books for Young Adults and will be sharing with us her inspiration for the stories and the themes she explores.

Photographer Waleed Shah will show how he uses his work to break down stereotypes and challenge societal norms; Fatima Al Mansouri tells of her life as female fighter pilot; TV news anchor Fatima Daoui shares her hard-won lessons to help women in the media in her book, Don’t Look Down; and Jordanian author Fadi Zaghmout discusses his latest novel, Needle and Thimble.

As always, there are workshops galore for all ages, cov-ering poetry and poetry slam, creative writing and storytell-ing, drawing and illustration.

The Festival sees the culmination of the student writing competitions, with winners announced in special ceremonies for the Chevron Readers’ Cup, Emirates NBD Poetry For All, the Royal Grammar School Guildford Dubai Children’s Let-ter Writing Competition and The Story Writing Competition.

The Voices of Future Generations competition will host a special book launch at the Festival featuring the second round of winning sustainability-themed stories.

The much anticipated announcement of the School Li-brarian of the Year award will also be made at the Festival.

The Festival will comply with all current covid regula-tions, and visitor safety is the top priority.

The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is held un-der the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.

KFH rallies 15 fi ls, Humansoft Holding skids

Kuwait stocks plod higher in range-bound tradeBy John MathewsArab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 6: Kuwait stocks plodded higher on Monday, extending its gains to fourth straight session. The All Shares Index rose 10.15 points in range bound trade to 6,984.18 points paced by mid-caps even as the heavyweights closed mixed.

The Premier Market was unchanged at 7,573.27 points and is up 1522 points year-to-date while Main Market scaled 34.26 pts. The BK Main 50 climbed 27.89 points to 6,033.54 pts. The volume turnover mean-while rose for second day in row. Over 369 million shares changed hands – up 3 percent from the day before.

The sectors closed mostly in green. Technology outshone the rest with 2.88 percent gain while Telecommunications shed 1.10 percent, the biggest loser of the session. Volume wise, Financial Services topped with 175.39 million shares and Banking sector dominated with KD 35.73 million.

In the individual shares, sector bell-wether National Bank of Kuwait dropped 10 fi ls to 990 fi ls after pushing 9.2 million shares whereas Kuwait Finance House ral-lied 15 fi ls to 830 fi ls on back of 10.6 mil-lion shares. Boubyan Bank climbed 6 fi ls to 791 fi ls and Ahli United Bank BSC gave up 6 fi ls. Humansoft Holding skidded 25 fi ls to KD 3.220 taking the year-to-date loss to 579 fi ls.

Zain slipped 7 fi ls to 580 fi ls with a vol-ume of 3.2 million shares and Ooredoo closed 4 fi ls in red. stc dropped 9 fi ls to 840

fi ls while logistics major Agility was down 3 fi ls at 933 fi ls after moving 2.7 million shares. Boursa Kuwait Securities jumped 34 fi ls.

Mabanee Co gave up 5 fi ls partly eras-ing Sunday’s gains and Mezzan Holding tripped 1 fi l. KIPCO fell 2 fi ls to 135 fi ls after pushing 7.3 million shares whereas National Investment Co clipped 2 fi ls. Tamdeen Investment Co skidded 19 fi ls to 362 fi ls and Tamdeen Real Estate erased 6 fi ls.

National Industries climbed 6 fi ls to 278 fi ls on back of 3.6 million shares whereas Gulf Cable paused at 915 fi ls. Jazeera Air-ways soared 43 fi ls to KD 1.064 taking the year’s gains to 330 fi ls and ALAFCO took in 1 fi l. Boubyan Petrochemical Co rose 5 fi ls to 862 fi s while Qurain Petrochemical Co dialed up 2 fi ls.

The market opened fi rm and slipped briefl y in early trade. The main index plumbed the day’s lowest level of 6,983 points and pivoted north amid buying spurt in some of the counters. It see sawed be-tween small gains and losses before peak-ing at 7,004 points past the mid-session and retreated in the fi nal hour to close with modest gain.

Top gainer of the day, KGL rallied 9.77 pct to 708 fi ls while IFA Hotels and Resorts scaled 9.57 percent to stand close behind. Tahssilat skidded 7.83 pct, the steepest de-cliner of the day and GFH topped with 90.9 million shares.

Mirroring the day’s gain, the winners vastly outnumbered the losers. 81 stocks advanced while 39 closed lower. Of the 141 counters active on Monday, 21 closed

fl at. 14,918 deals worth KD 74 million were transacted during the session.

In the banking sector, Gulf Bank took in 2 fi ls on back of over 8 million shares and Burgan Bank followed suit to end at 222 fi ls. Kuwait International Bank stood pat at 210 fi ls with a volume of 7.4 million whereas Warba Bank added 1 fi l. Commer-cial Bank and Al Ahli Bank paused at 500 fi ls and 237 fi ls whereas Ahli United Bank Kuwait paced 3 fi ls.

Kuwait Cement Co climbed 5 fi ls to 239 fi ls and Kuwait Portland Cement sprinted 14 fi ls with thin trading. HEISC dialed down 2 fi ls whereas Kuwait Foundry Co eroded 4 fi ls. ACICO Industries paced 4 fi ls while Metal and Recycling Co closed 3 fi ls in green. NCCI rallied 8 fi ls on back of 4.9 million shares and NICBM gained 3 fi ls. Warba Capital Holding gave up 3.1 fi ls before settling at 96.9 fi ls.

Educational Holding climbed 6 fi ls to 585 fi ls while Kuwait and Gulf Links Transport Co rallied 6.3 fi ls on back of over 4 million shares. Sultan Centre added 3 fi ls and Arabi Group Holding sprinted 9 fi ls. Automated Systems Co dialed up 2.8 fi ls whereas NAPESCO paused at 810 fi ls. KCPC slipped 6 fi ls to 513 fi ls.

Burgan Company For Well Drilling slipped 5 fi ls to 145 fi ls whereas Combined Group Contracting Co was unchanged at 342 fi ls. IFA Hotels and Resorts paced 5.5 fi ls while OSOS Holding Group closed 3 fi ls in green. Soor Fuel Marketing took in 2 fi ls whereas Oula Fuel Marketing stood pat at 154 fi ls.

Mashaer Holding took in 1.6 fi ls where-as Mubarad Holding clipped 2 fi ls. GFH

Financial Group eased 1.1 fi ls to 95.9 fi ls with brisk trading and Inovest BSC added 2 fi ls. Land United Real Estate paused at 99.5 fi ls while Jassim Transport gained 5 fi ls.

The market has been upbeat so far during the week pacing 47 points in last two ses-sions . It has rallied 195 points from start of the month and is up 1,399 points year-to-date.

Euro/KD 0.3414

Yen/KD 0.0026

British £/KD 0.4006

Indian Rs/KD 0.0040

Philippines Peso/KD 0.0060

FTSE +109.34 pts at 18:50 Dec 06

Nikkei -102.20 pts at closing Dec 06

Gold $1781.25 per oz (London)

US$/KDUS$/KD 0.30250/60 0.30250/60

NYMEX crude $67.99 per barrel

Brent crude $71.71 per barrel

LIBOR rate 0.18763%

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‘Israel boycott continues’Entry for Gulf passport holders restricted

By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh

Arab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 6: MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji has forward-ed queries to Minis-ter of Finance and Minister of State for Economic and Invest-ment Affairs Khalifa Hamada about the department heads and directors at Ku-wait Investment Au-thority (KIA).

He wants to know the dates when the above of-fi cials were appointed, their service period, name of the senior offi -cial in charge of auditing processes, if it is true that a senior offi cial issued a decision to refer some employees for retire-ment because they have reached the maximum service period although his service period is long-er than theirs -- 40 years, names of offi cials whose children were appointed at the London Invest-ment Offi ce and KIA, if it is true that the salaries of some senior offi cials at KIA increased in spite of the current economic and fi nancial conditions, cost of increasing the salaries, and opinion of the Civil Service Com-mission (CSC) on this increase.

MP Thamer Al-Suwait asked Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Information Technology Affairs Rana Al-Fares about the criteria and conditions for granting a license to a newly registered company which provides international call services. He requested for copies of the documents that the company submit-ted to obtain the license. He inquired if the ministry car-ried out the necessary audit-ing procedures to ensure the company is qualified and meets the conditions, con-sidering that the provision of international call services is a sensitive task related to cyber security.

In another development, MP Osama Al-Shaheen said he received reassuring answers from certain minis-ters on his queries about the procedures taken to boycott the Zionist entity (Israel). He was informed that the ministries are keen on en-forcing the law on boycot-ting Israel, adding that Min-ister of Education Ali Fahd Al-Mudaf affirmed the Pal-estinian issue will always be part of the curricula.

He also praised the deci-sion taken by Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Information Technology Affairs Rana Al-Fares to prevent the en-try of all ships to and from Israeli ports.

KUNA photoPlants are readied for distribution to various areas in Kuwait.

Other Voices

Aprons of lead& ‘mouthwash’

By Ahmad alsarraf

The medical case often requires taking X-rays or CT scans, the latter is a form of computer

tomography that processes data, and gives a much more accurate result than ordinary rays.

X-rays are often required when visiting the den-tist or when performing a mammogram, through dozens of cases of joint pain, fractures, etc., and what many do not know is that these rays, despite

their necessity, have great side risks, especially if they are not conducted according to specifi c rules.

The visitor or the patient might be exposed to the risk of developing cancer, espe-cially glands in women.

A friend sent me a text re-lated to a television lecture by the Turkish-American doctor Mohammad Oz, in which he mentioned that the most common type of cancer

among women these days is thyroid cancer, and the reason may have to do with the way X-rays are used for dental imaging and mammograms, that is, mammography in women, after a certain age, the leniency in taking the necessary precautions, out of ignorance or negligence, from the patient or from the radiologist.

The effect of CT scan is equivalent to two hundred times the risk of ordinary X-rays, yet it is often dealt with lightly, and this is part from the ignorance of some patients or neglect of the specialist, and the lack of responsibility on the part of the latter regarding the correct way to protect the glands and internal organs of the body from the danger of radiation, and the lack of care to properly wear personal protection aprons.

The radiation-protective aprons are made of lead material to protect glands and other internal body or-gans from the dangers of diagnostic radiation harmful to workers and patients, as we fi nd that the protective shirt we wear when doing dental X-rays, for example, has a back or an extra piece on top that can be lifted and cover the neck to protect the gland from the dan-ger of radiation, and this is something that does not require the specialist to pay much attention to when performing dental X-rays, for example, and therefore it is necessary to pay attention to this matter, espe-cially women, because of its danger, and draw the at-tention of family members to the need to wear these protective gowns in a proper manner.

Doctors also advise avoiding the use of mouth-wash, of all kinds, after brushing the teeth. This rinse eliminates oral bacteria, thus the mouth stops producing nitric oxide, which helps expand blood vessels, and this raises blood pressure in many, which is a fatal disease.

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e-mail: [email protected]

alsarrafGreening Kuwait stressed

Ahmadi Governor Sheikh Fawaz Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah stressed on Sunday the importance of launching offi cial and civil initiatives that organize greening and afforestation campaigns in regions of Kuwait.

His remarks came in a press state-ment on sidelines of Ahmadi Gover-norate campaign “We camp, we plant” which aims to enhance environmental

awareness to preserve and develop the environment.

He expressed his happiness with the campaign response which develops the people’s awareness on preserv-ing and caring for the environment, praising the efforts of all participants and volunteers and the support of the Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK). (KUNA)

CSC prods Municipality

‘Replace expats with Kuwaitis’KUWAIT CITY, Dec 6: The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has requested Kuwait Municipality to apply the Kuwaitization policy on 58 expatriate employees who are working on contract-basis in various posi-tions, including all 26 employees under the administrative support clause, reports Al-Qabas daily.

In a letter addressed to the municipal-ity, Director of the Department of Positions Ranking and Budget at CSC Aisha Al-Mu-tawa explained that CSC, in accordance with Resolution No. 11/2017 on the Kuwaitiza-

tion policy imposed on the government agen-cies and in accordance with the rules and pro-visions contained in it, has prepared a study on the budget for the 2022/2023 fi scal year, which is the fi fth year for the implementing of the replacement policy, as well as on the current percentage of contracts for non-Ku-waiti employees, the percentage determined by the decision for each functional group, and the number of contracts that will be fro-zen in the entity’s budget for the 2022/2023 fi scal year, in implementation of the provi-sions of the CSC’s decision.

Ban violated

Licenses renewal onKUWAIT CITY, Dec 6: Despite the Municipal Council’s de-mand to implement Shops Regulation Article No. 8 of 2015 to stop the activity of offi ces and shops selling, displaying and renting cars in investment and commercial areas, the Kuwait Municipality tours discovered the Ministry of Commerce con-tinues to renew the licenses, reports Al-Jarida daily.

The Municipality added the head of the emergency team department of its Hawalli branch Ibrahim Al-Saba’an ad-ministratively closed 6 such offi ces, and issued 13 violations for various reasons in the Salmiya and Hawalli districts over the past week.

Al-Saba’an told the several violations were issued for ex-ploiting shops for purposes other than the purpose for which licenses are given.

He indicated some shops which buy, sell and rent cars in the investment areas do not have the license to carry out the business. The license they hold, although is renewed and valid, is issued for a different activity.

Meanwhile, the Kuwait Oil Company has announced 15 diploma holders Kuwaitis have been hired as part of the an-nouncement made by the company to employ this category of national workers in the technical fi elds, reports Al-Anba daily.

LOCALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021

4

KUNA photoHH the Crown Prince while receiving the Ambassador of Qatar to the State of

Kuwait.

KUNA photoSigning of the agreement by the Arab Planning Institute in Kuwait and the Fed-

eration of Egyptian Industries.

The Guest Show poster.

Opportunities to hone skills of workforce

‘Kuwait a pioneer’

Kuwait, Egypt industry bodies sign ‘cooperation agreement’

PADA event contributes to boost roleof disabled persons in society: official

CAIRO, Dec 6, (KUNA): A Kuwait-based industry body has signed an agree-ment with its counterpart in Egypt as part of efforts to bolster scientifi c research and give impetus to joint projects, it said on Monday.

As per the deal agreed between the Kuwait-headquartered Arab Planning Institute and the Federation of Egyptian Industries, the respective workforce of both bodies will be given opportunities to hone their skills with the desired goal

of “more effi cient” output, according to a memorandum of understanding.

The deal will also allow both sides to hold joint workshops and seminars as vi-able platforms for the exchange of know-how, with particular focus given to com-mon development plans, it said.

It was co-inked by the institute Di-rector General Badr Malallah and chairman of the federation Mohammad Al-Swaidi at its headquarters in the Egyptian capital.

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 6, (KUNA): Public Authority for Disability Affairs (PADA) held on Monday, an event dubbed (em-powering the disabled... a national policy) in collaboration with Human Construc-tion Institute, and Kuwait University’s college of social sciences in United Na-tions house in Mishref area.

General Director of the authority, Hind Al-Mbailesh stated to KUNA on sideline of the event that enabling those with dis-abilities in banking sector in the past few years was quite fruitful and goes accord-ingly to Kuwait 2035 vision.

Al-Mbailesh affi rmed that the event will contribute to boosting the role of disabled persons in society, and start dia-logue about affairs and issues relating to the matter.

On his part, UN Secretary General’s Representative and Resident Coordina-tor to Kuwait Tareq El-Sheikh stated to

KUNA that Kuwait is a pioneer in inte-grating people with disabilities into soci-ety, especially in relation to digital inclu-sion and United Nations developmental program.

El-Sheikh also stressed on the neces-sity of putting forth policies designed to facilitate the needs and requirements of people with disabilities, commending the role of those partaking in the event.

He reaffi rmed intent on continuous col-laboration with the public authority for disability affairs, to highlight their abil-ity on complementing the journey of de-velopment led by His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

The event came as part of International day of disabled persons activities aiming to spread awareness in that regard.

TGS features educationist PriceOne of Kuwait’s leading educationists, John Price is the Principal of one of Ku-wait’s prominent international schools - Kuwait English School. Having worked in Kuwait for almost four decades, Mr Price has touched countless lives and built a legacy through his students who are in different parts of the world.

On The Guest Show (TGS), he speaks to Chaitali B Roy of his years in Kuwait, his association with Kuwait and his school, of the evolution of KES into an institution that embraced the use of IT in learning, of his life with the inimitable Alison Shan Price, MBE,

one of Kuwait’s most loved theatre personalities, of the Cultural Season the school has launched this year to take the edge off the doom and gloom of the past almost two years.

The Cultural Season 2021-22 is made up of Four Festivals, The Cul-tural Festival, The Winter Literary Festival, The Arabic Festival and The Summer Arts Festival. Together, the Festivals aim at celebrating diver-sity and empowering students to take their rightful place as global citizens.

All that and a lot more on The Guest Show this Thursday.

His Highness congratulates Finland president on National Day

HH Amir receives invitation for UN conference in DohaKUWAIT CITY, Dec 6, (KUNA): His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, received at Bayan Palace on Monday an invitation, addressed to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah from Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Ta-

mim bin Hamad Al-Thani, to participate in the fi fth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries.

The event will be held in Doha from January 23-27, 2022.

Ambassador of Qatar to Kuwait Ali bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud delivered

the invitation.The meeting was attended by Minister

of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Moham-mad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, Amiri Diwan Undersecretary, Director of His Highness the Amir Bureau Ambas-sador Ahmad Fahad Al-Fahad, Director

of the Offi ce of His Highness the Crown Prince, retired Lieutenant-General Jamal Mohammad Al-Dhiyab, and Undersecre-tary for Foreign Affairs in the Offi ce of His Highness the Crown Prince Mazen Al-Issa.

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Congratulations sent: His Highness Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ah-mad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a congrat-ulatory cable to President of Finland, Sauli Niinist, in which he expressed congratulations on Finland’s National Day and to the people of Finland fur-

ther prosperity.His Highness the Crown Prince,

Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Ha-mad Al-Sabah sent similar congratula-tory cables.

App to ‘protect’ consumers from manipulation of prices in co-ops

PAY launches ‘Football Academies’ program

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 6: Minister of Electric-ity, Water, Renewable Energy, Social Affairs and Societal Develop-ment Dr Mishaan Al-Otaibi has announced the launching of the ‘Consumer’ applica-tion that is aimed at protecting consumers from manipulation of prices in cooperative societies, reports Al-Qabas daily.

Speaking at the launching of the application recently, Al-Otaibi explained that the application compares prices and reports unjustified price hikes; through which the ministry takes the necessary measures to address the com-plaints of consumers.

On the other hand, Consumer Protection Society Chairman Mishaal Al-Manea said that the application is unique as it pro-vides a price comparison ser-vice for cooperative societies. In this manner, the consumers will know differences in the prices of commodities sold in coop-erative societies. They can fi le a complaint by photographing the products and submitting them to the Consumer Protection Soci-ety, he added.

He pointed out that the Con-sumer Protection Society will then follow up complaints about the prices of goods and submit its report to the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Union of Con-sumer of Cooperative Societies which, in turn, will take legal measures regarding the com-plaint. This is in addition to en-abling consumers to submit com-plaints regardless of the content and even guarantee the removal of violations, he concluded.

Meanwhile, the Public Author-ity for Youth recently launched the ‘Football Academies’ pro-gram, which is being held in eight youth centers affi liated with the authority and located in dif-ferent governorates, reports Al-Rai daily.

The program is witnessing a huge turnout and it aims to en-courage young people to practice sports. It is held in the evening at the youth centers in Qadisiyah, Jahra, Fayhaa, Sabahiya, Shami-ya, Qusour, Ardiya, and Daiya.

The academies provide an opportunity for clubs to moni-tor distinguished players to join their ranks and pave the way for them towards sports profession-alism; given that the academies program serves as incubator for sports talents to qualify, train and create spaces for them to inno-vate in the fi eld of football.

Ambassador George in a group photo with Al Ghenaiman.

KIA’s Al-Ghenaiman meets Indian ambassadorManaging Director of KIA Ghanem Al Ghenaiman, met with the Indian Ambassador to Kuwait HE Sibi George, Madam Smita Patil, DCM, and Dr Vinod Gaikwad, Head of Chancery at the Indian Embassy in Kuwait.

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The Indian Ambassador HE Sibi

George called on HE Mohammed Jassem Al-Sager, Chairman, Ku-wait Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Sunday, and discussed ways of enhancing institutional engagement and strengthening commercial relations between the business communities of India and Kuwait.

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As part of celebrations of 60 years of establishment of India’s diplomatic relations with Kuwait the Indian Embassy in collaboration with the National Council for Cul-ture, Arts and Letters will organize a celebration of Indian Arts, Music and Dance at the National Museum of Kuwait on Dec 7 and 8. Admis-sion is free.

‘$1 bln grants disbursed to people with special needs’KUWAIT CITY, Dec 6, (KUNA): Ku-wait Credit Bank (KCB) said Sunday that the total grants given by the bank to people with special needs, through-out 10 years since the issuance of the law on their rights in 2010, amounted

to about USD one billion.According to KCB statistics,

37,000 persons of this segment ben-efited from the disability grant, add-ing that the bank is always keen to promote and support humanitarian

work in Kuwait.The services provided to people

with special needs are available through the bank’s online portal and the bank’s mobile application, as well as the branches, added KCB.

Kuwaiti women’svoluntary effortswin KRCS’ praiseDUBAI, Dec 6, (KUNA): Ku-waiti females have played an out-standing role in voluntary efforts on all local and international lev-els, Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) said on Sunday.

This came in the sidelines of the Society’s participation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary General’s pa-vilion at Expo 2020 Dubai on International Volunteer Day (IVD).

Speaking to KUNA in a state-ment, Asrar Al-Qabandi said that female volunteers of the society made a distinguished example in voluntary action that shows their love of this field.

There are many female volun-teers in varied fields like medi-cine, engineering, law, education and others, she added.

Meanwhile, Khadija Al-Faraj, a KRCS’ volunteer, said in a similar statement to KUNA that voluntary work formed a fertile field for Kuwaiti women through which they sought to prove their presence and offer wide contri-butions over many years.

She lauded Kuwaiti women’s contribution to voluntary action, in line with Kuwait’s leading role in humanitarian action.

She affirmed keenness of the KRCS on encouraging volun-tary action of woman and help-ing her play a positive role in the society.

LOCALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021

5

‘Democracy is worthy butdespotic regimes fl ourish’“PERHAPS, this is one of the most famous statements of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: ‘Democracy is the worst kind of gov-ernment, if we exclude all kinds of government that have been tried so far,’” columnist Dr Ghanim Al-Naj-jar wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“Churchill is well known for his cynicism that there are at least 13 publications devoted solely to his sar-castic expressions. When the British people voted against him and he was defeated in the elections after World War II despite his victory in that war, he commented: ‘It seems no joke.’ “Is democracy really that? Perhaps, what he meant was that it is the best in existence, and that it is not the end of the road, not limited to the trans-fer of power through elections, but an integrated package that includes jus-tice and equal-ity. Although it is based on the majority, it respects the minority, does not discriminate against it, and respects human dignity.

“Since the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, dozens of countries have aban-doned their totalitarian, dictator and autocratic regimes. They entered the democratic arena, such that we have a new science called ‘transitional justice’, according to which the tran-sition process is organized from a highly centralized State to a plural-istic fl uid State. Gradually, regional organizations made it a condition for membership — that the country must be democratic.

“Some said the world is moving toward its end in terms of the form of democratic rule. However, the increase in the size of democracy setbacks in many countries has been noticeable over the past 10 years, in-cluding those in the Western world. The European Union considers this an existential threat to its member na-tions.

“It is also noticeable that countries that have not changed their totalitar-ian regimes have gained economic, political and military weight on the international scene.”

Also:“The difference between electoral

action and national political action is huge,” columnist Mohammad Al-Ruwaihel wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“When electoral work dominates national political work, it is inevita-ble that absurdity prevails. We have seen this over the past 10 years, when electoral work overshadowed the per-formance of the so-called ‘opposi-tion’, so we have yet to see any real achievement.

“The one-vote law succeeded in starting the electoral game and impos-ing it on political reality, thus, strip-ping political action of its content and establishing absurd rules that made national action a mere slogan to tickle feelings, while principles and the Constitution are merely scribbles on worthless paper.

“Most of our politicians – if it is permissible to describe them – are good at the electoral game, but they do not know anything about politi-cal and national work. Personal and temporary interests dominate the gen-eral and permanent interests. They are subject to the desires of certain indi-viduals without any achievement.

“Therefore, most of their prom-ises do not go beyond statements and nothing is fulfi lled. Rather, the citizen has been in a circle of doubt and skep-ticism, while the country is in a state of decline, backwardness and deterio-ration.

“We have entered a new stage and a different era, so we have to clear the opposition of its impurities, purify its ideas, and create a patriotic and re-sponsible spirit for it.

“The nation needs statesmen who understand and have mastered politi-cal and patriotic work, aware of the political reality, deal with this reality according to their capabilities and in-telligence, and stay away from elec-toral work.

“After the elections, politicians have a duty to become statesmen, not to represent their voters through fake slogans and promises that they do not have the ability to implement or the means to achieve them.”

❑ ❑ ❑

“With the beginning of the consul-tations to form a new government, I think it is my duty to shed light on the importance of putting heart health on top of the new government’s priori-ties,” columnist Dr Hind Al-Chou-mar wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“The National Center for Health In-formation in Kuwait released a report that raises the alarm on heart health, because it contains important indica-tors of heart health and comparisons between several years.

“Despite the large number of fi g-ures and tables showing these indica-tors, the number one cause of death is

still heart disease and rates have been increasing from 2016 to 2020.

“As a member of Kuwait Heart As-sociation, I believe preventive and awareness programs and community initiatives must precede operating rooms, medications, catheters and in-tensive care rooms.

“It is known that the risk factors for heart disease can be prevented through the early detection of these factors, such as obesity, overweight, unhealthy food and physical inactiv-ity. The rates are alarming according to the indicators about Kuwait pub-lished on the World Health Organi-zation website in terms of heart and chronic non-communicable diseases like diabetes, cancer and respiratory diseases. These diseases consume a lot of health budgets — whether for treatment at home or abroad.

“I hope the new prime minister will focus on achieving good health for everyone through an integrated pro-gram with clear goals, objectives and indicators to prevent heart and chron-ic non-communicable diseases, after reviewing Kuwait’s commitments to the international community.

“It ratifi ed the resolutions of the United Nations and the World Health Organization to address challenges that are related to health, as well as comprehensive development and achieving sustainable development goals until 2030. The third of the 17 goals is related to achieving health and well-being for everyone through the implementation of plans and pro-grams.”

❑ ❑ ❑

“Oil is the backbone of the Kuwaiti economy. Rather, it is the only wealth which the Kuwaiti State depends on at present and in building its future,” columnist Dr Hamad Al-Matar wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“Therefore, every effort that does not focus on developing this wealth in a way that suits economic and technological developments is futile in the long run. It does not fall into long-term strategic plans, including the increase of production, improve its quality, and explore new horizons for its manufacture and utilization to the maximum extent possible.

“Some experts indicated in the last period that oil production in the State of Kuwait is in continuous decline. The production reached 2.51 million barrels according to Mays Interna-tional Petroleum Bulletin issued on Nov 17, 2019.

“This means continuation of de-cline in production at an accelerated pace, which has become a clear and tangible reality in the past few years. Unfortunately, this happens despite all the reassuring statements about ambitious plans, or I would call them good hopes, to increase production and its continuity.

“Our oil sector faces many prob-lems and obstacles – internal (within the sector) or external (the surround-ing community). I have no doubt about the sincerity of intentions and the strength of determination of the people of Kuwait who are in charge of the oil sector. However, the size and gravity of this challenge call for frankness and recognition of the exist-ence of the problem as the fi rst step in the treatment.”

❑ ❑ ❑

“In September 2011, the United Na-tions issued an important declaration to prevent chronic non-communicable diseases and the risk factors,” Dr Hind Al-Choumar wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“Now that more than 10 years have passed since the political declaration of the United Nations and our commitment to the international community, what has been achieved in terms of scientifi c indicators which monitor achievements beyond mere speech?

“What has been achieved in terms of reducing the rates of smoking, physical inactivity, unhealthy eating habits, can-cer, diabetes, heart disease and chronic respiratory diseases? Which body pre-pares follow-up reports for submission to international organizations? Are you keen on monitoring the status and repu-tation of the State?

“I think that associations concerned with public interests must be involved in this national task with a develop-mental dimension, because ratifica-tion of the United Nations political declaration and its decisions, as well as the repeated decisions of the World Health Organization since the issu-ance of this important political dec-laration is a commitment to the State as a whole, not just a department or ministry that may not have the exper-tise or capabilities to shoulder such obligation.

“If we followed the meetings of the United Nations and the World Health Organization in the past 10 years, we would have realized that we have not missed anything. Certainly, offi cial del-egations traveled and received alloca-tions from the State to submit, follow up and present reports with indicators, which the national health information systems have prepared in accordance with international standards and com-mitment. In front of the international community, it is unacceptable or not permissible to overlook such negative factors.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb

Dr Al-Najjar

diwaniyaA DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION

Death sentence of Asianupheld in friend murder

Woman jailed in immoral clips saga

By Jaber Al-HamoudAl-Seyassah Staff and Agencies

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 6: The Court of Cassation up-held the death sentence is-sued against an Asian expa-triate who was accused of killing his friend during the month of Ramadan due to fi nancial disputes.

According to the case fi le, the incident began with an argument between the victim and the per-petrator inside a warehouse in the Shuwaikh Industrial Area, over a sum of money. During the argu-ment, the perpetrator beat him and pushed him hard, causing the vic-tim to fall on his head and die im-mediately.

After committing the crime, the kill-er then fl ed from the scene out of fear of being discovered. However, he was arrested and tried before the Criminal Court, which sentenced him to death on the charge of premeditated murder.

However, he appealed the verdict but it was rejected by the Court of Ap-peals and the court upheld the death sentence.

Meanwhile, in another unrelated case, the Court of Cassation sen-tenced a Kuwaiti woman to two-year imprisonment and imposed a fine of KD 5,000 for sending video clips of intimate moments between her and her husband to her boyfriend in or-der for the latter to publish them on Snapchat for increasing the number of followers and getting money con-sequently.

The Public Prosecution charged the woman and her boyfriend with publish-ing immoral pornographic pictures and videos during the period from 2019 to October 20, 2020.

The woman, who is the owner of the

“Eve’s World” account on Snapchat, admitted to fi lming her husband more than once without his knowledge, and getting her boyfriend to post these videos and pictures on the account in order to increase the number of fol-lowers.

The Criminal Court had sentenced the woman and her boyfriend to fi ve-year imprisonment with hard labor, and imposed a fi ne of KD 5,000 each.

❑ ❑ ❑

Acquittals in ... : The Court of Cas-sation has closed the curtain on the case related to the attempt to smuggle more than 40,000 bullets and sell them in Saudi Arabia.

The court said the appellate court’s ruling rejected the defense’s request regarding the invalidity of the investi-gations, as it does not harm justice as much as the impunity of a criminal is harmed by the infringements on free-doms and abuses and their unlawful arrest.

The defendants’ defense counsel Lawyer Muhammad Khureibit said in a statement that the fi nal ruling, which acquitted the defendants and over-

turned their imprisonment, came in ac-cordance with the correct law.

He said, “The Court of Cassation took our defense based on the fact that the investigations, on the basis of which the search warrant was issued, did not contain a known name for the person to whom the seizures belong. The papers were devoid of any other evidence to convict the accused”.

❑ ❑ ❑

KD 1/2m in rent: The Commercial Section in the Court of Cassation has instructed a Syrian and another expatri-ate to pay half a million Kuwaiti dinars to a businessman for renting 42 refrig-erator trucks.

Lawyer for the businessman, Attor-ney Muhammad Al-Jami, fi led a law-suit through which he demanded the assignment of an expert to estimate the value of the monthly rent due to his cli-ent, price of the lost trucks, compensa-tion for lost earnings and other losses incurred, and obligating the defendants to pay the legal benefi ts resulting from the relevant report by seven percent starting from the date of the contract until full payment.

‘Strengthen hate speech laws’CAIRO, Dec 6, (KUNA): A top Kuwaiti justice offi cial highlight-ed on Sunday efforts to strengthen hate speech laws aiming to estab-lish more religious tolerance dur-ing talks involving justice minis-ters from across the Arab region, saying he had pitched suggestions over the matter.

Kuwait has made “palpable” progress in measures the country has taken to clamp down on hate speech and encourage religious harmony, Justice Ministry Un-dersecretary for Legal Affairs and International Relations Zakaria

Al-Ansari told KUNA after the talks.

Some of the legal and judicial measures Arab countries had tak-en during the COVID pandemic were also discussed, added the offi cial, saying the suggestions he had made included anti-terrorism efforts and measures to eradicate corruption.

He hailed the talks, held in per-son in the Egyptian capital Cairo, as a “new beginning” towards greater pan-Arab judicial coopera-tion, saying it was needed to bring some vital legislations to fruition.

CAIRO, Dec 6, (KUNA): Arab nations should adopt “concerted” measures to fi ght cyber crime across the wider region, a top Kuwaiti justice offi cial said on Mon-day, citing pan-Arab agree-ments over the matter.

These measures include anti-terrorism efforts and “unifi ed” legislation to clamp down on money laundering, in addition to a Kuwait-proposed sug-gestion to strengthen hate speech laws, Justice Min-istry Undersecretary for Legal Affairs and Interna-tional Relations Zakaria Al-Ansari told KUNA on the sidelines of talks involv-ing justice ministers from across the Arab region.

On the talks, he said his country had pitched “vari-ous suggestions” over a myriad of issues, chief among them a law meant to shine light on some of the legal measures Arab coun-tries had taken to fi ght the COVID pandemic.

Arab justice ministers are holding talks in the Egyptian capital aiming to bolster cooperation to keep crime and terrorism at bay, saying such a measure was necessary in light of mount-ing challenges.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Dirar Al-Asousi is-sued a decision to change the name of the Public Funds Prosecution to the Public Funds and Anti-Mon-ey Laundering Prosecution whose tasks include prepara-tion of international reports about money laundering, reports Al-Jarida daily.

This is part of the juris-diction of the Public Funds Prosecution; as it is the competent prosecution to investigate and prosecute in money laundering cases since the issuance of the law in this regard, in addition to public money crimes.

‘Intensify bidto combatcybercrime’

ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021

6

Keynote Speaker, Sheikha Dana Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Foun-der & Chair, Board of Trustees American University of Kuwait

From left: Mr and Mrs. Faisal Al-Ayyar, Samer Khanachet, Dr. Mohammad Jawad Behbehani

Dr. Rawda Awwad, AUK President

Dr. Hanan Muzaffar, Vice President for Student Affairs

Dr. Ali Charara, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)

Dr. Ralph Palliam, Dean of the College of Business & Economics

(CBE)

Dr. Amir Zeid, Dean of the College of Engineering & Applied Sciences

(CEAS)

Habiba Anwar, Class Valedictorian Bachelor of Arts: Communication & Me-dia summa cum laude

College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) diploma presentations by AUK President and Dean of CAS

College of Arts & Sciences (CAS) Class of 2021 photo

College of Business & Economics (CBE) Class of 2021

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) Class of 2021

‘Future of Kuwait lies in the hands of a well-rounded educated generation’

Sheikha Dana keynote speaker at AUK Graduation Ceremony

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 6: The American University of Kuwait (AUK) hosted its graduation com-mencement for the class of 2021 on Wednesday, Dec 1 and Thursday, Dec 2 conferring the degrees on 385 graduates —124 of which were from the College of Arts and Sciences, 117 from the College of Business and Economics, and 144 from the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Amongst the 2021 cohort, 8 graduates were awarded high-est honors (summa cum laude), 15 awarded high honors (Magna cum laude), and 15 awarded honors (Cum laude).

Held at the AUK central garden, at the heart of the historical Salmiya campus, the graduation ceremony was attended by Sheikha Dana Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, founder, and chair of AUK’s Board of Trustees, members of the AUK Board of Trustees, diplomats, digni-taries, and the parents of this year’s graduates.

Following the National Anthem and the Holy Quran recitation, AUK president, Dr. Rawda Awwad gave a speech that affi rmed the graduates’

new role as alumni within the Uni-versity community, “We are here to celebrate this evening our graduates. They have earned their prominence in an exceptionally tight knit uni-versity community, who cared about them as students, and will now cher-ish them as alumni. For our universi-ty, the AUK alumni matters because that is where AUK will make the real difference in the lives of people that are even out of its reach,” she said.

SolutionsKeynote speaker, Sheikha Dana

Nasser Al-Sabah, AUK founder and chairwoman of the Board of Trus-tees, addressed the graduates across the two ceremonies, praising them on their resilience throughout the pandemic, “Today, we are celebrat-ing a cohort of university graduates who have passed the toughest of all tests — learned lessons that are not scribed in books, thought of solu-tions to real-life challenges, and became the ambassadors of our uni-versity mission to create meaningful change in the world,” she said.

As graduates celebrate their achievements, Al-Sabah reminded them of the importance of honoring

those who inspired their success and helped them materialize their vision “… On a personal level, I would like to pay tribute to my late grandfather His Highness the Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and my late father, Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. They inspired my love for education. I remember them sharing with me that the future of Kuwait lies in the hands of a well-rounded educated generation capable of inno-vation and change where everyone is compelled to participate, and no one is left behind. His Highness the late Amir, was recognized on the world stage as a great humanitarian. He in-sisted that Kuwait play a critical role in helping other nations in dealing with issues such as hunger, disease, and natural disasters. My late father, Sheikh Nasser, instilled in me the ap-preciation of art in all its forms and recognized the importance of culture and the preservation of the past as a critical driving force for our future,” said Al-Sabah.

SupportFollowing the keynote address,

the class valedictorian was an-

nounced by Dr. Hanan Muzaf-far, vice president for student af-fairs — Habeebah Anwar earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communica-tion and Media with a 3.99GPA. She worked as a writing consult-ant at AUK’s Writing Center and interned at the University’s Of-fice of PR & Marketing. During

her speech, she emphasized that the collective support she had re-ceived from the University ena-bled her to make this impressive achievement, “My GPA does not necessarily reflect my effort on an individual basis, but it is rather the combined efforts of so many people who helped me reach this

stage … There’s also the parents and siblings that supported us. The departments that would respond in record time to inquiries we had and all the reassurances they sent. The staff that worked so hard to make sure this campus was always clean, tidy, and organized,” she said.

Habeebah also addressed her fel-low graduates with an encourag-ing statement to pursue their goals, “Always remember that effort never goes to waste.”

The event then proceeded to the part of the ceremony most anticipated by the students—the distribution of their earned degrees. Upon, the recommendations of the deans, President Awwad conferred upon the graduates their respective de-grees. The graduates were then awarded their diplomas by President Awwad, Sheikha Dana Nasser Al-Sabah, and re-spective college deans.

In keeping with the academic tra-dition, the graduates were requested to shift their tassels from right to left, thereby marking their offi cial gradu-ation from AUK. As the ceremony drew to its conclusion, the graduat-ing class celebrated the occasion and took photos with their parents.

Sheikha Dana Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah congratulating one of the students in the College of Engineering and Applied sciences upon receiv-

ing her degree.

INTERNATIONALARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021

7

Politics Obituary

WASHINGTON, Dec 6, (AP): House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy appears to have settled on a strategy to deal with a handful of Republican law-makers who have stirred outrage with violent, racist and sometimes Islamophobic comments.

If you can’t police them, promote them. The path to power for Republicans in Congress

is now rooted in the capacity to generate outrage. The alarming language, and the fundraising haul it increasingly produces, is another example of how Donald Trump, the former president, has left his mark on politics, changing the way Republicans rise to infl uence and authority.

Success in Congress, once measured by bills passed and constituents reached, is now gauged in

many ways by the ability to attract attention, even if it is negative as the GOP looks to reclaim a House majority next year by fi ring up Trump’s most ardent supporters.

That has helped elevate a group of far-right lawmak-ers - including Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona - whose infl ammatory comments once

would have made them pariahs.

PunishmentRather than face punishment for personal at-

tacks that violate longstanding norms of Congress, they’ve been celebrated by conservatives, who have showered Boebert and Greene with campaign cash.

“We are not the fringe. We are the base of the party,” Greene, who has previously endorsed calls to assassinate prominent Democrats, said last week on a podcast hosted by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

The hands-off approach by Republican leadership gives them license to spread hate speech, conspira-cy theories and misinformation that can have real world consequences, while testing the resolve of Democrats, who already removed Gosar and Greene from their committees.

It’s also a different tack from the one McCarthy took in 2019 when he stripped then-Rep. Steve King of Iowa of his committee assignments for lament-ing that white supremacy and white nationalism had become offensive terms.

Boebert offers the latest example. In two videos that surfaced recently she likened

Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who is one of three Muslims in Congress, to a terrorist concealing a bomb in a backpack. Boebert has also repeatedly referred to Omar as belonging to a “jihad squad,” as well as “black-hearted” and “evil.”

Her comments drew widespread condemnation and led to calls for Boebert to become the third GOP lawmaker this year to be removed from congressio-nal committees. But instead of publicly apologiz-ing to Omar, a defi ant Boebert insisted that Omar should be the one to issue a public apology “to the American people” for her “anti-American” rheto-ric, as well as past “anti-Semitic” comments, which Democrats condemned at the time.

ThreatsIn the uproar that followed, Omar received death

threats, including a voicemail left by a man who called her a “traitor” and suggested she would be soon be taken “off the face of the (expletive) earth.”

“We cannot pretend this hate speech from leading politicians doesn’t have real consequences,” Omar said Tuesday while calling on the Republican Party to “actually do something to confront anti-Muslim hatred in its ranks.”

Boebert, meanwhile, burnished her image through an appearance on Fox News where she blamed Democrats who “want to cancel me” for the controversy. She has raked in $2.7 million so far this year, making her one of the top Republican fund-raisers, according to campaign fi nance disclosures.

McCarthy, who is in line to become speaker if Republicans retake the majority in the 2022 mid-term elections, downplayed the controversy Friday. He credited Boebert for attempting to privately apologize in a phone call with Omar, while breezing past Boebert’s refusal to do so publicly.

“In America, that’s what we do,” he said. “And then we move on.”

But McCarthy has also indicated that there will be little consequence for personal attacks. Just last month he said those punished by Democrats could be in line for a promotion if he becomes speaker, fl oating the possibility that Gosar and Greene “may have better committee assignments” than before.

‘Turning outrage into power’

Far right appears to bechanging GOP strategy

Trump

Diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer

Sen leader, presidential candidate Dole diesTOPEKA, Dec 6. (AP): Bob Dole, who overcame disabling war wounds to become a sharp-tongued Senate leader from Kansas, a Republican presidential candidate and then a symbol and celebrant of his dwin-dling generation of World War II veterans, died Sunday. He was 98.

His wife, Elizabeth Dole, said in an an-nouncement posted on social media that he died in his sleep.

Dole announced in February 2021 that he’d been diagnosed with stage 4 lung can-cer. During his 36-year career on Capitol Hill, Dole became one of the most influen-tial legislators and party leaders in the Sen-ate, combining a talent for compromise with a caustic wit, which he often turned on him-self but didn’t hesitate to turn on others, too.

He shaped tax policy, foreign policy, farm and nutrition programs and rights for the disabled, enshrining protections against discrimination in employment, education and public services in the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Today’s accessible government offices and national parks, sidewalk ramps and the sign-language interpreters at official local events are just some of the more visible hall-marks of his legacy and that of the fellow lawmakers he rounded up for that sweeping civil rights legislation 30 years ago.

Dole devoted his later years to the cause of wounded veterans, their fallen comrades at Arlington National Cemetery and remem-brance of the fading generation of World War II vets.

Thousands of old soldiers massed on the National Mall in 2004 for what Dole, speak-ing at the dedication of the World War II Memorial there, called “our final reunion.” He’d been a driving force in its creation.

“Our ranks have dwindled,” he said then. “Yet if we gather in the twilight it is bright-ened by the knowledge that we have kept

faith with our comrades.”Long gone from Kansas, Dole made his

life in the capital, at the center of power and then in its shadow upon his retire-ment, living all the while at the storied Watergate complex. When he left politics and joined a law firm staffed by promi-nent Democrats, he joked that he brought his dog to work so he would have another Republican to talk to.

He tried three times to become president. The last was in 1996, when he won the Re-publican nomination only to see President Bill Clinton reelected. He sought his party’s presidential nomination in 1980 and 1988 and was the 1976 GOP vice presidential candidate on the losing ticket with President

Gerald Ford.Through all of that he carried the mark of

war. Charging a German position in north-ern Italy in 1945, Dole was hit by a shell fragment that crushed two vertebrae and paralyzed his arms and legs. The young Army platoon leader spent three years re-covering in a hospital and never regained use of his right hand.

To avoid embarrassing those trying to shake his right hand, Dole always clutched a pen in it and reached out with his left.

Dole could be merciless with his rivals, whether Democrat or Republican. When George H.W. Bush defeated him in the 1988 New Hampshire Republican primary, Dole snapped: “Stop lying about my record.” If that pales next to the scorching insults in to-day’s political arena, it was shocking at the time.

But when Bush died in December 2018, old rivalries were forgotten as Dole ap-peared before Bush’s casket in the Capitol Rotunda. As an aide lifted him from his wheelchair, Dole slowly steadied himself and saluted his one-time nemesis with his left hand, his chin quivering.

In a vice presidential debate two de-cades earlier with Walter Mondale, Dole had famously and audaciously branded all of America’s wars that century “Democrat wars.” Mondale shot back that Dole had just “richly earned his reputation as a hatchet man.”

Dole at first denied saying what he had just said on that very public stage, then backed down, and eventually acknowledged he’d gone too far. “I was supposed to go for the jugular,” he said, “and I did - my own.”

For all of his bare-knuckle ways, he was a deep believer in the Senate as an institution and commanded respect and even affection from many Democrats. Just days after Dole announced his dire cancer diagnosis, Presi-

dent Joe Biden visited him at his home to wish him well. The White House said the two were close friends from their days in the Senate.

Biden recalled in a statement Sunday that one of his first meetings outside the White House after being sworn-in as president was with the Doles at their Washington home.

“Like all true friendships, regardless of how much time has passed, we picked up right where we left off, as though it were only yes-terday that we were sharing a laugh in the Sen-ate dining room or debating the great issues of the day, often against each other, on the Senate floor,” Biden said. “I saw in his eyes the same light, bravery, and determination I’ve seen so many times before.”

Biden ordered that U.S. flags be flown at half-staff at the White House and all public buildings and grounds until sunset Thurs-day.

Dole won a seat in Congress in 1960, rep-resenting a western Kansas House district. He moved up to the Senate eight years later when Republican incumbent Frank Carlson retired.

There, he antagonized his Senate col-leagues with fiercely partisan and sarcastic rhetoric, delivered at the behest of President Richard Nixon. The Kansan was rewarded for his loyalty with the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee in 1971, before Nixon’s presidency collapsed in the Watergate scandal.

He served as a committee chairman, ma-jority leader and minority leader in the Sen-ate during the 1980s and ’90s. Altogether, he was the Republicans’ leader in the Sen-ate for nearly 11½ years, a record until Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell broke it in 2018. It was during this period that he earned a reputation as a shrewd, pragmatic legislator, tireless in fashioning compro-mises.

Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole pumps his fist as supporters cheer after he took the stage at a Dole-Kemp ‘96 rally in Hamilton, N.J., Oct. 13, 1996.

(AP)

Market Movements 06-12-2021

Business Change Closing ptsUK - FTSE 100 +109.96 7,232.28EUROPE - Euro Stoxx 50 +56.96 4,137.11UAE - DFM +72.68 3,162.23EGYPT - EGX 30 +113.54 11,514.87PHILIPPINES - PSEi +75.55 7,130.74PAKISTAN - KSE 100 +47.94 43,280.77SINGAPORE - Straits Times STI +14.39 3,116.32

Change Closing ptsSAUDI - Tadawul -121.40 11,021.07JAPAN - Nikkei -102.20 27,927.23INDIA - Sensex -949.32 56,747.14

Alibaba appoints new CFO, reshuffl es e-commerce businesses

China’s largest e-commerce group Ali-baba said Monday it is appointing a new chief fi nancial offi cer and reorganizing its e-commerce businesses amid a regulatory crackdown in the technology industry.

The company said in a statement Mon-day that Toby Xu will succeed Maggie Wu as its new CFO from April 1, 2022. Xu joined Alibaba from PricewaterhouseCoop-ers three years ago and was appointed deputy group CFO in July 2019.

Wu, who has been Alibaba’s CFO since 2013 and has helped lead three Alibaba-

related company listings, will continue to serve as an executive director on Alibaba’s board.

She will also remain as a partner in the Alibaba Partnership - a group of senior ex-ecutives who have the right to nominate a simple majority of Alibaba’s board of direc-tors.

“We are focused on the long-term, and succession within our management team on every occasion is always in the service of ensuring Alibaba will be stronger and better positioned for the future,” said Dan-

iel Zhang, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group.

Separately, Alibaba said that it would be creating an International Digital Commerce team to handle its e-commerce businesses in international markets. A China Digital Commerce team will be in charge of e-commerce operations inside China, ac-cording to a post on the company’s Alizila news hub.

The international and domestic digital commerce teams will be led by executives Jiang Fan and Trudy Dai respectively. (AP)

The Alibaba logo is seen out-side a building in

Beijing on Nov. 16, 2021. (AP)

Erdogan pledges to end‘fl uctuation’ of lira ratesISTANBUL, Dec 6, (KUNA): Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government will “tame” the current price move-ments and currency fl uctuations “not too long from now.”

“The Government will always support producers and those who provide employment with low-interest rates,” Turkey’s Anadolu Agency quoted him as saying says during the opening ceremony of services projects in the southeast-ern province of Siirt.

On next year’s minimum wage, to be determined this month, Er-

dogan said, “We will relieve our low-income people a little more by setting the minimum wage at a lev-el that will compensate for losses.”

Regarding the foreign exchange reserves at the Central Bank (CBRT), he said they have risen dramatically from USD 27.5 billion to USD 126 billion over the nearly two decades of the rule of his Justice and Devel-opment (AK) Party.

Recent interest rate cuts in Tur-key have been followed by price hikes with the lira, the nation’s cur-rency, losing value, according to the AA report.

Stocks could keep rising even after Fed begins raising rates

Wall Street balks as Fed signals party’s ending, but is it?NEW YORK, Dec 6, (AP): The Federal Reserve’s job, its longest-serving chairman once said, is to “take away the punch bowl just as the party gets going,” and that’s exactly the message Wall Street took from comments by current Chair Jerome Powell this week.

Stock prices tumbled after Powell said the Fed may halt its immense support for fi nancial markets sooner than Wall Street expected. History suggests, however, that stocks aren’t always losers when the Fed pulls back its help.

Some economists and investors were already calling for just such a move given the economy’s strong recovery from last year’s brief re-cession and the stubborn persistence of high infl ation that’s sweeping the world.

But the S&P 500 sank 1.9% in one day after Powell said the Fed’s monthly purchases of bonds, which recently began shrinking from $120 billion, may end months sooner than the June target it had been on pace for. Added to worries about the new coronavirus sweeping the world, it caused Wall Street’s so-called “fear gauge” to rise sharply.

Wall Street has reason for con-cern. An early halt to the Fed’s bond-buying program, which has helped keep long-term interest rates low and thereby supports the economy, would open the door for the central bank to make the more impactful decision to start raising short-term interest rates.

Those have been pinned at a record low near zero since early in the pan-demic, one of the major reasons the S&P 500 has roughly doubled since hitting a four-year low in March 2020. Low rates are also a main rea-son many investors have brushed aside worries that stock prices have climbed too high, too fast.

An investor buying a 10-year Treasury, for example, is looking at a yield of just 1.44%, not even keeping up with current infl ation levels.

“As long as the 10-year stays be-low 1.50%, there is no alternative” to buying stocks, said Josh Wein, port-folio manager at Hennessy Funds.

To see how that’s lifted Wall Street, consider what investors are paying for each $1 of corporate earn-ings. The S&P 500’s price is trading at close to 24 times the earnings per share its companies have produced over the last 12 months, according to FactSet. That’s more expensive than its average price-earnings level over the last two decades of slightly less than 18.

But stocks could keep rising even after the Federal Reserve begins rais-ing interest rates. Usually, such rate hike campaigns occur when the U.S. economy has enough strength to stand on its own, without assistance from the central bank. And that in itself can push corporate profi ts, the lifeblood of the stock market, higher.

Since 1983, the S&P 500 has had a positive return in the 12 months fol-lowing the start of a rate-hike cam-paign in six of seven occurrences, according to BofA Global Research. The average return was 6.1%.

Broaden the time horizon to two years following the fi rst rate increase, and the S&P 500 still had a positive return in all but one of them.

To be sure, that one exception has a similarity with today’s market, ac-cording to Savita Subramanian, equi-ty strategist at BofA Securities. The S&P 500 was much more expensive than normal in 1999, amidst the dot-com bubble, with S&P 500 prices trading at 30.5 times their earnings.

The historical record of U.S. stocks’ performance when the Fed slows its bond purchases is not as deep. That’s because such bond-buying programs have only become a routine part of the central bank’s toolbox since the 2008 fi nancial cri-sis.

Stocks did struggle a bit in the summer of 2013 when then Fed Chair Ben Bernanke suggested it could be-gin slowing, or tapering, its bond purchases. That caught investors by surprise, and the ensuing mini-swoon for the market came to be known as the “taper tantrum.”

But stocks nevertheless quickly got back to rising. The Fed didn’t end up raising short-term interest rates until late 2015, more than two years after the taper tantrum.

“While some worry that the end of tapering accelerates the point at which interest rates rise, I don’t be-lieve that will happen, although this fear of higher rates adds to market jitters in the short-term,” said David Bahnsen, chief investment offi cer at The Bahnsen Group.

Highest since 2011

World food pricessurge for 4th mthROME, Dec 6, (KUNA): The barom-eter of food commodity prices in in-ternational markets rose for the fourth consecutive month in November, led by strong demand for wheat and dairy products, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported.

“The FAO Food Price Index aver-aged 134.4 points in the month, its highest level since June 2011 and 1.2 percent higher than during October,” reads the report.

The index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of commonly-traded food commodities, was 27.3 percent higher than its level in November 2020.

The FAO Dairy Price Index led November’s aggregate rise, increas-ing by 3.4 percent from the previous month.

“Strong global import demand per-sisted for butter and milk powders as buyers sought to secure spot supplies in anticipating of tightening markets,” it explained.

It added that the FAO Cereal Price Index increased by 3.1 percent in No-vember from the previous month and was 23.2 percent higher than its year-ago level.

Maize export prices rose slightly and international rice prices remained broadly steady, while wheat prices hit their highest level since May 2011.

“The increase refl ected strong de-mand amid tight supplies, especially of higher quality wheat, while prices were also supported by concerns about untimely rains in Australia and uncer-tainty regarding potential changes to export measures in the Russian Fed-eration,” it argued.

The FAO Sugar Price Index was 1.4 percent higher in November than in October and nearly 40 percent above its level in November 2020.

The increase was primarily driven by higher ethanol prices, though large ship-ments from India and a positive outlook for sugar exports by Thailand tempered the upward pressure on quotations.

The FAO Vegetable Oil Price In-dex declined by 0.3 percent from a record high reached in October, re-flecting lower values for soy and rapeseed oils as well as lower crude oil prices. International palm oil prices remained firm.

The FAO Meat Price Index de-creased by 0.9 percent, its fourth con-secutive monthly decline.

Trader William Lawrence works on the fl oor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021. Wall Street is worried about the Federal Reserve pulling back its massive support for fi nancial markets. The head of the central bank said this week that it may halt the bond-buying program meant to lower

long-term interest rates sooner than expected. (AP)

Economists foresee persistent infl ation

Overall US economy to expand by 5.5% this year: survey

WASHINGTON, Dec 6, (AP): The nation’s business economists have sharply raised their forecasts for infl a-tion, predicting an extension of the price spikes that have resulted in large part from bottlenecked supply chains.

A survey released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics found that its panel of forecasters expects consumer pric-es to rise 6% this quarter compared with a year ago. That marks an in-crease from the 5.1% infl ation the forecasters predicted in September for the same 12-month period.

Eighty-seven percent of the panelists have identifi ed supply chain bottle-necks as a major factor in the accelera-tion of prices.

Julie Coronado, vice president of the NABE, said that nearly three-fourths of the panel of 48 forecasters expects the Fed’s preferred infl ation gauge, which refl ects consumer spending patterns, to increase 4.9% this year - far above the central bank’s 2% annual infl ation target.

Nearly 60% of the NABE panelists expect the job market to reach full employment over the next year. Two-thirds of the panelists said they think wage gains will keep infl ation elevated over the next three years.

On Friday, the government reported that the unemployment rate tumbled to 4.2% in November from 4.6% in Octo-ber. The NABE panel expects the un-employment rate to keep declining to 3.8% by the end of 2022.

Last month, employers added just 210,000 jobs, the government esti-mated Friday. That was the weakest monthly gain in nearly a year and less than half of October’s gain of 546,000 jobs. The NABE panel, though, ex-pects monthly gains in payroll jobs to average 337,000 next year, up about 5% from its projection in the Septem-ber survey.

The forecasting panel expects the overall economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, to expand by 5.5% this year. That would mark a ro-bust bounce-back from the 3.4% drop in GDP last year, when the economy was derailed by nationwide shutdowns caused by the eruption of the pandemic. Next year, the NABE forecasters expect GDP to grow by a still-solid 3.9%.

‘Average’ US priceof gas dips 2 centsCAMARILLO, California, Dec 6, (AP): The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline fell 2 cents over past two weeks, to $3.46 per gallon.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday that the price drop is partly because of a crash in crude oil costs.

It was the fi rst decline in gas prices in 14 weeks, Lundberg said. The aver-age price at the pump is $1.24 higher than it was one year ago.

CSC reaches conditional agreement to acquire Intertrust N.V.

CSC, the world’s leading provider of busi-ness, legal, tax, and digital brand servic-es, announces a conditional agreement has been reached on a recommended public offer for all issued and outstanding ordinary shares of Intertrust. The com-bination of CSC and Intertrust creates a clear and differentiated leader for clients on an international scale, built on the combined strengths of each other’s global teams with complementary geographic and service offerings.

Founded in 1899, with headquarters

in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, and with 3,000 employees in 13 countries across the globe, CSC is the trusted partner for more than 180,000 corporate clients-including 90% of the Fortune 500 ® -as well as nearly 10,000 law fi rms and more than 3,000 fi nancial institutions. CSC’s success is built on its ability to provide its clients with best-in-class solutions to ef-fi ciently manage and enable key business processes. Since 2002, CSC has made more than 25 strategic acquisitions, build-ing a solid reputation for successfully inte-

grating deals while increasing profi tability and customer loyalty.

“We have been following Intertrust’s growth and transformation for many years, while at the same time building and growing our trust and corporate services offering in the United States, scaling our fund administration and international ex-pansion solutions globally, and providing a service model to our clients to enable them to navigate an increasingly complex international regulatory environment,” says CSC CEO and President Rod Ward.

“We feel we present a unique opportu-nity unmatched in the market due to our business model, our people, our industry-leading and award-winning customer ser-vice, stability, continuity, and our passion for the complex.”

CSC believes that by combining its global corporate offering with Intertrust, it will establish itself as the clear and dif-ferentiated leader for corporate, fund, pri-vate, and capital markets clients at a time that the market needs it most. By combin-ing the strengths of the two businesses,

CSC believes it will become the preferred partner to help companies manage their needs with a full suite of core and special-ized services provided by industry experts and supported by a single-source tech-nology platform.

CSC’s offer was backed with extensive due diligence and the strong conviction that it’s in the best interest of Intertrust shareholders, providing the most short- and long-term value to current and pro-spective clients and employees. (Agen-cies)

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021

9

Equities advance broadly on Wall Street

Banks and travel companies rebound

NEW YORK, Dec 6, (AP): Stocks rose broadly in morning trading on Wall Street Monday led by banks and a mix of travel-related com-panies that stand to benefit from more reopening of the economy.

The S&P 500 rose 1% as of 10:23 a.m. Eastern. More than 80% of stocks in the index gained ground. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 570 points, or 1.7%, to 35,146 and the Nasdaq rose 0.4%.

Bond yields rose, which benefi ts banks that rely on higher yields to charge more lucra-tive interest on loans. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.38% from 1.33% late Friday. JPMorgan Chase rose 1.6%.

Airlines and a wide range of travel-related companies made solid gains. Delta Air Lines jumped 5.8% and Expedia Group rose 4.8%. The travel industry has been under pressure over concerns about the latest coronavirus variant and the potential for it to crimp eco-nomic activity in the midst of the busy holi-day season.

U.S. crude oil prices rose 2.5% and helped send energy stocks higher. Exxon Mobil rose 1.3%.

The potential impact from the omicron vari-ant of the COVID-19 virus is still unknown, though Wall Street was encouraged to see that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, said early indications suggested that it may be less dangerous than the delta variant.

The broader market is coming off of a choppy week of trading as investors gauged the threat from COVID-19, along with a mixed batch of job market data and lingering infl ation concerns. Investors will get more economic data this week that could help give them a clearer picture of the economy.

The Labor Department will release its job openings and labor turnover survey for Oc-tober on Wednesday, along with its weekly unemployment benefi ts report on Thursday. Wall Street will get another update on infl a-tion when the Labor Department releases the Consumer Price Index for November on Fri-

day.A mix of corporate news helped send

several stocks higher. Del Taco Restaurants surged 65% on news it is being bought by Jack in the Box.

Germany’s DAX surged 0.9% to 15,298.76 while the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 0.8% to 6,820.83. Britain’s FTSE 100 picked up 0.8% to 7,181.36. The future for the Dow industri-als was 0.8% higher, while the contract for the S&P 500 gained 0.6%.

Shares were mostly lower in Asia on Mon-day after troubled Chinese property develop-er Evergrande warned late Friday it may run out of money.

Investors also are struggling with uncer-tainty about the newest coronavirus variant and about when the Federal Reserve will cut off its support for markets.

“This is a week that will force uncomfort-able contemplation about ‘known unknowns’ mainly associated with omicron, Fed tighten-ing and China (regulatory/property) risks,” Mizuho Bank said in a commentary.

That will bring still more uncertainty after a tumultuous spell last week, it said.

DroppedHong Kong dropped 1.8% and the Shang-

hai Composite index gave up early gains, los-ing 0.5%. Benchmarks in South Korea and Australia advanced but Tokyo’s fell.

India’s benchmark dropped 0.9% and Tai-wan’s also edged lower. Thai markets were closed for a public holiday.

Chinese regulators scrambled to reassure investors after Evergrande, one of China’s biggest developers, said it may run out of money to “perform its fi nancial obligations” as it struggles to comply with pressure to re-duce its $310 billion in debt.

The worry is that unsustainable levels of debt in the property sector might trigger a fi -nancial crisis. China wants to avoid a bailout but also is unlikely to let the situation dete-riorate to the point where problems would cascade to that level.

A number of real estate companies have run into trouble as the government has pushed to reduce debt levels, but offi cials have issued statements saying China’s fi nancial system is

strong and default rates are low. Most devel-opers are fi nancially healthy and Beijing will keep lending markets functioning, the most recent statements said.

Evergrande’s shares plunged 9.8% early Monday, helping pull the Hang Seng in Hong Kong down to 23,467.42.

Chinese tech giant Alibaba, which has been embroiled in a multi-faceted crackdown on the industry, also dragged the benchmark lower, losing 5.4% after the company said it was replacing its chief fi nancial offi cer, Mag-gie Wu and overhauling its e-commerce busi-ness.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 gave up 0.4% to 27,927.37. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 417.31 points at 23,349.38. The Shang-hai Composite index gave up early gains, shedding 18.13 points to 3,589.31.

But S&P/ASX 500 in Sydney ended slight-ly higher, gaining 0.1% to 7,245.10. In Seoul, the Kospi edged 0.2% higher to 2,973.25.

Last week’s volatile swings on Wall Street ended Friday with more losses for stocks, as a mixed batch of U.S. job market data triggered another bout of dizzying trading.

The S&P 500 closed 0.8% lower, at 4,538.43. The Dow lost 0.2% to 34,580.08. The Nasdaq sank 1.9% to 15,085.47, while the Russell 2000 slumped 2.1% to 2,159.31.

Friday’s jobs report, which is usually the most anticipated economic data by Wall Street each month, showed employers added only 210,000 jobs last month. Economists were expecting much stronger hiring of 530,000, and it raised worries the economy may stagnate while infl a-tion remains high. That’s a worse-case scenario called “stagfl ation” by economists, and the omi-cron variant’s arrival makes its likelihood more uncertain.

In other trading Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil advanced $1.22 to $67.48 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mer-cantile Exchange. It shed 24 cents to $66.26 on Friday.

Brent crude, the standard for pricing inter-national oils, picked up $1.23 to $71.11 per barrel.

The U.S. dollar rose to 113.17 Japanese yen from 112.92 yen. The euro weakened to $1.1288 from $1.1309.

People walk by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo, Monday, Dec. 6, 2021. Shares were mixed in Asia on Monday after troubled Chinese property developer Evergrande warned late Friday it may run out of money. (AP)

Shares tumble 18 pct at opening bell

Lucid crashes after disclosing SEC subpoenaSILVER SPRING, Md., Dec 6, (AP): Shares in the electric vehicle startup Lucid Group tumbled Monday after saying that said it had been subpoenaed by government regulators, ap-parently over the process by which it became a publicly-traded company last summer.

Lucid shares skidded 18% at the opening bell, and it dragged much of the EV sector down with it. Shares in Tesla fell 4% as did Fisker. Rivian and Nikola slipped almost 2%.

In a fi ling with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the California company said an investigation by the SEC “appears to concern the business combination between the com-pany and Atieva Inc. and certain projections and statements.”

Lucid, formerly known at Churchill Capi-tal Corp. IV, began trading on NASDAQ in July after combining with Atieva, a so-called special purpose acquisition company. Com-monly referred to as a “SPAC,” they are used as a shortcut to go public, bypassing the lengthy and costly process of a traditional initial public offering.

SPACs - also called “blank-check compa-nies” because they have no real business other than hunting for privately owned businesses to buy - exploded in popularity last year, and the furor reached a fever pitch early in 2021 when they were raising an average of $6 billion every week. SPACs offer investors a way to get into those exciting, potentially high-growth compa-nies or companies or industries, and few sectors are as hot lately as electric vehicle makers.

ProjectionsCompanies going the SPAC route often

feel more license to highlight projections for big growth they’re expecting in the future, for example. In a traditional IPO, the com-pany is limited to highlighting its past per-formance, not necessarily the greatest selling point for young startups that have little to show for in sales or profi ts.

Before the steep selloff Monday, Lucid had a market capitalization of nearly $78 billion, in the same neighborhood of Detroit stalwarts GM and Ford. Electric Truck mak-

er Rivian, which has only delivered a few hundred vehicles, passed Ford in valuation on its fi rst day of public trading last month with shares soaring past $100.

The Lucid investigation is the latest set-back for the electric vehicle sector, which saw top executives for Lordstown Motors step down in June after a critical report from short-selling fi rm Hindenburg Research which questioned the number of preorders the company claimed to have received for its marquee Endurance vehicle. Shares in Lordstown, which also went public through a SPAC, are down 80% this year.

Shares in electric and hydrogen-powered truck startup Nikola are down more than 40% this year after allegations of fraud, again coming from Hindenburg Research. Nikola’s founder Trevor Milton resigned in September after the Hindenburg report called Nikola’s success “an intricate fraud” based on “an ocean of lies.” Milton’s resignation came just two weeks after signing a $2 bil-lion partnership with General Motors.

Highest infl ation rate in 20 years

WARSAW, Poland, Dec 6, (AP): Poland said Tuesday that consum-er prices have risen 7.7% over the past year, evidence that infl ation is accelerating even faster than had been expected in the largest central European economy in the European Union.

The November number is the highest infl ation rate in 20 years and marks a larger jump than what economists had predicted. Last month, it hit 6.8% annually, ac-cording to the statistics offi ce.

The rising prices mark one of the most serious setbacks for a economy that has been growing quickly since throwing off com-munism three decades ago and whose modernization has been helped by EU membership.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced Tuesday that his government had approved measures to cushion the blow from infl ation, including tax cuts on fuel and subsidies aimed at helping millions of households.

They are meant “to protect Pol-ish families, protect budgets and reduce the burdens related to the increase in prices,” he said.

Morawiecki has blamed rising

infl ation partly on the soaring cost of Russian gas imports. He also faulted the EU’s climate program and efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, with the cost of emitting carbon hitting records recently.

Poland’s rising prices were re-ported as the annual infl ation rate across the 19 countries that use the euro currency hit 4.9% in No-vember, the highest since record-keeping began in 1997, the Euro-pean Union’s statistics agency said Tuesday.

Eurozone consumer prices are being driven up by a huge spike in energy costs, much like Poland’s in-creases are fueled by gasoline prices. They have skyrocketed 36.6% since last year, exacerbated by a weaken-ing of the country’s currency, the zloty. The weaker zloty means that imports - including oil, which is priced in U.S. dollars - become more expensive for Polish consumers.

The cost of heating jumped 13.4%, while food and non-alco-holic beverage prices rose 6.4%.

While rising prices are straining households and businesses world-wide, they are hitting countries in central Europe, including Poland and Hungary, especially hard.

Consumer prices up 7.7 pct in Poland, ‘faster’ than expected

BUSINESSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021

10

German factory orders see2nd big drop in three mthsBERLIN, Dec 6, (AP): German factory or-ders dropped steeply in October, pushed down by much lower demand from countries outside the euro area, according to offi cial statistics released Monday.

The Economy Ministry said orders were down 6.9% compared with the previous month, the second big drop in three months. Orders fell 8.8% in August and gained 1.8% in September.

Factory orders are an important indicator for the German economy, Europe’s biggest. The latest fi gures come as business confi -dence is weighed down by persistent supply-chain bottlenecks and a resurgence of coro-navirus infections.

Demand for investment goods such as factory machinery was down 10.7% in Oc-tober, the Economy Ministry said. The over-all performance was dragged lower by an 18.1% drop in orders from countries outside the 19-nation eurozone and a 3.2% fall in orders from Germany’s eurozone partners. Domestic demand was up 3.4%.

The ministry said overall orders were 1% lower than a year earlier. It cautioned, however, that the index is volatile at the mo-ment and recent developments “should not be overinterpreted.” It said that, if bulk or-ders were excluded, orders would have been down only 1.8% on the month.

Trump media partner says it has lined up $1b in capital

Donald Trump’s new social media company and its spe-cial purpose acquisition com-pany partner say the partner has agreements for $1 billion in capital from institutional in-vestors.

The former president launched his new company, Trump Media & Technol-ogy Group, in October. He unveiled plans for a new mes-saging app called “Truth So-

cial” to rival Twitter and the other social media platforms that banned him following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

TMTG’s plan is to become a publicly listed company through a merger with the publicly traded Digital World Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company whose sole purpose is to ac-quire a private company and

take it public.The institutional investors

were not identifi ed in a press release issued Saturday by Trump Media and Digital World. The money would come from “a diverse group” of investors after the two companies are combined, it said.

Digital World said in the release that the $1 billion is above the $293 million (minus

expenses) that it may invest. “I am confi dent that TMTG

can effectively deploy this capital to accelerate and strengthen the execution of its business, including by contin-uing to attract top talent, hire top technology providers, and roll out signifi cant advertising and business development campaigns,” Digital World CEO Patrick Orlando said in the release. (AP)

In this fi le photo, Presi-dent Donald Trump in the

Oval Offi ce of the White House during an event to award Presidential Medal

of Freedom in Washing-ton. Trump’s new social media company and its

special purpose acquisi-tion company partner say

the partner has agree-ments for $1 billion in

capital from institutional investors. (AP)

ECB plans to redesign euro banknotesDecision expected in 2024

BERLIN, Dec 6, (AP): The European Central Bank said Monday that it plans to rede-sign its euro banknotes, with a fi nal decision on the new look expected in 2024.

The euro was introduced in cash form in 2002, with banknotes based on what the Frankfurt-based central bank for the 19-nation euro area calls an “ages and styles” theme - with generic windows, doorways and bridges from various eras that don’t represent any specifi c place or monument. They have undergone one relatively minor update in that time.

“After 20 years, it’s time to review the look of our banknotes to make them more

relatable to Europeans of all ages and back-grounds,” ECB President Christine Lagarde said in a statement.

She said that euro banknotes “are a tangi-ble and visible symbol that we stand together in Europe, particularly in times of crisis, and there is still a strong demand for them.”

The ECB said it will create focus groups to gather opinions from people across the continent on possible themes for the future notes. A “theme advisory group” with one expert from each eurozone country will then submit a shortlist of suggested new themes to the ECB’s governing council.

The bank said it will seek public in-put on the proposals, then hold a design competition for the new banknotes before again consulting the public. Its governing council will make a final decision and de-cide on when the new banknotes might be issued.

Euro coins and banknotes are pictured in a shop in Duisburg, Germany, Saturday, Dec. 29, 2001. The Eu-ropean Central Bank said Monday that it plans to rede-sign its euro banknotes, with a fi nal decision on the new

look expected in 2024. (AP)

‘We are in a new phase’

States & cities running outof rental assistance moniesNEW YORK, Dec 6, (AP): Several large states and cities have exhausted their federal rental assistance, the Treas-ury Department said Monday, in a sign that spending on a massive program aimed at averting evictions has picked up speed.

The federal government is forecasting that upwards of $30 billion or about two-thirds of money allocated for rental assistance will be disbursed or allocated by the end of the year. That is a dramatic change from this summer when housing advocates were complaining about the slow pace of distribution.

But with the improved outcome of the $46.5 billion program has come concerns that some tenants will not get help. The fi rst tranche of emergency rental assistance funds, known as ERA1, is for $25 billion and the second, known as ERA2 and meant to be spent over a longer pe-riod of time, is $21.5 billion.

Texas has stopped accepting new applicants because it has allocated all its funds, while Oregon has stopped tak-ing new applicants for now, the Treasury Department said. The state of New York has spent or committed nearly all of its money, as has Philadelphia. California has indicated it will soon exhaust its funds, while Atlanta has closed its program to new applicants.

More than 100 other state and local entities have indi-cated they have gone through almost all their ERA1 mon-ey and are beginning to spend down their ERA2 funds, Treasury said.

Funds“There is a lot of work still to do to get funds out in a

timely way to prevent avoidable evictions, but we are in a new phase.” Gene Sperling, who is charged with oversee-ing implementation of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package, said in an email interview.

“We now have the three largest states and many cities saying they have run through or will soon run through all of their ERA funds,” he continued. “Treasury is using the reallocation process to spur weak performers to up their game and to get more funds into the hands of those who can help the most vulnerable the fastest.”

Texas offi cials said its program had disbursed $1.5 bil-lion and another $109 million was in the process of being paid. Over 263,000 households have gotten the funds, and another 21,000 have payments that are on the way.

“We have not received word of any additional funds be-ing sent to us for distribution but we have asked Treasury for funds that may be redistributed from those that were not disbursed through other state, county or city programs,” Kristina Tirloni, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, said in an email.

The Oregon Housing and Community Services an-nounced earlier this month that nearly all the $289 million in federal emergency rental assistance has been committed.

During a recent Senate Interim Committee On Hous-ing and Development, Margaret Salazar, the director of Oregon Housing and Community Services, said that the “harsh reality” is that Oregon “just did not get enough re-sources to meet the needs” of the state to respond to the immediate crisis.

AssistanceAlthough offi cials say that all the rental assistance has

been requested, a signifi cant chunk of the funds – $159 million – has yet to actually reach renters. The state has received nearly 51,000 complete applications for rental as-sistance but so far, just 43% of those who have applied have received funding.

New York has spent or committed $2 billion out of $2.4 billion after spending almost only $200 million through August.

But it also faces a challenge of getting money into the hands of tenants, with nearly $1 billion still held up over missing paper work. One big problem is matching the state is having trouble matching applications submitted by ten-ants with the landlords who own the property.

Congress has authorized $46.5 billion in emergency rental assistance in a bid to thwart what was expected to be a wave of pandemic-related evictions.

The initial rollout of the federal program was plagued by slow disbursement, with administration offi cials pub-licly blaming state and municipal partners for bottleneck-ing the process with excessive bureaucracy often aimed at preventing fraud.

The more recent problem has been some parts of the country expending all their monies while others especially in parts of the South lagging behind.

That prompted Treasury to announce in October that it would soon start reallocating unspent monies.

Those entities that have not obligated 65% of their ERA1 monies or are found to have an expenditure ratio below 30% as of Sept. 30 based on a Treasury formula will face having the money reallocated. Grantees can avoid los-ing the money if they submit a plan by Nov. 15 showing how they will improve distribution or are able to get their distribution numbers above the 65% or 30% threshold.

There will also be the option of entities voluntary return-ing the money, with the goal that it could be redistributed to the same state, territory or tribal area. Treasury offi cials have not identifi ed any places that could lose money.

SCIENCEARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021

11

Rescuers dig thru ash

27 still ‘missing’ asvolcano toll hits 15SUMBERWULUH, Indonesia, Dec 6, (AP): Rescuers dug out the body of 13-year-old boy with their bare hands on Monday, as improved weather conditions allowed them to resume their search after the highest volcano on Indonesia’s Java island erupted with fury, killing at least 15 people with searing gas and ash and leaving 27 others missing.

Mount Semeru in Lumajang district in East Java province spewed thick columns of ash as high as 12,000 meters (40,000 feet) into the sky in a sudden eruption Saturday triggered by heavy rain. Villages and nearby towns were blanketed by tons of volcanic debris.

Searing gas raced down the sides of the mountain, smother-ing entire villages and killing or seriously burning those caught

in its path. National Disaster Mitigation

Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said 56 people had been hospitalized, mostly with burns. He said rescuers were still searching for 27 villag-ers reported missing. Nearly 3,000 houses and 38 schools were damaged, Muhari said.

The body of the 13-year-old boy was recovered in the worst-hit village of Sumberwuluh, where houses were buried to their rooftops and cars were submerged. Crumpled roofs, charred

carcasses of cattle and broken chairs covered in gray ash and soot dotted the smoldering landscape.

Search and rescue efforts were temporarily suspended Sun-day afternoon because of fears that heavy rain would cause more hot ash and debris to fall from the crater.

The eruption of the 3,676-meter (12,060-foot) -high moun-tain eased pressure that had been building under a lava dome in the crater. But experts warned that the dome could further collapse, causing an avalanche of blistering gas and debris trapped beneath it.

More than 1,700 villagers escaped to makeshift emergency shelters after Saturday’s powerful eruption, but many others defi ed offi cial warnings and chose to remain in their homes to tend their livestock and protect their property.

MonitoredSemeru, also known as Mahameru, has erupted many

times in the last 200 years. Still, as on many of the 129 vol-canoes monitored in Indonesia, tens of thousands of people live on its fertile slopes. It last erupted in January, with no casualties.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 270 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the Pacifi c “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines.

Authorities warned the thousands of people who fl ed the volcano’s wrath not to return during Sunday’s lull in activ-ity. But some were desperate to check on livestock and pos-sessions left behind. In several areas, everything — from the thinnest tree branch to couches and chairs inside homes — was caked with ash.

“There’s no life there ... trees, farms, houses are scorched, everything is covered in heavy gray ash,” said Haryadi Purno-mo of East Java’s search and rescue agency. He said that sev-eral other areas were virtually untouched.

Search and rescue efforts were temporary suspended on Sunday afternoon because of fears that hot ash and debris could tumble down from the crater due to heavy rains. On Sat-urday, a torrent of mud destroyed the main bridge connecting Lumajang and the neighboring district of Malang, as well as a smaller bridge.

The eruption eased pressure that had been building under a lava dome perched on the crater. But experts warned that the dome could still further collapse, causing an avalanche of the blistering gas and debris trapped beneath it.

A thunderstorm and days of rain, which eroded and partly collapsed the dome atop the 3,676-meter (12,060-foot) Seme-ru, triggered the eruption, said Eko Budi Lelono, who heads the geological survey center.

Semeru, the stratovolcano in shape of a cone, is also known as Mahameru, meaning “The Great Mountain” in Sanskrit. It has erupted many times over the last 200 years. Still, as with other volcanoes — it is one of 129 under watch in Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelago — more than 62,000 people call Sumeru’s fertile slopes home. It last erupted in January, with no casualties.

Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 270 million people, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because it sits along the Pacifi c “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of fault lines. Currently 54% of the country’s population live on Java, the country’s most densely populated area.

Offi cials said earlier they had hoped they could avoid casu-alties by closely monitoring the volcano.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said 56 people had been hospitalized, mostly with burns. He said rescuers were still searching for nine residents of Curah Kobokan village.

More than 1,300 villagers streamed into makeshift emer-gency shelters after Saturday’s powerful eruption, but many others defi ed offi cial warnings and chose to remain in their homes, saying they had to tend to their livestock and protect their property, said Purnomo.

“We’ll do everything we can to evacuate them by preparing trucks and motorbikes for them to fl ee at any time,” he said.

ResponseIndonesian President Joko Widodo said he instructed

his Cabinet ministers and disaster and military officials to coordinate the response. The government pledged to relo-cate residents from hardest-hit villages to safer places in the next six months and to provide 500,000 rupiah ($34.50) per month in compensation for each family while waiting for new houses.

Mount Semeru’s eruption in Lumajang district in East Java province left several villages blanketed with falling ash.

A thunderstorm and days of rain, which had eroded and fi -nally collapsed the lava dome atop the 3,676-meter (12,060-foot) Semeru, triggered an eruption, said Eko Budi Lelono, who heads the geological survey center.

He said fl ows of searing gas and lava traveled up to 800 meters (2,624 feet) to a nearby river at least twice on Saturday. People were advised to stay 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) from the crater’s mouth, the agency said.

“Thick columns of ash have turned several villages to dark-ness,” said Lumajang district head Thoriqul Haq. Several hun-dred people were moved to temporary shelters or left for other safe areas, he said, adding that power blackout hampered the evacuation.

The debris and lava mixed with the rainfall formed thick mud that destroyed the main bridge connecting Lumajang and the neighboring district of Malang, as well as a smaller bridge, Haq said.

Despite an increase in activity since Wednesday, Semeru’s alert status has remained at the third highest of four levels since it began erupting last year, and Indonesia’s volcanology Center for Geological Hazard Mitigation did not raise it this week, Lelono said.

One man died from severe burns, and 41 others were hospi-talized with burn injuries, said Indah Masdar, the deputy dis-trict head. She said two villagers were reported missing and several sand miners were trapped in isolated areas along the village river.

Entire houses in Curah Kobokan village were damaged by volcanic debris, Masdar said.

Television reports showed people screaming and running under a huge ash cloud, their faces wet from rain mixed with volcanic dust. The last time Semeru erupted in January, there were no casualties.

Volcano

A village is covered in ash from the eruption of Mount Semeru in Lumajang district, East Java province, Indonesia, Monday, Dec. 6. (AP)

Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert on June 11, 2021. In excerpts released ahead of a speech Monday Dec. 6, Prof. Sarah Gilbert, one of the scien-tists behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, is warning that the next pandemic may more contagious and more lethal unless more money is devoted to research and preparations

to fight emerging viral threats. (AP)

Discovery

Iron Age longhouses found: Nor-wegian archaeologists said Monday they have found a cluster of longhouses, including one of the largest in Scandi-navia, using ground-penetrating radar in the southeastern part of the country — in an area that researchers believe was a central place in the late Nordic Iron Age.

The longhouses — long and narrow, single-room buildings — were found in Gjellestad, 86 kilometers (53 miles) southeast of Oslo near where a Viking-era ship was found in 2018 close to the Swed-ish border.

“We have found several buildings, all typical Iron Age longhouses, north of the Gjellestad ship. The most striking discovery is a 60-meter (197-foot) long and 15-meter (49-foot) wide longhouse, a size that makes it one of the largest we know of in Scandinavia,” archaeologist Lars Gustavsen at Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research said in a statement.

The importance of Gjellestad dur-ing that time period wasn’t immediately known. But the body, known by its Nor-wegian acronym NIKU, said it was work-ing on fi nding that out.

This autumn, archaeologists covered 40 hectares (about 100 acres) south, east and north of were the Gjellestad ship was found with the radar system, and one of the next steps are archaeological excava-tions, NIKU said.

The surveys are the first part of a re-search project called “Viking Nativity: Gjellestad Across Borders” where ar-chaeologists, historians and Viking age specialists have examined the develop-ment of the area during the Nordic Iron Age that began at around 500 B.C. and lasted until approximately A.D. 800 and the beginning of the Viking Age. (AP)

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Hawaii mountains to see snow: The National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for mountains on Ha-waii’s Big Island, saying wind gusts of above 100 mph (160 kph) and 12 inches (30.4 centimeters) or more of snow were possible.

The warning in effect through Sun-day morning for Big Island summits said “travel should be restricted to emergencies only” and those who must travel should have a winter survival kit.

Blizzard warnings for Hawaii are rare, but not unheard of. The Big Island has mountain peaks that reach nearly 14,000 feet (more than 4,200 meters). CNN re-ported that the last blizzard warning is-sued by the National Weather Service

in Hawaii was more than three and half years ago.

The threat of snow in Hawaii comes

as places in the Rocky Mountains more used to white wintery weather are close to breaking records for days without snow.

Denver’s high temperature Wednesday hit 73 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Celsius), tying the record set in 1973. (AP)

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2 hippos have COVID-19: A Belgian zoo said that a pair of hippopotamuses in its care are in isolation after testing posi-tive for COVID-19, possibly the fi rst time ever such animals have caught the dis-ease.

Belgium’s national veterinary lab has confi rmed that Antwerp Zoo’s two hip-pos — Imani, aged 14, and 41-year-old Hermien — contracted COVID-19. It’s unclear how they caught it. Both the gi-ant semiaquatic herbivores are well, apart from exceptionally runny noses. Keepers have tightened virus restrictions around the zoo.

“To my knowledge, it’s the fi rst re-corded contamination among this species. Throughout the world this virus has most-ly been seen in great apes and felines,” Antwerp Zoo vet Francis Vercammen said.

How the hippos got the disease re-mains a mystery. All the zoo’s animals were tested for COVID-19 last year and no case was found. Hippos noses nor-mally tend to be wet, but Vercammen said he decided to test the thick liquid coming out as a precaution, and was sur-prised by the result. (AP)

Carabinieri policemen check the green health pass of public transportation pas-sengers in Rome, Monday, Dec. 6, on the first day a super green health pass went into effect. Italian police can check whether diners in restaurants or bars have a ‘super’ green health pass certifying that they are either vaccinated or

have recently recovered from the virus. (AP)

Coronavirus

Vercammen Gustavsen

Widodo

Putin hopes WHO soon approves Sputnik V vaccine

‘Next pandemic may be worse’LONDON, Dec 6, (AP): One of the sci-entists behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is warning that the next pandemic may more contagious and more lethal unless more money is devoted to research and preparations to fi ght emerging viral threats.

In excerpts released ahead of a speech Monday, Prof. Sarah Gilbert says the scientifi c advances made in fi ghting deadly viruses “must not be lost” due to the cost of fi ghting the cur-rent pandemic.

“This will not be the last time a vi-rus threatens our lives and our liveli-hoods,’’ Gilbert is expected to say. “The truth is, the next one could be worse. It could be more contagious, or more lethal, or both.”

Gilbert is scheduled to make the re-marks Monday night when she deliv-ers this year’s Richard Dimbleby lec-ture, named after the late broadcaster who was the BBC’s fi rst war corre-spondent and a pioneer of television news in Britain. The annual televised lecture features addresses by infl uen-tial fi gures in business, science and government.

Gilbert is set to call on govern-ments to redouble their commitment to scientifi c research and pandemic preparedness, even after the threat of COVID-19 wanes.

“We cannot allow a situation where we have gone through all we have gone through, and then fi nd that the enormous economic losses we have sustained mean that there is still no funding for pandemic preparedness,’’ she said. “The advances we have made, and the knowledge we have gained, must not be lost.”

SuppliesMeanwhile, Russian President

Vladimir Putin on Sunday voiced hope for a quick approval of the country’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine by the World Health Organization, saying the move is essential to expand its global supplies.

Speaking during a video call with Francesco Rocca, president of the In-ternational Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Putin said receiving the WHO’s vetting is necessary to spread the Russian vac-cine more broadly around the world, including free supplies.

“We intend to expand such assis-tance,” Putin said.

The Russian leader also argued that WHO’s approval should open the door for Russians and others who have had the Sputnik V vaccine to travel more freely around the world. He said about

Unvaccinated Italians face new restrictions as the holidays near

200 million people worldwide have re-ceived Sputnik V.

Putin was vaccinated with Sputnik V in the spring, and last month he re-ceived a booster shot of Sputnik Light, the one-dose version. He also said he took an experimental nasal version of Sputnik V days after receiving his booster shot, adding that he was feel-ing fi ne and felt no side effects.

The Gamaleya Institute that devel-oped Sputnik V has said the vaccine should be effi cient against the omicron variant of COVID-19, but announced that it will immediately start working on adapting it to counter the new variant.

Russia was the fi rst country in the world to authorize a coronavirus vac-cine, launching Sputnik V in August 2020, and has plentiful supplies. But uptake has been slow, blamed in part on confl icting signals from Russian authorities.

Russia in recent months has faced its deadliest and largest surge of corona-virus cases, with infections and deaths climbing to all-time highs and only slowing in the last few weeks. Rus-sia has Europe’s highest confi rmed pandemic death toll at over 281,000, according to the government’s corona-virus task force. But a report released Friday by the state statistics agency Rosstat, which uses broader criteria, put the the overall number of virus-linked deaths between April 2020 and October 2021 to over 537,000 - almost twice the offi cial toll.

Putin, who despite a surge in infec-tions in Russia has repeatedly argued that vaccinations should remain volun-tary, emphasized Sunday that Russian authorities have been tried to use “per-suasion and not pressure” and worked to dispel “prejudices and myths driv-ing the aversion to vaccination.”

MILAN, Dec 6, (AP): Italy is mak-ing life more uncomfortable for un-vaccinated people as the holidays draw near, excluding them from indoor restaurants, theaters and museums to reduce the spread of coronavirus and encourage vac-cine skeptics to get their shots.

Starting Monday through Jan. 15, Italian police can check whether diners in restaurants or bars have a “super” green health pass certify-ing that they are either vaccinated or have recently recovered from the virus. Smart phone applications that check people’s health pass status will be updated and those who have merely tested negative in recent days for COVID-19 will no longer be allowed into concerts, movies or performances.

The number of new COVID-19 infections in Italy has been on a gradual rise for the past six weeks, even before concerns arose about the new omicron variant. That’s a worrying trend as Italians plan holi-day parties and getaways to spend time with friends and family. Christ-mas travel and holiday gatherings were strictly limited last year due to a steeper rise in contagion.

While both Germany and Austria are moving toward making vac-cines obligatory, Italy is instead tightening restrictions on the un-vaccinated at the most convivial

time of the year — while allowing those who are vaccinated go about life more or less as usual.

Italy’s vaccination rate is higher than many of its neighbors, at 85% of the eligible population aged 12 and older and 77% of the total population. But people in their 30s, 40s and 50s have proved the most reluctant to get vaccinated, with nearly 3.5 million still not having re-ceived their first doses.

They are also the same age group that is now being hardest hit by the virus, according to Silvio Brusaferro, head of Italy’s National Health Institute.

Also starting Monday, people must have a health pass to access local public transportation and stay in hotels — that can be acquired also with a negative recent test. In Milan, the prefect said health pass-es will be checked before people are allowed onto the subway or buses.

With the holiday shopping sea-son heating up, many cities includ-ing Rome and Milan have ordered mask mandates even outdoors.

Public health officials say vac-cinations, along with prudent public behavior including wearing masks in crowds, are key to re-ducing infection levels as winter weather pushes more activities indoors.

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Canadian pop star Justin Bieber performs at a concert marking the end of the Formula One, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Dec. 5. (AP)

An old noun made new again

Dictionary.com anoints allyship word of the year for 2021NEW YORK, Dec 6, (AP): Allyship, an old noun made new again, is Dictionary.com’s word of the year.

The look up site with 70 million monthly users took the unusual step of anointing a word it added just last month, though “allyship” fi rst surfaced in the mid-1800s, said one of the company’s content overse-ers, John Kelly.

“It might be a surprising choice for some,” he told The Associated Press ahead of Tuesday’s unveiling. “In the past few decades, the term has evolved to take on a more nuanced and specifi c meaning. It is con-tinuing to evolve and we saw that in many ways.”

The site offers two defi nitions for allyship: The role of a person who advocates for inclusion of a “marginalized or politicized group” in solidarity but not as a member, and the more traditional relationship of “persons, groups or nations associating and cooperating with one another for a common cause or purpose.”

The word is set apart from “alliance,” which Dictionary.com defi nes in one sense as a “merging of efforts or interests by persons, families, states or organizations.”

It’s the fi rst defi nition that took off most recently in the mid-2000s and has continued to churn. Following the summer of 2020 and the death of George Floyd, white allies — and the word allyship — pro-liferated as racial justice demonstrations spread. Before that, straight allies joined the causes of LGBTQ oppression, discrimination and mar-ginalization.

“This year, we saw a lot of businesses and organizations very promi-nently, publicly, beginning efforts to promote diversity, equity and in-clusion. Allyship is tied to that. In the classroom, there is a fl ashpoint

around the term critical race theory. Allyship connects with this as well,” Kelly said.

In addition, teachers, frontline workers and mothers who juggled jobs, home duties and child care in lockdown gained allies as the pan-demic took hold last year.

Without an entry for “allyship,” Kelly said the site saw a steep rise in lookups for “ally” in 2020 and large spikes in 2021. It was in the top 850 searches out of thousands and thousands of words this year. Dictionary.com broadened the defi nition of “ally” to include the more nuanced meaning. The terms “DEI” and “critical race theory” made their debuts as entries on the site with “allyship” this year.

What it means to be an authentic ally has taken on fresh signifi cance as buzz around the word has grown louder. One of the aspects of ally-ship, as it has emerged, is how badly it can go.

DiversityAmong the example’s of how to use the word in a sentence cited by

Merriam-Webster is this one written by Native activist Hallie Sebas-tian: “Poor allyship is speaking over marginalized people by taking credit and receiving recognition for arguments that the unprivileged have been making for their entire lives.”

As global diversity, equity and inclusion executive Sheree Atcheson wrote in Forbes, allyship is a “lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency and accountability with marginalized indi-viduals and/or groups of people.” It’s not, she said, “self-defi ned — work and efforts must be recognized by those you are seeking to ally with.”

Allyship should be an “opportunity to grow and learn about our-

selves, whilst building confi dence in others,” Atcheson added.Among the earliest evidence of the word “allyship,” in its original

sense of “alliance,” is the 1849, two-volume work, “The Lord of the Manor, or, Lights and Shades of Country Life” by British novelist Thomas Hall: “Under these considerations, it is possible, he might have heard of Miss Clough’s allyship with the Lady Bourgoin.”

Kelly did some additional digging into the history of allyship in its social justice sense. While the Oxford English Dictionary dates that use of the word to the 1970s, Kelly found a text, “The Allies of the Negro” by Albert W. Hamilton, published in 1943. It discusses extensively the potential allies of Black people in the struggle for racial equality:

“What some white liberals are beginning to realize is that they bet-ter begin to seek the Negro as an ally,” he wrote. “The new way of life sought by the liberal will be a sham without the racial equality the Negro seeks. And the inclusion of the Negro in the day-to-day work, in the organization, the leadership and the rallying of the support neces-sary to win a better world, can only be done on the basis of equality.”

On the other side of allyship, Kelly said, “is a feeling of division, of polarization. That was Jan. 6.” Allyship, he said, became a powerful prism in terms of the dichotomy at a chaotic cultural time during the last two years.

Other dictionary companies in the word of the year game focused on the pandemic and its fallout for their picks. Oxford Languages, which oversees the Oxford English Dictionary, went for “vax” and Merri-am-Webster chose “vaccine.” The Glasgow, Scotland-based Collins Dictionary, meanwhile, plucked “NFT,” the digital tokens that sell for millions.

LOS ANGELES: Leftovers were on the menu for moviegoers in North America this weekend. “En-canto,” “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” and “House of Gucci” repeated in the top three spots, according to studio estimates on Sunday. All three fi lms are playing exclusively in theaters.

The weekend after Thanksgiving is usually pretty quiet at the box offi ce and this year was no excep-tion considering new offerings like “Flee” and “Benedetta” were play-ing only in limited release. Disney’s “Encanto,” an animated tale with original music from Lin-Manuel Miranda, earned $12.7 million to take the top spot, down 53% from its opening last weekend. Globally, it’s earned $116.1 million to date.

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” took second place in its third weekend with $10.4 million, pushing it just past the $100 million threshold. And Ridley Scott’s ripped from the headlines “House of Gucci,” starring Lady Gaga and Adam Driver, came in third place in its second weekend with $6.8 million from 3,477 locations, bringing its domestic total to $33.6 million.

The big surprise came from Fathom, which snagged the fourth place spot with “Christmas with The Chosen: The Messengers.” It isn’t exactly a movie but an episode of a faith-based streaming series, that was shot specifi cally for a 10-day big screen run. Over the weekend, it grossed $4.1 million from 1,700 screens. Since Wednesday, it’s earned $9 million and has become the highest gross-ing event in Fathom history.

“It just shows how powerful event cinema is and how movie theaters can benefi t from non-traditional releases,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore.

In other notable showings, Warner Bros’ brought “Dune” back to IMAX screens this weekend. The premium screens accounted for over half of its $1.8 million domestic earnings.

In specialty releases, Paul Ver-hoeven’s “Benedetta,” released by IFC Films, grossed $145,000 from 202 theaters and Focus Features’ “Wolf” opened on 308 screens to $80,000. Neon’s animated docu-mentary “Flee” also opened on four screens, earning $25,033. The fi lm is about a man who fl ed Afghanistan

as a child in the 1980s.Things should pick up next

week as Steven Spielberg’s take on “West Side Story” dances into theaters nationwide.

“We’re heading into the home stretch of the box offi ce year at $3.7 billion,” Dergarabedian said. (AP)

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NEWRY, Maine: Santa is back to “sleighing” it on the ski slope.

More than 230 skiing and snow-boarding Kris Kringles took to a western Maine resort on Sunday to raise money for charity.

The jolly ol’ St Nicks took a break last year because of the global pandemic. But they re-turned to kick off the ski season in

full holiday garb, including white beards, red hats and red outfi ts.

A sea of red Santa suits descend-ed the mountain, carving wide turns as their beards fl uttered in the icy wind. At least one green-costumed Grinch snuck his way into the mix, disguised in Santa’s coat and hat.

The event took place in the western Maine town of Newry,

home to the Sunday River Ski Resort, the state’s busiest.

Before dashing through the snow, the Santas must all donate a minimum of $20, which helps sup-port local education and recreation programs. The event raised several thousand dollars for the Sunday River Community Fund, a local charity. (AP)

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Alicia Keys teases new songs at small show

Justin Bieber performs at Saudi F1 raceJEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Dec 6, (AP): Pop star Justin Bieber performed to a packed crowd in the Red Sea city of Jiddah in Saudi Arabia, singing some of his most popular hits. The Sunday night concert took place even as human rights cam-paigners and activists called on Bieber to cancel his performance to protest the kingdom’s arrests and crackdown of critics.

Bieber’s model wife, Hailey Baldwin Bieber, posted a supportive video on Instagram of him on stage, with the words: “Go Baby.” Other vid-eos on social media showed Bieber on stage solo, wearing a coordinated red outfi t. Pop and R&B singer Jason Derulo performed before Bieber with backup female dancers in sweatpants and baggy tops.

Only a few years ago, this would have been an unthinkable scene in Saudi Arabia, where ul-traconservative norms prevailed. Concerts were banned and unmarried men and women were segregated in public spaces. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is behind the sweeping changes as he works to modernize society, attract foreign investment and create jobs for youth.

Human Rights Watch and others, however, have called on celebrities to boycott the kingdom, saying such events are aimed at diverting atten-tion and defl ecting scrutiny from Saudi Arabia’s human rights record.

Bieber was the biggest name performer to take the stage as part of Saudi Arabia’s Grand Prix, which saw Lewis Hamilton win ahead of the last race of the Formula One season.

The Canadian pop star has not commented on the public pressure surrounding his performance and calls for him to cancel the show. Weeks be-fore his show in Saudi Arabia, the fi ancée of slain Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi joined a chorus of voices urging him not to perform at the kingdom’s

F1 race. In an open letter published by The Washington

Post, Hatice Cengiz had urged the megastar to cancel his performance to “send a powerful mes-sage to the world that your name and talent will not be used to restore the reputation of a regime that kills its critics.” She noted that the decision to host the F1 race and invite a star like Bieber “comes directly” from the crown prince.

But like other stars, such as Mariah Carey in 2019, Bieber performed anyway to excited fans. It’s unclear how much celebrities have been paid for their appearances in the kingdom. Saudi youth are the main attendees of these concerts, enjoying the country’s newfound social changes.

Prince Mohammed attended the F1 race and so-cial media showed him taking selfi es with young Saudi men who lined up to meet the powerful heir to the throne. The F1 race marked the fi rst time the kingdom hosts the premier sporting event, though it has hosted the lesser known Formula-E race and other sporting events in past years in an effort to raise the country’s profi le as a tourist destination.

Bieber’s concert in Saudi Arabia comes shortly before he opens a world tour next year. The tour is being promoted by Live Nation, the company that owns Ticketmaster. Saudi Arabia’s state-owned sovereign wealth fund — steered by Prince Mohammed — is among the largest institutional holders in Live Nation, with a stake worth some $1.4 billion.

Also:MIAMI: R&B singer-songwriter Alicia Keys guid-ed a few hundred people at a small show in Mi-ami through a 10-minute meditation before asking them to make some choices.

Keys wanted concert goers gathering for an im-mersive exhibit on the eve of Art Basel Miami

Beach to listen to her new material, and then pick either the relaxing piano versions the Grammy-winning artist is best known for, or the more-produced tracks with a different beat for the same songs.“I say that’s even” said Keys, seemingly sur-prised after singing and then playing bits of “Is it Insane,” a jazzy and melancholic tune. The three songs she teased will appear on her new album, which is being released on Dec. 10 with two ver-sions she is calling “Originals” and “Unlocked,” produced by Mike WiLL Made-It.

Wearing a long tail yellow dress, Keys head-lined an experiential art show at Superblue Mi-ami, appearing as one of the main performers trekking down to Miami for the international art fair that runs from Thursday to Saturday.Rapper Tinie Tempah was among the artists attending the “secret” Alicia Keys concert at a dark space with sunfl owers were projected on the walls. The previous night celebrity attendees at a Louis Vuitton’s fashion show included Maluma, Pharrell and Joe Jonas.Keys and her husband, producer Swizz Beatz, are no strangers to the art fair, having supported struggling artists allowing them to keep 100 per-cent of their commissions from the show.One of the installations at the exhibit where Keys performed was by James Turrell and featured a room with the fl oor, walls and ceiling fully lit up in uniform neon colors that at times appeared fog-gy and made it diffi cult to discern where the room ended. There was also a maze of mirrors meant to resemble the respiratory system of trees.

During the meditation portion of the evening, Keys asked guests to inhale and exhale at the same pace as these mechanical fl owers that were hanging from the ceiling opened and closed. Keys said they looked like jelly fi sh in the ocean.

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People & Places

NEWS/FEATURESARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021

13

Art

Designer Abloh remembered

Rosalia, Lizzo end over the top Miami art weekMIAMI BEACH, Fla., Dec 6, (AP): The over-the-top parties and star-studded shows surrounding Miami’s Art Basel wrapped up this weekend with performances by Rosalia, Lizzo, Cardi B and rocker Lenny Kravitz.

The annual event, which was canceled last year dur-ing the pandemic, is an extension of the prestigious art show in Switzerland. But over the years, Miami has put its own spin on the affair, which has become

a magnet for celebrities. Eve-ryone from Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and Joe Jonas were spotted around town.

The highlight of the week was Louis Vuitton’s fi rst ever US fashion show Tuesday. But the lavish affair, where guests where ferried to an island by private yacht, turned into an emotional tribute after legend-ary 41-year-old designer Vir-gil Abloh died suddenly just

days before the show. Kid Cudi and Erykah Badu per-formed at an after-party where dozens of dancing red drones blazed the skyline to write “Virgil was here.”

Fashion brand Burberry and W magazine hosted a party attended by models Karlie Kloss and Candice Swanepoel, along with Camila Coelho, A$AP Ferg, and Meadow Walker.

Rosalia gave a surprise performance Friday night to celebrate Chanel’s iconic fragrance. The French fashion house partnered with artist Es Devlin for a multisensory sculptural installation that included a forest of over 1,000 plants and trees. Before the show, Chanel hosted a private dinner attended by Pharrell Maluma, Leon Bridges, Joe Jonas and songstress sis-ter trio HAIM.

The fashion brand’s Five Echoes installation is free and open to the public until Dec. 21.

Cardi B performed Saturday night to launch her new line of drink infused whipped cream. The rap-per sprayed Whipshots into the mouth of fans at The Goodtime Hotel. Offset, Mary J. Blige and Timbaland were among the guests. After the event, Cardi B and hubby Offset made their way to Hyde Beach at SLS South Beach for the MAXIM party where the couple danced as 112 performed its old-school hit “Peaches and Cream.” Karrueche, Austin Mahone and Taye Diggs were also in the crowd.

PerformanceAfter hours, over 500 fans lined up around the block

to get into rapper Meek Mill’s sold-out show at E11E-VEN. He didn’t take the stage until 3:30 a.m. Cardi B, Leonardo DiCaprio, Nina Agdal, Karrueche, Migos and Marshmello stayed for the late-night performance.

The offi cial Art Basel fair attracted 60,000 visi-tors this year, according to a statement, but thou-sands more attended various art shows all week. At Art Miami, a $4 million Banksy sale, a 10-year-old phenom painter and an 18 carat gold bagel avocado toast on sale for $2.9 million at Galerie Rother gener-ated buzz.

The ultra-futuristic Paramount Miami Worldcenter even partnered with artist Mr. Glue to host a scav-enger hunt for street trash transformed into valuable artworks.

And in a week where art often borders on the absurd — remember the infamous $120,000 b anana duct tape pieces — Miami’s DJ Khaled dropped “bling wings” topped with 24-karat gold dust and edible diamonds to promote his restaurant.

Rosalia

Main photo: Yo-Yo Ma plays the national anthem on his cello at the 44th Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 5. Inset, clockwise from top right: President Joe Biden pauses as he speaks during the Kennedy Center Honorees Reception at the White House in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 5; 2021 Kennedy Center honorees, (from left), Justino Dí az, Lorne Michaels, Joni Mitchell, Bette Midler, and Berry Gordy pose following the Medallion Ceremony and actress Scarlett Johansson (right) and singer Renée Fleming (left bottom) pose on the red carpet at the honors gala for the 44th Annual Kennedy

Center Honors, Sunday, Dec. 5, in Washington. (AP)

Bidens attend, draw sustained standing ovation

Kennedy Center Honors back againWASHINGTON, Dec 6, (AP): The Kennedy Center Honors returned to tradition this year with a real-life gala Sunday night and the presence of the president for the fi rst time since 2016.

The lifetime achievement awards for artistic excellence were presented to Motown Records creator Berry Gor-dy, “Saturday Night Live” mastermind Lorne Michaels, actress-singer Bette Midler, opera singer Justino Diaz and folk music legend Joni Mitchell.

This year’s event at the Kennedy Center’s main opera house represented a return to political normalcy, with President Joe Biden and fi rst lady Jill Biden attending.

President Donald Trump and fi rst lady Melania Trump skipped the show the fi rst three years he was in offi ce after several of the artists honored in 2017, his fi rst year in offi ce, threatened to boycott a White House reception if he participated. Last year, the pandem-ic forced a delay and major changes to the program.

The Bidens drew a sustained stand-ing ovation when they entered the presidential box at the opera house. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed the na-tional anthem and encouraged the au-dience to sing the fi nal lines together.

The theater was packed to capacity and there were no social distancing re-strictions, but vaccinations and recent negative COVID tests were required for all who attended.

The tributes featured testimonials and performances that were kept secret from the honorees. Mitchell’s tribute featured performances of her songs

by Nora Jones, Brandi Carlile, Ellie Goulding and Brittany Howard. Diaz was honored with a performance from the opera “Carmen” and a song from his two daughters, Katya and Natascia.

For Michaels, organizers put togeth-er three “Weekend Update” segments onstage with multiple generations of mock news anchors — Kevin Nealon, Seth Myers and Amy Poehler, and the current duo of Michel Che and Colin Jost. Che joked that Biden would be asleep before the end of the show and Poehler poked at the Toronto-born Michaels by proclaiming that Joni Mitchell had been declared “the best Canadian of all time.”

TestimonialsMidler received testimonials from

close friends Goldie Hawn and Bar-bara Hershey, and a performance by Tony Award winner Billy Porter of her iconic song, “The Wind Beneath My Wings.” Gordy’s career was cele-brated with performances of multiple Motown hits by Andra Day and Ste-vie Wonder and an extended tribute from close friend Smokey Robinson. The event ended with several of the night’s performers joining for a per-formance of Wonder’s hit “Higher Ground.”

Prior to the Kennedy Center event, Biden revived another tradition that had gone dormant under Trump and held a White House reception for the honorees.

“We welcome everyone back,” he told a crowd of about 150 seated in the East Room, decked out with Christmas trees and wreaths. Guests included

Vice President Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Caroline Ken-nedy, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Chita Rivera, Steve Martin and Herbie Han-cock.

“Our nation is stronger, more dy-namic and more vibrant because of you,” Biden told the honorees.

Biden praised the work of the art-ists, their “sixth sense” that helps them create and move so many people, say-ing: “I don’t think you fully appreciate what you do for so many people.”

He spoke of Diaz’s “sound of soul,” Gordy’s creation of “one of the most iconic businesses” in American history with Motown Records. With Michaels, he joked: “Finally, it’s my turn to say something about him,” poking fun at Michaels’ SNL show, which routinely mocks presidents, including the cur-rent commander in chief.

“You make me laugh at myself a lot,” Biden said, then went on to say Michaels was auditioning actors right now to play him next on SNL. Biden asked Steve Martin to stand as an example of the type of talent Michaels has cultivated over the past decades.

Martin paused and asked the presi-dent, “Do you want me to play you?” The crowd erupted in laughter.

Biden then professed his admiration for both Mitchell and Midler, telling Midler that “people will never forget how you make them feel. That’s your gift, it’s incredible.”

And lastly: “Joni. Your words and melodies touch the deepest parts of our soul,” Biden said.

Awards

Former Kennedy Center honoree Herbie Hancock and his wife, Gigi Hancock, pose on the red carpet at the Medallion Ceremony for the 44th Annual Kennedy Center Honors on Saturday, Dec. 4, at the Library of

Congress in Washington. (AP

Petrocelli Scott

HOUSTON: Several families of the 10 people who died from injuries in a massive crowd surge at the Astroworld festival have turned down an offer by headliner Travis Scott to pay for their loved ones’ funeral costs.

Attorneys for the families of four of the victims said that they received a letter from Scott’s attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, in which the offer was made.

In a letter sent Nov 24 to the attorneys for the family of 9-year-old Ezra Blount, Petrocelli said Scott extended his “deepest sympathies and condolences” to Ezra’s father, Treston Blount, and Scott had wanted to reach out personally “but does not wish to intrude on Mr Blount’s privacy during his time of grieving.”

Ezra was the youngest person to die from injuries suffered during Scott’s concert at the sold-out festival on Nov 5 that was attended by 50,000 people. The others who died ranged in age from 14 to 27. Some 300 people were treated at the festival site and 13 were hospitalized.

“Travis is devastated by the tragedy that occurred at the Astroworld Festival and grieves for the families whose loved ones died or were injured. Travis is committed to doing his part to help the families who have suffered and begin the long process of healing in the Houston community,” Petrocelli wrote.

In his reply, Robert Hilliard, an at-torney representing Treston Blount in a lawsuit against Scott, the concert promoter and others, declined the offer, saying that while he believes Scott feels remorse, Scott must see “that he bears some of the respon-sibility for this tragedy.”

“And perhaps one day, once time allows some healing for the victims and acceptance of responsibility by Mr Scott and others, Treston and Mr Scott might meet — as there is also healing in that,” Hilliard said. “For

Variety

Pharrrell Williams poses as he arrives for an event celebrating 100 years of the fragrance Chanel No. 5 during Miami Art Week, Friday, Dec. 3, in the Design

District neighborhood of Miami. (AP)

now, Mr Scott must respect the fact that his pain and his devastation pale to Treston’s, Ezra’s mom, and the other victims.” (AP)

❑ ❑ ❑

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va: A special grand jury found that a Virginia Beach police officer was justified in fatally shooting a Black man armed with a gun during a

chaotic night of violence on the city’s oceanfront this spring, authorities has said.

The death of Donovon Lynch has drawn heightened scrutiny because he is a cousin of Virginia Beach native and Grammy win-ning musician Pharrell Williams. Lynch’s father also fi led a $50 million wrong-ful death lawsuit against police Offi cer Solomon D. Simmons, who is also Black, and the city of Virginia Beach for allegedly failing to train its offi cers.

During a two-hour news conference, the city’s prosecutors said Simmons was justi-fi ed in protecting himself and others in the moments after Lynch racked a round into his handgun’s chamber and stood — point-ing his weapon toward a parking lot fi lled with multiple people and police.

Prosecutors said Lynch began to turn toward Simmons, who yelled something at Lynch. However, Simmons never explicitly stated that Lynch pointed the gun directly at him, prosecutor’s said.

“There were numerous people in that parking lot when Offi cer Simmons saw Mr Lynch starting to come up with the fi rearm,” Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney Colin Stolle said. ”So it is not only just whether the weapon was pointed at Offi cer Simmons. It was also -- are the people in the parking lot at risk?” (AP)

SPORTSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021

14

Hosts beat Black Caps by 372 runs

India pound New Zealand in 2nd Test to clinch seriesMUMBAI, Dec 6, (AP): Jayant Yadav took three wickets in six deliveries Monday as India beat New Zealand by 372 runs in the second test at Mumbai to win the two-match series 1-0.

India mopped up the New Zealand lower order within 40 minutes of play on day four at the Wankhede Stadium. Chasing a mammoth 540, the Black Caps were bowled out for 167 in 56.3 overs.

Ravichandran Ashwin fi nished with 4-34, while Jayant Yadav took 4-49. Axar Patel added 1-42 as India needed just 11.3 overs to complete the for-

malities, fully avenging its loss to New Zealand in the fi nal of the World Test Championship.

“We discussed our performance in the Kanpur test. There was more bounce here and the fast bowlers got assistance as well,” India captain Vi-rat Kohli said. “So it gave us a better chance to win this test. “The aim is to take Indian cricket forward, working with the new team management. South Africa is a good challenge and we want to win there as a team.”

It was the largest victory for India by runs in test cricket. Their previous best margin was 337 runs against South Af-rica in Delhi in 2015. It was also New Zealand’s biggest test defeat by runs, eclipsing their 358-run loss to South Africa in Johannesburg (2007).

Resuming at 140-5, New Zealand lost its last fi ve wickets for 27 runs. Henry Nicholls (44) and Rachin Ravin-dra (18) added 22 of those Monday. Overall they put on 33 runs for the sixth wicket.

Ravindra was out caught off Yadav in the 52nd over. Two overs later, he trapped Kyle Jamieson (0) lbw and then bowled Tim Southee for a duck two balls later.

New Zealand slumped from 162-5 to 165-8 in the space of 12 deliveries. Yadav then also got rid of Will Som-merville (1).

Ashwin completed the win for India as Nicholls was stumped in the 12th over of the morning. The off-spinner was named man of the series.

“I enjoyed playing here at Wankhede honestly,” Ashwin said. “Every day there was something new and I could challenge both edges.”

He praised the “wonderful perfor-mance” of New Zealand spinner Ajaz Patel who took 10 wickets in the fi rst innings and 14 in the match.

“It doesn’t spin all the time in Wankhede and he used the seam and put the ball in the right places. There was a bit of destiny involved in his 10-for too. “I would like to go to South Af-rica and win a series there. We haven’t done that before, and hopefully we can do it this time.”

India scored 325 and 276-7 and took control of the match on Saturday after bowling New Zealand out for 62 in the fi rst innings.

Members of the Indian team pose with the winners trophy after their win on the day four of their second test cricket match with New Zealand in Mumbai, India, on Dec 6. (AP)

CRICKET

Blackhawks win in SO, hand Islanders’ 11th straight loss

Lightning rout Flyers

NEW YORK, Dec 6, (AP): Patrick Kane scored the only goal in the shootout and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Islanders 3-2, sending New York to its 11th straight loss overall and its sixth straight setback its new arena.

Kane beat Semyon Varlamov with Chica-go’s second shootout attempt, and Marc-Andre Fleury denied all three chances by the Islanders to secure the win.

The Islanders tied the game at 2-all with four seconds left in the third period on a goal by defenseman Noah Dobson.

Brandon Hagel and Dylan Strome scored in regula-tion for Chicago. Fleury fi nished with 22 saves.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau also scored for the Islanders, who earned a point for the third straight game but fell to

0-8-3 in their losing streak. Their last three losses have been in overtime or shootouts after eight-straight regu-lation losses. Varlamov fi nished with 24 saves.

Lightning 7, Flyers 1In Philadelphia, Corey Perry had two goals and an

assist and Ryan McDonagh scored and had two assists to lead Tampa Bay over slumping Philadelphia.

Mathieu Joseph, Taylor Raddysh, Boris Katchouk and Pat Maroon also scored for the Lightning, who won their third in a row and ninth of their last 12. Victor Hedman had three assists to boost his team-leading total to 21. Brian Elliott, Tampa Bay’s backup goalie who played the previous four seasons with the Flyers, made 38 saves.

Jets 6, Maple Leafs 3In Winnipeg, Manitoba, Blake Wheeler had two assists

in his 1,000th NHL game and Connor Hellebuyck made 32 saves, leading Winnipeg past Toronto. Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Copp, Evgeny Svechnikov, Kyle Con-nor, Nikolaj Ehlers and Mark Scheifele scored, and Hel-lebuyck earned his ninth win of the season for Winnipeg.

Michael Bunting, Auston Matthews and Ondrej Kase scored for Toronto. Joseph Woll stopped 35 shots.

Golden Knights 3, Flames 2In Las Vegas, Evgenii Dadonov scored his seventh

goal of the season and Vegas beat Calgary.Less than two minutes after Calgary’s Elias Lind-

holm cut the Golden Knights’ 2-0 lead in half, Dadonov responded by smacking a rebound past Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom to give Vegas a 3-1 lead.

Max Pacioretty and Nicolas Roy also scored for the Golden Knights. Robin Lehner made 23 saves.

Kings 5, Oilers 1In Edmonton, Alberta, Adrian Kempe scored a pair

of goals and Los Angeles snapped a two-game skid with a win over Edmonton.

Rasmus Kupari, Drew Doughty and Trevor Moore

also scored for the Kings. Doughty added two assists, and Jonathan Quick made 21 saves.

Blue Jackets 6, Sharks 4In Columbus, Ohio, Adam Boqvist scored twice, An-

drew Peeke had two assists and Columbus snapped a four-game losing streak with a come-from-behind win over San Jose.

Sean Kuraly, Cole Sillinger, Jack Roslevic and Al-exandre Texier scored and Elvis Merzlikins stopped 30 shots as Columbus won its fourth straight home game.

New York Rangers center Ryan Strome (16) skates against Chicago Blackhawks left wing Henrik Borgstrom (13) during the third period of an NHL hockey game on Dec 4, at Madison

Square Garden in New York. (AP)

Italy’s Sofi a Goggia celebrates her victory follow-ing the women’s World Cup Super-G ski race at

Lake Louise, Alberta, on Dec 5. (AP)

Goggia dominates super-G, goes 3 for 3 in Lake LouiseLAKE LOUISE, Alberta, Dec 6, (AP): Sofi a Gog-gia captured a World Cup super-G to go 3 for 3 in races at Lake Louise. The 29-year-old Italian fi nished in 1 minute, 18.28 seconds on a cold day to beat Swiss racer Lara

Gut-Behrami by 0.11 seconds. Mirjam Puchner of Austria, starting 29th overall, fi nished in third place, while two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin wound up in sixth place as she rounds into form after dealing with a back ailment.

SKIING

NHL Results/Standings

WASHINGTON, Dec 6, (AP): Results and standings from the NHL games on Sunday.Columbus 6 San Jose 4Tampa Bay 7 Philadelphia 1Chicago 3 NY Islanders (SO) 2

Los Angeles 5 Edmonton 1Winnipeg 6 Toronto 3Vegas 3 Calgary 2

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GAFlorida 24 17 4 3 37 93 67Toronto 26 17 7 2 36 80 62Tampa Bay 24 15 5 4 34 81 65Detroit 25 13 9 3 29 71 78Boston 21 12 8 1 25 61 56Buffalo 24 8 13 3 19 70 90Montreal 26 6 17 3 15 59 93Ottawa 22 6 15 1 13 57 86

Metropolitan Division GP W L OT Pts GF GAWashington 25 15 4 6 36 88 62NY Rangers 23 16 4 3 35 68 57Carolina 23 16 6 1 33 75 52Pittsburgh 24 11 8 5 27 69 67Columbus 23 13 10 0 26 76 75New Jersey 22 9 9 4 22 65 76Philadelphia 22 8 10 4 20 51 72NY Islanders 20 5 10 5 15 38 61

Western ConferenceCentral Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GAMinnesota 24 17 6 1 35 92 71Winnipeg 24 12 8 4 28 74 68St Louis 24 12 8 4 28 80 70Nashville 24 13 10 1 27 68 68Colorado 21 12 7 2 26 85 71Dallas 21 12 7 2 26 60 58Chicago 24 9 13 2 20 54 75Arizona 24 5 17 2 12 43 89

Pacifi c Division GP W L OT Pts GF GACalgary 25 15 5 5 35 81 52Edmonton 23 16 7 0 32 86 70Anaheim 25 13 8 4 30 84 74Vegas 24 14 10 0 28 82 73San Jose 25 13 11 1 27 66 68Los Angeles 23 10 9 4 24 64 63Seattle 24 9 13 2 20 72 84Vancouver 25 8 15 2 18 60 80

Note: Two points for a win one point for overtime loss. Top three teams in each division and two wild cards per con-ference advance to playoffs.

Kanaya gets Masters spot

Hovland rallies to captureHero World Challenge titleNASSAU, Bahamas, Dec 6, (AP): Viktor Hovland made consecutive eagles and closed with consecutive bogeys while overcoming a six-shot deficit to win the Hero World Challenge and keep Collin Morikawa from reaching No. 1 in the world.

So wild was this final round of the year for golf’s elite that Morikawa, who started the day with a five-shot lead, wasn’t even a factor over the last hour at Albany Golf Club.

Hovland closed with a 6-under 66 in his debut at a holiday event that was filled with pure chaos involving eagles and triple bogeys, none more bizarre than Jordan Spieth hitting his drive on the ninth hole from what was a new 17th tee for the final round.

Ultimately, this was about another 24-year-old star in the making adding to a big year. It just wasn’t the one so many expected.

Morikawa, the British Open cham-pion and first American to be No. 1 on the European Tour, missed three birdie chances from 10 feet or closer at the start of the round and then went side-ways with two shots into the bushes at Nos. 4 and 6 that led to double bogeys and a 41 on the front nine.

He closed with a 76 and tied for fifth. A victory would have made him the 25th player to reach No. 1 in the world since the ranking began in 1986. That still belongs to U.S. Open cham-pion Jon Rahm, who didn’t play this week.

Scottie Scheffler started seven shots behind, made a triple bogey on the fourth hole, and still rallied for a 66 to finish one shot behind.

In Tokyo, Hideto Tanihara closed with a 1-under 69 to finish the double season on the Japan Golf Tour with a two-shot victory over Yusaku Miyazato in the Golf Nippon Series JT Cup.

Tanihara won for the second time in

three weeks, giving him 16 career titles in Japan.

Takumi Kanaya, the former world No. 1 amateur, birdied the the 18th hole to finish alone in third. The result is projected to be enough for him to finish the year at No. 50 in the world and earn a spot in the Masters.

That would give three former Asia-Pacific Amateur champions a spot at Augusta National, along with Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama and top-ranked amateur Keita Nakajima.

Chan Kim, who played at Arizona State, won the Order of Merit that was determined over the 2020 and 2021 seasons because of the pandemic.

Other Tours: Daniel van Tonder birdied the par-5 closing hole for a 7-under 65 and a one-shot victory over hard-charging Oliver Bekker in the South African Open Championship. Bekker birdied his last three holes for a 66 at Gary Player Country Club. ... Jorge Fernandez Valdes shot 2-under 70 for a three-shot victory in the Argentine Open, earning a spot in the British Open at St. Andrews next sum-mer.

Viktor Hovland of Norway holds the championship trophy after the fi nal round of the Hero World Challenge PGA Tour at the Albany Golf Club, in New Providence, Bahamas, on

Dec 5. (AP)

GOLF

ICE HOCKEY

MADRID, Dec 6, (AP): Russia’s 15-year wait for a Davis Cup title ended after another clutch performance from Daniil Medvedev.

Medvedev capped his amazing year with a 7-6 (7), 6-2 win over Marin Cil-ic in the second singles match to give Russia an insurmountable 2-0 lead over Croatia and its fi rst Davis Cup ti-tle since 2006.

“It feels amazing,” Medvedev said. “But I’m more happy for the team than for myself. We have an amazing team, amazing atmosphere. I’m happy to be part of it and bring the points we need.”

It was the fi fth consecutive straight-set victory in the Davis Cup for the No. 2 Medvedev, who three months ago de-feated Novak Djokovic to win the US. Open for his fi rst Grand Slam title.

“Pretty amazing two weeks,” Med-vedev said. “It’s never easy to come here at the end of the season but they were some of the best weeks of my ca-reer.”

Andrey Rublev earlier had beaten Borna Gojo in straight sets to put the Russians ahead at the Madrid Arena.

Russia’s other Davis Cup title was in 2002. Croatia also was seeking its third title after triumphs in 2005 and 2018.

“I still can be proud with the ef-fort,” Cilic said. “We are just sorry we couldn’t get one point to get the dou-bles guys in the court.”

The doubles, where Croatia has the top-ranked pair, were not played.

Russia, which had four top-30 play-ers on its team, completed a sweep of team events after the women’s team won the Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Prague last month. The last nation to do the double had been the Czech Repub-

lic in 2012.The triumph also capped a special

week for Russia captain Shamil Tarp-ischev, the longest-serving Davis Cup captain. He fi rst captained in 1974, and appeared in his 100th match as captain in the semifi nals against Germany.

The Russian team is offi cially being called RTF (Russian Tennis Federa-tion) in the competition amid its ongo-ing doping suspension in international sport.

After a tight fi rst set, Medvedev broke serve twice in the second against the 30th-ranked Cilic to comfortably clinch the victory.

“It was a tough match all day long,” the 25-year-old Medvedev said. “The tiebreak is a matter of a few points. I made a double-fault on the set point that was probably a big mistake, but I’m happy that today it was enough to win. It was a really tough match.”

Rublev had converted on his fi rst match point to clinch a 6-4, 7-6 (5) win over Gojo, who arrived at the Davis Cup Finals as the 279th-ranked player but had won all his three matches.

It was the third consecutive victory for the fi fth-ranked Rublev after a loss against Spain’s Feliciano López in the group stage.

Gojo had no break opportunities throughout the match against Rublev, who converted one of his eight to grab the fi rst set and eventually clinch the win in the second-set tiebreaker.

Croatia got past Serbia and the top-ranked Novak Djokovic in the semifi -nals, while Russia ousted Germany.

The Russians won a group that included defending champion Spain and Ecuador, then advanced past Sweden in the quarterfinals. Croatia won a group with Australia and Hun-gary, then defeated Italy in the last eight.

CORVALLIS, Ore., Dec 6, (AP): Bennedict Mathurin scored 29 points and No. 11 Arizona beat Oregon State 90-65.

Christian Koloko added 12 points for the Wildcats (7-0, 1-0 Pac-12).

Jerod Lucas scored 17 points to lead the Bea-vers (1-8, 0-2), who haven’t won since their opener against Portland State.

A r i z o n a fell behind 13-7 early, re-sponded with a 16-0 run and steadily pulled away, never re-linquishing the lead. Oregon State got within six points early in the second half, but a layup by Azuolas Tubelis made it 52-41 with 17:13 left and the Beavers didn’t get

within 10 points the rest of the way.Kerr Kriisa fi nished with 11 points

for Arizona and Tubelis scored 10.Ohio St 76, Penn St 64

In University Park, Pa., Kyle Young scored 16 points, E.J. Liddell added 14 points and Ohio State beat Penn State 76-64 in a Big Ten opener for both teams.

Ohio State made seven 3-pointers in the opening 10 minutes of the game.

Six different Buckeyes made a 3 dur-ing the spree for a 27-19 lead, and Ohio State led 41-30 at halftime after going 7 of 16 from distance.

Arizona St 69, Oregon 67, OTIn Eugene, Ore., DJ Horne scored 23

points, Jay Heath hit a 3-pointer in the closing seconds of overtime and Ari-zona State beat Oregon 69-67 to snap a fi ve-game skid.

STORRS, Conn., Dec 6, (AP): UConn won its rivalry game against Notre Dame but may have lost last year’s na-tional player of the year to a knee injury in the process.

Paige Bueckers scored 22 points be-fore going down with just seconds left in No. 2 UConn’s 73-54 victory over No. 24 Notre Dame.

Bueckers was dribbling up the court in the fi nal minute of this one when she stumbled, twisting her ankle and com-ing down awkwardly on her left leg. She went to the fl oor a few seconds later and had to be carried off the court.

Coach Geno Auriemma said the ex-tent of the injury won’t be known until scans are completed on Monday.

N.C. State 78, Elon 46In Raleigh, N.C., Jada Boyd scored

17 points and North Carolina State beat Elon for its eighth straight win.

N.C. State (8-1) shot 51% from the fi eld and hit nine 3-pointers, two off of a season high.

Maryland 74, Rutgers 59In Piscataway, N.J., Angel Reese

scored 18 points to lead Maryland over Rutgers.

Katie Benzan added 15 points, Chloe Bibby had 14 and Ashley Owusu 12 for Maryland (7-2, 1-0 Big Ten).

Louisville 80, Belmont 66In Louisville, Ky., Hailey Van Lith

scored 16 points and Louisville beat Belmont.

Louisville (7-1) shot better than 50% (54%) for the third time this season.

Nine players scored for the Cardinals, with six getting at least eight points.

Tennessee 64, Virginia Tech 58In Blacksburg, Va., Sara Puckett

scored 15 points off the bench and led a decisive scoring run in the fourth quarter as Tennessee beat Virginia Tech.

Tennessee (8-0) trailed 55-48 with six minutes remaining in the fourth

quarter before going on a 12-0 run to build a 60-55 lead with two minutes left.

SPORTSARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021

15

The Russian Tennis Federation team celebrate with the trophy after winning the Davis Cup tennis final at the Madrid Arena in Madrid, Spain, on Dec 5. (AP)

Utah survives Cavaliers’ latesurge for 4th straight victoryHornets top Hawks

CLEVELAND, Dec 6, (AP): Donovan Mitchell scored 35 points, Rudy Gobert had 20 rebounds and fi ve blocks and the Utah Jazz survived Cleve-land’s late surge for their fourth straight win, 109-108 over the Cavaliers.

Bojan Bogdanovic added 16 points and Rudy Gay had 15 for Utah, which made 20 3-pointers and gave away a 15-point lead in the fourth.

The Cavs had a chance to win, but Darius Garland missed a 28-footer with 2.9 seconds to go, and Jarrett Allen couldn’t get his tip to drop as Cleveland had its winning streak stopped at four.

Garland scored 31 points, Allen

added 17 points and 11 rebounds and rookie Evan Mobley had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Cavs, who were back at home after beating Dal-las, Miami and Washington. It was the fi rst time since 1975 that the Cavs won three straight on the road over teams with winning records.

Hornets 130, Hawks 127In Atlanta, Miles Bridges scored 32

points for a short-handed Charlotte team that leaned on its best 3-point shooting game of the season to beat Atlanta/

Kelly Oubre Jr. made six 3s and scored 28 points for Charlotte. The Hornets made a season-high 17 3s.

John Collins led Atlanta with a sea-son-best 31 points and 12 rebounds.

The four Charlotte players held out after being placed in the NBA’s health and safety COVID-19 protocols were leading scorer LaMelo Ball, start-ing guard Terry Rozier, center Mason Plumlee and forward Jalen McDaniels. They’ll be sidelined for at least 10 days.

Wizards 102, Raptors 90In Toronto, Pascal Siakam scored

31 points, Precious Achiuwa had 10 points and 14 rebounds, and Toronto beat Washington on Sunday night.

Chris Boucher scored 14 points, Scottie Barnes had 11, and Fred Van-Vleet 10 to help the Raptors win back-to-back games for the fi rst time since a fi ve-game winning streak from Oct. 27 to Nov. 3.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored a season-high 26 points and Brad-ley Beal had 14 for the Wizards, who couldn’t dig out of a hole after shooting poorly in the fi rst quarter.

Rockets 118, Pelicans 108In Houston, Eric Gordon and Chris-

tian Wood both scored 23 points, and Houston beat New Orleans for its sixth straight win.

Brandon Ingram scored a season-high 40 points for the Pelicans, which was his most since dropping 40 against Brooklyn on Nov 4, 2019. Jonas Val-anciunas fi nished with 17 points and 10 rebounds for New Orleans.

Houston’s Daniel Theis netted 12 points on 4 of 6 shooting from the fi eld, and Alperen Sengun fi nished with 10 points.

TENNIS

BASKETBALL

BASKETBALL

BASKETBALL

Medvedev-led Russia winDavis Cup after 15-yr wait

NBA Results/Standings

WASHINGTON, Dec 6, (AP): Results and standings from the NBA games on Sunday.

Utah 109 Cleveland 108Charlotte 130 Atlanta 127

Toronto 102 Washington 90Houston 118 New Orleans 108

Eastern ConferenceAtlantic Division

W L Pct GBBrooklyn 16 7 .696 —Boston 13 11 .542 3-1/2Philadelphia 12 11 .522 4New York 11 12 .478 5Toronto 11 13 .458 5-1/2

Southeast Division W L Pct GBMiami 14 10 .583 —Washington 14 10 .583 —Charlotte 14 11 .560 -1/2Atlanta 12 12 .500 2Orlando 5 19 .208 9

Central Division W L Pct GBChicago 16 8 .667 —Milwaukee 15 9 .625 1Cleveland 13 11 .542 3Indiana 9 16 .360 7-1/2Detroit 4 18 .182 11

Western ConferenceSouthwest Division

W L Pct GBMemphis 13 10 .565 —Dallas 11 11 .500 1-1/2San Antonio 8 13 .381 4Houston 7 16 .304 6New Orleans 7 19 .269 7-1/2

Northwest Division W L Pct GBUtah 16 7 .696 —Denver 11 11 .500 4-1/2Minnesota 11 12 .478 5Portland 11 13 .458 5-1/2Oklahoma City 6 16 .273 9-1/2

Pacifi c Division W L Pct GBGolden State 19 4 .826 —Phoenix 19 4 .826 —LA Clippers 12 12 .500 7-1/2LA Lakers 12 12 .500 7-1/2Sacramento 10 14 .417 9-1/2

Michigan 93, Akron 54In Ann Arbor, Mich., Emily Kiser

scored a season-high 19 points and Naz Hillmon added 18 points and fi ve as-sists as Michigan steamrolled Akron.

The Wolverines (8-1) rebounded from their fi rst loss of the season, 70-48 to No. 10 Louisville in the Big Ten/ACC challenge. Michigan opened the game on a 25-4 run.

Iowa State 94, Longwood 56In Ames, Iowa, Aubrey Joens had

career highs of 24 points and 14 re-bounds and older sister Ashley Joens had 16 points and 12 rebounds as Iowa State beat Longwood.

The Cyclones (8-1) bounced back from their fi rst loss, to LSU, as they prepare to host No. 9 Iowa.

Texas 76, Texas A&M 60In College Station, Texas, Aliyah

Matharu scored 26 points, draining fi ve 3-pointers and leading Texas past Tex-as A&M in an all-Lone Star version of the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

Texas A&M’s eight-game win streak ended and Longhorns coach Vic Schaefer got a win in what is likely a fi nal meeting with former boss Gary Blair, who announced he’s planning to retire after this season. Schaefer is 9-11 against his mentor.

Kentucky 90, Merrimack 56In Lexington, Ky., Rhyne Howard

had 21 points, seven assists, six re-bounds and a season-high six steals, and Kentucky beat Merrimack.

Dre’Una Edwards fi nished with 17 points and 11 rebounds, Jazmine Mas-sengill had 13 points and eight assists, and Robyn Benton scored 12 points for Kentucky (6-1).

Ohio State 70, Purdue 53In west Lafayette, Ind., Taylor

Mikesell and Braxtin Miller scored 16 points each and Ohio State dominated the fourth quarter to beat Purdue in the Big Ten opener for both teams.

Rebeka Mikulasikova had 13 points and eight rebounds and Jacy Sheldon scored 12 points for Ohio State (6-1). Mikesell added 10 rebounds and fi ve assists.

Ga. Tech 55, Georgia 54In Athens, Ga., Nerea Hermosa

scored 14 points, including the winning free throws with 8.8 seconds left, and Georgia Tech upended Georgia.

After Hermosa’s free throws put the Yellow Jackets up 55-51, Sarah Ash-lee Barker knocked down a 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds left. Hermosa then missed two free throws, but Que Mor-rison missed a contested attempt at the buzzer.

Florida St 83, C. Southern 32In Tallahassee, Fla., Morgan Jones

scored 16 points with eight rebounds as Florida State thumped Charleston Southern.

Jones has scored in double fi gures in seven straight games for the Seminoles (6-2), who are 5-0 at home. Valencia Myers added 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting and River Baldwin scored 13.

N. C. State routs Elon 78-46 for 8th win in row

UConn women crush Notre Dame

Connecticut’s Olivia Nelson-Ododa (20) reacts after making a basket while fouled in the fi rst half of an NCAA college basketball game against Notre Dame on Dec 5, in

Storrs, Conn. (AP)

Ohio State opens Big Ten with win

Mathurin drops 29, ralliesArizona past Oregon State

Mathurin

Utah Jazz’s Jordan Clarkson (00) drives to the basket again Cleveland Cavaliers’ Evan Mobley (4) in the first half of an NBA basketball game, on

Dec. 5, in Cleveland. (AP)

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ARAB TIMES, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2021 16

SportsPittsburgh Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth (88) makes a catch as Baltimore Ravens free safety Brandon Stephens (21) defends during the second half of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh. (AP)

CARDINALS IMPROVE TO 7-0 ON ROAD, CHIEFS EARN 5TH STRAIGHT WIN

Lions end winless ‘run’; Buccaneers on brink of clinching NFC South titleSteelers pip Ravens

DETROIT, Dec 6, (AP): The Lions fi nally found a victory when Jared Goff threw an 11-yard touch-down pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown as time expired, lifting previously winless Detroit to a 29-27 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.

Not only was the fi nish dramatic, it was stunning. Goff led the Lions on a 75-yard decisive possession without a timeout after Kirk Cous-ins threw a go-ahead 3-yard touch-down pass to Justin Jefferson with 1:50 left. The Vikings failed on a 2-point conversion for the third time; those missed opportunities proved costly.

Goff threw two touchdown passes in the fi rst half to put Detroit ahead by 14 points, its biggest lead this season. Then he turned over the ball twice in the sec-ond half to help Minnesota rally.

He came through in the end, leading the long drive and delivering a sharp pass to the rookie receiver, who took ad-vantage of the Vikings secondary play-ing too deep in the end zone.

Cardinals 33, Bears 22In Chicago, Kyler Murray threw for

two touchdowns and ran for two more in his return from an ankle injury.

The Cardinals (10-2) got back Mur-ray and three-time All-Pro receiver DeAndre Hopkins after both players missed three games because of injuries, then rolled to an easy victory over Chi-cago (4-8). The NFC West leaders, who have the NFL’s best record, intercepted Andy Dalton four times.

The Cardinals, who were coming off a bye, improved to 7-0 on the road, with each win by 10 points or more.

Jalen Thompson and Budda Baker picked off passes that defl ected off the intended target on Chicago’s fi rst two possessions. The Cardinals took advan-tage.

Buccaneers 30, Falcons 17In Atlanta ,Tom Brady threw for

368 yards and four touchdowns - two of them to longtime favorite target Rob Gronkowski - and the Buccaneers moved to the brink of clinching the NFC South title.

The Bucs (9-3) won their third straight game and pushed their division lead to four games over Atlanta, Caro-lina and New Orleans (all 5-7) with fi ve games remaining.

Brady improved to 10-0 in his ca-reer against the Falcons, including four straight wins over the last two seasons since moving from New England to Tampa Bay. The 44-year-old Brady completed 38 of 51 throws, includ-ing touchdowns of 27 and 11 yards to Gronkowski - their fi rst scoring passes since Week 2 against the Falcons.

Steelers 20, Ravens 19In Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh thwarted a

2-point conversion attempt after Lamar Jackson’s touchdown pass to Sammy Watkins got the Ravens within one with 12 seconds to go.

Rather than turn to star kicker Justin Tucker for an almost automatic 35-yard extra point, the Ravens (8-4) went for the knockout punch. Baltimore tight end Mark Andrews couldn’t haul in a fl ip by Jackson. The Steelers (6-5-1) recovered an onside kick to seal it.

Pittsburgh ended a three-game win-less streak behind the 39th fourth-quarter comeback engineered by Ben Roeth-lisberger. The 39-year-old quarterback threw for 236 yards and two second-half touchdowns to Diontae Johnson, the fi nal one a 5-yard catch-and-run with 1:48 to play that gave the Steelers a 20-13 lead.

Chiefs 22, Broncos 9In Kansas City, the resurgent Kansas

City defense shut down Teddy Bridge-water and Denver, Daniel Sorenson returned an interception 75 yards for a touchdown, and the Chiefs won their fi fth straight.

Patrick Mahomes had 184 yards pass-ing with a touchdown run and an inter-ception for the Chiefs (8-4), who now lead the Chargers by a game and the Broncos and Raiders by two in their race for a sixth straight AFC West champi-onship.

Things went haywire for the Bron-cos early in the game, when a 20-play drive ended with a failed fourth-down play rather than an easy fi eld goal. And

New York City FC celebrates after winning the Eastern Conference Championship following an MLS playoff soccer match against the Philadelphia Union in Chester, Pa. (AP)

Heinicke threw a 7-yard TD pass to Logan Thomas on the opening drive and a 4-yarder to Antonio Gibson early in the fourth quarter after extending the drive with a key third-down scramble.

But Washington (6-6) then allowed the Raiders (6-6) to score on successive drives to take a 15-14 lead on Daniel Carlson’s 37-yard fi eld goal set up by Nate Hobbs’ interception of Heinicke.

Rams 37, Jaguars 7In Inglewood, Cooper Kupp, Van

Jefferson and Odell Beckham Jr. caught touchdown passes from Matthew Staf-ford, and the Rams snapped their three-game losing streak.

Stafford passed for 295 yards while Sony Michel rushed for 121 yards and a score for the Rams (8-4), who rebounded from a winless No-vember with a sol-id all-around effort against a strug-gling opponent. Kupp had his 100th reception of a remarkable season among his eight catches for 129 yards.

Stafford also snapped back into form, playing turnover-free football after giv-ing the ball away six times during the three-game skid that threatened to derail the Rams’ playoff plans. Los Angeles still has never lost four straight in coach Sean McVay’s half-decade in charge.

Chargers 41, Bengals 22In Cincinnati, Justin Herbert passed

for three touchdowns and Tevaughn Campbell returned a Joe Mixon fumble 61 yards for a score.

Herbert was 26 of 35 for 317 yards as Los Angeles (7-5) bounced back nicely after losing 28-13 at Denver last week-end. Mike Williams had fi ve receptions for 110 yards, and Keenan Allen caught two of Herbert’s TD passes.

Cincinnati (7-5) stormed back after falling behind 24-0 in the second quarter. Mixon’s 7-yard TD run made it 24-22 with 7:10 left in the third. But Mixon was stuffed on the 2-point conversion try and Campbell’s fumble return in the fourth helped close it out for Los Angeles.

Eagles 33, Jets 18In East Rutherford, Gardner Minsh-

ew started in place of an injured Jalen Hurts and led the clock-eating Philadel-phia Eagles to scores on their fi rst seven possessions.

Minshew was 20 of 25 for 242 yards and two touchdowns to Dallas Goedert. Kenneth Gainwell ran for a score, Jake Elliott kicked four fi eld goals and the Eagles (6-7) improved to 12-0 all-time against the Jets (3-9).

With Hurts out with an ankle in-jury, Philadelphia bounced back from a 13-7 loss to the Giants last weekend at MetLife Stadium to slice through the Jets’ defense drive after drive. The only possession on which the Eagles didn’t score was their last.

But the win might have come at a cost as running back Miles Sanders left in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury after running for 120 yards on 24 car-ries. Center Jason Kelce also limped off the fi eld at the two-minute warning.

Dolphins 20, Giants 9In Miami, Tua Tagovailoa threw a

pair of short touchdown passes, and the Dolphins extended their winning streak to fi ve games.

Isaiah Ford and Mack Hollins had the scoring grabs for Miami (6-7), which has shaken off a 1-7 start. Jaylen Wad-dle had nine catches for 90 yards for the Dolphins, and rookie Jaelan Phillips had two more sacks - giving him fi ve in his past two games.

Tagovailoa completed 30 of 41 pass-es for 244 yards and the two scores.

Mike Glennon started at quarterback for the Giants (4-8) in place of Daniel Jones, who was sidelined with a neck injury. Glennon completed 23 of 44 throws for 187 yards, and Saquon Bar-kley had 55 rushing yards on 11 carries.

Glennon fi nished the game, and the team said he was diagnosed postgame with a concussion.

Colts 31,Texans 0In Houston, Jonathan Taylor ran for

143 yards and two touchdowns and the Colts rolled.

The Texans turned over the ball twice in the fi rst quarter and quarterback Ty-rod Taylor was benched in the third quarter as Houston (2-10) lost for the ninth time in 10 games.

Indianapolis’ Taylor, who leads the NFL in yards rushing, has 16 rushing touchdowns this season, which ties the franchise record set by Lenny Moore in 1964. It’s the 10th straight game when he’s ran for a touchdown, the longest streak in the NFL since LaDainian Tom-linson did it in 18 straight in the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

NFL Results/Standings

WASHINGTON, Dec 6, (AP): NFL results and standings on Sunday.Arizona 33 Chicago 22Detroit 29 Minnesota 27Indianapolis 31 Houston 0LA Chargers 41 Cincinnati 22Miami 20 NY Giants 9Philadelphia 33 NY Jets 18Tampa Bay 30 Atlanta 17LA Rams 37 Jacksonville 7Washington 17 Las Vegas 15Pittsburgh 20 Baltimore 19Seattle 30 San Francisco 23Kansas City 22 Denver 9

American ConferenceEast

W L T Pct PF PANew England 8 4 0 .667 336 190Buffalo 7 4 0 .636 326 182Miami 6 7 0 .462 254 288NY Jets 3 9 0 .250 217 367

South W L T Pct PF PATennessee 8 4 0 .667 304 290Indianapolis 7 6 0 .538 371 283Houston 2 10 0 .167 164 323Jacksonville 2 10 0 .167 180 320

North W L T Pct PF PABaltimore 8 4 0 .667 282 260Cincinnati 7 5 0 .583 331 267Pittsburgh 6 5 1 .542 244 286Cleveland 6 6 0 .500 254 267West W L T Pct PF PAKansas City 8 4 0 .667 303 259LA Chargers 7 5 0 .583 314 315Denver 6 6 0 .500 237 218Las Vegas 6 6 0 .500 274 312

National ConferenceEast

W L T Pct PF PADallas 8 4 0 .667 353 267Washington 6 6 0 .500 246 297Philadelphia 6 7 0 .462 337 291NY Giants 4 8 0 .333 211 273

South W L T Pct PF PATampa Bay 9 3 0 .750 377 270Atlanta 5 7 0 .417 216 332Carolina 5 7 0 .417 236 253New Orleans 5 7 0 .417 274 276

North W L T Pct PF PAGreen Bay 9 3 0 .750 283 242Minnesota 5 7 0 .417 308 305Chicago 4 8 0 .333 201 287Detroit 1 10 1 .125 203 316

West W L T Pct PF PAArizona 10 2 0 .833 343 224LA Rams 8 4 0 .667 336 270San Francisco 6 6 0 .500 303 278Seattle 4 8 0 .333 239 249

British vet, Verstappen level on points

Hamilton wins Saudi Arabian GPJEDDAH, Dec 6, (AP): The increas-ingly tense Formula One title fi ght between defending champion Lewis Hamilton and his formidable challeng-er, Max Verstappen, will head to the last race of the season with the fi erce rivals level on points.

Next weekend’s Abu Dhabi show-down will see Hamilton crowned for a record eighth time - or Verstappen win his fi rst title.

Hamilton’s nail-biting win at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday was his third straight to pull him level with Verstappen on 369.5 points. The British veteran is within touching dis-

tance of title No. 8 to move one ahead of Michael Schumacher and stand alone among F1 legends.

Verstappen still leads by a hair’s breadth, only because he has more wins: 9-8.

“Of course it’s exciting,” said Ver-

stappen, who won last year in Abu Dhabi. “We’re starting again like we started the season.” Hamilton’s win in the heat and humidity of Jeddah saw

him pass Verstappen with six laps re-maining of a chaotic race, as the pair tangled again this season following high-octane crashes at the British GP and the Italian GP.

Hamilton is in no mood to back down with the fi nish in sight, but Ver-stappen has drawn out the street fi ghter in him.

The race on the street circuit under the lights on the 30-kilometer (18.6-mile) coastal resort area in Jeddah will go down as one of the more memo-rable events of the season - if not the last several years. It saw three standing starts, a pair of restarts, multiple safety cars, and an intense back-and-forth be-tween the title contenders including a minor late collision.

Red Bull was allowed to negotiate a penalty for Verstappen, Mercedes head Toto Wolff slammed his headset in rage, and Hamilton drove into the back of his title rival before ultimately passing Verstappen for the win.

Verstappen was dejected and in-credulous after fi nishing second.

Verstappen is exasperated at some decisions that stewards have made this season Hamilton needed a few mo-ments to recover after one of the most draining of his record-extending 103 career wins in the heat and humidity of the Middle East. He sat on a chair next to his physical trainer, with his face buried into a towel as he waited for the podium ceremony.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain celebrates winning the Formula One Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in front of the second placed Red Bull driver

Max Verstappen of the Netherlands, in Jeddah. (AP)

Washington Football Team tight end John Bates (87) is tackled after mak-ing a gain against the Las Vegas Raiders during the second half of an NFL

football game in Las Vegas. (AP)

they didn’t get a whole lot better when Bridgewater threw a pair of second-half interceptions, including the one that So-rensen picked off with 9 1/2 minutes left to put the game away.

Bridgewater was held to 257 yards passing for the Broncos (6-6), who have lost 12 in a row to their longtime AFC rival dating to the 2015 season. Javonte Williams started in place of injured run-ning back Melvin Gordon III and had 102 yards rushing along with a touch-down catch late in the fourth quarter.

Seahawks 30, 49ers 23In Seattle, Russell Wilson played

his best game since returning from fi n-ger surgery throwing for 231 yards and two touchdowns, and the Seahawks

made a late goal line stand. Seattle (4-8) snapped a three-game losing streak but it wasn’t easy as a number of mis-

takes gave the 49ers a chance for a tying touchdown in the fi nal moments.

Gerald Everett fumbled at the San Francisco 2 with 4:03 remaining and Seattle on the cusp of a clinching score. Jimmy Garoppolo led the 49ers 95 yards to the Seattle 3. But his third-down pass for Trent Sherfi eld was broken up by Sidney Jones, and his fourth- down pass was defl ected at the line of scrimmage by Carlos Dunlap. It was the second big play by Dunlap, who sacked Garoppolo for a safety early in the third quarter.

Newly signed running back Adrian Peterson moved into a tie with Jim Brown for 10th all-time with 126 career touchdowns, scoring on a 1-yard run in the second quarter for Seattle.

Washington 17, Raiders 15In Las Vegas, Taylor Heinicke threw

two touchdown passes and set up new kicker Brian Johnson’s winning 48-yard fi eld goal with 37 seconds remaining to lead Washington to its fourth straight victory.

Herbert

FOOTBALL

MOTOR RACING

NYCFC outlast Union to reach 1st MLS Cup fi nalTalles Magno scored in the 88th minute to send New York City FC into the MLS Cup fi nal with a 2-1 win over the COVID-19-restriction-ravaged Philadelphia Union on Sunday.

New York won its fi rst Eastern Con-ference championship and will play at the Portland Timbers on Saturday

for the MLS Cup. Gudi Thórarinsson stripped the ball from Union defender Olivier Mbaizo and fed it to Magno for the decisive goal. Magno cupped his ear as he ran off the fi eld after put-ting the ball past Matt Frese. New York players mobbed each other and danced as Union players sat stunned on the fi eld.

The Union were rocked days be-fore the biggest game in their 11-year history when 11 players were ruled out of the game because of COVID-19 health and safety proto-cols. Philadelphia was also seeking to reach its fi rst MLS Cup fi nal.

The Union were unable to prac-tice on Thursday because of the

league’s protocols. They resumed training on Friday. Coach Jim Cur-tin said during the regular season that all Union players had been vaccinated. The individual players may not have tested positive for the coronavirus, but may have come into contact with someone with a suspected case. (AP)