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Global community on steady path to post-coronavirus normalcy

The global community is taking measured steps towards a post-coronavirus normalcy. Above, a boy wearing a face mask drives a toy car across Piazza Navona in Rome on May 28, 2020. (AFP)
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Updated 30 May 2020
Arab News
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Global community on steady path to post-coronavirus normalcy

Updated 30 May 2020
Arab News

DUBAI: The global community keeps a measured but steady path to normalcy as governments and people adapt to a new normal amid the coronavirus pandemic which ravaged economies and lives.

May 29, 2020, Friday (All times in GMT)

20:00 - Saudi Arabia has approved a plan to gradually reopen the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah from Sunday. 

19:00 - US President Donald Trump said that the US is “terminating” its relationship with the World Health Organization on Friday, and that the organization hasn't made coronavirus reforms.

17:43 - New York City is 'on track' to enter phase one of reopening on June 8, New York Governor Cuomo said on Friday as he announced that five upstate regions will now transition to phase two which includes businesses like barber shops and hair salons.

14:04 - The UAE announced that the operating hours for the national sterilization program will change to between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. as from Saturday. Previously, the program took place between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.  

12:50 - The UAE announced 638 news cases of coronavirus, 412 new cases of recovery and 2 deaths from the disease.

12:40 - Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health announced 17 more deaths from COVID-19, 1,581 new cases of the disease and 2,460 new cases of recovery from it on Friday. 

11:46 – Worshippers in Turkey have held their first communal Friday prayers in 74 days after the government reopened some mosques as part of its plans to relax measures in place to fight the coronavirus outbreak.

11:14 – A pharmaceutical company in Pakistan plans to import the antiviral drug remdesivir, which has shown promise in treating coronavirus patients, from neighboring Bangladesh. READ THE STORY

11:02 – Iranian health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said 2,819 new cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall total to 146,668.
That figure is the highest Iran has announced for a single day since April 2.

10:33 – The World Bank Group approved a $500 million loan for the Philippines to help it cope with the economic impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

09:14 – Malaysia reported 103 cases of new coronavirus infections on Friday, mostly involving foreigners, the health ministry said, raising the country's cumulative total to 7,732 cases.
The health ministry reported no new deaths, leaving the total number of fatalities at 115.

09:01 – Indonesia reported on Friday 678 new coronavirus infections, taking the total number of cases in the Southeast Asian country to 25,216, said health ministry official Achmad Yurianto.
Yurianto reported 24 new deaths related to COVID-19, bringing the total to 1,520, while 6,492 people have recovered. 

08:13 – Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar raised the prospect on Friday of halving social distancing rules from two meters to one if the rate of coronavirus infections comes down further in a potential boost to still shuttered restaurants and pubs.

07:59 – Turkey’s civilian aviation authorities are implementing safety regulations in airports when they reopen under the country’s normalization program amid the coronavirus pandemic.

07:48 – South Korea on Friday imposed limits on the number of pupils going to schools in and around Seoul. READ MORE

07:40 – Russia reported 232 deaths from the new coronavirus in the last 24 hours, a record one-day amount that pushed the nationwide death toll to 4,374.

07:35 – Egypt is adjusting its night-time curfew, from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., for 15 days as the government implements measures to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

06:22 – Britain cannot run its COVID-19 jobs protection scheme indefinitely and needs to start tapering it down as people slowly return to work, environment minister George Eustice said.

06:17 – Indonesian officials are forcing social distancing violators to recite Qur'an verses, stay in ‘haunted’ houses and submit to public shaming on social media as the country battles to contain surging coronavirus infections.

05:50 – The death toll from the coronavirus spiked again in the United States, and Latin America’s pandemic crisis deepened, as Europe’s re-opening from lockdown grew bolder by the day. READ MORE

05:39 – Curbs in Japan’s capital of Tokyo to contain the coronavirus are to be eased further from Monday, Governor Yuriko Koike said, citing the recommendation of an advisory panel.

Topics: Coronavirus

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Lebanon PM to visit new Damascus ruler on Saturday

Updated 5 sec ago
AFP
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Lebanon PM to visit new Damascus ruler on Saturday

  • Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati will on Saturday make his first official trip to neighboring Syria since the fall of president Bashar Assad, his office told AFP
Updated 5 sec ago
AFP
BERUIT: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati will on Saturday make his first official trip to neighboring Syria since the fall of president Bashar Assad, his office told AFP.
Mikati’s office said Friday the trip came at the invitation of the country’s new de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa during a phone call last week.
Syria imposed new restrictions on the entry of Lebanese citizens last week, two security sources have told AFP, following what the Lebanese army said was a border skirmish with unnamed armed Syrians.
Lebanese nationals had previously been allowed into Syria without a visa, using just their passport or ID card.
Lebanon’s eastern border is porous and known for smuggling.
Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah supported Assad with fighters during Syria’s civil war.
But the Iran-backed movement has been weakened after a war with Israel killed its long-time leader and Islamist-led rebels seized Damascus last month.
Lebanese lawmakers elected the country’s army chief Joseph Aoun as president on Thursday, ending a vacancy of more than two years that critics blamed on Hezbollah.
For three decades under the Assad clan, Syria was the dominant power in Lebanon after intervening in its 1975-1990 civil war.
Syria eventually withdrew its troops in 2005 under international pressure after the assassination of Lebanese ex-prime minister Rafic Hariri.

UN says 3 million Sudan children facing acute malnutrition

Updated 11 min 53 sec ago
AFP
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UN says 3 million Sudan children facing acute malnutrition

  • Famine has already gripped five areas across Sudan, according to a report last month
  • Sudan has endured 20 months of war between the army and the paramilitary forces
Updated 11 min 53 sec ago
AFP

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: An estimated 3.2 million children under the age of five are expected to face acute malnutrition this year in war-torn Sudan, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“Of this number, around 772,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition,” Eva Hinds, UNICEF Sudan’s Head of Advocacy and Communication, told AFP late on Thursday.
Famine has already gripped five areas across Sudan, according to a report last month by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed assessment.
Sudan has endured 20 months of war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killing tens of thousands and, according to the United Nations, uprooting 12 million in the world’s largest displacement crisis.
Confirming to AFP that 3.2 million children are currently expected to face acute malnutrition, Hinds said “the number of severely malnourished children increased from an estimated 730,000 in 2024 to over 770,000 in 2025.”
The IPC expects famine to expand to five more parts of Sudan’s western Darfur region by May — a vast area that has seen some of the conflict’s worst violence. A further 17 areas in western and central Sudan are also at risk of famine, it said.
“Without immediate, unhindered humanitarian access facilitating a significant scale-up of a multisectoral response, malnutrition is likely to increase in these areas,” Hinds warned.
Sudan’s army-aligned government strongly rejected the IPC findings, while aid agencies complain that access is blocked by bureaucratic hurdles and ongoing violence.
In October, experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council accused both sides of using “starvation tactics.”
On Tuesday the United States determined that the RSF had “committed genocide” and imposed sanctions on the paramilitary group’s leader.
Across the country, more than 24.6 million people — around half the population — face “high levels of acute food insecurity,” according to IPC, which said: “Only a ceasefire can reduce the risk of famine spreading further.”

Topics: Sudan UN

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Turkiye says France must take back its militants from Syria

Updated 36 min 45 sec ago
AFP
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Turkiye says France must take back its militants from Syria

  • Ankara is threatening military action against Kurdish fighters in the northeast
  • Turkiye considers the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces as linked to its domestic nemesis
Updated 36 min 45 sec ago
AFP

ISTANBUL: France must take back its militant nationals from Syria, Turkiye’s top diplomat said Friday, insisting Washington was its only interlocutor for developments in the northeast where Ankara is threatening military action against Kurdish fighters.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan insisted Turkiye’s only aim was to ensure “stability” in Syria after the toppling of strongman Bashar Assad.
In its sights are the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which have been working with the United States for the past decade to fight Daesh group militants.
Turkiye considers the group as linked to its domestic nemesis, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The PKK has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkiye and is considered a terror organization by both Turkiye and the US.
The US is currently leading talks to head off a Turkish offensive in the area.
“The US is our only counterpart... Frankly we don’t take into account countries that try to advance their own interests in Syria by hiding behind US power,” he said.
His remarks were widely understood to be a reference to France, which is part of an international coalition to prevent a militant resurgence in the area.
Asked about the possibility of a French-US troop deployment in northeast Syria, he said France’s main concern should be to take back its nationals who have been jailed there in connection with militant activity.
“If France had anything to do, it should take its own citizens, bring them to its own prisons and judge them,” he said.

Topics: Turkiye Syria France Hakan Fidan

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Lebanese caretaker PM says country to begin disarming south Litani to ensure state presence

Updated 10 January 2025
Reuters
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Lebanese caretaker PM says country to begin disarming south Litani to ensure state presence

  • Najib Mikati: ‘We are in a new phase – in this new phase, we will start with south Lebanon and south Litani’
Updated 10 January 2025
Reuters

DUBAI: Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Friday that the state will begin disarming southern Lebanon, particularly the south Litani region, to establish its presence across the country.
“We are in a new phase – in this new phase, we will start with south Lebanon and south Litani specifically in order to pull weapons so that the state can be present across Lebanese territory,” Mikati said.

Topics: Lebanon Najib Mikati

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Tanker hit by Yemen militia that threatened Red Sea spill has been salvaged

Updated 10 January 2025
AP
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Tanker hit by Yemen militia that threatened Red Sea spill has been salvaged

  • The Sounion had been a disaster in waiting in the waterway, with 1 million barrels of crude oil aboard
  • The Houthis have targeted some 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started
Updated 10 January 2025
AP

DUBAI: An oil tanker that burned for weeks in the Red Sea and threatened a massive oil spill has been “successfully” salvaged, a security firm said Friday.
The Sounion had been a disaster in waiting in the waterway, with 1 million barrels of crude oil aboard that had been struck and later sabotaged with explosives by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi militia. It took months for salvagers to tow the vessel away, extinguish the fires and offload the remaining crude oil.
The Houthis initially attacked the Greek-flagged Sounion tanker on Aug. 21 with small arms fire, projectiles and a drone boat. A French destroyer operating as part of Operation Aspides rescued its crew of 25 Filipinos and Russians, as well as four private security personnel, after they abandoned the vessel and took them to nearby Djibouti.
The Houthis later released footage showing they planted explosives on board the Sounion and ignited them in a propaganda video, something the militia have done before in their campaign.
The Houthis have targeted some 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October 2023. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a US-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.
The Houthis maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the US or the UK to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.

Topics: Yemen Red Sea Sounion

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