Middle East Experience

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign-wealth fund bought billions of dollars of stock as the global pandemic took root, reporting significant stakes on Friday in companies including BP Plc, Boeing Co., Citigroup Inc. and Facebook Inc.The Public Investment Fund (PIF), which until five years ago was a holding company for government stakes in domestic businesses, disclosed an $827.8 million stake in BP, a $713.7 million investment in Boeing and $522 million positions in both Citigroup and Facebook at the end of the first quarter. Other bets include $495.8 million on Walt Disney Co. and $487.6 million on Bank of America Corp.The PIF is looking into "any opportunity arising from the economic wreckage of the crisis," the fund’s governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, said at a virtual event in April. The fund expects to see "lots of opportunities, he predicted at the time, citing airlines, energy and entertainment companies as examples."Visit our dedicated coronavirus site here for all the latest updates.Behind the scenes, as coronavirus outbreaks disrupted commerce and drove stock prices to their lowest levels in years, the $320 billion sovereign wealth fund reassigned staff to find bargains to broaden its global portfolio, people familiar with the plan have said.The investments disclosed in a quarterly filing Friday amount to a bet that marquee names of the corporate world will rebound as many facets of life return to normal.Other holdings described by the fund include a $513.9 million investment in hotel owner Marriott International Inc. that’s even greater than the PIF’s previously disclosed wager on cruise operator Carnival Corp. Both companies are contending with a virtual shutdown in global travel.Similarly, the fund gathered a $416.1 million stake in concert promoter Live Nation Entertainment Inc., which faces bans on large gatherings.The fund also amassed shares of Canadian oil sands players Suncor Energy Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., on top of investments that previously emerged in Equinor ASA, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Total SA and Eni SpA.The bargain-hunting contrasted with retreats by the likes of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which previously announced a full exit from investments in four major US airlines. On Friday, Berkshire also disclosed that it sold off most of a longtime investment in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and trimmed stakes in companies including JPMorgan Chase & Co.Coincidentally, the fund bought a $78.4 million stake in Berkshire as well.The PIF’s mandate was broadened in 2015 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to include international investments to support economic diversification.Read more:Coronavirus: Saudi Arabia’s $26 bln spending cuts scale back Vision 2030, triples VATCoronavirus, oil crash impact on Saudi Arabia’s economy to be felt from Q2: MinisterSaudi banks have enough liquidity to support private sector amid coronavirus: Min
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Coronavirus: Saudi Arabia's PIF buys stakes in Boeing, Citi, Disney, Facebook

At least 180 people have been asked to quarantine after attending a church service in California where one person later tested positive for coronavirus, according to a statement.Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.The infected person received the test results a day after attending a Mother’s Day weekend service and is now isolating at home, Butte County Public Health Department (BCPH) announced on Friday.“Despite the Governor’s order, the organization chose to open its doors, which resulted in exposing the entire congregation to COVID-19,” the county’s public health department said in a statement. “This decision comes at a cost of many hours and a financial burden to respond effectively to slow or stop the spread of COVID-19. Such decisions can place great risk on the County’s ability to continue opening at a faster rate than the State.”Individuals who attended the service were found through COVID-19 contact tracing and were instructed to self-quarantine at home. The county is working with healthcare providers to test all of those who may have been exposed to the virus at the church, according to the statement.Read also: California governor slowly reopens world's fifth largest economy“At this time, organizations that hold in-person services or gatherings are putting the health and safety of their congregations, the general public and our local ability to open up at great risk,” BCPH said in the statement. “Moving too quickly through the reopening process can cause a major setback and could require us to revert back to more restrictive measures.”In March 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom had banned gatherings until further notice in order to slow the spread of the virus. He recently allowed a slow reopening of the state with different stages. BCPH said the county’s “Stage 2” of the reopening plan still does not allow gatherings.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.On Tuesday, US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci warned Congress that a premature lifting of lockdowns could lead to additional outbreaks of the deadly virus, according to Reuters.The virus has killed 87,568 people in the US and over 300,000 globally. Nearly 1.5 million have been infected in the US while over 300,000 have recovered so far.Read more:Restaurants use mannequins, dolls to fill ‘social distancing’ voidsWhat counts as a death from COVID-19?Coronavirus is less deadly than we thought, says German expert
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Coronavirus: At least 180 quarantined after attending Church service in California

Qatar's number of novel coronavirus infections topped 30,000 on Saturday, according to a Reuters tally based on official figures.Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.The health ministry reported 1,547 new cases on Saturday, according to the official Qatar News Agency. The total number of cases is now 30,972, according to the Reuters count.Meanwhile, an additional 242 people have recovered in the country, raising the total number of recoveries to 3,788.A 74-year-old resident who had been receiving medical care in the intensive care unit is the latest coronavirus fatality in Qatar.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Qatar has made wearing a face mask compulsory for everyone who steps outside their home, with violators facing jail time and fines of up to $55,000, according to AFP. The decision announced on Wednesday is effective until further notice.The country has seen a relatively high number of cases given its population of only 2.75 million. Qatar has the second highest number of infections in the GCC region.- With ReutersRead more:Coronavirus is less deadly than we thought, says German expertCoronavirus: Qatar urges no Eid visits, suspends visa on arrival for European statesCoronavirus: Qatar requires face masks, violators face jail and up to $55,000 fine
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Coronavirus: Qatar cases exceed 30,000 with 1,547 new cases

Saudi Arabia saw a jump in its daily coronavirus cases with 2,840 new infections detected over the past 24 hours, raising the total to 51,980 on Saturday, according to a health ministry spokesman.Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.Despite a higher number of daily cases, compared to the previous 1,500 daily average, recovery numbers have been increasing as well. An additional 1,797 individuals have recovered, raising the total to 23,666, close to half the number of total infections.Spokesman Dr. Mohammed al-Abd al-Ali also announced 10 new fatalities as a result of complications, raising the relatively low death toll to 302. However, the Kingdom has maintained a lower death rate of about 0.6 percent compared to the global rate of about 7 percent.The newly detected cases were confirmed after an additional 18,285 tests were administered. Saudi Arabia has so far conducted 570,360 screenings throughout the country, the spokesman said.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The ministry continues to urge people to only go out when absolutely necessary and to avoid crowds in order to not contract or spread the virus.In its latest efforts to slow the spread of the virus, Saudi Arabia announced last week that it will impose a 24-hour lockdown for the Muslim Eid holiday that marks the end of Ramadan next week.The Kingdom recorded its first coronavirus cases on March 2, after a Saudi Arabian national returned from Iran.Saudi Arabia’s Health Minister Dr. Tawfig al-Rabiah warned last month that the number of cases in the Kingdom could reach up to 200,000, based on four different studies conducted by Saudi and foreign experts.Read more:Coronavirus is less deadly than we thought, says German expertFour families in Saudi Arabia infected after group Ramadan iftarSaudi Arabia eases coronavirus restrictions for two weeks: 6 questions answered
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Coronavirus: Saudi Arabia total cases over 50,000, sees jump in daily count

Some of the newly detected coronavirus cases in Lebanon are of individuals who entered the country on the repatriation flights, and some returning expats have flouted the requirement to quarantine, raising fears that the returns could threaten progress made in controlling the virus.Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus section.Beirut’s airport remains closed to commercial flights until at least June 8 amid the coronavirus outbreak. But several repatriation flights have continued to arrive, bringing Lebanese expats home from locations around the world.Lebanon was in the process of gradually lifting its lockdown procedures before a spike in cases prompted a new four-day lockdown beginning Wednesday night. Coronavirus numbers have remained relatively low in the country – with a total of 902 cases and 26 deaths reported as of Saturday.On May 6, the Ministry of Public Health reported that 25 expats returning on a flight from Nigeria had tested positive for the virus, but smaller numbers of positive cases have surfaced among returning expats nearly every day. On Saturday, the health ministry reported 11 new positive tests, of which six were among expats.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.And in a notice issued earlier this week, Mount Lebanon Governor Judge Mohammad al-Makkawi announced that five recently returned expats – who had come from Warsaw, Frankfurt, Bucharest, Tehran, and Cameroon respectively – were wanted for arrest after they had allegedly given false contact information to authorities in an attempt to elude follow-up monitoring meant to ensure that they were quarantined at home.The government’s handling of the expat returns has drawn criticism, particularly after the new lockdown, with some asserting that mishandling of the repatriations was threatening to undo the progress made on controlling the spread of the virus.Former MP Ismail Sukkariyeh, a gastroenterologist, on Saturday issued a statement questioning the government’s handling of the repatriations, and particularly the failure to ensure that the returnees adhere to quarantine measures.“Why did the government not put its hand on vacant institutions, such as hotels and public buildings, to quarantine the arrivals in them?” Sukkariyeh asked. “Why aren’t government hospitals placed at the disposal of conducting the quarantine, and not only performing a laboratory test that is mistaken 30 percent of the time?”About 11,300 Lebanese are expected to return on repatriation flights during the current phase, which began May 11 and ends May 24. Many of the returnees are university students who got stuck abroad when the Beirut airport closed on March 18.For expats returning from countries where COVID-19 testing is available, authorities have been requiring expats to show a negative test result taken within three days before their departure before they can board a repatriation flight. Those with positive test results are not allowed to board.However, those returning from countries that do not have reliable testing capacity are tested upon arrival. All returning expats are ordered to quarantine, but unlike in some other countries that have quarantined returning travelers in hotels, Lebanon has ordered the expats to self-quarantine at home.A spokesman for the health ministry did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement Friday, the minister urged returnees to take seriously “the necessity of compulsory home quarantine and not to socialize even with their families or neighborhoods, as this poses a challenge to preserving the progress made in the face of the epidemic.”Firass Abiad, head of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, the government hospital that has been at the forefront of the coronavirus response in Lebanon, told Al Arabiya English that halting repatriation flights altogether “is not really an option for a lot of humanitarian social reasons, and at the end of the day, these are people coming back to their country, so you cannot just lock them out indefinitely.”However, Abiad said he believes additional precautions could be taken.Returning travelers who test positive, even if they are asymptomatic, “need to come into the hospital until we have a very clear assessment, which is both a medical assessment and a social assessment to make sure they can go back, that it’s safe for them and for the society at large to be at a quarantine in their homes,” he said.While other countries have been allowing asymptomatic patients to quarantine at home, Abiad said, “We have to take advantage that we do not have a lot of cases in Lebanon, and this allows us to exert more control. We don’t have to take shortcuts like some countries because they have so many positive cases they’re overwhelmed.”Abiad noted that some of the recent case clusters that had driven the new four-day lockdown did not appear to be related to returning expats, including a cluster of cases among soldiers at a military court. He added that citizens also need to take responsibility for preventing spread of the virus.“There are two sides to this conversation,” he said. “There is the conversation of the measures that the government is taking, but then there is the other side, which is the behavior and conduct of the population. I think that the more we conduct ourselves in a responsible manner, the easier it will become for the government to ease its measures.”Read more:Coronavirus: Lebanese stranded abroad amid flight suspensions given path homeCoronavirus lockdown more harm than help for Lebanese who can't afford to stay homeCoronavirus: 13 soldiers at Lebanon military court infected
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Coronavirus: Lebanon cases spike as returning expats flout quarantine requirements

Green Without Border posts identified next to Hezbollah cross-border tunnels and September 1 Kornet anti-tank missile attack location
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Think tank urges US to designate Hezbollah-linked NGO as a terror entity

Kaila Zimmerman-Moscovitch, a college student managing a full course load and two part-time jobs, has been spending 11 hours per day to help hers and other families in the Chicago Jewish community.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: US college student spends 11 hours a day shopping to help families

Thousands of Germans across the country took to the streets on Saturday to protest against restrictions imposed by the government to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Germans stage protests against lockdown measures, social distancing rules

An at-home coronavirus testing project in Seattle backed in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation remains in limbo.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: FDA approves standalone at-home coronavirus sample collection kit

The Foreign Trade Department in the UAE Ministry of Economy announced Saturday the launch of a dedicated platform to help businesses cope with the effects of the COVID-19 virus..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: UAE economy ministry launches online platform to help businesses cope with Covid-19