FARUKH SHEHZAD

Connery, who became Sir Sean in 2000, won numerous awards during his decades-spanning career encompassing an array of big-screen hits, including an Oscar, three Golden Globes and two Bafta awards

Legendary actor Sean Connery, best known for playing the original on-screen James Bond, has died at the age of 90 prompting an outpouring of tributes for one of Britain's best-loved screen heroes.

The star's son Jason Connery told the BBC that his father died peacefully in his sleep overnight while in the Bahamas, having been "unwell for some time".

"We are all working at understanding this huge event as it only happened so recently," he added, calling his father's passing "a sad loss for all people around the world who enjoyed the wonderful gift he had as an actor."

Connery, who became Sir Sean in 2000, won numerous awards during his decades-spanning career encompassing an array of big-screen hits, including an Oscar, three Golden Globes and two Bafta awards.

But it is his smooth, Scottish-accented portrayal of the suave licensed-to-kill spy 007 that earned him lasting worldwide fame and adoration.

The first actor to utter the unforgettable "Bond, James Bond", Connery made six official films as novelist Ian Fleming's creation, giving what many still consider as the definitive portrayal.

"He was and shall always be remembered as the original James Bond," said the movie franchise's producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli.

"He revolutionised the world with his gritty and witty portrayal of the sexy and charismatic secret agent."

The pair added Connery was "undoubtedly largely responsible for the success of the film series and we shall be forever grateful to him."

The Scottish actor was on a number of occasions voted by fans as the best actor to have played Bond, beating out current 007 Daniel Craig and Roger Moore.

"It is with such sadness that I heard of the passing of one of the true greats of cinema," Craig tweeted.

A message on a Twitter account maintained for the late Moore, the third actor to play Bond and who died in 2017, said that Moore and Connery "were friends for many decades and Roger always maintained Sean was the best ever James Bond. RIP."

Hollywood star Hugh Jackman said: "I grew up idolizing #SeanConnery. A legend on screen, and off. Rest In Peace."

Pinewood Studios in Britain, where the 007 movies are filmed, said Connery was the "unforgettable embodiment of superspy James Bond" and that he would "forever be cherished" there.

"True legend, the original Bond and my favorite," said Humayun Saeed.

Mom actor Adnan Siddiqui too mourned, saying Connery will "always be THE real James Bond for millions of fans."

"Truly an artist," wrote Shaan Shahid.

Tribute also poured in from Bollywood, with popular names including Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Anupam Kher, Arjun Rampal, Ranveer Singh and Lata Mangeshkar acknowledging the huge loss.

The release of the latest instalment of the franchise No Time to Die which has been delayed several times by the coronavirus pandemic, is now due next April.

Aside from his success in the Bond films, Connery excelled in other cinema performances, claiming his sole Oscar in 1988 for best supporting actor for his role as an Irish cop in The Untouchables.

He also starred in The Hunt for Red October, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Rock.

Connery, born in Edinburgh in 1930, enlisted in the Royal Navy aged 16 but was discharged three years later on medical grounds after suffering a stomach ulcer.

He was then a bricklayer, lifeguard, and coffin polisher, among other manual jobs, before kick-starting his acting career after a bodybuilding hobby led him to enter the Mr Universe competition.

There, a fellow competitor urged him to audition for acting parts and he soon started landing small roles.

His big break came by starring as Bond in 1962's Dr. No, the franchise's first film.

He went to play Bond in From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

He made a comeback as the British spy in the unofficial 1983 film Never Say Never Again.

Later in the decade Connery won a new generation of fans with his compelling performance as the father of Harrison Ford's hero character in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade.

He was knighted by the Queen in 2000 for services to film drama, and celebrated his 90th birthday in August.

Off-screen, Connery was a fiercely proud Scot and a financial backer of the Scottish National Party (SNP), which advocates for independence for Scotland from the UK.

Its First Minister Nicola Sturgeon praised him as "a global legend but, first and foremost, a patriotic and proud Scot".

"Our nation today mourns one of her best loved sons," she said.

Sturgeon's predecessor Alex Salmond called Connery "the world's greatest Scot" and that his signature voice, spirit and passion had endured even though "his health was failing" in recent years.

"I will miss him. Scotland will miss him. The world will miss him," he added.

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US President Donald Trump will hunt for support in four battleground states on Monday while Democratic rival Joe Biden focuses on Pennsylvania and Ohio during the final day of campaigning in their long, bitter race for the White House.

The Republican Trump trails Biden in national opinion polls ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day. But the race is seen as close in enough swing states that Trump could still piece together the 270 votes needed to prevail in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winner.

Trump, aiming to avoid becoming the first incumbent president to lose re-election since fellow Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992, will hold rallies on Monday in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and two in Michigan.

He won those states in 2016 against Democrat Hillary Clinton, but polls show Biden is threatening to recapture them for Democrats.

Trump will wrap up his campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the same place he concluded his 2016 presidential run with a post-midnight rally on Election Day.

Biden, running mate Kamala Harris and their spouses will spend most of Monday in Pennsylvania, splitting up to hit all four corners of a state that has become vital to the former vice president’s hopes.

Joe Biden will rally union members and members of the African-American community in the Pittsburgh area before being joined for an evening drive-in rally in Pittsburgh by singer Lady Gaga.

Biden also will make a detour to bordering Ohio, spending time on his final campaign day in a state that was once considered a lock for Trump, who won it in 2016, but where polls now show a close contest.

Biden has wrapped up the campaign on the offensive, traveling almost exclusively to states that Trump won in 2016 and criticising the president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has dominated the late stages of the race.

Biden accuses Trump of giving up on fighting the pandemic, which has killed more than 230,000 Americans and cost millions of jobs. Polls show Americans trust Biden more than Trump to fight the virus.

During a frantic five-state swing on Sunday, Trump claimed he had momentum. He promised an economic revival and imminent delivery of a vaccine to fight the pandemic. Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, has said the first doses of an effective coronavirus vaccine will likely become available to some high-risk Americans in late December or early January.

A 'terrible thing'

Trump again questioned the integrity of the US election, saying a vote count that stretched past Election Day would be a “terrible thing” and suggesting his lawyers might get involved.

Americans have already cast nearly 60 million mail-in ballots that could take days or weeks to be counted in some states — meaning a winner might not be declared in the hours after polls close on Tuesday night.

“I don’t think it’s fair that we have to wait for a long period of time after the election,” Trump told reporters. Some states, including Pennsylvania, do not start processing mail-in votes until Election Day, slowing the process.

Trump has repeatedly said without evidence that mail-in votes are prone to fraud, although election experts say that is rare in US elections. Mail voting is a long-standing feature of American elections, and about one in four ballots was cast that way in 2016.

Democrats have pushed mail-in voting as a safe way to cast a ballot in the coronavirus pandemic, while Trump and Republicans are counting on a big Election Day in-person turnout.

“We’re going in the night of — as soon as the election is over — we’re going in with our lawyers,” Trump told reporters without offering further explanation.

Trump denied an Axios report that he has told confidants he will declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he is ahead, even if the Electoral College outcome is unclear.

“The president’s not going to steal this election,” Biden told reporters when asked about the Axios report.

A record-setting 92.2 million early votes have been cast either in-person or by mail, according to the US Elections Project, representing about 40 per cent of eligible voters. The early surge has led Michael McDonald of the University of Florida, who administers the project, to predict a record turnout rate of about 65pc of eligible voters, the highest rate since 1908.

A federal judge in Texas will consider on Monday whether Houston officials should throw out about 127,000 votes already cast at drive-through voting sites in the Democratic-leaning area. A Republican state legislator and others accuse Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, a Democrat, of exceeding his constitutional authority by allowing drive-through voting as an alternative during the coronavirus pandemic.

Former President Barack Obama, who Biden served as vice president for eight years, will hold a get-out-the-vote rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday before closing out the campaign in the evening with a rally in Miami.

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What happens on election day will to some degree determine how much more hot and nasty the world’s climate will likely get, experts say.

The day after the presidential election, the United States formally leaves the 2015 Paris agreement to fight climate change. A year ago, President Donald Trump’s administration notified the United Nations that America is exiting the climate agreement. And because of technicalities in the international pact, November 4 is the earliest a country can withdraw.

The US, the world’s second biggest carbon polluter, will be the first country to quit the 189-nation agreement, which has countries make voluntary, ever-tighter goals to curb emissions of heat-trapping gases. The only mandatory parts of the agreement cover tracking and reporting of carbon pollution, say US officials who were part of the Paris negotiations.

Former Vice President Joe Biden has pledged to put the country immediately back in the Paris agreement, which doesn’t require congressional approval. Experts say three months — from November to the January inauguration — with the US out of the climate pact will not change the world, but four years will.

If America pulls back from Paris and stronger carbon cutting efforts, some nations are less likely to cut back too, so the withdrawal’s impact will be magnified, said scientists and climate negotiators.

Because the world is so close to feared climate tipping points and on a trajectory to pass a temperature limit goal, climate scientists said the US pullout will have noticeable effects.

“Losing most of the world’s coral reefs is something that would be hard to avoid if the US remains out of the Paris process,” said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of the Breakthrough Institute in Oakland, California. “At the margins, we would see a world of more extreme heatwaves.”

If the US remains out of the climate pact, today’s children are “going to see big changes that you and I don’t see for ice, coral and weather disasters”, said Stanford University’s Rob Jackson.

Because the two presidential candidates have starkly different positions on climate change policy, the election could have profound repercussions for the world’s approach to the problem, according to more than a dozen experts.

“That election could be a make or break point for international climate policy,” said Niklas Hohne, a climate scientist at Wageningen University in Germany.

In pulling out of the agreement, Trump has questioned climate science and has rolled back environmental initiatives that he called too restrictive in cutting future carbon pollution from power plants and cars.

American carbon emissions dropped by less than one per cent a year from 2016 to 2019, until plunging probably temporarily during the pandemic slowdown, according to the US Department of Energy. More than 60 countries cut emissions by higher percentages than the US in that time period, according to international data.

“Other countries around the world are obsessed with the Paris Climate Accord, which shackles economies and has done nothing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in an email. “President Trump understands economic growth and environmental protection do not need to conflict.”

“We’ve also done our fair share” to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday in the Maldives, a climate-vulnerable country. “We stand amongst industrialised nations as a beacon, and we did it not through state-driven, forced rulesets, but rather through creativity and innovation and good governance.”

In the last debate and on his website, Biden pledged to set a goal of zero net carbon emissions from the US by 2050, meaning the country would not put more greenhouse gases into the air than it takes out through trees and other natural and technological sources. Dozens of nations, including top polluting China, have already made similar pledges.

Eleven years ago, the world was on pace to add about another 2.8 degrees Celsius of warming. But with emission cut pledges from Paris and afterward, the world is facing only about another 1.2 degrees Celsius of warming if countries do what they promise, said Wageningen University’s Hohne.

“If Biden wins, the whole world is going to start reorienting toward stepping up its action,” said climate scientist Jonathan Overpeck, dean of the University of Michigan’s environment programme.

If the US remains out of Paris, countries trying to cut emissions drastically at potentially high costs to local industry may put “border adjustment” fees on climate laggards like America to even the playing field, said Nigel Purvis, a climate negotiator in the Clinton and second Bush administrations. The European Union is already talking about such fees, Purvis said.

Trevor Houser, a climate modeler for the independent Rhodium Group, and the computer simulation research group Climate Action Tracker ran calculations comparing a continuation of the Trump administration’s current emission trends to what would happen if Biden worked toward net zero emissions. Houser, who worked briefly in the Obama State Department, found that in the next 10 years a Trump scenario, which includes a moderate economic bounce-back from the pandemic, would emit six billion tonnes more greenhouse gases than the Biden scenario — an 11 per cent difference.

Climate Action Tracker calculated that from reduced US emissions alone in a Biden scenario, the world would be one-tenth of a degree Celsius cooler.

“Every tenth of a degree counts,” said Hohne, a Climate Action Tracker team member. “We are running into a catastrophe if we don’t do anything.”

Other nations will do more to limit carbon pollution if the US is doing so and less if America isn’t, said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald. “In terms of leadership, it will make an immense difference,” she said.

In Paris, the US was crucial in getting the agreement finished. The rest of the world ended up pledging to reduce roughly five tonnes of carbon pollution for every tonne the US promised to cut, according to Houser and Breakthrough’s Hausfather.

Nations also adopted a goal to limit future warming to just a few more tenths of a degree from now. A UN panel of scientists in 2018 said there was only a slim chance of reaching the goal, but said it would likely make a huge difference in helping avert more loss of corals, extreme weather and extinctions.

A second Trump win “could remove whatever vanishingly small chance we have of” not shooting past that stringent temperature goal, Hausfather said.

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Younger voters and more minorities are pushing some states toward Democrats, including in Colorado, where the parties have essentially stopped spending money for or against GOP Senator Cory Gardner because it seems he is heading toward defeat by Democrat John Hickenlooper, a former governor

United States Senate Republicans are fighting to save their majority, a final election push against the onslaught of challengers in states once off-limits to Democrats but now hotbeds of a potential backlash to President Donald Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill.

Fueling the campaigns are the Trump administration’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis, shifting regional demographics and, in some areas, simply the chance to turn the page on the divisive political climate.

Control of the US Senate can make or break a presidency. With it, a reelected Trump could confirm his nominees and ensure a backstop against legislation from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, (Democrat California). Without it, Joe Biden would face a potential wall of opposition to his agenda if the Democratic nominee won the White House.

In North Carolina, for example, the match-up between GOP Senator Thom Tillis and Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham, among the most expensive in the nation, is close.

“At some point, you put it in the hands of voters,” said Dallas Woodhouse, a former executive director of the state’s Republican Party.

Republican incumbents are straining for survival from New England to the Deep South, in the heartland and the West and even Alaska. Overpowered in fundraising and stuck in Washington until just last week to confirm Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, they are fanning out some alongside Trump for last-ditch, home-state tours to shore up votes.

With the chamber now split, 53-47, three or four seats will determine Senate control, depending on which party wins the White House. The vice president breaks a tie in Senate votes.

What started as a lopsided election cycle with Republicans defending 23 seats, compared with 12 for Democrats, quickly became a more stark referendum on the president as Democrats reached deeper into Trump country and put the GOP on defense.

Suddenly some of the nation’s better-known senators — Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, Susan Collins in Maine — faced strong reelection threats. Only two Democratic seats are being seriously contested, while at least 10 GOP-held seats are at risk.

“I don’t see how we hold it,” said Chip Felkel, a Republican strategist in South Carolina who opposes the president.

Felkel added: “You’d be hard pressed to admit we don’t have a Trump problem.”

The political landscape is quickly changing from six years ago when most of these senators last faced voters. It’s a reminder of how sharp the national mood has shifted in the Trump era.

Younger voters and more minorities are pushing some states toward Democrats, including in Colorado, where the parties have essentially stopped spending money for or against GOP Senator Cory Gardner because it seems he is heading toward defeat by Democrat John Hickenlooper, a former governor.

In more Republican-friendly terrain, the GOP senators must balance an appeal to Trump’s most ardent supporters with outreach to voters largely in suburbs who are drifting away from the president and his tone.

Tillis is struggling to gain ground in North Carolina, a presidential battleground, even after Cunningham’s sex-texting scandal with an aide.

Arizona could see two Democratic senators for the first time since last century if former astronaut Mark Kelly maintains his advantage over GOP Senator Martha McSally for the seat held by the late Republican John McCain.

A vivid dynamic is in Iowa, a state Trump won in 2016 but is now a toss-up as Senator Joni Ernst struggles to fend off Democrat newcomer Theresa Greenfield. Ernst wowed Republicans with a 2014 debut ad about castrating hogs but she faced criticism after last month’s debate when she stumbled over the break-even price for soybeans.

In Georgia, Trump calls David Perdue his favorite senator among the many who have jockeyed to join his golf outings and receive his private phone calls. But the first-term senator faces a surge of new voters in the state and Democrat Jon Ossoff is playing hardball.

Ossoff called Perdue a “crook” over the senator’s stock trades during the pandemic. Perdue shot back that the Ossoff would do anything to mislead Georgians about Democrats’ “radical and socialist” agenda.

Democrats have tapped into what some are calling a “green wave” — a new era of fundraising — as small-dollar donations pour in from across the country from Americans expressing their political activism with their pocketbooks.

Graham’s challenger in South Carolina, Jamie Harrison, has raised so much money — some $100 million — that it sent the top Trump ally scrambling to take the race seriously. Graham swiftly raked in his own record haul as he led the Senate confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

Competitive races are underway in Republican strongholds of Texas, Kansas and Alaska where little known Al Gross broke state records, Democrats said, in part with viral ads introducing voters to the military-veteran-turned-doctor who once fought off a grizzly bear.

Swooping in to fill the gap for Republicans is the Senate Leadership Fund, tapping deep-pocketed donors. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson has funneled more than $60 million to help Republicans hold the Senate.

Over the weekend, the fund was pouring $4.6m to one of the rare Republican bright spots — in Michigan, where John James, a Black Republican businessman is gaining on Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.

“We see a potential opportunity,” said Senate Leadership Fund President Steven Law.

The only other state where Republicans are playing offense is Alabama, where Democratic Senator Doug Jones pulled off a rare special election win the Trump stronghold but now wages a longshot campaign against Republican Tommy Tuberville, a former Auburn football coach.

“We are confident heading into the home stretch because we remain on offence is so many seats across the country,” said Stewart Boss, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The Covid crisis has shadowed the Senate races as Democrats linked Trump’s handling of the pandemic to the GOP’s repeated attempts to undo the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, particularly its insurance protections for those with preexisting medical conditions. Republicans fired back that Democrats want to keep the economy closed, hurting jobs.

David Flaherty, a Colorado-based Republican pollster, said his surveys are showing that Covid will be “the most likely issue many voters will make their decisions on”.

“In more places in the country than not, the president is not getting good marks” on that, Flaherty said, and it’s damaging Senate GOP candidates, “especially those in lockstep with the president.”

Several races may drag well past election night including if no candidate secures a majority, including in Georgia or Maine, where Collins was once considered among the most independent senators, is now confronting critics from the right and left.

Jesse Hunt, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee said the races are tightening in the final days.

“We always knew this was going to be a competitive election cycle,” he said.

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PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz on Sunday advised the director-general of the army's media wing to "be very careful", saying that it "does not suit the armed forces and other institutions to appear [as it] they are standing behind a political party".

"The DG ISPR is a professional soldier and the spokesperson for the institution, he should be very careful," she said while addressing the PML-N's Sher Jawan Movement opening ceremony. "Imran Khan and the government benefit if they drag institutions in politics; it suits them. But it does not suit the armed forces and other institutions to appear [as if] they are standing behind a political party.

"This discrimination should not be there, they (institutions) are as much ours as theirs (government). Such precedents should not be set as it increases the divide between institutions and public."

Maryam was referring to a recent press conference by Maj Gen Babar Iftikhar, the Inter-Services Public Relations' director general, where he had said that any attempt to link the release of Indian pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman with anything other than Pakistan's mature response as a responsible state was "disappointing" and "misleading".

Maj Gen Iftikhar's press conference had come a day after PML-N leader Ayaz Sadiq, on the floor of the National Assembly, suggested that the PTI government had released Abhinandan in capitulation, fearing an imminent attack from India. However, the DG ISPR had not named anyone.

Sadiq had last week claimed that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had during the post-Pulwama military stand-off with India urged the opposition parties at a meeting of the parliamentary groups to let the captured Indian pilot go because India was set to attack Pakistan that night.

"I remember [Foreign Minister] Shah Mahmood Qureshi sahib was present in that meeting, which the prime minister had refused to attend. The chief of army staff also attended," Sadiq had said while responding to federal minister Murad Saeed.

"With legs shaking and sweat on the forehead, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said to us, 'For God's sake, let him (Abhinandan) go back now'," he had claimed, adding "no attack was imminent; they only wanted to capitulate and send Abhinandan back".

Sadiq had subsequently released a video clarification saying that news reports by Indian media on his remarks were "totally contrary" to what he actually said in the parliament. However, government members rubbished his explanations, with Information Minister Shibli Faraz saying that the former National Assembly speaker's "words were beyond forgiveness".

In response to Sadiq's remarks in the National Assembly on Thursday, Minister for Science and technology Fawad Chaudhry said: "Humne Hindustan ko ghuss kay mara hai (We struck India in their home)."

The minister, who was referring to the Pakistan Air Force's response to India's violation of its airspace on February 26 last year, went on to say: "Our success in Pulwama is the success of this nation under [Prime Minister] Imran Khan's leadership." His remarks came on the same day as Maj Gen Iftikhar's press conference.

As other lawmakers sought for the minister to explain his words, Fawad said: "The way we hit India inside their territory after the Pulwama incident [...] India's own media and political leadership is embarrassed by that."

His remarks were reported by the Indian media as a "sensational admission" of Pakistan's alleged involvement in the attack in Indian-occupied Kashmir's Pulwama area in February last year, in which 44 Indian soldiers were killed. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi too alluded to his statement as being a "confession" by Pakistan of its involvement in the Pulwama attack.

Fawad insisted that only a part of his speech was being used to misinterpret his remarks.

Addressing PML-N workers today, Maryam said that a government minister had made comments due to which "even the Indian prime minister is charge-sheeting us". She went on to say that while the army spokesperson had responded to Sadiq's remarks, he had made no reference to Fawad's comments.

The former prime minister's daughter urged her supporters to stand with her father Nawaz Sharif in their "struggle to get respect for the [public's] vote".

Maryam told PML-N workers "not to malign the uniform" and instead "expose the characters who defame" the armed forces.

She once again criticised retired Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, saying that the "nation wants to know how you, a salaried man, started businesses across the world".

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Pakistan Skipper Babar Azam played a brilliant knock of unbeaten 77 off just 74 balls with the help of seven fours and two sixes

Veteran all-rounder Iftikhar Ahmed and captain Babar Azam produced stellar performances as Pakistan secured a ODI series win against Zimbabwe in Rawalpindi on Sunday.

The Men in Green came in the second of the three-match series with a 1-0 lead after winning the first ODI by 26-run margin on Friday.

It was the visitors who won the toss and decided to bat first at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium but the decision backfired as they were bundled out for just 206 in 45.1 overs.

The star of the show for Pakistan was off-spinner Iftikhar Ahmed who finished with career-best figures of 5-40 in 10 overs.

He was well-supported by young right-arm pacer Muhammad Moosa who claimed two wickets and gave away just 21 runs in 6.1 overs.

For the visitors, veteran left-handed batsman Sean Williams was the only standout performer in the batting department as he finished with the top score of 75 off 70 balls with help of 10 fours and one six.

In reply, the home team never looked in any sort of trouble and comfortably chased down the target in just 35.2 overs at the expense of four wickets.

Captain Azam played a brilliant knock of unbeaten 77 off just 74 balls with the help of seven fours and two sixes.

For Zimbabwe, Tendai Chisoro was the pick of the bowlers as he finished with figures of two for 49 in 10 overs.

The last game of the series will be played at the same venue on Tuesday.

Update: Pakistan register a six-wicket win over Zimbabwe in the second ODi to win the series. The sides wil meet in the dead rubber third ODI at the same venue on Tuesday.

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ISLAMABAD: King Mohammed VI has called for unity on African leaders to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. He spoke on this matter with the presidents of Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, to launch an initiative of African Heads of State aimed at establishing an operational framework to support the countries of the continent in their different phases of pandemic management.

Ambassador of Morocco Mohammaed Karmoune disclosed this in an interview with DNA.

He further told that Morocco also donated to the African Union Commission medical supplies that would boost the continental capacity to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The donation represents the values of support and solidarity between African Union Member States.

Concretely, the Kingdom of Morocco quickly went from words to deeds. Since Sunday, June 14, the cargo planes of the airline Royal Air Maroc are active again on the tarmacs of African airports.

In the wake of his commitment made in April 2020 to strengthen South-South solidarity, King Mohammed VI ordered the dispatch of medical aid to 15 sub-Saharan countries, with massive help:8 million masks, 900,000 visors, 600,000 charlottes, 60,000 gowns, 30,000 liters of hydroalcoholic gel, 75,000 boxes of chloroquine and 15,000 boxes of azithromycin, all from Moroccan factories in accordance with the standards required by the ‘WHO.

The measures taken by Morocco at the first stage of the COVID-19 outbreak is showing how much Morocco did not underestimate the situation and learned from other countries’ mistakes.

In comparison to the majority of African countries, Morocco’s strong institutions, peaceful society, robust infrastructure, and several achievements on food security, have definitely helped policy-makers to draw a prompt response to exacerbate the Coronavirus panic, and dismiss spurious information around it.

The ambassador further said, Morocco’s public health sector might not be as sophisticated as Japan’s for instance, however, this safety-preparedness approach is not only a winning strategy, but it is also unprecedented for the majority of MENA countries, and even for some European countries.

“Despite the fragile economic situation Morocco faced before the pandemic, the actions taken by the Government and all the other institutions show it is among the first countries globally to sacrifice its own economic welfare to prevent this virus from spreading,”. “This move, in turn, has inspired Moroccans to trust the Government’s measures and help one another in this time of crisis.

“The Coronavirus situation shows the societal benefits of cohesion and solidarity with one another and shows how it is important to consider the positives of this difficult period, rather than just the negatives.”

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