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Bloomberg An exhausted-looking Elon Musk said he’s unsure his rocket company SpaceX will accomplish its foundational mission — getting to Mars — before he dies. “If we don’t improve our pace of progress, I’m definitely going to be dead before we go to Mars,” Musk said at the Satellite 2020 conference in Washington. “If it’s taken us 18 years just ...

Bloomberg The euro-area economy may be headed for its first recession in seven years as the coronavirus outbreak takes an increasing toll on businesses and consumer confidence. With Italy sweeping a lock-down across the country and infections nearly doubling in Spain, economists at Morgan Stanley and Berenberg expect euro-zone gross domestic product to shrink in the first half of the ...

Bloomberg On February 28, questions about the coronavirus swirled around Google’s offices. The company was being criticized for YouTube’s handling of hoax videos, a major company conference was canceled and an employee in Zurich tested positive. In the midst of this, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai sent a memo reminding thousands of his workers about Google’s important role as a ...

DUBAI / WAM The Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), to enhance their collaboration and align the DIEDC’s stakeholders with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The agreement provides a framework to leverage the natural synergy between the two organisations with a focus on generating knowledge and research ...

Bloomberg Oil crashed more than 30% after the breakup of the Opec+ alliance triggered an all-out price war, with both Russia and Saudi Arabia poised to flood the market with cheap oil. The former allies pledged swift retribution for the collapse of the cartel’s meeting last week, with the Gulf kingdom slashing its official crude prices and threatening record production, ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Etihad Airways announced that it suspended temporarily all flights between Abu Dhabi and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in response to a directive from the General Authority for Civil Aviation, Saudi Arabia, to help prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus. The airline operates up to 12 flights per day between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, ...

Dubai / WAM Five Emirati women from the Enoc Group, completed a four-week multicultural leadership academic programme at the Scotland Summer School in Dundee, accredited by the Scottish Qualifications Authority. The employees, Fatima Saleh Alichla, Hind Al Shamsi, Marwa Abdulla, Amna Banihashem and Naaima Al Falasi, all attended the programme to learn about diverse subjects including civilisational dialogue, Scottish history ...

SHARJAH / WAM Dana Gas has announced that natural gas currently constitutes 75 percent of the company’s production, which is sold under long term gas sale contracts with host governments at prices which are unaffected by falling oil prices. In a press release issued by the company on Monday, it said that these gas sales account for approximately half of ...

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Etisalat on Monday announced that it will provide free access for three months to businesses for using its online collaboration platform — Etisalat CloudTalk Meeting — to help companies maintain business continuity by providing a secure platform to collaborate from any device, location, and network in the country. Business operations can remain uninterrupted with Cloudtalk’s ...

DUBAI / WAM Arabian Travel Market, which was due to be held this April, has been postponed to June, the event’s organiser, Reed Travel Exhibitions announced on Monday. In a statement on Monday, Reed said, “Due to the escalation of the Covid-19 epidemic around the world, the venue management, supporting associations, and in alignment with the advice from the UAE ...