June, 2020

• 2 June

  Sheikh Zayed Book Award opens submissions for 15th edition

  

  ABU DHABI / WAM The Sheikh Zayed Book Award, one of the most prestigious literary prizes for the Arab world is now accepting submissions for its 2021 edition. Each winner of the Award’s nine categories will receive prize money of AED750,000 ($204,000) to recognise and further enable their creative and cultural achievements. Now in its 15th year, the Award, which ...

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• 2 June

  DIFC firms to benefit from master employee health insurance policy

  

  DUBAI / WAM Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with EC3 Brokers to implement a Group Health Insurance Master Policy. The Group Health scheme will be available to over 2,400 active registered firms in DIFC who provide health insurance to their 25,600 professionals. It is the first scheme of this nature to be developed in ...

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• 2 June

  GMIS to hold a virtual summit in September

  Abu Dhabi / WAM The Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS) a joint initiative by the UAE and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido), announced the dates for its 2020 edition, #GMIS2020, commencing with a sequence of Digital Series on June 30, and leading up to the Virtual Summit that will be held on September 4-5. At the top ...

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• 2 June

  Dubai Customs, UNODC launch ‘go learn’ initiative

  

  DUBAI / WAM Dubai Customs’ Training Centre and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have launched an e-learning platform ‘GO LEARN’, that provides some 50 training courses in the customs field. The launch of the online platform took place on Microsoft Teams with the attendance of Mohammed Al Ghaffari, Acting Executive Director, Human Resources, Finance and Administration ...

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• 2 June

  EDF-led group funds $2.23b French offshore wind project

  

  Bloomberg Electricite de France (EDF) and its Canadian and German partners have finalised the funding of a 2 billion euro ($2.23 billion) offshore wind project, allowing construction to start in the English Channel. EDF, Enbridge Inc and Wpd AG plan to commission the 500-megawatt wind farm in 2023, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. The facility near the ...

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• 2 June

  China adds teeth to clean energy targets

  Bloomberg China boosted its clean energy targets for 2020 and said it would for the first time formally monitor whether provinces meet their goals or not. Nationwide, the country is targeting 28.2% of electricity generation to come from renewable sources, up 0.3 percentage points from last year, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said. Non-hydro sources are expected to ...

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• 2 June

  Trump’s Antifa threat is a threat to free speech

  

  President Donald Trump tweeted that the executive branch will designate Antifa as a “terrorist organisation,” apparently in an attempt to pin blame for the weekend’s violent protests on the loose collection of far-left activists. The president’s announcement was characteristically unclear. Federal law says that if the Secretary of State designates a group as a foreign terrorist organisation, then materially supporting ...

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• 2 June

  UK’s virus quarantine won’t fly

  

  Just as coronavirus infections weaken, European countries lift foreign travel restrictions and people gear up for the possibility that we might actually get on an airplane again, one of the world’s largest tourism markets is effectively shutting down. Under rules to be finalised on Tuesday, anyone arriving in the UK from June 8, including returning Britons, will have to quarantine ...

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• 2 June

  Coronavirus antibody tests aren’t accurate!

  Doctors, medical administrators and consumers are falling for misleading marketing of Covid-19 antibody tests. And the FDA has exerted almost no oversight over a hodgepodge of different tests that have come on the market since April, promoted with a blitz of direct emails to clinics and hospitals that tout the tests’ ability to detect past infections of Sars-CoV2. The FDA ...

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• 2 June

  Take China’s US farm threats seriously now

  If you’re haggling over the price of goods at a market, there often comes a point when the buyer threatens to walk away. It’s up to the seller to decide whether or not that’s a bluff. That’s the right way to consider the news that Chinese state-owned agricultural companies have been ordered to pause purchases of US farm goods, including ...

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