The UAE Falcons made a bright start to their defence of the European Open Challenge title with comfortable victories over Malta and Israel.
A 70-34 win over the Maltese was followed by an even more impressive victory over Israel 85-24 in the late game to see the Falcons top Group B on the opening day at the National Sports Centre in Isle of Man.
“The technical staff were very pleased with the game one performance and managing to get all 12 players to take the court, including four new internationally capped players of which two had made U17 debuts earlier this year,” Susanne Skelding, manager of UAE Netball, told The National.
“The team had set themselves a tough challenge of getting 90 per cent of centre passes to goal, which they achieved in the first half of the game with a centre pass to goal average of 91 per cent.
“In the first quarter, the team turned over 12 balls and managed to capitalise and score from every one of them.”
The Falcons produced another full performance against Israel to round off the first day’s play on a high.
“Three out of the four quarters of play saw 100 per cent centre pass to goal, and 92 per cent of our turnover were taken to goal,” Skelding added.
“The coaching staff was were really pleased that the team, despite a shaky start, were able to pull out a variety of combinations to take 85 goals in the game. This sets the team up well for the remainder of the weekend.”
The Falcons meet Republic of Ireland in a top-of-the-table clash on Friday. They Irish beat Israel 85-15 and Malta 58-21.
Company Fact Box
Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019
Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO
Based: Amman, Jordan
Sector: Education Technology
Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed
Stage: early-stage startup
Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Points about the fast fashion industry Celine Hajjar wants everyone to know
- Fast fashion is responsible for up to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions
- Fast fashion is responsible for 24 per cent of the world's insecticides
- Synthetic fibres that make up the average garment can take hundreds of years to biodegrade
- Fast fashion labour workers make 80 per cent less than the required salary to live
- 27 million fast fashion workers worldwide suffer from work-related illnesses and diseases
- Hundreds of thousands of fast fashion labourers work without rights or protection and 80 per cent of them are women
The specs
Engine 60kwh FWD
Battery Rimac 120kwh Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (LiNiMnCoO2) chemistry
Power 204hp Torque 360Nm
Price, base / as tested Dh174,500
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The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
