From robotic arms that can dig through Martian soil to talks by scientists who studied lunar soil – Expo 2020 Dubai will have a major focus on space.
National pavilions will display their past and upcoming achievements in space during the world fair, scheduled to begin on October 1, 2021.
A Space Week will be held during the event and a huge space show will take place at the Al Wasl Dome – the world’s largest 360-degree projection screen.
An online event by Expo 2020 Dubai last week shed light on what can be expected next year.
Italy
Expo visitors at the Italian pavilion will be able to see a robotic arm that will dig through Martian soil.
The space drill is part of ExoMars 2022, a joint Mars exploration mission by the European Space Agency and Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Manufactured by Italian aerospace company Leonardo, the drill will be on board the Rosalind Franklin rover and will be able to drill down as far as two metres into the surface of the Red Planet.
The mission will be to choose and analyse soil samples on board and look for signs of life.
The launch was postponed from this year until 2022, when the next Mars launch window opens.
A hydrogen atomic clock – the most accurate clock yet made for satellite navigation applications – will also be in the display.
The clock accumulates an error of one second every three million years.
Two of them are installed on each of the European Global Navigation Satellite System's Galileo satellites.
United States
At the US pavilion, experts from US space agency Nasa will share their experience of carrying out experiments on lunar soil samples.
The US is a leading space nation, with many upcoming breakthrough projects. Manned spaceflight returned to the country through partnerships with commercial companies such as SpaceX.
Nasa retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011 with the final flight of the Atlantis orbiter.
That was the 135th flight of the shuttle programme. After this, the US relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to fly American astronauts to and from the International Space Station.
Now, Nasa is attracting many international partnerships and support for its Lunar Gateway project, which is a planned lunar-orbiting space station. Through its Artemis programme, US will put the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024. The goal is to use establish a human base on the Moon from which to send astronauts to Mars.
Nasa also plans to launch the James Webb Space Telescope next year. It will be the largest and most powerful space telescope built and launched into space, and will help find exoplanets and ones that potentially hold life.
“We are planning a spectacular exhibition to capture the fascination of Expo visitors, and what could be more captivating than space exploration,” said John Rakolta Jr, US ambassador to the UAE
“As part of our exhibit, the United States will highlight recent achievements in space, as well as partnerships between the public and private sectors to demonstrate our co-operation in space exploration."
In 1970, the US displayed Moon rocks brought back from the Apollo 12 mission at the Osaka Expo. The samples were 3.2 billion years old and were buried under the Moon’s surface until a meteorite impact 15 million years ago made it visible.
The pavilion also had a full-scale replica of the Apollo 11 landing site, a lunar module, with two space-suited hosts greeting visitors.
Russia
Russia, an early space pioneer, will also have a space focus at its pavilion next year.
In the pre-Expo event last week, Sergey Krikalev, executive director of human spaceflight at Roscosmos, spoke about future plans in space exploration.
Visitors can expect to see Russia’s past achievements in space at its pavilion during Space Week, including sending the first satellite and man to space, its contribution to the International Space Station and rocket launching abilities.
The UAE’s first astronaut, Maj Hazza Al Mansouri, launched into space last year on board the Russian Soyuz rocket. He was trained at Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City, near Moscow.
“In the near future, we are going to send three new modules to the Russian segment of the International Space Station,” Mr Krikalev said.
The first is a laboratory module, the second one is a universal docking module which will have several docking abilities and the third will provide extra power to the Russian segment and extra space to do scientific experiments.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Transmission: Six-speed automatic
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Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
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Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
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Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Top tips
Create and maintain a strong bond between yourself and your child, through sensitivity, responsiveness, touch, talk and play. “The bond you have with your kids is the blueprint for the relationships they will have later on in life,” says Dr Sarah Rasmi, a psychologist.
Set a good example. Practise what you preach, so if you want to raise kind children, they need to see you being kind and hear you explaining to them what kindness is. So, “narrate your behaviour”.
Praise the positive rather than focusing on the negative. Catch them when they’re being good and acknowledge it.
Show empathy towards your child’s needs as well as your own. Take care of yourself so that you can be calm, loving and respectful, rather than angry and frustrated.
Be open to communication, goal-setting and problem-solving, says Dr Thoraiya Kanafani. “It is important to recognise that there is a fine line between positive parenting and becoming parents who overanalyse their children and provide more emotional context than what is in the child’s emotional development to understand.”
VERSTAPPEN'S FIRSTS
Youngest F1 driver (17 years 3 days Japan 2014)
Youngest driver to start an F1 race (17 years 166 days – Australia 2015)
Youngest F1 driver to score points (17 years 180 days - Malaysia 2015)
Youngest driver to lead an F1 race (18 years 228 days – Spain 2016)
Youngest driver to set an F1 fastest lap (19 years 44 days – Brazil 2016)
Youngest on F1 podium finish (18 years 228 days – Spain 2016)
Youngest F1 winner (18 years 228 days – Spain 2016)
Youngest multiple F1 race winner (Mexico 2017/18)
Youngest F1 driver to win the same race (Mexico 2017/18)
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Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Western Region Asia Cup T20 Qualifier
Sun Feb 23 – Thu Feb 27, Al Amerat, Oman
The two finalists advance to the Asia qualifier in Malaysia in August
Group A
Bahrain, Maldives, Oman, Qatar
Group B
UAE, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia
UAE group fixtures
Sunday Feb 23, 9.30am, v Iran
Monday Feb 25, 1pm, v Kuwait
Tuesday Feb 26, 9.30am, v Saudi
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza, Rohan Mustafa, Alishan Sharafu, Ansh Tandon, Vriitya Aravind, Junaid Siddique, Waheed Ahmed, Karthik Meiyappan, Basil Hameed, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Ayaz, Zahoor Khan, Chirag Suri, Sultan Ahmed
Teams
Pakistan: Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan Shanwari, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Faheem Ashraf.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Corey Anderson, Mark Chapman, Lockie Ferguson, Colin de Grandhomme, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Ajaz Patel, Glenn Phillips, Seth Rance, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.
Tales of Yusuf Tadros
Adel Esmat (translated by Mandy McClure)
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Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
What is the definition of an SME?
SMEs in the UAE are defined by the number of employees, annual turnover and sector. For example, a “small company” in the services industry has six to 50 employees with a turnover of more than Dh2 million up to Dh20m, while in the manufacturing industry the requirements are 10 to 100 employees with a turnover of more than Dh3m up to Dh50m, according to Dubai SME, an agency of the Department of Economic Development.
A “medium-sized company” can either have staff of 51 to 200 employees or 101 to 250 employees, and a turnover less than or equal to Dh200m or Dh250m, again depending on whether the business is in the trading, manufacturing or services sectors.
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