Author: News Desk

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu got a lukewarm reception on Thursday from his main coalition partner and the head of the central bank to a plan to grant money to all Israelis to kickstart the economy during the coronavirus crisis. Netanyahu announced the 6 billion shekel ($1.75 billion)package on Wednesday, amid public anger over his handling of a pandemic in which contagion has surged and promised state aid to businesses has been slow to arrive. The payments of 750 shekels for individuals and up to 3,000 shekels to families, Netanyahu said, would boost consumer spending and employment. The plan still requires…

A group of the world’s top oil companies, including Saudi Aramco, China’s CNPC and Exxon Mobil, have for the first time set goals to cut their greenhouse gas emissions as a proportion of output, as pressure on the sector’s climate stance grows. But the target, set by the 12 members of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), means absolute emissions can rise as production increases. It is eclipsed by more ambitious plans set individually by the consortium’s European members, including Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Total. “It is a significant milestone, it is not the end of the work,…

Bahrain has announced three more death from coronavirus, a male citizen aged 69, a female citizen aged 53 and a male expatriate aged 50. The death toll has soared to 120, the lowest in the GCC. The MOH expressed its condolences to the family of the deceased. ♦ Bahrain adds $470 million in coronavirus impact spending to 2020 budget ♦ Incoming passengers must shoulder the cost of mandatory COVID-19 testing ♦ What are the side effects of post COVID-19?, explains Dr. Jameela Al Salman The total cases have driven to 34,560, which means that over 87 percent of the confirmed cases have recovered…

Oman has registered nine deaths and a drop of 1,327 new cases of coronavirus, of which the majority of the cases are from citizens by 1,008 and the rest 319 from foreigners. This takes the total COVID-19 cases in the sultanate to 62,574. The death toll reached 290 after reporting the new deaths. ♦ Oman to start allowing citizens to travel abroad Meanwhile, 1,052 new recoveries were announced, bringing the total to 40,090. 4,704 tests were conducted across the sultanate in the past 24 hours. So far 258,148 COVID-19 tests have been conducted. In March, Oman began to introduce lockdowns in…

The date for the launch of Emirates Mars Mission’s “Hope Probe” has been announced by the Emirates Space Agency and The Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Center. The launch is now scheduled to take place between the 20th and 22nd July 2020, depending on improved weather. The precise time of the launch will be confirmed in due course. ♦ Hope Probe’s data can give crucial input to India’s next Mars mission: ISRO The launch date was postponed due to continued thunderstorms, clouds and unstable weather conditions in the coming days on Tanegashima Island, the launch site Hope Probe Mission. First announced in 2014, the…

Bahrain has registered 482 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, among 260 expatriate workers, 216 new cases are contacts of active cases, and 6 are travel related. The new cases were detected after conducting over 8,200 COVID-19 tests. 6 deaths were registered in the kingdom, the deceased are three male expatriates aged 44, 41 and 73, and also three male citizens aged 71, 79 and 51. By this, the death toll reaches 117 ♦ Bahrain adds $470 million in coronavirus impact spending to 2020 budget ♦ Incoming passengers must shoulder the cost of mandatory COVID-19 testing ♦ What are the side effects of…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Wednesday a plan for government grants for all Israelis amid growing public anger over his handling of a coronavirus crisis that has taken a sharp turn for the worse. Critics seized on the 6 billion shekel ($1.75 billion) handout package as a bid to boost the veteran leader’s popularity before a widely expected series of new lockdowns. Payments will range between 750 shekels ($219) for individuals to up to 3,000 shekels ($875) for families with three or more children, Netanyahu said in a special TV address. Now in his fifth term, Netanyahu is grappling…

UAE records 275 cases from coronavirus in the past 24 hours, taking the total cases in the country to 55,848. The new cases were found after conducting more than 48,000 coronavirus tests across the country. It’s the lowest daily cases since May. The death toll stays at 335, as no new death was reported. It’s been months the country didn’t report a death. Meanwhile, 393 new recoveries were also announced, bringing the total recoveries to 46,418. This means that over 83 percent of the confirmed cases have fully recovered from the virus. Dubai has announced a new package to help…

The universe is about 13.8 billion years old, according to new research recently published by an international team of astrophysicists. While this estimate of the age of the universe had been known before, in recent years, other scientific measurements had suggested instead that the universe may be hundreds of millions of years younger than this. The scientists studied an image of the oldest light in the universe to confirm its age of 13.8 billion years. This light, the “afterglow” of the Big Bang, is known as the cosmic microwave background and marks a time 380,000 years after the universe’s birth when protons…

France’s new prime minister on Wednesday laid out 100 billion euros ($110 billion) in new spending to rescue the virus-battered economy from its worst crisis since World War II. The money will notably go to creating jobs for young people facing the worst employment prospects in years, reducing French carbon emissions, and protecting from collapse the small businesses that give rural France its charm. “The crisis highlighted our difficulties and our failures,” Prime Minister Jean Castex told lawmakers. But despite more than 30,000 virus-related deaths and massive strain on France’s once-renowned public health care system, he said, “We held on.”…