Latest from El Balad
El Balad
2 days ago
- Business
- El Balad
صغيرة ومكشوفة.. هوندا تطلق أغرب شاحنة كهربائية
Digitalization is revolutionizing the way outdoor tourism operates. Manaslu Adventures is joining this transformation with tools that integrate efficiency, expansion, sustainability, and user experience. For decades, planning an adventure trip meant exchanging dozens of emails, printing maps, coordinating equipment, and trusting that everything would go as planned. Today, thanks to the digital transformation led by agencies like Manaslu Adventures, all that logistics now fits in the palm of your hand. Headquartered in Barcelona and operating in more than 15 international destinations, Manaslu has succeeded in automating and centralizing the complex organization required for an outdoor journey: permits, transportation, local guides, insurance, meals, meeting points, and more. And it has done so by developing its own technological platforms that connect the agency, suppliers, and travelers in real time. Technology That Breathes Life into Operations In the words of its Marketing Director, 'Our goal is for the traveler to focus only on enjoying the experience.' This means integrating everything from interactive maps and digital check-in to weather alerts, baggage control, and personalized options based on the type of activity and the client's experience level. Process automation has reduced internal logistics management time by more than 40%, freeing up resources for route design, improved customer service, and collaboration with local communities at each destination. A Transformation with Institutional Support This technological leap has been driven, in part, by the 'Última Milla' program, a national initiative by the Spanish Ministry of Tourism that promotes the digitalization of small and medium-sized tourism enterprises. Thanks to this support, Manaslu has been able to scale its sustainable travel model to strategic markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom, where demand is growing for responsible, active, high-quality experiences. This future-oriented vision positions the agency as one of the most dynamic players in the global outdoor sector. Digitalizing to Protect the Planet Beyond efficiency, Manaslu's digital transformation also has a direct impact on sustainability: optimized routes that reduce emissions, visitor management in sensitive areas, and dynamic itineraries that adapt to changing environmental conditions. In short, a more conscious approach to adventure tourism also requires smarter logistics. From Kyrgyzstan to Peru, passing through Georgia and Iceland, each route is now managed with great precision — but with the spirit of a true traveler. Because in the new era of adventure tourism, technology doesn't replace the soul of the journey — it sets it free. Media Contact Company Name: Manaslu Adventures Contact Person: Press Office Email: Send Email Country: United States Website:
El Balad
7 days ago
- Politics
- El Balad
4 طن دقيق مدعم.. حملات مكبرة على المخابز المخالفة بالمحافظات
The federal government is set to announce details of its promised 'Canada Strong Pass' next week and the tourism initiative is expected to take effect later this month. 'Our Canada Strong Pass will make it easier for Canadians to make memories here at home, support Canadian tourism, and show our Canadian pride. This summer, let's choose Canada,' said Rechie Valdez, secretary of state for small business and tourism, in a statement. A Liberal government spokesperson told The Canadian Press that the pass will be available from June 20 until the end of August. During the recent federal election, Prime Minister Mark Carney promised to introduce a single pass that would give young people under 18 free seats on Via Rail when travelling with their parents, and free access to Canada's national galleries and museums. The Liberal platform said the party would also introduce 'heavily discounted' access to museums and galleries for Canadians aged 18 to 24. Carney, who pitched the idea as a way to unite Canadians in the face of threats from the U.S., said his government also would reduce prices for camping in national parks for all Canadians from June to August. Carney said during the campaign that Canadians would have free access to national parks and historic sites during the summer. For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. The spokesperson said those promises will all be covered by the 'Canada Strong Pass.' A spokesperson for Via Rail Canada said the national passenger rail service is 'proud' to support the plan as it encourages young Canadians and their families to discover the country. The government spokesperson said details of the initiative will be announced in the coming days. In 2017, Via Rail offered unlimited travel passes for youth during the month of July to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday. While the organization said it planned originally to make 1,867 passes available, it extended the offer due to high demand and more than 4,000 Canadians purchased passes. Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture Steven Guilbeault's director of communications said there has been an 'incredible show of unity' from Canadians since the beginning of the year. 'We look forward to delivering on our commitment to the Canada Strong Pass to make it even easier for Canadian families to choose Canada as they plan their summer travels,' Alisson Lévesque said. – With files from Global News' Ari Rabinovitch © 2025 The Canadian Press
El Balad
12-06-2025
- Sport
- El Balad
سهم بوينج يهبط 5.5% بعد تحطم طائرة هندية من طراز 787
It's not long before all the planning has to stop and our FIFA Club World Cup Fantasy 2025 teams have to be finalised. The big kick-off is looming large, with watchlists getting whittled down day by day. We've been doing that ourselves as we previewed all 32 nations (the last few of those will be out very soon), sorting the Fantasy wheat from the chaff. Now, it's time to pin some picks down by position. We start with the goalkeepers, where we aim to include shot-stoppers from across the pricing spectrum. First, a reminder of how 'keepers score points in Club World Cup Fantasy. Action Points Clean Sheet (must have played 60+ minutes) +5 First goal conceded 0 Each additional goal conceded -1 Goal Scored +9 Penalty save (not including shootouts) +3 Every 3 Saves +1 Scouting Bonus: If your player scored 5+ points and is owned by fewer than 5% +2 Fixtures: Urawa (June 17), Monterrey (June 22), Inter Milan (June 26) Let's start with a bit of wayward FIFA pricing. When you consider that the goalkeeper of part-time New Zealand outfit Auckland City is $4.6m, being able to snap up Armani for even less than that seems like a huge oversight. Armani has, unsurprisingly, found his way into over 15% of Fantasy squads at the time of writing. That figure probably rising further by Sunday's deadline. It's not just price that the budget custodian has on his side but fixtures, too. River Plate don't face group favourites Inter till Matchday 3, so Armani is a lock for Matchdays 1 and 2. For those on a Matchday 3 Wildcard, he's then dispensable for the final round. The Argentine giants kept clean sheets in nine of their 16 league games in 2025, conceding on just nine occasions. Fixtures: Al Ain (June 19), Wydad (June 22), Man City (June 26) It may have been another disappointing season overall for Juventus – fourth in Serie A, out of the Champions League in the knockout round play-offs – but defensively, the numbers haven't been too bad. In Serie A, their record of 35 goals conceded was bettered only by champions Napoli (27). A tally of 17 clean sheets in 38 matches was impressive, too. Even in the Champions League, where they floundered in the group stage, they shut out Aston Villa, Manchester City and Club Brugge in quick succession. It's not a vintage Juve side, nor do they boast a rock-solid backline. But it still ought to be enough for a clean sheet or two in Matchdays 1-2, when Al Ain and Wydad provide the opposition. Di Gregorio's understudy Mattia Perin ($4.9m) is out after undergoing surgery last month, while you can't imagine rusty long-time third-choice Carlo Pinsoglio ($4.0m) or rookies Giovanni Daffara ($4.0m) and Giovanni Garofani will get a look-in. Fixtures: Auckland (June 15), Boca (June 21), Benfica (June 24) Premium goalkeepers, like they are in FPL, will be harder sells in Club World Cup Fantasy. That goes especially so for those with an ownership of over 5%, as all of the (fit) $5.5m-and-up options have, as there is no Scouting Bonus to be had. Thibaut Courtois ($6.0m) is hard to justify at that price, particularly as opening opponents Al-Hilal are capable of grabbing a goal via the likes of Aleksandar Mitrovic ($7.5m) and Salem Al-Dawsari ($5.6m). Gianluigi Donnarumma ($5.7m) and Jan Oblak ($5.5m) face each other in a tricky Matchday 1 fixture for both of their sides, while you're never quite sure when Pep Guardiola is going to start Stefan Ortega ($5.1m) over Ederson ($5.6m) when it comes to cups. Alexander Schlager ($5.5m) is currently battling to be fit, meanwhile. Perhaps we're naive to think other clubs on the continent won't play their back-up goalkeepers on occasion but the early predictions are that Neuer is between the posts for what is surely the greatest clean sheet opportunity of all in Matchday 1, against Auckland City. Retired from international duty, he also hasn't had a late arrival to the States like some of his teammates have. Bayern boasted the best defensive record in the Bundesliga in 2024/25, with Auckland a few rungs down from even the weakest team that Vincent Kompany's troops would have faced in the German top flight. Neuer is our premium pick, then, but there are cheaper routes into the German champions' backline. Fixtures: Boca (June 16), Auckland (June 20), Bayern (June 24) Selected by just 1.8% of Fantasy managers, Trubin is currently eligible for Scouting Bonus. Not many desirable goalkeepers can say that, with 11 other shot-stoppers currently above the 5% threshold. Trubin isn't a Hail Mary punt, either. Benfica have favourable(ish) fixtures to start the Club World Cup, following in Bayern's footsteps by facing Auckland in Matchday 2. Before that is a meeting with Boca Juniors. While the Argentine club are a famous name, this is not a vintage Boca team – they have not won a trophy since 2022 and have just changed their manager after another disappointing campaign. Benfica conceded a miserly 28 goals in their domestic campaign, meanwhile, missing out on the title only on the final day. They've also proven they can cut the mustard against the top teams, beating Atletico Madrid and Juventus – amongst others – in the Champions League this season and running Barcelona close in a nine-goal thriller. Fixtures: Monterrey (June 18), Urawa (June 21), River Plate (June 26) Speaking of Europe's premier club competition, who knows what frame of mind Inter will be in after missing out both Serie A and the Champions League at the final hurdle. They're also under new stewardship after the departure of Simone Inzaghi. But at least they have two favourable fixtures to being their Club World Cup campaign. A remarkable Champions League group stage campaign had seen them keep seven clean sheets in eight matches, before things opened up at the back in the knockout rounds. Again, though, Monterrey and Urawa Red Diamonds are probably not even of the standard of Monaco, Sparta Prague and Red Star Belgrade, who Inter shut out earlier in 2024/25. Matchday 2 sees a favourable fixture shift for the likes of Oblak, Donnarumma and Porto's Diogo Costa ($5.6m), so they are names to consider from that point onwards, especially if you're Wildcarding then – and if money's no object, of course. Keep an eye on team news from RB Salzburg, meanwhile. With Schlager's fitness uncertain and loanee Janis Blaswich not in the Club World Cup squad, we could have a super-cheap goalie facing Pachuca and Al-Hilal in Matchdays 1 and 2.
El Balad
18-03-2025
- Science
- El Balad
أسعار الذهب تواصل التحرك .. ومفاجأة في عيار 21
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Stuck in space no more, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams returned to Earth on Tuesday, hitching a different ride home to close out a saga that began with a bungled test flight more than nine months ago. Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico in the early evening, just hours after departing the International Space Station. Splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle, bringing their unplanned odyssey to an end. Within an hour, the astronauts were out of their capsule, waving and smiling at the cameras while being hustled away in reclining stretchers for routine medical checks. It all started with a flawed Boeing test flight last spring. The two expected to be gone just a week or so after launching on Boeing's new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. So many problems cropped up on the way to the space station that NASA eventually sent Starliner back empty and transferred the test pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February. Then SpaceX capsule issues added another month's delay. Sunday's arrival of their relief crew meant Wilmore and Williams could finally leave. NASA cut them loose a little early, given the iffy weather forecast later this week. They checked out with NASA's Nick Hague and Russia's Alexander Gorbunov, who arrived in their own SpaceX capsule last fall with two empty seats reserved for the Starliner duo. Wilmore and Williams ended up spending 286 days in space — 278 days longer than anticipated when they launched. They circled Earth 4,576 times and traveled 121 million miles (195 million kilometers) by the time of splashdown. 'On behalf of SpaceX, welcome home,' radioed SpaceX Mission Control in California. 'What a ride,' replied Hague, the capsule's commander. 'I see a capsule full of grins ear to ear.' Dolphins circled the capsule as divers readied it for hoisting onto the recovery ship. Once safely on board, the side hatch was opened and the astronauts were helped out, one by one. Williams was next-to-last out, followed by Wilmore who gave two gloved thumbs-up. Wilmore and Williams' plight captured the world's attention, giving new meaning to the phrase 'stuck at work' and turning 'Butch and Suni' into household names. While other astronauts had logged longer spaceflights over the decades, none had to deal with so much uncertainty or see the length of their mission expand by so much. Wilmore and Williams quickly transitioned from guests to full-fledged station crew members, conducting experiments, fixing equipment and even spacewalking together. With 62 hours over nine spacewalks, Williams set a record: the most time spent spacewalking over a career among female astronauts. Both had lived on the orbiting lab before and knew the ropes, and brushed up on their station training before rocketing away. Williams became the station's commander three months into their stay and held the post until earlier this month. Their mission took an unexpected twist in late January when President Donald Trump asked SpaceX founder Elon Musk to accelerate the astronauts' return and blamed the delay on the Biden administration. The replacement crew's brand new SpaceX capsule still wasn't ready to fly, so SpaceX subbed it with a used one, hurrying things along by at least a few weeks. Even in the middle of the political storm, Wilmore and Williams continued to maintain an even keel at public appearances from orbit, casting no blame and insisting they supported NASA's decisions from the start. NASA hired SpaceX and Boeing after the shuttle program ended, in order to have two competing U.S. companies for transporting astronauts to and from the space station until it's abandoned in 2030 and steered to a fiery reentry. By then, it will have been up there more than three decades; the plan is to replace it with privately run stations so NASA can focus on moon and Mars expeditions. Both retired Navy captains, Wilmore and Williams stressed they didn't mind spending more time in space — a prolonged deployment reminiscent of their military days. But they acknowledged it was tough on their families. Wilmore, 62, missed most of his younger daughter's senior year of high school; his older daughter is in college. Williams, 59, had to settle for internet calls from space to her husband, mother and other relatives. 'We have not been worried about her because she has been in good spirits,' said Falguni Pandya, who is married to Williams' cousin. 'She was definitely ready to come home.' Prayers for Williams and Wilmore were offered up at 21 Hindu temples in the U.S. in the months leading up to their return, said organizer Tejal Shah, president of World Hindu Council of America. Williams has spoken frequently about her Indian and Slovenian heritage. Prayers for their safe return also came from Wilmore's Baptist church in Houston, where he serves as an elder. After returning in the gulf — Trump in January signed an executive order renaming the body of water Gulf of America — Wilmore and Williams will have to wait until they're off the SpaceX recovery ship and flown to Houston before reuniting with their loved ones. The three NASA astronauts will be checked out by flight surgeons as they adjust to gravity, officials said, and allowed to go home after several days. ___ AP journalist Deepa Bharath contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
El Balad
17-03-2025
- Automotive
- El Balad
استدعاء فولكس فاجن ID.4 وأودي Q4 بسبب عيب خطير
Just had the director email me about what he has done (why is it always after the event?) Anyway, his company could not get finance to buy a car, so he bought it himself and wants it to be treated as a company asset, with the company paying the finance costs etc. As far as I am aware he cannot transfer ownership, if it is under a finance agreement, so my only way around this would be if it were minuted that the sole reason for this procedure was a commercial decision to go down this route as the only way to purchase the car, that the company accepts full responsibility for insuring it, paying running costs and filing P11d for the director, but still not sure this would work. Appreciate anyone's thoughts.
