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Moscow selected to host annual GSMA Mobile 360 Series event

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Eurasia conference, a regional event held as part of the activities of GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association), will be held in Moscow, October 8-9 2019.


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The decision to host the event in Moscow was adopted as a result of an active work of the Russian Convention Bureau which provided the proposal for venues, and organized an inspection visit for representatives of the international association.

The event will be held in Moscow for the second time, following the successful launch in 2018 which gathered over 600 attendees from 21 countries and 52% were Director-level and above.

In 2019, the conference and exhibition will bring together over 600 policymakers, regulatory authorities, international organisations, Mobile Network Operators, mobile technology solution providers and broader ICT ecosystem players from Russia, the CIS region and the international market leaders in 5G technology. The event will be held at the Lotte Hotel Moscow.

Anton Kobyakov, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, said: “The sphere of mobile and high technologies plays a key role in stimulating economic growth, attracting foreign investments and increasing global competitiveness through development of science and technology. Adding more industries to the list of events organized by the Russian Convention Bureau will not only facilitate the development of corresponding areas of the real economy sector but also help create the image of the country on the international arena as one of the most meaningful players on the market of the event industry.”

Alexey Kalachev, Director of the Russian Convention Bureau, said: “We use various tools of working with international associations as we work to attract various business events to Russia. We are ready to offer universal and customized solutions that will correspond to the needs and expectations of conference organizers of various scale in different industries.”

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Sudan Tourism Industry: ATB President St. Ange wants Africa to stand by Sudan

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People in Sudan are tasting freedom for the first time. It will be impossible to go back and tourism is a way to eventually rebuild the confidence and economy of this great nation.
African Tourism Board (ATB) president Alain St. Ange had monitored what is happening in Sudan.

He said: “The situation that Sudan is facing needs for Africa as a whole to understand their dilemma and to be by their side.

The Government change in Sudan now needs to move to the reconstruction phase and enable their tourism industry players to rally and put the economy on the road of consolidation.
The USPs (Unique Selling Points) of Sudan are really sought after assets. Their pyramids are some of the biggest in the world and their underwater world in Sudan’s Red Sea remains a real gem.
Members of the Sudan tourism industry are invited to join the African Tourism Board without charge. The African Tourism Board remains committed to being by their side.
Currently, there are four members from Sudan registered in the ATB Directory

In the meantime, African Union leaders Tuesday have given Sudan’s transitional military council three months to achieve power transfer to civilian rule stressing that this delay should not be prolonged.

The meeting convened by the Egyptian Abdel Fattah al-Sisi who is also the Chairperson of the African Union in Cairo attended by the leaders of Chad, Djibouti, Somalia, South Africa, Ethiopia’s deputy prime minister, head of African Union Commission, foreign ministers and presidential envoys of Kenya, Nigeria, South Sudan and Uganda.

The meeting was held on the backdrop of a two-week delay given to the Sudanese military council by the Peace and Security of the African Union to hand over power to civilian rule.

The consultative meeting was briefed by Moussa Faki chairperson of the AU commission and who was in a two-day visit in Khartoum to assess the situation and met with the Sudanese stakeholders.

“The participating countries recognized the need to give more time to the Sudanese authorities and the Sudanese parties to implement these measures, taking into consideration that they will not be lengthy, and recommended that the African Peace and Security Council extend the schedule given to the Sudanese authority for three months,” said the statement.

After a meeting held with the military council last Saturday, the Freedom and Change forces decided to suspend talks with the military accusing them of working to reproduce the regime of President Omer al-Bashir and refusing to recognize their revolutionary legitimacy.

The head of the TMC political committee Omer Zain al-Din who negotiate with the opposition forces for his part says that they want only to establish a comprehensive government representing the whole political spectrum.

The meeting stressed that the Sudanese authorities and the political forces should work together in good faith to address the current situation in Sudan and to speed up the reestablishment of a constitutional regime.

This democratic political dialogue should be owned and led by the Sudanese themselves, “including all Sudanese parties including the armed movements,” further stressed the statement.

The Sudanese opposition groups said they will mobilize the street to press the military to fully respond to their demands.

However, some point to the need to get rid of Islamist generals in the military council as a condition to compose with the Sudanese military on the formation of the transitional institutions.

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Airbus selects seven finalist teams to shape the future of aerospace

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Airbus experts have selected seven teams for the 2019 final of world-class competition Fly Your Ideas which invites students from around the world to innovate in key areas for the industry: Electrification, Data Services, Cyber Security, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Mixed Reality. The finalist teams were selected after a three-month development phase working with support from Airbus mentors.

Fly Your Ideas gives students the opportunity to develop exceptional or radical ideas for tomorrow’s aerospace industry. The selected concepts represent a range of trendsetting topics such as a ‘Smart Wheelchair’ for air travel or a ‘Solar Windmill’.

The finalist team members represent 11 countries (Argentina, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Moldavia, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom), 8 different universities and were selected from over 270 entries worldwide. Their academic backgrounds vary from Engineering to Information Technology and Natural Sciences to Finance.

In June, the teams will travel to Toulouse, France to work in Airbus’ innovation and R&D facilities to further develop, prototype or visualize their ideas using state-of-the-art equipment with support from Airbus. On 27th June, the students will present their projects in front of Airbus experts and personalities from the aerospace and academic world, live-streamed in parallel to a global audience.

The students, competing for a share of the €45,000 prize fund and the chance to further evolve their idea in the aerospace industry, are clearly motivated by the digital nature of this year’s challenge, and the chance to change the world with their ideas.

The seven finalist teams are:

Airbus Integrated Fisheries Information Services (Data Services Challenge) – Team AirFish, University of Cambridge, UK

AirFish is an ocean monitoring system using satellite imagery and video imaging technology. It can help governments combat illegal fishing, reduce bycatch of endangered species, and generally decrease damages to the marine habitat. This project aims to improve the efficiency of fish farming, making food production more affordable whilst reducing open-water fishing and thus environmental impacts.

Automated Intelligent Real-Time Quality Inspection Exploiting Human-Robot-Collaboration (Artificial Intelligence Challenge) – Team AIQinspect, Saarland University, Germany

AIQinspect will assist the human operator in performing rivet inspection by using Artificial Intelligence. Quality is predicted based on images and physical parameters while riveting in real time. The resulting information is communicated to the operator via Augmented Reality.

Batteryless Wireless Switches for Airplanes (Internet of Things Challenge) – Team “Zero” Heroes, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands

Application of wireless systems in aircraft instead of traditional wired systems. This idea solves the main limitation for IoT in aircraft by removing battery integration – a current challenge for safety and regulation. Furthermore it reduces fuel consumption and weight while simplifying aircraft retrofit and maintenance needs.
Motor Intra-body Cooling System – MICS (Electrification Challenge) – Team Osprey, University of Strathclyde, UK
Replacing the traditional method of cooling electric motors with a water jacket or submerged cooling with a cooling system integrated inside the body of the motor itself. This project has the potential to provide mass effective motors for future Urban Air Mobility and Hybrid Electric aircraft.

The Solar Windmill (Electrification Challenge) – Team Seren, University of Cambridge, UK

A novel method of electricity generation for spacecraft using trapped high energy particles. Using two concentric aluminium spheres, the energetic electrons flux from solar wind trapped in planetary magnetic fields can be collected and harnessed to generate power. This innovative approach aims to store and generate energy in deep space where the current density from sunlight is low.

Swan – Smart Wheelchair for Air travel Needs (Internet of Things Challenge) – Team Move-ez, Technical University of Milan, Italy

SWAN is an innovation that aims to revolutionize the air-travel experience of Passengers with Reduced Mobility (PRM) using IoT technology. It converts a redesigned class of detachable airplane seats into smart electric wheelchairs that passengers can use from check-in to arrival. It is fully controllable by smartphone through a dedicated app.

V.A.C.A. – Earth-obserVation-data based Application for stoCkbreeding Administration (Data Services Challenge) – Team V.A.C.A, National University of La Plata, Argentina

VACA is an integrated service for stockbreeders, based on Earth observation, meteorological and IoT data applied to agriculture. VACA aims to provide actionable information to stockbreeders on quality and quantity of pastures, number of animals in paddocks as well as the physical condition of cattle.

Teams will share project updates, photos, sketches and stories using #flyyourideas with their posts captured on the social wall of the competition website.

Airbus Fly Your Ideas is a global competition challenging students worldwide to innovate for the future of aerospace, designed and launched by Airbus in 2008 and organized in partnership with UNESCO since 2012. Since 2008, over 22,000 students have registered for Fly Your Ideas from over 700 universities and 100 countries worldwide, with more than 500 Airbus employees contributing their mentorship and expertise to support the competition.

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San Francisco International Airport purchases six new electric buses

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Today Proterra announced that San Francisco International Airport (SFO) has purchased six 40′ Proterra Catalyst E2 electric buses and three 60 kW Proterra plug-in chargers, joining a growing list of airports across North America transitioning to electric buses for airport ground transportation. The new battery-electric bus fleet will reduce Bay Area emissions and support SFO’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2021 while cutting its bus operating costs.

As one of the fastest-growing airports in the U.S., SFO has ambitious plans in place to reduce its carbon footprint. SFO’s Five-Year Strategic Plan sets goals of carbon neutrality across airport-controlled operations by 2021 and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent from a 1990 baseline. Part of that plan includes the creation of a Clean Vehicle Policy to promote the adoption and deployment of low emission vehicles by both airport departments and ground transportation providers. The new battery-electric Proterra Catalyst buses will replace six diesel buses in its current operating fleet and will eliminate more than 23 million pounds of greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions over the 12-year life of the vehicles. SFO expects to purchase additional battery-electric buses to replace its CNG vehicles, for a greener, more modern fleet.

“Earth Day serves as a call to action; an opportunity for us to reaffirm our commitment to the environment,” said Airport Director Ivar C. Satero. “SFO is an airport industry leader in sustainability, and we have set big goals to achieve zero net energy use, zero waste, and carbon neutrality. By deploying San Francisco’s first public battery-electric buses, we’re on the path to zero emissions in our ground transportation services, leading the way in our quest to be the world’s most sustainable airport.”

The new electric buses will integrate batteries that are designed and manufactured down the street from the airport at Proterra’s Silicon Valley headquarters in Burlingame, California. With 440 kWh of battery capacity on board, the buses will be part of SFO’s fleet that currently provides buses to shuttle passengers between the terminals, long-term parking garages and other airport locations along daily routes.

SFO joins other California airports that are leading the electrification trend across ground transportation fleets, including Sacramento International Airport (SMF) and Silicon Valley’s Norman Y. Mineta San José International Airport (SJC). Beyond California, five additional airports across the country have chosen Proterra electric vehicles for their ground transportation needs, including Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), Honolulu International Airport (HNL), John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA).

“San Francisco International Airport has long been a leader in sustainability and joins other forward-thinking airports around the country in transitioning ground fleets to 100 percent battery-electric buses,” said Proterra CEO Ryan Popple. “We are proud to help one of our local airports offer superior service and meet its sustainability goals while also providing reduced vehicle maintenance costs and lower total cost of ownership.”

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No Easter Travel for Palestinian Christians in Gaza

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There are around 1,100 Palestinian Christians in Gaza, many of whom are descended from the earliest Christians in Palestine (where Christianity originated). For the first time, Israeli authorities denied all travel permits to Palestinian Christians from Gaza to celebrate Easter as they do each year, by processing from Bethlehem to Jerusalem to follow the path of Jesus in the Resurrection.

Can such a restriction be justified by security needs only?

Human right watchers say, Israel’s decision to outright deny movement between Gaza and the West Bank this Easter constitutes a further violation of Palestinians’ fundamental rights to freedom of movement, religious freedom, and family life. The increased restriction on the movement of Palestinian Christians points to further implementation of Israel’s ‘separation policy’: a policy restricting movement between Gaza and the West Bank which deepens the split between the two parts of the occupied Palestinian territory.

The number of permits issued has diminished each year, and have included blanket bans on anyone under age 55 – but this is the first year that the Israeli military allowed no  Palestinian Christians from Gaza to travel to Jerusalem for Easter.

While some practice the Latin faith and mark Easter on the 21st of April this year, many others are Eastern Orthodox and celebrate Easter on the 28th. Their traditional ceremonies involve a commemoration of Palm Sunday in Bethlehem, then a procession from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, where Christians believe Jesus was resurrected after death.

According to the Israeli human rights organization Gisha, “The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) published the quotas set by Israel for holiday permits to be granted to for Christian Palestinians living under Israel’s control. The quota allocated by COGAT for holiday permits for Gaza residents this Easter is limited to only 200 people over the age of 55, and only for travel abroad; the quotas for West Bank residents are limited to 400 permits for travel abroad, and visits in Israel. This means that Palestinian families separated between Gaza, Israel and the West Bank will not be able to mark the Easter holiday together. It also means that all Christians in Gaza are being denied access to family and to the holy sites in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The ban on Gaza Christians comes after Israeli military authorities announced the full closure of the West Bank and Gaza for Palestinian residents during the week of Passover, from April 19th to 27th. Israeli military authorities, which control all aspects of life for the occupied Palestinians living under their rule in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, frequently closing all Palestinian areas and preventing Palestinians from moving between Palestinian towns during periods of Jewish holidays.

In 2016 at least 850 Christian Palestinians from the Gaza City Strip traveled to celebrate Easter in Bethlehem and occupied East Jerusalem after Israeli authorities agreed to grant them permits.

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