The road ahead…
-
admin
- June 13, 2026
- 0
The road ahead...
admin
The mango season is in full swing these days. Every meal or every day sees a delicious mango on our plates. It could be the celebrated Alphonso mango from Ratnagiri in Maharashtra in India or
admin
Jude Dumfeh, Tribune News ServiceMy first soccer World Cup memory was watching Argentina’s Diego Maradona arrogantly juggling the ball on his shoulders, before the opening game of the Italia 1990 World Cup.I watched the grainy
admin
The Trump administration’s embrace of coal power is a timely and essential response to a three-headed energy emergency. The United States is facing an electricity supply crisis shaped by rapidly eroding grid reliability, soaring power
admin
Peter Cohn and Ryan Kelly, Tribune News ServiceWhen it comes to congressional earmarks, the big dogs usually eat first. So it’s no surprise that House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., leads the pack on “community
admin
Scientists have done so much to make our lives better and there is so much more to do but occasionally they go rogue and this might be such a case.T.rexs died out about 66 million
admin
Heidi Stevens, Tribune News ServiceEarlier this week I left a medical appointment, walked onto the elevator, waited for it to whoosh me to the lobby 18 floors below and started thinking about trust. How often
admin
British PM Keir Starmer has a new defence minister, but the same problem: no spare money, competing political and financial demands and a party reluctant to cut spending on public services and welfare. And if Britain gets a new prime minister, those problems are not going away. Starmer is likely to face a challenge to his leadership in the coming months, most likely from Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham if he wins a seatin parliament at a special election next week, and Wes Streeting, who resigned as health secretary last month. But while Starmer has been criticised as indecisive, whoever leads Britain will face the same difficult trade-offs - finding money for public services,helping voters cope with the rising cost of living, and increasing defence spending - in an era of low growth and rising government borrowing costs. Chris Hopkins, director of pollster Savanta, said a new leader could appear more decisive and present a better vision for government than Starmer but would face the same larger challenges. “The task of governing effectively, retaining popular support and staving off electoral challengers could well be a needle that is impossible for any new prime minister to thread,” he said. Defence Secretary John Healey resigned on Thursday with a damning indictment of Starmer’s leadership: that while he clearly recognised the threats facing the country, he was unable to secure the money that was needed to address them. The shock resignation of one of Starmer’s most loyal ministers came after the prime minister took months mulling how to fund a defence investment plan (DIP) before ultimately settling on a figure that Healey said was unacceptable. Healey said that, under the plan he had seen, defence spending wouldonly rise to 2.68% of GDP in 2030 when he believed it needed to be at 3%. In comparison, Germany plans to spend 3.7% of its GDP on defence by 2030. Starmer has responded that other government departments are having money reallocated to defence, while he believes that “irresponsible borrowing” would increase risks to Britain. “Whoever is prime minister is going to face the same prevailing winds as I am facing,” Starmer told the BBC on Friday after meeting Dan Jarvis, a former paratroop officer who replaced Healey. “None of that is going to change.” But Starmer’s argument left some Labour politicians unimpressed. Fred Thomas, a Labour lawmaker and former Royal Marine who is on parliament’s defence committee and last month called for Starmer to resign, said Britain needed a leader with “conviction, confidence and courage”. “If you really want something to happen, and you’ve got the responsibility of running the country, then ultimately you can make that thing happen,” he told Reuters, saying Britain’s military was “simply not ready” for the threats it faced. The decision to quit by Healey, who was widely respected within government and the defence industry, is onein a series of damaging departures from the government which have highlighted concerns about Starmer’s record. Former health minister Streeting said “where we need direction, we havedrift” when he quit, while the former safeguarding minister JessPhillips described Starmer’s style as the “definition of incremental change. Nothing bold about it”. The departure of Healey, and the armed forces minister Al Carns, means Starmer will go to key G7 and Nato summits in the coming weeks with criticism over his defence strategy ringing out, all while Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist Reform UK party maintains a comfortable lead in opinion polls. But while Starmer may have his critics, any potential successor would struggle with the same trade-offs. Already financial markets have sounded the alarm over Burnham, with borrowing costs spiking when he has made moves which bring him closer to a return to Westminster, something that would trigger yet more turbulence in Britain’s politics and potentially a seventh prime minister in 10 years.
admin
In light of the current circumstances that have affected supply chains in various parts of the world, Qatar Postal Services Company (Qatar Post) has been able to find practical solutions that ensure business continuity and maintain the efficiency of services, and to innovate alternative and flexible methods that enhance the communication of postal shipping operations with speed, accuracy and high reliability. Qatar Post has taken a number of operational and logistical measures to maintain the efficiency of services, benefiting from its operational flexibility and ability to adapt quickly to changes. The company operates with high smoothness and extreme accuracy, supported by years of experience and modern technology that has significantly and directly helped to fill an important part of the shortage in supply chains, making postal shipments a reliable haven for transporting goods of all shapes and sizes, whether personal, industrial, or those related to heavy equipment. Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Qatar Post Hamad Mohammed al-Fahida said in a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA) that at the beginning of the current crisis, and given that the nature of Qatar Post’s work is not related to seaports or navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, but rather depends mainly on aviation, action was taken quickly to activate alternative solutions that ensure the continuity of service across a number of Gulf countries and capitals, the most prominent of these are Muscat, Riyadh and Dubai, as soon as air traffic resumes there after the beginning of the crisis. Al-Fahida added that the capabilities of Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines were utilized, as customer shipments were transported via alternative routes such as from Muscat to Dubai, Turkiye to Kuwait, and the United States to the Gulf states. He explained that Qatar Post’s role was not limited to serving the local market in Qatar, but rather it has become a regional logistics centre capable of handling transit shipments between different countries, whether through receiving, delivery or redirection. The COO confirmed that Qatar Post is now able to transport any shipment from any country to another destination with high efficiency, including personal shipments, industrial shipments, heavy equipment, oil and gas equipment, drilling equipment, as well as high-value shipments such as the collections and artifacts of the Royal Opera House Muscat coming from China to Muscat via land freight. He added that the current situation has contributed to accelerating Qatar Post’s plans in the field of land transport within GCC countries, as a large part of the operations has been transferred to land transport, which has increased the number of land trips to Kuwait from 3 trips per week to 3 trips per day, with great facilities in customs clearance procedures, whether through land or air ports. e-commerce movementLand transport played an important role in supporting the e-commerce movement, al-Fahida pointed out, adding that shipments from companies such as Temu and Shein are transported to Dubai, then cleared in Qatar and distributed through various delivery companies, in addition to Qatar Post providing last mile and home delivery services. There are future plans for Qatar Post to be the main carrier of shipments coming from the UAE to Qatar until air operations return to full capacity, al-Fahida added. He noted that, as part of strengthening regional connectivity, Qatar Post continued to operate its routes with various GCC countries, particularly in the Connected service, where some US shipments were diverted via Saudi Arabia, with 3 flights currently operating and plans to increase them to become daily flights. He pointed out that land freight has proven to be highly cost-effective compared to air freight, in addition to Qatar Post’s ability to handle more than 6,000 shipments per month destined for other countries, including home delivery services and customs clearance for companies and individuals (B2C, B2B). Al-Fahida stressed that these solutions contributed to supporting the local market and the continuity of companies’ businesses, in addition to creating new opportunities to attract shipments from other countries or re-export them to different markets. Qatar Post continues to enhance its modern logistical role and change the traditional image associated with postal services globally as being limited to letters only by expanding integrated logistical services and activating land routes between the GCC countries in order to ensure the continuity of receiving, sending and delivery operations with high efficiency, he added. Regarding the disruption to maritime traffic and the impact on air travel due to rising fuel prices, the Chief Operating Officer confirmed that Qatar Post services were not directly affected by fuel prices, but the significant increase in air freight costs and airfares posed challenges to logistical operations. Concluding his statement to QNA, al-Fahida added that despite this, the company continued to provide its services with high efficiency by enhancing the flexibility of operational processes and activating diverse logistical alternatives to ensure the continuity of shipping services and meet customer needs without interruption. For his part, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Qatar Postal Services Company (Qatar Post), Hamid Sadiq, affirmed the company’s continuation to adopt best practices and digital solutions that contribute to developing operational processes and improving customer experience by speeding up procedures and increasing the efficiency of delivery and sorting services. In exclusive statements, Sadiq told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that Qatar Post is currently using robots in sorting operations, which has greatly contributed to reducing procedures, speeding up daily operations, and facilitating delivery services. He noted that the company is constantly working on studying new ideas and projects aimed at developing services and improving the user experience. Future projectsHe also revealed the most prominent future projects, including the live tracking of parcels via the Qatar Post application, where customers will be able to track their shipment directly and know its location during the process of delivery, expressing his expectation that this service will be launched during the fourth quarter of 2026, which will allow customers to know when the shipment will arrive and follow the delivery process in real time. He pointed out a project underway, indicating that it is a smart mailbox installed in the customer’s home and allows the parcel to be securely received without the need for the recipient to be at home. The box enables various delivery companies to deposit shipments inside it through specific permissions or access codes, after which the customer would receive a notification as soon as the parcel is deposited, Sadiq further explained, indicating that the project is scheduled to begin operating next year. In regard to dealing with the continuous increase in shipment volume, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Qatar Post noted that Qatar Post’s reliance on modern technology has helped the company adapt to various changes in both land and air freight, especially since the company is linked to information systems with most of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which allows for direct access to shipment data and its entry into sorting and delivery systems with high efficiency. As for artificial intelligence, Sadiq said that, the company formed an internal team in 2024 to study ways to employ AI in various operations, and meetings were held with all sectors to study opportunities to benefit from these technologies and propose practical projects, a number of which have already been started. In regard to tracking services, he confirmed that all shipments whose data reaches Qatar Post become available for tracking via the website or smart application, and the shipment status is continuously updated from the time the information arrives until it is released for delivery. Regarding the most prominent challenges facing the postal and shipping sector, Chief Information and Digital Officer at Qatar Post concluded his statements to QNA by saying that these challenges include information security, business continuity and dealing with unforeseen changes, pointing out that Qatar Post adopts a proactive approach in managing these challenges through advance planning and continuous coordination with various stakeholders.
