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Organisers of this summer's Farnborough International Airshow in England have banned Russia from taking part, in response to the Ukraine crisis.
“Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine, and everyone affected by the current situation," the organisers said. "We continue to hope for a timely and peaceful resolution.”
The ban from the July event is the latest consequence of the offensive against Ukraine, and a blow to Russian aerospace companies that use the event to market their aircraft.
Russian companies usually have a large presence at the year’s biggest show for European makers and customers of airliners and military aircraft.
In recent years, Russia has largely displayed new commercial airliners and helicopters at Farnborough. It has been trying to sell the MC-21, a commercial airliner similar in size to the Boeing 737 and Airbus A-320.
Only one non-Russian airline has plans to operate the plane, which made its international debut at the Dubai Airshow in November.
The event typically draws tens of thousands of people, including high-level government officials from around the world.
Billions of dollars in deals are usually announced by more than 1,500 exhibitors.
This summer will be the first time the air show near London is being held since the coronavirus pandemic cancelled the 2020 event.
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Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
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